The Proletariat Congress

While I normally refrain from writing about personal matters in my blog, I’m going to take this opportunity to write about my newest decision.  As of today, I’m taking a more active approach to politics in my country.  I’ve become a member of the NDP (New Democratic Party of Canada).  For those of you who aren’t Canadian, the NDP are the socialist party, that exists at both the provincial and federal levels.

I was particularly interested in doing this for a while but only decided today because of the upcoming provincial elections that will be happening in October here in Ontario, in which two of the hot button issues is faith-based school funding and electorial reform, which would see the current FPTP (first-past-the-post) possibly replaced by the MMP (mixed member proportional), if it garners enough votes in the upcoming election, which is also serving as a referendum.

For those of you who are wondering, MMP would give each voter essentially two votes.  The first vote would be for the party of your choice; the party that you feel best represents you.  The second vote would be for the actual MPP (Member of Provincial Parliament) who represents the riding in the legislature.  This would defeat the old system of FPTP, where even if the elected MP (or MPP) didn’t have even 50% of the vote they still got the seat simply because they had the most votes overall.

The MMP system would give underdog parties a greater chance to represent a larger portion of their members and supporters in the legislature and it would give people a greater voice because the legislature would no longer be dominated by those who won their riding simply because they had more votes than their opponents, even if they took less than half of the votes in their riding.

This system would serve as a challenge to stagnant ideologies by allowing a greater range of input into a system that has for too long been dominated by those who hold wealth and power.

It’s easy to say, “oh I’d like to do that one day”, it’s another to actually make the move.  My next move will be to find out what I can actually do to be active.  I’ve been interested in this for a while, so I’m quite excited about this.  It’s a great chance to learn more about what works in this country.

The Conservatives are not on the same page as the rest of Canada. Many of us do not want to support anything about the Bush administration from its unwillingness to commit to Kyoto and legitimate environmental and climate change goals to the use of anti-ballistic missile defence, which can lead to the weaponization of space and potential arm races between nations.

The rest of the political leaders have shown they can listen to Canadians. They also have a better grasp of the reality the world and that supporting failed policies of the lame-duck American administration would be political suicide. Their concerns about the lack of transparency and the attempts by Harper to cosy up to the Americans show a lack of respect for the Canadian public.

NDP leader Jack Layton - “It seems to me that Mr. Harper is trying to do by the back door what he could never do by the front door if he faced Canadians, and that’s to get Canada involved in an arms race, to support George Bush’s manoeuvre, to expand the Star Wars undertaking,”

“I think he’s violating his own principles here, which were that Parliament should be deciding on such incredibly important matters of foreign policy,”

“This is all a part of Stephen Harper’s desire to follow the instructions from the White House and to enter into a deeper and deeper integrated relationship in North America, with the United States. It’s not where Canadians want to go, but it’s clearly what he’s had in his sights for some time.”

There is one thing that Layton is clear about and the majority of Canadians would agree and that is that we do not want to be so deeply integrated with the Americans and follow the will of their government so closely. Many Canadians favour good relations, which means open and free trade, being treated fairly at the border and not having to present a passport. But instead we’re being forced to provide passports to prove we’re not terrorists; our exports had protectionist tariffs slapped on and we have to fight to have NAFTA enforced.

The American government doesn’t want an ally; it wants someone to be its lapdog, since Britain is doesn’t want to take it up the ass any more, and others have decided that they’re tired of helping to forward a corrupt American agenda that seeks to destroy those who it disagrees with. Look at Pakistan, they’ve curbed a series of media freedoms and they get the slightest tongue lashing from the American government, yet Venezuela does the same thing and the American government can’t wait to embargo and sanction it out the ass.

This is the administration that the Conservatives are cosying up with. They don’t represent Canadian values.

This attitude that Harper is displaying at the G8 Summit on Climate Change only further displays his general contempt for the Canadian voting public. He is fine with making promises to get his agenda into the office but when it comes to living up to those promises, we see nothing good. Nothing he promised during the election is being tabled. This includes putting to a vote the idea to revisit missile defence.

Instead of putting it before parliament, he’s quietly making commitments behind close doors. That is hardly accountable and is lacking in transparency, two core principles he preached during his bid for election.

While Layton expressed a more indepth opinion on the matter, Dion is more straightforward, though his honesty is a little scarier than Layton’s.

“If this government was a majority government today … we would be supporting officially ballistic-missile defence, as we would be officially out of Kyoto.”

“We are against it, it’s very clear.”

This is a terrifying thought. We’d be giving up our freedoms to refuse the Americans to make them happy.

Rejecting Kyoto achieves nothing.

Signing onto the ballistic missile defence would only make us a target for those who want an arms race. It would escalate international tensions. It would reduce our credibility as a peaceful nation. By setting up such a system, we’re saying we don’t trust anyone and that we’re ready to go to war if you look at us funny. Too American for my liking.

It has too much of a Cold War feel to it. The tensions during that time were great and it created a climate of distrust too many splinter groups who would want to destroy each other.

Having to spend more on defence, takes away tax payer dollars that could otherwise be used to invest the police forces across the nation, into healthcare, a viable childcare programme, education, fighting poverty, improving domestic infrastructure, improving our water and sewage systems, environmental preservation, economic development, investing in native reserves that give them opportunities to break out of the cycle of poverty and violence. There are so many other programmes and departments that the tax payer dollars into than national defence, the worthless war on terror (and the war in Afghanistan) and a ballistic missile defence system that has yet to show its workability as a defence solution.

PM backs ‘Star Wars’: Critics

In 2005, during a Coyotes-Habs game that went down in Montreal, it was alleged by one of the linesmen that Coyotes Forward, Shane Doan uttered a slur along the lines of “fucking Frenchmen” about an official to team-mate Curtis Joseph, when a supposed bad call had been issued. The pending matter had gone to court and Doan was cleared because there wasn’t enough evidence to prove that he had said it and it was entirely possible that it had been uttered by another team-mate entirely.

Fast forward to 2007 and we’ve got the Bloc with its feathers in a ruffle over a supposed comment that was never proven, with the rest of the parliamentary rank and file jumping on the bandwagon like so many lemmings. All four presiding federal parties have united in a show of national loyalty to force Hockey Canada to justify their selection of Shane Doan as the captain for Team Canada.

Yet last year at Turin, where was our federal government when the team trotted out Todd Bertuzzi as a member of Team Canada? Why did the government call that into question? Bertuzzi had sucker-punched Steve Moore, driving him onto the ice.

Sure hockey is violent but how is it justifiable to allow for a person like Bertuzzi to play yet question the selection of Doan? Bertuzzi had plead guilty to the charges, went through trial and was issued a conviction. Doan was cleared but who was questioned? Not the guilty person…

Am I so wrong if I think our politicians should be spending their time on more worthy issues like poverty, welfare reform, progression of women’s rights and other domestic matters that will shape the future of Canada?

If you agree that this is a waste of time, then perhaps you may wish to sign a petition to alert our government to the fact that the voting public believes that this is not a federal matter.

SaveDoan.ca
No innocent bystanders in Doan affair

In a move to further degrade their popularity, the Liberals have gone to bed with the Conservatives and proposed a piece of legislation that would violate the fundamental clauses of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This legislation, Bill C-416 would allow for warrant-free wire-tapping. This bill is a reincarnation of Bill C-74 that died during the last session because it didn’t make it to a first reading.

The purpose of this Act is to ensure that telecommunications service providers have the capability to enable national security and law enforcement agencies to exercise their authority to intercept communications, and to require service providers to provide subscriber and other information, without unreasonably impairing the privacy of individuals, the provision of telecommunications services to Canadians or the competitiveness of the Canadian telecommunications industry.

That is just the basic description. A rather broad sweeping pre-amble. It is written in political jargon so we, the voting public can’t see through the guise that the deceptive federal politicians have put up in a bid to remain ‘relevant’. They are still cozying up to the lame-duck American Administration whose core undoing was the unconstitutional wire-tapping that was given as an executive order and found by the Supreme Court to be in violation of the fundamental rights of the American public.

The Canadian government didn’t learn from this folly and has decided to make a benign polyamorous relationship with a nation who continues to preach democracy with one voice but in the next seeks to make a resonating assault on fundamental rights.

Under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, clause eight states:

Everyone has the right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure.

If Bill C-416 was passed, it would violation clause eight because any search and seizure requires either line of sight or a warrant, or for you to fail a customs screening or you’ve been pulled over and you’ve given the officer permission to check your vehicle… But to wire-tap, it would be a violation unless a warrant was acquired.

The Bush Administration and Alberto ‘Memo, what memo’ Gonzales authorised such actions, which has proven to back fire on them. What makes the Canadian government think it can do the same thing?

Perhaps the fact that they have no regard for the Canadian public and play us for naïve children who need to be led by the hand into a future where we live in an Orwellian-style Nanny State where the government is deluded into thinking it knows what’s best.

Fortunately for the public, the Charter provides a nice little clause that allows for us to seek legal recourse against those who are mentally unable to comprehend that the War on Terror is nothing more than hot air that is designed as a money sink hole for tax-payer dollars and will achieve nothing and will be a greater pork hog than the Sponsorship Programme. Only instead of lining the pockets of French Liberals, we’d be sinking money into “security”measures that leave us no more secure than we were before 9/11. All we get now are longer lines, fees and all the headaches and hassles you can handle!

Anyone whose rights or freedoms, as guaranteed by this Charter, have been infringed or denied may apply to a court of competent jurisdiction to obtain such remedy as the court considers appropriate and just in the circumstances.

And that lovely clause? That’s clause 24(1) from the Charter. It has been used in the fight to legalise homosexual marriages and for other legal rights that were otherwise denied because of enshrined chauvinistic; Victorian practices sanctioned by the government.

Until the Canadian public wakes up, we’re going to be caught in a cycle that seeks Conservative and Liberal government, neither of which truly reflect the social and equality needs of the Canadian public. They are only fringe political groups who specialise in expensive mudslinging and bullying.