Canadian Politics Have Never Been This Dramatic

I hate how much time I've spent on this weblog in the last few months talking about politics. I really fucking hate politics. Politics are the reason I didn't go to film school; namely, the backstabbing between students, the mandatory sycophantic adoration of film teachers in college, the ridiculous emphasis on everything other than the abilities of the aspiring filmmaker.

Politics are what made me turn by back on the Catholic Church, and most practicing Catholics (not to mention the so-called "Practical Catholic Gentlemen" of the Knights of Columbus), when politics demanded cowtowing to an arrogant, faithless and unworthy priest intent on destroying some very important community groups operating within the church.

Nothing good has ever come out of politics, least of all effective government. We need only look at what politics have wrought in the United States: environmental disaster, economic collapse, an unwinnable war, poverty and ruin. All because of politics as usual.

So, why is it that time and again I have detoured this space away from writing about writing and am once again writing another long post on politics?

Because once again I feel circumstances have compelled me to.

Earlier this year, Stephen Harper, leader of a minority government, ran head-on to the reality of what a minority government means: despite being the head of the political party that garnered the most votes, the electorate cast more total votes for representatives from other parties. Without the cooperation of the opposition, the minority government cannot govern.

Harper wanted to push through several bills that the opposition would not support. Faced with the prospect of having to build consensus instead of being able to run things his way, Harper called a snap election--in violation of his own election reform laws.

The end result of the election--which was bitter and decisive, partisan and seemed at times far more like an American campaign for all its sleaze and controversy than anything Canada had previously seen--saw Harper's minority returned to power, with only a handful more seats than before.

Harper's ambition had been to win a majority, but the political will of the Canadian people was to vote for anyone other than him. Unfortunately, the vote was split among three parties, meaning that while the Conservatives won the most votes of any party, most voters voted against the Conservatives.

Following the election, Harper appeared conciliatory, willing to reach out to the opposition and seek their input in the governance of Canada. Appearances, however, can be deceiving. It was all lip service, all lies. The minute Parliament was back in session, Harper began acting as though the Conservatives had won a decisive majority. In response to the growing global economic crisis, Harper tabled a plan that would have done nothing but benefit the corporate special interests that have always made up the backbone of Harper's support.

The opposition parties revolted, formed a coalition and advised the Governor General that they intended to call for a vote of non-confidence in the Harper government. Such an action would bring down the government, leading to one of two possibilities: The Governor General would either have to call another election, or ask the opposition parties to form a coalition government.

While exceedingly rare, there is precedent in Canadian history for a coalition government. But Harper went on an attack, accusing the coalition of being anti-democratic and demonizing the separatist Bloc Quebecois, whose support is necessary to give the coalition the majority necessary to govern. In the process, Harper's power base, namely Alberta, began to threaten to leave Canada and create a new independent state.

So, Quebec Separatists are bad, but Alberta Separatists are okay? Why? Because they have oil and speak English?

In any event, Harper managed to convince the Governor General to prorogue Parliament until the end of January. This means that Harper can hold on to power until then, though he cannot govern in any sense of the word. Of course, he can spend countless millions of taxpayer money on a relentless propaganda campaign designed to try and sway the public against the widely-supported (outside of Cowboy Country) opposition coalition.

The truth of the matter is that Harper and the Conservatives are (unsurprisingly) the ones behaving in an anti-democratic manner. The majority of voters elected parliamentary representatives from other parties than the Conservatives. The coalition therefore represents the majority of Canadian voters. The Coalition has every right to refuse to support the minority conservatives, and they therefore have every legal right to vote down the government and either form a new government, or stand for a new election.

Harper has proven, time and again, that he is unwilling and unable to make any concession to the opposition parties. He has proven, time and again and by his very words, that he would rather legislate according to his opinions and moral beliefs than according to the facts, the experts and the evidence. Harper has proven himself unfit to lead the country. His refusal to abdicate power that was never his to claim to begin with is nothing short of criminal. He has also expressed that he will do anything he can to stay in power. That makes him the ultimate threat to Canadian democracy, the Canadian government, and the people of Canada.

Stephen Harper is unfit to lead this country. He should be removed from power by any means necessary. If the democratic process and the Rules of Parliament fail to remove the slime from power, if the Law fails to remove him from power, then it will become incumbent on the Canadian people to do so.

We must look at such tactics as general strikes, blockades of Parliament Hill, and even more radical means of protest and civil action. This is our country, this is our future. If we must fight to protect it, then fight we will. If we must tear down the government, if we must depose Stephen Harper, who is neither right nor honourable, then so we shall. If the only way to dethrone Stephen Harper is through revolution, then we must revolt.

People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of the people.

If you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror.

"Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth."

Of late, this space has been less writing-related and more political. For that, I apologize. However, the simple truth is that for quite a while now, something has been going wrong, terribly wrong in my country.

It started a little more than two years ago, when a gang of religious fundamentalists seized power. It wasn't a military coup that allowed them to gain power, nor was it the result of foreign invasion or domestic revolution. No, far worse, the people of the country actually allowed this travesty to happen.

"Our story begins, as these stories often do, with a young up-and-coming politician. He's a deeply religious man and a member of the conservative party. He is completely single-minded in his convictions and has no regard for the political process."

In 2006, Stephen Harper and his band of like-minded bigots, conservative Christians and corporate cronies rode into power, waiving their ten-gallon hats and whooping and hollering as they won a minority government.

Minority governments are a funny thing...the party with the most votes gets into power, but most of the electorate cast their votes for parties other than the one in power. It's a subtle perversion of the democratic process: although most people who voted voted for someone other than you, because their votes were split two, three or four ways, you win by default.

"He promised you order, he promised you peace, and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent."

A number of scandals involving high-ups in the previous Liberal government's administration caused massive voter disapproval, which opened the door for the Harper Boys to ride in.

From the get-go, Harper and his government began doing everything they could to mimic their American counterparts: accessibility to the government by media dried up; the party closed ranks, Harper keeping a tight, tight reign on his deputies in order to ensure the party stayed on-message. Then, of course, came the legislation: Cut funding for social programmes here, provide corporate welfare to profitable businesses there; accusing civil servants of partisanship for going against Party ambitions here, endangering the public by disregarding the nuclear regulatory experts to reopen an obsolete nuclear power plant there.

Along the way Harper also barred the press from airbases when military coffins were shipped home from overseas, and continues promising to stay the course and keep Canadian forces committed to cleaning up Bush's mess in Afghanistan.

Then there was the dissolution of our civil rights, as detailed here. And of course, the censorship of and funding cuts to our arts, as previously discussed here, and here.

Lest we forget, Christian Conservative Harper and his gang attempted to put legislation into place that would have made it a special crime to assault a pregnant woman, as well as separate legislation designed to allow doctors to refuse patient referrals to women seeking abortions.

Add to that Harper's stated intentions to impose harsher sentences on young offenders, preferring punishment and incarceration to rehabilitation and education. In his own words, Harper said he prefers the opinion of the "Common Man" over the opinion of the EXPERTS.

If you're done letting that pile of anti-intellectual, counter-intuitive and ignorant hubris sink in, we'll continue.

A couple of months back, after the opposition parties balked at continuing to allow Cowboy Stephen and the Circle-C Posse to run roughshod over the governance of Canada, Harper decided to call a snap election, in violation of his own law requiring set terms before elections can be called.

And as of Tuesday, the Harper Conservatives have returned to power once more, when the vote was split between the other three major parties, namely the Liberals, NDP and the Bloc Quebecois.

But how did it happen? How did Harper, despite his unpopularity, win re-election, even if it was once again with a minority government?

"We're oft to blame, and this is too much proved, that with devotion's visage and pious action we do sugar on the devil himself."

This election, something terrible happened. This election, perhaps one of the most undemocratic events took place. No, the Canadian election was not robbed in electoral fraud as we witnessed in 2000 and 2004 in the United States. No, the governing power did not simply disregard the democratic will of the people as happened in Zimbabwe, Pakistan and Burma.

What happened was far, far worse.

For the first time in Canadian history, voter turnout during a Federal election was below 60%.

Only 59,1% of Canadian voters turned up at the polls.

Put another way, that means that of the 23 401 064 eligible voters, only 13 832 972 people bothered to vote.

And, dear readers, mea culpa. I was among those who did not vote. Why? My reasons seemed sound, at the time: I live in a Bloc Quebecois stronghold; a riding that has always voted for the separatist Bloc Quebecois. I believed that it was a waste of time to vote, especially given that the candidates from the other parties running in the riding had little to no visibility, and in more than one case, didn't bother campaigning beyond putting up posters.

"And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there?"

The thing is, some nine and a half million other eligible voters across this nation had the same idea. They all stayed away from the polls. Whatever their reasons, the fact of the matter is they, and I turned our backs on the democratic process. We failed the electoral process. We failed our civic duty and we failed our democracy.

Even if those nine and a half million votes had been split between the Liberals and the Bloc, or the Liberals and the NDP, or all three parties, it is entirely possible that the Conservatives would not have returned to power.

The lesson is simple: Not voting does not profit democracy. It does not profit the election. It profits the party you don't want to see return to power. What never occurred to me as I stayed home on Tuesday after work is the fact that if everyone in my riding who didn't vote because it's a "safe" riding for the Bloc had actually cast a ballot, then perhaps the Bloc would not have been returned to Parliament.

And if the 9 568 092 of us from across Canada who did not vote had cast a ballot, then perhaps the Harper Conservatives would not have won re-election.

I can only apologize on my behalf. I'm not certain that the other 9 568 091 failed voters realize their culpability or accept their guilt.

Not voting is treason; the treason of apathy.

Remember, Remember...

I cannot believe the voters of Canada were fucking stupid enough to re-elect the Conservatives.

Stephen Harper, who has raped culture, whored tax dollars to Big Business and has completely fucked over the cause of women's rights, is in the process of winning a minority government.

That means more people voted for anyone but Harper and his gang of bastarding crooks and misogynists, but not enough people voted for any other one party to keep the pigs from power.

Canada, we cannot allow the fucking Bush Lite Regime of Stephen Harper to have another one, two, three or five years in power. Canada cannot afford what these bastards will do as they strip mine the country in the name of their Christian Conservative Capitalist credo.

Whenever any Government becomes desructive, it is the Right of the People to abolish it and institute new Government. Revolt, Canada.

In 1605, Guy Fawkes attempted to blow up the British Houses of Parliament...400 years later, an idea can still change the world.

A building is a symbol. Symbols are given power by people. With enough people behind it, blowing up a building can change the world.

Stephen Harper: Fuck Culture.

Stephen Harper, the Conservative Party’s Canadian Prime Minister by Default, leader of a minority government (which means that a majority of people voted for anyone else but him and his party), recently slashed 45 million dollars from Canada’s arts funding. Under the guise of fiscal responsibility and moral leadership, Harper attempted to justify this attack on Canadian ideals.

The question is, why slash 45 million dollars from arts funding, but maintain 50 BILLION dollars in corporate welfare-subsidies given out to some of Canada’s richest corporations? This wasn’t money to bail out a bankrupted industry; this was cash giveaways to “encourage” business.

Is it that much more fiscally responsible to cut culture programs than it is to stop profitable corporations sucking at the taxpayer’s teat?

Which brings us to the next problem: the government imposition of morality. This isn’t the Harper Conservative’s first attack against culture on moral grounds. Earlier this year, they pushed through legislation that allowed them to deny Canadian films public funds, if the films were found to contravene “public morals”. What contravenes public morals? Well, the Harper Conservatives seem to take particular offence with the word “Fuck”. One of the films they cited as justifying their cuts was “Young People Fucking” which, according to them was an obscene and immoral film. Ironically, there are shows on television with more graphic portrayals of sex and sexuality. Likewise, the fuckophobia of the Harper Conservatives continued, when they claimed that music acts like Canadian rockers Holy Fuck were what was wrong with Canadian culture, and singled them out as one of the reasons for the 45 million dollar funding cut.

Here in the province of Quebec, we have always been militant when it comes to culture, and we have always elevated our artists to the status of cultural icons. In the last couple of weeks, a series of free concerts have been held in protest of the Harper Conservative arts funding cuts, featuring many of Quebec’s greatest and most respected artists.

Upon learning of this, Harper said “I think when ordinary working people come home, turn on the TV and see a gala of a bunch of people at, you know, a rich gala all subsidized by taxpayers claiming their subsidies aren’t high enough, when they know those subsidies have actually gone up - I’m not sure that’s something that resonates with ordinary people.”

In so doing Harper betrayed not only his own anti-intellectual temperament, but his complete ignorance of what it is to be an artist, particularly a musician in Canada. To say Harper is out of touch with reality is nothing short of hyperbole. Harper demonstrates the ingnorant’s disdain for anything intellectual, creative, or to use a favourite word of Harper’s Conservative cronies in the United States, “elitist”.

That Harper, who has never done a hard day’s labour in his life, has the audacity to claim these funding cuts in the name of the “working people” is offensive, for several reasons.

First, anyone involved with the arts on any level knows how difficult it is for artists to make a living in their chosen field-if they even can. Musicians must practice constantly, learning new songs; they usually have to provide their own transport and accommodation when on tour; at CONFRONT Magazine we’ve spoken with countless musicians who spend their tours sleeping in the back of a battered Econoline van. Likewise, the cost of supplies, be it guitar strings, musical instruments, what have you, can be exorbitant. More than one band has folded for want of being able to afford to replace lost, stolen or damaged equipment.

One need only look at the faces of the young men and women who are working artists-be they musicians, actors, painters, sculptors, or God help them, writers-to see how tiring it is to live an artist’s life. It’s certainly not the life of excess and delights that Harper and his gang of anti-cultural bigots would have us believe. These men and women work diligently and tirelessly, not just to be able to afford to practice their art, but to be able to afford food, clothing, shelter…the basic necessities of life. On average, working artists earn less than 27 thousand dollars a year. That’s less than most people make. Professional artists depend on those government subsidies to survive.

If Harper does not think that the struggles of artists resonates with ordinary people, then he is ignorant of the vital and ever-present role that art in all its many forms plays, not only with what we label “Culture”, but in our everyday lives.

How many of us drop earbuds into our ears in the morning, and crank up the MP3 player as we head out on our commute? How many of us adorn our walls with photographs, paintings, pictures? How many of us buy little odds and ends from street-corner vendors, like decorative sculptures, hand-made bracelets, necklaces, earrings or pendants? How many of you go to museums, or stop to look at public-display sculptures? How many of you go to movies, watch television, go to plays, go to the outdoor summer festivals? Art and culture is all around us. Art and culture saturate our daily lives. Whether we notice it, appreciate it, take it for granted or ignore it, whether we love it, hate it, are passionate about it or outraged by it, art and culture affects each and every one of us profoundly, regularly, constantly.

Subsequently, Harper has claimed that 45 million dollars is a paltry amount, that it is a small cut to cultural funding. If that is true, then why has he repeatedly claimed that these cuts are of such importance to fiscal policy? If that 45 million is so desperately needed, why are corporate handouts in the excess of 50 billion still allowed to continue?

The anti-cultural bigotry of the Harper Conservatives is vile, outrageous, and is an attack on Canada’s ideals as a nation, as a society, as a people. His disdain towards artists and arts programs smacks of ignorance, of the very sort of elitism he supposedly derides. For who else but elitists so ignorantly assume artists to be decadent, lazy, arrogant low-lifes? Who else but elitists think they know what is in the best interests of the “ordinary” person? These cuts were not merely the deletion of a few line items from an invoice. Vital programs have been affected:

• PromArt, a grant program supporting foreign travel for artists ($4.7 million)

• Canadian Memory Fund, which gives federal agencies money to digitize collections and mount them online ($11.7 million)

• Culture.ca Web portal ($3.8 million)

• Canadian Cultural Observatory ($560,000)

• Research and Development component of Canadian Culture Online ($5.64-million)

• Canadian Independent Film and Video Fund ($1.5 million)

• Audio Visual Trust ($300,000)

• National Training Program for the Film and Video Sector ($2.5 million)

• Trade Routes, supporting international tours by Canadian performers ($7.8 million)

• Northern Distribution Program, which distributes the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network signal to 96 Northern communities. ($2.1 million)

These decisions are supposed to be fiscally sound, but yet they fly in the face of any real understanding of the revenues generated by cultural programs, arts, music, film, theatre and television. According to ACTRA spokeswoman Taborra Johnson, “The arts contribute $85 billion per year to our gross domestic product. It creates 1.1 million jobs, which is 7.2 per cent of our employment.”

The arts don’t just contribute to Canadian culture; they contribute to the Canadian economy. When you consider the residual sales of merchandise, memorabilia, food, beverages, hotel and tourism dollars that festivals, concerts, exhibits, productions and plays generate, when you consider the multitude of spin-off income generated by such things, not to mention the jobs for technicians, service people, maintenance professionals and others, it becomes clear that cuts to cultural programmes are not only myopic, but imbecilic in the extreme.

Canada is currently in the midst of a Federal election. This election was called by Harper, in an attempt to change his minority government into a majority government. The funding cuts that Harper has so cavalierly justified have become one of the elections major issues.

It is incumbent upon all Canadians who care about culture, be they fans of music, patrons of the Arts, theatre-goers or festival fans, to send a clear message to the Canadian government that these funding cuts are unacceptable, and far more obscene than the use of the word “Fuck”.

Stephen Harper and his gang of Conservatives have shown a callous disregard for public opinion on this, and on several other issues. The fact of the matter is, nothing less than our Canadian identity is at stake in this election. Anyone who cares about that identity must take action. There is only one way to remedy this situation, and that is to ensure that Stephen Harper does not return to Parliament as Prime Minister. If we care about culture in this country, if we care about our friends and family who toil to make a living in the creative fields, there is only one thing we can do: On October 14th, we must vote against the Conservatives; we must ensure that they are not re-elected to Government. This is a war on Canadian culture. We cannot afford to let the Conservatives win.

The Decline of Canadian Society

It has been said, by better men than I, that a society that does not value art does not have any value. Canada’s societal value has come into question this week, after the federal Conservative minority government passed funding cuts to Canada’s arts programs.

Once upon a time, the Conservative Party of Canada’s platform was about encouraging economic growth through measures designed to promote business. Granted, such measures were usually to the detriment of worker’s rights and the environment, but for the most part they generally kept their hands off things like the arts and social programmes.

Those halcyon days of yore are long gone, it seems. This funding cut represents just the latest attack on Canadian culture to be launched from Harper’s New Canadian Government. Several months back, the Conservatives passed legislation that limits or removes funding for films found to be “indecent” or “against public morals”; there’s next to no arts funding in the 2008-2009 Federal budget; likewise, the Harper Conservatives have cut funding to museums and even to Hockey Canada, one of the most quintessentially Canadian of institutions.

The Harper Conservatives continue to attempt to justify these cultural attacks either as fiscal responsibility or as in the interest of the public trust, but the evidence speaks for itself: the Harper Conservatives are anti-intellectual, plainly dumbing down Canada’s rich cultural heritage.

These funding cuts are hitting the music industry particularly hard: The East Coast music scene in Canada depends heavily on public funding, as do the Montreal Pop festival and programmes like PromArt, Trade Routes, and the Audiovisual Conservation Trust.

When we consider the calibre of artists Canada has produced over the years, the number of Canadian success stories in all level of arts, from authors, playwrights, filmmakers, painters, sculptors, to actors and especially musicians, it is unconscionable for the Canadian government to slash funding to our cultural programs. It is a move wholly based on the Harper government’s own anti-intellectualism and ignorance.

What is particularly appalling about these funding cuts is how vital and yet how fragile our arts programmes in Canada are. For certain festivals, such as the Montreal Jazz festival, there is private funding. But the private sector in Canada doesn’t have the wherewithal to produce and aggressively promote new works. Less money for the arts means fewer artists receive funding, which means fewer new artists can emerge. The more private money that funds the arts, the less of a gamble the people ponying up the cash will be willing to make, which translates to less Canadian innovation. Less Canadian innovation means more market share will be given over to American artists, which means the Canadian talent pool shrinks even further.

The music industry in particular relies heavily on public funds, and these cuts to our cultural programs are nothing less than a betrayal of Canada’s heritage. Denial of these funds is denying the chance for the next Simple Plan, the next Barenaked Ladies, the next Avril Lavigne, to emerge. Denial of these funds denies new musicians the chance to shine, and reduces our chief musical export to the world to Celine Dion and Canadian Idol.

It appears that the Harper Conservative's idea of culture is running fiction commercials about how wonderful Stephen Harper is--and having people boast about how they'll be voting for him. Point of fact is that in Canada, we do not vote to elect the Prime Minister, we vote to elect our Member of Parliament. The political party with the most votes then forms the government. The only people who would vote for Stephen Harper are the poor saps who have him as their MP. Of course, the Harper Conservatives have a long history of assuming the people are stupid enough to believe everything they say...despite all evidence to the contrary.

Canada is less of a nation because of the arrogance of the Harper Conservatives. And our society has that much less value because of it. In violation of his own law against snap elections, Harper is determined to go to the polls. These funding cuts are just one more reason that sane Canadians should do everything they can to make sure that the Harper government gets booted out, and send the son of a bitch and his redneck jamboree packing back to Alberta.

Guilty Until Proven Innocent : A Dangerous Precedent

Normally, I use this space to talk about my writing, or writing-related subjects. I had hoped to have something more on-topic to discuss in this week's post, but unfortunately something has happened that is far more pressing than anything I normally concern myself with.

A crime bill was enacted into law by the Federal Conservative Party of Canada, back in May. Most of us didn't pay much notice to it. Most of us couldn't have cared less when it passed. And that is how democracy dies: not in fire or blood, not in revolution or war, but in ignorance and apathy.

The bill in question reverses the burden of proof in "certain" criminal cases. The burden of proof is of vital importance in law: it allows someone accused of a crime to be deemed innocent until proven guilty.

Under the "Tackling Violent Crime Act" of May 1st, suspects must prove they are innocent--it is no longer up to the Crown to prove guilt.

The implications of this measure are terrifying.

The Act was used this week, against accused members of the Crips crime gang, in Montreal. Under the clauses of the Act, they have been denied bail because they cannot prove their innocence. They have not been tried, they have not been found guilty, but they are being kept in custody until their innocence has been proven.

Now, I have no love of street gangs, I have no love of a thuggish, violent organization like the Crips, their chief rival the Bloods, or the vile criminal gangs that have flocked to Montreal in the past, from the Mafia, to the Hells Angels and the Rock Machine.

However, the fact of the matter is that the law and the justice system are note there merely to protect the law-abiding from the lawless; the law and the justice system are there to protect all citizens from injustice, no matter of their status or their worth as citizens. The law and the justice system are there to protect the citizens from their government. The law and the justice system are there to ensure that all citizens are treated fairly by all levels of society.

The law and the justice system, in this instance, have been perverted.

You may wonder why I am so upset at the notion that gang-bangers, drug dealers and violent criminals are being stripped of their rights.

Because the law that protects such as them from such perversions of civil liberty and justice, then it will protect the rest of us as well. Because the law that is used to strip them of their civil liberties and justice can and will eventually be used against the rest of us, as well.

Today it is a violent criminal that is seen as a threat to society.
Tomorrow it will be the political dissident whose ideas threaten the Government's status quo.
Today it is a violent criminal whose rights are stripped.
Tomorrow it will be an activist whose actions oppose the Government's political interests.
Today it is a violent criminal who sees themselves imprisoned without trial.
Tomorrow it will be someone fighting against government abuse.
Today it is a violent criminal.
Tomorrow it will be you.

People should not be afraid of their government.

Governments should be afraid of their people.