A Clear and Present Threat to Canada

 Today I have a new guest blogger who has kindly granted permission to use their words here. I present @RogueChimp and their insight into Canadian politics:

Dear. Canada,
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which is part of our Constitution, is on the precipice of destruction as we know it. > #cdnpoli #abpoli #onpoli 

For the first time since enactment of the 1984 Charter, Conservatives see a path to remake Canada in their image. There are enough conservative premiers in place right now that if CPC win the next election, they will have the votes to enshrine their power, remake judiciary. 

The amending formula of Canada’s Constitution requires approval of 7 out of 10 provinces representing at least 50% of the population. With an election win of federal conservatives, they will have that. solon.org/Constitutions/…

Conservatives in Canada are so desperate for federal power as it’s their one chance to change the Charter - the whole drive of Stephen Harper.

It’s been a wet dream of Conservatives to rewrite the Charter since Mulroney failed to deliver it. 

Conservatives have never forgiven Pierre Trudeau for reaching consensus needed to bring home the Charter Conservatives failed to. Many Tories backed the Charter which divided Conservatives along social Conservative, anti-Quebec lines, eventually leading to the Reform Party. 

Conservatives seek to attack the rights enshrined in the Charter to favour what it considers its founding Judeo-Christian religion to legitimize its favourite biblical patriarchal powers that call homosexuality a sin and women subservient. It will also attack bilingualism. 

Make no mistake, the CPC and Consv premiers are in step on this. They are all using the same political playbook that foreshadows the kind of Canada they envision. There has been a shift away from their traditional Toryism inherited from Great Britain to American style liberalism. 

There are “open borders” between the GOP, far right media and Canada’s conservatives. The Canadian playbook is modeled after US white Christo-social conservative liberalism. 

Our current Conservatives will stop at nothing and will use any means to an end to win the next election. This is why they’ve embarked on the extremely divisive politics and intense smear campaigns and disinformation. 

Stephen Harper had goals and he put some of the things in place to make this happen now. His big success was to change the media landscape in favour of remaking Canada in his image.

Inside the fight between Stephen Harper and Canada's wireless companies - Macleans.caIn an excerpt from his new memoir, Phil Lind recalls one of the biggest fights of his careerhttps://www.macleans.ca/culture/books/inside-the-fight-between-stephen-harper-and-canadas-wireless-companies/

Sun News Network:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_News_Network

Stephen Harper vs. the Media, round infinity plus two - Macleans.caAndrew MacDougall: Harper's take on his 2015 loss may have missed the mark, but there is also more truth to it than the Canadian media would like to admithttps://www.macleans.ca/opinion/stephen-harper-vs-the-media-round-infinity-plus-two/

How Harper controls the news“Harper is the first marketing prime minister —this is what he does," said Delacourt. "It is about complete utility to him and what makes him look good."https://www.nationalobserver.com/2015/09/19/how-harper-contrives-news

Interesting article:

Are Canadian Conservatives actually conservative?What would a classically conservative government have to offer Canadians this election?https://theconversation.com/are-canadian-conservatives-actually-conservative-122182

Jason Kenney in Alberta is working hand in glove w Harper. Kenney represents the Conservative vision of Canada: no union protections for workers, business before people, private schools, private health care, Jude-Christian dominance... Alberta is the dry run for Harper’s Canada. 

Harper's hierarchy of human rights - iPoliticsOn hearing that Prime Minister Stephen Harper had launched an Office of Religious Freedom, a question occurred to me. Why not just celebrate the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms? It's right th…https://ipolitics.ca/2013/02/26/harpers-hierarchy-of-human-rights/

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The Misinformation Campaign: WE edition

 This person and the organization she represents, are knowingly trying to misinform Canadians. Student jobs disappeared because of COVID. This was a way for the government to get money to students who need it for books and tuition.

The program was not intended as a wage-for-service program, so it was not paying students less than minimum wage. It was meant to acknowledge students for doing volunteer work by helping them access money they need to go to school in the fall. 

With the current conservatives in opposition, the government is in a "damned if they do, damned if they don't" situation. I don't recall ever a Canadian political party so opposed to public money being used to help the public as these hard-right CPC/UCP/PC people. 

"CERB will make Canadians too lazy to work", "We need to open the schools and get the economy moving", or Jason Kenney's pronouncement about how it's ok if old people die because they have already lived to the average age of death... 

The conservative attitude shows a marked lack of respect for Canadians, for human life, for the health of the population, and for the public good. Public monies should be spent on the public good, including students. We need a well-educated society to move forward. 

Public money should be used for the public good. Not the corporate good. Taxes are collected to ensure the public has access to a decent quality of life. Taxing people to give the money to the already wealthy is feudalism. I don't believe that is the system we want here. 

Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. The taxpayer's federation & all the other conservative think-tanks, don't want Canadians to understand that government debt is not like household debt. Or that most economists think the Canadian gov't has acted appropriately. 

Under normal circumstances people don't need a government program to volunteer, but 2020 is not "normal circumstances". Like most conservative mouthpieces, the taxpayer's federation is pretending everything is fine, and our only concern is the economy. 

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Early Provincial Elections.... What are the Conservatives up to?

 So, Ontario is going to go to the polls early. Following New Brunswick's lead. Will Manitoba and PEI and Alberta follow? Saskatchewan has an election coming in November... 

What would move premiers to call an election, several years ahead of schedule, during a pandemic? Ford has until 2022. So does Legault. Kenney and Pallister both have until 2023. It seems unlikely Kenney will call an election. Albertans aren't as sweet on him any more 

Higgs had until 2022, but he called it early. What, indeed, would move these conservative premiers to call an election with years left on their mandates? During a pandemic, no less?  

I'm sure there are a lot of possible reasons. But, could it be that they don't know when the next federal election might be? It could be as far off as 2023.  

Look up the magic formula for re-opening the constitution and tinkering with it, and our charter of rights and freedoms. You will find there must be agreement from 2/3 of the provinces, representing > 50% of the population, plus the feds, plus the senate.  

Could it be that the conservatives really believe that they will win the next federal election? Could conservative premiers be doing the advance work of shoring up their mandates to make sure those 7 provinces are online and ready? 

"Why would they even want to do that?" you may ask. Well, because gutting the constitution and the charter is sort of the raison d'etre of the Reform Party, aka the Conservative Party of Canada. What did you think they wanted to reform? 

Harper hates the charter and the constitution. He hates it for several reasons.
1) A Trudeau created it,
2) It gives people of whom he does not approve equal rights to "Old Stock Canadians"
3) Constitutional challenges overturned almost all his nasty legislation.

"What does Harper have to do with any of this?" you may ask. Well, the CPC is his party. He created it. He molded the minds of his caucus, many of whom are still in their seats to this day. He surrounded himself with sycophants, none of whom could challenge his leadership. 

In his mind, he was supposed to be PM forever. Pesky Canadians toppled his dreams in 2015. But he hasn't gone away. He's employed as advisor to the governments of Alberta & Saskachewan, & he seems to be still running the CPC from behind the scenes. 

Varcoe: Former PM Stephen Harper on Alberta's new economic recovery councilhttps://calgaryherald.com/business/varcoe-former-pm-stephen-harper-on-albertas-new-economic-recovery-council

We can see his fingerprints all over what Jason Kenney is doing to Alberta. We could almost see his hand up Andrew Scheer's back. O'Toole seems to be another ventriquial figure. L'Actualite published this in an article awhile ago: 

You see, he did no succession planning because he never meant to stop being leader. So the party has no one with the skill-set to really run it without deferring to The Boss. 

And, just like a passionate entrepreneur, he is not ready, will probably never be ready, to turn over his creation entirely to anyone else. Certainly not before he sees his vision of Canada realised. 

What is his vision for Canada? Look south. Private health care, private education, gun proliferation, small government (very limited social programs), draconian laws, closed borders except to "acceptable" people, bans on abortion, same-sex marriage, and MAID... 

Oh, and probably something like what Trump just did, to ensure kids are raised knowing nothing but "Conservatives are the only conceivable government" 

As head of the IDU, Harper has spent the past 5 years helping right-wing regimes gain power around the world. And there is a plan. Not a conspiracy theory, a carefully developed plan.  

The philosophy behind it comes from James McGill Buchanan, who believed that unbridled capitalism would sort everything out. 

Misinforming the Majority: A Deliberate Strategy of Right-Wing LibertariansKoch's team devised a roadmap for destroying democracy that could be carried out legally but below the radar.https://truthout.org/articles/misinforming-the-majority-a-deliberate-strategy-of-right-wing-libertarians/

If all restrictions were lifted from business, the hard-working would be rightly rewarded & those who failed or were unable to take responsibility for themselves would be punished. Survival of the fittest. Which is odd coming from a cohort which identifies with religion  

Nevertheless, this is the underlying motivation for the CPC, demonstrated through: cutting environmental protections (deprotecting lakes and waterways, ELA, etc), cutting health and safety regulations (Walkerton, Lac Megantic, Listeriosis), muzzling scientists, etc. 

All part of throwing the doors open wide for the brave new world of corporatocracy. You know, letting the invisible hand of the market sweep away all the undesirable elements: the lazy, the ill, the aged, the addicted, etc. 

The Koch brothers embraced Buchanan's vision & philosophy & it has been an integral part of their empire-building around the globe. It can be seen now, nearing full manifestation in our neighbour to the south. Remember, for many years now Koch Inc has been in Canada too. 

They fund many of the right-wing think-tanks like the Fraser Institute, they exert power over our news media. They employ psychological/propaganda ninjas who try to influence what we think, using big data platforms on social media. 

Death of David Koch a reminder of who bankrolls Canada's rightNewspapers have recently carried obituaries on the death of David Koch, the U.S billionaire. Through Koch Industries, David and his equally wealthy brother Charles controlled the second-largest privat…https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/pulpit-and-politics/2019/09/death-david-koch-reminder-who-bankrolls-canadas-right

Sound like tin-foil hat stuff to you? It isn't. What is going on in our media right now is not normal. The way the conservatives are behaving is not normal, not compared with pre-2003 conservative parties. The way the NDP is behaving is way not normal. 

The game has changed and no one told us. And that is the point. Incremental shifting of things to a new normal where we aren't supposed to care about the less fortunate. Where life becomes so precarious that we can't spare the energy to look out for each other. 

Then they've won. 

Because together we have power. They don't want us to stand together. They want us all scrambling to look after ourselves, and screw everyone else. We can't let that happen to us. Watch what the premiers do. Let's keep the magic formula out of their hands. 

Media Bias in Canada

 What are we to do when our MEDIA picks favourites? What are we, as a society, to do when journalists are part of the right-wing propaganda machine? 

What are we to do when Canadian journalists repeat conservative talking points as facts, without verification? When they use tentative terms, like "claims" or "alleges" when reporting government statements, and absolutes like "says" and "stated" when reporting CPC statements? 

What are we to do when Canadian Media look to junk "think-tanks" like the Fraser Institute and the Canadian Taxpayer's Federation to paint a picture of reality? What are we to do when our fourth estate has been bought and controlled by those who are not interested in our public good? 

Where are the journalists with integrity? Where are the journalists with professional commitment? Where are the journalists with the guts to fact-check the conservatives? Where are the journalists who are working for the public good? 

Why is even the CBC, our public broadcaster, acting as a CPC cheerleader, even though the new leader promises to put them all out of work? What has happened to journalism in Canada? What can we do about it? 

It's no coincidence that any invading army or dictatorial regime takes control of the media early on. If you control the news - what is reported and how it is reported - you can change the way people see their society. You can create scapegoats. You can justify the unthinkable. 

Many may say I am over-reacting. But this has been going on a long time. Canadians are getting used to hearing the news conservatives want them to hear. Panels of pro-conservative pundits are normalized now. We get more opinion than news, and that's been normalized too. 

1. Is it true?
2. Is it verifiable? (i.e. not the word of an anonymous source)
3. Is publishing it in the interest of the public good?

These are the tests every single piece of news reporting should have to pass.

Think critically when you hear or read the news. Question the way things are worded. Is the reporter conveying trust in what is being said, or incredulity? Is there fact-checking? Are there multiple reputable sources? Is what is being reported important or meant to stir the pot? 

Is the language used in reporting slanted in favour of or against the person or party being reported about? i.e. "Scandal-ridden government" is pejorative. It makes assumptions and leads the reader. Does the reporting seem factual and unbiased? 

Is the reporting full of heuristic cues to evoke positive or negative emotions in the reader/viewer? Adjectives can change the tone of a sentence dramatically, and affect the recipients' perceptions. Be wary of reporting that contains words that celebrate or vilify. 

Does it rely on a single-source so-called "expert" organization, like the Fraser Institute? Does it offer clarity as to the "expert's" qualifications/loyalties/funding? 

Offering "the other side" is a ruse in many cases. There can be one side that is factual and another that is opinion. It is important to differentiate. Offering a contradictory opinion is not only often not useful, it can be harmful. 

If you have a doctor talking about vaccines and an anti-vaxxer contradicting them, that is not good journalism. The other side does not always deserve the airtime because they are just wrong. And the fourth estate is not acting in the public good by giving a podium to just anyone 

We need to be on our guard. Our Canadian media has abandoned us. There are some great reporters out there, but the media infrastructure is controlled by those who do not have the public good at heart. This is a real and present danger to our Canadian way of life. We are not USA north. 

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