Harper in contempt of real democracy
OK, this is what one of the most developed western democracy would do in face of dissidence and accountability: shut them all up. Harper doesn’t like dissident noises; he doesn’t like criticism; he doesn’t like being advised, lectured and he doesn’t want his authority and power be weakened by the elected parliament. When he and his government is under an investigation, he just shuts down the entire thing and snobby walk away. How could he get away with all these? What’s wrong with Canadians?? Why don’t Canadians penalize a tyrannical regime like this one?
Next time the Tory government blasts China and other countries for not having a democracy, we should all remind this government that we don’t either. The western media should be ashamed of themselves (for failing to hold our own government accountable to our democracy) if they continue to take the moral high grounds when they point fingers at China etc.
Read also: Harper the de facto dictator
Here’s a CBC report:
Tags: democracy, Stephen HarperProroguing Parliament not ruled out: Harper
A year after Prime Minister Stephen Harper prorogued Parliament to avoid a no-confidence vote, in his year-end media interviews he isn’t ruling out doing it again.
Prorogation means terminating the parliamentary session — all the bills that had been introduced and worked on in committee would die.
If Harper were to prorogue, the Consumer Product Safety Act, as well as several crime bills dear to the Conservative government such as those dealing with auto theft, email spam, sex offenders, conditional sentences and white-collar crime, would be wiped off the legislative agenda.
Moreover, parliamentary committees — including the special Commons committee probing the issue of possible Afghan detainee torture — could not sit.
It would be as if the Prime Minister pushed the “reset” button: Parliament would start a brand new session when it returned.
“These guys have already prorogued before, a year ago, when they lost the confidence of the House,” said Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff.
Last December, when the Opposition parties threatened to bring down the government, Harper shut down Parliament to avoid a threatened vote of no confidence.
“Just having had a prorogued Parliament a year ago, you have to say they’ve run out of not only any ideas, but also the will to face Parliament,” said NDP MP Paul Dewar.
However, pollster Bruce Anderson of Harris/Decima thinks the government wouldn’t suffer much if it prorogues again, because it didn’t last time.
“The decision which many people thought was quite shocking last year, I think ultimately public opinion did not show as much penalty [for] the Conservatives, and certainly no reward for the Liberals,” said Anderson.
Also, in the New Year, the balance of power in the Senate will shift due to retirements and the fact that Harper can appoint some new Conservative senators.
He doesn’t need to prorogue to do that, but he does need to prorogue to change the makeup of the now Liberal-dominated Senate committees that have the power to hold up government bills.
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Well to be fair about it, the NPC is prorogued annually after just 2 weeks in session in March, but this Chinese annual proroguing it is not of much concern as the NPC is unelected, has no effective power and the Party organs that decide who will serve on NPC and CPPCC does not allow anyone who opposes the policies of the CCP to be appointed as “legislators.” Canada does not have a “tyrannical regime” as suggested above. Political power here in Canada is constrained by a free and critical press, legal and highly critical opposition parties and periodic free elections at all levels. Any blog posting in China entitled the equivalent to this one: “Wen Jiabao in contempt of real democracy” would be deleted by the Chinese internet police within minutes and its author subject to criminal investigation for state subversion. That this does not happen in Canada is what makes Canada such a great choice for immigration. I am grateful that my forebears made that choice and hope that all Chinese in Vancouver are too.
well, i’m very very happy that i made the choice to live in vancouver. i love the country and it’s my home. i wouldn’t live in any other country for the rest of my life. but thru my 25 years living in here, i’ve seen a better canada. a canada that allowed freer discourse and greater access to government info, officials and ministers (PM included). now we are stonewalled layer by layer that it’s become very hard for the media to really monitor what the gov is doing
and, we don’t need to compare china and canada on an aspect-by-aspect basis. the systems are completely different and i doubt if that’s meaningful at all to do a comparison like that. i’m not saying there’s a democracy (as defined by the west for the last 2 centures) in china or whether it is worse than canada’s or not. what i’m saying is that we’re having a lesser democracy in canada. as a canadian, that alarms me.