What Canadians are conerned about is determined by…?
OK, PM has determined that Canadians aren’t concerned about the Afghan-detainees-gate controversy. And he told us that we only care about the economy. Well, he’s really getting closer in thinking with the Chinese Communist Party. The CCP has always believed that as long as the people flourish economically, they’ll turn a blind eye to every ill of society. Surprise surprise.
Torstar – Prime Minister Stephen Harper says Canadians aren’t really concerned about allegations that the government engaged in a cover-up over the abuse of Afghan detainees.
“I think polls have been pretty clear that that’s not on the top of the radar of most Canadians,” Harper said in an interview with CBC-TV correspondent Peter Mansbridge.
The government had been on the defensive late last year over allegations that it tried to cover up information that Afghan authorities were abusing Afghan detainees after they were handed over by Canadian soldiers. And opposition MPs say Harper decided to suspend Parliament until March to shut down a House of Commons committee probing the detainee controversy.
But Harper said Canadians are more interested in the recession battering the country. “What’s on the radar is the economy.”
So wonder why our PM always knows what we like or we don’t? Well, the answer may simply be: he’s a neocon.
According to an 2005 article in Tyee, written by Donald Gutstein, a senior lecturer in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University:
What do close advisors to Stephen Harper and George W. Bush have in common? They reflect the disturbing teachings of Leo Strauss, the German-Jewish émigré who spawned the neoconservative movement.
Strauss, who died in 1973, believed in the inherent inequality of humanity. Most people, he famously taught, are too stupid to make informed decisions about their political affairs. Elite philosophers must decide on affairs of state for us.
So since we are not among the ruling elite who must be flawless neocons, we are all too stupid to understand what should be good for us.
Strauss believed that allowing citizens to govern themselves will lead, inevitably, to terror and tyranny, as the Weimar Republic succumbed to the Nazis in the 1930s. A ruling elite of political philosophers must make those decisions because it is the only group smart enough. It must resort to deception — Strauss’s “noble lie” — to protect citizens from themselves. The elite must hide the truth from the public by writing in code.
So when Errol Mendes, professor of constitutional law of the University of Ottawa, writes in the Toronto Star today that:
The highest duty of a Prime Minister of Parliament is to uphold the Constitution of Canada, which includes the rights and privileges of the House of Commons and the duties owed to the Queen’s representative in Canada
and feels disappointed that the PM fails to do so by proroguing the parliament twice in less than a year, here may be why, according to Gutstein:
They [the neocons] claim the Charter is the result of a conspiracy foisted on the Canadian people by “special interests.” These nasty people are feminists, gays and lesbians, the poor, prisoners and refugee-rights groups who are advancing their own interests through the courts at the expense of the general public.
Well, Harper’s supporters may argue that they are different from the “evil” CCP because Canadians are allowed to criticize the Tories in whatever harsh ways and won’t be prosecuted as would be under the CCP, please be reminded that I’m not again comparing the two SYSTEMS (and though we are still formally living in a democracy, who knows what will happen next if our democracy continues to be eroded?). Instead, I’m trying to point out that totalitarian minds think alike. Prof Mendez promptly points out:
Tags: Afghanistan, conservative, Stephen HarperSome Canadians may not pay much attention to archaic constitutional terms such as prorogation of Parliament or even to the fate of Afghan detainees transferred to torture. Other Canadians will care greatly about both these issues. But all Canadians must care about a minority government that undermines the fundamental democratic institutions of this country while also manipulating quasi-judicial tribunals and intimidating the public service from speaking truth to power. This abuse of executive power is tilting toward totalitarian government and away from the foundations of democracy and the rule of law on which this country was founded.
Related posts
Short URL: http://www.chineseinvancouver.ca/?p=10201
Recent Comments