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Canada: Not as Good as Advertised

July 06, 2011 17:57 +0000  |  Canada Politics 4

It's a strange thing being an expat, stranger still being a rather patriotic one. I manage to keep up on what's happening in Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, and Amsterdam thanks to the wonders of social networking and do what I can to facilitate a cultural exchange with those around me. My coworkers teach me about kibbeling, and I teach them how to properly make use of the word "eh".

The thing is, as an expat, you start to feel like a sort of ambassador for your country and culture. Our traditions, geography, food... people ask me about these things and I do my best to represent Canada when they do. In my short time here, I've given crash courses on poutine, prorogue, and Parliament, explained numerous times that we don't all speak French, and painstakingly outlined our core differences from the Americans. It's an honour really, to serve in this role, but I find my enthusiasm for it is not as strong as it was only a few years ago. Canada is letting me down.

Our reputation abroad has been thrown away by our Glorious Leaders in the key areas of human health and climate change. Canada, a nation that at one time served in a role of moral leadership in these areas, is now being rightfully attacked by the international community for our abysmal track record.

We are being singled out as being the most damaging influence on the issue of climate change, worse than the United States, China, and India. Al Jazeera even did a recent story on our embarrassing track record. As if that wasn't enough, our duplicitous policy of banning the use of asbestos in Canada, while exporting the poison abroad is making headlines now... it's hard to proudly represent a country that you're just not proud of.

Canada is the nation that saved the world by inventing peace keeping. This, and acts like it earned a name for us in the international community as a fair, diplomatic voice, but as our attitude toward the world has changed, so has our reputation, and when we lost our seat on the UN Security Council, our Prime Minister openly stated that he really didn't care.

I've been told that I shouldn't worry about such things, that Canada is just like any other country: hypocritical and tainted with self interest. We "can't be Good about everything" is the thinking, but I disagree and see this as defeatist. If we accept the Canada that is destructive and disingenuous to our neighbours, then we'll never see the Canada we want. Instead, I must learn to be honest about who we are, and fight for who we should be... it's just that some days, it's so very difficult to be proud of my country and this makes me sad.

God Save the King

May 14, 2011 19:13 +0000  |  Canada Conservatives Democracy Stephen Harper 1

It's been more than a week and I'm only now able to write about it. I was so upset about the whole thing the night of the election that I actually got drunk on soju -- which is a pretty big deal when you consider that I really don't drink. This is what the progressives in Canada have been fearing for years: a majority Harper government.

Those of you who have read my previous few posts on parliamentary democracy will probably note that strictly speaking this is a Conservative majority and not a Harper one, but lets be honest here: this has always been about Harper and his lust for power. He runs his party like a monarchy, and even under a minority government, his attitude was routinely autocratic. He has made it his mission to kill parliamentary governance for a very long time and now we've given him the keys.

Good job Canada.

I'm speaking of course to the 39% of voters who actually think this was a good idea. My only hope is that now that he has Absolute Power for at least 4 years, the people who "voted for Harper" will start to actually blame him for what goes wrong, rather than find a way to pin it on "the coalition", or some other boogeyman.

Yes, the NDP is finally getting the support it deserves, and yes we finally have an elected Green MP, this is all good news. But in a majority government, run by an autocrat like Harper, I have little faith in anyone being able to get anything done unless it be his will.

Honestly, I fear for Canada's institutions, the things that make us great: Universal Health Care, The CBC, Peacekeeping, even the Charter. Most laws that can be written can also be undone, abolished under one government and restored by another, but institutions like these have taken nearly a century to build, and Harper has been clear about what he'd like to do to them. I'm honestly afraid for the future of my country, and I will hold each and every one of that 39%, as well as those who didn't even bother to show up accountable for whatever he does.

Your Vote Matters

May 02, 2011 17:05 +0000  |  Canada Democracy 0

It's already May 3rd here in Seoul, but I wanted to post here, as I always do, to remind you to vote today.

This past year weve seen millions of people in the Middle East fighting and dying for a voice in their own government, while the majority of Canadians didn't even bother to show up to our last election.

You might think that your vote doesn't matter, that our system is so screwed up that whether you show up or not has no bearing on the outcome of events. In some of our past elections, you may have been right, but not in this one. Every poll is screaming that this election is a turning point. The NDP are capturing mountains of support and some polls have the Greens taking as many as 5 seats. This is a big deal and could change the landscape of Canadian history. Yes, it is potentially that big.

Get out there, make your voice heard. Your employer must, by law allow you up to 3 consecutive hours off to vote if your work hours would otherwise prevent you from doing so. Can't make the trip? Ask a friend to drive you. This is important - seriously. It's time to change the way we do things in Ottawa.

Still not sure who deserves your vote? You've still got time, I'll get you started:

We Are Not Americans

April 29, 2011 12:07 +0000  |  Canada Democracy Politics 2

Disclaimer: I am very jetlagged. Please be patient with me.

Canadians, and more specifically the Canadian media have been perpetuating a myth about our electoral system for a while now and it's gotta stop. Newspapers and radio shows are guilty of it, as are party leaders of most stripes: they're treating our electoral process as if we live in the United States.

Here's how it is: We elect parliaments in Canada, not presidents. We elect representatives who sit in the House of Commons who then collectively determine who should speak for Canada: the Prime minister, the first among equals.

Most of us can't vote for Harper, Layton, Ignatieff, or May, but not a day goes by on this campaign that I don't hear some pundit talking about how Ignatieff will do X or Harper will do Y. Both Harper and Layton have been noted for talking like they will personally do something if elected, and though I haven't heard Ignatieff do the same, I wouldn't be surprised.

The fact that in practise, our political system does work as though we elect short-term tyrants doesn't negate the fact that that's not how this system is supposed to work. In fact, I would argue that since we cover campaigns as though it were some sort of horse race between presidential candidates leads not only to an excuse, but an expectation of tyranny once that leader ends up in the Prime Minister's role.

The second myth is that parliamentary elections can be "won" somehow. Jack Layton or Stephen Harper cannot "win" this election as the absurdity of that statement is twofold:(1) as we've already established, any one candidate can only win his or her riding, and (b) winning a minority of seats (or even a majority) does not mean that the remaining parties are somehow not part of our governing process. The House is the authority, not the governing party, and certainly not the Prime Minister.

Ignoring these two truths about our system of government leads to the devaluation of the role of our elected MPs and to support for arguments like Harper's opposition to a coalition. We should either take advantage of our parliamentary system, or simply drop it in favour of (in my opinion) less democratic presidential role. There's really no point on keeping up the premise of parliamentary democracy if people are going to continue to believe that the Prime Minister runs Canada.

voteharper.ca

March 28, 2011 22:39 +0000  |  Activism Canada Conservatives 4

I may be living in Amsterdam, but I'm still Canadian.

There's an election coming up and Stephen Harper has to lose it. He's been actively working against democracy in the House, and using the power of the PMO to cut taxes on the rich, spend money on prisons we don't need and pollute the biosphere... to name a few of many transgressions. The man has got to go, and I'm hoping you can help me push him out.

I've combined forces with Dianna and her awesome graphical/UX talents to build a new simple website: voteharper.ca. It's not up yet, and that's where you come in. This site will be a collection of Stephen Harper's record on a series of issues ranging from democracy, to the environment, to women's rights, to international affairs. Whatever the topic, I need information regarding his actions on it.

Here's what I need from you: I need facts of what he's done sent to my email in the following format:

  • What he did/said
  • Why this is bad (if it's not obvious)
  • Any number of links (at least one) that corroborates this fact.

Once I have a good bunch of data, I'll load it into the code I wrote just now and launch the site. Hopefully, it'll make a big splash. I've already contacted the other parties asking for help from them as well.

One last note, it's important to point out that the purpose of this site is to oppose Harper, and not the Conservative Party. It will also not be promoting any other party as I want this to be non-partisan. The key message I want to share is that Harper has proven himself to be Bad for Canada and that he has to go.

So lets see those emails! (me at danielquinn dot org)

Criminalising Dissent

November 11, 2010 18:18 +0000  |  Activism Anarchy Canada Civil Rights Toronto 0

Today is the day that we reserve for Remembrance, a day when each of us are expected to take a moment to acknowledge and remember the bravery and devotion to duty of the millions of men and women who fought and often died "for King and Country" in dozens of wars past. It's also a day when we must remember that it's not only soldiers who die in war, but civilians as well. Often it is the case that for every one soldier killed in the line of duty, ten, or even one hundred civilians are killed.

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As a society, we tell ourselves that war is a terrible, but sometimes necessary Last Line of Defence against those who would attack our Freedoms. It is therefore with bitter irony that I must point out that today the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the National Union of Public and General Employees are co-hosting public hearings to examine police activity during the recent G20 Summit in Toronto.

Every Canadian owes it to themselves to read these testimonies. Canadian citizens, rounded up, arrested, and held for upwards of 32hours in squalid cells, or tagged with bogus charges like possession of tools for burglary (door keys). Unarmed, non-violent citizens punched and kicked, by police not wearing name tags or badge numbers. In one holding cell case, a woman apparently asked for a tampon and was told that she "should have thought about it before", after which he threw his sock into her cell.

In a Free country, citizens must be allowed to peacefully assemble, and to criticise the government openly, and they must be able to do this without fear of persecution from the state. What we saw in Toronto was not what Canada should be, but whether we like it or not, it was our Canada. Unless we stand up and fight those responsible for abridging our freedoms that day, claims that our military "defends our freedoms" will become even more hollow than they already are.

Please take a moment to read one of the following:

Tommy Douglas on Canada's Energy Independence

November 01, 2010 10:30 +0000  |  Canada Capitalism Corporations Democracy NDP Politics 0

I will post details about this year's Hallowe'en stuff soon, but I wanted to share this for now. Below is a video clip from 1978 of Tommy Douglas addressing the House of Commons. There's two things that I'd like to point out to you before you watch it:

  1. This is a man talking about energy independence in 1978.
  2. Note the remarkable lack of noise and heckling in the room. Thirty years has changed much.

In Defence of Violence

June 29, 2010 08:05 +0000  |  Activism Anarchy Canada Police Politics Toronto Violence 2

I'd like you to take 30seconds to watch something for me:

Violence has its place, and that place is when words are no longer enough. Anyone paying attention to what's going on in the world can tell you that the gap between the rich and the poor is dangerously wide and that the priorities of the rich minority are not in the best interests of the poor majority. Ecological disasters like the BP blowout in the Gulf of Mexico and the recent world-wide economic collapse are symptoms of a greater problem, one the "civil" protesters are campaigning for... if only someone were listening.

But no one is listening... at least no one with any measurable power. Instead, our leaders erect fences and spend billions dollars on making sure that the voices of the people aren't heard at these events. They take our money and construct elaborate indoor lakes to placate the media, while they conduct the business of governance behind closed doors. This is not democracy, and people insisting that standing in a street and waving a sign is the best response to such injustice just don't get it: we should be angry! Those are our streets, our spaces, and our leaders, talking about issues that relate directly to our lives and they shut us out with wire fences, concrete walls, and thousands of violent police? Where's the rage?

Martin Luther King had it right when he said that "a riot is the language of the unheard". The overwhelming majority of Canadians want action on things like the environment, peace, the economy, and poverty, but rather than moving on these issues, our leaders consistently work against our interests. Chants and sign-waving clearly aren't getting it done, and so a few among us have started smashing things. It's not intelligent, it's not tactical, it doesn't even have to make sense. It's rage, and it's not only justified in such a situation, but called for.

That video clip is about oppression:

  1. Convince the majority that opposition isn't worthwhile.
  2. Beat the remainder into submission.
  3. Simultaneously encourage and incite violence from the reactionary minority, so that the press sides against them. This returns us to #1.

I'll be the first to concede that violence is not the answer here, but the time for chanting and sign-waving is through. I don't want to hear any more of this "if the violent people would just stop, then maybe they'd listen" business because sadly, that's just not true. Something has got to be done, or soon it might not just be a Starbucks and a few police cars that get smashed.

'Canadian Pride' (At Grandma's Request)

February 04, 2010 19:03 +0000  |  Canada Family Nationalism The United States 3

My grandmother just sent this to me with the added request that I distribute it to those in my own networks. I can agree with the sentiment and so I'm doing just that. It's about time that Canadians recognised that our place in this world is more than "America's Hat":

I am old enough to remember when the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway was debated and ultimately opened to navigation in 1959. Construction of the 306 km. stretch of the Seaway between Montreal and Lake Ontario is recognized as one of the most challenging engineering feats in history.

Discussion with the U.S. had been ongoing over the past thirty years but in the end they decided not to participate in such a major undertaking. Canadian public opinion was pushing our politicians to go it alone and in July , 1951 Premier Frost of Ontario publicly asked the United States to “Please, get out of the way and let us get on with the job.” The Federal Government followed within days and announced we would build the St. Lawrence Seaway. It was a time of Canadian pride. The United States then decided that they would participate in the building of the Seaway and the project went ahead.

I tell this story because I wonder where our Canadian pride has gone. We were a much smaller nation in the 1950’s but we felt we could do it. Now it seems we must ask the U.S. to make our policy on climate change, auto emissions etc.

Shirley Quinn,
Armstrong, B.C.

Unrepresented

January 22, 2010 08:49 +0000  |  Bloc Québécois Canada Conservatives Democracy Green Party Liberals NDP Politics 11

So that word is floating around again "Prorogue". For those of you who missed it, I'm sorry to be the one to break it to you, but we've all been without representation in the federal government now for almost a month now. Stephen Harper, our Prime Minister decided to shut down parliament back in December and won't be affording us representation until some time in March.

That's three months paid vacation for a parliament that sat for only 49days last year. Three months without the business of government being done, without your voice being heard in the House. Sure Harper still gets to be the boss and represent Canada abroad and at the Olympics, and no, our soldiers in Afghanistan don't get to take a break. Addressing our commitments on climate change won't happen by the Copenhagen deadline, and we're all still paying taxes for the privilege of living in a democracy.

People have staged (successful) revolutions for less.

In Canada though, where we once saw only apathy, there appears to be some exciting movement among the grass roots. Hundreds of thousands of people have joined a Facebook group denouncing Harper's Conservatives for this move and the numbers keep growing. Support for the Conservatives has begun to dwindle as well and now there are rallies planned around the world in condemnation of this prorogue.

Here's a list of what proroguing means to Canada:

  1. Committees investigating accusations of torture of Afghan detainees stop working.
  2. Questions about Canada's inaction at the Copenhagen climate-change summit are silenced. Opportunities to move forward with Canada’s plan for sustainable development are stalled for over a month.
  3. Discussions and decisions about the pension crisis affecting Canada’s seniors stops.
  4. All 37 bills being debated in Parliament are thrown in the trash. Discussion on bills starts from scratch in March, wasting months of hard work by all parties. These bills included new crime legislation, and limits on credit card insurance rates, etc.
  5. Your MP cannot raise your concerns in Ottawa
  6. Harper will still appoint Conservative senators, giving him control of the Senate.

Frankly, it's actions like these that make it hard for me to claim that I live in a democracy. Instead, it might be more accurate to say that we've become a cyclical banana republic. As for what the other parties are saying...

  • The Liberals have flat-out said that they're going back to work with or without the Conservatives on January 25th, the original date that Parliament would have reconvened.
  • The NDP have similarly said that they will be "on Parliament Hill" on the 25th, though I'm unsure as to what that means exactly.
  • The Bloc Québécois have condemned the prorogation but as far as I can tell, have not said anything about showing up to work.
  • The Greens, not in possession of a seat (yet) also condemned the Harper move and will be out at the rallies tomorrow across the country as well.

So what can you do? Some suggestions:

  • Tell your friends and family about this. A lot of people still don't know that they're paying taxes to a non-existent government and the Conservatives are counting on an ignorant public to keep them in power. Don't let them have it.
  • Join in on one of the rallies this Saturday, January 23rd. They're happening all over the world in Vancouver, Toronto, New York, Amsterdam and even Costa Rica. Details are on noprorogue.ca. Vancouver's rally starts at 1pm at the VAG, while Toronto's starts at 1pm at Dundas Square.
  • Call your MP. If (s)he's a Conservative, tell them to get back to work. If they aren't, tell them to consider all alternatives for bringing democracy back to our government. The Coalition is still an option, if only the opposition parties can learn to get along.

I'll be at the event in Vancouver, so if you care to come along, let me know and we can meet up :-)