Every election is an artificial exercise in which each party pushes a tiny number of issues that the media then largely focus on, while other Canadians try desperately to get a hearing for other causes, often more urgent, that go largely unheard. In the leaders’ French debate last week, funding Montréal’s Champlain Bridge got as much attention as the unsettling kind of country Canada has become under Stephen Harper. Here’s a few examples of what we should have been debating for the past several weeks.
Though mentioned intermittently, Mr. Harper's determination to muzzle critics will not be a “ballot box question” for most Canadians when they vote. Yet the implications for a Canada ruled by an unrestrained Harper majority government are obvious, and terrifying. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has now published an excellent commentary by Maria Gergin called “Silencing Dissent: The Conservative Record”. Here’s the summary:
Over the past five years, exercise of the fundamental freedom of speech in Canada has been curbed and discouraged by a federal government increasingly intolerant of even the mildest criticism or dissent. Particularly affected have been organizations dependent on government funding which advocate for human rights and women’s equality. Their voices have been stifled, some completely silenced, by cuts to their budgets. Also financially throttled have been individuals and groups that speak out for reproductive rights, humanitarian immigration policies, and for changes in Canada’s foreign policy in the Middle East.
The Harper government’s now lengthy record of silencing – or attempting to silence – its critics also includes the removal of heads of government agencies, commissions, and tribunals who insist on making independent decisions. Academics who have spoken against government actions or policies have also been targeted.
This blatant suppression of basic human rights by a government constitutionally responsible for guaranteeing their expression is unprecedented in Canada’s history.
Kairos and Rights & Democracy are the highest profile among Mr. Harper's victims, attacked by their own government for the crime of DWH – disagreeing with Harper. Far less known are the many outstanding issues related to women’s equity, a phrase and concept that is treated very much like leprosy in the Kingdom of Harper. The Ad Hoc Coalition for Women’s Equality and Human Rights is actively promoting these issues, their message often included in Voices-Voix’s useful daily compilation of unheard issues.
Another defunded offender is that great Harper bete noir, the Canadian Council of International Cooperation. Even though it had to lay off most of its staff, the CCIC has issued an “Election Platform to End Global Poverty and Injustice 2011”. Bad mistake, Comrades. Mr. Harper hates the word injustice as much as equity. He doesn’t mind a bit of charity, but justice is beyond the pale. The platform begins by pointing out that:
Canada has long been respected as a good global citizen. Our diplomacy, participation in the multilateral system, and the contribution of Canadian Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) gives Canada credibility to be a strong advocate to end global poverty and injustice. But this reputation is under threat and cannot be taken for granted.
Canada should be a leader on the international stage. What is needed is a global vision and an ambitious multisectoral agenda to help end global poverty.
This CCIC document exposes the Harper record on aid, advocates for women’s rights abroad (another ginormous no-no in Mr. Harper's Ottawa, of course), promotes real corporate social responsibility and global environmental justice – in other words, critical issues that are banned in Harper's Ottawa, and mostly in the election campaign.
