It’s mine! All mine!

In yesterday’s Ottawa Citizen, Amir Attaran, Canada Research Chair in Law, Population Health and Global Development Policy called out the Harper Government on it’s mean and churlish attitude towards helping poorer nations fight the coming swine flu pandemic.

Here are a few excerpts from that piece. You can find the complete article here.

Last week, as Stephen Harper was tooling around Washington and talking up Canada's virtues, across town a more substantially moral leader, Barack Obama, announced a global plan to donate life-saving influenza vaccines to poor countries in Africa, Asia and elsewhere.

…

Those donations are likely to be, for many countries, the only vaccine that they get. Heeding the World Health Organization's call, Australia, Britain, Brazil, France, Italy, New Zealand, Norway and Switzerland also went along with the donation plan.

Canada, however, declined.

…

With 50.4 million doses of vaccine in Canada's entitlement, and 32 million Canadians, perhaps only half of whom want to be vaccinated, PHAC officials are certainly correct that we have "more than enough for any Canadian that wants to receive it."

…

The Harper government must do better than continue its mean streak. In this, and much else to do with international aid, poorer foreigners notice Canada's new beggar-thy-neighbour attitude, and wonder how a country once known for its generosity has fallen so far. The usual preening about Canadian internationalism is nonsense, where WHO has justly called on Canada to share a life-saving resource, and we refuse.

Well said sir, well said.

Ice fishing….

In Ohio, a large ice floe broke away from the shore of Lake Erie, trapping more than 100 fishermen, some for as long as four hours.

According to the news reports, “Several ships and helicopters from Toledo and Marblehead were sent to rescue people from the floe. The Coast Guard said crews from Michigan, including Detroit, Traverse City and St. Clair Shores, also responded.”

Meanwhile, on the Canadian side of the lake …

Yes, your brain CAN freeze...

Last weekend the OPP were called out to investigate an accident between a pickup truck and a snowmobile. In the middle of the Rideau River. While ice-fishing. Alcohol was involved.

So how Canadian is that, eh? Expect to see it in a Canada’s Hinterland episode coming to the small screen soon.

Canada's "Unhappy" Government

In today’s National Post, Don Martin says, “An official high in a Cabinet minister's office has an interesting label for his employer: The Unhappy Government.”

He then goes on to describe the malaise surrounding the Harperites and the general dysfunction of Parliament which has resulted from Stephen Harper’s unconstrained quest for power.

Ending with “...the only people with a legitimate right to be unhappy are the voters”, this article describes, in a nutshell, why the average Canadian holds Parliament and politicians in such disdain.

All thanks to Stephen Harper's "new way of doing business". Way to go Stevie!

In my Canada...

I recently sent out an email to all my contacts imploring them to consider donating to their (non-Conservative) party of choice in an attempt to, as I put it, “get our Canada back”. That prompted the obvious question, “What do you mean by ‘our Canada’?”

Well, here goes:

In my Canada we are recognised around the world as an independent and honest broker, not encumbered by the geo-political policies of the US, Great Britain, or any other country.

In my Canada we take strong, principled leadership positions on matters of global import such as climate change.

In my Canada we do not accept as normal our young people coming home in body bags from a foreign war we didn’t start and can’t win.

In my Canada we do not believe that a toxic waste dump in northern Alberta the size of PEI is just ‘the price we have to pay’ for prosperity.

In my Canada tougher sentencing and more and bigger jails are viewed as part of the problem, not the solution, for making our streets safer.

In my Canada the federal government and First Nations leadership actually get off their respective soap boxes and do something constructive to resolve the crises facing First Nations people.

In my Canada the federal government protects and supports Canadians imprisoned in foreign lands without prejudice, not negotiated on a case-by-case basis as determined by the degree of public outrage or the perceived political advantage/disadvantage of helping.

In my Canada we view the failed policies of the US war on drugs and say “not here”.

In my Canada the federal government is a uniting force, bringing provinces, people and cultures together rather than dividing and conquering for political gain and power.

In my Canada openness and transparency in government are a reality, not just an electioneering slogan.

In my Canada Stephen Harper is a civilian.

None of the above ....

In my voting lifetime (40 years and counting ...) I don’t recall ever being put in a situation similar to that in which I now find myself. As I have never been particularly faithful to any party, I have always had the option to vote for the candidate and/or party that I felt was the best option for Canada at that point in time. But I always had a choice. I don’t now – at least not any palatable choice. For the first time in my experience, I would be voting for the least objectionable option.

The Conservatives under Stephen Harper will never get my vote. I tried to keep an open mind when they won a minority last time, but after 2 years of their antics on the Hill, I now not only despise the man personally, but his band of incompetent sycophants make my skin crawl. This is a party whose only purpose has become to embarrass and belittle their opponents in the hope that the electorate will end up hating the Opposition more than they hate the Conservatives. Now that’s something to vote for!

Then there’s the Liberal Party, a party which allowed itself to be self-consumed and marginalized by the sponsorship scandal (relatively minor by most political scandal measures), but probably more accurately, as a result of the Chretien-Martin feud among senior party ranks. Then the Liberals blew the one opportunity they had to resurrect themselves as a political force by electing Stéphane Dion as leader. When the best any of the political pundits could offer at the time he was elected was to comment on his honesty and integrity, you just knew he wouldn’t do well in Stephen Harper’s gutter. And now, with their continuing abstentions and gamesmanship making a mockery of the concept of opposition, I am beginning to question their ability to govern even if they were elected in a minority situation. Perhaps if they actually had the balls to stand on their principles and put up a fight I might change my mind, but I don’t see that happening any time soon.

The NDP have made an art out of being in opposition. Their entire shtick has, for some years now, been to sit on the sidelines and take potshots at whoever forms the government of the day. They have always had the luxury of never having to be in charge, so they know not what it means to compromise, to take a chance, and to accept responsibility for their decisions, whether good or bad. They simply wait in the wings, and then, like auditors, come in after the battle and bayonet the wounded. They have made themselves largely irrelevant, and will have to do a total refresh of their party before they’ll attract any serious attention from me. That’s not to say they couldn’t, as they have some strong members, but Jack would have to go for sure, along with many of his colleagues who seem to be stuck in some sort of socialist time warp.

I might consider the Greens if I knew what they stood for, but Elizabeth May distancing herself from Paul Watson and The Sea Shepherd (which any rational, thinking person did many years ago) does not constitute a platform in my humble opinion. I’ll accept that it’s at least partly my responsibility to find this stuff out, but until the Greens start making some noise and getting some traction on the other big issues of the day besides the environment, then I can’t see them getting my vote.

So I’m stuck with three choices, none of which is acceptable: don’t vote; spoil the ballot; or vote for the party I dislike least. What a hell of a way to run a railroad.

“Stagnation wrapped in delusion. That's Canadian public life.”

This from The Ottawa Citizen’s Dan Gardner today in a piece that I believe goes a long way to explaining why we are all so bloody sick and tired of our political masters, of all stripes.

Entitled Our Great Bounty Brings Trivia and Bloat, Gardner’s piece doesn’t only skewer politicians, but also goes on to poke holes in our collective image of ourselves. As one example, he points out that although we have never met our international commitments for foreign aid, and our contribution to peacekeeping has been steadily declining to a point where it is now virtually non-existent, we still puff out our chests with pride, “proud as a beaver with a new stick”.

Well worth a read.

Canadian, eh? Sucks to be you .....

Every so often one comes across a news item that infuriates. Last night’s W-FIVE carried just such a story – Mexican Standoff.

The gist of it is this: a 50-year-old Canadian woman, Brenda Martin, has been held in a Mexican prison in Guadalajara for more than two years although she has not been convicted of any crime, nor in fact, does it appear she has even committed any crime. Seems like a pretty straightforward situation where, regardless of the merits of the legal case, the Canadian consulate would be engaged to ensure that a Canadian’s rights are being upheld and that she is getting due process, right?

Wrong! During her entire ordeal, Canadian government support has been virtually non-existent in spite of repeated attempts on her part to get them involved to help with translation and other legal issues. It is only through the intervention of an old friend that she even now has competent legal representation (possibly too late) and any visibility for her case in Canada.

Attempts by the W-FIVE team to get a response from the Canadian government were routinely brushed off and the responsible(?) minister, Helena Guergis, actually lied to the reporter about making a statement and then snuck out the back door. And the clip of the conversation with the security guard at the Canadian Consulate in Guadalajara would be hilarious if it wasn’t so sad and ridiculous. In fact, it seems that she is getting more support from the Mexican Ambassador to Canada than she has from the Harper government.

I don’t know if this is another “tough on crime” thing – the Harpercrites being afraid their base wouldn’t support them if they actually helped someone charged with a crime outside Canada – or if it’s simply ministerial incompetence layered on top of bureaucratic indifference, but this situation is appalling and it verily screams out for action on the part of Canada.

Blame Canada

Here we go again. As reported in today’s Ottawa Citizen, Homeland Security’s Michael Chertoff has singled out Canada as a source of terrorists attempting to infiltrate the US. According to the article, “’much more than a dozen’ individuals with links to al-Qaeda, Hezbollah and other extremist groups have been caught trying to enter the U.S. since 9/11.”

As usual, no specifics are offered. Is this just one more attempt by the U.S. administration to effectively shut the northern border through the deployment of ever more onerous documentation and security requirements? Or is there a real problem?

The fact that this is coincident with a sea-change in the political atmosphere in the U.S. and the Bush administration’s inability to get Congress to force through the passport requirements for land and sea crossings into the U.S. just may have something to do with the latest pronouncement.

With these guys in charge, it’s getting so we wouldn’t know the truth if it hit us upside the head.