6 Reasons Harper Government is Bad6 raisons pourquoi Harper est poche
1. Abuses Canada’s Parliament
Stephen Harper thinks he’s King of Canada. He has prorogued parliament twice with the sole purpose of deflecting attention away from his government’s failures. Four senior Conservatives were charged with willfully exceeding spending limits in the 2006 campaign. Bev Oda, International Co-operation Minister, altered a document and then denied doing so in testimony before the House. Stephen Harper missed 43% of all votes in the House of Commons. The “integrity” commissioner appointed by Harper received 228 whistleblowing complaints and did not pursue a single one. Harper has muzzled public servants, refused to provide documents to Parliament, and instructed Conservatives to disrupt parliamentary comittees.
In addition, “The Harper Government” was added to official Government of Canada letterhead and a minister used government letterheads to fundraise for the Conservative party. Twitter accounts linked to the Conservative party were also used to announce official government visits.
The Harper regime’s disrespect for established parliamentary procedures and disregard toward election and campaign rules are more radical than Conservative. Canada was respected as a nation with a thoughtful political culture. But, under Harper, Question Period in the House of Commons has become a combative carnival in which MPs and cabinet ministers trade slurs and grandstand for the media — and Canada is now seen as an embarrassing nuisance on the world stage.
Stephen Harper has no respect for the integrity of Canada’s government and political institutions.
- Source: Are we going to reward contempt of parliament – Ottawa Citizen
- Source: Tories rebrand government of Canada as ‘Harper Government’ – Globe and Mail
- Source: On the road to the tipping point – Globe and Mail
2. No Regard for Science
Harper has increased funding for prisons, despite opposition from crimonologists, major religious groups, and social scientists — and ignoring years of research on effective crime-prevention methods. He has not enacted any significant environmental laws, although there is clear scientific consensus surrounding climate change. Instead, Canadians were embarrassed to receive the “Fossil” award for inaction at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Harper unilaterally cut the long-form census despite massive opposition from Statistics Canada, the business community, numerous mayors, and all Canadian premiers.
Stephen Harper fired the head nuclear-security watchdog who had raised concerns about the safety of resuming the nuclear reactor in Chalk River, Ontario. The reactor’s primary role is producing radioactive material which is used to treat and diagnose a number of life-threatening illnesses, including cancer and heart disease. It was due to be replaced by two others, construction of which was cancelled by the Harper government. Harper cut the post of National Science Advisor in 2008, removing the most highly placed scientist in the country, and the only scientist with a direct line of communication to the Prime Minister’s Office.
3. Doesn’t Defend Canadian Citizens
The Harper government has devalued the meaning of Canadian citizenhip. The Canadian government has a responsibility to protect its citizens against unlawful actions committed by other countries. A Canadian citizen, Omar Khadr, captured at the age of 15, has been held at the Guantanamo Bay prison (itself a questionable institution under international law) for eight years without fair trial. The Harper government’s refusal to request extradition of Khadr is in violation of his Charter rights. Abousfian Abdelrazik was placed on a no-fly list, refused help from Canada, and handed over to a government known for torture and poor human rights. Who’s to say you couldn’t be next? Children born to Canadian parents abroad no longer have the same access to citizenship they once did. In an age where competition is about attracting the world’s best talent to help build a dynamic and innovative economy, Harper’s government is going out of its way to devalue Canadian citizenship.
- Source: Changes to canadian citizenship for foreign born children
- Source Harper refuses to help Khadr
4. Foreign Policy Fail
For the first time in Canadian history, we failed in our bid to win a seat on the United Nations Security Council. Harper failed to interact with China in a respectable and cordial manner, undermining our relationship with the second-largest economy in the world. He jettisoned Canada’s historically balanced position in the Middle East, angering key allies and major trading partners. Harper has extended the mission in Afghanistan without consultation from Canadian citizens, most of whom oppose the mission. He ignored decades of Canadian goodwill in Africa by cutting aid to several African countries, including Rwanda, which is still recovering from the genocide of the 1990s. Harper also failed to produce a comprehensive Americas strategy.
Stephen Harper refuses to recognize the evolving globalization of the world, placing Canada in an isolated position that has already damaged our international reputation and will continue to do so.
5. Hides the Truth
In a world where governments are moving towards transparency and openess, Harper is moving into the shadows of secrecy. In spite of promises of transparency and accountability when it first came to power in 2006, Harper’s government has deliberatedly slowed its responses to access-to-information requests and Canada is lagging far behind other developed economies in developing an open-data policy. While the United States, United Kindgdom, France, and Australia have opened governement information to the public, Harper and the Conservatives have closed the window to government.
Harper hides the truth from Canadians.
6. Wastes your Money
It seems odd that after a decade of Liberal leadership produced surplus after surplus, a supposedly “conservative” government has been spending so liberally!
Our decade of debt reduction? Gone. He squandered our surplus by increasing expeditures on fighter planes, security and prisons, along with reductions in corporate taxes. The conservatives spent over $1.1 billion on security for the G8 summit. Kevin Page, the Parliamentary Budget Officer, estimates the “Truth in Sentencing Law” will cost over $1 billion dollars over five years for prisons that experts say we don’t need.
Harper has reduced already competitive taxes for large corporations by an additional 3%, reducing revenues for government and allocating more money to investors on Bay Street.
Stephen Harper then proceeded to make major cuts to science, arts, and social services to mask his wild spending.
- Source: Harper government blew money on G8 Summit without regard for use
- Source: F-35 costs soar – CBC News
1. Il se moque du parlement.
Harper pense qu’il est le roi du Canada. Il a prorogé le parlement à deux reprises avec pour seul but de détourner l’attention des échecs de son gouvernement. Quatre responsables conservateurs ont été accusés d’excéder délibérément leur budget de dépenses autorisées pour la campagne de 2006. La ministre de la coopération internationale, Bev Oda, a falsifié un document officiel et a ensuite renié son implication devant les députés. Stephen Harper a manqué 43% de tous les votes à la Chambre des communes. Le commissaire à l’«intégrité» nommé par Harper a reçu 228 plaintes reliées à des abus et n’en a pas étudié une seule. Harper a muselé le service public, refusé de transmettre des documents au parlement, et a demandé aux Conservateurs d’interrompre des comités parlementaires.
De plus, le gouvernement Harper a ajouté «Gouvernement Harper» aux lettres à en-tête officielles du gouvernement du Canada, qui ont été ensuite utilisées pour des levées de fonds du Parti conservateur. Ils ont également utilisé des comptes Twitter liés au Parti conservateur pour annoncer des visites officielles du gouvernement.
Les changements radicaux à la procédure parlementaire et le mépris complet des règles électorales donnent au régime de M. Harper une allure plus radicale que conservatrice. En réduisant la période des questions de la Chambre des communes à un carnaval conflictuel où les députés et membres du cabinet échangent des insultes devant les médias, le Premier ministre a transformé un pays raisonnable et respecté en une nuisance embarrassante sur la scène mondiale.
Stephen Harper n’a aucun respect pour l’intégrité du gouvernement et les institutions politiques du Canada.
2. Il se fiche de la science.
Harper a accru le financement des prisons malgré l’opposition des criminologues, des principaux groupes religieux et des scientifiques ; il a ignoré des années de recherche sur les méthodes efficaces de prévention du crime. Il n’a mis en application aucune loi environnementale significative, malgré le consensus de la communauté scientifique au sujet du changement climatique. Les Canadiens ont eu l’embarras de recevoir le «prix fossile» de l’inaction lors du Sommet des Nations-Unies sur le réchauffement climatique à Copenhague. Harper a unilatéralement supprimé le formulaire long du recensement malgré l’opposition massive de Statistique Canada, de la communauté d’affaires, de nombreux maires et de tous les premiers ministres des provinces.
Stephen Harper a licencié un haut responsable de la surveillance nucléaire après que celui-ci a émis des doutes sur la reprise des activités au réacteur nucléaire de Chalk River, en Ontario. Le role principal du réacteur est de produire des matériaux radioactifs utilisés pour traiter et diagnostiquer un grand nombre de maladies mortelles comme le cancer et les maladies du cœur. Il devait être remplacé par deux autres dont la construction a été annulée par le gouvernement Harper. Harper a supprimé le Bureau du conseiller national des sciences en 2008, retirant ainsi son poste au scientifique le plus haut placé du Canada, le seul qui ait une ligne de communication directe avec le bureau du Premier ministre.
3. Il ne défend pas les citoyens canadiens.
Le gouvernement Harper a dévalué la signification de la citoyenneté canadienne. Le gouvernement canadien a la responsabilité de protéger ses citoyens contre les actions illégales commises par d’autres pays. Le citoyen canadien Omar Khadr, capturé à l’âge de 15 ans, a été détenu dans la prison de Guantanamo (elle-même une institution questionnable en regard des lois internationales) pendant huit ans sans procès équitable. Le refus du gouvernement Harper de rapatrier M. Khadr contrevient à sa Charte des droits. Placé sur la liste des passagers interdits en vol, Abousfian Abdelrazik s’est vu refuser l’assistance du Canada et a été transferré à un gouvernement reconnu pour sa pratique de la torture et son manque de respect des droits humains. Qui sera le suivant ? Les enfants nés de parents canadiens à l’étranger n’ont plus accès à la citoyenneté. À une époque où la compétitivité dépend de la capacité d’attirer les meilleurs talents du monde pour bâtir l’économie la plus dynamique et innovante possible, le gouvernement Harper s’efforce de dévaluer la citoyenneté canadienne.
4. Sa politique étrangère est un désastre.
Pour la première fois dans l’histoire du Canada, nous avons échoué dans notre tentative d’obtenir un siège au Conseil de sécurité des Nations-Unies. Harper n’a pas réussi à négocier avec la Chine de façon respectable et cordiale, affectant ainsi nos relations avec la deuxième plus grande économie du monde. Il a compromis la position historiquement équilibrée du Canada concernant le Moyen-Orient, s’attirant la colère d’alliés et de partenaires commerciaux importants. Harper a prolongé la mission en Afghanistan sans consulter les citoyens canadiens, qui s’opposent pour la plupart à cette mission. Il a ignoré des décennies d’efforts canadiens en Afrique en supprimant l’aide aux pays africains incluant le Rwanda, qui se remet encore du génocide des années 1990. Harper n’est pas non plus parvenu à présenter une stratégie pour les Amériques.
Stephen Harper refuse de reconnaître l’évolution de la mondialisation, laissant le Canada dans une position d’isolement qui a déjà nui à sa réputation internationale et va continuer à le faire.
5. Il cache la vérité.
Tandis que les gouvernements du monde entier s’engagent vers la transparence et l’ouverture, Harper s’enfonce dans les ténèbres du secret. Au lieu des promesses de transparence et d’imputabilité faites lorsqu’il est arrivé au pouvoir en 2006, le gouvernement Harper a délibérément ralenti ses réponses aux demandes d’accès à l’information et le Canada recule par rapport aux autres pays développés dans l’établissement d’une politique d’accès public aux données. Alors que les États-Unis, la Grande-Bretagne, la France et l’Australie ont ouvert ces informations au public, Harper et les Conservateurs ont bloqué les fenêtres du gouvernement.
Harper cache la vérité aux Canadiens.
6. Il gaspille votre argent.
Après une décennie de leadership libéral qui a produit surplus après surplus, il est étrange qu’un gouvernement supposément «conservateur» dépense de façon aussi… libérale.
Notre décennie de réduction de la dette ? Partie en fumée. Il a gaspillé nos surplus en augmentant les dépenses sur les avions de combat, la sécurité et les prisons, en plus de réduire l’impôt des entreprises. Les Conservateurs ont dépensé plus de 1,1 milliard en sécurité pour Sommet du G8. Kevin Page, le Directeur parlementaire du budget, estime que la Loi sur l’adéquation de la peine et du crime va coûter plus d’un milliard de dollars sur cinq ans, pour des prisons dont les experts disent que nous n’avons pas besoin.
Harper a réduit de 3% l’impôt déjà peu élevé sur les grandes entreprises, réduisant ainsi les revenus du gouvernement tout en transférant plus d’argent aux investisseurs de Bay Street.
Stephen Harper a ensuite procédé à des coupures majeures dans la science, les arts et les services sociaux afin de masquer sa folie dépensière.
Finding breast tumours
Since I just wrote about my Boob Booth idea, i thought I would follow up with this interesting TED talk about breast tumours and better detection methods. Let’s just say it’s all about breast density.
Since I just wrote about my Boob Booth idea, i thought I would follow up with this interesting TED talk about breast tumours and better detection methods. Let’s just say it’s all about breast density.
Published on February 28, 2011Make your Girlfriend Happy – my side project
Relationships are complicated. For one, they rely first and foremost on your understanding of yourself, your needs, priorities and desires. Second, they rely on your ability intimately understand another human being with equally complex emotions, history and feelings. If humanity were given a grade for its romantic relationships, we would fail. Over half of marriages end in divorce and the vast majority of less formal relationships don’t work. To paraphrase Anna Karenina, “Happy couples are all alike, each unhappy couple is unique”. With that in mind, it seems like a service which promotes the commonalities of happy couples might help pull us towards a passing grade.
For one reason or another, I have kept this little side project off my blog. But alas, it has engulfed much of my time and is now receiving thousands of visitors a day. As with all projects, the idea has been growing over time. The original idea was born out of a discussion with some friends in Paris and was centred around a reminder service and mailing list for men in relationships. The next addition to the site was a registry type service where women can indicate their sizes and preferred brands for shoes, clothes, jewelery and lingerie along with secret wishes. We have been adding videos, tips, and games to the site with some ambitious plans for the year ahead. With Valentine’s day in just a couple of days away, maybe take this opportunity to think about how you can make your girlfriend or wife happy. Visit Makeyourigirlfriendhappy.com to see what all the hubbub is about.
Feel free to send comments and suggestions to me jbrun@jonathanbrun.com or, cyrano@makeyourgirlfriendhappy.com.
We’re on twitter too, click here to follow us.
Heck, we’re even on Facebook too, click here for that!
And, here I am introducing the site!
Published on February 12, 2011Racial data mapping is it good or bad?
In the states, they collect data on the racial make-up of the society and where they live. The image above is from the New York Times info-graphic based on US Census data, and each point represent 500 people. I am curious to know what you think of making this data available. My first question, is why don’t we collect this data in Canada?
Secondly, though I am a proponent that more information allows us to make better decisions, sometimes more information can hurt us or actually hurt a system. For example, to take a banal example, Facebook actively prohibits you from knowing who is looking at your profile. My guess is that they feel that were you to have this information, people’s relationships to each other would be negatively impacted – I tend to agree.
My question is, does making racial make-up publicly available (which is different from collecting it) help citizens. Or does, it further promote ghettoization of races into different neighbourhoods? I am not sure. Of course, immigrants naturally gravitate to specific neighbourhoods where they might have family and friends, but by making this information even more available, are we not encouraging this behaviour even more?
And, should we be making decisions based on race? Arguably, having this information allows the US to say “Blacks have less access to high quality schools” and therefore put in place programs, but should the question not be “People of a certain income distribution have less access to high quality schools”. What value is there in differentiating people by race? There are of course negatives – big ones.
While I realize that the data in the US is per 500 people, it still seems dangerous. Clearly identifying people or groups by race (or religion) can lead to very bad things. Whether it is Hutu/Tutsis or Muslim/Jewish or any other government-run categorization of people based on race or religion, there are downsides that potentially outweigh any upsides.
All in all, I think this is an interesting case of open-data and its merits. Should we collect this data? If so, should it be made public?
Published on January 9, 20114 free business ideas to start 2011 off
Here are 4 crazy ideas, let me know what you think.
Membership for restaurants
Restaurants have cash flow problems, patrons often hesitate to go out because of cost. How about a membership (or time-share) system for restaurants. You create a subscription for restaurants where you pay a monthly fee and get x number of meals (table d’hôte – fixed meny). This allows for restaurants to improve cash-flow and for patrons to go more often. There are supper clubs for hard-core foodies, bit this would be for the normal folk.
Justify
Government, like many large organizations, are wasteful. How about we create a website to list the budgets of different government institutions and ask people to vote if they think the budget is worth it. Each institution should have to justify itself in relation to its budget, purpose and impact. As anarchists say, we should constantly question why an institution with power exists and if it no longer lives up to its requests, the institution should be changed or scrapped. Right now, budgets are hard to visualize. Where and why tax payers money goes is a mystery to even the most hardened government official. With this website, the people coulees vote on whether or not they agree with the budget in proportion to the justification.
TED Talk of the Week
When TED started out, they put out 1-3 talks a week, now, there is close to 1 a day. Sadly, I am having a hard time keeping up. Concurrent to the increase in talks, there has been a decrease in consistency. You still have some amazing gems that rock your world, but many talks are now average. What if we set-up a very simple website that allowed people to vote on their favourite talk of the week and propose a winner. This would allow some filtering and perhaps make the real gems stand out.
Contests Aggregator
There is tons of free stuff out there to be had. Local papers often offer movie premiere tickets, raffles give away gift cards and other contests offer innumerable items. Many people, sometimes elderly, spend their time combing through the papers, applying and winning these items. How about we build a simple aggregator for contests for free trips, movie tickets and other items commonly offered by newspapers and promo companies are offered. The site would be membership based with a 15 day trial period.
Published on December 28, 2010