My personal thanks to the doctor and medical student who spoke up on our behalf. Shame on our Canadian government. Shame on us Canadians that we are not more aware of this problem. Canadians are BETTER than the actions of our current government in power!
According to the YouTube clip info, the names of the doctor and medical student speaking up are Chris Keefer and Faria Kamal respectively. I applaud Chris and Faria’s brave protest, risking retribution from the Harper government and their hospital administration.
First of all, some people question why all the complains now and not 10 months ago right after the 2011 May 2nd federal election? Here is a possible simple answer, and I believe sometimes the simplest answer is the right answer. We Canadians are a trusting bunch of people. Many of us even if we had received one of the fraudulent robocalls, we might have not complained because we assumed it might have been just a one off “mistake”. It is often in hindsight and when we realized we are not alone, and in this case, many many other Canadians reporting experiencing the same problem, then the earlier “one off mistake” is proven to be a part of a deliberate and systemic campaign and that is fraud and not a “mistake”.
It is also important to note that the person/entity behind “Pierre Poutine” (2011 Voter suppression campaign) has to be found and bought to justice under our laws and the electoral complains have to be fully investigated. The foundation of our democracy is being attacked and it is up to us Canadians to stand up and defend Canada. Canadians will not accept American style dirty tricks in our election campaign.
I’ve called my MP to politely express my grave concern even the office staff rudely hung up on me before I had a chance to finish telling her my concern.
“The investigation currently underway at Elections Canada is reviewing whether there was an active campaign of robocalls to interfere with citizens’ right to vote. The calls on and before election day directed voters to non-existent polling stations, which opposition MPs have alleged was an active campaign of voter suppression.
“That’s not just illegal, it’s wrong,” said Ned Frank, a constitutional expert from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont. “What you have here, in my view, is a perversion of our electoral system.” Read the rest of this entry »
News from today across Canada. The election fraudsters “Pierre Poutine” are collectively giving major middle fingers to mock Election Canada and voters! Absolutely unacceptable.
Vancouver Sun, “Public faith in the 2011 vote is gone – judicial inquiry needed; Fraud a serious attack on parliamentary democracy; governor-general would be justified in forcing new federal election”
“Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s long-sought majority government rests upon 11 seats.
The key to his narrow 2011 victory was Ontario, where the Conservative Party finally breached a Liberal stronghold.
It was in crucial Ontario swing ridings where Conservatives won, often by razor-thin margins, that the government’s majority was decided.
And, it was in Ontario that evidence first surfaced of an apparently well-organized campaign of telephone calls which purported to be from Elections Canada and which told Liberal voters that their polling stations had been relocated and which directed them to bogus voting sites.”
“Elections Canada is failing in its mandate to thwart electoral scams and publicly hold fraudsters to account, the Ottawa-based advocacy group Democracy Watch said Tuesday, as the robocall scandal continued to shake the Harper government’s majority mandate. Read the rest of this entry »
Behind the Line (video viewable worldwide) is an insightful The Fifth Estate story,
“An investigation into sexual harassment allegations at the RCMP. The inside story of women who signed up to serve and protect and now claim Canada’s pre-eminent police force failed to protect them.“
Chilling stories. After watching the show, I am sickened to hear officier Robert F. Blundell (constable then) eventually admitted to sexual assaults of fellow female officiers in multiple cases was promoted over the years. And promoted to Staff Sergeant in 2002 while the lives and careers of the traumatized female officiers were wrecked.
“CBC News has learned that one of B.C.’s highest profile Mounties says she’s suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after years of sexual harassment.
Cpl. Catherine Galliford was the face of the B.C. RCMP for years. [...] But in an internal RCMP complaint, Galliford makes serious allegations about misconduct inside the RCMP. [...]
“Everything that came out of his [a supervisor's] mouth was sexual,” Galliford said. “If I had a dime for every time one of my bosses asked me to sit on his knee, I’d be on a yacht in the Bahamas right now.”"
Unless and until the earlier cases involving Staff Sergeant Robert F. Blundell were reopened and properly addressed and penalties handed out and accepted by the victims, AND unless & until Galliford’s allegations were properly handled and punishments handed out, why would any female Canadians want to join the RCMP? Any police force, especially RCMP, that is unwilling and unable to see its own mistakes re sexual harassment deserve no respect from ALL Canadians (female or male)!
At the end of the day, the bugs stop at the desks of RCMP Commissioner Robert Paulson and Prime Minister Stephen Harper. We Canadians own it to our female police officiers to sort out these mess!
“Prime Minister Stephen Harper must explain why “draconian” anti-terrorism measures that were scrapped in 2007 are once again necessary, opposition MPs said Wednesday.
“The prime minister has to explain to us why, if these measures are so important and so necessary, they were not in place for four years. Is the prime minister saying that for the last four, five years, we’ve been at risk? At greater risk because the measures have not been in place? I think he has to answer that question,” interim Liberal leader Bob Rae said.
Rae was reacting to Harper’s disclosure in an interview with CBC chief correspondent Peter Mansbridge that his Conservative government plans to bring back two controversial clauses of anti-terrorism legislation that were sunset in 2007.”
“In the decade since Sept. 11, 2001, there have been too many instances of security trumping rights even in democratic countries – most notably the use of torture, the establishment of a quasi-permanent detention camp at Guantanamo Bay and the practice of extraordinary rendition. Canada’s hands have not been clean; the stories of Maher Arar, Abousfian Abdelrazik and Omar Khadr – among others – show that the price of freedom is indeed eternal vigilance. Read the rest of this entry »
“The census story is a train wreck in slow motion; the latest car to pile on the flaming ruins is the recent report that Statistics Canada has resigned itself to accepting incomplete responses to the National Household Survey (NHS). [Kempton's note: Sadly, this first tran]
Many readers may have thought that the census issue was settled last summer; it wasn’t. We haven’t even begun to deal with the consequences of the decision to replace the mandatory long-form census with the voluntary NHS. As Economy Lab contributor Kevin Milligan and his UBC colleague David Green note in Canadian Public Policy, one of the most striking features of the census is its ‘hidden ubiquity’. [Kempton's note: Milligan & Green's research note is highly recommended reading. Download the free note and read.] The census is an invisible — and yet essential — element Read the rest of this entry »
Now that Prime Minister Stephen Harper has a majority government, I am very disappointed that this is what he decided to say in his first major address in Calgary since election night. Call me old school and “gentlemanly”, to me a majority government has the absolute power to pass any legislation it wishes to. Therefore a majority government should at least try to work with opposition parties. Why? Because the opposition parties’ MPs have been elected by our fellow Canadians and their voices deserved to be heard! Again, with a majority government, meaning there are enough Conservative MPs to win each and every single vote in the House of Commons, why not be gracious and try to foster a cooperative working environment in the House for a change?
Some of my friends and fellow Canadians love Harper and think he is a good leader. I beg to differ. With a majority government, we will now find out what kind of leader Harper is. For the sake of Canada, I hope he does a decent job and I am proved wrong. But I have my serious concerns based on the decisions he had made when he ran minority governments!
For the record, I am a proud Calgarian, I even live in Harper‘s riding, and I am not amused after watching Harper‘s Calgary address. So please don’t bash Calgarians or Albertans if you disagree with what Harper said.
I welcome reasoned and rational discussions and debates. Have a watch of Harper‘s Calgary address and decide for yourself.
“Stephen Harper is a bit like Alexander Keith’s beer — those who like him, like him a lot. More to the point, Mr. Harper’s supporters don’t like anyone who suggests the Conservative leader is fallible, such as the travelling news media. [...]
But it was during the press conference that followed the speech that the temperature rose. CBC Television’s Terry Milewski asked whether Mr. Harper would respect the Governor-General’s decision, if he called on a second-placed party to form government after a Conservative minority was brought down. The Prime Minister said he wasn’t going to speculate on what might happen after the election, despite the fact his whole campaign has been based on conjecture about what might happen post May 2. Mr. Milewski accused the Conservative leader of ducking the question and repeatedly asked him to answer. By this point, the assembled partisans felt it their duty to jump in for their man. “Shut down the CBC,” shouted one man. Another behind Mr. Harper was screaming, gesticulating and visibly upset. To be fair to Mr. Harper, he gestured for calm and maintained his composure. In days gone by, he would have responded to such a challenge by attacking the source.
Quite why the press conference needed to be held in front of a hostile crowd is not clear, unless it was an attempt to intimidate journalists. Other parties hold the presser in a separate room after the event.
Party spindoctors suggest Mr. Harper likes the visuals of being surrounded by supporters but it lends the appearance of a lynch mob when the inevitable happens. One suspects the visuals of this morning’s episode will be replayed on newscasts across the country and confirm many people’s impressions of the Conservative Party as the home of anger, intolerance and blind partisanship.”
“The new Pentagon report suggests Canada could pay up to $24 billion over 30 years to maintain 65 planes.
That’s even more than an estimate from Kevin Page, the parliamentary budget officer, who has said it would cost $19.5 billion to maintain the high-tech planes. [...]
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said Harper simply isn’t telling the truth when it comes to the costs of the fighter jets.
“And the thing that is so mendacious about what the government is doing is that they say to the Canadian people we can get you the plane at the right price. Let me tell you folks. Not even President Obama knows what the planes are going to cost. This thing is out of control.”“
Again, as I wrote before, I am not a fan of Ms. Helena Guergis (Wikipedia) but Prime Minister Stephen Harper has now been proven to step out of line and his and PMO’s inappropriate behaviour cannot be ignored.
I am not be a big fan of Ms. Helena Guergis (Wikipedia) but how her reputation was smeared and damaged by Prime Minister Stephen Harper is pure and simply wrong! I am shocked and ashamed of Harper and PMO’s total disregard of due process and justice, and covering things up by smearing of Ms. Guergis’ name.
“During the news conference, Guergis accused staff in Harper’s communications office of running a “destructive campaign” against her and perpetrating “false allegations” that damaged her reputation.
“Not only was it made to seem I was guilty of conduct that has never been disclosed to me — going against the very core of what our principles of justice are built on — the Prime Minister’s Office still made it seem as though I was guilty of something even after I had been proven innocent,” Guergis said.
“This of course is the worst kind of politics, the kind that Canadians abhor,” she said.”
For the record. In countries like Egypt, China, Iran, some people unforunately had to die in the process of trying to have their voices heard. In Canada, many people throw away their rights and privileges to vote because they think democracy is free and that their time is too valuable even if it is necessary to give legitimacy to their country’s governance.
“Conservative Leader Stephen Harper is apologizing to anyone who has been removed from his party’s campaign rallies, three days after the allegations first surfaced.”
“Cone of silence tightens on Tories
JOHN IBBITSON AND DANIEL LEBLANC
OTTAWA— From Friday’s Globe and Mail
Published Thursday, Apr. 07, 2011 9:45PM EDT
Last updated Thursday, Apr. 07, 2011 9:53PM EDT
Some Conservative candidates across Canada are emulating Stephen Harper’s tightly scripted election campaign by refusing to attend all-candidates debates or appear before the media. [Kempton: This is pathetic. Even candidates in the raked Legislative Council don't dare to skip all-candidates debates.]
The Conservative Leader has earned much criticism for avoiding unscripted forums, a practice that opponents are calling “a bubble campaign.” Even so, many local Conservative candidates, both incumbents and challengers, are adopting it as their game plan. Some other Tory candidates, however, say they are only too happy to joust with their opponents.
The phenomenon appears most pronounced in Alberta, where Conservatives hold every riding but one.
In Calgary East, Tory incumbent Deepak Obhrai has come under fire for being the only candidate not to respond to an invitation for an all-candidates debate on Tuesday.
“In the interest of the democratic process, your attendance as the incumbent MP is an absolute must,” campaign worker Aman Hayer wrote on behalf of Liberal candidate Josipa Petrunic. “ You owe it to your constituents.”
Calgary-Nose Hill Tory incumbent Diane Ablonczy has also indicated she may boycott any all-candidate forum. Read the rest of this entry »
Thanks Rick for adding yourpush to get the promised one-on-one harper Iggy debate (see below Twitter exchanges). And getting the youth (and Canadians of all ages) on Twitter interested and excited about the election.
“Prime Minister Stephen Harper is being accused of running his election campaign in a protective bubble, something reporters have been working to burst.“
You would think no Canadians should be blocked from following minister’s *public* policy announcements and *public* discussions/debates with Canadian journalists/citizens, right? Well, you would be wrong. I had to jump through hoops (very time consuming, if possible at all) in order to follow what is going on.
When the current Canadian government is charged of contempt of Parliament and will likely fail a confidence motion because of said contempt, I thought it is time for me to take my own democratic right more seriously. Democracy is not free, so I took some time to write and send in the following complain. I know my chance of seeing any positive changes is really small but sometimes one has to do what is right.
Here is an excerpt for the record.
To: Prime Minister Mr. Stephen Harper (Member of Parliament for Calgary SW)
cc: Heritage Minister Mr. James Moore
Opposition Party Leaders
Mr. Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal Heritage critic
Mr. Charlie Angus, NDP Heritage critic
March 24, 2011
Dear Mr. Harper,
I am writing you as a Canadian living in your Calgary SW riding. I hope you can promptly help me to restore my democratic right to be an informed citizen so that I can vote in an knowledgable manner.
Recently, ministers have been announcing important policy decisions on the social media platformTwitter and using Twitter for active debates and discussions with Canadian citizens and journalists. With a possible election coming soon, Minister James Moore‘s (note: new Twitter account, the letters “MP” have been expunged and _org added) discriminatory act of blocking me from following his Tweets (see background info below and attached files) has become impossible to ignore. Let me emphasize, Moore’s discriminatory act of blocking me on Twitter has become increasingly detrimental to my ability to exercise my democratic right and duty to be informed & engaged in public discussions/debates, and to stay informed on Canadian government policies when I vote in an election. Read the rest of this entry »
“In light of the testimony heard by the Committee on this matter referred to the Committee by the Speaker on March 9, 2011, the Committee concludes the following:
1) That the government has failed to produce the specific documents ordered to be produced by the Standing Committee on Finance and by the House;
2) That the government has not provided a reasonable excuse;
3) That the documents tabled in the House and in Committee do not satisfy the orders for production of documents; nor do they provide a reasonable excuse;
4) That this failure impedes the House in the performance of its functions; and
5) That the government’s failure to produce documents constitutes a contempt of Parliament.“
RT @emmgryner: OMG just got off the phone w @Cmdr_Hadfield who signed off saying "see ya when I get back to Earth"...and I got chills 1 week ago
RT @WilliamShatner: I watch @Cmdr_Hadfield 's Space Oddity video last night and I have 2 words for him: "SHOW OFF!" I'd even look good floa… 1 week ago
RT @emmgryner: I am going to bed blown away by all the feedback and love re @Cmdr_Hadfield's Space Oddity. So proud to be a part of it. Wow… 1 week ago
Posted by kempton 
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