Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Tuesday, June 05, 2012

How do you spell the word tyranny? I spell it: HARPER

In another slick and precisely timed move the Harperites decided to derail the first meeting of the Parliamentary Committee looking into the environmental elements contained in the massive Bill C-38. This is the bill which is aimed at gutting objective environmental assessment in Canada and ensuring that environmental protection is a thing of the past. The three ministers made their appearance at the committee meeting without  giving adequate notice to the members of the committee or to the public that they would be in attendance.  They then proceeded to present three long winded statements that provided little clarification about the bill and successfully took all the time up that the opposition had, leaving barely 20 minutes to ask questions about the environmental implications and risks posed by such a massive change in direction regarding the government’s environmental policy.

When asked about the hide and seek approach to ministerial engagement in this issue they burbled on about how their presence was so important that they just could not but be there on the first day. Mr. Oliver the energy Minister opined that having the three ministers there,  “can provide a comprehensive view of all aspects of the bill,” he said, “and people have the opportunity to ask us about any of those aspects.” That is, if the long winded and repetative ministers had left any real time to be used by the opposition.

If they truly were seeking to help educate the citizens of Canada and respond to the legitimate concerns of the Members of Parliament they could have simply opened the floor to questions. They have the majority, they have total control, all they need to do, if they truly respect Parliament and the citizens of Canada is respond to the questions asked. But No! They did no such thing because that is not their strategy.

Their aim was to dominate the committee and derail the opposition. They have no interest in allowing Parliament to investigate and study this bill. They will continue to limit the opposition’s capacity to do their job, for which the opposition members were elected, and they will force Bill C-38 through, using every tyrannical tool they can find to ensure that their corporate agenda and ideological policies become the law of the land.

William Pitt once said, “Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.” What do we say to our friends and neighbours as daily the Parliament of Canada becomes debased and day by day dies a little more, bringing us step by step to an ultimate and  humiliating death. Are we so jaded and apathetic a populace that we cannot even see that a nation under such a cruel and oppressive government will inexorably lead to the servitude of its people?

As I watch the unfolding of events in Ottawa I see the opposition parties locked into a parliamentary party system which by its present structure has rendered them uncreative and ineffective. The changes in parliament over the last 30 years have diminished the role of Parliament to such a point that it no longer has the capacity to serve the interests of the common good. Parliament rather, has become the opposite of what it was meant to be: the forum wherein the needs and aspirations of all its citizens are expressed and llegitimized through the proposing of policies and legislation and the intentional and rigorous debating of the same with the aim of building up the Body Politic to the common good of all its citizens.

How sad and distressing it is to see the sham, the play acting that presently characterizes the statements and actions of the supposed Government of Canada. (It does not even deserve the name of government ) I thought that I was cynical and had seen too much in my life regarding politics and public posturing, but never in the over 40 years of following parliament have I seen this depth of depravity. In the last 12 months I have seen clearly  the rise of tyrranical policies and the application of such mind and state control that the people of Canada , unless they soon react, will find themselves not only slaves to  a corporate and political domination they never chose but they will experience the extinguishing of any of the hopes and dreams that they once had for a nation firmly based upon the foundations of compassion, justice and peace.

For God’s sake, for all of our sakes, wake-up Canada

Original Article
Source: thebishopsviews
Author: Dennis P Drainville

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