Fougere CoA

Bob's WebPage

Federal Issues
List of problems created by Harper and Co
  • Discrimination against women:
    • i.e. funding cuts for many women's initiatives,
      • shut down 12 out of 16 Status of Women offices
      • the National Association of Women eliminated
    • banning the niqab, and
    • the fact that Canada has one of the largest gender pay gaps in the developed world.
  • Bill C-51
    • I think the omnibus nature of this bill has compromised our basic freedoms ( freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom to protest, and perhaps freedom to gather in large crowds).
    • All that in the name of public safety (protection from terrorist attacks).
    • Please ask yourself:
      • Is that too high a price?
      • Doesn't that remind you of Nazi Germany, Maoist China or Mussolini's Italy?
    • And now, Aug. 9, he announces that, if he is elected, we will not be allowed to go anywhere in the world that we may want to (if the destination is determined to be, by big brotner, too dangerous)!
      • more of the same?
  • The F35 debacle
    • Original budget $16B; government low-balled cost by more than $12B.
    • After this debacle - it looks like this purchase is off the table?
      • Can someone help? Is this deal a go or not?
  • Gay rights
    • Funding cuts to programs (seems anything that has GLBT or any part of that in its title.)
  • Gender equality
  • Robocalls -
    • A deliberate attempt to prevent voters from casting their ballots during the 2011 federal election- "Pierre Poutine"
    • Michael Sona, a low level staffer in the party organization, was thrown under the bus and that was the end of it.
      • In fact there is no way that someone at that level could have the authority to spend that kind of money and set up such a sophisticated system without the support of his superiors...
  • Foreign affairs
    • The diplomatic Service has been decimated
    • Canadian Diplomat Richard Colvin said in 2009 'We detained, and handed over for severe torture, a lot of innocent people.'
  • War on Science (the death of evidence)1
    • Arbitrary closing of the Experimental Lakes Area Research Facility
    • Libraries closed and rare collections were dumped in landfills.2
    • ...Scientist(s) forbidden from giving interviews...and official 'minders' monitored scientists at an international event.3
    • "...the professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada... (did) ... a survey ... in which 90% of 4,000 federal scientists... said they were being muzzled."4
    • "People (are) bound to lose their way in the fantasy world of the Harper government where propaganda (is) substituted for fact." (Dr. Arne Mooers)5
    • I ask...'What about evidence based policy?'
  • Tough on Crime!
    • The prison System
      • Has been compromised - was considered number 1 in the world now at number 16.
      • Cost has doubled
    • Omar Khadr
      • Why are they challenging his right to bail? (May 2015)
    • 54 per cent walked out of federal prisons at their statutory release date rather than being on parole earlier in their sentence. (AG Report 2015) 6
    • Prison farms closed:
      • "There (was) one in each of B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick, and two in Ontario. But now the entire program is ... shut down... " (2010)
      • WHY?
    • Even though crime rates have been falling for a decade!
  • The court system:
    • After having many of their (his) decisions reversed because they were not legitimate in the eyes of the law and/or the constitution they (he) are doing what they can to undermine the legitimacy of the courts.
    • they are trying to diminish the significance of one of the cornerstones of our democracy. (our democracy in in danger!)
  • Changes to Health care transfer payments:

    Total lack of consideration for the reality of our demographics...

    How can this be rationalized?

    Read more...

     

  • Harper was cited for contempt of Parliament for withholding details of a proposed bill...
    • Public apathy is his greatest ally...
    • Sona said "...most voters are apathetic to the goings-on in Ottawa unless it involves one of two things: their wallets or their rights..." 7 Short of that everything will be ok. I tend to agree with him.
  • First Nations:
    • In the 2011 budget, the Harper government failed to allocate any new funding for drinking water on First Nations reserves. 100 First Nations communities currently have water advisories -
    • ...refused to sign the UN declaration designating clean water as a human right.
    • The Kelowna accord was a $5 billion breakthrough agreement to improve the quality of health and education for Canada's First Nation's Peoples. Harper cancelled it in 2006.
  • Long Form Census - eliminated!
    • ...so there goes more of the "evidence" for "evidence based policy" (decision making)!
  • Long Gun Registry eliminated and all associated records -

    • Why? - most police chiefs across the country found it to be a valuable resource.

    • In May of 2015 "...the Harper government moved...to make an unheralded change (hidden in an omnibus bill)...to the access to information law...retroactively...to exempt all records that may still exist back to the time the legislation to eliminate the registry was introduced in the house." 8  (Making it difficult to charge the RCMP for related criminal acts.) "...effectively alter(ing) history to make an old government bill come into force months before it was actually passed by Parliament." 8

    • “Information Commissioner Suzanne Legault, in a special report… called that a ‘perilous precedent’ that could be used by governments to retroactively rewrite laws on everything from spending scandals to electoral fraud.” 9

  • Under the Bus...
    • besides Michael Sona (above) how many other people were thrown away when it was convenient?
    • In 2008, Linda Keen, President of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, reported that the aging Chalk River nuclear facility was at risk... Harper quickly fired her.
  • Is democracy important?
    • Our democracy is being erode at its very foundation... (the 4 cornerstones)
      • Question Period does not elicit answers!
      • The Senate scandal
      • The Supreme court is being compromised
      • Preventing voters from casting their ballots (above)
    • Harper has shut down Parliament twice...
  • Infrastructure Spending
    • In Truro on May 15, 2015 Harper said that “…$150M (is) pegged for infrastructure in last month’s federal budget…to be completed by 2017 ”  That is hardly a drop in the ocean. Think about it; one kilometer of twinned highway would cost about $6 M10; that money would pay for about 25 Km – and that is for the whole country!
  • (Un)Fair Elections Act
    • Harper has called the election early
      • to stop preelection ads, and
      • allow a doubling of election expenses.
        • It is only the Conservative party that has that amount of money available to spend.
        • remember - 60% of these expenses, for all parties, will be reimbursed by the federal government (Or - We The Tax Payers).
      • (Looks like dirty pool to me!)
    • The rule also virtually eliminates third parties from advertising during the writ period.

 

 

AUDITOR GENERAL’S Report – Spring 2015

(click above for summary - more issues)

More issues identified...

 

 

1. Harris, Party of One, 143

2. Harris, Party of One, 154

3. Harris, Party of One, 157

4. Harris, Party of One, 150

5. Harris, Party of One, 152

6. "Save the prison farms," Tom Allen, CBC News, April 8, 2009

7. Harris, Party of One, 77

8. Police probe alleged illegal purge of gun data, Bruce Cheadle, The Canadian Press, News, Canada, The Chronicle Herald, May 20, 2015, P A10

9. Bill clears RCMP of potential charges, Michael Gorman, Provincial Report, The Chronicle Herald, Metro Edition, May 14, 2015, P1

10. Nova Scotia, Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal, Highway Construction FAQ, Point 3

 

UD Aug 7, 2015

 

 

 

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