Harper looks beyond the fringe

Yes, it has been a few months since anything has been posted at this blog, but that does not mean the Department of Culture has disbanded. Oooooh no, it does not. Rumblings of yet another election are well underway, and we're all waiting for the big news, whenever it might arise.

In the meantime, Harper continues to play foul. Thank you to the Toronto Star and Antonia Zerbisias for posting this truly important and informative article!

Harper looks beyond the fringe by Antonia Zerbisias
Sep 11, 2009 04:30 AM
http://thestar.com/article/693897

I'm thinking of making T-shirts: "Proud to be a member of that `left-wing fringe group' called `Women.'"

They'd be pink, of course, for socialism – and also for the pink triangle, the badge the Nazis made gays and lesbians wear before shipping them off to the camps.

Thanks to Prime Minster Stephen Harper, those T-shirts will make me rich!

So props to you, P.M., for letting down your hair, and your guard, last week at that not-so-closed-door speech in Sault Ste. Marie.

Thank you for finally admitting that your government shut down the Court Challenges program in 2006 not just because, as then-Heritage Minister Bev Oda claim- ed in Parliament, you "recognize the importance of women" but because you believe that that women's rights are "left-wing fringe" rights.

Truth is, you only "recognize the importance" of some of the women some of the time. Members of fringe groups such as R.E.A.L. Women, which opposes women's rights and same-sex rights, plus just about everything that doesn't hew to the "family values" one-man, one-stay-at-home-woman and lots-of-babies fantasy.

But they are not "fringe" to you, Prime Minister. At least not judging from how everything your government attempts to do comes right out of R.E.A.L. Women's playbook. So thank you for, once again, opening that not-so-hidden agenda, the one that you would impose if you ever won a majority government.

The agenda that thinks women's work is not as valuable as men's.

The agenda that would treat lesbians and gays as less than equal.

The agenda that would curb the rights of people with disabilities.

The agenda that would discriminate on the basis of race and religion.

The agenda that would leave women without reproductive freedom.

That's because that Court Challenges program your government deemed "wasteful," was, according to its website, "a national non-profit organization which was set up in 1994 to provide financial assistance for important court cases that advance language and equality rights guaranteed under Canada's Constitution."

Not just "important" cases, but landmark cases, many fought by LEAF, the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund – a group clearly overrun by rabid fringe feminists.

They intervened in "left-wing fringe" court cases such as Torres v. Minto Management (2002), which prevented a landlord from increasing a single mother's rent by 41 per cent just because her husband had left the building.

Then there was the "left-wing fringe" case The Queen v. Keegstra (1990), which kept a Holocaust denier from teaching his anti- Semitic ideas to Alberta schoolchildren.

Or how about that "left-wing fringe" case Brooks v. Safeway (1989), which forced employers not to discriminate against pregnant staffers.

And here you are, Mr. Harper, such a champion of "childcare choices" that, last week, you boasted of your government's failure to create a single daycare space.

"We need to win a majority," you told your enthusiastic audience. "If we do not win a majority, this government will have a Liberal government propped up by the socialists and the separatists."

And later, you added: "Imagine how many left-wing ideologues they would be putting in the courts."

Frankly, I think more Canadians would find the alternative a scarier proposition.

Finally, thank you for revealing your nasty, petty and vindictive side, the one that you batten down when you know the cameras are on you.

Maybe, while you're scrapping the gun registry, you could start one for cellphone cameras so, next time, nobody in your audience can tape you, and then leak the videos to CBC.

So, anyway, I'm thinking of adding shimmy-shimmy-shake fringe to the T-shirts.

Rich! Rich I tell ya!

(Marketing types can contact me at my email address below.)

Antonia Zerbisias is a Living section columnist and feature writer. azerbisias@thestar.ca.

PROTEST HARPER AGENDA on Tues., May 19! , WINNIPEG

STEVEN HARPER IS COMING TO WINNIPEG: LET'S GIVE HIM A REAL WINNIPEG LABOUR WELCOME!

Host: WORKING PEOPLE DIDN'T CAUSE THIS CRISIS AND WE WON'T PAY FOR IT!
Date: Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Time: 5:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Location: Victoria Inn
Street: Wellington & Berry, near the airport
City/Town: Winnipeg, MB
Phone: 204.792.3371
Email: winnipeglabourdefenceleague@gmail.com

STEVEN HARPER IS COMING TO WINNIPEG: RALLY AGAINST THE HARPER GOVERNMENT, Tues., May 19th: Be There!

An injury to one is an injury to all!

winnipeglabourdefenceleague@gmail.com // 204- 792-3371

PROTEST on Tues., May 19! 5:30 p.m. @ Victoria Inn
(at Wellington & Berry, near the airport)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
BY RIPPING UP THE AUTO WORKERS COLLECTIVE AGREEMENTS in Ontario, the Harper government is declaring War on Labour rights across Canada. The Auto companies are getting bailed out, but the workers are getting shafted.

Workers died fighting for the Labour rights Harper is taking away, including in the Winnipeg General Strike ninety years ago, drowned in blood by the mounted police, terrorized into submission by midnight arrests and army patrols with machine guns.

The labour movement, the people who brought you the weekend, medicare and other rights, is under attack. It’s time to push back! Workers did not cause a single problem of the capitalist system, such as unemployment, war, racism, hunger, or the destruction of the earth. But right wing governments are forcing the workers to pay for the economic crisis. Billions of dollars are spent on the banks and wealthy, while workers are laid off, communities and families are destroyed, pensions disappear, children go to food banks.

No worker lives far from utter poverty and ruin. Many people were already in crisis before the recession, not helped by social programs gutted after decades of cuts.

These governments have turned Unemployment Insurance into a cruel joke for most. Youth, Aboriginals, women and immigrant workers pay premiums, but rarely get benefits.

We can be a doormat for the corporations and wealthy, divided by racism and sexism in a dying planet, sent to another war, crushed under the thumb of anti-Labour governments.

Or we can join the fight for decent jobs, universal unemployment insurance, and a better world! We need decent jobs for everyone and to lift the burden of the crisis from the backs of workers.

Almost 80 years ago, the Canadian Labour Defence League collected a petition with 100,000 names demanding unemployment insurance and started the fight that won. We need to follow that example and build the fight from the strengths we have today.

We need to unite as a class around a program of struggle for these goals. We need to build alliances and solidarity with workers and their families in Manitoba and across Canada and the world, wherever workers are being forced to pay for the problems of capitalism. Stephen Harper will be in Winnipeg soon. We need to have a
strong protest to show workers across Canada:

Winnipeg is in solidarity with the Auto workers whose collective agreements he is ripping up.

We need you and your family at the rally:

Tues, May 19, 5:30 p.m.
Victoria Inn (at Wellington & Berry, near the airport)

Bring friends! An injury to one is an injury to all!
Defend Labour rights against Harper’s reactionary government!

Winnipeg Labour Defence League
winnipeglabourdefenceleague@gmail.com
792-3371

Video of the November 15 Block Harper Rally in Winnipeg

Watch it here!

Tory views on women's rights perfectly clear

Reposted from: http://www.thestar.com/living/article/539189
Antonia Zerbisias, Toronto Star, November 19, 2008

Stephen Harper can put on all the warm and fuzzy sweaters he likes, smile and say soothing things to politically moderate Canadians but, every time his base speaks out, the Prime Minister's carefully crafted image begins to unravel.

This was evident during the Conservative national policy convention in Winnipeg last weekend, at least when it came to issues concerning women.

Passed were three policy resolutions that affect women, and their rights, and choices.

In ascending order of outrageousness, they are:

Resolution P-305 would allow for income splitting for families with children, which would ease the tax burden on the main earner and put more cash in the couple's pockets.

That means spouses – usually women – who don't work outside of the home for pay could also get some financial reward for their contributions to the family, assuming, of course, that they actually see some of the dough.

Now, on the surface, this is great.

Except for one thing: It discriminates against single-parent families, many of who struggle to make ends meet.

It also works more to the benefit of the rich than the middle classes. The more income that a couple can split, the bigger and better the tax break. And aren't non-working spouses dependents anyway?

What income splitting as official policy really says is, especially in the absence of a national daycare program, a woman's place is in the home.

Resolution P-213 should hardly come as a surprise to anybody following the Harper government's efforts to wipe out any and all support for women's rights.

The proposal eliminates support for full gender equality as well as equal pay for work of equal value.

Let me repeat that: It would eliminate support for full gender equality.

Oh it couches that in airy fairy speak, stating that the party is all for "the full participation of women in the social, economic, and cultural life of Canada." But the phrase "gender equality" was scrubbed and equal pay will only go for "equal work."

That means male parking lot attendants can continue to make more than female child care workers, even if the latter have university educations and are entrusted with your precious kid instead of your car.

Which says a lot about where the Cons stand on the issue of women's work and independence.

And, if you still don't get their agenda, consider what bloggers Dr. Dawg and Danielle Takacs both reported from the floor. At least one delegate objected to the resolution because women already have it "too good" and the proposal should have included men.

Last but, oh so very far from least, is Resolution P-207 which is all about, here we go again, protecting "unborn children" from violence.

Rewind to the eve of the last federal election when Harper pulled the plug on the controversial Bill C-484, the so-called "Unborn Victims of Crime Act" because it contained language that could lead to the definition of the fetus as a legal person.

Well, a similar bill could be back like the stink of skunk after the rain. According to Kady Malley of Maclean's, when one delegate got up to say that passing this would open the door to fetal rights, she was cheered. But, when the applause died down, she concluded that this was not a good thing. Which was when she was booed.

True, after the vote, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson told reporters Harper has publicly stated he has no intention of reopening the abortion debate. So why can't he close it in his own party ranks?

It's obvious that, whatever face Harper presents to Canadians, his dark grass roots will always be showing.

Antonia Zerbisias is a Living section columnist. azerbisias@thestar.ca. She blogs at thestar.blogs.com.

stealbackyourvote.org

The following video discusses interesting and important details concerning circumstances in the United States. However, given the new voter ID rules that were introduced here at home, the content is extremely relevant...


Steal Back Your Vote! from Greg Palast on Vimeo.

Food for Thought

Electoral Reform: My Mixed Proportional System
http://www.publicbroadcasting.ca/2008/10/electoral-reform-my-mixed-proportional.html
Posted: 20 Oct 2008 10:37 AM CDT

Since last Tuesday's election Electoral Reform has been the hottest topic in the country. there are discussions about it everywhere you turn. Still, some people have real problems with the idea of proportional representation. Many are concerned that it would lead to a parliament filled with tiny parties who's power in a coalition would vastly outweigh their popular support. Still others don't like the idea of losing their local MP, they want someone to call with local problems.

Having given this considerable thought over the last few years I think I have a solution to the problem that no one will love, but everyone will be able to live with and, in a democracy, that's usually a good sign. The system I propose is actually a combination of first past the post, preferential balloting and proportional representation. It also adds 100 new Members of Parliament (I can hear the groaning already - but democracy is important and it's worth it.)

Before I get to the voting system I'm suggesting I'd like to point out a few other changes I think are needed to make our democracy work outside of the voting system.

• First elections should be held on weekends, giving people a full 48 hours in which to cast their ballots
  
  
• The management of debates needs to be removed from the group known as 'the Consortium' and made a matter of law, enforced by the CRTC. Any party receiving over 5% of the popular vote in the previous election must be included in the debates and debates must be presented to receive the largest possible audience. They should be aired in 'prime time' on all licensed Canadian stations (television and radio), re-aired at least once on a weekend afternoon and made available in their entirety online.
  
  
• The power of the Prime Minister must be scaled back so as not to infringe on the democratic rights of other members of parliament. Ethics rules need to be put in place to prevent any disciplinary action by a political party when a Member of Parliament votes against party lines. Additionally, it should be considered a violation of ethics for any party to prevent an elected MP or party candidate from speaking publicly on any topic they choose or to punish a candidate or elected member for such speech.
  
  
• Local Riding associations should have the sole power to choose local Candidates. Under the system I'm about to suggest, party leaders will still be able to have their 'star candidates' in parliament
  
  
• Civics courses, including the workings of government and the importance of voting should be a part of every school curriculum and should be re-presented several times over a student's academic career.
  
  
• The voting age should be changed so that interested young people can participate in the system (this too I will cover in the plan I'm going to propose.)
  

The Plan

It's election weekend, you head down to your local polling station to vote. It works the same as it always has, even the ballot is the same.


The first thing that has changed is you no longer put an X in the box next to your candidates name, you put a "1". Under this new system the need for 'Strategic Voting' is gone so choose the party you really, really like - what is most important in this election is which party gets that "1".

Now, having done that you pick the candidate who you would vote for if you couldn't have your first choice and you put a "2", then you pick the candidate (if any) you like best after that and put a "3".

You're done. That's all you need to do, the rest is vote vote counters.


Counting the Votes

In each riding the ballots are counted, initially they just look at the "1" and come up with a total for votes. If none of the candidates has 50%+1 of the votes, they set this original number aside (because it's important again later). The vote counters now take the top two from the first count, and go back to the ballots for other candidates. For ballots where the "1" vote was for a candidate outside the top 2, they count the "2" votes then re-total the numbers. If one of the top two candidates now has 50% + 1 of the votes they are declared the winner. If they do not have a majority though the vote counters once again return to the ballots. Looking at only the ballots where neither of the two top contenders was "1" or "2" they now count the threes. The candidate who is ahead at this point (50% or not) is declared the winner. That person is the candidate that most of the voters in the riding at least found acceptable, even if he or she wasn't their first choice.

Now that that's done the totals from that first ballot are brought back out. The "1" votes are the ones that will determine Federal funding for parties, they will also, in part, determine the proportional seats. I say in part because there are more votes to add here. While voters 18+ were voting for their local MP, High School students were also voting. In an effort to empower them and get them in the habit of voting they were casting 'party only' ballots - that is they were voting for which of the federal parties they liked the best. These votes are added to the "1" votes nationwide and a total emerges.

Let's pretend that the numbers were like last tuesdays vote totals:

------------------
Conservative 37.63%
Liberal 26.24%
NDP 18.2%
BQ 9.97%
Green 6.8%
------------------

The proportional seats are awarded based on percentage of the vote 1 seat per 1% rounded up (but a party would have to receive at least 1% to get a seat). So the Conservatives would receive an additional 38 members, the Liberals 26, the NDP 18, the Bloc 10 and the Greens 7. These 'at large' members would be appointed by the party and could be used to return members not elected to parliament, to fill gaps in representation (regional, minority etc), to fill gaps in expertise or to bring in those 'star candidates' I mentioned.

This is not, as I said, a perfect system. It doesn't give everyone what they want, but it does answer everyone's concerns - it insures that parties with public support get a voice in parliament, it provides an opportunity for minority voters (Conservatives in Toronto, Liberals in Red Deer etc) to be represented in party caucus', but at the same time it does not give undue power to small extreme parties and it allows people to retain local, riding level, representation in parliament.

Messages from Allies

Election resources on women's equality from CWHN

Federal Election 2008 - Bringing Women's Voices and Concerns to the National Table

CWHN is highlighting resources created by other non-governmental organizations for this federal election. See our website for details:

http://www.cwhn.ca/indexeng.html

Issues that are important to women are important to the country. Remember, on October 14th, exercise your right to vote!

Ellen Reynolds
Director of Communications/Directrice des communications
Canadian Women’s Health Network/Le Réseau canadien pour la santé des femmes
203 – 419 Ave Graham
Winnipeg, MB R3C 0M3
Cell: 250-208-4889
Fax/Téléc: 204-989-2355
news@cwhn.ca // www.cwhn.ca

Labour and social movements have made a difference!

Reposted from: Rabble.ca, Thurs Oct 9

Labour and social movements have made a difference
By Fred Wilson

There is one very strong conclusion to draw from Canada’s five election campaign. Don’t draw any conclusions yet.

The trend is now negative for Harper, and positive for Liberals and the NDP. How far that trend goes by Tuesday is simply unpredictable, but this in itself is the excitement of these last days.

Three weeks ago when it looked like Harper would sweep Quebec, I suggested that we could only put our hope in the Quebec labour and social movements. They have delivered, and brought the country back from the edge of an abyss. A sweetener from Quebec is the imminent defeat of Jean-Pierre Blackburn in Saguenay – the Conservative Labour Minister who could not be more anti-labour.

In English Canada, my union has been better informed and more involved than in any recent election and I think that is largely true also for most of the major unions. PSAC was one of the first to turn the tide against Harper with its campaign on food safety. CUPE, Canada’s largest union, has met daily during the campaign to discuss how to strategically intervene with their membership on crucial issues. CUPE.ca today focuses on the war in Afghanistan and child care – two issues that have not dominated the party campaigns, but are vote determining for many people. The Canadian Labour Congress, which has been relatively quiet through the campaign while it focused on organization in priority ridings, is out today in 49 Canadian newspapers with labour’s political ads on health care, manufacturing jobs and forestry.

Other social movements have also stepped up and delivered as never before. The arts community has been passionate, articulate and remarkably effective. Harper’s attempt to scapegoat artists turned into a Conservative fiasco that is already part of Canadian election lore. One more initiative on the cultural front this week was a joint effort by CEP, ACTRA and the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting on the issue of Canadian ownership of media with ads strategically placed across the country. You can check it out at friends.ca or keepitcanadian.ca.

The grim and frightening prospect that loomed over us a month ago seems to be giving way to opportunity. Inevitably, “the ABC campaign” will favour both Liberals and New Democrats depending on the local scene. Elizabeth May seemed to accept that in her comments Wednesday.

Few will spend the long weekend paying attention to the frenetic closing gambits of the campaigns. It is now about organization on the ground, and word of mouth. Undecided numbers are in the 20-25% range, and a large percentage of those will decide with the ballot in their hand. Herein is the potential for the anti-Harper trend to turn into a wave. It should also be the motivation for progressives to be focused and purposeful, knowing that what we have done in our organizations and as individuals, and what we do over the long weekend and on Tuesday, makes a difference.

Open Letter from Canadian Economists on the Current Economic Crisis and the Appropriate Government Response

Reposted from an e-newsletter circulated by the CCPA

The deepening global financial crisis, the decline in world commodity prices, and the growing possibility of global recession are exposing worrisome weaknesses in Canada’s economy. Complacent expressions of faith in our “fundamentals,” and other varieties of economic denial, will not protect Canadians from the coming storm.

Canada’s Economic Fundamentals are Anything but Strong

Macroeconomic performance has weakened dramatically since the current government came to power at the beginning of 2006. Economic growth has largely stalled. Productivity has declined. The recent expansion was largely propelled by high commodity prices and a housing bubble – both of which are now ending.

Labour markets have weakened, and employment is poised to decline further as the slowdown takes hold. Some sectors have already been badly hit. Over 300,000 jobs in manufacturing have been lost. Yet less than 40% of unemployed workers qualify for Employment Insurance benefits.

Excluding petroleum and minerals, our international trade performance has deteriorated. Incomes for corporations, governments, and some households have been inflated for a time by record global commodity prices. But over-reliance on resource extraction is not a sustainable basis for our future economic progress. Meanwhile, in large part as a consequence of this growing resource reliance, Canada has failed miserably to do its part in the urgent global effort to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

Although Canadian financial institutions did not engage as aggressively in risky practices as their U.S. counterparts, the Bank of Canada has already had to step in to provide many billions of dollars in short-term liquidity. Credit conditions in Canada are becoming more uncertain, restricted, and costly, and this will inevitably constrain spending and output in the months ahead.

Canadian households are more indebted than ever, with $1.25 of debt for every dollar of disposable income. Amid gloomy headlines, falling stock and housing prices, and precarious household finances, Canadians are starting to cut back on consumer spending.

Many Canadians did not benefit much during the good times: poverty rates in Canada did not meaningfully decline and real wages have hardly increased at all, even while corporate profits surged to all-time highs. But the prospect of recession now threatens all of us with hardship – whether we shared in the good times or not.

Crisis Demands an Active Government Response

The general approach of Canadian economic policy in recent years has been to reduce the scope of government (through tax cuts, deregulation, and privatization), ratify the growing resource orientation of Canada’s economy, and squander the chance to use revenue from the resource boom to enhance long-run productivity, prosperity, and stability. Some politicians wish to further reduce the size and influence of the public sector.

The dramatic events of recent weeks have destroyed the idea that markets are best left to their own, unregulated devices. The enormous costs of this complacency have been clearly demonstrated. Government and its institutions must now show leadership and play a more active role in stabilizing financial markets, stimulating real investment, and maintaining employment and incomes.

The spreading downturn in both the financial and the real sides of the economy is likely to undermine spending and employment levels in many regions and sectors of Canada’s economy. Income support measures, employment insurance in particular, should be strengthened. In addition, public infrastructure projects, including those aimed at reducing Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions and expanding affordable housing, should be ramped up to maintain employment and production (as private-sector activity declines).

The federal budget is narrowly balanced, and may slip into deficit (especially if real GDP begins to decline). The current government has pledged to prevent such a deficit at all costs, and this will mean significant cuts to public spending as the budget balance deteriorates. But that course of action would worsen the economic downturn and job losses. It is far better to maintain public programs to support employment and incomes, even at the cost of a cyclical deficit.

The Bank of Canada must continue to support the financial industry with liquidity, and should reduce interest rates to stimulate borrowing. But the government must also explore other avenues (including the use of public institutions, like the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the Business Development Bank of Canada, Export Development Canada, and other conduits) to expand lending to households and businesses. At the same time, the financial industry must be re-regulated to prevent the unproductive speculative excesses that caused the current crisis.

The global economy is heading into a challenging, dangerous period – perhaps the worst crisis since the 1930s. Canada cannot expect to be immune from those global developments. Economic history teaches us that government intervention is essential in times of crisis: both to stabilize markets and to shorten downturns with counter-cyclical measures.

Signed by: 85 economists
http://www.progressive-economics.ca/2008/10/07/open-letter/
--
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
410-75 Albert Street, Ottawa, ON K1P 5E7
tel: 613-563-1341 fax: 613-233-1458
email: info@policyalternatives.ca
http://www.policyalternatives.ca

Harper's attacks on women's rights

Women have reason to fear another Harper government.
by Linda Silver Dranoff, Tuesday, October 07, 2008
http://www.straightgoods.ca/ViewFeature8.cfm?REF=522

Women have a lot to fear from a Harper government, whether he gets a majority or a minority. The polls show that in battleground ridings across Canada, the Conservative party leads among women voters. How can this be? How can we have forgotten?

Just because Harper's stylists and public relations advisors have tried to soften Harper's tough image by putting smiles on his face and sweaters on his back does not change the fact that women's interests have suffered at the hands of Stephen Harper and his government's misguided policies in the two years since he has been Prime Minister. Everything he has done indicates that women's interests will continue to suffer if he is re-elected.

Soon after taking office, Harper broke the promise he made during the 2006 election campaign to "take concrete and immediate measures... to ensure that Canada fully upholds its commitments to women." By a simple stroke of the pen (and without parliamentary involvement), he removed "the pursuit of equality" from the mandate of Status of Women Canada (SWC).

Before that, SWC's role was to protect the equality interests of women in government policies and programs. Harper ruled that SWC could no longer fund any organization that did research, advocacy or lobbying to promote women's equality. Then he financially crippled their ability to do the part of the job he had not excised, by cutting $5 million from a $13 million budget.

Twelve of the agency's 16 regional offices were closed. Any available funding was short-term and for projects; there was no core funding and no funding for administrative costs.

Many organizations lost their financial underpinnings. Because advocacy was no longer eligible, the National Association of Women and the Law was a casualty. For more than 30 years, NAWL's lawyers did advocacy and research to support legal improvements for women. Under Harper's government, it had to close its office and terminate its paid staff.

The Court Challenges program, in place since the early 1980's, was another fatality. This program subsidized test cases to interpret and clarify the1982 Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It financed some of the work of the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund ("LEAF"), founded in 1985, which has intervened in over 150 constitutional equality cases on a wide range of issues including violence against women, sexual assault, workplace inequities, socio-economic rights and reproductive freedoms.

LEAF's goal is to ensure that the law guarantees substantive equality for all women in Canada. It now relies on donations.

The Women's Future Fund closed, another victim of the 2006 government funding cuts. The WFF had raised money for national women's organizations that fostered equality rights for women and girls, like the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies, National Congress of Black Women Foundation, and the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women.

Then there's childcare. Women have sought for thirty years to establish a universal and accessible childcare plan with substantial government funding to ensure that as many Canadian children as possible have access to safe and regulated programs. Under the previous government, all the provinces and the federal government had agreed to a major initiative, by which more childcare centres would be built and financially supported.

One of the first things Stephen Harper did when he took office was to summarily and unilaterally terminate the program. There was no parliamentary vote; there was only executive fiat. Harper's choice to make a limited cash payment to select families did not provide any daycare spaces (much less a national system) to care for children. You can't buy daycare services for $100 a month.

Stephen Harper slashed or terminated funding to the organizations that were vigilant on women's behalf. He made these funding cuts to equality-seeking women's groups and to women's programs apparently for ideological reasons. He wasn't facing a deficit when he did it; he was rolling in the bountiful surplus inherited from the previous Liberal government.

In only two years, the Harper government has done a great deal to dismantle major advances won by the women's movement, working with woman-friendly governments, over the previous 30 years — advances such as family law reform, pay equity, maternity and parental leave benefits, modest improvements to childcare programs, domestic violence programs and much more. Important, respected and effective programs have been crippled and then shut down.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade website still tells the world that, "Canada is a world leader in the promotion and protection of women's rights and gender equality." Ironically, the main link on that page leads to a 404 — File Not Found. And that is exactly what is likely to happen to women's rights if the Conservatives manage to form the government again.

Linda Silver Dranoff is a Toronto lawyer and author of Every Canadian's Guide to the Law. She spearheaded the lobby effort for family law reform and is a former vice-chair of the Ontario Status of Women Council.

Bad Dates With Stephen Harper - Pamela Sinha

Five Things You Need to Know About Harper and Human Rights

CCPA's national office recently released the book: The Harper Record. This book is a comprehensive analysis of the Conservative minority government to date. You can download this book as a PDF file off the CCPA website.

CCPA-Manitoba will be releasing a series of Federal Election Fast Facts called: Five Things You Need to Know About Harper and……..(various topics). The Fast Facts are quick summaries of some of the topics covered in the book such as crime, childcare, civil rights, women, the environment and energy, water, governance and privatization.

Today's Election Fast Facts deals with Stephen Harper's record on human rights - the other topics will be released prior to the election.

ONE:
The United Nations General Assembly last June voted 143 to 4 (with 11 abstentions) in favour of adopting the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Canada was one of the four countries that voted against it. Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl said Canada didn't support the Declaration because it was "fundamentally flawed...[and] incompatible with Canada's constitutional framework." It was also rejected, he said, because it failed to recognize Canada's "need to balance indigenous rights to land and resources with the rights of others." His excuse reflected the concerns and priorities of a government strongly committed to resource exploitation and corporate interests.

TWO:
Canada is the only developed democracy that has permitted one of its citizens – Omar Khadr -- to remain incarcerated in the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, where he has been subjected to torture and other harsh treatment. His detention there violates both Canadian and international human rights laws, but the Harper government has consistently refused to make any effort to bring him home. Khadr was a teenager when first imprisoned by the Americans, and child soldiers are entitled under international law to due protection and rehabilitation, not incarceration. The UN's Special Representative for Children in Armed Conflict has publicly deplored Harper's decision to leave Khadr at Guantamano.

THREE:
While former Canadian Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbour served as the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights, she won praise from many countries and NGOs for her diligence in exposing and condemning human rights violations. She was chief prosecutor in the trial of Serbian leader Slobadan Milosevic for war crimes and secured his indictment. But her outspoken criticism of UN member countries' infringements of human rights, including the use of torture by the U.S. military in Iraq and Guantanamo, drew fire from the Bush administration, and also, shockingly, from the Harper government. When she finished her term as Commissioner, the Harper government was called upon to publicly thank her and salute her record as a defender of human rights. Instead, in the House of Commons, former Justice Minister Vic Toews castigated Arbour and went so far as to call her "a disgrace."

FOUR:
Canada was one of the first countries to sign and ratify the UN Convention Against Torture, in 1987. But Canada's commitment to the treaty came under question when several Canadian citizens, including Maher Arar, underwent torture in foreign jails, evidently with Canadian complicity. Following the Arar Inquiry, the Harper Government issued a manual to Canadian diplomats on how to recognize and oppose the use of torture. It listed several countries that had been found guilty of torture, including the U.S. The manual drew praise from Amnesty International and other human rights advocates, but when the U.S. protested, the Harper government quickly apologized and promised that the manual would be revised to remove the U.S. from its list of nations that torture captives.

FIVE:
Many of the "security" measures introduced by the federal government under pressure from the U.S. after 9/11 have expanded state power at the expense of citizens' rights and freedoms and the rule of law. One of the most offensive is the No-Fly List introduced by the Harper government in 2007. It violates several sections of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, including mobility, due process, and equality rights, and the right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. People are put on the list with no prior notice or opportunity for a hearing to learn about and answer the allegations against them. The ban on their flying could impair their ability to earn a living. For them, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms offers no protection or recourse.


Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-MB
309-323 Portage Ave Winnipeg, MB R3B 2C1
ph: (204) 927-3200 // fax: (204) 927-3201 // www.policyalternatives.ca
CAW Local 567

Messages from Allies

A message from Right to Housing

Right to Housing
Housing for all is a human right.

Winnipeg, MB September 26, 2008

Social Housing: the Key to Ending Homelessness

We need a Federal Government committed to housing low income Canadians

Canada has signed United Nations agreements to ensure adequate housing as a basic human right that must be available to all. Over the past decade the commitment by the Federal Government to put this human right to housing into practice has been significantly eroded. Many Canadians face impossible obstacles as they try to house themselves.

Don't be fooled. Recently the Federal Government announced a five year commitment to continue funding their existing housing programs (the Affordable Housing Initiative, Homelessness Partnering Strategy, and Residential Rehabilitation Assistance Program). Welcome as this announcement is, these programs have not created nearly enough new housing units. Ironically, existing policies that provide money to improve and repair existing neighbourhoods raise the cost of housing, resulting in the displacement of the poor and the creation of homelessness. Such programs must also provide social housing (where rent is geared to income) for those who are being displaced.

The Need

Social housing is not sufficiently valued by government and has been allowed to deteriorate and lag far behind the need. In 1994 the federal government stopped funding new social housing construction. Since then federal housing programs have been short-term and underfunded, and have often created or maintained housing that is not accessible to those who need it the most.

As housing costs increase and income and welfare benefits stagnate, the housing crisis and need for social housing grows.

People are forced to spend food money on rent, making personal debt, panhandling and food banks sad necessities for survival.

Aboriginal housing agencies have waiting lists with thousands of families and individuals on and off reserve. Canada is in violation of its treaty obligations to house First Nations Peoples.

Housing for new Canadians, seniors in poverty, and people with physical or mental disabilities who have special housing needs is grossly insufficient.

The Solution

Social Housing is a key to Make Poverty History in Canada

1. Long term funding for a national housing strategy

Re-establish the Federal Government and Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) as leaders in housing Canadians by committing to the 30,000 social housing units (rent geared to income) per year required to meet the need, in cooperation with the provinces, cities and nonprofit sector.1

Set targets and strategies specific to the unique needs of Aboriginal peoples on and off reserve, new Canadians, seniors and people with disabilities.

2. Stop paying down the deficit on the backs of the homeless

Redirect CMHC’s $4.6 billion surplus from reducing the national deficit to reinvesting it in the capital costs of new social housing.

CMHC must continue to pay operating and rent subsidy costs after mortgages on existing social housing units are paid off.

3. Use the empty houses on the Kapyong military base

The empty Kapyong base houses along Kenaston Boulevard should be used as transitional housing for new Canadians and Aboriginal people new to the city.

It has cost taxpayers $1.5 million per year for the last four years to keep 120 houses empty and heated. Use them to house people on housing waiting lists!

About Right to Housing

Right to Housing is a Winnipeg-based coalition that brings together 30 organizations and over 120 individuals to address the chronic need for social housing, where rent is geared to income.

Coalition supporters work together to promote, advocate and lobby for safe, quality and social housing and housing policy solutions on a local, provincial and national level as part of a comprehensive strategy to eliminate poverty.

Right to Housing meets regularly. We are committed to achieving our goals by working cooperatively, respectfully and inclusively. Contact us if you would like more information, to attend a coalition meeting, or to support Right to Housing.

www.righttohousing.ca
info@righttohousing.ca

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1“Addressing core need starts with adding 30,000 new affordable homes annually”. Canadian Housing and Rehabilitation Association, Federal Election Tool Kit.

Tell us what ya really think, Harper n' Co.!

Milena says: "I just found these quotes kickin' around in a folder on my hard drive from the last election. Sure, they're old, and there have been more shockingly ignorant commentary since, but let's not forget these ones, as well. Anyone interested in adding to this list?"

I would expect the support of the party no matter what happens... even if I were to kill my grandmother with an axe.
- Stockwell Day (while leader of the Alliance, according to various MPs), June 2001.

"I want to know how many women in Alberta are physically battered and not just insulted by their husbands... If we talk insulted by their husbands, then I'm afraid that I'm guilty from time to time of abusing my wife."
- Stockwell Day (disputing a poll indicating one million women had been abused physically, emotionally, sexually or economically) 1987.

As a Christian, I acknowledge the lordship of Jesus Christ over the whole universe ... I believe that the Bible is the infallible word of God and every word in it, cover to cover, is true.
- Stockwell Day, 1998.

The establishment came down with a constitutional package which they put to a national referendum. The package included distinct society status for Quebec and some other changes, including some that would just horrify you, putting universal Medicare in our constitution, and feminist rights, and a whole bunch of other things.
- Conservative leader Stephen Harper, then vice-president of the National Citizens Coalition, Montreal meeting of the Council for National Policy (a right-wing American think tank), June 1997.

If you've read any of the official propagandas, you've come over the border and entered a bilingual country. In this particular city, Montreal, you may well get that impression. But this city is extremely atypical of this country... So it's basically an English-speaking country, just as English-speaking as, I would guess, the northern part of the United States.
- Conservative leader Stephen Harper, then vice-president of the National Citizens Coalition, Montreal meeting of the Council for National Policy (a right-wing American think tank), June 1997.

For taxpayers, however, it’s a rip-off. And it has nothing to do with gender. Both men and women taxpayers will pay additional money to both men and women in the civil service. That’s why the federal government should scrap its ridiculous pay equity law.
- Stephen Harper on pay equity, NCC Overview, Fall 1998.

I don't know all the facts on Iraq, but I think we should work closely with the Americans.
- Stephen Harper, Report Newsmagazine, March 25th 2002.

It's past time the feds scrapped the Canada Health Act.
- Stephen Harper, then Vice-President of the National Citizens Coalition, 1997.