Montreal Simon

Stephen Harper and the Hour of Darkness

2012-01-27T17:18:00.000-05:00

Well he said he wanted to change Canada beyond recognition, so I suppose nobody should be surprised.

Except he said that long ago, and during the last election campaign he posed as a moderate, so this is outrageous.

How dare that twisted little man interpret his mini-majority as a mandate to take Canada where most Canadians don't want to go?

How dare he drag us into a dark neo-con jungle, where Big Oil rules, the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, the young and the old are screwed. And anyone who opposes his reactionary views is labelled an Enemy of the State.

I could go on, but what's the point eh? I think I can safely say that I have done more than most to warn people where that monster might take them. If some Canadians still don't believe that the Harper Cons are the worst and most dangerous government in this country's history, NOTHING will ever convince them.

And the only thing worth discussing now, is how can we derail their fascist agenda, and how can we defeat them? For we must do both if this country is going to survive.

I'd like to think that the internet could play a leading role in mobilizing the resistance. But experience tells me it can't do that. It's too fragmented, too partisan, too distracted, and on most days too American. It can't lead, it can only follow.

So those who must lead are the ones we elected to do that job. And in this hour of darkness I call on the progressive parties to put aside their petty partisan differences, stop playing old politics, unite in a grand Coalition of National Salvation, and mobilize the population in a massive campaign of peaceful protest and civil disobedience.

For nothing less will stop those foul Cons, or prepare us better for the next election. Which we absolutely must win, or watch our beautiful country slowly bleed to death.

As Susan Riley writes in the Ottawa Citizen today we really have no other choice.

The alternative - waiting four more years for Conservatives to self-destruct - isn't a strategy. It's a confession of impotence.

And that's it eh? After all these lonely years of crying wolf, that's all I have to say.

Except now more than ever. If you love this country.

Fight them, fight them, fight them.

Don't let them win...

Newfoundland and Labrador Takes On the Bullies

2012-01-27T03:05:00.001-05:00

I must admit that I've always had a soft spot in my heart for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Maybe it's because when I was a boy I lived by the sea. On a coastline dotted with small fishing villages that were once so busy and then so still. Maybe it's because they were poor and other people made fun of them. Or maybe it's just because they are some of the warmest, friendliest, funniest people I have ever met.

But whatever...now I like them even more.

Newfoundland and Labrador's education department is set to announce plans to help schools across the province create safe, welcoming environments for gay students.

For standing up for bullied children, and sending out such a powerful message.

"While we are not mandating that schools establish gay-straight alliances, we are certainly encouraging it. This resource will assist schools to do so, if they wish. That said, I want to be clear that the protection and support of students of different sexual orientations is not negotiable..."

At a time when some school boards in Ontario are still sending out a different message.

The message is we still don’t truly acknowledge that you exist or that you need support,” she said. “This kind of move just reinforces isolation and that is the key concern“ of LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) youth.”

And can't seem to take NO BIGOTRY for an answer.

Hooray for the government of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Tell those religious fanatics in Ontario to take a hike eh?

Long live the Gay-Straight Alliance...

Stephen Harper's Horrible Day at Davos

2012-01-26T18:37:00.000-05:00

It was without a doubt the most grotesque spectacle the Davos Cozy Capitalist Club had ever seen. As they sat there in their ~~silk~~ leather pajamas watching Stephen Harper pose as an economist.

Bragging about the stability of our banking system, while forgetting to tell them that if it had been up to him and his Reform Con cowboys our banks would have been deregulated, and in worse shape than those in Europe or the United States.

Bragging about his job creation prowess even though the Canadian economy hasn't created any good jobs for the last six months. Despite all those juicy tax breaks for big corporations.

Lecturing the Europeans about their debt problems, when he turned a surplus into a massive structural deficit. And Canadians are drowning in household debt.

Ballooning household debt has made headlines in recent months, and Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney has warned it is the No. 1 domestic risk to Canada's economy.

At the mercy of a housing bubble that he helped create.

In the first half of this year (2008), as the subprime mortgage crisis was exploding in the United States, a contagion of U.S.-style lending practices quietly crossed the border and infected Canada's previously prudent mortgage regime.

And now there's no money for anything except prisons, and fancy jet planes. So what's his solution? Make the old work longer. So hopefully more will drop dead before ever collecting any money.

In December, the National Post reported that there was internal debate within the government about increasing the age of eligibility for the other major element of the public pension scheme - Old Age Security - from 65 to 67.

Make sure they build a pipeline to get Alberta's dirty oil to market, by intimidating their opponents, and sabotaging the process by appointing their friends.

The federal government disassociated itself on Thursday from an embarrassing official policy paper that said the country’s independent energy regulator, now studying a controversial oil pipeline, is in fact a government ally.

And of course, slash government to the bleeding bone.

The Conservative government is confirming what it’s been hinting at for weeks: Spending cuts in the upcoming federal budget could be twice as deep as Ottawa’s original target.

Because making Alberta rich and killing government is all they care about. Even if it drives the rest of the country into a recession.

Oh boy. To think that so many Canadians thought the Cons were good money managers.

Never were so many so dumb. Never was a Canadian government so corrupt and so foul.

And of course... Oink. Oink.

Never were the piggies so greedy...

h/t Dammit Janet!

Robbie Burns and the Progressive Beacon

2012-01-26T00:24:00.000-05:00

Well today was Robbie Burns Day, the most sacred day of the Old Scottish calendar. But I wasn't planning to write anything about it, until I saw this.

And then I felt I had no choice eh?

So I'll just repeat what I've said before.

I'm not one for the horrible haggis.

The offal in question is what was bobbing in the cauldron. It's organ meat – lamb kidneys, liver, hearts and lungs. Once they were darkly red, glistening specimens of varying texture: firm hearts; resilient, elastic kidneys; puffy, yielding lungs; glutinous liver. Soon, they would be simmered down and ground up.

Or the awful offal.

But I'm extremely proud of my Scottish heritage. And the Scottish in so many Canadians.

Proud of a country where some, in a reactionary world, are trying to create a progressive beacon.

An independent Scotland would champion the welfare state and health service, helping the centre-left in England revitalise itself and eventually topple the Tories and Liberal Democrats from power.

A country that believes in medicare, social services, and free university education.

Unlike Canada where medicare and social services are under assault, university education is becoming more and more expensive. And any glimmer of hope has long since turned to despair.

And since I hail from the rebel highlands, I'm quite sure Robbie Burns would agree with all of the above.

Because he was always sticking his finger up the nose of the establishment, he was an early supporter of the French Revolution.

And in this, his greatest poem, he calls for a new and better world.

Verse Five is a prayer that Sense and Worth shall eventually agree with all mankind. Burns imagines a future world in which all people will live as brothers, in mutual trust and respect. "It's coming yet, for a' that".

Dan Shields you sassenach coof...or Canadian goof.

May Paolo Nutini, the pride of Paisley and New Scotland, set you upon your way...

Here's to Robbie Burns.

Down with the offal Cons.

Up with rebels. And the Great Canadian Coalition.

Long live the Scottish Nation !!!

The Capitalist Pig and the Occupy Movement

2012-01-25T20:49:00.000-05:00

Golly. It looks like that fancy pajama party in Davos, has considered the state of the capitalist pig, and found its condition rather alarming.

For decades, this ritzy Swiss resort has hosted an annual celebration of capitalism where luxurious Audis ferry potentates and presidents between lavish hotels so they can bemoan the perils of socialism, high taxes and debt. And yet, this year, the veteran founder and Chairman of the Davos World Economic Forum, Professor Klaus Schwab, declares that "Capitalism, in its current form, no longer fits the world around us."

And is so shaken by the situation it's taking a page out of the Occupy movement. Just like Obama did last night.

For all the forced conviviality in the chamber, the most memorable parts of the speech were shaped not by shenanigans in Washington, but by the protests in the streets that have shifted the focus of the nation from debt and government-bashing to the enduring inequalities and inequities in American society.

Because they can see the writing on the wall, and the power of an idea whose time has come. Unlike Stephen Harper.

He's too busy blowing Big Oil, intimidating his opponents, trying to bust unions, turn us into a low wage economy.

Employment quality in Canada deteriorated last year as more people moved into self-employment and the composition of the labour market tilted towards lower-paying positions, a new report says.

And kill good jobs.

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives study, The Cuts Behind the Curtain, estimates that between 60,000 and 70,000 jobs could disappear across the country as departments implement the nearly $8 billion in spending cuts the Conservatives have introduced in three different cost-saving initiatives since coming to power.

Even though those kind of savage cuts will almost certainly drive us into a recession. Just like the savage cuts by the Cameron Cons have done to Britain.

So why is Harper doing this? Answer: Because not an economist. He's a ideological fanatic who is only interested in destroying government. At a time when even the Davos pajama party recognizes we need it more than EVER.

Because the capitalist pigs won't change themselves...

It's not in their nature.

Golly. You know when I look at that hog, I can't help thinking that we're going to be able to use the economy to destroy Stephen Harper and his foul Cons.

How ironic eh?

Some ideas really are too big to fail.

Thank you Occupy movement...

Stephen Harper and the Enemies of the State

2012-01-24T21:35:00.000-05:00

He has always been a bully. They say it gives him pleasure to see fear in the eyes of others. He has always treated his opponents like enemies to be destroyed.

Now as he turns this country into a sinister prison state, anyone who opposes him is an Enemy of Canada.

In a sworn affidavit released Tuesday to The Canadian Press, Andrew Frank says he was told by his supervisor at ForestEthics that a PMO official had referred to their organization as an "enemy of the state." The affidavit describes how staff were told their jobs were at risk after the official told Tides Canada, which supports the work of ForestEthics, that the government would "take down" all of the agency's projects unless it cut ForestEthics loose.

The masters of the Big Lie deny it. But who would believe anything they say, when their record speaks for itself?

The Harper government has cut funding for critics before. In December 2010, the Canadian International Development Agency turned down a funding application by the relief organization Kairos.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney initially told an Israeli audience the group had been cut off due to its anti-Israel stance — an assertion Kairos said was patently untrue. International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda contradicted Kenney, saying the group simply no longer met the criteria for CIDA's foreign aid priorities. But an internal memo later surfaced, signed by Oda and CIDA's top two officials, indicating that the agency had actually recommended Kairos's application be approved.

Remember Kairos. Remember how they savaged women's groups. Remember what they did to Rights and Democracy and its president poor decent Rémy Beauregard...

Who died of a heart attack after the Cons went after him like a pack of rabid wolves.

Rémy was my hero, and now so is Andrew Frank.

The events of the last month have ensured that I will never take my rights as a Canadian citizen for granted again. That is both sad and encouraging. Sad that I ever had to question them, and encouraging because I have been reminded of another lesson taught to me by my parents: the best way to stop a bully is to stand up to him.

Because those are the Canadians who fight for us ALL.

The pipeline process is now fatally flawed, and must be delayed until a full judicial inquiry can be held. For who knows how many groups are being blackmailed, but are too afraid to speak out?

But even more importantly, our democratic freedoms are now in mortal danger. For if these sinister prison Cons can declare their or Big Oil's opponents to be enemies of the state NOBODY is safe.

"When a government calls its own citizens enemies, you've lost your moral authority to govern."

I call on the NDP, the Liberals, the Greens, and all other progressives to join forces in a Coalition of National Salvation to fight and eventually defeat this foul regime.

You know, I wish I lived at a better time in Canadian history, so I would never have to write about Stephen Harper, because it depresses me so much.

But I know a bully when I see one. And I am haunted by this question.

They say it couldn't happen in Canada.

But what if it did?

Rob Ford: The Buffoon and the Opera

2012-01-24T10:32:00.000-05:00

I suppose it was inevitable. He was born to be a comedian. First it was Rob Ford the Mayor, then it was Rob Ford the Cannon Doll, now it's Rob Ford:The Opera.

Described as a “surrealist fantasy based loosely upon the personality of Toronto’s current and much discussed mayor,” Rob Ford: The Opera is a tragicomic tale about a man who is by turns bumbling, petulant, obtuse, delusional, lonely and ultimately doomed by those he has wronged.

I must say the synopsis sounds excellent. And I'm sure I would have loved the ending.

And then, seizing Atwood’s wings, Ford vanishes, never to be seen again.The only explanation given is that, like Icarus, he has flown too close to the sun. And a Brechtian moral is provided by Ford’s sadder-but-wiser parents: “A thief is a thief until he’s caught.”

But I don't know if I would have been able to laugh as loudly as the audience apparently did. Not when a buffoon is a buffoon, but he's still the Mayor of Toronto.

And I'm not sure that opera can capture the crassness of this vulgar millionaire. Who is threatening to lockout thousands of city workers.

Not because he has to do that to slay the deficit. But just because he wants to kill government.

Ford’s actions and words, to the public and those around him, are not those of a bean counter trying to solve a financial puzzle. While real, the hefty “structural deficit” is his ammunition, not his target.

The colourful gut-led ideologue is on a mission to radically reduce the size and cost of city government — amputating services, grants and agencies. In doing so, he wants to erase most or all the 5,000 mostly unionized jobs added under his predecessor, David Miller.

And to get us in the mood for that massacre, is making a big deal out of trimming some fat off himself.

You know... cut the waste, and I'll cut MY waist.

Yup. I'm afraid opera is too classy to capture that. I give those responsible full marks for resisting the buffoon.

But next time hold the Puccini.

And give me some dueling banjos...

Little Miss Progressive and the Attack Ads

2012-01-23T19:36:00.000-05:00

Once upon a time in the dark and scary woods of Con Canada, lived a little girl named Little Miss Progressive.

And like many other girl and boy progressives she didn't believe in making nasty attack ads.

Even though the Big Bad Wolf and his evil friends made them all the time.

Used them to rip out the throats of their opponents. And win one election after the other.

But still Little Miss Progressive wasn't convinced. Because as her friend rabbit said "We're better than that eh?"

Until one one day along came a dark knight on a red horse, and told her the story of the Big Bad Wolf's long lost brother.

And how when he ran in Iowa he refused to use attack ads, and was eaten alive. But when he did use them in South Carolina.

He slaughtered the Mittens in the magic pajamas.

And so said the dark knight on the red horse to Little Miss Progressive, and her rabbit, maybe we should also use them against the Big Bad Wolf.

The best strategy is to hit first, and twice as hard. Be swift and brutal.Remind people that Harper moved us from a surplus to a deficit. That he didn’t see the recession coming. That he wants to dismantle health care. That he favours Alberta over other provinces. That he has a far-right SoCon agenda.

Whatever you do, progressives, do it now. Don’t wait. Stephane Dion and Michael Ignatieff complained about how mean Stephen Harper is, and it got them precisely nowhere.The best response to nasty attack ads then is simple: Make your own attack ads, fast, and make ’em nastier.

Now I'm with the dark knight eh? Because the survival of our country is at stake.

But still Little Miss Progressive wasn't convinced. Because like so many other progressives she's too nice and too precious.

So what did I tell her? Sleep tight sweet princess.

Pretend you live in a nicer country than Con Canada. Use morphine if you must.

And always, always, always remember.

To keep the door locked....

Is Tony Clement Planning to Resign?

2012-01-23T13:46:00.000-05:00

Oh no. It seems that Tony Clement's view of reality may once again be somewhat limited.

A senior federal bureaucrat has contradicted Tony Clement’s insistence that he was not involved in dividing a $50-million fund to spruce up his riding before the 2010 G8 summit.

Once Minister Clement’s office provided the list of recommended projects to Minister Baird’s office, FedNor officials transferred the catalogue of projects to Infrastructure Canada officials. All 242 project proposals were sent; this included the 32 projects which were recommended by Minister Clement.”

Which of course is NOT what Tony-o told the Public Accounts Committee:

“That’s just a myth,” he told the committee. “It never happened that way. We were not involved in selecting these projects.”

And for good reason eh?

“If I was the decision-maker, if I had set up a parallel process and created a situation where the auditor general did not know – that’s their (opposition MPs’) accusation – I’d be resigning right now and turning myself in to the local police office,” Mr. Clement said.

Hey. He said it I didn't.

What I'm saying is what EVERYBODY knows. The Cons bought themselves an election with OUR money.

They are the most corrupt government in Canadian history and sooner or later they ARE going to pay for it....

Stephen Harper and the Spidey Man

2012-01-22T14:55:00.000-05:00

Golly. I don't know why so many people in the inbred village of Ottawa seem to suffer from Big Daddy Fever.

The tendency to portray Stephen Harper as a political genius, instead of a deranged right-wing nerd who is slowly killing this country.

But this is ridiculous:

“I think by making this about foreign interests, U.S. money, not allowing ourselves to be held hostage by the U.S, the government's been very smart and been able not only to take advantage of an opportunity, but also take advantage of something Canadians are thinking anyway,” Mr. Armour said.

And so is this:

“I think it was incredibly well handled. The federal government and Minister Flaherty pretty well took health care off the agenda before any of the health stakeholders or even the provinces got to the table,” Mr. Armour said.“If it was a bar fight, it was all over before anyone got their coat off.”

Considering that on the pipelines question Big Daddy got his clock cleaned. He was publicly humiliated by Obama, Ethical Oil was exposed as a sinister corporate tool.

Its bimbette spokeswoman went viral for all the wrong reasons...

And when Canadians think of the Great Pipeline Debate they'll now wonder how much of Canada does China own? And will we ALL have to learn Chinese?

Which makes Big Daddy look like a sellout, an oil pimp, and a bum rather than a genius. And can be used to cast doubt on EVERYTHING he does from now on.

As for the medicare question, the way he washed his hands like Pontius Pilate, will eventually expose him as the mad emperor who would crucify our precious health system, and diminish our country by creating different kinds of citizens.

At last, it's out in the open for all to see. The Harper Conservatives are not just abandoning the national government's leadership role in medicare and social policy.

They are ending its constitutional responsibility to promote a common Canadian citizenship by ensuring "reasonably comparable levels of public services at reasonably comparable rates of taxation."

Which of course is just what his former employers at the National Citizens Coalition have always commanded him to do.

During his years with the National Citizens' Coalition, founded by wealthy London, Ont., insurance executive Colin Brown to fight medicare and unionization, Stephen Harper refined his opposition to "big government," particularly medicare, and formulated his "strict constructionist" approach to the constitution to better attack a Canada he once openly derided as "a second-tier socialistic country."

You know... the NCC, the same right-wing nuts who produced this grotesque RepubliCon-style attack ad...

Which is bound to make many Canadians wonder how many tangled webs can Great Spidey Leader weave?

And ask themselves who is this sinister Con REALLY working for?

Which of course is REALLY good for our side eh? Because we can use it to brand HIM before the next election. The deadly kiss of the spidey man who would bite you when you are sleepwalking, and suck the juice out of Canada.

Yup. He may be a smarty pants running around in his underwear. Or a bitter nerd scuttling around on his ghastly ideological web. But it is a giant right-wing conspiracy.

He is dangerous.

And if we don't stop him, he WILL destroy this country...

Okay, okay, I know. But did you ever think we'd be scared of a Canadian government?

And who could ever imagine how easily we would accept it?

Electro-Motive and the Real Battle for Canada

2012-01-22T00:52:00.000-05:00

I couldn't make it to London, Ontario today. And I was so disappointed. For it must have been a stirring sight.

A crowd of more than 10,000 descended upon this city’s Victoria Park to support local workers who have been locked out of their jobs since the new year. They came from all over, from Timmins, Sudbury, and Pennsylvania in scores of buses. They came to protest corporate greed and Stephen Harper.

I would have liked to hear this angry message to Great Chicken Leader:

“We need you down here to support Canadian workers,” yelled London Mayor Joe Fontana. “Get your ass down here!”

Who was invited, but like the other three Con MP's from the area, was too scared to show up.

And of course I would have loved to see this sign...

Because that's what it's all about.

Canadian workers fighting the greedy corporate hogs who are using lockouts as a weapon.

Suddenly, business rhetoric about the costs of long work stoppages has been silenced. In the eyes of many employers, work stoppages – even long ones – are a small price to pay for driving down labour costs and boosting profit margins.

And a Prime Minister who is selling our country out to foreign interests, attacking unions, and trying to turn us into low wage economy. A country where there will be no good jobs, not enough money for social programs, pensions or medicare.

A country where big oil rules, the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. A country where young working class families don't stand a chance.

And the old are dead on arrival. A country that lives on its knees.

You know some Canadians seem to think that standing up for your country means dressing up in redcoats and feathers, and re-enacting the War of 1812. But this is the real Battle for Canada.

A chance for the labour movement, the occupy movement, and other progressives to to tell the corporate hogs to take a hike.

A chance to embarrass Stephen Harper in a place he once posed...

And brand him as a sellout, a weak leader, and a COWARD.

Hey. What more could we ask for ?

It's now or never. There is no more important story. Or we win these battles for Canada.

Or we shall lose the war...

Me, SOPA, and the Internet Revolution

2012-01-20T23:53:00.000-05:00

This graphic speaks for itself eh? The day before and the day after the internet revolution.

Then Wednesday happened, and suddenly everyone seemed to understand how serious this was. Wikipedia went dark, and the country wailed; we realized how much we have come to depend on the crowdsourced encyclopedia. Google hung a black sash on its logo. Crowds marched in protest. Facebook issued an uncharacteristically political statement (although we urged it to go further). Network news could not fail to take note.

In short: the Internet got its act together, and the world shook.

And now it's time to say hooray for us.

So, well done, Internet. You did it. You took a relatively obscure bill and you made the world care. One concerted day of action by you shook Washington to its core. Lobbyists like Dodd who have had too much unquestioned control for too long got served notice. There’s a new power player in town; not one man in a suit, but millions of faces with electronic megaphones. And this power player doesn’t take kindly to bills that threaten its behavior.

Of course, before I killed SOPA, by going to ~~black~~ blue.

I had to ask myself some hard questions about my own behaviour.

Like would I REALLY miss something like this?

And the answer was....YES. Yes I definitely would.

But that's just me eh?

Oh well. If only we could get rid of Stephen Harper and his Cons so easily.

Hooray for the internet.

Have a great weekend everybody !!

Stephen Harper's Great Pipeline Humiliation

2012-01-19T22:04:00.000-05:00

Oh dear. I see that Stephen Harper's pathetic attempt to threaten Obama has been met with a chuckle and a shrug.

The Obama administration is unfazed by Canadian warnings that delays in the Keystone XL pipeline review will add urgency to Ottawa’s effort to ship crude oil to China, U.S. Ambassador David Jacobson says.

And no wonder eh? When Harper is only helping Obama's enemies.

In condemning the ruling, Republican house Leader John Boehner accused President Obama of “shipping American energy security to China.”

And like our homegrown oil pimps, the bonehead Boehner doesn't know what he's doing or talking about. It's his fault for playing cheap politics. And that oil isn't going to America, it's going to China.

Like everything else in Canada.

Even though on his first day as Opposition Leader, Harper once had a very different view about how to work with the Americans.

The new opposition leader wrapped up his argument, the first he wanted to make on the subject he had selected in his parliamentary debut as a national party leader: “We will be unable to get the U.S. administration on board unless whoever is in the White House and leading members of congress value and respect what our Prime Minister brings to the table.”

Oh well. Leave it up to the New York Times to put the bigger issue into perspective.

Far more important to the nation’s energy and environmental future is the development of renewable and alternative energy sources. This is the winning case that Mr. Obama should make to voters in rejecting the Republicans’ craven indulgence of Big Oil.

And leave it up to Obama to REALLY humiliate Harper when he doesn't have to worry about being re-elected.

Yankee doodle whoopee !!!

Which no doubt accounts for the fact that when Stephen Harper said he was "profoundly disappointed."

The horrible sounds coming out of the PMO sounded more like this...

Memo from Great Leader: The re-enactment of the War of 1812 will now feature LIVE ammunition and REAL Americans.

Because NOBODY but NOBODY humiliates Stephen Harper !!!!!!!

Oh really Great Leader? Never was Canada made to look so bad.

And never was a Prime Minister so ridiculous....

Stephen Harper's Latest Attack Ad

2012-01-19T20:48:00.000-05:00

It's like a recurring nightmare. The ugly images, the leering voice. Stephane Dion is NOT a leader. Michael Ignatieff didn't come back for you. Jack Layton did it once he'll do it again.

And now comes the latest attack ad from the diseased brain of Stephen Harper: Thomas Mulcair is NOT a Canadian.

Thomas Mulcair, the Quebec MP and NDP leadership contender, carries two passports. One is Canadian, the other is French.

Unlike Great ~~Strong~~ ~~Economist~~ Patriotic Leader.

“Obviously, it’s for Mr. Mulcair to use his political judgment in the case,” the Prime Minister observed in Saguenay, Que. “In my case, as I say, I am very clear. I am a Canadian and only a Canadian.”

The shameless Con who is letting a giant foreign corporation crush Canadian workers.

And is selling out our country to China.

Sadly some Liberals are also willing to play along. Even though Jack Layton was wrong.

In 2006, Mr. Layton said he “would prefer that a leader of a party hold only Canadian citizenship, because one represents many Canadians, and for it’s better to remain the citizen of one country.”

Two wrongs don't make a right. And their turn will come...

Even though the advantages of working together are only too obvious.

Primarily because of the results in British Columbia and the Prairies, but also the close race in Ontario, these numbers would result in a small Conservative plurality of 118 seats. The New Democrats would take 103 and the Liberals 74, with 12 going to the Bloc Québécois and one to the Greens. If they could co-operate, the Liberals and NDP would be able to govern with a stronger majority than the Conservatives currently enjoy.

Can you imagine what we could do with a majority like that? We could reverse everything the Cons have done, investigate their dirty games, and jail them in their fancy new prisons.

Oh well. While Stephen Harper and his Con thugs try to decide whether they should call Mulcair a traitor, or a frog, and Rae a dangerous Communist. I'll keep working on my attack ads, and try to decide whether to call the Cons sellouts, Big Oil and Chinese stooges. Or both.

While always working to unite progressives to fight the common enemy.

And in the meantime, on a cold, snowy, and REALLY Canadian day.

Here's an attack ad we can ALL enjoy...

Three Happy Lessons for Progressives

2012-01-18T21:22:00.000-05:00

In Toronto, Mayor Rob Ford sees his reckless budget derailed.

Who says you can’t fight City Hall? Torontonians who successfully pushed back against Mayor Rob Ford’s reckless cuts are the real winners in this year’s budget process. By the hundreds, they came to all-night public meetings; they inundated city councillors with expressions of concern; they tweeted, blogged and organized and, in many cases, took to the street in protest.

It worked. Indeed, democracy worked. By a slim majority city council voted to take almost $19 million from last year’s surplus and use it to save pools and homeless shelters, daycare services, and recreation programs including ice rink hours and library services.

And takes it badly.

Bad ~~doggy~~ hoggy.

In Washington, the Keystone pipeline loses the first round.

And will probably lose the next round after more Americans learn that all that Canadian oil ain't for them.

Simply stated, Keystone XL is a way to get Canadian oil out of the United States, not into it.

Golly. Why do those Republican oil pimps hate America so much?

Meanwhile, also in Washington, the SOPA/PIPA bill that would destroy the internet as we know it, is weaker than it was yesterday.

In an early sign that the mass online blackout in protest of the "Stop Online Piracy Act" (SOPA) and the "PROTECT IP Act" (PIPA) is working, PIPA co-sponsor Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) has pulled his support for the Senate's controversial anti-piracy bill.

And what do we learn from all of the above?

Answer: when progressives get off their asses, take to the streets, stage loud and noisy protests, and use the internet in clever and creative ways to bludgeon their opponents, we can leave the right-wingers looking like palookas, and wondering what hit them.

You know.... I've been noticing that progressives in this country have been looking a little tired and demoralized. So much so that sometimes when I wander through our blogosphere I feel I should be wearing black.

But not tonight eh?

Tonight this progressive is packing up his troubles in his kit bag, putting on his dancing shoes.

And kicking up his heels with these great gurlz...

So are we going to kick up our tired heels in Canada? And teach the Cons a lesson?

You bet we are.

When we are united, and do what only we can do, NOTHING can stop us...

If You Love the Internet...

2012-01-18T10:27:00.000-05:00

WHY?

The Oil Pimp and the Dalai Lama

2012-01-17T19:19:00.000-05:00

He's always been an oil pimp, but I thought I better give him a new costume eh?

Because these days that's ALL he ever talks about.

"When you look at the Iranians threatening to block the Strait of Hormuz, I think that just illustrates how critical it is that supply for the United States be North American," he said.

When in fact the Iranians can't block the Strait of Hormuz, Americans only want our dirty oil so they can ship it to China. And the Enbridge pipeline is all about giving China our raw bitumen just like they took our forests.

Now you know why more than 70 B.C. wood mills have been shuttered, and it will help to know that Beijing won’t even allow us to turn those logs into woodchips. Meanwhile, you’re being asked to boycott bananas, because Chiquita has said unflattering things about the oil sands.

And because the Chinese are now our best friends forever, so much for any serious economic or environmental review. So much for the Dalai Lama.

As Harper prepares for his second state visit to China in mid-February to discuss oil exports and greater economic ties, it can be assumed his government has moved beyond its enthrallment with the Tibetan spiritual leader in its early days in power.

In the news release last week to announce his trip to China, Harper did not mention humanity or human rights but was effusive about improving the relationship with China forward "by focusing on deepening economic ties."

For daring to oppose the Keystone pipeline in the name of humanity.

So much for human rights. So much for the Office of Religious Freedom...

So much for our energy security.

The proposed $5.5-billion Northern Gateway Pipeline will jeopardize Canada’s long-term energy security while at the same time leading to an unprecedented expansion of the oil sands with its dangerous social and environmental impacts, a former senior federal government geologist says.

So much for a pipeline we don't need. And of course so much for the pristine coast of beautiful British Columbia.

Oil tankers will have to navigate about 160 kilometres through narrow channels to get to the Kitimat oil depot.

You know a few years ago I spent a wonderful afternoon with my buddy Seb surfing the wild waters off a massive beach near Tofino.

But in a few years I expect it will look quite different...

Damn those sellout Cons. Damn those dirty oil pimps.

Fight them, fight them, fight them.

Don't let them win...

Stephen Harper and the Fascist State of Alberia

2012-01-17T02:55:00.000-05:00

Uh oh. Duck and cover. It looks as if Great Oil Pimp Leader is trying to whip us into a nationalistic frenzy, by demanding that the United States stop treating us like a national park.

Any decision on developments such as the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline should be left to Canadians, Prime Minister Stephen Harper says.

"Just because certain people in the United States would like to see Canada be one giant national park for the northern half of North America, I don't think that's part of what our review process is all about."

Or ELSE ....

Because NOBODY treats us like hillbillies or park people and gets away with it !!!!!

Of course Great Warrior leader will also have to tell Exxon, BP, Daewood International, Sinopec, the Koch brothers, and the Chinese Communist Party, which owns a big chunk of Penn West Petroleum, they can't come to the pipeline hearings either.

Because if he claims THEY are Canadian, it will remind me of the priceless moment when this oil bimbo went on TV and claimed that Ethical Oil was a "small grassroots organization."

Only to have that gaseous emission blow up in her face.

And see the naked truth exposed.

Which is hopefully what will happen if Great Oil Pimp Leader tries to claim that building the Northern Gateway pipeline is in Canada's national interest.

When it's actually a deadly threat.

Enbridge's radical growth projections would expand the scale of the mammoth tar sands project and triple current levels of production by 2035. Hughes calls such irrational growth a threat to the nation "in the light of the long term energy security and environmental interests of Canadians."

Furthermore, "the absence of National energy strategy which safeguards the long term energy security and environmental interests of Canadians means there are no constraints on the uncontrolled liquidation of Canada's intrinsic energy resources."

Oh boy. If you thought the Banana Republic of Harperland was ridiculous enough. Wait until we have to deal with the fascist State of Alberia.

The separatist party — Alberia Special Party (ASP) — eventually bullies its way into government using Nazi tactics to convince Alberians of the Big Lie: the Feds (a coalition government, no less) and the “enviro-vermin” are planning to take over the oilsands.

Alberia then separates from Candidia, dispatches border guards, executes environmentalists as traitors, and proceeds to extract bitumen from the oilsands at a reckless pace.

Because judging from all the Big Lies, we're definitely heading in that direction eh?

Yup. Never trust those Cons. Never forget to ask them. Why do you hate Candidia so much?

And whose side are you really on?

My Horrible Afternoon With Margaret Thatcher

2012-01-15T18:47:00.000-05:00

Gawd. I made a terrible mistake today. I allowed my Dad to drag me off to see the Margaret Thatcher movie The Iron Lady.

And all I can say is I'm glad he paid for the tickets, because it was absolutely hideous.

Any reasonably aware audience will feel exhausted and discomfited after two hours of this exercise in cinematic navel-gazing. Thatcherism cast a long shadow, and The Iron Lady, in its ever-so-watchable way, does little to illuminate it. Quite the contrary; much like last year’s Nicolas Sarkozy biopic La Conquête, it’s a subtle form of propaganda, asking the audience to see the beauty in the beast.

Well, even if my leftie student days are long over, I can’t abide hypocrisy. I left the theatre mumbling Billy Bragg’s advice in the Thatcher-era song It Says Here: “When you wake to the fact that your paper is Tory, just remember, there are two sides to every story.”

But even that review isn't harsh enough, because the movie totally fails to reflect the pain that Con beast inflicted on the poor in Britain. Declaring that "there is no such thing as society" while mothers and children chanted "Thatcher Thatcher Milk Snatcher."

Or totally ignores the terrible damage she did to a generation of gay kids with her fascist Section 28.

And of course, all through that unbearably long movie, I couldn't forget that Stephen Harper is her true spiritual successor...

So needless to say eh?

I prefer this review.

Against the oncoming flood of propaganda, lies, distortions and Orwellian changing of the past, the space for the truth will be remarkably small. But there will still be a space. So let’s start filling it now and remind ourselves of the true legacy of the most pitiless, inhumane, greedy, venal and megalomaniacal creature ever to cross the threshold of 10 Downing Street:

I would consider this a fitting tribute:

In conclusion, then, the best way I think we can mark her passing with dignity and without conceding the moral high ground to the enemy by gloating and cheering, comes from a friend of mine; we should line the streets along which her funeral cortege passes and simply turn our backs in silence as it trundles by.

One by one, each of us, in silence, as she passes turn our backs and say that on this, the hour of her death, now is the time to start living again. To rebuild the shattered, violent land she has left by placing people before profit. By tossing into the dustbin of history all her hate-filled bile. The best way to deal with Thatcher’s legacy is to destroy it.

And if anyone still wants to see a movie about that unrepentant old monster, this video is remarkably similar.

Just mercifully shorter, and definitely more entertaining...

Finally, I feel I should add that I derive absolutely no satisfaction from knowing that she is now suffering from dementia. For I would not wish that even on my worst enemy.

But as Elvis Costello once wrote:

"When they finally put you in the ground, I'll stand on your grave and tramp the dirt down. "

For she does so deserve it, and so do all Cons...

Just Another Porky Day in Harperland

2012-01-14T16:28:00.000-05:00

First comes the crass incompetence.

Human Resources Minister Diane Finley is boosting staff at Service Canada to help reduce a mounting backlog in employment insurance claims that is forcing many jobless Canadians to wait months for their first benefits cheque.

The delays have been growing since October, 2010, even as Service Canada laid off hundreds of employees from its processing centres and allowed staff at its call centres to leave without being replaced.

Then comes the porky.

Over the next three years, Human Resources and Development Canada plans to cut the number of offices that process EI claims from 120 nationwide down to about 20.

Of the 20 processing centres left, more than half will be in Conservative ridings and only one will be in a Liberal riding.

Or if you prefer, first comes the porky.

The myriad tax credits introduced by Jim Flaherty before the recession are now placing an added strain on Ottawa’s bottom line as the Finance Minister prepares to wrestle a $31-billion deficit.

The credits featured prominently in government advertising, allowing the Conservatives to target their message toward various segments of the population.

And then comes the bloodbath.

The federal Conservative government is considering cutting deeper and faster than originally planned, with Finance Minister Jim Flaherty saying Tuesday some departments could face cuts of more than 10 per cent in the upcoming budget.

So let's sum up this porky tale eh? Because the Cons spent so much money buying an election, and they refuse to raise corporate taxes, now they must kill government jobs even faster than they planned.

So even MORE desperate unemployed Canadians will be looking for help, with even LESS places to help them.

Unless they live in a Con riding.

Great eh?

Gawd. I hope somebody is counting is counting down the days to the next election when we can fire THEM.

Because they're killing this country.

And that day can't come soon enough...

Gay Marriage and the Unrepentant Old Hippie

2012-01-13T23:11:00.000-05:00

I don't know why the Unrepentant Old Hippie feels she has the right to dump on progressives, in such a foamy manner, for having the decency to defend the human rights of gays and lesbians.

Especially since she regularly accuses progressives who despise Stephen Harper and his foul Cons, of suffering from "Harper Derangement Symptom." And probably voted for him, because like him she thinks Big Government and taxes are bad, capitalism and greed are good, anyone left of Michael Ignatieff is a commie, the Canadian occupiers are spoiled kids and rabid animals, and Great Not So Bad leader promised to kill her hated gun registry.

Because she does love guns.

Prozac anyone?

But before she shoots me eh? I might ask her to explain why we should not be concerned about this small detail.

While Mr. Nicholson’s announcement alleviated some concerns, it left one central question unanswered: Does the government consider marriages involving same-sex non-residents to be legal, or not?

Or this one:

It also emerged that the Toronto case was the second time in the past year that Justice Department lawyers have intervened to raise obstacles in a same-sex divorce case.

Several months ago, it launched a legal intervention in the case of a Canadian man, Wayne Hincks, and his partner, who had obtained the status of a civil partnership in Britain.

The Crown contended that a civil partnership obtained in Britain is not equal to marriage under Canada’s Divorce Act – notwithstanding the fact that Britain considers a civil partnership tantamount to marriage.

I might ask her whether she really believes that in a government as tightly controlled as the Harper regime, on a matter like gay marriage, the Justice Department didn't get the green light from the PMO? And the religious fanatics who run it.

I might ask her whether she's aware that Great Not So Bad Leader and his gang are waging a stealth war on gay people AND women, by exporting their foul ideology.

Last fall, three other Conservative backbenchers openly criticized a Harper decision to provide funds to International Planned Parenthood, claiming the group was “deceitful’’ in its language to obtain funding from Ottawa.“We have been clear. We are not reopening the debate on this matter,’’ a Harper spokesperson said at the time.

But the Harper government has been clear that it will not provide funding under its maternal health initiative to countries where abortion is legal and will not fund organizations that provide abortions.

And does she even realize that if it wasn't for a really smart lawyer the Cons would have got away with their evil machinations.

Typically, lawyers are reluctant to speak with the press until a verdict is rendered. Well, what would have happened here? The court might have ruled in her favour. But it’s just as likely — probably more likely — that the court would have held that the law of domicile is a longstanding part of Canadian law, and the couple’s marriage was never valid. And then, when McCarthy complained publicly, Harper and the feds could have blamed the judge and wiped their hands clean of the issue. Their filings would have been buried, and probably no journalist would have gone any further. Not good.

But hey, JJ has a right to express her opinions. What she has no right to do is insult the LGBT community, and its progressive friends, for defending our rights so strongly. Because most of us gay people and real progressives don't trust Harper and his Cons as far as we can spit. And for good reason.

Great Not So Bad Leader has voted against every single gay rights bill ever presented to Parliament, including the one making attacking gay people a hate crime. He believes sexual orientation is a "behaviour" that can presumably be cured. He forced a second vote on the gay marriage bill, he boycotted an AIDS conference in Toronto, he has cut off funding to gay groups.

And most despicably he has never lifted a finger to help bullied gay kids, and when he was asked to make an "It Gets Better Better" video, like so many other leaders have, he flatly refused.

Even though so many Canadian kids, like Jamie Hubley, were killing themselves.

Which is just one reason why I will NEVER apologize for fighting the Harper Cons, the foulest government in Canadian history. Why I am so grateful for the support of so many progressive bloggers.

And why I believe that anyone who attacks our friends in such a Con manner, should take some prozac themselves. Or decide whose side are they are REALLY on.

Oh boy. Once upon a time the Unrepentant Old Hippie was one of the progressive bloggers I most admired.

But that was long ago.

Goodnight Jamie.

Play this one for JJ...

Stephen Harper's Brutal Assault on Gay People

2012-01-12T17:42:00.000-05:00

He can try to hide behind big legal words. He can claim he didn't know. But nobody can deny that this is a brutal assault on gay people.

The Harper government is being accused of taking away same-sex rights by “stealth” in light of a surprise government stand that non-resident gay and lesbian couples who flocked to Canada to exchange vows really aren’t legally married after all.

He can claim he isn't reopening the gay marriage debate, when this stealth offensive, like the one on abortion, was carefully crafted by the religious fanatics that run the PMO. And he is reopening the debate, by sticking a knife into the side of gay equality.

For most Canadians, same-sex marriage is a settled issue and part of the landscape. Despite some people’s fears, Stephen Harper’s government hasn’t used its majority to reopen the marriage debate in Parliament. But in two recent cases, government lawyers are taking a position that is inconsistent with gay men’s and lesbians’ hard-fought equality.

And not just here but also in Britain.

At taxpayers’ expense, the federal government is intervening in legal proceedings to oppose recognition of the civil partnership formalized by a Canadian citizen in Britain. This action undermines British efforts to recognize the equality of same-sex relationships.

In both cases, we shouldn’t let the technicalities distract us from matters of principle. A government proud that Canada’s Parliament has granted equal marriage rights to gay men and lesbians would stand behind such marriages, however other countries saw them. And a government supportive of equality would affirm other countries’ efforts to recognize gay relationships.

He has hurt and humiliated gay couples all over the world.

And disappointed millions and millions of other people who looked to Canada as a beacon of hope.

He has damaged the cause of bullied gay kids, who he has NEVER lifted a finger to help, by sending out a negative message, that some are more equal than others. Even as so many are killing themselves. Just so his rabid base can splash around in their blood, or pray to their evil Godzilla.

He fooled so many Canadians, but he never fooled me. Because I knew what others should have known. Stephen Harper has always been a cold, cruel man, who enjoys the pain of others.

And as I pointed out.... two years ago.

He has ALWAYS been a homophobe...

Oh yeah. Here's to the scream that wasn't heard. Now cry for the beloved country. And the message going around the world.

Once we were noble, now we are ugly. Once we were so big. Now we are so small.

And then fight them, fight them, fight them.

Unite to defeat those hideous Cons...

Pope Benny and the Gay Plot to Destroy Humanity

2012-01-12T03:36:00.001-05:00

When I heard that Pope Benny had described gay marriage as a threat to humanity at first I was shocked.

"This is not a simple social convention, but rather the fundamental cell of every society. Consequently, policies which undermine the family threaten human dignity and the future of humanity itself," he said.

For what would that old monkey know about humanity? And how could a former member of the Hitler Youth make such a genocidal statement?

And then I felt guilty. For NOT being married, but living in sin with my boyfriend. Like Benny and his boyfriend Gorgeous Georg Gänswein.

About ten years before he became pope, when age was beginning to take its toll and was maybe sharpening the secret internal rage, Ratzy [Ratzinger] met Don Giorgio [Gänswein]. And it was a spark of life amid the doctrinal darkness...When we see the photos, which we publish in this book, of Georg putting Ratzy’s little hat on for him, handing him his stole, watching his back, looking after him, accompanying him and helping him as he walks, we cannot help being moved.

But mostly I was just puzzled eh? For how could so FEW be a threat to so MANY?

Until Jimmy Kimmel explained it this way...

But STILL I wasn't satisfied.

So I decided to go and see John Baird at the Office of Religious Freedom.

But he was too busy to see me....

And besides he seems to think that the religious need protection more than the rest of us.

Because WE are not the persecuted, THEY are....

Which left me more confused than ever eh? But clinging to these unshakeable beliefs:

Religion is madness.

Baird is a hypocrite.

And Benny is a BIGOT...

Dr Strangelove and the Oil Pipeline

2012-01-11T23:01:00.000-05:00

Well in case anyone didn't understand why the Harper Cons are calling native people and environmentalists "radicals" and "foreign interests."

Leave it up to Tom "Strangelove" Flanagan to explain Big Oil's plan for Total World Domination.

The branding of opponents as "radicals" is part of a strategy to make sure the pipeline gets built, argues Tom Flanagan, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's former chief of staff and an expert on aboriginal issues.

Flanagan said there is a concerted world-wide attack against the oil industry."Shrugging it off, I don't think, is good enough anymore. It's a battle and you have to start pushing back."

Which is at least refreshingly honest eh? Big Oil Uber Alles. But unfortunately, in the case of Canada, The Plan is tragically flawed.

For when Joe "Big Mouth" Oliver says this is "nation building."

"We need to diversify our marketplace. We need to move to Asia to sell our natural resources. There is the potential of trillions of dollars of economic development, this is nation building."

What he really means is, this is the Harper oil pimp plan for Total Chinese Domination.

Beijing’s own state enterprises are among the project’s major backers, and Beijing has been buying up Alberta’s oilpatch at such a dizzying pace lately it’s hard to keep up. In the spring of 2010, China’s state-owned Sinopec Corp. took a $4.65-billion piece of Syncrude. Then the China Investment Corporation, which is run by the Chinese Communist Party, took possession of a $1.25-billon share of Penn West Petroleum. Last summer, the Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation gobbled up Opti Canada for $2.34 billion. And so on.

Then, last month, Sinopec spent $2.2-billion to take over Daylight Energy Ltd., and last week, Petro-China, with the final push of $1.9 billion, became the owner and manager of the MacKay River oilsands project. This is what Ottawa doesn’t want you noticing.

Which of course doesn't surprise me. Because ever since the Cons stopped calling the Chinese Godless atheists, they've been selling us out like a Banana Republic...

China's Canada, Harper's burro, our Chiquita banana.

Oh boy. You know one thing about The Plan for Total Chinese Domination totally alarms me eh? What are the Chinese going to do when they realize they may have bought the Tar Sands?

But they don't have a pipeline to suck up all that Canadian oil.

Because quite frankly, now that Big Oil is threatening total war.

And Strangelove Flanagan is in the bunker.

I fear the worst....

But here's the good news eh?

If we can brand the Harperites as the sellout Cons. We can destroy them.

Before they destroy us...

Joe Oliver and the Leaking Pipeline

2012-01-11T02:46:00.000-05:00

Oh. My. Oily. Oliver. What bad timing.

Canadian pipeline builder Enbridge reported a leak from one of its pipelines on the day public hearings began into the company’s planned Northern Gateway pipeline.

And don't you love this?

Enbridge declined to describe how it could be safe to continue operating a pipeline that may be leaking.

But why is Joe Oliver ~~quaking~~ quacking like a teabagger?

But foreigners who support the pipeline aren’t the outsiders that Prime Minister Stephen Harper claims to be worried about. As Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver explained to CBC television on Monday, these are the good foreign interests.

The bad foreign interests are the ones who help fund environmental critics of the pipeline. Oliver calls these bad elements “billionaire socialists … people like George Soros.”

If this weren’t a cabinet minister talking, it might be amusing. The Internet is filled with conspiracy theorists who view Soros, a self-made Hungarian-American tycoon, as evil incarnate...But when a Canadian cabinet minister uses the term, he sounds — well — nuts.

Golly. Does Olly get his talking points straight from the rear end of Ezra Levant?

And is he even smart enough to answer this quiz?

In his rant yesterday against environmentalists and radicals, Canada's natural resources minister contrasted the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway with the approval process of the Mackenzie Valley pipeline. So I poked around and dug up some facts for his perusal.

First, thousands of Chinese workers were brought in to help build the line. Not only were they paid less, many succumbed to disease or died in work accidents. It was, of course, an ugly period of history.

Gawd. Say it ain't so Joe. I realize we're living in a Con Banana Republic.

But when Big Oil whistles, may I suggest you keep your big mouth shut.

Dress up like Ezra the ridiculous does.

And just do this doggy dance...

The NDP Defector and the Headwinds of Change

2012-01-10T22:19:00.000-05:00

I notice that some of the trees in Toronto have started sprouting buds, fooled by the unusually warm weather into thinking that Spring has arrived in January.

And no doubt feeling like many Liberals are feeling today.

But I know an icy wind will soon sweep in and freeze those buds off the branches. And as someone whose only partisan goal is to defeat Stephen Harper's ghastly Cons, I see trouble ahead for all of us.
For while I don't think Lise St-Denis' defection means anything. She's not much of an MP. Not a very classy one.

Asked about voters in her riding and whether they voted for the NDP or for her, St-Denis said simply "They voted for Jack Layton, but Jack Layton is dead."

And not a very bright one either.

What really bothers me is that the two main progressive parties still seem to believe that they can beat the Harper Cons all by themselves. Even though the only party gaining some measure of traction in Quebec is the Bloc.

Pollster Nik Nanos said the Bloc Québécois, which was reduced to four members in the election, has been “the main beneficiary” of the NDP’s decline in the province, moving to 19.9 per cent from 15.9 per cent in November.

With the generous help of Stephen Harper. For why do you think he is shoving the monarchy down our throats? Or appointing a Supreme Court judge and an Auditor General who don't speak French.

Answer: because he knows that if he can make French-speaking Quebecers feel that their history is ignored, and their language threatened, some of them will go back to the Bloc even if they don't want to separate.

And that if the progressive vote is fragmented rather than united, his Cons can stay in power FOREVER.

You know trying to get progressives to understand that Spring will NEVER arrive in January, and that they must unite to fight the common enemy, is a bit like trying to paddle a kayak into a strong headwind...

And of course it makes EVERYBODY hates you eh?

But shouldn't more of us be asking where we are really going?

Because as the old philosopher said, those who don't learn from their mistakes are condemned to repeat them.

And those who cling to the politics of the past will find themselves living with a government they despise. Beating their heads against a wall.

In a country they don't recognize...

Joe Oliver, the Radicals, and the Foreign Interests

2012-01-09T23:26:00.000-05:00

You know....if you needed a cheap and apparently inexhaustible source of natural gas to heat your home, you could do worse than connecting a hose to Joe Oliver's big mouth and another one to his other vibrating orifice.

Environmental and other "radical groups" are trying to block trade and undermine Canada's economy, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said Monday.

Oliver says the groups "threaten to hijack our regulatory system to achieve their radical ideological agenda," stack the hearings with people to delay or kill "good projects," attract "jet-setting" celebrities and use funding from "foreign special interest groups."

Because surely there can be no greater and more absurd gaseous emission than that, when no group in this country is more radical and ideological than Stephen Harper's ghastly Cons.

For what else can explain why they gutted the census for no sane reason? What else can explain why they are spending billions on new prisons even as the crime rate is going down?

What else can explain their radical tendency to treat other Canadians as The Enemy?

If Oliver's foul emissions weren't so smelly, they'd be laughable. Except that we must take them seriously because this is clearly a threat:

Sources say the government isn't just talking, CBC's Margo McDiarmid reports, but will be targeting environmental groups when the House finance committee reviews charitable funding next month.

And as Paul Wells points out, it all comes from the deeply disturbed mind, and cavernous rear orifice, of Great Radical Leader himself.

This is just a hunch, but I suspect the next massive round of Conservative Party advertising won’t be aimed against an opposition party. This is the sound the Harper machine makes when it’s gearing up for a big fight.

So we must prepare for a big fight too. And one way to do that is to ask the pathetic Cons when they talk about "foreign interests" do they also mean THESE foreign interests?

And why are those radical Cons selling out Canadians? Selling our country to the lowest bidder. Like they are selling out the workers at Electro-Motive.

“If this place closes, we have to move,” he said, his 16-year-old son standing next to him on the picket line. “Where do you get a job that has family … benefits … in London? Most of the jobs that provide (that) have disappeared.”

Those heartless, bastard Cons, who would put foreign corporate interests before the lives of suffering Canadians.

Oh yeah. If Stephen Harper wants a BIG FIGHT.

I believe he's going to get one...

The Great Harper Putin Hockey Match

2012-01-09T19:15:00.000-05:00

When I saw the Star headline today I was stunned. Could Stephen Harper and Vladimir Putin really be planning to face off against each other on the ice?

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is making plans to play on a Canadian hockey team in two exhibition games against a Russian squad that will include Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, sources tell the Star.

“We’ve been told that the PM would love to be involved. It’s as relaxed as that,” said a person familiar with Harper’s plans.

But sadly, the answer was nyet.

Early Monday, the PMO issued a terse communiqué that refuted the story.

“The Toronto Star is reporting that the Prime Minister will be playing in two exhibition hockey games against Russia,” the release stated. “This story is false.”

For obvious reasons.

Canada's Prime Minister has been known to coach a team of MPs who play in charity tournaments, but has said despite plans to write a book about the sport he isn't particularly gifted on skates.

Which I suppose is just as well eh? Because the last time Great Nerd Leader faced off against the Russians he made a complete fool of himself.

Later, when the Prime Minister was asked about the matter, he suggested that the Russian planes had actually entered Canadian airspace. “This is a real concern to us,” he said. “I have expressed at various times the deep concern our government has with increasingly aggressive Russian actions around the globe and Russian intrusions into our airspace.”

Then, as now, the inaccurate accusations were clearly not appreciated by the United States. NORAD commander Gene Renuart took the unusual step of publicly correcting the Canadian ministers. The four-star U.S. general told journalists: “The Russians have conducted themselves professionally; they have maintained compliance with the international rules of airspace sovereignty and have not entered the internal airspace of either of the countries.”

And of course it could have been worse. The two dictators could have challenged each other to a singing contest. Which would be unfortunate...for Stephen Harper. Because not only is Putin a better hockey player.

A student of martial arts, and for a very short man an intimidating presence.

He's also a better singer...

And what more can you say eh?

Except what are those crazy Cons up to?

And who will save us from this nerd ?

The Ugly Lockout and the Quiet Revolution.

2012-01-08T22:36:00.001-05:00

Golly. I don't think I'm going to have to consult my horoscope to find out where I'm going to be, and what I'm going to be doing on Saturday the 21st of January. Because I already know.

In London, Ontario, supporting these locked out Canadian workers.

And why am I so excited I'm marching around my house beating my drum already? Because I believe this ugly lockout will be a turning point in Canadian history, and will mark the beginning of the real resistance to the Harper regime.

For what more could we want eh?

A chance to take on a big greedy American company trying to grind a group of decent hardworking Canadians into the dirt and bust their union. After racking up record profits, and soaking up juicy tax breaks paid for with OUR dollars.

A chance to demolish Stephen Harper's phony credentials as a good money manager, the only thing he has going for him, by exposing his plans to cut corporate taxes as a job killing ponzi scheme.

At the very factory where he chugged around touting that scheme, and handing out the porky...

Choo. Choo. Choo. Oink !!! Oink !!!

A chance to send Great Failed Economist Leader, and his piggy friends, a strong message:

“Prime Minister Harper and his friends on Bay Street don’t seem to care about the livelihood of working Canadians, so we are going to raise enough of a ruckus that it will be impossible for them to ignore us.”

At a time when the Occupy movement has set the stage, by attacking corporate greed, and warning us about the nefarious activities of the one percent. Who would screw us blue, turn our people into slaves, and our society into a jungle.

Oh boy. Who could ask the stars to be better aligned in our favour? It reminds me of another famous union battle that changed the course of Canadian history.

When a greedy American company tried to crush its workers, only to win them the support of the population, create a new generation of political leaders, and spark a Quiet Revolution.

Now it's OUR turn. Seize the moment. The time of looking on helplessly while Harper and his Con goons demolish our country is over. The time for action has finally arrived.

Write about it, talk about it, spread the message of resistance. And if you can make it, and don't mind the sound of a loud drum.

And know the words to this song by heart like I do eh?

See you in London...

In Praise of the National Film Board

2012-01-07T23:22:00.000-05:00

When I was a young boy living in a Scottish village that didn't have a movie theatre, one of my teachers used to thrill me and the other kids, by hauling out an ancient projector and playing an educational movie.

And many of those movies were made by the National Film Board of Canada. I can't remember what they were about, except that it was always a magical moment. So I've been a fan of the NFB ever since.

In the mid-nineties I was horrified when the Liberals slashed its budget by about thirty percent. Every year its budget gets smaller and smaller. And I shudder to think what the Cons might do to it now that they have a majority.

Because it's a Canadian treasure.

As more evidence of that I offer up one of its latest little gems. It's called Wild Life. It tells the story of a young Englishman who sets out for Alberta in 1909, hoping to become a successful rancher.

Only to find out it was harder than he thought....

Yup. Please don't let the Cons destroy the NFB, like they are planning to destroy the CBC.

Because it's still making magic for me.

And it really is a Canadian treasure...

h/t Cartoon Brew

Stephen Harper Goes To War Again

2012-01-07T11:34:00.000-05:00

He's always been a nerdly chickenhawk. Posing as a Great Warrior Leader, inflating and deflating like a blimp, depending on the prevailing political winds.

He's never seen a war he didn't like, from the one in 1812 to the one in Libya, and now Stephen Harper is frantically flapping his stubby wings again, trying to pump up a war against Iran.

Which is particularly alarming, since tensions in the region are escalating, and the more political leaders talk about war the more likely it becomes.

The really frightening thing about the situation is not so much the military preparations but that so many are ready to discuss war as if it was a perfectly rational, and indeed likely, possibility.

Even though Iran can't cut off the flow of oil, not only because it depends on it to survive.

Blocking the straits would result in a total shutdown of Iran’s exports and imports; with 60 percent of Iran’s economy coming from oil exports, it would bring the government to a standstill.

But also because it can't.

Even though Iran has plenty of reasons to feel threatened.

And all this crazy war talk could play into the hands of that country's fascist theocracy, even as it teeters on the verge of collapse.

At the moment the regime's deep internal contradictions could be leading towards a revolutionary climax, the US and its allies are giving Khamenei a possible way out by allowing him to externalise the problem and claim that the Iranian nation is under attack from hostile foreign forces, rather than definitively changing from within.

Which not only would be an act of monumental idiocy, but could trigger a war that would set the Middle East on fire, lead to another wave of global terrorism, turn western countries into police states, and plunge us all into a brutal recession.

But of course, don't expect Stephen Harper to be concerned about any of the above eh? Or expect him to act responsibly, at a time when overheated rhetoric is the last thing we need.

Because he's just a tool of Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing settler regime. Benny and his gang want an excuse to attack Iran's nuclear installations. And Great Warrior Leader would do ANYTHING to please them.

And what more can you say eh? Except Stephen Harper is a dangerous leader.

Canada, and the world, won't be safe until he is defeated.

And of course, as always.

Oh oh oh it's a lovely war...

Stephen Harper and the Con Klown Show

2012-01-06T19:01:00.001-05:00

Well there he was today, posing in front of another carefully composed human backdrop, shrugging off the latest grim economic news.

Choosing instead to go after environmental groups and native people opposed to the construction of a pipeline.

While ignoring the many lobbyists from Big Oil who tell him what to do, and the many locked out workers in this country that are being ground into the dirt by big American companies.

And choosing the timing of his newser with military precision, check the time on the picture, in order to avoid having to answer questions about these latest porky appointments.

A spokesman for interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae said the timing of the announcement speaks for itself: It came Friday after 4 p.m. in Ottawa, so late in the day that it's difficult for newscasts to cover. The practice is common enough that it's referred to as "taking out the trash."

While back in Ottawa we discover that his minions have been playing wacky games in full combat gear.

Several hundred of the prime minister's staff donned full combat gear, pretended to visit an Afghan village, and sucked on name tags using straws in a zany day of games meant to build morale.

And imitating his corrupt Con government.

One of the amazing race teams was made up of senior executives, who soon set a bad example for their employees, the released material indicates.

"We regret to inform that the Executive Team was disqualified for falsifying their score card at one of the challenges," says one report.

Even as ordinary Canadians worry about jobs and pensions, locked out workers wonder how they are going to feed their families. And a small native community struggles to survive.

Can you believe that? Is this a government or a Con klown show?

You know, if the progressive parties can't agree to unite, and mobilize ordinary Canadians, we are going to have to do it ourselves.

Form a grassroots Coalition of National Salvation and fight those ideological incompetents as hard as we can, before they lead us to disaster and corrupt our country further.

Time to stop talking and start organizing and marching.

Time to ask Canadians, which side are you on ?

Ezra Levant and the Banana Drama

2012-01-06T00:39:00.000-05:00

Oh no. I knew Ezra Levant's obsession with Chiquita Banana would end badly. First he lost control of his senses, now he's lost control of his ~~bowels~~ mouth.

Winding up a 10-minute denunciation of the banana company’s decision to boycott oil from Alberta’s tarsands deposits, Levant signed off his Dec. 22 broadcast thusly: “Hey . . . Manuel Rodriguez, chinga tu madre.”

The epithet, widely used in Mexico but not in the rest of the Spanish-speaking world, means, crudely, to have carnal relations with your mother.

Now look I understand that "chinga tu madre" along with "otra cerveza por favor" are the only Spanish words most redneck hosers ever learn at a cheap resort in Mexico.

I also understand why Ezra would welcome ANY chance to flog the title of his "Ethical Oil" book. Over and over again. Even though its premise is hideously flawed.

The whole notion of ethical oil sets up a false dilemma because the very viscous Canadian crude needs to be cut with lighter oils from places like Saudi Arabia in order to be transported down a pipeline, says Chris MacDonald, a visiting scholar for the Clarkson Centre for Business Ethics at the University of Toronto. "So what's the point of having ethical oil if you are mixing it with this 'conflict oil'?"

Because SOMEBODY has gotta buy it eh?

I also realize that this story must have made that ridiculous oil pimp throw up into his ~~cowboy hat~~ fruity bonnet.

"Despite its boosters' advertising, this project is not about jobs or energy security. It is about money. And whenever my former employer Bechtel, working on behalf of TransCanada, had to choose between safety and saving money, they chose to save money," Klink wrote, adding that he witnessed the use of "cheap foreign steel that cracked when workers tried to weld it, foundations for pump stations that you would never consider using in your own home, fudged safety tests" and a surplus of other seemingly unethical safety hazards.

Because what good is "ethical oil" ..... if unethical safety standards" can KILL you?

But can the Star headline really be true? Did Ezra really tell the Chiquita exec to take HIS banana and shove it?

Because needless to say Chiquita is not amused...

And that could be UGLY.

Because judging from Ezra's tiny pudgy fingers, her banana is bigger than his.

But seriously eh? I'm willing to have a reasonable debate over Dirty Oil. Discuss ways to limit the damage, and save jobs. But let's keep it CLEAN.

Because I realize that Chiquita is also ethically challenged, but Ezra is doing nobody any favours by being so CRUDE.

And every time he goes bananas.

I get a craving for one of these...

Stephen Harper and the Great Choo Choo Run

2012-01-05T01:30:00.000-05:00

Well I see that Great Choo Choo Leader is trying to put some distance between him and the lockout at the Electro-Motive plant in London, Ontario.

Even though he once used the factory to shill his corporate tax cuts.

"This is a dispute between a private company and the union and we don't comment on the actions of private companies," Harper spokesman Carl Vallee responded Wednesday in an email.

The prime minister showed no such reticence on Mar. 19, 2008 when he visited the Electro-Motive plant to showcase a $5 million federal tax break for buyers of the diesel locomotive-maker's wares and a wider $1 billion tax break on industrial capital investment.

Now I can understand why Stephen Harper is running away from those job-killing tax breaks. Because it must be so embarrassing to be exposed as a total fraud. And he's such a miserable coward.

But why is he refusing to stand up for Canadian workers who are being treated like animals by an American company? Why does he hate Canada soooooo much?

Answer: because Caterpillar is Harper's kind of company.

Even Wal-Mart Stores Inc. can’t match Caterpillar’s resolve in dictating terms to its workers. The firm has a practiced skill at “taking a strike” for as long as required until workers straggle back to work across their own picket lines.

And on a single day in 2009, Caterpillar blithely laid off 11,000 employees, or 9 per cent of its global workforce. Like most U.S. employers, Cat has a hair-trigger for layoffs at the first sign of tough times.

And he's just as ruthless and as shameless as they are. Which makes Ray Vella's warning even more important.

"There's a lot at stake here," said Vella, a 23-year veteran. "This is not just us against them; this is for all workers across Canada. Because, if they can do this here, you're next."

Fight the Cons. Support our union movement. Stand up for Canadians. Tell the Caterpillar pigs to take a hike eh?

Or wake up one day, with the taste of cat food in your mouth, and despair in your eyes. In a country you don't recognize.

And the good news? Harper's little Choo Choo is running all over the main plank in his economic platform. And if we plaster his face all over this brutal lockout.

We can do the Cons some serious damage...

The Idiot Tale of Randy Hillier and the Bullies

2012-01-04T22:54:00.000-05:00

I realize that the Ontario Con Randy Hillier is a mouth-breathing redneck. I realize he's not the brightest bulb in the universe.

But even I could never imagine that he would make such a jackass of himself by suggesting that anti-bullying programs are bad for bullied kids.

Bill 13 is little more than a poorly disguised pacifier intended to create a perception that not only is the government acting, but is also compassionate and sympathetic toward children who are bullied. However, this policy will have dire consequences for those it is intended to benefit.

Unlike many of those who have announced support for Bill 13, I have read the complete bill and the relevant sections of the Education Act that it amends. Not only do I find the bill wanting, I’ve come to the conclusion that this bill is likely to exacerbate both the frequency and the injurious harm of bullying.

Because any stupider than that and you'd have to start communicating with him in monkey language. As in "Me Tarzan, you Cheetah." Or watering him like a weed. Or feeding him like a Venus Flytrap.

But what you do you expect eh? He's a Con. He believes that everybody is a bully. Human society is a jungle. And his hee haw diatribe is just another attack by the Hudak homophobes on bullied gay kids, and their straight friends in the Gay-Straight Alliance.

Bill 13 mandates creating a host of new school clubs which could identify people in the club as being: “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, transsexual, two-spirited, intersexed, queer (or) questioning.” Believing these clubs will minimize or end bullying reaches the zenith of downright stupidity.

Bill 13 does the exact opposite of what is needed. Rather than minimizing differences, it helps segregate and highlight the differences between people. The last thing a vulnerable child needs is more differentiation from others in the schoolyard. The result will be nothing less than painting a bull’s eye or target on their backs.

And just another attempt to pander to the ghastly prejudice of these religious bigots.

When in fact Bill 13 is a great piece of legislation.

And the only sad thing is that it came too late to save so many bullied children.

But at least Hillier does appear to dimly recognize his own limitations eh?

I realize these views are not politically correct and will bring scorn from the more “enlightened class,” but I also know that sticks and stones may break my bones — but names will never hurt me.

Hoo hoo, hi hidey ho, hee haw. Me Simon, you Bobo.

Somebody please tell that Con redneck that enlightenment is GOOD.

Tell him to shut his Venus Flytrap.

And go beat the ~~drum~~ doll slowly...

The Harper Cons and Our Hollowed Out Country

2012-01-03T20:14:00.001-05:00

It was -17 degrees in London, Ontario, today, where a foreign company has locked out 400 Canadian workers. To try to slash their wages and benefits by more than fifty percent, and gut their pensions.

And in Alma, Quebec, where another foreign company has locked out 700 Canadian workers, and is using the courts to club them like seals, it was even colder.

But don't worry eh? The big bosses in this country are warm and toasty.

And living high off the hog.

By noon on Tuesday, Jan. 3, the highest-paid chief executives officers in Canada will have earned as much as the average Canadian makes in an entire year, according to a new report.

“The conclusion from these data is inescapable,” says the report written by Hugh MacKenzie, an economist with the Ottawa-based non-profit research organization. “Soaring executive salaries have played a significant role in driving the growth in income inequality in Canada.”

Gawd. And I thought we were going through hard times because Big Business wasn't creating any jobs.

Just sitting on their billions, and gobbling up their juicy tax breaks.

So how DO those hogs do it?

Hey, who said we didn't need an occupy movement in this country?

How blind can they be?

And BTW..... who says the Tar Sands are Canadian?

Is THAT what Stephen Harper meant when he said Canada was standing proud?

Oh no. I'm going to have to take off Great ~~Nice~~ ~~Economist~~ ~~Pretty~~ Ugly Leader's nerd cowboy hat.

And replace it with something more appropriate...

Hollowing out our country. Attacking the union movement. Turning Canada into a prison state, and Canadians into foreign SLAVES.

You know if progressives don't unite to defeat these sellout Cons. By the time we get our act together, there won't be much country left to save.

Oh yeah. One more thing.

To the workers of this country who are out in the cold defending our values, and our DIGNITY.

In the words of one long-time employee at Electro-Motive Diesel, Inc. in London, "We make damn good locomotives."

Solidarity FOREVER !!!!!

The Harper Cons and the Race to the Bottom

2012-01-02T22:07:00.002-05:00

What would you say if you worked at Caterpillar's Electro-Motive plant in London, Ontario, and found yourself locked out?

Because you wouldn't agree to have your wages and health benefits cut by more than fifty percent, and your pension eliminated altogether.

Even though Caterpillar is making record profits.

Its CEO ain't doing too badly himself.

Stephen Harper greased Electro-Motive's wheels three years ago with a big wad of our tax dollars.

If London's Electro-Motive plant is closed and its jobs moved to Indiana, it'll be after having milked the benefits of a billion-dollar tax break once trumpeted on the plant floor by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

And like every other corporate giant in Canada, the company just got another juicy tax break from the Harper government. For doing less than nothing.

The latest figures from Statistics Canada through the third quarter of 2011 show Canadian business sitting on more than $583 billion in Canadian currency and deposits, and more than $276 billion in foreign currency.

Those cash reserves have climbed nine per cent since last year and 27.3 per cent since 2007, when the Canadian economy was booming and new corporate tax cuts were announced.

What would you say eh? What COULD you say?

Except Happy New Year corporate Canada !!!

The tax cuts are costing us jobs, services and much needed investment in municipal infrastructure, including transit, roads, and sewage treatment facilities. And corporate Canada is not delivering on its end of the bargain.

These no-strings-attached tax cuts are causing more harm than good - robbing the public treasury of billions of dollars - and yet the Harper Conservatives continue to ignore the facts and lie to Canadians about the benefits of corporate tax cuts.

And of course, thank you Stephen Harper, you corporate tool, for leading us on a race to the bottom.

Just like the Cameron Cons are doing in Britain...

You know I keep hearing a lot of Canadians say oh please don't criticicize capitalism, or I'll lose my stock portfolio and my pension. But I don't believe that for a moment.

The stock market casino doesn't give a damn about their penny stocks, or whether they kick it or blow it. And if people don't stand up to the Harper Cons, the greedy hogs will slash their wages, steal their pensions, destroy social services and medicare, and turn this country into a jungle.

For this isn't politics as usual, it's a class war.

And the only thing Canadians have to decide, in what promises to be the brutal year of 2012.

Is whose side are they on?

Stephen Harper's Office of Selective Bigotry

2012-01-02T01:09:00.000-05:00

Praise the Dark Lord. I see that Stephen Harper has a shiny new present for his religious base.

Early in 2012, the Tories will finally flesh out a campaign promise to install the Office of Religious Freedom within the secular confines of the Department of Foreign Affairs – a controversial pledge that has drawn accusations of vote pandering and blurring lines between church and state.

To whom he is beholden, for faithfully sending him the cash he needs to fund his Office of Perpetual Political Warfare.

To which I say Hallelujah and God bless his righteous majority.

But here's what confuses me eh? How can he stand up for religious freedom abroad, and ignore what is happening in his own Calgary backyard? Does he really support Ezra Levant's bigot excrement?

Is this the Office of Religious Freedom? Or the Office of Selective Bigotry Against Women, Gays, and Muslims?

What would he say to those in his religious base who would criminalize abortion, and sabotage efforts to protect bullied gay kids?

And would he really support a deranged wingnut like Artur Pawlowski?

Well here he is with Artie in March of 2009...

So you be the judge.

You know a lot of Canadians who believe that Stephen Harper can't be seen to be feeding his religious base, are forgetting one very important fact.

When Harper in his blood lust to destroy the Liberals decided to phase out subsidies to political parties, he also hurt his own Cons. Who were the biggest recipients of that money.

So when those subsidies are completely eliminated before the next election, he will need those looney loonies more than he ever has before.

And if he doesn't feed them, they won't feed him.

Yup. Stand up for freedom of religion by all means.

But who will protect us from the religious extremists? Who will save the bullied children?

And who will spare us from Stephen Harper?

The Horror of 2011 and the Hope of 2012

2011-12-31T19:06:00.000-05:00

(Click pic to enlarge)

I can't remember a more gloomy New Year's eve, grey, strangely warm, and eerily ominous. Last year, on the final day of 2010, I wrote this:

It was the worst of years. The year when the crazed tyrant Stephen Harper ripped a giant hole in the fabric of Canada, chewed on its heart and its liver, and lied through his bloody teeth.

So what could I possibly write about the even more horrible year of 2011? The year when a morally degenerate ideologue, and his band of American-style RepubliCons, seized control of the country I love and began screwing it into submission.

For who could ever forget this image, of one of those ghastly Cons firing imaginary bullets into the legacy of murdered women, and the bleeding side of the helpless opposition?

While his redneck colleagues banged their desks and shouted yee hah or hee haw !!!

Who could imagine that a Canadian government would be trying to turn us into a sinister prison state, and that only six months after Stephen Harper won his precious majority, in a parliamentary democracy we would be asking this question?

How could we ever forget that the reason Harper got that majority was because he managed to fool so many people, so many Canadians didn't bother to vote, and so many progressives couldn't see the forest for the trees?

Or the poison berries waiting to choke them...

Who could possibly accept that so many Canadians still cling to the illusion that it can't happen here?

Yup. I have to admit that my usual breezy optimism has taken a bit of a bruising eh? But fortunately in the darkness of Harperland there were enough shining moments to give me the strength to continue to resist.

For how could I ever forget the moving legacy of Jack Layton?

And how those stirring words brought out the best in me and so many others...

How could I forget the many victories of the gay movement in its long march to equality, or the beginning of the Great War on Bullies? After so many young lives lost.

And of course, how could I ever thank the Occupy movement, for inspiring me to believe that we can change the world? And renewing my determination to fight Cons, bigots, bullies, and the greedy grubbers of this world, harder in 2012 than I ever have before.

You know... if I could choose a city to be in at the stroke of midnight, I have to admit it would not be one in gloomy Canada. It would be Edinburgh, where the Scottish people are successfully resisting the Cameron Cons. And where after three days of partying and massive torchlight parades and concerts, the fireworks explode over the castle on the hill.

But since I can't, I'm going to watch this video and imagine the kind of party we're going to have right here in Canada.

The day our ghastly Cons are finally defeated...

My greatest fear is that I won't live to see that day, because I have to have an operation to repair my heart, that was damaged when I was a baby... in an Edinburgh orphanage.

But won't it be a beautiful day? And isn't a better world worth fighting for?

Thank you for reading my little blog.

Happy New Year everybody !!!!

Rob Ford and the Big Lie

2011-12-30T16:48:00.000-05:00

Well at least we know one thing eh? When Rob Ford called 911 because he felt threatened by the comedian Marg Delahunty. And then used the F-word when talking to a dispatcher, because police didn't come quickly enough.

It wasn't because they didn't know where he lived.

According to numerous police and emergency service sources, 911 calls to the mayor’s Edenbridge Dr. home are a reality for the South Etobicoke division. Exactly how many calls have been made is unknown.

Now I don't give a damn what goes on in the Ford household. In fact I'd rather not think about it.

But considering that he used the same dirty trickster whose organization went after Irwin Cotler, to help him get elected. Considering that he has shown himself to be a crass homophobe in a city full of gay people.

Considering that he is raising transit fares starting Sunday, AND reducing service. While riding to work in a van, and giving ordinary citizens the finger.

Considering that he managed to blow $60 million cancelling a vehicle registration tax. And at least another $60 million cancelling a light rail transit plan that had been years in the making.

But couldn't find about one million dollars to save three homeless shelters, including one for women.

So the number of soiled mattresses in this waterfront park just keeps going up...

As does the chance that some poor homeless person will freeze to death this winter, while the millionaire mayor sleeps in his warm and comfy bed.

Considering that like his good buddy Stephen Harper he's a hideous bully, and just about everything he says is a Big Lie.

From service cuts to layoffs of city workers to higher user fees for city services, every one of Ford’s election promises has been broken. Those on which he’s delivered have only dug us deeper into a financial hole.

Under his watch, City Hall is a tinpot dictatorship in the grip of a tough guy with a cult-like following backed (or is that created?) by a propaganda machine churning out one big lie after another.

Considering all of the above, the story about the 911 calls only reinforces what I already believed.

When you vote for a classless lout, you get the mayor you deserve.

And of course, no matter how hard you try.

You can't put lipstick on a hog...

Too bad we can't call 911 to save a great city, or a great country eh?

So we'll just have to do it ourselves.

Organize, UNITE, defeat those bastard Cons...

Stephen Harper and the War on the Unemployed

2011-12-29T13:57:00.000-05:00

You don't have to be a weatherman, or an economist, to know that a cold wind is blowing in Harperland, and that a recession could be just around the corner.

So what are the Cons doing? Answer: Planning to cut corporate taxes even more, and taxing our paycheques.

Canadians will see the biggest increase in payroll taxes in a decade next year, according to a Canadian Taxpayers Federation analysis of how many of your dollars will go to federal government coffers.The combined net increase of 4.84 per cent is the highest since 2002.

Even though businesses are just sitting on their money, instead of creating jobs. And if you miraculously manage to qualify for employment insurance, good luck collecting any benefits.

Hundreds of thousands of unemployed Canadians are waiting for the federal government to process their claims for employment insurance – a queue that newly released documents show has doubled since 2007 as Services Canada reduces its staff.

Many of the unemployed are turning up at Service Canada centres instead and are extremely frustrated. Service Canada workers in a number of cities are reporting receiving threats of violence.

And even if you do receive some benefits they don't last long.

Across the country, he said, less than 40 per cent of unemployed Canadians are drawing benefits from the fund they’re forced to pay into. In Ontario, the figure is less than 30 per cent. As the number of those receiving benefits falls, both the number of unemployed and the number of new claims filed rises...In Ontario, only 159,630 were getting benefits out of 592,700 unemployed workers.

So what are the Cons planning to do? Answer: Cut government departments by ten percent, which along with other job losses in the private sector, will almost certainly tip us into a full blown recession and make the E.I. lines even longer.

And why do they want to make those lines longer? Because the E.I. system is broken, but they've done nothing to fix it, and prepare us for a possible recession.

We have less manoeuvring room today than we did three years ago. Our budget is $30 billion in deficit, our employment insurance account has a $10.4 billion shortfall and we have the highest level of household debt in our history.

If Canada falls back into a recession — or if we’re already in one that hasn’t shown up in the statistics — millions of families will have no cushion.

But why would any Canadian government risk inflicting such suffering on its own people? Answer: Because Stephen Harper believes the unemployed should be shown no mercy...

"In terms of the unemployed, of which we have over a million-and-a-half, don't feel particularly bad for many of these people. They don't feel bad about it themselves, as long as they're receiving generous social assistance and unemployment insurance."

Stephen Harper 1997

And because, knowing him, he has probably calculated the more people he can force onto the welfare rolls, the poorer the provinces will be, and the easier it will be to privatize medicare.

Great eh? The ~~chickens~~ vultures have come home to roost.

So what do we say to the cretins who voted for the Harper Cons thinking they were good money managers?

See you at the food bank. Suckers.

Don't forget to take your credit card, or your welfare cheque to the hospital.

And of course, now that you're finally ready to join The Great Canadian Resistance.

Please sing along with John...

When the Religious Fight Each Other

2011-12-28T17:06:00.000-05:00

Well let's see...in Iraq the Sunni are bombing the Shia.

In Nigeria, the Muslims are bombing the Christians.

In Israel, secular Jews are battling the ultra-Orthodox.

And in the Church of the Nativity, where Jesus is said to have been born, the Christians are fighting the Christians.

With brooms...

Holy Moly. And what more can you say eh?

Except that judging from his expression, Jesus is not amused.

And where is Harry Potter when we need him ?

Fighting the Stigma of Mental Illness

2011-12-28T04:09:00.000-05:00

I was trying to think about something to blog about on this cold, wet miserable night. Then I read about the death of Joe Bodolai, the American who nurtured so many great young comedians in Canada.

Who killed himself the other day by drinking a mixture of Gatorade and anti-freeze, but not before writing this last post.

Which both stunned and saddened me.

Then I read Sabina Becker's reaction.

And it stopped me in my tracks. Because what puny words could I write about anything compared to something so honest and so powerful that moved me so much?

Especially this part:

Can we start, please, by just not stigmatizing mental illness anymore? Can we make it okay to talk about this taboo subject, to even laugh about the illness without mocking the sick ones, and not shrink away when someone mentions suicide?

For although I've never been afflicted by a mental illness, one of my close friends has a bipolar condition, and has suffered several psychotic episodes since I first met him in university.

So I know how much it hurts, I know how families and friends can be driven to despair and exhaustion. I've seen the inside of our overwhelmed mental health system, in all its horror and glory. And of course I have experienced the radiant joy of seeing my friend get well again.

But I've also seen how some people have treated him, since his last brief stay in a mental hospital a few months ago. I've noticed the little glances, the hesitation, the mistrust bordering on fear. Even though he is a kind, gentle guy, an awesome artist, and a wonderful friend, who has never hurt anybody not even himself.

Thank goodness he doesn't seem to notice, but I do, and it makes me so angry. I feel like grabbing some of those those ignorant people by their starched collars and asking them:

What is your problem stoopid? Don't you know it could happen to you? And if it happened to someone you love, would you help them?

And if you're so ignorant, HOW could you help them?

But of course the best way to smash the stigma is to talk about mental illness as honestly and as normally as we talk about any other human condition. Because it's about time.

And that's it eh?

So sad Joe.

Thank you Sabina...

Don Cherry's Horrible Year

2011-12-26T22:02:00.000-05:00

Well as you no doubt know Don Cherry has probably had his worst year ever eh?

All those NHL concussions, and all that terminal brain damage, have no doubt taken the shine off his rock'em sock'em videos.

Now even Raffi is going after him for being such a bully.

And I'm afraid it's only going to get worse.

“Geez, you never know what he’s going to say any more do you? He’s like a nutty uncle mowing the lawn in his underwear, isn’t he?,” James says.

But all I can say is he may be our nutty uncle, he may be a bully, he may be the leader of the Moron Nation.

But who knew he was so talented?

Golly that was good. I can hardly wait until he plays a zamboni.

Or better still RETIRES.

Play him out Keyboard ~~Cat~~ Man...

Citizen Peladeau and the War on the CBC

2011-12-26T16:17:00.000-05:00

Jumping Jiminy Cricket. I must have had too much booze soaked plum pudding eh? But when I saw that Pierre Karl Péladeau says his war on the CBC isn't a vendetta, I couldn't help thinking that his nose must be growing.

The media magnate insists that his crusade to force the CBC and its French-language arm Radio-Canada to release confidential data about their operations – including the salaries of Peter Mansbridge and other network stars – is not about politics or ideology. It is about taxpayer dollars, and how they impact Quebecor’s bottom line.

Because while it may be true that he's not political, he just wants to be the ~~Citizen~~ ~~Kane~~ Citoyen Péladeau of Quebec. And he doesn't care whether those who work for him are Cons, separatists, or former FLQ terrorists.

Surely he can't complain about taxpayer dollars, when his ruthless media octopus gobbles up so many. And surely he can't deny that his tacky little news network's main purpose in life is to destroy the CBC.

Because all you have to do is type "CBC" into their video search machine and you can see that for yourself.

Almost 160 videos in just EIGHT months. And I didn't even type in "state broadcaster" or the "axis of all evil."

But hey, maybe I'm wrong.

Maybe Kory Teneycke, Harper's former flak, sold Pierre Karl a bill of goods.

The idea for Sun News came from Kory Teneycke, Prime Minster Stephen Harper’s former communications director and now a vice-president at the network. He envisioned its role as a Canadian version of Mr. Murdoch’s Fox News Network – hence, the nickname Fox News North – pushing conservative causes and politicians.

Or a whopper...

Because if so he's in trouble eh?

In the third quarter this year, operating profits in Quebecor’s broadcasting division plummeted 77 per cent, primarily due to the launch of Sun News.

And then there is this other big consolation.

Who knew that Fox News North's drooling racist, homophobic, Quebec hating viewers, were actually supporting my beloved province?

Mr. Péladeau sees it differently. Quebecor Media is 45-per-cent-owned by the Caisse de depôt et placement du Québec, which manages the assets of the Quebec Pension Plan. Hence, what’s good for Quebecor is good for Quebec.

Or, as he puts it: “Working for Quebecor is like working for all of Quebec.”

Because that's enough to give most of the Blogging Tories a stroke, or a bad case of diarrhea.

Oh yeah. I bet their wingnut viewers would love to know that. I bet the Caisse would love to know that cowards like Chicken Lilley are going after bullied gay kids.

Fox News North... a fish by any name. Swimming down a smelly sewer.

Heading for oblivion...

What Christmas Means To Me. Once Again.

2011-12-24T14:20:00.000-05:00

I wrote this post two years ago, and although so much has happened since then, and we now live in the darkness of Harper's Canada, I see no reason to change it. So here we go again.

It's Christmas Eve, and once again I have to explain to my friends, that although I'm an atheist, and believe that our beautiful planet is our heaven and our hell.

And although I hate the shopping and the greed.

And although I know that it can be a lonely time for many, including all those gay people who have been rejected by their families.

I do love this time of the year. The lights, the colours, the snow, the food.

And all those sweet little stories that moved me when I was a child.

Like the one whose happy ending made me cry when I was nine-years-old, and was spending Christmas in hospital recovering from meningitis.

The story of the poor little old donkey and his friend, who was ordered by his father to sell him. But the only one who wanted him was a tanner... for his hide.

Until the kind stranger arrived...

Because even back then I loved animals, and I wanted the humble to inherit the earth.

And now that I know that there are so many of them.

Even in Canada...

I still do, more than ever. And I won't support any government that doesn't put them, and other poor Canadians FIRST.

And then there's the music...and the songs like this one that I used to sing...when I was a budding juvenile delinquent dressed up as an angel.

In a choir like this one...

The words still don't really mean anything to me eh? But isn't the sound of gentle humanity GLORIOUS?

Imagine what kind of beautiful world we could build if there really was peace and justice on Earth.

From me and my wonderful companion Sébastien, who makes me believe that we can build that earthly paradise, if we fight for it hard enough.

From our little old reindeer...

Who is still waiting impatiently for the first real snowfall to arrive.

And this year from my new friend at the Toronto Island's little Far Away Farm...

Who miraculously survived Rob Ford's evil plan to send him off to the glue factory.

To all my friends and readers who encourage me so much. Even when I don't deserve it.

Merry Christmas, Joyeux Noël, Happy Hannukah, Happy Holidays, Happy Festivus everybody !!!

Stephen Harper's Scary Christmas Message

2011-12-24T03:49:00.003-05:00

Oh boy. It was such a lovely evening. The setting sun glowed golden. And for the first time this winter it was cold enough to imagine it was almost Christmas in Canada.

But sadly that golden glow didn't last long.

For when I went home and put on the TV, I was quickly reminded that it was only almost Christmas in Harperland.

OMG. I don't know what was more scary. When he tried to smile by opening his mouth and baring his teeth. Or when he promised to "keep promoting the things that unite us as Canadians."

But it wasn't until I read Jane Taber, that I really started screaming.

Stephen Harper says the most fun he had in 2011 was winning his majority government. And now Canadians are seeing just how much fun he is having as he pushes through his long-promised agenda of political and justice reforms.

Because after reading the Sixth Estate's excellent if somewhat gloomy Christmas message.

This government has outlawed strikes, blown the national budget buying the better part of $100 billion in shiny new toys for the military, and expanded spy agency and police powers to the point that they can now freely monitor what emails we send and what Internet sites we visit without even so much as a warrant.And so far, they have only held a majority in Parliament for one year. We are at their mercy, and they have only just got started with us.

I also can't help be reminded that this is one Christmas present we gave ourselves. For being too dumb to UNITE.

Oh well, at least nobody can blame me for not trying to warn people eh? I tried, I tried. But of course nobody believed me. How many times have I heard "Oh Simon REALLY, don't exaggerate. They may be Cons, but this is Canada."

And how can I forget this stinging rebuke from Red Tory?

But you know what? I'm not sorry at all. I think my big mistake was being too SUBTLE.

I should have warned people about the dangers of a Harper majority by running this video instead...

But then you know what they say eh? He who laughs last laughs best.

Dear Santa, please bring me lots of books to read in prison.

Because it's going to be a long four years...

Chicken Lilley and the Sun News Bigots

2011-12-23T14:56:00.000-05:00

If they ever make a Canadian version of the classic movie Chicken Run, they're definitely going to have to give the lead role to Fox News North's Brian Lilley.

Because not only does he look the part, with an absurd pompadour instead of a cockscomb, but he's as cowardly as they come.

A few months ago when he was going on about how Nycole Turmel was a "separatist" and the CBC was the root of all evil, Martin Patriquin made him look like an idiot.

Brian has every right in the world to denounce radical left-wing fringe elements, real or imagined, in Canadian society. However, he might have taken a look in his backyard before getting all frothy. Had he done so, he’d note that QMI, Sun’s own press agency, which provides much of the content to the Sun chain of papers, regularly publishes the bon mots of one Jacques Lanctôt.

You be the judge as to whether Lanctôt qualifies as ‘radical’, based on his past: he was one of the driving forces behind the Front de libération de Québec (FLQ) and founder of the FLQ’s ‘Liberation cell’ that was responsible for the kidnapping of British trade secretary James Cross in 1970.

But so cowardly is Chicken Lilley that he didn't dare reply, not on his blog, not on the air. Instead he went after a softer target, Ontario's plans to protect gay kids from bullies. In a province where so many have died.

Kids like Jamie Hubley.

And almost got away with it until he ran into Warren Kinsella and got his feathers plucked.

Good for Warren.

Now I don't really care whether Chicken Lilley goes after the NDP or the CBC, or any other adult target. Because his ratings are so pathetic, and he's only preaching to the converted. But when that miserable coward goes after bullied kids, I draw the line.

The time has come to hold the ugly bigot and his hideous network accountable for their actions. You can file a complaint here.

Or better still hit them where it hurts.

Write to their advertisers and ask them do they support a company that employs FLQ terrorists? And if so why do they hate Canada so much?

Ask them do they really hate bullied kids?

This isn't a partisan issue it's a matter of human decency. Stop the Sun News bigots.

Let the children live...

Occupy Canada and the Great Darkness: My Video

2011-12-21T21:05:00.000-05:00

I visited St James Park the other day, about a month after the Occupy Toronto campsite was torn down. And not even the Christmas lights on the old gazebo, could brighten up the bleakness.

I much preferred it when it was full of gentle dreamers, talking about changing the world.

For long after this horrible year is history, I will always remember how after the horror of Stephen Harper's majority, and the tragedy of Jack Layton's passing, the birth of the Occupy movement made me feel alive again.

In the Great Darkness of Harperland, where so many look on helplessly as a sinister regime sets out to turn us into a prison state, privatize medicare, and sabotage all efforts to try to save the planet, it revived my will to RESIST.

Oh sure, like any other baby movement Occupy Canada has made many mistakes. Like when it tried to close down the port of Vancouver recently, and alienated some of its good friends in the union movement.

But its heart is in the right place. It's right to want to save the world. It's encouraging many young people to get involved in politics.

And in a country suffocating with apathy, this picture still haunts me.

So I agree with this guy.

If nothing else, Occupy Toronto has created an infrastructure for resistance at a time when resistance is as necessary as breathing.

And of course I agree with Stephen Lewis.

“We will not recognize the Canada that exists in 2020,” he said, exhorting progressives to do what he suggested Occupy has done: “Grit your teeth and go after these neanderthals and philistines.”

So I decided to put together a little video, with some pictures and videos I took, some pictures from others across the country, and some music from the Canadian folk group The Travellers.

To say thank you to Occupy Canada. For keeping my hopes for a kinder, gentler, better world alive. For saying Harperland is not Canada. This land is OUR land.

And daring to RESIST...

Fox News North and the Phony War on Christmas

2011-12-21T03:58:00.000-05:00

Well I have to hand it to the Cons at Sun News, because if it wasn't for them I'd never know that a brutal War on Christmas was raging.

Although so far most of the reports flowing in from the front seem depressingly familiar.

More like scary Lezra, and the never ending War on David Suzuki.

Although the ~~hairy~~ hoary windbag Charles Adler has tried to escalate the situation, by spouting off ad nauseam about "self loathing white liberals." trying to crucify Christmas.

And even warning Santa to watch his back.

But hey, that's why they call him an idiot, and them Fox News North.

And BTW I'm not worried about Santa.

Because I understand he's ready for ANYTHING...

Even though the gun nutz at the National Rifle Association have betrayed him cruelly.

Now I have to be brutally honest eh? I'm willing to celebrate ANY religious festival, as long as it doesn't involve shopping, as long as the religious don't try to kill me, and most importantly as long as there is FOOD.

So I'm quite happy to wish my Jewish friends Happy Hannukah, because quite frankly when I've got the munchies, I sometimes fear I might kill for a latke. And I'm STILL waiting for somebody to invite me to light a candle on a menorah.

As for my Muslim friends, I help feed them...um...pizza...during the hungry month of Ramadan. They bring me delicious stuff their mums make during the feast of Eid, so I figure I'm the big winner eh?

And when I don't know who is who, wishing people Happy Holidays seems totally reasonable to me.

However, I have to admit I'm just a tiny bit biased. Although I'm an atheist, I was raised to be a good Christian boy by my most excellent parents. And I am gay.

So when I hear the right-wing version of this seasonal classic.

I think I prefer this one...

Hey, hug the ones you love. Be kind to strangers, especially the poor and the lonely. Enjoy all that good food. Don't forget to save me some eh?

And Happy Holidays everyone !!!!

Religious Fanatic Attacks Poster of Virgin Mary

2011-12-19T16:03:00.000-05:00

Well I suppose it was too real to be tolerated. A poster of the Virgin Mary receiving a pregnancy test.

So a religious fanatic attacked it with a pair of scissors.

"This is Satanic, this is the ultimate Satanic attack, when Lucifer attacks his worst enemy, the Blessed Virgin.

"This particular church - so called - is run by a gay, feminist-type lobby. They claim to be Christian and yet they put up a blasphemous image of the Blessed Virgin, attacking her virginity and the fact that she was the mother of Christ, the God-Man."

Even though the poster's message was gentle and human.

The motivation for the poster was to get people to think about the social circumstances Mary faced when she found out she was having a child, he said.

"That she had been accused of having an illegitimate child, that she was a poor, young woman. This was a woman of tremendous courage and faith, she's not a sort of plasticised icon, someone who doesn't have human feelings.''

So why am I not surprised? The only thing that surprises me is that the religious fanatic didn't use a coat hanger.

And what would Jesus say?

By their ugly words we will know them.

By their violent actions we will judge them...

Is Cotlergate Stephen Harper's Watergate?

2011-12-19T15:15:00.000-05:00

Lordy. Isn't life unfair? Great Ugly Leader makes destroying the Liberal Party his singularly depraved obsession. And gets rewarded with a juicy majority.

While the poor guy who said this:

“We’ve done tens of millions of dials through our call centre and there’s never been any complaint launched against us,” Kouvalis said. “We’re in the business of getting Conservatives elected and ending Liberal careers. We’re good at it.”

Has to go on TV and insist that he's no reprehensible dirty trickster.

Just a paid political hitman...

Even if he can't stop bragging about it.

Of course, in the creepy Con war room I bet the mood is quite different eh?

In fact I wouldn't be surprised if the creepers were sticking pins into Nickie's dolly, for squealing too much.

And pulling out their own teeth.

And who can blame them eh? For who do you think gave the order to go after Irwin Cotler?

Let's see...who hates Liberals so much he'd do ANYTHING to seize the riding Pierre Trudeau once held? Who is so singularly obsessed with capturing the Jewish vote, he's nothing but a tool for Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing settler regime?

Who is so morally squalid he'd be willing to allow his flying monkeys to engage in all kinds of dirty tricks?

And so deluded with power he thinks he can get away with these crimes against democracy?

Does the leadership of the Conservative Party interpret the ruling as carte blanche to do more of this kind of “wet-work”? If this tactic were carried out on a broader scale, would anyone really think it is nothing more than sporting politics? (As an aside, do we really think the Speaker would have arrived at the same decision if the tactic was used against 50 or 100 opposition MPs?)

Like this guy thought he could...

Until the police followed the trail of tiny foot steps all the way to the ~~Oval Office~~ PMO. And he was driven from power.

Golly.You know what the BEST news is?

We don't have to destroy the careers of any Cons, because they usually do that to themselves.

In the meantime, just remember that if you think Christmas in Con Canada looks gloomy.

I bet Stephen Harper's Christmas is starting to look like a real NIGHTMARE...

The Oil Sands and the Banana War

2011-12-17T15:51:00.000-05:00

Oh. My. Monkey. It looks like Chiquita Banana is giving Canada's oil sands the cold shoulder.

The Canadian oil sands industry is facing an unlikely adversary in Chiquita Brands International, the banana company.

The Ohio-based company said it will work with environmental organization ForestEthics to eliminate shipping of Chiquita bananas with fuel from refineries that use Canada’s oil sands.

Which of course had Great Banana Republic Leader stewing in his own fumes.

“We will continue to work hard to get the real information out there. Obviously, this is misinformation. And the fact of the matter is the emission from our oil sands are comparable to other heavy oils and that the industry continues to invest and continues to find ways to reduce those emissions,” Harper told reporters in Toronto.

Harper said it is absolutely clear that the need for Canada’s oil is “just overwhelming.”

No doubt preaching to his fruity base.

According to a recent international poll, Canada has the highest number of citizens (22 per cent) of any economically advanced country who deny that human activity causes global warming. We can fairly presume the vast majority of this 22 per cent are in what we might loosely call the conservative world in Canada.

While Ezra Levant, the high priest of that ignorant rabble, was going...um...bananas...

Vowing NEVER to eat a Chiquita again, even if its fried in "ethical oil." While swinging from the roof of the studio. And no doubt blaming the CBC.

As for me I don't know what to say. An organization with a dubious past going after another with a dubious future. How ironic eh?

Except get used to it. Because now that Canada has proudly declared itself to be an environmental rogue nation, we're ALL going to pay for it.

A right-wing country full of climate change deniers, that is prepared to sacrifice the future of the planet for its short term economic interests, makes a real easy target.

Good one Cons. You idiots.

All hail Lord Fruitcake...

Play it again Chiquita...

Bradley Manning and the Horror of Haditha

2011-12-17T12:48:00.000-05:00

What perfect timing. Just as the U.S. ends its war in Iraq, not with a bang but a whimper. Bye bye Big Lie. Bye bye Shock and Awe. Bye bye mass murder. Bye bye Abu Ghraib.

In a junkyard near Baghdad, somebody came across the true horror of Haditha.

The 400 pages of interrogations, once closely guarded as secrets of war, were supposed to have been destroyed as the last American troops prepare to leave Iraq. Instead, they were discovered along with reams of other classified documents, including military maps showing helicopter routes and radar capabilities, by a reporter for The New York Times at a junkyard outside Baghdad. An attendant was burning them as fuel to cook a dinner of smoked carp.

The documents — many marked secret — form part of the military’s internal investigation, and confirm much of what happened at Haditha, a Euphrates River town where Marines killed 24 Iraqis, including a 76-year-old man in a wheelchair, women and children, some just toddlers.

To remind us that not ONE of the U.S. soldiers responsible has been convicted. And that just like the war criminals Bush, Cheney, and Blair they all got away.

With only a few regrets.

While in a court room at Fort Meade, a young gay soldier named Bradley Manning faces life imprisonment, after months of being tortured by his own country.

For the crime of telling the truth, and embarrassing the powerful.

It's disgusting, it's obscene, but I did like this:

Edward T. Hall III, 25, one of the founding members of the Occupy Wall Street movement, and several of his supporters sat in the seats behind Manning.

Manning "sent ripples of truth around the world an those created tsunamis of movements," Hall said in an interview. "He empowered us."

Just like he helped empower the Arab Spring by revealing the lies and the moral corruption of the region's rulers.

And I also liked how after Manning's lawyer was quoted as saying that his young client was "almost gone" after so many months of psychological torture.

Graham Nash, the legendary singer from the 70s, and James Raymond, the son of David Crosby, wrote this song for Bradley:

Damn the Big Lie. The truth will set us free.

Arrest the real war criminals.

Free Bradley Manning...

Con Canada and the Dirty Trick Gang

2011-12-16T15:34:00.000-05:00

Golly Sherlock can you believe this? The polling company behind those phony calls in Irwin Cotler's riding is feeling a little heat.

A trade association that represents Canadian marketing and polling firms says it is looking into complaints about controversial phone calls into Liberal MP Irwin Cotler’s Montreal riding made by one of its members.

So what does Nick Kouvalis the company's principal partner have to say about that?

“We’ve done tens of millions of dials through our call centre and there’s never been any complaint launched against us,” Kouvalis said. “We’re in the business of getting Conservatives elected and ending Liberal careers. We’re good at it.”

And look Sherlock there's more. It also turns out that the company not only worked for Speaker Andrew Scheer's campaign in the last election.

Its founder also managed House Leader Peter Van Loan's campaign in the 2004 election.

House Speaker Andrew Scheer’s dismissal of Liberal MP Irwin Cotler’s complaint that he was the victim of a dirty-tricks telephone campaign in his riding meant one of the top figures in the Conservative Party of Canada avoided being called to Parliament to defend his consulting firm’s role in the affair.

Which really makes me wonder about that ruling, and why Tubby Van Loan defended those dirty tricks in such a disgusting manner.

And as for Nick Kouvalis, I'm sure you remember this fake tweeter during Rob Ford's campaign for Mayor.

Who pretended to be a George Smitherman supporter only to smear him over and over again.

And then turned out to be a man.

The Twitter account was the work of the deputy communications director of Rob Ford’s campaign, Fraser Macdonald, and was created with one purpose in mind: getting the whole recording of a conversation between Dieter Doneit-Henderson and the candidate, in which Ford promised the fibromyalgia-afflicted man that he would “fucking try to find” OxyContin for him.

And what did Nick Kouvalis, Ford's Deputy Campaign Manager, have to say about that and a fake call to a radio show?

Kouvalis denied the anonymous call and fake Twitter account were “dirty tricks,” portraying them as a normal part of campaigns done by all sides.

Oh boy. In a column today Noah Richler wonders whether progressives should turn the table on these grubby Cons and their spinmasters.

Imagine if, not so long ago, Michael Ignatieff had responded to Conservative Party attack ads claiming “He didn’t come back for you,” by turning to Harper and saying, “What, you couldn’t get work anywhere else?”

Oh, for someone to turn this demagogic bunch awash in dirty tricks, but apparently immune to scandals, into the thing that would swiftly undermine them — a joke.

Which I must admit is tempting eh? But in this case I would prefer a public inquiry so we can find out what's really going on, and how far the Con rot has spread.

George Orwell once famously wrote that " in a time of universal deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act."

But I would rephrase it this way. In a time of dirty tricks and the Big Lie, only the truth can make us clean again.

Only the truth can save our country...

Stephen Harper and Our Broken Parliament

2011-12-15T19:15:00.000-05:00

I see that Parliament has adjourned with the Cons ~~gnashing their teeth~~ flapping their wings over what Justin Trudeau said yesterday.

“Bullshit!” he cried, his fury dramatically framed by flowing locks and sharply drawn facial hair.

“You piece of shit!” he added in Mr. Kent’s general direction.

But I thought Justin was quite restrained considering the circumstances. If I was him I would have added this...

Because Peter Kent deserves every stinky word aimed in his general direction. And if we're talking about contempt of Parliament, I thought this was definitely worse:
“Mr. Speaker,” claimed Mr. Van Loan, “our government is always performing in an open and accountable fashion.”

Emerging as it did from the speaking orifice of the ghastly little Con who has truly debased our democracy.

No mumbling the normal apologies about “overzealous workers, blah, blah, blah, won’t happen again, etc.” Instead, Canadians were told that this kind of grime should be considered vital free speech – and must be protected, not prevented, by our laws. Efforts to rein it in would have worse consequences than letting it continue. This was the sound of a politician who had left home without an ethical or moral compass that morning.

Like all the other Cons in Lord Harper's sinister regime, who are making a mockery out of our broken Parliament.

But having said that, the question for me is, what are we going to do about it? Are we truly prepared to spend the next four years looking on helplessly as our country burns, gnashing our teeth or biting our tongues?

I don't think so. I can't think of anything more pointless and demoralizing. I think both opposition parties have done what they can to stand up to the Cons in Parliament. But in a Parliament so broken it just isn't enough, and it will never be enough, for the Harper regime will never change.

The opposition parties need to do more than just play old politics. They need to take a page from the Occupy movement, mobilize progressive Canadians, and organize new forms of creative democratic protest.

It could be rallies and marches, YouTube campaigns, or whatever. Because anything is better than nothing. We should be outraged.

We Canadians need to learn to be outraged by the outrageous. We need to learn that democracy is now a full contact sport that requires us to repeatedly raise our voices in order to be heard, and not to wait for our turn to quietly mark an X on a ballot once every four years.

And the more we organize, the more we protest, the more we will expose the crimes of the Cons, the more we will force them on the defensive, and the more we will set the stage for defeating them in the next election.

Am I wrong? Are these not the most important questions facing progressives? Are we the REAL majority? Is our country not in terrible trouble? Should we just sit on our asses and bite our tongues?

Or should we do all we can to save it ?

Remembering the Blogger Bruce McDonald

2011-12-15T01:50:00.000-05:00

A reader reminded me tonight that it's been a year since the gay Progressive Blogger Bruce McDonald killed himself.

How time flies.

Although I never met Bruce, his blog Canuck Attitude, inspired me to begin blogging.

And since he died, I've written several post about him.

But this will probably be the last one, because what more is there to say eh?

Bruce and his blog are lost in the mists of time. Nothing will bring them back. And these are the only words of his that I managed to save:

I was hunted, and I was alone. So terribly, desperately, alone. When you're thrown against the lockers and getting punched out and your home room teacher is 50 feet away chatting with the Principal and Vice Principal and you know they can see what's going on and they turn a blind eye, you know you're alone in this world. It was pretty clear to me by the time I was 14 that I either had to find a new way to get along in this world because the situation I was in wasn't repairable, or I had to die.

I didn't want to die, but I had reached a point where there didn't seem to be another option. I've been held at knife point, I've been stabbed, I've had a gun held to my head, I don't know if it was loaded or not, and I've literally been hung by my ankles from a highway overpass as I stared into the seemingly uncaring windshields passing underneath knowing that not one of them would report anything.

But I will never forget those burning words. And I only wish he could have been alive today to see this truly amazing rally.

I wish he was still here so he could see how many people in Canada, including politicians, are taking bullying seriously. At last.

How we're finally winning the war on bullying. How it's finally getting better. Because we're MAKING it better.

But it didn't happen soon enough for him. Like it didn't for so many others.

Hey Bruce, I'm having a hard time remembering your great blog. But I'll always remember you.

I'll always remember how you used to call me "Grasshopper." What a nerve eh?

I'll always remember the sadness.

And that this was your favourite song...

P.S. If anyone out there is feeling very sad, lonely, and depressed, like so many people are at this time of the year. Please tell somebody who loves you, or just pick up the phone, because help is available.