In my last post I looked at how Andrew Scheer had been caught accusing the United Nations and Justin Trudeau of trying to erase Canada's borders. With what turned out to be a neo-Nazi meme. But it's worth recalling that he wasn't the first Con to go after the U.N. The ugly redneck MP Larry Miller got there first.
Well so much for Great Strong Leader, who would try to brainwash into believing that all we need to do to feel safe is to trust our fate to HIM. Trust that only HE can stop the terrorist hordes from beheading us in our beds. And allow HIM to turn Canada into a police state. So we can feel even safer... But now it turns out you don't just need Great Leader to feel safe, You also need a gun in the house.
It's hard to tell these days whether Stephen Harper is lying because he's desperate, or because he's lost his moral compass. Or on a day like yesterday, because he's simply delusional. He says he doesn't want to sound paranoid, but Prime Minister Stephen Harper is concerned his own federal bureaucracy is trying to bring back the long gun registry "through the back door." "I don't want to feed paranoia, but as prime minister I can tell you I share the frustrations of our caucus members," said Harper, before alluding to "bureaucratic initiatives that we think are effectively trying to put the long gun registry back in through the back door."
"This is not something we can tolerate."
In my sadness over the death of Nelson Mandela, and because I'm so tired, I forgot that Friday was the anniversary of a monumental Canadian tragedy. That on a snowy day in Montreal twenty four years ago, an angry man with a gun stormed through an engineering school and killed fourteen young women. Fourteen young women who were killed in Canada’s worst mass shooting were remembered on Friday amid repeated calls for more to be done to eradicate violence against women.
Well it seemed like a good idea at the time eh? Kill the long gun registry, screw those dead women, get the RCMP to hide the cost of destroying the records. And pleasure his rabid base. Because he thought they would be easily satisfied...
But unfortunately for Great Majority Hunter Leader they weren't.
If you want to know what Stephen Harper and his monstrous Con regime have done to this country, all you had to do was look around you today to see it in all its horror.
A Parliament shutdown by a Prime Minister to prevent the opposition from asking questions about a sordid scandal involving his own office.
Hundreds of scientists demonstrating outside, and all across the country, to demand that the government stop muzzling them.
As people in the shattered little town of Lac-Mégantic try to recover from the terrifying tragedy that struck their town. Try to come to terms with the fact that the bodies of many of their loved ones may never be found. As all over Canada people who live near railway lines wonder if they will be next. The Con chairman of the House of Commons transport committee says it's "premature" to discuss rail safety.
I'm sure you know how I feel about guns and gun violence. And how I feel about those who hurt children. So you can imagine how I feel about this horror. A heavily armed man opened fire inside a Connecticut elementary school Friday leaving 27 dead — including 20 children — and forcing students to cower in classrooms and then flee with the help of teachers and police. But for hours I wasn't able to write anything about it. I had to write about something else. Not because I was sad, although I was. But because I was so angry.
It's hard to believe that it's been 23 years since their lives ended so suddenly and so brutally. Their faces still stare out at us, so young and full of hope. If they had lived some of them might have kids in university today. And some of their daughters might be studying to be engineers, striding confidently down a road that their mothers helped pave. For let's never forget that they were pioneers, proud young women making a place for other women, in a male dominated profession. And that's why Marc Lepine killed them.
The federal government’s plan to destroy all data from its long-gun registry is unconstitutional, a judge has ruled, giving Ottawa 30 days to hand to Quebec records collected from the province’s gun owners.
“Quebec didn’t embark in the project of setting up a registry knowing that it would later be deprived of the fruit of its co-operation,” the judge wrote in a 42-page decision.
He has violated our Canadian values from the very moment he came to office. He is turning us into a crazed prison state. He says he doesn't want to re-open the death penalty debate. But he WOULD like to hang some Canadians.
Because he is a vengeful nerd. And he does like to see fear in the eyes of others.
So why should anyone be surprised that Stephen Harper would appoint a Senator like this one?
“Each assassin should have the right to a rope in his cell to make a decision about his or her life,” senator Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu told reporters ahead of a meeting of the Conservative caucus on Wednesday.
A "tough on crime" Senator who would break the law by encouraging suicide. In a country where suicide is a huge problem, not just in our jails, but also in our schools, and our native communities.
For more than five years, in my humble way, I tried to illustrate what the horror of a HarperCon majority would mean for Canada. I made this photoshop three years ago.
But they got their preciousssssss majority, and now like a pack of hungry zombies, they are totally out of control.
They are tearing the flesh off our parliamentary democracy, they are trying to turn us into an insane prison state. They are torching the planet in the name of Big Oil.
And of course, I've tried to illustrate that too...
I'm glad the Harper Cons weren't invited to this sad ceremony on Parliament Hill.
For how could those grotesque Cons mourn those murdered women? When they are greasing up their guns to murder their legacy.
“Even as we mourn the 14 women killed at l’École Polytechnique, this government is taking the last remaining safeguard off the very weapon that murdered these women,” Ms. Turmel said. “The Conservatives are recklessly dismantling the only positive thing to come out of the tragic events of Dec. 6.”
Spitting on their graves, and shattering the lives of those who loved them, and along with so many others worked so hard for 22 years to make Canada a safer place.
I see that the bill to kill the long-gun registry has passed second reading in the House of Commons. And what an ugly sight it was. The Cons on their feet yelling "Yippee" and "Yahoo" like a bunch of drunken rednecks.
I've already written a post about my feelings on this issue. So I'll leave it up to Sabina and this righteous cowboy to say what needs to be said.
And all I'll add is this:
(1) I will never apologize for wanting a kinder, gentler world with less guns and less violence. For that's what being a progressive means to me, and so does being a Canadian.
(2) I will never forgive the Cons for endangering the lives of police officers, paramedics and other first responders. Some of whom are my friends. By depriving them of a useful tool to take guns out of the hands of criminals, the mentally ill, and men who kill women.
(3) I will work tirelessly to unite the left, and join the struggle to redistribute seats in this country, so a small group of rural gun nutz can't tell most Canadians who live in cities how to live their lives. Just because they're too dumb, too greedy, or too paranoid to put the good of society before their selfish interests.
(4) Once again I am proud to come from Quebec the last bastion of Canadian values.
Quebec has opened up a second front in the fight against Ottawa’s law-and-order agenda, refusing to pay for higher prison costs flowing from a federal omnibus anti-crime bill and blasting the legislation as counter-productive.
The Quebec government is also in a dispute with Ottawa over its decision to kill the long-gun registry, suggesting it will go to court to get the information it contains on gun ownership in the province and set up its own database.
And if that great people ever decide they must leave Canada to preserve those values, I will gladly go with them. For I do not consent to live in a country with the values of rural Alberta. Or Alabama.
And finally, as I said before, I will never forget the murdered women of the École Polytechnique, whose precious legacy was the gun registry. That legacy has been trampled upon by the Cons, who believe that a woman's place is in the kitchen, or on her knees with her mouth open.
It has been betrayed by the indifference of progressives, too old or too tired to fight the good fight. Or remember what the struggle for women's rights is all about.
But I won't forget those murdered women, or all the others killed by violent men with guns. We will fight those Amerikan Cons forever.
And we will remember...
Oh yeah.... one more thing. Gun nutz please don't bother sending me any comments, for I will delete them upon arrival. Save your spit to oil your rifles.
You didn't really think you could threaten the lives of others, destroy a data base, and get away with it did you?
Enjoy your smelly little victory you ghastly Con teabaggers, for it will not last long...
If you've followed my little blog over the years you know how I feel about the long-gun registry. So you can imagine how I feel tonight.
Stephen Harper has begun the process of shuttering Canada’s long-gun registry, tabling a bill to scrap a database on firearms owners that for rank-and-file Conservatives stood as a powerful symbol of everything that’s wrong with big government.
Determined to drive a stake through the heart of the registry, which cost more than $2-billion to establish, the Tories are going so far as to destroy the data.
“They’re upstanding citizens who work hard. They take their kids and grandkids out hunting and shooting and those kids, by the way, probably aren’t involved in gangs in the streets,” she said.
“These are good salt-of-the-earth people and for so long they have had really nobody in government who has been able to make any changes on their behalf.
As if they're upstanding citizens and those who live in cities i.e. most Canadians, are criminals. As if we should feel sorry for those too cheap, too dumb, or too paranoid to fill out a form. And register a gun like they register so many other things.
As if it was all about criminals instead of helping to protect the lives of police officers and paramedics. As if it was all about farmers and hunters instead of mental illness.
Or domestic abuse:
Or protecting the lives of women.
As if the Cons aren't the real criminals for endangering the lives of so many Canadians.
As if their decision to destroy the data wasn't an outrage against democracy.
Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said today that all the records of the gun registry are being destroyed for one reason -- to thwart future, more gun-registry-friendly governments.
And Stephen Harper wasn't a crazed authoritarian.
From last week, in the House of Commons:
(Stephen Harper) Mr. Speaker, the law of our constitutional system is extremely clear. A previous government cannot bind a future government to its policy.
Or a lying maniac who would do ANYTHING to change Canada beyond recognition.
But of course what bothers me the most is the way those misogynistic Cons are defiling the memory of the murdered women of the École Polytechnique...
And all those who worked so hard in their name to make Canada less of a gun-friendly society. A gentler, safer place.
How soon people forget the horror of gun violence...
But I won't forget. I vow tonight that however long it takes, however hard the struggle, that I will work to unite progressives, defeat the Cons, bring back the registry, and take back my country from those rabid teabaggers who would turn it into Amerika.
Oh boy. Tomorrow I'll be angry. Tonight I'm thinking of those poor murdered young women, and all those who loved them.
There was snow on the ground, and freezing rain in the trees.
At the school in the shadow of the Mountain, it was the last day before the holiday break.
Until, without warning, everything changed forever...
Twenty-one years ago. Fourteen women dead. Killed just because they were women.
For decent Canadians it's a day of sorrow.For Stephen Harper's misogynist Cons it's just another day of shame.
"The reason I came to this was because the Conservatives were not part of it. If they would have been part of it, I would not have come."
"I don't think they have any right to commemorate Dec. 6 because they've done everything they can to destroy one of the main good things that came out of the tragedy, which is the gun control law."
For me, one of the few good things that happened this year was that we were able to save the gun registry. And preserve the precious legacy of those poor murdered women.
Because as Sabina Becker at News of the Restless reminds us, it's not good enough just to mourn them. Every day is their day. And the struggle continues.
You can run us down with horses, or gun us down with Rugers--we are still here. You can mouth platitudes while slyly trying to take away what we have won, but we won't let you. We are onto you. We reject your "respect" and your "appropriate" tokenism. We are still grieving, still raging and still fighting, because deep down in our blood, we know we are not equal yet.
And we are not going the hell away.
Yup. The struggle continues. I'm just an ordinary guy, with all the strengths and strutting weaknesses of my gender. Sometimes I can be great... on a bike. Sometimes I'm ridiculous. And I still get into too many fights.
But I hate guns. I believe in a kinder, gentler world where EVERYONE is equal. I won't be free until my sisters are.
Much was said and many insults were thrown around in the 16-month debate over the future of the long-gun registry. But Public Safety Minister Vic Toews’s remarks in Question Period – just hours before the vote – have drawn the most controversy, especially from a trio of Liberal women who have witnessed such “bully-boy” tactics before.
Ms. Neville characterized the Public Safety Minister’s response as “disrespectful to the women of this country.” She noted this sort of comment is not new to Mr. Toews.
Oh no. Gag me with a pork chop. John Ivison is so stimulatedaroused impressed by Candy Hoeppner he's declaring that porker loser a WINNER.
As Candice Hoeppner stood up in the House of Commons this afternoon to defend herself against Liberal accusations that her fight to scrap the long-gun registry effectively condones domestic violence, it reminded me of a British drama that appeared on screens over here recently.
The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard featured a perky blond supermarket manager, angry at the state of politics, who decides to run, gains national attention and ends up as Prime Minister of Great Britain
Can you believe that? Down John down. She may be a hooker for the gun lobby. But she's got STANDARDS. Oink. Oink.
C'mon let's get SERIOUS. Despite all the money the Cons spent on her campaign, Candy "I'd kill Bambi" Hoeppner failed to deliver the cold dead body of the gun registry.
She spent so much time out of the country Vic Toews had to put on a blonde wig and pretend he was her. And she's lucky she wasn't arrested for fraud, for claiming it really really REALLY was a private members's bill. Shame on her.
I mean don't morals count for ANYTHING anymore?
And I doubt we'll be seeing too much of her after this debacle. Did you see how Stephen Harper treated her on the staircase?
Although he repeated himself at least THREE times, he didn't give Candy a chance to say a WORD. She just had to stand there. And then follow him meekly up the stairs. Like a good Con wife.... or a handmaiden.
But then we know what Stephen Harper thinks of women eh? Too bad Bambi Candy doesn't. The IDIOT.
And then there are all those other reasons why the Cons lost big.
(1) It's never a good idea to try to pit rural Canadians against urban Canadians, when the latter make up EIGHTY per cent of the population.
(2) We haven't even started to target the Cons from urban areas who betrayed the wishes of their constituents. And boy are they going to get it. Why DO they hate women soooooooo much?
(3) The Con MP's in Quebec were already the walking dead or Zombies. Now they're just dead. And without Quebec the Cons can FORGET about a majority.
(4) It's hard enough posing as crime fighters and going after invisible criminals. So imagine how hard it's going to be now that they have to explain why they hate police officers soooooooo much. Isn't threatening the lives of cops a crime? Why do these Cons want to make our streets slippery with blood? Are they the real criminals?
(5) The gun registry debate made Michael Ignatieff look like a strong leader.
When Mr. Ignatieff is not tentatively jabbing at his opponent, he often swings wildly—sweeping overhand rights that finish a foot or two off the mark and leave the Liberal leader off balance and prone for a counterattack. Here, though, was a sharp right hook, a tight, finely aimed blow to the chin.
And, lo and behold, it seemed legitimately to stagger Mr. Harper.
And it made the NDP look like a party that listened.
Which to me sounds like a win win situation.
(6) Stephen Harper's attempt to pit Canadian against Canadian in a country as fragile as this one, has only made him look even more like a dangerous maniac. Or an AMERIKAN.
And only fired up our desire to get rid of him and his foul AmeriCons.
Now somebody please tell Candy the bad news...
Because the brutal truth is the Cons have shown their ugly divisive faces.
The country can't afford them any longer, if it wants to remain one country.
In the next election it's now Canada versus Amerika.
It was a beautiful day in the Great White North. The kind of early fall day I love. When the wind is cool and fresh, and my Canada so peaceful and beautiful.
But all I could think about was the clock on this sinister Con site, ticking down to the vote on the gun registry.
And how I wish I could get the news it had been saved, while sitting under a tree at this monument in Montreal to the murdered women of the École Polytechnique.
Or sitting in the gallery of the House of Commons with the amazing woman whose battle to try to extract good out of tragedy has helped make Canada safer.
“The gun registry is the one good thing that came out of the Montreal tragedy,” Laplante-Edward said. “It is a monument to our daughters.”
“We did not do this for ourselves – our loss is permanent. We worked so that others would not have to live through the hell we experienced – and still do.”
I support the gun registry because it works, and I believe it contributes to saving the lives of police officers, women, and all kinds of other Canadians.
But I feel so strongly about it because to scrap it would be to dishonour the memory of all those women murdered on that terrible day.
Long past midnight the police spokesman came in and told us, in French: “We have 14 dead. They are all women.” I turned to Marie-Claude Lortie, a colleague from La Presse, and we hugged, briefly and silently, to try to ease our pain.
The pain of parents and survivors of Marc Lepine’s murderous rampage brought us the long-gun registry.
And because killing the registry would deal a brutal blow to the gentler, less violent society, that so many people like Laplante-Edward have worked so hard for so long to create.
Far too many gun lovers too lazy, dumb, or paranoid to fill out a form, seem to have forgotten where they live. In a country called Canada not Amerika. Where guns are a privilege not a right.
Five years later, the Supreme Court beat back a bid to establish that Canadians have the same constitutional right as Americans to possess and use firearms. Not so, the court ruled. It said gun ownership is not a right in Canada. It is a privilege and, properly, a heavily regulated privilege.
Unfortunately some of the craziness called America has leaked across the border. Some of our gun nutters are now no more than teabaggers.Who love their guns more than they love our values.
Which is why today's vote is really a vote about the kind of country we want to live in.
And a test for the opposition.
The vote will not precipitate an election; it is a private member's bill, after all. But it will set the tone for the fall. It will signal how hard the Harper government will try to push Parliament — and how far Parliament will consent to be pushed.
We have been pushed long enough. Those foul Con bullies think that we are weak because we are decent. But we are only weak because we are divided.
And now is the time to unite and push back.
Starting with the gun registry vote today, we will begin to take our beautiful country and its values back from the death grip of Stephen Harper and his Con thugs.
And at the same time send a message to the gun nutter teabaggers.
“Guns kill not only bodies but also souls.”
We don't want to live in your kind of country. We want to live in Canada not Amerika.
