Tag Archives: Stephen Harper

It will take more than petitions to stop Harper’s thirst for power over CBC

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Petitions are seldom an effective method of achieving change, unless they are accompanied by other, more effective actions.

No 738 Posted by fw, May 06, 2013

“If on-line petitioners and other organizations are really concerned about the future of the CBC, their time would be better spent developing more effective campaigns. They could form one umbrella movement for a CBC campaign. If they have a difficult time coming up with an effective strategy, an experienced organization like as Greenpeace International would be able to advise them. What is needed is a fully developed plan that has a variety of tactics.” —Nick Fillmore

Activist Nick Fillmore explains why he thinks petitions are a waste of time. Click on the linked title to read his original article or read the reprint below.

Petition photo

Petitions next to useless in campaign to defend CBC by Nick Fillmore, A Different Point of View, May 6, 2013

At least half-a-dozen petitions aimed at stopping Stephen Harper from taking control of the CBC are buzzing around the Internet. Pressure groups are putting a lot of effort into this campaign, but the question is – does sending petitions to Ottawa have any effect on the Conservatives. Are they just wasting everyone’s time?

The many petitions contain all the right language:

“Prime Minister Harper is using his latest budget bill to seize unprecedented power over the CBC,” say Friends of Canadian Broadcasting and LeadNow in a joint appeal. “Independent public media is a cornerstone of a healthy democracy, and we cannot stand by and let the CBC be silenced and controlled for partisan political gain.”

“The government would be able to have dictatorial control over the terms and conditions of employment of non-union staff — and any collective bargaining among unionized staff — at the CBC and Radio Canada,” says a petition started by SumOfUs.

These and other petitions rightly attack the federal government for brazenly over-stepping its mandate in regard to the CBC, a supposedly independent Crown Corporation. However, both the public and organizations that lead campaigns need to revisit history and be reminded of which tactics do, and do not, work.

Petitions delivered to the government in the House of Commons are seldom an effective method of achieving change, unless they are accompanied by other, more effective actions.

Conservative groups do influence the Conservatives on right-wing issues. The way the Canadian Taxpayers Federation bombards right-wing governments across the country pays off.

Internationally, groups such as Avaaz, with 21-million members worldwide, claim that the huge petitions they circulate, concerning issues such as helping to save elephants in Thailand, are effective. Celebrities such as Al Gore say their work is important.

In Canada, petitions supporting progressive causes do not count for much in Ottawa unless the public also happens to strongly support the same cause. LeadNow and SumOfUs have channeled more than 86,000 messages to Harper opposing the Canada-China Foreign Investment Protection Agreement. At the same time, tens-of-thousands of Canadians have expressed their opposition to the deal in other ways, so the messages may not have been very influential.

Harper has had the destruction of the CBC high on his ‘To Do’ list for decades. Diminishing the power of what Harper sees as an aggravating, liberal-minded, taxpayer-funded force would be a viewed by right-wingers as a great victory.

Organizing only petitions is a half-hearted measure that does a disservice to the progressive movement. 

Unfortunately, poorly thought-out petitions can have a negative impact on some people who really care about issues. Those who sign on are hopeful that they have made a contribution to the cause. But, in the case of the CBC petition, it is false hope. When the petition has no impact whatsoever, they’ll resign themselves to defeat.

If on-line petitioners and other organizations are really concerned about the future of the CBC, their time would be better spent developing more effective campaigns. They could form one umbrella movement for a CBC campaign. If they have a difficult time coming up with an effective strategy, an experienced organization like as Greenpeace International would be able to advise them. What is needed is a fully developed plan that has a variety of tactics.

For instance, if some of those same people who signed the CBC petition clogged up the communication lines and shut down the government for a day once a week for a month – I bet Harper would pay attention!

Footnote: When most Internet campaigning organizations launch on-line petitions they’re concerned about more than bringing change. They also want to collect the names and email addresses of as many people as possible so they can contact them later to ask for donations to support the group’s activities. For some groups, there must sometimes be the temptation of launching petitions that are particularly popular with the public to make sure new names for fundraising are generated.

Nick Fillmore is an award-winning investigative reporter and a founder of the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ), Nick was a news editor and producer with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for more than 20 years.

SEE ALSO

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog, Citizen Action Monitor, may contain copyrighted material that may not have been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. I claim no ownership of such materials. Such material, published without profit, is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues. It is published in accordance with the provisions of the 2004 Supreme Court of Canada ruling and its six principle criteria for evaluating fair dealing.

Pundit Allan Gregg’s “scary assessment of the Harper Government”

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Instead of reason, Harper Tories encourage “prejudice, fear and wishful thinking”

No 733 Posted by fw, May 01, 2013

“Alas… it seems as though our government’s use of evidence and facts as the basis of policy is declining, and in their place, dogma, whim and political expediency are on the rise…. Even more troubling, especially from the perspective of a public opinion researcher, is that Canadians seem to be, if not buying it, certainly accepting it.” —Allan Gregg

In a 39-minute speech at the annual convention of the Alberta Federation of Labour on April 27, 2013, “Long-time Tory pollster and strategist Allan Gregg ripped into the Harper Government … for what he termed its ‘systematic attack on evidence-based research.’” Below is journalist David Climenhaga’s selected highlights of the speech. Click on the linked title to read David’s original account. Or read the following reprint with added subheadings. In addition, there are SEE ALSO links to an embedded video of the complete speech at the end of this post along with a link to a transcript of a 2012 version of Gregg’s speech.

Former Tory Strategist Allan Gregg Rips Harper Cons’ ‘Systematic Attack’ On Facts And Reason, by David Climenhaga, Alberta Diary, April 30, 2013

Gregg’s “eye-popping” attack on Harper ignored by Alberta’s mainstream media

Long-time Tory pollster and strategist Allan Gregg ripped into the Harper Government on Saturday for what he termed its “systematic attack on evidence-based research.”

But since Mr. Gregg was speaking to the annual convention of the Alberta Federation of Labour, his startling comments went completely unremarked by Alberta’s mainstream media – notwithstanding the readily available “local angle” of an Edmonton native who did well in the big cities down east returning to his old stomping ground for a few hours.

Back in the day, Mr. Gregg was an influential pollster for the then-still-Progressive Conservatives under prime ministers Joe Clark and Brian Mulroney, and a proponent of negative political advertising. He is credited with having devised the cruel images of Liberal Jean Chretien that went so badly awry for the Conservatives in the 1993 federal election. Perhaps that is why by 2001 Mr. Gregg had undergone a much-publicized change of heart on that topic.

Nevertheless, Mr. Gregg’s harsh view of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, given his history of service to Canada’s Conservatives, was eye-popping – although it is perhaps less so when one considers the fellow has made his money for decades toiling in the field of public opinion research, which inevitably encourages a certain respect for measurable facts.

Harper replaces evidence and reason with “dogma, whim and political expediency”

Indeed, that background no doubt informed his view that “effective solutions can only be generated when they correspond with accurate understanding of the problems they are designed to solve. Evidence, facts and reason, therefore, form the sine qua non not just of good public policy, but of good value.”

Alas, as Mr. Gregg told the 500 or so trade unionists at the AFL conference, “it seems as though our government’s use of evidence and facts as the basis of policy is declining, and in their place, dogma, whim and political expediency are on the rise.”

It’s even more troubling that accepting Canadians are allowing Harper to get away with it

He added: “Even more troubling, especially from the perspective of a public opinion researcher, is that Canadians seem to be, if not buying it, certainly accepting it.”

Harper’s track record in gutting evidence-based government

Mr. Gregg cited a long list of evidence-based government activities that have been gutted by the Harper Government – often saving only insignificant amounts of money – since 2010.

  • The rampage, he noted, began with the notorious abandonment of the mandatory long-form census. “Why would anyone forsake these valuable insights and the chance to make good public policy, rather than bad public policy, under the pretense that rights were being violated when no one ever voiced concern? Was this a crazy one-off move … or was there something larger going on?”

It was pretty quickly clear to Mr. Gregg – as it was to many of the rest of us – that there was indeed something larger going on.

  • The demise of the long-form census was followed by the destruction of the national long-gun registry, despite the pleas of virtually every police chief in Canada that it be saved. After that, under cover of an austerity budget, there were massive cuts to Statistics Canada, Library and Archives Canada, science and social science activities at Parks Canada, the Parliamentary Budget Office, the CBC, the Roundtable on the Environment, the Experimental Lakes Area, the Canadian Foundation for Climate Science and so on.

Harper offers no evidentiary basis for multi-billion-dollar spending boondoggles

At the same time, the government proposed multi-billion-dollar spending where the evidence didn’t support it – as in its penitentiary-building spree. “This flew directly in the face of a mountain of evidence that suggested that crime, far from being on the rise, was on the decline,” noted Mr. Gregg. “This struck me as costly, unnecessary. But knowing the government’s intention to define itself as tough on crime before all else, once can see, at least ideologically, why they did it.”

Harper deliberately attempting to obliterate legitimate government programs and eliminate opposing voices

However, he said, “when the specific cuts started to roll out, it became clear that something else was starting to take shape” – something that went beyond mere ideology.

“This was no random act of downsizing, but a deliberate attempt to obliterate certain activities that were previously viewed as a legitimate part of government decision making,” Mr. Gregg stated. “Namely, using research, science and evidence as the basis to make public policy decisions.

“It also amounted to an attempt to eliminate anyone who would use science, facts and evidence to challenge government policies,” he added.

Harper’s Orwellian use of misleading titles for legislation and dissemination of misleading information

Mr. Gregg also assailed the Harper Government’s use of intentionally misleading titles for legislation – which often do the opposite of what their names declare, as in the case of the Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act, which will result in more pot smokers being thrown behind bars.

“In George Orwell’s 1984, the abandonment of reason is twinned not simply with unthinking orthodoxy, but also by the willful dissemination of misinformation,” he said. “Today, more and more, we see the same kind of misdirection and Newspeak in the behaviour of our legislators.”

Harper wants to hide the true purpose of legislation behind Doublespeak

So why does the Harper Government want to disguise the substance of its legislation, Mr. Gregg asked, when a “fulsome and rational debate” would help Canadians make the best decisions? The pretty obvious answer: “By obfuscating the true purpose of laws under the gobbledygook of Doublespeak, governments are admitting that their intentions probably lack both respect and support.”

His explanation in the case of the Harperites: “I do believe that this particular government is pursuing a not-so-hidden agenda that few truly understand. It starts from a premise that the Canadian political spectrum has over-swung in a direction of liberalism.”

Harper is out to “systematically right what they see as this wrong.”

Mr. Harper and his government, the pollster argued, intend to “systematically right what they see as this wrong.”

“Their problem is, notwithstanding the fairly widespread consensus around the orthodoxies of balanced budgets, market economies, open trade which does exist and is embraced by the public today, Canadians by and large still believe in tolerance, compromise and egalitarianism.

“Policy for them should be based on conviction, and not bloodless statistics. Governments should be guided by what they believe is morally right, and not by reason and rational compromise. From this view, science, statistics, reason, and rational compromise are not tools of enlightened public policy, but barriers to the pursuit of swinging that pendulum back to where they believe it belongs.

Devious Harper uses “stealth and circumvention” in place of “transparency and directness”

“So to realize this agenda, given that continued point of view on the part of the public, it becomes necessary to pursue it by stealth and circumvention rather than through transparency and directness. This too explains the apparent obsession with secrecy message control and misdirection we see every day coming out of Ottawa.”

Instead of reason, he said, the Harper Tories encourage “prejudice, fear and wishful thinking.”

Mr. Gregg may be a man who once favoured red shoes, wore a rock ‘n’ roll haircut, and worked for Brian Mulroney, but it’s hard to dispute his scary assessment of the Harper Government.

SEE ALSO

  • 1984 in 2013: The Assault on Reason – Allan Gregg’s 39-minute speech to the Alberta Federation of Labour, You Tube, April 27, 2013
  • 1984 in 2012 – The Assault on Reason – by Allan Gregg, Allan Gregg: Another View, September 5, 2012 — Full transcript of Gregg’s speech to Carleton University. (Large segments of this speech are identical to his 2013 speech to the AFL).

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog, Citizen Action Monitor, may contain copyrighted material that may not have been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. I claim no ownership of such materials. Such material, published without profit, is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues. It is published in accordance with the provisions of the 2004 Supreme Court of Canada ruling and its six principle criteria for evaluating fair dealing.

Canada’s Indigenous “Idle No More” movement confronts Harper’s bullies with a multifaceted counterpower strategy

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“For Indigenous people in Canada, INM is a new approach and that in itself is promising.”

No 644 Posted by fw, January 3, 2013

“In 2013, there will be more educating, dancing and marching. In order to motivate an implacable adversary there also will be more economic inconvenience, more blockades, national strikes, the delay and prevention of resource extraction activities, and every other tactic INM can employ.” —Daniel Wilson

To read Daniel Wilson’s original article, click on the following linked title. Alternatively, skim the version below with its added subheadings and text highlighting. And check out the 25-minute AlJazeera English video, at the end of this post, about the INM movement, which has put Canada on the global map.

Putting it in drive: What’s next for Idle No More by Daniel Wilson, rabble.ca, December 31, 2012

Idle No More (INM) adopts a promising new grassroots, counterpower strategy

Across the country, in shopping malls and in the streets, thousands are rallying and round-dancing and serving notice that they will be Idle No More (INM). Messages of support from around the world have given rise to comparisons with other grassroots protests such as the Occupy movement, Quebec’s printemps erable and the Arab Spring. But whether in following those examples INM leads to increased awareness, a change in policy, or a change in government is an open question. Certainly, for Indigenous people in Canada, INM is a new approach and that in itself is promising.

Unlike the Assembly of First Nations’ annual National Day of Action (full disclosure, my former job included organizing the 2008 version), Idle No More doesn’t begin and end with one day’s events. In many places, rail and road blockades now are supplementing rallies, teach-ins and flashmob dances that are increasing in number and escalating in scope. The day after Chief Spence began her hunger strike, several others like Elder Raymond Robinson began theirs in support, and Fast4Change has signed up dozens more who want to demonstrate their commitment to the cause.

Fundamentally, Idle No More means that every day is a day of action.

Support for INM growing among non-Indigenous Canadians, especially among those fed up with Harper’s antics

It is grassroots activism, with leadership from a variety of sources, most of whom do not rely on federal government funding for their continued existence and are, therefore, less constrained. There is growing support from non-Indigenous Canadians, largely due to the animosity Stephen Harper has created among progressives of all persuasions, especially environmentalists concerned about Bill C-45. And it has immediate and concrete consequences as people may die from starvation.

So now what?

Considerable uncertainty about how Chief Spence’s hunger strike will play out

Like the Occupy movement, Indigenous demands for action are diffuse. The list includes respect for the treaties, respect for Aboriginal rights enshrined in the constitution, education of the Canadian public in their role as treaty partners, and action on poverty and the morass that the federal bureaucracy has created in governance. There is no simple solution. And the shift in focus to Chief Spence’s hunger strike, compelling as it is, has meant that her request for a meeting with the Prime Minister and Governor General has become the shorthand answer to a complex set of problems.

There could be a one-day meeting that accomplishes nothing, just as the last one did, in the hands of an intransigent and dishonest government. Or Chief Spence could succumb to the honest human desire to live and the movement would be written off as having played out its course. Or Stephen Harper may ignore her request, with talking points about the precedent it would set, and people will die, leading to a potentially dire response.

One day just isn’t enough to solve our problems, whether one day of protest, one day of contrition, or one day’s effort at finding solutions. National days of action didn’t work. A one-time apology from the Prime Minister had no meaning. And Canada can’t allow this to come down to whether or not one particular meeting happens.

Wilson bluntly asserts that “Indigenous death and despair serve Harper government’s purpose”

To put it bluntly, Indigenous death and despair serve the government’s purpose. Like exterminating the buffalo helped starve First Nations onto reserves, through underfunding and interference with local governance, the current government is starving people off reserves. The consequent destruction of Indigenous communities will make it easier for the government’s friends in the oil, gas and mining industries to go about their business unhindered.

Harper driven by two motives – political expediency and economic interests of supporters

Stephen Harper responds to only two motives, political expediency and the economic interests of those who put him in office. With his majority, his concern for micro-managing his political profile has decreased as the urgency with which he is pursuing the corporatist agenda has accelerated. If INM is going to prompt a reaction, it must speak to that motivation.

INM’s carrot and stick toolkit

Protesters wield a stick — the January 5th closing of border crossings is one interesting example to come — and they have a very large carrot in that resource extractive industries must rely on the co-operation of Aboriginal rights-holders who could negotiate greater predictability and facilitated process.

For any real progress to negotiations, Canada must relinquish the policy of assimilation of Indigenous peoples

Indigenous people also have a clear set of parameters for successful negotiation and have had for many years. Canadians must face the challenge of our colonial history, restore the nation-to-nation relationship that underlay the treaties and the foundation of Canada, give full respect and meaning to the rights enshrined in our constitution and relinquish the policy of assimilation once and for all. Solutions will flow from that approach and no other.

INM’s 2013 counterpower menu

In 2013, there will be more educating, dancing and marching. In order to motivate an implacable adversary there also will be more economic inconvenience, more blockades, national strikes, the delay and prevention of resource extraction activities, and every other tactic INM can employ. It will be up to Canadians to respond, either with more of what has failed or with eyes open to the interests of all.

Harper’s bullying obstinacy risks Canada’s economic future

Canadians cannot afford to remain indifferent. A government that ignores the rule of law threatens the foundation of democracy. A government that denies the legal rights of any of its people threatens all citizens. A government that will not negotiate in good faith or respect its own contractual commitments puts the economic future of the country at risk. Canada’s government has done all these things every day since Confederation. It has gotten away with it so far.

Through INM, Indigenous people are posing a question to Canada. The answer will require all of us to come together, respecting all our relations.

Daniel Wilson is a former Senior Director with the Assembly of First Nations and a founding Co-chair of the New Democratic Party Aboriginal Commission.  He now works as an Indigenous rights consultant.

SEE ALSO

  • Inside Story Americas – Canada’s indigenous movement gains momentum, AlJazeera English, Published January 2, 2013 – A 25-minute video tracing the history, goals and current global impact of the Idle No More movement. Interestingly, the Harper government declined an invitation to appear on the video broadcast.
Fair Use Notice: This blog, Citizen Action Monitor, may contain copyrighted material that may not have been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material, published without profit, is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues. It is published in accordance with the provisions of the 2004 Supreme Court of Canada ruling and its six principle criteria for evaluating fair dealing