Tuesday 5 January 2010

Democracy Is Closed in Canada

Grassroots fury greets shuttered Parliament - thestar.com
The biggest story in the news in Canada - Harper closing parliament (against all normal democractic practices) for a couple of months to avoid his government being held accountable on the Afghanistan torture issue, and many other issues, and, to avoid dealing with a lot of important bills (that will all be cancelled due to the cancellation of parliament) - fails to make headlines in the major newspapers across the country.

Harper is counting on the apathy of Canadians to ride out his latest scandal - closing democracy in Canada. And the mainstream media in Canada is going along with his plan, being apathetic about this issue themselves. To me, the job of the mainstream media is not to support or oppose one regime or another, but to report on the news, and keep the opinion pieces in the opinion sections. But more and more the MSM of Canada has become more a tool of the Right and Centre-Right political policies in this country. Not only are they not jumping on this story, but some articles go so far as to ridicule the responsible and outraged citizens of this country who have taken it upon themselves to start petitions, groups on Facebook and organize rallies to bring the issue to the attention of politicians, newspapers and other Canadians.

The ridicule deserved here should be upon the MSM for not bringing such an attack against our democracy front and centre. Things have sunk to an all-time low when we have to rely solely on the grassroots for on-going information on this issue.

To follow what is happening in Canada right now, visit Progressive Bloggers.


More posts on this topic:
Pundits: YOU go to the back of the bus



2 comments:

Thor said...

I looked at the National Post's site today and not a peep about this (Harper shutting down parliament - not that I expected them to cover this), just some thing patting Harper on the back for job well done in 2009!

Shilo said...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MESSAGE TO MPS: GET BACK TO WORK!
Rallies Planned Across Canada

January 7th, 2010
A week ago most Canadians didn’t know what the word prorogue meant. Now it’s gaining national attention as tens of thousands of Canadian’s make their voices heard. A grassroots effort on Facebook opposing the prorogation of Parliament has over 81 000 and is still growing rapidly. And now Canadian’s are really going to make themselves heard!

“Armchair activism isn’t enough,” says group founder Christopher White. “Eventually Canadian’s have to reach a point where we say enough is enough. There is no legitimate reason to prorogue Parliament right now, and Stephen Harper needs to realize that he, along with every other MP out there, is accountable Canadians. We pay their salary!” Shilo Davis explains. Davis has initiated a national wide protest on January 23rd, using White’s popular Facebook group, demanding that MPs return to work on January 25th.

So far, there are over 30 cities planning rallies across the country, with rallies planned in every province and territory except Nunavut. “We’ve been able to use Facebook to get the initial efforts started. But the real work is being done by the Canadians in their own cities,” Davis says. Although some are skeptical of the power of social networking sites like Facebook, politicians ignore them at their own peril. Regional efforts are already seeing tremendous response in only a few short days.

White distinguishes this from movements that sprang up during the last prorogation. “Whatever you felt about it last time, it was certainly a partisan affair,” he says. “This time it touches on something much more fundamental, something that crosses party lines, it’s an issue of democracy and that’s something everyone can get behind.” He points the many emails and messages he has received from Canadians representing various political affiliations. “We’ve had people from every possible political background contact us about how they can jump on board and make a difference. But even bigger than that is the number of Canadians that don’t normally engage in political matters asking how they can help with rallies and demonstrations in their city,” Davis adds.