More of Harper's Plan

Here we see Harper's plan - Step 3 - in action: cutting payments to provinces to stop funding social programs in Canada.

Ottawa signals slowdown in provincial payouts

Bernier seeks end to $40-billion in social, health transfers to provinces
This is written as if it is only Bernier's plan, but this totally fits in with Harper's Pan.

The destruction of Canada is nigh. Wake up people!

Harper: we want Canada back!

we move to canada: canada for the people, not the conservative party
A great post by L-girl on We Move To Canada.

Federal court determined Galloway was no security risk

Federal Court slams government interference in Galloway ban | rabble.ca
The Federal court determined that former British MP George Galloway was no national security risk
According to Justice Mosley, "the main reason why the respondents [the
Federal government] sought to prevent Mr. Galloway from entering Canada
was that they disagreed with his political views."
...
"This ruling confirms what we have been saying from the beginning: Jason
Kenney attempted to ban Galloway because he disagreed with his views,"
says James Clark, a member of the Toronto Coalition to Stop the War and
an applicant in the case. "This kind of behaviour is completely
unacceptable in a democratic society, and represents a serious attack on
Canadians' free speech rights. We are pleased that the Court agrees
with us."

Galloway is going to be coming back to Canada soon on another speaking tour.

Harper government supports privatizing and selling off our water

[20-Sep-10] Council of Canadians condemns Harper's sponsorship of water privatization conference
Excerpts:
Montreal - The Council of Canadians is condemning the Harper government
for its sponsorship of an international conference of water
corporations that are seeking to privatize the resource.

...
"It is shameful that Environment Canada is co-sponsoring the World
Water Congress," says Council of Canadians Director of Campaigns and
Communications Brent Patterson. “The World Water Congress is a
conference of large, unaccountable water corporations like Suez
Environnement and Veolia Water, as well as the Oil Sands Developers
Group. The focus of their meeting in Montreal this week is on how to
profit from water scarcity and private water services."

...

"The federal government also currently compels municipalities to
explore P3s under the Building Canada Fund," notes Council of Canadians
Ontario/Quebec Regional Organizer Mark Calzavara. "Harper should stop
trying to force communities to 'partner' with corporations. Instead,
the federal government should create a national water infrastructure
fund and ensure clean water is delivered as a public service."

"The Prime Minister and the privateers at the World Water
Congress would like to be able to sell water for profit to the highest
bidder, but public water is a human right," adds Karunananthan. "The
Harper government still seems oblivious to the realities of increasing
water scarcity and climate change. It's clear most Canadians and
Quebeckers support the right to water, so the question is why doesn't
Harper?"

Canadian government's own study shows voluntary census fails compared to a mandatory census

Government study reveals significant errors in voluntary census - The Globe and Mail
No surprise here.
Excerpt:
A June, 2010, internal study obtained by The Globe and Mail under the
access-to-information law offers an inside look at how new census-taking
rules could skew data in a range of areas from housing to demographics.
Statscan researchers found the voluntary approach produced less accurate
results – a problem that was especially significant in small population
groups, according to outside statistics advisers who reviewed the
report for The Globe.

How Fox North became Harper's priority

How Fox North became Harper's priority | rabble.ca
Excerpt:

The Globe and Mail's Jeffrey Simpson doubts Fox News North is going
to "make or break or even influence the shape of Canadian politics,
whatever the ideological fervour of Kory Teneycke" but author and
Toronto Star columnist Linda McQuaig disagrees.

"There's been a tendency in the Canadian media to dismiss the threat
of a Fox News transplant on the grounds Canadians wouldn't fall for that
sort of nasty, right-wing extremism," she writes. "But that comforting
notion may be naïve." Most people don't have time to follow politics in
detail, she continues. "If they hear constant sound bites suggesting
global warming is a hoax or public health care just doesn't work, after a
while the message starts to seem believable."

She points out the media already blasts Canadians with a steady
chorus of right-wing ideas. "A Fox-style network here - if Harper gets
his way - would turn that into a deafening cacophony."

It all makes soldiers with guns on Canada's streets more plausible with every passing day.

See also:
Stop Harper's Hate Media Channel - Sign The Petition

Harper's Canadian government - a real change for the worse - Amnesty International

Canada unpredictable on human rights says new Amnesty boss - thestar.com
“There’s a feeling there’s a real change for the worse in terms of the human rights approach of the Canadian government,”

G20 Toronto - Conservative MPP Randy Hillier speaks out against the G20 weekend tyranny

Opinion: G20 crackdown reeks of tyranny - thestar.com
Read the link!
When even right-wing politicians begin to say what the police were ordered to do in Toronto was wrong, you've got to consider that something so bad happened that it definitely warrants an impartial full public inquiry.

Why the Canada Census is important and why the Harper government's decision to stop making it mandatory is bad.

Why you should care about the long census form’s demise - The Globe and Mail
Read the story at the link
- Government's of all levels use the data to make informed decisions
- businesses use it to be more efficient, productive and profitable
- Canadians use it to keep our government responsible to its citizens

Further reading:
Pop The Stack: An Economist Who Doesn't Want More Data? UCalgary Called, they Want their Degree Back

NDP demands immediate restoration of census long form

eaves.ca: The Census Weak Link

The Galloping Beaver: Censless

Register and vote here on the government discussion site:
Reinstate Our Census Long Form aka Questionnaire 2B

G20 Toronto - "Toronto got a taste of what could very well happen if apathy or fear of our own shadows continue."

Sister Sage: If an Amputee Being Handled With Brute Force By Those Who Are Supposed To Protect Doesn’t Dawn Upon Us To Do Something…
...
Why is it that we have to wait until it’s too late to turn back before
we realize what’s happened to us? I am terrified of this happening;  In
this case, the police state where police can do anything to anyone they
please; a police state where people can simply disappear. A police state
where one can be arrested simply for being in the wrong place at the
wrong time or for disagreeing with the government.   Toronto got a taste
of what could very well happen if apathy or fear of our own shadows
continue.
...
On the G20 weekend in Toronto, the police acted illegally to brutally beat and make a lot of people disappear for no reason. And, they seem to have gotten away with this.
Let's make sure that whoever was responsible for directing the police to break the law doesn't get away with this, and let's make sure this this never happens again. To do this, you can't just stick your head in the sand. Fixing this will take Canadians waking up and speaking out and taking a stand. Wake up and take a stand Canada!

Who was really pulling the police strings at the G20 protest?

The Louis Riel Trail: Iron Heel Harper and the G20 Protests
...
If you look at Canadian history, you'll find that Regina Riot was
carried out in large part due to the orders of Prime Minister Richard
Bedford Bennett (earning him the nickname "Iron Heel Bennett"), and in
somewhat more recent times the FLQ crisis was handled in large part
through Pierre Trudeau's implementation of the War Measures act. Both
of these Prime Ministers saw big threats to the Canadian way of life,
and exercised a significant degree of control over police actions during
those major security events.

Today the interference of the PMO
or other politicians in law enforcement is generally considered an abuse
of political power and something the police should reject: "The RCMP must instil (sic)
in its officers, by whatever educational or other means available, that
they are to brook no intrusion or interference from government officials
with respect to the provision of security services" (the APEC
commission final report)

I just have a sense that the
problems that occurred during the G20 protests go beyond local
bureaucrats in Toronto.

Look at some of the things Stockwell Day has been
saying to the media, if you don't believe that national politicians
could be responsible for what happened in downtown Toronto.

If
guys like Harper, or Day were involved in managing security forces
during the G20 protests the voters need to be made aware, and
prosecutors need access to that information.

G20 Toronto - Damages. Who Should Pay?

Pressure builds on Ottawa for compensation - thestar.com
Considering that the Harper government foisted the summit on downtown Toronto, and considering that the Toronto Police (who were in charge of all the policing outside of the security area) stood by and did nothing and allowed the black block vandals to vandalize for 1.5 hours without stepping in to stop them, I would recommend that the federal government and the Toronto Police split the bill to compensate businesses who had property damaged. The city could take the amount to be paid by the Toronto Police out of their next year's budget and just give them that much less.
It only seems fair.