To Be Strong (if not free)

Remember the G20?

                Boy, those were some good times, eh?

Crime & Punishment.. er, Prevention

...but if you're not doing anything wrong,

then why do you care if The Harper Gang
reads your email, taps your phone,
passes around your personal information 
like a party favour,  and/or
locks you up because they think you're thinking
about doing something?

These privacy pirates are the same people 
who trashed Statistics Canada's long form census 
for being "too invasive".

Bill C-51 - A Banana Republican Is Running Our Country

The Cautionary Tale of Bill C-51   
If you missed it, here's a quick primer on C-51.

 
On June 9, 2015, the Senate passed Bill C-51 into law, ignoring hundreds of
thousands of Canadians and the country's top privacy experts who were all
adamantly opposed.

Let's look at how Stephen Harper handled Bill C-51. What convinced him
to proceed despite the concerns of so many people?
 
Was he persuaded by the input of experts, as the Liberal government
was? After the Al-Qaeda attacks in 2001, the government heard  
80 expert witnesses at 19 committee hearings before they passed an
amended version of the anti-terrorism bill into law.

Law and Order on Planet Harper

Steve and his gang built their "brand" on the myth of their economic prowess.

If there is one other cause that's close to their cold, dark and wizened hearts,
it is the need for LAW AND ORDER!

Like their economic record, this desire for a police state is not supported by the facts
of life in Canada, but it does let them keep the fear buzz going...

When it comes to law and order, Steve and his apparatchiks in the PMO have let
their adoration for pricey, discredited American crime initiatives - like the War on Drugs
- truly run amok...

Steve knows his frightened, cranky core supporters like nothing better than simple, manly answers
to important, complicated issues...

These knee-jerk - and often illegal - responses to issues like those G20 protests and the niqab,
which will never get any closer to his cranky core than their big-screen TVs.











In a variation of the classic Conservative "if you're not doing anything wrong,
why do you care about enhanced police powers", those Steve supporters aren't going
to think much past "You must have been doing something wrong for the police to beat
on you like that."

...all the while, maintaining a distinctly un-Canadian immunity to irony every step of the way.

Meet Your Conservatives: MP Larry Miller

If you're like many Canadians, you probably don't know
or even particularly care who Larry Miller is, but be advised
that up on The Hill, he's a pretty big guy.

“We call him the Keeper of the Flame — the voice
of principle and straightforward talk in caucus,”
said James Rajotte, the Edmonton MP.

“It’s no exaggeration to say he is the most loved
and appreciated person in caucus,”
said Dean Del Mastro, (former) Conservative MP for Peterborough.

These are just a taste of the testimonials in a story that ran
in that notorious lefty lame-stream rag The National Post,
entitled "The voice in Harper’s ear".








If you have heard of Larry Miller, it's probably because of what
he said about Muslim women and anyone else emigrating to Canada
on a local radio show during the Great Kanadian Niqab Kafuffle.

Larry told Muslim women to "stay the hell where you came from"
if they insist on wearing a niqab.

"I think most Canadians feel the same.
That's maybe saying it a little harshly, but it's the way I feel,"
Miller told local radio station CFOS.

"I'm so sick and tired of people wanting to come here
because they know it's a good country and then
they want to change things before they even really officially
become a Canadian, so I have no sympathy for her."

Speaking on a local radio station in his riding of Bruce-Grey-Owen
Sound about the niqab controversy (the Conservative government is challenging
a Federal Court ruling that struck down the ban on face-covering niqabs
during the citizenship oath), Larry Miller acknowledged
"it may sound 'harsh,' but so be it".








Zunera Ishaq, the woman at the centre of the niqab case,
has been a permanent resident of Canada since 2008.

Who scares you the most?