HARRIS: . . . Canada Slides into Ventriloquism Democracy

[Oscar]

HARRIS: With Elections Act, Canada Slides into Ventriloquism Democracy

[ http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2014/03/31/El ... riloquism/ ]
Led by puppet-master Harper, either a smart tactician or graceless narcissist.

By Michael Harris, 31 Mar 2014, iPolitics

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QUOTE:
"Harper's hate list - The list of people Harper hates, not counting the ones on the official enemies list the PMO keeps, is long: judges, journalists, environmentalists, professors, union leaders, scientists, federal bureaucrats, First Nations peoples, Palestinians, all opposition parties, and anyone or anything named Trudeau."

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Someone described Stephen Harper as a Sphinx without a riddle.

Sphinx or not, as he moves government in Canada towards something that is plainly tyrannical, there is no mystery about his increasingly dictatorial nature.

"You have to appreciate Orwell to get a feel for Harper," former Liberal interim leader Bob Rae told me. "His government doesn’t like alternate sources of information. It likes to be the sole source of information."

Bad news, Stephen. Democracy is always a choir, never a soloist.

NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair met Harper in 2007, and was struck by the "strange" character of the man who has made his party "smug, smart-ass, and full of half-lies." His utter dismissiveness of opponents was striking to Mulcair: "He never looks at his adversaries. There is no eye contact. It’s robotic. He pivots when he rises and looks at the Speaker. He never looks at his interlocutors. Questions don’t interest him. He is less and less connected with the question. What you get to see of him in the House is his right shoulder."

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Fortunately, this is a PM who loves to have his picture taken -- especially in world trouble spots with a large expatriate community in Canada that might go his way at election time. Despite all the warm and fuzzy money shots this man will leave to posterity, the differences between your garden variety dictator and Stephen Harper are getting harder to find.

A classic example of how Canadian government now works is how Harper shoved through the omnibus legislation in Bill C-38, last year’s budget omnibus bill -- which had more to do with environmental pillage than the nation’s finances. May, who made a heroic last stand against this despotic act, told the prime minister she was open to negotiation if he would just talk about it. Harper said "Okay" and proceeded to ram the huge bill through, largely unscrutinized.

"I was astounded," May told me. "If we couldn't stop this, or at least get a debate going, how else would anyone ever know in the public about the content of C-38? I mean, a whole new department of government was being created in a budget implementation bill."

Omnibus legislation, though it drew public opprobrium, is the new normal.

Armed with the most ill-deserved majority in Canadian history, Harper has become the Edgar Bergen of the current federal government, complete with a collection of Charlie McCarthys as lap ornaments.

These wooden puppets appear to be saying things, but never really do; it’s just the PM. We have degenerated into ventriloquism democracy -- lots of talk but only one voice.

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The Fair Elections Act is almost like one of the dark novels of Evelyn Waugh. How absurd is it that the party that cheated in the In-and-Out scandal is now redesigning the voting process? What are they trying to fix -- the system or the next election?

How absurd is it that the agency that found fraud in the 2011 election -- cheating with information taken from the CPC’s own closely-guarded database -- is now being carved up like Thanksgiving turkey? No powers of subpoena, a muzzled Chief Electoral Officer and the investigative arm of EC now reporting to the Director of Public Prosecution? Investigations no longer public unless there are charges? What do you call that, reform or revenge?

Greeting soldiers returning from Afghanistan while having your lawyers in court arguing you don’t have a social contract to look after them. Closing veterans offices. Unilaterally cancelling the rights of public service unions and their members. Stealthy, retroactive measures hidden in an omnibus bill to legitimize the improper appointment of a Supreme Court justice. More of the new normal.

Have you noticed how everything to do with government in Canada these days is either secret, under investigation, or in court?

As Bob Rae put it, “Harper can be nasty, cynical, and has a deep authoritarian streak. If there is something these guys don’t like, they must pass a law to stop it. He destroys the freedom people should have to express themselves.”

Be advised. That will soon include elections.

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Michael Harris is a writer, journalist, and documentary filmmaker. He was awarded a Doctor of Laws for his "unceasing pursuit of justice for the less fortunate among us." His eight books include Justice Denied, Unholy Orders, Rare Ambition, Lament for an Ocean, and Con Game. His work has sparked four commissions of inquiry, and three of his books have been made into movies. He is currently working on a book about the Harper majority government to be published in the autumn of 2014 by Penguin Canada.