NESTRUCK: RE: "The Monster under the Bed"

[Oscar]

NESTRUCK: RE: "The Monster under the Bed"

From: shane Nestruck
Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2015 9:18 AM
To: Letters WFP
Subject: Bravo...But

The Editor
Winnipeg Free Press
Shannon Sampert, ‘Perspectives & Politics Editor'

RE: 'THE MONSTER under the bed’… Conservative fear-mongering keeps our eyes off the economy - Shannon Sampert Winnipeg Free Press, 19.3.15 [ http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinio ... 37371.html ]

Dear sir,

Sampert ends this critique with “It’s this unending, deliberately misleading government propaganda we want protection from. That’s the true monster.”

Bravo- finally some forthright criticism of this Harper regime.

But, Sampert may have fallen into the trap Steven Harper has set for her and most Canadians…

“The Economy” that Steven Harper so often cites is the biggest distraction from the real threat this Harper government is to Canadians. Even though Steven Harper’s “economy” is a last-century, head-in-the-sands continuation of the Carbon Economy that, in all reality, threatens life on this planet, is scientifically proven to be instrumental in creating Climate Change that has already visited his own constituency (Calgary floods last year!), and also has positioned Canada and its citizens as the most per-capita polluters in the northern hemisphere, second on the planet only to Australians, it is Harper’s seeming focus on ”the economy” that distracts Canadians from his real agenda.

Far more frightening and ominous than the slumping economy are the continuous attacks on our democratic institutions and procedures that Harper and his extreme right-wing-nut colleagues have already accomplished.

The MONSTER IS HARPER.

His anti-democracy government, that through things like Prorogation, Omnibus Bills, undermining of Parliamentary Committees, and a new and historic use of propaganda, misinformation, bullying tactics, fear-mongering and just plain megalomania is changing Canada into a neo-fascist Petro-state.

As much as Sampert, and many Free Press readers, may worry about financial security and standard of living, the real threat is to the future we leave our children. Will they survive in the extreme climate, with food shortages (food trumps money every time), with a government that serves gigantic corporations instead of the people and over which they have virtually no influence?

If there is to be an end to “... this unending, deliberately misleading government propaganda…”, it is incumbent on journalists to bring a perspective that raises awareness, not a limited perspective that kowtows to Harper’s dogma.


Shane Nestruck
shanedn@shaw.ca
381 Arnold Ave.
Winnipeg, MB R3l 0W8
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shanednblog.net