Anti Prorogue Rally in Toronto
All across Canada, citizens gathered for non-partisan rallies against PM Stephen Harper’s decision to prorogue parliament until the beginning of March. While Harper claims to be suspending Parliament to ensure its stability, many Canadians would like to see a little less stability and a little more accountability. The big issue is the revelation that the Harper government knew, but chose to ignore, the fact that Afghan detainees were being tortured. People question whether the decision to prorogue Parliament isn’t simply a manoeuver avoid investigation, a process that could ultimately bring down the government.
But the rally seems to have been about much more than the decision to suspend parliament. People have rolled in a host of other issues, like Harper’s hard-line stance on environmental issues at Copenhagen, and the concern that he is compromising Canadian sovereignty by insisting that our interests need to be aligned with the U.S. Simply put, people think he’s a dumb-ass who’s out of touch with the real concerns of real Canadians.
Harper also manifests an odd post-millennial tendency among hard-line conservatives. We first witnessed this with George Bush who maintained a brazen cynicism the level of engagement of the citizens he served. Once upon a time, hard-core Republican presidents did their dirty deeds covertly and lied about it when challenged. But with the Weapons of Mass Destruction fiasco, Bush introduced something new: ignore the facts, do what you please. Harper has assumed that the issue of torture will simply go away. If Parliament doesn’t sit for a couple months, people will simply forget about it. However, rallies across the country seem to suggest that Harper has underestimated (or misunderestimated to use a favourite Bushism) the Canadian people.
Jan. 24, 2010
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