Sunday, December 9, 2012

Canada and Egypt: A Study in Contrasts

My wife, well aware of my anguish over the disengagement with democracy of so many Canadians, made a comment this morning that has inspired this post. She observed the sharp contrast that exists with Egypt, where the notion of democracy is still more a dream than a reality, a dream the people feel is well-worth putting themselves at risk of arrest, injury, and even death, to achieve. This became quite apparent less than two years ago with the vigorous protests leading to the toppling of Hosni Mubarak, and the people's passion continues to this day, evident in the demonstrations against President Mohamed Morsi's attempt to arrogate dictatorial powers in the guise of 'protecting democracy.'

Well, it seems that taking the notion and promise of democracy seriously has paid off for the Egyptians. As reported in today's Star, Morsi made unexpected concessions Saturday in a move to appease opponents — even rescinding most of the Nov. 22 decree that gave him sweeping new powers. While there remains the very real question of whether these concessions will be enough to quell the strong opposition to Morsi, it is nonetheless instructive in what an engaged citizenry can accomplish.

The contrast with Canada couldn't be sharper. I have written several times on the state of democracy under Harper, most times with a note of despair over the willful contempt the Prime Minister has shown for our traditions, and the singular lack of outrage expressed over that contempt by the majority of Canadians. But it would also seem that even when people attempt to participate in the 'discussion,' their voice is ignored, even suppressed.

One of the latest examples demonstrating the contemptuous and autocratic rule of the Harper regime is to be found in the machinations playing out in the Trans-Pacific-Partnership talks, which many claim is one of the biggest threats to our sovereignty to come along in decades. In his column today, Michael Geist reports on the Harper propensity for secrecy and the suppression of any information that contradicts his policies.

Observing that the deal may require a major overhaul of Canadian agriculture, investment, intellectual property and culture protection rules, Geist reports:

The talks remain shrouded in darkness, with a draft text that is secret; public interest groups are largely banned from where the negotiations are being held.

Moreover, the Canadian government has failed to engage openly with the public on the TPP. Foreign Affairs has created an insider “consulting group” that will be granted access to secret and confidential information regarding the negotiations (members of the group are required to sign a nondisclosure agreement). The department has not publicly disclosed the existence of the consulting group or indicated who might be granted privileged access to otherwise confidential information.

To compound this open disdain for any semblance of democratic transparency, despite the fact that the Harper regime launched a six-week public consultation on Canada's potential participation in the trade talks,

... the government never revealed the results. The individual submissions were not posted online and no public report summarizing the responses was ever published.

Yet, according to documents obtained under the Access to Information Act, the government was overwhelmed with negative comments urging officials to resist entry into the TPP and the expected pressures for significant intellectual property reforms as part of the deal.

In addition to tens of thousands of form letters and emails criticizing the TPP, the government received hundreds of individual handcrafted responses that unanimously criticized the proposed agreement.

Suppression of information. Contempt for the will of the people. Disregard for democracy. They all sound like pretty good reasons to take to the streets.

I'm sure the Egyptians would agree.

10 comments:

  1. And, in the end, it will take people in the streets to change things, Lorne.

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    1. How in the heck do we get them out there?

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    2. it is a question I ask myself all of the time, Karen. I can only think that our best hope is to spread the word about the Harper regime's myriad abuses as widely as we can, and to suggest that we can have much better if people are willing to make a commitment to discharging their democratic responsibilities.

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  2. I think what Harper and his cabal have done to Canada is sad and disgusting, yet I have to admit that I love the irony of seeing Fearless Leader selling Alberta to China after riding the xenophobic rightwing Reform Party faction's votes into Ottawa.

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    1. Yes, there is an element of satisfaction to be derived from the situation, Dan.

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  3. The question that haunts me, Owen, is what it will take to send people into the streets and out to the ballot boxes.

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  4. Well, my elderly mother is beginning to see Harper's shortcomings, so maybe something is twitching slightly in the sluggish Canadian mass-mind. My mother is my litmus test for such things as she is as close to a mushroom as is humanly possible. On the other hand, with the people I unfortunately deal with every day it is still impossible to even mention in passing Canada's teeny tiny democratic deficit problems without getting a lecture on how negative I am. People seem desperate to believe in Lollipop Land Canada and they believe what they want to believe because they have no intellectual honesty. It is all too reminiscent of 1930s Germany and Canada is getting a horrible reputation internationally already. I can't help but think we will all pay for the intellectual dishonesty and cowardice of the average Canadian.

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  5. I am not sure, Foightfordemocracy, that it is so much Canadians' intellectual dishonesty and cowardice as it is their apparent indifference to and ignorance of the depredations wrought by the Harper regime. I do agree that we are going to pay a heavy price for the inertia that so many in Canada seem to be in the grip of. It is something I find very hard to fathom or excuse.

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  6. I think the time has come to do something. The mass-mind is beginning to twitch; the litmus test is encouraging. I heard of an action in Syria which involved putting anti-government messages into pingpong balls, filling a car with the pingpong balls, driving to the top of a hill and then opening the doors to let the balls roll downhill to their grateful recipients. I love the imagination of this action and have aspired to dropping about 5,000 messaged pingpong balls from some high place ever since. But I guess it would be more practical to write a short informative blurb, make 100 photocopies and hand them out fast in a public place. I could do it by myself and I would feel like I'm doing something. Good for my mental health, if nothing else.

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    1. I think anything we can do, no matter how limited we may think its impact, is all to the good, Fightfordemocracy. For example, even though I have only a small cadre of 'friends' on Facebook, I frequently post links to articles and blog posts that I think might open people's minds to some of the problems we face with the current regime. I do the same with my Twitter account.

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