Catherine Porter on KAIROS

In today's Star, Catherine Porter has an interesting column that helps us to understand the Harper Government's antipathy toward KAIROS. Amongst its 'sins' are its opposition to the Alberta tar sands and its concerns over the free trade agreement with Columbia due to the latter's poor human rights' record. Very insightfully, Porter also explores similarities in the Harper Government's underhanded tactics, (lying, forging and altering documents, going after perceived enemies) and those of the repressive regimes that KAIROS has traditionally fought against.

The Value of the Blogosphere

For me, the greatest value of the blogosphere is the exposure it offers to stories and ideas that would otherwise often escape my attention. In writing my own blog, I am under no illusion that I am going to change society or people's thinking with whatever opinions I may have, but I do like, as so many others do, to provide links to published pieces that provoke thought and discussion.

Having just read a piece on punditman's blog, I was taken to another site called alternet.org, where I came across the following video depicting yet another instance of police brutality, this time in Houston Texas. One can only hope that with the wide access to information provided by the Internet and social media, real change, as is occurring in the Middle East, is in the offing for the West as citizens, inspired by both knowledge and sterling examples, realize their collective power.

Anti-Unionism in Wisconsin

Long a favorite target of the right-wing and the envious, unions and collective bargaining are under fresh assault in the state of Wisconsin. As reported at Salon.com, a bill introduced by its Republican Governor, Scott Walker, and speeding through the legislature would essentially strip public sector unions (those representing teachers, prison workers, etc.)of their collective bargaining rights, increase what they have to contribute to their pensions, and essentially make union membership optional; it would also require surviving unions to hold annual votes in order to stay organized.

It has become increasingly popular over the last few years to denigrate the notion of unions, with many of the uninformed claiming that they might have served a purpose at one time but are really unnecessary, indeed obsolete now. My answer to that has been to look at what happens in non-unionized environments, where there is no real protection against unjust dismissal, bad working conditions, or unsafe working conditions.

In additional to the ideology that drives much opposition to unions, there is the sheer envy that non-unionized workers feel. We frequently hear of the benefits enjoyed by union members that provoke howls of outrage from the non-unionized. My answer to that is, even though it can be a difficult process, these people should start a drive amongst themselves to unionize.

The Bizzaro World of Stephen Harper

When I was a child, I was an avid reader of Superman comics, fascinating to me since that universe contained such an amazing array of heroes and villains. One of my favorite parts of that universe was the Bizzaro world, a planet peopled by beings whose actions and values were the complete opposite of their earthly counterparts. For example, the slowest participant was the winner of the race, clocks moved backwards, beauty was considered ugly, and the highest virtue was not truth, but lies.

Reading Thomas Walkom's column in today's Star entitled, Oda's attempt to mislead is part of Tory strategy, reminded me of that world, discussing, as it does, the Harperite propensity for making up things, i.e. lying, when the truth becomes inconvenient or gets in the way of their ideology. As Mr Walkom reports, the recent disgraceful behaviour of International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda is just one small aspect of a pattern long ago established by the secretive, paranoid, anti-democratic and ideologically-driven Conservative Party of Canada.

An Insightful Comparison Between Egyptian Forces and G20 Security

Now that we are subscribing to the Toronto Star, I have the luxury of lingering over the paper as I finish my morning coffee. Given the many posts I have written over the months about the abuses of our Charter Rights by both the McGuinty Government and the security forces given the task of protecting the G20 politicians and dignitaries, I always keep an especially watchful eye out for stories pertaining to those abuses.

In today's edition, the Star's lead letter, written by Richard Taylor of Toronto, draws a sharp contrast between the way Egypt dealt with its protesters during the recent uprising and how our police dealt with peaceful protest last summer in Toronto. I highly recommend the letter, effectively reminding us as it does of how serious was the abuse of Canadian citizens exercising their democratic rights. As I have written before, it is one of the main reasons, given its collusion with the security forces, that I cannot support the provincial Liberals in the next election.

The Tory Propensity for Secrecy

John ibbitson has a thought-provoking column in today's on-line Globe entitled, Harper keeps Canada in dark at own peril.

In it, he discusses how Scott Brison asked House Speaker Peter Miliken on Friday to rule the Haper Government in contempt of Parliament for its refusal to turn over estimates regarding projected corporate income from 2010 to 2015, and the costs of building those new prisons that will house such dangerous offenders as those who grow as few as six marijuana plants.

While it is probably understandable as to why the chronically spiritually-constipated Conservatives would fear an outbreak of mellowness across the country, what isn't understandable by either parliamentary history and custom or basic democracy is how they can withhold from us and our elected representatives the costs involved in their paranoid follies.

I eagerly await the next development in this unfolding saga of repression and suppression.

More Brutality from the Ottawa Police

Many thanks to the blog Let Freedom Rain for providing this link to The Ottawa Citizen to yet another disturbing story involving brutality on the part of the Ottawa Police force.

Given the pattern of police abuse of our Charter Rights this past summer during the G20, it is becoming increasing evident that much stronger oversight than that provided by the SIU is needed in this country, and no longer can these incidents be dismissed as aberrations by a few 'rogue' cops.