Why Harper's Award as World Statesman of the Year Is An Insult to All of Us

I cannot help but think that it is the Harper regime's unqualified and uncritical support for Israel that accounts for his being named World Statesman of the Year by the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, founded by an American rabbi in 1965.

The state of Israel, which trumpets itself as some kind of democratic beacon in the Middle East despite its shameful treatment of the Palestinians within its occupied territories, must indeed be grateful to a Prime Minister who, even as I write this, has made it easier for Israel to bomb Iran by cutting off diplomatic ties with the theocracy, something that hardly seems wise since we are always told that engagement is better than isolation.

How else can one explain this award to a man who has shown such deep and abiding contempt for democracy in his own country, behaviour that grossly violates the principles of the foundation which, according to its website “believes that freedom, democracy and human rights are the fundamental values that give nations their best hope for peace, security and shared prosperity.”

In today's Star, Bob Hepburn offers compelling reasons that all Canadians should be outraged by this 'honour' being bestowed on our rogue head of government.

Among the reasons:

In April, his government killed the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development (Rights & Democracy), which for 24 years had promoted democracy and monitored human rights around the world.

In 2010, Harper slashed funding for the Canadian Human Rights Commission so deeply that the agency had to close its offices in Toronto, Vancouver and Halifax.

In 2009, the prime minister approved cutting funds to Kairos, an organization of church groups that advocated for human rights, after it criticized Israel for bombing a Gaza health unit. In 2006, Harper’s government severely chopped funding to Status of Women Canada, resulting in the closure of 12 of the agency’s 16 regional offices. Also in 2006, the Conservatives shut down the Court Challenges Program, which had worked on behalf of the rights and equality of women, immigrants and gays and lesbians by helping to fund court challenges to discriminatory laws.

At the same time, Harper orchestrated two controversial prorogations of Parliament in less than a year, became the first prime minister ever to be found guilty of contempt of Parliament, and approved the distribution of a handbook on how Tories can disrupt committee hearings, such as by barring witnesses with potentially damaging testimony.

In addition, Harper and his cabinet have flagrantly ignored freedom of speech and information tenets by muzzling senior bureaucrats, withholding and even altering documents, launching personal attacks on whistleblowers and lying to voters.

Also, there’s the anti-democratic robocall affair in the 2011 federal election, with allegations of voter suppression by the Conservatives. The Federal Court of Canada will start hearings into the allegations on Dec. 10.

All of us should do whatever we can to voice our outrage over this insult to the values and traditions Stephen Harper shows such egregious contempt for.

Do What I Say, Not What I Do

For a country that seems to have a messianic zeal for exporting its freedom and democracy to other countries, the United States doesn't seem to care too much for those values domestically.

When Parents Get The Upper Hand in Education

Yesterday I wrote a post about the Hamilton parent suing the school board for its refusal to notify him when a range of topics objectionable to his beliefs was being covered in the classrooom. His intention was to withdraw his children each time topics such as marriage, environmentalism, evolution, gay people were mentioned, these subjects somehow anathema in his religious world.

Today I came across an article dealing with the consequences of giving parents too much power, as has happened in Alberta, already not the most open-minded member of our confederation:

For over a year now, parents in Alberta have had the right to compel a teacher to defend herself before a human rights tribunal for discussing topics such as gay marriage or aboriginal spirituality in the classroom.

It’s caused quite a chill — reluctance on the part of many teachers to include anything in the curriculum that might upset a parent and provide the basis for a complaint to the HRC.

The piece goes on to discuss the impact the legislation has had on education:

“Teachers started to change how they taught, with English teachers realizing they’d have to send letters home for almost any literature they studied. The quality of English education started to fall — and has continued to fall in the two years since (the legislation was passed),” [former English department head Dale] Wallace writes in a recent issue of Alberta Views Magazine.

Wallace asserts that it’s almost impossible to teach high-school English literature that doesn’t have references to sex, homosexuality or religion. Canterbury Tales has a religious theme; The Merchant of Venice includes homosexuality; Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale has sexual content as does Timothy Findley’s The Wars.

“As a result, challenging novels such as 1984 are replaced with safer ones, like Pride and Prejudice ... provocative, thoughtful films such as Apocalypse Now are replaced by films with different themes altogether, like Cast Away,” Wallace says.

I hope you will check out the entire brief article to learn of the consequences that can ensue when the intolerant are given power.

More helpful Advice From the World's Richest Woman

She may be the world's richest woman, but she still has time for 'the little people' with this sterling advice for job creation and increased productivity.

The Limits of Growth

I remember within the past year opining to my wife that the long-term fate of humanity is grim. With an ever-expanding population, growing demand for limited resources, and an economic model that is predicated on relentless expansion and consumption, there will be no utopian solution to the intractable mess we have created on earth.

Victims of our own excesses, humankind's ultimate fate is likely extinction.

Like the prophets of the Old Testament, who did not really predict the future but often spoke unpleasant truth to power, Chris Hedges in his latest column addresses this issue, but he does offer a solution/projection of sorts, one that many people in general, and the power elite in particular, will not find at all pleasant.

The Price of Pluralism

There is a price for the privilege of living in a pluralistic society, and that cost, which the majority of people willingly pay, is tolerance for the views and beliefs of others. Tolerance, while not requiring the embrace and adoption of the values held by others, does entail respecting those values. That is something that fundamentalists, be they Christian, Muslim, Jew or whoever, do not seem to understand, judging by the actions of Hamilton dentist Dr. Steve Tourloukis and his supporters.

The Toronto Star reports the following:

A number of conservative Christian and Muslim parents — unusual political bedfellows — suddenly are asking schools across the GTA to notify them when their child’s class will discuss topics ranging from homosexuality and birth control to wizardry, evolution and “environmental worship,” so they can withhold their child from classes that contradict their religious beliefs.

They are giving schools the same five-page “Traditional Values Letter” used by a Greek Orthodox father who has sued the Hamilton school board for refusing to warn him when his children’s teachers plan to talk about family, marriage or human sexuality. Hamilton dentist Dr. Steve Tourloukis said Monday he only wants those issues taught to his Grade 1 daughter and Grade 4 son “from a Christian perspective.”

Without a hint of irony, Tourloukis says, “I’m not an extremist, but I must ensure that my children abstain from certain activities that may include lessons which promote views contrary to our faith.”

Am I being hypocritical in not extending tolerance to his point of view? I don't think so, simply because my view of public education is that it plays a vital role, not just in imparting facts and developing critical skills, but also in socializing people so that they become fully functioning and contributing citizens, integrated into society at large. This is hardly the dark 'agenda' or conspiracy to promote a particular way of life that neo-conservatives seem obsessed about.

And therein lies the problem with the fundamentalist mindset. It is so narrow and exclusionary that any opposing viewpoints must be suppressed.

Hardly a recipe for either a healthy faith or a healthy society.

Pat Robertson Pines For Simpler Times

Every time he speaks, TV evangelist Pat Robertson demonstrates how cruel dementia is:

H/t Antonia Zerbisias