Buckdog

.... HUH??!!

Note: due to circumstances beyond my control ... and idiotic decisions by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation ... this site is now, unfortunately, a CBC free zone!

For a couple of years now, I have always gone to CBC first and have ensured that I linked to their news stories at every opportunity. This (I believe) brought some traffic to their news site. I make no revenue from this blog so I therefore cannot afford to pay for linking to CBC news items.

What a ridiculous situation CBC has put its progressive blogging friends in.


-CBC Signs Up With American 'Bounty Hunting' Company to stifle Bloggers and their fair comment rights!

Every citizen should be aware that our Federal Conservative government is denying one Canadian their fundamental constitutional rights - for political purposes. Therefore, in fact, they are also capable of denying your rights and the rights of all others in this nation. Welcome to Canada ... 2010..

Ruling of the Supreme Court Of Canada:
"Canada actively participated in a process contrary to its international human rights obligations and contributed to Khadr’s ongoing detention so as to deprive him of his right to liberty and security of the person, guaranteed by s. 7 of the Charter, not in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice. Though the process to which Khadr is subject has changed, his claim is based upon the same underlying series of events considered in Khadr 2008. As held in that case, the Charter applies to the participation of Canadian officials in a regime later found to be in violation of fundamental rights protected by international law. There is a sufficient connection between the government’s participation in the illegal process and the deprivation of K’s liberty and security of the person. While the U.S. is the primary source of the deprivation, it is reasonable to infer from the uncontradicted evidence before the Court that the statements taken by Canadian officials are contributing to K’s continued detention. The deprivation of Khadr’s right to liberty and security of the person is not in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice. The interrogation of a youth detained without access to counsel, to elicit statements about serious criminal charges while knowing that the youth had been subjected to sleep deprivation and while knowing that the fruits of the interrogations would be shared with the prosecutors, offends the most basic Canadian standards about the treatment of detained youth suspects." [...]

"CONCLUSION: Canada actively participated in a process contrary to Canada’s international human rights obligations and contributed to Mr. Khadr’s ongoing detention so as to deprive him of his right to liberty and security of the person guaranteed by s. 7 of the Charter, contrary to the principles of fundamental justice."
Ruling of the Supreme Court Of Canada
(in a unanimous 9 - 0 decision)
Jamuary 29. 2010

I know that everyone's attention is at the moment focused on getting Haitian kids into Canada with all speed. However, I want to point out a bizarre case of a Canadian boy who is being held in foster care in the USA.

In September 2008, Noah Kirkman, 11, traveled from Calgary to visit his stepfather in Oregon. In a weird scenario, local city police picked up Noah for riding a bike without a helmet. The boy was turned over to state child welfare officials and has been bouncing from foster home to foster home for over a year! He is Jewish and in his current foster placement, he is prohibited from practicing his Jewish faith.

"When Lisa reminded Foreign Affairs that because her son is a Canadian citizen, he is being held illegally, Ottawa suggested that she contact her member of parliament, Calgary Centre MP Lee Richardson, “as this would be a political decision which would fall outside the scope of our consular policy with regard to such cases.” But when Lisa contacted Richardson’s office, she was told that “the Canadian government cannot get involved” until the Oregon court order is rescinded. However, international law would supersede state law, says Lisa, who has hired an expert mediator in international child abduction to plead the case."
www.ffwdweekly.com

This child needs to be reunited with his mother in Calgary. Why are federal Conservative Immigration officials not getting more aggressively involved in this case? Just asking .....

Canada's Parliament was scheduled to be sitting this week until the ever sneaky Stephen Harper suspended it with a quiet phone call to the Governor General on New Years Eve (while no one was supposed to be watching).

Oh well, he got caught 'lookin' like a fool with his pants on the ground' and has been scrambling ever since to try and look 'busy'!

So to increase the optics of being 'busy' he has flown off to Davos, Switzerland to rub shoulders and pander with the 1000 corporate sponsors of the World Economic Forum.

Busy - busy - busy .. like a busy little bee our PM is!

NOT!!

“Canadians care and are going to fight back with a vengeance. A picture is worth a 1000 words. I hope you will print this for all our sakes.”

Internationally renowned North Bay artist Kieth Campbell sent the above photo of his latest work in response to the current situation on Parliament Hill.

Campbell titled the sculpture 'Time to Change the Roll.'

“This is a sculpture I created in response to Stephen Harper proroguing Parliament,” he notes to BayToday.


-Bay Today

There is a ploy being used in Conservative circles to try and dismiss the Anti-prorogation movement as being too 'extreme' for comparing Stephen Harper to Hitler. Some Harperites have gone so far as to plant phony 'protesters' at the recent rallies with signs meant to reinforce this argument.

Hitler schmitler .... Mussolini martini ... History proves that most budding dictatorships solidified their authoritarian control after suspending the parliamentary body of their respective nation.

Canadians who came out to the rallies on Saturday are doing a service to democracy in Canada. What service are Conservatives doing for democracy in this country????

-One Tory's Great Lengths To Discredit Rally

P.S. ... that's called DICTATORSHIP!!

-Kenney Quote Panned

For those who embrace the false ideology of the 'unfettered free market', Haiti must have seemed like an absolute paradise before the recent earthquake!

-No regulation on business,
-No welfare
-No Old Age pension plan,
-No unemployment insurance programs,
-No public health care programs,
-No public education (to speak of),
-Almost no income taxation,
-Almost no corporate taxation
-No occupational health and safety regulation
-Small limited government
-No Worker's Compensation plan

... and yet, the main flaw in the ideology of 'unfettered free markets' is that when they fail ... it always takes public/'social' dollars to rescue the situation and clean up the mess.


-If The Free Market System Works So Bloody Well - Why Does The Corporate Sector Always Seem To Need Billions Of Public Tax Dollars To Bail The Bastards Out?

UPDATE:
And for those who argue in favor or Haiti's 'unfettered free market' .. please explain why Haiti has the lowest life expectancy and lowest literacy rate in the Western Hemisphere ... and an annual GDP of $733!

..... but Canada's Parliament has been suspended by Stephen Harper!!

-The Star

Conservatives, (most notably our proroguing, undemocratic Prime Minister) like to tell you that they 'support' Canada's men and women in uniform. What a load of crap that is! But don't take my word for it ... just ask the many disabled veterans who are dealing with the reality of how Harper 'supports' the troops!

"A group of disabled Canadian war veterans will head to the Supreme Court of Canada today to battle the very country they once served, in an effort to recoup payments they say were unfairly clawed back. The soldiers are trying to recoup millions of dollars they say have been unfairly deducted from their long-term disability payments. After demanding unsuccessfully that the government stop the deductions and compensate them, they are now going to the Supreme Court to find out whether they can proceed with a class-action lawsuit against the government."
CTV News

And by the way ... where are all of THESE FOLKS when disabled Canadian war veterans are in financial need to put food on the table!

And ... don't hold your breath waiting for this yahoo to speak out on behalf of disabled vets on his Saturday night 'Rock'em Sock'em' segment.

-CBC
-Twitterings

Just got back from the hospital where I had my second eye surgery in 14 days to repair a detached retina. Back soon ........

LD

I had to shake my head a couple of times after watching Harper's interview with BNN. In the interview, he says that a minority parliament in Canada creates instability in the 'markets'. HUH?? Don't these words sound like our prime minister would rather do away with parliamentary democracy and simply run the nation without any input from or accountability to THE PEOPLE!

-Ottawa Citizen

(Even a former chief of staff and friend to Harper is speaking out about his recent actions) .....

Tom Flanagan: "Well, you know, it actually doesn't make much sense to me. The market just in this past year had, I think, its greatest increase in a single year, and that was in, during a minority government. I don't think the antics of politicians have actually that much to do with the market, i think that's based on economic fundamentals as investors see them. So i think the prime minister is stretching a bit when he made that comment.

Evan Solomon: "What do you think the strategy is behind that, Tom?"

Tom Flanagan: "Well, I don't know that there's much strategy behind it. I think his problem is that the government's talking points really don't have much credibility. Everybody knows that Parliament was prorogued in order to shut down the Afghan inquiry, and the trouble is that the government doesn't want to explain why that was necessary. Personally I think it was highly defensible action, but instead of having an adult defence of it, the government comes up with these childish talking points. So then you try and backfill with other stuff that doesn't make much sense either. So it's a self-created problem."

Tom Flanagan, for good measure, then added: "I hope nobody thinks I'm a Harper stooge anymore."

... imagine the loud, boisterous and heartfelt 'BOOOOO' that is going to rise up from a large part of the crowd, showing the world what we think of our current leader! - A leader who suspended Canada's democratically elected parliament ... TWICE in one year!!

"When a government starts trying to cancel dissent , or avoid dissent, is frankly when it's rapidly losing its moral authority to govern."
Stephen Harper
April 18,2005

"It is as if the Conservatives were bent on proroguing, not just Parliament, but intelligent discussion of any kind"
Andrew Coyne

"Parliamentary scrutiny may be tedious, but democracies cannot afford to dispense with it."
The Economist

Encourage everyone you know to stand up to this evil bastard by joining the facebook group!