9-29-08, 9:40 am
Original source: People's Voice (Canada)
Yes, we know there are hundreds of excellent reasons to banish the Conservatives to political oblivion. But we only have one page for this list...
1. The Conservatives have expanded Canada's role in the bloody military occupation in Afghanistan, which is now extended until at least 2011. To date, 97 Canadians and thousands of Afghans have died in this tragic war, which has cost Canadian taxpayers an estimated $8 billion.
2. Harper has boosted military spending by $5.3 billion over the next five years, while cutting $1 billion from Canada's frayed social safety net.
3. The federal government's 'Green Plan' relies on 'intensity targets' that allow total greenhouse gas emissions to rise for years. The plan does not account for the enormous expansion of the tar sands industry, which produces over a million barrels of crude oil ever day, most of it exported to the US.
4. The anti-scab Bill C-257, legislation to ban the use of scabs during labour disputes in the federal sector, was defeated in 2007 when 29 Liberal and 20 Tory MPs who had voted 'yes' on Second Reading switched to a 'no' vote at Third Reading.
5. Ottawa's 'no-fly list' raises serious alarm bells about privacy and individual liberties. The names are shared with Washington, and many are on the list due only to similarities with the names of alleged security risks.
6. On several occasions Harper has made racist remarks about immigrants. In January 2001, he said that ridings held by Liberals west of Winnipeg are comprised of recent Asian immigrants who 'live in ghettos, and who are not integrated into western Canadian society.'
7. Canada's sovereignty is being jeopardized by NAFTA and by the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, a plan that seeks to 'harmonize' some 300 critical areas of legislation and regulation, mostly in accordance with US standards.
8. Stephen Harper supported the U.S.-led Iraq War in 2003. Since becoming PM, he has refused to criticise the disastrous military occupation which has led to one million deaths and millions of refugees.
9. Despite a House of Commons resolution supported by the majority of MPs, the Harper government has begun deporting U.S. war resisters who refuse to fight in the illegal and immoral war in Iraq.
10. Even after Israel's July 2006 bombing of the village of Qana in Lebanon and the Israeli killing of a Canadian military observer, Canada refuses to call on Israel to desist from acts of aggression against neighbouring states, to respect the rights of Palestinians, and to withdraw completely from the territories occupied since 1967, in violation of international law and numerous UN Security Council resolutions.
11. The disinformation campaign against Iran has escalated towards threats of US and Israeli military action, which would spark a catastrophic regional conflict. But the Harper government has refused to criticize this threat of aggression.
12. Corporate pre-tax profits now account for a record-high share of Canada's national income - 14.6% of GDP compared to a 25 year average of 10%. Yet the corporate tax-rate was cut from 28% in 2000, to 21% in 2006.
13. Like the Liberals before them, the Tories refuse to use the Canada Health Act to stop the attack on universal Medicare led by several provincial governments. This is rapidly creating two-tier health care, which allows the rich to buy their way to the front of the line.
14. Rejecting the overwhelming support from the medical community and the public at large for Vancouver's InSite drug users facility, the Tories refuse to grant InSite a long-term federal licence. Closure will result in higher numbers of deaths, and the faster spread of communicable diseases such as AIDS and hepatitis-C.
15. After revelations that prisoners captured by Canadian troops were later tortured by Afghan police, the Conservative government dismissed the reports as 'rumours and allegations.'
16. Stephen Harper cancelled the Kelowna Accord, negotiated between First Nations and the previous Liberal government. Despite shortcomings, such as its failure to address the urgent needs of off-reserve Aboriginal people, the agreement represented the largest payout to First Nations in Canada's history.
17. The Harper government killed the initial progress towards a national child care system, leaving hundreds of thousands of working people with no access to affordable care for their children.
18. The Harper government's 2007 budget disproportionately rewarded married couples where one partner earns most or all of the income. This policy encourages women to stay out of the workforce, and even rewards partners who work part time for quitting to stay at home.
19. In the fall of 2006, after the Conservatives lost their bid to reopen the same-sex marriage debate, some anti-equality religious leaders called for a Royal Commission On Marriage And The Family, claiming that gay parents are 'hazardous to children.' This idea may re-surface under a Harper majority as a way to set the stage to reverse same-sex marriage rights.
20. Jean-Guy Fleury, chair of the Immigration and Refugee Board, resigned in March 2007 after the Conservatives stacked the board with Tory partisans. Before Harper took power, IRB members were not appointed by politicians, but now such policy is at the discretion of the Prime Minister's Office.
21. In the last election, dozens of far-right religious fundamentalist Conservative candidates were on the ballot. If Harper wins a majority, the religious right could be in an extremely powerful position.
22. In 2004, Stephen Harper told a CTV interviewer that 'A Conservative government in its first term led by me will not be bringing in abortion legislation or sponsoring an abortion referendum.' If Harper wins a second term, watch out for reproductive rights.
23. Stephen Harper was conspicuously absent when 20,000 activists, scientists and politicians descended on Toronto on Aug. 13, 2006, for the largest AIDS conference ever held.
24. When Harper made his first billion dollars in cuts, the budget of Status of Women Canada was slashed by $5 million, or 40 percent, and the Conservatives announced that funding would be barred for SWC projects that include advocacy for equality.
25. Health and legal experts warned that Bill C-22, which raised the age of consent from 14 to 16, will create extra barriers to accessing contraceptives, abortions and sexual health information for young people. Judging by Conservative rhetoric, there may eventually be legal efforts to raise the age of consent to 18.
26. The Harper government axed the Court Challenges Program, which allowed cash-strapped organizations to launch language and equality appeals based on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
27. The manufacturing sector has shed over 250,000 jobs over the past five years, and the number of Canadians who want to work but do not have a job stands at well over one million. The Tory response? 'The economy is strong.' Yeah, right.
28. Former child soldier Omar Khadr remains the only citizen of a Western country still imprisoned at the Guantanamo Bay concentration camp, and the Harper government refuses to demand his return to Canada.
29. On May 10, 2007, Conservative MPs shut down parliamentary hearings on the Security and Prosperity Partnership and stormed out of the meeting, after Prof. Gordon Laxer testified that Canadians will be left to 'freeze in the dark' under plans to integrate energy supplies across North America.
30. Tory budgets have emphasised the authoritarian side of the capitalist state, with huge spending increases for the military, spy agencies, prisons and police.
31. A Supreme Court ruling ordered Parliament to amend 'Security Certificate' provisions which allow the Canadian state to imprison foreign nationals as 'suspected terrorists'. The changes adopted by Parliament do not eliminate 'Security Certificates,' and suspects are still not allowed to see the evidence against them.
32. Despite the Supreme Court victory by the Communist Party of Canada in the Figueroa case, which banned discrimination against small parties, Parliament and the courts still refuse to allow parties which receive less than 2% of the vote in federal elections to receive the $1.75 per vote which goes to the larger parties.
33. Despite the parliamentary defeat of a bill that would strip the Canadian Wheat Board of its single-desk authority, the Tories refuse to halt their attack on the CWB.
