Conservatives Shut Down Free Speech, Communications & Voice

You know, it’s really pissing me off how Stephen Harper and his Conservative backroomers are putting a gag on Conservative candidates from speaking to the media. This is two cases in the last week, that we know about. First it was Dona Cadman, Chuck Cadman’s widow, who is running as a Conservative in Surrey-North, being blocked from being asked question from media IN HER OWN RIDING??? Actually, the Conservatives “initially laughed off in apparent disbelief that the media would even bother asking.”

Yes, how silly of the media and the constituents of the Surrey-North riding to ask questions of a Conservative candidate who is running in their riding? Who is the idiot in this scenario again?

Not to be outdone, Pablito Carlo notes: “The Straight wasn’t able to get a comment from Conservative candidate Salomon Rayek. In a phone conversation on September 19, one of his staff members said the Mexican-born politician “isn’t available for media interviews at this point”.
So, Harper and the party elite have silenced and gagged their candidates – DURING AN ELECTION!!! What the hell is going to happen if they get in? Is this what Canadians can expect from a government run by Stephen Harper and the Conservatives: constituency representatives and Members of Parliament who don’t speak to members of their ridings, or the local media?

Frankly, I think that is EXACTLY what we will get if Stephen Harper gets in again. And it isn’t for this alone. He is running on a long record of shutting down dissent, free speech and muzzling people WE want to hear from. He has put up barriers to transparency of his decisions and government, and limiting access to civil and human rights for Canadians.

These are just a few of the things he’s done, ask yourself what more can we expect if he gets in again and the heavens forbid, with a majority Canadian government:

He fired the Health Canada Warriors of Truth & Safety

Health Canada fires 3 scientists
Last Updated: Thursday, July 15, 2004 | CBC News

Health Canada has fired three scientists who criticized the department's drug approval policies.

Shiv Chopra, Margaret Haydon and Gerard Lambert received letters of termination on Wednesday, said Steve Hindle, president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service.

They criticized Monsanto's bovine growth hormone, which led to a Senate inquiry and a decision not to approve the drug. They also questioned carbadox, a drug used in pigs, and Baytril, which was used to promote growth in cows and chickens.

Haydon called a 2001 Canadian ban on Brazilian beef a political decision, and Chopra criticized former health minister Allan Rock for stockpiling antibiotics during the post-Sept. 11 anthrax scare.

Prior to the May 2003 discovery of mad cow in Canada, both Hayton and Chopra also warned measures to prevent the disease were inadequate. They had called for a ban on the use of animal parts in feed.

The scientists' actions were applauded by NDP MP Pat Martin, who called the three "heroes."

"If the government has signalled the way they feel about whistleblowing by firing these three prominent whistleblowers, it doesn't bode well for the future of meaningful legislation...this is a huge step backward," added Martin.
Hindle agrees that this action sets a bad precedent saying, "it will cause other public service employees, who have legitimate concerns, to keep those concerns to themselves."

Whistleblower scientists to fight government firing
Last Updated: Thursday, July 15, 2004 | 9:37 PM ET
CBC News

Boy, we sure wouldn't want too many people looking out for public safety now would we? In light of the listeriosis outbreak serious questions have to be asked about how Stephen Harper & his Conservatives views on less regulation, or rather, more regulation from industries will protect us.

He cancelled funding to the Court Challenges program

The Court Challenges Program (CCP) provided funding to help minority, women's and other disadvantaged groups so they could launch "test court cases" challenging laws that may violate equality rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The program was ended by the current Conservative government in 2006.

Coalition Fights to Bring Back Court Challenges about an upcoming Federal Court case against the federal government’s decision to eliminate funding for the Court Challenges Program back in 2006.

He cancelled funding to many women’s advocacy organizations telling Canadians

Conservative Cancellation of Funding to the National Association of Women and the Law - Senator Larry Campbell’s Weblog

…this Conservative government is absent in their responsibility to protect the rights of women in Canada. Truth be told, through their ideological prejudice the Conservatives are deliberately targeting and cancelling programs that protect the rights of Canadians and promote gender equality in our country.In the most recent example of this, the Conservatives cancelled funding for the National Association of Women and the Law (NAWL).

Reason #37 - Status of Women slashed of Fifty-two important reasons to drive out Harper's Tories

Status of Women Canada (SWC) was the only government arm to address gender inequalities at a cross-Canada level, financing research and policy development through advocacy. When Stephen Harper made his first billion dollars in cuts, the operating budget of Status of Women Canada was slashed by $5 million, or 40 percent. The Conservatives also announced that the SWC Women's Program will only finance direct, local initiatives, and barred funding for projects that include advocacy for equality. According to the Canadian Feminist Alliance For International Action: "The current terms and conditions aim to provide `direct' and `local' assistance. This is very much based on a charity model which ignores the systemic issues behind the problem at hand. Instead of providing analysis and aiming for legal change the current approach privileges a case by case basis, almost as if women's poverty and violence against women were exceptions, aberrations to the norm. This approach is not meant to result in any significant change and does not challenge the status quo."

Stephen Harper's Conservative's attacked and fired Linda Keen, President of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, when she ordered the Chalk River nuclear reactor to shut down because it posed a safety risk.

What’s the stench around this, oh it’s Tony Clement again. And Gary Lunn trying to attack and discredit Keen when she was doing HER JOB. When intimidation didn’t work for Lunn, the Conservatives fired Keen the night before she was due to testify at a House of Commons natural resources committee.

The commission ordered the reactor to close on Nov. 18 over safety concerns about the emergency power system not being connected to cooling pumps, as required to prevent a meltdown during disasters such as earthquakes.

Liberal MP David McGuinty accused the Conservatives of U.S. Republican-style tactics by dismissing Keen in the "dark of night," just hours before she was due to testify before the Commons committee.

A ministerial directive on Dec. 10 ordered the CNSC to reopen the site. The agency refused, insisting a backup safety system be installed to prevent the risk of a meltdown during an earthquake or other disaster.

On Dec. 11, an emergency measure passed through the House of Commons overturned the watchdog's decision, and the reactor was restarted for a 120-day run on Dec. 16.

Embattled fired bureaucrat fires back in nuclear dispute
Juliet O'Neill, Canwest News Service
Published: Tuesday, January 29, 2008

OTTAWA - Health Minister Tony Clement belittled Linda Keen's concern for nuclear safety Tuesday, within an hour of the fired nuclear watchdog saying a reactor shut for an upgrade in November posed a safety risk 1,000 times greater than the international standard.

Keen testified the 50-year-old reactor would not be licensable today by any nuclear regulator anywhere in the world and the extension of a routine maintenance shutdown in November to install two backup pumps was aimed at heightening safety standards which, for a nuclear facility, should be the same as for a space shuttle or a jumbo jet.

Keen accused Lunn of "stepping over the line" by calling her at home on a Saturday afternoon to direct her to get the reactor reopened and told how taken aback she was to be fired late at night, after 10 p.m., on the eve of her scheduled testimony to the committee.

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Hear for yourself a little of what our sitting Prime Minister has to say about Conservative party players and their “overtures” to Chuck Cadman (RIP Big Guy). Hard to say whether the tape is real, or if it’s been doctored. I have to say though that I believe, as voters, it is in the public’s interest and we have a right to have a few questions answered:

· Where this matter stands before the court from both Mr. Harper’s and Mr. Dion’s camps?
· How much has it all cost Canadian taxpayers so far?
· While we’re on it, how much money is it costing taxpayers for the RCMP to be acting as bodyguards to candidates in their own ridings, or elsewhere?

Rick Mercer video - Stephen Harper/Chuck Cadman

Tories use RCMP to block media from talking to candidate Cadman
Last Updated: Wednesday, September 24, 2008 | 12:40 PM ET
The Canadian Press

Excerpts:
The Conservatives called on the RCMP Tuesday night to block reporters from speaking with B.C. candidate Dona Cadman, in a scene reminiscent of the last election when they stashed a local candidate in a restaurant kitchen.

Cadman, a candidate in Surrey-North, has fallen silent since alleging months ago that her dying husband was offered a lucrative life-insurance policy to side with the Tories in a 2005 confidence vote.

A dispute over exactly what kind of deal the Tories tried to strike with the late Chuck Cadman now lies at the heart of a legal battle between Stephen Harper and the Liberal party.

Reporters following the prime minister's national tour asked to interview Dona Cadman after a campaign rally in Surrey — a request that Harper aides initially laughed off in apparent disbelief that the media would even bother asking.

"We have media availabilities every morning in which journalists can ask questions of the prime minister," Teneycke said. "We have events every day in our war room, generally with members of cabinet."

Harper recently won an adjournment putting off a hearing that had been scheduled on the affair, and he's still seeking an injunction to keep the tape out of Liberal hands in the longer term.

Harper also launched a $3.5-million defamation suit last March against the Liberal party, which had used media reports about the tape to accuse the prime minister of "immoral," "illegal" and "unethical" behaviour.

The prime minister says the 2005 tape, in which he discussed the party's overtures to Chuck Cadman, was doctored by the journalist who conducted the interview.

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Vancouver Kingsway candidates dance with the ethnic vote
By Carlito Pablo. September 24, 2008. The Georgia Straight.

Excerpt:

On a recent Saturday morning, the NDP candidate for Vancouver Kingsway, Don Davies, sparred with Liberal candidate Wendy Yuan on a Vietnamese radio talk show.
In the evening that same day, Davies went to a dinner and dance event at the St. Patrick Recreational Hall on Main Street, upon the invitation of one of his Filipino-Canadian supporters. At one point, the Teamsters lawyer danced with Leony Cajigas, a nurse from the Philippines.

The next day, Davies was scheduled to attend a dim sum party, this time to court Chinese-Canadian voters.

“There are over 60 languages spoken in Vancouver Kingsway,” Davies told the Straight.
Of the riding’s 119,815 residents, 42,130 have English as a mother tongue only, according to the 2006 census. Moreover, the riding has a visible-minority population of 81,385, of whom people of Chinese descent number 47,605, and those of Filipino origin 11,930.

“I really respect and appreciate and like the multicultural fabric of our riding,” Davies said. “That’s why I live in Kingsway. I’m the only candidate who lives here with roots here.”

Yuan, who came to Canada in 1984, has her own story to tell.

“I came to this country just like most immigrants with $50 in their pockets and a dream,” Yuan told the Straight. “I came with limited means but through hard work, I got recognized and became a successful businesswoman. I understand what immigrants have to go through to reach what they want.”

Once an NDP bailiwick, Vancouver Kingsway has gone Liberal in recent elections. Its current MP, David Emerson, was elected a Liberal but crossed the floor to the Conservative side days after the 2006 vote.

Doug Warkentin, who is running for the Green Party of Canada in Vancouver Kingsway, acknowledged that the ethnic vote has been traditionally one of the areas that his party has a hard time cracking into.

A resident for the past three years in the riding, Warkentin, an engineer, hopes that his personal connections to small business owners that are mostly of immigrant extraction could win him a number of votes.

“Beyond that, just being the Green party candidate, I think anyone who’s interested in the future of Canada, it’s in their interest to support the kind of things that were supporting as well,” Warkentin told the Straight.

The Straight wasn’t able to get a comment from Conservative candidate Salomon Rayek. In a phone conversation on September 19, one of his staff members said the Mexican-born politician “isn’t available for media interviews at this point”.

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Canadians face a tough choice on October 14th 2008, but what is one of my mantras for voting is that a party and its’ leaders stand (and fall) by their reputation and history of ACTION in the community and how they represent the interests of citizens and protect our collective rights.

Over the past few years with a Stephen Harper minority Conservative government, many Canadians have experienced the sharp end of the stick and a poke in the eye, especially if you’ve tried to alert the public to safety risks. And as soon as they could, the Conservatives put limits and barriers on Canadian’s equality, civil and human rights and access to justice by using their power to cut funds to many important government programs. And they go to extraordinary lengths to silence those working for our safety. A particularly important thing to highlight is that in this election, we are seeing the Conservatives transform the RCMP, Canadian’s public police service, into little more than bodyguards in the pocket of the Conservatives. We are going down a very dark road, alone at night, when our national police services are being used by Stephen Harper to shield Conservative candidates from reporters and citizens like they are hired help keeping the paparazzi away. Citizens have a right to ask questions of candidates and if they don’t have that right during an election, then those candidates don’t have a right to be elected. Stephen Harper’s vicious, controlling and totalitarian nature has been apparent throughout his tenure as Prime Minister and is being played out right before our eyes during this election. No fuzzy sweaters or forced cheery smiles can hide the truth about his nature, his leadership style and the threat he poses to the continued civil and human rights of all but a few.

Actions speak louder than words. Please remember that when you head to the polls on October 14th 2008.