rabble.ca columnist Murray Dobbin details the harm Prime Minister Stephen Harper is doing to the political and social fabric of Canada in a new essay commissioned by The Council of Canadians. This article is an excerpt taken from the essay, the sixth in a 10-part series on Harper's assault on democracy.
Harper's obsession with reforming the Senate
Eight of the former farmer-elected directors of the Canadian Wheat Board were in court this week, seeking to stop any further implementation of Bill C-18.
In the face of protest from grain producers and a Federal Court decision criticizing the way the government had ignored parts of the Canadian Wheat Board Act, Bill C-18 became law on Dec. 15, 2011. The bill effectively ended the CWB's "single-desk" system, meaning farmers can sell their own wheat without going through the Wheat Board. Bill C-18 also meant dismissal of the 10 producer-elected members of the CWB, leaving the five government-appointed members in charge of the organization.
Is Canada governed by the rule of law -- or only by the laws acceptable to the party in power? The difference, obviously, is not mere semantics. It is the difference between democracy and authoritarianism, between constitutional government and the exercise of arbitrary power by a temporary partisan majority.
These fundamental issues arise from the Harper Conservatives' decision to abolish the Canadian Wheat Board's single desk without holding a vote among western wheat and barley growers as required by the CWB's statute.
