It's been an interesting year for Harper and co. ever since he weaseled his way out of falling to a coalition government.
Lately, as end-of-year summations, reflections and contemplations fill the pages and airwaves of the MSM, a few op-ed pieces have mentioned Harper's disdain for democracy, tendency to trip up transparency, and appalling attempt to annihilate accountability. I am pleased that there are still a few writers who command substantial audiences willing to hold our Dear Leader to account.
In the spirit of Top 10 lists, so ubiquitous at this time of year, here are 10 things (in no particular order) we must not forget about Harper and the Conservatives in 2009.
1. Torture of Afghan Detainees
Fortunately, the MSM hasn't quite abandoned this story and, to their credit, many reporters have done a fine job digging and revealing.
After diplomat Richard Colvin testified that Canadian soldiers handed over Afghan detainees to be tortured, the Conservatives launched into personal attacks on Colvin.
The Harper government has effectively suspended parliamentary hearings into detainee abuse (worth mentioning: Colvin states that most detainees were innocent) and have ignored a special order of Parliament to release uncensored documents pertaining to the transfer of detainees.
So far, 132 former ambassadors have admonished the government for its treatment of Colvin. And we've recently learned that in 2006, Peter McKay, as Foreign Affairs Minister (along with Ministers Stockwell Day and Gordon O'Connor), was briefed by the International Red Cross on torture in Afghan prisons.
What did this government know and when did it know it? If it was aware that prisoners handed over to Afghan officials were being tortured then the federal government could be guilty of war crimes under the Geneva Convention.
Keeping true to itself, the Harper government has responded with Bushesque jingoistic hyperbole, declaring critics and those who ask questions as unpatriotic and not supportive of the troops.
Harper is hoping that the holidays and a long Parliamentary recess will wipe this mess from the front pages and from Canadians' memories.
2. Another Embarrassing Performance on the Environment File
Harper's loathing for all things environmental is well-chronicled. Whether he's calling the Kyoto Accord "job-killing, economy-destroying" or a "socialist scheme", he treats environmental policies with contempt.
The Harper government has no substantial plan to tackle climate change, while Harper's and Environment Minister Jim Prentice's petro patrons in the Alberta tar sands continue to increase greenhouse gas emissions.
In October, Harper skipped out on an international climate change discussion at the United Nations to preside over a carefully staged-managed "photo-op" at a Tim Horton's where he celebrated corporate tax cuts.
He wasn't going to bother attending COP15 until Obama decided to go.
While in Copenhagen, Canada's reputation was further sullied when it was awarded Fossil of the Year and was the target of a hoax.
In awarding Fossil of the Year, Avaaz said:
"Fossil of the Year goes to Canada, for bringing a totally unacceptable position into Copenhagen and refusing to strengthen it one bit. Canada's 2020 target is among the worst in the industrialized world, and leaked cabinet documents revealed that the government is contemplating a cap-and-trade plan so weak that it would put even that target out of reach."
3. Refusing to Stand up for Canadian Health Care
In the heat of debate on health care reform in the US, Canada was the subject of typical Republican shenanigans, where facts never get in the way of an argument.
For example, Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert (TX), asserts: "One in five people have to die because they went to socialized medicine! ... I would hate to think that among five women, one of ‘em is gonna die because we go to socialized care."
Never mind that Americans, compared to Canadians, have shorter life expectancies, higher child mortality rates, and worse health outcomes with a health care system significantly more expensive than Canada's.
During an interview with ABC News correspondent Jake Tapper, Harper was given an opportunity to defend the Canadian health care system and correct misconceptions. Instead, he demurred and simply said that health care is a provincial issue and that he didn't "feel qualified to intervene in the [US] debate".
4. Treatment of Canadians Abroad
Suaad Hagi Mohamud's despicable treatment by the Canadian High Commission in Kenya was in the headlines for weeks. When asked what Canada was doing to secure Mohamud's return, Harper admitted that he had only recently learned about Mohamud's case.
Omar Khadr, now headed for an Illinois facility, is the only Western citizen still being held in Guantanamo Bay; a military prison rife with human rights abuses. Characteristic of their stubborn attitude when proven wrong, the federal government appealed the Federal Court of Appeal's ruling to repatriate Omar Khadr.
International law states that rather than prosecuting minors, child soldiers should be rehabilitated. Perhaps this is why the Harper government now uses "children in armed conflict" rather than "child soldiers" in official government documents (see point 10 below) - a change in phrases may protect the government from their unjust treatment of Khadr.
5. Patronage Appointments
For a man who has long expressed loathing toward patronage, Harper seems to actually delight in appointing Conservative Party apparatchiks.
In 2008, Harper made at least 148 party faithful appointments to federal boards and agencies. In 2009, he continued to reward friends and insiders and even upped the ante. In November 2009, the Liberals revealed that since Harper was re-elected, he appointed 233 "former Tory MPs, cabinet ministers, campaign workers, past candidates and top donors...to the Senate, courts and government boards and agencies..."
This year, Harper appointed another nine Conservative Senators (he appointed 18 Conservative Senators last December), including his former campaign chair (Doug Finley, husband of Conservative cabinet minister Diane Finley), a communications assistant (Carolyn Stewart-Olsen) and the president of the Conservative Party of Canada (Don Plett).
Since December 2008, Harper has appointed 27 Senators; the most appointments in one year by any Canadian Prime Minister.
Impressive for a man who once thundered: "They are ashamed the Prime Minister continues the disgraceful, undemocratic appointment of undemocratic Liberals to the undemocratic Senate to pass all too often undemocratic legislation." (Stephen Harper, Hansard, March 7, 1996).
6. Smears and Labels
Whether calling critics of the Afghan war "unpatriotic" or childishly referring to NDP leader Jack Layton as "Taliban Jack" when Layton recommended talks with the Taliban (a course of action now accepted by the international community), the Harper government labels and smears anyone and everyone who disagrees with them (also see Richard Colvin above).
A Christian aid group, KAIROS, was accused by Immigration Minister Jason Kenney of being anti-Semitic. Without presenting evidence, Kenney pulled federal funding for KAIROS for "taking a leadership role in the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel" (KAIROS does not support a BDS campaign).
According to the Conservatives, criticizing Israel's domestic and foreign policies immediately brands you as anti-Semitic. Indeed, displaying a profound ignorance of Israel, the Middle East and democratic free-expression, Kenney's communications director equates "anti-Israel" with "anti-Semitism".
Recently, the Conservatives used taxpayer funds to send flyers to Jewish residents in Liberal MP Irwin Cotler's Montreal riding. The political flyers state that Liberals "willingly participated in [the] overtly anti-Semitic" World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa ("Durban 1"); described by Cotler as a "festival of hate".
Durban 1 occurred in 2001. The only reason to raise this issue now is to smear Cotler's character and use accusations of anti-Semitism as a political weapon.
7. Access to Information is a Failure
Despite Harper's repeated promises to make government transparent and accountable, he has failed. Too strong a word? Not according to then-Information Commissioner Robert Marleau, who in February 2009 gave six of 10 federal agencies a failing grade on compliance with the Access to Information Act.
Marleau said: "There are major delays, particularly with extensions, with some institutions routinely taking months to respond to information requests."
And what became of Marleau? In June 2009, he abruptly resigned halfway through his tenure for "personal and private reasons".
8. The Stimulus Spending Debacle
This was the policy that was to breathe life into our ailing economy, employ Canadians and, well, build stuff (although not surprisingly, there isn't much by way of green projects).
Employing an interesting choice of words while aloft in a plane over China, Harper said that 97% of stimulus spending is "committed". But commitment is not the same as actually doing something.
Harper also told us that his government was hard at work creating jobs, although federal officials are not tracking jobs created by the stimulus program.
Don't pay any attention to that man behind the curtain, said Harper, and he spent $34 million of our money to advertise his Action Plan (which is neither about "action" nor is it a "plan". Discuss).
While the Conservative government made a pact with the Liberals to provide updates on how the stimulus funding is being spent, the Parliamentary Budget Officer said that the updates lacked detail and weren't useful.
And it just wouldn't be a Conservative boondoggle if they didn't find some way to enrich themselves. According to the Canadian Press, stimulus cash has not been targeted to regions with high unemployment; rather ridings with Tory MPs seem to be favoured.
9. Harper's Managed Image
Whether he's playing the piano and belting out the Beatles, standing on a submarine (a Yellow Submarine?) in the Arctic, drinking a cup of Tim's with the people, or eating seal meat, photo-ops are carefully staged.
To ensure each photo is print-worthy, so that there is never a repeat of the PM looking like Howdy-Goofy, Harper's handlers have restricted photojournalists from attending certain events.
Rather, the Prime Minister's Office photographers snap orchestrated shots; portraits where the content can be controlled and the PM looks the way the PM wants.
10. Newspeak
Since Harper controls the image, he also controls the message.
In Murray Dobbin's wonderfully lucid article, "Stephen Harper: Unfit to Govern", he finds that Harper manipulates official government language. For example, the Department of Foreign Affairs must now use "children in armed conflict" instead of "child soldiers" (see point 4) and it's no longer "gender equality" but "equality of men and women".
And who can forget that for well over a year, the Harper government was "Canada's New Government".
If you want to alter the culture and ethos of a nation and its peoples, change the language.
I have an icepack on my head and I haven't even binged on the nog yet.
This list barely scratches the surface of Harper '09. Sorry to end on such a gloomy note, but I don't have much hope that 2010 will be better than 2009.
But whatever Harper and his gang get up to, they can be sure that we'll be watching and writing and recording.
See you in the New Year!
Just as I expected. Ad hominem attacks. So, from handing detainees over to the Afghans where, presumably, they were tortured, we've suddenly evolved into 'systematic' torturers--or as bad, friends of systematic torturers. One has to be truly naive to believe the political attacks on Harper are motivated by a sense of sympathy for Afghan detainees or even the Khadrs. And the hysteria continues in Mr Spector's rebuttal (I use the term 'rebuttal' loosely). Rogue-state, Mr Spector? Perhaps you're right. That probably explains the many thousands of Canadian troops stationed along the US/Canada border to guard against potential US rogue-state aggression. Every leader, to Mr Spector, is corruption personified--except, of course, President Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Saddam Hussein (formerly of Iraq), Nicolai Ceaucescu (formerly of Romania) and President Barack Obama of the (newly reformed?) USA--to name but a few 'acceptable' .
Diana 1976: Harper 'supported' the war the Liberals took Canada into, eh? So what? In times of war, that would be my definition of 'loyal opposition'. Furthermore, Iraq was no more Bush's war than WWII was Winston Churchill's war. Eight years of al Qaeda 'silence' when Bush was President tells me it was a Canadian (or American) war, too. In any case, I somehow doubt President Bush woke up one morning and, in a pensive mood, wondered, "Who shall I make war with today?" I'd like to believe Saddam's rape rooms were part of the reasons for the war in Iraq.
Finally, I believe everyone outraged over the fate of detainees in Canadian hands ought to take the matter up with the actual culprit: Hamid Karzai, the 'corrupt, US-installed' (thanks, Mr Spector) President of Afghanistan. Maybe you will embarrass the fellow enough to make him quit torturing people dedicated to destroying Afghanistan--and killing Canadian soldiers.
Harper "inhereted the war"? Harper fully supported the war from the beginning, and would have had us in Bush's Iraq war besides. He was the only one of five party leaders in the House of Commons, including the Progressive Conservatives, who wanted Canada to follow the US into Iraq as well as Afghanistan.
When Harper took office the agreement with the Afghans had just been signed. Harper had two choices. He could have cancelled that and continued turning prisoners over to the US if he thought that was preferrable. Or, he could have supplemented the agreement and strengthed the system of monitoring detainees and working with the Afghan prison system AFTER the detainees were turned over. For one and half years he did neither. To this day he denies that its a legal responsibility, which it is.
NOTE this is not primarily a military issue at all, as Harper claims. Foreign agreements are the responsibility of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Correctional Services does the monitoring. The soldiers are responsible for detainees BEFORE their turned over. NOBODY has criticized them for their part. The Military itself has investigated some cases which have shown the SOLDIERS have done THEIR job in this appropriately AND carried out the legal responsibility Harper says we don't have. Harper and his Ministers are the ones being questioned on why they failed to support the military effort by keeping track of the detainees, not only their treatment according to the law, but whether they were being inappropriately released only to rejoin the fight.
To sungura_tatu, Stephen Harper shill:
1. The Liberals started the war, but Stephen Harper has made it his own. And you are right; we shouldn't be in Afghanistan in the first place; it's been well-known for many years that the corrupt US-installed government of Afghanistan - yeah, the ones on "our" side - have systematically practised torture of detainees. Your pals in Ottawa see no problem with handing people over to the torturers because they, and you, are on the same side as the torturers.
2. Your hero Harper is the darling of what you call the Pravda-like media. They were almost unanimous in telling us to vote for him in the last election. You have nothing to complain about.
3. You know nothing about Canadian law. If you did, you would recognize that Omar Khadr is the victim of the rogue torture-state to our south, and should be released. Prosecuting his mother (his father's been dead for years, but you wouldn't know that) is not going to help Omar one bit. But of course Khadr's welfare is the least of your concerns, isn't it?
Your government turns a blind eye to war crimes against its own citizens; it's no wonder they don't mind helping Afghans torture other Afghans.
The last time I checked, the Afghans were on 'our' side. If we don't think our allies are good enough to handle detainees we shouldn't be in Afghanistan in the first place.
Having said that, we are in Afghanistan, Stephen Harper inherited this war, and our armed forces are doing their best in very difficult circumstances (thanks to years of Liberal government neglect). Someone ought to remind Richard Bloody Colvin and the utterly feckless MSM of that fact.
Our soldiers don't need the antics of diplomatic dung-hill roosters to make their work even more difficult. Nor do we need the Pravda-like media echoing the idiotic sentiments of the anything-but-loyal opposition.
On another subject, Omar Khadr was sent to a war zone when he was in his early teens. This, according to Canadian law, amounts to child abuse. If we care so much about our 'Canadian' citizens--and before we beat our chests about the poor kid in Gitmo--shouldn't we first prosecute the parents for deliberately putting their children in harm's way?
Aw take it easy on Harper, he's working two jobs you know: http://thealbatross.ca/2009/09/as-usual-harper-inappropriately-dressed-f...