A list of Harper government cuts/actions.
The latest Harper government slashing of the mandatory census and the associated outcry that has raised is certainly present in our minds right now...but given a few more months and some other action, will it fade?
I thought it would be a good idea to compile a list of the cuts and attacks the Harper government has led against various groups. Taken one by one, these cuts and attacks are awful, but are not easily located in a pattern.
I'll start off with one:
COURT CHALLENGES PROGRAM
In 2006, Harper cut funding to the court challenges program. This program gave various groups and individuals the financial ability to challenge federal legislation, including cases related to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It provided a sort of direct action 'check' to the exercise of federal legislative power. The Court Challenge program was being used fairly successfully to challenge laws that discriminated against homosexuals, and women in particular. Egale and LEAF were two groups that routinely accessed the program to challenge discriminatory legislation.
In 2008, the program was 'reinstated'. Except now it is the Program to Support Linguistic Rights. As in, it can no longer be used to support all the rights guaranteed in the Charter...only linguistic rights.
Since the people accessing the Court Challenges Program had to be members of a disadvantaged class who were personally impacted by the legislation in question, the cutting of funding has directly reduced the political power of those who are already marginalised in our society.
Please, add to the list!
Here's a great resource...a piece apparently written for Rabble previously. Where I can, I'm going to expand a little on the programs she lists. But since there are so many things to list, I'm going to break it up a bit.
ATTACKS ON WOMEN GROUPS
Status of Women in Canada
From above link: “Administrative savings” = $5 million cut (40% of budget), job layoffs, offices closed, organizations unfunded, their offices also closed. The Harper government also axed the National Child Care Program the Liberals had spent years negotiating with the provinces. The Status of Women Independent Research Fund was axed as well.
Those organisations include the closing of 12 out of 16 Status of Women Canada offices , and funding cuts to the National Association of Women and the Law (NAWL). Then in 2009, the Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act was passed, which has been widely criticised as actually reintroducing pay inequity into legal practice.
This year alone, the following groups had their funding completely cut:
- Match International
This group has worked with CIDA for over 30 years, working on 'MATCHing' the resources of women in Canada with the needs and resources of women in the South.
"Kim Bulger, executive director of Match International, is quoted in the media today saying the cuts to her organization and others are part of a pattern of “ideologically driven” punishment against feminist groups – particularly those that support funding for abortion as part of the maternal health initiative. (Canadian Press, May 4, 2010)"
- Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women (CRIAW)
- Conseil d'intervention for l'acces des femmes au travail (CIAFT)
- New Brunswick Pay Equity Coalition
- Reseau des Tables regionales de groupes de femmes du Quebec
- Alberta Network of Immigrant Women (ANIW)
- Centre de documentation sur l'education des adultes el la condition feminine (CDEACF)
- Association feminine d'education et d'action sociale (AFEAS)
- Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses (OAITH)
- Womenspace Resource Centre (Lethbridge, AB)
- Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation (CERA)
- Feminists for Just and Equitable Public Policy (FemJEPP in Nova Scotia, website currently down)
Of course the Court Challenges program was previously cut off when Mulroney was PM - yet these "red Tory apologists" still keep about how nice and moderate and decent Mulroney was compared to the "alien plant" that is Harper. Frankly, I see no difference between them.
Of course if anyone wanted to make list of all the groups who lost funding during the Chretien/Martin years - the list would be so long that you would run of of banwidth before it could be posted anywhere.
The Court Challenges program It began in 1978, but only provided assistance to minority language cases (French or English only). Mulroney expanded it to include the equality section (15) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. He withdrew funding in 1992...Chretien reinstated in in 1994. That means it was out of commission for two years. It has now been out of commission for 4 years under Harper, and since it now ONLY deals with minority language issues again, it is unlikely it will ever be FULLY reinstated under Harper. That isn't to say Mulroney wouldn't have continued to keep the program buried had he stayed in office...but it in no way dimishes what Harper has done to it.
As for talking about funding cuts during the Chretien/Martin years, perhaps you should start a thread on that so we can actually analyse which programs were cut? You can see a distinct pattern in Harper cuts...for example his cuts to women's groups, just to start off with. What patterns are there in the Chretien/Martin cuts?
"What patterns are there in the Chretien/Martin cuts?"
let's see, where to begin: environmental groups, arts groups, the unemployed, all social housing programs GONE, foreign aid funding - cut to ribbons the Law Reform Commission GONE. it has also been well documented that long before the latest census brouhaha - Statscan had already been forced to get rid of half the studies it used to do because the Liberals gutted their funding so heavily...and that doesn't even count all the cuts in transfers to the provinces that led to draconians cuts to health care and social assistance etc....
Aboriginal Programs
Of course, it all started with the Harper government's failure to honour the Kelowna Accord which would have set aside $5 billion for funding of Aboriginal health, education, housing, and social services, undoing the work of decades. Of the initial $1 billion in cuts in 2006, Aboriginal programs bore 7% of those cuts.
"Indian and Northern Affairs Canada “operational efficiencies” = $3.5 million million cut.
“Unused funding” (re: Nunavut) = $50 million not re-allocated or otherwise made available
Elimination of funding for First Nations and Inuit Tobacco Control Strategy = $10.8 million cut"
The First Nations Technical Institute had its funding cut in half in 2008.
In addition, in March of this year it was announced that funding would be cut to the:
Aboriginal Healing Program
This program began in 1998 to create programs to help Residential School survivors to deal with their painful experiences, which have been the cause of intergenerational trauma.
"No colonialism in Canada"
One of my favourite incidents was Harper's denial of colonialism in 2009:
“We also have no history of colonialism,” the Conservative prime minister said. “So we have all of the things that many people admire about the great powers but none of the things that threaten or bother them.”
It would be very helpful if you could provide sources as well. Although none of this detracts from the current policies being discussed...unless you think that somehow, in discussing them gives former governments a 'pass'?
It does not.
As much as i hate virtually everything Harper stands for - I remain convinced that if he had a little "L" in front of his name instead of a little "C" - most of the "chattering classes" in the Liberal media (i.e. the Globe and mail, the CVBC etc...) would turn a blind eye to most of what he was doing.
I'm not particularly interested in what the mainstream media would or would not do...if I were relying on them, I wouldn't have felt like there was a need to compile a list like this in the first place.
You can add the cutting of the Energuide for Houses program by which homes were evaluated for their energy efficiency. Funding for new evaluatiions has ended, and the program that does followup to houses being upgraded will end next March. It will mean the loss of all the trained energuide evaluators who constitute the product of years of skill training and research going back to the early 90s. This northern country, facing the need to sharply reduce production of greenhouse gases, will be left vulnerable to the real estate and construction industries assessment of the houses they live in. But that is central to the privatization of everything... and consuming more Alberta-produced energy has to be good. :)
The Liberals have said they will re-instate the Court Challenges Program if they are returned to power. Some of the damage done by Harper can be reversed.
You mean some of the damage done because of Liberal inaction and support of the Conservative agenda can be undone don't you? Anyone who thinks the Liberals are not complicit in EVERYTHING that Harper has done has not really been paying much attention.
Silencing Dissent: The Conservative Record
intro:
Over the past five years, exercise of the fundamental freedom of speech in Canada has been curbed and discouraged by a federal government increasingly intolerant of even the mildest criticism or dissent. Particularly affected have been organizations dependent on government funding which advocate for human rights and women's equality. Their voices have been stifled, some completely silenced, by cuts to their budgets. Also financially throttled have been individuals and groups that speak out for reproductive rights, humanitarian immigration policies, and for changes in Canada's foreign policy in the Middle East.
The Harper government's now lengthy record of silencing - or attempting to silence - its critics also includes the removal of heads of government agencies, commissions, and tribunals who insist on making independent decisions. Academics who have spoken against government actions or policies have also been targeted.
This blatant suppression of basic human rights by a government constitutionally responsible for guaranteeing their expression is unprecedented in Canada's history.
List of organizations which have been cancelled or defunded, and individuals who have been silenced or removed from their posts
(2006-2011)
Seventy-nine community organizations, agencies, NGOs, research bodies and programs which have been cancelled, or whose funding has been cut or dramatically decreased:
bump: needs to be updated!
2010: Stephen Harper's record of denying democracy
The question now becomes: if the NDP becomes government, will they reverse the cuts?
It's time to expect more from our government
excerpt:
"No opposition party has so far said that they are committed to reversing all the reactionary and destructive actions of this government. Yet this is what we should be demanding of them." ..
Canada Revenue Agency to bear brunt of latest public service job cut
Fascists first order of business always: Attack labour unions.
add Food Mail program cuts? i know its change to Nutrtion North Program...
and more cuts like NAHO etc.
http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/65674nahos_inuit_tuttarvin...
I hope all the true-believers are keeping track so that they can monitor this critical question of ndp restitution.
God help us all if the Conservatives hang on to their majority in 2015.
Nunavut won't vote Leona (Conservative) in 2015, i knew she lose her seats cause nunavut very angry with her on high cost of food and NNC. She avoids protest in Nunavut couple days ago. And I know all Canadian would complain complain complain about majority and tory supporter would change their mind to vote NDP next elections and they want canadian stop complaints. just like 1993 thinking about it.
Well, despite all the shitty things Harper has done since first being PM - why is he still virtually tied for first place with the NDP?
We hope Nunavut doesn't vote Leona. Food is serious business in the north, and the Tories just don't care about cost of living. It's sad.
Harper hurts science - again
And harper promised transparency and accountability in Ottawa. He's a terrible liar.
Same with RevCanada. He's laying off tax auditors investigating tax cheats.
It's clear that Harper's job is to destroy government and pave the way for unfettered greed and corruption. It's what neoliberals refer to as progress. As head CEO of Canada it is Harper's job to run the peoples corporation into the ground and pawn it all off to rich friends of the party. Fascists first order of business is to destroy labour unions and privatize the economy.
Excellent post, Fidel.
Given the Harper regime's predilictions for reaching for their guns when they hear the word "research" (or "culture" for that matter) , it should come as no surprise that the National Aboriginal Health Organization closed its doors yesterday.
The National Aboriginal Health Organization "has conducted over $60 million worth of research on the health of Aboriginal peoples in Canada over its 12-year existence."
If you don't give a shit about FN peoples and are keen to snuff out their rights and culture, then what's the use of collecting data regarding their health? Wannabe Reichsleiter Tom Flanagan must be pleased about this cut in particular.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspaper_endorsements_in_the_Canadian_federal_election,_2011
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspaper_endorsements_in_the_Canadian_federal_election,_2008
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspaper_endorsements_in_the_Canadian_federal_election,_2006
Major Federal Government Cuts Impacting Women in Canada Since 2006