Here in the US, we’re up to our ears in Republican attempts to establish a permanent, totalitarian plutocracy, enforced by pseudo-Christian storm troopers, in which elections exist for show only. I satirically call this the Fifth Reich. Unfortunately, it appears that another would be Fuhrer to our north is importing Republican beliefs and methods.
From muzzling watchdog groups to persecuting whistleblowers, from devaluing Indigenous voices to undermining labor unions, from defunding environmental charities to criminalizing peaceful protests, the Canadian government made civil society organizations "Public Enemy #1."
So charges a new report released Tuesday by Voices-Voix, a coalition of 200 organizations and 500 individuals who say Canada’s federal government has pursued a deliberate strategy to repress alternative views.
"Together, we feel neither secure nor valued," the signatories write in Dismantling Democracy: Stifling Debate and Dissent in Canada (pdf). "In a culture of pervasive scare tactics and punishment, it can be easy to become paralyzed with fear, to accept the advocacy chill and give way to self-censorship."
This "crude campaign to stifle dissent" has manifested in myriad ways, according to Voices-Voix, which includes Amnesty International Canada, Greenpeace Canada, and the Council of Canadians.
Such concerns have been raised several times before. But Voices-Voix’s analysis is perhaps the most comprehensive. Drawing heavily from more than 100 case studies, the report—which journalist Karl Nerenberg, writing at Rabble.ca, said "should be compulsory reading for all Canadian voters before the next election"—documents dozens of examples of such silencing tactics.
Organizations that disagree with the government’s positions have had their funding threatened, reduced, or discontinued, the coalition says. What’s more, it adds, individuals have been fired or intimidated after speaking out on human rights or being critical of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s administration…
Inserted from <Common Dreams>
Harper’s Harlots have been so effective that Canada is now exporting Republicans to the US like Canadians Craig Cobb and “Uranus Inspector” Cruz. I wish you every success at flushing him, but please don’t do so southward.
Uncle Pat has told a bunch of whoppers in his day, but he killed it this week by coming up with possibly the most outlandish answer to the question posed by a woman whose co-worker lost her three-year-old child. What should the woman say if the co-worker asked her, “Why did God allow my baby to die?” she asked the TV pastor.