COMMON CAUSES
PROGRESSIVE FORCES ACTING TOGETHER TO BUILD A BETTER SOCIETY
Written by Maude Barlow for The Council of Canadians
WHO WE ARE
3
WHAT’S AT STAKE
4
WHAT WE HOPE TO ACHIEVE
5
OUR CONCERNS
6
SOCIAL JUSTICE
6
THE ENVIRONMENT
9
HUMAN RIGHTS
11
FOREIGN POLICY
13
DEMOCRACY
16
CONCLUSION
18
2
WHO WE ARE
Common Causes is an assembly of social movements dedicated to defending democracy,
social justice, the environment and human rights in the face of an all-out assault by the Harper
government. On September 13, 2012, 47 diverse regional and national organizations came
together to share concerns about the country’s direction under the Harper government, and
to create strategies to counter a federal government agenda that we believe is at odds with
the values of the significant majority of people who live in Canada, Québec and on Indigenous
lands.
Common Causes is made up of groups and organizations that represent workers, the poor,
students, First Nations, women, environmentalists, farmers, educators, human rights and social
justice advocates, immigrants and refugees, writers and artists, scientists, aid and development
workers, front-line health care workers, and many others. We are deeply troubled by the
Harper government’s agenda that is changing society in such critical areas as the economy,
the environment, labour rights, health care, food safety, education, social programs, science,
culture, foreign policy, civil liberties, peace and poverty. Our mission is to unite people and
communities to work in solidarity for change, and our goal is the just, equitable world and
country that we know is possible.
3
WHAT’S AT STAKE
We are very concerned about targeted attacks by the Harper government on democracy,
environmental protections, public services, workers’ rights, indigenous communities, charitable
organizations, independent scientists, civil liberties, and migrant, immigrant and refugee rights.
The list is long and growing. These attacks, together with a radical right-wing policy agenda, are
fundamentally changing the nature of Canada.
We are also very concerned about the use of anti-democratic tactics to push forward this
agenda. Accusations of electoral fraud are now before the courts. Faith in our democracy has
been shaken by prorogations, contempt of Parliament citations, omnibus legislation rammed
through Parliament, trade and foreign investment agreements not opened to debate, and
violations of financing regulations.
We do not accept that having a majority, won with a mere 39.6 per cent of the vote, gives
the Harper government the right to undo decades of social, environmental and human rights
policies. Very little in the platform of the Conservative Party before the last election prepared
us for changes so profound they undermine people’s most basic human rights and democratic
freedoms.
4
WHAT WE HOPE TO ACHIEVE
Over the last two years, we have witnessed amazing organizing and mobilizing in Canada –
from student movements in Québec, to the “Defend Our Coast” struggle against tar sands
pipelines in British Columbia, to scientists speaking out against the “Death of Evidence,” to the
environmental community standing together through the “Black Out Speak Out” campaign.
Courageous doctors have stepped forward to challenge the attacks on refugee benefits, and
librarians and archivists have marched to save our collective history. Workers are fighting for
their rights. First Nations have taken direct action through the “Idle No More” movement, and
Chief Theresa Spence of the Attawapiskat First Nation launched a hunger strike to protest unjust
omnibus bills.
The time has come for Canada-wide coordinated action against the Harper government’s
agenda, which is fundamentally changing our society and our country. Common Causes will
work to support the many mobilizations and campaigns that already exist, but also to create
a strategic, coordinated plan to ensure that the Harper agenda is stopped at the next election
and replaced with a progressive alternative. Common Causes will work cross-sectorally, locally,
provincially and nationally to create an extended network for solidarity, resistance, action and
change. Through this coordination, we will shape priorities for common action and maximum
impact.
5
OUR CONCERNS
Although by no means an exhaustive list, our concerns can be broken into five major policy
areas.
SOCIAL JUSTICE: Stephen Harper is systematically dismantling the social security net in a way
that will have hugely negative long-term ramifications.
THE ENVIRONMENT: Stephen Harper is systematically wiping out decades of environmental
protections and laws in order to promote unbridled resource extraction. No other government in
the history of Canada has declared war on the environment in this way.
HUMAN RIGHTS: Through a wide variety of initiatives, policies and positions at both national
and international levels, Canada’s traditional reputation as a human rights leader has eroded
precipitously under Stephen Harper. The speed at which decades of human rights leadership has
come undone has been dizzying.
FOREIGN POLICY: Stephen Harper has moved Canada’s foreign policy sharply to the right,
embracing a more militaristic role for Canada’s armed services, putting trade before human
rights and using aid to promote the interests of Canada’s infamous mining industry abroad.
DEMOCRACY: No government in Canadian history has so abused the rules of Parliament,
or shown such contempt for transparency as the government of Stephen Harper. No other
government has ever gone after civil society dissent in such an aggressive and threatening way.
Indeed, the whole notion of democracy is at stake in this struggle.
SOCIAL JUSTICE
Stephen Harper is systematically dismantling the social security net in a way that will have
hugely negative long-term ramifications.
Corporations get tax windfalls
The Harper government wants to starve many key areas of public policy and has set the stage
for this by ushering in the lowest corporate taxes in Canada’s history, now at 15 per cent. With
these cuts, it has dried up revenue sources traditionally used by governments to promote
economic and social justice. The new corporate tax cuts will rob Canadians of $6 billion in
revenues each year and are part of a tax break windfall for big business that has deprived
Ottawa of an estimated $60 billion in tax revenues over the last four years. Studies show that
these tax breaks have not gone into investments in research or new plants, but rather into the
pockets of wealthy CEOs and shareholders.
6
The public sector is made a scapegoat
The Harper government is ruthlessly cutting the public sector to try to make up the deficit
caused by these corporate tax cuts. It paid the high-powered management consultant firm
Deloitte Inc. almost $90,000 a day to advise departments on their austerity plans, and gave
senior managers cash incentives of up to $15,000 to fire employees, creating bitter divisions
in many departments. More than 19,000 public sector jobs will be cut when the dust settles,
affecting every area of public service. Parks Canada will no longer be able to protect historic
sites, national parks or waterways. Human Resources and Skills Development Canada will not
be able to meet demands of those most in need of job training, such as people with disabilities,
First Nations youth and new Canadians. Job cuts at Transport Canada will mean cuts in airport
and marine security. Libraries and Archives Canada will no longer be able to maintain valuable
record-keeping services. Cuts at Correctional Services caused the elimination of the inmate
grievance program, which could lead to anxiety and even violence in our prisons. Also affected
are EI recipients, food inspection, services for seniors, search and rescue and assistance to
veterans.
Programs for women must go
Cuts to the public sector hurt women disproportionately as more women work in the public
sector, and women are still poorer than men. The Harper government has also eliminated
childcare funding agreements and rejected a national childcare program, shut down most of
the Status of Women Canada regional offices, abolished the Court Challenges Program that
provided funding for important equality rights cases, and barred federal public sector workers
from filing pay equity complaints before the Canadian Human Rights Commission. Health
Canada has cut all funding for projects aimed at improving the health and lives of Aboriginal
women. The cuts will have a devastating impact on those who suffer the greatest chronic health
conditions of any sector in Canadian society.
The federal role in health care is decimated
The Harper government has made plans to dramatically reduce the federal role in funding
medicare. After 2016, health care transfers will be tied to economic growth and funding, a move
that the Parliamentary Budget Officer says will cost the provinces $31 billion of lost federal
revenues over the ten-year life of the new health accord. This will reduce the federal share of
health spending to just 13 per cent over the next several decades. Cash-strapped provincial
governments will cut services and contract out delivery. Future generations will not have the
benefit of a publicly-funded health care system, a system supported by 96 per cent of Canadians
in a recent poll.
The poor lose a voice
The Harper government axed the National Council of Welfare, which for decades has provided
key research, data and policy advice to the federal government on the plight of low-income
7
Canadians. Clearly the government wants to downplay the shocking numbers showing the
growing income gap in Canada, where the top fifth of income earners take home nearly 40 per
cent of total income, and the bottom fifth take home just over seven per cent. And Harper is
now looking at engineering a “Big Society”-type program inspired by British Prime Minister
David Cameron. He is calling on charities, non-profit organizations, churches, and private
investors to take over the role of delivering public services that he is so clearly abandoning.
Workers lose rights
The Harper government has targeted workers by dramatically expanding the Temporary Foreign
Worker Program, eroding Employment Insurance, raising the age of retirement, and ramming
through back-to-work legislation against striking or locked out Air Canada, Canada Post and
Canadian Pacific Railway workers. The Harper government has done nothing to support workers
abandoned by transnational corporations that outsource when workers refuse demands to slash
wages by as much as 50 per cent. Meanwhile, the Harper government has sunk $1.24 billion
into P3 Canada, an agency mandated to aggressively promote public-private partnerships (P3s)
that hand over the operation of public services to the private sector. Stephen Harper’s vision
is to use P3s to replace public sector workers and transform the public sector into a new profit
centre for corporations.
The Wheat Board is taken out
Stephen Harper vowed to take down the Canadian Wheat Board long before he came to power.
He made good on his promise when he got his majority. The Canadian Wheat Board, one of
the world’s largest, longest standing and most successful state trading enterprises, was a profarmer monopoly supported by the clear majority of wheat farmers. But the Harper government
wanted the sector opened to transnational food corporations. It dismantled the Wheat Board
without holding a vote of its members as was required by law, going so far as to ignore a federal
court ruling against what one director called an “illegal injustice.” Furthermore, the Harper
government has put all farmers at risk with the proposed Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic
and Trade Agreement (CETA). The CETA would place severe restrictions on farmers’ rights to
save and re-use seeds, with penalties that include jail time for violators. The government is also
clearly open to offering up supply-managed dairy and poultry farmers in order to be part of the
Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.
Culture is cut to the bone
The Harper government recently axed funding to the Canadian Conference of the Arts, the
country’s largest alliance of arts, culture and heritage sectors. Founded in 1945 by a group of
eminent artists, the Conference provided a national forum where issues of common interest
could be addressed, and advised successive governments on policies to promote arts and
culture in Canada. This blow was simply the latest in a string of cuts to culture that started
in 2008, when the Harper government slashed $45 million from arts programs, cuts that one
8
playwright called tantamount to a declaration of war against the arts in Canada. In the 2012
federal budget, severe cuts to Canadian Heritage, CBC, Telefilm Canada and the National
Film Board alarmed the arts community. The Harper government is squeezing the life from
these public cultural institutions and will make it much more difficult to provide Canadian
programming, films and documentaries in the future.
THE ENVIRONMENT
Stephen Harper is systematically wiping out decades of environmental protections and laws in
order to promote unbridled resource extraction. No other government in the history of Canada
has declared war on the environment in this way.
Kyoto abandoned
Under the Harper government, Canada became the only country in the world to have ratified
and then abandoned the Kyoto Protocol. Harper’s environment ministers have consistently
played a negative role at the annual UN climate summits, and have repeatedly been given the
Climate Action Network’s “Fossil of the Year” award. At home, the Harper government has
failed to create a plan to combat climate change, eliminated funding for energy conservation
and efficiency and renewable energy, cut funding for the Canadian Foundation for Climate and
Atmospheric Sciences, ended monitoring of smoke stack emissions, eliminated the climate
adaptation research groups within Environment Canada, and cut funding for the department’s
ground-breaking ozone monitoring project one year after Canada unexpectedly experienced its
first-ever ozone hole over the Arctic in 2011.
The tar sands get big environmental and financial breaks
The Harper government’s support for the tar sands and the energy industry, meanwhile, has hit
a new high. The federal government spends more money on subsidies to the oil patch – $1.38
billion – than it does on Environment Canada, which has a budget of $1.2 billion. To hasten
energy exploration and development, Harper repealed the existing Canadian Environmental
Assessment Act and replaced it with a watered-down version that will reduce the number
of projects required to undergo a federal environmental assessment, narrow the definition
of what might constitute a negative environmental effect, restrict the time allowed for
assessments, limit public participation in the process, and give final decision-making authority
to Cabinet regardless of what the assessment panel recommends. Under the new rules, 3,000
environmental assessments are now cancelled.
Prime Minister Harper also aggressively promotes industry plans to build 14,000 kilometres of
new pipelines for tar sands export. Another new rule allows Cabinet, rather than the National
Energy Board, to approve them.
9
Water laws are gutted
In its two omnibus bills – C-38 and C-45 – the Harper government has made drastic and
destructive changes to freshwater protection in Canada. It gutted the Fisheries Act, the most
powerful tool we had to protect water. The new law no longer protects habitat and is limited
to “serious harm” to fish that have commercial, recreational or Aboriginal purposes. It killed
the Navigable Waters Protection Act, stripping protections from 99 per cent of lakes and
rivers in Canada. Major pipelines and interprovincial power lines now have the green light to
cross over and under more than 31,000 lakes and 2.25 million rivers without federal scrutiny.
The government is eliminating support for the Experimental Lakes Area, the world’s leading
freshwater research centre, which has done ground-breaking work on acid rain, household
pollutants and mercury contamination. By eliminating the Hazardous Materials Information
Review Commission, the Harper government has given the green light to fracking companies to
dump chemical contaminants into waterways without disclosure of their contents.
Independent science takes a hit
The Harper government has targeted independent science and scientists, shutting down dozens
of research projects, facilities and institutes conducting basic scientific research. These include
the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory, the Canadian Foundation for Climate
and Atmospheric Sciences, the Polar Continental Shelf Program, the Institute of Ocean Sciences,
the POLARIS project, the Climate Change Adaptation Research Group, the Laboratory for the
Analysis of Natural and Commercial Environmental Toxins, NEPTUNE Ocean Observatory, and
the Study of Beluga Whales and Health in the Arctic. Of paramount concern for basic science is
the elimination of the grants programs administered by the Natural Sciences and Engineering
Research Council, which funded operations at experimental research facilities. Gone too is the
24-year-old National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy, an independent source
of expert advice the government no longer wants to hear. Ditto for the National Science Adviser.
Infrastructure is slashed
Deep government cuts to federal departments and agencies responsible for protecting the
environment threaten science, the environment and public health. Cuts include: Parks Canada,
which is no longer required to conduct environmental audits; Environment Canada, which
gutted the unit that responds to oil spill emergencies just as the government is supporting
massive new pipeline construction and made deep cuts to staff at the Canada Centre for
Inland Waters, the most important scientific monitoring agency for the imperilled Great
Lakes; Fisheries and Oceans, which has shut down its marine pollution monitoring program
and laid off all habitat inspectors in B.C.; and Natural Resources Canada, which has gutted the
popular ecoENERGY Retrofit program, and cut back on the Clean Air Agenda, ecoTRANSPORT
Strategy, Canada’s Forest Sector Initiative, and grants to Sustainable Development Technology
Canada. The Harper government has also invited energy companies to begin drilling for oil in
the ecologically fragile Gulf of St. Lawrence, having watered down the Coasting Trade Act and
10
gutting the Centre for Offshore Oil, Gas and Energy Research, the only agency that had the
ability to assess offshore projects.
The energy industry sets environmental policy
The cuts made by the Harper government to Canada’s environmental laws were spelled out in a
December 2011 letter obtained by Greenpeace. The letter revealed that the oil and gas industry,
through a group called the Energy Framework Initiative that includes the major players in the
industry, outlined six laws it wanted amended in order for it to do its work. Those laws included
the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, Fisheries Act, Navigable Waters Protection Act,
Species at Risk Act, and Migratory Birds Convention Act. All but the last act, which is a treaty
with the U.S. and therefore not easily broken, have been savaged. A report by the Polaris
Institute found that the Canadian energy industry has been given unrivalled access to the
Harper government in recent years. Since 2008, there have been 2,733 meetings held between
the oil industry and federal government officials, many of them cabinet ministers, a number
that outstrips meetings with environmental organizations by 463 per cent.
HUMAN RIGHTS
Through a wide variety of initiatives, policies and positions at both national and international
levels, Canada’s traditional reputation as a human rights leader has eroded precipitously under
Stephen Harper. The speed at which decades of human rights leadership has come undone has
been dizzying.
First Nations are betrayed
While no one is laying blame for the chronic conditions of poverty and poor living standards of
First Nations communities on the doorstep of one party or government, the Harper government
abandoned the 2006 Kelowna Accord and with it, a whole host of programs to address issues of
aboriginal health, addictions, youth suicide, fetal alcohol syndrome, maternal health and child
care, and others.
As well, in the omnibus bills, the government has dramatically undermined the safety,
sovereignty and security of First Nations. The gutting of environmental protections is of
particular concern to First Nations as many of the current and proposed new energy and
mining projects – now released from environmental oversight by the Harper government – take
place on Indigenous lands. These changes were made without consultation with First Nations,
despite their court-recognized treaty rights. This also violates the UN Declaration on the Rights
of Indigenous Peoples, which guarantees “free, prior and informed consent” in any matter
that touches on resource development on Aboriginal lands. Another bill imposes strict new
rules on drinking water provision without accompanying funding, and permits the government
to enforce user fees. The Harper government is also proposing to allow the sale of reserve
11
property to non-Indigenous buyers, forever losing them as community lands. The outrage of the
First Nations community to the imposition of these new laws has been swift and strong.
Refugees are targeted
Bill C-31 has changed Canada’s refugee determination system in a way that creates a two-tier
system of refugee protection, which is vulnerable to political whims, rather than ensuring a fair
and independent decision-making process. The bill gives the immigration minister enormous
powers to imprison refugee claimants, to deny refugees the ability to reunite with family
members and to strip them of secure legal status. Amnesty International says the concentration
of enormous and vaguely-defined powers at the political level, with no mechanism for judicial
accountability, displays a dangerous inclination away from the rule of law. Bill C-31 does not
take into account the realities of the most vulnerable, such as survivors of torture and sexual
violence, and blatantly violates the UN Refugee Convention and other international rights
instruments. The law denies refugee claimants from specific countries (some of which have
records of systemic human rights violations) from appealing a negative decision. Furthermore,
cuts to the Interim Federal Health Program have deprived claimants of basic and emergency
health care, a move that front-line health care workers call cruel and inhumane.
Human rights at home are weakened
Harper’s years in power have been marked by relentless moves to weaken critical human rights
infrastructure and aggressive opposition to steps to strengthen human rights protections.
Oversight bodies, which play an important role in safeguarding human rights, are being
dismantled. These include the CSIS Inspector General and the Military Police Complaints
Commission. The Harper government firmly opposed a bill that would have established a
legal framework to oversee the human rights impacts of Canadian mining companies in their
operations overseas. Contempt for human rights obligations has been carried into court as well.
The Harper government spent millions of dollars in aggressive and obstructive litigation with
respect to Afghan prisoner transfers rather than taking steps to address an obvious and serious
human rights concern. And the government’s position in the First Nations Child and Family
Caring Society case dealing with discrimination in the area of First Nations child protection strips
any meaning from human rights guarantees for on-reserve communities. Bill C-10, an omnibus
crime bill that includes stiffer penalties for youth and makes it easier to try them as adults,
means that Canada no longer conforms to the child rights convention or other international
standards, according to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.
International human rights obligations are abandoned
The Harper government has shown outright contempt for binding international human rights
norms. There are a growing number of international human rights treaties that the government
has failed to ratify, dealing with such fundamental issues as political disappearances, torture
prevention and the provision of complaint mechanisms with respect to economic, social and
12
cultural rights and the rights of disabled children. The Harper government opposed the UN
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the General Assembly Resolution on
the Human Right to Water and Sanitation, and refused to co-sponsor UN General Assembly
resolutions calling for a global moratorium on executions. It also refused to recognize the
applicability of child soldier obligations in Omar Khadr’s case. As well, the Harper government
has exhibited a stunning level of disrespect for UN human rights experts and officials, berating
those who raised concerns about Canada’s record on Indigenous rights and the right to food.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights was condemned by the Harper government for a
brief reference she made in a UN speech criticizing Québec’s former draconian law restricting
freedom of assembly.
Canada softens its opposition to torture
Under the Harper government, Canada has reversed its long-standing policy against using
information extracted under torture. The government directed CSIS, Canada’s spy agency, as
well as the RCMP and the federal border agency, that they can now use information that may
have been obtained in this way in “exceptional circumstances” in order to mitigate a serious risk
of loss of life, injury or substantial damage or destruction of property. This directive completely
violates Canada’s international obligations under the UN Convention Against Torture,
which forswears the use of information obtained under torture, and which Canada ratified.
Furthermore, the framework document says that the torture information-sharing principles
apply to all federal agencies and the information gathered in this way can be shared with
foreign government agencies, militaries, and international organizations. Rejecting information
obtained by torture is one of the most important tools to stop this heinous crime. By openly
changing the Government of Canada’s position on this issue, the Harper government has
violated the most sacred of human rights obligations here at home and internationally.
FOREIGN POLICY
Stephen Harper has moved Canada’s foreign policy sharply to the right, embracing a more
militaristic role for Canada’s armed services, putting trade before human rights and using aid to
promote the interests of Canada’s infamous mining industry abroad.
Trade trumps human rights
As starkly set out in a leaked 2012 confidential government document, trade and economic
opportunities for corporations have become the driving forces behind Stephen Harper’s foreign
policy. Gone is any emphasis on Canada as a peacemaker or aid provider. In its place is a country
ready to use foreign policy to promote its own economic well-being and gain access to the
emerging Asian markets. There is no pretence of using trade deals to pressure countries such as
China on human rights. “Even where political interests or values may not align,” says the report,
13
the government will pursue political relationships “in tandem with economic interests.” Stephen
Harper has never been a big UN booster, but is now willing to use the UN as a means to provide
“vital economic opportunities” for Canada. Similarly, the most welcome immigrants are not
those fleeing injustice, but those who will serve Canada’s economic interests. Africa is seen as a
“potential major investment destination” and the Arctic, rather than being a potential venue for
global cooperation, is a source of “northern resource development.”
Foreign corporations given immense powers in Canada
Stephen Harper’s aggressive trade agenda extends not only to countries with poor human
rights histories such as China, Colombia and Peru but also gives foreign-based transnational
corporations new opportunities to restrict domestic Canadian economic or environmental
policies that hurt their bottom line. Investor state rights under NAFTA let American pulp and
paper giant AbitibiBowater successfully demand $130 million in compensation for water
rights after it vacated Newfoundland, leaving jobs and pensions unpaid. These same rights are
included in the Canada-EU CETA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and would give European and
Pacific Rim corporations similar powers in Canada. Harper allowed CNOOC, the state-owned
Chinese energy company, to invest $15 billion in the tar sands where the company can now
expand as if it were a domestic company. The government is poised to sign the Canada-China
FIPA investment deal, which will give CNOOC and other foreign-based corporations operating in
the oil patch the right to sue any future government that tries to re-introduce the Fisheries Act,
Navigable Waters Protection Act, or the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. The Harper
government’s trade agenda deliberately locks in the lowest possible environmental standards.
Foreign aid is slashed
The Harper government froze foreign aid in 2010. It now stands at 0.29% of the country’s GDP,
a far cry from Canada’s promise to reach the UN aid target of 0.7% of GDP. In the latest budget,
the Harper government slashed even that small budget by $377 million, leaving aid agencies to
scramble to meet commitments to the world’s poor. Furthermore, Stephen Harper has changed
Canadian aid and development policy in a way that is ringing alarm bells around the world. It
has cut ties to traditional aid and development agencies such as KAIROS, and instructed CIDA
to give money only to those agencies that will do business with Canadian mining companies
operating in the recipient country. Between 2006 and 2012, CIDA approved at least $50 million
in projects linked to Canadian mining companies. The Canadian mining industry has been
identified in an industry report as having the worst environmental and human rights violations
around the world. But yet the industry faces no penalties back in Canada, as Harper blocked
legislation that would have reined in abusers. In fact, aid will now go to those countries that
make these companies welcome with friendly investment policies. This means that Canadian tax
dollars, aid agencies and even some embassies may be implicated in the violent suppression of
local anti-mining activities in communities in the Global South.
14
Peacekeeping is abandoned
Under the Harper government, Canada is abandoning its traditional role as a global
peacekeeper and is moving to re-orient Canada’s armed forces to become a more aggressive
and militaristic institution in order to back the U.S. in its “war on terror.” Under the Harper
government, Canada’s military spending has reached its highest levels since World War II,
and military corporations receive strong funding from the government. Harper’s Canada First
Defence Strategy has earmarked $490 billion over twenty years for new military hardware,
including the controversial F-35 stealth jet fighters, C-17 transport planes and new naval vessels,
and committed Canada to long-term deployments such as Afghanistan. The government has
also announced a new network of military bases around the world, clearly signalling its intent
to shift its emphasis from protecting North America to engaging in far away wars on a regular
basis. It is true that DND has been hit with a $2.5 billion cut in the recent austerity plan, but
most of this money will be used for staff buy-outs and to wind down the Afghan mission. The
F-35 deal is now under review due to huge cost over-runs, but the question must be asked why
the Harper government ever chose the F-35 in the first place as it is entirely unsuitable to patrol
and conduct search and rescue in Canada’s north.
Diplomacy takes a sharp turn right
The Harper government has been marked by defiant international diplomacy, leaving Canada’s
reputation for bridge building and even-handedness in tatters. Prime Minister Harper has
alienated many moderate allies with his support of the hard right in Israel and its illegal
settlements. He dismayed both the U.S. and the UN when his international affairs minister
announced a freeze on aid to Haiti. He has little to say about gross human rights violations in
Mexico and Colombia because they are trade allies. (His government just allowed Canadian gun
manufacturers to sell prohibited fully-automated weapons to Colombia, a country with one
of the highest rates of violent crime in the world.) No wonder Canada, under Stephen Harper,
was denied a seat at the UN Security Council. Harper skipped the 2012 fall world leaders’
convocation of the UN General Assembly (not for the first time), choosing instead to receive
an award from Henry Kissinger and a right-wing American foundation, where he took a swipe
at the UN for “courting” dictators in his acceptance speech. Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird
attended the UN event in Harper’s absence, and his message was received in total silence. Baird
was the only speaker that day to receive that kind of snub.
15
DEMOCRACY
No government in Canadian history has so abused the rules of Parliament, or shown such
contempt for transparency as the government of Stephen Harper. No other government has ever
gone after civil society dissent in such an aggressive and threatening way. Indeed, the whole
notion of democracy is at stake in this struggle.
Parliament is shut down to suit the government
Stephen Harper prorogued Parliament in 2009 when opposition parties threatened to defeat
him. The Director of the Constitution Unit at University College London said that no Prime
Minister has ever before sought prorogation to avoid a vote of confidence in order to save
itself from political defeat. Harper then prorogued Parliament again in 2010 in order to stave
off scrutiny over allegations that Canada wilfully looked the other way when Afghan detainees
were transferred despite a risk of torture. In an attempt to dampen the growing crisis over these
allegations, the government – even though ordered to by the House of Commons – denied the
Parliamentary committee uncensored documents concerning the case, and pulled Conservative
MPs from the committee, working to keep crucial information from the Military Police
Complaints Commission. When the political heat kept rising, and opposition parties threatened
a confidence vote, Harper prorogued Parliament. Constitutional expert Errol Mendes of the
University of Ottawa said that the government’s handing over of these prisoners may have
constituted a war crime and called the prorogation to cover it up “dangerous” and an abuse of
power over Parliament, the Governor General, the public service and Canadian voters.
Vital information is withheld from the public
The Harper government runs a secretive operation. In 2010 and 2011, Canadian Journalists for
Free Expression gave the Harper government the lowest possible grade for transparency, saying
it takes longer than ever to access government information. For Harper’s refusal to disclose
information about the cost of big-ticket items such as his law and order agenda and corporate
tax cuts, his government was found in contempt of Parliament on March 25, 2011, a first in the
history of the Commonwealth. For Stephen Harper’s refusal to disclose financial information
about planned budgetary cuts, and his practice of low-balling the costs for the F-35 fighter jets,
the Parliamentary Budget Officer took the government to court – another first. Debate in the
House of Commons is increasingly limited and Parliamentary committees now meet more and
more in camera, with a number of them conducting all of their business in camera. Opposition
members cannot speak about what takes place behind these closed doors. Harper’s two
400-page-plus omnibus bills not only contained budgets that should have had full Parliamentary
scrutiny, they made major changes to hundreds of laws with no public consultation or debate.
Harper’s office compulsively monitors and oversees all government communications, and senior
bureaucrats and embassy staff are regularly muzzled. Government scientists cannot speak out
publicly on any environmental concerns they have. Government lawyers are suspended for
16
speaking out about government legislation that might violate the Charter. Environment Canada
scientists attending a recent international polar conference were given strict instructions not to
talk to the media until the interview was cleared by the department, which could then only take
place in the presence of a government “minder” who would record the interview.
Dissent is crushed
Perhaps the most distressing thing about the Harper agenda is the blatant silencing of dissent.
There is a relentless siege by this government against those who advocate for equality and
social justice, the environment, human rights or peace. The clear message is that those who are
not on board with this government’s position will be punished. Groups that have been critical
of Harper’s tar sands project are vilified as extremists. (Forest Ethics is considered an “enemy
of the Government of Canada.”) The Harper government revised its anti-terrorism legislation to
add environmental groups as potential threats. The Climate Action Network was defunded, as
was the Canadian Environmental Network. The last budget earmarked $8 million to crack down
on civil society groups, especially environmental organizations, and to remove the charitable
status of any group that dare speak out against government policy.
Aid agencies that promote a vision of social justice and human rights have been singled out.
Canadian Mennonite magazine was warned by Revenue Canada that its charitable status is at
risk because its newsletter contained an article about Mennonite youth urging the government
to spend less on war. Development and Peace, the Catholic aid agency, and the Central
Mennonite Committee have had their budgets slashed. Others have lost government funding
altogether. They include KAIROS, the global human rights arm of 11 churches; Alternatives, the
Québec-based social justice agency; MATCH, an organization that raised funds for women’s
empowerment in the Global South; the Canadian Council for International Cooperation, a
coalition of aid and development agencies that have been funded by government for decades;
and Rights and Democracy, the Montreal-based human rights agency that was shut down after
gross government interference in its internal politics.
17
CONCLUSION
We believe the Harper government is undemocratically and profoundly changing the role
and structure of government in this country in a way that threatens our core values. Far too
much power is now in the hands of the private sector, unaccountable to democratic oversight.
Democracy is being savaged. The future of our country and our society is at stake. We will unite
our Common Causes to defeat this agenda and work for a just and sustainable future.
18
#water
#antiwar
#Solidarity
#CETA
#TPP
#austerity
#notankers
#nokxl
#FreedomTrain
#Occupy
#defendourcoast
United for
#CommonCauses
#tarsands
#IdleNoMore
#c45
#nopipelines
#casseroles
#robocalls
#womensrights
#humanrights
#education
#tarsands
#lgbtq
#poverty
#Carrérouge
#healthcare
#manifencours
#FIPA
#studentstrike
#fracking
#socialjustice
#migrantworkers
#refugees
#antiwar
#CanLab
19
#austerity
#arts & #culture
#c38
For more information contact:
The Council of Canadians
700-170 Laurier Avenue West
Ottawa, ON, K1P 5V5
1-800-387-7177 | www.canadians.org
January 2013