Anti-Prorogue Protest Jan 23 in Gore Park

[markbarbera]

“When a government starts trying to cancel dissent or avoid dissent is frankly when it’s rapidly losing its moral authority to govern." -Stephen Harper, Canadian Press, April 18, 2005

What: Rally for Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament
When: January 23rd, 1:00 pm
Where: Gore Park, by Jackson Square (also happening in over 40 other cities across the country)
Why: Because proroguing Parliament to shut down scrutiny and avoid dissent is an affront to democracy and an abuse of power which must not go unchallenged

The rally is to start at 1:00PM at Gore Park

Map of area

Visit the Facebook page of local prorogue protest chapter for more information

Visit the national protest page on Facebook Add your name to the online protest list - over 185000 have joined as of 8:30 this morning.

[highwater]

“When a government starts trying to cancel dissent or avoid dissent is frankly when it’s rapidly losing its moral authority to govern." -Stephen Harper, Canadian Press, April 18, 2005

This quote never gets old.

Of course, what makes this latest prorogation so insidious is that Harper is not only trying to cancel or avoid dissent, he's trying to cancel or avoid plain old democratic debate (witness the implementing of full body scanners in airports).

Has he always been this paranoid and anti-democratic and all his previous bloviating about 'accountability' was just a smoke screen, or has something changed him? This isn't a rhetorical question. I'm honestly baffled.

[markbarbera]

Well, the movement against the abuse of parliamentary power to stifle debate has grown incredibly since I first posted this notice.

Membership in the facebook group Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament has grown to over 200,000 members (208,085 as of 1PM on Jan 21). Protests are scheduled for Saturday in nearly 60 cities across, as well as in New York City, USA and London, UK. A full list of the protests across Canada can be found at http://noprorogue.ca

Be it his election call in 2008 (which violated his own elections act), his proroguement in 2008 to avoid a vote of confidence defeat, and now his 2009 proroguement to shut down parliamentary debate, Harper has become a master of parliamentary manipulation for personal gain, and democracy has suffered greatly for it. If you're fed up with parliamentary process being manipulted for political expediency, be sure to join us in Gore Park at 1:00PM on Saturday, January 23.

[realcity]

I sent my $ donation to the Conservative Party of Canada already...

Thanks but I'm not going. This prorogue benefits the opposition just the same .... they can regroup and restrategize too, it happened because of the break down of Question Period. It gives the Fiberals some badly needed ammo and a break which they need too.. ah where was McMeekin? o ya on vacation, somewhere warm.


Dabate? Really? to what end?
And honestly Question Period is bullshit. Parliament's and Question Periods were admirable 500 years ago. Now it's a grandstanding event that serves no purpose anymore when it comes legislating. It serves the politicians to get re-elected by standing-up and barking some ridiculous question -- that is not really a question -- but a political statement.

The point of Question Period in a Parliament (originally) was that us/we citizens would give questions to our representative in the lower House and they would ask the questions on our behalf. Come On! How many of the questions you see/hear from Question Period sound like they came from a constituent living in their seat?

Parliamentary systems today fail their original mandate. We should be moving towards a Congressional System style of Democracy (which is more like the original Athenian version of democracy).

How many Canadians even watch Question Period? How many Canadians have asked their House Representative a question to ask? Like maybe 0.001%. And for that matter, if you did, did he/she (your representative) actually get back to you with an answer.

[markbarbera]

This is about a lot more than just cancelled question periods, realcity.

There were 37 bills on the order paper when Harper pulled the plug on the session. All these bills died the moment he did that. Along with all the costs associated with them - over $30 million dollars worth of taxpayers' money just flushed away so Harper can avoid accountability on important issues like the Afghanistan mission, the Copenhagen summit and addressing Canadian pensions in trouble. And he managed to sidestep a rather damning report on the state of Canada's deficit under the Conservative's watch too.

Honestly, how can anyone even pretend to support the actions of this megalomaniac?

[highwater]

Originally Posted by markbarbera

Honestly, how can anyone even pretend to support the actions of this megalomaniac?

QFT

I'll be at the protest.

[flar]

Proroguing Parliament also paralyses the public service (moreso than usual )

[realcity]

Afghanistan mission has been clear.

Copenhagen was a bust all around, every country. I never expected anything to come out of it.

Canada Pensions... been told this for 20 years. That's how the mutual funds have been shilling their products.

Won't these bills come back on the table? When parliament resumes?

[realcity]

you know it's like Harper is our Obama.... there are so many people hoping he fails at everything. As if does nothing right.

I'm not any party loyal, but given the options of the Liberals right now and the NDP, still stuck in a union vs management war that doesn't exist anymore like it did... I have no other choice but to vote for Harper

[flar]

Seriously, quit voting for Harper. We live in a virtual dictatorship. Every piece of information from the public service now goes through the PM's office, and they block everything they don't agree with and change everything else to put their spin on it. There is no truth anymore except Harper's truth. This is not how a democracy is supposed to function. I will say no more lest I be fired. (I can assure you it was not like this under the Liberals...)

[SteelTown]

I'll try and make it down tomorrow.

[highwater]

If you see a middle aged gal in a brown parka with two little girls, that'll be me. Come say hi.

[SteelTown]

Suppose to really warm up this weekend, think it's suppose to be 8 on Sunday.

[markbarbera]

Originally Posted by realcity

Afghanistan mission has been clear.

Copenhagen was a bust all around, every country. I never expected anything to come out of it.

Canada Pensions... been told this for 20 years. That's how the mutual funds have been shilling their products.

Won't these bills come back on the table? When parliament resumes?

The questions aren't about how clear the mission in Afghanistan is, it's about how honest the Government has been to the public/taxpayers/voters with regards to the handling of prisoner transfers. When a General says one thing one day then the complete opposite 24 hours later, when a Defense Minister tries to drop a cone of silence by attacking the credibility of a diplomat and vacating the military ombudsman position, questions need (and should) be asked.

Canada's position at Copenhagen was shameful and needs to be held to account. It can't be dismissed by saying other countries were just as inept. Canadians are used to better representation on the global stage, particularly on this file.

The pensions at risk is not CPP, it's the everyday Joe's company pension. More and more of these pensions are inadequately funded, There is a pension funding crisis storm brewing in this nation and it does no good for our government to put its head in the sand and ignore it.

As far as the dead bills, they cannot come simply come back to the table as they were before proroguement. Proroguement kills all bills no matter what stage they are at. All the bills will have to be reintroduced from their starting point, a needless time-consuming waste of taxpayer dollars.

[markbarbera]

Originally Posted by highwater

If you see a middle aged gal in a brown parka with two little girls, that'll be me. Come say hi.

I'll say hi if I see you, but I'm hoping for a big enough crowd that it'll be very hard to find you!

I see the facebook site for CAPP's local chapter says a bus will be bringing in a bunch of people from Brantford seeing as they don't have a protest of their own there, and 360-odd Hamilton facebook invitees have confirmed with another 500 tentative attendees, not counting in those coming via word of mouth. If the weather cooperates (i.e. no rain), it should be a decent turnout.

[drpgq]

Will there be protests too if the rumours about McGuinty proroguing are true? I'd be up for that one should it occur.

[markbarbera]

It is not simply the act of proroguing that is being protested. Proroguement is a legitimate parliamentary action, when apllied in the manner to which it was intended, i.e. to end a session of parliament when most of the objectives of the currents session (as set out in the throne speech) have been met and a completely new set of priorities are to be introduced.

The issue that is being protested is its misuse purely for blatent partisan political expediency, as is the case with Harper's recent abuse of parliamentary power.

If McGuinty was to manipulate parliamentary power in a similar way for purely political expediency, then that action too should be taken to task. However, McGuinty has not shown any Harper-like signs of stifling criticism or snubbing democratic process no matter how hard-hitting the criticism is. Unlike Harper, he is not taking action to stifle potentially politically damaging discussion over such political hot potatoes as the e-Health fiasco or the federal-provincial harmonized sales tax.

Ironically, proroguement of the Ontario legislature would be politically advantageous for the moribund official opposition, seeing as two of their members have gotten themselves expelled from the current session. McGuinty would be doing the people they represent a big favour by resetting parliament so that they can return to the floor.

Sadly, Harper apologists still cling to the belief that if they point other examples of proroguements (real or imagined) the voters will simply slip back into complacency. They just simply miss the entire point to this protest. Canadians are not angry about the act of proroguement in general, they are angry about how proroguement is being misused by our current Prime Minister solely for his personal political advantage.

See you in Gore Park at 1:00!

[SteelTown]

Hundreds gather to slam shuttered Parliament

January 23, 2010
Emma Reilly
Spectator staff
http://www.thespec.com/News/BreakingNews/article/710716

Hundreds of Hamiltonians crowded Gore Park Saturday afternoon to denounce Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s prorogation of parliament.

The crowd held signs, waved Canadian flags, and listened to speeches by several local politicians, including NDP MPs David Christopherson and Chris Charlton and Liberal candidate Dan McLean. Organizers estimated the protest drew about 350 people.

Hamilton’s rally was one of 60 demonstrations staged in Canadian cities. There were also five international protests in London, Amsterdam, New York City, Dallas, San Francisco, and in Costa Rica.

McMaster science student Shilo Davis initiated the nationwide protests through Facebook and other social media.

Parliament was to return on Monday but instead will not return until March 3. It is the second time in little more than a year that Harper has shuttered Parliament.