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	May 25, 2006

Harper Doesn't Speak for Canadians Canadian minority Prime Minister Harper wigged out yesterday. It had been a bad week for him and his right-wing party. First he again ridiculed the Kyoto Accord, declaring that Canada had no intention of even trying to live up to it, despite the fact a large majority of Canadians support it and Canada is currently chairing the Kyoto implementation talks. International groups called on Canada to resign its chair position rather than continue to undermine the agreement, and Quebec and Manitoba announced they remain committed to Kyoto targets and called on Harper to honour the wishes of Canadians to strive to meet the targets. On Kyoto, global warming and the environment, Harper doesn't speak for Canada. Then the right-wing National Post invented and published as front-page "news" an inflammatory anti-Islamic story that Iran planned to force its Jews to wear an identifying coloured ribbon. The Post went on to compare Iran to Nazi Germany. When the story was revealed to be fiction, the Post was forced to retract it. But Harper didn't wait. Citing the Post story, he issued a tirade against Iran and said Iran "is very capable of this kind of action...It boggles the mind that any regime on the face of the Earth would want to do anything that could remind people of Nazi Germany." A furious Iran summoned the Canadian ambassador to Iran to explain the remarks. Harper came off looking like an idiot. On Iran and our views of the Islamic people, Harper doesn't speak for Canada. Problems in the botched mission in Afghanistan, where Harper has taken over from Bush as the rhetorical spokesman for the myth that that destroyed nation is moving quickly towards peace and democracy, worsened considerably this week. Deaths and injuries from resurgent Taliban and other anti-Western forces are soaring as promises to help Afghanistan rebuild its war-ruined infrastructure go unfulfilled -- nowhere near enough money or resources has been committed for the job, which is far too dangerous to do anyway. Opium remains the country's only functioning industry, and it is flourishing. And then an incompetent US air raid on Afghan insurgents killed 16 civilians and injured 15 others. The 'peacekeeping' role that Canadians support in Afghanistan is increasingly untenable, and a majority of Canadians want us out before Afghanistan becomes another Iraq. But Harper buys all the neocon rhetoric about Afghanistan being another front of the 'global war on terror' and wants Canada to be front and centre in that war. That's why he has joined the Bush neocons in refusing to allow flags to fly at half-mast for Canadian war dead, and banning press coverage of their funerals. On Afghanistan and the 'War on Terror', and in his disrespect for our war dead, Harper doesn't speak for Canada. Harper's party won a fragile minority of seats in the last Canadian election. He then struck a deal with the morally bankrupt Bloc Québecois that would see the Bloc support Harper, no matter how opposed his legislation is to everything the progressive Bloc ran for in the election, in return for weakening Canada's federalist system so that the Bloc's goal of separating Québec from the rest of Canada would be easier to achieve. A deal between two devils designed to subvert the will of the majority, including progressive Bloc and federalist Conservative voters. Harper also signed a secret back-room deal with Bush to extend NORAD, and continues to publicly support their obscenely expensive and demonstrably unworkable missile defence scheme -- and refuses to reveal details until he's ready to present the deal to Parliament. In Harper's rabid ideological extremism (he was once a Western separatist, and has consistently concealed his true right-wing beliefs from the people of Canada in order to get elected), his ends justify any means. On federalism, on the break-up of Canada, and on getting in bed with the US on defence programs, Harper doesn't speak for Canada. And just yesterday Harper abandoned the traditions of open Canadian press conferences, in favour of the US 'media management' approach of choosing which reporters he would allow to ask questions (favouring of course those like the National Post who agree with his ideology). When two dozen reporters then walked out of the press conference in protest, Harper went ballistic, declared that the Canadian press, which has been timid in the face of his outrageous behaviour to the point of obsequiousness, had "unfortunately...taken the view they are going to be the opposition to the government...They don't ask questions at my press conferences now. We'll just take the message out on the road.", and declared that he would stop having national press conferences at all. On freedom of the press, Harper doesn't speak for Canada. The problem is that he is presuming to speak for Canada, and the American and international press are listening and confusing his rhetoric with the views of the Canadian people. Not only does this misrepresentation hurt our long-standing reputation for humanitarianism and liberal values in the eyes of the rest of the world, it makes Canadians targets for international extremists who may mistakenly believe that we Canadians support Harper's neocon wingnut ideology. My message to Stephen Harper is: Shut up. You do not speak for us. Your ideological blather wasn't even supported by the minority who voted for you in the last election. You lied to us about your real beliefs and real agenda in the election campaign. Now you are ruining our international reputation and endangering our lives. 12:53:55 PM  trackback []  comment []

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