Tyee staff and contributors have compiled a list of 70 government assaults on democracy and the law. As a list of 70 is pretty difficult for anyone to verify all at once we have been posting a few at a time. To read the entire list at once go to this link.
Lapdogs
Appointed as Watchdogs
The most
controversial was the case of former Integrity Commissioner Christiane Ouimet.
Her office reviewed more than 200 whistleblowing cases. Disciplinary action
followed on none of them. Ouimet's own angry staffers blew the whistle on their
boss. The auditor general found Ouimet intimidated her employees, took
"retaliatory action" against them and may have breached their
privacy, all part of the Harper appointee's "gross mismanagement."
Ouimet was paid more than $500,000 to leave her post.
SECTION II:
'HARPER BRAND' ABUSES: LIES, SPIES, AND THIS PORK SMELLS REALLY BAD
This election
began the minute the last one ended. Since his first day as PM, Stephen Harper
has reinforced his party's 'brand' by rewarding cronies, slapping the
Conservative logo on government cheques, perfecting the no questions photo-op,
instructing bureaucrats to start calling Canada's government "the Harper
Government." The flip side has been relentless monitoring, muzzling and
attacks on anyone who might tarnish the image. Here are 22 instances of power
abused to build the Harper brand.
PMO Attempts to
Cover up Video Leak Putting Troops at Risk
On an Iraq
visit, the PMO was caught lying to try and cover up the leak of a promo video, which constituted a
security breach. The PMO, noted a National Post editorial, "stumbled from blunder to
evasion and falsehood in the service of shamelessly manipulative partisanship,
especially in using our troops as PR props."
The 'Harper
Government' Labelling Deception
Public servants
were told to use "Harper Government"
instead of "Government of Canada" in publicity releases. The
Conservatives denied it was happening -- until internal memos revealed by the Canadian Press revealed the
denial to be without basis.
Conservatives
Place Party Logos on Government of Canada Cheques
Once "caught
red-handed," they backed off. The federal ethics commissioner, adopting the exasperated
tone of an adult lecturing a child, noted: "Public spending announcements
are government activities, not partisan political activities, and it is not
appropriate to brand them with partisan or personal identifiers."
Record Amounts
of Partisan Political Advertising, on the Public Purse
Several media
reports told how the Conservatives used taxpayer
money for partisan political advertising in record quantity, costing the public treasury $750 million since
Harper became PM. In one instance, the Tories spent lavishly on ads for the promotion of a
jobs grant program that had yet to be made public or presented to parliament or
the provinces. Even more nakedly partisan, a mailed
blast, charged to
the taxpayers, targeting Justin Trudeau.
Conservatives
Stack Their Own Ridings with Infrastructure Funds
In a display of
brazen pork barreling, the Conservatives arranged for no less than 83 percent of
infrastructure fund projects go to Conservative ridings.
$50 Million
Spending Deception as Documented by the Auditor General
The auditor
general ruled Conservatives diverted $50-million
from spending slated for border infrastructure to political spending on
projects in Tony Clement's riding at the time of the G-8 summit.
Parliament was willfully misled.
Patronage Run
Amok
After promising
a new way, the prime minister dismantled his newly created Public Appointments
Commission and reverted to old-styled patronage by the barrel. In June 2015,
the PM made 98 patronage appointments. That
included stocking the National Capital Commission with loyalists in advance of
decisions on the controversial monument to the victims of communism.
Undermining
Statistics Canada, Killing Data
Against pleas
from everyone who needs and uses data from the long
form census, the Harper government scrapped it, prompting the Statistics Canada
chief to resign in protest.
Government
Muzzles Science Community
Top scientists
came under such heavy monitoring by the Conservatives that they staged "Death of Evidence" protests
for being denied freedom of speech. The Conservatives sent out chaperones or
"media minders" to track Environment Canada scientists and
report on them.
No comments:
Post a Comment