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 will post a few at a time. To read the entire list at once go to this link.
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2015/08/10/Harper-Abuses-of-Power-Final/
Corrupt
Conservative Cronies
The Senate
scandal is just the latest eruption of crony corruption in
Harperite ranks. Take Bruce Carson. He was a convicted fraudster before Harper
made him a key advisor in the PMO. There, Carson was lobbied for money for a new University of
Calgary eco-think tank. He then left the PMO to run the same think tank,
converting it to an oil industry booster with a $15-million grant from the
Harper government. The complex saga added one more criminal charge to others
Carson faces for allegedly illegally working his connections with the Harper
government.
Access to
Information System Impeded
Many new roadblocks have been put up by the Harper
Conservatives. Former Information Commissioner Robert Marleau concluded that having obtained absolute power,
the prime minister "has absolutely abused that power to the maximum."
The Silencing
of the Public Service
The PMO took an
unprecedented step in instituting a system wherein the bureaucracy has all its
communications vetted by the political nerve centre. The policy contribution
role of the public service is significantly reduced. Complaints from insiders
allege that the Privy Council office has become increasingly politicized.
Loyalty Oaths
Imposed on Public Servants
Archivists and
librarians were made to swear strict oaths of allegiance and were hit with restrictions on freedom of speech
that editorialists of the right and left described as chilling. Integrity
Commissioner Christiane Ouimet sat on more than 200 whistleblower files before
quitting. Her style? 'Gross mismanagement,' concluded the auditor general.
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