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.
Conservatives
Use Unheard of Tactic to Force through Anti-Union Bill
Conservative
senators went to the unprecedented extent of overruling their own Speaker. What
could be so important to break Senate rules? A bill pushed by Harper
that is almost certainly unconstitutional for its privacy invading measures
forced onto unions, unlike other groups. Latest in a steady
stream of
Conservative attacks on organized labour in Canada.Harper Smears Liberal Sikh MP, Insinuating Tie to Terrorism
When Liberals
opposed a 2007 Conservative plan to extend anti-terror legislation, Stephen
Harper singled out Grit MP Navdeep Bains, seeming to suggest that Bains' party was motivated by a
desire to protect Bains' father-in-law, Darshan Singh Saini. A recent news
story had claimed Singh Saini was on a list of witnesses sought by the RCMP for
its Air India investigation, but provided no proof he was involved. In the
House, Liberals erupted with outrage and Bains asked, in vain, that Harper
apologize.
Veterans'
Advocates Smeared
Medical files
of Sean Bruyea, a strong advocate for veterans' rights, were leaked in a case that privacy commissioner
Jennifer Stoddart described as "alarming." Veterans Affairs Canada
ombudsman Pat Stogran was dumped after criticizing the government.
SECTION III:
ELECTION ABUSES: SCAMS, SLIMES, STINGS AND CROOKED SPENDING
Stephen
Harper's Conservatives have made federal elections a gladiators' arena where
anything goes -- unless and until you are caught, that is. Here are 17 times
his team violated election laws or ethics.
Conservatives
Run Undercover Sting Operations
Conservatives
secretly recorded political opponents and also used agent provocateur
techniques to try and entrap them. A sting
operation against Marlo
Raynolds, a Liberal candidate in Alberta, was backed by then employment minister Jason
Kenney.
Conservative
Convicted on Robocalls Scam
Tory operative
Michael Sona was given jail time for his role in the robocalls scam. The judge indicated more than one person was likely
involved. In another court judgment in a case brought by the Council of
Canadians, the ruling said the robocalls operation was widespread, not just limited to the Guelph
riding. Donald Segretti who did dirty tricks for the Nixon White House told a Canadian reporter his skullduggery
didn't go so low as to run schemes sending voters to the wrong polling stations
.
.
Harper's
Ex-Parliamentary Secretary Jailed for Breaking Election Law
Dean Del
Maestro was one of Harper's favourites. As his parliamentary secretary, the PM
frequently used him as an attack dog to allege
misdeeds by opposition members. Del Maestro was given a jail sentence in June for his own
election spending violations.
Dean Del Mastro
received a jail sentence for election overspending.
'Reprehensible'
Dirty Tricks Campaign against Irwin Cotler
Conservative
Commons Speaker Andrew Scheer ruled his party's own tactics in running a surreptitious misinformation
campaign in the riding of the highly respected MP were
"reprehensible."
Conservatives
Bar Crosbie Candidacy
In a clear-cut
case of the party hierarchy's undercutting of democratic rights, Ches Crosbie,
son of former Tory cabinet minister John Crosbie, was barred from running for the party in
Newfoundland.
Election
Violations Prompt Resignation of Cabinet Member
Peter Penashue,
another Harper Conservative was compelled to step down over election spending violations.
Conservatives
Attempt Election Campaign Frame-up
In an attempted
smear in the last week of the 2011 election
campaign, a senior Harper strategist planted a false story in Sun Media that Michael Ignatieff
was an Iraq war planner. (Neither Conservative operatives nor Sun Media opted
to make hay with the true story that Stephen Harper had, while leader of the
Canadian Alliance in 2003, published a letter in The Wall Street Journal itching to get Canada into that disastrous war
and slamming then PM Jean Chretien for saying no.)
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