Liberals now a serious threat to democracy in Canada.
Liberals now a serious threat to democracy in Canada it would seem, we have a PM that likes dictatorships, gets up and just manhandles opposition (and elbowgate :silly:)... but let's review the first few months.
1) We have Liberal supporting institutions allowed to be unaccountable and disregard disclosure (Unions, Chiefs/Reserves/ CBC).
2) The national broadcaster with it's $100,000,000 per MONTH is all prepped to support their funder it seems.
3) Electoral reform with a stacked commitee (60% libs) and no intention of a referendum
http://www.therebel.media/liberal_s_...ring_democracy
http://www.therebel.media/liberal_mi...ectoral_reform
4) and now edging toward the admired dictatorship type policies... Motion 6
http://news.nationalpost.com/full-co...-on-parliament
http://www.therebel.media/after_elbo...ratic_motion_6
"In recent weeks, the Liberals have used “time allocation” — the ability of a majority government to force an end to debate on a proposed bill — during debates on Air Canada, the budget implementation bill and, most worryingly, the proposed assisted-dying bill. (Liberal backbencher Robert-Falcon Ouellette broke ranks with his party to vote against the government’s push to end the debate — good for him.) Using time allocation is the sort of thing the Liberals used to criticize former prime minister Stephen Harper for doing. They said it was an affront to Parliament and an insult to Canadians. But it’s different now. Because … it’s 2016? Because the Liberals are in power? New Democrat MPs recently protested when the Liberals mimicked another Tory practice, loading numerous measures into a single bill to protect them from individual scrutiny. The bill wasn’t quite the behemoth we’d see during the Harper years, but it was, by any measure, an omnibus bill. Interesting.
Then there’s the performance of Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef, who has the admittedly challenging task of producing a plan to revamp Canada’s first-past-the-post electoral system in time for the next federal election. The plan she unveiled raised doubts about the government’s sincerity in claiming to welcome a full and fair debate. It stacked the special investigative committee with a Liberal majority, suggested any criticism would reflect narrow partisanship and suggested the Liberals have a mandate for change, because they received 39.5 per cent of the vote in October.
Monsef rejected suggestions the matter should be put to a referendum so all Canadians could express their view, deflecting questions with a string of non sequiturs and evasions reminiscent of Tories smugly toying with opposition MPs under the previous government.
Worse was Monsef’s contention that a referendum would not be representative because women and ethnic minorities might not participate at a rate comparable to white men. (She wasn’t quite that blunt about it, but that’s the crux of her position.) It’s true that some Canadians don’t vote. In her own riding of Peterborough-Kawartha, turnout was less than 100 per cent. And yet she was duly elected, sits in the House and serves in cabinet. Canadians deserve answers to opposition questions, not smiling evasions. When the Liberals promised to do better than the Conservatives, did they really mean more of the same, just with greater cheer?
The above issues, though alarming, all pale in comparison to Motion 6, proposed this week after opposition parties embarrassed the government by coming within one vote of defeating a government bill. Despite their majority, too many Liberal MPs were absent, giving the opposition its chance. Motion 6 would have reduced the number of days available to the opposition to introduce motions, as well as imposing stricter time limits on those motions. Members of cabinet or parliamentary secretaries — Liberals — would have been granted additional powers to control the business of the House, including shutting it down without a vote.
It was a shocking assault on the opposition’s ability to function. All opposition parties united to oppose the attempt and, on Thursday, perhaps humbled by their growing collection of missteps, the government withdrew the motion.
Motion 6 should never have seen the light of day. Conservatives, who earned a reputation for running roughshod over Parliament in their later years, noted that the Liberal proposal went further than they ever contemplated.
Liberals now a serious threat to democracy in Canada it would seem, just wondering what will come out of the convention. (More official language, department of peace.... should be amusing/horrifying)
http://www.therebel.media/a_departme..._at_convention
