Niggles

No common thread today, just a bunch of whiny little things like a mosquito in your bedroom.

First up is the state of politics in Canada. There are major issues out there it seems but nobody appears to care very much. Perhaps the issues are not as major as I think? Anyway the harper Conservatives may just get away with it. Each scandal is succeeded by another scandal and all anybody can focus on is whatever hits the fan on any given day. All the other stuff is lost in today's shower of muck. Sometimes I have to remind myself of the list. So we have the G8/G20 waste of money and abuse of the people of Toronto; the Huntsville Handout (stolen from Border Infrastructure); the quiet death of Canada's reputation for fair play; the dismantling of environmental controls; the snooping bill; the omnicrime bill; the stream of self-congratulatory announcements which actually mean nothing; Electoral fraud; the outright deceit/incompetence of the F-35 purchase. I have a feeling of deja vue. Once, Canada was a bastion of liberal values in a sea of right wing rhetoric (Reagan, sundry Bush's, Thatcher). What we now see is Canada catching up to the rest of the world and becoming as mean spirited as everywhere else. The 30th anniversary of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms - truly a beacon of light - passes with only a meally mouthed platitude from Mr Harper. Vic Toews announces shutting three jails and claims 'success for the tough on crime Harper Government'. As a logical connection, this boggles the mind. Not so long ago we had a succession of cabinet ministers arguing that Canada was awash in unreported crime and we could expect thousands of new criminals to come along any minute, also exisitng criminals found it too easy to get out of jail and changes were made to the parole system so that more criminals would stay in prison longer. Evidently, if jails can be shut, neither of these two statements is true. Was the Harper Government deliberately lying/making things up based on urban mythology/incompetent? Does anybody care?

One image I cannot shake. A CCTV tape of a little girl in a red top dancing in the aisle of her father's shop in London. A few seconds later she is shot by a trio of young men who were trying to 'hit' a member of another gang. The poor wee lassie will not dance again. The shooter gets 18 years and his accomplices 14 each. None of them show much remorse.

The Norwegian madman. How can anybody claim he is 'sane'? Anybody with such a low level of empathy is, by any definition, not sane.

The only thing which appears tor aise the Canadian electorate out of their stupour is the repatriation of Omar Kahdr. Remember, he was taken to Afghanistan by his father when he was 13. At 15, now properly indoctrinated, his house was attacked by US soldiers. His father and friends were dying all around him and so he threw the grenade he was carrying. One US soldier died. The young man survives (despite three bullet wounds) and is incarcerated in Guantanamo for 7 years without trial and with nobody giving him any hope of a fair trial, let aone a trial at all. Remember, he holds a Canadian passport and Canada signied on to the various International treaties on child soldiers (ie young persons less than 16 years of age). Eventually he gets to trial and agrees to plead guilty to 'Murder in Warfare' just so that he can get a term limit on his incarceration. The Harper Government run a deal with the US to allow Kahdr to complete his sentence in Canada so that Obama is one step closer to delivering on his promise to remove the stain on the US reputation that is Guantanamo bay. Now that the request to transfer has been made, the discussion boards are awash with barely disguised hatred: 'let him rot in Gitmo'; 'he is US or Afghanistan problem not ours'; 'murdering little terrorist swine, GI's should have executed him on the spot'; throw him back to Afghanistan, and all his family with him'. Honestly, it turns my stomach. This is our new Canada, a country of bigots, full of hate, zero empathy, little better than Anders Breivik when you get down to it.

Is there light out there? Yes, occasional little glimmers of hope. The current UK Labour opposition appear to be coming into their own. Ed Milliband (leader of party) and Ed Balls (shadow finance), along with a few others are starting to string together a sensible policy and present coherent arguments. There is hope that the Ontario Liberals and NDP can learn to work together to deliver a sensible budget and thereafter a working Parliament. The Fords bubble in Toronto may have been popped and Council reclaimed democracy. Perhaps the pendulum is swinging back. And Scotland may vote for independence, it is time we cut our abusive dependency on England.