On Being Declared "Anti-Canadian"

So, when do they come for my passport?

Those of us who support the environmental movement in Canada have been denounced as "anti-Canadian" by Conservative members of the Canadian Senate.   Given that none of their fellows rose to challenge that outrageous slur they can be fairly taken as agreeing with it.

According to Harper's attack swine, Mike Duffy, groups like the David Suzuki foundation and the Sierra Club (and, presumably, those who stand with them) are "all anti-Canadian."

There was a time Duffy's remarks would have been beyond the pale.  Demonizing a significant portion of our population as anti-Canadian, disloyal to their homeland, is serious stuff.  Yet it is the rancid sentiment that ferments naturally out of the wedge politics, the "us or them" foundation of  Stephen Harper's administration.   These people really believe it.  You're either with them or you're a traitor to your country.

That message came shining through recently from Harper's morally-slack and hypocritically-boundless Vic Toews who demonized those objecting to his flawed legislation as "either with us or with the child pornographers."

And don't think for a minute that Duffy or Toews have gone rogue.  The tone of their remarks has been carefully set by their Ruler, Steve himself.   Harper, after all, shamelessly milked every drop of political juice he could get out of the blood of our soldiers in Afghanistan and then used what was left to hammer those Canadians opposed to the Afghan war as disloyal to the troops.

This "us or them" approach, the wedge politics, the persistent loyalty challenges - topped off with the secrecy, the dishonesty and unaccountability, the fearmongering and manipulation - that is anti-Canadian, about as anti-Canadian as it gets.  It's the stuff of tyrants and demagogues from times past, bullies with names like McCarthy or Stalin.

We have a government of bullies, thugs and reprobates.   Your kind - and mine - aren't fit for their Canada and they're sure as hell not fit for ours either.   The time for respectful disagreement and civil discourse is over.  They have seen to that.