Two prominent Rightwing bobble heads, PostMedia's John Ivison and the Ottawa Citizen's Terry Glavin have both written surly op-eds dismissing the Idle No More movement as frivolous, simplistic and disingenuous.
Their columns reveal more about the state of rightwing minds than the Idle No More movement itself. To them, the native protest is to be taken in isolation, whittled down to something they can digest, spun and misconstrued, and then dismissed as irrelevant, insincere carping.
What they refuse to see is Idle No More in the larger context. They don't see it as merely one expression of a broad-based and growing discontent that is building within the Canadian people.
Perhaps they were too busy with last-minute shopping to read the piece in their own Edmonton Journal on December 24th about the deep fracture that has developed between a majority of Canadians and their political parties. We don't trust the bastards any more, none of them, they're all a bunch of sods. A solid majority of Canadians now see protest and civil disobedience as the most effective vehicle for achieving political change.
We, the majority, support the Montreal students' protest. We support the Occupy movement. By an overwhelming majority we support the BC referendum to force the provincial government to scrap the HST. Soon we may have a majority of the country willing to actually stand behind us to thwart the Northern Gateway bitumen pipeline.
Yes we support the Idle No More movement and a good deal of that is based on our deep distrust of our federal government and, indeed, of our entire Parliament. We now, almost instinctively, want to throw a wrench in their gears, the dirty rat bastards. That goes for Harper and his Tories. It goes for the Liberals and their heir apparent, Trudeau, and that goes for Mulcair and his opportunistic NDP to boot.
I understand why the Right doesn't get it. This has never happened before. Read the Edmonton Journal story. They don't even try to serve the Canadian public any more. To them it's enough to win a small fragment of the public and befuddle enough of the remainder to wrest control of the levers of power. They don't speak for us any longer, they speak down to us these days.
And the conditions that nurtured our discontent aren't going away anytime soon. The rot of corporatism is too broadly invested in our Parliament.
It could just be that Canada will be saved - or irreparably shattered - in northern British Columbia. That is where this government will have to betray and resort to force against ordinary Canadians, native and non-native alike. Most of us will be cool-headed and non-violent. Most of us but not all and we know that Harper already has a secret police force, a Canadian Stasi that includes the RCMP and CSIS, preparing to weed out and deal with troublemakers. Harper has many promises to keep to his colleagues in the Beijing Politburo, the Communist saviors of his cherished Tar Sands. I'm sure he means to keep them.
Harper has received his marching orders from his bosses on Bay Street, Wall Street and Beijing. He will do everything it takes to please his masters.
ReplyDeleteOrdinary Canadians are an obstacle to the greed of corporatism that Harper has been ordered to eliminate.
Great article ... as Canadian.. the Idle No More movement has stunned me.. What an optimistic and healthy sign !
ReplyDelete"On the positive side... the victim survived the vicious assault, came out of a coma and was able to identify the attackers .."
My invented quote .. perhaps a simplistic idealistic hope or belief that we can recover.. take ourselves and our country back from Harper et al .. It resides very deep inside me.. and I'm very sure beats even louder inside many shocked Canadians.
Flawed, stunted ethics, political posturing, dark electoral deviance, glib denials and staggering annual legal bills to go with their Contempt of Parliament conviction, court challenges, out of control propaganda bills, media monitoring, last ditch prorogues and their beyond vicious environmental assault on behalf of their jobs, their nasty secretive government and their sanctimonious obstructing lying asses..
Attack our Environment - trample our truths and our beliefs and you have just attacked Canada and Canadians from within.. via the infected rotting Parliament you've infested.
The evolving growing independent blog movement/voices evolved out of curiosity, technology, opportunity, culture and need. That's basic McLuhanism at work. That's the antidote to Reform/Alliance/Conservative snakebite
Stephen Harper with his willing acolytes.. is wielding a psychotic scalpel.. carving up, cutting up, sawing at Honesty and Democracy.. a man we thought was entrusted to enhance the nutrition, growth, and strength of our nation. Mmmn ..
Instead we were gooned, deceived, defrauded and slapped silly willy by unknown poli sci robo geeks during an election springing from a defensive, deceptive prorogue.. Thus we are the proud winners of the uber controlling freak show of Harper's runaway mad cow majority.. 39% of those who actually voted
John Baird is now on tour shouting/spouting his personal anti muslim nonsense ideology somewhere publicly.. the zombie ghoul Peter Kent is aiding the dispenser of Natural Resources Joe the appalling hun Oliver. Jason Kenney and Jim Flaherty are heard like dull witted seals flapping their flippers and watching in the media mirror to see if they are appreciated... Mackay, Fantino, Ashfield.. Toews .. Pleeze .. Goodyear ? Duncan? Clement ? Poilievre ?
I think more and more Canadians see the Harper ideology and baggage train of MP's, whipped ministers, Speaker etc for exactly what they are.. volunteer bit players with delusions of grandeur .. but in truth, diseased creatures unconnected to a viable or healthy or functional environment.
Enter Darwin's Law ... the one about survival ..
If it all comes down to guerilla defense of the people, the creatures, the boreal, the mountains, the rain forest, the coastline, the coastal archipelagos .. well Amen
I'm disappointed by Terry Glavin.. I think he had a very bad day.
Ivison I ignore .. a Harper circus barker.. holier than all ..
Hey, Sal. I wish we only had to contend with the Tories and not the Libs and Latter Day Libs (NDP) also.
ReplyDeleteCanadians are coming to realize, a majority already, that dealing with their government necessitates withdrawing from it, standing outside, and confronting it on the streets.
Canadians have become somewhat radicalized but not nearly as much as their political classes in their embrace of corporatism. That Environics poll released just before Christmas shows that we remain constant against the steady rightward drift of all our parties, Tory, Liberal and NDP. We haven't left them. They have left us. What punkish arrogance.
At least we can take faith in our fellow Canadians for it falls to us alone to stop this.
Nicely put salamander. If you don't already have a blog, you should consider starting one....
ReplyDeleteAn excellent post, Mound. None of the parties understand the anger just below the surface.
ReplyDeleteNo, it seems they don't, Owen. The Environics poll was hardly novel. Poll after poll have shown Canadians resolutely progressive. But in our political grocery store we find the produce department and cereal aisle barren because everyone has jumped to the red meat section.
ReplyDeleteWhat I wouldn't give to see Lloyd Axworthy or Louise Arbour take the helm of the LPC. That's not, however, about to happen and the top three contenders are all overtly corporatist.
Unfortunately the best I can wish for the Liberals now is a speedy and painless demise.