Allô police!

Dawg's Blawg has a 'new' commenter whose knickers are on fire regarding the "thugs, hooligans and anarchists" that were referenced over and over and over and over and over by Conservative députés at a special meeting of the Public Safety and National Security Committee was held Monday : "Requested by Four (4) Members of the Committee to Undertake a Study of the Issues Surrounding Security at the G8 and G20 Summits".


Alors, to demonstrate that we are most eager and willing to assist the police in their efforts to identify the 10 Most Wanted, we ask our readers to help identify this alleged thug/hooligan/anarchist.


H/T to fern hill at DAMMIT JANET! and G20Justice.

Wheels Within Wheels

As I read Paul Wells' piece in Macleans about Guergis, Bernier and Harper this morning, something clicked.

Bernier has been in the news recently, for a number of reasons: his 'opinon letter' (sic) about greenhouse gases, his declarations about Québec to target audiences and, in a less flattering light, his possible knowledge of events in Afghanistan while he was minister of Foreign Affairs.

By the way, our John Cross wrote a splendid rebuttal to Bernier's pretentious perorations about climate change.

It would be interesting to know who is supporting Bernier's reincarnation as a maverick Tory. Harper is undoubtly trying to uncover that information, particularly as a news item in the NP offers the following: ...

Le Devoir reported that Mr. Bernier has taken to "flaying" Quebec as he travels the country. One columnist has suggested Mr. Bernier should buy a one-way ticket to Alberta. Jean-François Lisée, an influential sovereigntist commentator, delivered the ultimate insult, writing that Mr. Bernier has taken over the late Pierre Trudeau's role as "the Quebecer who speaks badly of Quebec."

Is Bernier being used as misdirection, to divert Harper's attention away from a nascent leadership putsch in the PCP? That would be a devilishly clever tactic. Harper's Achilles heel - the man's irrational vanity - suffered a direct hit when Julie Couillard's book "My Story" spilled the beans about her ex-lover's contempt for the PM.

Do you remember this?

... she added that Mr. Bernier once entertained thoughts of replacing Mr. Harper as the leader of the Conservative Party. Mr. Bernier allegedly sought support in Conservative circles, feeling that he would benefit from the fact that Mr. Harper is anglophone and would need to be replaced by a francophone.

But she also said that Mr. Bernier frequently criticized Mr. Harper's eating habits and the fact that he often drank Pepsi in meetings. The comments were likely made before Mr. Harper went on a diet, but Mr. Bernier apparently made fun of the Prime Minister's belly.

Could Stephen Harper be conned, in the same manner the National Arts Centre audience was played last October?

There are wheels within wheels in the byzantine inner sanctum of the Conservative party.

Où sont les rhinocéros d’antan?

Indeed, where are the Rhinos when you need them? As I read blogs posted during the Great Debate Debacle, about the pros and cons of including the Green Party, I began to wonder why this event was a catalyst for the outbreak of hissing, spitting and back-biting amongst progressives, (of whom some would say and did say, ‘so-called’).

My epiphany was this: since the Conservatives are ideologues who can only lay claim to cutting, slashing and burning programs as their record of achievement for their two and a half years of governing, they are attempting to co-opt the tactics of the Rhinoceros Party - to sow confusion and chaos.

Unfortunately they forgot the most important element: style. So far their foray in Rhinoceros territory has been sorely lacking in good humour and wit.

Posting a pooping puffin animation on your website is not amusing, it is petty and crude. Luring mothers and their children to a small Ottawa family-centered store to use them for a photo opportunity is not agit-prop; it is prevarication and exploitation. Calling the grief-stricken father of a soldier killed in Afghanistan a partisan hack is not a media coup; it is crass and cruel. Dressing up your leader in garments taken from Peter Gzowski's wardrobe rejects and providing him with a script that makes him muse aloud about tickling piano keys is not a quaint parody of normal; it is a clumsy travesty.

Here are some examples of merry political pranks played by the Rhinoceros Party.

A candidate named Ted 'not so' Sharp ran in Flora MacDonald's riding with the campaign slogan "Fauna, not flora" .... He also took a stand on capital punishment: "If it was good enough for my grandfather, then it's good enough for me." ... Penny Hoar, a safe sex activist, distributed condoms in Toronto while running under the slogan "Politicians screw you — protect yourself."

Platform promises included: instituting English, French and illiteracy as Canada's three official languages, tearing down the Rocky Mountains so that Albertans could see the Pacific sunset, making Montreal the Venice of North America by damming the St. Lawrence River, abolishing the environment because it's too hard to keep clean and it takes up so much space, adopting the British system of driving on the left; this was to be gradually phased in over five years with large trucks and tractors first, then buses, eventually including small cars and bicycles last, declaring war on Belgium because a Belgian cartoon character, Tintin, killed a rhinoceros in one of the books, offering to call off the proposed Belgium-Canada war if Belgium delivered a case of mussels and a case of Belgian beer to Rhinoceros "Hindquarters" in Montréal (the Belgian Embassy in Ottawa did, in fact, do this), Painting Canada's coastal sea limits in watercolour so that Canadian fish would know where they were at all times, building a bridge spanning the country, from Vancouver Island to Newfoundland, making the Trans-Canada Highway one way only.

Now that is clever, sly, and provocative. Where is the Rhinoceros Party when this negative and shallow election campaign so desperately needs it?

As that great French comédienne Simone Signoret said: "La nostalgie n'est plus ce qu'elle était."

The Conservative culture of obscurantism

Though it's likely that few of the CPC faithful would be familiar with the term, it seems that obscurantism is woven deeply into that party's culture.

An article in yesterday's Le Devoir offers up evidence of many instances where the Conservatives' New Government has reined in the release of information and willfully promoted a culture of obscurantism.

A brief look at the succinct entry for obscurantism in Wikipedia takes you from the familiar ("the practice of deliberately preventing the facts or full details of something from becoming known") to the hermetic (Derrida, Lacan et al). Ever pragmatic, Le Devoir provides examples of the Conservatives practices of obscuring information from the public by making it unavailable. Two major scientific studies commissioned by the federal government, the first about global warming and its effect upon public health and the second, a rigorous analysis of the social costs of our current transportation systems, were released in the dead of summer.

The article also mentions that immediately after the Conservatives came to power in 2006, all information and links regarding the Kyoto accord were removed from the Environment Canada website. An allusion to the SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) tactic for silencing critics did not reference the Chuck Cadman affair, but I will.

"Though often associated with religious fundamentalism, obscurantism is a distinct strain of thought: Fundamentalism presupposes a sincere belief in religion, while obscurantism rests on the deliberate manipulation of faith by an enlightened few."

Which segues perfectly to a rather arcane species of obcurantists: Opus Dei members. Thanks to La Presse and its diligent reporters, a Con candidate in a riding south of Montréal has been outed as an adherent of that extremist orthodox sect within the Catholic Church.

Fortunately, black hole production is not yet available to the Cons' overactive web designer geeks otherwise there might be more major 'unsanctioned' obscurantism.

CPC kids - don't play with the anti-matter machine at Conservative Party Headquarters without adult supervision, okay?

Line! Overheard during the 2008 federal election.

Gilles Duceppe is the leader of the Bloc Québecois. While many in the so-called RoC - rest of Canada - wonder what role (or political game) the BQ plays in Ottawa and in federal politics, Duceppe reminded me today how refreshing it can be to hear an outsider's perspective.

The so-called "In-and-Out" accounting practices of the Conservative Party during the last federal election, also known as Adscam, were in the process of being scrutinized by the House of Commons Ethics Committee during August. The behaviour of the Con MPs who attended this committe proceedings were observed and live-blogged by Kady O'Malley, a reporter for MacLean's. This issue is important for the BQ because it may involve high-profile Con candidates that Duceppe's party wants to defeat at the polls on October 14th and so Gilles raised it today, when he spoke in Trois-Rivières.

The 'money quote' (pun intended) was Duceppe's response to the Cons grumbling about keeping their eyes on Elections Canada this time. He likened that tactic to criminals who threaten to watch the police for illegal activity.

Meanwhile, in news that remain relevant to the election campaign even though released before the writ was dropped, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation calculated the cost of pre-election spending announcements made by Stephen Harper’s New™ government. Total amount of promised spending as of September 5, 2008: "$8.8-billion, roughly $94-million a day or about $3.9-million every hour ..."

Updated to add: Oh, I forgot to mention this other important money fact. When byelections are cancelled, all the candidates' expenses not covered by donations have to be reimbursed by Elections Canada. So taxpayers will be stuck with a bill for close to $3.5 million. Additionally this election will cost us about $300 million. Just saying.