Pre-Game Action Before Your Olympics, Perhaps?

Cross posted at Sister Sage’s Musings

Yes, nice fun ReformaTory Games only Stevie can play, although, thus far he hasn’t been successful, has he?

Haiti became the would be perfect crisis for him but, obviously never raised his numbers, in fact, according to most polls as of late, Stevie’s Harpercon numbers continue on that downhill spiral.

The anti-prorogation rallies across Canada were a success; many of the venues even acknowledging the plight of Haitians.

Also, the fact is most Canadians acknowledge and expect their politicians to react quickly toward a crisis in another part of the world or domestically. Regardless of whether or not Stevie remained at the top, prorogation or no prorogation, it is his job to react quickly.  In fact, I would presume that one of the reasons for Stevie’s dismal showing as of late would be that Canadians would have liked to see parliament reopen for this crisis. As Jane Taber had recently asked Jason Kenney on an episode of Question Period, ‘can’t the Haitian crisis be handled with parliament sitting?’ To which Kenney showed a sudden need for speech therapy.

Furthermore, none of the opposition parties came out to criticise the Harpercons for their handling of the Haitian crisis. In fact, the opposition parties are doing their part to help Haiti as well.

Now, the trap. It would seem that Stevie & the Harpercons want to cancel March & Easter Breaks: a time MPs generally go back home to their families and check out their constituencies. After that prorogation ruckus, It would be  assumed that most Canadians would want this to happen. Certainly Conservative Canadians who were against the prorogation of parliament would be for this.

Traditionally, the parliamentary calendar does remain the same after prorogation of parliament.  If the PM wishes to change the calendar, all opposition parties must vote unanimously for this change.

According to Harpercons, they say there will be just too much work and they must make up for the time he prorogued parliament. Typical Stevie and his Kingly ways: parliament must only operate when it’s convenient for Stevie.

“Instead of playing silly games, the PM should recall Parliament right away to deal with all the important issues facing Canadians,” says Karl Belanger , spokesperson for NDP Leader Jack Layton.

Indeed. I was waiting for something like that to be said, by someone; anyone, really. This is exactly what Canadian voters should be thinking. Be for or against the suspension of spring breaks, but the fact of the matter is if they’re falling so far behind on their work, perhaps parliament shouldn’t be prorogued. Perhaps Stevie should call everyone back to parliament as soon as possible. The Liberals are already there doing some work and being productive. I’m pretty sure the N.D.P. and the Bloc Quebecois would head  back to Ottawa if parliament were called to session again.

Liberal House Leader Ralph Goodale mocked the Conservatives’ sudden change of heart from demanding time to “recalibrate” to now wanting to toil straight through.

“It’s clearly a government in full panic mode . . . trying to scramble out of a mess they created,” Goodale said in an interview Wednesday night.

In spite of what Goodale said, it is likely that the Liberals will entertain Harpercon propositions. Liberal support which has been going up since prorogation, is quite fragile and can change at any time. I even suspect those so-called centrists or small c conservatives who have been supporting Stevie and the Harpercons are looking for a reason to give support back to him. According to many pollsters and pundits, Liberal support is only up because of Stevie’s latest high-handed games, not because of a sudden Iggy love-fest.  In fact, some may argue that it’s not the act of proroguation of parliament itself but more the underhanded way Stevie went about it

“It’s completely a reaction to Stephen Harper,” Bricker, president of Ipsos-Reid, said in a Jan. 24 interview.

“It’s not because people have a really big issue with proroguing the House,” Bricker said.

“It’s really the (political) games, that’s what gets under people’s skin. That’s what you are seeing the effects of (in the poll).”

Well, I would say the act of prorogation itself did play a large part in the recent polls. There are many Canadians calling for parliamentary reform so that prorogation can’t happen again or, at the very least, much more difficult to do so. I think most who attended the rallies and joined the facebook group would agree with me. Most certainly the conservative voters who spoke out against prorogation would agree with me here.

The question becomes will the opposition parties vote unanymously for this calendar change? According to senior Harpercons, they strongly believe that will be on board with this. Gordon O’Connor said,

there is no reason for the House of Commons to take constituency breaks during these weeks. Quite frankly, we would be surprised if the Opposition disagreed.

Gee, Gordo, no time to spend with constituents?  Just because your boss can’t deal with them doesn’t mean the others might not want to.  Sometimes, it’s a good idea to be in touch with the citizens of the country you lead.  You Harpercons would know that if you only made some semblance of effort to open your emails, even if it is a form letter.

That aside: the trap Stevie set is not whether or not anyone will go along with his proposal to skip holiday weeks this spring; there surely will be. However, as mentioned above, the parliamentary  calendar remains the same with or without prorogation and to change it requires a unanimous vote; as in no dissention. I have doubts about that kind of vote being unanimous.  The Bloc Quebecois hasn’t said much since prorogation and I guess if he feels Stevie’s proposal is in the best interests of Quebecers he’ll go along with it.  It looks like the Liberals will go along with it. Will the N.D.P. ? Anybody’s guess.

If we remember one of Stevie’s tactics for remaining so successful is that he knew the game of divide and conquer. He would keep the opposition parties divided. The reason the cross Canada rallies last month were so successful was that the politicians from the opposition were united for that short period.  The picture on the front page of the Montreal Gazette showing Thomas Mulcair, Gilles Duceppe and Marc Garneau (we only see his arm at the other side of Mulcair, but still)  walking side by side leading the anti-prorogation procession through the streets of Downtown Montreal to Philips’ Square.  Our opposition MPs were leading us in unison.

I am also realistic enough to know that this unification was fragile at best.  Unfortunately, I had already seen Mulcair take some shots at the Liberals on Question Period since the rallies.   Right now, as a whole, the opposition is not united or feeling particularly collaborative; this already doesn’t look good for a unanimous vote on calendar change. Also, no matter which party votes for or against the Harpercon proposed calendar change, columnists, pundits, bloggers and of course, the rest of Canadian voters; left or right will no doubt either praise or criticize whatever was voted for and by whom.   Yikes! This isn’t going to be pretty no matter how we look at it.

That is why, Stevie will choose to play the tactician; it works for him. As pointed out earlier, his proposal will have succeeded in dividing the opposition and Canadians; a formula that could raise his numbers back up again. Make no mistake, he doesn’t care whether there is work that will have fallen behind`and catching up with it.  He will have divided and then conquered. Or will they? Do I dare hope for the miracle that the albeit uneasy peace between opposition parties to continue and that they will see right through Stevie’s tactical game? If he were really concerned about being behind on work, he wouldn’t have prorogued parliament in the first place or he would unprorogue parliament as soon as possible.

If we thought this was going to be a bumpy ride; prepare for more of  St-Stevie’s antics between now and March 3; including the reading of the budget, which is sure to be a poison pill.

A Challenge Launched by Another Blogger And Of Course…Other Media Failures

Cross posted @ Sister Sage’s Musings

Well, since the success of the rallies yesterday, many media outlets have covered this. Craig Oliver was impressed. Too bad CTV didn’t send anyone to many of the venues. I never saw them or Global TV at the Montreal event. I heard this was the case at other venues.

Blogging Tories and other Harpercon cheerleaders are scrambling trying to save face. Blogging Tory Craig Smith’s page was particularly ridiculous in explaining the events failed due to the proximity of the photographers when pictures were taken. A common refrain is that they would like to compare the  numbers of the anti-coalition rally (ies) of last year to our event of this year.  Stupid. Apples and oranges, really. Besides, no one can ever provide precise numbers of each and every event,  particularly those where a march and a rally took place. There are always stragglers. There are those who join in the middle of the procession and of course, those who only attend the main event at the end of the line.

Montrealers who listen to CJAD, how about we take bets as to Tommy Schnurmacher trying to  scoff at yesterday’s events and try to tout them as ‘insignificant’ or ‘just some Harper bashers’? How much do you want to bet he calls Canada hypocrites for not setting up and attending anti-prorogation events when the Liberals did it? Yes, I’m afraid Tommy is slipping in his old age and has become quite predictable.

After all, Tommy, like his other minions on the Gang of 4 appears to suffer from Liberal Derangement Syndrome ( I got the term from Pale Cold from A Creative Revolution puts it. Read her piece about Liberal Derangement Syndrome as well as other Conservative mythologies).

Will 1010 CFRB’s John Moore eat his words like he said he would in the National Posties if the rallies succeeded? Clearly, they have. When a veteran like Craig Oliver who has seen and heard everything over the years, uses words like ‘extaordinary’ to describe the events of yesterday, call it a bonus. Johnny boy, it was successful, so when can we expect to witness the event of you eating your own words?

Then, of course, they will call us liars for having promoted this as a non-partisan grass roots movement.

Hell, I love Blogging Tory Monte Solberg’s reverse guilt trip, saying the media spoon fed Canadians to things they just don’t care about. I would refute him directly, but, comments are disabled at his page. Why would that be?? Ok, Monte, here’s a comment, wishful thinking don’t make it so!

Ok, I’m going to give a kick start to your jobs for tomorrow; I’m feeling charitable today. I will speak for the Montreal Event that we did invite Conservative MPs, Senators and other Conservative party members to join us and to even even speak. They declined or didn’t answer our emails.

Another thing, it was a grass roots movement. If politicians were in attendance and speaking, it’s because we asked them to speak. All were offered equal air time. Not our fault if some either refused or didn’t answer.

Over at Section 15, Mark launches a challenge to con pundits, Harpercon cheerleaders and others like minded and other Harpercon minions. Launch your own cross country movement.  Launch a movement in support of prorogation. Set up rallies and marches equipped with colourfully designed signs with witty slogans in support of St-Stevie. Find a group like the Raging Grannies to put on a musical number showing support.

I will add this to Mark’s challenge though: just to keep things fair and to make sure we’re not comparing apples and oranges, but rather apples with apples and oranges with oranges: Same rules apply as our events did. It must be grass roots.  This means, only citizens getting together to organize their events.  No media types. Nothing even resembling Fox News’ 9/12 tea-bagger hit parade.  No politicians. Just citizens getting together and organizing.

Also, make sure to coordinate a date with other Canadian cities.

When you invite speakers, have civilians and different politicians speak.  Your invitations must include all of the MPs, senators and members and a paper trail would be required to proove this at any time if requested.

Then invite the media outfits. One thing though, make sure they’re there solely to cover the events and not promote them as Fox News seems to be guilty of.

Go ahead, tell Canadians how a Harpercon totalitarian regime benefits Canadians, because when Stevie says opposition parties bring down the markets , Jason Kenney saying they can get more done without the opposition, When Tommy, Kim and Don Crook said prorogation is best because ‘they do less damage, they won’t squabble like children’ on the Gang of 4 last Friday, Jan 22, and of course, who can forget last November’s by-election placard slogan in Hochelaga of “de l’action, pas d’election”? It  looks like ambition for a  totalitarian regime and for washed up buffoons like Tommy Schnurmacher and his buddies to say things like what they did on the Gang of 4 sounds like they’re also for it and are spoonfeeding that message to Canadians.

Tommy, Kim, Danny boy:  Do you support a totalitarian regime for Canada? How about the Blogging Tory Trolls: what say you?

Of course,  judging by only a 22 member pro prorogation group on Facebook,  compared to over 200 000 members on Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament Facebook group; I wish you all the luck in planning this event. Let me help you, your fellow Blogging Tory, Tamara of Rightchik, claims to be an event planner extaordinaire.  I’m sure you’ll have no trouble finding that blinding near flourescant page of her’s.

So, I say let the games begin! So Harpercon cheerleaders and all other neo-cons who support prorogation, I put it to you. Do your worst! Let’s see your rally (ies).

Speaking of that Facebook group witht that rather paltry membership. Matt Gurney, the next time you feel inclined to whine about censorship  at  the Facebook CAPP group, I suggest strongly you keep that claptrap of your’s shut.  Apparently, over at pro-prorogation on Facebook,  potential members have to request to join, their wall and contents are invisible to all who are not members. I dunno, but that looks like censorship to me. The fact that they’re restricting membership proves they’re afraid of debate.

So, boys & girls of the pro prorogation faction, organize your events. Until then, shut the hell up and be good sports.

Here are some video highlights of the Montreal event from  Matness4dummies’ channel on Youtube. Thanks Matt!

Added Bonus: People outside Canada organized events to support us. Still think our events were a failure? Can you get outside of Canada support for your pro-prorogation events?

Montreal Event a Success!

Indeed it was! In spite of the early hour and the cold, we did have a decent turn out somewhere between 700 -1000 folks (a few hundred joined in later at end venue), according to what I as told.  There were merchants and passersby offering support. The police didn’t even get out of their cars. We made noise along the Dowtown streets.  We were very well organized.

Marc Garneau, Liberal MP & Quebec Lieutenant, Prof  Daniel Weinstock from Universite de Montreal–the author of  that letter written by the intellectuals (I know, Stevie likes ‘em illiterate), Thomas Mulcair, NDP MP, a Bloc MP (didn’t catch his name) & Gilles Duceppe spoke at our rally. Each expressing themselves eloquently.

Justin Trudeau and his young son were out marching, but he didn’t speak. He was just  a part of the crowd. I’m sure there were other politicians, but I didn’t see or recognize them.

Philippe Viel of Alter Citoyens and our videographer may have caught some, the video should be posted on line soon. Merci Philippe et sa copine (I’m sorry, I don’t know her name).

Of course, we had the musical stylings of the Montreal Chapter of the Raging Grannies, who rocked Philip’s Square in spite of the icy conditions around their stage area. A feisty bunch indeed.   I have to say that these ladies who are 60+ for the most part have more energy than a lot of today’s youth.

Matthew Angelus, a Universite de Montreal student, who led our organizing committee and was instrumental in putting this whole thing together was the last of our eloquent speakers, representing the Canadian citizens. We owe him a big thank you, because, without him, this would never have gotten off the ground.

It was all impressive. Everybody together from different affiliations.

Of course, the man who negotiated with the Police, got a lot of our equipment and led the chants, Mathieu Perron; without whom, the damned event would surely have been too subdued. Thanks to him, it was a loud event to get the merchants and passerby’s interested in checking us out.

Thanks to all the MPs and Professor Weinstock and of course, the Montreal chapter of the Raging Grannies.

Un gros remerciement a tous qui s’est presente! Thanks all for coming! Together we showed the coporatist media wrong. Canaidians do care.

I understand there are other events going on now across the country and the folks out west would probably be starting anytime soon, due to the time difference between Central Canada and them. I would like to wish them well and a success for their events.

Most of all, I hope we keep the momentum going; that we don’t go away so fast. We should not lose our voices to those of the commentators discussing luge record times and world hockey.

There is a CAPP second wave group happening on Facebook. For those on Facebook, please join it.

Once again, thank you all for making this a success!  Merci a tous pour le succes de cette manifestation!

Tomorrow’s Rally In Montreal and Media Failures

Crossposted at Sister Sage’s Musings

Yes! We have been blessed!!   Gracing Montrealers (& the rest of Canada who will see pictures &/or film footage for that matter) with their presence will be Marc Garneau, Liberal MP & the Quebec Lieutenant; Thomas Mulcair, the one and only Montreal NDP Mp, and Professor Daniel Weinstock of Universite de Montreal will be speaking.  Also, songs and dancing from the Montreal Raging Grannies. There is another group (I’m sorry, their name escapes me right now).

I am especially happy that Gilles Duceppe will be making an appearance. No, I’m not a separatist, but as most of my readers know, I had been concerned about the lack of interest amongst French Quebecers up until now. Whoever succeeded in reaching and inviting Gilles Duceppe, Thank You/ Merci beaucoup! C’est tres apprecie!

I was also concerned about the seemingly laissez-faire attitude of Gilles Duceppe, who at the time, only gave us a tweet of a reaction from his Twitter account. I always believed if Gilles Duceppe came out and reacted as he did when he announced support and cooperation with last year’s coalition government, all Quebecers would be enthusiastic about protesting. The rally for the coalition attracted quite a few folks, included separatists at Guy Favreau Centre last year.

That post did get quite a reaction over at noprorogue.ca.  Quite a bit of anger really. I (as well as others, I’m sure ) would have liked that anger channeled into what Stevie did, to all of us, no matter where we lived, what political affiliation or what language we spoke.

Now, it looks promising for tomorrow. I am now confidant we will have a great turn out. I also know there will be a great turn out at most of the venues, anyway. Sixty towns and cities is already a big thing.

Yah, Blogging Tories and Tommy “I like prorogation because it means no new taxes”  Schnurmacher, of CJAD 800am (Astral radio, naturally, just one of the right arms of the Harpercons & Tax-phobic Tommy & Chickenhawk Ric Petersen & his unabashed support for Blathering Blatchford are the cheerleaders) & Harpercon shill and others like him: get with the technology. This is the new activism. Most Canadians don’t want prorogation.

And Tommy, when you can’t spin, spoonfeed, or deflect and distract: move on to something else. Don’t berate, shove words down the throats of and call callers despicable who disagree with you, and don’t humiliate your co-workers, just because they joined a facebook group you don’t like. there, Tommy! Here’s a hint, you really should apologize on the air for your ill behavior as of late.

Speaking of  Conservative media against prorogation: I can’t believe I’m saying this: Congratz to Ryan Doyle for speaking on the air against prorogation. I sincerely hope that you will attend a rally near you.  As stated before, the cross country rallies need all affiliations; that means Conservatives welcome.  Quite a coup and a rarety: a conservative talk show host surely of a minority of  his brethren.

Speaking of Conservatives,  we invited Conservative MPs, local politicians and senators: they have not responded. I do not want to hear that this is an exclusively lefty movement.

Hope to see large numbers at all the venues tomorrow.

Esperons de vous voir nombreux a tous les evenements demain!

Montreal No Prorogue Rally Details

A short march and a rally with a few very short speeches.

I do hope that those in and around Montreal will come in great numbers despite the early hour. At least (knock wood), the weather should cooperate.

This is a non-partisan event. Everyone is welcome, no matter what affiliation they may be with:  the Left or the Right; Conservative or not: French speaking or not; Separatists or federalists; it doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, ol’ Stevie has stripped every Canadian of their Democratic rights.

Sidenote: Another interesting read would be over at Scott  Ross’s, where he actually details  how much prorogation is costing the tax payers. Those of the Conservative persuasion who claim to abhor government wasted spending: Scott Ross’ post is worth a read.

A Letter I wrote to MY MP

Crossposted at Sister Sage’s Musings. For those who have been following me there realize this post is somewhat dated. I wrote my MP and posted this to my blog awhile ago. However, I wanted to share it with the readers from the Noprorogue.ca site. For those who haven’t yet written their MPs; what are you waiting for ?

ATT: Irwin Cotler
Member of Parliament for Mont-Royal
Liberal Party of Canada

Hello,

I think most Canadians realize that the prorogation on the part of PM Stephen Harper is more sinister than last year’s. All one has to do is to read the news and the columnists. Globe & Mail’s John Ibbitson calls it “Devilishly clever”. Norman Spector of that same paper is even predicting an April election. Those are just a few examples of newspaper columnists all celebrating this move of PM Harper. Mike Biehl’s recent article in the Ottawa Citizen has referred to Prime Minister Stephen Harper as a not so benign dictator. Our prime minister’s actions and inactions as of late are certainly proving this much.

The question being asked by Canadians, myself included is what are the Liberal Party of Canada, The New Democratic Party and the Bloc Quebecois going to do about this?

How are you going to not only persuade Canadians how dangerous a Conservative Party of Canada under Stephen Harper would be, but also, to persuade Canadians that you are the best choice(s)? There are many who simply dismiss Stephen Harper’s past from the Reform Party, the National Citizens’ Coalition and the Canadian Alliance Party, simply because they can’t see real leadership in the Liberal Party.

Stephen Harper once again, abandons Canada at the worst possible time simply for his own political partisan agenda. Are you (the Liberal Party of Canada)going to do the same or are you going to take action, like so many Canadians want you to do?

Next question; are you going to allow today’s corporate right-winged media, like CTV, the Globe & Mail, Most Canadian talk radio shows and the National Post dictate your party strategies or agendas or are you going to think of what is best for Canada?

I, like so many other Canadians: everyday tax payers, pundits in the mainstream media and the blogosphere, believe that with Mr. Harper’s numbers remaining well within majority grasp (remember, former PMChretien had successive majorities with only 37%- 38% of the vote,with the popular Bloc Quebecois),he is hammering the nails in the opposition parties’ coffins while away.

It has been said that neither the Liberal Party nor even the NDP have shown strong leadership consistently. Isn’t it about time that changed, now more than ever? I mean, if we had strong leadership offered to us by the Liberal Party of Canada and the New Democratic Party of Canada, perhaps we wouldn’t find ourselves in the mess we are in now. We are also tired of hearing the Liberal in-fighting dominating the Corporate right-wing media.

Stephen Harper is counting on Canadians to forget about the torture allegations, even if Canada may be in breach international laws, namely the Geneva Convention. If you (the Liberal Party of Canada), the New Democrat Party and the Bloc Quebecois show up for work and perhaps to continue to keep this issue alive.

I, like so many Canadians, particularly the majority; who did NOT vote for the Conservative Party of Canada are extremely concerned about this prorogation as this permits him to not only stack up those five senate seats with his conservative friends, but all that hard work putting out legislation will have been for nothing.

The majority of Canadians are embarrassed at the poor showing on the world stage as of late. We are sad to see our international reputation sink further than that of the United States during the Bush/Cheney era.

For the above reasons, we, the Canadian people are asking you (the Liberals, New Democratic Party and the Bloc Quebecois) to put aside your differences, find common ground, put away the partisan games that Stephen Harper seems to be quite proficient with, show strong leadership and go to work January 25, 2010 as you would have had Governor General Michaelle Jean hadn’t granted proroguation (over the telephone no less; is this democracy?) to Stephen Harper. This, of course is just for starters.

Just an afterthought, perhaps it is time to revive that Coalition from last year, only, this time, do it before Stephen Harper engineers the next federal election; take a page from the former Canadian Alliance Party and the Progressive Conservatives.

My letter is surely not the first in your email box from Concerned Canadians. Please take this letter as well as other letters you have received from constituents. The future of Canada depends on it.

My letter is of course, not without bias as I am notm  nor have I ever been a fan of  Stephen Harper and his Conservatives. However, I do believe that proroguing is wrong for any party, particularly if they’re using it for such banal reasons like they can’t play nicely with others or they are trying to extracate themselves from pesky activities, like investigations for any government wrong doing. Parliamentary reform would be needed to make sure this can’t happen again.

Everyone should write to their MPs. Once again, here is how to reach your’s.

Are we still going to be complacent? Are we still going to allow Corporatist media to continue spoon feeding their Harpercon friendly agenda to us? Or allow them to spoonfeed us that we don’t care about prorogation.

Just a Reminder…

Here’s a goody from emotion 999

French Quebecers Seem to be too Cynical to Care About Prorogation

Cross posted at Sister Sage’s Musings

Something that I had been concerned about since this all happened.  An article in today’s Grope & Fail with translated sources from French language newspapers.  Honestly,  had it not been for my observations of apathy amongst my French speaking  co-workers and Francophones in general as well as the low Francophone memberships Montreal and Quebec City Chapters of Canadians against prorogation rally planning groups on Facebook and, search as I may, not much reaction from Gilles Duceppe other than the following tweet on his Twitter account, I wouldn’t have believed the article in the Grope & Fail.

Sadly, they feel their voices aren’t heard enough in Ottawa; that their voices don’t count.

Gilles Duceppe’s reaction: prorogation has become “a tradition for Harper.”

“Instead of facing the music, he prorogues,” Duceppe wrote.

Other than the fact the Bloc announced its’ plans to work in their ridings, like the N.D.P., not much is happening from that corner. Perhaps if Gilles Duceppe announced it was going back to Ottawa alongside the Liberals on January 25 and he made that known to the mainstream media, perhaps Quebecers may have a different attitude toward prorogation.

A variety of reasons seem to contribute to French Quebec’s apathy: from lack of understanding of Canada’s Parliamentary system to lack of respect for parliament, according to the Grope & Fail.

Josee Legault of the Montreal French language weekly, Le Voir writes:

“There’s nothing like a populace ignorant of its own democratic institutions to allow a prime minister to go so far as to strip our elected representatives of their constitutional prerogatives,”

Now, that is frightening.  Education would be the logical answer, but one has to want to know.  One gets the feeling, they don’t want to know, so how do we engage them?

I work for a social services agency that serves the Anglophone population of Quebec; thus far, only one of my co-workers is interested in attending the Montreal rally up to date and asked me to keep him up to date. The rest don’t even know about or barely heard grumblings of it.

One of my French speaking co-workers came up to me yesterday and simply grimaced; ” it doesn’t matter what we think or do; Harper will get his majority.” She, of course, must have stopped following the polls awhile ago.  Stevie’s numbers started going down since prorogation and he is now down about 10 points since last Fall.  I told her his numbers dropped but she didn’t change her tune. She is of the belief Stevie will climb back up. She did, however, ask me to forward her any literature on the subject. Sadly, I think her views reflect most of those of French Quebec society today.

I also tend to wonder if the  now dormant separatist movement will make a comeback if there is an election coming soon and Stevie does get his majority? Are the separatists perhaps saving their energy for a potential separatist movement?

Perhaps the separatists just don’t feel that prorogation matters as they’re only interested in le Pays du Quebec?

I think there are only two ways we can perhaps get them out alongside Quebec’s Anglos in the Quebec City and Montreal Rallies come January 23. Our planning meeting spoke of the possibility of getting leaders of Quebec’s largest labor unions. French Quebecers; separatists or not tend to be very pro union.

Another way would be to hit the message home that whether or not you’re separatist; your democratic rights were stripped away just like the rest of us.

There is still time to get French speaking Quebecers to demonstrate alongside the rest of us, be they separatist or not.

To my French speaking readers, I hope you can get your friends, relatives and co workers out come Saturday afternoon, January 23.

Information Meeting In Montreal

There will be an information meeting in Montreal on Monday January 11 at 18;30 to 20;30 at McGill University in the Shatner building.

Here is the address/Voici l’addresse: 3480 McTavish  (SSMU/Shatner building/Pavillon) Room/Salle 433A.

Here is a message from this group’s administrator:

Hello everyone,

Because a great majority of people asked for a meeting either downtown or at McGill, the Rally-planning meeting will be held this coming Monday (January 11) at 6:30PM in room 433A of the McGill University Centre (SSMU / Shatner Building), 3480 McTavish. I invite everyone to bring their ideas both for location and timing of the event. The event will require much coordination both before the event (promoting, advertising, etc.) as well as during the event itself (chants, speakers, materials, etc.) if we wish to get a large turnout to on the 23rd. Come in big numbers; let’s get this thing off the ground!

Matthew Angelus

Bonsoir!
Une grande majorité des participants ont demandé une réunion soit à McGill ou au Centre-ville. Donc, il y aura une réunion lundi prochain pour discuter le lieu et l’horaire du rassemblement. J’invite tout le monde à vous présenter à la réunion préparatoire ce lundi 11 janvier réunion à 18h30 dans la salle 433A du Centre Universitaire (SSMU) de l’Université McGill (3480 McTavish). Je vous invite tous d’apporter vos idées pour le lieu et l’heure de la démonstration. Afin d’organiser un tel événement, nous aurons besoin d’une grande coordination tant avant l’événement (pour organiser la promotion, publicité, etc.) et pendant l’événement (les cries de ralliement, des intervenants, des matériels). Venez en grand nombres!

Merci,
Matthew Angelus

Please RSVP through this Facebook event. I hope to see a lot of folks there.
S.V.P., veuillez confirmer votre presence a la page de l’evenement de Facebook. J’espere qu’on sera nombreux.

For those who cannot attend Monday evening’s meeting at McGill University, I will post details as to the particulars of the January 23 rally as they become available

Pour ceux qui ne peuvent pas etre a la reunion lundi soir a McGill, Je vais postuler les details de l’evenement le 23 janvier lorsqu’ils seront disponibles.

Today’s Corporate Media Hacks-Not Only Hypocritical, But Also, Sore Losers!

Yikes! Where do I start?  Pale and Montreal Simon wrote articles on this subject recently. There should be a whole anthology with a mass collaboration on the subject, especially since that Facebook group grew, demonstrations are being organized across Canada among other activities being planned. All this, thanks to social media; the blogosphere; blog aggregators such as Progressive Bloggers.

Today, we are standing up to Corporate Media hacks.

Now, hacks like Don Crook of  Blogolotics at the Grope & Fail, who  gets his math wrong and must humble himself to correct it. He posts the radio show of a fellow hack; the one & only, Chuckles Adler. Remember him? Let me refresh your memory: The one who referred to us as elitists who did nothing all day but suck on lattes in coffee houses?

You can catch the audio of Chuckles ranting alongside Matt Gurney of National Posties and of course, Christopher White, the founder and sole administrator of the Facebook group, Canadians against the Proroguing of parliament. I love how Gurney and Chuckles ranted at White about there being censorship on the site: that dissenting views being posted are being deleted  almosts as quickly as they were posted in the first place to hear them tell it. White at least pointed out what I hoped he would: that these folks may well have been deleting their own posts just to cry out censorship.

Chuckles would go on to poke fun at the site, as if it were nothing serious but a bunch of graphics and Nazi references.  I think what Chuckles doesn’t like (and I expect many others from that corporate media machine) is that it already started accomplishing something.  Conservatives and Centrists who had been pushed to Stevie’s hard right have joined us. These are folks who are particular fans of free speech.These people also tend to be for senate reform and thus, one of  Stevie’s promises that attracted them to vote for him in the first place was senate reform. Proroguing parliament in order to stack up the senate with his friends and cheerleaders, of course, would sour them toward Stevie.

Speaking of censorship hypocrisy; Guess who practises censorship on his blog? That’s right! The one and only Cook; comments are disabled. Like ol’ Stevie, Dan just don’t want to hear the opinion of other Canadians.

Just a note, it would appear that all of Don Crook’s blogs have disabled comments. Me thinks he protests too much. Hey Cook! Enable comments, will ya?

We are sharing information.

The Liberals are going to show up for work come January 25. With continued efforts our parts, we can perhaps get the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois to join them.

Canadians are writing Stevie, the opposition leaders and their MPs.

Up until now, Canadians had been apathetic. Now, they’re standing up and expressing their distaste for Stevie and the Harpercons’ lastest move.

Stevie runs away, and obviously, social media is  getting louder, making it more difficult for these  Harpercon cheerleaders to spoon feed Canadians what they want Canadians to think.

Here’s a thought for those who may still be struggling with their thoughts about the events of late and how they’re being covered:  and yes, hacks, pay attention. Everyone is free to follow whomever they like, it’s part of democracy, however, if average working Canadians with families and busy schedules are making the time to get Canadians involved or to inform them without payment (except for perhaps Google ad sense; never tried it, but I hear it really doesn’t pay much). We do this because we care. We care about our country and fellow Canadians. We don’t like the direction Stevie and the Harpercons are taking it with their actions and/or inactions as of late. May seem partisan, but we would be doing all of this if another leader were in charge and behaving exactly like Stevie has been.

Hacks, get used it! We’re staying and we will continue to make noise until Canada is steered back in the right direction. And even then, we will continue making noise in order to make sure our country continues in the right direction.

Mocking opposition for intentions of showing up to work? What are you all really afraid of? That they actually may find something damning in their unofficial investigation of torturegate?

Sidenote:  Speaking of  corporate media and the world of communications, guess who Stevie hired for a second time? Yup, none other than one of  his big ol’ buddy Georgie’s buddy, Ari Fleischer. More proof that he’s a Georgie wannabe.

Thank you Christopher White for founding the Facebook group. Readers who are on Facebook, please click the above Facebook link to join this group if you haven’t already. Contrary to what Chuckles, Crook and others have said, it doesn’t matter what usual affiliation you’re with.  You really do make a difference.