It is completely maddening. Canada stands at a turning point in its history. We face unprecedented challenges – from climate change to a deteriorating democracy – that we should be debating during this interminable election campaign. Yet rather than examine the Harper government’s record, our political leaders are arguing about niqabs. Niqabs!
For the past seven weeks I have been counting down #50ReasonsToDumpHarper and examining the Harper government’s “decade of scandals”. Prime Minister Stephen Harper is dismantling Canada brick by brick, and it has to stop. The list of reasons is given below. Please share this far and wide.
My hope in compiling this list is that it will help people to comprehend the extent of the damage done to the idea of Canada. Harper should not be allowed to distract us from his record with a message of hate. Let’s talk about the things that really matter.
The Top 50 1
Dishonourable mentions are given at the bottom.
Harper’s Orwellian “Assault on Reason” – governing Canada like it’s 1984. more…
Yes, Mr. Harper, it is about you. Please shut the door on your way out.
The “perpetual climate charade”: the planet burns while Harper twiddles. more…
How did respected former journalist Peter Kent become Canada’s worst-ever Environment Minister? Source: Toronto Star.
The human rights crisis facing Canada’s indigenous peoples. more…
Harper rejected calls for missing indigenous women inquiry. more…
Harper showed appalling indifference to the aboriginal residential schools report. more…
The cancellation of National Aboriginal Health Organization (NAHO) is yet another setback for aboriginal health. more…
Harper government engaged in spin doctoring instead of action on aboriginal housing. more…
The shameful treatment of veterans; especially $1.1B in unspent budget at Veterans Affairs. more…
Former Veterans Affairs Minister Julian Fantino called the mistreatment of veterans a “myth”. Source: CBC. - Veterans offices that provide “crucial” services were closed. more…
“Economic treason”: The Canada-China FIPA trade deal. more…
Bill C-51, which granted “unprecedented powers” for spying on Canadians. more…
Reversals of hard-won progress on women’s rights and equality. more…
- For women, Harper’s government has been a disaster. more…
The Harper government muzzled federal scientists, then denied it in public and parliament. more…
Harper’s legacy: A Who’s-Who of Canada’s Muzzled Scientists. more…
Muzzling of federal scientists reduced climate change coverage by 80%: government docs. more…
NY Times calls Harper government’s muzzling of scientists “An attempt to guarantee public ignorance”. more…
Jeff Hutchings powerfully argues that muzzling scientists inhibits science. more…
Environment Minister Peter Kent defended muzzling as “standard practice”. more…
“Media lines” were crafted for top (non-partisan) bureaucrats to defend muzzling. more…
Science libraries were ordered trashed in the modern-day equivalent of a book burning. more…
Fisheries and Oceans Minister Gail Shea defends the indefensible destruction of federal science libraries. Source: The Tyee.
Scientists called the trashing of Canada’s science libraries a “disaster” and a “national tragedy”. more…
The Harper government’s defence of library trashing “doesn’t add up”: Scientists. more…
The trashing of Canada’s science libraries has continued in 2015 with Agriculture Canada. more…
Canada’s lost science libraries: My summary of what we know. more…
Harper impugned the integrity of Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin – an unprecedented prime-ministerial overstep. more…
- Harper’s repeated legal setbacks suggest a “strategy of confrontation” with courts. more…
Conservative election cheats: overspending, illegal campaign contributions and “Pierre Poutine” robocalls.
Parliamentary Secretary Dean Del Mastro is led away in handcuffs. Source: CBC. Parliamentary Secretary Dean Del Mastro was jailed for election overspending. more…
Conservatives pled guilty to “in and out” election overspending. more…
Conservative staffer Michael Sona was jailed for “Pierre Poutine” robocalls that misled voters. more…
Conservative staffer Reg Bowers was charged with accepting illegal campaign contributions. more…
The Harper government’s Orwellian “Fair Elections Act” and vote suppression tactics. more…
Pierre Poilievre, Harper’s most partizan attack dog and, bizarrely, Democratic Reform Minister. Source: Toronto Star.
F-35 fighter jet costs that were hidden from the public, to the tune of $10 billion: Auditor. more…
Defence Minister Peter McKay poses in an F-35 model. More serious: McKay’s helicopter ride while search-and-rescue was being cut. Image source: CBC. - Jim Flaherty attacked F-35 whistleblower Kevin Page, before government removed Page as Parliamentary Budget Officer. more…
Omnibus budget bills that show “contemptuous disregard for Parliament”. more…
A younger Stephen Harper railed against omnibus bills in “the interest of democracy”. more…
Documents reveal that the oil industry was behind the omnibus strategy. more…
Parliamentary debate was cut off over 100 times using time allocation and closure, leading former Conservative MP Brent Rathgeber to bemoan our “broken democracy.” more…
Harper’s other procedural trick: Proroguing parliament to avoid facing the Canadian electorate. more…
Cuts designed to break government science. Part of the ongoing War on Science.
CBC Fifth Estate’s Silence of the Labs explores the consequence of cuts to science. Exhibit A: Environment Canada’s budget was cut in half. more…
Exhibit B: Deep cuts at Fisheries and Oceans Canada eroded water and coastal protections. more…
Exhibit C: Basic science organization NRC was transformed into a “concierge” (their own word!) for business. more…
Exhibit D: Parks Canada was “lobotomized”, undermining ongoing conservation efforts. more…
Exhibit E: The Canadian Environment Assessment Agency was gutted during a surge in oil, mining projects. more…
Exhibit F: Deep cuts at Statistics Canada compounded the loss of the long-form census. more…
Exhibit G: Agriculture Canada cuts revealed a government with “no use for long-term science”. more…
Fifth Estate’s Silence of the Labs explored the consequences of cuts to science. more…
Science under Siege by Mary Lynk is a compelling in-depth documentary about the implications of the War on Science. more…
The science cuts are chronicled in John Dupuis’s stunning indictment of the Conservative War on Science. more…
“The War on Science” by Chris Turner is the authoritative account. more…
The long-form census “crucial to good public policy” was eliminated. more…
Bill C-24 lets the Immigration Minister revoke citizenship… without agreement from the courts! more…
Should judgement-impaired Immigration Minister Chris Alexander be allowed to revoke citizenships? Source: CBC. - A Constitutional challenge was immediately (and predictably) launched over Bill C-24. more…
Harper’s income splitting “gift” to the rich that will worsen inequality. more…
- Finance Minister Jim Flaherty on income splitting: “I’m not sure that overall it benefits our society”. more…
“Wasteful” Action Plan advertising. more…
- Similarly, the massive taxpayer-funded advertising campaign for oil industry. more…
The $50 million G-8 “slush” fund for Muskoka, gazebos. more…
Smilin’ Tony Gazebo. Source: MacLean’s. - Tony Clement (“Minister of Gazebos”) was in “clear breach of policies,” but promoted by Harper to Treasury Board President anyway. more…
Food safety workers were cut, putting the health and safety of Canadians at risk. more…
- Food safety whistleblower Luc Pomerleau was fired and barred from working for the government ever again. more…
Harper’s refused to negotiate a new health deal with the provinces. more…
Ministers Peter Kent and Joe Oliver “deliberately” broke the law protecting endangered species: Judge. more…
The promise to regulate oil and gas emissions was abandoned. more…
- Harper calls his own plan to regulate oil and gas “crazy economic policy”. more…
Ministers, MPs and senators have routinely cast doubt on climate change. more…
Natural Resource (now Finance) Minister Joe Oliver thinks it is environmentalists who are the radicals. Source: CBC.
Environmental Emergencies Program that coordinated cleanup of oil spills was gutted. more…
- Coast Guard cuts led to oil spill disaster on BC coast. more…
3000 environmental reviews, 248 for pipelines, were scrapped. more…
Docs show the oil industry proposed environmental law changes. more…
Here’s another doc showing oil industry suggested environmental law changes: more…
And another, which also shows oil industry proposed the omnibus strategy: more…
Briefing not for Environment Minister Peter Kent shows oil pipelines were “top of mind” when the Harper government gutted environmental protections. more…
Environment Minister Peter Kent was directed to mislead first nations groups on environmental law changes, suggesting that changes were speculative… while briefing notes for Environment Secretary Michelle Rempel said oil was “top of mind”. more…
Environmental law changes weren’t about reducing red tape: Study author. more…
The Fisheries Act was gutted, with fish habitat protections eliminated. more…
Fisheries and Oceans Minister Keith Ashfield thinks we need more water pollution. Source: Postmedia. Former ministers – two of them Progressive Conservatives – expressed “serious concern” about changes to the Fisheries Act. more…
Protection was ended for most of Canada’s waterways with the changes made to the Navigable Waters Protection Act. more…
The Canadian Environmental Assessment Act was repealed and replaced with weaker legislation. more…
Fisheries and Oceans Minister Keith Ashfield lauded his new legal “tools” to permit water pollution. more…
The Experimental Lakes Area (ELA) research facility was shuttered. more…
Environment Canada’s ozone monitoring network targeted for cuts. more…
Evasive testimony in a parliamentary committee finally revealed that Environment Canada’s famous ozone research group was dissolved. more…
Environment Canada’s ozone research group was dismantled after discovering the first-ever Arctic ozone hole. more…
EC’s cut ozone research group invented the UV index used around the world. more…
Management of the world’s ozone data was re-assigned from experts to “IT guy”. more…
National Energy Board integrity was compromised, leading economist Robyn Allan to quit the Kinder-Morgan pipeline review. more…
- Energy Exec Marc Eliesen also quit the Kinder-Morgan pipeline review because of the “fraudulent” National Energy Board process. more…
Nuclear watchdog Linda Keen was fired “in the dark of night”. more…
- Fired nuclear watchdog Linda Keen was insisting that mandatory safety upgrades be completed (i.e., doing her job). more…
National science advisor eliminated. Nature calls it “Science in Retreat”. more…
National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy was eliminated. more…
Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird “happily admits Tories didn’t like axed environment watchdog’s advice”. Source: Postmedia.
Climate research foundation was cut. A “Devastating impact” was predicted. more…
“Reckless” cuts have pushed national broadcaster CBC to a “tipping point”. more…
The $45 million cut to arts was made because “ordinary people” don’t care about art: Harper. more…
Some art is better than others… Source: Montreal Gazette.
A blind eye was turned to Temporary Foreign Workers abuses. more…
Harper’s “punitive assault” on labour unions. more…
The retirement age was raised to 67. Prepare to work longer. more…
Harper’s brain dead approach to drug addiction and community health. more…
Laureen and Stephen Harper appear to disagree about what to do with people who enjoy a toke. Source: Huffington Post. Laureen Harper agrees! “You don’t put people in jail” for smoking marijuana. more…
Attempts to end safe injections at Insite were thwarted by the Supreme Court. more…
Health Minister Rona Ambrose ended effective treatment for twenty-one long-term heroin addicts. more…
Vienna AIDS Declaration was rejected because of its recommended drug policies. more…
Politically-motivated audits of Canadian charities that stifle dissent. more…
Defunding of NGO’s that are “a crucial component of a robust democracy”. more…
Minister of Public Safety Vic Toews’ statement on internet surveillance: “Stand with us or with the child pornographers”. more…
Vic Toews: “You’re with us, or the child pornographers.” Source: National Post.
The retroactive rewriting of the gun registry law to avoid criminal charges against the RCMP. more…
- The Information Commissioner called backdated law changes “perilous precedent”. more…
The failure to protect tortured child soldier Omar Khadr. more…
Diplomat Richard Colvin was attacked and punished for his Afghan torture testimony. more…
Defence Minister Peter McKay attacks the credibility of respected diplomat Richard Colvin. Source: Toronto Star.
Harper’s “enemies list” was compared with Nixon and Watergate… by former Environment Minister-turned backbencher Peter Kent. more…
The Harper’s government was ruled in contempt of Parliament. A first in Canadian history. more…
The Duffy scandal and audit tampering instead of “transparent and accountable” government. more…
Mike Duffy and Stephen Harper in happier times. Source iPolitics.
Dishonourable Mentions
These are items that I missed or otherwise didn’t make the top 50.
Stephen Harper’s politics of fear. more…
The Harper government’s 200-page playbook on how to frustrate, obstruct and shut down the democratic process. more…
Bruce Carson: Canada’s “biggest political scandal you never heard of.” more…
The politicization of federal departments.
The PMO posted videos of Canadian forces in Iraq and Kuwait – a breach of forces security for partisan gain. more…
Science minister Gary Goodyear thinks evolution is a question of religion. more…
The fake citizenship ceremony involving federal bureaucrats. more…
Environment Minister Peter Kent’s baseless accusation that environmental charities are laundering foreign funds. more…
Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver’s attacked “environmental and other radical groups”. more…
- You can read Oliver’s paranoid rant in full. more…
Stephen Harper’s “Culture of defeatism” remark about Atlantic Canadians. Not while he was Prime Minister, but hardly forgotten. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/harper-plans-to-battle-culture-of-defeatism-in-atlantic-canada-1.306785
Lavish spending on War of 1812 celebrations while savage cutbacks are made everywhere else. more…
This list is somewhat modified from what I posted on twitter. Gone are hashtags and the like, and the presentation is updated given the less limited format. I have also added a few extra links, including Dishonourable Mentions.↩
(Updated 5 December 2015)