Du sens, de la mémoire, s.v.p.! / Make sense, remember, please!


Nonsense, amnesia and other conventional wisdom are the targets here:
A critical look at media-political discourse in Canadian federal politics, notably but not only regarding the Quebec-Canada relationship. Also of interest: the relationship between Indigenous Peoples and Canada, and Canada's place in the world. In early days, this blog will be tiny. We'll see if it may grow.

La sottise, l'amnésie et autre sens commun sont mes cibles: un regard critique sur le discours politico-médiatique en politique fédérale canadienne, notamment en ce qui concerne la relation Québec-Canada. Aussi: la relation entre les peuples autochtones et le Canada, et la place du Canada dans le monde. Ce blog commence tout petit. On verra s'il peut bien grandir.

jeudi 19 avril 2012

While we’re at it, let’s blame the unions too

Oh boy, it wasn’t a one-off.

Over the past few days, Stephen Harper has been blaming Quebec for his own lack of enthusiasm regarding the Charter’s 30th anniversary (see my post from yesterday).  Now, Treasury Board President Tony Clement is blaming the unions for the government’s secretive ways with massive job cuts in the public sector. And he’s doing it while attending a conference on “open government” in Brazil!

In last month’s budget, the government announced that it’s cutting 19 200 public service jobs over three years, but it won’t release sizeable chunks of information on what’s being cut until… spring 2013. Clement claims that he has no choice, but this is patently nonsense. And we already know (see the same G&M article linked above) that the initial plan by the bureaucracy was to release the information in May of this year; but this was overruled by Treasury Board, which instructed departments to withhold the data.

So, here’s today summary: the government cuts jobs (unnecessarily, by the way) and hides the information; the minister blames the people being cut while claiming to be all about open government.

It’s sick. Worse, there’s a method to their sickness.

mercredi 18 avril 2012

Blame Quebec, really: Harper and the Charter's anniversary

You have to admire the shamelessness. To hear Stephen Harper explain it, His government is not marking the 30th anniversary of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms so as to avoid offending Quebecers. A nice thought, recognizing that the Quebec government still has not signed the patriated constitution, of which the Charter is a part, and that Quebecers are not pleased with this situation. But it is also a fact that in every poll dealing with the issue for at least the last twenty-five years, Quebecers have been saying that they like the Charter. So, mister Prime Minister, what gives?
It’s no secret, really. Harper and his people hate the Charter for two reasons: first, because it’s a Liberal creation, which would be enough to earn it the hyper-partisan Conservatives’ enmity for ever; second and most importantly, because, for all its faults, it is intellectually and socially progressive (to a degree). Over the past thirty years, the Charter has been a key instrument in advancing the equality rights of women and of an impressive range of minorities: ethnic and racialized, sexual, disabled, linguistic, and I’m probably forgetting something (sorry). In Canada today, law and policy cannot be justified on the basis of such things as tradition, religious belief, or some arbitrary preference of the government of the day: they have to be grounded in the universalist languages of Reason and of human rights .
The list of things that social conservatives cannot do as a result of Charter jurisprudence (and legislative pre-clearance) is too long to go into; it is also well enough known  - we’ll just let same-sex marriage and abortion rights stand for the lot. And although he tries hard to make non-social-conservative Canadians forget it, the fact is that Harper himself is very much a member of the social (and Christian) conservative movement. He is its member-in-chief, in fact, with close support from such senior cabinet ministers as Jim Flaherty (Finance), Jason Kenny (Foreign Affairs, after a long and important stint at Citizenship and Immigration) and Vic Toews (Public Safety), not to mention a gaggle of lesser... hmm... lights.
The Charter (animated by claims-makers and the courts) is, in other words, one of the main obstacles standing in the way of this majority government’s conservative project for Canada. Honestly, it would be a bit much to expect Harper to celebrate its birthday. But he can’t very well own up to why he despises it: it would look cheap to complain that it’s the Liberals’ baby and, as he’s made himself electable by hiding in the social conservative closet for more than a decade, he’s not about to come out.
So, what’s a Harper to do? Well, he can show his sensitivity to Quebecers’ feelings and aspirations by pointing to their unhappiness with the patriation: this will highlight his openness, reasonableness and moderation, perhaps make Quebecers feel bad for not supporting him more, imply how bad the Liberals were to create this situation in the first place, and deflect attention from his own (and his party’s) hostility to the damn piece of paper.
But then let’s remember that an ultra-robust majority of Canadians (including Quebecers) like the Charter and the effect it has been having on the Canadian social contract. Let’s remember also that Harper’s own base is the only sizeable constituency anywhere in the country that dislikes it. So, while the median Canadian would likely approve of some sort of celebration, s/he is being told that there won’t be one because of... Quebec. Quebec, the eternal pain-in-the-ass that is sort-of standing aloof of Canada’s modern constitutional order, of which so many Canadians are proud (rightfully or not, is another story). Quebec, that is now standing in the way of acknowledging and celebrating how rightful Canadians are, thirty years on.
Let’s summarize. Harper defers to Quebec’s sensibilities, which is to say that Harper blames Quebec. Harper the conciliator is Harper the divider. But, really, isn’t it a beautiful thing to see the PM show such solicitude for Quebecers’ feelings? It’s so beautiful, it’s scary.