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| Shafting democracy in Canada | Heather Malick The prime minister's suspension of parliament has created angry voiceless citizens whose votes have become meaninglessIf there was a gold medal for shafting democracy at the Winter Olympics, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper would win it. Just before the games open in Vancouver, he has halted parliament in its tracks, suspending it for the second time in little more than a year.Canada will not have a House of Commons until March 3. Instantly, we are a part-time democracy, a shabby diminished place packed with angry voiceless citizens whose votes have been rendered meaningless. Harper didn't even visit the governor-general of Canada for the formality of asking permission as he did last Christmas. Instead, he phoned her and got his PR man to send out an announcement to the nation.Rage and shame are flowing on the internet because there is nowhere else for voters to turn. Even The Globe and Mail, Canada's national and excessively staid newspaper, had a front-page editorial steaming with reproach. The Globe often leaves me frustrated, but I was moved when I read it and … did what exactly? I took a stand. I joined a Facebook group called Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament, an earnestly pathetic act that may be part of the reason our nation is so lessened on the first day of 2010.Look, I can't even call my federal MP, a Liberal member of the opposition, because she's effectively out of commission for the next two months. All that's left to me is to tell you what it's like here and why you should care.Harper, that strange vengeful man you will see in February clapping awkwardly as Olympians leap off mountains and shoot past in the luge, has been on a mission since his youth to turn Canada into a pale, watery version of the United States of America. Even then, the US was well into its identity-switch into the undereducated, paranoid, self-destructively aggressive overspent mess we watch now with grim fascination.Why follow failure? His reasons elude me, but he has only just begun his mission of the extreme right. His method: absolute personal control of everything. Unfortunately, he has a free pass – there is nobody of any stature in his cabinet, and no opposition to speak of. Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff cannot seem to find his place.The specific intent of proroguing parliament was to smother a scandal, to halt a highly embarrassing and public inquiry into the Canadian military – eight years into its weird little war in Afghanistan – handing over prisoners to the Afghan "government" while knowing they would be tortured. Another reason was to stack the unelected second house, the senate, with five more Conservatives, reshuffle crucial committees and take the country one step closer to complete hard-right majority government.Harper, frustrated by his repeated failure to achieve more than minority rule, nurses a venom not before seen in Canadian politics. Bush and Blair hired people for this purpose; with Harper it is self-contained. He torments whistleblowers even as they win public acclaim, scorns climate change evidence and makes an international fool of us in Copenhagen, is bent on dismantling the national gun registry set up after the 1989 Montreal massacre, plans the same anti-drug mandatory-sentencing laws that bloated and blocked the US jail system, and fires federal watchdogs who disagree with him.Obama's failures have complicated roots but Canada's failures have been deliberately engineered. The Conservatives are mean people. The Conservative Party was not always like this and Canadians are unaccustomed to this level of cruelty and proud ignorance in public life.I am fed up. Powered only by the stoicism on which this winter-bound nation was built – we aren't even frozen any more, thanks to climate change, we are merely damp – I went out last night to see in the New Year with two friends who are government scientists (shan't name them, Harper hates civil servants even more than he hates science). One of them, an American, campaigned for Obama in 2008, the same year she took Canadian citizenship.We drank a Sandbanks Estates wine – tough little Ontario grape – and toasted a country for which we still have such hopes. I avoided her kind but sceptical eye.CanadaHeather Mallickguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Attacks show al-Qaida-inspired groups target West WASHINGTON (AP) -- From Detroit to Afghanistan, scattered terrorists inspired and equipped by al-Qaida have attacked recently with surprising speed and worldwide reach, challenging the U.S. strategy of slowly and deliberately targeting the terror group's top leaders.... hosted.ap.org |
Activists protest experiments burying pigs in snow VIENNA (AP) -- Vehement protests from animal activists prompted scientists on Thursday to temporarily stop an avalanche experiment that involved burying pigs in snow and monitoring their deaths.... hosted.ap.org |
China's Homegrown Movies Flourish As Hollywood begins to pry open China's film market, it may be in for a surprise: a dramatically revived local film industry is starting to hold its own against international competitors. online.wsj.com |
China firm offers reward over death Reward offered to anyone who can prove foul play in sudden death of Chinese worker at factory in Shenzhen, ChinaA manufacturer that produces iPhones and Nokia and Motorola handsets is offering tens of thousands of pounds to anyone who can prove foul play in the sudden death of a teenage Chinese worker.FoxConn, a division of the Taiwan electronics company Hon Hai, has announced a reward of 500,000 yuan (£45,000) for information in the case of Ma Xiangqian who was found dead near the stairway of the dormitory of one of its factories in Shenzhen, southern China, on 23 January.Early stages of the investigation suggested he died of natural causes, but Ma's relatives say they found scars on his body and that the 19-year-old had no previous health problems, the state newspaper China Daily reported."There is more to my brother's death than meets the eye. For 19 years my brother had not developed any unusual physical symptoms," the worker's sister Ma Hui told Guangzhou Daily.She claimed her brother had been picked on for unintentionally damaging company equipment and was later assigned to clean toilets.A FoxConn spokesman said he had not heard the allegations.Pathologists conducted a postmortem examination but have yet to release the results. FoxConn said it had invited Ma's family to attend the autopsy.Li Jinming, the company's administrative general manager, said: "We understand that Ma's family wants to find the real cause behind his death. We are co-operating closely with police authorities and have announced a reward of 500,000 yuan to anyone who can prove there was foul play."A manager initially told Ma's relatives that he had passed out and was being treated. FoxConn said in a statement that he did this because he wanted to break the news of their son's death to them in person.It said it would do its best to help the family and said it was dedicated to protecting the rights and safety of its employees.A spokesman in the firm's Taiwan headquarters told the Guardian: "It is a case involving human life, which is of supreme importance, and so what we can do is hand it over to the police and wait for them to finish the investigation. Before that we have very little we can say."In a statement, the company said Ma submitted his resignation to the company on 12 January and stopped working eight days later. He had joined the factory in November.Shenzhen police said they were still investigating the case.FoxConn said it was making its statement in response to speculation information about the case on the internet, adding that it welcomed "fair monitoring" by the press and public.The firm has hundreds of thousands of workers in Shenzhen. Another employee there, Sun Danyong, took his life in July last year during an investigation into the loss of an iPhone prototype.Sun's family said the company paid them more than 300,000 yuan in compensation.ChinaTaiwanTania Braniganguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |