Some Crimes are Forever

I'm always big on the idea of redemption. And you know, even in the case of pedophiles, it's my understanding that a lot of them suffered horrific abuse as children which destroyed their ability to have normal lives. But even this sympathy only goes so far. No matter what, a convicted pedophile, upon serving their sentence, should never be entrusted with children. Even if there are no legal restrictions preventing them from doing so, a parent would have to be a complete idiot to let a pedophile babysit their kids.

It's because the importance, the gravity of some crimes sit with their perpetrators forever. No matter what a person will do, the odour of their crimes will linger about them until their dying day.

Some things are just monstrously ridiculous. Like Catholics trudging to Mass every Sunday to get moral instruction from an institution of such moral depravity. (Hey! There's that pedophilia again!) Or US Presidential administrations lecturing other countries about human rights. Or North Americans chuckling about Jon Stewart on "The Daily Show" while their armies rampage across the Middle East. Or Canadian "conservatives" going on about being fiscally responsible. Or Canadian "conservatives" lecturing leftists about their authoritarian tendencies.

Their were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Three decades of neoliberal economic policies ("free trade," tax cuts, deregulation, union-busting, etc.,) culminated in the greatest economic crisis since the 1930s. After 10 years on Toronto City Council, it appears that Rob Ford didn't have a clue about the city's finances and his "gravy train" of wasteful spending turned out to be a crock of shit.

You stop believing in people who lie so vastly or who are so evidently deluded or ignorant. 

Liars. Deluded. Ignorant.

That about sums up the Conservative Party of Canada, doesn't it?

The Conservative Party of Canada has lost its right to govern. Their crimes are too blatant and too gross. As well, their die-hard supporters have lost any claims on our respect for their opinions. The behaviour that they support is just so obviously undemocratic, criminal, dangerous and stupid.

It is simply (and sadly) the case that we can't say with any confidence whether or not the harpercons won their majority in 2011. They committed so many acts of fraud and the margins of victory were so tiny that the very legitimacy of our government is up for debate.

What isn't up for debate is that they lied to Parliament and then they lied to the electorate. Remember that? Remember why the last election was fought? stephen harper told Parliament that it couldn't see the cost estimates of the F-35 fighter jet purchase. That was to be considered a privilege of cabinet secrecy. Parliament would just have to trust the government's numbers provided orally in the government's statements. They demanded that we trust them and then they lied. They lied about costs. They lied about contracts. They lied about the economic benefits of the fighter's development. They perpetrated a blatant, shameless con job on Canadians' elected representatives and the Canadian people during the election.

There current omnibus legislation is not only a massive reorientation of Canadian political-economy, it is evidence of harper's sustained and total contempt for parliamentary government. It's evidence of harper's shameless hypocrisy and his servitude to the oil industry:

The Harper government is intent on passing its 421 page Budget Implementation Bill in seven days. If Stephen Harper were the Leader of the Opposition, he would be up in arms. In fact, as Leader of the Opposition, he was. "In the interest of democracy," he fumed,

I ask how can members represent their constituents on these various areas when they are forced to vote on a block of such legislation?”

But that was then. This is now. And now Harper knows that his program runs so deeply against Canada's core values that he must accomplish his mission by stealth.

 They lied to Parliament after telling Parliament to trust them. They lied repeatedly to the electorate. They employed electoral fraud on a massive scale. How would stephen harper, if he forced to it, defend his claims on our respect for his authority? Sadly, stephen harper isn't called on his serial assaults on parliamentary democracy, or his lies, or his incompetence. Because stephen harper serves the "right" sort of people, the Canadian business class, and we all know that in the breach capitalists despise democracy. Capitalists like a political game rigged in their favour and for a long time they've been able to convince us that this rigged game isn't rigged and that we should abide by its rules. But things are getting desperate. (Ironically, the desperate economic climate is a product of their own blinkered notion of what is in their self-interest.) And so the rules of democracy can be suspended and the blatant dishonesty of the system is allowed to brazenly parade around and mock our (supposedly) impotent protests. But our society's gate-keepers have no qualms about debasing themselves to try to convince us that up is down, day is night, and wrong is right. Upon the first year anniversary of harper's theft of majority power, they ignore his contempt for Parliament, his government's blatant dishonesty on the F-35 issue, his electoral fraud, and drone on moronically about ... well, I honestly don't give a shit. They're irrelevant, contemptible scum:

It is almost amusing watching some in the narrow corporate media turn themselves into intellectual pretzels to justify endorsing this government in the past election.  The transgressions are put into a neat little box, almost treated as marginal in importance, while elevating anything and everything that can be clung to, in an effort to laud all the achievements.  Truth be told, respect for our democratic institutions, transparency, ethics, this is where a government should be judged, everything else flows from these core assumptions, to gloss over is actually irresponsible and telling.

...

I'm sorry, but partisanship aside, how anyone can condone the way this government operates, how they can simply ignore the overall flavour, simply confining their gaze to desirable policy expressions, represents a failure to act as any responsible observer.  It has been quite a year, and it has served to vindicate every single person who spoke of "scary Harper", not only was it NOT hyperbole, it was bang on.  This majority is Harper in his full glory.  The bully with no regard for democracy, the authoritarian right wing ideologue in the pocket of narrow economic interests, prone to low rent tactics that forever undermine any level of civil discourse, this is Canada under this "regime".   There is nothing to endorse here, an embarrassing episode in Canadian history which future generations will shake their heads at, so apparent the transgressions as is the wilfully ignorant "analysis" we must endure. 

So that's where we are as Canadians. We have a government that is not only loathsome, racist war-mongers and thieves, but one which, more importantly, despises its own source of legitimacy and which might (technically) have obtained its claims to that legitimacy through fraud.

The question isn't whether we're going to do something about it. This is going to be a summer of struggle, have no doubts. The question is whether that struggle will be effective. 

What is beyond any shadow of a doubt is that those who would presume to criticize and condemn us for struggling against the harpercon regime have no legitimacy, no authority and no opinions that we have to treat with respect. The debate is over. The battle begins.