#bill c38

[nostalgia-eh52]

Civil society groups, like the Canadian civil liberties association, wrote an open letter criticizing this draconian, authoritarian bill in the last parliament (when it was called Bill C26)

The Liberals have taken none of their advice and are trying to ram it through again.

Joint Letter of Concern regarding Bill C-26 - CCLA

[wifeofwrath]

"Bill C-38 is the first thing Stephen Harper hopes you forget in time for the next election. It is passing through parliament like an institutional kidney stone the size of the Ritz. Wags in Ottawa who briefly portrayed it for what it is, the demise of parliament, are already slipping into discount mode. There have been omnibus bills before, they say; all’s fair in love, war and politics, they say; why, it’s just Elizabeth May’s slumber party, that’s all.

Even principled journalistic stands are subject, it seems, to the summary execution of the fifteen minute news wheel. The second coming of Christ would be bumped by Lindsay Lohan running her Porsche into the back of an 18-wheeler. Pity. What we have here is a coup. Bill C-38 upends the primacy of parliament. The government has effectively dealt out every federal MP, including the ones on the government side, from having a say in the radical makeover of Canada. What else can you call it when 74 pieces of legislation are changed without debate or due process? These are the ideas of one man, the ideological love child of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan."

I certainly won't be fucking forgetting anything. What about you?

[mulchthegovernment]

...The Conservatives have buried major policy changes, none of which was in their election platform, in a 400-page piece of legislation.

The annual budget bill is intended to implement the government’s financial plans for the year. But the prime minister has chosen to use it to weaken environmental legislation, raise the age of eligibility for Old Age Security and make sweeping changes to employment insurance. The bill amends more than 70 laws.

The strategy is to lump all these and other major initiatives into one massive bill. This serves to minimize public concern by limiting parliamentary debate....

[prairieorca]

Next Call to Action for Canadians

Yes, this is a cetacean Tumblr, but Bill C-38 has side-effects that would affect the cetaceans who live off Canada's coastlines, so shh.

The next (and possibly final) leg of fighting against Bill C-38 is known as #13HEROES.

This is an attempt to call on 13 Conservative MPs to be heroes and stand up against this ridiculous budget bill.

What Canadians have to do is be present at Conservative MP offices all across Canada on June 13 at 5:30pm (all time zones) and rally together to call on these MPs to stop this bill. At the same time of this rally, our MPs will be in Ottawa to engage in a decisive showdown. Will pocketbooks trump science? Will democracy fail?

You can be a part of the decision on June 13.

Spread the word far and wide!

[wifeofwrath]

From the beginning we have reached out to government and said “Do the right thing. Split this into bills.” We have quoted, and you have heard me, Mr. Speaker, quote back to the Conservative Party their own principles with respect to omnibus bills, to closure motions, to Trojan horse legislation, that when they held the seats of opposition, they strongly stood for the principle that this place should be accountable to Canadians, that governments should be accountable to Canadians.

We have used their own arguments and words, not our own. We do not expect the government to be swayed by what I say here today, but we thought, we assumed that the words and principles of the Prime Minister, the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism and the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages would mean something powerful enough to them that they would actually pause and be swayed by their own arguments and principles.

What happened to those principles? There is a certain seeking of convenience from the government, that it finds this whole process difficult or annoying.

This process that we engage in as parliamentarians is critical and essential, not an inconvenience.

[canadanomic-blog]

Open Letter to PM Harper From Former Fishery Ministers

Dear Prime Minister Harper:

As privy councillors from British Columbia who have served as ministers of Fisheries and Oceans in past federal governments, we wish to inform you of our serious concern regarding the content of Bill C-38 and the process being used to bring it into force.

This country’s fisheries are vital to our coastal communities, particularly first nations communities, and a strong and effective Fisheries Act, supported by a robust scientific research capacity and enforcement personnel, is critical to maintaining healthy fish stocks. Major changes to such critical legislation warrant extensive and factual discussion and a broad consultation process. We therefore strongly recommend a full examination of the proposed Fisheries Act amendments, and of the proposed staff reductions, by the standing committee on fisheries and oceans (not the finance committee) of the House of Commons. That examination must include appropriate testimony from industry and first nations representatives, academic experts and present and past personnel of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

Furthermore, greater clarification of the purpose of the proposed changes is needed from the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and the Environment Minister. To date, they have provided only vague and general descriptions of the problems that they wish to address through these amendments. This lack of information has made it impossible for us to determine whether or not their concerns are well founded and whether the proposed changes will have any appreciable beneficial effect. Without such information, we can only judge from our own experience, which suggests that the shortcomings of the existing legislation have been greatly overstated and that the remedial action proposed is vastly out of proportion to the issues they have referred to, but only vaguely. In short, we have the impression that the ministers are using a sledgehammer to swat a fly.

Collectively, we have spent many years in government attempting to maintain fish stocks and protect fish habitat. A strong Fisheries Act, a competent science establishment and vigorous enforcement programs are essential to protect fish stocks and the habitat on which they depend.

The authors are former federal ministers of Fisheries and Oceans.

[wifeofwrath]

Harpocrisy 101

"Mr. Speaker, I would argue that the subject matter of the bill is so diverse that a single vote on the content would put members in conflict with their own principles....The omnibus bills we have before us attempt to amend several different existing laws.....How can members represent their constituents on these various areas when they are forced to vote in a block on such legislation and on such concerns? Dividing the bill into several components would allow members to represent views of their constituents on each of the different components in the bill. .... Asking members to provide simple answers to such complex questions is in contradiction to the conventions and practices of the House."

- Stephen Harper on Budget Implementation Act, 1994