April Reign

Speak your mind even if your voice shakes

stephen harper

Todd Stelmach and Sandra Findley Remember those names

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Many of you will remember the Count Me Out Campaign protesting the outsourcing of the Canadian census software to the American arms maker Lockheed Martin.

Though many joined in the campaign it seems most, like me, were supportive right up to the point of threats of incarceration. Stelmach and Findley however are standing firm.

Findley, 59, said she first heard about Lockheed Martin’s potential bid for the software contract in 2003 and immediately got in touch with Statistics Canada to voice her displeasure.

“(Lockheed Martin) makes billions of dollars through the business of killing people, and destroying the environment in the process of killing people,” Findley said from her home in Saskatoon.

“So there’s no way that I’m going to see my tax dollars go to help enrich them.”

Stelmach’s decision to protest the company’s involvement in gathering Canadian data was quite different.

image from Count Me OutThe 32-year-old Kingston, Ont., resident actually filled out his form before he and his wife heard about a census opposition group called Count Me Out.

“We discovered Lockheed Martin was outsourced by (Statistics Canada) to upgrade their software and do a lot of the processing of the 2006 census,” said Stelmach.

“This just shocked me and at first I thought it was a bit of a hoax.”

Though we may not have the courage of Stelmach and Findley to put our ideals where the state jailbars are, we can start campaiging against a re-do of this horrendous decision. Bidding is currently underway for the next census. Contact the
Minister of Industry
C.D. Howe Building
235 Queen Street
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0H5
Telephone: 613-995-9001
Fax: 613-992-0302
Email: Minister.Industry@ic.gc.ca

Stephen Harper

pm@pm.gc.ca
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa
K1A 0A2

Fax: 613-941-6900

And write letters to the Editor.

Harper was quoted as saying, “Protecting national sovereignty, the integrity of our borders, is the first and foremost responsibility of a national government, a responsibility which has too often been neglected,”

Lets hold him to that responsibility nationwide.

Article Source
  • Man, woman face jail time in census protest

Harper is not a leader

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But he is a whiner and a bully.

Support us on Afghanistan or we’ll call an election. Support this bill or we’ll call an election.

Call me dear leader or I’ll call an election.

A leader doesn’t need to bully, threaten and carry on. A bully though…

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson told the Senate committee on legal affairs that it should pass the bill in February. If that doesn’t happen, he said he would tell Prime Minister Stephen Harper that the bill is a confidence measure and let him deal with it appropriately.

“We say to Liberal senators, and we say to (Liberal Leader) Stephane Dion, tell your Liberal colleagues to push this through,” said Day.

Day called on the public to contact senators to push the bill through.

But senators counter that they don’t understand the government’s rush all of a sudden. They said they are constitutionally required to consider the bill fully and they won’t be strong-armed into speeding up their decision to fit a government-imposed schedule.

Manitoba Senator Sharon Carstairs told Mike Duffy Live that the Tory government is trying to bully the Senate.

“Unfortunately, for Mr. Harper, senators can’t be bullied,” she said.

“We want to hear from the public … particularly on two issues. I am very concerned about the impact of this (bill) on Aboriginal people. Reverse onus bail conditions, for example.”

Reverse onus would require people accused of violent crimes to state why they should receive bail, rather than put the onus on prosecutors to prove why the accused should be kept in jail.

“We do have Charter rights and one of them is to be silent, but you can’t be silent if you have to, in fact, prove reverse onus,” said Carstairs.

CTV

Message to Dion

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Don’t follow the lights!

harperg.gif

OTTAWA–Prime Minister Stephen Harper says Canada will extend its mission in Afghanistan beyond 2009 only if NATO is able to find an additional 1,000 soldiers to fight with the Canadians in Kandahar – and he reached out to Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion for his support.

Reacting to the report by former Liberal foreign affairs minister John Manley on the future of the Afghan mission, Harper also said he would work to secure transport helicopters and unmanned surveillance craft, or he would end the combat mission when the current commitment wraps up in February 2009.

Harper said he spoke to Dion on Sunday and will talk to him again in a few days.