The day democracy died

In a year that celebrates the 30th anniversary of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, we may have also seen the demolition of the very foundation of the democracy that document protects.  While other countries look to Canada as an example of how to protect the rights and freedoms of individuals, our own government has taken the initiative to trample on the trust we place in elected officials and have eroded effective government at it's core.  On Monday, June 18th, 2012 the sitting Conservative government voted to pass the "2012 Budget Bill" against public outcry and opposition protests.

If you are not aware, Bill C-38 also known as "An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on March 29, 2012 and other measures", is a 451 page doorstop of legalese that I am sure no one has actually consumed entirely. You can read the full document here if you have a few days to burn and a law degree to decipher it.  There are so many things wrong with this whole situation, it is hard to know where to start.  Maybe we should begin with the fact that only a portion of this is actually even related to the actual budget handed down by the Minister Jim Flaherty. The rest of the document is additional items that can be considered tangential at best to the actual budget.

Maybe we should just consider the fact that this is a 450+ page document that was expected to be processed in the same manner as the normal 10 to 20 page documents are in the commons.  The average size of a bill passed in the 1990s was a dozen pages.  Even during the current sitting, Bill C-38 can be considered outrageously huge.  Consider Bill C-2 amending the Criminal code at only 16 pages, or even bill C-10 which itself was considered abnormally large at 114 pages.  The full list of bills presenting in the commons in this sitting is available here.

Let's forget the fact that it is huge and unreadable, which in itself undermines government, this bill is also not what it was represented to be.  Canadians were expecting this bill to be about the budget, about "Jobs, Growth and long term prosperity" to quote Minister Jim Flaherty.  They were not expecting completely new acts to be introduced that affect the Environment, or changes to the Nuclear Regulatory Act to be included in a "Budget Bill".  They were not expecting alterations to the Oil and Gas Operations Act, or alterations to the Fisheries Act.  I really doubt that most Canadians were expecting a "Budget Bill" to include releasing entire sections of the First Nations Fiscal and Statistical Management Act.  Add to this alterations to old age security, unemployment insurance, modifications to the parole board, reductions in libraries archives and R&D programs, the list goes on.

So not only has the government blatantly lied to the Canadian public by the gross misrepresentation of bill C-38, they have used their overwhelming majority in the commons to pass the bill against the protests of the official opposition.  The elected representatives who are supposed to be representing the public interest have completely ignored the calls of the vast majority of the Canadian public to break down the bill into smaller components and as a result have destroyed the very concept of representative government.

Congratulations Mr. Harper, you have killed democracy.

Well, the press, including a plethora of bloggers will not be forgetting about this soon and neither should you.  There is really nothing you can do about it - that is the scary thing here.  Your elected representatives have pushed this through Parliament and it will now pass though Senate to become law by the end of the week.  Such is the way of corrupt governments.  What you can do is remember this and when you do get the opportunity to vote (because this really is still a democracy) you can exercise your right to remove the Conservative government from power.  If this government continues to completely disregard their responsibility to fairly represent the populace, then that may be they only democratic right you have still intact.

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