Saturday, July 30, 2011
Monday, July 11, 2011
Kai Nagata
A young man here in Canada has recently caused quite a stir. I'm pretty jealous, since my own blog here has been mostly read by Americans, even though I've been trying to get the word out to Canadians that our country is in serious trouble right now.
Kai Nagata is a young reporter (only a little older than me), so I guess he has a bit more exposure on his side here in Canada than I do.
He decided he had to quit his job, at 24, on principal, based on what he saw going on in Canada's main newsmedia. Real, important journalism that brings the people of this country what they need to know, like the fact that the crime rate has been decreasing even though Harper is building more and bigger prisons, has been suborned on TV to cheesy entertainment.
Kai explained his resignation in a long, 3000 word blogpost, describing the sorry state of the media here and the problems of the country that he was not allowed to report on.
Luckily, his words have reached a multitude of Canadians. His explanation is long (a habit I share when posting stuff online), but VERY worth reading in its entirety.
Right here: http://kainagata.com/2011/07/08/why-i-quit-my-job/
I posted on these exact issues several days ago (I started writing the post on June 30th, hoping to post on Canada Day, but couldn't get it done until July 4th).
Right here: http://kainagata.com/2011/07/08/why-i-quit-my-job/
I posted on these exact issues several days ago (I started writing the post on June 30th, hoping to post on Canada Day, but couldn't get it done until July 4th).
Friday, July 8, 2011
DECADE OF BIODIVERSITY, PART 1
“Biodiversity, the planet’s most valuable resource, is on loan to us from our children.”
- Edward O. Wilson
As I wrote about last year, 2010 was the International Year of Biodiversity. 2011 is the International Year of Forests. Unfortunately, the International Year of Biodiversity it seems failed to educate the majority of people as to the importance of biodiversity and the extremely critical situation it is in, so now 2011-2020 has been declared the International Decade of Biodiversity.
Here's a summary:
Biodiversity simply means the diversity of species on Earth.
Our world has an astonishing variety of life. The diverse multitudes of different kinds of life forms slowly evolved over billions of years, leading to the vast array of different species that exist on our planet. As far as we know, this makes the Earth unique in the universe.
Loss of biodiversity means increased endangerment and extinction of species.
Human alteration of the global environment has led to what has become the sixth major extinction event in the history of life on Earth. It is well known that biodiversity is disappearing at an alarming rate, and that this is due to human activities. Human environmental impacts have reached global proportions.
We need biodiversity to survive.
The different species that have evolved ineract to form intricate ecological networks. The diversity of species is what makes up ecosystems, and is essential for their functioning. Ecosystems, in turn, provide the individual species with the resources that they depend on to survive, including ourselves. These are generally known as "Ecosystem Services", and they include: oxygen, water filtration, air filtration, climate regulation, productive soil, food, medicine, materials, and even storm reduction and protection.
The industrial system we live in and depend on today is unsustainable, and is destroying ecosystems. Industrial agriculture, for example, has produced more food for an increasing population (almost at 7 billion people), but it has compromised the ecological integrity of the food production. Our crops are genetically altered, covered in pesticides, herbicides, and industrial fertilizers, and are mostly in the hands of the Agribusiness and Biotechnology industries. As a result, soils throughout the world are degrading and eroding and becoming barren wastelands.
Environmental issues today are becoming increasingly complex. Yet few issues are as multi-levelled and as intricate as loss of biodiversity. This is why biodiversity loss (among other things like climate change) is hard for people to get their heads around. A good resource is Sustainablog's 'Metaguide to Biodiversity'.
The main fact is that species are disappearing!
One of the most important things we can do is act. There are numerous ways that we can help biodiversity.
A great first step is to Go Green. Greening up your lifestyle, your neighbourhood, and your community is actually super fun! You can read more on how right here.
Another thing one can do is engage their community. Go to your local zoos, insectariums, arboretums, botanical gardens, and /or natural history museums, and talk to some of the people working there about nature conservation.
They can probably help refer you to like-minded people and organizations and activities.
Look up local initiatives that you can get involved with, such as the Nature Conservancy of Canada.
Most importantly, find out what's going on that is threatening wilderness. For example, there is a petition on Avaaz.org right now regarding a formerly secret proposed mega-quarry in Ontario that will pose a threat of poisoning to aquifers and rivers. Hydro-Quebec has been fighting conservationists in order to build the Great Whale dam system, that would destroy vast areas. Alberta's rich wilderness is being threatened by Tar Sands, oil, and coal development. And as I posted a few days ago, Kinder Morgan is trying to get approval for their "firm service" application that would quadruple the number of oil tankers trafficing barrels of crude along the ecologically rich, fragile West Coast.
The thing you can do is to sign petitions, and write letters and emails to politicians and policy makers to get them to ACT! One can get involved and campaign for such causes, or else one can at least support them, and get the word out, and try to live sustainably.
So just realize that these things DO make a difference, and the more people who are proactive about it, the bigger a difference we can make, and the better things will get.
Also, educate yourself - don't just believe me, check the FACTS.
Some good causes that one can support are: World Land Trust
Among issues facing us today, the rapid and continuing decline in global biodiversity has some of the widest impacts and implications. Diversity of species helps to regulate ecosystems, as well as global systems. Loss of species leads to rapid ecosystem simplification, which affects ecosystem health and functioning, and the balance of global biotic and abiotic systems. This threatens the resilience and productivity of these systems, and as a result, affects an already changing climate, disrupts and changes the composition of aquatic ecosystems (coral reefs being one of the most diverse and most highly threatened), and increases the occurence of invasive species, extreme weather events, and global pandemics. These impacts are the principal concerns, among aplethora of consequences that result from rapid biodiversity decline. Due to the complicated, multifaceted, and multi-scale nature of these systems, there may be other less immediate impacts of which we are not aware.
Rapid biodiversity decline threatens: the food chain, food security, the global climate balance, water security, soil productivity, agricultural sustainability, the availability and regeneration of resources, and also human health.
While we here in North America are disproportionately wealthy and comfortable, the poorest nations in the world are disproportionately affected by biodiversity decline, especially since they rely most directly on the services that ecosystems provide.
According to Michael Renner:
"[T]he unplanned and rapid depletion of natural systems is an important source of insecurity and stress in many societies, whether in the form of reduced food-growing potential, the worsening health of residents, or diminished habitability. Although desertification, soil erosion, deforestation, water scarcity, and the decline of fisheries are worldwide phenomena, some regions are more severely affected than others. The stress is most pronounced in regions that encompass fragile ecosystems […] and that have an economy heavily geared to agriculture. Unchecked, environmental degradation has the potential to impoverish people and undermine the long-term habitability of an area. In extreme cases, natural support systems may be weakened so severely that people have little choice but to move."
(Renner, 1996)
The diversity of an ecosystem is what determines that ecosystem's resilience. The higher a system's biodiversity, the greater its ability to withstand disturbances or shocks, or reach a new equilibrium. Global biodiversity has slowly evolved over billions of years, and continually increases in diversity, resulting in the immensely intricate ecological networks we see today. The complexities of ecological systems are the result of ever-increasing diversification of life-forms, and these systems in turn are reinforced and enhanced by diversity.
These ecosystems, composed of various species, are adversely affected by diversity decline because increasingly simplified ecosystems are less productive and increasingly vulnerable to disturbances.
The ecosystem services we depend on fall into four general categories: provisioning, supporting, regulating, and cultural services. Provisioning services are the products and resources that we obtain from ecosystems, such as food, fresh water, fuel, fibers, biochemicals for medicines, and genetic resources. Supporting services are ecosystem functions that are necessary for the production of all other ecosystem services. These services affect people more indirectly, yet are fundamental to our survival, such as soil formation, nutrient cycling primary production, photosynthesis, and water cycling. Regulating services are the ecosystem processes that regulate local, regional, and global systems, both biotic and abiotic. These services are immensely valuable, such as climate regulation, air quality regulation, natural hazard regulation, water purification and regulation, erosion regulation, disease regulation, pollination, pest regulation, and waste treatment. Some services fall into more than one category, such as pollination, which can be considered a supporting and regulating service. Ecosystems also offer humans non-material benefits, which are called cultural services. These services include recreation and ecotourism, as well as cultural, aesthetic, educational, and spiritual values. These are being increasingly studied by scientists as the connection between biodiversity and human well-being becomes better recognized and understood.
According to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA), these ecosystem services are generally in global decline. Approximately 60% of the services evaluated in the assessment were being degraded or used unsustainably. Certain services in the assessment are considered to be thriving, such as the provisional services of crops, livestock, and aquaculture. However, in many ways, industrial agriculture is contributing to the degradation of ecosystems. Industrialized food production and distribution has led to the use of unnatural fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides, and has decreased the diversity of crop species through selective cultivation and biotechnology. Also increased land conversion to agriculture is destroying a large amount of natural habitat and ecosystems. Ultimately, these provisions have increased, yet they have increased due to unsustainable agricultural practices that have contributed to biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation. To say that these ecological services are increasing or doing well is really to say that the ecological costs are not being felt.
For the majority of countries, the decline in biodiversity and ecosystems has provided substantial benefits, but at certain environmental costs. Many of the most significant changes made to ecosystems have been to provide benefits for human well-being and national development, and have been essential to meeting growing needs for food and water, among a rapidly growing human population. Agriculture, forestry, and resource exploitation have been the maistays of strategies for economic and social development for centuries.
However, such gains come at a great cost to the natural environment, and the cost and the impacts of biodiversity decline will inevitably fall on us. Some of the costs are not only the degradation of ecosystems and ecosystem services, pollution, and loss of species and habitat, but also growing inequities and disparities among groups of people. These costs are growing as populations and demand for resources, and for revenue, increase.
The ecosystem services we depend on fall into four general categories: provisioning, supporting, regulating, and cultural services. Provisioning services are the products and resources that we obtain from ecosystems, such as food, fresh water, fuel, fibers, biochemicals for medicines, and genetic resources. Supporting services are ecosystem functions that are necessary for the production of all other ecosystem services. These services affect people more indirectly, yet are fundamental to our survival, such as soil formation, nutrient cycling primary production, photosynthesis, and water cycling. Regulating services are the ecosystem processes that regulate local, regional, and global systems, both biotic and abiotic. These services are immensely valuable, such as climate regulation, air quality regulation, natural hazard regulation, water purification and regulation, erosion regulation, disease regulation, pollination, pest regulation, and waste treatment. Some services fall into more than one category, such as pollination, which can be considered a supporting and regulating service. Ecosystems also offer humans non-material benefits, which are called cultural services. These services include recreation and ecotourism, as well as cultural, aesthetic, educational, and spiritual values. These are being increasingly studied by scientists as the connection between biodiversity and human well-being becomes better recognized and understood.
According to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA), these ecosystem services are generally in global decline. Approximately 60% of the services evaluated in the assessment were being degraded or used unsustainably. Certain services in the assessment are considered to be thriving, such as the provisional services of crops, livestock, and aquaculture. However, in many ways, industrial agriculture is contributing to the degradation of ecosystems. Industrialized food production and distribution has led to the use of unnatural fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides, and has decreased the diversity of crop species through selective cultivation and biotechnology. Also increased land conversion to agriculture is destroying a large amount of natural habitat and ecosystems. Ultimately, these provisions have increased, yet they have increased due to unsustainable agricultural practices that have contributed to biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation. To say that these ecological services are increasing or doing well is really to say that the ecological costs are not being felt.
For the majority of countries, the decline in biodiversity and ecosystems has provided substantial benefits, but at certain environmental costs. Many of the most significant changes made to ecosystems have been to provide benefits for human well-being and national development, and have been essential to meeting growing needs for food and water, among a rapidly growing human population. Agriculture, forestry, and resource exploitation have been the maistays of strategies for economic and social development for centuries.
However, such gains come at a great cost to the natural environment, and the cost and the impacts of biodiversity decline will inevitably fall on us. Some of the costs are not only the degradation of ecosystems and ecosystem services, pollution, and loss of species and habitat, but also growing inequities and disparities among groups of people. These costs are growing as populations and demand for resources, and for revenue, increase.
(More to come.....)
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
HARPER AND ALBERTA ARE COVERING UP THE FACT THAT THE TAR SANDS ARE KILLING PEOPLE
This is yet another documentary on the Tar Sands, called "To the Last Drop." This video just about sums it up. I've also posted a short little preview of another really good documentary, titled "Crude Sacrifice." The Alberta Tar Sands are a truly gigantic industrial operation, that creates an unbelievable amount of toxic waste and is adversely affecting the environment and the people in Alberta, while government officials continually claim that there is no problem, no damage to the environment, and that there are no toxins in the water. These are pure, unmitigated lies.
Monday, July 4, 2011
HAPPY FUCKING CANADA DAY
'Our country sinks beneath the yoke; it weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash is added to her wounds.'
- Shakespeare's "Macbeth"
Friday was Canada Day, July 1st, when we celebrate the 144th anniversary of the British North America Act, and this is my first post since the election. In the meantime I've really needed rest as our country goes down the tubes. Most recently, the government made a controversial move to cutoff Summerworks Theatre and Music Festival from federal funding. The Tories have often expressed their contempt for the arts in Canada, somehow believing that the majority of Canadians are unintelligent and unemotional and share their contempt for culture. They repeatedly refer to artists and art patrons and enthusiasts as "elitists", and believe that the arts should not receive federal funding (even though the amount that the government spends on the arts is pitiful, whereas polluting multinational corporations receive massive subsidies and tax breaks).
The axing of the Summerworks Festival's funding however was due to a play entitled "Homegrown," which was written by a lawyer and playwright named Catherine Frid. The play was about her meeting and subsequent friendship with a man in prison, one of the convicted members of the Toronto 18 terrorist plot.
The Tories reacted to what they called a play that "glorifies terrorism." An analysis in The Globe and Mail of the play itself says otherwise: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/theatre/no-terror-glorification-here-just-an-unfortunate-pollyannaism/article1663835/
While in the play the woman may be gullible and willing to believe that the terrorist, Shareef Abdelhaleem, is innocent, the play in no way professes his innocence or glorifies any terrorism. It does, however,
"...raise many worthwhile questions about the fairness of Mr. Abdelhaleem's arrest and trial: his long period spent in solitary confinement; the glacial speed of the wheels of justice; over-the-top secrecy that led to publication bans about publication bans; and, most troublingly, the prosecution’s reliance on the testimony of a $4-million informant who admitted he bore a pre-existing grudge against Mr. Abdelhaleem.
While Ms. Frid’s play left me concerned about the sweeping powers of the Canadian Anti-Terrorism Act, it didn’t persuade me that Mr. Abdelhaleem is wrongly imprisoned."
Shortly thereafter, there was an interview on Sun News TV of dance legend Margie Gillis. Back in February, I posted petitions to try and fight a measure being passed by the CRTC that would ease broadcast standards, thereby unleashing the fucking Sun News TV right wing propaganda onto the airwaves. The muzzling of a theatre festival for putting on a play about a man in prison that questions the Canadian system over things such as Terrorist profiling, publication bans, lack of transparency or due process, and miscarriages of justice allowed under the Anti-Terrorism Act, (and remember the Harper government is involved in extraditing its own citizens to torture centers in Syria and Guantanamo Bay under "suspicion of being terrorists" without a shred of evidence) is in the same vein of media control and propaganda as the Sun News TV channel, which is government subsidized and mandatorily included in people's tv packages.
The Tories have attempted to silence the voice of dissent before (remember during the election when some first-time voters were ejected from Tory rallies for being suspected "opposition sympathizers"?)
On this very blog I had a little logo on the side that read "On the Environment: Canadians Care, Harper Doesn't." Then, during the election, it suddenly disappeared, as if the Government had shut down the site where I got it from. These tactics are infringements of our fundamental rights and of the legitimacy of our former democracy; tantamount to an autocratic totalitarian state.
Also (though not until after the election), the government was exposed by Postmedia News for deliberately excluding data indicating a 20 per cent increase in annual pollution from Canada’s oilsands industry in 2009 from a recent 567-page report on climate change that it was required to submit to the United Nations. The details on the rise in emissions for the sector were left out of the inventory report on greenhouse gas emissions, but were then slowly revealed after the election through a series of emails in response to questions from Postmedia News.
"…The department (Environment Canada) declined all interview requests, except for one with a department official that was cancelled at the last minute without explanation.
Throughout this period, the department was communicating also with industry officials and environmental groups about its calculations.
….The absolute annual emissions have almost tripled since 1990, according to the numbers released by Environment Canada.
….The data about the oilsands industry has garnered international media coverage at a time when Canada is trying to promote the sector in jurisdictions such as the United States and Europe.
It has also prompted frustration among both industry representatives and environmental groups who were struggling to find out why the government decided to exclude separate breakdowns for oilsands emissions after including them in the inventory report submitted last year."
This is certainly not the first time the Harper government has tried to greenwash the tar sands, nor manipulated Environment Canada into hiding information. In fact, Canada is one of the worst for hiding information from the public, as well as destroying the environment and impeding international progress; Canada was named by the Climate Action Network International (CAN-I) as the single worst country in the industrialized world for blocking climate negotiations.
(http://www.researchforum.ca/research-topics/environment/19-canada-and-environment/13-canada-human-development-index-is-great-but-on-environment-it-is-international-laggard > also contains data on who's on target with the Kyoto Protocol, and who's failing - Canada is dead last.)
Recently, the government rejected Health Canada's own data and recommendations with regards to asbestos, and now, Canada alone prevented the United Nations from adding chrysotile asbestos to the global list of hazardous substances.
Oh, Canada, how I weep for thee.
Around election time, it was refreshing to see all the national ferment from the 60% of Canadians who are pissed off at Harper's government. Now, with the muzzling of a theater festival that is allegedly "glorifying terrorism" (I'm sure none of the officials saying that have even seen the play), a debate about government funding to cultural events and initiatives has sparked.
Then, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council has apparently received twice as many complaints over one interview than it usually receives per annum. The interview was that of Margie Gillis on Sun News TV, the FOX NEWS of the North. (You can watch the whole interview here.) This is the drama of propaganda and information control in Canada.
I am personally glad to see that people are taking offense and speaking up about it. Yet, meanwhile, attention is being diverted from other big issues.
A couple of months ago, the Obama administration began to question and think critically about whether or not to proceed with the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would run from the Alberta Tar Sands, through Canada, then down the East Coast of the U.S. to Texas (and construction has already begun.) Then, last week, a U.S. Congressional panel passed legislation requiring a decision by Nov. 1.
Meanwhile, another pipeline is "Slipping in the back door", according to the Vancouver Sun. The story however is about a pipeline that already exists, the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline. The pipeline transports 300,000 barrels of oil per day to the coast of BC and Washington. According to the article,
"The Trans Mountain pipeline is currently the subject of a National Energy Board application to secure "firm service," which seems innocuous enough - authorize long-term contracts for shippers so that the company has more certainty and can plan for the future.
But what is the future? Well, if Kinder Morgan has its way, the future is four times as many tankers in Burrard Inlet, Georgia Strait and beyond than we saw last year. Kinder Morgan estimates that in 2010, 71 tankers came and went from its Westridge Terminal in Burnaby. By 2016, the company hopes to have 288 tankers travelling to and from the terminal, which would mean 576 tanker trips through Burrard Inlet each year.
By the end of a 2016, the company hopes to ship 700,000 barrels per day, two-thirds of which would go to tankers waiting in Burrard Inlet."
This increased tanker traffic poses an insane risk to the fragile coastal ecosystems of British Columbia, home to diverse and already declining endemic species, as well as the coastal communities of British Columbia. Yet the federal government doesn't have a clear response system to handle a potential spill. In a report released late last year, the auditor-general's office identified gaps and inadequacies in Canada's system of responding to oil spills from ships.
You may or may not remember the Terra Nova Oil Spill, in November of 2004. This was an accidental spill from an extraction platform owned by Petro-Canada, caused by "mechanical failure." 170 000 liters of oil spilled off Nova Scotia, covering 60 km². It was the largest spill ever on the east coast of Canada.
The response was absurd: nothing was done. Biologists didn't arrive on site until 6 days later!
According to Ian. L. Jones, (Memorial University of Newfoundland) the conclusions that can be drawn from the Terra Nova spill:
Canadian government's short term response : inadequate
Release of information: inadequate
Monitoring of chronic oil pollution from offshore oil and gas activity in general: inadequate.
Seabirds and other migratory birds: dying, and have no clearly defined legal protection.
What were the consequences for Petro-Canada?
$120,000 to federally administered Environmental Damages Fund.
$100,000 for environmental science merit scholarships at Memorial University and its Sir Wilfred Grenfell College campus.
$70,000 fine
Petro Canada's third quarter 2005 profits: $614 million
According to Ian. L. Jones:
Fine for the Terra Nova spill: ridiculously low.
Offshore oil and gas developers: unaccountable for damage they cause.
Canada's environmental policies related to preventing damage from offshore oil and gas extraction: product of negligence and incompetence.
However, this shouldn't be news to anyone. Stephen Harper and his cronies are well known for intolerance of dissent or disagreement, trying to manipulate or silence any science that is not in line with what they want to hear, and advance corporate agendas (especially environmentally destructive resource extraction, especially mining). As far as Sun TV is concerned, if you believe in freedom of speech, then you can't really call for censorship of it. However, Fox News is now the main source of "news" for most Americans; this makes them some of the most misinformed people on the planet. Sun TV is the creation of Stephen Harper himself, and was put on a fast track towards becoming a basic inclusion as a TV channel along with other news networks; it is federally funded, while the rude, loud "interviewer" is asking why should arts and culture get any funding as opposed to pure unmitigated neoconservative propoganda; and the government had to have the CRTC pass legislation making it easier to just straight up lie on the airwaves before they could introduce the Sun News TV channel.
Harper himself said before that he doesn't like the CBC, and would rather do away with it. This was before he seriously cut their funding.
News media in Canada in general is in a bad way, and the result is that the people are not informed on issues and decisions that affect them, their neighbours, their communities, and their countries, and therefor cannot exert meaningful control over the political process as citizens in a (formerly) democratic society.
Yet we the people know full well that Harper has no trouble lying to the public (just Google search "harper lies"). And now that the election has come and gone (and there's evidence that he won because we are in drastic need of electoral reform), the people have returned to complacency, instead of taking the power back.
Happy Canada Day, a fun time was had by all.
Though it's still a fucking shame.
You may or may not remember the Terra Nova Oil Spill, in November of 2004. This was an accidental spill from an extraction platform owned by Petro-Canada, caused by "mechanical failure." 170 000 liters of oil spilled off Nova Scotia, covering 60 km². It was the largest spill ever on the east coast of Canada.
The response was absurd: nothing was done. Biologists didn't arrive on site until 6 days later!
According to Ian. L. Jones, (Memorial University of Newfoundland) the conclusions that can be drawn from the Terra Nova spill:
Canadian government's short term response : inadequate
Release of information: inadequate
Monitoring of chronic oil pollution from offshore oil and gas activity in general: inadequate.
Seabirds and other migratory birds: dying, and have no clearly defined legal protection.
What were the consequences for Petro-Canada?
$120,000 to federally administered Environmental Damages Fund.
$100,000 for environmental science merit scholarships at Memorial University and its Sir Wilfred Grenfell College campus.
$70,000 fine
Petro Canada's third quarter 2005 profits: $614 million
According to Ian. L. Jones:
Fine for the Terra Nova spill: ridiculously low.
Offshore oil and gas developers: unaccountable for damage they cause.
Canada's environmental policies related to preventing damage from offshore oil and gas extraction: product of negligence and incompetence.
However, this shouldn't be news to anyone. Stephen Harper and his cronies are well known for intolerance of dissent or disagreement, trying to manipulate or silence any science that is not in line with what they want to hear, and advance corporate agendas (especially environmentally destructive resource extraction, especially mining). As far as Sun TV is concerned, if you believe in freedom of speech, then you can't really call for censorship of it. However, Fox News is now the main source of "news" for most Americans; this makes them some of the most misinformed people on the planet. Sun TV is the creation of Stephen Harper himself, and was put on a fast track towards becoming a basic inclusion as a TV channel along with other news networks; it is federally funded, while the rude, loud "interviewer" is asking why should arts and culture get any funding as opposed to pure unmitigated neoconservative propoganda; and the government had to have the CRTC pass legislation making it easier to just straight up lie on the airwaves before they could introduce the Sun News TV channel.
Harper himself said before that he doesn't like the CBC, and would rather do away with it. This was before he seriously cut their funding.
News media in Canada in general is in a bad way, and the result is that the people are not informed on issues and decisions that affect them, their neighbours, their communities, and their countries, and therefor cannot exert meaningful control over the political process as citizens in a (formerly) democratic society.
Yet we the people know full well that Harper has no trouble lying to the public (just Google search "harper lies"). And now that the election has come and gone (and there's evidence that he won because we are in drastic need of electoral reform), the people have returned to complacency, instead of taking the power back.
Happy Canada Day, a fun time was had by all.
Though it's still a fucking shame.
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