Reality Check

Canadian Government Colludes with 'Big Pharma' to Remove Individual Freedoms

There’s no doubt that the big corporations continue to flex their global muscles and exercise their control over us. We see it everywhere each and every day. Governments are controlled by big business, and big business sets the agenda.

Take the influence of Big Pharma as an example. I think most people would agree that the pharmaceutical companies control western medicine, and that the answer for so many medical conditions is to take prescription medicines. i.e. drugs. Doctors move from one examination room to another with their prescription pads in their hands, and we have been conditioned to expect pills to cure what ails us.

Last month, the Minister of Health introduced a new law in parliament, C-51, which will give the Canadian government broad reaching powers to regulate the sale of all herbs, vitamins, supplements and other items, which are NOT presently included under the Food and Drug Act. C-51 will change key terminology in the Act such as replacing “drug” with “therapeutic product.”

This change in language will mean that items such as: bottled water, vitamins and dandelion greens and basically all plant derived substances will fall under this generic category of “therapeutic product.”

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what is going on here. Big Pharma is losing money, lots of money because more and more Canadians are turning to natural medicine. Big Pharma has been pressing both the American and Canadian governments to eliminate natural heath products through government legislation.

Big Pharma wants to eliminate up to 60% of natural health products currently sold in Canada, and to eventually criminalize the sale and distribution of natural health care products. This all sounds unbelievable at first, but is well documented at StopC51.com

I don’t expect that our Conservative member, Guy Lauzon, will disagree with his Health Minister, and will likely trot out the “health and safety of all Canadians” argument as a defense for C-51, but this would simply be a smokescreen. The Conservatives need to stand up to Big Pharma and say “no” to this blatant attempt to control people’s choices and their spending habits.

If Canadians want to use homeopathic medicines, various vitamins or Melatonin, I think they should have a right to do so, without getting a costly prescription. It’s time for the Conservative government to stand up to Big Pharma.

I hope readers will do the right thing and let their own Member of Parliament know your feelings on this important issue. For suggestions on how to do that please consult a 'fact sheet' which has been prepared by Stop C51

Prime Minister Harper Wields the Power- Parliament Becoming Irrelevant

Oct 20, 2007 04:30 AM
James Travers
OTTAWA

What most Canadians see happening here is a strong Stephen Harper taking advantage of a weak Stéphane Dion to impose the will of the minority on the majority. What the country's leading expert on the machinery of power sees is a Parliament acting as a palace court and a Prime Minister behaving much like an absolute monarch.

Before dismissing the observation as hyperbole or hysterics, consider the source. Donald Savoie's list of honours and publications is long and imposing. A celebrated international scholar and Order of Canada member, the Université de Moncton political economist is best known in Ottawa for one of three-dozen books. Governing from the Centre, an unflinching examination of the concentration of Canadian political power, made him a pariah in Jean Chrétien's capital and is a now a workshop manual for Conservatives who in opposition saw it as proof of the devil's undemocratic work.

So take Savoie seriously when he says, as he did in an interview this week, that the events of the past few days measure the rapid acceleration of a decades-old trend. In forcefully imposing a notably personal agenda on a Parliament with life-and-death powers over his administration, Harper is taking advantage of a specific political circumstance – disorganized Liberals fear a campaign – and the generalized truth that between elections modern prime ministers are perilously close to omnipotent.

Ontario Conservatives' Error Gives Advantage to Liberals

Conservatives Retreat on Educational Funding Plank

There’s nothing like a poor showing in the polls to get a political party to make an about turn in its platform.
John Tory announced earlier this week that the provincial Conservative party would no longer support ‘faith based’ educational funding in Ontario.

Unfortunately, Tory’s about face on educational funding will likely cost him the election, and the uproar has already caused the Liberals to inch towards a majority according to the polls. I think we can conclude that voters have seen the Conservative madness for what it is, and in many cases have turned their support over to the Liberals.

The irony of the ill-thought out John Tory position on educational funding, is that the Conservatives would be repeating an error that was made in the early 80’s, when outgoing leader Bill Davis extended public funding to Catholic high schools, and by doing so saddled all future provincial governments to continue this duplication of educational spending.

Canadian MP's to Vote No-Confidence in Guy Lauzon

MPs to vote no-confidence in Tory MP
by Romeo St. Martin

[PoliticsWatch updated 4:10 p.m. May 9, 2007]

OTTAWA — The chair of the Commons committee that last week came under fire nationally for its examination of the Shane Doan affair appears set to lose his job as early as next week.

All three opposition parties said Wednesday they will vote no confidence in Guy Lauzon, a Conservative MP from Eastern Ontario and the chair of the Commons official languages committee.

Lauzon has been coming under fire from the opposition MPs on the committee this week after he cancelled two scheduled committee meetings to examine the impact of the government's decision to cut funding to the Court Challenges Program.

The program is detested by numerous small-c conservative groups because it is viewed by them as tending to support left-wing causes and ideologies in court. The government included the program in the billion-dollar funding cuts Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and then treasury board president John Baird announced last fall.

The opposition MPs suspected that Lauzon cancelled the meetings at the request of the Prime Minister's Office, but the MP denies the allegation and said in an interview with the CBC Tuesday that he made his decision on his own because he "didn't think it was right to start playing partisan politics" with the Court Challenges Program.

Lauzon also said the committee had become too partisan and said he wasn't very proud the handling of the Doan affair, even though all Conservatives on the committee voted in favour of Hockey Canada officials appearing to discuss Doan's captaincy.

On Tuesday, NDP MP Yvon Godin held a press conference on Parliament Hill to announce he had given a notice of motion to the clerk of the committee to express no-confidence in Lauzon.

The motion calls for Lauzon to "be relieved of his duties" for the cancellation of Tuesday's meeting on the Court Challenges Program.

"The chair acted against the will of the committee and overstepped his role as chair," Godin's motion reads. "As a consequence, he has lost the confidence of the committee."

Godin said he expects the committee will deal with the motion when it is scheduled to meet next Tuesday. If Lauzon cancels that meeting, too, then committee members could bypass him and have a meeting without the chair's consent within 48 hours if four MPs agree to it. Either way, a vote of no-confidence is expected next week.

Bloc MP Richard Nadeau said Lauzon's actions this week means he's "not fit for the job any more."

"How can we have confidence in someone who's not even man enough to tell us (about cancelling the meetings) in front of us in the committee," the Bloc MP told PoliticsWatch.

Liberal MP Raymonde Folco said Lauzon's actions to single-handedly take control of the committee's agenda were "utterly unethical and unacceptable."

"I will be supporting Mr. Godin and all the members of the Liberal caucus will be supporting Mr. Godin," she told reporters after question period.

The three opposition parties have seven votes combined on the committee to the Conservatives' four.

Barring a last minute change of heart, Lauzon's fate appears sealed.

Last year, Conservative MP Maurice Vellacott, who was then the chair of the Commons aboriginal affairs committee, was in the same situation and announced his resignation hours before the opposition members were to vote no-confidence in him.

MP Guy Lauzon Becomes Cheerleader

Over the past couple of weeks it seems that our MP Guy Lauzon has been creating a new job description for himself. As an MP I thought his job was to represent all of the people in his riding, respond to their feedback, and make their views known in the House of Commons.

Instead, I see an MP that has become a cheerleader for his own government’s policies. Moreover, I don’t think a sitting Conservative MP should be paying for and distributing signs entitled “Support our Troops” and offering red ribbons to people to support a Canadian presence in Afghanistan.

Since this is the case, then I will be asking Mr. Lauzon to produce more signs from his personal finances entitled: “Support our Troops and Bring them Home,” which makes a lot more sense to me. I disagree with the current mission in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan has become a Narco State, much worse than Columbia, and its opium poppy cultivation has increased by 49% since last year. Afghanistan produces 92% of the world’s supply of opium and the revenue from this amount is estimated to be over $100 billion dollars!

I, and about 50% of other Canadians, are tired of seeing the body bags return to Canada and I suspect that whatever we are calling this mission, that it will last for years and years, with no end in site. As long as the production of opium is encouraged as it has been, the country will attract the elite financiers, intelligence operatives, bankers, drug runners and thugs who are part of a mammoth global drug industry.

We are being disingenuous in sending support to our troops, when we have sent them on a mission that is doomed to bring more deaths and more failures. The critics are correct I think, when they say that the original mission has changed from aid and rebuilding to haphazard military intervention.

Let’s face it. No one, including the Prime Minister, can really justify a Canadian presence in Afghanistan. We get the usual rhetoric about ‘freedom’ and ‘terrorism’ but it’s all about lining up ideologically with the Americans.

A Member of Parliament is elected to serve the interests of his constituents, not to become a partisan cheerleader for causes that his own government is championing.

Mr. Lauzon should not be running what amounts to a continuous pre-election campaign using the resources of his office and staff that are paid for by taxpayers of this riding.

Jack Layton Arrives in Cornwall to Standing Ovation

Jack Layton’s natural charm filled the dining room at Jazz Magnolias in Cornwall on Thursday night as the NDP Riding Association held its first fundraiser: The First Tommy Douglas Night.

Elaine MacDonald, NDP Candidate in the last federal election, introduced Layton while an enthusiastic audience of 100 welcomed him with a standing ovation.

It is refreshing to listen to a politician who shoots from the hip and calls things as they really are. The social democrat approach towards issues makes common sense, since NDP members are concerned about the entire population, and not just the elite that is constantly selling the rest of us out.

Layton stressed that the Harper solution for childcare is not a solution at all; lower wage earners will suffer a ‘clawback’ at income tax time for the cash advance received from a Conservative government. People making over $100,000 will not received any clawback at all. Conservatives aren’t really concerned about child care- it’s pretty obvious.

In Canada there has been little industrial sector planning, so with the Domtar closure happening suddenly, everyone is scratching his head. Layton says that industries in western European countries are still competitive and ours could be too, but we are being duped by the Free Trade agreement and manipulated as always by the United States.

In short, the NDP party under the helm of Jack Layton is a breath of fresh air, and frankly, we would all be a lot healthier if we could start breathing more of it.

Harper Tries to Conceal Canadian War Dead

Earlier this week, despite the deaths of 4 Canadians in Afghanistan, the newly elected Conservative government made a bizarre change to its flag lowering policy.

The Conservative government has decided that the flag will not be lowered to half-mast every time a Canadian soldier is killed. Apparently this government doesn’t feel it is important to recognize soldiers after they have given their lives for their country.

Personally I have spoken out against the Canadian so-called peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan. I don’t think the presence of Canadian troops has changed very much, especially since the violence is increasing and more Canadian lives are at risk. The peacekeeping mission has been a failure. The bottom line is we are helping the Americans and their imperialist agenda. Nothing will be solved by us being there.

Harper is proving once again that he is nothing more than George Bush’s lapdog with his latest decision to ban images of caskets returning dead soldiers to Canada. To prevent these images from being seen by the public is an outrageous form of media censorship, and is precisely what Bush did in the United States.

Let’s put all the cards on the table. The Canadian government doesn’t want Canadians to know when their soldiers die for their country, and doesn’t want them acknowledged for their sacrifice. The flag issue and casket issue are being used to manipulate and deceive us.

Harper and his Neocons do not represent the values and wishes of Canadians, and I believe that they have already ostracized the electorate.

I believe that this latest policy should be repealed immediately.

Harper is Wrong to Support Bush in Afghanistan

In a slick operation bearing the trademarks of George Bush, our prime minister, Stephen Harper made a recent, clandestine visit to Afghanistan to provide support for our Canadian troops.

The press conference in Kabul could have been scripted by Bush’s former press secretary, David Frum, featuring Necon phrases like: fighting the war on terror, preventing another 9/11, and fighting for freedom. Harper is becoming a Necon very quickly.

The truth is that Afghanistan was invaded in 2001 based on reasoning which turned out to be false (the country had nothing to do with 9/11). The entire invasion of Afghanistan was built upon the big lie. This primitive country was never a threat to the United States.

In fact, the attack on Afghanistan was decided in mid July of 2001, as reported by the former Pakistan foreign secretary to the BBC. It was well known in intelligence circles that an ‘event’ was need to give the Americans a ‘reason’ to invade Afghanistan, and remove the Taliban government.

A majority of Canadians mistrust the American government and realize what its objectives are: continued world domination, the creation of an ongoing civil war in the middle east and the installation of their own puppet governments wherever they wish. Interestingly, Afghanistan produces about 60-70% of the world’s opium, is located in a strategic position for oil pipelines and has recently discovered substantial oil and gas reserves. That’s why Canadian troops are there- to help the Americans get all of the above.

By sending Canadian troops to Afghanistan, and increasingly enforcing and killing rather than peacekeeping, we become as guilty as the Americans. But that’s not what the Canadian people want. We do not support war (as evidenced in 2003) and we don’t support it now.

No amount of endless war mongering by columnists such as Todd Hambleton can gloss over the truth about the invasion of Afghanistan and the needless and brutal murdering of innocent civilians taking place. We do not support the fabricated ‘war on terrorism’ in Canada which is really a propaganda slogan to lead us into a third world war.

So, I have no trouble supporting Jack Layton’s position of a full debate on our position regarding Afghanistan in the House of Commons. We are on a very slippery slope indeed.

Peace talks and real negotiations are needed. Not war for Canadians.

Liberal Corruption is a Huge Issue in Canadian Federal Election

We may have reached the stage in Canadian politics in the new millennium where the rules have changed. The new rule is: there are no rules.

Exposed in the biggest scandal in more than a century of holding power in Canada, the Liberal party and its government would have the public believe that the whole sordid mess was unfortunate, but the Liberals will ensure that it doesn’t happen again.

As a Canadian taxpayer, I say that the way in which Judge Gomery’s damning report has been sidetracked and ignored, it’s time to examine what the hell is going on.

The Gomery report clearly laid the blame on the corrupt Liberal party who handed out money to their business cronies in Quebec, and were on the receiving line for kickbacks to the party. Months of testimony at the inquiry pointed to wrongdoing by senior level bureaucrats, skimming money and awarding lucrative contracts to Liberal business supporters in Quebec. $100 million of taxpayer’s money was squandered away with only a few players taking the fall.

A decade or two ago, the government of the day would have resigned in disgrace. But not today since the rules have changed.

Paul Martin, the current prime minister was finance minister when this all happened, but of course he knows nothing about it. He never knew that the Liberal government was dispensing these large amounts of money illegally. No, of course he didn’t know. What about his deputy minister and assistant deputy minister? Where were they when all of these monies were being taken? Of course they didn’t know either.

The latest CPAC-SES poll of December 4, 2005 shows that the Liberals have 36% of voters polled, while the Conservatives have 31%.

You have to ask the obvious question: Why is the public still supporting the Liberals so strongly despite all of the Liberal history?

The obvious answer is that many voters have realized and accepted the fact that the Liberals are corrupt, but will continue to vote for them anyway.

So, why bother teaching Johnny and Jane that it is important to tell the truth when they go through the school system when obviously this is not the case?

We should be teaching our kids that the best way to get ahead in the world is to be able to lie with a straight face, to deny anything you are ever accused of, and to make up things as you go along.

That would be a refreshing bit of truth because that’s the way it is.

Clearly, our politicians have read the public mood, and the future of the country is no longer in the hands of the voters, and perhaps never has been.

The political elite will make their own decisions and the general public will be made to thing that we live in a democracy. That’s the illusion under which we live.

We need to abandon the two mainstream parties and give the NDP a chance to form the government. The NDP are the best option for honest and ethical government in Canada.

Federal Liberals Need to be Taught a Lesson

On the eve of a federal election, it’s hard to believe that the federal Liberal party is still on its feet in Canada. Despite overwhelming evidence of Liberal corruption in the Sponsorship Scandal, as outlined in the November Gomery report, there’s still a lot of people who would vote Liberal if an election was held today!

The latest Ipsos-Reid poll showed that 34% of voters would support the Liberals while the Conservatives actually dropped two points to 28%, and the NDP trailed at 19%.

It doesn’t say much for the two opposition parties, that despite such a huge scandal that so many voters would still support the Liberals. We know that the Liberal party has been thoroughly corrupted but we vote for them anyway because the alternatives are worse. What a horrible indictment of Canadian politics!

If you think there are any true blue politicians waiting in the wings, then think again. Remember the Green Party platform last year when Tom Manley ran in the counties. That’s the Green Party- the one that was going to bring ethics back into politics, the party that was going to improve the environment, introduce alternative forms of energy, and help Canadian farmers who have been abandoned by government.

Tom Manley, the deputy leader of that party, couldn’t have believed in the platform he was preaching at the time. In a grassroots party with limited money and influence, Mr. Manley took the easy way out. The Liberals must have made him an interesting offer to bring him onside, perhaps even a cabinet position should he get elected. Who knows? It happened before with Belinda Stronach and it could happen again.

We’ve seen it many times before; beliefs and values play second fiddle to money and power, so it should come as no surprise that ‘loyalty’ as a value is disappearing rapidly in our society. Money and power are the opiates that drive politicians. The rest is a smokescreen, a big act.

The federal Liberals have been in power far too long in Canada; they have grown arrogant and have become corrupt and continue to lie to the electorate, the people for whom they work and to whom they are accountable.

People are afraid of the Conservatives and rightly so. If Mulroney had stayed in power we would have been absorbed by the United States by now, and it would all be academic. If we want to lose our sovereignty completely, put Stephen Harper in power and in two years it will be a done deal.

I believe that the NDP party is needed as a strong opposition party, preferably with a balance of power that will protect the interests of working class Canadians.

A vote for the NDP is not a wasted vote. It will ensure that the government of the day does not ram legislation through the Commons that will adversely affect our quality of life.