Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

CANADA: Who are you going to believe?



BTC - Reports - 12-10-08

According to Canada's Public Safety there is no knowlege of any rioting. There was an acknowlegement of protestors supporting the new coaltion to hold ground against current Prime Minister Harper. National Defense has not responded yet to whether or not U.S. troops are on the ground in Canada for the purposes of civil defense.

If you have friends or family who have personal accounts about what is happening on the ground, please have them contact BeatTheChip@gmail.com

Canada: “Progressive coalition” rallies fail to denounce constitutional coup

By Carl Bronski and Eric Marquis
10 December 2008


About 3,000 people gathered in Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square last Saturday to support the parliamentary coalition formed last week between the Liberals, the Canadian ruling class’ traditional party of government, and the social democrats of the New Democratic Party (NDP) in an effort to unseat the minority government of Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

The Toronto rally was one of several organized in cities across Canada in recent days by Liberal, NDP, and Green Party supporters and by the trade union bureaucracy. In Montreal, at a rally Saturday that was attended by about one thousand, these were joined by supporters of the regionally-based, pro-Quebec independence Bloc Quebecois.

The rallies occurred after a tumultuous week in Canadian politics, culminating with Harper, whose government faced imminent defeat on a non-confidence vote sparked by its parsimonious economic and fiscal update, prevailing upon Governor-General Michaƫlle Jean to close parliament for seven weeks in order to buy his government more time to drive a wedge between the coalition partners. Never before had parliament been prorogued (suspended) so as to prevent MPs from voting out a government.


RaiseTheHammer.org

Given the paucity of Prime Minister Stephen Harpers options as Monday's confidence vote draws closer, pundits and analysts are coalescing around the conclusion that he will ask Governor General Michaƫlle Jean to prorogue Parliament until his government tables their budget on January 27, 2009.

Here's where it gets interesting. Generally, the Prime Minister will ask the GG to prorogue Parliament - i.e. to discontinue a Parliamentary session - after completing a busy legislative agenda so that the MPs can go back to their constituency offices and get caught up on local matters before the next session starts.

The Governor General, officially the Head of State's representative in Canada, has long served as a figurehead who formally approves the decisions of the government, i.e. the Prime Minister and his or her Cabinet, on behalf of the Queen. However, that rubberstamping function is predicated on the Prime Minister having the confidence of of the House of Commons.

Since re-forming the government after the October election, Harper has not yet demonstrated the confidence of the House, and the three opposition parties representing a majority of MPs have publicly stated that he has lost their confidence.

As a result, it is possible that the GG will refuse to grant Harper's prorogue request until he first survives a confidence motion. If so, that gives the coalition an opportunity to vote no confidence in Harper and ask the GG for a chance to form the government before dissolving Parliament and calling an election.

Harper's desperate hope is that the GG will grant his prorogue, giving the deep-pocketed Conservative Party almost two months to run a negative PR campaign aimed at discrediting the coalition and breaking it up so that he can survive a confidence motion when Parliament resumes.

He may argue that under such extraordinary circumstances, the House of Commons and the Canadian public need a chance to cool down and think through the options before rushing into the Constitutionally sound but politically tenebrous alternative of allowing the three also-rans of last October's election to form a government. {CONT.}

CNBC RETREAD: Big Brother, Big Business


Thanks to K. Albrecht for her vigilance.

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