Sister Sage's Musings

Posts Tagged ‘Facebook’

It seems that a new Facebook group created by Harpercon blogger, Derek Fildebrandt no less, is once again getting Canadians together from all political stripes, it would seem, for now, anyway.  We all want to see the MPs expenses made public and as well they should be made public. After hearing about how Porky Puffy Duffy spent more of taxpayers’ dollars in less than 3 months than most earn inside a year, working at real jobs, I for one want to know how they’re spending the public purse. It’s a given that there would be many, oh so many frivolities, I think many Canadians are prepared for this.  Paul Szabo, the Liberal Fetus fetishist comes out with the feeble excuse that  there are too many law suits against MPs , thus the public should not be allowed to see them.

“If they were opened to the auditor general and open to the public, all of a sudden people would jump to conclusions without having all the facts,” Szabo said.

“If you identify the member, or the law firm or all this other stuff, all of a sudden people could say … what’s wrong with this member, this member is getting sued all the time,” he said.

Oh boy! Between his fetus festivities and now protecting MPs from Inquiring minds wanting to know about law suits, I think it’s high time for the Liberals to cut him loose. Too bad they can not afford to lose seats at this time. Got a newsflash for ya Paul, we kinda figured there were lawsuits and to us, many MPs reputations are already tarnished, including your’s for showing up at that bloody fetus festival last Thursday.

So, once again, Facebook is bringing Canadians from the left, center, right and far right all together in a common goal; to somehow get MPs to make their expenses public. Facebook users, click here to join.  Great, I hope to see at least as many, if not, more than Christopher White’s old Canadians Against Parliament group.  Needless to say, some action must be planned and agreed upon. Perhaps like CAPP, a cross country effort.  If I can offer one piece of advice from an error to be learned from the CAPP rallies last January, let’s not brand this effort as non-partisan; the media and pundits see right through that.  Let’s call it a by partisan or multi-partisan effort.

Someone by the name of Ed Gallois made this interesting comment on the group’s wall. I hope that’s not the only way to get MPs to loosen up on this.

In Britain, all of last year’s news was dominated by UK politicians claiming for ridiculous expenses – moats, porn, second homes within 10 miles of their constituency home, you name it, they did it – all at the British taxpayers’ expense. Our politicians at every step blocked the details coming out. It was only because… the Daily Telegraph surreptiously bought the database of MPs’ expenses that any of it ever came to light. I would suggest someone – or some body – in Canada tries to do the same because the MPs will never release the info. They are not going to commit political suicide willingly, after all. Cheers.

The problem with that is what is the likelihood someone or some company with enough civic mindedness and cash would make such a purchase?

How long will we remain all together on this. Given that Gilles Duceppe and the Bloc are not part of this secretive bunch, he will surely add this to the Quebec Sovereignty arsenal, saying that a Sovereign Quebec’s government will be open and transparent or something along those lines.

I also worry about further voter  apathy on this one as it could further Steve’s agenda for  his totalitarian regime as we would let him get away with it from inaction or any other government with goals just as insidious.

I’m curious as to how the  corporate media which is mostly right slanted handles this issue as time goes along. I’m curious as to how this will affect polls for all three parties since they’re equally guilty of this very same crime.

I read Thwap’s (Thwap’s Schoolyard)  post today regarding his distaste for Iggy and the Liberals.  He leaves the impression that the Stevie and Iggy aren’t that much different as he refers to Iggy as ‘Harper-lite’, particularly if he becomes prime-minister as well as predicting that a minority would be the best they can hope for. He is not alone and posts like his as well as the lack of activity and formation of splinter groups on Facebook from the CAPP movement, only serve to remind us that not only the  left of  center parties are divided, but so are those left and center-left voters.

Thwap (and others like him) leave us with a sense that there is (almost anyway) no point in changing the status quo as the Liberals and N.D.P. wouldn’t bring great change. Many would also believe that the Liberals would simply bring more of the same as before: kind of like Chretien – Martin the sequel.

Well, first of all, the very fact that 1000s of Canadians got out of their apathy to come out in the dead of winter to protest prorogation was a miracle. Like with anything else, change has to start and begin with the voters themselves.  A great start would be if more Canadians got out and voted than the pitiful 59% last time. I remember hearing callers on CJAD  making such arrogant statements like, ‘I don’t vote because none of them deserve my vote’. That is a cop-out, not a statement. If that was really the callers’ sentiment, go out to the poll and reject the ballot. It makes a far stronger statement than simply staying home.

Before then, yes, in spite of Stevie’s lower numbers from his dastardly deeds as of late, Iggy’s don’t really go up that high, do they?  In part because many have the same view as Thwap. I also had one co-worker say she doesn’t trust Iggy enough to vote for him and doesn’t believe Stevie would take that  sharp hairpin turn to the right if unleashed with a majority.

Well, for those who think like my co-worker, here are reminders as to what Stevie is really like and what he said years ago. He has not changed his spots and hints had been dropping to prove as much. Why is that ha hard to believe?

I’ve never been a fan of Iggy’s and anyone who has been following me knows that I think he shouldn’t be leading the Liberal party, but he’s there and changing leaders in the Liberal party would be a disaster right now.  A Liberal minority would at the very least be a step in the right direction as Stevie would surely be pressured by his own party to resign. We’re stuck with Iggy.  Let’s make the best with him. At least under an Iggy gov’t, we can count on certain things like abortion remaining legal, same-sex marriage remaining, He won’t turn Canada into that Evangelical Bush-Palinish sub culture and certainly wouldn’t have all of those evangelical ministers in his cabinet. Yes, there have been anti-same sex marriage pro-life Liberals who squawk from time to time, but as a whole, Liberals don’t operate with an Evangelical agenda.

While Iggy may have lived in the U.S. for many years and even like a lot of the American political system, I seriously doubt he would be in so far as to copy Bush-era America.

The best case scenario though, is the coalition between Liberals, N.D.P. and Greens; a merger would be better, but coalition would be a great start for the reasons mentioned here. In fact, as I have pointed out in The Game Has Changed…Canada is Ready For a Coalition, we are not only ready for a coalition; it is our savior.

As Fern Hill of Dammit Janet pointed out, the political experiment with these Facebook groups has proven successful and is undergoing another test. The test of tests…fundraising. Fundraising for advertising to unseat Stevie. What would be even better is since we are supposed to be a grassroots movement, we should be the ones creating the ads.  Most of us with this same goal have some talent in some form or another. It would also no doubt be cheaper. As for fundraising: please give: our country depends on it. You can donate either by checque or by paypal.

Not only should we lobby to have Stevie unseated, we must lobby the opposition parties to form a coalition.We should also perhaps create our own ad-campaign to this effect.

Would there be any major change? Well, not right away. These opposition parties would go back to being partisan but we only need them for one election. Already, that would be a great measure to make Stevie go away.  A coalition would also provide the much needed time Jack Layton may need to recover from his illness or if his health fails to the point he could no longer lead the  N.D.P., they could take the time to find a new leader.  A coaltion would also provide the Liberals time to find and groom another leader, rather than throw Bob Rae into the ring, simply because he’s there.  I think most can agree that having Rae lead the Liberals would be suicide as he wouldn’t get the votes in Quebec or Ontario.

Any major changes to legislation like new prorogation rules or items like senate and electoral reforms or anything else we want our government to do would have to come from lobbying from the voters themselves.

However, first things first: let’s concentrate on getting rid of Stevie and his nasty evangelical friends  and lobby for that coalition.  That also means accepting Iggy at least for the short term.

Getting a new leader for the Liberals and ranting about disliking Iggy right now will not get rid of Stevie, in fact,  a divided opposition is how Stevie’s numbers remain up. And allowing Stevie to remain will only sink us further into that George W Bush vortex.  Given that slogan on by-election sign in Hochelaga last November (video of action; no election in French),  one has to wonder if Stevie is planning a totalitarian regime if let loose with a majority.

Yosemite Stevie — What Stevie would look like after a majority

Need I say more?

Let’s start by getting Stevie unseated and that starts with going to the polls come election day.   Any real change further down would be up to the voters themselves to hold our governments accountable. Remember that picture of  Stevie saying “I prorogue because you let me”. And it’s true. We did allow him to steamroll over us. Let’s put an end to this.

A homeless man  and his dog walk across Canada to bring awareness to the plight of the homeless.  A Video below from Sun Media. He braves the elements, fatigue and everything else that goes along with being homeless walking for so long.  But he continues the mission. He has places to be and people to see.

The City of Vancouver determined to keep its’ city spic n span;  attempting to sweep away its’  biggest problem; a very large homeless population. Vancouver passes laws that basically makes it illegal to be homeless with the hope that if  their Olympic guests from all over the world don’t find out this city’s deep dark secret; the fact that one of the richest countries in the world has people who are living off the streets and eating from garbage cans with all their soiled worldly possessions in a dingy shopping cart.  The city of Vancouver (with help of course) seems to think that if they clear away the homeless, they won’t exist and they and their fair city can still look pretty on the world stage.

The Pivot Legal Society will be beginning a red tent campaign where they will be handing out 500 tents to Vancouver’s homeless to set up camp in public places to draw attention to the need for affordable and secure housing.  A few have argued that this act exploits the homeless. Perhaps. However, it can’t be any worse than the exploitation the homeless face due to all the hardships life on city streets forces them to live.  At least, they will have some kind of make shift shelter.  More importantly, they are doing something to further their cause; to rally for  what everybody in society should have: affordable, secure housing.

Activities like the Poverty Olympics definitely meant for all to see that there definitely is a problem with poverty and homelessness:

Highlights of the one-day event include a celebration with “cockroach cake” and meeting poverty mascots Itchy the Bedbug, Creepy the Cockroach, and Chewy the Rat. It also includes events such as housing hurdles, hockey with the Vancouver Olympic Committee Predators, and the broken promise slalom.

While all this might sound somewhat tongue and cheek; organizers of the Poverty Olympics are sending a serious message:

“This is our opportunity to get the message out to the world that our government could end poverty and homelessness. It’s about housing supply, low incomes and low wages. There is no excuse for it and we hope the visitors to Vancouver will be appalled by Canada’s record on poverty,” said event organizer Wendy Pederson of the Raise the Rates Coalition, a coalition of community groups and organizations concerned with poverty and homelessness in B.C.

The efforts of Homeless activists, anti-poverty groups and the homeless themselves seem to have started gaining attention from international media.

A homeless man in Montreal saved up his pennies for a return bus ticket to Vancouver will be joining his homeless brothers and sisters over there to protest the pre-Olympic sanitizing of the city.

These are people who don’t have access to computers to be on Facebook, Twitter or other networking and blogging sites for the most part. Yet, they somehow manage each in their own way to make their way to Vancouver’s east side with the help of anti-poverty groups and other homeless advocates to keep the momentum going for their mission to make the world aware of the homeless problem and the solution is housing and jobs with adequate incomes; not sanitization or legislating their situations.

My question is, if the Homeless can protest, involve themselves in some form of activism or other measures to garner attention from the public at large and make their voices heard: why can’t the rest of Canadians? The rest of us who are fortunate enough to have such tools at our disposal to communicate with anyone in the country  as well as other means to continue what we started when Christopher White first formed CAPP on Facebook?

Yes, other groups and symbolic events have popped up.  There have been flash rallies in various cities whenever a Harpercon visits. We have been sending Valentines Cards to Ottawa. Many of us continue to write our MPs.  However, I can’t help but feel that we’re losing momentum here.

The Montreal Chapter representatives are keeping us up to date as to what is coming and when; however, they had expressed whether or not planning activities during the Olympics would be worth it given every Canadian’s attention would more than likely be deflected there. We had spoken of not doing anything Saturday, February 27 because that is the night of the Olympic Hockey finals. Hockey, being the religion that it is in Canada, particularly in Quebec would no doubt take precedence over everything else.  It would probably be more watched than the closing ceremonies the next day. Sadly, I get that.

However, we are taking a hit in the Corporate Harpercon media. They’re hitting us from everything to poor showings at rallies held cross country on January 23 to the groups claiming to be non-partisan but tainted that by having politicians with us to our movement fizzling out.

Even some progressive bloggers  have taken aim at the facebook groups and the rallies, showing divisiveness on our side, something Stevie, Harpercons and their media and pundits thrive on.

The latest posting  from Five on Five infuriated me when I first read it.  Montreal Simon shared my sentiment. However, after reading both their posts, I find myself somewhere in between their arguments. I’m sure many Facebookers who are members of CAPP and have taken a liking for onion rings to new heights are also getting weary of the other groups forming and join simply because they don’t want to be counted out. A symbolic gesture of solidarity if you will.  However, we mustn’ t lose site of the fact that if it weren’t for Christopher White getting the anti-prorogation ball rolling with CAPP on Facebook with other sites subsequently popping up like noprorogue.ca.  Social Media competing against the Corporate Harpercon media machine.  It got Canadians out there and the usual apathy was broken. Simon tells it best :

I do have to say this: The Facebook Army has done MORE to mobilize progressive Canadians, and put a big dent in the side of the Harper dictatorship, than anything or anybody has done in more than FOUR years.

That is exactly how this movement got started. However, it is now time to move this away from Facebook groups and onion rings somewhat, as Robert McBean suggests.

It is time to make noise and continue doing so throughout the Olympics and of course, beyond.  Let’s take this government to task and make sure they work for us (including the Homeless across Canada, naturally)  and not the other way around.

To be honest, I don’t know what the other groups across Canada are planning if anything; I haven’t heard. Montreal definitely wants to keep this going.  It is after all, more than just about proroging parliament. It is Stevie’s high handedness and lack of transparency that is at issue. We can’t allow this any longer. The Europeans would be up in arms over something like this.

I we’re (Montreal group) game; still planning activities to keep up the momentum. I only hope we can remain unified with the other Canadian groups.

Many Canadians are out of work with no prospects of new jobs, our troops are risking life and limb fighting a senseless and unwinnable war with no break in sight  and  in response, Stevie leaves us high and dry, so he can be secretive, stack his senate, run away from such nastiness like Torturegate and climate change to the point of making us unrecognizable on the world stage and make backroom deals basically selling out even more of Canada by incessantly begging President Obama  to lift his ‘Buy American’ programs.

Why can’t we attempt to make noise during the Olympics?  Stevie pretty much told Canadians to fuck ourselves  so he can watch the Olympics in peace. I say we shouldn’t grant it to him. Being without leadership, a government that is ‘working’ clandestinely against its’ own citizens, the jobless rate which leads so many to homelessness isn’t  a recipe for peaceful living.

The homeless and their advocates in Vancouver certainly aren’t going to leave Stevie, Harpercons, or Campbell and his cronies or even the Municipal governments and Olympic organizers for that matter, in peace: they will be competing for the cameras and air time no doubt. We should do the same. After all, Stevie has gotten away with what he had because we allowed him to with our apathy and inactivity.

The homeless aim to bring attention to their plight from olympic visitors from all over the world. Perhaps we should let them know that Mr. Smiley Blue eyes in the matching sweater vests who he really is and what kind of government he really leads.

Well, since the success of the rallies yesterday, many media outlets have covered this. Craig Oliver was impressed. Too bad CTV didn’t send anyone to many of the venues. I never saw them or Global TV at the Montreal event. I heard this was the case at other venues.

Blogging Tories and other Harpercon cheerleaders are scrambling trying to save face. Blogging Tory Craig Smith’s page was particularly ridiculous in explaining the events failed due to the proximity of the photographers when pictures were taken. A common refrain is that they would like to compare the  numbers of the anti-coalition rally (ies) of last year to our event of this year.  Stupid. Apples and oranges, really. Besides, no one can ever provide precise numbers of each and every event,  particularly those where a march and a rally took place. There are always stragglers. There are those who join in the middle of the procession and of course, those who only attend the main event at the end of the line.

Montrealers who listen to CJAD, how about we take bets as to Tommy Schnurmacher trying to  scoff at yesterday’s events and try to tout them as ‘insignificant’ or ‘just some Harper bashers’? How much do you want to bet he calls Canada hypocrites for not setting up and attending anti-prorogation events when the Liberals did it? Yes, I’m afraid Tommy is slipping in his old age and has become quite predictable.

After all, Tommy, like his other minions on the Gang of 4 appears to suffer from Liberal Derangement Syndrome ( I got the term from Pale Cold from A Creative Revolution puts it. Read her piece about Liberal Derangement Syndrome as well as other Conservative mythologies).

Will 1010 CFRB’s John Moore eat his words like he said he would in the National Posties if the rallies succeeded? Clearly, they have. When a veteran like Craig Oliver who has seen and heard everything over the years, uses words like ‘extaordinary’ to describe the events of yesterday, call it a bonus. Johnny boy, it was successful, so when can we expect to witness the event of you eating your own words?

Then, of course, they will call us liars for having promoted this as a non-partisan grass roots movement.

Hell, I love Blogging Tory Monte Solberg’s reverse guilt trip, saying the media spoon fed Canadians to things they just don’t care about. I would refute him directly, but, comments are disabled at his page. Why would that be?? Ok, Monte, here’s a comment, wishful thinking don’t make it so!

Ok, I’m going to give a kick start to your jobs for tomorrow; I’m feeling charitable today. I will speak for the Montreal Event that we did invite Conservative MPs, Senators and other Conservative party members to join us and to even even speak. They declined or didn’t answer our emails.

Another thing, it was a grass roots movement. If politicians were in attendance and speaking, it’s because we asked them to speak. All were offered equal air time. Not our fault if some either refused or didn’t answer.

Over at Section 15, Mark launches a challenge to con pundits, Harpercon cheerleaders and others like minded and other Harpercon minions. Launch your own cross country movement.  Launch a movement in support of prorogation. Set up rallies and marches equipped with colourfully designed signs with witty slogans in support of St-Stevie. Find a group like the Raging Grannies to put on a musical number showing support.

I will add this to Mark’s challenge though: just to keep things fair and to make sure we’re not comparing apples and oranges, but rather apples with apples and oranges with oranges: Same rules apply as our events did. It must be grass roots.  This means, only citizens getting together to organize their events.  No media types. Nothing even resembling Fox News’ 9/12 tea-bagger hit parade.  No politicians. Just citizens getting together and organizing.

Also, make sure to coordinate a date with other Canadian cities.

When you invite speakers, have civilians and different politicians speak.  Your invitations must include all of the MPs, senators and members and a paper trail would be required to proove this at any time if requested.

Then invite the media outfits. One thing though, make sure they’re there solely to cover the events and not promote them as Fox News seems to be guilty of.

Go ahead, tell Canadians how a Harpercon totalitarian regime benefits Canadians, because when Stevie says opposition parties bring down the markets , Jason Kenney saying they can get more done without the opposition, When Tommy, Kim and Don Crook said prorogation is best because ‘they do less damage, they won’t squabble like children’ on the Gang of 4 last Friday, Jan 22, and of course, who can forget last November’s by-election placard slogan in Hochelaga of “de l’action, pas d’election”? It  looks like ambition for a  totalitarian regime and for washed up buffoons like Tommy Schnurmacher and his buddies to say things like what they did on the Gang of 4 sounds like they’re also for it and are spoonfeeding that message to Canadians.

Tommy, Kim, Danny boy:  Do you support a totalitarian regime for Canada? How about the Blogging Tory Trolls: what say you?

Of course,  judging by only a 22 member pro prorogation group on Facebook,  compared to over 200 000 members on Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament Facebook group; I wish you all the luck in planning this event. Let me help you, your fellow Blogging Tory, Tamara of Rightchik, claims to be an event planner extaordinaire.  I’m sure you’ll have no trouble finding that blinding near flourescant page of her’s.

So, I say let the games begin! So Harpercon cheerleaders and all other neo-cons who support prorogation, I put it to you. Do your worst! Let’s see your rally (ies).

Speaking of that Facebook group witht that rather paltry membership. Matt Gurney, the next time you feel inclined to whine about censorship  at  the Facebook CAPP group, I suggest strongly you keep that claptrap of your’s shut.  Apparently, over at pro-prorogation on Facebook,  potential members have to request to join, their wall and contents are invisible to all who are not members. I dunno, but that looks like censorship to me. The fact that they’re restricting membership proves they’re afraid of debate.

So, boys & girls of the pro prorogation faction, organize your events. Until then, shut the hell up and be good sports.

Here are some video highlights of the Montreal event from  Matness4dummies’ channel on Youtube. Thanks Matt!

Added Bonus: People outside Canada organized events to support us. Still think our events were a failure? Can you get outside of Canada support for your pro-prorogation events?

Yes! We have been blessed!!   Gracing Montrealers (& the rest of Canada who will see pictures &/or film footage for that matter) with their presence will be Marc Garneau, Liberal MP & the Quebec Lieutenant; Thomas Mulcair, the one and only Montreal NDP Mp, and Professor Daniel Weinstock of Universite de Montreal will be speaking.  Also, songs and dancing from the Montreal Raging Grannies. There is another group (I’m sorry, their name escapes me right now).

I am especially happy that Gilles Duceppe will be making an appearance. No, I’m not a separatist, but as most of my readers know, I had been concerned about the lack of interest amongst French Quebecers.

I was also concerned about the seemingly laissez-faire attitude of Gilles Duceppe, who at the time, only gave us a tweet of a reaction from his Twitter account. I always believed if Gilles Duceppe came out and reacted as he did when he announced support and cooperation with last year’s coalition government, all Quebecers would be enthusiastic about protesting. The rally for the coalition attracted quite a few folks, included separatists at Guy Favreau Centre last year.

That post did get quite a reaction over at noprorogue.ca.  Quite a bit of anger really. I (as well as others, I’m sure ) would have liked that anger channeled into what Stevie did, to all of us, no matter where we lived, what political affiliation or what language we spoke.

Now, it looks promising for tomorrow. I am now confidant we will have a great turn out. I also know there will be a great turn out at most of the venues, anyway. Sixty towns and cities is already a big thing.

Yah, Blogging Tories and Tommy “I like prorogation because it means no new taxes”  Schnurmacher, of CJAD 800am (Astral radio, naturally, just one of the right arms of the Harpercons & Tax-phobic Tommy & Chickenhawk Ric Petersen & his unabashed support for Blathering Blatchford are the cheerleaders: God, I can’t get over axing Laurie & OLga and Peter Anthony Holder for those ass-holes) & Harpercon shill and others like him: get with the technology. This is the new activism. Most Canadians don’t want prorogation.

Tommy, when you fail, the professional & classy thing to do is not to lie,misquote politicians, berate, shove words down the throats of, and call your callers who disagree with you names. Also, it is especially unprofessional to humiliate your technical director just because he excercises his right to freedom of assembly and joins facebook groups you don’ t like. You really should apologize on the air for you ill behavior as of late. NO, I know you won’t. Stay classy, Tommy!

I wonder, if I started a Facebook group, called something like this., ” Bring back Peter Anthony Holder and Laurie & Olga and get rid of Tommy Schnurmacher, how many folks would join?? God, he even makes Redneck Ryan of 1010 News Talk in TO look like a class act. Yikes!  At least, I’ve never heard Ryan humiliate a co-worker on the air. Maybe we should be thankful for small favors?

Speaking of  Conservative media against prorogation: I can’t believe I’m saying this: Congratz to Ryan Doyle for speaking on the air against prorogation. I sincerely hope that you will attend a rally near you.  As stated before, the cross country rallies need all affiliations; that means Conservatives welcome.  Quite a coup and a rarety: a conservative talk show host surely of a minority of  his brethren.

Speaking of Conservatives,  we invited Conservative MPs, local politicians and senators: they have not responded. I do not want to hear that this is an exclusively lefty movement.

Something that I had been concerned about since this all happened.  An article in today’s Grope & Fail with translated sources from French language newspapers.  Honestly,  had it not been for my observations of apathy amongst my French speaking  co-workers and Francophones in general as well as the low Francophone memberships Montreal and Quebec City Chapters of Canadians against prorogation rally planning groups on Facebook and, search as I may, not much reaction from Gilles Duceppe other than the following tweet on his Twitter account, I wouldn’t have believed the article in the Grope & Fail.

Sadly, they feel their voices aren’t heard enough in Ottawa; that their voices don’t count.

Gilles Duceppe’s reaction: prorogation has become “a tradition for Harper.”

“Instead of facing the music, he prorogues,” Duceppe wrote.

Other than the fact the Bloc announced its’ plans to work in their ridings, like the N.D.P., not much is happening from that corner. Perhaps if Gilles Duceppe announced it was going back to Ottawa alongside the Liberals on January 25 and he made that known to the mainstream media, perhaps Quebecers may have a different attitude toward prorogation.

A variety of reasons seem to contribute to French Quebec’s apathy: from lack of understanding of Canada’s Parliamentary system to lack of respect for parliament, according to the Grope & Fail.

Josee Legault of the Montreal French language weekly, Le Voir writes:

“There’s nothing like a populace ignorant of its own democratic institutions to allow a prime minister to go so far as to strip our elected representatives of their constitutional prerogatives,”

Now, that is frightening.  Education would be the logical answer, but one has to want to know.  One gets the feeling, they don’t want to know, so how do we engage them?

I work for a social services agency that serves the Anglophone population of Quebec; thus far, only one of my co-workers is interested in attending the Montreal rally up to date and asked me to keep him up to date. The rest don’t even know about or barely heard grumblings of it.

One of my French speaking co-workers came up to me yesterday and simply grimaced; ” it doesn’t matter what we think or do; Harper will get his majority.” She, of course, must have stopped following the polls awhile ago.  Stevie’s numbers started going down since prorogation and he is now down about 10 points since last Fall.  I told her his numbers dropped but she didn’t change her tune. She is of the belief Stevie will climb back up. She did, however, ask me to forward her any literature on the subject. Sadly, I think her views reflect most of those of French Quebec society today.

I also tend to wonder if the  now dormant separatist movement will make a comeback if there is an election coming soon and Stevie does get his majority? Are the separatists perhaps saving their energy for a potential separatist movement?

Perhaps the separatists just don’t feel that prorogation matters as they’re only interested in le Pays du Quebec?

I think there are only two ways we can perhaps get them out alongside Quebec’s Anglos in the Quebec City and Montreal Rallies come January 23. Our planning meeting spoke of the possibility of getting leaders of Quebec’s largest labor unions. French Quebecers; separatists or not tend to be very pro union.

Another way would be to hit the message home that whether or not you’re separatist; your democratic rights were stripped away just like the rest of us.

There is still time to get French speaking Quebecers to demonstrate alongside the rest of us, be they separatist or not.

To my French speaking readers, I hope you can get your friends, relatives and co workers out come Saturday afternoon, January 23.

Yikes! Where do I start?  Pale and Montreal Simon wrote articles on this subject recently. There should be a whole anthology with a mass collaboration on the subject, especially since that Facebook group grew, demonstrations are being organized across Canada among other activities being planned. All this, thanks to social media; the blogosphere; blog aggregators such as Progressive Bloggers.

Today, we are standing up to Corporate Media hacks.

Now, hacks like Don Crook of  Blogolotics at the Grope & Fail, who  gets his math wrong and must humble himself to correct it. He posts the radio show of a fellow hack; the one & only, Chuckles Adler. Remember him? Let me refresh your memory: The one who referred to us as elitists who did nothing all day but suck on lattes in coffee houses?

You can catch the audio of Chuckles ranting alongside Matt Gurney of National Posties and of course, Christopher White, the founder and sole administrator of the Facebook group, Canadians against the Proroguing of parliament. I love how Gurney and Chuckles ranted at White about there being censorship on the site: that dissenting views being posted are being deleted  almosts as quickly as they were posted in the first place to hear them tell it. White at least pointed out what I hoped he would: that these folks may well have been deleting their own posts just to cry out censorship.

Chuckles would go on to poke fun at the site, as if it were nothing serious but a bunch of graphics and Nazi references.  I think what Chuckles doesn’t like (and I expect many others from that corporate media machine) is that it already started accomplishing something.  Conservatives and Centrists who had been pushed to Stevie’s hard right have joined us. These are folks who are particular fans of free speech.These people also tend to be for senate reform and thus, one of  Stevie’s promises that attracted them to vote for him in the first place was senate reform. Proroguing parliament in order to stack up the senate with his friends and cheerleaders, of course, would sour them toward Stevie.

Speaking of censorship hypocrisy; Take a look at who practises censorship on his blog:

Just a note, it would appear that all of Don Crook’s blogs have disabled comments. Me thinks he protests too much. Hey Cook! Enable comments, will ya?

We are sharing information.

The Liberals are going to show up for work come January 25. With continued efforts our parts, we can perhaps get the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois to join them.

Canadians are writing Stevie, the opposition leaders and their MPs.

Up until now, Canadians had been apathetic. Now, they’re standing up and expressing their distaste for Stevie and the Harpercons’ lastest move.

Stevie runs away, and obviously, social media is  getting louder, making it more difficult for these  Harpercon cheerleaders to spoon feed Canadians what they want Canadians to think.

Here’s a thought for those who may still be struggling with their thoughts about the events of late and how they’re being covered:  and yes, hacks, pay attention. Everyone is free to follow whomever they like, it’s part of democracy, however, if average working Canadians with families and busy schedules are making the time to get Canadians involved or to inform them without payment (except for perhaps Google ad sense; never tried it, but I hear it really doesn’t pay much). We do this because we care. We care about our country and fellow Canadians. We don’t like the direction Stevie and the Harpercons are taking it with their actions and/or inactions as of late. May seem partisan, but we would be doing all of this if another leader were in charge and behaving exactly like Stevie has been.

Hacks, get used it! We’re staying and we will continue to make noise until Canada is steered back in the right direction. And even then, we will continue making noise in order to make sure our country continues in the right direction.

Mocking opposition for intentions of showing up to work? What are you all really afraid of? That they actually may find something damning in their unofficial investigation of torturegate?

Sidenote:  Speaking of  corporate media and the world of communications, guess who Stevie hired for a second time? Yup, none other than one of  his big ol’ buddy Georgie’s buddy, Ari Fleischer. More proof that he’s a Georgie wannabe.

Thank you Christopher White for founding the Facebook group. Readers who are on Facebook, please click the above Facebook link to join this group if you haven’t already. Contrary to what Chuckles, Crook and others have said, it doesn’t matter what usual affiliation you’re with.  You really do make a difference.

Well, it appears that social media is really giving a run for the money against the corporatist media.

It’s about time!  For openers, the Facebook group, Canadians against the Proroguing of Parliament , is now nearing 50, 000 members and growing. There are other such Facebook groups, whose memberships are also growing.

Twitter feeds are of nothing but the disdain of Stevie’s grandiose escape.

The bloggers’ are blogging of nothing but this matter and how we want the opposition parties to put their differences aside, show leadership and go back to work come January 25.

Many like myself, have written to our MPs and opposition party leaders.

It appears to have made a dent. The Liberals will be showing up for work according to the latest from the Winnipeg Free Press and inews radio 880 am.

It’s  a good start. Let’s see if we can’t get the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois to join them. I have also written to Jack Layton and am working on a French draft for Gilles Duceppe. As I mentioned in my letter to Irwin Cotler, it is time for all the opposition parties to put aside their differences and find common ground. Thus, both of those parties should and must join the Liberals come January 25.

Let’s keep up the momentum, folks. Let’s make sure they don’t chicken out or that this is only a one day wonder.  Like I said, it’s a good start; there is much more to be done.

Folks, join either Canadians against proroguation and/or any other of those facebook and other social networking groups with the same goals.  Write your MPs, when we take action, and more importantly, don’t swallow what corporatist media is trying to spoon feed us;  it’s  toxic, we can make a difference.