Organizers all drew attention to the federal Liberals’ espoused commitment to reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. According to Morrissey, the Liberals have fallen far short of their promises.
“It’s kind of the same as when you’re in a relationship and you’re trying to describe how you know that somebody loves you,” she said. “It’s not through words, it’s through actions. And I can very succinctly say that the Trudeau government is talking out of both sides of their mouth. They’ve been very clear with those who are in protector roles that their very first priority is implementing UNDRIP and I don’t know how [Muskrat Falls] fits into that. This is reconciliation with a ‘w-r’, they’re wrecking Canada’s north, and they are absolutely an assault on Indigenous rights in Canada.”
Behrens said reconciliation has been furthered more by the resistance against Muskrat Falls than by the federal government.
“The real reconciliation is the kind of thing that we see with the land protectors,” he said. “When the land protectors occupied the Muskrat site with settlers together, you had different Indigenous nations and settlers and workers themselves from Nalcor all sharing space together, breaking bread together, sleeping on the floor together. That’s reconciliation, because it’s everybody recognizing that we have a common interest in what is going on, not only in Muskrat Falls but in Site C and in all of these other places across the land. And during that week there was such an amazing connection. That’s what real reconciliation is about because real reconciliation depends on the truth. The reconciliation of the Trudeau Government is like a Hallmark card.”
“This project has to be stopped,” Behrens says. “We’re beyond the point where harm has begun. We’re not talking about the introduction of methylmercury, we’re talking about mitigation of methylmercury. The poison has started going in. How much will we allow to accumulate?”
Consumer rights advocacy group Public Citizen’s Amanda Werner, dressed as Rich Uncle Pennybags from the Monopoly game, sat behind former Equifax CEO Richard Smith this morning during his testimony to the Senate Banking Committee about the company’s breach of 45,500,000 Americans’ private data . From Public Citizen’s statement:
Make no mistake: Arbitration is a rigged game, one that the bank nearly always wins. Shockingly, the average consumer forced to arbitrate with Wells Fargo was ordered to pay the bank nearly $11,000. Bank lobbyists and their allies in Congress are trying to overturn the CFPB’s rule so they can continue to rip off consumers with impunity.
Gender Parity in Parliament? Not with Preferential Ballot (aka Alternative Vote)
The lessons of Australia are very informative. With the same people voting in Proportional and Winner-Take-All elections at the same time, it’s a perfect petrie dish for studying the difference between STV and AV.
Without its Proportional Senate, there wouldn’t have been any women at all elected between 1951 and 1965. And look how few women are elected to the House of Representatives.
This graph (based on Australian government data) demonstrates the truth of Fair Vote Canada’s maxim that “fair voting elects more women naturally.”
Countries electing the truly representative Parliaments possible with Proporttional Representation don’t need to rely on quotas, or Prime Ministerial largesse in order to include women’s voices in democratic governance.
Gender Parity in Parliament? Not with Preferential Ballot (aka Alternative Vote)
The lessons of Australia are very informative. With the same people voting in Proportional and Winner-Take-All elections at the same time, it’s a perfect petrie dish for studying the difference between STV and AV.
Without its Proportional Senate, there wouldn’t have been any women at all elected between 1951 and 1965. And look how few women are elected to the House of Representatives.
This graph (based on Australian government data) demonstrates the truth of Fair Vote Canada’s maxim that “fair voting elects more women naturally.”
Countries electing the truly representative Parliaments possible with Proporttional Representation don’t need to rely on quotas, or Prime Ministerial largesse in order to include women’s voices in democratic governance.
Delivering on a promise to give British Columbians a choice in how future elections will be decided, Attorney General David Eby has announced plans for a referendum on proportional representation.
“Today we have taken the first step toward asking British Columbians if they want a change from the current voting system,” said Eby.
“We are taking steps to modernize our democracy today, while giving people the power to decide the future of our most fundamental democratic institution.”
After weeks of public battering and opposition politicking, Finance Minister Bill Morneau is signalling that he plans to make changes to the Liberals’ proposed tax changes, stopping short of providing discernible details.
On Tuesday the government released a list of five key principles it hopes will reassure Canadians that it is not targeting most small business owners, including a promise that the transfer of family farms to the next generation would not be affected by the tax changes.
“Changes are going to be required — as we move forward we will have more information on timing,” Morneau said in an interview after facing questions in the Senate.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stood quietly with his head down Wednesday as families expressed extreme anger toward him about the inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
Trudeau must reset the inquiry led by four commissioners, Maggie Cywink from Whitefish River First Nation said in a speech to an annual gathering on Parliament Hill.
“If you want to be remembered as a prime minister who is healing ties with First Nations, then you must start with our women and families,” said Cywink, whose sister, Sonya Cywink, was found slain near London, Ont. in 1994.
“Will you be seen as yet another politician, in the very long list of politicians, who simply peddled in the age-old craft of empty promises?
