Canadians! Sign the petition against Harper's police state bill!

Attention Canadian readers! Your civil liberties are threatened by Bill C-51, the "anti-terrorism" bill introduced by your Dear Leader, super-authoritarian control freak Stephen Harper.

The editors of Canada's self-styled national newspaper, the Globe and Mail -- the same ones who endorsed Mr. Harpoon and his party at the last federal election -- now accuse him of using his new spying law to create a "secret police force" in Canada.

Why call it a "spying law"? Because C-51 will give reckless and unnecessary powers to the Mounties, CSIS and other spy agencies, including the ability to detain people who haven’t committed any crime, with minimal oversight or democratic accountability.

Dear Canadian readers, don't let Harper mislead you as to what C-51 really means. Four former prime ministers -- Joe Clark, John Turner, Jean Chrétien, and Paul Martin -- are among almost two dozen prominent Canadians concerned about this bill!

Your rights and freedoms -- freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, even freedom of thought -- are in danger. Be sure to read "What's happening to Canada?!", posted here yesterday.

Your Dear Leader is telling you that people like Opposition Leader Thomas Mulcair are careless of the security of the country, unpatriotic, and probably in league with the Islamic extremists too! The way he tells it, to be against C-51 is to be against Canada. If there's a climate of fear in the Not-so-great Not-so-white North today, Harper created it!

Yet, a poll published on Thursday claims 82% of respondents support this draconian, totally over-the-top legislation. I don't believe it. I don't want to believe it. Did they ask you? Are you willing to trade your rights and liberties for "enhanced security" against the threats which are the direct result of Harper's pro-Israel, pro-American foreign policy?

There’s little doubt that many Members of Parliament -- including some Conservatives -- are concerned about the outrageous laws and lack of oversight. But before they stand up to Harper, they need to know that people across Canada will speak out too.

Dear Canadian readers, you must ask yourselves: are you the kind of people who give up your freedoms to fear-mongers, or are you the kind of people who will defend your democracy? Right now is the time to reject fear! Sign this online petition to stop the encroachment on your freedom of Harper's increasingly authoritarian and dictatorial state.

Thanks to Agent 34 for making us aware of the petition. Stay free!

Doubting Thomas takes it back

Yesterday we saw a report in the Toronto Star to the effect that Thomas Mulcair, deputy leader of Canada's NDP, didn't believe the US military has pictures of the corpse of Osama bin Laden. This is what Doubting Thomas said: “I don’t think, from what I’ve heard, those pictures exist, and if they do I’ll leave that up to the American military.”

Most of us thought that, being an attorney and an experienced parliamentarian and debater, he meant to say exactly what he said, and meant us to take him at his word. Apparently not so.

Today's Star quotes Mr. Mulcair as saying, “You [reporters] work in a world of words and so do I. Sometimes they don’t come out in exactly the best order and I’ll take responsibility for that perhaps in the context of a very busy week and a very happy one.”

The words didn't come out in the right order? What order should they have come out in? "Those pictures exist, I don't think."? That doesn't sound anything like "I never doubted U.S. forces killed bin Laden in Pakistan on Sunday or that photos could prove he is dead", does it. More like a lamer version of "I misspoke myself."

Walt wouldn't be surprised if Doubting Thomas had a big dinner last night...a large helping of cold tongue from his boss, "Taliban Jack" Layton. Now that he's leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition, Mr. Layton is at great pains to draw a line under his party's reputation for being both leftist and anti-American. Mr. Mulcair is not helping.

Osama Bin Laden's last ever FB post

Walt doffs his fedora to Agent 17 and Snipping Tool.

Update on the conspiracy: The Toronto Star reports that Thomas Mulcair, the deputy leader of the NDP -- now Canada's Loyal Opposition -- doesn't believe the White House (or anyone) has any pictures of Bin Laden's corpse. During an appearance on CBC-TV's Power and Politics, he said President Obama’s version of the death of the terrorist mastermind is "incomplete, if not untrue".

A spokesthingy for the White House said, "So who's Thomas Mulcair? Some pinko from...where was that again?"

Update on the update: Military intelligence has it that leadership of Al Qaeda has been assumed by a shadowy figure named Hassan bin Seeyun. Rumour has it that the mysterious Hassan has been hiding at 1698 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Fall election after all?

Walt's prediction: December 31st will see Harpoon still in office, thanks to the fecklessness of the gutless Grits.

That's what I wrote on Saturday (29/8). The next day the Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition and Government-in-Waiting got up on his hind feet and said his party wasn't gutless or feckless and would "withdraw its support" from the Harper Tories.

Would that mean a quick no confidence vote followed by a fall election? Iggy didn't actually answer that question, leaving it to Bob "I never believed in socialism" Rae to say "Maybe."

Sorry, but Walt has seen this movie before, and recently too. Remember the big hoo-hah about EI reform, just last spring? If the Tories didn't loosen the EI purse-strings, the Grits were gonna bring them down. Oh yeah! Bring on the election! But...er...things didn't quite turn out that way.

What we're hearing from the Liberal hawks sounds to me like more of the same, another cry of "wolf" to persuade credulous voters that the Grits are not shit-scared of facing the electorate with little money and no platform.

Fortunately for the Liberals, they alone can't bring down Mr. Harpoon. If they bring a no-confidence motion on one of the opposition days -- say October 1st or 7th -- they would need the support of both the Bloc Québecois and the NDP to topple the government. Neither party shows much inclination to enter the fray.

The Not-So-New Democrats have a leader who is well past his prime. Jack "I'm running for Prime Minister" Layton should have resigned quietly after last year's election, when his party couldn't do better than a 4th-place finish, in spite of running against the weakest Liberal leader ever.

They have a competent leader waiting in the wings. Thomas Mulcair is bilingual, obviously intelligent, and performs well in the House and especially in committees. Too bad for him he represents a Montréal riding (a miracle in itself) and will need a minor miracle to be re-elected.

As for the Bloc, they look like winning 30-40 seats in Québec no matter when the next election takes place. They have nothing to gain from a change in government so would probably be quite content to uphold the status quo for another 9 months or so.

Walt stands by his prediction.

Footnote: What a pity Gilles Duceppe isn't a Liberal!