Saturday, June 04, 2011

Dear Carolyn Bennett, Elizabeth May, and Justin Trudeau

Two Liberals and a Green, you've all come out slamming Brigette DePape for disrespecting protocol, the Sovereign, and the institution of our democracy. You clearly don't get it.

You see, two of you at least had five years to figure out how to stop Harper but you couldn't do it. You even got as far as a contempt motion, but botched every prior opportunity to defeat Harper including the last election, allowing a minority of Canadians to reelect that contemptuous government to a majority. It was up to you and your parties to stop the Harper machine and you utterly failed at that task. 

Yet somehow you and Harper got to keep your jobs, and Ms. DePape does not. Instead, you admonish her for what?  Did she embarrass you? Point out your failure a little too bluntly?

Contempt of parliament is a crime of high disrespect toward parliament yet there sits Harper today at the right hand of the Crown, rewarded it seems for his contempt.

What right then do you have to demand she protest elsewhere? You are representatives of institutional failure. You could not put your partisan interests aside enough to defeat a party intent on destroying the Canada built largely by one of your parties and the green Canada the other seeks to protect. The government you allowed to gain a majority has spent the past five years attempting to thwart and subvert the conventions, norms, and rules of our system of government, and you condescend from a great height at a mere page with small sign?

Pretty rich commentary I say considering that you three now amount to elected eunuchs in the face of a Harper majority.  Pretty rich that this Harper majority will do what it can in the next four years to prevent your parties from effectively challenging it come the next poll.

Here's the thing: Many of us poor plebes, eligible voters that we are, think you're worse than useless. Aside from a few die hard fanatics, we are a deeply cynical bunch. Many of us do not like class and hierarchy. We do not like your linkages to big business, your promotion of the tar sands, your inability to provide basic health and education to the most vulnerable members of Canadian society. We are terrified for our children by your lack of action on climate change. We are disenfranchised by your inability to enact the electoral reform that would have prevented the present state of affairs. We despise your constant lies and spin. We loathe the sense of entitlement that allows you to sneeringly condemn a young woman for pointing out your inadequacy.

You see, when the make-up and function of parliament fails to accurately represent and serve its constituents, it loses legitimacy in the eyes of those constituents. We are no longer dazzled by the pomp and ceremony. We see the ranks of generals and admirals, high court justices, politicians, senators, the gentlemen usher of the black rod, and the sergeant-at-arms in his funny hat, and they begin to look ridiculous. It looks like an alien rite for the rich and powerful, full of symbolism, but utterly devoid of relevant meaning. So many uniformed servants to liars, thieves, and yes-men; ubiquitous sycophants seduced by the illusions and trappings of power and prestige.

You all look terribly important surrounded by all that pomp and ceremony, but you still have to wipe the shit from your own asses like the rest of us.

When we come to understand that, you're naked, and all the ranks, titles, honorifics, post-nominals you dangle off yourselves become so many baubles and trinkets to be mocked by a public angry and fearful at the consequences of your many failures... 

With your job comes responsibility.

40 comments:

Uncommoner said...

Some people just fail to understand. It's like the blind leading a frelling idiot.

WILLY said...

Not to take away from a beautiful rant and defense of the brilliant Bridget, I do not believe that Harper wipes his own ass.

http://ffibnamol.wordpress.com/2011/05/10/in-the-tory-caucus-washroom-it-is-all-about-the-kids-2/

Toe said...

Dear CBC
You are all bootlickers too with your 'this is just unprecedented', 'never before'. Please, you also have a duty to report in an unbiased manner, considering the oodles of our monies you sometimes abuse. If Harper makes big cuts don't come crying to us. Since your no longer accountable or relevant to our needs, good luck.

H7N9 Watch said...

I've watched Question Period. I've seen exactly how much respect for the seriousness of Parliament that our politicians truly bear. So I totally understand their outrage that someone else would cast any disrepute whatever on this cherished institution.

(Need I mention this is sarcastic?)

Hint to the media: I don't know if this particular stunt has been pulled before, but disrupting Parliament is not unprecedented. Certainly not as unprecedented as a few other events in recent years that I could think of.

riley dog said...

Thank you. I read out loud at home and everyone clapped.

West End Bob said...

Bravo, Boris! You've articulated what a lot of us have felt for a very long time.

The Emperor and his minions - of all parties - truly have no clothes.

Would that the Canadian electorate come to their senses and more Brigittes are found . . . .

Lindsay Stewart said...

Hear Hear!

Lindsay Stewart said...

And as for the squallings of Justin Trudeau, son of fuddle duddle, offspring of the man who dared to pirouette behind her majesty... you sir, campaigned for Ken Dryden who used his rank and privilege to advocate for crimes against humanity and the collective punishment of civilian populations. Your word isn't worth wiping with.

fern hill said...

Well said! This is why we at DJ! have called them (for years) the Fucking Useless Opposition®.

Alison said...

From fuddle duddle to fuddie duddie in one generation

Beijing York said...

Fantastic rant, Boris! Bravo!

Brigitte DePape gave us a brilliant and much needed wake-up call. Brava!

Luc said...

Ms. Depappe was a page, not a member of parliament. It is her right to protest but, to do so inside, center stage, in the house of commons was a little overboard. After all is said and done she is an employee and needs to follow the rules of her employer. Go ahead, hold any and all signs you want; just make sure you do so while not on the job.
On the other hand, that was ballsy.

Luc said...

Ms. Depappe was a page. She abused her position by taking center stage in the House of Commons to display her sign. Truth be told, she was an employee of our government and there are rules that bind her actions as well as those that represent us. I know that if I held up a sign at work condemning one of my managers, I'd be sent packing as well.
Go ahead, hold all the signs you want to Ms. Depappe; just don't be doing it while you're on the clock. On a brighter note, what she did was kind of ballsy.

nicole said...

the fact that this page violated the rules of her employer is bull. Harper violated the rules of our government, was voted in contempt, and yet still won a majority.

how dare any of you criticize her? you voted for someone who was legally in contempt. now you will reap what you sowed.

i applaud her for her courage. i commend her. i will help support her if need be.

my only question is, why aren't the rest of us holding up signs?

Moon Rattled said...

And the Liberals wonder why they've become irrelevant and unpopular. STAND FOR SOMETHING YOU BOZOS.

As for May, the Greens have always had a libertarian thread. If May actually thinks environmental damage and climate change can be reversed without civil disobedience, she's delusional.

nicole said...

Then maybe it's time for a bit of civil disobedience. i dont' feel very obedient right now.

the "pigs at the trough" will not let go easy. they have what they want. and the only thing they want now is more of it.

If the government doesn't obey the rules, why should anyone else?

Larry Gambone said...

Way to got Brigette! At last someone in parliament willing to stand up to the bullies. And why shouldn't we feel contempt for parliament when 24% of the population can dominate the remaining 76%. That is not democracy, that is tyranny.

susansmith said...

super post Boris. Quite surprised that Ms. May trashed this brilliant move by this young Canadian.

I guess Ms. May is feeling smug now that she is in office and forgets how women got the vote - it sure wasn't by playing by the men's rules. Or how unions got started and how they also stood up to the conventional rules, conventions, protocols, and laws of the day.

She picked the perfect venue for voicing what many Canadians belief so all you toadies - suck it up!

arteest said...

Very well said.

thefogman said...

Spot on. Thanks for this!

Oemissions said...

I am very disappointed with what my MP Elzabeth May, said and I am sure many of the youth who worked hard for her election are too
Brigette kicked off our parliamentary session in one quiet subtle but brilliant action

liberal supporter said...

Let me get this straight. Harper's sycophants defend whatever he does by claiming the Liberals are worse. Now you defend Brigitte because, well, Harper is worse?

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

JimBobby said...

Add Layton to the list:

http://twitter.com/#!/ctvqp/status/77392194671091712

Jenn Jilks said...

I simply do not agree.
An employee must have a sense of decorum. An employer has the right to expect that employees will follow protocol, and must be respectful.
Can you imagine if all the pages take a page from her book and run around protesting?

I don't like Harper any more than anybody else I know personally. He's been elected and an employee of the government must respect the electorate and the House. It's a good lesson for her to learn now.
What she does on her own time is different. She used this public forum to make a political statement. She disrespects our democratic system. She must be neutral in her place of employment. She is not a politician who has been elected. She has been hired to fulfill particular duties. I would be afraid to hire her, if I were in such a position.

David Wilson said...

yes, you certainly got that one right, I have now named Maysie, Raysie & Justinne to the LLL (that's Lame Left Libs) hall of fame.

deejay said...

Well said Boris.
We have to expect that those sitting at the trough will pout.
That gutsy little girl has put the rest of us to shame.
Lets show some more disrespect.
Seniors in particular have very little to lose.
deejay

Beijing York said...

Throwing shoes at GW Bush during an Iraqi press conference lacked decorum and was disrespectful but boy did the world cheer for that brave journalist.

Bridgette's 20 second peaceful defiance before power had more impact on a nation than any other traditional avenue for public outcry.

Shame on the opposition parties for opposing her action. It's no wonder their election campaigns were so vacuous and lacklustre - they have no courage.

Kim Leaman said...

Brilliant!

Pamela said...

Very well said! You called it the way you see it and it rings true. Bravo!

Orwell's Bastard said...

Wish I'd seen this earlier. What everyone else said.

Colleen said...

Shame on these three useless failures for criticizing this brave person. They can continue to play act our lost democracy while they scoop their salaries out of our pockets. Great post.

Anonymous said...

I find myself agreeing with your rant on almost every point despite my deep respect for the three MPs you are critisizing. Respect for parliament is very important and I wish MPs showed more of it, but her protest was not part of that. It was extreme but making a high minded attack on her for disrespecting parliament when the MPs there have done so little to protect it is a bit rich.

As for Ms. May in particular I would cut her some slack, it would be a difficult position for the newly election, first time MP from the Green party to turn around immediately and support something so unprecedented in the house in which no one from her party has ever stood. I sure she supports the intent of the message. But at this moment supporting the method might be seen as undercutting the Green party's bare grasp of a place in that institution.

Andrew said...

What this girl did was political cowardice and to call out the people truly working against Harper is absurd. I was with her until I found out she is claiming to be "non-partisan". Pick a side!

In this country, we're too busy chanting "ABC" to realize that that is not a call to action. If you truly want to unseat Harper, pick a political party, work for them, support them and vote for them. We're too afraid of alienating, offending or scaring people to draw lines in the sand. It's very, very easy to offer empty criticism but people like Justin Trudeau and Carolyn Bennett (and yes, even Elizabeth May) are out there actually putting themselves on the line for what they believe in.

Lindsay Stewart said...

i'm calling bullshit on andrew. liz may is a total hypocrite. if she gave any regard for the dignity of office and following the rules, she wouldn't have run roughshod over the bylaws of her own party in her effort to cling to the leadership. she scrambled from one coast to the other desperately seeking power and has the temerity to poo-poo a person who took a stand. may can shut the hell up.

as for anyone from the liberal party, bennett, trudeau or otherwise putting themselves out there to fight harper, well it might have been nice if over the last five years they'd actually done some of that instead of trying to read the angles to get back to power. they abandoned their duty to the house and to the people in a crass and failed agenda for their own advantage. there was pretty much no position they wouldn't take, no matter how odious, if they thought that it would play to their advantage. trudeau came crawling on his belly into ontario to campaign for dryden. that speaks to his absence of ethics.

it isn't about picking a side so much as demanding that any and all sides abide by the best interests of the country before personal advantage. the whole of our system has been corrupted and diminished by the hand of our political class. from a useless, cowed press to the lobbyist that pull the strings to the senate stuffed full of whores to the lower house where a blinkered nation returned villains by the score.

pick a side indeed.

Andrew said...

@psa May unseated a Conservative cabinet minister. How else does one "Stop Harper"? And the Liberals vying for power - how else do they "Stop Harper"? "Stop Harper" is an empty, meaningless slogan on par with "Anybody but Conservative".

There's only one way to demand that all sides play by the rules - defeating the guys who didn't play by the rules i.e. winning an election. I'm a Liberal; I worked to help a Liberal candidate try to win a seat. I did that because I believe the Liberal party is the party most likely to do the best job governing. I did not try to "Stop Harper" anymore than I tried to "Stop Layton" (or "Stop May" etc).

Complaining is fun, but it's not action and it's not useful and the Senate is not the place for it.

Steve said...

The opposition is happy with status quo kabuki politics.

Meanwhile in Fukushima, rabbits are being born without ears!!
see video here

Smartpatrol said...

SING IT!

Lindsay Stewart said...

well andrew, you support a party that is only incrementally different than harper's cons. the lpc are rife with corruption and failed utterly to perform the duty of opposition. you are welcome to believe and politic as you choose and you are free to disagree with the tone, tenor and site of ms depape's protest. the fact remains that she got up on her hind legs and made a stand, futile though it might have been. and that is something that the liberal party of canada has failed to do over the last half decade.

you want to demand that the pols play by the rules? liz may trahsed the bylaws and governance of her own party to cling to the leadership. the liberals will do and say anything, declare and abandon positions as fast as they think their opportunities and advantages might shift. they happily climbed into bed with harper on all manner of little evils.

if the only way to get the bastards to play by the rules is to get vote out the ones that fail to do so, then your party membership is an erroneous choice. the libs have been complicit in harper's rise to power, by choice, by ineptitude and by failure of ethics and courage. there are a lot of little villains in this play but at the end of the day, one foolish young woman displayed more guts than all of the hill rats, including the corrupt pols and the water carrier media.

if nothing else, she got people thinking, talking and debating. that's something our entire political class has worked to prevent. her message remains valid, majority or not, we are obligated to remain engaged in the process, to raise our voices with the vain hope that we will be heard. the notion that the election is over and the consequences to be swallowed whole without protest is purest cowardice. for my part, i hope this round is the last we see of the liberal party of canada as presently constituted. they are a large part of the problem and none of the solution.

i hope that indicates enough of a side being chosen for you.

Andrew said...

More empty anger and rhetoric from psa. While my particular partisan feelings do not incline me to defend Ms May from your accusations, I do take issue with the characterization of the Liberal party.

I assume that you a supporter of the NDP, given your blanket attacks on every other national party and your ability to parrot their anti-Liberal talking points. What is ironic, to me, is a Conservative or NDP supporter accusing the Liberal party of having no principles while doing their best to turn their back on the ideological foundation of their parties to crowd the middle of the political spectrum. If anyone is taking positions of convenience, watch Jack Layton talk about the HST: first in BC, then in Ontario, then in Quebec and finally in the Maritimes. He makes Stephen Harper seem consistent.

Regarding the protest, it was a stunt. It got people talking... about a stunt. It lowered the debate to Harper's level of mudslinging and attack ads while contributing nothing. I will end this simply by saying that, if you are an NDP supporter, I hope you volunteered and donated money to them. That really is the only way to stop anyone - wherever your self righteous anger is directed.

Lindsay Stewart said...

well andrew the simple fact that i disagreed with you doesn't spell out anger and you seem to prefer dealing in vague generalities, so the accusation of empty rhetoric is comic. in this past federal election i did vote ndp. first time ever. for years i'd voted liberal but the lpc lost my confidence over a period of years to the point where i do see them as equal partners in all of the worst of our national politics. at this juncture the ndp are the lessers of evil, though i have no great love for layton and there are numerous points where i diverge from their stated views.

i am looking at a political culture that has grown further away from the duties of service to the population and grown into fealty to corporate interests and pressure groups. i am looking at a national political press that appear to have decided that it is easier to go along with any outrage provided the buffets are stocked. there is a crass acquiescence to power that is passed of as collegial affinity. in truth it appears more like our press corp are the towel boys in the bordello, trading their guts and ethics for access.

you call my rhetoric angry and empty, yet you provide no counter to the statements made. you support a party that the entire country tossed overboard. you claim that they are among those working to defeat harper but in truth they were working to reclaim power for their own selfish ends. there is a difference between seeking power for its own sake and seeking to better a system or serve a constituency.

am i angry? yes i am. the country i love is being disassembled by small people with selfish, short sighted goals. the country that i love has been betrayed by those we trust to watch over her. you claim that trudeau and bennett are the ones putting themselves on the line but saying it does not make it true. where were they over the last five years? where was her majesty's loyal opposition? absent or going along to get along. playing angles to regain power for power's sake is not good enough.

i have never been among those chanting ABC. my criticisms are pointed at politicians and parties in accord to their actions. pick one and blindly stick with it is not an act of courage. it is negligence wearing a pious hat.