WhatFinger


Special interest groups skewer Canadian politics

Canada - The “Stakeholder” Society – Quebec Must Leave



As an active worker for my political party on numerous occasions in the past and a long time donator to the Conservative Party of Canada and its predecessors, I have arrived at the conclusion that if any citizen thinks any Party, including mine, gives a damn for their personal opinion of government policy, other than at election time, they are living a fool’s dream.

Support Canada Free Press


This goes for any of the political Parties since the Multicultural Act of Canada and the first Official Languages Act was passed by the Trudeau Liberal regime in 1969. My learning experience began when working in a Reform Party by-election in Etobicoke back in the 90’s. After a hard day’s canvassing, we returned to the campaign headquarters to hear Preston Manning, our esteemed leader, speak. I noticed the place was thick with Somalis. I asked the campaign manager what was up because none of these people had been around beforehand. “Oh, said the manager, they are here to have a private meeting with Mr. Manning.” I was shocked. I said to the manager, “for heaven’s sake why would he do this, isn’t that one of the things our platform is dedicated to stop; buying the votes of special interest groups?” “Well you know, answered the manager, we need every vote we can get.” So that’s the way of all political parties in today’s Canada. Votes count, any way you can get them at election time. Knock on doors, work your butt off, get out the vote, call on telephones till your ears hurt and your throat gets sore; donate, donate, donate and it’s all for naught. Why?, because unless you belong to an approved minority or special interest group, called a “stakeholder” group, you will not be allowed to present your case to any government body looking into any new law, policy or program change. The process of any inquiry into Canadian opinion for the last 39 years has been to solicit only “stakeholder opinion.” If they want to hide this truth, the government will make a statement to the effect that they wish to ‘hear from Canadians.’ If one cares to look closely, with very few exceptions that platitudinous statement simply means they want to listen only to groups that they know will approve their dictatorial plans for Canada. Let’s suppose they put together a committee designed to “seek the views of Canadians” in respect to government plans on immigration. Do you think they will listen to the public? Not on your life! Every minority group under the sun and members of the immigration industry will be the welcomed. They will, of course have representatives of industry that may have legitimate needs and it is these few presenters that will be used justify whatever other plans our governments may have to sell an unsuspecting public.

The Human Rights Act Panel Fraud

A classic “stakeholder” syndrome abuse took place in 1999 when a Human Rights Act Review panel was established to look into updating the Human Rights Act and its dreadful tribunal’s rules and procedures. Reasonable people might have expected the Panel would be made up of a mix of Ministers of the government and perhaps some MPs and Senators from various political parties. They also might have thought it would be useful to have a human rights legal expert or two as advisers, but with no direct input into the Panel’s decisions. Here is what actually took place: Of the four panel members, only the Chairman could be said not to be in a conflict-of -interest position, because he was a former Supreme Court of Canada judge. The panellists selected however, were an entirely inappropriate group. . The first panellist was a University of British Colombia professor of human rights law. This guy was one of the creators of the B.C. Human Rights Code and a member of many advisory committees and task forces as well as being a member of the B.C. Human Rights Commission. He was patently in a conflict-of-interest position because any move to increase the authority of the Human Right’s establishment would enhance his own status and income. The second was a lawyer, bad news right there, from Quebec City and a member of the Canadian Human Rights Commission. She has engaged in all sorts of activities associated with the teaching and design of human rights applications. She should have recused herself from direct participation in the panel because she was in a conflict-of-interest situation. The last panellist was another professor, this time from McMaster University, and again another so-called expert in Human Rights law and affirmative action programs. Well the message was clear wasn’t it! Not one of these three people should have been appointed to the panel because they all profited by the strengthening of the Human Rights establishment and their outlandish Tribunal network. Was there a fair representation of Canadian opinion heard by the power grabbing, self -interested Human Rights Act Review Panel? Here’s the dope. By this writer’s rough count, out of a total of 179 presenters (groups presenting voiced submissions), 100 were of the “stakeholder” variety (vested interest groups). 29 were private businesses, 18 were government funded compliant groups (hardly free to make critical comments) and the balance of 32 groups were either neutral or had contrary opinions (unknown split). There were also several hundred written submissions but no indication of their views. When the report was presented in 2000, the recommendations of the Panel were draconian, exactly as the then government in power must have intended. Do not let the euphemism of Human Rights put you to sleep; they are anything but about human rights. This column is not the place to discuss their report except I did use the extreme word “draconian.” Here are just two of their 75 recommendations. (1) There be no limitation on the financial penalties levied against a convicted person, charged with “hurting the feelings” of a minority person or a minority group. (2) There can be no appeal to a regular court from any of their decisions. In other words, shut up or we will bankrupt you and you can’t appeal your conviction or the penalty. If you don’t pay, we will have you imprisoned. The reader should also understand that these panellists were given a preferred seat to recommend as many enhanced powers of human rights law as they saw fit and in the process award themselves more power and authority over all Canadians. How much power? Well you won’t believe this, but these cosy sounding Human Rights laws take precedence over every other Law or Act in Canada, including laws passed by our Parliament and Legislatures (unless the particular Law or Act being challenged has a clause in it that expressly states that the Human Rights law does not override such Law or Act).

Why do our governments want to control us in these ways?

I believe there are two primary reasons; the first is that they are implementing and continuing to implement laws, policies and programs against the best interests of all Canadians for the benefit of Charter-designated minority group demands. Second, they hope that by placating Quebec and forcing the rest of Canada to give into Quebec’s increasingly obnoxious demands that would turn Canada into a French-speaking, French-oriented, French-dominated, French-everything country, they will obtain sufficient Quebecoise votes to stay in power. Even if we change governments, to obtain sufficient seats to stay in power in Ottawa, every Party is willing to hurt English-speaking Canada by playing to the Quebec Francophone appeasement game. Adscam was a very visible corruption but virtually every policy, law, Act or program that is now destroying the freedoms of English-speaking Canada was placed in force to win Quebecoise seats in Parliament. This includes the outlandish and insulting anti-English laws that our governments allow to exist in Quebec. Our sell-out governments do not have the guts or patience to persuade English-speaking Canadians to accept their corruptions because they know that most of us we would rather keep quiet and hope it all goes away and those that do try to rock their boat can be dealt with. They deal us by what a professor friend of mine calls a “velvet-gloved iron fist.” And while the Human Rights laws, Codes, Commissions and tribunals are the worst of their methods, there are many other methods we will touch on.

A Corrupted and Politically Bent Mass Media

All our federal governments have a reward and punishment system to keep the mass media in line and their mouths shut - the carrot and stick approach. Billions of advertising dollars are directed to both the print and electronic media. Those critical to government policies or the Party in power will not be on the favoured list. TV and radio stations that offend the CRTC by running critical discussions or attacks against Canada’s linguistic, immigration, multicultural or other sensitive Canadian policies will have their licences threatened (They must agree to promote these policies to get their licences in the first place). Then there are our jovial journalists on parliament hill and in the halls of the legislatures who are by natural self-interest, motivated to make friends with those in power or they get no interviews for inside stories. Grants to film makers and Canadian writers make these communication arts people inclined to be careful of their comments about sensitive public policies. Note that most of our well-know parliamentary journalists have been there a long, long time. They stay because they are favoured. On the other hand many of our communication artists and writers have their books or other works ignored if they dare to create anything critical of sensitive policy issues. Note too, that many of our high profile talking-head news journalists have received their Order of Canada “snowflake” rewards. Lots of carrots for co-operators! Oh yes, you might also ask yourself why it is that two of our minority person CBC journalists have been given the prestigious honour of being appointed Governor General of Canada? What great deeds have they performed for Canada? One a known Quebec separatist sympathiser - kind of obvious isn’t it? Actively push the Party line and thou shall be rewarded!

Take action, write your MP, MLA or MPP

Now you know why we cannot rely on any of our large mass-media operations. By design or desire they are propaganda mouthpieces for governments they think will stay in power. That is why we can rarely, if ever, have input to any government decisions or get the media to help and seriously inform the public about the many policies gnawing at the vitals of English-speaking Canadian society. So what’s left to the public? Write letters or visit your M.P.? – Not very effective methods, in fact in most often a lost cause. An ordinary, non-stakeholder Canadian can write letters until they are blue in the face and nothing will happen. Individual letters, no matter how well thought out, will be flushed through the MPP, MP or MLA’s secretaries, straight into the waste basket. In a month’s time a printed cookie-cutter acknowledgement of innocuous politically correct blab will be received with a rubber-stamped signature. The only thing relating to the concerns expressed by the disappointed citizen will be the writer’s address, the salutation and name. Should the “non-stakeholder” citizen go to see his or her MP, all he or she will get is a nice smile, a handshake, a couple of “yes yes, I’ll look into your concerns,” and the same follow-up letter as before with the usual pap. An exception might be made if the citizen asks for help getting a birth certificate or some other such picayune detail. Is it any surprise then that our leaders and the pundits wonder why people give up and refuse to vote, work for candidates or donate? Of course, every four years or so there is a new generation of dummies, like this writer, that fall into the trap and really think they are going to make a difference. That is what the governments rely on, so the charade goes on. They like us when they are trying to get votes but once in, they ignore us.

The Stakeholder ploy is still alive and operating

Here is the latest classic example as to how the “stakeholder” group charade operates, to the great disadvantage of all Canadians. In early December 2007, Bernard Lord the ex Premier of New Brunswick, Canada’s only officially bilingual province, was appointed to make a fast seven-city trip across Canada to obtain the opinion of the ‘Canadian public’ in regard to their views on the progress of functional bilingualism across English-speaking Canada. Of course, it was another “stakeholder” fraud. The bilingual Bernard Lord led a province that is 33% Francophone, the highest portion of French speakers in Canada other than the officially unilingual French-speaking province of Quebec. Most other provinces have fewer than 4% French speakers. Lord is a strong proponent of making all Canadians fully bilingual. His findings are to be or have been reported to the Official Languages Minister, Josee Vernier. Anyone want to guess the direction of that report? Lord did not confer with few, if any, unilingual English-language Canadian groups (perhaps a few parent-teachers groups that want their kids to receive more French immersion support). Most of the time he visited Francophone “stakeholder” groups to find out how the Harper government can best reinforce these group’s needs with millions of Canada’s tax dollars. In other words, Lord is a tainted messenger, speaking solely to the proverbial “stakeholders.” English speaking Canadian opinion was locked out. The Quebec Franco-activists are pleased - and the Harper government hopes to add 10 more Quebec Francophone ridings to their minority government. English-speaking Canadians can look forward to ever more exclusions of their sons and daughters from participation in their own country’s governmental structures. Jobs and careers will be blocked to them and present careers smashed or regulated out of existence, being reserved almost exclusively for bilingual Francophones. Bilingual fluency in all federally-controlled businesses, Crown corporations, federal and provincial civil services, the military above the rank of Major and some Canadian cities is already a fact of life and will permeate all of English-speaking Canada if this shame is allowed to continue. It has to be handed to these Francophone dreamers and their English-speaking backers. They think big thoughts while they implement minority demands but never the wishes of the majority. Democracy and freedom of choice cannot exist in a country with dictatorial and unfair policies like these. Whether it be the controversial immigration policy of excluding the English-speaking immigration stream; the establishment of the trans-Canada system of minority dominated so-called Human Rights Tribunals; preferential hiring laws; the multicultural, “no need to integrate” law; the mucked up so-called Charter of Rights and Freedoms or the designation of minorities as a forever to be coddled group, the fatuous corrupting “stakeholder” menace means that our governments are no longer to be trusted to govern on behalf of all our citizens in a fair and just manner.

What is the answer?

Is there hope of rational change to a more promising future? No! Not as it is proceeding now. Canada will fail as a viable State. The downfall began with the forlorn hope of accommodating Quebec within Canada. It is a lost cause. We must make arrangements to negotiate Quebec’s separation from English-speaking Canada. Until this is done, Prime Minister Harper’s government or any other government representing English-speaking Canada will follow the same destructive path. As hard as it may be to consider this possibility, just think of the ignominy of Block MPs sitting in the Canadian House of Commons and participating in the government of all of Canada. This is a Party that publicly brays that they are committed only to the separation of Quebec from Canada and are only there to protect Quebec’s Francophone interests. If that doesn’t turn your stomach, think about Canada’s immigration policy being manipulated by Quebec and in Quebec’s favour all across the World while at the same they discourage English-speakers from coming to Canada by means of placing French-bilingual requirements on all immigration applications. Then there is the latest immigration plan announced by the Harper government, another Francophone “stakeholder” scheme designed to win Quebecoise votes. The government is set to spend $75,000,000 to bring French speakers from the former French colonies of Africa and seed them into French communities, towns and cities all across English-speaking Canada. Look forward to more French demands for services in French and ultimately bilingual only jobs in English- speaking cities and provincial government civil services. Look to other provinces declaring themselves Officially Bilingual.

Canadians in English-speaking Canada must get Quebec out of Canada

The big plus in getting Quebec out of Canada is that they are not going anywhere. Quebec will not slide into the ocean. They will remain in North America and probably thrive. An old proverb says that “good fences make good neighbours.” Let us make Quebec a good neighbour and get it out of Canada. It took 300 plus years after the Norman conquest of England and the Black Plague to get rid of the use of French in all government offices, the law courts, the royal court and the parliament of England. We can do better than that, say over the next four or five federal elections. The time has come to put English-speaking Canada back in the control of English-speaking governments that will govern according to English-speaking civil rights and English-speaking freedoms! Dick Field is the former founder and Chairman of the Voice of Canadian Committees and the Montgomery Tavern Society. He was editor and publisher of Voices, their newspaper. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto and Queen’s University. Dick has a wide variety of life experiences and has traveled worldwide both as a businessman and the co-owner of a travel business. He retired as a marketing officer after a thirty year career with a major Toronto life insurance company. Dick also ran a TV sales business; was an industrial relations officer at a Hamilton steel company and a salesman and sales manager in the automobile business. Dick is proud to have served in combat during WW2 with the Royal Canadian Artillery in northwest Europe. Dick can be reached at HYPERLINK "mailto:letters@canadafreepress.com" letters@canadafreepress.com


View Comments

Dick Field -- Bio and Archives

Dick Field, editor of Blanco’s Blog, is the former editor of the Voice of Canadian Committees and the Montgomery Tavern Society, Dick Field is a World War II veteran, who served in combat with the Royal Canadian Artillery, Second Division, 4th Field Regiment in Belgium, Holland and Germany as a 19-year-old gunner and forward observation signaller working with the infantry. Field also spent six months in the occupation army in Northern Germany and after the war became a commissioned officer in the Armoured Corps, spending a further six years in the Reserves.

Other articles by Dick Field


Sponsored