For sale: Canada

What is Canada to you and what does this nation mean to you?

With Remembrance Day fast approaching and poppies starting to appear, the nation is once again starting to rev-up its annual campaign to remember the sacrifices that soldiers have made for this nation and the freedoms and privileges that all of us, Canadians and non-Canadians alike, enjoy in this great nation. Our veterans should fill our hearts with pride, even if we may oppose how these men and women are used and the wars that they have fought. They answered a call and were ready to make the ultimate sacrifice to protect all Canadians and our way of life. One of the foundational principles and freedoms that our armed service personnel have fought and died for is democracy, the very essence and lifeblood of the Western world.

This principle of democracy is under threat today, being challenged, desecrated, and destroyed daily in our nation by a common enemy. That enemy is not an Islamist radical, a right-wing neo-Nazi, or left-wing domestic Communists. Instead, our common enemy is our democratically elected Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

This past week on Nov. 2, the Canada-China Foreign Investment Protection and Promotion Agreement (FIPPA) was ready to be signed and ratified. Whether it was signed into law or not is a little difficult to ascertain at the time of writing, but that fact is of secondary importance. Most important is the fact that our nation’s leaders have hitched this country to China in a grossly undemocratic manner. The C-C-FIPPA was not given due course in the House of Commons, being kept secret from the general electorate and most Parliamentarians. No debate was allowed to be held, access to the relevant documents were denied MPs who wished to study the implications of this agreement, the Conservatives refused to send the C-C-FIPPA to Committee where it could be studied, and an Emergency Debate was flatly refused. Canada’s most significant trade-related deal since NAFTA is going to be a hush-hush deal by Harper and his cronies.

Now you might read that Canada has other FIPPA agreements with other nations, and that is true. However, the C-C-FIPPA diverges significantly from these other agreements in that Communist Chinese state owned enterprises (SOE) can in fact claim damages against the Canadian government in secret, for decisions taken at the municipal, provincial, territorial or federal level that result in a reduction of their expectation of profits. Even decisions of Canadian courts can give rise to damages. Harper is turning our nation into a laissez-faire disaster, allowing foreign business entities to exploit our nation for its resources and ruin our pristine ecosystems in the process.

It is galling to see that Harper is taking what was once a great nation and allow the world to steal its resources. Even worse, people defend this man and his cronies and would likely vote for him again.

The reasoning behind that is mind-boggling. Of course Alberta and its government is on-board with this acid trip, since it is the province that thinks it’s oil needs to be extracted at all costs, no matter how dirty it is. That is not to say the government of this province is any better. Brad Wall and his party of elitist business gangsters would love to throw our natural resources at anyone who would buy them, privatize the crowns, and deregulate everything and let business rule the day.

It is time that we, the people, take back this great nation and return it to the democratic principles that it is founded on. We cannot allow for Harper and the Conservative Party to ruin this nation any longer. Give voice to your disgust at what is happening behind closed doors. Do not let one man ruin our country, expose Canadians to threatening agreements with foreign entities, or allow this nation to be desecrated.

As we remember the sacrifices our veterans have made for this nation and for every Canadian, take the time to thank them and remember their sacrifice. Yet, do not forget that this nation and the democratic principles that these veterans sacrificed for, or were prepared to sacrifice for, are being undermined daily by people within the institutions they died to protect. Collectively we must all remember that the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

Sebastian Prost
Contributor

Photo courtesy blogs.theprovince.com