Harper

Yesterday when I heard that Stephen Harper was suddenly taken with a desire to promote maternal health as the key issue for the G8, I have to admit to being perplexed.  I don't think I've ever heard Harper talk about women's issues. Behind the scenes his government, which of course means him, has not only cut funding to most women's groups and the most progressive NGOs like Alternatives and Kairos but have eliminated the word "equality" from their women's bureau.  Harper is no doubt that most anti-feminist PM we have ever had.

Thanks to Tor Sandberg of rabbletv, here is a speech I gave to the anti-proroguing rally in Toronto.  There were about 10,000 people there and another 15,000 at least across the country'

On Saturday,  January 23  at 1 pm in more than 60 cities and towns, Canadians will hit the street to demand a real democracy in this country.  What started as a protest against the prorogation of Parliament is starting to look like a democracy movement.

Voters in both the United States and Canada are reacting to a broken system.  In the US by voting down the Democratic candidate for Senate in the most Democratic state of Massachusetts and in Canada by this unprecendented uprising.

Today famed British journalist and environmentalist George Monbiot wrote an open letter to the people of Canada pleading with us to clean up our act on the environment.  In his usual incisive prose he wrote:

Canada's tactics have caused shock and revulsion everywhere. They are dragging your good name through the mud. Stephen Harper and Jim Prentice threaten to do as much damage to your international standing as George W. Bush and Dick Cheney did to that of the United States."

We are trying George but our government doesn't listen to the people of this country, only to the oil companies.

Like many others, I am sick with some kind of flu but this is an emergency so I am posting the fact sheet from the Coalition for Gun Control.  On Wednesday November 4 just one month short of the 20th anniversary of the Montreal Massacre when a single gun man slaughtered 14 women shouting, "you are all a bunch of feminists" the Conservatives are hoping to pass a private member's bill that will gut the gun registry, What's worse is that the NDP and Liberals could defeat it if they would impose party discipline on their members, but they won't.  You can make sure they do by flooding Layton and Ignatieff with emails and phone calls between now and then.  Here are the facts: