Harper: Playing Hardball Credit: Art Threat

In an earlier posting, I had discussed why certain politicians are more successful than others and the influence of Machiavelli on modern politics. Stephen Harper was cited as one of those successful politicians: someone concerned primarily about his own interests and someone willing to do what it takes to succeed. The recent treatment of Helena Guergis for the missteps that she and her husband Rahim Jaffer are alleged to have committed implies self-centered and tough behaviour on the part of Harper. Harper decided to take merely the word of a semi-anonymous source to justify the call for a police and ethics probe and for turfing her from caucus. Although the allegations could be true, clear evidence does not appear to have been presented. Furthermore, at no time does it appear that Harper asked Guergis for her side of the story nor did he inform her about the nature of the allegations. This behaviour seems to bolster earlier descriptions of Harper as a cold opportunist, and someone not particularly fond of women. Many journalists have pointed out that this behaviour allows Harper to remove unequivocally a difficult cabinet minister from Government and from a relatively safe seat that the Tories will probably win again without Guergis.
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Photo Credit: Canwest News Service

On January 18, the Harper government announced the appointment of a new chair to the Commission for Public Complaints about the RCMP (CPC) – the organization tasked with conducting investigations into complaints about our national police force. Ian McPhail, a lawyer specializing in wills & real estate and a long-time contributor to the Conservative Party was appointed to the position despite having no previous experience in criminal law. In an interview with Colin Freeze of the Globe & Mail, Mr. McPhail told Freeze “you probably know more about the background [of the CPC] than I do”.

Paul Kennedy, the outgoing chair of the CPC expressed concern over McPhail’s qualifications, as well as the seemingly partisan nature of the appointment. Both he and Shirley Heafey, the previous CPC chair, had extensive experience working with federal security and regulatory bodies before taking on the role as chair of the CPC. McPhail’s only experience working with a federal security agency was his week long appointment as vice-chair of the CPC just prior to the January 18th announcement.
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"R.C.M.P. Stare Down Protest"

Senior R.C.M.P. Officials can deny harassing Vancouver Olympic protesters all they want and Pat McDonnel can sit and feint innocence as long as he can legally cover it up or maintain deniability, but lets look at the truth – the R.C.M.P.’s actions, not statements, and I.S.U. security behaviours for the 2010 Olympics.

Danika Surm, friend of open anti-Olympic protester Chris Shaw, claims she was approached by two plainclothed Olympic security officers and questioned about her friendship with an anti-Olympic protester. Surm said “she was on her way to class at a south Vancouver campus when she was approached by two plainclothed police officers with the Integrated Security Unit, the force in charge of Olympic security. The two officers questioned her about her friendship with Chris, who teaches neuroscience at the University of British Columbia, and what she knew about his plans to protest against the Olympics in February. The R.C.M.P. then did the same thing to Chris Shaw’s ex-wife, even though the two haven’t been married for 15 years.
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Auditor General Sheila Fraser has made the assertive announcement that despite billions of tax dollars being poured into airport security over the past few years, an act as simple as a background check on the people who work there are run without much thought at all.

If at all…

Day to day, we are led to believe that there is a chance that authorities would not know if those working behind airport security lines were terrorists or drug smugglers.

Fraser’s latest report, zeroing in on wasted government money, includes an account of airport security clearance being granted to someone with assault and weapons convictions, and someone who was under investigation for a murder relating to drug smuggling at a large airport.
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A confused and frustrated immigrant flew into Vancouver from Poland and spent 10 hours waiting to see his mother. During the course of his frustration, he was approached by RCMP Officers, tasered, handcuffed, jumped on and eventually died.

This incident was fortunately caught on someone’s cell phone. The cell phone footage caught the RCMP in a myriad of lies.


The media has since played the footage quite frequently when analyzing every different angle that this story has to offer. It is footage that is hard to watch as it records the last minutes of a man’s life before he was assaulted by the officers. It is hard not to be affected by the man’s cries of pain after being tasered a number of times.
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