sticks and stones will break my bones...

Today the federal Conservatives released three attack ads aimed at discrediting Stephane Dion by questioning his leadership abilities, and his credentials as champion of the environment, among other things. It would seem that in the absence of well crafted and comprehensive public policy, Harper's Conservatives feel that name calling is a more appropriate tool in fulfilling their role as stewards of the public trust.

Will this accomplish anything positive for the environment, clarify the role of Canada in Afghanistan, meaningfully address the crumbling public healthcare infrastructure, or deal with any other issue of importance to Canadians? Nope. At best the only things gained are gained by the Conservatives and amount to a few percentage points in the ephemeral public opinion polls and a modest but temporary bump in majority status probability. And after this immature publicity stunt we're supposed to look to Harper and company for increased integrity and accountability in public office? That's the sound of me laughing all the way to indifference.

I'm just going to tune out for the time being and hope against hope that our government decides to actually govern instead of playing opposition politics with the power they were given by the Canadian public in the last election (by a minority of Canadians, it is worth remembering).

the price of secrets...

This past week Maher Arar finally received two things long overdue him: over $10 million in financial compensation from the federal government for their complicity in giving him up to the US anti-terrorism machinery and ultimately to a nightmare of unjust detention in subhuman conditions for nearly a year; and more importantly, a formal apology from Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

It is worth quoting that apology here:
"On behalf of the government of Canada, I wish to apologize to you…and your family for any role Canadian officials may have played in the terrible ordeal that all of you experienced in 2002 and 2003."

All of this was a result of misused (and likely non-existent) "classified information," a growing body of invisible truth being used by political leaders in supposedly democratic nations to demonstrate to citizens that they are making gains in the all-too-abstract "War on Terror." The public exoneration and compensation of Maher Arar makes clear that there is a concrete financial cost to such secrecy, in addition to a political one.

And yet the continued presence of Mr. Arar's name on the US "no fly list" is a sad example of the failure of our public institutions to right the inevitable wrongs that the culture of over-classification commits. It would seem that even the rational light of public justice is not enough to put to rest some of the worst kinds of secrets, namely the kind that justify unfounded hearsay, and unjust detention.

With this in mind, I find the op-ed contribution in today's New York Times particularly relevant.

'da behrrs...

Wow, there are fans and then there are FANS. In the words of Mama Rose: "Some people got it and make it pay." I don't think the mother of all stage mothers had the Super Bowl in mind, however...

blue is the new green...

Poor Rona. I mean, where was this $1.5 billion in spending on the environment when she needed a career saving announceable? I guess no matter how it's come about, seeing the resurrection of Canada's "old government's" environmental programs is progress of a sort, right?

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This is completely crazy.

saturday afternoon quotable...

"The country of one's dreams must be a country one can imagine being constructed, over the course of time, by human hands."
-- Richard Rorty, philosopher

day one...

The Dems are in charge again...

First female speaker in the history of Congress and the first Muslim Congressman in US history are two major highlights of the newly opened 110th Congress. So far, so good. Fingers crossed...

the holidays are over...

The tinsel has only just been swept off the floor, the decorations put away and the tree put out, and already we're back to the kind of petty politics that made 2006 such a parade of ignorant rhetoric all across North America. Sadly, it's happening in Massachusetts once again...time warp, anyone?

the year ahead...

I've been hesitant to indulge in some sort of New Year's retrospective, "the year as I saw it" kind of thing, mainly because so much has happened to me personally, and to all of us collectively, that I may yet need the better part of 2007 to process all of 2006. I'm also just as reluctant to make any sweeping predictions about the year ahead since pretty much right across the boards we're living under the most uninspired leadership in a generation as the world continues to stumble ever deeper into the uncharted terrain of the 21st century. The travesty of justice in Iraq this past weekend is a prime example of international leadership taking the low road, and showing off the worst aspects of human kind.

Maybe my somewhat dark view of the year ahead is just a side effect of the strange pseudo-tropical winter weather we're having in pleasant valley, or some low-level post-holiday depression, but I must admit that I'm feeling just a touch cynical about 2007. Which is why I had best bite my tongue.

I did, however, come across this quotation last night which, though harsh, does kind of sum it up for me:

"We are waiting with the cruel, experienced eye of a citizenry that has lost respect for its leadership in general, yet hasn't quite worked out what to do about it and so waits for them to self-destruct."
-- John Ralston Saul, from The Collapse of Globalism