EXCERPTS:
Common Causes is an assembly of social movements dedicated to
defending democracy, social justice, the environment and human rights in
the face of an all-out assault by the Harper government. On September
13, 2012, 47 diverse regional and national organizations came together
to share concerns about the country's direction under the Harper
government, and to create strategies to counter a federal government
agenda that we believe is at odds with the values of the significant
majority of people who live in Canada, Québec and on Indigenous lands.
Common Causes is made up of groups and organizations that represent
workers, the poor, students, First Nations, women, environmentalists,
farmers, educators, human rights and social justice advocates,
immigrants and refugees, writers and artists, scientists, aid and
development workers, front-line health care workers, and many others. We
are deeply troubled by the Harper government’s agenda that is changing
society in such critical areas as the economy, the environment, labour
rights, health care, food safety, education, social programs,
science, culture, foreign policy, civil liberties, peace and poverty.
Our mission is to unite people and communities to work in solidarity for
change, and our goal is the just, equitable world and country that we
know is possible.
What's at stake
We are very concerned about targeted attacks by the
Harper government on democracy, environmental protections, public
services, workers’ rights, indigenous communities,
charitable organizations, independent scientists, civil liberties, and
migrant, immigrant and refugee rights.
The list is long and growing. These attacks, together with a radical
right-wing policy agenda, are fundamentally changing the nature of
Canada.
We are also very concerned about the use of anti-democratic tactics
to push forward this agenda. Accusations of electoral fraud are now
before the courts. Faith in our democracy has been shaken by
prorogations, contempt of Parliament citations, omnibus legislation
rammed through Parliament, trade and foreign investment agreements not
opened to debate, and violations of financing regulations.
We do not accept that having a majority, won with a mere 39.6 per
cent of the vote, gives the Harper government the right to undo decades
of social, environmental and human rights policies. Very little in the
platform of the Conservative Party before the last election prepared us
for changes so profound they undermine people’s most basic human rights
and democratic freedoms.
What we hope to achieve
Over the last two years, we have witnessed amazing organizing and
mobilizing in Canada -- from student movements in Québec, to the “Defend
Our Coast” struggle against tar sands pipelines in British Columbia, to
scientists speaking out against the “Death of Evidence,” to
the environmental community standing together through the “Black Out
Speak Out” campaign. Courageous doctors have stepped forward to
challenge the attacks on refugee benefits, and librarians and archivists
have marched to save our collective history. Workers are fighting
for their rights. First Nations have taken direct action through the
“Idle No More” movement, and Chief Theresa Spence of the Attawapiskat
First Nation launched a hunger strike to protest unjust omnibus bills.
The time has come for Canada-wide coordinated action against the
Harper government's agenda, which is fundamentally changing our society
and our country. Common Causes will work to support the many
mobilizations and campaigns that already exist, but also to create a
strategic, coordinated plan to ensure that the Harper agenda is stopped
at the next election and replaced with a progressive alternative. Common
Causes will work cross-sectorally, locally, provincially and nationally
to create an extended network for solidarity, resistance, action
and change. Through this coordination, we will shape priorities for
common action and maximum impact.
Our concerns
Although by no means an exhaustive list, our concerns can be broken into five major policy areas.
Social Justice
Stephen Harper is dismantling the social security net.
- New corporate tax cuts will cost Canadians $6 billion annually,
resulting in 19,000 job cuts affecting every area of public service.
- Public sector cuts hurt women most, especially the Harper government's decision to eliminate childcare funding, reject a national childcare program and cut projects to improve Aboriginal women's health.
- Our public health care system will suffer from a dramatic reduction in federal funding.
- Workers have been targeted through eroding Employment Insurance,
raising the age of retirement, and ramming through back-to-work
legislation against striking or locked out workers.
- Arts and culture have been on the chopping block since 2008, with
the decades-old Canadian Conference of the Arts being the latest victim.
The environment
Stephen Harper is wiping out decades of environmental protections to promote unbridled resource extraction.
- Under the Harper government, Canada became the only country in the
world to have ratified and then abandoned the Kyoto Protocol, and has
failed dismally to address climate change.
- Far fewer projects must undergo a federal environmental assessment, while tar sands subsidies cost us $1.38 billion.
- Ninety-nine per cent of lakes and rivers are no longer protected as
navigable waters, and cuts to freshwater research and monitoring
endanger them further.
- The Harper government has shut down dozens of research projects,
facilities and institutes conducting basic scientific research and
eliminated the grants programs.
Human rights
Canada's traditional reputation as a human rights leader has eroded
precipitously under Stephen Harper, undoing decades of human rights
leadership.
- Omnibus budget bills and the abandonment of the Kelowna Accord have
undermined the safety, sovereignty and security of First Nations.
- We now have a two-tier system of refugee protection that is vulnerable to political whims.
- Oversight bodies, including the CSIS Inspector General and the
Military Police Complaints Commission, are being dismantled, while
Canadian mining companies continue to escape scrutiny for human rights
abuses abroad.
- The government has failed to ratify international human rights
treaties dealing with political disappearances, torture prevention, and
disabled children, and has opposed the UN Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples and the General Assembly Resolution on the Human
Right to Water and Sanitation.
Foreign policy
Stephen Harper has moved Canada's foreign policy sharply to the
right, embracing a more militaristic role for our armed services,
putting trade before human rights and using aid to promote the interests
of Canada’s infamous mining industry abroad.
- As starkly set out in a leaked 2012 confidential government
document, trade and economic opportunities for corporations have become
the driving forces behind Stephen Harper's foreign policy.
- Stephen Harper's aggressive trade agenda extends not only to
countries with poor human rights histories such as China, Colombia and
Peru, but also restricts our economic and environmental policies by
giving foreign-based transnational corporations new powers.
- Foreign aid has been frozen since 2010, with money tied to mining companies.
- The Harper government has abandoned Canada’s traditional role as a
global peacekeeper and is changing our armed forces to become more
aggressive and militaristic.
- Defiant international diplomacy has left Canada’s reputation for bridge building and evenhandedness in tatters.
Democracy
No government in Canadian history has so abused the rules of Parliament, or so threatened dissenting civil society voices.
- Stephen Harper prorogued Parliament twice -- to avoid defeat and to
stave off scrutiny over allegations that Canada wilfully looked the
other way when Afghan detainees were transferred despite a risk of
torture.
- Harper's office compulsively monitors all government communication,
and scientists, civil servants and embassy staff are regularly muzzled.
- Harper silences dissent, targeting those who advocate for equality and social justice, the environment, human rights or peace.
Conclusion
We believe the Harper government is undemocratically and profoundly
changing the role and structure of government in this country in a way
that threatens our core values. Far too much power is now in the hands
of the private sector, unaccountable to democratic oversight.
Democracy is being savaged. The future of our country and our society
is at stake. We will unite our Common Causes to defeat this agenda and
work for a just and sustainable future.
-reprinted from rabble.ca