During Canada’s anachronistically named ‘Speech to the
Throne’ on June 3, 2011, a young senate page rose in an act of civil disobedience.
Brigette DePape stood up, quietly holding a makeshift sign that read “Stop
Harper”. All of institutional Canada short-sightedly criticized her for disrespecting
the Canadian system of government.
In the three and a half years since then, Stephen Harper’s
scandals have made a mockery of the senate. He flips the bird to opposition
parties at every opportunity. He’s muzzled his own back benchers and members of cabinet. As Prime Minister, he’s openly attacked the Supreme Court. He neutered Elections Canada after his party was convicted of election fraud. And,
last but not least, Harper’s omnibus approach to legislation bypasses the
basic principles of our parliamentary democracy.
It must be one of the greatest ironies in Canadian history
that the people who criticized Brigette for her mis-behaviour have been so
humiliatingly ‘bitch-slapped’ by the very subject of her warning. With all that in mind, here's my latest limerick:
Harper’s hubris continues to grow
With contempt for us from the word ‘go’
And to stop being sacked
He relies on the fact
That we’re all so surprisingly slow
No comments:
Post a Comment