So the government is in a tizzy that someone in the opposition may or may not have given them a Nazi salute. Two things.
1) If someone did that, AWESOME. I'd like to buy that person a drink.
2) Let's make this a thing. Every time one of those fuckers starts talking, someone holler "Heil Harper". Every time they walk by, salute them. Let 'em know that their behaviour is bordering on fascist. We already know it pisses them off.
And you know what? I was once one who said, "Stop comparing them to Nazis. You're not doing our side any good". I was wrong. Flat out wrong. Their behaviour is fascist. They're shutting down democratic debate, for fuck's sake. They cut healthcare for refugees. REFUGEES. Are you fucking kidding me? The rewrite history with lies ("We also have no history of colonialism. So we have all of the things that many people admire about the great powers but none of the things that threaten or bother them." Stephen Harper, 2009). He canceled program after program to help aboriginal children. It's appalling.
According to Rense.com, Dr. Lawrence Britt examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14 defining characteristics common to each. Harper doesn't have all of these, but he has shades of all of them. I'm giving one or two examples of each. Suffice it to say, there are plenty of other examples.
1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.
Yup. Much more than Before Harper. And now it's the Harper Government (tm).
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.
Check. Cutting basic healthcare for refugees qualifies. Canada is also directly responsible for sending prisoners to be tortured.
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.
Oh hell yes. Terrorists. Socialists. Refugees. Immigrants. Muslims...
4. Supremacy of the Military - Even when there are widespread
domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.
Not as much here, but $35 billion for fighter jets while refusing to build schools on reserves? That definitely qualifies. What I can't figure out is why they're cutting veterans' benefits and services.
5. Rampant Sexism - The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.
*snicker* They cut the budget from the Status of Women by 37%. They eliminated the gun registry. And only 22% of parliament is female. Read here: http://cupe.ca/updir/Women's_equality.pdf
Women in public sector unions kissed wage equity goodbye some years back.
6. Controlled Mass Media - Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.
Hell yes. Not just hell yes, but OYFG YES. From 2 questions only during the election, to cutting the fuck out of the CBC budget, to funding Fox News North with millions and millions of dollars. When I was in university, we learned to take media stories and examine them for bias, loaded language, and logical fallacies. Suffice it to say, I've yet to find any mainstream media that is biased against the cons. And who can blame them? It's too dangerous.
7. Obsession with National Security - Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.
Did you know that if we don't allow the CATSA to look at us naked or x-ray our shoes that terrorists will take over? Totally true. And did you also know that we need to spend billions of dollars defending our northern border? Yup.
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined - Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.
Office of Religious Freedom, anyone? They don't have an agenda now, but I highly suspect that this office will be used to allow pharmacists, doctors and nurses, "conscience rights" so that they don't have to dispense birth control pills, provide abortions, or tell the truth to women who are pregnant about any problems the fetus might be having.
9. Corporate Power is Protected - The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.
hahahahahah. Oh... bwahahahahaha. Cannot stop laughing. Or sobbing. Corporate interests, under the guise of "free market" are the most protected interests in Canada.
10. Labor Power is Suppressed - Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.
The Harper Government has worked their asses off to undermine unions. They kept PIPSC, one of the big public sector unions, out of the budget meetings. They changed the rules so that women's rights under the union were severely undermined. And they vilify unions in the media as much as possible. It's sickening.
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts - Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.
In 2008, they cuts arts funding, and then scoffed at it as a "niche issue". They silence the academics who work in government and make sure that there is plenty of media spin against the ones who aren't.
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment - Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.
They are building jails to fill full of people who commit unreported crimes. The RCMP are given crazy rights, and are almost always found not guilty of the crimes they are charged with. They killed a guy in an airport for being upset and were found not guilty, even when it was on tape AND they were caught lying their asses off about the case. And that's just one example.
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption - Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.
They appointed to Senate men who lost the election. After promising to eliminate the Senate. Need I say more?
14. Fraudulent Elections - Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.
Hahahahaha. Robo-call Fraud. If you're not familiar, the National Soc... I mean Conservative Party of Canada had a grand ol' time making robocalls telling people likely to vote for the opposition that their polling station had been moved. Of course, they hadn't. But plenty of people fell for it and didn't manage to vote.
