I admit that I was a little unsettled when our neighbours to the south started coming up with heavily melodramatic labels for their most powerful new agencies and legislation after 9/11 -- Heimat Homeland Security, eg, or the Patriot Act. And then they have all those upside-down titles for their laws, like the Clean Air Act (a licence for making the air dirty) and the No Child Left Behind legislation (you can fill this in for yourselves).
But they're an emotional people. We all know that. We try to cut them some slack, especially at their Thanksgiving, because we know that they just talk that way, and besides, if we really hurt their feelings, they could pound us back to the Stone Age.
It's so strange, though, isn't it, to see Canada's no-longer-so-new government outdo the Americans on the loaded-metaphor front? So Bush and Cheney are playing Orwell games, maybe even Hitl ... ok, I won't finish that sentence.
But it takes Stockwell Day to don the mantle of Robespierre and the last days of the Terror in 1793-94 as Canada's minister of bleeding Public Safety.
Or maybe that just took someone in the PMO with a tin ear who was trying to suck up to the Cheney/Bush regime by proving that Canadians too can perform Orwellian rhodomontades, and who was obviously too ignorant to know that he had just summoned up one of the worst memories of state terrorism in Western history.
Doris Day is still taking only baby steps in the path of his predecessor, but he does seem to be on his way:
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day says he wishes Canadians were as outraged over impaired driving deaths as they are over the death of a Polish immigrant shot with a Taser by police....
The minister told a crowd in the B.C. Interior on Saturday [ie, the day of the funeral-mb] that Dziekanski’s death was “tragic.”
“Quite rightly, the whole nation is aghast…. One person was killed who didn’t have to be killed,” said Day, MP for Okanagan-Coquihalla.
But he says drunk-driving accidents also claim the lives of fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters and other loved ones, “and where’s the shock and horror?”
People! How dare you care [about something I might be presumed to have some responsibility for] when, gee, there are all these bright shiny objects you could be worrying about instead?
Canadians are feeling sick and ashamed, about Robert Dziekanski, about the ankle-deep blood and shit in the prisons in Afghanistan, and many of us are starting to feel scared. So who feels confident that Stockwell Day can rise to that occasion? Who feels confident that any of our politicians can?
A sad reflection: Robespierre was actually a man of considerable intellect, and his story is a tragedy. I doubt that anyone will ever say that of Stockwell Day.
But it is a coward who denies that we all now have blood on our hands. All of us. And we have to stop this. "Public Safety," my eye. They aren't saving ordinary citizens. Ordinary citizens have in fact become the targets.
H/t to Chet at The Vanity Press and mattt with three tees at bastard.logic.
Damn. I'm still mad.
It would be comedic, if the punchline wasn't being delivered at our expense.
What Day and others have shown to the world over the last 3-4 days is that the Canadian government, the RCMP, and whoever else is implicated in these bloody tragedies, are okay with all of this. They are *okay* with it. They are not losing a wink over that gawdawful video, they are not losing a wink over the request for blood-and-shit-proof boots. They're not even going through the motions anymore. They can't even *imitate* compassion. All they can muster is "don't believe your lying eyes" and "they're Taliban they deserve it anyway" and "one Polish guy, what about the drunk drivers??"
Sure, I'm scared. But I'm also angry. Effing livid.
I'm very scared, too. Been furious for ages, it seems, but the fear was slower to surface.
We will have to prove we are stronger than this.
Excellent post, skdadl.
"Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day says he wishes Canadians were as outraged over impaired driving deaths as they are over the death of a Polish immigrant shot with a Taser by police."
I may be mistaken here .. someone correct me if I am wrong, but there are laws, and constantly enforced laws against impaired driving. In Canada it is a criminal offense, not a misdemeaner, and that carries a considerable social impact. (Try to cross the border with an criminal record.)
I suspect there are laws agaonst the excessive use of force by the Police - but their enforcement is 'spotty' to say the least - it is not "Canadians" that do not care about tazering (or drunk driving, for that matter) it is Mr. Days own department.
Day is an even bigger fucking moron than I'd thought.
Did'ja ever hear of M.A.D.D. Stocky? It's an acronym for "Mothers Against Drunk Driving."
You brainless fuckface.
They're a very popular, influential organization in Canada.
Did'ja ever hear of Ontario's "R.I.D.E." program? It's an acronym too, ... moron. It stands for "Reduce Impaired Driving Everywhere." It's where Ontario drivers consent to allow police warrantless searches of their vehicles during the holiday seasons in order for them to find drunk drivers.
We already take this issue seriously. Being an absolute shithead, this has probably escaped your attention, what with you being so busy with your policing portfolio.
Now then, Stocky, why don't you take seriously the state murder of a citizen of Poland, who was merely anxious from ten hours of confusion and official indifference and who wasn't harming anyone?
Why don't you do your fucking job? Why don't you ask for the RCMP Commissioner's resignation? Why don't you grow a fucking brain?
Better yet, why don't you just fuck-off and shut your stupid pie-hole forever?
So is Stockboy saying he plans to take those officers' drivers' licenses away and hand them some jail time?
I loved the reports today of ordinary BC citizens verbally attacking RCMP officers and throwing eggs at cruisers. Bravo! I say. Maybe only a popular revolt will break their unaccountable power over life and death. Maybe that revolt is happening now in slow motion. Canadians as a rule are profoundly decent (the right side of the blogosphere has shown a surprising convergence with us on this). The rest of them join the RCMP.
As for that utter ass Stockwell Day, I wish he'd just drop dead. Enough is enough.
Next election a bunch of people should go to his riding with signs saying "Are you really this dumb?" and some of the things he's said on them. Man, even if I was conservative he's just too much of an embarrissment.
A correction. The Clean Air Act is a piece of legislation from 1963, subsequently amended, and its title is not misleading--it has led to substantial regulation which has cleaned the air.
You might be thinking of the "Clear Skies Act," a Bush proposal that has gone nowhere, or perhaps the "Canada's Clean Air Act," a similar piece of greenwashing proposed by the Conservative government.
Charles, thank you for the correction. I was writing in some heat, as I guess you could tell. I know that there's a long list of teasingly mistitled acts, and if I had been calmer I would have done my research properly, but instead I just ... well, as you can see.