Mulcair's finest hour? Bill C-51 and the NDP

After prevaricating and going through the silly parliamentary motions of hand-wringing and playing at appearing to be "serious" bourgeois politicians, the NDP and Tom Mulcair have taken a principled stance and come out swinging against the transparently dangerous Bill C-51.

Mulcair's statements have been direct and unequivocal, even calling out Harper's dog-whistle style announcements:

Stephen Harper's new law is sweeping, dangerous, vague and ineffective,...
It doesn't do things that are proven to work and puts politics ahead of protecting Canadians. Even when he introduced the legislation, Harper chose a campaign-style event. and made remarks that most regrettably targeted Muslim communities.

Elizabeth May and the Greens have taken a courageous and principled stance on the Bill from the start, but the importance of the Official Opposition and Canada's historic social democratic and labour aligned party doing so as well cannot be overstated. (The Communist Party, it is worth noting, has also released an excellent statement on the Bill.)

This is especially true in light of the fact that Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party's position on the bill is self-contradictory and profoundly, deeply, gutless and wrong. Given that the Liberals have historically tried to portray themselves as the great defenders of the Charter, their supporters and MPs should all hang their heads in shame.

Mulcair has finally done something akin to Tommy Douglas and the NDP of old when it stood against the War Measures Act. Given that on many other issues the differences between the newly centrist "government in waiting" NDP and the Liberals are often minuscule or not of a fundamental nature, this has the potential to be Mulcair's "raison d'être", in that it will truly set him apart from them.

It does not excuse the NDP's recent embrace of capitalism and opportunism (in the true sense of the word) but it matters.

This stance may not benefit Mulcair electorally. Many of the very best things the NDP ever did did not - though they did, far more importantly, benefit the country. Mulcair in this instance is echoing a more principled past.

It is the right thing to do and, should he stay the course, may well prove to be his finest hour.

Update: Unfortunately it would appear Mulcair's opposition to the Bill may not be all that is at first seemed: http://theleftchapter.blogspot.ca/2015/02/mulcair-and-bill-c-51-still-same-old.html 

photo via wikimedia commons

Selling our parliamentary souls on civil liberties

The farce around the whole Bill C-51 "debate"  gets larger as time passes with more and more MPs playing at being "parliamentarians" as our civil liberties are squandered.

The truly disgraceful position of the Liberals on this is very clear and is reflected in Trudeau's meme posted here. He has straightforwardly chosen to put the Liberal brand and a chance at "governing" ahead of civil liberties.

The NDP has, so far, also been really bad on this as well. The reality seems to be that when a $160K job with massive perks in Ottawa is on the line civil liberties become secondary.

We have to be "hearing from a variety of experts and stakeholders, and Canadians, who can advise us on what present laws already allow, what the bill may or may not permit, evaluate it against the Charter, anticipate consequences, etc. Remember, we're not government, and have not had any prior knowledge or consultation on this bill. It's only been out for a few days, and we want to proceed with reason and information." according to NDP MP Don Davies on a Facebook page.

Seriously? 

Anyone with any democratic instinct knows this is a bad bill. Dangerously so. It has been called out as such in multiple forums and by every left and civil liberties group in the country outside of the rarefied halls of parliament.

So far, Elizabeth May, despite being a caucus of only one, is the sole MP to have spoken out strongly about this. May said  "This parliament must not allow the Conservatives to turn CSIS into a secret police force". 

The play at being "responsible" and "governmental" by Don Davies and the rest of the NDP and Liberal caucuses is sad, but should not be unexpected. It is true that civil liberties issues are not what the politicians think will get them elected and do not make you sound "government in waiting".

The fact that the NDP and Liberals have not taken, to date, a stand on this obvious civil libertarian question yet again proves the following point Ralph Miliband made forty years ago:

For one of the most important aspects of the political life of advanced capitalism is precisely that the disagreements between those political leaders who have generally been able to gain high office have very seldom been of the fundamental kind these leaders and other people so often suggest. What is really striking about these political leaders and political office-holders, in relation to each other, is not their many differences, but the extent of their agreement on truly fundamental issues –as they themselves, when occasion requires, have been wont to recognize, and as large numbers of people among the public at large, despite the political rhetoric to which they are subjected, recognize in the phrase ‘politicians are all the same'

Are politicians, other than Elizabeth May, all going to be basically the same on this issue?

Time will tell, but in this era of neo-liberal hegemony and government promoted fear, we certainly shouldn't bet against it.