Blog – Libby Davies yeehaw
Parliamentary Compromise Will Get Things Done – Libby Davies
Parliamentary Compromise Will Get Things Done
OTTAWA – There’s nothing stopping Paul Martin from compromising to avoid an unwanted holiday election and get work done this fall, NDP MPs Libby Davies, (Vancouver East), Peter Julian (Burnaby-new Westminster) and Bill Siksay (Burnaby-Douglas) said today as the NDP introduced a compromise motion in Parliament that would see a January election call.
“Nobody wants a holiday election. Let’s schedule the vote for February and get things done for Canadians like Bill C-55, cracking down on high-risk offenders, providing some relief for winter fuel costs and wage protection. People also want to see the First Ministers’ Aboriginal Conference go ahead. There’s a compromise on the table that accomplishes all of that,” said Julian.
With Parliament at an impasse, Canada’s Opposition leaders agreed Sunday to a common sense compromise – proposing a January election call, for a mid-February vote. The leaders also agreed to compromise on expediting passage of legislation-in-progress, including the energy rebate bill and a wage protection bill.
“As Jack Layton has said, there’s nothing stopping Paul Martin from compromising,” said Siksay, “The Opposition proposal says yes to the priorities Paul Martin identified for this fall. It lets work get done. Parliament doesn’t even sit from mid-December to February, so the only thing compromising would stop is two months of taxpayer-funded Liberal electioneering in the New Year.”
Unlike the spring, when the Liberals accepted good NDP ideas to get things done for people, this fall they said no to protecting medicare from privatization. The NDP cannot express confidence in a government that’s not getting results for people, and it can’t condone the Liberal record on ethics. But compromise from all parties could still avert an unwanted holiday election.
“People don’t understand why if three parties can compromise, the fourth can’t,” said Davies. “There’s nothing stopping Paul Martin from committing to an election call that would have fallen in mid-January anyway given Justice Gomery’s original timetable. That’s what he committed to last spring. There’s nothing stopping the Prime Minister from saying yes to this common sense compromise.”
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Protect diversity in Canadian media!
Protect diversity in Canadian media!
Are you one of the many Canadians increasingly concerned about the situation of our country’s media? Media diversity is the cornerstone of democracy, yet in recent years consolidation has left our media in the hands of fewer and fewer big corporations, with ownership (control) among the most concentrated in the industrialized world; the CRTC has advanced consolidation and commercialization while neglecting the public interest and even adopting policy breaking its own legal mandate; insecure and inadequate funding has compromised our public broadcasting, and English CBC now earns most of its revenue from commercial sources.
I encourage you to check out the CRTC’s Diversity of Voices Proceeding. This proceeding was created in the wake of major corporate media mergers to examine issues of concentration of ownership and its impact on diversity. It is open to public input until July 18th.
The airwaves are public property, yet CRTC proceedings are usually dominated by representatives of big media. If they are allowed to dominate this important proceeding, it will lead to even more policy serving corporate interests at the expense of consumers, workers, local communities, citizens, and our democracy.
A new coalition, Canadians for Democratic Media (CDM), has just launched a national action campaign to get Canadians directly involved in the CRTC. A non-partisan coalition of activists, labour unions, civil society, academics and independent media, CDM is acting to mobilize unprecedented public input to ensure the CRTC gets the message that Canadians oppose concentrated ownership. We want the CRTC to encourage and protect diversity, and strengthen non-commercial and community media.
On CDM’s website, you can join Canadians from across the country sending input to the CRTC – and the CRTC weighs each comment. This is a powerful way of countering big media’s influence and promoting the public interest. I am supporting this campaign but the deadline for public input is July 18th, so we need to act fast to defend diversity and stop the big media takeover.
Please consider supporting this campaign – just as important – and spread the word among your own networks, communities and organizations. Please take action now and learn more at www.democraticmedia.ca.
I urge you to join and support this critically important action today.
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The missing and murdered women of Vancouver deserve an inquiry
The missing and murdered women of Vancouver deserve an inquiry
When it comes to considering the missing and murder women from the Downtown Eastside, these are the concerns: • Why did so many things go wrong? • Lack of trust for police that still keeps women from reporting violence. • What can we learn about solicitation laws and why they don't work? • Jurisdictional issues need to be addressed. • A necessary evaluation of any public program. • What can we learn about marginalized women and men?
The original article, The missing and murdered women of Vancouver deserve an inquiry was published on August 27, 2010 in rabble.ca. Author(s): Libby Davies