Hidden Issues
TO THE EDITOR
"The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern. Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely"…. "I exhort you never to debase the moral currency or to lower the standard of rectitude but to try others by the final maxim that governs your own lives…." Lord Acton
The "Sponsorship Scandal" and "Culture of Entitlement", while real, are "red herrings" overshadowing many greater issues in which many Canadians have been kept uninformed.
SOME QUESTIONS OF MANY TO ASK YOUR FEDERAL CANDIDATE.
What will be the future of--short and long-term--: CPP, OAS and E.I., under your party? If changes are to be made, when and what will they be?
Will your party continue with across-the-board tax cuts to corporate, personal and the GST? If and when we enter into an economic slowdown with an eroded tax base, a deficit could be used to justify the elimination of programs not to the liking of the party in power with a majority. Federal funding to social, education, housing, health and other programs could be reduced or eliminated. Comments?
Certain high profile, non-elected Canadians are involved with a program called "Deep Integration (DI) reporting to the US. Council on Foreign Relations. Canada today is under threat. But, the threat is not external, it comes from within: academic economists, business leaders, civil servants and politicians who advocate what they call DI. DI will mean, in reality, subjugating many of Canada's policies to those of the US. without any corresponding voice in the governance structure where decisions affecting many aspects of Canadian life would be made. Many of us fear a US hegemony and loss of Canada as an independent sovereign nation. Will your continue with DI and if it does, will Canadians be apprised of all negotiations at each critical stage and at the conclusion? And when all negotiations have been finalized, will your party ask the approval of the Canadian voters via plebiscite? Comments?
Will your party ease the way for the big water companies to privatize our water? The powerful players of the World Water Council---the World Bank, big water corporations, and the aid agencies and water ministries of First World countries-- declared that water is not a human "right" but a human "need" best served by private investors. Does your party accept this? Canada did not support the ‘right" to water at the UN. Canada was the only country to vote against a 2002 resolution by the UN Committee on Human rights to appoint a Special Rapporteur to promote the right to water, stating "Canada does not accept that there is a ‘right" to drinking water and sanitation". Does your party accept that drinking water and sanitation is a human "right" ? Comments?
Unless we can find better ways to turn new knowledge into good jobs and successful businesses, we will be unable to sustain the quality of life most Canadians desire. There is an urgent need for R&D encouragement directed at new products, processes and technology to counter the shift of durable goods manufacturing to China and India and elsewhere. Will your party encourage such R&D? How?
Will your party scrap Schedule A of the Health Canada Act, written over 50 years ago, which consists of a list of virtually all diseases known to humanity and mandates that they can only be treated by drugs and not by supplements or nutritional medicine? Schedule A made it a criminal offence--in the 1980's several doctors lost their licenses in Canada for using nutritional support as an adjunct to standard medical practice. Will your party adopt the US law which takes them out of the Codex process completely; that the assessments of supplements be done at arm's length from the industry as ordered by the International Court; that the upper limits being proposed are in fact done by scientists and not by Big Pharma. Comments?
Will your party fund fully medical schools and universities for medical research thereby eliminating their need of receiving funds, with "strings" attached, from the multi-national pharmaceuticals?
Will your party insist that Health Canada use the "precautionary principle" and not "risk assessment" before any substance is to be released for use on humans and our precious environment?
Will your party make certain that before Health Canada directs the removal of supplements from health food stores and Customs confiscates supplements imported by individuals, that they receive prior parliamentary approval? Comments?
How much longer must Canadians endure politicians and the political system they have created which serves the interests of the multi-national corporate community and other vested interests and not the interests of the majority of Canadians? –we’re financing the agenda of the world’s wealthiest interests. How much longer will Canadians accept the increasing level of poverty of its citizens and food banks? How much longer will Canadians accept news blackouts or skewed reporting on vital issues by a corporate controlled media? The media should ideally be the nation’s watchdog and public educator with fair, balanced and well-researched reporting and not as spokespersons for vested interests.
Is there any party that will act for Canadians, insure Canada’s sovereignty as a nation and keep its election promises? When P.M. Martin was Finance Minister he introduced legislation (Seniors Benefit) which would have "clawed" back both the OAS and CPP $ for $ until gone when FAMILY income exceeded $28,000. It was withdrawn because of outrage it created. In mid-1991 during the Mulroney years, a bill which was slipped through parliament without debate or press release and without any opposition--where were the Liberals and NDP?--mechanism was put in place which resulted in making Canada hugely indebted to the private sector. One of the original purposes of the Bank Canada (BOC), owned by Canadians, was to make loans to federal and provincial governments in the form of funded or unfunded debt and to municipalities under federal or provincial guarantee. If the interest on our public debt, currently our largest expenditure, were paid to the BOC--even half-- we would have a national social structure quite different from the one we have today. Evidently, there are vested interests, earning billions from Canadians, who do not wish this to happen. Comments?
there any party that will act , insure sovereignty as a nation and keep its election promises? When P.M. Martin was Finance Minister he introduced legislation (Seniors Benefit) which would have "clawed" back both the OAS and CPP $ for $ until gone when income exceeded . It was withdrawn because of outrage it created. In mid-1991 during the Mulroney years, a bill which was slipped through parliament without debate or press release and without opposition--where were the Liberals and NDP?--mechanism was put in place which resulted in making Canada hugely indebted to the private sector. One of the original purposes of the Bank Canada (BOC), owned by Canadians, was to make loans to federal and provincial governments in the form of funded or unfunded debt and to municipalities under federal or provincial guarantee. If the interest on our public debt, currently our largest expenditure, were paid to the BOC--even half-- we would have a national social structure quite different from the one we have today. Evidently, there are vested interests, earning billions from Canadians, who do not wish this to happen. Comments?With the direction that we are being led, regardless of the party, I fear that Canada will soon be --nada.
Jerry Cutler,
Cardiff, ON.
