Boots on the ground people – it is No Prorogue Day

“When a government starts trying to cancel dissent or avoid dissent is frankly when it’s rapidly losing its moral authority to govern.”
Stephen Harper, Canadian Press, April 18, 2005

On December 30th Stephen Harper announced that he will be Proroguing Parliament and suspending democracy until March 3. This is the second time he has done this in under two years.

Proroguing means:

1. All 37 bills being debated in Parliament are thrown in the trash. Discussion on bills starts from scratch in March, wasting months of hard work by all parties. These bills included new crime legislation, limits on credit card insurance rates, etc.
2. Committees investigating accusations of torture of Afghan detainees stop working
3. Discussions and decisions about the pension crisis affecting Canada’s seniors stops
4. Questions about Canada’s inaction at the Copenhagen climate-change summit are silenced. Opportunities to move forward with Canada’s plan for sustainable development are stalled for over a month.
5. Your MPs cannot raise your concerns in Ottawa

via: No Prorogue!

See you there.

Update:  Back from the rally in my area. Good fun, quite a diverse bunch.  The turnout was surprising, I counted  just over 60, double checked the figures with media. 
For this geographically large and sparsely populated region that was a good turnout.  
All age groups, well informed, no long speeches.  Our MP was there, he kept it brief.  It really was not partisan, there was no anger, no meaness; while Conservative Party leaders didn’t take part, they watched politely across the street. There was federal, provincial and municipal political representation, very low key.  The message wasn’t complicated, it was  ’get back to work,’ and anyone who wanted to speak did.  There were a few signs,  such as Canadians do Care and 404 Democracy not found.  It was good to see and hear the concern and commitment on the street that I’ve seen online.