hey, the province for once prints something worth reading

Keith Martin: House of Commons 'warped, twisted and undemocratic'

When B.C. taxpayers expected courage, three MPs wimped out

By Michael Smyth, The ProvinceDecember 11, 2009

B.C. Liberal Keith Martin rails against the House of Commons' 'toxic sickness' in a startling interview with columnist Michael Smyth.

Photograph by: File, Canwest News Service

The House of Commons has become a "warped, twisted and undemocratic" place where MPs act like mindless "lemmings" forced to do the bidding of their parties instead of the people.

That's the bitter view of Liberal MP Keith Martin, a day after he boycotted a Parliament Hill vote on the HST — a tax he believes will brutalize British Columbians already reeling from the recession.

Martin told me yesterday he was "heartbroken" to see his colleagues support the new tax, and that he tried to convince Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff to oppose it. When he lost that battle, Martin said he told his party puppetmasters he wouldn't dance their jig.

"It was a whipped vote, but I said I could not vote for it and I wasn't going to show up."

A "whipped vote" is one where MPs are required by their parties to vote as they're told. Martin said he expects to be reprimanded for his no-show.

But if he feels so strongly about the HST, why didn't he stand up for his Victoria-area constituents and vote against it?

"Because it could have destroyed my ability to do my job," he said.

"The penalty to go against the party leader is severe: You can be kicked out of caucus, kicked off committees, stripped of your critic portfolio, prevented from asking questions in Question Period. You become ostracized in your own party and your ability to move up the ladder to a job with more responsibility and influence is destroyed.

"You're left in an ethical conundrum. This is the toxic sickness of Parliament."

He went on: "The Parliament we have today is warped, twisted and undemocratic. We're paid to represent our constituents. But the public is not getting proper representation or value for their money.

"MPs are forced to do the bidding of the party over the bidding of the people. It breaks my heart."

Strong words. But at the end of day, Martin was still hiding in his office when he had a chance to take a stand for democracy — and vote against a tax the vast majority of British Columbians despise.

The harmonized sales tax will combine the seven-per-cent provincial sales tax and the five-per-cent GST starting July 1. The new 12-per-cent tax will apply to hundreds of goods and services now exempt from PST — everything from haircuts to funerals — and load an estimated $2 billion onto the backs of recession-weary consumers.

That's why HST opponents were thrilled to hear Conservative Dona Cadman was ready to take on her own government over the unpopular tax. Earlier this week, the Surrey North MP vowed to vote against the HST — come hell or high water.

"I will vote with the people or for the people," Cadman told the Surrey Now. Asked if she was concerned about retaliation for opposing her own Tory government, she expressed no fear: "We'll see what happens."

Spoken in the true maverick spirit of her late husband, Chuck Cadman! Known for his trademark ponytail and blue jeans in a sea of Parliament Hill power suits, Chuck Cadman took pride in voting his constituents' wishes.

But when it came time for her to vote against the HST, Dona Cadman did the same as Martin. And took a powder.

Cadman said she decided to skip the HST vote out of respect for her Conservative colleagues. She said she received a verbal reprimand for her actions.

From maverick to mouse in 24 hours — but Cadman said voters should expect little else.

"I did the best I could," she said. "I am a team player. They're doing a good job, but I just disagree with them [the Conservatives] on this."

And then there's Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh, a former B.C. premier and one of the first federal voices raised against the HST. I interviewed Dosanjh in August when he said the tax was being inflicted at the worst possible time.

"People are hurting," he said. "This is not the time to raise their taxes."

Don't forget Dosanjh was once attacked with an iron bar for speaking out against violence in the Sikh community. He has not been afraid to stand up for his beliefs in the past.

But on Wednesday, he stood in the House of Commons and voted against his beliefs — and for the HST.

Will Dosanjh, Cadman and Martin pay a price at election time for their actions — or lack thereof? Perhaps. The HST is opposed by an overwhelming 82 per cent of British Columbians, according to a new Canwest News Service poll.

But it now appears the only way the HST will be stopped is if eight Liberal MLAs in Gordon Campbell's provincial government break ranks in Victoria.

After this week's show of political "bravery" in Ottawa, I wouldn't hold my breath.

canada's war on the native peoples

Caroline Alphonso and Tu Thanh Ha
Toronto — From Thursday's Globe and Mail Last updated on Thursday, Sep. 17, 2009 10:33AM EDT
They asked for help and got body bags.
Aboriginal leaders said they were outraged and confused when dozens of body bags were delivered to remote Manitoba reserves after native communities demanded federal resources to fight a second wave of the H1N1 flu outbreak.
Chiefs interpreted the grim shipments as a dire prediction of what Ottawa expects will happen during this flu season to natives, who were hardest hit by swine flu in the spring.
Some communities didn't hold on to them for long. In a symbolic protest Wednesday evening, northern First Nations leaders returned a box of the bags to a Health Canada office in Winnipeg. Tossing more than a dozen of the polyethylene bags on the floor outside the building's lobby, Garden Hill First Nation chief David Harper called the deliveries “an insult.”
The federal government was left scrambling late Wednesday to explain the shipments, which also included hand sanitizer, masks and gloves.
Each bag contained full post-mortem kits that included a chin strap, five tie-straps and three identification tags.
The news of the unexpected supplies rippled through remote communities of less than 1,000 people, shocking residents and adding to native leaders' distrust of the federal government's efforts to help them prepare for a resurgence of the virus.
About 30 body bags were delivered in recent days to the nursing station at Wasagamack First Nation, 20 to God's Lake First Nation, and Red Sucker Lake First Nation was expecting a shipment. The communities are in the lake-studded Island Lake region near the Ontario border, about midway between Winnipeg and the Hudson Bay.
Mr. Harper was joined at the Winnipeg protest last night by Wasagamack Chief Jerry Knott.
“Is Canada giving up on the first nations?” Mr. Harper asked in an interview. “We're very offended. It looks like Canada is giving up on us. Or is this the flu preparedness that Canada talks about?”
In many First Nations cultures, to prepare for death is to invite death, he said.
“We have been waiting for medical supplies and here all we receive is body bags,” he said. “The government has to do better.”
Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq said she was “disturbed” when she learned about the shipments Wednesday morning.
“I have ordered my deputy minister to conduct a thorough and immediate inquiry into the situation and I will continue to work with first nations, provinces and territories to ensure all Canadians are informed and protected against H1N1,” she said at a news briefing.
She declined to comment on who sent the body bags or who may have requested them.
The shipment is another blow to native leaders, who fear they are among the least prepared for another wave of the flu and that the federal government isn't properly responding to their needs.
The mild flu outbreak in the spring erupted into a full-blown crisis on several of Manitoba's remote reserves. At one point, aboriginals comprised two-thirds of Manitoba flu patients on respirators. Health Canada came under fire for hesitating to send hand sanitizer to native towns because of concerns that people would ingest the alcohol-based gel.
The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs took it upon itself recently to solicit donations for 15,000 flu kits for northern communities. And even though aboriginal affairs is a federal responsibility, the Manitoba government stepped up to cover the rest of the cost.
Ms. Aglukkaq said nursing stations on reserves are being stocked with medical supplies, and the kits are likely not necessary.
Rod Harper, a spokesman for the band council of the Wasagamack First Nation, 600 kilometres north of Winnipeg, said body bags are not the supplies needed at nursing stations.
“It's not the proper thing to do to all our communities. It's very shocking,” he said.
He said he had seen a box of 10 bags that had been brought to the band council office and was explicitly labelled.
“What we had asked for stockpiling were Advil, Tylenol, vaccine, not body bags. It's the easy way out for the government… It's not right to do that.”
Further north, at the Red Sucker Lake First Nation, the band council heard at a meeting with the staff of the nursing station that body bags would be sent to their community. The council questioned the head nurse after it heard that other native communities had received the bags.
“We asked her about the body bags and she said: ‘They're coming,'” said council member Clifford Harper. “I feel kind of angry. They should send more medications, they should send more personnel … rather than body bags. Why are they doing this?”
By the end of the day, the outrage had rippled to Winnipeg. “First Nations and all Canadians need to know the whole story behind this bizarre shipment and they deserve a full accounting,” Grand Chief Ron Evans of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs said in a statement. “The First Nations of northern Manitoba have already been traumatized in the first wave of the H1N1 outbreak; they do not need to be panicked.”
The parliamentary health committee has requested the minister share details of the inquiry at or around its next meeting later this month.
With a report from Patrick White in Winnipeg

money as debt