Harper’s Base Confronts Theresa Spence
No substantive post today. I’m in the middle of writing up a series of posts on military procurement which should be fairly interesting (predicting what I think will be the next, bigger scandal after the F-35), and I think I’ve said all that needs to be said with respect to the racist nonsense that is increasingly being spouted in the media in reaction to Theresa Spence’s hunger strike.
It’s a disastrous state of affairs. If Stephen Harper was going to meet with her, he would have done so over Christmas, while the hunger strike was still in its early stages and he could have been seen as being full of charitable feelings thanks to the holiday season. At this point, we’re down to brass tacks: whether Spence is actually willing to die here or not. It’s clear that Harper either thinks she is not, or simply doesn’t care. Which, judging by the media’s reaction to the affair, was a correct calculation on his part.
In addition to the media commentary I’ve already discussed (here, here, and here), it’s worth pointing out the Toronto Sun‘s official position on the matter, taken in a Christmas Eve editorial:
Pack up both Attawapiskat and Kashechewan, and raze both communities on the way out.
Yeah! That’ll do it!
Sixth Estate will continue to cover Spence’s hunger strike, and will continue to hope for a resolution that doesn’t end with her death, but at the same time we need to be realistic about this. If Spence means it when she says the choice is between death and a summit with Harper, right now I think the odds favour her death. This is an incredibly callous calculation on the part of the government, which could have dispensed with the matter a week ago by giving her an entirely unproductive but symbolic afternoon-long meeting with Harper and the Governor-General.
But it’s also a rational calculation on the part of the government. If Spence dies, it will be a serious problem for aboriginal affairs in Canada for the next 20 years. If more aboriginal leaders join her in her hunger strike, Harper might just concede, because if even more people die, that serious problem will become a catastrophe as well as a considerable embarrassment to the Conservatives on the international stage. But as long as Spence is alone, and as long as the Conservative base appears to be generally in favour of taking a hardline position, then Harper may feel he suffers very little from this, whatever the outcome. He’s learned that he only needs around 35% of the Canadian population to maintain power. If you’re not in that 35% and you’re very angry with his policies, well, that isn’t really a problem for him, is it?
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Beijing York
A somewhat depressing note to end the year with but then again, it wasn’t much of year in terms of high points – at least not where the feds are concerned.
Harper may think he is safe with his calculated risk but I think that if Chief Spence does go through with it and die, he will be viewed as having blood on his hands by those Canadians who are not racist to the core. I’m hoping London will intervene and I say that as someone who has no respect for us still being under a monarchy.
In the meantime, happy new year SE and thanks for your incredible reporting on this blog – one I visit daily.
ron wilton
Appealing directly to harper to ever do the right thing for anyone other than his oil company handlers is a complete waste of time, effort and energy.
What is needed now is a plea from women and students to his wife and children to make him change his ways.
I believe that if Theresa Spence dies, harper will be targetted for assassination.
I want Theresa Spence to live, but the demise of harper would be the best thing that could happen to Canada right now.
Sixth Estate
I certainly hope he doesn’t die, especially by assassination. Leaving aside the fact that such things have no place in Canada, the historical record is pretty clear that political assassinations NEVER help the situation.
Julie
Harper’s mind set on Human Rights, is much like Communist China’s. There is very little value placed on their poor, in either country.
Most Canadians are adverse to, Fascism, Communism and Dictatorships. As decent Canadians, most of us care about the poor and the inhuman acts delivered upon those people. Even people of other country’s.
However, no Canadians I know would tolerate assassination. Never have, as far as I can ever remember? I recall to this day, exactly where I was and what I was doing, when Jack Kennedy was assassinated. That’s how badly I was disturbed by it.
To win, must be done rightfully and fairly…..or it is no win, what-so-ever. However, I have been guilty of slinging a little mud. Ok, ok, sometimes gobs of mud. But, only when it’s called for.
jrkrideau
I’d go with the 103 billion as a ball park. A look at the A-G’s report on the F35 shows an increase in fly-away costs of just over 180 percent from Oct of 2001 to Dec of 2009 and the graph looks suspiciously like a straight line going up.
So it would not be at all surprising that DND and McKay have screwed up this one too.
Still, the Navy may have a bit more institutional memory of the last program (Am I right in thinking the Halifax frigates didn’t go operational until the early or mid-1990s?) and have some better estimates than the Air Force which bought off-the-shelf F18s even longer ago.
Still 35 billion sounds ridiculously low for what you describe.
jeannie
Please DO continue to cover Spence’s hunger strike – at this point I can no longer bear to read the headlines in any of our national dailies on this one, let alone the copy. As for the comment sections in those rags, I certainly do not recognize my country anymore.
Its as if one day I woke up and the country was suddenly and rabidly cheering on the monarchy while simultaneously hoisting up the stars and stripes with all the woe it hadn’t already rid itself of the “indian menace” like the Americans did.
Dark days ahead.
kootcoot
” the historical record is pretty clear that political assassinations NEVER help the situation.”
Jeez SE, perhaps you should make an appointment to point this out to the CIA and the IDF!