In the Parliament
Parliament Reconvened on January 29
The 44th Parliament (November 22, 2021 -- Present) reconvened its First Session on January 29. The Liberal Party continues to preside over a minority parliament, supported by the NDP through a Supply and Confidence agreement which it claims "holds the feet of the Liberals 'to the fire.'" While the agreement could keep the Liberals in power until the next fixed election date in October 2025, nothing is certain because of the factional fighting between the cartel parties which form the governing party and what is called the Loyal Opposition.
Put together, the factional fighting, competition, accusations and counter-accusations among the cartel parties continue to dominate the airwaves to divert attention away from the government's pay-the-rich schemes, corruption and attempts to change laws to concentrate more and more power in the executive. These are prerogative powers, powers at the discretion of the Prime Minister and other Ministers which claim they are lawful because they have passed laws to remove any limitations on these prerogative, police powers. In fact, these powers to make policy -- hence the term police powers, have been usurped by the oligopolies which have been permitted to occupy the decision-making positions as concerns the main portfolios of the economy, foreign affairs and all matters related to war and peace, crime and punishment.
All
of it shows the extent to which the neo-liberal
anti-social
offensive
has also taken its toll on the political institutions
themselves.
Decades upon decades of refusal on the part of ruling
elites to
renovate the political and electoral process has brought
us to
this
point at which former
methods that the ruling elite could deploy to turn public
opinion into
a social factor are not functioning.
Parliament is what it is -- a facade to cover up where decisions are being made. Rule by decree through Cabinet regulatory powers and orders-in-council and various government agencies whose constituencies are comprised of corporate lobbyists has become the norm. Parliament has lost credibility, legitimacy and trust as it can no longer claim to be governing with the consent of the people; it is broadly and accurately perceived as working for private interests and not the public good. It has lost any capacity to serve as a focal point for the people.
Canada pretends to be in conformity with international rule of law and conventions, long since incorporated into Canadian law, but the self-serving interpretations of the cartel parties which form the government and sit in the opposition benches set the stage for a sitting of Parliament that further deepens the crisis of legitimacy of the democracy, the democratic institutions and the direction they set for the country. It also further intensifies the conviction amongst the people that they are not represented by Members of Parliament nor by the institutions of governance which are self-serving and more and more act in the interests of, and under direction of, the U.S. administration and Pentagon.
None
of the serious political, social and economic problems
making
life
impossible for more and more people are on the agenda.
Nor is
the
question of how Canada can be a force for peace in a
world in
which the
U.S. and its allies threaten to destroy entire peoples on
every
continent. Many
decisions announced in the fall and government actions on
international
affairs, including support for the ongoing Israeli
slaughter in
Gaza
and its genocidal war against the Palestinian people, are
not
even
discussed in Parliament. Thousands of Canadians have
addressed
the
government and
individual MPs through demonstrations, petitions, letters
and
phone
calls, with hundreds of thousands rallying across the
country
demanding
that Canada uphold its duty under international rule of
law, to
which
it
is the signatory of Conventions and Treaties, by calling
for a
ceasefire
and making sure
it is enforced. It was not until December 12 that
Canada's
Ambassador
to the UN finally voted in favour of a resolution of the
UN
General
Assembly calling for a ceasefire, but today it continues
to
defend
Israel's "good intentions" every step of the slaughter it
carries out.
The personal attacks and factional fighting which reached epic proportions in the final days of the fall session set the tone for more of the same when Parliament reconvened on January 29. The ever-widening gap between the demands of Canadians for a say in matters that affect their lives and the self-serving agenda presented by the cartel parties and the fraud of their "representation" serves to highlight the need for the renewal of the political process and the creation by the people themselves of new arrangements for their empowerment.
This article was published in
Volume 54
Numbers 1-2 - January - February 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/M540011.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca