No justification

While it is proper that Ignatieff is accepting responsibility for the Liberal mess concerning the vote on Rae's  motion to include a broader range of family planning programs, including contraception, in a maternal health initiative for developing countries, there is no excuse for the handful of Liberals who voted against it, or for those who abstained.

According to some of these Liberals, they did so because they are opposed to abortion.

First of all, Rae's motion does not promote abortion, and speeches made in the House explain that it would be supported, only as a health issue, and only in countries where it is legal:

That, in the opinion of the House, the government’s G8 maternal and child health initiative for the world’s poorest regions must include the full range of family planning, sexual and reproductive health options, including contraception, consistent with the policy of previous Liberal and Conservative governments, and all other G8 governments last year in L’Aquila, Italy;

that the approach of the Government of Canada must be based on scientific evidence, which proves that education and family planning can prevent as many as one in every three maternal deaths; and

that the Canadian government should refrain from advancing the failed right-wing ideologies previously imposed by the George W. Bush administration in the United States, which made humanitarian assistance conditional upon a “global gag rule” that required all non-governmental organizations receiving federal funding to refrain from promoting medically-sound family planning.

This line is key to what is so objectionable about the opposition to the motion:

the approach of the Government of Canada must be based on scientific evidence, which proves that education and family planning can prevent as many as one in every three maternal deaths

By voting according to their own moral beliefs, likely based on religious views whether the members are currently believers in a god or not, those MPs are mixing church and state, something that must not be done.  They know this, and failed to consider the science and facts above their own nebulous beliefs.  In so doing, they are subjecting women and children to their personal narrow ideology.

It is insane (and fanatical) that anyone would not support family planning in a world where over-population has become a huge problem, one which is increasing exponentially.  It is madness not to see that family planning is critical in a world where resources are becoming more scarce, where access to clean, safe water is an issue for many, where wars are being fought over arrable land, where sexually transmitted diseases ravage developing countries, where women are still suppressed through their inability to manage their reproductive rights due to lack of access to contraceptives.

By voting against Rae's motion, those Liberals have placed their own personal ideology before the rights and welfare of others while using their position to affect women and children globally.  They have failed to separate church and state.  They have also gone against their own party's stance on contraception.

While this motion wasn't binding, it was meant to send a strong message that Canada stands for women's reproductive rights and understands that those rights are essential to the health and welfare of women and children.  Such a motion, had it passed, would have helped Canada at the G8 by showing that the country, while currently lead by a party of mysoginistic dinosaurs, is not made up of such.

As for the impact of the vote politically - the Liberals ended up looking weak (again), disorganized (again), with a leader who does not have the support of his party (again).  Those few opposed could have made their personal views known, yet still have supported the motion for the positive aspects it offered.  Hell, the Liberal party has compromised often enough over the past few years on Harper Bills because they didn't want to incur the wrath of voters by voting down Bills that contained some good despite crappy sections wedged in.

Passing this motion would also have shown how the opposition can work together, can agree on issues that stand to improve lives.  It would have kept the focus on how dismally neanderthal the CONs are on women's and children's rights.  Instead, the story is about what fuck-ups the Liberals are.  Even among the left, focus is heavily on the Liberal failure and those few idiots who failed to see how beneficial passing this motion would have been.

To say, oh well, it wasn't binding anyway is no excuse.  This was a chance to show some backbone, some solidarity, some strength of unity in the party, and to make a strong, public stand for women's and children's rights.  It was also a good opportunity to call the CONs out on their atavistic policies in regards to women, children, and developing countries.

But the Liberals blew it.

Pirate Fish says Poilievre is awesomely doltish

Elections Canada “is using tax payers dollars to lose awesomely in two different court cases...” says little Pierre.  He was, of course, referring to Elections Canada’s investigation into the in-and-out cheating scam the Cons ran during an election.

The pudden-head Poilievre abused the Procedure and House Affairs Committee - doing what Steve pays him to do: attack like a rabid weasel - as Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand appeared to discuss Elections Canada's 2009 supplementary estimates,

And as with a rabid weasel attack, it was ludicrous, disproportionate, and unwarranted.  Elections Canada must not be threatened by budget cuts when such threats are so blatantly linked to a party seeking to shut it up or discredit it for their own partisan, ass-saving purposes.  It was doing what it was mandated to do: protect our democracy by investigating a bunch of cheaters and liars who would do anything to win despite what the electorate wants.

If spending money on a losing case is the criteria for whether or not funds should be available, maybe the Pompous Little Prick can explain why it is just perfectly fine to have spent 1.3 million dollars to date on fighting a legal battle to deny democratic rights to a Canadian.

Awesomely obvious Pierre is a fool.

Mandatory Poilievre

Pirate Fish says:
 

Pierre Poilievre is clueless.

But Pierre Poilievre, Harper's parliamentary secretary, said a recent poll suggests Canadians are indifferent to the prime minister's decision to prorogue Parliament.

I'm a Canadian, and I'm not indifferent.  Neither are the 60,300+ (and climbing) members of Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament.

And they signed up over a few days.

We aren't all indifferent, Pierre, you pompous little shit, and we are busy educating other Canadians on your vile, undemocratic tactics and how those are undermining all of our rights.

While it may please Pierre and his master to keep Canadians as ignorant as possible, a healthy democracy depends on an informed and educated population which engages in shaping policies.

Pierre is overall offensive, but this statement more so since it seems to suggest that if Canadians aren't aware of how the actions of a government affects them, then who gives a damn?

National Post columnist John Ivison (said), "This (facebook group) is not a groundswell of public opinion."

Not yet, Ivison.  But that's how groundswells start.  A small rise that is fed, and grows and grows and grows.  Nor does that one facebook account stand alone in its protest.  And as these groundswells grow, more people will pay attention.  Kind of hard to ignore them if you're tripping over them constantly. 

Pirate Fish says:  We are on a mission.