Canada

[This article, by Shourideh Molavi and myself, was first published in The Bullet - version with links is there].

The regressive politics of the Iranian-Canadian Khevari petition

Shourideh Molavi and Justin Podur

November 11, 2011

On October 12, members of the Iranian-Canadian community sent a petition to Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney expressing concern about the arrival in Canada of Mahmoud Reza Khavari, the former chairman of the largest Iranian state-owned banking institution (Bank Melli).

Activist and comedian Jesse Owens interviewed me for the #occupyto.org website, way back in ancient occupy toronto history (ie., October 26). For posterity, I am also reproducing it here. Thanks Jesse...

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The Occupy Wall St. Movement and the Occupy Together movements that are inspired by it actually have a simple premise: society shouldn't be run for the unrestricted benefit of the wealthiest. The immediate grievance is the 2008 banking crisis, in which the US banks engaged in fraudulent and criminal activity and were subsequently rewarded for doing so with trillions in government funds, while their victims reaped evictions and foreclosures.

I read Metro Today on the subway today. There was a story blaming City of Toronto staff for squandering - wait for it - up to $1 MILLION dollars in sole-sourced contracts.

So, Rob Ford is right, and there is waste to be cut, eh?

Except that $1 million is, for example, 1/3 of what the KPMG report that suggested closing libraries and taking fluoride out of the water cost.

Or 1/64 of the vehicle registration tax whose disappearance is now contributing to the supposed $700 million deficit.

And oh yes, it's 1/700 of the deficit.

This is a video that should be watched widely. These are Harper voters.

Francis Fox Piven (who has had her own experiences recently with Harper's US mentors) and Richard Cloward wrote a very interesting book called "Why Americans Don't Vote", which showed how a key electoral strategy in the US has always been demobilizing opposing voters, a strategy just as important as mobilizing supporters. If you look at the way Harper has worked over the past few years, you can see that demobilizing strategies are a part of the package here too.

Today's election thoughts, and a couple of photos.

Jon Elmer sent me this amusing Vintage Voter site.

Vincent Pang sent me this photo album of protests against Harper's second proroguing back in 2010.

The daily polling is suspicious. Every day the media publishes what the electoral outcome is going to be. And every day it changes. They keep saying there's going to be a Harper majority. Saying it won't make it so, but it might contribute to it.

Earlier today I saw an article on CityTV.ca through Google News headlined: "Majority of Canadians want Harper majority." I looked at the story and it said 36% wanted a Harper majority. That's no majority I have ever heard of.

Pollsters now get people to press buttons about how they are feeling as they watch debates, and have discovered that Canadians are annoyed. This then feeds back to politicians, who try to, presumably, be less annoying, or, perhaps, try to blame other politicians for the annoyance.

So I'm just going to make a few notes:

-Ignatieff was right when he says Harper's offering "fantasy economics". He also answered the financial question directly. And Harper seemed to make eye contact for the first time. And then went back to the camera. Harper: "Every credible economic analyst" says taxes kill jobs - in Harper's words, that's "simply not true." Ha-Joon Chang & Joseph Stiglitz come to mind, but of course if you exclude those who disagree with you as "non-credible", then you're in a perfectly logically valid circular argument, which is where Harper lives.