Dear editor,
Is the real danger to Canadians coming from the Middle East or from a lot closer to home?
Transport Canada used to oversee rail safety. The Liberals started deregulation of railways with the Conservatives giving the final push to cater to the railway companies. Reduce rail crews – no problem, get rid of brakemen – consider it done, lower car and track standards of hazardous cargo – of course, and run massive oil trains with one, lone crew – hey who doesn’t want to save money?
The results were 47 people being incinerated in Lake Magantic. Canadians burned alive, dying in terror only because our own government allowed it to happen. Five bodies were never found, they were vaporized in the fire ball. The government was warned by unions, the Canadian Transportation Safety Board and its own statistics, which showed derailments and safety violations had skyrocketed after deregulation and “self monitoring by industry”.
Our federal government is at war with its own citizens. They spend millions in court costs every year trying to deny the rights of veterans and indigenous people. They have disenfranchised tens of thousands of mostly non-conservative voters with the Fair Elections Act, changes Elections Canada never felt were needed. The federal government has chucked out the Canadian Health Accord and will cut $36 billion of health funding in the next 10 years. Hundreds of acts and policies that were there to safeguard the common good of Canadians and the environment have been eliminated or gutted. Harper’s vision is a free-market utopia where corporations have absolute say and control of government policies.
Stephen Harper claims he is standing up for human rights, freedom and democracy in the Middle East while he slashes away at those very things in Canada. He’s using the same, and sadly successful, tactics used by George W. Bush, Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin to deflect their shortcomings at home.
Lesley Krainer
Courtenay