The Power of the Powerless - Vaclav Havel (1978, Excerpts)

{1}A SPECTER is haunting Eastern Europe: the specter of what in the West is called "dissent" This specter has not appeared out of thin air. It is a natural and inevitable consequence of the present historical phase of the system it is haunting. It was born at a time when this system, for a thousand reasons, can no longer base itself on the unadulterated, brutal, and arbitrary application of power, eliminating all expressions of nonconformity. What is more, the system has become so ossified politically that there is practically no way for such nonconformity to be implemented within its official structures. . . .

{2}Our system is most frequently characterized as a dictatorship or, more precisely, as the dictatorship of a political bureaucracy over a society which has undergone economic and social leveling. I am afraid that the term "dictatorship," regardless of how intelligible it may otherwise be, tends to obscure rather than clarify the real nature of power in this system. . . Even though our dictatorship has long since alienated itself completely from the social movements that give birth to it, the authenticity of these movements (and I am thinking of the proletarian and socialist movements of the nineteenth century) gives it undeniable historicity. These origins provided a solid foundation of sorts on which it could build until it became the utterly new social and political reality it is today, which has become so inextricably a part of the structure of the modern world. . . . It commands an incomparably more precise, logically structured, generally comprehensible and, in essence, extremely flexible ideology that, in its elaborateness and completeness, is almost a secularized religion. It offers a ready answer to any question whatsoever; it can scarcely be accepted only in part, and accepting it has profound implications for human life. In an era when metaphysical and existential certainties are in a state of crisis, when people are being uprooted and alienated and are losing their sense of what this world means, this ideology inevitably has a certain hypnotic charm. . . .

Congress moves toward tougher stand on pipeline safety, but is it enough?

A bill to strengthen pipeline safety regulations passed the U.S. House and Senate last week and now awaits President Obama’s signature. But while many applaud Congress’s move toward more oversight, others question whether the impending law goes far enough to prevent oil and natural gas pipeline accidents.

The pipeline industry reports more than 100 significant hazardous liquid spills each year. (See a map of those spills). Every year, an average of 275 accidents kill 10 to 15 people and injure five to six times as many.

The 2011 Pipeline Safety, Regulatory Certainty, and Job Creation Act of 2011 would double potential fines for violations (up to a max of $2 million), require automated shutoff valves for new and replaced pipelines, and hire 10 new safety inspectors to join the current 124.

“This is a huge step forward for the safety of America2019s pipelines,” Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) said in a statement [4].

But as the Associated Press [5] noted, the bill doesn’t implement several recommendations from a National Transportation Safety Board investigation [6] of the natural gas pipeline explosion in San Bruno, California [7] that killed eight people last September (the San Francisco Chronicle has a recent series on the disaster [8]). One of those recommendations [9] is that automated shutoff valves be installed on already existing pipelines (particularly old ones in highly populated areas, which are prone to accidents).

Draft report on Canadian handling of Afghan prisoners to remain secret

The military watchdog investigating Canada’s handling of Afghan prisoners has penned an interim report, but the public won’t get to see it.

The Military Police Complaints Commission says it has handed its preliminary assessment to the Defence Department for review by Defence Minister Peter MacKay and the head of the military.

It will be some months before a final report is issued.

The agency held a series of on-again, off-again public hearings into the question of what military police knew — or
should have known — about alleged torture in Afghan prisons.

As part of its release, the commission also issued notice that is expecting a response to its recommendations and that “reasons must be provided for not acting on any of the findings and recommendations in the report.”

That is significant, according to the human-rights lawyer who launched the case.

Peter MacKay fined for ethics violation

Defence Minister Peter MacKay has been hit with a $200 fine for violating Canada’s Conflict of Interest Act, making him the only member of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s cabinet to have violated the law twice.

In a notice quietly posted to her website, conflict of interest and ethics commissioner Mary Dawson says that MacKay violated paragraph 22 (2) of the act by “failing to report a description of all assets and an estimate of their value” in his filings to her office. The $200 fine was paid Nov. 9.

Dawson’s office refused to provide more detail about the infraction.

In a statement posted to his website, however, MacKay said the fine was the result of an oversight on his part.

“I’d like to advise you that there was an inadvertant omission made in a past disclosure to the ethics commissioner concerning my RSPs,” MacKay wrote Nov. 8. “The ethics commissioner was made aware of this omission because it was included in material I sent to her this year. As soon as the ethics commissioner notified me of this omission I acted to ensure the matter was resolved quickly. I accept responsibility for the omission and I now consider the matter closed.”

How did we get here? And, more importantly, how do we get back?

Surely this wasn’t the way Parliament was meant to evolve.

In Canada, the debate over possible reforms to our democratic institutions is frequently derailed by the claim that x or y would be inconsistent with the British parliamentary traditions on which our governance is based.

For the most part, such claims seem made with little understanding of the dynamic history of those still-evolving traditions, or the basic precepts upon which they are founded.

Through centuries of evolution, the central notion of British parliamentary governance has involved empowering a group of citizens with the authority to limit the powers of the Crown, to control the purse strings and to shape the laws of the land.

From Senate floor to national stage

It was just a 20-second silent protest, but it helped her find her voice.

Ever since holding up a hand-painted red “Stop Harper” sign during the current Conservative government’s throne speech in June, former senate page Brigette DePape has thrown herself into grassroots activism and now spends her time expressing her dreams for her country.

“It’s been so inspiring to take part in collective action,” DePape told The Canadian Press in an interview.

“I really think that it is through action that we can have hope and it’s really only by taking action that we can start to imagine a better Canada.”

The University of Ottawa graduate was catapulted into the national spotlight after she pulled her sign out from beneath her skirt and held it up in the middle of the Senate Chamber to an astonished audience before being escorted out.

Her actions prompted an array of responses from across the country, and made more people tune into highlights of the throne speech than in previous years, but the aftermath of the stunt wasn’t easy for the 22-year-old.

Health-care funding: How Harper views the Canadian federation

In the wake of Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s surprise announcement on the future of health-care funding, the hand-wringing has already started. Many in the media were looking forward to months of rhetorical pre-positioning leading to a make-or-break first ministers conference with 13 angry premiers arrayed against a recalcitrant Prime Minister. And the dark talk has already started about the presumed federal abdication of national leadership: “If the feds aren’t telling the provinces how to fix health care, well, they obviously don’t care.”

But there’s another story here. It’s about a Prime Minister with a very different federal-provincial agenda, based on a view that seriously respects the Constitution. It’s also about provinces finally coming of age and being mature enough to manage their own affairs.

The Finance Minister’s announcement this week is a surprisingly generous offer: continued 6-per-cent annual increases in federal transfers for three years after the current health accord ends in 2013-14, after which transfers will be pegged at the rate of nominal GDP growth with a guaranteed base of 3 per cent a year. By short-circuiting the expected federal-provincial negotiating process, it effectively marks the end of executive federalism, that time-honoured Canadian way of running the federation. It also provides the clearest window yet into how Prime Minister Stephen Harper views the federation.

Supreme Court’s securities regulator decision delivers stern reminder to PM

In striking down the Conservative government’s proposed national securities regulator, Canada’s highest court has reminded Stephen Harper that, even with a majority government, there must be limits to his ambitions for reshaping the federation.

The no-strings funding formula for health care that Finance Minister Jim Flaherty unveiled this week was pivotal in revealing how this Prime Minister plans to make his mark. For Canadians who grew up believing that the central government should play a key role in shaping national social policy, Mr. Harper offers a very different alternative, with Ottawa leaving the provinces to shape social policy as they see best.

But in its own area of jurisdiction, the Harper government has moved aggressively, beefing up the military and taking strong and sometimes contentious stands on foreign policy.

And the Prime Minister also sees Ottawa playing a more active role in promoting the economic union, by tearing down the walls of provincial interest that he believes hamper the growth of the economy.

Mr. Harper must finish his project

The Harper government appears to have fallen out of love with the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, but it can't abandon its responsibilities that easily. The Conservatives entered into this marriage willingly and with full knowledge that complex projects inevitably run over budget.

In April 2007, Prime Minister Stephen Harper arrived in Winnipeg to announce the Conservatives were embracing the museum as a federal project. It would be a national museum, the first outside Ottawa, and operated by the federal government as a Crown corporation.

The government subsequently assumed complete control of the project, hiring its first employee, chief financial officer Patrick O'Reilly, and appointing the board of directors and its first CEO, former Manitoba Progressive Conservative leader Stuart Murray.

These officials, and others who came later, were selected without consultation with those who had earlier been struggling to get the project off the ground. Ottawa was in charge.

In 2008, the government announced the entire development was under review, including Antoine Predock's architectural design. All tendering would be through the federal government, and budgets would be scrutinized by bean counters in Ottawa.

At that time, the Friends of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, the private fundraiser led by Gail Asper, committed to raising $105 million in private capital, while the province and city were in for a total of $60 million. Ottawa's $100 million contribution meant the total budget was now $265 million.

Ottawa urges flyers to go Nexus

Ottawa is touting shorter travel times for trusted passengers and fewer missed flights as it starts to roll out the details of Canada’s new border security deal with the United States.

The government is urging citizens to apply for Nexus cards, which offer quicker movement through streamlined security checks.

Canada and the United States are aligning their systems so Nexus users will be able to skip to the front of lines as they cross the border. Cardholders still must be screened but are able to jump ahead of other travellers and skip some steps like consulting with a border agent when they return home.

Nexus cards were already in limited use for domestic and some overseas flights but were not recognized by American systems.

On the flip side, Canada is switching to American standards for scanning baggage.