Voter Suppression IS a Scandal
Letter to the Editor:
Responding to Claire Hoy’s Thursday, March 8, 2011 article: Robocall: not a real scandal
Mr. Hoy, staunch Conservation defender, is doing a great disservice to democracy by trying to reduce the significance of the Robocall and vote suppression scandal. A tactic described by Harper advisor Guy Giorno as a “despicable, reprehensible practice” certainly sounds like a scandal worth being taken seriously by intelligent voters.
However, it turns out Mr. Giorno knows a thing or two about dumbing down an intelligent population. His attitude while manipulating Ontario’s curriculum devolution in the 1990’s was: It’s not our job to nurture critical thinkers, it’s our job to train productive consumers. Ten years later, reflecting on the impact of the change and conflict those decisions imposed on students, Giorno remarked, in a rare moment of empathy, “That’s unfortunate.”
This is not the first time in history an intelligent society has been corrupted, and a democratically elected government has become a dictatorship. We only have to look back to 1933 in Europe, on “the Night of the Long Knives” when opposition parties were banned, the intelligentsia were suppressed, labour unions were abolished, and a secret police state was established. Using a Ministry of Propaganda repeating the mantra, using the country’s economic crisis as justification, and financially supported by wealthy industrialists eager to break the worker’s unions, one of the most despicable, reprehensible regimes in history was born.
With most of our national newspapers and news channels being to the political right of centre, and a strictly controlled script from “our government”, the Canadian public is being numbed and dumbed to accept the first sound bite issued, and never really encouraged to look deeply into the issues facing us. We end up getting the government we deserve, for better or worse.
A free and uncompromised vote is the cornerstone of our democratic society, and I take that very seriously, Mr. Hoy.
Skid Crease, Caledon