The Conservative government has thrown us into the 2011 election campaign. This is perhaps a good time to take stock of who the Harperites have spent their time attacking in the past several years. (They have also lavished favour on their own, appointing them to be judges, to the Immigration Review Board, the CRTC or other federal agencies). The list of organizations that have been shut down and cut back, and the individuals bullied, is a long one and we can expect it to grow if the Conservatives are re-elected. I have written extensively about some of these actions, including the government’s attack on the ecumenical group KAIROS and the shameful treatment of the Rights and Democracy organization, but the following list, culled from on line sources, is more comprehensive.
Organizations/ watchdogs whose staff have been fired, forced out, publicly maligned, or who have resigned in protest:
Canada Firearms Program (Chief Supt. Marty Cheliak, Director General)
Canadian Wheat Board (Adran Measner, President and CEO)
Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (Linda Keen, chair)
Foreign Affairs (Richard Colvin, diplomat)
Military Police Complaints Commission (head, Peter Tinsley)
Ombudsman for the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Forces (Yves Cote)
Parliamentary Budget Officer (Kevin Page) (funding cut)
RCMP Police Complaints Commission (Paul Kennedy, chair)
Rights & Democracy (International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development Remy Beauregard, President)
Statistics Canada (Munir Sheikh, Deputy Minister)
Veterans Ombudsman (Col. Pat Stogran)
Victims of Crime, Ombudsman (Steve Sullivan)
Community organizations, NGOs and research bodies reported to have
been cut or defunded
Action travail des femmes
Afghan Association of Ontario, Canada Toronto
Alberta Network of Immigrant Women
Alternatives (Quebec)
Bloor Information and Life Skills Centre
Brampton Neighbourhood Services (Ontario)
Canadian Arab Federation
Canadian Child Care Federation
Canadian Council for International Cooperation
Canadian Council on Learning
Canadian Council on Social Development
Canadian Heritage Centre for Research and Information on Canada
Canadian International Development Agency, Office of Democratic Governance
Canadian Labour Business Centre
Canada Policy Research Networks
Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women
Canada School of Public Service
Canadian Teachers’ Federation International program
Canadian Volunteerism Initiative
Centre de documentation sur la education des adultes et la condition feminine
Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation (CERA)
Centre for Spanish Speaking Peoples (Toronto
Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada
Childcare Resource and Research Unit, Specialink
Climate Action Network
Community Access Program (internet access for communities at libraries, post offices, community centres)
Community Action Resource Centre (CARC)
Court Challenges Program (except language rights cases and legacy cases)
Davenport-Perth Neighbourhood Centre Toronto: (Funding cut by CIC in December 2010).
Democracy Council
Department of Foreign Affairs, Democracy Unit
Elspeth Heyworth Centre for Women Toronto: (Funding cut by CIC in December 2010).
Environment: Youth International Internship Program
Eritrean Canadian Community Centre of Metropolitan Toronto (Funding cut by CIC in December 2010)
Feminists for Just and Equitable Public Policy (FemJEPP) in Nova Scotia
First Nations Child and Family Caring Society
First Nations and Inuit Tobacco Control Program
Forum of Federations
Global Environmental Monitoring System
HRD Adult Learning and Literacy programs
HRD Youth Employment Programs
Hamilton-based Settlement and Integration Services Organization (Ontario)
Immigrant settlement programs
Inter-Cultural Neighbourhood Social Services (Peel)
International Planned Parenthood Federation
KAIROS
Law Reform Commission of Canada
Mada Al-Carmel Arab Centre
Marie Stopes International (a maternal health agency) has received only a promise of conditional funding IF it avoids any and all connection with abortion.
MATCH International
National association of Women and the Law (NAWL)
Native Women’s Association of Canada
New Brunswick Coalition for Pay Equity
Northwood Neighbourhood Services (Toronto: (Funding cut by CIC in December 2010).
Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses
Ontario Association of Transitional Housing
Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care
Pride Toronto
Reaseau des Tables regionales de groupes de femmes du Quebec
Riverdale Women’s Centre in Toronto
Sierra Club of BC
Sisters in Spirit
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
South Asian Women’s Centre
Status of Women (mandate also changed to exclude “gender equality and political justice” and to ban all advocacy, policy research and lobbying)
Tropicana Community Services
Womanspace Resource Centre (Lethbridge, Alberta)
Women’s Innovative Justice Initiative (Nova Scotia)
Workplace Equity/Employment Equity Program
York-Weston Community Services Centre Toronto
Pulpit and Politics 
Isn’t the cutting of funding to advocacy groups similar in nature to the impending elimination of the per-vote federal subsidy to political parties? Groups must then appeal to the general public for direct financial support of their advocacy positions; what’s wrong with that?
http://brucelarochelle.wordpress.com/2011/06/05/subsidized-politics/
Dennis replies: Thanks for your comment. The per vote grant to political parties means that every Canadian contributes a modest amount to the financing of elections in our country. The grant costs citizens a grand total of $27 million per year. That is an infinitesimal amount of the federal budget but it is important to the health of the parties. Another way of paying for elections is to allow individuals to contribute to political parties and then to provide them with a generous income tax deduction for doing so. There has been a lot more money spent on this option, in the form of income tax deductions, than on the per vote subsidy. Those who can afford to make contributions in this way benefit from the tax deduction. Fair enough, but that still means that everyone pays because the tax deduction is a cost to government and therefore to all citizens. The per vote subsidy is actually a more equitable way of having the public contribute to elections than is the donation and subsequent tax deduction.
LikeLike
A pattern has appeared, 35 years ago our cajoined problems arose. The year 35 years ago, 1976, was when Britain announced. To Canada that they would be drooping Canada from its protection and stepping away from creating laws. Which meant Great Britain as a last hooray as most politicians do as a seting something straight as a policy Britain chose to amend the Constitution Aact of Canada as a debt owed to Six Nations and Other Aboriginal Nations who fought and died in the successful defeat of Unted States in th War of 1812,, the War of Independence, and the Seven years were all won by Six Nations thus creating the border between Canada and the United States having defeated the 13 Colonies on three fronts at the same time, on the Plains of Abraham, Fort Erie, Fort Detroit, Long point, Lake Erie, and Lake of Pines , North of todays, Detroit. Thus keeping the Great Lakes within then Canada. It was the two countires declared themselves as such by agreeing on two new boundary lines, one through the Great Lakes and the other at Vancouver Island. So since because they dealt with each other as countries would then that they then are countries dispiye not owning any land base as per definiyion by the United Nations. That being the case that since Six Nations made a treaty with the Dutch in 1612, and the United States still honors that Six Nations / Dutch Treaty it is then keeping with precedence that Six Nations was a country with a land base, governing political bodies, and a standing army, are and is still a country over 200 years before 1867 when Upper Canada assume Ontario land without Consultation or Accommodation of the Haudenosaunee, Hereditary Chiefs, and Clan Mothers of Six Nations of the Grand River Territory.
LikeLike
Thanks for the list but this WordPress Blog looks in tiny font on my computer. It also has some jibberish that looks like symbols that should be cleaned up. This site is integral to a complete trail of reductions in ministries which provided information. Someone posted that no one needs such entities like Stats Can, Environment Can. As a former teacher-librarian, these were the most authoritative instruments we could rely upon for recent date on climate, air, water use etc. My own search for data leads me to auditor general reports that are highly critical of missing data and poorly maintained environmental information. Please continue to add to this site. You might consider putting docs on google scribd so we could all have a look. Thanks so much.
Dennis replies: Thanks for your note. Re the gibberish: For some reason that occurred when I updated my website and moved the blog over. Fixing it involves the time consuming task of going in and making the changes one at a time — but I do hope to get to this. I will also consider other platforms. Can you please give me more info on google scribe (I am assuming it is scribe and not scrib as written)? Best wishes, dg
LikeLike