On Saturday afternoon, February 8, we attended an anti-prorogation forum at the Public Library in Sidney BC. (For those of you not familiar with the area, Sidney is a small town near the Swartz Bay Ferry Terminal. If you take a ferry from Vancouver to Victoria you will disembark at Swartz Bay.)

The speakers were:

• Colin MacLeod, UVic Professor of Law and Philosophy,
• Craig Ashbourne, UVic Sociology Grad Student
• Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada, candidate for Saanich & The Gulf Islands

This was the second such forum last week.The themes of the speakers were similar. That is, while breaking no law, PM Harper has subverted (perverted?) democracy by using prorogation to escape democratic processes of dialogue, debate and deliberation, and and to concentrate power in the PMO. The government continues to function minus the accountability of a sitting Parliament. In other words, democracy is down for the count except that Canadians are not standing for it. As Craig Ashbourne pointed out, democracy happens in between elections.

Although the topic was democracy in Canada and the battering it is taking, I thought that mention of the Afghan detainees could have been highlighted in the formal presentations since revelations of possible Canadian complicity in torture were the very thing that provoked Harper's use of prorogation the second time. It was his escape pod. Finally, toward the end of the Q&A, Elizabeth May brought focus not only onto the Afghan detainees but also onto Omar Khadr and the betrayal of him by PM Harper & Co.. Elizabeth May has a way of articulating the most pertinent aspects of the situation of all of these prisoners in relation to the Government of Canada. Refreshing.

Nice to see a full room of people come out on a warm Saturday afternoon. Besides being opportunities for learning and sharing, by their existence such forums keep the Conservative Government uneasy, worried, nervous, jittery and in the minds of so many, just plain ridiculous, somewhat unprincipled and utterly self-aggrandizing — not a pretty sight, though true.

BTW, this forum took place a five minute walk from the constituency office of Gary Lunn, Conservative MP. He had been invited to attend to offer his point of view, but he failed to even respond to the invitation.

*In case you don't appreciate the heading for this post, let me explain. It's just a bit of humour from an old hippie. In the late sixties there was a song named, "Don't Bogart That Joint". So, 'tis simply a simple play of words to entertain the billblogger himself and possible three or four others who still remember seeing "Easy Rider". No big deal [another joke?].

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Oh yeah, I photographed these crocuses in front of the library. We are having a warmer spring than in decades. It's been an easy winter for the hummingbirds. The early cherry trees are blooming now too — this is way ahead of schedule for them — and the Winter Olympics are almost upon us. As my daughter says, "Nothing says Winter Olympics like cherry blossoms."

Cheers from the Left Coast of Canada.