11 Reasons Why I Didn’t Celebrate Canada Day

By Don Weitz

1. The federal-Harper government’s refusal to honor the Kelowna Accord that would provide over $5 billion in affordable housing, urgently-needed health care and other essential services to many thousands of Aboriginal People, including children, on First Nations reserves; the Accord was signed over 1 year ago by the previous Liberal government, all provincial premiers, and the Assembly of First Nations.

2. The federal-Harper government’s refusal to provide and guarantee clean and safe drinking water and flush toilets on all reserves across Canada.

3. The federal-Harper government’s refusal to provide decent and affordable housing on First Nations reserves, and its continuing refusal to establish a national affordable housing plan.

4. The federal-Harper government’s refusal to establish a national, publicly funded childcare program that would create many thousands of urgently needed publicly subsidized day care spaces for low-income families.

5. The federal-Harper government’s refusal, including the negligence of federal Health Minister Tony Clement, to fully protect Canada’s publicly-funded Medicare by refusing to enforce the Canada Medicare Act by refusing to outlaw and fine private clinics and other private health facilities; a 2-tier healthcare system has become a reality.

6. The federal-Harper government’s offensive military policies and actions in Afghanistan are a failure and have caused many unnecessary deaths of Canadian soldiers, the bombing and torture of Afghan civilians, and have irresponsibly wasted hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.

7. The Martin-Liberal and Harper-Conservative governments’ failure to provide national public debate on its militaristic plans and combat role in Afghanistan before ordering thousands of soldiers to that country - a blatant violation of the democratic process.

8. The federal-Harper government’s refusal to order drug companies to send affordable, urgently needed AIDS drugs to many African countries where HIV-AIDS has become a devastating continent wide epidemic that has already killed millions of people. So far, not one promised AIDS drug has been shipped to Africa.

9. The federal-Harper government’s refusal to honor the international Kyoto Agreement that requires nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are causing catastrophic climate change by specific dates.

10. The federal-Harper government, like previous liberal governments, has seriously violated and continues to violate the civil and Charter rights of many citizens — such as enforcing its anti-terrorist laws that unjustly deprive thousands of citizens of their legal and Charter rights that have resulted in wrongful conviction, indefinite imprisonment, deportation, and torture of many innocent people it has labeled “terrorist” or “terrorist suspect.”

11. The federal government supports Canada’s repressive provincial “mental health” laws that authorize preventive and indefinite detention (”involuntary committal”, “warrant of the lieutenant governor”,”community treatment order”), and health-threatening psychiatric procedures such as forced drugging (”medication” without informed consent), electroshock (”ECT”), physical restraints, solitary confinement (”seclusion”), and other violations of human rights.

Don Weitz is a social justice and antipsychiatry activist, host-producer of “Antipsychiatry Radio” on CKLN, and co-founder of the Coalition Againsty Psychiatric Assault (CAPA); he was recently presented with an Award in Advocacy by the Mental Health Legal Committee in Toronto.