-- Download The Queen, G20 Abuses and Canada's Future as PDF --
It has been a couple weeks and I still can’t get this out of my head.
I was going to write something quite venomous on Canada Day about the queen’s characterization of Canada, but decided to let it slide. But I can’t:
The Queen said she has witnessed more than half of Canada’s national history and praised what Canada stands for.
“This nation has dedicated itself to being a caring home for its own, a sanctuary for others and an example to the world,” she said.
via CBC News – Canada – Queen calls Canada ‘example to the world’.
It wouldn’t have been so annoying if Canada Day weren’t just days after our constitutions was suspended by the security on acid in Toronto last month.
I’m no monarchist, but this is just gratuitous. I won’t suggest the queen is deluded about the underbelly of Canada. Her job as the hands-off head of state means she has no place commenting on our controversial issues. She’s a cheerleader and a sanctioner of paradigms.
What’s hers?
Well, she’s the Queen of the British Empire, no friend to egalitarianism, social justice or political liberty. Not that she’s a shill for authoritarianism, she’s a symbol of it.
So when she says that we are a caring home for our own, our increasing socio-economic disparities disagree with that, as do the hundreds locked up in Toronto.
When she says we are a sanctuary for others, we need to see if the citizens who generally support providing refuge for American deserters from the Iraq invasion and occupation will insist the government actually permit them to stay.
When she says we are an example to the world, she is absolutely right. We are an example of G8 and G20 leadership. An example of the proper way of putting neoliberal corporate interests in the highest of places in a nation. An example of how the world ought to behave when the masters are in town.
In short, we are an example of a middle power bowing down to the new world order. Democracy, rights, freedom, social justice, economic policies that work for people not global corporate interests are the enemy of the great sucking sound of the rich getting richer and the rest of us seeing dissent and free speech criminalized.
So on our road to reclaiming Canada, let’s dump the monarchy. Because in the end, when the queen says she’s witnessed more than half our nation’s history, she knows what she’s talking about.
And I don’t want to hear from the likes of her anymore.
More from my site
November 12, 2010 One Million BC Activists Can’t Be Wrong, Aren’t Wrong
October 11, 2010 The Anti-Thanksgiving: Criminalizing Dissent in Canada
January 8, 2013 America the Not-So-Beautiful: God Shat His Grace On Thee
April 8, 2011 Charging $1,200 to democratically assemble, Vision Vancouver looks to China for advice on (anti) free speech laws.
November 14, 2010 Harper + Aung San Suu Kyi + G20 Protesters = Hypocrisy
November 11, 2010 What I’m Remembering Today
Stephen Elliott-Buckley
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As the voice for 500 years of imperial rule which brought death and destruction to tens of millions of people, she is quite audacious playing the ‘example to the world’ card. The thought, itself, is stupefying.
A truly conscionable person born into her position, one who had the faintest idea about suffering at the hands of others, would close shop forever and give the vast majority of her ill-gotten gains back to the people. Now that would be an ‘example to the world’ worth mentioning.
As Queen of England, the endurance of her position’s hypocrisy is rivalled only by that of the pope.
Thomas Paine pointed out in The Rights of Man, the idea of any hereditary public positions is as inconsistent and absurd as that of the idea of hereditary mathematicians or poets….“its an office which could be filled by any child or idiot. It requires some talents to be a common mechanic; but to be a king requires only the animal figure of a man”.
um, yes. totally.
i’m sure glad i posted this!
What struck me as especially galling was the spectacle in Winnipeg of the Queen opening the Human Right Historical Museum. In light of the G20 fiasco, I couldn’t help but think, “Steven Harper makes Human Rights HISTORY in Canada”. The irony!
yes, we’re living in an era of post-irony. sickening really.
assault by trespass is another irony-free idiocy.
There was actually a young man from NL there to have his human rights work showcased, who bravely declined to shake the hand of Steven Harper. Apparently, he was asked to step back, so as not to create contraversy. Some human rights!
clarity of priorities: optics over authenticity.
sadly, that’s nothing new i fear.