Bird’s Eye: After a week in which Harper survived the gang attacks of the other three reasons, the majority of Canadians who oppose him (and it is a majority) are getting desperate. Why keep fighting? And how? We have answers. First, Project Democracy lets you look at your riding and says which candidate is the most likely to defeat the Conservative. And we have a list of reasons to oppose Harper, and a list of the government funded groups whose money has been cut during his reign.

* Project Democracy (Thanks, Alice, Lois, Amy, Judy, Diana, etc…)

* Ten Reasons To Oppose The Harper Candidate In Your Riding Rabble.ca

Reason #5: Not smart on crime

• Crime rates are down and the population is aging, but the Harper government claims it must introduce tougher laws, incarcerate more Canadians, and spend $9 billion for more prisons — some of them American-style super-prisons — because of an increase in “unreported” crime.

• One-third of the 54 bills introduced by the Conservatives over the past several months are related to crime. The Parliamentary Budget Officer predicted a price tag of $7 billion to $10 billion for the cost of passing Bill C-25 alone, which eliminates the two-for-one credit for time served.

• A new report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives think-tank says that harsher prison conditions, longer sentences, and more crowded prisons will increase the chance that criminals will re-offend. Already, prisoners have to wait too long for rehabilitation programs and are being crowded into cells contrary to United Nations standards.

• At the same time, six prison farms, one of Canada’s most effective rehabilitation programs, are being closed. Sister Helen Prejean, the U.S. anti-capital-punishment activist, warned about certain Tory members: “If they gain in ascendancy… you’d have a party in power that would put back the death penalty in a heartbeat.”

• While paying lip service for victims of crime, the Tories have cut the budget to Grants for the Victims of Crime Initiative by 41 per cent and Contributions for the Victims of Crime Initiative by 34 per cent.

* Stephen Harper’s Firing Range: A List Of 87 Organizations And People Attacked In Five Years rabble.ca

… • 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’s Settlement and Integration Services Organization (Ontario)…

Bird’s Eye: Connect the dots, and the pattern jumps out. Not only has CEO Harper (of the Harper Government™) taken leave of the Canadian census, limited daily media questions to five, but this week it developed that all rallies are screened for potential terrorists Liberals. (Ms Aslam wears a hijab, so it’s no surprise the Conservatives had the RCMP check her Facebook page, and no, it probably didn’t matter what her privacy settings were.) Remember that the contempt of Parliament which triggered the election was a refusal to talk, that the long census was axed (Too Much Information!), that scientists have been gagged, that parliament was prorogued to avoid questions on Afghani prisoner torture. Ask Harper no questions and he’ll tell you no lies.

* Fear the People Bow. James Bow.

…If you disagree with Stephen Harper on anything, then you are not a normal Canadian in his eyes. You are something inhuman. You are an enemy. You are a threat. Your opinion is not to be respected, or even ignored, it is to be contained. A true lover of democracy, regardless of their political stripe, should be concerned by any politician who shows that level of disrespect to the basic right of an individual to have a difference of opinion.

The Liberals have never slipped to this level. No party has in my living memory, short of a dictatorship.

…Is this really the country we want? A prime minister who refuses to answer questions is a prime minister who has no answers. A prime minister who hates differences of political opinions to the degree shown here hates democracy. A prime minister who fears the people to such a degree is a prime minister who simply does not deserve the role any longer.

* Harper’s Closed-Door Campaign Marches Woman Out Of Rally In London Toronto Star

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper has long been known for martial discipline, but his campaign may have crossed the line when someone frog-marched a young woman out of a rally in London, Ont., Sunday. The first-time voter’s crime, apparently, was to have posed for a picture with Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff and posted it for all to see on her Facebook page. About half an hour before Harper arrived at the crowded hotel rally, one organizer asked to speak with Awish Aslam and a friend outside the room. There, he ripped up their nametags and ordered them to leave. “We know you guys have ties to the Liberal party through Facebook,” the University of Western Ontario student told the London Free Press. “You are no longer welcome here.”

* Harper Trying To Hide True Costs Of Proposed Crime Laws, Corporate Tax Cuts The Province

The “Fiscal Transparency” report from Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) Kevin Page says the federal government has withheld crucial information about crime legislation and the multi-billion-dollar planned purchase of F-35 fighter jets, and has put out questionable forecasts on the impact of coming corporate tax cuts. The federal Liberals have been complaining bitterly that the Harper government won’t reveal cost projections for tough-on-crime legislation that would drastically increase the number of citizens in Canada’s prisons, and cost billions in prison construction and expansion. The Tories have responded that such information falls under “cabinet confidence” and is a non-releasable state secret.

The PBO identified 11 specific areas in the crime legislation for which the Tories have provided inadequate information.

* Government Accused Of Manipulating Science News CBC News

The federal government engages in “unacceptable political interference” in the communication of government science, says the head of a group that represents both government press officers and science journalists. “Openness is being held ransom to media messages that serve the government’s political agenda,” wrote Kathryn O’Hara, president of the Canadian Science Writers’ Association….The article comes during “Right to Know Week” in Canada, a celebration of open information that “ironically … comes on the back of new evidence of unacceptable political interference in the public statements of federal government researchers,” said O’Hara, who is also the CTV chair in science broadcast journalism at Carleton University.