The bludgeoning of the people

“Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.”

– Oscar Wilde

So it looks like we may be heading into an election period. Parliamentary parties are already in full-swing lambasting each other and accusing each other of great flaws and faults. Sadly, with all the noise and grandstanding, real issues are likely to be lost and informed debate is likely to be trumped by rhetoric and slogans.

It would be nice to think that the more one became informed about the political process, the more one would be inspired to get involved. But it’s more likely to prove quite the opposite.

In the last month I have spent a good deal of time looking closely at how justice legislation is drafted, presented, argued, debated and enacted. The entire process is very disheartening.

Parliamentary debates over proposed legislation are not only partisan and couched in rhetoric, but they can be downright hostile. At one recent standing committee, a woman intervening on behalf of a church organization was bullied by a Conservative MP and backed into a corner with demands to ‘say yes or no’. Her statement, thus coerced, was then quoted out of context on that MP’s website and in correspondence sent to his constituency. While certainly such tactics will not silence criticism, they do make you think twice about sticking your neck out.

Making informed appeals to logic and common sense seem to get people nowhere – at least that is the impression I have after watching several committee proceedings and hearing expert after expert testify about the harmful impacts of the proposed legislation and then finding out that the bill was passed anyway. So who needs experts, informed debate and research? Our government certainly doesn’t seem to. The produce their own ‘experts’ and ‘witnesses’ – the Macdonald Laurier Institute is a pet think-tank that conveniently backs up Conservative positions – who seem to blindly approve whatever is being suggested.

And to think that, if an election is called, all this bullying, mud-slinging and fact-twisting will only increase. The poisonous atmosphere currently hovering over Parliament Hill will spread across the country, breeding disenchantment, apathy and frustration for some, entrenching partisan divides for others.