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| Sunday, 1 February 2004 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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A kingdom of fat cats Toronto Diary by Ajith Samaranayake Barely a week into my stay in Canada and things are looking almost like back at home. The police is rocked by a corruption scandal and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the pet Mounties of an older mythology, are at the butt end of attack for harassing a woman journalist in its quest for sources. One would be seized with a sense of dj vu if not for the fact that unlike in good old Sri Lanka, preparing to beat the celebratory tom-toms for her Independence anniversary, things are not swept under the red carpet. Instead there are howls of persistent protest until the panjandrums are forced to sit up and take notice. Bubble bursts The bubble burst when the Mounties searched and sealed the home of Juliet O'Neill, a reporter of the 'Ottawa Citizen' and questioned her for over five and a half hours about a leak stemming from the arrest and detention of Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen, who had been deported to his home country of Syria where he had been tortured. The hard men of Canadian security in their obsession to find a bogeyman had projected Arar as a terrorist trained in Afghanistan, accusations he has denied by filing a law suit against the US Government in New York although he is debarred from attending the sittings because he cannot enter the US. In Canada itself there is much indignation over the Canadian Government's pathetic collusion with Big Brother US in the shabby treatment of a Canadian citizen. Howls Ms. O'Neill's ordeal raised a howl from a press not normally given to apoplexy or hyperbole. Even a staid publisher such as Phil Crawley of the 'Globe and Mail' went to the lengths of saying that he felt as if he was living in a totalitarian State and such was the stifling Orwellian feeling that Prime Minister Paul Martin had to assure his fellow countrymen from the salubrious retreat of Devos that 'we are not living in a Police State'. The moral of the story, of course, is that civic rights and media freedom continue to occupy the public agenda even if the Leviathan state, in the wake of September 11, is insisting on breathing down its citizens' necks in the name of national security. There is indignation for example about the Mounties being brought back into the spy-catching business which is best left to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service in the estimation of many commentators. Twists and turns The political front itself has thrown up a set of new twists and turns following the ascendancy of Mr. Martin who took oaths only on January 13. He faces an unlikely challenger in the form of a shapely political neophyte Belinda Stronach, who has mounted a campaign for the leadership of the opposition Conservative Party with the long-term ambition of occupying the throne in Ottawa. Ms. Stronach was until last week the Chief Executive of a giant auto parts company Magna International while Mr. Martin was the chieftain of Canada Steamship Lines before sailing his political ship which has prompted a caustic barb from Jack Layton, the leader of the New Democratic Party who quipped that we don't want Chief Executives running the country. Populist image 'As a result Ms. Stronach in particular has been at pains to project a populist image describing herself as a working mother of two and a second generation immigrant educated at a public school, claims which have raised more than the usual howls of laughter from the populace. Papa Stronach, the first generation immigration, did his bit by saying that they couldn't afford a swimming pool until recently and had to drive Belinda to a public pool although it is a moot point how such claims can help Belinda. Beyond these ritual changes are larger questions about the kind of leadership, which Canadians would wish for in this century. Larger questions Can such a leadership cutting across the political divide and hitching itself to the lodestar of Big Business deliver a social democratic agenda? Will such an elitist leadership be in step with the democratic aspirations of the people? The 'Toronto Star' struck an almost plaintive note in its editorial. It wrote: 'Will he (Martin) give Canadians a crusade to inspire us? A big, bold dream to improve the daily lives of many Canadians? A new deal for cities? A national dream for the 21st century? Or more inertia?' Social agenda The state of the cities, the conditions of healthcare and the broad social agenda then continue to occupy the thinking of Canadians although the hapless victims of monetarist wisdom we of the Third World are being coaxed or bludgeoned into accepting the IMF-IBRD prescription of privatization. Canada can afford to do that as an advanced western economy and the question which seems to bother many thinking Canadians is whether its national leadership, whether of the Right or Centre will be able to attune itself to the people's thinking. Is the kingdom of the Fat Cats about to dawn on the Canadian horizon? POSTSCRIPT: Here is something which is bound to warm the heart of George Orwell in whatever radical heaven he might be residing at the moment. The Mounties admitted last week that Ms. O'Neill had been under surveillance for several weeks before their swoop on her and that the investigation was being carried out by the Truth Verification Section of the Behavioural Science Branch of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. What an exotic piece of Doublespeak. |
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