Many Ukrainian war refugees will likely remain in Canada permanently, Immigration Minister Marc Miller told reporters Friday. Miller said Canada had “limited capacity” though only a third of 962,612 war refugees granted permission to enter Canada landed here: “I am not sending them back to Ukraine as long as the war continues.”
The National Civil Rights Museum
at the Lorraine Motel, Memphis.
A black-and-white photo
shows Jesse Jackson
reading the Chicago Daily Defender:
“King Murdered!”
Those were dark days.
Before Wi-Fi,
before smartphones,
before Twitter.
By Shai Ben-Shalom
Genevieve Fuji Johnson, a political scientist, spied the land for democracy. Not the raucous democracy of Parliament, but the beautiful democracy envisioned by ancient Greeks. Her search ended badly. The result is this crisp and engaging book. There is nothing like disillusionment to inspire compelling non-fiction.
“Deliberative democracy is a rich ideal,” writes Fuji Johnson, associate professor at Simon Fraser University. “It invokes a democratic system of governance in which citizens actively exchange ideas, engage in debate and create laws responsive to their interests and aspirations.”
“Ideal” is the key word here. Many Canadians think of democracy as the right to dissent and be left alone. Democratic Illusion went in search of something finer.
“I sought out success stories in contemporary public policy to understand how principles derived from or related to the ideal of deliberative democracy are being applied, and what their implications are for a broader system of collective norm formation and decision making,” Fuji Johnson explains. And how did that work out? “Appearance was deceiving,” she writes.
Democratic Illusion is neither cynical nor dark. It is an entertaining account of how Greek democracy doesn’t stand a chance in 21st century Canada. Fuji Johnston examines case studies from Nunavut to Nova Scotia in which town hall engagement resulted in disappointment.
An example: Toronto Community Housing Corp., largest public landlord in Canada with 164,000 tenants, created advisory committees where residents could vote on how to spend maintenance budgets: “After discussion and debate, residents would either use secret ballots or dots on a flip chart to collectively rank the projects.” So far, so good.
Tenants’ committees quickly became unwieldy. One had 22 members, bigger than the Yukon legislature. Then tenants began voting for budget items that offered immediate benefits: better gardens, new playgrounds; modern bathroom vanities; more security cameras. Spending on roof shingles and boiler maintenance declined, and by 2013 the corporation had a capital deficit of $750 million.
Then directors misspent funds on sole-sourced contracts and “team building” junkets like boat cruises, and in 2011 the CEO was dismissed along the entire board. The corporation was stripped of most of its spending powers in 2012.
Another example: Nova Scotia Power Inc. in 2004 commissioned a “deliberative poll” called a Customer Energy Forum. It worked as a focus group. A total 135 utility customers were invited to debate and discuss priorities. Participants got $150 and a meal voucher; the utility got a report indicating customers were worried about emissions from coal-fired plants, and quietly shelved the findings. Nova Scotia remains one of Canada’s biggest coal burners, producing so much pollution it was granted a 2014 waiver from federal greenhouse gas regulations.
“Polls played a very minor role relative to closed-door negotiations,” notes Democratic Illusion. “Perhaps cynically, the polls may have also been an endeavor to improve public relations.”
Democratic Illusion does not despair, it explains. Most of us don’t have the time or inclination to participate in deliberative democracy. Government is so complex it is “impenetrable by the average citizen” and people who run things will never relinquish power, anyway.
“We learn from my study that, no matter how robust the procedures may be, if there is no elite willingness to empower them, they are essentially undemocratic,” Fuji Johnson concludes. “Perhaps worse, they are undemocratic while creating an illusion of democracy.”
We are left with dissent, and the ritual of punishment. Let the voting begin!
By Holly Doan
Democratic Illusion: Deliberative Democracy in Canadian Public Policy by Genevieve Fuji Johnson; University of Toronto Press; 200 pages; ISBN 9781-4426-11245; $24.95
Liberal leadership candidate Karina Gould yesterday said she opposes her cabinet’s proposed $17.4 billion increase in capital gains taxes. The Burlington, Ont. MP did not explain why she voted for the measure seven months ago as Government House Leader: “I don’t think we got the capital gains tax increase right.”
An anti-Israel advocacy group says it forced CBC-TV to issue a correction over whether the bombing of Gaza was “genocide.” The incident followed thousands of complaints alleging biased coverage at the Crown broadcaster: “Such an admission by our public broadcaster is rare.”
Attorney General Arif Virani yesterday confirmed cabinet will file an intervenor’s brief in a landmark Supreme Court case on government powers versus religious freedom. The Court agreed to hear appeals of a 2019 Québec law that restricts public display of religious symbols by public employees on duty including Muslim hijabs or Sikh turbans: “That will have an impact right across the country.”
Canada will “definitely be looking at those words” after U.S. President Donald Trump said NATO member countries should more than double their rates of defence spending. Canada currently spends proportionately only slightly more than Luxembourg and Slovenia on military preparedness: “Is that realistic?”
The Canada Revenue Agency yesterday said it will extend a deadline on 2024 tax credits for charitable donors to February 28. Charities nationwide had complained a work stoppage at the post office before Christmas disrupted contributions at their busiest time of year: “The Agency is confirming.”
Homeless people should not sleep in city parks, Housing Minister Nathaniel Erskine-Smith said yesterday. Sleeping on sidewalks was also unacceptable, he told reporters: “I’ve got two young kids.”
The federal Court Challenges Program yesterday said it funded Supreme Court intervenors in support of the carbon tax in the name of “human rights.” The Program refused to say which pro-tax advocacy group received a taxpayers’ grant to speak in favour of the federal tax on fuel: “We will not be making additional information available.”
Transparency in federal spending “reached a new low” under ex-finance minister Chrystia Freeland, the Budget Office said yesterday. Analysts expressed anger over concealment of financial accounts that confirmed dramatic overruns in deficit spending: “Was there any political pressure?”
New Democrats favour a review of a decades-old treaty that restricts illegal immigrants in the United States from filing refugee claims in Canada, Party leader Jagmeet Singh said yesterday. New enforcement measures against 10,990,000 illegal immigrants in the U.S. were “really scary,” he said: “It’s really sad for folks in the States right now.”
The Hill Times, Canada’s most heavily subsidized weekly, yesterday likened the election of a Conservative Parliament in 2025 to the “beginning of Nazi authoritarianism.” The newspaper earlier criticized Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre for opposing subsidies to newsrooms like the Hill Times: “All we need is a Reichstag fire for our rights to be suspended and to never return to democracy without a fight.”
A federal program paid intervenors to take the federal government’s side in a 2021 Supreme Court of Canada challenge of the carbon tax, records show. The Court Challenges Program yesterday would not discuss subsidies paid to advocacy groups to argue in favour of cabinet’s fuel tax: ““It is no simple matter to tinker with the Constitution.”
Cabinet may not “go ahead with the consumer carbon price,” Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said yesterday. He called the carbon tax “very unpopular.” The rate will jump an average 20 percent effective April 1 to 21¢ per litre for gasoline: “What went wrong?”
