“I have a list”

These are the infamous words of Joe McCarthy as he set about re-arranging people’s lives
in the 1950s. The Senator’s Committee on un-American Activities threw the Red Scare
into everyone. His list became synonymous with smears, innuendo, informants and ruined
careers.

The Harper Government has a list as well. It’s a list of people smeared or summarily
dismissed from their jobs and of civil society organizations whose funding has been cut or
revoked and of democratic programs defunded or crippled. The nature of Canadian society
has changed dramatically in the last five years and most of us don’t even know about it
because much of the list-making was done behind closed doors.

As we should in all things, let’s start with ‘A’ for Aboriginal …

Aboriginal Programs cut or abolished

Notwithstanding Mr Harper’s apology to First Nations for over 100 years of the Indian
Residential Schools (IRS) system:

Aboriginal Languages Initiative—cut from $175 million to $5 million (First Nations were using this
program to bring back languages that had been lost or nearly lost due to IRS.)
Aboriginal Healing Foundation (to assist recovery from abuse suffered at IRS)
First Nations Child and Family Caring Society
First Nations and Inuit Tobacco Control Program
Native Women’s Association of Canada
Sisters in Spirit (the group tracking Native women who have disappeared)

Civil Society
Civil society is the collective name for the non-governmental groups (NGOs) that research
and comment on a host of issues from Aboriginal affairs to zoological diversity. A healthy
community of NGOs is a vital component of democracy. Every government supports them;
some are even established by government (as Rights and Democracy was by Brian
Mulroney). These organizations and programs have seen their funding cut or disappeared
by the Harper Government.

Action travail des femmes

Afghan Association of Ontario, Canada Toronto
Alberta Network of Immigrant Women
Alternatives (Quebec)
Association féminine d’éducation et d’action sociale (AFEAS)
Bloor Information and Life Skills Centre
Brampton Neighbourhood Services (Ontario)
Canadian Arab Federation
Canadian Child Care Federation
Canadian Council for International Co-operation
Canadian Council on Learning
Canadian Council on Social Development
Canadian Heritage Centre for Research and Information on Canada
Canadian Human Rights Commission
Canadian International Development Agency, Office of Democratic Governance
Canadian Labour Business Centre
Canada Policy Research Networks
Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women
Canada School of Public Service
Canadian Teachers' Federation International program
Canadian Volunteerism Initiative
Centre de documentation sur l’éducation des adultes et la condition feminine
Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation (CERA)
Centre for Spanish Speaking Peoples (Toronto)
Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada
Childcare Resource and Research Unit, SpeciaLink
Climate Action Network
Community Access Program
Community Action Resource Centre (CARC)
Conseil d’intervention pour l’accès des femmes au travail (CIAFT)
Court Challenges Program (an important avenue to test Charter rights cases)
Court Commission of Canada
Davenport-Perth Neighbourhood Centre Toronto: (Funding cut by CIC in December 2010).
Democracy Council
Department of Foreign Affairs, Democracy Unit
Elspeth Heyworth Centre for Women Toronto
Eritrean Canadian Community Centre of Metropolitan Toronto
Ethiopian Association in the Greater Toronto Area and Surrounding Regions
Feminists for Just and Equitable Public Policy (FemJEPP) in Nova Scotia
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)
Immigrant settlement programs
Inter-Cultural Neighbourhood Social Services (Peel)
International Planned Parenthood Federation
KAIROS (main-stream church NGO whose funding was ‘NOT’ approved by Bev Oda)
Law Commission of Canada
Mada Al-Carmel Arab Centre
Marie Stopes International, a maternal health agency
MATCH International
National Association of Women and the Law (NAWL)
New Brunswick Coalition for Pay Equity
Northwood Neighbourhood Services (Toronto: (Funding cut by CIC in December 2010).
Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses (OAITH)
Ontario Association of Transitional Housing (OAITH)
Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care
Ottawa Chinese Community Services Centre
Pride Toronto
Réseau des Tables régionales de groupes de femmes du Québec
Riverdale Women’s Centre in Toronto
Royal Canadian Mounted Police External Review Committee
Sierra Club of BC
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
South Asian Women’s Centre
Statistics Canada long-form census
Status of Women
Tropicana Community Services
Womanspace Resource Centre (Lethbridge, Alberta)
Women’s Innovative Justice Initiative – Nova Scotia
Women’s Legal Action and Education Fund
Workplace Equity/Employment Equity Program
York South-Weston Community Services Centre Toronto

Watchdogs & Whistleblowers

This list is of individuals who have run afoul of the Harper Government. Some have had
their funding cut back, others quit out of protest, and still others were fired for doing their
jobs too well. Others were smeared and harassed from their careers. In the case of Rémy
Beauregard, his reputation was destroyed during a takeover of the internationally respected
NGO Rights and Democracy. He died of a heart attack at the height of the takeover.

Rémy Beauregard, President, Rights & Democracy (International Centre for Human Rights and
Democratic Development)
Chief Supt. Marty Cheliak, Director General, Canada Firearms Program (for supporting the long-gun
registry)
Richard Colvin, diplomat, Foreign Affairs (smeared for blowing the whistle on torture of Afghan
detainees)
Yves Coté, Ombudsman, Department of National Defence and the Canadian Forces
Linda Keen, Chair, Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (fired for closing down the problem-
plagued reactor at Chalk River)
Paul Kennedy, Chair, RCMP Police Complaints Commission (critical of how RCMP was handling in-
custody deaths)
Adrian Measner, President and CEO, Canadian Wheat Board (criticized Minister Chuck Strahl)
Kevin Page, Parliamentary Budget Officer (budget cut by $1 million—several reports critical of
government estimates of costs for programs, eg, F-35, crime legislation)
Sheridan Scott, Commissioner, Competition Bureau (for reviewing, properly, a corporate takeover).
Munir Sheikh, Deputy Minister, Statistics Canada (for his support for the long-form census)
Col. Pat Stogran, the first Veterans Ombudsman (for criticizing how Veterans Affairs handled
veterans’ claims)
Steve Sullivan, Ombudsman, Victims of Crime
Peter Tinsley, Chair, Military Police Complaints Commission (for persisting in his mandated review of
the Afghan detainee scandal).
Earl Turcotte, lead negotiator, Mine Action and Small Arms Team, Foreign Affairs (for criticizing the
government’s interpretations of its obligations under the International Convention on Cluster
Munitions—land mines).

This list researched and compiled by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (Maria
Gergin, April 6, 2011).