Adolf Hitler. Stephen Harper. The Big Lie.

Adolf Hitler.  Stephen Harper.  The Big Lie.

A column like this one opens a question that can’t be answered immediately – perhaps not for a long time.

Fifteen years from now an observer may say this column shows how far from reality a commentator could go in the contentious days of 2011 in Canada. 

Or, the commentator may ask why only the writer of this column saw the inevitable coming ... what became obvious to everyone else … but only when it was too late?

A clue that the second case might be true is the repeated  summing-up of the leaders debate on Tuesday, April 12 by Chris Hall (CBC parliamentary reporter). 

Over and over he reported that the leaders of the NDP, the bloc quebecois, and the Liberals attacked Stephen Harper – and that he answered them.  Not once did Chris Hall – or any of the other (‘mainstream’) commentators I have observed say that very many of Stephen Harper’s replies were manipulations of fact to convey falsehoods … when they were not outright lies.

Stephen Harper repeatedly said there was no tax cut for corporations in the latest budget (before Parliament closed for the election).  That was not the point.  A six billion dollar tax cut for the large corporations will come into effect if the Harperites win government. 

Those cuts need not come into effect.  And so, in fact, the Harperites are giving large corporations a six billion dollar tax cut. 

Lying flagrantly, Stephen Harper insisted his Party is not in contempt of Parliament when it is so without question. 

On the matter of the Harperites refusing to provide spending information  (one of the bases of the contempt ruling) Harper said his agents gave all information – a statement which is simply not true.

Perhaps most important of all, he denied the fundamental facts of parliamentary government, insisting that “Canadians” believe the Party with the most votes must govern.  What he argued, in fact, is a denial of the democratic parliamentary system.  In short, he lied.

This morning on an open line show a caller claimed his statement that the Canadian Labour Congress endorses his budget is an outright lie. 

Those are five random examples.  Random, I say, because one would need a script of the debate to count up the number of times Stephen Harper lied outright or manipulated facts to convey falsehoods.

He didn’t disable his opponents by superior argument.  He disabled the whole debate by using persistent falsehood and near falsehood.

The latest, mid-election flurry of revelations of misdoing concerns expenditures on the G20 Summit.  Allegations are of misleading Parliament by the Harperites (words for ‘lying to Parliament’?), misallocation of huge amounts of money, insider indulgences of Roman proportions.  All that through “leaks” of a forthcoming Report by the Auditor General Sheila Fraser.

In Ottawa, Harperite insider John Baird has spoken with apparent confident authority about what is contained in the confidential Report.  How can he do so?  Who gave him copies of the Report? Did Sheila Fraser? Stephen Harper (characteristically) is avoiding responsibility … for as long as he can. 

Canadians must ask how many such seamy revelations are waiting for an opening of the secrecy-bound activities of the Harperites?  They must ask the question.

Meanwhile, almost unnoticed, it has been revealed the Harperites took words of praise Sheila Fraser wrote about Liberal financial activities and quoted them about Harperite “work”.  Sheila Fraser is apparently upset!  Stockwell Day apologized profusely.  But the question remains – who did that piece of chicanery?  Did Stephen Harper order it? Can the Harperites be trusted on any matter whatever?

The conclusions which I have come to are quite clear.  I believe Stephen Harper is more comfortable lying than telling the truth.  I believe he is a psychopathic liar – which means I believe he will lie (and follow up his lies) in any way he can to gain his ends and aggrandize his position.

To take the logic of that position to its conclusion, I believe that - if Stephen Harper were to gain enough power – he would murder his political opponents, would have innocent Canadians shot down in the streets. [Remember the Toronto G20 violations of free assembly.]

If what I write is fair comment on observed public affairs, then Stephen Harper may properly be described as a neo-Fascist.

Historians of Nazism sometimes suggest the architect of “the Big Lie” in Nazi politics was Josef Goebbels, the only Ph. D in the inner circle and an early Party member.  But the ultimate author of all Nazi strategies of falsehood in that brutal despotism was Adolf Hitler himself.

He was a friend of Winnifred Wagner, manager – preceding and during the Second World War – of the famous Bayreuth (Wagner) Festivals. Early in Hitler’s time of growing power Winnifred Wagner would express dismay to him about Nazi street brutality against political opponents and others. 

Like Stephen Harper when faced with evidence of undeniable wrong-doing by the Party, Hitler would say he knew nothing about it, or someone else did it without his orders.  Or he would belittle the evidence or … change the subject or … lie outright.

When faced with inescapable need to act with courage and honesty, Hitler, like Stephen Harper, would take the coward’s way out.

In a moment of brazen bravado, for instance, Harper suggested a one-on-one election debate with Michael Ignatieff – who agreed immediately.  On April Fool’s day, the press announced Stephen Harper’s retreat, babbling nonsense and, again, repeating a simple lie – that a coalition exists and is led by Michael Ignatieff.

Harper’s campaign is built and based upon that and worse kinds of lying.  As the Encyclopedia Brittanica writes in relation to Fascism, Stephen Harper makes a “proud sacrifice of all ethical scruples to success”.  What Canadians must realize is that Stephen Harper employs a complex strategy of lies that are well thought out and employed in no accidental way.

To say Harper is fairly called a neo-Fascist may seem harsh.  But people in democracies must be clear-eyed if they wish to protect democratic freedoms. Even Plato – 2500 years ago – observed that Tyranny develops most naturally out of Democracy.

The characteristics of Fascism across Europe in the first half of the twentieth century were plain:  the sharing of State power with private corporations to pursue common goals.  Using the police to destroy civil freedoms.  Operating all activities under ‘the Big Lie”. Enrolling the Mainstream Press and Media as accomplices in political gangsterism.  Persecuting, starving, torturing, murdering any number of people opposed to the Fascists.

Hitler was determined to take power by constitutional means after having failed in a violent attempt at a coup in Munich in 1923.  Twisting, perverting, exploiting, debasing constitutional practice (like Stephen Harper), Hitler managed to bully and coerce his way to supreme power in Germany – with results we know too well.

Stephen Harper’s wholly perverse manipulation of prorogation to avoid votes in Parliament might have been learned directly from Adolf Hitler. 

Harper’s actions to deny Parliament rightful information  and to support the alleged lies of a cabinet minister might, also, have been learned from the earlier “drive to power” of a dictator-in-waiting.

Like Adolf Hitler, Stephen Harper is, I have no doubt, the author of all his Party’s ‘strategies of falsehood”, all its attempts to destroy the democracy in which it presently works.

Harper’s use of the RCMP to eject the unwanted from “democratic” election campaign meetings matches Hitler’s “strong-arm squads” created to protect Nazi meetings from  attendance by “the unwanted”. 

Indeed, before the present election was announced, I wrote a column on the RCMP and its growing corruption.  In that column I guessed that the dismissal of the top man at the RCMP, William Elliott, was post-dated by Harper because the Mounties would be needed for dirty work in the election. 

As happened, RCMP officers have been used as thug “security” in the Harper meetings.  Did those RCMP officers wear the brown shirts of the Nazis?  We know nothing about them.  Who are they?  What are their names?  Why have they not been identified? Who ordered them to act at those meetings?  Was it Stephen Harper?  We must know – before the election.

Nor is it accidental, I believe, that William Elliott - the recently fired top RCMP officer - was, earlier, a key actor in the Prime Minister’s Office undertaking the approval of much-charged Bruce Carson to become a top advisor to Stephen Harper. 

Carson is presently under investigation by the RCMP for alleged improper behaviour in attempts to get contracts awarded.  He has a record of misdeeds and dubious connections.  Stephen Harper alleges he knew almost nothing of Bruce Carson’s past.

One may guess that for his good and faithful service first in the PMO, and then in Stockwell Day’s Public Safety Department, and then as head of the RCMP, William Elliot will fall from grace onto a very carefully prepared, soft, luxurious bed.

Under Guiliano Zaccardelli, the RCMP used its “investigation” of Ralph Goodale and the Department of Finance in 2006 to help defeat the Liberals.  Now the RCMP makes clear it can say nothing about the tale of Stephen Harper’s senior henchman Bruce Carson, involved, it is alleged, in a dirtier piece of business than any Ralph Goodale has ever been remotely connected to.

Having very recently discovered ethics, “ethics” is apparently the basis upon which the William Elliott RCMP refuses to report about Bruce Carson.

Carson’s close relation to Stephen Harper and the PMO has, we may be sure, nothing to do with the RCMP’s newfound “ethics” and “discretion”. 

The same slippery dishonesty, I believe, is involved in the case of Elizabeth May’s exclusion from the leaders debate.  The key force rejecting her has been, I believe, Stephen Harper.  When the decision of the “media consortium” was announced, both Jack Layton and Michael Ignatieff said she should be included in the debate.

Characteristically shifting responsibility, Stephen Harper said he would accept the decision of the “media consortium” – which, of course – consulted the Parties.  Only when it became plain that public sentiment wanted Elizabeth May in the debate – only then did Harper change his tune and say he supported her presence. 

If truth is ever told by members of the media consortium, I am almost certain they will report that Harper publicly supported May’s presence while privately telling the consortium he would withdraw if she was allowed in. Harper knows she threatens his nondescript candidate Gary Lunn.  And so I believe Harper – in typical covert fashion – acted to keep her out.

Consider the next minority government.  I believe the Mainstream Press and Media are doing what they can to secure a Harper victory.  If they were being genuinely impartial, they would have to be reporting simple, factual things they are not reporting.  1.  Minority governments occur commonly in parliamentary systems.  2.  Such governments often do excellent work.  3. Coalitions may form – and, if they do, they can govern effectively. 4.  If they don’t form, ‘agreements to govern’ (as has, in fact, been the case in Canada since 2006) can be effective.  5.  And so Stephen Harper’s attack on those possibilities is a sham.  It is a hoax which he is attempting to perpetrate on the Canadian public.

But … more!  The Mainstream Press and Media should expose Stephen Harper’s real goal … the one he is trying to use a pattern of lies to achieve.

Having gone Right to the point of having ‘nut case Yankee policies”, Harper knows they won’t be supported by a minority government.  $30 billions (plus) for fighter planes.  A $6 billion gift to large corporations.  Multi billions to build [who will get the contracts?] new nineteenth century jails to pack with people who shouldn’t be in jail.  And more….

Harper has set up a situation that is so obscene no minority parliament could accept it.

That means the minority parliament will vote him down and will seek from the Governor General the right to rule.  Stephen Harper has, I believe, anticipated that (as I believe he anticipated he would need William Elliott as head of the RCMP during the election).  And so he appointed a Harperite Hack as Governor General.  That opens huge and dangerous possibilities. If the Governor General attempts to work politically for Stephen Harper, instead of constitutionally for Canada, he will create a crisis in Canadian democracy. 

In that situation a Harper attempted coup d’etat will be used to prevent a Liberal-led minority government.  

If that happens, the Opposition parties will be forced into some kind of coalition.  To save Canadian democracy, the matter may demand an all-party Opposition coalition.  Stephen Harper knows that, I am sure.  He is trying to lie enough to make Canadians believe (in advance) that a coalition is undemocratic and illegitimate.  That is why he lies about it consistently…on and on and on.

Stephen Harper has never let the truth stand in the way of his ambition to rule as what Plato called a Tyrant.

The Mainsteam Press and Media – which opens up none of the facts on this matter, supports, I believe, what is in fact Stephen Harper’s baldfaced lying.  Even the CBC does.  In the face, for instance, of what the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting insist is an outright lie by the Prime Minister’s Office, by Stephen Harper, and by the arts and culture minister James Moore about cuts to CBC funding … the CBC remains mute.

Complicity with lies and wrongdoing can’t go much farther than that.

It is plain that Canadians are going to have to figure out the pattern of lying laid out by Stephen Harper and what it is intended to produce.  They are going to have to figure it out in the face of the failure of the Mainstream Press and

Media to do their job.  Canadians would be wise to be ready for a major attempt to hi-jack democracy in Canada and to have set up in its place a Harper Tyranny.

Canadians are going to have to realize they’re facing what I believe is a neo-Fascist leader of the Conservative Party of Canada.  And Canadians are going to have to reject him with all the energy they have.