Monday, August 31, 2015

Singing From The Same Songbook



Last week, Tony Turner -- who wrote the protest song Harperman -- was suspended from his job. Turner is a federalist scientist, whose job is to track migratory bird species. He knows what's been happening at Environment Canada. Michael Harris writes:

I have it on good authority that Turner, an expert in the highly controversial field of bird migrations, was also recently caught smiling at his desk. There are even nasty rumours circulating that he laughed at the Great Navigator during a clandestine lunch with other seditious critics of the government.

And they call this a breach of the code of values and ethics for a civil servant. Say what? How about Harper’s inner circle and members of his PMO senior staff? In Harperland, criticism set to music is worse than lying, cheating, bribery, breach of trust and peaking into other people’s forensic briefs?

Never mind that the Supreme Court has found that civil servants are within their rights to express opinions during an election campaign. Mr. Harper has no use for a court which consistently finds his legislation unconstitutional.

But perhaps it goes deeper than that. Mr. Harper is known for attempting reedy-voiced covers of old Beatles tunes. Turner is obviously a better musician -- and, I daresay, scientist -- than Mr. Harper. Perhaps it's a case of professional envy. And Mr. Turner writes his own material.

As the Duffy trial has made clear, everybody in the Harper government has to read the lines the PMO has written for them. Everybody sings from the same songbook -- except Mr. Turner.


10 comments:

Rural said...

Its funny how the smallest things come back to haunt you, this stupid and unnecessary move by a bureaucrat under Harpers thrall ( or perhaps terrified that HIS job would be terminated) seems to have struck a cord with the public (and I am sure other government employees) and Tonys fine song has gone viral. Being a master at a death by a thousand cuts its good to see Harper getting some of his own medicine!

Owen Gray said...

The Greeks warned long ago, Rural, that hubris would eventually be punished.

Kirbycairo said...

It is funny, but of all the terrible things that Harper has done, and the litany is so long and painful, it is this kind of thing that is dangerous for the Cons, because it is the kind of thing that is easy to understand, easy to talk about, seems very real to average people, and sticks in peoples minds. I don't know if this is preverbal nail in the coffin but something like this easily could be. Remember the arts funding issue in the last election and how it played in Quebec? It didn't rob him of his minority but it catapulted the NDP into potential government status. Sometime it's the little things that don't, at first blush, seem like significant mistakes, that drain the life out of a government.

Mogs Moglio said...

Amazing I never knew he was a federal scientist 'till Steve launched his 'warlock hunt' against Mr. Turner. Free speech is being attacked once again by the rabid harper-con dogs. Now the song will gain even more views attention and notoriety, take that steve...

Full blown dictatorship is here. Let's excise it like the cancer it has become on the body of Canada come October not ABC but strategic voting. Vote for whichever candidate has the best chance of defeating the con in your riding.

ron wilton said...

I suspect this rather piddling matter is the very sort of thing that would ignite harper's reportedly short fuse.

harper is no stranger to meddling no matter how high or low the bar is.


http://www.mwpr.ca/go10892a/THE_RULE_OF_LAW_IN_CANADA_ANOTHER_STEPHEN_HARPER_WRECK

Owen Gray said...

Just as Prohibition encouraged the consumption of alcohol, Mogs, Turner's suspension will drive more people to view the You Tube clip.

Owen Gray said...

The Harperites long ago abandoned careful analysis, Kirby. Otherwise, they never would have made such a stupid decision.

Owen Gray said...

Thanks for the link, Ron. I wasn't aware of this case. But it's more of the same.

Anonymous said...

I heard that Yoko Ono made him remove his cover of a Beatle's song, presumably Imagine, from Youtube.

If true, I cannot imagine a bigger affront to the widow of a man who once sang for peace by this warmonger ... and chickenhawk .... although chicken would likely be a better description for the way he had taken off to the closet before his own paraplegic, and women MPs.

And for an encore, apparently he is now employing ex military (Climenhaga today called them "bouncers") to remove people who merely want to ask him a question.

Imagine there's no Cons ... no need to lie and deceive ... you can imagine the rest of the lyrics. :)

Owen Gray said...

Something tells me that John is furious, Anon.