First They Came For ...

As if it was any real surprise, but the Conservatives are making yet another attack on people that they don't think have any voice, rights or for that matter might not even be human in their eyes.

This time, it's more of the ugly truth of the Conservative agenda - the one that Harper and his buddies don't talk about out loud.

The Conservative government plans to bring in an American-style prison system that will cost billions of taxpayer dollars and do little to improve public safety

A panel led by Rob Sampson, a former corrections minister in Ontario's Mike Harris government, drafted the government plan, which is being implemented by the Correctional Service.

In addition to constructing super prisons and implementing work programs, the program will eliminate gradual release and deny inmates rights that are now entrenched in the constitution.

By stressing punishment rather than rehabilitation, the plan ignores lessons of the past, which led to the prison riots and killings that dominated Canadian news in the early 1970s, said Jackson.

"My greatest fear is with this road map's agenda and its underlying philosophy, we will enter a new period of turmoil and violence in Canadian prisons," he said.

Great. Just great. Let's emulate the US system - where California's prisons are so overcrowded, the courts have ordered them emptied, and nearly a full percent of the US population is incarcerated under "get tough on crime" laws that incarcerate blindly, and take no steps to rehabilitate the prisoner.

Worse, the HarperCon$ are plotting to set up an environment where the already acknowledged legal rights of the prisoners are denied. How delightful. Considering that they have already gone after "Women, special interest groups and socialists", and that they are now setting the stage for an ideologically based attack on prisoners (a group which has even less political clout), just whom might be next on their agenda of establishing a hierarchy of rights? (You know, where those who vote Tory Blue get preferential treatment)

... and they are doing this behind closed doors. This is not being proposed in Parliament; there is no debate over whether such policy directions are either constitutional or practical. (Those who have lived in Alberta will recognize this pattern as consistent with the sense of entitlement that the PC's have developed here - they not only don't believe that they are accountable to the public, they don't even consider the public interest - it's purely ideology)

So ... who will speak for you when they come?