Over the past few months the government of Canada is holding a national forum to try and get a feel for what it’s citizens think of the current state of copyright in our country. Even though initially I thought this was a brilliant opportunity, our representatives seem to value the opinions of big business more than taxpayers with the trends swinging over to support implied draconian copyright law extensions and imposing a DMCA clone. 

Though, as citizens, there is something you can do about it if you don’t agree with that notion. (something tells me that most don’t)  The Canadian Coalition for Electronic Rights or CCER have a letter template and submission form that you can use and even customize to write your opinion on the matter and it will email and snail-mail your letter to the Copyright Consultations administrator, Tony Clement, James Moore, Marc Garneau, Pablo Rodriguez, Charlie Angus and Stephen Harper. 

I wrote my own and sent it in. I would suggest that you do, as well.

So, this year’s Canada Day has been a bit of controversy all over the web, it seems. From Matthew Good criticizing the state of child poverty to what I find a bit more interesting: the presence of the Canadian Military at the downtown celebration. 

Some people have gone out of their ways to condemn the way that the military had set up booths and tables so they can interact with the public, calling it a glorification of violence and war. 

Now, I don’t really oppose the presence of Fire, Police and Military booths or tables at public events. I actually think that it’s a very good thing and that if the public and the people in uniform spend a bit more time together in situations where one side isn’t trying to push against another, you might have a lot less animosity from either side and the two might be more willing to cooperate more often.

It’s also important for citizens to be aware of what their military is actually doing with their money and resources and what kind of people are representing us overseas in preace-keeping operations. it’s often a very good thing to know what your army’s mission statements are and who it is that’s saying them. 

But, sadly, this past July 1st was not one of those instances and this is the point where I go back and contradict everything I just said. 

When you have a section of your event dedicated to letting the public pick up and feel what it’s like to properly hold shoulder-mounted rocket weaponry and be instructed on how the basic controls of an anti-aircraft cannon work? that IS glorifying war and violence. 

This isn’t making good with their public reception, this is hyping up for potential recruitment, in a very lecherous and distasteful way.

Robert Marleau resigned from his government position early in this past week. He stated that it was for personal reasons. And you know what? I don’t blame him, he’s worked as an information commissioner under the most secretive and dubious government this country has seen in decades. I imagine he’s left the job, frustrated. 

Coincidentally, that very same day that Marleau resigned Ottawa let the news out that it doesn’t consider the cost of the Afghan war as something the taxpayers should be allowed to know or has any interest in ever telling us how much we’ve paid. Or will eventually pay. The official excuse was one of “national security”. I flat-out don’t understand how that works, and am calling shenanigans on that. I really don’t think it’s possible that there is a way that knowing how much money we’ve spent is going to breach some kind of hole in our national defense. That is nothing short of complete B.S.! 

Is this information somehow so sensitive that a terrorist group or cell can translate it in such a way as to gain access to our country by a means so unheard of that our very system of defense is unprepared, improperly trained or ill-equipped to deal with it? ….or have they just spent far too much money and don’t want the taxpayer to know?

Occam’s Razor, I believe, is very applicable here and will eventually show to be very accurate. 

That doesn’t play well with Harper’s hardline #1 election promise of fiscal responsibility. though, to be fair he’s inherited the country’s place in the Afghanistan  war… But I still get the feeling that if his policies held any water he would be proudly showing us his war budget, showing off about how great it was. 

It’s frustrating, though. Because Kevin Page, the budget officer who want’s to reveal the cost of the war, is forecasting deficits for our current government and those predictions are completely on the opposite side of the than the Finance Minister’s proclamations of surpluses in the future. The real kick in the pants is that Page has consitesntly been far more accurate than the the minister on these matters. And the FM’s job IS to be accurate with how money is coming in and going out of government spending.

You see, we threw the liberal government out of office because of how secretive and dishonest they were with the budget and the conservatives promised that they would change that trend and have a transparent and accountable parliament. That roadmap looked great on paper, so it’s really infuriating to see that it stayed on paper and never saw the light of day.

Now, this guitar is a bit bag of failed expectations, for me. I thought, at first, that a guitar physically constructed out of pieces of Canadian history would be pretty awesome! I mean, it’s no big secret that guitar players here are a dime a dozen. Hell, out of my own family my brother is the only one who doesn’t know how to play. And even then, he still know how a guitar works and can form a few rudimentary chords.

I was taught by my parents who both play and would rock out with their friends throughout the 70s and 80s at parties and family events, to the extent that my Aunt on my mother’s side and my Dad have both played in bands and performed in clubs and bars throughout western Canada. My girlfriends’ parents frequent blues events and most of my friends are either in bands or partake in their respective sub-genre’s weekly event, be it a club-night or a series of small concerts. So, I would guess that it’s safe to say that music between people is a large part of the culture in this country. So I have to be completely honest and say that it completely pains me to say that the Six String Nation guitar looks like it was a prop in a Bob & Doug MacKenzie gag. 

It’s built out of stereotypes! It sounds like I’m exaggerating it, but I am dead fucking serious. Here is an excerpt from the description of the thing:

“The Six String Nation guitar, Voyageur, is made from sixtyseven pieces of Canadian history: Pierre Trudeau’s canoe paddle is a tone bar, the Grey Nuns convent in Winnipeg—once a classroom to Louis Riel—makes up the back and sides, Paul Henderson’s hockey stick from the 1972 CanadaRussia Summit Series is a detail on the pickguard, the sacred Golden Spruce of Haida Gwaii forms the top face and gold from Maurice Richard’s 1955–56 Stanley Cup ring adorns the ninth fret”

The idea, in essence, is good: I like it! but in execution, this thing somehow feels like it became a jab at this culture we have that seems like it was on the cutting room floor from a South Park episode, where the man who built the thing saw it and became inspired while failing to realize that it was a gag. 

I mean, for starters this thing should not have been an acoustic and should have been a big hollow-body electric, ala-1960’s Gibsons. Also, if you wanted to have a piece of Pierre Trudeau in there? don’t use a fucking canoe paddle and shape the body or the pickguard of the thing out of bits of his old sports car. I could go off for hours about this thing, but the point I really want to make is that whomever designed this guitar is so out-of-touch with what this country is actually like now and so focused on what it used to be that his end result honestly, seriously, comes off like some kind of parody. I’m amazed that it doesn’t have a disclaimer that says that you can buy your own commemorative coffee book that comes with a complimentary jug of maple syrup and custom Six String Nation toque. 

I don’t know. If you ask me, I wouldn’t trust anyone who agrees with Can-Con and figures a canoe paddle is a significant and un-embarrasing canadian image to be an advisor to a project like this, let alone spearheading the project.