Talk:Ray Joseph Cormier
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I created this article after meeting Mr. Cormier during the 2006 federal election, when he was our courier when we put up election signs. He had an interesting story to tell about his life, and now he has found the article and wants me to help bring it up to speed. -- Earl Andrew - talk 15:09, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
Mr. Cormier sent me his campaign literature from the 1997 election. -- Earl Andrew - talk 03:11, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
Ray Joseph Cormier
Independant Candidate
Ottawa Centre
General Election 1997
Electors of Ottawa Centre,
The race continues to convince you to put your trust, power and money into the hands of the Liberal, Conservative, Reform or New Democratic Party. They call themselves Parties because whoever forms the government decides who gets how much of your money. And do they party!
Who among you can afford $700 on lunch for two? Who among you can fly to some luxury tropical resort in the dead of winter for some obscure conference? They know how to spend your money on themselves and the many parties they attend or give in government service. After you pay your rent, hydro, telephone, mortgage and other basic living expenses, do you have money left over to party with friends?
The news media are asking why the Liberal Party is calling an expensive election now? It’s a majority government, and they have a year and a half left in their mandate. They are running on their record of four budgets. Many provisions of those budgets do not kick in until after June 2. That’s when the s . . . will hit the fan! They want five more years of power before it hits you.
The Liberals will claim they got a handle on the deficit. They did put many Ottawa residents out of work, but they transferred and downloaded the deficit to the provinces, who are downloading it to the cities, who are putting it on you. After the June election, it will hit you like you never realized while they were doing it.
Politicians count on voters having short memories. What was the emphasis of the Liberals in the last election? Jobs! Jobs! Jobs! Scrapping the GST! Do you remember them emphasizing Deficit Reduction? That became the priority after they had your power. They had the gall to pounce on Kim Campbell when she had the honesty to say there would be no improvements in the job picture until the year 2000. They said, "not under a Liberal government!" You bought it. It turns out she was telling the Truth, and the Liberals couldn’t deliver. The Political Parties will say and do anything to get control of spending your money.
There are valid and important issues in this election. In various forms, fees, and taxes, government takes over half of the money the average worker earns. Do the people work for government, or does government work for the people? Does the compact government has with business exist to serve the people, or do we exist to serve government and business? These fundamental questions are unlikely to be discussed by the parties - unless you make them issues they must respond to. That is the power you have for now, if you use it wisely during the remaining days of this shortest election campaign since 1910. It is short so that the people do not have time to think of the deeper issues and questions begging to be answered.
Jean Chretien, the little guy from Shawinigan, is related by marriage to one of the wealthiest families in Canada. In the last Parliament, the Liberals passed a tax measure that had the effect of transferring $2 billion in taxes, Canada’s rich were supposed to pay here, to the United States treasury. Rich Canadians having a minimum of $1 million in property in the U.S., upon their death, had to pay U.S death taxes. The Liberal’s tax law allows those taxes paid to the U.S., to be claimed as a tax credit on Canadian taxes. That doesn't include the $2billion tax giveaway to the Bromphman family when they moved their wealth to the U.S. What an insult to the average working Canadian. What blind arrogance when the poorest and weakest among us have to bear the brunt of that $2 billion tax break for the rich. Brunt of it coming soon to middle class neighborhoods everywhere after this election.
In today’s climate of downsizing, governments are divesting of public assets funded by your grandparent’s taxes they paid when they were young. DeHaviland Aircraft was sold to U.S. Boeing Aircraft for $90 million. Months later, your government gave a free grant of $170 million to Boeing for safety upgrades to plant facilities. Boeing managed the plant for 2 years, then threatened to close it. The federal and Ontario governments, along with Bombardier as a partner, bought it back from Boeing for $500 million. Is that a good deal with your money? It was your money. Your government in the last 6 months gave almost $500 million of your dollars to Bombardier on the promise of payback if Bombardier makes a profit with DeHaviland and Canadair. That’s a lot of health care and other services ordinary people need. The full effects won’t be felt until after the election. Small business employs more workers than big business.
The Air Canada giveaway was another sweet deal for some industrialists or brokerage House. Your government offered it for sale in two parts. The 1st part brought in about $345 million. This was after the $1.6 billion Airbus purchase. The taxpayers who paid for Air Canada didn’t even see that money returned to the treasury for their investment. It was used to pay down Air Canada’s debt. All of Air Canada, planes, maintenance facilities, buildings, property, trucks, computers and other valuable assets were sold for $375 million. Canadians should have been outraged at the time. To put this in another perspective, compare Air Canada’s value to the Liberal government just buying the Pearson Airport Terminal for $719 million, plus $178 million in related costs. That is the Public Trust. The opposition parties should have raised the roof of the House. High placed Liberals & Conservatives are involved in Pearson Airport deals.
In 1968, at 24, my pay package was $25,000 a year. That bought the things that require $100,000 in today’s dollars. In 1975, I held a position with the title, National Marketing Representative, Mining Division, Dominion Engineering Works, Ltd. I sold million $ machines to the mining industry. I soon realized no company would open a mine in Canada and pay workers $25/hr in pay and benefits, when they could mine the Third World and pay the workers $5 a day with no benefits. My logic and reason told me if this was happening to basic resources in 1975, it would not be long before other manufactured products and jobs would go the same route. It started as U.S.-Canada free trade, then U.S.-Canada-Mexico free trade, and now globalization of the economy.
Thirteen years ago, I ran as an Independent candidate for the seat of Ottawa Center. The people chose Brian Mulroney. You must decide for 1997 and the hereafter. I want to represent you in the next Parliament of Canada. It is my opinion that this election is the most important in our Nation’s history. The issue for me in this election is whether the people will find their job creating a True Democracy, or continue in a theory of democracy that is in reality, a plutocracy. Webster’s dictionary defines that as A class in a community that controls the government by it’s wealth. With your help and support, I would like to participate in reclaiming The House of Commons for the common people and the common good, first in Ottawa Center, and later, The Commonwealth of Canada. No political party in this race will offer you that alternative.
Not one party leader will talk to you about true democracy. The goal of democracy is a country where all the people feel empowered and integral to the function of the state. Today we have the technology to implement direct democracy. You have a bank card with a pin number. Every voter could have a personal voter number. That could be an incentive for ordinary people to take an interest in politics on a daily basis. If jobs are being eliminated, politician’s jobs should be on the table as well. In my view, a good political or religious leader should be speaking themselves out of a job of pre-eminence.
The theory of democracy, as it is practiced, allows you to vote every 3-5 years. Voting is the only time all the people are equal. The politicians come to the common people for their vote. Once the government is in power, they do what they want without consulting you. There is no business conducted in the House of Commons, but for voting on legislation the government brings down. A party MP has no more power to control finances or policy than I would as your Independent member. Power is with cabinet ministers and their un-elected aides. That business is exercised in private offices, fine restaurants, hotel suites, or mansions of the wealthy. The public does not see it. Party backbench members are there to make the PM and cabinet members and other party leaders look good on TV.
From what I experienced, and the direction the economy was taking, I stood up on the Sparks Street Mall in 1977 to speak my vision. I believed in a democracy, anyone could do that if they didn’t have money to advertise and rent halls. Some of you may have been witness to those events. Large crowds gathered, and were growing. Unfortunately, I could never finish my speech. The police would stop my speaking and arrest me for "shouting, causing a disturbance." This happened 10 or 12 different days, as the crowds grew, interested in my vision. I was convicted, given a 1 day suspended sentence, and 1 year probation with only one condition typed in, "not to attend on the Sparks Street Mall, or any other street in the City of Ottawa, for the purpose of speaking or shouting." Can you believe that could happen to anyone in a True Democracy?
The defenders of democracy sitting in the House were aware of it. It made the papers and news big time. Jean Chretien was Minister of Justice. Surely, some of his aides read the papers? How could those words, the letter of the law, be put on anyone in a democracy? I waited for any MP to come forward and say, "Wait a minute! This is not right." Silence. So there would be no excuse for pleading ignorance, on the 1st day of television in the House of Commons, I sat quietly in the visitor’s gallery wearing a gag over my mouth with the words written, FEAR OF THE TRUTH. I was violently ejected. It made the papers, and they all knew about it. It is marked in time, and cannot be altered. That is why I do not trust this government. I was sent to prison for 30 days for breach of that probation, and went on a 21 day hunger fast, protesting such blatantly undemocratic state intervention.
With experience as a small businessman, I will pursue banking and tax reform that will benefit not only business, but all the people. I would also like to bring about electoral reform so that the common people have more influence than the big banks and multi-national corporations. We cannot consider ourselves truly free if the financial and emotional costs continue to rise.
The residents of Ottawa Centre have shown themselves in the past to be politically astute. The choice for you this time is the way it’s been, or taking the 1st step on a 10,000 mile journey . An Independent has never been elected in Ottawa Center since Confederation. It would be the biggest political upset in Canada, and the loudest possible signal demanding change. The government would have to listen, and hopefully, a minority government.
Canada’s unity struggle is rooted on the Plains of Abraham. We cannot be blind to what is happening in the rest of the world. The peace process could collapse between the Israelis and Palestinians in the Old World Plains of Abraham. What we do in the New World could make the difference. The popes of Rome exercised almost absolute political power in Europe for 1000 of the last 2000 years. They didn’t get it right in all that time. We must get back on track to a kinder, gentler society. Enough of this leaner, meaner business! This is a National goal larger than any one person or term of Parliament.. This time, your vote will count - for a change.
[edit] Cannabis Culture & Cost
Eleven years ago The Ottawa Citizen published four consecutive Editorials in four days calling for the legalization of Cannabis. Calling the Editor to commend him for such bold action, it was suggested an article be submitted for payment if published on the Op-Ed page. On submission, the Editor said, "Now we're going to have to shit or get of the pot."
It was published as a Letter To The Editor with the heart and guts edited out so that no reader would have a clear perspective or understanding of the issue.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
June 16, 1997 A.D.
Cannabis, Culture & Cost
by
Ray Joseph Cormier
The Ottawa Citizen is to be commended for taking a leading role in attempting to stimulate a public debate on the legalization of cannabis. This voice, added to those of Police Chief Brian Ford, and the head of Interpol, who have called for decrimilization of cannabis, could be the catalyst for a True Common Sense Revolution.
While cannabis has been around for thousands of years, knowledge of it was not in the public domain until the sixties. No one I knew did it, or talked about it until the mass media reported on the new phenomenon called marijuana, spreading through California like wild fire.
I read with horror, the media reporting that anyone who smoked just one marijuana cigarette, would suddenly snap, go blind, commit suicide, rape, plunder and kill. I certainly didn’t want to live in that kind of society. I thought, 'That’s terrible! The police have to stop that from spreading. Why would people do that?'. In the cold war mentality of those times, I was naive, and believed our media always told the Truth.
One night, a trusted friend told me he had some marijuana. He told me he was smoking it for six months, but was afraid to tell me, knowing I was so against it. Convincing me my fears were based on falsehoods, I tried it. Nothing happened! A month later, my friend had some cannabis resin. That time, I experienced what getting high meant - to me.
Everyone has heard the expressions, “getting high” or “stoned.” It is as difficult to convey an exact, universal understanding of those words as an experience, as it would be to say GOD, and everyone know in common. There are variables. Generally, cannabis or resin has mildly euphoric and tranquilizing effects simultaneously. Abstract concepts can be expressed verbally, with deeper insights. Fundamentally, cannabis and it’s resin is a social experience. Between users, thoughts, emotions, and words work more efficiently together in communion. Total strangers will take the time to share their lives with the offer of a joint, as in people joining together.
Montreal at that time was vibrant with Expo ‘67. Bohemians had disappeared, and beatniks were fading. The hippies had arrived. Peace, Love, brotherhood-sisterhood, sharing, caring and doing good with one another was the currency with the advent of cannabis. This, in my mind, was a positive change in society. The consensus was the government would have to legalize this beautiful, natural plant. That generation, the parents of today, were going to change the system.
In it’s series of editorials, The Citizen points out the gangsters selling alcohol during prohibition became rich, powerful and violent because the Law made it possible. When prohibition was repealed, the gangsters took their money, and invested in legitimate business. The gangster mentality is profit before people. With funding cuts to health care, education, and other services both cannabis users and non users need, the people should question the rationale for drug laws. How did the hope and promise of a kinder, gentler society degenerate into a leaner, meaner society? Why is a different standard applied to cannabis, than for alcohol and cigarettes?
Organized groups may import by the ton, but once landed, individual entrepreneurs handle retail distribution. These small time dealers are usually the people caught and sent to prison. Media reports reveal that top level dealers have the money to bribe police and other government officials in source countries.
In 1972, I was leaving a rock concert when I met a friend in the crowd. I could not find cannabis for some time, and I inquired if my friend could help me? He reached into his pocket for a 5 gram piece of resin, and broke off half a gram. “Enjoy this,” he said, handing me the piece as a gift. Plainclothes police were working the crowd, and arrested us. Being my 1st offense, I received a six month peace bond. He was sentenced to six months in prison for trafficking. The taxpayer paid $18,000 to keep him there.
The Citizen reported on my last conviction for simple possession of cannabis resin on February 13, 1988. I was sentenced to 90 days in prison. That cost the taxpayer $9,000. The five policemen who came to court to testify on their day off, shared $1200 in time and a half overtime pay. Policemen always go to court on their scheduled day off. The cannabis Law financially benefits only the dealers, the lawyers and the police. The taxpayer loses.
Alcohol and tobacco can kill people. The government is happy to get the tax revenue. Repealing the cannabis laws will greatly reduce government expenditures in police, court and prison costs, and greatly increase government revenue so that hospitals can be kept open, and health care workers and teachers can keep their jobs. Deficit reduction targets and debt repayment will be realized sooner.
By the design of nature, the poorest of third world countries grow the best cannabis. Perhaps it is a crime against nature this unjust law deprives them the income from a cash crop they have in abundance.
DoDaCanaDa (talk) 00:08, 31 May 2008 (UTC)
