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As Prime Minister Stephen Harper attacks the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in broad daylight, there is a question Canadians need to answer fairly soon.

What’s it going to be: a modern democracy or a Steve’s banana republic of the north?

Steve likes people docile. He appears to have tamed a lot of the realm. He kicks, the subjects cringe. He kicks some more, they slip into the woods of indifference. They are so disconnected that they no longer hear the screams of the other kickees: Linda Keen, Bill Casey, Kevin Page, Marc Mayrand, even Sheila Fraser — and now, and now, Beverley McLachlin, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.

The train wreck of the Harper government continues to roll down the mountainside, crushing body after body, yet no one utters the right word. Allow me. Canada is a dictatorship in the making.

Did you ever know a person who just kept taking more and more from a relationship until you had to draw a line? A person for whom there are no rules, just a bottomless appetite to have it all their own way?

If so, you know exactly what I’m talking about. I give you our prime minister — a man who needs to be stopped before he starts appearing on the money. Either that, or we all better practise the curtsey.

Look at all the portfolios and offices now held by Steve.

The proclamation for the upcoming National Day of Honour, commemorating the end of a war in Afghanistan that should never have begun, was announced by Governor-General Harper. Governor-General Harper will also receive the last military flag from Kandahar, while David Johnson watches.

Commander-in-Chief Harper will have the spotlight at the National Day of Honour ceremonies; the real generals who commanded troops in Afghanistan were not invited because they do not like blue Kool-Aid.

Speaker of the House of Commons Harper ruled that it was perfectly okay to keep information from the opposition because they were not real MPs anyway.

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Harper has declared that the appointment of Marc Nadon to the Supreme Court was completely in order — despite his 6-1 rejection by that other interventionist-court.

Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Harper declared that Quebec was a “nation”, though the matter was never discussed in cabinet, nor for that matter, passed on to the pretend intergovernmental affairs minister back then, Michael Chong … and on and on.

I have never been one to buy the “Steve is a genius” thesis. It is put about by people who really just like being on the winning side. I think you will find those same people will invest our next prime minister with genius — whoever he or she may be.

Nor do I buy the notion that if you raise your voice against Steve, it’s because you hate him, are in the pay of a foreign government, are a conspiracy theorist, or have recently been seen in public with David Suzuki.

Those are not arguments, but truncheons for making sure none can be made. They are not part of a dialogue, but dialogue’s graveyard. They are Steve’s native tongue, newspeak. You know, “We’re right about the elections legislation because everyone else says we’re wrong.” That stuff.

Based on his actions, the PM is a misanthropic powermonger who misread 1984; the hero was Winston Smith, Steve, not Big Brother. This PM has so many fundamentally warped ideas about Canada that it won’t be long before he appears in public in a uniform.

Harper’s poisonous toads began whispering in the corridors of the Commons that McLachlin had crossed a line. In doing their master’s bidding, they implied that the Chief Justice had somehow been against the Nadon appointment and had moiled against it.

Sorry … he already has, though it violated military protocol. How could I forget Steve in that flight jacket with real pilot wings on it, flying over the flooding in Alberta? I suppose he forgot that if there’s one thing real servicemen hate, it’s a civilian wearing as a prop a uniform which he is not entitled to wear.

Steve has never shown much insight into Canada, though he was cunning enough in the beginning to know that the country was asleep at the switch. He thinks that, under our system, Canadians elect governments — when they actually elect parliaments. Under Steve’s view, if you are not a Conservative MP, you are nothing at all. Which is why he wouldn’t share public information with the opposition, a misinterpretation of the rules that earned him a contempt of Parliament ruling.

He had so much contempt for the Senate, a place he once described as pasture-land for the PM’s buddies, that his own office tried to undermine that separate parliamentary institution in an operation so shady it brought down a criminal investigation by the RCMP.

This week, Steve’s calm Kabuki mask slipped off. Underneath, for all to see, was what former mentor Tom Flanagan has been talking about on his latest book tour — the suspicious, vindictive, secretive man who routinely plays politics right up to, and occasionally over, the edge of the rules.

I cite those words carefully. In one of the scuzzier low blows in politics I’ve seen in a long time, Steve unleashed his goons on McLachlin, someone he knows has very little ability to defend herself publicly.

Harper’s poisonous toads began whispering in the corridors of the Commons that McLachlin had crossed a line. In doing their master’s bidding, they implied that the Chief Justice had somehow been against the Nadon appointment and had moiled against it; that her attempt to communicate some constitutional reality to Harper before he made an ass of himself with his SC choice was in some way “political.” It was actually normal, not to mention merciful. Steve needs help. Given his batting average in the Supreme Court, he needs a lot of help.

Instead, Steve didn’t merely fail to put a stop to the drive-by smear of the chief justice, he lathered on a few greasy streaks of his own. He said he did nothing wrong in the unconstitutional appointment of Marc Nadon. And you know what that means. It means that the chief justice was wrong. You know the fundraising letters have already gone out to the Conservative base: the Harper government’s plans were stymied by an interventionist judge.

I wonder if that also means Steve doesn’t feel bound by the ruling. I suppose we’ll know if Marc Nadon becomes the next Chief Justice. That’s payback, Steve-style.

So what is the demonization of McLachlin all about? It’s about five glaring, embarrassing, damaging, unnecessary, and perfectly justified defeats in the highest court in the land. Harper is not a lawyer and really had no idea what he was talking about on Senate reform, on judicial discretion in sentencing, on prostitution laws, on safe injection sites, or Marc Nadon’s appointment.

So now Steve has shown contempt for the House of Commons, the Senate and the Supreme Court. Interesting, that. In the world of Stephen Harper, you are overstepping your authority when you catch him in a lie, faulty reasoning, or dealing from the bottom of the deck in elections.

Canada’s motto used to be ‘Peace, Order and Good Government.’ ‘Outta My Way’ is hardly an improvement.

Michael Harris is a writer, journalist, and documentary filmmaker. He was awarded a Doctor of Laws for his “unceasing pursuit of justice for the less fortunate among us.” His eight books include Justice Denied, Unholy Orders, Rare ambition, Lament for an Ocean, and Con Game. His work has sparked four commissions of inquiry, and three of his books have been made into movies. He is currently working on a book about the Harper majority government to be published in the autumn of 2014 by Penguin Canada.

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