Thursday 10 September 2015

Harperman, a Protest Song

This is making the news. Tony Turner has been put on a paid suspension. There are rules for civil servants regarding politics and public engagement. This seems pretty harmless to me. I cannot perceive how this would be a conflict of interest between his job as scientist co-ordinating the migration of birds. He's a month from retirement!

I remember the 60s and 70s and the protest songs that brought us together.
The government, and Treasury Board President Tony Clement has had it in for public servants, and the current government is trying to strip sick leave benefits. Sadly, this is the same for our province of Ontario, where provincial negotiators are trying to create an overlay for wages, class size, preparation time and hiring practices. Otherwise, collective agreements are negotiated by school boards with locals.

It's quite a clever song and well-produced.

Federal scientist put on leave over Harperman protest song ...


Aug 28, 2015 - and "Won't buy into climate change until it's sold on the stock exchange." Its chorus ends with the blunt line "Harperman, it's time for you to go."


The video has been viewed over 583,000 times!


Hello everyone. We appreciate all the attention we are receiving since the story broke in the national media on August 21. Comments are welcome but please keep it as positive as possible. The Harperman song and video are about optimism, about joyful protest, about looking forward to the coming federal election and the chance to send Harperman on his way. Absolutely no name calling or profanity. Those comments will be deleted and the user banned. The Harperman logo is ready to go. Come on, be the first one on your street to proudly wear a quality Canadian-made t-shirt that makes such a great statement. When Harper shows up in your city, and he probably will sometime in the next two months, show up at his event wearing your Harperman t-shirt. Make sure the news and TV cameras get a good chance to take a picture. It all counts. We'll have details on the harperman.ca website in a few days on how to order your t-shirt. All the usual sizes will be available.And, if you can donate to cover the costs of organizing the sing-along, then please check out the new Indiegogo campaign cross-canada-harperman-sing-along.
  • The Cross-Canada Harperman Sing-Along – A cross-Canada event taking place on Thursday, September 17th will include a “Harperman” sing-along on Parliament Hill at 2:00 pm Eastern. There will be public “Harperman” sing-alongs in every province on that day, and there will be opportunities for people to participate online from anywhere in Canada.
“Public servants,” it goes on, “shall serve the public interest by: Taking all possible steps to prevent and resolve any real, apparent or potential conflicts of interest between their official responsibilities and their private affairs in favour of the public interest [and] acting in such a way as to maintain their employer’s trust.”

5 comments:

EG CameraGirl said...

Hmmmm. It's sometimes risky to voice strong opinions!

eileeninmd said...

Wow, there have been a lot of views on this video!

William Kendall said...

It is ridiculous, but not surprising, given the venomous amount of hatred neocons have towards public servants.

Stephen Harper: he's ready... for a long overdue retirement.

Red said...

I hope that this is the beginning of a trend. I like this guy.

Yamini MacLean said...

Hari OM
Not having any handle on the politics your side can't really respond to the song itself; but the consequences do sound rather extreme... YAM xx