From: brewnoserii@gmail.com   
      
   By Canadian Press | Oct 8, 2015   
      
      
   'Angry' disenfranchised expats to throw anti-Harper concert in New York   
      
      
   TORONTO - Disenfranchised expat Canadians are organizing a "No Harper" concert   
   in New York City to express their anger at losing the right to vote.   
      
   The aim, according to the self-described "fun-loving, recently d   
   senfranchised, and now angry" Canadians, is to show people in Canada that they   
   still care.   
      
   "Many people here don't have a way to participate in shaping the democracy   
   that we grew up believing in," Marie-Marguerite Sabongui, one of the   
   organizers, said from New York.   
      
   "Our constitutional rights are being violated."   
      
   Sabongui, an activist who grew up in Montreal and moved to the U.S. in 2009 to   
   pursue her graduate degree, said organizers hoped to attract at least 200-300   
   people to the $10-a-person event.  Proceeds from the event are going to   
   support a resource    
   website.   
      
   The idea, the former Sauve scholar said, is to put on a fun evening with a   
   serious message.  The response has been "tremendous" so far, she said.   
      
   "There's a lot of energy to be capitalized on and to mobilize here in New York   
   and in the U.S. in general and for expats around the world," Sabongui said.   
      
   The event -- denim-on-denim is the expected dress -- is slated to include   
   musical performances by Canadian talent such as Rococode and Nancy Pants. It   
   will also feature poutine, smoked meat, beaver tails and other northern fare.   
      
   Among other things, the anti-Conservative organizers argue that Prime Minister   
   Stephen Harper pulled Canada out of the Kyoto climate change protocol, muzzled   
   government scientists and passed Bill C-51 that expands powers for the   
   country's spy services    
   without any further oversight.   
      
   "Many Canadians perceive these developments to have eroded the country's   
   values and integrity," they say in a statement.   
      
   But they are especially incensed at the Conservative government's   
   determination to ensure that the approximately 1.4 million Canadians who have   
   lived abroad for more than five years are barred from voting by mail -- as   
   they have traditionally been able    
   to do for decades.   
      
   The government maintains that allowing them to vote would be unfair to   
   Canadians who live in Canada because they are more directly affected by its   
   laws.   
      
   Among those expected at the event is Gillian Frank, one of two expats who are   
   taking their case against the voting ban to the Supreme Court of Canada.   
      
   The planned Brooklyn concert is just the latest expression of anger among   
   expats at losing the right to vote.   
      
   One Canadian who lives in Seattle has registered as a protest candidate in   
   Harper's riding of Calgary Heritage -- even though he cannot vote there.   
      
   Some expats are in fact flying back to their old ridings in Canada to get   
   around the ban, which was formally put in place in 1993, but has only been   
   enforced by the Conservatives.   
      
   Others have started a Twitter campaign -- hashtag #polltax -- that draws   
   attention to how much it would cost to fly from where they are to Canada to   
   vote.   
      
   Still others are raising money to defray the costs of taking the voting ban to   
   the Supreme Court -- which has yet to decide if it will hear the case.    
   Several Canadian chambers of commerce in Asia have also decried the ban.   
      
   http://images2.dailykos.com/i/user/123/stephen-harper-not-to-vote.jpg   
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