In 2010 the Canadian Prime Minister prorogued Canada's Parliament to avoid a non-confidence vote. The Harper minority government was under fire for it's role in allowing Canadian troops to hand over captured Afghanistan fighters to the Afghanistan government for torture. The Harper government's prorogation of parliament effectively crushed any debate. It allowed the government to bury the issue of state sanctioned torture. Thousands of concerned Canadian citizens opposed to the manipulation of parliamentary procedure for such an end purpose took to the streets of Canada in peaceful protest.
"Prorogies, a Political Commodity", created 2010, 54 x 75 cm.
My "Prorogies" painting was created in response to this prorogation of parliament. Modeled on a canned food label, "Prorogies" is a satirical creation associating the political process of proroguing parliament (an expedient political commodity) with food consumption as a necessary commodity for human existence. The painting was created just prior to my first professional exhibition in 2010.
To take my activist art to the next step, I also created prop cans of "Harper Prorogies". I then mailed a can of Harper Prorogies to the Prime Minister with a personal invitation to my art exhibition. Additional personal invitations were sent to the NDP and Liberal Party leaders and to the Defense Minister (Peter MacKay), who's riding the art exhibition was to take place in. Sadly none of these politicians attended the exhibition. I placed in the exhibition five cans of "Prorogies" on a display pedestal beside the original painting, accompanied with a copy of my invitation letter to the Prime Minister and a copy of a reply letter that I had received from the PMO's office.
Five cans of prop "Prorogies" created in 2010.
Ironically within a year Mr. Harper was proroguing Canada's parliament again. This time in an effort to avoid another non-confidence vote. Mr. Harper's government was found in contempt of parliament for refusing to provide financial information to the opposition parties so that the opposition parties could properly assess the government's proposed legislation. Historically to date this has been the only time that ANY Commonwealth Country's government has been found in contempt of their own parliament.
The Harper government has been in power for almost ten years. During that time Mr. Harper has prorogued Parliament four times.