Oh, Canada: Officially At the Line in the Sand at the First Uranus-Pluto Square

Uranus-Pluto Square Makes a Direct Hit

The first of the seven Uranus in Aries - Pluto in Capricorn squares occurs June 24, and the heat is officially on around the globe.

Uranus turns retrograde July 13, backing into a second square to Pluto September 18 at 6 degrees of the signs. Uranus and Pluto will be within one degree of an exact square from now into mid-October. The themes are hot, pressurized, intensive, and fairly unrelenting this summer and early fall.

Lock-step Pluto in Capricorn agendas being brought about around the world by members of the global elite - with middlemen and women firmly entrenched within government, business, and finance - are stirring staunch resistance and clashes with those striving for a free humanity on this planet.

Nowhere is the Uranus-Pluto square more influential than in Canada, a country currently experiencing highly-charged and fractious national events.

Harper Conservatives' Pluto in Capricorn Omnibus Steamroller

The right-wing Harper Conservatives holding majority power nationally are acting so unilaterally, so undemocratically, and so in contravention to Canadian institutions and stated values that there is a movement afoot to unite all other parties in an effort to oust them. The idea coming to the forefront is to run only one other candidate in every riding - it's either a vote for Harper or a vote for the alternative. This strategy is not only involving the more left-of-centre parties like the New Democrats, the Liberals, and the Greens - conservatives are also joining the effort, disgusted by the secretive direction of the Harper Conservatives.

The initial Uranus-Pluto square is so powerful in this nation because the Sun-Uranus conjunction in Cancer in Canada's corporate chart is locked exactly into cardinal t-square by the Uranus in Aries - Pluto in Capricorn square June 24, which falls at 8 degrees of the cardinal signs.

From a previous post: "Transiting Uranus and Pluto acting intensively on the Uranus-Sun in Cancer in Canada's astrological chart are forging deep, fractious changes in this country while the astrological transits are used by those in positions of power to continue toward a vision that I do not wish to see become a reality in this country. The agenda of the current Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, and his government, merged within broader global agenda, lead in a direction that, despite the government's claimed majority, most Canadians do not wish to follow...

Considering the merger of the ultra right-wing Canadian Alliance with the generally more moderate Progressive Conservatives, my guess is that even some conservative-minded people within that party do not support the current Harper agenda. What this man, what this government, what all the lock-step governments worldwide are steamrolling ahead with is disastrous. It’s happening at both warp-speed (Uranus in Aries), before Canadians can really get their minds wrapped around what is going on, and also as a slow motion train wreck unfolding before our eyes (Pluto in Capricorn)."

Harper is steam-rolling his policy change agenda through with the massive 2012 budget, called Bill C-38, and it touches on every aspect of Canada's public affairs. Critics, including in his own party, say the types of changes proposed should not be rolled into a money bill.

The funding cuts in Harper's budget, referred to as the omnibus budget, are sweeping and act as the straw the breaks the camel's back after years of erosion in areas of science, the arts, media, and environment. Because of the size and complexity of the budget, it is impossible for opposition members or Canadian citizens to understand the full effect of what is contained within it. Requests to divide the budget up into smaller segments were refused.

Some of what lies within the massive budget:

-- overhauls to environmental protection rules. Critics say the Harper budget will gut environmental protections. The budget is calling for shortened time frames for environmental assessments, used to determine whether a project will have a detrimental effect on the environment. (Tarsands, anyone?) Harper is attempting to fast track environmental assessments in order to steamroll through big, resource-based projects, including the highly controversial proposed Northern Gateway and Keystone XL pipelines. (There were 687 leaks and spills from oil pipelines in Alberta in 2010 alone.)

Also included are a complete re-write of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and a major shift in direction in the Fisheries Act. The new Fisheries Act eliminates the protection of fish habitat, focussing instead on protecting "economically viable fisheries." Unilaterally gutting the Fisheries Act is akin to unilaterally dismantling the Canadian Wheat Board, something else the Harper Conservatives have done recently.

-- scrapping the Experimental Lakes Area. This is being criticized by scientists at Harvard and the Smithsonian Institute, among others. This is a world-class freshwater research program. Scientists study pollution of freshwater bodies, and the results of their experiments go into environmental laws and protections. No Experimental Lakes Area or pesky scientists talking about freshwater pollution means more green lights for environmentally hazardous projects like the Athabasca Tarsands, the Northern Gateway and Keystone XL pipelines, coal-fired power plants, you name it. This summer, the Experimental Lakes Area staff and researchers were slated to begin a new long-term project on the effects of nanoparticles, an emerging multi-billion-dollar technology, on waterways and fish.

-- elimination of an advisory panel known as the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy. This panel was set up in the 1990s under right-wing Brian Mulroney, and critics of Harper's move here include both Reform and Conservative Members of Parliament - his peeps.

-- stepped-up scrutiny of political activities by environmental charities. This is an attempt to muzzle charitable environmental protection groups speaking out critically about things such as the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline. The budget declares these groups cannot accept funding from outside Canada - a major source of their income currently. This, like the shortened environmental assessment time frames, is an attempt by the Harper Conservatives to fast track potentially environmentally devastating projects such as the massive pipeline.

-- the raising of the age of retirement to 67 from 65 - which only comes into effect after the last of the Pluto in Leos retire!

-- civil service job cuts. Nineteen thousand two hundred federal public service workers will be on the unemployment lines. Sounds like a great strategy for creating jobs.

-- a 10% cut in funding to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation or $115 million over three years. The CBC is the public broadcaster in Canada and the last and best option for keeping real issues in the news, including investigative critique of governing parties. It has been hacked and slashed repeatedly over the past couple decades, leaving bare bones staff in TV and radio newsrooms across the country. Harper has made no secret of his hatred of the media, allowing almost zero access to reporters and operating unilaterally under a shroud of secrecy. These funding cuts will result in hundreds of job losses over the next three years.

-- a toughening of Employment Insurance eligibility. This includes a change in what is considered "suitable employment" for the unemployed. (The "Would you like fries with that?" clause.)

-- new immigration measures. This seems to shift focus to bringing in skilled workers, rather than reuniting families who currently have members working in Canada.

-- an end to the Fair Wages act. This Act required that contractors who received federal government construction projects pay their workers the prevailing wage in the region as well as overtime. With this Act scrapped, contractors will be free to pay workers as little as minimum wage. As rents, real estate prices, and the cost of living in Canada skyrocket, Harper is working hard to lower wages.

-- the elimination of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) watchdog. CSIS is Canada's version of the CIA, and the elimination of its watchdog is unsettling, to say the least. The inspector general's office has been in existence since CSIS was created in 1984.

Notice some patterns? Gutting environmental protections, shutting down environmentally-based scientific research, lowering wages, making it harder to collect Employment Insurance benefits, getting rid of watchdogs, and handicapping media. Paving the way for unfettered industry at all costs. The Harper vision.

The more than 70 changes to federal law rolled into the budget will require tight scrutiny, point-by-point, from the opposition as far as the true effect on the lives of the Canadian people and on the fabric of the country. That scrutiny may not be possible with so many aspects of the omnibus budget to pore through, and this is what the Harper Conservatives are banking on.

A Venus Return Marked By the Venus Transit

The Venus Transit at 15 degrees Gemini on June 5 also just marked a super-charged Venus return for the nation, falling in exact conjunction to Venus in Gemini in the Canadian chart.

From a previous post: "Just as the cardinal t-square formation becomes exact (making for one hell of a Canada Day July 1), the Venus Transit in Gemini occurs June 5 exactly conjunct Canada's natal Venus in Gemini at 15 degrees. The Venus Transit - an eclipse of the Sun by Venus - indicates a major relational backdrop change, so suffice it to say Canada's Venus return marks a dramatic re-orientation within its global relations. Canada's dual identity - always in existence, not often prominent - becomes undeniable. The ambitious, strategizing, cunning twin that has mostly stayed in the background, behind the glad-handing, people-pleasing diplomat, comes screaming to the forefront as the stage continues to be set and booby trapped for more global war. Slick manipulation of media and the slippery shifting of perspectives (Gemini) become primary aces in the hole for the elitist interests holding the people of this country - and the world - hostage."

Massive Student Demonstrations in Quebec

Within this climate, the largest student demonstations in Canadian history have been going on in Montreal, Quebec since March, 2012.

It was announced in February that university tuitions in Quebec would be undergoing a massive increase of $1,625 between 2012 and 2017 (from $2,168 to $3,793 per year). This news sparked outrage and massive ongoing protests by student groups, with individual protesters numbering in the hundreds of thousands.

Much has been made of the fact that Quebec currently has the lowest tuitions in the country ("So why shouldn't they be raised?"), but this fact misses the point entirely. As a province, Quebec holds a strong value of affordable and accessible higher education. This is a province that would prefer education be free to its citizens. It is a province that has a highly-successful, heavily-subsidized daycare system where parents pay only $7 per child per day for childcare. These values are not free market, dog-eat-dog, capitalist values, and this is what is at odds with the current agenda.

Tuition was frozen in Quebec at $540 per year from 1968 to 1990 when it was raised to $1,668 per year. It was then frozen again until 2007, when it increased $100 per year until 2012, making it the current rate of $2,168 per year. You can observe the incremental raising of tuitions, with every jump taking it further away from the people's goal of affordable or free higher education. This $1,625 increase over the next five years is the Uranus in Aries - Pluto in Capricorn sticking point. It is an increase that will not be tolerated, and it is not difficult, when one understands the values of most people in that province, to understand why.

At issue here is the attempt to bring Quebec into lock step with the other provinces and, in doing so, with the larger agenda keeping university education financially out of reach for people of a certain class. The people of Quebec are saying, "No, thank you."

Just as with the "Arab Spring," a trigger issue (in this case, a huge tuition increase) sparked an onslaught of protest, action, and civil disobediance from the people, voicing rage and displeasure with the entire culture of leadership and its current direction. Corruption, inhumane legislation, the erosion of social programs and quality of life, and the use of the police state are just some of the issues being drawn in.

And using the police state, they certainly are.

Two protesters have lost eyes, and one sustained massive head trauma and a skull fracture in clashes with riot police.

On May 18, 2012, Bill 78 was passed in the National Assembly of Quebec prohibiting, among other things, the assembly of more than 50 people unless dates, times, starting point, and routes as well as the duration of the venue and the means of transportation used by participants have been submitted to and approved by Quebec police. Police can also modify the location or date of the protest. In other words, protests are illegal unless sanctioned by the Quebec police within their designated protest areas. Individuals and groups can be fined thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars for unsanctioned protesting with a doubling or tripling of fines for subsequent offenses. The wearing of masks during protests was also prohibited. Bill 78 expires July 1, 2013.

As part of the opposition to the passing of Bill 78, more than 100,000 people marched in Montreal on May 22, with some estimates as high as 400,000 people protesting.

Suffice it to say, there are huge shifts underway in this country - many undesired by the people. The current leadership - both national and provincial - is attempting to bring Canada lock-step into a broader scheme. Those in power are not reflecting the needs and values of the people, and the top-down agenda being steamrolled forward is not acceptable to the majority of people, including to conservatives. A common refrain around the world.

People's backs are up against the wall, and the fight is for the soul of this country, outside the dictates of the imposed order.

Decades of "free" trade, "free" market ideology, big industry as God, and the erosion and chipping away of health care, education, social programs, food, air quality, the environment, science, the arts, and the state of humanity, in general, have brought a transformation of this country that is out-of-touch with the values of most who live here.

As my friend said recently, "It isn't Canada anymore." I'm not sure it ever really was, but this is certainly a sentiment weighing heavily on many people under the Uranus-Pluto squares.

I've written extensively on this Uranus-Pluto square and its effects on the country in two articles earlier in the year:

From March 8, 2012: Canada's Uranus-Sun in Cancer in T-Square Lock Down within the Uranus-Pluto Square Series

From March 16, 2012: Canada's Uranus-Sun in Cancer in T-Square Lock Down within the Uranus-Pluto Square Series - Part Two


Uranus-Pluto Square Cycle 2012 - 2015

1. June 24, 2012 (Uranus 8 Aries/Pluto Rx 8 Capricorn)
2. September 18, 2012 (Uranus Rx 6 Aries/Pluto (stationing direct) 6 Capricorn)
3. May 20, 2013 (Uranus 11 Aries/Pluto Rx 11 Capricorn)
4. October 31, 2013 (Uranus Rx 9 Aries/Pluto 9 Capricorn)
5. April 21, 2014 (Uranus 13 Aries/Pluto Rx 13 Capricorn)
6. December 15, 2014 (Uranus Rx 12 Aries/Pluto 12 Capricorn)
7. March 16, 2015 (Uranus 15 Aries/Pluto 15 Capricorn)