Almost there - Week 158 - May 5-12

I don't get this.  The Conservatives look poised to use the Ukraine crisis as an excuse to hike military spending.  I'm sorry, but if we are to look at this situation and think "Huh.  If only we had the firepower we really could have showed those Russians who is boss", we're crazy.  I don't think our military is within an order of magnitude of challenging Russia for anything.  So what are they talking about?  Even if we doubled military spending we'd still have nothing.

A website has started mapping locations of temporary foreign workers in Canada.  The largest chunk are working in food service in large urban areas.  Another company has been sanctioned over Temporary Foreign Workers.  Temporary Foreign pilots now?  With the full knowledge of Jason Kenney.  And, lastly (I think), a Temporary Foreign Worker in Nanaimo was threatened with death if he reported his unfair working conditions.  Oh.  Wait.  One more link...what this looks like from the workers side.  Jeez...okay.  This is it.  Apparently telling temporary foreign workers that if they don't do exactly what you say, you'll send them home...isn't a threat.

Kinder Morgan thought it would be a good idea to talk about how an oil spill could potentially provide a kickstart to the economy.

The CBC summarizes all the things Stephen Harper has done with respect to the Supreme Court.  Mostly temper tantrums and embarrassments  .It now looks like the Conservatives knew the Nadon appointment was going to be a problem, and they attempted to skirt the issue with some (should we say...some more?) legal shenanigans, but Nadon wouldn't go along with it.  And a bunch of legal experts are telling Steve that he's wrong with his comments about the Chief Justice.

A lawyer involved with the Robocalls investigation calls it "fatally flawed".  Basically, they only considered people who made formal complaints, and not the 1000+ other calls that were made.


The opposition is proposing 145 ammendments to the "Fair Elections" act.

The Tyee dives into Piketty.  I like this graph that they came up with...inflation adjusted incomes in BC, the top 1% vs. the bottom 90%.  Not sure what year they adjust to.

The head of the Canadian Border Services Agency thinks it's a bad idea to continue with the tv show "Border Security".  But the Conservative government disagrees, and is going to move forward with it anyway.  Because what does the head of an agency know about anything?

Garth breaks down the Real Estate stats.  Not all is as the Real Estate boards tell us.  They very consistently overstate the number of sales, then adjust downwards, then overstate again the next year, comparing to the downward adjusted number.

Government employees that need to use data to make decisions are not very happy about the mandatory long form census going away.  On a similar note, the Auditor General points out that Stats Can cannot provide accurate job data in certain areas of the country.

Steady hand on the tiller!  Canada loses 29,000 jobs in April.

Is the government snooping on Facebook against the law?  Maybe.

A study is showing that methane leakage from fracked areas is far higher than expected.


A Conservative Senator has degrees from imaginary Universities.


Only an idiot would look at SNC Lavalin and think "You know...I really want the guy running the board of directors of that company for the last few years to come and run things for me."  Christy Clark, everybody!

The Conservative ad campaign about wireless fees has made people a bit angry.  Because exactly the opposite of what was promised has happened.  Competition down.  Prices up.

A Canadian mining company supposedly used slave labour to construct a mine in Africa.  The government responded with non answers and cliches.

First of all, let me say that as an Apple shareholder (I know...I held on for too long)...this outrages me.  $68 Million in stock for a senior level manager?  What the hell?  This is just...shit...the 1% issue in a nutshell.