The Last One! - Week 223 - July 27-Aug 3

Okay.  Here it is.  Our final ever post.  Before we get into covering the election.  More of a whimper than a bang...but I'm so sick of all this stuff, this is the best I can do.

Not quite sure yet how I'm going to handle that.  Two posts a week?  Daily?  Shit.  I want to be on vacation.

Steve chose the last official day in government to appoint a Kinder Morgan consultant to the National Energy Board, where he will oversee the approval of Kinder Morgan pipelines.

Funny.  The $720 UCCB payment is actually $158.

Macleans outlines the decline of our Navy.

Meanwhile, we just bought missile defense radar from Israel?  What the fuck are we going to do with that?

Steady hand!  Canada's economy shrank in May.

Our new Supreme Court appointee is a vocal, Conservative partisan.

The Cons are racing to announce things.  Toyota!  Money!  The announcement was supposed to be August 7th, but now it is a race to re-schedule.

The Cons are going to announce their intentions on voting reform.  All of a sudden, the will of the people is foremost, and an election mandate won't be enough.  They want a referendum!

The NDP might pull out of the Consortium debate...because Steve isn't there.

Under the TPP, crown corporations would have to exist solely in the name of generating a profit.  CBC.  Canada Post.  This is the kind of control we will lose under this deal.  This is why Steve is trying to ram through the TPP before the election is called.

A Conservative MP got caught announcing new funding for work that had already started.

This is funny.  Combining a pile of Conservatives reading from the same script.

This is a confusing article.  Conservative attack ads on Justin Trudeau are convincing NDP voters to vote for Justin?

The Cons have used a committee to shut down requests to hear directly from Joe Oliver on the dismal state of our economy.

Some behind the scenes on Stephen Blaney ratcheting up the anti-terror rhetoric.

Anonymous has started leaking CSE documents.  Amongst the revelations: We tried to spy on Obama (at the behest of Steve).  He found out.  He didn't like it.

There may be evidence that the Warner copyright claim on the Happy Birthday song is nonsense.

A pretty funny article outlines the disruption that Christy and Steve created with their firefighting photo op.

In light of Oil Sands jobs potentially disappearing due to driverless trucks, I think this is an important issue to consider.  When a government pushes a project with wildly inflated job claims, I think it is up to them to prove them out to us.  Not just dismiss the people asking questions, as Rich Coleman does when told his 100,000 LNG jobs might not exist.

Shortest Week Ever - Week 222 - July 22-27

Steve loses another court case.  His "safe country" list for refugees just didn't work out.

Rob Nicholson wants "3 terrorism-related statements" spun every week for him to grandstand on. 

Macleans points out the opportunism of Stephen Harper giving up on the Senate a few months before an election.

This article rips government policy a new one with respect to Vancouver Real Estate prices.

Eve Adams did not win her nomination.

Job quality ratings are at a 25 year low.

I feel like there hasn't been much news about the Nexen pipeline spill.

Poilievre as Performance Art - Week 221 - July 13-22

I have a new theory.  Pierre Poilievre is punking all of us.  It's performance art.  I mean...it can't be real.  Can it?

The National Post points out that he's waltzing around the country handing out cheques, while his website suggests Canada is not about "freebies".  Which is an excellent time to bring up the question - what is this child subsidy increase other than wealth redistribution?  Why are they so happy and bragging about something that they claim to actively despise?  How is taking taxpayer money from everybody and giving it to a select group of people good this time around, but awful every other time?

Not only that, but he showed up at a press conference wearing a Conservative logoed Golf shirt.  In what world is that "non partisan"?  Not to mention the hours of government time and resources we've pumped into this insane display by the Cons.

This article has an interesting take on things.  But...I mean...of course the benefits are largely going to the people that voted in the Conservatives in the ridings that voted for them.  That's the whole point.

Interest rates are dropping (even some Real Estate orgs think this is a bad idea).  The dollar is in the tank.  And our surplus has turned into a deficit?  Steady hand!  Steady hand!

Wai Young deserves to not be in a position of authority.  Re-writing the history of the Air India bombing is an insult to any family member of the victims.  Claiming that Jesus would support your Big Brother bill is just funny.  Lucky for us, her poll numbers are on the ropes.

Rona Ambrose is pumping more money into Reefer Madness ads.  Another $1.5 Million.  Let them eat advertisements!

I thought and East pipeline was Mulcair's fucking idea?  Now he's against it (maybe)?  Trudeau decides to sit on the fence for a bit as well.  Which is probably a good thing, seeing as there's a massive pipeline spill in Alberta right now.  But I thought these things were supposed to be safe?

Some companies have admitted to making illegal donations to Peter Penashue.  Of course, they'll receive no punishment.

Macleans digs into Insite and determines that it really is saving lives.  Psssh.  Science.

Ha ha ha ha.  Women don't get higher paying jobs?  Well, they're just choosing the wrong jobs!  They just all need to stopy being such low paid teachers, social workers, etc. and need to step up to become Engineers and CEO's.  Thanks for the advice, Conservative MP Joan Crockatt.

Joyce Murray will probably come out okay from her "Sobriety" gaffe.  Maybe all it takes is admitting some kind of responsibility and telling the truth about what happened?

Facebook did an analysis and concluded that Conservatives are terrible people.  Christian Rock?  Two and a Half Men?  Fast and the Furious?  Egads.

Speaking of ha ha ha ha.  A Conservative MP sent out a press release in draft form, highlighting how it's all just paint by numbers.  I mean, of course it is.  But funny.

The NDP released a new series of attack ads, highlighting law breaking Conservative politicians.  It's generated an interesting discussion.  What is an attack?  Is it still an attack if it is true?  What is a personal attack?  The National Post story isn't very even-handed in their analysis.

I feel like this has come up quite a few times.  The Cons have gerrymandered easy ridings and the incumbents are scrambling to get the nomination in what they view will be easier battles.  But they keep losing!

Cracks in the Pipeline - Week 216 - June 8-15

These fucking assholes.  "Our new pipelines are totally safe!  New technology!  Jobs!"  The first phase of Keystone is already significantly corroded.  As well...We need this massive oil sands project because we need jobs!  You approved it?  Okay.  We need to cut jobs to make this economical!  Driverless trucks on the way in the Oil Sands.

Folksyism.  The whole "gosh darnit, why shouldn't so and so do such and such" form of politics.  Usually along the lines of tough on crime.  Tough on poor people.  Tough on anybody that isn't me.  And usually Conservatives.  Small government conservatives wondering why the government doesn't intrude more on the lives of others.  Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner wonders why we pay for the medical bills of shooting victims that don't cooperate with the police.  Because nothing bad can happen when a City government gets to decide who gets Health Care.

A long but great read on the nuances and difficulties of current day Iraq.  The conclusion...we don't really know what's going on and we certainly aren't doing a good job.

Some would call my obsession with Nancy Greene-Raine unhealthy.  But in my limited interactions with her, she seems like an awful person.  I like my athletes to retire with dignity and am not a fan of those that steamroll over people in pursuit of money and influence.  Her climate change denial has sealed the deal for me.  And this makes me very happy: Expenses related to a former Senators anniversary party.  Attending ski shows.  Pretty minor in comparison to others, but wouldn't be surprised if there is more.  I know.  This is petty of me.

Come on Senate.  We can save almost $25 Million if we expand our temporary office search by a block, and the Senate won't go along?

The Conservatives have introduced a bunch of friendly, heart warming bills to the citizens of Canada.  The problem?  They don't stand a chance of passing before the house breaks for the summer...and the election is called.

Salon digs in to the money funding the anti-climate change movement.

The drought alarm bells are reaching Canada.  It's taken far too long.

This story digs in to the flight of the automakers.

Laurie Hawn is an Asshole - Week 213 - May 18-25

Question C-51?  Well we're going to question your loyalty to Canada.  What a fucking asshole.  Laurie Hawn gets added to my list.  Of Conservative assholes.

Joe Oliver, who had to resort to financial shenanigans to "balance the budget" this year, is already musing about more tax cuts.

The Alberta Oil Industry is asking for a carbon tax.  A retail carbon tax?  The cynic in me - which is most of me - thinks that there must be a catch.  The Federal Government solution?  Buy international carbon credits.

This guy raises an interesting point.  Fixed election dates turn our campaigns into US style, drawn out affairs.  Which sucks.

Thank goodness for all the new spying powers.  We caught 10 young people trying to fly to join ISIS!  What?  Their parents turned them in?  Oh.

What is going on with the debate debates?  This is a good roundup.  And, of course, the traditional debate will happen, with or without Harper.

Pipelines - Safe for everybody.  Now leaking into the sea in Santa Barbara.

Here, a question is raised, but not answered.  Who were the major donors to Stephen Harper's leadership campaigns?

It is a bit hard to feel sympathy for parents who can't bring their foreign nannies into Canada.  Still, why are all the applications just being quietly denied?

The West Coast gets Coast Guard base closures.  The East Coast gets new ones.

Even Conservatives think the victims of communism memorial is stupid.

This is why the new copyright rules and legislation are so stupid.  GM is suggesting you don't own your new GM vehicle due to their copyright over the computer code contained within.  Which is a bit like telling you that you don't own your own home because the alarm system is proprietary.

Reason enough to not vote for Harper.  Jeb Bush wants him re-elected.

Taking a page from the RCMP, the FBI has decided to investigate opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline as "threats to National Security".

Another withdrawal from the Kinder Morgan NEB hearings.  It's the wife of the first guy...but still.  She had some great points on the radio this morning.

$21 Million to audit the Senate and a shitstorm about to be unleashed.

We're not too worried about what Saudi Arabia is up to on the human rights front.

Doing nothing on an International scale - Week 212 - May 11-19

The Guardian has an opinion about our recently announced greenhouse gas emissions targets.  "Canada reneges on emissions targets as tar sands production takes its toll".

Oh oh.  "Extremists" are opposed to the Oil Sands.  You know they're "extremists" because they're opposed to the Oil Sands.

There is a new push from Government scientists to curb government meddling and muzzling of their affairs.  You can get a real sense of what is going on from talking to retired scientists, no longer afraid of speaking out.

Shockingly, Pierre Poilievre doesn't think he's done anything wrong by using government funds to shoot propaganda videos in the run up to the election.  The CBC digs into the overall Conservative ad scheme a bit more.

The Israel hate speech story is blowing up.  The Intercept here.  Claims that the original story was false.  And support for the original story.

Another Stephen Harper loss in the Supreme Court.  Omar Khadr should have served his sentence as a youth, not an adult offender.

The Senate is making news again.  First, former Liberal Senators won't vote for C-51.  Can they force meaningful change upon it?  We will see.  Next, Conservative Senators don't seem like they will allow the Reform Act through.  This could get interesting.  Lots of chances for people to jump up and down and complain about non elected politicians dictating policy.  Even a chance for both sides to use it against the other, if we're lucky.

A report suggests we have no real plan for what we are doing with our fight against ISIS.

And you thought Alberta oil royalties were bad...Ontario collected a little over $200 in diamond royalties last year.  The industry was probably outraged to pay even that much.  Jobs!

The RCMP may have broken the law when they destroyed gun registry records.  No worries though.  The Cons just retroactively changed the law so it was legal.

Interesting.  The Cons have decided to blow up the existing debate format and not accept the status quo.  This seems to go together with the suggestion a few months ago that they were going to pursue more debates in an effort to beat up on Trudeau.

In public, the Military claims they will act on sexual misconduct.  In practice, they are issuing orders to ignore key report recommendations they promised to follow.

The new Veterans Affairs minister thinks that medical marijuana has no place in PTSD treatment for soldiers.  "No proof" he says.  Of course, we haven't studied it, so there is "no proof" either way.

Tony Clement has gotten involved in the sick day fracas.  Says they will negotiate...but claims they won't be able to touch the $900 Million in savings.  Which seems like a difficult position for the unions.

The Cons are blocking an investigation into several NDP MP's being denied access to Parliament.

Alberta - Week 211 - May 4-11

It is interesting to see the fear and fear-mongering for Conservative Canada in the wake of the NDP victory in Alberta (and before).  The gist of much of it seems to be "poor stupid Alberta have just ruined their lives."  This feels horribly condescending.  Especially coming from the idiots (or close buddies) that ran things into the ground in the first place.  And spare me the "you can't blame the PC for low oil prices" nonsense.

But I also kind of get it.  Anytime "somebody else" wins an election, it seems like it is time to point out that less than 50% of the people have decided who gets to govern and now we're going to have to sit through their reign of terror.  Well, 40.6% of Albertans have decided this is what they want.  We should show them some respect.  But it is a bit unfair that they get the total say in what happens.  But only 43.97% decided the election before that one and I doubt these vocal assholes had much of a problem with that.

Part of me wants to say "they haven't even done anything yet, why don't we let them do their thing?"  But if the shoe was on the other foot, I might not be so supportive.

So what I've learned is that we have a system that pretty much guarantees a majority of the people are going to pissed off with the outcome of an election.  Which is totally fucked up.  And we should probably work on changing that.  It seems to be consensus thinking that the NDP is only getting one term.  Hopefully one of the things they accomplish is electoral reform of some kind.

The Harper Government is proposing using hate laws to charge anybody advocating boycotts of Israel.  Because when it comes to Israel, there is only one opinion.

How is it possible for politicians to get caught in blatant lies and nobody gives a shit? The Cons claimed that the military had reviewed the videos containing soldiers faces and signed off on them.  That didn't happen. and then another video shows up a few days later.

Another $100 million not spent on programs by the Cons.  No biggie though.  Just money for the disabled, for literacy and for youth unemployment.

Yikes.  Gretzky is a Harper fan.  Another strike on Wayne.

A CBC article on the Cons robbing EI to fund their "balanced" budget.

The Cons call in Poilievre to trash Trudeau's tax plan.  Which is a sure sign that there's no substance to their argument.

This kid is scary!  Glad they prevented us from hearing from him for so long. “I hope there won’t be this terrorism nonsense. I’m not going to get involved in suspicious activities.”  More scary words and photos of Omar Khadr.  His lawyer might be on to something.

The PMO stepped in and tried to have the Mike Duffy audit changed.  They don't seem to understand what the term "audit" means.

The Conservatives easy gun law is set to pass.  You'll remember that some firearms groups pulled out of testifying against C-51 around the time they Cons agreed to pass this.

Why do these guys struggle so much with business cards?  Another batch of Harper Government business cards don't meet requirements.

The story of a Global spiking a story about the Koch brothers, that reporter getting fired, and now the background on the story that caused it.  Refining Canadian oil has made them a lot of money.  Why can't we build our own refineries?

Britain is slowly realizing the the F-35 might not be something they should be interested in, either.  Where are we with this, anyhow?

The prison watchdog is being replaced.  He's doing too good a job.

Rail Safety improvements are great.  The long timeline for them isn't.

Funny.  The Cons have claimed $900 million in savings due to improvements in sick leave...but haven't really told us where that money comes from as they haven't proposed a new plan.

Peter Penashue's agent will be charged.  I will have to do some research into the history of MP's and hangers on getting charged with election fraud.  This has to be a record with this government.  Thank goodness we gave them the power to strip the ability of Elections Canada to hold them accountable.

Liberal MP blamed for Dementia strategy bill not passing.  What about the 140 that voted against it?

Researchers have found evidence of fracking chemicals leaking through into groundwater.  Can't wait for the companies with billions at stake to point out that the researchers are biased due to making thousands of dollars for research grants.

Christy Clark is in bed with some bad dudes on LNG.

Some more background on the recent copyright extension.  The "loss" for consumers that the industry threatened?  Cheaper public domain recordings.  Can't have that.

TERROR! - Week 199 - Feb 16-23

Of course, the week has been dominated by proposed "Anti Terror" legislation.  I'll let you know once we're done talking about it, lower down.

What does this say about democracy?  After several weeks, Thomas Mulcair announces that NDP will pointlessly grandstand as the Cons jam through their anti-terror legislation.  Good for him, for sure.  But at the same time the Liberals are on the other side pointlessly supporting it.  All so they can essentially cause no real change or input and then grandstand on one side or the other come election time.  

Joe Clark, Jean Chretien, Paul Martin and John Turner have all called for more oversight of security agencies.

The Cons claim "rigorous oversight" but these appear to be empty words.  Watchdog staffing levels and budgets are on the decline.  14 people work in the SIRC office!  14 people are watching the watchers.

Michael Geist outlines just how Big Brother crazy the new "anti-terror" law actually is.

May as well limit debate on the fucker.  Why the fuck not?

And the slippery slope begins.  The RCMP warns of the growing environmental terrorist threat.  Could it be growing because under new laws we'll be able to call a whole bunch more people terrorists?

It is kind of absurd that a bunch of white kids trying to kill a bunch of random people is not considered "terrorism" in the eyes of Peter McKay and his new legislation due to lack of "cultural motivation".  Fucking code words.  And then he turns into a pouty asshole and refuses to answer questions about his answer.

Al-Shabaab makes a threat against the West Edmonton Mall that nobody is taking seriously.  Our Minister of Public Safety suggests that this proves that we need to strengthen our anti-terror laws and "fight against ISIL".  Do the new anti-terror laws give us super Youtube sleuthing powers?  Have our troops started fighting in Somalia?  Am I missing something?

Steve's insistence on appealing his loss of the niqab ruling is kind of insane.  He says Canadians are "offended".  I would hazard that most really don't care.

Trudeau calls Harper out for his anti-Muslim fear mongering.  Over the wearing of a niqab.  Not, you know, in stoking fear over terrorism.

And I think that brings to the end this weeks discussion about foreign radicals and terrorism.

Oh.  Maybe that's why they didn't want to tell us how much the ISIS mission is costing?  PBO pits cost of Iraq mission as much as $44M more than estimate

This brings up an amazing point.  The government has been including Temporary Foreign Workers in their "jobs created" stats.  This is really misleading.  As many as 1/5th of the jobs "created" by the Cons went to TFW's.

This may have been a good decision, but the optics are tough.  Over $350,000 to fly Luka Magnotta back to Canada.  How much would an extradition hearing have cost?

The Cons are pumping $11 million more into their advertising budget.  By "their advertising budget" I mean "our money used to advertise on behalf of the Conservatives".

The Cons continue their crusade against Palestine in the UN.

Who are our resources here for?  Should companies be allowed to extract them for pennies and turn around and sell them for dollars?  Is "providing jobs" and paying taxes enough?  Or should people demand more?  A new BC government policy will charge Nestle $2.25 for a million liters of water and the government is claiming it will aid in "conservation".  Because when I think "conservation", I think of handing a company millions of liters of water for nothing so that they can put it into tiny bottles and sell it for a huge profit.

Wow.  These right wing imbeciles, the Macdonald Laurier Institute, have some knowledge to pass along:
- More railway regulations would be a bad thing!
- Judges are evil!
- A public inquiry into violence against women is the last thing we need!

I guess we're in trouble then.  The Cons are changing the law so that rail companies have a bit more responsibility if they blow shit up or leak shit all over the place.

Progress!  Oil train derails, doesn't explode!  Merely catches on fire.

The Cons never met a strike they didn't like.  To end via back-to-work legislation.  CP gets the treatment.  Until they don't need it.

Cons have more problems over taxpayer funded mailouts.

Hollywood hopes that part of the TPP will include sending people to jail for file sharing.  The US Government might be on their side.

Big words about vaccination.  Little money.

Don't worry.  There's a loophole that says this Con MP hiring her daughter's fiance is okay.  He's not "family" quite yet.

Myths - Week 195 - Jan 19-26

Can we kill this myth that Conservative governments are good financial managers?  They didn't do well in the US.  They haven't done well in Alberta.  And all of Canada isn't looking so rosy.  Cutting taxes to the detriment of society and the economy is not "sound financial management".

We'll expand on that by looking at oil revenue.  You know who isn't having a bad time due to a decrease in oil revenue?  Norway.  Probably largely due to them taking 10 times what we do in royalties from their oil.

And what about Tom Mulcair?  Is this not exactly what he warned us about two years ago?  They made fucking attack ads about this!  Why isn't he singing this from the rooftops?

Joe Oliver is now lecturing us on the semantics of his statements, and lessons on the passing of time.  “We said no earlier than April so by definition it could be later.”  Can you believe this asshole is our Minister of Finance?  And you're doing a bang-up job, Joe.

He also suggested that the budget won't include "massive, costly bureaucratic programs".  Does he mean other than income splitting?


The attack on Trudeau for "the budget will balance itself" seems to have gained traction.  I can't find the full interview...but the full sentence seems to be "the commitment needs to be a commitment to grow the economy and the budget will balance itself".  So he seems to be saying that if we have a great economy, we won't need to worry about balancing the budget because we'll have enough revenue to fund the programs that we enact.  Seems unfair to not give it full context.

Veterans are pointing out how fucking stupid Stephen Harper's definition of combat is.

OXFAM suggests that the 1% will soon control half of all the worlds wealth.

Vice details how the RCMP continued to warrantlessly spy on Canadians, even after the Supreme Court deemed it unconstitutional.

Once again, our government is inferring that criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic.


John Baird feels like a potential investigation of war crime accusations is a "huge mistake"?  Oh.  I get it.  Only certain people are allowed to talk about potential war crimes.  And why isn't he going to an important meeting about Syria?

A detailed analysis of what Pot Prohibition costs Canada.

Canada Revenue has targeted another charity with beliefs that counter what Conservatives believe: Dying with Dignity.  They've lost their charitable tax status.  CRA is basing this on mistakenly giving it to them in the first place in 1982.

When even the wing-nut right wingers don't want you, you know you've made some poor choices in life.  The Wild Rose Party doesn't want Rob Anders as their leader.  At least that was a good decision.

We're no longer going to pay refugees to leave Canada.  Don't worry though.  We're going to make up for it by not following the Supreme Court decision that we need to offer them health care.

Kinder Morgan has an awesome, great, really fantastic emergency plan for their pipeline.  They just don't have to share it with anybody.

Some history on Saudi Arabia, and how Canadian LAV's could be used to crush dissent.

There's a couple of stories about Target management payouts.  The CEO of Target - who you could conceivably blame for billions in losses and 17,000 people to become unemployed - got a $60 Million dollar payout to go away last year.  People are just now realizing how ridiculous that is.  And managers within Target Canada are getting huge payouts relative to the pittance the working stiffs will receive.

Screwing Veterans - Week 188 - Dec 1-8

The Cons officially tell veterans they don't give a shit about them.  "No special obligation".  But then again, how do you come off as the good guy when you're fighting disabled veteran's in court?  As well, the $200 million the Conservatives have promised in veterans support will be dispersed over 50 years.  Not the six or seven originally promised.

Leona Aglukkaq actually admitted to some wrongdoing.  She admits reading a newspaper while people tried to ask her questions in the House of Commons was a bad idea.

The Cons suggest that the Information Commissioner should "raise fees" for information requests if she can't make her budget.  Never mind that the fees all go in to general revenue and charging more would have no impact on her budget.


Steve announces a pittance of funding for University science.  And kicks the Health Research Grant program in the nuts, forcing researchers to hit up industry for matching funds.  A masterstroke.  Make research more difficult and make all the researchers beholden to industry.

The cover up is worse than the crime, right?  Nobody would have noticed a report detailing RCMP aircraft flying overweight and pilots falsifying records.  Okay.  People would have noticed.  But it's a lot bigger thing now.

The US is requiring us to pass laws in their favour to enter into the TPP.

Our homicide rate is the lowest it's been since 1966.  Time to get tougher on crime.

An analysis of the Michael Sona conviction.  Bad news for low level election workers, great news for candidates looking to commit future election fraud.

Many, many groups have come out in support of the full decriminalization of prostitution.

Strange, strange things are going on with the wheat board.  Why does it need to be privatized?

There's now dueling audio experts in the surreptitious recording scandal.

The brother of our Multiculturalism Minister was arrested in a drug sting.  Imagine that conversation with their parents.

Canada lost 10,000 jobs in November.

Why has nobody reported on the oil spill in Alberta?

Everybody freaks out when a politician or civil servant has high expenses.  The Acting Human Rights Commissioner has been called out for $760 thousand in travel and living expenses over the past 8 years, largely due to his living in Winnepeg and working in Ottawa.  As he points out, he'd move to Ottawa if he was named permanently to the gig.  So why have the Cons taken so long to find somebody permanent for this job?

Preston Manning has become a more palatable human since he left politics.  He's in favour of carbon pricing.  Or at least suggests the Conservatives should be.



We're selling off more consulates and properties in cities around the world.  "Fire sale" the Globe calls it.
We've signed a "customs agreement" with China to share information.  Nobody seems to know what this means.

Ahhh fuck these guys.  The Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses want...oh who fucking cares?  Special visas for their slave labour or something.

Spilling Oil - Week 187 - Nov 24-Dec 1

There has been another pipeline spill in Alberta.  60,000 liters.  There is not much news on this at all.

Leona Aglukkaq is threatening to sue the Deputy Mayor of Rankin Inlet.  He says she demanded an apology when he suggested citizens of Rankin Inlet are scavenging for food at the City dump.  She says it never happened.

How many times have we heard about the insane laws in the US where Monsanto is allowed to sue the shit out of farmers for re-using seeds?  Canada is trying to pass similar laws.  How the fuck are these jackasses popular on the Prairies?

Are actual corporate tax rate compared to our official corporate tax rate is insane.  We actually collect 3.9% on profits compared to the official rate of 26%.

The Conservatives continue to try and bait Liberals into saying controversial things on tape through dishonestly and surreptitious recordings.  Their latest attempt met with some backlash, as another person claims to be the one who spoke, not the Liberal MP they were trying to trap.  The Conservatives response?  "We have an audio expert who can prove otherwise."  CSI Harper Conservatives.

Health Canada has come down hard on the advertising of medical marijuana companies.  This is a bit rich, considering how pharmaceutical companies are allowed to advertise.

The Cons are in tight with SNC Lavelin.  One minister (Christian Paradis) received what looks like a $25,000 slush fund.  And they allowed a former SNC Lavelin exec. to remain on the public payroll after he was caught in an illegal donations scam.

In other oil news, Opec makes Canada weep.  This is why you don't bet the farm on one volatile industry.  One industry that doesn't really pay their own way.  Three key points from this report:
1) It is almost impossible to find out how much The Government Take (i.e. what the citizens receive) is for Oil and Gas revenues in Canada, what with subsidies and loopholes.
2) A study by PWC notes that the Alberta take is very low compared to the rest of the world.


Ding ding ding ding ding.  Pre election infrastructure jackpot!

Julian Fantino has gotten the fuck out of Canada, just in time for the Auditor General's scathing report to hit.

One of the MP's involved in the sexual assault allegations has spoken out anonymously about what happened.  Hearing this...I'm not sure what else Trudeau should have done.  Which, unfortunately, seems to be what this is about now.

A Walrus article on the militarization of Canadian police.  Timely, seeing as they just killed a guy armed with a 2x4.

Another fantastic safe seat Conservative...Peter Goldring, he who was accused of drunk driving after refusing to give a breathalyzer sample, has suggested that MP's wear cameras to...fuck...I don't even know... to prevent rape accusations, I guess. The PMO had to step in and help him run away from his statements.

Canada Revenue has leaked a bunch of tax records related to donations made by famous Canadians.

Science can be your friend - Week 186 - Nov 17-24

Leonna Aglukkaq describes why we don't need to do as much as China and the US on climate change.  "Canada accounts for less than 2 per cent" of global GHG emissions.

Oh Fuck.  This isn't going to end well.  Two men wore Burkas to rob a Toronto jewelry store.  How haven't the Cons banned that shit already?  Crime furthering otherworldly religious garb?  Please.


The Cons have devised a neat new trick.  They haven't actually cut the budget for Veteran's services...they're just not spending all of the money in that budget.

The Cons are telling civil servants to use partisan hashtags in their tweets in support of income tax proposals.

Michael Sona has been sentenced.  Everybody seems to think others were involved, yet nothing else seems to be happening.  The Cons have decided to cross their fingers and hope that it just goes away.  Nobody is commenting.

Joe Oliver's economic update speech last week was a fundraising dinner.  Which is odd.  You have to pay the candidate $800 per table to get an update on the Canadian economy?  No wonder they take in so much money in donations.

A long screed from MacLean's on the ridiculous "anti honour killing" law.  And how it could change the definition of "provocation" for everyone.

A document from the Immigration and Citizenship department suggests that media inquiries be handled with large, international organizations receiving top priority, then major Canadian organizations, then, maybe, smaller independents.  The ministry shoots back that this is just a "draft".  Having worked in government, I know that every single document is called a draft.  There must only be a handful of documents every year that aren't considered as such.

Stupid Privacy Commissioner.  Asking for checks and balances to go with all the new police powers the Cons are dishing up?

Interesting insight into who the lobbyists are and who they represent.

Do you know what the average windfall was for Canada/BC/Alberta last 5 years due to Trans Mountain Pipeline income tax payments?  $1.5 Million.  Less than peanuts.  I bet that doesn't pay for the costs to regulate them.

The National Post thinks that Stephen Harper being an asshole to Putin at a diplomatic function ranks up there with other famous asshole Canadian politician moments.  In Russia, Canada is the confused guy down the street shouting about things nobody understands.

They've already decided to destroy the homes of the two synagogue attackers in Israel.  Same day service.  Can you imagine if we dispatched police to knock over people's homes the same day they've accused of committing a terror attack?  What if they get the address wrong?

I guess the heat is on Trudeau.  And furthers the shitstorm.  An NDP MP who is a lawyer may have suggested that the offences reached the level of "assault".  And that may have prompted Trudeau's response.  And this extra helping of leak is for sure pissing the NDP off further.

The Conservatives are burying changes to refugee social assistance in an Omnibus bill.

Well that's just fucking great.  The Cons are going to start studying privatization of certain police tasks.

A Conservative candidate in a by-election has had her expenses in her previous job as mayor questioned.  Well that's a smear!

This seems weird to me.  Go and fight for the Taliban and you're an "enemy combatant" who should be thrown into Guantanamo without trial.  Go fight for the Kurds and...  Don't get me wrong, I need to know a whole lot more about the Kurds to effectively comment on this.  It just seems like we have a double standard depending on which irregular army you join up with.  (seems like the government might be a bit confused about this as well)

A journalist testifies on the police response to the G20 protests.  He didn't like what he saw.

Hey.  There's a 1% for musicians now.  The top 1% of recording artists make 77% of the revenue.  For their labels.

Everbody agrees that NHL players are 1 percenters, right?  Making way too much money for too little work?  Well, looks like 1 percenters have it pretty sweet in good old Communist British Columbia.  New Canucks are paying far less in taxes than they used to in such Capitalist tax havens as New York.

Late again - Week 184 - Nov 3-12

The BC Government has come out hard and fast to protect it's citizens from danger.  Strong language.  Talk of increased fines.  Government resources to investigate and hold people to account.  Mine safety?  Pipelines?  No, no, silly human.  Uber.  Of course, it's all in the citizens interest.  Nothing to do with complaints from the Taxi and Limousine industry.

This story is titled "Less Money to Help Veterans, More to Remember Them".  Seems fitting.

It's kind of embarrassing how excited everybody is getting about bombing ISIS.  "ISIS dump truck may have been target of first Canadian air strikes in Iraq" reads the headline.  The rest of the world is embarrassed for us.

Del Mastro took the high road!  Holy shit.

Unfortunately, the Cons have not.  This is a video link, which sucks.  But Thomas Mulcair is pointing out that the Conservatives have quietly amended a bill to remove the pensions of MP's convicted of crimes to not include MP's convicted of crimes under the Elections Act.  So basically, Del Mastro gets to keep his pension due to the Conservatives changing the law.

An intervenor in the Trans Mountain/Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion approval process has withdrawn and blasted the process as ridiculous and too heavily in favour of Trans Mountain/Kinder Morgan.  No big deal.  Except that he's a former government minister and oil company board member.  More people are speaking out about the Kinder Morgan/NEB hearings being a farce.

The NDP is upset that Trudeau made public statements about the MP harassment issue.  I don't understand was he was supposed to do.  Suspend the MP's with no justification?  Not suspend them?  I guess that was an option.  The complaint seems to be that the victims privacy has been violated.  But they haven't been named.  I don't know though - Maybe this isn't right, but it seems like you can have privacy or you can have justice.  You might not be able to have both?  Question mark.

The Cons are on a rampage against things that are already illegal in our country.  Honour killings.  Polygamy.  These are problems for Steve.

We've decided to pay Roma refugees money to abandon their refugee claims.  I guess one could argue that if you're willing to accept cash to go away, your refugee claim is suspect.  But what the fuck?

We're resorting to hiring smugglers to deport people to Somalia, because it's so fucking dangerous there government officials aren't allowed to travel there themselves.  This is insane.

Other refugees...well, we just throw them in prison with no charges until we can sort things out.

How noble.  The Conservatives are going to comply with the court ruling that requires them to provide health care to refugees.

John Baird isn't just making Canadians angry now.  Russia isn't too pleased with his comments about the Ukraine.

The Governor of the Bank of Canada suggests that unemployed, basement dwelling kids, should work for free.  You know, for experience.  I'm not sure if he went on to give other advice from his childhood...pound the streets...hand out resumes...Why it only took me a couple of days to find a great job, why can't these kids manage it?  What a fucking asshole.

Two new spy watchdogs have been named.  One, a former Conservative MP with no intelligence experience.  Two, a former security consultant who might have a conflict of interest.  Mulcair doesn't like either.

Another report on the insane amount of subsidies for oil companies from rich, western governments.  $88 Billion a year, apparently.  Similarly, BC Natural Gas subsidies are insane.

I'm sure that this was the result of a direct question...but if I'm Peter McKay, I find a better answer when somebody asks me if I've seen harassment on Parliament Hill.  This could be part of the reason why the Conservatives very recently decided to do nothing about workplace harassment on Parliament Hill.

More detail on why it's terrible to ban travelers from Ebola ravaged countries.

Trudeau lays out his case against income splitting.  Interesting how supporters are sticking to their argument that income tax splitting is somehow more fair.  Global News is on the case and has proven that 87% of Canadians won't benefit from income splitting.  MacLean's shows that even with the $2000 limit, it's primarily benefiting people with higher incomes.

Way to go RCMP.  You lost a "high risk traveller".  If you can't manage the resources that you have, why should we give you more?  Failing at things should not be an argument for more power.

The Cons lost in court a few months ago with respect to CSIS and their actions overseas.

A pension board appointed by the Cons to oversee federal employee pensions has been accused of utilizing offshore tax loopholes.  The same loopholes the Cons are apparently really upset about.

America thinks we're getting four F-35's in 2017?

The Federal Information Watchdog is nearly out of money.  I'm sure Steve will tell her to manage her budget better.

Use of foodbanks in Canada is accelerating.

I'm not saying that this is a result of cuts to Statscan or hating science...but it's funny that the Conservatives aren't able to give numbers to support their policies.

UBC is building a pricey international students only college?  That seems like a terrible idea.

Kinder Morgan is really upset that protesters are giving them dirty looks.  Seriously.

The Q Billy Bob Thornton interview is pretty humourous in hindsight.  Billy Bob comes off looking kind of amazing rather than kind of crazy.  There's some amazing leaps in the comments.

A few more states decide to legalize marijuana.  Pretty much the whole west coast (come on...California with it's medicinal marijuana culture is pretty much legal) except for BC is now legal.

I'm not going to pretend to know what this guy is talking about.  But he's suggesting that the munitions we are sending our fighter jets into battle with are less than ideal.  "Own a powerful gun but buy no ammo to shoot with it' mentality" is what he calls it.