Up to here - Week 159 - May 12-19

Well.  It doesn't really matter now, does it?  After all, the Antarctic ice collapse has started and probably can't be stopped.  Think of the business opportunities!  Glad I don't own Real Estate in Richmond.

Hooray!  The next election is going to be so fair!

Canada broke ranks with the US and refused to sanction a couple of Russian bigwigs.  Of course it has nothing to do with their significant investments in Canada.  Wouldn't those actually be two of the best guys to sanction if you were actually trying to prove a point?

This guy figures Trudeau has lost the Catholic vote with his abortion proclamation.  Probably had already lost them on gay marriage, anyhow.


The new pipeline rules and regulations are far from "world class".  And why a 1 billion cap on liability?  1,000 people out to an anti Enbridge rally is nothing to sneeze at.

Canada may be subsidizing energy companies to the tune of $34 Billion.  Per year.

This is pretty much straight from the Stephen Harper playbook.  Find a crime that happened once or twice.  Ensure that it is something nobody can argue on behalf of.  And put resources into creating a law against it.  Voila.  Tough on crime.  Who doesn't love police dogs?

There's something kind of funny about an old dude like Julian Fantino defending spending $100,000 to promote a twitter account.  I wonder if he knows what it is?

Garth lays out the sad state of employment affairs in Canada.  Yikes.

Rafe Mair raises a good (and familiar) point.  How is it a "jobs plan" to just dig shit out of the ground and put it on a boat?


Dean Del Mastro doesn't give up.  Wants the RCMP to investigate Elections Canada.  Charles Manson makes similar demands of the people that investigated him as well.

The NDP sent out lots of mailings using government resources.  The Conservatives do this all the time as well...but Elections Canada is investigating.  As well, the Thomas Mulcair grilling over NDP satellite offices has devolved into a bit of a sideshow.


A full swat team came to arrest the engineer on the train that exploded in Lac Megantic.  I mean, when your crime is perhaps being negligent in operating a train, of course you should be considered armed and dangerous and have your entire family hauled out onto the front lawn at gunpoint after you offered to just come in on your own volition.  Meanwhile, the owner declares bankruptcy and walks away.

This story reveals how silly government secrecy rules are.  David Cameron's name has been redacted from documents about his official visit to Canada.  The photo is pretty great.

Jason Kenney to the rescue!  Somehow, we're going to tie the number of temporary foreign workers to the unemployment rate.  Even though our ability to collect stats is bad.  Another company swindled temporary foreign workers out of money.

Hold on a second.  We have a "Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime"?

A nice long read on the history of the Experimental Lakes Area and the impact of bad government management.

This article lays out the case for a London housing bubble...and sounds oddly familiar.

This story highlights all the changes to other countries laws the USA wants.  Canada and Japan need to get rid of privacy laws.  Mexico can't put taxes on junk food.  Canada needs longer pharmaceutical patents.

Supremely Odd - Week 157 - April 28-May 5

My favourite headline of the week: Arrested woman throws poop at officers

Steve-O is starting to play dirty with the Supreme Court.  Out of nowhere, he brings up an "inappropriate phone call" from the Chief Justice.  Never mind that a distinguished law professor has pointed out that there wouldn't be a problem with this call.  Never mind that the Chief Justice denies that this ever happened.  The base is happy that they have an explanation now.

The RCMP is indicated that there may be as many as 1,000 murdered aboriginal women across the country?  The Conservatives refuse a public inquiry.  Not only that, they scrubbed the recommendations for a public inquiry from a Parliament report.

Government consultation has suggested that Canadians want the Economic Action Plan Ads to stop.

Stephen Harper blames those rascally voters.  Some of them have no intention of producing ID at the polls.  I guess if you're an untrustworthy bastard, you assume everybody else is too.

Data leaks by telcos to government agencies reach insane levels.  Millions of (mostly warrantless) requests for data each year.  Take note...government spying in the US just resulted in Brazil taking their fighter plane money elsewhere.

 The RCMP didn't even bother to consult with a public prosecutor over the Nigel Wright case.  They did talk to provincial prosecutors.

The Conservatives have set it up so that corporate sponsors are paying for part of the upcoming "Day of Honour" for soldiers?

A nice rundown of bureaucrats that have spoken out against the Harper Government.  Summary: It seldom ends well for their life as a government employee.

It's a story that Elections Canada had to pay a former judge to review their investigation into the robocalls scandal?  Somebody should have done it for free?

What the fuck?  The feds announce that job ready immigrants will be given preference.  Now BC is re-tooling it's school system to create worker drones for the upcoming job shortage revolution?  On the surface, yes, it makes sense to prepare kids for the future, and the future usually requires working for the man in some way, shape or form.  But this borders on insane.  This borders on the government being nothing more than the enabler for companies to make huge amounts of money.  But we have to have workers to execute the fracking plan that Environment Canada warns is moving way, way too fast, right?

The CBC lays out the history and issues of the Temporary Foreign Worker program.  And Jason Kenney explodes on twitter after Bob Rae insults him.  He also thinks that the Liberals or NDP can't criticize the program because they've helped some of their constituents use the program (we've heard this before).  All of a sudden, Stephen Harper is a champion for the Canadian worker, warning employers abusing the Temporary Foreign Worker program that he won't stand for the abuse that he allowed any longer.

There's a really weird story here:  A Polish newspaper donated a free ad to Eve Adams and suggested she is already the MP for the riding she is contesting.  Of course, it's not her fault.

Shawn Atleo resigns.  I have not idea what this means.

50 troops off to fight the Russians.  6 airplanes (that may not be armed).  1 boat.  50 troops.

Embarrass the RCMP, face charges for assaulting an RCMP officer.

A Canadian aid group has been branded a terrorist organization and had it's offices raided over support for Hamas.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Hamas now a part of the legitimate government in Palestine?  So couldn't any organization working in Palestine be levelled with similar charges?  Regardless, the group denies any support of Hamas.

The government doesn't seem to be taking the job of filling vacant scientists positions seriously.  Why bother hiring good scientists if you're only going to muzzle them, I guess.

The NHL has a noticeable impact on the overall Canadian economy.

This is beyond awesome.  A group of Satanists have commissioned a statue for the front of the Oklahoma Statehouse.  Their response to threats against the monument?  Their insurance may allow them to build two if this one is damaged.  It's like a video game villain or something.  Kill one, two come back in its place.

Let's end on a depressing note.  The Cons seemed to be bouncing back in the polls.

Comments - Week 156 - April 21-28

I've got to be honest, dear reader.  I'm just burnt out on this stuff.  I'm not paying much attention.  I think Steve won....

It's amazing what happens when an issue hits critical mass.  I guess temporary foreign workers are something everybody can understand and everybody can complain about.  Rednecks hate that "they" are taking our jobs.  Liberals hate that everybody is getting taken advantage of.  The government kind of has to respond.  No more temporary foreign workers in the food services sector.  Shit...actually, just in the "fast food" sector.  Funny that the CEO of McDonald's Canada is impressed that the Conservatives understand what he is trying to do.  And criticism of what he is trying to do is "bullshit".

The CD Howe Institute suggests that the temporary foreign worker program is contributing to joblessness in Canada.  338,000 temporary foreign workers?  It seems that might be a cause of Canadian unemployment..."But these lazy Canadians refuse to work the night shift cleaning toilets for minimum wage" sez the business owner.

Skilled immigrants get an express pass into Canada.

The Harper Government has ensured that whales in the path of Northern Gateway tankers are no longer threatened.  Well.  They're threatened by the tankers, they're just no longer considered to be a "threatened species".  Sez a biologist: Northern Gateway tanker traffic will increase whale strikes

Here's the fact of the matter:  Nancy Greene is a total fucking idiot.  She's an expert on fish farms now?  Fuck off.

Seeing as Stephen Harper's cabinet is nothing but lawyers...how do they keep fucking all these legal decisions up?  The Supreme Court tells Steve his Senate plans won't work.

Okay, this is pretty great news.  Pierre Fancypants has given up on ramming the stupidest of stupid "Fair Elections" Reforms through.  But this comment is solid gold:
“citizens will now be able to sign an oath attesting to their local residence” What oath? Most of the damn NDP and Liberal supporters, those that strongly oppose vouching, are committed atheists. Their only “bible” is David Suzuki’s “10 commandments” of global warming radical activism.
That's some solid gold crazy, right there.

Thanks to "Zalm" commenting on this story here.  Beautiful stuff.  Decent story too:
Wot? Aren't you driving on socialized and subsidized roads with your subsidized gas guzzler made by auto companies propped up by our tax dollars? Haven't visited the doctor for your dose of socialized medical care or picked up your socialized prescription made safer by that socialist bastion of publicly-funded research, Therapeutics Initiative? Weren't educated in a socialist school by union teachers? your wealth isn't protected by socialist police forces and courts, and that grand old game of socialist umbrage, the professional army? Your property maintaining its value nicely thanks to socialist zoning and property use bylaws?

No more charges in robocalls, outside of Guelph.  I think the key here being "witnesses didn't cooperate".

I think it's funny that the PMO won't say whether or not Stephen Harper was around to participate in drunk-teen-gate.

It's Jason Kenney's job to support incumbent MP's as they wage nomination battles?  Speaking of which...Jason Kenney ignored suggestions that his job data was bunk.

Eve Adams.  Still a shitstorm.

The government has responded to Lac Megantic with new regulations.

Elizabeth May is pretty funny!

Thomas Mulcair thinks the deleted Wright/Duffy e-mails stink.

Pamela Wallin regrets paying back her expense money.  I'd imagine there's a healthy dose of "I didn't think they'd hang me out to dry once I paid the money back" in this statement.

A story on the lack of access to information from the Canadian government.

I held off commenting about this over the past few weeks, but the Heartbleed bug response by Revenue Canada has been lacking.

There hasn't been much progress on holding tax cheats accountable.

The people in the United States that are responsible for negotiating international copyright agreements - and dictating requirements to Canada - work for the companies and organizations that will reap the benefits.  It's a government/lobbyist revolving door.

Don't Listen to Anyone - Week 147 - Feb 17-24

A steady theme with this Conservative government is that they refuse to listen to anybody.  Scientists, academics, judges, bureaucrats...these are all people who just don't know what they're talking about.  An internal document prepared by Employment and Social Development Canada has pointed out that the wages and earnings of the middle class in Canada haven't gone anywhere in decades.  Of course, the Conservatives can't abide by this.  The report reflects “the period of time under the previous Liberal government” says a spokesperson for Jason Kenney.  Nothing to worry about.

Then you have reports that Gail Shea re-opened the commercial herring roe fishery despite recommendations from DFO scientists.  What do those guys know?


In a similar vein, a judge in British Columbia has refused to adhere to the Conservatives minimum sentencing rules.  But what on earth would a judge know about what's best for sentencing a criminal?

A doctor says that a young lady is really responding to her medical marijuana treatment and her mother suggests that she won't be able to continue her treatment once she is unable to grow her own when new policies kick in.  Don't they know how dangerous it is to even think about marijuana?

Good thing we won't have to worry about scientists any more.  This post suggests that we will lose 5,064 Federal Government "science" jobs in the next few years.  Don't worry though.  I'm sure the private sector will step in and start completing all this research on behalf of Canadians.  After all, if it's important, there must be a profit somewhere.  And the greatness will trickle down.

Experts have been telling Stephen Harper for years that oil shipments by rail are going to rise dramatically.  I'm not saying it's his fault that trains are blowing up across the country...but you'd think that you might have pumped some money into rail safety, no?

A study has confirmed that Oil Sands tailings are leaching into groundwater and rivers.  Don't these scientists know that there are jobs at stake?

In similar news, an energy company in northern Alberta chased a family from their ranch with toxic gas clouds.  They'll only help them financially if they sign a non-disclosure agreement.

Rex Murphy is in a bit of trouble for accepting money from Oil Sands companies while belittling Neil Young for having an opinion, and otherwise serving as an Oil Sands mouthpiece.

Land set aside as grazing areas for Arctic Reindeer has been offered up for Oil and Gas exploration.  Reindeer don't need jobs.  And they certainly don't need subsidies like all these big oil companies do.

Federal Ministers keep visiting Kitimat, but don't meet with councillors or local government.  What's going on?

I love it.  The punishment for exceeding donation laws by over 4 times?  The campaign has to refund him his own money!  So, let's see:
1) Need a quick cash infusion for the election.
2) Throw down some fat stacks from your personal account.
3) Wait 3 years for Elections Canada to figure it out.
4) Get a full refund on the money you kicked in.
Where's the downside?

The Conservatives are angry that a Liberal former general received the (managed by a third party) moving (and legal) expenses to which he was entitled.  Note that the Auditor General reported that this was a crazy program back in 2006.  The Cons didn't seem all that concerned until this week.

It's been pointed out that the "average family" used in the Conservatives sales job for income splitting are far from average.  Huge wage gains in the last few years and a household income $50,000 more than the median in Canada?  Sounds pretty average to me.  Oh.  Wait.  Maybe they're talking about "real" Canadians.  You know?  Albertans.

Another Conservative job well done.  Prisons.  Where prisoners die due to poor health care and lack of review and follow-up.  Maybe that's part of the tough-on-crime agenda?

The Oil Sands workers laid off in favour of Temporary Foreign Workers have not been hired back yet.  They hired some different ones instead.  Maybe?

It's interesting that the ruling that a Canadian ISP has to give up user data in a copyright lawsuit is being reported as a big win for entertainment companies.  While the ISP does have to give up user data, the judge is making it fairly difficult for US style copyright trolling to take place.

"Justin Trudeau kicks off Liberal convention with partisan speech" says the headline.  Really?  I would have thought a political party convention was a perfect place to cozy up to the Conservatives.

Interesting.  The government has opened up "public consultation" on prostitution laws.

Tim Hudak essentially wants to privatize all government services?  Well that sounds like a dandy idea.  What could possibly go wrong with that?

Did the ruling party in the Ukraine pay Conservative bloggers in the US to spread their message?  Maybe.

I haven't read The Signal and the Noise (or whatever Nate Silver's book is called).  But apparently he takes global warming to task.  As did the Freakanomics guys.  This is why they got it wrong...basically...your models that apply to other things don't necessarily work with climate change.

New York State is mulling a ban on microbeads in soaps and shampoos.  Which is great.  But how are we not mulling other options?  Such as suing the shit out of companies that created an environmental disaster via a ridiculous product?

Patrick Brazeau lands job at strip club.  Sounds about right.

Not so good at this social media thing - Week 145 - Feb 3-10

Sorry if I got a bit grumpy earlier in the week.  Times are difficult, you know?

Oh boy, Steve.  You really can't win these days, can you?  I'd expect this kind of stuff out of your buddy Rob Ford.  Anyhow, the drummer in Stephen Harper's band has been charged with sexual assault.  That guy is going to fast learn the definition of fair weather friend.

Of course everybody is still talking about the farce of an "election reform" bill.  I can't not put it in quotations.  Also not a fan?  The Chief Electoral Officer.  He's wondering why he's no longer allowed to encourage people to vote and what his remaining job is.  Why didn't he speak up when they didn't consult him about it?  He also speculates that up to 100,000 voters could be impacted by the voter ID law, most of them aboriginal.  And of course, this is another great opportunity to cap debate on a bill.  Gotta ram that shit through, no?  Maybe another candidate for a Senate hold-up?  Nobody seems to think this bill is good.  Except the Vernon Morning Star.

This one is new to me, but this site breaks down the arguments put forward in Parliament.  Brad Butt, who is a real Conservative MP and not a made up person, suggests that during his last campaign they just went around and collected discarded voter cards and then went in and voted on behalf of those people using the vouch system.  Oh.  Sorry.  "Some other campaigns" were doing that.  My apologies.

Another Conservative MP has settled his dispute with Elections Canada.  Funny how most of the disputes between MP's and Elections Canada involve Conservatives and now there's all these laws to take away authority from Elections Canada.

This is not new news, but seems to be new news now that the BC Civil Liberties is on board.  Think of just how insane this is.  The national spy apparatus, which is legally prohibited from spying on Canadians, not only spied on (relatively) law abiding Canadians, but did so at the behest of a corporation running a publicly reviled project.  It's totally insane.

Sticking with pipelines, a report about an explosion in a TransCanada pipeline was administratively buried.  Of course, that was never the intention.  I mean, it only showed that their entire inspection program was inadequate.

The new plan for Canadian military procurement is to create some kind of Canadian military-industrial complex.  We can't seem to buy even a trash can properly for the military, now we're going to require it to be designed and built in Canada?

Several dozen oil patch workers were laid off and replaced by Croations.  Of course, nobody is responsible.  The government has no control over Imperial Oil.  Imperial Oil has no control over its contractors.  I'm surprised any of these people were able to make it in to work today, seeing as they're not responsible for anything.

The Conservatives have decided that they don't need tougher conflict of interest rules for themselves.  But public servants certainly do.

Another example of military boostin' Steve not really giving a shit about the actual soldiers.  Veterans are being discharged for medical reasons and don't qualify for benefits.  In other news, a story about how the government ignored PTSD in Canadian soldiers.

The Conservatives have decided to target the "political activities" of charities they deem to be terrorists.  Of course It's much easier to be deemed a terrorist when you do something the government doesn't like.  I would imagine church groups are still going to be allowed to do whatever they want politically.  And if you can't get 'em that way, subject them to Revenue Canada audits.

Another Conservative attempt to solve a problem that doesn't really exist: reigning in public sector employee sick leave.  And then of course all our problems with immigrants.  What better way to weed out the riffraff than to make it more expensive for people to become citizens?  I wonder how these new rules are going to affect ministerial personnel who pretend to be new Canadians for photo ops?

This is a sad and scary story.  Tyrone Hayes is a scientist who did research into a chemical sold as a pesticide.  He started this research at the behest of the company that sold it.  When they didn't like his findings, they set about attempting to discredit his research and ruin his reputation.  They followed him and purchased advertising based on search terms related to his name.  This needs to be a new type of crime.

Justification for ending Canada Post home delivery doesn't hold up to scrutiny.

Of course, now that a few trains have blown up, the Conservatives never would have considered this plan from the rail industry to cut inspections on trains carrying dangerous goods.

CNRL continues to have a giant bitumen leak that they can't stop.

Job creator Jamie Dimon gets a fat raise after presiding over billions in fines to JP Morgan Chase for illegal activities.  As Matt Taibbi points out, the rank and file received pay freezes after the fines were announced.

There were some jobs created in January....for now.  See if there's a major correction to the stats a la November.

Bye Bye Bev - Week 62 - July 2-6

Holy Crap!  Bev Oda is leaving politics.  Which begs any number of questions.  First and foremost, how does somebody like that get elected multiple times?  How do they get appointed to Cabinet and remain there?  And how can they justify quitting a little more than 1 year after getting elected?  But then again, I guess Bev Oda was never terribly concerned with appearances, propriety or saving taxpayers money.  I'm actually going to miss her.  She was a really nice argument against this government.  "Oh yah.  If you're so smart, tell me one thing that Stephen Harper has done that has been bad for Canada?"

Those stupid Enbridge assholes...They have the gall to complain about a 3.7 Million Dollar Fine by pointing out that they spent over $700 Million on the clean-up.  Ya.  Poor you.  You had to spend $700 Million kind of cleaning up a giant shitstorm of awful that you created through sloppiness, error and poor judgement.  How does this not automatically disqualify them from building a pipeline across British Columbia?

Oh man.  Jean Charest.  Don't follow the lead of Stephen Harper.  Asbestos is not the future of Canada.  How are there two jackasses in such positions of power in one country?

Dean Del Mastro.  First, he complains that the election fraud allegations are "hurting the family name".  Okay.  Not first.  Maybe only.  Anyhow.  The opposition seems like they're willing to give him his chance to clear his name.  And he's meeting with Elections Canada.

Hey immigrants!  Welcome to Canada!  Now fuck off!  No.  Wait.  After considering how terrible this looked a few weeks ago, a few of you can have some healthcare.  But the rest of you can fuck off.  You didn't think you were going to be equals or citizens or anything like that, did you?

This National Post article suggests that NDP support is "slipping".  As one commenter points out, they're quoting surveys done by two different companies, they haven't published what questions were asked and this is easily in the realm of statistical error.  So.  Great story!

Gotta love the even playing field we're on with Hollywood and the record industry.  Remember the Megaupload takedown?  The case is completely falling apart...probably because the raid was conducted at the request of Joe Biden.

Stephen Harper hosted a BBQ at the Stampede.  He talked a lot about how Canada is going to continue with economic dominance.  Who cares about that though.  I'm more interested in Tony Clement, Jason Kenney, Peter McKay and Vic Toews wearing "western duds".  Because I bet they're all kind of authentic.

And, speaking of all those guys...Steve-O has his team and he's sticking with it.  No cabinet shake-up for at least another year.

Here's a few links to end the week.  The Economist suggests Stephen Harper is a bully.  Here is a guest editorial in the Globe about how badly the Conservatives are screwing up Fisheries.   I have to stop linking to these polls!  Canadians come out in support of abortion and gay marriage.

Lessons in Irony - Week 59 - June 11-18

What a fantastic week.

As the Oil Lobby (aka The Conservatives) ramp up pipeline ads on TV, the oil spill in Alberta gets worse and worse. 160-480,000 barrels of oil.  As one commenter posted "If they can clean up the Gulf, they can clean this up."  Yes indeed.  If.  Thank god we're streamlining those troublesome environmental approvals.  And, this provides a bit more insight as to why Mr. Harper is "streamlining", as some documents from a few years ago show that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans thinks that Enbridge is taking the cheap route and underestimating risks.  Obviously, we don't want to hear from those yahoos.

I'm not going to talk about the 1%.  But I am going to point you to a fantastic article that talks about the fallacies of a "merit society".  It's really great.  It's pretty easy to remain at the top when the playing field isn't level.  And you can buy an excavator to ensure that the playing field at no point ever approaches level.  And then you just run over everybody else's shit with that excavator.

And, in the spirit of not listening to scientists, the feeling is that the freshwater research facility being shutdown by the Conservatives is on the block because of their troublesome research into the oil sands.

On the topic of meddlesome losers, how about that Auditor General?  Well, he's at it again, pointing out that a number of contracts issued by Parliament and the Senate were, well, bad.

And, within a day or two of suggesting that we may be heading for a recession...again...Stephen Harper lectures the World on following the Canadian model for their economy.  This is the man that is the "steady hand on the tiller".  This is the man that somehow manages to spend like a drunken sailor while cutting actual programs.  Yes.  Follow our lead.

And where I think the problem is, well, I just think Conservatives don't know what math is.  There's Peter McKay, no link necessary.  And now, Dean Del Mastro.  He claims he spent $1575.  Receipts suggest he spent $21,000.  That's a bit of a difference.

Maybe they're catching on though?  Maybe they've recognized that they just need a bit more time to crunch some numbers and figure it out?  They've decided to delay handing out key figures on the Fighter Jet purchase.  Who needs to know that stuff in a timely fashion?

Okay.  Get this.  Chuck Strahl.  Retires from Parliament with a full pension.  Does so in a way that gives his son a massive leg up on getting nominated as the Conservative candidate.  And now he's being named as the CSIS watchdog?  Does he have law enforcement experience?  Intelligence experience?

And then what should be a big story, restricting debate on Parliamentary debate on major laws, just doesn't even matter any longer as the Conservatives do it so often.  Yes, the Conservatives are limiting the debate on the budget.  The excessively overblown budget that's massive and unwieldy.  I guess the Filibuster didn't work, but it has resulted in a marathon 24 hour vote.  And...there is actually some feeling from actual Conservatives that this may not have been worth it.

I've kind of lumped Copyright and Internet Surveillance together.  They are kind of similar.  Here Slate comments on Vic Toews using Luca Magnotti for political gains (i.e. pushing his Internet Surveillance bill through).  And the Copyright lobby pushes for more and more and more (and more) because they won't stop until we're strapped to couches with our eyelids pried open and they can just automatically siphon money out of bank accounts.  And similar things are happening in the UK.

Lets talk about drugs a bit.  I'm going to argue that the big problem with drugs isn't the actual drugs.  The big problem with drugs is that people kill people because they can make money.  Or kids buy shit laced with rat poison because some sketchy dude is selling it to them out of the back of his van.  Or people's lives are ruined because they're caught with an "illegal substance".  Or we spend millions and millions keeping people in jail.  Or property crime goes way up because people need to steal to pay for artificially elevated costs due to illegality and smuggling.  Or people don't get treated over the stigma and, once again, illegality.  So, I like that the BC Health Officer is pointing out that ecstasy isn't so bad, if you actually get ecstasy.  Not rat poison.

You know how people get riled up when Don Cherry says stuff?  Turns out he's just a crazy old man.  And that the metric system is "commie stuff".

Meeting Targets - Week 46 - March 12-19

Hey look.  All these people like me.

Can you believe this?  We're 46 weeks in, Stephen Harper is just getting his Omnibus Crime Bill passed, and he has somehow still made his 100-day target?  If there's one thing you can say about Parliament, they sure know how to sandbag a goal.  And...Quebec is well and truly telling them to pound sand.

Speaking of Parliament, they're really starting to catch on to this whole Internet thing.  They've finally admitted that they're not really sure how they will hold Anonymous responsible for threats against Vic Toews and they're even admitting that it might be a bit silly to even speak of trying to do such a thing.

And governments are just like people.  Nobody likes gossipy Sue.  And nobody trusts Canada with their secrets any longer since members of our military started giving secrets to Russia.

Somebody has decided that preserving (some of the) CBC Archives is not a good idea.  They're going to digitize it instead.  Some of it.  No.  Wait a second.  They sold it to some guy in Calgary.  I'm not even joking.

Back to robo-calls.  You know, amongst all the shenanigans that have happened in the US in recent years...court cases deciding elections.  Electronic voting machines with no oversight.  Crazy stuff.  I've always said "at least Canada has a strong, independent, centralized voting system that wouldn't allow for stuff like that."  Personally, I don't really think that too many people didn't end up voting due to a phone call telling them to drive across town (the last minute voter registrations is another matter), it has still shaken my confidence in our democratic system.  But, I feel like Elections Canada is going to figure this out.  And that makes me happy.  Oh.  The Liberals are co-operating.  And some of the Conservatives own buddies want an investigation.

Asbestos!  Gosh, we haven't heard anything about asbestos in a while.  Another story about the mines closing.  All that nonsense and the mines are going to close...

More happy news.  Somebody in the Conservative government has admitted that the F-35 Fighter Jet isn't all sunshine and roses.  This is a pretty amazing step, admitting that something isn't quite as it should be.  I'm sure the poor bastard will be fired within the month.


The Natives are getting serious about delaying the Northern Gateway Pipeline.  As the Conservatives talk about gutting the environmental review process in the name of "pragmatism".  I mean, who wants to take a bit of time planning things out when there's only hundreds of fish bearing streams and 1/3 of the nations coastline at stake?

Hey!  Oil sands!  Lets kill some wolves!

A Kinder Tone - Week 45 - Mar 5-12

This could almost be Stephen Harpers "Mission Accomplished" moment, with a change in uniform.

 I'm going to start in a different way this week.  I was reading a story yesterday about business groups being upset about a 2.5% tax increase in Vancouver and how they responded with a childish newspaper ad.  The story itself doesn't matter, but as I read through the comments on the story I started to see some things.  Everybody that read the story already had their minds made up.  People were resorting to name calling and the conversation really degenerated.  I realized two things:

1) As soon as you start calling people names, any chance of a productive conversation is lost.
2) I've been doing some of that myself.

So, moving forward, I am going to try to eliminate personal attacks from this blog.  Don't get me wrong, I'm going to continue to ridicule ideas and suggest that people are ignorant, ill-informed or wrong.  But I'm not going to call them names and go for the cheap cheap score.

For example.  Rob Anders.  While last week there was a possibility that I could have resorted to calling him "Sleepy Time" Rob.  This week, I'm not going to do that.  I'm going to suggest that he's an incompetent buffoon for calling a group of veterans a "bunch of hacks" after they asked him entirely appropriate questions and then only apologizing once he realized that people were really, really angry.  So.  Yes, not entirely civil, but not scraping the bottom of the barrel either.

Now, back to the robo-call scandal.  Mr. Stephen Harper has decided to demand that the Liberals release all records related to their use of robo-calls, but feels it's entirely unnecessary to release their own logs as they are "obviously...not behind the calls".  Which is a really impressive re-purposing of logic.

A different type of fraud has raised its head, as apparently several thousand people signed up to vote at the last minute in a specific riding, many of them without addresses or with fake ones.  But not to worry, the Conservatives tell us everything was "fair".  Honestly though, what is Elections Canada doing to allow this?

In more election fraud news, some team members of a Conservative Minister are asking Elections Canada to take a look at the finances or their own campaign as they seem a bit fishy.

Copyright reform discussion is drawing to a close.  As Michael Geist points out, the industry is really trying to screw with things.  It's tough to feel like there is any kind of process, fair or otherwise, in how this bill is being handled.


Maher Arar points out that we haven't really learned anything about our experience with torture.  It seems like we've actually made it our official policy to encourage other nations to torture.

More back to work legislation.  This time for Air Canada.  Again.

Some information on the F-35 and how the US Military is cheating their own testing process.

Smears - Week 44 - Feb 27 - Mar 5

This weeks picture is "Sleepy" Rob Anders.  Who wouldn't trust that face?

So, we'll start not with the biggest story of the week, but on my favourite story of the week.  Conservative MP Rob Anders has been accused of falling asleep on the job.  Not in the figurative "neglecting to do his duty" sense.  In the literal, showing up to meetings and Parliament and then falling asleep sense.  And, in the new Conservative Party of Canada tradition, not only is there no apology or admittance of guilt...no...anybody pointing this out is a "hack" perpetrating a "smear job".  There's since been a bit of an apology, but it seems a bit too little, too late.

Of course, the big news this week continues to be the robo-call scandal.  It all comes so wonderfully together with Stephen Harper blaming others for this "smear campaign".  Which is a pretty amazing response, when you take some time to think about it.  And now...wow...really upping the ante.  Suggesting that it's actually the Liberals fault with regards to another batch of robo-calls.  And now...lawsuits.  Protests.  It's really getting crazy.

As well, Steve-O seems to be making a big deal about the fact that the Liberals used American telemarketers (and therefore, by extension, this is all their fault)...but...well....Ahem...glass houses and such.

Hey!  Look!  Over Here!  More smears.  Steve-O does his best Houdini and tries to draw some attention back onto Vikileaks.  Is it still a "smear" if the information that you presented is true?


This week also seemed to be the week of surveys and polls.  I've seen three poll results this week that make me very happy that we don't live with US proposition-style politics.  If we're to believe all of this, Canadians are in favour of:

- Severe cuts to public services

- An online police state

- Throwing "bullies" in jail

Can you imagine if these surveys had been binding?  Because nothing would make Canada better than  cuts to social programs, increased police powers and throwing people in jail for vague and arbitrary crimes.

The Conservatives tightened the belt today and announced $12 Million in ad spending to promote their "jobs first" times-are-tough budget.  Tomorrow they're expected to announce their controversial "Beatings to Prevent Violence" campaign.

And if you don't think Copyright is a fiasco, the Canadian Music Industry is already demanding more rights, control, policing, etc.  This is on top of the demands that they've already made that are before Parliament as we speak.  On top of SOPA style proposals they made a month or so back.  Talk about forward thinking.  "We know we said the first batch of legislation was what we needed, and we know that we came back and said that we needed more after that, but just in case you decide to approve all of that stuff...we've got a few more things on top of that."  These guys won't stop until the very concept of sound and/or noise falls completely under their control.


The Canucks took on a burlier presence today and the Liberals followed suit.  Announcing their intentions to not get pushed around any longer, the Liberals admit to being the source of Vikileaks.

The Conservatives break the silence on the hiring of the candidate that lost to Irwin Cotler.  Surprisingly, they did nothing wrong and everybody else is making things up.

Steve-O announces that everybody else is going to see cuts, so MP Pensions are going to be cut as well.

And Jason Kenney suggests that Corporations should be more involved in determining which immigrants are allowed into the country.  Yes, I can't see a problem anywhere in that plan.

Stephen Harper.  Benjamin Netanyahu.  Iran.  Blah blah.