Laying Waste - Week 21 - Sept 19-26

It's the first week back in Parliament and Stephen Harper isn't even there.  He is busy in New York trying to prove that he is relevant on the international stage with his comments on Palestine.  He even earned a thank-you from Israel.

He also took some time to talk about the Keystone pipeline, and explained that it should be a "no brainer" for the US to approve it.  He's right.  Why wouldn't the US want a pipeline that magically gets filled with our raw, un-processed oil products?  Why would we agree to do this for them?  This is crazy, for so many reasons.  "Ethical Oil" and all that.  On a similar note, the Saudis are getting a little bit tired about the whole thing and the Canadian Government proves that they're nothing more than an industry mouthpiece.

First on the agenda, the Omnibus Crime Bill.  Stats Canada just revealed that our crime rates are the lowest that they've been since the 1970's.  Sounds like a good time to announce sweeping "fixes".  There's a good editorial here.

As well, the Tories have announced a $20-Million dollar contract (or $90,000 a day,as the Globe puts it) to "save money".  They didn't really follow standard government tendering protocols either.  Sometimes you have to spend money to save money...so I won't be too critical.

The former Chief Statistician comes out swinging over the decision to scrap the mandatory long form census.  Pssh.  Experts.  What do they know?  I mean...this guy probably only spent years in school and his entire career working on statistics and demographics, determining the best way to formulate a coherent picture of the make-up of our country so that we can best design government policy.  Why would his opinion matter?  More here and here.

Government waste doesn't count when it's your government doing the waste.  Apparently Peter Mackay used a search-and-rescue helicopter to fly home from a vacation at a remote fishing lodge.  But it's okay, because he was participating in a "search-and-rescue" demonstration.  A demonstration put together at the last minute.  At his request.  But he cut his vacation short because of it.  Oh...And a Challenger jet flight home on the same day.  I think Peter McKay is one of the better Conservatives out there...although it's kind of his fault we had the merger, isn't it?...it sounds like he had some support from military brass based on this link.  But it's still kind of stupid.

The Conservatives start to get serious on their talk about reducing/eliminating funding for the CBC.  I love that they go on Sun News to talk about it.

And speaking of dismantling...I don't really understand what the wheat board does.  I can wrap my head around the basics of why it might be desirable.  I can't for the life of me decide why somebody would put energy into getting rid of it.

The Final Quiet Week - Week 20 - Sept 12-19

It's kind of sad that it has taken this long for the Conservatives to "get down to business".  Week 21 will probably be a busy one.

Why is it always the Conservative politicians involved in sex scandals? (well, not always) And haven't they learned...never lie. You'll just get found out. Oh well. Harper, Baird and their buddy deserve what they get.  It's kind of ironic that one of Harper's only redeeming qualities (unflinching loyalty) could prove to cause him the most trouble.  China seems to be reading from the Stephen Harper playbook as well: Get angry at everybody else and deny that you've done anything wrong.  And then take your ball (person) home with you.

This is fairly direct evidence that "tough on crime" isn't that great of an idea.  And all you people upset that we haven't followed the UK's lead and immediately imprisoned all riot participants?  All those new prisoners has overwhelmed prisons and are leading to increased gang violence.  "Who cares if a bunch of prisoners beat up on each other?"  Well, they do have to leave prison at some point.  Your petty riot criminal is now a gang member with a taste for blood.  Like the seal on Arrested Development.

Just after September 11th is the perfect time to renew big brotheresque "anti-terror" laws and announce that, this time, they won't be going away.  There will be no sunset clauses in our next batch of police state laws.

It seems like the short form census participation was good.  But no word on the long form yet.  The short form is still mandatory, right?

Islamicism - Comin' to get us all - Week 19 - Sept 6-12

Oh Stephen. "The major threat to Canada is still islamicism"? Is that even a word? According to this, I have a 1 in 650,000 chance of being killed by a terrorist attack (while travelling...which must dramatically increase the odds). I have a 1 in 56,000 chance of being struck by lightning. Doesn't that make lightning the major threat to Canada? Add in forest fires caused by lighting...geez...this lighting stuff sounds pretty bad.

Sticking with the terror theme, September 11th has cost Canada approximately $92 Billion (the US is at $1.1 Trillion). And counting. Which is a crazy amount of money. As a Slate article said (or something along these lines) "there's no question that we aren't safer...but at what cost?" I guess it's easier to slam the barn door shut and tell everybody they're going to die if they don't nail a few boards up on the outside as well. Wouldn't we be better off if we spent even a portion of this money on other things?

Since I wrote the above, Slate has taken it a step further. There's tonnes of questions raised by this article, but the basic point is that the cost/benefit ratio of terrorism security spending is a joke. And we'd save far more lives if we spent that money someplace else. As the headline says, "How many terrorism plots would we have to foil to jusity our current spending on homeland security? 1,667 Time Square-Style Attacks Every Year." It actually goes on to suggest that blindly spending this money is immoral.

And what better time than on the 10 year anniversary of a terrorist attack that didn't happen in this country to announce that you're planning on introducing legislation that will allow you to imprison people without a warrant and imprison people if they don't testify in your secret trial?

The Harper Government rears it's ugly head again. This article claims to cite a directive issued by the Privy Council Office to start using the label "The Harper Government". Unfortunately, it's no smoking gun, but a reference to an unseen "directive". Hopefully some direct proof comes out at some point.

Apparently we're re-hanging portraits of the Queen in our embassies. Which is just bizarre. We're going to hang Charles goofy mug all over the place when he takes over? And their justification for doing so (other nations hang a portrait of their "Head of State")...this is a pretty awesome takedown, showing that other Commonwealth nations do no such thing.

And here we go. The first vow to re-introduce Copyright Legislation...exactly as it was worded before (and couldn't get passed). This will make it an offense to remove digital locks on devices and media that you "own". Want to transfer all of your kindle books to another device?Well, you'd have to break the Amazon DRM and that would be illegal. iTunes albums? If it's one of the small number that aren't DRM'd, you're fine. Otherwise...illegal. Oh, you want to jailbreak your iPhone that you paid hundreds and hundreds of dollars for because you don't like the way Apple forces you to run things? No sir. That would be super illegal. But why attempt to work with people and hear their opinions when you don't really have to?

And more copyright, more Wikileaks. Wikileaks cables indicate what we suspected all along, Canada is in the pocket of the US when it comes to copyright legislation and cares a lot more about what the US Government thinks than about what Canadians think. Tony Clement urges the US to add us to a piracy watch list, and then the piracy watch list is ussed to justify copyright reform? That's just scandalous.

Lastly, the Conservatives get to work dismissing concerns as "Ridiculous". The problem? One of their MP's used his official parliamentary e-mail address to tell an employee of the official Chinese State Media that she "looks so cute" with her "cheeks puffed." John Baird thinks you're an idiot if you have a problem with this.

On Vacation - Week 18 - Aug 29-Sept6

It's been a slow week. I was on vacation. As well, it all seems to be about the Ontario election these days.

I had no idea that it was within the first 100 sitting days that the Conservatives planned on passing their Omnibus crime legislation. That's kind of cheating. It could be years before Parliament has sat for 100 days. Anyhow. People complaining that it does little to address victims of crime.

This...this is embarassing. A City Council report heaps blame onto the NHL for the Stanley Cup Riot. There's probably a grain of truth somewhere in there that the NHL should get more involved with helping avoid rioutous behaviour, but that's far different than accepting blame for the whole thing. This blog post makes some good points. And unfortunately, one report by city council, just like one riot by a bunch of assholes, tarnishes the entire cities reputation.

At least Christy Clark isn't our Prime Minister - Week 17 - Aug 22-29

Thank God for Wikileaks. The American Ambassador tends to say what we're all thinking. Here, he points out that Stephen Harper's trip to China (Circa 2007) didn't accomplish much except to "placate Canadian Business leaders". Bit of a theme there, no?

Turns out the Government didn't prevent a scientist from talking about her potentially critical fish farm work.

I'm not sure what I think of Canada's decision to skip the next World's Fair in South Korea. On one hand...I mean...would you have noticed if South Korea never showed up to Expo '86? On the other hand...I mean ten million dollars? Sounds like the cost of being a country, to me. Maybe we'll ask for our UN dues back next?

In BC News...Iain Black, who is apparently our now-Former Labour Minister, announces that he is quitting to become CEO for the Vancouver Board of Trade. "It would be a mistake to take away from this any notion that this is about turning my back on my colleages, my premier or my government." Really? What else is it? I also notice that he doesn't mention turning his back on the people that voted him in. Honestly, short of illness or family matters...how can you quit your job as an elected representative? You got elected on a promise to represent your riding and your voters. You knew that this was a four year commitment. It is not okay to quit because a sweet job opportunity comes along. Even if it's with Fox News. Okay...he thanks the riding here...but this is still a loser move.

So. Let's talk about the HST a bit. It kind of feels like we just shot the driver of the car that we're riding in. We showed him that we aren't very happy about the trip that we've embarked on, but it's probably not going to work out too well for us either. I did vote against the HST...but man is this every going to be terrible. Who knew that revenge wouldn't leave me feeling satisfied?

But, as I think about this a bit more and read the stories about how stupid British Columbia is...I think we all need to remember where the blame for this falls. This is 100% the fault of the BC Liberal government. They could have mentioned this massive tax change during their election campaign. They could have done something to address some of the no-longer-tax-exempt products. They could have actually tried to explain the benefits of the tax than in hoping it would go away and assuming we would roll over and accept it. They could have not allowed the whole thing to go to a referendum. They could have announced their 2% tax roll-back before it became nothing more than an attempt to buy the referendum. They could have not tried to pull one over on the Province with how they ran the election and funded it. It was all just so badly done, nobody is at fault but the Liberals. That they've now cost the Province billions and we're back to where we started is absolutely nobodies fault but the current BC Governments.

Goodbye Jack - Week 16 - Aug 15-22

Wow. Jack Layton is dead. I don't think that I ever voted for the man myself (Vancouver Quadra is about as strategic as it comes...every vote has to count to keep the Conservatives out of this riding). But I always enjoyed his crazy optimism and passionate pursuit of what he believed in. I always thought that if he could have just shifted things a few degrees he would have been an unstoppable force. It's kind of nice that he was able to experience a pretty dramatic election "victory" before passing on. The strangest thing...I swear to god we saw Joy Macpheil standing outside the Darby's Cold Beer and Wine Store last night...like some sort of harbinger of doom.

The Conservatives start the week by taking on one of the real challenges facing this country: Lack of royal identity within the military. Yes, Peter Mackay has caught the royal fever and added the "Royal" back in to our military titles. Now, I don't want you to think that I'm one of these people that says things like "how can you worry about X when there's starving children in Africa!" I believe that human beings are capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time, so taking on more than one problem should be alright. But this is just such a tremendous waste of time. I really don't get it. It offends me that this is a story.

Speaking of offensive...Harper makes gains in best Prime Minster rankings? Good lord. I thought...I thought...Oh man.

It's only taken a few months of killings and Obama to jump on board, but Stephen Harper thinks that the Syrian President should resign.

It's been a good couple of weeks for professional associations in Canada. Last week, lawyers told Stephen Harper his tough-on-crime agenda was stupid. This week, a group of doctors are encouraging a Conservative MP to respect her Hippocratic Oath and help change Conservative policy on asbestos. I think that's pretty awesome.

I heard about this story a few months ago. A North Vancouver man was arrested in Mexico and held without charge for 3 years (or so). They were rallying to try to get somebody from the Federal Government to help them out. They weren't having much luck. It seems like the Harper Government policy is that if you're accused of a crime in another country, you're on your own. Well, good news. The man was released. So if a Mexican judge can look at the evidence and decide that he's not guilty, you'd think that there would be enough doubt that the Canadian Government would deem him worthy of some sort of assistance?

Some BC Politics...I'm not a huge fan of politicizing the courts and criminal complaints. I happen to agree with Jim Chu that it might take some time to adequately sort out all of the charges related to the Stanley Cup Riot and that we will be better served by this in the end. I happen to think that the UK convicting and throwing people in jail within days of the riot is a bit scary and something I'd expect in Syria, not England. And I happen to think that Christy Clark should shut up and let the justice system do it's job without making political statements that will make it tougher for everybody to do their jobs. Because this (dramatic spikes in prison population, excessively harsh sentencing) doesn't sound like the way to do things.

Harper Gets a Brazilian - Week 15 - Aug 8-15

Oh. I wish it was true. Some Brazilian newspapers have reported that Stephen Harper locked himself in a bathroom and wouldn't come out until the Brazilian government agreed to change the schedule for lunchtime toasts.

This whole South/Central American junket is confusing to me. He's gone to Brazil and encouraged trade. He's gone to Columbia, signed a free trade deal (coffee and cocaine?), suggested human rights concerns are a "front" and anybody opposing this is a "protectionist". Then he went to Costa Rica and announced that our free trade deal will be re-opened (why was it closed) and "security aid". On to Honduras, where he is working on a free trade deal with a country that underwent a coup in 2009. Is he living out his childhood dream to backpack through the Americas?

Awesome. The Harper Government actually has their own ex-Bloc member that they forgot about. But don't worry. It's okay because he's not their leader. Just a cabinet minister.

It doesn't get talked about much, but the Omnibus crime legislation that will be "rushed through" (by parliamentary standards) includes a whole lot of Internet monitoring under the heading of "Cyber Investigation". Some people are advocating that we hold off on that and talk about it a little bit. Which sounds reasonable. Unfortunately, it will be pretty easy for the Conservatives to paint anybody that questions any of this as "soft on crime". Because if you don't blindly go along with something sold as "tough on crime" you're automatically for child pornography. Because those are the only people that use the Internet, right?

You know who else doesn't think that Stephen Harper's "Tough on Crime" bill is a good idea? The Canadian Bar Association. But what do lawyers know about the law, anyhow? The Conservative response? No, no. You're wrong. Mandatory sentences are "reasonable". International experts seem to agree with the lawyers as well.

More asbestos. The Conservatives are threatening to sue a widow whose husband died of asbestos related ailments over unauthorized use of the Conservative logo in an online ad. I almost feel a bit sorry for them. There's not really a way to come out of this one looking good. Other than doing the right thing and phasing out the export of asbestos. Don't worry though. The mayor of Sarnia has her back.

Food inspection services are being cut. Shouldn't the meat producers be paying for this sort of thing? Meh. What's a bit of e-coli floating around in our meat if we can save a few million bucks.

Sorry. More copyright. But honestly, if you think this doesn't affect you...Please just read the first page of this article. This is where the US is with copyright. A legally blind man with children 4 & 6 years old is being sued for downloading a porno movie because he left his wi-fi open. The cheap option: pay a few thousand dollars in shakedown money to make the case go away. The expensive option: spend a few months in court fighting it. The more expensive option: spend a few months in court fighting it and then pay $150,000 if you lose the case. Luckily even Canada proposes to limit the amount of damages in the event of a copyright lawsuit. But you can't want this. You can't think that this is a good model to use for our system of copyright laws.

I'm going to get way, way off topic here. God, there's just so many great articles out there about what is wrong with the world economic system. This one is about how Germany ties in to the whole European economic mess. Money quote, from the head of Commerzbank - “Why should you pay $20 million to a 32-year-old trader? He uses the office space, the I.T., the business card with a first-class name on it. If I take the business card away from that guy he would probably sell hot dogs.” That's just priceless. And the article will make you cry.

Wow. There's a Toronto City Councillor that makes the Ford brothers look sane. Ranting about "layabouts" and "communists" is never a very good idea. And all of them snubbed a library opening. At least these guys aren't running the country. No, that job is left to their idealogical BBQ buddies.