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Archive for January, 2008

Another masterful stroke by Stephen Harper

Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008

The much-anticipated “Independent Panel Report on Canada’s Future in Afghanistan” (PDF) was released yesterday in Ottawa. While the intent of appointing an “independent panel” to make recommendations was to separate the partisan politics from the serious business of engaging in warfare and putting Canadian lives at risk, it was hard not to see the level of partisan friction this report may cause among opposition parties – Liberals in particular:

John Manley was asked Tuesday if his panel’s report on Canada’s future in Afghanistan was consistent with Liberal tradition. He was about to blow off the question, when he seemed to think again.

As a Liberal shorn of his party gag, Mr. Manley let rip and gave an impassioned defence of the report’s findings, invoking the spirit of Lester B. Pearson as the “father” of U.N.-authorized interventions in war zones.

“Absolutely this is in the Liberal tradition,” the party’s former deputy leader thundered. “I think that countries like Canada have an important, meaningful role to play in protecting our values, standing up for the rights of individuals [and for] the human security of people whose government can’t protect them — that’s something we as Canadians have talked a lot about.”

The journalist who asked the question was about to pose his supplementary but Mr. Manley was in mid-stride. “We’re a rich country, we’ve got to do some of this stuff … The world isn’t a pretty place but I happen to believe that the people who came before me in the Liberal party believed in a strong role for Canada on the international stage and would say there are times when we have to be counted, times when it matters.” He concluded his extraordinary outburst by almost whispering, “that’s what I think.”

Journalists looked at each other, wondering at whom the tirade was aimed. A read of the report makes it clear — StÃ©phane Dion.

The Liberal leader emerged from his caucus meeting in Kitchener to reaffirm his stance that his party wants the combat mission to end when the current mandate runs out in February, 2009.

Source.

Posted in Federal Politics, Politics, War on Terror | No Comments »

Free speech, human rights, and Richard Warman

Sunday, January 20th, 2008

There has been quite a lot written about the Canadian Human Rights Commission cases against Mark Steyn, Macleans magazine, and Ezra Levant. The fact that these cases are even being considered is troubling enough for many Canadians.

A Human Rights Commission attempting to suppress the most basic of human rights – freedom of speech – is surreal. It’s Orwellian. It’s wrong.

Also troubling is the fact that Canadian mainstream media has given these cases little coverage, and most Canadians are either unaware of them or are indifferent to the implications of an erosion of free speech.

Now information is beginning to surface that suggests there may have been fraudulent material included in some of the evidence presented at the Human Rights Commission:

In testimony beginning January 29, 2007 Richard Warman admitted under oath in Canadian Human Rights Tribunal hearing (Case T1073/5405) that he was, in fact, the poster named ‘lucy’ who had registered on the Freedomsite (and other) forums. What he neglected to add was that ‘lucy’ was not his first Freedomsite screen name. He failed to mention that his complaint-less investigation of Freedomsite actually began two months before ‘lucy’ hit the scene, it began when he registered on the Freedomsite under the screen name ’90sAREover’.

There is a lot more information and discussion about this case here.

Update: The chart below speaks volumes about what Richard Warman has been up to. He makes it look like the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal is his own personal instrument:

Source.

Update 2: Mark Steyn writes about the Ezra Levant case and Richard Warman in Macleans magazine this week.

Update 3: Richard Warman has come out swinging against allegations that he posted under the screen name ’90sAREover’. This plot is getting thicker by the minute.

Update 4: Ezra Levant asks Richard Warman “Do you want a piece of me?” This battle is not going away any time soon.

Update 5: Based on the account provided by Mark Steyn about the proceedings in Ottawa earlier this week, it doesn’t sound like the CHRC is too concerned about the recent scrutiny they have received related to their rather dubious investigation tactics.

Posted in Federal Politics, General, Politics, Provincial Politics | 1 Comment »

Wow

Wednesday, January 16th, 2008

Seeing this video of a lecture in Iran leaves me with little to say, other than “Wow.”

Posted in Humour, War on Terror | No Comments »

The plot thickens over at AECL

Wednesday, January 16th, 2008

With the firing of Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission president Linda Keen you can bet that the gloves will be off in this feud.

A summary of the Crown corporation’s version of events, contained in a lengthy legal retort from its Bay Street law firm, Heenan Blaikie to the nuclear safety commission, alleges the commission knew as recently as late July – yet raised no alarm – that the National Research Universal reactor was operating without two of its most crucial water pump motor starters connected to an emergency power supply.

“While CNSC has stated repeatedly that it ‘discovered’ in November 2007 that the motor starters on (pumps) P104 and P105 had not been connected to EPS (emergency power supply), the evidence uncontrovertibly shows that on nine different occasions between June 2005 and July 2007 both CNSC and AECL explicitly stated in writing that the EPS had not been connected to the starter motors for the main heavy water pumps 104 and 105,” the letter says.

The suggestion is that AECL was caught completely off guard by an erratic change of course by the commission.

That, presumably, left AECL with no time to warn that isotope supplies were about to be cut off to hospitals and other medical users.

Moreover, by repeatedly and publicly accusing AECL of violating its Chalk River operating licence by not completing the work, the commission itself is in violation of the Nuclear Safety and Control Act for failing to provide AECL due process, as required by law, to defend against its alleged non-compliance, say AECL’s lawyers.

Source.(Emphasis mine)

Posted in Federal Politics, Politics | No Comments »

Ezra Levant and freedom of speech in Canada

Monday, January 14th, 2008

Quite a lot has been written about the Human Rights Tribunal case brought against Ezra Levant and the Western Standard related to the publication of the famous Mohamed cartoons. Vitruvius does a nice job of putting the case in perspective:

As I understand it, lots of people find Mr. Levant off-putting to at least some degree. Frankly, I think he is a good instance of a type of gadfly that is critical for the successful functioning of an open democracy. Be that as it may, Mr. Levant’s argument is that while in the free and open market of ideas people may like him or not, it is not for the state to decide whether or not he is off-putting.

Even if you think that Mr. Levant is a scoundrel, recall the words of H. L. Mencken, who said, “The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one’s time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.”

Thus it is with great respect that we find that in the event, as documented below, Mr. Levant actually unleashes a full-on broadside fusillade against the AHRC’s jurisdiction, right up front, in this first interview, essentially arguing that not only is the AHRC ultra vires on matters of freedom of speech — they are much worse than that.

Source.

Posted in Federal Politics, Politics, Provincial Politics, War on Terror | No Comments »

“If they could they’d tax the air”

Wednesday, January 9th, 2008

I remember hearing the expression “if they could they’d tax the air”, and thinking how ridiculous an idea that would be. Kind of like the old expression “Yeah, and the Pope’s Polish”. We’ve come a long way since my youth.

In the recently released report Getting to 2050: Canadaâ€™s Transition to a Low-emission Future one of the recommendations is the introduction of a carbon tax.

The concern I have related to a carbon “tax” is that the government can easily get dependent on it. Anytime additional revenue is needed for other programs the easy solution is to raise the “carbon tax”.

We’ve seen how the government has become addicted to booze, tobacco, and gambling related revenue – the sin taxes. I haven’t noticed any reduction in the booze consumption levels or any decrease in gambling. The main result is that governments have become hooked on sin-tax revenues, and my fear is we will now get hooked on carbon-tax revenue.

Let’s also remember that income tax was introduced as a temporary measure to support the war effort at the end of WW1. And we haven’t managed to wean ourselves off that one in almost 100 years.

Update: Speaking of the government addiction to gambling, our very own Dalton McGuinty should consider checking into a re-hab centre:

As casinos continue to see a decline in revenues because of fewer American visitors, the Mcguinty government is calling on Ottawa to amend the Criminal Code and create casino “Sportsbooks.”

Source.

Posted in Environment, Federal Politics, Politics | No Comments »