Just when we thought that it couldn’t get much worse for public health in Hamilton, indeed across the country — yup, it’s gotten worse. In December of last year, I was writing about how the leachate run-off from the fire training facility at Munro Airport (YHM) had high levels of
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Blast Furnace Canada Blog: Connecticut abolishes death penalty
This is easily the good news story of the day. Last night, the state legislature in Connecticut abolished the death penalty. The number of states that have done away with the practice is now seventeen (the first was Michigan in 1846), along with Washington DC and Puetro Rico. As well,
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: More problems with Ornge
This week it was learned that there could be a nasty side effect (no pun intended) to the scandals that have plagued Ornge, the air ambulance service. Hamilton could lose on staff air traffic control. Why? It seems that the company that was contracted to do air ambulance services, and
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Guest Post: New Progressive Narrative
Today, I’m please to allow fellow progressive Jared Milne write a guest post about how the progressive movement should change the course of the debate between progressives and the right to make moderate policies appealing to the masses in Canada once more. ***** In the last couple of years, various Canadian commentators have
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Blast Furnace Canada Blog 2012-04-04 14:56:00
The decision this week by the ruling Conservatives to abolish the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development — also known by the shorthand “Rights and Democracy” — isn’t so much about cutbacks to so-called “unnecessary services” as it is a victory for a right wing regime that has
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Ontario Court of Appeal says prostitution laws unconstitutional: Thumbs up (kind of)
The Ontario Court of Appeal has upheld a lower court decision and ruled that several laws that make it all but impossible for “street workers” to ply their trade, is in fact unconstitutional for precisely that reason; although a restraining order has been hoisted for twelve months in order to
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Bad cases make for bad laws …
… and in the current trial about the murder of Tori Stafford, there are a lot of hot tempers. Some have even called for the reinstatement of the death penalty in Canada. Bad idea. I’ve explained too many times here why I am against capital punishment, but what really irks
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Sledgehammer against refugees
In recent days Jason Kenney, the federal immigration minister, has proposed tightening some of the rules regarding refugee claims. I have these thoughts. First, it is true that there are some who come here just for our generous welfare benefits — in fact they have been known to ask at
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Towards a "living wage" in Canada
A number of years ago, Canada’s statistics agency got rid of the concept of “the poverty line.” Instead they came up with what is called the “low income cut off” or LICO. For the most recent year for which there are full statistics, 2010, a single person living in a
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Another massacre in Afghanistan
If this is how one “wins the hearts and minds” of a people, this past weekend’s massacre of 16 civilians by a US soldier has only succeeded in creating even more terrorists. There have been suggestions the suspect may have been mentally unstable but in this part of the world
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: "Robogate"? Special prosecutor
Canada’s relative proximity to the United States is beneficial in many ways — not the least of which include that we get access to their markets relatively easily and we share a common air defense. But it’s not so beneficial in other respects; especially the dirty tricks in politics we
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: No more "nuclear ambiguity"
As tensions continue to rise in the Middle East about what Iran is up to with its nuclear program, a reasonable person cannot be in much doubt. With the large number of centrifuges it’s more than obvious that Iran wants a bomb. And there can only be one intended target
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: What passes for road maintenance — in Hamilton (Part 1 of an unending series)
Really. This is one of Hamilton’s busiest routes – the Claremount Access which connects the lower city at Victoria (northbound) and Wellington (southbound) with the upper city at Upper James. They rebuilt part of this route about two or three years ago, along the upper section where the southbound lanes
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: It’s called ministerial responsibility, Toews!
“Sit down, my son. We don’t read most of the bills. Do you really know what that would entail — if we were to read every bill that we passed? Well, the good thing, it would slow down the legislative process.” Rep. John Conyers (D — MI 14) to Michael
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Prop 8 struck down again
I have only had enough time to skim through the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in California’s Proposition 8, the gay marriage ban. As we all know, the appeals panel upheld the lower court ruling striking down the measure as violating the federal constitution. It did stop short of
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Where is the politically independent bureacracy? Going, going …
There’s still quite a bit of fallout from last week’s rather surprising admission that employees on the federal government’s payroll, the permanent civil service, were recruited to take part in a citizenship “reaffirmation” ceremony — and broadcast on the Conservative’s semi-official organ, Sun News TV. Seems that some of the
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Guilty verdicts in Kingston — a turning point in the war against women?
The struggle for equal rights never ends and must never end. Recent events in two parts of the world, seemingly disconnected but linked by the common element of who the targets are, are a reminder of this. Firstly, the guilty verdicts yesterday in Kingston in the so-called “honour killings” of
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Harper: Right about Iran, but on the tar sands and "outsiders" …
This week, the Prime Minister expressed aloud concerns many of us Canadian of all stripes have had either openly or privately – that Iran is a ticking time bomb with its nuclear program which without a shadow of a doubt has only one aim, to create a nuclear bomb that
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Foot in mouth syndrome: What is Harper’s real position on gay marriage?
Towards the end of last week, news emerged that the Harper Government was taking the position that thousands of same sex marriages in Canada may have never taken place because the institution was not valid in the home countries of the couples who took out marriage licenses here. Therefore, a
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Lahey sentenced — fire the bastard
We learned today that the disgraced Roman Catholic bishop of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Raymond Lahey, was sentenced to time served for possession of child pornography on his laptop which he was stupid enough to have in his carry-on and not in checked luggage. Time served. Some may say merely
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