For those who would be devout except it’s so difficult, Stephen Colbert updates advice from the leader of an ancient group that threatened to hijack their nation’s regulatory system to achieve a radical ideological agenda: “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s. And hide in the Caymans what is the Caymans’.”
Continue readingAuthor: Norman Farrell
Blogging regularly since April 2009 on public affairs with focus on BC politics, journalism, the environment and ethical matters in the public arena.
Northern Insight: Regressive taxation: help for the prosperous
Let’s Stop The Apple Tax Dodge, Isaiah J. Poole, Campaign for America’s Future, April 30, 2012 “In one sense, Sunday’s New York Times story on how Apple avoids paying U.S. taxes is not a surprise. In 2010 Bloomberg News exposed how another technology titan, Google, managed to lower its tax
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Unjust deserts
Without reporting anything on the BC Liberal HQ purge beyond the party line, Vancouver Sun reporter Jonathan Fowlie provides the pols an uncritical platform to assure us that all goes well in la-la land, Clark’s senior staffer to run B.C. Liberals 2013 campaign cleanup “[Newly appointed campaign director Mike] McDonald
Continue readingNorthern Insight: The car-crash-that-never-ends
Liberals across Canada are being hoist with their own petard, Brian Topp, The Globe and Mail, Apr. 29, 2012 “Meanwhile, the car-crash-that-never-ends that is the premiership of British Columbia’s Christy Clark is now apparently thrashing around to the view that it needs to scrub the Liberal brand off itself, to
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Mostly, it’s the schlemiels paying tax
Many working stiffs watch a third or more of every extra dollar earned disappear as income tax. Then, we’re hammered again with user fees and consumption taxes when we spend shrunken dollars to buy goods at prices far higher than what our neighbours pay south of the 49th parallel for
Continue readingNorthern Insight: "Call falsehoods precisely what they are"
Don’t miss The Gazetteer today. RossK offers What’s That You Say…Both Sides Don’t Do It?, providing this advice to MSM: “…We understand the values of mainstream journalists, including the effort to report both sides of a story. But a balanced treatment of an unbalanced phenomenon distorts reality… …Our advice to
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Guest Post – Ben Islett
Over time, we have seen employer and government initiatives to replace the self-activity of workers with cumbersome bureaucratic procedures. Too often, these new procedures are designed to serve the interests of employers, rather than workers. For example, Workers’ Compensation emerged a hundred years ago to limit the legal liability of
Continue readingNorthern Insight: The power of new media
Paula Simons of the Edmonton Journal writes of tweets posted April 14 that might have started the downward spiral of Danielle Smith’s Wildrose Party Alliance: “The first read: “A blog by Wildrose candidate @allanhunsperger where he calls #yeg Public Schools “godless” for being tolerant.” The post included a link to
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Longest undefended border in the world
U.S. Customs & Border Protection Predator Drone Was Used in Brossart Arrests, WDAZ Television, Dec. 12, 2011 “Armed with a search warrant, Nelson County Sheriff Kelly Janke went looking for six missing cows on the Brossart family farm… “…Fearful of an armed standoff, he called in reinforcements from the state
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Deregulation and death
Government Press Release, January 2012: “Finance Minister Kevin Falcon has won the Canadian Federation of Independent Business Golden Scissors award for cutting red tape for small business by more than 40% …” I wonder if CFIB hero Kevin Falcon and his wealthy business and real estate developer backers plan to
Continue readingNorthern Insight: How bigotry survives
For more than 25 years, the Catholic Church has been entangled in sexual abuse scandals, costing billions in settlements, debasing the church and wrecking the faith of many devout members. The BBC published a lengthy list: Catholic Church sex abuse scandals around the world and a common thread is maintenance
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Fraud, fear and greed
If Romney Hates Government And Its Workers So Much Why Is He Running For President?, Dave Johnson, Campaign for America’s Future Mitt Romney says government workers are paid too well and in general government is a bad thing. But he wants to run it. Romney made his fortune by buying
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Public consultation without the public
More fine work from the at The Victoria Times Colonist. Katie Derosa explores the provincial government’s fake public consultation about police reform. Province’s policing consultation called a ‘farce’: BC Liberals consult on policing plan “The Justice Ministry on Wednesday announced its “public engagement” strategy – consisting of closed-door meetings with
Continue readingNorthern Insight: New shoes make everything seem right
Two stories that will leave you wondering about the direction Canada is taking under Stephen Harper. This is not the Canada we once knew… nor the one we voted for. Unraveling File # 8-10-(2012-06), Michael Harris, iPolitics, April 26 “At the federal level, it’s getting to be the kind of
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Worksafe BC, not net-zero land
In its mandate, Worksafe BC lists a cardinal purpose: “To promote the prevention of workplace injury, illness, and disease.” Following the Burns Lake and Prince George sawmill explosions, both in 2012, it is certain that Worksafe failed in this purpose. As a result, four forest workers are dead while others
Continue readingNorthern Insight: The rest of the story
Monday’s Lakeland sawmill tragedy provides evidence that British Columbia’s hospitals are routinely stressed to the breaking point and incapable of responding adequately to a major emergency. Monday’s sawmill fire resulted in 24 casualties. Six were hospitalized in Prince George and 13 were treated and released. Four others were airlifted to intensive care
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Covering for mistakes, folly & stupidity
Palmer: Taxpayers overpaid by millions to prevent more Liberal dirty laundry from being aired in court, Vancouver Sun, April 24, 2012 “After months of delay, the B.C. Liberals finally released Tuesday a trio of evaluation reports that predated their $30-million payout for the cancelled Boss Power uranium mining claim. “The
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Austerity and recession, invariably linked
UK is back in recession, OECD says, Phillip Inman, The Guardian, March 29, 2012 “The UK is heading back into recession and will be among the slowest of the world’s largest economies to recover in the first half of this year, according to a study by the Paris-based thinktank, the
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Ethics and competence not germane
Phil Hochstein is worried about the politicians who served his interests so well in recent years. In present form, most of those men and women now seem unelectable. As a result, Phil sniffs the winds of change. His plan is to rename the BC Liberal Party and merge it with
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Connecting actions to results
A few days ago, a Postmedia telemarketer called, aiming to revive a subscription cancelled years ago. “For less than 50 cents a day…” I declined, despite knowing the contributions of excellent newspapers are inestimable. Here are examples, one LOCAL and another from BRITAIN. However, while laudable wordsmiths struggle to produce
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