In the wake of the recent Ted Opitz case, in which the Supreme Court of Canada issued a bizarrely partisan split ruling, written by two Harper appointees to the nation’s highest bench, accusing Liberals of trying to undermine democracy, I thought it would be useful to take a quick look
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The Sixth Estate: Justice Delayed, Justice Denied in Etobicoke Centre
Today the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the law governing Canada’s elections is less important than the principle of elections: that everyone has the right to vote, even if they blatantly fail to demonstrate the proof of residency which the law says they must provide in order to vote,
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Hollowing Out, Part 1: 30 of Canada’s Top 100 Companies in 1995 Have Since Been Taken Over by Multinational Corporations
In honour of the recent controversy over the proposed takeover of Nexen by the government of China (since only foreign governments are allowed to make money off of Canada’s oil patch, not our own government), I thought it might be nice to start a major new project, devoted to studying
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Budget Fall 2012, Part 4: 28 Canada’s Largest 43 Lakes Removed from Navigable Waters Protection
Sixth Estate’s budget coverage continues; previous reports are on the MP pension reform scam and the removal of 30 of Canada’s 47 longest rivers from protected status as navigable waters. As I noted previously, the Navigable Waters Act is being renamed the Navigation Protection Act and the environmental protection which
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Budget Fall 2012, Part 3: 30 of Canada’s 47 Longest Rivers Removed from Navigable Waters Protection List
Continuing Sixth Estate’s fall 2012 budget coverage, which began with a look at what appears to me to be some appalling chicanery in the MP pension “reform” scheme, I thought it would be nice to look at the end of the Navigable Waters Protection Act. Symbolic of the shift in
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Media May Have Missed the Story on MP Pension “Reforms”: MPs Unanimously Vote Themselves Pension Bonus for Next Year?
Being neither a lawyer nor an accountant, I have to stress I may be missing something here. I do invite correction. However, I don’t think I’m wrong here. Here’s a simple question: what percentage of their income are MPs paying into their pension fund this year, and what percentage of
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Are Conservatives Fudging on the Pension Reforms? Is the Media doing its Job?
Once again, so far as I can see, the criminal neglect and incompetence of the nation’s media appears to be on display with respect to the new budget bill. Here’s the general narrative being spread in the media by the Conservatives, as represented in CBC: The proposed changes mean MPs
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: What’s the point of an election law if it can be violated with impunity by government officials?
CBC has been doing superb work researching financial improprieties with respect to the election campaign of the Harper regime’s Intergovernmental Affairs Minister, Peter Penashue of Labrador, for some months now. I avoided commenting because there didn’t seem like anything I could add to the record, but in light of the
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Another Conservative Politician Escapes Toothless Ethics, Lobbying Commissioners
This week yet another Conservative politician slipped through the nets of the “independent” Commissioners whose job it is to lend a pretense of accountability to the Harper regime. This time the guilty part is former Newfoundland Cabinet minister turned federal “fisheries ambassador” turned Conservative candidate turned Ocean Choice International executive
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Globe & Mail Claims it is Worth More Than the New York Times — And Will Charge Accordingly
It’s been a bad month for the Globe & Mail, Canada’s supposed paper of record. First it tried to suppress the Margaret Wente plagiarism scandal. Then it let one of its home sales writers publish an article promoting the sale of her own home. Then it apparently did this (according
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Another Wente Column. Another Sixth Estate Investigation.
Margaret Wente has published another column, sans apology for specific “careless mistakes” (as she calls them) in the past and also complete with her unique pre-moderated comments section (since she needs extra protection from rabid readers). And this one, entitled “The Best Protection Against Bullying Isn’t Legislation,” appears to rise to
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: In 2012, Only 27% of New Federal Judges are Women
Earlier this fall, the Harper regime appointed a new Supreme Court judge, Richard Wagner, who sits on the Quebec bench and is the son of a former Progressive-Conservative leadership contestant. At the time, the Globe & Mail defended the appointment on the grounds that the Supreme Court had suddenly developed
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Weeks After Plagiarism Scandal, Margaret Wente Still Suffering “Originality Breakdowns”
After brazening her way through a plagiarism scandal, Globe & Mail columnist Margaret Wente appears to be back on her exceptionally busy three-times-a-week pace, even though this hectic workstyle was what some fellow journalists blamed for her ethical lapses. I’m sure she wants to put it all behind her. But
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Globe & Mail Pans EU Peace Prize: “War is Peace”
Even by the steadily declining standards of the Globe & Mail, Canada’s “paper of record” hit an unusual low in its angry and Orwellian response to the announcement that the European Union was being given this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. It’s definitely a bit of a head-scratcher, although notably less
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: National Post: Wente Plagiarism Affair “Creepy and Soviet” — Plus, More Quote-Lifting by Wente
After Globe & Mail resident plagiarist Margaret Wente returned to work this week following a brief hiatus to lick her wounds after plagiarism allegations from blogger Media Culpa went viral, the National Post waded into the fray yet again, this time via Jonathan Kay. Kay provides a superb and scathing
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Margaret Wente Returns, Issues Yet Another Apology for… “Careless Mistakes”
The Globe & Mail’s resident plagiarist and cheap-shot artist Margaret Wente has finally resurfaced after a mysterious two-week disappearance, with a typically vapid column on the U.S. election. Strangely, the Globe & Mail seems to be introducing an extra-special moderated comment format just for Wente. They also had her print
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Parliamentary Secrecy Continues: House Committees Spent 55% of Time in Camera in September
MPs are back at work and, under the Harper regime, that means that they are once again spending a considerable portion of their “public” time actually meeting behind closed doors, away from the sinister prying eyes of the public and of journalists. The CBC’s venerable Kady drew attention to this
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Next Failure of Harper-Style Corporate Self-Inspections May be a Major Airplane Crash
A few years ago, when the Harper regime was young and idealistic, they had a grand plan for the future of regulatory inspections in Canada — inspections of meat processing plants, aircraft maintenance, etc., etc. No longer would the government field an army of inspectors, trotting around the country peering
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Somehow the Conference Board is Less Immune to Industry Pressure than the Federal Senate
In recent months the Canadian airline industry has been pushing, hard, for lower costs. Not content with having the Harper regime order its employees to work under threat of legal sanction (so much for small government, eh?), Air Canada apparently wants to have that same government give it a variety
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Plagiarism Bad. Wenteism Okay. Plus, Yet More Fake-Feminist Silliness from Margaret Wente
It’s a day that ends with a Y and we still haven’t received a genuine and contrite apology, sans political cheap shots, from the Globe & Mail’s chief plagiarist Margaret Wente. (That’s not to be confused with the Globe’s chief cover-up artist, and chief self-promoter.) So it’s time to up the ante
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