Every now and again, exchanges happen in the House of Commons that remind you about the value of debate and holding the government to account in a forum like Question Period. The topic of the day was once again Attawapiskat, and while Nycole Turmel and Harper had a fairly perfunctory
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Two minutes of politics, November 30 by Brigitte Pellerin
Sun News reporter says FRIENDS’ “Stop the CBC Smackdown” campaign is remarkably uncouth and vulgar.
Continue readingAnd today’s Anders Breivik Award goes to…
…British conservative broadcaster Jeremy Clarkson. His response to the one-day walkout by public employees in the UK? “I would take them outside and execute them in front of their families.” Will someone please tell these psychopathic conservative eliminationists that “I wuz only joking” has worn a little thin since the
Continue readingCanadian Political Viewpoints: What Can You Say?
CTV News: Feds to put Attawapiskat Under Third-Party ManagementCBC News: Attawapiskat Ordered into 3rd-Party ControlCBC News: Managers Axed at Sasktel So, there’s a few things that we need to talk about. The primary purpose of this post is going to focus on Aboriginal issues, both federally and provincially, with a
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Advocates not reporters
Canada kept detection of salmon virus secret, Craig Welch, Seattle Times environment reporter, Nov. 30/11 “A decade before this fall’s salmon-virus scare, a Canadian government researcher said she found a similar virus in more than 100 wild fish from Alaska to Vancouver Island. “Canadian officials never told the public or
Continue reading350 or bust: Canada, You Were Once Considered A Leader On Global Issues Like Human Rights & Environmental Protection
From Postmedia News: Archbishop and Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu is challenging the Canadian government’s support for the oil and gas industry, while urging it to start leading the world in addressing climate change as it did in opposing the “whites-only” rule that plagued South Africa in the 1980s. An ad
Continue readingPolitical second-class citizens
The new Conservative protection racket: Live in a Liberal or NDP riding? Want an Employment Centre? How about tax-paid security for shuls and mosques in your area? As Tony Gazebo might say, Fuhgeddaboudit. Shorter Harper government: “If ya don’t vote for us, ya takes the consequences.”
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Liberal Party of Canada Values – A Comparison
Liberals will meet in Ottawa in January to debate the values underpinning the Party. So far, there are two documents which Liberal attendees can review to decide this question: the Preamble of the Constitution, and the section The Liberal Mission Today, from the Background Paper drafted by the National President
Continue readingConservative judges
…a whole new meaning. The Conservatives, as we all know, have deep pockets—deep enough, perhaps, to hold a judge or two? Can’t be true. A retiring federal judge says so.
Continue readingTrashy's World: And with December…
…Comes Xmas and Xmas fanatics… You know ‘em. They started putting up lights in October and have been counting down to the 25th through Facebook updates since Labour Day! Gag. Yes folks, tomorrow is indeed the first of December, so all of the Xmas crap will move into hyperdrive. Buy
Continue readingIf There Is A Heaven….
. ….This is most definitely it. (tribute for the late, greatest of great, Mic Christopher at the ‘Hey Day’ Festival a couple of nights ago in Ireland) .
Continue readingMorton's Musings: Self-induced intoxication and criminal responsibility
R. v. Bouchard-Lebrun, 2011 SCC 58 was released today. A summary and quotation follows. B brutally assaulted two individuals while he was in a psychotic condition caused by drugs he had taken a few hours earlier. As a result of these incidents, B was charged with aggravated assault. The trial judge convicted
Continue readingHarper undermines Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
I loved this week’s Hill Times Spin Doctors question. The Greens have been outspoken on how Harper has undermined the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty through a nuclear trade deal with India. We need to stop nuclear proliferation if we want global security, and this should be the focus of our anti-nuclear
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: G20 brings about Canada’s ‘largest’ spying operation ever; this before the online spying bills are even passed
Canada, you’ve just lived through what the RCMP calls the “largest domestic intelligence operation in Canadian history”. Wow… How does it feel? Last week Canadians learned that the government initiated a large Canada-wide, RCMP-led surveillance mission leading up to the G20 and G8 meetings, as well as to the 2010
Continue readingMorton's Musings: Cost consequences must be made clear to client
Z & Assoc v. Aslan, 2011 ONCA 756 is an assessment case reminding us that clients must be made aware of potential cost consequences and the failure to so remind can be problematic: [1] This is a second appeal from the decision of the assessment officer. He reduced the solicitors' fees
Continue readingRecreating Eden: A Year after the Fire: Things Are the Same But Different.
As I write this, it is 1:31 p.m., a year exactlyl after the moment when the first call went in on the fire which put us out of our house for eight months. We’ve been back since August 1, but the last work onlly was completed three weeks ago. Needless
Continue readingLeDaro: Stephen Harper Wants His Queen Back
During the visit of Will and Kate, a picture of the Queen was borrowed from the Cabinet Office of Stephen Harper. Now he’s very upset that it has not been returned yet. The front-page headline on HuffPost was, “Harper wants his Queen back.” If he likes his Queen so much,
Continue readingeaves.ca: Canada’s Foreign Aid Agency signs on to IATI: Aid Data get more transparent
Last night, while speaking at the High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan Korea, Minister of International Cooperation Bev Oda announced that Canada would be signing on to the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI). So what is IATI and why does this matter? IATI has developed a common, open
Continue readingRuth Marcus, Emma Sullivan and Brigette DePape
Ruth Marcus thinks you’re deranged There’s nothing worse to a conservative – especially a conservative woman – than to have a non-con woman, especially a young one, stand up to a symbol of authority – particularly if that symbol is a conservative man. Remember Brigette DePape? Her few seconds of
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Video: First Nations Stand Their Ground Against Prosperity Mine at BC Supreme Court
The Tsilhqot’in First Nations and their supporters have been at the BC Supreme Court this week, fighting for an injunction to keep Taseko Mines from commencing work on the controversial proposed Prosperity Mine – amid Tsilhqot’in traditional territory, southwest of Williams Lake. While the Harper Government recently agreed to examine
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