This and that for your Thursday reading. – John Greenwood and CBC News both report on the offshore tax avoidance being revealed through the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. And Susan Lunn observes that Canada’s federal parties are all at least paying lip service to the issue – though of
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The Canadian Progressive | News & Analysis: Federal Budget 2013 missed opportunity for the economy and services: PSAC
By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive: The Harper Conservatives’ 2013 federal budget is a ”missed opportunity for the economy and services”, says the Public Service Alliance of Canada. PSAC says austerity measures hurt Canadians, urges the government to reverse course. This press release: The union representing most federal government workers in Canada says that
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive | News & Analysis: Canada World Youth Concerned About The Amalgamation of CIDA and DFAIT
By: Canada World Youth | Press Release: MONTREAL – Minister Flaherty announced, on March 21st, the amalgamation of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) with the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT). Canada World Youth has enjoyed a strong working relationship with CIDA over the past 40 years
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Jason Fekete reports on the growing recognition that tax evasion and avoidance are serious global problems – and the Cons’ attempt to be seen nodding at the issues. Needless to say, that posturing would be far more plausible if the same Cons weren’t
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Lawrence Martin discusses how the B.C. Libs, Harper Cons and other governments have responded to transparency requirements by deliberately refusing to record what they’re doing and why: News from the government of British Columbia. Sorry citizens, we have no files. There is
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
This and that to end your Saturday. – Bill Curry breaks the news of the Cons’ next round of public service slashing – with Canada Revenue Agency employees whose work far more than pays for itself once more looming as one of the main targets of a government determined to
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Misleading with statistics: the Fraser Institute on health care and ‘value for money’
This just in! The latest mainstream media news straight from the Vancouver studios of the Fraser Institute, complete with no fact checking! No sooner noted than illuminated – yesterday morning mainstream media was credulously reporting another “Fraser Factoid,” this one a report by the far-right political lobby group purporting to
Continue readingAlberta Diary: In 2011, Fraser Institute continued to take Koch Brothers donations and file tax returns claiming no political activity
Michael Walker, right, President of the Fraser Institute Foundation and former director of the Fraser Institute, looks at a copy of the Edmonton Sun with a well-known columnist from that newspaper. The great public intellectuals of the Canadian right may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Consistent Fraser Institute donors
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Deep thought
Boy, this would seem like a great opportunity for anybody truly concerned about government interference in a fulsome political debate to make the case for freedom of speech. We could even label that hero with a pithy term like “free speech warrior”. Now if only such a person existed.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading.- Bill Curry reports on the Cons’ latest public-sector slashing. But there hasn’t yet been much discussion of the most alarming number: upwards of 30% of the Cons’ cuts are coming from the Canada Revenue Agency…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Sunday reading.- Haroon Siddiqui highlights the similarities between the Harper Cons and the U.S. Republicans – who lost last week’s election, and are even less popular outside their country’s own borders (including in Canada)…
Continue readingAlberta Diary: There is a God: Merit Contractors, advocates of Bill C-377, would be caught in its web
Tory MP wonders about Bill C-377: “Is anybody really interested in breaching Sally the Receptionist’s privacy because she earns 40k answering the phones at the Union Hiring Hall?” Below: Stephen Kushner. Surely it is one of life’s little ironies that among the groups certain to be caught in the web
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Ethical Oil charity complaint sparks Alberta corporate complaint
Commentator Ezra Levant lets go a broadside at Tides Canada on his Sun News Network program. Below: Researcher Tony Clark; Jamie Ellerton, executive director of Mr. Levant’s Ethical Oil Institute; National Revenue Minister Gail Shea. As is well known, the “Ethical Oil Institute,” the Edmonton-based organization founded by Sun News
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Harper Government Must Set Canadian Scientists Free
Nature, one of the biggest and most-read scientific journals in the world, made this call in a February 29th editorial. The journal lamented the Harper Government’s undisguised hostility to openness, expert opinion and publicly-funded scientific expertise. Rightly so. At some point, the government’s stated communication policy, posted on a federal website and
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Time to Audit the Fraser Institute
Fraser-Institute.jpg On March 25, 2012, the Compliance Division of the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) received a letter from Jensen Shawa Solomon Duguid Hawkes LLP (aka JSS Barristers). In 11 detailed pages, JSS Barristers lodged a complaint against Environmental Defence, a charity registered with the CRA, on behalf of Ezra Levant’s
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Parliament in Review: May 3, 2012
Thursday, May 3 saw yet another debate over the Cons’ use of time allocation – this time respecting the omnibus budget bill which features so many radical changes that demand serious discussion. And not surprisingly, the opposition parties raised plenty of entirely valid concerns, while the Cons obfuscated and ran
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Parliament in Review: April 30, 2012
Monday, April 30 featured discussion of two opposition motions dealing with the federal government’s responsibility to ensure the safety of Canadians. And on both fronts, the Cons went out of their way to disclaim any such role for our public servants. The Big Issue Jack Harris started off the safety
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Parliament in Review – April 4, 2012
After the Cons refused to listen to the opposition parties’ proposed amendments, Wednesday, April 4 saw a day of debate on the main budget motion in the second-last day before a Parliamentary break. The Big Issue Nycole Turmel rightly labeled the budget as being based entirely on (gratuitous) austerity, while
Continue readingImpolitical: CRA’s impartiality raised
This exchange from Hansard yesterday on the impartiality of the Canada Revenue Agency is well worth paying attention to and keeping in mind: Hon. Bob Rae (Toronto Centre, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, recently the Minister of the Environment referred to the “money laundering” activities of several registered charities in the country.
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Today’s anniversary of a year of Tory rule in Ottawa: it just doesn’t get any better than this!
Contemplating the thought of three more years of Stephen Harper. Below: Mr. Harper himself. Tory times, as the old saying goes, are terrible times. So it should surprise no one that as we mark the first anniversary of Stephen Harper’s majority victory today, the country is increasingly polarized, students are
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