Daily Reading for May 23, 2012
News picks for Wednesday, May 23, 2012. // ]]> Conservatives ask for dismissal of robocall court cases — This is hardly surprising news. What is interesting are that the Conservatives…
Sixth Estate
English Canadian Conservatives Becoming Quebec Separatists?
It is not only plausible, but inevitable, that any future Quebec referendum will generate a national debate on whether the province should be allowed to stay. A nationwide referendum on…
Canada Lowering Standards for Diplomatic Corps
There’s been no official announcement, but I can only assume it’s happened, and a while ago too, given that former diplomat turned Conservative MP Chris Alexander apparently has trouble spelling…
Secrecy at Public Accounts Committee Rises from 21.8% under Liberals to 32.1% Under Conservatives
My study of Parliamentary secrecy, rejuvenated by CP’s bogus numbers claiming to prove that the Martin majority was much more secretive than the Harper majority, continues. Unlike the House as…
Media Bias Profile: Globe & Mail
Five weeks have now passed since “rory” argued that my Media Bias Project was biased in favour of the left, which is the right’s standard response whenever you point out…
Institute for Research on Public Policy Compromising Political Neutrality
The Montreal-based think tank Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP) has recently been in the news for publishing a study which, in the media’s collective eye, purports to disprove…
Inside the Etobicoke Centre Ruling Overturning Ted Opitz’s Election
If this case can be summarized, in a single observation, it would be that it cannot be good enough to accept that individuals who voted were qualified to do so…
Maurice Vellacott’s Proposal Deserves Serious Thought
Stop the Bullying of Canada’s Most Vulnerable – The Baby on in the Womb In light of this new awareness of bullying, consistency and credibility demands that we tackle the…
CP Bobbled Figures in Story on Parliamentary Committee Secrecy
Last weekend the entire national media abandoned fact-checking and printed a bogus story claiming that the Martin majority government allowed committees to meet in secret for 116 minutes a day,…
Let’s All Feel Sorry for the Tarsands Industry
On behalf of Westerners with an IQ above 85, let me just say that Tom Mulcair does not owe me an apology for stating the obvious truth that the currency…
Sixth Estate Patronage List Update Marks Yet Another Harper Minister-Turned-Ambassador
In Harper’s Canada, losing your seat in a general election is just the first step towards a happy and lucrative career in public service, usually as an ambassador. The most…
“Data” on Parliamentary Secrecy from Martin Years Includes Senate Committees, Bogus Committee
As promised, I am conducting a fact-checking inquiry into the recent news report alleging, contrary to routine media reports of growing secrecy under the Harper government, that actually Martin’s brief…
Meet The New Estimate, Same as the Old One
Former Reform Party MP turned Fraser Institute fellow and Vancouver economist Herb Grubel has taken to the pages of the Globe & Mail to drum up support for a new…
Sixth Estate Dissents From CP Report on Parliamentary Secrecy
As they say, there are three kinds of statistics — and two of them are lies. On Sunday, a strange and surprising report began making the rounds of the Canadian…
In What World is a Military Bulldozer Contract a National Scandal?
It has to be asked. The opposition and the prattling classes are unhappy that Defence Minister Peter MacKay attempted to conceal a $105 million conversion of 13 new Leopard 2…
Ethnic Cleansing, Divine Opposition to Student Strikes, and Other Media Myths
I have avoided weighing in on the Quebec student strike until now, mostly because I don’t live in that province and I didn’t really feel I had anything substantial to…
Media Bias Project: Columnist Profile of the National Post
Four weeks have now passed since one of my readers, “rory,” accused my Media Bias Project of being biased and promised to supply a list of newspaper columnists in this…
Incompetence, Delays at Elections Canada Compromise Investigation into Pierre Poutine
The latest Postmedia revelations, which appear to be consecutive teasers drawn from a single court record (why give us the whole story when you can drag it out over multiple…
Gerry Nicholls: Real Conservatives Run Attack Ads
In the wake of the Progressive Conservatives’ unprecedented surprise re-election in Alberta last month — and by unprecedented surprise, I actually mean their twelfth consecutive victory, which somehow threw our…