Ruby's Nannies, Update

Well, the veracity of this letter has been established. In it, the past president of the Brampton Seniors Club, Aurora G. Villanueva, takes back her support for Ms. Dhalla (and the implied support of the club itself). She was sick when she read the letter prepared for her by Ruby's people; she didn't read it closely; she's no longer president and can't speak on the club's behalf; she's been ridiculed by other Filipinos. A whole litany of complaints.

The fellow through whose hands the letter passed en route to the care givers resource center, Rodel J. Ramos, seems to be known as an advocate for domestic workers within the Filipino community, and occasionally writes for a few local Filpino media outlets (will try to find the links on this). Nothing too damning on the group's message board, although there was a desire to see the issue maintain its media profile after those committee hearings last week, as well as a desire to remain above the Liberal/Tory political mudfight.

Meanwhile, this statement from the lawyer of Magdalene Gordo and Richelyn Tongson, two of Ruby's nannies, has been floating about the net for the past week or so. It looks like Ms. Gordo does have a history of complaining about her employers:

Third, it was most recently alleged by Ms. Dhalla’s lawyer that Ms. Gordo previously made similar allegations of mistreatment with respect to a former employer. Presumably, this allegation is being advanced to make the point that somehow Ms. Gordo is less credible because she had alleged mistreatment previously. It is shocking that this allegation has been made at all without the identity of the accuser being known. Regardless, Ms. Gordo confirms that she did work for the family in question for 1 month following which she complained that she had been forced to work on Christmas, Boxing Day and New Year’s day but had not been adequately remunerated.

Finally, the last paragraph makes it sound like the two nannies will not be taking any legal action against Ms. Dhalla.

Ms. Tongson and Ms. Gordo will not be making any further statements or comments at this time. While they are happy to have had the opportunity to tell their story and for the extra attention it has brought to the plight of caregivers in this country, they wish to return to their regular lives and to concentrate on the families for whom they presently work.

So it is to be trial by TV.

Stephen Taylor Appeals To Ex-Pat To Smear Ignatieff For Being An Ex-Pat

Stephen is still trying to justify the Tory's disastrous new ad campaign and, not being a particularly coherent thinker, he calls upon Canadian born, New York based writer Elisabeth Eaves to sling his mud for him.

The guy is irony free.

NDP's Dirty Little Secret

According to this guy, they agree with the Tory attack ads.

O! what a sorry bunch.

(But, on the other hand, it gives an insight into who the real target of these ads might be--down-market types.)

The Canadian Association of Journalists Attempts Journalism, Fails

Their Statement:

Canada's human rights commissions, federal and provincial, for their efforts to censor speech that merely 'offends.' Given enormous powers by the state, even to issue gag orders for life, human rights commissions and tribunals are not bound to give an accused the same rights they'd get in a court of law. The accuser has their case paid for by the state, while the defendant must pay out of pocket, even when the charges are absurd.

A Pertinant Fact:

Prince George, B.C. – A Prince George man has had his human rights complaint against the Treasure Cove Casino, its owner, some employees and the BC Lottery Corporation, dismissed. Glenn Miller has also been ordered to pay $1,000 each to; Mr. John Major, Steve Leach and Treasure Cove Supply Limited.

Why Keep The Tory Attack Ads In The News,

...which responding to them surely does?

Because you think you are winning the debate they initiated, and that debate will continue until the ads stop running (not when the chattering classes grow tired of them). So you want your counter-argument in the news as well for as much of that time-frame as possible. At this point I think the Libs would like to keep these various CPoC attacks center-stage as long as they can; the ads provide a nice contrast with what Ignatieff is up to these days.

By the way, aesthetic merits aside, what is the point of a website like Ignatieff.me? Is anyone but the hardest of hardcore poli-junkies going to ever visit it more than once? Unless you're going to run a continual stream of updates, it essentially becomes a one-off gag. And the official party website exists for that kind of thing (updates, not gags).

This isn't just a Conservative fault. It seems parties are continually launching static web-pages that nobody is likely to visit a 2nd time. I don't see the point to it.

Hudak Off Hook

...for submitting his paper-work late. But if he can't run a leadership campaign, how can he run the province of Ontario?

Also, Perezhudak is a neat site, where we learn that Randy Hillier got bounced from the Ontario Legislature last week "after calling Liberal cabinet ministers liars". We also learn that Randy is writing for CanadaFreePress. A good sign, then, that his supporters are crazy.

Ontario Tory Front Runner Disqualified?

Tim Hudak has apparently missed the deadline to hand in hard copies of his membership forms to back up the electronic versions. This might mean he is disqualified , or that the memberships he has signed up are disqualified. And if neither happens, it will be legitimate to ask why not? The Ontario Tory Leadership race just got a whole lot more interesting.

Moderation Is Coming

Rob Granatstein, the Toronto Sun's editor, Twittered this on Friday:

"Heading to an Ontario Press Council meeting. Should the press council have rules about online commenting on stories?"

Having viewed a wide variety of racist, libelous and downright guttural comments on media articles and, in YouTube's case, videos, host moderation is much needed across the board.Who is accountable for libel, slander and hate messages in the online abyss?

Well, if you're the website for a major newspaper the answer to this last question is "You are!", so I wouldn't be at all surprised if enhanced policing of comments doesn't come into effect within the next year or so, whether the mechanism is a press council or something else. At the very least, a paper's comments section should be swept every couple of hours for libellous material.

Jesus Travelled Abroad!

Jesus Christ did show himself unto the people of Nephi, as the multitude were gathered together in the land Bountiful, and did minister unto them; and on this wise did he show himself unto them.
Now he's BACK! And he wants to be King!

JESUS CHRIST: WRONG ON TAXES, WRONG FOR THE HOLY LAND

هو فقط يزور

لا زعيم

Born In Arizona, Moved To Babalonia...

h/t

Frank Klees: If Elected Ontario Premier, I Will Change Federal Legislation

Human Rights Commission

The Human Rights commission is not working as intended. It needs to be fixed, not annihilated. People need access to a system that will help them against wrongs without having to enter into our expensive legal system.

But the abuses must stop. Section 13 needs to be repealed. Giving the Commission the right to investigate the views and opinions of the citizens of Ontario threatens the freedom of expression and is counter to the importance of that right in Canadian society. Freedom of expression is a core value of democracy from which all other rights naturally flow. Without that, our democratic system of government itself is at risk.

The message that needs to be sent is clear - the PC Party of Ontario is inclusive, not reactionary, and the Human Rights Commission needs to be refocused on it original mandate.

Either Mr. Klees mistakenly believes he has some ability to change Section 13 of the CHRA,or he is thinking of the interpretive section of the Ontario Code, where 13.1 prohibits you from publishing materials announcing an intention to discriminate: Signs Reading "No Blacks Need Apply", and the like.

Option #1 seems most likely. Klees seems to think there is only one commision, and in any case, the Ontario Commision has recently handed off any investigative duties to the Ontario Tribunal.

That's what you get announcing policy on Facebook.

In any case, they're all Randy Hillier now.

Your Daily Nazi: Nazis X 10

Ezra on the evolving membership of the (circa 1965-66) Canadian Nazi Party, from May 16:

Their report was that he had "from nine to 17 followers." (I've pasted a jpeg of the story at left.)
That's it. That was the menace. And given that there were three other Jewish groups (including the CJC) that had "infiltrated" Beattie's "party" -- and that's not counting any police -- one has to wonder if there were any real members other than Beattie at all.

From May 18th:

...according to the RCMP, Beattie's "Nazis" actually didn't have any membership at all -- just "supporters", maybe 50 of them all told. Now, we know that one of those supporters was Garrity, so that leaves 49. And we know that at least three other Jewish groups has their agents at his events. So we're probably under 40 now. And then, obviously, the RCMP had their agents there. Are we still at 30 "followers" in the entire Toronto region? I'm not even sure if that's true -- for these followers didn't actually follow Beattie to, say, his public rallies.

Up from one person to dozens, in and around Toronto. Not enough to overthrow civilized rule, clearly, but a decent-sized street gang at least, and certainly worth the CJC and police paying some attention to.

But what I really want to know is: where is Ezra digging up this stuff? The notion that he is doing "research" in the TO Star's online archive is not plausible. Ezra don't do research; typically, he recycles bullshit. So where, in this case, is the bullshit coming from?

Well, "the entire tale of the Canadian Jewish Congress and the Canadian Nazi Party" will be related in Marc Lemire's soon to be release magnum opus Silencing Thought: The Human Rights Industry's War on Freedom of Expression. So Lemire is my guess as to the source. It wouldn't be the 1st time for Ezra.

Flanagan On Human Rights

I didn't intend to write on Tom Flanagan's G&M piece this morning, but Impolitical called me on it. This bit is both the silliest and most cold-hearted part:

In a competitive market, discrimination is costly to the discriminator. An employer who refuses to hire workers because of race, religion or ethnicity restricts his own choices and imposes a disadvantage on his firm. Meanwhile, his competitors gain by being able to hire from a larger pool. The same logic applies to restaurateurs turning away potential customers, or landlords refusing to lease to people of particular categories. (I'll never forget the experience of owning rental property in the recession of the 1980s; I would have rented to Martians if they had showed up with a damage deposit.)

The argument applies no matter how rampant prejudice and discrimination may be. Those who discriminate impose burdens on themselves and confer advantages on their competitors. Competitive markets don't immediately abolish discriminatory practices, but they tend to erode them, not by trying to enlighten bigoted people, but by making discrimination unprofitable.

I should say to start I have lived in a very non-competitive housing market--Toronto in the late 80s, where a land-lord cord charge you $400 a month for a cot next to the furnace--and at the time ran into a mixed race couple, one very pregnant, who could not find a place that would rent to them. I gave them a few phone numbers to try, and wished them luck.

(If I remember correctly, a "balanced" rental market is about 5% vacant. Toronto's current rate is 2.1%, hasn't been competitive in at least 25 years.)

Now, that's just an anecdote, but Flanagan himself is offering nothing but deductions from sterile economic theory. To assume that 1) people make these kinds of decision rationally, or 2) will not routinely make rational or at least calculated decisions on the basis of values other than economic values (religious values, for example,which might entail a disapproval of Martian sexual practices), or 3) can never become wealthy enough to indulge their prejudices... is naive in the extreme.

More generally, this "if we didn't have human rights laws the market would make human rights problems go away" is the same line of nonsense Ezra peddles. I'm surprised Flanagan didn't try to blame it all on the Canadian Jewish Congress.

On Cap & Trade ( Waxman Markey) And Real World Compromises

Michael Tobis lamenting:

This is what is ironically called a "real world" compromise, in which we understand perfectly what techniques would be needed to make a world of vastly greater human dignity, beauty, mutual support and happiness (though, perhaps, a wee bit less ludicrously funny), but the "real world" of politics interferes to make a thorough bureaucratic muddle of it all.

Then quoting the N.Y. Times:

Cap and trade, ... is almost perfectly designed for the buying and selling of political support through the granting of valuable emissions permits to favor specific industries and even specific Congressional districts. That is precisely what is taking place now in the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has used such concessions to patch together a Democratic majority to pass a far-reaching bill to regulate carbon emissions through a cap-and-trade plan.

And concluding:

The upshot is a lot of short term gain spread around to specific people, and a balancing amount of unnecessary extra long term pain spread around to nobody in particular. This is the activation energy of politics.

But then seeing the "why" of it all:

The dominant factor in the present circumstances is the upcoming Copenhagen negotiation. It makes a great deal of difference to all the other countries whether the US shows up having made real substantive cuts, by which the participants will mean, exactly, large symbolic actions that might eventually lead to real substantive cuts.

How much better off will this leave grand gesture us than did the grand gestures of the past, most notably Kyoto?

Oddly, much better, since Damocles' sword has slipped much lower, and since America would not find itself explicitly rejecting international cooperation. Maybe some of these theoretical cuts will eventually exit the "real world" of politics and enter the other (unreal?) world where the actual radiative properties of the atmosphere are changing at an unusually high and climbing rate.

Well, but that isn't the only reason for C&T over a Carbon Tax. For example, as Krugman notes, the former has already been tried once (at least) and been successful: in the case of sulfur dioxide (SO2), which contributes to acid rain. The 2nd reason is more philosophical (although, I suppose, broadly political as well). It is that C&T systems are (and have been sold politically as) more capitalistic than a carbon tax. We live and die by markets: C&T creates a market, and fuses that market to the existing ones. Thus all the virtues of capitalism are unleashed upon our particular social problem (AGW). So, although the effects of C&T vs. a tax are identical, the path to those effects are by a route more congenial to The West's reigning ideology.

Iggy On Afghanistan: Perform For Me, O! Glorious Iggy!

Since this

...the journalist turned expat turned politician also urged far greater engagement with India and China than at present; [...] an honourable withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2011;

And this

[Q:] How would you stand on Afghanistan?

[A:] Our brave soldiers have sought to secure a safe Afghanistan for the people. But I feel we've done our turn. It's time to end our mission in 2011.

...are from May 13th, I eagerly await His Iggyness' response to Peter Mackay's announcement today that Canada may well stay in Afghanistan beyond its 2011 military mandate.

I just spent Saturday afternoon trying to convince Ms. O'Malley that you would display political courage one day, Iggy. The clock is ticking. Don't let me down: tell 'em no.

Otherwise, not a bad article in South Asian Focus. Iggy's insightful-stuff-to-boilerplate-ratio is fairly high, and his questioners ask him a couple of fairly decent ones re Tamil/Sikh terrorism.

You Must Pay For Your Ticket To That Train Wreck: Ontario Tories Split On Human Rights Tribunals!

The Ontario PC Party will be hosting four candidate debates....Debate tickets are ten dollars and will be selected by random draw.

Meanwhile, a few adults within with Ontario Tories are wondering about the wisdom of front-runner Tim Hudak modelling his campaign platform on that of right-wing yahoo Randy Hillier in his call for abolishing the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal:

"I think they're going to look at this and say, 'you're pulling another John Tory move. You picked a hot-button issue that's going to blow up in our faces just as the school thing did,' " [the anonymous Tory insider] said.

For what its worth, you can see Hudak shifting right on this issue over time. In August he was insisting that the Tribunal clear its backlog by ignoring the free speech cases on its plate (I don't have numbers but I imagine they are low to miniscule); now he wants to chuck the whole human rights process over-board and replace it with "a court-based system operating under the rules of evidence" with "specially trained judges".

Put more specifically by Clark Savolain of the Hudak campaign:

To protect the human rights of all Ontarians, he would transition the Ontario Human Rights Commission and the Human Rights Tribunal construct to a court-based system, similar to the existing Domestic Violence and Family Law courts.

Some pretty obvious short-comings to this idea:

Sorry, so do you expect to provide funding or support to legitimate victims of discrimination so they can make claims in civil court? For example, if an employer tells me he will only hire me if I perform sexual favours, right now, I could go to the Human Rights Tribunal and claim gender-based discrimination, and sexual harassment. Are you going to provide the legal support so I can file a similar claim or do you expect all claimants to hire their own lawyers at a rate of $300 or so an hour? Isn’t an open system where claimants can go as individuals provide much more access to justice?

Or:

I consider myself a Conservative and a supporter of Tim. Up until the past two years, I never paid much attention to the Human Rights Tribunal or Commission, or really even the Code because it never affected me. That was before my husband was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder 2 at the age of 44.

[...]

We believe the employer, the Union and the arbitrator violated my husband’s human rights. We have now filed an application with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario. Tim has spoken publicly about assisting the middle-class family. We are it! We cannot afford a lawyer that costs $350/hour nor are we eligible for legal support. Where can we be heard if not the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario? What does Tim suggest we do?

Don't know if Kinsella will be operating the McGuinty war-room next time around, but I suspect he's chuckling away somewhere in some dark cave even now. Who cares whether or not the next Tory leader is Randy Hillier, as long as that leader embraces the Hillier agenda?

Ottawa, Day II

This morning my wife and I walked from Byward Market to The Nature Museum way out on Metcalfe near the highway. Large parts of it were closed, and admission to the rest was free before noon. So in the end we saw the Screaming Kid exhibit on Floor 2, and the Crying Kid exhibit on Floor 4. My digicam's battery died just as I was taking a picture of a prehistoric whale skeleton, so I can't even prove I was there.

Later, I spent a very enjoyable and informative couple of hours drinking alcohol with Macleans Magazine's blogging superstar Kady O'Malley. It will probably take a week to process all the political info I picked up during that time.

As an aside, Ms. O'Malley is ultra-cool, immensely charming, but really, really tiny. Thankfully, I didn't try to hit on her or wear a lampshade or anything stupid like that.

In The Nation's Capital

...for the long weekend. So far the highlight has been me taking a service elevator by mistake and getting lost in the hotel's underground kitchen complex. I can now say with confidence that the Marriot's kitchen meets all federal and provincial standards for cleanliness.

Later today I will be meeting with several Ottawa power-players and discussing the state of the revolution. Regular readers shall await instructions as to when and in what manner to rise up. Keep your Birkenstocks and lattes at your side, brothers and sisters, for soon we march!

Mistakes Made, Apologies Owed

Since Steyn wants to go another round on this, let me just mention this more time. In his Macleans blog post "That poor woman down the street", from March of 2008, Mr. Steyn accused CHRC investigator Dean Steacy by name of engaging in criminal acts. These allegations were never credible to start with, and already pretty thoroughly refuted even before the RCMP and Privacy Commission finally dismissed them.

Yet there they remain on the Maclean's website.

So let me say it one more time: Mark, you made a mistake. You laundered a boatload of crap passed off as "research" by white supremacists and reproduced it in Canada's national news-magazine.

Admit it and have Kenneth Whyte take down that post.

A Trivial Pursuit...

When you visit the website of Michael Würstlin, the fella behind the CPoC's new ad/on-line campaign , you find a brief reference to the board-game Trivial Pursuit.

And indeed:

Eighteen-year-old artist, Michael Wurstlin agreed to create the final artwork for Trivial Pursuit in exchange for his five shares.

And suddenly I am reminded of something I read just yesterday:

"When you're down in the polls, when you're presiding over the worst collapse in employment in recent memory, when you've got record bankruptcies everywhere you look, the thing you're going to do if you're in government and responsible for this mess is change the channel and that's what they're trying to do," Ignatieff said in Toronto last night.

"Is that serious government? Is that serious politics? That's the kind of government we've got."

The Tories and Mr. Würstlin seem made for one another.

CTV Paying Bourque To Torque?

Every link given in the above goes back to CTV's campaign to charge "carriage fees" to the cable companies, or to its pro-carriage fee petition. I of course did not sign the petition, but a friend did:

Galactus is a regular petition whore.

Bill 44 Going Through

...because "we're not able to retract", according to Alberta Culture and Community Spirit Minister Lindsay Blackett. However, there may be minor changes to the parental opt-out section, particularly:

11.1(1) A board as defined in the School Act shall provide notice to a parent or guardian of a student where courses of study, educational programs or instructional materials, or instruction or exercises, prescribed under that Act include subject-matter that deals explicitly with religion, sexuality or sexual orientation.

[Teachers] had a problem with the wording . . . when it talks about instruction and instructional materials. Some teachers take that to mean any instruction," said Blackett.

"We're looking at how to clarify that."

Not quite sure what is meant here, but my guess would be the teachers are concerned that parents might be able to request an opt-out where, for example, a biology text containing a chapter on Darwin was being used even though the class in question did not concern that chapter.

Meanwhile, Rob Breakenridge laments. He's quite right that AHRC opponents like Bishop Henry have sold their souls over this bill (which the Bishop supports with caveats), but this part is baloney:

Just when it seemed that public demand and political will would finally result in a reining in of the province's much-maligned human rights regime, the Alberta government has fashioned a resurrection of almost Biblical proportions.

Public demand? Or the demands of a few hundred journalists, fringe righties, and blogosphere scribblers?

You know, one thing politicians know how to do better than anyone is count votes. The Stelmach government looked around and realized that the over-haul of their Human Rights Act would involve balancing the demands of the Gay and SoCon communities. If Speechies got stiffed (and they did), that's because the Stelmach government realized there weren't enough of them to be worth the fuss.

(And of course the Aryan Guard marched this year with renewed strength. That helped change a few minds in caucus, I am sure.)

He Smugly Posed On The Front Cover Of Magazines

...a line from the CPoC's email intro to their new anti-Ignatieff campaign. Here's Andrew Steele on why they probably won't prove terribly effective. I would add to that that Mr. Ignaetieff seems quite capable of leaping to his own defense in both official languages--something that wasn't so much the case with his esteemed predecessor--even if his french accent is Parisian (presumably he doesn't refer to them as "Les Hotdogs").

His response thus far seems pitch-perfect:

"On a day when we've got record bankruptcies, (when) we've got unemployment skyrocketing, all this government can think of doing is running attack ads on me," he said. "This is the old style of politics. We are in the middle of a serious economic crisis. This government needs to grow up and do its job properly."

Spoken more in sorrow than anger, obviously.

Fun With The Tories New Website

1) Go here, the CPoC's new anti-Ignatieff website.

2) Go to the "share section". You should see a an image this at the top left of your computer screen

Our ever stupid CPoC, not having learned the first time around, is using a remailer that lets you send emails from the new site, alerting people to the new site. A few hints:

a) "Your Email" can be anything. It doesn't have to really exist. That's also the line that seems to have the most characters available to you if you want to compose and send a subversive counter-message.

b) The "To" line gives you about 15 characters.

c) The "From" line seems to have more characters available than the "To" line.

d) The text of the email you send will be boiler-plate:

Your friend stockwell day thinks Michael Ignatieff is just visiting. Michael Ignatieff has made his choice: after over 30 years away he has come back to Canada, but only if he can be Prime Minister. In short, he’s just visiting.To find out more visit http://www.ignatieff.me/. It's not about stockwell day. It's just about him.

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem much you can do about to change this text, but your subversive message WILL appear in the header info of any email you send from the site.

So use your imagination and send "the gift of Iggy" to all the reporters on your contact list. Make the story of the new website and new ad campaign be that they are idiotic.

Words Fail Me...

But perhaps "atomically dorky" might do it. More dorky photos here, including this one ...of Mark Steyn lying about the size of his schlong.

PS. I swear Steyn shaves with the Miami Device.

Hudak Would Scrap Ontario Human Rights Tribunal

Not the provisions related to hate-speech, the whole darn thing, to be replaced with " a court-based system operating under the rules of evidence" with "specially trained judges". So, scrap one system that alleged "cost millions" with an entirely new system that will, presumably, cost millions.

Not much excitement from the usual Speechy gang. I guess they are starting to smell the bullshit. If a Tory majority in Alberta won't move, what hope is there in Ontario? (Answer: none. This is a transparent attempt to out-flank Randy Hillier in time for the PCPO convention.)

Dear Christie Blatchford

To understand the point of your latest column re Ruby Dhalla, I would have to have read it to the end. And after sentence #3 I knew that wasn't going to be possible.

And to the folks at the G&M, I can write a column people will actually read to the end for half whatever Christie charges you. Give me an email and I will send you my CV.

More On Ruby Dhalla: The Travels Of Ms. Valesco

One of the advocates for the caregivers is Pura Valesco, the head of Caregiver Support Services. She told reporters last week that any suggestion of a political motive to their actions is 'sheer nonsense.'

Ms. Valesco was at a meeting in Toronto on April 25 when one of the caregivers, Magdalene Gordo, told Ontario provincial cabinet ministers Peter Fonseca and Kathleen Wynne about her alleged travails at the hands of the Dhallas.

She was also at a roundtable the following day, April 26, with Mr. Kenney.

'It was supposed to be a meeting to discuss the live-in caregiver program in general with the nannies and some of the advocates from my community,' said Ms. Valesco.

None of the caregivers who have complained about Ms. Dhalla participated, nor was Mr. Kenney told about their situation, she said.

'We were not able to talk about it because there were so many people around the table so there was not a lot of time,' said Ms. Valesco. 'It was really in our agenda to talk about it, but unfortunately there were so many people, we were told that we were only allocated about five minutes.'"

Here's a picture of Ms. Valesco at the meeting in question. She's the one in the scarf next to Jason Kenney: And here's an account of her presentation at that meeting:

Pura Velasco, organizer of Caregiver Support Services, and a former caregiver herself who has been advocating for two decades for the rights of caregiveres, emphasized to Minister Kenney that the live-in requirement without status is the “heart of the problem” of the program. “Even if the provincial government tries its best to implement the employment standards, without status in a live-in condition, the confidence of the caregivers to assert their right to basic employment standards is diminished,” she said.

Kenney responded that situation was very clear to him.

Velasco added that in her written submission to the Minister, she had indicated that she and caregivers would like to work with Minister Kenney and his staff closely, just like what they are doing now with the provincial government. “We have lots of creative ideas in resolving the issues of the caregiver program,” she said, but which would be difficult to thoroughly discuss in a dialogue setting. To this suggestion, the Minister informed the group of the presence of a staff in his Ministry who could also help.

[...]

Julius Tiangson informed the Minister of the settlement issues affecting live-in-caregivers and other temporary foreign workers and other newscomers are about economic integration. He spoke of their already limited economic options becoming even narrower through the years, especially when families join them. For this reason, he informed the minister, his agency, as a settlement provider organization, has already submitted proposals based on a number of calls for proposals by Kenney’s department. “ He then requested the Minister to look into a copy of the full proposal which he turned over to Kenney at the meeting.

At this point, Kenney responded to Velasco’s recommendations. Following the series in the Toronto Star, he said he had discussions with the provincial minister and that they had agreed that the Ontario government and federal government will collaborate more closely on issues relating to the live-in-caregivers program. He also said they will consider the Manitoba law with respect to the recruitment agencies.

...which sounds perhaps more extensive than a mere five minute encounter.

Now, one shouldn't got too far with this. Clearly the nannies in question had concerns, and had expressed these concerns to various people, prior to April 2009. On the other hand, Kenney and co. were very swift to milk the issue when it first hit the papers. Did Ms. Valesco really say nothing to Minister Kenney, and was there no contact between the minister and the nannies previous to the story breaking? Note Kenney's slightly weaselly responses to questions as to when and if he had met the nannnies here.

And, on the other other hand, we are three weeks into this "scandal", and no complaints (as far as I know) have been filed by the nannies with the Ontario Ministry of Labor. This whole thing is being decided in the newspapers. If the charges against Ms. Dhalla are to be considered credible, then something more serious than the making of allegations has got to happen.

Anthony Watts And Surface Stations: The Wait Is Still On

AGW Denier Anthony Watts releases his report (.pdf here) on American Surface stations before attempting to analyse his own data. As one of his readers writes:

It seems there now 11% of the stations is considered “good” or “best”, and an additional 20% is considered “fair”. The question that now arises is: When you only take temperatures measured by these stations, how would the average temp graph of the twentieth century look? Does it differ, and how much? Is a warming trend still visible?

Damn good question. And one that you would think Anthony would attempt to answer in the report itself. So why not? Why wait? Because Anthony already knows the answer, and he doesn't like it.

Cognitive Dissonance In The Alberta Legislature

Mr. Mason: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Over the weekend the Minister of Culture and Community Spirit admitted that evolution was science, and he said that his government isn’t arguing science. But, you know, despite all of the protestations from the other side about what they’re not doing, we need to remember that it was the Premier himself who said that evolution would be optional if parents objected on religious grounds. This isn’t a fantasy of the opposition; this comes from the Premier. So I want to ask the Minister of Culture and Community Spirit: have you and the Premier figured out why you’re contradicting each other and why the message . . .

Mr. Blackett: Well, Mr. Speaker, I know one thing: I don’t pretend to speak for the Premier[...]if you have a question about what the Premier said, I suggest that you ask the Premier that question.

Mr. Mason: Well, I keep trying, Mr. Speaker.The minister knows that those things are subject to interpretation.It is the interpretation of what is religion that is at stake here.

As an aside, if you are wondering what interpretation of Bill 44 turns a biology class into something that deals explicitly with religion, here's Bishop Henry, who thinks it does not go far enough:

...all education is faith-based to some extent. It's time to ask why the opinions of the majority of the citizens in Alberta are being ignored, i. e., "why should the faith of the atheist and agnostic be the only and the governing paradigm in public education?"

...which is to say, there is no Truth, only faiths. And apparently the agnostic and atheist faith rules in Alberta. Who knew?

h/t Mr Smith.

The Green Future Comes To Vancouver

May 6, 2009 -- Condo buyers at Concord Pacific's new Cosmo building in downtown Vancouver will have the capacity to plug in and charge their electric vehicles.

[...]

"We're saying it's no longer science fiction. It's a reality. "It's also not long before high-density projects without plug-in capability will be obsolete. It will be like buying a TV today without high definition. We think for the purchasers, this project will give them a longer market advantage."

[...]

Vancouver Electric Vehicle Association president Gerry Martselos also praised Concord. "EV charging is fast becoming a checklist item for future home buyers, as the majority of EV charging will be done overnight at home," he said in a statement.

Here's the building's website.

Sounds expensive (rigging out your parking spot for recharging costs about $5,000), but still, Vancouver has been been doing a lot along these lines. Probably Canada's greenest city at the moment (love those rooftop gardens on the condo buildings).

Iggy On The Tamil Protest

The Liberal party did the right thing yesterday. The government, on the other hand, did nothing.

What They Want

...according to the Canadian Doctors of Tamil Descent:

1) Begin diplomatic pressure on Sri Lankan government and the United Nations to call an immediate and permanent ceasefire to halt this ongoing medical humanitarian tragedy;

2) Demand the immediate supply of food, water and medicine to people in 'no-fire zone' and internment camps by NGOs;

3) Begin dialogues with both sides to ensure the safety of the 130,000 civilians trapped in the conflict zone;

4) Cease all direct monetary aid to the Sri Lankan government and divert through NGOs to ensure delivery of necessary humanitarian assistance
to the affected; and

5) Use legal expertise to initiate the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) and other means to secure Tamils from the FAILED-STATE, Sri Lanka."

And I am glad, frankly, that Mr. Ignatieff's office seems to have gotten beyond the fact that some of the protesters may be waving inappropriate flags. I find myself unmoved knowing that the guys who did this ...sported emblems approved of by the international community.

CPoC And Free Dominion: Was There A Deal?

Mostly, it seems, the party has been giving that far right forum the rubber-glove treatment. They've been burned too many times, I suppose. But, according to Connie Fournier, this changed for a short time at the end of last year:

When the Coalition decided to try to oust Harper, some of my old friends approached me and asked for help. They convinced me that the prospect of a leftwing coalition government was worse than keeping Harper.

However, once the CPC saw that I was willing to support them in the fight against the coalition, I started to get emails from a gmail address and the person claimed to be a party operative who needed to use gmail because they didn't want our email exchanges to fall under Access to Information.

The first email was complaining about two liberal trolls who were monopolizing the board at the time. He asked for them to be banned, and he suggested that the CPC would help us with our legal troubles if I helped them.

I didn't have a problem with the banning request because they were obviously not conservatives, and they were obviously using FD to promote their own socialist agendas. I explained to the guy in no uncertain terms that FD would never ban conservatives who were speaking out against the CPC.

The next email targeted a few more left-leaning people, only this time he didn't just ask for them to be banned. He wanted me to provide him with their IP addresses because he said that they could make arrangements to get them kicked off the internet.

It ended there.

Even though FD wasn't saving IP addresses anymore, I felt physically ill for days to think that the party that I supported would ask me to do something so immoral. I felt like I was a victim of Stockholm Syndrome and I had almost been sucked in to helping the very people who are holding us hostage.

Interesting if true. It has become evident that much of the "grassroots" response to the NDP/Lib./Bloc coalition was organized from within the CPoC itself, and this would merely be further evidence. I'm not sure how one kicks someone off the Internet (unless they had written something seditious), but perhaps that is not exactly what the original writer meant to imply.

Any of my regulars remember who the "liberal trolls" in question were?

Tories Phone One In

OTTAWA -- The Conservatives are giving Senate reform a third try. The federal government plans to table legislation in the Senate Tuesday that will limit a senator's term to eight years, Sun Media has learned.

Another Tory bill to reform the Senate introduced into a Liberal dominated Senate. Given the latest gun registry stuff, this appears to be the Tories modus operandi when they want to introduce legislation they know is doomed to failure. The lack of cheering you hear from the right side of the blogosphere is the sound of people (Tory hardcores esp.) catching on.

And as for the last bit:

This time, Tories are confident their Senate reform bills will pass because the "institutional resistance" they have faced from Senate Liberals will be replaced next year by an appointed Conservative majority.

Well, its false. The Libs lose their majority next year. The Tories don't get one for another couple of years (2011, I think), so Senate Reform is a non-starter for quite awhile yet.

Wonder if this is a matter of the MSM just getting it wrong or Tory sources feeding them crap in the hopes that their political base is similarly fooled when they read it in the paper.

In any case, my guess would be that, come 2011 or whenever and a Tory Senate majority, Harper and Co. find a reason to support the status quo. They've swallowed their principles often enough to assume it will happen again.

Lawyer For Canada's Far Right Loses Appeal

Victoria lawyer Doug Christie has lost his appeal to the Law Society of British Columbia of the 2007 ruling that he had engaged in professional misconduct.

Christie will be forced to pay a $2,500 fine and $20,000 in costs to the Society. However, the original payment date of January 2010 has been extended to April 2011.

The original decision can be found here; Mr. Christie's misconduct apparently involved the preparation and delivery of documents. Interesting in that, while Mr. Christie believes in free speech, he doesn't work for free. And while I don't think he is involved in any of the cases I usually write about (other than the recent Kinsella thing), this may well throw a bit of a spanner in the ones he has been working. It isn't cheap to fly in and out of Victoria.

PS. Scooped you again, lads.

H/T to H.

Nova Scotia Premier Shakes His Manboobs

...on trampoline, looking for bounce in polls.

If this doesn't lose him the election, everybody in Nova Scotia should be strangled to put them out of their misery.

(Yeah, Randy, at our age we all got 'em, but most of us choose not to flaunt 'em shamelessly)

Severe Storms

The main things we're seeing are hail, anywhere from pea-sized which in some areas covered the ground, to as large as toonies. We did have some reports of golf-ball-sized hail a little further west in Stratford,' meteorologist Mitch Meredith said. 'We haven't heard of too much damage yet, but hail that size can do some damage. Certainly the toonie-sized hail can.'"

I got stuck in this on my morning run. Luckily, I was able to hop a bus and caught nothing but a soaking. "Toonie-Sized" is about right. Made a heck of a noise on the bus roof.

One thing I like about T.O. and Eastern Canada in general is you get real, window rattling thunderstorms. Out West it just drizzles for weeks at a time.

FreeD Denizon Acquitted

Charges have been dropped in the case against a Horton Township farmer and two members of the Ontario Landowners Association. OLA President Jack MacLaren, Director Ed Kennedy and farm owner Larry Reid were charged with mischeif last June after a protest at the Horton Township Offices. MacLaren explains to myFM why the charges were acquitted.

Ed Kennedy is a long-time FreeD participant. Some background on the case here.

Ian Plimer And The Iron Sun

Aussie climate change denier Ian Plimer's has a new book out, entitled Heaven and Earth. In it, he rehashes the usual nonsense to show that climate change is a hoax, Al Gore is fat, and so forth. There's a good review of it here from astronomer Michael Ashley. Reading through his review, I came across the following passage:

Plimer probably didn't expect an astronomer to review his book. I couldn't help noticing on page 120 an almost word-for-word reproduction of the abstract from a well-known loony paper entitled 'The Sun is a plasma diffuser that sorts atoms by mass'. This paper argues that the sun isn't composed of 98 per cent hydrogen and helium, as astronomers have confirmed through a century of observation and theory, but is instead similar in composition to a meteorite.

Here Plimer is referencing one of my favorite deniers, Oliver "Iron Sun" Manuel, who is most famous for suggesting that the sun is not a Hydrogen-driven fusion engine but a big ball of iron created by a an ancient super-nova and that, if this is the case, it explains...somehow... the various "solar cycles" that allegedly drive global warming, where the standard model...for some reason...does not.

Since his name has come up, I would refer readers to this earlier post of mine, where I talked a little more about his theories, his place as a dissident within the solar physics community, and speculate as to why he hooked up with the deniers.

Another Couple of Ruby Dhalla Facts

These ones more ominous sounding:

TORONTO — A Toronto agency [Intercede] that helps domestic workers says allegations of caregiver mistreatment levelled at Liberal MP Ruby Dhalla and her family are shining a light on a widespread problem.

[...]

Magdalene Gordo, 31, and Richelyn Tongson, 37, say their passports were also illegally withheld and that they had trouble getting paid, but Dhalla has denied the allegations.

[...]

Intercede called Dhalla on behalf of Tongson, and Mason said she told the Liberal MP to give Tongson her passport back within 24 hours or she would call police.

Since Intercede's call would have been made a year ago, this indicates that the two nannies' disgruntlement was not conjured out of thin air last week for the sake of reporters.

The same fact also makes any alleged political conspiracy against Ms. Dhalla much broader and longer in gestation (over a year, assuming that Intercede is somehow "involved") than, frankly, seems plausible.

I note Bourque readers arriving. Just a note: Canadian Press has overwritten their previous story with one that does not include the relevant quote from Intercede's Agatha Mason. Another version of it can be found here.

One Fact In A Field of Speculation

As of Wednesday morning, I am made to understand that no related complaint had been filed with Ontario's Ministry of Labour.

But Ruby's nannies have had time to do a round of media interviews.

Actually, Mraz' whole piece is pretty good, and re-states the obvious: if any of this stuff gets proven, then Ms. Dhallia should step down as MP, but not before.

Be interesting to see where and when the Tory machine got involved with this. Alykhan Velshi is an interesting creature, and has begun to turn up in all sorts of odd places.

The Sun Is Stupid (And Occasionally Racist)

Toronto Sun editors preoccupied with today's ad-dominated false front page neglected to catch a glaring error in the Exclusive: 'Our son is stupid, not a racist' heading.

Read Brett Clarkson's story. What the mother of the boy involved in the Keswick school incident said was "He said something stupid. Really stupid."

She didn't say her son was stupid.A TSF tipster says the Sun will be publishing the following apology tomorrow...

And here it is. The explanation:

Numerous recent Sun corrections, including faulty ads and sloppy graphics, reflect the aftermath of years of staff cuts that...

...and yada yada yada.

More Bank Machine Scam Madness, From Sarnia This Time

The local banking scam may be bigger than originally feared.

[...]

Baines acknowledged a rumour making the rounds that 1,000 people were notified by one city bank that they should come in and check their PIN numbers.

"It's strictly a rumour, and that doesn't mean that they've lost money," he said. "If they've used an ATM (that the bank suspects has been compromised) they (the bank) will notify all their customers as a precautionary step, just in case. I was one of those notified that I should come in on Tuesday. I didn't lose any money. They felt there may be some risk, and rather than waiting for them (customers) to be victimized, they call everybody in. But as of this morning (Thursday) the number (of known city victims) is still 15."

Story from late April. Sort of similar, but maybe not connected at all to this.

But on the other hand, I have heard of three other people beyond The Wife, who are customers in two different banks (TD and CIBC), and who have had unauthorized withdrawals made while in the GTA within the last roughly 48 hours. And that's basically a randomish sample of people I just happen to live around and work with.

To top it all off, The Scotia Bank at Parkway Mall was straight out honest-to-god robbed last night. Three police were in there dusting around the ATM for prints. But, again, nothing to do with this. (Or at least I think thats what they were doing. There was yellow tape and a sign and they were all hanging out around the bank machines).

Ah the times in which we live...

If anyone knows where a story about these compromised ATMs appeared on tv last night--because somebody told me one did--please let me know. I'm not seeing anything about it online.

Bank Cards Compromised Canada-wide?

Interesting. My wife's problem seems to have been the tip of something much larger. I've met three people today who've received the same message from banks and police in the past 24 hours, one that uses the same mall as we do (Parkway Mall). Also, the manager of the Parkway TD was out front yesterday telling people not to use any of their ATMs, as they had all been compromised.

Move Over

Wolverine, there's a new gay icon in town.

Random Late-Afternoon Bitch

Spent the day working a trade-show, stood for eight hours smiling at people I don't necessarily like and sweating in warm, stale air. The Wife called me and told me her bank card had been compromised previous evening to the tune of $500. The last three places she used it were Reitman's, the SandyLion sticker store, and a Shopper's. Nothing terribly shady.

Tomorrow will likely be the same deal, minus a bank-card incident, hopefully. Blogging will be especially terse, and perhaps ill-tempered.

Right now I am cradling a beer, so things are getting better.

There's A New News Aggregater In Town

There's a new news aggregater in town. Its called CanadaNews Desk, and its got a nice look to it. Of course, whether it can compete successfully with NN or Bourque will depend on way more than the look. One strike in its favor: CND used one of my stories as a top story. Way to go, dude! Stick with BCL and I'll lead you to glory (as distinct from, for example, riches).

NDP Perfidy Fails To Pay!

The governing B.C. Liberal Party lead the opposition B.C. New Democratic Party, according to a survey by Environics Research Group.

Among decided voters in B.C., 47 per cent say they would vote for the B.C. Liberals. That's about the same vote share they pulled in 2005.

The New Democratic Party trails at 36 per cent. That represents a drop of six points from their popular vote in 2005.

Another 12 per cent would support the B.C. Green Party compared to the nine percent they won in 2005. Five per cent support the B.C. Conservatives and others. Sixteen percent of eligible voters are undecided or say they would not vote.

Message to Federal and Provincial NDP supporters: to thine own self be true, people, to thine own self be true!

To View Homophobe And Topless Sinner

...Carrie Prejean, click here. But avert your eyes OR YOU MAY GO BLIND!!! The article mentions "images", so there may be more to come.

Western Separatists To Supporters: Pay Up!

No word either re. their founding convention, which was scheduled originally for the weekend of April 25th and then cancelled.

STV In B.C.: Those Who Forget The Past Are Doomed To Repeat It?

An interesting if overlong anti-STV piece from RK at the Western Standard. The good stuff comes at the front, and consists mostly of telling the story behind B.C.s 1952 and 1953 elections, in which a form of STV was employed. Two take-home lessons:

1) STV (at least some versions) can give very strange results. In 1952:

This system had been designed to enable the Conservative and Liberal parties to keep the socialist Co-operative Commonwealth Federation out of power. Unexpectedly, this enabled Social Credit to win the largest number of seats with the benefit of second-preference ballots from CCF voters.

RK thinks this is a negative feature. Since the 1952 election gave rise to W.A.C Bennett and ages of SoCred domination, I suppose he has a point.

2) On the other hand, the 1953 result proves that it is possible to achieve a parliamentary majority under (some version of) the STV system:

The minority government formed in 1952 by the conservative Social Credit of Premier W.A.C. Bennett lasted only nine months before new elections were called. Social Credit was re-elected with a majority in the legislature to a second term in government with almost 38% of the popular vote.

So maybe, if one fear is that STV shall produce indecisive minority after indecisive minority, then that fear too is overblown.

In any case, I am surprised B.C.'s previous experience has been entirely left out of the current debate.

Lifesite Gaydar Tracks Canadian Mutant

From Popwatch:

After sitting through Wolverine this past weekend, I believe this flick to be the gayest comic book movie ever. It felt like an issue of Men's Health come to life, albeit with more adamantium. First, the gorgeous Hugh Jackman is shirtless for a good portion of the film -- he even has a naked fight scene! And he squares off against a shirtless (and similarly ripped) Ryan Reynolds at one point. Secondly, Wolverine's job as a lumberjack allows him to wear some very 1970s gay-friendly tight jeans, leather jackets, and flannel shirts, unbuttoned to reveal more than a hint of chest hair. Thirdly, the big sparring between Wolverine and Sabretooth really comes down to two hot guys basically clawing each other with their fingernails.


Meanwhile, from Lifesitenews: Wolverine, Hannah Montana and Britney Spears Issue Pro-Homosexual Message. These Lifesite reporters are sharp, eh? Except that they totally missed the significance of all the guys running around in their underwear in The 300, so they clearly don't catch everything.

Libs Talk Black Liquor

OTTAWA – The Conservative government must act immediately to ensure the Canadian pulp and paper industry is protected in light of a new $8-billion U.S. tax credit that is putting the competitiveness of the Canadian industry in jeopardy, said Jean-Claude D’Amours, Member of Parliament for Madawaska-Restigouche.

Iggy and co. are complaining about an alternative tax fuel credit contained in the 2005 U.S. highway bill that allows U.S. paper mills to cut production costs by $1,000,000,000s, thus undercutting operations in this country. The release is quite correct in noting that the subsidy could jeopardize Canada's pulp and paper industry.

Now, there are a couple of ways to proceed. One, which the Tory government has been pursuing, is to lobby the Obama administration/U.S. Congress to have the credit rescinded. There is support for this move South of the border, where the credit is seen as a bit of an embarrassment, although the U.S. paper lobby has killed action for the time being.

Another path forward is to replicate the subsidy here, which is an alternative proposed by NDP John Rafferty. Such a move would be lunacy, for the tax credit, though it is touted as a "green measure", actually pays companies to increase their carbon footprint by adding diesel to the cleaner fuels they already use to run their mills. (Although I should say that mirroring the tax credit here is only one of the measures Mr. Rafferty has taken into consideration with his private member's motion.)

So good on the party for bringing this one up. The pulp and paper industry doesn't have a whole lot of friends, and I don't usually count myself among them, but they are in this case getting screwed over in a most perverse manner.

A reader notes that the LPoC began agitating on this issue several weeks ago.

Tories Bid To Rig Anders Nomination Successful

From The Calgary Herald:

Despite a hard-fought bid to unseat him, Conservative MP Rob Anders will not face an immediate political battle for the Tory nomination in his Calgary West riding.

An official with the Conservative Party of Canada told the Herald Saturday that none of its incumbent MPs faced enough votes to trigger a nomination contest in any riding, including Calgary West.

No mention in the Herald article, though, that the Tories arbitrarily changed the percentage of votes required from riding association members to force a nomination contest at 2/3rds. As Conservative party activist Clyde Fulton put it:

A balloting process requiring two-thirds of all members to request a nomination meeting is a sham with a predetermined outcome. While one could legitimately argue whether a simple majority or some greater percentage of voting members is appropriate, two-thirds of all registered members is an absurd hurdle rate clearly designed to simply acclaim all existing MPs, while wasting party resources in a pathetic attempt to give the appearance of having consulted the membership.

Just the latest example of Tories stiffing their own grass-roots. Have fun with Canada's "worst MP" , Tories.

Nessie Lives (New Nessie Footage?)

She's gone to sea in search of a mate.



Not as much the "gray blob" of other recent footage, it still could be a rock or a wave or a floating log or god knows what.

Your Daily Nazi: Ezra And The Nazis, Redux

A real historian (Ellen Scheinberg, director of the Ontario Jewish Archives) examines the interactions between the CJC and the Canadian Nazi Party during the mid-60s. Ezra Levant's version comes off looking distinctly 2nd best. A few highlights:

Ezra Levant's recent op-ed in the Citizen ("Neo-Nazis are best simply ignored," April 27) did little to explain the incidents surrounding Garrity's hiring, and provides even less perspective regarding the state of the Jewish community in Toronto during that time.

Indeed, facts appear to be secondary to Mr. Levant as he hunts and pecks his way through the historical record, extracting only those quotations which support his theories.

[...]

As an historian, I recognize that facts can sometimes support more than one interpretation. That said, there are certain points in which Levant's presentation of Garrity's work rests on no facts at all.

Levant claims that the CJC "helped organize the fledgling Canadian Nazi Party" but offers no proof for this.

He had previously stated that the CJC provided financial support to the party -- "bankroll" was the term he used -- although he seems to have backed off that claim.

Backed off the claim, but never admitted that it was in error in the 1st place, I should note. In any case, lets skip to the conclusion:

In the end, does Levant's contention that Canadian Jewish Congress "bank-rolled," "propped-up," "built up" or "organized" the Canadian Nazi Party of the 1960s have any merit? None whatsoever.

But of course this does not stop Terry O'Neill of the National Post from wheeling out the (by now) standard set of complaints against HRCs lifted from Ezra's faux research. Fortunately, Canada's political class has long-ceased to pay any attention to these guys.

h/t Mordechai.

Alberta Vs. The Creationists, Part III: In Which Minister Blackett Contradicts Himself And Others

"But Lindsay Blackett, the Tory minister responsible for human rights, said in an interview that the intention of the law is to only allow parents to pull children out when the curriculum specifically covers religions, something that only happens for a few hours each school year."

"It's talking about religion (such as) Hindu, or Muslim, or that type of religion, not ... the curriculum with respect to, for instance, evolution," he said.

[...]

Blackett said if people believe the wording of the bill is unclear and could lead to complaints beyond what the law is intended to cover, the government could tighten up the language before it passes.

"If that's the main worry than we can certainly narrow that down, we're reasonable people."

There are two problems with this.

1) Both Alberta Minister of Culture Lindsay Blackett and Premier Stelmach have said explicitly that Bill 44 would allow parents to remove their children from classes in which evolution was taught. So either one of these two guys is lying, or (more likely) they have misread the intention of their own bill, because...

2) the language does not need to be tightened up. In fact, Blackett is correct in the above: the wording of the law states pretty clearly that it applies only where the classroom subject "deals explicitly with religion, sexuality or sexual orientation". The problem is not with the language in the bill, but the language Blackett and Stelmach have used in talking about the bill.

A very confused government, out there in Alberta, I'm afraid...

Tories Show Fear

...Gerry Nicholls discovers to his horror that Liberals know how to do "hokey". He thought it was a Conservative thang that we'd never understand. Hey bonehead, it was Dalton McGuinty gave us "family day" and the highway of heroes.

We also know how to do "edgy". We're a little bit country, a little bit rock n' roll. Whereas these days you guys are nothing but the theme from Deliverance, over and over again. Think about it, Tory mo fo, and tremble.

PS. The next election is gonna be Red vs. Blue. Sweater on sweater action, Nicholls. Suck on that.

Single Transferable Ballot Going Down In B.C.

I hope not, esp. since a defeat in B.C. will probably end the debate nationally for the foreseeable future, but these numbers don't look so good.

Liberal Party Of Canada, You Will Be Getting Some Of My Money

Don't know if I'll join up, but passing OMOV earns you a couple of fins, at least.

PS. maybe Imp can tell us all what Cherniak was on about this time.

Avid Pianist?

It's the first time he's been back since graduating with his Grade 9. He'll be playing four chords as part of an online exercise with children. There isn't a piano that he can pass by without trying out.

A Certain Poetry To It

Both the JDL Website and Meir Weinstein's personal FB Webpage have been Hacked.

FB administration have been contacted.

I hope within the week, the group, events and profile will be restored.

[...]

Meir Weinstein's account was hacked. He still has the "Free Palestine" collage as his picture. Don't talk to him through Facebook until you can talk to him in person and hear from him that his account is back in his hands

JDL = Jewish Defense League, the Jewish community group most likely to resort to vigilante tactics one day (and, of course, hyper-Pro-Israel). Meir Weinstein is their #1.

If anyone has a screenshot, please forward.

Sheila Come Home

She’s the only one who can take out the NDP in Hamilton.

But apparently she's uninterested.

B.C. NDP: All Your Beers Are Ours

NDP leader Carole James has promised to increase the minimum wage by 25 per cent -- freaking out pub and restaurant owners -- and hike wholesale prices for private liquor stores.

[...]

But private liquor store owner Al Arbuthnot thinks that's the whole point of the NDP strategy.
Kim Haakstad, executive director of the Alliance of Beverage Licensees of B.C] pointed out the NDP election platform makes no mention of increasing prices in unionized government liquor stores. "If they need to raise revenue from liquor, then they should raise prices across the board for everyone, not just pick on small, independent operators."

"This is all union-driven," said the owner of Fox's Reach pub and liquor store in Maple Ridge.Something tells me if the NDP wins, they'll be uncorking the champagne at the B.C. Government and Service Employees Union head office -- no matter what the price.

I would dismiss this as fear mongering but for the fact that Bob Rae, when he was Ontario Premier, almost destroyed the "you brew" industry with a series of damaging tax hikes aimed at taking the pressure off LCBOs.

Tristan Emmanuel

...is behind this site (its in the email they send you). So I would suggest that, since Tristan is Randy's campaign manager, it isn't a "support Randy Hillier" site, it's a Hillier campaign site.

And the upshot of this bit of text:

Ontario’s PC Party is currently preparing to elect a new leader. One of the candidates – Randy Hillier [...] enacting freedom of conscience legislation to protect the rights of professionals and businesspeople of all faiths.

... is that your doctor won't even have to tell you where you might go to get abortion counselling if he is against the procedure.

Welcome To Hell, Mr. Hudak

In the poll of 501 Ontarians conducted April 23 to 25, the Liberals have support of 47 per cent of decided voters, compared with 31 per cent for the Tories, 16 per cent for the New Democrats, and 5 per cent for the Green party.

...or whoever the Ontario PC leader turns out to be.

Her Values Are Traditional, Her Chest A Wonder Of Post-Modernism

Anti-Same Sex Marriage SoCon Princess Carrie Prejean's post-pageant career takes a turn for the weird:

In the middle of the back and forth between the organization and Prejean, one fact came out that has been seemingly lost in the in-fighting: the admission that the contest paid for Prejean's breast augmentation.

[...]

“Breast implants in pageants is not a rarity. It’s definitely not taboo. It’s very common. Breast implants today among young women today is very common. I don’t personally have them, but you know — they are.”

Well, the morality of the act aside, I can't tell the difference, although I have never seen her, as it were, "in motion", and that's usually the clincher.

Those eyes, however, definitely say "bitch" to me. Definitely.

In any case, this revelation surely deflates any chance Ms. Prejean might have in eclipsing Sarah Palin as poster-girl/POTUS candidate for the American far right.

Unless Sarah's has been similarly "augmented", although in her case it would probably be something like the installation of a bionic hand so she can fire off 10 rounds in 3 seconds flat.