The Canadian Environment: Who Can Speak?

News of this paper  arrived on my twitter feed last evening, and one of the author's was kind enough to email me the entire thing.  It takes a look at the practical effect of the Candian  government's attempts to narrow who gets to participate in environmental assessments.  The results are profoundly unsurprising:

So, guess who typically benefits these narrowed criteria:

Of course, not everything has gone the government's way:

So there you have it.

On King Horton's

Dear Mr. Horton,

Although I never drink the plonk that mascarades as regular joe at your outlets, and though your specialty donuts are nothing but sub-standard attempts to cash in on whatever aspect of "Canadianness" seems most exploitable at the moment, and though your iced-coffee is a caffeinated abortion,  and though the youth of today refer to your product as "Tim Horkin's" for very good reasons that I will not go into here, and though giving somebody a "flavour shot" is about as appetiszing as it sounds (please note: a blob of caramel dropped into lukewarm coffee in only technically a flavour), and though the plebian dorks that frequent your restaurant engage in conversations that consist entirely of Boy!  Look at all that snow, eh?, and though I know nothing about your new business partner other than that they are not the guys who make the rectangular burgers, I nevertheless wish you well in this new phase of your corporate existance.  May your coffee, in particular, out perform McD's one day.  And to all you folks relocating from Miami, Florida, Oakville is so called for its trees. Next to it is Milton (forming "Oakville-Milton") and it is named after some guy named Milton, who founded it.  Not John Milton, the guy who wrote Paradise Lost.  Just some other guy.  And no more beaches for you; in winter, the women of Oakville-Milton dress like sofas at a funeral home.

I hope you like  it there.

Sincerely,
BCL

Wind Farms In Court: Ontario Leads The Pack

Condensed from Mike Barnard's report:


Interestingly, Canada is by far the most litigious, and Ontario had almost 30% of the cases by itself. Belief in health impacts varies substantially by geography; where anti-wind groups are strongly pushing the idea, people get afraid and try to prevent wind farms based on their health fears. They fail.

This is just in regards to cases involving alleged harm to health.  Harm to property values has been another area of complaint. So far cases that have pressed that concern have also, generally speaking, failed.

Ethical Oil Complaint To Canadian Judicial Council Fails: Judge Ducharme Off Hook For For Participating In David Suzuki Mock Trial

Ezra and Co. (young Amanda) try to soften their defeat by marking up the document with snarky liner notes

  CJC Response to Complaint Against Justice Todd Ducharme

...but if they had really won they would have been singing the decision to the high heavens for the past week.  And they haven't.

Tory MP Ryan Leef Has Tons Of Class: All Of It 3rd

Ya Wanna read something really funny, though?  Here's Ryan's MMA record.  And his legal one.

Sometimes Scarborough Makes Me Proud

For example today,  nursing a beer in a pub in the heart of Ford Nation, I overheard several working-class types discussing the CPP.  They quite rightly observed that the current government's plan to raise the retirement age to 67 was really just a way of giving you a few more years to die before they had to pay you. Surprisingly enough, this was something they were OK with.  In fact, one fellow suggested that Canadian old people should have their walkers armed with .30 mm cannons and be parachuted into Iraq where they could fight ISIS and also thin out the herd of Canadian old people, thus freeing up ill-gotten loot so it might be distributed to the Millenial Generation, who might otherwise spend their entire adult lives flipping burgers at McDs.

Their reasoned discourse  brought a tear to my eye.

PS.  Actually, they didn't explicitly draw a connection between dropping old people on Iraq & helping the youth of today.  They just seemed to like the idea of throwing old people out of planes.  But, whether they realized or not, their views were objectively progressive.

Gruending On The CRA Audits

From his latest:

The government, however, has sent unmistakable signals that it wants a crackdown. Recent federal budgets have provided the CRA with an additional $13 million in special funding to undertake such audits at a time when the government was slashing the CRA’s budget by $250 million over three years, forcing the layoff of hundreds of auditors. Jim Flaherty, the former finance minister, issued a warning to charities in 2013. “If I were an environmental charity using federal money, tax-receipted money for political purposes, I would be cautious.” Others went considerably farther in their criticism and warnings. Joe Oliver, the natural resources minister, warned about the “radical agenda” of environmental groups, and former minister Peter Kent said the groups were “laundering” offshore funds to promote foreign interests.

As a side-note, a number folks including me got on Matt Guerney of The National Post for an error in one of his recent columns.  Matt claimed that several environmental groups had already been found guilty of abusing their charitable status but, if you note the last line, he was later driven to admit that this is not the case.  Of course, even when shown that he make a bugger-up on the facts, Matt's opinion of the issue (which might best be summarized as: Go CRA!  Kick them hippies!) remained unchanged.  As I noted below:

@Bigcitylib2 Life's funny sometimes.
— Matt Gurney (@mattgurney) August 13, 2014

It Must Be Sad To Be A Part Of The Sad Sad Dying Media In The Hot Hazy Days Of Summer

...having to hack out words when you'd rather be boozing it up pool-side, being forced into sad sad stunts like this, or being forced to respond to them like they're at the same level as the discovery that Canada is secretly parachuting troops into Namibia, all the time sweating it out in an un-airconditioned newsroom while waiting for the Internet to come take your job.

It all just seems very sad.

Criminal Complaint Filed Against Ron Banerjee

...for acting up at Ford Fest.  Don't have details as yet, other than its been filed with 41 Division, but it is more than a rumour.  Will update when I hear more.

Ezra And The Duffster

Straight from Frank; Mike Duffy apparently paid him to write speeches:

Oddly enough, this makes me think better of Ezra; I always assumed that his money came entirely from dad.

Oldest Existing Map Of Britain, Dating From 1360, Resembles Giant Penis!

I'm not joking.  It does.  Fact of history.  Roughly the same color, too.

The Big Sh*t: What Darrell Bricker & John Ibbitson Have Taken

The vaunted Big Shift is indiscernible, with all evidence pointing in the opposite direction. It appears that the Canadian public are now moving to the centre and left and this may arguably be a response to increasing fatigue to being governed from the right when Canadians are actually moving in a more progressive direction.  Far from there being any apparent ascendance of the Conservatives as the new natural governing party, their reign appears to be closing and the recent surprising (though not to us) election of majority Liberal governments in Canada’s two largest provinces, may well be a harbinger of the end of the period of conservative political dominance in Canada.

Meanwhile, the triumphant Ontario Conservative Party, whose resounding election victory last June only Darrel Bricker's Ipsos Public Affairs predicted, will soon...Oh wait! They got their asses handed to them and are  making plans to elect a new loser...I mean leader...  

Anyway, we shouldn't get cocky, just like that guy says in Pacific Rim before he gets eaten by the giant Kaiju.

Rob Anders New Gig: Smitin' The Infidel For YOU, Bow River Alberta!

@Bigcitylib2 @paulisci @colbycosh Brooks Medieval Faire a short while ago. Anders was introduced as "MP for this area."
— Chris Turner (@theturner) August 9, 2014

Some background on Rob's latest adventures here.

An Ominous Sign

@Justin_Ling Dragging it into the fifth year was the one thing his fixed term law thingy was actually supposed to make illegal.
— Bigcitylib (@Bigcitylib2) August 8, 2014

Bit more here.

Justin At The Mosque

The CPC's new plan is to bash JT for being soft on terror; they've been on him for visiting, back in 2011, the  Sunnah Al-Nabawiah mosque, which had been flagged waaaayyy back in the 1990s as being possible incubator of Islamicist terror.  Their plan is very likely to backfire on them.

But all the muck stirring has kicked up a few interesting items.  For example, the government's conduit for the smear job was, no surprise, The Sun News Network.  That fact inspired Paul McLeod, Ottawa Bureau Chief for the Halifax Chronicle Herald, to draw a few connections between the network and the gov. that even I wasn't aware of:

The Sun brain trust is apparently made up by three key people. They are:

Kory Teneycke - This is the name everyone knows. Teneycke is a former director of communications for Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Sun TV is said to be his brainchild. He’s the big boss there.

Matt Wolf - Sun’s executive producer of primetime programming. From 2008 to 2010 he served as issues advisor in the office of… Prime Minister Stephen Harper

Dennis Matthews - The director of marketing and brand development at Sun. From 2006 to 2010 he served as manager of advertising and staff director for, you guessed it, Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Before that he worked for Conservative MP Rona Ambrose and Harper again during his opposition days.

Now, when the smear first emerged folks were quick to recall Jason Kenney's visit to Jaffari Centre in 2013. But if we are looking for cheap-shots, we could also mention the CPC's dalliance with the MQM (Muttahida Qaumi Movement), a Pakistani political organization with a "reputation for violence, extortion and other criminal acts such as murder." What's interesting is that Harper continued to  court MQM-Canada until at least 2012.  He even addressed a delegation from the group back in 2011.

Wind Turbines And Groundwater Contamination In Ontario

Last week this warning appeared on Reddit Ontario, and later got picked up at Ontario Wind Resistance:

You notice that it names one G.W. Tomlinson, who's Senior Environmental Officer in the Guelph district office of the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change.  I emailed him, and he was kind enough to provide a somewhat less inflammatory account of the problem referenced.

I've reproduced it below, but its long and a bit technical and if you don't want to read it all then: 1) there has been no contamination yet but there IS a pretty small but not zero chance that flooding, for example, could wash contaminated water down the sides of the utility poles used on the sites mentioned and get into the bedrock aquifer, and; 2) it should all be fixed by next month.

For the longer version, over to Mr. Tomlinson:

As for the posted “warning” you are referencing from reddit.com I can confirm that:

 Relatively short answer:

MOECC has a concern relative to the construction methods for the utility poles on this particular project, and has had the proponent for the project, (Dufferin Wind Power), (DWP), modify the construction methods for a substantial number of the poles in the project to prevent surface water from potentially using the caissons, (in this case a 1 m diameter steel casing), that the poles are mounted in, (in the ground), from becoming a conduit into the relatively shallow limestone bedrock that contains the potable water aquifer for the area. In fairness to everyone involved I have a hard time calling the instillation of the various poles as incorrect as neither DWP, or DWP’s consultants or this Ministry, (MOEE), or the Ontario Energy Board, (OEB) who actually gave the approval for the utility pole line picked up that it could become a potential pathway for surface water entering a bedrock aquifer. This type of potential pathway is just not something that is on anybody’s radar until you actually see the instillation and understand the engineering of the system. Having said all that this could be considered as just splitting hairs as MOECC feels that remedial work is necessary.  

In short is there a possibility that if the right circumstances come together at the same time that there could be a contamination pathway present? Yes, in some of the locations. Based on that MOECC has asked that remedial work be completed on what has become a substantial number of the poles in the project to prevent them from becoming a potential conduit. Is there, in the opinion of the Guelph District Office of the MOECC, an immediate potential for the contamination of all local wells in the area? No, however based on an abundance of caution it appears prudent to take action to prevent the utility poles in question from becoming a potential source of contamination for a limited number of nearby wells. The proponent, (DWP), was approached to take remedial action, proposed a plan which after some modification is currently being implemented with a target date for completion of 15 September, 2014.

 Slightly longer answer with more of the technical issues addressed:

1) Possible conduit:

In order to keep the utility poles standing with the anticipated loads they will be taking the various contractors constructing them in Melancthon Township and to a lesser extent in Amaranth Township have been forced to put down caissons into the relatively shallow limestone bedrock - the caissons are backfilled outside and inside with crushed rock with the pole is inside the caisson. Given that the caissons are in most cases in Melancthon Township bedded into the relatively shallow bedrock, and that a variable number of the sites are subject to the accumulation of surface water in and around the bases of the poles; and this is an agricultural area there is a small but nonetheless actual potential for surface water to travel to and possibly into the fractured limestone bedrock. That scenario is certainly concerning to MOECC.



2) Likelihood:

Once accepting that the potential is there for surface water to travel down the potential conduits, the issue is then will it cause a problem with, in this case, groundwater quality, (remembering that that primary source of potable water in that area is the aquifer contained in the relatively shallow limestone bedrock)? Once looking at the volumes of water involved, the amount of surface water that would be needed to travel down the caisson(s) would have to be extremely large to be able to adversely impact the quantities of water likely to be in the area in the aquifer. Having said all that, it is possible that it can happen, however looking at the construction details of the caissons, they are not particularly efficient pathways for large quantities of water.



3) What is being done:

After assessing the construction methodology of the utility pole bases and concluding that in a limited number of circumstances that the pole bases could cause a conduit for surface water down to or into the relatively shallow fractured limestone bedrock Dufferin Wind Power was approached by MOECC and asked to come up with a methodology and implementation plan to prevent the transmission of surface water down to and\or into the limestone bedrock formation in those potentially vulnerable locations. Dufferin Wind via it’s consultants Dillon Consulting proposed a plan whereby pole bases with a direct connection to or into the limestone bedrock, as well as those that have bases terminating within 2.5 m of the limestone bedrock will be sealed to prevent the transmission of surface water either through the caisson or along the outside of the caisson between it and the hole bored for it.


After discussions and modifications of the plan it has been accepted by MOECC and is now in the process of being implemented by Dufferin Wind and it’s contractors, (at this point none of the actual physical work has been started, however once the work commences it should be completed within a roughly 2 week period). The sealing program consists of the placement of a bentonite clay seal around the outside of the steel caisson to prevent surface water from traveling down the space between the outside of the hole and the caisson, as well as a bentonite clay seal being placed similarly inside the caisson to prevent surface water running down the inside of the caisson to the bedrock. Additionally the vulnerable pole locations will also have the local area around it sloped\landscaped such as to prevent the accumulation of surface water around the immediate area of the pole. All of the 216 poles in the project north of 89 Highway, (Melancthon Township), and 85 of the remaining 174 poles in the project south of 89 Highway, (Amaranth Township), (where the aquifer containing bedrock is deeper and protected by more overburden), will be sealed as described above. The sealing program is slated to be completed by 15 September, 2014.

 MOECC’s intention is to, as resources allow, monitor the implementation of the sealing program such that any delays and problems needing MOECC’s attention are addressed as quickly as possible and the program meets it’s stated completion date. It is MOECC’s understanding that the County of Dufferin will have consulting engineers acting for it also observing the implementation of the sealing program.


Please feel free to reproduce and circulate my response.

Chief Blair...Unchained

Seen at the bottom of Sue-Ann Levy's latest:

I posed a question while on a media panel at the last mayoral debate which stated Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair has of late spent considerable money on lawsuits trying to muzzle members of the Police Services Board. This was incorrect and I apologize to the chief.

This, plus the dust-up with the dumber brother, suggests to me that the chief  is in the official "fuck you I'm retiring" phase of his personal PR strategy.  Let us hope he spends the next six or eight months cutting chunks out of the butt of everyone on council and in the newspapers who ever looked at him funny.  Keep things exciting.

Wind Energy In Ontario: The State Of Play

The controversy around Ontario's Green Energy Act has faded since the OLP won their majority.  Konrad Yakabuski can whine as much (and as inaccurately) as he wants, but Ontario anti-wind activists are basically left to pound sand for the next couple of years, losing in court and before the Ontario ERT and handing lawyer Eric Gillespie their hard-earned money for leading them into folly over and over again.  Furthermore, given that repealing the act was placed front and center of the Hudak Tories' disastrous election platform, I wouldn't be surprised if the next leader of that party doesn't just quietly file the whole issue away as "not helpful".

But there are still a few new twists to be added to the saga.  For example,  I've written about the various Ostrander Point decisions on numerous occasions. Originally, the wind farm there was shot down because its attendant road network might threaten the local population of Blanding's turtle.  This decision was later overturned, and that decision was in turn appealed.

While the appeal has not yet been heard, nevertheless  the bill for legal actions to date has come due for the appellants.  The Prince Edward County Field Naturalists and the Alliance to Protect Prince Edward County, who have led the charge against the project, have been ordered to pay the wind development company $50,000 all told.  Some of the factors considered in this decision:

1 Nature of the unsuccessful litigant – The PECFN and APPEC are not public advocacy groups pursuing a broad public policy mandate. As residents of Prince Edward County, they have a "direct and personal interest" in the outcome of the litigation.

[...]

5 Final consequences to the parties – While Ostrander is better suited to absorb costs associated with the litigation, that alone is not a reason to deny costs. One function of awarding costs is to ensure that all parties "consider the wisdom of pursuing litigation and understand that there are consequences for doing so".

It will be interesting to see what next steps are taken by the province's various anti-wind groups. Given that the court/ERT decisions have been going against them for years, and that political salvation in the form of a PCPO government ready to repeal the GEA is years away, if ever,  I wouldn't be surprised to see some fall-off in activity.

Libloggers Ascendant: Danielle Takacs For LPC Nominee

I should note that Danielle Takacs is running for the Liberal Party of Canada nomination up in Brant.  Danielle used to blog at  galloping around the golden horseshoe before deciding to jump into the political ring rather than merely snarking about it.  She is to be commended for that, as are the others of our ilk who have taken the same plunge.  Its a tough job, and there is no guarantee of success. Danielle certainly has my support.

PS.  I hear that Danielle is the only LPC potential in Brant, but that the party has been dragging its feet on a nomination meeting.  While nobody can doubt  the value of a star candidate, sometimes its better to go with the soldiers who are willing to fight for you today.

Might As Well Go Home Right Now

Target Canada's new price-matching promises are, like the shelves of their stores, empty.   That is all.

Is That Ron Banerjee Choking The Gay Protester At Ford Fest?

Sure looks like it, and the folks at ARC Canada have a clearer shot, and links to video of the guy in the picture yelling anti-gay slurs.

Ron Banerjee, if you don't know, is both the leader and a large portion of the membership of Canadian Hindu Advocaacy (CHA), a hard right group of at least one Hindu (Ron) and maybe one or two other guys, also presumably Hindu.  He's done some pro-Ford proselytizing before.

Now, the guy really, really looks like Ron...here's another shot:

And even a few of his usual allies think its him:

And I hear a few reporter-types have been trying to get hold of Ron.  But it hasn't yet been confirmed as far as I know.  For my part, I've emailed one of CHA's contact email for a response, and received none.

PS.  Here's a few undisputed shots of  Ron for comparison..

Sure Its Only Forum

...from a week ago, no less.  But that's majority territory, as the poll suggests.  As for the pollsters, well, can't find where he wrote it but 308's Eric Grenier has been taking Forum a bit more seriously lately, after they called NS and Que. roughly correct, and Eric is a smart fellow.  A long way to go, and many a slip between cup and lip, but decent news, which for me, would suggest that the Tories are likely to drag out an election call rather than go in Spring 2015.

NHL & Global Warming: A Development Of Some Note

The NHL says that climate change is real, and announces measures the league will take to fight it. They're worried that the gradual disappearance of outdoor rinks might be detrimental to the game.  And it probably will be.  Less access to free ice-time means, down the road, a smaller pool of skilled skaters to draw from  The economic argument is simple and compelling: the more you charge for something the less of it you get.

Five Foot's Hubby Booted Off Blogger?

These Israeli-Palestinian set-tos always Put Arnie over the moon, so I imagine someone reported some kind of hate-speech/policy/terms-of-service violation thingy to Blogger Central and they yanked his site.  But no matter, looks like Ms. Shaidle will have work with a new John Tory administration.

PS.  Pic can be made bigger by clicking on it.

Lorne Gunter: Whatever The Facts Are, They're Bad

The Sun's Lorne Gunter objects to a PBO report claiming public sector sick day costs are not a burden on the taxpayer because  "...most departments do not call in replacements when an employee takes a sick day, [and therefore] there are no incremental costs.”  Lorne doesn't like that: whatever the costs are, they're unwarranted.  He apparently thinks that there are just too many federal public servants, however many of them there actually are and whatever they cost, and presumably if he was in charge goddammnit he would cut them to the point where the next employee taking a sick day did have an negative effect on service levels.  Apparently, Lorne thinks this is what happens in the private sector: your business owner fires everyone but his last administrator, and when they come down with the flu calls go unanswered and business goes undone. I expect this does happen occasionally, especially when times are tough, but its hardly what you would call good business practice.  And imagine how this strategy would work if applied to, for example, your local fire department.  You sack enough fellows that when the next guy sprains his ankle, the next fire gets maybe half a truck.  A guy in a VW Beetle with a can of spritzer water, maybe. In fact, in Ontario you barely have to imagine. Hudanomics, that math challenged theory propounded by ex-PCPO leader Tim Hudak, suggested firing public servants, fire men included, and redistributing the money saved to folks like chiropractors and the people who operate nail salons.  Ontarians decided that he was nuts.

Life In Scarborough: Guy On Bus, Muttering Obscenities

So I'm riding a bus home through Eastern Scarborough, and I hear this guy behind me talking shit. Weird, obscene stuff.  And it goes on and on and on, the whole bus ride, in halting English, and it keeps circling back to the same few phrases again and again: "This young girl, she let me squeeze her _____ and her ____".  But he always got mumbling when he was about to specify the precise bits of female anatomy being squeezed, so I never  heard which ones he was referencing.  For awhile I thought he might be a new immigrant learning English from an x-rated phrase book.  But when I exited the bus I got a good look at him, and he was just some middle aged white guy with a  mesh-back cap and dark glasses, and he was just talking to himself as he stared out the window.  Other than the fact that he was picking his nose shamelessly--right index finger, jammed right up--he could have been anybody.  Maybe even a pharmacist.

Rob Ford: Rage Against The Latrine

Rob Ford thinks $600,000 is too much to spend on a bathroom.  After all, the bathroom is in a field, and there are trees in the field, thus rendering the bathroom redundant.

Randy Hillier On PCPO Reform: Still Crazy After All These Years

Randy, like many PCPO mpps lately, has been advocatin' democratic reform for the Ontario Progessive Conservative party.  No concrete new policies on offer yet, unless you count ditching all the old policies.  I took to twitter, and noted how, as part of this repositioning, Randy seems to have softened his views on union bashing and other issues since June 12th's inglorious defeat.

Debate ensued:

For old times sake (but not that old--it's from 2004), here's Randy arguing that rural Ontario has to get out from under T.O.s socialist nanny state booty.

The Onion On Movies

Presented without comment.

Maybe They Were Already Dead

Paul Wells thinks the Harper government should be given credit for slaying Quebec separatism.  I'd suggest its been deceased since 1995 and Harper has merely presided over the last twitchings of the body.  I would further suggest that Harper's uncritical trumpeting of tar-sands development threatens to awake a far more dangerous beast...a British Columbia independence movement.  The more Harper pushes for projects like Northern Gateway (and perhaps, who knows, Kinder Morgan) the more he risks a sovereigntist flare-up on our Left Coast.  Those people went ape-shit when outsiders attempted to harmonize the federal and provincial sales tax; just think how they'll react when the first crew of tar-miners from Calgary show up in their gold-plated cowboy hats. (hint: it will be bad)

News From Heartland Institute Climate Conference: Barre Seid Is HI's Anonymous Donor

It's official - @wattsupwiththat finally 100% confirmed billionaire Barre Seid is @HeartlandInst #climate denial "anonymous donor" #iccc9
— Polluter Watch (@PolluterWatch) July 9, 2014

@Bigcitylib2 @wattsupwiththat @HeartlandInst in conversation, video footage coming. Jim Lakely filmed it--ask him!
— Polluter Watch (@PolluterWatch) July 10, 2014

This has long been suspected, but apparently has been confirmed.  Barre is this guy, a reclusive billionaire known for funding right-wing causes. It will be interesting now to see if any pressure is brought to bear upon him and his holdings.  General Motors, for example, was eventually convinced to end their funding of HI.

LPC Ads On Youtube

The last couple of days I've been running across the following ad every time I go looking for clips of this or that on youtube.  Below is what I got last evening.

Its Justin reading a Private Member's statement on Eugenie Bouchard, from June 4, but recycled again after her latest run.  Here's the original:

 I suppose this kind of thing is not terribly remarkable these days but its nice to see the party being creative. FWIW this is the tune I was looking for when I found the ad:

The Great Toronto Storm, A Year Later

These words seem to have held up pretty well.  May they cheer any fellow Torontonians who suffered a loss during that horrible day.  Like having their Lamborghini flooded.

Justin's Star Ascendant In Fort Mc!!!

Liberals would have won Fort McMurray #byelxn41 if held on the new boundaries, poll-by-poll results show. #YMM #LPC pic.twitter.com/JOWtfsE2ux
— Pundits' Guide (@punditsguide) July 6, 2014

Look at that top-line.

Die Media Die: National Post On Its New Summer Print Schedule

National Post is on its summer print schedule. No more Monday papers until after Labour Day.
— Steve Faguy (@fagstein) July 6, 2014

I haven't seen the official  NP statement announcing their summer schedule, but someone on the inside has emailed me a secret first draft, before the despairing tone of it was softened to something more resembling "down but not out".

Dear National Post Readers, Should There Be Any Of You Left Out There:

Between now and Labour Day we will not be printing our Monday edition.  Since it was going entirely unsold, management felt the energy expended in its production might be better directed towards heating our tents and running the coffee machines on a restricted basis.  Also, it was discovered that some of the glue used to bind our glossy inserts could be boiled down to its starch and sugar components, and smeared over bread for its calories.  Or over boiled belt and running shoe, maybe, when the time comes.  

For, as our readers may know already (assuming you are out there somewhere, not surfing the Internet for your news and entertainment), we were recently forced to sell our building on Don Mills Road and relocate to an yurt village along the Don River itself, for budgetary reasons (we're broke). We use the wifi at a nearby Tim Horton's to file our stories, and pee in the bush.  Unfortunately a nearby encampment of homeless cannibals has contested our right to this space, and they seem more numerous and better fed than we.  We may have more urgent tasks ahead of us soon than cranking out our Monday paper.

And, as for that edition, and in fact all of our editions: despite our many, many efforts to "do more with less", it still isn't happening.  Our product (The National Post) still goes over like a bus full of Vietnamese orphans off a ravine road North of Ho Chi Minh City.  

Nevertheless, we can do naught but pray for a brighter future, or at least a swift death.

The Editors
National Post

Never Ever Promise Open Nominations

Because you're not being sincere.  And because the people don't give a crap until they hear all the bad-news stories generated when you break your promise.  

This bit of advise applies to parties of all political stripes.

Centre For Israel And Jewish Affairs Censors Holocaust Survivers

Bernie Farber's new column for the CJN is now on-line.  Its about the crummy manner in which the Canadian government has treated the Pusemas, a family of Hungarian refugees which includes a six year old girl named Lulu.  What I'm particularly interested in is this bit:

Lets be clear: CIJA is financially muscling a group of holocaust survivors for protesting the behavior of the current government.  Why?  Well:

Of course this is only speculation.  But if so, CIJA and these other organizations have transformed themselves into a single issue advocacy groups, trading their ability to speak out generally for a single paltry policy stance from the current government.

Since the Canadian Jewish Holocaust Survivors wrote their letter regardless, it appears that all CIJA et al have managed to accomplish is to muzzle themselves.

Life In Scarborough: I Think I Saw A Mink

They're all around T.O. apparently, but I was here:

...which is a fair distance from water (although there's a creek a few hundred yards North, if you look at the map). It came out of the bush to the left of the tracks, and slowly loped forward towards me standing on the bridge.  Like a fat ferret, or a scrawny ground-hog that had been stretched on the rack.   It took a good half hour, sniffing about on the gravel between the two sets of tracks pictured center-left, and it paused when it saw me standing about in the middle of this pic watching it.

And eventually it spied something in the bush stage right (South) and buggered off.  Here's what a mink looks like:

...which more or less fits what I saw, esp. the coloration.  Any other weaselly type creatures it might have been in T.O.? 

Trans Mountain: They Had To Bomb The Whale In Order To Save The Whale

Dropping explosives into the ocean to scare whales away from balls of floating dilbit is just just one element of  Trans Mountain's "world class" response to oil-spills outta ships carrying Alberta Tar from its pipelines.  And if the bombers should overshoot...then hey!  they'll be enough blubber steak for sale in Vancouver's trendy "game" restaurants to finance a protected area, where the last deafened and terrified whales can huddle as they wait for the next air-strike.

Update On Target Canada: No Change

The stuff you saw in the flyer wasn't there.  Half the shelves were empty; the half that weren't were filled with  "ordinary stuff". On the other hand, Sensodyne toothpaste was 50 cents cheaper than Walmart, an event of some rarity.  Otherwise, no reason to leave the cool confines of  your beloved Walmart.

The Sad, Sad NDP: A Twitter Debate

The good Dr. Dawg has quit, or is at least thinking of quitting, the Federal/Ontario NDP.  Debate ensues.

BCLSB Exclusive: Draft Version Of Peter Mackay's Facebook Statement On Women!

Peter Mackay recently issued a Facebook statement on that whole "women issue".  I have been able to access, via secret backdoor channels and a mole within the CPC establishment, an early version of that statement, before government spin-doctors got to it and, as they say, "softened the message".

Section 13 Is Officially Dead...

Long Live Section 13.  But during its death spiral the whole notion of having a hate speech provision in the Canadian Human Rights Act was judged perfectly constitutional.  And  with a LPC government in power, S13 or something similar could be reinserted without having to sweat the constitutional issues.  It would be a vote getter, and it would be something that could be done on the cheap.

So we shall see.

Welcome Glen Murray, Ontario's New Minister Of The Environment

@Glen4ONT @jm_mcgrath You go get 'em.  Greenbelt is one of OLP's real achievements.  Builders hated it, but finally saw it worked. #onpoli
— Bigcitylib (@Bigcitylib2) June 26, 2014

Andrea Horwath: I'm Going Nowhere

No remose.  No regrets. No plan.  No future.   No clue.

Now That's Scary

If you're a Ontario Liberal Party supporter, you don't want to hear that Christine Elliott, widow of Jim Flaherty, is going to run for Ontario PC leadership.  But she is.  On the other hand if you are a centrist who occasionally gets tired of reading about one damn screw-up after another and might like an alternative that isn't as crazy as the Hudak years looked set to be, she will probably come as a breath of fresh air.  I'm guessing The Wild Bunch won't ever let her ascend to the leadership.  Too damn Liberal.  But she's one possible way out of the conservative ghetto (old, rural, whiter than white) that that once proud, now sad party has fallen into.  

Joe Cressy, The NDP, And Keystone XL

NDP candidate Joe Cressy is yakking it up at the #trinspa debate:

Cressy: stop subsidizing oil patch, and start green energy; stop the Keystone XL pipeline, etc. #trinspa
— Pundits' Guide (@punditsguide) June 23, 2014

You know we all hate Keystone here in T.O. but I don't see what making it front-and-center in their campaign is going to do for the NDP.  What practical effect does opposing a pipeline the fate of which will be decided by the government of another country have?  The entire party might as well drop its pants are fart in the direction of Washington.  It'll do as much good.  What victory can be claimed if the decision goes against Keystone?  Could they not settle on  issues that apply to Trinity-Spadina  specifically?

Federal Libs On Northern Gateway, Keystone XL

Den Tandt's pro-Keystone sentiments are standard issue,  but his bit on Liberal strategy seems sound:

All of which leads us back to the Liberals: They oppose the Northern Gateway project, because it lacks local community support and because its proposed route envisions sending hundreds of oil tankers down the narrow and pristine Douglas Channel, in B.C. But they support Keystone, because it has passed every local environmental and national governmental hurdle, and because of its strategic importance to Canada’s economy.

On a symbolic level, that bifurcation bridges the gap between Tories and New Democrats. It makes the Liberals look like grownups, and the other two parties implicitly like ideological outriders. And it places the Grits squarely in the sweet spot of Canadian politics, which is the pragmatic centre, heading into the 2015 election. 

I'd add a few other points as well.  Keystone XL is probably the easiest pipeline to support because, well, any spills from it  will wreck somebody else's country.  And of course it is the decision over which Canadian's have least leverage, so there is not much credit or blame to take whichever way it goes.  Note the LPC rationale, "lacking...community support", can be applied to Trans-Mountain or (Energy East) should the public relations ball get dropped there the way Enbridge did with Gateway.   The LPC positioning here: supporting a pipeline to the West Coast in general but without getting behind any particular project  seems similarly clever.

Justin Trudeau Makes Men Standing Next To Him Look Sexxxier

Here is a shot of Scarborough-Agincourt candidate Arnold Chan with Justin Trudeau:

And here is one without:

An obvious increase in sexxxiness in the first shot vs. the second..  Although I will admit the guy was not bad to start with.

David Akin, Yuk Yuk Yuk

David Akin has finally made the Conservative  big time.  He's got a link from RealClearEnergy on RealClearPolitics:

Something you're not telling, David?

Ontario To Canada: You Owe Us, You Ungrateful Pricks

Ontario has subsidized the rest of this frozen craphole of a nation since before the latest generation of carpers and whiners huddled under skins sucking their mama's tit in a Yert outside of Mushaboo.  If Ontario hadn't financed Abasand Oils, Great Canadian, and on and on, Albertans would still be struggling to rise up from the muck and mire, and hunting down mastodons with bone-tipped spears.  If not for Ontario, Newsfies would be eating their belts come the first hard winter, rather than lolling in the arms of the nanny state.  But no.  It's OK.  You don't have to say thank you.  But if things get a little tough here for a few years, suck it up and act Canadian. Alright?

Randy Hillier Speaks! Points Finger Of Blame!

Guy's definitely got class.  All of it 3rd.

From his facebook page; he's referring to this article.  Worth noting that, when Hudak was an advocate fior ditching the Rand formula, Randy was behind him 100%.  Randy's usually just right of Attila The Hun, but in the wake of the PCPO ass-whupp'n he's gone all soft and sensitive.

And its funny that today we learn that Tim Hudak considered naming the civil servants he intended to fire.  Randy talked him out of it but, apparently, he's willing to name a few names of his own:

This guy's the new PCPO leader.  Mark my words.

Dennis Gruending On Canadian Doctors For Refugee Care

It's another good piece.  This little bit of it lets you see some of the logic at work on the government side:

Several members of the audience identified themselves as belonging to groups who have privately sponsored refugees. They described the chill that has set in: groups now fear having to pay expensive medical bills if the people they sponsor become ill.

Keeping 'em out without keeping 'em out.  Clever.

Northern Gateway: Welcome To Our Next National Unity Crisis

Depending how hard The Feds and Alberta push, it could get very ugly.  "The West" fragmented; B.C. NEP-ed; West-Coat  independence movements galore; The ROC forced to choose between beautiful B.C. and Alberta sludge miners.  I suspect that the Harper government won't push too hard, but they are betting the eventual construction date is so far beyond 2015 that this decision won't cost them.  I think it will, out in B.C. especially if the folks out there can swing a (non-binding) referendum.  You betcha this will be top-line news on election day 2015.  And Den Tandt is a kook if he thinks this decision will work to Harper's advantage in Ontario.  The polls out here side with B.C. over Alta. about three-to-one, and I doubt Jim Prentice has the rhetorical skills to change that ratio much.

Anti-Wind Battle Moves To Municipalities

Wind Concerns Ontario has a statement on the election  here.  They blame "urban voters" for the loss, although oddly enough their contact address is still  a ritzy address down in The Guild.  The next step is to run, or at least support, candidates in this October's municipal elections.  So, basically, stick a fork in 'em; they're done.  As for the wind industry's reaction, to Friday's result, it's basically a big sigh of relief.  Best story I've read on it so far is here.

First Steps For New Wynne Majority

@SueAnnLevy @SueAnnLevy Ontario should name a new tax after you.  Call it "The Sue-Ann Levy levy".  #onpoli
— Bigcitylib (@Bigcitylib2) June 13, 2014

Things We Learned During Ontario Election 2014: Conservative Ideologues Should Be Convulsed With Doubt And Self-Loathing

Take Andrew Coyne, for example. This guy is known among Canada's literati as "the journalist who knows math".  He's always saying "Well, the iron laws of Economics will prevent that!" and so forth. And when he says it what he means is that your figgers don't add up.  So what happened when he realized that Tim Hudak's 1,000,000 jobs plan made no sense unless you divided all his numbers by 8?  He endorsed the guy anyway!  He essentially abandoned mathematical Platonism, implicitly denied the reality of the number line, turned all Constructivist or, god help us,  into some kind of  late Wittgensteinian.  He claimed, in effect: "Whatever! Numbers do what I tell them to!

He's certainly not the only person to exhibit the same hubris.  Anyone who endorsed the "Hudak Plan" in spite of the innumeracy at its heart falls into the same boat. And it was these guys, who were willing to offer the PCPO an intellectual version of affirmative action for conservatives--They're morons, but their heart is in the right place!  PASS!--who actually cost team Tory the election.

Because you can't run on an austerity platform with bad math in it!  Because austerity brings pain, and you have to be able to demonstrate to people that if you put all the minuses together the right way you get a big plus at the end. Eat your spinach now, and you will get pie later! If you can't demonstrate this, your austerity platform starts to look like gratuitous cruelty, and you like a jerk who can't add.  Eat your spinach now!  And that's all your getting!  Spinach!  Nothing but spinach!  Yea for spinach!

And in the end that is how Tim Hudak will be remembered.: as an innumerate jerk bearing spinach. And the Conservative movement as a whole has been revealed as punishment loving folk who fetishize certain numbers (that Debt to GDP ratio sure is huge!)  but have no real idea how to manipulate them correctly according to the eternal laws of rational thought.

And that's not a good place to be.

Jim Keegstra Has Apparently Died

Noted anti-semite Jim Keegstra has died. #cdnpoli
— Mike Sloan (@mikelondoncan) June 13, 2014

It's all from one source, but there has been some follow-up:

@gregladen @Bigcitylib2 Yes, in Red Deer
— Mike Sloan (@mikelondoncan) June 13, 2014

Update: Confirmed here.

Analysis Of Gas Plants Scandal's Effect On Ontario Election Polls...Expressed In Concrete Poetry!

Gasplantsgasplantzgasplanzz

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Does Forum Poll Herald Liberal Majority?

This Ontario election may have recent precedents in Alberta and B.C.  There very tired governments were up against challengers who the governing party attempted to portray as "radical" during the course of the election campaign.  With some justification, in Alberta at least, as the Wildrose party of the time was indeed filled with kooks.  And successfully too.  In both cases it seems a late wave broke for the incumbents.  In Alberta a few polls seemed to pick up the first hints of this.  In B.C. everyone missed it.  Is this new Forum poll the first signs of a similar movement here in Ontario?

PS.  It is only Forum, I realize, though all the polls have been hovering in the same neighborhood lately.

Will The Government's New Prostitution Legislation Make Strip Clubs Illegal?

Past President of the Ontario Bar Association James Morton thinks so:

Most people do see a difference between going to a strip club and hiring a prostitute.  Strip clubs, while perhaps not the most elevated form of entertainment have long been accepted in Canada.  Some readers may remember the litigation over Pandora’s Box in Ottawa in the early 1970s -- since then strip clubs have been part of the Canadian landscape much like adult video and magazines.  

[...]

Note that "sexual services" is not defined.  Based on the preamble's description of objectification of the human body is a harm to be avoided, "sexual services" must be defined broadly. It could, on a simple reading of the legislation, include paying someone to take off their clothes so that the viewer can obtain sexual gratification. Certainly a "lap dance" where a naked stripper sits of the lap of a customer - who has paid for the dance - is caught by the legislation.

Is it likely that charges under the proposed legislation will be laid against someone getting a lap dance at a strip club?  From my own experience if a section in the Criminal Code can be made to apply to activity some police officer somewhere will lay a charge and some Crown somewhere will prosecute.  In fairness, it does seem that the legislation could apply so why would charges not be laid? 

Some have argued that the same legislation will make publishing the kind of want-ads offering escort services that you see in The Sun and Now Magazine illegal.  As I write here, and as others have suggested, the Tories don't likely care.  The purpose of the legislation is to serve as a device for fundraising after it is inevitably shot down by the courts.

New Oracle Poll Has Ontario Race In Dead Heat

Near identical numbers for PC and Liberal Party: The province-wide results show no movement from the PC and NDP since the May 26th data was released. There is slow upward growth by the Liberal Party from 31% to 35% (May 5th data and this poll). The PC had 42% in the first poll, dipping to 36% in the current poll. The NDP remain almost unchanged at 24%. 

The other important bit from this poll:

PC and liberals have almost equal support in "seat rich" GTA Region: PC 's have a sizeable lead in public support in three regions of the Province (Central, Eastern and Southwest). The NDP’s dominate the North Region and the Liberal's have healthy leads in Niagara/Hamilton and Metro region. The area where the NDP’s dominate have 10 seats. The area where Liberal's are most popular cover 32 Ridings or seats. The PC lead in areas accounting for 42 seats and the GTA Region where the Liberals and PC have similar support accounts for 23 seats. 

Though no seat projects are provided.  And of course the NDP, as they have this entire election cycle, just sit there like a dead fish at the bottom of a lake.

Innovative hasn't reported in awhile.  Wonder if they'll get one in before its all over.

Northern Gateway To Be Delayed?

“We've heard through the grapevine that the Harper government is going to announce a delay," said the Chief Phillip said to the hundreds of people gathered to protest the bitumen pipeline proposal.

"This is the rumour -- that it’s going to be a delay to allow for more consultation with First Nations communities. We know that if we take this matter to the court today, the Harper government will lose.” 

Delay pretty much means post-2015.  Otherwise it becomes an issue in the 2015 federal election.

Dear NDPers: The Time Has Come To Do The Right Thing And Abandon Your Party

Because it has already abandoned you.  I mean, Jack Layton carefully prepared your federal counterparts for his "move to claim the center".  And some of the changes he made, to your constitution for example, where he removed the stuff about property ownership being inherently evil because it suppressed revolutionary fervor, and that clause about castrating all the bosses and hanging them in a public square with their balls in their mouths...well I think we can all admit that they were kind of fringe-y policy elements that are best gone, can't we?  But Andrea Horwath...she just said "excuse the fuck me" and took off to a political place near where Atilla the Hun settled after he plundered the Balkans.  You don't owe her.  You owe it to yourself to stop Tim Hudak from implementing what we might call a "Maximum Horwath" approach to firing Ontario civil servernts.  Vote OLP and afterwards give Andrea her retirement presents. 

A longer version of this Op-Ed by OLP leader Kathleen Wynne appeared today in the Toronto Star.

Life In Scarborough: Scarborough Youth Discuss Their Social Media Presence

So I'm sitting in a bar in Scarborough (I'm always sitting in a bar in Scarborough), and this young couple a few booths down start arguing.  She starts giving him the third degree about what he's up to on Facebook. She starts talking about all the women he's "liked" recently, and about how he hasn't deleted women he once liked but apparently promised he would delete.  So why the hell hasn't he?  He keeps saying no man it isn't true but she says she's contacted some of these new women, and they don't know him from Adam, so why is he liking them like he's some kind of stalker?  He says no again but she says she's seen his "activity logs".  I don't know if there even is such a thing on Facebook but she sure has got him by the nads.  She reams him out for a good half-hour.   He's gotta sit and take it.

I've always said social media is civilizational poison.  Twitter is what you use when you want to destroy your career with a couple of tossed-off sentiments.  And I used to think that Facebook was where the white working class went to destroy their marriages and other intimate relationships.  But this was a mixed-race couple, so the bad effect obviously goes far beyond what I had previously imagined.

New Ipsos, Not Bad

After all the kerfuffles New Ipsos shows OLP tied with decided voters and closer with  likelys  compared to last poll http://t.co/tuCCCy4Lum
— Bigcitylib (@Bigcitylib2) June 6, 2014

This was their last one. Jeez, I was looking forward to being depressed this evening.

Your Daily Nazi: Robert Mccorkill Can't Give His Estate To Nazis

He was the Canadian chemist who wanted to will his collection of ancient coins and other artifacts to The National Alliance, an american Neo-Nazi group.  Richard Warman,  B'nai Brith, and Isabelle Rose Mccorkill teamed up to see if they could put a stop to it.  Today, the New Brunswick Court of Queen’s Bench issued their ruling.  Richard writes of it:

 At paragraph 76, Justice Grant continues his condemnation of the National Alliance in no uncertain terms – “The evidence before the court convinces me that in the case of the NA [National Alliance] the purpose for which it exists is to promote white supremacy through the dissemination of propaganda which incites hatred of various identifiable groups which they deem to be non-white and therefore unworthy. These purposes and the means they advocate to achieve them are criminal in Canada and that is what makes this bequest repugnant.”

I think that Justice Grant’s collective use of provincial human rights law, federal criminal law, and Canada’s obligations under numerous international treaties to block the bequest to the National Alliance shows on how many levels it was contrary to public policy. The welcome intervention of the Attorney-General of New Brunswick through counsel Richard Williams to stop the bequest cleary carried great weight with the court on this issue and they deserve a great vote of thanks for their efforts to defend the public interest.

The full decision, which I have not read yet, can be found here.  When I have I might do another post. Congrats to Richard and everyone else involved.

Will New Prostitution Bill Shut Down Toronto SUN???

You can see it through the link.  The exciting bit is here:

Justin Ling gets to the nub of the issue:

I write for @dailyxtra. I don't see how we'll be allowed to publish after this bill passes.
— Justin Ling (@Justin_Ling) June 4, 2014

But its not just the Gay & Lesbian news that would suffer.  Its been awhile since I've flipped through the personals in The T.O  Sun, but they used to run tons of ads for escort services. The new law means them forgoing a pretty lucrative revenue stream.  News folks everywhere are going to shit.

So its probably a head fake; this bit gets amended out in order to let the other probably unconstitutional stuff go through (until the whole thing gets struck down).

New Ontario Poll: What Did I Say?

Before the Tuesday telecast, voters who tuned in said they preferred the Liberals over the Conservatives by 37 per cent to 31 per cent. Afterward, the Liberals were at 40 per cent and the Conservatives at 35 per cent.

I said this, if you're wondering.

Ontario Debate: BCLSB Analysis

Sat in a pub watching old MMA clips during the whole thing, waiting for my wife to do her physio.  Drank a couple of  pints, kept an eye on twitter as the poli-nerds fought it out.  It was almost like I was watching the Ontario election debate, except I wasn't so bored I wanted to pull my eyes out.  Final  analysis: I spent my time wisely, cradled over a beer.  And tomorrow, most polls will still show the OLP up by 5 or 6.

Message To Millenials: Until You Are Ready To Kill Your Folks, You'll Never Amount To Anything

The charts tell the story.  Your entire generation is being screwed, and your only hope is to launch a violent, possibly cannibalistic uprising against your elders.  Otherwise they'll figure out a way to take it all with them, to fly off with the loot on the back of their jet-powered mobility scooters.

Like reverse mortgages, for example.  I should never have told my own parents about those.  Now every time we get into an argument they threaten to "reverse the mortgage" so I wind up with squat.

Finally, not all old people are for eating.  I'm getting old, but I'm pretty cool and also sympathetic to your plight.   I'll be the balding guy wearing a hoody with Bob Marley on front, so you'll know to leave me alone.

Life In Scarborough: Scarborough Youths Reject The Lure Of Tar-Sands $

Overheard a young couple yesterday in one of Scarborough's relatively upscale pubs.   He had taken her out for dinner. They were both Millennials, sporting elaborate tattoos.  He said that he had considered leaving for Fort Mac to shovel bitumen outta the tar-sands, but decided that doing so would mean selling out his values, betraying the good Mother Earth, and etc.  He didn't care about money.  Life was so much more.  Good lad. I'm pretty sure he was trying to get laid, but whatever. Back in my day, if you wanted to advertise your sensitivity creds you just threw on a VHS of any movie starring the young Matthew Modine, Birdy comes to mind, and then made sure your gal saw you tearing up  the appropriate moment.  The bar has got a little higher since the 1980s, which is a good thing.