Olympic View of Vancouver City Hall

The arrival of the Olympic torch today at Victoria International and its touchdown mark the beginning of the most exclusive and non-public games ever held in Canada, with the largest security force ever assembled and the greatest trampling of human rights and the laws of this country ever executed in this free and just society.

16,000 security personnel have been amassed in legion with orders and directives kept hidden from the people of this “JUST SOCIETY”. CSIS, our own CIA is intercepting emails and cell phone chatter for “hot word” conversations. Known protesters have been intimidated and touched by I.S.U. to ensure they know they are being watched. Municipal By laws have been amended to afford police draconian abilities to squash protest, without having the right to first be tested by the Supreme Court to ensure they pass constitutional muster and will not even be heard until after these games are completed. Six Billion dollars of taxpayer money has been spent to date renovating primping and preening the provincial image, to sell a province already groaning under the current rate of growth. The poor are now able to be “legally” swept from the public view of the world to non-existent shelters for their protection. The lies have been told… most of which promised not to do all of the things I have listed previously in this article, now on with the professional sports games. (These are now paid athelets; amateur requirements were long ago stripped from the games)
(more…)

Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq

News of the Swine-Flu started drifting into the media back in April of 2009. It very soon began to seem like it was much noise about not much. Then it returned to the airwaves and started hitting all of us hard in early October as the date for the federal roll-out of a newly developed vaccine approached. One would imagine that the Ministry of Health would follow their own directives, as listed on their “About Mission, Values, Activities” page. Pay particular attention to the third sub-heading under “Core Values – Our Values in Action,” which is entitled, “Caring for the People of Canada.” (take a minute to click the link and read that one section). There’s talk about advancing the public good, as well as the provision of credible information and reliable advice – presumably to that same public. But what has actually happened falls rather short of the Ministry’s espoused ideals.

The Federal government, as represented by Canadian Health Minister, Leona Aglukkaq, told Canadians on October 21st, “I’m happy to say that today Health Canada has authorized the H1N1 flu virus vaccine,” and on October 25th, “I encourage Canadians to get the vaccine to stop the pandemic”. I live in BC where the H1N1 virus hit hardest, the clock is still ticking, people are still dying, it’s October 30th, and my family is still unable to get the vaccine. Unfortunately, or fortunately (I won’t know until the grim reaper has completed his grisly harvest), we’re not in a high risk category, so if we die, well, that’s just taking one for the team, don’t you see.
(more…)

Ross Rebagliati is preparing for a new kind of competition

Constituents in the British Columbia riding of Okanagan-Coquihalla may be in for a good old-fashioned Western showdown leading up to the next federal election.

That’s because on Monday snowboarding’s first Olympic gold medalist, British Columbia Sports Hall-of-Famer and Kelowna resident Ross Rebagliati, was officially nominated the new Liberal candidate for the riding.
His Conservative opponent? Veteran politician Stockwell Day, a former leader of the Official Opposition, current Minister of Foreign Trade, and a nine-year incumbent whose political popularity in the Okanagan speaks for itself.

And there ain’t enough room in this town for the both of ‘em.
(more…)

The greatest thing about H1N1 is that it heightened social anxiety that is now out of control.

If government’s can’t control their message and act as the source for all direction, in a country with a national health care program and billions being dumped to support its existence, then people need to take this cue and start figuring things out for themselves.

Cudos to the media for enabling all of this ridiculousness. But like every other catastrophic doomsday prediction of the recent past – Y2K, moldy alfalfa sprouts, mad cow disease, etc. it’s great TV. But it’s starting to make humanity look like complete idiots.

In the last week, as the flu started to sweep across Canada with a predictable vengeance immediately after a 13 year old young rising hockey superstar from Ontario died, supposedly from H1N1, the circus began. I grieve for his parents but I don’t know if the media’s play on this was necessary. But it was unavoidable.
(more…)

It’s an oil rich area in Alberta, and apparently a cause for concern. Oil development in the region has had a huge impact for the people who live there – the Lubicon Cree.

To make a long story short: it’s disputed land, and statistically, the Lubicon Cree’s quality of life has decreased since the oil production began, now it resembles that of a third world country. Federal social service payments went from the primary income source of 10 percent of the population to 90 percent. There is a severe lack of running water and sanitation and health conditions are abnormally high as a result.

Traditionally, trapping was a source of income for a majority of the populace, but after the first year of oil development, wildlife all but disappeared.
(more…)

"A closer view"

The true test of freedom of expression is not found in the voicing of the concurring viewpoint, it is however clearly and expressly found or displayed in the protection of the dissenting one. Freedom of Expression, (there is no freedom of speech per se in the Charter) subsection two of the Fundamental Freedoms of the Charter of Rights along with Freedom of Assembly and Association cannot withstand an “A la carte” mentality, not for “THE PEOPLE”. Governments however love it, as it eats away at the very fabric of the statements, neuters the strength of peoples resolve, divides and renders mute the very voice of freedom and its meaning. One cannot as a society say “these topics” may be discussed yet “those topics” may not and still cling to any notion of the principles enshrined in these charter freedoms without the acceptance of censorship, hypocrisy and the eventual death of the very freedoms themselves.

Critical thinking and self filtering are skills greatly needed in today’s society. They are critical skills and must be ever more a part of the educational lexicon if the very foundation of freedom that we embrace as Canadians is to continue. “Hate” as defined by the Supreme Court, as the “lone caveat” to freedom of expression becomes a dangerous quagmire when it drives dissenting view underground to hidden rooms without the clarity of discussion or alternatives. Throwing that Caveat ruling around like stones, to edit expression, should be a principal of great concern.
(more…)

The other day on Power and Politics, Evan Solomon discussed sexism in the House of Commons. This was in response to accusations by opposition members that when women stand to speak in the House, they are shouted down even louder than when a man stands up. Shocking! Predictably, the panel discussion didn’t get anywhere as this isn’t a new story – nothing has changed over the years. Ironically, this new CBC political program, discussing sexism, is a replacement show for Don Newman, who everyday for many years, with his dervlish masculinity, opened up his show with the famous lines, “Welcome to the BROADcast”.

I will never forget the episode when Newman had a very animated female MP from Quebec on the show, and for some odd reason the CBC cameraman zoomed in and out on the gap in her front teeth. She was large, wore blue eyeshadow and red lipstick. She was no Madonna. It was obviously no technical accident as a CBC cameraman on that show has as much seniority and skill as Santa does on Christmas.
(more…)

Nathalie Morin (right), with husband Al Bishi and eldest son Samir.

The Canadian government has decided not to repatriate a Quebec woman living in Saudi Arabia who claims her husband is not allowing her to leave the country. Nathalie Morin, who married a Saudi Arabian man over eight years ago, is subject to the Saudi law that women and their children cannot leave the country without the permission of their husbands. Morin has three children and claims to have been trying to come to Canada for almost three years – but her husband refuses to allow her the necessary permission.

Nathalie Morin met her Saudi husband, Samir Said Ramthi Al Bishi, in Montreal at the age of seventeen. They later moved to Saudi Arabia after the birth of their first son. Morin’s mother claims her daughter’s marriage and family life was strong until they left Canada. It is claimed that Al Bishi is regularly physically abusive and that his refusal to let Moran and her children come to Canada is not out of love but out of spite. Although an amendment to the Saudi law allows foreign wives to leave without their husbands’ permission, it does not apply to Morin as she was married before the law was changed. Desperate to have her daughter home, Morin’s mother Johanne Durocher has been pleading that the Canadian government repatriate her daughter. Foreign Affairs minister Lawrence Cannon met with Saudi officials on the weekend to discuss the situation and announced afterward that the matter was to be privately dealt with by the family. Durocher says Cannon’s press secretary, Natalie Sarafian, sent her an e-mail explaining that Morin’s husband would allow Morin to come home – if the government paid him a sum of $300,000. Durocher claims this exorbitant request was passed onto her. “You don’t buy your children” says Durocher.
(more…)

When two people in a relationship are the same, one is unnecessary

The reason Mr. Harper maintains a significant lead over Mr. Ignatieff’s Liberals is because there is no significant difference between the two.

- Both of them would have put Canadian soldiers in Iraq, and both of them are saying “Oops” now.
- Both of them think the tar sands should go full speed ahead.
- Neither one of them has a real plan to deal with climate change.
- Both of them seem to have mixed feelings about being Canadian.

If Harper and Ignatieff would both take largely the same direction when in office, then one of them is unnecessary – the one not currently in office.

Canadians might as well go with the devil they know.

On the Iraq war then:

Stephen Harper: In an interview with [Fox News], Harper said he endorsed the war and said he was speaking “for the silent majority” of Canadians. Only in Quebec, with its “pacifist tradition,” are most people opposed to the war, Harper said.

Michael Ignatieff: A year ago, I was a reluctant yet convinced supporter of the war in Iraq.
(more…)

Clearly, one of the main reasons the Liberals recruited Michael Ignatieff was for nostalgic and pragmatic purposes. They wanted another Pierre Trudeau. With polls suggesting the Liberals under Ignatieff are hemorrhaging support and the Conservatives are gaining support, this bold initiative seems to have withered into a false start.

Those bright, bookish types sometimes have it hard. When they are rising in the polls, their articulate communication and serious demeanor are used for favourable comparisons with charismatic leaders like Obama, Trudeau, and John F.Kennedy. When they sink in the polls, those same traits are used for disparaging comparisons to diffident, “egghead” leaders like Adlai Stevenson and Stephane Dion.

It does appear to be true that intellectuals generally do not do well in politics. According to psychologist Martin Seligman, their tendency to ruminate and their lack of optimism turns the electorate off. Canadian Political Scientist Stephen Clarkson agrees and cites Trudeau as an exception to the rule. But is he really an exception? I believe that Trudeau deserved his intellectual reputation, but he often did not behave like most intellectuals. A lot of his writing for example was polemical and argumentative in style, which does not mean he was a lightweight, but is a very different approach from most academics. Furthermore, during election campaigns, his gunslinger pose and his visionary and optimistic speeches were not anything like the staid, quiet lectures of an Oxford don. On those occasions when he did appear professorial (most notably his Philosopher King campaign of 1972), the results were near disastrous.
(more…)