I wrote earlier about Harper’s attempt to stack the judiciary. This is only one part of a double-sized fist sandwhich which Harper is delivering straight to our democracy.
The other fist is his desperate and arrogant attempt to defy the will of the House of Commons.
Conservatives are simply dismissing a bill that gives the administration 60 days to announce plans to reach Canada’s 2012 Kyoto goals. After tossing obstacle after obstacle in the bill’s 10-month path through Parliament, the Prime Minister’s operatives now compare it to reversing the laws of gravity while darkly warning that the targets are now so far out of range that firing at them would mark the economy as ground zero…
Administrations don’t necessarily abide by the spirit, let alone the letter, of every bit of legislation, particularly when not considered as a test of confidence in the government. But diminishing elected MPs to advisers only slows overdue democratic reform even as it accelerates the already high-speed concentration of power at the political centre.
(more…)
I know I’m a bit late to jump on this “Tories shitting all over the judiciary” story, but I’ve been busy these past couple of days.
Now, as a student I used to make repeated arguments that an independent-appointed judiciary is the ideal system for Canada. Independence is much more critical than “democracy” in the judiciary because a judge doesn’t base rulings on popular opinion or a constituency, but on the laws of the land. Now, granted there is no such thing as a perfect system, but Canada’s works because the appointment process has not been politicized, at least not up until this point. You would be hard pressed to find anyone outside the Conservative government who can come up with any evidence of political appointments to judiciary, or the process being politicized by previous governments.
An independent judiciary is critical because it engenders the trust of the community and ensures integrity of the legal process. Without political brinkmanship citizens feel that they have a viable and fair legal recourse for their redress, and a civil society is maintained…
But it appears that Harper places no stock in an independent judiciary. It is not the law that is important to Harper, it is what’s right. Harper believes what he believes, and those beliefs seem to trump the duties, obligations and traditions of our government… and I can’t think of anything more toxic for a democracy than a leader that does not respect the institutions of that system.
I was watching Question Period this afternoon, as I often do when an overwhelming fit of inertia takes me, and I noticed something; or rather I continued to be aware of something I noticed during previous viewings of Legislature.
What I noticed is that, with the exception of answers to self-congratulatory questions offered in-party, the overwhelming majority of responses to opposition and minority questions were “The Liberals did this and this…” For example:
Goodale: During a recent speech at the Chateau Laurier the Prime Minister took an SUV, despite previous PM’s walking; and during his entire speech that SUV sat idling in the parking lot. Will Harper’s crackdown on wasteful practices eventually apply to himself?
Harper’s Toadie: Mr. Goodale once did this… and this… and this…
The above exchange is paraphrased (more…)
A couple of stories I’ve posted on recently need to be updated.
First up: Coming to the Defence of RBC. I wrote here about the RBC refusing U.S. dollar accounts to dual-citizenship clients from certain unfriendly nations, and defended the RBC. They were playing it safe, and have now decided to relax this policy. I suppose Liberal Catnip was right.
Second story:Are Bloggers Pirates? I wanted to discuss whether or not bloggers are engaging in copyright infringement.
My personal standard is never more than two consecutive paragraphs at a time, only material which is necessary to elucidate my own criticism/review (which is the basis of my fair dealings) and never more than 10% of the copyrighted material. I’d be curious to know how other bloggers feel about their own practices in this area; it certainly seems to me like the post linked to at the top of this one is infringing on the copyright of the Detroit Free Press… but I’m no lawyer.
I started a poll on the subject (can be found in the left-sidebar) and much to my surprise, 3 out of the 7 voters have decided that full-text reposting is not a copyright infringement. I find this rather shocking and would love for the people who voted no to come by and explain their thinking, or better yet, write a post on the subject. (more…)
Perhaps someone can explain to me why John Baird being named Environment Minister is being hailed as significant for any reason? The conservative blogs are excited and think that Baird is “the man,” to bolster Harper’s environmental profile while the left-wing bloggers are predictably indignant. What I can’t figure out is why? Time and time again it has been demonstrated that the environment portfolio is both at the bottom of the Harper to-do list and that as a minor file, Harper is running the show himself.
When Ambrose came into the position she was hailed as someone who, while obviously opposed to Kyoto-style enforcement, was someone who could be trusted to speak forthright about the environment and was one of the less traditionally “conservative” cabinet members… at least that’s how I remember it. Instead she just banged the “we can’t meet our goals” gavel repeatedly, bumbled her way through committee meeting after committee meeting, and introduced the single most laughable piece of legislation Harper’s government has developed. She wasn’t in charge of anything except trying to dress up the policy written by someone else. (more…)
The Harper cabinet has basically laid an egg for the year 2006, but how can we evaluate the Prime Minister’s performance? Unlike the rest of his crew, Harper faces no muzzle, no acting orders from above. He (along with advisors working for him as opposed to over him) sets the policy and decides how to impliment it. So we can ignore questions like “did he really have a choice…” or “was he bound by his government to…” when trying to size him up. None of the opposition parties could or would bring down the government so he had a relatively easy ride from a legislative point of view as well.
So, how did he do? He continues to be standoff-ish and curt with the media, and doesn’t seem to have a general rapport with the public. He breaks even on the presentability front then. The best way to measure his success to quite simply look at what the government accomplished this past year. Notable announcements included the GST tax-cut, the abandonment of Kelowna, a giant “swing-and-miss” attempt at environmental legislation, strengthening our role in Afghanistan without actually asking Parliament or Canada if it was a good idea (I think it is mind you, but I respect the legislative process), and closer ties with the U.S. He reopened the “distinct society” debate, the same-sex marriage debate, publicly mused about rewriting parts of the Constitution to keep the Federal government as small as possible… and of course he did all of this with an apparently flawed understanding of said document. (more…)
Ok, so I’ve been working almost feverishly on my new webproject this last week, and as you may have guessed by the links menu on the left, it will involve, well, me. That being said, it’s time to wrap up this little stroll down forgettable-memory lane.
Name: Bev Oda
Portfolio: Heritage
Grade: F
If you had asked me at the start of the year who the least competent Minister would be for 2006, I would not have thought to mention this woman. Yet here we are. As a visible-minority woman, Mrs. Oda had the sort public-currency with which to accomplish substantive changes. Nonetheless, here at year’s end all she has really done presided over the dismantling of the Status of Woman program. A transparent, last-minute funding announcement for a bunch of Ottawa-area Museums counts against her in fact, when considered against her broader cuts to projects outside of the capital region. (more…)
Ok, so the holidays are over (for the most part) and I finally have the time and energy to pick up where I left off.
Name: Chuck Strahl
Portfolio: Agriculture
Grade: C-
For years farmers have been doing everything short of burning their own crops and livestock to try and get more “recognition” from the Federal government. While the merits of their cries of “injustice” are a subject for some debate, there can be little doubt that they’ve felt neglected. It must come as a kick in the teeth then to learn that the Conservative Party that they helped elect, the party that was supposed to speak to the rural Canadian, is going ahead full-steam to dismantle the Canadian Wheat Board. (more…)
