Letters to the Editor

Stupid meters

2010-07-05T07:09:00.000-07:00

Today on The Tyee, Jim Quail of BCPIAC explains why the B.C. Liberal government's plan to install "Smart Meters" is stupid.

Must read.

Health spending 101

2010-06-16T07:17:00.000-07:00

In his most recent piece on The Tyee, Will McMartin counters the (government/media-manufactured) perception that B.C. health spending is "out of control" and "unsustainable."

Must read.

Voice of reason

2010-04-07T21:14:00.000-07:00

Letter to the editor of the Globe & Mail, by Devyn Cousineau, counsel for Lorna Pardy, Vancouver:

Margaret Wente and Tabatha Southey are correct - Lorna Pardy's case is not a "funny" one, and the ongoing Tribunal proceeding in this matter is no joke. But I'd challenge them on almost everything else.

Their description of the nature and facts of Ms. Pardy's complaint are one-sided, as are their respective understandings of the case's substance and implications. The damages amount that Ms. Wente references did not originate from Ms. Pardy. I have no professional or other affiliation or relationship with the Tribunal, and Ms. Wente's description of the B.C. Supreme Court's ruling is inaccurate.

The suggestion that this case concerns defensible "crude," foul" or "unpopular" language completely misses the mark.

There are two sides to Ms. Pardy's story and to the larger debate about our human rights system. It would have been responsible for Ms. Wente and Ms. Southey to explore both. Regrettably, they did not.

Letters to the Editor

2010-04-07T21:11:00.000-07:00

Big (and small) Media coverage of the discrimination complaint against a "comedian" in B.C. has been inaccurate, misleading and one-sided (in favor of the respondent). To wit, the recent Globe & Mail columns by Margaret Wente and Tabatha Southey.

In the next post, counsel for the complainant responds.

Reading the Barometer

2010-03-13T08:43:00.000-08:00

The Manning Centre is an ultra conservative organization that works to promote conservative values and agendas. The Manning Centre's Barometer 2010 is a poll conducted by conservative pollsters, which purports to show Canadians moving to the right. Steven Chase is a Globe & Mail reporter who doesn’t seem to be very thoughtful.

In his coverage of the Barometer, Chase regurgitates the conservative message that the poll’s findings show Canadians becoming more conservative. He cites the poll’s findings that, for example:

47% of self-identified “centrists” voted Conservative in 2008.

75% of respondents felt that abortion is “morally wrong.”

Only 31% of Canadians felt that “government action is the best way to solve economic problems.”

But the poll also appears to find that 53% of “centrists” didn’t vote Conservative in 2008. In addition, it finds that almost half of respondents strongly agreed that we have a responsibility to “look after the less fortunate.” And the poll finds that, by far, most Canadians:

wouldn’t choose the private sector before government to solve economic problems;

don’t think that individual freedom trumps social security;

don’t believe that private enterprise is the best way to solve economic problems;

don’t feel that low income people have themselves to blame for their poverty; and

don’t believe in “an eye for an eye.”

This is not to say that the Barometer actually finds Canadians moving left. It’s purely meant as a shot at the Globe’s narrow, unthoughtful reporting.

Canadians want taxes

2010-02-26T22:14:00.000-08:00

The Globe & Mail is conducting an online poll to see what Canadians want in the upcoming federal budget. After Word Warrior Murray Dobbin intervened, "tax increases" was added as an option.

At last count, 32% of voters wanted tax increases. Only 6% wanted tax cuts.

Sponsorship scandal

2010-01-28T18:48:00.000-08:00

Apparently the B.C. Government's 2010 Olympics "Homelessness Misinformation Centre" will be brought to us by Big Media.

Sean Holman reported yesterday that Vancouver's two major (CanWest) newspapers, the Sun and the Province, will be sponsoring the public relations centre tasked with combatting "potential negative press about homelessness during the 2010 Olympic Games."

Red tents

2010-01-26T18:26:00.000-08:00

"'Red tent' Campaign Planned for Homeless during Olympics."

Thank goodness for Pivot (and thank goodness for The Tyee).

Must read.

Household-based approach

2010-01-23T13:21:00.000-08:00

According to Canada's new Treasury Board president, Stockwell Day, the Conservative government's "philosophy of fiscal management" is the same as that of "families across the country."

On this morning's episode of CBC Radio's "The House," Day characterized the Conservative fiscal philosophy as a "household-based approach." You know, "the way that Canadians run their households across the country": Buy a bunch of guns, throw a big party, continue to constrain your own income, pay your buddies a ton of money to do nothing, stop going to work, and then plan to cut spending on necessities like health care.

Shelter beds and weather stations

2010-01-12T17:57:00.000-08:00

Vancouver's "2010 Winter Response" plan continues to roll out across the city, with a new shelter opening in the West End today. According to the Globe and Mail, the city plans to create 160 additional shelter beds for Vancouver's homeless, at a total cost of $1.7 million (shared between the city and the province). Unfortunately, this will still leave the city "short at least 350 beds." But, of course, these are tough economic times, and public funds are in short supply.

The goal of the new shelter beds is to prevent further weather-related deaths of the city's homeless residents. Last winter in Vancouver, a homeless woman died attempting to keep herself warm during a period of surprisingly bitter cold weather. But it's unlikely there will be any similar weather surprises this year. It seems we will be sparing no public expense when it comes to "weather forecasting services" for next month's Vancouver Olympics. According to the Canadian Press, $9 million in public money will be spent on such services, which will include "an extensive network of weather stations and wind monitors."

Home, sweet home

2010-01-09T11:07:00.000-08:00

It seems Globe and Mail readers will no longer be subjected to Rex Murphy's rantings on the weekend. Murphy's weekly column will now appear in the National Post.

The radical, ultra-conservative editorial pages of the Post seem a good fit for Murphy, who has wasted much ink and oxygen denying global warming and railing against human rights agencies.

In today's column, Murphy deflects criticism of Prime Minister Harper's decision to prorogue Parliament.

Harper's green team

2009-12-16T18:21:00.000-08:00

The Globe and Mail reported today that Canada's official delegation at the international climate conference in Copenhagen includes some of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's "most trusted confidants on the climate change issue." According to the Globe, Harper's green team includes:

- Bruce Carson, a tar sands apologist and long-time Conservative aide;

- Jacques Lamarre, a member of the board of directors of Suncor Energy; and

- Charile Fischer, the 2009 "Energy Person of the Year," and former president and CEO of Nexen, a Calgary-based oil and gas company.

Go get 'em, team!

Homelessness Misinformation Centre

2009-12-14T19:11:00.000-08:00

The B.C. government has finally decided to do something about Vancouver's homelessness problem. They've decided to cover it up.

According to a report in the Vancouver Sun, B.C. Housing is working with the City of Vancouver to develop an "information centre" on the edge of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, to "combat potential negative press about homelessness during the 2010 Olympic Games."

Read the Sun's report, here, and David Eby's reaction, here.

"Against Copenhagen"

2009-12-07T18:37:00.000-08:00

On the Tyee today, University of Victoria law professor Michael M'Gonigle provides an interesting and important critique of the international climate conference that has just kicked off in Copenhagen. According to M'Gonigle, to win the fight against global warming, we need to "lose" in Copenhagen.

Must read.

Fox News Canada

2009-12-03T23:01:00.000-08:00

The CBC has finally hit rock bottom.

Tonight, as The National's "At Issue" panel discussed the recent "scolding" of Prime Minister Harper by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, the caption at the bottom of the screen read: "Beatdown in Beijing."

Later on the broadcast, Rex Murphy used the so-called "Climategate" scandal as a springboard to once again rail against "global warming players," "climate politics," and "professional environmentalists."

Pink slips and red mittens

2009-11-15T15:50:00.000-08:00

The City of Vancouver conducted “community consultations” in late October and early November, purportedly looking for input on how to address a $61.7 million “funding shortfall” in its 2010 operating budget.

According to the City, the shortfall exists for a number of reasons, including employee salary increases, expanded childcare programs, and increasing charges in relation to sewer costs and emergency services.

Not surprisingly, the City appears to have decided to bridge its funding gap largely on the backs of its workers. According to the Vancouver Sun, after a reorganization of city services, a hiring freeze, “project deferrals,” and a two per cent tax increase, the City will still be left with a $20 million budget hole. City manager Penny Ballem says that staff layoffs will fill that remaining hole.

Interestingly, only five months ago Ballem was asking City Council to approve $21.9 million in additional funding for the 2010 Olympics. At that time, some were estimating that City spending on the Games had risen $45 million over budget – not including the more than $100 million in cost overruns at the Olympic Village, the financing of which has been taken over by the City.

Share the pain

2009-10-24T16:59:00.000-07:00

In the Globe & Mail today, business writer Derek DeCloet blames public sector workers and their unions for Canada’s economic and budget woes. He says that Canadians live in a “two-tier society,” where public employees have good job security, solid wages, and a sure retirement, while private sector workers are “assured of none of these things.” His prescription for change is summed up in the title of his column: “Civil servants: It’s time to share the pain.” Rather than arguing for progressive social and economic policy reform to cure what ails the private sector, DeCloet wants to spread the sickness of inequity and insecurity across the entire Canadian economy.

It’s a good thing DeCloet chose a career in reporting and not in medicine. Seems his advice for flu patients would be to spread their virus equally across the community.

Not to mention that the rosy picture DeCloet paints of the public sector is misleading. Public employees are consistently targeted in tough times and by anti-government governments. In B.C., for example, after digging itself into deficit through massive tax cuts, the provincial government began an unprecedented assault on the public service in 2002, including the elimination of thousands of positions. In health care alone, at least 8,500 public sector jobs were contracted out, with pay rates for the affected positions dropping by more than 40 per cent. Currently, public employees in B.C. are facing wage freezes and as many as 1,500 job cuts. Similarly, public sector wage freezes and rollbacks have been announced and implemented in other jurisdictions, including in Alberta and federally.

No doubt DeCloet supports these measures. Fair is fair, right? Better to spread the pain around than think about progressive reforms to ease it altogether.

Lions and Whitecaps and Roofs

2009-10-23T19:29:00.000-07:00

Seems the B.C. government has prioritized putting a roof over the heads of the province's Lions and Whitecaps, instead of its residents.

According to the CBC, the government "has signed off on a plan to build a new $458-million retractable roof for BC Place stadium." This, less than two weeks after a panel of experts gave the province a "C" grade for its efforts to end homelessness.

But at least the new BC Place roof will cut energy and operational costs by $450,000 annually. Meaning the roof will essentially pay for itself in just over a thousand years. By that time we'll probably be sheltering our rising homeless population under it. Maybe that's what provincial Tourism and Culture Minister Kevin Krueger meant when he called the roof an "investment in our future."

Circus treats (updated, October 17)

2009-10-17T12:10:00.000-07:00

The following is an ongoing list of the actual and potential impacts and outcomes of the upcoming 2010 Vancouver Olympics:

- Olympic Village cost overruns.

- Security zones, gridlock and overcrowded transit.

- Free speech restrictions.

- Evictions.

- Threatened relocation of DTES women's march.

- Halt to Canadian aggression in Afghanistan - not.

- Anti-doping border crackdown.

- Car crashes and insurance premium hikes.

- IOC fat cats.

- Merchandising opportunities for Big Business.

- Discrimination.

- Airspace restrictions.

- Interruption of community centre operations and programs.

- Harassment and intimidation by Olympic security officers.

- Fair play - not.

- Apprehending homeless people.

- Knock-offs of Cowichan sweaters.

- Equality of access to Olympic tickets - not.

- Fine and imprisonment for "unapproved" Olympic expression.

- Requests to give Olympic athletes flu-shot priority.

- "Relocation" of homeless people.

Homeless action

2009-10-14T21:40:00.000-07:00

Perhaps to mark the midpoint of "Homeless Action Week" (HAW) in Metro Vancouver and the Yukon, Vancouver's city manager reportedly announced today that February 5, 2010 is "eviction day for homeless people sleeping near the Georgia Viaduct."

Probably not the type of announcement the HAW organizers hoped for when they planned the week...

Circus treats (updated, October 6)

2009-10-06T19:23:00.000-07:00

The following is an ongoing list of the impacts and outcomes of the upcoming 2010 Vancouver Olympics:

- Olympic Village cost overruns.

- Security zones, gridlock and overcrowded transit.

- Free speech restrictions.

- Evictions.

- Threatened relocation of DTES women's march.

- Halt to Canadian aggression in Afghanistan - not.

- Anti-doping border crackdown.

- Car crashes and insurance premium hikes.

- IOC fat cats.

- Merchandising opportunities for Big Business.

- Discrimination.

- Airspace restrictions.

- Interruption of community centre operations and programs.

- Harassment and intimidation by Olympic security officers.

Circus treats (updated)

2009-10-04T21:45:00.000-07:00

The following is an ongoing list of the impacts and outcomes of the upcoming 2010 Vancouver Olympics:

- Olympic Village cost overruns.

- Security zones, gridlock and overcrowded transit.

- Free speech restrictions.

- Evictions.

- Threatened relocation of DTES women's march.

- Halt to Canadian aggression in Afghanistan - not.

- Anti-doping border crackdown.

- Car crashes and insurance premium hikes.

- IOC fat cats.

- Merchandising opportunities for Big Business.

- Discrimination.

- Airspace restrictions.

Flower girls

2009-10-04T20:07:00.000-07:00

According to the Vancouver 2010 website, the opportunity to join the "team" of volunteers for the upcoming Winter Olympics is "the chance of a lifetime." It seems, however, that not everyone is being offered this chance.

The Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) is looking for "specialized" volunteers to be flower bearers, medal bearers and presenter escorts at the Flower and Victory Ceremonies in Whistler. These volunteers will "be part of a life-changing experience" during the Games. They'll be "on TV" and "up close with the athletes."

But - what does "specialized" mean? According to the website, it means "female." And, according to some applicants, not just any female will do. Apparently, VANOC is specifically looking for "fit" women, between the ages of 25 and 32. In other words, it appears that young men and older, "unfit" women, among others (including, perhaps, persons with disabilities), need not apply.

It's hard to decide what is more offensive: the apparent exclusion of applicants on the basis of age, gender and, perhaps, disability - or the discriminatory overtones of apparently wanting only young, fit (and, presumably, attractive) women in these particular roles.

Further evidence, it seems, that no one told VANOC that discrimination is prohibited in British Columbia.

Circus treats

2009-10-03T16:44:00.000-07:00

The following is an ongoing list of the impacts and outcomes of the upcoming 2010 Vancouver Olympics:

- Olympic Village cost overruns.

- Security zones, gridlock and overcrowded transit.

- Free speech restrictions.

- Evictions.

- Threatened relocation of DTES women's march.

- Halt to Canadian aggression in Afghanistan - not.

- Anti-doping border crackdown.

- Car crashes and insurance premium hikes.

- IOC fat cats.

- Merchandising opportunities for Big Business.

Street smarts

2009-09-24T08:47:00.000-07:00

Letter to the editor of the Globe & Mail, from Shawn Bayes, Executive Director, Elizabeth Fry Society of Greater Vancouver:

B.C.'s proposed Assisting to Shelter Act would be little more than an ineffective Band-Aid solution and trample the rights of those it seeks to protect.

Women, aboriginals and transgendered people in particular often refuse shelter because they don't feel safe in generic or mixed-gender environments. If we don't want people dying on our streets, we need to recognize that homelessness is a complex problem. Emergency shelters and jail cells filled with people held against their will is not the answer.

The place to start is with improved community resources to help people battling addiction, poverty, mental illness and the plethora of other issues that plague those living on our streets.

Legalized pension erosion

2009-09-07T22:36:00.000-07:00

A lot of people seem to be talking about pensions these days – including the Supreme Court of Canada. Its recent decision in Nolan v. Kerry (Canada) may lead to the further erosion of pension plan coverage for Canadian workers.

The Court’s decision in the Kerry case came just days after the federal finance minister announced that he will meet his provincial and territorial counterparts in Whitehorse this December, to receive the report of a federal-provincial task force currently conducting research into pension and retirement income reform. The Kerry decision also follows reports on pension reform by panels in Ontario and Nova Scotia, as well as a joint panel report for the governments of Alberta and British Columbia.

The Alberta/B.C. panel proposed the creation of a new government-sponsored supplemental pension plan (the “ABC” plan) to increase pension coverage in western Canada. But an actuarial analysis prepared for the Alberta Federation of Labour in June found that the ABC plan has a number of “serious design issues.” Chief among them is that the plan would provide defined contribution (DC), rather than defined benefit (DB), coverage.

Under DB plans, employees are guaranteed a specific monthly income at retirement, while the employer bears primary responsibility for making up any shortfall if the plan is under-funded. On the other hand, employees under DC plans are more vulnerable to market forces. Retirement benefits under DC plans fluctuate depending on the plan’s investment earnings, and the employer bears no liability if the plan performs poorly.

According to a recent StatsCan report, private employers in Canada are increasingly switching from DB to DC plans, consequently reducing their pension costs and eroding their workers’ pension benefits.

That was the situation in the Kerry case. The employer, Kerry (Canada) Inc., had administered a DB plan since 1954. Contributions into the plan were paid by the employer and the employees, and were held in a trust fund, which had been in surplus for several years. The money in the trust fund was paid out to retired employees covered under the DB plan.

In 2000, the employer switched over to a DC plan for all new hires, while retaining DB coverage for existing employees. It then announced that it would use surplus funds from the DB plan to cover its contribution obligations under the DC plan. In other words, the employer essentially proposed to use the retirement savings of DB plan members to pay its contribution costs under the DC plan.

A group of employees and retirees challenged the employer’s proposal, and the dispute went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. Although two members of the Court found that making DC payments out of DB funds favoured the interests of the employer to the detriment of the rights of the employees, in the end, the Court allowed this scheme.

According to the lawyer for the employees in the Kerry case, the Court’s decision is bad news for Canadian workers. It gives a “green light” to employers “to reduce DB coverage and shift into DC coverage,” while threatening the strength and stability of remaining DB plans.

The Kerry decision also makes the upcoming meeting of finance ministers in Whitehorse that much more important. According to one union-side labour lawyer, the decision “reinforces the call” for government action to enhance pension plans that have been eroded and to protect workers with inadequate pension coverage.

Let’s hope the finance minsters heed this call.

Mintz chocolate chip

2009-08-12T17:21:00.000-07:00

Even on a waffle cone, the appointment of conservative economist Jack Mintz as research director of the federal-provincial review of pensions tastes bad.

According to Linda McQuaig and Andrew Jackson, Mintz favours private savings and profits over public pensions. Read their commentaries here and here.

Five-ring Circus

2009-08-12T08:29:00.001-07:00

The Early Edition on CBC Radio was celebrating the six-month countdown to the Vancouver Olympics today. The Five-ring Circus comes to town on February 12, 2010.

The most recent Olympic news relates to government spending on the Games. During these tough economic times, against the backdrop of provincial government cuts and municipal spending restraint, reports are surfacing about the number of civil servants that will be seconded to man the booths at Vancouver's Olympic Circus.

According to the Vancouver Sun, the provincial government may pay up to 1,400 public employees approximately $28 million to help run the Games. And the Globe & Mail reports that municipal governments will also contribute significantly to Olympic staffing.

Seems that our governments think public money is better spent on skiing and skating events than on health care and social housing.

What a bunch of clowns.

Renters at risk?

2009-08-07T17:21:00.000-07:00

Advocates for Vancouver renters have been busy lately. Organizations like Renters at Risk and the West End Residents Association have actively opposed "renovictions" and exorbitant rent increases, while arguing for increased affordable housing stock and changes to British Columbia's Residential Tenancy Act.

The latest challenge facing Vancouver (and other B.C.) renters and their advocates may be the newly proposed harmonized sales tax (HST). Tucked away on the back page of the Business section in today's Vancouver Sun is a report on the response of the B.C. Apartment Owners and Managers Association to the proposed HST.

According to the Association, the added cost of the HST might prevent the construction of new rental units. But the bigger risk to renters may relate to existing rental units. The Association has stated that the HST will raise landlords' operating expenses considerably; it's seeking tax credits and exemptions to "neutralize" this added burden. Alternatively, the Association is looking for permission to implement "flow through rent adjustments." In other words, the Association wants its members to be able to raise rents beyond the current statutory limits.

The Association has requested "immediate assistance" from the provincial government, as well as a meeting with Premier Campbell and government ministers. Stay tuned.

Back on track

2009-07-26T22:20:00.000-07:00

The union representing striking locomotive engineers at VIA Rail indicated on Friday that their strike might be a long one. After only two days off the job, however, the 340 engineers have decided to head back to work – and then to binding arbitration.

I wonder if VIA's threat to layoff 2,400 of their co-workers influenced the engineers’ decision.

Usual suspects

2009-07-26T11:23:00.000-07:00

Consensus among B.C. punditry appears to be that the provincial Liberal government’s harmonized sales tax (HST) proposal is a loser.

Tieleman criticizes it as “the biggest tax shift from business to individuals ever!” Willcocks questions the substance of the plan, and the way it was introduced. Palmer, not being much interested in matters of substance, thinks the HST will harm the B.C. Liberals politically.

But perhaps the clearest insight into the nature and merits of the HST proposal is provided through the list of its supporters, which includes: the B.C. Business Council, the B.C. Progress Board, the B.C. Chamber of Commerce, the Canada West Foundation, the Conference Board of Canada, the Retail Council of Canada, and the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters.

Just business, as usual.

Republicans for Ignatieff

2009-07-21T17:10:00.000-07:00

According to recent polling of Canadian voters, support for Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff has declined since the spring. However, perhaps Iggy will pick up support in other constituencies...

Props

2009-07-07T15:14:00.000-07:00

The Globe and Mail has appropriately decided to run a Vancouver Humane Society ad calling for a ban on calf roping at the Calgary Stampede. According to a report on The Hook, the Globe ran the ad in today's Western Canada edition of the paper.

The Sun Media and Canwest papers in Calgary refused to print the VHS ad, perhaps forgetting that the media is supposed to promote free expression, not restrict it.

According to The Hook, the only local media carrying the VHS ad "are the alternative weekly Fast Forward and radio station X92.9 FM."

Synergy

2009-06-26T21:42:00.000-07:00

Federal Liberal party titan John Manley has signed on to become the new head of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives - the "voice of Corporate Canada."

See the reports in the Globe and on the Campaign Blog.

Too sexy to report

2009-06-20T12:41:00.000-07:00

Linda McQuaig recently pointed out an important revelation conveniently underreported by Big Media in its coverage of “Raitt Gate” earlier this month. Raitt Gate involved a misplaced tape recording of Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt, speaking privately to an aide, describing the current shortage of medical isotopes as “sexy” and musing about using the shortage to her political advantage.

In a piece on Rabble.ca, McQuaig focuses on another part of the tape, which sheds some light on the role of Big Business in beating back the emergence of a Liberal-NDP coalition in Ottawa. In this part of the tape, explains McQuaig, “Raitt describes how, at a closed-door meeting of politicians and corporate CEOs” in January, “bank presidents threatened to cut off funding” to the Liberal party if Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff voted against the Conservative government’s budget.

“They did it at the Canadian Council of [Chief] Executives,” says Raitt on the tape. “There was three presidents of major banks who stood up in the room…and said ‘Ignatieff, don’t you even think about bringing us to an election. We don’t need this. We have no interest in this. And we will never fund your party again.’”

McQuaig acknowledges that it’s “hard to know what to make of Raitt’s comments,” since Raitt wasn’t at the closed-door meeting, and since some Liberals have denied that the threats were made. But still, McQuaig says, the “taped comments raise questions about what role the banks may have played in nixing the coalition, and also what power they wield over the severely financially strapped Liberal party.” Too bad Big Media has chosen not to seek answers to these questions.

Caught in traffic

2009-05-07T10:08:00.000-07:00

Allegations that federal Liberal MP Ruby Dhalla mistreated two foreign caregivers hired under Canada’s Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) are all over the national news. According to the Globe & Mail, the two female caregivers allege that they worked 16-hour days, were paid only $250 per week, and were required to perform odd and inappropriate tasks such as shovelling snow, shining shoes, and cleaning the Dhalla family’s chiropractic clinics. One of the women says that Ms. Dhalla withheld her passport for weeks. The other woman has compared her caregiver job to slavery.

The link between the LCP and slavery is not new. A 2000 study published by Status of Women Canada refers to the hiring of immigrant live-in caregivers as a form of “trafficking in women.” The study defines trafficking in women as “the exploitation of a woman, in particular for her labour or services, with or without pay and with or without her consent, by a person or group of people with whom she is in an unequal power relationship.” The definition includes “forced labour and slavery-like practices.” According to the study, the “unequal relationship between an immigrant live-in caregiver and her employers, the obligation to live in their home for a period of two years, as well as the precariousness of her work status during this period, lead to situations of abuse.” As a result, the authors of the study recommend that the LCP be “discontinued because it allows [for] the exploitation of immigrant workers.”

So far, press coverage of the Dhalla story seems to be focussing on issues of politics and public perception – rather than the LCP itself. Hopefully, however, the media’s analysis will go deeper, exposing the abuses, exploitation and discrimination inherent in the program.

The Good, the bad and the ugly

2009-04-23T17:35:00.000-07:00

Tyee editor David Beers’ post on Bill Good’s silent treatment of Carole James is right on. Good used dead air during this morning’s CKNW leaders debate to voice his rejection of comments made by BCNDP leader Carole James. It was bad.

Immediately following the debate, Good asked 3 or 4 “undecided voters” for their impressions of the leaders’ performances. He also took a number of calls from listeners. Throughout this debate debrief, Good encouraged and corroborated various critiques of Ms. James and the NDP, while questioning or shutting down any feedback that disfavoured the current Liberal government. It was ugly.

Shakedown breakdown

2009-04-21T21:17:00.000-07:00

Ezra Levant portrays himself as a champion of “free speech.” But his comments earlier this month at a town hall meeting in London, Ontario expose the distorted framework for his views – and his limited commitment to freedom of expression.

Levant’s new book, “Shakedown,” and his campaign of rhetoric and misinformation against Canadian human rights bodies, are an all-out attack on government intervention in the areas of speech and expression. In Levant’s view, almost any state action in the form of investigating or restricting speech is necessarily destructive of freedom of expression – especially if the state action is taken by a human rights agency.

On the other hand, however, the coercive silencing of political expression through the use of private wealth and power seems to be of no concern to Levant. At the London meeting he gave the example of a mall in Calgary that used a court injunction to silence political protests. According to Levant, using private property rights in this way to limit speech is not “a free speech issue.” He indicated that he’s all for this type of restriction on expression.

Within Levant’s (ideological) framework, then, only public bodies (specifically, publicly-funded human rights bodies) are understood as a threat to freedom of expression. Private businesses and property owners that use their money and power to restrict speech somehow exist outside of Levant’s analysis and beyond his commitment to free speech. (As does the public system of laws and courts that enforces private property rights at the expense of free expression.)

Canada Line 101

2009-03-22T20:11:00.000-07:00

Check out Keith Reynolds' latest post on The Lead Up. It's a nice summary of the making of the Canada Line - including P3 politics and governance changes at TransLink.

Three Fs

2009-03-17T18:22:00.000-07:00

In a speech last week to conservative supporters, Prime Minister Stephen Harper reportedly summed up his version of conservatism as comprising "three Fs: freedom, family and faith."

Interestingly, this version of conservatism is also promoted by the "F3 Coalition," an American "values-voters" organization founded by the "faithful supporters" of failed fringe-conservative presidential candidate, Mike Huckabee.

Among other things, F3s believe that "the traditional family is the only means by which to enact change in a corrupt society and to bring meaningful structure to a diseased culture," and that people "should have the freedom to worship and live without the burden of an oppressive national or world government."

Yikes.

Mad Man

2009-03-14T08:41:00.000-07:00

Set in the late 1950s, the American television drama, "Mad Men," has been described as depicting a "nonchalantly sexist world where men slap fannies or ask the new girl to shorten her skirt." In "its bracingly honest view" of mid-century gender roles, the husbands work, cheat and mix drinks, while the wives worry, gossip and home-make.

Perhaps in the spirit of those "good old days," conservative prime minister, Stephen Harper - Canada's chief mad man - recently made the following observation in a speech to a sold-out crowd of businesspeople: "In my experience, it works like this: If you own a home and you have a wife, you will probably be doing home renovations this year."

Draper couldn't have said it any better.

A new "New Relationship"?

2009-03-06T07:16:00.000-08:00

Reports continue to come out of Victoria about the proposed "Recognition and Reconciliation Act," which the B.C. Liberal government hopes to pass before the upcoming election in May.

According to the Globe & Mail, the new provincial law would "formally recognize aboriginal rights and title [in B.C.], while mapping out the terms for shared decision-making [between the province and First Nations] over lands and resources." This new legislation would come a few years after the Liberal government's "New Relationship with Aboriginal People" initiative, which doesn't seem to have been much more than a press release and a 5-page "strategic vision" document.

But what, exactly, is being proposed? The Canadian Constitution provides the federal government with exclusive legislative responsibility over "Indians, and Lands reserved for the Indians," and Canadian courts have found that only Ottawa can legislate in respect of Aboriginal lands, unless those lands are disencumbered of Aboriginal title. What does this all mean? I'm not sure. But it makes me wonder whether the R & R Act will be much more than another press release, a longer vision document, and Gordon Campbell in an "Aboriginal Rights & Title" scarf.

That's rich

2009-03-05T07:13:00.000-08:00

Letter to the editor of the Globe & Mail, from Ken Georgetti, President, Canadian Labour Congress:

So Gwyn Morgan thinks the pensions of auto workers are too rich. But alas, methinks this former EnCana CEO protests too much. Mr. Morgan retired as CEO of EnCana at the end of 2005, but continued as vice-chairman until October, 2006. He took with him a pension of $1.8-million a year that EnCana estimated would cost $26.5-million to fund.

Mr. Morgan should explain why he feels there should be one pension standard for him and another for the rest of us. I suspect his silence could be deafening.

Pants on fire

2009-02-27T07:36:00.000-08:00

The pants of Harper Conservatives always seem to be burning. Recently, for example, they indicated that their proposed pay inequity system for the federal public sector is the same as the pay equity regimes in Ontario and Manitoba. (This misinformation was quickly adopted as truth in the commercial press.)

Fortunately for those who prefer facts over fiction and truth over lies, the Public Service Alliance of Canada has produced a summary of the differences between the proposed federal system and the provincial regimes.

Pit or pittance?

2009-02-15T09:02:00.000-08:00

"The Money Pit" is the title of the feature report on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside (DTES) in this weekend's Globe & Mail. The 5-page piece flows from a Globe "investigation" that "for the first time" estimates the amount of public and private money "poured into Canada's worst slum" since 2000. The report describes the $1.4 billion estimate as a "flood of spending." Yet this amount is a dribble compared to the money being funneled into Vancouver's Olympic circus.

The "official" operating cost for the 2-week-long 2010 Winter Olympics exceeds the total estimated spending on the DTES over the last 9 years. More will be spent on Vancouver's Olympic village than has been spent since 2000 on health and social services in the DTES. The City of Vancouver will borrow more to finance the Olympic village than total spending by all levels of government on DTES housing over the past decade. And two-weeks worth of security for the Games may cost 10-times the amount spent on public safety in 9 years in the DTES.

The DTES is a mere Money Puddle compared to the upcoming Olympics.

Equitable compensation

2009-02-14T07:25:00.000-08:00

Letter to the editor of the Globe & Mail, from Emanuela Heyninck, Ontario Pay Equity Commissioner:

Equal pay for women doing work that is equal in value to work done by men has been recognized provincially, federally and internationally as a fundamental human right for many decades. Pay equity is the common way to refer to this right and the purpose of pay-equity legislation is to uncover and eliminate systemic gender wage discrimination. The $4-billion paid out in pay-equity settlements in the 1980s referred to by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty was money found to be owing to women for past wage inequalities.

One of the most troubling aspects of Ottawa's proposed Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act is that it never uses the words "pay equity" or talks about systemic discrimination. Instead, it refers to an undefined concept of "equitable compensation." Pay equity is the means used to address the undervaluation of women's work by the market - yet the proposed act calls for market forces to be a key factor in assessing "equitable compensation."

It remains to be seen whether the proposed act is really about streamlining women's access to pay equity.

"Buy American 101"

2009-02-04T08:39:00.002-08:00

Letter to the editor of the Globe & Mail, from Steven Shrybman, international trade lawyer, Sack Goldblatt Mitchell, Ottawa:

Depending on how they are implemented, local procurement preferences, such as those set out in the Buy American legislation, do not offend either NAFTA or WTO trade rules. The right of provincial, state and local governments to use public procurement to foster their economic development is one that both the U.S. and Canada preserved under international trade commitments.

While federal procurement is more constrained by trade rules, federal grants or transfers for infrastructure spending are not. In fact, the application of Buy American requirements to Canadian steel has already been litigated under NAFTA, and the Canadian claim was rejected because public procurement is also exempt from NAFTA investment rules.

There are very good reasons for Canada and the U.S. to collaborate on devising a rational approach for managing North American steel trade in their mutual interest. A managed, not a deregulated trade is needed to fairly allocate the benefits of public procurement.

Letters to the Editor

2009-02-04T08:39:00.001-08:00

Provincial premiers and national politicians (except federal New Democrats) have lined up against the "Buy American" provisions in the proposed U.S. stimulus plan, their position reinforced by the chorus of alarms being rung by pundits and trade "experts" on the networks and in the newspapers. This is American "protectionism" at its worst, we're being told, involving violations of trade agreements and representing a "grave" threat to Canadian exports and the global economy.

In the next post, an international trade lawyer provides an alternative viewpoint.

Peggy vision

2009-01-29T08:38:00.002-08:00

Margaret Wente’s ignorant and vitriolic attack against CUPE 3903 in this morning’s Globe & Mail is laced with anti-union rhetoric and juvenile mockery.

But she correctly identifies “a serious issue” at York University and other Canadian post-secondary institutions: “For two decades,” she notes, schools have been replacing tenured professors “with cheaper contract labour. Most undergraduate students today are taught by itinerant PhDs, a highly educated underclass who scramble to make a living as they search for jobs on the tenure track.”

Yet somehow Peggy can’t see that CUPE 3903’s bargaining demands on wages and job security were explicitly aimed at addressing the issue she identifies. Perhaps her vision is obstructed by her pejorative perception of “ivory towers” on every university campus.

Lost in the sod

2009-01-28T08:39:00.000-08:00

Corporate media (including the CBC) coverage of yesterday's federal Conservative budget has been dismal and disheartening. While the networks and newspapers report on tax breaks for homeowners who sod their lawns or refinish their driveways, many critical issues and items are being ignored and overlooked.

For instance, the Harper Conservatives continue to cut corporate taxes to unprecedented levels, resulting in tens of billions of dollars in windfall profits for big business and lost revenues for government. In February 2008, the Department of Finance projected these corporate windfalls / government losses to exceed $50 billion over 2008-09 and the next five fiscal years. This figure represents more than half of the total multi-year deficit forecasted in yesterday's budget.

Economist Toby Sanger points out several other measures not receiving attention: "cuts to transfers, controls on program spending, weakening pay equity for federal employees and the privatization plans announced in Harper's disastrous November [2008] Economic and Fiscal Update. This includes limiting [the] growth of transfers [to provinces] under the Equalization program and selling off $10 billion in federal public assets over the next five years." Not to mention the "$1.25 billion fund to subsidize public-private partnerships." Sanger notes that the limits "on the growth of Equalization will mean reductions in transfers adding up to about $7 billion over the next two years, reducing the ability of provinces to...deliver public services across the country."

The government also plans to tear up freely-negotiated contracts with its workers by (illegally) rolling-back public sector wages.

But why should Canadians like me care about this stuff? What I really need to know is how much tax I can get back if I install a new tub.

The Dragons

2009-01-25T14:23:00.001-08:00

It's fitting that the CBC asked the corporate "Dragons" to decide what the contents of the upcoming federal budget should be. The budget, like most Canadian budgets, will be a corporatist document, shaped by fiscal conservatives and neo-liberals.

The Dragons were given $20 billion to stimulate Canada's slumping economy - an amount that is significantly less than most progressive economists say is necessary to get us through the current economic downturn. They refused to provide any cash to the auto sector, and there was nothing in their budget for employment insurance or student debt.

Instead they directed $3.5 billion to works projects, $3.5 billion to the "green economy," $3 billion to education infrastructure, $4 billion to small businesses, and $1 billion to business development. And, of course, the largest single item in the Dragons' budget: $5 billion in (corporate) tax cuts.

Housing. Sweet.

2009-01-25T12:36:00.000-08:00

On Friday the CBC reported that the "City of Victoria will be giving up to $5000 to homeowners who want to create secondary suites or bring currently illegal ones up to code." The new mayor of Victoria says that he is hoping this will result in the creation of up to $14 million worth of "affordable housing."

Sounds like a good initiative. But where is the guarantee that the housing created will be affordable? According to the the CBC, the vacancy rate in Victoria is "less than half of one per cent." I'm guessing that new secondary suite owners will be permitted to charge market rates, and those rates will likely be inflated as a result of the tight rental market. Meaning the housing created through the city's new program may be unaffordable to many who need it.

School's not out forever

2009-01-24T16:36:00.000-08:00

Earlier today the Ontario Liberal Premier announced his intention to legislate an end to the strike at York University.

Perhaps he should have legislated the employer back to the negotiating table. According to CUPE 3903, York University has refused to bargain, even as the union recently dropped its wage demands and withdrew over 40 outstanding proposals.

School's out forever

2009-01-23T08:29:00.000-08:00

Letter to the editor of the Globe & Mail, from Arun P. Mukherjee, professor, department of English, York University, Toronto:

I am surprised by your one-sided chiding of CUPE 3903, whose members, you say, are "the most well-paid teaching assistants." Only Unit 1, i.e. the graduate students, are teaching assistants. Unit 2, the part-time contract faculty, do exactly the same work (with the same qualifications) that permanent tenured faculty do without the decent salaries and benefits that we, the tenured professors, have.

Why should educational workers who get poverty-line wages after spending half their lives earning their credentials not struggle with the only weapon they have? The principle of collective bargaining ensures workers cannot be forced to work without fair compensation.

You are so afraid of the contagion of the demand for fair compensation spreading to other campuses. Why don't you worry about a higher education system where part-time educational workers are three times as many as permanent, full-time workers? Why don't you worry about the erosion of educational standards when the part-time workers are only told what they have to teach weeks before the start of classes and cannot prepare properly?

You begin your editorial with the usual, "In the midst of a recession." These structural inequalities did not begin with the recession and those being exploited cannot wait forever. If there is a recession, why do York administrators get exorbitant bonuses and salary increases in the range of 35 per cent? Universities are not businesses and the administrators are academics and should be treated like other academics, which used to be the case not too long ago.

Letters to the Editor

2009-01-23T08:27:00.000-08:00

Stories of the current labour dispute at York University have been all over the news lately. Almost all media reports and commentary have been unfavourable to the union. In the next post, a York professor responds to CUPE 3903's critics.

Priorities

2009-01-18T10:50:00.001-08:00

The B.C. legislature was recalled yesterday for an emergency session.

The province's Liberal government may be on pace to set a Canadian (if not a Commonwealth) record for allowing the fewest legislative sitting days in a one-year period. So, what brought the Liberals out of their winter hibernation?

Was it the jobs crisis and economic slowdown? No.

Was it the province's child poverty crisis? Nuh uh.

Was it the climate crisis? What crisis, we have a carbon tax.

It must have been the housing and homelessness crisis, right? Nope.

Was it the recently reported legal aid funding crisis and likely cuts to public legal services? Guess again.

What aroused the urgent attention of the B.C. Liberal government this weekend? Financing troubles, in relation to a waterfront development, made up mostly of luxury condos, being built to house the participants of a traveling circus.

P3 push

2009-01-15T21:55:00.002-08:00

Letter to the editor of the Globe & Mail, from Freya Keddie, regarding the federal government's push to speed up the process for works projects:

Things are already moving too fast for my liking. Most of these projects will be public-private partnerships (P3s), which are notorious for lack of transparency during the planning stages. I cannot see how Ottawa seeking to "speed up" the process and "streamlining environmental assessments" will improve public accountability for P3 infrastructure projects. I suspect that quite the opposite would be true.

In our appetite for immediate action to fix our ailing economy, it seems people are willing to accept this government's P3 agenda without a full discussion of pros and cons.

Letters to the Editor

2009-01-15T21:55:00.001-08:00

Many Public-Private-Partnership (P3) watchers are expecting the Harper government (and many of its provincial, territorial and municipal counterparts) to use the current economic slowdown and resulting infrastructure push as an opportunity to privatize Canada's public works. One such watcher wrote a letter to the editor of the Globe & Mail today. Her letter appears in the next post.

Same old, same old

2009-01-10T10:01:00.000-08:00

In this weekend's Globe & Mail, columnists Christie Blatchford and Rex Murphy take aim at their favourite respective targets: women and global warming.

Writing on the topic of recent sexual harassment allegations against a new Senate appointee, Blatchford argues that sexual harassment (of women) is barely "worthy of our attention." She expects "young women to be able to handle" harassing behaviour, "and probably even to indulge now and then in the equivalent sort of thing themselves." To Blatchford, the (male) harassors (including the new Senator) are the real victims.

Not to be outdone, Murphy leaps from Vancouver's recent snowy weather to his weekly shot at the "science" (his quotation marks, not mine) of global warming. He mocks climate scientists, and disputes their recent findings without providing a shred of countering data or evidence. All while offering up his usual litany of smears and slurs: "global warming hierophants," "less tethered minds," "hubris on steroids," "alarmists," etc.

Just a typical Saturday morning with the Globe, Canada's "most authoritative" (my quotation marks, not theirs) news source.

The real corporate bailout

2008-12-23T16:08:00.000-08:00

Canadians have been bombarded by talk of "corporate bailouts" in recent months - for banks, auto-makers, and (possibly) the forestry and mining sectors.

But the real corporate bailout happened yesterday, when Canada's corporatist Prime Minister appointed 18 new senators. Most of the appointees were desperate for federal government assistance, for each in the amount of $130,400 (base salary) annually, plus 64 return trips and $20,000 for travel and living expenses per year, almost $150,000 for office expenses, and eligibility at 55 for a gold-plated, indexed pension.

Some of the appointees are failed Tory candidates, desperate for (patronage) work in these tough economic times.

Others are long-time Conservative hacks, in need of more "respectable" (and better paying) employment.

The sole PEI appointee apparently needed the job because he's tired of being stuck in Ottawa. He says he intends to spend a lot more time at his summer home in Cavendish once he gets on the Senate payroll.

Three appointees are former provincial and territorial politicians, each afraid, it seems, of retiring on only one parliamentary pension.

One appointee is being rescued from the sinking ADQ. (Apparently his patronage appointment last year to the Board of Via Rail wasn't enough.)

Another is, perhaps, tired of the executive class travel required in her current international patronage gig.

And the last is a Canadian Olympic gold medalist skier who apparently didn't make the 2010 team.

Canadians, I'm sure, wish these new senators well.

May they line their deep pockets with public money as they promote the corporatist Conservative agenda of privatization, deregulation, military (rather than social and environmental) spending, public sector wage rollbacks, and corporate tax cuts.

The Duffinator

2008-12-22T15:59:00.001-08:00

After years of favouring conservative politicians and perspectives on his "news" broadcasts, finally Mike Duffy is being rewarded with a Senate appointment.

Duffy "has been a fixture on Parliament Hill for decades," most recently as the host of a political talk show on CTV. He will sit in his Senate seat as he sat in his interviewer's chair: as a Conservative.

Sheltered by media coverage

2008-12-20T19:20:00.000-08:00

Check out Donald Gutstein’s critique of the corporate media’s coverage of the events in Ottawa in late November-early December. It can be found on The Tyee. He asks whether the commercial press helped the Harper government cling to power in the face of the Liberal-NDP coalition. The answer, of course, is yes.

Similarly, media coverage of Prime Minister Harper’s controversial plan to appoint 18 new senators before Christmas has legitimized the PM’s actions, by generally framing the controversy as a matter of stacking and backtracking. Pundits have focussed on who will be appointed, predicting that the Senate seats will be stacked with Tory partisans. They’ve also criticized Harper (forgivingly) for betraying his Senate-reform roots.

But these lame and uninteresting angles on the Senate story have distracted from the real issue, which was summarized admirably in Pascal Zamprelli’s letter to the editor of the Globe & Mail last weekend:

The problem is not that a prime minister is appointing 18 senators. The problem is that a prime minister who knows he lacks the confidence of the House [of Commons] is doing so.

Governing without the confidence of the Commons is unprecedented, and raises serious questions of legitimacy with respect to governmental action taken before the budget vote. Especially major actions like, say, naming almost a sixth of the Senate.

King Iggy on the issues

2008-12-11T08:44:00.002-08:00

Recently-crowned Liberal Party leader, Michael Ignatieff, on the issues:

On the Liberal-NDP coalition: "A coalition if necessary, but not necessarily a coalition."

On the environment: A carbon tax if necessary, but not necessarily a carbon tax.

On foreign policy: Wars on Iraq and Afghanistan if necessary, but not necessarily wars on Iraq and Afghanistan.

On the law of war: Torture if necessary, but not necessarily torture.

On Canadian unity: Quebec as a nation if necessary, but not necessarily Quebec as a nation.

On electing LIberal Party leaders: Democratic elections if necessary, but not necessarily democratic elections.

All hail, King Iggy.

Responsible Leadership

2008-12-06T13:11:00.000-08:00

On Thursday the Globe & Mail reported that Stephen Harper's Prorogressive Conservative government is projecting significant drops in corporate income tax revenue over the next few years. Ottawa now expects its revenue from corporate income tax to fall by $6.5 billion from 2008 to 2009, and by a further $1 billion in 2010.

The reason for this alarming "wallop" to corporate income tax revenue, according to corporate economists and the Globe, is hardship and "plunging profits" in the banking and oil sectors resulting from the current global economic slowdown. No mention is given to the acceleration and deepening of corporate income tax cuts since 2007 under the Harper government, or the unprecedented cuts planned over the next few years.

According to the government's "Budget Plan 2008: Responsible Leadership," its "historic broad based" corporate tax reductions "will provide over $50 billion in tax relief to Canadian businesses over this and the next five fiscal years." In 2008-09 alone, says the budget plan, the Harper government's corporate tax cuts will provide "tax relief totaling $5.2 billion."

It would appear, then, that for the most part the Conservatives themselves are the mechanics of, what the Globe calls, the government's "stalling" corporate "tax engine."

The Globe notes that with the tax engine stalling, "policy analysts are focusing on how the government can...stimulate growth in the corporate sector." No doubt those analysts will be recommending further corporate tax cuts.

Letters to the Editor

2008-12-06T10:06:00.000-08:00

In the beginning, Letters to the Editor were going to be "reactions & responses to, and rants against, ideological discourses, opinions and accounts of news and politics." Only 3 weeks out (in?), and already some posts seem to be drifting outside these original terms of reference.

I blame the Separatists.

Return of the PCs?

2008-12-05T17:01:00.000-08:00

Suggestion: In light of recent events in Ottawa, perhaps the federal Conservative party should be renamed the Prorogressive Conservative Party of Canada.

GG agrees to suspend Parliament: Harper

2008-12-04T12:37:00.000-08:00

It's the championship football game. The clock is winding down. The reigning champions have a thin lead but a fat swagger. The other team is lining up for a game-winning field goal. After a flurry of personal fouls and unsportsmanlike conduct by the reigning champs, their captain calls a time-out and smugly strolls over to the referree. He knows his team needs more time if they're going to be able to block this field goal and maintain their reign. He knows the conditions on the field will likely change in their favour if the kick is delayed.

The captain makes a bold and unprecedented request. He asks the ref to stop the game. "We'll start it up again sometime next year, when we're ready," he says.

The ref thinks for a moment. She knows that this is not how the game is played.

And then she agrees to his request.

Eating out of their hands

2008-12-03T22:15:00.000-08:00

Nonsense. Rhetoric. Propaganda. Spin. The Conservatives are serving it up, and many in the public and the media are swallowing it down.

Canadians interviewed on CBC's The National tonight were calling for "stability" during these tough economic times. Fair enough. But the (Conservative-created) consensus seems to be that the current (Conservative) government will provide stability (which it hasn't and it won't), while a coalition government will create instability (which is unlikely, given that by written agreement the coalition will be guaranteed at least 18 months of majority support in Parliament).

Over at CTV National News, Ottawa bureau chief, Robert Fife, might as well have been reading Conservative speaking notes, suggesting that "the coalition partners, and Mr. Dion in particular, are playing with fire." By "aligning themselves with the Separatists," Fife warned, "who knows what the end result is, because they in effect have given Gilles Duceppe a veto over anything this coalition government...will do!"

I could have sworn I heard Conservative MP James Moore warning of a similar doomsday scenario in an earlier interview on CBC Radio. Or was it Conservative cabinet minister Stockwell Day, during Question Period? Or maybe the Prime Minister said it during his televised address tonight? Or was it the folks at the Shamrock Curling Club in Edmonton, interviewed by the CBC's Lynda Calvert? I think they were warning that the coalition will destroy Western Canada...

Regardless, I've heard it all said so many times over the last couple of days, it must be true.

No prisoners

2008-12-03T17:15:00.000-08:00

The current "PR war" being fought by the conservatives/Conservatives against the proponents of a coalition government in Ottawa is reminiscent in some ways of the conservative/Republican fight against the Democrats for the U.S. presidency in 2000. And, I fear, the outcome (conservative victory) may be the same here and now as it was there and then.

Why? Because the Canadian Conservatives, like the American Republicans in 2000, aren't hesitating; they're attacking full bore straight out of the gates. And like the Republicans, the Conservatives appear willing to protect what they believe to be theirs by any means necessary.

Indeed, the Conservatives will lie (for example, about the composition of the coalition), cheat (for example, by, if they must, proroguing Parliament to avoid a confidence vote) and steal (for example, by surreptitiously recording and publicly releasing a private and confidential NDP conference call) their way to victory. They will incite the public with divisive (not to mention misleading and hypocritical) rhetoric, they will mobilize more activists and supporters than their opponents, they will saturate the (friendly) media (including radio call-in shows and advertising space) with their message and spin, and they will spend lots of money - until they win.

And then, if the American experience is any indication of what's to come here, they will run this country into the ground.

Human rights 101

2008-12-02T22:20:00.000-08:00

Letter to the editor of the Globe & Mail, from Maxwell Yalden, former Canadian Human Rights Commissioner:

Rex Murphy's column...perpetuates two serious misapprehensions about human rights and rights commissions. First, he recounts the myth that the "central" human right is "free speech and thought." All students of human rights are agreed that there should be no hierarchy of rights, but if there were, it would probably be the right to life. For untold numbers of the world's hungry millions, it is more important to be able to put bread on the table than to indulge in delivering oneself of controversial columns of newsprint. And even in an affluent society like Canada, who would defend the view that the right to free speech is more "central" than, say, equality rights for women or the rights of the child?

Second, Mr. Murphy perpetuates the falsehood that human-rights commissions "take aim" at the right of free speech. Rights commissions in Canada do not take aim at anything; they take complaints that are lodged with them and that they are obliged by law to investigate.

I think Mr. Murphy would be well-advised to stick to his polysyllabic musings on Canadian life and leave human rights alone.

Letters to the Editor

2008-12-02T21:50:00.000-08:00

Rex Murphy's latest rant against human rights commissions was voiced in his column in this past weekend's Globe & Mail. A response published in today's letters to the editor of the Globe appears in the next post...

Headwinds

2008-12-02T18:36:00.000-08:00

Canadians hoping to sail into the New Year on a ship steered by a new coalition government should watch out for the headwinds being blown by the country's conservative national news and opinion-makers. Read the Comment pages in the Globe & Mail today, and you'll find the editorial board and all four columnists lining up forcefully against a Liberal-NDP coalition. Recall, also, the chorus of nays coming from the crazies at the National Post yesterday (and listen for it again today).

According to a senior Conservative speaking to the Globe, the Harper government's fight against the coalition is "a PR war now." Indeed. And it appears to be the media - not the Conservatives - leading the charge.

Pay equity 101

2008-12-01T19:22:00.000-08:00

Letter to the editor of the Globe & Mail, from Emanuela Heyninck, commissioner, Ontario Pay Equity Commission:

The economic statement issued by Ottawa states that Canadian taxpayers have paid more than $4-billion in pay-equity settlements since the 1980s, while the same employees have benefited from negotiated wage increases over the same period. The government plans to integrate pay equity with collective bargaining to put a stop to "this costly and litigious regime of 'double pay equity.'"

The statement appears to confuse wage increases with pay-equity settlements. Wage increases negotiated in collective bargaining are based on operational and economic conditions and are typically applied to all employees in the bargaining unit. Pay-equity settlements, on the other hand, are meant to correct systemic discrimination in a workplace that results in women being paid less than men for work of equal value.

Wage increases and reimbursement for wages that should have been paid do not amount to "double pay equity."

Letters to the Editor

2008-12-01T19:18:00.001-08:00

Every now and then, letters to the editor published elsewhere will appear here. The first will appear in the next post...

Winning consistency

2008-12-01T16:14:00.000-08:00

On a good day, the conservative comment page in the National Post is laughable for its bias and zaniness. On a bad day, it's filled with hate and misinformation. (It's filled with misinformation on a good day, too.)

Today was a good day, and Post commentators and editorialists outdid themselves. Impressively, at last check on the Post website this afternoon, pundits were 7 for 8, lining up against the proposed coalition government in Ottawa and in support of the Harper Conservatives. (Jonathan Kay was the only voice in favour of a coalition government. His support for a change in government, however, was based on his view that such a change would strengthen the Conservatives and weaken the other parties.)

Wow. If there was a daily award for clearest and most consistently biased commentary by a national media organization, the Post would win today's prize hands down.

Shenanigans

2008-11-30T11:07:00.000-08:00

Harper Conservatives are fanning out across the country this weekend to convince the public that the federal opposition parties are playing politics, planning an undemocratic and irresponsible coup in Ottawa while dangerously neglecting urgent economic concerns. It seems, however, that CBC Radio's James Fitz-Morris has already bought into the Conservative's misinformation blitz on behalf of Canadians.

Asked how developments of the past few days in Ottawa are resonating with the public (how would he know?!), Fitz-Morris explained that "Canadians, especially right now in this time of such fiscal uncertainty, don't want this political uncertainty piled on top of it...there is a desire in the public for these politicians to set aside their differences, get to work, and stop the shenanigans."

The Harper communications team couldn't have messaged it better themselves.

Campaigning like it's 1999

2008-11-29T16:35:00.000-08:00

According to Gary Mason, many British Columbians "still believe [the BC NDP] ran the economy into the ground during its reign in the 1990s."

No wonder. Rather than offering an alternative account to the dominant discourse of New Democrats as weak economic managers, Mason frames the 2009 provincial election ballot question as whether "the NDP can be trusted to run the province during these perilous economic times."

Never mind that, as was reported before the last election in the Georgia Straight, "in 2000, the last full year of...NDP government, B.C. had...4.6-percent growth in real gross domestic product and topped three percent four times between 1991 and 2000." And not to mention that the provincial "budget for 1999 was balanced under the NDP, and the 2000 budget had a record surplus of $1.5 billion," while the Liberal government subsequently "racked up the largest two deficits" in B.C. history.

But perhaps even more important than challenging the label of the 1990s under the NDP as "the Lost Decade," maybe Mason - and all British Columbians - should be asking why the B.C. Liberals are campaigning on that decade when we're almost at the end of this one.

Foot-long stogies

2008-11-27T19:47:00.000-08:00

I wonder if Liberal leadership candidate Dominic Leblanc was talking about "renewal" and "change" through "the Cuban clouds left by the foot-long stogies" at the "cigar dinner" he reportedly attended in Ottawa recently.

Leblanc is playing the role of the youthful candidate, promising generational change and campaigning to reconnect the party to ordinary Canadians. However, given the description of him "working his way through the smoke-filled room, talking up his candidacy" and exchanging "bleep you"s with his colleagues, perhaps he better fits the part of the typical, old-school Back-room Boy.

Apples & oranges

2008-11-23T11:56:00.000-08:00

In a column on B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell's take on the current economic situation, Gary Mason wonders why '$15-an-hour retail clerks and $22-an-hour mill workers' should 'bailout...an automobile industry that pays its workers $70 an hour.'

A better question is: are autoworkers really earning a $70 hourly wage (adding up to an annual salary of almost $150,000)? The answer, of course, is no. The average Canadian autoworker probably doesn't make half that, based on the wage grids in CAW collective agreements.

The $70 hourly wage figure is a (generous) estimate of the value of all employment compensation to which autoworkers are entitled (but don't necessarily receive), including wages, pension and health benefits, vacation, sick leave, and long term disability payments. Comparing this total-possible-compensation figure to other workers' simple hourly wages (as Mason has done) is misleading and unhelpful.

Still, many may even point to a $30-an-hour autoworker wage in arguing against government support for the struggling auto industry. But this seems backward. Shouldn't the fact of decent paying jobs in an industry be a reason to want to protect it?

Da unions

2008-11-22T19:08:00.000-08:00

The cartoon above Justine Hunter's Friday article on a legal challenge by a group of unions to an election advertising law sets the tone for her commentary.

In the cartoon, the two female union members who have been inserted as 'defendants' to the legal challenge (the B.C. government is the real defendant) are dressed in business casual attire. They are thin and tiny; standing on the shoulders of a big, strong man with thick sideburns and a cleft chin. The man is wearing a Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) tank top with his chest hair exposed at the top.

The imagery in the cartoon isn't surprising. Unions are commonly represented in dominant discourses as big, gruff, mean, coercive, and male-dominated.

In this case, the unions to which the two female members belong (CUPE and the B.C. Teachers' Federation) are, in majority part, women, and both unions have been led by female presidents. Details, details...

Shock doctrine

2008-11-20T18:07:00.000-08:00

In her most recent book, Naomi Klein sums up what she calls the 'shock doctrine' in economist Milton Friedman's observation that 'only a crisis - actual or perceived - produces real change.' The shock doctrine lens exposes the ideological motivations behind government and market 'reforms' during times of national and international turmoil.

As the TSX tumbles and a 'recession' looms, Canadians may be witnessing a form of the shock doctrine in action. With support from conservative media, think tanks and commentators, Canada's right-wing government is proposing a full slate of dramatic economic and fiscal changes: slashing government spending, legislating public sector wages, eliminating (imaginary) provincial trade barriers (read: deregulation), 'modernizing' competition and investment laws, pushing for free trade with the EU, privatizing government services, enshrining limits on federal spending powers, and continuing to implement unprecedented corporate tax cuts.

'Hard decisions,' the government says, in a time of economic crisis. 'Pragmatism' to 'help shelter the country from the faltering world economy,' trumpets the Globe & Mail.

According to the Globe, 'the government intends to use the crisis as an opportunity' to pursue its 'reforms.' Indeed.

Green-leaning

2008-11-19T21:10:00.000-08:00

Today's Globe & Mail reports that 'liberal-leaning' think tanks are promoting green solutions to North America's current economic problems. Among the organizations calling for a green economic stimulus is the Centre for American Progress Action Fund, a 'left-wing' advocacy group according to the Globe.

The seemingly ideological agenda of these organizations is contrasted with the opinions of, apparently, neutral academic experts. The academics have not been assigned any ideological labels.

One academic happens to be a special advisor to B.C.'s right-wing premier, Gordon Campbell. The other is a business economist and co-author of a recent report for the Ontario Mining Association on the economic, fiscal and employment benefits of mining.

Speaking of tough economic times...

2008-11-18T18:06:00.000-08:00

Liberal MP Peter Milliken was re-elected as Speaker of the House today.

According to the CBC, the position comes with an extra fat salary, 'topped up to almost $230,000 from the base MP salary of $155,400...a one-of-a-kind apartment in Parliament Hill's Centre Block and the use of a charming, storied estate known as Kingsmere in the nearby Gatineau Hills of Quebec.' The Speaker is also lavished with a hospitality budget and a car and driver.

No wonder 15 other MPs were vying for the job.

Cover boy

2008-11-17T12:33:00.000-08:00

According to the Globe's Gary Mason, Vancouver's new mayor-elect Gregor Robertson must now prove 'he's more than just another pretty face.'

After co-creating one of Canada's leading organic food businesses, winning recognition for his business achievements in Vancouver and across Canada, raising 4 children with his partner, running successfully for provincial office, actively serving as an opposition critic and representative for the people of Vancouver-Fairview, turning out thousands of new Vision members and winning a tough nomination contest, and leading a progressive slate of candidates to a landslide election victory - now, apparently, Gregor must go beyond his 'cover-boy looks.'

Good luck, cover boy.

Peggy and Tim

2008-11-16T11:00:00.000-08:00

In typical form, the Globe's Margaret Wente cites one academic 'study' to support her account of reusable mugs as instruments of faith for 'righteous,' mislead enviro-zealots.

She indicates that paper coffee cups are 39 times more energy efficient than ceramic mugs; that you can use 39 paper cups or use your mug once - and come out even, 'energy-wise.' The 'moral of the story,' according to Peggy, is that encouraging the use of ceramic mugs doesn't actually make environmental sense.

But don't most coffee shops double-cup, and don't most coffee drinkers drink a couple a day? And doesn't this mean that, 'energy-wise,' reusable mug users come out ahead of paper cup drinkers after only 10 days?

Letters to the Editor

2008-11-16T10:20:00.000-08:00

Letters to the Editor don't need to be exclusive to a particular media organization. They don't need to be kept under 200 words. And they won't be edited for length or clarity.

Letters to the Editor will be reactions & responses to, and rants against, ideological discourses, opinions and accounts of news and politics.

Jonathan Chapnick, Vancouver, B.C.