The Sun's Loonie Editorial

The Editorial in yesterdays Edmonton Sun was a piece of fiscal fiction. Pulp fiction reads better, and the supermarket tabloids are more reliable on economics. Really they claim that the loonie is doing well because we elected a Conservative government.

Stretching the facts, really stretching, really, really stretching, they try and equate the dollars rise and fall with the coming and going of Conservative federal governments. Except for its rise under Trudeau, oh and its fall under Mulroney. What twits.

The loonie is rising because, as I have reported here see links below, it is now the international petro dollar, and because we are now in a floating exchange rate. It rose last week because the US dollar fell. Not because we elected the Harpocrites. But hey the Sun being the Sun would claim the Conservatives make the Sun rise in the east. After all it is an Eastern paper transplanted to the west.

A tip o' the blog to the Dan Report for this.

See:

Forward To The Past

Boom Boom

Alberta's Boom = Ontario's Bust

The Real Debt and Deficit Crisis

Canada's New Finance Minister?

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Harpers Made In America Green Plan

Like everything else the Harpocrite does his governments environment policy comes from the Republican playbook. Conservative climate strategy said to be inspired by US communications expert

And that policy whether Made In America or Made In Canada is not a solution to Global Warming, Climate Change or even good for creating hybrid cars.

The new "Made in Canada" plan is expected to be based upon the current U.S. government policy that the Bush administration adopted in 2002 after rejecting Kyoto. In other words, the new emissions plan is not really being made in Canada. Even the title is an uncreative copy of the "Made in America" label used by President George Bush.It is worth examining the problem with a U.S.-style policy. In 2002, the Bush administration called for a reduction in the greenhouse gas intensity of the U.S. economy by 18 per cent by 2012. The greenhouse gas intensity is not the total emissions; it is the greenhouse gas emissions per dollar of GDP. The catch is that the greenhouse gas intensity of the U.S., of Canada, and of virtually every industrialized country has been decreasing for years as our economies become more productive and our technology improves. How much? Here's the funny coincidence. In the U.S., the greenhouse gas intensity decreased by about 18 per cent between 1990 and 2000. In other words, the Bush administration climate policy is just a statement about staying the course. It does absolutely nothing to address climate change.
Simon Donner is a Toronto-born research scientist based at Princeton University.

And if nothing is done, which is what the Conservatives Made In Canada plan will do, the result will be?

Climate change a 'deadly threat'

Christian Aid has demanded greater carbon dioxide emission cuts

The Christian Aid charity has warned that 184 million people in Africa alone could die as a result of climate change before the end of the century.

Climate-induced floods, famine, drought and conflict could reverse recent gains in reducing poverty, it says.

Its report says rich nations must aid poorer ones to adopt non-fossil-fuel energy sources such as solar power.

The report comes as almost 190 states gather in Bonn, Germany, to discuss climate change.

The Christian Aid report, entitled The Climate of Poverty: Facts, Fears and Hopes, says rich countries must end their dependence on fossil fuels and aid poorer nations to switch to wind, solar and wave energies.

Also See

Harper is Bush-Lite

Global Warming

Kyoto

Climate Change



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NDP Flip Flops on Afghanistan

NDP Foreign Affairs critic Alex McDonough made a trip to Afghanistan and has returned with a change of heart regarding our troop deployment. On CTV's Question Period today she told Craig Oliver that we need to have troops in Afghanistan and Darfur, as well as Haiti. This is not an either/or position as previously reported by the media. And McDonough was clear that she saw Canada's involvement in Afghanistan as long term. A shift in policy direction for the NDP. Now all she wants is a debate and vote on that long term commitment.

The NDP under Layton has moved to the right when it comes to Canada's role as an Imperialist nation. He abandoned the long historical opposition the party had to NATO and now the party shifts right supporting the coup de dat in Haiti, troops in Darfur (which like Chad is rich in oil, which is why the Sudanese and the rebels are fighting over the region) and now they support the Canadian US Enduring Freedom pacification campaign in Southern Afghanistan. As long as Parliament gets to debate the issue.

This is a far cry from the party that opposed WWII, The War Measures Act of 1971, and the Viet Nam war. What next for the NDP support for the Conservatives plans to militarize the arctic for PetroCanada?



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A Different Kind Of Second Hand Smoke

Put a lid on fumes from cremation

B.C.'s chief medical health officer says crematoriums could be emitting harmful fumes, and should be regulated by the provincial government. The health authority says crematoriums should never be operated in urban residential areas, because of concerns that possibly harmful emissions pose a public health risk. Call for closer scrutiny of crematorium emissions

Yep another environmental toxin that could cause lung cancer. So while the anti-smoking adovcates whine on, they over look yet another emission that adds to the potential for cancer. All those dead bodies being inhaled. And the industry is not regulated. Imagine that. It gives new meaning to it's your funeral. Literally.

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Nothing New Here

Liberals hid gun registry costs

report: Auditor general to reveal huge expenses were buried in routine reports for several years

Ms. Fraser is expected to lay the blame at the feet of top public servants and their former Liberal masters when her report is released on Tuesday.

The report will say that the registry's costs continued to grow after 2002 because the federal government was under contract to two competing computer firms for years before deciding to switch to a more advanced information technology system that could be adapted to the needs of the gun registry.

The decision to switch from the original IT firm, run by EDS Canada, to Team Centra, a consortium of computer firms led by CGI Business Solutions, was held up for almost four years thanks to long-delayed legislative changes to the firearms program, several ministerial reviews and the seemingly ever-changing requirements of the registry's computer system.

The myriad amendments to the computer contracts over that four-year period, made to adapt to the program's changing mandate, steadily drove up the cost of doing business, at huge expense to taxpayers.

Well that was already reported by Fraser in her earlier audits as it was by the KPMG auditor hired by the Justice department as I have documented. So what's new here? Unless she is going to name names of the Liberals and bureaucrats that screwed up. But this is less about an ADSCAM type scandal than the failure of the neo-conservative ideology of Public Private Partnerships (P3's) and privatization of the State.

But Joe Comartin, the NDP justice critic, noted The Tory case against the registry is not, at bottom, an economic one, said Comartin. "It's an ideological, philosophical argument.'

As it is the release of her report is a serious breach of government confidentiality which leads right back to the PMO. And that in itself is a scandal.

The conservatives are hell bent on linking the Firearms Registry to the Liberal ADSCAM that they have violated parliamentary secrecy and confidentiality which will backfire on them. And they will NOT do anything to reform the Firearms Registry because the money has already been well wasted.

Leak prompts call for RCMP probe

GLORIA GALLOWAY

OTTAWA -- Opposition MPs are calling for an RCMP investigation into the leak of an Auditor-General's report on the beleaguered gun registry that was to be released next Tuesday.

And Auditor-General Sheila Fraser, said to be furious that details of the report appeared in newspapers this week, has been asked to appear before the Commons Public Accounts Committee on Monday to tell what she knows about the unprecedented breach of secrecy.

Jason Kenney, parliamentary secretary to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, told the House of Commons yesterday that the government is taking the matter very seriously.

He rejected accusations from Liberal MP Marlene Jennings that the leak had come from Ian Brodie, Mr. Harper's chief of staff, as being "absolutely scurrilous" and completely baseless.

Methinks he doth protest too much.

More on the Firearms Registry Scandal:

Smoking Gun

More Firearms Registry Scandal

How Many Audits Does It Take?

The Neo Liberal Canadian State

Also see Privatization


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Whyte Avenue Trashed Again

Violence on 'Blue Mile' mars Oilers celebration

A predictable headline. The violence was a stabbing. Which has also occured during the ever popular Fringe Festival last year, and on other occasions on Whyte. The other stabbings and violence occured downtown. So linking it to the rowdy partying on Whyte as if it was the main event after the Oilers stomped the Sharks on Friday night is a bit much. Otherwise it was a party on Whyte. Except for the Riot Cops.


No rioting broke out such as what happened in the Whyte Avenue area on Canada Day in 2001. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in property damage occurred then.

The police closed off Whyte Avenue access at 99th Street within thirty minutes of the game ending. I know I watched them from my local pub where I enjoyed the game with the rest of the crew. Having learned from the July 1st riot the cops were in control of the Avenue. Any trashing would have been because of their armed and dangerous prescence, as if having riot cops appear. That is bound to provoke.

“I think as soon as the riot police come out, I think it creates a different attitude among everybody,” said Andrew Wilcox, who was in the crowd. “People have a sort of need to rebel.”

And as I have said here before since the area is overrun with bars and lounges they should have a tax for clean up placed on them. After all they already overcharge for beer.

Jenny Sherwin, a restaurant owner near the disturbance, said she was stuck hosing down pools of urine from the front of her store yesterday morning.



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Anti-Scab Law Redux

There are now two private members bills in Parliament on Anti-Scab legislation. One from the BQ and one from the NDP. The BQ bill will come up first. The bills will pass only with enough votes from the Opposition. However last time the legislation came up the Liberals voted against it. With their new friendship with Buzz Hargrove, maybe they will vote for the bill. This will define exactly how left wing and progressive the Liberals really are.




For an excellent analysis of the CAW and Buzzes right wing shift see my pal Bruce Allen's Inside The CAW Jacket

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Immigrant Song

Yep that's the title of a Led Zepplin song, its also the feature stories in todays Toronto Sun. Where reporter Brodie Felon writes about the Chinese Immigrant community, in that city. The articles are on the end of the Head Tax and the tragedy of the failure of Canada to recognize foreign educational and occupational credentials. Both well worth the read, especially the history of exploitation and racism that surrounds the head tax.

The IWW was one of the first inclusive unions to recognize Chinese workers, while other craft unions and even the Knights of Labour shamefully attacked them as 'foreign workers', gee sounds familar.

Oh and for a fun version of the Led Zep song check this out.


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Better Late Than Never

The Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) has finally issued a 'policy paper' on Foreign Temporary Workers. El presidente Gil McGowan states;

"We will articulate the reasons why importing temporary workers is a case of 
exploiting foreign workers to undermine Canadian workers. Everybody loses.
It is critical to note that the labour movement strongly supports
immigration and believes that immigrant workers should be entitled to have
access to the full rights and privileges of all other Canadian workers.
However, we oppose the importation of hundreds of workers just to complete a
job and then sending them back home. That is exploitation."

Which is what the IWW Edmonton Branch said over a year ago when
the Building Trades were attacking temporary workers in a racist nationalist manner.

Also See: 

The Labour Shortage Myth

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Right To Work Redux

I have long stated that Alberta has the most restrictive labour laws against unions and in favour of the bosses. Now our pals at the Fraser Institute have released their study that proves it.

Of course being the right wing think tank they are, they approve of Albertas regressive anti-union laws. And of course seeing that the Harpocrites are in power in Ottawa they are hoping to appeal to them to change the Federal labour laws to bring in Right To Work. These guys never give up.

And why should they, with the likes of MP Rob Anders in the back benches,who was their patsy for their last effort in Alberta to promote Right To Work, watch for a private members bill. Luckily for us the Opposition is stronger than the Minority government.

The empirical results indicate four distinct groups. The first is a group
of 22 US States, often called Right-to-Work states. They scored 9.2 out of a
possible 10.0 indicating that they have the most balanced and least
prescriptive labour relations laws in Canada and the United States. The next
group is the remaining 28 US states (non-RTW states); they scored 7.5 out of
10.0.
Right-to-Work states differ from other US states in that they allow
workers in unionized firms to completely opt-out of paying any union dues.
Workers in other states are only permitted to opt-out of certain types of
union dues that are not related to worker representation.
The third group is a single Canadian province: Alberta. It scored 6.0 on
the index and led all Canadian jurisdictions, but fell short of competing with
any of the US states.
The final group is the remaining nine Canadian provinces and the Canadian
federal government. These jurisdictions have the most biased labour relations
laws; all received scores below 5.0.

Of course "biased labour relations laws" is Fraserspeak for actually having labour laws that recognize workers rights. And Right To Work does not mean full employment it means the right of bosses to exploit workers without fear of unionization.

Never say never is the Fraser motto, as they whined about biased labour laws only last August. But then the Harpocrites were only in opposition, now they are in power.

RIGHT TO WORK?

NO THANKS.

ABOLISH WORK!

WORKERS AGAINST FORCED LABOUR

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