All That Jazz

It seems terrorist experts are upset that an Air Canada Jazz pilot was locked out of his cabin after going for a pee in the back of the plane. Wait a minute back after 9/11 the discussions were about having doors to cockpits that could be sealed from the inside preventing hijackers from getting in. Does Air Canada have such a door available to them....and they just forgot to tell the Pilots?

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Border Safety

Harper: Canadian border guards will be armed
Yep in ten years. By then the US national guard will be patroling the border.
By the time the Canadian Border Guards get their guns they will have actually been waiting twenty years.

Promise made promise kept, sort of , over the long run, give us time, or a majority if you want it quicker.

By then more guns will have crossed the border into Canada than will ever be available for our understaffed unarmed border guards. Hey maybe thats the Tories solution, let the border guards keep the guns they confiscate. Saving taxpayer the expense of buying them guns.

Or maybe they are delaying getting a few thousand guns out to the Border Guards because being Conservatives the Harpocrites are yearning for the good old days when the Canada US border was known as "the longest undefended border in the world."

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PMO Secrecy Over Gas

After a couple of days of dealing with communication officials in the Prime Minister's Office, I'm rediscovering the value of a good sense of humour in politics. For instance, consider this knee-slapper Monday from one of Harper's communication officials to one of my colleagues on the purpose of Harper's visit: "What you see on (the Prime Minister's itinerary) advisory is what we want you to know. If we're not telling you, we don't want you to know."

And what was so important about the Harpers visit to Saskatchewan? that it had to be kept under wraps?
Discussion of the future of the Canadian Wheat Board? Nope.
Equalization? Nope.
A Visit with Kate at SDA? Nope.
It was a taxpyer funded trip to do a cameo on Corner Gas the CTV comedy filmed in Saskatchewan.

Now considering how upset Tories get with federal funding of the arts, one would think that paying for all that jet fuel and security, just to do a walk on would be a bit much. But I guess they are trying to prove that Harper has a sense of humour.

Well we knew he did remember this;




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Igantieff the Democrat

What do Liberals and Democrats have in common? Flip Flops.

Michael Ignatieff said yesterday he is running in the next election whether he wins the Liberal leadership race or not. But that's not what he said the day before.

But like Kerry before him Ignatieff should be warned,

Experts: Flip-flops are health hazard

And a politcal hazard too.



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Troops Out Now Says Layton

Calling it a failed Liberal Conservative Mission, Jack Layton threw down the guantlet in a press conference this afternoon denouncing the 'counter insurgency war' in Afghanistan as counter productive to real peace and reconstruction. He called for the withdrawl of Canadian Forces from the region by February of next year.

Which is when they would have left if the Conservatives and their Liberal quizzlings, including the Man Who Would Be Trudeau; Mikey Ignatieff, had not got their motion of indefinte stay passed in the house.

Unlike the wishy washy Liberals whose house is divided over the Middle East and Afghanistan, the NDP clearly has drawn a line in the sand.

And unlike the wishy washy Democrats in the U.S. this line is principled and based on the Canadian tradition of Peace Making and Peace Keeping. That is Jack has clearly called the war in Afghanistan for what it is; American style Counter Insurgency. Which can only be won if it is total war.

The NDP principle is withdrawl of material support for "counter insurgency war", and putting funds and efforts into peace talks in Afghanistan and reconstruction efforts.

Bravo. Furthermore as part of this peacemaking/peacekeeping policy the NDP is calling for Canadian involvement in the UN forces in Lebanon, and support troop deployment to Darfur. Regions that the Conservatives steadfastly refuse to particpate in, since it does not fit with their macho mimickry of American War policy.

Jack was really speaking to NDPers and delegates attending the upcoming National Convention in Quebec where the party will bring forward anti-war resolutions.

This will sell well in Quebec where the Tories are decling in the polls, as their true politics are revealed and reviled. Tories were a vote for change in Quebec, but with the mask dropped over their stance on Afghanistan, Kyoto, etc. they have lost support. That support, anyone but the Liberals, can now benefit the NDP.

With this as a major policy initiative, followed up with a NDP parliamentary opposition motion, it puts the Tories silent partners, the BQ between a rock and hard place.

The Tories have made War the issue, and the NDP plans to Bring the War back home, to have them face their decision.

Hmm perhaps Afghanistan will be the real confidence vote that brings down the Harpocrites.

Also See:

Afghanistan

War

NDP



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Lord Black To Join OCAP?

No not really. He and Barbra will still be allowed an allowance of $20,000 monthly to live on. Guess Barbara will be shopping a PayLess Shoes.

A Canadian judge has ordered the worldwide assets of former media tycoon Conrad Black and his wife, Barbara Amiel Black, frozen, The Globe and Mail newspaper reported overnight.

Of course the Canadian court is following in the footsteps of the U.S. courts. Perhaps Lord Black should have stayed in England.

Also See:

Conrad Black

Criminal Capitalism

Criminal Capitalism: Black Lord Dodges Tax Man

Criminal Capitalism: Black & Radler,Thick as Thieves

Criminal Capitalism: Lord Black Fugitive

Criminal Capitalism: Black gets his comeuppance

Criminal Capitalism: Hollinger's Black Eye

Criminal Capitalism: Black Out






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CBC Blows It, Again

File this under closing the barn door after the horses have left. Cancelled CBC legal drama leads Gemini nominees This is the same management that locked out its workers, and contracted out jobs in TV production. They obviously missed the important workshop on syndication. Something the private sector does to keep shows alive. Hello.

"The message at the end of the day is that this is a quality show," said academy chair Paul Gratton."What jurors look for in nominating a show is not necessarily what a network looks for in deciding to cancel a program."

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What Results?

Harper also talked about what his government intends to do in the coming months."Canada's new government will replace Liberal and NDP rhetoric on the environment with real Conservative results," he said.

Oh you mean Conservative results like this?

"No Threat" to Spotted Owls in Canada, says Environment Minister


Also See:

Environment

Kyoto

Green

Oil

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Aboriginal Property Rights

It amuses me to read the Right Whing whiners who complain about Aboriginal protests and land claims while they are quick to defend property rights of local landowners. What about the property rights of the First Nations who did not cede their territory to the State. Or leased it to the the State, such as the current situation in Caledonia. Hmm. What about their property rights?

Property as Ontology: On Aboriginal and English Understandings of Ownership

Before Canada was a country Britain recognized that aboriginal people living here had title to land: the Royal Proclamation of 1763 declared that only the British Crown could acquire land from First Nations, and that was typically done through treaties. In most parts of Canada, the British Crown established treaties with First Nations before Confederation. The new Dominion of Canada continued this policy of making treaties before the west was opened for settlement, but in BC, this process was never completed. Aboriginal Rights: The Issues: BC Treaty Commission

EconPapers: Aboriginal Property Rights in Canada: A Contractarian View

ABORIGINAL PEOPLE:
HISTORY OF DISCRIMINATORY LAWS

Prepared by:
Wendy Moss, Elaine Gardner-O'Toole, Law and Government Division
November 1987
Revised November 1991

It is worth noting that, before Confederation, race relations in the territories that eventually formed Canada began with slavery, primarily involving Indian slaves (called "Panis" or "Pawnees").(3) While in the 1790s legislative action in Upper Canada and judicial action in Lower Canada signalled the end of slavery, it was not until 1833 that the Act of the Abolition of Slavery finally abolished slavery in the British Empire.(4) Paradoxically, however, the colonial period brought an important shift in the non-native perception of Indians: from being viewed as independent and (arguably) sovereign peoples sought after as allies in colonial wars, Indian nations began to be viewed as dependent groups of Crown subjects in need of protection and "civilization."

And if you think land claims are complicated wait till we start discussing intellectual property.


Also See:

Noble Savage

Liberal Genocide; The Lubicon

Link Byfield Historical Revisionist

Rebel Yell

Kelowna Accord

A History of Canadian Wealth, 1914.

Slavery in Canada

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Right To Die

Because we donot have the right to die with dignity in Canada this happens. Man kills wife, then himself, at BC hospital Two lives for the price of one, the price we pay for the misplaced morality of the Right To Life movement.

Bloc MP ready to re-shine spotlight on right-to-die bill

Documents obtained by Sun Media through access to information show Justice Department officials have advised the government Canadian laws haven't kept up with the courts, which have found cases of "passive euthanasia" legally permissible in cases of physicians withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment or administering pain-relief medicine in doses large enough to hasten death.

Mike Storeshaw, director of communications for Justice Minister Vic Toews, said the government isn't immediately looking at changing existing laws. "Opening up the debate isn't a priority for the government," Storeshaw said.

Nope its going to take more murder suicides for the Harpocrites to get it. Of course this is also a big issue in the AIDS community; death with dignity. You know the folks the Harpocrite avoided earlier this month.

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