Conservative Nanny State

Here is a another example of the Conservative Nanny State bailing out the private sector.

Private cable companies, Shaw and Videotron, who leech off the public air waves and off the municipal cable infrastructure, pull a capital strike over the Canadian TV Fund and the Conservatives make up the difference. Ottawa to contribute $200 -million to TV fund

Oda's announcement Friday "saved the day" as a show of confidence in the fund and a step toward a long-term solution, Barrett said.

Her willingness to reviewing the fund's rules and structure showed "open mindedness," Videotron executive vice-president Luc Lavoie said Friday. But the company's terms aren't negotiable.

"It's not enough (for the government) to say 'We will review,"', he said from Montreal. "We want to know the details, we want to know where it's going. Because even though we're going in there with an open mind, we're going in there with a very firm position as well."

Videotron, along with Rogers Communications (TSX:RCI.B), Cogeco (TSX:CGO) and Bell ExpressVu have been invited to the Tuesday meeting, he said. Rogers Communications declined comment on Friday.

Cable companies were supposed to provide the public with free open access when they were first licensed. Today they are virtual monopolies, who have abandonded free public access for their own 'community' programming, which is simply company promotional information.

And they are multimillion dollar empires, funded by you and I both directly and indirectly, whose responsibility for producing Canadian Content is far less than
CBC or even the private media monopoly CTV.

And Videotron which is part of the Quebecor empire, which includes the Sun newspaper chain, has a terrible reputation for labour relations with its unions. And Quebecor itself is shedding jobs by the thousands across North America as it upgrades its newspaper and magazine technology.

The private media monopolies who sup at the public trough attack the CBC and the Canadian Television Fund in order to line their own pockets at our expense. And Bev Oda coming from the private sector media is only too willing to dish out for them.


See

Death of Channel Ten

Who Benefits From Telco Deregulation

Pro Monopoly Tories

The Alternative To CBC

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Qubecor, Shaw, Videotron, Bev Oda, Conservatives, Canadian Television Fund, CBC,

Right Wing Drive By Smearing

The MSM and Blogosphere is all aghast over the dirty tricks from the rightwing media accusing Clinton of dissing Obama.

But lost in the media glare was this attack on Democratic Presidential contender Bill Richardson. And it is even slimier than the attacks on Obama and Clinton.

Bill Richardson Has Unanswered Questions Regarding Alleged Child Predator
there are unanswered questions about Richardson's relationship with famed artist RC Gorman. In October of 1997, the FBI began collecting information regarding numerous suspected sexual relationships RC Gorman had with children that spanned over 20 years. Did Bill Richardson know about RC Gorman's alleged illegal activities that involved transporting children across state kines....In an interview on the acclaimed podcast "You Are The Guest" award winning journalist Vern Beachy who conducted his own investigative news reports tells what he learned about RC Gorman back in 1999 and shares brand new information including the depth of Gorman's association with New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and several catholic priests.

SEE

US Politics


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Harper Cops Out

Despite the cash settlement and the official apology from the New Government of Canada, it wasn't our fault it was that other government, what Harper would not do is clean house in the RCMP and CSIS of those who are directly responsible for what happened to Arar.

And to those who leaked information slandering him to the press. Or to those who have been found guilty of illegal actions in their arrest and detention of Ottawa Citizen Journalist Juliet O'Neille under the Official Secrets Act.

Nope Harper will have none of it. That's all water under the bridge he told reporters. I think not.

"New Democrats take comfort in today's settlement announcement. We hope that, at least in Canada, Maher Arar and his family may be able to move on with their lives," said Comartin. "However, we will remain vigilant to ensure that the federal government implements all the recommendations contained in Justice Dennis O'Connor's report."

"Canadians know that the true test of whether this government has learned anything from Mr. Arar's ordeal is how the Harper government handles the cases of Canadian citizens Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El Maati and Muayyed Nureddin, who suffered in a way similar to Mr. Arar," stated Comartin.

See

Paranoia and the Security State

Arar

RCMP


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Blogging Tories Continue To Slander Arar

While the Grande Formage his-self today apologized for the Canadian Government, the RCMP and CSIS treatment of Maher Arar there are those in his peanut gallery over at the Blogging Tories that continue to spread the lie that Arar is Al-Quaeda or a terrorist, or....

Despite their Great Leader saying today that a Canadian Judicial Inquiry found no basis for these accusations.

It would be poetic justice for Arar and his family if after they sue the US Government, successfully, and get a full US Senate Hearing that they put aside some of the $10.5 million to sue the asses off these dweebs.....

Ten Million Dollar Man
Dissonance And Disrespect | 26 Jan 2007 | 9:19am EST
If Maher Arar is truly innocent of having links to Al-Qaeda, $10 million will hardly compensate him for the torture he suffered in Syria.If, however, he is guilty of some other dirty business, then he just hit the jackpot.But lost in all the controversy about Arar's treatment in Syria is that his experience demonstrates the downside of dual citizenship.

Arar’s ten million bucks
deepsouth | 26 Jan 2007 | 11:21am EST
Ten million bucks eh? Well good for him - if in fact he’s the innocent he claims to be. Oh, I know he’s been cleared and the RCMP convicted, but there’s a worm at the heart of the story - a worm that’s bothered me about it since the first Arar headlines hit the news. Syria is a terrorist sponsor state - a state that has good connections to Islamic terrorism worldwide

Hopefully that will be the end of that..
47 minutes ago by Jordan Alcock
Maher Arar is now officially a multi-millionaire, and the government can finally
move beyond the whole mess. Somehow, I doubt this will be the end of it
Still, if getting sent to Syria and tortured for a year means $10.5 million in the pocket - sign me up!

halls of macadamia
This has been one sensational media ride, but I think I must have missed the coverage of Arar publicly renouncing his Syrian citizenship. It seems obvious, now that he's a wealthy man, he'll need to protect himself against any "misunderstanding" from the Syrian Rubber Hose Brigade when he's travelling anywhere in the future.

And Bourque the Conservative payola headline writer was equally offensive today

Now compare those statements with this one from the Libertarian Reason Blog;

To recap: The Canadians, the original source of the tip that made U.S. officials think Arar was a terrorist, have completely repudiated the allegation, but the Americans are sticking to it, based on secret information the Canadians find unpersuasive. I'd like to believe our government is being extra careful, preferring to err on the side of safety. But I suspect it is actually being extra careless, refusing to admit the possibility of error.

See

Arar


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PETA Kills Cats & Dogs

Trial set to start for PETA workers caught euthanizing, dumping cats and dogs

Well after all cats and dogs are not vegans. So PETA probably feels justified in taking out these carnivores. Or we couldconclude that PETA serves no useful purpose except to keep its executives employed. Yep that's it.

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Vegan


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Contientalism

Contientalism here we come. This has always been the main dispute between the Nationalist Left of the ruling class against the Contientalist Right of the ruling class.

It goes back to the sixties split in the Liberal Party over this issue, which resulted in the Anti-Contientalist Liberal Nationalist left including Walter Gordon, Mel Hurtig and his protege Maude Barlow, and Paul Hellyer and his Canadian Action Party,

In the early seventies the Nationalist Left movement in the NDP was made up of Mel Watkins, Canadian Dimension's Cy Gonick and the Waffle.

Contientalism, or deep integration with the United States, as it is now called, is the current Canadian business agenda of some sections of the Canadian ruling class.

It includes the North American Security Agreement, the TILMA ( Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement ) which B.C. and Alberta hobbled together, and the Canadian Council of Chief Executives promotion of economic integration with the U.S. The three amigos; Bush, Calderon and Harper, will be meeting to discuss all these issues in Kananaskis this June.

Which is why China becomes an important trade and economic challenge to this ideology, and which is why the Canadian ruling class is divided over the issue of liberalizing trade with China. One could call it a clash between the Internationalists and the Contientalists in the ruling class.

China is to diversify the use of its swelling foreign exchange reserves, a policy change that is likely to mean a rise in investment in overseas securities and more purchasing of foreign technology and raw materials.

Mr Bloomberg and Mr Schumer commissioned the study amid increasing concern over New York's declining share of global capital markets activity. Concern has focused on the rise in the number of foreign companies choosing to list their shares in London and Hong Kong rather than in New York.

When dealing with hegemons it is best to keep them off balance by balancing out your relations with them. One way would be for NDP in its foreign policy to seriously consider aligning Canada with the Non-Aligined Movement.

If the Left in Canada is going to move beyond mere knee jerk nationalism, in the era of globalization, then it too needs to embrace internationalism. Sovereignty is a myth. Canadian capitalism is now global, it invests abroad, and in turn foreign investors have bought up Canadian companies, as the internecine competition between Falconbridge and Inco showed.

The Left,the labour movement and environmentalists have used NAFTA for the past decade to get better labour and environmental protections in the side deals that NAFTA allows. The fact is that NAFTA and all other trade agreements are in permanently in place and the labour movement and the Left needs to accept this fact and in turn mobilize a counter globalization strategy around outreach to workers and social movements in those countries which continue to be outsourced to as cheap labour.

Typical knee jerk nationalism meant that the Labour movement protested the Chinese proposed purchase of Noranda. Instead we had Mittal from India and Brazilian miner CVRD purchase Falconbridge and Inco instead. The labour movement complained that China had poor labour policies, which is true, however so does Wal-Mart.

And while knee jerk American nationalism confronted Mittal when they moved into the U.S. the company itself was leader in creating jobs, being more green than its competitors and offering profit sharing.

There is also a divide between the two nationalisms in Canada, that of Quebec and the ROC. Quebec labour and its social democratic parties accept NAFTA and Free Trade, in fact they promote it, of course demading state funding for its less than competitive industries like Bombardier in order to compete in the international marketplace.

And like Quebec, the Ontario government is funding the Auto sector, but not doing it based on a Made In Canada Autoplan, including a green plan, instead it is funding the Big 3, to keep jobs here. The reality is that the industry itself is self sufficient in Canada and growing. But the sector that is growing is the Asian carmakers from Korea and Japan. Like China, these countries offer an alternative alliance against the deep integration with the disintigrating American economy.

What we need is not just further tax breaks, credits, or loans, but guaranteed worker ownership with environmentalists and consumer representatives on the corporate boards.

A whole new way of thinking is needed to address the fact that Canada is player in the era of globalization. And we ourselves as an Imperialist nation, a national capital competing with other national capitals, does not have a stellar record when it comes to workers, citizens and environmental rights when we dominate another country like Haiti.

The Canadian Ruling Class including the ruling class in Quebec is fractured and divided over its alliances with American capitalism and other competing capitalist nations. If the Left is to address this it needs to be truly internationalist, and needs to offer a worker community based socialist alternative that can work within existing capitalism, to reform and amerliorate its excesses while offering a hope and a vision for the future. Which is what Left Nationalism has not and can never do.


See:

Trilateral Commission

Deep Integration

Origins of the Captialist State In Canada

Time For A Canadian Steel Workers Union

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Rumpelstiltskin Clinic

Remember the tale of Rumpelstiltskin.......

Pay up or we keep baby, Indonesian clinic tells poor parents

Anywhere else this would be considered kidnapping. An Indonesian clinic is keeping a baby until her impoverished parents pay the escalating bill for her delivery and care.

Though it may become the norm in the United States if Bush's health care insurance plan goes through as it will deny funding to hospitals who cover services to the working poor who are uninsured, in order to supplement state funded health insurance plans.

SUSAN DENTZER: And, in effect, what this federal offer now is, is basically to take dollars that are currently channeled under Medicaid and Medicare to hospitals that have a so-called disproportionate share of the uninsured, take those dollars that now go to support those institutions that care for the uninsured, and channel them, instead, to help states expand coverage for the population.

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RCMP Union

Scarlet tunics and union cards? Mounties press for bargaining rights
"Right now, it's like a dictatorship. When the commissioner decides something, nobody can argue, nobody can come up and explain that this thing here is not right," Tony Cannavino, president of the Canadian Police Association

Which is why the RCMP is so scandal ridden. It is a paramiltary organization that is run under a dictatorship. Unionization would actually democratize the RCMP. Shudder the thought, a democratic police force rather than a political arm of the Federal Government.

See:

RCMP Needs A Union

Love Me, I'm A Liberal

RCMP

Union

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Falacious Argument

$10 minimum wage would cost 66000 jobs: Sorbara Yet when he and other MPP's gave themselves a 25% raise there were no losses in jobs.

Meanwhile Sorbara has declared Helping Ontario's poor and disadvantaged will likely be the focus of the next provincial budget, the province's finance minister says.

Well one way would be a living wage, which is what anti-poverty organizations continually call for. End Welfare Create A Living Wage And a living wage is at least $10 an hour plus a benefits plan paid for by employers.

See;

Minimum Wage

Living Wage


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Time For A Guaranteed Annual Income

The New Canadian Government asked for it and now they have it but will they do anything about it?

No excuse for grinding poverty in Canada: advisory council report
Rich and poor Canadians want governments to better help almost five million people living below Statistics Canada's low-income cut-off, says a new council survey and report released Thursday. Voters support efforts ranging from guaranteed livable incomes to more affordable housing, child care, education and training, suggests the online poll.

The council's online survey was done last fall. Responses were drawn from 5,000 individuals and more than 400 organizations across Canada.

Almost three-quarters of respondents were women. More than one-third of participants said they are always or often worried about living in poverty, another third are sometimes concerned, and the rest said they rarely or never worry.

Most respondents, 73 per cent, described themselves as "regular Canadians" who play no voluntary or paid role in the fight against poverty.

See:

End Welfare Create A Living Wage

Guaranteed Annual Income

Minimum Wage

Living Wage


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