I guess we can retire Champaign Socialist in favor of Cocaine Socialist.

If I had a million dollars,
I'd buy me some blow.
If I had a million dollars,
And some fangirls to ... (etc)

I am never ever going to vote for John Tory, nor as far as I can tell are any of my conservative neighbors, friends or family. While John Tory is leader we are not going to donate money to your party. If John Tory leads the party during the next election, we are not going to allow you to put Progressive Conservative signs on our front lawns.

And the next time that fool opens his mouth about the LCBO, perhaps it should be discuss privatization rather than plastic bags.

My brother made a lengthy reply (that's the only kind he does, I'm afraid) to my post on Catholic education rights in Ontario. Youcan go read it in it's entirety, I shan't quibble on legal points, that's for sure. However, he misreads my intentionre: protection of Catholic rights.

I'm not overly fearful for Catholic rights in Ontario, Canada, or elsewhere nearby. What I do like is all the weird stuff inour system: funny wigs, QCs, "God" in the constitution, a free pig and two comely lasses of virtue true for the police chiefs, the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod, etc.. It's good to givethe Svends, Jacks and Justins frequent reminders -- preferably up the side of the head -- that none-of Mike Pearson, FidelCastro or Tommy Douglas were Fathers of Confederation.

I prefer cities laid out like St.John's to that of Toronto also.

The Canadian Criminal code 718.2:

A court that imposes a sentence shall also take into consideration the following principles:

(a) a sentence should be increased or reduced to account for any relevant aggravating or mitigating circumstances relating to the offence or the offender, and, without limiting the generality of the foregoing,

(i) evidence that the offence was motivated by bias, prejudice or hate based on race, national or ethnic origin, language, colour, religion, sex, age, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation, or any other similar factor,

If you'd like to read more about the rationale behind hate law provisions in the Criminal Code, here's a lengthy (50 page) PDF. On page 10 of particular interest:

The main distinguishing feature with hate crimes is that such offences include a specific motivating factor not found in other crimes.

Now, some mean spirited citizens have suggested that these provisions are mainly about "sticking it to whitey", but certainly there's few cases more clearly falling in to the definitions and rationales above that Aqsa Parvez's murder -- "honor killing" -- (allegedly) by her father for refusing to wear the strict public symbols of Islam.

If this not a factor in sentencing, then this case should be Exhibit A why this provision needs to be struck from the Criminal Code.

I just read on Gateway Pundit that the media had fallen for another "insurgents slaughter many"-type story, likely fed to them by an AQI propagandist / stringer. I was currious about what CBC had said about this story but when I click on the link .... Curious. Probably just a server error.

Robert on Latimer:

My own view is that the Court arrived at the right decision when it held that Mr. Latimer's conviction and sentence had to be upheld. In Canada we have not even come to a societal consensus on the issue of assisting a person of full mind commit suicide (see the Sue Rodriguez case). The issues around a parental killing of child who is disabled and unable to communicate her wishes on an informed basis are hopelessly more thorny. The fact of the matter is that it is impossible to genuinely appreciate the true significance of the genuinely held belief "I must kill her because I can not bear to watch her suffer any more" -- who is truly being shown mercy when that sentiment is acted upon? Is it mercy for the suffering child or is it mercy for the suffering caregiver? Moreover, there is a strong sense of ownership over a child that is being asserted in such cases -- "This is my child so I can decide whether she lives or dies."

This, however, does not make the Parole Board's decision right. Our society has sent a clear message about Mr. Latimer: he murdered his daughter contrary to the law and was given the full sentence mandated by the law. Now he is going through the process that every criminal in Canada is entitled to go through to ease their re-introduction to society.

I had the unfortunate experience of having the Toronto Star in my house this morning. Ahem:

First, the Conservatives cancelled the child-care agreements the Liberals had signed with the provinces. Next, they gutted the Kelowna Accord, the $5.1 billion federal-provincial agreement to tackle aboriginal poverty. Now they're scrapping another piece of Liberal handiwork.

Effective March 31, 2008, the Canadian Health Network will cease to exist.

Wow. Two programs that never actually existed in any meaningful sense, and one program that no one has ever heard of. Who do they think they are, the government?

CBC radio just had a story about the Hollywood writer's strike. During the story the announcer mentioned "they've have stopped writing lines and started walking the line". Funnyish, but not bad delivery. Too bad there wasn't a producer's strike though -- then CBC could tell us that the producers are walking the line after, of course, stopping doing lines.

Michelle Mann:

The public funding for Catholic schools issue has been simmering away on Ontario's backburner for a while, with Newfoundland and Quebec already having faced it down in the 1990s (and Manitoba too, but in 1890).

Note that I can't speak to what Quebec did, but Newfoundland didn't have a Catholic school issue, it had a no-non-religious school issue.

And yet, the only party that has it right is the Greens, whose leader, Frank de Jong, supports moving to one publicly-funded school system.

[Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty] defends this position with the Constitution Act, 1867, which in section 93 enshrines Catholic school rights in place before Confederation, a concession made to get the deal.

Nonetheless, the province's exclusive jurisdiction over education means that act can be amended bilaterally through agreement with the federal government as provided for in section 43 of the Constitution Act, 1982, and already executed by Quebec.

"We got what we wanted from the Micks, now it's time screw 'em"

The equality rights argument has some teeth, despite a Supreme Court of Canada ruling in 1996 that Ontario's refusal to fund other denominational schools was not a breach of freedom of religion or equality rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

I.e. it equality rights argument has no teeth, as far as the law of the land goes.

The United Nations Human Rights Committee felt differently in both 1999 and again in 2005, censuring Canada for violating equality rights by virtue of religious discrimination in the Ontario school system.

Oh, well there you go -- a functionary appointed by the Chinese dictatorship was told not to agree with Ontarians having a parallel Catholic education system, I guess we'll have to ditch it.

Of course, equality is more than just a legal concept; one might be forgiven for having trouble understanding how in our current society public funding of only Catholic schools is fair and just.

I'll freely grant it's not particularly fair. Neither is a four-way stop, but I don't seethe with the injustice that some guy driving the opposite direction can cruise through the intersection in a few seconds because no one else was driving his direction. More seriously and to the point, no particular harm is being done to non-Catholics, a point which I shall return to in a moment.

Take for example, Catholic school boards across the province debating whether to ban Ontario's new HPV vaccination program on the basis it promotes promiscuity. All Grade 8 girls in the province will have free access to a vaccine that can prevent the HPV types responsible for 70 per cent of cervical cancer cases.

It is one thing to require parental consent, but to refuse girls access to this provincially mandated health program based on religious values in a publicly funded school obviously contravenes a decision made by our secular government. It is also possibly contrary to the equality rights of these young women.

She means "girls", of course. But this gets to the core of the issue: Catholics agreed to an Ontario under the condition that Catholics could educate and raise Catholic children in a manner consistent with Catholicism. The need for the deal then and now is obvious: Catholicism [1] is uniquely despised amongst religions by politically powerful (non-Catholic) organizations. Mann reinforces the point: she believes it a compelling reason for Ontario to strip Catholics of their education rights is that she is disgusted by Catholic values.

That money, along with the elimination of the duplication of resources for Catholic schools, could be directed to funding for autistic students, accessible post-secondary education and revitalizing a flailing public education system.

So could redirecting the money being wasted [2] on HPV vaccinations or CBC writers. This argument might make sense if there were half-filled schools and only one non-Catholic school board; as it stands, it's nonsense.

Of course, such a question is less about resources than about how we view accommodation and the secular state in our multicultural and religiously diverse society; all the more reason for a referendum enabling a government to act with less political fallout.

Michelle Mann is a Toronto-based consultant and freelance writer, specializing in social justice, human rights and Aboriginal issues.

Can you imagine the veins exploding in Mann's eyeballs if it was suggested we strip aboriginal title via "political will" or a referendum.

[1] note that I said Catholicism, not Catholics.
[2] there, I said it. I am speaking from purely a cost-benefit and risk management point of view -- it doesn't make sense to doing this yet.

(Snowy Owl Habitat, repurposed for amusement purposes only, courtesy of Trinity-Anne)

I think Black got a bad deal from a court system that is in serious need of revisiting its roots (my arguments are here).  I don't think it's the greatest miscarriage of justice in the history of the universe, or anything like that, but I'm a little bit sad for him and most suspicions I've had about the reporting profession have been confirmed.

Anyhoo, Steve at ESR, Zolf and others saying the Canada should give Black back his citizenship. Sorry and respectfully dudes, I disagree. I've long been a proponent that citizenship should "mean something", and that being true, dropping that citizenship likewise should mean something. No matter how vindictively that sorry little prick Chretien acted, Black made his own bed.

Some lawyer guy with a suspicious last name:

I was immensely cheered yesterday to see that the Conservatives have made no meaningful headway in the polls.

This is a remarkable feat of political incompetence. The Conservatives face a fractured opposition led by a leader whose English is shaky and is still gaining his feet as a national leader. While Monsieur Dion may in time prove himself as a competent (or who knows, even imspirational) leader that time has not yet arrived. Moreover, Stephen Harper has a hotel sized buffet of issues from which to chose around which he could rally the troops, mobilize his core and shift the necessary number of votes in the margin. On top of that, the Liberals are trebly burdened with a sizable debt (both at the party and individual leader levels), a non-functional fundraising apparatus and new fund raising limitations imposed as a farewell legacy gift from Jean Chretin. Why has Harper therefore failed to build a steamroller of support that will carrry him to the next election?

I for think that the answer has to lie in his failure to communicate and then stand behind any vision. While Paul Martin was wilting under the heat of Gomery and Harper was rolling toward victory, I for one was living in dread of the victory of the Conservatives. I expected a range of actions on matters near and dear to my heart -- be it social issues like same sex marriage or constitutional issues like limiting federal power in favour of the provinces or creating a triple-E senate -- that would fundamentally alter the political, legal or social structure of Canada creating a meaner, more conservative, less functional and less cohesive nation.

I'm fairly certain I won't be voting for the CPC in the next election, though my reasons will be different from Robert's, his "remarkable feat..." bit pretty well sums it up.

As a parting shot though, I'll have to note the triviality of the items which fills him (and his peers, no doubt) with dread, which could roughly be summed up as "rolling the clock back to the nightmare years of 1998".

Canada sure get a constitution or something, with guaranteed rights and freedoms. You know, rather than one that says you can talk about stuff unless the government doesn't like it and it isn't popular with elites.

Seeking the Alien Shore:

The guy I was connected to sounded like I just woke him up. The first thing he does is ask me my number again. It's not 1952 ... surely the number can be passed along with my call, right? And for that matter, why not shell out for call display, you cheap bastards! This guy was sloooow. The first thing I said was I wanted to cancel my high-speed Internet service. There was a too-long pause. He then told me he would pull up my file. Again there was inappropriately long pause. I was tempted to ask if he was still there, but I got the feeling he was playing with me so I said nothing. I don't know where I got this feeling, but it may be from the long periods of sensory deprivation while I waited for him. It was like he was doing something else, like trying to get to the next level in Tetris. We went back and forth with questions and answers, and with his long pauses, this took easily over five minutes. At the point where I expected him to tell me I was good to go, he instead said he could not complete my request and would pass me along to someone who could. Stunned, I mumble, "ummmm, okay."

Via Kathy, The Toronto Star has an article on people gaming the refugee / immigration process in Canada:

Karan Arora is offering immigration advice, and the young Punjabi woman across his desk seems nervous. Her visitor's visa is about to run out, and she wants to stay. Arora, who works for a Mississauga company run by a registered immigration consultant, has a solution.

"Why are you worried?" he asks in Hindi. "Monaji, you don't have any other option. If you claim refugee status, then at least you can breathe a sigh of relief. Then your other option is to go back. Once you claim refugee status, then if you find a guy, you can marry him and apply for a spousal case."

"What will my refugee story be?" she asks.

"We'll do that," he says. "We'll do it all. Some truth, some lies, we'll mix everything. It will have to be done."

Here's a few minor suggestions: claimants for refugee status in Canada should have to make the claim within 48 hours of arriving in Canada (barring things such as major political changes within their home countries). This should be printed clearly on immigration documents, etc.. Failed refugee claimants should always be deported directly from the place they had their last hearing. 

People arriving in Canada via another Western country and making refugee claims should be deported to that country to make their claim there: they're supposed to be claiming refuge, not venue shopping.

We'd probably see Elizabeth May giving a speech like this in a few years, if she become leader of a combined Liberal, NDP and Green party:

National Post columnist Jonathan Kay declares the end of multiculturalism:

When multiculturalism came into vogue a generation ago, it was powered by the conceit that group hatred is primarily a Western pathology -- an outgrowth of our warmongering, colonialist past. That's why from the 1980s onward, multicultural agitprop in schools, workplaces and government agencies has invariably focused not on assimilating immigrants and stripping them of their old-world prejudices, but on eliminating any vestige of white bigotry.

The reason multiculturalism now seems like such a fraud is that experience has taught us that old-school racism has nothing on the sort of hatreds brought into this country by the immigrants themselves: hatred toward homosexuals, toward heretics, toward "loose" women and, most importantly, toward each other.

An interesting article, but probably wrong. The value to the NGP to corral immigrants into voter blocks is too high; "multiculturalism" is the happy rhetoric put around this practice.

I got in on this, taking a one way flight from Montreal to Toronto in July to return from The Police concert (I'll take the train down with friends):

It's a good time to book airfare in Canada, with rival airlines Air Canada and WestJet offering competing promotions in a bid to win over consumers.

Air Canada on Tuesday dropped its prices on select routes to $11 one-way to match bargain prices offered by rival airline WestJet, said Peter Fitzpatrick, a spokesman for Montreal-based Air Canada.

On Tuesday only, an $11 ticket could be bought for flights between Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal

The editor of the Winnipeg Sun, John Gleeson, is a moron. Here's a rebuttal, via Damian Penny.

My grandparents always dreamed of the day their grandchildren would live in the dark.

The government estimates that replacing the 87 million incandescent bulbs in use across Ontario with more efficient bulbs would save six million megawatt hours every year — enough to power 600,000 homes.

Changing to more efficient bulbs is also the equivalent — in terms of greenhouse-gas emissions — of taking 250,000 cars off the road, said Ontario Environment Minister Laurel Broten, who announced the move along with Energy Minister Dwight Duncan on Wednesday morning.

We'll see -- they'll have to provide a lot more light than the 40 watt ones I'm using around the house, or people will just start doubling and tripling them up.

Update: given the timeframe for implementation, that many people have started making the transition and that the price should fall significantly over the next 5 years, this looks like a very clever way of taking credit for something that was already happening.