Democracy gone Astray: Thursday, January 17, 2013

Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.

This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Vancouver student’s photo of leg reflects how women are judged based on skirt length

The words are written all the way up the back of the woman’s leg. “Matronly” appears at her calf, “proper” at the knee, and “whore” at the very top — words meant to reflect how women are often perceived based on the length of their skirt.

The provocative photo, called “Judgment,” was posted by Rosea Lake, a first-year university student at Capilano University in Vancouver, B.C on her Tumblr site in early January. In a matter of a few days, the photo went viral, with more than 280,000 people liking and re-blogging it on Tumblr.

TORONTO - Ontario should claw back welfare for able-bodied people who've been collecting benefits for a long time to motivate them to find a job, Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak said Thursday.

But the government should also reward welfare recipients who are working by allowing them to keep more of their income each month, the Opposition leader said.

Canadians use far too much energy and water, and they produce more garbage per capita than any other country on earth, a report from an influential think-tank says.

The Conference Board of Canada gave Canada a C grade on Thursday and ranked it in 15th place among 17 developed nations studied across a host of environmental-efficiency metrics.

CALGARY - A new report has some advice for Canada when it comes to managing its oil wealth — be more like Norway.

The study from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives released Thursday calls for a more hands-on approach both provincially and federally toward developing the resource, divvying up its riches and reducing its environmental impacts.

Relations between Alberta and British Columbia have been poor recently because of disagreements over the controversial Northern Gateway pipeline, but that’s not stopping some of Alberta’s energy and political powerbrokers from throwing a lifeline to Christy Clark’s struggling Liberal government.

While Alberta would like to see British Columbia get behind proposed oil pipelines to the West Coast, the prospect of an NDP government under Adrian Dix that could make those projects even more challenged is so frightening they have quietly organized a fundraiser for B.C. Liberals in Calgary.

OTTAWA — RCMP officers have been brought in to help Elections Canada with two separate investigations into alleged financing violations in the 2008 campaign of Dean Del Mastro, parliamentary secretary to the prime minister.

Mounties from the Integrated Technical Crime Unit were brought in to analyze computer evidence in Elections Canada’s investigation of allegations of campaign spending by Del Mastro’s 2008 re-election campaign in his Peterborough riding.

AFN obstructionists will stop at nothing

Let’s say that somehow, the eruption we’ve all agreed to call Idle No More results in a historic breakthrough between Ottawa and Canada’s diverse and deeply troubled First Nations.

Let’s say the covenant recognizes and affirms aboriginal and treaty rights and contains a specific, collaborative action plan to deal with the urgent challenges of aboriginal childhood education, economic development, First Nations governance and accountability. Plus it comes with a startup $275 million just to be sure the rubber hits the road. And it’s announced at a historic gathering in Ottawa with the senior First Nations chiefs, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and even Governor-General David Johnston.

Able-bodied people who have been on welfare for long periods should see their cheques shrink to give them a stronger motivation to find jobs, Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak says in a new policy paper.

“We want to decrease the incentives to remain on welfare, so they should see their benefits steadily decline,” Hudak said Thursday in the 22-page document.

The president of the union representing New York City school bus drivers announced earlier this week that a citywide strike will be starting Wednesday morning. This will be the first time in more than three decades that NYC’s largest union for school bus drivers will strike.

Michael Cordiello of Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union said that more than 8,000 bus drivers and matrons—workers who make sure children get on and off buses safely—would take part in the strike in response to a dispute over job protections in any new bus company contracts for the bus routes.

As Idle No More revs up across Canada, a new poll reveals Canadians aren't exactly behind the demonstrations. And money management on First Nations reserves seems to be at the heart of the discontent.

Eighty-one per cent of Canadians believe reserves shouldn't receive more taxpayer money before external auditors are assigned, and 64 per cent think they got too much support from taxpayers, a number unchanged since July 2012, according to an Ipsos Reid poll conducted for National Post/Postmedia News and Global Television.

OTTAWA - Martha Hall Findlay won't promise to run for the Liberals in the next federal election if she loses her bid to become party leader.

The former Toronto MP would only say Wednesday that she'll see about running when the time comes.

"I might get hit by a truck sometime between now and then. We'll see," she told The Canadian Press.

The City of Vancouver is looking to massively increase penalties for certain bylaw violations, a move that one activist blog says amounts to a "fine for homelessness."

The Mainlander writes that the city's proposal to increase maximum fines from $2,000 to $10,000 on 42 city bylaws is an attack on "low income people" for actions such as jaywalking, sleeping outside and selling goods on the street.

OTTAWA - Finance Minister Jim Flaherty urged the federal broadcast regulator to grant a radio licence to a company in his Ontario riding even though government rules on cabinet responsibility forbid ministers from influencing the decisions of administrative tribunals.

In his letter to the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission, Flaherty praised Durham Radio Inc.'s ultimately unsuccessful bid to obtain a licence to operate a new FM station for the Toronto area.

It has been a week and a half since changes to the definition of suitable employment and reasonable job search have come into effect. Already, a single mom in Prince Edward Island, Marlene Giersdorf, has become a symbol of the hardship these changes are likely to have on many Canadians in the coming months.

When she refused to expand her job search radius to Charlottetown, a 45-minute drive away, because she didn't have a car, she was cut off EI benefits. Giersdorf says she was told that if she wasn't willing to look for work in Charlottetown, then she could always apply for social assistance. Her protest has touched many, with some starting a fundraising website to buy her a car.

I feel like Gandalf in Lord of the Rings, telling Pipin "It is the deep breath before the plunge" and Pipin replying "I don't want to be in a battle. But waiting on the edge of one I can't escape is even worse."

Can you feel it Canadians? The vibration in the air? The smell of it on the wind? The taste of it in the water that you take for granted? A battle is coming. A battle over the future of this country.

The obvious answer to the question is yes and the voice of energy workers is a particularly important one to hear while talking about labour's role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. As Canada's largest energy union, the CEP represents 35,000 members employed in oil and gas extraction, transportation, refining, and conversion in the petrochemical and plastics sectors.

CEP believes that it is necessary to transition away from fossil fuels by reducing consumption and investing in green energies while ensuring a just transition for energy workers and their communities.

Realtors are “cautiously optimistic” that Toronto’s housing market is picking up a bit of unexpected steam after six months of slowing sales and softening prices.

The number of houses that changed hands in the first two weeks of January was up 2.4 per cent and the average selling price was up 4 per cent compared to the same period a year ago, according to figures released Wednesday by the Toronto Real Estate Board.

Darth Vader showed up at Monday’s casino consultation in Etobicoke. Or some guy in a Darth Vader costume. He got the boot for carrying a sign registering his opposition to a Toronto casino.

The real comedy, though, was provided by Mayor Rob Ford, the death star of leaders himself, who popped in to extol the virtues of gambling as a money-maker for a cash-strapped city.

Lots of feathers, drums and drama as Idle No More fills streets, highways and rail lines, and the country’s consciousness, at NOW press deadline Wednesday, turning once-local issues into a national emergency.

The day of action follows Friday, January 11’s, exploding tensions over which Assembly of First Nations chiefs would or wouldn’t stand with Chief Theresa Spence to boycott any government sit-down without the governor general, not to mention the non-happening that was the meeting itself.

Aaron Swartz Prosecutor Defends Charges, Days After Activist's Suicide

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz on Wednesday defended her office's prosecution of Aaron Swartz as "appropriate," days after the 26-year-old Internet activist took his own life.

Ortiz, the top federal prosecutor in Massachusetts, broke her silence for the first time since Swartz killed himself on Friday. His family and supporters have blamed the government for playing a role in his death, while members of Congress have questioned the Justice Department's aggressive prosecution of Swartz on computer fraud charges.

Public health worker Beatriz Mendoza was living near the Riachuelo River in Buenos Aires, Argentina, when she started losing feeling in her fingers and toes. Her neighbours were also experiencing health issues -- including skin rashes, cancers and birth defects -- clearly linked to pollution in the heavily industrialized area. The Matanza-Riachuelo basin is one of the most contaminated waterways in Latin America.

CALGARY — Alberta Health Services looked into “rumours” around queue-jumping at Calgary’s colon cancer screening centre last spring but decided not to formally investigate as there wasn’t enough evidence to trigger a full review, an inquiry heard Wednesday.

The decision to not look further into the Forzani and MacPhail Colon Cancer Screening Centre came weeks after the province’s Feb. 28, 2012 announcement of the Health Services Preferential Access Inquiry looking into medical system queue-jumping.

CALGARY — Allegations that physicians were involved in expediting cancer screening tests for well-heeled patients from a private Calgary clinic could prompt the province’s disciplinary body for doctors to investigate.

Dr. Trevor Theman, registrar with the Alberta College of Physicians and Surgeons, said Wednesday he was upset by inquiry testimony that clients of Helios Wellness Centre — who paid annual memberships of up to $10,000 each — got colonoscopies through the public system within weeks or months while other routine cases waited more than three years.

OTTAWA — Immigration Minister Jason Kenney explained a 73% drop in the number of permanent residents receiving Canadian citizenship between 2005 and 2012 by saying the government’s “fiscal restraint” was leading to fewer people having to process more applications.

Internal Citizenship and Immigration documents obtained by QMI Agency show only 2.9% of permanent residents who were eligible for citizenship in 2012 received it, down significantly from 76% in 2005.

OTTAWA — Immigration Minister Jason Kenney was on the defensive Wednesday in the wake of a B.C. Supreme Court ruling that struck down Canada’s human-smuggling law as “unnecessarily broad” earlier this week.

He said the legislation now in question has nothing to do with Bill C-31, the Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act which, among other things, contains the government’s much-hyped anti-human smuggling reforms.
It pertains to legislation that came into force in 2002 under the Liberals, he argued during a teleconference following his 13-day trip to Turkey, India and Sri Lanka where he trumpeted legislative changes passed in June aimed at deterring criminals from smuggling migrants to Canada — something that’s become common among Tamils trying to flee Sri Lanka.

According to the legislation, those convicted of human smuggling now face a minimum 10 years in prison.

Kenney expects the government will appeal the decision and maintains his laws were never meant to persecute those who facilitate illegal migration for altruistic reasons.

“Any suggestion that this throws into doubt or undermines the Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act is inaccurate,” he said. “The bottom line is we’ve always been clear that it’s never been our intention to prosecute or fine people who facilitate migration illegally for humanitarian purposes . . .

“Our objective is to focus on criminals who are operating human smuggling syndicates for profit and not family members or humanitarian workers.”

A B.C. judge ruled Monday that section 117 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act is written in such a way that it could criminalize loved ones and aid works who try to help asylum seekers, not just those trying to exploit them.

The ruling has effectively stalled two trials including that of four men accused of human smuggling in connection with the arrival of 76 Sri Lankan Tamils aboard the MV Ocean Lady in 2009. Jury selection was to begin in the case this week after which a trial was to be held for another six men accused in the MV Sun Sea case involving 492 Tamil migrants in 2010.

The arrival of the two ships is ultimately what triggered the Conservative crackdown on human smuggling.

“Typically the government does appeal any trial court decision dealing with Charter issues just as a matter of convention so I do anticipate that it would be appealed,” Kenney said of the ruling.

Federal Crown prosecutors said they would take a week to review the ruling before making a decision on what to do next.

Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Tobi Cohen

Alberta should learn from Norway on managing oil

Momentum is building across Canada on the need to develop a sustainable national energy strategy.

On this front, Canada and Alberta, its main petro-province, have much to learn from another major petroleum-producing and exporting country, Norway.

Canada and Norway are advanced industrialized countries with highly developed political, bureaucratic and economic institutions.

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird is leaving the door open to further contributions in support of the French-led mission in Mali, following a meeting with the ambassadors of France, Mali and the Ivory Coast.

In an interview airing Wednesday on CBC's Power & Politics, Baird said while Canada has committed to a C-17 military transport plane for approximately a week, "obviously, if France has other requests, we'll consider them in a thoughtful way, as you'd expect."

Blockades are sometimes the only way for aboriginal demonstrators to get a message across, says a New Democrat MP.

Romeo Saganash, who spent 30 years working in politics and advocacy on behalf of First Nations groups, says whether a blockade is effective depends on the circumstances.

"They are sometimes, sometimes they're not. The short answer is that," he told CBC News.

So, they met . . . and promise to talk more. Prime Minister Stephen Harper spent last Friday afternoon discussing treaty rights, land claims and economic development with Assembly of First Nations representatives.

The problem is, despite the good will of those involved, we know the impact of these high level discussions will be limited. The reason is quite simple: Real substantive change in the relationship between First Nations and Canada will have to involve provincial governments.

The aboriginal day of protest did what it was supposed to do.

No, it didn’t grind the country to a halt. There was no apocalypse.

Protests didn’t derail the national economy. The Alberta oilsands continued to produce bitumen. In spite of some border-crossing slowdowns, most truckers trucked and most workers worked.

Paul Martin has a keen interest in the issues raised by the Idle No More movement.

As Canada's 21st prime minister, Martin oversaw the signing of the 2005 Kelowna Accord, which envisioned the investment of $5 billion over 10 years for education and social welfare programs for aboriginal Canadians. The project fell apart when Stephen Harper took over that year as prime minister, and cut the funding.

First Nations demonstrators stopped passenger railway traffic lines between Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal today, while others stalled major highways and rail lines in parts of Manitoba, Alberta, New Brunswick and Ontario as part of the Idle No More Movement's national day of action.

Protesters also gathered in Windsor, Ont., near the Ambassador Bridge to Michigan, slowing down traffic to North America's busiest border crossing for several hours, the CBC's Allison Johnson reported.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is proposing legislation to nullify President Obama's executive actions on gun policy, claiming that the president's actions are a breach of constitutional separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches.

During a Wednesday appearance on Fox News' "Hannity," the Republican senator outlined his plan to challenge Obama's anti-gun violence package.

Mali’s conflict spilled across its borders Wednesday, as Islamist militants stormed a gas facility in Algeria, reportedly taking as many as 41 foreign hostages, killing two people and wounding others.

Details of the attack remain uncertain but it is believed the hostages include French, American, British, Japanese, Irish and Norwegian citizens.

OTTAWA - Opposition MPs say it's time for Parliament to take a critical look at the politicization of the public service following the latest example of a Conservative minister overstepping the bounds of bureaucratic neutrality.

Two provocatively partisan letters by Julian Fantino, the minister responsible for the Canadian International Development Agency, were pulled from CIDA's website late Tuesday after they raised a stir on social media.

Outrage is growing over the U.S. Justice Department’s prosecution of the 26-year-old who committed suicide last week just weeks before he was to go on trial. Pioneering computer programmer and cyber activist Aaron Swartz was facing up to 35 years in prison and a $1 million fine if convicted for using computers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to download millions of academic articles provided by the nonprofit research service JSTOR. As the chief prosecutor Carmen Ortiz defends her actions, we speak to Swartz’s partner, Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, and computer security consultant Alex Stamos, who would have been the chief expert witness at Swartz’s trial. We invited representatives from the U.S. attorney’s office and MIT to join us, but they declined.

Video
Source: Democracy Now!
Author: --

Darrell Issa Probing Prosecution Of Aaron Swartz, Internet Pioneer Who Killed Himself

WASHINGTON -- House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is investigating the Justice Department's prosecution of Aaron Swartz, the Internet activist who committed suicide on Friday after fighting felony hacking charges for two years. Issa's inquiry comes amid bipartisan expressions of sympathy for Swartz on Capitol Hill, including a statement from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

The National Rifle Association blasted out an urgent fundraising appeal by Executive Director Wayne LaPierre Tuesday night, hours ahead of President Barack Obama's announcement of 23 executive actions on gun control.

"I warned you this day was coming and now it’s here," LaPierre wrote. "This is the fight of the century and I need you on board with NRA now more than ever. My strength, and the strength of our entire NRA organization comes from you and your strong commitment to our membership. I need you in our corner TODAY.”

Gov. Rick Perry (R-Texas) has revealed his own plan for combating America's violence problem -- and it differs from President Barack Obama's on a key point. Specifically, the former presidential candidate said that instead of enacting tougher gun control legislation, Americans should simply pray for protections.