A law that won’t help offenders or their victims

Bill C-54, the Conservative government’s latest salvo in the tough-on-crime war, has passed third reading in Parliament and awaits only Senate approval and royal assent to become law. The legislation has been criticized by many with expertise in criminal law: by criminal lawyers, academics, review boards, forensic psychiatrists, criminologists, etc. But the criticism has fallen on deaf ears; criticism seems to have little effect on this government — they are right, the critics are wrong.

None of the provincial review boards who actually administer the relevant sections of the Criminal Code were consulted on the legislation. Had they been consulted, no doubt they would have made the point that the victims of crime and the mentally ill are not adversaries: this is precisely the point the Conservative government did not want to have expressed because it might undermine the photo ops that the prime minister and his minister of justice stage with victim’s right groups. In other words, Bill C-54 is about votes; it is not about public safety, still less about victim’s rights.

Alberta commits $5B to pipeline

EDMONTON — Alberta has made a $5-billion commitment to the proposed Energy East pipeline to carry oilsands bitumen to refineries in Quebec and New Brunswick.

The province has signed an agreement with Energy East Ltd. Partnership to purchase firm capacity of up to 100,000 barrels per day for 20 years on the proposed TransCanada Pipelines eastern main line conversion project, according to financial documents released last week.

Conservative Refugee Reforms Put Party At Odds With Jewish Group

OTTAWA — The federal government has found itself at odds with an unlikely adversary: a Jewish group.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has courted the Jewish community and considers it an important ally on his foreign policy agenda, but a new Jewish group is questioning the government’s commitment to human rights one year after the passage of controversial legislation on refugees.

Texas Lawmakers Too Busy Targeting Abortion Providers to Deal With Exploding Fertilizer Plants

In the two and a half months since an explosion at a West, Texas, fertilizer storage facility left 12 first responders dead and at least 200 people injured, two things have become clear. The disaster could have been avoided if the proper regulations had been in place and enforced—and state and federal agencies don't appear to be in a hurry to put those regulations in place or enforce them.

Texas, whose lax regulatory climate has come in for scrutiny in the aftermath of the West explosion, went into a special session of its state legislature on Monday to push through an omnibus abortion bill designed to regulate 37 abortion clinics out of existence. But the 2013 session will come to a close without any significant action to impose safeguards on the 74 facilities in the state that contain at least 10,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate.

Gay Marriage Will 'Destroy' Children And Lead Them To Crime And Violence: Bishop Harry Jackson

The Supreme Court's rulings on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and California's Prop 8 have been enthusiastically received by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights advocates nationwide, but one conservative religious figure isn't having any of it.

In an impassioned column for the Christian Post, Bishop Harry Jackson claims that same-sex marriage will lead to "terrible suffering" for children, who will inevitably "turn to lives of crime and violence."

Paul Scalia, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's Son, Doesn't Think That Homosexuality Is A Thing

Almost a month after the Supreme Court's landmark decisions in favor of marriage equality were handed down, one son of dissenting Justice Antonin Scalia will speak in front of Courage, an organization that believes gays and lesbians should never have sex.

Paul Scalia is a Roman Catholic priest affiliated with Courage, a group that "ministers to persons with same-sex attractions," according to its website. He is also a featured speaker at Courage's annual summit, taking place this year between July 25 and July 28 at the University of St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, Ill.

Canadians need answers on Cold Lake oil spill

"We don't know what the hell is going on under the ground".

That's what Crystal Lameman, a member of the Beaver Lake Cree Nation told me this morning. On June 27, an oil spill occurred at Canadian Natural Resources Limited's (CNRL) Primrose operations 75km east of Lac la Biche. The spill happened on the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range (CLAWR), located in a region The Royal Canadian Airforce calls"the inhospitable wilds of northern Alberta and Saskatchewan." This "inhospitable" region happens to be in her community's traditional hunting territory where her family traditionally hunted and trapped and where her elders are buried.

Remembering grassroots democracy movements on the Fourth of July

More than 160 years ago, the greatest abolitionist in U.S. history, the escaped slave Frederick Douglass, addressed the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society. Douglass asked those gathered, "What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July?" His words bear repeating this Independence Day, as the United States asserts unprecedented authority to wage war globally, to spy on everyone, everywhere. Independence Day should serve not as a blind celebration of the government, but as a moment to reflect on the central place in our history of grassroots democracy movements, which have preserved and expanded the rights proclaimed in the opening lines of the Declaration of Independence: Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Minimum wage risks becoming going rate for millions, low pay pioneer warns

The UK is at risk of creating a two-tier labour market in which growing numbers of workers earn little more than the legal minimum, the founding chair of the government's Low Pay Commission has warned.

Professor Sir George Bain said that without new thinking on the minimum wage there was a risk the purpose of the commission would be perverted and it might even turn into a drag on wages.

Iceland Discusses Edward Snowden Citizenship In Parliament

REYKJAVIK, Iceland -- Icelandic lawmakers introduced a proposal in Parliament on Thursday to grant immediate citizenship to National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, who admits to revealing key details of U.S. surveillance activities.

Ogmundur Jonasson, whose liberal Left-Green Party is backing the proposal along with the Pirate Party and Brighter Future Party, put the issue before the Judicial Affairs Committee, but the idea received minimal support.