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Our parliament is back in action after being out of business while supposedly our conservative turd-nuggets “calibrated” their economic plans to “save” the Canadian Economy. What do we get? A large horse and pony show about possibly changing the national anthem and more tax cuts for business and the banking industry.
We are cutting taxes on the financial sector. Don't complain...have some yummy ice-cream to make all those thoughts of fairness go away. Silly Public.
We stopped the business of government so we can get yet another typically conservative budget? Some putrid highlights:
- The finance minister promised many times that this budget would not include any significant tax cuts, but he just couldn’t help himself. No Harper budget is complete without a major tax cut for business, even after business leaders say we now need tax increases.
- The major new business tax cut this year is a complete elimination of tariffs on manufacturing inputs and machinery and equipment. This move aims to make Canada’s manufacturing sector into a free trade zone, consistent with their aggressive new free trade plans and will cost the federal government an estimated $1.3 billion over five years.
- Further planned cuts to corporate income taxes will drive the federal corporate tax rate down to 15% down by almost half from the from 29.12% rate in 2000. These cuts so far have cost more than $100 billion and further cuts will cost the government an additional $20 billion in lower revenues during the next five years.
- The Harper government is continuing with these further cuts even though the steep cuts so far have had little positive impact in increasing investment or productivity
Well isn’t that just fraking grand. The opposition, rather than condemning this albatross of a budget, will quietly vote to pass this budget. Will the Afghan detainee torture scandal resurface? Will Harper and his merry band of neo-conservative business courtiers continue to sell ordinary Canadians down the river?
I hope the we get some real direction from our opposition soon. I’m getting tired and quite cranky over the mendacious conservative rule we are toiling under.
Sometimes the weasels win.
What I am talking about is this particularly disturbing occurrence that just passed through(not unlike stool) Winnipeg’s City Council.
The CBC reports: “A Christian group is hoping to build a multimillion-dollar, non-denominational recreation centre for youth in the heart of one of Winnipeg’s most hardscrabble areas.
Currently, Youth for Christ operates more than a dozen small rec centres in the city.
But on Wednesday, a handful of councillors on city hall’s executive policy committee gave the green light to contribute land at the corner of Higgins Avenue and Main Street toward the project, as well as approve a $2.5 million loan to the organization.”
More mana from heaven!
“Courtney said the federal government has agreed to provide $3 million of the project’s $11-million total cost. A fundraising campaign is also about to begin, he added.”
To understand how repugnant this is, a little historical context is in order. Here in Canada we have the shameful legacy of sponsoring via the church attempted cultural genocide of the peoples of the First Nations. The vehicle of choice was, along with institutional racism and discrimination, the Residential School System. I cannot adequately describe the level of injustice, or the suffering or the psychic trauma we inflicted upon Native Canadians in the name of bringing God and Civilization (which, unsurprisingly, also happened to coincide with kidnapping, segregation, indoctrination, torture and rape) to them, but when your PM apologizes in the House of Commons for our dark malfeasance, it speaks to the magnitude of the crime.
So what is going on over there in Winnipeg? Well apparently the proposal for this recreation centre magically appeared on the city councilors agenda, with scant details and none of the extensive research required for large publicly funded projects of this magnitude necessary to begin or even properly analyze.
“Gerbasi and fellow Coun. Dan Vandal have also expressed concern about the lack of information being provided on the project, which they believe is getting rushed through council.
“This money is all going into capital to build this massive new facility that has not been scrutinized,” Gerbasi said.
“There was a one page piece of paper with a motion on it that was walked onto an agenda [Wednesday] and the decision has to be made next week by council with virtually no information provide to members of council who have to make this decision.
“That’s not a way to run a city.” [apparently it is if you are ‘doing it for Christ’ TM]
Okay, so there is this huge push to get funding passed for this supposedly “needed” recreational center. It certainly has nothing to do with the people who will be privately running an publicly funded operation. It is not like the money could have been used elsewhere. Oh wait:
“Kemlin Nembhard executive director of the Daniel McIntyre-St. Matthews Community Association, is also angry about the deal being given Youth for Christ.
She runs youth programs in the community on a shoestring budget and was stunned when she heard the news.
“Given that we’re constantly told that the city has no money, [that] they’re constantly amalgamating and closing centers, and then they all of a sudden turn around and find $2.6 million to give to a group to run programming that won’t be available to a broad range of youth?”
So, how this spins out is that the public (on two different levels of government) has been duped into paying for a 
privately run institution whose goals include civilizing the natives proselytizing for Christ and creating future misanthropically deluded Christian leaders. From the Youth for Christ Website:
Our Mission
“Youth for Christ, Canada exists to impact every young person in Canada with the person, work and teachings of Jesus Christ and discipling them into the Church.”
Contrast this with what their spokesperson John Courtney has to say:
“Proselytizing is one of those words that’s attached to the radical side of religion,” Courtney told council on Wednesday.
“Do we think it’s a good thing for any young person to embrace the Christian faith? Of course we do. Do we reject any services from kids that don’t want to take that journey? Absolutely not.”
Did you hear the shlluuuuuurp? That was the sound your irony meter imploding as it just suffered a suppurating chest wound courtesy of John Courtney’s christian mendacity.
Huh. Its like our mission is to proselytize, but like, we won’t do it if you don’t want us to. Utter horsepucky.
It gets better! Our boy John Courtney simply dismisses the residential school connotation with this gem:
He [J.Courney] also called it unfair to put his agency in the same category as the church-run, government-funded residential schools that took native children from their homes to assimilate them into white society.
“You know what, what happened there wasn’t Christian. Christians did it but it wasn’t Christian,” he said. “And to compare that with who we are, with our track record of 60 years in this community, I think that’s an unfair shot.
Will the No True Scotsman representative please come to the front and take a bow.
Damn, it is unfair to think that you’re trying to target and assimilate at-risk Native Canadians into your church of holy bullshit. Unfair but true, you pusillanimous douche-nozzle. That publicly funded recreation facility will be an epicenter for your vilely delusuional coercion machine, your weasel words cannot hide that fact.
The Native Canadians know about your Damon Johnston speaks against christian duplicity:
“Damon Johnston, head of the Aboriginal Centre of Winnipeg, vowed the centre would be relentlessly picketed if it goes ahead.
“This is not 1876. You will not get away with this, let me assure you,” he said, eliciting applause”
There should be more public outcry about this, but I believe Damon Johnston’s words are prescient. In the 21st century we will not let religion off the hook for their past crimes, there will be no small mea culpla and then business as usual. This outrage will not stand.
Peter Goldring certainly does not typify the entire conservative party of Canada. Just most of it. Unaware of historical nuance, blindly obedient to power and happy in his role as one of Harper’s many courtiers. Am I wrong? Well let us see how Mr.Goldring frames a sensitive historical period of Canadian History. The CBC writes:
“In the newsletter, titled The Truth About Louis Riel, Goldring calls the former Métis leader a “villain” who has blood on his hands from leading the Northwest and Red River rebellions.
Goldring said Riel doesn’t deserve a statue on Parliament Hill and that such a tribute would condone his “civil disobedience.”
Well, take that. I am surprised he did not call Riel a terrorist. Then, instead of hanging him, we would just detain him indefinitely without rights or recourse.
“Winnipeg Liberal MP Anita Neville said the Conservative party should apologize to the Métis for what she calls a 
“smear campaign” against the founder of Manitoba.
Although he was hanged as a traitor, Riel is regarded as a folk hero by many for his defence of Métis rights and culture.”
Of course, alternative narratives and the aforementioned concept of nuance escape Mr.Goldring as does such unnecessary ideas like oh say, ‘diplomacy’.
It should be interesting to see how this plays out as Goldring seems to be fond of taking ‘conservative positions’ on controversial issues.
The southern offensive against the Taliban in the town of Marjah continues. The cost so far has been twelve civilians from an errant rocket attack.
“But the offensive, known as Operation Moshtarak, was overshadowed on Sunday by the death of 12 Afghan civilians killed when two rockets missed their target and landed on homes in Nad Ali district, where Marjah is located. Nato acknowledged responsibility for the deaths.”
I guess you have to break a few eggs to make an omelette. But we are sorry:
“General Stanley McChrystal, the head of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, called the loss of life “regrettable” and said the operation was being conducted with “the protection of Afghan people in mind”.
“We extend our heartfelt sympathies and will ensure we do all we can to avoid future incidents,” he said in a statement on Sunday.”
What I wonder is if those 12 people’s families really understand what is going on? I mean do they really fathom the strategic importance of what Western forces are doing in their country? Do they think the Taliban is evil and must be banished by force of arms from their area? Or are they just devastated that they have lost family members and will blame whomever caused their deaths?
The fighting has been raging across Afghanistan for years, what guarantee is there that this will not happen again? Why of course let us put our faith in government in a box…and other nifty statements that do not address the endemic problems of Afghanistan.
“Afghan officials say they have a “government-in-a-box” ready to sweep in and set up institutional services and security that will ensure the Taliban do not return to areas captured by US-led forces.”
Somehow I get the feeling this is the same old rhetoric repackaged for this media cycle.
Canada, despite being currently ‘governed’ by a conservative minority government is still a pretty good place to be. The important date that I refer to in is January 28th, 1988. It was when the Supreme Court of Canada made this landmark ruling on abortion in Canada.
Jan. 28, 1988: The Supreme Court of Canada strikes down Canada’s abortion law as unconstitutional. The law is found to violate Section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms because it infringes upon a woman’s right to “life, liberty and security of person.” Chief Justice Brian Dickson writes: “Forcing a woman, by threat of criminal sanction, to carry a fetus to term unless she meets certain criteria unrelated to her own priorities and aspirations, is a profound interference with a woman’s body and thus a violation of her security of the person.” Canada becomes one of a small number of countries without a law restricting abortion. Abortion is now treated like any other medical procedure and is governed by provincial and medical regulations.
One of the few times that I’ve actually felt some national pride for Canada. Canada in this one instance lives up to it ‘reputation’ for being a caring progressive nation.
I shudder at the kludge of access and availability of reproductive services in the United States. It is certainly not perfect in Canada, as access is not %100 in all provinces, but at least we have the notion that women are autonomous beings codified in law and can use the law to further access to reproductive services across all of Canada.
Sometimes I get curious about what lies below the fold on some the less traveled pages of the CBC website. I found this:
“The scientist in Dr. David Dosa was skeptical when first told that Oscar, an aloof cat kept by a nursing home, regularly predicted patients’ deaths by snuggling alongside them in their final hours.
But his doubts eroded after he and his colleagues tallied about 50 correct calls made by Oscar over five years.”
The article goes on:
“After a year, the staff noticed that Oscar would spend his days pacing from room to room. He sniffed and looked at the patients but rarely spent much time with anyone — except when they had just hours to live.
He’s accurate enough that the staff — including Dosa — know it’s time to call family members when Oscar stretches beside their patients, who are generally too ill to notice his presence. If kept outside the room of a dying patient, he’ll scratch at doors and walls, trying to get in.”
The cat is the bringer of death. Seems sort of fitting for a kitteh :)
I am glad to see the Tories neck and neck with the Liberals in the polls. Perhaps our haughty PM can shelf his pride and start listening to what Canadians have to say. I doubt he is even concerned with the poll to be honest though. He needed time to stack the senate (the one which he has tried so very hard to make elected) in his favour so he can more easily push through his parties’ legislative agenda.
The ECOS poll results from from January 27th, 2010 to February 2nd, 2010.
bleatmop
Mystro
The Arbourist
Dead Wild Roses 
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