Large security deposit for robocalls election challenges would be âunjustâ, lawyer argues. Conservative Party of Canada lawyer Arthur Hamilton said the court must impose the financial surety on the applicants. OTTAWA — The federal court could rule as soon as Friday on a motion that would require voters to pay a $250,000 security deposit to continue their legal challenge of the results in seven ridings from the 2011 federal election as a result of fraudulent political calls.
Conservative party lawyer Arthur Hamilton argued in favour of the motion in Federal Court in Ottawa on Tuesday, saying the court must impose the financial surety on the applicants because the law is “open to serious abuse in the hands of the wrong elector, or candidate or proxy group, such as the Council of Canadians.”
Council of Canadians lawyer Steven Shrybman, who represents the applicants, says a Conservative attempt to force his clients to pay $250,000 would be a “crushing financial burden” and contrary to the public interest in seeing elections are conducted fairly. © Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen. Election Fraud Update: Conservative MPs seek ‘modest’ 3620% increase. The Tsawwassen First Nation has rejected plans to build a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) export facility on their territory near Delta, British Columbia.
CBC reports, "In a vote on Wednesday night, 53 per cent said 'no' to allowing the 32-hectare project on the nation's traditional land. 'What would you rather have, more money or a better environment? ' asked Tsawwassen First Nation member Nic Gurniak. 'No need to do more damage to the environment than has already been done.'" While the leadership of the Tsawwassen First Nation had initially been supportive of the project, the Canadian Press adds, "As a result of the vote, the Tsawwassen First Nation says it will 'not be moving forward with any additional discussion regarding this proposed LNG concept.''"
Is this really the democracy we’re trying to sell the world? ITK's 'A Taste of the Arctic' shindig on April 7, Ottawa, photographs by Cynthia Münster April 14, 2014 The Hill Times photograph by Cynthia Münster A happy crowd at ITK's 'Taste of Arctic' at the NAC gathers for a picture. The annual event, held in Ottawa by the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, is meant showcase Inuit culture. Some 350 attend the party, including a number of MPs, Senators, Cabinet minister, lobbyists and journalists. National Inuit Leader and ITK President Terry Audla shows off his seal vest to Employment Minister Jason Kenney.
Environics' Meredith Taylor and Greg MacEachern with ITK's Stephen Hendrie. Justice Minister Peter MacKay, his son Kian, and ITK president Terry Audla. ITK president Terry Audla and Abbas Rana, assistant deputy editor at The Hill Times and Party Central columnist. Labour Minister Kellie Leitch, ITK President Terry Audla, Laureen Harper, and local Ottawa photographer Michelle Valberg. ITK President Terry Audla and Labour Minister Kellie Leitch. Canada’s $1.5B Afghanistan aid effort in CIDA ‘divorced from reality’: documents | Canada. Hampered by an increasingly hostile work environment and a bureaucratic culture that discouraged innovation, Canada’s aid blitz in Afghanistan seemed at times “divorced from reality” in the war-ravaged country, concludes a previously secret review of the $1.5-billion program.
It and other audits of the Canadian International Development Agency’s huge involvement in Kandahar and elsewhere in Afghanistan depict a well-meaning drive for results the government could boast about — a push that faced “intractable” security problems, political pressures and the “vaguely envisaged” challenge of building a new nation.
The reports drafted for CIDA by two outside consultants seem written to avoid offending federal officials, and do actually praise many of the agency’s achievements. But the diplomatic phrasing cannot hide fundamental concerns about Canada’s ambitious development program as it unfolded. “All the projects have failed. All the projects have failed. Ms. Prof. Prof. National Post. Why is "entitled" a dirty word? some thoughts on what we are all entitled to. When did "entitled" become a dirty word? Why do we hear "entitled" being used as catch-all slur, a derogatory description to be thrown at progressive people working for change?
And why should we permit this word to retain such a heavily negative connotation? Here are some people I have seen called entitled in this negative sense by bloggers and commenters. Brigette DePape. Occupy protesters. Here is a synonym for entitled: deserve. Here is another synonym for entitlements: rights. Some of our entitlements are specified in national documents, such as the US Constitution or the more comprehensive and inclusive Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom.
Other entitlements are specified in international documents, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Other entitlements are those of custom, part of the aspirations and traditions of the so-called developed word, rights and privileges which many in our society already enjoy, and that many of us believe should be available to all. Union Pushes for New Responses to Anti-Worker Agenda | CAW2012.
CAW National Secretary-Treasurer Peter Kennedy reminded delegates about the continuing challenges facing the labour movement in Canada and around the globe. Since the last CAW convention and the election of CAW President Ken Lewenza, the global economic meltdown has meant storm clouds over the entire economy and especially tough times in the manufacturing sector. He outlined the many challenges and the response of the union in fighting back against three decades of the neo-liberal, anti-worker agenda.
In the last decade alone more than 800,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost. Since the last convention three years ago and the culmination of that agenda, GM and Chrysler have gone through a major restructuring and there were 110 workplace closures and 11,000 members’ jobs have been lost at CAW workplaces alone, he said. As a result the CAW and the entire labour movement have looked at new ways of representing the interests of working people. Send 2 Homophobes. The Pursuit Of Julian Assange Is An Assault On Freedom And A Mockery Of Journalism By John Pilger. The Pursuit Of Julian Assange Is An Assault On Freedom And A Mockery Of Journalism By John Pilger 25 August, 2012JohnPilger.com The British government's threat to invade the Ecuadorean embassy in London and seize Julian Assange is of historic significance.
David Cameron, the former PR man to a television industry huckster and arms salesman to sheikdoms, is well placed to dishonour international conventions that have protected Britons in places of upheaval. Just as Tony Blair's invasion of Iraq led directly to the acts of terrorism in London on 7 July 2005, so Cameron and Foreign Secretary William Hague have compromised the safety of British representatives across the world. Threatening to abuse a law designed to expel murderers from foreign embassies, while defaming an innocent man as an "alleged criminal", Hague has made a laughing stock of Britain across the world, though this view is mostly suppressed in Britain. His tormentors make the point of Assange's persecution. Budget watchdog to detail impact of government cutbacks. Fed up with the lack of transparency, Canada’s budget watchdog says he will publish his own analysis of the impact of government cutbacks on programs and the bureaucracy.
Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page says he will release quarterly reports starting later this month on the effects of $37-billion in cutbacks announced in the past three budgets. In a paper issued today, the PBO says the reductions announced in direct program expenditures over five years are similar to those brought in by the Liberals in the 1990s, but there is very little disclosure on their impact. In the 2012 budget, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said the latest restraint effort would result in the loss of 19,200 jobs over three years. When the cuts have run their course, direct program expenditure will be reduced to about 5.5 per cent of gross domestic product, a 50-year low and almost one third lower than the long-term average. Mr.
In his paper, Mr. If we silence dissent we silence democracy. John McKay is the Liberal Member of Parliament for the riding of Scarborough—Guildwood. He was first elected in 1997 and has been re-elected five times. Between 2003 and 2006 he served as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance, and is currently serving as the Liberal Defence Critic. Recently, I participated in a lively debate on the subject of faith and politics, publishing an article with my thoughts on the topic.
Given the widespread response, I decided to share it with a number of faith publications who I thought might be interested in passing it on to their readers. Very well-done, John. … I’ll keep it in the (queue) for right now as I have just received an official “reminder” from Canada Revenue that our charitable status may be in jeopardy because of too much “political advocacy” on the part of our publication, citing six different editorials and articles as evidence. (Name withheld for obvious reasons) Mr. Martin Niemöller wrote:
RCdeWinter : I dislike all hierarchical... Abolish the Senate instead of trying to reform it. Ithin a few days, Prime Minister Stephen Harper will take a major step in his crusade to reform the Senate by appointing five new senators to the 105-seat chamber. The move will give the Conservatives more senators than the Liberals for the first time in decades, thus ensuring almost total control of the upper house of Parliament and guaranteeing swift Senate passage of any Harper-inspired legislation, especially Senate reform. And in early March when the House of Commons reopens, Harper is expected to quickly introduce two bills that would reshape the Senate forever. The first would slap eight-year term limits on senators, who now can serve until age 75. The second would put in motion a system that would eventually see senators elected in province-wide votes.
Harper, who has already appointed 28 senators, has long championed Senate reform. What's really needed, though, is to abolish the Senate, not reform it. Here's why it should be abolished: Reform or abolish the Senate? The New Union Project: From bureaucratic crisis to rank and file opportunity. This long weekend I sat down to read the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers (CEP) final draft proposal for a new union. I must admit when I first heard about this merger I was more than a little skeptical. I immediately thought of the rash of union mergers in Canada and the United States that have happened over the past 30 years where dying unions merge instead of actually organizing new members.
After an initial reading of the document I was surprisingly less cynical than before. Now this is not because my fears have been alleviated, rather the document opens up a space for a long overdue honest discussion in the labour movement. It starts off by assessing the hard realities that face the labour movement: declining density, decreasing quality of contracts, coordinated government and business attacks and the increased power of transnational corporations.
Membership dues will be transitioned for all workers to a percentage of wages. Ivan Krastev: Can democracy exist without trust? Cartoon-Harper/Mentally Ill... Silencing the outriders, silencing democracy. Since taking power federally in 2006, the Conservative government has undertaken a continuous attack on civil society organizations. One of the government's first actions was to cut support for women's organizations that lobbied or did research on the status of women. Environmental organizations have been accused of acting in the interest of foreign powers. Revenue Canada was given extra money to investigate them. How did we come to the point where organizations advocating equality and changes to public policy appear to be seen by the government as the enemy of Canadians? Tom Flanagan, University of Calgary professor and a top adviser to the Conservative leader, made much of this very clear in a largely forgotten section of a book he published in 2007.
In Harper's Team: Behind the Scenes in the Conservative Rise to Power, Flanagan writes about an episode in the 2006 election when it looked like abortion might become an issue. He writes: Sometimes these views are not popular. Keep Canada in the United Nations! - Liberal.ca - Liberal.ca<link rel="canonical" href=" /><meta property="og:url" content=" Larry Miller, the Conservative MP for Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound, wants Canada to withdraw from the United Nations, outrageously suggesting we be the first of 193 countries to leave the international organization that has promoted peace, cooperation and human rights since 1945. In response, Liberal Foreign Affairs critic Dominic LeBlanc issued the following statement: “Conservative MP Larry Miller’s ignorant comments calling for Canada to withdraw from the UN are symptomatic of a government that has no interest in protecting Canada’s place on the world stage.
Their foreign policy, comprised of press releases, criticizing others and throwing hissy-fits when others dare criticize them, has damaged our international reputation, and affected our ability to work collaboratively with other governments and multilateral organizations. We live in an interconnected world where we can only protect Canada’s interests by playing a positive role internationally. Fight to keep Canada in the United Nations. Canada News: It’s like a movie:’ Tourists find Grand Prix protests fascinating.
Zoom MONTREAL—The daily protests in Montreal have become a source of fascination for some the thousands of tourists descending on the city for Grand Prix weekend. Over the past few days, visitors to the city have been witness to a march of near naked protesters, crowds of people banging on pots and pans, and lines of riot police. Demonstrations have been held daily since festivities surrounding the Formula One race began on Thursday, and have become riveting viewing for many taking in the city. “It's like a movie,” one man said Saturday, as he watched a line of riot police block off a street in Old Montreal. Tourists were given a first-hand look at the protests during a daytime march on Saturday.
About 50 people clanged pots and pans as they marched through the centre of the celebrations on Crescent Street, a popular bar strip and the epicentre of the Grand Prix celebrations. “I think the police have been well organized,” said Dragan Mlikota, visiting from Chicago for the race. Some helpful suggestions for would-be Liberal leaders. Martha Hall Findlay made a brave move when she defied Liberal party custom and urged that special protected status be removed from the milk and egg industries. It was a brave precedent and a good start if, as seems to be the assumption, Ms Hall Findlay decides to run for the leadership. (It was common wisdom that Bob Rae would run as well, which tells you all you need to know about common wisdom.) Here are a few more ideas the Liberals might consider if they’re serious about being brave, daring and innovative as they restructure their party. • Tie the party to accountability.
. • In similar vein, develop a plan to change the proceedings in the House of Commons to comply with the various reform plans that have been put forward. . • Televise the entire proceedings, not via the dull single camera now used, but with enhanced sound and multiple cameras, which would allow live commentary and simultaneous online response.
. • Expand and enhance the power of the Parliamentary Budget Officer. What the Supreme Court will really decide in the Etobicoke Centre case. Carleton University admits to issues with $15-million donor deal for politics school.
Loss of Democracy. Radical Right. Over 30 cities set to rally against 'Black Mark Budget' this Saturday. How to become a Dictator. Canada News: Federal Budget 2012: Canadian government plans to scrap fair wages law. From rogue page to activist icon. The Commons: If Kevin Page has overstepped his mandate, maybe it’s time to expand it - Beyond The Commons, Capital Read. The Trouble With Normal Is It Always Gets Worse. AnonymousNorth : We have the power. Dont le...
How do you spell the word tyranny? I spell it: HARPER « thebishopsviews. Witnessing The Nearing End Of The Modern Experiment In Democracy. Quebec emergency law goes 'very far', ex-judge Gomery says - Politics. Press Release. Translate. Ten Points Everyone Should Know About the Quebec Student Movement. Quebec students call for new tuition talks - Montreal.
List of Media Coverage of Democracy Watch. NDP, Liberals urge government to make PBO officer of Parliament — now. Definition of a Democratic Society. And You, What Are You Waiting For?: A World without Slavery.