A wrap-up of Canada-related news for the week ending March 12, 2010:
The James Cameron Blues
Canadian filmmaker, James Cameron, was a bust at last Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony, losing both Best Director and Best Picture awards to ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow. When asked for his reaction to the loss, he said he was feeling blue. Instead of going to the afterparty, he went home and plugged his tail into the Tree of Life. Cameron has since bounced back, announcing that he will release a director’s cut with 10-12 minutes of additional crap because the film wasn’t long enough and didn’t perform at the box office as well as he had hoped.
O Canada Revisions Scrapped
Last week, Harper’s Conservatives had announced a plan to change the lyrics of Canada’s national anthem, deleting “in all thy sons command” in favour of the more gender neutral (but medieval sounding) “thou dost in us command”. Sounds like a reasonable suggestion. After all, everybody knows how sensitive the Conservatives can be when it comes to women’s issues. However, our esteemed leaders made a hasty retreat when a Harris-Decima poll revealed that 74 % of Canadians don’t want them messing with the National Anthem. The Conservatives have taken that as an indication that most Canadians would prefer that women stick to cooking and making babies. Or maybe, just maybe, it’s an indication that most Canadians are disgusted with a government that manufactures issues to distract the voting public from substantive concerns. That’s called Tabloid Politics.
Seal Meat On Parliament Hill
Seal meat was on the menu Wednesday at Ottawa’s parliamentary restaurant in protest against the European Union’s ban on the import of seal meat and skins. The EU describes the practice as cruel and inhumane. Fisheries Minister Gail Shea calls them “misguided and mean-spirited” anti-seal-hunt activists. To show his support for the seal hunt, opposition leader Michael Ignatieff gobbled up seal hor d’oeuvres while saying that the European parliamentarians are ignorant. Ignorant? And bashing seal pups in the head with a spiked club is what? The height of civilized behaviour? Then again, if the EU was really serious about humane treatment of animals, it would ban the import of all factory farmed meat. No beef. No pork. No nothing. Methinks other issues lurk below the ice floes and have nothing to do with meat or humane treatment of animals. It’s always about money, folks. Click on the pic to make it bigger.
New Budget Finds Money For Prisons
Although the Conservatives tabled an austere budget to cope with a $56 billion deficit, they still have found room to increase capital spending for prisons by 43 per cent, to $329.4 million in 2010-2011, from $230.8 million in 2009-2010. That makes lots of sense to me. We’ll need more prisons to warehouse all the country’s Jean Valjeans who have to steal food to feed their families because we’ve slashed their social supports to fund our new prisons. Makes just as much sense as any other other circular argument.
CIDA Stalls Haiti Relief
Canadians have donated more than $150 million to charities that funnel their money through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) for relief in Haiti. Maybe you’re one of those Canadians. If so, you can see the little thank-you slide show on their website. You’ll also be delighted to know that CIDA hasn’t done a damn thing with your money. You can read Michael Petrou’s Kafkaeque search for answers in MacClean’s magazine. Seems transparency isn’t one of CIDA’s mandates. Wonder how much of that money is earmarked for “administration.”
Rahim Jaffer Walks
Rahim Jaffer, former Edmonton-Strathcona MP and husband of Conservative cabinet minister Helena Guergis, got a break this week. Charged with drunk driving and possession of cocaine, he pleaded guilty to careless driving and walked away from the Orangeville courthouse with a $500 fine and no criminal record. There is (naturally) public outrage at the appearance of a two-tiered system of justice, one for members of the Conservative party and another for the rest of us. As James Tavers argues in The Star, while the verdict may have been fair in the circumstances, it’s timing is unfortunate, coinciding with the Conservative Party’s “let’s get tough on crime” push for more jails and longer sentences. The appearance of hypocrisy doesn’t help their cause. Then again it’s not much of cause. Given that the incidence of crime continues to decline in this country, it’s difficult to take seriously Harper’s hard-assed stand on crime.
Religion-Free Addiction Treatment A Human Right?
Rob Johnston, an alcoholic from Winnipeg, has filed a complaint with the Manitoba Human Rights Commission saying that he “can’t find a treatment program that doesn’t rely on religion or spirituality as part of the recovery process.” In Winnipeg? I find that hard to believe. This is the same enlightened city that voted to fund Youth For Christ’s “Youth Centre For Excellence” which promises not to proselytise the heathen native kids – at least not too much. Maybe he could use the tooth fairy for his higher power. Or how about a flying teapot?
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Fri, Mar 12, 2010
From the Drainpipe