Another dog show weekend. Those of you who want to pull a little attention to your own ramblings, or that have useful tips – use this post for your trackbacks or just drop the link in the comments.
Catch you Sunday.
Another dog show weekend. Those of you who want to pull a little attention to your own ramblings, or that have useful tips – use this post for your trackbacks or just drop the link in the comments.
Catch you Sunday.
If you read the news reports carefully, the RCMP never actually said that Mr. Grewal was under investigation FOR the tapes. This is a story about the media. We are witnessing another Terry Miliewski incident, when he said, coast-to-coast on government TV, that Mr. Grewal was under investigation AFTER taping the Liberals. Not FOR taping, after taping.
The “airport” investigation (where Grewal handed a cassette to a fellow passenger after he had already gone through security) happened AFTER taping. And when the issue of personal cheques made out not to a political party but to him were somehow being investigated by CBC/RCMP as undeclared campaign donations, this, again, was a case of him being investigated AFTER the taping.
Nealnews: “RCMP: Grewal did not break the law in taping top Liberal..” Who thought that he did? He was merely accused of a bunch of things AFTER taping. The media portray that the RCMP have decided not to press charges against Grewal FOR taping, but he never broke any crime by pressing “REC” — he merely outed the Liberals, and hence the other specious “charges”.
Can someone in the national media please stand up and get to the bottom of this? Does recording your own conversations warrant months of RCMP examinations, with the appearance possible criminal charges hanging around? I don’t think so. Any lawyers (pseudonymous) out there?
EBD raises legitimate, real-world questions here. True, Grewal taped Libranos. That’s nothing illegal. So why the bizarre announcement suddenly from the RCMP that he had broken no law? Didn’t they already know that? Or are they conspiring with the MSM as well as the Librano overlords to manipulate the people into not trusting Grewal and the Conservatives?
Sometimes I wish I was one of the Tory communications strategists.
On the lighter side:
You know the picture of the dead gopher on the upper left corner of SDA? Well, I may have found her alive. Maybe, maybe not, but here’s a picture of a gopher I saw that might be the same one, working on a golf course. Remember, there’s a golf course behind Kate’s house. So I wondered… Hey, Kate, are you sure you popped the little furry bugger? Are you using her as a tee? Oh, wait… I just remembered you think golf is a waste of time. Never golfed myself anyway, except into a little hole in a windmill or a clown’s mouth…
http://www.strangecosmos.com/content/item/109402.html
Just couldn’t help wondering…
Killer Karla Koddled, KKK, by the Klibrano$$$$$$$$$KKK
Corrections’ PR engine in overdrive before Karla freed…
[including PM PM’s orficce.]
primetimecrime.com
OTTAWA – Corrections officials embarked on an “unprecedented” public relations campaign in the months leading up to Karla Homolka’s release from prison. Documents obtained by Sun Media through Access to Information show bureaucrats were working in overdrive to address public outrage over the killer’s exit from prison after just 12 years. Briefings went to the highest political levels, including the Prime Minister’s Office. (Edmonton Sun)>>
Show us the documents.
See, law enforcement conspires with the Libranos to manipulate our perceptions wrt criminals… only this time it was Corrections as the cops and Karla H. as the criminal rather than the Libranos…
If they can do it in this case, why couldn’t they have done it in Tapegate?
Tony and George, you missed the point in my post.
The actual story is as follows: The provincial government in Manitoba passed legislation barring the display of motorcycle gang insignia in licensed premises. That legislation is being challenged and goes to trial in October. The B.C. Attorney General is awaiting the outcome of that court case before deciding whether to take similar action in this province.
If I need to correct myself I will. Please amend my post by deleting the word “public” and insert following the word “establishments” the phrase “to which the public are invitees”.
The Sunday Times – World
August 14, 2005
Poolside killing puts Sri Lanka back on brink
Tom Pattinson
SRI LANKA was struggling to keep its fragile peace process alive yesterday after Lakshman Kadirgamar, the veteran foreign minister, was shot dead as he climbed out of the swimming pool at his luxury home.
Security was tightened across the country, with troops checking all vehicles entering Colombo, the capital, and military aircraft sent to monitor the movements of the Tamil Tiger rebels.
President Chandrika Kumaratunga declared a state of emergency immediately after the shooting late on Friday of Kadirgamar, 73, an Oxford-educated lawyer.
Kadirgamar, a Tamil Christian who led efforts to ban the Tigers but later backed peace efforts, was shot in the head and chest by snipers firing through a ventilation hole in a building near his heavily guarded home. He died in hospital early yesterday morning…
Librano$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
AdScam Martin and the Liberals aid and abet the Tamil Tigers in their murderous deeds. Tamil terrorists are now in Canada, armed and ready to kill, courtesy of the Liberal regime’s so-called immigration laws: read that as lawlessness laws. Most live in the GTA. Most, say 99%, vote Liberal, natchurally.
>>>>>>>>>>>
Dining with terrorists
by Judi McLeod, Canadafreepress.com
January 10, 2005
No one should have been surprised that the same Tamils who supply guns to terrorists are collecting money in Canada for the tsunami victims of South Asia.
Long before devastating tsunami waves claimed tens of thousands of souls in Sri Lanka, the Canadian Liberal government had established a record for being soft on Tamil Tiger fundraising.
Both Prime Minister Paul Martin when he was Minister of Finance and Member of Parliament Maria Minna attended a May 2000, $600-a-plate fund raising dinner organized by a front organization for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Genial dinner hosts to Martin and Minna, Tamil Tigers have been pegged as the most ruthless and murderous terrorist group in the world.
Neither Martin nor Minna ever apologized for breaking bread with terrorists, and in fact both were re-elected in last June�s Canadian federal election.
Canada is now home to approximately 200,000 Sri Lankans, and has the dubious distinction of being host country to the biggest Tamil Diaspora in the world.
Petitions to the government claim that Canada, albeit unwittingly has opened its doors to some 8,000 paramilitary-trained Tamil terrorists contrary to its own immigration laws.>>>
http://www.canadafreepress.com/2005/cover011005.htm
maz2: The bitter irony is that the Liberal government has been saying that declaring the Tamil Tigers a terrorist group would endanger the diplomatic negotiations (led by Norway) between the Tigers and the Sri Lankan government to resolve the civil war. And now, almost certainly, the Tigers have murdered the Sri Lankan government’s chief diplomat. Some way not to endanger the negotiations.
Do you think the Canadian Government will now act against the Tigers?
Mark
Ottawa
Mark, can the Librano$ afford to toss all those votes? Of course nothing will change. They continue to increase aid/trading with China and Cuba, and nothing ever changes there. This government has always looked the other way when it best served their interest, even if it meant pepper spraying Canadian university students then laughing about it. Suharto was considered one of the worst human rights violators but was much admired by Chretien and the Libs. They won’t even give the Tamils a slap on the wrist. Not een the worst atrocities committed by Hamas has convinced them to have that group struck off their ‘kiss plenty of ass’ list.
Canada asks, are you going to refund Five billion in wrongfully collected softwood lumber tarrifs?
Uncle Sam sez, *it’s like this. Y’ see you guys know we gotta protect you because we depend on your oil and hydro power.*
*So, just consider the five bil as a down payment on your, protect yer sorry asses, bill.
Next time don’t chicken out when we ask you to help stop a power crazed genocidist from stomping on bodies in the middle East. 73s TG
My two cents on what the final Volcker Report might contain. http://shamthetoryman.blogspot.com/2005/08/will-final-volcker-report-blame-us.html
So, an organization ruled that Canada has socialist trees with no market value so giving them away for free is just free trade. What a bunch of horseshit. Take your five billion and shove it. Trees aren’t a political entity. They are a commodity. The system that produced that decision is either corrupted or intellectually perverted. It makes no sense.
Guess the Liberals think 65,000 Sri Lankans killed by the Tamil Tigers is not enough of a reason to name them a terrorist group? But let one of the troughfeeders get murdered and Pettigrew starts shaking his hair in anger. With such a large Sri Lankan population in Toronto that are probably forced to give money to the Tamil Tigers (I doubt if all the donations are given freely) you would think the Liberals would have the guts to name this group a terrorist group. The poor SriLankan/Canadians are probably afraid to complain about the ‘donation’ collectors and the Liberals are complicit in allowing this to happen. Birds of a feather?
I fail to see, James, how your redacted “establishments to which the public are invitees”, as a replacement for your previous “public establishments”, affects the issue.
If I invite you on to my property you (presumably) have the capactity to decline. If you do not, then you are agreeing to my terms in respect of your presence, modulo agregious misbehaviour on my behalf.
Should we be allowed to make such decisions on our own, or should the state make those decisions for us?
Er, Tony, Read Pennington’s original 12:26 post: He was making a lighthearted point, apropos of previous comments, about a serious issue, namely Liberal behaviour. He said that if the Hell’s Angels’ insignia is to be banned from certain establishments, that the Liberal Party of Canada’s should be banned too. Ha ha.
You responded by calling him brainwashed. Did you maybe miss the point, or are you completely lacking a sense of humour?
Respectfully, Mark.
I understood James’ point Mark, I’m just riffing on his reported implication to the effect that private property that is open to the public is somehow magically public property. I’m wasn’t trying to say that James said that or believes it, I understand that he was just reporting a source.
I apologize for making it seem that I have an issue with you, James, rather than with that specific (and no doubt incidental to your original point) issue.
Meanwhile, I fear attempts to define private property as public property. One may feel on a particular issue that it would be to one’s advantage to have the state intervene in one’s favour in terms of the regulation of someone else’s private property, but there is the countervailing risk that the state may then intervene against your favour in terms of the regulation of your private property.
One’s return on investment in terms of supporting any particular regulation must be carefully weighed against the risk of having regulations unjustly turned against you.
Well Tony we actually agree. If it is my establishment then I should be able to set the terms on which I will agree to share that place with you and vice versa. That was not the point I was trying to raise.
The state, of course, has already dictated terms for us in many areas of our lives e.g. property zoning, human rights.
Now I will admit there is a difference between “public” establishments and those to which the public have access. The news story should, however, make us ask what is acceptable behaviour, clothing and who draws the line.
You may not want bikers wearing their colours in your establishment but if they are well behaved what is the difference between a leather jacket and a pin striped suit. I just thought that the present government declaring a particular group a criminal organization was something akin to the pot calling the kettle black.
EBD regarding the Grewal story, The Globe and Mail reported that the RCMP will not charge any of the parties involved. That being Grewal, Dosanji and Murphy. I dont know why Grewal was being investigated in the first place but to let the other two off the hook is a travesty of justice. But whats new, they are Liberals.
Hey McAllister! That gopher golfing was pretty funny!
Yes, James, it appears we do agree.
Here’s something I’d like people to think about when they feel desireous of regulating private property:
Is liberty always only about one’s freedom to put one’s nose in other peoples’ private business, or is it sometimes about the freedom of others to think and believe what they want to about the nature of harm in a private volitional context?
Tony and James…both your points,while good,are moot.There is NO such animal as private property in Canada.Never has been,never will be.Under our laws and Constitution,Canadians DO NOT have the right to possess property.In effect,we just rent it from the banks until the mortgage is paid,then it legally belongs to what ever governmental jurisdiction you reside in.That is why laws like anti-smoking in “private” buildings and searches of your house without warrants are legal.Don’t believe me,call a lawyer and check it out.I have.
There is, de facto, the concept of private property in Canadian jurisprudence: if you steal my car it’s called grand theft auto. The questions are: (1) how should private property boundaries be delineated, (2) to what extend should private property be regulated, and (3) what are the most threating attacks on private property to which we should focus our attention?
Yes, softwood is a commodity and not returning five billion in wrongly collected tarrifs is very much a corrupt decision.
I merely speculated on the possible thinking of those powerful few persons who made the corrupt decision to criminally ignore fair and honest rulings in Canada’s favour. 73s TG
Tony…”grand theft auto”? To many Yank T.V. shows,I guess.It’s called theft over $5,000.00.And anything that is de facto is not a right,just ours at the govn’t’s whim.
People, here’s a funny story I found. Now, that’s what I call slapstick! This is a good one! The people involved must be mortally embarrassed as hell! Here it is:
http://www.strangecosmos.com/content/item/109502.html
Peter Jennings, MSM, and the not-quite MSM
Peter Jennings’ Unfortunate Legacy
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=19098
Peter Jennings, Urbane News Anchor, Dies at 67
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/08/business/media/08jennings_obit.html?ex=1139112000&en=affb6ce06430d98e&ei=5087&excamp=GGGNpeterjennings
Jennings, smoke and mirrors
http://www.rabble.ca/columnists_full.shtml?x=40807
It’s a new era, but MSM still has a vital role to play
http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/Stories/0,1413,206~11851~3009116,00.html
An illuminating story August 14 in London’s The Observer (the Sunday companion of The Guardian, and thus well on the left):
‘Radical links of UK’s ‘moderate’ Muslim group:
The Muslim Council of Britain has been courted by the government and lauded by the Foreign Office but critics tell a different and more disturbing story.’
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1548786,00.html
Excerpts:
‘The Muslim Council of Britain is officially the moderate face of Islam. Its pronouncements condemning the London bombings have been welcomed by the government as a model response for mainstream Muslims. The MCB’s secretary general, Iqbal Sacranie, has recently been knighted and senior figures within the organisation have the ear of ministers.
But an Observer investigation can reveal that, far from being moderate, the Muslim Council of Britain has its origins in the extreme orthodox politics in Pakistan. And as its influence increases through Whitehall, many within the Muslim community are growing concerned that this self-appointed organisation is crowding out other, genuinely moderate, voices of Muslim Britain…
The MCB has now written to the BBC’s director general, Mark Thompson, to complain about the programme in which reporter John Ware will challenge Sacranie to justify his boycott of Holocaust Memorial Day and clarify the MCB’s position on Palestinian suicide bombers. In the letter, Inayat Bunglawala, the MCB’s media spokesman says: ‘It appears that the Panorama team is more interested in furthering a pro-Israeli agenda than assessing the work of Muslim organisations in the UK.’
The origins of the Muslim Council of Britain can be traced to the storm around the publication of the Satanic Verses in 1988. India was the first country to ban the book and many Muslim countries followed suit. Opposition to the book in Britain united people committed to a traditionalist view of Islam, of which the founders of the Muslim Council of Britain was a part…
The strain of Islamic ideology favoured by the MCB leadership and many of its affiliate organisations is inspired by Maulana Maududi, a 20th-century Islamic scholar little known in the West but hugely significant as a thinker across the Muslim world. His writings, which call for a global Islamic revival, influenced Sayyid Qutb, usually credited as the founding father of modern Islamic radicalism and one of the inspirations for al-Qaeda.
In Maududi’s worldview all humanity was split into believers (practising Muslims) and non-believers, whom he describes as ‘barbarians’. He was deeply critical of notions such as nationalism and feminism and called on Muslims to purge themselves of Western influence…His writings do not advocate terrorism. But the language of Jihad in Islam, written in 1930, may seem violent to a Western reader: ‘The objective of Islamic “jihad” is to eliminate the rule of an un-Islamic system and establish in its stead an Islamic system of state rule. Islam does not intend to confine this revolution to a single state or a few countries; the aim of Islam is to bring about a universal revolution.’…
There is no suggestion that Sacranie and other prominent figures in the Muslim Council of Britain are anything but genuine in their condemnation of the terrorist bombings of the 7 July. But their claims to represent a moderate or progressive tendency in Islam are becoming increasingly difficult to sustain…’
Mark
Ottawa
“To maintain their honor and sacred heritage”
Notice that both groups hide their faces in shame, writes Varifrank in his must-read essay on the all-too-human, universal dynamics of terror. Mississippi Ku-Klux members in the disguises in which they were captured, Harper’s Weekly, January 27, 1872 …
Stephen…hilarious…is that what they call “hot” sex?
Literally.
THE CCRA SHELL GAME
May 17, 2005
REVENUE MINISTER MCCALLUM ANNOUNCES NEW FUNDING PROGRAM FOR CHARITIES
http://www.newswire.ca/fgov/en/releases/archive/May2005/17/c0599.html
…up to $3 million in funds will be available to the voluntary sector annually for education and training on charities regulation….
…”If we can help the sector educate itself about the regulatory obligations under the Income Tax Act, voluntary sector compliance will increase…”
August 9, 2005
REVENUE MINISTER MCCALLUM ANNOUNCES THE CREATION OF 11 CENTRES OF EXPERTISE TO ADDRESS AGGRESSIVE INTERNATIONAL TAX PLANNING
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/newsroom/releases/2005/aug/nr050809-e.html
…”I am committed to ensuring a level playing field for all Canadians, and that is why I take the issue of tax havens seriously,”…
August 12, 2005
CRA EXPANDS ITS COLLECTIONS ACTIVITIES
http://www.deloitte.ca/en/Services/tax/highlights/
…became responsible on August 1, 2005, for collecting the debts owed to programs of Human Resources and Skills Development Canada and Social Development Canada…
August 13, 2005
CRA MONITORING OF CHARITIES LAX: REPORT
http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=3886e14f-80fb-40f6-ab80-c385d70f283a
….Federal tax cops have been lax in monitoring Canada’s 81,000 registered charities, a growing number of which are involved in fraudulent activity, says an internal report…
…The charities directorate of the Canada Revenue Agency operates a database that’s riddled with errors, takes too long to complete its investigations, and is haphazard about which charities it targets for examination….
…up to 17 per cent of the information in the database is wrong…
Re Private Property:
With respect to someone stealing your car, technically the fact that it is theft has very little to deal with the right to own property. The state gets involved in this caper because the theft is a breach of the Queen’s peace. The state does not want you taking matters into your own hands. You still have the right to seek redress in the civil courts for damages. Of course, most thieves do not have the proverbial pot, or the window to throw it out of, so that is often a very moot point.
With respect to real estate, originally all land was owned by the king (state) and he rewarded the faithful by granting them seisin, or the right to occupy, a particular tract of land. This is where the idea of the Crown grant of land came from. The king, of course, could take the land back if he was of a mind to. Technically speaking your title today still devolves from the state although in practical terms it is seen as your property. That is why the police (state), except in very limited circumstances, require a search warrant before they enter your residence; and that includes your rented accomodation.
Sorry for being pedantic.
There is, however, an idea I would like to throw out for discussion. Under the Charter of Rights we are all guaranteed certain rights and freedoms against arbitrary conduct by the state and its agents. Those rights include speech, mobility, freedom from arbitrary arrest, detention and unreasonable search and seizure.
What is not protected under our constitution are economic rights. This is a point that has been litigated and the courts have said economic rights are not delineated in the Charter. The question has arisen in the context of the right to earn income.
So the question I ask is this: Assuming we have the right to pursue a lawful occupation (and one may argue that we have a duty to do so in order that we do not become a burden on others) should this “right” be given constitutional protection?
Now before someone says the Charter was a liberal invention, I remind you that not all the signatories to that document were liberals. And one should not lose sight of the fact that a subsequent federal conservative government did nothing to rectify the situation.
And a good article by David Rieff, on the contradiction between multiculturalism and large Muslim minorities in the NY Times Magazine, August 14: “An Islamic Alienation”:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/14/magazine/WLN111159.html
Exceprts:
‘Indeed, the news could scarcely be worse. What Europeans are waking up to is a difficult truth: the immigrants who perform the Continent’s menial jobs, and, as is often forgotten, began coming to Europe in the 1950’s because European governments and businesses encouraged their mass migration, are profoundly alienated from European society for reasons that have little to do with the Middle East and everything to do with Europe. This alienation is cultural, historical and above all religious, as much if not more than it is political. Immigrants who were drawn to Europe because of the Continent’s economic success are in rebellion against the cultural, social and even psychological sources of that success…
At the same time, it is difficult to see how the extremists’ grievances can ever be placated by conciliatory gestures…What seems clearer is that European governments have very little time and nowhere near enough knowledge about which members of the Islamic community really are ”preachers of hate” and which, however unpalatable their views, are part of the immigrant mainstream.
The multicultural fantasy in Europe — its eclipse can be seen most poignantly in Holland, that most self-definedly liberal of all European countries — was that, in due course, assuming that the proper resources were committed and benevolence deployed, Islamic and other immigrants would eventually become liberals. As it’s said, they would come to ”accept” the values of their new countries. It was never clear how this vision was supposed to coexist with multiculturalism’s other main assumption, which was that group identity should be maintained. But by now that question is largely academic: the European vision of multiculturalism, in all its simultaneous good will and self-congratulation, is no longer sustainable.’
Mark
Ottawa
“Now before someone says the Charter was a liberal invention, I remind you that not all the signatories to that document were liberals”
James – Agreed, but they all seem to work for the same corporation:
http://www.think-aboutit.com/Conspiracy/rockefeller_links_of_canadian_po.htm
The previous CP party seems to be all part of the same group, that’s why there is such a movement to discredit the current CPC movement.
As to your question, the charter seems to be so opened ended, that you could probably get a right for anything you want, as long as you have a special interest group backing you. I’ve never read it, but looking at what passes over the years is evidence enough.
James – ya might want to also read this post:
http://thefirebrand.blogspot.com/2005/08/martins-democratic-deficit-has-elected.html
The right to own property IS NOT in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, in Canada. If people in Canada would care to read The Charter of Rights and Freedoms innitially granted to the people of the USSR in 1919, by the Bolshoviks, they would be suprised to acknowledge that our Canadian Charter is not an original work. It is almost a plagerism!! (of the USSR).
That said, Mr. Eric Nielson(PC), a forgotten CANADIAN hero was for a brief time leader of the opposition in Rottowa. Eric was Turdo’s worst nightmare, he left the latter twitching in rage because Eric always had devistating come back for the empty retoric of the ‘oh so sophisticated’ Turdo. He was helpless in Eric’s line of fire!! This highly intellegent, resourceful MP from the then, Great Yukon Territory, caught the Liberano’s with their pants down on budget day. There had been a budget leak, the Liberanos expected to be bombarded with razor sharp questions from the leader of the opposition (Eric Neilson), Eric noted that the Liberanos were short a majority in the house (Some were outside doing damage control with the press gang) and instead of firing the expected ammo at the budget leak, he took advantage of the minority situation and passed a motion limiting the states intrusion into property owners right to USE what they paid property taxes FOR -the BNA Act had ENSHRINED the RIGHT to own property – the Charter of Turdo had enshrined the RIGHT to ENJOY property; the obligation to pay taxes for the right to enjoy gave Eric the fodder he needed to give Canadians limited control over that ‘enjoyment’. If it had not been for Eric, today the state would be farming immigrants in all your houses rather than building low cost bee hives for them.
Eric Nielson was later back-stabbed by the Red Tories aka Sinclair Stevens, Joe Clark and Brian Malrony. He would have made the the very BEST PM Canada could have ever had – the Conservatives have only themselves to thank for allowing Eric to be side lined by the powerful corperations that also elected Turdo, Crechan, and Paule.
Just as a side note the babe, shiela copps once did a little dance on the HC desk for Eric she was really ‘inflamed’at the time. It was belly laughing funny. The look on Eric Neilson’s face was even funnier than silly shiela’s antics.
Eric Nielson is still alive and I think he would appreciate a Thank-you from the indebted Canadian people – from anywhere at any time.
BTW he would have been a great choice for GG as he actually did A LOT FOR Canadians at great cost to himself.
Racial profiling is essential; an absolute imperative at this time in Canada. The personal security of Canadian citizens is paramount. Down with multicultarism, political correctness, lax immigration laws, and the Firearms Registry. The Librano$$$$$$$$ are causing great harm to Canadian citizens. Down with the Librano$$$$$$$$$.
Police Arrest Two Men with Ammunition at Canadian Border
Darren McEwen
Sunday, August 14, 2005 2:08 PM
Two men are in police custody after trying to re-enter Canada from the U.S. with ammunition strapped to their bodies.
22-year-old Ali Dirie and 23-year-old Yasin Mohamed, both of the Toronto area, are facing weapons related charges in connection to Saturday’s incident.
Police say the discovery was made as the their vehicle underwent a routine search at Fort Erie’s Peace Bridge.
Meanwhile, there are more stories of gun violence this weekend in Toronto. A 20-year-old Toronto man was shot and killed Saturday night in the city�s west end.
In a separate incident two teenage boys were also hit by bullets. Their injuries are not considered to be life-threatening.
http://www.cfra.com/headlines/index.asp?cat=2&nid=30876
Rob – read the post you recommended and couldn’t agree more.
We do not live in a democracy. When power is concentrated, as it is in the PMO, the idea of democracy is simply an illusion. And it is not limited to the federal government. It would appear that power really does corrupt.
But surely not everyone who is elected is in it for personal gain. So what happens once they get elected? Is there something in the water? Better yet, what can we do about it and are we prepared to take the action necessary to recover the power that, in a democracy, supposedly rests with the rest of us?
As corrupt as the federal liberals have become, I don’t see much to cheer about when I cast about for alternatives at all levels of government. There seems to be in this country a prevailing attitude that those in power know best and the rest of us need to accept the status quo. When one dares to raise questions that person is labelled as part of the “looney left” or fascist.
But it seems to me that there is a common thread to the comments I read here and elsewhere that transcend party lines. How do we harness that energy?
I see no place in this discussion to date, Justthinkkin & Jema54, where anyone suggested there is a right to private property in Canada. I myself referred to the notion, the concept. I think it’s an important part of civil society, but that doesn’t mean it has to be defined as a right somewhere, for some value of right.
Indeed, section 92 of the Constitution Act of 1867 says, “In each Province the Legislature may exclusively make Laws in relation to Matters coming within the Classes of Subjects next hereinafter enumerated; that is to say […] 13. Property and Civil Rights in the Province […]”
Provincial laws range far and wide, but for Alberta see for example the Law of Property Act (R.S.A. 2000, c. L-7)[1] and the Personal Property Security Act (R.S.A. 2000, c. P-7)[2].
[1]http://www.canlii.org/ab/laws/sta/l-7/20050617/whole.html
[2]http://www.canlii.org/ab/laws/sta/p-7/20050617/whole.html
Interestingly, the Criminal Code (R.S., c. C-34, s. 170) mentions private property in one place, section 174: (1) Every one who, without lawful excuse, (a) is nude in a public place, or (b) is nude and exposed to public view while on private property, whether or not the property is his own, is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction. (2) For the purposes of this section, a person is nude who is so clad as to offend against public decency or order. (3) No proceedings shall be commenced under this section without the consent of the Attorney General.
I think that part of the problem of the corrupting influence of the concentration of power in Canada, James, is due to Canada’s lack of a structural system of checks and balances.
In the United States, people get to vote for, what: state congress, state senate, state governor, federal congress, federal senate, and federal executive. In Canada we get to vote for an MLA and an MP, and after that it’s winner-take-all appoint-o-matic all the way to the top.
James – the thing that’s needed to straighten this out is a complete overhaul of our democratic system. Your not going to get that no matter who’s in. The CPC are the closest to even making a proposal for provincial equality and an elected senate. That’s why there is such a movement against it. It removes some of the centrist power from Ottawa. In a country where socialism has become expected by the populous, how are you going to change it?
Thus the reason for the ever increasing separatists in Alberta. They/we see it as you do, and have tried for 30 years to get equality with no forward movement, with no inroads of any kind, a continual back slide. If you have a solution, and keep in mind the solution is not the idea, the idea is already there, it’s getting the East(Ont/PQ) to accept your idea. You might just save the country from breakup, but it might be to late.
Tony:
“Property” in s. 92 BNA is used in a very general sense and includes personal property (vehicles, bank accounts etc) as well as real property (land). The lease you have with the oil company for that rig on the back 40 is also “property”.
As for the Criminal Code, you might also wish to look at ss. 348 (B&E) and 430 (Wilfull damage, including arson). There are also references to mining claims and s. 264.1 (uttering threats) also includes threats to damage property. There is also s.34 (defence of real property) which is the section you want to rely on when you eject a trespasser (keep this one in mind for next year when the census people start coming around).
The irony is that theoretically we do have some checks and balances in this country.
We elect MP’s and MLA’s to represent us, the constituents, but once in the party apparatus takes over. I can understand MP/MLA following the party line after all that person is a member and the price of membership is support for party principles (assuming the party has some).
What irks me is when the politician, who may not have received the majority of votes cast, purports to speak for me. Here in B.C. a referendum on electoral reform almost passed, notwithstanding the efforts of all the mainstream parties to shoot it down. That, in my opinion was a first step.
In other countries politicians are made to sit up and take notice. Here in Canada we are just too damned polite, or perhaps complacent is a better word, and until recently I was guilty as hell.
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