My latest in The Propagandist Magazine

Check it out, eh? In The Wake Of The Wilders Trial:

As noted in an earlier article, the prosecution of Dutch politician Geert Wilders for group insult and incitement of hatred and discrimination went off the rails earlier this month. Not only did the Dutch Public Prosecutor advise that all charges against Wilders be dropped, but the judges handling his case were all dismissed after one of them – Tom Schalken - attended the same dinner party as a trial witness and apparently attempted to engage him in a conversation about the trial – a big potential for conflict of interest. Schalken is now facing proceedings launched by Wilders for influencing a witness.

The trial is expected to start over from scratch, but in the interim there has been some rather interesting fall-out in The Netherlands.

Read the rest here.

Show some ankle, get arrested

Iran: bastion of liberalism and tolerance.

The latest at Defend Geert Wilders

Here's the latest:

• Turkey accuses Dutch PM of discrimination.
• Stunning testimony at the trial of Geert Wilders.
• Amsterdam mayor shifts pro-Wilders demo from centre.

More to come, undoubtedly.

Update: Like I said, more to come:

• In The Wake Of The Wilders Trial.

Still haunted by the scourge of ten percenters

This Hallowe'en at the Libertas Post, I present to you a haunting of a different sort: MP expenses.

*Shudder.

Notes from a fiscally conservative government

Just a few quick bits of food for thought on a Sunday afternoon.

First, Don Martin in the Post:

Defying predictions from New Democrats that the Auditor General’s stimulus spending post-mortem would deliver a kick to the government’s vulnerable butt on Tuesday, sources familiar with Sheila Fraser’s report claim it’s closer to a slap on the wrist.

“There’s some criticism for not collecting enough information on the forms and for some delays, but it’s generally good,” one source said after being briefed Monday on Ms. Fraser’s findings.

Some officials were nervous the unprecedented rush to inject billions of infrastructure dollars into the faltering economy created ripe conditions for bogus projects to be financed without the appropriate paperwork.

But of the 11 projects put under the tenacious Fraser’s value-for-money magnifying glass, there are apparently more quibbles than quarrels with the way tax dollars were spent.

Meanwhile, John Geddes at Macleans.ca:

Fraser’s findings from her audit of the $11-billion helicopter deals couldn’t be more disturbing. She said DND officials held back crucial information about the likely escalation in the cost of 28 Cyclone and 15 Chinook choppers, which led to Treasury Board approving the purchases based on off-the-shelf cost estimates that were ridiculously optimistic.

Meanwhile, Jeremy Hainsworth at The Lawyers Weekly:

Canadian and international lawyers agree access to justice is on the brink of becoming a victim of the global recession as governments slash budgets—including those for legal aid programs.

However, Canada’s justice minister and attorneys general dodged the issue of the future of legal aid at a meeting on Oct. 15 in Vancouver, saying only that a joint statement on criminal legal aid had been signed. The statement was not released after the meeting.

Meanwhile, Kevin Donovan and Diana Zlomislic in the Toronto Star:

A Toronto Star investigation shows the department managing the program — Industry Canada — allows banks to loan money with lax or no controls.

In one case, at least 16 loans — more than $4 million doled out $250,000 at a time over eight years — were given to a loosely associated group of GTA businessmen whose leader’s past included bankruptcy and a poor credit rating.

The businessmen defaulted on each loan, but banks always approved another. Taxpayers’ money usually refunds banks when loans go into default.

David Scenna, the alleged mastermind, went on a spending spree that included lavish parties at Toronto’s Muzik nightclub, high-profile charity functions, Porsches and Mercedes cars; and thousands of dollars paid to high-end escort agencies. One series of Scenna’s credit card bills for hookers was $38,000, according to documents found by a Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigation.

Read the rest.

Meanwhile, Tasha Kheiriddin in the Post:

No, Ms. Fraser found no smoking guns, no favouritism for Tory ridings, none of the juicy scandals the opposition was no doubt hoping for. But the proper management of an ineffective program does not make it any more successful or acceptable. The fact the government respected funding criteria is almost meaningless if that funding didn’t do what it was supposed to do – ie, put people back to work in large numbers.

Read the rest.

Meanwhile, via the Times Colonist:

The annual cost of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office has ballooned to nearly $10 million, a jump of 30 per cent over the last two years. The figures are contained in documents tabled in Parliament yesterday that detail government expenditures.

Read the rest. More on this from Aaron Wherry at Macleans.ca.

Make of these what you will.

The latest at the Victoria Politics Examiner

Alright, here's the latest from the past few days.

• Ron Barillaro joins BC First Party board of directors.
• Let's not forget NDP troubles.
• National Post: Fiscal praise for Canada's least popular premier.
• The cabinet shuffle.
• And now, a message from the BC First Party on Sea to Sky Highway "Shadow Toll".
• The Sea to Sky Highway shadow tax.
• Victory for Carole James.
• Jody Paterson in the Times Colonist: what will be left in Liberal wake?
• The latest in Basi-Virk.
• The cabinet shuffle - the Bill Bennet fall-out.
• The cabinet shuffle - yet more coverage.

Fun with copyright

Ghost of a Flea: Fine unwashed arrogance.

Simply awesome

The Rent is Too Damn High action figure. What won't they think of next?

Update: Thanks to Smyke in the comments, here's The Rent is Too Damn High Party's website.

BC police kill more people in custody than any other police force in Canada

CBC News reports:

More people died in police custody in British Columbia than in any other province or territory, according to a study of a recent 14-year period conducted for the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.

The study, by Simon Fraser University associate criminology professor David MacAlister, found that between 1992 and 2006, 256 people died in B.C. while in custody or while dealing with police.

In the same period, 113 people died in similar circumstances in Ontario, a province with about three times the population.

MacAlister said there is no obvious reason for the markedly higher numbers in B.C.

"I don't really have a theory that accounts for the difference," he said. "The nature of policing is a bit different. Ontario doesn't have the RCMP. Whether the RCMP is a big factor in this has to be asked."

More from The Hook.

Well, isn't that re-assuring? Time to reconsider BC's contracts with the RCMP.

Chinese officials arrest woman for Tweeting her support of Nobel Prize winner Lui Xiaobo

My editor at The Propagandist has the story:

The Chinese police officers showed up in the middle of the night to drag her from her home. Her crime? Telling some friends on Twitter she intended to congratulate jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo, winner of the Nobel peace prize, with a big banner.

I'm guessing the cops aren't presenting Mou Yanxi with an award for her patriotic support of her inspiring fellow national. We call for her immediate release and the sacking of the involved officers.

Shameful.

Sin city

Apparently, my fair city of Victoria was a haven for prostitutes back in the day:

Like most of us, history professor Patrick Dunae had bought into the myth that Victoria was a prudish city in its earlier years.

But when it came to buying sex, he discovered, things were different.

"In fact, it was the sexual emporium of the Pacific Northwest," said Dunae, a history professor at Vancouver Island University. "The authorities tolerated it for many, many years."

How interesting.

The latest at the Victoria Politics Examiner

Check it out, huh?

Ron Zalko joins BC First Party board of directors.

Gordon Campbell's address - the BC First Party responds.

Gordon Campbell's address - the premier's debriefing.

Gordon Campbell's address - the BC Heritage Party responds.

Gordon Campbell's address - the BC Green Party responds.

Gordon Campbell's address - and then the critics descended.

The latest at Defend Geert Wilders

Alright, here's the latest news in the Wilders controversy machine:

Geert Wilders Wins a Retrial in Dutch Anti-Islam Case.

Remove queen from government, says Wilders.

Amsterdam mayor shifts pro-Wilders demo from centre.

Merkel publicly distances herself from Wilders.

Twenty-four million dollars

Via the Ceeb:

Construction of four temporary meeting rooms for MPs in a federal building next to Parliament Hill in Ottawa cost over $24 million, CBC News has learned.

The rooms are being used for Commons committee meetings while other buildings on the Hill get a $5-billion, long-term restoration.

The House of Commons classifies the four $6-million rooms as "interim," meaning they may have to be renovated again for other uses after the committees move back to their original locations.

At least one of those rooms better have a hot plate. Otherwise, the money was totally wasted.

Fun with copyright

Via Boing Boing: English Heritage claims it owns every single image of Stonehenge, ever; and South Korea's US-led copyright policy leads to 65,000 acts of extrajudicial censorship/disconnection/threats by govt bureaucrats .

Even George Soros says we should legalize it

I'll let Let Freedom Rain give us the run-down:

In a startling move by the ultra-conservative Wall Street Journal, that paper has published an op-ed by the right's arch enemy, George Soros. Even stranger, Soros uses the op-ed to support the legalization of marijuana. Why the WSJ published Soros is one matter but why they published a pro legal marijuana argument we may never know. The op-ed stands out awkwardly among the litany of far right wing opinion pieces. Very, very rarely is a left of centre voice given any space within the paper's pages. It's a momentous occasion. What I fear is that Murdoch will use this op-ed opportunity to unleash a calvacade of anti-Soros and anti-marijuana legalization pieces.

See, even the spawn of satan* thinks we should legalize it.

*Just kidding. Please don't sue me.

The Online Party of Canada - further analysis

Marni Soupcoff in the Post outlines the perks and the drawbacks to an entirely voter-driven platform:

Taking the pulse of voters, which is usually accomplished unscientifically and haphazardly through random polls and social media surveys, has become a major part of what politicians do. It’s what helps keep them in office and helps keep their fund-raising on track.

But what if there were a politician — nay, a whole party of politicians committed to doing exactly what the majority of its members wanted, no matter what? Would that be the ultimate in democratic empowerment? Or a policy nightmare?
Judging by the platform of the new Online Party of Canada, the answer seems to be both.

The Web-based party, now several weeks old, says it will take up any position for which its members show support in an online poll. The result, according to the Ottawa Citizen, is that the party currently supports “ending Canada’s military involvement in Afghanistan, legalizing prostitution and marijuana, making public transit and post-secondary education free, and eliminating unions from government operations.”

It’s a curious mix, to say the least, and the practical implementation of such a drastic libertarian/socialist policy combo defies the imagination — but this just may be the closest any Canadian political party currently comes to reflecting the true will of the people. Does this mean the people are unrealistic, inconsistent and flighty? Well, yes. Yet it also shows that the people have strong feelings about legitimate issues that can’t be easily sorted along traditional party lines. And that’s worth knowing.

Read the rest.

It'll be interesting to see how this quirky little upstart party does in the months, hopefully years, to come.

Solidarity with Britain

I honestly haven't taken the time to verify this, but it sounds like the kind of thing we might want to pay attention to. Via Boing Boing:

Jim Killock from the UK Open Rights Group sez, "The UK government has announced that it will be spending up to £2 billion pounds into new ways to snoop on email and web traffic. This Kafka-esque 'Intercept Modernisation Plan', was stopped near the end of the last government, but was quietly revived in the 2010 Spending Review. While billions of pounds is being slashed from education, welfare and defence, the government plans to waste vast sums trying to snoop on our emails and Facebook communications. ORG have a petition - please sign it."

Because the Star Wars movies were the best ever made

Via Ghost of a Flea:

That's pure awesomesauce right there.

Even more awesomesauce at Boing Boing, the Boba Fett invoice:

Great. Just great.

My latest in The Propagandist Magazine

Here it is, on the Geert Wilders trial in Holland: Twists And Turns In Wilders Speech Trial:

In Holland, things have to get worse before they can get better. At least, such is the case with Geert Wilders, the Dutch politician being brought up on charges of group insult and inciting hatred and discrimination because of his skeptical, even hostile, view of Islam.

There are obvious reasons why a politician being prosecuted for his words and opinions on religion should be a disturbing sight in a country with a liberal background like Holland. That's particularly so in this case, where the odds seem rather stacked against the defendant.

For instance, the outgoing Justice Minister for Holland, Hirsch Ballin, seems to have had some personal involvement in Geert Wilders' prosecution. Not only that, but Hirsch is a member of the Christian Democrat CDA party, which recently joined with the liberal VVD party in a coalition backed by Geert Wilders' Freedom Party (PVV). This coalition was opposed by Ballin, who is a vocal critic of Wilders.

Need another example? During a screening of Geert Wilders' Islam-skeptic film, Fitna, as part of the court proceedings in his case, one of judges presiding made what could be seen as a biased remark. During the proceedings, one of the complainants present said that she did not want to see Fitna, to which Justice Jan Moors said: “I can understand that.” This prompted a rebuke from Wilders' lawyer which Moors brushed aside by saying that he was not passing judgment on the film with his comment. Despite his assurances, one can see how his words could easily be construed as criticism.

Another example? Alright. Frans Bauduin, the president of the court of substitution which ruled that certain statements by one of the judges handling the Wilders case were not prejudiced against Wilders, also happens to have a stake in the outcome of Wilders' trial. Bauduin serves as a board member for a group called the Morocco Fund, which works to stimulate Moroccan development aid. The Morocco Fund exists thanks to government funding, which might well come into question should Geert Wilders' Islam-skeptic PVV continue to exert influence in the Dutch parliament.

Read the rest. Naturally, I've already pimped this out on Defend Geert Wilders.

The latest at the Victoria Politics Examiner

Lots of exciting developments today. Check 'em out, eh?

Invermere mayor Gerry Taft joins BC First Party as Kootenays organizer.

100 reasons why Gordon Campbell has to go.

The Tyee: Why the death of the Liberals won't matter.

Gordon Campbell to address the province tonight.

Update: And...one more: Gordon Campbell's address to the province. Special guest appearance by Shane Simpson.

The latest at Defend Geert Wilders

Alright, here's the latest:

Come to Amsterdam. Support Geert Wilders.

Not wild about Wilders? Populists’ anti-Islam message has European Jewish leaders worried.

Amsterdam considers banning pro and anti Wilders demos.

The Lost Cause Against Wilders.

What's this? The NDP are fighting for...the rich?

Stephen Gordon writes at Worthwhile Canadian Initiative:

Much of what follows is based on points raised and developed by UBC's Kevin Milligan here on WCI, on twitter and elsewhere on the internet. He characterises the proposal as a misdiagnosis: the NDP is prescribing a price solution for an income problem. The notion of affordability only makes sense as an income problem: no-one seems to be worried about the ability of high earners to pay their heating bills.

When you see the problem as one of incomes, the remedy is clear: give money to low-income households. Happily, there is already a mechanism in place for alleviating income problems: the GST/HST rebates. If, in the view of the NDP, these payments are too small, then the solution is to make them more generous.

[...]

Since expenditures on home heating increase with income, most of the revenues sacrificed by the NDP tax cut will go to those with higher incomes.

Hunh.

The latest at the Victoria Politics Examiner

I've been busy lately. So many stories, so little time.

Anyways, here's the latest:

And now, a message from West Coast Environmental Law.

A message from the BC First Party.

The better, stronger, BC Conservative Party.

BC NDP's troubles continue.

Carole Taylor joins the team at Simon Fraser University.

Binks has done it again

Check it out: Steynian 426st. You know you want to.

Who knew that turning more people into criminals could have repercussions?

CTV News has the story:

An internal government study is warning that lowering the bar for drunk driving convictions could overwhelm the justice system.

The Justice Department study says courts, police forces and jails could be pushed to the breaking point if the federal government ever lowered the criminal drunk-driving threshold.

Ottawa is being pressed by Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and others to tighten Canada's blood-alcohol limits for impaired driving.

But the department's criminal law policy section warns cutting blood-alcohol limits to level established in many other countries would likely double the number of cases in a justice system already struggling with a heavy caseload.

British Columbia recently dropped the legal limit from .08% to .05%. BC also happens to have an already-overtaxed judicial system due to lack of judges.

Hunh. Wonder how that'll play out?

Jean-Pierre Blackburn apologizes for government violation of privacy

It's a start at least, as reported by Murray Brewster in the Globe and Mail:

Veterans Affairs Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn issued a formal apology Monday to an outspoken critic whose confidential psychiatric reports were used in a political smear campaign.

The embattled minister's statement was the first public step in defusing the privacy scandal that has sent his department reeling and distracted attention away from improvements to veterans benefits by the Harper government.

Although aimed at Sean Bruyea, the former intelligence officer whose medical information was stitched into a ministerial briefing note in March 2006, the apology acknowledged for the first time that other veterans may have suffered similar privacy invasions.

“I also extend my sincere regrets to anyone who may have gone through the same situation,” Mr. Blackburn said in a release.

The formal statement of regret to Mr. Bruyea was accompanied by an offer of fast-tracked mediation for an out-of-court settlement to the Gulf War veteran's $400,000 privacy lawsuit against the federal government.

As we discussed yesterday, the government has known about this stuff for four years and has done very little to solve the problems at hand or make Sean Bruyea's life any easier.

Why start now? And, more importantly, what would have happened if this issue had not become an issue? Would the goverment still be harrassing Sean Bruyea? Would Jean-Pierre Blackburn be offering apologies and settlements?

The latest at the Victoria Politics Examiner

Check it out. It's been a busy day:

Premier Gordon Campbell in Nanaimo tomorrow.

The BC Rail guilty pleas - the Sunriver Estates sideline.

The BC Rail guilty plea - further reading.

The BC Rail guilty plea - the aftermath.

A couple of HST updates.

Fraser Institute: Gordon Campbell best fiscal manager out of ten.

The latest at the Victoria Politics Examiner

Here's the latest: Some news on the HST front; The strange relationship between BC NDP and Recall; and Gordon Campbell and BC Liberal unrest.

You want a drug war?

You got one. Via the Times Colonist:

The massacre, which bore the chilling hallmarks of a drug cartel attack, began at 1:40 a.m local time.

Seven vans loaded with armed men pulled up outside a house where a party was under way in a residential district known as Horizontes del Sur.

They barged in and began shooting, while gunmen guarded the approaches to the house in vehicles posted at the two nearest street crossings, witnesses told police.

Local media showed images of bodies strewn among cars parked in the garage of a house.

The scale of the bloodshed was such that there weren't enough ambulances to take away the dead and wounded.

Say what you will about the war on drugs. But it comes with a toll. This is part of it - whether or not the cost is worth it is up to others to decide.

How charming

Via CCLA Rights Watch:

Two City of Victoria bylaw officers are under police investigation after one allegedly beat up a homeless man in Kings Park, reported the Times Colonist on October 20, 2010. Jennifer Stubbs, a North Park resident, reported witnessing a bylaw officer straddling a homeless man and punching him repeatedly on the head, while the second officer stood by.

The Royal Family can find its own money, thank you very much

At the risk of offending my more monarchistically-minded friends, I'm afraid I have to disagree with the occasional bit of worrying that some people seem to engage in over whether or not the British Royal Family has enough pounds to get by.

This story, from the Daily Mail, would seem to indicate that they can generate their own revenue stream, thank you very much:

The Royal Family have secured a lucrative deal that will earn them tens of millions of pounds from the massive expansion of offshore windfarms.
They will net up to £37.5 million extra income every year from the drive for green energy because the seabed within Britain’s ter­ritorial waters is owned by the Crown Estate.

Under new measures announced by Chancellor George Osborne last week, the Royals will soon get 15 per cent of the profits from the Estate’s £6 billion property portfolio, rather than the existing Civil List arrangement.

Of course, Prince Charles being Prince Charles, this story wouldn't be complete without the obligatory conflict of ideological interest:

Prince Charles is a vociferous campaigner for renew­able energy sources such as these, but is opposed to turbines being erected on land – particularly near his own homes.

[...]

A spokesman for Republic, which campaigns for a more accountable Royal Family, said: ‘It is wholly inappropriate that the Palace should have such a direct interest in a subject like windfarms, given Prince Charles’s obsession with renewable energy.

'It raises the question as to whether he is seeking to increase his own investment portfolio each time he makes a favourable reference to wind power.’

The Royal Family is going to do just fine.

The latest at Defend Geert Wilders

Here's the latest: VVD and PPV tried to limit ban on group insult; and Dutch court to hear anti-Islam case again.

The Online Party of Canada

These people are thinking outside the box, at least. Global reports:

The Online Party of Canada was officially launched a few weeks ago. A news release announcing its arrival compares it to the Tea Party movement in the United States.

However, rather than being associated with the political spectrum's right wing, the OPC's leanings will swing whichever way its online membership tells it to go.

"Canadians are neither right nor left, in general," party founder Michael Nicula told Postmedia News. "They're right on some issues, they're left on some other issues.

"The Tea Party . . . is people who are sick and tired of their current leadership; they get together and decide to do something. That's what I meant by (the Tea Party comparison)."

Positions the OPC has taken thus far, as a result of online voting by its members, include ending Canada's military involvement in Afghanistan, legalizing prostitution and marijuana, making public transit and post-secondary education free, and eliminating unions from government operations.

You know, some of that doesn't sound half bad. It will be interesting to see this particular move - as it grows or as it falls to pieces. Hopefully the former.

Government documents suggest

Well, this looks rather bad, doesn't it?

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office was informed four years ago about "security breaches" of confidential information, as well as harassment directed toward an Ottawa man critical of Veterans Affairs, government documents suggest.

But after looking into the matter, the PMO referred retired Capt. Sean Bruyea back to Veterans Affairs, the same department that the Gulf War veteran alleged was misusing his personal information and harassing his family.

Yikes. It will be interesting to see the PMO explain that one away. The problem may have started in a Liberal government, but the Conservative government that replaced it didn't seem to mind the status quo before things started to go public.

But maybe I'm just being cynical. Maybe the PMO sincerely wants to fix this problem, and didn't ignore Bruyea when he originally approached them with his problems. Maybe there's an explanation for all this.

Here's hoping.

Update: Impolitical adds:

Yet it does look like his office - and he is responsible for the staff in his office, accountability wise - had four years notice to do something about it yet failed to act.

The report notes that most of the abuses of Bruyea's confidential information occurred in the last four years.

Today's reading

Alright, here's the latest...

...at the Victoria Politics Examiner: John Horgan questions Craig James about Elections BC restructuring; Ministry of Energy, Mines, and Petroleum departure okayed by premier's deputy; and BC NDP infighting over Bob Simpson: who's who and who's where.

...at Defend Geert Wilders: The Wilders trial – latest updates.

...and have you heard that I wrote an article for The Dependent? Check it out.

Score another one for new media

Via the Times Colonist:

The B.C. Press Council has welcomed an independent online news site as a member for the first time. The site, www.castanet.net of Kelowna, grew out of the city's Silk FM radio station, which was started in 1985 by Nick Frost.

Frost is the site's owner and president.

The inclusion of Castanet follows a broadening of the B.C. Press Council's mandate. Newspapers' online sites were added earlier this year, and that was extended to independent sites at a board meeting two weeks ago.

Read the rest.

Funny, I was just writing about Castanet.net:

It’s not as if Kelowna.com wasn’t delivering good content. “What we produced for journalism, the information we uncovered, was hands down the best in town.” Kelowna.com was easily a viable alternative to the local print press, but, says Jones, “I think we over-estimated the value of solid journalism.”

Not all have had such bad luck. He points towards the success of another Kelowna-based local news site, Castanet.net, which evolved from a community forum into a full-fledged local news source. According to Jones, they get an incredible amount of traffic every week, but this online success comes at a price. “I just don’t know that the general public cares enough about integrity in news,” Jones says. And that’s bad news for journalists, because it just might mean that a community-forum oriented news site will take precedent over professional coverage.

Coincidence? I think not. These are magic fingers.

Depression Within a Depression

By Jim Quinn, via TheBurningPlatform.com:

In recent months, worshippers at the altar of Keynes have been hyperventilating over the possibility Congress will run a deficit of “only” $1.5 trillion in 2010. They have issued dire proclamations about a replay of the 1937-1938 Depression within the Great Depression. White House favorite and #1 Keynesian on the planet, Paul Krugman, declared that not borrowing an additional $100 billion to hand out to the unemployed for another 99 weeks would surely plunge the country into recession again:

Read the rest.

More fun with copyright

Boing Boing: In Praise of Copying, CC-licensed book from Harvard Uni Press.

Fun with copyright

Boing Boing: Terrified feds try to bar Bunnie Huang from testifying at Xbox jailbreaking trial.

Update: The Electronic Frontier Foundation: Targets of Predatory Lawsuits Fight Copyright Troll in Washington, D.C.

The latest in drugs

First, something sad, via Ian Mulgrew in the Times Colonist:

One of Canada's most recognizable marijuana crusaders, Michelle Rainey, has died of cancer at 39.

Rainey was one of Canada's most active marijuana advocates. She helped establish the B.C. Marijuana Party, and ran as a candidate -- touring the province in U.S. president Ronald Reagan's old campaign tour bus, which she nicknamed the Cannabus.

She was also the organizational force behind Prince of Pot Marc Emery's marijuana-based business em-pire, although their relationship deteriorated and they split after being hit with a 2005 U.S. drug-and-money-laundering indictment.

Now, something sunny, via Boing Boing:



And finally, something parodied, also via Boing Boing.

Let's strike a blow for confidentiality

CTV News reports:

The Supreme Court of Canada has sent a landmark case involving journalists' right to protect confidential sources back to a lower court.

The ruling Thursday gave guidelines to the Quebec Superior Court judge who initially ruled that a Globe and Mail reporter must answer questions about an anonymous source.

Reporter Daniel Leblanc has refused to name the source who gave him information leading to investigative stories on the federal sponsorship scandal.

Go Daniel Leblanc! Viva la anonymity, and all that.

Free Rohinton Mistry

Via CTV News:

TORONTO — The Writers' Union of Canada wants India's University of Mumbai to overturn its ban on the Canadian novel "Such a Long Journey" by Rohinton Mistry.
The school pulled the book from its curriculum over protests from a right-wing group called Shiv Sena. A character in the book criticizes Shiv Sena.

Union chair Alan Cumyn says the book has been studied in schools around the world for decades and says it's "unacceptable" that the University of Mumbai is bowing to political pressure.

The book, which was released in 1991, won the Governor General's Award, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Trillium Book Award.

Read the rest.

For obvious reasons, I agree that "Such a Long Journey" shouldn't be blacklisted by the University of Mumbai for political reasons.

Fun fact: I am currently embarking on another of Rohinton Mistry's novels: "A Fine Balance." Funny how that works out, eh?

On a related note, via Boing Boing:

Being a sucker for lurid comic book art, I devoured Jim Trombetta's The Horror! The Horror! Comic Books the Government Didn't Want You to Read!, a giant-sized book of utterly depraved 1950s comic book artwork. This is the sordid underbelly of the squeaky clean 1950s, which was readily available in drugstores to any coonskin cap-wearing kid with a dime in his pocket.

The latest at Defend Geert Wilders

Check it out: The latest in the Wilders trial; New minister’s dual nationality is not a problem, says prime minister; and Wilders denounces English Defence League demo.

My very first article for The Dependent

The Dependent is an online journal for news, commentary, and the like centred around Vancouver, and I just wrote my first article for it: The New Media Void:

The media landscape is changing. In BC, the Black Press Company recently acquired almost a dozen community papers, five of which have since been shut down for lack of revenue. According to a Black Press media release, the combined losses for two of the acquisitions — the Nelson Daily News and Prince Rupert Daily News — were about $1,000,000 in 2009 alone.

The high-profile bankruptcy of the CanWest media empire serves as another recent example, as CanWest’s print division — including the Victoria Times Colonist, Vancouver Province, Vancouver Sun and National Post, among others — was purchased by a group of creditors.

While much of this instability can be attributed to the economic downturn, it also reflects the market’s concern that the shape of media is changing; the expectation is that this change will come in the form of enterprising writers, bloggers and journalists trying to make their mark in the burgeoning world of the online press. And while many see the Internet as the future of media, most online publications can’t seem to pay the bills, and they may be falling into the same traps of bias and partisanship that have ensnared countless of their dead-tree brethren.

“I think the marketplace of ideas is just that — a marketplace,” says Peter W. Klein, Emmy Award-winning journalist and Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia’s Graduate School of journalism. “Like any marketplace, if there’s a demand, then a supply pops up to meet it. Newspaper may be dying, but there’s still a large demand for good journalism, and faux-web journalists are not meeting that demand, either because of partisan bias (often hidden) or lack of reporting skill or lack of writing ability, and often some combination.”

As Klein is quick to point out, if New Media is to fill the emerging void there are still many challenges to overcome.

Check it out, eh?

Fight over-zealous libel laws! Buy the nerd calendar.

Via Boing Boing:

The Geek Calendar is a cavalcade of British nerdery, posed saucily, month after month, with proceeds going to English libel reform. It's part of the response to the chiropractic association's long attempt to shut down science writer Simon Singh with punishing litigation over his writing about the more outre claims made by some chiropractors.

A typical warm buzz

Neal Hall, via the Victoria Times Colonist:

A British Columbia police officer said he had a "typical warm buzz" but was not drunk when he was accused of attacking a newspaper delivery man.

New Westminster police Const. Jeffrey Klassen, who is charged with assaulting Firoz Khan in January 2009, said he had consumed between eight and 11 beers.

"That was a typical pattern of drinking for me," Klassen testified in B.C. provincial court yesterday.

Pride of the North.

iDepression 2.0

By Jim Quinn, via TheBurningPlatform.com:

As I listen to pundits, politicians and populists expound on the jobs situation in our country day after day, as if they knew what they were talking about, I’m reminded of the Seinfeld episode where George quits his job as a real estate agent. He sits in Jerry’s apartment and ponders whether he could become the general manager of the Yankees, a sportscaster, getting paid to watch movies, or a talk show host. After the discussion with Jerry, he realizes that he has absolutely no skills that are transferable to another career. Everyone in America would like to be the General Manager of the Yankees or get paid for watching movies, but that isn’t how it works in the real world.

Read the rest.

Thoughts on drugs

Robin of Berkeley writes, at American Thinker:

I spend a chunk of my week as a Berkeley psychotherapist trying to convince clients to lay off the illicit substances. The State of California is making my job that much harder.

There's a proposition on the November ballot to legalize marijuana for residents over 21. Now, is this really the direction that the state should be heading in?

California's economy is in tatters. We host the biggest share of the country's illegal aliens, and we have 32% of the nation's welfare caseload on our books. What else: a decaying infrastructure, substandard schools, and burgeoning crime. To add insult to injury, Jerry Brown may be taken out of mothballs for another term as governor. Is legalizing pot the best the state can do?

Meanwhile, Marc Emery's supporters continue their efforts to raise money for his legal bills.

Simply awesome, part three

The Rent is Too Damn High Party:



H/t.

Meanwhile, via Boing Boing:

All I need to know about the Rent is Too DAMN High Party guy (noted earlier by Rob, and remixed here): "Mr. McMillan declined to show the apartment, saying he feared for his neighbors' safety, and fielded questions from the driver's seat of his parked graphite-colored Honda CR-V, which is also his mobile office. When he travels, he sleeps in it, too; in the back were a sleeping bag, a bottle of Scope Original Mint mouthwash and a pair of nunchucks he keeps in a seat-back pocket." New York Times.

The latest at the Victoria Politics Examiner

It's been a busy few days at the Victoria Politics Examiner. Here's the latest so far:

The BC First Party, NDP, call for inquiry into BC Rail;

BC New Democrats also calling for public inquiry into BC Rail;

A message from the BC Heritage Party on BC Rail;

BC Conservative Party also calling for public inquiry into BC Rail;

and BC First Party wants police investigation into Pilothouse Communications.

Happy reading.

Today's reading

Alright, here's the latest so far at...

...the Libertas Post: In Defense of Disgusting Speech.

...the Libertas Post blog: An evolution of ideas.

Fun with copyright

Boing Boing: Understanding the legal sleaze behind the bulk copyright lawsuits; Web-font cold-war over? No DRM, universal access, embedded licenses; and Anti-ACTA rap.

Joe Miller sucks

That would be Alaskan U.S. Senatorial candidate Joe Miller. Via Boing Boing:

Private security guards handcuffed and detained a journalist who tried to ask U.S. Senate Republican candidate Joe Miller questions at a campaign event in Alaska. The guards claim that he was trespassing, and that the public school where the event took place "wasn't a public place." According to Anchorage Daily News, Miller announced last week that he would no longer take questions about his past employment and personal history.

What a moron.

Also via Boing Boing, video of Miller's thugs trying to intimidate journalists.

Update: Thomas Lamb at Red County offers a differing account, replete with video of his own:

Here is what actually happened: Hopfinger was aggressive in his pursuit. Miller's security was trying to keep Hopfinger from Miller's path and at a distance so Miller could leave. As Miller's security tried to push Hopfinger out of Miller's path and keep him at a distance, Hopfinger kept pushing in on Miller.

Miller then reversed course and as he did, Tony began to follow Miller. Two men in Miller's security detail stayed back and the scuffle between Hopfinger and the security detail began as a shoving match.

At that point Miller was gone from the scene.

The Miller campaign has also disputed the journalists' account of what went on via a press release.

I'll take Thomas Lamb's word for it that this fellow was really getting into Miller's face - what Miller's security detail did next, I think, is still somewhat questionable. But at the very least, Joe Miller is downgraded from 'moron' to 'fool', for refusing to answer any further questions about his past history, no matter how exhausted he might be by answering such questions. One hot-headed muckraker is one thing. Getting on the nerves of the rest of the press-corps is another.

Chris Selley, FTW

Selley writes the definitive article in the Post:

Over and over, the government imposed conditions on Mr. Abdelrazik’s return that it reneged upon: The original rule was that he’d get an emergency passport if he booked a flight home; so he booked a flight home, but got no emergency passport. New rule: If he wanted travel documents, he’d need a ticket that was fully paid for.

He had no money, but had lots of supporters back home willing to help him out. Except, the government warned, anyone who helped him out could face charges of aiding and abetting terrorism, because he was on the UN’s no-fly/terrorism watch list. His supporters bought him a ticket anyway. And the government again refused to issue the necessary documents. Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon suggested Mr. Abdelrazik would have to get his name removed from the UN list — improbable given that the government itself had petitioned for this removal, and failed.

The whole mess eventually landed in Federal Court, where Mr. Abdelrazik’s lawyers pointed out that the UN no-fly rules allow the repatriation of people stranded abroad. Undaunted, government lawyers argued that exemption “only provides for the entry into one’s state, not the transit through other UN member states” — including those member states’ airspace! This was absurd. The UN actually lists on its website the names and itineraries of no-fly-listed persons who return home. They can fly unmolested over every UN member state.

Then, millions of dollars later, the government gave up. Mr. Abdelrazik came home. He still can’t work or receive funds — which I consider outrageous, but which many readers may dismiss as the price of having hung around with the wrong people 10 years ago. Fine.

The question I’d ask of them is: Do you really think this sort of thing couldn’t happen to you? Not in Sudan but here at home?

Look at David Chen. In apprehending an incorrigible shoplifter, the honest Toronto grocer falls a hair short of a legal citizen’s arrest — and Crown prosecutors accept a plea bargain from the thief to throw the book at the grocer. It’s outrageous. Everyone is opposed. The government doesn’t give a damn. Arrests are for the police to make, or not. Law and order is for the state to enforce, or not — just ask anyone who used to live in Caledonia, Ont. If someone steals your flowers, just let him call the police, in certain knowledge they won’t do anything about it. If protesters occupy your subdivision, you’d better just move. If you fight back, the taxpayers will pay government lawyers to run you into the ground.

I just like saying 'Officer Bubbles'

Bubbles, depicted below, has skin as thin as his name-sake.

Blazing Cat Fur has the story:

'Officer Bubbles' launches suit against Youtube" ...and multiple "John Does" who commented unfavourably about him, which I think was everyone in the known universe.

As one commentor in this video notes: "For a billion dollars we could have got someone with a better attitude". I wonder who's funding this suit. I hope it's not the police union, though I wouldn't be surprised. I've said it before, the police are just another predatory public service union every bit as politicized and self-interested as CUPE or PSAC. Caledonia anyone?

Dumbass. Somebody should seriously mail this guy a whole bunch of bubble-soap ( or whatever the hell it's called ).

Thoughts on drugs

Maclean Kay in the Victoria Times Colonist:

As uncomfortable as this is to admit in mixed company (even Ontarians) crime is particularly high in B.C., with five of the nation's top 10 crime-ridden cities, including Prince George at No.1 overall.

Not so coincidentally, B.C. Hydro recently reported it estimates grow-ops steal $100 million worth of electricity every year. Police departments simply can't cope with the sheer volume of reported grow-ops, so they're essentially giving up.

But even if you stomp out supply, demand doesn't just disappear. If every grow-op in B.C. shut down tomorrow, others would start and thrive elsewhere in Canada and the U.S.

In other words, like prostitution (and, less fashionably, cars) marijuana isn't going anywhere and efforts to stop it are ... well, let's be kind and say "naïve." The same could be said about pretending drivers with a blood alcohol level of .05 are a menace, but that's another column.

Read the rest.

Meanwhile, Marc Emery's friends and supporters are still gathering money to help pay his bills. Let's wish them luck.

Your words make Faisal Joseph sad

Apparently the words of one writer and columnist, Mark Steyn, are enough to bring entire minority communities to the brink of destruction.

But never fear! Faisal Joseph is here:

London’s Muslim community will show people how wrong controversial author Mark Steyn is by doing good deeds and working with others, a representative of the community says.

“The only killing we’ll be doing is with acts of kindness and with charitable acts,” said London lawyer Faisal Joseph, who knows Steyn’s work from a 2007 human rights tribunal case involving the writer.

“Muslims have been in London for over 100 years. The city is better for the contribution of our 35,000 Muslims.”

[...]

“We’re going to have to deal with the Ann Coulters and the Mark Steyns . . . of the world by donating millions of dollars to charitable causes to help the poor, donate to the food bank, work with the Men’s Mission and women’s shelters,” Joseph said.

OK, I kinda giggled at that last part. So Mark Steyn and Ann Coulter are stealing money from the poor and food from starving childrens' mouths?

I shouldn't put down charity work. If that is what Faisal Joseph is espousing, good for him. But he should at least have the charity himself to not conflate the words of a couple of conservative writers with the social ills of the world. While he's feeling charitable, he might also want to admit that he just doesn't like folks like Mark Steyn personally - perhaps because, when Faisal Joseph was attempting to ensure that Mark Steyn would be effectively out of a job in Canada, he got his ass handed to him in quasi-judicial court.

But I'm getting off-topic. Think positive. Anybody else have the Spider-Man theme song ( punk version ) stuck in their head right now? Your friendly neighborhood grievance-monger doesn't quite roll off the tongue, but use your imagination.

H/t to the blazing kitty.

Update: Welcome, Mark Steyn readers!

Update II: Also welcome, Blazing Cat Fur readers!

Today's reading

Alright, here's my latest...

...at the Libertas Post blog: Good work if you can get it.

...at the Victoria Politics Examiner:

The latest from the BC Conservative Party;

BC Greens in it to win;

The end of the BC Rail trial;

and Moe Sihota gets paid $72,000 a year to be NDP president?

...at Defend Geert Wilders:

The trial of Geert Wilders – the public prosecuter wants off the boat;

The latest in Dutch coalition-building;

Reader mail – the trial of Geert Wilders;

“I’m Geert Wilders” campaign;

and Geert Wilders rips Job Cohen a new one on Dutch TV June 10 2010.

Fun with copyright

The Electronic Frontier Foundation: Copyright Abuse in Ohio Governor Election.

Boing Boing: Major Canadian copyright text is now a free download.

Fun with technology

Via the Electronic Frontier Foundation:

As noted in our first post, EFF recently received new documents via our FOIA lawsuit on social network surveillance, filed with the help of UC Berkeley’s Samuelson Clinic, that reveal two ways the government has been tracking people online: Citizenship and Immigration’s surveillance of social networks to investigate citizenship petitions and the DHS’s use of a “Social Networking Monitoring Center” to collect and analyze online public communication during President Obama’s inauguration. This is the second of two posts describing these documents and some of their implications.

In addition to learning about surveillance of citizenship petitioners, EFF also learned that leading up to President Obama’s January 2009 inauguration, DHS established a Social Networking Monitoring Center (SNMC) to monitor social networking sites for “items of interest.” In a set of slides [PDF] outlining the effort, DHS discusses both the massive collection and use of social network information as well as the privacy principles it sought to employ when doing so.

Read the rest.

Is America on a Burning Platform?

By Jim Quinn, via TheBurningPlatform.com:

Three years have passed since Mr. Walker sounded the alarm and issued his dire warning. The National Debt in August 2007 was $8.9 trillion. Today it stands at $13.6 trillion, a 53% increase in just over 3 years. It took 205 years as a country to accumulate $4.7 trillion of debt. We’ve added $4.7 trillion in the last 38 months. It doesn’t appear that anyone in government heeded Mr. Walker’s warnings.

Read the rest.

The latest in policing

Two stories that I thought were worth highlighting.

First, Les Leyne in the Times Colonist:

There was a lot going on in the background of the finance committee's deliberations on funding the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner.

On the face of it, the politicians are grappling with elementary logic. When you make it easier to file complaints against police, a lot more people file complaints against the police.

So the office that handles those complaints feels it needs a boost, since the complaint process was overhauled by legislation last year.

But the MLAs on the legislature finance committee balked in a big way when commissioner Stan Lowe portrayed himself as completely overwhelmed by the increased workload created by the changes last year.

Second, Alex G. Tsakumis:

In a Victoria-Times Colonist piece printed two days ago, Heed flexes for Lindsay Kines and Rob Shaw telling them that “key changes to make the RCMP more accountable to the public (in B.C.) may no longer be at the forefront of contract negotiations (which are on going)…”

But even a cursory review of the facts renders yet another of Heed’s contentions false, even nonsensical. Well before Heed became Solicitor-General, in fact years before, changes to oversight were well on their way. The First Nations Public Safety Protocol and the Independent Observer Program are prime examples. The former was started in 2004 and the latter in 2007, well-before the time Heed resigned in West Van and years before he became Solicitor General.

Further, Heed has said in recent days that he wants to see the RCMP “fall under the B.C. Police Act instead of federal legislation, so that all police agencies in the province would follow similar rules.” Problem being for Heed’s claim, that the very RCMP he is criticizing has long-ago suggested that very same thing.

“That’s the only way you’re going to get accountability back…” says Heed. And he then demands community accountability boards. Again, exactly such processes exist under the current RCMP protocol, if Heed would only bother to go to their website or ask someone. Such boards are essentially created at the wishes of the particular community partner the RCMP are engaged with and NOT something the RCMP in this province has EVER objected to. They have set up countless such boards in the last several years. All public, all on the record, throughout the province.

Interesting stuff. Give it a read.

Suncor v. the blogosphere

I briefly mentioned before the case of Mike Thomas, who was fired from his job as a contract electrician at a couple of Suncor Energy work camps after he started to criticize the dismal conditions at the camps.

Well, the battle's not over for Mike Thomas. As he writes in his blog:

Since the termination, I have received an incredible amount of support including hundreds of letters, comments and phone calls from people telling me about similar experiences. Peoples wives and families have spoken up about the decline in health they see, and how this issue has given them a greater understanding for what their loved ones go through to make a living. People have said they have sold their Suncor stock in protest as well.

Of crucial importance has been the support from working people on jobsites all over Alberta who have been talking about this issue, raising it at safety meetings, and I hear at Shell’s Albian Village (Jackpine mine) workers are refusing to go to work until they are put in a better camp, because they can’t get water, or proper food there. Keep it up guys, we will get changes made!

I will admit I'm not terribly invested in this fight. But I'm just enough of a dick to say this: Suncor Energy made a big mistake by going on the defensive. On top of their shoddy treatment of workers, they have dared to declare war on public opinion.

This will not end well for them.

Good for Mike Thomas for standing up for the people at these camps. This is how working conditions get changed, through the slow, incremental application of public pressure. This is a good fight, and one that I sincerely hope Suncor Energy loses.

Free Alex Hundert

I haven't followed this story too closely. Too many stories, too little time, you know? But I think Jay Currie provides the appropriate commentary:

Alex Hundert was initially arrested for conspiracy for alledgedly being a ring leader of the G20 demos in Toronto. He was realeased on bail with the condition that he not engage in further demonstrations. He appeared on a panel discussion and that lead to his re-arrest for violating his bail conditions. He went before a Justice of the Peace on a bail application and was given the above conditions.

Whereby the JP rendered the Charter of Rights and Freedoms null and void.

I have as little time for Alex Hundert as I have for assorted rightie extremists; but the Justice of the Peace has simply ignored the most basic guarantees in the Charter of Rights.

This must not stand.

Damn straight. I honestly don't care about what Alex Hundert has to say - but it doesn't matter. He should be able to say it when he wants, where he wants, how he wants. His opinion should not be a factor in his bail conditions.

Simply awesome, part two

The old spice political ad:

Simply awesome

H/t to Boing Boing for what has to be one of the best political ads ever made:

Gettin' busy in British Columbia

I know I've moved kind of slow on this, but I thought it was worth mentioning all the same. The CBC reports:

A retired B.C. prostitute and a group representing sex-trade workers on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside will be able to move forward with their court challenge of Canada's anti-prostitution laws.

In a ruling released on Tuesday morning, the B.C. Court of Appeal set aside a lower court's conclusion that the two didn't have standing to challenge the case because only active sex workers could be named in the action.

The court concluded Sheryl Kiselbach and the Downtown Eastside Sex Workers United Against Violence Society have a public interest right to challenge the laws.

The B.C. case was first launched in 2007, but the new ruling comes just weeks after an Ontario Superior Court judge on another case struck down the three laws that criminalize most sex work in that province.

Kiselbach said it's important their case go forward in B.C., even though the Ontario case could be appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada, because for now, that ruling is binding only in Ontario.

I think I've pretty much said all I'm going to say on this before. Prostitution should be legalized, and I see no reason why it shouldn't be. It makes women safer. It reduces the amount of criminals and police and court work. It's a good idea over-all. Moral arguments against prostitution, while some are quite valid, do not and should not apply to whether or not the practice itself is legal.

I hope this goes forward and succeeds.

Fun with technology

Another drama plays itself out:

Lower Merion School District has settled the webcam case that made national headlines after students accused school officials of spying by using the webcam installed on school-issued laptops.

The School District Board approved a $610,000 settlement Monday night.

I've mentioned this case before, here, here, here, and here.

The United States v. Wall Street

Michael Powell in the Globe and Mail reports:

Mr. Cordray is no William Jennings Bryan inveighing against the evils of monopoly capital. He can be eloquent about corporate misbehaviour, in an eyes-downcast and soft-spoken fashion. (His language reads hotter on the page than it sounds in person.)

He is, however, tapping a populist tradition in Ohio. This is where politicians mounted challenges to the Standard Oil monopoly of John Rockefeller and where Sen. John Sherman led a late 19th-century campaign to pass the Sherman Antitrust Act, which was the first law to require the federal government to investigate companies suspected of running cartels and monopolies.

Mr. Cordray carefully describes his allegiance to capitalism, although he says the financial crisis should explode forever the efficient-markets theory, popular with economists, that the best market is a self-correcting one. (Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations” shares space on his office bookshelf with books by the urbane Keynesian John Kenneth Galbraith.)

“The notion that banks will just get things right over time is perhaps true,” Mr. Cordray says. “But over what time period, and at what terrible cost to the individual American?”

Certainly, he has not minced words in pursuing a steady stream of cases against corporations.

He accused Marsh & McLennan of conspiring to eliminate competition in the insurance business by generating fictitious quotes. He denounced three credit rating firms, Fitch Ratings, Moody’s Investors Services and Standard & Poor’s, for giving inflated ratings to packages of troubled mortgages put together by the big investment houses. He says that Ohio pension funds lost close to half a billion dollars by investing in those triple-A rated securities.

And last October, he accused Bank of America officials of concealing critical facts in the acquisition of Merrill Lynch, even as that firm moved rapidly toward insolvency. Top bankers, he said, had not come remotely clean about the extent of the losses at Merrill and its bonuses.

The lawsuit against Bank of America was the first of its kind, although Mr. Cordray’s actions drew rather less press than a lawsuit filed months later by Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo of New York. Mr. Cuomo, whose skill with the tactical leak, news release and the lawsuit is considerable, tends not to work closely with his fellow state attorneys general, say two officials from states other than Ohio.

Attorneys general are perhaps more successful at extracting large sums of money than in changing corporate behaviour. A Goldman Sachs or Marsh & McLennan, to this view, tends to see such settlements as a cost of doing business.

“The settlements are large, but the changes in behaviour don’t seem to be that large,” said Daniel C. Richman, a former federal prosecutor and professor at Columbia Law School. “These targets have massive amounts of money to pay off and continue on their merry way.”

Raise this criticism to Mr. Cordray and he nods in agreement.

“In an ideal world, if the SEC had done its job, that would be much better,” he said. “Our settlements make up for the losses fractionally.”

Read the rest.

H/t to my friend Brock, who notes:

It's pretty sad that government standing up to corporations is so rare that it's newsworthy. But what the article doesn't mention is that in the 19th and early 20th century, America profited more from unregulated industries than it did from regulated ones. It was only when monopolies and cartels formed (examples: Standard Oil, American Tobacco & the Money Trust) that the government was required to step in.

I've found that a good libertarian position to take on business regulation is a sort of lesser-of-two-evils consideration. Generally speaking, unregulated business is probably a lesser evil. But monopolies change things - although one could argue that increased deregulation would help to combat monopolies by making it easier for start-ups to compete.

But regardless, I do agree with Mr. Cordray: if the SEC had been on top of things, the situation in the States might be a little better. I don't think that regulation is going to be the solution to this problem over-all - things are the way they are because of systematic failures in a variety of systems - but thoughtful, well-considered regulation targeted at specific behaviors might well have a helpful impact.

Only time will tell, right?

Alberta and the RCMP

Brian Purdy comments on the prospect of an Albertan provincial police force to replace the RCMP:

The Calgary Herald, July 31st 2010: Should premier renew RCMP contract?

The Calgary Herald, September 9th 2010: Alberta should not renew RCMP contract.

The Windsor Star, October 6th 2010: We keep the Mounties just for the money.

These are well worth the read. H/t.

Brain slurpie

I started my day at around 4:15 on approximately 3 1/2 hours of sleep, then spent the bulk of it in Vancouver doing political-type things that I'm not going to go into right now. In short, my brain is mush.

No posts for me tonight.

Today's reading

Alright, here's my latest...

...at The Propagandist: We've Heard This Story From Iran Before.

...at the Victoria Politics Examiner: And now a word from the BC First Party on conflict of interest.

...at Defend Geert Wilders: Radical imam takes Wilders to court for damaging his good name; and Prosecutor requests part acquittal for Wilders.

I'm in love

Wait - women are interested in the intricacies of Ontario's Human Rights Code too? I'm kind of turned on right now, I have to admit.



H/t. My own take on the Carasco affair.

Fresh Binks links

Binks has done it again, over at Free Canuckistan: Steynian 425rd.

Check it out.

What's this? Infighting in the CIC?

Blazing Cat Fur has all the gory details:

The "rift", if indeed it is genuine, between Zijad Delic and the board of the Canadian Islamic Congress as represented by CIC President Wahida Valiante proves that Mackay was correct to exclude the CIC from the DND event. At this stage many questions remain unanswered regarding Delic's self portrait as a "moderate".

As Scaramouche notes the CIC remains 99 44/100th % Pure Elmo.

DELIC - VALIANTE DEATHMATCH!

"Defence Minister Peter MacKay’s banning of a leading imam from the military’s

Islamic History Month event has exposed an executive-level rift in the Canadian Islamic Congress between forces of progress and orthodoxy. In a letter to Friday's National Post, CIC president Wahida Valiante openly disavows her reform-minded executive director, Zijad Delic, and rejects his criticisms about the Muslim group’s many public controversies, especially the failed hate speech cases against Maclean’s magazine.

Ms. Valiante writes that Mr. Delic’s plan to “purify” and “Canadianize” the CIC, and his desire to avoid lawsuits in favour of dialogue, “in no way reflect the views of CIC board.”

It's A Battle Royale! Or Is It?

I sincerely believe that the world would be a better place if the Canadian Islamic Congress were to tear itself apart with infighting.

You want a good organization which represents Muslims? Try the Muslim Canadian Congress.

Die libel tourism, die

Gary Emmanuel, in The Propagandist:

Passed with the bipartisan support of both the House and Senate, the SPEECH Act provides thata foreign defamation judgment is unenforceable against a US person unless the defamation law of the foreign jurisdiction provides at least the same protection of free speech as provided in the US or applying the facts of the case, the person against whom judgment is sought would be found liable for defamation in a US court. Designed to put an end to what has become known as “libel tourism”, the practice of picking a plaintiff-friendly jurisdiction to procure a defamation judgment in order to chill free speech, a person that attempts to enforce a foreign defamation judgment is further deterred by being required to pay the legal fees of the person against whom judgment is sought if the judgment is found unenforceable.

Read the rest.

Nice to see the carbon tax being put to use

Monte Paulsen in The Hook:

Metro Vancouver mayors voted Tuesday against using more property taxes to pay the region’s $400 million share of the $1.4-billion Evergreen Line SkyTrain project.

Instead, the Mayors’ Council on Transportation urged the province to use a portion of the provincial carbon tax to fund transit, or to allow TransLink to impose a gas or vehicle levy.

Growing like weeds

The Times Colonist editorial board highlights the futility of BC's war on grow-ops:

When a law becomes hopelessly unenforceable, it's time to consider a new approach. And B.C. Hydro's estimate that people with grow ops are stealing $100 million worth of electricity a year shows our approach to marijuana law is a total failure.

Grow ops, B.C. Hydro suggest, use three to 10 times the electricity of a typical household. Which means that at any time, somewhere between 8,000 and 26,000 grow ops are stealing electricity.

Take the midpoint and you have 17,000 grow ops stealing electricity. Add in thousands more using generators or paying for their power. And then factor in the outdoor grow ops -- the RCMP seized 29,000 pot plants on Vancouver Island alone last fall.

All in, B.C. Hydro's estimate suggests there are some 20,000 to 25,000 grow ops in the province. Estimates of the cash value vary wildly, but some $3 billion to $4 billion a year seems to be considered a conservative estimate.

Police departments cannot possibly deal with this scale of operations. A 2006 University of the Fraser Valley study on grow ops found that in 1997 police across B.C. investigated more than 90 per cent of grow-op reports within one month. By 2003, that had fallen to 50 per cent. Up to 25 per cent of reports were never followed up at all, because police had other priorities. According to B.C. Hydro, the number of grow ops stealing power has more than doubled since then.

I'll admit that I feel a certain amount of perverse pleasure at the thought of thousands and thousands of grow ops springing up around British Columbia. Thousands of entrepreneurial souls making billions in largely tax-free revenue.

I love it.

Of course, if the government wanted to tap into this massive part of BC's underground economy, tax it, regulate it, and maybe even make it a bit safer, all it has to do is legalize marijuana.

But that'll never happen, will it?