The Manley Report - Part 2

John Manley will make his report to Canada's Greatest Government (TM) today. According to some news sources he will recommend that Canada stay in Khandahar, demand that NATO provide 1000 more troops (I wonder if he calculated in the 3500 new Americans who are already on their way?) and do a better selling job on why were are there.

So much for Part 1... what about Part 2? Has he written it yet? Does he have a clue about what should be in it?

Let me enlighten him!

First, Canada must decide on the goals of the mission. If it is peace making then let the army make the peace. If it is peace keeping then get the army out of there and send in some cops. The army cannot be makers and keepers at the same time. They are not trained that way. No one is!

Second, give the troops the correct equipment. Tanks are useless in the desert with 110 degree temperatures unless you are fighting a rolling war. This is a static war! Get the troops off the ground and into the air. Of the 77 Canadians killed so far, almost all have been due to IEDs hitting fast tracks and transport vehicles. Give them helicopters!

More to come from the Manley Report? I hope so.

A new type of Northern Lights - from garbage!!

OK. Let's say that you make a widget out of plastic and metal and sell it to some guy in Tanzania. That guy uses the product for what it was made and when, 5 years later, the product is no longer wanted, needed or working, the guy in Tanzania demands that you pick up the spent widget and throw it in the your own local garbage dump for him. I can hear you now... take a hike! You bought it, you used it, you throw it away. Right?

Welcome to the world of Con politics. Canada's Greatest Government (TM) signed us up, in November, to the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership. The Partnership goes like this:

We dig uranium out of the ground and process it into fuel for reactors around the world. The countries who buy from us use the fuel and when it is spent, and at its most radioactive, they ship it back to Canada so that we can dispose of it for them. Can you say: Big Holes in the Canadian Shield filled with ten million year old spent uranium? That is what you are going to get.

How come you didn't know about this in November or December? After all AECL was high up in the news cycle. Because CGG created the isotope controversy to cover it up.

Too bad, so sad, CGG. We know now.

Ottawa Citizen - Canwest Media - RIP

The Ottawa Citizen newspaper arrived this morning. Normally I know what time it gets here because I can hear it hit the front door of the house. This morning? Not a clue. Why? The entire paper is about 30 pages long, including the ads!

That is about the same size as an average EMC-News, a free newspaper in our area. Compare that to $22/month for the Citizen! And the content of the Citizen is equally light... and getting lighter. Why?

Welcome to the real world of media concentration and control. As much as everyone's favourite chubby talk-show host, L. Green, likes to point out the the mainstream media is left leaning; the reality is that the majority of newspapers and radio and TV stations are owned by two right-wing companies in Canada. Canwest and CTVglobemedia are the bees knees when it comes to censoring the news and the providing central control over editorials in their empires.

Canwest has got to be the worst. In January of 2008 they imposed a new agreement on freelance journalists who work for them. The salient piece of the agreement, and the one that is causing the CAJ members to burn up the Internet forums, is in the preamble wherein it states, and you have no recourse to this: for a meagre pittance, you can write for us, but we hold the right to alter anything you submit, plus we have the right to use the piece in any publication, print or otherwise, we own, without having to pay you any royalties for further such use.

That has caused many fine journalists and columnists to tell Canwest to take a hike.

Just take a look at what passes for editorial and argument in todays newspaper. Fluff piece on dog ticks, a aged born-again Catholic telling us that his crap don't stink and an over the hill sports guy who still thinks that the Toronto Make-Me-Laffs are in the running for the 2008 Stanley Cup.

Welcome to the 21st Century, where, if information is King, then we are all Surfs.

Smile at a Blogger. He/she may be your best source of news and opinion.

The Cons that couldn't shoot straight

Will the bush league activities of Canada's Greatest Government (TM) never cease?

One day the head of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission is accused of playing politics (Harper calls her a Liberal hack), the next day the head of AECL is gone, then Minister (I build houses!) Lunn fires the head of the CNSC hours before she was supposed to testify on the Hill. Now three weeks after the fact the head of technology at AECL claims that CNSC never told AECL to upgrade the power back up on the NRU. This is after the AECL claimed that they told CNSC that they did the back ups as requested; apparently lying as they spoke, cause they did not do the back up power connections. I suppose that the new Chairman of the CNSC shoud be called a Conservative hack since he was appointed by Harper!

If you are confused; join the crowd! Is this anyway to run a government and especially a nuclear industry?

Can you say investigation?

Catching up with Petie MacKay

I have been off sick for a few days. In the meantime, life and politics goes on. I will attempt to catch up as soon as possible.

Let's start with our straight shooter Defence Minister Peter (I love my dog... and only my dog) MacKay. Let me set things straight at the beginning. Canada's Greatest Government (TM: PM Harper) has been in power for almost two wonderful and glorious years, a time of great prosperity and positive things happening to our finally-on-the-world-stage nation.

In late 2005 the former (boo hiss) government of Paul (spit!!!) Martin signed an agreement for new helicopters. The schedule called for deliveries of begin November 2007. They won't, at this time, begin for another year or two. Forgive me for restating that CGG has been in power since 2006, a year before the first delivery was scheduled. Did no one notice the helicopter contract was in default? Did CGG and the Defence Department, ask any questions? Did they demand any answers? Did they apply any penalties?

Nope.

"So what went wrong, Minister MacKay?" the press and the opposition asked.

MacKay cleared his throat, smiled, and then blamed everything on a decision made by Jean Chretien in 1995 or so.

So much for ministerial responsibility.

I love the government!

Canadians are weenies

A bunch of years ago I was bumped from a Continental flight from Denver. Along with an apology, I received an upgrade to First Class on the next flight (1 hour later), a free flight anywhere Continental flew and a dinner voucher, which I used 2 weeks later. All this for delaying me by one hour.

Flying the friendly skies of Canada, a Scare Canada Airbus 319 turns into a Whirling Durbish soon into a flight from Victoria to Toronto. One minute you are sitting quietly... then next you are getting a close up view of the wall paper on the ceiling of the aircraft. When you land, three seats away from yours, you are showered with hot coffee and weak tea. Luckily they do not serve real food on AC, so you are only hit with sesame snacks and cookies. The plane lands in Calgary and eight passengers are taken to hospital. So what does Air Casual do to compensate?

Those who could walk were stuffed into cattle car class for a continued flight, crowded to say the least, to Toronto. The eight injured enjoyed a day in hospital at the cost of the taxpayers. All passengers were all were given a voucher for a free flight on AC. No confirmation yet that they needed to use the free flight to get to Toronto?

Here we are a week later and there is no indication what went wrong. The blame is being put on jet wash from a previous plane. Jet wash at 35,000 feet when the closest plane would have been a minimum spread away? Really!

We are such weenies!

Canadian book industry is dying

Unless Canada's Greatest Government (TM: PM Harper) steps up to the plate with some ideas, the Canadian Book Industry is going to die a painful death.

Just today Raincoast Books announced that they will get out the book publishing business. The high dollar and disappearing margins can only be experienced for so long before you give up the ghost, I guess. They are not the first publisher to quit recently and they will not be the last.

The whole writing industry in the final throws due to government action and inaction.

When the dollar rose to parity and beyond, what did CGG Minister Flaherty do? Rather than finding out where the discrepancy in cross border pricing was, he demanded that Canadian retailers slash their prices, regardless of their cost! Silly Minister.

The problem with book pricing is at the publisher level of the chain.

I am a writer. I have a number of books in print. I do not control the selling price of the books, the publisher does that. I know that the retailer gets a 40% discount from the publisher and that I get about 10% for doing all the real work so that leaves 50% for the publisher. But here is where the problem arises.

The publisher sets the retail price at whatever he thinks the market will bear. He could sell my book to a retailer in New York for $10 but turn around and sell the same book in Ontario for $14. Doesn't sound like a problem until you factor in the margins for retailers. The US retailer can sell the book for $14 but the Canadian retailer must sell it for $18 just to make the same $4 as the US counterpart. If you demand, as did Flaherty that the Canadian retailer reduce his price to match the US retailer then the Canadian retailer just lost his margins and will probably go out of business or make up the lost margins selling X-rated videos (which I am led to understand have great margins and the government steers away from talking about them).

The dollar is a sh*tkicker for Canadian exporters but when you combine it with bonehead statements from Ottawa, it can hurt importers also, especially in an industry like publishing, where regulation is a joke.

But let's not stop there. Tomorrow we will take a look at how the media industry is killing the news.

Nuclear specialist Gary Lunn trumps CNSC

Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn says, ""The continuing refusal of the commission, under your leadership, to prevent unreasonable risk to the health of Canadians potentially undermines public confidence in the regulation of the nuclear industry in Canada."

He is of course talking about the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, the body, which reports to parliament, that is charged with safeguarding Canadians on nuclear safety.

The issue at hand is that the CNSC refused to allow a 50 year old reactor at Chalk River to be brought back on line until it was upgraded to protect against accident or terrorism.

OK, let me get this straight. The Minster is saying that the Commission's refusal to be bullied into backing down on a safety issue undermines the confidence in the nuclear industry in Canada?

I would suggest that the actions of Canada's Greatest Government (TM: PM Harper) is what will cause Canadians to scratch their heads. If AECL had done the upgrades that had been recommended to them for a number of years before the incident and if Health Canada had a back up plan to protect the profits of MDS Nordion, the only client for the isotopes produced by the deficient reactor, then none of this would have happened.

Lunn is calling for the dismisal of Linda Keen, the President of the CNSC since 2001. Since all we know of her is that she is a liberal hack, according to PM Harper, I thought that it would worthwhile to check out her resume. The following is from the CNSC web site:

Linda J. Keen is an Albertan. She received her B.Sc. (honours in chemistry) and M.Sc. (agriculture sciences) from the University of Alberta. After working as a chemist, she continued her career in three science-related fields: agriculture and agri-food, mining and currently, in the nuclear area. As a certified agrologist, Ms. Keen has worked in the private sector, for the International Development Research Centre in West Africa, for the Provinces of Alberta and British Columbia and for a British Columbia crown corporation, Expo ’86. Her agriculture work has encompassed a variety of roles including scientific research, trade policy and international marketing, culminating as the director general of strategic planning and coordination for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. After a period of time at Industry Canada where she spearheaded its approach to Team Canada and developed the Export Source Web interface, Ms. Keen was appointed Assistant Deputy Minister of Minerals and Metals at Natural Resources Canada (NRCan). In addition to heading the development of the Mining Sustainable Development Policy and the world-renowned CANMET laboratories, she led NRCan’s approaches to international affairs, policy and regulatory development. She was also responsible for the regulation of explosives in Canada and participated in the dual Task Forces on Risk Management and Risk Communications.

Ms. Keen was Chair of the International Nuclear Regulators Association in 2003. She was the first Canadian President of the Convention on Nuclear Safety from 2004 to 2007, which involved international peer review among its 65 signatory countries to ensure worldwide nuclear safety. Ms. Keen was also the Honorary Chair of the 2006 Women in Nuclear Conference, held in Canada for the first time, and the keynote speaker of the 2005 International Conference of Women in Science and Engineering, held in Seoul, South Korea. She speaks regularly in Canada and internationally on matters of regulatory excellence and efficiency.

Let's compare that the Gary Lunn's resume, according to the Natural Resources web site:

The Natural Resources portfolio is well suited to Minister Lunn because his early working days were spent in the mining and forestry industries in British Columbia and northern Canada. This experience has allowed him to understand first-hand the importance of Canada’s natural resources to our present and future prosperity. A certified journeyman carpenter, Minister Lunn has designed and built numerous homes, including his family’s current home in Sidney, British Columbia.

I don't know. It is too close to call, who's resume is better.

On being a bone-head

Being bone-heads is not an exclusive realm of politicians. You have to include the incredibly stupid and immature "bone-heads" who roam the Internet. I have a web site that specializes in mysteries, naturally. Some troll that I believe is a complete waste of clear air on this earth sent an anonymous feedback message saying "s*** my d***". Why should I? Do you not know how to keep it clean yourself?

I suggest that you get your pet hog to suck it for you, instead. But you better get a pair of tweezers and some black pepper to make it easier on porky.

Stupid ass!

Cure to the drug problem

The Ontario provincial government has found a cure for drug addiction. Give the addict more drugs!

The Government announced that they will fund a "needle exchange programme" for IV drug users, a program that Ottawa councillors rejected. The province and the special interest groups that lobby them see the issue as a public health one and therefore see free needles as curbing the spread of HIV/AIDS. The city, on the other hand, sees the issue as public security; the drug trade and user population are disproportionately involved in crimes against person and property in this region.

Who is right? Nobody and both! It is a public health issue and a public security issue all in one.

You can't have a safe-site programme without a rehabilitation program. It is akin to trying to cure alcoholics by giving them free booze. Without treatment the alcoholic will just continue until she/he dies. Maybe that is the idea?

If the province wants to help addicts, let them go all the way instead of taking tiny steps. A drug rehab programme and centre is mandatory to achieve the goals of both the province and the city.

Resolution for PM Harper

I have a New Year's resolution for Canada's Greatest Government (TM: PM Harper). If you see an injustice to victims in the implementation of Canada's Young Offenders Act and that injustice is deemed to be an infringement of the Constitution, then amend the Constitution so that the infringement goes away! Don't blame the Supreme Court for striking your changes down!

At issue is that the pundits expect that the Supremos will rule unconstitutional an amendment that CGG is trying to float. The change to the Young Offenders Act is focused on making violent youth, doing premeditated violent crimes, more easily made subject to adult laws. The changes also want to change the parole and bail provisions for violent youth.

I have no problem with either changes. I would suggest that the majority of Canadians, save a few lawyers and special interest groups, have no problems with the changes either.

I might also suggest that the Supremos have no moral problem with the change. They have a legal objection. The role of the Supremos is to weigh the changes you propose in light of the Constitution, and, according to them, the proposed laws are contrary to the Rights and Freedoms of youth.

So the Supremos are doing their job. Now it is time for CCG to do their job and amend the Constitution!

The Canada Act of 1982 and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms were never meant to be cast in tempered steel. They are subject to change over time with an amending formula designed to protect the rights of Canadians. In other words, if you wanted to amend the Constitution to allow one party rule and goose-stepping, then the rules under the amending formula probably would stop you.

But if you want to make amendments to make Canadians, especially victims of crime and potential crime, safer, I think that you could make a compelling case to the provinces and the population.

Canadians are growing tired of the grandstanding by CGG. We grow weary of having our government blame everybody else for everything that they, the government, perceive as wrong with the country.

Note to PM Harper: Canadians want and need leaders not whiners. You want to go up in the polls and win a majority government? Then act like a leader!

News to laugh at

I read in this morning's Ottawa Citizen, a letter from a lady who lamented the raise in parking fees in Ottawa. She seemed quite elegant in the way she wrote but kinda blew her point with one comment. She claimed that the downtown was so quiet after working hours that "you could almost hear the dust blowing". Can you say Pulitzer?

Problem is that if the core is devoid of visitors now, how is a 50 cent/hour rise in rates going to kill it?

There are many other examples of overkill letters from earnest writers to the Citizen including a recent one wherein a gentleman was so fed up with a small OC Transpo increase, if I remember correctly it would cost him an extra $10-15 per month, that he was going out to buy a car (minimum of $10-20,000) and drive to work ($60/month for parking plus gas, insurance, repairs, etc) in protest. I suggest that he give up two of the lattes he buys each month to cover the OC Transpo increase and use the money he saves by not buying a car to pay for a badly-needed Economics 101 course.

Ottawa is not such a bad place to live. We grow at a rate of a couple of thousand persons per year, we build new housing, new schools and create jobs at a fair rate. The climate sucks in all but one season of the year and the streets are poorly maintained in winter but generally it is a great place to live.

Costs to run the city are going to rise with time. It is a fact of life in the big, well mid-sized maybe, city. Learn to live with it.

That is not too say that we can't do a better job in running this city. Notice that I said WE?! That's right, we run this city, not city council. They work for us! We hire them once every four years and can, and should, fire them if they screw up or let us down. If city council cannot balance a budget, make cuts to bureaucrats at city hall or put our fiscal house in order then we should fire them in one felled swoop in 2010.

But in the meantime, quit the sniping with the flawed logic.