Here we go again with Insite

This story is getting old. Another court decision breeds another appeal by the federal government against the legality of Insite, citing a dissenting opinion.

I beg you to pardon my ignorance, but to the best of my knowledge Insite does not supply the drugs. Needles are not controlled equipment and there is some evidence suggesting Insite attendees are more likely to ask for help and rehab. Where does the Federal government enter the picture?

This legal wrangle only serves to fan the flames of idiocy, as the comments section on the CBC site shows all too well. I wish Canada didn't need places such as Insite. The imperfection of human nature and the characteristics of Vancouver make Insite necessary to take at least some of the disgrace of addiction off the street. 

The Government should admit that the final decision regarding Insite lies with BC's voters. I shall qualify this statement before constitutional scholars jump on me with technicalities. I trust the Supreme Court to make the right decision, which may indeed favour the federals. Harper would then face the double whammy of either hindering Insite (angering many uselessly) or maintaining the status quo, resulting in internal party rumblings. Passing the scalding buck is an art onto itself.

In the end the money wasted on legal wrangles would be better wasted settling the issue in a provincial referendum. This way a vote against Insite can be attributed to savvy BC-ers while an endorsement can be shrugged off as a provincial matter. Nicholson and company are best advised to leave Insite alone, this game is really not worth the candle.

TTC unions do no-one a favour

The TTC doesn't help alleviate the stereotype of Torontonian arrogance. Following public outcry at their inefficiency, TTC employees are rambling against the public and apparently want to add insult to injury through some work-to-rule action. Where on earth does the TTC find them?

Every public transit system will have its ups and downs, as much as every business has good and bad employees. Common sense dictates dismissing the latter and substituting the former for them. The TTC union's books appear to advocate a rather different world view. They take any complaint personally, hate the riders and possibly suffer from some invincibility complex. 

When one is paid, one has to perform the job well. The TTC's employees couldn't have gotten it all from bad parents who failed teaching manners, humbleness and duty. When the boss and the clients are excluded for logical reasons, the sole remaining culprit is the union. They'd rather dull the scraper than clean the barrel's bottom. No wonder the business is rotten.

Prime Minister, playtime is over!

All Tories may be raising their glasses to the new Senate majority, but the celebrations will be cut short. Parliament will resume following a tremendously unpopular prorogation with a House of Commons afflicted by rampant partisanship and overflowing with egos. On his part Harper has lost the last excuse for legislation not being passed. Try negotiating Cape Horn on a wooden log through gales, icebergs and rain with nothing but a tiny oar and you might get a picture of the task before the Conservative government in the next session.

This Government has steered the economy through a recession, made Canada's opinion relevant again and made inroads into traditional Liberal policy strongholds. Yet the Conservative party has failed to clinch the deal with the electorate, otherwise how can one explain them being neck and neck with the Grits? I bet many Tory supporters will be asking themselves the very same question.

I am no politico, but I can spot unsuccessful tactics. The government made the serious mistake of relying on the "thank you" vote on many issues in 2008, such as the "Quebec nation" declaration. It doesn't work. What's given is given and the public wants more for their lent vote. The defence of doing what other parties have done extensively is wearing thin: if you're different you have to show it.

Michael Ignatieff would be right to smell blood: four years of good government and no guaranteed majority in sight are a sign of wariness. He also has one last chance to reverse the new Senate majority: conservative Senator Wilbert Keon retires in May. An early March dissolution would lead to an April election. By May a new government could be installed and appointing the new Senator. This Government is vulnerable.

So far it has been smooth-ish sailing for Harper. Weak Liberal leadership and a warming Canadian public opinion buoyed him to government twice. On March 3rd the big game begins: he has run out of excuses. Petty legislative shots at the opposition will no longer be tolerated in the Commons and outside. The Tory communications apparatus will have to clean up their act and get cracking with strong and effective messages. If Parliament turns out to be uncooperative Harper will have no option but to seek an election in early June, too close to the start of the new prorogued session to be kosher.

Harper is expected to deliver a visionary Throne Speech, a good Budget, tough crime legislation and Senate reform bills. Each will irk the Liberals and is loaded with perils if not spun properly (arts travel grant controversy docet), while the electorate still needs convincing. If you thought we were at the peak you'd better clench your buttocks and hold on to your harnesses: we could be in for a ride. Playtime is over.

Despatches from the Department of the Bleeding Obvious

The University of East Anglia broke the law. Everybody knew it, and now the obvious has a redundant seal of approval. By not answering Freedom of Information requests, the UEA contravened the FOI act and could have been prosecuted. Since the cover-up was exposed only a few months ago and no complaint was officially lodged, everything is now under a statute of limitations.

Lesson to everyone: if you want it, you have to pester. If pestering doesn't work, get an official paper trail going. My Russian experience teaches that a stamped paper speaks for a thousand words. It could have meant jail bars for a few UEA bigwigs.

To add insult to injury hardly anyone has lost their job, their reputation, their grants or their zealous self-righteous arrogance. The mere deletion of raw data is grounds for invalidating a thesis; why can't the same stringency be applied to policy-forming documents?

From Earth's be-merded streets to restaurant-less Naavi society – Boris Johnson on Avatar

Boris Johnson's take on Avatar and the repercussions of the movie made me chuckle. Read his Telegraph column to see why.

As always, the Mayor of London shows the irony and sharp wit that make him loved across party lines.

UK MPs undergo ordeal by destitution

How do you fancy being thrown among the riff-raff without your blackberry, expense account or motorcade? Four British Members of Parliament were made to find out for themselves in a new Channel 4 documentary.

Tower Block of Commons features Mark Oaten (LibDem), Iain Duncan Smith (Con), Tim Loughton (Con) and Austin Mitchell (Lab) being parachuted into run-down areas around Britain. Selected local residents provide the necessary guidance and accommodation. Judging by the Sun's article, without the local sherpas the four MPs would be dead meat, no doubt knifed for fun by a gang of local feral youths (as the British press likes referring to that brand of criminal).

The MPs are taunted by local residents who recognize their faces and their scandals and the cameras hardly let their gaffes slip. The Sun gleefully cites the Labour MP who exhibited insensitivity and arrogance beyond measurable bounds. He's the one who appeared to have the lightest of the four estates by the sound of things.

Will I watch it? Yes, on YouTube eventually. As far as getting the servants back in touch with the electorate this is some necessary bitter medicine. However Channel 4 manages to turn poverty, crime, destitution, unemployment and hopelessness into another bloody reality TV set, local residents as unwitting props for an audience's delectation. When did taunting someone because of his homosexual liaisons and (hypothetical) AIDS status become entertainment?

Let's hope future governments will make these estates rarer by raising people out of the poverty trap that Labour has set them. In the meantime, the world's a stage. I won't pay for admission.

The US are still the ones doing something about terrorism

Four Canadian Tamil Tiger supporters tried to bite off more than they could chew, and got what they deserved. Two have already pleaded guilty, the remaining two were slammed up for 25 years today. They tried to buy missiles in the US to send over to Sri Lanka, yet their contact in the US turned out to be an FBI agent. Schadenfreude chuckles are in order: owned!

Never mind their passports, these scum should rot in a US jail for the entirety of their term, and Canada will do better not to plead on their behalf. We've got enough of their ilk already.

Complain as one may, the USA is still immune from the bleeding-heart ideologies that have spread in places such as Britain and, to a lesser extent, Canada. Terrorist supporters are still jailed and the sentences are stiff. They should be grateful they weren't senteced to death.

The Liberals are missing the point

I am astonished at the bronze face the Liberals hold when proposing the anti-prorogation measure. Their leader-in-waiting Bob Rae is the prorogation guru (as brought out by many bloggers and the CBC itself), and they are the same party who, while advocating democracy and people power last year were ready to get in bed with a separatist party. What a bunch of pillocks!

Prorogation should be a tool that allows the Government to announce a massive new legislative drive needing immediate attention. The current prorogation is way too long, despite there being reasons for having such a long break. I would limit the prorogation term to 14 days, enough for the Government to draft a new Throne Speech and have the urgent bills ready for introduction. In the meantime Committees should be given the possibility to finish up their business, or at least put their current work in writing so they can come back to it. No, business should not be wiped completely clean, it's a waste of work. The scope of prorogation should be softened and made to resemble the normal evolution from one session to the next. Parliamentary business preceding prorogation must remain on the agenda, albeit on the back burner.

Additionally, for Chrissakes, allow Committees to be reset without resorting to a prorogation.

Yet the Liberal proposal stinks to high heaven. Having the House vote on a prorogation is a rubbish concept: a majority government would have an obvious outcome, a minority government would be held hostage by the opposition. 10 days notice? Fair enough, if we really have to. Allowing committees to continue working while prorogued? That's fine too.

Spare me the confidence rubbish though. Limit the prorogation time and vote down the government on the Throne Speech, if you have the guts to.

Thought so!

Slight abuse of Italian cops ruled legal

By no other than the highest court in the land. A doctor went on an urgent domestic call and left the car parked illegally in the hurry, finding a cop writing a ticket when he returned. His quip about "You give me a fine, I'll give you hell" has been ruled not to be a crime, as he had "prioritary necessities that trascend all other requirements", more or less.

So now if you are doing something socially useful in a hurry, you can tell the cop to go screw himself and catch no heat. You will still have to contend the ticket though. A cop organization representative expressed his hope that when his constituents go screw themselves the high court judges come as well, "so we may have company".

I propose the rules of civic cohabitation of law-abiding citizens and law enforcement officials be further cemented by giving cops the ability to charge an extra 15% on top of the fine if in their opinion the driver is obnoxious. That would knock a few arrogant bigwigs down a notch.

Repubblica reports. (in Italian)

Save your anger til March, just don't count on the Grits

Demos! Can't live with them, can't live without 'em. Today a number of Canadians came out on the streets to protest the prorogation of Parliament, and the CBC gleefully reports their heroic fight against the cold, as well as the heckling of any Harper supporters in range.

The Prime Minister was caught between a rock and a hard place. The opposition could always have defeated the Government on the eve of the Olympics (making the host of the games a lame duck), derailing the appointment of the remaining Senators that would give the government a majority in the red house. Bend it as you wish, the torture inquiry was way outside the PM's radar range when making the prorogation decision. It's all about timing.

Harper didn't want to be held hostage by an opposition ready to ruin a once-in-a-lifetime event with petty politicking. And as the adage goes, no freedom is safe while the legislature is in session. So, dear anti-prorogation Canadians, be grateful your Parliament can't make bad laws and fill the news with useless bickering rubbish. There is no business that can't be taken care of in March instead of today, except the Olympics. As a matter of fact the Games do not need Michael Ignatieff's grandstanding or the Tory side's snidery to be a success. Now isn't that a refreshing thought!