"Flaherty May Have Conflict"
Italics are mine, all mine.
Let's see now.
The Finance Monster creates a federal tax break for private school students.
But, oops there, he and his wife have financial interests in a private school.
And the headline - and very small, back page story - says he may have a conflict?
Vancouver lawyer, Richard Kurland, is absolutely right to raise holy hell about the backlog of cases and the government failure to fill vacancies on the Immigration & Refugee Board.
But he has barely scratched the surface.
Last week, a government official told me that Canadian Immigration currently has a backlog of EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND cases!
I learned this because one of my dearest friends has been waiting almost two years for any action whatsoever on his file. He is trying to bring his partner here.
NO ONE HAS YET BEEN ASSIGNED TO THE CASE.
Imagine.
You are separated from your spouse for over 2 years, while trying to establish yourself in a new country and new culture, and there is no resolution because the issue sits dormant in a desk drawer somewhere.
Isn't it time to admit that so many of our government agencies and offices are pathetic in their stupidities and inefficiencies? Canada Immigration, National Parole, Corrections Canada...and those are just the beginning.
Thanks to Harvey Enchin writing in the Sun today about the cash cow called the carbon tax.
The key message comes at the very end:
"As presently designed, B.C.'s carbon tax will further impoverish the poor, destroy productive industries, imperil public finances, erode the province's competitive position and ignite inflation -- and it won't make an iota of difference to greenhouse gas emissions.
Doesn't anyone have the common sense to pull the plug on this catastrophe in the making before it's too late?"
And I have highlighted the core - it won't effect the climate whatsoever. From the beginning, I have seen these carbon tax measures as cruel jokes and money making schemes for governments and entrepreneurs.
Don't buy into this circus act for a moment.
Chad Kroeger, the Nickelback lead singer, has taken hypocrisy to new levels.
On the one hand, he acknowledges that he is a convicted drunk driver and that kids shouldn't follow his example.
Then, his lawyer adds quickly that they will appeal the miscreant's conviction.
Here's the thing, Chad Darling.
Be quiet, accept that you did the crime and live out your meager sentence. be grateful you didn't kill anyone or your own perfect self.
Anyone who can afford a Lamborghini can certainly afford a driver for one year. heck, you might even learn to read.
How would you like your property assessment to jump from $9 million last year to $25.5 million. That's exactly what has happened to Paul McRae of Richmond. He will have to relocate.
Read the entire Province story, and then reflect on the "unintended consequences" of the Skating Oval project.
Or are they unintended?
This is the most suspect administration in British Columbia.
Let the investigations begin.
One is not surprised by the behaviour of a dangerous lunatic. He is after all a dangerous lunatic.
So the fact that Ralph Morris, who walked away from a minimum security prison has a life-long record of escape, violence, murder and so on should not be noteworthy.
What is alarming is how many times the irresponsible fools in National Parole and Corrections have released this dangerous lunatic or put him in minimum security prisons so that he could escape.
You can read the whole grewsome tale in this morning's Sun coverage. Read about how many times Morris was granted full parole only to be returned to prison for more antu-social behaviour?
Don't they get it? When will they get it?
He's a violent man. He is not going to change. He is dangerous. Keep him locked up. What is so difficult about this?
Please protect us from the National Parole Board and Corrections Canada.
The Federal Court has had to intervene to keep the Salvadoran self-confessed killer in jail.
How much did this cost the Canadian public in lawyers' billing fees?
How much of this cost will be charged to Daphne Shaw Dyck, the Immigration & Refugee Board member, who decided to let this man out on the street?
Why does this woman still have her job?
Is anyone ever responsible in Canadian society for anything they do?
"It’s one of the bigger Cadillacs. I’ve got a desk in it. It’s like an airplane."
REPRESENTATIVE CHARLES B. RANGEL, Democrat of New York, on the taxpayer-financed 2004 Cadillac Deville he leases for $777.54 a month.
There is a Canada-wide arrest warrant this evening for convicted murderer Ralph Morris, who walked away from the minimum-security Kwikwexwelhp Healing Village near Agassiz in the middle of the night. (This is the second high-profile escape from a Corrections Canada facility in less than two weeks.) Will anybody correct Corrections Canada? |
Raymond Irwin killed his mother 4 years ago. It was a particularly brutal murder.
He was found not guilty by reason of insanity.
He is in Riverview.
But not always.
He has been granted unescorted passes.
Why?
Dianne Watts, Surrey mayor on Immigration and Refugee Board member Daphne Shaw Dyck releasing a murderer:
"Maybe if she wants him released, he can go and live at her house."
Right on once again, Dianne.
Shaw Dick Dike should be sued and fired for this egregiously irresponsible behaviour. She claims she didn't believe Mr. Refugee gang murderer about his exploits.
That's nice.
Was there ever a greater argument for a Provincial Police Force?
The case of the man in Victoria who murdered his family last year reveals that his now dead wife had contacted 3 different forces and was bounced from one to another.
Read the Sun story here.
I applaud the new public demonstrations for affordable housing.
They are called "stands," as people stand in protest.
Join us next Wednesday, May 7th at 7:30pm in the Alice Mackay Room, downstairs in the Vancouver Public Library Downtown branch for a debate on this very subject.
THE LANGARA DIALOGUES presents: RESOLVED: ONLY GOVERNMENT CAN BRING AFFORDABLE HOUSING.
Arguing the Affirmative: Vancouver City Councillor, Suzanne Anton.
Arguing the Negative: Urban Planner and Author, Lance Berelowitz.
The Nutty Mayor's conference was told last night that treatment works.
This will be hard news for this maniac to swallow.
He has been paying at least 2 mandarins $100K a year to tell anyone unsuspecting boob who will take the free coffee and listen that treatment doesn't work.
Now what, Mr. Addictions Expert?
Brith Petroleum announced net profits up 63.4%.
Shell-Out rose 25%.
And you think there's some mystery about your pump price?
| Who Is Victor? Who is Victor? what is he, That all his words commend him? True, fair, and wise is he; The heaven such erudition did lend him, That he might admirèd be. Is he true as he is wise? For wisdom lives with truth. And truth doth to our eyes repair, To help the media of their blindness, And, being helped, inhabits there. Then to Victor let us sing, That Victor is excelling; He excels each mortal thing Upon the dull earth dwelling: To him let us Nobels bring. William Shakespeare |
I must read The Economist more often.
And you must read the April 19-25 edition.
The cover story is "The Silent Tsunami, The food crisis and how to solve it."
This is a most extensive coverage.
It includes tiny gems, like this: "A billion people live on a dollar a day." "Since the way to feed the world is not to bring more land under cultivation, but to increase yields, science is crucial."
That's particulary interesting considering how much Bush has cut away at science grants.
Did you know that Egypt's president ordered the army to start baking bread? That the Philippines has made hoarding rice punishable by life imprisonment?
I feel like I am suffering from an information deficit.
For relief, read http://www.economist.com
And follow the Scandinavian ideal - Eat Less, Chew More.
Why is the Reverend Wright doing everything he can to destroy Barak Obama's election chances?
Because he is a shallow, attention seeker.
Read Bob Herbert's excellent analysis in this morning's NY Times.
Wright is a fool, who instead of doing everything possible to help get the first black President elected, is accomplishing with his antics exactly the opposite.
