TheToronto Environmental Alliance, the city’s leading environmental advocacy group, has released its latest smog report.
The bottom line: The summer of 2006 was pretty good, thanks mainly to lots of rain, that washed the bad stuff out of the air. The political weather climate in the city, however, was hot and smoggy. Toronto City Council has developed a bad habit of passing resolutions without taking practical actions.
The final grade: C-.
- Michael Shapcott
In recent days, there has been a flurry of attention to plans reportedly being considered by the federal government that would allow civil servants to refuse to license same-sex marriages if they object on religious grounds. Predictably, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has denied any such plans, but his pleas lack a quality of sincerity.
So, how far would Harper go to allow people to use their religious beliefs to override civil rights, human rights or even the basic protections in law.
An analysis by The New York Times of more than 200 exemptions for religious groups in the United States since 1989 paint a shocking trend: Religious institutions exempted from basic health and safety requirements that govern the operation of chld care centres; religious institutions exempted from workplace discrimination and equity requirements; religious institutions exempted from tax laws.
Is that the Harper plan for Canada?
Allow anyone to wave the religion wand to gain a pass from the most important, and most fundamental, equality and safety laws that protect us all…
- Michael Shapcott
In late September, 2002, a Canadian citizen named Maher Arar was detained without charges by United States authorities while he was transiting through New York on his way home to Canada from a holiday. Twelve days later, he was kidnapped by the U.S., shackled in chains, and shipped to Jordan and then Syria, where he was imprisoned and tortured for ten months and ten days. While under torture, he made a confession, but an official Canadian government inquiry has found that Arar is not guilty of any crime. The inquiry has found that Canada’s national police force, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, sent what turned out to be false information to the U.S. about Arar.
This is not the only questionable activity by U.S. agents. The CIA is suspected of kidnapping an imam in Italy and illegally transporting him to Egypt. In that case, authorities in Italy and Switzerland have launched criminal investigations into the actions of the U.S. agents.
Canada is equally vigilant when it comes to protecting our citizens. Canada’s courageous prime minister, Stephen Harper, has decided to take the strongest possible action. He is planning to write a strongly-worded letter to U.S. President George W. Bush. And, just to show Bush how tough we Canadians really are, Harper phoned Bush the other day to give him a heads-up.
As luck would have it, a draft of the letter from Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to U.S. President George W. Bush was leaked to me, and here is the text:
Dear George:
I am terribly sorry to disturb you. I know that you are busy with the upcoming mid-term elections and I wouldn’t want to take your attention away.
That Mark Foley sure isn’t making things any easier. A sexual predator preying on teenage boys – that can’t help with your friends in the churches. Maybe you should arrange for him to be kidnapped by the CIA and sent to some secret prison and tortured! Hah – hah, just kidding.
But seriously, George, Foley now blames it all on alcohol and says that he is in rehab. That’s one way to dodge the bullet and get some compassion, but I have another idea: Why not say that Foley wasn’t a sexual predator at all. He was doing serious investigation to prove just how dangerous the internet can be when it comes to sex and kids and all that. He has proved his point in a masterful way.
Stick to your knitting, as we say here in Canada. Don’t back down. Don’t sway from your agenda. Mark Foley is a great American who was engaged in an important exercise. God bless America and God bless Mark Foley.
Anyway, that’s not why I was writing.
It’s about this Maher Arar situation – you remember, I spoke to you on the phone the other day.
Some people here in Canada are in a bit of a snit because your government kidnapped him and sent him to Syria to be tortured. Now, normally, I wouldn’t care a whit about these whiners and appeasers, but you have to understand that I’m in a minority government situation here in Canada.
Don’t worry, minority government doesn’t mean that black people are running the show here in Canada.
It means that I just haven’t yet figured out how to get a majority of people to support me (or, under our political system, a majority of the people who actually bother to vote, which means a minority of all the people – well, you know what I mean because you got to be president the first time around even though the other guy got more votes).
So, I have to be extra careful. Which is why I am writing this toughly-worded letter to you. I want Canadians to see me as tough and decisive and not afraid to stick up for Canadians.
Right after I was elected, I hopped over to Afghanistan to mingle with our soldiers. This is a great strategy and maybe you should think about doing it sometime. Maybe you could even use an aircraft carrier. We don’t have aircraft carriers in Canada. We don’t even have much in the way of aircraft. But you do. Think about it. And, if you decide to hang out with soldiers and use them as a patriotic backdrop, then your popularity is bound to increase.
To be honest, soon after I visited Afghanistan, the polls showed that a growing number of Canadians (now a majority) are opposed to our participation in the war over there. But that’s just a quibble. Stay the course. Hunker down. Besides, you don’t have to worry about re-election (sorry, maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned this – has Dick Cheney figured out a way to get rid of the constitutional ban on a third term, he did a pretty good job abolishing habeus corpus and that’s a legal principle that’s been around for 800 years).
Now, about this Arar business. Sorry to keep harping on it, but they don’t call me “harper” for nothing. Just kidding. A joke to lighten the mood.
If you have a moment, and if it’s no trouble, could you ask around the office and see if anyone knows anything about this. Or not. Actually, it’s not that big a deal.
Okay, okay. I know that it was our boys – the Mounties – who gave some phoney story to your boys – the spooks. So, I guess you could say that Canada started the whole thing by whispering some silly ideas into the eager ears of some American spy. I want you to know that we have taken the strongest possible action here in Canada. We’ve called the head of the RCMP to a parliamentary committee, where he was forced to apologize. We’re pretty much agreed here in Canada. It’s their fault and the finger-pointing must be clear and decisive.
I have an idea. Why not blame the whole darn Arar thing on Mark Foley. He’s going down anyway, so might as well pile on a few more things. He could blame it on alcohol, or on some priests who assaulted him when he was a kid, or something.
It’s all about assigning the blame.
Just a suggestion.
Sorry to bother you.
Your friend,
“Steve” Harper
There was a fire in the house almost directly across the street from our home on Thursday evening. Thank goodness no one was seriously hurt, but the fire gutted the house, and probably did damage to the two adjacent homes.
Within a few minutes of the alarm being sounded, there were ten fire trucks crowding on our street and perhaps 50 or more firefighters. They did a thorough and impressive job battling the smoke and flames, and firefighters were on the scene throughout the night (and even this afternoon).
It’s good to know that professional and well-trained firefighters are close at hand, when they are needed.
And I’m proud, as a taxpayer, to support this publicly-funded service.
There are, of course, plenty of right-wing ideologues who say that taxes are bad, government is bad, public services are bad. They imagine that private markets can efficiently and fairly meet every human need.
The firefighters are just one of many examples that prove the anti-government ranters wrong.
Many years ago, firefighting was a private business. Homeowners paid directly to a fire fund. If an alarm was sounded, the firefighters wouldn’t respond if the house that was ablaze was not part of their private scheme.
There were many problems with a private-market model for firefighting.
First, it was very expensive and the service was, let’s face it, pretty lousy. Without the broad base of public taxpayers to provide the foundation for a professional firefighting service, the response was, at best, hit and miss.
Second, if a fire broke out in your next-door neighbour’s home, and they weren’t covered, then the fire service wouldn’t respond until the fire spread to your home. And that’s a great big problem.
The fire last night was bad, but it was contained mostly to the one home. The firefighters didn’t allow it to spread to the rest of the neighbourhood.
Let me say it again: Thank goodness for government, and taxes, and firefighters.
- Michael Shapcott
Credit where credit is very richly due!
In my last posting, I tried to dig into the murky depths of my memory for the quote about sexual expression. Never rely on memory when you have Kenn Chaplin and the wonderful world of the internet at your fingertips.
Here is the actual quote:
“My dear, I don’t care what they do, so long as they don’t do it in the streets and frighten the horses.” – Mrs. Patrick Campbell, British actress, circa 1910
Thanks, Kenn.
- Michael Shapcott
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is mulling over a plan to introduce legislation that would allow civil servants to refuse to issue licenses or otherwise participate in same-sex marriages.
Huh?
This is wacky, wacky, wacky.
Wacky #1 – as a long line-up of constitutional scholars has confirmed, the federal government has no business telling provincial government employees how to do their job (the processing of marriages is a provincial responsibility).
Wacky #2 – Harper and his gang say that it’s an attempt to protect religious expression, but since when did hatred become a religious value? Fact is, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms allows people to hold religious beliefs, but that doesn’t mean that those beliefs can be used to deny others their constitutional rights. Religion doesn’t trump equality. Remember, it’s gays and lesbians that are in the cross-hairs of Harper’s government at the moment, but who knows which group will be next.
Wacky #3 – Why are Harper and his group so obsessed with the private sexual expression of certain people? Does he really think that importing the George Bush – Karl Rove gay-bashing agenda is going to win him majority government? I believe it was Lillie Langtry, the English actress, who said something along this line: I don’t care what you do, as long as you don’t do it in the street and startle the horses.
Amen.
- Michael Shapcott
Hardly a day goes by without a new set of numbers, and a new expert, proclaiming that the crash in the U.S. home ownership market is nigh. Far too many home owners have been living in fantasy land in the U.S. – fuelled by too-willing lenders. They’ve watched house prices climb to unsustainable levels, then allowed home owners to borrow against the equity in their homes – using their house as a virtual ATM.
The collapse has already started, according to some indicators in some parts of the U.S., and it may not only drag down the U.S. housing market, but the entire U.S. economy and, with it, the Canadian and global economies.
Meanwhile, low-income households in the U.S. who are renting have been paying an increasingly big penalty as high ownership costs have dragged up rents in many parts of the country. Housing affordability – especially for low and moderate income households – is a critical problem. The private market isn’t able to deliver affordable ownership, and it certainly isn’t able to deliver affordable rental housing.
A massive housing crisis sweeping across the U.S. will quickly spread to Canada. Some say that the over-heated housing markets in Western Canada (especially Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver) are a sure sign of danger to come.
A recent report from Statistics Canada that an increasing number of young people are being forced to move back with their parents is yet another warning sign of growing trouble in the housing market.
There is, at last count, close to $2 billion in federal affordable housing funding that is sitting in Canada’s national capital waiting for specific projects to come forward. Now is a good time for the government to invest in new social housing. Co-op and non-profit housing have a 30-year record of providing good quality, cost-effective homes in mixed-income neighbourhoods throughout Canada.
It’s the best antidote for the housing plague that is starting to rage south of the border and threatening to spill into Canada.
- Michael Shapcott
Anglican Archbishop Terry Finlay, former Bishop of Toronto, has been suspended for performing a marriage of two women.
Shame on the Anglican Church for punishing Finlay with bad politics.
He is, as Rev. Sara Boyles of Toronto’s Church of the Holy Trinity has proclaimed, a man of integrity.
Terry has been a strong and consistent advocate for social justice. Recently, he has been appointed to take on the challenge of helping to resolve the residential schools issue – an important file that requires compassion, justice and integrity.
Back in 1992, I joined with others in raising a critical voice when Finlay dismissed an Anglican priest who was gay. Earlier this year, Finlay admitted in public that he regretted that decision. Anyone can make mistakes. It takes a man of integrity to critically review his own actions and seek to make amends.
As for those voices in the Anglican church who are clamouring for a strict interpretation of a few passages in the Bible, I would like to ask them: Are they next going to seek to cast out from the church anyone who dines at Red Lobster? After all, the Bible has extremely clear and strict dietary laws – and shellfish (and swans, for that matter) are absolutely prohibited.
Or what about the passage in the New Testament that says that women must stay silent in the church. Are Anglicans going to start enforcing that Biblical injunction?
Faith needs to be alive and breath, not dead and stuffed between the strictures of a long-ago world.
- Michael Shapcott
Private corporations and unregulated markets are the best and most efficient way to deliver a range of human needs – that’s the constant ideological refrain of the right as politicians seek to dismantle Canada’s public health care system and privatize even more of the most fundamental human services.
For a dose of reality, check out the recent financial collapse of the hedge fund Amaranth. Hedge funds operate with almost no regulation in some of the darkest recesses of the private markets – so they must be good, right? Well, the money managers at Amaranth (one in particular, based in Calgary) managed to lose billions by placing the wrong bet on energy.
Investors watched helplessly as the fund shrunk, almost overnight, from $9.2 billion to about $4.5 billion. That’s not hundreds, or thousands, or even millions. That’s billions blown away on highly speculative funds.
Even the most dedicated boosters of private market ideology – such as The Economist – have urged that a stronger regulatory spotlight shine on the shady activities of hedge funds.
Every day, the business section of the newspaper is full of market failings. So why do some politicians keep insisting that the best thing for our economy is an even stronger push towards the private sector.
In Canada, the government (democratically-controlled) share of the overall economy is at its lowest level in decades. Too much of the economy is dominated by undemocratic, highly-speculative business organizations that don’t act in the public interest.
Like income trusts, the next big thing in the corporate world. Some estimate that the move by corporations to reorganize as income trusts is costing the federal treasury $500 million or more annually. That’s a lot of schools, and roads, and health care, that is being lost due to the financial shenanigans of the corporate sector.
- Michael Shapcott
