Category: Federal Politics

One of the least loved of the technological innovations in telephony is the ability to call thousands of people automatically and play the person answering a recorded message. They call them robo calls. They are an affront, annoyance, irritant and cheap. And being cheap is why they are heavily used by Canadian politicians. With a great deal of luck, they could even cost Prime Minister Stephen Harper his majority government.

When this automated ability was first developed, it was thought to be beneficial because telephone companies could offer subscribers the ability to call a group of telephone numbers to inform the subscribers of a church supper or a change in a little league schedule. It became a little silly when the son’s high school started using automated calls to inform the parents that Johnny had missed school that day. The reason it was silly was because parents rarely get to answer a call when teenagers are at home.

Certainly one of the most irritating of the more recent automated calls is the political survey. This is the one that asks you to tell the unnamed call centre how you will vote. It gives you a number for each candidate that you can press and hangs up when you press a choice. Since we always press a number at random, we have to reassure the local Liberal candidate occasionally that we have not switched party allegiance.

If everyone would just press a random number, we could soon end the foolishness. The most accurate answers on those surveys are probably those entered by four-year olds when they get to the phone first.

The recent revelation that the Conservative Party has been using these automated systems to discourage voters from going to the polls is a far more serious subject. These are not simple pranks by low-level party people. This is direct interference in peoples’ right to vote and is a criminal act.  While a lot of Conservative apparatchiks will have to fall on their swords for it, there is enough cause for there to be some by-elections in closely contested ridings.

If the Liberals and New Democrats could just agree to stay out of each others’ way, we could have a good chance to take away the Conservative majority in Ottawa. Now there is a cause, we can all agree on.

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Copyright 2012 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  [email protected]

Have you met Canada’s parliamentary Bobbsey Twins? They are representing Canada to the world. We can only hope that their tenure is brief and the world forgives us for the confusion they cause. They are Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird and Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Jason Kenney. They might come from different backgrounds but you would be forgiven if you got them confused.

Neither of the gentlemen has ever held a private sector job. They found their calling in the extremes of right-wing politics. Baird must have been bored with his early years, learning his trade working for less extreme members of the Ontario Conservatives. He became something of a legend of ideological overkill though when he served in Premier Mike Harris’ Cabinet. He is best known to former friends of Canada for his opposition to the Kyoto Accord, earning derision and insults for Canada in breaking its word to other countries who signed in good faith.

Jason Kenney, the junior member of this duo, grew up with extensive training in a narrowed vision of things. Educated in Catholic institutions in the West, he capped it with studying philosophy at a Jesuit university in San Francisco. His crowning achievement there in 1990 was to lead the fight against a women’s group at the school who wanted to distribute pro-choice literature. Back in Canada, he served various right-wing political and catholic organizations.

Kenney was first elected in 1997 as a Reform Party member and went through his party’s various iterations, becoming a Canadian Alliance member and then a United Alternative supporter of Stockwell Day.  He worked so hard for his parties that Stephen Harper made him his parliamentary secretary, responsible for multiculturalism, when the new Conservative Party of Canada defeated the Martin Liberals.

With the majority Harper government, the portfolios of these two political extremists are labelling Canada. Today, Jason Kenny tells us that he is going to stop women from Hong Kong from visiting Canada to have their baby here so that the child might later claim citizenship. This is on top of his new and draconian approach to refugees. He is making sure Canada is no longer a safe haven.

His twin, the External Affairs Minister, set the tone for his job back in 2003 when he fought the Chrétien government of the time trying to get Canada to join the American Bush administration in the Iraq War. He continues today to toady to the Americans while casually dismissing the concerns of other countries.

Canada used to have a reputation around the world for decency, fairness, openness, for peace keeping and for being an honest broker. Prime Minister Harper is letting these extremist Bobbsey Twins besmirch our image as a country to satisfy their narrow view of right and wrong. Are they representing our Canada?

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Copyright 2012 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  [email protected]

In the past week, senior police have been talking through friendly media to reassure us of the best intentions of Bill C-30, currently being debated in the House of Commons. The friendly media in Babel have certainly been doing their part. We have heard from the Babel police chief as well as the top cop from the Provincial Police. These people certainly try to be reassuring.

Bill C-30 is called the Protecting Children From Internet Predators Act. Could you ask for anything more innocent or urgent sounding than that? Ontario’s top cop tells us that this bill has had misleading coverage and it is really nothing more than an updating of police capabilities to keep pace with the technology. Oddly enough, that theme is echoed by Babel’s top cop. You would almost think they have been comparing notes—or were both supplied with the same song sheets. Though, understandingly, the Toronto Star-owned grocery wrap is a bit more cautious than the Sun media publication.

The two cops seem to share the opinion that those pesky warrants can take time to process and the investigators are required to have a reason for a justice to issue the warrant. They tell us that they just want access to information such as they used to get easily from the old fashioned telephone book. Mind you, it would be an unusual telephone book that told people where our mail is sorted and delivered from and what other names people used.

It is also questionable if the government should wish to pass a bill that forces Internet service providers to furnish the police with information about customers that they would not normally collect from customers to provide the service. And why should they intrude on a customer’s privacy, just to find out if they might be doing something illegal? Are police not supposed to have an indication that something illegal might be occurring, before they lower the boom?

The entire affair serves to remind us of how the police acted during the disgusting events at the G-20 event in Toronto in 2010. Look what happened when we trusted them to do the right thing then.

If the Conservatives did not have a majority that can ram the bill through the Commons, we would not worry. If we still had a Senate of Canada that was a house of sober second instead of a house of Harper thought, we would not worry.

But since we do not have any such protection, we have every right to be very, very worried!

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Copyright 2012 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  [email protected]

Is Prime Minister Stephen Harper doomed to the sad fate of living in a black and white world? It makes you feel sorry for him. It makes you feel doubly sorry for his cabinet colleagues, to pity his clack of back benchers, a sense of revulsion for his toadies in the Senate and wonder about the proper potty training of the confused Canadians who voted for Harper’s party in the last federal election. It makes you sad that these people cannot see the world in its full Technicolor beauty.

It seems to be a right-wing thing. As Public Safety Minister Vic Toews put it last week, “You can either stand with us or with the child pornographers.” These people cannot even see as far as the middle ground. To them, ‘compromise’ does not exist.

It all started with their attempts to get their attitude about law and order across to Canadians. In their black and white world, they see the law as a weapon of retribution. There is no such thing as justice in a black and white world. They want judges to use fixed sentences for people who are found guilty. The judges’ reaction has been that it does not take a judge to dole out fixed sentences.

In jurisdictions that have tried to use fixed sentences, it has been found that the system does not work. It ties up the courts because it eliminates plea bargaining. It plugs up the jails and raises the costs to the public. Try to explain that to Harper’s sycophants.

You have to admit though that color is complex. It is like watching the four remaining contenders for the American Republican Party nomination this coming summer. They have all realized that they can no longer diss their opponents without alienating some segment of party faithful that the winner will need to carry out an election effort in the fall. That means they are trying to make nice with each other while seeing who can say the nastiest things about Mr. Obama—without once mentioning his color.

What surprises you about this black and white world of the right wing is their intense loyalty—mainly to money. For example the Athabasca tar sands despoilers have the full support of Mr. Harper and friends. It is the same for the pipeline companies who want to take that heavy crude to refineries in Texas or over the Rockies to tankers that will take it to refineries in China. Mr. Harper seems deeply indebted to these people for some reason.

The late John D. Lowry (our brother who died in January) had an app for Mr. Harper. Among his many inventions for the film and television world, John did remarkable work in colorizing old black and white movies. (The technical Oscar, he was awarded posthumously last week in Hollywood was for his work in restoring old movies to a better than new condition.) It is all done with computers. We have to figure out a way to run Mr. Harper through the colorization program. The program is very good at staying within the lines.

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Copyright 2012 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  [email protected]

It is getting frustrating. Despite the Pentagon’s continued concerns about the fate of the F-35 fighter aircraft, Canada’s Conservative government says everything is on track. On track for what? They do not say.

At the same time, the Pentagon sources tell us that the only thing that is on track in this program is that costs estimates look like they will probably double. That does not seem to worry our laconic Defence Minister. And it appears to be no surprise for the fat cop that Mr. Harper has fronting for the F-35 program. Mind you, just how credible Julian Fantino is when it comes to fighter aircraft, remains to be seen.

And who should know more? The Americans want up to 3000 of these aircraft in different configurations. The Harper government has ordered 65 in the stealth attack model. You would expect that the people who have ordered so many billions more of the aircraft would keep the closest eye on how things are going.

And just who the Conservatives want to attack with these aircraft remains a deeply clouded mystery. With 3000 or so of these aircraft in the United States compared to our 65, we would be damn silly to attack the Americans. There are very few countries in the world that would welcome us to bomb and strafe their military as did Libya.

It just shows you how little we know about military aircraft. Back in the days of the CF-100 and the AVRO Arrow, we understood that Canada needed long-range patrol aircraft to maintain the integrity of our Arctic and our coasts. What has changed? The Conservatives have ordered very short range aircraft that use stealth technology to sneak up on the enemy. What enemy?

If we sent one of these F-35s out to patrol the Arctic, it would have to take a refuelling aircraft with it. Refuelling aircraft are not very stealthy. For some reason, that does not make sense. And why would you want to be stealthy about patrolling. The very fact of patrolling is supposed to keep out the bad guys—whomever they might be.

But is it supposed to make sense? Maybe the Conservatives think they have to support whatever aircraft program the Americans develop. Mr. Harper thinks that will endear us to the Americans. Surely, Mr. Harper can find a cheaper way to do that.

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Copyright 2012 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  [email protected]

Is it not wonderful? Where else but in North America could an obscure law and order kind of guy like Vic Toews become famous on Twitter. He might not be a social person but he has made many new friends this past week on the world-wide web’s social network. And now maybe we can all pronounce his name. (Call him ‘tays’ not ‘toes.’)

It seems that the dour, aging lawyer from Manitoba has ventured into the realm of the Internet on behalf of Canada’s ubiquitous Public Safety Department. The Internet is dangerous ground for ideologues. All he was trying to do was ram another law and order act through parliament to give police easy access, without a warrant, to the Internet activities of people of interest who might be using the Internet for illicit purposes.

It is not that the act is all that draconian. It demands more from the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) than they should really be expected to provide. Yet that is not what caused the ruckus. It was the mistake Toews made in the House of Commons when becoming frustrated with opposition demands, he said, people “can either stand with us or with the child pornographers.” That was a silly thing to say. It was the remark that launched a million twits.

What Toews should have done was equate the situation to that of ‘hot pursuit.’ If the police are trying to apprehend a person distributing child pornography on the fly, so to speak, they might be allowed to seek their warrant after the fact.

But, in a civil society, that respects the rights of individuals, a judge’s warrant for such intrusion should be a basic requirement. And people have a right to know if the police are snooping on their e-mails and Internet downloads.

In our system of justice, it is important to have the judiciary keep a rein on the police. Most judges would be loath to allow the police to have such broad fishing rights to demand information from Internet providers. And it would not work that well anyway.

Our ISP, for example, might be able to tell what addresses we seek out on the web but since the server for this blog is in New Jersey and all our e-mails are based in California, there would be serious gaps in the surveillance.

We carry no brief for those who choose to be anonymous on the Internet. By closing comments on this blog, we ask that comments come by e-mail and e-mails from people who choose not to tell us their name are automatically deleted.  Nor would we ever support a protestor who hides their face. Our freedom allows you to show your face without threat of reprisal.

Vic Toews is trying to defend a flawed law. It is not defensible. It has to be fixed.

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Copyright 2012 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  [email protected]

Prime Minister Stephen Harper might not have ever heard the old adage about when the cat is away. It might be a good idea if someone explains it to him. It is not that he cannot take the occasional fun trip to exotic lands but he has to get the mice to behave while he is out of town. He needs a deputy cat.

He has been resting up from his and Laureen’s long flight. (Not that they were flying steerage in that VIP personal A310, he buzzes around in.) He can now go read the riot act to the kids in the cabinet. After all, he goes out to eat a little Chinese and there is mayhem in the House of Commons.

We will not get into names here. They are not important and neither are the people involved. The thing is, you can hardly have a cabinet minister thumbing his nose at the Opposition in the House over torturing people. This is definitely not very classy. If the guy cannot keep a state secret, Harper will have to give him the old heave ho. There are lots more cannon fodder on the back benches just begging for a chance at getting the perks of a cabinet minister.

And there is the sad-sack back-bencher from Kitchener, Ontario who brings up the whole abortion thing as soon as Stephen leaves town. Where does he get off? He thinks that there should be a House committee to determine when life begins. All he is doing is trying a back door approach to a debate on abortion. This guy must have some cabinet support to try to pull a stunt like that. And why would they choose a man to bring this up? This guy looks like he posed for American Gothic. Stephen should stomp on him, quick.

And then there is that fat ex-cop Stephen put in charge of the F-35 fighter plane purchase. (Maybe that defence guy, Peter what’s his name, found that file was interfering with his honeymoon.) The ex-cop gets an easy lob type question in the House about delays in the U.S. F-35 development program. The ex-cop was obviously not paying attention. He stands up in the House and said everything is going along swimmingly. Obviously nobody had told him that the Americans had already announced that the program is being delayed because the new planes cannot survive endurance testing. The Pentagon is delaying the program and nobody tells the Canadians?

But Stephen is back. The visit to China obviously went swimmingly. Harper solved a a major problem in diplomacy—all you need to do is discuss human rights with the business people and business with the politicians and everyone is happy. Stephen’s advance people did a wonderful job whipping up enthusiasm and the Chinese looked very puzzled about that.

But we bet it was the Chinese who thought to dress Laureen in the plastic dress so she could hold the panda cub. They would lose face if that bear peed on her. Just think, for a million bucks a year plus special food, your zoo too can have a couple pandas on loan.

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Copyright 2012 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  [email protected]

Federal Heritage Minister James Moore obviously has different community standards than the Internet audiences of tou.tv.  He has taken umbrage to a program called Hard on the French language tou.tv website platform. The ‘made in France’ program is provided by Radio-Canada’s radio wing in cooperation with a group of French-language television channels. Mr. Moore says the program is pornographic. He also says, for some reason, that it is directed to children. All he will probably do by saying that is send a lot of youngsters to the website to find out what the fuss is about.

What the youngsters will find out is that the program can be quite boring.  The actors deal with adult subjects. Sex is also an adult subject. Regrettably, Mr. Moore might not understand that. It is quite possible that somebody showed him an out-of-context clip from one of the episodes and he thought he was watching something that was pornographic.

But the Minister might not be aware of the considerable expertise and thought that the Supreme Court has given to the question of community standards. What it really boils down to is that there is nothing wrong with sex between consenting adults. Sex that includes brutality is wrong. The court also believes showing sex that degrades women is wrong. We expect that showing sex that degrades men would be equally wrong. The problem therefore is with the Minister.  If Mr. Moore has a problem or did not understand a sex act that was shown or simulated, he should say so.

It hardly needs to be said that one couple’s pleasant dalliance can be a prurient person’s pornography.

What is also interesting about this business is that the Minister’s statement and a supporting release from the Prime Minister’s Office were distributed by Sun Media. Few people in the news business in Canada could be unaware that Pierre Karl Péladeau’s Sun Media wishes nothing more than to destroy Radio-Canada. Sun Media does not like the competition from the public network.

Sun Media’s owner also owns ATV the largest French-language television network in Canada as well as the struggling Sun TV. Sun TV is the network that recently wanted to show a citizenship ceremony and snapped its fingers and the Conservatives had a group of federal employees perform for the cameras. It should also be noted that M. Péladeau also owns newspapers across Canada including our Babel Examiner and the blatantly separatist Le Journal de Montréal. His English language media are very supportive of Prime Minister Harper’s Conservatives. He is a businessman. He covers all the angles.

The Heritage Minister is probably annoyed that he does not have control of the CBC.  He would probably like the CBC to be as friendly to his government as the English-language Sun Media outlets.  We can only hope that is never going to happen.

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Copyright 2012 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  [email protected]