Bank of Canada Governor: Oil Boom Not Harming Rest of Canada

David Dodge stated that the Canadian labor market is better at migrating - between regions (from ROC to Alberta) and between sectors - than in previous oil booms:

Still, regional disparities in unemployment are glaring — Alberta leads the country with a jobless rate of just 3.1 per cent in February, while Newfoundland’s topped the nation at 15.1 per cent. Ontario came in just below the national average at 6.2 per cent.
…
He said Alberta and British Columbia will continue to outperform other provinces in economic growth, but he said Ontario and Quebec are posting fairly healthy growth of about 2.5 per cent, although that compares to 4.5 per cent in Alberta..

“Performance in Central Canada is actually not that bad by any standard other than the standard of how fast Alberta is growing,” he said.

Kill The Alberta Human Rights Commission

Unlike most other people at ThePolitic.com, I criticized Ezra Levant for publishing the inflammatory Danish cartoons. But this response from a Calgary Iman and the Alberta Human Rights Commission is utterly breath-taking.

Levant argues convincingly that this is a nuisance suit and is intended to be so, even to the extent that the Iman’s submission to the AHRC was handwritten and riddled with spelling errors. And yet the AHRC accepted the complaint. And now the machinery of Canada’s human rights bureaucracy is grinding into gear. The government will pay lawyers to argue for the Iman. The Western Standard will have to pay its own lawyers. And the Iman will not be required to cover those legal bills if the complaint fails, which it will.

If there exists a system better-designed for abuse, I’ve never heard of it. The Western Standard can absorb the $75,000 legal bill to fight the nuisance complaint, but what if it were an individual who was now facing a phalanx of government-paid lawyers?

Alan Borovoy remarkably wrote in the Calgary Herald that the statute which governs the conduct of the Alberta Human Rights code needs to be amended to put a stop to future nuisance complaints. I have a better idea. During his restraint program, B.C. premier Bill Bennett strangled to death the B.C. human rights bureaucracy that existed then (a gift from Fat Dave Barrett) by essentially eliminating its funding. Given that Alberta will soon have a new premier, now would be a good time to start asking potential candidates about their dedication to the Alberta Human Rights Commission. Or, conversely, its strangulation.

Christopher Kendall, the Courts, and Gay Male Porn

Brought to you by UBC Press:

Gay Male Pornography
An Issue of Sex Discrimination
Christopher Kendall

The 2000 case of Little Sisters Book and Art Emporium v. Customs Canada provided Canada’s highest court with its first opportunity to consider whether the analysis set out in R. v. Butler — in which the Supreme Court identified pornography as an issue of sex discrimination — applies to pornography intended for a lesbian or gay male audience. The Court held that it did, finding that, like heterosexual pornography, same-sex pornography also violates the sex equality interests of all Canadians.

Christopher Kendall supports this finding, arguing that gay male pornography reinforces those social attitudes that create systemic inequality on the basis of sex and sexual orientation — misogyny and homophobia alike — by sexually conditioning gay men to those attitudes and practices.

Little Sisters argued that gay porn, in stark contrast to its straight counterpart, was liberating and a positive component of gay life. As such, it could not be counted as discriminating against women, as the court found straight porn did in Butler. In the case, the B.C. court ruled against Little Sisters and found that gay porn does lead to gender discrimination.

Which leads to some rather perplexing questions. How does two men having sex perpetuate discrimination against women? The court should have seen this problem coming in its Butler ruling, but it didn’t. Luckily, the B.C. court that ruled in Little Sisters was willing to protect the Butler ruling by handing down an incoherant decision.

Of course, this is a problem that would never have existed if Canadian courts had not decided that “community standards” were arbitrary and offensive and that pornography was only wrong when it was deemed to have harmed women. But no matter. Incoherant rulings are no problem when members of the Court Party like Kendall are willing to write books praising them. And (suprise of suprises) who is there to cheer on Kendall’s new affront to common sense?:

“Christopher Kendall’s extensively researched, bravely theorized, and brilliantly argued book spares no sentimentalities, suffers no cliches, pulls no punches. Equally strong in law and politics, his analysis is perceptive at every turn of the page. Most of all, this book is fearless�??which is what will be needed to survive telling so much truth in the face of so many lies.�
-–Catharine A. MacKinnon is the Elizabeth A. Long Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School.

Rahman safe, for now

Earlier I speculated here that Abdul Rahman would have to leave his country for a Western state if he were to live at all. He now has. He has sought asylum in Italy, and Italy has welcomed him. Good news.

The publicity around his arrival in Italy has now propelled Rahman to even greater notice. And considering that the islamist barbarians are now fully globalised, they will likely unleash bounty hunters after him.

Rahman’s departure saves his life, but it does not solve the problem that brought him to world notoriety: Afghanis still are prepared to put people to death for converting to religions other than Islam. In this case, Rahman had converted to the religion of the same people who now protect the life of the Afghani government. Without that help, Afghanistan’s present but fragile stability might not survive.

Westerners are good enough to protect the skin of those ruling the country; they are good enough to bring aid and spill their own blood to protect Afghans from the Taliban and al Qaeda. But embracing their religion will get you executed. Isn’t that nice?

Guité will act as own lawyer - Smart Move!

Former federal bureaucrat Chuck Guité says he can’t afford to hire a lawyer and he has told a judge he will represent himself when his sponsorship program fraud trial begins in the spring.

He told Justice Fraser Martin of the Quebec Superior Court that he spends a few hours each day preparing for the trial, and has gone through about half the evidence marshalled against him so far.

Martin said Guité’s decision to represent himself puts the court in a bad position, but he said he’ll do his best to keep things fair.

Wait a minute - too poor to afford a lawyer? Wasn’t Guité basking in the warmth of the Arizona sun when the sponsorship scandal hit the fan? To poor to afford a lawyer, but he can afford a vacation in Arizona? Where has all your money gone, Chuck?

One thing that is clear is he’s known to have a fiesty streak. Guite went after a CTV cameraman while on vacation in Arizona this winter, throwing the TV camera to the ground when approached for an interview.

Lets hope he tries the same move on the crown prosecutor ;)

Canadian Universities Less Affordable than American

The US-based Educational Policy Institute finds that Canadian public universities are less affordable than US public universities if you factor in not only tuition, but also the availability of grants, loans, and median incomes. New Hampshire ranks the most affordable while Nova Scotia the least. In Canada, Quebec is 1st while ranking 30th overall. Ontario and Alberta are right behind.

Alberta Oil Boom Hurting High Tech Firms?

The Calgary Herald reports the oil boom is making it difficult for high tech firms in Alberta to attract employees, customers, and capital. The first is obvious, given Alberta’s labor shortage. The second and third can only be explained by the Alberta government’s tax structure for high tech firms, which some firms complain isn’t as lucrative as other jurisdictions I.e., the Alberta government doesn’t offer as lucrative tax credits and subsidies as other jurisdictions.

While I’m loathe to support tax credits and subsidies, the Alberta gov’t does need to recognize it’s in competition with other jurisdictions so it needs to play according to rules it might otherwise object to. Moreover, high tech is critical not only for the oil sector’s future, but for Alberta’s future.

Alberta Bound: Update

The New York Times has an update on America’s top energy supplier, Alberta, and its red hot economy. Not a lot of new information. Though noteworthy is the reporter’s notice that Alberta’s successful oil sector doesn’t necessarily cut into the manufacturing and service economies of eastern Canada. The article mentions how several Ontario companies have creatively retooled their businesses in light of the new economic realities.

In similar news, Statscan reports on the how much Alberta is attracting people from other parts of Canada.

Maybe these are some of the reasons ThePolitic.com is the #1 web log in Canada!

Everyone’s Alberta bound.

ITEM: Jerry Springer to run for Liberal Party Leadership

Garth Turner responds to ThePolitic.com

ThePolitic.com has not been kind to Garth Turner. See here, here, here, here, and here. Finally, Garth has responded:

I am flattered at your attention and I trust the 11 recommendations in my report will receive as much consideration on Wednesday. The Conservative Party is only enriched when Canadians watch us vigorously toss around ideas, instead of savaging ourselves. We have historically been the party of popular opinion and grassroots participation, and I truly hope that is not lost in the current climate.

Garth is hard to follow. He wants to toss around ideas as an alternative to “savaging ourselves.” But who has been savaging who? As near as I can tell, Garth is the only Conservative MP that has sustained an ongoing attack on the prime minister, otherwise known as his leader, since two weeks after the last election. You can still find snide comments directed from Garth to Harper on the former’s blog, updated daily.

As for “We have traditionally been the party of public opinion…” Uh, no. If anything, it’s the dirty Liberals ™, with their never-ending public opinion polls and “brokerage orientation” (which is the academic term for “no principles,” something Garth would know if he ever read a book that was not written by someone named “Garth”) that have been the party of public opinion. Conservatives in Canada have done best when they’ve unapologetically presented a coherant right-of-centre platform (but not too far right). That’s what Harper did in the last election, and Canadians responded positively.

I’m assuming from Garth’s willingness to re-write the Conservative platform post-election that he was not in on the formulation of those policies. Nevertheless, he was elected under the Conservative banner. If Garth a) Understood how Parliament works and b) did not have such a weird populist view of the representative role of MPs, he might realize that the time for “vigorously tossing around ideas” has long since ended. And he’d also realize that the imperatives of parliamentary government essentially guarantee that he will be kicked out of the government caucus if he doesn’t change course, and soon.

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