New Media and Politics - Canadian News Roundup

Reading that the Senate was incapable of busting up the omnibus budget bill known as C-9 sickened me. There was no excuse in the first place to leave it to the Senate to fix this egregious legislation. It's the act of a party and a party leader without the good sense to know when to act - regardless of the consequences. If Iggy had articulated all the odious provisions that have been crammed into the bill, Canadians would have understood why he had to vote no and send us to the voting booths yet again. Instead he opted to let the Senate try and fix it and shortly we will be saddled with one massive pile of crap that amongst other things guts environmental legislation, allows for the sale of Canada's Atomic agency, partially deregulates Canada Post and makes it harder for women in the public sector to achieve pay equity.

 

That deal on the Afghan documents was signed onto by the Liberals and the Bloc but not the NDP today. We'll withhold judgement but NDP MP Jack Harris calls it ...a very secretive process that will not get at the truth and the parliamentarians will not get to see all documents.

 

Iggy gets all gung-ho about the mission in Afghanistan - someone should inform him that Canadian soldiers are not needed on the other side of the world as much as they are needed at home. Why in hell is he trying to outflank Harper on the right here? It's time to go back to peacekeeping duties exclusively. Training Afghan soldiers does not qualify. Just for emphasis, Lt.-Gen. Lessard, the head of Canadian Expeditionary Force Command, told reporters today that it's going to be a very tough summer and enemy activity is significant, Someone had to tell Canadians this news and Harper is obviously not going to do it.

Harper did have the time to tell Jack Layton he should fire Libby Davies because she's not as thrilled with Israel as she should be, or as he is, or something. Apparently she's not allowed to have personal views that conflict with his... yeah, that's it! In the meantime Harper's party is delaying the release of a report on the tar sands - a report that contains research that says the tar sands are contaminating Canada's freshwater resources, including the Athabasca River watershed, with toxic substances.

 

Some good and bad news about Canada's Arctic. A report that says there would be no way to clean up an oil spill if one happened in the Arctic. The good news is that the meltdown of Arctic ice not as dire as once thought, but still below 1979- 2000 average.