Along with the HST coming into effect in July 1st, more Eco fees came into effect covering a wide range of products. The Eco fees are supposed to be fees charged to manufactures based on the amount of products or packaging they put into the market place.  Stewardship Ontario which receives these fees claims not to be government yet they were setup by the provincial government.

If they are not government, then someone or some group is getting the money we are all being forced to pay. The manufactures are allowed to pass along the fees they are charged to the consumer in any manner they choose. At this point, the fees are appearing on our sales receipts as an added fee one which we pay — you guessed it — HST. But it’s not a tax you see, you just have to pay tax on it.

There appears to be no established standard as to how the fees are assessed and as such the consumer has zero protection from the manufacturers taking whatever they want as the cost of passing on the fee. Since it isn’t attached to the product at the point of the consumer making their selection, we don’t even have buying power to limit the fees to a minimum. Read the rest of this entry »

The Harper Conservatives have fancied themselves as ‘tough on crime’ by bringing a string of crime bills into the legislature and daring the Opposition to vote them down. The so called “Truth in Sentencing” bill passed in February was one of those bills.

The bill places stronger limits on when a judge can give credit for time served when passing sentence. The overall effect is to lengthen the amount of time which a convict will remain in custody, raising the average time in federal custody from 523 days to 722 days.

The overall effect will be more prisons will have to be built, more guards hired and the costs of providing shelter to those who have committed crimes will rise. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m becoming more than a bit weary of the Liberals spending so much time on infighting and jostling than they are on being the Official Opposition. Lately I see a lot more in the news reports about the mechanics of the party and speculation about the makeup than I do anything else. I suspect I’m not the only Canadian feeling this way.

It is becoming rather apparent that Bob Rae is  playing games towards trying to push Ignatieff out as leader. Should that happen and Rae takes the helm, this Liberal will abandon ship. There’s also been talk about forming some sort of either pre or post-election coalition with the NDP. Forget that people, you really think I’d be a Liberal if I wanted anything to do with Layton?

So, what exactly do I want to see?

I want to see the Liberal party take a stand and stick to it. They don’t really need to hunt too far to differentiate themselves from the Conservatives. As for the NDP and the Greens, adopt what is good in their platform and show the rest for the tripe it is. Read the rest of this entry »

Canada’s Pardon system is about to see an overhaul. The Conservatives tabled a bill yesterday to make the changes. The most important changes and the ones I believe were absolutely needed is the deny pardons to those convicted of sex crimes against children and those with convictions of three or more serious offences.

In typical Harper Conservatives fashion, they are now trying to ramrod the bill through the house by raising the spectre of Karla Homolka being eligible to apply for pardon this year. Let me say quite clearly, that woman shouldn’t be even walking the streets let alone being eligible for a pardon.

It’s cleared the flawed system needed some fixing and quickly before another serious injustice occurs. So why wouldn’t the Conservatives table a carefully thought out bill with the most important changes included and leave the door open for other changes to follow? Now that would be a tad too civil.

An editorial in today’s Toronto Star says the bill goes too far. It finds that the move to change the name from Pardon to “Record Suspension” as mean spirited. Toews rationalizes that a pardon implies forgiveness and that the state is not in the business of doing so. Read the rest of this entry »

Every now and again it becomes necessary for those elected to conduct the business of our democracy to be reminded of who they are supposed to represent. The people elect a Parliament who then forms a government and an official opposition based on which party received the most seats.

This seems like a pretty basic principle to know and to understand. The Prime Minister is subject to the will of Parliament, who is subject to the will of the people. When the Opposition parties voted on a motion back in December ordering the government to produce unredacted documents pertaining to the detainee issue, the response should have been pretty straightforward in adherence with the basic principle of Parliament.

The government has tried to throw a blanket claim of ‘national security’ around the affair and are refusing to release the documents. They didn’t even bother trying to go through the motions of trying to reach an agreement with the majority vote, they just stonewalled and then Harper prorogued the House.

Eventually the birds have to come home to roost and Parliament had to reconvene. Harper seemed to think that the December motion would be ignored, the Opposition rendered unable or unwilling to act. He’s wrong. Last Thursday the Liberals, followed by the NDP and the Bloc, rose to call on the Speaker of the House to rule on the motion. They have motions of their own which could lead to the Government being found in contempt of Parliament. Read the rest of this entry »

On Tuesday Parliament passed a motion which would ban the practise of MPs sending ’10 percenters” into ridings of other MPs. The motion was initiated by the Liberals and solidly opposed by the Conservatives. The final call on the motion will be made by the Board of Internal Economy, the secretive committee charged with controlling the spending on the Hill.

The government’s response to the motion is that they consider it to be ‘non-binding’. Excuse me? Is Parliament supposed to reflect the will of the people or doesn’t it? Who the blazes is paying those clowns than the people?

Parliament has spoken, therefore neither the government nor the internal board of economy should have any option but to comply. Read the rest of this entry »

The optics on the Rahmm Jaffer decision yesterday is just plain bad.

A former Conservative federal member of parliament, married to a current Conservative Cabinet minister is charged last fall with impaired driving and possession of cocaine. He comes before a judge who was appointed by the current federal Finance Minister when he was the provincial Attorney General. He gets off with what amounts to a slap on the wrist by pleading guilty to a dangerous driving charge and receiving a $500 fine.

The Crown gave no explanation for the deal they struck other than saying they had no reasonable chance of conviction. For just about any other, average Canadian, blowing over on the breathalyser would result in a conviction. These days even blowing .05 results in an immediate license suspension which doesn’t even get you a day in court.

As for the cocaine possession charge, if he wasn’t in the possession of cocaine then why didn’t the Crown just exonerate him and admit the police’s error? Maybe because that would be just out and out lying instead of just deception. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, I’ve read through the Throne Speech which was delivered yesterday. I’ve read some of the commentary which has appeared this morning in reaction to it. For the most part, they are echoing my thoughts as I read through the speech, where exactly is the recalibration? There was very little real focus or meat.

I had the sense that the speech came about from a brainstorming session around the Cabinet table on how many buttons could they find to press in a bid to make Canadians believe this government has a real sense of need and direction. The point form results was then handed over to speech writers to form into what was delivered yesterday.

I know the devil is in the details and Throne Speeches are not where one would expect to see details. Some will emerge today as the Budget is delivered. For the most part, speech repeated previous announcements and claims from the government.

Public Wage Freezes

It does say there will be a freeze on not only public service budgets but the wages of the Cabinet, Senators and MPs. That is really sharing in the hardship that 1.5million Canadians are going through, not to mention the millions of Canadians who find themselves under-employed as the result of jobs lost through business failures and jobs moved offshore. Read the rest of this entry »