Al and Mike and Me!

I joined Mike Brock on the Al and Mike Show: beers and the Dawg. (Who was great, reasonable and obviously right at home in opposition.)

Listen right here.

Written by jay on June 12th, 2008 with 5 comments.
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Lying Jackal fallback

I stress – I emphasize, I underscore, I shout – that this does not mean that our panoply of speech-related laws are immutable and beyond amendment. Of course not! I, and others, feel that the way in which human rights commissions do their work should be, like any other bureaucratic function, subject to continual review and change. I, and others, feel uncomfortable about some of the ways in which human rights commissions have allegedly policed human rights in recent months and years. I, and others, feel section 13 of the federal Human Rights Act can certainly be tweaked to make it better. lying jackal

Realizing just how deep a hole Warman, Stacy, Goldberg and Fine have been digging, the Lying Jackal beats a retreat. He even admits discomfort with the Chekists at the CHRC and his solution: tweak s. 13.

Tweak….hmmm, how about toss on the slag heap? But, being a fair man as the Lying Jackal maintains he is, here are a few suggested tweaks:

• Presumption of innocence - evidentiary burden on the Commission
• beyond a reasonable doubt
• maximum penalty $500.00 payable to Her Majesty
• speech must be proven to have caused real damage to an identified party who must testify as to that damage
• costs to the successful party on a full recovery basis - however no costs payable to the Commision where it has carriage of the complaint
• definition of hate speech changed to match Taylor
• “plain meaning” standard - the words complained of must clearly mean something hateful, no “reading in” or other post Collins po mo nonsense
• investigators must a) identify themselves at all times, b) keep clear notes, c) acknowledge that in the event that they lie under oath they will be immediately terminated without benefits or severence
• investigators and supervisors to take oath to conduct themselves in accordance with the law
• full and timely disclosure by Commission or immediate dismissal with costs to date plus fifty percent
• Respondents entitled to legal aid or other assistance with their legal bills
• former employees of the Commission would be barred from bringing complaints for three years after they ceased employment

This would be start.

It would also gut the whole “cowboy” culture which has been allowed to fester in the Hate Crimes section of the CHRC.

However, along with this there has to be a full judicial investigation of what those cowboys have already gotten away with.

Written by jay on June 12th, 2008 with 5 comments.
Read more articles on Canadian Politics and free speech.

Copyright Act Amendments

I am waiting to see the details but it looks like Industry Minister Jim Prentice has caved to the US copyright interests and abandoned the real made in Canada approach to file sharing. He’s softened the blow a little by capping consumer fines at $500.00 (though it is not clear if that is “per instance” in which case it is no cap at all).

But the real danger lies in the details. There are anti-DRM circumvention measures and “ISPs would be obligated to inform subscribers when a complaint has been launched against the consumer by a the owner of a copyright, however they would also be obliged to track that user’s Internet activity for six months in case the information became necessary for legal proceedings.”

The Globe and Mail article makes no mention of the current media levy on all recordable media nor does it mention the private sharing right which has protected Canadians from the lunacy of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Two things are evident: first, now is the time to grab those torrents and MP3s. Second, hard drive swapping, thumb drives and such like have apparently slipped under the technological radar. Sneaker nets are very powerful when it comes to swapping big files.

One other thing is evident as well, the CPC has no spine at all when it comes to facing down the dying copyright interests in the United States.

Written by jay on June 12th, 2008 with 6 comments.
Read more articles on Canadian Politics and economics and media and music.