Time for Plan “B”
Q: Will the government amend the Canadian Human Rights Act to prevent unwarranted interferences in free expression by human rights commissions?A: The government has no plans to do so. We’re certainly aware of the issue. My understanding—we’ve been monitoring this closely—I think you’ll actually see there’s been some modification of behaviour on the part of the Canadian human rights commissions. The most egregious cases right now are mostly at the provincial level. And it is a very tricky issue of public policy because obviously, as we’ve seen, some of these powers can be abused. But they do exist for valid reasons, which is obviously to prevent public airwaves from being used to disseminate hate against vulnerable members of our society. That’s a valid objective. It’s probably the case that we haven’t got the balance right, but I’m not sure the government today has any answer on what an appropriate balance would be. macleans
The CPC votes unanimously for the repeal of s. 13, a bi-partisan group of MPs call for its repeal, virtually every newspaper in the country calls for its repeal, the CHRC’s own investigator calls for its repeal…Harper does not care.
I have four hard days left on a project and then Plan “B” goes to the top of my agenda. Until Harper actually feels some political pain on this file he is going to do nothing.
The CPC should be ashamed of itself.
January 8th, 2009 at 9:42 am
I propose “Plan B” be called “Might as Well Vote For Iggy”.
January 8th, 2009 at 10:18 am
I thought you said you were winning, Jay. Sorry, I couldn’t resist that one.
On a more serious note, does this mean you’ve given up on any notion that the Conservatives would act more conservative with a majority?
January 8th, 2009 at 10:25 am
Or vote for Jack?
Iggy is too scary! Just look at who is in charge of his war room!
January 8th, 2009 at 11:16 am
Wow. What a disappointment.
Words fail. But I’ll await Ezra’s words anyway. I wonder how he will spin this.
January 8th, 2009 at 11:49 am
Robert, I thought we were winning too.
I don’t think Harper has a clue how many of his base take this issue as a litmus test. Vote for someone else, stay home, restart the Reforrrm Party.
I am disgusted.
January 8th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
Forget the CPC. Lobby Iggy on s.13.
January 8th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
Or vote for Jack?
I think Mike would sooner take a belt sander to his nuts.
I don’t think Harper has a clue how many of his base take this issue as a litmus test.
I don’t think his base understands that anything to do with human rights is the conservatives’ Achilles heel. But don’t give up hope, Jay. Maybe you can convince Iggy to take a look at it next month after Harper is fired. It’s not a toxic issue for the Liberals like it is for the Conservatives.
January 8th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
He lost my vote, my internet support on comments threads and my donations to the Conservative Party. This kind of betrayal is not acceptable, when ever his lips move he’s lying. What was the point of having the party vote on Section 13, apparenlty it was nothing more than a PR stunt. If Harper thinks I’d abstain from voting Liberal out of some twisted sense of loyality he’s as delusional as Count Iggy.
January 8th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
It may be time for a leadership convention.
January 8th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Yes, all’s well with the federal commission. I especially liked their recent response
to Marc Lebuis’ complaint. No hypocrisy or double-standards there!
January 8th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
I believe that Harper feels that Section 13 is still too hot to handle without a majority government. Sure, sure…this is non-partisan issue with support on all sides of the political spectrum, but if Iggy really wanted to play dirty, he could spin this—-Lying Jackel style—-and use it as a weapon in the next election. To be honest, I don’t think that Harper is going to win the next election and I don’t think that Iggy is going to do anything about “human rights” if/when he’s in power. Canada is going to go to hell in a handbasket no matter who is in charge. Man, I really need a drink.
January 8th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
You may think this is bad, but the really bad thing the Cons are up to, which is literally going to destroy the country in the long run, is the “stimulus” package. Free speech is a good thing, but if your paycheck and savings are destroyed so that other, undeserving people can get rich then why fuss about whether you have the legal right to print caricatures of a religious figure? The only constitutional right that is worth a bean is the right to your own property. Everything else is simply thrown out to distract you and trip you up.
January 8th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Over at 5 Feet, I think Kathy has the right answer. Worth reading.
I think I need to vote her up a bit in the Best Canadian blog category.
Kathy. Ezra. Ezra. Kathy. Ezra. Kathy….. Canada’s free speech champions.
January 8th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
Do you think it is easy to make priorities?! – S. Harper
Seriously, folks, if you think repealing a little-used section of a statute – especially one that when it is used, is used against fairly odious figures – is going to top the agenda of any government, much less a minority Conservative government, you’ve spent waaaay too much time sniffing one another’s butts.
This was predictable even before Harper pissed away most of his political capital in the economic update.
But hey, if you guys want to turn s.13 into a political litmus test, please, be my guests.
January 8th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
This simple opinion that “Cool-O” has announced as the Truth is a case in point of the opinion that the Truth must be something that’s simple enough for the knower to understand. When, with evident sincerity, someone announces such a simple Truth, you can reasonably judge him to have a very simple understanding.
January 8th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
But the initial purpose of my logging in was to comment that I’ve been told that, in some past times, men have killed other men in order to keep or recover their liberty. On that basis, it would be reasonable to suppose that some day, they will do so again. Nevertheless, decent men must trust that, in this special time, splitting the votes of their own side, while leaving their opponents’ unity unimpaired, will be sufficient to rectify matters.
January 9th, 2009 at 3:55 am
This is it. I’ve had the proverbial biscuit! I voted TWICE for Harper and the CPC, and this is the BETRAYAL that Harper delivers – not just no action, but a slap/response assuring me that the CPC will not TAKE any action on this in the future, either.
As has been established over the past couple of years, “certain issues” TRANSCEND partisan politics, which is not to say that those same issues can’t be BLED by partisan politicians to great political gain.
Perhaps “Plan B” should be to lobby Iggy and Co. Iggy could to worse than “emerge” victorious as a Liberal knight in shining armour having led the “battle for Canadian freedom of expression”. Indeed, it would be HARD not to vote for Iggy and the Liberals if same have the balls to push this agenda while in opposition!
Harper has disappointed me a lot in the past, but I always tried to see the wishywashyness/milquetoast bit as “strategic” on Harper’s part. But not this time. This is an outright BETRAYAL of fundamental values – fundamental values which also just happen to be both conservative and very Canadian.
The CPC can forget about my vote until they either get Stephan Harper to toe the conservative line, or replace Stephen Harper as leader of the CPC and install another PM. After all, even the coalitionists couldn’t object on that score! ;-)
January 9th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
“Forget the CPC. Lobby Iggy on s.13.”
I think this makes good sense…it’s a non partisan issue the solutions should cross partisan boundaries.
BTW FU Harper..I didn’t know they could stack chicken shit that high in Calgary south.
January 9th, 2009 at 8:39 pm
Too bad the Liberal and NDP supporters don’t all walk to cast ballots on the other side when they feel “betrayed”. They will happily spend your money.
The whole cut-off-the-nose instinct really runs strong among conservatives.
January 10th, 2009 at 8:46 am
lrC
The Liberals have the advantage that when you have no principals, you can’t betray them. Even at that, the Libs and the Dippers do change their votes to bring the Party to heel – it’s just that they move between those two parties and not to the Tories. Among centrist Liberals, power is sufficient motivation (along with habit) to keep the ballot marked for the local Liberal.
January 12th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
The CPC did well at first keeping 4 out of the 5 promises it made. It could be debated if the 5th one about hospital wait times ws kept or not. Harper visited the troops and supported Israel.
There were also many disappointments.
Letting Jean Pierre Blackburn open his mouth about anything in public is a mistake. He comes accross like an insipid blithering idiot. His conduct about our hockey team was a disgrace. Sean Doan was it? The guy plays his heart out and gets slandered by his own government.
Quebec Nation motion without any offsets to reduce its potential harm.
Spend spend spend
Corporate welfare to Bombardier and other freeloading corporations.
Breaking of own law on election timing. Gee what would have hapened by waiting? Another minority? Oh yeah, we got that. Brilliant strategy.
Light bulb farce. Why doesn’t John Baird break one of those things in public to show everybody how safe it is?
Jean Pierre Blackburn going on repeated crusades for more affirmative action hiring in the public service. Except Quebecois always seem to be excused from reverse discrimination. It is only the slobs in the provinces that pay the bills like Alberta that must be discriminated against.
There are many more. Was willing to swallow them all.
Not now. I will take no steps against the CPC MP I helped get elected. I won’t even necessary vote against the CPC candidate in my riding as the whole area is a writeoff. But I likely won’t spend much time helping any CPC candidate.
I have heard that Iggy has been told he could cause alot of trouble in the CPC base just by endorsing Dr. Keith Martin’s motion (which is a motion-not legislation). We’ll see if he is smart enough to do so.
I had high hopes for Harper back in his early days and through his firat term. Everything else cold be justified (at least to myself).
Many of us put aside our concerns to help save his government during the coalition cop attempt and this insult is the thanks we get? His answer was not only terrible in principlal; he did not even know what he was talking about blithering on about keeping hate off the public airwaves. Section 13 is about the internet, Stevo, not the public airwaves. Where’s the brilliance?