Saturday Morning News Bites

Here are a few bits & pieces in the news this morning.

From James Travers in The Star:
"Political purpose is admirable when it's transparent. What's worrying in this election is that the extreme effort to hide that chaos beyond the campaign bubble radically changes how those purposes can be pursued. Deficit is such a dirty word that party platforms are built on the now ludicrous growth, revenue and surplus projections of the February federal budget. Chances are between slim and none that even Conservative promises, the most modest of the bunch, can be kept without raising taxes or slashing programs."

More vandalism done to Liberals in Toronto ridings:
"Senator Jerry Grafstein woke up yesterday morning to discover he had become the latest victim of election vandalism in the St. Paul's riding.
The Liberal senator and his wife, who live on a highly visible property on Spadina Rd., had their Cadillac's dashboard pried open, wires pulled apart and the remaining interior vandalized."

And more on the illegality of Harper calling this election:
"The unfairness of allowing Prime Ministers unfettered discretion to call an election seems to be universally accepted; it provides another ground for finding this election to be illegal. In several recent cases (e.g., Figueroa, Harper), the Supreme Court of Canada has held that section 3 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees Canadian citizens the right to vote in "fair" elections. The unfair advantage that the Prime Minister has obtained for his party by choosing the election date might well be found to contravene section 3 of the Charter."

Finally, Ex-NHL' er, Mike Danton, who's in prison in the U.S., wants to come home to serve out the rest of his time here. The Cons Stockwell Day won't let him.
"The Ottawa Citizen has learned that Anne McLellan, the former public safety minister under the Liberal government, approved Danton's transfer in June, 2005, on the condition that U. S. authorities agreed.
The U. S. Department of Justice approved the Danton transfer in May, 2008, but Stockwell Day -- the Tory minister who assumed the public safetyportfolio-- has not, according to the jailed hockey player, Canadian prison officials and U.S. authorities."

Conservative "Ugh"ly's

There's some interesting news out there today on a few different events involving our "wonderful" Conservative govt.

LISTERIA:

For starters it seems the Con govt. lobbied the U.S., in Apr. 2006, to relax their tougher rules to prevent listeria. A quote from the G&M this morning:

"The Canadian government strongly opposed tougher U.S. rules to prevent listeria and lobbied the United States to accept Canada's more lenient standards, internal documents reveal.
Briefing notes prepared by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency for an April 7, 2006, meeting with the board of directors of the Canadian Meat Council outline how both industry and the Canadian government were frustrated with the increased precautions the United States was demanding."
Read the complete article here. More obfuscating on the truth of not changing CFIA rules & standards. Looks like they had it planned out quite some time ago.

LOBBYING:

Two officials in the Con govt. are now seeking exemption from the new lobbying law that went into effect on July 1st of this year. This law states that anyone leaving a govt. position has to wait 5 years before they can take a position to lobby the govt. You can read about it in the Ottawa Citizen here. Well that didn't take long - not even 2 months & already the Cons want out. And they are using the Cons ethics law to make their pitch! And remember this? From the article:

"While they were in opposition and during the last election campaign, the Conservatives denounced what they called a revolving door between ministers' offices and the lobbying industry during Liberal governments."

BERNIER, COUILLARD & THE RCMP:

It seems the RCMP have been investigating a real-estate deal that Couillard was lobbying for. And that same deal was cancelled by the Con govt. only YESTERDAY! Amazing what can happen when you want an election. Here's
the info at the G& M.

ABORTION: deal still on the table!

Private member Bill C-484, from Ken Epps, is still alive & kicking! A group of Con MP's have issued a press release supporting it. Read Big City Lib's good post on this. They just won't let it go & this seems contrary to what Justice Minister Rob Nicholson stated just a couple of days ago:

"In place of C-484, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said he would bring a new bill that would make it an aggravating factor for the judge to consider when sentencing those who attack pregnant women. He told reporters the bill "leaves no room for the introduction of fetal rights."

I'm not sure this is really "contrary" to what Nicholson wants, but, of course, it's election planning to not rock the boat in the eyes of the voter, & whatever Nicholson really has in mind won't be known until after an election & only if the Cons are re-elected. Heaven forbid! Interesting to see a small faction of MP's going against the stated backtracking on this bill because Dion questioned where Harper really stood on the abortion issue. Next thing we know Bill C484 was scrapped immediately.

INMATE TRANSFERS:

A judge has ORDERED Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day to reconsider his decision to block a prisoners request to serve out his sentence back home here in Canada. From The Gazette:

"Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day's crackdown on transferring Canadians from U.S. prisons has been dealt a blow by a judge who has ordered the minister to reconsider his "wholly unreasonable"decision to block a convicted child molester's request to serve out his sentence in his home country."

Here is what Day wrote in a newspaper column in 2006:

"B.C. dope dealers busted in the U.S. are demanding to be transferred back to cosier Canadian jails and reduced prison times," he wrote. "Memo to drug dealer: I'm no dope. . . . Enjoy the U.S."

There have been many instances of requests for a transfer home from prisoners out of the country & most all have been denied. Even those who have not been found guilty of anything at the time of their request but incarcerated without hearings. Think of the woman in Mexico, remember Brenda Martin, who had been imprisoned for more than 2 yrs., without trial, hearings, etc. The Cons did nothing about her situation until a big stink was made about it in the media. It got so bad the Harperites had no choice but to lobby for her release & it was finally done. Here's some info.
Also, Liberal MP Dan McTeague had been trying to bring her case to the attention of all & sundry & was virtually ignored by the govt., until the MSM began running with it.

We all know there will be so much more upcoming & I can hardly wait!!!