Monday, January 31, 2011

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY ................

FACTS DO NOT CEASE TO EXIST BECAUSE THEY ARE IGNORED
ALDOUS HUXLEY

Sunday, January 30, 2011

BY MICHAEL CAHILL - CAMBRIDGE ADVOCATE

What We Have Here Is…
Jan 29th, 2011 | By michaelcahill | Section: Politics
It will come as no surprise to you that I was, (as usual) relaxing in the reading room of my club. I had just set down my glass of Bushmills and was about to open the Cambridge Times when my access to fresh air was suddenly impeded. The cold, bony fingers of the club librarian were slowly closing around my throat as 90 lbs of tweed skirt, and angry womanhood knelt upon my chest. Before I lost consciousness I managed to blurt out, “What we have here is, a failure to communicate.”
Earlier in the day I had merely suggested that the Dewey decimal system was the work of an obsessive compulsive who failed to find a spot on the shelf for a “Facebook.” I stand corrected.
That being said, I can’t help thinking that communicating is something of a lost art. Here is an example. Steven Harper’s Conservative minority junta, no, umm, dictatorship, no, ahh, “government” has expressed an interest in consulting with the opposition leaders on the content of the upcoming budget in March, (stop me if you have heard this one before). Mr. Layton has noted in press reports today that yes, he had a telephone call from the P.M. on Dec. 17 and has heard nothing since. Apparently, Mr.Ignatieff reports having a similar experience.
Perhaps Mr. Harper is a shy and complicated individual. Maybe this explains why not one member of the Conservative caucus will speak publically, answer an e-mail, or tie his shoes without approval from the P.M.O.
My favourite example of timely, and effective messaging is Minister of Finance (and gifted Mickey Rooney impersonator) Jim Flaherty. After taking credit for the fiscal policies of Prime Minister Paul Martin, cutting 2 percent of Government revenue off the GST, and digging a $56 billion dollar deficit hole he is telling us citizens that we should save more and avoid risky debts loads. Kudos to you Jim, kudos.
Before you get the impression that I have some sort of bias against the authoritarian regime of Mr. Harper, (which i hope is obvious by now, and shared by roughly 60 % of Canadians) let’s share the blame equally.
I have many friends on Facebook. Barack Obama, Oprah, Beyonce, and of course, Mandy Richardson. I receive posts, messages, and videos from them at least 2 to 3 times a day. I am also friends with Jack Layton, Michael Ignatieff, Bob Rae, and a number of others. What do I hear from them? Nothing.
In the year 2011, the medium is now officially the message. The traditional, geriatric media has failed to communicate to you what is really going on. Your federal politicians have failed to use the media available to them to communicate with you because of apathy. Because of apathy, and of self centered parochialism you won’t take the time to communicate with them.
A federal election is coming, send a message.

BY JOE LETHBRIDGE - CAMBRIDGE CITIZEN

Like the wings of a butterfly
January 29, 2011
By joel
Like the wings of a butterfly upon my cheek

A gentle and innocent kiss I seek

A warm embrace in loving arms

To protect me from the world’s harms

We will lay upon the tall green grasses

Staring at the sky as the daylight passes

You grasp my hand and hold it tight

This is the love that feels so right

The kiss that felt like a feather; gently touching my skin

How that would feel; I don’t know where to begin

You hold be tight against your chest

A feeling of closeness ; that feelings the best

Tears stream down my face

I never want to leave this place

I feel safe in your arms as you hold me close

To have genuine love ; I want that the most

Joe Lethbridge

Sunday, January 23, 2011

ELMIRA ADVOCATE - BY AL MARSHALL

Posted by Al Marshall at 8:39 AM 0 comments Thursday, January 20, 2011
A WARNING TO CITIZEN GROUPS AND ACTIVISTS (The Elmira Lesson)

Do join together. There is strength in numbers.
Do not delegate all responsibility/authority to only one or two members. Disaster lies in this route.
Do demand accountability and transparency of the other stakeholders such as M.O.E., local government etc..
Demand twice as much accountability and transparency from your own members. Outside dishonest forces can damage your group but inside dishonest forces can tear you apart.

The standard operating procedure for dishonest forces is mock or psuedo public consultation. The ONLY way they will agree to and participate in it is if they've got it rigged to start with. Why do you think Uniroyal/Chemtura came back to the CPAC table in 2000 after storming out a year earlier? They stormed out over criticism of their unacceptable air emissions particularily affecting the Duke St. residents. The CPAC Chair in private discussions convinced them that CPAC would be a happier place for them. At the time as a CPAC member I questioned why concessions or negotiations were necessary to bring them back. Why do you think since that time both Chemtura and the Ministry of the Environment have publicly stated that CPAC is one of the best and most knowledgable public advisory committees in the province? Do you really think it's because CPAC have held their feet to the fire? I don't think so. Here is my prediction. Within six months of the first public CPAC meeting in 2011, Chemtura will either threaten to walk out or will do so. This for me will be a strong indication that we are on the right track to actually clean up Elmira and restore our drinking water aquifers. Chemtura will come back but this time without CPAC selling the farm.

NORTH PERTH-HIGHEST TAXES IN PERTH COUNTY

Ontario Cities Have Highest Property Taxes
Jan 22nd, 2011 | By Debbie Duff Vitez | Section: Politics
CAMBRIDGE ADVOCATE
This ran on the Canadian Free Press………… comments invited below

By Kevin Gaudet Tuesday, January 22, 2008

A new report out of Edmonton shows that Toronto takes the dubious honour for having the highest property taxes in Canada. However, a few other Ontario cities place just behind it at the top of the list. Beleaguered tax-paying homeowners in Ontario have suffered from high rates for years, yet they are still facing large rate hikes this year. The Edmonton report is proof enough that municipal governments should hold the line on spending and give taxpayers a break.

The detailed property tax report issued by the City of Edmonton reveals that some Ontario cities rank the highest in Canada when it comes to property taxes. The cities of Toronto, Ottawa, Brampton, Hamilton and London take five of the top six spots on the list for the highest average property taxes paid. This is something most homeowners in these cities know intuitively every time they pay their tax bill. Now they have it confirmed by an objective report which compared over 30 municipalities across Canada.

Toronto ranked first with the highest taxes paid at $3,912, followed by Brampton at $3,826. Ottawa was third at $3,532; Hamilton and London were fifth and sixth at $3,305 and $3,078 respectively. St. John’s Newfoundland deserves credit for taking last place with the lowest average tax at $1,540, and Surrey, BC was second last at $1,814.

This sad but helpful property tax news is timely as city councils across Ontario are in the early stages of preparing their budgets. As well, Premier McGuinty’s freeze on assessments for homes expired at the beginning of 2008. Not only will tax rates be going up, but for the first time in a few years homeowners will take a second hit if their home value reassessment shows an increase above the average increase. Assessment changes will take effect for 2009 property tax rates.

What is especially helpful about the Edmonton report is that it compares property taxes in a dollar value instead of as a percentage. Some mayors, like Toronto’s Mayor Miller, try to defend high property taxes by hiding behind what appears to be a lower rate than other cities. This is hiding because the average value of a home is high in Toronto so the total taxes paid for a Toronto homeowner are higher. When paying taxes one cares less about the rate paid or the details of the complicated formula used. Instead, one cares about how much money is being taken year over year. That is the only comparison relevant to a taxpayer, not whether the rate is 0.82 in one city versus 1.15 in another city.

The main reason for high and growing property taxes in Ontario is that municipal spending is out of control. Municipalities have a spending problem not a revenue problem. While mayors continue to clamour for more and more money from many sources, their appetites for spending grow unchecked. Data from Statistics Canada shows that municipal revenue across Ontario has been running at three times the rate of inflation. In 2006 municipal revenue was up 6.3% while inflation was only at 2.0%; in 2005 revenue was up 7.2% and inflation was only 2.2%. Despite Ontario municipal revenues ballooning from higher taxes, more transfers from other levels of government, higher user fees and new taxes in Toronto; mayors continue to complain that they don’t have enough.

It is interesting how mayors can work together cooperatively when it comes to demanding transfers from other levels of government or getting new taxing authority from the province. If that same energy were transferred to creating efficiencies and reducing costs, the report out of Edmonton might show a different – and welcome – conclusion.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY..........

FIRST THEY IGNORE YOU, THEN THEY RIDICULE YOU, THEN THEY FIGHT YOU, THEN YOU WIN.
MAHATMA GANDHI

Friday, January 21, 2011

DALTON LEAVES US TWISTING IN THE WIND

BY MICHAEL DEN TANDT - STRATFORD BEACON HERALD, JANUARY 11, 2011

Dalton McGuinty has been oh, so quiet lately. It's as though he knows these are his last months in power.
Even last week, after the permier let slip he doesn't plan to serve another full term, it wasn't him who emerged to spin and recant. His underlings did that. Over the years McGuinty has grown adept at limiting contact with the unwashed. Like Mike Harris before him he understands that as you age in power, less is more.
It's easy enough now, eight years in, to jump on the "dump Dalton" bandwagon because, well, he's an incumbant carrying the baggage of two terms. Even politicians who haven't sided over multiple scandals and raised taxes and boosted energy prices and broken numerous promises have a tough time after eight years. Right?
But even by these standards, McGuinty is in a league of his own, I would argue-because of the contrast between what he represented when he took office, and what he represents now.
Conservative partisans like to talk about the Mike Harris era as though it was a golden age of no-nonsense populism. That's wrong. Harris had some good ideas but he was mean, high-handed and divisive. The forced almalgamations, the pitched battles with unions and teachers, left a bitter taste.
That's why, when McGuinty came along in 2003 promising a different way, Ontarians paid attention. Where Harris conservatism was hard, McGuinty would be soft. Where Harris Conservatism was unyeilding , McGuinty would compromise. Ontarians bought it and gave him a majority. And then another.
For months now, turning into years, Ontarians from one corner of the province to another have raised concerns about wind turbines and the Green Energy Act. I live in Grey County, on Georgian Bay, where a large wind farm is planned.
For weeks our local newspaper has run letters, guest columns, personal accounts, from people concerned about all aspects of the development-health, property values, the turbines' inefficiency as a mass power source, defacement of the rural landscape, the impact on wildlife. The list is long.
The local medical officer of health wants a moritorium on wind farms pending further study of the effects on health. The area MPP has called for a pause. So has the MP. Ditto the municipality of Meaford, in which the proposed development, Silcote Corners, is located.
To all this Queen's Park has responded with deafening, crushing silence. It's as though they think that if they pretend not to have heard, no one can blame them for not listening.
Based on the calls and letters I've received, many of those involved in the fight against industrial wind are liberals by inclination. Most are retired professionals. Not many are pleased at the prospect of Tim Hudak, the conservative leader, taking power.
Hudak remains an unknown. And his own position on the Green Energy Act is weak. He says only that planning power should be returned to municipalities. This does little to address the fundemental problems with industrial wind energy.
But here's a bet: Come October, voters in rural and small-town Ontario will turn out in droves to vote for Hudak, warts and all. They'll put up his signs on there lawns. They'll knock on doors for him. NDP Andrea Horvath will get a boost also. For the Liberals, it's decimation time.
That is the future that gentle Dalton has wrought, in his soundproof cocoon. So he's quiet these days, enjoying the moment. Small wonder.

Friday, January 14, 2011

RECOMMENDATIONS- CAUGHT IN THE ACT- by ANDRE MARIN

Accordingly, I am making the following recomendations:
1. The ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services should take steps to revise or replace the Public Works Protection Act. If the governmemnt wants to claim the authority to designate security areas to protect persons, an integrated statute should be created that could be used not only to protect public works but also provide proper authority for ensuring the security of persons during public events when required.
2. The Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Safety Services should examine whether the range of police powers conferred by the Public works Protection Act should be retained or imported into any revised statute, including whether it is appropriate to give police the authority to arrest those who have already been excluded entry to secured areas, and whether it is appropriate to authorize guards and peace officers to offer conclusive testimony, whether righ or wrong, about the location of security boundaries
3 The Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services should develop a protocal that would call for public information campaigns when police powers are modified by suboordinate legislation, particularly in protest situations.
4. The Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services should report back to my Office in six months' time on the progress in implementing my recommedations and at six month intervals thereafter until such time as I am satified that adequate steps have been taken to address them

CONCLUSION OF CAUGHT IN THE ACT

THE CONCLUSION FROM ANDRE MARIN
PARAGRAPH 273
It is therefore my conclusion, pursuant to subsection 21(1) of the Ombudsman Act, that the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services promoted a regulation that "appears to be contrary to law" and not "in accordance with the provisions of any Act". It is also unreasonable to support the adoption of that regulation, given that it conferred unnecessary and constitutionally suspect police powers in the volatile and confrontational context of inevitable public protest. Moreover, the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services unreasonably and unjustly failed, in advance of its enactment, to ensure both proper consultation with stakeholders and that the citizens of this province were aware of the highly exceptional police authority that had been conferred.
Paragraph 274
The government has already announced that the Public Works Protection Act will be reviewed, with full input from stakeholders. This is a welcome step in the right direction. I am making two specific recommendations that I believe should be considered in the context of this review.
Paragraph 275
My third recommendation is intended to address the Minister's failure to ensure proper communication of a regulation that effectively increased police powers. Generally, police authority is conferred through enactment of legislation, accompanied by the openness, transparency, and accountability inherent in the democratic system of government. There is a real and insidious danger associated with using subordinate legislation, passed behind closed doors, to increase police authority, and I believe that this practise should be sedulously avoided. However, I recognize that there may be rare, and urgent and pressing circumstances that justify using a regulation to bolster police authority. In the event that this occurs, it is imperative that the public be properly advised. In fact, in any case where police powers are extended, and particularly in protest situations, I believe that the public should be fully informed.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

CAUGHT IN THE ACT - THE G 20 SUMMIT REPORT

BY THE OMBUDSMAN OF ONTARIO, ANDRE' MARIN - DECEMBER 2010
1. Regulation 233/10, passed to enhance security during the G20 summit, should never have been enacted. It was likely unconstitutional. The effect of Regulation 233/10, now expired, was to infringe on freedom of expression in ways that do not seem justifiable in a free and democratic society. Specifically, the passage of the regulation triggered the extravagant police authority found in the Public Works Protection Act, including the power to arbitarily arrest and detain people and engage in unreasonable searches and seizures. Even apart from the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the legality of Regulation 233/10 is doubtful. The Public Works Protection Act under which it was proclaimed authorizes regulations to be created to protect infrastructure, not to provide security to people during events. Regulation 233/10 was therefore probably invalid for having exceeded the authority of the enactment under which it was passed. These problems should have been apparent, and given the tremendous power Regulation 233/10 confered on the police, sober and considered reflection should have been given to whether it was appropriate to arm officers with such authority. This was not done. The decision of the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services to sponsor the regulation was unreasonable.
2. Even had Regulation 233/10 been valid, the goverment should have handled its passage better. Regulation 233/10 changed the rules of the game. It gave police powers that are unfamiliar in a free and democratic society. Steps should have been taken to ensure that the Toronto Police Services understood what they were getting. More importantly, the passage of the regulation should have been aggressively publicized, not diclosed only through obsecure official information channels. Perversely, by changing the rules of the game without real notice, Regulation 233/10 acted as a trap for the responsible- those who took the time to educate themselves about police powers before setting out to express legitamate political dissent.
3. All of this makes for a sorry legacy. The value in hosting international summits is that it permits the host nation to primp and pose before the eyes of the world. Ordinarily Ontario and Canada could proudly showcase the majesty of a free and democratic society. The legacy of the passage and administration of Regulation 233/10 is that we failed to do that well.

THE ' N ' WORD

IS IT RIGHT TO REWRITE MARK TWAIN'S MASTERPIECE
A new version of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn drew fire by replacing the word "nigger" with the word "slave" and "Injun Joe" with "Indian Joe" to make the book more acceptable to teachers. (In Twain's day, changing words to make literature more politically palatable was called "bowdlerization" after Thomas Bowdler, an English physician who published a "cleansed" version of William Shakespeare's work he deemed more appropriate for 19th century women and children). It isn't often that a new edition of a 19th century novel draws such heated condemnation.
Meanwhile papers were also abuzz this week with debate over the use of the "N" word after a U.S. anchorman sued WTXF-Philadelphia, which had fired him for using it ( he was querying whether the station should use the term 'N-word" or the word itself to cover a story about the NAACP holding a mock burial of the word). And Thursday night, two Ontario minor hockey teams- The Napa Auto Parts and Austin Trophies- played against each other for the first time since the Napa coach pulled his team from the ice in November after a memeber of the opposing team yelled the "N-word" at one of his players. The teams tied, and the coach hopes they all learned a lesson.
Mark Twain's book Huckleberry Finn is No 4 on the list of of most banned books in American schools.
Attempting to sanitize the book is not the answer. Intelligent and sensitive discussion with students would be a better response. Trying to protect students from the full ugliness of racisim by softening that language does a disservice to them.
Sticks and stone may break my bones but names will never hurt me.