They may have socialized medicine and spend their days playing hockey while slurping down copious amounts of maple syrup, but that doesn't mean that Canadians aren't down with the latest technological trends. In fact, a recent study shows that Canada is actually the most web-friendly nation on the planet.
ComScore reports that around 68% of Canadians regularly spend time online, with 51% of the population having a Facebook account. They spend 42 hours a month online (up from 40 last year), and watch an average 147 videos per month on YouTube and similar sites.
Britain and France are the next two countries with high internet usage, with each 62% of each country's population spending time online, followed by Germany, with 60%. Surprisingly, America only has 59% of its citizens regularly surfing the web, but that's still impressive when compared with Italy, where only 36% find the time to internet. Clearly, the next study should look into the link between freezing temperatures, snow and internet usage.
Read more: http://techland.time.com/2010/12/30/o-canada-nation-most-internet-friendly-in-world/#ixzz19fDdE5r5
I am a geek, world history buff, my interests and hobbies are too numerous to mention. I'm a political junkie with a cynical view. I also love law & aviation!
Friday, December 31, 2010
Thursday, December 30, 2010
In a string of recent decisions, Toronto judges have ordered hospital officials to stop shunting unfit offenders to provincial jails where they cannot be properly treated.
Judges are starting to fight back over Ontario mental hospitals that close their doors to mentally ill offenders.
In a string of recent decisions, Toronto judges have ordered hospital officials to stop shunting unfit offenders to provincial jails where they cannot be properly treated.
“The circumstances which have occurred constitute a serious affront to the authority of the court and a serious interference with the administration of justice,” Ontario Court Judge Fran Kiteley said, awarding legal costs against the Crown in one such case.
With hospital and jail officials locked in battle, police are having to warehouse mentally ill individuals in holding cells.
The problem dates back 30 years, when the province established a deinstitutionalizion policy and vast numbers of mentally ill people were discharged into the community. Many committed crimes and found themselves caught up in the criminal justice system.
In spite of court orders requiring that these offenders be assessed or treated in mental hospitals, some hospitals refused on the basis that they were too full. Instead, offenders ended up in jail. In recent weeks, however, judges have signalled that hospitals must find room, a concerted move that could force the government to finally address the issue.
“We are struck with taking them in our central lockup, which is not the best facility for somebody who is ill,” said Jerry Wiley, legal counsel to Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair. “No. 1, we are stuck with someone who is sick and may need treatment. No. 2, in some rare cases, they could be a danger to him or herself, or others.
“I’m not blaming anybody in particular, but I hate for us to be holding the bag. God forbid that one of these people should harm themselves or die in their cell. This has got to be resolved sooner or later.”
Meanwhile, lawyers for the mentally ill are hoping that out of the chaos will emerge permanent legislative changes to eliminate clients languishing in a jail subculture most cannot navigate.
“Kafkaesque, is what it’s called,” said Toronto defence counsel Chris Hynes. “Bureaucratic insanity. Down in Provincial Court, the judges who are a bit more activist are forcing the issue. They have seen this going on for too long. There is a war.”
Another defence lawyer, David Berg, said that after 30 years of controversy over the mistreatment of mentally ill offenders, the province may finally be shamed into providing proper funding to hospital forensic wings. “These people are unfit to stand trial and they are horribly ill,” he said. “What’s going on is unbelievable.”
The pushback by judges took form several weeks ago, when Madam Justice Maureen Forestell of Ontario Superior Court tore a strip off Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health for refusing to accept an offender, Bahaeddine Hneihen, who had been in the Don Jail for two months awaiting one of the centre’s 165 forensic beds.
“The detention of the applicant at the Don Jail was unlawful,” Judge Forestell said. “To do so, was in direct contravention of the valid court order. ... It cannot be overridden by an opaque and bureaucratic process with no discernible criteria, no temporal limitations and no appeal.”
Judge Kiteley went a step further. “The fact that the Crown takes the position that it can wash its hands of an accused person found unfit to stand trial is unacceptable, given that all of the proceedings are in Her Majesty’s name,” she said.
Ontario Court Judge Richard Schneider, who presides over Old City Hall courthouse’s mental health court, said in an interview that events have brought a long-standing problem to a head.
“I think its common ground that all parties involved in the system would agree that keeping mentally ordered accused who have been ordered to hospital in jail cells is counter-productive and worsens their prognosis,” Judge Schneider said. “We are mutually working toward improving the efficiency of the system. But at the end of the day, there is no doubt that we need further and better resources.”
Robert Singer, a mentally ill man who spent several weeks at the Don Jail last summer before a CAMH bed came open, said that jail conditions are horrendous for the mentally ill.
“Cold, dank, lonely, dark – and all they do is scream at you,” Mr. Singer said. “You very rarely get to see your psychiatrist. You have to tread very carefully. Some people are in there for life and are quite capable of heinous crimes.”
About 15 to 20 per cent of the Ontario jail population has a serious mental illness – 6,400 people at any point in time – said Graham Glancy, a Toronto forensic psychiatrist at Maplehurst Correctional Complex.
Dr. Glancy said that an entire row of cells at Maplehurst is reserved for chronically psychotic offenders who refuse to take medication. They are let out of their cells for just 20 minutes a day to shower or exercise.
“They have nothing,” Dr. Glancy said. “They just lie there. Out of boredom or passive aggression, some of them smear feces all over the walls and ceiling. It’s unbelievable. Every couple of weeks, you have to get a power washer to wash the walls.”
Many critics, including Dr. Glancy, accuse CAMH of focusing too much on patients and treatments that will enhance its international reputation – at the expense of unglamorous forensic patients.
“I’m absolutely convinced that CAMH has not made this a priority for the last 20 years,” Dr. Glancy said. “Cities like Ottawa and London are better resourced but Toronto is terrible. It’s a disgrace, really. They have not requested that the Ministry of Health give them the money for this. They could double their beds tomorrow and I’m sure we would move people into them.”
Mr. Hynes said that CAMH front-line workers pay the price for decisions made by the centre’s privatized board of directors. “Everyone just buys their disingenuous claims about funding,” he said. “Quite frankly, they are more interested in helping you grieve over your dead pet than they are about psychotic people. The real reason they don’t want to accept people is they don’t want CAMH to turn into the Don Jail.”
However, Sandy Simpson, clinical director of the Law and Mental Health Program at CAMH, disagreed. “It’s quite the opposite,” he said. “But the only answer to more demand is not more beds. We have just received funding to develop some other pathways of care. We are developing a range of options – not simply a bed option – to cope with the need.”
Like any other institution, CAMH staff have a finite budget, Dr. Simpson said. “Frankly, there is nothing opaque about the way decisions are made,” he said. “They are driven on judicial requirements and clinical need. We triage the needs of everybody who need care on that basis.”
While it is distressing to have mentally ill people caught up in the prison system, Dr. Simpson said, “making valid judicial orders where there is no space actually doesn’t create space. It is not that I am flouting them, or that CAMH is flouting them. We are simply unable sometimes to provide a bed to someone who is not in urgent need.”
But Toronto mental health lawyer Anita Szigeti said that money will continued to be siphoned away to fight for the welfare of mentally ill offenders as long as hospitals fail them.
“All of those dollars should be going to other things,” she said. “Instead, we are constantly draining away all sorts of money trying to enforce lawful court orders.”
In a string of recent decisions, Toronto judges have ordered hospital officials to stop shunting unfit offenders to provincial jails where they cannot be properly treated.
“The circumstances which have occurred constitute a serious affront to the authority of the court and a serious interference with the administration of justice,” Ontario Court Judge Fran Kiteley said, awarding legal costs against the Crown in one such case.
With hospital and jail officials locked in battle, police are having to warehouse mentally ill individuals in holding cells.
The problem dates back 30 years, when the province established a deinstitutionalizion policy and vast numbers of mentally ill people were discharged into the community. Many committed crimes and found themselves caught up in the criminal justice system.
In spite of court orders requiring that these offenders be assessed or treated in mental hospitals, some hospitals refused on the basis that they were too full. Instead, offenders ended up in jail. In recent weeks, however, judges have signalled that hospitals must find room, a concerted move that could force the government to finally address the issue.
“We are struck with taking them in our central lockup, which is not the best facility for somebody who is ill,” said Jerry Wiley, legal counsel to Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair. “No. 1, we are stuck with someone who is sick and may need treatment. No. 2, in some rare cases, they could be a danger to him or herself, or others.
“I’m not blaming anybody in particular, but I hate for us to be holding the bag. God forbid that one of these people should harm themselves or die in their cell. This has got to be resolved sooner or later.”
Meanwhile, lawyers for the mentally ill are hoping that out of the chaos will emerge permanent legislative changes to eliminate clients languishing in a jail subculture most cannot navigate.
“Kafkaesque, is what it’s called,” said Toronto defence counsel Chris Hynes. “Bureaucratic insanity. Down in Provincial Court, the judges who are a bit more activist are forcing the issue. They have seen this going on for too long. There is a war.”
Another defence lawyer, David Berg, said that after 30 years of controversy over the mistreatment of mentally ill offenders, the province may finally be shamed into providing proper funding to hospital forensic wings. “These people are unfit to stand trial and they are horribly ill,” he said. “What’s going on is unbelievable.”
The pushback by judges took form several weeks ago, when Madam Justice Maureen Forestell of Ontario Superior Court tore a strip off Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health for refusing to accept an offender, Bahaeddine Hneihen, who had been in the Don Jail for two months awaiting one of the centre’s 165 forensic beds.
“The detention of the applicant at the Don Jail was unlawful,” Judge Forestell said. “To do so, was in direct contravention of the valid court order. ... It cannot be overridden by an opaque and bureaucratic process with no discernible criteria, no temporal limitations and no appeal.”
Judge Kiteley went a step further. “The fact that the Crown takes the position that it can wash its hands of an accused person found unfit to stand trial is unacceptable, given that all of the proceedings are in Her Majesty’s name,” she said.
Ontario Court Judge Richard Schneider, who presides over Old City Hall courthouse’s mental health court, said in an interview that events have brought a long-standing problem to a head.
“I think its common ground that all parties involved in the system would agree that keeping mentally ordered accused who have been ordered to hospital in jail cells is counter-productive and worsens their prognosis,” Judge Schneider said. “We are mutually working toward improving the efficiency of the system. But at the end of the day, there is no doubt that we need further and better resources.”
Robert Singer, a mentally ill man who spent several weeks at the Don Jail last summer before a CAMH bed came open, said that jail conditions are horrendous for the mentally ill.
“Cold, dank, lonely, dark – and all they do is scream at you,” Mr. Singer said. “You very rarely get to see your psychiatrist. You have to tread very carefully. Some people are in there for life and are quite capable of heinous crimes.”
About 15 to 20 per cent of the Ontario jail population has a serious mental illness – 6,400 people at any point in time – said Graham Glancy, a Toronto forensic psychiatrist at Maplehurst Correctional Complex.
Dr. Glancy said that an entire row of cells at Maplehurst is reserved for chronically psychotic offenders who refuse to take medication. They are let out of their cells for just 20 minutes a day to shower or exercise.
“They have nothing,” Dr. Glancy said. “They just lie there. Out of boredom or passive aggression, some of them smear feces all over the walls and ceiling. It’s unbelievable. Every couple of weeks, you have to get a power washer to wash the walls.”
Many critics, including Dr. Glancy, accuse CAMH of focusing too much on patients and treatments that will enhance its international reputation – at the expense of unglamorous forensic patients.
“I’m absolutely convinced that CAMH has not made this a priority for the last 20 years,” Dr. Glancy said. “Cities like Ottawa and London are better resourced but Toronto is terrible. It’s a disgrace, really. They have not requested that the Ministry of Health give them the money for this. They could double their beds tomorrow and I’m sure we would move people into them.”
Mr. Hynes said that CAMH front-line workers pay the price for decisions made by the centre’s privatized board of directors. “Everyone just buys their disingenuous claims about funding,” he said. “Quite frankly, they are more interested in helping you grieve over your dead pet than they are about psychotic people. The real reason they don’t want to accept people is they don’t want CAMH to turn into the Don Jail.”
However, Sandy Simpson, clinical director of the Law and Mental Health Program at CAMH, disagreed. “It’s quite the opposite,” he said. “But the only answer to more demand is not more beds. We have just received funding to develop some other pathways of care. We are developing a range of options – not simply a bed option – to cope with the need.”
Like any other institution, CAMH staff have a finite budget, Dr. Simpson said. “Frankly, there is nothing opaque about the way decisions are made,” he said. “They are driven on judicial requirements and clinical need. We triage the needs of everybody who need care on that basis.”
While it is distressing to have mentally ill people caught up in the prison system, Dr. Simpson said, “making valid judicial orders where there is no space actually doesn’t create space. It is not that I am flouting them, or that CAMH is flouting them. We are simply unable sometimes to provide a bed to someone who is not in urgent need.”
But Toronto mental health lawyer Anita Szigeti said that money will continued to be siphoned away to fight for the welfare of mentally ill offenders as long as hospitals fail them.
“All of those dollars should be going to other things,” she said. “Instead, we are constantly draining away all sorts of money trying to enforce lawful court orders.”
A public safety committee report that studies mental health and addictions in prisons recommends the federal government restore its prison farm program to help inmates with rehabilitation.
OTTAWA — A public safety committee report that studies mental health and addictions in prisons recommends the federal government restore its prison farm program to help inmates with rehabilitation.
The Mental Health and Drug and Alcohol Addiction in the Federal Correctional System report, presented to the House of Commons on Dec. 14, is the result of an investigation that began in April 2009 and was created in response to the death of 19-year-old inmate Ashley Smith who choked to death in her prison cell.
Opposition MPs on the committee held public hearings in Ottawa, visited prisons in Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick and interviewed several organizations, such as the Canadian Mental Health Association, before compiling a list of 71 recommendations.
They also visited Norway and England to help with their review of the policies and programs adopted by Correctional Service of Canada.
Among its long list of recommendations, the committee suggested restoring the “excellent” prison farm program because it would offer inmates an opportunity to work with living things. The committee reported that research shows the interaction has a calming and “restorative” effect. It would also help inmates “develop qualities that offenders often lack,” naming respect, empathy, responsibility and dependability as examples.
In August, animals from the Frontenac Institution in Kingston, Ont., were shipped to the Ontario Livestock Exchange in Waterloo, Ont., killing the last of six prison farms across Canada.
In February 2009, Correctional Service of Canada said it would close the nation’s prison farms by March 2011. About 300 prisoners worked at the farms, and learned to take care of animals, harvest crops, cut meats, pasteurize milk and sort eggs. The products were sent to nearby prisons and leftovers were donated to local food banks.
The federal government recorded $7.5 million in revenues from the six farms in 2007-08, but expenses were $11.6 million, leaving CSC with nearly $4 million in operation costs for the farms.
At the time, officials decided the money put into the farming program would be better used to “provide more relevant employment skills” to rehabilitate prisoners in contemporary trades.
The animals from the Kingston prison farm sold for $293,000 and the government made another $623,590 off the cattle sold from other prison farm closures, according to records obtained in August by Postmedia News.
The report states that about 80 per cent of offenders serving sentences of two years or more in Canada’s 57 federal penitentiaries have problems with drugs or alcohol.
It urged Correctional Service of Canada to “give priority” to improve how it handles mental-health issues: the authors say the prison environment is harmful to mental health.
“This is a public-safety issue because offenders who fail to receive appropriate treatment while in custody are more likely to reoffend after release, thus threatening the security of all Canadians,” the report states.
A Conservative spokesman said the government’s priorities are focused on keeping law-abiding Canadian families safe while ensuring victims receive support that they need.
"We could not disagree more with the misguided priorities of the Ignatieff Liberals and their coalition partners," Chris McCluskey, spokesman for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said in an email.
He said opposition parties "refuse to accept" that none of the offenders who participated in the prison farm program found employment in the agricultural sector.
Over the past five years, less than one per cent of those released found related employment.
"The failed prison farm program operated at a net loss of $4.1 million annually. Our government will instead continue to support programs that provide offenders with marketable skills for today’s employment realities," McCluskey said.
Read more: http://www.canada.com/health/Restore+prison+farms+inmates+public+safety+committee+report+says/4038880/story.html#ixzz19ZJClPY6
The Mental Health and Drug and Alcohol Addiction in the Federal Correctional System report, presented to the House of Commons on Dec. 14, is the result of an investigation that began in April 2009 and was created in response to the death of 19-year-old inmate Ashley Smith who choked to death in her prison cell.
Opposition MPs on the committee held public hearings in Ottawa, visited prisons in Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick and interviewed several organizations, such as the Canadian Mental Health Association, before compiling a list of 71 recommendations.
They also visited Norway and England to help with their review of the policies and programs adopted by Correctional Service of Canada.
Among its long list of recommendations, the committee suggested restoring the “excellent” prison farm program because it would offer inmates an opportunity to work with living things. The committee reported that research shows the interaction has a calming and “restorative” effect. It would also help inmates “develop qualities that offenders often lack,” naming respect, empathy, responsibility and dependability as examples.
In August, animals from the Frontenac Institution in Kingston, Ont., were shipped to the Ontario Livestock Exchange in Waterloo, Ont., killing the last of six prison farms across Canada.
In February 2009, Correctional Service of Canada said it would close the nation’s prison farms by March 2011. About 300 prisoners worked at the farms, and learned to take care of animals, harvest crops, cut meats, pasteurize milk and sort eggs. The products were sent to nearby prisons and leftovers were donated to local food banks.
The federal government recorded $7.5 million in revenues from the six farms in 2007-08, but expenses were $11.6 million, leaving CSC with nearly $4 million in operation costs for the farms.
At the time, officials decided the money put into the farming program would be better used to “provide more relevant employment skills” to rehabilitate prisoners in contemporary trades.
The animals from the Kingston prison farm sold for $293,000 and the government made another $623,590 off the cattle sold from other prison farm closures, according to records obtained in August by Postmedia News.
The report states that about 80 per cent of offenders serving sentences of two years or more in Canada’s 57 federal penitentiaries have problems with drugs or alcohol.
It urged Correctional Service of Canada to “give priority” to improve how it handles mental-health issues: the authors say the prison environment is harmful to mental health.
“This is a public-safety issue because offenders who fail to receive appropriate treatment while in custody are more likely to reoffend after release, thus threatening the security of all Canadians,” the report states.
A Conservative spokesman said the government’s priorities are focused on keeping law-abiding Canadian families safe while ensuring victims receive support that they need.
"We could not disagree more with the misguided priorities of the Ignatieff Liberals and their coalition partners," Chris McCluskey, spokesman for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said in an email.
He said opposition parties "refuse to accept" that none of the offenders who participated in the prison farm program found employment in the agricultural sector.
Over the past five years, less than one per cent of those released found related employment.
"The failed prison farm program operated at a net loss of $4.1 million annually. Our government will instead continue to support programs that provide offenders with marketable skills for today’s employment realities," McCluskey said.
Read more: http://www.canada.com/health/Restore+prison+farms+inmates+public+safety+committee+report+says/4038880/story.html#ixzz19ZJClPY6
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Brace yourself Canada. The year of bland is over. In 2011, we'll return you to your normal federal politics program.
The point often overlooked in the overkill of 2010 Canadian politics analysis is how bland is not necessarily bad.
Any year in politics highlighted by a "fake lake" in the Toronto G20 media centre, a briefly unplugged Parliament and a Liberal leader's summer bus tour can only be good news for Canadian voters sick of paying for a circus on Parliament Hill.
With airport temper tantrums by cabinet ministers, a sole-sourced fighter jet contract and the fuss over Afghan detainee documents passing for major scandals, 2010 goes down as a Seinfeldian year about nothing, at least nothing capable of dramatically swinging voter preferences.
That's why the year ahead appears infinitely more interesting – and this has nothing to do with my hopes for federal fireworks as new host of Power Play on CTV News Channel.
Consider what's on the horizon – and keep in mind the ruckus over prorogation, the end of the mandatory long-form census and Saskatchewan potash takeovers weren't in anybody's crystal ball a year ago, so there are bound to be plenty of unexpected surprises.
It's almost a no-brainer there will be a federal election in 2011, the only suspense being the timing of the trigger pull to start the campaign. It could be the spring budget or, in my view, is more likely to be caused by an unforeseen government move in the fall, but it has to happen.
Given how the Liberals and New Democrats warn the Conservatives are dragging Canada in precisely the wrong direction on so many fronts, it defies belief they'd support the government beyond a third full year in power.
To let 2011 pass without voting them down in a loss of confidence would portray the opposition leaders as perennial fetal position whiners, insisting they'd provide a much-needed superior alternative while allowing the government to deliver a majority-length mandate.
The vote will, if early indications hold, offer Canadians an unusually stark choice at the ballot box.
The Conservatives will favor pro-business income tax cuts and gradual budget belt-tightening against an Official Opposition who believes there's value in spending more on enhanced health programs and pension plans.
That sets up a showdown between big spenders verses even bigger spenders played out to the soundtrack of Prime Minister Stephen Harper demanding a Conservative majority to prevent a theoretical coalition of opposition parties from seizing power.
The campaign cacophony promises to be a deafening mixture of the usual exaggerations and fabrications delivered in particularly nasty form by all sides.
But the oncoming year in federal politics will feature more than dirty election games.
The Afghanistan mission will move north out of Kandahar to the relatively safety of Kabul in July, sending combat troops home and leaving a thousand soldiers behind armed with blackboards and textbooks to train the fledgling Afghan army. Hopefully that will make ramp ceremonies, repatriation services and highway overpass salutes a thing of the past.
Watch out for the mother of all procurement battles in the fall as the Canadian navy and Coast Guard place a $30-billion-plus order for assorted military and patrol vessels. Controversy is guaranteed because the contracts will be awarded to only two of the three large shipyards. Politics will come into play around the cabinet table as B.C., Quebec and Nova Scotia shipbuilders (and their ministers) fight for a share of the economic boost the business will bring to their regions.
On the fiscal front, the first cut of the budget blade will take place in February or March when Finance Minister Jim Flaherty begins the ambitious process of eliminating history's largest Canadian deficit within four years.
This can only be done by deep program cuts which go far beyond any nip and tuck, so hard decisions loom on the horizon. Talk of deficit reduction through slashed MP hospitality spending won't do much unless the books fail to record a lot of high-flying and dining by the politicians.
And so, welcome to the madness of Election Year 2011, a clash which seems certain to happen even though almost every poll has shown voters prefer the status quo of a stable Conservative minority.
Brace yourself Canada. The year of bland is over. In 2011, we'll return you to your normal federal politics program.
Any year in politics highlighted by a "fake lake" in the Toronto G20 media centre, a briefly unplugged Parliament and a Liberal leader's summer bus tour can only be good news for Canadian voters sick of paying for a circus on Parliament Hill.
With airport temper tantrums by cabinet ministers, a sole-sourced fighter jet contract and the fuss over Afghan detainee documents passing for major scandals, 2010 goes down as a Seinfeldian year about nothing, at least nothing capable of dramatically swinging voter preferences.
That's why the year ahead appears infinitely more interesting – and this has nothing to do with my hopes for federal fireworks as new host of Power Play on CTV News Channel.
Consider what's on the horizon – and keep in mind the ruckus over prorogation, the end of the mandatory long-form census and Saskatchewan potash takeovers weren't in anybody's crystal ball a year ago, so there are bound to be plenty of unexpected surprises.
It's almost a no-brainer there will be a federal election in 2011, the only suspense being the timing of the trigger pull to start the campaign. It could be the spring budget or, in my view, is more likely to be caused by an unforeseen government move in the fall, but it has to happen.
Given how the Liberals and New Democrats warn the Conservatives are dragging Canada in precisely the wrong direction on so many fronts, it defies belief they'd support the government beyond a third full year in power.
To let 2011 pass without voting them down in a loss of confidence would portray the opposition leaders as perennial fetal position whiners, insisting they'd provide a much-needed superior alternative while allowing the government to deliver a majority-length mandate.
The vote will, if early indications hold, offer Canadians an unusually stark choice at the ballot box.
The Conservatives will favor pro-business income tax cuts and gradual budget belt-tightening against an Official Opposition who believes there's value in spending more on enhanced health programs and pension plans.
That sets up a showdown between big spenders verses even bigger spenders played out to the soundtrack of Prime Minister Stephen Harper demanding a Conservative majority to prevent a theoretical coalition of opposition parties from seizing power.
The campaign cacophony promises to be a deafening mixture of the usual exaggerations and fabrications delivered in particularly nasty form by all sides.
But the oncoming year in federal politics will feature more than dirty election games.
The Afghanistan mission will move north out of Kandahar to the relatively safety of Kabul in July, sending combat troops home and leaving a thousand soldiers behind armed with blackboards and textbooks to train the fledgling Afghan army. Hopefully that will make ramp ceremonies, repatriation services and highway overpass salutes a thing of the past.
Watch out for the mother of all procurement battles in the fall as the Canadian navy and Coast Guard place a $30-billion-plus order for assorted military and patrol vessels. Controversy is guaranteed because the contracts will be awarded to only two of the three large shipyards. Politics will come into play around the cabinet table as B.C., Quebec and Nova Scotia shipbuilders (and their ministers) fight for a share of the economic boost the business will bring to their regions.
On the fiscal front, the first cut of the budget blade will take place in February or March when Finance Minister Jim Flaherty begins the ambitious process of eliminating history's largest Canadian deficit within four years.
This can only be done by deep program cuts which go far beyond any nip and tuck, so hard decisions loom on the horizon. Talk of deficit reduction through slashed MP hospitality spending won't do much unless the books fail to record a lot of high-flying and dining by the politicians.
And so, welcome to the madness of Election Year 2011, a clash which seems certain to happen even though almost every poll has shown voters prefer the status quo of a stable Conservative minority.
Brace yourself Canada. The year of bland is over. In 2011, we'll return you to your normal federal politics program.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
The Supreme Court of Canada agreed Thursday to settle an epic pay-equity dispute involving women employed at Canada Post, which has persisted for more than a quarter of a century.
OTTAWA — The Supreme Court of Canada agreed Thursday to settle an epic pay-equity dispute involving women employed at Canada Post, which has persisted for more than a quarter of a century.
Without giving reasons, the court granted leave to appeal to the Public Service Alliance of Canada and the Canadian Human Rights Commission, who are challenging earlier court rulings that overturned a $150-million pay-equity award, stemming from a 1983 union complaint against the post office.
The union says that women were being discriminated against under the Canadian Human Rights Act because they made less than men working in jobs of equal value.
A 2005 human-rights tribunal sided with the employees, but the decision was overturned by the Federal Court in 2008 and the Federal Court of Appeal earlier this year.
In his 2008 judgment, Justice Michael Kelen concluded there was little evidence of wage discrimination based on gender.
Canada Post had argued that the wage disparity was due to different bargaining practices by different unions representing workers.
The union initially sought $300 million for some 6,000 women, but the human rights tribunal awarded $150 million.
Read more: http://www.canada.com/business/Canada+Post+equity+dispute+before+Supreme+Court/3987326/story.html#ixzz19O148g3v
Without giving reasons, the court granted leave to appeal to the Public Service Alliance of Canada and the Canadian Human Rights Commission, who are challenging earlier court rulings that overturned a $150-million pay-equity award, stemming from a 1983 union complaint against the post office.
The union says that women were being discriminated against under the Canadian Human Rights Act because they made less than men working in jobs of equal value.
A 2005 human-rights tribunal sided with the employees, but the decision was overturned by the Federal Court in 2008 and the Federal Court of Appeal earlier this year.
In his 2008 judgment, Justice Michael Kelen concluded there was little evidence of wage discrimination based on gender.
Canada Post had argued that the wage disparity was due to different bargaining practices by different unions representing workers.
The union initially sought $300 million for some 6,000 women, but the human rights tribunal awarded $150 million.
Read more: http://www.canada.com/business/Canada+Post+equity+dispute+before+Supreme+Court/3987326/story.html#ixzz19O148g3v
Monday, December 27, 2010
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Defence confirms breach of veterans’ privacy : spokeswoman confirmed .
OTTAWA — Several Canadian Forces veterans were victims of a privacy breach when some of their personal information was included in another veteran’s file, a Defence Department spokeswoman confirmed Saturday.
“The Canadian Forces acknowledge that medical records were inadvertently given to the wrong person,” Jennifer Eckersley said. “The Canadian Forces will ensure this does not happen again.”
The Department of Defence launched an investigation after the veteran found the social insurance numbers, blood test results and other personal information belonging to dozens of veterans mixed in with his file.
Read more: http://www.canada.com/news/Defence+confirms+breach+veterans+privacy/4025458/story.html#ixzz19BzHTDyK
“The Canadian Forces acknowledge that medical records were inadvertently given to the wrong person,” Jennifer Eckersley said. “The Canadian Forces will ensure this does not happen again.”
The Department of Defence launched an investigation after the veteran found the social insurance numbers, blood test results and other personal information belonging to dozens of veterans mixed in with his file.
Read more: http://www.canada.com/news/Defence+confirms+breach+veterans+privacy/4025458/story.html#ixzz19BzHTDyK
Saturday, December 25, 2010
154 members of the Canadian Forces have been killed serving in the Afghanistan mission. Four Canadian civilians have also been killed, including one diplomat, one journalist and two aid workers. : Last Updated December 20, 2010.
Since 2002, 154 members of the Canadian Forces have been killed serving in the Afghanistan mission.
Four Canadian civilians have also been killed, including one diplomat, one journalist and two aid workers.