Adobe today confirmed that the Flash Player bug it patched Sunday is being used to steal login credentials of Google's Gmail users.
The vulnerability was patched yesterday in an "out-of-band," or emergency update. The fix was the second in less than four weeks for Flash, and the fifth this year. A weekend patch is very unusual for Adobe.
"We have reports that this vulnerability is being exploited in the wild in active targeted attacks designed to trick the user into clicking on a malicious link delivered in an email message," said Adobe spokeswoman Wiebke Lips in response to questions today. "The reports we received indicate that the current attacks are targeting Gmail specifically. However, we cannot assume that other Web mail providers may not be targeted as well."
According to Adobe's advisory, the Flash vulnerability is a cross-site scripting bug.
Cross-site scripting flaws are often used by identity thieves to hijack usernames and passwords from vulnerable browsers. In this case, browsers themselves are not targeted; rather, attackers are exploiting the Flash Player browser plug-in, which virtually every user has installed.
Adobe said that Google reported the Flash Player flaw to its security team.
Targeted attacks that try to steal account information are commonplace, but they've been prominent in the news since last Wednesday, when Google accused Chinese hackers of targeting senior U.S. government officials and others in a long-running campaign to pilfer Gmail usernames and passwords.
China has denied Google's allegations. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is looking into Google's charges.
The attacks aimed at stealing Gmail account information using the Flash Player vulnerability, however, are different than those Google acknowledged last week. Those attacks, which have been active since at least February, did not rely on an exploit, and instead duped victims into entering their username and password on a fake Gmail login screen.
Adobe updated the Windows, Mac OS X and Linux versions of Flash Player Sunday, and said it would follow that with a patch for the Android edition sometime this week.
Google, which bundles Flash Player with Chrome, also updated its browser on Sunday, refreshing all three of its distribution channels -- stable, beta and dev -- to include the patched version of Flash.
Adobe rated the bug as "important," the second-highest ranking in its four-step threat scoring system. In Adobe's scheme, that rating indicates that attackers may be able to access data on the victimized computer, but cannot plant malware on the machine.
Although most Flash vulnerabilities can also be exploited using specially-crafted PDF documents -- Adobe's Reader includes a component named "authplay.dll" that renders Flash content in PDFs -- Adobe said it wasn't sure whether its popular Reader contained the flaw.
"Adobe is still investigating the impact to the Authplay.dll component," the company's advisory stated. "Adobe is not aware of any attacks targeting Adobe Reader or Acrobat in the wild."
While Adobe did not say whether Reader -- and the for-a-fee Acrobat -- will be patched, the programs are slated for an update June 14 to fix other flaws the company has previously acknowledged in authplay.dll.
Users running browsers other than Chrome can download the patched version of Flash Player from Adobe's site.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Tories reject leadership vote rule changes resolution take away citizenship from anyone who takes up arms against the Canadian Forces or their allies was also defeated.
Conservative delegates rejected a motion on Saturday that proposed changes to how the party chooses its leaders after a challenge from the floor and a debate between party stalwarts.
Supporters of the current points system mounted a successful challenge to hearing the resolution at the party's Ottawa convention, despite the "balanced leadership" proposal's author MP Scott Reid collecting the required 100 signatures from 100 ridings.
The proposal pitted Reid and other high-profile Conservatives such as Jason Kenney against Defence Minister Peter MacKay, who negotiated the current rule of equality of ridings when he helped create the Conservative Party.
The delegates also voted down a motion to enshrine riding equality into the party's constitution, meaning it's possible the "one member, one vote" battle will be back at the next convention two years from now.
In a separate vote Saturday, the final day of the three-day convention, delegates passed a resolution saying the party supports the freedom of religious organizations to refuse to perform same-sex marriages or allow the use of their facilities for events incompatible with their faith and beliefs.
The resolution changed the wording of an existing party policy on gay marriage, which said the Conservative "government" supported legislation saying marriage is between one man and one woman, with delegates voting to change it to say the Conservative Party supports the move.
The resolutions set party policy but are not binding on the government.
Gay marriage has long been a thorn in the side of the party and an issue opposition parties have used to paint the Tories as behind the times. Canadian courts started the process of allowing gay marriage in 2003 and the Liberal government in 2005 passed a law making it legal.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper allowed a free vote on a motion whether to re-open the same-sex marriage debate in the House of Commons soon after the Conservatives took power in 2006. After the motion was defeated, Harper said he didn't want to revisit the issue.
But the ability of religious organizations to be able to say no to performing the ceremonies has been an irritant to the party's grassroots supporters.
Divisive battle over ridings
On the ridings debate, Reid said the delegates reserved the right to keep looking at the issue by defeating the motion.
"The fact that this particular version wasn't accepted by delegates today doesn't necessarily mean that there can't be a better design," he said. "And one should always leave that option open."
Resolutions defeated:
C-111 — to allow Conservative Fund board members to vote at conventions
C-104 — to keep riding associations "well-informed" of National Council decisions
C-128 and C-132 — to put one representative from each territory on the party's national constitution and policy commissions
Motion from the floor to bar MP spouses from sitting on the national council
Motion from the floor to enshrine riding equality in the party's constitution
Resolutions passed:
C-101 — to deny party membership to anyone who holds a membership in another party
C-108 — to replace departing National Council members with a representative from the same province or territory
C-125 — a housekeeping vote that moves the article on the leader nominating the party's executive director
To cut taxes for families providing homecare
To eliminate taxation on taxes
To end support for a cap-and-trade system to lessen greenhouse gas emissions
To eliminate the inclusion of parental income in calculating a student's need for a loan
To allow eight extra months of interest relief on student loans
To encourage immigrants to adapt to Canadian values and traditions
Under the current rules, every association is allocated 100 points, no matter how many members it has, which get divided depending on how the association's members vote. Reid's proposal, framed as the compromise motion, called for a 100-point base plus one point assigned for each member over 100, but with a 400-point cap.
MacKay said Friday the latest motion is technically the fourth time the party's had the discussion. Each time, he said, members have soundly defeated the idea.
"We had the discussion in the original discussion to bring the Conservative Party together, so it was rigourously debated at that time," he said, adding the party also debated it at the last two conventions in Montreal and Winnipeg.
"Now the membership have again pronounced themselves against changes to a formula that promotes equality, a formula that wins and a formula that is inclusive and doesn't marginalize any region of the country, like Quebec, Atlantic Canada, the territories or rural ridings that sometimes have difficulty between elections keeping their membership high."
In an interview airing Saturday on CBC Radio's The House, Kenney argued it's only fair for electoral district associations with more card-carrying members to have more weight than smaller associations.
"A riding member with five or 10 members gets the same weight as a riding with 5,000 members," Kenney told host Chris Hall. "There is a real lack of equity there and there is no incentive for the riding with five or 10 members to grow, to recruit, to sell new membership.
"I think there's a reasonable argument to be made for the single-member vote, a reasonable argument for equality of ridings.… Why don't we try to blend the best of both systems with a compromise? For me that's kind of self-evident."
The resolutions being considered by 2,300 delegates are to guide the creation of to party's platform, but are not binding on the government.
Delegates also passed a resolution to simplify the tax code, as well as to make anyone convicted of two offences causing death or serious harm a dangerous offender. A controversial resolution to take away citizenship from anyone who takes up arms against the Canadian Forces or their allies was defeated.
Also on justice issues, the party passed a resolution pledging it "does not support a parallel justice system which would contravene our existing rights and freedoms," and another that rejects "the normalization of prostitution." The resolution says the party will work to prevent legalizing bawdy houses, living off the avails of prostitution and communication for the purpose of prostitution.
In other votes Saturday, delegates also passed resolutions in support of ensuring veterans have the benefits and services they deserve and changing the Divorce Act to give grandparents a shot at shared parenting.
In keeping with the government's tough-on-crime talk, the party adopted a resolution to take a proactive approach to reducing human smuggling through sanctions, and to promote democracy in countries where refugees originate.
Supporters of the current points system mounted a successful challenge to hearing the resolution at the party's Ottawa convention, despite the "balanced leadership" proposal's author MP Scott Reid collecting the required 100 signatures from 100 ridings.
The proposal pitted Reid and other high-profile Conservatives such as Jason Kenney against Defence Minister Peter MacKay, who negotiated the current rule of equality of ridings when he helped create the Conservative Party.
The delegates also voted down a motion to enshrine riding equality into the party's constitution, meaning it's possible the "one member, one vote" battle will be back at the next convention two years from now.
In a separate vote Saturday, the final day of the three-day convention, delegates passed a resolution saying the party supports the freedom of religious organizations to refuse to perform same-sex marriages or allow the use of their facilities for events incompatible with their faith and beliefs.
The resolution changed the wording of an existing party policy on gay marriage, which said the Conservative "government" supported legislation saying marriage is between one man and one woman, with delegates voting to change it to say the Conservative Party supports the move.
The resolutions set party policy but are not binding on the government.
Gay marriage has long been a thorn in the side of the party and an issue opposition parties have used to paint the Tories as behind the times. Canadian courts started the process of allowing gay marriage in 2003 and the Liberal government in 2005 passed a law making it legal.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper allowed a free vote on a motion whether to re-open the same-sex marriage debate in the House of Commons soon after the Conservatives took power in 2006. After the motion was defeated, Harper said he didn't want to revisit the issue.
But the ability of religious organizations to be able to say no to performing the ceremonies has been an irritant to the party's grassroots supporters.
Divisive battle over ridings
On the ridings debate, Reid said the delegates reserved the right to keep looking at the issue by defeating the motion.
"The fact that this particular version wasn't accepted by delegates today doesn't necessarily mean that there can't be a better design," he said. "And one should always leave that option open."
Resolutions defeated:
C-111 — to allow Conservative Fund board members to vote at conventions
C-104 — to keep riding associations "well-informed" of National Council decisions
C-128 and C-132 — to put one representative from each territory on the party's national constitution and policy commissions
Motion from the floor to bar MP spouses from sitting on the national council
Motion from the floor to enshrine riding equality in the party's constitution
Resolutions passed:
C-101 — to deny party membership to anyone who holds a membership in another party
C-108 — to replace departing National Council members with a representative from the same province or territory
C-125 — a housekeeping vote that moves the article on the leader nominating the party's executive director
To cut taxes for families providing homecare
To eliminate taxation on taxes
To end support for a cap-and-trade system to lessen greenhouse gas emissions
To eliminate the inclusion of parental income in calculating a student's need for a loan
To allow eight extra months of interest relief on student loans
To encourage immigrants to adapt to Canadian values and traditions
Under the current rules, every association is allocated 100 points, no matter how many members it has, which get divided depending on how the association's members vote. Reid's proposal, framed as the compromise motion, called for a 100-point base plus one point assigned for each member over 100, but with a 400-point cap.
MacKay said Friday the latest motion is technically the fourth time the party's had the discussion. Each time, he said, members have soundly defeated the idea.
"We had the discussion in the original discussion to bring the Conservative Party together, so it was rigourously debated at that time," he said, adding the party also debated it at the last two conventions in Montreal and Winnipeg.
"Now the membership have again pronounced themselves against changes to a formula that promotes equality, a formula that wins and a formula that is inclusive and doesn't marginalize any region of the country, like Quebec, Atlantic Canada, the territories or rural ridings that sometimes have difficulty between elections keeping their membership high."
In an interview airing Saturday on CBC Radio's The House, Kenney argued it's only fair for electoral district associations with more card-carrying members to have more weight than smaller associations.
"A riding member with five or 10 members gets the same weight as a riding with 5,000 members," Kenney told host Chris Hall. "There is a real lack of equity there and there is no incentive for the riding with five or 10 members to grow, to recruit, to sell new membership.
"I think there's a reasonable argument to be made for the single-member vote, a reasonable argument for equality of ridings.… Why don't we try to blend the best of both systems with a compromise? For me that's kind of self-evident."
The resolutions being considered by 2,300 delegates are to guide the creation of to party's platform, but are not binding on the government.
Delegates also passed a resolution to simplify the tax code, as well as to make anyone convicted of two offences causing death or serious harm a dangerous offender. A controversial resolution to take away citizenship from anyone who takes up arms against the Canadian Forces or their allies was defeated.
Also on justice issues, the party passed a resolution pledging it "does not support a parallel justice system which would contravene our existing rights and freedoms," and another that rejects "the normalization of prostitution." The resolution says the party will work to prevent legalizing bawdy houses, living off the avails of prostitution and communication for the purpose of prostitution.
In other votes Saturday, delegates also passed resolutions in support of ensuring veterans have the benefits and services they deserve and changing the Divorce Act to give grandparents a shot at shared parenting.
In keeping with the government's tough-on-crime talk, the party adopted a resolution to take a proactive approach to reducing human smuggling through sanctions, and to promote democracy in countries where refugees originate.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Sponsors must cover welfare costs: SCOC .... The Supreme Court of Canada Governments must not forgive debts in hardship cases, ruling confirms.
The Supreme Court of Canada has upheld the right of federal and provincial governments to collect social-service payments from the sponsors of immigrants, even in cases involving abuse or abandonment.
The landmark ruling involves the cases of eight Ontario immigrant families that sponsored relatives from abroad who later went on social assistance.
Under federal immigration law, the sponsors agreed to repay any welfare payments that the new arrivals may have incurred after they got to Canada.
—Justice Ian BinnieThe high court, in a unanimous 9-0 ruling, overturned an earlier Ontario Court of Appeal ruling in favour of the sponsors, all of whom had claimed various hardships. The individual cases involved repayments of $10,000 to $94,000 in social assistance to the Ontario government.
"The risk of a rogue relative properly lies on the sponsor, not the taxpayer," Justice Ian Binnie wrote Friday on behalf of the court.
The court said governments have limited discretion to delay collection of defaulted payments, but not to totally forgive the debts.
"The discretion enables the governments to delay enforcement action having regard to the sponsor's circumstances and to enter into agreements respecting terms of payment, but not simply to forgive the statutory debt," wrote Binnie.
The government is obliged to notify a sponsor that they are in default, he wrote, and allow them an opportunity to explain their financial circumstances.
From job loss to abandonment
In the eight individual cases before the court, the reasons the sponsors gave for not paying included leaving an abusive relationship and losing their own job. In a couple of cases, the fiancee or spouse of the sponsor simply took off after arriving in Canada and began collecting social services.
The sponsors filed motions in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in 2008 to defer or avoid entirely making payments back to the provincial government.
The court rejected their argument, saying that sponsorship undertakings are in fact contracts, and that the sponsors understood they were assuming financial liability for their family members.
In 2009, the Ontario Court of Appeal reversed that ruling and said governments may exercise a case-by-case discretion not to collect. It noted that the law states money "may" be recovered.
The provincial appeal court ruled the government owes sponsors a duty of procedural fairness, entitling them to a process in which they can explain their circumstances.
The Supreme Court ruled that standard of procedural fairness was met in each of the eight cases.
"We are dealing here with ordinary debt, not a government benefits or licensing program," said Binnie.
Weighing the burden
He noted that Parliament has become "increasingly concerned" about the financial burden that is being shifted to the public treasury to financially support sponsored relatives in immigrant families.
"Family reunification is based on the essential condition that in exchange for admission to this country the needs of the immigrant will be looked after by the sponsor, not by the public purse," Binnie wrote.
"Sponsors undertake these obligations in writing. They understand or ought to understand from the outset that default may have serious financial consequences for them."
Binnie said the government does have some discretion when it comes to considering the specific hardships of sponsors.
"It would hardly promote 'successful integration' to require individuals to remain in abusive relationships. Nor would the attempted enforcement of a debt against individuals without means to pay further the interest of 'Canadian society'," he wrote.
Binnie said the government should notify sponsors as soon as their relatives begin receiving welfare payments so debts don't build up without them knowing. But ultimately the sponsors are responsible for keeping their relatives from becoming dependent on social programs.
Friday's ruling does not affect refugee claimants, which are treated separately from family reunification applicants.
Of the two million permanent residents that were admitted to Canada between 1997 and 2007, about 615,000, or 27 per cent, were under the family class.
The landmark ruling involves the cases of eight Ontario immigrant families that sponsored relatives from abroad who later went on social assistance.
Under federal immigration law, the sponsors agreed to repay any welfare payments that the new arrivals may have incurred after they got to Canada.
—Justice Ian BinnieThe high court, in a unanimous 9-0 ruling, overturned an earlier Ontario Court of Appeal ruling in favour of the sponsors, all of whom had claimed various hardships. The individual cases involved repayments of $10,000 to $94,000 in social assistance to the Ontario government.
"The risk of a rogue relative properly lies on the sponsor, not the taxpayer," Justice Ian Binnie wrote Friday on behalf of the court.
The court said governments have limited discretion to delay collection of defaulted payments, but not to totally forgive the debts.
"The discretion enables the governments to delay enforcement action having regard to the sponsor's circumstances and to enter into agreements respecting terms of payment, but not simply to forgive the statutory debt," wrote Binnie.
The government is obliged to notify a sponsor that they are in default, he wrote, and allow them an opportunity to explain their financial circumstances.
From job loss to abandonment
In the eight individual cases before the court, the reasons the sponsors gave for not paying included leaving an abusive relationship and losing their own job. In a couple of cases, the fiancee or spouse of the sponsor simply took off after arriving in Canada and began collecting social services.
The sponsors filed motions in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in 2008 to defer or avoid entirely making payments back to the provincial government.
The court rejected their argument, saying that sponsorship undertakings are in fact contracts, and that the sponsors understood they were assuming financial liability for their family members.
In 2009, the Ontario Court of Appeal reversed that ruling and said governments may exercise a case-by-case discretion not to collect. It noted that the law states money "may" be recovered.
The provincial appeal court ruled the government owes sponsors a duty of procedural fairness, entitling them to a process in which they can explain their circumstances.
The Supreme Court ruled that standard of procedural fairness was met in each of the eight cases.
"We are dealing here with ordinary debt, not a government benefits or licensing program," said Binnie.
Weighing the burden
He noted that Parliament has become "increasingly concerned" about the financial burden that is being shifted to the public treasury to financially support sponsored relatives in immigrant families.
"Family reunification is based on the essential condition that in exchange for admission to this country the needs of the immigrant will be looked after by the sponsor, not by the public purse," Binnie wrote.
"Sponsors undertake these obligations in writing. They understand or ought to understand from the outset that default may have serious financial consequences for them."
Binnie said the government does have some discretion when it comes to considering the specific hardships of sponsors.
"It would hardly promote 'successful integration' to require individuals to remain in abusive relationships. Nor would the attempted enforcement of a debt against individuals without means to pay further the interest of 'Canadian society'," he wrote.
Binnie said the government should notify sponsors as soon as their relatives begin receiving welfare payments so debts don't build up without them knowing. But ultimately the sponsors are responsible for keeping their relatives from becoming dependent on social programs.
Friday's ruling does not affect refugee claimants, which are treated separately from family reunification applicants.
Of the two million permanent residents that were admitted to Canada between 1997 and 2007, about 615,000, or 27 per cent, were under the family class.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Tory battle over leadership rules not over : Delegates to Conservative convention back resolution on high treason
Federal Conservatives attending the party's first post-election convention in Ottawa this weekend defeated proposals to give big ridings more clout in choosing party leaders, but one plan has enough support to go to a full debate and vote on Saturday.
Delegates also backed a resolution to deny citizenship to anyone found guilty of treason and voted against creating a separate youth wing of the party, as they discuss ideas the party should push now that Conservatives hold a majority in both houses of Parliament.
The resolutions being considered by more than 2,000 delegates are to guide the creation of to party's platform, but are not binding on the government.
At a policy workshop Friday morning, delegates voted 115-72 to send a resolution on treason to Saturday's plenary session, though only the top 10 resolutions make it from the workshops to the floor for a full debate and vote.
At the convention
The Conservative Party convention is being held at Ottawa's impressive new convention centre — which contains probably the city's longest escalator (pictured). Kady O'Malley has more tweets and photos in our live blog here or below.
The resolution states that any Canadian citizen, "whether by birth or by naturalized grant of Canadian citizenship or by claim of landed immigrant or refugee status" who "takes up arms against the Canadian Forces or the Forces of Canada’s Allies automatically invalidates his or her Canadian citizenship or claim" and "should be tried for high treason under the Canadian Criminal Code" if they return to Canada.
Other proposals relate to the party's constitution. By early afternoon Friday, delegates had voted in favour of denying party membership to anyone who holds a membership in another party, instructing the National Council to keep the riding associations better informed and for vacancies on National Council to be filled by someone from the same province, territory or region of the province as the previous member.
They also voted to allow directors of the board of the Conservative Fund Canada to vote as delegates at conventions, and to put the National Council president on the board of the fund in a non-voting capacity.
Delegates will get a briefing Saturday by Sen. Irving Gerstein, chair of the fund, on the party's finances. The NDP called attention to that appearance Friday, noting Gerstein has been charged with violating the Elections Canada Act by willfully exceeding campaign spending limits in what has been called the "in-and-out” affair."
"While the Conservatives attack the meagre per-vote-subsidy, it appears the secret to their fundraising success relies on doing partisan work with public money — and potentially electoral fraud," NDP ethics critic Charlie Angus said in a statement.
"That’s not what cleaning up Ottawa is supposed to look like."
Youth wing proposal defeated
The youth wing proposal, put forward by the B.C. ridings of Vancouver South, Burnaby-New Westminster, Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca and Vancouver Quadra, would have co-ordinated campus organizations and encouraged participation of people under 30.
It was opposed by several high-profile Conservatives, including MPs in their early 30s such as Pierre Poilievre and Chris Warkentin, and staffers like 34-year-old Jenni Byrne, who ran the party's national election campaign this year. They argued it would marginalize younger Conservatives. The proposal was overwhelmingly defeated Friday morning, CBC News was told.
A proposal to hold a mandatory leadership review within 30 days of an election defeat also went down to defeat Friday.
1-member, 1-vote battle
The proposals that have drawn perhaps the most attention and debate are for revised leadership rules that would give greater weight to larger Conservative riding associations in leadership contests.
The policy breakout sessions were looking at four proposals to that would give bigger ridings more weight, including a popular one pushed by MP Scott Reid that would move closer to a one-member, one-vote system.
Right now, every association is allocated 100 points, no matter how many members it has, which get divided depending on how the association's members vote. Reid's proposal, framed as the compromise motion, calls for a 100-point base plus one point assigned for each member over 100, but with a 400-point cap.
Defence Minister Peter MacKay, who's been fighting the change, seemed to score an early victory when all four lost their votes in the policy sessions.
But Reid's proposal obtained enough signatures Friday to move directly to the plenary session on Saturday for a full vote between 10:30 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. ET.
The proposals pit Reid and other high-profile Conservatives such as Jason Kenney against MacKay, who negotiated the current rule of equality of ridings when he helped create the Conservative Party.
MacKay says this is technically the fourth time the party's had this discussion and says the members have soundly defeated the idea.
"We had the discussion in the original discussion to bring the Conservative Party together, so it was rigourously debated at that time," he said Friday, adding the party also debated it at the last two conventions in Montreal and Winnipeg.
"Now the membership have again pronounced themselves against changes to a formula that promotes equality, a formula that wins and a formula that is inclusive and doesn't marginalize any region of the country, like Quebec, Atlantic Canada, the territories or rural ridings that sometimes have difficulty between elections keeping their membership high."
"So it's really an issue of basic fairness for me," MacKay said. "It's one that I believe very strongly has contributed to our success and so why change a formula that works?"
Tax system seen as complicated
Taxes are another hot topic.
Three Conservative riding associations have put forward resolutions that would seem to say the government is heading in the wrong direction with its tax policy.
The associations from Guelph, ON, Brome-Missisquoi, QC, and Calgary-Nose Hill, AB have put forward resolutions calling on their own party to simplify the tax system.
One of those resolutions, to support the creation of a flat tax, was defeated at a policy workshop Friday morning, the CBC's Kady O'Malley reports, and won't be voted on at Saturday's plenary session.
Since first forming government in 2006, the Conservatives have introduced at least eight tax credits for things such as transit passes, caregivers, and arts lessons for children. That's far too many for fiscal conservatives such as Derek Fildebrandt of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
"We've seen this government make our tax code look even more like a piece of Swiss cheese," he said. "It was complicated when they got there — now it's even worse."
Fiscal conservatives argue the government should keep overall taxes to a minimum — and let people decide for themselves how to spend their money.
"It's not in the national interest that we all play the piano. There's nothing wrong with the piano, but we should do it on our own merits not because the government told us to," Fildebrandt said.
Allan Maslove of Carleton University agrees that the tax policy of this government seems to go against conservative philosophy.
"Using the tax system to promote transit ridership or promote sports health club memberships, or music lessons for your kids, seems to be going counter to what you'd expect from a fiscal conservative," he said.
Beyond corrupting conservative ideals, Maslove also said there are big problems with having many small tax measures: "If you get enough of these things, and the dollar value gets large enough, you then have to have higher taxes across the board to generate the amount of income, or the amount of tax revenues, that you need."
Even Flaherty admits filling out your taxes isn't as easy as it used to be.
"There's no question the tax code is getting more and more complicated — there's no question about that," Flaherty said.
"Certain incentives are there because we consider it to be good public policy," Flaherty said, "we did not bring in anything new here that wasn't in either the last budget or the platform. So Canadians can rest assured that these are items people knew about and could vote for them or vote against them."
Flaherty insists his government's goal is to make more people pay taxes — but at a lower rate.
As the convention delegates consider those issues, they are also relishing in last month's electoral victory.
Former Conservative cabinet minister Stockwell Day opened the convention Thursday by congratulating his party on its majority. But he also warned against the dangers of socialist ideas, by raising the spectre of the economic recession in Europe.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper will deliver the keynote address to the convention about 7 p.m. Friday night — early enough to finish in time for Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals.
Protest expected
Anti-Conservative activists have a protest march planned, ending at the convention centre in time for Harper's speech. The protest will feature as a speaker Brigette DePape, the former Senate page who lost her job last week after holding up a "Stop Harper" sign during the speech from the throne.
Delegates also backed a resolution to deny citizenship to anyone found guilty of treason and voted against creating a separate youth wing of the party, as they discuss ideas the party should push now that Conservatives hold a majority in both houses of Parliament.
The resolutions being considered by more than 2,000 delegates are to guide the creation of to party's platform, but are not binding on the government.
At a policy workshop Friday morning, delegates voted 115-72 to send a resolution on treason to Saturday's plenary session, though only the top 10 resolutions make it from the workshops to the floor for a full debate and vote.
At the convention
The Conservative Party convention is being held at Ottawa's impressive new convention centre — which contains probably the city's longest escalator (pictured). Kady O'Malley has more tweets and photos in our live blog here or below.
The resolution states that any Canadian citizen, "whether by birth or by naturalized grant of Canadian citizenship or by claim of landed immigrant or refugee status" who "takes up arms against the Canadian Forces or the Forces of Canada’s Allies automatically invalidates his or her Canadian citizenship or claim" and "should be tried for high treason under the Canadian Criminal Code" if they return to Canada.
Other proposals relate to the party's constitution. By early afternoon Friday, delegates had voted in favour of denying party membership to anyone who holds a membership in another party, instructing the National Council to keep the riding associations better informed and for vacancies on National Council to be filled by someone from the same province, territory or region of the province as the previous member.
They also voted to allow directors of the board of the Conservative Fund Canada to vote as delegates at conventions, and to put the National Council president on the board of the fund in a non-voting capacity.
Delegates will get a briefing Saturday by Sen. Irving Gerstein, chair of the fund, on the party's finances. The NDP called attention to that appearance Friday, noting Gerstein has been charged with violating the Elections Canada Act by willfully exceeding campaign spending limits in what has been called the "in-and-out” affair."
"While the Conservatives attack the meagre per-vote-subsidy, it appears the secret to their fundraising success relies on doing partisan work with public money — and potentially electoral fraud," NDP ethics critic Charlie Angus said in a statement.
"That’s not what cleaning up Ottawa is supposed to look like."
Youth wing proposal defeated
The youth wing proposal, put forward by the B.C. ridings of Vancouver South, Burnaby-New Westminster, Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca and Vancouver Quadra, would have co-ordinated campus organizations and encouraged participation of people under 30.
It was opposed by several high-profile Conservatives, including MPs in their early 30s such as Pierre Poilievre and Chris Warkentin, and staffers like 34-year-old Jenni Byrne, who ran the party's national election campaign this year. They argued it would marginalize younger Conservatives. The proposal was overwhelmingly defeated Friday morning, CBC News was told.
A proposal to hold a mandatory leadership review within 30 days of an election defeat also went down to defeat Friday.
1-member, 1-vote battle
The proposals that have drawn perhaps the most attention and debate are for revised leadership rules that would give greater weight to larger Conservative riding associations in leadership contests.
The policy breakout sessions were looking at four proposals to that would give bigger ridings more weight, including a popular one pushed by MP Scott Reid that would move closer to a one-member, one-vote system.
Right now, every association is allocated 100 points, no matter how many members it has, which get divided depending on how the association's members vote. Reid's proposal, framed as the compromise motion, calls for a 100-point base plus one point assigned for each member over 100, but with a 400-point cap.
Defence Minister Peter MacKay, who's been fighting the change, seemed to score an early victory when all four lost their votes in the policy sessions.
But Reid's proposal obtained enough signatures Friday to move directly to the plenary session on Saturday for a full vote between 10:30 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. ET.
The proposals pit Reid and other high-profile Conservatives such as Jason Kenney against MacKay, who negotiated the current rule of equality of ridings when he helped create the Conservative Party.
MacKay says this is technically the fourth time the party's had this discussion and says the members have soundly defeated the idea.
"We had the discussion in the original discussion to bring the Conservative Party together, so it was rigourously debated at that time," he said Friday, adding the party also debated it at the last two conventions in Montreal and Winnipeg.
"Now the membership have again pronounced themselves against changes to a formula that promotes equality, a formula that wins and a formula that is inclusive and doesn't marginalize any region of the country, like Quebec, Atlantic Canada, the territories or rural ridings that sometimes have difficulty between elections keeping their membership high."
"So it's really an issue of basic fairness for me," MacKay said. "It's one that I believe very strongly has contributed to our success and so why change a formula that works?"
Tax system seen as complicated
Taxes are another hot topic.
Three Conservative riding associations have put forward resolutions that would seem to say the government is heading in the wrong direction with its tax policy.
The associations from Guelph, ON, Brome-Missisquoi, QC, and Calgary-Nose Hill, AB have put forward resolutions calling on their own party to simplify the tax system.
One of those resolutions, to support the creation of a flat tax, was defeated at a policy workshop Friday morning, the CBC's Kady O'Malley reports, and won't be voted on at Saturday's plenary session.
Since first forming government in 2006, the Conservatives have introduced at least eight tax credits for things such as transit passes, caregivers, and arts lessons for children. That's far too many for fiscal conservatives such as Derek Fildebrandt of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
"We've seen this government make our tax code look even more like a piece of Swiss cheese," he said. "It was complicated when they got there — now it's even worse."
Fiscal conservatives argue the government should keep overall taxes to a minimum — and let people decide for themselves how to spend their money.
"It's not in the national interest that we all play the piano. There's nothing wrong with the piano, but we should do it on our own merits not because the government told us to," Fildebrandt said.
Allan Maslove of Carleton University agrees that the tax policy of this government seems to go against conservative philosophy.
"Using the tax system to promote transit ridership or promote sports health club memberships, or music lessons for your kids, seems to be going counter to what you'd expect from a fiscal conservative," he said.
Beyond corrupting conservative ideals, Maslove also said there are big problems with having many small tax measures: "If you get enough of these things, and the dollar value gets large enough, you then have to have higher taxes across the board to generate the amount of income, or the amount of tax revenues, that you need."
Even Flaherty admits filling out your taxes isn't as easy as it used to be.
"There's no question the tax code is getting more and more complicated — there's no question about that," Flaherty said.
"Certain incentives are there because we consider it to be good public policy," Flaherty said, "we did not bring in anything new here that wasn't in either the last budget or the platform. So Canadians can rest assured that these are items people knew about and could vote for them or vote against them."
Flaherty insists his government's goal is to make more people pay taxes — but at a lower rate.
As the convention delegates consider those issues, they are also relishing in last month's electoral victory.
Former Conservative cabinet minister Stockwell Day opened the convention Thursday by congratulating his party on its majority. But he also warned against the dangers of socialist ideas, by raising the spectre of the economic recession in Europe.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper will deliver the keynote address to the convention about 7 p.m. Friday night — early enough to finish in time for Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals.
Protest expected
Anti-Conservative activists have a protest march planned, ending at the convention centre in time for Harper's speech. The protest will feature as a speaker Brigette DePape, the former Senate page who lost her job last week after holding up a "Stop Harper" sign during the speech from the throne.
Friday, June 10, 2011
Keep leadership deal: Conservative emissaries : Conservative convention to reconsider 'one member, one vote' leadership selection process
A trio of Conservative elder statesmen is speaking out against a controversial proposal to change the federal party's constitution that threatens to overshadow this week's national convention.
They're arguing the future strength of the party depends on leaving a key element of its constitution intact.
Former Ontario Premier Bill Davis, former federal finance minister Don Mazankowski, and Senator Gerry St. Germain have put their names to a letter sent Monday urging party members to uphold a rule that treats all riding associations equally in a leadership contest.
As Conservatives gather in Ottawa for their national convention Thursday, there's tension among party members over constitution changes. How bloody will this internal battle get?
Davis and Mazankowski were emissaries for the Progressive Conservative party when it was in talks to merge with the Canadian Alliance in 2003. St. Germain, a former Progressive Conservative MP, was an Alliance member in the merger talks.
Ensuring that all riding associations were treated equally regardless of their size was the key condition of the Progressive Conservatives in the deal.
"We expressed clearly, and heard back just as clearly from our fellow negotiators, that this principle of equality of riding associations was not just a sine qua non of the union of our two legacy parties but also an important building block for the future success of our Conservative party," reads the letter.
The Conservative convention, which starts Thursday, has been billed as a three-day celebration of the electoral majority won by Prime Minister Stephen Harper on May 2. But the battle over the party constitution is shaping up to be a major side event.
Ontario MP Scott Reid was a negotiator for the Canadian Alliance, and has mounted a highly organized campaign to alter the party's constitution to give more weight to bigger riding associations. As things stand now, that would give a greater voice to party members in Ontario and western Canada.
The three eminences grises argue that proposal goes against the spirit of the current electoral system, in which ridings are all recognized as equal regardless of how many people live in them.
Conservative MP Scott Reid, shown here at the Conservative policy convention in Montreal in 2005, has been working for years to give more power to the party's grassroots. (Ryan Remiorz, CP) "As long as the goal of the Conservative Party of Canada is to elect Conservative governments, the principle of equality of electoral district associations and the discipline that it entails must therefore remain an integral part of our governance," the letter reads.
"To do any less would be to send exactly the wrong message to citizens who may consider supporting our party for the first time, or who many come from regions that are not our traditional area of strength."
Some Tories in Quebec have warned that Reid's motion would further alienate people in the province, who they say are already feeling abandoned by the party after a disappointing election campaign in which the party took only five Quebec seats. It is believed fewer than 100 Quebec delegates will attend the Conservative convention.
Supporters of the equality principle have mounted their own campaign to counter Reid's. Sources told The Canadian Press that several high-profile party members and MPs held a conference call Sunday night to discuss the matter.
They plan to put their own motion to the convention floor that would change the party's governance objectives to include the concept of equality of all ridings -- essentially rendering any amendments to leadership rules moot.
Reid, meanwhile, is trying to fast-track his amendment so that it hits the floor of the convention directly rather than going through a committee process. To ensure this, he would need members from 100 ridings to sign a petition.
Reid using Hill office for campaign
Last week, on the day MPs were electing the Speaker of the House, Reid handed out letters to all his caucus colleagues urging them to support his amendment which he has called a "compromise" position.
"The 'Balanced Leadership' formula that I am proposing takes the best elements of the systems used by our legacy parties, and merges them," Reid wrote.
"This system, if adopted, will ensure that all regions of the country have a strong say in electing the leader, but also that the leader has to win a legitimate majority of all votes cast. ..."
Other riding associations, including Immigration Minister Jason Kenney's, have proposed similar amendments that move the party closer to a one-member, one-vote system.
Reid's letter was sent on parliamentary letterhead, and emails sent about the party amendment have been sent from Reid's Parliament Hill office. The fax number provided for people to return signed petitions is also an office line.
The Board of Internal Economy by-laws, which govern the use of House of Commons resources, and the manual for MPs' allowances state that their operating funds are to be used for "parliamentary functions."
Prior to the election, a staff member with Immigration Minister Jason Kenney resigned after sending out letters about party matters from a Parliament Hill office.
"With regard to your inquiry regarding the use of the parliamentary email account and about 170 sheets of my MP letterhead for party business, I had not been aware that this is a violation of any Board of Internal Economy rules (or of any other rules, if it's the case that the Board does not have jurisdiction in this matter)," Reid wrote in an email, responding to questions about the use of parliamentary resources.
"Perhaps you know something that I don't about the relevant rules, in which case I invite you to enlighten me."
Reid went on to say he would stop using Commons letterhead and would be asking the Speaker if there was any rule he had broken. If so, Reid said he would repay the cost of the letterhead and use of the parliamentary email address.
NDP deputy House leader Joe Comartin said it's accepted practice among MPs that parliamentary resources should not be used for purely party matters. He said he was puzzled a veteran MP like Reid would not have considered that.
"With these letters, I don't see any way it could be construed as being part of his duties as a Member of Parliament," Comartin said.
The current Conservative party constitution awards each riding association 100 points during a leadership contest. Every member casts a ballot, and then points are awarded based on the percentage of members in the riding that voted for each contestant.
They're arguing the future strength of the party depends on leaving a key element of its constitution intact.
Former Ontario Premier Bill Davis, former federal finance minister Don Mazankowski, and Senator Gerry St. Germain have put their names to a letter sent Monday urging party members to uphold a rule that treats all riding associations equally in a leadership contest.
As Conservatives gather in Ottawa for their national convention Thursday, there's tension among party members over constitution changes. How bloody will this internal battle get?
Davis and Mazankowski were emissaries for the Progressive Conservative party when it was in talks to merge with the Canadian Alliance in 2003. St. Germain, a former Progressive Conservative MP, was an Alliance member in the merger talks.
Ensuring that all riding associations were treated equally regardless of their size was the key condition of the Progressive Conservatives in the deal.
"We expressed clearly, and heard back just as clearly from our fellow negotiators, that this principle of equality of riding associations was not just a sine qua non of the union of our two legacy parties but also an important building block for the future success of our Conservative party," reads the letter.
The Conservative convention, which starts Thursday, has been billed as a three-day celebration of the electoral majority won by Prime Minister Stephen Harper on May 2. But the battle over the party constitution is shaping up to be a major side event.
Ontario MP Scott Reid was a negotiator for the Canadian Alliance, and has mounted a highly organized campaign to alter the party's constitution to give more weight to bigger riding associations. As things stand now, that would give a greater voice to party members in Ontario and western Canada.
The three eminences grises argue that proposal goes against the spirit of the current electoral system, in which ridings are all recognized as equal regardless of how many people live in them.
Conservative MP Scott Reid, shown here at the Conservative policy convention in Montreal in 2005, has been working for years to give more power to the party's grassroots. (Ryan Remiorz, CP) "As long as the goal of the Conservative Party of Canada is to elect Conservative governments, the principle of equality of electoral district associations and the discipline that it entails must therefore remain an integral part of our governance," the letter reads.
"To do any less would be to send exactly the wrong message to citizens who may consider supporting our party for the first time, or who many come from regions that are not our traditional area of strength."
Some Tories in Quebec have warned that Reid's motion would further alienate people in the province, who they say are already feeling abandoned by the party after a disappointing election campaign in which the party took only five Quebec seats. It is believed fewer than 100 Quebec delegates will attend the Conservative convention.
Supporters of the equality principle have mounted their own campaign to counter Reid's. Sources told The Canadian Press that several high-profile party members and MPs held a conference call Sunday night to discuss the matter.
They plan to put their own motion to the convention floor that would change the party's governance objectives to include the concept of equality of all ridings -- essentially rendering any amendments to leadership rules moot.
Reid, meanwhile, is trying to fast-track his amendment so that it hits the floor of the convention directly rather than going through a committee process. To ensure this, he would need members from 100 ridings to sign a petition.
Reid using Hill office for campaign
Last week, on the day MPs were electing the Speaker of the House, Reid handed out letters to all his caucus colleagues urging them to support his amendment which he has called a "compromise" position.
"The 'Balanced Leadership' formula that I am proposing takes the best elements of the systems used by our legacy parties, and merges them," Reid wrote.
"This system, if adopted, will ensure that all regions of the country have a strong say in electing the leader, but also that the leader has to win a legitimate majority of all votes cast. ..."
Other riding associations, including Immigration Minister Jason Kenney's, have proposed similar amendments that move the party closer to a one-member, one-vote system.
Reid's letter was sent on parliamentary letterhead, and emails sent about the party amendment have been sent from Reid's Parliament Hill office. The fax number provided for people to return signed petitions is also an office line.
The Board of Internal Economy by-laws, which govern the use of House of Commons resources, and the manual for MPs' allowances state that their operating funds are to be used for "parliamentary functions."
Prior to the election, a staff member with Immigration Minister Jason Kenney resigned after sending out letters about party matters from a Parliament Hill office.
"With regard to your inquiry regarding the use of the parliamentary email account and about 170 sheets of my MP letterhead for party business, I had not been aware that this is a violation of any Board of Internal Economy rules (or of any other rules, if it's the case that the Board does not have jurisdiction in this matter)," Reid wrote in an email, responding to questions about the use of parliamentary resources.
"Perhaps you know something that I don't about the relevant rules, in which case I invite you to enlighten me."
Reid went on to say he would stop using Commons letterhead and would be asking the Speaker if there was any rule he had broken. If so, Reid said he would repay the cost of the letterhead and use of the parliamentary email address.
NDP deputy House leader Joe Comartin said it's accepted practice among MPs that parliamentary resources should not be used for purely party matters. He said he was puzzled a veteran MP like Reid would not have considered that.
"With these letters, I don't see any way it could be construed as being part of his duties as a Member of Parliament," Comartin said.
The current Conservative party constitution awards each riding association 100 points during a leadership contest. Every member casts a ballot, and then points are awarded based on the percentage of members in the riding that voted for each contestant.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Tony Clemen & Treasury Board on User fees for service
The man in charge of leading government budget cuts laid out the broad strokes of how it will happen Wednesday in front of an audience of senior civil servants.
Treasury Board President Tony Clement, the minister in charge of the public service, said the Conservatives will be taking a page from the private sector as they look for $4 billion in permanent annual savings in program spending, in an attempt to balance the federal budget.
And he asked his audience to consider "a range of options," including user fees, as they conducted program reviews.
"This is the first time in 15 years that government has conducted a review of this scope. In the business world, looking at streamlining operations is an annual exercise – business as usual," he said, according to remarks posted on the Treasury Board website.
"So we are looking to work smarter, better, and faster."
Clement says there are fundamental questions all 67 departments and agencies will have to ask in the attempt to cut five to 10 per cent from each budget.
"Should we still be doing this — and doing it in this way? Does this have to be delivered by this organization? Why does it cost as much as it does? Can we find savings? Is it achieving the expected results efficiently? Is this a government priority, and is it affordable during a period of fiscal restraint? Are we achieving value for money?" he said.
The government wants to balance the budget by 2014-15 and wants to be able to start counting the savings starting in the 2012-13 budget.
The spending review is to look at all operating expenses, including wages, salaries, and professional services contracts, plus grants and contributions, capital, and payments to Crown Corporations, Clement said.
"But I do want to make one thing very clear: this review will not touch major transfers to provinces, territories and individuals. Nor will it look at public debt charges," he added.
Don't rule out user fees: Clement
Perhaps controversially for a government that is decidedly against raising taxes, Clement said departments shouldn't rule out user fees.
"We are encouraging departments to develop a full range of options in areas such as administrative and program efficiencies, business consolidation and user fees. Some of this may require legislative or machinery changes," Clement said.
The government is also looking at sharing services between departments, he said.
Treasury Board President Tony Clement, the minister in charge of the public service, said the Conservatives will be taking a page from the private sector as they look for $4 billion in permanent annual savings in program spending, in an attempt to balance the federal budget.
And he asked his audience to consider "a range of options," including user fees, as they conducted program reviews.
"This is the first time in 15 years that government has conducted a review of this scope. In the business world, looking at streamlining operations is an annual exercise – business as usual," he said, according to remarks posted on the Treasury Board website.
"So we are looking to work smarter, better, and faster."
Clement says there are fundamental questions all 67 departments and agencies will have to ask in the attempt to cut five to 10 per cent from each budget.
"Should we still be doing this — and doing it in this way? Does this have to be delivered by this organization? Why does it cost as much as it does? Can we find savings? Is it achieving the expected results efficiently? Is this a government priority, and is it affordable during a period of fiscal restraint? Are we achieving value for money?" he said.
The government wants to balance the budget by 2014-15 and wants to be able to start counting the savings starting in the 2012-13 budget.
The spending review is to look at all operating expenses, including wages, salaries, and professional services contracts, plus grants and contributions, capital, and payments to Crown Corporations, Clement said.
"But I do want to make one thing very clear: this review will not touch major transfers to provinces, territories and individuals. Nor will it look at public debt charges," he added.
Don't rule out user fees: Clement
Perhaps controversially for a government that is decidedly against raising taxes, Clement said departments shouldn't rule out user fees.
"We are encouraging departments to develop a full range of options in areas such as administrative and program efficiencies, business consolidation and user fees. Some of this may require legislative or machinery changes," Clement said.
The government is also looking at sharing services between departments, he said.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
optics or merit in Supreme Court of Canada appointme Prime Minister Stephen Harper?
If Prime Minister Stephen Harper heeds the clamour of lobby groups, at least one of two impending Supreme Court of Canada appointees will be a bilingual, franco-Ontarian aboriginal woman with some visible minority blood and background as a practising lawyer.
Assuming optics count for more than pure merit, that is.
.Supreme Court appointments have gone from being a yawn-inducing exercise to a high-profile process dominated by public debate about candidates, political ideologies and demographic considerations. Modern-day prime ministers tack through a sea of expectations from groups who understand the power of the court over issues they hold dear.
Mr. Harper is no less aware of the impact of his decision. Much of his most cherished legislation – crime laws, for instance – will end up being challenged in the Supreme Court, where a single vote can make the difference between being upheld or struck down.
Will he appease party loyalists by choosing conservative candidates with a law-and-order bent? Or, will he opt to please a particular community – aboriginal people, women, Jews or franco-Ontarians – by installing one of their own on the top court?
Mr. Harper has three main approaches open to him. The first is to aid the court by appointing workhorses who can write strong, speedy judgments and unite disparate factions. The court also requires a strong generalist with leadership qualities to replace Mr. Justice Ian Binnie.
The need to appoint a criminal law specialist to fill a gap left by Madam Justice Louise Charron’s departure is particularly acute, Queen’s University law professor Don Stuart said. He added that a consummate legal thinker and writer such as Ontario Court of Appeal Judge David Doherty would fill the bill.
“All of his judgments provide extra and imaginative insight and he cannot be pinned down to one ideology,” Prof. Stuart said. “Sometimes, he is pro-accused, sometimes he is not. He is always caring, thoughtful and conspicuously articulate.”
However, Mr. Harper could succumb to the political temptation to appoint candidates who support his party policies and will avoid striking down laws.
The third approach focuses on optics. Appointing a woman, an aboriginal or a member of a visible minority, for example, has the potential to endear Mr. Harper to an important political constituency.
Wayne MacKay, a Dalhousie University law professor, said it is impossible to ignore the power and symbolism of inclusiveness. “Diversity is necessary for people to view the court as credible,” he said. “If the judges were exclusively old, white men – as they used to be – that would work against it even if they were very competent.”
It was not easy for the legal establishment to accept that judges with different life experiences bring fresh, important perspectives to a court; accepting the notion means accepting that interpreting the law is a malleable exercise that can depend on a judge’s origins.
“If one is dealing with a topic like abortion, it is positive and helpful to have some women judges who will bring a different perspective,” Prof. MacKay said. “They are not representing a woman’s viewpoint, pure and simple. But they do represent a different perspective.”
NDP justice critic Joe Comartin, a member of an all-party committee that will forward two lists of finalists to Mr. Harper, said that his own party has specific leanings. “If either of the two positions is not a woman, we are going to see that as a major setback,” he said. “It is also way behind the time when a first nations judge should have been sitting on our court.”
Demographic considerations used to be purely geographical. The Constitution guarantees Quebec three of the nine judge, while there is an immovable convention that one judge comes from the Atlantic region, three from Ontario, one from the Prairie provinces and one from B.C.
However, with four seats on the court now filled by women, many argue it is vital that Mr. Harper replace Judge Charron with a woman. There is also a growing belief that every judge must be functionally bilingual. Moreover, there are strong rumblings from Ontario’s francophone community that it has a right to one of the Ontario seats.
Threading his way through these pylons, it is also imperative that Mr. Harper add dynamic figures to a court some see as flaccid. “What the court needs the most is a personality that will put a face on it,” said Clifford Lax, a veteran Toronto litigator. “It is hard to see anyone other than Ian Binnie on this court who is going to leave a real legacy. It is a very docile court.”
For many possible candidates, however, going to the Supreme Court is not a lifelong ambition. Some do not want to move to Ottawa or to work exceedingly long hours in social isolation. Practising lawyers who make $400,000 annually may also not want to halve their income.
“It’s a very lonely place,” Mr. Lax said. “Everybody who has done it talks about it being the high point of their career. But if you ask them if it was the happiest time of their career, they will always say no.”
Assuming optics count for more than pure merit, that is.
.Supreme Court appointments have gone from being a yawn-inducing exercise to a high-profile process dominated by public debate about candidates, political ideologies and demographic considerations. Modern-day prime ministers tack through a sea of expectations from groups who understand the power of the court over issues they hold dear.
Mr. Harper is no less aware of the impact of his decision. Much of his most cherished legislation – crime laws, for instance – will end up being challenged in the Supreme Court, where a single vote can make the difference between being upheld or struck down.
Will he appease party loyalists by choosing conservative candidates with a law-and-order bent? Or, will he opt to please a particular community – aboriginal people, women, Jews or franco-Ontarians – by installing one of their own on the top court?
Mr. Harper has three main approaches open to him. The first is to aid the court by appointing workhorses who can write strong, speedy judgments and unite disparate factions. The court also requires a strong generalist with leadership qualities to replace Mr. Justice Ian Binnie.
The need to appoint a criminal law specialist to fill a gap left by Madam Justice Louise Charron’s departure is particularly acute, Queen’s University law professor Don Stuart said. He added that a consummate legal thinker and writer such as Ontario Court of Appeal Judge David Doherty would fill the bill.
“All of his judgments provide extra and imaginative insight and he cannot be pinned down to one ideology,” Prof. Stuart said. “Sometimes, he is pro-accused, sometimes he is not. He is always caring, thoughtful and conspicuously articulate.”
However, Mr. Harper could succumb to the political temptation to appoint candidates who support his party policies and will avoid striking down laws.
The third approach focuses on optics. Appointing a woman, an aboriginal or a member of a visible minority, for example, has the potential to endear Mr. Harper to an important political constituency.
Wayne MacKay, a Dalhousie University law professor, said it is impossible to ignore the power and symbolism of inclusiveness. “Diversity is necessary for people to view the court as credible,” he said. “If the judges were exclusively old, white men – as they used to be – that would work against it even if they were very competent.”
It was not easy for the legal establishment to accept that judges with different life experiences bring fresh, important perspectives to a court; accepting the notion means accepting that interpreting the law is a malleable exercise that can depend on a judge’s origins.
“If one is dealing with a topic like abortion, it is positive and helpful to have some women judges who will bring a different perspective,” Prof. MacKay said. “They are not representing a woman’s viewpoint, pure and simple. But they do represent a different perspective.”
NDP justice critic Joe Comartin, a member of an all-party committee that will forward two lists of finalists to Mr. Harper, said that his own party has specific leanings. “If either of the two positions is not a woman, we are going to see that as a major setback,” he said. “It is also way behind the time when a first nations judge should have been sitting on our court.”
Demographic considerations used to be purely geographical. The Constitution guarantees Quebec three of the nine judge, while there is an immovable convention that one judge comes from the Atlantic region, three from Ontario, one from the Prairie provinces and one from B.C.
However, with four seats on the court now filled by women, many argue it is vital that Mr. Harper replace Judge Charron with a woman. There is also a growing belief that every judge must be functionally bilingual. Moreover, there are strong rumblings from Ontario’s francophone community that it has a right to one of the Ontario seats.
Threading his way through these pylons, it is also imperative that Mr. Harper add dynamic figures to a court some see as flaccid. “What the court needs the most is a personality that will put a face on it,” said Clifford Lax, a veteran Toronto litigator. “It is hard to see anyone other than Ian Binnie on this court who is going to leave a real legacy. It is a very docile court.”
For many possible candidates, however, going to the Supreme Court is not a lifelong ambition. Some do not want to move to Ottawa or to work exceedingly long hours in social isolation. Practising lawyers who make $400,000 annually may also not want to halve their income.
“It’s a very lonely place,” Mr. Lax said. “Everybody who has done it talks about it being the high point of their career. But if you ask them if it was the happiest time of their career, they will always say no.”
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