CONSERVATIVE & LIBERAL PARTIES HAVE FINISHED DEMOCRACY OFF

It's taken a couple of days but local political pundits have gotten it right including Luisa D'Amato and Thomas Walkom. Luisa's Opinion article in yesterday's Waterloo Region Record is titled "McGuinty silences his critics by abandoning Liberals' ship" and Mr. Walkom's article in today's Record is titled "McGuinty takes democracy lessons from Harper". Both writers are appalled at the notion that our (allegedly) democratically elected legislature can be shut down by one person who isn't even representing the majority of seats in the legislature. It still would be undemocratic if McGuinty and the liberals held 51% of the seats but they are in a minority position.

Our legislature is shut down indefinitely. There isn't even a firm startup date being given. When it reopens I hope (naively) that our citizens remember clearly which party shut it down and reward them with a disaster at the polls. As much as I understand that the Conservatives are no better, as federally they and Harper did the same thing twice, nevertheless any combination of Green, NDP, Conservatives and Independents is absolutely necessary at this juncture. Cowards and bullys who turn out the lights, lock the doors and run are not champions of anything other than self interest. At the very least our two largest national parties have publicly demonstrated this. This is why I fear democracy is finished if our two largest parties can behave this way and get away with it. If they can then you may as well just roll up the sidewalks at night and admit the truth. Citizen misdirection, apathy and cowardice have won the day. Democracy is formally dead and buried both provincially and federally.

JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED - Ashley Smith

And so it goes. The FIVE YEAR anniversary of the death of a 19 year old young woman is two days from now. FIVE YEARS and the authorities are arguing Motions that would minimize the relevant evidence before a Coroner's Inquest. Ashley Smith choked to death in Kitchener, while in custody, in full view of multiple officers who allegedly had orders not to intervene. She was distraught and possibly mentally ill. Part of her treatment in custody included multiple transfers again allegedly for the purpose of skirting rules on length of time in solitary confinement.

That apparently is how our Correctional Service of Canada handles young prisoners in their care. Yesterday's Waterloo Region Record carrys the story "Lawyer alleges "state coverup" at Smith probe". For five years all the responsible and dare I say guilty parties have continued on with their priveleged lives as simple servants avoiding any accountability for this fatal mess. No wonder they feel immune from scrutiny and oversight. That they are basically incompetent in their care seems obvious. That they appear to have zero concern for their charges also seems obvious. What this Inquest needs to know is if there was malice involved? Was there pettiness and power tripping going on that cost this girl her life? Is this whole situation no more than petty bureaucrats far too concerned about protecting their aura of professionalism? Does anybody at the Correctional Service of Canada have a clue as to what they are doing?

Finally this Inquest needs to know that significant changes have been made. Who is being held responsible for the totally unecessary death of this young woman? Will heads roll and will smarter heads change procedures to save future lives? Or is this all a paperwork facade to pretend that our government and bureaucrats care? After five years of little or nothing; the message that I am getting is that our government and those in power don't give a rat's ass about individual Canadian lives being sacrificed on the alter of government and bureaucratic omnipotence and omniscience.

OUR IMMIGRATION POLICY HAS NEVER BEEN ABOUT HUMANITARIANISM OR JUSTICE

It seems to have taken decades and a global economic meltdown or two but at least we are starting to get the truth. Canada's mass immigration is and always has been no more than the financial elites in Canada flexing their political muscle in order to flood our labour markets. My children and yours will have difficulty gaining long term reasonably well paid employment because they will be competing for limited jobs with literally millions of others who were brought here for the sole purpose of lowering wages and weakoning unions. This is the right wing ideological agenda of both Stephen Harper and Tim Hudak and all the Conservatives before them. By the way don't expect much better from the Liberals.

Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story titled "Are we becoming a low-wage resource economy?". I had trouble getting the link to the Record so I've linked it back to the Toronto Star. Here is a stunning statement. Politicians generally speaking are professional liars. They are in office to promote the well being of a very select few at the expense of all the rest. Yes folks, Canadian citizens just like citizens the world over are nothing but cannon fodder for the maintenance, betterment and overall snazzier lifestyles of the elite which exist in every country, whether democracy or tyranny.

This article by Thomas Walkom gives us a brief history of how cheap immigrant labour has been used here in Canada to break unions and reduce wages. It tells us how our politicians and industrial leaders have lied through their teeth whether suggesting "unique skills" of immigrants or that there are labour shortages. All of it is complete rubbish and horse manure.

Keep in mind the lying goes both ways. Our leaders lie to us and to the prospective migrant workers. Do you think that incoming agricultural workers are told that they will work for less money and under worse conditions than current Canadians; while living in squalid conditions? Not likely. Do you think that strike breakers brought in from Europe are told ahead of time that they are here to hurt current Canadians and to make more money for the owners. Not bloody likely. Incoming Canadians today are just like those who came here over a hundred years ago. Thay want a better life for themselves and their families and they are willing to work for it. What they aren't told is that they are basically here to keep the immigrants before them in line. They are brought here by our monied class, via bought and paid for politicians, in order to maintain their privelege and staus quo.

ISN'T HYPOCRISY GRAND?

Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys more of the same crap. The original headline was "Immigrants face strict occupational licensing requirements". The updated headline which you will see if you click on this one tells a more accurate tale. Essentially professional bodies which have control over their own certification standards have long made sure that they were exempt from competition from incoming immigrants. Apparently it's O.K. for the masses to have their wages, benefits and job security reduced via competition but please don't ask our professionals to share the pain.

I've been reading articles literally since the 80's extolling the virtues of Canada constantly bringing in literally hundreds of thousands of immigrants per year. I've seen crap suggesting that native born Canadians somehow aren't trainable for certain trades and I've seen nonsense that we can't possibly train enough doctors, nurses or special flavour of the month professionals. The truth is that certain small special interests within our society including developers make a fortune by having ever expanding construction of homes and markets. Labour of course is just a commodity when you are a well off manufacturer or industrialist. Supply and demand rule, and if you increase the supply of labour you tend to lower wages.

Our professional groups want it both ways. They want ever increasing markets but thank you very much lets keep the supply of skilled labour eligible for the professions at a minimum. This includes licensing requirements making it prohibitive or impossible for even well qualified immigrants to set up shop in competition to the established clique. This is the hypocrisy behind Canada's all inclusive, egalitarian society.

DEREGULATION, RIGHT WING IDEOLOGY & THE TRUE COSTS TO THE PUBLIC

Yesterday's Waterloo Region Record carrys the following story from Thomas Walkom: "The real costs associated with cutting red tape". While the current backdrop has to be the XL Foods tainted meat scandal, Mr.Walkom also advises us of damage done to the public via deregulation of new drugs at Health Canada. Essentially our federal governments have been shifting costs and responsibilities to both drug and meat packing plants and expecting them to do more self-regulation. Apparently our politicians are too stupid to remember that checks and balances are required.

These are for profit businesses and cost cutting is but one of the nasty ways they accomplish that. If the self-regulated industry can even appear to be complying, perhaps to the letter of the regulations if not the spirit, then how do they justify greater than minimum expenditures to their shareholders? According to Mr. Walkom, XL Foods "...hadn't been following elementary safety and cleanliness rules." What do you want to bet that until they were caught, they were making money? What do you want to bet that they are back making money? What do you want to bet that if their corporate culture hasn't fired everybody involved; that they will again take safety shortcuts if they can get away with it?

Deregulation is industry donating to political parties, getting paid back by those same parties once in power. As usual it's the public who suffer from the incestuous government/industry relationships.

OUR SHINY NEW COURTHOUSE

The difference between a man and a boy is the cost of his toys. I have no idea who first coined that phrase but it's a good one. My corollary is "The difference between a big politician and a little one is the cost to the taxpayers". Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story by Luisa D'Amato "How can we justify our shiny new courthouse?". According to her we can't. To date I have seen no serious attempt by politicians or bureaucrats to do so. "It was the Ontario Liberal government which decided to pour $766 million into the megacourthouse for construction and operating costs.". Over 3/4 of a billion dollars for one building! Are they nuts?

If I truly had any reason to believe that the quality of our justice system would improve, I might not be so disgusted. Instead we will continue with second rate justice or no justice with even emptier taxpayer pockets. Luisa has a big bone to pick with how Cambridge has been treated. Let's see: they get more taxes and reduced services all the while now having to commute to Kitchener. I live in Elmira and as part of that choice expect some government services to be further afield such as hospitals and courthouses. If I lived in Cambridge I'd be livid. Time, expense and inconvenience. Kind of reminds you of how they're being treated in regards to the LRT (light rapid transit) doesn't it?

Getting back to the "need" for this shiny new toy; all I can say is the old buildings dispensed psuedo justice perfectly well. Human errors, incompetence, maliciousness, laziness and pettiness will all survive the trip down the street to the new and improved (?) building. Luisa has trouble understanding all the new and expensive security features including surveillance and an explosion proof building. I don't. The authoritiies and politicians know they have pissed off the people and they fear the worst. Stop your psychopathic and paranoid behaviour as well as wasting our money for your grandiose schemes and go back to simpler less expensive times.

POLICE SALARIES ACCOUNT FOR 90% OF BUDGET

On the face of it, the above title isn't too worrisome. Afterall, let's face it, police work is and should be labour intensive. It should be people face to face solving problems and disputes. It should be people gathering evidence and doing interviews etc.. I don't want to see the day when police work is mostly camera and sound surveillance followed up by computer analysis of automatic surveillance.

Perhaps my concern arises from the total budget for the Waterloo Region Police. How does $126 million sound to you? I'll admit I wasn't shocked because I know how ridiculously high the annual budget for the Waterloo Region District School Board is. Soaring education costs put police costs to shame. Nevertheless first class officers make $83,156 per year and under the union contract; that, similar to the teachers pay grid, is based upon time and seniority, not necessarily performance. There are a little over 1,000 police employees in Waterloo Region. The number not mentioned is how many of them are on the "sunshine" list. This is the listing of public and civil service employees who make more than $100,000 per year and it is rising by leaps and bounds. The Waterloo Regional Police have hundreds on that list.

I fully expect that as the public's ability to pay taxes decreases that the cutoff line for the "sunshine" list will rise. Even a decade ago the numbers were tiny to what they are now. These quoted numbers are in last Wednesday's Waterloo Region Record story titled "Police wage dispute going to arbitration". While I don't know how you put a fair wage upon police work I do know that having it this much above average wages of those paying the freight is ridiculous. I also know that it is unsustainable in the long run. I also don't understand how these wages could be so high when it's the first time they've gone to arbitration. I've heard horror stories in the past as to how biased in favour of labour, arbitraters are; but these contracts were negotiated by the police union with the politically appointed police commission. In other words, directly or indirectly, our regional politicians have been selling the farm when it comes to the public picking up the tab. Thank you very much for that! Nobody wants or expects our police officers to work for minimum wage or even low wages but there is an incredible disconnect here between what they are making and what the vast majority of the rest of us are making. That widening gap needs to be closed.