Monday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Bruce Arthur discusses how last week's rallies for bigotry are reflective of a broader social illness which is being encouraged by right-wing parties and politicians. And Charlie Angus writes about his experience on the receiving end of violent authoritarian rhetoric and personal threats.  

- John Lorinc points out that the corruption behind Doug Ford's plans to turn Ontario Place into a spa (and ultimately a casino) includes massive public costs for water and wastewater infrastructure to pump money into the pockets of Ford's buddies. And Lulu Ramadan reports on Boeing's attempts to escape any responsibility to clean up the Duwamish River in Seattle after consistently claiming it as a free dumping ground for chemicals. 

- Taylor Noakes discusses CAPP's utterly misleading spin which claims the oil sector will cut emissions while ignoring its plans to release the tar sands carbon bomb. And the Mercator Research Institute studies how solar energy and storage are both plummeting in price, making a clean energy supply more affordable than dirty fossil fuels even if we weren't going to account for the environmental costs of carbon dumping. 

- Cory Doctorow examines how Apple has blocked users from repairing their devices in order to ensure a continued market based on mandated obsolescence. 

- Finally, Kevin Drum highlights the drastic difference in pay and benefits between unionized and non-unionized workforces in the U.S.' private sector. 

Thursday Evening Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Thomas Powell makes the case for ensuring that families are able to maintain connections to loved ones in long-term care as part of our rules governing the COVID-19 pandemic. And Karen Wang argues that we need a national mask requirement in place immediately to make school opening as safe as possible this fall, while Zak Vescera reports on the Saskatchewan NDP's plan for schools (in response to the Moe government's complete lack of effort).

- David Macdonald writes that the mobilization of public resources in response to the coronavirus pandemic shows that there's no excuse for refusing to fund a just transition to a clean economy. And in case there was any doubt whether investors have any appetite for a dirty fossil fuel economic strategy, Patrick Collinson and Jillian Ambrose report on the UK National Employment Savings Trust's move toward divestment, while Dan Healing reports on Total's writedown of its tar sands assets (and disaffiliation from CAPP).

- But lest anybody hoped the fossil fuel sector would be replaced without a fight, Dana Drugmand exposes how natural gas operators are attacking the electrification of buildings.

- Finally, Jason Markusoff highlights why whataboutism isn't a legitimate response to the Libs' WE scandal. And Paul Wells writes about the jarring refusal to listen to the public which resulted in the Libs trying to substitute a vaguely-defined review for an full inquiry into the Portapique shooting spree.

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- The Globe and Mail's editorial board rightly recognizes that attempts to challenge federal carbon pricing on constitutional grounds represent nothing but a politically-motivated waste of money. Ross Belot laments the Trudeau Libs' decision to respond by watering down already-insufficient plans while making it difficult for anybody to plan around a coherent federal policy. And Fatima Syed reports on allegations that Ontario's provincial election was tainted by prohibited donations from the oil sector.

- Meanwhile, Damian Carrington talks to Michael Mann about the role climate change has already played in the proliferation of extreme weather events.

- The Lindsay Advocate and the Toronto Star both offer first-hand accounts from the people who stand to lose out on desperately-needed economic security due to the callous cancellation of Ontario's basic income pilot program. Jane Gerster fact-checks the PCs' laughable claim that stable income disincentivizes work. And John Stapleton and Yvonne Yuan point out the erosion of existing social programs as highlighting the need for a more generous welfare system - rather than the cruelty of Ford's government.

- Finally, Matt Wade writes that Australia's economy - like so many others - is seeing workers take home an unprecedentedly small share of total output.

New column day

Here, on the corporate sector's expectation that it will be able to write laws and set public policy for its own benefit - and the disturbing number of examples of it being allowed to do just that.

For further reading...
- Jenny Uechl reported on both the secret CAPP meetings which set British Columbia's climate policy in Calgary, and CAPP's view that there's nothing at all wrong with that process.
- Beatrice Britneff and Kyle Duggan report on Apotex' attempt to stifle any investigation by the Lobbying Commissioner into cash-for-access fund-raising.
- Ross Marowits reports on SNC-Lavalin's push not to have fraud or corruption prosecuted as such.
- While I didn't mention the example in the column, Saskatchewan readers should be familiar with the Wall government's suppression of information about the Global Transportation Hub scandal - followed by its document dump only once Brad Wall had a foot out the door.
- Finally, Sean Holman wrote about the importance of access to information at all levels of government. And for those interested, David Common is speaking tonight on access to information in Saskatchewan as part of Right to Know week.

Monday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your afternoon reading.

- Dan Leger worries about the consequences of the Cons' faith-based government:

Despite the big majority and many years left in its mandate, the government seems to operate in a constant state of fear and insecurity.

How else to explain the attempts to closet Commons committee hearings behind closed doors? What else would explain denying every single amendment proposed by the opposition, restricting debate and invoking closure on so many bills, muzzling the public service or employing "reprehensible" dirty tricks to undermine a sitting Liberal MP? In Harper’s Ottawa, even cabinet meetings are scheduled and held in secret.
...
How about debate? To the current government, parliamentary debate is mere distraction. No sooner is a bill introduced than the government invokes closure and the legislation is hustled down the track. Some people think democratic debate is fundamental to parliamentary rule. The government wants us to believe that we can now do without it.

Judging by their success in the election, a lot of Canadians took a leap of faith on the Tory promise to create a new era of accountability after the misdeeds of the bad old Liberals. They were supposed to make government more democratic and responsive. It hasn’t turned out that way. Government has become ever more remote and hostile.

- And sadly the Cons offered a jarring case in point today, proclaiming that they intend to hack away at future health-care funding levels contrary to their election promises.

- Alison does some digging on the history of Campaign Research - and it shouldn't come as much surprise that the Cons' dirty tricksters have been on the receiving end of government largesse as well as partisan spending.

- Finally, John Geddes chronicles how CAPP earned itself a veto over museum exhibits about the tar sands.

This really doesn't strike me as that difficult

EFL seems to be having a serious break from reality. So let's see if we can make this even more clear with two points that I'd think would be unassailable.

1. The Liberal Party is not CAPP. Nor is CAPP the Liberal Party. Disagreement with the Liberal Party on any particular issue does not constitute derision of, nor any other position toward, CAPP.

I'd normally expect EFL to be smart enough to figure this one out. But that only makes it all the more egregious that he's pretending not to understand it.

2. The Liberal Party's plans are not revelations from on high, such that another party's merit or good faith is judged solely by its enthusiastic embrace of them. Instead, reasonable people may consider the Liberal Party's plans to be fallible or subject to disagreement.

And it's not as if EFL doesn't recognize this one from time to time - but apparently the principle doesn't apply to members of other parties.

What's saddest about EFL's embarrassing outburst is that CAPP's actual events made for an excellent example of people from multiple parties (or no parties) putting their differences in allegiance aside in support of a common goal. And indeed Cons were invited to participate and treated respectfully when they showed up to counterprotest.

But apparently at least some Libs are in the midst of a wholesale rewrite of history, cutting NDP supporters (and presumably Greens, Bloquistes and anybody else outside the Libs' tent) out of their mental pictures of CAPP's rallies in order to proclaim that the popular movement to protest Harper was theirs and theirs alone. And that can only have the effect of helping to undo whatever goodwill the opposition parties managed to generate through grassroots cooperation.

(Edit: fixed wording.)

On discrepancies

CBC's report on the commendation given to Saskatoon Police Service for helping to prevent "embarrassment" for Stephen Harper points out another detail which looks to deserve some significant follow-up, as the police look to have been far more restrictive in handling the CAPP protesters than they normally are in protecting VIPs. Here's the Chief of Police:

Chief Clive Weighill said Saskatoon police don't want people to get too close.

Police Chief Clive Weighhill of Saskatoon says officers have to ensure VIPs are safe.Police Chief Clive Weighhill of Saskatoon says officers have to ensure VIPs are safe. (CBC)"Our job is to prevent anybody who wants to exercise their freedom of speech not to get too close to a VIP," he said. "That's all our job is."

When asked how close was too close, Weighill responded, "Within arm's-reach or possible harm's reach."

But he also said there isn't a handbook of rules for such situations.

In contrast, here's how the CAPP protesters were actually treated:

Goldie said protesters were kept across the street from the hotel for most of their demonstration and were never in a position to do harm.

"We were shouting slogans and that sort of thing, trying to get attention, but nothing outside of the normal run of a protest," he said.

Now, it would seem fairly obvious that had the police wanted only to avoid "harm" to Harper, they could just as easily have cleared a single path for him while allowing the protesters to stay in front of the hotel. And it's not hard to draw a connection between the city policy instead corralling the protesters much further away than they could possibly justify from the standpoint of preventing harm, and the RCMP offering its commendation for sparing Harper the "embarrassment" of a peaceful protest.

Of course, that raises the question of who exactly made the decision that Saskatoon's police should be serving Harper's interests rather than those of the public. But from the response so far, it doesn't look like either the Saskatoon Police Service or the RCMP will come out unscathed.

Burning question

Can all agree that by a "people taking to the streets" standard, the Cons are in some trouble?

Update: See also...

On constructive activity

I've offered up a couple of suggestions as to how some Con MPs might best use their Harper Holidays. But I wouldn't have thought to go to the ambitious lengths Mark is going to in following up as to what every single MP is actually doing. So go help Mark out with his Review-A-Con project - or look for another of the 31 Days of Action plans to keep the focus where it belongs while the Cons try to change the subject.

CAPP - Saskatchewan Events

The full list of CAPP protests scheduled for tomorrow across the country can be found here. But for those looking for the Saskatchewan events, here's the time and place to show your support for democracy against Stephen Harper's decision to shut down Parliament:

Prince Albert:
Saturday, January 23
1:30 pm
PA Union Centre, 107-8th St. E.

Regina:
Saturday, January 23, 2010
1:00pm - 2:00pm
Scarth Street Mall (South Side by the Buffalo)

Saskatoon:
Saturday, January 23, 2010
1:00pm - 2:30pm
City Hall Square (South Side of City Hall)
222 3rd Ave. North