Gunter: EI isn’t entitlement insurance

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Jack

If you lose your job, you shouldn’t have to take work that is beneath you. You shouldn’t have to accept a job that offers you less pay or worse working conditions.

If you find yourself unemployed in your home region, you shouldn’t have to move away to find work.

You should be free to make all of those choices. But the rest of us — we taxpayers and Employment Insurance (EI) premium payers — should be under no obligation to subsidize your decisions through our taxes and payroll deductions.

If you don’t want to take just any old job that comes along, if you don’t want to demean yourself with a position that doesn’t match your training or if you don’t want to move, fine. That’s your choice. Just don’t expect the rest of us to pay to keep you in your preferred lifestyle.

In the budget bill currently before Parliament, the Conservative government is seeking to change EI rules so claimants will be forced to accept work more readily and get off EI sooner.

It’s about time.

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Canadian immigration rules blur when illness involved

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Jack

Reviving questions about when and if a would-be immigrant’s health problems should keep him out of Canada, the Federal Court has overturned a government decision to bar a Panamanian man from the country because of the potential financial burden of his HIV infection.

Nestor Ovalle has a job offer from a Toronto accounting firm and qualified for entry under the skilled-worker category. He was denied permanent resident status, however, on the grounds that his need for $18,000 a year in anti-retroviral drugs could unduly strain Canadian health-care resources.

The court quashed that ruling this month and sent the case back for a new hearing, saying the original Immigration Canada officer ignored evidence that a U.S. charity — not Ontario taxpayers — would pay for Mr. Ovalle’s medication.

It is the latest in a string of recent decisions on whether HIV, multiple sclerosis or other illness requiring expensive treatment should be a barrier to entry, including one earlier this month that found an elderly American couple — one of whom has advanced Alzheimer’s — came here simply because they liked Canada’s health-care system better.

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Crown announces new charges against suspects in alleged Ottawa terror cell

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Jack

Members of an alleged Ottawa terror cell are facing new charges, the Crown prosecution service said on Wednesday. Suspected ringleader Hiva Mohammad Alizadeh, 32, and Misbahuddin Ahmed, 28, were charged Monday with participating in the activities of a terrorist group, while Khurran Syed Sher, 30, is charged with conspiring to facilitate terrorist activity. The Crown also announced their cases would go directly to trial without preliminary hearings. The three were arrested in August 2010 following a joint police probe called Project Samossa. They were accused of plotting bombings in Canada and financing attacks on Canadian troops in Afghanistan. Federal authorities have depicted the case as an example of homegrown radicalization, in which Canadians have allegedly bought into the violent al-Qaeda ideology.

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Western premiers call out Thomas Mulcair for ‘divisive’ comments on oil sands

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Jack

CALGARY — Western premiers launched a counter-attack on federal NDP leader Thomas Mulcair on Wednesday, saying his comments about the country’s resource sector were divisive, inaccurate and economically facile.

“We have one more message for Mr. Mulcair and that is his facts are wrong and what he’s doing is very divisive,” said Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall. “This is someone who wants to be the prime minister, the prime minister who will have to work with all of us.”

Mr. Mulcair this week again trotted out the “Dutch disease” argument; its proponents say Canada’s oil-fuelled high dollar is pushing manufacturing business out of central Canada.

Mr. Mulcair said he wouldn’t engage with the Western premiers on the subject, whom he believed to be mere “messengers” of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Mr. Wall pointed to a Statistics Canada report released Wednesday reporting growth in the manufacturing sector thanks to the oil and coal industries.

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Hamilton: Quebec plans emergency legislation to break strike after university stormed

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Jack

Armchair psychologists analyzing Quebec’s long-running tuition protests have seen the students’ actions as evidence of a generation of enfants-rois — child kings — who have never been told “No.”

Léo Bureau-Blouin, president of one of the main student federations, did nothing to dispel that image Wednesday when he begged Premier Jean Charest not to introduce legislation forcing the opening of CEGEP and university classrooms.

“A good father does not call the police into his home to solve a problem with his children. A good father addresses his children and talks to them to settle a crisis,” Mr. Bureau-Blouin said. “Today, that is what the Premier of Quebec should do with the students — with those whom he could call his children — and not use police force to solve this conflict. That would be an extremely dangerous decision.”

Unfortunately for the student leader, his appeal came shortly after masked students had rampaged through the downtown campus of the Université du Québec à Montréal, disrupting classes in an effort to enforce their “strike” on law students who wanted to resume their studies and had an injunction permitting them to do so.

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Mead: OWS RIP

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Jack

Remember when Occupy Wall Street was sweeping the nation? The media branded it the left’s answer to the Tea Party, the start of a grand national mobilization; depending on who you ask, half of America once supported the OWS protestors, double the amount who back the Tea Party. The Huffington Post even launched a separate page devoted entirely to coverage of OWS.

How the mighty have fallen. The New York Times may still be trying to perform mouth to mouth resuscitation on the decomposing OWS corpse, attributing continuing policy influence sans evidence of any kind to a movement that has all but completely disappeared, but compared to the Tea Party, except for the media hype, OWS was a political flop. (Via Meadia is not a card carrying tea-partier, by the way; any tea sipped in the stately Mead manor is poured into delicate China cups by our well trained housekeeping staff, and tasted with pinkies appropriately extended in the proper, traditional way.)

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Den Tandt: Arrest the criminals, not the victims

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Jack

OTTAWA – There’s no accounting, goes the old saying, for stupid. Truer words were never said. No amount of legislation, however well intentioned, can cure it.

For instance: Consider the case of Marian Andrzejewski, a 74-year-old Polish-born retiree, a painter by trade (canvases, not houses), who called Ottawa 911 from his public housing unit after he was punched out by two young men, following a dispute with a neighbour.

The neighbour, a woman named Gale Doherty, is reported by the Ottawa Citizen to be an admitted crack addict with a lengthy criminal record. Her prior offenses include cheque forgery, theft and obstructing police.

Mr. Andrzejewski, who emigrated to Canada after living through the Nazi invasion and occupation of Poland, has no criminal record. With me so far?

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Morning Update May 17th, 2012 (10)

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Jack

CANADA

#1 — CNews | Tory ministers slam UN food envoy 

OTTAWA – Conservative cabinet ministers have started a food fight with a United Nations food rights envoy over his warning Canada is flunking international obligations by failing to prevent hunger and obesity nationwide.

[...]

NP | Ivison: Hypocritical UN council sends envoy on Kafka-esque Canadian visit

#2 — Globe | Controversial Islamic school ordered out of Toronto public school property

The Toronto District School Board has forbidden a controversial Islamic school from operating out of one of its properties.

[...]

#3 — LFP | Full steam ahead for museum sub

Project Ojibwa is now a “go,” a tugboat on its way to fetch the decommissioned Canadian submarine from Halifax and tow it to Port Burwell.

[...]

#4 –NP | Ontario Liberals lobbied for Ornge, MPPs told

New questions are being raised about whether well-connected Liberals lobbied the Ontario government for Ornge, the provincial air ambulance service now under criminal investigation.

[...]

#5 — OC | Infighting plagues military watchdog

OTTAWA — The office of Canada’s military Ombudsman has become dysfunctional, with an employee turnover rate of 50 per cent, complaints about sexist and off-colour jokes, and some investigations into issues affecting soldiers dragging on for years, say former and current staff.

[...]

WORLD

#6 — BBC | North Koreans ‘holding 29 Chinese fishermen’

Unidentified North Koreans have detained 29 Chinese fishermen from three boats and are demanding payment for their release, Chinese media says.

[...]

#7 — Fox | Obama requesting help to pay for Afghan army

WASHINGTON –  Mapping the way out of an unpopular war, the United States and NATO are trying to build an Afghan army that can defend the country after 130,000 international troops pull out. The alliance’s plans for arm’s-length support for Afghanistan will be a central focus of the summit President Barack Obama is hosting Sunday and Monday in Chicago.

[...]

#8 — Fox | Prosecutors lay out Srebrenica case against Mladic

THE HAGUE, Netherlands –  Prosecutors on Thursday were outlining their evidence of the alleged involvement of former Bosnian Serb military chief Gen. Ratko Mladic in Europe’s worst mass murder since World War II, the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.

[...]

#9 — DM | ‘Beams’ from space that could power cities

On Earth, solar power has had a slow start, thanks to high prices and inefficient panels – but the first tests on ‘solar satellites’ offer hope of ‘green energy’ that actually works.

[...]

#10 — Telegraph | Robert Kennedy Jr’s estranged wife found dead in New York

The estranged wife of Robert Kennedy Jr has been found dead in her New York home after an apparent suicide.

[...]

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McParland: Thomas Mulcair’s federalism doesn’t include the West (1)

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Jack

B.C. Premier Christy Clark -- just one of Harper's messengers

Some time back I noted that the selection of Thomas (“Tom”) Mulcair as NDP leader would be a great thing for Quebec’s separatists, since it would likely set off a bidding war for nationalist votes.

There was some dispute about this, as it was pointed out that Mr. Mulcair was generally accepted to be a federalist. After all, he’d served in the federalist government of Jean Charest (though he quit in a huff when he was demoted) and could be relied on to say rude things about ardent pursuers of independence.

All fair and good, but here we are just weeks into the Mulcair reign and already he’s having trouble getting along with the rest of the country. Maybe this is a deliberate strategy – an attempt to win votes in Ontario and Quebec by pitting them against the rest of Canada. Or maybe it’s that famous Mulcair temper we’ve heard about. Or perhaps this is just what Mulcair is all about, a Quebec politician who is primarily interested in Quebec.

I guess we’ll see, but it’s not a promising start if you were hoping for an NDP that planned to position itself as a government-in-waiting, and that could be relied on to work on behalf of the national good as opposed to a restricted regional agenda. Mulcair’s challenge throughout his leadership campaign was to demonstrate he could expand his support beyond Quebec, which can’t, in itself, make the NDP the government. He claimed he could. But he has a funny way of going about it.

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Notes:

The media is wondering why conservatives have not attacked Mulcair yet.  The short answer is ‘Why blow the money when he’s doing such a fantastic job of destroying himself and his party all on his own?’

It is clear that the federal NDP party is now the Bloc Quebecois in “drag”.  No need to spend money on something which is blatantly obvious to all.

Just let them keep digging their grave.  No need to interfere.

“Heh”

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Afternoon Update May 16th, 2012 (10)

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Jack

CANADA

#1 — CNews | G20 activist cleared of all charges 

TORONTO – Byron Sonne — dubbed the G20 geek — was exonerated by a judge Tuesday of allegations he possessed a massive quantity of explosive materials during the 2010 summit of world leaders in downtown Toronto.

[...]

#2 — Globe | Canada ready to open its doors to more immigrants, Kenney says

Canada is ready to open its doors to expanded immigration, but only if the immigrants already here do better.

[...]

#3 — MacLeans | The Commons: More than 400 pages and still short on details

The Scene. For all of the budget bill’s pages and clauses—more than 400 of the former and more than 700 of the latter—opposition MPs seem strangely at a loss. So very many pages and yet still they cry out for more.

[...]

#4 — NP | Gangster re-arrested a month after being released for Toronto bystander shooting

TORONTO — One of the gangsters responsible for spraying a crowded Toronto restaurant with bullets in a bungled mob hit — paralyzing an innocent mother of three — has been re-arrested, just a month after leaving prison for his role in one of the city’s most notorious bystander shootings.

[...]

#5 — OC | Help sought to find missing teen in Kanata

OTTAWA — Ottawa police are asking anyone with information about a 16-year-old girl who went missing in Kanata Tuesday morning to contact them.

[...]

WORLD

#6 — BBC | F-22 fighter jets face more Pentagon safety rules

The Pentagon has issued further safety procedures for its most advanced fighter jet after pilots complained of oxygen shortages during flights.

[...]

#7 — CNN | Part of flight recorder of Russian plane found in Indonesia

Jakarta, Indonesia (CNN) – Indonesian authorities said Wednesday that they had found part of the flight recorder of the Russian passenger jet that crashed into the side of a volcano during a demonstration flight last week, killing 45 people.

[...]

#8 — Fox | Fischer upsets Republican rivals to win Nebraska Senate primary

Nebraska state Sen. Deb Fischer upset her Republican rivals Tuesday night to win the party’s nomination for the Nebraska Senate.

[...]

WP | Rubin: 10 things about Deb Fischer’s win

#9 — DM | WikiLeaks cable ‘led Iran to hang kick-boxer it claims was Israeli spy who assassinated nuclear scientist’

An Iranian kick-boxer was hanged for the assassination of a Tehran nuclear scientist after WikiLeaks published a confidential U.S. Embassy cable, it has been claimed.

[...]

#10 — Telegraph | Taliban infighting over US talks breaks down into terror campaign

Taliban leadership infighting between hardliners and commanders over US talks has broken down into a terror campaign against senior dissidents who support negotiations, a senior insurgency leader has revealed.

[...]

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Warner: This is how the euro ends – not with a whimper but a bang (15)

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Jack

With Greece unable to form a government and therefore now set on new elections, how’s this going to pan out? Very badly, is the almost certain answer.

Let’s look first at the now odds on possibility of a Greek exit. The outcome of the last election was basically just a protest vote – the Greeks are against austerity, against the programme, but they also want to stay in the euro. They want to have their cake and eat it too, and they are gambling that when the Germans come to look into the abyss and realise the devastation a Greek exit will cause, they’ll give them the cake – oh, and let them default on all their external debts and provide big Marshall Plan style grants to rebuild their shattered economy to boot. And where do they expect the money to come from? The tooth fairy?

Next month’s election will be different. Even the Greeks must realise that it’s now a straight choice – the programme or the dreaded drachma. But the Germans are changing, some protest. Francois Hollande will persuade them of their folly, and a gentler, more conciliatory eurozone will be born. This is just wishful thinking.

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See Also:

Appetiser cost of Greek exit is €155bn for Germany, France: trillions for meat course

Merkel tells Greece to back cuts or face euro exit

Merkel Won’t Budge on Austerity Despite Setback

Germany Demands Britons Pay Another £1bn To Bail Out Euro

IMF prepares for a ‘messy’ Greek exit

Afternoon Updates:

12:02 pm EDT, May 16th, 2012 — Investors pull 1.4billion euros out of crisis-hit country in just two days

12:03 pm EDT, May 16th, 2012 — Italy’s banks shaken as economic slump deepens

12:04 pm EDT, May 16th, 2012 — Greek election set for June 17, as public withdraws millions from banks

12:05 pm EDT, May 16th, 2012 — Bondholder fury as Athens pays off debts to hedge funds

12:06 pm EDT, May 16th, 2012 — Global lenders face ‘killer losses’ on Greek debt

12:07 pm EDT, May 16th, 2012 — German investor confidence hit by French, Greek elections results

12:08 pm EDT, May 16th, 2012 — A eurozone without Greece?

12:09 pm EDT, May 16th, 2012 — Back to Utopia?

12:10 pm EDT, May 16th, 2012 — For Greece – and Europe – the true calamity is to delay exiting the euro (good read)

12:11 pm EDT, May 16th, 2012 — Debt crisis: live

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