Affirmative action

Hooray! The federal government is going to review its affirmative action policies. 

Cabinet ministers Stockwell Day and Jason Kenney announced the review of the Public Service Employment Act, along with any related practices and policies, on Thursday. “While we support diversity in the public service, we want to ensure that no Canadian is barred from opportunities in the public service based on race or ethnicity,” Mr. Day, the Treasury Board President, said in a statement.

Mr. Kenney, meanwhile, was more blunt in his calls for a meritocracy.

“I strongly agree with the objective of creating a public service that reflects the diversity of Canada, and with fair measures designed to reach that goal. But we must ensure that all Canadians have an equal opportunity to work for their government based on merit, regardless of race or ethnicity,” said the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism.

Affirmative action is useless and unnecessary in this day and age in Canada. And doesn't it kind of violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms if we're putting hiring preferences over another equally qualified individual based on background, disability, and gender? Aren't we all equal?

What we should be looking at is not hiring practices but wage equality.

I work in the private sector and have been on contract with numerous clients, mostly large organizations and I'd say private sector hiring is even more diverse than the public sector. 

This is a welcomed move.

h/t Dr. Roy

The Coalition is dead. Long live the Coalition!

In the aftermath of the recent UK election resulting in a new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government, Liberals and NDP in Canada have been saying, "See!  Coalitions DO work.  They don't even do minority governments there."

Well hold on a sec...  I read former Liberal strategist Warren Kinsella's blog posts regularly.  Let us go through the logic here.

Today Kinsella posted:

This is now. 

That was then. 

Key message: if Stephen Harper’s Reformatories do it, it’s okay. If anyone else does it, it’s Satanic.

Clear?

No, it's not clear.  Kinsella is referring to his own speech given at the Alberta Liberal Convention in Calgary where he talks about getting together with the NDP.

The "This is now" link above refers to Conservative strategists lambasting the Liberals for considering the coalition idea again, as they should. 

Now keep in mind that the FORMAL coalition between the Liberals and NDP had support from the Bloc Quebecois until June 2010.  A letter to the Governor General was signed by them in a request to to basically hand over the reigns of government to them, with Stephane Dion as Prime Minister and NDP would have cabinet posts.  While a coaliton government such as this is totally legal and constitutional, the point is that the Canadian voter was NEVER presented with this option going into the election, so many Canadians felt cheated, which is why polls for the Conservatives went up considerably after that.  Oh, and you know who else signed that letter? One Michael Ignatieff.

In the "That was then" link, Warren stretches out back in history to when Stockwell Day was leader of the Canadian Alliance. You know, before the Conservative Party existed and before Stephen Harper was even on the scene as a potential leader, let alone prime minister.  Yeah, yeah, we know Stock is cabinet now, but it's obvious here Warren's "Reformatories" moniker is slapping shit together from different piles to try and make it stick. Nice try.

(Should I mention that Warren's old boss, former Prime Minister Jean Chretien, had discussions with former NDP leader Ed Broadbent to kickstart the coalition negotiations?  Ok, there, I did.)

And one such pile is when Liberals and NDP say "How can you be against a coalition when you did it yourself!", referring to the time that when in opposition, the Conservatives, NDP, and Bloc voted non-confidence in the government, which sparked an election.

Key message:  When Liberals, NDP, and Separatists do it, they want to be an instant government without voters deciding. When Conservatives do it, they want to trigger an election and let the voters decide.

Clear?

Long live the Coalition!

Day to cut 245 patronage posts

Newly appointed Treasury Board President, Stockwell Day, is going to cut 245 patronage positions, many of which are currently vacant.

Now here's the typical NDP-socialist spin for always wanting a bigger government for no other reason than to have a bigger government that we can't afford:

New Democrat MP Pat Martin, the party's Treasury Board critic, said he expects the cuts to be the first of many in what he predicted would be a "clumsy, mean-spirited" campaign against the public service as the government tries to put Canada on the path back to a balanced budget.

"The public service is an easy target. You have to be seen doing something, so you go after the public service," said Martin, speaking to reporters following the end of Day's news conference. 

Well Pat, why not show us what value and services these positions actually provide the Canadian people?  

My guess is that they don't.

Mr. Day, axe away!

Frickin' Robocop Taser Beams

"One death is a tragedy. A million is a statistic." - Josef Stalin

Another taser death.

This is ridiculous.

I've been watching Question Period in the House of Commons lately and I gotta agree with NDP leader Jack Layton continuing to call on Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day to order that the use of tasers be suspended until we learn more about them. None of these deaths were warranted or sanctioned.

With things like photo-radar, red light cameras, and street surveillance cameras, all of these things are inching toward "robocop enforcement", where more money is put into technology, which often doesn't work, and not into actual people doing the actual enforcement of the law, especially having more of them together. (The recent young Mountie's death in Nunavut a couple weeks ago was most tragic, especially with him being the only officer on the call.)

But now we see the frequent use of tasers to assist with enforcement, which time and time again, we have seen failing in the most reprehensible manner. The use of them should have stopped after the first death.

This is Canada for crying out loud.

Here's a recap of taser-related deaths:

2007:

• (unreleased name), 45, in Nova Scotia Correctional Facility
  
• Quilem Registre, 39, in Montreal.
• Robert Dziekanski, 40, in the Vancouver Airport in October.
• Claudio Castagnetta, 32, died in Quebec City on Sept. 20, two days after being tasered.

2006:

• Jason Dean, 28, in Red Deer while running from police in August.

2005:

• Alesandro Fiacco, 33, in Edmonton, arrested while wandering into traffic in December.
• James Foldi, 39, of Beamsville, Ont., while being arrested for breaking and entering in July.
• Paul Sheldon Saulnier, 42, while being restrained by police in Digby, N.S., in July.
• Gurmeet Sandhu, 41, of Surrey B.C., while being restrained during a domestic dispute in June.
• Kevin Geldart, 34, in Moncton, N.B., in an altercation with police.