Rational Radical

And yes, I am allowed to highlight the hate, hypocrisy, discrimination, and backward thinking of the people who run the mosque or adhere to its ugly principles, regardless of their religion. If you want to preach or follow such ugliness, do it in a country that condones it; Canada is not that country, even though we are selectively tolerant of hate.

Mosque fights for human rights as it smears West, Jews online — Centre backs womens’ complaint of violation of religious rights while denouncing other faiths

A mosque asking that Canadian workplaces respect a strict Muslim dress code is at the same time disseminating slurs against Jews and Western societies, and warning members against social integration. The Khalid Bin Al-Walid Mosque near Kipling Ave. and Rexdale Blvd. serves as the religious authority for eight Somali women complaining to the Canadian Human Rights Commission that UPS Canada Ltd. violated their religious rights at a sorting plant. The mosque, founded in 1990 and serving upwards of 10,000 people, preaches strict adherence to sharia, or Islamic law, and no compromise with the West.  Teachings on the mosque’s website, khalidmosque.com, refer to non-Muslim Westerners as “wicked,” “corrupt” and “our clear enemies.” Sometimes Jews are singled out.

“Is it permissible for women to wear high-heeled shoes?” begins one posting in question-and-answer format. “That is not permissible,” comes the reply. “It involves resembling the Disbelieving Women or the wicked women. It has its origin among the Jewish women.” Modern pastimes are condemned. “What is the ruling on subscribing to sports channels?” another question begins. “Watching some of the female spectators, when the camera focuses on them time after time” stirs “evil inclinations,” the lesson reads. “Some (players) may not even believe in Allaah.”

Mosque leaders refused repeated requests for an interview. A  disclaimer on the website says questions and answers do not necessarily reflect the mosque’s views. But the About Us page says: “All questions and answers on this site (are) prepared, approved and supervised by (the mosque’s imam) Bashir Yusuf Shiil.”  The mosque’s stand on the UPS case also appears contradictory. In September, a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal heard two weeks of testimony from eight mosque members alleging “Islamophobia” at the company’s west Toronto plant. Three final days of testimony are scheduled for next week.

The eight women, who lost their jobs at UPS, say Islam dictates that they wear a full-length skirt for modesty. The courier company insists that any skirt be knee-length for safety, as workers climb ladders up to 6 metres high. Under their skirt, the women wear full-length trousers but say they do not want the lower part showing in case the shape of the calf can be discerned. The complaint originally centred on the company’s use of temporary workers and uneven enforcement of its safety rules.  But the key question remains: Is UPS insisting on shorter hems for safety or is it violating religious rights by denying the women permanent jobs unless they conform?

So far, no Khalid Bin Al-Walid Mosque representative has attended the sessions, but the women cited the mosque as their place of worship and religious authority, and tabled a letter from its administration. “This is to certify that the religion of Islam requires all Muslim women to cover her entire body inclusive of the legs, arms, head, ears and neck,” the letter reads. “As such, (the women) would not be able to wear pants as an outfit.” On the other hand, the mosque’s website teachings forbid women to work outside the home in the first place. “It is known that when women go to work in the workplaces of men, this leads to mixing with men,” one such posting says. “This is a very dangerous matter,” it reads. “It is in clear opposition to the texts of the Shariah that order the women to remain in their houses and to fulfill the type of work that is particular for her …”We ask Allah to protect our land and the lands of all Muslims from the plots and machinations of their enemies.”

Two of the women making the complaint – Dales Yusuf, 46, and Nadifo Yusuf (no relation), 36 – said in an interview that they live in Canada now, and are free to pick and choose from Islamic law. “We must work,” said Dales Yusuf. “I’m a single parent raising my kids.” Jacquie Chic, a lawyer with the Workers’ Action Centre representing the women at the hearings, said neither she nor her clients were aware of the mosque’s posted teachings. “I, the Workers’ Centre and these women are concerned enormously about any expression of anti-Semitism or any other form of racism,” she said.

Questions to the mosque about its teachings were met with evasiveness over three weeks. Mosque chairman Osman Mohamed three times agreed to an interview and three times cancelled at last minute. Imam Shiil was said to be in Saudi Arabia and unreachable. Mosque administrator Abukar Mohamed confused matters further by appearing to agree with UPS, saying: “The Quran says women must be covered – it doesn’t give you the specific clothes. But I am not a religious authority.”

I forgot about these stories sent to me by CM:

York U really damaged their rep and enrollment with their extended strike a few years back. And now…

Strike brings York to standstill

A strike by part-time workers (TAs, contract faculty) has turned York University into a virtual ghost town at the height of the November mid-term crunch, with all classes cancelled, assignments postponed and pickets letting cars onto campus only every few minutes.

One step forward, three steps back…

Straights are killing traditional marriage

You know what I’m talking about: The homosexual conspiracy that will force priests to perform gay marriages against Biblical laws, insert gay teachings into public school curricula, farm out foster children to pedophiles, destroy traditional families, and lead to legal polygamy and bestiality, incest and child marriages.  That “gay agenda.”

This was the sort of hate speech used by supporters of California’s Proposition 8, the ballot measure that stated “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized.” It passed on Tuesday with 52.5 per cent of the vote.  Nothing like hope and change and “Yes we can!” for some of the people some of the time.  As in “I do” – but gays don’t.

Which made Wednesday night’s demonstrations by thousands in Los Angeles – reminiscent of 1969’s Greenwich Village Stonewall Riots – understandable.  Not only are some 18,000 marriages in California now technically in legal limbo, but gays and lesbians had, by majority vote, their minority rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness taken away from them.

Miller and his gang are at it again, wasting tax dollars while raising property taxes and cutting essential services:

Councillors scoff at newsletter –Miller says publication will inform residents; critics say `propaganda’ is waste of $800,000 

A City of Toronto newsletter for residents called Our Toronto, unveiled yesterday, drew fire from opposition councillors as a costly propaganda exercise.  Our Toronto will be mailed to every household in the city starting next week. The new, comic book-sized publication is 24 pages long and printed in full colour. Mayor David Miller said the publication is an important tool for keeping residents in touch with their government.

But Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong (Ward 34, Don Valley East), who had received a stack of Our Toronto newsletters in his office, marched them up to the council chamber and asked the city clerks to return them to the “ministry of propaganda.”  Miller said it will be published up to four times a year, at a cost of $800,000. It will incorporate newsletters on garbage, transit and water that already go out to residents at an annual cost of $400,000. The opening issue has a message from the mayor spread over pages two and three.

As the adage states, “Power corrupts.  Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Well, mild to moderate power corrupts too–especially when dealing with the kinds of  incompetence and inefficiency that plagues the Canadian government and its associated bureaucracies–as you can see re. this story via CM concerning scumbags at Revenue Canada.  I normally appreciate irony but….

Tax employees abusing government credit cards, report says

OTTAWA — Employees at Canada’s tax agency have been abusing government credit cards, using them to buy retirement gifts, flowers, greeting cards – even to make charitable donations. And some of the abuses are so serious that the agency launched several investigations into potential frauds. A litany of problems is cited in a June, 2008, audit of the 1,704 MasterCards issued to workers at the Canada Revenue Agency. The cards were used to buy more than $55 million of goods and services in the year ending March 31, 2008.

“Key controls tested at the time of the review were not functioning properly to ensure compliance,” the auditors warned. The report is the latest in a series of federal probes since the mid-1990s that have found rule-breaking and abuse of credit cards in various departments. Such cards were first approved in 1991 for use by all federal departments, and have proliferated from the first 2,000 issued across government in 1992. MasterCard is one of several authorized card suppliers. By 2005, there were 35,600 such cards, used to purchase more than $600 million annually in goods and services. A few cards have high credit limits, up to $1.5 million in some cases.

At the Canada Revenue Agency, auditors examined a sample of 115 active credit cards, and found that 12 of them were held by people who no longer worked for the agency. At least three of these rogue cards had been used to buy goods and services together worth $576.50. The number of cards held by ex-employees – about 10 per cent in the sample – suggests there were about 170 rogue cards at the time of the audit. Another sampling of 128 credit-card purchases found “critical” problems with more than a quarter of them, including missing invoices and lack of approvals.

The auditors also found a series of specifically prohibited purchases, including flower deliveries, greeting cards and retirement gifts. There were also prohibited credit card-based donations to charities – just as the agency is clamping down on the charities sector for potential abuses of the rules. “A few transactions presented a high risk of fraud and were reported to management for appropriate action,” the report added. “The Internal Affairs and Fraud Prevention Division . . . have initiated investigations.”

A spokeswoman for the agency said the auditors turned over three files to the fraud squad, although in two cases investigations had already been launched and were concluded. The third file is still under investigation. But Beatrice Fenelon declined to provide further details, including whether charges were laid. “The Privacy Act prohibits the Canada Revenue Agency from disclosing personal information about its employees,” Ms. Fenelon said in an e-mail.

She also said the transactions where MasterCards were used after an employee left the agency were fully authorized, as the order was placed shortly before the employee’s departure, and the goods were for government business. Ms. Fenelon added that an online registration system was created in July of 2007 to guard against fraud and abuse, and that no cards are now held by non-employees. In 2007-2008, the agency used MasterCards for almost 190,000 transactions – and received rebates worth $490,800 through bulk-buy deals with suppliers, one of the key advantages to using so-called acquisition cards. The cards also cut down on paperwork.

The audit’s troubling findings follow on the heels of Auditor General Sheila Fraser’s report to Parliament in May 2007 that cited “lapses in the control and review of [credit-card] transactions.” Fraser warned, for example, that departments were failing to cancel the cards of employees who left government – the very problem uncovered at Canada Revenue Agency more than a year later.

Investigations at other departments have found similar problems. A 2004 audit at Fisheries and Oceans found that cards were “being used as personal credit cards by a significant number of employees.” Almost half the transactions in a cross-country sample at DFO had nothing to do with government business, the auditors found. Another audit at Environment Canada the same year also found employees using their cards for personal purchases.

Here is a link sent by a reader that deserves its own post. You’ll understand soon:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6kiGYhzZv8&feature=related

And from there you can see another link to the same horrible person (drunk):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cw357MY-jGA&NR=1

And leave it up to my buddy Keith Olbermann to do her justice too.  In fact, I love it because he also mentions how his show was the top-rated cable program in the most coveted demographic, while O’Lielly’s was only third…

The next few headlines/details should cause you concern and I hope should remind you never to blindly trust those in power, be it of a company, hospital, just-ass system, government office, etc.  But in response to a couple of requests, I’m going to reverse the formatting so that stories are in regular print and my comments are italicized:

Report: Hospital infections on the rise

Toronto’s SARS crisis and Quebec’s C. difficile nightmare drew political attention — and additional funding — to the problem of hospital-acquired infections.  But despite that, rates of these infections continued to rise in the years immediately following the outbreaks, a new study reveals.  Rates of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus — known as MRSA — more than doubled in the period from 1999 to 2005, said the study, which was based on a survey of Canadian hospitals with more 80 or more patient beds. Clostridium difficile infections also rose over that period and the number of hospitals reporting new cases of infection with vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus climbed 77 per cent over the period.

“Despite the two major communicable diseases — SARS and C. difficile — despite the emphasis by the Canadian Public Safety Institute on safer health care, despite all those things, our institutional approaches to infection control have changed remarkably little,” said Dr. Andrew Simor, head of microbiology at Toronto’s Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. Dr. Simor was not involved in the study. “And the outcomes, as a result, have gone in the wrong direction.”

And of course we can’t forget Listeria:

Emails a window on listeria outbreak — Candid missives sent by Maple Leaf boss show company slow to recognize threat

The first Friday in August, as a listeria outbreak quietly brewed at Maple Leaf’s Bartor Rd. plant in North York, company president Michael McCain was issuing a “belt tightening” call to arms.  With dismal financial results in the first two quarters, cost cutting and a hiring freeze were top priorities. Project Braveheart – a plan to save money by cutting discretionary spending – was firmly in place.

In his regular Friday email to thousands of his employees, McCain shared details of his week, projects underway and upcoming challenges. Missing from his chatty email on Friday, Aug. 1, was any reference to internal test results from the Bartor Rd. processing plant that would soon emerge as ground zero of Canada’s listeria outbreak. Through a series of company emails and an exclusive interview with the Star and CBC, a picture emerges of how McCain and his company were at first slow to recognize the threat that would become Canada’s worst contaminated meat outbreak, claiming at least 20 lives and sickening hundreds.

And then there’s Durham’s just-ass system, which causes many innocent people to rot in jail awaiting a bail hearing, while hardcore evil criminals get off free because the poor babies had to wait too long for a trial, often due to their own manufactured, strategic delays:

Judge slams bail hearing delays in Durham — Systemic problems in courts are reason he dismissed 2007 assault charges

Deep systemic problems in Durham Region courts mean prisoners routinely face unreasonable delays while awaiting bail hearings, a judge ruled as he dismissed charges against a man facing domestic assault charges. In his written reasons, Justice Joseph De Filippis, of the Ontario Court of Justice, quoted from a justice of the peace, who said that the crowded bail court docket in Durham “staggers human endurance.”

De Filippis ruled that a clogged court system meant Daniel Jevons, 60, of Oakville spent far too long in custody awaiting a bail hearing after being arrested in August 2007. Under the Criminal Code, accused people must appear before a judicial officer within 24 hours and have a bail hearing within three days thereafter, unless they consent to a delay. Jevons was held in jail for eight days before his bail hearing. Jevons, who had no criminal record, was charged with being unlawfully in a dwelling and criminal harassment for an alleged incident with a former girlfriend.

And finally, in contrast to my recent story about the 8 year-old American who murdered his father, in Canada we have this crap.  Namely, a sadistic, psychopathic killer at 14 is no different from a sadistic psychopathic killer at 18.  But the courts may think otherwise:

Young murderer awaits adult fate — Sadistic killing at 14 may yet land youth offender in prison 

On April 1, 2003, Justin Morton’s sadistic homicidal fantasies were horrifically played out when he used his own belt to strangle classmate Eric Levack in a wooded area near their Heart Lake Secondary School in Brampton. Now, more than 5 1/2 years later, the legal system is deciding what to do with the first person convicted of first-degree murder under Canada’s Youth Criminal Justice Act. Morton, now 20, will appear Thursday in a Brampton court, where legal arguments will be made as to whether he should remain at Syl Apps Youth Centre in Oakville or be transferred to an adult facility.

At 14, Morton murdered Levack, also 14, on the very day Canada’s new youth law was enacted. He lured his victim to the forest under the pretense of a game of trust, testing if his classmate could trust him to tighten a belt around his neck. He told at least five classmates that he intended to murder Levack. Afterward, he returned to art class and later turned himself in.

I know we’re far too soft on teen monsters, as our laws have not kept pace with changes in society and we want to treat 17 year-old animals as if they were 7 year-old “scamps” (don’t think I’ve used that word before).  But in Arizona, they’re looking to try an 8 year-old as an adult for killing his father, even as they investigate the possibility that he may have been abused (just speculation at this point).  The story raises several important questions, but I’ll let the questions manifest themselves:

Boy, 8, accused of shooting father dead — Arizona man had asked priest if boy should learn to use weapons

ST. JOHNS, Ariz.–A man who police believe was shot and killed by his 8-year-old son had consulted a Roman Catholic priest about whether the boy should handle guns and had taught him how to use a rifle, the clergyman said yesterday. The father, Vincent Romero, 29, was from a family of avid hunters and wanted to make sure the boy wasn’t afraid of guns, said the Very Rev. John Paul Sauter of St. Johns Catholic Church. The boy’s stepmother had suggested he have a BB gun, the priest said. Romero taught his son how to use a rifle to kill prairie dogs, Sauter said. Police say the boy used a .22-caliber rifle Wednesday to kill his father and another man, Timothy Romans, 39, of San Carlos. The priest did not say how he advised the couple but said yesterday that the boy “was just too young.” “That child, I don’t think he knows what he did, and it was brutal.”

The boy, who faces two counts of premeditated murder, did not act on the spur of the moment, St. Johns Police Chief Roy Melnick said. Police are looking into whether he might have been abused. “I’m not accusing anybody of anything at this point,” he said yesterday. “But we’re certainly going to look at the abuse part of this. He’s 8 years old. He just doesn’t decide one day that he’s going to shoot his father and shoot his father’s friend for no reason.’

The boy’s father and stepmother were married in September, said Sauter, who presided over the wedding. Romero had full custody of the child. The boy’s mother had visited from Mississippi the previous weekend and returned to Arizona after the shootings, said Apache County Attorney Brad Carlyon.

On Friday, a judge ordered a psychological evaluation of the boy. Under Arizona law, charges can be filed against anyone 8 or older. The boy had no record of complaints with Arizona Child Protective Services, Carlyon said. “He had no record of any kind, not even a disciplinary record at school,” he said. “He has never been in trouble before.” Police are pushing to have the boy tried as an adult even as they investigate possible abuse, Melnick said. If convicted as a minor, the boy could be sent to juvenile detention until he turns 18.

The boy’s lawyer, Benjamin Brewer, said his client is in good spirits. “He’s scared,” he said. “He’s trying to be tough, but he’s scared.” Police are also investigating whether there were any domestic violence calls to the Romero home in the past, Melnick said. Melnick said police got a confession, but Brewer said they questioned the boy without representation from a parent or attorney and did not advise him of his rights.

Okay, slight exaggeration. However, the flip side to the USA’s wrong-headed “justice” policy (e.g., jailing people for years for tiny marijuana possession, executing far too many innocent people, pardoning the worst criminals b/c of their connections, etc) is that many times the true monsters get what’s coming to them.  They may not get rehabilitated but at least they’re off the streets for years.

And then we have Ontario/Canada.  Here are a few headlines with links to their original stories in the Star (and/or the story below).  Disgust is not nearly strong enough to describe my reaction:

Rights infringed in bust, judge rules - Couple charged with making counterfeit documents acquitted

A young Markham couple charged with faking hundreds of passports, university degrees and government documents was acquitted yesterday after a judge ruled York Regional Police officers violated their rights when they entered their house without a warrant, and arrested them. Calling it the toughest decision of his four years on the bench, Justice Argument for Birth Control Richard Blouin said the breach of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms by the officers was “so serious” he had no choice but to suppress all the evidence against Yan Shen, 26, and his wife, Ruiqiong Zhong, 27.

That evidence included hundreds of forged government documents, including Chinese passports, Ontario drivers’ licences, marriage certificates and diplomas for prestigious universities in Canada. In throwing out charges of possession of forged documents and instruments of forgery, Blouin warned the couple not to look on the acquittal as vindication. The evidence found in their home, the judge said, was a “serious crime” that could impact national security. “Short of violence I can’t think of many more serious offences.”

But he found the actions of the police even more serious, saying officers had entered the house without “much in the way of grounds.” It was only after entering the house, and arresting the couple, that police obtained a search warrant. Charges against three other residents were withdrawn earlier.

All five accused were Chinese visa students on March 6, 2007, when police stumbled on the forgery den in the basement of a house on Eastpine Dr., near Kennedy Rd. and Steeles Ave. E., while investigating car thefts and break and enters in the area. Const. Sony Dosanjh, on patrol in an unmarked car, testified he believed a break and enter was in progress after a male in a car across the street flashed his lights at another male parked in the driveway of the house. As his partner detained the two men outside, Dosanjh entered the house after finding the front door open in —20C weather. After yelling out “Police!” Dosanjh said he was met by Shen, who immediately turned and ran into the basement. Dosanjh followed and found the couple throwing documents around while yelling in a language he did not understand. He called for backup and the arrests were made.

“An open front door is not an invitation for police to come in and gather evidence,” defence attorney Mary Cremer said outside of Newmarket court yesterday. “Life was breathed into the Charter today. It’s a decision, that if it stands it upholds the sanctity of individual rights.”

Defence lawyers suggested that police had lied in court, because their timeline of events did not match that recorded by the dispatcher at headquarters. Zhong’s lawyer, Scott Cowan, said he was outraged police had handcuffed his client, who was 8 months pregnant at the time, and was in pyjamas and slippers when police entered the house at about 11 p.m.

Shen, in jail since his arrest 18 months ago, remains in custody on an immigration warrant alleging that he entered Canada with a forged Chinese passport. Police heralded the bust as the dismantling one of the most ambitious counterfeit document rackets in Ontario history. Senior York Region officers said the operation was a “full service” forgery mill that would allow people to obtain entry into Canada or stay here illegally. “This was quite a brazen operation. You could create an entire false identity,” with the range of documents produced by the high-quality printers, York Police Chief Armand La Barge, said at a news conference to announce the bust.

“In my 30 years on the job, I’ve never seen forged university degrees or mark transcripts – they even produced high school diplomas,’ York Det. Fred Kerr said then. Police displayed university degrees, passports, drivers’ licences and even fake legal stamps from colleges and lawyers. The degrees were from the University of Toronto, York University, University of Western Ontario, Concordia, Brock, Carleton, Seneca College, George Brown College, Fanshawe College and Cape Breton University.

The counterfeiters advertised over the Internet in Chinese, including prices beside each item for sale and the headline. “Best Price! Best Service! Fastest!” Police and university officials said the fakes were virtually indistinguishable from the real thing. Also confiscated during the raid were two high-quality printers, five computers and two laptops. A fake Chinese passport was still sitting in the tray of one printer when police raided the home.

Here’s something I’ve been stressing for so long:

Book on sex assault blasts justice system - Treatment of women, children has changed little in last century

A new book is calling into question the justice system’s treatment of women and children in sexual assault cases, arguing a century of law reform has done little to dispel suspicion surrounding their testimony.

I’ve written about this Argument for the Death Penalty before.  She’s at it again.  I feel bad for the police, since they are trying to do their job but our just-ass system fails time and again:

Dangerous driver, 52, charged again 

A Toronto woman whose driver’s licence was suspended for 10 years for dangerous driving was arrested yesterday, faces criminal charges and had her car impounded, Toronto police said. Gloria Clouthier, who once hit a pedestrian and dragged him to death, was held in jail overnight and will appear in College Park court for a bail hearing today at 10 a.m. She is charged with driving while disqualified, failing to stop for police and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, said Det. Richard MacCheyne. “We take this sort of driving offence seriously,” said MacCheyne. “We ask for forfeiture of the vehicle upon conviction.”

[YEAH, YOU TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY; UNFORTUNATELY, THE JUST-ASS SYSTEM DOES NOT.]

I have to say that McCain’s concession speech was extremely gracious and seemed sincere.  Let’s hope Obama actually makes it to January 2009 (and I say that without any facetiousness).

Here are two articles (thanks for the heads up, CM) from today regarding the state of Ontario. We are in this position in Ontario due to a large collection of Political Arguments for Birth Control, many of whom are cited in the following articles.  Yet now they are trying to position themselves as something else or are trying to distance themselves from their role in the slow death of our province…

‘Have-not’ Ontario to receive equalization money

The era of Ontario as Canada’s economic engine sputtered and lurched to an ignominious end today while Newfoundland and Labrador, for too long the unwitting butt of an ongoing national joke, stepped into the economic spotlight to celebrate its status as the country’s newest “have” province.

As Finance Minister Jim Flaherty officially moved Canada’s largest province to the have-not side of the national ledger, Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams took time to declare the economic “Newfie joke” officially over.  The new found status of both provinces was made clear following a meeting between Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and his provincial counterparts in which Ottawa redrafted the rules of equalization and tied future funding for the have-nots to the country’s economic growth.

Ontario’s fall is worrying and the state of the economy suggests the province will collect the payments for “some time,” said Flaherty, whose Whitby-Oshawa riding, which plays host to a General Motors plant, has been hard hit by slumping auto sales. “Of course it worries me… I don’t rejoice at this,” Flaherty said after emerging from the half-day meeting at a hotel at Toronto’s airport. “Regrettably, I expect that Ontario will be in the equalization program for some time to come. The manufacturing sector, the auto sector are weak. American consumer demand is weak.”

Equalization payments are meant to ensure that have-not provinces are able to provide comparable services at taxation levels comparable to those in wealthy provinces. Ontario, which qualified for equalization in the late 1970s but never collected, will receive $347 million next year. Newfoundland and Labrador, for its part, said Monday it had officially become a “have-province” – a year earlier than expected and for the first time in the province’s history. “I don’t think the `Newfie joke’ is there anymore,” said Williams. “I think we’re now an example to our fellow Canadians about how it can be done and how to work your way through hardship.” While Newfoundland and Labrador’s fortunes are based on offshore oil revenues, Ontario has been hard hit by job losses in the manufacturing and auto sectors.

Alberta’s top politician said his province is poised to assume Ontario’s former title. “We are the engine of the Canadian economy,” said Premier Ed Stelmach, who will soon head to Europe to promote the oilsands. Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia are the other provinces that won’t receive equalization.

Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan disagreed with Flaherty’s timeline, questioning just how long Ontario would qualify given the new arrangement. “It looks to us, at first glance, like we won’t qualify for very long based on the constraints they put on it,” he said. Duncan also said the provincial finance ministers were only given details of the new plan shortly before the end of the meeting, which didn’t give them enough time to fully digest what the changes meant for each province. “Every bit (of funding) helps,” said Duncan, less than two weeks after announcing Ontario, once the country’s economic powerhouse, will post a $500-million deficit this year.

Among the changes discussed Monday, Flaherty is promising a six per cent increase in health and three per cent increase in social transfers for all provinces. Equalization will continue to grow year after year, Flaherty said, but that it cannot be sustained at the current 15 per cent growth each year. It will now be tied to real economic growth – a concept which Flaherty said Canadians will understand. “This is a benefit for Ontario,” he said, adding that under the old rules Ontario would have received $100 million less.

“The system changes now, because Ontario now, for the first time in the history of our country, is going to be a recipient, so the calculations are different.” Under the new equalization plan, Quebec will get $8.35 billion, Manitoba $2.1 billion and P.E.I. $340 million in transfer payments. Nova Scotia will receive equalization payments of $1.57 billion and New Brunswick $1.69 billion. Quebec Finance Minister Monique Jerome-Forget expressed concern for Ontario, saying in French that “if Ontario suffers, Quebec suffers because they are a big export and business partner.” Jerome-Forget said she didn’t have enough information to gage how Quebec will be affected by the changes, but said she was “sympathetic” to the argument that 15 per cent a year growth wasn’t sustainable. “The story now is, how did he reach those numbers and what does it mean in the future?” she said.

For Saskatchewan, which is booming despite the country’s economic woes, the main issues of interest were labour market and labour availability. “We’re investing heavily in infrastructure, so the discussions on expediting federal-provincial relationships on building Canada are important,” said Rod Gantefoer, Saskatchewan’s minister of finance. “From Saskatchewan’s point of view, we’re glad to be on the other side of the equalization formula. “It was a prideful day for us and we’re going to continue to make sure that our economy grows so that we can stay as contributors to the program.”

Monday’s meeting was meant to lay the groundwork for a First Ministers’ meeting on the economy with Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Ottawa next Monday. That meeting will prepare Canada for an economic summit of the 20 leading economies in Washington on Nov. 15. The finance ministers have agreed to reconvene for another meeting by mid-December.

Turning the page on the ‘common sense’ legacy

Only once was the name of Mike Harris explicitly mentioned, but the government he led was referred to so often, usually with a teeth-rattling shudder, that it haunted the room like the ghouls and goblins of a Halloween night. Yesterday, the Ontario government announced it had reached agreement with provincial municipalities to upload the cost of welfare, court security and prisoner transportation over the next 10 years. By the end of that decade, with those changes added to uploads of the Ontario Drug Benefit and Disabilities Support programs announced earlier, a total of $1.5 billion in annual spending will be diverted so towns and cities can devote their property tax revenues to vital local services.

The immediacy and pace of the upload is not what all would have wished. Social housing was not part of the retrenchment package. Still, from the McGuinty government’s perspective, the deal is more than satisfactory. It is all but bulletproof when municipal partners are so solidly onside and helpfully acknowledging the pressures on the provincial treasury. And though the pace of uploading might be quickened in future, it won’t be slowed, Duncan said.  Unless, he noted on the day of days for crypts opening, a new Harris-type government were to take over “and they want to go back to the way they used to do things.” There weren’t enough garlic cloves in the room.

Here’s an article forwarded by CM re. Brampton. As I’ve stated many times, I lay the vast majority of responsibility for child rearing on the parents/primary caregiver(s). However, the extremely rapid growth and poor (non-existent?) planning of cities can also contribute to the problems, as the article demonstrates:

Brampton wrestles with teen solitudes - Tensions in high school reflect divisions between blacks and South Asians
November 1, 2008

So Brathwaite breathed a sigh of relief when it turned out the 15-year-old black student charged with the Oct. 14 murder didn’t attend the school. He instead went to nearby Sandalwood Heights, the school the young victim attended. The charge is first-degree murder, which alleges premeditation. The stabbing occurred off school grounds, about 100 metres from Ravi’s Fairlawn Blvd. home in one of the new subdivisions sprouting across the city. Police haven’t revealed a motive, but Ravi’s parents say their son wasn’t robbed.

“My fear is that we are going to experience a lot of backlash against the black community. It could be an isolated case but it’s definitely not going to help relations here,” says Wambui Karanja, executive director of Brampton-based African Community Services of Peel. Peel police say racial tensions are “always a concern.” And race has certainly been behind some comments posted on Facebook sites commemorating Ravi. But most community leaders interviewed hesitate to use the term – or flatly reject it – when describing Brampton’s challenges.

Clennon, the youth worker, sees a more divided institution, where groups carve up turf and interracial dating is almost unheard of. But he hasn’t concluded that the divisions and tensions are all about race. Some students are spared suspension if they take part in Clennon’s program, run by Rapport Youth & Family Services. Last year, 40 pupils spent six months in a lunchtime group learning how to minimize conflict with teachers and students. Some get one-on-one help.  Says Galen: “What you have in any given school is a reflection of your community. So when people say, ‘Oh your school has a bad reputation,’ I think, ‘No, it’s not the school, it’s the community, it’s all of us.’ This Brampton community needs to look beyond the finger pointing.”