Archive for the ‘Governance’ Category
« Older Entries | Newer Entries »
Stephen Harper’s Courts: How the judiciary has been remade
Criminal defence lawyers are underrepresented… Academics are, as well, with some notable exceptions. So, too, is anyone who has a senior role in a group with the word “reform” in its title… Business lawyers are favoured. Prosecutors are favoured… “It’s very clear that it’s almost impossible for a judge who comes from the political centre or to the left to be appointed… which means that the appointment of judges is from a very small pool of lawyers.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, rights, standard of living
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
Anti-terror bill not in keeping with Canada’s international obligations: U.N.
The government should consider rewriting the law to ensure it complies, impose better safeguards so information-sharing doesn’t lead to human rights abuses and put in place oversight mechanisms for security and intelligence agencies… The report also details concerns about the pay gap between men and women, violence against women, prison conditions, the detention of immigrants and the ongoing investigation by the Canada Revenue Agency of the political activities of charities.
Tags: crime prevention, featured, globalization, ideology, jurisdiction, rights
Posted in Governance Delivery System | No Comments »
Why isn’t Harper’s record on democracy an election issue?
Nor has the cause of democracy been helped by most of the mainstream media, which, with notable exceptions, cover specific incidents of Harper’s abuses of democracy but rarely point to their dangerous larger implications. This is a strange oversight… vital reports have received nothing like the extensive coverage they deserve… I wish every Canadian knew that the Council of Canadians and the Voices analyses existed
Tags: featured, ideology, participation, rights, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Tories roll out taxpayer-funded payola
On Harper’s cash-for-kids program… The NDP leader would simply deliver Harper’s enriched benefit, while giving parents a chance to get in on the ground floor of his eight-year plan to develop a $15-a-day national child care system. The Liberal leader would scrap Harper’s assortment of payments and tax breaks… and introduce a single, tax-free Canada Child Benefit targeted at middle-and lower-income families… Mulcair is offering low-risk, incremental change. Trudeau is offering a fairer, more coherent approach.
Tags: budget, child care, economy, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Two rights groups launch Charter challenge of Bill C-51
The groups’ court filing called the law an inversion of the judiciary’s role as a protector of constitutional rights, and a violation of judges’ independence from government. The groups are seeking a declaration from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice that the law threatens the right to liberty, free speech, privacy, freedom from unreasonable search and seizure and the right to move between provinces, and must be struck down.
Tags: crime prevention, featured, globalization, ideology, jurisdiction, rights
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
Canada’s major challenges as it finds its way into the future
A stronger capacity for mutual accommodation is the only lasting way to achieve sustainable purpose in a crowded and stressed world. This gospel does not require occupation or military victory; it works only if voluntary… as governments have failed to ensure the basic economic element of any free society – good-quality jobs and decent wages – their credibility and moral authority have begun to erode. Moral authority comes to those who recognize the real issues in the world.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, participation, rights, standard of living
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
Mulcair, Trudeau agendas offer relief, not risk
Both Mulcair and Trudeau would upend Harper’s $26 billion pre-election “cash for everyone” budget that disproportionately favours higher-income earners. They would cancel the Conservative Family Tax Cut, an income-splitting measure that benefits the affluent. Both would also cancel the Tory increase in the TFSA, which also largely benefits higher earners. And Trudeau would roll Harper’s universal child care benefit into a new family support program… The biggest “risk” these changes pose is to the wealthy.
Tags: budget, child care, economy, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Stephen Harper offers a record of selective accomplishment
He did introduce a universal child care benefit. To pay for it, his government de-invested in preschool learning and child care centres. His final promise — to cut medical wait times — was a mirage. Harper knew the provinces, not Ottawa, controlled the delivery of health services… Nor did he offer — or attempt — to reduce poverty, strengthen democracy or respect the courts. If voters assumed these were inadvertent oversights, they were wrong… It reflects Harper’s ideology, not the mandate he sought from voters.
Tags: budget, child care, corrections, crime prevention, economy, featured, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, poverty, rights, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Liberals and NDP are the same but don’t know it
Liberals and NDP are the same but don’t know it. It’s as if Canada already has one main opposition party… To the degree the NDP has slipped ahead of the Liberals it’s largely because they’ve Liberalized themselves. This has a justice: for years NDPers moaned that Liberals stole their ideas and votes. If neither side admits it, that’s because many Liberals remain under the illusion that the NDP is a left-wing party, and many NDPers share the delusion. It also explains how they keep lurching erratically past each other on the ideological spectrum.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, rights, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Dump this regressive law [Union disclosure Bill C-377]
The new law promises to promote “transparency” by forcing unions to report every transaction they make worth $5,000 or more to the CRA, to make public the salaries of officials who make upwards of $100,000 a year, and to report details of any political activities they undertake. But… the law’s real effect will be much more noxious… It will impose burdens and potential penalties (up to $1,000 a day) on unions that aren’t faced by any other independent organizations — businesses, non-profits, political parties, even government agencies.
Tags: economy, ideology, rights
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Recent Comments