900ft Jesus's blog

A Canadian double-murderer facing execution in Montana has taken the Conservative government to court over its sudden change of policy on the death penalty.

As repugnant as it may seem that a double-murderer is suing the government, he’s within his rights to do so because until this fall, officials at DFAIT had been lobbying for over ten years for Smith’s life to be spared. Furthermore, this had been in keeping - up until that time - with government policy. To suddenly decide to stop asking that Smith’s life be spared without giving clear arguments on which the decision was based, is treating Smith’s rights as a Canadian differently from those of other Canadians.

Many people are arguing this case in isolation as they have argued individual Taser related deaths, and while recognizing the individuals in each case is very important, we can lose sight of the law, policies, and rights. Smith killed two people. There is no doubt about that. There are still people today grieving over the victims.

Myron admits to his ignorance - and goes on to display it

(emphasis mine)
Myron Thompson (CPC): I have a difficult time debating with lawyers at the best of times because I am not one. They seem to use legal jargon to a great extent and I just cannot comprehend a lot of it. I quite often hear about reports from a person by the name of Nunn and other reports from the member and other members of her party, usually concerning the legal aspects...They like to hear the points of view of the legal beagles and they need to change their attitude.

Myron certainly does not have a high respect for the role of legal experts in shaping crime legislation. Shape crime bills but trivialize and minimize input from legal experts? There’s problem number one.

I also have a hard time understanding when the Liberals talk about prevention. There is no one who wants to see crime prevented more than me. It may not come across that way and I will have to do a little better job of communicating that maybe, but I do not understand it when members say we should get to the cause of crime.

The Earth's rapidly warming climate is will cause inevitable human suffering and the threat of species extinction if action isn't taken, warns a UN scientific panel's report.
(ctv.ca - Nov. 17, 2007)

And that’s the watered down version. That’s after bastards wrapped in their countries’ flags argued relentlessly to soften the language so that they can keep deceiving those they are appointed to protect in order that a very, very small percentage of their country’s population can profit.

For many of us, this latest IPCC report is no surprise. What we grapple with is how to get leaders to take this seriously so that we can meet the upcoming disasters in the best possible way for all human beings. Notice I am not saying “prevent climate change.” That opportunity passed us by long ago. We can still try to slow warming so that it is not as immediately devastating, and we definitely should do so, but the climate is changing, has been changing for some time due to human-driven global warming. Now it is on a roll and cutting all emissions may slow it, but will not stop it.

Steve V at F&W encourages us to exert our democratic right (and responsibility) and tell the government what we think of the Afghan mission.

The Manley panel on Canada's future role in Afghanistan is now accepting public submissions:

"The whole idea is to allow the public to submit stuff in a limited time frame," said a spokesman

I encourage everyone to "submit stuff", because this panel of nothingness is very important. I've already copied and pasted my submission, although I should have amended it, now that we get a better idea of the expenditure involved:

It is consulting experts and academics and plans trips to Afghanistan, Brussels, London, Washington and New York as part of its deliberations.

I did not know about this site put up by the government until I read about it on Steve V.'s blog, which makes me wonder if it has been deliberately kept low key.

Opposition leaders don’t get the chance to show what they are capable of as easily as the PM. They do not have the stage, do not run the PMO or the government. In the House, they can show us who they are, but for Dion, that’s been difficult because Steve has shut down Parliament more than usual. Even when the House sits, few Canadians read or watch debates, so they rely on the media to tell them what Dion is doing. Can we trust what the media says? Here is what journalist John Moor tells us:

The media love to imagine that politics is a soap opera. In order to make the narrative of the day work, they often have to tweak the characters, nudging them toward more clear-cut dramatic roles. The latest victim is Liberal leader Stephane Dion who, owing to the fact that he is largely colourless and odourless, provides the media a perfect blank canvas.