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April Reign

Speak your mind even if your voice shakes

CTV

Rights, the Right doesn’t believe in them

08/04/2008 by Debra

Can you afford your rights?
Can you afford your rights?
In April of last year I blogged about the Court Challenges Program and this quote;
Rainer Knopff, a political scientist at the University of Calgary, said the program was “a biased boondoggle that had gone well past its `best before’ date.”

The program only funded groups on “one side” of the political spectrum while “socially conservative groups never got any money. Not a penny, as far as I know,” said Knopff.
He also echoed then-Treasury Board president John Baird’s suggestion, made in defending the decision to kill the program, that it made no sense for Ottawa to spend public money helping groups challenge its own legislation.
“I don’t want to pay for surrogate litigants,” said Knopff, arguing public interest groups should raise their own money for Charter cases. “If they can’t raise the money – tough.”

Today CTV has a story about the further erosion of rights in Canada;

OTTAWA — A Montreal court may be about to make Canadian legal history in a case that could see offenders considered guilty until proved innocent.

A bail hearing at the court this week is believed to be the first involving so-called “reverse onus,” in which a defendant must prove why they deserve less time behind bars and why they should be released on bail pending trial.

This ‘test case’ involves gangs. Naturally one chooses the circumstance least likely to garner public sympathy to launch such an attack. It goes without saying that any argument to democracy and rights will be met with an allegation of supporting gangs and violence. It being the case, unfortunately that some cannot hold more than one thought in their mind at a time. This law may start out as being about gangs and gun crime but it will not end there.

Image via Wikipedia

Dave Schroder of Edmonton’s Guardian Angels network thinks the reverse onus rule is “long overdue.”

“When somebody has demonstrated their lack of respect for Canadian law, we do have the right to expect them to be put away,” he said.

We certainly do have a right to expect criminals to be “put away”, right after they have been proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt by a jury of their peers.

I say this as someone whose life has been touched by violent crime. The criminals never even charged. While I still am affected by these crimes, I don’t believe the Canadian criminal system should be built upon whatever revenge fantasies I may hold.

Our rights and freedoms are being stripped away by those who value sound bite over substance, authoritarianism over democracy and big brother over individual freedom. It is time for us, all of us, to speak up before our right to speak is taken too.

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Filed Under: Canada Tagged With: Canada, Canadian Charter of Rights, conservative groups, conservatives, CTV, Dave Schroder, democracy, human rights, John Baird, justice system, Politics, rainer knopff

Judge Rules U.S. Violated Human Rights

06/26/2008 by Debra

The treatment a U.S. official said Omar Khadr received at Guantanamo Bay to prepare him for an interview by a member of foreign affairs was a violation of international human rights, a Canadian federal court judge ruled on Wednesday.

It is no great surprise that human rights violations are going on in Guantanamo, it is damning however that two governments of countries who pride themselves on rights and freedoms allowed the torture of a child. In Canada Khadr if charged with a crime would be protected under the Youth Act. And yet Canadian officials raised no alarm when they found out he was being subjected to torture.

Canadian and American governments bear an enormous responsibility not only in setting back human rights but also in ensuring there will continue to be terrorist incidents. Some of course find the torture of a child perfectly fine. The comments at both CTV and CBC are disgusting and as one commenter said “makes me less and less proud to be Canadian”

Scene of the Firefight in which w:Omar Khadr was capturedImage via WikipediaSome have argued that he was responsible for the death of a soldier. To which I wonder is that not the risk our governments are willing to take when they send troops to war? Is the new war rich countries sending troops to rob poor countries of their resources and the people of those poor countries rather than protect themselves are supposed to say OH HAI! and serve tea/beer/crumpets?

How does one murder a combatant in the heat of battle? In any case the original details of the incident were shown to be wrong. Khadr was not the only person who could have thrown the grenade and likely wasn’t.

It is time our government showed some respect for human rights, the Geneva Convention and basic decency. Bring Khadr home. As commenter carlbailey said to another commenter with the mindset of the conservatives;

quote mr.calgary:
“I knew what was right and wrong when I was 15.”

so, how old were you when you forgot the difference?
or did you just decide to ignore it altogether in favour of blind ignorant hatred.

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Filed Under: violence Tagged With: Canada, cbc, CTV, federal court judge, Guantanamo Bay, omar khadr, The Star, U.S.

Film Tax Credits: McGuinty v Tories

06/12/2008 by Debra

Interesting story over at CTV on the proposed bill to end tax credits for creative endeavors the (Not your fathers) Conservative Religion Party disapprove of. Can you trust a party with your tax dollars when they don’t even know, nor do they care to find out, what they are disapproving of and defunding?

“I don’t know what the contents of the movie are, but certainly the title would suggest that it’s something that generally taxpayers would not be too damned enthused about having their money put into its production,” said Opposition Leader Bob Runciman.

I don’t know anything about it but feel perfectly entitled cast judgment anyway. How typically right wing.

Further to that, not only do they not know, they will fire anyone who gives the impression they are trying to inform themselves.

A special screening in Ottawa was well-attended by opposition MPs, although no Conservative members showed up. A staffer for Cambridge Conservative MP Gary Goodyear was fired for reserving a ticket in his name without permission.

McGuinty while also unfamiliar with the film recognizes the dangers in government interference in artistic endeavor.

“I just think there’s trouble down that path if we start making those calls as elected officials when it comes to what has and does not have artistic merit.”

snip

“I just don’t think we politicians should be getting into lending a shape to building designs, what poetry is acceptable and not, and what movies are acceptable and not,” he added.

Great write up on this movie over at cinematical.com

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Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: bob runciman, conservative members, CTV, Dalton McGuinty, Film, government interference

Harper is not a leader

02/06/2008 by Debra

But he is a whiner and a bully.

Support us on Afghanistan or we’ll call an election. Support this bill or we’ll call an election.

Call me dear leader or I’ll call an election.

A leader doesn’t need to bully, threaten and carry on. A bully though…

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson told the Senate committee on legal affairs that it should pass the bill in February. If that doesn’t happen, he said he would tell Prime Minister Stephen Harper that the bill is a confidence measure and let him deal with it appropriately.

“We say to Liberal senators, and we say to (Liberal Leader) Stephane Dion, tell your Liberal colleagues to push this through,” said Day.

Day called on the public to contact senators to push the bill through.

But senators counter that they don’t understand the government’s rush all of a sudden. They said they are constitutionally required to consider the bill fully and they won’t be strong-armed into speeding up their decision to fit a government-imposed schedule.

Manitoba Senator Sharon Carstairs told Mike Duffy Live that the Tory government is trying to bully the Senate.

“Unfortunately, for Mr. Harper, senators can’t be bullied,” she said.

“We want to hear from the public … particularly on two issues. I am very concerned about the impact of this (bill) on Aboriginal people. Reverse onus bail conditions, for example.”

Reverse onus would require people accused of violent crimes to state why they should receive bail, rather than put the onus on prosecutors to prove why the accused should be kept in jail.

“We do have Charter rights and one of them is to be silent, but you can’t be silent if you have to, in fact, prove reverse onus,” said Carstairs.

CTV

Filed Under: Canada, Harper, Politics Tagged With: Afghanistan, bully, confidence, CTV, stephen harper, whiner

8 years for torture

09/26/2007 by Debra

For nothing is fixed, forever and forever and forever, it is not fixed; the earth is always shifting, the light is always changing, the sea does not cease to grind down rock. Generations do not cease to be born, and we are responsible to them because we are the only witnesses they have. The sea rises, the light fails, lovers cling to each other, and children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each other, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out. James Baldwin

8 years for the torture of a 4 year old hardly seems appropriate. The abuser showed no remorse, no understanding of the heinous nature of his activities and I predict will re-offend in the future.

Bannert showed no emotion as the judge read his sentence, which was reduced to five years and eight months in prison because of the 14 months he spent in pre-trial custody. The Crown was seeking a much harsher sentence of 15 years.

The court heard she was denied liquids to a point where she had to drink urine from the toilet and plant water. Graphic details of her sexual abuse also emerged from the trial. She described how sex in a bathtub with “daddy” was a common occurrence.

A victim impact statement written by a social worker said the girl is so traumatized she cannot learn or form normal emotional relationships. About to turn six next month, the girl is on medication for post-traumatic stress syndrome. She now lives in a foster home.

Her mother was earlier convicted and sentenced for her part in this crime.

Apparently the defense tried to argue this off as discipline. Locking a four year old in the basement, handcuffing her, denying her water, forcing her to watch pornography and dance in a suggestive fashion, raping her in the bathtub…..what part of that could in anyone’s twisted mind be considered discipline?

I wish you peace sweet daughter.



news sources:

CTV
CBC

Filed Under: child abuse, sex abuse Tagged With: cbc, child abuse, CTV, Darcy Bannert, Eagles I wish you peace, house of horrors, sex abuse

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