Cdn-Firearms Digest Monday, December 22 2008 Volume 12 : Number 890 In this issue: CPC Senate Appointments Duffy, Wallin, Nancy Greene among 18 new Tory senators Regina Leader Post - Column - A hunter defends his sport "Western Std: Blog: Former Libertarian leader Brisson wins..." RE: Private Armies ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2008 15:14:48 -0800 From: "Todd Birch" Subject: CPC Senate Appointments I note that the appointees have all indicated their willingness to approve changes to the senatorial process with regard to the maximum of an eight year term. This is in keeping with what I've been harping on regarding fixed four year, overlapping terms for MPs. We might consider electing Senators from those who run for the office after first serving as elected MPs. That way we have some knowledgeable and experienced people to draw from, not just political hacks and yes-men. I have hopes yet for the future of Canadian politics. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2008 14:39:50 -0600 From: Joe Gingrich Subject: Duffy, Wallin, Nancy Greene among 18 new Tory senators http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/081222/national/senate_appointments Duffy, Wallin, Nancy Greene among 18 new Tory senators By The Canadian Press OTTAWA - Broadcaster Mike Duffy, his former colleague Pamela Wallin and Olympic hero Nancy Greene are among 18 Conservatives headed to the Senate in Stephen Harper's biggest volley of patronage since he became prime minister. A fixture on Parliament Hill for decades, Duffy hosted what proved to be the last instalment of his daily political talk-show on CTV last week. Wallin was also a prominent figure at CTV and CBC before being named consul-general to New York by the former Liberal government. Greene helped break the European stranglehold on downhill skiing by winning a gold medal at the 1968 Winter Olympics. She was named Canada's female athlete of the 20th century in a vote by Canadian Press members. The B.C. athletic icon will take a seat in Parliament just before her province hosts the Olympics. There is no more sought-after patronage pork than a Senate seat and Harper and his ministers were inundated by Conservatives clamouring for a favour. Appointees will receive a $134,000 annual salary indexed to inflation until they retire or reach age 75, followed by a very comfortable pension - - and both are indexed to inflation. Many of the other appointments made Monday went to well-connected Conservative partisans. Party stalwarts Irving Gerstein, Suzanne Duplessis and defeated Newfoundland MP Fabian Manning are among the other prominent Conservatives going into the upper House. Harper has always believed senators should be elected and he refrained from filling most vacancies while trying to make the upper chamber more democratic. Those efforts ran into roadblocks erected in Parliament and by Ontario and Quebec. Harper's timing, just before Christmas when most Canadians are preoccupied with holiday cheer rather than politics, suggests the government isn't anxious to showcase the appointments. Opposition parties have questioned whether Harper has the political legitimacy for a patronage spree, having averted the almost-certain defeat of his minority government in the Commons only by suspending Parliament until the new year. And the prime minister himself has admitted he takes no joy in having to stack the Senate, a move seen by some as tantamount to waving a white flag of surrender on his dream of reforming the chamber. "I've waited for three years," he noted in a recent TV interview. "We've invited the provinces to hold elections. We've put an electoral bill before the House of Commons. But for the most part, neither in Parliament nor in the provinces has there been any willingness to move forward on reform." Until now Harper had appointed only two senators - Alberta's Bert Brown, victor of a Senate election in his province, and Michael Fortier, who got the plum so that Harper could have a minister from Montreal in his first-term cabinet. Initially, the prime minister had hoped to appoint only senators who had won election. Shortly after taking power in 2006, he introduced a Senate election bill and another limiting senators to eight-year terms. But his reforms ran into a brick wall in the minority Parliament and in a number of provincial legislatures - particularly in Quebec and Ontario. Those - which insisted no changes could be made without a formal constitutional amendment approved by at least seven provinces. For the past year, as some regions grew increasingly under-represented in the Senate, Harper continued to allow the vacancies to mount in hopes that the provinces would set up their own Senate election processes. Thus far, only Alberta and Saskatchewan have done so. While Harper waited for reforms to materialize, the 20 remaining Conservative senators found themselves increasingly over-burdened. They complained they didn't have enough bodies to fill seats on committees, much less to challenge the dominance of the 58 Liberal senators who, the Tories contend, have been dragging their feet on important legislation. The last straw was the threat by the three opposition parties to defeat the Tories in the Commons and replace them with a Liberal-NDP coalition government, propped up by the Bloc Quebecois. "We're now faced with a very simple choice," Harper said after that furor. "Does the government Canadians elected appoint those senators or are they going to be appointed by a coalition that nobody elected?" Brown, the prime minister's Senate reform envoy, insists that Harper hasn't given up on eventually revamping the upper house. "I asked whether or not he wanted me to quit what I was doing and he said, 'No, absolutely not, I want you to continue ahead.' " Brown nevertheless expects that Harper, assuming he remains in office, will continue to fill Senate vacancies until the Conservatives achieve a majority in the chamber early in 2010. Brown wants to use that time to persuade more than five provinces to adopt Senate election processes, thereby creating what he hopes will be unstoppable momentum toward an entirely elected upper chamber. Liberal-affiliated senators had occupied 58 of the seats, while 20 were held by Conservatives. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2008 16:09:38 -0800 (PST) From: Bruce Mills Subject: Regina Leader Post - Column - A hunter defends his sport http://www.leaderpost.com/hunter+defends+sport/1103186/story.html A hunter defends his sport By Ian Davis December 22, 2008 Fall is the season of colors -- as well as hunting season. Yes, another year of early mornings, cold feet, murmured plans -- and scorn from a very large number of people who are opposed to hunting. Nowadays, one cannot have a conversation with a fellow hunter without someone intruding and spouting off why hunting is supposedly so unethical. Most of the "facts" that people hear hear are inaccurate. Hunters have been criticized for generations. We are viewed as savage and unethical to our quarry and we have been thoroughly stereotyped. Prominent animal rights groups have been spouting anti-hunting propaganda for decades, typically displaying images of hunters being disrespectful to their kills or prime examples of poaching. These images are not of ethical hunters; the people portrayed in them are poachers ... that is to say, anybody participating in these illegal hunting activities should not be considered an example for the rest of the hunting community. As well, the images produced by these organizations are very graphic and bloody, manipulating our emotions in order to produce anger and hatred. Hunters actually are important in the population control of big game animals and contribute to environmental protection groups. Without hunters, populations of big game animals like deer, elk and moose would skyrocket and the spread of diseases such as chronic wasting disease and parentheses (which is prominent in the mule deer population of Saskatchewan) would become widespread. As well, a percentage of the cost of each hunting licence purchased by a hunter goes toward environmental groups as a means of funding. Raising livestock is an expensive and inefficient source of meat; the cost has become higher than in past years and the amount of land required to graze each head is significantly reducing grasslands and forest eco-systems all over the world. Hunting is a relatively cheap and efficient food source. The cost is only a few hundred dollars in the first year and under $100 in subsequent years. You do not have to spend thousands of dollars in raising the livestock. You're also acquiring much healthier meat, as wild game is not fed antibiotics or steroids. Nor do they ingest large amounts of pesticides. Hunting is also a very effective method of teaching to children virtues and skills that can be applied in the real world. Children are usually quite energetic, loud and unable to sit still for long periods. But young hunters must learn very quickly that silence, patience and being able to sit still are some of the most important qualities of a successful hunter. This can be applied to classroom behaviour. Hunting is a great way for parents and children to bond. It allows parents to pass down knowledge and to spend a lot of one-on-one time with their children, strengthening the bonds that should already exist. Hunters are an integral part of our society. The majority are ethical and respectful. We have endured scorn for many years; much of it is propaganda created by animal rights groups or anti-hunting groups. Many anti-hunting groups publish only half-truths, showing only the negative side of hunting and not the much larger, positive side. So the next time you hear someone discussing a previous hunt or making plans for a future one, take some time to think before you open your mouth. Davis contributed this article to Minus 20, a page featuring the views of a group of Saskatchewan young people under 20 that appears regularly. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2008 16:30:20 -0800 (PST) From: Bruce Mills Subject: "Western Std: Blog: Former Libertarian leader Brisson wins..." Subject: Western Standard: Blog: Former Libertarian leader Brisson wins his case against mandatory bilingual http://westernstandard.blogs.com/shotgun/2008/12/former-libertarian-leader-brisson-wins-his-case-against-mandatory-bilingual-sign-bylaw.html Sunday, December 21, 2008 Former Libertarian leader Brisson wins his case against mandatory bilingual sign bylaw On Friday, Jean-Serge Brisson, former Libertarian Party leader, won his court case against the mandatory bilingual sign bylaw in Russell, Ontario. Brisson received a fine from the municipality of Russell for putting up a sign on his business in French-only in violation of a bylaw passed in June making it mandatory for all exterior signs to be in both official languages. The bylaw offended English rights advocates like those with Canadians for Language Fairness, and it also offended Brisson, a Francophone, who immediately set out to erect a French-only sign to challenge the bylaw. Because of the some ambiguity in the bylaw with respect to the maintenance of existing signs, Brisson won his case on a technicality. That's not, however, how Brisson wanted things to go down. When he attempted to challenge the absurdity of the law itself, the judge immediately said that he did not have the authority to deal with that particular matter and would not entertain Brisson's argument. In the end, a win is a win. Brisson thumbed his freedom-loving nose at the bad law and won. "So now I'm hoping that the people who were waiting for this decision to come about will start calling the municipality of Russell and complain that I have a sign in one language only, French, and that it is infringing on the bylaw that makes it illegal to have a sign that does not have both official languages on it," said Brisson. Brisson is no stranger to civil disobedience. According to his Wikipedia page: He spent twenty days in jail in 2000 after being convicted of driving while under suspension for not paying a seatbelt-related charge dating back to 1989, and was placed in solitary confinement after starting a hunger strike. At the time of his incarceration, his unpaid fines relating to seatbelt violations and driving while under suspension totalled over $12,000. Brisson has also not submitted an income tax return since 1991, has never collected the federal Goods and Services Tax (GST), and has not collected the provincial sales tax since 1991. Brisson resigned as Libertarian Party leader in May to focus on Ontario provincial politics with the Ontario Libertarian Party. He is currently serving a six-month sentence on weekends for his ongoing refusal to wear a seatbelt. Posted by Matthew Johnston - -- -- http://www.ottawasun.com/News/OttawaAndRegion/2008/12/21/7817271-sun.html Activist ready with fighting words By TOM VAN DUSEN Sun, December 21, 2008 EMBRUN -- After winning his day in court last Thursday, anti-bilingual sign bylaw activist Jean-Serge Brisson wants Russell Twp. officials to "act like adults" and come after him on "the real issue." A former township councillor, Brisson was cited by the municipality for erecting a sign without a permit after he changed the wording on his signage at Independent Radiator Services on Ste- Marie Rd. to French only. The change was made in defiance of a bylaw amendment that requires all exterior commercial signs in the township to be in both official languages. Rather than taking the politically delicate route of ticketing him under the language clause, township government went after him under the permit clause. JUST A TECHNICALITY Brisson was cut short when he tried to argue his case in provincial offences court under the language requirements. However, on the permit question, the court ruled that he hadn't changed the structure or dimensions of his sign in any way, only the wording, a cosmetic alteration that didn't contravene the bylaw as now worded. With that technicality out of the way, Brisson is calling upon residents to complain about his unilingual sign, eventually forcing the township to hand him an infraction under the mandatory language clause. Like many other township ratepayers, Brisson objects to the mandatory bilingual law on grounds it impinges upon personal rights. He feels businesses should be able to decide for themselves which language or languages best satisfy their customers' needs. A fluently bilingual franco-Ontarian, Brisson said his father is "rolling in his grave" over the fact local government has stepped in to protect by force a language and culture best nurtured by its practitioners. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2008 18:58:36 -0800 From: "Clive Edwards" <45clive@telus.net> Subject: RE: Private Armies It is _unarmed humanitarian_ assistance only. Think about it. Do you really believe that the US would let ANY foreign troops act against its citizens in any way, shape, or form as you suggest? Do you really think that the few that we could provide to support such a nuthatch notion could have any effect, let alone survive? Do you really think that a commander in full possession of his faculties would accept such an order, knowing it to be both morally wrong and suicidal? Do you really think that any troops would go along with it Mark - -- -- I have to disagree with you, Mark. During Hurricane Katrina armed units of the National Guard and Blackwater provided "aid to civil authorities" to go house to house in New Orleans, disarming home owners. It didn't surprise me that they did that. It surprised me that no one fought back. Clive ------------------------------ End of Cdn-Firearms Digest V12 #890 *********************************** Submissions: mailto:cdn-firearms-digest@scorpion.bogend.ca Mailing List Commands: mailto:majordomo@scorpion.bogend.ca Moderator's e-mail address: mailto:drg.jordan@sasktel.net List owner: mailto:owner-cdn-firearms@scorpion.bogend.ca FAQ list: http://www.canfirearms/Skeeter/Faq/cfd-faq1.html Web Site: http://www.canfirearms.ca CFDigest Archives: http://www.canfirearms.ca/archives To unsubscribe from _all_ the lists, put the next four lines in a message and mailto:majordomo@scorpion.bogend.ca unsubscribe cdn-firearms-digest unsubscribe cdn-firearms-chat unsubscribe cdn-firearms end (To subscribe, use "subscribe" instead of "unsubscribe".)