Editorial
| August 30, 2010 In response to news that the federal government is sitting on a report outlining the long-gun registry's efficiency, which it received in February, a spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said, "Canadians don't need another report to know that the long-gun registry is very efficient at harassing law-abiding farmers and outdoors enthusiasts, while wasting billions of taxpayer dollars. ... | |
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| August 23, 2010 Retired Col. Pat Stogran, Canada's outgoing Veterans Ombudsman came out last week to say the federal government doesn't care about Canadian veterans. "It is clear to me that the government expected the Veterans Ombudsman to behave as a complaints manager responsible to the department," he said. "Is it any surprise that the Veterans Ombudsman would speak out on behalf of our veterans and their families? Is it any wonder that the Office of the Veterans Ombudsman would be critical of the way the government is treating our veterans? His mandate, which ends this fall, will not be renewed after his three-year contract is up. | |
| August 16, 2010 In response to a court challenge, Industry Minister Tony Clement added three questions to the 2011 census, asking "Can this person speak English or French well enough to conduct a conversation?" "What language does this person speak most often at home?" and "Does this person speak any other languages on a regular basis at home?"
The Conservatives also announced it would introduce legislation to remove consequences for not answering the census and other mandatory surveys conduced by the federal government, for example jail time, when the House returns this fall.
In a statement, Mr. Clement said, "Our government believes that this fair and reasonable approach is a better balance between collecting necessary data and protecting the privacy rights of Canadians."
As it's done previously with the attempt to eliminate public funding for political parties hidden in an economic fiscal update, the Conservative government did not think through the implications its moves would have, not only on public policy, but politically as well. It seems, as James Travers wrote last week, that this government is more about trusting their guts instead of relying on evidence or experts when it comes to policy formation. Treasury Board President Stockwell Day's comments that the government needed to build more prisons because there is increasingly unreported crime is testament to that.
But, Mr. Clement conceded that the census is important to informed decision making. He said, "The addition of questions to the 2011 Census regarding ability to speak in one of Canada's two Official Languages and the language spoken at home will ensure the government's compliance with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Official Languages Act and its Regulations. This includes providing services to and communicating with the public in both official languages, supporting the development of English and French linguistic minority communities, and fostering the full recognition and use of English and French in Canadian society."
In an email to The Hill Times, Mr. Clement said there's no way the government will reverse its decision on the census no longer being mandatory. But, the Conservatives backtracked once on going through with changes to the political financing regime and decided it was worth staying in government to keep giving out public subsidies to parties. Some would argue it's backtracked already by adding the language questions to the census.
The Conservative government needs to start taking a longer term view of their proposals, rather than making seemingly innocuous decisions that have tremendously negative consequences. Instead of 'trusting its gut' for no good public policy reason, the government should learn from its mistakes. As former chief statistician Munir Sheikh wrote in the Globe and Mail last week, "We still have time to determine what must be done on the census issue that is in the best interest of the Canadian people."
There's nothing wrong with admitting a mistake, and taking action to correct it. | |
| August 9, 2010 Treasury Board President Stockwell Day announced new regulations to the Lobbying Act last week in an effort to make the government's and lobbyists' activities more "open and transparent." The Conservatives have rarely followed directives given to them by the House of Commons since coming to power, selectively ignoring motions passed by MPs, but it followed through on one last Thursday—to expand the list of designated public office holders under the Lobbying Act to all Parliamentarians, backbenchers and Senators. | |
| August 2, 2010 When Munir Sheikh, Canada's former chief statistician who resigned from his job on July 21, testified before the House Industry Committee last week, he brought a refreshing air of quiet dignity to Parliament Hill. | |
| July 26, 2010 Who would have expected so much hot political drama over the federal government's decision to scrap the mandatory long-form census? But there is. | |
| July 19, 2010 Industry Minister Tony Clement says the federal government won't reverse its surprisingly controversial decision to do away the compulsory long-form census in 2011, even though it's raising a stink among liberal-minded critics, academics, sociologists, statisticians, some media outlets, economists, municipalities, urban planners, opposition MPs, Official Languages Commissioner Graham Fraser, former Statistics Canada chief statistician Ivan Felligi, Jewish and evangelical groups, and more. There are also open letters, online surveys and petitions calling on the government to keep the mandatory long-form census. The government seriously should rethink its decision to do away with it, considering the response. | |
| July 12, 2010 When The Toronto Star broke the sensational story during the G20 summit held two weeks ago that Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty's Cabinet had secretly passed an obscure and temporary wartime regulation of a law now expired, called the Public Works Protection Act, that allowed police to conduct searches and demand identification from anyone five metres outside the massive security fence erected for the G20 summit, mass confusion erupted for days in the media. It's still confusing. It turns out the temporary law, which was anti-democratic and should never have been passed in the first place, didn't actually ever give police these powers and wasn't actually ever used at all by the police to make arrests. This is confusing because upon reading the law, The Hill Times' interpretation is that police did in fact have the power to arrest and search without warrant civilians who were within five meters inside or outside of the designated perimeter. The Hill Times published an editorial based on this earlier information last week. | |
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