Thursday, July 12, 2018

They'll Get Alot Nastier


John Ibbitson warns his readers that Ottawa and Queens Park are about to embark on a battle royal:

One of Mr. Ford’s first acts as Premier was to scrap his Liberal predecessor’s cap-and-trade carbon tax. In response, Mr. Trudeau is vowing to impose a carbon tax on Ontario and Saskatchewan (which also opposes the tax) on Jan. 1. 

Where we live, the Ford government has cancelled a wind farm, which was years in the approval process. The project has been underway for over a year now. Local people are working there and they will lose their jobs. The president of the company building the project claims the shutdown will cost the province $100 million.

No problem says, Mr. Ford, we've written a clause into the enabling legislation, declaring that the province cannot be sued. When Caroline Mulroney -- the Ford government's legal brain trust -- was asked yesterday how that would stand up in court, she refused to answer the question and walked away.

You see where this is heading. Trudeau and Ford have also fought over refugees. Ibbitson writes:

The two first ministers are also sparring over refugee claimants who have been crossing the Canada-U.S. border illegally. Before they met on Thursday, Mr. Ford said in a statement that his government will offer no co-operation in housing the asylum seekers, wrongly declaring “this mess was 100 per cent the result of the federal government, and the federal government should foot 100 per cent of the bills.” U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration policies surely have more to do with it.
In response, Mr. Trudeau told reporters after the meeting that the new Premier did not appear to understand Canada’s obligations under international law.
“So I spent a little time explaining how the asylum-seeking system works and how our system is supposed to operate,” he said. You don’t need the audio to hear the condescension.

So things are getting raucous in Ontario. And they'll get a lot nastier.

Image: Spencer Fernando

19 comments:

the salamander said...

.. so will Doug Ford et al attempt the hysterical - 'retroactive legislation change' ? Or just bet the farm, they can dodge, delay or baffle the obvious oncoming lawsuit? Yes, full disclosure.. am in favor of diverse modes of alternative energy to replace fossil fuel modes which have captured governments and currently run amok.. usually foreign owned & heavily subsidized by us - the taxpayers.

My fiancee feels the wind generators are threats to birds, turtles among others.. I don't get into argumements. But I wonder about the rising or soaring cost of domestic electricity. As a huge fan of beautkful Prince Edward County.. I appreciate the views about keeping culture & sensitivity etc top of mind. But where is the detailed rationale from Ford, his Party or his MPL in the local riding.. Do they really thimk they can just throw away 100 million in taxpayer money ?

Lorne said...

But the rabble cheers him on, Owen. After all, what is the world's future compared to a few cents off per litre at the pumps?

Owen Gray said...

There is a significant segment of the population who see windmills as a threat to wildlife, sal. But they don't see how oil has corrupted our politics. And -- more importantly -- they want to turn back the clock. As uncomfortable as some changes are, the simple truth is you have to deal with them. You can't deny their existence.

We turn back the clocks in the fall. But that's a fiction. Real time goes forward, not backwards.

Owen Gray said...

Doug is fundamentally a paradox, Lorne. He is a man with a large head and a small mind.

Deacon Jester said...

At some point there will be a contractor who will not roll over for the thuggery and will sue. Then the floodgates will open and FnordNation Ontario will be in court more than they will be in Queen's Park. That's when Doogie will declare open season on judges and the mayhem will truly begin.

Anonymous said...

The two first ministers are also sparring over refugee claimants who have been crossing the Canada-U.S. border illegally.

I wish the media would stop saying this since it does nothing but fuel right-wing xenophobia. It is NOT illegal to cross the US-Canada border to seek asylum. Both countries are parties to the 1967 Protocol of the Refugee Convention which allows people arriving in a member county to claim asylum.

Cap

Anonymous said...

"The two first ministers are also sparring over refugee claimants who have been crossing the Canada-U.S. border illegally."

There are no "illegal" refugees. Canada signed and ratified the UN Convention on Refugees.

Time to clean up the dog-whistle language.

UU

Owen Gray said...

Both Cap and UU make a good point. It's another indication that the paranoia in Trumpland is creeping North. Certainly, when it comes to refugees, Ford Nation and Trump Nation aren't that far apart.

Owen Gray said...

Whether it's Ford or Stephen Harper, modern Canadian conservatives are ignorant of the law, Deacon. Harper continually butted heads with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Doug seems to know nothing about the law of contracts.

Toby said...

Some conservatives do understand the laws but don't like them. I have heard many bellyache about the Charter of Rights which they would cheerfully remove. There is a double standard.

Attorneys have told me that when diehard conservatives are arrested they immediately demand their rights as protected under the Charter. Conservatives want all the breaks when it comes to themselves, their families and friends but are against rights for a long list of those they deem not worthy.

Owen Gray said...

Hypocrisy can be found in all parties, Toby. But, these days, conservatives seem to be drowning in it.

Anonymous said...

Toby: " … when diehard conservatives are arrested they immediately demand their rights as protected under the Charter."

Conservatives are obsessed with their rights and everyone else's responsibilities.

CuJoYYC

Owen Gray said...

A very succint -- and appropriate -- observation, CuJOYYC.

Jay Farquharson said...

Cap, UU, Owen,

Technically, refugees that have already applied for asylum in the US, who cross the border, are acting "illegally",

but it's a pair of civil offences, not criminal ones.

First Safe Harbour doesn't allow for refuge "shopping", and because they are detained and returned to the US in Custody, if they present themselves at a legal crossing point, they "have to" jump the border to cross.

Media figures who use the terms "migrants", "illegal" and "asylum seekers" should have their hands slapped 20 times with all 397 pages of the Convention until they "learn better".

At some point in time, some smart Immigration Lawyer, will make the case that his Central American/Hatian/Somali etc client is not applying for asylum from his/her/their home country, but instead, asylum from the US.

I don't think that right now, despite the concentration camps, abuse, tortures and deaths, Canadian Immigration Judges would accept that claim, counting on the US's "checks and ballances" to correct the US's course, but we all can see, the US isn't going to correct course, so it's only a matter of time.

Canada should get off it's ass, tear up the First Safe Harbour Agreement with the US, and commit to filling all of the available carrying capacity of Canada as fast as possible.

We are going to need committed reinforcements when armed, ignorant, bigoted 'Merkin Climate Change Refugees start heading north.

Owen Gray said...

That's an important distinction, Jay. These people are committing civil, not crimminal, offenses under U.S. law. But Trump is not given to making distinctions. That's no reason for us, however, to stop making those kinds of distinctions.

There was a time -- during the Vietnam War -- when we openly recognized and accepted refugees from the United States.

Jay Farquharson said...

You misread Owen,

The refugees who have applied for asylum by crossing into Canada, are committing minor Civil Offences by "refuge shopping" according to the First Safe Harbour agreements, and by crossing the border not at a CBE Post, airport or port.

In Canada, the get arrested, released to shelter, with a hearing at a future date, and will probably be deported back to the US, because they already have a refugee claim in the US.

We should tear up the First Safe Harbour agreements, so that they can reapply for status here, or just make one by one exceptions we did for Central Americans when Reagan was getting his genocides on.

In the US, the BPS has closed the legal border crossings to asylum seekers, and refuses to allow them to apply for asylum, so to cross into the US, they have to jump the border, a misdemeanour.

Then they are arrested, families are split up with even nursing babies being ripped from their mothers arms. and sent to concentration camps all across the US, ( ones in a EPA Superfund dumpsite), where they are caged, starved, beaten, abused, denied medical care, ( hey, good enough for Americans),

No attempts are made to keep track of the husbands, wives, children, so that they can be reunited.

After months to years of detention, a hearing is held at which the refugee's are denied legal representation, ( 1year olds have to represent themselves in court hearings), often held with out translations into their own language, then, they are quickly deported. Husbands with out wives, mothers with out children. They are even deporting US Citizens, active US Military Service people and Military Veterans.

To top it off, all the horrors that these people are lawfully fleeing, are the product of US Policies and actions towards Central America, often completely deliberate.

We need to remember this when 'Murkin's start coming north seeking asylum. Not a blanket policy of course, some people, ( more and more every day) are standing up to the Nazi's.

https://hiplatina.com/woman-perfect-response-ice-boarded-greyhound-bus/

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.alternet.org/protesters-blockade-immigration-prison-portland-cops-plead-allow-ice-employees-go-home-their%3famp





Owen Gray said...

Thanks for the links, Jay. And I appreciate the clarification. In true Canadian fashion, we are trying to work things out with Trump and his minions. But, after the G7 and NATO conferences, it should be abundantly clear that, with Trump, nothing can be worked out. Sometimes you have to tell some people where the train stops and that its time to get off.

Jay Farquharson said...

Treason Tribble Трамп and his minions are malignant, abusive, narcissists

In personal life, when you have someone like this in your life, surrounded by enablers and supporters, the only productive thing to do, is cut them completely out of your life, no contact what so ever.

Not possible with the US, but as the NATO meeting showed, you can minimize. NATO kept NATO-ing on, Jan Stollenburg canceled post meeting PR Media appearances by NATO Officials into September to deny Hair Furour "red meat",

US Delegations and Officials have been told that they don't know the US Policy, because Putin's Stooge has no policy, so NATO Policies will prevail, and "their input" is a waste of time outside of existing NATO Policies.

US Officials and Service Persons seconded to NATO have been reminded whom they work for, what the Command Chain is, and where's the door.

US Delegations are being reduced to "Observer Status" and US Forces apportioned to NATO are being reduced to "cannon fodder".

In business, the way you deal with them, is to stop doing business with them. It's too expensive and too disruptive.

In Canada, with 78% of our trade being with the US, all we can do, is stick to our guns at NAFTA, and play out the advantage everytime Twitter Toddler contradicts the US position at the table. Send them back to the US to get "clarification", ( just more confusion). Wait until Putin gives the order to Twitler to blow it all up, and focus most of our actual effort migrating trade away from the US. With Foreign Investment in the US down 32% in 2017 alone, set up free Chinese language and Business law courses for our Business people.

The Great Orange Bloat is getting what he want's. America Alone.

Owen Gray said...

That's precisely what he is accomplishing, Jay. As he was reminded at NATO, he has very few allies. He will soon discover that he has none -- and that you can't propser without them.