Oops... I take it back...

Apparently I need to read the daily news before publishing something I wrote yesterday.
It appears Ross Rebagliati was cleared to speak. But he should have had a better speech.
Instead of saying he would do with his riding and for the country it ended up being a bunch
of fluff about "knocking Stockwell Day off his sea-do" and about how great the Olympics are.

I understand why he's doing it, he's up against one of the most prominent members of the
Harper cabinet, but maybe a little more substance would have a better chance at swaying voters
than rhetoric and catch phrases.

He might be a gold medalist snowboarder but I'm not sure he's going to win at politics.

To all you JC Haters out there...

My main man and favorite Prime Minister of all time "Handsome Johnny" Chrétien (seen above choking a separatist) is back in the news after the Queen of England, our head of state, has decided to name him to the Order of Merit (other members include Mother Theresa and General Eisenhower)

I know that I'm not alone that misses this guy... despite the corruption, the choking of people, Shawinigate, the Sponsorship Scandal and all that other crap, I still have much more faith in JC than in any other Canadian politician.

Don't ask me why, I just respect a guy who can climb into the high echelon of politics on willpower alone.

Good job JC!

Muchacho Enfermo

Landmark Win for the Pirate Party

The Pirate Party won a seat in the European elections. That’s right your eyes are working just fine, they actually won a seat. For those of you not familiar with the party it the Pirate Party was started in Sweden in 2006 to promote online privacy and to fight Sweden’s file-sharing laws.

This is indeed a historic victory for an independent party in Europe and certainly for web-based communities everywhere. While I applaud the effort that the Pirate Party has put into its membership and its elections I think that a 49,000 member organization such as this one could use its online presence for bigger and better things than file-sharing.

How about if they used their online influence to try and challenge people to find ways to help countries whose governments block websites or limit internet access or help find ways around government monitoring of online activities without having to use the traditional proxies. It seems to me that there are bigger issues online than file-sharing (not that I don’t appreciate the free movies) there are a million things that an online group that size could do.

I know that if I could get together an online group of 49,000 people I would try and do some good with it. Around the world people are being jailed for blogging, others are being arrested for reading certain websites and people have to connect themselves at their own risk to send email to families. File-sharing will happen; it’s been happening for years, copyright laws or no copyright laws. But freedom online and freedom of expression and thought seem like something the Pirate Party could have promoted very effectively and it might have actually made an impact on the global political scene and on the lives of thousands of netizens.

Muchacho Enfermo

Human Rights Improving In China?

In the Globe and Mail this morning there was a short article about how our foreign minister Lawrence Cannon said that China “has made progress” on human rights.

Cannon does tell the G & M what that progress is, on what he thinks China has improved or on what time frame he is basing this statement because if you read the Amnesty International report for China 2007 and 2008, there are no marked improvements.

Cannon also said: “You're much better working on the inside with the Chinese leadership to get things done, than to be outside and criticizing.” Which I might be inclined to agree with, being inside and having a dialogue beats the heck out of throwing rocks at the from Vancouver Island and hope they reach Beijing.

We must all remember that when Stephen Harper was asked about China he had said "I don’t think Canadians want us to sell out important Canadian values. They don’t want us to sell that out to the almighty dollar."

The bottom line is going to have to be whether we prefer China's money and influence or we prefer to hold on to our Canadian values.

Muchacho Enfermo

Yet Another Internaiotal Mistake on Human Rights

The UN Human Rights Council has been elected, should we be excited? Not really...
The countries who are now new members of the council are:
Cameroon, Bangladesh, Azerbaijan, Cuba, Belgium, Djibouti, China, Hungary, Mexico, Norway, Kenya, Jordan, Russian Federation, Uruguay, United States, Mauritius, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Senegal

The council was created about 3 years ago to replace the Human Rights Commission which basically ended up as the butt en of many jokes and had no credibility. I'm pretty sure that this council is heading very much in the same direction since many member countries are known for their lack of respect for Human Rights.

The US, whose recent track record has been put into question and who had boycotted the Council under Pres. Bush, was elected with over 90% of votes in their favor. Russia, despite the death of many opposition politicians was also elected. I find it amazing that a lot of these countries ran unopposed, Human Rights' violators such as China, Saudi Arabia and Cuba ran unopposed.

In a recent report on Reteurs the EU states that they have made no progress on Human Rights dealings with Cuba and that the EU will most likely put sanctions back in place in an upcoming vote. When asked about their position towards the EU and Human Rights, Cuba had this to say:

""Cuba is ready to normalize* relations, to establish a new start in the relationships between the European Union and Cuba," Rodriguez said.
He said the common EU position on Cuba, with its emphasis on human rights criticism, was "obsolete.""

*Normalization is a process whereby behaviours and ideas are made to seem "normal" through repetition, or through ideology, propaganda, etc., often to the point where they appear natural and taken for granted. (from Wikipedia)

The Czech foreign minister also said: "We came back to the issue of political prisoners in Cuba and their health, and the answer we got was that in Cuba there are no political prisoners."

The Cuban foreign minister even went so far as to say: "These are legal decisions, and not of a political nature. The Cuban penal system fully complies with all standards in this domain."

This, my dear readers, is what the UN Human Rights Council made up of: Human Rights violators, propagandists, liars and cheaters, with the few exceptions that must be the voice of reason and the voting majority of this council if it is to become credible and viable. If not, I fear that this UN initiative, like so many before will be doomed to crash and burn.

Muchacho Enfermo

Opinions from Kenya

Just for kicks, I decided to follow up on yesterday's post about Kenyan women withholding sex from their husbands in order to push for political change, an initiative backed up by the country's first lady and by Kenya's own G10 (the group of 10 women's group that pushed for this action).

I've received a few emails, and a couple of comments about this and so far the women I've heard from where all in support of the Kenyan women's action. You'd think that other people in Kenya would take notice, they'd say something along the lines of: "Hmmmm maybe we should listen to these women..." Apparently that's not the kind of thing that happens in Kenya... According to a few articles and posts I've read from there today, people have completely missed the boat, for them it's all about the fact that sex is in the bedroom and not in parliament.

Here's some quotes with the links to the original sources:
"Insecurity, inflation and poverty only affect the ordinary mwananchi and now the hapless guy has been told that the only source of solace shall be denied. It’s highly unlikely that your average male politician can go for two days’ leave alone a week, without intimacy. Their wives won’t deny them and even if they did, these guys have a retinue of young girls waiting to unleash just for a song. Will they now accuse the men of viewing the women as nothing but sex objects?" (source)

Muslim Women in Kenya "said denying men sex would encourage them to be promiscuous, leading to rise in sexually transmitted diseases."
and
"The decisions we make could affect us for the rest of our lives and we don’t want to leave our children in orphanages or streets"
(source)

Click HERE for more.

After the last Kenyan elections "hundreds of Kenyan women have reported being raped during ethnic clashes that left more than 1300 people dead over the course of two months. The actual number of rapes committed likely totals over 3000..." So is it really surprising that women's bodies are once again at the center of a political battle? The difference is that this time the women aren't going to be victims...

Muchacho Enfermo

It Worked in Ancient Greece Right?

The women of Kenya have decided to withhold sex from their husband as part of a desperate plea to the government to work in a more unified manner towards the common good.

Women's groups on the ground estimate 40% of Kenyan are participating, everyone from prostitutes to the first lady who has voiced her support of the initiative. Kenya was in Chaos following the last election and this initiative aims at raising awareness and forcing the government and the opposition to work together in a more cohesive manner, with the future of the country and its people at the forefront of their actions.

The reactions from within Kenya are mixed:

"If my wife refuses to have sex with me, he says, she goes back to her mother. That is my right." Said a 23 year old man.

"People are really reacting to it, whether they are for it or not. We have been heard. That's the voice of women power." Rukia Subow, chairwoman of Kenya's oldest women's NGO,

“It might make a difference, but it's not right,” Says a female hairdresser. “According to God, according to the law, women should submit their bodies to their husbands. It's a rule.”

“They (men) have to be told something. They are so involved in themselves, especially the politicians. They're not thinking about other Kenyans.” Said a student named Olive.

This reminds my of an occidental history course I took like 10 years ago where we discussed at length how Greek women stopped the Peloponnesian Wars by withholding sex from their husbands. I remember being impressed by the whole business and not entirely unconvinced that it would probably work, although back then it was probably just the hormones talking.


If it's good enough for mythology then it must be good enough for Kenya. I raise my hat and my pint glass to these courageous women who decided to take public political matters into their own hands by making sure that their husbands must now take their "private matters" into theirs for the next week or so.

I hope there's a follow up story in some paper on this because I'm really curious to see if it actually does change something for them and for their country.

Muchacho Enfermo

PMO Delayed Report about Laura Gainey's Death

The Canadian Press release a news story today about how the PMO (Prime Minister's Office)told the Transportation Safety Board to hold off on the release of a report on their investigation on the death Laura Gainey, daughter of hockey hall of famer and General Manager of the Canadiens Bob Gainey.

In a series of emails with the PMO, the office of Rona Ambrose wrote to Aaron Masson (director of communications for the Transport Safety Board) and said: “My Chief of Staff has just been told by PMO to hold off on the release of the report until after the election.
However, PMO would like to be made aware of any development that occurs once you speak to the family and tell them that there is a blackout on release of reports during the [election] writ period.”

A lawyer named Michel Drapeau would specializes in public access to information said: “The Transportation Safety Board makes reports and makes findings. For any political power to interfere with it, it's improper ... totally improper.They don't even hide the fact it's for a political purpose. They were doing it ... in preparation for an election campaign.”

I'm not exactly sure if what was done by the PMO is exactly illegal, but it seems to me to be pretty darned unethical, why should an independent investigatory body, such as the TSB, take orders from the PMO? And better yet, should an election really make a father wait 2 more months to find out the investigation details into his daughter's death on the whim of a Prime Minister?

I think that this is beyond inappropriate, stalling any reports for reasons other than immediate national security is not something our government should be doing. Not to mention that I didn't think our government was supposed to be able to tell independent agencies what to do. Hopefully this was a one time incident, a little blunder and it won't happen again. But the way I look at it, once is already too much.

I'm sure that heads will role in the Harper government, let's just see who they make the scapegoat this time.

Muchacho Enfermo

Harper getting ready to attack Ignatieff

As an average Canadian, living in an regular in a blue collar neighborhood I was feeling pretty good about the way our government had been conducting itself lately. I was happy to see that our two major parties, the Liberals and the Conservatives, seemed to be working if not hand in hand at least in tandem in this time of economic turmoil that has so many Canadians scared about the future. It was nice, for a change, to have a government that seemed to be focused on actually governing the country and doing what we elected them to do, instead of focusing on vilifying the opposition to solidify their grip on power.

All that is about to change... According to the Glove and Mail the Tories are getting ready to air attack adds against Michael Ignatieff. The are apparently going through every bit of paper, footage and literature that Mr. Ignatieff has written, been quoted or featured in with a fine toothed comb in order to find something embarrassing he may have said in order to brand him, the same way they did Dion.

“The failure to brand him in the way we did Stéphane Dion is actually worrying some people — that maybe we've missed our opportunity to brand him negatively in the eyes of Canadians, and that an impression of competence is now sticking.

“So the pendulum is shifting back — that we should attack a bit more.” (A government insider quoted on the G&M)

Why must politics always be about vilifying the other guy? Are the Tories going to complain about his time spent as a Harvard professor when he was at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy? Or when he was lecturing at Oxford and hosting shows for the BBC? Or his many books that demonstrate a deep understanding of how the world works? I'm not saying that Mr Ignatieff is flawless, I'm simply stating that trying to attack his intellect may very well backfire... because in the intellectual resume category he clearly has Harper beat.

Overall, I'm interested on seeing how the Tories will brand him, but what I'm even more interested in, is how the Liberals will counter these adds. Will they fight back in the same way or will they counter with messages putting a positive spin on Ignatieff's career? Will the negative adds hurt the Tories image more then it will hurt Ignatieff's numbers in the polls? All that remains to be seen.

If there is an election in the near future I'd like the challenge the candidates to run a campaign focused on the issues: on health, education, the environment and the economy. I don't want to see a campaign that is run on negative press and attempts to dismantle the credibility of the opposition. Sadly, I'm pretty sure that this challenge will go unanswered and that next time there is an election, like most Canadians, I will leave my polling station with am uneasy feeling in my stomach because so little time will have been spent talking actual issues during the campaign that I won't be exactly sure what I voted for.

Muchacho Enfermo

Ottawa wants to read your Emails.

As reported by Bill Curry in the Globe and Mail the government in Ottawa is trying to push through legislation that would allow them to monitor emails, phone calls and chats without a warrant. Without going into details about Marlene Jennings' 30 plus page private members bill, I just want to take a few lines and comment about this.

There are arguments on both sides that I find valid. Those for the bill will argue that law abiding Canadians have nothing to fear from this bill, as the powers it grants would be used to monitor and track criminals and gods know the internet is full of sick people that need stopping.

On the flipside, I don't like the idea that Ottawa can read the emails exchanges I have with my accountant about how to better shelter my money from taxes, or about my political stance or about anything else for that matter.

The bill would force internet service providers to acknowledge requests from law enforcement without the need for a warrant. Warrants are in place to make sure that there is probable cause, that all bases were covered and that our privacy is respected. As has already happened in Ontario.

Imagine if a cop thinks his wife is having an affair and has the ISP track her emails and chat logs to satisfy his own curiosity? This could very well happen.

Personally, I think law enforcement needs better tools to catch and track criminals online... but not to the detriment of my (and your) right to privacy.

Muchacho Enfermo

Hope for the hopeless?

Cartoon: from embassymag.ca


Reading article after article about Obama since his election in November all the way until today one thing is clear: in him people see hope for change. Love him or hate him, he is bringing something new to the mix in Washington and his presence is already shaking things up.

Here in Canada, looking at our current potential leaders, it's hard to have hope. It's even harder to have hope for change. The same old boys club, the same graying hair, the same rhetoric, the same arguments, the same problems.

Since Harper's first term in office we have seen a deep divide form in this country, from the rebirth of Western separatism and Quebec nationalism, to Danny Williams doing whatever the hell wants (WILLIAMS FOR PM PLEASE!)... I'm not a old man, heck I'm a young guy, but talking to people in their early 20s it seems that politics hasn't grabbed their attention. There's a deep feeling of complacency in the majority of our young voters. Who's to blame? The politicians haven't captured our attention, the politicians we have now don't campaign on anything. They spend so much time attacking each other that none of them have capitalized on their chances to captivate voters.

Obama campaigned hard, he campaigned on promises of Change(with a capital C) he spoke with passion, he was eloquent. Weather he can make things happen remains to be seen. But the bottom line is I don't remember anyone campaigning with fire like that here in the last 8 years. Maybe someone in Ottawa should hire some of Obama's campaign managers and learn a few things.

This is my challenge to the four clowns in Ottawa: grab our attention, make us believe, make us fight for you, make us tell our friends and talk about Canadian politics over dinner and drinks with our friends. Do your jobs.

As long as our politicians act like hopeless children, I have no hope for change or improvement.

Muchacho Enfermo

Why Danny Willaims is awesome.

Good morning everyone, I just wanted to get this off my chest. Danny Williams is awesome. He is the most interesting person in Canadian politics since Jean Chretien or Brian Tobin.

I remember about a year ago Report on Business had an interesting exposé on Mr. Williams called: That's Danny Billions to You.
Which is basically a short biography of Danny's adult life. Now Danny is back in the news, seizing the assets of AbitiBowater in Newfoundland-Labrador. When Danny heard the company wanted to close a plant, put people out of work, leave the province and sell off its natural resource rights Danny Williams stepped in and said that the “honourable thing” would have been for the company to have handed over its assets “free of charge.”

I don't always agree with Mr Williams and I most certainly don't usually with seizure of assets by governments. I just think Mr Williams is immensely entertaining and it's nice to see someone in Canadian politics with such fire. The last time I remember someone this dedicated to the voters was Brian Tobin standing in front of the UN on a pile of fish defending himself for having shot at Portuguese fishermen.

Another thing that I love about Williams is that everything he does he does for his voters or to get re-elected which is pretty much the same thing. Like the time he had all the Canadian flags taken down from government buildings in protest when he felt that Newfoundland-Labrador wasn't getting their fair share of equalization payments.

All that to say love him or hate him, Danny Williams is still awesome!

Muchacho Enfermo

Screw you Bob Rae

Bob Rae has dropped out of leadership race for the Liberal Party of Canada. This guy was one of the main backers of the opposition party coalition I was complaining about a few days ago. I don't mind that he has dropped out, believe me. What I do mind however is WHEN he dropped out. He stayed long enough to help push this ridiculous idea into a reality and he leaves just in time to leave Ignatieff run for party leadership unopposed. Good job Bob Rae. You've just screwed Canada the same way you once screwed Ontario.

Muchacho Enfermo

We win!

The Liberals have a majority. That means four years of peace from the PQ's separatist agenda!
This is a fine morning indeed!

Coffee on election day...

Good morning everyone,
It is 7:46am and about -15 degrees celcius outside. I every paper that I have read this morning a majority government is projected to be won by the Provincial Liberal party of Quebec today. This is a good thing, according to me. We need a majority government in Quebec to counter the effects of all that crap going on in Ottawa. A strong vote of confidence for a provincial leader might be able to offset whatever damage is done by those clowns on the federal level.
that's it for now.... Polls open in an hour and 45 minutes!

Muchacho Enfermo

Canadian Parliament Suspended, The government's on vacation!

The Governor General of Canada has granted Prime Minister Stephen Harper's request to suspend parliament until January 25th.

Closing down parliament this week will stop a coalition formed by the opposition parties from taking down the Harper government on Monday; a no confidence vote was scheduled for Monday. Harper hopes to be able to present a revamped budget to Canadians on January 27th, one that would also be acceptable to the opposition and allow him to cling to power.

What this all means people is this:
1- The opposition doesn't care about Canada, only their paycheques and they formed a coalition because Harper threatened to cut their funding.
2- Harper is a fool for trying to run a country the way he does and running away from this fight speaks volumes about his integrity.

Again, my two cents!

Muchacho Enfermo