[Canada] Canadian Politics Redux

[Jacob]

I don't find either of those arguments particularly compelling, BB.

[Neil]

Yeah, I don't think that Jacob is especially convincible.  Anything that some lawyer is liable to impose is the sort of thing that he's likely to support.  Indeed, that's just the sort of thing that Europeans really dig.

[Barrister]

I don't find either of those arguments particularly compelling, BB.

Kay.

[viper37]

Distinct society = moon and stars.  Interesting point of view.  Nothing has really changed in Canada since 1990.  Bilinguism is stagnating, french is receding, but all is ok
The rest of the agreement concerns every provinces, so I doubt it's "asking moon and star". Especially since 7 provinces all signed it in the first place.

Harper already said that Quebec was somehow distinct.

so, where's the problem with the rest of it?

[viper37]

Meech Lake failed for a reason.  And now you suggest going back to it like nothing happened. 

Meech Lake failed because english Canadians had this vision of a perfect Canada where nothing has to change.
Now you see where that leads us.

[Grallon]

I think any outrage generated in Quebec was because of the thought that someone else might be getting a slice of money.  It's not for nothing that Quebec is said to be the most corrupt of all the provinces.

You can thank federalist scums for that sad state of affairs - they've at it since the last referendum.  EDIT: They've been at it for 40 more years but it exploded after the last Referendum defeat - when they controlled both the Qc govt and the City of Montreal.  Their moral bankruptcy is complete as evidenced by what we discover every day at the Charbonneau Commission.  If there was ever a group worthy of the epithet of ' maggot ' - it's not the Ontarian medias - but the Quebec federalists.



G.

[Jacob]

Kay.

Well... the first one is making life easier for prosecutors if the police do funny stuff to suspects. That's kind of totalitarian and not very attractive. The second point seems to be to make minorities more subjected to the whims of the majority; not particularly attractive either.

[Neil]

Distinct society = moon and stars.  Interesting point of view.  Nothing has really changed in Canada since 1990.  Bilinguism is stagnating, french is receding, but all is ok
The rest of the agreement concerns every provinces, so I doubt it's "asking moon and star". Especially since 7 provinces all signed it in the first place.

Harper already said that Quebec was somehow distinct.

so, where's the problem with the rest of it?

With bilingualism stagnating and french receding?  Absolutely nothing.

[Neil]

Meech Lake failed for a reason.  And now you suggest going back to it like nothing happened. 

Meech Lake failed because english Canadians had this vision of a perfect Canada where nothing has to change.
Now you see where that leads us.

Where has it led us?

[crazy canuck]

Meech Lake failed for a reason.  And now you suggest going back to it like nothing happened. 

Meech Lake failed because english Canadians had this vision of a perfect Canada where nothing has to change.
Now you see where that leads us.

Lol, and you complain about us not understanding you!

[Barrister]

Kay.

Well... the first one is making life easier for prosecutors if the police do funny stuff to suspects. That's kind of totalitarian and not very attractive. The second point seems to be to make minorities more subjected to the whims of the majority; not particularly attractive either.

Well "making life easier for prosecutors" in this case equals "convicting guilty people".  I have all the time in the world for arguments that, say, a confession is tainted because the accused didn't talk to his lawyer.  Anything that goes to the credibility of the evidence is hugely important.  But if the Charter breach is unrelated to the credibility or trustworthiness of the evidence itself?  The only thing that suffers is justice if that evidence is excluded.

As for 'protecting minorities', written Charters have shown themselves to be a pretty unreliable protector.  How often is the Charter being used to protect muslims these days.  In fact the SCC a few months ago essentially said that a devout muslim's religious right to wear a hijab must take second place if she is to give evidence in court.  It took 15-20 years before the Charter was used to protect the rights of gay people.

[Grey Fox]

Meech Lake failed for a reason.  And now you suggest going back to it like nothing happened. 

Meech Lake failed because english Canadians had this vision of a perfect Canada where nothing has to change.
Now you see where that leads us.

Where has it led us?

A country where even the conservative party is turning into the Liberal party.

[Neil]

A country where even the conservative party is turning into the Liberal party.

The Tories have generally governed from the centre.  It's not really that big of a surprise.  And we're lucky that Harper isn't bringing in more right-wing dogma from the Republicans.

[Grey Fox]

Yes but it's not the only thing they have adopted from them either. There's also the secrecy & crookedry of it and this time there's barely any French Canadians in the Cons government, can't blame it on us.

[Neil]

Yes but it's not the only thing they have adopted from them either. There's also the secrecy & crookedry of it and this time there's barely any French Canadians in the Cons government, can't blame it on us.

All government has some skullduggery involved.  That's how democracy works.  It's not like there's really been a major scandal for these guys yet.

As for the secrecy, that's a good thing.  When most of the national media is out to bring you down at all costs, you have to play your cards pretty close to your chest.