[Canada] Canadian Politics Redux

[PRC]

Alberta doesn't have a rainy day fund? 

Our Progressive Conservative government blew it on "sky palaces" and family vacations to South Africa.

[Monoriu]

I am surprised.  An economy that heavily depends on resource extraction should have a rainy day fund, as commodity prices are notoriously unstable. 

[crazy canuck]

I am surprised.  An economy that heavily depends on resource extraction should have a rainy day fund, as commodity prices are notoriously unstable.

It did have a substantial one.  But they started dipping into the fund on warm sunny days.

[viper37]

American military news warning their fellow americans not to move here:
Don't Move To Canada – This Person Was Shockingly Just Hauled In Front Of A Human Rights Tribunal

f the results of Super Tuesday have foreshadowed the outcome of election 2016 then in addition to bringing us a new year and a new president, January may also set off a slew of apartment and cubicle vacancies. Your neighbors and coworkers could be headed for cooler climates if Donald Trump wins the election. According to Google Trends, searches for 'Move to Canada' spiked after the Donald cleaned up in the latest primaries.

But if freedom minded Americans are planning to run from a candidate that they view as a potentially authoritarian demagogue they may want to take a closer look at the current state of free speech in Canada.

As CBC News reported, Mike Ward, a Montreal comedian was brought in front of a human rights tribunal to testify about a joke that he made regarding a teenager with a facial disfigurement. This ordeal has been going on for years with Ward's recent testimony in on February 24th, 2016.

Jeremy Gabriel, the "victim" of Ward's wise-assery, had traveled to Rome to sing for the pope in 2006.

Ward joked that he was happy for Gabriel at the time, "but now, five years later, and he's still not dead.... Me, I defended him, like an idiot, and he won't die."

Ward's fans may have been laughing, but Gabriel's family wasn't. Now, the comedian has to defend his right to express himself in court.

And Ward isn't the only Canadian comic to feel the wrath of a human rights tribunal.

In 2013, Guy Earle lost a supreme court appeal over a tribunal decision to fine him $15,000 for a joke that he made at a Vancouver comedy club.

What could warrant such a steep payment to the offended? Did Earle crack wise about sodomizing a paraplegic? Did he ejaculate smack dab in the middle of a big red maple leaf? No, twas far worse. So bad in fact that my fingers hesitate to type the offending words lest I trigger myself into sprinting for the nearest safe space. Earle had the gall, the audacity, to refer to a lesbian couple as 'dykes.'

"Don't mind that inconsiderate dyke table over there. You know lesbians are always ruining it for everybody." He said.

The horror.

Never mind the fact that many lesbians often refer to themselves as dykes.

Never mind that the women had interrupted Earle's performance.

Never mind that this was an artist expressing himself.

Never mind that if they didn't like what Earle had to say they could have simply gotten up and walked out.

Never mind all that. "Hang the heretic!" "Burn the witch!" "Off with his head!" Or at the very least "down with his savings account!" Is what the tribunal said with the blessing of Canada's supreme court.

Dragging people in front of tribunals because we're bothered by something that they said? Canadians may parlez vous francais from time to time, but these human rights tribunals are enough to have Ferdinand and Isabella saying "si, si."

Problem is this isn't 15th century Spain, it's Canada in 2015, and the government's inquisition-like quest to turn comedians into conversos has no place in a free society.

I can only imagine what might happen if Andrew Dice Clay decided to go on a cross Canadian standup tour.

"Hickory, dickory, dock, this chick was suckin my..."

No, no, no Dice man. That may play down in the states, but not up here. Try this on for size.

"Hickory, dickory, dock an empowered young woman made the decision to perform oral sex on me, but I made her stop before I reached climax because fellatio is a sign of toxic masculinity...Oh! The Dice Man!"

Just doesn't have the same ring to it.

Sadly, our neighbors to the north aren't the only ones who feel the need to tell a supposedly free thinking society what constitutes comedy and what "amounts to adverse treatment based on sex and sexual orientation."

According to a 2015 Pew poll, "American Millennials are far more likely than older generations to say the government should be able to prevent people from saying offensive statements about minority groups."

It's gotten so bad that Chris Rock and many other comedians won't even play college campuses anymore.

Avoiding the college crowd wasn't enough to save Rock from the slings and arrows of the campus PC police. His opening monologue at the Academy Awards prompted a response in the form of an open letter from a student at San Diego State University. (Not to mention a slew of tweets from the perpetually victimized)

Anthony Berteaux said that Rock's jokes about Asian kids, "perpetuated the very form of bigotry he was trying to call out."

Christ kid, you must be a blast at keg parties...do they still have those in college? Perhaps I'm showing my age by expecting millennials to embrace controversial humor the way my friends and I used to laugh at and quote Family Guy and South Park back in the dark ages of 2007.

Berteaux seems to prefer Ellen Degeneres' selfie taking, pizza ordering antics. And that's fine I guess. You know who else thinks Ellen is hilarious? Joan from accounting. Joan from accounting lives to play it safe. Sure she'll go out for a margarita after work on Cinco de Mayo, maybe stay up for an extra glass of champagne on New Year's Eve, but that's as far as Joan pushes the envelope. Joan is hardly an arbiter of what is and isn't funny, and neither are undergrads who have been treated like living, breathing, fabrege eggs since the moment they crawled from the womb.

Now, you might be thinking "so what? Who cares if college kids can't take a joke?"

Well the current crop of teens and twenty somethings will be the legislators and policy makers of tomorrow. Today's op/ed in the campus paper will be tomorrow's proposed legislation banning offensive jokes in designated public safe areas.

Still not convinced that we need to protect the rights of comedians to offend? First they came for the joke makers, but I said nothing, because I never made jokes...

The regressive left is attacking two of my great loves; free speech and dark comedy. I can't help but feel as though I'm trapped between Dwayne Johnson and Ron Jeremy's swelling undergarments...The Rock and a hard place.

Restricting the rights of artists to offend is a major step on a slippery slope towards restricting the free speech and expression rights of all people. Nobody is saying that you have to find Chris Rock or Guy Earle or Mike Ward funny. In fact you're free to find their brand of humor wildly inappropriate, but if we fail to protect free speech for those who disgust us the most, then we have failed to protect free speech for everyone.

That whole legal case, the Mike Ward one, is silly.  The family pretends their son was bullied because of the jokes he made on him.  As if an handicapped child singing for the Pope and becoming a media (one media, actualy) star would not attract any attention and be even more subject to bullying.

There's this silly idea here that public people must be protected at all costs, that they have some kind of special rights.

He'll lose.  He'll have spent 100k, maybe more, in lawyers fees by the end of the process, plus the 80k$ he is claimed, but he will lose.  Freedom of speech is a difficult concept in Canada, compared to the US.

[Grey Fox]

Losing will not cost him or his family anything.

[viper37]

Losing will not cost him or his family anything.

It will cost him 80 000$ in damages.

[crazy canuck]

If it costs someone 100k to defend against a simple human rights claim and the potential damages for this are 80k then the system has some significant problems indeed.  But I am not sure those estimates are accurate.

[viper37]

If it costs someone 100k to defend against a simple human rights claim and the potential damages for this are 80k then the system has some significant problems indeed.  But I am not sure those estimates are accurate.

French article

Sylvie Gabriel a qualifié « d'ignobles » les propos tenus par Mike Ward à l'endroit de son fils lors d'un spectacle en 2010. La mère de Jérémy Gabriel a décrit devant le tribunal les impacts négatifs de ce numéro de l'humoriste sur leur vie de famille. La Commission des droits de la personne poursuit Mike Ward pour un montant de 80 000 $ au nom du jeune chanteur.

Sylive Gabriel [mother] qualified as horrible what Mike Ward said about her son during a show in 2010.  Jérémy's mother describe before the tribunal the negative impacts of this humor show on their family life.  The Human Rights Commision is suing Mike Wars for 80 000$ in the name of the young singer.


Another text on the legal fees
The first sentence below the bolded text:
While the judge has yet rendered his verdict, this trial has already costed near 100 000$ to Mike Ward.

Julius Grey is the one representing him.  He is not cheap.

[crazy canuck]

Ok, a complainant saying they want 80k is different from being awarded 80k  - which is what I understood you to say would be the likely measure of damage.  The upper limit for damages to dignity are nowhere near 80k.

Mike Ward is getting gouged on fees.

[Barrister]

Notley's government hires AUPE (Alberta public service union) top negotiator... to head up negotiations with AUPE.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/former-aupe-negotiator-to-advise-ndp-on-public-salaries-1.3484015

[viper37]

Ok, a complainant saying they want 80k is different from being awarded 80k  - which is what I understood you to say would be the likely measure of damage.  The upper limit for damages to dignity are nowhere near 80k.

Mike Ward is getting gouged on fees.

no, they want 80k$.  I do not know if the judge will grant them that, a lower amount, or a higher amount.  All we know (there is no verdict yet), is the case was heard by the judge, not thrown out.

[viper37]

I can't believe it.  Trudeau was wrong.  Extremist muslims still hate us, despite his marvelous cuddling of their group.  Here I thought all his love would shine like a beacon and convince all of ISIS members to drop their weapons and prevent young muslims to go and fight in Syria.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/stabbing-arrest-1.3491413

[Barrister]

Trudeau sounds more and more like his father - delivers a 29.4 billion dollar deficit.  Projects deficits for the next five years.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/federal-budget-2016-main-1.3501802

[Jacob]

Trudeau sounds more and more like his father - delivers a 29.4 billion dollar deficit.  Projects deficits for the next five years.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/federal-budget-2016-main-1.3501802

He did run on having budget deficits.

[Barrister]

Trudeau sounds more and more like his father - delivers a 29.4 billion dollar deficit.  Projects deficits for the next five years.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/federal-budget-2016-main-1.3501802

He did run on having budget deficits.

He ran on three years of $10b deficits, then back to surplus.