Stickin' it to the Senate - Week 106 - May 6-13

Brazeau and Mac Harb have to pay back large chunks of their expense budgets.  They're still working on Pam Wallin.  Wait.  Mac Harb disputes the article suggesting he owes fat bank.  Nope.  He's wrong.  They do have to pay it back.

Mike Duffy appears to have been tipped off that he was under investigation over his expenses.  I listened to an interview from the Liberal Senate Leader and he seems really, really pissed about the whole thing.

Tom Mulcair is asking the Conservatives if the money is in the banana stand.

Let's talk about Unions.  This NP article uses the Queen of the North ferry accident as an argument against unions.  And I do agree here.  Unions should have no place in protecting people from criminal liability.  I'm still not really understanding how the union is even involved here.  I can understand if it was an internal BC Ferries investigation that the union might be able to prevent certain things.  But can a union really prevent an RCMP or Transport Canada investigation?  If so, then yes, that needs to change.  But to extrapolate this and suggest that unions have no place?  Full disclosure.  I'm not in a union and have never been.  I have worked entirely in organizations that are union and have worked with many, many union employees.  And yes, at times it is incredibly ludicrous.  I've seen some really, really bad employees keep their jobs.  I've seen laziness.  I've seen union leaders defying sense and logic.  The traditional union/management mentality no longer works.  But there is two sides to that story.  This relationship generally is created through years and years and years of mistrust.  I've seen examples of younger facilities with progressive unions work quite well.  So...like I said...two sides.  But what if that union completely goes away?  "Non-competitive" is just another word for "too expensive".  And that's the management trap.  Managers aren't evil.  They just get fired if they don't cut and cut and cut and make shit cheaper.  It's very easy for companies to see that they could make so much more money if employees would only work for less.  And only work when they were told to.  And on and on and on.  Is this really what we want?  We want everybody to work for cheaper?  We want worse jobs and less recourse if things don't go our way?  Yes, unions can be a pain in the ass.  For years I wondered why the high school educated floor worker was making more than I was (as a professional engineer).  But that's a different question.  I think we should worry more about elevating non-union jobs to union standards than about getting rid of the unions.

Well.  I think it makes more sense to just have a well funded Revenue Canada, rather than create a "special team" to go after tax cheats.  But I'll take it.  I guess is sounds better to say you have a "special team" than to admit that people haven't been caught because the base organization doesn't have the resources.

"The Harper Government" is spreading.  The phrase has been used on 522 government news releases...since December.  Generally when talking about funding initiatives, tax breaks and projects.



Canada is tripping over itself to assure everybody that the 3rd Via Rail terror suspect did not enter the US from Canada.

Stats Can is putting disclaimers on its data due to non-mandatory long form participation.

Oh shit.  The Conservatives might start re-writing the Canadian history curriculum.

This story about the Liberals improving fortunes goes out of the way to belittle what Trudeau was wearing during the announcement.  This is news?  And they have an editorial that goes even crazier.

The Conservatives hate big government and science!  Except when they can re-purpose national science institutes to do science for businesses and industry.  Science for businesses, not for people.  Correction.  Science for giant corporations, not for anybody else.  Science for business suggests that entrepreneurs might benefit.

Companies are hiring temporary foreign workers for jobs in areas where there are unemployed people with similar sets of skills.

The National Post asks why Canadians still are interested in Al Gore...while writing an article about him every two days.

The potato farmer who was thrown in jail in Beirut is suing the Canadian Government.

Details are coming out about Health Ministry employees fired by the BC Liberals in 2012.  Turns out they were working on studies that may have proved harmful to pharmaceutical companies that are also BC Liberal donors.

This is just a stupid article about Real Estate.  The gist...If you bought a home 10 years ago (you know, right before the largest jump in real estate prices ever) you'll be fine even if there is a crash.  Ummm...let's see.  Haven't most people bought since then?  Isn't that what drove up prices?  Aren't there a whole lot of people out there right now without 50% equity in their homes?  This is a stupid article.

Similar to my comment on another Salon article last week...here's another article about Time magazine articles about Millenials.  I think the comments are more enlightening than the actual article.