Tag: Law

Border News Update

Now that I know I am a hour or so away from the best ribs I have ever had, I am ever so much more sensitive to issues relating to crossing the border. Sad the news, then, comes that Canada and the US have arrived at an impasse as it relates to the rights of humans at the gates. There is the opinion of The Buffalo News:

The United States wanted to take fingerprints from some travelers who acted a little suspicious, specifically those who approached the border but, for whatever reason, decided not to cross. But Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms — which apparently does not treat changing one’s mind as evidence of terrorist intent — is held to forbid taking fingerprints from any person not charged with a crime.

Such presumption of innocence is apparently another thing that the U.S. administration considers “quaint.” And that’s really too bad, not only for those who respect the rule of law but also for those who make a living going back and forth across what used to be called the world’s longest unmilitarized border.

Nice to see that we are thought the Trus North Strong and Free to someone else but it begs the question – what if I want to give up some identification to get more security. I cross on average once every six weeks. Last week the NEXUS program expanded to all border waterways. NEXUS is a handy-dandy little card that both governments recognize and costs a little less than a full passport. But it is not fully rolled out and does not apply yet to land crossings in my part of the St. Lawrence Valley. Those Weslakians are keeping it all to themselves. Dastards.

Friday The Last Of April Chat-a-roo

Wasn’t it just last Friday? Time is flying. I am making arrangements for an undergrad reunion so I suppose I am a bit sensitive to these things. Yes, 25 years ago I was a seedy weedy sullen yute at the University of Kings College and soon people will be returning there from across the globe. From Engerlant to the Yukon so far. Of course I dread it. But if you qualify as a mid-late 80s grad, you should go. Two words: video dance.

  • Update: The Flea is good enough to point out one of the sillies things I have read in a long time. Never mind Alberto Gonzales, WMD, Libby, drugged up Limbaugh just saying no, Enron economics, Saskatchewan in the 1990s, moral majority, Oliver North, trickle down economics and a bazillion other things we could all trot out if we have 27 seconds to spare – conservatives apparently don’t lie. What was it Alberto said? Oh, yes – they just don’t remember. Flea’s line is far more honest and admirable:

    …what I like best about being a reactionary is that I do not have to make sense.

  • While I promised not to slag Web 2.0 for a while, I think it is entirely in my rights to point out that Blogger and Podcaster magazine is a wee bit Web -1.0 for me. Don’t get me wrong. I bought Yahoo magazine back in around 1996 and still wish I had those sitting around. But why do I need a magazine about this which is essentially a magazine?
  • I announced the formation of CAMWA – join in.
  • The New Liberaltarian Progressive Democratic Conservatives are having a bit of a hard time. First, I have a hard time with the fire and brimstone the-sky-is-falling the-sky-is-falling flip out of last week turning into the 8 billion dollar green millstone placed around the neck of the consumer…but not so much the polluters. Then, there is the steering of public funds into the boosting of Tory backbenchers prospects through focused funding of local instances of national celebrations. [Ed.: Yes! I can write that sentence without using the word “sponsorship” so it must be different.] Not to mention the application of creationist analysis to a war zone: torture is a theory and as there is no proof it cannot be. I hope the Prime Ministers groomer is especially on her game. Wouldn’t want him to notice the slide and take it personally.
  • But green is not all bad. David recently posted about generating kites in the sky. It was announced this week that the largest solar power facility in North American is going to be built in Sarnia. Soon there will be again talk of the sling tide project.
  • It’s also been a bad week for movie actors. Just as the Prime Minister’s handlers wish he had found other things to do – besides, you know, saying what is on his mind – so, too, wished Hugh Grant that he had not thought that kicking the arse of someone in public was a good idea. At least he only used his foot. Richard Gere tried to enter into some sort of merger with Shilpa Shetty, a noteworthy Indian actress, and now like Grant he faces charges.

What is it about men passing their best before date? You consider an agreement with a toothless non-profit the same as an agreement with a nation state. You consider low level assault either by boot to the arse or smothering hug to be your right. You consider traveling 1600 km to sit in a dorm room only to realize you are equidistant to the old wrinkly stage again the right thing to do.

Pity men as they move into their golden years. We can’t help it.

Ahoy! Pirate Radio Ahead!

US based web radio is about to get a massive hit and it will be interesting to watch how it plays out:

The new fees, which will apply until 2010, will charge a flat fee per-song, per-user in addition to a $500 fee for every channel owned by a station. Fees will increase every year until 2010. Radio stations with multiple channels, such as NPR, would be charged thousands of dollars, which they claim will cripple them. Previously, stations paid an annual fee plus 12% of their profits. The fees will start on 15 May 2007 and will be collected retrospectively for 2006. Webcasters will be allowed to calculate retrospective payments by averaging listening hours.

My first reaction is to call NCPR and make sure I pay my fair share. That one station is the main source of music in my life now. I rarely by CDs anymore as I have about 400 plus 150 lps and cassettes and 45s and I pretty much never get around to using them as much as I might – though I have to admit the vinyl did spin last Friday night. [Ed.: T-Rex was right – we were born to boogie.] But what of the amateur hobbyists like Darcey’s Friday Night Blues and Beer or Steven’s Acts of Volition Radio? Sure these are both Canadian but how and when will a fee like this apply? How can I pay it when it does arise.

Don’t get me wrong. I think there should be a fee. Sadly, there were plans to have nice and useful hidden fees attached to purchases of media of one sort or another but the hyper-libertarians and whacko self-proclaimed “user rights” advocates got to that idea and gave it the boot – my nickles! my dimes!!! they shouted so that a direct fee structure will be imposed granting people the right to be coat tail on both the artists and the medium that provide the access to the good stuff. So now we are stuck with the wrong end of the pipe holding the bag and a reasonable likelihood that the access to intelligently selected music on the web will dry up.

How should we pay the piper anyway?

Reopen The Constitution, I Say!

I don’t know what all the fuss is. A suggestion that Quebec join in the constitution – after 25 years wandering in the wilderness with nothing but a far superior Charter of Rights to keep them warm – sparks this sort of reaction:

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion has rejected suggestions by Quebec Opposition Leader Mario Dumont to reopen the Constitution, blaming Prime Minister Stephen Harper for encouraging the notion with unclear promises for more provincial autonomy. “The thing [Mr. Harper] needs to do to prevent a problem is to speak out and say very clearly which powers, which responsibilities, he wants to transfer from the federal government to the provincial government,” said Mr. Dion in an interview Sunday. “If he continues to be vague and confused, I think it’s not good at all for the country. He owes that to Canadians.”

I want a constitutional debate. And I want in, too – personal autonomy needs to be beefed up. The misguided will also want a kick at the can about property rights. And a place for First Nations and municipalities as semi-free states. And weakening or strengthening the courts so our rights will not be at the whim of politicians. Whatever.

Why not have a big national chat about it? The only down side is really the intense tedium. What people forget is not that the nation almost fell apart – it’s that the country almost ground to a halt in the 70s and early 80s with unending live TV coverage of hearings taking up all the channels. People from NS will also remember the embarrassment of seeing all the others laughing in the background whenever Premier John Buchanan decided to speak up. Now that we have more than three stations to watch I suppose that is not a problem. But really – don’t expect a lot of “amending formula” jokes. This stuff is mostly boring.

Friday Not Going Postal Chatfest

An interesting week for we and Canada Post. One day a package that hardly registered for weight within province was taken for posting and the clerk said “eight bucks.” “Eight bucks! Forget it. Give it to her next time we visit.” On another day, two packages with identical size and identical content were taken to Canada Post, one going to Philadelphia (ten hours drive, in another country) and one to Toronto (two hours drive, in my province.) The Toronto package cost a buck more. My world has turned upside-down.

  • Via John, I learned about Yorkshire forced indoor rhubarb. There used to be a show on PBS called The Victorian Garden and there was an entire episode about forcing houses where vegetables and fruits were grown and kept through the winter. I always wanted to live on pale homegrown foods.
  • Check out footnote nine on page six of this .pdf copy of a Canadian Senate Committee Report on border security. They want to allow us to bring back up to $2,000 bucks a day from the US including hooch, booze and other sippables. This is new information to me and changes my otherwise dim view of the legislative body. Imagine the right to pop over to Alex Bay for a 2-4 of Thousand Island Pale Ale. Imagine.
  • What has the Internet really done for us? I think it is fair to say that the idle magazine reader question is a valid concern. It has been a long time since I bought thirty bucks worth of magazines to go through on a Saturday morning. In fact, I cut back all magazine buying to just Sports Illustrated. I like pictures.
  • This is as important a transitional weekend as Labour Day. By the next one of these bullet points comes into being, there will be an NCAA champion crowned and the baseball season will be in full swing. The bulbs are popping up in the garden and if there is any drying out I may stick a shovel in the ground. I need to thing about seeds and which tomato to grown. Think Stokes and Vesey’s.

Not much today. These are the times of plenty. I am doing real things in real time. I have a real time life in many ways.

Friday The Bulletteenth

Friday is the new Saturday in the work world. Remembering working Saturdays in the years of schlepverk, retail wages funding weekends reminds me of dressdowns and finishing the afternoon ending with the Beat Authority:

  • Make a flake. Go ahead. You know you want to. Post them on the fridge in the coffee room after.
  • Baseball owners told not to spoil their monopoly for fear of the imposition of fairness.
  • I knew I liked Vermont and Vermonters but now I have a favorite one, Senator Patrick Leahy who lead the good fight in the cause of Mr. Arar yesterday:

    “We knew damn well if he went back to Canada he wouldn’t be tortured. He would be held and he would be investigated,” Leahy thundered, wagging his finger at Gonzales. “We also knew damn well if he went to Syria he would be tortured. And it’s beneath the dignity of this country, a country that has always been a beacon of human rights, to send somebody to another country to be tortured. It’s a black mark on us. It has brought about the condemnation of some of our closest and best allies.”

  • The Globe is telling iLies. These are iLies as I know the world is better with more expensive future junk that does nothing more for me than a walkman did in 1985.
  • I have concerns. We should all have concerns. This year’s center of the infield is no 2006 center of the infield:

    “He’s very athletic,” Epstein said. “He has great range at the position. He’ll make his share of errors, but we think that’s more than compensated for by his fantastic range. He gets to as many balls as anybody at that position. He’s definitely a plus offensive player for the position. He’s a tough out. He can handle all different kinds of pitching.” Though Lugo probably won’t measure up to Alex Gonzalez from a defensive standpoint — who does? — he has the ability to make up for it in other ways…Lugo, who used to be a pest for the Red Sox when he played in Tampa Bay, will make his DP flips to rookie Dustin Pedroia. The Sox opted not to bring classy free-agent veteran Mark Loretta back for a second season. This will be the first time the Red Sox open the season with a rookie position player since 2001…

    I am thinking these days that not signing Loretta is going to be the Achilles heel of the team. In addition to more errors and shortstop, Pedroia was weak at bat last year batting under .200 in September when he was given some late games. What is wrong with having a solid defense and decent bats in the middle?

  • US Senate ethics changes v. the actual CPC Accountability Act. Compare and contrast.

The Friday Chat That Made The Internet What It Is

If I didn’t do Friday chat, the Internet would stop. That is what the voices tell me.

  • How Canadian are you? What a dumb question to pose in relation to immigration? What is the benchmark? If they asked a group of Haligonians when I was young the answer would be “not much”. We didn’t think much of Upper Canada, the US or New Brunswick for that matter – PEI was “queer Island” but a useful place to get beer when you were 18. We were Nova Scotians first and Canadians administratively. And enough with “visible minority” Only Canadians uses the term and it is stunned.
  • It is getting so close, people are starting to get nutty:

    “I like it, man,” Papelbon said. “I went to the Celtics [team stats] game (Wednesday night) and some guy came running up to me when I was sitting courtside and said, “We’re going to get 20 wins out of you next year!” I like that. I like the pressure.’

    It is an incredible line up they have accumulated over the winter. But that is what I said about last year. I still do not really know why you take a closer and make him a starter but I suppose it is all in the percentages, twenty wins is better than 35 saves.

  • Oh dear: “NDP plotting strategy to out-green its rivals“. You know what? I don’t care that much about green. What I mean is I am all for good stewardship and maximizing sustainability but I think that is a matter of prudence not a core political theory. A core political election platforms should be about change to justice, pervasive wealth creation, international security, that sort of stuff. In an election where green battles green, essentially a battle of filing cabinet arrangement techniques, I may stay home.
  • I take it the Central Committee never thought of this at the time.
  • I work with privacy law but even I am having a hard (pre-coffee) time translating this concept:

    It is likely that people wishing to take advantage of public information will still be required to apply for licences. “The reason we require licensing is to ensure that government information is not misrepresented or used to mislead the public,” said Mr Wretham. The Statute Law Database, an obscure if fascinating resource, is perhaps an unlikely candidate to have kick-started such a revolution but it will make fascinating reading for anyone interested in the UK’s legal history.

    Those of you with more contemporary British legal experience will have a better handle on this but it sounds like the UK may be making not only access to information free but use of government data free. This would be sort of huge in that there are massive of mapping, statistical and scientific knowledge in the hands of the state as a consequence or even intentional result of public sector activity.

That is it – maybe more later.

A Fabulous Yule Bullet Pointy Chat

That is what I wish for you all. The gift of fabulousness. This season brings out the fabulousness in all of us and lets us witness the fabulousness in each other – in friends, family as well as strangers. Be fabulous to each other and to yourself. That is the true meaning of the season.

  • One way to be fabulous is to ensure you stuff double digit paper money into those Salvation Army kettles you run into in the malls and outside the liquor stores struggling to get the gin from shelve to punch bowl.
  • Gary is playing tunes from The Jam this week. Careful readers will know the tale of how that band and Paul Weller in particular got me through my late teens with a certain fabulous modish style. Where is my green German paratrooper parka anyway?
  • The Red Sox have had a run of signings for 2007, especially in the bullpen, that makes me proud of my six shirts: Coco, Tek, Nomar, a gold shirt, a Ted Williams rookie shirt and a long sleeve blue. I also have an umbrella and a beach towel. And books. And stuff, too. Oh, and a Many Louisville slugger. And caps. I think their plan to make money off of franchising the brand is working out.
  • Ian, who I never have met but who does seek out my advice in things fluid, summarizes the season’s particularities in his family. Best advice I have heard this year? You do not have to go and visit them, whoever the “they” are to you and yours.
  • Hey – I need a cut and paste from the main stream media. What is a blog without a certain measure of MSM copyright infringement? Besides, the courts know about it:

    Providing Web links to copyright-protected music is enough to make a site legally liable, an Australian court ruled in a case that created legal uncertainty for search engines around the world. The full bench of the Federal Court, the country’s second-highest court, has upheld a lower court ruling that Stephen Cooper, the operator of the Web site in question, as well as Comcen, the Internet service provider that hosted it, were guilty under Australian copyright law.

    A very Merry Christmas to all the digitally thieving buggers out there, too. Because the copyright infringing thief and their half-witted amateur and professional apologists in the new e-world (aka iWorld) are people we should remember at Christmas as well.

Must run. I am working on about 15 hours sleep so far this week due to reasons beyond my control and need to get where I need to get to so that I can think about napping later in the eleven days off to come. That is right. I am taking Yule off for the first time since 2002. Woot.

Remember: Do Not Be Nutty Today

Sometimes life does mirror really bad 1980s movies of the week:

Myriam Bédard, a one-time Canadian Olympic hero, is now a fugitive wanted by police for parental abduction. Quebec City police have issued an arrest warrant for Ms. Bédard, who left for the United States this fall with her spouse and her daughter from a first marriage. Ms. Bédard’s former husband, Jean Paquet, had filed a complaint with police last month, saying her sudden departure violated the terms of their shared custody of their 11-year-old daughter. A couple who have made headlines for their increasingly odd behaviour, Ms. Bédard and her current partner, Nima Mazhari, were believed to be at one point in the Washington, D.C., area. Mr. Mazhari is scheduled to stand trial next spring in Montreal on charges that he allegedly stole paintings from a Montreal artist.

I will never look at my cross-country skis in the same way again.