Canada

[dai bread]

All right, I have to be fair. The police here do pick up the villains. They usually find them, but not always.

[Haggis@wk]

Canada gets first, bitter dose of metered Internet

Where once TekSavvy consumers could purchase High Speed Internet Premium at a monthly base usage of 200GB for $31.95 a month, now they can get about half of that data (if they buy two units of insurance) at $41.45 a month...

"The ostensible, theoretical reason behind UBB is to conserve capacity, but that issue is very questionable," noted the ISP's CEO Rocky Gaudrault on TekSavvy's news page. "One certain result though, is that Bell will make much more profit on its Internet service, and discourage Canadians from watching TV and movies on the internet instead of CTV, which Bell now owns."

I would be very disappointed if we go to a similar type of service in the U.S. I depend heavily on my internet connection for my TV and movie needs and this would be a big step backwards.

[Haggis@wk]

Those Tolerant Canadians: Canada: ‘Human Rights’ Tribunal orders woman’s house seized after she said Muslim employee’s lunch smelled bad.

It didn’t hold up in court — quite. Superior Court rules Ontario Human Rights Tribunal hearing was unfair.

A Mississauga businesswoman whose home was ordered seized to pay an Ontario Human Rights Tribunal award to a former employee can keep her house — for now.

The Superior Court struck down the “fatally flawed” decision as so unfair to defendant Maxcine Telfer — who represented herself in the hearing — that it was “simply not possible to logically follow the pathway taken by the adjudicator.”

That October 2009 decision ordered Telfer to pay $36,000 to a woman who had been her employee for six weeks. Lawyers wanted the sheriff to seize and sell Telfer’s home to collect the money.

Canada is overdue for a hardcore free speech movement. Until then it remains an unserious country.

[Marye]

I see Haggis you quoted FOX NEWS.... *cough*... ahem.. who picked the most sensational bits to report on (2 paragraphs). Microwave smells? Dress code policy? Two such policies all business have. My workplace as well.

But what is your point, dear Haggis? That people are free in Canada, in Ontario, to bring a case to the Human Rights Tribunal no matter how trivial the issue? That lawyers can find a case in anything (I might agree with this) and take it to Court or a Tribunal? That a lawyer could put a lien on someone's house even though the decision is questionable? (yes they can) Or that this decision can be struck down and APPEALED which is how it works here. Seek judicial review.

Here is the original decision, btw, it you are interested
http://www.canlii.org/en/on/onhrt/doc/2 ... o1627.html

On another matter you pointed out about Canadian goofyness well it has resolved itself before we had to take to the streets to protest and set effigys on fire:
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Har ... story.html

Ah the power of the people ....

[Haggis@wk]

I see Haggis you quoted FOX NEWS.... *cough*... ahem.. who picked the most sensational bits to report on (2 paragraphs). Microwave smells? Dress code policy? Two such policies all business have. My workplace as well.

But what is your point, dear Haggis? That people are free in Canada, in Ontario, to bring a case to the Human Rights Tribunal no matter how trivial the issue? That lawyers can find a case in anything (I might agree with this) and take it to Court or a Tribunal? That a lawyer could put a lien on someone's house even though the decision is questionable? (yes they can) Or that this decision can be struck down and APPEALED which is how it works here. Seek judicial review.

lawyers can find a case in anything (I might agree with this) and take it to Court or a Tribunal? In a court of law they have to argue the merits of the law, under your HRC tribunal rules you only have to feel "offended" to file a complaint.


Is it possible you truly don't recognize your HRC as what it is, a Kangaroo court?

Under free speech this complainant could bleat all she wanted but the only legal recourse open to her would be to hire a lawyer and go to civil court. No lawyer could file a lien on my house without proof of evidence that he was entitled to a lien. According to your HRC rules if they find her guilty then a lien can be filed.


Under your country’s HRC tribunal:

You have no right to free legal representation but your complainant does

"Double jeopardy," recognized by your courts does not apply in a HRC tribunal. Your accuser can file in multiple jurisdictions and you have to pay your legal defense in each jurisdiction

That the proceedings of HRC tribunals are conducted in secret

That objective truth is no defense in an HRC case (Facts may be facts, but if they offend, they are actionable.)

There is a presumption of guilt. You have to prove your innocence

The last time I looked few if any of the HRC rulings have any basis in Canadian law.

They just make up "rights" that the 'oppressed" suffer and they are going to put things right. And the majority of those ruling almost always favor the original complainant.

Aren't you even a little concern that you might have made some hurtful comments here that another Canadian (or even a non-resident non-Canadian) can bring forward to your local HRC?

You could be subject to the same harassment as this poor woman suffered? That everything you have ever earned is subject to confiscation based on a whim?

It makes my skin crawl to believe an otherwise reasonable population can endure an extra-legal court that can arbitrarily take your property or even recommend jail.

If you can't recognize that you and you fellow citizens are being terrorized (and I don't use that word lightly) then you are lost as a free society. Just because they haven’t found you in violation of their rules doesn’t mean you won’t be.

That’s the jeopardy you face when you have no clear right to free speech.

[Haggis@wk]

Sorry Marye, it turns out that of all the many nations in the world, aside from our own, Americans love Canada the best.

A new Gallup Poll finds that it’s become Americans’ most very favorite foreign country both now and in the 20 years Gallup has inquired about such things.
Americans may not have been there and may be abysmally ignorant about a next-door neighbor (or neighbour) that is by far its largest trading partner, best friend and closest ally. (Until the last election Harvard grad Barack Obama thought they had a president up there.)

But Gallup finds that a record 96% of Americans are feeling the love for that northern land of toques that’s 10% larger than the United States with one-tenth the population. U.S. lovers of Canada are up 4% just in the past year.

In fact, liking Canada is almost unanimous in the 57 states. Only 3% of Americans think unfavorably (or unfavourably) of Canada, and they probably don’t even know where it is. (North of everything except Alaska and Detroit.)

[Shapley]

In the 57 states? Did Mr. Obama write that?

[Haggis@wk]

In the 57 states? Did Mr. Obama write that?

Yeah, a speech he made when he was running for president. He staid that he planned to visit all 57 states

[Shapley]

Well, I know that. I was curious why the author employed it, although I see he did make reference to Mr. Obama's knowledge of Canada in the preceeding paragraph...

[Shapley]

I, too, thought Mr. Harper was the President of the United States of Canada... ; )

Actually, no, I didn't. I've been to Canada a time or two, although I didn't realize it was bigger than the United States. I see that the United States is larger when you count only land area, though Canada exceeds it by about 10% if you include the water area. I guess that big salty pond named after the Hudson River gives it a boost in size. Since it is frozen over so much, it is indistinguishable from the land most of the time, so the Canadians count it in the officially tally. ; )

[Haggis@wk]

Hate speech section of Canadian Human Rights Act nears repeal.

Good!!! This has been a shameful episode in the history of a great country. Hopefully the HRC trubunal will go the way of witch trials.

[Giant Communist Robot]

He staid that he planned to visit all 57 states

Anyone living in Virginia or Massachusetts knows there are only 48 states.

[Giant Communist Robot]

I heard this one at a Stan Rogers concert:

How does a Canadian spell Canada?

Ans= C ay? N ay? D ay?

[jamiebk]

I heard this one at a Stan Rogers concert:

How does a Canadian spell Canada?

Ans= C ay? N ay? D ay?

That's an old joke that went something like:

How did Canada get it's name? A couple of Canadians decided to pull tiles out of a Scrabble game and see what came up.
C eh?
N eh?
D eh?

Funny then...funny now.

[Haggis@wk]

Jessie Sansone and his family are reeling after he was arrested and strip searched by police after his four-year-old daughter drew a picture of a man with a gun in her Kitchener, Ont., kindergarten class.

The 26-year-old father of four said Saturday the sketch was supposed to be him, getting the bad guys and monsters.

The school must have thought differently, as after Nevaeh drew it Wednesday, the school contacted Family and Children’s Services and they called police.
Waterloo Police met Sansone at the school when he tried to pick up his kids he was told he was charged with possession of a firearm. He was then handcuffed and put him in one of the several squad cars waiting outside, he said.

But hey, this is for the children, right? So this doesn’t matter at all:

While Sansone was being strip searched at the police station: told to disrobe, lift his testicles and bend over, his wife was home with their 15-month-old daughter.
“They came to my house, told my wife that I had been charged with possession of firearms, that she would have to come with them, and that Sundae (their infant daughter) would have to go with the social worker,” said Sansone. Stephanie called her Mom who rushed over to take Sundae instead. …
Sansone said police searched his house and found a plastic toy gun that shoots foam darts.

So, I’m confused. If they had found a lawfully owned firearm in the residence, what, exactly would have happened?

Sadly, I no longer gloat that this couldn’t happen in the U.S. but I still take solace that after one or two humongous lawsuit payouts by the various state and local police and school boards the rate of incidents would decline sharply. I do beleive that we are years away from the all powerful social agencies that can remove children and force parents to behave in certain way before allowing the children to return. Here again it's happened in the U.S. but it is usually followed by a lawsuit that causes the nannies to reconsider.

Lord, thankfully we have some recourse to threaten them unlike our neighbors to the north!!!