Hats off to Murray Brewster of Canadian Press for his chilling story on the Harper Government's determined campaign to prevent a Military Police Complaints Commission inquiry from getting to the bottom of allegations that Canadian troops in Afghanistan abetted torture. The commission is investigating complaints by Amnesty International and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association that Canadian troops knowingly handed over prisoners to torture in Afghan prisons. But federal lawyers invoked a little known national security clause in the Canada Evidence Act to bar a key government witness from testifying. Their fig leaf? They claimed Richard Colvin, who was political director at...

30 September, 2009

A tribute this morning by Maureen Dowd to fellow New York Times columnist William Safire, the conservative speechwriter and elegant arbiter of English usage who died Sunday, contains a couple of gems. When White House officials wouldn’t return calls, Safire suggested leaving a one-word message explaining what the caller wanted to discuss: “Malfeasance.” Dowd once saw Safire having lunch with Bert Lance, a former Carter administration official whom he had eviscerated in columns that won Safire a Pulitzer and cost Lance his job. When Dowd asked why he'd been breaking bread with this former nemesis, Safire explained, “Only hit people when they’re...

30 September, 2009

Arts policy gadfly and longtime Contrarian friend Andrew Terris commends to our attention a new US study on community attachment, also reported in this morning's Globe and Mail. The Soul of Community study found that money and jobs are not what binds people to place; rather, it's matters of the heart—things like like aesthetics, openness, and ease of social gatherings. Money quotes: After interviewing close to 28,000 people in 26 communities over two years, the study has found that three main qualities bind people to place: social offerings such as entertainment venues and places to meet – the top factor in...

29 September, 2009

One of the gems Canada acquired when it joined Newfoundland in 1949 was the then-infant Anita Best of  Merasheen Island, Placentia Bay. Anita was barely a teenager when Joey Smallwood expunged her fishing community of residents in the great and tragic resettlement. She grew up to be the greatest collector and interpreter of Newfoundland music, storytelling, and folklore of our era—a national treasure in both nations. Anita writes: Just read the comment on Roger Howse's Hendrix night at Bearly's.  Thanks for posting it.  I miss Roger's music a lot. High praise indeed....

29 September, 2009

Steve Murphy responds enigmatically to Contrarian's post on Michael Enright's introduction of Jane Taber: I do find that "bias," like beauty, often resides in the eye (or ear) of the beholder (listener). UPDATE, in response to a query: Murphy's comment is not enigmatic in the don't-know-what-he-means sense; only in the wonder-who-he's-thinking-of sense. Hmmm....

29 September, 2009

I've criticized the NDP's carbon subsidy (here, here, and here,), but I understand the value of keeping campaign promises, even dumb ones. In my contrary view, public cynicism about politicians is so deep, it threatens to destroy the minimal level of public trust democracy needs to survive. This may be why the Tories and the Parliamentary Press Gallery have been so successful at drumming up absurd faux-outrage at the prospect of a fall election. So even as two of the Dexter government's promises (keeping all rural emergency rooms open and using tax rebates to encourage electricity consumption) make me shudder, I...

29 September, 2009
Bruce Wark's defense of the NDP subsidy on dirty, coal-fired electricity as a way to help the poor drew fire from several readers. In a minute, one reader corrects a factual error that tripped up both Wark and Contrarian. But what most objected to what is we might call The Wark Principle:
You don’t tax necessities, then ask poor people to apply for rebates. That’s why we don’t tax groceries. How is electricity any different?
Contrarian reader Martin MacKinnon thinks Wark's objection to taxing necessities is ill-considered:
There are indeed far too many Nova Scotians who can ill afford the necessities of life. However, why should the rest of us benefit from their poverty? Wark seems to miss an important point. If those of us (including Wark and I) who could well afford to, do not pay tax on power, then governments who need to pay for things like health care and education will have to collect those taxes elsewhere. We need tax breaks for the necessities of life to be targeted at those who need help, not at the rest of us who don't.
After the jump, a more vehement reader, and a factual correction.
29 September, 2009

CBC is awaiting approval from Apple for an update to the terrific CBC Radio iPhone app. The updated version, which should appear on  iTunes soon, will include live streams of CBC stations Halifax, Calgary, Edmonton, Fredericton, Grand Falls, Moncton, Ottawa, Regina, Saint John, St John's, Thunder Bay, Windsor, and Winnipeg. (Can Sydney be far behind?) The original app (free download here) did not include any streams from the Mountain, Central, or Newfoundland time zones, and only Goose Bay in the Atlantic zone. Stations in the missing locations streamed in Windows Media format, which the app could not handle. As stations switch...

29 September, 2009

A few weeks ago, I posted a critique of an opinion piece in the August 25 edition of AllNovaScotia.com [subscription required] by Prof. Larry Hughes of the Dalhouse University's Computer Engineering Department. Hughes is currently toiling as a visiting professor of Global Energy Systems at Uppsala University in Sweden. Shockingly, Contrarian is not yet daily reading in that particular corner of Scandinavia, so he only recently learned of my comments. Hughes writes: Contrary to what you have written, [my article in AllNovaScotia.com] has nothing to with NSP's existing 2010 or 2013 requirements.  The article is about NSP's new 25% renewables...

28 September, 2009

My old pal Bruce Wark endorses the NDP subsidy for dirty, coal-fired electricity with some knee-jerk left-wing cant contrary-minded views: You're forgetting about an important and well-established principle. Governments should not tax necessities. Sales taxes on electricity and home heating fuels fall most heavily on the poorest Nova Scotians and are therefore regressive. Under NDP pressure, the Tories removed the provincial sales taxes on all home heating fuels. But later, they restored the tax on electricity. The NDP is being consistent in removing the provincial portion of the HST on electricity. Right now, there are thousands of Nova Scotians who are behind...

27 September, 2009
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