Bill C-42

The CPC is currently pushing the "Common Sense Firearms Licencing Act" The opposition is aghast, "the streets will run with blood" etc, etc. Beyond the rhetoric (from all sides) the reality is that this bill will do little and may even be harmful to gun owners down the line. The NFA has done a good review of the Act. The CSSA has done as well.

Some key points is that it eliminates the Authorization To Transport (ATT)  and rolls it into the licence. This actually reduces the paperwork burden on the RCMP and reduces the papaerwork for gun owners, but very little real benefit and several pitfalls may open up.

It requires that people actually attend training rather than challenge exams, this seem fair on the first glance till you realize that many place don't have anyone to train or run courses and that the Chief Firearm Officers (CFO) limit the number of trainers. This could put people wishing to own guns legally without any options. Won't bother the people who own illegal guns though.

One of the major issues gun owners have faced is arbitrator rules added on by the CFO without any recourse by the gun owner, you are basically completely at their mercy and several have little of it and fair bit "power tripping" issues.

In short this is mainly fluff in hopes to pander to a very active voting bloc of gun owners. The Liberals and NDP have been crying about the world ending, but have missed a masterful opportunity to repair relations with gun owners. the Liberals could have fixed C-42 and offered up better ideas while not giving up much more. But they are to busy pandering to their own base. The most painful part is the display of outright ignorance by the Libs and NDP about how the Firearm Act works and does not work. Plus ignoring peer reviewed studies showing the whole exercise of this type of control is basically useless.

At the end of the day both NFA and CSSA will support this, not because it's good law, but because the CPC is the party of no better choice. We really should run an ad in Craigslist saying: "3 million single issue voters looking a for a serious and respectful relation with a political party


I should add this is likely the biggest benefit to the average gun owner, but really a reflection of the cuts done to the CFO/CFC limiting their ability to d their legislated duties.

• Create a six-month grace period at the end of the five-year licence period to stop people from immediately becoming criminalized for paperwork delays around license renewals;

Don't close Kitsilano Coast Guard Base

I was a member of the CG for 13 years and among other jobs served as a Rescue specialist and Rescue diver at the hovercraft. In fact my CG career started out at the Kitsilano base. I am quite aware of the role the base plays in the lower mainland, the capabilities and limitations of the Hovercraft base, Coast Guard auxiliaries, other responders and the internal politics of the CG.

History of the base

Kitsilano was built in WWII and operated by the RCAF as a Crashboat station, with vessels based on the Canadian powerboat design (pictured above) and 40' wooden launches. Latere they were equipped with 40's steel Crashboats, similar to the Blackduck pictured below.

In 1962 the base, boats (Mallard and Moorhen) and crews were turned over to the newly formed CG. This station played a vital role on this coast providing Search and Rescue (SAR) coverage as far away as Northern Vancouver Island. The base also served as a HQ for the SAR branch and public office for the Office of boating Safety (OBS).

As the rest of the CG grew, the station SAR area was reset as Vancouver harbour, Indian Arm, Port Moody, English bay, Howe sound, lower half of Sunshine coast and halfway across the strait. This area is heavily used by the boating public, many with very few skills or knowledge of the hazards year round, making the base one of the busiest in Canada. By this time the station was equipped with 3 boats and one inflatable. the main vessel was the CCGC Osprey.

SAR issues Impacts and Consequences

So far the CG has stated that closing the base will not effect response time. I will give them the benefit of the doubt I try really hard to believe they are being misinformed. Their (evolving) argument has been that a new hovercraft is coming, except they neglected to mention it’s replacing an older existing machine (CCGC Penac) so the ability of the hovercraft base does not change at all. In fact my sources tell me that at present there are no plans to increase crewing to offset the loss of Kit’s base. This leaves the entire area (approx 77km north to south and 66km from Indian Arm to mid strait) dependent on 1 full time vessel. The Hovercrafts main SAR task is to cover the airport, it can’t do that while up Indian Arm. The loss of Kits means also that the hovercraft will have less time to do it’s other core work which includes navigation aid repair or carry out the training the dive team requires. Maintenance on the craft will go up, leading to more downtime and more costs. Plus they will have to call in crews on overtime if the craft gets called to the far edge of a SAR zone on a long call, all of which erodes the savings claimed by the CG.

The station also operates as a direct contact point for boaters to speak to CG personal and receive advice and even minor help, this is one of those intangibles that is difficult to measure directly, but literally Kitsilano is only place in the lower mainland where boaters can easily speak and interact with CG members.

Over the years the crew at the base have been instrumental is saving many lives of bridge jumpers who were witnessed by crew members jumping into the water and the crews were able to respond and save the person life before any 911 call or Rescue Coordination Centre tasking could be issued. The station crews have also been an important assets to other government departments supporting them when those department needed vessel support or inspections in the area.

The other resource the CG mentioned is the Coast Guard Auxiliary or as now called on the west coast the Royal Canadian Marine-SAR RRCM-SAR, this is a volunteer organization which I have worked with many times and I respect many of it’s members greatly, however I also know their limitations. Most have jobs and young families, it’s one thing to be torn away from those you love to save a life, but much of the SAR life is more mundane, 12 hr searches for someone who may or may not have jumped off a ferry, going out at night to find an idiot who brought more beer than gas, or scrambling to a call only to be stood down after 40 minutes. The RCM-SAR boats will be called out far more often and that will place more wear and tear on their crews and boats. The boats can be fixed but if you begin to burn out your core volunteers, then trouble will follow, as sadly happened just recently with the loss of 2 volunteers.I also understand that the vessel used by them was missing key parts contributing to their deaths and serious injury of one of the other volunteers trying to rescue them.

To put this incident in perspective, the RCM-SAR has lost as many volunteers now as the fulltime CG has on this coast since the inception of the CG despite the RCM-SAR have much less hours at sea or exposure to associated risks.

Another aspect is that there is little support for volunteers dealing with tragedy and shock of seeing dismembered bodies. As a fulltime rescuer it was hard enough and I did my best to shield the volunteers from that side ensuring it was CG crew that retrieved the bodies, not the volunteers. What mechanism have been put into place to support the volunteers with the inevitable critical stress that accompany this type of work? By making them the primary responders and not supporting them, the government may be opening themselves up to future lawsuits.

It seems that certain elements within RCM-SAR have “empire-building” designs at the expense of full time SAR crews and the public. The tension is already beginning to be felt at the boat level and mistrust is forming. Very soon CG crews will be loath to teach skills to the volunteers under fears that they too may lose their job. There has been talk of placing a RCM-SAR boat in Vancouver. With uncertain economic times and the high cost of living here, the RCM-SAR may find it difficult to find and hold onto fit, healthy and experienced people.

The CG has also pointed out there are other “response” vessels in the area. These would be the police boat, Vancouver Lifeguards, Port Metro and fireboats. Each of these vessels has responsibility to their own areas and task, while they will respond if manned and free, the CG can not guarantee their availability or their future. Vancouver and other municipalities are all struggling with climbing deficits and future of the fireboats, marine squad and lifeguard boat are in question. None of these vessels are available for prolonged searches or incidents. Not to mention they would not be responding to calls in Howe Sound or Sunshine Coast.

Cost saving at what expense?

The “smoke signals” and the painfully clumsy attempts to look like they care about feedback from the marine users make it seems the CG is determined to off-load SAR onto volunteers regardless of the costs. In fact this is not the first time CG management has tried to shut the Kit’s base down and also tried to shut the hovercraft base down. Imagine wanting to shut the 2 busiest bases in Canada? It makes it clear that SAR is not a priority with the regional management.

In fact within the CG has been a long simmering feud between the SAR side (small ships) and navigation aid maintenance side (big ships). The management, much which came from the big ships, will sacrifice everything and anything to save the large ships and to them SAR is messy and unpredictable, whereas navigation aid work is very easy to plan and work around.

Flawed data driving this decision

I have spent many years working on these SAR resources and others although this area. I know through experience that Kitslano plays a key role in the SAR response. The base is the victim of it’s own success. The SAR reports used to justify this decision don’t even begin to tell the story. Many of the “mundane” calls are such because the base crew was able to stop the chain of events that lead to more serious incidents. During the summer there will be multiple calls at the same time in different areas, it was not uncommon for all the SAR resources in the area to be working different calls.

I also am aware that the CCG has been trying to justify their position using statistics. Most of these are gathered using the “Incident reports” I have read many of these reports on incidents that I have been involved in and they don’t capture all of the data. It’s almost impossible to measure something that did not happen, many “minor” incidents I was involved in would have been fatal had we not intervened early on. Relying on this data is going to give the government an incomplete picture of what will happen in the future.

Future of SAR

While technology is helping to reduce the “Search” in SAR, the growing and changing population of Vancouver is going to put even more pressure on our SAR resources. It’s a fact that most immigrants coming to Canada have less water safety training than average Canadians and increasing economic status is going to have these people boating and recreating on the water in growing numbers, leading to significant increases in incidents. The need to rescue and help these people is going to continue to grow, putting strain on the current resources. Another factor leading to more incidents is that the Office of Boating Safety has been significantly reduced and will not being doing public education for boating safety, this will mean more people without proper information out on the water.

Land issue related to the base

In 1992 the old base was set on fire by a burning pleasure craft, (which would have been avoided had CG placed booms around the pilings) the CG was forced grudgingly to rebuild the base, but to a smaller footprint. The current site is built on fireproof pilings. As part of the DFO permit requirements the CG was obliged to build and maintain a habitat compensation reef just inshore of the base, which limited the size the rebuilt base. Even if the government sells the base, they may still be on the hook to maintain the reef or work that into any sales agreement which limits the resale value.

Another lingering issue is that the base would likely be considered a contaminated site and require extensive cleanup before it can be divested. Also I believe the land may be subject to a lands claim with the local First Nations and at the very least the sale will require extensive consultations with the band. All of the above means it is likely that the government will lose money on the sale of the base. If a sale goes through and later the government decides it will need a local base, Public Works will be hard pressed to find another location so well suited and even if they did, the price would be astronomical.

The cost to the government and the CPC

This government made a promise that the cuts to government would not affect frontline services. Cutting Kitslano is a direct reduction in an important and highly visible service. No matter how many media lines the CG writes and how they dress this issue up it is a steaming bucket of manure and it will land right into your government lap. The public is not buying any of the stuff the CG is selling and already it is hurting the government with people that normally would support the Conservative party.

Hollow and after the fact consultation

What has become clear in recent days is that the CG did not openly consult with anyone about the closures and the recent “stakeholder” meetings by the Minister was clearly window dressing as despite clear opposition from those stakeholders, the Minister went on to publicly state an hour later that the base will still close, which is a slap in the face of people that went to great effort to make time for the Minister on short notice. The damage control efforts by the Minister and CCG management have done nothing but sow mistrust with the marine community and the people that supported this government.

A mistake that will be hard and expensive to fix.


Closing this base is a bad idea and sometimes bad ideas take on a life of their own. The people involved realize it's a bad idea but can't find an honourable way to extract themselves from it. If the government changes it's mind and leaves the base open, then the opposition will pounce on them, some politicians believe that changing your decision is a sign of weakness. Let me say to you it is not. the government makes a huge number of decision and choices everyday, no matter how careful you are, some will turn out to be mistakes. Telling the people that you have listened and changed your plans shows strength and leadership to the people who voted for you and might vote for you. Canadians do not take kindly to any government that fails to listen to them as both the PC and Liberals have found out in the past.

The politics of pizza

Quick Guide to Different Governments



Bill, James, Tyler, Andrew, and Mike get together every Friday night and order pizza. They can never agree on what to get, though. Bill wants to get Meat Lovers'. James wants to get Canadian. Tyler wants to get pepperoni made with free-range meat because he is against animal cruelty. Andrew is a vegetarian, so he wants to get veggie pizza. Mike is vegan and wants to get vegetarian pizza with soy cheese. So how do they decide?

read the rest here

Good luck Jack

I am no fan of Jack Layton, I despise his politics, his party platform and the way he portrays himself in the media. That being said, I wish him well in his fight against cancer, it's a crappy disease that has taken my sister, my sister inlaw and almost my Dad.
This is not how I wanted Jack to leave the political scene, there is no joy in him leaving this way. I hope you recover and we can trounce you the political battlefield, in the meantime I wish good health to you and your family, it will be a hard road regardless of the outcome.

Wow what a week!

First of all I get the news that US navy Seals has killed Osama Bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, good riddance you scumbucket, I hope you are paying a hefty price for the blood on your hands. I hope enough Muslims have learned that this guy and his buddies (Omar hopefully you are next) are more that willing to spill Muslim blood in their pursuit of Jihad. Anyone that saw what Al-Qaeda in Iraq was doing to average people knows what I am talking about.
I agree this is not the end, but the end of the beginning, AQ is a Hydra and will grow new heads, but if you can chop the heads quick enough, the successor bring less and less to the table, till finally no one is willing to be the head except the real nutbars and they will be sure to alienate the people they depend on, leading to the draining of the methporic sea that Mao spoke of. I also agree that releasing the pictures is a waste of time and tossing his body into the sea is a great idea. Time for him and his story to fade away.

While I am digesting the news above, the 41st election in Canada was underway, I helped out my candidate and his awesome team on the final day, door knocking, picking up voting lists and scrutinizing the polling stations. It was pretty clear knocking on doors that people were fed up with elections, so it was no surprise to me when I finished at the polling station to hear the Conservatives sweeping to a good majority. The icing on the cake was the NDP putting the boots to the Bloc with the NDP F troop smashing long term BQ types, OUCH! man that is going to leave a mark! I'm not a great fan of the current NDP, but I will take them over the Bloc any day, at least we and the NDP agree on a Canada, even if it looks different. Funny this is the only election that my Dad and I can congratulate each other on. He is hardcore NDP and I am the "blacksheep " of the family!
Iggy has been in a death spiral for awhile so not surprising he failed to get in. The only sour note was the realization that we will have to live with the screeching of Elizabeth may for the next 4 years. Harper gave a great speech and a heartfelt thanks to his family and wife. I don`t envy them, anyone who has had parents who were politicians knows how little time there is for family, for the PM, his family will have no time to themselves for the next 4-10 years.




As for the NDP, well what an interesting kettle of fish we have here. Jack is going to be busy running his daycare, I mean caucus and will need all the help from his veterans to keep this mob in line. This is make or break for the NDP, they have 4 years to show Canada what they can do, and people will be taking a hard look at the party and it`s rather whacky policies. A move to the centre will likely cost them support from their current base. Plus he also has to appease his new Quebec base, with MP's that will have little pull to get things done. I predict jack is going to have ulcers.

Wikileak

Lots of press on this issue, so I don’t think you need any links. Julian Assange, is the one of the founders of Wikileaks, he has hosted a great deal of leaked information from the US State department. Now leaking information that embarrasses governments and leaders, both democratic and otherwise is good fun and good for democracy. But when you endanger peoples lives, actually more likely get them killed and/or being imprisoned that where helping us or fighting for democracy in their country, then you are being an asshole. Even worse when it’s done more for ego, than any true cause. I suspect as price of these leaks go up and people realize what he has done, then any public sympathy for him will vanish. I suspect one day Julian will be doing his own version of the famous scene from McBeth "Out damm spot, out"

Erza levant nails it in his blog.

WikiLeaks published a document that named an Algerian activist covertly aiding the democracy movement there. It identified a Venezuelan reporter secretly exposing the appalling conditions of hospitals for the poor. Both are real whistleblowers. Both were outed by Assange.
Assange admits WikiLeaks will probably end up with "blood on our hands." But he's not too worriedRead the rest here

FUBARed

Below is an apt description of Israel politics, from an Israeli who posted it on a forum I frequent, other Israelis and people familiar with the country felt it was a very good description of how the puzzle palace works over there. For more mundane descriptions go here and here is a somewhat dated but amusing piece on their political parties. As Canadians we have much to learn from them as to how to run a minority government, certainly their political turmoil makes ours a tempest in a tea pot. a thank you to Tezfa for allowing me to quote him.

But Israeli external politics depend a lot on Israeli internal politics, and those are totally FUBARed.
Basically our elected representatives are like a bunch of epileptic monkeys with grenades locked in a cage. The cage in turn is surrounded by drunken spectators. Some of them try to make the monkeys do tricks by offering them free bananas, some try to overturn the cage, and others try to set it on fire.

So what comes out as a result is a balancing act, where any given government, consisting of a bunch of monkeys who manage to climb on top of the pile, spends most of its effort on not letting the other monkeys overwhelm them, while at the same time preforming tricks to get their bananas, and trying to fend off the pyromaniacs.
Occasionally a couple of monkeys will actually throw their grenades and then we get something like the Oslo accords. But most of the time what comes out is a balancing act, and the result of it inevitably is trying to walk the middle ground.

And just when you think they couldn't get dumber....

Well May is sure to catch the other parties unaware with this move, no doubt the NDP or the CPC failed to appreciate the groundswell of support for polygamy simmering away in the Canadian public……

I guess when the all the good high ground is taken, a molehill beats floating in the swamp.


The Green Party of Canada will consider a motion Sunday on whether or not they will push to decriminalize polygamy.

Party members in a workshop on Saturday evening voted to send the motion to the full-Party plenary, where they'll debate and vote on it.

Speakers in the workshop were careful to define polygamy as a marriage between multiple spouses. They made a clear distinction between polygamy between consenting adults and a polygamist sect in Bountiful, B.C., where domestic abuse has been alleged, though charges were thrown out in 2009.

“It's a human rights issue,” said Trey Capnerhurst, a Green Party candidate in Edmonton East, noting that she is polyamorous.

more

Afghanistan: the march of folly

An Indian view on the current course of NATO. Interesting read I agree with some of it, but not all.

In their anxiety to end the war in Afghanistan, London and Washington seem poised to compound their earlier follies, and make way for the induction of the Taliban in Kabul.

The United States is in the process of committing a historical blunder with grave consequences for not only Afghanistan but also the regions surrounding it. President Barack Obama's decision to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan in 2011 is understandable: the long and costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have taxed the patience of the Americans, and the President himself must start planning his campaign for the second term. But it is the manner of the planned exit and its consequences that cause worry.

More here

via http://unambig.com/

A simple solution to the long census form debate

I was arguing with my very left wing dad about the replacement of the mandatory long census form with a voluntarily version. He can’t grasp that government mandated intrusion into private life is a fundamental core issue with the CPC base. He claims that 80% of people want the form to remain mandatory. As my dad is 88 I don’t fight hard with him and I didn’t take him to task on his numbers, the last poll I saw placed Canadians at 51% for and 49% against. While mulling over this debate, a simple solution popped into my head.
All those people who support the long census form can volunteer to receive it next time around, StatsCan can set up their webpage for people to request it, write in for it or have it at Post Offices to fill out. So instead of 20% of the people getting it perhaps we will get 40% filling it out. Meanwhile those who don’t trust government don’t have to deal with the intrusion. Everyone’s happy right?
No doubt someone will claim that it won’t represent all parts of the population, but consider this. If you force people to fill it out, what are the chances of them lying on it? I suspect pretty darn high. This way people who fill it out will truthfully answer the questions. It’s so simple, so why the debate?

Green Party, reducing it’s carbon footprint one volunteer at a time.

When Elizabeth May attempted to make deals with the other parties I knew she was going to have problems with her base support. Going by this article it seems May is willing to kill the goose to get the egg, which in this case is a seat in Parliament. What people like May, Dion and Iggy forget is that they are given the reins of the party by the people who make it run (Well maybe not the Liberal party, more like two feudal lords scheming to take over the throne now that the king is gone)
A political party depends on a huge number of unseen volunteers who make the wheels go around. They get donations, make signs, wave them, bang on doors, answer phones or make coffee for those that do. When your leader fails to lead and makes bad decisions, then the volunteers lose hope and wither away. May, Dion and Iggy seem to fail to understand these basic fundamentals.
Now if you want to see a political machine at work look at the CPC and to a lesser extent the NDP. The CPC has an advantage, it’s voter base is older and mature, but also issue specific. They know exactly what they want to see from the politicians and aren’t shy at reminding the CPC politicians are there at their sufferance. The people who vote and volunteer for the CPC are also willing to open up their pocketbooks, something the other parties are not good at doing. This is why the Conservative attempt to end the subsidy for each vote was so bitterly fought by the other parties, without that money they are dead and they know it.
The NDP is better off than the Greens and Liberals. They have a stronger grassroots organization and the support of union organizers who know how to fill rooms. The problem that stifles Layton is that he only represents the elite portion of the party and seems disconnected to the less urban portions. He does have enough sense to allow his MP’s a free vote on the gun registry as he knows that would turn the gap into a un-repairable rift.
While I have no love for the Greens or Liberals I do feel sorry for the volunteers that feel forsaken. My free advice, never take volunteers for granted you will regret it.

A little update
This article says lot about Elizbeth May's contempt for process.