Why would the Government of Alberta sack its top virologist in the middle of an influenza pandemic?

You’re the Government of Alberta. Your province is in the middle of a health care crisis. There’s a global influenza pandemic, and your province has seen over a thousand cases (behind only Ontario and Quebec in total numbers) and two deaths in three months. What do you do?

Why, fire the head of a laboratory responsible for the provincial response to the pandemic, of course!

Can someone explain to me why, in the middle of a pandemic, would the government choose to sack someone who appears to be respected by peers both internationally and locally? Especially since co-workers appear to be “impressed with how well-prepared the provincial laboratory was for the deluge of testing for the H1N1 virus.” The only possible rational I can make of it so far is that the Stelmach government is so determined to show that less government is better, It’s decided to prove it by acting as incompetently as possible.

Conservative Government Punishes Minister of State for Funding Pride Parade; in Related News, Water is Wet.

According to a social-conservitive news site, Minister of State (Small Business and Tourism) Diane Ablonczy, faced political repercussions after federal funds she oversaw were used in funding Toronto’s Pride Parade (an event that brings in 500,000 to a million attendees). For those playing along at home, the Parade got $400,000 (as did the Edmonton Fringe Festival). The Calgary Stampede got $2 Million, and the Montreal Jazz Festival got $3 Million.

After reading this story, the original one at “LifeSiteNews”, and other bloggers’ take on the story, for whatever reason, I can’t summon up the appropriate outrage, or even a dramatic rolling of the eyes. I mean, were we expecting something different? A kinder, gentler, live-and-let-live social conservative, perhaps?

Maybe I’m feeling extra cynical tonight, but I doubt that this will affect a single vote whenever we next go to the polls. Those who are outraged would never have voted for the Harper Conservatives anyway; a fact likely not lost on Tory campaign strategists.

Edmonton Journal asks: “Is climate change behind drought?”

"Nobody can point with any authority to global warming as the culprit. It does not move from normal weather to abnormal weather in a straight line. One bad year does not climate change make. But there is a disturbing trend here that meshes with predictions from climatologists who fear we're headed into more and more climate trouble--2008 was a particularly bad year for hail damage in both Alberta and Saskatchewan. If this is indeed evidence of climate change, farmers must feel as if they're the canary in the mine shaft."

"…assuming they are victims of global warming, our farmers might deserve compensation from those that have made their lives miserable. That would be the oilsands plants and the electricity companies that burn coal. In short, it would be all of us. We collectively, through our lifestyle and fossil-fuel economy, have contributed to the predicament of climate change."

Huh. Indeed.

Albertans looking at $2 billion in spending cuts and (wait for it) tax increases.

I love the euphemism "fiscal correction":

"Finance Minister Iris Evans had said the province would have to find $2 billion in revenues or savings if the economy didn't perform better then expected, but it now appears that cuts and tax hikes or some combination of the two are a certainty…. The governing Tories have already forecast a record $4.7-billion deficit, which would escalate to $6.7 billion if the $2 billion is not found, but the document suggests the province could plunge even deeper into the red if the price of natural gas--forecast in the budget at $5.50 per gigajoule but currently selling at $3.75 --doesn't rebound."

I’m sorry, but if I ever hear someone parrot some line about “Tax and Spend Liberals” or that the Conservatives are the party of sound fiscal planning; that never raises taxes and keeps balanced budgets, I may just have an aneurysm.

I’m just saying….

Google News Search Results for the Past Day:

“Michael Jackson”: 104,281 results

“Iraq”: 77,781 results

"Iran" and "protest": 46,351 results

“Darfur”: 5,301 results

….hey, I liked “Thriller” as much as the next guy….

The George W. Bush of the Middle East

In response to international condemnation of Iran’s crackdown on pro-democracy protestors, Iranian crackpot Ahmadinejad has thrown something of a “Hail Mary”, comparing President Obama to ‘Dubya, and claiming that supporters of Mousavi have been manipulated by the Evil Western Empires.

To his credit, Obama appears to have done a fairly good job in resisting the calls of hawkish members of congress to become more involved in the Iranian protests, recognizing the negative impact American intervention has had in Iranian politics. Overt support of one side may do more harm than good. The best analogy I’ve heard so far would be if Hubert Humphrey had won the 1968 Presidential election – only to have it later revealed that the Soviets had sponsored his campaign.

The irony in Ahmadinejad’s invocation of the name of Bush is that if there is anyone who resembles the former US President in action, it’s himself. Both have sought to label opposition as unpatriotic, and both have invoked a foreign boogieman (terrorism in Bush’s case, the US/UK in Ahmadinejad’s) to keep their people in line.


Side note to Hugo Chavez: "The Enemy of my Enemy is my friend" is a rather poor way to determine foreign policy.

Stupid MLA comments shouldn’t discourage MLAs/MPs from using the Internet to engage citizens.

In 2004, a member of the University of Alberta Students’ Union’s Students’ Council got himself into some hot water after posting a song parody on his personal blog glorifying date-rape. A constituent of his followed a link from an SU webpage, was horrified by the councilor’s “sense of humour”, and wrote to the campus paper to bring the matter to their attention. A month later, the councilor had resigned in disgrace.

The lesson this individual, much like Albertan MLA Doug Elniski, learned much to late was that one should not post something online that one wouldn’t say in a press gallery in front of a dozen cameras.

Elniski’s tasteless Twitter comments, such as telling Albertan Women “don't give me that 'treated equal' stuff. If you want Equal, it comes in little packages at Starbucks”, or commenting “i am surrounded by bumping and grinding lesbians waiit 20 then send help” during Edmonton’s Pride parade are just the latest in a string of comments that have caused no shortage of embarrassment for many Albertans. They will likely not be the last ones either. Technologies such as Blackberries combined with Twitter and Facebook mean that thoughts can be posted before one’s self-censoring mechanism kicks in.

While Mr. Elniski’s comments are mind bogglingly stupid, it would be a shame if the take away message for elected representatives became “don’t use twitter/blogs/Facebook”. Speaking to a former NDP MP candidate last fall, I was told blogging made her nervous as you never know when online comments can come back to haunt you (a la Malcolm Azania). The loss is ours as there is one less intelligent voice participating in the exchange of ideas, and one less person willing to engage the public without the filter of party speechwriters.

As for Doug Elniski and Iris Evens, I doubt either will face much in the way of political blowback from their recent foot-in-mouth events. However if members of the government could stop making similar comments for just a little while, it would go a long way in helping me in arguing to my co-workers that my home province isn't stuck in the 1890s, despite suggestions to the contrary.

If pushed, would Canadians fight for their rights with the same zeal as the Iranians are?

During the media storm that surrounded the recent confrontation between the government and the opposition, the line I heard the most (often uttered by the PM) was “Canadian’s don’t want a summer election”.

Looking back to 2006, I’m pretty sure I heard similar lines about a “Christmas election”. I’m sure if asked, people would say that Canadians don’t want a Labour Day election. Or an Easter election. Or an Arbor Day election.

I really don’t understand what the big deal would be. Aside from a few election signs on the way to the summer cabin, or the odd campaign ad distracting from keeping up to date with whatever is going on with John and Kate, I doubt most Canadians would even notice something was going on. Given the trend in voting over the past decade, Canadians have shown an ever-decreasing rate of interest in the democratic process.

Contrast our democratic malaise with what’s going on in Iran, where people are turning out en mass, and in some cases dying, to demand their right to fair and democratic elections.

There are times when I think Canadians take free and fair elections for granted.

Would we fight for our institutions with the same zeal?

Why wait until the system is that damaged?

Why does Alberta have a prominent geographical feature named after a Nazi collaborator?

It’s just past midnight on Friday, and being struck with insomnia, I figured blogging was as good of a way to pass the time as any other option available to me.

But what to write about?

I’ve shied away from writing about the situation in Iran simply because I don’t feel I have anything new and intelligent to add to the discussion at this time, and enlightenment sure as hell isn’t coming at 12:16 on a Friday night.

So instead I’ll ask a question that has zero impact on the way anyone anywhere lives their lives.

“Why does Alberta have a prominent geographical feature named after a Nazi collaborator?”

For those unfamiliar with the region, the area around the Kananaskis Lakes (not a particularly remote area) in Alberta have a number of mountains bearing names of people or things associated with World War 1. In addition to Pétain, Generals Foch, Joffre, and Haig all have mountains named after them, as do most of the major British ships that participated in the Battle of Jutland, for some reason. Most of these features were named during or immediately after the war, when Canadian national identity was still firmly fixed to that of the British Empire. I guess we just didn't have enough history to pull names from.

While Haig’s handling of the Battles at the Somme and Passchendaele make it debatable whether he’s worthy of the honour of having a mountain named after him, Pétain’s name remains firmly associated with treason, and thus the jury is surely in.

So why does Pétain, almost 70 years after the birth of the Vichy regime, still have his name plastered across topographical maps of my home province?

Tiller Assassination and The Media: When does freedom of speech cross over to crimes against humanity?

In the wake of the terrorist attack on/assassination of/murder of Dr. George Tiller and the shootings at the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC, much light has been shed on the comments of certain ultra-conservative groups and commentators over recent years. The point of contention, it appears, is to what extent does (or should) free speech exist in our society, and how much responsibility do these commentators bear for the actions of people who take the final step of matching their words to horrific events? It is a question that I admit I don’t have a clear answer to, but hope that writing about it will help clarify my thoughts somewhat, for my own benefit if nothing else.

Overall, I tend to be on the more liberal side of freedom of speech, believing that the price of living in a free society is occasionally putting up with the ramblings of intolerant lunatics. Just as they are free to say pretty much whatever they want, I am free to ignore them. Besides, it’ll often give me something to write about on a slow news day.

However there have definitely been instances where a line has been crossed and individuals or organizations have abused freedom of speech to incite violence against others, with tragic consequences. In our own past – at Nuremburg and the ICTR, we have prosecuted members of the press who egged on the slaughter during the Holocaust and Rwandan Genocide. So to what extent do these people bear a measure of responsibility for the actions of their followers? While I’m not comparing Fox News to RTLM, you have to think that if you have people going on the air saying stuff like “Tiller the Baby Killer” over and over again (completely ignoring the fact that the man is performing a procedure fully compliant with local laws) some nut job is eventually going to take you seriously.

So where is the legal line in the massive grey area between an off colour joke told at a party and a station like Radio-Télévision Libre des Milles-Collines? Does it matter if the statements are made in private groups, or broadcast to a potential audience of millions? After all this, I’m still not sure.