Canadian tyranny & other news

[pyesetz]

• Item: Health Canada says no one should take more than 2,000 IU of Vitamin D per day, but one study says the average vitamin D researcher personally takes 5,000 IU.  A day of sunbathing is like taking 10,000 IU.
• Item: Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq (under orders from Prime Minister Harper) refuses to sign the Vienna Declaration ("criminalization of drug use is fuelling the HIV/AIDS epidemic") because it clashes with Canada's national drug policy.  It isn't news that when facts and policy clash, the Harper govenment doubles down for policy.  Is there a policy regarding Vitamin D supplements?  Why or why not?
• Item: In a move that shouldn't have been as surprising as it was, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled unanimously that Nuremberg Principle V is still the law of the land in Canada.  "I was just following orders" does not excuse a Charter violation by a police officer!  The stupid cop chose a high-profile lawyer to pick on and now his department has to pay $5,000 for violating the guy's rights (in addition to a $5,000 payment for false arrest, which was not contested).
• Item: In Toronto London UK, a cop hid his ID, walked up to a newspaper salesman (note: not a high-profile lawyer), and whacked him with a baton for no visible reason as shown by amateur video.  After the salesman died, a physician already threatened with losing his licence due to poor autopsy work did the autopsy—and exonerated the police officer.  Two other physicians did autopsies on the same corpse and said the death was the cop's fault.  Although the officer's homicidal act was caught on video, no charges will be laid against him because "experts disagree".
• Item: Joyce Murray, a member of Parliament for Vancouver and a Liberal, exaggerated a little when discussing the mandatory national census (which Harper recently eliminated over the objections of the arm's-length government agency that, you know, is actually supposed to decide such things).  She said the independence of such agencies is "what separates a government from a tyranny."  Never slow to seize such an opportunity, the Conservative Party struck back, saying they "understand what ‘tyranny’ means”.  Yes, I think they do.

Comments

[dotter-can.livejournal.com]

When the Canadian Conservative-Reform Alliance Party held a public vote, (for members of the CCRAP and the PC Parties), Mr Harper didn't have quite enough votes to ensure that amalgamation would pass and that he would be elected leader. So he went to one of the other leadership candidates, a guy who didn't have a hope of winning, but had enough supporters to push another candidate over the edge.

Now I've long ago forgotten the details, but to get this guy to hand over his supporters, Harper had to agree to follow a certain suite of policies that would ensure that Canada continued to pursue a fairly small-l liberal agenda. So he did; signed a contract to do it, in fact. Whatsizname then asked his supporters to vote for Harper; most of them did, amalgamation passed and Harper was elected leader.

In the first speech Mr Harper gave as opposition leader, right there at the convention, he promised his new Conservative Party to do exactly the opposite of what he agreed to do with Whatsizname. And when his Tories took power, he kept those promises; broke his word to Whatsizname to keep them. That's why I have never trusted the bastard and never will.

[pyesetz]

Sort of like GW Bush, who broke every promise of bipartisanship he ever made to a Democratic leader—yet still they tried to do deals with him.

"Look how strong I am!  I can break promises with impunity!  Me heap big strong man!!!  Me deserve your vote!"

[dakhun.livejournal.com]

When the list of correct Liberal policies exceeds the list of incorrect Conservative policies, that's when they will get elected.

[pyesetz]

I've heard that Canadian PM's of either party tend to do themselves in by eventually starting to believe that they have some sort of diving right to rule.  I suspect that the Liberals will win by default when the public gets sick of Stephen, even though they have no serious alternative policy-set to offer and have been running a de-facto coalition with the CPC for some time now.

[cassander42.livejournal.com]

Looks like Canada is finally read to become the 51st state!

One thing though: Who would possibly consider a full day of sun-bathing to be healthy?

[pyesetz]

the 51st state
Hah!  After your country goes bankrupt, maybe you can apply to become Canada's 11th province.  For fairness, each American's vote would have to be worth only one tenth as much as a Canadian's.

Who would possibly consider a full day of sun-bathing to be healthy?
Whether a full day of sun is "healthy" depends on whether you think wrinkly skin and cancerous growths are a normal and proper part of aging, but for sure sun-bathing is "natural".  Most people who have ever lived have engaged in it, usually because they had no choice.  As a result, there is a colossal body of evidence that high-volume sun exposure, despite its other undesirable qualities, does not cause vitamin D overdose!  Perhaps Health Canada ignored that evidence because it was not submitted in triplicate on the approved forms.

[cassander42.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I guess I was thinking something different about sunbathing. Basically, intentionally exposing as much as yourself as possible rather than just being out all day. I also imagine very sunny places tend to have siestas built in during the hottest part of the day.

But I guess vitamin D is a bigger deal in Canada since there's less sunlight. Is this seen as a race issue due to the relationship with skin color?

(Honestly, I'm not sure why Puerto Rico isn't already the 51st state, considering it's bigger than almost half the current states, but I bet race is an issue there as well...)

[pyesetz]

Is this seen as a race issue due to the relationship with skin color?
Canadians studiously avoid talking about race.  Officially, nothing is ever a race issue.  When the G20 police decided to arrest 1,000 randomly-chosen people as a show of force, it was just a coincidence that most of the people targeted happened to be ethnic Québécois. Apparently every country needs some group to hate on.

why Puerto Rico isn't already the 51st state
It's a free-associated state, which is better than 51st state because the taxes are lower.  Puerto Rico's situation is roughly analogous to Québec's, although the formalities are different.

I bet race is an issue there as well
Well, "ethnic group" perhaps.  Did you know that New Mexico's constitution calls for it to be a bilingual state?  But so many Anglos have moved there that the original culture has been reduced to the status of Indian reservations.  I expect that Puerto Rico wants to avoid that outcome.  Language-preservation issues might also be one of the reasons why Israel has not become a US state.

[ducktapeddonkey.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that wasn't a Toronto cop...I thought that happened at the G20 in London.

[pyesetz]

Duh!  That was last year; fixed.  Same queen, different country.