Kooky Cavoukian et al. are full of shit
The entire premise of her previous hyperventilation and hysteria – that emails had been “deleted” – was false.
She, and the Opposition parties, got it wrong. They hadn’t been deleted, at all.
Cavoukian and the PCs and NDP owe McGuinty et al. an apology. Personally, if I were them, I’d sue for every statement that Cavoukian and her winged monkeys made on a non-privileged occasion.
Oh, and that OPP investigation that Cavoukian’s half-cocked claims kick-started? I guess that’ll be wrapping up, now.
In the meantime, the OPP should charge Cavoukian et al. with mischief. And/or wasting taxpayer dollars.
On that horrid witch Jan Wong: a legal review
My former partner and colleague at McBinch, who is far more judicious in his language than I would have been, assesses the latest legal twist in the Wong saga. He’s nicer to her than I have been.
Worth a read, right here. A fine lawyer from a fine firm.
Howard Levitt’s ride
How do I know Howard’s fun? Last time I saw him, he was at an SFH show, selling our merch at the Bovine Sex Club, and grinning from ear to ear.
No snob is Levitt. Only advice I’d give him? Get a Jeep like me. I hit that huge flood on Bayview, water was way up the side, and I cruised right through it.
Better than one of those sissy sport cars!
Warren vs. Bell Mobility, et al.
I tried to be nice. I tried to be polite. Now, they get Mean Angry Warren.
UPDATE: Aaaaand the social media team is heard from. They should be so timely before things go to DefCon One. Might remove the need for a social media team.
Toronto’s electricity grid is “hanging by a thread”
…so says Hydro and others. So, then, why are shops like Mac in Yorkville keeping the doors to their air conditioned premises open in this way?
Send along pix of more such firms. This is totally outrageous.
Me on Giambrone
We’re pals, full disclosure, so I am happy to see Adam running. And I meant what I told Global’s Jackson Proskow: the only people who care about most of these so-called scandals, anymore, are the politicos and the media. Real folks just don’t.
Adam is a smart guy and a hard worker; I think he gives the Libs and the PCs a real problem in that by-election. As in, he could win.
In today’s Sun: re-regulate, now
In the coming weeks and months, as Canada attempts to comprehend the cataclysm that struck Lac-Megantic on the weekend, government and citizens will attempt to determine the cause – and assign blame.
So far, there have been suggestions that the runaway train that leveled downtown Lac-Megantic may have been caused by human error, or sabotage, or a mysterious fire. We have also heard, correctly, that transporting combustible materials at high speeds through populated areas is a probably a very bad idea, and that pipelines are less hazardous.
Given the immensity of the destruction in Lac-Megantic, however – and given the possibility that as many as four dozen people may have been killed when crude oil on board detonated – it is too soon to start guessing about what did, and what didn’t, cause the catastrophe. A sad procession of probes, inquests and commissions of inquiry will determine who, and what, is culpable. Rushing to judgment serves no one in Lac-Megantic.
But of the many railway disasters that have taken place in this country in recent years, we need not be so patient. In those thousands of documented cases, from coast to coast, one thing emerges – again and again – as a cause. It is cited a reason for hundreds of deaths, injuries and accidents, no matter who is in power, and no matter where the railway disasters take place.
Deregulation.
Over the past two decades or so, government has systematically withdrawn from overseeing what happens on our 50,000 kilometres of rail tracks in Canada. The result has been death for citizens and railway workers, damage to the environment, and billions in lost property.
A definitive history of Canada’s rail safety regime, written by a brilliant lawyer named Wayne Benedict, concluded as much. “[Canada has a] need for effective regulation of railway safety to safeguard the interests of the public and society, the environment, railways and their personnel,” Benedict wrote the U.S.-based Transportation Law Journal in 2007.
“The deregulation of Canada’s railway safety regulatory regime…making the railway responsible for the management of its own safety…has not, and is not, adequately protecting the Canadian public.”
To prepare his study, Benedict examined hundreds of rail accidents over many years. In particular, he looked at the major rail catastrophes that preceded Lac-Megantic: the November 1979 Mississauga derailment, which led to the evacuation of a quarter of a million citizens from their homes; the February 1986 Hinton, Alberta collision, which saw 26 people killed, and nearly a hundred seriously injured; and the August 1996 Edson, Alberta crash that killed the crew, and caused millions in damage.
In each of these cases – and in hundreds of others he examined – Benedict grimly analyzed the official response to the rail tragedies. After Mississauga, the Grange Commission urged that government needed to start inspecting again, and not just leave it “entirely to the railways.” After Hinton, the Foisy Commission declared that the “regulatory environment within which the railway system operates…is inadequate.”
Concluded Benedict, now practicing law in Calgary: “Trains are fast, powerful, often carry explosive or deadly poisonous dangerous goods, mere metres from our homes and our children’s schools…Parliament must move to restore rail safety regulatory enforcement power. It is time for government to take back the safety obligations that have been granted to the railway industry.”
Oh, and before he became a respected lawyer?
Wayne Benedict was certified locomotive engineer.
It’s biblical (updated)
And it was cut off by a zombie attack. It’s been nice knowing you. Adios.
Here is what slowed down the traffic. Check it out:
Lac-Megantic: the latest victim of government deregulation?
The photos, and the stories, coming out of that Quebec town are truly astonishing. We should pray for the people there, and collectively push for a comprehensive investigation of the cause.
But after doing some research, I’ve formed some of my own conclusions. A taste of tomorrow’s Sun column:
Given the immensity of the destruction in Lac-Megantic, however – and given the possibility that as many as four dozen people may have been killed when crude oil on board detonated – it is too soon to start guessing about what did, and what didn’t, cause the catastrophe. A sad procession of probes, inquests and commissions of inquiry will determine who, and what, is culpable. Rushing to judgment serves no one in Lac-Megantic.
But of the many railway disasters that have taken place in this country in recent years, we need not be so patient. In those thousands of documented cases, from coast to coast, one thing emerges – again and again – as a cause. It is cited a reason for hundreds of deaths, injuries and accidents, no matter who is in power, and no matter where the railway disasters take place.
Deregulation.
Over the past two decades or so, government has systematically withdrawn from overseeing what happens on our 50,000 kilometres of rail tracks in Canada. The result has been death for citizens and railway workers, damage to the environment, and billions in lost property.