Civil Law, Common Law, and some common sense?

http://www.canada.com/life/Signing+away+individual+freedoms/4181678/story.html

Never having had much interest in politics, administration, academic philosophy or law in my younger years, I was rather surprised at how this article made me mull over some of those big important terms I've always avoided such as: The Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Constitution, civil law and common law.

Sure, I've always known they're important. But always thought of them as something only truly understood by lawyers, professors and smart people who use big words. It gave me a brief introduction to the history and current standing of the charter, while also spewing out a bit of juicy contriversy over Trudeau's policies around the origins of the human rights commission.

Can "the people" really have confidence in a commission who's goal is to protect human rights from infringement from things like companies, other people, and especially, the government; when this commission was created by the government? How far away is "arms length" really?

On another level, is the commission's current work truly helpful to society at this point? No doubt, they've done some important work. But does it make sense when a commission rules that a 400lb woman was discriminated against because another resident in her 60's with medical injuries refused to give up a parking spot close to the door? The commission ruled that: her neighbours and her condo board had discriminated against her by failing to accommodate her handicap. The commission ordered the neighbour to give the complainent her parking spot. It also ordered the 35 other owners in her complex to get together and pay Ms. Myrand $10,000 for being insufficiently sensitive to her disability.

The author of the article made an intersting point: Sure, the commission solved the dispute. But, is their someone else's responsibility to solve that problem? Or should it really be our own responsilibity first and foremost? It looks at ideas in "Civil law, whereby rights are granted by the state -- unlike in the common law tradition, whereby rights are seen as something natural that pre-existed the state. If you believe the state is the original granter of rights, I suppose it also makes some sense to believe you can put the state in charge of protecting rights."

Hmm..interesting! If the complainent hadn't been able to go to the commission so quickly to solve her problem, would she have been "forced" to find a different compromise? Perhaps something that would be less damaging to human relationships. I can only imagine what the rest of the condo owners feel about their neighbour after being slapped with a fine and then "labelled" as having "discriminated" against their neighbour. Ouch.

So, civil law or common law? Is the commission fundamentally biased and/or a necessity?
Just some food for thought that made me think!

HST Recall Status

It appears that the recall campaign to remove Ida Chong from office has slowed down. It's the last week before the process completes and the last status update, provided a few weeks back, was that only about 8,000 signatures were accounted for in the petition. The petition requires just over 15,000 signatures in order for it to be successful. Since then, the count has been undisclosed and although it may appear unsuccessful at this point, there is still the benefit of the doubt until it is finalized.

http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Chong+recall+team+tally+deadline+looms/4190407/story.html

NDP Leadership candidates

Happy New Year all! Ok, it's been a good holiday, but I need to get out of this languid mood and back with the watch on what's happening with the NDP leadership race. Below is a list of recent candidates who have emerged and have entered to be the next leader of the NDP. Harry Lali, Dana Larsen, and Nicholas Simons:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/01/07/bc-ndp-leadership-candidates.html

John Horgan has also announced that he will be joining the competition today:

http://www.timescolonist.com/news/John+Horgan+launches+campaign+leadership/4088541/story.html

Also read that the next NDP leader has to be a woman unless a male president or treasurer steps down. This is an NDP gender stipulation that ensures gender equality ought to be represented in the jobs of party leader. This does certainly add to the complexity of how the leadership plays out. Seeing how the current candidates are all male, Moe Sihota, current president or Bob Smit (treasurer) will need to step down and be replaced by a female representative. This would balance the party leadership and meet the gender rule. If a woman is elected though, than Sihota and Smit can remain in their current stead.

http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/leader+woman+according+obscure+rule/4049617/story.html

Merry Christmas!

Hi all,

Just wanted to apologize for not being as active as of late. With the holidays fast approaching, it has been difficult to find time to make a post. If there's one thing I've discovered quickly about having a blog is that, it requires quite a bit of work. But I promise to make the time and will strive to stay committed. My original intentions were to make this blog interactive and thought that there would be more content contributors/authors. It has now been about a month since I've started this and I have come to conclusion that this may not be the case. In any event, I do plan on keeping this going by seeding it with more articles I find about what's happening with government services in the news. I hope those of you who have been following and have been involved will continue to do so as I have found your opinions helpful.

This Christmas, I am tasked with hosting a dinner for my in-laws. Instead of cooking a turkey, I have challenged myself to try a prime rib roast dinner. To some it may not be, but to me it's a big undertaking as I've never done it before. Fortunately, I have been able to acquire an awesome recipe from a close set of friends of whom I've had the pleasure of experiencing this dinner during a recent visit. It's my first prime rib roast so I'm a little nervous but I am excited about making this work. Cross my fingers and will let you know of the outcome. Hopefully nothing gets burnt, I've invested in a good meat thermometer to prevent this from happening.

In the meantime, I wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and hope that you are able to spend quality time with yourself, your family and friends, cause really, that is truly what it is all about :)

Support Independent MLAs - An alternative?

These are definitely uncertain times politically, and voters are probably thinking, who do we vote for in the next provincial election? The 2 articles below describes that maybe it wouldn't be a bad time to vote for independent MLA's who represent the community. Party structures like the NDP and Liberals have party disciplines that an independent representative is not obliged to. The first article provides some information on Vicki Hungtington who is an independent MLA representing Delta South.

http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/BC-Politics/2010/12/09/IndyPolitics/

The second article discusses the potential for independents, like Bill Bennett, Bob Simpson, Blair Lekstrom, Vicki Huntington to get together and discuss whether they have similar interests. If so, could there be an opportunity for a new formed party?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/pros-and-cons-of-forming-a-new-party-not-lost-on-independents/article1823043/

NDP and Liberal party leadership watch

Well it's been a busy week for myself and for what's been happening in the news! Since my last update, there has been tons of political upheaval. To recap, NDP leader Carol James has resigned and now the party needs to work on a leadership convention to find the next party leader. The 13 dissidents (so-called Bakers Dozen) within the NDP party has caused enough turmoil  and infighting which ultimately influenced Carol James' to discontinue as their leader. To Carol's credit, she boldly made this decision in the best interest of the people. She believed that her party was not going to accomplish anything by continuously fighting with each other and if she stepped aside, the NDP would hopefully sort things out between themselves and be able to re-unite and strengthen the party again. Next blog post will focus on the NDP leadership race. Below is a link to Carol James resignation:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/12/06/bc-carole-james-challenge-leadership.html

As for the Liberals, Christy Clark, has joined the race to be Premier. A survey was performed to see if she would be a good Premier, and apparently the public opinion result scores her highest amongst the other candidates. One of her primary objectives is to keep the NDP out of power. Her plan to kill the HST does not seem to be popular move within the Liberal party. I think this is a good strategy to win back votes for the liberal party.

http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Leyne+Clark+plan+kill+carries+risks/3949887/story.html

BC Politics - Changes on the Horizon

BC Politics has never been more fascinating to follow. To date, we have the Liberal Party who are currently seeking backfill of the Premier's seat. Current candidates for this leadership are George Abbott, Mike de Jong, Kevin Falcon and Moira Stillwell. Christy Clark is said to still be considering in joining the race. The new leader will be selected February 26, 2011 and will replace Gordon Campbell. Check out this link to see each leader's platform:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/11/29/bc-liberal-leadership-candidates.html

The NDP party seems to be in turmoil and divided in the support of their leader Carole James, and request for a leadership convention has been raised by Jenny Kwan, a longtime respected NDP member:

http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Longtime+Jenny+Kwan+calls+leadership+race/3913467/story.html

An emerging party, called the BC First, is gaining in momentum in providing British Columbians an alternative party to vote for. Chris Delaney has joined the BC First party, you may have seen him as the HST organizer who fought alongside Bill Vander Zalm. Below is an article that explains why Mr. Delaney has opted to leave the BC Conservatives to join BC First:

http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/capitaldiary/archive/2010/09/28/delaney-hops-parties-to-bc-first.aspx

Some questions and thoughts I have brewing:
What if NDP's do not run a leadership race as suggested, would members who do not support Carole James defect to the BC First? What about former Minister of Energy, Mines, and Petroleum - Bill Bennett, who was let go recently by the Liberals, would there be an interest for him to join BC First? This would make for very interesting politics..