Incoherent ramblings

more correspondence with Markham-Unionville Green Party rep., Elvin Kao

October 9, 2015 Incoherent ramblings , , , , ,

I’d asked of Elvin Kao, the local green party candidate

It is refreshing to hear of this party position on whipping votes, and on bill C-51.  Can you please provide me a reference to the location of your party documentation where that no-whip policy is stated.
Asking CSIS for conclusive data that supports their funding is like asking somebody “would you like a raise?”.  You will surely be returned data that will support the case for more and more invasive policing.
I also asked about your position on Canada’s military.  My logical expectation that the Green party position on offensive military would be severe, since Military forces everywhere are easily argued to be the most flagrant and blatant polluters in existence.  Consider, for example, the environmental damage of all the nuclear bombs that have been deployed and tested, the all-species genetic damage due to depleted Uranium deployment in Iraq, and the intense carbon footprint of so many air, ground, and water fleets.  Does your party take an explicit position on the scale and deployment of Canada’s military forces?
What is your position on the Canadian bombing of Syria?  Recalling other such targets like Serbia, it is easy to see that Canada has been historically complicit as acting as a proxy for the United States in its zeal to bring peace with bombs.  I find it odd that there is lots of coverage in the Canadian press on the Syrian refugee crisis, but nothing on our direct contribution to that crisis.

His response:

The Green party does not have whipped votes.
https://www.greenparty.ca/en/convention-2014/voting/motions/g14-p31

We want government reform that will end all whipped votes, so that MPs can represent their constituents.
http://www.greenparty.ca/en/democratic-reform

In terms of CSIS and showing results for the allocation of resources should not be a proposition they should be shocked at and is the kind of oversight that should be mandatory so that we do not have unnecessary government overhead.

The Green party believes that Canada should be a peace keeping country, and will only engage in war as a last resort. Any strike on a nation or group should have approval from UN Security Council. Canada for the first time has disappeared from international stage as it has lost its seat from the UN Security Council. In terms of scale of Canadian forces deployment based on environmental impact, there is no policy. With Canadian and other lives to consider during those moments, I do not believe we should consider the environmental impact in those instances and we should make sure that our Canadian troops are well equipped. The environmental impact is small compared to Canadian industries, producing everyday, and other polluting problems.

Canada has lost its touch as a peace keeping country and has blindly followed all US led missions. I do not believe that air strikes in that region are helping, and creates more radicals for western hatred. There is too much conflict between multiple groups in the Syrian civil war and it would be difficult to choose sides.

Thanks for the questions,

I have a lot of trouble with anybody that bandies about the putrid peace keeping doublespeak when it really means warfare, often blatantly offensive warfare.  Elvin is already working hard at speaking in the meaningless way of a politician despite being really new to the game.

Just because the UN, effectively a puppet organization for the United States, sanctions the oppression of the current enemy de-jour, doesn’t mean that it is something that I want to be funding with the taxes that are collected from me like it or not.

It appears that I am left without any representation in the current collection of candidates for my riding.  The liberal and conservative parties are for all intents and purposes the same despite the different colours that they use in the advertising.  When push comes to shove a leader from on-high, serving interests that we’ll never know the full details of, sets the party policy and party members who choose to deviate will be expelled.  Most probably wouldn’t care to rock the boat and are willyfully ignorant to the fact that they are meaningless and purposeless.  The NDP is a communist party want-to-be, and I can’t vote for them.  Collective socialism has killed hundreds of millions of people so far.  How many more people have to die before people finally realize it’s a bad idea?  I don’t believe that a vote for the NDP means we’ll have any immediate prospect of such death here in Canada, but taking any steps in that direction doesn’t seem prudent.

I don’t trust the language that this Green party rep uses.  He appears to be is trying too hard to be a politician, which essentially means a liar.  Perhaps he’s the least evil of the options around, but I may just explicitly vote none of the above.

Toike politics

October 1, 2015 Incoherent ramblings , , , , , , ,

toikePolitics

 

Kudos to the Toike once again.  They really nailed the conservative ad.  I’m not old enough to know what Trudeau senior’s politics were nor how they compare to junior, so that’s hard to comment on.  What I do know of Trudeau is that he has demonstrated the same will to institute an unbounded police state, by voting and forcing Liberal voting for C-51, as Harper and head KGB want-a-be Minister Blainey.  That’s score zero for votes from me for the blue and the red.

Since I don’t like a policy of unbounded tax hikes the NDP won’t get my vote.

The only option left for my riding is the Green party.  The Toike’s description of “fuzzy” is exactly what the Green party platform looked like last go round, so unless they’ve improved that really leaves “None of the Above” as my only option.

I expect that all the parties are playing the same game, seeing who can “promise” the most for “free”, where free means funded out of taxes extracted from us and future generations … like it or not.  What a sham this election farce is!  How can people delude themselves into thinking that one vote every few years to a representative that will probably ignore you once elected, or not be elected, is somehow representation.

Markham-Unionville Green party candidate on bill C-51 and the party whip

October 1, 2015 Incoherent ramblings , , ,

I wrote a quick note (see below) to Elvin Kao, our local Green party candidate.  His response was:

Hello Peeter,

Thank you so much for taking the time to write to me. Unlike the other political parties, the Green party is the only party that does not whip votes. I am responsible to listening to my constituents first, and then the party second. This is what makes the Greens different and why we need government reform, so that Greens in all ridings are properly represented.

The Green party was the first party, with the help of Elizabeth May, to say that we would repeal Bill C-51. I agree with the party stance on this. The current bill as written has too much ambiguity in the definition of terrorism, has no oversight on CSIS, is an invasion on Canadian’s human rights to privacy and free speech. There has also been no proof over the existence of government monitoring, how effective it is in counter-acting terrorism and I would like to see conclusive data from CSIS before granting even more over-reaching powers.

If you have any other concern, feel free to contact me again.
I hope to have your support October 19, 2015.

Thanks,
Elvin Kao

He doesn’t touch my embedded question on “Canada’s increasing warmonger status”.  I don’t know if that means he’s not familiar with “our” role in world oppression, or if he just missed the question.

My side of the correspondence, including a previous note to the incumbant as context is below.

Hi Elvin,

As part of my investigation of current running candidates, I’d like to hear your stance on bill C-51, and Canada’s increasing warmonger status. I’d written the following to the previous incumbent for our riding, expressing my displeasure with the liberal party acceptance of the police state bill. I didn’t expect (nor ask for) a response, but he answered by voting for the bill.

Presuming the Green party ends up with a more significant membership in this election, does this party also plan, like the other parties, to also have the insane policy of enforcing voting the party line, or will members be allowed to vote according to what they perceive to be the desires of their constituents?

Peeter Joot
—

The Honourable John McCallum,

I’m writing to call on you to take a firm stand in support of the government’s carefully thought out, harmless, and effective Bill C-51. I’m asking you to side with Canadians and vote for this legislation.

I applaud the Canadian government initiative to exploit the fear-porn potential of the recent parliamentary shooting to its advantage.

The bill is prudent because it turns CSIS into a ‘secret police’ force with little oversight or accountability. Oversight and accountability are both highly overrated. History has proven that secret police forces have been important forces in many effective governments. Without a secret police force Stalin would not have been able to cull so many millions of the excess citizens of his country. Without a secret police force Hitler would not have been able to implement his death camps. In this day of omnipresent globalism Canada clearly needs its own secret police force to remain competitive.

The bill is useful because it opens the door for violations of our Charter Rights including censorship of free expression online. If people are able to express themselves openly, how can they be controlled?

The bill is effective because it will lead to dragnet surveillance and information sharing on innocent Canadians. Stephen Harper, Justin Trudeau or any other current or future politician would love to have such powers available for blackmail and manipulation purposes.

I applaud the government for trying to push this law through parliament in record time without a proper debate. No Canadian wants to see meaningful discussion in government. Reruns of Jerry Springer is clearly sufficient debate for most people. Inhibiting discussion is prudent since questioning authority and the power elite just feeds uncertainty in these difficult times.

If this bill doesn’t pass, it would limit opportunities for the Canadian government to spy on anyone, at any time. No Canadian wants to know when such spying has occurred. We want to create a shadowy and unaccountable secret police force that will have such a critical role in removing the freedoms of a nation that cannot be allowed to question government and authority.

Please, side with the majority of Canadians who are clueless and have never heard of this bill. Please don’t talk about or vote against this important legislation. Assuming you decide to vote for this bill, I hope you also won’t have any part in educate Canadians about this bill. Nobody needs to know what government allows itself to do “in our names.”

I’m one of the millions of Canadians who are perfectly happy with the status quo, which includes politicians who will not represent us in any meaningful way. I am assuming that you will be towing the party line and will vote for this bill. I already know that free expression is not tolerated in government, so when I see an affirmative vote for this bill, I’ll know that the world as I know it is stable and cannot be changed by individual action.

Please don’t respond to this letter. I do not want a response outlining the reasons that you will not be voting for this bill. Such a response would serve to destroy my worldview that assumes no politicians act for nor truly care for their constituents or Canadians in general. I want to continue to view politicians as pawns placed in positions of powerlessness and ineptitude, incapable of altering or even accurately observing the world around them.

Sincerely,

[signed]

Peeter Joot

questions to my ward 3 council rep: city council finances question

September 10, 2015 Incoherent ramblings , ,

Hi Mr Hamilton,

I’ve lived in Markham since 2001 in various locations. It appears you are my current ward 3 council representative. I have a couple questions:

1) Where can I find the total property taxes that Markham collected in a given year?
2) Over what time period was the money given away for the attempt to establish a Markham NHL arena?
3) What was the exact amount that was spent on that study?

If council will not even disclose how they spent the money, then I think it is fair to send them a bill for reimbursement of the portion of property taxes that I spent in that time interval. I’d like this information to prepare such a bill.

Sincerely, Peeter Joot.
—
Note. It is my personal policy to make a copy of all political correspondence publicly available on the internet.

Canada’s ministry of homeland security

May 14, 2015 Incoherent ramblings , , , ,

This last month, I’ve seen one name come up more than any others related to police-state actions and government overreach.  That name is Steven Blaney, the Minister of Public Safety.  He’s the one that sponsored bill C-51, he’s the one who has apparently attempting to arrange for US soldiers to police portions of Canada, and who has recently been caught proposing that groups that opt for BDS bans against Israeli-government actions be prosecuted under hate speech laws.  As Greenwald comments he and the government now both deny the latter.

So what is this Ministry of Public Safety?  That ministry is named in an Orwellian fashion, and contains a number of departments that have a large potential to abuse their power:

 

Basically, here under one roof is all the capability to spy on Canadians, restrict our rights, and then lock us up if we don’t comply.  It’s like the little sister of the United States Department of Homeland Security, with bits of the NSA and CIA tossed in.  The only thing missing is military power.  The total (declared) budget of this ministry is 6 billion dollars.  Compared to its United States counterparts this is an infinitesimal amount of operating cash, and they want more.

Understanding that “Minister of Public Safety” is a misnomer brings a lot of clarity when you consider that this politician is the one that tabled bill C-51.  Basically that bill is an attempt to grant the police state subset of the Canadian government, run by Blaney, more power.  It would be more accurate to have named this bill the “Please grant my Ministry more power” bill.  It now also makes sense how this bill appeared so quickly after the recent parliamentary shooting.  Blaney isn’t a lawyer, but a civil engineer by trade, so wouldn’t have written this himself.  I’d guess this was written by general-council in his ministry long before this shooting and was held in waiting for just this sort of perfect catalyzing event.  That is, of course, pure speculation.

Interesting news.

As a first look at this Ministry and its head, I did a bit of digging, and found a couple of interesting articles

 

The first and second are excellent examples of just the sort of overreach and abuse of power that people are concerned that Bill C-51 would allow.  The only disclaimer is that these are events that have already occurred.

This ministry is indirectly responsible for gun controls, the subject of that last article.  I don’t know a thing about guns nor that specific Swiss weapon, but am completely unsurprised that a politician has been caught playing the game of saying things in the press contrary to reality.

Bills tabled by Blaney

What else is the Ministry of Public Safety up to.  Here’s a list of bills tabled by their figurehead:

An Act to amend the Criminal Records Act, the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and the International Transfer of Offenders Act

An Act to amend the Corrections and Conditional Release Act and to make a consequential amendment to the International Transfer of Offenders Act

An Act to enact the Security of Canada Information Sharing Act and the Secure Air Travel Act, to amend the Criminal Code, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and to make related and consequential amendments to other Acts

An Act to amend the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act and other Acts

An Act to amend the Firearms Act and the Criminal Code and to make a related amendment and a consequential amendment to other Acts

An Act to amend the Corrections and Conditional Release Act

 

This ministry has been busy.