Dr. Roy went to a Fraiser Institute thing about “what the Tories should do in the first hundred days.”
Alas, I wasn’t invited to offer my suggestions, like: blow up the CBC building, pull out of the UN, cut off all foreign aid and scrap the Canada Arts Council.
Anyway, it sounds like (as usual) Gerry Nichols owned one of the only sets of working balls in the room…
Gerry Nicholls, who is the conscience of the right, said the party should act more conservative. It should cut spending and increase freedom. He again said that the Tories are behaving as the grits have done. Stephen Taylor defended the pragmatic approach the Tories have taken.
(…)
I suggested that Section 13a of the human rights code be abolished. Gerry thought that was a good idea, Stephen wasn’t sure that was possible.
Hey, here’s a wacky idea:
Why not just repeatedly violate the hell out of 13a, toss it out the back of an unmarked white van and leave it in a muddy drainage ditch to die?
Oh wait: that would take testosterone. What was I thinking?
UPDATE: Stephen Taylor takes the time to blackberry a response…
The FI forum was a debate between an idealist’s position and a pragmatic one.
It should be mentioned that while I would love to see the HRCs reigned in as Gerry does, my job as the panelist asked to explain why the Conservative government is acting as they are was to offer my best guess and knowledge as to why things are moving along this particular track.
Dr. Roy’s recap was overly simplistic and omitted some important context and may lead others to confuse analysis with a values judgement.
It was my explanation that the govt sees the process as self-discrediting. The HRCs, given enough sunlight and publicity are doing enough of a good job at unraveling their legitimacy when it comes to 13a. I suggested that strategically, direct PM or cabinet intervention is an 11th hour or last hand play.
Again, my position isn’t different from Gerry’s. I was there to explain why things are progressing as they are.
And I’d argue that if the Conservative government is serious about both cutting expenses in hard times AND abolishing the HRCs/Section 13, they should step in and shut them down before they waste anymore of my money, and other people’s.
