Archive for December, 2008
Ruby WAS Running!
Recall my post “Is Ruby Running?” – my immediate response to viewing ‘www.yourvoices.ca’. I suggested that 90 000 members would be enough to take over the Liberal Party of Canada and 90 000 people each donating one dollar would also pay for the entrance into the leadership race? I also pointed out whomever bought www.yourvoices.ca did so four days before the economic update and therefore almost a week before the coalition idea came together and a spirited, democratic race fell apart.
Well, the Brampton Guardian reported today in their article “Leadership run not in the cards for local MP”
“Ignatieff has endorsed Dhalla’s Web site initiative, yourvoices.ca, developed during her contemplation of a run at the leadership. The site is a forum for grassroots Liberals to express concerns or ideas about issues and the party’s direction. It is also a vehicle for soliciting political donations. Dhalla had hoped to raise the $90,000 needed to enter a Liberal leadership campaign.
Any money raised through the site now, will go in to a fund to assist others who might aspire to mounting a leadership campaign someday, according to Dhalla.
“It (the money) would go in to the Liberal Party and we’re hoping to create a fund for the next generation,” she said.”
If it had not be so transparent I’d feel good about having been able to call it, but short of renting bill boards, it was painfully obvious what she was up to. What she possibly thought her qualifications are, are beyond me, but that will be a debate we won’t have to hear until next time.
1 Comment »Jean Charest’s Historic Cabinet
Jean Charest is all about making history this month. He is the first Premier of Quebec since Maurice Duplessis over fifty years ago, to win three back to back mandates for his party. Today, in announcing Quebec’s new Cabinet, Charest took a historic step in appointing a gender balanced cabinet, with thirteen men and thirteen women joining him.
Today marks the first second time in the history of Canada that there has been a gender balanced cabinet (both appointed by Charest), something that is news, but should not need to be. While Quebec has lead on being the first in Canada, this fact made me curious about where else in the world women have equal representation in Cabinet.
The best data I could find without compiling any myself was from the “Women’s Environmental and Development Organization” and appears to be from mid 2007. According to WEDO there are seven countries that basically have gender equality. By basically I mean women have one fewer seat then men. Finland has the only cabinet with a majority of women (11 of 20) with Chile, Norway, Spain, France and Switzerland having one fewer woman than men in Cabinet, which for my purposes is essentially equality. Canada’s 2008 Federal cabinet has 11 female ministers of 39 in total or 29%.
According to WEDO North American governments have slightly better representation of women in Cabinet with 22% of cabinet positions in North American governments being held by women, compared to 20.5% in Latin America and the Caribbean, 20.2% for Europe, 15.7% for Africa, and 6.9% for Asia and Pacific. The sub-regional variances would quite interesting too. I encourage you to take a look at “Getting the Balance Right in National Cabinets” for more information on the breakdowns. I’m not endorsing their view of formalized quotas, and am just linking to them for the sake of sharing their data.
My personal view of the impact of Charest’s cabinet will be further pressure on future governments in Quebec and around Canada to seriously look at the gender imbalance both in Cabinet and in Legislative Assemblies and Parliament and find ways to improve what are pretty dismal numbers for Canada as a whole. It isn’t an easy solution, that much I know, as I for one am more favourable of taking steps like Charest did by appointing a gender balanced cabinet, not because he had to, not because he ran on it, but because that how it came together and these individuals are twenty six men and women Charest has confidence can help steer Quebec through the current economic situation.
It will be interesting to see how Stephen Harper’s Senate appointments, a chamber whose current membership is 34.5% female reflect the concept of gender balance as at least under Prime Minister Chretien, Senate and Vice Regal appointments were used to promote the involvement of women in politics and with some 18 seats to fill, if half of Harper’s appointments were women, that percentage would increase to 38.5%, a considerably distance from the 22% of membership women make up in the House of Commons, and the just 16% of his own caucus that is made up of female MPs. For comparison sake, 35% of Martin’s Senate appointments were women, 44% of Chretien’s were women, and just 23% of Mulroney’s Senate appointments were women. While I personally don’t believe Harper should even be making the Senate appointments, it will be interesting to see the proportionality of it all.
3 Comments »Toronto’s Gun Amnesty A Roaring Success
The Toronto Police Service just completed it’s latest gun amnesty program with an amazing haul of firearms being traded in for certificates redeemable at Henry’s Camera for a digital camera. In total, just under 1900 firearms were handed in. Critics will say “the bad guys won’t hand in their guns, so why does this matter?” They are right in that sense, but guns get stolen and frankly the fewer guns within Toronto’s borders means fewer to be stolen.
The last gun amnesty the Toronto Police did that I recall was one in the fall of 2005. During the forty day period the Toronto Police Service hauled in 261 guns and 1500 rounds of ammunition. Here is the breakdown of what that amnesty took off the streets. These stats are compliments of www.canada.com.
Pistol 17
Revolver 16
Shotgun 66
Rifle 132
Pellet 16
Replica 7
Other (Air-soft etc.) 7
Ammunition 1,554
Around the time of the 2005 gun amnesty I spent a lot of time doing research on hand gun ammunition regulation and gun laws in general as they related to provincial jurisdiction. Provinces have very limited control over gun legislation, but things like hunting licenses, ammunition regulation, and the creation of discharge bans all do fall under the Provinces control. Most municipalities have a discharge ban that makes it illegal for a person who owns a gun, even lawfully to discharge it within either the entire city limits except in designated places like shooting ranges. In places like London and Hamilton there is a discharge ban for the urban portions of the City limits but not for the more rural belts around the city.
In response to the shooting death of Constable Baylis, 25 in Toronto resulted in the Province of Ontario passing legislation unofficially called the “Baylis Bill” and officially “Ammunition Regulation Act, 1994″. The law was designed to restrict the purchase of ammunition except to those who have a lawful use and a federal firearms permit. While the bill was well intentioned, it has a major oversight that has likely made things worse.
Consider this, the Baylis Bill requires merchants of ammunition to keep detailed records that are generally unsecure, simply due to the method of collection. The section of the bill that deals with record keeping says the following:
4. (1) A person who holds a permit issued under subsection 110 (5) of the Criminal Code (Canada) to carry on a business described in subparagraph 105 (2) (b) (i) of that Act shall keep a record of the following information for all ammunition sales:
1. The date and time of the purchase.
2. The name, age and address of the purchaser.
3. The type of identification and permit produced and their serial numbers.
4. The calibre and quantity of ammunition purchased. 1994, c. 20, s. 4 (1).
The bill also gives the Chief Firearms Officer for Ontario or their designate the power to inspect these records, which is the purpose for keeping them. So far this all seems to be pretty reasonable right? The major flaw with this bill is that most of these records are kept on paper, and generally in a book by where ever the ammunition is sold. These records can quite easily become a shopping list for criminals who are looking to access guns and ammunition as should they be able to get a copy of the information they would know the name and address of their intended target, the number of rounds they bought, when and what kinds of guns they have at their residence.
Guns get stolen, it happens. How do people know whose home to break into to find guns to steal considering gun ownership is well under 1% in most parts of the City. I would submit that legal gun owners don’t make a habit of consorting with criminals who steal guns from lawful owners. This is just a hunch however.
The baylis records are the weak link. Why does any of this matter or have anything to do with Amnesty programs?
Because every year the Toronto Police end up seizing thousands of illegal rounds of ammunition that were legal at some point. When gun owners homes are broken into their ammunition and in some cases guns become illegal. Amnesty programs are a good thing because the limit the opportunities for legal guns and ammunition that are unwanted to to be stolen and used illegally. With the Toronto Police’s latest amnesty program removing a total of 1,897 firearms of which (500 were hand guns), in addition to 304 non-firearms, including pellet guns and replicas, 58,217 rounds of ammunition, and 1,486 boxes of assorted ammunition. When one looks at the number of guns the Toronto Police has collected during amnesty programs in 2005 and 2008, and compares that to the number of gun owners according to the Toronto Star, one gun has been surrendered for ever ten gun owners. An incredible statistic, at least for someone like me who believes guns serve no purpose within a City.
The offer of a digital camera seemed to work far better than the straight “no questions asked” approach to amnesty, and I would encourage the Toronto Police Service to find new and innovative ways to continue to coax folks to turn in guns and ammunition, in hopes of further dwindling the cache that exists in Toronto.
Finally, to end on an ammunition regulation note – It is my belief that the province should either work with the Chief firearms office to create a secure database where stores can deposit, but not withdraw ammunition records, or do away with the requirements to keep such records. I have more ideas on ammunition regulation, but could go on for days, and will opt to end here for now. The Toronto Sun did a multi part article on ammunition that I recall reading in the fall 2005 and early winter 2006. I can’t find the link, but will spend some time looking and share it later if I can find it.
Some Links:
The Toronto Star Gun Ownership Map
The Ammunition Regulation Act, 1994 – The Baylis Bill
CTV: Amnesty ends with 1 900 Firearms Surrendered
