Posts by Craig Young
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In a word, Alberta. The oil and gas rich province is nauseatingly right wing and it's where the Conservative base is.
Anyhow, here are some stats for the rest of you. The new composition of the Canadian House of Commons is as follows. Out of 339 total seats, the Liberal Party under Justin Trudeau have won 184 seats. Some distance behind, the vanquished Conservative Party of Canada has claimed 99, while the third party New Democrats have 44, the Bloc Quebecois have 10 and the Canadian Greens have one. Conceding defeat, outgoing Canadian Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper also announced that he was stepping down as leader of the Conservatives.
According to the Globe and Mail, the turnout was seventy percent. Eighty eight women were elected, one quarter of the total House of Commons and a new federal record. The Liberals claimed considerable ethnic minority support, and polled well across income categories, leading the Conservatives by about fifteen points. The Atlantic provinces, Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia all solidly voted Liberal, sweeping aside both Conservative incumbents and New Democrat mainstays. The only exception to the rule were the other western provinces, particularly Alberta, which is the core of the Conservative vote.
LGBT Canadians are happy but sorry that the NDP did so poorly. A lot of tactical voting went on, probably. Canadian LGBT political correspondent Rob Salerno noted that most Canadian LGBT community members relished the end of the Harper era as a fate well deserved. Although the Conservatives wisely abandoned trying to reverse federal Canadian marriage equality legislation, the Conservative brand was tainted by homophobic outbursts from his party MPs and candidates, unyielding oppostion to Bill C-279, which would have added gender identity to Canada's Human Rights Act antidiscrimination legislation, funding cuts to LGBT organisations and the effective recriminalisation of sex work, as well as draconian new "national security", surveillance and anti-terrorism legislation. Salerno notes that there will be an end to Canada's blood and organ donor ban for eligible gay men, passage of a transgender rights bill through the House of Commons (although the Senate Upper House obstructed the legislation last time- but Trudeau can appoint 22 new Liberal Senators to that house), transgender official document reform and transgender prisoners rights, and age of consent equality.
Canada's raving right is grieving. Writing mournfully on the antigay, antifeminist and antiabortion Lifesite, an anonymous religious social conservative lamented that Trudeau was strongly pro-choice on abortion rights and supported trans-inclusive federal antidiscrimination laws, as well as possible refusal to delay the implementation of the Canadian Supreme Court Carter assisted suicide rights decision. It also mourned the defeat of numerous Conservative antigay and antiabortion MPs- more than half of them gone, thankfully.
Recommended:
Toronto Globe and Mail: http://www.globeandmail.com
Rob Salerno: "Four new lesbian or gay MPs returned to Ottawa" Xtra Canada: 20.10.2015: http://www. dailyxtra.com/canada /news-and-ideas/news/four-openly-gay-lesbian-new-mps- elected-ottawa-179030
Rob Salerno: "Does the end of the Harper era mean victory for LGBT people?" Xtra Canada: 20.10.2015: http://www. dailyxtra.com/news-and-ideas/opinion/the-end-the-harper- era-mean-victory-lgbt-people- 179036
Wikipedia/Canadian federal election 2015: http:// en.wikipedia. org/Canadian_federal_election,_2015
Not Recommended:
"Pro-lifers lament Justin Trudeau's Liberal sweep: Lifesite: 20.10.2015: https://www. lifesitenews.com/ news/pro-lifers-lament-justin- trudeaus-liberal-sweep
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Damned excellent post, Fiona. Over in Brisbane, my sister Janine is the sole carer for my nephew Jordan, who has osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle bone syndrome). She has her own home, but it's a constant struggle to insure her deadbeat dad ex- husband pays his fair share of child support on time and he also rarely uses his visitation rights. Life would be impossible if it weren't for my parents helping both of them out. And don't get me started on Aussie child support enforcement... :(
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Ah-here's the reference to Pharmac's pharmacoeconomic analysis framework I was talking about. Take a look at it and assess the implications for pharmaceutical policy, scope and scale of access yourselves:
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Obviously, I'm concerned with the pharmaceutical angle. Has anyone else read the Pharmac "pharmacoeconomics analysis" paper, which explains how the pharmaceutical regulator arrives at its supply decisions? While the costs may not be passed on to the consumer, I am concerned that intellectual property and related processing rights will cause delays, increased prices and reduced scope and scale of access to medication for some specific groups- such as People Living With HIV/AIDS.
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Hard News: About Chris Brown, in reply to Russell Brown,
Unlike Maori Party co-leader Marama Fox: https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/kiwis-don-t-need-chris-brown-to-show-them-how-transform-their-lives-maori-party-co-leader-q13780?autoPlay=4529626394001
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Two useful links in this context:
Josh Lowe: “What is the Piers Gaveston Society?” Prospect: 21.09.2015: http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/david-cameron-lord-ashcroft-biography-what-is-the-piers-gaveston-societyStephen Bush: “Will Lord Ashcroft’s scandalous biography harm David Cameron?” New Statesman: 21.09.2015: http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2015/09/will-lord-ashcrofts-scandalous-biography-harm-david-cameron-0
Cameron is alleged to be a former member of the Piers Gaveston Society. This 28-year-old drinking society is composed of twelve former public schoolboys at Oxford University. Its main interaction with the wider student body is its exclusive yearly ball, which allows revellers in fancy dress or fetish attire to climb aboard a coach to a secret location outside the city and engage in louche behaviour, said to often include indulgence in illegal substances. Named in honour of a male lover of King Edward II (1284-1327), the club seems highly camp—its motto is Fane non memini ne audisse unum alterum ita dilixisse, or “Truly, none remember hearing of a man enjoying another so much.’
Other former members of the group include writer and son of the Duchess of Cornwall Tom Parker Bowles and Private Eye editor Ian Hislop, who profits considerably from publishing tales of excess and scandal among the rich and mindless. There is no suggestion that either man or any other former member participated in any of the acts of which Cameron is accused. Gaystarnews wryly added that two European Union jurisdictions prohibit marriage equality, yet zoophilia is perfectly legal within their borders- Roumania and Finland. According to New Statesman journalist Stephen Bush (21.09.2015), apparently Cameron’s deed is not zoophilia, because under British law, that would have involved penetration of a porcine anus or vagina. -
This is a brief summary of an article I've just posted on my Gaynz.Com blog, assembled from the Ministry of Immigration's website: http://www.gaynz.com/blogs/redqueen/?p=9935
n the interests of clarity and public transparency, I have decided to provide a brief description of current New Zealand refugee policy.
Refugee policy is contained within the Immigration Act 2009, and administered by the New Zealand Ministry of Immigration. The Immigration Act 2009 contains clauses giving legislative effect to New Zealand accession to international human rights treaties such as the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees 1951, Convention Against Torture and Other Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishnment, the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights and many other such international human rights and civil liberties instruments.
When assessing refugee claims, the Immigration and Protection Tribunal will refer to Country of Origin Information resources for background context and circumstances related to the grounding of specific claims. For example, Syria’s COI section on the Ministry website includes information from the US CIA and State Department, International Crisis Group, Minority Rights Group, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. This is a detailed and robust set of sources and shows praiseworthy diligence in its preparation and design.
The most recent data shows almost gender parity and particular age cohort concentrations between 18-60 and 5-12, indicating family unification and resettlement. Most refugees settle in Auckland, Wellington, Waikato, Manawatu and Nelson.
As to nations of origin, these tend to consist of areas of international organised crime, lawlessness, failed states and tyrannical regimes, as well as countries caught in the ordeal of civil war. It will probably come as no surprise to learn that Myanmar, Columbia, Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sri Lanka appear prominently on the list of countries of origin. Proximity appears to play a role in this, given the number of refugees from Columbia and its murderous international drug cartels or Myanmar and its repressive domestic regime, who might find transit to New Zealand more accessible than other countries. So does New Zealand’s involvement in last decade’s Afghan War.
Are there any aspects of the Immigration Act 2009 that we should be concerned about? Certainly, archival evidence suggests that the Immigration and Protection Tribunal is a transparent and accountable government agency engaged in best practice refugee and asylum assessment. However, some issues are of concern- such as the use of classified information in this context, although again, the Immigration Act 2009 specifically forbids the abuse of classified information for use in deportation, refugee or asylum decisions. Refugees may also be denied entry to New Zealand for other reasons- favourable regime change in countries of origin, as well as deliberate fraud and forgery, criminal activity or terrorism may be legitimate grounds. It does strike me as possible that there may be some legitimate deception involved in escaping specific repressive regimes if they have deplorable records insofar as police brutality, security agency repression and government corruption go.
How does all this affect LGBT rights?
Source: http://www.immigration.govt.nz
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Speaker: What I learned in Class: Should…, in reply to Joe Wylie,
Descriptive differences. What we call bogans, they call chavs as they manifest many of the same characteristics.
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Speaker: What I learned in Class: Should…, in reply to Joe Wylie,
Er, except Britain doesn't have bogans, it has chavs. Some of whom are gay, apparently, but then Britain is a very stratified society.
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Hmmm. Dunno if that characterisation of Hall's approach to subcultures is correct. Hall allowed for them to have a fair degree of social agency and creative independence. Anyhow, I'm from working-class origins, albeit ChCh (Riccarton, to be precise). I've known gay bogans who like metal, wear their hair long, smoke weed and regard same-sex marriage as a non issue 'cause it gets in the way of their having lots of sex. There are even bogan drag queens in Oz.