While the media titters about events of the past 24 or so hours, few seem to have noticed that Paul Martin has quietly withdrawn his commitment to calling a post-Gomery election.
April 21, 2005

I commit to you tonight that I will call a general election within 30 days of the publication of the commission’s final report and recommendations. Let Judge Gomery do his work. Let the facts come out. And then the people of Canada will have their say.

May 17, 2005;

Ms. Stronach will assume responsibilities for democratic renewal and will help guide the implementation of the recommendations that flow from the Gomery Commission’s final report.

Thankyou. Now we return you to regularly scheduled Belindarella programming.

Colby Cosh;

The lede here–that this move pushes the constitutional crisis which began last week into full-scale red-alert mode–hasn’t just been buried, it’s been taken out and shot. It is arguable whether Stronach’s defection is a “blow” to the Conservatives in either the short or the long term. What’s not arguable is that the delay imposed last week on a formal non-confidence vote in the House of Commons has now–with the balance of power in the House teetering on the razor’s edge–visibly become a banana-republic power tactic.
[…]
The whole point of the tradition that the confidence of the House will be tested at once, upon the government’s defeat in a supply-related division, is to prevent exactly the sort of shenanigan just perpetrated. Martin has used the delay he imposed unilaterally to purchase the services of a disaffected Conservative leadership candidate–one, it bears noting, elected by her constituents as a Conservative. (She’ll be in charge of “democratic renewal”, says Martin–never let it be said the man lacks a taste for irony.) “I am not sure,” Bliss concluded, “that Canada has ever had such a serious parliamentary crisis.” There can be no doubt about it now. If the Liberals win Thursday’s confidence vote by virtue of Stronach’s presence on the government benches, we will continue to have a government openly acknowledged to be illegal by most if not all of the major constitutional authorities in the country.

Via Damian Penny, who has a collection of pithy reaction.

A reader sent this to me, noting the sanitization of language. Though, “sanitization” doesn’t really do this Toronto Star item justice – a dripping propoganda piece by “immigration and diversity(?)” ‘reporter’ Nicholas Keung. The ‘scare’ words are worth a drinking game of their own – why, there’s even a dead baby!

Hope fades for plan to aid illegal workers

Hope fades…

Plan by the Liberal government to legalize up to 200,000 workers could die

200,000 workers could die…

A plan to legalize thousands of undocumented workers in Canada’s underground economy would be in jeopardy if the Liberal minority government falls as a result of a non- confidence vote on Thursday, says Immigration Minister Joe Volpe. The Toronto MP has already signed off on a final draft of the long-anticipated “regularization” plan, which is now “in the queue” for the cabinet’s feedback and approval – provided there isn’t an election call.
The issue leaves in limbo many of the 100,000 to 200,000 undocumented workers living under the radar in Canada, as well as employers facing shortages of the skills some of them bring.

Initiating the “skill watch” … at this point in the article, Canada has a shortage of skilled labour….

“We’re bringing things closer to a point where some decisions could be made.” Juan Sierra, a construction-union outreach worker, said he has fielded calls from hundreds of undocumented construction workers since Conservative leader Stephen Harper vowed publicly to bring down the Liberal government in mid-April.

Hundreds. Panic in the streets.

They’re worried the plan to legalize their status in Canada will go down, too. “They are really freaked out by the prospect,” said Sierra, of the Labourers’ International Union of North America. “Their hopes were so high because Volpe has promised that this is a priority for the government. If nothing happens, their hopes would be destroyed totally.”

(Harper = “Go down. Worried. Freaked out. Destroyed”. Volpe = “Hope”)

Vilma Filici, president of the Canadian Hispanic Congress […] fears a Conservative government could dump the plan as, he says, the Tories tend to view undocumented workers more as security risks than as potentially valuable contributors to Canadian society.

(Fear Conservatives. Note that the security risk is a “Tory view”, compared to the “non-partisan” description of illegal immigrant as “valuable contributor”.)

Daniel Castro, his wife and their two teenage sons from Argentina are among those living in limbo. The family arrived here in early 2001 and had their refugee claim rejected last May. Together they earn $6,000 a month, which they take in cash. Savings are stashed under a mattress because they’re afraid to keep a bank account. They don’t get to know neighbours because they move every few months to keep ahead of immigration authorities.

That’s some kind of limbo. Any readers here from Canada Revenue Agency who can fill us in on what a family of four has to earn to take home $72,000 a year?

When eldest son Walter was robbed of his pay at gunpoint near Jane St. and Lawrence Ave. W. last summer, the 18-year-old didn’t dare go to the police. “Our life is between work and home, but we are grateful when we see everyone home in one piece at the end of the day,” Daniel Castro said. “We pray the family will still be together the next day.”

Their lives are typical among those in the underground economy, who do jobs Canadians often consider undesirable, particularly in construction, the hotel and hospitality industries, domestic help and general labour. They don’t qualify for social assistance or employment insurance, and if they get sick they pay for care out of pocket.

Gone are those paragraphs of the past when illegals were sought after “skilled workers” .

They literally live their lives out of a suitcase …

Q: How many undocumented workers does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A: Don’t be stupid. They’re too tiny to lift a lightbulb.

Authorities sometimes sweep down on construction sites, where undocumented workers help fill a shortage of skilled workers.

Skilled, unskilled, skillled… my head is spinning….

A string of broken promises by Volpe’s predecessors, who never seemed to stick around long enough to deal with the issue…

Odd, that.

“We just want to live a normal life, but it appears that Canada thinks that it is easier to keep people like us illegally here in the country than to deal with the issue head-on,” said Luis Vargas, 43, who came from Mendoza, Argentina, in 1988. “Every time you have a new minister, they always say they will help. But all they want is some cheap labour for the economy. They want to give us no benefit.”

But wait! It gets better – this skilled unskilled undocumented worker who lives in a suitcase, keeps thousands under his mattress and fears for his life, owns a construction company;

In fact, Vargas, a failed refugee claimant, has been a successful construction subcontractor in Canada since his arrival and hired three others: one undocumented and two with refugee claims still active. His company makes about $150,000 a year. …

What is the number for Revenue Canada, anyway? Ready now… here it comes ….

All 29-year-old Martin wants is a better future for his 2-month-old daughter. Her birth followed a miscarriage that, in addition to the emotional toll, brought a hospital bill of $4,500.

A dead baby and no medicare! Holy crap! Does it get any better than this for a Star “reporter”?

Martin, another Argentine afraid to be identified, said undocumented migrants are not “jumping the queue” in the usual sense, since most would never qualify under the immigration points system, geared as it is toward immigrants with higher skills or money to invest.

All of you teeming, law-abiding, queue respecting masses, yearning to be taxed…
You’re going about things all the wrong way. Why are you patiently awaiting your legal fate under Canadian immigration policy, when you could just flush your passport down the airplane toilet and begin a new life in Canada as an skilled unskilled Liberal voter?
Offer ends soon.

The Canadian Wheat Board has announced initial payments for board grains “have been increased”. As curious as the unexpected windfall is the payment date.

The CWB today announced that 2004-05 initial payments for wheat, durum and designated barley will increase effective May 18, 2005.
The increase in initial payments for wheat and feed wheat will be $15.00 per tonne. In the case of durum, the increase will be $30.00 per tonne, except for No. 5 Canada Western Amber Durum, which will see an increase of $10.00 per tonne. For designated barley, the increase will be $13.00 per tonne on two-row and $15.00 on six-row.

(What else is going on May 18th… somebody help me out here…)
Previous dates:
2004 – May 13 (just prior to June 2004 election)
2003 – May 19
2002 – Mar 21
2001 – June 25
2000 – Feb 17
1999 – Feb 25
1998 – April 23
As cynical election ploys go, this one is especially egrarious – to help the Liberals gain a few farm votes the “arms length” Wheat Board is throwing the grain producers’ own money at them – pre-payment for grains they are legislatively mandated to sell to the CWB. The overpayment will be dealt with later in the year, when final payments are “adjusted” to claw the pre-election bonus back.
hat tip – John Gormley LIve, 650 CKOM Saskatoon

The Liberals claim to be putting ($8 – $9 – $10?) billion into security. Really? Where are the new cops?

Habamus Rodentum updates information on the hand that feeds the RCMP headquarters in Montreal and the federal tax centre in Shawinigan. Here’s a teaser – Liberal bagman Joe Morselli’s Buffet Trio, plus secret bank accounts and shredded invoices at the RCMP.
Here’s a bit of historical perspective (September 2000) to bring readers up to speed;

Organized crime mobs are targeting Parliament and other Canadian institutions in an attempt to spread corruption and political instability, says the new head of the RCMP.
During a remarkably candid news conference, Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli said yesterday that criminal groups are focusing on Parliament, the courts and other institutions with the aim of “destabilizing” the political system.
“For the first time in this country, we are seeing signs of criminal organizations that are so sophisticated that they actually are focusing on destabilizing certain aspects of our society,” said Commissioner Zaccardelli. The commissioner is a 30-year veteran of the RCMP who was previously the force’s deputy commissioner in charge of the fight against organized crime.
“That’s a real threat to us. There are criminal organizations that target this destabilization of our parliamentary system.”
[…]
Commissioner Zaccardelli’s startling comments were reminiscent of controversial statements made by former RCMP commissioner Norman Inkster in the 1980s.
Mr. Inkster told a Commons committee more than two dozen MPs were under criminal investigation. He refused to name the MPs, and only a handful were charged in subsequent years. It was later learned some of the investigations were routine inquiries following complaints.

A very long time ago, two people close to me confessed they were involved in lower rungs of organized crime. I had met each independantly and completely by chance while in college – and they were in different organizations. This was when I first learned that there were organized crime figures elected to parliament.

see here and here.