Alberta Legislature: Scumbags, Holodomor and Property Rights

There was a debate in the Legislature today (29 Nov 2011) regarding landowner property rights. There is no doubt that at least 4 of the bills passed in the Stelmach era went too far by removing basic landowner rights, eliminating public consultation and removing the appeal process.

Wildrose MLA Paul Hinman was talking in circles about the evils of these bills, when he veered off into an analogy to European history and the Ukrainian genocide of 1932, also known as the Holodomor.

Here's what he said as recorded in Hansard:

I mean, when you look at Europe, it's interesting. They still have vivid memories of the starvation. We just had a ceremony on Monday in commemoration of Holodomor, the starvation in Europe. That wasn't because of bad weather or not being able to produce. That was, again, an evil, corrupt government confiscating property from the people and trying to take that to destroy a region which the government was having difficulty controlling. [interjection] It's interesting that the Education minister wants to ask if that's for real when many of the acts that were taken inEurope during World War II and other times very much were brutal acts that didn't respect property rights. There are many areas in these bills that have no respect for property rights. When you step down that trail, we can see the end results, and we don't want to go there, not even one step, here in Alberta. Yet many government members seem to pride themselves on this and say: “We know best. We'll put it in cabinet. Cabinet will make those decisions.” It's just wrong, Mr. Chair. That's the last place we want those decisions to be made. What happens when cabinet makes those decisions is that they become political decisions, and political decisions are rarely in the interest of the people. They're usually more in the interest of a party in retaining and holding that power.

A bit of an offensive comparison I think, and by the way, it's the same inflammatory rhetoric that many far right people use to talk about gun registries, wheat boards and the state broadcaster.  Liberals are really just Communists, after all, and they're coming for you. 

Thomas Lukaszuk, the education minister, rose on a point of order (inflammatory language) and had this response:

Mr. Chairman, before we get to the amendment, I would like to rise on a point of order under section 23(h) of our standing orders, using language that entices, I believe it is, a disorder in the House. The hon. Member for Calgary-Glenmore about three or four minutes ago in his comments made a statement that I was hoping
initially I was mishearing. Then he repeated it several times, so without a possibility of denial he said exactly what I think I heard. I know what he said. Mr. Chairman, he compared the Alberta government's land-use policies legislation to the atrocities and genocide of Holodomor in Ukraine. What he's doing is comparing
polices that we're passing in this Legislature right now to Stalin's genocide during the 1930s in Ukraine, known as Holodomor, which killed somewhere between 6 million and 10 million people. If this isn't reaching a new bottom for the Wildrose, I don't know what is.

Neither do I. It's a complete low point.  Unethical and unparliamentary.   My guess is that Hinman knew the Ukrainian reference would get under the skin. It was a targeted reference. The Wildrose view of property rights excludes any type of public or government interest in infrastructure planning. In their world, there would be no environmental laws, and probably not much public infrastructure.

The question is the restoration of the balance between private and public rights.  The government went too far in removing rights and remedies from landowners. If you've read my blog, you'll know I support almost nothing this government has done, and I don't really expect the new Premier will do much about this issue. She is just as obligated to industry groups as her predecessors.

Full hansard of the debate is here. If you're on Twitter, the debate was raging there this evening.  Check the #ableg hashtag.









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Three Alberta Stories

...in under 3 minutes..GO

1. Alberta Cabinet Minister Ted Morton had his brief case stolen from his car on Thursday night. The thief left the brief case outside an apartment building where a CBC employee lived, who found it and returned it. We Canadians are polite and very deferential to authority. If this had happened in the United States the documents would have been posted all over the internet and Mr. Stelmach would have to resort to a special Twitter transparency session. Its a weird story, and I take away two things, indirectly.



First Alberta seems to have no interest in whistle blowing and seem to be a-OK with their Government's absurdly high level of secrecy and non-openeness. Of course I don't suggest we steal politician's brief cases, but please tell me your at least somewhat curious as to what they're up to.

Secondly, Morton admitted that the reason he had his brief case stolen was because he left it in his car while having dinner, but not only that, that he left the car running during dinner. With the doors unlocked. It was a strange admission. What got me was the nonchalant nature, as if its normal to leave your car running for 1 or 2 hours when its not real cold out. Aside from the environmental issues I wonder who was paying for the Gasoline. This sense of disregard is more irritating to me than losing the brief case. I hope the meal was good. Mr. Morton is the minister of Sustainable Resources. I see their SUV's around Calgary from time to time.

2. Paul Stanway, Alberta's version of Ron Ziegler, will be leaving his post at the end of January. As a former publisher of the Edmonton Sun, Stanway was just what Mr. Stelmach needed - a propaganda specialist to crank out the fake realities of the Premier's world. The transition from an illiterate newspaper to the Premier's office must have been quite seamless. I wish they would stop using the word communication, or at least look up its meaning. I've never been much of a believer that this Government has any interest in dialoguing with Albertans. Mr. Stanway's job was very simple: to crudely hammer a one way message to Albertans and hope it sticks. In that respect it really doesn't matter who they replace him with. Too late to snag Duffy, but maybe Charles
Adler is available.

3. There have been two unverified sightings of Mariam Makhniashvili in Alberta. One in Okotoks, a small town about 45 minutes south of Calgary, and a more recent one in Grande Prairie, about 5 hours north of Edmonton. In both cases the RCMP have said they have no way of knowing about the reliability of the reports, but are following up the leads. People probably want to believe the story will end well. Hopefully it will. Canadians are good people and we feel each others pain. Please recommend this post

Stelmach vs. Greenpeace

When it comes to Alberta's controversial tar-sands, it's not really a fair fight when it comes to the public relations problems. Premier Stelmach is not really equipped to deal with this type of conflict. My prediction that he would make it worse it coming true. I've been watching with growing anxiety as Alberta's Government loses a propaganda war with groups like Greenpeace and others. They're losing because they chose to go down a path of misinformation, silo thinking, and spending vast amounts of public money to convince the rest of the world and our energy trading partners that everything is fine when it clearly isn't.

The latest escalation is a series of mischief events in Fort McMurray, and east of Edmonton where Greenpeace troops occupied tar sands production facilities and illegally interfered with their operations. In the latest incident 16 Greenpeace members were arrested and charged with a variety of offenses such as trespassing and mischief.

These sites are pretty hard to secure thoroughly because they are often sprawling operations. Additionally, Albertans are generally trusting people who don't feel they have to put up barbed-wire and moats around their businesses.

I don't support Greenpeace and I don't really care if their members are arrested for legitimate offenses. They have a huge legal defense fund and the arrests are the exact theatre they were looking for. One thing I do feel strongly about is that our legal system is 100% impartial and that people get due process and a fair trial.

However, for a number of reasons it seems unlikely to me that they will get fair trials for these minor offenses. For one thing the Premier may have already comprised the objectivity of the Crown Prosecutor by making silly comments on the charges after the arrest. If you want a soviet style show trial, I guess Ed is your go to guy.

This could go either way. They may get harsh sentences because the judge thinks he/she is being politically directed. Or, the charges could be thrown out.

If the charges are thrown out because of perceived political interference then I hope the frothing-at-the-mouths will correctly blame the Premier instead of so called liberal-biased-activist-judges.

Shutting down tar-sands operations is not really an option considering that it will take decades to transition to other fuels while our consumption exponentially increases every year. Given the nature of Alberta's government there may never be a plan to transition. The bus we're all traveling on may well drive over a cliff.

The answer lies in honesty, respecting science, listening to dissenters, and the most difficult issue of all, separating our Government from the undue influence of industry. I suspect none of this will happen, but our ecology is worth the try.

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Where is Ed Stelmach? (Yawn)

Too good a graphic to waste, and so full of unintentional accuracy.

Since the beginning of the Bill 44 debate in Alberta, starting with Lindsay Blackett floating the idea to Tory fan boy Rick Bell, until the current argument about when the bill will be implemented, the Premier has been completely absent. During the historic Bill 44 debates in the Alberta Legislature the Premier didn't participate. I don't think he was even there for most of the debates. His absence was unprofessional and unparliamentary. In the meantime Blackett and Hancock spar through the media, like children, over the time frame to implement Bill 44. Hancock, after being in the party since he was 12 years old, apparently has no influence left, and bill 44 will go into effect this fall.

In the meantime, the economy has gone south. The Finance Minister managed to get though an economic update, high on rhetoric, low on facts, without insulting single mothers or double earners. (We must see the positive.) There is some reason to believe that the low price of natural gas will pin the Alberta economy in deficit for some time to come.

All of it reminds me of that scene in Rosemary's Baby where Mia Farrow finally gets what's actually happening. This is no dream! This is really happening!

So where is Ed? I don't know and I don't think it really matters much.

Update: September 7,2009

An op-ed at the Sheldon Chumir foundation by Janet Keeping, worth reading in and of itself, claims that Bill 44 will not be implemented until September 2010. Closed door top door Government - keep them guessing.

(On my fifth try now, hopefully I got the right link this time. )



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