Canadian Politico

A Pro-war students' union. A Canadian first?

2008-07-14T09:15:00.007-02:30

A first maybe not, but in the most recent edition of the Muse, a student paper of Memorial University of Newfoundland, the undergrads give a ringing endorsement of General Rick Hillier for Chancellor.

The spokesperson for the undergrads (and apparently now a spokesperson for the William's government as well?) sees no problem with having a general as the head of the University. Not only that, but she even claims that there is no opposition at all to this appointment, saying:

Hillier’s appointment has yet to cause any waves.

“It hasn’t been negative and it hasn’t been positive, it’s more of a ‘whoa what’s going to happen’ kind of thing,” said Penney. “I don’t see him and his being in Afghanistan having anything to do with this; I see that as two separate things.”

Penney agrees with Campbell’s view that Hillier’s popularity can bring attention to the University and says she hopes he upholds the Williams government’s views on education.

Seeing, firstly, that most Canadians oppose their country's involvement in the American occupations overseas, and secondly, that students traditionally are more likely to be against war that the average citizen, it seems bizarre that Ms. Penny can't find opposition to his appointment on her campus. Turn off the ol' blackberry? Poke the ol'd noggin' out the office door?

Or if this is a bit much, perhaps the policies of her organization might provide a guiding light (they're officially anti-war and have been pretty much throughout their, and for that matter the entire student movement's, history).

She sees Hillier's appointment and his role as head of the Canadian occupation of Afghanistan as two different things, as if it is just some fluke that the person, presumably randomly selected from the citizenry to be chancellor, also just happened to be the guy who oversees foreign occupations in his spare time. Seeing Ms. Penny can't draw the connections, I thought I'd help here a little.

Melissa, generals should not be moving from occupations to the head of our educational institutions. Hillier has been a great living example of the saying that 'the first casualty of war is the truth' in his defense of Canada's role in the American-led Central Asian and Middle East project. He has consistently misled the Canadian public about the war and our role in it. He has no place in an institution which has truth as its aim.

Melissa, a man who is being examined by experts as a possible war criminal is not a good person to have as a representative for your university. Your union needs to encourage the selection of candidates that support your values. Hillier does not. It doesn't matter how much Danny likes him. Nope, not at all. He doesn't matter. Your members do. Resist the urge. It's your job to support the policies of your union and make sure things like this don't happen, not encourage it. You can vote for Danny in secret later -- noone will know. Remember, sucking up is not a lobbying strategy.

You see, others may not understand you when you try to separate his roles. They might just think you're a pro-war apologist. Your peers might do what they did to one of your predecessors when he started shooting his mouth off contrary to the official policies of the organization you're supposed to be speaking for. They decided it was best to have his office vacant rather than occupied. Search Gilbert Salam when the Muse archives goes online again.

There are, of course, fears that this appointment will lead to an increased relationship with the military in terms of research and recruitment. It likely will, of course. This is a guy who turned the Chief of Defense Staff into an openly political (with a capital "p") position. But if you had missed this we'd forgive you. This is beside a more pressing point: that Hillier is an inappropriate symbol for Memorial, which should continue as a reminder of the horror and sacrifice of the First and Second World Wars, and not as recruitment tool for current ones. Get it?

Mining and NL Lakes

2008-06-26T15:05:00.006-02:30

What struck me most when I started hearing about this a while ago was how absurd it seemed. You see, Environment Canada has the ability to rename lakes and bodies of water as waste facilities. At first I though this seemed a little crazy -- when I hear the word facility I think of a building of some sort. You know, something that has an element of man-made-ness to it. Wilderness is not what you have in mind.

What's even more disturbing is that this change in classification is done through Environment Canada, who are apparently abandoning normal bureaucratic procedures to speed up the lakes' destruction. Then, after the destruction of the lake, they plan on building a new one!

It's shocking that finding less disastrous, if more costly options are not chosen for mining. In NL there's a tradition of selling ourselves short development projects, looks like this might be the next on a long list. The shareholders must be happy...

Marriage

2008-06-04T12:26:00.004-02:30

I certainly mean to post more than I have , and am trying to switch into high gears to get a few up a week. Here's something that needs little commentary but that I'm sure will ruffle the feathers of any conservatives out there: Traditonal Marriage

That entire site often has some great stuff -- especially from Charles Taylor.

Minimum wage increase in NL

2008-04-02T06:55:00.005-02:30

Today at CBC they're running this story in NL, which opens:

"Newfoundland and Labrador's minimum wage rose Tuesday, although it's expected to have little effect on employers who are already desperate to find workers."

Ok. First of all, I know the CBC has faced some pretty severe cuts in NL but this is a little absurd. The goal of a minimum wage is to keep people from starving too quickly, not, as the title suggests, to help employers. They can increase their wages to a point where employees can even survive reasonably well if they decide to do so. That this Timmy Hoes owner needs a gun put to his head to start paying his employees? He can give them the whole store if he wants to and they can run it. There, problem solved.

Secondly, that the wage's floor is so low in NL (and throughout Canada and the US generally) is appalling. In the service sector especially and McJobs especially -- where capital flight cannot be as great a problem (they can't mail you your double-double from India or Mexico (for everything else thanks NAFTA), the minimum wage can help keep money in the province (cash to employees and not to the profit margin), redistribute wealth and create more economic activity as these lower income persons by some of the things they desperately need. Even in non-service sectors the minimum wage has a negligible impact on the economy at worst (even using neoclassical methods of classifying the economy) while benefiting those who need it most. I spent half a year researching minimum wage policy, and unless you work with a (group)think-tank like the Fraser Institute the results are pretty clear.

Personally these people need to unionize to make their working conditions worthwhile (Newfoundland and Labrador's labour laws are not the friendliest), but until then surely the government can index the minimum wage and increase it to a livable level. They owe it to the people they represent.