The least you can do is be annoying on your own dime

Does this bother you as much as it bothers me?

OTTAWA – Aboriginal and environmental activists opposed to the Northern Gateway pipeline proposal have tapped a gusher of funding for their activities — taxpayers.

Almost 50 groups will dip into about $2.8 million from the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency’s (CEAA) participant funding program to help them contribute to hearings on Enbridge’s proposal to connect Alberta’s oilsands to a tanker terminal in northern B.C.

[...]

Earlier this month, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver slammed foreign-funded environmental “radicals,” yet some of the groups he was likely talking about got Canadian tax money to advance anti-oilsands arguments.

About $400,000 from the CEAA is slated for nine anti-pipeline activist groups, including $60,000 for ForestEthics, which is funded by American foundations and tied to Tides Canada, charitable group that funds environmental and social activists.

Despite the federal cash, a founding member of ForestEthics, Tzeporah Berman, accused the Prime Minister’s Office of trying to “silence dissent.”

Call your MP, email the prime minister, to let them know you’d rather this $2.8 million went to something marginally less aggravating. Shouldn’t be hard to find.


Two minutes of politics, January 26

There are a number of things in President Obama’s state of the union address on Tuesday night that annoyed me. Not surprising, seeing as I’m not exactly keen on Marxist politicians, and I’m not wild about “economic equality”, which the president called the defining issue of our time. If the American people give him the


And now this…

There’s an old saying in Quebec: When you spit in the air, don’t be surprised to have it fall down on your face. It applies wonderfully to former Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe, who finds himself in even more trouble this morning. MONTREAL — Former Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe used thousands of dollars from his


Two minutes of politics, January 25

I don’t know about you, but I am really tired of being threatened with violence and other unpleasantness by some native leaders. I’m also pretty tired of hearing that I’m never doing enough to help fix native problems. I did find yesterday summit particularly annoying. Stephen Harper gave an embarrassingly groveling speech, which was immediately


Two minutes of politics, January 24

Should we extend the ban on burkas and other face coverings beyond citizenship swearing-in ceremonies, as some Muslims are asking of Immigration Minister Jason Kenney? Yes. What the Muslim Canadian Congress is asking for is federal legislation making people remove any face covering when working in the public sector or doing business with government officials.


Two minutes of politics, January 23

Yes, they’re out of office – mostly. But even with just a handful of MPs after a historic thumping in the last election, the Bloc Quebecois still manages to make our blood boil. And yes, of course, it has to do with money. Our money, which they’re taking and abusing without even so much as


Two minutes of politics, January 19

How old are you? If, like me, you’re 45 or younger, chances are you’re not really thinking about retirement. And why would you? You’re unlikely to be able to afford it. You know it, I know it, everybody knows it. We do our best to save anyway – we contribute to RRSP or other investment


Two minutes of politics, January 18

There is a debate these days over a suggestion by a leading Canadian medical journal to withhold information about the sex of your fetus in an effort to curb sex-selection abortions in this country. I am both delighted and amused. Delighted because I welcome any and all debate on abortion. We’re kind of overdue… But


Finally! An interesting debate!

Yes, I stayed up past my bedtime to watch this debate, and yes, it was worth it.


Two minutes of politics, January 17

Ah, institutional bilingualism. Are you as tired of it as I am? I’m about $2.4 billion tired. That’s how much the Fraser Institute says we are spending on official bilingualism in Canada. Most of that money, or $1.5 billion, is spent by the feds. Of the remaining $870 million, the lion’s share is spent by