Blue Like You

If you have been following the progress of Bill C-484 (Unborn Victim of Crimes Bill ), you will likely be very interested in MP Ken Epp’s feature in today’s Ottawa Citizen - Pro-choice Fears .

Epp clarifies the Supreme Court rulings on the matter of protecting the fetus as follows:

…Misrepresentations of Supreme Court rulings have also been used to discredit Bill C-484. When the Supreme Court has said that the fetus is not a "person," it has simply been acknowledging the law as it stands today. The Supreme Court has never said that the fetus ought not to be given some protection in criminal law. In fact, it has said that Parliament has a legitimate interest in the protection of the unborn child and that it is not up to the courts to figure out how to do that, it is up to the legislators.

Bill C-484 is an attempt to provide such protection in one very narrow circumstance - when the unborn child is injured or killed when the mother is the victim of a crime…

So this bill is simply recognizing the wishes of the mother to carry the pregnancy to term and give birth to the child that she is so looking forward to holding in her arms. Bill C-484 protects the right of that woman, so that anyone trying to terminate her pregnancy against her wishes would be appropriately punished.

As it stands now, there is no special recognition of the woman’s right to have her baby. In the past, we have only safeguarded the rights of women who wish to terminate their pregnancies and that right would not be affected by this legislation.

So it is simply an effort to treat all women with the same concern and protection - not just those who have chosen to end their pregnancies.

If it’s true that you can’t pick and choose rights, then the progressives should have no trouble passing this bill.

In today’s Ottawa Sun, Lorrie Goldstein showcases the inherent flaw of Dalton McGuinty’s economic strategy to save Ontario from continuing down the vortex of manufacturing job losses - there is no accountability.

…McGuinty said yesterday he will be giving more of our money to General Motors, which is now seeking $140 million for a new engine plant in St. Catharines and a research centre in Oshawa.

This despite the $250 million Queen’s Park has already invested in GM, which recently laid off 2,300 auto workers in Windsor and Oshawa.

That’s half the $500 million McGuinty has invested in the auto sector since 2004 through the Ontario Auto Investment Stategy (OAIS).

The premier boasts those funds led to $7 billion in new investment for Ontario, creating or protecting thousands of jobs and making the province the No. 1 auto producer in North America.

Conservative Leader John Tory and the NDP’s Howard Hampton have attacked McGuinty for failing to get job guarantees when these grants were given…

…But how good is the Ontario government, really, at sorting out the winners and losers among American, Japanese and other car manufacturers?

Goldstein suggests that we need an independent, non-partisan body to make these kinds of decisions - Someone like provincial Auditor General Jim McCarter .

I can agree to a point with this plan, but it still doesn’t address some very serious underlying issues. The auto industry is not merely threatened by poor decision-making on the manufacturer’s part regarding gas-guzzlers, etc. There is a very complex situation, involving a perfect storm of the interaction of the high Canadian dollar, high (unionized) labour costs, high provincial taxes and onerous red tape, rising power and fuel costs, a volatile U.S. market, and the unceasing influx of cheaper imports.

Based on the challenges of that set of criteria, McCarter would probably have better luck picking a winner at Woodbine, than handicapping a worthwhile choice from a field of manufacturing contestants.

I suspect what really influences Dalton’s decisions is the optics of who he’s supporting, rather than the nuts and bolts of the bottom line. He’s looking for the biggest political bang for our buck .

And that is what cherry-picking does. It woos the bigger fish at the expense of the smaller ones - and the Ontario tax-paying suckers get to subsidize the OLP in the process.

No wonder Dalton doesn’t want to listen to Flaherty. After all, It’s not really about doing something. It’s about being seen to be doing something.