The Proletariat Congress

These days it’s hard to find something to praise about the US. Most of the time, it’s easier to criticise but in this case, I can readily say that there is one good thing about their system that is sorely lacking in Canada. It has to do with the passport system.

In Canada, your passport is only good for a paltry five years and in order to acquire said document in the first place, you need to provide a copy of your birth certificate or proof of citizenship as well as supply the government with two further pieces of ID that prove you are who you say you are (this can be a license, health card, SIN card etc), address information, workplace information, as well as supply two character references who have known you for two years, emergency contact and secure a guarantor who has known you for at least two years.

On top of the plethora of requested information, you also need to have the passport picture taken to match certain requirements. Such as, you cannot smile (meaning, you can’t say cheese), it has to be taken against a certain background etc.

Once you’ve done all the paperwork, then you bring it into the passport office and shell out $85CND for a document that will only be valid for 5 years. And that fee is for typical processing time not for accelerated processing time, it’s for the regular time, which is now subject to a massive 10 week backlog. That is if you don’t do it over the internet. If you go in person, it’s only a mere 2 week delay.

Your Passport

US Passport

However, in the US, while there are strident regulations like there are in Canada, there is one key difference which makes their system preferable and it is the simple fact that they don’t have to renew their passport for 10 years after it is sent to them. On top of that, the passport is actually renewable, unlike in Canada, where after the 5 year period, it expires, requiring the person to begin the process all over even though they already went through the process.

The cost of acquiring a passport in the US is also less than it is here, not only because the applicant can renew after a longer period of time but because the initial cost is less over all.

The initial cost is $82USD, and renewal is $67.

There are various documents that are required but the factors such as the valid time period and cost make it favourable as well as the fact that the renewal process is simplified for those who have already been approved.

Too bad it won’t apply in Canada until August 15^th, 2007. But even then, it won’t help me because I’ll be hit with the backlog when I go to “renew” my passport – got to love name changing.

The Conservatives are not on the same page as the rest of Canada. Many of us do not want to support anything about the Bush administration from its unwillingness to commit to Kyoto and legitimate environmental and climate change goals to the use of anti-ballistic missile defence, which can lead to the weaponization of space and potential arm races between nations.

The rest of the political leaders have shown they can listen to Canadians. They also have a better grasp of the reality the world and that supporting failed policies of the lame-duck American administration would be political suicide. Their concerns about the lack of transparency and the attempts by Harper to cosy up to the Americans show a lack of respect for the Canadian public.

NDP leader Jack Layton – “It seems to me that Mr. Harper is trying to do by the back door what he could never do by the front door if he faced Canadians, and that’s to get Canada involved in an arms race, to support George Bush’s manoeuvre, to expand the Star Wars undertaking,”

“I think he’s violating his own principles here, which were that Parliament should be deciding on such incredibly important matters of foreign policy,”

“This is all a part of Stephen Harper’s desire to follow the instructions from the White House and to enter into a deeper and deeper integrated relationship in North America, with the United States. It’s not where Canadians want to go, but it’s clearly what he’s had in his sights for some time.”

There is one thing that Layton is clear about and the majority of Canadians would agree and that is that we do not want to be so deeply integrated with the Americans and follow the will of their government so closely. Many Canadians favour good relations, which means open and free trade, being treated fairly at the border and not having to present a passport. But instead we’re being forced to provide passports to prove we’re not terrorists; our exports had protectionist tariffs slapped on and we have to fight to have NAFTA enforced.

The American government doesn’t want an ally; it wants someone to be its lapdog, since Britain is doesn’t want to take it up the ass any more, and others have decided that they’re tired of helping to forward a corrupt American agenda that seeks to destroy those who it disagrees with. Look at Pakistan, they’ve curbed a series of media freedoms and they get the slightest tongue lashing from the American government, yet Venezuela does the same thing and the American government can’t wait to embargo and sanction it out the ass.

This is the administration that the Conservatives are cosying up with. They don’t represent Canadian values.

This attitude that Harper is displaying at the G8 Summit on Climate Change only further displays his general contempt for the Canadian voting public. He is fine with making promises to get his agenda into the office but when it comes to living up to those promises, we see nothing good. Nothing he promised during the election is being tabled. This includes putting to a vote the idea to revisit missile defence.

Instead of putting it before parliament, he’s quietly making commitments behind close doors. That is hardly accountable and is lacking in transparency, two core principles he preached during his bid for election.

While Layton expressed a more indepth opinion on the matter, Dion is more straightforward, though his honesty is a little scarier than Layton’s.

“If this government was a majority government today … we would be supporting officially ballistic-missile defence, as we would be officially out of Kyoto.”

“We are against it, it’s very clear.”

This is a terrifying thought. We’d be giving up our freedoms to refuse the Americans to make them happy.

Rejecting Kyoto achieves nothing.

Signing onto the ballistic missile defence would only make us a target for those who want an arms race. It would escalate international tensions. It would reduce our credibility as a peaceful nation. By setting up such a system, we’re saying we don’t trust anyone and that we’re ready to go to war if you look at us funny. Too American for my liking.

It has too much of a Cold War feel to it. The tensions during that time were great and it created a climate of distrust too many splinter groups who would want to destroy each other.

Having to spend more on defence, takes away tax payer dollars that could otherwise be used to invest the police forces across the nation, into healthcare, a viable childcare programme, education, fighting poverty, improving domestic infrastructure, improving our water and sewage systems, environmental preservation, economic development, investing in native reserves that give them opportunities to break out of the cycle of poverty and violence. There are so many other programmes and departments that the tax payer dollars into than national defence, the worthless war on terror (and the war in Afghanistan) and a ballistic missile defence system that has yet to show its workability as a defence solution.

PM backs ‘Star Wars’: Critics

The CRTC has decided that they don’t need to keep a cap on the number of minutes cable networks are allowed to devout to commercials. The current cap is levied at 12 minutes, an insult to the average Canadian viewer who pays for the privilege of having cable television delivered to the home. The time cap should be significantly less; we do not need to be needless bombarded with more television advertising. It’ll drive the consumer base away from television and other media outlets that bombard us with mindless ads that scream at us about meaningless products we either already have or don’t need.

As it currently stands, 12 minutes of each hour are spend dedicated to commercials. Never mind the fact that opening and closing credits take another two or three minutes each, plus any warnings that may be aired upon returning the programme, leaving very little room for actual programming. This means that in the span of a one hour show, the viewer is subject to 12 minutes of ads, a good two minutes or so for opening credits, another two or so for closing credits, plus time delays between returning to the show because of warnings or tv station logos.

So… 60 min(time slot) -12 min(commercials) -5 min(credits) -(30sx4) (warnings) = ~41 minutes of show time, excluding the blank space inserted, plus the chance of blackouts et cetera. So, from this, we lose at least 20 minutes of actually programming because of time devoted to ads, credits and any warnings plus blank space, plus any space dedicated to “programme sponsors”. Yet the CRTC thinks it justifiable to ease the restrictions to allow for up to 15 minutes of commercials?

They want to Americanise Canadian television more by allowing broadcasters to spend about as much time on commercials as Americans currently do, which is anywhere from 14-16 minutes? Do we really need to be bombarded with more commercials? There is more than enough advertising already in this world without having to deal with another 3 minutes of commercials per every tv viewing hour.

Ads are pervading every element of our society; they are littered on the streets, our newspapers, magazines, bus stops, the internet, movie theatres.

And groups anti-piracy groups wonder why people would rather download stuff for free. If we actually got substantial programming on TV that wasn’t littered with endless ads maybe people would want to pay for the cable package or want to go to the movies but when we have to pay to watch ads, we’d rather pirate it because it’s cheaper and at least we know we wouldn’t be forced to ads.

TV ad limits lifted

In 2005, during a Coyotes-Habs game that went down in Montreal, it was alleged by one of the linesmen that Coyotes Forward, Shane Doan uttered a slur along the lines of “fucking Frenchmen” about an official to team-mate Curtis Joseph, when a supposed bad call had been issued. The pending matter had gone to court and Doan was cleared because there wasn’t enough evidence to prove that he had said it and it was entirely possible that it had been uttered by another team-mate entirely.

Fast forward to 2007 and we’ve got the Bloc with its feathers in a ruffle over a supposed comment that was never proven, with the rest of the parliamentary rank and file jumping on the bandwagon like so many lemmings. All four presiding federal parties have united in a show of national loyalty to force Hockey Canada to justify their selection of Shane Doan as the captain for Team Canada.

Yet last year at Turin, where was our federal government when the team trotted out Todd Bertuzzi as a member of Team Canada? Why did the government call that into question? Bertuzzi had sucker-punched Steve Moore, driving him onto the ice.

Sure hockey is violent but how is it justifiable to allow for a person like Bertuzzi to play yet question the selection of Doan? Bertuzzi had plead guilty to the charges, went through trial and was issued a conviction. Doan was cleared but who was questioned? Not the guilty person…

Am I so wrong if I think our politicians should be spending their time on more worthy issues like poverty, welfare reform, progression of women’s rights and other domestic matters that will shape the future of Canada?

If you agree that this is a waste of time, then perhaps you may wish to sign a petition to alert our government to the fact that the voting public believes that this is not a federal matter.

SaveDoan.ca
No innocent bystanders in Doan affair