Des Nouveaux Links

We've added the "Blogs for the CPC" Blogroll... With the blogging world behind him, nothing can stop Stephen Harper's quest for the Prime Ministership now! (CAUTION: PLVQ is not and cannot be responsible for any orthographical, factual, ideological, or grammatical errors contained on sites therein).

Also, Laurie Hawn, the next Member of Parliament for Edmonton Centre, and ALW, a fellow law student attending the University of Western Ontario (why?), are newly featured.

UPDATE: We've also added Le Quebecois Libre, a bilingual journal reviewing current affairs through the lens of the libertarian, emanating from Canada's most statist province.

Liberating New Hampshire

Bellator and I and others of similar sentiment often joke about leaving Canada for a country or jurisdiction that isn't so statist in its people's disposition or its government's actions. For example, Australia--which recently re-elected John Howard for a fourth-consecutive term on an unabashedly free-market platform--would be an ideal candidate for resettlement, or even Alberta (provided Dr. Ted Morton, MLA succeeds Ralph Klein as Premier).

However, Reason recently (and lengthily) profiles an organised movement to establish a veritable libertopia in New Hampshire, often already considered one of the freest areas of North America. The Free State Project (of which I have occasionally heard) is encouraging libertarians who sign onto the project to move to that state once they achieve a critical mass of 20,000 individuals. Given the tiny size of New Hampshire--and its current conservative/libertarian bent--this proposition to create a classically liberal paradise may not be such an unattainable dream.

Should our plans to de-statify Canada go awry, Bellator and I may wish to consider resettlement in a friendly state to the south of Quebec rather than a continent a world away.

Debut of REGULATIONWATCH

In the tradition of PLVQ's hugely successful "ARAFATWATCH", which chronicled the final days of history's worst terrorist and analysed the concomitant geopolitical ramifications, comes "REGULATIONWATCH", a sporadic feature which will draw attention to ridiculous, excessive, or unnecessary regulations in Canadian jurisdictions.

Our first installment relates to one of Canada's most regulated industies: agriculture. What a better name for an act whose sole purpose is the regulation of an entire industry than Nova Scotia's "Dairy Industry Act".

The Act is mainly delegatory, outlining the powers of a Board and a Council which have the regulatory authority to, among other things:

"prescribing...the price or prices or the maximum or minimum prices for fluid milk products..."
"prescribing...the quantities or containers or types of containers in which fluid milk products may be sold..."
"prohibiting the sale of fluid milk products...at a price other than the price prescribed by the Council or at a price higher than the maximum price or lower than the minimum price prescribed by the Council"
"prohibiting...a producer from discontinuing the sale of milk to the Board..."

The rest of the act is hilarious--it's recommended reading if you want to get really riled up about the unnecessary expanse of state authority. Apparently, I was naive to think that Nova Scotian dairy farmers were enlightened or mature enough to be able to sell their wares in a free marketplace (which of course isn't just specific to this province--the whole country's agricultural sector is laden with brutal protectionist subsidisation and regulation).

First Georgia, then Ukraine, then Belarus?

A heartening story from the Globe today: activists from Belarus, affectionately called "Europe's Last Dictatorship", have been using Ukraine's Orange Revolution to recruit interested parties for a future peaceful revolution there.

Since the fall of communism, Belarus' leaders have maintained a Soviet-style authoritarianism, ensuring that Belarussians are some of the most oppressed peoples among the undemocratic Soviet successor states.

Let's hope that the results of Ukraine's revolution emboldens Belarussians in the coming months and years to achieve what Ukrainians did so remarkably rapidly and successfully.

Belated Congratulations to President Yushchenko

PLVQ belatedly congratulates Ukraine's Viktor Yushchenko on his second consecutive presidential election victory in a month.

We are also happy to announce that we have successfully continued our streak of predicting victors (Viktors?) of international elections, all of whom happen to be liberal/Pro-West candidates.

Maybe we can extend this streak to the next Canadian election--I can't handle much more of the Liberal Party of Canada.

Fuelling the Flames of Newfoundland Separatism

Interesting news from the Rock: apparently Premier Danny Williams has ordered the removal of Canadian flags from government buildings in Newfoundland. This is in response to the federal government's insistence on renegging on a promise made during the June election to ensure that equalisation funding provided to his province is not clawed back because of the natural resource revenue it receives.

Never mind that the federal government seems to want to encourage the poorer provinces to remain in a retarded state of development by preventing them from benefitting financially from resource exploitation: the Liberal government lacks simple political tact. Given their precarious minority position, you would think that they would want to be as endearing as possible to a province that delivered all of its seats (save two) to the government in the last election, but I expect nothing less from the politically incompetent regime of Paul Martin.

Putin: Renationalisation of Russia's Oil Industry Shows Commitment to Free Market Principles

As PLVQ recently mentioned, Russian oil behemoth Yukos was recently auctioned; the eventual buyer was Baikal Finance which was subsequently purchased by state-owned Rosneft.

BBC reports that Vladimir Putin defended the state's purchase of the seized private oil company, saying:

"Now the state, using market methods, is safeguarding its interests. I think this is quite normal..."

What a Christmas gift to see the old KGB boss disavowing statism and announcing his support for a "free market", a "market" in which the state is permitted to jail corporate CEOs it dislikes, create trumped up tax evasion charges in order to seize a company's assets, and use its courts to initiate an auction process in which it is the only competitive bidder.

It's probably time that Putin's communications outfit adopt spin that doesn't rival that of the Iraqi Information Minister during the Second Gulf War.

Human Rights Commissions--The Babysitting Wing of the Welfare State

At Dalhousie Law School, first-year students are treated to an entire term of learning statutory interpretation through the Canadian Human Rights Act, as well as exposure to the litany of litigation emanating from human rights statutes throughout the country.

I am often amazed at the intellectual gymnastics that appellate courts in this country will use to ensure that Canada's human rights statutes regulate private behaviour as far and wide as possible. For example, an employee claiming discrimination, who can identify with a prohibited ground thereof provided for in a human rights act or code (exempli gratia race, disability, religion, etc.) is required to be accommodated to the point of undue hardship, which of course, the courts construe as meaning that some (often much) hardship (ie. financial) must be borne by an employer in order to accommodate employees with special preferences or "differences". Never mind the financially deleterious impact this might have on a business--no cost is too great to achieve the "Canadian values" of equality, love, happiness and non-discrimination.

But today's absurdity is not the result of a court ruling or a toughening of a human rights statute by one of our esteemed legislatures, it is the ridiculous pronouncements of the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission, with respect to a complaint which had recently been dismissed by the provincial Court of Appeal.

The complaint centred around the use of the word "kemosabe", uttered by an employer as an address to some of his employees at a retail store in Cape Breton. The phrase has its origins in the Lone Ranger TV series, in which a native character used the same name to address his caucasian collegues (the complainant in the case was a Mi'kmaq woman).

The complaint was eventually heard by the NS Court of Appeal, where it was dismissed as the word was not found to be "notoriously offensive."

Now, the NS Human Rights Commission wants to take the case to the Supreme Court of Canada arguing that:

"We think it's time to clarify that and have some ground rules so people know what's permissible and what isn't."

It's sad that this has come to the point in Canada where an appeal to the SCC is seriously countenanced in order to determine what words are or are not offensive. But alas, I expect nothing less from our Human Rights Commissions, which bring their already abused mandate further into disrepute with their advocacy of nonsense such as this proposed appeal.

The Most Important End-of-year List

A beacon of light shining amidst the vapid sea of the December news cycle is Freedom House's "Freedom of the World" index. The annual survey measures the political liberties afforded to citizens in nearly every country in the world (as well as prominent non-sovereign areas such as Chechnya and Tibet), using indicators such as fairness of elections, media freedom, and women's equality.

The survey is especially useful in that one can track a country's advancement towards (or decline from) democracy and individual rights given the scope of the data and its annual rankings.

This year's lowlight is Russia, which was downgraded from Partially Free to Not Free, which, according to FH's press release:

"...is the culmination of a growing trend under President Vladimir Putin to concentrate political authority, harass and intimidate the media, and politicize the country's law-enforcement system," said Freedom House Executive Director, Jennifer Windsor. "These moves mark a dangerous and disturbing drift toward authoritarianism in Russia, made more worrisome by President Putin's recent heavy-handed meddling in political developments in neighboring countries..."

Promising, however, is that areas such as Georgia and Ukraine moved towards greater political liberty on FH's scale, on account of the successful reform movements in those countries over the last year--despite attempts by Russia to install or support illiberal candidates and administrations in both former Soviet Republics.

One can only hope that over the coming years, Russians themselves begin to see the great economic and political strides made by their neighbours in Georgia and Ukraine, and begin to demand real democracy in Russia--if not through the ballot box, then by peacefully taking to the streets until the morally bankrupt Putin regime falls.

On the New Russia (Same as the Old?)

PLVQ appeciates the need for the West to engage Russia rather than isolate it, despite its slide back towards authoritarianism--the hallmark of governance in that country for much of its history. At some point, however, the West has to put its foot down.

The latest: Reuters reports that Yukos, one of the world's largest oil companies, will be broken up and auctioned in order to "pay off back taxes" that it allegedly owes the Russian government. These charges, of course, are highly suspect--Yukos' CEO months ago was jailed and awaits trial on allegations of tax evasion, though many observers agree that the jailing was simply a means to silence a potential political rival of Putin's. Making things worse, the top contender to purchase Yukos' assets is (shock, horror) the state-controlled energy conglomerate, Gazprom.

Elimination of direct election of regional governors. Tight controls on the media. No viable opposition. Interference in attempts at political and economic liberalisation in former Soviet republics. Possible instigator of the poisoning of the democratically-elected President of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko.

Fifteen years after the end of the Cold War, this is the New Russia. If it weren't for the lack of two-hour-long queues to purchase bread, you would think that Putin was Nikita Khrushchev's successor instead of Boris Yeltsin's.

Liquor Liberalisation and the Denial of Due Process, all in one!

Well, the Ontario Liberal Government has finally introduced its much-awaited liquor liberalisation reforms, permitting restaurants to become "bring-your-own-wine" establishments while also allowing patrons to take unfinished bottles of wine home.

However, the legislation, as proposed, has a draconian element. According to the Globe and Mail:

The legislation also increases fines for liquor violations and gives the Registrar of Alcohol and Gaming more power. The registrar would be able to suspend a liquor licence immediately if it's deemed to be in the public interest.

But this arbitrarily excessive power of the state to destroy one's livelihood had to be expected. After all, given this government's track record, the only way it would consider expanding liberty would be to concurrently restrict it.

Patronus' Return

Well, my mid-year law exams are over, so expect a proliferation of posting over the coming weeks!