StraightGoods.ca

The government has just badly messed up on this file – NDP's Peter Julian.

by Ish Theilheimer and Samantha Bayard

OTTAWA, Straight Goods News, November 5, 2012: Today the House debated the case of Manitoba reporter Jill Winzoski, who appears to have been fired for asking a Conservative MP embarassing questions over things like the takeover by Chinese interests of the Nexen oil company.

At issue was an email Conservative MP James Bezan (Selkirk-Interlake) sent to Winzoski — and later retracted — in which he said he did not support the Nexen deal. She was fired from her job at the Selkirk Record shortly afterward.

NDP energy critic Peter Julian told Straight Goods News: "I think it’s very disturbing that a journalist has lost her job after we had a backbencher in the Conservative Party telling the truth on his opinion as far as the CNOOC takeover of Nexen is concerned."

Science minister Gary Goodyear dodged all questions about Winzoski in the House.

Peter Julian says the Conservatives have botched the Nexen file

The NDP has repeatedly asked for a clear defininition of the "net benefit" to be considered for all major foreign investments in Canada. They want these terms clearly set before the Nexen deal is finalized.

"The government has just badly messed up on this file," Julian said. "There’s no other way to put it. We now have potential investors who are concerned because they’ve no clarity around net benefit."

With all the negative feedback they're getting on this, Julian thinks the Conservatives may try to finalize the deal quickly before the holiday break. "If they try to rubberstamp it around Christmas time and they think the public won’t be attentive to that — I think they’re deceiving themselves — because I think that Canadians will react very badly," said Julian.

Solutions begin with changing how the system treats people who self-harm.

by Ish Theilheimer and Samantha Bayard

OTTAWA, Straight Goods News, November 1, 2012: Interim Liberal leader Bob Rae said today that the tragic case of teenager Ashley Smith, who committed suicide at Grand Valley Institution for Women in 2007, shows the Harper government wants to sweep the mistreatment of young people with mental health problems in Canadian prisons under the rug.

"Governments have a responsibility to get to the bottom of it and rather than doing that what we’ve seen is this government has done everything it can to prevent information from coming out," said interim Liberal leader Bob Rae.

Bob Rae says Ashley Smith's death should never have happened

NDP public safety critic Randall Garrison (Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca) was not as critical of the government. "I think there’s some value in the coroner’s inquest," he told reporters, But it’s really a rear view mirror and arguing about jurisdiction at the inquest isn’t going to solve the problem."

Garrison said solutions come from the Correctional Investigator, who, "Made very clear recommendations that we have to change the way the system treats people who self-harm in prison. So if you break your leg, you go out and you get special treatment to fix your leg. What we’ve traditionally done is people who self-harm are treated as acting out or misbehaving and they go into segregation so very clear recommendations that we not use prolonged segregation for people who do self-harm, that we get outside medical assistance for those people if it’s not available in the system and the CorrectionalInvestigator said we need an outside clinician to evaluate how we’re treating people with self-harm."
 

C-377 divides Harper backbenchers, called unenforceable.

by Samantha Bayard and Ish Theilheimer

OTTAWA, October 30, 2012, Straight Goods News — The NDP today attacked a private
member's bill intended to hobble trade unions with costly paperwork and invasive demands.

Continue reading »