Northman's Fury

Less than two weeks old, and already the "false positive" problem rears its head.

Two boys named Alistair Butt, one from Saskatchewan and one from Ontario, were stopped while trying to board flights last week because their name matches a name that appears on a no-fly list.

The Ontario boy, a 15-year-old from the Ottawa-area town of Orléans, was trying to check in to an Air Canada flight from Montreal to St. John's when he was told he couldn't board.

The Saskatoon boy, who's 10, was also told he couldn't get on an Air Canada flight, although it is not clear what airport he was stopped at.

. . .

Transport Canada won't confirm if the boys are on a United States no-fly list, an airline no-fly list or Canada's new no-fly list, which went into effect on June 18.

Bad enough, I suppose, that you can get banned from flying if your name happens to appear on one of apparently several lists the airlines are checking, (and I've already posted about how much sense that idea makes), which also means that to get your name off the list(s), you have to appeal to multiple players and hope for the best, but check out the advice the airline gave one of kids' mothers:

"We said, 'What do we do?' and then, much to our amazement, she said we could possibly change our child's name," Heather said.

Can you imagine! If the airlines keep giving out this advice, the TERRORISTS are going to figure out that they can beat the list by NOT CHECKING IN UNDER THEIR OWN NAMES!

Oh wait. That's so blindingly obvious that the 10-year old Alistair could have figured it out, were he actually a nefarious character, and not just some poor kid who happens to share a name with some unknown individual, who was put on some unknown list, for some unknown reason.

Basically, this is just a fool's game so that the government looks like it's doing something to protect our security, when in actual fact they haven't made us in the least bit safer. Oh, and as an added bonus, since there is no oversight or known criteria for getting put on the list, they can also use it to harass and intimidate people they don't like.

I never realized it before, but it turns out the Conservatives really are the inheritors of guys like Benjamin Franklin. Think about it; Franklin said that those who would give up liberty for security deserve neither. Our government is working on taking away our liberties and in return, giving us exactly the amount of security old Ben thought we deserved. All zero of it.

I had written in May regarding the possibility of some major disruptions to Canadian transportation networks due to native blockades, protests, and possibly even sabotage. A video showing how to disrupt rail services has just been discovered on-line and the rhetoric of some groups was increasing, showing promise of a nasty situation. Tommorow is the day of action chosen.

Since that time, the government has passed a new law to speed up the land claims process, and today, Via Rail has annouced it will be cancelling several routes to avoid even the possibility of their being stopped.

So we have economic disruption and progress on land claims deals over just the threat of action. I have to wonder if this will convince them to play along and negotiate, or to try and push even harder in the hopes of further concessions and risking a backlash.

And regardless what native groups do, what message do these events send to other groups with agendas of their own?

Too funny

Granted you have to have been following Canadian Politics to get most of the references, but that is one well put-together post.

The Conservative government will not extend Canada's combat mission in Afghanistan beyond February 2009 without a consensus in Parliament, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Friday.

Nice sounding words, and it's hard to disagree with what Harper is saying. After all, a mission that doesn't have the support of Canadians is pretty much doomed to failure.

On the other hand, if I were a supporter of the Afghan mission, I'd be pretty concerned about the mission's prospects, given Harper's recent work in building consensus with the Provincial Premiers.

A federal "no-fly" list that comes into effect Monday to safeguard domestic airline passengers could end up blacklisting innocent people and lead to racial and religious profiling, critics warn.

Even before the so-called Specified Persons list was officially launched, at least one Canadian family was struggling to remove a name.

And a Conservative MP, whose name was placed on the U.S. no-fly list, is worried that other Canadians could soon share his fate.

That this list is going to be abused is almost inevitable, and the rather high potential for false positives, given the fact that lots of people tend to have the same name, guarantees that the inconvenience will go far beyond the people actually targeted.

Further, as was noted elsewhere, the people that are actually dangerous aren’t going to be using their real names to try and board planes. Everyone else on the list aren't considered dangerous enough to be arrested. There’s nothing to stop them from walking into government buildings, schools, hospitals, roaming the streets, hopping onto buses or trains, and doing pretty much as they please, unless and until they decide to try and board a plane, at which point they suddenly become a dangerous individual worthy of notice. And then what? They are prevented from boarding the plane and get to wander off and do as they please elsewhere?

How exactly does this make us safer again?

The Canadian Forces, squeezed by the Afghanistan conflict, may be forced to cancel half the training courses for regular and reserve soldiers scheduled for this summer in western Canada.

The training squeeze, caused by the unavailability of qualified officers to teach troops, could cause a shortage of reservists in 2009 if Prime Minister Stephen Harper decides to extend the mission past February of that year, according to one reserve officer.

"We're still struggling to find trainers, there's no question about that," said Lt.-Col. Tom Manley, commanding officer of the Calgary Highlanders reserve unit, which has generated a disproportionate number of volunteers for the Afghanistan mission.

"And there's a chance we simply may not get everyone trained that could potentially deploy, so we may have to leave some behind (in 2009) because they didn't get the training they needed," he said this week.

I wonder of this will be used as another reason to give more training contracts to some of the many new mercenary companies that have cropped up recently. (Probably be no-bid.)

The part about this that is interesting is that most of the guys in the PMC's are being lured from the armed forces by higher pay for doing much the same job in Iraq and Afghanistan. Basically, they're also responsible for the shortage of highly qualified trainers, and thanks to thier poaching of those troops, they'll get to make even more money by getting paid to replace them. Hell, they can probably even it as a competitive advantage; their guys already know Canadian training methods.

In any case, it's another reason to consider bringing the Afghan mission to an end. For an even more compelling reason, head over to The Galloping Beaver and read this post.

Atlantic Provinces to lose billions

Sask to sue federal government over equalization

As I said previously, all of the news is on the broken promises of the Conservatives. Not that that doesn’t deserve a fair bit of coverage, and I figure the people of Atlantic Canada and Saskatchewan have every right to be pissed off at being lied to, but I wouldn’t mind some analysis of just what the new equalization formula has changed and whether or not its actually good for the country as a whole and not just Quebec because they’re getting a lot of the gravy the other five Provinces are being denied..

Harper breaking his word and tearing up a written accord has cost the Conservatives a fair bit of support, and by default, the Liberals are gaining it, but before they and their supporters get too excited, I'd like to hear what they believe the alternative is, particularly for Saskatchewan. The Atlantic Accord can be properly reinstated, but all Saskatchewan has is a campaign promise, and if the Conservatives aren't willing to honour signed agreements like the Accord or Kyoto, why should anyone be surprised that they won't honour something they merely promised?

A few years ago, when the Conservatives managed to lose an election to the Martin-led Liberals, who were racked by corruption, plagued by infighting and backstabbing and practically disintegrating into pro- and anti-Martin factions, I heard someone comment that Conservatives were their own worst enemies. They’d gain momentum in the polls by highlighting the Liberal’s weaknesses, and then somebody would open their mouth about what the Conservatives were going to do, and back down they’d tumble. Only by imposing strict rules against his own MP’s opening their mouths did Harper manage to get into power.

Watching the brewing storm over the new equalization formula is reminding me of that time.

The Tories managed to break two promises with one vote. Failing to exclude resource revenues from the equalization program was one. Kicking out MP Bill Casey for voting against it was the other, (though it did provide one of the funnier comments I’ve read in some time. Shorter Peter Mackay: I would never have said our party is willing to tolerate MPs voting their conscience if I'd thought one of our members still had one.)

Anyway, the Harper government has probably just lost the Atlantic Provinces. It’s a bit harder to tell right now if they’ll lose out in Saskatchewan as well, but this is unlikely to help them much.

Attempts to buy back the votes they’ve lost are really just an admission that they know they went back on their word in the first place.

And of course, this whole mess is of their own making. Had they stuck to their word, the debate would have been about whether or not it was good policy. Instead, its now about how dishonest they are and the opposition can just sit back and watch them twist in the wind.

Again, they’re their own worst enemies, even gag orders can’t stop them from a penchant for self-destruction.