All Out! February 7th!

I told myself I wouldn't use this blog to attack other bloggers but I can't help myself on this one. I usually like reading Paul Wells. He's usually so clever and astute. So who took over his computer and posted this bullshit? His post "Higher tuition, better access" reminds me of the neo-liberal kids that argue that increasing tuition increases the real market value of their education. Wells doesn't go quite that far but his post reeks of the same elitist remove from the lives of ordinary students that the young neo-cons suffer from.

Excuse me for being one of the exploding heads that Wells refers to with his signature condescending and dismissive tone, but this post made me angry and I thought 'what better time for a rant on post-secondary education than a week before the CFS National Day of Action?' So this is where I attempt to debunk some of his cliché arguments and let off some steam about the state of access to education in this country:

First and foremost, the whole 'lower tuition subsidizes affluent students' argument is so tired and old. With a truly progressive tax system the government would be getting enough of young Thad Winslow III, Esquire's parents' money, and all of his friends' parents' money, to subsidize post-secondary institutions properly. Under this system, Thad and his friends from Upper Canada College would be admitted into post-secondary institutions based on their scholastic achievement instead of how much money they have in their trust funds.

Next, while creating spaces in post-secondary institutions is good, it is not enough. The provinces need to have a strategy for making the most of their PSE systems and addressing skills shortages. A properly implemented strategy would transform the way we view certain institutions, creating an increased usage of trade schools and colleges. Wells points out that a few years ago the cutoff entry grade for UBC was at 89%. That would be an astonishing figure if UBC was the only post-secondary institution in BC, but its not even the only institution in the Lower Mainland. Not everyone needs to go to UBC, or a university for that matter. But the deciding factor of where one goes to school, and even whether or not one attends a post-secondary institution, should be a combination of one's own interest and scholastic capacity and not one's social and financial status.

So I know that I am playing right into his hands by taking the bait and going off on a rant but these things need to be said. Despite all of the complacency that seems to exist on campuses, students today are in a uniquely desperate position. The federal Liberal governments of the 1990's shifted the federal debt onto the backs of students and forced the provinces to make drastic cuts to all social spending. Some provinces, like Quebec, have managed to keep tuition from skyrocketing- thanks to enormous pressure from student groups- while others, like Nova Scotia and BC have seen such drastic increases in tuition that many potential students see any education beyond high-school as a financial impossibility. For many of those who do find a way into a post-secondary institution, the debt-load is ridiculously severe. To paraphrase something said by BC MLA Rob Fleming at a recent forum on PSE, it's as if governments are using this generation as test subjects to see how much debt a generation can sustain without economic collapse.

The arguments made by the CFS and other student organizations for lower tuition and replacing the grants are coherent, rational, and compelling, however Wells, and others like him, still try to paint student activists as a bunch of whiny radicals.

Paul Wells calls those of us with grades high enough to be in university the "lucky" ones. While I recognize the privilege enjoyed by a university-educated person, I don't feel particularly "lucky" to be carrying debt so large that it will take me at least the first 10 years of my career to pay it off. That is why on February 7th you can find me on the lawn of the BC Legislature with all of the other "lucky" students, and some not-so-"lucky" non-students, telling Gordon Campbell what we think of his and Paul Wells' ideas on how to improve access to education.

Kyoto didn't stand a chance

From the ill-fated Alliance Party fundraising letter that is getting the PM in so much trouble:

"Now the Canadian Alliance is leading the battle against the Kyoto Accord!
But we can’t do it alone. It will take an army of Canadians to beat Kyoto..."

Actually all it took was years of Liberal inaction. Who says the Liberals and the Tories can't work together?

Exciting New Job Opportunity!!!

The Green Party of Canada is hiring a Network Database Administrator to handle their new "state-of-the-art website and CiviCRM database." Sounds like a promising career opportunity...if you can survive on $28,000- 32,000 a year. At roughly $13/ hour its pretty clear that they are not taking their internet strategy very seriously, or employee relations for that matter.

How can you ask someone to do a job that typically pays a median base salary of around $64,000 for less than half that amount? How does someone live in Ottawa on that kind of salary?

They can't possibly be looking for someone full-time. Maybe they can find some 16 year old kid to give up their paper route and come help them out.

Any takers?

Desperate? II

Parliament reconvened today and amid the anticipated shouting back and forth with accusations of inaction on the climate change file, something else happened. When faced with a question from Dawn Black, NDP Defence critic, on Afghanistan that he clearly could not answer, the Minister of Defence shot back with a false claim about Black and her commitment to the NDP's position on Canada's role in Afghanistan.

It was a pretty desperate move. Could it be that, as more and more Canadians, like WWII veteran Bob Taylor, come out publicly against the mission in Afghanistan, the government is running out of answers? Is that why they have now graduated from name-calling to coming up with obvious misinterpretations of their opponents' positions?

It's a step up from phony press releases anyways.

The first installment of the Dipper Chick Top 5®

I am pro-choice for a multitude of reasons and I have been ruminating all day about what I will write here to mark this monumental day- for those of you that do not know, this day marks the 34th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

With the current makeup of the US Supreme Court, it is not clear whether or not Roe v. Wade would be upheld if tested through a Supreme Court challenge. Threats to the right to choose are plentiful, and all it would take is one case and Scalia and four of his buddies to decide that American women have lost control over their reproductive rights.

I know what you are thinking, could this happen in Canada? Tough to say but we face our fair share of threats north of the border as well.

I am a firm proponent of opposition research so, in no particular order, here are the Dipper Chick Top 5® Enemies of a Woman's Right to Choose in Canada:

1) Stephen Harper: Surprisingly, he just barely makes this list. Who knows how long he will be in power or if he will have power again after the next election. Either way, the chances of him re-opening the debate on abortion are slim, but he is still the parliamentarian voted most-likely-to-be-responsible-for-abortion-hitting-the-floor- of-the-House-of-Commons...now that Elsie Wayne is retired anyways.

2) The Vatican: I mean no disrespect to the Catholic Church but they are the largest pro-life group in Canada, they are active politically, and they have a history of chastising politicians for political actions. Since the right-to-choose has not been on the mainstream political agenda for a while, I don't have any evidence of their efforts to sway politicians to support an anti-choice position. But, there is much documented evidence of their attempts to punish politicians who supported same-sex marriage legislation and it is a safe bet that if legislation around abortion was brought forward in the House, they would use the might of their influence in the same ways.

3) The REAL Women of Canada and other faux-women's-rights groups: Okay, this is a cheap shot but I can't stand these guys. They drive me crazy and I therefore blame any attack on the Women's Movement on them as a reflex. Check them out for yourself. Prepare to be angry.

4) The grassroots anti-choice movement and particularly their campus supporters like Youth Protecting Youth: Here is a scary story about what can happen when the anti-choice groups get active on university campuses. And here's another, and another. They are well-financed and well-connected and they are targeting young people on their crusade to undermine support for women's reproductive rights.

5) Elizabeth May: Regular readers won't be surprised by this addition to the list as I referred to May and her comments on abortion in an earlier post. To briefly reiterate my earlier observations, Elizabeth May, with her comments, has given the pro-life movement in Canada something they have been desperately longing for for a while. She has given them her psuedo-progressive street-cred if you will. The only way that she could be a bigger threat to the pro-choice movement is if she ever got elected. But I am not that worried.

What does gangsta rap have to do with Peter MacKay and Libby Davies?

Well they are both named on the witness list for the suit launched by Jerome Almon, an American rapper who is suing Canadian border officials and 2 ex-cabinet ministers.

The story is unbelievable. I am almost at a loss for words.

I have no doubt that there is racial profiling on both sides of the border when it comes to customs but this is a very interesting way to combat it. Canadian border patrol officers and apparently former Liberal cabinet ministers Elinor Caplan and Denis Coderre have certainly messed with the wrong man.

According to Injusticebusters.com:

Names on the witness list will include Gangster rappers DMX, Jay Z, 50 Cent and The Blakkattakk, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Calif. Governor Arnold Swartzenegger, Candian Defense Minister Bill Graham, Minister for Immigration Elinor Caplan and Dennis Coderre, Toronto Star reporter Vernon Clement Jones, MP's Libbie[sic] Davies and Carolyn Parrish, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Wilson Pickett.

There are scattered sources reporting different names on the witness list but the Canadian side of it reads like a 'who's who' in Canadian politics. This should make for some very interesting CourtTV.

Why I Love My Member of Parliament

I saw Denise Savoie, MP for Victoria, on the bus this evening. I was coming from my three hour Canadian Environmental Policy class and she was coming from a lecture on climate change up at UVic. She wasn't with any media or trying to talk to potential voters, she was just doing her part to live sustainably. That is what Denise does.

I was reminded of a story that a young Liberal friend of mine once told me about Denise. My young Liberal friend, lets call him Brock, grew up in Oak Bay. A little bit about Oak Bay: it is a municipality beside the City of Victoria, it is not the NDP stronghold of the Victoria riding, and it is, I would argue, the most British place in North America. A little bit about Brock: Brock loves Oak Bay, loves the Queen, and he loves all the pomp and circumstance that comes with the two.

Oak Bay just had its Centennial celebrations this summer and Denise, as the Member of Parliament for the riding, was invited to come and speak to the residents that gathered for an afternoon of cricket, tea and biscuits, and other festivities. Okay, I made up the cricket part but I am sure that there were some tea and biscuits somewhere. So Denise was coming from the Victoria Pride Parade that took place earlier that day, where she had been riding her bicycle in a procession of New Democrats, and she didn't bother to change for the Oak Bay function. My heart filled with pride as Brock recounted with horror how Denise came and gave her speech to the prim and proper residents of Oak Bay in her cycling outfit. Brock was even more upset by the fact that Denise came on right after the Lieutenant Governor, the representative of the Queen (gasp).

She walks the walk. She will ride her bike or the bus as long as she is physically able and that is just one of the many reasons why I respect and admire Denise Savoie, MP.

Legalizing Prostitution: Easier Than Legalizing Marijuana?

Apologies to my adoring fans for the rather large gap between posts. I would have loved to have posted sooner but, as you will discover when you read on, I was busy governing with 34 or so other young New Democrats from across BC.

Yes, it's true, the NDP formed government at this year's BC Universities' Model Parliament (UMP), a 4-day political extravaganza for students whose idea of a fun weekend is sitting in the Legislature in Victoria debating various legislation by day and drinking with members from other parties by night.

This year's NDP government marked the end of 16 years of Liberal reign at UMP and brought with it many contentious ideas. Ideas like pulling out of the counter-insurgency mission in Afghanistan and a moratorium on new oil sands projects were hotly debated, but there were some surprising areas of near consensus between the three parties represented.

Perhaps the most surprising area of common ground was found around legislation that legalized solicitation and provided support to sex workers. The bill, which focused on decriminalizing prostitution-related activities since prostitution itself is not a crime, was put forward by the NDP Minister of Justice in hopes of rousing some meaningful debate from the 'family values' side of the house. We were expecting the Conservatives and socially-conservative liberals to hammer us with the full weight of their moral self-righteousness but the hail of fire and brimstone never came. In fact, instead of the knee-jerk anti-prostitution reaction that one might expect from Liberals and Conservatives, we heard them actually consider the merit of the idea.

The bill passed third reading with almost unanimous support, and I was moved by the fact that young people from all political stripes could support such seemingly contentious but quite sound legislation. Listening to members from all parties rise and talk about ways to help one of the most marginalized and at-risk groups in our society gave me hope for a future where social conservatism is overruled by social responsibility. We progressives are often far too timid in advancing ideas that we see as controversial, and this victory, as inconsequential as it was, was a well taken reminder that sometimes it pays to go out on a limb on an issue like this, ready to be surprised by the support from unexpected corners.

Granted, some of the arguments in favour of legalizing solicitation which came from the opposition members- I cannot get enough of calling Liberals and Conservatives the 'opposition members'- were not so progressive. A good example of one such argument was the one made by a young liberal boy who stood up and spoke quite passionately about how sex work was a method by which women could put themselves through school without being a drain on the economy.

But we can't expect too much from our young Liberal and Tory friends. After all, they do come from parties where same-sex marriage is still a divisive issue.