C-10

As promised, the Conservative government in Ottawa has transformed the country’s legal landscape within the first 100 sitting days of its majority mandate. Last night, the Harper Tories finally passed Bill C-1o, otherwise known as the omnibus crime bill, with its laundry list of legal changes the Conservatives had failed to push through Parliament during their years in minority government. These include mandatory minimum prison sentences for drug offenders, harsher penalties for violent crimes and sexual assault, and a provision allowing victims of terrorism to sue perpetrators more easily.

The Tory crime bill will allow lawsuits to be brought against countries that engage in and support terrorism, like Hezbollah in Lebanon

Jack Harris was the New Democrat selected to respond on Tuesday to the Justice Minister’s final tabling of the omnibus crime bill. As the opposition member responding to a minister, Mr. Harris was not subject to the normal time limits placed on speeches in the House. And so he spoke—with a few brief interruptions—for three hours. The resulting speech numbers no less than 21,631 words.

Why isn’t Canada embracing tracking technologies rather than lockups?

The Conservatives have invoked time allocation on C-19, the bill that eliminates the long-gun registry. Of the ten government bills debated in the House since Parliament reconvened in June, the Harper government has now invoked time allocation on five of them: C-3 (budget implementation), C-10 (the omnibus crime bill), C-13 (budget implementation), C-18 (Canadian Wheat Board) and C-19.

On the occasion of the government’s decision to limit debate on its omnibus crime legislation, astute commenter Thwim digs up a point of order raised by a young Stephen Harper in response to an omnibus bill proposed by the Liberal government of the day in 1994.

The government announced after QP yesterday that it was tired of talking about it’s crime legislation and has since invoked closure to limit debate.

However inevitable the bill’s passage, the Liberals have proposed the following reasoned amendment to the government’s omnibus crime legislation.

Perhaps he was inspired by the turnout for Young People Fucking, or maybe he misses all that media attention he got after taking credit for getting C-10 through the House with nary a peep over the controversial changes to the film tax rebate. Whatever the reason, Reverend Charles McVety is headed back to the capital to co-host a private screening of a very different kind of film: Expelled: The Movie, the controversial anti-Darwin documentary that purports to expose a sinister anti-creationism bias within the mainstream scientific community.

Interestingly, in his come-one-come-all invite to the film – which was forwarded to all MPs and staffers via parliamentary email by Conservative MP Maurice Vellacott – McVety doesn’t even mention the religious aspect of the debate; instead, he accuses Darwin of “overt racism”, and calls on Canadians to “blot out out this terrible scourge in our society.”

Oh, and before anyone asks – no word on whether staffers from any party will be fired for going to see it.

UPDATE: According to Expelled Exposed, this isn’t the first time that the producers have held a private screening for political types:
There have been at least two private screenings for state legislatures that have anti-evolution bills on the docket. One was held to drum up support for Florida’s Senate Bill 2692: the so-called “Evolution Academic Freedom Act”, which aims to encourage the teaching of creationism by providing legal protection to educators who present “alternatives to evolution” (i.e., intelligent design and/or creation science ). Another screening was held in Missouri, where two similar bills, House Bills 2554 and 1315, aim to promote “academic freedom” and “protect intellectual diversity”; the latter bill was introduced by a legislator who previously introduced a bill that would have fired teachers who didn’t give equal time to intelligent design.
I hope they won’t be too disappointed to find out that there are no anti-evolution bills before the House at the moment.

UPDATIER: Apparently not willing to rely on word-of-MP alone, Premise Films has put out a media advisory inviting MPs, staff and “credentialed members of the media” to the screening, which seems a little less “private” than McVety made it sound. Unfortunately, someone apparently forgot to check the date, and scheduled the event for the same day as the Residential Schools Apology, which will take up most of the evening.

Full text of McVety’s invitation after the jump:

From: Vellacott, Maurice – Assistant 1
Sent: June 10, 2008 4:49 PM
To: – BQ DÉPUTÉS/MEMBERS; – BQ: ADJOINTS; – CONSERVATIVE ASSISTANTS CONSERVATEURS; – CONSERVATIVE MEMBERS/DÉPUTÉS CONSERVATEURS; – INDEPENDENT MEMBERS/DÉPUTÉS INDÉPENDANTS; – LIBERAL MEMBERS/DÉPUTÉS; – LIBERAL ASSISTANTS; – NDP MEMBERS/DÉPUTÉS NPD; – NDP/NPD ASSISTANTS
Subject: Private Screening of “Expelled, No Intelligence Allowed”

From: Charles McVety
Sent: June 10, 2008 4:32 PM

 

Change of Venue

More C-10 testimony, this time not from industry people but from an arguably more important source: mayors whose cities depend on film/TV crews, and therefore on unambiguous tax credit rules.

UPDATED! New info after the jump!

3:56:53 PM