November 19, 2005
NO HIDDEN AGENDA: SCOTT BRISON'S CANADA
These two stories really do speak volumes about where our country is heading and the impossibility of intelligent political debate.
Managers in the Public Works department must hire only visible minorities, women, aboriginals and the disabled, except with written permission from their superiors, David Marshall, the deputy minister, ordered in an e-mail circulated yesterday.
The policy, designed to address shortfalls in the department's employment-equity goals, will last at least until the end of next March and be reviewed then, the memo said...
Still, a veteran labour lawyer said yesterday he had never heard of an edict actually barring the recruitment of large numbers of people. And even a federal civil service union that strongly supports employment equity questioned the wisdom of the policy.
"I think it's creating a possible backlash against equity groups and then it's not helping these people to get into government," said Nycole Turmel, president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada...
"All persons recruited externally must be from designated groups (persons who are visible minorities, aboriginal peoples, persons with disabilities and women), except for cases having received ADM/CEO written approval," the memo said.
"This measure will be in force until March 31, 2006, at which time we will re-assess our progress."
Meanwhile Mr Brison defines his progressive Canada that makes such measures necessary.
In a harbinger of the mudslinging that could shape this winter's expected federal election, a senior Liberal cabinet minister on Friday attacked Conservative Leader Stephen Harper as a socially conservative dinosaur opposed to gay and charter rights...
...Public Works Minister Scott Brison warned that Harper would turn Canada's social clock back in time.
Harper has consistently found himself at odds with such core Canadian values as multiculturalism, bilingualism, publicly funded health care and the Charter of Rights and Freedom, Brison said.
"During the great debates around those issues...people like Stephen Harper consistently stood four-square against the types of policies that built the Canada we love,'' said Brison...
Brison told his audience that Liberals understand the importance of the charter and other policies that "have shaped one of the most progressive societies in the world.''
The Conservatives, he argued, would undo the progress if elected...
So questioning whether policies are actually effective and beneficial "would turn Canada's social clock back in time"? If only the Conservatives had the courage to debate these things openly; but they do not. It seems to me that a democracy within which the scope of debate is so increasingly circumscribed becomes less and less a democracy at all.
Mr Brison calls Mr Harper "a socially conservative dinosaur". Once again a Liberal elevating the tone of public discourse. But he's not angry.
Autre temps, autres mœurs.
Posted by markc at November 19, 2005 12:03 PM | TrackBack