Governance 2, Identity Theft, Gays' Agenda? Hansard June 13/05. Grewel Tapes, Immigration

Security: Identity Theft

Don't print full card numbers on receipts David Canton, Jun. 14, 05

[. . . ] searching through garbage. . . assume your identity.

[. . . ] One of the most obvious answers is the truncation of credit and debit card numbers on receipts. Truncation is the practice of not printing all of the card numbers on transaction slips.

[. . . . ] Once the transaction has been authorized at the checkout, there is no need for the business to retain complete card numbers on any document or system.

Question Period-Hansard excerpts- June 13/05

Hon. Stephen Harper (Leader of the Opposition, CPC): Mr. Speaker, I have reviewed last week's health care decision by the Supreme Court of Canada. It did not question the public health care system in our country. However, it did question how the government has managed that system. In particular, it has pointed out that the health care wait times are at an all-time high under the Liberal government.

Could the Prime Minister tell us why, after 12 years in office, there are no national benchmarks for wait times in the country?

[. . . . ] On May 31 and June 1, the government categorically denied in the House that it had concluded a secret agreement with Mr. Chrétien. However, the day before, the government had in fact signed a written, official and secret arrangement with Mr. Chrétien's lawyers.

Why did the Prime Minister allow his government to mislead this House?


[. . . . ] Hon. Stephen Harper (Leader of the Opposition, CPC): Mr. Speaker, the House will recall that the minister denied there was any arrangement of any kind between Mr. Chrétien and the government.

Now he admits, because we have all got it, that an exchange of letters between lawyers has taken place that does constitute an arrangement, an arrangement that Justice Gomery was apparently unaware of and is quite concerned about.

Why did the public works minister not divulge the details of this when he was asked about it? Why did he cover it up? [. . . . ]

Who said this in the House? -- "he is enjoying the spankings"




Grewel Tapes

Law society complaints filed against Liberals Jun. 14, 2005

[. . . . ] In separate letters of complaint written yesterday, Tory John Reynolds says the three — all lawyers — offered Conservative MPs compensation in exchange for their support in key confidence votes on the Liberal minority government’s budget.

Reynolds alleges the actions of Peterson, Dosanjh and Murphy compromise the integrity of the legal profession.

He says they also could violate Section 119(1) of the Criminal Code, which prohibits people from offering members of Parliament ``valuable consideration, office, place or employment” to influence their work in any way. [. . . . ]

Immigration

One Nation, Out of Many Samuel P. Huntington

America's core culture has primarily been the culture of the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century settlers who founded our nation. The central elements of that culture are the Christian religion; Protestant values, including individualism, the work ethic, and moralism; the English language; British traditions of law, justice, and limits on government power; and a legacy of European art, literature, and philosophy. Out of this culture the early settlers formulated the American Creed, with its principles of liberty, equality, human rights, representative government, and private property. Subsequent generations of immigrants were assimilated into the culture of the founding settlers and modified it, but did not change it fundamentally. It was, after all, Anglo-Protestant culture, values, institutions, and the opportunities they created that attracted more immigrants to America than to all the rest of the world.

[. . . . ]

The continuation of high levels of Mexican and Hispanic immigration and low rates of assimilation of these immigrants into American society and culture could eventually change America into a country of two languages, two cultures, and two peoples. This will not only transform America. It will also have deep consequences for Hispanics--who will be in America but not of the America that has existed for centuries.

Lengthy and worth reading



Academic Standards, R.I.P. Michael Rubin, FrontPage Magazine, June 14, 2005 -- also here, at Campus Watch

Princeton University continues to consider hiring embattled Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi for its newly-endowed Robert Niehaus chair in Contemporary Middle East Studies. Khalidi, a specialist on Palestinian politics and history, has become controversial for his highly politicized mix of polemics and history. He has sought to rebut criticism, arguing that questioning his scholarship infringes on his first amendment rights. Speaking at Columbia University on April 4, 2005, for example, he said, "Freedom of speech and academic freedom are particularly necessary for unpopular and difficult ideas, for conventional ideas, for ideas that challenge reigning orthodoxy."

Khalidi is right about the importance of freedom of speech, but he misses the point. Academic freedom is meant to protect scholarship, not replace it. For any history professor, the core of scholarship is the ability to uncover and interpret primary source material. High school students might select sources uncritically in order to prove their thesis, but history professors must evaluate not only what the source says, but also its veracity and perspective. Judgment matters. Next to plagiarism—of which Khalidi has also been accused recently—deliberate omission, failure to judge sources, and eschewing primary source and field research are the greatest academic sins a professor can commit. [. . . . ]

This was sent to me so I do not have the link for it: "Gay advocates fight churches' charity status -- Institutions fear losing tax breaks if they oppose same-sex unions; Rightly so, gay-rights group says" by Alex Hutchinson, The Ottawa Citizen, June 12, 2005

Churches that oppose same-sex marriage legislation have good reason to fear for their charitable status, a leading gay-rights advocate is warning.

"If you are at the public trough, if you are collecting taxpayers' money, you should be following taxpayers' laws. And that means adhering to the Charter," says Kevin Bourassa, who in 2001 married Joe Varnell in one of Canada's first gay weddings, and is behind www.equalmarriage.ca.

"We have no problem with the Catholic Church or any other faith group promoting bigotry," he said. "We have a problem with the Canadian government funding that bigotry." [. . . . ]

No hidden agenda with gay marriage?

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