I know that you needed something to be bummed out about this morning, so I thought I’d deliver these steaming heaps of crap from Canada’s national political stage.
First up: Canada’s auditor general, Sheila Fraser, has released a report indicating just how much lip service the federal government gives women. According to the Edmonton Sun, despite the fact that the feds have a 15-year-old committment to pay attention to how policy affects men and women differently, an array of departments are failing to do so. The Sun sez:
Fraser found few government departments actually conduct gender-based analysis, and those which do perform the work don’t actually use it to design programs. Fraser gave thumbs up to Indian and Northern Affairs as a “leader” and the only department that has fully implemented a sound gender-based analysis framework. Transport Canada and Veterans Affairs Canada, on the other hand, have no framework at all.
Great, ’cause the concerns of women riding in and driving cars, for example, has nothing to do with anything, right (oh, except things like airbags being the wrong height/size…)?
Second: Oh, BC. You’ve let us down. No, not with Gordon Campbell getting re-elected and all, but with your rejection of electoral reform. What do people have to do to ditch the first-past-the-post system and leave it behind as a 20th-century relic?
Third: Nobody has been proven guilty of anything, but wow, this she-said-she-said between Ruby Dhalla and her “alleged” caregivers is getting, as they say, curiouser and curiouser. This may all be some crazy mixup, as Dhalla suggested on Monday, but am I the only one inclined to think that the “alleged” caregivers don’t have much motive here except to tell the truth? If you were a Filipina nanny who had come into the country on the live-in caregiver program and were waiting for an employer to sponsor you, what motive would you possibly have to stir up political shit? Wouldn’t your primary fear be deportation? At the same time, I am getting really pissed at the media coverage that insists on making constant references to Dhalla’s beauty, as though that was at all relevant. Yes, Christie Blatchford, I’m talking about your shiteous piece in the Globe today.
Finally, how about a touch of schadenfreude from across the pond to make you feel a bit better? Doug Saunders’ story about the crisis facing the UK–to vote for the party of flagrant, porny spending or vote for the party of flagrant, moat-spending–had me gasping and laughing (and, um, you know, frowning at the, you know, wastefulness of it all) simultaneously.
Related posts:
Confabulous badges!
{ 1 comment }
“This may all be some crazy mixup, as Dhalla suggested on Monday, but am I the only one inclined to think that the “alleged” caregivers don’t have much motive here except to tell the truth? If you were a Filipina nanny who had come into the country on the live-in caregiver program and were waiting for an employer to sponsor you, what motive would you possibly have to stir up political shit?”
On the face of it, these woman faced quite likely deportation by coming forward with allegations which included them working illegally over a year ago for a few weeks. Our laws are quite clear on this. Given that they tearfully talked about how they didn’t want to go home (be deported) in yesterday’s testimony, it is quite amazing that they made this very likely by speaking out after all this time, unless they had some assurances from MP Kenney or others in government, that they would not be deported. Although it has been established that there were some meetings of their advocates and Kenney, they denying discussing their particular cases. It all sounds a bit too strange to be true, particularly since none of the nannies have filed any official complaints, despite being urged to.
This case does highlight how vulnerable such workers are and how those who control immigration (Kenney and others) have a lot of control over what matters the most to these workers – being allowed to stay in Canada, rather than being deported. I don’t know that Kenney or others exploited this vulnerability, but it is quite fantastical that they took that enormous risk, when they say they are happy in their current jobs and working legally. Why risk all that and face what they say is their greatest fear – being deported?
Comments on this entry are closed.