Journalists Missing The Picture

I woke up this morning to CBC's Jason Markusoff and The Toronto Star's Richard Warnica talking about Alberta separatism on the Front Burner podcast.  As I listened to the discussion, I found myself getting increasingly angry at the fact that neither of the two speakers seemed to have a clue what is really going on, and were "puzzled" by the apparent lack of a full throated federalist campaign against the separatists.

There is an answer here, and it's not the one you think it is.  If you are expecting a "Federal Prime Minister vs Separatist Premier" grudge match as we've seen in past Quebec referendums, you're misunderstanding the picture on the ground in Alberta. 

Anti-Transgender Hate Arguments

So, the other day, I ran across a new anti-trans group here in Alberta (shocker, I know).  This one calls itself "Women and Girls Alberta".  As you might expect, they make the usual assortment of arguments as to why transgender women have to be shoved out of society.  

Now, a few things caught my attention, and I think warrant a moment or two of my time to comment on.  

First is their discussion about crime and in particular violence towards women.

The opening assertion here is that recognizing trans women somehow erodes women's safety.  I want to be clear here:  I don't think anybody is here to discount the impact of violence on women - least of transgender women.  There's a "yabbut" here though: they are going to proceed to claim that transgender women present unique dangers to women because ... they had a penis once. 

There are a series of claims made in this type of argument to establish alleged danger, and I'm going to go through them and explain the problems with the claim and the evidence upon which that claim is based.  

Alberta, BC, and Ottawa All Walk Into A Bar ...

This is mostly going to be me processing yesterday's announcements in Alberta and BC.  I haven't quite worked out what I think of it all yet, and maybe by the end of this I will have come to some kind of conclusion ... I'm not sure.  What follows is going to be, at best, slightly ordered stream of consciousness writing.  

So, what was announced?  Well, basically, BC got a whole bunch of Federal funding for some major infrastructure projects with a guarantee that the Tanker Ban would remain in place; and Alberta got a commitment to build what amounts to a third line along the TransMountain pipeline route.  

But that's far from the whole story here.

Charter Challenges Of An Anti-Transgender Law

This is part of a series on potential paths of legal challenge for anti-transgender laws in Canada: 

1. Anti-Transgender Laws Are Jim Crow Laws
2. Legal Challenges of an Anti-Transgender Law

In the first post of this series, I claimed that anti-transgender laws are in many respects about segregation and humiliation much like the racist Jim Crow Laws were.  Yes, I realize that the US legal environment is quite different from Canada's - the point here is to draw a comparison that I think is broadly understood by most. 

In this post, I will explore several avenues through which the law can in fact be challenged, both in the presence of, and in the absence of, the invocation of the NotwithStanding Clause (S33).  

Anti-Transgender Laws Are "Jim Crow" Laws

This is part of a series of posts sketching out legal paths for challenging anti-transgender laws in Canada.

1. Anti-Transgender Laws Are Jim Crow Laws
2. Charter Challenges of an Anti-Transgender Law

Laws do not exist in a vacuum - the cleverest of legal arguments are often decoupled from the human experience and day to day lives of people.  Therefore, laws must be understood in the context of the society in which they exist, as well as the legal frameworks in place. 

"Jim Crow" laws were laws passed in various states to create a segregation between white people and people of colour in the United States.  These were the laws that forced black people to sit at the back of the public transit bus, or required them to use specific bathrooms (sound familiar?) or drinking fountains.  They also enabled businesses to refuse service to people based on such characteristics. 

I would hope, that in today's world, such laws are seen as the injustices they are - laws designed to target people based on characteristics - humiliating, segregating, and ultimately criminalizing their existence.  In today's Canada, S15 of The Charter specifically prohibits that kind of legislation.  

Anti-transgender laws are, in this writer's opinion, very much the "new Jim Crow" laws.  Largely they are based on ginned up fears of the "dangers" that the targeted group represents for society.  I'm going to walk through why these laws should be invalidated in Canada, and I will do so by deriving a possible test that could be used to objectively identify a "Jim Crow" law, regardless of whom is targeted. 

The Smith Referenda In October

Albertans face a daunting prospect on October 19 - not one, but 10 referendum questions that they will vote on.  On the agenda are a passel of manufactured issues ranging from "control over immigration" to "appointing judges", all topped off with a whipped turd froth of a separation question. 

There are good reasons to be skeptical of all of these referendum questions.  Not the least of which is the complexity of them.  Each one is lengthy reading on its own, and is crafted to confuse the average person reading them.  My intuitive reaction is to suggest that on the basis of the wording being less than clear, that it is utterly appropriate to vote 'No' on the first 9 questions and "A" on the separation question.   That is basically voting for status quo. 

The Formation of The UCP Sowed The Seeds of Its Failure

When Jason Kenney created the UCP he set up the preconditions for the party to get to where it is today, and its eventual demise.  What do I mean by this?  Kenney may have believed that he could control the extreme elements in the UCP in much the same way that Harper did so as leader of the CPC. 

Harper allowed the extremist factions in the CPC to exist and even to have something of a voice in the party, but at the moment that a given push looked like it would have a political cost for him, he would shut it down.  This was done through a combination of tools - Harper exercised considerable personal control over the party apparatus.  That meant that in large part, if you kept him happy, your career was secure.  The leader's office had the power to quash constituency decisions such as new nominees, and the "public face" of the party was carefully protected.  So, while the extremist wings of the CPC could make a certain level of noise - it was never enough to do more than keep their followers believing the party was aligned with them.  

However, Harper was able to do this because the Federal CPC is a much bigger entity than the UCP in Alberta - and although the Prairie Reform rump of the party clearly dominates it today, the party needs votes from outside the Prairies in order to have any hope of ever forming government.  Harper understood this, and was very careful to keep the extremes in check even though his own leadership depended on them. 

A party of the scale of the UCP is a much different animal, and that's where Kenney's choices failed.