Quebec to become first province to introduce carbon tax

Natural Resources Minister Claude Bechard, who announced Wednesday that a 0.8-cent-a-litre carbon tax will come into force on Oct 1, added that he hopes the oil companies, which are reporting record profits, would absorb the tax and not pass it on to the consumer. Oil industry spokespeople were unavailable for comment late Wednesday afternoon.

The tax, Bechard said, is based on the "polluter pays" principle. "That is not negotiable," the minister said.

While it's very nice of the Minister to "hope" that the oil companies will absorb the tax, he knows its not realistic. Taxes are a cost of doing business, and those costs will always filter down to the end-user. And since the oil market is relatively inelastic, this is basically just another sin-tax.

Labels: Environment, Quebec, Y2Kyoto

Now this is almost unbelievable. An Australian human rights tribunal has upheld the right of a gay bar owner to ban all women, and heterosexual men.

Human rights group Liberty Victoria supported the decision, vice-president Michael Pearce said.

"There are numerous places where heterosexual people can go," he said.

"I think what (the tribunal) has said is that there aren't that many places where gay people can go and meet without the risk of being harassed or vilified, and that they are entitled to have their own spaces to do that in."

Now that Australia DOES have a place for gays to go without being "harassed or vilified", does that mean that straight bars will be allowed to send gays down the road? Not bloody likely.

One can only imagine the outrage if a bartender were to tell a couple of gay dudes that they weren't welcome in his bar, simply because they were gay. There would be protests, and boycotts, and riots and all those other things that leftists call hobbies.

Update: A Quebec woman by the name of Audrey Vachon is launching a human rights complaint against a Montreal gay bar that refused to serve her because she was a woman (h/t). It should be interesting to see what happens in this case. If Canada truly doesn't discriminate by sexual orientation, she should win easily.

Labels: Audrey Vachon, Australia, Canadian Justice, Human Rights, Quebec

Parti Quebecois Leader Andre Boisclair is just trying to kiss the Quebec election away (link).

Boisclair was speaking to students this week about his studies at Harvard when he referred to students with "slanting eyes." Boisclair was talking about global competition from Asian economies like India and China and the number of young people who leave these countries to pursue studies in the United States.

"The reality is these countries are not just working to create jobs in sweatshops," Boisclair said in Trois-Rivieres, Que.

"When I was in Boston, where I spent a year, I was surprised to see that on campus about one-third of the students doing their bachelor's degrees had slanting eyes."

I guess his admitted cocaine use (while he was in Cabinet) just wasn't damaging enough.

Labels: drugs, politics, Quebec

For a party that is supposed to be "new", the Liberals are bringing back a lot of old names.

Stephane Dion has given his stamp of approval for Justin Trudeau to run for the Liberals in the next election, says a senior Liberal insider.

Either Dion wants to make Trudeau work for it, or he thinks the kid's a rock star.

The insider said a riding has not been selected but Dion does not want him to run in a safe Liberal riding such as the Outremont riding recent vacated by Jean Lapierre.

The insider said the party wants Trudeau to run in a Montreal-area riding now held by the Bloc Quebecois.

The Torie attack dogs have got to be salivating at the thought of a Trudeau family member. (h/t Uncommon Truths).

Labels: Liberal Party, politics, Quebec, Stephane Dion

The FLQ group known as the Camille Laurin cell has written another letter to Jean Charest, and French President Jacques Chirac. Like the first letter sent out by this cell, they have named February 15 as the date their bombing campaign will begin.

In this weeks letter, they specifically mention highways and high-traffic areas as targets along with airports and crowded shopping malls, adding "a combination of vehicles, letter bombs, remote-control explosive devices will be used and most of these devices are already in place."

The RCMP is mum on the situation. RCMP Corporal Luc Bessette said "We have no indication that they are able to carry out what they threaten. Is it a hoax? That's possible. Is it real? That's possible too. The RCMP takes seriously all threats against our citizens." They have also indicated that they're working with CSIS on this threat.

The timing of the threats may be important as well. With a federal budget about to drop in mid-March, the FLQ cell may be hoping to effect a Federal election which could follow, or the Provincial election to soon follow as well in Quebec.

Interestingly, the federal budget is alleged to contain an extra $2 billion for Quebec in equalization payments. That, along with the Canadian governments recognition of the Quebecois as "a distinct nation within Canada", may blind Quebecers to the "anglo-saxon imperialism" which motivates this cell.

If the RCMP finds anybody connected to this threat, they should be treated like the terrorists they are, and not like the terrorists in Caledonia.

Labels: Bloc Quebecois, Canadian Justice, Quebec, RCMP, Terrorism