I attended the Green Party of Canada Convention tonight wearing my “GlobeCampus hat” looking to write a story about the youth summit they are holding as part of the convention.
At the same time as the youth summit, the motions workshops were underway.
Motion workshops are when members of a political party can propose ideas and, usually, the fringe motions die a quiet death there.
That’s not what happened today – the grown-ups weren’t in the room and a motion passed recommending the Green Party take a position in favour of the legalization of polygamy.
Laura Payton, who was in the room, reports for Sun Media.
What happened? Where were the grown-ups?
As one delegate pointed out to me, they were busy in training sessions.
The Green Party was holding two training sessions simultaneous to the motions workshop.
Green Party candidates were two doors down the convention hall in “Candidate training.”
The Green Party’s hopeful MPs – the people that have to sell policies passed at the convention - were not in the room.
Their campaign managers, financial officers, and fundraisers were two further doors away from the action. They were in training sessions as well.
In short, the very people who build, maintain, and manage the party left the keys in the ignition and the result is the Green Party’s public flirtation with polygamy.
Tomorrow, the grown-ups will put this car back into the driveway. The only question is how much body work will be needed to make it roadworthy again.
Postscript: I’m hoping to interview Elizabeth May for my GlobeCampus piece tomorrow morning. I’ll be at the plenary that will vote down the polygamy motion. My GlobeCampus piece about the Youth Summit will appear early in the week at http://www.globecampus.ca/joeycoleman
Today marks the 68th anniversary of the controversial Second World War raid on Dieppe, France. (Wikipedia)
The debate rages to this day – was it a worthwhile venture that saved lives in North Africa and Normandy or was it a slaughter orchestrated by the political interests of the British government to appease the Soviet desire for action on the Western Front to provide relief in the east?
I’ve studied the raid extensively over the years and hold the educated opinion that it was a combination of both.
While motivated by numerous political considerations – as most military campaigns are – it served as a valuable and necessary attack against the Atlantic Wall that ultimately saved lives.
Was Dieppe necessary? Yes and no – if not Dieppe, the Allies would have been decimated elsewhere. The result would’ve been worse and potentially decisive against the entire Allied war effort.
The men at Dieppe fought with valour and served their country proudly.
Their battle was a lost, but they helped to win the war.
Today, I paused to reflect on all they gave to my generation and to quietly say thanks.
Last week, I received a news release from a group calling itself the Simcoe County Safe School Committee. (WiFi in schools is Very Dangerous for Children)
I looked at the release and thought – okay, they have one expert who believes WiFi is dangerous and she’ll be speaking about her viewpoint that evening at a public library in Thornbury. I figured it would be picked up by wire services – after all it’s the middle of August and almost anything new become news. I didn’t expect it to amount to more than filler content on a slow summer news day.
Imagine my surprise when I awoke Sunday morning to discover that more than a wire story had come of the release – mass hysteria was well underway.
(It must be noted this group is likely guided by someone experienced in public relations as few have the expertise to use successfully capture the public agenda with such speed as this group.)
Tuesday, the public elementary teachers union joined the call to ban both WiFi and cell phones from schools in Ontario.
I misread that. I had an earlier story that spoke about the Niagara proposal. Thank you Sarah for correcting. Ouch, that’s a huge misread on my part. Huge.
Let me try that again.
Thankfully, the provincial public elementary teachers union rejected a proposal from it’s Niagara chapter to ban WiFi in schools.
What’s next?
That’s the $100 question. The province is dodging responsibility on the matter and saying the WiFi decision is best left to individual school boards.
This means local groups will be able to pressure individual school board trustees – who all face reelection on October 25th in elections which are notoriously easy for small interest groups to sway due to low voter turnout – to ban WiFi in their districts.
The result could easily be a patchwork of boards with WiFi bans in place and a de facto province wide ban.
Eventually, academics will raise and debunk most of the myths that are being propagated about WiFi in their academic journals. By the time the academy raises to the occasion, public opinion will be set and unmovable.
WiFi is the new vaccine. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, there is a large segment of the population which believes vaccines are dangerous and directly linked to autism.
I wonder how these children feel when they visit the local McDonald’s with it’s free WiFi?
Considering this campaign is directed at public schools only, I’m going assume the plastic structures in PlayLand successful shield children from the harmful radiation.
Hamilton City Council will meet Thursday to ratify their decision Tuesday to support a West Harbour Stadium for the Pan Am Games in 2015.
Council voted 12-3, with Brad Clark absent at the Michael Buble concert in Toronto, for the West Harbour site.
Who knows what will happen today – anything can happen (and it seems everything has already).
The meeting starts at 9:30 a.m. I will launch the CoverItLive at 9:00am.
The full agenda can be read here.
Click Here to join the discussion in a new window
<a href=”http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=592aaedb37″ mce_href=”http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=592aaedb37″ >Hamilton City Council Live</a>
I’m officially off today at The Spectator and am NOT representing the Spectator. I’m attending the meeting because I’ve been attending important meetings for the last 15 years.
I’ve always tweeted news and information at events I attend. At the Future Fund Meeting a few weeks ago, I launched CoverItLive and hundreds of people joined in.
Over 11,000 people joined in the discussion on Tuesday.
I hope by facilitating this today, hundreds more will be able to join in.
I’m live at Carmen’s on Hamilton Mountain for the Ticat-Cats pro-East Mountain stadium rally.
Twitter is down, I’m using CoverItLive.
I was caught off guard by the announcement today that Ontario’s public universities are being granted pension solvency relief.
I knew there were significant discussions occurring between the Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities and the Ministry of Finance.
I didn’t know that an announcement was imminent.
The government news release is available here: Putting University Pension Plans On A Sustainable Track
I’ve filed to my GlobeCampus online column and it should go up later this afternoon following edits. (You would not believe how many times my editors have saved my hind.)
I’m also writing a brief news story for The Hamilton Spectator which should appear in tomorrow’s print edition.
This is a significant announcement by the Ontario government which will alleviate a budget pressure that was going to effect the quality of classroom education.
My former Silhouette editor, and current colleague at The Hamilton Spectator, Andrew Baulcomb answered a few questions for the McMaster University public relations page “Daily News” early this week.
The Q&A is posted online.
Andrew’s an amazing journalist. His prose is captivating and information. Watch for his bylines, especially if you’re like me and only skim newspapers – you don’t want to miss any of his stories.
I’m at the Hamilton Future Fund Board of Governors Meeting.
Instead of just tweeting, I’m going to use CoverItLive for the remainder of the meeting and enable you to comment with your questions or feedback.
DISCLAIMER: I’m on my own time and do not represent The Hamilton Spectator
Okay, let’s go.
I’m off the next two days from The Spectator newsroom and will be taking Sun, Mon, Tues as my days off for the next few weeks. (The long weekend will be extra long with Weds off as well.)
I’ll be in the newsroom from 5am – 1pm Weds – Fri, and 6am – 2pm on Sat for the remainder of the summer.
I’m going to spend today (Mon) and tomorrow cleaning my apartment, working on projects, playing pinball in Ancaster, and maybe having some fun by covering the Hamilton Future Fund Board of Governors meeting on Tuesday for my personal blog.
My attic apartment heats up a lot during sunny summer days. My front room, with a large ceiling fans and two windows facing north, stays cooler than the rest of the place. I’ve more my computer into that room, but made a mess of the rest of my place in the process – I have to clean up that mess.
I’ll probably do that Monday morning while watching Larry Di Ianni officially announce his candidacy.
Not that his announcement is any surprise. As soon as everyone read the trial balloon of Andrew Dreschel’s May 14, 2010 column in The Spectator, it’s been widely known that Di Ianni was running. Di Ianni’s appearances at any gathering with more than a half-dozen people only confirmed suspicions.
The announcement is at 11am. I’m going to try – not making any promises – to write some quick thoughts on my blog.
After cleaning my apartment, I’m going to update my Twitter training materials. I’ve already received a few requests from student newspapers to conduct training sessions this fall.
I’ll polish it up this week and once done, I’ll post the slides onto my personal blog for everyone to discuss and hopefully learn from.
The Toronto Ontario Pinball League is playing in Ancaster tonight. I haven’t made it to pinball league since mid-May and I’m looking forward to a relaxing night. This will be the first time I see Dan and his wife since I profiled them in The Spectator.
Tuesday will be a relaxing day. I’ll make my way to City Hall for the 2:30pm Future Fund Board of Governors meeting. The BoG will be debating using the Future Fund for the proposed East Mountain Pan-Am stadium.
I’ll be bring my camera with me and hope to upload some pictures during the meeting itself. I will NOT be covering this meeting for The Spectator – they have a City Hall staff. (Since I’ll be a private citizen, my standard copyright policy on my photos will be in effect. You’re free to use any of my photos for non-commercial purposes.)
It’s been awhile since I liveblogged a meeting – should be fun. Makes me nostalgic for Oshawa City Council.
- Joey
Photos from the World Cup celebrations on James Street North Sunday night.