No, what is damning about that tape, what will not be part of the public pitch the Conservatives will be making, is the foreshadowing of what a Conservative government would do with its majority. It was a brief re-emergence of the Scary Steve that Harper has largely managed to hide in government.
He ranted against socialists and separatists, he complained about left-wing ideologues on the courts and in the public service, he equated groups that fought for rights for minorities, for the disabled, for women, as left-wing fringe groups. He mocked multilateralism in foreign policy. He re-emphasized that he wants to get rid of the gun registry. He mocked government-sponsored child care programs.
And in addition to the message was the tone: angry, spiteful, negative. A very different message and tone then sweater-vest Steve.
Judging by his inflamed rhetoric at a recent "closed to the media" Conservative Party session in Northern Ontario, it appears our Prime Minister fears that a Liberal government may soon be in the cards:
"Do not be fooled for a moment. If we do not get a majority, the Liberals, the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois will combine and they will form a government. They will deny this until they're blue in the face in an election campaign, but I guarantee you, if we do not win a majority, this government will have a Liberal Government, propped up by the socialists and the separatists. That government may not last very long, but every day it is in office it will do long term, real damage to this country. This country cannot afford a government like that. If they force us to the polls - if they get together and force us to the polls - we have to teach them a lesson and get back there with a majority and make sure their little coalition never happens."
Funny, I thought it was the current Harper government whose likely, short-lived survival has entirely depended on prop-ups from the "socialists and separatists."
The Ontario Human Rights Tribunal has ordered National Money Mart Company to pay $30,000 in compensation to a former, one-year employee of the company who had been subjected to ongoing, serious sexual harassment by her workplace supervisor.
Workplace bullying is a serious problem for thousands of Canadians at work. It can degrade one’s self worth and create serious health problems for workers and their families.
There has often been very little that could be done to stop the workplace bully in his or her tracks. But, in Ontario, there is now hope around the corner.
With the Ontario Court of Appeal's June 25, 2009 ruling in Slepenkova v. Ivanov, it is now clear that the nearly-universal pronouncements by management lawyers as to the death of Wallace damages after Honda and Keays may have been a bit premature.
In Slepenkova, the Ontario appellate court upheld a two-month notice extension for an employer's bad faith termination, even though no evidence was led at trial as to the specific damages the employee directly incurred as a result of the bad faith. This appeared to place the trial Judge's decision at odds with the new Wallace test set out in Honda.
Should access visitation with children via Skpe be considered an acceptable substitute where a custodial parent wants to move far away with the family's children?
Canada's family courts have reached conflicting decisions on this challenging new issue of the digital age.
Canada's press has had a field day with four sensational cases that have been winding their way through the nation's courts.
Dealing with fundamental questions at the very root of our values around marriage, children and family, these cases have captured the public's collective imagination - and ire -for very good reason.
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