Dinosaurs

Thursday May 19, 2016

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Ð Thursday May 19, 2016 Some Conservatives now ready to support bill on transgender rights When C-279, the private member's bill that would have added gender identity to the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code, came before the House of Commons for a vote in 2013, Conservative MPs Rona Ambrose and Tony Clement voted against it. This time around, Ambrose and Clement say they will be voting in favour when the Liberal government's bill to add gender identity to the human rights act and the code, C-16, comes before the House for a vote. Neither vote is likely to be crucial to the bill's success: with Liberal and NDP support, the bill should pass the House of Commons comfortably. But they could mark a change of opinion that might still be significant. Clement pointed to the influence he takes from his three children. "I have three children, ages 24, 22 and 18. They span the political spectrum but in their generation this is a foregone issue," he said. "They don't even understand why this would be debated.Ó He also says it makes sense that transgender Canadians should be included among those who have their rights acknowledged. While Liberals, New Democrats and 18 Conservatives supported the bill tabled by NDP Randall Garrison, Conservatives accounted for all of the 137 votes opposed. Clement says that in 2013, the advice to Conservatives from the Justice Department was that the bill was unnecessary because gender identity was already covered by the law. Ambrose and Clement follow Conservative MP David Tilson who told CBC News on Monday that his view had changed since voting against C-279 in 2013. That change of opinion is not unanimous. Conservative Senator Don Plett, who opposed C-279 and moved amendments that excluded areas such as bathrooms from the bill's provisions, told reporters on Tuesday that his position has not changed. "You know my feeling on transgender rights," he said. "They hav

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday May 19, 2016

Some Conservatives now ready to support bill on transgender rights

When C-279, the private member’s bill that would have added gender identity to the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code, came before the House of Commons for a vote in 2013, Conservative MPs Rona Ambrose and Tony Clement voted against it.

This time around, Ambrose and Clement say they will be voting in favour when the Liberal government’s bill to add gender identity to the human rights act and the code, C-16, comes before the House for a vote.

Neither vote is likely to be crucial to the bill’s success: with Liberal and NDP support, the bill should pass the House of Commons comfortably. But they could mark a change of opinion that might still be significant.

 

[slideshow_deploy id=’1787’]

 

Clement pointed to the influence he takes from his three children. “I have three children, ages 24, 22 and 18. They span the political spectrum but in their generation this is a foregone issue,” he said. “They don’t even understand why this would be debated.”

He also says it makes sense that transgender Canadians should be included among those who have their rights acknowledged.

While Liberals, New Democrats and 18 Conservatives supported the bill tabled by NDP Randall Garrison, Conservatives accounted for all of the 137 votes opposed. Clement says that in 2013, the advice to Conservatives from the Justice Department was that the bill was unnecessary because gender identity was already covered by the law.

Ambrose and Clement follow Conservative MP David Tilson who told CBC News on Monday that his view had changed since voting against C-279 in 2013.

That change of opinion is not unanimous.

Conservative Senator Don Plett, who opposed C-279 and moved amendments that excluded areas such as bathrooms from the bill’s provisions, told reporters on Tuesday that his position has not changed. “You know my feeling on transgender rights,” he said. “They haven’t changed since the last time I spoke about it … They probably will not change.”

Two Conservative senators who supported Plett’s amendments, Denise Batters and Paul McIntyre, said Tuesday that they would be reviewing the legislation.

Those votes may matter more so. Plett is still a member of the Senate’s legal and constitutional affairs committee and while the Liberals have a majority in the House, Conservatives have a plurality in the Senate. (Source: CBC News)

 

Friday April 24 2015

Friday April 24 2015Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday April 24 2015

Of Woolley Mammoths and Mass Transit

Provincial cash for Hamilton rapid transit still appears to be years down the road – and we still don’t know how much is available, or what it will be spent on.

Monday, April 21, 2014But Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca was on Twitter shortly after today’s provincial budget announcement to hint good news is on the way.

“#HamOnt, I look forward to visiting in the coming weeks with more details about what our $31.5B Moving Ontario Forward plan means for you,” he tweeted as local residents expressed frustration online at the lack of local details in the 2015 budget.

Hamilton residents have waited years to find out if the province will cover council’s increasingly contentious request for $811 million for a light-rail line. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Meanwhile,   A prominent McMaster University scientist involved in a new genetic study says scientists “in theory” could bring back the woolly mammoth from extinction within a matter of decades.

From December 2005

Hendrik Poinar, director of the Ancient DNA Centre at McMaster University was the senior Canadian researcher in a study published today about an international effort to successfully sequence a nearly complete genome of two Siberian woolly mammoths.

The research effort, he said, has created a genetic blueprint “of what makes a mammoth a mammoth.

“People involved in the de-extinction process … will find it exceptionally helpful.”

The mammoth’s closest living relative is the Asian elephant and science some day could use the genome information to reintroduce the species by raising in vitro mammoth fetuses and placing them inside Asian elephant mothers, Poinar said in an interview. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Thursday, February 26, 2015Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday, February 26, 2015

Sex education debate at Queen’s Park gets nasty

As several hundred social conservative protesters loudly rallied against Ontario’s new sex education curriculum outside the legislature, the debate inside was even more heated.

Progressive Conservative MPP Monte McNaughton (Lambton-Kent-Essex), a leadership hopeful, attacked Premier Kathleen Wynne on Tuesday for not doing enough to consult parents before implementing the new syllabus that takes effect in September.

McNaughton told the house that the premier should not be imposing views upon mothers and fathers concerned about the revised program designed to protect children by better informing them about sex.

Wynne, Ontario’s first openly lesbian premier, suggested the Tory MPP was being homophobic.

She rhetorically shot back at McNaughton that perhaps he thought she wasn’t qualified to weigh in on the subject because she’s a woman, a mother, a grandmother, a former school trustee, a past education minister or that she has a masters of education.

As Wynne thundered at the Tory member, Liberal MPPs heckled that that wasn’t “the real reason” he was complaining.

Outside the chamber, McNaughton said it was “ridiculous” to accuse him of homophobia and said the main reason the premier is unqualified is that her government faces so many scandals that are being investigated by police, including the Sudbury byelection, the ORNGE air-ambulance fiasco, and the deleted gas-plant emails affair.

He and his rival PC leadership candidates — MPP Christine Elliott (Whitby-Oshawa) and MP Patrick Brown (Barrie) — met with the raucous protesters, many of whom brandished anti-abortion signs. (Source: Toronto Star)