Quebec will have to go it alone on a gun registry.
The Supreme Court has ruled the federal government has the right to destroy federal gun registry data concerning residents of Quebec.
This is a win for the Tories and their right-to-bear-arms agenda and sells well with the Conservatives rural voter base.
The registry wasn’t perfect but it was better than nothing. Just ask Canadian police chiefs.
The registry was a legacy of the mass shooting of female engineering students at the Ecole Polytechnique, and today, somehow, I feel their memory is dishonoured.
Financial reality
Well as the doctor might say, this is going to hurt, but the cure is absolutely necessary.
Quebec is in a financial mess: too much spending over too many years with too many programs we simply cannot afford.
Our provincial debt increases by $18 million each day.
In terms of individual wealth, Quebec, compared to all the other provinces and 50 states ranks 57th.
So the party is over and there will be some pain, and the usual suspects will moan and groan, but finally we have a government that seems serious about cleaning up a very messy situation and eventually reducing our heavy tax burden.
This will be a tough year for the Liberals because spending cuts will be hard for many.
But the cupboard is bare and those that think otherwise join should Alice through the looking glass.
Which brings us to the students.
Students protesting against...
Well some students, a minority of them joined by the usual assortment of anarchist thugs who only exist to tear everything down.
However those dreaming of another Maple spring may be in for a bit of a disappointment.
Sure, students are on the streets. Some bully their way into classrooms to try to stop actual learning from taking place.
But quorum at the strike votes hovers around 1 percent.
Those protesting only represent themselves.
And what’s their point? It’s not clear.
They say they are fighting austerity--whatever that means.
They say universities are underfunded and are forced to make cuts. Perhaps it wouldn’t be the case if the universities had received tuition increases back in 2012.
The education minister is quite right when he says there will be no making up courses this summer, as happened in 2012.
What do students want?
Well considering most of them don’t pay taxes, they are concerned about how the money the rest of us pay is used, preferably sent their way so they can have free everything.
The biggest student group, ASSE, has a pretty wild list of demands.
There are the obvious old chestnuts most of the far-left crowd enjoy spouting off like anti-Israeli venom, opposition to any Canadian military intervention anywhere, and denouncing all police everywhere.
This student group also opposes beauty pageants and is demanding better menstrual pads.
When spokesperson Fannie Poirier speaks she utters gobbledygook.
“The population is not dumb. We know what they are doing. We know that they’re privatizing right now our drinkable water our breathable air.”
What? Our breathable air? Only the money-grubbing, undemocratic, capitalist dogs will be able to afford to breathe?
Total nonsense.
It seems to me that these young wannabe Marxists seem to have more in common with Groucho than Karl.