Archive for April, 2010

The NDP, Liberals, and Bloc, re-formed their coalition last week in order to pass a provocative piece of legislation. Together, these three left wing parties passed C 232 an NDP private members’ bill that would require future Supreme Court justices to be able to understand English and French “without the assistance of an interpreter.”

Now, most Supreme Court judges are already functionally bilingual, but C 232 demands a level of bilingualism so high, that six of our current nine justices would not qualify, including one of our justices from Quebec, according to a former Supreme Court justice.

The vast majority of Canadians will understand the cheap politics that motivated the NDP to engage in this political stunt.  But deciding who sits on the Supreme Court should be more than just an exercise in political showmanship. The Supreme Court of Canada should be made up of the best legal minds in the country, not just those appointed from a pool of jurists who happen to be perfectly bilingual. The reputation of the Supreme Court of Canada, the highest court in the land, should not be sullied by an all-too-obvious court packing plan mired in the politics of language.

I’m Brad Trost, your Member of Parliament in Saskatoon-Humboldt. You can call my office in Saskatoon at 975-6133 or drop by our two offices to visit: Saskatoon Monday-Friday or Humboldt Tuesday and Wednesday. I always appreciate your feedback.

The right to own private property is irrevocably linked to freedom. However, there is one group of Canadians who do not have this right. Currently, there is no legal safety net to prevent on-reserve residents from being expelled from their family home if their spouse dies, or if the marital relationship ends. As a result, many individuals, particularly women and children, are left in dire situations that can lead to homelessness and poverty. Our legislation to address the longstanding issue of matrimonial real property would provide people living on-reserve with the immediate means to fairly divide the family home when facing the breakdown of a relationship or death of a spouse. It would also provide protection in instances of family violence. The proposed legislation would apply to approximately 600 reserve communities, affecting more than 75,000 individuals who are currently without legal matrimonial real property protections.
 
I’m Brad Trost, your Member of Parliament in Saskatoon-Humboldt. You can call my office in Saskatoon at 975-6133 or drop by our two offices to visit: Saskatoon Monday-Friday or Humboldt Tuesday and Wednesday. I always appreciate your feedback.

Canada is one of the most generous nations in the world when it comes to resettling refugees. We have given shelter to over one million refugees since the Second World War.
 
Yet, we are in danger of creating a two-tier system: one for immigrants who patiently wait in line for years to come to Canada and another for those who jump the queue, thinking they can play the system to their own advantage.
 
As a result, we have an overburdened system with a backlog of refugee claimants, many of whom have unfounded claims of asylum.
 
In order to improve Canada’s asylum system, the government is proposing legislation that will:
 
Result in faster decisions and quicker removals of failed claims;
 
Depoliticize the process through which claims are heard; and
 
Deliver help for those who genuinely need it.
 
These changes will save Canadian taxpayers money (about $20,000 for each failed asylum claim) and make it easier for true refugees to come into Canada.
 
I’m Brad Trost, your Member of Parliament in Saskatoon-Humboldt. You can call my office in Saskatoon at 975-6133 or drop by our two offices to visit: Saskatoon Monday-Friday or Humboldt Tuesday and Wednesday. I always appreciate your feedback.

When it comes to dumb ideas, the iPod tax probably is one of the dumbest ideas I’ve ever heard. 
 
The NDP wants to levy a tax of about $75 per iPod. The money raised would be distributed among artists. To make matters worse, the NDP’s iPod tax would not be limited to sharply increasing the price of iPods. The NDP want to tax anything that digital music can be stored on. Computer hard drives and MP3 players are examples of other electronic devices that would be subject to the NDP iPod tax.
 
What is the NDP’s lame excuse to impose the iPod tax on Canadians? Well, the NDP thinks that since some people do illegal music downloads, everyone should pay to compensate artists. 
 
Now, the NDP omits a couple of facts.  First, the vast majority of permanent downloads are legal.  Secondly, most of the illegal downloads involve popular recording artists. These musicians are not the people who will receive most of the money generated by the NDP iPod tax.
 
All iPod users should not be considered to be automatically guilty of illegal downloading and hit with a $75 fine whenever they buy an iPod or other digital media players.   We have sales taxes and income taxes and corporate taxes. Canadians should not be forced to pay an iPod tax as well.
 
I’m Brad Trost, your Member of Parliament in Saskatoon-Humboldt. You can call my office in Saskatoon at 975-6133 or drop by our two offices to visit: Saskatoon Monday-Friday or Humboldt Tuesday and Wednesday. I always appreciate your feedback.