Senator Finley Leads the Charge

Last week Anne Coulter, American conservative commentator was visiting our great land, and was prevented to speak at the University of Ottawa. The state of free speech in this country was highlighted by her visit.
Senator Doug Finley lead the charge today in ``the place of second sober thought.``to tackle the erosion of free speech and to make changes in the Canadian Human Rights Act. He calls for the section of Human Right`s Act that stifles free speech to be scrapped. Other Tory Senators also took up that torch.

OTTAWA — Senator Doug Finley led a call Tuesday to scrap a section of Canada's Human Rights Act that he and other Conservative senators say is being used to stifle free speech in Canada.

Finley was one of a quartet of Tory senators to lead a Senate inquiry into free speech rights in Canada, rights they felt had come under attack when the speech by a controversial American pundit at an Ottawa university was cancelled and again when a woman in Vancouver sued a comedian because she didn't like jokes aimed at her.

Senator Finley and Senator Duffy gave very good speeches. ht. Blazing Cat Fur

Senator Finley`s speech here.
Senator Duffy`s speech here.

I truly hope something comes of this. It`s way overdue. The CHRC kangaroo courts have gotten way out of control and they need to be reigned in.
My preference would be just to shut them down and send Jennifer Lynch, HRC Commissioner,and others packing. It`s encouraging to see the Conservative Senators take up this cause. I don`t know what happened to the parliamentary committee looking into the CHRC and their attacks on free speech. They need to get back to it and get something done on that front.
Minister Nicholson, please pay attention to your senators and many of us out in the public who really want action on that file. The sooner the better.

OUR FREEDOM IS STAKE! THE STAR CHAMBERS ARE OUT OF CONTROL!

UPDATE: Sen. David Tkachuk's here.

Is Ed Stelmach About to Face a Palace Coup?

It is no surprise that in the last the few months the support for the Ed Stelmach PC government has been plummeting with rise of the Wildrose Alliance Party whose support have been surging. There have been floor crossings from the PC's namely two disgruntled MLAs, Heather Forsyth of Calgary-Fish Creek and Rob Anderson of Airdrie-Chestermere.

Graham Thomson from the Edmonton Journal is writing about musings of a possible palace coup if the circumstances don't change for the better. There have been rumblings about all parties (with the exception of Wildrose Alliance), about who is going to lead in the next election two years away.

Ed Stelmach is the leader who has the most to worry about. Seems like some in the PC party really don't want to go into the next election with Ed Stelmach at the helm.

"There are mutterings that more than a few Conservative MLAs in Calgary and southern Alberta figure they'll lose the next election under Stelmach. Tacticians for the Wildrose are crunching numbers that point to a minority Wildrose government if an election were held today. A CTV/ Access poll released Monday indicates almost 52 per cent of respondents who identified themselves as Conservative say they are likely or somewhat likely to vote Wildrose next election.
The Conservatives apparently haven't been in this much trouble since they faced the Liberals led by Laurence Decore in 1993."

This from Highwood Riding Association Board. They are are not happy campers.

CALGARY - In a blistering, unprecedented letter to Premier Ed Stelmach, a key Progressive Conservative riding association says the party is "nearing the precipice of moral insolvency to govern."
The Highwood riding board charged that the Tory party "is bereft of policy, planning, execution, follow-through and communication to the members of the party, and, most importantly, to the citizens of Alberta."
Without a rebirth of grassroots participation, the letter says, "this party can expect no mercy from the electorate on the election day, which is just two short years away."

Yikes! That is tough! Times don't look so good when you have all this discontent and Riding Associations are saying things like that.

RELATED: Doesn't all this kind of remind you of the Federal Liberal Party right now? The divisions and discontentment? Will Mr. Iffy lead the Liberal Party of Canada into the next election?

UPDATE: It just keeps getting worse for Ed Stelmach. His brother-inlaw has just jumped ship and joined the Wildrose Alliance. It no doubt will cause tension with in the family.

Allan Warshawski, Marie Stelmach's brother, walked into the Wildrose founding meeting in Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville last Thursday and bought a membership.

That's Stelmach's own riding. Embarrassing!