Canadians, before voting read this!

[directfiesta]

Ok, they claim that they want tighter rule against child porn, but when you read the article, it seems that these new laws could infringe on mainstream porn....

Hard to vote for Martin ( Ali Baba and the 40 thieves) but between Martin and Harper, I think we are better with the thief than with the right wing religious Harper...

Harper: Martin failed to strengthen porn laws

MAUGERVILLE, N.B. (CP) - Conservative Leader Stephen Harper is maintaining his attack on Paul Martin over what Harper says is a Liberal failure to address child pornography.

The Liberal leader failed to strengthen the law against child porn by voting against an Opposition motion in the Commons to close the "artistic merit" loophole, which exempts some art from anti-pornography legislation, Harper charged Saturday.

Opposition motions are routinely voted down.

Opponents of the Canadian Alliance motion said it was too broad and would have banned some legitimate art.

The issue of child pornography flared this week with the guilty plea from Michael Briere, who admitted on Thursday to the sex-slaying of 10-year-old Holly Jones in Toronto in 2003.

He admitted he had been watching kiddie porn on the Internet when he decided to grab a child.

On Friday, the Conservatives issued a news release suggesting the prime minister supports child porn.

The Conservatives withdrew and re-worded the release and blamed the initial e-mail on over-caffeinated youngsters in the party's election war room who have been working long hours for nearly a year.

That was not enough for Martin: "This is personal. I'm a father; I'm a husband. He crossed the line and he should apologize."

Harper offered a half-hearted mea culpa, saying the headline on the initial release was too strong.

"I've had them re-issue the heading," he said, but he didn't apologize for anything else.

On Saturday, Harper told about 200 supporters, "Quite frankly, Paul Martin's record on child pornography is shameful and just another reason why his government must be defeated on June 28."

The latest ugly campaign episode comes as new polls show the front-running parties becalmed in the eye of the hurricane-like rhetoric.

An Ipsos-Reid poll, conducted after the leadership debates of Monday and Tuesday, suggested Conservative support had stalled at 32 per cent and the Liberals were down two percentage points to 29 per cent.

The NDP also dropped a point to 16 per cent of respondents, the Bloc Quebecois was at 12 per cent and the Green party was up a point to seven per cent.

The poll of 1,000 Canadians, accurate within plus or minus 3.1 per cent, was mirrored by a slighter smaller Ekos survey.

The Conservatives were at 31.4 per cent, suggested Ekos, down about two points from a week earlier, while the Liberals were down a point to 29 per cent. The NDP was up two percentage points in the Ekos poll to 20.4 per cent, the Bloc was at 14 per cent and the Green party 4.3 per cent.


The child porn law came under legal challenge in the 1990s from John Robin Sharpe, a retired town planner from British Columbia who was charged after police raided his home and found photos of under-age boys engaged in sexual acts as well as a collection of stories written by Sharpe.

The Supreme Court of Canada upheld most of the federal law that makes production, dealing and simple possession of child pornography a crime.

But the court said it would be wrong to outlaw material such as personal journals, fictional writings, and drawings that are imaginary and don't involve exploitation of an actual child.

Sharpe was subsequently convicted on several counts. But he was acquitted of the charges related to his writings, which a trial judge described as "morally repugnant" but not totally lacking in artistic merit.

Legislation introduced by the Liberals in December 2002 in response to the Sharpe case proposed to tighten the definition of artistic merit.

It was criticized by legitimate writers, film makers and others who feared it would open them to prosecution. Critics on the right condemned it for not abolishing the artistic merit defence.

The bill died on the order paper when the election was called.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Politics...506389-cp.html

[BradM]

I'm voting Liberal. I don't give a shit what any of them say in the next week.

[baddog]

By the lack of response it seems that Canadians are more concerned with our election than their own.

Wonder if this post will cause this thread to turn into a 3 or 4 page thread.

[xxxdesign-net]

Originally posted by baddog
By the lack of response it seems that Canadians are more concerned with our election than their own.

Wonder if this post will cause this thread to turn into a 3 or 4 page thread.

Canadians dont care much about canadian politics...

[baddog]

Originally posted by xxxdesign-net
Canadians dont care much about canadian politics...

For some reason I don't think you are joking

[Jdoughs]

Originally posted by xxxdesign-net
Canadians dont care much about canadian politics...

Not entirely true.

But we are at a stand still. Many dont vote anymore or even just vote for who they always do. We just need to find away to get the x-gen to turn out, and vote.

Now if we could only get some people worth voting for to run.

[directfiesta]

Should have started a thread with a title saying:

Bush admits to be gay ( pics inside )....

That normally draws more attention.

We could end up in serious shit if he is elected with a majority....

[xxxdesign-net]

Originally posted by Jdoughs
Not entirely true.

But we are at a stand still. Many dont vote anymore or even just vote for who they always do. We just need to find away to get the x-gen to turn out, and vote.

Now if we could only get some people worth voting for to run.

Canada is divided in 10... like 10 little countries.. there's no national TV station bringing all canadians togheter... canadians barely watch canadian television... they watch american TV.. Politic interest in Canada is not even CLOSE to the interest in the US... Canadians actually watch more CNN than CBCNewsworld...

On the other hand.. because Canada was a 1 party nation.. if the conservatives win this one... you'll now have a democrat-republcan like battle.. and that might revives the interest of canadians in politics..

[Platinum Doug]

I'd vote NDP if there was a chance, but the conservatives don't speak for me. I'd be scared if Harper took office, but at the way the Libs are going, I'm not holding my breath.

[blazi]

I'm still undecided

[Jdoughs]

Originally posted by xxxdesign-net
Canada is divided in 10... like 10 little countries.. there's no national TV station bringing all canadians togheter... canadians barely watch canadian television... they watch american TV.. Politic interest in Canada is not even CLOSE to the interest in the US... Canadians actually watch more CNN than CBCNewsworld...

I totally agree that we watch and read much more american news then canadian news, but there is national networks like CBC and CTV, both have been around for many years. I watch the national news everynight but i also have CNN playing pretty much all day.

Im sure that by percentages we arent far off any other nation as far as political interest, im gonna go see if i can find out just to know

[BradM]

Vote for NDP and we are fucked. We get a retard in office that loves to give away money to lazy fucking hahahahas on welfare and EI.

Vote Conservative and get a guy who has NO platform other than bashing Liberal

Vote liberal and nothing changes from the last 12 years. I'll vote that way.





And no, Canadians DON'T give a fuck about our politics.
But if someone gets in we don't like (and we didn't vote that year) we will still bitch about it.

[baddog]

This is truly amazing from my point of view.

87% of the Canadians on this board would be jumping in to give their opinion on our election, yet I am learning that you won't even vote in your own election.

Like I tell people here (in US), if you don't/didn't vote, don't bitch.

[xxxdesign-net]

Originally posted by Jdoughs
I totally agree that we watch and read much more american news then canadian news, but there is national networks like CBC and CTV, both have been around for many years. I watch the national news everynight but i also have CNN playing pretty much all day.

Aside from the evening news.. what show is worth watching on CBC (aside hockey)? even CTV? Nobody watches those channels aside from getting their evening news.. which is far cry from all the political shows you see on CNN and the 3 major networks.. on sunday mornings...

[ADL Colin]

Originally posted by directfiesta
I think we are better with the thief than with the right wing religious Harper...

The lesser of two evils vote seems to be infecting the whole continent.

[Paul Waters]

I will hold my nose and vote for the local Liberal candidate.

What a horrible choice.

[Jdoughs]

Originally posted by baddog
This is truly amazing from my point of view.

87% of the Canadians on this board would be jumping in to give their opinion on our election, yet I am learning that you won't even vote in your own election.

Like I tell people here (in US), if you don't/didn't vote, don't bitch.

I know its ridiculous. I learned the same rule of thumb as a young man, if you have a say and dont say, remain quiet, you missed your peice.

Most here think Paul Martin (Liberals) is a thief or monetarily handicapped but he is far from that. The man is a economical genius, he just doesnt have the best to work with, and this takes more time then just a couple months, may take years to happen. He will help this countries economics greatly, its just a matter of time.

[rickholio]

Originally posted by baddog
This is truly amazing from my point of view.

87% of the Canadians on this board would be jumping in to give their opinion on our election, yet I am learning that you won't even vote in your own election.

Like I tell people here (in US), if you don't/didn't vote, don't bitch.

Perhaps the misanthropes and malcontents on HERE don't vote, but by and large the average canadian does, and does so reliably. Roughly 2 out of 3 eligible voters do so in every federal election, although that value has been dropping over the last decade (it was at 75% when we all got together to hand the conservatives their last ass-whooping after Mulrooney saddled us with the GST and NAFTA). The ones who aren't voting these days are the 20-something kids, who just can't be bothered to give a fuck.

I personally have voted in every election available to me (including by absentee ballot when not at home when it happens) all the way down to the municipal level... in my opinion, anyone who DOESN'T vote and (should the worst happen) lets our country be taken over by the cross-burning Regressive Conservatives is just as responsible as the ones who did vote for them.

It only takes one backwards administration to push our country down a wrong path that can take many years to recover from (if ever! We're STILL fucked with the GST and NAFTA, after all!)... I seriously worry that Harper will be another Poison Pill government if the worst happens.

[baddog]

Originally posted by rickholio
I personally have voted in every election available to me (including by absentee ballot when not at home when it happens) all the way down to the municipal level

Since I am one of those that fought for the right of 18 year olds to have the right to vote, I too have voted in every Federal, State and Local election we have had in the last 33 years.

I feel it is my duty to do so, and it pisses me off when I see the low percentages of Americans that do show up to vote . . . however, I realize that by their not showing up, my vote becomes that much stronger. So please, either everyone vote, or no one vote, and just leave the decision process up to me.

If you guys get a 75% voter turnout, that is quite impressive indeed.

[Kassidy]

I think that, at this point, the best we can hope for is a healthy opposition with diversified interests. Harper frightens me. He has an evil Hitler twinkle in his eye...

[kronic]

You don't even have to read between the lines with Steven Harper. The recent press release fiasco tells us all where he stands.

For those that aren't aware, his party released a press release stating that Paul Martin supports child porn.

http://www.polspy.ca/

That press release was retracted.

Then it was sent out again (apparently an email mistake), and subsequently retracted, again.

The final draft of that same press release had the header, "How tough is Paul Martin on pornography?".

Not child porn as previously indicated, just pornography.

This is just another example of those outside of our industry associating the two. It should also give us an idea of where Steven Harper would like to see things go.

I'm not sure if this has been posted already, but I'll post it again anyways. http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Con...l=968705899037

Notice the title: Voices: Internet pornography

NOT child pornography. And yet over 50% of the responses immediately jump into child pornography commentaries.

We may think we've come a long way and we're being slowly accepted into the mainstream, but articles and information such as these show we have ALOT further to go, than we have so far come.

[Fabien]

Le bloc colisse le BLOC

[kronic]

Originally posted by Fabien
Le bloc colisse le BLOC

Honestly, in the English debate, he was the least irrating and seemingly, the most rational of them all.

Too bad he's a seperatist.

Actually, Steven Harper came across well too, I thought. I'd never vote for him, but he was at least cool headed.

Paul Martin was terrible in my opinion. Evasive, obnoxious and about 10 other negative adjectives I can easily think of. Sadly, HE'S the guy I'll be voting for.

Jack Layton is hardly worth mentioning.