Release of government documents backlogged
2013/09/03 Leave a comment
My own experience with ATIP reveals a similar lack of compliance with the statutory requirements of the Act. Not a good example of government accountability or transparency.
Professional and Non Partisan Thoughts on Renewing the Public Service: Impossible Conversations – The Ethics of Dissent: Managing Guerrilla Government
2013/08/27 Leave a comment
Some good discussion on the hard issues in the public service on Nick Charney’s CPS Renewal blog. Picks up on some of the issues that I raise in my book, Policy Arrogance or Innocent Bias: Resetting Citizenship and Multiculturalism, with some good comments about just how hard they are to weave into our daily work.
Charte des valeurs québécoises – Une fuite mal reçue | Le Devoir
2013/08/21 Leave a comment
In what can only be seen as playing to xenophobic tendencies, inspriré à la française, the Parti Québecois’s leaked proposal for a Charter of Quebec Values, that would exclude any government employee in any function (e.g., hospitals, schools, garbage collection, the list is endless) from wearing any religious sign. Laicisme extrème.
Rather than addressing the political reality of Quebec feelings of vulnerability through the more nuanced approach of the Bouchard-Taylor Commission’s laïcité ouverte (see Rapport Bouchard-Taylor – Pourquoi la laïcité ouverte ? | Le Devoir) , where the only those government posts where government neutrality must be explicit (e.g., law enforcement, judges, President of the Assemblée national), the PQ went for an exclusionary, divisive approach.
Encouragingly, whether it was a trial balloon, all opposition parties in the Assemblée nationale have spoken against it as have many Quebec commentators (in English Canada, when we poll people about comfort level with religious signs, discomfort increases with the degree of religiosity expressed, but people have largely come to terms with this as part of living in a diverse society). Expect of course that other views will also come out, as is normal in any public debate, and we shall see whether the PQ succeeds in making this a wedge issue.
And of course, no such law would survive challenge under any human rights legislation in Quebec or Canada, not to mention the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Lots written on this and a selection of articles below for those interested.
Charte des valeurs québécoises – Une fuite mal reçue | Le Devoir.
Opinion Quebec’s Putinesque idea to ban religious garb from public workplaces – Globe and Mail
L’interdiction des symboles religieux serait une erreur, selon Charles Taylor, La Presse
Turbans, hijabs, kippas face restrictions in Quebec, Macleans
And then there were 2… multiculturalism ministers on the cabinet roster – Inside Politics
2013/08/21 1 Comment
More from Kady O’Malley on her series ‘would the real Minister for Multiculturalism please stand up’. I think in practice it will be less confusing for outside observers as Minister Kenney will be the main public face of multiculturalism and is clearly the senior political minister. Officials will adjust as they must, the focus of the program will be political, given the importance of ethnic communities as the ‘fourth sister’ of electoral strategies.
Not elegant from a machinery of government perspective but a totally understandable and rational, from a political perspective decision (even if the former official in me groans about what it means for the long-term health of the multiculturalism program).
And then there were 2… multiculturalism ministers on the cabinet roster – Inside Politics.
What We Don’t Know Can’t Hurt Us (Right?) | The Census Project Blog
2013/08/20 Leave a comment
A bit tongue-in-cheek on the US Census debates. Orwellian “ignorance is strength”.
What We Don’t Know Can’t Hurt Us (Right?) | The Census Project Blog.
My Book – Policy Arrogance or Innocent Bias: Printing Proof Stage
2013/08/19 2 Comments
Just finished the final edits – substantive, copy and formatting. On track for September 16 release. Good feeling, now on to pre-production and marketing.
What LinkedIn should learn from the Girl Guides – FT.com
2013/08/19 Leave a comment
Fair comment by Lucy Kellaway on aspects of endorsements on LinkedIn (and I am somewhat guilty here!).
Why Canada still needs a census in the age of data mining – Canada – CBC News
2013/08/15 Leave a comment
More on the ongoing controversy over cancellation of the mandatory census – more costly to taxpayers for less reliable and complete information, one of the more irresponsible decisions of the government. Sound and reliable knowledge and information is the basis for informed decision-making in all areas, whether economic, social, environmental, the public and private sectors.
A case where ideology trumped common sense, with a long-term impact.
Why Canada still needs a census in the age of data mining – Canada – CBC News.
Column: What’s the evidence for evidence-based policy?
2013/08/14 Leave a comment
William Watson raises some valid and important points about evidence-based policy and the limits. While some data and evidence is largely neutral and firm (e.g., Census data) other evidence can be subject to confirmation and other biases, in addition to the limits of our understanding of the complexity of society and behaviour. Evidence is still better than anecdote, but it limits also need to be understood. #W2P #GOC
Pico Iyer on Citizenship, Identity, Movement and Place
2013/08/13 Leave a comment
A very good, reflective TED talk, by Pico Ayer (thanks to The Franco-American Flophouse), on where one comes from and our increasingly fluid identities. For the many of us who draw our identity from a variety of different places, cultures and experiences, it captures how our notion of time and space has changed, and how we have to build our own sense of who we are, and the stillness to appreciate it.
A contrast to the citizenship ‘boxes’ that governments, for understandable reasons, have to put us into.
Multiculturalism in Canada: Evidence and Anecdote
Click image for book purchase
Multicultural Meanderings 