Wikileaking the Arms Trade Treaty

Arms Trade Treaty (ATT)
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22. (S/NF) FS Miliband asked about the status of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), insisting "we are not trying to keep people from bearing arms in the USA." He asked if it was "conceivable" for the U.S. to ratify the treaty. Tauscher stated she was not optimistic given the Second Amendment issues being raised by opponents, but said the Administration was planning to review the ATT and we are prepared to listen to the UK make its case on this issue. FS Miliband said that the UK launched its campaign in favor of the ATT in September 2008 with the support of some U.S. companies.

LONDON 00002198 005 OF 005

23. (S/NF) Day observed that there is "sometimes a sense" that the FCO "pushes" the ATT while the MOD opposes it. He stressed that the MOD and the UK defense industry "support strongly" the ATT. He said that he had personally seen the impact of MANPADS in Sierra Leone, and stated that ground to air missile proliferation is a major problem that the ATT could address. "Given our operational deployments in Afghanistan, we’re focused on” the ATT," he said.

Breaking news from Lisbon

Stephen Harper finds his next Defence Minister.

He said "I won't comment on individual cases" was a useful phrase in parliament, adding: "I use it whenever I don't understand."

The other was: "We're responding to the case in accordance with the law and evidence," he said.

Canada's NRA wannabe...

...has no sense of humour.

Queue angry comments in 3...2...1

Shorter Stockwell Day

Hey look!

Those dirty commies are chasing the all mighty d-llar!

Cheap shot at China.

Comparison of Communism and Nazism.

Minimalist passing mention of human rights.

No mention of democracy.

And that's why Canada needs to change.

How does Jim Flaherty get something so obvious so wrong so quickly?

In August 2010, Standard and Poors downgraded Ireland's credit rating. 

By coincidence or design, failed Ontario Tory leadership candidate and Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty found himself in Ireland on official business right after the downgrade.  At the time, Reuters reported:

Canada finance minister defends Irish policy after downgrade

(Reuters) - Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Ireland had a solid bank plan and was Europe's leader in fiscal reform, warning not to take rating agency views such as S&Ps downgrade of Ireland this week too seriously.

Dublin will welcome G7 chair Canada's defence of its "bad bank" plan and efforts to stem the rise in its budget deficit after S&P on Tuesday cut Ireland's credit rating to "AA-", pushing up its borrowing costs.

Less than three months ago, Flaherty believed that Ireland had a solid plan to fix its fiscal crisis.  Canada's Finance Minister even went on to take a shot at the rating agencies:

The rating agencies were part of the problem that caused the crisis. I am not a big fan of Moody's and Standard and Poor's and so on when they start to pontificate on certain issues. After all, they were responsible for rating some of the securitisations on Wall Street that contributed greatly to the crisis we've been facing for the past few years, so I take it all with a grain of salt from the rating agencies.

That unprovoked cheap shop did not go unnoticed in Canada.  Globe columnist Norman Spector wrote:

While things are going well in Canada today, the global economic recovery is still fragile and we are not yet out of the economic woods. For the life of me, I can't think of a single reason why Mr. Flaherty would think it’s wise and in the interest of Canada to have entered a dispute between Ireland and the ratings agencies. And, in particular, how he thought it would be helpful to Canadians for him to take a shot at Moody's and at Standard & Poor's.

Today, Reuters reports that Flaherty is washing his hands of the whole Irish imbroglio:

"It doesn't directly have any significant impact on Canada but it's important that Europe deal with this situation and they may well have the assistance of the IMF," he said.

Any chance that Flaherty is going to apologize to S&P for being so completely wrong?

Yeah, we didn't think so either.  

On this break week, Tory MPs play Santa's Little Helper

Regina Leader Post
November 9, 2010

"Everyone's giving out money. We're spending like it's Christmas," Trost said.

Sometimes we wonder if Saskatchewan's Tory MPs remember that it's not their money.

Canada's gun lobby at work

Canada's NRA-not affiliated gun lobby is at it again.

Straight from their starring role in the Harper Tory government's self inflicted failure to pass a gun registry repeal bill that they once had the votes to pass, the Canadian Shooting Sports Association has picked a new target.

This time, Canada's gun lobby is fighting Ontario's proceeds of crime legislation.

In an undated letter to Ontario's Attorney General Chris Bentley, Canada's gun lobby explains that Tory riding association Vice President Bruce Montague, whose appeal of convictions including making machine guns and tampering with firearms serial numbers the Supreme Court refused to hear, should not be treated as a criminal at all.  Oddly, the gun lobby's letter doesn't mention illegal machine guns or removing serial numbers.

A cynic reader would suspect that Canada's gun lobby really wants machine guns for everybody.