Category: Canada

Anything related to Canada or Canadians

Don’t emulate the US on health

On CBC’s The Current the other day, there was a panel discussion about health care costs and Canada’s system. Partly, it was a response to a recent article by David Dodge and Richard Dion. They basically say that health care in Canada is going to get too expensive, and lists some possible actions to respond to that.

One action that is mentioned by them and others is to more closely emulate the United States by having more of a private health care system. It seems to me that the point that should be stressed in response to that is that the United States has a poor health care system, particularly when it comes to value for money. Private insurers paying private health care providers does little to reduce the serious economic externalities that exist in relation to health care. The US system also does poorly on objective measures like life expectancy and infant mortality, especially when considered in terms of outcomes per dollars spent. The weird hybrid character of the US system – with insurance tied to jobs and adults with pre-existing conditions barred from new coverage – also produces significant economic inefficiencies, as people risk losing the health care along with their jobs and never being able to secure coverage again.

Ultimately, the mechanism for controlling health care costs is rationing. We cannot afford to give every drug and treatment to everybody, since we could theoretically spend an infinite amount of money on each citizen. What we can do is fund those interventions that are justified by the degree to which they extend and improve a person’s life. The super rich will always be able to afford to buy a superior quality of care out of pocket – and they can do so perfectly easily outside Canada. For our society as a whole, however, our health system should be focused on producing the best outcome possible for the greatest number of people at a reasonable cost.

Locksport

Locksport is the practice of studying and learning to defeat locking systems, primarily mechanical locks such as pin and tumbler locks. As I understand it, it is driven by curiosity and the desire to understand how things work, rather than any desire to circumvent real-world locks. Practitioners are people who puzzle their way to inside information about an industry that tends to be close-knit and secretive, not unlike the people who watch classified satellite launches in the U.S. and track the orbits of mysterious secret satellites.

The Dutch blog blackbag is a good source of information on locksport, including picking, bump keys, and impressioning. The Open Organization Of Lockpickers is a group for locksport affectionados. Theoretically, they have a chapter in Ottawa, but it doesn’t seem to be active.

I think it’s worth trying one’s hand at picking locks, if only to get a sense of how secure they really are. I found that with a few minutes of work and no professional instruction, I could open the locks and deadbolts in my old apartment using a tension wrench and simple pick. The same goes for padlocks – both the omnipresent cheap Master Lock variety and higher security versions with security pins.

The legality of tools for manipulating locks varies by jurisdiction. In the United States, it varies from state to state. In Canada, lock picking tools (except for key duplication tools) are legal and treated just like any other tool.

Should the Green Party have a full platform?

Apparently, the Green Party has a position on income splitting. If this seems a bit random and disconnected from the environment, it is also reflective of a controversial question about what the party ought to be.

Given our first-past-the-post electoral system, the Green Party is never likely to elect many MPs. At the same time, the party has a reasonably large number of supporters – quite possibly more supporters across Canada than the Bloc Quebecois. I would argue that the main message these voters are sending is that Canada needs to take better care of the environment, and prioritize the development of a sustainable society more than we do now. I don’t think they are really endorsing their personal Green candidates, for the most part, or even that they are endorsing the overall Green platform.

Since they will never form a government (barring major constitutional reform, or a huge realignment of voter preferences), it seems there is a strong case to be made for the Greens sticking to their core message and not campaigning on unrelated issues (except as individual candidates, if they wish). It seems like taking a stance on environmentally unrelated things could lead to voters who disagree on those peripheral issues rejecting the party. If the Green Party took a strong stance on an issue like whether Canada should (or should not) have intervened in Libya, the risk is that they would be broadening their message somewhat pointlessly and alienating potential supporters. The Green Party isn’t about income splitting, or intellectual property rights, or criminal justice policy. There may be areas in which policies in this area have environmental effects – and it makes sense for the Greens to comment on them in those senses – but I don’t see the sense in them unnecessarily adopting political positions outside their area of core competency.

What do others think? Would the Greens be a more effective force for driving improved environmental policies if they focus on that area exclusively, or does seeking to be a party with a comprehensive platform actually make more sense for them given the nature of our electoral system and what they want to achieve?

Cities with unusually good libraries

I think Vancouver is on the list. I remember actually attending the opening ceremonies for the central branch of the Vancouver Public Library, when I was in elementary school. The building is rather elegant, I think, and they have a good selection.

Oxford obviously counts, though only from the perspective of students. The same may be true of Toronto. How is the public library system there? I am sure U of T has good libraries, even if one looks like a gigantic concrete turkey.

The reading room of the New York Public Library is one of the most appealing spaces I have ever read in, plus it is free and their archives are gigantic.

Ottawa’s central public library, on Metcalfe, doesn’t have either the physical attractiveness or the comprehensive catalogue of some of those other offerings. Perhaps that is something Ottawa should change, particularly given the number of people here who try to stay well read on their topics of personal expertise. It would add a lot more to the city than some new suburban road or sports venue might.

A better library would also be a nice place to meet bookish people.

Triceratops power

If my sources are to be believed, a major upheaval is about to occur in Canadian politics, with the emergence and near-certain electoral dominance of the Triceratops Party. They promise to be everything the Rhinoceros Party was times three, and more fossilized to boot.

While their party platform hasn’t been made public yet, I have been fortunate enough to see an advance copy. Some of the highlights:

  • Lacross stadiums for all swing ridings
  • Granting the Order of Canada to Muammar Qaddafi, for his services to the Department of National Defence (justification of costly weapons systems)
  • Supporting Canada’s ongoing effort to return the global climate to the state it occupied during the Late Cretaceous Period
  • The replacement of Canada’s $1000 candidate registration fee with a $1000 grant for anybody willing to run, as an addition to Canada’s Economic Action Plan
  • The appointment of the largest male and female moose that can be found as King and Queen of Canada (criminal cases henceforth to take the form Alces Rex v. Defendant)
  • Nationalization of the Hell’s Angels, to be merged with Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.
  • Mandating 10% of the seats in the House of Commons and Senate for the Work Less Party
  • Replacement of those actual seats with La-Z-Boy style recliners
  • Allowing the under-16 children of backbenchers to vote on behalf of their MP parents
  • Granting aristocratic titles to the unemployed, as a way of bolstering their spirits (for instance, Duke, Earl, Baroness, etc)
  • Granting all Canadians the right to live for free in Vancouver for a year, on a rotating basis – and applying a corresponding obligation to live in Ottawa
  • Pre-emptively removing the polar bear from the $2 coin, so people will be less sad when they go extinct
  • Re-locating the provinces alphabetically, from west to east, to aid schoolchildren in memorizing them
  • Re-naming all provincial capitals ‘Alberta City’, ‘Manitoba City’, etc for the same reason
  • Criminalizing public nudity and pre-marital sex among non-human animals
  • Allowing the appointment of corporations to the senate, as well as the post of Governor General
  • Banning fighting and bodychecking from hockey, substituting freestyle rap battles
  • Requiring MPs to pass a short quiz on the contents of a bill, before they can vote on it
  • Two free cups of coffee per day for all Canadians, to bolster productivity
  • Creating the false impression in the United States that Canada is an absolute monarchy threatened by jihadists, then using the billions of dollars in aid to reduce university tuition
  • Replacement of the maple leaf at the centre of the Canadian flag with a stylized triceratops head
  • Prohibiting echolocation by bats, since it gives them an unfair advantage
  • Requiring all British Columbian provincial premiers to change their name to ‘Amor De Cosmos’ for the duration of their time in power
  • Putting giant papier mache birthday cakes on top of Canada’s nuclear power stations, to make them look more festive and less frightening
  • Destroying a couple of random asteroids, in order to deter any others that might be considering crashing into the Earth
  • Eliminating the laws against slander and libel, while creating a legal obligation for public figures to have a sense of humour
  • Incentives to encourage wombats and platypodes to immigrate to Canada

The party is open to platform suggestions, so please consider providing some as comments.

The legality of prostitution in Canada

Canada’s laws criminalising aspects of prostitution are going to be challenged before the Supreme Court.

Personally, I cannot see how treating prostitutes as criminals helps anybody. If government wants to reduce exploitation in the industry, they would do better by regulating it and fostering good relationships between sex workers and the police.

Planning for Vancouver’s mega-quake

Everyone in Vancouver knows that one day, the ‘big one’ will come – a massive earthquake starting at the Cascadia subduction zone that runs between California and Vancouver Island. Back on January 26th, 1700, the zone experienced a ‘megaquake’ of magnitude 9.0 or more that swamped villages in Japan with the tsunami it created. It is estimated that the chances of a similar quake during the next 50 years are about one in three.

That is certainly something that should be borne in mind when deciding whether to construct dangerous infrastructure in the region. That includes nuclear power plants, but also oil refineries, natural gas infrastructure, chemical plants, and more.

It seems possible that lifelong awareness that a massive earthquake could occur might contribute a bit of apocalyptic psychology to the people of Vancouver. Even as a small child, I remembered being grateful to live in one of the parts of the city well above sea level. In elementary school, we each had little emergency preparedness baggies with food and water. They probably wouldn’t have done much good though: both my elementary school and high school had cinderblock walls with heavy concrete slabs for ceilings and floors. In a big earthquake, everyone inside would probably have been crushed.

On sexual education

A friend of mine works for an organization that teaches sex education classes in high schools. After a recent presentation, there was a barrage of complaints from parents who were offended that their high-school-aged children were being told how to put on condoms, and that masturbation is a risk-free alternative to sex. I can somewhat understand the psychology of parents, insofar as I can recognize the signs of people struggling desperately to retain control of something they feel as though they own. At the same time, I think their complaints should be dismissed completely.

Human bodies are incredibly complex things, which is why medical school is one of the most challenging intellectual undertakings people can take on. At the same time, every human being possesses such a body and has a right to understand at least the most important things about it. Those include understanding their own nature as sexual beings (and, yes, twelve-year-olds are already sexual beings), as well as knowing the facts about human sex and reproduction. They have the right to know about the risks associated with different sexual acts, and the mechanisms that are available for reducing those risks. They also have the right to know about the psychology and sociology of human sexuality: that being gay isn’t a sign of being unhealthy, that there is a whole spectrum of preference when it comes to sexual acts and partners, and that standards of sexual morality vary across time and space.

There is an especially insidious argument made sometimes that suggests that children should be made fearful of sex, in order to keep them from trying it. Firstly, this argument fails on a factual basis. Keeping kids ignorant will not stop them from experimenting. What it will keep them from doing is taking precautions like using barriers and contraception, talking with their parents and doctors, and generally making informed choices. This argument also fails from a moral perspective. For one group of people to decide that a thing should not be done, then agree to use misinformation to trick everyone else into acting that way, is insidious, paternalistic, and duplicitous. By all means, if you can use logic and evidence to convince people to agree with your views, do so. If you need to lie to them, however, there is a good chance that your perspective is actually incorrect.

Parents obviously have a role in keeping their children safe and in shaping their views about the world. At the same time, they have no right whatsoever to keep their children in ignorance about something as important as their own health and safety, or the functioning of their own bodies and reproductive systems. When schools cave to parental pressure and intentionally maintain the ignorance of some children, they are making the same kind of ethical mistake as fundamentalist governments make when they ban heresy or censor the news. One person’s patronizing impulse doesn’t create a valid justification for the suppression of important knowledge and information. Children should be educated about sex, and it should be done by taking the best scientific evidence we have available and making it as comprehensible as possible for people who have their level of general education.

More controversially, I think it is appropriate to tell students that sex is a natural and joyful part of human life, not something they should be fearful or ashamed of. It can be argued that this steps outside the bounds of science and objectivity, but I would question that on the basis of Sam Harris’ general argument about science and ethics. It is possible to distinguish between societies that enable human flourishing and those that suppress it, and those distinctions are valid in a way that can be demonstrated scientifically. Societies that treat sex exclusively as something shameful, dangerous, and secret seem likely to be comprehensively worse than those that treat it as something positive with risks that can be managed in intelligent ways.

VERSeFest 2011

I went to a slam poetry event at Ottawa’s VERSeFest tonight, and it was extremely good. The speakers were very talented, and the crowd was duly appreciative.

For the most part, the poets were very critical of government policy and society in general. I suppose that is normal at these events, which have a certain idealistic revolutionary flavour. At the end, I wished I had a chance to respond to some of the speakers and say that, for the most part, problems persist because they are difficult to solve, not because people are malevolent. More often, they are just focused on other priorities, or blocked by structural constraints and the inherent difficulty of solving enduring problems. All that said, a lack of compassion is definitely one reason why problems like homelessness endure, and poetry is a medium that seems capable of encouraging greater compassion.

This is the first time this particular festival is being held, and it seems to involve a tonne of different events. Tomorrow (Saturday, March 13th) is the last day, with a bilingual poetry event at 1:30pm, Japanese form poetry at 3:00pm, a Dusty Owl Reading Series event at 5:00pm, and a closing ceremony at 7:00pm.

Passes for the day are $10, and available at Arts Court (2 Daly Avenue), The Manx (370 Elgin Street), and Collected Works (1242 Wellington Street).

I have about eight gigabytes of RAW image files from the event to process, but I will definitely put up a link to the Flickr set once I have dealt with them.