Blogs

I just finished a 70 page long paper on how social networking evidence has been used in civil and criminal trials in collaboration with Professor Bryan Schwartz of the University of Manitoba. The paper will be published at the Crown Defence Conference in Winnipeg on September 22nd and 23rd.

I will publish a link to the paper shortly.

I set up a web page on the alternative vote this weekend. (AKA. Ranked choice voting, instant run off, or preferential voting.

http://www.alternativevote.ca

It is a fairer electoral system for voters than first past the post and has been used in Canada in the past.

While I ultimately support some proportionality in our voting system, ending strategic voting and recognizing choice is a important step in getting Canadians used to electoral alternatives.

AV has been used in Canada before, doesn't require a referendum or redrawing boundaries, and allows voters to honestly express their preference.

It may not necessarily benefit small party candidates, but it will empower local representatives and provide more competition and guilt free voting.

A few weeks ago I moved to Manitoba to start law school. It was a little bit of a change, as I had lived in Vancouver all of my life with the exception of a few months of travel when I was a little younger.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but so far my experience has been pleasant. I'm quite pleased with my faculty and my professors.

I have a former defence lawyer, turned media magnate, turned law professor for my criminal law. A former associate deputy minister of justice who represented the province and the federal government on various constitutional issues teaching me constitutional law. A hilarious former lawyer from Nigeria who absolutely loves teaching and who tried to convince us that lawyers are not in it for the money teaching us contract law (which is entirely about money.) I have a few other interesting professors with more academic backgrounds teaching me a few of my other classes.

A week ago, Google had the Prime Minister post a video of the budget on YouTube and solicited visitors feedback on a set of followup questions.

In all fairness, I think Google did a fairly good job of choosing questions and while not “hard hitting” was reflective of the web presence of some of the issues.

The Prime Minister showed up, answered the questions with various levels of confidence and gave responses that while coherent, were often unsatisfactory. While I may not agree with his approach to governance, I do think at the very least this was a healthy precedent for Canada in opening up communication.

The interview was 40 about minutes long, and was mostly in english with a few questions asked and answered in french. My question came in at about 36 minutes of the interviews after various questions on daycare, education, the environment and Afghanistan and separation.

Published: Oct 15, 2009

Editor: I want to thank Mayor Rick Green and council for fighting for a Fraser Valley passenger rail service, where other politicians have been failing us.

In the last year, MPs such as Mark Warawa had the opportunity to step up and implement a green stimulus plan that included light rail.

Yet the Conservative government wasted $10 billion bailing out the car manufacturers and a whopping $80 million dollars of taxpayers dollars advertising their “action plan.”

It’s not too late. A national light rail plan, such as that proposed by the Green Party, would create thousands of jobs across the country, provide better options for commuters, spur on smarter land developments around stations, and help the environment.