Canada’s make-work big government

One of the surest signs of overstaffing and easy money in government organizations is the generation of nuisance laws and regulations. Paper projects, not just bridges, are built to nowhere.

Thanks to the Globe and Mail’s Tabatha Southey, Canadians just learned of a new one that should raise the ire of both penny-pinching conservatives and civil libertarians of all stripes.

Click on: www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/tabatha-southey/gender-offender-this-airport-rule-promotes-prejudice-not-security/article2326299/

The Canadian Department of Defense says it’s okay. But the Department of Transportation apparently has decided to make it impossible for airline passengers to dress according to their targeted gender.

Southey makes a good faith and futile effort to find a security rationale for this initiative. Bureaucracies aren’t staffed with angels. Mean-spiritedness alone, however, would not sustain the tedious work necessary to conceive, promote, approve, and implement a regulation to ensure that people get on planes wearing clothing consistent with the state of their genitals.

The project also needed articulate, idle public servants who were anxious to look busy in order to keep their jobs.

Brain Candy from Canada's next Maureen Dowd:

“Were the judge to extend his compassion for women further, we would have to look at Catholic and other religious teachings that have similar outcomes. Statistically, women who are married to one man are likelier to have more children and die in childbirth than women who aren't married at all, so we might as well conclude that marriage itself damages women's health. . . .

“Monogamy isn't threatened by a small sect in British Columbia, and enshrining it won't alter the members' religious beliefs. But this ruling should concern all those perfectly nice Canadians for whom monogamy is no more an institution than is the missionary position.”

Click on: www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/tabatha-southey/we-have-as-many-double-standards-on-polygamy-as-solomon-had-wives/article2249821/

—Tabatha Southey in her Tart weekly column for The Globe and Mail, November 26th, 2011.

Southey takes apart the decision of the Chief Justice of the B.C. Supreme Court, Robert Bauman, to uphold the constitutionality of Canada’s anti-polygamy laws. On the face of it, his judgement was welcome news to right-thinking Canadians everywhere. It set aside something nasty we don’t want to think about. Unfortunately, Southey’s column leaves you laughing at the judge—and yourself.

Mainstream journalism in Canada is safe. The Globe and Mail will remain the morning must-read by Canadian decision-makers, critics, cranks, and bloggers. It should continue to prosper alongside the social media. But, it could be more interesting.

Moving Tabatha Southey and her column to the op-ed page and out of weekend recreation would be a significant improvement. More of her gems would make the paper less reliable politically, more demanding intellectually, and more fun for its readers.