What the ... clarification?!?!?

(Another post written months ago and posted late.)

The Provincial Government changed a speeding law last year. As soon as I heard about it I knew there would be problems with it. It wasn't clear enough. Yes, I know, what a surprise, the Government wasn't clear in making a law. ;)

They changed the speed limit in school zones. It is now 30 KPH when children are present. How is that not clear? It made me wonder does it only apply when kids are PHYSICALLY present in the school yard or does it mean when school is in?

For me it didn't cause a problem, I would just do 30 KPH whenever I was in a school zone to be safe. However, I could see some people being confused about it and having a fit when they got ticketed.

Now it turns out the Police are confused by it and have had to ask the Government to clarify what it means.

Gotta love how Government can fuck up something that should have been so simple.

What the ... gouging?!?!

According to the media oil prices will rise ... including gas and diesel prices ... because of hurricane Sandy. As far as I know New York and New Jersey are not, and have never been, oil producing states. So just how the hell are prices going up because Sandy hit them? It sounds like gouging as normal by the oil companies with the tacit approval of our Government.

Getting a new Birth Certificate Part Deux.

I won't recap the bureaucratic bull shit I have already gone through trying to get a copy of my birth certificate. But the saga does continue.

I got a phone call from L'etat Civil today saying that they need yet another piece of information. A piece of information they DIDN'T ask for on their website or in the forms they finally sent me a couple of weeks ago. Now they need a copy of a bill, tax statement, or my bank statement to show my address. Now, that was supposed to be one of the reasons why I sent these Bureautards a copy of my driver's license ... it has the address and is an official piece of ID.

Then, surprise surprise, I was told that I could FAX the documents to them. What the kimchi?!?!?! One reason the process has taken so long until now is that I was told I could NOT fax the forms in and I am not eligible for using their online forms. That is why I mailed it in ... and why the postal strike delayed sending it in to them. NOW some btard says I could have faxed it in! And they wonder why people hate bureaucrats and dealing with the government.

So, I went to the bank to get a copy of my latest statement to fax. It doesn't look like a bank statement you get in the mail. It looks like something anyone could have whipped up on their computer. The clerk also gave me a cancelled cheque for my savings account. It has all the info needed as well. (My account is now set up so I can just get my e-statement and print it off. When it was set up 12 or so years ago there were no e-statements.)

The information is all faxed off to L'etat Civil and I have to wait again. Will I actually get my birth certificate? Will it come in a week? A month? Or will I get a call form them tomorrow asking for new information? Or a letter in a few weeks saying they need yet something else.

I actually find myself missing Korean Immigration or the Korean Pension people. They could teach our Bureautards how to run an office. Never thought I would ever say that.

Once I actually get the certificate I then get to deal with the Passport people. I am not looking forward to that because I just expect more bureaucratic bull shit.

What the ... bureaucratic insanity?!?!?

This story sickens me. It makes me wonder just how civilized a country Canada is. Or at least how civilized our Government is. It confirms all the negative stereotypes we have about government bureaucracy. Especially when they put money above the life of a special needs kid.

The Maeng family has been here 8 years. They have a business and contribute to the economy! Their eldest son is studying at Dalhousie University. Now, after EIGHT FUCKING YEARS in Canada, some bureaucratic asshole has decided they can't stay in Canada because their youngest son is autistic and has epilepsy. Something the family NEVER hid, and was a reason why they came to Canada from South Korea. So their son could get proper treatment.

There has got to be something that can be done to stop this. Their lawyer has filed an application to have them stay on compassionate and humanitarian grounds. Unfortunately, considering the Harper Government's right wing view of immigration, I doubt the Government will be of much help. Compassion and Humanitarianism aren't words that one usually associates with the Harper Government.

The Maeng family have been told to leave Canada by June 30th. If you are Canadian contact your Member of Parliament and tell them what you think of this bull shit. Here you have a family that contributes to Canada being shit on by the Government.

Something needs to be done to let the Maeng's stay here!

You can email the Prime Minister (or at least his office) or go to his website and send a message.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada has a website you can visit as well. I found it funny in a sick way to see the headline on their website to be "Protecting Foreign Workers" when I opened the page.

June 8th There is an update about this on What The Kimchi? including a link to an online petition.

June 13th Another ... hopefully final ... update about the Maeng's ordeal. It is over. The government has rescinded the order. :)

RCMP Criminal Background Check

As I mentioned in other posts, the rules changed last year for having the Vulnerable Sector Search in Canada and it is causing headaches for some people. If you have the same birthday and gender as a sex offender who was registered and/or pardoned then your name/file becomes flagged. You must submit fingerprints in order to clear your name and prove you aren't this person.

CTV news, Live at Five, had a short blurb tonight about how the new rules are affecting an artist in St, John, New Brunswick. He needs the VSS to get a job teaching art. Because the check will take 3-4 months he may lose out on the job. After they told his story they talked to the MP for his area. He put out the standard BS answer about better to have to go through the check instead of letting an offender go undiscovered. While I can agree with that it doesn't address why the check takes so long. It was typical glib answer from a politician looking to make a sound byte for the evening news while ignoring the issue.

I actually have no problem with doing any check but there are some problems with the process. Problems the politician didn't mention.

1) It takes 3-4 months to clear your name. That is a ridiculous amount of time in this day and age. It took the RCMP 3 bloody months to do my check last year and then tell me that they couldn't do the VSS.

3-4 months to run a fingerprint check just strikes me as insane. Some government agencies actually bypass the RCMP check and have their own security people run the check and it is supposed to take 2 weeks. According to what I was told the finger prints are digitized and then a check is done by computer. Which leads to 2 questions a) why can't the RCMP do it in 2 weeks and b) why the does it take THAT long if they can just be run through a computer data base? Is there a commonality between data of birth and sex offenders that means there are hundreds or thousands of them with the same birthday so the search is huge? It just doesn't compute. (Pun intended.)

2) Unless it is for a Federal government job or SOME volunteer jobs you must pay to have the police clear your name.

Yes, you have to PAY to clear your name. Why the hell should I have to pay the police to prove I am innocent? Aren't they supposed to prove we are guilty? Isn't it the job of the police to gather evidence of our innocence or guilt? That is what they are PAID to do already right?

3) They do NOT do the VSS for jobs outside Canada.

They don't do the VSS for jobs outside of Canada? That just doesn't make sense, unless they are trying to lower their workload so they have less VSS checks to do. We should be making sure that we DON'T export sex offenders to other countries. Not doing this check for people seeking work outside the country just doesn't make sense. Hell, we have to pay for the bloody check anyway so why does it matter if it is a job inside or outside of Canada?

Will these problems be addressed? Probably not. People just continue to be screwed over by teh process.

PM Harper

After reading Harper's comments about the disaster in Japan yesterday I can't think of non-profane words to describe him. The fucking asshole actually tried using the disaster in Japan to say there should not be an election.

I always knew he was an arrogant piece of shit. Just look at how some government departments have changed their letter head from "The Government of Canada" to "The Harper Government". But to actually try and tie the disaster to not having an election. What an opportunistic arrogant fucktard.

Sign of Wasting Money

In the fall I did a road trip to Kentville with one of my brothers. It was a great trip. All along the highway there, as well as a lesser road that ran through Kentville, we would see huge signs the Nova Scotia government put up crowing about their spending on roads and job creation.

You would see these signs every 10-20km on the highway. On the lesser roads we saw another 3-4 of these signs.

We ended up stopped near one and I had the chance to read it. Premier Dexter had these signs made to crow about spending $200,000 on road improvements. It made me wonder just how much money he wasted making these signs and putting them out just to say "We spent $200,000 on roads and jobs."

Signs like that aren't cheap. Then you add in the cost of transporting and setting them up along the highway. I wouldn't be surprised to hear they spent $20,000 or even more on the signs.

What a waste of money just to pat yourself on the back!