By Arthur Weinreb
Thursday, March 15, 2007
The Ontario government announced this week that the province has appointed its first Fairness Commissioner. The lucky winner who has been led to the trough is former federal Liberal MP Jean Augustine. Augustine gave up her seat/was forced out about a year and a half ago to make room for the man who was to become the next Paul Martin; oops, Pierre Trudeau – Michael Ignatieff. Augustine's decision not to run again paved the way for Iggy to be parachuted into her Toronto riding from the hallowed halls of Harvard.
The Fairness Commissioner will oversee the legislation that came into force on March 1 called, what else, the Fair Access to Regulated Professions Act, 2006. Augustine's job will be to see that the process of recognizing the qualifications and foreign credentials of immigrants is run, well, "fairly". For this task, the 69-year-old former MP will be paid $566 a day, up to a maximum of $110,000 a year. Obviously being fair is not expected to be a full time job.
According to the Toronto Star, Premier Dalton McGuinty has been "angling" to take care of Augustine since she left the federal scene. A Liberal premier leading a fellow Liberal to the trough – you can't get much fairer than that. Only when a Conservative like Stephen Harper makes a patronage appointment is this type of activity ever called unfair or worse, usually much worse.
There is no doubt that there are problems with the recognition of the qualifications of immigrants who come to Canada with specialized knowledge and skills. There is also no doubt that many of these new immigrants are prevented from using the skills that they have obtained in order to not only better their lives but to be able to make a greater contribution to their new country. But the fact remains that it is now difficult to determine if the decision as to whether a certain newcomer is qualified to undertake certain work will be made by regulatory bodies that have knowledge of job requirements or will be made by the bureaucrats in the office of the Fairness Commissioner. Only time will tell.
By naming the legislation "fair" and the political hack in charge of it, the "Fairness Commissioner", McGuinty has turned what might be a legitimate government function into a campaign slogan. After all, if there was no upcoming election in which McGuinty had a need to paint his government as "fair", Ms. Augustine would likely have another job title. Dalton McGuinty has to do everything he can to portray himself as being "fair". After all, he's the one who got votes in 2003 by promising not to raise taxes and then, once elected, imposed a hefty health tax on the gullible Ontarians that believed his promise. But in the upcoming provincial election campaign how can anyone accuse Dalton of not being fair after he went and appointed a "Fairness Commissioner". It could have been a lot worse – Dalton could have appointed a "Truth Commissioner". That no doubt will come during his second term. He'll probably "angle" to appoint Stphane Dion who will by that time be the former leader of the federal Liberal Party as the province's first Truth Commissioner. We can hardly wait.
What makes the name of this office so ridiculous is that fairness is subjective. When there is more than one side or one point of view on an issue, it is practically impossible to make everyone see that the outcome is "fair". You can never make everyone happy so the only way that a decision maker can be fair is to make a decision that makes everyone equally unhappy.
So come on Jean – make everyone in Ontario unhappy. With Dalton's help, we're sure you can do it. It won't be nice – but at least it will be fair.
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