The federal government won approval Tuesday afternoon to quickly start pumping $3 billion into Canada's sputtering economy after the Liberals dropped an earlier demand for advance details of how the money is to be spent.
5. What kind of reactions have you received -- because you’re a rank-and-file activist -- from your co-workers and your fellow union members in your local to some of the anti-war work that you’ve been doing in the union?
It’s been tough. And I’m in a male-dominated union, we’re ninety per cent men, and a lot of middle-aged brothers and I’m in the minority; I’m an activist, I’m a lesbian of colour, and out in the union, and so it’s kind of hitting all those fronts. And in terms of the anti-war stuff, it’s really been a struggle. We have vocal Zionists in our worksites, and we’ve had to battle them, and – really, I’d characterize it as ‘battles,’ in terms of turning our executive members around, and bringing educationals into our workplace, and being shut out by management, and having to have our workshops outside of the worksite, and facing continual backlash. But the backlash is also a sign of making progress. So that’s how we take that perspective, but, it’s been tough but we’re going to continue to push. We’re signing up more and more members [to the Peace and Justice Committee], and that’s continuing that mobilizing, and that hasn’t been easy.
the food price index accounted for over 60 per cent of the increase in the CPI, compared to six per cent in the first quarter. The increase was mostly the result of a 3.9 per cent annual rise in prices for food bought from stores. The annual pace of growth in the prices of store-bought food has been increasing since 2003. The steepest rise in prices came from staples such as bread, rice, flour, milk and eggs.
For the 15 years of my life in Canada, this is the first time that I have owned a garden. I am very much enjoying it because it reminds me of how I was raised. It was natural for every family member to have their own little patch of land, to grow their own fruits and vegetables....
Here, people without gardens must go to grocery stores. That’s how the corporations have taken over. It used to be that people would make cherry pies or vegetable dishes or whatever. They were able to sell that to the neighbours and they would survive that way. Now there are all types of liability issues and insurance and licensing and...
When you look at all these big manufacturers, what are they doing but making that very same pie and earning millions and billions in revenue and profit? They’ve managed to take away the very essence of life in terms of how we survive, and turned it into a multi-billion dollar business. The pie that we get at the grocery store now is less nutritious and has no value and no meaning. In fact, we cannot afford the pie anymore. (p16)
In an e-mail sent out last week to different social agencies and individuals, city employee Monica Waldman said they are looking for "tons" of people to sign up to be "decoys" on April 15, the night scheduled for the city's second homeless head count.
"Decoys are essentially 'faux' homeless people for quality assurance purposes in this research," [Waldman] wrote. "As a decoy, you would need to come to a 30-minute training session and then be deployed [speaking of jargon] to various sites throughout the city where you will wait to be approached by the research volunteers."
Each decoy will receive a $100 pre-paid Visa card as an honorarium.
Until very recently, the concept of living in a space 500 sq. feet or less was definitely contrary to the American mainstream in all but the most dense of cities. In fact, from the 1950’s onward, the American home seemed to be ever increasing in size and grandiosity with little regard to the costs to either individuals or the environment....
It wasn’t until the recent decline in housing values, failure of the sub-prime housing industry, and subsequent impact to the broader U.S. and world economies that most people were willing to consider any solution out of the norm when it came to housing options. Now, however, there is an increasing amount of media attention on any form of cheap housing solution. Older inner city homes, yurts, tiny houses on wheel, houseboats, RV’s, log cabins and the like are now featuring on the evening news and regular pieces in the New York Times.
... [T]he small shift in mainstream mindset toward more modest housing options has been exciting to many members of the small home movement. But we realize that there’s a long way to go in terms of right-sizing the “American Dream”. In the meantime, the group of us on SLJ thought it would serve a useful purpose to have a website where we could regularly release articles that might prove useful to people interested in downsizing their lives to more manageable proportions.
The food you consume can have a direct impact on your sex life, affecting your hormones, brain chemistry and energy and stress levels. Some foods have psychoactive properties, others arouse because they are psychologically suggestive, and some can actually increase blood flow to the genitals. And if it does not have all that aphrodisiac effect, at least it’s healthy and it will do you good!
Cops like David Bratzer are a rare breed.
Think of the late Gil Puder. A distinguished Vancouver police officer, Puder called for an end to the war on drugs while he was in active service during the late 1990s and continued to do so despite threats of disciplinary action from his superiors.
Or the recently retired West Vancouver police chief Kash Heed. At one time, while he was still with the Vancouver police, Heed, according to Bratzer, also spoke about the legalization of drugs.
Bratzer has been with the Victoria police for only three years, and already the 31-year-old officer has stepped forward to question the basis of the country’s drug laws.
> Share of enforcement-related activities in Canada’s drug strategy: 75 percent
> Share of drug-related criminal charges in Canadian courts in 2002: 23 percent
> Cost associated with drug cases before the courts in 2002: $330 million
> Policing costs for drug enforcement in 2002: $1.43 billion
> Correctional-service costs associated with drugs in 2002: $573 million
> Canadians reporting having used illicit drugs during their life in 1994: 28.5 percent
> Canadians reporting illicit-drug use during their life in 2004: 45 percent
Source: “Canada’s 2003 renewed drug strategy—an evidence-based review”, published in the HIV/AIDS Policy and Law Review’s December 2006 edition
It is clear. We have the biggest opportunity in history to truly transform public policy about drugs.
Dramatically different political circumstances -- a new president and increasingly dire domestic and global economic crises -- give us a fresh opportunity to challenge the basic premises of the failed and destructive drug war.
But in order to seize the moment, we need to educate and mobilize the largest audience possible for drug reform in the next few months -- before the drug warriors reassert their influence
I told the world that Iraq, contrary to your claims did not have weapons of mass destruction.
I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to al-Qaeda.
I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to the atrocity on 9/11 2001.
I told the world, contrary to your claims, that the Iraqi people would resist a British and American invasion of their country and that the fall of Baghdad would not be the beginning of the end, but merely the end of the beginning.
Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong and 100,000 people paid with their lives; 1600 of them American soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies; 15,000 of them wounded, many of them disabled forever on a pack of lies.
I have never in a long life of listening to George Galloway heard a single sentence out of his mouth that I believed.... Galloway has said his share of ridiculous and absurd things.... [But] he can come to Canada and talk rubbish all day long, as far as I'm concerned. If there's a security threat, that's another matter.
For decades, foodies, animal welfare advocates, labor and environmentalists have joined together in an effort to educate their peers and affect policy change with the broad goal of improving the way our food is grown, processed, distributed and eaten. They've snuck into animal factories with hidden cameras, staged protests in Washington and boycotted fast food establishments. They've shopped at farmers markets and planted seeds in community gardens. They've formed a massive and remarkably powerful food and farm movement, and in general, they've kept quite busy reaching for a goal that until recently seemed completely futile and utterly out of reach.
First, it was just announced that the Obama's are putting in their very own vegetable garden on the White House lawn. This is something that the food movement has been dreaming of since day one, and not one but two separate organizations -- Eat the View and the White House Organic Farm Project -- have been tirelessly promoting for years.
He knew the telecom giant was on shaky ground. But with three decades of experience, Leech was sure he could land another good job if need be. So when his wife, who had stayed home to raise and educate their three children, went to school to become a pharmacist last August, Leech thought nothing of tapping his line of credit for the $9,000 tuition. Nor did he fret much when he took out a mortgage of around $280,000 for a new home in Smiths Falls, Ont., or when he borrowed thousands to replace the family’s two aging vehicles. In all, the family piled on more than $400,000 in debt in the last few years. [my emphasis]
“When I was young if you got heavily into debt it was a very serious issue, but now it’s just seen as normal. If you’re an average middle-income family with two or three kids and only a single income, debt is the only way to keep the family going.”
[S]tarting in the 1990s our attitude to debt changed. As interest rates fell and soaring house prices made everyone feel richer, our nation of savers became a nation of borrowers. Debt emerged as the great enabler, the ticket to the trappings of a better life, to flat screen TVs and shiny new SUVs. [my emphasis]
We’re now at the point where regular Canadians are carrying even more debt than Americans. It’s true we used to save much more - as recently as 1990 we socked away 13 per cent of our disposable incomes - but the average debt carried by Canadian households has jumped 71 per cent.... As of last year, we only saved three per cent of the money coming in the door, and according to the consulting firm Deloitte, the average Canadian family now owes more than 1.3 times its disposable income. [my emphasis]
The new owner's plans include growing organic vegetables, herbs and berries, community garden plots, horse riding, livestock and greenhouses. "Every acre of available farmland will be farmed," said society board chairman Rob Reid
Initially, Leblanc wanted clients to live at the farm, but Central Saanich council refused to consider rezoning to allow that. The debate was often acrimonious and Central Saanich Mayor Jack Mar expects there will be some strong feelings about the purchase. Leblanc is not yet certain where clients will live, but is looking at options.
Council leaders have compiled a banned list of the 200 worst uses of jargon, with "predictors of beaconicity" and "taxonomy" among the worst horrors. The Local Government Association says such words and phrases must be avoided....
LGA chairman Margaret Eaton said: "The public sector must not hide behind impenetrable jargon and phrases....
"Why do we have to have 'coterminous, stakeholder engagement' when we could just 'talk to people' instead? If a council fails to explain what it does in plain English then local people will fail to understand its relevance to them. We do not pretend to be perfect, but as this list shows, we are striving to make sure that people get the chance to understand what services we provide."
A Plain English Campaign spokeswoman said: "This gobbledegook has to go. Jargon has its place within professions but it should not be allowed to leak out to the public, as it causes confusion. It could even be used to cover up something more sinister."
Food prices increased 7.4 per cent during the 12-month period to February, following a 7.3 per cent increase in January. The main contributors to the overall jump in food costs were a 25.8 per cent hike in the price of fresh vegetables, a 9.7 per cent rise in the price of bakery and cereal products, and a 6.1 per cent increase in meat prices.
Shelter costs, the second-largest factor, increased 3.0 per cent, which was slightly less than the 3.3 per cent rise in January.
Yesterday, I picked up my media accreditation for the World Water Forum. I now don't need to pay the exorbitant fee of 100 euros a day, which has kept so many of our comrades from having their voices heard at the international conference which is being promoted as open and democratic..
Maude [Barlow], Wenona Hauter, the Executive Director of Food and Water Watch, and I needed to use the bathrooms at the World Water Forum and discovered that there were separate bathrooms for the VIPs which we were not allowed to use. When we finally made our way to the ordinary people's bathrooms, we discovered there was no running water, so the toilets wouldn't flush and we couldn't wash our hands.
The symbolism is hard to ignore. It's a perfect statement about the World Water Forum's agenda serving the rich and powerful while the poor are denied access to water and sanitation. The VIPs have a special space reserved for their sanitation purposes, while the rest of us have no running water.
Shell will no longer invest in renewable technologies such as wind, solar and hydro power because they are not economic, the Anglo-Dutch oil company said today. It plans to invest more in biofuels which environmental groups blame for driving up food prices and deforestation.
Executives at its annual strategy presentation said Shell, already the world's largest buyer and blender of crop-based biofuels, would also invest an unspecified amount in developing a new generation of biofuels which do not use food-based crops and are less [but still] harmful to the environment.
The company said it would concentrate on developing other cleaner ways of using fossil fuels, such as carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology. It hoped to use CCS to reduce emissions from Shell's controversial and energy-intensive oil sands projects in northern Canada.
The company said that many alternative technologies did not offer attractive investment opportunities.
Jane Taber: So you do believe in evolution. You believe in the theory of evolution. Let’s just get this off the table right now.
Gary Goodyear: We are evolving, every year, every decade. That's a fact. Whether it's to the intensity of the sun, whether it's to, as a chiropractor, walking on cement versus anything else, whether it’s running shoes or high heels, of course, we are evolving to our environment. But that's not relevant. And that's why I refused to answer the question. The interview was about our science and tech strategy, which is strong…
New Democrats have signalled their support for anti-gang legislation tabled by the Tories that includes making any gang-related homicide a first-degree murder charge and creating a new charge for drive-by shootings....
"We're here to underline the importance of strong action at the federal level. We haven't seen what we need to see yet from the federal government," [NDP leader Jack Layton] told reporters outside the main headquarters of the Vancouver police department.
"There's some legislation that's coming forward that we'll be supporting but we also know that there's more legislation, prosecutions, policing and prevention."
...
Mr. Layton suggested he would look at bolstering calls by the B.C. government for federal-justice changes that include better wiretap access to track Internet and BlackBerry communications and an end to two-for-one credits for time served.
In 2003 the government also introduced new forest policies that have caused significant job loss in the B.C. forest sector. These policy changes included allowing forest companies to leave pulp logs in the woods. This caused pulp and paper companies to have to import pulp logs from as far away as Alaska at above market prices, along with importing wood chips from Washington and Oregon.
Poor policies also caused the increase of log exports, and in some cases we were importing wood chips back into B.C. from the very same logs we exported. Also the 20 per cent takeback from all coastal tenure holders with more than 200,000 annual allowable cut [AAC] was a mistake.
It would have been better to takeback AAC from forest companies that exported logs and did not operate manufacturing faculties in coastal B.C. in line with the AAC they held. This would have allowed companies who did not wish to operate manufacturing operations in coastal B.C. equal to their AAC, to give up any AAC they did not match.
Companies that did wish to operate their manufacturing operations, like Doman Industries, could have retained their AAC, thus not having to shut down operations that were efficient and would retain and create jobs in coastal B.C.
The government was advised prior to 2003 about this, it ignored the advice and its policies have caused long-term damage to forest workers, environmental standards and sustainable forests.
The crown owns about 94 per cent of B.C. forests. It is important government does not try to semi-privatize crown forests or the B.C. taxpayers will suffer even more than they have....
B.C. has been blessed by a lot of timber. If it is harvested in a sound environmentally and sustainable way, using proper stumpage systems that are fair and equitable, we can restore our forest industry.
The government was advised as early as 2001 [that] they would fail forest workers, communities, and also forest companies that wanted to grow and build a business in B.C.
It is time to correct those policies so both current and future generations of forest workers, forest dependent communities and B.C. taxpayers can once again benefit from our forests.
Jewish Canadians Concerned About Suppression of Criticism of Israel
James Deutsch, M.D., Ph.D., Judith Deutsch, M.S.W., R.S.W., Miriam Garfinkle, M.D.
Over 150 Jewish Canadians signed a statement expressing their concerns about the campaign to suppress criticism of Israel that is being carried on within Canada. The signatories include many prominent Canadians, including Ursula Franklin O.C., Anton Kuerti O.C., Naomi Klein, Dr. Gabor Mate, and professors Meyer Brownstone (recipient of Pearson Peace Medal), Natalie Zemon Davis, Michael Neumann, and Judy Rebick.
The signatories are particularly concerned that unfounded accusations of anti-Semitism deflect attention from Israel's accountability for what many have called war crimes in Gaza. They state that B'nai Brith and the Canadian Jewish Congress have led campaigns to silence criticism of Israel on university campuses, in labor unions and in other groups. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff unquestioningly echo the views of these particular Jewish organizations.
They strongly state that they are against all expressions of racism. While firmly committed to resisting any form of prejudice against Jewish people, their statement explicitly states that these spurious allegations of anti-Semitism bring the anti-Communist terror of the 1950s vividly to mind. The statement underlines the immeasurable suffering and injustice to the Palestinian people due to the severe poverty, daily humiliations, and military invasions inflicted by the State of Israel.
Statement: Jewish Canadians Concerned about Suppression of Criticism of Israel
We are Jewish Canadians concerned about all expressions of racism, anti-Semitism, and social injustice. We believe that the Holocaust legacy "Never again" means never again for all peoples. It is a tragic turn of history that the State of Israel, with its ideals of democracy and its dream of being a safe haven for Jewish people, causes immeasurable suffering and injustice to the Palestinian people.
We are appalled by recent attempts of prominent Jewish organizations and leading Canadian politicians to silence protest against the State of Israel. We are alarmed by the escalation of fear tactics. Charges that those organizing Israel Apartheid Week or supporting an academic boycott of Israel are anti-Semites promoting hatred bring the anti-Communist terror of the 1950s vividly to mind. We believe this serves to deflect attention from Israel's flagrant violations of international humanitarian law.
B'nai Brith and the Canadian Jewish Congress have pressured university presidents and administrations to silence debate and discussion specifically regarding Palestine/Israel. In a full-page ad in a national newspaper, B'nai Brith urged donors to withhold funds from universities because "anti-Semitic hate fests" were being allowed on campuses. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff have echoed these
arguments. While university administrators have resisted demands to shut down Israel Apartheid week, some Ontario university presidents have bowed to this disinformation campaign by suspending and fining students, confiscating posters, and infringing on free speech.
We do not believe that Israel acts in self-defense. Israel is the largest recipient of US foreign aid, receiving $3 million/day. It has the fourth strongest army in the world. Before the invasion of Gaza on 27 December 2008, Israel's siege had already created a humanitarian catastrophe there, with severe impoverishment, malnutrition, and destroyed infrastructure. It is crucial that forums for discussion of Israel's accountability to the international community for what many have called war crimes be allowed to proceed unrestricted by specious claims of anti-Semitism.
We recognize that anti-Semitism is a reality in Canada as elsewhere, and we are fully committed to resisting any act of hatred against Jews. At the same time, we condemn false charges of anti-Semitism against student organizations, unions, and other groups and people exercising their democratic right to freedom of speech and association regarding legitimate criticism of the State of Israel.
It makes increasingly less sense even to talk about a publishing industry, because the core problem publishing solves - the incredible difficulty, complexity, and expense of making something available to the public - has stopped being a problem.
If you value news or entertainment, you'd better start thinking about paying something closer to the real cost of it. The current financial troubles of newspaper and television companies mean the fool's paradise of free content might well come to an end.
Vancouver East NDP Libby Davies has set an example by courageously speaking out against prohibition in the sex trade. She has taken a lot of abuse for doing this. But she knows that in the end, this is what will save lives.
Perhaps some of her NDP colleagues in Parliament (Bill Siksay? Don Davies? Peter Julian?) can stiffen their resolve, and start talking about solutions [to crime and gangland killings] rather than engaging in cheap photo ops designed to pander to the corporate media.
The NDP has nothing to lose. With its current polling numbers, the party will be decimated in the next federal campaign. Taking a stand against drug prohibition could transform the next federal election because Layton would get lots of coverage from antiprohibitionist journalists, including Dan Gardner and Ian Mulgrew, just to name a couple. The media are full of libertarians.
OTTAWA - The United Sates entered the recession first, but Canada's economy is falling faster now.
And if current trends continues, economists say, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty may rue their bold prognostications last week that Canada will exist the slump first and strongest.
Steven Fletcher, minister of state for democratic reform, intends to reintroduce a bill that would make it impossible for politicians to rely on hefty loans from wealthy individuals to finance their campaigns.
The move is intended to close a "loophole" in political financing laws, which Fletcher maintains allowed Liberal leadership contenders to do an end run around strict limits on donations by borrowing huge amounts of money from rich supporters.
A U.N. anti-narcotics drive has backfired in part by making drug cartels so rich they can bribe their way through West Africa and Central America, U.N. crime agency chief Antonio Maria Costa said on Wednesday. The 10-year "war on drugs" campaign ... had a "dramatic unintended consequence" - profit-gorged trafficking gangs destabilizing nations already plagued by poverty, joblessness and HIV-AIDS.
Critics of U.N. anti-drug policy want more stress put on harm-reduction policies ... or even legalization to remove the mafia element responsible for bloody turf wars and failing states.
Costa agreed with more harm-reduction efforts but rejected calls for legalization as dangerously naive and defeatist, likening this to accepting pedophilia and human trafficking.
"We should invest in the solid middle ground between criminalization and legalization - by framing our collective efforts against drugs less like a war, and more like an effort to cure a social disease."
In 2007, an expert working group at the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France, concluded that "shift-work that involves circadian disruption is probably carcinogenic to humans," after reviewing the existing evidence. Equally strong conclusions have been drawn from evidence that links circadian-rhythm problems to psychiatric disorders, metabolic syndrome and a range of other illnesses....
Circadian rhythms are known to affect the most basic of metabolic pathways, including protein synthesis, glycolysis and fatty-acid metabolism. And many patients who have circadian-rhythm disorders caused by shift work also develop gastrointestinal and metabolic disorders such as glucose intolerance, diabetes and high blood pressure
A new $50-million fund has been established to help aboriginal business and entrepreneurship, and some of Canada's top chief executives and business leaders have already expressed interest in getting involved, former prime minister Paul Martin said Wednesday.
Loans are being distributed through private equity firm CAPE Fund Management and the initial reaction to the idea from Canada's biggest companies has been positive, said Martin, who spearheaded the project with his son David.
"The waiting time between the family doctor and the specialist can be some of the longest and most frustrating," said Rick Baker, who has turned Timely Medical into a successful business even Americans are using through a subsidiary called North American Surgery Inc.
Baker said most family doctors refer patients to specialists with whom they have a long-standing relationship based on knowledge of their skills. "Older specialists may have the longest wait lists while the younger, newer ones, can have much shorter wait lists," he said. "Patients who pay us the fee will get a list of three other specialists who will see them more quickly and if the wait is not shorter, we will refund the money," Baker said, adding that the fee will not be shared with any doctors.
For Canada, this crisis does offer opportunity... Ultimately, it is an opportunity to position ourselves so that when the recovery comes, we're among the first to catch the wave.
12:53 Harper references the government’s tax credit on home renovations — then, under the guise of describing how the credit works, he quips: “If you own a home and you have a wife, you will probably be doing home renovations this year.”
Eligibility for the HRTC will be family based. A family will generally be considered to consist of an individual or an individual and his or her spouse or common-law partner, including children who will be under 18 years of age, at the end of 2009. A family will be allowed a single credit that may be shared within the family.
to consolidate the Canadian Television Fund and the Canadian New Media Fund into one body, a move aimed at sparking the creation of new programming across multiple media platforms, he said....
Combining the two funds will provide "more money for more creativity and more Canadian content available on more Canadian platforms," Moore told reporters, and private and public media industry leaders from CTV, Bell Video Group, Rogers, Shaw, Vidéotron, CBC and the Writers Guild of Canada.
Just a few more portions of broccoli each week may protect men from prostate cancer, British researchers report today.
They believe a chemical in the food sparks hundreds of genetic changes, activating some genes that fight cancer and switching off others that fuel tumours, said Richard Mithen, a biologist at Britain's Institute of Food Research.
The benefit would likely be the same in other cruciferous vegetables that contain a compound called isothiocyanate, including brussels sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage, rocket or arugula, watercress and horseradish, they added.
Broccoli, however, has a particularly powerful type of the compound called sulforaphane, which the researchers think gives the green vegetable an extra cancer-fighting kick, Mithen said.
A terminally ill Quebec City man made a public plea Thursday asking the Quebec government to pressure Ottawa to change the federal law on assisted suicide so he can end his life with dignity.
"The right to choose your own death is a desire, something which gives individuals legitimacy," said Dr. Hubert Marcoux, an ethicist with Laval University. "We need to discuss this as a society and decide if it's socially acceptable."
The resolution from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities calls on all municipalities to phase out the sale and purchase of bottled water at their own facilities, where potable water is available, and to develop awareness campaigns about the benefits and quality of municipal water supplies.
"In Victoria we're lucky, we have beautiful water. In Saanich, we're using jugs of tap water now in all our meetings," Leonard said.
Scientists at the University of Montreal say they have established a stronger link between aging and eating too much sugar. "Our research opens a door to new therapeutic strategies for fighting age-related diseases," says biochemistry professor Luis Rokeach. The research team found that the lifespan of yeast cells increased when glucose was decreased from their diet.
Aboriginal Relations Minister Mike de Jong is expected to bring the Recognition and Reconciliation Act to the legislature this month. It gives First Nations the right to make decisions and share in revenues from their traditional land, so they would benefit from mining, forestry, fisheries and other economic development. It also envisions an aboriginal council working on equal footing with the provincial government.
"I think if we do this together, it will represent change on a seismic scale," said de Jong, in a speech yesterday to the First Nations Summit, meeting in Victoria.
...
Chiefs will talk to the government about drafting details, said Ed John, grand chief of the First Nations Summit. After 150 years of repression, there is still skepticism about government's commitment, but most chiefs are optimistic, he said.
...
Phil Fontaine, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, said every government in Canada will look carefully at the B.C. bill. "I know the federal government will be under considerable pressure if this proposal ... makes it through the legislature," he said.
From a rocky start, Premier Gordon Campbell has evolved into one of the most supportive premiers in the country, Fontaine said. "He came to the realization that B.C. wasn't going to progress without First Peoples as an integral part," he said.
The U.S. government plans to invite wealthy investors to invest in the bailout of the crippled financial system.... The investors would be invited to buy up recently issued, highly rated securities that finance consumer lending - without the risk of massive losses.... The idea is to entice the investors to put their huge cash piles to work to stimulate the financial system....
The program, which could involve the government lending nearly $1 trillion to these investors, exceeds the size of every other federal effort to address the financial crisis so far.
Starting this month, roughly one quarter of the world’s population will lose sleep and gain sunlight as they set their clocks ahead for daylight saving. People may think that with the time shift, they are conserving electricity otherwise spent on lighting. But recent studies have cast doubt on the energy argument.
In 2006 Indiana instituted daylight saving statewide for the first time.... Examining electricity usage and billing since the statewide change, Kotchen and his colleague Laura Grant unexpectedly found that daylight time led to a 1 percent overall rise in residential electricity use, costing the state an extra $9 million. Although daylight time reduces demand for household lighting, the researchers suggest that it increased demand for cooling on summer evenings and heating in early spring and late fall mornings.
Stanley Coren, from the University of British Columbia, ... found that when Canada went into daylight saving in the springtime, there was an 8% increased risk of accidents on the Monday after the changeover. But when people had one hour's extra sleep (when they shifted out of daylight saving back into normal time), there was an 8% fewer risk of traffic accidents.
Today Assemblymember Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) announced the introduction of groundbreaking legislation that would tax and regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol. The Marijuana Control, Regulation, and Education act (AB 390) would create a regulatory structure similar to that used for beer, wine and liquor, permitting taxed sales to adults while barring sales to or possession by those under 21.
Board of Equalization Chairwoman Betty Yee said, "This common sense measure effectively prioritizes state resources during these times of fiscal constraint. Prioritizing law enforcement to control the most serious drugs while raising new revenues from casual marijuana use directed to treating serious drug addiction is a prudent use of limited resources."
"It's certainly not a form of credit we would encourage consumers to use," said Solicitor General John van Dongen. "It is a high interest rate," he said, adding that the rate strikes a balance between protecting borrowers and allowing lenders to do business. "Some payday lenders believe this rate will not allow them to be viable," he said.
Remember the $1,500 tiny houses that students of the Emily Carr Institute designed for an assignment given them by instructor Christian Blyt? Well for several months the project itself was homeless.“The main objective ... was a form of three-dimensional communication,” says Blyt. “We wanted to show that with very limited resources, you can create homes for these citizens, and I keep stressing citizens because they are citizens with rights just like the rest of us.”
CAUT, a lobby group that represents 65,000 staff at 121 colleges and universities, had planned to raise concerns over the government's handling of research funding. But within moments, it became clear they wouldn't get very far.
“The minister was very angry,” said David Robinson, associate executive director of CAUT. “He was raising his voice and pointing his finger … He said everyone loves their [federal budget] and we said, ‘A lot of our members don't love it'… and he said, ‘That's because you're lying to them, misleading them.'”
The talks, Mr. Robinson said, went from bad to worse. In 15 years on the job, he “never had a meeting like that.”
...
When CAUT staff said the Conservatives have a spotty record on science and noted they abolished the office of the national science adviser, Mr. Robinson said, the minister's assistant screamed at them to shut up.
“Then the minister said, ‘You've burned all your bridges with us!' and they stormed out.
“In all the meetings I've been in like this, I've never been shouted at and told to shut up,” Mr. Robinson said. The civil servant who escorted them to the elevator suggested it would not even be a good idea to return to the minister's office to collect their coats, he said. Instead, she retrieved them.
