Howard Pawley was elected to the Manitoba legislature in 1969 and served as a cabinet minister in the first NDP government of Manitoba. For most of the 1980s, he governed as premier of the province. “Keep True” is his political autobiography. In his privileged role as both insider and player,
Continue readingCanadian Dimension | Articles: What Happens When the Shale Boom Goes Boom?
Recent headlines in the US press about the coming economic boom heralded by the shale gas revolution would lead you to think we are literally swimming in oil. A spate of reports last year, in particular the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) World Energy Outlook (WEO) in November 2012, forecast that
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: What Happens When the Shale Boom Goes Boom?
Recent headlines in the US press about the coming economic boom heralded by the shale gas revolution would lead you to think we are literally swimming in oil. A spate of reports last year, in particular the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) World Energy Outlook (WEO) in November 2012, forecast that
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Canadian Food Inspection Agency Should Be Investigated For Fraud
Richard Hughes-Political Blogger What the hell is going on with the C.F.I.A ? The very agency that is charged with protecting our food sources is in fact conflicted over the virus ridden Atlantic Farmed Salmon that threaten our wild stocks and should not be eaten by anyone. Today, the
Continue readingMusings on Canadian Politics: Soccer, Sikhs and multiculturalism in Quebec
Quebec’s Soccer Federation is going into hiding. The names and contact information of its board of directors have been pulled from the federation’s website. They’re refusing to talk to the media. Are they being accused of embezzlement? Did they steal children’s money? No, they’re refusing to allow Sikh kids to
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: D.C. Court Rules Against Environmental Transparency, Threatening Public Health and Democracy
Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that trade deals can be exempted from federal disclosure laws. The case revolved around a classified document related to an FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas) that contained information about environmental and public health and
Continue readingMorton's Musings: Conditional sentence for an offence of violence
R. v. Pottie, 2013 NSCA 68 deals with the often vexed question of a conditional discharge for a violent offence. The Criminal Code provides: 730. (1) Where an accused, other than an organization, pleads guilty to or is found guilty of an offence, other than an offence for which a
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Why Mandela Is So Important
Although I have only made reference to him three other times in this blog, Nelson Mandela is a person who I revere like no other. And of course, I am hardly alone in that sentiment, attested to by the fact that millions of people, not only in South Africa but
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Joni Mitchell In Focus with Jian Ghomeshi – An In Depth Interview
Here is a Q special and North American broadcast exclusive with Joni Mitchell. Jian interviewed the music legend last week at her home in Los Angeles. The result is an in-depth and revealing conversation about her life, legacy and resistance to being labelled. [MP3 file: runs 57 minutes]
Continue readingCanadian Trends: Naked and Transparent
Oh boy, you just have to love the irony of our backwards society; an NSA whistleblower exposé of the global surveillance grid and a new friendlier police-hugs Bilderberg meeting. You know that meeting that just years ago the press would deny even exists? Oh yea, it’s all right out in the open for
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: The NSA Black Hole: 5 Basic Things We Still Don’t Know About the Agency’s Snooping
National Security Agency (NSA) headquarters at Fort Meade, Maryland. By: Justin Elliott and Theodoric Meyer | ProPublica Last week saw revelations that the FBI and the National Security Agency have been collecting Americans’ phone records en masse and that the agencies have access to data from nine tech companies. But secrecy around the programs has meant even
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Corporate Hypocrites Gone Wild: Syncrude Edition
Let’s say that you’re one of the world’s largest producers of synthetic crude and also Canada’s largest single-source producer of crude derived from oil sands. Imagine that you are also the biggest greenhouse gas emitter in Alberta! (“Psst, we’re working on being the biggest in all of the nation, baby. Don’t count
Continue readingLisaKirbie.com: More Senate talk on Sun News
I’m no fan of Mac Harb’s but his residency issue is quite different from what Tory senators Duffy, Wallin and Brazeau are currently dealing with. Read what Harb has to say, in his own words. But the larger issue is the growing list of Harper’s parliamentarians who are in some
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: PRISM: NSA Watching the Innocent
Technology and civil liberty experts knew PRISM was a very real possibility. I knew, and wrote about it last August. The National Security Agency (NSA) (star bad guy org. in the Will Smith movie Enemy of the State) has been collecting domestic Americans’ phone and Internet records since at least
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Civil liberties, pro-democracy, privacy rights, and open Internet groups call for answers on secret government spying program
SS_200x200_130610-1.png Groups are rallying Canadians after revelations that the government has been spying on individuals’ private lives for years June 11, 2013 – A group of organizations focused on civil liberties, pro-democracy, privacy rights, and open access to the Internet have joined to together to demand answers and immediate action
Continue readingOPSEU Diablogue: Mental Health: Anti-stigma campaigns produce unintended consequences
There is no question that stigma is an obstacle to those seeking help for mental illness. The question is, once mental illness is accepted in the same way as any other medical malady, will there be sufficient resources in place … Continue reading →
Continue readingLisaKirbie.com: Little Super Men
Or, Twin Terrors? I say that with love, of course. The little boys in this clip are my nephews and the very patient woman, my baby sister. The twins, who were born incredibly premature, are actually delightful creatures, despite what three minutes of live television captured.
Continue readingHalf an Hour: The Open Road
Right now, the government awards road-building contracts to large construction companies. But imagine the government decided to end these contracts, and to simply grant anyone who wanted to build a road a license to build a road. It would still be a complex process, of course. Road-builders would have to
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Frackademia: University of Tennessee Set to Lease Forest For Fracking, Enriching Governor’s Family
8,600 acres of the Cumberland Forest owned by University of Tennessee-Knoxville will be leased off to the oil and gas industry this August in a new form of “frackademia” – and one of the top financial beneficiaries will be the family of Republican Gov. Bill Haslam, who sits on UT-Knoxville’s Board
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