With BC salmon stocks showing signs in recent years of serious troubles Steve Harper seems intent on making their plight much worse yet. If the name Enbridge comes to mind, you’re on the right track. The Victoria Times Colonist’s Jack Knox has written a chilling account of plans by the
Continue readingMorton's Musings: Credibility of Police Officers
R v Favorite, [2008] O.J. No. 1184 holds: 11 That having been said, it is my intention to include in my final charge to the jury in this case the following instructions about police evidence: D.1 The Credibility of Police Officers As you are aware, most/a number of (all of) the
Continue readingwmtc: blogger! grrrr….! help!
What, you thought I wanted a blog header the colour of dog puke? No, I did not. The colours of my blog template have changed. On their own. And they won’t change back. Blogger accepted a few changes, so at least I have my lower-case back on the sidebar! But
Continue readingMontreal Simon: In Defence of Thomas Mulcair
I wasn’t planning to write anything about the NDP leadership race today, but after yesterday’s attack on Thomas Mulcair by Ed Broadbent, I feel I have no choice. For that attack was ill advised, intellectually dishonest, and cognitively challenged. And mark my words, if the NDP rejects Mulcair it will
Continue readingBlunt Objects: What Jedras Said
Jeff Jedras (aka A BCer in Toronto) has a brilliant post up just now about the follies of merger activists who propose the merger on the grounds of wanting a “not Harper” party: Wanting to stop the Conservatives is no reason to mash twogroups with very different philosophies and beliefs
Continue readingwmtc: wmtc survey: social bookmarking websites
For a paper I am writing, I am researching tagging as used in social bookmarking websites, like Delicious (said to be the first successful social bookmarking site), Reddit, Digg, StumbleUpon, CiteULike, and so on. There are hundreds of these sites, though they vary widely in popularity and effectiveness. Some people
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Robocon: Was there a conspiracy and who conspired? The wide net of the law
So far we have 700 clear cases of complaints to Elections Canada about voter suppression acts in the May 2011 election. And we have 77 ridings identified where voter suppression complaints have surfaced. And now we have the CBC identifying 31 ridings where there were complaints of voter suppression: CBC
Continue readingRight’s war on women, er girls, reaches new lows with this lovely cartoon
The closer it gets to November, the more emboldened they come. But this poster from far-right blog Protein Wisdom is OK because a woman drew it and it’s satire. Yeah right. Remember when the right was so upset over Playboy’s admittedly sexist accounting of the top conservative women? Not so
Continue readingWonder If The Birdman Wants To Send The Judges To…
. …His Highly-Concentrated Northern Relocation Camps. Why? Well, it would appear that, based on the reporting of The Globe’s S.Dhillon and J.Hunter, dem judges, dey gettin’ uppity: Asserting that the judicial branch must remain independent of policies that “could control or manipulate proceedings,” British Columbia’s top three judges have delivered
Continue readingArt Threat: Emotionally devastating documentary explores Israeli bombing of Gaza – Friday Film Pick: Tears of Gaza
Dozens of Palestinians have been killed or wounded in Israel’s latest bombing campaign of Gaza, while the Israeli military stubbornly insists the child-killing attacks are necessary to stop “terrorism”. Such bloody assaults on Gaza are unfortunately common, and those that took place over 2008-2009 may have been the most devastating.
Continue readingA BCer in Toronto: Our raison d’être can’t be opposing
The always bubbling in the background chatter about thedream of a few to see the Liberals and NDP to merge or form some sort ofcoalition came to the surface again recently with comments made by Liberal MPJustin Trudeau in Victoria and broadcast by Sun TV. Here’s a snippet: “By 2015,
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Dud Subs, Dud Torpedoes
Those four second-hand subs the Defence Department duped the Canadian government into buying? 18-years after we got stuck with them, one of them, HMCS Victoria, actually managed to fire a torpedo. Victoria is the only one of the four to fire a torpedo which is probably a good thing because
Continue readingRed Tory v.3.0.3: Harper’s F-35 Joint Strike Farce
Here’s a brand new video from the LPC regarding the Harper government’s constantly shifting position with respect to the purchase of an unconfirmed number of F-35 stealth fighter jets that could cost billions more than was initially planned for. You may recall that during the election the Conservatives claimed they
Continue readingIn This Corner: Encyclopedia Britannica: RIP
There was a sad death this week that you may have missed. The Encyclopedia Britannica — or, if you really want to get huffy about it, the Encyclopædia Britannica — has died. The Britannica will no longer print hardcover editions of the most reliable and beloved reference work in the
Continue readingStaffroom Confidential: Lessons from the US – when unions don’t strike to contest unjust laws
In my previous blog post, I listed the numerous times that both legal and illegal strike action was taken by Canadian unions and by BC teachers. Illegal strike action has been critical in advancing basic union rights including the right to strike itself. What happens when other strategies are used?
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Not Buying It Yet
Ivison’s latest on the Robocon scandal: The call that claimed to come from Elections Canada was sent out to 5,053 recipients in the 519 area code that covers Guelph, Kitchener-Waterloo, London, Windsor and Sarnia. But it was also received by 35 people in downtown Toronto, 74 in the 905 suburban
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: ConCalls: Where There’s Smoke – There’s Fire and Mirrors
The problem with evidence that you don’t like, is that it doesn’t “feel” right. Our brain actually connects with what feels right, which is why con-artists can stay in business even if their lies are obvious. It takes law enforcement intervention before a con-artist stops conning. This sort of gut
Continue readingBlunt Objects: 25K NDP Members Voted So Far Could Signal Low Turnout
Which is a rate of about 1,500 per day, since voting opened on March 1st. It’s probably fluctuated day by day, and more than likely sped up in the last week – but its still a pretty small number, which leads me to guess that there will be a low
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Upstream Supply Chain as Sector Development Strategy
My column in Wednesday’s Globe and Mail suggested that Canada implement a “Buy Canadian” strategy associated with major natural resource developments, with the goal of enhancing Canadian content in the overall value chain. Can we utilize our strong foothold in resource extraction, and try to leverage greater investment and value-added upstream
Continue readingTrashy's World: Friday miscellany…
Encyclopaedia Britannica edition… Bye-bye to that venerable institution. I remember when my parents bought a set from a door-to-door salesman. I went through every single page! But the truth is that research tools have come a long way and we shouldn’t mourn the death of the candle because of the
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