criticsm of anorexic ralph lauren model...thank god

The criticism that Ralph Lauren doesn't want you to see!

Last month, Xeni blogged about the photoshop disaster that is this Ralph Lauren advertisement, in which a model's proportions appear to have been altered to give her an impossibly skinny body ("Dude, her head's bigger than her pelvis"). Naturally, Xeni reproduced the ad in question. This is classic fair use: a reproduction "for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting," etc.

However, Ralph Lauren's marketing arm and its law firm don't see it that way. According to them, this is an "infringing image," and they thoughtfully took the time to send a DMCA takedown notice to our awesome ISP, Canada's Priority Colo. One of the things that makes Priority Colo so awesome is that they don't automatically act on DMCA takedowns. Instead, they pass them on to us and we talk about whether they pass the giggle-test.

This one doesn't.

So, instead of responding to their legal threat by suppressing our criticism of their marketing images, we're gonna mock them. Hence this post.

As Wendy Seltzer from the Chilling Effects projectsaid, "Sounds like a pretty solid fair use case to me. If criticism diminishes its effectiveness, that's different from the market substitution copyright protects against. And I've rarely seen a thinner DMCA form-letter."

So, to Ralph Lauren, GreenbergTraurig, and PRL Holdings, Inc: sue and be damned. Copyright law doesn't give you the right to threaten your critics for pointing out the problems with your offerings. You should know better. And every time you threaten to sue us over stuff like this, we will:

a) Reproduce the original criticism, making damned sure that all our readers get a good, long look at it, and;

b) Publish your spurious legal threat along with copious mockery, so that it becomes highly ranked in search engines where other people you threaten can find it and take heart; and

c) Offer nourishing soup and sandwiches to your models.

stelmach government to crackdown on greenpeace

Alberta Vows to Crackdown on Greenpeace Protesters

by Richard Warnica And Darcy Henton

A fuming Premier Ed Stelmach has vowed to punish Greenpeace activists to the full extent of the law after protesters invaded their third Alberta oilsands site in as many weeks on Saturday.The group, an international team of activists, scaled three smoke stacks and one crane at the Shell Scotford upgrader near Fort Saskatchewan, just northeast of Edmonton -- part of a continuing bid

Greenpeace activists show their banner during a protest Thursday at an oilsands site in northern Alberta. (Photograph by: Handout, Canwest News Service)

by the group to grab headlines ahead of global climate talks in Copenhagen in December.
"Most of these protesters are from outside the country of Canada. They are really tourists telling us how we should develop our resources," Stelmach told reporters at an event at the West Edmonton Mall.
"It's upsetting because it is putting people at risk. It is creating a fair amount of disruption which is going to cost consumers money in the end. More importantly, the efforts are really aimed at harming our economy, putting Albertans out of work, putting Canadians out of work and really diminishing our quality of life," said Stelmach.
He said he will be working with the companies involved to ensure the protesters are removed and arrested "and we don't put up with this kind of behaviour again."
Stelmach lamented that the protests are getting headlines around the world, but his government is having a difficult time getting out its message that it is working to reduce the environmental footprint of the oilsands.
"We've done so much in terms of advancing technology and it's always a struggle getting the news out," he said. "Behaviour like this will get attention, obviously, and they use social media to get the wrong message (out)."
Using recreational climbing gear and hand-held locks, the eco-activists occupied platforms, blocked ladders and unfurled anti-oilsands banners.
RCMP arrested three of the group just after 5 a. m., but another 16 remained locked in the sky-high towers into the evening.
The occupation came days after another group from Greenpeace chained themselves to four conveyor belts at a Suncor oilsands site north of Fort McMurray and weeks after a third team temporarily stopped production at Shell's Muskeg River mine.
Like the other two, Saturday's event was managed for maximum media impact. By 8 a. m., reporters were being directed to a website with streaming video and high-resolution photos from the protest. Outside the plant, meanwhile, a team of Greenpeace spokesmen were available to journalists throughout the day.
"We're here to raise awareness about the climate crime that is the tarsands," said Melina Laboucan-Massimo. "At this site they're expanding an upgrader, which is going to create more greenhouse gas emissions for Canada."
Shell Canada's manager of media relations, Phil Vircoe, said production at the plant was not affected by the occupation as construction had stopped for the weekend.
Vircoe said Shell has tried to reach out to Greenpeace and offered to talk, but it has refused.
Christopher Daley, an Australian, was atop one of the stacks. Reached by cellphone, he said the team's international makeup was no accident.
"Very, very few people outside of Canada were aware of the tarsands before Greenpeace began protesting them," he said. By bringing in a group from France, Germany, Brazil and Australia, he said they hope to create anti-oilsands sentiment in those countries ahead of the Copenhagen talks.

the joint intelligence group are harrassing anti olympic protesters

Police Question Friend of Olympics Critic Chris Shaw
Nursing student surprised at school by intelligence officers. Councillor calls it 'harassment'.
By Geoff Dembicki, Today, TheTyee.ca

Chris Shaw, UBC neuroscientist and author of 'Five Ring Circus'. Photo by The Blackbird.


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International criticism for 2010 Olympic security
Olympic security costs concealed for 18 months
BC reveals $900 million Olympic security cost, deal with Ottawa


Anti-Olympics critic Chris Shaw thinks Games security forces have him targeted. A recent incident suggests he may be right.

Last week, two intelligence officers waited for a 24-year-old Langara College student outside her classroom. She doesn't belong to a protest group. In fact, she knows very little about the Games. But she's friends with Shaw. And she said that's the only reason two plainclothes constables she'd never met called her by name, waited while she wrote a quiz and then rang her cellphone the next day.

That meeting is only the latest in a long line of police visits to anti-Games critics and the people that know them. Shaw says security forces have crossed a boundary. One Vancouver city councillor calls it harassment.

Police with big smiles

On Wednesday Sept. 30, Danika Surm received a strange greeting as she hurried to her biology class. Someone said "Hi Danika" in a very friendly tone. Surm appraised the man and woman standing before her in the hallway. They didn't really look like students. They were dressed too well, she said.

The woman introduced herself as constable Heidi Hoffman. Her partner, constable Jordan McLellan, had a big smile on his face. "Heidi said she needed to talk to me. I was just on my way to a quiz for biology. I told her it wasn't a good time. She was very insistent about when would there be a good time," Surm said.


Surm told the constables she had mid-terms to worry about and that this time of year is really busy. She left to write her quiz. When she finished the test, about ten minutes later, Hoffman and McLellan were waiting. A little resigned, Surm agreed to speak with the constables in an empty classroom.

"They said 'we know you're very good friends with Chris Shaw and we'd just like to ask you to tell us anything you know about him and his activities and associations," Surm said. The constables told her they were very concerned about Olympics security. That it was important they all work together to make the Winter Games as safe as possible. Hoffman played the tough cop while McLellan stayed warm and friendly, Surm said.

The talk didn't last very long. The young student didn't have much to tell them. They concluded the meeting with a request for Surm's cell phone number. She refused, and they left. The next day, Surm missed a call while in class. The message in her voice mail was from Hoffman, telling her to please call back. "It was a nice formality of asking me for my number," Surm said. "But they already had it."

Shaw's own encounter with police

Chris Shaw is, without a doubt, the most outspoken and well-recognized critic of the 2010 Olympics. He's written extensively about negative impacts of the Games, including a piece five years ago published on The Tyee. He's friends with leading activists in the Olympics Resistance Network. His name pops up almost weekly in 2010 media reports.

On June 2, 2009, Shaw was approached by two plainclothes police officers outside Tony's Coffee Shop on West Broadway. The officers asked him for a private meeting to talk about his opposition to the Olympics. He refused. Any talks about security and Games protest should be held in a public forum, he said, with media cameras and tape recorders rolling.

Ten days later, delegates at Play the Game, an international sport conference in England, condemned all such security force visits. The Coventry Declaration urged governments in Canada, B.C. and Vancouver, along with Games organizers and security foreces, to defend against any attack on freedom of speech. Vancouver city council endorsed the spirit of the document last July. But councillors voted to remove sections that could have been construed as criticism of Games security.

Anti-Olympics protestors say police have approached dozens of people opposed to the Games at their work and homes. The RCMP-led Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit (ISU), a $900 million behemoth funded with provincial and federal money, argues such visits are a legitimate tactic. Police need to know all they can about potential threats to the Games.

'They've crossed a boundary': Shaw

Even though Shaw knows he's on the radar of security forces, he was shocked that officers would visit his student friend at her school. Surm isn't even an activist. She's studying to become a nurse. Almost all her knowledge of the Olympics comes from him.

But even more alarming for Shaw is how officers managed to track his friend down. Where did they access her class schedule? How did they recognize her appearance? Why did they ask for her cell phone number when they already had it? "I'm getting the impression that security forces are extremely paranoid," he said. "They've crossed a boundary here. They are pushing pretty hard into Charter territory."

A spokesperson for Langara College said the school maintains a stringent policy on student information. Not even a close family member can access a student's file.

"The college policy about release of information is very clear," Ian Humphreys said. "We do not release information to anybody regardless of which agency they are ... I doubt I can give you information as to how the RCMP might have received any information about one of our students."

Both Hoffman and McLellan belong to the Joint Intelligence Group, an agency working with the Integrated Security Unit. Spokesperson Mandy Edwards confirmed their visit with Surm last Wednesday. But she was vague when asked how they'd identified the student and known to wait outside her classroom.

'A form of harassment': Councilor Cadman

"I can't answer that on respect of the investigators," Edwards said. "It's possible information led them to that location." The purpose of such visits is to gather intelligence about potential security threats. Somehow Surm's name came up, so officers wanted to talk to her, Edwards explained.

How about Shaw? Is he being targeted by security forces? "We're just looking at any potential plans that are in place to disrupt the games," Edwards said. She added: "Chris Shaw is probably the most vocal anti-Olympics person out there."

And what about allegations that security officers paid a recent visit to Shaw's ex-wife Sylvie Peltier in White Rock? "I know our officers are looking to speak to anyone who may have information so I can't confirm that that happened," she said. "I can say it's possible."

Coalition of Progressive Electors councillor David Cadman heard about the meeting with Surm last week. She phoned him right after it happened, asking what could be done. Cadman admitted that council doesn't have very much jurisdiction over the ISU. But he's concerned such meetings set a bad precedent.

"I'm beginning to see this kind of police intervention as a form of harassment," he said. "There's so many bigger threats out there for this Olympics. To be approaching a student mainly because of her association with Chris Shaw is not helpful."

Stephen Harper sings Beatles song with Yo Yo Ma

ummm??? i thought only elites went to arts events?

here's hoping greenpeace keeps the pressure on the tarsands

16 Greenpeace activists arrested near Shell site
Last Updated: Sunday, October 4, 2009 | 12:21 PM MT Comments77Recommend35
CBC News
Greenpeace activists suspended banners in an attempt to bring attention to the 'climate crimes of the tarsands.' (Greenpeace)
Sixteen Greenpeace activists were arrested early Sunday after spending 24 hours chained high up on smokestacks and a construction crane at a Shell Canada upgrader expansion site northeast of Edmonton.

The occupation started early Saturday when 19 activists stormed the under-construction upgrader in Fort Saskatchwan, which upgrades heavy oil into a lighter synthetic oil that can be refined into gasoline and other products.

Protesters from Canada, France, Brazil and Australia unfurled banners reading "Climate Crime" and "Climate SOS" to draw attention to an industry they say is dramatically increasing greenhouse gases.

The protest is the latest attempt by Greenpeace to shed light on the "climate crimes of the tarsands" in advance of the United Nations Climate Summit in Denmark in December.

Greenpeace said Sunday afternoon the 16 arrested remained in police custody. Charges may include break and enter, trespass and mischief, the group said.

Mike Hudema, a Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner, brushed off criticism from Premier Ed Stelmach that the protesters, who've launched three such protests in the last month, are being "coddled" while breaking the law.

Action highlights 'climate crimes'

On Sept. 16, Greenpeace activists chained themselves to two massive oilsands trucks in Shell's Albian Sands mine, north of Fort McMurray.

On Sept. 30, about 20 protesters were arrested after blocking work at Suncor Energy's open-pit mine in northern Alberta.

"This was another successful action to highlight the climate crimes of the tarsands," Hudema said.

"The addiction to oil that is fuelling tarsands development is leading to climate chaos. Already, hundreds of thousands of people are dying every year because of climate change. We have sent a message to world leaders that it is time to stop the destructive energy path of the tarsands and develop a clean energy future."

Shell Canada spokesperson Phil Vircoe said the site's operations were not interrupted because construction workers are only on the job Monday to Friday.

"Greenpeace has been targeting the entire oil and gas industry here, and they've been taking unsafe and outrageous actions to breach security at various sites over the last few weeks," Vircoe said.

Shell officials have said a safety review is being done to determine how the activists gained access to the site.

The Yes Men Fix The World (2009) official trailer

the true story of pat tillman

A Soldier Martyr, Faked and True
Krakauer's latest lays bare the lies around NFL star Pat Tillman's death in Afghanistan.
By Sara Seltzer, Today, AlterNet.org

Tillman: Considered Bush a 'cowboy.'


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Afghanistan Transforms Canada
To play junior partner to empire, we've militarized our identity.
The Real Costs of the War in Afghanistan
Fallen soldier thought Afghan mission 'useless': family


Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman
Jon Krakauer
Random House (2009)
Journalist Jon Krakauer is obsessed with people who make unfathomable choices, from a young man wandering in the wilderness in Into the Wild to climbers attempting Everest in Into Thin Air to polygamists hearing a call to violence in Under the Banner of Heaven. The subject of Krakauer's new book, Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman, is one of these. As we all know, Pat Tillman left the NFL in 2002 to enlist in the army, inspired to do his part in the service of a president he distrusted and later, a war he doubted. When Tillman was killed by friendly fire, the army and government engaged in a cover-up to turn him into a martyred hero. In this book, Krakauer exposes each step of the deception with persistent detail.

If Where Men Win Glory is less immediately gripping, less fluid and tense, than Krakauer's previous books, this is partly because the story he's telling is known, and painful. But the theme of our government's failure colliding with a young man's sense of duty has a relevance and moral immediacy that's hard to shake off.

Ultimately, Where Men Win Glory leaves you, as does Into the Wild, with a sense of futility and anger over the death of a young man that you knew was coming all along. While Krakauer levels his most scathing insults at the Bush administration and portrays the army chain of command as a bureaucratic, cover-your-ass nightmare, in this book the fog of war is the real culprit. As Krakauer told the Wall Street Journal, "There is nothing glamorous or romantic about war. It's mostly about random pointless death and misery. And that's what [Tillman's] death tells us. It reminds me that the good aren't rewarded, there's no such thing as karma."

Fatal decisions from behind desks

War, Krakauer writes, creates a climate that leads panicked men to gun down their brothers in cold blood at a staggeringly high rate in all recorded conflicts, and a climate that obscures mistakes and misdeeds (as is the case not just with friendly fire, but with crimes like sexual assault and the death of LaVena Johnson. It's a climate that leads commanders to make decisions from behind desks (as happened on the day Tillman died) that those on the ground deem unsafe but are powerless to disobey.

Krakauer begins with an account of that day. It begins with Tillman's lieutenant, David Uthlaut, begging his superiors not to split up his unit or have them travel in the daytime -- both huge risks -- but being denied both requests in order to conform to a pre-ordained timetable. Timetables, Krakauer notes disdainfully, were a particular obsession of Donald Rumsfields', enabling him to check off boxes on his war on terror.


After the first chapter, Where Men Win Glory backtracks, alternating the story of Tillman's early life and NFL career with the history of Afghanistan and the conflicts it has endured, creating a sense of dread as readers know what will happen when the two threads converge. Tillman's personality, enigmatic though it was, becomes clearer here: a young man who struggled to channel his existential angst and occasional aggression into constant self-improvement, who was never content being comfortable and continually pushed himself, running marathons and triathlons in the football off-season, taking death-defying cliff-dives, reading and discussing philosophy over drinks, and writing diary entries after bad football games exhorting himself to do better.

Tillman's diaries revealed doubts

Consumed with notions of honor, risk and service, this larger-than-life man was also a family rock and a devoted husband to his young wife, Marie, the bright-burning center of an extremely close-knit group of friends and relatives. Even the picture of Tillman on the book's back jacket -- long haired, intense with a slightly mischievous look in his eyes -- is worth a look, so different is it from the military portrait of Tillman used by the press.

At the same time as he illuminates this character, Krakauer sets the political stage for Tillman's death and its cover-up, describing the brutal Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the role of the CIA and the mujahideen, the forming and re-forming alliances that led to the Taliban giving Osama Bin Laden safe haven. On our side, he mentions the disastrous Florida recount, getting in a jab at Scalia and Bush v. Gore, urgent memos about Bin Laden ignored by the Bush administration, and the "selling" and spinning of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Many readers will be aware of this history, but juxtaposing it with a life that will be ended by its trajectory creates a fresh sense of urgency and disbelief.

Perhaps the most incredible aspect of the book is its extensive excerpting from Tillman's diaries, granted to Krakauer by his widow Marie, and stories about his time deployed overseas, where he read The Odyssey and "Self-Reliance," and was shocked by the youth and immaturity of his co-enlistees. Tillman expresses his doubt about the Iraq War from its onset: "It may be very soon that Nub [his brother Kevin] & I will be called upon to take part in something I see no clear purpose for... I believe we have little or no justification other than our imperial whim," he wrote. On another occasion, he calls Bush a "cowboy." His other entries are eerily wise: Of Jessica Lynch, whose staged rescue he and his brother provided support for on their first tour of duty, he wrote, "As awful as I feel for the fear she must face, and admire the courage I'm sure she is showing, I do believe this to be a big Public Relations stunt..." He had faced an essential truth about the Lynch incident that it would take months for the American media to sort out. Of his brother Kevin in Iraq, he said "If anything happens to Kevin, and my fears of our intent in this country prove true, I will never forgive the world." Of course, the inverse ended up being true, with Kevin the surviving, disillusioned sibling. On his own account, Tillman confided in a friend his fear that if he were killed the army would parade him in the streets.

This ended up being the most prescient of all. After being sent to Afghanistan, Tillman was shot in the head by a machine-gunner from his own unit, which had been split up to make time. His shooter thought he was the enemy and his unit sprayed bullets wildly across the slope where Tillman was perched (one of his comrades recalls him yelling I'm "Pat fucking Tillman!" shortly before his death). His uniform and most tragically his notebook, where Krakauer tells us he'd scribbled thoughts on gender in Afghanistan, were put into a trash bag and burned, a blatant violation of protocol.

A cruel cover-up

And that was only the beginning of the secrecy. Even the book's less enthusiastic critics agree that with the evidence Krakauer's amassed and compiled, there's no way to deny the most horrible aspects of the cover-up, including orders to Tillman's comrades telling them to lie to his family at the funeral and another official cruelly explaining away the family's pursuit of the truth as a folly attributable to their atheism. Krakauer demonstrates that the willful deception went all the way up to the White House, when an e-mail from an army official exhorted President Bush not to mention the manner of Tillman's death, lest it prove "embarrassing" should the incident prove to be friendly fire (something the official already knew). This deceit, Krakauer notes, led one Tillman friend to leave the army and another to go AWOL, losing their faith in the institution they'd signed up for.

It may remain puzzling that someone with the streak of wisdom that Tillman clearly possessed chose to chance death anyway, even after a painful family intervention begging him not to enlist. But Krakauer gets it, as a kindred spirit who followed in Tillman's footsteps, like he has done for all his risk-taking subjects. (Tillman in turn was a fan of Krakauer's work, which is why Marie gave him access to the diaries). No win, either way Krakauer spent months embedded with the army in Afghanistan, resulting in an epilogue that paints a grim picture of our current situation there. Until Pakistan stops harboring insurgents, "it will be impossible for the United States and its allies to defeat al-Qaeda and the Taliban by military force," he writes. He adds that pulling out is an equally "no-win" prospect.

Krakauer is a good person to have on your side. He doggedly pursues the bigger picture, and weaves human stories and investigations together in such a way as to create the kind of gripping, stay-up all night narratives of which most novelists can only dream. Some critics in traditional print media miss Krakauer's straight adventure tales and find his political and skeptical muckraking less than convincing. But like Tillman, Krakauer's an iconoclast, distrustful of authorities or false ideals, and thus the perfect person to tell this story.

The Capitalistic system will collapse Marc Faber

this guy seems like he knows what he talks about. all i hear from others are we can just keep going on forever living on borrowed money. that idea has always seemed pretty stupid to me!

concerned christians canada takes on ganesh at the zoo!!

Christian group condemns zoo's elephant sculpture
Last Updated: Thursday, September 24, 2009 | 7:03 PM MT Comments176Recommend69
CBC News
This three-metre tall statue of a dancing elephant was donated to the Calgary Zoo for the opening of its Elephant Crossing exhibit in 2006. (Courtesy Lotus Sculpture)
A Christian group is calling for the removal of an elephant statue, modeled after a Hindu god, from the Calgary Zoo calling it "selective religious partiality."

A three metre-tall tall statue of a dancing elephant was donated to the zoo for the opening of its Elephant Crossing exhibit in 2006.

It was commissioned to look like Ganesh, a Hindu god worshipped as a remover of obstacles. But Laurie Herron, a Calgary Zoo spokeswoman, said all religious symbolism on the statue was omitted before it was allowed to be displayed.

Jim Blake, national chairman of Concerned Christians Canada, sent a letter to the zoo on Thursday, calling for the sculpture to be removed.

"The zoo is not a place of religious indoctrination, it is supposed to be a safe family environment free of religious icons and selective religious partiality," Blake wrote.

"The displaying of different gods in a public place like this is an offence to our beliefs and does not represent the diversity of views that should be reflected."

If the zoo wants to keep the statue and "[embark] on teaching the public about world religions, Blake suggested that the facility also erect the cross of Jesus Christ, the Ten Commandments and Noah's Ark

"The display of foreign gods is offensive and does not reflect the views of the majority of Canadians," he continued.

Reached by CBC News late on Thursday, Herron told CBC News she and the zoo's board of directors had not yet seen Blake's letter.

But she said the statue, given to the zoo by a private donor, was intended to reflect the cultural symbol of elephants, and not any religious icon.

harper tries to sneak through american style prisons

Tory plans for U.S.-style prisons slammed in report
Last Updated: Thursday, September 24, 2009 | 7:58 AM ET Comments2Recommend13
CBC News
The Conservative government plans to bring in an American-style prison system that will cost billions of taxpayer dollars and do little to improve public safety, according to a report to be released Thursday in Ottawa.

The 235-page report, A Flawed Compass, is a scathing review of the government's plan, which it calls "immoral, unethical and illegal."

University of British Columbia law professor Michael Jackson and Graham Stewart, who recently retired after decades as head of the John Howard Society of Canada, prepared the report.

A panel led by Rob Sampson, a former corrections minister in Ontario's Mike Harris government, drafted the government plan, which is being implemented by the Correctional Service.

In addition to constructing super prisons and implementing work programs, the program will eliminate gradual release and deny inmates rights that are now entrenched in the constitution.

By stressing punishment rather than rehabilitation, the plan ignores lessons of the past, which led to the prison riots and killings that dominated Canadian news in the early 1970s, said Jackson.

"My greatest fear is with this road map's agenda and its underlying philosophy, we will enter a new period of turmoil and violence in Canadian prisons," he said.

"I do fear that prisons will become more abusive, prisoners will become more frustrated and that we could go back to a time not only when the rule of law was absent but a culture of violence is the dominant way in which prisoners express their frustrations."

The plan attempts to emulate the American "get tough" system, which incarcerated hundreds of thousands of people and has left some states on the verge of bankruptcy, said Stewart.

He called the plan "an ideological rant. All their recommendations are just that they believe in something.… There's no evidence for anything they recommend, there's no research, no background."

The federal road map flies in the face of the Correctional Service's own research of what works to rehabilitate prisoners and ensure community safety, said Stewart.

"The fact is that you cannot hurt a person and make them into a good citizen at the same time."

The government has already allocated hundreds of millions to the plan, even though it has had no input from either Parliament or the public, according to the report.

the sun is setting earlier and earlier

Girl Talk- Feed The Animals "Play Your Part (Pt. 1)"

i LOVE this!!!!!!!!!! the best new thing ever!!!! well since mos def...

Origin Into Schools

scary evangelical propaganda

Origin Into Schools

aaagggghhhhhh....evangelicals!!! anti darwin rhetoric...whoa!

good evening.....

sigh.......

morning..........

conservative government priorities....and it isn't you and me!

Government spends more promoting stimulus plan than flu awareness
Last Updated: Sunday, September 20, 2009 | 10:33 PM ET Comments0Recommend28
The Canadian Press
 
The Conservative government is spending more than five times as many taxpayer dollars on promoting its economic plan than it is on raising public awareness about the swine flu pandemic.

That is again raising a long-standing question: when does government advertising cross the line into partisan boosterism?

Television viewers may have noticed the latest feel-good government ads about stimulus spending, including the Conservative-friendly, anti-election pitch: "We can't stop now," and "We have to stay on track."

All the ads direct viewers to a Tory-blue government website that includes more than 40 different photos of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and refers repeatedly to "the Harper government" — apparently in direct contravention of Treasury Board communications policy.

The TV spots are just the latest $5-million salvo in a $34-million media blitz trumpeting the Conservatives' recession-fighting budget.

Meanwhile, public health officials are fretting over an onrushing fall flu season, the spread of the H1N1 virus and widespread public apathy about the need for vaccination.

Government officials didn't respond to a specific query from The Canadian Press last week on whether television ads were in the works to combat swine flu.

But a government spokesman said Sunday evening that television ads are to be launched Monday across the country to raise public awareness about H1N1.

The official said the government had planned for some time to launch the ad campaign.

The Public Health Agency of Canada said it has a total marketing budget of $6.5 million to inform Canadians about the H1N1 virus and how to avoid infection.

Some $4.5 million of that was spent on ads in newspapers, public transit, and on the web that ran from April to August.

The health agency has committed another $2 million to radio spots that began airing last week, just as new swine flu outbreaks were being reported.

Opposition MPs said the spending disparity in the two ad campaigns simply highlights the obvious: The government is using public funds to toot its own horn.

"Guys, you're spending all this money to promote yourselves. Maybe some work on the prevention of H1N1 would be helpful," Liberal critic Martha Hall-Findlay said in an interview.

The Liberals first objected to government ads earlier this summer that claimed the federal stimulus funding was "80 per cent already implemented." That glossy campaign is also highlighted on the government's action plan website.

Marketing experts say partisanship in government advertising is highly situational, ever-present and may or may not cross ethical lines.

Unenforceable guidelines

Federal advertising guidelines speak vaguely of not promoting any political party or entity, but Hall-Findlay concedes the rules are so loose as to be unenforceable.

Ontario, by contrast, began screening provincial government ads in 2004 under a strict law that attempts to stop partisan messaging.

Jonathan Rose, a political communications expert at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., advises the ad clearance group for the auditor general of Ontario.

Rose said the Ontario law requires examination of not just what the ads say, "but also the relationship between the ad buy and the campaign imperatives."

That means ads that fall close to a scheduled election — or, say, when a minority government's defeat appears imminent — will be given particular scrutiny.

"One might expect ads that require citizens to do something — such as things to prevent swine flu — have a stronger reason than those ads that have no information related to changing behaviour or attitudes in the public interest," Rose said in an email.

A case can be made for current government ads that promote the popular home renovation tax credit, which requires Canadians to keep receipts and actively apply for tax reimbursement.

But it's harder to understand the public service utility spending millions of tax dollars to advise Canadians that their money is being spent on infrastructure projects.

Tim Dewhirst, an associate professor at Guelph University's marketing and consumer studies department, said government ads may be informational, persuasive, or serve as reminders — with ads that focus on providing specific information to the public the least problematic.

Dewhirst said many of the Tory economic action ads appear to be aimed at persuading rather than informing.

"There's probably a lot of other issues that people would say is money better spent than trying to be persuasive about an action plan that's supposedly already 80 per cent implemented," he said in an interview.

"If it's 80 per cent done, is there much of an informing purpose still necessary?"

The $34-million economic ad budget is spread among four federal departments — Canada Revenue Agency, Finance, Human Resources and Skills Development, and Infrastructure Canada. But all inquiries were directed to the Privy Council Office, the bureaucratic arm of the Prime Minister's Office.

Late Sunday evening, five days after receiving a written list of questions from The Canadian Press, the Privy Council Office responded by email.

"The Actionplan.gc.ca website was developed to help the Government of Canada meet its commitment to providing timely, transparent and accountable information to Canadians on EAP projects and initiatives happening in their communities," said the email from spokeswoman Myriam Massabki.

As for all those photos of Harper, "The Prime Minister is the chief spokesperson in the Government of Canada for the [action plan]," Massabki wrote.

i can't think of anything other than photography. i love fall!

i love rainy days!

good morning bow valley

At the Edge of the World trailer

NNNIIIIIIICCCCCEEEEEEEEEE

OFFICIAL F**K You! Manchester Pride does Lily Allen

muahhhhaaaaahahahahahaha!!! lovely song that really fits the manchester pride! well done!

tamiflu for everyone....body bags for the res!!!!!!

Expecting flu assistance, native reserves get body bags from Ottawa

Manitoba chiefs furious after shipment from Health Canada
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Swine flu: Public Health Agency determines first in line for flu shot
Expert says swine flu ‘hid' for decade
H1N1 shows more resistance to Tamiflu
Article Comments (99)
Caroline Alphonso and Tu Thanh Ha
Toronto — From Thursday's Globe and Mail
Last updated on Wednesday, Sep. 16, 2009 09:57PM EDT
They asked for help and got body bags.

Aboriginal leaders said they were outraged and confused when dozens of body bags were delivered to remote Manitoba reserves after native communities demanded federal resources to fight a second wave of the H1N1 flu outbreak.

Chiefs interpreted the grim shipments as a dire prediction of what Ottawa expects will happen during this flu season to natives, who were hardest hit by swine flu in the spring.

Some communities didn't hold on to them for long. In a symbolic protest Wednesday evening, northern First Nations leaders returned a box of the bags to a Health Canada office in Winnipeg. Tossing more than a dozen of the polyethylene bags on the floor outside the building's lobby, Garden Hill First Nation chief David Harper called the deliveries “an insult.”

The federal government was left scrambling late Wednesday to explain the shipments, which also included hand sanitizer, masks and gloves.

Each bag contained full post-mortem kits that included a chin strap, five tie-straps and three identification tags.

The news of the unexpected supplies rippled through remote communities of less than 1,000 people, shocking residents and adding to native leaders' distrust of the federal government's efforts to help them prepare for a resurgence of the virus.

About 30 body bags were delivered in recent days to the nursing station at Wasagamack First Nation, 20 to God's Lake First Nation, and Red Sucker Lake First Nation was expecting a shipment. The communities are in the lake-studded Island Lake region near the Ontario border, about midway between Winnipeg and the Hudson Bay.

Mr. Harper was joined at the Winnipeg protest last night by Wasagamack Chief Jerry Knott.

“Is Canada giving up on the first nations?” Mr. Harper asked in an interview. “We're very offended. It looks like Canada is giving up on us. Or is this the flu preparedness that Canada talks about?”

In many First Nations cultures, to prepare for death is to invite death, he said.

“We have been waiting for medical supplies and here all we receive is body bags,” he said. “The government has to do better.”

Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq said she was “disturbed” when she learned about the shipments Wednesday morning.

“I have ordered my deputy minister to conduct a thorough and immediate inquiry into the situation and I will continue to work with first nations, provinces and territories to ensure all Canadians are informed and protected against H1N1,” she said at a news briefing.

She declined to comment on who sent the body bags or who may have requested them.

The shipment is another blow to native leaders, who fear they are among the least prepared for another wave of the flu and that the federal government isn't properly responding to their needs.

The mild flu outbreak in the spring erupted into a full-blown crisis on several of Manitoba's remote reserves. At one point, aboriginals comprised two-thirds of Manitoba flu patients on respirators. Health Canada came under fire for hesitating to send hand sanitizer to native towns because of concerns that people would ingest the alcohol-based gel.

The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs took it upon itself recently to solicit donations for 15,000 flu kits for northern communities. And even though aboriginal affairs is a federal responsibility, the Manitoba government stepped up to cover the rest of the cost.

Ms. Aglukkaq said nursing stations on reserves are being stocked with medical supplies, and the kits are likely not necessary.

Rod Harper, a spokesman for the band council of the Wasagamack First Nation, 600 kilometres north of Winnipeg, said body bags are not the supplies needed at nursing stations.

“It's not the proper thing to do to all our communities. It's very shocking,” he said.

He said he had seen a box of 10 bags that had been brought to the band council office and was explicitly labelled.

“What we had asked for stockpiling were Advil, Tylenol, vaccine, not body bags. It's the easy way out for the government… It's not right to do that.”

Further north, at the Red Sucker Lake First Nation, the band council heard at a meeting with the staff of the nursing station that body bags would be sent to their community. The council questioned the head nurse after it heard that other native communities had received the bags.

“We asked her about the body bags and she said: ‘They're coming,'” said council member Clifford Harper. “I feel kind of angry. They should send more medications, they should send more personnel … rather than body bags. Why are they doing this?”

By the end of the day, the outrage had rippled to Winnipeg. “First Nations and all Canadians need to know the whole story behind this bizarre shipment and they deserve a full accounting,” Grand Chief Ron Evans of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs said in a statement. “The First Nations of northern Manitoba have already been traumatized in the first wave of the H1N1 outbreak; they do not need to be panicked.”

The parliamentary health committee has requested the minister share details of the inquiry at or around its next meeting later this month.

wonderful 100 mile diet store....check it out!

Home About Products & Services Location Contact
Welcome to The Home Grow-In Grocer!

Thank you for taking the time to visit our site. We have opened a small store in the heart of Vancouver that we hope will be known as "the only little country store in the middle of the City".

We are the only store in Vancouver specializing in only carrying LOCAL/NATURAL/ORGANIC products of BC.

We are a small neighbourhood community store located on the westside of Vancouver at the corner of W18 and Columbia (2 blks E of Cambie and 3 blks W of Main). The return of the neighbourhood corner store is what The Home Grow-in Grocer is. We differ in that we only carry BC products.

We at the Home Grow-in Grocer want to support our local farmers in ensuring they have a market next year for their crops, so we are establishing The Home Grow-in Buyers Co-op. Head over to our About page for more information.

maybe greenpeace can get back in the game?

Shell Halts Mining as Activists Protest Oil Sands
CALGARY, Alberta - Royal Dutch Shell Plc has suspended production at its Canadian oil sands mine after environmental activists blockaded a massive dump truck and mining shovel to protest the impact of oil sands development, the company said on Tuesday.

Greenpeace activists place a banner and block a tar sands mining operation at the Shell Albian Sands outside of Fort McMurray, Alberta September 15, 2009. (REUTERS/Colin O'Connor/Greenpeace/Handout)Greenpeace said 25 of its activists locked down the oil sands mining equipment at the Albian Sands Muskeg River mine in northern Alberta on Tuesday morning, a day before Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper meets U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington.

Shell, which owns 60 percent of the 155,000 barrel a day operation, said it temporarily shut down mining to ensure that the activists and its staff do not get hurt.

"Shell's No. 1 concern is their safety and our preference is for a negotiated end to this demonstration," the company said in a statement. "We have invited the group into our administrative building to sit down with management to discuss their concerns."

It said Greenpeace has not tried to contact Shell to discuss the environmental initiatives it is employing in the operation.

Greenpeace said it staged the protest to highlight what it said were "the climate crimes of tar sands development -- rising energy intensity, greenhouse gas emissions, and boreal forest destruction".

The mine's other owners are Chevron Corp and Marathon Oil Corp, with 20 percent each.

Elsewhere, activists hung a 70-foot (21-meter) banner above Niagara Falls on the Canada-United States border showing arrows that point forward to a "clean energy future" and backward to "tar sands oil".

canada and the tar sands.....sad

Canada's Becoming a 'Global Carbon Bully': Greenpeace
Canada's greenhouse-gas emissions are up 26 per cent since 1990
by Monique Beaudin
MONTREAL - A new report from Greenpeace says oil production in Alberta's tar sands has made Canada into a "global carbon bully."

Sludge spews into a tailings pond at the Syncrude plant site in Fort McMurray, Alta.
(Photograph by: Chris Schwarz, CanWest News Service)Little has been done to tackle climate change in Canada, and the federal government has actively tried to block international agreements and laws targeting climate change, says the report, called Dirty Oil: How The Tar Sands Are Fuelling the Global Climate Crisis.

Meanwhile, oilsands projects in northern Alberta are creating more greenhouse-gas emissions (GHGs) per year than several small European countries, and by 2020, will be more than what's produced by Austria or Ireland, the report says.

Continued growth in the oilsands will mean that by 2020, more carbon dioxide will be produced there than by all the volcanoes in the world put together, the report says.

"Canada is now one of the world's leading emitters of GHGs, and a global defender of dirty fuels," writes author Andrew Nikiforuk, an award-winning Calgary-based science writer who last year published Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of the Continent.

Canada's emissions from greenhouse gases, which are linked to climate change, have increased by more than 26 per cent since 1990. Canada's goal is to reduce emissions by 20 per cent from 2006 levels by 2020, a target that environmental groups say falls far short of what Canada must do to combat climate change.

"This report shows how Canada is not doing its part in the fight against climate change - in fact, it is allowing foreign oil companies to massively invest in the tar sands," said Virginie Lambert-Ferry of Greenpeace Québec.

Canadian environmental groups are trying to garner attention about the environmental impact of the oilsands ahead of a meeting in Washington Wednesday between between US. President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Among the topics up for discussion are climate change, and upcoming international climate talks in Copenhagen in December, where countries are going to try to come up with post-Kyoto Protocol targets for greenhouse-gas reductions.

Prentice will also be taking part in Wednesday's talks. On Tuesday, his office said in a statement that reaching Canada's greenhouse-gas emission targets by 2020 will require "major efforts."

"Our actions will involve participation by all the key sectors and sources of emissions, including the oilsands," the statement said.

Extracting oil from the tar sands requires "extreme" amounts of hydrogen, electricity, steam, hot water, diesel fuel and natural gas, Nikiforuk writes.

To meet future energy needs in the tar sands, several companies have already said they are interested in building nuclear reactors in northern Alberta to provide the energy needed to extract oil.

Monkey Bee: A Short Film by Jamie Hewlett

maybe the best new thing ever!

Enlighten Up! Trailer (Yoga Movie)

the yoga quest...

some background on pan am 103 and the libyan bomber

Lockerbie Part of a Bigger Story
by Eric Margolis
Libya's Moammar Khadaffy, once branded "the mad dog of the Middle East" by Ronald Reagan, is celebrating 40 years in power in spite of a score of attempts by western powers and his Arab "brothers" to kill him.

In 1987, I was invited to interview Khadaffy. We spent an evening together in his Bedouin tent. He led me by the hand through the ruins of his personal quarters, bombed a year earlier by the U.S. in an attempt to assassinate him. Khadaffy showed me where his two-year old daughter had been killed by a 1,000-pound bomb.

"Why are the Americans trying to kill me, Mister Eric?" he asked, genuinely puzzled.

I told him because Libya was harbouring all sorts of anti-western revolutionary groups, from Palestinian firebrands to IRA bombers and Nelson Mandela's ANC. To the naive Libyans, they were all legitimate "freedom fighters."

Last week, a furor erupted over the release of a dying Libyan agent, Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, convicted of the destruction of an American airliner over Scotland in 1988.

Hypocrisy on all sides abounded. Washington and London blasted Libya and Scotland's justice minister while denying claims al-Megrahi was released in exchange new oil deals with Libya.

The Pan Am 103 crime was part of a bigger, even more sordid story. What goes around comes around.

1986: Libya is accused of bombing a Berlin disco, killing two U.S. servicemen. A defector from Israel's intelligence agency, Mossad, claims it framed Libya. Khadaffy demands Arabs increase oil prices.

1987: The U.S. tries to kill Khadaffy but fails. Eighty-eight Libyan civilians die.

1988: France wages a secret desert war with Libya over mineral-rich Chad. France's secret service, SDECE, is ordered to kill Khadaffy. A bomb is put on Khadaffy's private jet but, after Franco-Libyan relations abruptly improve, the bomb is removed before it explodes.

1988: The U.S. intervenes on Iraq's side in its eight-year war against Iran. A U.S. navy Aegis cruiser, Vincennes, violates Iranian waters and "mistakenly" shoots down an Iranian civilian Airbus airliner in Iran's air space. All 288 civilians aboard die. Then vice-president George H.W. Bush vows, "I'll never apologize ... I don't care what the facts are."

The Vincennes' trigger-happy captain is decorated with the Legion of Merit medal for this crime by Bush after he becomes president. Washington quietly pays Iran $131.8 million US in damages.

Five months later, Pan Am 103 with 270 aboard is destroyed by a bomb over Lockerbie, Scotland. The U.S. and Britain pressure Scotland to convict al-Megrahi, who insists he is innocent. Serious questions are raised about the trial, with claims CIA faked evidence to blame Libya.

Some intelligence experts believe the attack was revenge for the downing of the Iranian airliner, carried out by Mideast contract killers paid by Iran. Serious doubts about al-Megrahi's guilt were voiced by Scotland's legal authorities. An appeal was underway. Libyans believed he was a sacrificial lamb handed over to save Libya from a crushing U.S. and British-led oil export boycott.

1989: A French UTA airliner with 180 aboard is blown up over Chad. A Congolese and a Libyan agent are accused. French investigators indict Khadaffy's brother-in-law, Abdullah Senoussi, head of Libyan intelligence, with whom I dined in Tripoli. Libya blames the attack on rogue mid-level agents but pays French families $170 million US.

I believe al-Megrahi was probably innocent and framed. Scotland was right to release him. But Libya was guilty as hell of the UTA crime, which likely was revenge for France's attempt to kill Khadaffy.

Pan Am 103 probably was revenge for America's destruction of the Iranian Airbus. In 1998, Britain's MI6 spy agency tried to kill Khadaffy with a car bomb.

In the end, the West badly wanted Libya's high grade oil. So Libya bought its way out of sanctions with $2.7 billion US total in damages. The U.S., Britain, France and Italy then invested $8 billion US in Libya's oil industry and proclaimed Khadaffy an ally and new best friend.

Happy birthday, Moammar.

fraser sockeye 'commercially extinct'.....that's pretty sad

Fraser River sockeye salmon "commercially extinct", Sto:lo advisor says
By Carlito Pablo
Are the Fraser River sockeye “commercially extinct”?

Ernie Crey, fisheries advisor to the Sto:lo Tribal Council, says so.

See also


Former fisheries minister David Anderson links fish collapse to climate change

Gerry Kristianson: We need to improve our ability to predict salmon abundance

Brian Riddell: Where have all the Fraser River sockeye salmon gone?

B.C. tourism operators raise alarm over sea lice

Crey explains in the following press release:

August 28, 2009

For Immediate Release

Fraser River Sockeye Salmon Commercially Extinct

The fisheries advisor to the Sto:lo Tribal Council, Ernie Crey, says that Fraser River Sockeye is now commercially extinct. He says that in the summer of both 2007 and 2008 sockeye salmon failed to make it back to the Fraser River in large enough numbers to support commercial fishing in either U.S. or Canadian waters. “While it’s true that in 2008 Canada picked up a meager 16,100 sockeye in commercial fisheries and the U.S. fleet snagged 46,000 sockeye, these fisheries qualified more as an embarrassment than an actual fishery”, said Crey. And he says that the summer of 2007, in so far as Fraser sockeye was concerned, was a complete washout for both the U.S. and Canada.

Crey said that salmon experts at both the Pacific Salmon Commission and the Department of Fisheries & Oceans, predicted that 10.6 million sockeye would come back to the Fraser River this summer. “A fish run of that size would have permitted commercial exploitation of Fraser sockeye by both the U.S. and Canada, unfortunately the forecast was wildly optimistic with fewer than 2 million sockeye actually showing up”. He said everyone is now starting to count down the days to next summer when another big sockeye run to the Fraser is expected. “I hope next summer does turn out to be a banner year for Fraser sockeye, but there is a strong possibility 2010 will be a carbon copy of 2009 and we should plan accordingly”, said Crey.

“We need to face up to the facts about Fraser sockeye. The summer of 2010 could be a bust for Fraser sockeye and, we already know that the following two summers will take us back to two successive low cycle years for sockeye. And the fish from this year’s spawning population will come back to the Fraser in 2013. This means we are staring four straight years of no commercial sockeye fishing squarely in the face. There is no way to candy coat the next four summers, Fraser sockeye are now commercially extinct for the foreseeable future”, said Crey.

Crey said that both the First Nations Fisheries Council and the Sto: lo Tribal Council has asked the Fisheries Minister to help organize a salmon summit to address the Fraser River salmon calamity, but they have yet to hear from the Minister’s Office.

CRUDE - Official Trailer

a doc about chevron.....destruction in the amazon

time to leave afghanistan

Quittin' Time in Afghanistan
by Eric Margolis
An election held under the guns of a foreign occupation army cannot be called legitimate or democratic.
This week's stage-managed vote in Afghanistan for candidates chosen by western powers is unlikely to bring either peace or tranquility to this wretched nation that has suffered 30 years of war.

The Taliban and its nationalist allies rejected the vote as a fraud designed to validate continued foreign occupation and open the way for western oil and gas pipelines.

The Taliban, which speaks for many of Afghanistan's majority Pashtun, said it would only join a national election when U.S. and NATO troops withdraw.

After all the pre-election hoopla and agitprop in Afghanistan, we come out the same door we went in. The amiable U.S.-installed leader, Hamid Karzai, may remain in office, powerless.

Yet Washington is demanding its figurehead achieve things he simply cannot do. Meanwhile, Karzai's regime is engulfed by corruption and drug dealing.

Real power remains with strongmen from the Tajik and Uzbek minorities and local, drug-dealing tribal warlords who are paid by Washington to pretend to support Karzai. Behind the Tajiks and Uzbeks stand their patrons, Russia, India and Iran.

Afghanistan's Pashtun tribes, which make up 55% of the population, are largely excluded from power. They were the West's closest allies and foot soldiers ("freedom fighters") during the 1980s war against the Soviets.

The Taliban arose during the chaotic civil war of the early 1990s as a rural, mostly Pashtun religious movement to stop the wide-scale rape of women, impose order, and fight the drug-dealing Afghan Communists. The so-called "terrorist Taliban" received U.S. funding until four months before 9/11. Washington cut off aid after the Taliban made the fatal error of giving a major pipeline deal to an Argentine rather than U.S. oil firm for which Hamid Karzai once reportedly worked as a consultant.

Oil pipeline

The current war in Afghanistan is not about democracy, women's rights, education or nation building. Al-Qaida, the other excuse, barely exists. Its handful of members long ago decamped to Pakistan. The war really is about oil pipeline routes and western domination of the energy-rich Caspian Basin.

Afghanistan is a three-legged ethnic stool. Take away the Pashtun leg and stability is impossible.

There will be neither peace nor stability in Afghanistan until all ethnic groups are enfranchised. The West must cease backing minority Tajiks and Uzbeks against majority Pashtun -- who deserve their rightful share of power and spoils.

The solution to this unnecessary war is not more phoney elections but a comprehensive peace agreement among ethnic factions that largely restores the status quo before the 1970 Soviet invasion. That means a weak central government in Kabul (Karzai is ideal for this job) and a high degree of autonomy for self-governing Pashtun, Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara regions.

Government should revert to the old "loya jirga" system of tribal sit downs, where decisions are made by consensus, often after lengthy haggling. That is the way of the Afghans and of traditional Islamic society.

All foreign soldiers must withdraw. Create a diplomatic "cordon sanitaire" around Afghanistan's borders, returning it to its traditional role as a neutral buffer state.

The powers now stirring the Afghan pot -- the U.S., NATO, India, Iran, Russia, the Communist Central Asian states -- must cease meddling. They have become part of the Afghan problem. Afghans must be allowed to slowly resolve their differences the traditional Afghan way, even if it initially means blood. That's unavoidable.

The only way to end the epidemic of drug trading is to shut border crossings to Pakistan and the Central Asian states. But those nation's high officials, corrupted by drug money, will resist.

We can't solve Afghanistan's social or political problems by waging a cruel and apparently endless war. A senior British general just warned his troops might have to stay for another 40 years. (He later retracted).

The western powers, Canada included, have added to the bloody mess in Afghanistan. Time to go home.

District 9 - Official Trailer 2 [HD]

wow! just seen this movie.....really good. an interesting way to examine some very important issues of today.

everything from illegal immigrants, multinational corporations, prejudice and weapons manufacturers making money off of war are all brought to attention in a new way of telling this story.

neil blomkamp was a graduate of the vancouver film school and his short was picked up by peter jackson! yay VFS!!!! you guys rock!

oh good grief! now stephen harper is eating seal meat to prove a point!

Harper attacks seal hunt critics
'No reason the seal industry should be singled out,' PM says in Iqaluit
Last Updated: Tuesday, August 18, 2009 | 1:46 PM CT Comments364Recommend102
CBC News
Speaking to reporters Tuesday in Iqaluit, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Canada's seal hunting industry is subject to high standards. (CBC)
Prime Minister Stephen Harper had fighting words on Tuesday for critics of Canada's seal hunt, accusing European countries and others of unfairly discriminating against the industry.

Speaking to reporters in Iqaluit on Tuesday, Harper defended the seal hunt, which recently became the subject of a trade ban by the European Union.

Late last month, the EU banned the import of seal products from Canada and other sealing nations. The ban is expected to take effect in all 27 EU member countries in October.

EU officials have said the ban was the result of public pressure to stop the hunt.

Animal rights groups argue the hunt is inhumane, but Harper told reporters on Tuesday morning he disagrees.

"This industry, you know, has tight standards, the tightest in the world. The standards of this industry, quite frankly, are better than many other industries that deal with animal products," Harper said.

"There is no reason the seal industry should be singled out for discriminatory treatment by Europeans or any other nation."

Shortly after the EU ban was approved, Trade Minister Stockwell Day vowed to challenge it before the World Trade Organization, calling it an unfair trade restriction.

Canada's East Coast seal hunt is the largest of its kind in the world, with an average annual kill of about 300,000 harp seals. Canada exported about $2.5 million worth of seal products to EU countries in 2008.

Canada's Inuit also have a traditional sealing industry in Nunavut. Sealers in that territory harvest about 35,000 seals annually, up to 11,000 of which are sold on the open market.

Seals are also an essential source of food and clothing for Inuit in remote Nunavut communities.

The EU trade ban does provide a limited exemption for seal products derived from traditional Inuit hunts, but sealers say the exemption comes with a number of restrictions.

As well, they've argued that a trade ban would hurt the entire sealing industry regardless of whether exemptions exist for certain sectors.

Raw, cooked seal on lunch menu

Harper is meeting Tuesday afternoon with his inner circle of cabinet ministers, including Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and Defence Minister Peter MacKay, to discuss the government's strategy for the fall parliamentary session.

But before the priority and planning committee begins meeting, they are eating seal for lunch, courtesy of Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq, who is also the Conservative MP for Nunavut.

"Minister Aglukkaq has generously arranged for her colleagues in cabinet to have a lunch of seal," said Andrew MacDougall, Harper's press secretary.

"I understand there will be both raw and cooked seal available, and I know a lot of her colleagues, including the prime minister, were anxious for that."

The priority and planning committee's top priority this fall is to move Canada's economy back on track, MacDougall said.

atrocious anti-female law passed in afghanistan....why are we there again?

Afghanistan's contentious family law quietly enacted
Law lets husbands refuse to support wives if they don't agree to sex
Last Updated: Monday, August 17, 2009 | 3:27 PM ET Comments264Recommend165
The Associated Press
An ethnic Hazara woman walks to a campaign rally for Afghan President Hamid Karzai past a row of his images in Bamiyan, central Afghanistan on Sunday. Women's rights activists allege that Karzai used a constitutional loophole ahead of Thursday's election to enact a law that allows minority Shia Muslim husbands to refuse food and money to their wives if they deny them sex. (Adrees Latif/Reuters)
Women's rights activists alleged Monday that Afghan President Hamid Karzai has used a constitutional loophole to enact a law that allows minority Shia Muslim husbands to refuse food and money to their wives if they deny them sex.

The activists suspect Karzai took the step to appease conservative Shia clergy ahead of Thursday's presidential election. Nearly 20 per cent of Afghans are Shia and could become an influential voting block as Karzai runs for a new five-year term.

The legislation, which governs many aspects of family life for Afghanistan's Shia, has been sparking controversy since Karzai signed an earlier version in March. Critics said the original legislation essentially legalized marital rape and Karzai quickly suspended enforcement after governments around the world condemned it as oppressive and a return to Taliban-era repression of women.

But the revised version, made public in July, riled activists all over again because many restrictive articles remained, including one that appears to give a husband the right to starve his wife if she refuses to have sex with him.

Female parliamentarians said they thought they would get the chance to fight for revisions, only to discover in recent days that Karzai had taken advantage of a legislative recess to approve the law by decree. Parliament has the right to examine and change the law when they reconvene but the law stays in effect in the meantime.

Presidential spokesmen could not be reached for comment.

Financial support can be withheld

Afghanistan's post-Taliban constitution enshrines equal rights for women, but in practice, discrimination is still rife.

Activists alleged Karzai enacted the controversial family law to appease conservative Shia clergy ahead of Thursday's presidential election. (Farzana Wahidy/Associated Press)
The new law includes a section saying that a husband must provide financially for his wife. But it also says that he can withhold this support if she refuses to "submit to her husband's reasonable sexual enjoyment," according to a translation of the article supplied by New York-based Human Rights Watch.

In Afghanistan, where most women are uneducated and depend on their husbands for food and clothing, the article could be used to justify a husband starving a wife who refuses to have sex with him.

The legislation was passed by presidential decree in mid-July and published in Afghanistan's official gazette on July 27, which brings the law into force, according to Human Rights Watch. Lawmakers confirmed the process.

Shinkai Kharokhel, a lawmaker who has been involved in reforming the legislation, said no one from the administration told her that the law was being approved without further debate. Instead, she learned third hand that the law she had been fighting was now in effect.

"I was called by a friend, and then a few people from the embassies. And I said, 'I have to check with the minister.' I was really shocked," she said. "My understanding was that it would be sent to parliament. I never thought it would just be published."

Law unlikely to be amended

With a large backlog of legislation to debate and the sensitivity of the issue, it's unclear if parliament will revisit the Shia marriage law anytime soon.

"I think the chances of this being discussed in parliament in the next year or so are low and the chances of improvements being made are lower. So as far this law, I think we're stuck with it," said Rachel Reid, an Afghanistan researcher with Human Rights Watch.

Kharokhel said she felt as if the women of Afghanistan had been pushed to the side to appease powerful Shia men who were worried that legislation would not get passed if they waited until after Thursday's election.

"I am sure it is [Shia] leaders pushing the president of the country so that as soon as possible they would get a law," she said.

Although the law applies only to Shia, women activists fear the law is a step toward the Taliban's draconian treatment of women.

Women unlikely to cast protest votes

Many of the Shia belong to the Hazara ethnic minority. Influential Shia clerics have thrown their support behind Karzai for this year's vote, and Karzai, who belongs to the largest ethnic group, the Pashtuns, has kept a Hazara leader, Karim Khalili, as his candidate for second vice-president.

Female lawmakers, however, say it's unlikely the enactment of the law will affect women's choice of candidate for the elections, because so few women are aware of the law or how it would apply to their lives.

"They really don't know what the law says and how they will use that law … and we have women who are ashamed to knock on the door of a court to ask for their rights," said Shukria Barakzai, a lawmaker from Kabul.

taser international sues canada...corporations hold all the power

Taser International Inc. sues Canadian government
25 comments by Robert Anglen and Andrew Johnson - Aug. 15, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
Taser International Inc. filed a lawsuit Friday in Canada blasting a government report that prompted severe limitations on how and when law-enforcement officers in British Columbia can use stun guns.

Officials with the Scottsdale-based manufacturer called the Braidwood Inquiry biased and asked the Supreme Court of British Columbia to quash all of its findings and declare those involved in compiling evidence derelict.

"We provided . . . more than 170 studies, periodicals (and) reports with respect to the safety of the device and use-of-force questions," David Neave, an attorney for Taser in Canada, said Friday. "All of that information clearly indicates that when the device is used properly there is not cardiac effect. For reasons unknown to us, that information did not wind its way into the report."


The 18-month-long Braidwood Inquiry, headed by retired Judge Thomas Braidwood, concluded in July that Tasers can cause death.

In his 556-page report, Braidwood criticized law enforcement for putting the stun gun on the street with little or no independent testing and recommended restricting use of Tasers. Within hours, the head of public safety in British Columbia adopted all 19 of Braidwood's recommendations, including a ban on Tasers in non-criminal situations or where there is not an imminent threat of bodily harm.

A spokesman for the Braidwood Inquiry said Friday that officials were surprised by Taser's reaction.

"We didn't expect this type of action to be taken," said Chris Freimond. "Mr. Braidwood is an experienced and respected jurist."

The Braidwood Inquiry was sparked by the 2007 death of a Polish immigrant at Vancouver International Airport who stopped breathing after being shocked five times by Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers.

Braidwood was charged by the provincial government with looking into Taser use in the province, where Tasers were introduced in Canada. Braidwood was also asked to provide a complete record of the circumstances surrounding the airport death, which is still ongoing.

The Braidwood Inquiry involved public testimony by Taser executives, police officers and opponents of the stun gun. It examined medical research, testimony from doctors, and test studies supportive and critical of the stun gun.

In its petition, Taser said it was treated unfairly by the inquiry. It accused officials of overlooking key information, including scientific studies and expert testimony, in favor of the stun gun.

Taser points specifically to the lawyer and to the chief overseer of medical and scientific research, saying any conclusions in the report are tainted by their bias. It asks the court for an injunction restraining Braidwood from making any conclusion about the medical safety or risks of the stun gun. Taser also says the Braidwood Inquiry violated law by releasing the report without first giving Taser the chance to provide a response to the findings.

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Cry Sea

this is what happens when european trawlers who have overfished their own waters head off to africa. the consequences that we never get to read about.

bailing out canadian pig farmers???????????? bah!

Hog farmers offered $75M federal buyout
Liberal critic hits out at Ritz, saying package 'too little, too late'
Last Updated: Saturday, August 15, 2009 | 6:42 PM ET Comments167Recommend43
CBC News
The federal government is offering a $75-million buyout fund to help farmers get out of the struggling pork industry, federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said Saturday.

Hog producers say their operations have been hit by high feed prices, a strong Canadian dollar, strict new country-of-origin labelling laws in the United States, as well as the swine flu crisis. (Charlie Neibergall/Associated Press)Canadian hog producers have been losing hundreds of thousands of dollars, thanks to a perfect storm of conditions — including H1N1, a stronger Canadian dollar and new American labelling laws.

Speaking at a research farm in rural Manitoba Saturday, Ritz said some hog operations are not viable and those farmers need help.

"We have to face the reality that some producers will leave the industry and we need to reduce our current over-supply," he said.

He also said those who stay in the industry will be able to apply for new long-term loans so they can restructure.

Ritz said the Canadian pork industry will become profitable again but it needs help weathering the current recession.

Pork producers in Canada had been asking for $800 million from the federal government to help the ailing industry.

"Is it what we wanted? Of course, straight cash is always nicer without any strings attached, but the reality is that wasn't going to happen," said Jurgen Preugschas, president of the Canadian Pork Council.

The Liberals also criticized Ottawa's response, calling it "too little and too late." Liberal agriculture critic Wayne Easter said in a statement that loans do little for hundreds of farmers who are already in debt.

Tough decisions ahead

Sometime this month, Manitoba pork producer Rick Vaags will have to make an tough, emotional decision whether to shut down his family hog farm of 45 years.

He says he's just losing too much money.

"We're living off equity right now," Vaags told CBC News in an interview from his farm in Dugald. "The bottom line right now is, we're losing 40 bucks a hog right now. That's been going on for quite a while, and we can't keep doing that."

Under the plan, farmers will have to bid from the available buyout money, so it is unclear how much cash each individual producer will get.

"Those numbers will be worked out on a case-by-case basis," Ritz said.

The government is also launching new $17-million marketing fund to help boost sales for Canadian pork worldwide.

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more on how the taliban get foreign aid money

article by Jean MacKenzie originally appeared in GlobalPost. This is part of a special series by GlobalPost called Life, Death and The Taliban. Click here for a related article Funding the Pakistani Taliban.

KABUL — It is the open secret no one wants to talk about, the unwelcome truth that most prefer to hide. In Afghanistan, one of the richest sources of Taliban funding is the foreign assistance coming into the country.

Virtually every major project includes a healthy cut for the insurgents. Call it protection money, call it extortion, or, as the Taliban themselves prefer to term it, “spoils of war,” the fact remains that international donors, primarily the United States, are to a large extent financing their own enemy.

“Everyone knows this is going on,” said one U.S. Embassy official, speaking privately.

It is almost impossible to determine how much the insurgents are spending, making it difficult to pinpoint the sources of the funds.

Mullah Abdul Salaam Zaeef, former Taliban minister to Pakistan, was perhaps more than a bit disingenuous when he told GlobalPost that the militants were operating mostly on air.

“The Taliban does not have many expenses,” he said, smiling slightly. “They are barefoot and hungry, with no roof over their heads and a stone for their pillow.” As for weapons, he just shrugged. “Afghanistan is full of guns,” he said. “We have enough guns for years.”

The reality is quite different, of course. The militants recruit local fighters by paying for their services. They move about in their traditional 4×4s, they have to feed their troops, pay for transportation and medical treatment for the wounded, and, of course, they have to buy rockets, grenades and their beloved Kalashnikovs.

Up until quite recently, most experts thought that drug money accounted for the bulk of Taliban funding. But even here opinion was divided on actual amounts. Some reports gauged the total annual income at about $100 million, while others placed the figure as high as $300 million — still a small fraction of the $4 billion poppy industry.

Now administration officials have launched a search for Taliban sponsors. Richard Holbrooke, U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, told a press conference in Islamabad last month that drugs accounted for less of a share of Taliban coffers than was previously thought.

“In the past there was a kind of feeling that the money all came from drugs in Afghanistan,” said Holbrooke, according to media reports. “That is simply not true.”

The new feeling is that less than half of the Taliban’s war chest comes from poppy, with a variety of sources, including private contributions from Persian Gulf states, accounting for much of the rest. Holbrooke told reporters that he would add a member of the Treasury Department to his staff to pursue the question of Taliban funding.

But perhaps U.S. officials need look no further than their own backyard.

Anecdotal evidence is mounting that the Taliban are taking a hefty portion of assistance money coming into Afghanistan from the outside.

This goes beyond mere protection money or extortion of “taxes” at the local level — very high-level negotiations take place between the Taliban and major contractors, according to sources close to the process.

A shadowy office in Kabul houses the Taliban contracts officer, who examines proposals and negotiates with organizational hierarchies for a percentage. He will not speak to, or even meet with, a journalist, but sources who have spoken with him and who have seen documents say that the process is quite professional.

The manager of an Afghan firm with lucrative construction contracts with the U.S. government builds in a minimum of 20 percent for the Taliban in his cost estimates. The manager, who will not speak openly, has told friends privately that he makes in the neighborhood of $1 million per month. Out of this, $200,000 is siphoned off for the insurgents.

If negotiations fall through, the project will come to harm — road workers may be attacked or killed, bridges may be blown up, engineers may be assassinated.

The degree of cooperation and coordination between the Taliban and aid workers is surprising, and would most likely make funders extremely uncomfortable.

One Afghan contractor, speaking privately, told friends of one project he was overseeing in the volatile south. The province cannot be mentioned, nor the particular project.

“I was building a bridge,” he said, one evening over drinks. “The local Taliban commander called and said ‘don’t build a bridge there, we’ll have to blow it up.’ I asked him to let me finish the bridge, collect the money — then they could blow it up whenever they wanted. We agreed, and I completed my project.”

In the south, no contract can be implemented without the Taliban taking a cut, sometimes at various steps along the way.

One contractor in the southern province of Helmand was negotiating with a local supplier for a large shipment of pipes. The pipes had to be brought in from Pakistan, so the supplier tacked on about 30 percent extra for the Taliban, to ensure that the pipes reached Lashkar Gah safely.

Once the pipes were given over to the contractor, he had to negotiate with the Taliban again to get the pipes out to the project site. This was added to the transportation costs.

“We assume that our people are paying off the Taliban,” said the foreign contractor in charge of the project.

In Farah province, local officials report that the Taliban are taking up to 40 percent of the money coming in for the National Solidarity Program, one of the country’s most successful community reconstruction projects, which has dispensed hundreds of millions of dollars throughout the country over the past six years.

Many Afghans see little wrong in the militants getting their fair share of foreign assistance.

“This is international money,” said one young Kabul resident. “They are not taking it from the people, they are taking it from their enemy.”

But in areas under Taliban control, the insurgents are extorting funds from the people as well.

In war-ravaged Helmand, where much of the province has been under Taliban control for the past two years, residents grumble about the tariffs.

“It’s a disaster,” said a 50-year-old resident of Marja district. “We have to give them two kilos of poppy paste per jerib during the harvest; then we have to give them ushr (an Islamic tax, amounting to one-tenth of the harvest) from our wheat. Then they insisted on zakat (an Islamic tithe). Now they have come up with something else: 12,000 Pakistani rupee (approximately $150) per household. And they won’t take even one rupee less.”

It all adds up, of course. But all things are relative: if the Taliban are able to raise and spend say $1 billion per year — the outside limit of what anyone has been able to predict — that accounts for what the United States is now spending on 10 days of the war to defeat them.