Tourists try to grasp Canadian customs.
from Facebook
Mar 072013
Mar 072013
CARE Canada steps up for women and girls this International Women’s Day
from Care Canada
Canadians from coast to coast are getting ready to step up for women and girls worldwide.
In celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8th, CARE Canada is hosting its third annual Walk In Her Shoes campaign. It challenges participants to walk 8,000 steps per day (roughly six kilometres) for eight days to simulate the distance women and girls walk daily in the developing world for basic needs such as food, water, firewood or health services.
Mar 062013
from The Nation
…I hadn’t planned to write about the war on terror, but driven by curiosity about lives most of us never see and a few lucky coincidences, I stumbled into a world of Muslim women in London, Manchester and Birmingham. Some of them were British, others from Arab and African countries, but their husbands or sons had been swept up in Washington’s war. …
Mar 062013
from The Vancouver Observer
The US State Department recently released a draft version of its Keystone XL report — a document eagerly awaited by the pipeline's proponents and opponents alike. In the lead up to the release of the report (which disappointed environmental organizations across the board) Canadian officials worked overtime to extol the virtues of Alberta's tar sands. Their pitch? Get your oil from Canada, or get it from the devil…
Mar 052013
Professor forced to retract, recant, in 2002 civil suit.
by Paul Barnsley
Thomas Flanagan, a former policy advisor to the Reform Party and author of First Nations? Second Thoughts, the Donner Prize winning book that is critical of what the author calls "Aboriginal orthodoxy," is seen by many First Nations leaders as an arch political foe. He was subjected to five grueling days of cross-examination in Federal Court in Calgary in his role as an expert witness called by the Crown in a $1.5 billion lawsuit brought by the Samson Cree and Ermineskin Cree nations.
Ed Molstad, the lawyer for the Samson Cree, told this publication that his approach with this witness was "more detailed" than usual.
The two Alberta bands instructed their lawyers to argue that Flanagan was not an expert on matters related to their actions against the Crown as they seek legal rulings on a number of issues, including oil and gas revenues. They also claim that Flanagan has a bias that renders his opinions of little use to the court. His credibility was challenged on dozens of fronts….
…Molstad spent six hours of court time in January narrowing down the areas where Flanagan can claim to have expertise in Native issues, getting him to admit that he has never done research on reserve and has never spent any time working directly with Native people. Flanagan, who holds a PhD in political science from Duke University in North Carolina, also admitted he has never taken a single course in Canadian history or Canadian Aboriginal history….
Mar 042013
Giant banner hanging just the kickoff event.
from the Montreal Gazette
MONTREAL — A union coalition plans “many surprises for Conservative Members of Parliament” as it ramps up a confrontation with the federal government in a campaign designed to force Ottawa to reverse recent changes to the Employment Insurance program, organizers said Monday.
The opening salvo played out for many morning rush-hour commuters heading into Montreal from the South Shore.
Using a crane, the union coalition briefly unfurled a large banner sending an emphatic “no” message to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Like the broader public pressure campaign that is to follow, it calls on Harper to roll back the changes — which the coalition and its banner characterize as a “sacking” of benefits for the jobless.
Mar 042013
Cellphone company adds entertainment to daily commute.
from Qualcomm Vlog
Read a sign, send a text — what's the worst that could happen?
Mar 042013
BC's auditor-general slams lack of accountability.
from The Province
The ten-year contract held by US-based Maximus for administration of the Medical Services Plan and PharmaCare has not proved beneficial, according to BC's auditor-general John Doyle, reports The Province and Canadian Press.
Mar 032013
Tell BC government to provide safe space and treatment for children in crisis.
by Kelly Bradley, through Change.org
British Columbia hospitals need to start providing in-patient emergency mental health services for children in crisis, when they are self-harming, harming their family are suicidal or in other forms of distress. At the moment hospitals are sending away families and children in crisis who are having crisis mental health episodes. This is a serious gap in critical care in BC that must be recognized.
Feb 282013
Biggest US union coalition faces historic low union membership.
by Anna Palmer
The AFL-CIO is in survival mode.
Over the next six months, the group will engage in an unprecedented self-evaluation that will result in a new strategic plan that leaders say could open the door to nonunion workers and alliances with old rivals.