from Postmedia News
Postmedia's Sarah Schmidt outlines the shift in responsiblity for aircraft safety inspection from Transport Canada to air operators. While large commercial carriers have had safety management systems in place since 2005, the deadline for smaller operators has been scrapped.
from PeaceLoveandPitbulls.org
by Wayne Kondro
The Conservative government has informed the Health Council of Canada that its funding will be discontinued with next year’s expiry of the intergovernmental health accords.
The independent national agency has served as the primary accountability mechanism for the 2003 First Ministers’ Accord on Health Care Renewal and the 2004 10-Year Plan to Strengthen Health Care, reporting annually to Canadians about the quality, effectiveness and sustainability of the health care system.
The council was told last week that with next year’s expiry of the intergovernmental health agreements, “there is no longer a need” for it to monitor progress on health care renewal and reform in Canada…
For gunmakers, the political fight over assault rifles and high-capacity pistols is about more than just profits — it's about the militarization of the marketplace and represents a desperate bid by gunmakers to prop up a decaying business. The once-dependable market for traditional hunting guns has fallen off a cliff. To adapt, the firearms industry has embraced a business strategy that requires it to place the weapons of war favored by deranged killers like Adam Lanza and Jared Loughner into the homes and holsters of as many Americans as possible. "They're not selling your dad's hunting rifle or shotgun," says Josh Sugarmann, executive director of the Violence Policy Center, a top industry watchdog. "They're selling military-bred weaponry."
As recently as 2008, shotguns, rifles and other traditional hunting weapons made up half of all new civilian gun sales in America, according to SEC documents — a brisk billion-dollar business. Today, hunting guns account for less than a quarter of the market, and the hunting industry is forecasting a 24 percent drop in revenue by 2025. Gunmakers are on the wrong side of the same demographic curves that haunt the modern Republican Party. Its customer base is too old, too white, too male and too Southern. According to Gallup, 61 percent of white males in the South own guns today. Nationwide, just 18 percent of Latinos do. "The white males are aging and dying off," says Sugarmann. Flooding the market with battle-ready guns, he says, "is an effort to find one new, shiny thing to sell them."…
On October 31, 2012, I launched this petition asking the Premier of British Columbia not to renew salmon feedlot ocean leases due to the threat that European salmon viruses are spreading into the Pacific.
The bad news: Premier Christy Clark still granted the leases. The good news: she only dared renew them for one year.
May is election time in BC. Salmon feedlots are a hot issue. This means you could make ALL the difference to wild salmon right now.
The NDP said they are looking at the problem of salmon farms on key wild salmon migration routes. The Green Party is running powerful candidates and have said they will revoke licences. The Liberals have offered to stop granting new salmon farm leases in a small area of BC. All of these new commitments from the parties are a significant step in the right direction.
Here is where you come in – tell these political leaders you support them in removing salmon farms, but you need to know they are serious. We need each party leader to commit to getting salmon farms out of BC's waters. This is the only way we will actually protect our wild salmon.
We will track the commitments the parties make and will make sure you know which parties are making the strongest commitments. This way when you/your friends in BC go to the ballot box, everyone will know which parties deserve our support.
We are a global community and so we also need signatures from outside Canada to remind these leaders it is their responsibility to safe-guard this piece of our world.
Save wild salmon, spread this petition. You may also want to check out Salmonconfidential.ca, the film on the unfolding salmon feedlot scandal in Canada.
Thank you,
Alexandra Morton
Update: It is election time in British Columbia and our politicians are now starting to make commitments to protect our wild salmon from salmon farms. This is the key moment where adding your voice could save our wild salmon forever.
At the website below, you can modify and send the draft letter, which reads:
Sincerely,
[Your name]
by Samir Naji al Hasan Moqbel
One man here weighs just 77 pounds. Another, 98. Last thing I knew, I weighed 132, but that was a month ago. I’ve been on a hunger strike since Feb. 10 and have lost well over 30 pounds. I will not eat until they restore my dignity.
I’ve been detained at Guantánamo for 11 years and three months. I have never been charged with any crime. I have never received a trial.
I could have been home years ago — no one seriously thinks I am a threat — but still I am here. Years ago the military said I was a “guard” for Osama bin Laden, but this was nonsense, like something out of the American movies I used to watch. They don’t even seem to believe it anymore. But they don’t seem to care how long I sit here, either….
from the Socialist Project
The public sector is a key battleground for a progressive trade union strategy and for an alternative to neoliberalism in Europe. On the one hand the existence of a public sector is a continuing example that a not for profit driven production of goods and services is not only possible in the 21st century — it is also preferable. On the other hand in many countries the public sector is the last stronghold of organized labour. Even though public sector workers are under continuous pressure, in many places they still enjoy significant job security and comparably decent employment and working conditions.
by Karen Nickel
January, 2013 — This is a tale of two rapes. One has been widely reported, protested and has sparked a global outcry and condemnation. It inspired actions of solidarity against rape culture and decried the lack of women’s rights. The other rape has barely been noticed locally, let alone nationally or globally.
from Facebook
by MrEpicMan
Watch out for the furniture!
