from the Chronicle Herald
The Nova Scotia government has rejected an application from Snow Island Salmon to allow a fish farm in Shoal Bay.
Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Sterling Belliveau says during the 22-month review process, Fisheries and Oceans Canada expressed concern about the salmon farm’s impact on wild salmon in the bay near Sheet Harbour…
The Guardian
Whenever there's a 99.8 percent yes vote in a referendum, it's a pretty safe bet that something dodgy's going on. And despite David Cameron's insistence that the North Korean-style ballot in the Falkland Islands — or Malvinas as they're known in Argentina — should be treated with "reverence", that rule of thumb clearly fits the bill in this case.
Which is not to suggest that the ballot boxes were stuffed. No doubt 1,514 island residents really did vote in favour of continued British rule. The only surprise was that three islanders dared to spoil the rousing choruses of Land of Hope and Glory by voting against…
from the BC Civil Liberties Association
Josh Paterson, Executive Director of the BC Civil Liberties Association, reacted today to the report to Parliament by Canada’s correctional investigator that Indigenous people account for 23 percent of the country’s federal prison population with higher rates in Western Canada, and that Indigenous people are sentenced to longer terms and are less likely to be granted parole than other people:
“This is an appalling example of the discrimination against Indigenous people in this country and it is tearing communities and families apart. While those who commit crimes should be dealt with appropriately by the justice system, these numbers make clear that the system over-polices and over-incarcerates Indigenous people. This is racist and it is unacceptable.
“The situation is particularly bad for Indigenous women, and young Indigenous women in particular. Fifty six percent of girls in BC youth custody are First Nations. As the tragic history of missing and murdered women makes clear, the justice system has failed to protect Indigenous women and instead has focused on punishing them.
“The justice system absolutely must do better in its dealings with Indigenous people. This includes ensuring that Indigenous people are fairly treated in policing, and when charged, fairly treated in sentencing, including taking into account social and historical factors affecting them like colonialism, residential schools and poverty — a requirement that was recently affirmed by the Supreme Court of Canada.
“These findings come as no surprise and we see constant examples of this discrimination through our work in communities all over BC. Canada’s unjust over-imprisonment of Indigenous people — at federal and provincial prisons alike — must be put to an end.”
from The Nation
This is a personal story, and it’s hard to tell because nobody knows how it will end. I first went to Afghanistan in 2002, where I volunteered with two small nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) staffed by Afghan women: widows, university students, teachers. I’ve gone back to Afghanistan to work with those women almost every year — except for part of 2010 and 2011, when I embedded with the US military instead, to learn more about its “mission” in the country. The military was so out of touch with the actual Afghanistan that I may as well have been on the moon.
from The Independent
The majority of British children will soon be growing up in families which are struggling below the breadline because of welfare cuts, tax rises and wage freezes, the government is warned today.
from the Vancouver Sun
When the invitation arrived at the Opposition offices for Adrian Dix to attend this year’s convention of the B.C. Nurses’ Union, it presented the New Democratic Party leader with a bit of a dilemma…
from The Toronto Star
Liberal leadership front-runner Justin Trudeau is causing excitement in Ontario and BC, but in few other places…
from The Vancouver Observer
… Ron Paul talks extensively and passionately about liberty. He defines it by what it is (freedom) and what it is not (everything else). He encourages governments — his own and ours–to put personal liberty above their own interests. He says that modern societies are failing because they have replaced the concept of personal liberty with 'interventionism'.
"If you believe in interventionism across the board" he says, his voice rising, you want the government to invade personal lives, economic prosperity and foreign policy.
He shouts "I am a non interventionist and that is what freedom is all about!"
And the crowd goes wild…
from The Nation
Alleging unpaid wages and repeated retaliation, McDonald’s workers in central Pennsylvania launched a surprise strike at 11 this morning. The strikers are student guest workers from Latin America and Asia, brought to the United States under the controversial J-1 cultural exchange visa program. Their employer is one of the thousands of McDonald’s franchisees with whom the company contracts to run its ubiquitous stores. ..
from the New York Times
A budding campaign aims to encourage a cultural shift on guns after Newtown.
