The Voice of America is reporting that Russia has agreed to new ways to cooperate with the United States on Afghanistan.
More from VOA: “The agreement gives the United States the right to fly over Russian territory as it transports military equipment and personnel to support American and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
Defence Minister Peter MacKay says the Canadian government is closely watching Russian plans to drop paratroopers in the Arctic next April.
“Any country that is approaching Canadian airspace, Canadian territory, will be met by Canadians,” MacKay said Friday in Halifax after an announcement on an international security conference planned for November.
MacKay didn’t give any specifics on what Canada will do in April but he said Canada is prepared to protect its borders.
By my calculations Canadians would most likely have been heading to the polls next Tuesday if Ignatieff’s Liberals had sided with the Bloc and NDP to bring the government down back in late June. And this is what would have been on every voter’s mind heading into the long weekend before they did.
Real gross domestic product (GDP) decreased 0.5% in May, a faster rate of decline than in the previous three months.
Harper should, at the very least, send a nice thank you note to Iggy.
So now that the Liberals are raking in as much money as the Conservatives how long will it take Iggy to climb aboard Harper’s plan to cancel the per vote subsidy given to political parties?
A 58-year-old man turned the gun on himself after shooting three members of his family in a northern Alberta town, according to new information released by the RCMP Thursday…
The bodies of Paget, a woman police described as his estranged wife, Joan Hanson, 64, the couple’s daughter Jolene Eliuk, 32, and her daughter, Misty, 9, were found on Sunday in a farmhouse in Smith, about 200 kilometres north of Edmonton…
Jolene Eliuk’s ex-husband, Terry Eliuk, told CBC News on Monday that his former in-laws were heavily in debt and that tension had been building in the home for years.
Comments Off :
Robert McClelland :
Jul 30, '09 :
-Law And Order
Prime Minister Stephen Harper urged Canadians on Wednesday to take advantage of the home renovation tax credit, even though the credit hasn’t actually been approved by Parliament.
So if the Conservative government falls before the reno credit is approved, could everyone who has already carried out renovations because they were going to receive it sue Harper for fraud?
Not That I’d Turn Them In This could be trouble for certain people *cough* Shaidle *cough* selling their cheesy books over the internet.
The federal government says online income is taxable and has warned Internet entrepreneurs who use eBay and other web-based sales venues that they must pay up or face prosecution.
“Taxpayers should know that the tax laws that apply to traditional commerce apply in the same way to electronic commerce, like eBay selling,” Revenue Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn said in a statement Thursday.
Comments Off :
Robert McClelland :
Jul 30, '09 :
-Blahg Bits
Oh not this canard again. Of course Liberals think the MSM is dead-set against them. The Conservatives think the same thing. If anyone’s got reason to complain it’s the NDP! They just get plain ignored by the MSM.
With Denmark becoming the latest nation to reveal major plans to sharpen its Arctic military capabilities, a global buildup in the tools of northern warfare has experts concerned about an increased risk of conflict.
“The question is whether these moves, which are built on a kind of mistrust and a worry about one’s own possession, might accumulate in a way that could bring on a more conflicted Arctic,” says author and retired University of Toronto professor Franklyn Griffiths…
Russia has announced its intent to create an Arctic special forces unit. It has also embarked on an ambitious icebreaker program, has promised to modernize its northern fleet and has sent long-range bombers to the airspace boundaries of several Arctic countries.
Last year, Norway chose to buy 48 Lockheed F-35 fighter jets partly because of their suitability for Arctic patrols. In March, that country held a major Arctic military practice involving 7,000 soldiers from 13 countries in which a fictional country called Northland seized offshore oil rigs.
The manoeuvres prompted a protest from Russia — which objected again in June after Sweden held its largest northern military exercise since the end of the Second World War. About 12,000 troops, 50 aircraft and several warships were involved.
It looks like the Harper recession is taking its toll on the hate industry.
Since all our troubles started, the economy has taken a nose dive. Another friend of mine just got laid off, joining me, my husband, my co-author and pretty much everyone I know in the Right Wing Jobless Club.
I know many of my readers are in the same situtation.
Who would of guessed there was an upside to a recession.
Since it’s once again a hot topic in Canada and the knuckledragging Muslim haters are out in full force, here’s a couple of interesting bits of info on the subject that will help you combat their bigotry.
An article on the website Gendercide Watch points out where the root of honour killings lies.
“Honour” killings of women (and occasionally their male “partners in crime”) reflect longstanding patriarchal-tribal traditions. In a “bizarre duality,” women are viewed “on the one hand as fragile creatures who need protection and on the other as evil Jezebels from whom society needs protection.” Patriarchal tradition “casts the male as the sole protector of the female so he must have total control of her. If his protection is violated, he loses honour because either he failed to protect her or he failed to bring her up correctly.” (Armstrong, “Honour’s Victims.”) Clearly, the vulnerability of women around the world to this type of violence will only be reduced when these patriarchal mindsets are challenged and effectively confronted.
The history of honour killings dates back to Rome and is not, as many incorrectly believe, a product of religion. Which is why it occurs far less frequently in nations that have made significant progress in ridding itself of the patriarchal mindset.
stophonourkillings.com seems to be a good source for news on the subject that doesn’t engage in baseless and bigoted Muslim bashing.
And here’s a little something to throw in the faces of the knuckldragging bigots who use these incidents as nothing more than an excuse to bash Muslims.
ITALY was shocked at the weekend by a revival of the Mafia tradition of “honour killing” after a member of a Calabrian Mafia clan shot his sister for having a child by her lover.
Giovanni Morabito, 24, nicknamed “Ringo”, gave himself up to police in Reggio Calabria after confessing that he had shot his sister, Bruna, 32, four times in the face at Messina in Sicily and left her for dead.
He told police with what officers described as “terrifying calm” that he had tried to kill her because she had had a son, Francesco, two weeks ago by “a man who was not her husband”.
The Pork Party: Formerly Known As The Conservative Party
I guess the butcher shop is needed to help him dole out all that pork.
The federal minister responsible for economic development in Quebec has dished out more than $6 million worth of cheques to his own riding in the past two weeks, including nearly $100,000 for a butcher shop.
Denis Lebel, MP for Roberval—Lac-Saint-Jean and the minister of state for the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the regions of Quebec, announced this week À l’Orée des Champs, a restaurant specializing in locally raised lamb dishes, will receive $94,770 to open an on-site butcher shop.
Moonvertising
Bidding for this exclusive bit of advertising space starts at $US46,000.
A Canadian Tradition Is Preserved
We can all rest soundly tonight knowing that the Supreme Court of Canada has defended the Canadian tradition that requires a hideous photo appear on driver’s licences. Take that you dastardly immigrants [are Hutterites immigrants?] that seek to change our way of life.
Here’s a checklist on Bolivia’s economy under Evo Morales:
2007 GDP up 4.6%
2008 GDP up 6.15%
2009 GDP expected to grow “at least 4%”
U$8Bn in international currency reserves, which is all-time record levels and represents U$816 per capita.
Inflation now under control. The last two months have seen negative inflation thanks mainly to the drop in imported foodstuffs.
Ezra The Rodeo Clown Dan Gardner in response to Ezra Levant’s belief that child soldier Omar Khadr should have been summarily executed in Afghanistan.
But this is a pretty good demonstration of why the man should not be treated as anything but the rodeo clown of Canadian punditry.
I’d thought the free screechers couldn’t sink any further into the muck than they did when they defended the right of neo-Nazis to promote hatred or used their dubious research to smear Canadian bureaucrats. But once again, my naivete has been ripped away by their malevolence. Prominent spokesman for this group of socalled free speech defenders Ezra Levant has his knickers in a twist over the Australian government’s banning of 1,370 websites.
Now something like that probably makes you uncomfortable. After all, banning websites is something that’s done in countries like China or North Korea to silence political dissent. The reason for the ban however, is that the sites listed are engaged in the criminal activity of transmitting either violent or child pornography.
There’s an odd situation that has arisen in the world of internet porn. In some nations it’s legal for 17 year olds to appear in pornography while in others such as Canada and Australia the age of consent is 18. This means that sites carrying porn that uses the image of 17 year olds is considered, by definition of the law, child pornography in others. The same applies to pornography that depict acts of sexual violence, even mock violence, as some of these banned sites do. While they are legal in some countries, in Canada and Australia they are not.
This doesn’t trouble the free screechers however, who have now sunk deeper into the muck by taking up the defense of both violent and child pornography.
Pipeline Bombings Are Now A Case Of Domestic Terrorism
Now that letters promising more bombings if demands aren’t met have been received by newspapers it’s safe to say these acts of vandalism out west can now be considered acts of domestic terrorism.
The RCMP says it’s “very concerned” about another threatening letter sent to a Dawson Creek newspaper purportedly by a pipeline bomber in northeastern B.C.
The letter warns attacks will “get a lot worse” if EnCana, the company that produces and ships natural gas in the area, doesn’t start pulling out within three months.
The State Of Canada’s New Recession
In case you weren’t aware of this, Macleans has been writing up a weekly scorecard of the North American economy that covers most of the economic indicators. A word of warning though, these scorecards have been pretty depressing so far simply because the positive indicators don’t carry as much weight as the negative ones.
Will Mr. Taxes Are Bad Have To Raise Another Tax?
I have no idea what this means but it seems like something that should have had the blogosphere buzzing today.
The Harper government is going to “gouge” Canadians with $10.5 billion in payroll taxes to fill its Employment Insurance account, alleges the federal NDP.
My confusion on this stems from the details that are given that don’t line up with what I know, or thought I knew, about the state of EI funding over the past decade combined with a state of lethargy today that has prevented me from researching the matter more thoroughly. So I’ll leave it to someone else to figure this one out.
What’s The Opposite Of ‘It’s All A Pack Of Lies’?
Remember all that stuff Israel’s critics were saying about their murderous rampage against the Palestinians in Gaza? Well, it was all true. Civilians were used as human shields, white phosphorus was used against civilians and very little of the IDF’s efforts ended up being directed at Palestinian militants.
It’s funny how Canada’s free screechers constantly make the claim that they’re fighting for the left’s free speech rights too but always seem to miss reports of free speech being stifled when it happens to the left or when it’s done by rightwing governments.
The controversial Alfano proposal — named after its author, Italy’s Minister of Justice Angelino Alfano — has already been approved by Parliament and awaits Senate approval.
If passed, the law would force bloggers to edit any post denounced to the government as defamatory. If the blogger refused, the denouncing citizen could sue for as much as $18,000.
What’s astounding about this case and the lack of attention given to it by the free screechers, is that it truly is censorship by every definition of the word. The Berlusconi government is attempting to silence the political voice of the people; something that is the primary reason freedom of speech is a right that needs to be vigorously defended.
Anyway, as I’ve pointed out before, when it comes to legal matters I’m generally well outside any of my areas of knowledge so hopefully one of the real defenders of free speech on the left will pick up on this since the right has once again demonstrated their interest in freedom of speech doesn’t extend beyond its use as a weapon against the left or anyone else on their very long list of enemies.
The incompetence of the Harper government truly astounds me. According to the Toronto Star the number of backlogged refugee cases was just under 20,000 in 2005. That number has tripled to 60,823 under the rule of the Conservatives. And the reason for it;
A report by Auditor General Sheila Fraser found that 37 of the 164 appointed positions on the Immigration and Refugee Board remained unfilled as of 2008…
It’s true that the system needs to be reformed but that reformation should begin by electing a competent government.
A New Hampshire man says he swiped his debit card at a gas station to buy a pack of cigarettes and was charged over 23 quadrillion dollars.
Josh Muszynski checked his account online a few hours later and saw the 17-digit number — a stunning US$23,148,855,308,184,500 (twenty-three quadrillion, one hundred forty-eight trillion, eight hundred fifty-five billion, three hundred eight million, one hundred eighty-four thousand, five hundred dollars).
Psst, buddy. Here in Ontario you can get smokes for 16 bucks a carton on most reserves.
We Can Haz Our Airwaves Back
Here’s a question for anyone more familiar with this issue than I am. According to this article in The Tyee, in the very near future corporate broadcasters will no longer be using the public airwaves for their broadcasts. Does this mean the public can start using them? In other words, would I be able to set up my own tv transmitter and start broadcasting a signal once corporations stop monopolizing our public airwaves?
But naturally, Levant’s concern about the dangers of unfettered government power seems to end at exactly the point where he ceases to perceive any potential for it to be directed against him personally. When it comes to somebody who he figures he can safely label as “other”, Levant goes several steps further than the Cons’ apparent desire to start moving back toward capital punishment. Indeed, he’s ready to start lumping together a group of sub-people who in his view shouldn’t be protected by any principle of law (including any due process to determine whether they actually fall into the categories to which Levant is so eager to assign them).
So summary execution? Unbridled mercenary vigilantism? All fine for Levant - as long as the victim can be labeled as a “pirate”. Or, by Levant’s own connection, a “terrorist”.
This is precisely why nobody should take Levant’s free speech crusade seriously. He isn’t a defender of rights and freedoms but merely a snake oil salesman looking to make a quick buck for himself.
I’m going to start tracking the status of stimulus spending in the London area. Yesterday I visited a half dozen of the sites that will be worked on in order to stimulate the economy. Since the list of projects was only released five weeks ago none of them, as I expected, showed any signs or impending signs of construction.
A little digging on the City of London website however, revealed that the tender for one of the projects–the Carling Arena on Grosvenor Street, which is slated for roof repairs and an upgrade to its refrigeration system–was issued on July 6th. This tender however, is only for the roof repair portion of the $1.7 million project and won’t close until the 22nd of July. Since the tendering process takes a month or more to complete once it closes it’s unlikely this project will get underway before September at the earliest.
The tender for the $630,000 roof replacement for Farquharson Arena located on Tecumseh Road was also issued on July 6th and and closes on July 29th. Construction on this project won’t likely commence until September or later as well.
Further digging on the City of London website revealed that the $1.175 million development of the Ed Blake Park on Barker Street isn’t expected to begin until 2010. The same applies to the $950,000 project at Medway Park, located just south of the Sherwood Forest Mall on Wonderland Road, that includes a new skate park, playground and spray pad. I plan to contact representatives at the city’s Park, Planning and Design department to see if these projects will be moved ahead to this year and will provide an update when I get the information.
