Audio Engineer: Grewel Tapes 'unaltered' -- Pork-o-meter Fodder -- Fish: Ecological Disaster

Master recordings 'unaltered' -- Audio expert finds four places where taping was paused Allan Woods, CanWest, Jun. 10, 05

OTTAWA - Three weeks after releasing a snippet of secret recordings made by a Conservative MP in conversation with two senior Liberals, the original tapes have been deemed "unaltered," according to an Ottawa sound expert hired by the Tories. [. . . . ]

Taxpayers' Federation: Fodder for the Pork-o-meter

Ottawa’s pre-election spending binge -- "a shameless attempt to bribe voters with their own money" -- the details by Adam Taylor, Research Director, Canadian Taxpayers Federation

Previous to last year’s federal election, (from April 1st, 2004,
until mid-May) the Liberals spent almost $7-billion of taxpayers’ money in pre-election spending announcements. This worked out to approximately $150-million per day.

Since April 20th, 2005, the day before Paul Martin begged for his job on national television, the Liberals have made over 250 spending announcements totaling over $17-billion of taxpayers’ money. This works out to $607-million per day or over $25-million every hour. [. . . . ]

Cod could be gone for good, study warns -- Crab and shrimp have a 'lock on the system' Margaret Munro, CanWest, Jun. 10, 05

The Science paper says it is "an open question" whether the ecosystem changes are reversible.

The demise of Canada's cod stocks is widely seen as an ecological disaster. But Nova Scotian fishers are now making more money fishing shrimp and snow crab than they ever did fishing cod, says Mr. Frank. Last year, the Scotian Shelf fishery netted fishermen $140-million, 85% of it on snow crab and shrimp. (Nova Scotians netted no more than $100-million a year in inflation-adjusted dollars from cod).

While some see the lucrative crab and shrimp fisheries as the silver lining of the cod collapse, Mr. Frank and his colleagues say there are "ecological risks inherent in 'fishing down the food web' as is currently occurring on the Scotian Shelf." Some scientists have predicted there will eventually be nothing but jellyfish left to catch. [. . . . ]

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