Frost Hits the Rhubarb: Compilation

June 26, 2005

Compilation

These are from the last few days, items I had no time to post but that I consider worth reading.

As far as I am concerned, democracy involving two political parties is just about over in Canada. Canada has joined the one party thugocracies so prevalent at the United Nations where it fits in so well. Is that what Canada's government means when it talks of funding teaching about justice, democratic institutions and how to improve governance around the world? Meanwhile, a small coterie grow wealthier and more powerful. OPM at work in Canada.

Bombardier & Two Gov Officials Summoned to Testify at Foreign Affairs Committee re China's Project Into Tibet

Questions arise over Canadian government involvement in China's project into Tibet Posted by Naresh on Canadian Coalition for Democracies, 2005/06/16

OTTAWA Canada's Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade voted today in support of a motion by Stockwell Day, Official Opposition Foreign Affairs Critic, asking the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of International Trade to testify before the Committee.

The Canadian government is financially committed to Bombardier Inc. through a series of significant loan guarantees and other fixed instruments. Bombardier Inc. is working for the Government of China in providing a railway into Tibet from China.

Serious questions have been raised by groups concerned that the Communist Chinese regime will use the railway for mass population movements of Chinese people into Tibet from central China. [. . . . ]

Personal Privacy & RFID Technology

Tiny tracking devices raise privacy questions Jim Bronskill, June 23, 05

[. . . . ] Ontario Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian also flagged the issue in her annual report this week.

"When RFID technology finds its way into consumer goods, privacy concerns can quickly escalate," the report said.

For instance, Cavoukian pointed out, an RFID tag on a product could be linked to the purchaser at the time of sale if the person plunked down a credit or loyalty card.

Such data linkage could help develop a consumer profile of a shopper who bought a tag-bearing sweater using a loyalty card and later used the same card at the hardware store to pick up some tag-bearing supplies, the report said.

"Even when used as intended, the information could reveal not just which products a consumer purchases, and how often those products are used, but even where a particular product - and by extension the consumer - travels, unknowingly encountering RFID readers along the way every time he wears that sweater." [. . . . ]

RCMP delays report on deployment CBC News, Jun 23 2005

Morris Mayor Barrie Stevenson has heard the town's local highway patrol unit will be amalgamated with Headingley's highway patrol. . . .

"Making the regions larger would diminish our protection and, of course, our response times would get longer," said Stevenson.

The uncertainty was supposed to be dismissed on Tuesday with the report's release, but the Mounties have delayed the report.

Federal justice critic Vic Toews, the MP for the Morris area, believes he knows the reason for the delay: "I think they simply don't want this raised in Parliament, so they are going to postpone the announcement until after Parliament shuts down," he told CBC News. [. . . . ]

Is it that the cost of buying NDP votes to remain in power was so high? Or is there something more sinister afoot?

Sydney' s Opera House targeted? Mike Corder, AP, June 23, 05

[. . . . ] members of the group had attended training camps in remote areas of Victoria state, and had connections with a radical Islamic Sydney group that allegedly has been spotted using small boats to spy on the Opera House and Harbour Bridge, the paper said. [. . . . ]

View AP news video of capture

Three Lessons from a Woman Terrorist -- A foiled suicide bombing brings out three media myths on Palestinian terror June 21, 05

Al-Bas' act, however, clearly demonstrates the need for strict Israeli administration of checkpoints and medical permits. She is the latest in a long string of Palestinian terrorists who cynically used their status as medical patients or modest women to perpetrate terror attacks.

Is the mess that is the Sgro Report evidence of influence? Angry in T.O. June 23, 05

The blogger Phantom Observer has said something that made me think there may be an explanation as to why the Sgro Report is such a mess, and the Grewal Report was so clear and concise.

Just remember, there is absolutely no evidence to support these baseless allegations.

Sgro guilty of conflict of interest -- Ethics ruling Jack Aubry, CanWest, June 22, 2005 -- Posted by Keith Sachs on 09:07:07 2005/06/22

[. . . . ] In a damning analysis of 128 Temporary Residence Permits (TRPs) granted by Ms. Sgro between May 25 and June 28, 2004, during the election campaign, 74 out of 76 cases identified Liberal MPs as supporters of the permits while only two were supported by Conservative MPs.

[. . . . ] In an aside, Mr. Shapiro commented: "It does beggar the imagination that Human Resources and Skills Development Canada or any other government agency might have cared whether or not there was a shortage in this particular area." [strippers]

Identifying Biased News Coverage

As an active and involved news consumer, you can analyze the news for basic violations of objectivity in reporting. Here are 7 key violations of media objectivity to look out for:

1. Misleading definitions and terminology
2. Imbalanced reporting
3. Opinions disguised as news
4. Lack of context
5. Selective omission
6. Using true facts to draw false conclusions
7. Distortion of facts

The examples clarify what many of us have noted before.