April 29, 2005

Western Standard: Should, could, and "wood" Apr. 28, 06, Burkean Canuck, via newsbeat1

Note commentary about how much money in lawyers' fees this file used up over the years while the Libs couldn't get a deal .....



Proposed information law reforms are dangerous, commissioner says James Gordon, CanWest, April 29, 2006

Canada's information czar unleashed yesterday a scathing attack on proposed access to information reforms, calling them dangerous and a surprising disappointment........ would weaken the commissioner [. . . . ]

Related comments cnews forum comment

Scroll for "John Reid and I have been friends for over 40 years. He used to play fastball for me years ago before he got into politics. He really didn't slam the PM BUT he was really upset with Chretien and Martin because .... all information that is not classified belongs to the public simply because we paid for that information."

I have no idea of the veracity of this; judge for yourself.


Right Wing News: "detainee who was caught while trying to sneak across the Mexican border." John Hawkins

Search: Pakistan , $25,000 , priorities that are out of whack



G&M: U.S. blasts Canada on terrorism -- "Islamic terrorist cells continue to operate in Canada, according to a Bush administration report released yesterday that fingers a “liberal” immigration system for allowing terrorists to infiltrate the country." -- "Largely prepared before the Conservative government took office in Ottawa, the report, entitled The Country Reports on Terrorism 2005" Apr. 29, 06


Canada a 'haven' for terrorists -- Washington

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration said yesterday Canada has become a "safe haven" for Islamic terrorists who exploit lax immigration laws and weak counterterrorism enforcement to raise money and plan attacks.

In its annual Country Report on Terrorism, the State Department expressed growing concern about the presence of "numerous" terror plotters in the country and said political fallout from the Maher Arar case continues to hamper information-sharing between Canadian and U.S. intelligence agencies. "Terrorists have capitalized on liberal Canadian immigration and asylum policies to enjoy safe haven, raise funds, arrange logistical support and plan terrorist attacks," the report said. [. . . . ]

Country Reports on Terrorism 2005: pdf to download via newsbeat1

Special Briefing releasing the reports.
Background Information: Country Reports on Terrorism and Patterns of Global Terrorism

-- Table of Contents
-- Chapter 1 -- Legislative Requirements and Key Terms
-- Chapter 2 -- Strategic Assessment
-- Chapter 3 -- Terrorist Safe Havens
-- Chapter 4 -- Building International Will and Capacity to Counter Terrorism
-- Chapter 5 -- Country Reports: Africa Overview
-- Chapter 5 -- Country Reports: East Asia and Pacific Overview
-- Chapter 5 -- Country Reports: Europe and Eurasia Overview
-- Chapter 5 -- Country Reports: Middle East and North Africa Overview
-- Chapter 5 -- Country Reports: South Asia Overview
-- Chapter 5 -- Country Reports: Western Hemisphere Overview
-- Chapter 6 -- State Sponsors of Terror Overview
-- Chapter 7 -- The Global Challenge of WMD Terrorism
-- Chapter 8 -- Foreign Terrorist Organizations
-- National Counterterrorism Center: Country Reports on Terrorism 2005, Statistical Annex
-- Supplement on Terrorism Deaths, Injuries, Kidnappings of Private U.S. Citizens

Western Standard: Pakistan: Death for Mohammed cartoon publishers Apr. 27, 06, Darcey/DustMyBroom



The Early Days of Coal Research -- Wartime Needs Spur Interest in Coal-to-Oil Processes via http://www.canoe.ca/mb2/messages/cnewsf/9592.html
TruerAlberta, 4/27/2006 20:54:32

[....] The same year, the nation's first privately built and operated coal hydrogenation plant began operating at Institute, West Virginia. Constructed by the Carbide and Carbon Chemical Company (later to become Union Carbide), the Institute plant could process 300 tons of coal daily. From 1952 to 1956, the plant produced chemicals from coal, and hence its hydrogenation conditions were milder than those used in the Bureau's plants. Nonetheless, the Institute plant was a symbol to many in the Eisenhower Administration and the Congress that large-scale synthetic fuels plants should now become the responsibility of the private sector.

In March 1953 when the Republican-led House Appropriations Committee opened its budget hearings, its first official act was to kill funds for the Louisiana, MO, synthetic fuel plants. The cost of synthetic fuels was too high for the government to bear, the Committee stated. Estes Kefauver, then out of Congress but later elected to the U.S. Senate, claimed that the nation's oil companies had been behind the Committee's action because they did not want the competition from coal. A short time later, the Committee voted to cease funding for all the programs authorized under the Synthetic Fuels Act.

Within 90 days, the Missouri plants were closed and turned back to the Department of the Army. The coal hydrogenation plant returned to making ammonia. [....]

Are we creating monsters?

Christie Blatchford in the Globe and Mail today has an excellent article: "A juvenile response ...... or was it?"

Another one, a different 12 year old .....

12-year old girl arrested in burning of Sask. woman -- "upper half was torched" CP, LaRonge, Sask. Apr. 28, 06

A 12-year-old girl was charged with aggravated assault Friday, several days after a badly burned woman was found behind a video store.

[. . . . ] This arrest comes only days after another 12-year-old girl was arrested in Leader, Sask., after a triple murder in Medicine Hat, Alta. [. . . . ]

Three-year sentence for machete attacker -- Will serve 14 months Eliza Barlow, Apr. 28, 06, CNEWS -- link and comment: Oneida "What kind of culture produces a monster like this" 4/29/2006

Slicing a teenage boy’s arm to the bone with a machete at a city transit centre over a simple case of dislike has earned a 19-year-old man a three-year prison sentence, reports The Edmonton Sun.

Leslie Okeynan pleaded guilty in provincial court yesterday to aggravated assault in the June 4, 2005, machete attack at the Coliseum transit station.

[....] Court heard that when police asked Okeynan why he slashed the victim, he told cops, “I slashed him because I don’t get along with him ... because I don’t like him.” [. . . . ]

Oh, so now we understand ........


Progress ....... Star Choice catering to to the 65% of Canadians who watch porn are offering a 3rd porn channel,and free this weekend.



Doug Fisher: Like father, not so much like son -- "For example: Paul Martin Sr./Paul Martin Jr.; Pierre Trudeau/Justin Trudeau; Elmer MacKay/Peter MacKay; Ernest Manning/Preston Manning; David Lewis/Stephen Lewis/Avi Lewis; Romeo LeBlanc/Dominic LeBlanc; Frank Stronach/Belinda Stronach." Apr. 16, 06



Agent for the people -- The media are the public's eyes and ears. Let us do our job John Moore, NatPost, Apr. 29, 06

John Moore is the host of The John Moore Show on NewsTalk 1010 CFRB in Toronto.

[....] The media's participation at such ceremonies is not in the form of an ill-mannered scrum: It consists of a few cameras discreetly capturing the traditions of the slow march, the pipers, and official expressions of grief to the families. No journalist would reject the pleas of any family that asked for privacy. Yet the government itself is thwarting the wishes of those families that do want the media to be present.

If the government's concern is that Canadians will sour on the Afghanistan mission as we watch more and more caskets come home, then it's Stephen Harper's job to continue emphasizing its vital importance. But it is not the government's job to tell Canadians what they can and cannot witness through their agents in the media.

Activist condemns Canada's native rights Michel Mandel

Doreen Silversmith will travel from the Caledonia standoff to the United Nations this week not to praise Canada, but to shame her. Fresh from the aboriginal blockade, she will leave this country for the first time in her life and fly to Geneva to slam Canada's record on native rights and homelessness before the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR).

Which would-be Liberal leader? CanWest, Apr. 29, 06

[....] We must also get on with taking on climate change. The well-reported extent of environmental degradation, collapsing ecosystems, loss of species and the melting of our polar ice cap has dwarfed any claim that we could make of having achieved a state of sustainable development. The science of global-warming is sufficiently certain that delay is no longer an option. We must commit the resources necessary to address the causes and consequences of climate change.

[....] I believe that the protection of our health, natural resources and the environment should be grounded first and foremost in science. It is the starting point for meaningfully confronting our challenges in these areas.

Rudy's rules: Former New York City mayor reveals the six principles that helped him through the Sept. 11 crisis



"Too posh to push" -- "24% of Canadian babies"

C-section popularity pushes up expense -- Report finds babies needing neonatal care also rising -- "C-sections cost 60% more than vaginal births, according to the report by the Canadian Institute for Health Information released yesterday. It pegs the cost of a Caesarean at $4,600 and a vaginal birth at $2,800." Margaret Munro, CanWest, April 27, 2006



China's President continues African quest, signs oil exploration deal with Kenya Apr. 29, 06, FinPost

The China National Offshore Oil Corp. said the agreements covered production-sharing contracts for six blocks off Kenya's Indian Ocean coast covering 115,343 square kilometres. [. . . . ]

Time to pull plug on port authority Peter Kent Commentary, National Post, April 29, 2006

an anachronistic political confection foisted on a reluctant city and its taxpayers by Toronto members of Jean Chretien's pork-barrelling Liberal caucus.

[....] Almost 150 million taxpayer dollars later, the renamed Port Authority has achieved virtually none of its objectives.

[....] commuter aircraft such as Toronto's homegrown Bombardier Q400 turboprop

Cheaper Gas via cnews forum