Aug. 31, 2006: #3

Cover story in Maclean’s nets Ignatieff 3 policy ideas , Aug. 28, 06

www.josephlavoie.com/2006/08/28
/cover-story-in-macleans-nets-ignatieff-3-policy-ideas/

[...] I was looking forward to reading Iggy’s manifesto. .... I shocked at how little substance Ignatieff has. The problem is that he’s still stuck in his professorial mode, and much like my profs at York, fills the pages with useless jargon and history. ....

[....] when you strip away the lessons, you get this policy platform:
(In his words. Policy proposals in italics) [....]

6. A future Liberal government must return to the original Kelowna agreement and meet it in full.

7. A federal working income tax benefit for low-income families. The refundable tax benefit would provide a basic tax credit and an income supplement for families struggling to survive on low wages. [....]

We should substantially increase our foreign assistance budget, to meet the 0.7 percent of GDP target. [....]

Four pages later, and all we get are three policy ideas: .... He lacks vision for the top job; good news for Conservatives if he wins the leadership because this guy’s all fluff.

Brodbeck on welfare and poverty, Tom Brodbeck, Aug. 29, 06

www.winnipegsun.com/News/Columnists
/Brodbeck_Tom/2006/08/29/1782967.html

The good news is the number of Canadians on welfare continues to fall and has been for at least 10 years, according to the National Council of Welfare’s most recent report released last week.

The bad news is Manitoba is the only province in Canada where welfare rolls have remained virtually the same for the past five years.

From 2001 to 2005, the number of Canadians collecting social assistance has fallen to just under 1.7 million, down from 1.9 million in 2005, about a 12% reduction.

[....] Either we have more lazy people in this province than others (and I’m not talking about the disabled or people who cannot legitimately work) or the provincial government isn’t aggressive enough in forcing people who can work to get a job. [....]

Welfare income levels hit new lows: study, Scott Deveau with a report from reporter Dawn Walton, via JacksNewswatch.info

www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.2006
0824.wwelfare0824/BNStory/National/home

Welfare Incomes 2005 pdf

The amount of money Canadians on welfare received in 2005 is at its lowest point in 19 years, according to a new study.

The National Council of Welfare, a citizen's advisory group to the Minister of Human Resources and Social Development, released its Welfare Incomes 2005 report Thursday on the state of Canada's welfare system. It suggests that of the 1.7-million Canadians currently receiving welfare in the country, most are living far below the poverty line -- half a million of whom are children.

The two worst provinces are New Brunswick, and Canada's richest province Alberta, according to the report.

The average income for a single person on welfare in New Brunswick is $3,427 or 19 per cent of the poverty of what is considered the threshold for the poverty line. [....]

At least some of those on welfare chose their lives -- lack of education, drugs, early pregnancy without a partner who takes responsibility ... etc. Is it not time to allow people's choices to have consequences if we don't want more of the same?

Someone please explain why those who choose drugs and degredation deserve more of other people's money to continue in their sorry state. I know, a failure of empathy on my part. I would suggest that the state not give welfare to a kid who quits school ... or the state could make any support contingent upon returning to and remaining in school -- without slacking -- must attend, be punctual, study, do assignments ... i.e. perform. It does not have to be an academic school. It could be a trades school although that does not mean they don't need intelligence, I hasten to add. I am referring to some kind of schooling which interests the non-academic students.

The writer obviously thinks the following is a bad idea.

Most welfare incomes peaked in 1994, when the federal government still contributed roughly half of the welfare dollars handed out through the Canada Assistance Plan, Mr. Murphy said. But since that federal program was cancelled, almost one-third of Canadians on welfare have seen the amount they receive drop by at least $3,000.

In Ontario, a lone-parent with one child received $21,000 in 1992. Today that figure is $14,400, Mr. Murphy said.

Where bad luck (illness or the death of a spouse, for example) comes into play, be kind but don't encourage dumb choices by funding those who make them, that is, the rest. Life has consequences ... by which we learn.



Feted or Fetid?

Tigers feted on campus -- Student club held events to celebrate Tamil group, Adrian Humphreys, National Post, August 29, 2006

www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=
a68f78d4-322f-4f8c-a80e-37d162fd8c95&k=5856

WATERLOO - Martyrdom celebrations that praised Tamil Tiger soldiers and suicide bombers were held openly in the student centre of the University of Waterloo, where the FBI alleges a "procurement cell" for the terrorist organization was centred.

Last November's event -- where a large flag of the Tamil Tigers, showing AK-47 assault rifles and a roaring tiger, makeshift tombstones and posters celebrating "Our Fallen Heroes" were displayed -- was held in the Student Life Centre despite the club being under suspension by the school at the time.

[....] The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, commonly called the Tamil Tigers or the LTTE, are fighting for a Tamil homeland separate from Sri Lanka and are notorious for their use of suicide bombings and assassinations. The group was declared a terrorist organization in the United States in 1997 and in Canada this year.

The use of the university's facilities, particularly while the club was suspended, will be part of a wide-ranging internal investigation announced yesterday.

The school has hired a national accounting firm to conduct a forensic audit of WATSA. It is also reviewing how overseas placements for students in co-operative education programs are run. [....]

Search: photographs of WATSA's "Maaveerar Naal" events, often called "National Heroes Day"



How right wing the left sounds after its moment of racial truth , Rod Liddle, Aug. 27, 06

www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,24393-2330258.html

Quick, somebody buy a wreath. Last week marked the passing of multiculturalism as official government doctrine. No longer will opponents of this corrosive and divisive creed be silenced simply by the massed Pavlovian ovine accusation: “Racist!” Better still, the very people who foisted multiculturalism upon the country are the ones who have decided that it has now outlived its usefulness — that is, the political left.

It is amazing how a few by-election shocks and some madmen with explosive backpacks can concentrate the mind. At any rate, British citizens, black and white, can move onwards together — towards a sunlit upland of monoculturalism, or maybe zeroculturalism, whatever takes your fancy.

[....] the title of the commission: the Commission for Integration and Cohesion. You don’t get either of those things with multiculturalism: they are mutually exclusive.

... Some 22 years ago Ray Honeyford, the previously obscure headmaster of Drummond middle school in Bradford, suggested, in the low-circulation right-wing periodical The Salisbury Review, that his Asian pupils should really be better integrated into British society.

They should learn English, for a start, and a bit of British history and a sense of what the country is about; further, Asian (Muslim) girls should be allowed to learn to swim despite the objections of their parents (who did not like them stripping down even in front of each other). Muslim kids should be treated like every other pupil, in other words.

For these mild contentions, Honeyford was investigated by the government, vilified as a racist by the press, ridiculed every day by leftie demonstrators outside his office and was eventually hounded from his job. He has not worked since. [....]

Canada has the same thing happening, and, along with that, another problem -- sanctions against those who make mention of the divisiveness and unfairness of the languages policy, specifically, the overwhelming power of those whose language is French, the power to promote their language in areas not traditionally French-speaking, the power of exclusion -- e.g. the power to keep citizens from working if they mention the obvious--that the policy favours francophones over anglophones. They have the power to demand, in reality, that anyone who wants to get ahead mouth the mantras, the positives about bilingualism, but not mention the negatives which apply to approximately 70% of Canadians -- That is, they have not been and won't be employable in their own government civil service, and much more, it turns out. Bilingualism is the 'first' requirement, above other qualifications, for a job there, and in many other areas. We're just supposed to accept it. Well, I am mentioning that it is unfair and any government should see this, admit it, and do something to ensure that the ones discriminated against now, may work for their own government, the one which they pay for.




Olivia Chow's riding to push for funding for Hamas, posted by timwest, 8/30/2006 00:43:43

www.canoe.ca/mb2/messages/cnewsf/12164.htm



Fake funeral letter sparks fears of immigration scam
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.ht
ml?id=3f0ab843-a7d3-45b4-b029-2cd09e3c87bf


Pirate DVD ring busted , Kevin Connor, Aug. 29, 06
cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/TechNews/Other
/2006/08/29/1783782-sun.html

[....] The Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association says that the seized burners could have produced more than three million pirated discs in one year, yielding illegal revenues in excess of $17 million, assuming they were in operation 10 hours a day, seven days a week.

[....] Charged are three women, Yu Wang, 22, of Markham, and Si Ying Zhao, 22, and Jing Zhou, 28, both of Toronto, and one man, You Jie Wu, 36, of Markham.
An arrest warrant has been issued for another woman, Yannie Siu, 25, of Markham

[. . . . ]


Counterfeit DVD lab busted
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/toronto/story.ht
ml?id=265c530e-368c-4584-bbe1-7e570533f137

Toronto police shut down 'highly sophisticated' counterfeit DVD lab, arrest its alleged owner

www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/toronto/story.ht
ml?id=6167a491-c990-4aa8-9422-ed2c90d24b5c



The left's boutique politics
www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/editorialsletters/story.ht
ml?id=4dcd3437-9166-40fb-94da-33b38b183adf



Will the real left please stand up?, SeanMcElroy, 8/28/2006 16:23:47

www.canoe.ca/mb2/messages/cnewsf/12140.html

tinyurl.com/r9baz



2 more charged in debit card scam, Tom Godfrey, Aug. 29, 06
cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/
2006/08/29/1783717-sun.html

Two more Sri Lankan men -- bringing the total charged to seven -- have been arrested by Toronto Police in a widening debit card scam that had apparently been in operation for at least three months. [....]

Yesterday the University of Waterloo, from where three suspects graduated, ordered an audit of the Waterloo Tamil Students Association and better screening of overseas placements.

The accused in the debit card scam allegedly withdrew about $4,000 in an hour using phony cards assembled from data stolen by the ring, Craddock said.

It's suspected the doctored machine may have been switched with a real one while the server was distracted. [....]

Watch Your Debit Card, mich71, 8/28/2006 13:02:58

www.canoe.ca/mb2/messages/cnewsf/12135.html

I know we had a rash of this S@#i going on here in the Outaouais region, one good indication that a machine as been tapered with is - before you swipe your card check the back of the hand held device, there should be a silver ring that covers a the piece of wire going in to the hand held. If it looks like it has been tampered with you will notice it right away, the police were saying that you can tell the difference from one that has just regular wear and tear and one that has been tampered with.

Comments on Small Dead Animals, via maz2 / SDA
www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/004513.html#comments

As Sentinel would say, "Feck the UN". ...-

Continuing the legacy
Toronto Sun ^ 2006-08-27 Peter Worthington

[....] After Korea, beginning in 1956 in Gaza, "peacekeeping" became the hallmark of the Canadian army -- until we joined the present war against terrorism in Afghanistan. True, Somalia in 1993 was a UN Chapter 7 "fighting" mission, but the expected fighting never occurred.

Although the country hasn't really noticed it, our military has abandoned traditional peacekeeping and returned to more active soldiering, now fighting an unorthodox war against an able and elusive enemy in Afghanistan.

CREDIT RICK HILLIER [....]

It would seem that the legacy established in WWI continues in the Canadian army today. ...-

Saddam invested one million dollars in Paul Martin-owned Cordex, by Judi McLeod, Canadafreepress.com, Friday, April 22, 2005
www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/unifil/unifilpress.htm

[....] Cordex had a U.S. subsidiary.

Two years after taking the Park-through-Saddam one million dollars, Cordex went out of business.

On April 20, 1999, Bankrupt.com, an internet bankruptcy library states Kelly J. Sweeney Esquire of the Office of the Trustee in Denver, Col. as appointing four individuals to serve on an official creditor’s committee in the Chapter 11 case "commenced by Cordex Petroleum Inc."

Strong’s New Age Baca Ranch is located in Crestone, Colorado.

Indeed, according to Marci McDonald in Walrus Magazine, "Cordex Petroleums was formerly known as Baca Resources." (April 21, 2004).

…"Still, Strong has never been far from his protégé’s side. [....]

Search: Paul Volcker’s membership on the board , Power Corporation

There is more. Also, there is a lengthy list of related articles: Other CFP Stories about Paul Martin and Maurice Strong

Worth checking.



Memory Lane: Farfetched? -- Maurice Strong gets around

Who turned the lights out?, by Judi McLeod, August 25, 2003
www.canadafreepress.com/2003/main082503.htm

[....] According to Perspectives, a Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) publication, Solar Temple members believe in an imminent ecological apocalypse.

In 1996,"Natural Resources Minister Guy Chevrette acknowledged he’s worried the Solar Temple cult may have influence in Hydro-Quebec.

[....] "The Order of the Solar Temple was started in Canada by a homeopathic physician named Luc Jouret. Dr. Jouret received his funding from Ontario Hydro, a company (formerly) controlled by (United Nations guru) Maurice Strong," says Perspective. [....]

According to Brian Tokar in Z Magazine, "Hydro-Quebec suffered an additional political embarrassment when some 15 executives and former executives of the utility were tied to the Solar Temple cult after the mysterious mass killing of its members in Switzerland. [....]

How NAFTA superhighway is built under radar screen -- Officials say they see no budget 'earmarks,' because they don't know where to look , wnd.com, August 29, 2006
wnd.com/news/printer-friendly.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51730

The entire I-69 project is expected to cost $8.8 billion in current dollars, with states picking up 10 percent of the tab. So where is the money hidden? It's not really. But nowhere in any highway bill is the project referred to as the "NAFTA superhighway." Since the money is doled out to states to spend on their portion of the project, the allocations look like any other highway spending.

A fast route from Mexico -- just what Canada needs.



The text of a speech given by a Lebanese woman recalling her experiences as a child in the Middle East and the contrast between the humanity of the two cultures at war.

Venezuela strikes oil investment deal with China worth US$5-billion
posted by rosemarie59
www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.ht
ml?id=21ada082-bc49-4950-9559-61acf09a9dca



Get off parents' backs
www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/editorialsletters/story.ht
ml?id=a8e30f47-b526-4932-bac3-a7c2a6cb65c4


The Caledonia occupation goes on
www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/editorialsletters/story.ht
ml?id=418be989-bebb-4ac4-adc8-8fea95c83d3f