Editorials

The recession seems to have penetrated a profession long seen as recession-proof. Superintendents, education professors and people seeking work say teachers are facing the worst job market since the Great Depression. Amid state and local budget cuts, cash-poor urban districts like New York City and Los Angeles, which once hired thousands of young people every spring, have taken down the help-wanted signs.

The appointment of the Special Crown Prosecutor in the BC Rail Scandal case is in question.  the case involves former cabinet aides Dave Basi, Bobby Virk, and Aneal Basi.  But no one will face the question of the appointment of William Berardino - neither the Attorney General nor top B.C. Supreme Court officers.  The refusal to deal with the matter has eventuated in the following Complaint to the Canadian Judicial Council.

CTV.ca News Staff

The top echelons of power in Ottawa have come under the influence of a growing right-wing religious movement, according to a controversial new book.

"The Armageddon Factor: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada," was released this week. In it, journalist Marci McDonald writes that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is catering to Christian conservative groups in an effort to bolster his party's political base.

And that relationship could shape federal policy in Canada for years to come, she argues.

An error appears in the story of the denial of journalist accreditation for Robin Mathews by the committee of the B.C. Supreme Court made up, in fact, by three CanWest employees and one CTV employee.  The correction follows.

The assault on Canadian independence is being forged very largely on the economic front - with wholesale sell-out of major public wealth across the country.  A legal glitch in the corrupt transfer - in Brtitish Columbia - of BC Rail to CNR provides an opening for members of the public to stop the BC Rail Scandal trial, opening on May 17, and to force a whole new investigation of what may have been an illegal (and perhaps criminal) transfer of public assests.

 To make recordings of B.C. Supreme Court trial proceedings (for purposes of accuracy only) a "journalist" must receive "accreditation" approval by a committee of "journalists" appointed by Supreme Court officers.  The present committee is made up of four employees of the CanWest reactionary conglomerate.  No other press or media source is represented on the committee.  That committee just refused accreditation to Robin Mathews, vivelecanada columnist on the grounds  (?) that he is not "a working journalist.

 Part Four in the series on the Gordon Campbell BC Rail Scandal.

 The miscarriage of justice about to unfold is what I call “the staged trial” about to begin (May 17) as a result of the corrupt transfer of publicly-owned BC Rail to privately (in fact) U.S.-owned CNR.

 Canadians sleep-walk through the takeover of their society by thugs and political adventurists.  The signs are clear.  In Ottawa the cynical Stephen Harper attacks the Supremacy of Parliament [the fundamental safeguard against undemocratic takeover]. His power grab is debated as a question of the need to “compromise” on solutions to the denial of essential information to elected representatives. Those men and women, elected by Canadians, stand embarrassingly naked, (simply) stripped of their power to represent the people who elect them. (And their condition is blurred, misrepresented, and misreported by the “bought” mainstream press and media.)

“Such proposals are all hugely controversial — or they would be if anyone were paying attention. The problem is that the Canada/EU negotiations are taking place below the Canadian radar screen. Helena Guergis and Rahim Jaffer are getting more ink and air time here than free trade with Europe. In Parliament this week, just one question was asked about the negotiations. In principle, broadening trade with Europe and lessening dependence on the U.S. is an attractive idea. But the details of a deal with the EU could negatively impact many Canadians. It is time, then, to make these negotiations part of the political debate in Canada.”

Here is a very good overview by Council of Canadians' Campaign and Communications Director, Brent Patterson on  what has been written so far about Water Services and the CETA agreement. The Council is standing on guard for our water as always as can be seen from Brent's  concluding statement:

"We will be further developing our analysis on this question,  tracking Mr. Harper´s words in Brussels [at Can-EU Summit May 5], and raising this issue at key moments including at the last two rounds of talks on this deal in July (in Brussels) and October (in Ottawa on the eve of our annual general meeting here)."

fyi-janet

for further analysis of the impacts of CETA and information on press releases, statement, fact sheets, leaked CETA document etc see:

http://www.tradejustice.ca
http://www.canadians.org/tradeblog/
http://www.sierraclub.ca/en/trade-environment

 

The Interior Department exempted BP's calamitous Gulf of Mexico drilling operation from a detailed environmental impact analysis last year, according to government documents, after three reviews of the area concluded that a massive oil spill was unlikely.

The decision by the department's Minerals Management Service (MMS) to give BP's lease at Deepwater Horizon a "categorical exclusion" from the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) on April 6, 2009 -- and BP's lobbying efforts just 11 days before the explosion to expand those exemptions -- show that neither federal regulators nor the company anticipated an accident of the scale of the one unfolding in the gulf.....

"They never did an analysis that took into account what turns out to be the very real possibility of a serious spill," said Holly Doremus, a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley who has reviewed the documents....

BP's exploration plan for Lease 206, which calls the prospect of an oil spill "unlikely," stated that "no mitigation measures other than those required by regulation and BP policy will be employed to avoid, diminish or eliminate potential impacts on environmental resources."...

BP has lobbied the White House Council on Environmental Quality -- which provides NEPA guidance for all federal agencies-- to provide categorical exemptions more often. In an April 9 letter, BP America's senior federal affairs director, Margaret D. Laney, wrote to the council that such exemptions should be used in situations where environmental damage is likely to be "minimal or non-existent." An expansion in these waivers would help "avoid unnecessary paperwork and time delays," she added.
 

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (B.C.) is having a big party.  Guess who they're having to speak about the state of Canada, now?

Canada's minister of state for agriculture,Jean-Pierre Blackburn, says Ottawa will defend the supply management system of dairy and poultry products in any free trade talks with the European Union....
He said supply management allowed dairy and poultry industries to remain among the most profitable and stable in Canada...Blackburn said the Conservatives and Canada's agriculture industry have long had a strong relationship. "It's part of the Conservative government's tradition, to be close to the farmers," he said.
 

It seems counterintuitive but both Canadian nationalism and Quebec Nationalism were born in the late 1960's out of the globalist plan for North American "free trade."  Canadian nationalism was needed to repatriate the Constitution, a prerequisite for Free Trade; while, Quebec nationalism was needed to reassure French Canadians their rights would not be jeopardized by this action.

[1] Time to Drill Down Into Halliburton's Role in Big Oil Spill
May 1, 2010 Huffington Post
Charlie Cray, Director of the Center for Corporate Policy

[2]  Halliburton's role in the oil spill
By RUSSELL GOLD And BEN CASSELMAN
Wall Street Journal

fyi-janet

by Dana Gabriel

The G20 summit will be held on June 26-27 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre preceded by the G8 summit which will take place in Huntsville, Ontario. The secretive meetings will be attended by world leaders, finance ministers, central bank governors, along with thousands of other delegates. It will be the largest security event in Canadian history exceeding the Vancouver Winter Olympics. Downtown Toronto will be turned into a security fortress with fences, barricades, checkpoints and street closures thus greatly affecting local residents.