defend-canada

Why are Tories so determined to defend the F-35?

2011-11-18T00:36:00.000-08:00

Even Stephen Harper’s detractors will acknowledge – after a few libations and with no microphones in view – that the prime minister has generally shown a deft hand in foreign affairs. Indeed, along with economic management, this has become one of Harper’s greatest strengths.

So why, some in and around Ottawa wonder, is the Harper government so dead-set on championing the much-delayed, expensive and controversial F-35 fighter purchase, even as the project takes on ever more ballast?

Day after day in the House, opposition MPs pose pointed, scathing questions about why the government has “sole-sourced” this estimated $16-billion (including maintenance costs) purchase from U.S. aircraft maker Lockheed-Martin, with no competitive tender. Day after day a trio of ministers – up to and including the PM himself – deliver wan responses, looking unhappy as they do so.

Polls have shown that a majority of Canadians doubt whether ultra-high-tech new fighters should be a priority. The government’s three stock arguments in their defence – it was the Liberals who launched the program in the late 1990s, our pilots deserve the best, and the industrial spinoffs will be huge – look weak, in an era of looming budget cuts.

International support for the joint strike fighter has gone wobbly. The Turks are out, because of a disagreement over rights to the F-35’s critically important software source code. Australia is buying Boeing Super Hornets. Norway has delayed its purchase. The British are reviewing their purchase of more than 100 F-35B models – the JSF’s vertical landing variant. And there are rumblings that the Italians may soon do the same, if they can order any planes at all, given their debt woes.

As if all that weren’t bad enough, the U.S. military – on the hook for 2,443 F35s, at an estimated cost of $380-billion (US) – is under siege because of America’s own debt crisis. There is rampant speculation the Pentagon itself will soon be forced to curtail its order. Because pricing is based on economies of scale, that would change the game for every other member of the consortium, including Canada. As orders get reduced, the price per plane goes up.

Therefore, why so dogged? Here’s a partial answer. The growing turmoil, itself, is one reason why the Harper government remains grimly at the table.

Source http://blogs.canada.com/2011/11/17/why-are-harper-tories-so-doggedly-determined-to-defend-the-f-35/

Gazette opinion: Build pipeline to supply U.S. with friendly fuel

2011-10-03T00:19:00.000-07:00

The proposed Keystone XL pipeline is not a risk-free project. However, there are risks in not building this oil pipeline from Alberta to Texas.

The United States needs oil. We consume more than we produce and we put ourselves and our military members at risk to defend distant, unstable sources of oil.

Conservation and energy efficiency must become a higher priority for our great nation. But we won’t be able to conserve away our oil import demand in the foreseeable future.

In a guest opinion printed Sept. 26 on this page, a Canadian diplomat noted that construction of the pipeline is expected to create “5,531 person-years of employment and $7.5 million in state tax revenues” in Montana.

“Both Canada and the United States are moving towards reducing our dependence on fossil fuels, but this transition, while necessary, will take time,” Landan Amirazizi wrote from Denver. “Until we sufficiently reduce demand and secure alternative sources that can meet our requirements, turn to Canada.”

A 1,700-mile pipeline from Canada’s oil sands north of the Montana border is a reasonable, necessary source of dependable oil supply.

Montana onramp

Montana has strong interests in this project, which would cross 284 miles of the state from the Port of Morgan north of Malta to a pointsoutheast of Baker. Gov. Brian Schweitzer insisted that the project include an onramp near Baker to transport Montana and North Dakota crude to oil refineries in Oklahoma and Texas.

Last fall, TransCanada’s “open season” drew commitments for shipping 65,000 barrels a day from the Bakken oil play. Dave Galt, executive director of the Montana Petroleum Association, said last week that he expects the full 100,000-barrel-per-day onramp capacity will be used once it becomes available.

“This is a big deal for the Williston Basin,” said Tad True of Bridger Pipeline, which has oil pipelines in Eastern Montana. True said the Keystone XL onramp would give this oil-producing region a direct connection to Cushing, Okla., the largest oil market in the world, and it would increase the basin’s overall export capacity.

The Keystone XL pipeline is projected to create tens of thousands of constructions jobs nationwide as well as refinery jobs in Texas. That’s what brought out much of the crowd at a Glendive hearing Tuesday. Union workers and local government leaders voiced support for the pipeline as a job creator.

After completion, the pipeline would generate millions of dollars annually in property taxes for the counties through which it passes and for the state as a whole.

The Gazette has printed dozens of letters from readers for and against the pipeline. Concerns about the danger of leaks and fairness to landowners whose property the pipeline would cross must be addressed in the pipeline permit.

Environmental protection

TransCanada officials have pledged to build this pipeline to the highest safety standards. State and federal regulators must hold the company to that commitment.

TransCanada should provide the emergency response plan that some landowners and neighbors have called for.

The Keystone XL project has been exhaustively studied. An environmental impact statement, nearly three years in the making, found that the pipeline wouldn’t significantly affect the environment.

The EIS includes 57 conditions covering construction materials, pipeline pressure, temperature, reporting requirements and many other points. Those conditions should be part of the permit to ensure that the project runs as safely as possible.

The governments of Canada and the United States have required oil producers to reduce pollution. Additional technology is needed to make oil sands less polluting.

However, lack of better pollution controls isn’t reason to veto this project. If this oil doesn’t flow through the Keystone XL pipeline, it will get to market another way, and probably go to developing nations far from U.S. shores.

The final decision is up to President Barack Obama. We call on the president to support this project for a safer, more dependable source of oil and for the construction jobs that it would start generating next year.

Source http://billingsgazette.com/news/opinion/editorial/gazette-opinion/article_1c687d98-aa73-58f5-896d-580623fa9652.html

Without a navy, Canada won't matter

2011-07-21T01:10:00.000-07:00

Canada's coastlines are the longest in the world. Canada's economy relies on safe passage for our exports, and Canada's allies depend on our support at sea. Canada has a big stake in the Pacific Ocean, where the new studs of the political world are starting to flex their naval power. All of which makes one wonder about the indifference with which the Harper government is treating Canada's navy -the abandoned child of the Canadian Forces.

The government is committed to F-35 jet fighters for the air force. It has taken a number of measures to replenish the army, which has captured a lot of attention during our mission to landlocked Afghanistan. Meanwhile, the navy continues to rust out. There is now little hope of plugging what are fast becoming huge gaps in Canada's capacity to defend our interests off our coasts and on the high seas.

Here's one example. When naval formations go to sea, they need destroyers to supply air defence in case of an attack on frigates and other ships. Only destroyers can supply this defence as well as play a leadership role (command and control) in missions involving more than one ship. Without destroyers, a country's fleet becomes much more vulnerable.

The process to replace Canada's four destroyers should have begun long ago. One -the Huron -has already rusted out and was retired from the fleet in 2005. Canada needs at least two new destroyers on each coast to ensure that one is always available. This should be an urgent issue, but it is met with silence.

Instead the government has prioritized the procurement of six to eight Arctic coastal patrol vessels which can only operate in northern waters for four months a year -the last thing the navy or anyone else needs. With only feeble icebreaking capacity and low speed (only enough to keep up with most fishing trawlers), these ships will be expensive and ineffectual window-dressing for Arctic sovereignty claims that will be sorted out in the courts, not in battle.

There has been no recent action on the much-ballyhooed Joint Supply Ships that are supposed to replace Canada's aged refuelling vessels and provide support for army deployments around the world. We need four of them -again, two on each coast. The government originally promised three, then balked at the cost last summer and said two should do. Wrong. That will mean a void on one coast or the other during refits. This can't be avoided or denied by the government, so they just don't talk about it.

Meanwhile, our coasts are vulnerable to visiting freighters planting mines in our waters and then disappearing over the horizon. Imagine a ship from a hostile force dropping mines in the West coast waters off Prince Rupert and Vancouver -mines that won't surface and activate until six months after the ship that laid them has disappeared. Not only does Canada not have sufficient surveillance capacity to determine who laid the mines, we don't have the capacity to sweep those mines away. These delayedaction mines are a legitimate threat -one we're not paying attention to.

The government seems to have convinced itself that Canada doesn't really need a navy -a stunning thought given all those coastlines and our proximity to the Pacific theatre, likely to become the world's next military hot spot. Navies transport armies and provide invaluable logistical and firepower support for ground troops in conflicts in countries with coastlines -which means just about everywhere but Afghanistan. Indeed, the mere presence of naval vessels off a country's coast can pre-empt land battles that place troops in great danger.

Navies intercept threats before they get to our coasts. Navies counter piracy. They provide emergency assistance in places like Haiti. Navies help countries like Canada pull their weight in alliances with countries we are going to need if our international interests are threatened.

Countries with navies matter. Countries without them matter mostly to themselves. Canada is never going to rule the world. But while defending itself it can help keep the world from falling apart. Without a navy, we can't pull our weight on the global stage. If the government wants Canada to matter, it needs to take the navy seriously.

Source http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Without+navy+Canada+matter/5105615/story.html

Midwives defend their actions

2011-06-30T02:43:00.000-07:00

In the face of a PR nightmare following the death of a baby, Quebec midwives who have been fighting for years for acceptance and recognition again find themselves on the defensive.

However, they are hoping questions that arose after a newborn died at a Pointe Claire birthing centre are an opportunity to set the record straight.

“It’s terrible. My first thoughts last week were, ‘Oh dear, this is so ugly,’ ” said Claudia Faille, president of the Regroupement des sages-femmes du Québec, a non-profit group that speaks on behalf of the province’s midwives.

“We’ve been working so hard for the last 10 years to have midwifery accessible to the whole population and then this happens, and public opinion is affected.

“We just want the facts made public,” Faille said, referring to misleading information about the circumstances in the death of a newborn on June 21 at the West Island Health and Social Services Centre birthing centre.

Faced with an impending complication in the birth, the centre had placed a 911 call at 9:12 a.m. to transfer a woman with labour complications.

The baby, however, was born before the fire department’s first responder team arrived, and the centre barred them from entering.

Centre director Christiane Léonard told them that the baby was in cardiac distress and three midwives were attempting to revive and stabilize him while the facility awaited specialized neonatal transport from the Montreal Children’s Hospital.

Outraged, a fire department responder threatened to break down the door and then called the police, who arrived followed by Urgences Santé paramedics.

Her staff did nothing wrong professionally, Léonard said, and the standoff with the first responders should never have happened.

“That’s a strong image,” Faille said. “Even people who know me said: ‘You didn’t let them in?’ ”

But that’s only half the story, Faille said.

The police and firemen do not understand the role of midwives, she said.

The fact is, midwives are the first responders and they’re trained in advanced neonatal resuscitation while firemen and ambulance technicians are not, Faille said.

“It’s absolutely not their place. Access was rightfully denied – they’re not trained for that,” Faille said.

The centre has an agreement with 911 for transfers and the firemen should not have been deployed, Faille said. “It was a dispatch mistake.”

Birthing centres have all the necessary equipment and medication to intubate and resuscitate a newborn while waiting for the neonatal transfer team.

First responders would never threaten to break down a door of a hospital, Faille added.

Intervention from their team would not have saved the baby, she said.

“We’re going to have to work at getting the facts out. Babies die in a hospital every day and we never hear about it but because it’s a midwife, it’s a big thing,” Faille said.

The practice continues to suffer from lack of acceptance, she said.

“I don’t know why the reaction. But if you look at (the) neonatal mortality rate, we always say it’s similar to doctors in hospitals,” Faille said, which is 4.2 deaths per 1,000 births.

“It’s important to get the right information out so this never happens again,” Faille said.

The Quebec coroner, police and the provincial order of midwives have launched investigations into emergency protocol at the centre.

About 25 per cent of women surveyed last year said they would choose to give birth outside a hospital if they could.

Officially reintroduced in Canada in the 1990s, midwifery is answering a real need for perinatal care, Faille said.

But there are wait-lists, she added. Three out of four women who request midwife services are refused in the Montreal area because the services are not available.

Source http://www.montrealgazette.com/health/Midwives+defend+their+actions/5026910/story.html

Canadian BitTorrent User Fined $60,000 By U.S. Court

2011-06-15T22:24:00.000-07:00

A new dimension was just added to the ongoing stream of BitTorrent lawsuits in the U.S. A Canadian BitTorrent user has been ordered to pay $60,000 by a U.S. District Court judge. The Calgary resident, who did not defend himself, was ordered to pay the damages for sharing two films on an adult-oriented BitTorrent tracker.

Over the last year several mass-lawsuits were started against so-called ‘John Doe’ defendants, who are only identified by their IP-address. However, at the same time a handful of copyright holders have also launched cases against named BitTorrent users.

One of these defendants was the Calgary, Canada-based Alan Phillips. The adult entertainment studio Corbin Fisher filed suit against Phillips, who they claim had illicitly shared two of their movies (“Turner F***s Austin” and “Keagan” ) on the BitTorrent tracker Gaytorrents.ru.

While most BitTorrent sites treat the private information of their users confidentially, the Gaytorrent.ru operator kindly provided the copyright holder with information that could identify the defendant.

According to information previously received by TorrentFreak, this is not the first time that GayTorrent has handed over the personal details of a member to a copyright holder without being required to by law.

This compliance by GayTorrent allows Corbin Fisher to directly target defendants, instead of having to ask the court for a subpoena.

In the initial complaint Corbin Fisher alleged that Phillips willingly infringed on its copyright, and the studio’s lawyer Marc Randazza asked U.S. District Court judge John Houston to award $50,000 in damages per movie, totaling 100,000. Although Phillips complained to the court in an attempt to get the case dismissed, he did not defend himself.

Due to Phillips absence, Judge Houston was left with no choice but to order a default judgement as requested by the plaintiff.

In his ruling Judge Houston rejects the studio’s claim that the infringement was willful, just because Phillips was savvy enough to use BitTorrent. This reduced the maximum damages from $150,000 to $30,000 per movie.

Judge Houston did, however, rule that Phillips was guilty of copyright infringement.

“The record, as presented does not support a finding of willfulness based solely on plaintiff’s speculative argument that BitTorrent requires technical knowledge such that a person using the application necessarily used it in order to defraud plaintiff.”

“Thus, this Court finds that the increase in statutory damages suggested by plaintiff is not appropriately assessed here. In this Court’s view, statutory damages of $30,000 per infringed work, for a total of $60,000 plus attorneys’ fees is reasonable.”

In total Alan Phillips was ordered to pay $63,867, which makes it one of the largest fines ever handed out to a P2P user in the U.S. Certainly the highest we know of where a foreign copyright infringer was targeted.

“There are too many canadians who are under the mistaken impression that Canada does not respect copyrights,” lawyer Marc Randazza told TorrentFreak in a comment.

“Canada is a signatory to international copyright treaties, and thus Canadians need to learn that the border does not insulate them from illegal activity,”

“My client is delighted with the verdict,” he added.

Source http://torrentfreak.com/canadian-bittorrent-user-fined-60000-by-u-s-court-110615/

Paratroopers defend airborne

2011-05-31T22:34:00.000-07:00

Members of the international brotherhood of paratroopers are defending the disbanded Canadian Airborne Regiment.

"These guys have heroes dating from World War Two, it's wrong to brand the whole unit for the crimes of a few," retired Staff Sgt. Mike Stocker, a former U.S. Green Beret and president of the Special Forces Association of St. Louis, told QMI Agency. "They were super tight-knit, real tough and real professional. It's unfair, it's as if they have taken their swords, broken them and branded them all. As a paratrooper, I stand behind them."

The Canadian Airborne Regiment was a specialized group of army soldiers selected to jump out of airplanes into hostile territory. The group traces back to the Second World War's First Canadian Parachute Battalion, and the First Special Service Force (FSSF) known as the Black Devils. The American heirs to the Black Devils are the Green Berets.

But the elite Canadian army group was "disbanded in disgrace" by the Liberal government led by former prime minister Jean Chretien in 1995 after Somali teenager Shidane Arone was beaten and killed during a mission in the war-torn country. Several soldiers were court-martialled, and after a controversial hazing video surfaced, the entire regiment was stood down.

The Black Devils was a historic joint-fighting unit between Canada and the United States during the Second World War. The Canadian Airborne Regiment still carried the crossed-arrow and spear-head battle honours of the Black Devils until it was disbanded. Joint Task Force 2 (JTF2) and Canadian Special Operations Regiment (CSOR) carry them now.

Retired Sgt.-Maj. Gordon Sims, 89, was a Canadian member of the Devils who fought against the Nazis in Italy and France.

"At first, I had felt we had been dishonoured by the Airborne," Sims said.

"But my feelings are tempered now -- it was a couple of radical guys who have tarnished the whole regiment, and should we all be painted with the same brush? No, that's what you had a stockade for."

The last commanding officer of the Canadian regiment, retired Col. Peter G. Kenward, wants Prime Minister Stephen Harper to apologize to the airborne soldiers, reinstate the colours and strike "disgrace" from the record.

Source http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2011/05/31/18219721.html

Tory incumbent Mike Wallace cruises to win in Burlington

2011-05-03T00:07:00.001-07:00

Mike Wallace blazed past his opponents Monday night, seizing the Burlington riding by a handy margin.

With more than three quarters of the poles counted, the Conservative incumbent had 54 per cent of the vote. Liberal challenger Alyssa Brierley had 23 per cent and NDP candidate David Laird sat at 19 per cent.

“I’m very proud to be Conservative in our great country of Canada,” an elated Wallace said from a podium in his Burlington headquarters to applause, hoots and whistles from an excited crowd. “It is our party and our leader that is here for Canada and I’m here for Burlington.”

Wallace led in every poll, followed closely by Laird and Brierley, who were neck and neck throughout the race.

Laird, a child protection worker with the Children’s Aid Society, glowed from sweat and excitement before the polls closed, pumped to receive the results in what was sure to become his most victorious election yet. With a majority of the polls in, he had 19 per cent of the vote.

Brierley, a lawyer, is a Phd candidate and newcomer on the political scene.

Her supporters gathered across town at a Jack Astors restaurant dotted with red and white balloons.

Wallace’s campaign manager had jokingly promised him a “15,000 vote spread” over the runner-up, following the math of previous wins: In 2008, he took the riding by 10,000 votes; in the race previous by a mere 2,500. In 2004, he lost by a similar margin.

And while he didn’t quite make that goal, the voters did not disappoint.

Wallace, who is most proud of his efforts to clean up toxic mud in Hamilton Harbour.

In the campaign, Brierley and Laird stressed that Burlington, a bedroom community in transition as immigrants and young families seek affordable housing, is a riding hungry for change.

Laird said constituents were concerned about Wallace’s voting record when it came to international issues. Brierley said voters were looking for someone “fresh, new, energetic” and “willing to hustle to get the job done.

Source http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/984428--conservative-mike-wallace-wins-in-burlington

Tories and Liberals spar over Harper quote on health care act

2011-04-18T23:58:00.000-07:00

Conservative party campaign manager Jenni Byrne accused the Liberals Monday of falsifying a quote in a recent television ad that suggested Conservative leader Stephen Harper could not be trusted to defend the public health-care system.

"The Liberal attacks are based on outright lies," Byrne wrote in a letter to the party's campaign managers. "The quotation (in the Liberal ad) about scrapping the Canada Health Act was not made by Stephen Harper but by somebody entirely different," she stated.

Do the Tories have a point, did the Liberals put words in Harper's mouth?

Harper was misquoted. But the Liberals say they didn't intentionally mislead their audience and will update their ad "in response to the Globe and Mail's error in its attribution of a quote."

The quote used in the Liberal ad and attributed to Harper, "It's past time the feds scrapped the Canada Health Act," was cited as having appeared in an August 26, 2010, Globe and Mail column.

But Monday, after the Conservatives had issued their release, the Globe said it misattributed the quote to Harper.

The newspaper posted a correction on its website at 1:38 p.m. ET saying the statement in question was written by David Somerville, in the June 1997 edition of The Bulldog.

Sommerville was the president of the National Citizens Coalition (NCC) when Harper was vice-president of the group, before he became leader of the Canadian Alliance.

The Liberals pointed out that the quote was used and misattributed to the Conservative leader in at least two other publications, a piece in Maclean's magazine from January 31, 2011 and a column in the Calgary Herald from May 5, 2005. Both outlets issued corrections Monday.

The Liberals said they planned to use another quote in their ad that showed Harper's "opposition to universal public health care in Canada."

Are the Liberals right, does Harper want to scrap the Canada Health Act?

"He's had five years to do it and he hasn't," McGill University professor Antonia Maioni told Postmedia News. "If he wants to do it, he is taking his time to do it."

Harper has often said the provinces should be allowed to experiment with more "private delivery" options, and he suggested that again last week during the English leaders debate. But he has said he "strongly supports . . . the principle that no person should ever be denied necessary medical treatment because of inability to pay."

Private delivery options are not a breach of the act but they impact on the public health-care system through queue jumping and strain on human resources, Maioni said.

In 2001, Harper suggested the provinces should each raise their own revenue for health care through tax points. That likely would end the federal government's role as guardian of the public health-care system. Unlike the Liberal government, Harper doesn't seem interested in fining provinces that breach the Canada Health Act by charging user fees, for example. In five years in office, he as never fined any provinces for breaching the principles of the act, Maioni notes.

Source http://www.canada.com/news/decision-canada/Tories+Liberals+spar+over+Harper+quote+health+care/4637177/story.html

Does Canada need next-generation stealth fighter jets?

2011-04-04T23:15:00.000-07:00

An absolutely necessary weapon or an astronomical cost to avoid? The planned purchase of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters has been portrayed as both, and the divide between the two has made it an issue in the current election campaign.

Stephen Harper and his Conservatives say the 65 fighter jets will cost about $15-billion, but Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page estimated in March that the cost will be twice as much.

How much will they cost, and how much is too much? Do we need them to defend against the Russians, and take part in campaigns like the one over Libya right now?

Winslow Wheeler, a Washington-based defence-spending watchdog, argued that Mr. Page’s figures are too low, and that the fighters will cost billons more than his $29-billion estimate – maybe $10 billion more, but it’s impossible to say. And he argues Canada should wait till they know what they are buying, and how much it costs.

But there is an argument that supporters from the military make: that there will be no other plane like it. The F-35 is touted as a “fifth-generation” fighter plane, with stealth technology and high-tech communications.

Retired lieutenant-general Angus Watt, chief of the air staff of the Canadian Forces from 2007 to 2009, was been involved in the planning for Canada’s air force for several years, and is well-place to discuss its needs. He believes the F-35 is the best plane for the job.

With that in mind, Mr. Wheeler and Mr. Watt join us Tuesday at 2 p.m. ET for a live discussion on the pros and cons of the F-35 purchase.

Source http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/does-canada-need-next-generation-stealth-fighter-jets/article1970275/?from=sec368

Canada needs overall energy strategy, Shell says

2011-03-22T20:50:00.000-07:00

Global energy giant Royal Dutch Shell PLC RDS.B-N is calling on Ottawa and the provinces to overhaul the rules governing the oil and gas business, arguing a new national strategy is needed to ensure Canada can compete for a slice of Asia’s exploding energy demand.

Lorraine Mitchelmore, the head of Shell’s Canadian operations, on Monday said the country’s regulatory and fiscal polices are not always competitive when compared with other resource-rich regions. A national energy strategy, complete with a price on carbon, should be part of the overhaul, she said.

With an international juggernaut weighing in, Enbridge Inc. and Suncor Energy Inc. have found a powerful ally in their push for a national plan. Shell’s global activity gives it additional insight into how the country stacks up against other energy producers.

“If Canada is going to compete, it really has to take this on,” Ms. Mitchelmore told reporters.

The push from Shell comes as China’s appetite for energy shows no signs of decreasing. Fuel demand rose 12 per cent in the last year, and is expected to grow an average of between 5 and 6 per cent over the next five years. India’s growth also has energy companies racing to expand exports.

The national strategy “requires a competitive regulatory framework that is more simple than what it is today,” Ms. Mitchelmore said. “And it requires a competitive fiscal regime … that is competitive on a global basis.”

Canada is not always fiscally competitive, even though it has one of the “best” regulatory regimes in the world, she said. “It needs adaptation to what’s the future.”

She was vague, however, on details, or on whether a pan-Canadian strategy would mean scrapping provincial plans. Further, she did not pinpoint what she thinks would be an appropriate price for carbon, even though Shell prices the emission internally at roughly $40 (U.S.) per tonne.

“If you put a price on carbon right now, it will make energy too expensive. So you need to then bring in innovation and technology to [encourage] companies … That’s why it is quite complicated.”

Enbridge, which is struggling to win support from native groups in British Columbia for its Northern Gateway pipeline, has led calls for a national strategy – one it hopes would pave the way for the pipe it wants to build between the oil sands and Kitimat, B.C.

Suncor supports the pipeline – it would give oil sands companies access to markets in Asia – and is also on board.

Ms. Mitchelmore did not say whether Shell’s desire for a national plan equates to support for the controversial pipeline, but did say the company “always” supports new markets. She declined to say whether Shell has purchased one of the 10 Gateway units Enbridge sold for $10-million, giving buyers the right to buy equity stakes in the pipeline and reduced shipping rates.

“[A national strategy] is about designing a framework that allows companies to produce [Canada’s oil and gas] assets and deliver them to the growing population and growing demand,” she said. Federal and provincial policies need to “come together with a lens that we are competing globally.”

Shell, based in the Netherlands and Britain, is voicing its concerns over Canadian policy in part because of the experience it has gained from its operations in over 100 different countries, Ms. Mitchelmore said.

William Kimber, vice-president of research at Canada West Foundation, noted that if international companies are not pleased with Canada’s rules, they will invest in other global projects, a move which could stymie the oil sands industry because of its intense funding demands.

“Canada clearly has a very competitive investment environment,” he said, pointing to the plethora of global companies which operate in the oil sands. “[But] Canada needs to continue keep an eye out for its international competitiveness with countries like Australia, or places in central America or Africa.”

This is not the first time Shell has criticized Canada’s approach to energy policies. Peter Voser, the parent company’s chief executive officer, in September said the Canadian and Albertan governments are not doing enough to defend the oil sands. Shell’s key areas of concerns, he said, are dealing with toxic tailings, reducing the amount of fresh water used as companies extract bitumen, and addressing carbon emissions via carbon capture and storage. The company has a CCS pilot project at its Scotford upgrading facility near Edmonton, with the Alberta government pitching in $745-million in funding over the next 15 years, while the federal government chipped in $120-million. Shell also operates the Muskeg River and Jackpine strip mines near Fort McMurray.

Source http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/canada-needs-overall-energy-strategy-shell-says/article1949756/

Unions defend middle class

2011-03-07T21:19:00.001-08:00

All eyes are on the Middle East as a wave of popular uprisings sweeps dictators from power.

But there's another battle brewing closer to home that has more significance for working people in the United States and Canada.

It's a fight about democracy and whether North America will continue to have a viable middle class.

The most prominent battleground is Wisconsin, where hardline Republican Gov. Scott Walker says it's necessary to strip middle-class, unionized, public-sector workers of their rights to bargain collectively in order to balance his state's books.

The truth is that Walker is using public-sector unions as scapegoats for problems that were caused by years of failed Bush-era policies.

It wasn't teachers or nurses who transformed the U.S. from a powerhouse into the sick man of the world economy.

That feat was accomplished by waves of deregulation, budget cuts, trade deals and tax giveaways to the wealthy -- policies that hammered the middle class, impoverished schools and other vital public services, and paved the way for the global financial meltdown.

The emptiness of Walker's arguments became apparent when it was revealed that almost all of the $140-million deficit he claims his state faces is attributable to a $137-million tax cut given to corporations.

It's important to note Walker is still calling for an end to union negotiating rights, even though the unions have agreed to deep wage and benefit concessions.

So, if public-sector workers are ready to deal, why is Walker so hellbent on killing unions?

It's because he -- and people like the billionaire Koch brothers, who bankrolled many Tea Party campaigns -- understand something important about unions.

They understand unions are one of the last counterbalances to unbridled corporate power and conservative political dominance.

That's why Walker isn't backing down -- he wants to use his manufactured budget crisis to stack the deck even more dramatically in favour of conservatives.

The good news is that most Americans understand that working people -- union and non-union alike -- need unions to protect the middle-class lifestyle that millions feel slipping away.

Despite massive and distorted coverage from media outlets like Fox News, a recent New York Times/ CBS poll revealed that Americans oppose weakening union bargaining rights by a margin of nearly two to one (60% to 33%).

What does all of this have to do with Canada?

In the past two weeks, major news outlets have published columns echoing the Tea Party attack on unions.

Don't expect guys like the Koch brothers to stay out of Canada's politics. They may already be funding the Wildrose Alliance and Tory leadership candidates in Alberta. (We can't know for sure, because both parties refuse to reveal their donors).

So, be prepared for the war on unions and the middle class to move north.

But rest assured, Canadian unions will be ready.

We'll make the case for quality public services. We'll defend decent jobs.

We'll remind the powers-that-be that, in Alberta, the only reason we have a deficit is because of massive and unjustified giveaways to hugely profitable energy companies.

In the battle to preserve Canada's middle class, Canadian unions will (as always) stand on guard for thee.

Source http://www.lfpress.com/comment/2011/03/07/17529296.html

Bendus up for 2nd straight NCAA player award

2011-02-21T23:06:00.000-08:00

Vicki Bendus of Wasaga Beach, Ont., is up for a second straight Patty Kazmaier Award as player of the year in NCAA Division 1 women's hockey.

The Mercyhurst College forward was among 26 nominees, including 17 Canadians, announced Monday by USA Hockey.

Bendus is joined by fellow current or past Canadian national team members Meghan Acosta of Ruthven, Ont., Haley Irwin of Thunder Bay, Ont., Brianne Jenner of Oakville, Ont., Rebecca Johnston of Sudbury, Ont., Marie-Philip Poulin of Beauceville, Que., Jenn Wakefield of Pickering, Ont. and Catherine Ward of Montreal.

Also on the list are forwards Kelly Babstock of Mississauga, Ont., Bailey Bram of Ste. Ann, Man., Isabel Menard of Ottawa and Jesse Scanzano of Montreal; defencemen Laura Fortino of Hamilton, Jocelyne Larocque of Ste. Ann and Lauriane Rougeau of Beaconsfield, Que.; and goaltenders Jenni Bauer of St. Catharines, Ont., and Hillary Pattenden of Surrey, B.C.

Mercyhurst, which will play host to the 2011 NCAA Women's Frozen Four, lead all schools with five nominees: Agosta, Bendus, Bram, Pattenden and Scanzano.

Agosta was a top-three finalist in 2007, 2008 and 2009 before taking last season off to play for Canada at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. She leads all NCAA scorers with 31 goals and 46 assists in 30 games. Bendus has 18 goals and 31 assists this season.

No player has won the award two years in a row since it was instituted in 1998. The only two-time winner was Jennifer Botteril of Winnipeg in 2001 and 2003.

Other nominess are Americans Brianna Decker, Meghan Duggan, Hilary Knight, Jocelyne Lamoueux, Monique Lamoureau-Kolls, Molly Schaus, Jackee Snikeris and Kelli Stack, as well as goaltender and 2010 Kazmaier finalist Noora Raty of Finland.

The 34 D1 head coaches will cut the list to 10 nominees on March 3. A 13-member committee will select the three finalists on March 10 and the winner will be announced March 19.

Source http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/story/2011/02/21/sp-bendus-kazmaier-ncaa-award.html

That brief time out from heated discourse? No more

2011-02-13T23:30:00.000-08:00

President Barack Obama? Weak, a socialist and a liar. Liberals? Monsters and a cancer. Former Vice President Dick Cheney? Called a war criminal, "murdering scum" and a draft dodger — by people in his own party.

Just a month after the Arizona shooting rampage led to bipartisan calls for toned-down political discourse, incivility suffused the year's largest gathering of conservatives. Just like at most partisan get-togethers on either end of the ideological spectrum.

The brief political time out is over — if it ever really existed.

"All right, sit down and shut up," Cheney said after being greeted by hecklers when he made a surprise appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Supporters shouted down the insults with a "U.S.A." chant, and a visibly annoyed Cheney brushed off the outbursts.

Such incivility didn't overwhelm the conference, which is a rite of passage for presidential contenders, right-leaning media personalities and grass-roots activists. But it kept popping up throughout the three-day affair in speeches by names big and not so big.

That's not to say liberals would have been any more civil at their own event, and the tone at the conservative gathering was arguably no different from what it's been in the past. After all, it's what these events are for.

On both the left and the right, hard-core ideologues are the ones who attend such conferences, and agendas are set with that audience in mind. Verbal bomb-throwing is the norm from speakers who serve up political red meat to highly partisan crowds that devour it.

This weekend's conference was a sign of a return to normalcy in the wake of the shootings that wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and killed six in January. That attack touched off a national debate about overheated political rhetoric. Politicians of all stripes, Obama included, pleaded for a more civil discourse.

The GOP's top elected leaders — House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky — set a respectful tone in their speeches to the conservative gathering.

So did many of the Republicans likely to run for president.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who referred to Obama only once, confronted the issue of "the venomous, petty, often ad hominem political discourse of the day." He urged conservatives to be more thoughtful in their rhetoric.

Yet even as he invoked Ronald Reagan's admonishment, "Remember, we have no enemies, only opponents," Daniels slapped at Democrats: "Our opponents are better at nastiness than we will ever be. It comes naturally." He also told conservatives to embrace a nicer approach — for political gain.

"The public is increasingly disgusted with a steady diet of defamation, and prepared to reward those who refrain from it," he said. "It would help if they liked us, just a bit."

Other likely presidential contenders openly denigrated Obama — his policies, his politics, his ability to lead.

Ex-Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum suggested the president lies. "This is someone who doesn't believe in truth and evil in America," he said.

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann said the country has seen Obama "usher in socialism" and she branded his health care law "the crown jewel of socialism."

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said that under Obama, "an uncertain world has been made more dangerous by the lack of clear direction from a weak president."

It wasn't all personal; some was just business. Yet much of the criticism relief on words and phrases that liberals tend to find offensive and conservatives wield specifically to score political points.

The false rumors about Obama's heritage surfaced.

"I'm not one who questions the president's birth certificate and the existence of his birth certificate," said former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty. "But when you listen to his policies, don't you at least wonder what planet he's from?"

Laughter and applause followed that. And after Idaho Rep. Raul Labrador's quip that he "was fortunate enough to be an American citizen by birth, and I have the birth certificate to prove it."

The most pointed attacks came from sharp-tongued commentators, as is usually the case.

Andrew Breitbart, an activist who runs a conservative media company, assailed people from liberal groups such as ACORN, Code Pink and unions. "Hate-filled, racist sheep," he called them.

"These people I've confronted are monsters," he said.

Pundit Ann Coulter took aim at Obama using Democrats' poor fortunes in November's congressional elections. "The way things are going, Obama may want to look into becoming the president of Egypt. Nobody would complain about him being a Muslim then," she said to cheers. Obama was born in Hawaii and is a Christian.

Like previous years, insults dotted Coulter's speech.

"In honor of the new spirit of civility, I thought I would point out that under mean, divisive George Bush a nuclear sub was named after Jimmy Carter," she said sarcastically — and then proceed to bash the former Democratic president.

She lumped Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano in with "overbearing, out-of-touch, despots."

Asked about her least favorite Democrat, she said: "That's like asking my least favorite disease ... Cancer."

In the end, modern politics is predictable — two parties, drawing distinctions, each saying it's better because the alternative is worse. If this weekend showed anything, it was that the 2012 presidential campaign has begun — no better than usual, but perhaps no worse, either.

Source http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h6GoDxIJjmNGgD-lKm8N-z17FWQA?docId=2f805f1e9cb341df9865a73989ca74fb

Canada Reads is down to four books

2011-02-07T23:08:00.000-08:00

Last week I spoke with Vancouver author and lawyer Anne Giardini, who is representing her mother Carol Shields and her book Unless in the CBC Canada Reads battle for book of the decade. (Read the story here.)

Essex County, a graphic novel by Jeff Lemire, was eliminated by the panel of five Monday morning, so now Unless has a 25-per-cent chance of winning the competition.

Other finalists include: The Bone Cage by Angie Abdou, championed by former NHL enforcer and activist Georges Laraque; The Birth House by Ami McKay, championed by designer and TV personality Debbie Travis; The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis, championed by CNN broadcaster Ali Velshi.

Sheilds also wrote The Stone Diaries and Larry’s Party, among other books. Lorne Cardinal, a native of Sucker Creek First Nations in Alberta, will defend Unless in the competition on CBC Radio’s Q on Feb. 7, 8 and 9.

Source http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/covertocover/archive/2011/02/07/canada-reads-is-down-to-four-books.aspx

Early Canadian map back on auction block

2011-02-01T21:16:00.000-08:00

It began with a stunning discovery last year in the attic of a Scottish estate: A previously unknown, 312-year-old hand-drawn map of Canada by John Thornton, one of the leading cartographers of 17th-century Europe.

Expected to sell at a U.K. auction in January for up to $120,000, the lost-and-found treasure became the focus of a fierce bidding war involving collectors and museums from around the world — including Manitoba's provincial archives — that ended with the map's purchase by a British rare-books dealer for close to $320,000.

Now, the buzz-worthy "Thornton map" of 1699 is for sale again this weekend at an vintage-map fair in Florida — this time for more than $600,000.

And in keeping with the map's ballooning price, new research suggests the artifact's historical value is far greater than originally understood. The dust-covered relic rescued from behind a water tank in Scotland appears to represent the landmark moment in Canada's past when rival French and English empires first attempted to formally divide the country.

The excitement surrounds a thin red line drawn diagonally across present-day Labrador, Quebec and Ontario, where the frontier possessions of Britain and France were in dispute at a time of rapidly growing interest from both mother countries in Canada's fur-trade riches.

Remarkably, the line passes directly through the labels for "Nova Britania" and "New France" on the 68-by-80-centimetre vellum map, drawn by Thornton on sheepskin to help ensure its preservation.

The map also includes labels for "Laboradore," "New Scotland" (Nova Scotia) and the island of "New Found Land," as well as the southern part of Baffin Island and northern edge of the fledgling American colonies of New England.

Maureen Dolyniuk, manager of the Winnipeg-based Hudson's Bay Company Archives, said the unexpected appearance of the Thornton map fills a major gap in the cartographic record of Canada.

That's one of the reasons, she told Postmedia News, that the HBC archive attempted to purchase the map at a Jan. 17 auction in Britain when it was outbid by Oxford-based antiquarian Daniel Crouch.

"We did attempt to acquire the map, but as you know, it went for quite a bit more than the pre-auction estimate," said Dolyniuk.

"We have a record in the minute books of the Hudson's Bay Company that they purchased two copies of this map," she added, noting the firm paid Thornton all of "three pounds" for his services in 1700.

The HBC archive, a world-renowned repository of early maps of North America, already possesses an important 1709 map of Canada drawn a year after John Thornton's death by his son, Samuel.

That map also features the same long, red diagonal line — but this time conspicuously marked as the boundary between French and English territory, and roughly corresponding to the height of land dividing the Hudson Bay watershed to the northwest from the St. Lawrence River/Atlantic Ocean watershed to the southeast.

Significantly, historians have pointed to the 1709 map as critical to negotiations between France and England leading to the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, which — until the British victory in the Seven Years War some 50 years later — established each empire's domain in North America.

Dolyniuk, who has been collaborating with Crouch in researching the history of the newly discovered map, said it appears to have been the template — the Hudson's Bay Company's initial attempt at a French-English division of territory — from which Samuel Thornton crafted his 1709 map ten years later.

"We don't see any earlier versions of it," Dolyniuk said, describing John Thornton's scarlet stroke as perhaps the first clear expression of the company's — and by extension, the British Empire's — line in the sand in the face of French competition for the future Canada.

"It's the line the company used to defend their territory, the rights over their charter territory," she said. "It was their interpretation of the boundary between the English and French territory."

Even as recently as the 1920s, when officials from Britain and Canada were still negotiating where to draw the boundary between Labrador and Quebec, the 1709 map — and thus its 1699 template — were factored into the final border agreement, notes Dolyniuk.

John Thornton's map "would have been a wonderful addition to our holdings had we acquired it," she said.

Crouch, currently in Florida ahead of Sunday's annual Miami Map Fair, told Postmedia News he was thrilled to acquire such a "unique" artifact. And the price he's set for it in Miami makes it clear he believes the $318,000 he paid at auction two weeks ago was a bargain.

"I am quite used to bidding at auction," he said, "but the Thornton is a manuscript map and unique, so there is always a special kick when one is successful with such items."

Source http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/canada/Early+Canadian+back+auction+block/4206610/story.html

It's gutsy to say no to the kirpan

2011-01-26T23:53:00.000-08:00

This past week, Quebecers openly showed what it is to be a distinct society within Canada.

On Jan. 18, four members of the World Sikh Organization of Canada were refused access to the National Assembly of Quebec because they were wearing kirpans.

Ironically, the members of the Sikh community kicked out of the National Assembly were trying to get in to present their views on Bill 94, anti-niqab and anti-burka legislation that would require anyone dispensing or receiving a government-paid service in places like hospitals and schools to show their faces.

While carrying a kirpan, a ceremonial dagger, in the Quebec National Assembly is considered dangerous, it is allowed in Quebec schools. Supreme Court judges unanimously decided in 2006 to allow a Montreal student to attend school with his kirpan.

The judgment even underlined that banning it would violate the charter’s guarantee of freedom of religion.

But for a strong majority of Quebecers, whether it is an article of faith or not, a kirpan is first and foremost a weapon. If a knife is not allowed on a plane, why should it be allowed in parliament? And no one has forgotten the shooting in May 1984 when Cpl. Denis Lortie killed three and injured 13 people in the National Assembly.

The different reactions of the two solitudes were interesting. In Quebec City, the Charest government’s response was wishy-washy. Immigration minister Kathleen Weil left it up to the National Assembly’s security to decide, while opposition parties cheered at the ban.

Parti Quebecois spokesman Louise Beaudoin, reminded of her earlier disagreement with the Supreme Court’s decision on the kirpan, even declared “multiculturalism may be a Canadian value. But it is not a Quebec one.”

The Action democratique du Quebec went a step further by asking the Sikh community living in Quebec to obey their duty of reasonable accommodation for the majority.

“It’s part of the accommodation. If you come here, you put your kirpan aside,” said the ADQ leader, Gerard Deltell.

MNA Francois Bonnardel added “a weapon is a weapon, period. There is no tolerance. If I founded a sect and decided a Swiss knife is my object of worship, would you allow me in the National Assembly?”

In Ottawa, the Bloc Quebecois smelled a good wedge issue. It now wants to push for the ban of kirpans in the House of Commons.

Politically skilful, the Conservatives escaped the question by attacking the Bloc for its misplaced priorities, accusing Gilles Duceppe’s party of not being interested in economic issues.

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff showed once more how far from the Quebec mainstream he is by defending the ceremonial dagger as a symbol of tolerance and religious freedom. The weapon Quebecers in the vote-rich regions wanted him to defend was not the kirpan but the gun.

The PQ’s Beaudoin might have phrased it in a way to promote her sovereignist views, but she is right in recognizing the issue at stake.

The kirpan debate brings back on the table, once more, the excesses of Canadian multiculturalism. No politician outside of Quebec might have the guts to admit it publicly, but I am quite sure many English Canadians feel very Quebecois on this distinct issue.

Source http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/eric_duhaime/2011/01/26/17045926.html

Virtue, Moir pull out of skating nationals

2011-01-17T23:16:00.000-08:00

Olympic and world ice dance champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir are withdrawing from this week's BMO Canadian Figure Skating Championships.

Virtue and Moir, who missed the entire fall ISU Grand Prix season after Virtue underwent leg surgery, said Monday they plan to return for the prestigious Four Continents event in mid-February in Taiwan, and to defend their world title in late March in Tokyo.

"Our plan is to be Four Continents champions and world champions," Moir told reporters on a conference call, adding he'd be "extremely shocked" if he and Virtue didn't compete at those events.

The two aren't required to skate at the nationals to be named to Canada's world championship team in late March, Skate Canada CEO William Thompson confirmed.

Virtue said her comeback is going well and the team is excited to unveil its new programs, but she and Moir didn't feel they were quite ready for competition.

"While our training has been amazing, we haven't been able to master the programs to skate them at 100 per cent," Virtue said.

Chan top draw in Victoria

Virtue had surgery in the fall to alleviate chronic aching in her lower legs caused by compartment syndrome — a condition caused when the muscles can't expand within the tissue that contains them.

The 21-year-old from London, Ont., had the same surgery — but on different lower-leg muscles — in the fall of 2008, and she and Moir returned to win the Canadian title less than four months later.

But the pain lingered, hampering Virtue even as she and Moir, a 23-year-old from Ilderton, Ont., won Olympic gold last February in Vancouver and went on to claim their first world title a month later in Turin, Italy.

With the top pair out, 2010 silver medallists Vanessa Crone and Paul Poirier will be favoured to take their first Canadian ice dance title. They finished third at last month's Grand Prix final.

Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje, who finished fifth at that event, are also expected to contend for the national championship.

The absence of Virtue and Moir leaves Patrick Chan as the top draw when the Canadian championships begin Friday at Victoria's Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre. The reigning three-time men's national champ won his first major international title last month when he took the ISU Grand Prix Final in Beijing.

Reigning Canadian women's champion Joannie Rochette hasn't skated competitively since earning bronze at the Vancouver Olympics shortly after the death of her mother. Rochette is taking the season off to decide on her future in the sport.

Skate Canada's Thompson said he expects a strong event even without Virtue and Moir.

"You don't want to lose your Olympic champions, but I think there's an awful lot of good skaters still competing and it will still be an excellent event."

Source http://www.cbc.ca/canada/windsor/story/2011/01/17/sp-virtue-moir-nationals.html

Farmers must prepare to defend food prices

2011-01-09T22:08:00.000-08:00

Owen Roberts, Urban Cowboy

Global food prices are on the rise after having spiked over the past six months.

An announcement last week by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization put farming on the front pages, saying worldwide food prices hit record numbers in December.

Look at that again. Food prices hit record numbers.

Yet, we hardly notice. Despite the fact that food is essential, it’s so cheap relative to other commodities and pursuits in the developed world, that even when it hits a peak it’s mostly a hiccup in our lives.

Think about what happens when other record numbers appear.

Record high oil prices send car shoppers scurrying for Smart Cars, Honda Fits, Nissan Micras and Kia Rios.

Skyrocketing interest rates (remember them?) drive home seekers to rental units.

Plunging and stubbornly low temperatures prompt housebound Canadians to flock to the Caribbean.

But food’s different, and I wonder if most of us had a clue that in December food prices hit the ceiling. Likely not. The pinnacle occurred during the height of consumer spending for Christmas, when almost anything goes. So what if food’s a little more expensive? Everything is expensive at Christmas. Many consumers wouldn’t notice, let alone raise an eyebrow over it.

Before long, though, someone other than economists will need to answer for this spike. I suspect it will be farmers, because inevitably that’s where fingers will point.

Here’s why. Many of the wholesale items found in the international food basket (the one scrutinized for food-price analysis) are straight from the farm — wheat, rice, corn and soybeans. And since June, some of them gained value by double-digit percentages. Wheat, in fact, was up almost 70 per cent. Corn rose more than 50 per cent.

Again, did anyone notice?

At some point, people will. Inevitably, these gains will make their way down to consumers. Processors and retailers won’t absorb them for long.

Then, farmers, it will be over to you.

Ironically, it’s easier to explain the price spike globally than domestically, and graphically show the reasons it exists. For example, weather calamities in major agricultural countries such as Russia and Ukraine (drought) and Australia (flooding), as well as western Canada (too much precipitation), led to pressure on supplies, which meant higher prices. Video captures these situations easily.

But how do you graphically show chronically low prices? It’s reasonable for consumers to wonder how farmers could have existed on prices that were half as high as they are now. It’s understandable that record prices, then, could conjure up some suspicion of gouging.

Farmers need to head this off at the pass. Price spikes give them a golden opportunity to recount the misery-laden past, to recount how commodity prices have been in the basement for decades. That explains why grain farmers have mostly been scraping by, having to resort to huge federal aid some years, at he same time expanding their operations to realize economies of scale to survive. The price spike is actually just getting them to where they need to be, to make a decent living.

That, however, is poorly understood, and when prices rise farmers are vilified. It happened in 2008, and steps must be taken to make sure it doesn’t happen again. No one else in the so-called value chain will take the hit, and it’s easy to blame farmers.

Local food’s popularity is helping warm up consumers to the concept of fairer prices for farmers. But it’s a slow process. Education, rather than price-spike pressure, is how to get there calmly and sustainably.

Source http://news.guelphmercury.com/Opinions/EditorialOpinion/article/742092

U.S. Steel workers boosted by picket line visit

2011-01-04T23:32:00.001-08:00

U.S. Steel workers have been given a $10,000 morale boost.

The national and Ontario presidents of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, who visited the picket line Tuesday to express support for the worker’s pension fight, brought a generous cheque for the strike fund as well as their encouraging words.

“We want you to know that you’re not alone in your struggle to defend pensions and indexing,” national president Paul Moist told about 50 people at the Wilcox Street picket line. “This company should return to the bargaining table and take its concession demands off the table.”

About 900 Hamilton workers were locked out of the former Stelco plant Nov. 7 by their American employer after refusing to accept company demands for radical changes in their pension plans, including the loss of indexing for about 9,000 area retirees.

In an interview, Moist said if private sector employers win the fight to eliminate indexing and defined benefit pension plans, public sector workers will soon face the same fight.

“This pension fight is not confined to the private sector. If private sector employers win this, then it’s only a stone’s throw to the public sector,” he said. “This is a fight for the entire labour movement, not just the Steelworkers.”

That theme will play large on Jan. 29 when workers stage a day of action against the company at city hall.

U.S. Steel locked out the Hamilton workers, members of Local 1005 of the United Steelworkers, after they rejected company demands to close the existing defined benefit pension plan to new hires. New employees would be directed instead to a defined contribution savings plan.

Defined benefit plans pay a fixed pension per month, often calculated by multiplying a percentage of average pay by years of service. Defined contribution schemes mimic registered retirement savings plans by paying according to how much has been saved over the years and what that pool has earned.

Employers dislike defined benefit plans because provincial law requires that those plans hold enough money to pay current and future obligations if the employer goes out of business. If the plan is underfunded, the employer must make up the shortfall within five years.

As a result of contribution holidays Stelco awarded itself, along with years of bad stock market returns, the former Stelco plans are about $1.2 billion short of that goal.

U.S. Steel has also demanded an end to pension indexing for retirees. Since 1990, Stelco retirees get increases of up to 3 per cent in their pensions based on a formula that balances cost of living increases with the performance of the markets. Last year, that produced an increase of just under 1 per cent, or $10 per $1,000 of pension.

While the annual increases are small, over time they help slow the eroding effect of inflation on retirement income. According to the union, indexing means a worker who retired in 1990 with a pension of $1,000 a month is now getting more than $1,300.

Moist and CUPE Ontario president Fred Hahn also flogged the federal government for allowing U.S. Steel to buy Stelco in 2007. That deal, they said, is an example of how the Investment Canada Act fails to protect Canadian workers.

“Clearly the Investment Canada Act doesn’t seem to be working for Canadians,” Moist said. “Corporations are coming here and breaking promise after promise.”

When U.S. Steel got federal approval to buy Stelco, the company promised to maintain production and employment levels for three years. Within one year, however, the entire Canadian operation had been shuttered and U.S. Steel was serving Canadian customers from its American mills. The federal government has launched a lawsuit over those broken commitments and is seeking penalties now totalling about $15 million.

Hahn accused the government of betraying workers by not taking a stronger position against the company.

“Why isn’t the Ministry of Labour telling this company to get back to the bargaining table?” he asked. “Politicians are failing the people who elected them.”

Hamilton Mayor Bob Bratina was also on the picket line yesterday, telling workers “If U.S. Steel is not interested in operating this plant, then we should get someone who is.”

Source http://www.thespec.com/news/business/article/309038--u-s-steel-workers-boosted-by-picket-line-visit

Davos edges Canada at Spengler Cup

2010-12-28T23:16:00.000-08:00

Canada has a quarter-final date with Sparta Prague at the Spengler Cup after missing out on a chance to earn a bye to the semifinals Tuesday.

Host Davos edged Canada 3-2 Wednesday at a sold out Vaillant Arena to wrap up preliminary-round action and clinch top spot in Group Cattini.

Sandro Rizzi got HC Davos on the board less than two minutes into the game. Yanick Lehoux replied for Canada early in the second period.

Petr Taticek gave Davos a lead it would not relinquish later in the second and Gregory Sciaroni sealed the advantage midway through the middle period.

With Davos called for three consecutive delay of game penalties in less than a minute for shooting the puck over the glass, Travis Roche scored to bring the Canadians within one, but that was as close as they would get.

The third period was scoreless.

The Spengler Cup pits a Canadian national team composed primarily of professionals playing in Europe and coached by Mark Messier against European club teams on their Christmas break.

Davos (2-0) and SKA St. Petersburg (2-0), the winner of Group Torriani, each earn byes to Thursday’s semis.

Canada (1-1) plays Prague (0-2) in one quarter-final Wednesday, while Geneve-Servette (1-1) meets Spartak Moscow (0-2) in the other quarter.

Source http://www.nationalpost.com/sports/Davos+edges+Canada+Spengler/4034218/story.html

Speedy, experienced USA gets set to defend world juniors gold

2010-12-22T22:16:00.000-08:00

The members of the U.S. world junior championships team that was finalized Wednesday have known plenty of success.

Eight of the players were on the team that beat Canada in the gold-medal game on Canadian soil last January. Two of those players and four others won the under-18 championships. And coach Keith Allain is behind the bench at the No. 1-ranked college hockey program at Yale.

But Allain, while excited that people think the USA has a chance to repeat in Buffalo, isn’t paying much attention to the “favorite” label.

“Our focus is to come together as a team and to get better each game,” he said in a conference call. “‘Favorites’ is just outside noise as far as I’m concerned.”

After a training camp and two exhibitions, the USA whittled its roster from 29 to 22. In addition to having plenty of international success, the team features a big, mobile defense, solid goaltending, versatility and quickness.

“You’re going to see speed be a trademark in this tournament and one of the components for us was a get a very good skating team,” said team general manager Jim Johannson.

Four of the players — Jerry D’Amigo, Kyle Palmieri, Jeremy Morin and Nick Leddy — have spent time in the NHL or American Hockey League this season.

Key among the returnees is goalie Jack Campbell, who won both the world junior and under-18 tournaments. He replaced a struggling Mike Lee in the gold-medal game at the world juniors and stopped 32 of 34 shots in the 6-5 overtime win against Canada. He ended up being the top American taken— 11th overall by the Dallas Stars— in the June draft.

“The best word I can use to describe him is he’s a winner,” said Allain. “He’s found a way to come up big in big games his whole career. We realize he had a tough start (to his junior hockey season) in Windsor, but he has a great deal of experience and confidence.”

The USA will have plenty of competition at the tournament for the world’s top teen-age players, which runs through Jan. 5.

Finland, the opening opponent on Dec. 26, plays a North American, in-your-face style. Canada has 15 first-round draft picks on its roster and Sweden split games with the USA at a tournament during the summer.

Allain plans to counteract that with the style that has led Yale to the top of the college poll.

“We play an up-tempo game at Yale,” he said. “We like to get all five guys involved in the offense. We’re a quick transition team. We back-pressure the puck hard. You want to suit your team’s style to the strengths of the players and I think there’s a good match there.”

Source http://tucsoncitizen.com/usa-today-sports/2010/12/22/speedy-experienced-usa-gets-set-to-defend-world-juniors-gold/

Environment Canada fails to monitor Athabasca River

2010-12-09T00:05:00.000-08:00

One prominent ecologist isn't surprised to learn Environment Canada hasn't been testing the Athabasca River for chemicals from the oilsands.

That fact was revealed Tuesday when Scott Vaughan, the federal the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, tabled his fall 2010 audit of Environment Canada.

Studies have suggested that oilsands mining has environmental impacts as a result of freshwater use and pollutant releases, said the report's case study on the oilsands. Though the first commercial oilsands production began in 1967, Environment Canada only recently identified the oilsands region as a priority ecosystem and hotspot for further assessment and intervention.

In 2009, the department issued a report on water quality status and trends in Wood Buffalo National Park recommended expanding the monitoring parameters to include pollutants related to oilsands development. At the time of this audit, the department was still considering the recommendation.

"Consequently, the department's Fresh Water Quality Monitoring program has no baseline measures or long-term data to track changes in water quality and aquatic ecosystem health in the river associated with oilsands development," said the report. In addition, when it comes to water quantity, the department has not determined whether it currently has an adequate number of stations to monitor water flow related to oilsands development.

"If you'd have asked me this five years ago, I could have told you that," said Kevin Timoney, who has released a number of studies of the years linking environmental contamination to oilsands development.

"Sadly, what's happened over the years is that Environment Canada has depended upon the province to sample the water in the region."

The report's chapters highlight several areas where the federal government is not doing what it said it would do to protect the environment and move toward sustainable development, said the audit.

"There is little in our findings to offset a discouraging picture, as most suggest underlying problems in how these federal programs are being managed.

"In short, the two fundamental problems we identified are a lack of effective and sustained leadership, especially when responsibilities are shared, and inadequate information."

Environment Canada does have a sampling station down at the Old Fort on the Lower Athabasca River at the border of Wood Buffalo National Park, about 150-kilometres downstream from the oilsands.

The audit notes that the provincial government and private sector monitor water quality in this region, but their data is not available in the Department's regional long-term water quality database.

The sampling point was initially installed just to look at potential changes in the river from the pulp and paper processing industry, recalled Timoney.

"The sorts of parameters they look at are not suited to looking at the effects of the present industry that's near Fort McMurray."

He believes that Environment Canada would defend its lack of action saying with the reasoning it doesn't need to do it because the Alberta government is doing it?

"That's the answer they've given me when I've asked them other questions, for example, 'Why aren't you enforcing the Migratory Birds Convention Act? Why aren't you enforcing the Fisheries Act?'" said Timoney referring the the federal government's own statutes.

With the federal government responding that the provincial government has the authority to enforce the acts, he says Environment Canada has abdicated its responsibility.

"It's one of those shell games where they're saying 'Well look elsewhere because we don't have them but we feel as if it's being studied,' and it's not because Alberta has abdicated its own responsibility to RAMP which is useless to 99.9% of us because were not members of RAMP."

RAMP — the Regional Aquatics Management Program — was initiated in 1997 as a science-based environmental monitoring program designed to fulfill the aquatic monitoring needs of all its stakeholders. Its website says the program strives to achieve a holistic understanding of potential effects of oilsands development on aquatic systems, as well as address specific issues important to communities of the region.

Timoney isn't overly optimistic Environment Canada will change its monitoring or responsibility focus when it comes to enforcing its own statues and monitoring the chemical levels in the river as it pertains to the oilsands.

"I used to be more of an optimist, but now I'm a wait-and-see kind of person because I've heard so many promises over the years that as soon as the furor dies down, nothing happens," said Timoney who believes the status quo will end up being the most likely scenario.

"I hope I'm wrong."

Another point Vaughan made in his audit was that Environment Canada has been running the federal water quantity and water quality monitoring programs for about 40 years without knowing who — if anyone — is monitoring the quality of fresh water on federal lands. As a consequence, there are unacceptable gaps in the federal monitoring of fresh water, notably, that Environment Canada has water quality monitoring stations on only 12 of some 3,000 First Nation reserves.

"Federal leadership for water monitoring needs to be revisited, and Environment Canada needs to set out clearly how it will meet its responsibilities. In my view, this is long overdue," said Vaughan.

He noted that neither the Fresh Water Quality Monitoring program nor the National Hydrometric Program was well managed to adequately monitor and report on the quality and quantity of Canada's surface fresh water resources as many essential management practices have not been put in place by either program. The department has not defined the extent of its water monitoring responsibilities. Neither program has applied a systematic, risk-based approach to plan, implement, check, and improve its water monitoring activities, and neither program has determined whether it is satisfying client needs or has developed and implemented action plans for program improvement.

As a result, said the audit, Environment Canada does not know whether the greatest risks to water quality and quantity are being monitored.

Source http://www.fortmcmurraytoday.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2881691

Bring Canada's most popular general ever back to Newfoundland

2010-12-01T23:52:00.001-08:00

The late Walter Carter first came to Ottawa in 1968 as a Progressive Conservative MP from St. John’s. He served for a spell, quit, then tried to come back as a Trudeau Liberal — losing twice before deciding to stick with Newfoundland politics where he served as a cabinet minister in two Progressive Conservative governments before finishing in the cabinet of Liberal Clyde Wells.

Astute readers will have counted Carter switching parties not once, not twice, but three times before retiring in 1996. Carter’s constituents apparently liked him — most of the time — no matter the team he was playing for.

Carter is but one example of the great personalities that makes Newfoundland and Labrador irresistible to political junkies in the rest of Canada.

One of those outsize personalities is about to retire.

On Friday, Danny Williams’ will spend his last day as premier. He says he has no plans for now other than to take a rest from public life, but some enterprising federal Conservative ought to figure out how to get Williams into Stephen Harper’s cabinet.

Newfoundland is the only province without a Conservative MP. Williams made sure of that in the 2008 election with his “Anything But Conservative” campaign, launched after the premier’s spat with Harper over equalization.

If relations were patched up, Williams’ personal popularity would be enough for the Tories to sweep all seven of his province’s federal seats, which would go a long way to giving the PM his coveted majority government.

But, like Carter, Newfoundlanders would likely love Williams no matter what team he was on. If Michael Ignatieff’s Liberals could set the right bait, Williams could not only defend the six seats the Libs have now on the Rock and perhaps help the red team elsewhere in Atlantic Canada.

Here’s hoping Danny chooses one or the other after his break.

Meanwhile, Newfoundlanders wonder who will replace him.

For now, Williams’ natural resources minister Kathy Dunderdale will take the job and become her province’s first female premier. When that happens, incidentally, Newfoundland will be the first province where the leaders of all provincial parties are women.

But beyond Dunderdale, could Rick Hillier, the pride of Campbellton, N.L., be premier? Canada’s most popular general ever was in Ottawa this week at a fundraising dinner for Memorial University of Newfoundland, the institution where Hillier now serves as chancellor. The premiership would be his for the taking and Hillier is said to be seriously considering it.

He still has a keen desire for public service but is also wise enough to know he risks significant harm to his current excellent public image by mixing it up in the rough-and-tumble world of politics.

Hillier is great on leadership but the knock on him is he was never much of a policy guy. Where is he on health care? On equalization?

And while everyone knows Hillier loves the Toronto Maple Leafs, no one’s quite sure if he wears a blue or red jersey when it comes to politics.

Sources who worked with him during his military career tell me Hillier once described his political views in private conversation as “to the right of Attila the Hun” but in public he has tried to maintain his political neutrality and independence.

Still, he, too, is one of those outsized Newfoundland personalities that would enliven our national political life. And our national political class could certainly use his candour, wit, and good judgment.

Source http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/david_akin/2010/12/01/16395456.html

Nicole L.V. Mullis: When in Canada, shop like Canadians

2010-11-29T00:24:00.000-08:00

American and Canadian holidays are close cousins. Instead of Independence Day, it's Canada Day. Instead of Memorial Day, it's Victoria Day. Instead of Labor Day, it's Labour Day. Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving too, but they do so in October. There is one holiday, however, that unites both cultures and it has complicated this expatriate's life: Black Friday.

Canadians don't celebrate Black Friday on Canadian soil. It is an American holiday, inspiring pilgrimages from the Great White North. Although Canada has beautiful malls, everything just plain costs more. Buying in the States makes sense. Plus, recently, their dollar can look our dollar in the eye and call it shorty. It is Christmas come early.

Canadians celebrate Black Friday and stay the whole holiday weekend. Their motivation is simple. They need to be in the States 48 continuous hours to bring more than $50 of merchandise back duty-free. So, they rent hotel rooms, they take off work and they keep shopping. However, just like Americans, they need to get back home Sunday night.

Now imagine all those people crossing an international border with a sleigh-load of goodies to declare or defend. It's the Customs Nightmare before Christmas. And I'm in the middle of it.

I am not a Black Friday disciple. I far prefer waking up around noon only because I digested enough turkey to scarf down that fourth helping of my grandmother's dressing. Unfortunately, taking an all-day Turkey Nap isn't an option this year. I am an American with Canadian purchasing issues.

I belong to a super-sized family, which means I have a super-sized Christmas list. My husband and I have a Christmas budget based on American shopping norms. Having lived in Canada since July, I now know that budget is 20 percent short of goal unless I shop in the U.S. The only time I'm in the U.S. before actual Christmas is, well, now.

Even if I shopped in Canada, I would still have to ship from Canada. Lacking a sleigh and magical reindeer, that would require paying UPS a small fortune. While regular mail is more affordable, I would have had to finish my Christmas shipping by August.

Although we live in the part of Ontario that kisses Michigan on the thumb, mail between the two apparently routes through China. This holds true no matter which side of the border you lick your stamp. Shipments from my Nestle Chocolate Chip supplier, who shall remain nameless, take a month to arrive in Kitchener from Battle Creek. Same with letters. And don't get me started on checks sent by post. Apparently, NAFTA doesn't apply to the mail.

I could drive the Christmas loot over the border, but custom agents are always asking if I have anything to declare. I prefer to answer, "No". Anything else involves forms. And, possibly, drug-sniffing dogs. This would put a serious dent in my Christmas Spirit.

Long story short, we're eating like Americans and shopping like Canadians this holiday weekend. My mother offered a closet for North Pole Storage, which is cheaper than UPS.

Of course, being Americans living in Canada, we got the mess of both worlds: American Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday and Get-the-Heck-Out-of-the-States Saturday. We had the option of celebrating Canadian-Customs-Snafu Sunday, but this ex-pat wanted her Turkey Nap.

Source http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/article/20101128/NEWS01/11280304/Nicole+L.V.+Mullis++When+in+Canada++shop+like+Canadians

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2010-11-23T20:51:00.001-08:00

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