Private BC clinic to reopenThe False Creek Urgent Care Centre, which was criticized by some as a direct assault on Canada's public health-care system, agreed to stop admitting B.C. patients within days of its opening last December. Now, after obtaining legal advice and rounding up a roster of out-of-province doctors, the clinic is on stronger legal footing, Chris Freimond said.
And Health Minister George Abbott said this time it appears the private clinic is operating within the law.
The Canada Health Act and the province's Medicare Protection Act prohibit doctors or clinics from billing patients for medically necessary services that are covered by publicly funded medicare.
To get around this legal barrier, Dr. Godley has recruited a team of emergency physicians from outside the province, Mr. Freimond said.
Mr. Abbott said if the clinic hires doctors from outside the B.C. Medical Services Plan, then no laws are being broached.
Mr. Abbott said he was told the clinic has hired two doctors from Alberta and one from Manitoba.
By bringing doctors from out of province, Dr. Godley said the clinic will not be raiding the public system. He added that the clinic will relieve pressure on hospital emergency rooms and help reduce waiting times.
Industry says climate change already impacting forests
Governments and all industry sectors in Canada must quickly "re-tool" to deal with climate change, says the Forest Products Association of Canada.Avrim Lazar, the association's president, said the forestry industry is already witnessing a manifestation of climate change -a mountain pine beetle epidemic -destroy massive tracts of valuable forest.
"Canada has been protected by its cold weather forever," said Jim Fyles, scientific director of the Sustainable Forest Management Network and McGill University professor.
But now, in addition to the pine beetle, "there may be all sorts of bugs ... whose populations, always kept low by these cold winters, will increase as the temperatures rise," he said.
The development of useful policies and practices is required, Fyles said. In the forestry sector, for instance, the creation of a forest that is resistant or resilient to pests, should be a prime goal.
In Western Canada, past practices involving forest management and forest fire management have often worked to create "almost pure stands" of one species of tree.
A mixed forest featuring different species and trees of all ages creates "a landscape that is much more difficult for these epidemics to propagate in," Fyles said.
SeeIn making its choices, the university made sure to pick a diverse group of leaders from the fields of art, science, business, and community involvement, U of A chancellor Eric Newell said.
Among the selections, the choice of Harrison has the potential to cause some controversy since it was one of his company’s trains that derailed and spilled oil into Wabamun Lake in 2005.
CN was criticized for its handling of the incident in the early days following the spill.
But Newell said Harrison is a worthy choice to speak to business graduates because he is widely recognized as one of the top executives in his field, and CN’s operational headquarters are based in Edmonton.
A total of 62 per cent of just over 29,000 farmers who cast eligible ballots said they wanted the board out of the barley market altogether, or for the board to participate in a competitive market. Another 38 per cent said they wanted to maintain the status quo.
Strahl said KPMG, the firm that handled the plebiscite for the government, made every effort to ensure only eligible votes were counted. Voter turnout was just over 50 per cent. Strahl said many eligible voters said they didn't bother to vote because they only sell their barley to feed lots, not the wheat board.
In the four western provinces, where the CWB monopoly rules, the overall result saw only 37.8% back the so-called "single desk," while pro choice hit 49.4%.
But when the Saskatchewan numbers were broken out - where 15,327 farmers voted - 45% chose to extend the monopoly.In Manitoba, where it appeared a boycott was in the works, 50.6% of only 3,703 barley producer cast ballots saying leave it be.
In B.C., the vote was 49.4% pro choice. But only 156 ballots were in the boxes.
Interesting that Waugh fails to note the Alberta number of votes, in his article.
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Wheat Board
he Black Loyalists arrived in Nova Scotia between 1783 and 1785, as a result of the American Revolution. They were the largest group of people of African birth and of African descent to come to Nova Scotia at any one time.
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| Regimental buttons for military uniforms Photo by Richard Plander, Learning Resources & Technology. Nova Scotia Museum. |
In 1775, some people in the British North American colonies were arguing with the British government about how much control Great Britain should have over taxes and life in the colonies. The colonists wanted to influence decisions about laws and taxes but had no representation in the British Parliament. They declared themselves independent of Britain when they weren't able to come to an agreement. The American Revolution, also called the American War of Independence, was the result.
People of African birth, who were brought forcibly to the colonies to provide slave labour, and their descendants, were caught in this war. In the late 1600s and 1700s, the British had established rice, indigo, and tobacco plantations in the southern part of North America. Plantation owners required lots of labourers to do field work and other jobs. To reduce costs, they used slaves. At first they enslaved the native Indians but then used mostly African slaves.
In the northern colonies, slaves worked as farm hands or at various jobs as domestic workers or at semi-specialized trades, such as lumbering, mining, road-making, black smithing, shoemaking, weaving and spinning.
When Lord Dunmore, Royal Governor of Virginia, lost control of that colony to the rebels in the summer of 1775, the economy of Virginia was based on slave labor. Lord Dunmore issued a proclamation that any slave or indentured person would be given their freedom if they took up arms with the British against the rebels. As a result, 2,000 slaves and indentured persons joined his forces. Later, other British supporters in the colonies issued similar proclamations.
Then the British Commander-in-chief at New York, Sir Henry Clinton, issued the Philipsburg proclamation when the British realized they were losing the war. It stated that any Negro to desert the rebel cause would receive full protection, freedom, and land. It is estimated that many thousands of people of African descent joined the British and became British supporters.
When the Americans won the war and the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783, British forces and their supporters had to leave the new United States. They gathered at New York, waiting to be evacuated. In the meantime, the Americans wanted their lost property returned. Sir Guy Carleton, the new British Commander- in-chief, refused General George Washington's demand for the return of those slaves who had joined the British before November 30, 1782. The two men agreed that the Americans would receive money instead.
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| Certificate of freedom, 1783 Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management. |
The British-American Commission identified the Black people in New York who had joined the British before the surrender, and issued "certificates of freedom" signed by General Birch or General Musgrave. Those who chose to emigrate were evacuated by ship. To make sure no one attempted to leave who did not have a certificate of freedom, the name of any Black person on board a vessel, whether slave, indentured servant, or free, was recorded, along with the details of enslavement, escape, and military service, in a document called the Book of Negroes.
Between April and November, 1783, 114 ships were inspected in New York harbour. An unknown number of ships left New York and other ports before and after these dates. Over 3,000 Black Loyalists were enrolled in the Book of Negroes, but perhaps as many as 5,000 Black people left New York for Nova Scotia, the West Indies, Quebec, England, Germany, and Belgium.Most Black Loyalists couldn't make a living from farming because either they had no land, or their land was unsuitable for growing crops. Black Loyalists with skills as blacksmiths, bakers, shoemakers, carpenters, teachers, ministers, coopers, boatbuilders, laundresses, seamstresses, tailors, military persons, midwives, domestics, cooks, waiters, sailors, a doctor, pilots of boats, and navigators were in a better position to make some kind of a living.
But Black workers were not paid as much as White workers. In July 1784, a group of disbanded White soldiers destroyed 20 houses of free Black Loyalists in Shelburne in what was Canada's first race riot, because the Black Loyalists who worked for a cheaper rate took work away from the White settlers.
Many of those who did not have a trade had to indenture themselves or their children to survive. Indentured Black Loyalists were treated no better than enslaved persons. Slavery was still legal and enforced in Nova Scotia at this time. People could still be bought and sold until 1834, when slavery was abolished in the British Empire. One of the biggest fears of Black Loyalists was to be kidnapped and sold in the United States or the West Indies by slave traders, who sometimes sailed along the coast of Nova Scotia. At the same time, since Nova Scotia did not have a climate to support the plantation system, many White Loyalists abandoned their slaves because they could not afford to feed them.
y 1791, Black Loyalists realized that the dream of a Promised Land, with freedom and security for their families, was not being fulfilled. Some of the Black Loyalists of Brindley Town, outside Digby, met and decided to send a representative to England with a petition asking the British government for the land they had been promised. While in England, their representative, Thomas Peters, a member of the Black Pioneers corps, was approached by a business group that had established a colony in Sierra Leone, West Africa. Peters was told that the Black Loyalists would receive free land if they were to settle there. He returned to Nova Scotia with Lieutenant John Clarkson of the Royal Navy, to convince Black Loyalists to leave Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
On January 15,1792, 1196 Black Loyalists, including the notable leaders David George, Boston King, and Moses Wilkinson, left Halifax in fifteen ships, for Sierra Leone. This was slightly less than one third of the number of Black Loyalists who had arrived in Nova Scotia in 1783. It seems that neither John Clarkson nor Thomas Peters recruited in northeastern Nova Scotia, so none of the Black Loyalists from Tracadie went to Sierra Leone.
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Mr. Boisclair was speaking French to a classroom of university students when he referred to "yeux bridés," which translates as slanted or slanting eyes. He suggested yesterday the term might have a more negative connotation in English than in French."I'm doing politics, not linguistics," he said, adding that he believes "Quebeckers are 100 per cent behind me" on the issue. Even Mr. Boisclair's rivals said they think he did not intend any malice.
"He might have used a better choice of words, but I know Mr. Boisclair enough to know his intention was not to be disrespectful," Liberal Leader Jean Charest said.
This is the height of unilinqual absurdity. But while the Quebecois Nation and its Nationalists, those Pure Laine unilinqual French speakers who proudly celebrate their colonial past as the French Imperialists in North America, but bemoan their later status as servants in their own house, try and cover up the fact that both Nations, those of the British and the French Imperialists are inherently racist.
This is the contradiction of Quebec Nationalism, as it is of English Canadian Nationalism. Of any Nationalism, period. This is not merely a matter of linguistics. It is a reflection of Imperialism. Canada being formed by two colonial powers, England and France, whose international battles for continental and global superiority over each other in the 18th and 19th Centuries shaped our country's political landscape.
The Quebecois of the old Pure Laine families despite their later poverty, remain a colonial petit-bourgeois ideological force. They were the founding families, the mercantilist and land owning classes. Today they are the farmers in Quebec, they live in the rural ridings of the townships and they gave their support to the Duplesis regime and later to the Creditistes, the Social Credit Party of Quebec. Just as their rural right wing counterparts in English Canada did with their support for the Social Credit party in Alberta and Federally across Canada.
The later slogan of the Quiet Revolution, Masters in Our Own House, belies this inherent old colonial French thinking. While touted by the left in Quebec as being progressive, it is not. It is a sop to the reactionary thinking of nationalism of pre-confederation, of the days before the battle of the plains of Abraham. The Quebecois of the townships today are the reactionary nationalists, who support the PQ, BQ and the ADQ as well as the Charest Liberals to a lesser degree.
In another article I will deal with the so called social democratic and left wing of nationalist politics in Quebec and why they have been a failure as a socialist movement.
Boisclair's racist comments, his refusal to apologize, bespeaks the reactionary nationalism of the colonialist mentality of the petit-bourgeoisie of Quebec. It was clear in statements made by PQ leader Jacques Parizeau, after the 1995 referendum, where he blamed Anglophone,immigrant and Jewish Quebecers for the loss of the vote.
Boisclair's comments must be seen in this light. That nationalism in Quebec is like ruling class nationalism everywhere, it is based on a distinct linguistic or ethnic national identity. Despite not being Masters In Their Own House, once they became masters they became the oppressors. This can be seen with Bill 101, and the underlying politics of nationalism in Quebec.
There is the Quebecois, the national petit-bourgoise that dates itself back to the colonial period of Canada's history, and then there are Quebecers. The latter being the English and immigrants who are not Pure Laine. They are bilingual, if not multilingual, the Pure Laine Quebecois has one language, one heritage, and is one people; the French Speaking.
This is what underlined Harpers stunning about face last fall when he recognized this fact. His Transportation Minister Lawrence Cannon, a Pure Laine Quebecois, though bilingual, said as much. The recognition of the Quebecois, as a nation as a people, was not a recognition of the diversity of Quebec in its modern form, but of the real ruling class in Quebec, the petit-bourgeoisie whose roots are in New France.
In English Canada the counterparts to the Pure Laine Quebecois are the old school nationalists, the reactionaries of the right. Like those who in the 1930's supported the KKK in Alberta; the Orange Lodge of Protestants, and from the ranks of some of those in Freemasonry. They were more concerned with French Catholic influence in 'English' Canada then they were about blacks, jews, or other immigrants (though these too were part of their opposition to immigration of Non-English, that is non-British from the Grand Old Empire, to Canada).
In the 1960's and through out the following decades the defended the old Ensign, with it's union jack, against the New Canadian Flag. They viewed the Liberals as the party of infamy, being the party of Quebec and of immigrants. Theirs was the good old party of the Conservatives, Arthur Meighen's party, not the later Progressive Conservative party of Diefenbaker, that is not an English name is it?
During the 1970's the racist reactionary right embraced the less offensive language of promoting Anglo Saxon Values. They hid their anti-Bilingualism and their anti-immigrant racism, indeed even their antisemitism, behind their supposed support for all things English in Canada. The old Ensign, the term 'Dominion of Canada', the monarchy, the fact Canada was one country under the Queen and had one official language; English, and one religion Christianity.
They attacked bilingualism and bi-culturalism, and Trudeau, as a conspiracy to change Canada into something un-British. When Ukrainian Canadians in the Liberal party pushed for a broader definition of Canada as being multicultural, they opposed that as well. Again for being an attack on Anglo Saxon, British Canada.
Later in the 1980's they added another term to their definition of themselves as an oppressed minority defending the old Empire values; Celtic-Anglo-Saxons. All this was a clever cover for the fact they were the same old racists, anti-immigrants, anti-Semites and anti-Quebec.
What they hold in common, these modern reactionaries of the Pure Laine in Quebec and those supporting the Dominion of Canada,is they base their politics on the old days of Upper and Lower Canada. Key to this is their common wish to be pure, to be unilingual. To be members of the old Imperial Empires, be they British or French.
These movements are inherently reactionary and conservative, in a Burkean fashion.
Modern Canadian Nationalism arose in the 1960's as did its counterpart in Quebec. Both were ostensibly left wing and social democratic. Where the Quebecois saw English colonial power as the enemy, Canadian nationalists saw American Imperialism as the enemy, since the English Imperial power collapsed after WWII, replaced by the new American Century.
And while both the Quebec Nationalists and their Canadian counterparts were predominately progressive and left wing through out the sixties and seventies, the old right wing nationalists were still powerful social forces, especially in the rural West and in the Quebec Townships.
What these reactionaries shared in common was a hatred of all things that were bi-lingual or multi-cultural. By their conservative nature they opposed all forms of modernization, of plurality, they wanted to retain their unique historical unilingual cultures.
There is an undercurrent of unilinqualism being promoted by the Conservative Federal Government in Ottawa today. And it is growing across Canada. English to be spoken in the ROC and French to be spoken in Quebec. A return of the two Solitudes.
The BQ in parliament speak in unilinqual Quebecois, several of Harpers ministers speak unilinqual Quebecois, just as many of his MP's are unilingual English speakers. Several of his cabinet ministers make a point of speaking English only though they are bilingual.
There is a transformation going on in Canada, that the parliamentary recognition of the Quebecois as a people, a nation, underscores, it is the death of bilingualism and bi-culturalism in the Federal State. This can be seen in the changes occurring in the linguistic programs in the Canadian Military, which the BQ and Liberals have pointed out in the house.
Minister O'Connor outlined the Department of Defence's new Official Languages Transformation Model. “During the last decade, the previous Liberal government never addressed the problems inherent to the previous universal approach to official languages within the Department of Defence. The Official Languages Transformation Model brings a new, more focused approach to bilingualism, which better takes into account the unique and distinct operational structure of the Canadian Forces. For example, senior officers will be held up to a much higher standard than in the past,” explained the Minister. “And the Model is in keeping with Canada's New Government's commitment to strongly defending our linguistic duality.”
“The goal of the Model is to ensure that National Defence personnel are led, trained, and supported in their official language of choice, thus better meeting the Department's legal obligations under the Official Languages Act. This will include requiring senior officers to be bilingual, when they are serving in units or functions designated as bilingual,” the Minister added.
The Conservatives are promoting two Canadian languages, not bilingualism and bi-culturalism, since that is a Liberal bugaboo, a much hated left over of the Trudeau era. The Harper Conservatives roots are in the old Social Credit party of Alberta, both provincial and Federal, the Reform party and its links to the reactionary right wing I spoke of earlier.
The are willing to accept two language groups in Canada, as long as they are unilingual. They have always opposed multiculturalism and bilingualism.
This new unilingualism can be seen in this recent incident in Alberta.
Poor English costs Quebecer his Suncor job
A Quebec ironworker is accusing Suncor of discrimination after he was fired for poor English, but a spokesman for the oil giant says poor communication can be dangerous.
The dismissal prompted a second Quebecer to quit Suncor in protest and has incensed the local ironworkers union, which is demanding Suncor do more to accommodate French-speaking tradesmen.
"They aggressively recruit labourers from China, Mexico and Germany, but won't hire us because our English isn't great," journeyman steelworker Marco Pelletier of Cowansville, Que., told the Sun in a French-language interview.
Iron Workers Local 720 will file a human rights
complaint against Suncor for firing a French speaking iron worker for speaking
poor English. Suncor's decision to terminate a qualified worker because of language is
discrimination based on ancestry and place of origin. Such discrimination is
prohibited under Alberta's Human Rights, Citizenship and Multiculturalism Act.
Carol Rioux, of Gaspesie, Quebec, was fired for failing English-language
orientation tests. He has been an ironworker for 25 years.
Very blind are those who speak of the creation of a new nationality, strong and harmonious, on the northern bank of St Laurent and the Great Lakes, and who are unaware of or denounce the major and providential fact that this nationality is already very well formed, great, and growing unceasingly; that it cannot be confined to its current limits; that it has an irresistible force of expansion; that in the future it will be more and more made up of immigrants coming from all the countries of the world, no longer only from Europe, but soon of Asia, of which the overpopulation is five times more numerous and no longer has any other outfall than America; composed, says I, of all races of men, who, with their thousand religious beliefs, large mix of errors and truth, are pushed all by the Providence towards this common rendez-vous that will melt in unity and fraternity all of the human family.
1867 Speech of Louis-Joseph Papineau at the Institut canadien
Jeffrey Rubin, chief economist with CIBC World Markets, said Tuesday that governments in Ottawa and Alberta are pursuing a minimalist policy that will actually lead to significantly higher greenhouse gas emissions. Eventually, he said, Canada will have to get tougher, prodded by a growing movement in the United States to combat global warming.
Of course he is a Bay Street Banker part of the Kyoto Conspiracy.See:
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Alberta is the only province in the country with legislation to reduce greenhouse gases, but it is based on intensity -- not absolute reduction targets.The province is still negotiating with industry over its greenhouse gas emissions intensity targets, but a spokesman for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers has said industry is looking at a target that would cut emissions intensity by 12%.
Stelmach said his government is pushing for more.
CAPP says few companies could meet the 12% target, but the proposal is "affordable" as long as the penalty is in the range of $15 per tonne of emissions.
A 1000 mw coal-fired power plant produces about six million tons of carbon dioxide annually.
Stelmach said he wants targets in place by July 1.
"I know industry wants to do its part and will do its part," Stelmach said. "If they don't come to the table, we'll make sure it happens. We will get it done."
He said he's confident Alberta and Ottawa are on the same page on emissions intensity targets, but stressed there needs to be a single regulator of the protocolsHowever, the premier maintained Alberta has invested heavily in emissions-cutting technology.
"This approach has already produced ... a 16 per cent reduction in emissions intensity from 1992 levels," said Stelmach.
Calgary-Northwest MLA Greg Melchin, who served as energy minister from 2004 to 2006, said Alberta imposes some of the tightest environmental standards among the world's major energy producers.
NDP environment critic Nathan Cullen was less generous toward Stelnach's complaints. "He's doing an apples and oranges comparison that's not going to pass muster," he told Macleans.ca. "Alberta's emissions have gone up 39% since 1990, the most of any province. He can claim whatever intensity-based games he likes; that's a business as usual scenario.
The 16 per cent drop in emissions intensity since 1990 shows progress on the environment file that has not hurt the economy, particularly the energy sector, Stelmach said Wednesday.
Emissions intensity is based on a formula that takes economic growth into consideration. The overall production of greenhouse gases in Alberta has steadily climbed and shows no signs of levelling off.Total greenhouse gas emissions in Alberta have increased by 39.4 per cent from 168.17 megatons in 1990 to 234.51 megatons in 2004, according to Environment Canada.
Health Canada officials have filed a complaint against Dr. John O'Connor.
O'Connor alerted the media last year to what he believed was a disproportionately high incidence of colon, liver, blood and bile-duct cancers in patients who live in Fort Chipewyan, a small community downstream from major petroleum refineries.
In filing the complaint against O'Connor with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta, Health Canada did not explain the action, but said the doctor was causing undue alarm.
Meanwhile, physicians who work alongside O'Connor in Fort Chipewyan believe officials are targeting their colleague because his comments potentially threaten billions of dollars of investment in the province's oilsands.
Dr. Michel Sauvé, who heads the intensive care unit in Fort McMurray where O'Connor is based — he flies in to Fort Chipewyan on Tuesdays and Wednesdays — said doctors who identify potential public health problems should be protected rather than punished.
"Obviously, we need some whistleblower protection, some laws that will banish these kinds of repressive censorship. Punishing and trying to single out a physician to shut him up is not in the public interest," he said.
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AboriginalCARP wants changes to the clawback on the Guaranteed Income Supplement, Cutler said.
Under current rules, Cutler said, if a senior receives any other income on top of the GIS, he or she loses 50 cents on each dollar from the supplement, which is aimed at very low-income seniors.
CARP doesn't want that rule to kick in for the first $5,000 of extra income a GIS recipient gets. That would encourage seniors to find part-time work, Cutler said.
| Should Canada be continuing to contribute troops to NATO's mission in Afghanistan? | ||||
| YES | 50% | |||
| NO | 50% | |||
