Telus About UFO's

Edmonton hosted a major UFO conference this weekend at the Telus Conference Centre at the U of A. Apparently this was not a big deal for the blogosphere or for the MSM other than local media. Other things got in the way. However it is important since...

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the crash landing in Roswell, New Mexico, where some believe the U.S. military covered up evidence of an alien craft. And this weekend, Edmonton's TELUS World of Science, a respected museum complex, hosted a two-day UFO conference exploring the possibility of intelligent alien life.

Stanton Friedman, a nuclear physicist who maintains that some UFOs are alien spacecraft, told nearly 200 delegates during the conference's opening lecture Friday night at the Telus World of Science in Edmonton that journalists and scientists are ignorant of the evidence supporting the fact that interstellar travellers have visited.

Friedman, who believes government covered up an alleged discovery of alien wreckage and bodies in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947, said that many eyewitnesses of UFOs are silenced by a "laughter curtain" and fear ridicule if they report their sightings.

German scientist Von Braun was at Roswell during UFO crash

Before Roswell the first UFO sighting in he United States that included alien bodies occurred in Nebraska in 1884.

There is also the case in 1952 of an apparent extraterrestrial visitor to Flatwoods, W. V.

Then there is the video documented mass sightings that occurred in Arizona in 1997.

Apparently Bill Richardson Democratic candidate for U.S. President has some insider knowledge about UFO's. After all his state hosts many kinds of aliens as well as those at Roswell. But it's a question that is not likely to make the YouTube debates, unfortunately.

Paradigm Research Group, which held a news conference at the National Press Club yesterday to demand that presidential candidates support a "truth amnesty" to end the "government-imposed truth embargo on the facts confirming an extraterrestrial presence."

The likeliest beneficiary: New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who wrote a foreword to the "Roswell Dig Diaries," a UFO book. "As a 25-year-old he was an employee of a secret CIA extraterrestrial liaison program," Webre explained. "He has inside knowledge."

Dan Ackroyd was not at the Telus Conference, too bad, that would have sure generated more publicity for this important event.

Aykroyd is the "Hollywood consultant" for Mufon (it stands for Mutual UFO Network), which seems to involve keeping abreast of developments in the UFO-sighting world and promoting the organisation. "Basically, [Mufon are] scientists from all kinds of disciplines that have formed this group to analyse what is real and what is a hoax. Now you could say every one of them is a fake - that footage of 200 whirling white dots in the sky, or the Phoenix Lights [a series of lights seen over Phoenix, Arizona, in 1997] - which 17,000 people saw - the Tinley Park sightings in Illinois, where whole suburbs saw these triangles and wedges go over at three miles an hour. Is it a mass hallucination? If so, why is it appearing on digital cameras and film? They're coming and going like taxis."

Akroyd is like many of us an amateur UFO buff and Canadian.And Canada has its fair share of UFO sightings.

Canadian UFO Sighting Reports - January - August 2007

Still beside amateurs there are a lot of credentialed scientists who take the study of UFO's seriously. And we have to remember that those who have actually experienced space flight have also seen UFO's.

A statement on a new documentary on the Apollo 11 Moon missions has broken a long silence by United States Astronauts on the reporting of UFOs. The documentary quotes Buzz Aldrin as stating without reservation that the Astronauts saw a UFO that paced them for a time during their journey to the Moon.

This information was kept secret by NASA for all of these years. This is an extremely important revelation for UFO believers, and hopefully a nudge for non-believers. The documentary shows us a short piece of UFO footage taken from "later" NASA missions, but says that the object is similar to what the three Astronauts of Apollo 11 saw.

Mr. Aldrin described the UFO as a cylinder, while Armstrong said it was "really two rings" Two connected rings". Collins also said it appeared to be a hollow, tumbling cylinder. He added, "It was a hollow cylinder. But then you could change the focus on the sextant and it would be replaced by this open-book shape. It was really weird."

Even more strange was the experience of Mr. Aldrin and Mr. Armstrong, after they reached the Moon.

According to an Associated Press story of July 20, 1969 published in the San Bernardino Sun-Telegram, the astronauts sighted eerie lights inside a crater near the point on the Moon where their lunar lander was due to touch down the next day.

In December 1965, Gemini astronauts James Lovell and Frank Borman also saw a UFO during their second orbit of their record-breaking 14 day flight. Borman reported that he saw an unidentified spacecraft some distance from their capsule. Gemini Control, at Cape Kennedy told him that he was seeing the final stage of their own Titan booster rocket. Borman confirmed that he could see the booster rocket all right, but that he could also see something completely different.

Some Soviet sightings have come from very credible sources, such as Cosmonaut Victor Afanasyev, who in 1979 (while on his way to the Soviet Solyut 6 space station) claimed he saw a UFO turn toward his craft and begin tailing it through space. He gave the following report “It followed us during half of our orbit. We observed it on the light side, and when we entered the shadow side, it disappeared completely. It was an engineering structure, made from some type of metal, approximately 40 meters long with inner hulls. The object was narrow......and inside there were openings. Some places had projections like small wings. The object stayed very close to us. We photographed it, and our photos showed it to be 23 to 28 meters away”. When the cosmonaut returned to earth he was debriefed and told never to reveal what he knew, and had his cameras and film confiscated.

Of course there is always the usual explanation for UFO's;

‘UFO’ was a NASA experiment

But weather balloons don't explain the Phoenix Lights or the Tinley Park Wedges nor were they floating past Apollo 11.

Nor does it explain what two experienced pilots saw over Guernsey last April or what occurred over New Zealand that same month.

The Telus Conference was at least balanced between true believers and skeptics unlike the UFO conference last month in California.

"UFOs are as probable as the reality of Atlantis, which is slightly less probable than Bigfoot being real," said John Roesch, 44.

Roesch, a director of corporate planning for the City of Edmonton, is finishing a master's degree in engineering management.

The self-described skeptic attended the conference to learn more about astrophysics.

Wait a minute Atlantis is probable. And so are Giganticus, in North America. Remember Sherlock Holmes first law; "When you have ruled out the impossible, whatever remains ,no matter how improbable, is the truth."

So what is a UFO? Well it is just that. An Unidentified Flying Object. As in not-identified. I agree with this guy;

UFO is an acronym for Unidentified Flying Object. It should seem simple enough, but as we know, it’s far from simple. Something so simple has been so corroded by assumptions that we need to make sure we’re all on the same page before entering a discussion about UFOs. When I say “UFO” I mean just that: unidentified somethings. When some of you say UFO you may mean: aliens from outer space, lunatics, crazy people who see things that aren’t there, military-industrial objects, natural phenomena, wishful thinking, people who drink too much and see things, people who take drugs and see things, liars, or hoaxes.

And even though this guy has pictures he still doesn't jump to conclusions as to what they are except that they are UFO's.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Or, is it from another world …

Whether or not the “disk-shape” and “slender rectangular” objects in Dave Dunford’s photos are UFOs, they sure are strange.

“I can’t say they’re being piloted by little green men, but they’re UFOs,” said Dunford of Cadillac. “I saw what I saw — they’re unidentified, they’re flying and they’re objects.”

So when they do get identified that is a good thing too, because it still is not an explanation for all UFO sightings, just a specific one. Like that NASA weather balloon explanation or this one;

UFO mystery could be down to a toy!

Following last week's story about strange lights flying around the town, we had dozens of calls and emails from residents who have spotted more unexplained objects in the nightsky.

Air traffic control officials may be at a loss to explain what has been flying around, but many callers believe they know the answer - Chinese lanterns!

Although many still dispute this and claim they are UFOs, some residents called in to say they have been releasing the lanterns into the sky over the past few weekends.

The lights can go up to a great height very quickly.

"We set them off for the kids - they love them," said Karen Redford from Langdale Close, Brownsover.

"I am sure they are the lights that people have been reporting. It seems to have caused quite a stir!"

Of course as I have pointed out here, a lot of UFO sightings, especially those in the U.S. desert states, occur near conveniently located U.S. military bases like Roswell which undertake super secret black ops, which they would rather dismiss as UFO's then what they are really building and testing.

But in doing so they used the UFO phenomena as a propaganda weapon for the Cold War, much like they did the idea of an internal Communist threat to the U.S. Government. And in some minds the two were equated. This was especially true of Hollywood of the Fifties.

The Robertson Panel: the Cia Considers UFO's

1918-1939 is sometimes called “the golden age of aviation” because of the much technological advancement made in aircraft. With World War II came better, faster airplanes and more experienced pilots. By the time the war was over, air travel was becoming firmly established across the world. The skies became the highways of the future. People started looking up in curiosity. What they saw in the skies was sometimes mundane, but sometimes astonishing. The UFO age had begun.

The early 1950s saw a surge of civilian UFO reports. So serious had the problem become, that normal intelligence duties in the CIA were being seriously impacted. Authorities were worried that if the Soviet Union or another adversary attempted to invade the US, the lines would be clogged and the government would be unable to act, so serious had UFO hysteria become. Clearly, something had to be done.

The CIA responded by forming a committee to investigate the thousands of UFO reports and choose a course of action. The committee, headed by Howard Percy Robertson came to be known as The Robertson Panel. Robertson was a distinguished physicist, a CIA employee, and a director of the Defense Department Weapons Evaluation Group. He drew upon six friends and colleagues of scientific importance to fill the panel. Some of the more famous scientists on the board were Luis Alvarez, who won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1968; and Samuel A. Goudsmit, who was a head of one division of the Manhattan Project and jointly proposed the theory of the electronic spin. Other members were Frederick C. Durant, missile expert; Thornton Page, astrophysicist; Lloyd Berkner, physicist; and Allen Hynek, astronomer.

The Robertson Panel wasted no time in formulating their official report. They concluded that 90% of UFO sightings could be readily identified with meteorological, astronomical, or natural phenomenon, and that the remaining 10% could be explained with detailed study. They furthermore stated that such study would be a waste of time. Their final recommendation stated “That the national security agencies take immediate steps to strip the Unidentified Flying Objects of the special status they have been given and the aura of mystery they have unfortunately acquired.”

Based on their recommendations, a public relations committee was assembled to reduce public interest in UFOs. Believers subscribing to such notions were painted as foolish and irrational. This effort drew upon the resources of renowned scientists as well as celebrities and mass media. Even the influential Disney Corporation was involved in the debunking effort. From this point forward UFology has been seen in disrepute among scholarly circles, and UFOs have become a subject of the fringe communities.

A 22-year study by the Air Force of nearly 13,000 claimed sightings of UFOs ended with three no's:

No unidentified flying object evaluated by the Air Force was ever found to threaten national security.

No evidence submitted concerning UFOs represented evidence of technology or scientific principles beyond modern knowledge.

No evidence indicated that any of the sightings was of an extraterrestrial vehicle.

The Project Blue Book report, based on 12,618 UFO sightings reported between 1940 and 1969, remains the federal government's final word on the subject.

"Since the termination of Project Blue Book, nothing has occurred that would support a resumption of UFO investigations by the Air Force," according to a government fact sheet on the matter.

A 1997 paper issued by the CIA Centre for the Study of Intelligence titled CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs 1947-90 by Gerald K. Haines points out "over half of all UFO reports from the late 1950s through the 1960s were accounted for by manned (secret) reconnaissance flights over the US. This led the Air Force to make misleading and deceptive statements to the public in order to allay public fears and to protect an extraordinarily sensitive national security project".

Thus the Australian Government was secretly informed that UFO sightings were US spy craft, while the US population was kept in the dark, fuelling UFO conspiracy theories active even today.

The formerly secret study concludes: "Like the JFK assassination conspiracy theories, the UFO issue will probably not go away soon, no matter what the Agency does or says. The belief that we are not alone in the universe is too emotionally appealing and the distrust of government is too pervasive to make the issue amenable to traditional scientific studies of rational explanation and evidence."

Secrecy about UFOs and Extraterrestrials shows the true colours of an aspiring U.S. Global Empire

Although stories of strange objects in the sky go far back in time, the problem received little attention until World War II. At that time, military personnel from Allied and Axis countries reported unconventional objects in the sky, eventually known as foo fighters. In retrospect, this development is not so surprising. First, human aviation had become widespread for the first time. Above the clouds, thousands of pilots suddenly had the kind of visibility that no one ever had before. A second reason was the invention of radar, which extended the range of human vision by electronic means. Moreover, it seemed reasonable to assume that the odd sightings were related to the war itself, perhaps experimental technology.

One might have expected such sightings to vanish after the war's end in 1945. Instead, they increased. In Europe in 1946, then America in 1947, people saw and reported objects that could not be explained in any conventional sense. Wherever sightings occurred, military authorities dominated the investigations, and for perfectly understandable reasons. Unknown objects, frequently tracked on radar and observed visually, were flying within one's national borders and, in the case of the United States, over sensitive military installations. The war was over. What was going on here?

Initially, some Americans feared that the Soviet Union might be behind the "flying saucer" wave. This possibility was studied, then rejected. At a time when the world's fastest aircraft approached the speed of 600 mph, some of these objects exceeded - or appeared to exceed - 1,000 mph. What's more, they manoeuvred like no aircraft could, including right angle turns, stopping on a dime, and accelerating instantly. Could the Soviets really have built something like that? If so, why fly them over all over America and Western Europe? To experts, the idea seemed farfetched at best, and fifty years later, their conclusion stands.

If not Soviet, could the objects have been American? The possibility was studied and rejected for the same reasons. The speed of sound was not broken until October of 1947: was it really credible that, prior to this, the Americans had secretly discovered a hypersonic anti-gravity technology?

Let us pause here to assess the situation. What we can see is that, at some point during the mid-1940s, the intelligence apparatus of the United States, as well as of several other nations, had reason to believe that there were artefacts in the skies that did not originate from America, Russia, Germany, or any other country. Within the U.S., these objects violated some highly sensitive military air space, and did not appear to be natural phenomena. One may presume that the affected national security authorities made it an immediate obsession to determine the nature and purpose of these objects, and we may infer that the issue probably became a deep secret by 1946, or 1947 at the latest.

And speaking of commies from outer space, the famous Hill case has those undertones, an attempt to discredit local civil rights activists who were an interracial couple in the beginning days of that movement.

It is the first documented alien abduction and Stratham resident Kathleen Marden has intimate knowledge of all the details.

Marden has released an in-depth account of the abduction this month titled, "Captured!: The True Story of the World's First Documented Alien Abduction, The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience," written with the help of ufologist Stanton T. Friedman. The book reveals never before published, eye-witness accounts of the Hills' extraordinary encounter with the space vehicle, 11 alien figures and the hypnosis sessions that exposed their onboard experiences.

The Hills said they encountered a flying saucer on Sept. 19, 1961, while on a trip through New Hampshire's White Mountains.

Marden was 13 when her aunt called the next day to notify her family. Marden said she sat listening near the phone. "My mother told me what Betty said ... that they had a close observation of a UFO and that it had come down low enough so that they could see a double row of windows with a red light on each side," she said. "She told my mother that Barney went into a field and had actually seen the occupants of the craft and that when they were driving rapidly away from the area, the craft hovered, probably over the vehicle, and they heard a series of beeping, code-like beeping sounds, on the trunk of the vehicle."

The lives of her aunt and uncle, who were social and political activists, are also discussed in the book. The two were active in the civil rights movement, were two founding members of the Rockingham County Community Action Program, and were very involved in church, Marden said.

Question: There was a TV movie in the 1970s about an interracial couple abducted by a UFO. Can you tell me the title and if it's on video?

Answer: That's "The UFO Incident," a 1975 TV movie with Estelle Parsons and James Earl Jones as the couple and Lou Wagner as "The Leader." The movie isn't currently on video.

So if UFO's are a relic of the cold war why are we seeing an increase in their activity, especially in the former Soviet Union.

The Zond center for the study of anomalous phenomena claims that Ukraine has seen an increase in UFO activity over recent years. "While in the 1990s we had 10 to 15 reports a year, now their number has increased to 20-30. Most of them are accompanied by photos and videos. Witnesses understand that if they have seen something unusual in the sky they must tell researchers about it," said Artyom Bilyk, the center's learned secretary.

In scientists' view, the increase in reported sightings is explained by the proliferation of technology, as more and more people have access to cameras, video cameras, camera phones and so on. But even controlling for the increase in available technology, the UFO phenomenon is now observed more often than before.

UFOs attacking Ukraine. Video

© RIA Novosti, Anna Vernoslova

UFO - A THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY?

Researchers are not joking when they say UFO appearances over Ukraine may threaten its national security. "Such flying machines may well be spying apparatus sent by other countries, or flying test prototypes from within and outside Ukraine," Bilyk said.

In addition, UFOs may pose a direct threat to witnesses' health and safety.

UFOs interacting with the environment sometimes produce distortions in biological life (altering plants and animals), increase radioactivity or electro-magnetic fields, and generate other fields of an unknown nature. Occasionally UFOs leave noticeable environment effects.

The Truth is Out There.

Even when it comes to revealing faked UFO sightings.

Fake UFO in Haiti Video Creator Uncovered

Remember the badass "UFO in Haiti" video that was all the rage last week? Big surprise, guys: It was a fake. The LA Times did some investigating and figured out just who was behind the convincing video. Yeah, I know, you wanted to believe. But it turns out the video was an exercise by a French computer animator who did work for the Michel Gondry stunner Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The UFO video was just an experiment, something he whipped up in one day and threw online. He did it as a test for a movie he's working on, but wasn't trying to make a viral hit or anything. Because somehow he didn't realize that an amazingly realistic and awesome UFO video would catch on on YouTube. Welcome to the internet, Frenchy. [LA Times]

For an interesting web page check out Best UFO Resources




SEE:

Roswell Aliens

CIA Conspiracies Are Real

ECHELON Spies on Greenpeace

UFO News

Suffield Base Canada's Area 51

Cryptozology Part 1

Trotskyist Cults

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Watch For Falling Rock

He said what? This is an example of why folks don't trust scientists. When they act as PR flaks for scientism, dismissing the facts before all the empirical evidence is in.

A member of the National Academy of Sciences, Modesto Montoya, told the state press agency that a fallen meteorite did not present any danger unless it hit some structure on impact.

And yes he was referring to this;

The meteorite impact crater high in the Peruvian Andes is said to be emitting noxious fumes. Photograph: EPA


A meteorite has struck a remote part of Peru and carved a large crater that is emitting noxious odours and making villagers ill, according to local press reports

The soil around the hole appeared to be scorched and there was a "strange odour", a local health department official, Jorge López, told Peru's RPP radio.

Later the farmers complained of headaches and vomiting. Police who went to investigate the crater were also stricken with nausea, prompting authorities to dispatch a medical team that reached the site today.

According to Peru's La Republica newspaper, due to the high number of illnesses, district authorities are considering placing the town of Carancas, Puno, Peru in a state of emergency. It has been reported that at least 600 people have been affected by the meteorite

Me thinks Mr. Montoya spoke too soon. Not too modest of him to dismiss the complaints of the villagers. When the science says they are right to be concerned.

Luisa Macedo, a geologist with the Mining Geology and Metallurgy Institute in Lima, told Reuters the reaction between the elements in a meteorite and the Earth's surface can generate gases that then dissipate.

Of course another literalist dismisses the complaints as well by saying its the dust rising from the impact not the meteor itself.

But meteor expert Ursula Marvin, cast doubt on that theory, saying, "It wouldn't be the meteorite itself, but the dust it raises."

Well sure that argument appears logical like saying it wasn't that the WTC was toxic it was the dust and remnants from its collapse that were toxic.

The lesson here seems to be unstated that it is not a good idea to get to close to a meteor or other space debris when it crashes to earth until well after the area has cooled off and the impact dusts have settled. All meteor impacts can be toxic.

The extreme heat that results from a meteorite strike causes elements to fuse and releases noxious clouds of gas.
Pictured here, Meteor Crater in Arizona, which is over 1 kilometre across and 150 metres deep (Image: NASA, JSC)

"We have determined with precision instruments that there is no radiation," says engineer Renan Ramirez of the Peruvian Nuclear Energy Institute.

Ramirez says the illnesses may have been triggered by sulfur, arsenic or other toxins that may have melted in the extreme heat produced by the meteorite strike.

"It is a conventional meteorite that, when it struck, produced gases by fusing with elements of the terrain," he says.

However no one has come out and said that. Because that would of course be seen for what it is; blaming the victim. These uneducated peasants should have known better. Better to say they don't know what they are talking about. The reality is the villagers believed it was a plane crash. So they went out to the crash site to be helpful. And got sick.

Around midday Saturday, villagers were startled by an explosion and a fireball that many were convinced was an airplane crashing near their remote village, located in the high Andes department of Puno in the Desaguadero region, near the border with Bolivia.

Residents complained of headaches and vomiting brought on by a "strange odor," local health department official Jorge Lopez told Peruvian radio RPP.

Seven policemen who went to check on the reports also became ill and had to be given oxygen before being hospitalized, Lopez said.

Of course thes comments on meteors not being dangerous is not science but the 'scientism' of PR flaks and apologists, like those in the EPA who approved the clean up of the WTC site which they said wasn't toxic.

And we of course would not even be talking about this meteor, except that folks did get sick at the crash site. When meteors crash normally they don't make the news unless they are mistaken for something else like a plane crash or UFO

And the off the cuff dismissal that meteors are not inherently dangerous. Oh yeah tell it to the dinosaurs.


SEE:

Holy Kryptonite Superman

Space Litter

, Peru, latin america, south america, toxic, meteor, space, science

Veils A Red Herring

Lord Kitchner's Own asks; Where's the by-election Veil story???

The Montreal Gazzette put this in the end of an article on the by-election. Though I had seen another CP item on it last night.

A handful of voters in Saint-Hyacinthe and at least one in Roberval voted with veils or scarves covering their faces to protest against a decision by Elections Canada to allow the practice, provided the voters furnished two pieces of identification or were vouched for by a registered voter from the constituency.

The Star likewise;

Controversy in the lead-up to the vote over a decision by Elections Canada to allow veiled women to vote without showing their faces, which all political parties argued was an unreasonable measure to accommodate Muslim women, met with muted protest. Local news reports said half a dozen Quebecers, including one man, showed up to vote with their faces covered.

In a interview with the McQill Daily published the day before the by-election Jack Layton said;

There has been no request from veiled women to stay veiled when they vote, let’s be extremely clear about that. I’ve been reminded by my Muslim friends of this: they de-veil.... They de-veil for their driver’s license, their health card, for purposes related to civil society – which is of course what voting is all about. Given that there was absolutely no request for permission to do this, we feel that the Chief Electoral Officer did not make the best decision.

And he was right as one of the early stories on this issue revealed, but was way way down at the bottom of the CP story.

Wahida Valiante, national vice-president of the Canadian Islamic Congress, said she was surprised by the debate because it hasn't come up among Muslims in her Waterloo, Ont.-based organization.

"It just came from nowhere," she said.

"I'm really confused as to who was consulted, what happened."

She said she didn't believe the Muslim community was involved.

Actually no one requested the clarification it was provided by Elections Canada as part of other clarifications arising from the new voting act past by parliament.

July 26, 2007
New Canada Elections Act Provisions Now in Effect

July 30, 2007
Electors MUST Prove Their Identity and Residential Address When They Vote!

August 30, 2007
Reminder Card and Details of New Voter Identification Rules Will Be Delivered to All Electors

September 5, 2007
Electors MUST Prove Their Identity and Residential Address When They Vote!

September 6, 2007
Elections Canada Reiterates the Statutory Requirements Regarding the Identification of Electors Wearing Face Coverings

IMPORTANT!

Changes have been made to the Canada Elections Act.

All electors MUST prove their identity and residential address when they vote. For more detailed information on voter identification, visit www.elections.ca.

There was no veil controversy it was all a bit o' political slight of hand. Harper using a bit of Mulroney blarney politics.

On Monday, speaking in Canberra, Australia, Prime Minister Stephen Harper blasted the agency for the second day. He said Elections Canada has defied Bill C-31, which was passed by Parliament in June, by allowing Muslim women to wear veils and burkas while voting.

He said it's not the first time the agency has gone against the will of the elected Parliament.

"I'm obviously very disappointed with this decision. Parliament has just passed a law and its intention is very clear -- the intention is to have photographic identification of voters. I'm disappointed with Elections Canada and I don't think it's the only case where Elections Canada is giving a ruling on the laws they wish they had, rather than the laws that are actually on the books."

The Harper Index tells us why this was a big red herring used to veil the real issue the Conservatives have with Elections Canada.

The battle for rural Quebec may have been manifested in the veil controversy as well. "Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, facing elections as early as this year, is taking a stand against veiled Muslim voters, helping him tap into a growing backlash against immigrants," write Bloomberg News reporters Theophilos Argitis and Alexandre Deslongchamps.

"The feeling on this issue was so powerful no party was willing to oppose the Conservatives on this," said one Parliament Hill staffer, who asked not to be named. The Bloc was quickest to join the Conservatives in opposing veils at the polling booth, but soon the NDP and Liberals agreed as well. "No one was going to hand this issue to them."

At the same time, veils may have given Harper an opportune means of distraction. Daniel Tencer wrote in the online edition of Maissoneuve that the controversy successfully took attention from investigation into Conservative election spending, as well as exacting vengeance upon chief electoral officer Marc Mayrand for raising the issue.

Tencer writes: "It has everything to do with Elections Canada's assertion that the Conservatives went $1.2 million over the legal spending limit in the last election. The Globe describes today how defensive behaviour by some Conservative MPs after the January, 2006, election tipped them off to the practice of 'in-and-out' transactions, in which the federal Conservative organization sent money to local candidates and then siphoned it right back to the federal campaign, thus avoiding federal spending limits. Several weeks ago it emerged that Harper's Conservatives are now involved in a lawsuit against Mayrand, the same person Harper attacked over veiled voting, regarding Mayrand's decision not to recognize the 'in-and-out' spending as legitimate. At a House of Commons committee hearing yesterday into the practice, the Ottawa Citizen reports, Conservative MPs deflected allegations of corruption by challenging the opposition parties to open their campaign spending books for the past decade."

SEE:

Black Bloc Can Vote

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RONA Vs Greenpeace

What is behind Greenpeace's attack on RONA three weeks ago? The Eastern Canadian home retailer, who has a strong base in Quebec.

Canada's largest home renovation retailer said yesterday it cannot comply with the more environmentally friendly lumber standards demanded by Greenpeace.

About 75 per cent of the lumber products sold at RONA Inc. stores meet the environmental standards of three certifying bodies, a company spokesperson said. But of that 75 per cent, only 15 per cent of wood meets the standards of the Forest Stewardship Council, often considered the most stringent certification program.

Earlier this week, Greenpeace blasted RONA and other retailers for using suppliers that chop down trees from endangered areas of Canada's Boreal Forest.

Canada's forest companies are no angels. For more than a century after Confederation they were, in fact, looters. But government-mandated reforestation and advances in silviculture since then make it hard to swallow Greenpeace's claims that Canada's boreal forest is "indisputably" sick.

What's indisputable is that the boreal forest is a massive storehouse of greenhouse gases that covers 58 per cent of Canada's territory. That 70 per cent of it is commercially inaccessible. That only 0.5 per cent is logged in any given year. That Canada has a deforestation rate of zero. And that in Ontario and Quebec, Abitibi and Kruger are cutting much less than their annual allotment in the face of slumping lumber prices.

What's more, forestry engineers - a group that indisputably loves the forest every bit as much as Greenpeace - marvel at the boreal forest's capacity to regenerate itself more than any other type of forest in the world. Experts are also finding that self-regeneration - whether after natural fires, insect epidemics or logging by humans - may be a more effective way to promote biodiversity than intensive replanting.

All of which makes Greenpeace's attack on Abitibi curious enough. But why does Rona get blacklisted and not IKEA or Home Depot? Greenpeace says it's because the latter two retailers have made specific undertakings to source FSC products. But IKEA conceded in April that only 4 per cent of the wood used in its Chinese factories - the source of most of its furniture - meets the FSC grade.

Much of the wood used in Chinese furniture manufacturing is illegally logged in Russia and Myanmar.

Massive deforestation in Russia, Asia and South America is a real, verifiable, contributor to global warming. And when reforestation occurs, it's on plantations, as in China or Brazil, where such monoculture is biodiversity's worst enemy. Yet, those are the same countries whose low-cost lumber, pulp, paper and furniture are decimating Canada's forest industry.

RONA (TSX: RON), the largest Canadian distributor and retailer of hardware, home renovation and gardening products, has been made aware of a document published earlier today by Greenpeace and wishes to make the following clarification.

Sustainable development has long been a priority at RONA. The Company has a responsible purchasing policy that applies to all of its products. With respect to forest products, the Company does not buy any product derived from endangered species and favours the purchase of products that bear Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Canadian Standards Association (CSA) and Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) as well as ISO 14001 certifications. Furthermore, RONA ensures that all of the goods it procures, whether forest products or other, have been produced in conditions that respect human rights and the environment. RONA applies these principles in its choice of suppliers, sub-contractors and other business partners.

Over the past 10 years, RONA has recovered 3.6 million containers of paint in Quebec, or over 30% of all paint recovered in the province. Left unrecovered, old paint may be poured out into nature - a real threat to the environment. By promoting the recovery of these products, RONA is offering the public an economical and ecological alternative to burial in landfills or incineration.

From collection points at stores across RONA's Quebec network, the old paint and containers are then sent to the RONA distribution centre in Boucherville. From there, the old paint is sent to Peintures recuperees du Quebec. About 80% of the old paint is reconditioned and put back on the market. Leftover latex and alkyd paint, stain and varnish are all accepted in the recovery and recycling program.

RONA (TSX:RON), the largest Canadian distributor and retailer of hardware, home renovation and gardening products, has announced a 9.1% increase in sales and an 11.6% increase in operating income for the second quarter of 2007. This increase in sales and income can be attributed to acquisitions made in the last 12 months and additional measures taken at the beginning of the quarter to stimulate sales and earnings growth in a business environment that was more difficult than anticipated.

Net earnings increased by $6.2 million or 7.7%, from $80.0 million in the second quarter of 2006 to $86.2 million in the second quarter of this year.

Operating income reached $161.8 million in the second quarter of 2007, an increase of $16.8 million, or 11.6%, over 2006. EBITDA margin rose from 10.8% in 2006 to 11.0% in the second quarter of 2007.

Net earnings for the second quarter of 2007 stood at $86.2 million, or $0.74 per share, diluted, compared to $80.0 million in 2006 or $0.69 per share, diluted. This represents an increase of 7.7% in net earnings and 7.2% in diluted earnings per share.

Well its a back handed attack on Abitibi which is in merger talks with American forestry products company Bowater.

In a recent report, Greenpeace cited logging and pulp companies such as Abitibi-Consolidated, Bowater, Kruger and SFK Pulp as being directly responsible for destroying nearly 200,000 square kilometres of boreal forest.

The activists charged pulp manufacture, SFK Pulp, with purchasing wood
chips from destructive logging operations. Two of the main suppliers of wood
chips to SFK Pulp, Abitibi-Consolidated and Bowater, log in the last remaining
intact areas of the Boreal Forest, in the habitat of threatened species as
woodland caribou, and in areas where industrial logging is opposed by local
First Nations.
"Logging companies like Abitibi-Consolidated and Bowater continue to deny
that there's anything wrong in Canada's forests," said Ferguson. "But anyone
who's seen the satellite images showing massive fragmentation, the scientific
reports showing species extirpation, and the news reports describing closure
after closure of mills and towns knows different."

A detailed new Greenpeace report,Consuming Canada's Boreal Forest: The Chain Of Destruction From Logging Companies To Consumers, traces the journey of clear-cut trees from virgin boreal stands to retail store shelves.

The group fingers what it calls the worst despoilers of northern timberland: Abitibi-Consolidated Inc., Bowater Incorporated and Kruger. The first two merged last month, creating a corporate colossus with cutting rights to an area of the Ontario and Quebec boreal as big as the state of Nebraska.

Also named are a list of retailers buying products from the three – part of a campaign to get firms to buy forest products made either from recycled material or from logging operations certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

Consuming Canada's Boreal Forest: The Chain Of Destruction From Logging Companies To Consumers,

The report release follows on the hanging of a massive banner from the Montreal headquarters of Abitibi-Consolidated two weeks ago. Canada’s Boreal Forest stretches across the north of the country, from Newfoundland to the Yukon. It represents a quarter of the world’s remaining intact ancient forests and stores 47.5 billion tonnes of carbon in its soils and trees. Ontario and Quebec's intact Boreal Forest represent 14% and 18%, respectively, of the entire country’s intact forest areas.

The demands of the Logging Companies are to:
o Cease logging in all intact forest areas, caribou habitat, and mapped endangered forests immediately, and work with governments and nongovernmental organizations to formally protect these areas;
o Shift to FSC certification across all tenures to ensure environmentally and socially responsible management of these forested areas, and ensure all products are FSC-certified;
o Commit publicly to not pursue licensing and new logging activities in currently unallocated areas of the Boreal Forest; and
o Refrain from logging without the prior and informed consent of First Nations whose territories are affected.

Left Nationalists like Mel Hurtig and Maude Barlow of the Council of Canadians may want to ask Greenpeace if this really helps Canada. Attacking indigenous capitalist industries like Abitibi and Rona.

While we ponder the silence over the sale of Abitibi to Bowater in the MSM and among the politicians. You see that was yesterday's news. Before Alcan and Stelco.

A union representing forestry workers said the move by Abitibi and Bowater should cause concern in government and community circles.

"There are many issues underlying this announced merger which should raise alarm bells in Ottawa," said David Coles, president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada. "Our forest-based industries and communities are already in crisis with the loss of some 10,000 jobs over the past few years.

"Our history with mergers and acquisitions has been that so-called 'synergies' really mean more mill closures, job losses and devastation in our communities," he said.

The deal continues a wave of consolidation in the forestry sector as companies try to get bigger to deal with increased competition and to cut an increase in operating costs due to higher fuel, transportation and raw material costs and the rising Canadian dollar.

For example, Montreal-based Domtar (TSX: DTC) is expected to soon close a $3.3-billion deal to muscle up its operations by merging with the fine paper division of U.S.-based Weyerhaeuser, one of the world's largest forestry companies.

The marriage of Abitibi and Bowater is just the latest move in a tectonic shift that sees North America forestry players jostling to grow and compete with the rest of the world, said Bowater president and CEO David Paterson, who will move to Montreal to head the new corporate entity.

"This is a continuation of what I see as a long-term trend of a globalization of the market, that North American companies have to be able to compete with Asian, South American and European producers and they have to do that from a low-cost platform and that's what we're trying to create here."

However the merger is still in the works. Abitibi-Consolidated and Bowater Provide Merger Update

And with the high dollar and housing crash in the U.S. comes the warning of more plant closings.

The double blow of slowing home construction and falling newsprint demand is hitting wood and paper companies and forcing them to try to adapt quickly. The strategies of choice: consolidation and cost-cutting.

Shareholders of Montreal-based Abitibi-Consolidated Inc. (nyse: ABY - news - people ) and Bowater Inc. (nyse: BOW - news - people ), based in South Carolina, approved a deal last month to combine the two companies. U.S. regulators still need to give approval before the two can become AbitibiBowater Inc., which would be the third-largest forest products company in North America.

The deal could close by the end of September, and may lead to plant closures.

"U.S. regulators are expected to require mill closures in order to let the merger go through," Banc of America Securities analyst George Staphos told investors in an industry update last week.

Since May, Abitibi shares have dropped 21 percent, Bowater fell 23 percent, International Paper by 16 percent and Weyerhaeuser 21 percent.

But in Roberval–Lac-Saint-Jean it was a crucial issue, leading to the election of a Mayor who can get things done. Grease the palms, bring in a bit of largese; some federally funded development projects to offset in some small way the devastation occurring in primary forestry in the region.

Quebec experienced the greatest decline in the country, as production decreased by 20.4 per cent to 1.18 million cubic metres, or 19.1 per cent of total Canadian output.

Quebec's production has declined monthly by double digits since July 2006.

Producers face reduced overall harvest quotas from the provincial government. They have also reduced volumes to fit a quota agreed to under option B of the softwood lumber agreement with the United States.

As Jean Paul Blackburn has in the neighboring riding. After all Abitibi is the major employer in that region.

The new mega forestry giant Abitibi/Bowater will face a tremendous responsibility to employees and their communities as the planning now begins to integrate the two paper companies.

Abitibi-Consolidated and Bowater will now put the troops to work planning detailed integration of their global pulp and paper and lumber business. Both company’s Canadian mills are being bled by high energy and fibre costs and especially by the Canadian dollar’s surge – as all products are sold in U.S. dollars. “Costs will have to be cut right across the system,” said David Paterson, Bowater’s CEO who will become CEO of the new Abitibi/Bowater. John Weaver of Abitibi-Consolidated would not comment on possible rationalization in eastern Canada, where the highest cost mills are located.

While Bowater has to pay for a less than stellar environmental record.

Bowater Inc. will pay $42.5 million to Weyerhaeuser Co. to settle a dispute over costs at a Canadian pulp and paper plant Bowater sold to the company in 1998. Bowater and Washington-based Weyerhaeuser (NYSE:WY) have been arbitrating a claim regarding the cost of environmental matters related to the mill.

And while the Conservatives assert a lassiez faire attitude to corporate takeovers, try and pawn the disaster that their Softwood Agreement onto the Charest government, they realize that Quebec expects state capitalism in some form. And that is how you keep seats.

 MONTREAL, Sept. 7 /CNW Telbec/ - A new Leger Marketing poll commissioned
by Greenpeace reveals that 86 per cent of Quebecers support the suspension of
logging in the last remaining intact areas of Boreal Forest in the province.
Additionally, only 18% per cent of respondents believe that forest
companies and the government of Quebec are managing forests in a way that
serves the public interest and forest workers.
"The public's lack of confidence in the government and logging companies
is significant," said Melissa Filion, a forest campaigner with Greenpeace.
"Without taking quick and concrete action to protect the forest, the
government and logging companies will not regain the public's trust."

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Denis Lebel Nationalist

As newly elected Roberval–Lac-Saint-Jean Conservative MP Denis Lebel told CPAC last night "I am a nationalist and Mr. Harper knows that." Well that says it all. Harper played the Mulroney nationalist card and has won over voters from the BQ as well as the ADQ.

In fact this can also be seen in Saint Hyacinthe-Bagot which went neck and neck all night between the BQ and the Conservatives. While the NDP came in third there. In playing the nationalist card Harper bought himself a round of support in rural Quebec. It is the nationalists in rural Quebec who voted Conservative as they do BQ.


The NDP on the other hand are now a viable left wing alternative to the BQ in Quebec. Their position on the War and the Environment resonated with voters in Outremont and will in other urban Quebec ridings come the general election. Mulcair's acceptance speech last night emphasized that he was the Peace Candidate first and then the Environmental Candidate. The war will be as big an issue as the environment come the general election and that bodes well for the NDP.

"Today, Quebec has chosen a new direction," NDP Leader Jack Layton told supporters in Outremont, and praised them for "making history and changing the direction of politics in Quebec and across Canada. For the future we are hoping that what people see here now about the NDP is something that we are going to be able to take to the ballot box, not only in the election here in Quebec but the rest of Canada as well, as people realize we are a national party with representation everywhere," he said.

The Liberals lost last night, in all three by-elections and thus they can no longer claim the mantle of the Natural Governing Party. They can no longer take Quebec for granted and will be forced to retreat to Ontario as their base. They are no more important in Quebec now than the NDP and anyone who says they are a player needs only look at their standing in Roberval and Saint-Hyacinthe after last night. Those are not big numbers.

In a Liberal nightmare scenario-turned-reality, the party lost a traditional Montreal fortress and was reduced to single-digit support in two other Quebec ridings. A party that owned the province through much of Canada's history has now fallen below what was supposed to be the nadir of the post-sponsorship election last year.

Francophones deserted the party in all three ridings on Monday. Their last remaining stranglehold on multi-ethnic, federalist pockets of Montreal was slackened.

And in Roberval–Lac-Saint-Jean the Liberal candidate was high profile, a businesswoman who was head of the Chamber of Commerce, while the NDP ran a parachute part time candidate. She certainly lost big for the Liberals.

With high profile candidates the NDP can make a break through in the next election in Quebec while the Liberals will need to rebuild. Something they have failed to do for the past year. Petulant over Dion's victory, the Quebec Liberals abandoned the party to work for Charest and his victory should have been telling about the party's loss of power in Quebec. And last night was the result of their petulance.

The finger-pointing began before the ballot boxes even closed.

Some said it was incompetence on the part of Liberal officials. Others said it was the result of leadership rivals sabotaging the Liberal campaign.

Less than a year after Liberal Leader Stephane Dion moved to reunite his party after a winning a bloody leadership race, that fragile unity was in danger last night and questions swirled about his leadership ability after his party was shut out in three byelections — including the traditionally Liberal bastion of Outremont.

Liberal insiders recount a litany of organizational problems with the Outremont campaign, including an apparent power struggle between members of Dion’s entourage and personnel in the Quebec wing’s headquarters. For example, while some in the Quebec wing tried to keep Dion’s appearances in Quebec to a minimum, personnel in Dion’s office insisted on him making trips to his home province to campaign.

Fuelling the discontent even more was an article published over the weekend in which unnamed Liberal supporters of Dion and Michael Ignatieff traded barbs over whether the poor campaign was the result of incompetence, or of sabotage by Ignatieff supporters trying to undermine Dion’s leadership.

And so while the Liberals regroup some to lick their wounds and others to sharpening their knives. Good thing then that newly elected Saint- Hyacinthe MP Ève-Mary Thaï Thi Lac is not a Liberal.

Born in Vietnam, Thai Thi Lac was adopted by Quebecois parents and raised from the age of two on a local farm. She speaks French and reminded voters of her local roots by telling them during the campaign that, unlike the other candidates, she knows how to castrate a pig.

SEE:

Sept. 11 for Dion

Politics is Local

Quebec By-elections

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Quebec, politics, Conservatives, Harper, Liberals, Dion, NDP,BQ, Roberval-Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec by-election,
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Sept. 11 for Dion

Dion in Outremont conceding Liberal defeat in all three Quebec by-elections, as seen on CPAC.

"When a general election comes we will remember this evening
of Sept 11 err Sept 17"

Uh oh Freudian slip.


And thanks to Far and Wide for setting up a live blog in on the by-election.

SEE:

Politics is Local

Quebec By-elections

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Stating The Obvious Redux

"the Iraq War is largely about oil." Allan Greenspan.

And all the U.S. media and pundits are all agog over this confession. Well duh, what did you think it was about? The funniest was to hear Chris Matthews on Hardball refer to Greenspan's analysis as Marxist. Hey I said that here.

Matthews: "So if you're in the European left and never liked Bush, to start with, now you got his Fed chairman say it's all about oil, you love it, right? This is the old Marxist analysis."

Yet some folks in the White House continue to live the lie, and remain in implausible denial.

In the book, "The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World," Greenspan writes, "the Iraq war is largely about oil." The comments, released before publication, put Defense Secretary Robert Gates on the defensive as he made the Sunday talk-show rounds following major recommendations on war policy last week.

"I know the same allegation was made about the Gulf War in 1991, and I just don't don't believe it's true," Gates said, appearing on ABC's "This Week."

But it was as much about oil then as it was being the first high tech war declaring the New World Order of the 21st Century. Just as this war was about oil and revenge.

Jill Zuckman, Chicago Tribune: "I think this is one of the reasons why what Greenspan says has so much resonance because this is the Texas oil crowd in the White House and so-"

Matthews: "The oil patch crowd."

Zuckman: "-people assume that a lot of what they do is motivated."

Matthews: "Okay let me ask you this. Exxon, Mobil, making tens of billions of dollars in profits this year. So the war worked out well for them right?"

Zuckman: "Yes and we can pay crazy amounts of money at the pump."

Matthews: "Should we put Exxon signs up over Arlington Cemetery and Mobil signs up there, like they have at baseball stadiums?"

And Halliburton, Bechtel and Blackwater too.



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Bank Run

While all those folks on the cable Business news channels in the U.S. and on Fox on the weekend were navel gazing over whether the U.S. economy was in a pending recession or not they missed this run on the bank. One caused by the U.S. mortgage meltdown.

Of course that's because it was in the UK. And banks were open on Saturday. BBC showed folks lined up outside the Northern Rock mortgage bank waiting to remove their deposits something not seen in any other market correction, err crash, since 1929. "Remember, 1928 was a credit bubble that popped in '29"

DR EAMONN BUTLER, ADAM SMITH INSTITUTE

My economics teachers used to say that the days of a 'run on the bank' were long over.

It might have caused problems in the 1930s, but modern banking controls and accounting had consigned bank runs to economic history's dustbin.

WILL HUTTON, THE WORK FOUNDATION

We are in the middle of a bank run.

We've never seen it on this scale in Britain - of a major bank - since the 19th century.

This is a sure indicator of a recession.

The firm has been withering under the harsh spotlight of media glare on the mortgage-lending mess, ever since it came to light Friday that Northern Rock needed a British central-bank bailout. Unfortunately, the bank built its lending business on taking in loads of short-term borrowings, followed by loan securitization and sales. Over the past few months, as credit markets have finally decided to reevaluate risk, both ends of that pipeline have gotten seriously clogged.

THE BANK OF ENGLAND HAD NO choice but to agree to provide emergency liquidity last week to ailing U.K. mortgage lender Northern Rock, even at the risk of being seen as supporting a bank with a flawed business model.

Clearly, Northern Rock's customers and the impact that the lender's collapse would have on the rest of the U.K. banking sector, the housing market and the broader economy have been uppermost in the BoE's mind.

The queues of customers outside Northern Rock's branches Friday, seeking to withdraw their savings despite assurances from the central bank and the government that Northern Rock (ticker: NRK.U.K.) is fundamentally sound, proves the point.

But investors aren't buying the idea that Northern Rock will weather the liquidity crunch. The stock was down 25%, to 483 pence (about $9.85), in late Friday trading in London, even though the bank is in no immediate danger of going under.

Northern Rock isn't guilty of reckless lending. The problem is that the bank, the U.K.'s fifth-largest mortgage lender, sources a large proportion of its funding from the wholesale market through covered bonds and the securitization of mortgages. Only 25% of its funding comes from customers' deposits, versus 65% for a typical U.K. bank.

This wouldn't happen in Canada, though the picture below is from the 1832 bank run in Montreal, because Purdy Crawford has ridden to the rescue.



See:

Sub Prime Exploitation

Canadian Banks and The Great Depression

Wall Street Deja Vu

Housing Crash the New S&L Crisis

US Housing Market Crash

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asset-backed commercial paper ,, UK
homes, mortgages, housing, bubble, US, economy, Northern Rock , sub-prime mortgage, Wall Street, crash, recession,