Sunday, January 08, 2006

CSL Pollutes Canadians Pay For Clean Up

Early, very early, yesterday morning Paul Martin got the media together, groggy not quite all there, bleary eyed and announced that the Liberals will clean up the pollution in the Great Lakes. Martin announces $1-billion water cleanup

But what he didn't say was that a lot of that pollution was a direct result of his shipping company CSL and their dumping of iron ore pellets into the Great Lakes. So now he is going to have us pay for his corporate screw up.

Sweeping It Under

Our grimy great lakes: The dirty secrets of the Canadian shipping industry’s cleanup practices

BY Alex Roslin

The dirtiest job on the ship was understandably the one Jim Macdonald dreaded most. During his years as chief engineer for Canada Steamship Lines (CSL), aboard carriers including the CSL Tadoussac, Macdonald oversaw the offloading of 25,000 tons of iron ore at the Port of Hamilton on each journey. Now 70 and retired, Macdonald recalls his voyages aboard the 730-foot-long Tadoussac—how, in the late 1980s, the Tadoussac would head back to the far end of Lake Superior to pick up a fresh ore load at Thunder Bay. After a short catnap while the vessel eased through the locks of the Welland Canal, it would be time to clean out the ship. This meant dumping into the water tens of thousands of marble-sized ore pellets that didn’t make it off at port







Tags









at No comments:

Conservatives Lied About Tax Breaks

Uh oh here is a blatant example of the Conservatives lying to the media and of course the people of Canada about supporting the Liberal Tax Breaks. Courtesy of NDP Finance Critic Judy Wasylycia-Leis

"When Reality Check called the Conservatives before Christmas to inquire about the costs of their tax cuts, the party's media representatives confirmed, on two occasions in fact, that a Harper government would keep the reduction in the tax bracket for low-income earners... Now, however, a policy spokesman with the Conservative campaign called back to say the party will be keeping the reduction only for the 2005 tax year should they assume office." (CBC.ca, January 5, 2006)



Tags








at No comments:

Kate/SDA Is Pro Union

Will wonders never cease? In this war of all against all, red in tooth and claw, anybody but the Liberals election, Kate from SDA on her CBC blog actually, said nice things about a union. About a labour union. You know those nasty left wing NDP supporting unions.

Though to give Kate the benefit of the doubt her blog article is not at all like Laurie Hawns recent conversion to working class struggle.

Laurie Hawn CPC candidate for Edmonton Centre who suddenly infused with the spirit of Joe Hill has rallied to the side of unionized Federal Corrections Officers. In his case it's not real solidarity, just election opportunism against his opponent, the Corrections Officers boss Anne McLellan.

Actually Kate's article is well stated As I have blogged during the Liberals rush to extend the ban on hand guns they conveniently forgot the border guards that they have left unarmed and under staffed. The latter is the real crux of the problem, and Kate recognizes that as well. And has the photos to show it to boot. It gives new meaning to the Liberal policy of open borders.

And just to really get her goat the only party that has called for increasing border patrols, and opposed the Liberal handgun ban has been, not the Conservatives but, the NDP.

Strengthen border controls – including arming customs officers at the border.

Nice to have Kate on the side of the Angels for once.

Tags







at No comments:

Another Tory for Layton

On CBC weblog forum yet another of their Blogging Tory's has recognized that in order to really defeat the Liberals that the strategic vote must go to the NDP.

True left-leaning Liberals should vote NDP

As this election gets closer the sane and rational members of right wing end of the blogosphere will realize this is there only real option if they want to defeat PM.

Tags
at No comments:

This Headline Says It All

Layton to champion working families

VANCOUVER -- New Democratic Party Leader Jack Layton pledged on Saturday to renew his push for a federal anti-replacement worker law, as he pledged to defend the interests of Canadian workers in the next Parliament.

“We will stand up for working people. We’ll fight for laws that put working people at the head of the line in front of the banks. We’ll work for pay equity and for fair wages. And we will try once again to bring in laws that get the so called replacement workers out of the picture in national legislation.”

Layton accused Prime Minister Paul Martin of lacking leadership by failing to support an NDP bill that would have protected Telus workers, who were on strike mainly in B.C. and Alberta, fighting for their jobs.

On Saturday, a long list of labour leaders attended Layton’s rally including Jim Sinclair, president of the B.C Federation of Labour; Paul Moist, head of the Canadian Union of Public Employees; Ken Neumann, Canadian director of the United Steelworkers and Tom Dufresne, president of the International Longshore and Warehouse union and Bruce Bell, president of the Telecommunications Workers Union.

In a fiery, and much more aggressive speech than he has generally delivered, Layton portrayed the NDP as the only party that is truly ready to stick up for working families. “We’re going to stand up for our seniors with better long-term care and better homecare and some help with prescription drugs,” Layton said, playing on the theme of the Conservative campaign, Stand up for Canada. “We will stand up for our kids - with better child care, by taking on poverty, by giving students some help. We will defend public, non-profit health care and keep the profiteers out.”

Nor did Layton spare the Conservatives, accusing them of wanting to increase taxes on low income Canadians and team up with premiers of Alberta, B.C and Quebec to speed up the spread of private for-profit health care.


Take that Buzz


Tags
at No comments:

Cosh Slanders Chavez Again

While on Colby Cosh's page where I found the Ukrainian Christmas challenge, I found this;
No doubt this is just another one of those "blatantly inaccurate hitpieces" cooked up against Hugo Chávez.. -6:07 pm, December 6


Well Yes Colby it is. And as a self described free lance journalist (sic) I would have thought you would have at least checked your sources about this slander against Chavez, which falsely purports to prove he is Anti-Semitic. See my Chavez is NOT an Anti-Semite which was published four days before your comment.As I said there and will say again a simple google of the story would have found my comment as well as others on this topic including the biased source it came from.

You must have really been tired when you posted this and just didn't have the energy to do your journalistic duty. Tired, falling asleep at your keyboard, yeah must have been, cause you even got your posting date wrong -6:07 pm, December 6,
You meant January 6 of course cause unless you have a time machine the link you posted was from January 5.

Poor tired old Cosh just didn't have the energy to actually write something to prove his point. He was too tired after debating Dru over at Dominion about his article on Chavez being another Stalin.

Which is par for the course for those on the right who will use anything to denounce Chavez cause they just hate him cause he is Left.


 Tags
at No comments:

Torys Can't Calculate

I don't know what happened between the invention of the abacus and the scientific calculator but somewhere between the begining of the election and yesterday, despite a strategy of daily campaign announcements, the Conservatives do NOT know how much their tax cuts will be nor do they have a costing for their campaign promises.

This quote is from two days ago while today on CTV Question Period (CTV Question Period: Panel weighs in on leaders' election debates 10:19) John Reynolds said the same thing, again, verbatim;

Reality Check
Under a Conservative government, taxes will be dramatically lower – billions of dollars lower – than under the Liberals. That’s a fact. Details on our entire fiscal platform will be released along with the entire Conservative platform in the near future.
"That's a fact"? What fact,they haven't given us any numbers only empty promises. All they can say is 'trust us'. Well why should we? When they can't tell us if their tax cuts are $32 billion or $49 billion. Boy if they can't even account for that discrepency how can they claim to be more accountable than the Liberals.


Tags






at 2 comments:

Ban Handguns From Cops


Here is another reason to ban handguns from cops on the beat.

See if we use the least iota of logic we would comprehend why we need to ban cops from carrying guns. It goes like this; cops carry guns, bad guys carry guns, cops get bigger guns, bad guys get bigger guns, cops get SWAT teams, bad guys get assault weapons (see Assault on Precinct 13, the original not the remake). Cops shoot to kill, 12 year old dies carrying toy pistol.

My former NDP MLA Gordon Wright (RIP) was a damned fine defense lawyer in the Rumpole school of law, he always refered to Rumpole's the Golden Thread.

The presumption of Inn-o-cence is the golden thread which runs through the history of the law. A man is innocent until he is proved guilty. Better that ten guilty men should go free than one who is not guilty should be convicted. For to convict the innocent is to spit in the face of justice.
( John Mortimer)

Well Gordon had an answer for gun control enthusiasts that was wry and particularly Albertan, if not downright libertarian for a New Democrat; when asked about gun control he would say first you have to disarm the cops. Very Rumpoleian of him. He used the British Bobbie as his example, and argued that gun crimes in England got worse once Boobies were armed.

Now I can already hear the screaming and gnashing of teeth out there in the blogosphere from the liberals and conservative law and order types.

But ask your self why is it so hard for the Reform/Alliance/Conservatives to call for a gun ban?

They at least understand this irrefutible logic, if you ban handguns you have to go all the way and disarm the Constable On Patrol. That way you would have effective non violent community policing. Besides last time I checked the Constable On Patrol was now armed to the teeth, with a good heavy billy club, tasers, pepper spray and a shotgun in the trunk of the car if not mounted to the dashboard. So why do they need to carry handguns?

You see the police live in a culture of paranoia and you know what they say about the paranoid; just cause they are paparnoid doen'st mean someone isn't out to get them. As a military arm of the state they live in the ultimate Zarathustrian dualistic universe. There are simply good guys and bad guys. Us civilians as they call us must be protected by the good guys from the bad guys, unless we turn into bad guys ourselves. We really can never be trusted is the police logic. And you want to give these socially sanctioned authoritarians with a paranoid complex guns? I think not.

When I was younger the COP on the beat on Whyte Avenue never carried a gun, he would patrol the street and check the doors of businesses to make sure they are secure. Today cops drive around, armed to the teeth looking for trouble.

Lets return to community policing, put more cops on the beat, get them to know their neighbourhood, have them work on a regular basis out of community league centres and community centres not cop shops. And have them walk around without handguns. This would reduce tensions and create a positive anti-gun culture.

If you aren't willing to disarm the cops you ain't serious about banning handguns

Tags
at No comments:

Yes Colby Cosh there is such a thing as Ukrainian Christmas


Following in the grand tradition of Ayn Rand's model citizen; Ebenezer Scrooge, Colby Cosh says 'Bah Humbug' there is no such thing as Ukrainian Christmas except in Western Canada. He obviously missed my blog posting of the other day from the Ukrainian Encyclopedia.

 You know you're definitely in the Prairie Provinces when...

...on January 6, you hear a talk-radio caller mention that he lives out of town but that he "came home for Ukrainian Christmas."

Are there any readers who happen to know when and how Christmas is observed in the contemporary Ukraine? I have a sneaking suspicion that they've adapted to the Gregorian date over there, and that "Ukrainian Christmas" has become an indigenous tradition of Western Canada.

Well Colby check this out, three major pagan festivities have seen their revival in the Ukraine, The Feast of Winter Solstice aka Ukrainian Christamas (both Catholic and Orthodox) , Ukrainian New Years (Malanka) and the Feast of St. John otherwise known as Summer Solstice, and in the Ukraine known as Kupalo an ancient pagan fertility ritual. Ukraine celebrates both the Catholic Christmas in December and Orthodox Christmas in January. And the Christmas break for school children extends over this entire period.So no these are not figments of the imagination of Ukrainian Canadians and would be Shumka dancers. Yes Colby there is a Ukrainian Santa Claus and he is known as Saint Nick.


Tags








at No comments:

Frum Hates Canada

The weasal that came up with the Axis of Evil and then got turfed from the Bush inner circle, David Frum, is once again bashing Canada.

Love these rightwing expats who go south and make a name for themselves in the Conservative movement and feel obliged to attack their homeland to make some easy ca$h.

Good summary of the article by Tart Cider is here,Frum's Folly with a link to TC's comprhensive reply to Frum, who published his comment in the Post.

And this comes from the right in Canada. Yep its tough not to be liked in both countries, but I guess that's what you get for being Canada's Lord Ha-Ha.

Tags











at No comments:

Scary Thought

Here is a scary thought this guy replacing Ralph Klein.Outgoing Encana CEO to replace Ralph Klein? Though it is getting tough to be Ralph in Alberta when everyone in his party is saying leave already. Tougher than being Ralph (Goodale) in Ottawa.

Tags
at No comments:

Chavez supplies American Indians with oil

Now this is another lesson that the Petro Boys in Calgary could learn from. Instead of King Ralph giving out million dollar checks to Clinton for Hurricane relief. Cheap oil to subsidize the poor in America would be a political and economic hammer against American protectionism, and of course a way of getting around the softwood lumber lobby in the long run.

Venezuela to expand discounted fuel sales to Indian tribes in Maine (Venezuela-US-Fuel)


Tags






at No comments:

Another Conservative Endorses the NDP

Strategic voting is the hot topic in the last weeks of this election as yet another of the Blogging Tory's accepts that their only hope in winning even a minority government is if the NDP gain seats at the expense of the Liberals. Buzz is not going to like this outcome.Strategic Voting now working in favour of the NDP

Tags










at No comments:

Someone Should Tell Warren

Warren Kinsella insisted early on in this election campaign, well bitched and moaned actually, that Canadian political blogs have little or no impact. He compared our humble blogosphere with the American one that led to the outting of Dan Rather and le affaire Trent Lott.

Except that the American blogosphere is populated by more journalist bloggers, an extension of the MSM and politcal operatives of the two politcal parties that dominate America. Also America has a larger population than Canada and finally most Canadian political bloggers really got started between the last Federal election and this one.

So for all Warren's groaning early on in the campaign about how little influence Canadian political blogs had, all that has changed and he seems relatively quiet about how ineffectual we are. After Klander and Stamp, Income Trusts, etc. etc.
Or it could be because he got that nice new election blog job at Macleans with his pal Paul Wells.

As I said in my critique of Warrens blog pessimism, since the begining of the election the blogosphere has done exactly what Warren said it wasn't doing, influencing stories in the MSM and the election. As this article shows; Weblogs make difference in campaigns



Tags
at No comments:

Things I Hate


You link to a graphic and it does this.
at 2 comments:

Animal Quiz

Badger
What Is Your Animal Personality?
brought to you by Quizilla


A tip o' the blog to Socialist Swine for this quiz link

Tags
at No comments:

Werner Patels Voice of the Conservative Party

Well Herr Patels of Alberta Avenue, the mulipleblogpersonalityszhioid is at it again. This time he is not only using the Royal We or Editorial We but is completely identifying with the Conservative party. He has published the following on his blog, defending the indefensible the Tory Tax Increases.

And he says 'our ' as if he speaks for the Conservative party. If so they can have him. He is a one man marching band of bad PR for whomever he supports. I wonder if he still is hoping to get nominated as an Alberta Liberal provincially?

Taxes would be far lower under a Conservative government

OTTAWA – This evening [January 6], CBC’s The National ran a so-called “Reality Check” alleging the Conservatives would raise taxes.

This report is not just misleading; it is false:

Taxes would be drastically lower under the Conservatives than under the Liberals.

Our tax plan will include cuts to the GST, and large cuts to personal income taxes and business taxes.

Under our plan, all Canadians will pay lower taxes.


Note to readers this is actually an official press release from the Conservative Party of Canada and should not be construed as being anything written by Mr. Patels on behalf of the Party or in any way associated with Mr. Patels.

Except that being lazy he posted it verbatim on his web site.

"Our plan" does not refer to any plan Mr. Patels may have for the future of Canada.

On the other hand he may now be in such a far out funk that he actually thinks that he is speaking on behalf of the party by publishing 'our' press release. If so the secretary will disavow any knowledge of his activities.


See:
Gotcha!
Thanks Herr Werner
A Confused Alberta Liberal

Tags
at 2 comments: