MADD Mad

I wonder what Conservative Senate House Leader and Secretary of State Marjorie LeBreton who is on the Board of MADD had to do with this. But wait she approved the Conservatives doing the same thing to Garth Turner.
Just another case of blaming the whistle blower. And the corporation and its board justify ripping off customers by turfing the founder and keep doing business as usual.

The founder of MADD Canada was voted off of two of the organization’s key committees following a public spat over the way it raises funds.

John Bates, who established Mothers Against Drunk Driving and was awarded the Order of Canada for his work with the organization, says he feels betrayed.

“I am getting old. I am nearly 80 years old and I put an awful lot of money and energy into this — and I have been there since the very beginning when it was almost expected to drink and drive,” said Bates, who believes he is being punished for speaking out about what he calls the organization’s questionable fundraising techniques.

Bates accused MADD of spending 81per cent of all money raised on fundraising and administration costs — leaving only 19 per cent to run the programs donated dollars are intended for.

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LeBreton

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War On Women-Iraq

It does not matter who did this, it was done by men against women. It was a deliberate attempt to intimidate women from being active in public life. So much for the liberation of women in Iraq. So much for Bush's surge, all it has produced is a surge of ethnic cleansing and attacks on women. Foward to the past, backwards to the future.

Scores killed in Baghdad university

The bombs were exploded as students and staff left the university [AFP] Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, has said "terrorists and Saddamists" were behind the bombing at al-Mustansiriya University. At least 65 people were killed when a car and a suicide bomber exploded outside the University on Tuesday. More than 100 people were injured in the blast, mostly students and staff leaving the university. Al-Maliki said: "They [those responsible] carried out an ugly crime against humanity targeting the innocent students of Al-Mustansiriya University." An official at the university said: "The majority of those killed [in the explosion] are female students who were on their way home."

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Unemployment Breeds Terrorism

Iraq

Feminism

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Nazanin Fateh Update

As reported here earlier last year the fate of Nazanin Fateh, who was to be hung in Iran for defending herself from rape, became a one woman cause for Canada's Miss World, who also shared Nazanin's first name. Nazanin Fateh got a new trial and while she is not going to face death she must now pay blood money.

According to Etemaad Newspaper in Iran, three out of the five judges in Nazanin's retrial have ordered that dieh "blood money" be paid to the family of the man who was killed, although the other two had recommended Nazanin's unconditional freedom.

This trial took place on January 10th, 2007 (20th of Dey 1385 in the Iranian calendar). The five judges that reviewed her case determined that the act was unintentional and was indeed a case of self-defense. As a result she was exonerated from the charge of murder, however the court also has ruled that disproportionate force was used by Nazanin while trying to defend herself and her 15-year old niece. Accordingly they have asked Nazanin to pay "dieh" retribution (blood money) to receive a pardon from the family of the deceased before she can be released from prison.

Nazanin's lawyers, Shadi Sadr and Mr. Mostafaei, intend to appeal the payment of blood money but since this may take several months, they also have requested bail so that Nazanin may be released from prison immediately. The court has set bail in the amount of 400,000,000 Rials (over US$40,000).

At this point, because Nazanin's family is very poor and unable to make payment of the bail or blood money your generosity is urgently requested to secure Nazanin Fatehi's freedom as soon as possible. The Nazanin Fatehi Trust fund has been set up. See Donations page.

See:

News Scoop: Nazanin Fateh

Feminism


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Dion's Corporate Welfare For Big Oil

The Tories hate all things Liberal. Well almost. They cut various social programs they identified as Liberal much to the detriment of Canadians.

One Liberal program they didn't cut was corporate welfare for Big Oil. But today John Baird identified that subsidy program as being current Liberal Leader Stephane Dions fault.

Which may mean that as a sop to the NDP, the Tories may very well cut the program. But no need to shed a tear for Big Oil, like Dion the Tories will offer corporate welfare in the form of tax cuts for clean energy strategies, like using nuclear power.

See:

Tar Sands

Energy

Big Oil

Corporate Welfare




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Alberta Tar Sands & US Energy Security

CBC Canada News Now is reporting that they have obtained the minutes of a secret bilateral meeting of Big Oil and both the U.S. and Canadian governments a week prior to George Bush's State of the Union Speech last year when he declared that the U.S. was addicted to Middle East oil.

It took place in Houston prior to the State of the Union speech and prior to Harper announcing Canada was poised to become an Energy Super Power.

And Big Oil and its Big Government pals all agreed that in order to decrease Amercian dependence on 'foreign oil' it needed to increase it's reliance on Alberta, the tar sands in particular. You see under NAFTA we are partners, not a foreign power. And the minutes called for a five fold increase in tar sands start up operations in the next few years.

Which puts today's announcement from the Conservatives on increasing the use of nukes in the tar sands as an alternative energy source in an interesting light. It would solve one of the expenses of start up operations.

See:

Tar Sands

Energy


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Harpers NEP

I don't expect to see as much outrage over this new NEP in Alberta,as I do over Dion's pronoucements over the weekend on how Tax Credits to Big Oil is somehow the newest threat to Alberta.

Call me sceptical, call me a lifelong Albertan, but the True Blue Tory types in Alberta will deny, deny, deny this is a new NEP. Well it is.

MONTREAL -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper is poised to pre sent a solution to the so-called fiscal imbalance between the federal government and the provinces, the French-language network of the CBC reported Monday.

The plan will be part of the next federal budget, which will be tabled toward the end of March, which is later than usual, Radio-Canada said. The TV network later reported the budget would be tabled March 20.

The proposal would exempt 50 per cent of revenues from natural resources rather than the 100 per cent previously promised to Saskatchewan, Radio-Canada said.

Under the proposed plan, Quebec would get a total of $7 billion instead of the $5.5 billion in transfers it now gets.

Saskatchewan would get only $200 million instead of the $800 million it is awaiting.

Harper would be accepting the recommendations of a report ordered by the federal government last year which suggested that half the revenues of the provinces drawn from natural resources be included in the calculation of equalization payments.

'The Conservatives campaigned hard on saying they would remove natural resources from the equation. …This is an absolute betrayal of what their election promise was.'-Saskatchewan Finance Minister Andrew Thomson

Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach said it was speculative to comment on whether Ottawa intends to alter the formulas, but Albertans were already paying their fair share into confederation.

And of course this would be fair for all of Canada, that is Ontario and Quebec, whose largest natural resource cash cow; hydro will not be touched.

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Harper

NEP

Equalization





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One Ship Navy

So much for Arctic Sovereignty. Heck so much for costal patrols. The Conservative government has only one ship on active duty, the HMS Ottawa, now posted in the Persian Gulf. Thanks to the Afghanistan mission our Navy is in dry dock due to funding cuts.

Well the government had to pay for its war somehow, and it's at the expense of Canadian coastal patrols.

And this might be another reason that the Conservative Government Fisheries Minister was opposed to tougher laws against deep trawler fishing, we have no Navy to enforce those laws.


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Esperanto

Esperanto an artifical language is 120 years old. Felichan Naskightagon!

Esperanto proves resilient as the movement celebrates 120 years

With the prospect of international peace looking more distant than ever, it's worth sparing a thought for the work of Doctor Ludovic Lazarus Zamenhof.

A Polish Jew from the West of the Russian Empire, Zamenhof developed the Esperanto language in the late nineteenth century.

Dreaming of peace and international understanding, he constructed a composite of Romance and Germanic languages, which he hoped would be used as a universal second tongue.

Though his vision was never truly realised, small bands of Esperantists around the world are keeping the movement alive and hoping that the new global age may give the Esperanto a second chance.

It was a cause celebre for many anarchists at the begining of the 20th Century.

Esperanto in China and among the Chinese diaspora was for long periods closely linked with anarchism.

It also appeals to those of a scientific or technocratic bent.....

Mac OS X supports a language invented in the 19th century by a Polish ophthalmologist, a language invented in the 20th century for a sci-fi movie, and a language that formed in the 10th century on a Pacific island chain.

After U.S. English, make these your second, third, and fourth preferences respectively for your Mac’s application menus, dialogs, and sorting.

Answer: The three languages are Esperanto, Klingon, and Hawaiian and can be located by opening the International system preference, selecting the Language tab, and then clicking the Edit List button. Esperanto is easy enough to find but Klingon and Hawaiian aren’t as Klingon is spelled in the Klingon language (it’s the tlhlngan Hol entry) and Hawaiian is likewise presented in its native spelling. (You’ll find it just below Hrvatski.)

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Conservatives Glow Green

The announcement by the Conservative Government of extra funding for science and technology was aimed at benefiting the utilities, King Coal and Nukies.

There was representation from public utilities, private utilities, and the Ontario Power Workers Union their co-partners in nuclear power in Ontario. One of the few union backed P3's in Canada.

The room glowed as Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn proclaimed the era of nuclear steam injection for the Tar Sands.

Well that is a better idea than the original plan which was to detonate and atomic bomb, a teeny tiny one, in the tar sands creating a sea of molten bitumen.

But nuclear powered steam injection remains problematic since it will produce toxic waste, and still wastes water, which is already scarce thanks to expanded Tar Sands operations. It looks like everyone. including Liberal leader Stephane Dion, is pro nuke when it comes to the Tar Sands.

Taking another page from Ralph Klein, Lunn declared that the government would invest in clean coal technology, someone woke up the Tories and they have discovered that you could sell this technology to India and China. At least Lunn recognized that clean coal technology doesn't exist yet, Ralph claimed it did.

Nukes for Ontario and Nukes for Alberta, and a uranium boom for Saskatchewan. And Saskatchewan gets to be the dumping ground, literally, for nuclear waste and CO2 sequestration.

Now about those unsightly toxic radioactive wastes.....well.....we can solve that too......sometime...in the future.....there is technology being developed.

Isn't that how we got in this mess in the first place?!

See:

nuclear power

Environment

Hydro

Energy Probe

CANDU

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