Friday, June 22, 2007

Bowser A Terrorist

It's true. Air Canada taking advantage of the Conservative Governments No Fly List, has declared pets as a potential threat on airplanes. No really. No more traveling with bowser unless you ride the dog.

Air Canada has declared its aircraft no-fly zones for pets.

As of next month, animals will no longer be allowed aboard any Air Canada flights.

While the airline barred pets from aircraft cabins last September, the restriction now applies to the baggage compartment as well.

In a letter sent to the Canadian Transportation Agency on Wednesday, the national carrier said, "please be advised that Air Canada will cease the carriage of pets as checked luggage on domestic as well as international routes [including transborder routes], as of July 15, 2007."

See:

State Security Is A Secure State



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Thursday, June 21, 2007

Summer Solstice Give Or Take A Day

Summer's official, astronomical start is at 2:06 p.m. today.


It's tough for pagans when Solstice falls on a work day like today.

Although the solstice is technically today, the druid ritual will be Saturday afternoon because druids have jobs, too.

Unless of course they are unionized pagans and have a clause in the collective agreement saying that employees are entitled to holy days off of their choice.

In Canada Wiccan and pagan holy days such as solstice are considered official religious holidays by the Ontario Supreme Court.

Which is why solstice, winter or summer, falls between the 21 and 23, to give time for the weekend to catch up.

Thousands of modern-day druids, pagans and partygoers converged on Stonehenge late Wednesday as people across the Northern Hemisphere prepared to welcome the summer solstice -- the longest day of the year.

Solstice celebrations were a highlight of the pre-Christian calendar. People in many countries still celebrate with bonfires, maypole dances, and courtship rituals.

Solstice celebrations also take place in other countries, although most are deferred until the last weekend in June. Swedes will gather to sip spiced schnapps, Danes will light bonfires, and Balts and Finns will flock to the countryside to dance, sing and make merry under the midnight sun.

The largest crowd in recent years gathered at Stone Henge overnight to celebrate the Summer Solstice this morning as a further 1,000 congregated at Avebury.

Visitor numbers at the 5,000-year-old English Heritage Site on the Salisbury Plain totalled 24,094, up from 18,700 last year, to watch the longest day of the year dawn.

A spokesman said numbers swelled above a predicted 20,000 because extra people, on their way to Glastonbury music festival, stopped off to join the party.

Police were pleased to see that those attending had also heeded their warning to use public transport to get to the area as vehicle numbers at the gathering were also down on last year's total, dropping from 4,536 to 3,577.

As the sun rose at 4.58am a cheer went up from those gathered overnight at the stone circle on Salisbury Plain.

Revellers clad in antlers, black cloaks and oak leaves gathered at the Heel stone - a twisted, pockmarked pillar at the edge of the prehistoric monument - to welcome the rising sun.

BBC online pictures of summer solstice sunrise.

Summer solstice
Are you in touch with your inner Druid?

SEE

Damn Accurate

Pagans Party

Here Comes The Sun



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Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Seal Woes

Never too late to discuss the seal hunt now that the season is safely past and months after the controversy over Belgium and the EU plan to expand the seal hunt ban.

Both the Liberals and Conservatives defend the seal hunt in this discussion last week in the House. My how nice of them, after the protesters have all gone home.

39th PARLIAMENT, 1st SESSION

EDITED HANSARD • NUMBER 173

CONTENTS

Monday, June 18, 2007

Fisheries and Oceans

Hon. Gerry Byrne (Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte, Lib.):

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans.

Members of the European Union are putting a squeeze on Canadian fishermen through an illegal ban on seal products. In a flagrant violation of international trade law, Belgium has now banned Canadian seal products on the basis of domestic public concern.

Action must be taken by the government before other EU members consider enacting similar bans due to a perceived lack of consequences.

Will the minister and his colleagues formerly commit to launching WTO actions against EU members that are illegally banning Canadian seal products?

Hon. Loyola Hearn (Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, CPC):
Mr. Speaker, the hon. member's question is actually a pretty good one.

First, let me ensure that everyone knows the EU itself has not banned or will not ban seal products. It has admitted that the seal hunt is conservationist. Second, it is looking now at the humaneness of the hunt, and we hope to be able to prove that also.

Individual member states, some of them including Belgium, have banned seal and seal products. This is a serious precedent. We cannot put up with it and we will take action.


Meanwhile here is an interesting fact: Norway is the largest importer of Canadian seal pelts, but it is not an EU member.

The anti-seal campaign focuses on Canada and our seal hunt quotas, but overlooks the fact that the Greenland hunt also hauls in as many seals as Canada does. Though in the case of Greenland the hunt is conducted by indigenous natives, while in Canada it is conducted by the descendants of Ireland and Scotland.

What gets overlooked in this whole debate is that the seal hunt is sustainable, and that quotas can be reduced. That would be the environmentally sound thing to do. However those who oppose the hunt offer nothing but a complete ban on the hunt, which would have just as negative an impact as an uncontrolled hunt.




An Enviro's Case for Seal Hunt

Cuter than cod

Opponents prefer sentiment to sustainability.

By Terry Glavin
Published: March 7, 2007

The Newfoundland seal hunt is transparently and demonstrably sustainable and humane. There are roughly half a million people in Newfoundland and Labrador, and nearly six million harp seals, which is almost three times as many seals as when I was a kid.

Canada's Annual Seal Slaughter


Meanwhile, a mini trade war is brewing. It looks to be more than just a minor spat. Over a week ago, outraged by the seal hunt, the German minister of agriculture proposed to bring a bill in front of the Bundestag banning the importation of sealskins or any related products from Canada. Sure enough, as the ice beings to melt, Ottawa took immediate counter-measures.

A Canadian member of parliament from Newfoundland, the province that benefits the most from the seal trade, now seeks to forbid the importation of German boar and dear meat. This diplomatic tit for tat is unlikely to stop the seal hunt. However, the issue is nevertheless a very hot one in Europe. Germany, as mentioned above, is considering a ban on seal products; Belgium has already banned them. And Britain is pushing for a European Union wide ban.

Britain blasted for backing seal ban


Canada reacts angrily to UK's support for full boycott of animal products on eve of cull

Juliette Jowit in Newfoundland
Sunday February 11, 2007
The Observer


Canada has attacked Britain's 'moral' decision to support a Europe-wide boycott of all seal products, as hunters prepare for the annual cull of around 300,000 baby seals.

At present Europe bans only products made from seals under 12 days old, known as 'whitecoats', but the UK is putting pressure on the rest of the EU to join Belgium and Italy, as well as the United States and Mexico, in introducing a blanket rejection of the industry, which is worth £22m to Canada. The Canadian government is frustrated that the British position is based on 'public morality concerns' rather than scientific evidence.



Greenland to Challenge Belgium If Sealskin Is Banned (Update1). Bloomberg (2007)

Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Greenland will sue Belgium if ``fanatics'' there succeed in banning sealskin imports, a move that would violate European Union law and cripple the livelihood of Inuit hunters, the foreign minister said.

The island has set up a taskforce with Denmark to stop sealskin bans in the EU, the Danish foreign ministry said today. If Belgium passes such a law, Greenland's foreign minister said he'll ask the European Commission to take legal action against the country for violating the law of the internal market.

Greenland's indigenous population, the Inuits, kill about 180,000 seals each year for meat and skin. The island's hunters mainly kill adult seals and use rifles rather than clubs. Sealskin is one of a few exports other than fish and shrimp for the semi- autonomous Danish territory.

``Belgian politicians are afraid of strong animal welfare activists and fanatics, and that will harm an innocent country,'' Josef Motzfeldt, Greenland's minister for finance and foreign affairs, said in a telephone interview late yesterday from the capital city of Nuuk. ``If Belgium passes this law, many other EU countries might follow.''


BRUSSELS, BELGIUM--( 25 Jan 2007) - In a landmark unanimous vote, the Belgian Parliament has banned the import of all seal products.

"We applaud the Belgian Government for taking this historic step and reducing the demand for seal products derived from a cruel and unnecessary commercial seal hunt," said Lesley O'Donnell, IFAW EU Director.

"We hope the Belgian example will encourage other European nations to adopt their own national bans, closing the door on the trade in seal products."

Across Europe there is a groundswell of opposition to Canada's commercial seal hunt.

The German Parliament voted unanimously on a motion urging the government to ban seal products, just one month after the EU Parliament passed a Written Declaration in support of an EU-wide trade ban.

"There is a clear message being sent to the Government of Canada," said Olivier Bonnet, IFAW Director, Canada.

"It is time the Canadian Government stopped propping up an industry which has no future.

"In light of this ban, and the Government's own scientific data showing the current hunt is unsustainable, the commercial seal hunt must end."


A Victory for Seals in Europe | Humane Society International - Canada

September 8, 2006

By Rebecca Aldworth

Strasbourg, France—Today is a truly historic day for the seals. On Sept. 6, the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling upon the European Commission, the executive body of the European Union, to ban all trade in harp and hooded seal products. This is a crucial step towards the passage of legislation that will save millions of seals from a horrible fate.

The pups are killed for their fur, most of which is traded in European fashion markets. When the European Union bans the trade in all products from harp and hooded seals—regardless of their age—it will eliminate a market essential to Canada's commercial sealing industry. Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands are already in the process of implementing their own bans.

Clearly, Canada's Fisheries minister, Loyola Hearn, understands the enormity of such a ban. Last week he traveled to Belgium, attempting to convince that country to reconsider a prohibition on the import of seal products. In a statement that drew some criticism from his countrymen, Hearn said that Belgium's ban would take "the livelihood away from a number of Canadians whose family members left their blood on the fields here in Belgium, Flanders fields and other places" during World War II.



See:

A Word From Our Sealers

Not So Cute Seals

Seals Threaten Fish

Royal Newfoundlanders Died For the Seal Hunt

Your Anti-Sealing Donation At Work




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Worthington In His Own Words

Do as I say not as I do. Why is Peter Worthington defending Lord Black, perhaps loyalty amongst the right wing ruling class that dominate Canada's media.

Defending the dark Lord would at first appear a contradiction since Peter Worthington likes to advocate for the common people and common sense. (read right wing populism)

As for the media, the one thing the media should have is common sense. They are the great conduit of knowledge to the people. They have to reduce the complex to the simple, and dispense it.


Despite his 'common volk' screed his credentials make him a member of the ruling class.


I suspect Mr. Worthington comes by his forthrightness quite naturally. It may not be generally known that his father was Major General F. F. Worthington, popularly known as "Fighting Frank" and the acknowledged father of the Canadian Armoured Corps.

Peter Worthington himself served in World War II as an air gunner with the Fleet Air Arm, and as an officer of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry in Korea where he was, incidentally, his battalion's intelligence officer and as such an expert on secret information. But he is first and foremost a journalist and indeed his writing talents were most evident in his military career. General Lewis Mackenzie.


Full of contradictions Worthington complained about office politics at the Sun while conveniently overlooking his own family connections.
We have a fairly active and energetic board of directors at The Sun, who think they know more about journalism than they do, and they all seem to have relatives, nieces and nephews who are unemployed, and this suits them ideally, in their minds, to work on newspapers as reporters. It's insulting, in a way, when one is in the business. They don't last that long, but just the fact that they arrive is rather upsetting. Peter Worthington

Worthington is the step-father of conservative writer Danielle Crittenden, and is thereby David Frum's father-in-law.


Worthington of course has no use for academics which is why he was an FBI spy in the sixties and seventies.

In our country in the sixties the universities were the arenas of revolutionary idealism. The people who should have been defending academic freedom, the academics, were often cowed or convinced not only to tolerate the nonsense on the campuses, but to actually participate in it and in cases to lead it. The university should not be an arena for revolution, although all the revolutionaries have come from the academic world--Marx, Engels, Lenin, Trotsky, Mao, Castro, Allende. I think you could state a law that common sense tends to deteriorate in direct proportion to the amount of exposure a person has to the academic environment.

Worthington was criticized when it was revealed that he had informed to the American Federal Bureau of Investigation about the suspected political sympathies of a number of his friends including June Callwood.


The value of Peters advocacy journalism well lets leave him with the last word.

But the members of the media in this country have no training whatsoever. Journalism has become trendy, it has become fashionable. All it takes to become a journalist is the nerve and the opportunity. That's how I got into it! But we have no particular skills. Most of us type with two fingers; we can't take shorthand. The greenest stenographer entering the job market has more mechanical skills than the most exalted journalist at the end of his career.


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A Captain of Industry

I see my post here has caused some comments from the rightwhingnuts. It is amazing to see the folks who line up behind Lord Black of Cumuppance Harbour, a would be aristocrat and ruthless tyrant over his press empire. Folks like Sun writer and right wing bon vivant Peter Worthington who have been bemoaning his trial as class war.

They all praise Lord Black for being a hard working Captain of Industry. Except they seem to over look that he sunk his ship, leaving the women and children (shareholders, the little people, etc.) to fend for themselves as he and his wife made off like bandits.

Those on the right love their aristocrats. So much so that they create their own little family compacts. Damn shame about the end of feudalism.



Also See:


Conrad Black

Criminal Capitalism

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Tories Blame Premiers for Equalization Crisis

So really it wasn't the Gnu Conservative government that failed the Atlantic Provinces it was the other premiers. They insisted that Jim Flaherty come up with an equalization formula that broke their promise not to claw back resource revenues.

From Hansard Thursday June 14

Hon. Jim Flaherty (Minister of Finance, CPC)
:
Mr. Speaker, as all members know, the premiers had many meetings with the Council of the Federation and they were unable to come to an agreement with respect to the equalization.

The premiers, including all the premiers of the receiving provinces, have been asking for more than two decades for fiscal equity in terms of equalization in Canada and for a 10 province, principle based formula. That is what we have been able to arrive at.

Indeed, the premiers have been asking for a principle based, predictable, long term formula for equalization in Canada. We had an experts panel look at that. Yes, it is necessary that the national government act on this because the premiers could not agree.


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Nuclear NIMBY

Unlike many opponents to nuclear power use in the Alberta tar sands, I am not anti-CANDU.

I support the use of CANDU as the safest low volume residue reactors in the world. That their need for continuing capitalization for maintenance is what has been problematic in the case of the industry in Ontario. Had the world adopted CANDU disasters like Three Mile Island or Chernobyl would never have occurred, because the technologies are different.


That being said, as a power engineer I oppose the use of Nuclear power in the Tarsands, as inefficient and not cost effective, because it will be used for steam injection of bitumen rather than for production of electricity. This will take up larger volumes of water, and further pollute the existing Athabasca river with heated effluent.

Nuclear power might be all the rage for some interested parties in Alberta's oil patch, but others question the need for such controversial power generation in an industry that requires more steam than electricity.
And let's understand that is what is being proposed for the tarsands, not just an electrical plant but one for steam and electrical production needed for bitumen production.

He was one of a small delegation of community leaders from Peace River, interested in visiting New Brunswick’s nuclear power plant. Whitecourt and Peace River are in the running to host Western Canada’s first nuclear plant, putting it about an hour’s drive from the B.C. border. It’s proposed for northwestern Alberta due to the presence of bitumen trapped in rock west of the main oilsands deposits.

Nuclear power may soon run deep electric heaters to extract that rockbound oil, reduce emissions for conventional oilsands extraction and perhaps light northeastern B.C. homes. It would spur the proposed pipeline to deliver the black gold to the west coast at Kitimat and on to Asia, and further cement the merger of Alberta and B.C. into Canada’s western super-province.


The prize Royal Dutch is chasing is bitumen trapped in hard-rock limestone, rather than the conventional oil sands around Fort McMurray where bitumen is mixed with dirt and sandstone.

The Anglo-Dutch energy giant is the likeliest customer for a nuclear power plant proposed by Energy Alberta Corp., a private company working with Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.Unlocking the multibillion-barrel bonanza encased in limestone requires an astounding amount of electricity.

The resource has been known for decades but efforts to recover it have failed.

Royal Dutch is working on electric heaters below ground to loosen up the gooey bitumen to draw it to the surface through wells.

The firm is trying to commercialize what it calls a "novel thermal recovery process" invented by Shell's technology arm.


But because companies in the oilsands are now becoming conservationists due to the provinces carbon tax, they are finding alternatives to nuclear power in other fuels they generate as waste.

oil companies are already moving rapidly towards cheaper, more efficient technologies than those used for the past 20 years, one representative said.

''Nuclear may be an option in five to 10 years from now, but in the meantime, people are already moving off of natural gas and moving on to other things,'' Greg Stringham, with the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers said.

In the meantime, gasification of asphaltines, the dregs of the bitumen barrel, is one process being piloted in the oil sands as an alternative fuel, and underground fires fueled by oily air is another revolutionary technology being piloted to reduce costs in the oil sands, Stringham said.


So the guy who once was the leader of the Young Conservatives in Alberta now has to find a different market for his nuclear power plant. While still hoping to sell it to the oil companies as a possible mode for steam injection processes.

Energy Alberta, with partner Crown corporation Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., originally targetted the energy-hungry oil sands in its sales pitch, but has moved on to focus on Alberta in general. ''The purpose of this plant is to produce electricity only,'' spokesman Guy Huntingford said. ''Obviously hydrogen and steam are byproducts of it, but that's not why it's being built; it's being built purely for electricity, so we can place the plant anywhere.''

Nuclear power production of electricity is cleaner than coal, even when considering the environmental impact of both its energy source; uranium mining and fresh water, and its waste problems. It is also less environmentally damaging in comparison to the impact of hydro plants.

In fact nuclear power was one alternative source that M.K. Hubert recommended when offering alternatives to oil consumption in his Peak Oil theory.

The Green NGO's and their campaigners target nuclear power because they equate it with two false premises; fear of radiation, and fear of nuclear war.

They equate peaceful nuclear power with the military industrial complex, and they play on peoples fear of radiation.

There are all kinds of other problems with nuclear energy, including safety (even if technology has improved there is no such thing as a 100% accident proof anything, and a nuclear accident is the stuff of nightmares), dangerous waste (there is no way to get rid of nuclear waste at this time and the plant to be built would store all waste on site), environmental concerns (water would be drawn from the Peace River and that could mean pollution or an effect on local ecosystems), security (governments say nuclear power and nuclear waste are potential terrorist targets), and scarcity (uranium is a limited, non-renewable resource).

Facing reality
Editorial - Monday, June 18, 2007 @ 08:00

Not in my backyard. The call is going out loud and clear. In fact, it has been reverberating in both political and community circles ever since it was realized nuclear energy generates waste that must be stored somewhere.

As recorded in Saturday's Nugget, Nipissing-Timiskaming MP Anthony Rota has grave doubts about the whole concept of burying nuclear waste.

Rota is both a cancer victim and survivor. He cannot be thanked or commended too much for having the courage to admit his experience with cancer, and always being at the forefront in every effort to fight this dreaded disease.

Nuclear waste is radioactive. Radiation causes cancer. Rota speaks for millions of Canadians who are afraid of the stuff and do not want it in their backyards
Radioactive waste is the trouble with nuclear power says the right wing Green NGO Energy Probe which opposes nuclear power because they are shills for King Coal.

Dealing with the waste produced by nuclear reactors is one area that constantly dogs the nuclear power industry. Norman Rubin, director of nuclear research for the anti-nuclear organization Energy Probe, believes the waste is the primary problem with the technology.


The real problem is that with Canada's state funded CANDU, uranium industry and its provincial funded utilities,etc. the control lies with a closed group of state sanctioned corporations like Atomic Energy Canada, which have no public transparency, with no public representation on the board; union, consumer, engineering associations, MP's, etc.


The licensing of more reactors would also be a great boon, at potentially greater public expense, to Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd, which has received subsidies of $17.5 billion over 50 years, according to the Campaign for Nuclear Phaseout.

Widespread distrust of existing agencies led Canadians to call for a new independent, non-partisan oversight body to keep tabs on how both government and industry handle nuclear waste.

This message means that top elected officials in Ottawa and the provinces must "revisit the mandates of existing oversight bodies in the nuclear field," concludes the report. Bodies like the federal regulator, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, will need to have a "very public face."


Where our concern has to be is the privatization of nuclear power, it is when plants like that at Three Mile Island or worse; Hanford, are built by Westinghouse and contractors in a P3 with the State that slip shod construction and maintenance leads to critical problems.

The same kind of cronyism that saw the MIC in the U.S. build nuclear power plants was the kind of cronyism that occurred when the Soviet State built its MIC nuclear power plant in the Ukraine. After all Ukrainians were expendable just like the nice folks around Hanford, or those who live in the Nevada desert.

CANDU was a state sponsored engineered and maintained nuclear power process plant different from the Westinghouse and other designs. It was during the Harris and Martin governments rush to privatize and cut back public sector funding that resulted in the Bruce plant in Ontario running into problems.
Bruce is now operated by a more public corporation which includes the Power Workers Union.

But in the Post-Kyoto era all that has changed. Those who once talked about selling off government assets now embrace them and are promoting them not only in Alberta but internationally.

Stephen Harper would seem an unlikely pitchman for nuclear power. When the Prime Minister launches into his familiar spiel about Canada as an emerging "energy superpower," we all think we know what he's talking about -- he's an Alberta MP, after all, and his father worked for Imperial Oil. Yet in a key speech last summer in London, his most gleeful boast was not about record oil profits, but about soaring uranium prices. "There aren't many hotter commodities, so to speak, in the resource markets these days," Harper joked to the Canada-U.K. Chamber of Commerce crowd. Then, noting that Britain is among those countries poised to begin buying new reactors for the first time in decades, he added: "We'll hope you remember that Canada is not just a source of uranium; we also manufacture state-of-the-art CANDU reactor technology, and we're world leaders in safe management of fuel waste."


And in response to the key criticism of waste storage these leaders in the 'safe management of fuels", a state sanctioned private conglomerate of nuclear power companies, have blown the dust off another old proposal from the seventies; using the Canadian Shield to store radioactive waste. Not much of a different plan than that used by the US. And one opposed by the Canadian public.
Canada's Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn announced Friday the Harper government's endorsement of nuclear power and its approval of going ahead with storing high-level radioactive waste underground.

The Conservatives' announcement allows existing reactor sites to continue accumulating waste indefinitely, and it initiates a search for an "informed community" willing to host a "deep repository" for burial of wastes. It will also explore moving wastes to a central location for temporary, shallow underground storage and recycling of nuclear fuel.

As Susan Riley writes in today's Ottawa Citizen, "Apart from the experimental nature of the proposed solution, many hurdles remain — notably, finding a community desperate enough to become a nuclear dumping ground. It has been long supposed that some remote northern town would be the lucky winner, given the technological preference for disposing of the waste deep in the Canadian shield. But recent research suggests the sedimentary rock underlying much of southern Ontario would also be suitable. That said, the prospect of a bidding war between Oakville and Rosedale appears unlikely."

Lunn said the planned depository would cost billions of dollars but said the cost would be borne by the nuclear industry.

It would take 60 years to find a location, build the facility and then transport in the used fuel.

The Atomic Energy Control Board (AECB) regulates this waste, which is currently stored safely and economically in water-filled pools or in dry concrete canisters at the nuclear reactor sites. While there is no technical urgency to proceed toward disposal right away, the issue needs to be addressed partly because the volume of the waste is growing, and partly because the Government has recognized a public concern that a disposal option needs to be identified. In 1978, AECL began a comprehensive program to develop the concept of deep geological disposal of nuclear fuel waste in igneous rock of the Canadian Shield. AECL, assisted by Ontario Hydro, subsequently developed the detailed proposal that is the subject of a public environmental review process by the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency. Public hearings began on March 11, 1996, and are expected to continue until the end of the year.

Subsequently, in 1978, the Governments of Canada and Ontario established the Nuclear Fuel Waste Management Program “to assure the safe and permanent disposal of nuclear fuel waste”. In this program, the responsibility for research and development on disposal in a deep underground repository in intrusive igneous rock was allocated to Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL).

As it stands, the AECL concept for deep geological disposal has not been demonstrated to have broad public support. The concept in its current form does not have the required level of acceptability to be adopted as Canada’s approach for managing nuclear fuel wastes.

Ignoring a 1998 recommendation by a federal environmental panel (the Seaborn Panel) to create an impartial radioactive waste agency, the Chretien government in 2002 gave control of the Nuclear Waste Management Organization to the nuclear industry - namely Ontario Power Generation, Hydro Quebec and New Brunswick Power. Also in 2002 the federal Nuclear Fuel Waste Act gave NWMO a three-year mandate to choose between (a) "deep geological disposal in the Canadian Shield"; (b) "storage at nuclear sites"; and (c) "centralized storage, either above or below ground". NWMO must make its final recommendation to the federal government by November 15, 2005.

The Nuclear Fuel Waste Act results from the response of the Canadian federal government (December 1998) to the recommendations of the report of the Environmental Review panel (March 1998) on AECL's nuclear fuel waste management proposal. The report concluded that the plan for Deep Geological Disposal is technically sound, and that nuclear waste would be safely isolated from the biosphere, but that it remains a socially unacceptable plan in Canada. The report makes several recommendations, including the creation of an independent agency to oversee the range of activities leading to implementation. The scope will include complete public participation in the process. (See also the author's March 1998 editorial on this subject, and a detailed critique by industry observer J.A.L. "Archie" Robertson, published in the Bulletin of Canadian Nuclear Society, vol. 2 and 3, 1998)

Over a study and consultation period of three years the NWMO was mandated to choose among three storage concepts and propose a site:

  • Deep underground in the Canadian Shield
  • Above-ground at reactor sites
  • Or at a centralized disposal area

The final report of the NWMO was released in November 2005, recommending a strategy of "Adaptive Phased Management". The strategy is based upon a centralized repository concept, but with a phase approach that includes public consultation and "decision points" along the way, as well as several concepts associated with centralized storage (vs. disposal), and the ability to modify the long-term strategy in accordance with evolving technology or societal wishes. The approach of Adaptive Phased Management was formally accepted by the federal government on June 14, 2007.

The NWMO is financed from a trust fund set up by the nuclear electricity generators and AECL. These companies were required to make an initial payment of $550 million into the fund: Ontario Power Generation (OPG), contributed $500 million, Hydro-Quebec and New Brunswick Power each paid $20 million, and AECL contribute $10 million. The participants are also required to make annual contributions ranging between $2 million and $100 million (one-fifth of their respective initial contributions).

Another important component of the disposal plan is the transportation of nuclear fuel to the disposal site. In Canada this aspect is the responsibility of the Ontario utility, Ontario Power Generation Inc.. Special transport casks have been designed that are able to withstand severe accidents. The battery of tests applied to these casks include being dropped 9 metres onto a hardened surface, exposure to an 800 degrees Celsius fire for 30 minutes, and immersion in water for 8 hours. The development of such specialized containers has proceeded in parallel with efforts in other countries. Sandia Labs in the U.S., in particular, has published some remarkable photographs of severe crash tests performed on one such design.




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Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Why Not?

‘You can’t convict Lord Black for being rich’ Why not. He got his ill gotten wealth like all other wealthy folks from theft or inheritance, which is just theft from long ago. And his hero is that other Chicagoan famous for being wealthy through crime; Al Capone

Also See:


Conrad Black

Criminal Capitalism

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A Deal Is A Deal

Defying the Harpocrites expectations of pulling a fast one over the Atlantic Accord expecting it to all pass by due to the infamous culture of defeat, today their anti-equalization budget faces opposition in the Senate from none other than the Conservative voice of Atlantic Canada; John Crosby. And he is not in favour of the Harpocrites budget. Nope not by a long shot.

Former East Coast Tory godfather John Crosbie sent two me­mos to Prime Minister Stephen Har­per in a vain attempt to convince him to honour the 2005 offshore accords be­tween Ottawa and Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador.

The memos provide a strong argu­ment in support of those, like Nova Scotia Tory MP Bill Casey, who argue that Mr. Harper and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty have violated the ac­cords with the March budget.

Certainly, few people know more about the issue than Mr. Crosbie, who was instrumental in negotiating the 1980s deals under which the Conserva­tives under Brian Mulroney ceded con­trol of offshore petroleum to Nova Sco­tia and Newfoundland.

“The authors of the Atlantic council report concluded that this government's budget ‘violates the letter and the spirit of the accords,’" said Deputy Leader Michael Ignatieff. “Even former Conservative Minister of Finance John Crosby said ‘they're changing the equalization formula so that it will cancel out the principles of the accord.’

Meanwhile the rage spreads as more Atlantic provinces realize the Tories have created a two tier form of equalization.

While the new equalization formula will provide New Brunswick with a $68-million increase in revenue for the first two years, the province will receive, from 2009 through 2020, a stunning $1.1-billion less than it would have under the existing framework. While Mr. Harper talks about fixing equalization, not only has he broken his promise to honour the Atlantic Accord in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, but he also has created two classes of equalization.

Acadia University’s Paul Hobson and Memorial’s Wade Locke have done better than running to court. In a study released last week, they ran the numbers on the two equalization options presented in the budget – the old "fixed framework" that uses a five-province standard and the new "O’Brien formula" that upgrades to a 10-province standard, excludes some resource revenues and introduces a cap to claw back equalization if resource revenues push a have-not province above Ontario’s theoretical taxing capacity.

The bottom line: The new system is a financial bust for all four Atlantic provinces over the next 13 years, whether or not they have resource accords with Ottawa.

Jim Bickerton of St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish believes the political battle surrounding the federal budget underscores a lack of understanding between the federal Conservative government and Atlantic Canada.

Bickerton says any attempt by Ottawa to portray the new equalization deal contained in the recent federal budget as a "fair and generous offer" for Nova Scotia and Newfoundland misses the point about why they were given offshore agreements in the first place.

"The symbolism of this went much deeper than simply just a broken agreement," he says.

Agreements signed in 2005 with Paul Martin’s Liberal government protected the two provinces’ offshore oil and gas revenues from federal equalization clawbacks. After a long and at times dramatic fight dubbed the "Campaign for Fairness," the deals were heralded as key economic development tools.

The current equalization offer forces the provinces to choose between a new formula or their offshore deals, a choice both fear could cost them millions of dollars over the long term.

"The broken trust was that the federal government had more or less admitted that this was the region’s one great opportunity to reverse its historic subordinate position within the federation and that it was willing to support them in doing that," says Bickerton.

Locke's work on equalization and the Atlantic Accord have been followed closely in political circles.

This spring, when he determined that Newfoundland and Labrador would actually benefit from the new equalization formula, federal Conservatives championed his work.

However, Locke dramatically revised his analysis when he obtained full details from the federal Finance Department on how the new equalization formula will work.

He found that Newfoundland and Labrador will not only lose money as compared to the status quo, but the province would have received about $11 billion more over the next 13 years had Prime Minister Stephen Harper maintained a 2006 pledge on equalization.

As an Albertan I empathize with the Maritimes. We were there once, in the thirties, despite our coal reserves, it was not enough to keep us afloat as the feds took the resource monies and gave us back a smidgen called equalization.

It was when we struck oil, and had the oil barons take over the State that we declared our constitutional autonomy through provincial control of our natural resources.

Alberta today pays into the equalization payments to other provinces. Not just Ontario. Which irks me no end when the Conservatives talk about capping equalization at the Ontario level. What about the Alberta level, well they don't want to mention Alberta since that might wake up the sleeping giant which hates Ottawa.

Yep you see the broken promise to Atlantic Canada goes along with a letter sent to Saskatchewan and Alberta promising to respect provincial resource rights and not include them in the equalization formula. Signed by the Grande Fromage his-self.

So once the Atlantic Accord was signed it set the conditions for Nova Scotia and Newfoundland to benefit from their offshore resources just like Alberta and Saskatchewan can from their inland resources.

Those resources being oil and gas. Which seem to be unique when it comes to the federal government. Unlike say mining, or hydro-electric power, two resources Ontario and Quebec have but are never considered part of the equalization formula, past or present.

The federal state controls offshore oil and gas reserves in a paternalistic fashion for the good of the provinces where they are. They still control the offshore resources 'in trust' for Nunavut, until such time as that 'territory' actually becomes a province.

Having to give up such a lucrative source of funds, is hard to do. And the Liberals were forced into expanding the Atlantic Accord originally signed by the Mulroney Conservatives. In doing so they gave the Atlantic provinces their just due.

The Harpocrite Conservative opposition demanded the Martin government honour 'their commitment' made during the 2004 election. A promise Harper went on to reiterate in the 2006 election.

But he broke that promise, by tying the provincial rights to resource revenues to equalization payments, a bit of sugar for two years and then claw backs. Albertans would never stand for this kind of treatment, regardless of the party in power in Ottawa.

And the Atlantic premiers as well as Lorne Calvert are correct in admonishing Albertans that Harpers betrayal bodes ill for us as well. Unfortunately it has fallen on deaf ears since the Calgary School Conservatives dominate both the Federal party and Stelmach's regime in Alberta.

It's a matter of fairness. The Maritimes could well become self sufficient with their oil revenues. And then and only then should equalization payments end, as they have with the former have not province of Alberta.


Equalization & The Atlantic Accord - 'A Deal is A Deal' Petition

Nova Scotia Premier Rodney MacDonald is encouraging all Nova Scotians and all Canadians to send a strong and united message to Ottawa by signing a petition on Nova Scotia's website.

www.gov.ns.ca/accord


The only problem with the petition is there is no space to put your city or province. So I used the space for phone number (optional).




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Democracy Israeli Style

Not satisfied with the government elected by the Palestinian people, well simply refuse to fund it and allow for internecine conflicts until your side wins or declares itself a winner.

Which is just what Israel has done, in recognizing the Fatah/Abbas Government in the West Bank. Thus signaling the U.S., Canada and Europe that it is the government they want funded.

In fact it was the only government they ever wanted, and the Palestinians and democracy can be ignored.

Bush and Olmert seek to prop up Abbas

Analysis: Gaza sanctions may increase tension

Gazans Adjust to Power Shift as New Rulers Revel in Their Victory

Analysis: Limits of Democracy Talk

“Israel, Hamaza, and the Fatah Bank: A Three State Solution?




See:

Israel


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