Canadians demand robo-call inquiry at protests nationwide

Protesters armed with placards and megaphones gathered in a number of Canadian cities across Canada on Sunday to call for a public inquiry into the robo-call election fraud scandal.

There were modest turnouts of several dozen in Halifax and Montreal while local media outlets estimated the turnout in Toronto was in the hundreds.

Protest organizers are calling for a full public inquiry into the robo-call scandal, in which thousands of voters got phone calls directing them away from the proper polling stations in last May's election.

Montreal demonstrator Alexandra Smith says she wants someone held accountable for the robo-calls to ensure Canada has fair and transparent elections.

The Liberals and New Democrats accuse the Conservatives of being behind the calls — a charge Prime Minister Stephen Harper denies.

Elections Canada is reviewing more than 31-thousand reports of Canadians receiving robo-calls.

About 42,000 people have signed an online petition for a public inquiry into the matter.

Protests were planned in other cities including Calgary, Regina and Victoria.

Original Article
Source: Globe
Author: Canadian Press

Why McGuinty can’t back down against teachers

A premier is not a president, nor even a prime minister. He can’t call up the TV networks to demand free air time for a fireside chat.

So when Dalton McGuinty wanted a heart-to-heart with the province’s 128,000 teachers, he took a shortcut: The premier posted a speech on YouTube.

It hasn’t quite gone viral. But 21,000 hits isn’t bad for his awkwardly upbeat sermon about tough love at the bargaining table.

Trouble is, teachers are in no mood to be strong-armed in contract negotiations. The main elementary teachers’ union stormed out of talks last month, raising the spectre of a messy confrontation between educators and the education premier.

This conflict is a family affair — and not just because the premier’s wife Terri teaches kindergarten. Teachers volunteered and voted for McGuinty’s Liberals in huge numbers during the past three elections.

They always got a good deal in return: generous raises (12.5 per cent over four years in a 2008 deal with most unions) and better classroom conditions (full-day kindergarten, caps on class sizes and more prep time).

Robocalls: Thousands expected to rally across Canada to denounce robocall scandal

Thousands of Canadians are expected to attend rallies across the country today to denounce the robocall scandal.

Organizers are calling it the National Day of Action Against Election Fraud.

Rallies are planned for more than two dozen locales, including all major cities from St. John’s to Victoria.

Organizers want a full public inquiry into the robocall scandal, in which thousands of voters got phone calls directing them away from the proper polling stations in last May’s election.

Jon Allen, who’s organizing Sunday’s rally in Toronto, says the scandal has “struck a nerve” because it suggests the last election may have been stolen.

In Toronto, the rally will begin at 2:30 p.m. at Yonge-Dundas square, followed by a march to the City Hall cenotaph.

The Liberals and New Democrats accuse the Conservatives of being behind the calls — a charge Prime Minister Harper denies.

Elections Canada is reviewing more than 31,000 reports of Canadians receiving robocalls.

Original Article
Source: Star
Author: The Canadian Press

Way to go, IDF!

Here we go again - a targeted killing; retaliation; retaliation to the retaliation. Here we go again - The reflexive act; the harsh rhetoric; the blindness. The Israel Defense Forces carries out a targeted killing. The Palestinian organizations avenge it - and it's the Palestinians instigating war and terrorism. MK Danny Danon (Likud) has, of course, already called for "all of those in possession of weapons in the Gaza Strip" to be targeted because of the "million people living under fire."

Those million people, in case you failed to get it, are the residents of southern Israel. Only they live under fire. By yesterday afternoon, the bodies of 15 Palestinians were already laid out on the other side of the Gaza border. There were eight people injured on this side, and the Iron Dome antimissile system chalked up the successful interception of 25 rockets.

This cyclical ritual of bloodletting always prompts two questions: "Who started it?" and "Whose is bigger?" It's as if both questions were straight from some preschool playground. The response to the first question is always mired in uncertainty, while the answer to the second is always razor-sharp.

Who started it? The IDF and the Shin Bet security service did. The impression is that they carry out the targeted killings whenever they can, and not whenever it is necessary.

Fear of fracking: How public concerns put an energy renaissance at risk

Chad Winters keeps his hand on his radio, politely giving orders to co-workers toiling at an oil property in a stretch of Alberta farmland.

“One tonne of 40/70,” Mr. Winters requests over the radio. “Three thirty-three, then hold till I tell you otherwise.”

Mr. Winters speaks a language few understand. He runs the show in the field when Trican Well Service Ltd. (TCW-T17.350.150.87%)is called in to perform a controversial technique used to gather oil and natural gas from impermeable rocks.

On this day, Trican is working for NAL Energy Corp. (NAE-T7.810.182.36%)near Bowden, about 100 kilometres north of Calgary. Trican is there to pump water, chemical and natural additives, and nitrogen down a well at frighteningly high pressure, with hopes of forcing fissures in the rocks thousands of metres below the surface. Sand will follow, propping open the cracks, allowing trapped oil to escape. The process is called hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking.

New Report Outlines Activities of Canadian Government to Undermine International Climate Action

Canadian Government’s Aggressive Promotion of Tar Sands Draws International Attention: Vigils at Canadian Missions in America and Europe 

Washington, DC; London, UK; Ottawa, Canada; Brussels, Belgium--(ENEWSPF)--March 8, 2012.  Hundreds gathered outside more than 20 Canadian diplomatic missions in the U.S. and European Union to voice concern and extend hope that Canada will reverse its international lobbying on behalf of highly destructive and polluting tar sands oil industry. The vigils were held in conjunction with a new report documenting the Canadian government’s aggressive lobbying to promote tar sand and stop international climate action.

“Yesterday, hundreds gathered at Canadian foreign missions to offer a prayer for peoples of all nations to remember that the land belongs to the future and is not ours to destroy,” said The Reverend Canon Sally G. Bingham, Interfaith Power & Light’s President. “We are concerned for our Earth, for she has a fever that will only be made worse by burning tar sands from Canada. We pray that people all over the world awaken to monumental climate-threats posed by the extraction and burning of tar sands oil.”

Follow links for a list of vigils and images of the events.

February Jobs Report: Beware Austerity

The jobs numbers released this morning contain good news almost across the board: nonfarm payroll employment rose by 227,000 jobs, above the 210,000 predicted by economists. Recent jobs numbers were also revised upwards: the Bureau of Labor Statistics says 284,000 jobs were added in January, not the initial estimate of 244,000. December actually saw 223,000 jobs added, not 203,000. This makes the three best months of hiring since the recession began.

The hiring came in nearly all-categories—both high-paying and low-paying sectors added workers. The service industry, mining, and professional services all added jobs. The manufacturing sector added 31,000 jobs, which is good news and a great news hook for President Obama’s visit to Virginia today, where he will announce a new manufacturing innovation initiative.

There are many reasons for the uptick, from businesses having reached productivity limits, thus requiring the addition of new workers to keep up with increasing demand, to auto manufacturing kicking back into gear after being disrupted by the earthquake in Japan one year ago today.

The Fox News Effect

Editor’s Note: A survey of habitual Fox News viewers by Fairleigh Dickinson University revealed that they become poorly informed about current events. But mere statistics fail to reveal the causes of this effect. Does habitual Foxwatching, for example, trigger some kind of brain trauma or cellular loss akin to Alzheimer’s disease? Or is the damage emotional and psychological, like PTSD? To study the Foxification Effect, we commissioned Marvin Kitman, a professional television critic who covered the box for thirty-five years at Newsday, to serve as a guinea pig in an experiment. 


The terms were these: the subject would go on a strict Fox News diet for two weeks and record its effects on him. At the end of the experiment, he would submit a report of his experience and his conclusions about how Fox News achieves the effects it has had on the millions of unfortunate Americans who make up its devoted audience. His study would then be sealed in a time capsule for six months, after which it would be published here. This way we could test the accuracy of the network pundits.


We can report that Kitman apparently suffered no permanent damage from his ordeal, though we continue to monitor his case. You can’t be too cautious about these experiments. Recall the filmmaker in the documentary Super Size Me, who ate only McDonald’s meals for thirty days. He ended up overweight and with heart palpitations. Or the heroic doctors in Dr. Walter Reed’s experiment (shown in the movie Yellow Jack), who let themselves be bitten to prove that mosquitoes were the carriers of yellow fever. They ended up dead.


Herewith, the relevant excerpts from Marvin Kitman’s Fox News Diary.

Occupy Wall Street In NYC On Pace To Run Out Of Money By End Of Month

NEW YORK, March 9 (Reuters) - The Occupy Wall Street group in New York is running low on money and on pace to run out by the end of the month, raising questions about the future of the movement that sparked a wave of nationwide protests against economic injustice six months ago.

Donations to the group, which raised about $500,000 within weeks of setting up camp in a park near Wall Street on Sept. 17, have slowed and with plans for an American Spring of protests it has set aside a remaining $90,000 into a fund established to bail arrested protesters out of jail.

A report by Occupy Wall Street's accounting group for the week ending March 2 showed it had $44,828 in a general fund in addition to the bail fund and warned that "at our current rate of expenditure, we will be out of money in THREE WEEKS."

The report - posted on the group's website http:// www.nycga.net - showed $1,556 had been raised that week, while $14,942 had been spent on the group's kitchen, street medics, New York City bus and subway passes, and printing costs.

Opposing Oil Sands Never 'A Charitable Act,' Senator Says

Conservatives in the Senate want to change the tax laws regarding environmental groups in Canada who protest energy projects.

According to a senior Conservative, any group that protests developing Alberta's oilsands should lose its charitable status.

"It should never be considered a charitable act to attack Canada's oilsands," said Senator Doug Finley in his speech as part of an inquiry into foreign foundations providing money to Canadian charities.

The inquiry was launched last week by Conservative Senator Nicole Eaton and is essentially a take note debate — a series of speeches by Conservative senators who are raising questions about how U.S. foundations are funnelling money into Canadian charities.

The Senate is focussing particularly on environmental charities, claim these charities use foreign money to protest everything from fish farming to expansion of the oilsands industry.