Hunger-striking chief rebuffs senator's, minister's offers to meet

OTTAWA -- Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan expressed concern on Tuesday for the health of a northern Ontario First Nations chief who is on a hunger strike near Parliament Hill.

In a letter sent to Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence on Christmas Day, Duncan said he was worried about the leader's well-being and urged her to end her protest.

Why is Our Public Discourse Aping Shock Jock Talk Radio?

The challenges were immense, but I took it on as a task of goodwill. We had been asked to assist in the peace negotiations between North and South Sudan, held in Kenya, and mediated by a very able and respected Kenyan ex-general.

It had been Africa's longest-running civil war and everything was on the table -- religion, tribalism, race-relations, oil, the rights of women and so on. There were to be three rounds of negotiations held over a couple of years -- extensive, frustrating and exhausting. Vitriol, obstinacy, blame, harsh words -- all these eventually gave way to what was ultimately a peace deal.

But what else was Canada going to do? We believed in democracy and supported United Nations efforts for decades in countries around the world. It's what we did best, and everyone knew it. We assist countries unfamiliar with democratic debate, finding the commonalities, or striking a compromise, and remind them that peace and citizenship matter. We have been world experts at it. This is democracy in action -- messy, guided, open, but eventually respectful and more dignified than enemies had experienced.

Julian Fantino’s New Heavenly Defence For Canada’s F-35 Purchase

Julian Fantino had a new defence Thursday for the Harper’s government’s purchase of the controversial F-35 stealth fighter. It seems that the procurement, and all other purchases for the Canadian Forces the government has underway for that matter, are shrouded in holiness and decency.

Associate Defence Minister Fantino found himself being questioned (once again) in the Commons about the F-35 purchase, with opposition MPs mentioning the report from Michael Byers that appeared in the new issue of the Canadian Foreign Policy Journal.

Fantino dismissed the report, saying that it came from Byers who he said was not only a leftist but also a failed NDP candidate. As well, the report was done in conjunction with the Rideau Institute, and Fantino said everyone knows they are leftists as well.

The NDP’s Matthew Kellway pointed out that the Byers report outlines the large number of technical problems with the F-35 (which by the way were originally raised by the Pentagon and U.S. officials). After all, he said, the Canadian government just found only last month that the F-35 can operate at night since that was when it conducted its first night flight. The Byers report, said Kellway, drives home the fact that the F-35 is a troubled and expensive program.

Not so, retorted Fantino, one of the biggest supporters of the F-35 purchase in the Harper government.

“The member opposite is referring to a failed NDP candidate who wrote this report, critical of everything that is holy and decent about this government’s efforts to provide our military men and women with the resources,” Fantino responded.

Kellway had his own take on Fantino’s comments. “It’s on a wing and a prayer that they’re moving forward on the F-35,” he said. “There’s no reasonable grounds, there’s no evidence available to suggest that this is the right plane, which is why we’re proposing that they put it out to tender, to determine what the right plane is.”

Below a photo of the F-35, an aircraft sent from heaven?

Original Article
Source: ottawacitizen  
Author: David Pugliese 

By attaching no strings, Flaherty binds irate provinces to health plan

Where was the first-ministers meeting? The tense communiqués? The last-minute proposal from Saskatchewan? The walkout by Quebec?

All gone, replaced Monday by a drab announcement from Finance Minister Jim Flaherty that, whatever the premiers say, lays what was supposed to be a major federal-provincial irritant to rest until well after the next federal election. Where was the fun in that?

Quebec Finance Minister Raymond Bachand denounced Mr. Flaherty’s new 13-year funding formula as “totally unacceptable.”

But in fact Quebec and every other provincial government has no choice but to accept it, at least for now. That’s because the Conservatives are asking for nothing in return.

Liberal prime ministers Paul Martin and Jean Chrétien caused no end of trouble because they wanted to impose national standards on the health system as the price for any increased funding.

But Stephen Harper has always believed that things work best when Ottawa and the provinces stick to their respective knitting. And since the federal government is attaching no conditions to this deal, thus requiring no protracted negotiations, it alone decides how much it will give.