Bold and cautious? Dissecting the Supreme Court’s Insite ruling

“Insite saves lives. Its benefits have been proven.” With that blunt statement, the Supreme Court of Canada cuts to the heart of the matter: by denying Vancouver’s safe-injection facility, Insite, a further exemption from laws prohibiting drug possession, the federal government acts contrary to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The ruling stands as a razor-sharp rebuke of the federal government’s rather fragile position, at least as in terms of the insurmountable evidence that Insite averts deaths from overdose, helps prevent the spread of disease, and facilitates treatment and recovery. The Court’s decision also stands as a potential landmark in Canadian constitutional law, having considerable implications for the obligations the Charter increasingly imposes on government.

Before delving into these two important elements of the decision, it is worth noting what the Court does not do.

The decision does not privilege the provinces’ role in health care over the federal government’s ability to determine criminal law. This is not a case in which British Columbia and the other provinces won a jurisdictional battle. The federal Controlled Drugs and Substances Act remains intact. Although the decision likely paves the way for provinces to open new safe-injection facilities, the balance of power between the provinces and the federal government remains otherwise unchanged.

700 arrested on Brooklyn Bridge in NYC

About 700 of the demonstrators taking part in the Occupy Wall Street protest in New York City were arrested late Saturday during a march across the Brooklyn Bridge.

In a statement, NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne said protesters received multiple warnings by police to stay on the pedestrian walkway, and were told that if they took the roadway they would be arrested. “Some complied and took the walkway without being arrested,” Browne said. “Others proceeded on the Brooklyn-bound vehicular roadway and were.”

Protesters dispute Browne’s account of the events. Many of those present at the march say they were duped by the NYPD. “The NYPD started leading protesters onto the roadway,” says Michael Pellagatti, 24, who was arrested and held in a public transit bus for four hours before spending the night in a jail cell in Brooklyn. “My ticket says, ‘blocking vehicular traffic’ but I don’t understand that. The NYPD was already blocking off traffic to begin with,” Pellagatti told Maclean’s, showing off his ticket and plasti-cuffs. “We had the general sense that they were blocking the street to allow us to cross to Brooklyn.”

The Occupy Wall Street protest in downtown Manhattan started two weeks ago after activists responded to a call by Adbusters magazine. The Vancouver-based publication encouraged readers to start a movement against the financial system they say brought down the U.S. economy in 2008. As of Sunday morning, some 200 protesters had spent the night in a makeshift encampment in Zuccotti Park—a stone’s throw from Wall Street—which has come to serve as the nerve centre for the budding movement.

Origin
Source: Maclean's  

Occupy Wall St. protest to march into Canada

Activists are planning an occupation of Toronto's financial district as well as other Canadian cities following in the footsteps of protesters currently camped out on Wall Street in New York City.

A group calling itself Occupy Toronto Market Exchange has launched a website to organize a march on Bay Street beginning Oct. 15.

That's a Saturday, when the stock exchange is closed and few people are working in Canada's financial capital.

About 830 people on Facebook have replied they would attend the event in Toronto.

Occupations are also planned in the streets in other Canadian cities, including Vancouver, Montreal and Calgary.

South of the border, protesters speaking out against corporate greed and other grievances remain in Manhattan's financial district.

They are holding their ground even after more than 700 of them were arrested Saturday during a march on the Brooklyn Bridge in a tense confrontation with police.

The group Occupy Wall Street has been camped out in a plaza for nearly two weeks staging various marches, and had orchestrated an impromptu trek to Brooklyn.

Protesters are speaking out against corporate greed, government bailouts, and income inequality amid high unemployment and the prospect of another recession.

Canada's economic growth has been slowing, leading some to believe this country could also be headed for recession.

Origin
Source: CBC 

Conservatives set to table bill forcing unions to open books

The Conservatives are set to take another hit at labour organizations, this time through a private member’s bill designed to force Canada’s unions to open their books to the public.

The legislation is set to be tabled in the House on Monday afternoon by Conservative MP Russ Hiebert, who has won a draw allowing him to be the first parliamentarian to present his private member’s bill.

The bill’s content is still confidential, but its title shows it will seek to change the rules governing labour organizations under the Income Tax Act, which exempts unions, along with charities and municipalities, from paying taxes. If adopted, the bill will force unions “to apply financial disclosure rules” that are already in place for charities, said a source, given the tax benefit that they receive.

The proposed bill is part of continued efforts in recent months by the Conservatives to take on Canada’s unions, which are key backers of the NDP.

Occupy Wall Street Arrests: An Eyewitness View

Joshua Stephens, 33, had joined the protest march and had ended up on the Brooklyn Bridge. He managed to avoid being one of the 500 or so penned in by the NYPD and arrested. HuffPost reached him by phone, and he provided a first-hand narrative of just what happened on the bridge:

"The people who plotted the march did not give out the route in advance. There were people stationed throughout the march in the procession who were helping guide us when it was time to turn. They told people at the beginning 'we have a route, we're not announcing it.' I think that was a reaction to what happened before when the cops pepper-sprayed those women up in Union Square.

I was a little surprised when we got down to City Hall, and people started turning onto the Brooklyn Bridge. The Brooklyn Bridge is generally choked with tourists, just choked with tourists. If you are a cyclist, you just never take the Brooklyn Bridge...it's just a really frustrating experience...There's so many people on it all the time.

Ontario Election 2011: Mike Harris Still A Presence In Ontario Politics

TORONTO - He's been gone from politics and stayed largely out of public sight for almost a decade, yet former premier Mike Harris still casts a shadow across Ontario's political landscape.

Indeed, as the pace and rhetoric heated up ahead of the Oct. 6 election, the ghost of Harris seemed to have been invoked with the frequency of a favourite dead uncle at a seance.

"Harris plays so central a role in pre-election messaging in the run-up to the 2011 election that he really deserves royalties," Graham Murray, a long-time observer of the legislature, said before the campaign got underway formally.

While Harris, who has not surfaced — at least publicly — as part of Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak's campaign, Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty has made several disparaging allusions to the Harris era.

700 Arrested on Brooklyn Bridge as Occupy Wall Street Enters Third Week, Protests Grows Nationwide

The "Occupy Wall Street" protests in the financial district took a dramatic turn on Saturday when protesters tried to march across the Brooklyn Bridge. When police arrested 700 of the demonstrators, the event quickly turned into one of the largest arrests of non-violent protesters in recent history. Some protesters claim police lured them onto oncoming traffic on the bridge’s roadway; others said they did not hear instructions from police telling them to use the pedestrian walkway. Meanwhile, similar "Occupation" protests have spread to other cities, including Chicago, Boston and Los Angeles, where hundreds of protesters are now camped out in front of City Hall. We host a roundtable discussion with Marisa Holmes, an organizer with the main organizing group of Occupy Wall Street, called the General Assembly, Marina Sitrin, an attorney who is part of Occupy Wall Street’s legal working group, and Laurie Penny, a writer and journalist who reported on protests in London earlier this summer.

Origin
Source: Democracy Now! 

Settlement Reached Over Arrest of Amy Goodman, Democracy Now! Producers at 2008 GOP Convention

A final settlement has been reached in a federal lawsuit challenging the police crackdown on journalists reporting on the 2008 Republican National Convention and protests in St. Paul, Minnesota. Democracy Now! host and executive producer Amy Goodman, along with former producers Nicole Salazar and Sharif Abdel Kouddous, filed the lawsuit last year against the Minneapolis and St. Paul police departments, the Ramsey County Sheriff and United States Secret Service personnel. The lawsuit challenged the policies and conduct of law enforcement during the 2008 RNC that resulted in their arrests. They were among dozens of journalists arrested that week in St. Paul. The settlement includes $100,000 in compensation paid by the St. Paul and Minneapolis police departments and the Secret Service. The settlement also includes an agreement by the St. Paul police department to implement a training program aimed at educating officers regarding the First Amendment rights of the press and public with respect to police operations, including proper procedures for dealing with the press covering demonstrations.

Origin
Source: Democracy Now! 

Rick Perry Open To Sending U.S. Troops To Mexico To Battle Drug Cartels

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP/The Huffington Post) -- Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry says he is open to sending American troops to Mexico to help battle drug cartels.

Perry, the Texas governor, likens the situation to Colombia, where the government accepted American military support in battling the war on drugs.

Perry says the current violence may require similar military action.

He often calls for more National Guard troops to help protect the Mexican border and stem the flow of illegal immigration. But Saturday's comments go further. They indicate he's open to deepening America's military involvement across the border.

Andrew Breitbart Tells Unions To 'F**k Off', Calls Janeane Garofalo Hollywood's 'Sympathy F**k'

Andrew Breitbart helped kick off the Chicago Tea Party's TeaCon 2011 Convention in suburban Schaumburg Friday night -- and had some harsh words for unions and liberal actress Janeane Garofalo.

While addressing a crowd of cheering supporters, the conservative blogger began ripping on Garofalo for her vocal opposition to the Tea Party. The actress recently said that GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain "is probably well liked by some of the Republicans because it hides the racist elements of the Republican party."

Breitbart told the crowd that the word around Los Angeles--where he lives--is that Garofalo is "Hollywood's sympathy fuck." The crowd erupts in laughter.

Breitbart went on to call Nancy Pelosi a "bitch," according to Mediaite, and then slammed the unions for being critical of the Tea Party movement.