Peter MacKay: 'Most Heinous' Offenders Could Spend Entire Lives Behind Bars

OTTAWA - Criminals who are convicted of the worst crimes — such as multiple murders or sex assaults on children — could spend the rest of their lives behind bars, with no chance of parole, under planned federal legislation.

Justice Minister Peter MacKay elaborated Friday on the government's plan, promised in this week's throne speech, to lock some criminals up and throw away the key.

Harper's Balanced Budget Bill Hasn't Worked So Well In The U.S.

OTTAWA - The Conservative government is promising to introduce a new balanced-budget bill, something that's already the law of the land in several provinces, all but one U.S. state and a slate of European countries.

But is there any real point to balanced-budget laws?

In the U.S. and Canada, they've left many states and provinces badly strapped for cash during tough economic times, and they're often scrapped anyway in the event of sputtering growth, grinding recessions or natural disasters.

Omar Khadr To Remain In Federal Prison, Edmonton Judge Rules

EDMONTON - An Edmonton judge has denied former Guantanamo Bay inmate Omar Khadr a transfer from a federal prison to a provincial jail.

Justice John Rooke dismissed an application from Khadr's lawyer that his 27-year-old client be moved out of the Edmonton Institution.

Canada-EU deal threatens Canada's water

Prime Minister Harper has just signed the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), and Canadians who care about our freshwater heritage should be deeply concerned for three reasons.

First, the massive increase in beef and pork exports that have been negotiated will put a terrible strain on our water supplies. Beef producers can now export close to 70,000 tonnes of beef to Europe and an undisclosed but higher amount of pork. Meat production is highly water intensive. It takes over 15 million litres of water to produce one tonne of beef, for example. Already Alberta’s dwindling water supplies are over-taxed by a beef industry that is rapidly expanding and expected to double its water footprint by 2025, according to an assessment done before this deal was signed. Intensive hog operations in Manitoba are killing Lake Winnipeg, their waste creating nutrient overload that covers over half the lake in blue green algae. To protect our precious watersheds, what we need is more sustainable and local food production, not massive new trade deals that will strain our water sources beyond their capacity.

Feathers versus Guns: The throne speech and Canada's war with Mi'kmaw Nation

As I write this blog, Canada is at war with the Mi'kmaw Nation -- again -- this time in Elsipogtog (Big Cove First Nation) in New Brunswick. The Mi'kmaw have spoken out against hydro-fracking on their territory for many months now. They have tried to get the attention of governments to no avail. Now the Mi'kmaware in a battle of drums and feathers versus tanks and assault rifles -- not the rosy picture painted by Canada to the international community.

The failure by the federal and provincial governments, as well as the Houston-based fracking company, Southwestern Energy, to consult with the Mi'kmaw and obtain their consent is what led to the protests all summer. According to their web page: "In March 2010, the company announced that the Department of Energy and Mines of the Province of New Brunswick, Canada accepted its bids for exclusive licenses to search and conduct an exploration program covering 2,518,518 net acres in the province in order to test new hydrocarbon basins."

In response, the Mi'kmaw have led peaceful protests at hydro-fracking sites to demonstrate their opposition and protect their lands and resources. They have always asserted their sovereignty, ownership and jurisdiction over their territory. There has been relatively little coverage of their actions, but they have been active for months now. More recently, the company obtained an injunction to stop the protest and it was served on protesters today.

It is more than coincidental timing -- it was obviously strategically calculated with the completion of the Governor General's speech from the throne and the end of the United Nations Special Rapporteur James Anaya's visit to Canada. Yesterday morning, we awoke to reports from the Mi'kmaw of swarms of RCMP dispatched to Elsipogtog to enforce Harper's aggressive natural resource agenda. He has effectively declared war on the Mi'kmaw.

Original Article
Source: rabble.ca
Author: Pamela Palmater

Who Gets What in CETA Deal?

Though it's not entirely finished yet, and isn't likely to be brought into force for two years, the most contentious issues are settled.

After over four years of negotiations and plenty of missed deadlines, the Harper government announced the completion of a Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) in principle with the European Union on Friday.

In Brussels European Commission President José Manuel Barroso and Prime Minister Stephen Harper stood before the cameras.

Alberta Landowners Dispute Energy Regulator over Polluted Well

Last June, Shawn and Ronalie Campbell got a three-paragraph letter from Alberta's energy regulator.

The letter told them their groundwater well was still contaminated with hydrocarbons.

The contamination did not differ in composition from previous tests last year: high levels of hydrogen sulfide (H2S, a neurotoxin) and higher levels of methane and ethane.

These test results, declared the regulator, "confirm our previous conclusion that there is no evidence of a link between energy development activities and the hydrocarbon and H2S gases present in your water well."

Pamela Wallin's lawyer threatens Senate legal action

Senator Pamela Wallin is preparing to fight a bid by her former party to have her suspended without pay — a gambit her lawyer calls an affront to Canadian democracy designed to help the Conservatives change the channel.

"It is backroom politics at its transparent worst and it's designed to create the impression of a clean slate for the Tory convention in Calgary next week," lawyer Terrence O'Sullivan said in an interview Friday.

Harper In Brussels To Sign Draft Of Canada-EU Free Trade Deal

BRUSSELS - After four years of opaque negotiations, the lid remains sealed on major parts of Canada's contentious free-trade deal with Europe.

"This is a big deal, this is the biggest deal Canada has ever made. Indeed, it is an historical achievement," said Prime Minister Stephen Harper, announcing the deal Friday with European Commission president Jose Manual Barroso in Brussels.

But the text of the so-called CETA agreement remains a private document that still requires "drafting and fine tuning" and will need a "scrub" from lawyers to make sure it is "legally coherent," a Canadian official said in Brussels on condition he not be identified.

Elsipogtog First Nation Sees Violence As RCMP Moves To End Protest

REXTON, N.B. -- The RCMP say dozens of people were arrested after Molotov cocktails were thrown at officers and police vehicles torched Thursday when they began enforcing an injunction to end an ongoing demonstration against shale gas exploration in eastern New Brunswick.

RCMP Const. Jullie Rogers-Marsh said at least five RCMP vehicles were destroyed after they were set ablaze and at least one shot was fired by someone other than a police officer at the site of the protest in Rexton.