Outsiders unwelcome at project reviews: natural resources minister

OTTAWA - Environmental groups that don’t have particular expertise to offer shouldn’t be able to participate in environmental review hearings, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said Wednesday.

That also goes for ordinary citizens concerned about projects like the Northern Gateway pipeline but who don’t live or work near the project, he said.

Oliver was defending his government’s plan unveiled a day earlier to “strengthen environmental protection” by limiting participation to members of the public who are “directly affected” by major projects.

“We don’t see the need” to allow testimony from Canadians outside the project areas, or from environmental groups without specific expertise, Oliver said in an interview.

He also said the government won’t set strict rules on who can or can’t participate.

He defended the government’s announcement Tuesday that it will let the federal cabinet overrule the Calgary-based National Energy Board, an quasi-independent agency created by John Diefenbaker in 1959, on major projects considered by Ottawa to be in the “national interest.”

Government slammed for lack of transparency in budget cuts

OTTAWA — As Treasury Board president Tony Clement trumpets Canada's plan for open government at a meeting overseas, back home, the Conservatives are facing criticism for being secretive about thousands of federal job losses, government program cuts and taking control of pipeline approvals.

The minister responsible for open government initiatives, Clement is vowing the Conservatives will improve federal transparency and, in due course, release all the details of billions of dollars in cuts to government jobs and programs.

But Canadians likely will have to wait a year or so — until spring 2013 — before they are presented a clear picture on the extent of the cuts.

"We'll be providing accurate, pinpoint details to Parliament, as we're required to do, in the months ahead," Clement said Wednesday in a teleconference call from Brazil, where he is attending an international open government conference.

The March federal budget announced $5.2 billion in cuts to federal operating spending over the next three years, including eliminating 19,200 jobs during that time and either trimming or eliminating programs across government departments.

Job prospects decline in Winnipeg

WINNIPEG — The short-term prospects aren’t looking so good for Winnipeg job-seekers, according to the latest monthly help-wanted index report from the Conference Board of Canada.

The board said April’s index, which is based on the number of new, unduplicated jobs posted on 79 job-posting websites in Canada, was down in Winnipeg and 17 other Canadian cities.

Only one metropolitan area — Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo — showed improved employment prospects. Prospects were stable in the other seven cities surveyed.

The board said labour markets also remain tight in Western Canada. A tight labour market means the ratio of unemployed workers to available jobs remains low.

Original Article
Source: winnipeg free press
Author: Staff Writer

Wait times for major surgery growing again

MONTREAL - Lengthy wait times for surgery that requires hospitalization are back on the increase in Montreal, newly published government data reveal.

Nearly 3,000 Montrealers have been waiting at least a half year for cancer surgery and other major operations, up from fewer than 2,200 in 2007, according to a Gazette analysis.

What’s more, the Quebec Health Department has stopped publishing statistics on those who have been waiting for at least nine months, even though there are patients who continue to wait at least a year for some operations like bariatric surgery.

“It’s shocking,” said patient-rights advocate Paul Brunet, of the Conseil pour la protection des malades.

“For the kind of money we spend on health care, it’s unfortunate that we cannot have better access than we have now.”

The increase in wait times for elective, or non-urgent, operations has occurred even though the volume of such procedures has not increased.

Five years ago, Montreal hospitals performed 54,000 surgeries that require hospitalization, including operations of the stomach and bowels.

Montreal police break up morning protest downtown

MONTREAL - Police say they are investigating – and consider to be very serious – the case of a woman who was confined in her car on Peel St. during Thursday morning’s student demonstration.

The woman was at first surrounded and confined in her car as students swarmed the street. She was then forced out of the car by protesting students, who vandalized the car and got into it and started honking the horn, police said.

The early morning demonstration sparked plenty of mischief, with police saying at least two buildings and some cars were vandalized. They also made two arrests of young men aged 20 and 21.

A group of about 200 demonstrators moved randomly through Montreal's downtown core, running through traffic, throwing garbage cans and blocking the entrance to a bank for several minutes before police intervened.

The protest, linked to the student uprising against an impending tuition fee increase in the province, began at about 7 a.m. at Phillips Square. The demonstrators quickly broke into two groups, one of which moved east, blocking several intersections and halting traffic as protesters moved toward Victoria Square and then turned north.

It was unclear what happened to the second group, but several dozen people were soon spotted blocking the entrance to the 1010 Sherbrooke St. W. branch of the CIBC. Police intervened about 8:30 a.m., spraying a chemical irritant into the crowd.

The protesters then moved up Metcalfe St.

Most Montrealers making their way to work simply navigated around the unfolding bedlam.

The protest had ended by 8:50 a.m.

The demonstration had been advertised on Facebook this week, with organizers dubbing it "Shutdown Centre-Ville." The Association facultaire étudiante des sciences humaines de l’UQÀM (AFESH-UQÀM) was listed as the group organizing the event.

Original Article
Source: montreal gazette
Author: editorial

Foreclosure Crisis Affects One In Every 10 Children: Report

The foreclosure crisis could end up directly affecting as many as 8.3 million children, according to a report out this week from the advocacy group First Focus. That's a little more than one in every 10 children in the country.

First Focus says it arrived at this figure by adding up all the children in homes that have already entered foreclosure, all the homes at immediate risk of foreclosure and all the rental properties that have been foreclosed on or appear to be at risk. The report, which was authored by a scholar from Brookings, calls its 8.3 million estimate "relatively conservative."

Foreclosures tend to put families in motion, often sending parents to new towns and children to new schools, which can result in emotional and behavioral problems for kids, according to USA Today. First Focus suggests that the stress of foreclosure can also impact parenting styles for the worst -- a plausible conclusion, given that foreclosure-related stress has been linked with depression, anxiety and compulsive behavior in adults.

And the problem goes beyond foreclosure, with more than 16 million children in poverty as of 2010, and recession-related anxiety making ripples in kids' behavior even among the middle and upper middle class.

The Right's 2012 Solution: "Just Close Your Eyes"

Last month, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett offered a solution for women who were going to be forced by the government to undergo a completely unnecessary ultrasound against their wills: "You can't make anybody watch, okay? Because you just have to close your eyes." The governor's suggestion would be almost comical, if it weren't for the tragic fact that forcing women to watch was the whole point of the legislation Corbett supported.

But it seems that Corbett's suggestion doesn't just apply to women seeking abortions in the Keystone state. It is, in essence, what the GOP is telling to every woman turned off by the party's attacks on reproductive rights, equal pay and domestic violence protections: "You just have to close your eyes."

Mitt Romney's campaign is banking on the fact that voters of both genders are concerned about the economy in these uncertain times. Polls show that they're right. But just because you're concerned with the economy doesn't mean you ignore it when a group of people are systematically taking away your rights for their own short-term political gain.

Sadly, this is the new normal. The Tea Party's success has been based on this "just close your eyes" formula. Swept into power on a wave of economic dissatisfaction, Tea Party legislators in Washington and the states asked the country to "close its eyes" as it did everything but fix the economy. "Pay no attention while we roll back decades of progress everything else you care about. Just close your eyes while we bash immigrants, cut essential services, make it very hard to vote, and take away collective bargaining rights". Many minorities have been affected, particularly in the last two years, but arguably and amazingly, no group has been under attack more than the American majority -- women.

CIA seeks new authority to expand Yemen drone campaign

The CIA is seeking authority to expand its covert drone campaign in Yemen by launching strikes against terrorism suspects even when it does not know the identities of those who could be killed, U.S. officials said.

Securing permission to use these “signature strikes” would allow the agency to hit targets based solely on intelligence indicating patterns of suspicious behavior, such as imagery showing militants gathering at known al-Qaeda compounds or unloading explosives.

The practice has been a core element of the CIA’s drone program in Pakistan for several years. CIA Director David H. Petraeus has requested permission to use the tactic against the al-Qaeda affiliate in Yemen, which has emerged as the most pressing terrorism threat to the United States, officials said.

If approved, the change would probably accelerate a campaign of U.S. airstrikes in Yemen that is already on a record pace, with at least eight attacks in the past four months.

For President Obama, an endorsement of signature strikes would mean a significant, and potentially risky, policy shift. The administration has placed tight limits on drone operations in Yemen to avoid being drawn into an often murky regional conflict and risk turning militants with local agendas into al-Qaeda recruits.

Alberta's Paul martin

Who exactly is Alison Redford? When she was elected last year to lead the Alberta Progressive Conservatives, it was puzzling. A province that had produced Preston Manning in the 1980s, Ralph Klein in the 1990s and Stephen Harper in the 2000s had just elected a protégé of Joe Clark, the man of the 1970s, who, though an Albertan, was always out of step with his own province.

In the days when Reform was rising in Alberta, Brian Mulroney would often point to Joe Clark's senior role in the government as evidence that Albertans ought to be content. Highlighting Clark's centrality likely only accelerated the obliteration of the federal PCs in Alberta.

By 2011, the Clark wing of Canadian conservatism, marked as it was by political blundering and intellectual vacuity, was down to Lowell Murray, wrapping up 30-plus years in the Senate, and Scott Brison, sitting as a third-party backbencher in the House of Commons. So when Redford became Alberta premier, Albertans wondered where exactly she would position herself.

Redford's campaign has been trumpeting that it is "not your father's PC Party." It's altogether Clarkian in its haplessness, that tagline (in adapted form) being most famously used by Oldsmobile, a once venerable brand that is now defunct.

Wildrose brings the revolution home to Alberta

For Alberta, the revolution is finally coming home.

Unless something dramatic happens soon, polls indicate that Danielle Smith’s upstart Wildrose Party is poised to win Monday’s Alberta election.

Such a win — or even a narrow Wildrose loss — would be a telling victory for a hard-right movement that years ago surged out of Alberta to win the country but that could never quite capture the province of its birth.

Many Canadians might be surprised to learn that Alberta’s current Progressive Conservative government is not already hard-right.

But the Alberta Tories have always been a coalition, one that includes city dwellers and ranchers, small-l liberals and social conservatives.

The Tories succeeded in holding that coalition together for 41 years by managing to straddle the three main forces that drive Alberta politics: populism, urbanism (most Albertans live in just two cities) and oil.