Spiritual rights of inmates under attack as contracts halted, prison chaplains say

For the past six years, Wiccan priestess Kate Hansen has been visiting federal inmates across British Columbia who follow the pagan religion, guiding them in meditation and leading them in prayerful chants.

But now she and other minority-faith chaplains contracted by the Correctional Service of Canada face an uncertain future after Public Safety Minister Vic Toews announced that he is “not convinced” all chaplaincy services are an appropriate use of taxpayer money and ordered a stop to the tendering of new contracts until a review is complete.

Alberta’s expense transparency policy will do little to battle culture of entitlement, critics charge

Calgary — First there was Allaudin Merali, the Alberta Health Services chief financial officer who racked up $346,000 in expenses on butlers, fine wine and Mercedes repairs while working on a now-defunct health board. Then came revelations this week that Doug Black, a senator-in-waiting who ran under the Progressive Conservative banner, charged $28,000 in first-class flights and hotel rooms while serving an 18-month tenure as the chair of the board at the University of Calgary.

He paid back about $5,400 after the Canadian Taxpayers Federation exposed the expenses through a freedom of information request — the previous board chair had expensed only $434 in three years.

You don’t have to obey a law ‘that is clearly unlawful,’ Rob Ford’s lawyer argues as hearing comes to close

All eyes are now on Justice Charles T. Hackland, the Ottawa-based Superior Court judge presiding over Mayor Rob Ford’s conflict of interest hearing, and what few hints he dropped about what he is thinking may be found in questions posed to both lawyers on Thursday.

In particular, Justice Hackland spoke up during arguments presented by the mayor’s lawyer that he made an honest mistake and voiced “some trouble” with the notion put forward by the opposing side that an elected official cannot, during a city council meeting, defend any conduct that has been scrutinized by an integrity commissioner due to a potential conflict.

UAV Radar Tested Along U.S.-Canadian Border Can Track Slow Moving Vehicles and People

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. has just announced that it has completed the successful integration and operational testing of its Lynx Multi-mode Radar.

The system is a next-generation capability that integrates synthetic aperture radar (SAR), ground moving target indicator (GMTI), and dismount moving target indicator (DMTI) radar.

The testing was conducted in May by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)/Customs and Border Protection (CBP) out of its National Air Security Operations Center in Grand Forks, N.D. That center uses Predators to patrol the Canada-U.S. border.

Canada’s voting system has the potential to distort electoral outcomes, expert says

MONTREAL - Canada’s future hinged on just a few percentage points Tuesday.

With just under 32 per cent of votes cast, the Parti Québécois eked out a narrow victory, winning 54 seats, to 50 for the Liberals, 19 for Coalition Avenir Québec 19 and two for Québec solidaire. The difference between the PQ and the Liberals was 0.7 of a percentage point.

Closer economic ties with China could bring ‘long-term pain’ for Canada: study

CALGARY — Bribery, corruption and state interest trumping business logic remain common in China, and Canada must remain keenly aware of those trends as it mulls closer economic ties with the Asian superpower, says a report published Thursday.

The University of Calgary paper, titled Dancing With The Dragon, was released the same day two other reports urged Canada to take steps toward fostering more business relationships between the two countries.

Harper’s one-man foreign policy winning few friends

When Latin American countries become increasingly critical of Prime Minister Harper’s attitude and policies towards their region, with some leaders even questioning the value of Canadian membership in the Organization of American States, OAS, something is very very wrong with Canada’s relations with its hemispheric neighbours.

This negative attitude towards the Harper government was once again in the news in recent days when OAS states were angered by Ottawa’s refusal to accept an August 24 resolution by the OAS criticizing Britain for threatening to forcibly enter the embassy of Ecuador in London to seize Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, who sought asylum in the embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden and the United States.

U.S. should 'get a grip,' Harper says

Concerns about a so-called "fiscal cliff" in the United States are warranted, but they should not overshadow the need for America to "get a grip" on its longer-term fiscal situation, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Thursday.

"The United States fiscal situation is very bad; the trajectory is very bad," Harper said at a Bloomberg conference in Vancouver when asked about the fiscal woes of Canada's biggest trading partner.

Supporting the Conservatives’ plan to set workers free

There was something absurd about the whole thing. On Monday, a branch of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) — the largest union of federal public servants in the country — endorsed two separatist parties in Quebec’s election. After assessing the provincial parties “on the basis of their positions on workers’ and citizens’ rights, public services and unions,” PSAC’s National Capital Region arm ranked the Parti Québécois first, followed by Québec Solidaire in second. It ranked the Liberals and the Coalition Avenir Québec third and fourth, respectively.

Everyone benefits from women’s representation in politics

Pauline Marois is Quebec’s first female premier, a fact that got somewhat lost amid the nail-biting and shock that followed the Parti Québécois’ minority victory Tuesday night and then the shooting that shattered the celebrations. The new leader’s gender was significantly down the list of pertinent facts about the election. That, in itself, says something about the new normalization of women in Canadian politics, especially provincial politics.

Marois’ win brings to five the number of female first ministers in Canada today (there have only been 10), a remarkable number, given that Canada ranks 45th on the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s list of women in national parliaments, with women accounting for just 24.7 per cent of MPs.