Mainstream Media
Mainstream News Articles of interest
Ottawa Parliament Shooting RAW Video
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- Published on Wednesday, 22 October 2014 12:58
- Written by mic
Download Video: Closed Format: "MP4"
Download Video: Closed Format: "MP4"

OPPENHEIMER PARK ENCAMPMENT CLEARED OUT BY VANCOUVER POLICE, CITY
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- Published on Tuesday, 21 October 2014 11:20
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BY |
Authorities moved in this morning to clear out the encampment at Oppenheimer Park.
The formal eviction notice to the encampment of protesters and the homeless came with a deadline of 10 p.m. Wednesday night, however the Vancouver Police and the City of Vancouver opted to wait until Thursday morning to dismantle the camp.
Wearing body cameras, authorities cleared the camp of people, making room for staff from the City to come in to remove the debris.
Additionally, the City provided the campers with bins for their belongings, and are moving the people into shelters, reports CBC Vancouver.
By late Wednesday night, the City reported they had already successfully relocated over a hundred people from the park to shelters and housing, and that the number of tents was significantly reduced.
A City rep says the campers have been very respectful of the dismantling process.
Wednesday’s slated shut-down was marred by the discovery of a deceased male inside one of the tents. The victim is thought to be a 69-year-old man, and his death is not considered suspicious.
The Oppenheimer Park camp was set up in mid-July by activists as a means to draw attention to the issue of homelessness in Vancouver.
Read more: OPPENHEIMER PARK ENCAMPMENT CLEARED OUT BY VANCOUVER POLICE, CITY
New book is a takedown of Stephen Harper
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- Published on Tuesday, 21 October 2014 11:20
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Party of One by Michael Harris argues that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is destroying Parliament and Canada’s reputation in the world.
http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2014/10/19/author_michael_harriss_new_book_is_a_takedown_of_stephen_harper.html
By the time author Michael Harris nears the end of his magisterial review of the strife and times of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, it is as if he felt the need of a shower.
Almost 500 pages of Party of One: Stephen Harper and Canada’s Radical Makeover have by then been devoted to chronicling the Harper government’s bullying, abuse, duplicity, betrayal, affinity for crooks, public shaming of individuals, diminishment of democratic institutions.
“It was hard every day getting up and working on this particular government,” Harris told the Star in advance of the book’s publication this week. “It made you feel poorly.”
So in the last chapter he seeks figurative respite. He takes readers on a drive across the Canso Causeway to Cape Breton, N.S., and on to River Bourgeois, there to meet a man worlds away from officialdom, backroomers, talk show know-it-alls.
B.C. organizations challenge Society Act overhaul
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- Published on Thursday, 16 October 2014 11:20
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VANCOUVER — The Globe and Mail
Published Monday, Oct. 13 2014, 7:55 PM EDT
Last updated Monday, Oct. 13 2014, 7:55 PM EDT
More than two dozen B.C. societies have signed on to an October letter that raises concerns about a pending overhaul of the B.C. Society Act, saying the proposed legislation has the potential to intimidate the groups and have a chilling effect on their work.
The October letter, prepared by West Coast Environmental Law and other groups, follows a posting last month in which WCEL said the revamped legislation “invites harassment of societies by any deep-pocketed and litigious opponents.”
The province is mulling new legislation for societies as many such groups are involved in debates over proposed resource developments, including the Enbridge Northern Gateway project, LNG-related pipelines and the Trans Mountain Expansion Project.
The province in 2009 launched a process to update its current Society Act, which applies to about 27,000 societies in B.C. Draft legislation was released in a White Paper in August.
The deadline for submitting comments on the proposed legislation, which would be called the Societies Act, is October 15.
The groups that have signed the October letter are concerned about a clause – Section 99 of the proposed legislation – that would allow any person whom the court considers “appropriate” to apply for a court order on grounds that a society is carrying on activities “detrimental to the public interest.” Potential litigants could include corporations. Opponents fear the proposal could result in a greater regulatory burden for non-profit groups and more cases for an already overextended legal system.
Read more: B.C. organizations challenge Society Act overhaul
21 Technologies That Will Decentralize the World
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- Published on Wednesday, 15 October 2014 16:00
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February 19, 2014
Across the planet, new technologies and business models are decentralizing power and placing it in the hands of communities and individuals.
"We are seeing technology-driven networks replacing bureacratically-driven hierarchies," says VC and futurist Fred Wilson, speaking on what to expect in the next ten years. View the entire 25-minute video below (it's worth it!) and then check out the 21 innovations below. Thanks to Jenny Ryan whose Open Garden newsletter inspired this post.
Here are 21 innovations that will help make it happen:
1. Open Garden
Decentralized technology will become mainstream in 2014, according to the Open Garden Foundation, a San Francisco-based startup dedicated to net neutrality and internet access for everyone. Open Garden, a product of the Open Garden Foundation, provides mesh networking through an app that creates a wirelesh mesh network, enabling everyone to have faster downloads, and stronger and cheaper connectivity.
Commotion Router is free, open source software that allows for communities to build their own mesh networks.
3. Twister
Do you really want to trust your data to Twitter? Twister is a peer-to-peer alternative social network operating on a decentralized framework, designed in a way that prevents other users from knowing too much about your whereabouts and online habits.
The politics of Israeli settlements - Another thousand acres
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- Published on Friday, 10 October 2014 16:20
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Binyamin Netanyahu orders the biggest land-grab in a generation
SOME people are never grateful. On August 31st Israel’s government made its largest appropriation of occupied West Bank land in a generation. It took some 1,000 acres of virgin hills for a proposed new city, Givaot, doubling the population of the Gush Etzion block of settlements sprawling on the hills around Bethlehem.
But it was not enough for the area’s Israeli mayor, Davidi Perl. Frustrated by what he perceives as the government’s grovelling to westerners, on everything from the recently halted war in Gaza to the conduct of peace talks with Palestinians, he says he will change party—defecting from Likud, led by the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, to Jewish Home, a party of religious radicals headed by Naftali Bennett.
Many others are following. A poll on September 2nd showed that Mr Bennett had, in effect, replaced Mr Netanyahu as champion of the right-wing camp. Although Mr Netanyahu’s approval ratings are roughly on a level with where they stood before the 50-day war in Gaza, much of the approval comes from Israelis who vote for parties left of Likud. Challengers within his party are demanding more aggression in Gaza, where the ceasefire left no clear winners, and faster entrenchment of settlements in the West Bank, even though the settler population is growing three times faster than that of Israel proper.
During the Gaza war former loyalists like Gidon Saar, his interior minister, repeatedly denounced the ceasefire deal, which envisages a gradual easing of the blockade on Gaza. A bruised Mr Netanyahu is resorting to political outreach. He and his wife, Sara, are hosting party members in the run-up to the Jewish new year. After months of relying on statements, he is again giving televised interviews.
Read more: The politics of Israeli settlements - Another thousand acres
John Crawford supporters occupying Beavercreek police station
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- Published on Friday, 10 October 2014 15:40
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Group has demands after innocent man slain -- and will stay at station until police chief meets with them (UPDATE)
UPDATE, 10/8/14: On Wednesday, organizers from the Ohio Student Association met with Beavercreek police chief Dennis Evers and presented their demands: that Officer Sean Williams, who shot John Crawford, be fired or disarmed, that Ronald Ritchie, the man who called 911 and complained that Crawford was aiming a gun at Walmart customers, face consequences for his part in the shooting, and that the department would work with the community to overhaul police training and protocols on the use of lethal force. The chief refused their demands. The activists engaged in a sit-in outside of the police station, which led police to lock up early. “Police Chief Dennis Evers has decided that he would rather protect own of his own rather than protect us too,” said OSA member Alice Ragland. “It proves that we cannot rely on others to give us what we need, and instead need to build the political power it takes to protect ourselves.” No arrests occurred and the students were eventually given their belongings back from inside of the station. The students are continuing to plan a statewide convergence for October 18th.

Read more: John Crawford supporters occupying Beavercreek police station
Ottawa refuses to let injured Gaza children into Canada for treatment
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- Published on Wednesday, 13 August 2014 12:00
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http://globalnews.ca/news/1500138/ottawa-wont-let-injured-gaza-children-come-to-canada-for-treatment/
Global NewsOttawa is refusing to bring injured children from Gaza to Canada for treatment, despite pleas from hospitals, health-care workers and the Ontario government.
It’s too risky to transport injured children and keep them away from family, Foreign Affairs spokesperson Adam Hodge via email. He said Ottawa’s “exploring” other kinds of aid but wouldn’t say what that would entail or when it would materialize.
In the meantime, Izzeldine Abuelaish can’t believe anyone would refuse to help a hurt child.
“It’s an ethical responsibility to jump and to give help in times of need,” he said, urging the federal Tories to imagine Gaza’s children as their own.
“What do they expect… people to do for them? For someone to say ‘No, I’m not treating your son or your daughter?’”

A Palestinian child sits on a mattress on the rubble of a house which was destroyed in an Israeli air strike on Abasan, east of the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis and close to the border with Israel on August 7, 2014.
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Read more: Ottawa refuses to let injured Gaza children into Canada for treatment
Blame the provincial government for the toxic mine spill
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- Published on Friday, 08 August 2014 13:40
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Ramshackle system: Lack of good regulatory culture has led to repeated tailings spills in B.C.
BY STEPHEN HUME, VANCOUVER SUN COLUMNISTThe spill of 10 million cubic metres of toxic effluent laced with heavy metals, mercury and arsenic from a failed tailings pond into waterways feeding Quesnel Lake occurs just as the summer sockeye run arrives at what is one of the richest rearing habitats for salmon in the province.
The visceral, knee-jerk reaction is to point the finger of blame squarely at industry. And industry should be held accountable.
But the buck really stops with the province, which is responsible for the regulatory culture — or lack thereof — that permits catastrophes like this to happen repeatedly.
About 1.3 million sockeye are returning to spawn in the Quesnel system from now to the end of August. On average, if those fish are worth about $30 each in harvested retail value, the economic implications are huge — especially if you extend those average values over 100 years. Then losses in forgone revenue start to zoom into the high hundreds of millions of dollars, compared to the short-term gains from the non-renewable mineral resource.

Contents from a tailings pond drifts down the Hazeltine Creek into Quesnel Lake near the town of Likely on Tuesday. The pond which stores toxic waste from the Mount Polley Mine had its dam break on Monday spilling its contents into the Hazeltine Creek causing a wide water-use ban in the area.
Photograph by: JONATHAN HAYWARD, THE CANADIAN PRESS
And, of course, there are the human beings who rely on the watersheds for drinking water and agricultural irrigation.
Not to mention the First Nations’ powerful moral and economic claims on the salmon resource — I’d reasonably expect them to come looking for compensation armed with the recent Chilcotin ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada.
It would be bad enough if this was an isolated incident, but it’s not. Spills like this are not uncommon in the regulatory culture championed by the current Liberal government in Victoria.
The University of Victoria’s Environmental Law Centre warned in 2012 that environmental assessment certificates for mines issued by government are often “vague and unenforceable.”
It said that by 2008 the number of mine inspections had fallen to half what they were in 2001. Small wonder — Ministry of Environment staff shrank by 25 per cent. The chief mining inspector said he had insufficient staff to complete the annual mine monitoring reports required.
Read more: Blame the provincial government for the toxic mine spill
Canadian charities in limbo as tax audits widen to new groups
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- Published on Friday, 08 August 2014 10:20
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The Conservative government has stepped up its scrutiny of the political activities of charities, adding fresh money for more audits, and casting its net well beyond the environmental groups that have opposed its energy policies.
Canada Revenue Agency, ordered in 2012 to audit political activities as a special project, now has also targeted charities focused on foreign aid, human rights, and even poverty.
- Study cites 'chill' from tax agency audits of charities' political activities
- List of charities undergoing tax audits related to political activities
The tax agency has also been given a bigger budget — $5 million more through to 2017 — and is making the special project a permanent part of its work.
With 52 political-activity audits currently underway, some stretching out two years and longer, charities say they've been left in limbo, nervous about speaking out on any issue lest they provoke a negative ruling from the taxman.
And their legal bills are rising rapidly — in some cases adding $100,000 to already strained budgets — as they try to navigate often-complex demands from CRA auditors.
"It's nerve-racking," said Leilani Farha, executive director of Canada Without Poverty, a small charity based in Ottawa that had to turn over internal emails and other documents to auditors looking for political activities.
"We've been under audit for more than two years, and it just goes on and on, with no communication... It's a huge drain on the resources of our organization."
The blitz began with the 2012 federal budget, shortly after several cabinet ministers — Joe Oliver, now finance minister, among them — labelled environmental groups as radicals and money launderers.
The groups, able to attract donations by virtue of their charitable status, have sharply opposed the Harper government's oilsands and pipelines policies.
The government tightened rules and initially earmarked some $8 million over two years for CRA to create a special team of auditors to closely scrutinize the political activities of charities.
A landmark policy statement from 2003 allows charities to spend up to 10 per cent of their resources on political activities, such as advocating changes in government policies. Partisan activity — endorsing a candidate or party — has always been forbidden and remains so.
Using the CRA for partisan gains?
As CRA got new money for these audits, EthicalOil.org, a staunch supporter of Canada's energy industry and founded by current Stephen Harper aide Alykhan Velshi, issued a series of formal complaints to the agency about the political activities of environmental groups.
Read more: Canadian charities in limbo as tax audits widen to new groups
Education on trial: Freedom of association clashes with the public purse
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- Published on Tuesday, 08 July 2014 13:00
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Governments must abide by the Constitution even if the costs are high, constitutional scholar says
By Tracy Sherlock, Vancouver Sun July 5, 2014The dispute between B.C.’s teachers and their employer is complicated by two B.C. Supreme Court decisions that found the provincial government violated teachers’ constitutional rights more than a decade ago when it removed rules about class size and class composition from the teachers’ contract.
Teachers have been on strike since June 17, after 16 months of failed negotiations, and there is no end in sight. Although the two sides have moved closer on wages (the government is offering seven per cent over six years; the BCTF wants eight per cent over five years), the implications of this court case keep the two sides far apart.
In 2002, the B.C. government removed clauses guaranteeing teachers’ working conditions from their contract and legislated a prohibition from bargaining over those same issues. These measures were found by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Susan Griffin to have violated the teachers’ constitutional right to freedom of association.
But what exactly is freedom of association?
“A very trite example is what if you said to people you’re allowed to play baseball, but not allowed to form a team. The difference between being able to play baseball and being able to form a team is your freedom of association. Anytime you want to do something with other people, freedom of association comes into play,” said Joel Bakan, University of British Columbia law professor and a constitutional law scholar.
It may seem a stretch, but Canadian courts have determined that freedom of association includes the right for a union to collectively bargain with an employer over working conditions.
“The freedom of workers to associate has long been recognized internationally and in Canada as an important aspect of a fair and democratic society,” Griffin said in her January 2014 ruling. “Collective action by workers helps protect individuals from unfairness in one of the most fundamental aspects of their lives, their employment.”
The Canadian Constitution, the highest law in the country, includes the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees freedom of association.
“Part of what it means to be part of Canada is that we follow the Constitution of the country,” Bakan said. “One of the things that makes Canada different from what happened in Yugoslavia when it split apart or what’s happening in Ukraine today is that we’re governed by the rule of law. Our Constitution is the supreme law of the nation and the provinces and the federal government must comply with it.”
And if the government doesn’t comply?
“You can’t put them in jail, but what I can say is that if provinces start not complying with it and thumbing their noses at court decisions that say they must, then I think we are in serious trouble as a nation,” Bakan said.
In 2011, Griffin gave the government a year to rectify the unconstitutional legislation. After a year, the government enacted legislation that the judge called “virtually identical” to the legislation she had already ruled violated the teachers’ rights. Griffin’s second ruling also found that the government had bargained in bad faith in 2012, hoping to provoke a strike to increase support for imposing legislation.
The provincial government appealed that decision and the case is scheduled to be heard in the B.C. Court of Appeal in October.
Despite the two B.C. Supreme Court rulings, the government is not flouting the law at this point, because it is still within its legal right to appeal up to the country’s highest court, which is likely.
While the case may take several more years to settle, the process and time is worth it to make sure the decision is the right one and is backed up by the country’s highest court, advocates on both sides say.
Read more: Education on trial: Freedom of association clashes with the public purse
Another Harper abuse of power. Now we're gett
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- Published on Monday, 09 June 2014 12:00
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Time was when we had to wait weeks, even months for each new abuse of power by the Harper government. Now they arrive by the day, sometimes two and three at a time. Of late we’ve been treated to:
- The prostitution bill. The Supreme Court having tossed out the old laws as a violation of prostitutes’ constitutional right not to be beaten or murdered (I paraphrase), it was expected the government would opt for the “Nordic model,” criminalizing the purchase of sex rather than the sale, as a replacement — a contentious but tenable response to the Court’s decision. It was not expected it would, in effect, fling the ruling back in the Court’s face. Not content with leaving the impugned provisions, but for a few cosmetic changes, essentially intact, the government imposed new restrictions, for example banning prostitutes from advertising: not just in violation of the Constitution, it would seem, but in defiance of it. The bill is written as if calculated to provoke another confrontation with the Court, ideally in time for the next election.
- The cyberbullying bill. At least, that’s what it was sold as: legislation making it a crime to post revealing images of someone online without their consent, for which the government deserves praise. But nothing comes free with this gang. Tacked onto the bill is a number of other unrelated measures — among others, one that would make it easier for police and other authorities to obtain customers’ personal data from Internet and telephone providers, without a warrant — easier that is, than it already is, which is plenty.
- The new privacy commissioner. Of all the people the government might have picked to replace the outgoing commissioner, it chose a top lawyer in the Department of Justice, known for his work on security and public safety issues: exactly the sort of person the privacy commissioner is supposed to keep tabs on. Worse, of six people on the selection committee’s short-list, Daniel Therrien placed sixth. The committee might as well not have bothered.
- The F-35 contract. In the wake of the auditor general’s findings that it had deliberately understated the true costs of the sole-source purchase of 65 “next generation” fighter jets — initially presented as costing just $9-billion, the correct figure, operating costs included, is now estimated at $45-billion — and in the face of growing doubts about the mission, specifications and performance of the plane, the government agreed to review the purchase, perhaps even open it up to competitive bidding. It is now reported, 18 months later, that the review will recommend buying the same plane, on the same terms — without competition.
Anonymous hacker-turned FBI informant Sabu avoids jail time
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- Published on Tuesday, 03 June 2014 15:00
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Published time: May 27, 2014 15:55
Edited time: May 27, 2014 16:49 Get short URL
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Anonymous, Conflict, Court, Crime, FBI,Hacking, Law, Security, USAAfter aiding the infiltration of numerous corporate networks and then switching sides to help the FBI thwart the hacktivist group Anonymous, Hector Xavier Monsegur has been sentenced to time served followed by one year of supervised release.
According to Yahoo News, prosecutors in New York on Tuesday officially recounted Monsuegur’s cooperation with the federal government, explaining that the hacker should be “rewarded with leniency” for working with the FBI to stop cyberattacks by Anonymous and its offshoot LulzSec.
Although Monsegur faced...
Read more: Anonymous hacker-turned FBI informant Sabu avoids jail time
MESSAGE MACHINE Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon's Hidden Hand
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- Published on Tuesday, 08 April 2014 11:00
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By DAVID BARSTOW
Published: April 20, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/us/20generals.html
In the summer of 2005, the Bush administration confronted a fresh wave of criticism over Guantánamo Bay. The detention center had just been branded “the gulag of our times” by Amnesty International, there were new allegations of abuse from United Nations human rights experts and calls were mounting for its closure.
The administration’s communications experts responded swiftly. Early one Friday morning, they put a group of retired military officers on one of the jets normally used by Vice President Dick Cheney and flew them to Cuba for a carefully orchestrated tour of Guantánamo.
To the public, these men are members of a familiar fraternity, presented tens of thousands of times on television and radio as “military analysts” whose long service has equipped them to give authoritative and unfettered judgments about the most pressing issues of the post-Sept. 11 world.
Hidden behind that appearance of objectivity, though, is a Pentagon information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration’s wartime performance, an examination by The New York Times has found.
The effort, which began with the buildup to the Iraq war and continues to this day, has sought to exploit ideological and military allegiances, and also a powerful financial dynamic: Most of the analysts have ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies they are asked to assess on air.
Those business relationships are hardly ever disclosed to the viewers, and sometimes not even to the networks themselves. But collectively, the men on the plane and several dozen other military analysts represent more than 150 military contractors either as lobbyists, senior executives, board members or consultants. The companies include defense heavyweights, but also scores of smaller companies, all part of a vast assemblage of contractors scrambling for hundreds of billions in military business generated by the administration’s war on terror. It is a furious competition, one in which inside information and easy access to senior officials are highly prized.
Records and interviews show how the Bush administration has used its control over access and information in an effort to transform the analysts into a kind of media Trojan horse — an instrument intended to shape terrorism coverage from inside the major TV and radio networks.
A PENTAGON CAMPAIGN Retired officers have been used to shape terrorism coverage from inside the TV and radio networks.
Analysts have been wooed in hundreds of private briefings with senior military leaders, including officials with significant influence over contracting and budget matters, records show. They have been taken on tours of Iraq and given access to classified intelligence. They have been briefed by officials from the White House, State Department and Justice Department, including Mr. Cheney, Alberto R. Gonzales and Stephen J. Hadley.
In turn, members of this group have echoed administration talking points, sometimes even when they suspected the information was false or inflated. Some analysts acknowledge they suppressed doubts because they feared jeopardizing their access.
Read more: MESSAGE MACHINE Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon's Hidden Hand
Canadas 86 wealthiest have same as 11.4 million poorest(bottom 1/3), report finds
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- Published on Friday, 04 April 2014 11:40
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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/canadas-86-wealthiest-have-as-much-as-the-114-million-poorest-report-finds/article17786676/
While politicians in Ottawa still can’t decide who is in the middle class, a new analysis suggests wealth is increasingly gravitating to the very top.
The report by the left-leaning Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives shows that the country’s 86 richest individuals and families – or 0.002 per cent of the total population – are getting richer and have now accumulated as much wealth as the country’s poorest 11.4 million.
That’s more than in 1999, when the richest 86 had as much money as the poorest 10.1 million, according to the report, to be released Thursday.
The point of the exercise, says economist and author David Macdonald, who used Statistics Canada data and research from Canadian Business magazine, is to show that if income inequality is a policy and social justice concern – wealth inequality is worse.
In fact, the super-rich list of Canadian residents has little to do with income in the traditional sense, he said. None of the 86 are company CEOs – often the poster children of excess for their unseemly salaries and bonuses. Instead, the ones on the list are there by virtue of being company founders or related to company founders.
The super-rich have gotten there by creating and trading assets, whether companies, real estate or securities.
“We often focus on income inequality but that’s a socialist paradise compared to wealth inequality,” said Macdonald.
“The top 20 per cent only get half of all the income, but in terms of wealth inequality, the top 20 per cent have 70 per cent of all wealth. It’s much more extreme and the concern is as you accumulate all this wealth, this wealth starts to buy you political power.”
Read more: Canadas 86 wealthiest have same as 11.4 million poorest(bottom 1/3), report finds
The utter collapse of human civilization will be 'difficult to avoid,' NASA funded s
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- Published on Wednesday, 19 March 2014 12:20
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After running the numbers on a set of four equations representing human society, a team of NASA-funded mathematicians has come to the grim conclusion that the utter collapse of human civilization will be “difficult to avoid.”
The exact scenario may vary, but in the coming decades humanity is essentially doomed to some variant of “Elites” consuming too much, “resulting in a famine among Commoners that eventually causes the collapse of society.”
That is, unless civilization is ready for one of two “major policy changes”: inequality must be “greatly reduced” or population growth must be “strictly controlled.”
The apocalyptic pronouncements, set to be published in an upcoming edition ofEcological Economics, come courtesy of a U.S. team led by applied mathematician Safa Motesharrei and funded in part by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
The otherwise obscure report was first made public in a recent column in Britain’s The Guardian newspaper in which environment writer Nafeez Ahmed warned that it constituted a “highly credible wake-up call” and declared that its menu of suggested policy changes were “required immediately.”
In the days since, environmentalists, socialists, hard-line U.S. Republicans and even survivalists have taken up the banner of the 32-page study.
Derrick O’Keefe, the Vancouver-based former editor of Rabble.ca, wrote in a Tuesday Twitter post that “this NASA-funded study makes case that future is socialism or extinction.” At about the same time, an anonymous commenter on M4Carbine.net declared “this is why I keep buying ammo.”
The study starts by reducing human civilization into four easy-to-toggle factors: Elites, Commoners, nature and wealth. The paper explains that this was done because “ecological strain” and “economic stratification” are the only two things that consistently plague collapsing societies.
Read more: The utter collapse of human civilization will be 'difficult to avoid,' NASA funded s
Cowichan Valley Cares - Sunridge Place in Duncan
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- Published on Friday, 14 March 2014 13:40
- Written by editor
Hi Folks,
Please take the time to “like” this page and send out to friends, coworkers etc… As well watch for and sign on to the petition being actively started this weekend. Future campaign plans will also be added as they are confirmed.
In solidarity
Bob Wilson
HEU
Union wants VIHA to get involved in Sunridge layoffs
Cowichan Valley Citizen
Fri Mar 14 2014
Page: A5
Section: News
Byline: Lexi Bainas
Source: The Citizen
The Hospital Employees' Union is calling for a meeting with Island Health about coming layoffs at Duncan's Sunridge Place seniors facility.
Last month, 264 employees,...
Snipers continue massacre while opposition refuses to hold talks with the government. Venezuela Student Protests
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- Published on Thursday, 13 March 2014 01:40
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Venezuela students clash with riot police
Three killed in confrontation between police and anti-government protesters, raising toll from weeks of rallies to 24.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2014/03/venezuela-students-clash-with-riot-police-201431361238806774.htmlThree more people were killed in Venezuela in clashes between police and anti-government protesters, raising the death toll from weeks of demonstrations to 24.
Police on Wednesday fired tear gas and water cannon at scores of rock-hurling students in the capital, Caracas, where about 3,000 students marched to mark a month since the first deaths in weeks of demonstrations.
There were similar opposition protests in the cities of San Cristobal, Merida and Valencia.
The demonstrations have been fuelled by public fury over deteriorating living conditions in the oil-rich South American country. Violent crime, shortages of essential goods like toilet paper, and inflation have combined to create the most serious challenge yet for leftist President Nicolas Maduro.
A student and a civilian were killed during protests in Venezuela's third city Valencia, while a member of the Bolivarian National Guard died in clashes in the nearby city of Naguanagua.
The governor of Carabobo state, home to both cities, blamed anti-government "snipers" for the student's death in a friendly fire incident. But local media said Jesus Acosta, 20, died from a shot to the head near his home, adding that he was not participating in protests at the time.
Guillermo Sanchez, 42, died of a bullet wound and was shot outside his home, Valencia's opposition Mayor Miguel Cocchiola said on Twitter.
Ameliach said Captain Ramso Ernesto Bracho Bravo died from a gunshot.
Sniper accusations
Since the protests began, opposition leaders and students, as well as government authorities, have accused each other of backing radical groups that attack demonstrations with firearms.
Maduro met with cabinet members late on Wednesday and agreed to deploy security forces in hot spots and arrest people financing and supplying "these violent groups" of the opposition, Communications Minister Delcy Rodriquez said on Twitter.
The Caracas march had not been approved by authorities, with Maduro saying the demonstrators were simply looking for trouble. The president announced this week he was banning any protests in the centre of the capital as long as the opposition refuses to hold talks with the government.
But the students turned out anyway, chanting slogans and demanding the release of protesters detained in earlier demonstrations.
Hilda Ruiz, a student leader from Central University, told AFP news agency the marchers also wanted authorities to respond to allegations of police torture and to punish those responsible for the deaths of demonstrators.
The anti-government protests first erupted on February 4 in the western city of San Cristobal, reaching Caracas on February 12 when three people were killed after an opposition protest ended in clashes with security forces.
South American foreign ministers met in Santiago, Chile on the Venezuelan crisis and agreed to form a commission to support talks between the government and the opposition.
The goal of the commission of foreign ministers of the regional bloc UNASUR is to "accompany, support and advise on a broad and constructive political dialogue".
Now we’re getting ready to hold local rallies to take this campaign to the next level, and you’ll hear from us soon.
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- Published on Thursday, 06 March 2014 22:00
- Written by editor
Sources:
[1] Trio of parliamentary watchdogs on the Ethics witness list. (CBC News)
http://www.cbc.ca/newsblogs/politics/inside-politics-blog/2014/02/trio-of-parliamentary-watchdogs-on-the-ethics-witness-list.html
[2] Petition against changes to election laws delivered on Parliament Hill. (Global TV)
http://globalnews.ca/news/1171031/watch-live-petition-against-changes-to-election-laws-delivered-on-parliament-hill/
[3] 53,700 signatures contre la réforme électorale. (Le Devoir)
http://www.ledevoir.com/politique/canada/401148/ottawa-53-700-signatures-contre-la-reforme-electorale
[4] The fair elections act doesn’t address the real problems with voting (Globe and Mail)
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/the-fair-elections-act-doesnt-address-the-real-problems-with-voting/article17134019/
Your campaign to Stop Voter Suppression is making waves!
Last week, we travelled to Ottawa and delivered your 53,000+ strong petition to Parliament. Now we’re getting ready to hold local rallies, and turn up the pressure even more.
Thank you so much to all our monthly donors for making this possible. Will you join them and help carry this work forward?
Last week, I travelled to Ottawa and delivered your 53,000+ Stop Voter Suppression signatures to Parliament. I was joined on the stage at the Ottawa Press Gallery by Craig Scott, David Christopherson and Alexandrine Latendresse from the NDP, Stephane Dion, Scott Simms, and Frank Valeriote from the Liberal Party of Canada, and Green Party Leader Elizabeth May.
TV newscast on Venezuelan demo on Blanshard St.
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- Published on Tuesday, 04 March 2014 13:40
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