The STM has just decided to raise rates for a CAM on the south shore. Those people will now have to pay $110 per month instead of $70 per month which they used to pay. This decision will only affect 3000 people. Horrible idea. We should be trying to...

Dimitri Soudas spoke to the access to information breach that was exposed by CP yesterday , moving into damage control-political messaging mode: "PMO says political staff shouldn't meddle in freedom-of-information releases." As has been pointed out elsewhere today, this is quite ironic in and of itself.

Over the years of the Harper government's tenure, the strangling of the access to information system has become a hallmark for them. This government has absolutely no credibility...

Via Crisisblogger , you can find a link to a post on mashable.com about a brewing controversy about comments on blogs.

Seems some people making comments have been nasty:

Popular gadget site Engadget has recently shut down comments . It's a temporary measure, it says, but the blog took it because the "tone in comments has really gotten out of hand."

Quel horreur , indeed.

- Adlai Stevenson

From: http://marshallplan.ca/comments.html
Your Name **: Diana xxxxx
City **: Calgary
Province **: Alberta
Email Address: xxxx@telus.net

Comments **: I have found that most of...

From the outset, let me just say that personally, I don't care in fact, I think that harmonizing taxes makes a lot of sense from the practical standpoint of efficiency in terms of revenue collection and remittance but a lot of people are quite exercised about the issue. This latest effort spearheaded by Wilhelmus Nicholaas Theodore Marie "Bill" Vander Zalm contends that the proposed HST violates Sections 91 and 92 of the British North American Act of 1867. Evidently, it's sort of a "states-rights" argument (to put the dispute into a context that may be more familiar to our American friends) insofar as the BNA Act directed that the right to tax income (i.e., a "direct tax") was delegated to the province...

This is big news in a world where the average temperature is set to keep rising. Mosquitoes are among the most deadly animals in the world, and the best drug we have is about to become a placebo. Way to go, profiteering drug companies! == The Conservatives crowed about “accountability” then don’t release reports they are legally obligated to show the media upon request. “The document was an annual report on Public Works’ massive real estate portfolio, which contained factual information on high vacancy rates and weak returns on investment. Such reports had never been made public before.” **********************************...

I'm struck by irrationality of fellow Habs fans. I would ask everyone to think about things more rationally. Some points to consider:

1) What was state of team when Gainey took over, as compared to now? Run through forward, defence and goalie corps, from 1-12, 1-6, 1-2.

2) Gainey took over May 2003. Given lockout in 2004-2005, this is his 6th, not 7th season in charge.

3) When he took over, Montreal was toxic: no-one, NO-ONE, wanted to come here. Bad team, vicious atmosphere in all senses (media, public, internal, etc.). Terrible preceding draft record.

4) Gainey's goal was to restore rationality. We have had decent to good draft record under Gainey, actually, if you check any independent evaluation site or source. Could we have done better&#...

As mentioned earlier , today CP Wire (Dean Beeby) reports there is news of more ATIP delays by the Harper regime. In the words of Michel Drapeau, the shenanigans at PWGSC are "...a manifestation of political interference with the administrative processes."
This latest report follows on the heels of a Globe and Mail report just last week that reported on a much wider appearance of meddling in the processing of Access to Information Requests. On Wednesday, they stated:

...

The amazing Buckets has now confirmed Ezra Levant's back-dating of a post that may well prove important to the defamation case being brought against him by CHRC lawyer Giacomo Vigna. Put crudely, Vigna has sued Levant for suggesting that he (Vigna) faked an illness to get out of a CHRT (Canadian Human Rights Tribunal) hearing; in his "Correction" , Levant admits that Vigna was indeed able to secure a doctor's note for whatever ailed him, AND that he turned said note over to the tr...

Via Kady O’Malley, we see that CAPP is thinking of doing several things; changing what its acronym stands for, becoming incorporated as a non-profit organization, and more substantively, trying to educate people about democracy and activism: Following the resounding success of the nation-wide rallies held January 23rd, CAPP organizers have begun planning the future of the movement. Hoping to maintain the momentum achieved by those demonstrations, organizers have begun initiating plans in support of a greater long-term strategy. The strategy involves educating the public about democracy and their rights as citizens through the creation and administration of an independent database of information. Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament is in the process of structuring itself as a non-...

He supported a loser but he does have chutzpah.

He is Brandon Frost, a 17 year old Vampr...

...

The Seaway Valley that is, you know, the one around Kingston, Prescott, Cornwall.

Oh, yeah, and Massena, New York. Saturday's Daily Courier-Observer observed that Barry K. Hill, a twenty year old lad living at 158 Water Street in Massena has a bit of weird thing going on.

To wit: Police in Massena allege that Mr. Hill entered two different apartments at a complex in the sleepy town across the St. Lawrence from Cornwall.

"A 25 year old Massena woman sad she woke at 3:40...'woke up to my foot being licked...then he asked if she was Darrel's sister...then asked if he could give her a foot job...A second woman, a teenager, said the man offered to pay her one hundred dollars if she would allow him to suck her toes..."

I am think alcohol may...

In Chicago, Chicago, the city so nice they named it twice.

WGN rolls with the story of Socrates Dopuis, a 24 year old suburban Chicago res who in late January of this year got his Benz impounded, got drunk and then went to fish it out of the impound.

You know how this ends. With the police and handcuffs.

Out on bail, he is due in court on the 26th.

The "base" is getting restless.

The Canadian Taxpayers' Federation has served as a farm team of sorts for the Conservatives through the years. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney once headed the organization, as did the Prime Minister's current head of communications, John Williamson.

But the federation has been distinctly unhappy with Harper's spending record of late and it has another kind of farm imagery on its mind. Here is its newly released video, which is billed as "light-hearted," even though I find it a bit scary (I think it's the glowing red eyes.)

Looks like

The "smart grid" concept explained in practical terms using electric hybrids automobiles as a starting point for illustrating the idea of how a more intelligent framework of energy distribution might work. This new series of videos produced by Peter Sinclair (aka greenman3610) promises to be very encouraging to those of us who think there's more to solving the global energy predicament than the dimwitted stratagem of "Drill baby, drill!" or a bleak future of scarcity involving caves and such ...

Six weeks ago, give 'er take, the Tories had the Liberals by ten.

No more.

The latest poll from Nanos, the latest Nanos Tracking Poll, has the Blues and the Reds in a statistical tie. What is more telling to moi is the fact that the Grits are only four points behind the Bloc Quebecois in La Belle.

May be there is hope for the Leafs after all.

The New Orleans Saints won Super Bowl 44 yesterday. [I have given up on the Roman numbers; too prentious.]

Down ten to zero they came back and won 31/17, although the game was in doubt until Reggie Wayne of the Colts muffed a pass on the goal line late, late, late in the fourth on a fourth and goal.

Thanks to Yossi Schochet for this:

Fells, [2003] O.J. No. 1392 (SCJ, Kruzick J.:

14     I turn now to the question whether a criminal record attaches to a conditional discharge? In 1972 the Criminal Code was amended to provide for the imposition of conditional and absolute discharges. The original intention of the amendments was to alleviate the harsh consequences of a criminal record in cases where the transgression was minor in nature. Parliament has, in fact, empowered the courts with the sentencing option to relieve an accused from the stigma of a criminal record as prescribed in s. 730 of the Code. As a result, I agree with the Crown that technically there is no criminal record.

15     How...

Today's National Post has an article about government (usually municipal) funding for claims made by officials against citizens for defamation. The article points out that governments themselves (at least outside Quebec) cannot sue for defamation and suggests that funding say, the Mayor's claim, is a way of avoiding that restriction.

The article also suggests that the (relatively) limitless government funding creates a strong disincentive to criticising the local government -- a 'libel chill'.

There is no doubt anyone defamed is entitled to sue. The question is who should pay for that suit.

In corporate law, a business may reimburse a shareholder for legal fees for bringing an action if the action was brought for the benefit of the bu...

GuelphMercury.com - News - Ignatieff, Trudeau coming to Guelph Joanne Shuttleworth GUELPH The leader of the Liberal Party of Canada is coming to Guelph Friday for a roundtable discussion on agriculture. Since the federal government is prorogued, the Liberals have been holding Friday forums to discuss issues and develop policy, Guelph MP Frank Valeriote said Wednesday. The economy, the environment, health care, seniors, poverty and governance have been forum topics in the past; this week it's agriculture. And that makes Guelph the natural place to host the forum, since it's home to the Ministry of Agriculture, the University of Guelph and all its food research and a number of agriculture associations, Valeriote said. "Guelph is the bridge between rural and urban," said Valeri...

Today's National Post has an article about government (usually municipal) funding for claims made by officials against citizens for defamation. The article points out that governments themselves (at least outside Quebec) cannot sue for defamation and suggests that funding say, the Mayor's claim, is a way of avoiding that restriction.

The article also suggests that the (relatively) limitless government funding creates a strong disincentive to criticising the local government -- a 'libel chill'.

There is no doubt anyone defamed is entitled to sue. The question is who should pay for that suit.

In corporate law, a business may reimburse a shareholder for legal fees for bringing an action if the action was brought for the benefit of the bu...

By Charlie Smith Publish Date: February 4, 2010 Power can be sexy, but not in all cases, judging by the results of the fifth annual Georgia Straight sex survey. In this year's questionnaire, which was available on Straight.com in late December and early January, women and men were asked which politician they would like to have sex with. For women, two men dominated the pack: U.S. president Barack Obama and Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson. Obama collected a quarter of the votes from females who answered the question. Our city's Olympic mayor was cited by more than 15 percent of women, which could be taken as an indication that Robertson won't have difficulty getting reelected. Trailing far behind was former U.S. president Bill Clinton. Even after the Monica Lewinsky scandal and all h...

par Pierre Boulanger Voir tous les articles de Pierre Boulanger Article mis en ligne le 2 février 2010 à 15:48 Soyez le premier à commenter cet article 19e édition du Mois de l'Histoire des Noirs s Sous le thème de l'unité et de la solidarité envers le peuple haïtien Le lundi 1er février avait le lancement des activités du Mois de l'Histoire des Noirs, événement annuel célébré par des millions d'individus à travers le monde. Chaque année, la Table Ronde du Mois de l'Histoire des Noirs souligne la contribution...

Bellavance, Joël-Denis Le chef du Parti libéral, Michael Ignatieff, voit d’un mauvais oeil la nomination au Sénat de l’Ontarien Bob Runciman, un ancien ministre dans le gouvernement conservateur de Mike Harris qui n’a jamais caché son hostilité envers le bilinguisme et les francophones. M. Runciman, qui a été ministre de la Sécurité publique de l’Ontario, a même déjà appuyé le groupe Alliance for the Preservation of English in Canada (APEC), une organisation francophobe dont les membres se sont rendus célèbres au pays en plein débat sur l’accord du lac Meech en piétinant et en brûlant le drapeau du Québec. M. Runciman est l’un des cinq sénateurs conservateurs nommés vendredi dernier par le premier ministre Stephen Harper afin de comb...

Not to print exit polls with no substantive backing in a close election. This is Ukraine. This is Viktor Yanukovitch who I believe won the last election based on exit polls . He may or may not have won this one. Can we wait for you know real results and maybe, some confirmation that this thing wasn't rigged before we jump to any conclusions? Particularly, when a run-off election between two candidates ends up with a tally of 49-45 or just 94% of the vote. Six percent spoiled ballots would be a huge and frankly, contestable number....

At least they have a decent excuse for a system in chaos:

Quake upends rules of criminal justice

By Henri E. Cauvin

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI -- Haiti's criminal justice system was brought to a standstill by last month's earthquake, which levelled the capital city's courthouse. But crime did not stop, and that has left police commanders with jail cells full of frustrated inmates who have not been given a chance to go...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/06/AR2010020602047.html?referrer=emailarticle

James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4

416 225 2777...

There was a very troubling report from CP yesterday about violations of Access to Information laws under former Public Works Minister Christian Paradis' oversight.

CP requested the release of the annual report on Public Works' real-estate portfolio. The request was thoroughly reviewed by the appropriate actors and was approved:

The department's real-estate branch had consented to the full release, and the Access to Information office at Public Works had determined after extensive consultation that there was Christian Paradis' parliamentary affairs dir...

By: Theo Meyer Posted: 2/2/10 Justin Trudeau, the Liberal MP for the northern Montreal riding of Papineau, served as the keynote speaker at the McGill Model United Nations conference on Thursday. Trudeau, the son of the late prime minister, sat down with the Tribune to discuss his undergraduate days at McGill, prorogation, and his life outside of politics. Tell me a bit about your time at McGill. Why did you choose to study in English rather than in French? Because I’d done my high school and CEGEP at [Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf in Outremont], so it was all French up until then. I decided that switching it up would be appropriate. Having done my seven years at Brébeuf, all French, I was looking forward to three years in downtown Montreal speaking English. Did it live up to your e...

Adopting the MSP could lance t...

The new Nanos poll confirms the recent trend, a large Conservative lead has "evaporated". The national numbers (last Nanos poll in brackets):

Cons 35.6% (39.5%)
Libs 33.9% (30.2%)
NDP 16.4% (18.7%)
Greens 5.6% (7.7%)

In Quebec, the Bloc Quebecois would reap 33.2% of the vote against 29.3% for...

It has been difficult to see any logic to Stephen Harper's recent recalibration of the former Minister of Public Works and Government Services, Christian Paradis. It seemed more than passing odd to move your supposedly "most trusted" Quebec Minister from a mammoth government department to the relatively small portfolio of Natural Resources.
Perhaps Canadian Press has discovered the reason for this element of the Harper recalibration ...and also provided Canadians with a true picture of the definition of "accountability" under Stephen Harper. Once moved the former Minister cannot be asked about this, or any other, Access blockage in his former department.

...

Yesterday, I suggested that Ezra Levant might have back-dated a post in which he retracted some of the false information he had been pushing re Giacomo Vigna, a CHRC lawyer that Levant will be meeting in an Ottawa courtroom tomorrow morning at 10:00 AM.

Buckets asked why somebody would care to back date a post? Well--and I am of course speculating here--when you have so many acolytes following your defamation cases , some of whom are also getting sued, often because they took your word as truth on some point or...

There's a Globe report today that serves as a reminder on the isotope file that there's an upcoming period, February 19th to the end of April, during which two of the major isotope producing reactors in the world will be down.

I have previously written about this upcoming shortage in mid-January and much of that post still applies in terms of the health care consequences and the actions the Harper government could have taken to alleviate this mess. Since that post we have learned that the Chalk River reactor is not going to be ready until some time in April now, whe...

The Conservatives led by nearly 10 points in mid-Novemberthey are now at 35.6% while the Liberals are at 33.9%...the NDP is at 16.4% and the Greens are at 5.6%...in Québec, the Bloc is at 33.2%...the Liberals are at 29.3%...the Conservatives are at 22.2% and the NDP are at 10.5%.

Nanos last(?) poll had the Tories just short of 40% . owever, the improvement noted here and elsewhere apparently isn't enough to tempt federal Libs towards bringing down the government in March, which probably wouldn't work anyway with Mr. Layton not at 100% and, therefore, probabl...

One of the weightier issues of the day is perplexing Tim Powers: "What is Ignatieff's sport?" An effort no doubt to do a little bit more gratuitous hockey association for the PM by asking such a comparative question. Considering how sporting our PM is, i.e., not really at all, the effort at a budding "my sport is better than your sport" machismo contest seems rather ridiculous.

Nevertheless, let's humour Mr. Powers. Some people may be intrigued. So here's a timely answer from Ignatieff that arrived Sunday night on the wires :

Which winter sport would you compete in if you were an Olympian...

 In 2009, residential permits&...

 The study was conducted amongst a test group of 60,...

Sean Holman poses the question of the B.C. government: "Will wildfires burn a hole in the coming fiscal year's budget?" A: Yes, likely it will. Which then naturally begs the supplementary question as to where the shortfall will be recouped from And the answer to that, most probably of course, is discretionary spending i.e., arts programs, environmental initiatives, or anything vaguely charitable that even remotely benefits the disadvantaged. Or maybe not but in any case, where is the "free market" when it comes to addressing problems such as this? Why isn't the "free market" private sector collectively mobilizing its considerably wealthy means and abilities to combat wildfires? After all...

I just couldn't stand it anymore.
You know what I'm talking about -- those awful, borderline offensive ads that are on website after website.
Those teeth chomping into a sugar cube. And more teeth glowing green.
That fat woman in a bikini, lying across the middle of every page.
And the before-and-after photos of some man's hairless torso.
So I finally installed an adblocker .
And it works -- they're gone! Beautiful. Of course, now Kos is trying to guilt me into subscribing.
But that's a small price to pay.
It occurs to me that the dominance of personal hygiene and dieting ads isn't going to prove to be a particularly attractive or substantial economic model for the internet, is it?...

A close up of Palin's hand.

Just one quick technical note, re. yesterday's and today's denticare posts. Once the non-profit public dental insurer had operated for a year, it would have a good idea of costs and revenues, and thus the appropriate rates to charge. Another year, two at most, and one would think it would have worked out all the kinks and calculations, whence my proposal that public-private competition be restrained for three years, initially. But how to calculate the rates in the first year? The generally accepted minimal nominal profit margin, in business, is 100%. Minimum. After one has calculated the costs inherent in the production of any good or service, the real profit margin is usually somewhere between 10-33%. When calculating the public insurer's rates for the first year one is also mindful o...

CHBC management made a decision not to air an advocacy commercial even though it had been given a broadcast number by Telecaster, a broadcast commercial clearing house. The ad was paid for by a BC anti-abortion group called Kelowna Right for Life, and it is probable the group was attempting to garner some pre-Olympic attention. CHBC general manager Dennis Gabelhouse: Gabelhouse said from what he knows, the ad was created in the U.S. in 1989 and has never actually aired on North American television, despite many attempts over the years by pro-life groups to air it on local stations. The ad insertion was paid for by Kelowna Right to Life and was scheduled to begin airing after midnight on Friday, but Gabelhouse said the station had already received complaints from people who had viewed i...

When newspapers did justice to their role, there exists a record of a century old speech that echoes to this day, demanding rational thought not popular whim. That though an elected Senate would garner the Upper House more public approval, that approval would only derive from an increase in public awareness, not an increase in efficiency.
...

...if Tory MP Rod Bruinooge would explain where he gets information about "sex-select abortions" in Canada. He might also explain why the Tories have been systematically defunding the Canadian Federation of Sexual Health. When he gets a moment....

That's the amount which arctic warming will cost us this year. It's calculated on the social cost of carbon: the cost on agriculture, power generation resources, everything. By 2050, arctic warming would have cost us 2.4 trillion USD that year. We all know that for Harper, his numbers in the polls are the most important issue before he gets his majority. So, that means concentrating on the economy. This warming is costing us billions of dollars. So, Harper's "working" on the economy and yet, he doesn't care about the 370 billion USD that is going to be lost this year. It is time that we turn this trend around and start protecting the environment.

The study estimated that melting sea ice and permafrost as well as dwindling snow co...

Below is a segment of a Financial Post article of last week that reveals what we are only now learning about what was going on inside Manulife circa 2006. These revelations are not surprising to me at all given the testimony that the CEO of Manulife gave at the Public Hearings on income trusts on February 1, 2007. The testimony of the CEO of Manulfie...

...well, a side gig, anyway. I'm one of the columnists for the new Canadian edition of Campaigns and Elections magazine. More here:The Canadian Editorial Advisory Board, in development, currently includes Canadian political notables Anie Perrault, John Capobianco, Robin Sears, and Don Guy. Included in the growing list of regular contributors will be Warren Kinsella, President of Daisy Consulting Group, who will provide readers with insight on the challenges and decision making during campaigns in his column titled “In the War Room,” as well as Brett Bell, Principal of Grassroots Online, who will enlighten readers about online campaigning and social media in modern politics with his column “Open Source.”I now expect all of you will run out and get a subscription. Or two or three. It�...

Having little else to do, I watched some of the former half-term Alaska governor (failed vice-presidential candidate, faux co-author of her own best-selling autobiography, teabagging keynote speaker, etc.) Sarah Palin's blathering, incoherent word-soup lovingly dished up on FNS this morning. Aside from all the rest of her rambling prevarications, shameless pandering to catastrophically dumb rubes, and achingly predictable anti-government rhetoric, what struck me most particularly was the air-quote gesture she used about half way into this clip when referring to President Obama as "serving" in office Check it out: As trivial as that may seem not to delve too deeply into the realm of body language interpretation or...

Janice Kennedy Who? you may rightly wonder writes in the Ottawa Citizen on a topic of considerable current interest. 

Hard to tell what is worse:  her suggestion the Premier should resign for seeking medical treatment in the United States  - get a life, Ms. Kennedy -  or the use of the word "Newfie" by one of the people commenting on her post.

The first is just nonsense, as is most of the rationale she uses to get to that conclusion.

The second is just plain insulting.

Feel free, gentle readers, to give her way more attention than she deserves.

-srbp-

Yeah, party members wanting open nominations. How petty of them.

"When you have some people that are focused on what are fairly minuscule, petty issues to the distraction of that overall effort -- they're doing it to cause disrupti...