Landfill development giant Genivar recently acquired Jagger Hims and Henderson Paddon, companies the County of Simcoe uses for environmental assessment and landfill development, respectively.

Council of Canadians, July 14

The Council of Canadians has learned that Jagger Hims, the company Simcoe County contracted for the groundwater analysis of controversial dump Site 41, was recently acquired by a company called Genivar – a major landfill developer…Jagger Hims is Genivar’s second acquisition of a company working on Site 41. Genivar also recently bought Henderson Paddon, hired by the County of Simcoe for all their Landfill Site designs including Site 41.

But the new Site 41 controversy doesn’t end there. In 2007, “Simcoe County hired Genivar Consulting Inc. to identify the business case for County Landfill Site 41… Genivar Consulting has identified Site 41 as both safe and suitable for a new waste management solid waste facility,” according to a county newsletter. Now Genivar, a company with a vested interest in building landfills, including Site 41 specifically, controls whether or not Jagger Hims releases the ModFlow (a widely used US Geological Survey computer-generated modeling system, also known as a Modular Three-Dimensional Groundwater Flow Model).

Jagger Hims, whose data interpretation Site 41’s viability is based on, has refused to release the ModFlow groundwater analysis to the public, the [County of Simcoe-created] Community Monitoring Committee (CMC), or the Council of Canadians. Jagger Hims has even refused to comply with an order from the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (the order was issued just one week before Genivar’s May 20, 2009 announcement that it had acquired Jagger Hims). The pretext for Jagger Hims denying access to the ModFlow was their alleged independence, despite the fact that it is now a subsidiary of Genivar, a landfill industry company.

Tiny Township Mayor Breckenridge, centre, exchanged emails with Simcoe County Warden Tony Geurgis over the weekend, urging him to call an emergency meeting of council.

The Barrie Examiner, July 15:

A motion by Deputy Mayor George Lawrence and Coun. Andre Claire asking the Premier to act was unanimously supported at Monday [July 13th]’s [Tiny Township] council meeting.

The motion cites council’s concerns about “outstanding environmental issues,” the protection and conservation of groundwater at the site. There remains,” it says, “a community-wide concern regarding a number of unsatisfactorily answered site design questions.”

The motion also notes there is an outstanding appeal concerning the site to Ontario’s Ombudsman by the former chair of the Community Monitoring Committee (Ray Millar).

Mayor Peggy Breckenridge has asked County Warden Tony Guergis to call a special meeting of county council to deal with the escalating situation at the dump site.  She suggests the meeting might be held under the procedural bylaw and, because it would deal with the security of county property, could be held in-camera.

Danny Beaton, left, and other protesters attempted to confront the premier at Georgian College in Barrie, July 7, 2009.

Toronto Star, July 8:

[Y]esterday, several dozen placard-toting dump opponents tried to speak with [Dalton] McGuinty at an infrastructure funding announcement at Georgian College in Barrie, but were escorted off campus by city police. Officers said college officials had asked them to eject the peaceful protesters.While McGuinty refused to meet with the demonstrators, he said he appreciated their concerns.

“I know it is a difficult issue for some of the folks around here and I can understand that,” he told reporters.

“We need landfill sites,” he said, noting that work surrounding Site 41 has been going on for 15 years. “The best advice that we’re getting is … we can do this in a way that does not compromise the quality of the environment.”

Simcoe County residents march to a July 4th rally opposing Dump Site 41

On June 30th, despite a well-attended protest by community members outside council chambers, Simcoe County Councilors voted in favour of a measure prohibiting vehicles from parking within 50 metres of either entrance to Site 41 on the north side of the road.  The parking ban has yet to be enforced, as signs are required to first be installed to inform drivers of the new measure, but once in place the ban will likely prove a substantial setback for those protesting the continued development of the Dump Site.

Four days later, about 400 people marched from the Elmvale Arena and joined about 150 more at the campsite across from Site 41 that has been active for over 60 days. The march and subsequent rally was organized by the Council of Canadians and included speeches from provincial NDP leader Andrea Horwath, Council of Canadians chair Maude Barlow, former MP and Toronto Mayor David Crombie, Conservative MPP Garfield Dunlop, local activist Stephen Ogden, radio host Dale Goldhawk, and a representative from the Chiefs of Ontario.

During her speech, Maude Barlow spoke of meetings with local councilors about a proposal for a year-long moratorium on site development which she hopes to go before the  council once it resumes on August 25th.  “People supporting the site are feeling the heat,” said Barlow, “and I think they would like to find a peaceful resolution to this…and if the decision isn’t what we want, we will then decide how we react. But we have to make sure no garbage goes into the site before Aug. 25th. Not one piece of garbage must be allowed to be dumped, because once it is, it that becomes very hard to undo.”

The day following the rally, an email sent by Simcoe County Warden Tony Guergis to local Councilors was obtained by community members. The email spoke of a new plan to have Site 41 operational within weeks rather than months as previously scheduled.

In response, A blockade was formed at 5am the next morning, preventing equipment from entering Site 41. Vicki Monague, in charge of communications for the ongoing Anishinabe camp site opposing the Dump Site, sent out a message later in the day saying, “Natives have blocked entrances and now joined by locals. This is a permanent block.” According to camp member Shelley Essaunce, there are currently people blocking all three entrances to the site.

First Nations protesters are seeking Federal intervention, citing the responsibility of the Canadian government to protect the lands, waters and resources of First Nations communities.  “Dump Site 41 will be a breach of the Crown’s legal obligation to protect our territories and water and resources,” said First Nations protester John Hawke. “This dump will eventually leak into Georgian Bay – my territory – and I’m not moving until this is stopped; until people from the federal level come and talk with us.”

-Several quotes obtained by Douglas Glynn

Signs protesting the dump site in Simcoe County.

Background:
Ignoring over 30 years of community resistance,  Simcoe County is beginning development on Landfill Site #41 – a project rubber-stamped by the Province and scheduled to be in full operation by the end of this year. First Nations groups, local residents, and organizations such as the David Suzuki Foundation, are all protesting this decision, claiming that it goes against Ontario’s Clean Water Act since Site 41’s location contains natural and unspoiled artesian water sources.

Site 41 lies atop the Alliston Aquifer in Tiny Township (northwest of Barrie, Ontario) which provides drinking water to local residents. Scientists have declared the aquifer to be so pristine that it is comparable to ancient arctic ice.  The aquifer is also in close proximity to three First Nations reserves (Rama, Georgina Island and Beausoleil) and the area above the aquifer serves as the traditional harvesting area of the Métis Nation. Aboriginal peoples have not been consulted about the development of the garbage dump site.

There is serious concern that the leachate (liquid drainage) from the landfill will end up leaking into the surrounding water table causing widespread contamination. Overall, there are 13 Rivers and Streams in the upper aquitard of Site 41.

According to the Ministry of the Environment Certificate of Approval, Site 41 is to rely on the pressure of upward hydraulic gradients for structural integrity. This essentially means that since water at the site flows upward, any leak would see water going into the dump rather than discharge going into the aquifer. However, the County of Simcoe-created Community Monitoring Committee for Site 41 contests the existence of the necessary upward hydraulic pressure and claim that the lack of such pressure represents a breach of the Certificate of Approval. The province has thusfar refused to release any details of the water flow to allay residents’ concerns.

On March 30th, 2009, the province began dewatering the aquifer at the rate of over 410 000 litres per day with a goal of removing a total of 225 million litres to make way for the garbage. On May 14th, five Aboriginal women made a public stand against Site 41, setting up camp at the site and refusing to leave until the destruction of the water source is permanently stopped. They are still there, organizing the continued opposition to the Dump Site.

On June 10th, the Council of Canadians had lawyer Steven Shrybman send a letter to the Simcoe County Warden and Councillors, as well as to the Minister of the Environment, threatening legal action if construction at the site continues. The organization’s chair, Maude Barlow, also serves as the senior adviser on water to the President of the United Nations General Assembly.

On June 24th, David Suzuki wrote a letter to Dalton McGuinty urging a halt to all construction on the landfill. The dewatering process has yet to cease.

Upcoming Actions:
-On June 30th 2009, the County of Simcoe will vote on a parking ban for Concession Road 2 which will interfere with the flow of supplies to the oppositional camp site and make those going to or from the camp have to walk. There is a demonstration planned to take place outside the council meeting at the Simcoe County Offices in Midhurst, Ontario. It is scheduled to start at 9am and end at 12pm.

-On July 4th, the Council of Canadians is organizing a march followed by a rally and concert to demonstrate the strong public opposition to Dump Site 41. Free buses will depart from and return to Toronto . Details can be found here: http://www.canadians.org/events/index.html

Contributions:
The organizers of the ongoing camp site at Site 41 have recently expressed a need for the following items:
water storage containers (hard plastic not soft), raincoats, binoculars, oil & gas for generator, gas cards, phone cards, dish rack, towels-facecloths-tea towels- table cloths, large 24×20 tarp & other sized tarps, environmentally friendly cleaning products such as dish detergent, liquid hand soap, shampoo & conditioner,sunscreen, bug repellent, ice box, ice daily, tobacco for sacred fire, 5-10 gal buckets with lids (previously used is fine), hemp twin, duct tape, outside shower set up and hand sanitizers.
Food needed: meat, lunch meats, cream, milk, fresh vegetables, prepared food, powered juices like iced tea and gatorade, ice, not necessary but appreciated: pop & munchies.

If you are interested in supporting those at the site in any way, get in touch with:
Vicki Monague
Anishinabe Kweag: Protesting Dump Site 41.
PO Box 148
Christian Island, ON L0K 1C0
705-247-2636 or 705-305-8425
bugszie54@hotmail.com

Monetary donations can be deposited to the campsite campaign at:
Scotia Bank, Transit#: 40782, Account#: 0052116.

Lawyer Yavar Hameed holds up an airline ticket for Canadian Abousfian Abdelrazik, stranded in Sudan since 2003.

Abousfian Abdelrazik was detained without charge and tortured by Sudanese officials on the request of CSIS in 2003. He was subsequently prevented from returning to Canada by officials within the Canadian government, trapping him in Sudan for 6 years. Although he is boarding a plane today to finally return home, his worries are not over. Abdelrazik’s government-scheduled itinerary includes two lengthy stopovers, one in Abu Dhabi and the other in the United States- both countries here he risks apprehension.

In a June 18th letter, a representative of the Department of Justice wrote to Abdelrazik’s legal team, saying that “the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade has encountered some reticence in getting assurances that your client will be able to board a flight.” In response, Abdelrazik’s legal team immediately scheduled a meeting with DFAIT officials, asking them of any attempts to ensure Abdelrazik’s safety in the stopover countries. They refused to answer the questions on the basis of national security.

In his June 4th ruling, Judge Russell Zinn- who has agreed to remain ‘seized’ until Abdelrazik returns to Canada- ordered a DFAIT escort to accompany Abdelrazik on his way home. He demanded that the escort “use his very best efforts to ensure that Mr. Abdelrazik returns to Canada unimpeded.” Abdelrazik is also being accompanied by his lawyer, Yavar Hameed. It is the hope of both Abdelarzik and his legal team that this will secure him safe passage.

As of about an hour ago, the three of them have landed safely in Abu Dhabi. The progress of Abdelrazik’s journey home can be monitored at http://twitter.com/retouraubercail

If Abdelrazik does indeed return home safely, Judge Zinn has called for him to appear before a Montreal Federal Court on July 7th to answer questions regarding his experiences in Sudan. There will be an effort to gather supporters outside the court room.

In a June 11th letter, Susan Pollack [executive director of the Security Intelligence Review Committee, charged with reviewing the activities of CSIS] wrote to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee pledging a review would take place of how CSIS handled Abdelrazik’s case. Pollack’s letter went on to say that the review will be conducted in private “and the review committee will not be providing any further comments on the status of this investigation.”This letter was in direct response to Judge Zinn’s June 4th ruling which stated that CSIS was “complicit” in Abdelrazik’s detention by Sudanese authorities in 2003. NDP MP Paul Dewar is calling for a full public inquiry.

According to CSIS’s website, “while CSIS may enter into arrangements with foreign countries and agencies, it may only do so with the approval of the Minister of Public Safety in consultation with the Minister of Foreign Affairs.” Upon Abdelrazik’s initial detention in 2003, Ward Elcock [current head of security for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games and upcoming G8 meeting] was Director of CSIS, Wayne Easter was the Solicitor General [the name of the position was soon after changed to Minister of Public Safety], and Bill Graham was the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Since the election of the Harper government, Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh has served as the official opposition critic for National Defense, Foreign Affairs, and Public Safety, respectively. He was also the first Indo-Canadian Provincial leader, becoming the NDP premier of BC in 2000. After Michael Ignatieff became Liberal Party Leader, Dosanjh became a Special Advisor. Dosanjh is uniquely qualified to lead a call along with Dewar for a public inquiry. Occupying his old critic positions are Bob Rae [as critic for Foreign Affairs] and Mark Holland [as the critic for Public Safety and National Security]. While these positions are the places from which a call for a public inquiry should be expected to come, the fear of bipartisan culpability being revealed will likely stifle any such call, leaving the NDP and Abdelzarik’s legal team on their own.

More information about Abdelrazik’s case can be found here: http://www.peoplescommission.org/en/abdelrazik/

BBC, September 18, 2001:

A former Pakistani diplomat has told the BBC that the US was planning military action against Osama Bin Laden and the Taleban even before [the 9/11] attacks.

Niaz Naik, a former Pakistani Foreign Secretary, was told by senior American officials in mid-July that military action against Afghanistan would go ahead by the middle of October.

The wider objective, according to Mr Naik, would be to topple the Taleban regime and install a transitional government of moderate Afghans in its place.

MSNBC, May 16, 2002:

President Bush was expected to sign detailed plans for a worldwide war against al-Qaida two days before Sept. 11 but did not have the chance before the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, U.S. and foreign sources told NBC News.

The couching of the plans as a formal security directive is significant…because it indicates that the United States intended a full-scale assault on al-Qaida even if the Sept. 11 attacks had not occurred.

When asked about the report during a press briefing on Monday, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell dismissed the company’s negligence.

Scaring people away from their taps into the bottled water aisle at the grocery store will cost them thousands of dollars a year without making them any safer. Nearly 40 percent of bottled water is simply repackaged tap water. What’s more, there’s no government agency testing bottled water contamination from known hazards such as bacteria, synthetic contaminants, or heavy metals.

While the Associated Press did not test bottled water, earlier testers have found dangerous substances such as arsenic and bromate, both known carcinogens. And bottled water comes with its own list of unknown hazards from chemicals leached into the water from the plastic bottles. Tap water is still the best choice for most Americans.

Today is Martin Luther King Day in the United States and in honour of the man I thought I’d provide you with a condensed version of one of his greatest speeches. On April 24th, 1967, King spoke at the New York City Riverside Church and voiced his opposition to America’s war in Vietnam. While the impetus for his speech was topical, most of his words are still apt today. The following are his words.

The long line of military dictators offered no real change.
The only change came from America, as we increased our troop commitments in support of governments which were singularly corrupt, inept, and without popular support.
All the while the people read our leaflets and received the regular promises of peace and democracy…
Now they languish under our bombs and consider us…the real enemy.
They move sadly and apathetically as we herd them off the land of their fathers into concentration camps where minimal social needs are rarely met.
They know they must move on or be destroyed by our bombs.
So they go, primarily women and children and the aged.

They watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops.
They must weep as the bulldozers roar through their areas preparing to destroy the precious trees.
They wander into the hospitals..mostly children…[wounded] from American firepower.
They wander into the towns and see thousands of the children, homeless, without clothes, running in packs on the streets like animals.
They see the children degraded by our soldiers as they beg for food.
They see the children selling their sisters to our soldiers, soliciting for their mothers.
What do the peasants think as we ally ourselves with the landlords…
What do they think as we test out our latest weapons on them, just as the Germans tested out new medicine and new tortures in the concentration camps of Europe?
The more sophisticated surely realize that we are on the side of the wealthy and the secure while we create hell for the poor.

Where are the roots of…the independ[ence]…we claim to be building?
Is it among these voiceless ones?
I have tried in these last few minutes to give a voice to the voiceless…
We must speak for them and raise the questions they cannot raise.
These, too, are our brothers.

Surely we must understand their feelings, even if we do not condone their actions.
Surely we must see that the men we supported pressed them to their violence.
Surely we must see that our own computerized plans of destruction simply dwarf their greatest acts.
Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence, when it helps us to see the enemy’s point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves.
For from his view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition.

Somehow this madness must cease.
We must stop now.
I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor.
I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted.
I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home, and death and corruption [abroad].
I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken.
I have tried in these last few minutes to give a voice to the voiceless…

We must find new ways to speak for peace…and justice throughout the developing world – a world that borders on our doors.
If we do not act we shall surely be dragged down the long dark and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.
It is a sad fact that, because of comfort, complacency, a morbid fear of communism, and our proneness to adjust to injustice, the Western nations that initiated so much of the revolutionary spirit of the modern world have now become the arch anti-revolutionaries.
Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism.
A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional.
Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies.

This call for a world-wide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one’s tribe, race, class and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all men.
This oft misunderstood and misinterpreted concept – so readily dismissed by the Nietzsches of the world as a weak and cowardly force – has now become an absolute necessity for the survival of man.
When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response.
I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life.
Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality.

Let us hope that this spirit will become the order of the day.
The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate.
History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate.
We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation.
We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today.

AFP, November 23:

Russian police late Friday raided an office of The Other Russia coalition led by former chess champion Gary Kasparov, hours before he was to lead a march in Moscow against President Vladimir Putin.
“They had no documents, acted on the authority of some secret decree, so they could not say what it was about,” …said [coalition's spokeswoman Lyudmila Mamina].
“It was all connected to (Saturday’s) March of Dissenters. It was an attempt to scare off its organisers,” [she] said.

Associated Press, November 24:

Riot police beat and detained opposition leader Garry Kasparov Saturday as they took dozens of protesters into custody at a rally against President Vladimir Putin.
The city gave the organizers permission to hold the rally but forbid them to march to the Central Elections Commission.
Riot police surrounded the rally…mov[ing] in after the rally had ended and about 150 of the protesters… began to march toward the Central Elections Commission. Kasparov had not joined the young protesters who had broken away from the crowd. He was detained after walking over to see what had happened to them.

BBC, November 24:

The [Central Elections] Commission has barred Other Russia candidates from the 2 December election.
[Kasparov] was later charged with organising an illegal protest and resisting arrest.

AFP, Novembr 24:

The Other Russia rally was one of around 10 political demonstrations that took place in the Russian capital on Saturday.
Around 3,600 police officers were on special duty to supervise the rallies, with more than half of them assigned to The Other Russia gathering alone, according to Echo Moskvy radio.

The New York Times, November 24:

Kasparov…was arrested Saturday and sentenced to five days in jail after trying to lead a march to the offices of the federal election authorities. …he had intended to present a letter asserting that the parliamentary election on Dec. 2 was biased toward President Vladimir V. Putin’s party.
City officials had given his loose opposition coalition, Other Russia, permission to conduct a rally on Saturday, but not a march.

Reuters, November 24:

A senior Russian rights activist said he and a television crew had been abducted and beaten by security agents… just hours before a protest against police brutality.
Orlov said the kidnappers were from the security forces or the police, whom he accused of employing scare tactics before a planned mass opposition demonstration across the country.

International Herald Tribune, November 24:

A police officer confirmed that the journalists and rights activist were taken from the Assa hotel in Nazran at about midnight and beaten by armed men.
Orlov said the men in camouflage represented themselves as members of an anti-terrorist unit and forced him and the journalists into a white minibus without license plates. They were driven to the Sunzha district, beaten and then ordered to get out of the vehicle.
A statement issued later by his organization, Memorial, said the journalists were barefoot and dressed only in their underwear.
Police appeared to want to prevent the journalists from filming an opposition rally that day in Nazran, Orlov said.

Associated Press, October 31:

A powerful bomb ripped through a bus in central Russia Wednesday morning, killing eight people and wounding at least 53…

DPA, October 31:

The domestic security agency FSB hung a ban on information on the circumstances of the attack, and journalists complained of being arrested as they attempted to gather information near the site of the explosion.

AFP, October 31:

While Russia continues to face insurgent violence in the mainly Muslim Caucasus mountain region on its southern border, such attacks are almost unheard of in Samara.

“In the pre-election period attempts are being made to destabilise the situation in the regions. The main question is who gains from this,” said Viktor Ilyukhin, a member of parliament, quoted by RIA Novosti.

Reuters, November 1:

The blast came just over a month before Russia votes in parliamentary polls widely seen as a referendum on Putin’s eight years in power.

A day before the Togliatti blast, local security officials met to discuss security arrangements during the elections…

The Times, November 1:

“We have reached the conclusion that this was an act of terrorism,” Vladimir Artyakov, the region’s governor, told Russian television.

AFP, November 1:

The number of Iraqis killed in insurgent and sectarian attacks rose in October.

BBC, November 1:

The number of violent civilian and military deaths in Iraq has continued to drop, figures for October suggest.

Washington Post, October 24:

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe normally works well in advance of election day, monitoring the run-up to the vote. Four years ago, during Russia’s last parliamentary vote, the OSCE had been at work for five weeks at this stage in the process. By election day in 2003, there were 450 OSCE observers in Russia, according to officials with the group.

With parliamentary elections just weeks away, Russia has still not extended an invitation to Europe’s principal election watchdog to monitor the vote.

Associated Press, October 25:

Russian proposals…dated Sept. 18, were distributed to delegations of the OSCE last month.

Among other things, they would limit election monitoring missions to no more than 50 people and would restrict missions from “making any public assessments of the election environment in the host country” before election results are officially announced, according to a copy of the proposals.

Reuters, October 29th:

Tens of thousands of Russians, many holding photographs of Putin and waving banners saying “Putin is our president,” held rallies in regional cities calling for him to stay in power.

Attendance at the recent meetings, presented on state television as bursts of support for the Kremlin chief, was partly organized by [government] officials in at least two cities, according to copies of documents obtained by Reuters.

[Also a] letter from the head of the education authority in the city of Tver, north of Moscow, told students and teachers from 55 schools to support a rally held last week.

Washington Post, October 26:

As the California wildfires raged Tuesday, Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson, the deputy administrator, had a 1 p.m. news briefing. Reporters were given only 15 minutes’ notice of the briefing, making it unlikely many could show up at FEMA’s Southwest D.C. offices.

[But] something didn’t seem right. The reporters were lobbing too many softballs. No one asked about trailers with formaldehyde for those made homeless by the fires. And the media seemed to be giving Johnson all day to wax on and on about FEMA’s greatness.

Of course, that could be because the questions were asked by FEMA staffers playing reporters.

The Raw Story, October 26, 2007:

Former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s jaunt to France was interrupted today by an unscheduled itinerary item — he was slapped with a criminal complaint charging him with torture.

Rumsfeld, in Paris for a discussion sponsored by the magazine Foreign Policy, was by tracked down by representatives of a coalition of international human rights groups, who informed the architect of the US invasion of Iraq that they had submitted a torture suit against him in French court.

-David

Among the miles and miles of devastated houses, rubble still there today in New Orleans, we found dry, beautiful homes. But their residents were told by guys dressed like Ninjas wearing “Blackwater” badges: “Try to go into your home and we’ll arrest you.”

The charge is devastating: That, on August 29, 2005, the White House withheld from the state police the information that New Orleans was about to flood. From almost any other source, I would not have believed it. But this was not just any source. The whistle-blower is Dr. Ivor van Heerden, deputy director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center, the chief technician advising the state on saving lives during Katrina.

The soil on Mars may contain microbial life, according to a new interpretation of data first collected more than 30 years ago.

Joop Houtkooper of the University of Giessen, Germany, said on Friday the spacecraft may in fact have found signs of a…life form based on hydrogen peroxide on the subfreezing, arid Martian surface.

“We will have to find confirmatory evidence and see what kind of microbes these are and whether they are related to terrestrial microbes. It is a possibility that life has been transported from Earth to Mars or vice versa a long time ago.”

Russia will start building two plants in October to make Kalashnikov assault rifles in Venezuela, the first country to win a production license for the guns since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Chavez is continuing an arms buildup that has cost more than $4.3 billion since 2005. Russia is the South American nation’s main weapons supplier. Chavez has said he needs the arms to defend against what he calls a threat of U.S. invasion.

Venezuela has spent more than $3 billion on Russian weapons since 2005, signing contracts to buy 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles, 50 military helicopters and 24 Su-30 jet fighters. The country is also seeking to buy eight Russian diesel-powered submarines, and Chavez visited Russia’s neighbor Belarus in June for talks with President Alexander Lukashenko on buying a short-range air defense system.

International Herald Tribune, August 15th:

Venezuela is negotiating a contract with Rosoboronexport, the Kremlin-controlled arms export agency, to purchase about 5,000 modernized Dragunov rifles.
…Diplomats and military officers and analysts said a purchase of several thousand Dragunovs would not seem to have a conventional military use for Venezuela’s armed forces…

“Obviously, what he has in mind is some sort of urban, guerrilla war against an invading force, and the model for that is Iraq,”said [Mark] Joyce, [the Americas editor for Jane's Country Risk, part of Jane's Information Group].

Joyce noted that Venezuela has long been accused of providing weapons to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, a large and heavily equipped Marxist group that the State Department classifies as a foreign terrorist organization.

Reuters, August 23rd:

Colombia is Washington’s strongest ally in a region where left-wing leaders such as Chavez have gained ground. President Alvaro Uribe has received billions of dollars in U.S. aid to fight left-wing rebels and cocaine trafficking that helps fuel the country’s four-decade-old war.

“Venezuela’s regional neighbors should be ready to respond to a potential threat from President Hugo Chavez’s arms build-up, which could be used to intimidate rather than for self-defense,” a senior U.S. defense official said on Thursday…”Democracies in the region need to be able to respond to this in a way that will help reduce this kind of threat,” he said.

On Aug. 11, a resident near Victoria Park and Lawrence Avenues found a white, bubble-wrapped envelope at his front door. When he opened it, the envelope exploded and he suffered minor injuries to his hands.

On [Aug. 12]…the Toronto Police Emergency Task Force was dispatched to the Yonge Street and Sheppard Avenue area after Toronto lawyer Terrence Reiber found an envelope that smelled like petroleum on his front porch at about 3 p.m. Police detonated it safely.

Both packages were bubble-wrapped envelopes, had properly addressed courier receipts, and contained petroleum-type fluid.

The Globe and Mail, August 24th:

Several homes were evacuated yesterday after police in Guelph found a letter bomb delivered to a residence in the neighbourhood.

The Canada Post Xpresspost envelope, which police say contained a “homemade explosive device,” was delivered to the rear deck of a home, where the owner found it about 3 p.m.

After this initiative ended, The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), an American-based foreign policy body, formed ‘The Independent Task Force on the Future of North America’, picking up where the CCCE campaign left off. The ties between the organizations go beyond interest, as the CFR’s Canadian chapter is co-chaired by Thomas D’Aquino, also the President and CEO of the CCCE. In the US, the CFR is co-chaired by Robert Pastor, a man often referred to as the father of the North American Union due to his longtime advocacy of the subject.

In May 2005, following several statements of a similar nature, the CFR task force published a report which not only advocated the formation of a ‘North American Community’ on par with the European Union, but outlined the steps necessary to achieve such integration in detail. Documents leaked from an early CFR task force meeting mentioned, “No item – not Canadian water, not Mexican oil, not American anti-dumping laws – is ‘off the table’; rather contentious or intractable issues will simply require more time to ripen politically.“

Several months after this report was published, a Texas meeting between George W. Bush, Paul Martin, and Vicente Fox  saw the efforts of the CCCE and CFR pay off. All parties signed into existence The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP). The SPP is not a formal treaty or agreement between countries but instead an ongoing ‘dialogue’. Therefore, it eludes the necessity of parliamentary oversight and has drawn heavy criticism for removing the public from it’s decision-making process. The SPP’s stated procedure describes closed-door meetings with businesses and industry shareholders followed by subsequent briefings being given to parliament.

In March 2006, industry was provided with a formal seat at the head of the SPP table. Over 50 business representatives and government officials convened in Louisville for the January ‘Public/Private Sector Dialogue on the SPP.’ This convention was followed by a smaller Washington meeting co-hosted by the US Chamber of Commerce and resulted in the creation of the North American Competitiveness Council (NACC). Run directly out of the US Chamber of Commerce, the 30-person council is made up of about 10 industry representatives from each country and determines the economic core of the SPP’s agenda. The council publishes a recommendation report for the politicians of each member country each year, detailing policy it would like to see changed or enacted, many of which have already been put into place.

While many believe that the SPP is part of a broader effort to establish a North American economic union, leaders of the participating countries frequently deny it. However, documents obtained through the US Freedom of Information Act, detailing last year’s North American Forum meeting in Banff, reveal the existence of just such an effort.

With stated ambitions such as achieving continent-wide military integration under the auspices of NORAD and NORTHCOM, the documents contain frequent references to the 2005 CFR task force report which adcovates the formation of a ‘North American Community’. At one point the documents refer to the report as, “[CFR Chair Robert]Pastor’s vision paper,” later adding that this vision will be carried out through a process of “evolution by stealth”. Far from a fringe gathering, last year’s North American Forum meeting was attended by (Canadian Minister of Public Safety) Stockwell Day, (then-Canadian Minister of Defense) Gordon O’Conner, (then-US Secretary of Defense) Donald Rumsfeld as well as many other highly influential figures.

This past week, the 2007 SPP Summit was held in Montebello, Quebec, drawing about 2,000 protesters. While these yearly summits are undoubtedly the most visible part of the SPP ‘dialogue,’ much of the work toward integration is done behind the scenes by numerous SPP topic-specific working groups. Recent decisions such as Canada’s abandonment of previous pesticide regulations in favour of America’s higher minimum levels and  a new Food and Product Safety Plan which allows new pharmaceuticals to enter the market with reduced American levels of testing  attest to the efficacy of these working groups in bringing about actual policy change.

Conversely, this past July, the US House of Representatives voted in favour of a transportation bill amendment, “prohibiting the use of funds to participate in a working group pursuant to the Security and Prosperity Partnership,” officially cutting off public funding for transportation-related SPP working groups in the United States. No such parliamentary resistance has been presented in Canada, however. In fact, when the Commons Standing Committee on International Trade held hearings on the SPP in May of this year, the Tory committee chair ordered that a professor critical of the SPP halt his testimony on the grounds that it was irrelevant. After opposition MPs called for and won an overruling motion, the chair threw down his pen, declared the meeting adjourned and stormed out of the room followed by three of the four conservative panel members.

While NDP leader Jack Layton has publicly criticized Stephen Harper for not involving the public in the SPP talks and Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion has recently accused the Conservative government of participating in secret discussions involving bulk water exports, the Prime Minister has shrugged off the criticism with remarks such as “A couple of my opposition leaders have speculated on massive water diversions and superhighways to the continent — maybe interplanetary, I’m not sure, as well.”

The Chapeau Montebello, the hotel where the summit was held, was surrounded by a 25km security perimeter enforced by the RCMP along with provincial police and even some reports of American forces. When asked about the protesters gathered behind the 3 metre-high fence built to keep them out, Harper responded saying, “I heard it’s nothing. A couple of hundred? It’s sad.”

Prior to the summit, the Council of Canadians, a non-governmental organization, organized a petition of the SPP dialogue and collected over 10,000 signatures. Ensuring the approval of the RCMP in advance, the Council of Canadians obtained authorization to deliver the petition to the gates of the Chateau Montebello on the day of the summit as a part of the overall protest. Hours before the summit however, the Department of Foreign Affairs ordered the RCMP to ignore their prior agreement with the Council of Canadians and upon attempting to deliver the petition, the demonstrators were met by riot squads (video).

Another organization, The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP), organized a peaceful protest outside the security zone surrounding the summit. As seen in this video, several men with their faces obscured by bandannas approached the police line attempting to provoke hostilities. CEP President David Coles confronted the men, urging them to leave. As their bandannas were pulled away, the crowd immediately identified the men as police officers. This resulted in the men pushing their way into the police line and being carried away by officers.

According to the Globe and Mail, there was no record of their arrests, and in pictures taken of the event, the boots of the three men are identifiable as the same as those on the police carrying them. While Quebec police have now admitted that the men were indeed their officers, they deny that it was their intention to provoke a police response, claiming that the officers were only identified by demonstrators when they refused to throw rocks at police.

Public Safety Minister Stockwell day has rejected NDP calls for an investigation into the matter, saying “I’ve made the inquiries and there was no RCMP that were involved as far as those three individuals go. If people have concerns … there is a complaints process for the RCMP. There is also one for the Surete du Quebec. This incident happened in Quebec, so I imagine people could…file under that complaints process.”

Day went on to say, “The thing that was interesting in this particular incident, three people in question were spotted by protesters because they were not engaging in violence. They were being encouraged to throw rocks and they were not throwing rocks, it was the protesters who were throwing the rocks. That’s the irony of this.”

Day refused to say whether the RCMP had given the order to deploy undercover agents. “Operational details I don’t get into,” he said following the Vancouver press conference.

David Coles has said that he is now considering pressing charges against the officer that pushed him. “Criminal acts were committed,” he said. “They were shoving me and others. We want an arm’s-length independent inquiry of what’s going on here.”

At the Surete du Quebec press conference following the summit, Inspector Marcel Savard clarified the police’s position saying, “One of the extremists gave the rock to one of our police officers and he had a choice to make. He was asked by extremists to throw the rock at the police, but never had any intention of using it.”

NDP MP Peter Julian responded saying, “There are no real answers, there is no apology, there is no inquiry. It just does not appear, as we saw with the federal government, that the police services are taking what transpired in Montebello seriously.”

The tactics of the police in conjunction with comments such as Harper’s “Does the standardization of jelly beans pose a threat to our sovereignty?” make it clear that both levels of government are attempting to downplay the relevance of the Summit while marginalizing it’s detractors. While the Prime Minister may claim that the breadth of the Summit only encompassed standardizing jelly beans, a four-page deal entitled The SPP Regulatory Cooperation Framework was signed by the three leaders inside the hotel. With observations such as, “The Canadian Domestic Substances List (DSL) and the US Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) differ and prevent some US products from being sold in Canada,” followed by goals such as “Streamlin[ing] regulations and regulatory processes,” it is clear what Harper was trying to hide. In fact, a seperate two-page sub-agreement entitled, ‘Regulatory Cooperation in the Area of Chemicals,’ a document further articulating the initiative to standardized continental chemical regulations, never made it’s way onto the Canadian Government’s Montebello website and is only available through the SPP or EPA websites.

These statements echo similar ones from two months ago when NAFTA trade ministers met in Vancouver and issued a joint statement which in part read, “…Ministers also agreed to explore work that will assist current efforts towards common standards and requirements for the labeling and transportation of hazardous chemicals.”

It’s clear that Harper is trying to hide an initiative to harmonize Canada’s chemical regulatory framework with the United States’s model. This is an issue for parliamentary debate, not board room discussion and any further concealment will hopefully result in increased public opposition.

During a conference with municipal representatives yesterday, Dalton McGuinty announced that if re-elected in October, the Liberal government would take back the costs of two provincial programs previously downloaded onto the city of Toronto. McGuinty promised that the costs of both the Ontario Disability Support Program and Ontario Drug Benefit Program would be uploaded back to the province, alleviating Toronto of a $217 million burden.

While the city would still have a $358 million shortfall to deal with and would only see $38 million of the savings in the first year, this move sees a departure from what has until this point been a principled stance for McGuinty. Until yesterday, the Premier had consistently maintained that he would make no changes to any policies related to provincial-municipal relationships until a provincial panel on the subject released their report after the election. The announcement also departs from the comments of McGuinty’s finance minister, Greg Sorbara, who just three days ago said that the provincial surplus would not be used to alleviate Toronto’s fiscal hardships.

BBC

“We have decided to restore flights by Russian strategic aviation on a permanent basis,” Mr Putin told reporters [today] at joint military exercises with China.

“In 1992, Russia unilaterally ended flights by its strategic aircraft to distant military patrol areas. Unfortunately, our example was not followed by everyone…Flights by other countries’ strategic aircraft continue and this creates certain problems for ensuring the security of the Russian Federation,” he said.

AFP, August 17th:

The announcement came days after Moscow said its strategic bombers had begun exercises over the North Pole and just a week after Russian planes flew within a few hundred kilometres of a US military base on the island of Guam.

On Wednesday a top US commander said that Russian bombers had been making increasingly frequent flights approaching US territory for several months.

Reuters, August 17th:

In July, two Russian Tu-95 “Bear” bombers made unusually long sorties over the North Sea, leading Norway and Britain to scramble fighter jets to follow them. Russia’s air force said later it was a routine flight.

The war resulted in Russia’s reclamation of territory which had become the independent Chechen Republic of Ichkeria during the First Chechen War two years earlier. It also led to Vladmir Putin becoming President.

Since the start of the war, the once near-dormant conflict in the Caucasus has continued to escalate. The invasion has led to an aggressive and expanding insurgency as well as continuous terrorist attacks on Russia by Chechen separatists.

Beneath the threat of separatist terrorism however, lies a parallel danger. Since 1999, Russia has seen a surge in activity by far right extremist groups. These groups have come to hate not only separatists but all foreigners, easily identifying with fascist ideology. While it is difficult to find definitive statistics on the subject, according to a 2002 Washington Post article, the Russian Prosecutor General’s office stated that crimes against foreign nationals increased by over 31 percent in 2002. Furthermore, in 2006 a Public Opinion Fund poll found that 52 percent of Russians would approve if many ethnic groups were expelled from the country, showing an 8% increase from 2002.

Just this week a video was released over the internet depicting the murder of two men by members of a group called the National Socialists of Rus. And now, according to a Reuters article from three days ago, Monday’s train bombing which was originally blamed on Chechen rebels is suspected to have actually been carried out by Russian nationalists.

Whether intentional or not, this increase in far-right nationalist activity appears to be a result of Putin’s campaigns in the Caucasus and overall drive toward a renewed sense of Russian nationalism. While the surge in racially motivated crime has resulted in some stricter laws, they are infrequently enforced. The government has stepped up its anti-fascist rhetoric while in practice doing its best to harness the phenomenon.

In 2005, a pro-Putin youth group called Nashi was formed with the official goals of creating a new ruling elite and opposing the threat of fascism. Since its formation however, Nashi has essentially acted as a paramilitary arm of the Putin government, declaring its critics as fascists and engaging in street battles with its opponents. Drawing frequent comparisons to Hitler Youth, the organization has reportedly recruited numerous members of the same fascist organizations it rhetorically opposes.

Last year, several government-run tests revealed a hidden and harmful ingredient within many popular soft drinks. Found within many of the beverages was a carcinogen called benzene. In the UK, some beverages contained levels as high as 8 times benzene’s legal limit for drinking water (BBC).

After Health Canada performed a similar examination and found benzene present in 20 percent of the drinks tested, it concluded:

While…four products did have benzene levels above the guidelines for drinking water, Health Canada scientists found that exposure to benzene through these beverages does not pose a health concern. In addition, the potential exposure to benzene from beverage consumption would constitute a relatively small portion of overall lifetime exposure from other sources.

Nonetheless, Health Canada has worked with the manufacturers to address this issue and where necessary, the beverage industry has responded by reformulating products. (full report)

The report also concluded that the presence of benzene in these beverages was due to the combination of the preservatives E211 (sodium benzoate) and ascorbic acid (vitamin c). While this finding led people to begin associating sodium benzoate with health risks, there was not much evidence to support any harmful effects that sodium benzoate presented on its own.

Two months after this report was released however, The Independent, a popular British newspaper, published this article revealing previously unknown health risks posed by sodium benzoate. According to the article, research done by Peter Piper, a professor of molecular biology and biotechnology at Sheffield University, found through experiments involving yeast cells that sodium benzoate damages crucial DNA located within the mitochondria, the central hub of living cells.

“These chemicals have the ability to cause severe damage to DNA in the mitochondria to the point that they totally inactivate it,” Piper told the Independent. “The mitochondria consumes oxygen to give you energy and if you damage it…then the cell starts to malfunction very seriously. And there is a whole array of diseases that are now being tied to damage to this DNA – Parkinson’s and quite a lot of neuro-degenerative diseases, but above all the whole process of ageing.“

There has been no investigation into these findings in Canada but according to a follow-up article in The Independent from July of this year, “The Food Standards Agency will be asking the Committee on Mutagenicity to consider Professor Piper’s report. This is an expert scientific committee which can provide an independent, in-depth review of this study.“

Whenever this committee decides to release its review of Professor Piper’s findings, we should know whether or not his experiments with yeast cells have similar implications for human ones. Until then it would be wise to exercise caution in respect to beverages containing sodium benzoate.

Ontario is the only province where taxpayers pay 100 per cent of the costs for students who attend Catholic schools and none of the costs for students attending Islamic, Jewish, Christian or other faith-based schools.

Other provincial governments either partially fund all faith-based schools, which meet guidelines, or fund none of them.

If elected premier on Oct. 10, Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory plans to extend taxpayer funding to all faith-based schools that teach the Ontario curriculum, follow standardized testing and have accredited teachers.

…there’s a great gulf between those who think his plan – to extend what Catholics get to all faiths – is the right fix, and those who would prefer to end public funding of the Catholic system.

BBC News, August 13th:

Mr Rove told the Wall Street Journal that he had first floated the idea of leaving last year, but had delayed his departure when the Democrats took control of Congress. He said he took a final decision to leave after White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten told aides that if they stayed after the end of August they would be obliged to stay in the administration until Mr Bush’s own departure in January 2009.

“There’s always something that can keep you here, and as much as I’d like to be here, I’ve got to do this for the sake of my family,” he said.

I’ll leave you with perhaps one of his most dignified moments.

BBC News, August 1oth:

[Prime Minister Stephen] Harper announced plans last month to build six naval vessels to patrol the…Northwest Passage, a shipping channel between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans currently blocked by ice during the winter months.

[Today] Mr. Harper said a cold-weather army training base would be set up at Resolute Bay and an existing port at a former mine at Nanisivik would be refurbished to supply Arctic patrol vessels.

He said the facilities would bolster Canada’s claims to disputed portions of the Arctic.

“Today’s announcements tell the world that Canada has real, growing, long-term presence in the Arctic”, [Mr. Harper said].

The seabed below the North Pole, an area containing as much as 25% of the world’s undiscovered oil and gas according to a US study..is not currently regarded as part of any single country’s territory and is governed instead by complex international agreements.

According to the National Post, the mayor has said that even if city council decides to vote in favour of his proposed taxing measures in October, the service cuts announced Friday would still continue. The new taxes proposed by the mayor would bring in approximately $356 million per year, still leaving the city with an approximate $215 million shortfall.

The Cuts:

Parks, Forestry and Recreation – Beginning mid-September to the end of December, 2007, all of the City’s Community Centres will be closed on Mondays. All programming held on Mondays will be cancelled. Outdoor artificial ice rinks scheduled to open in December will not open until January and the City’s golf courses will close one week early. Residents will see reduced park maintenance and a reduction in the residential tree planting program.

Garbage and recycling (Solid Waste Management Services) – Releasing seasonal litter staff two weeks earlier than normal and a reduction in the number of litter vacuums will result in more litter on the streets. The December yard waste pick-up will be cancelled and the scheduled introduction of curb-side pick-up at townhouses is cancelled. The night shift at the Disco Transfer Station will be cancelled, requiring contractors and residents to drop waste at that location during daytime hours.

Transportation – To further reduce costs, there will be less street cleaning, fewer pothole repairs and a reduction in the number of times grass is cut on City streets and expressways. Sidewalk snow plowing and clearing of snow left in driveways (windrow) by City plows will only occur when there is a minimum of 15 cm. of snow, the current service standard is 8 cm. Automated leaf pick-up in areas that have this service, will be reduced from two pick-ups to one.

Toronto Public Library – Access to 16 library branches will be restricted due to Sunday closures. The Storyteller in Residence and the Teen Fine Forgiveness programs have been canceled.

Toronto Public Health – As a result of the hiring freeze, there will be a reduction in health promotion programs and community outreach services such as tobacco use prevention, parenting programs and workplace health. In addition, Toronto Public Health will reduce environmental reporting, production of printed materials to support tobacco use prevention, the new Food Guide, Trans-fat education, and translation of various materials into languages other than English.

Municipal Licensing and Standards – As a result of the hiring freeze, there will be significant delays in issuing licenses and responding to requests for inspections and bylaw enforcement, particularly for graffiti eradication.

Emergency Medical Services – The bicycle paramedic program in the Entertainment District will be reduced from four days a week to two days a week.

Fire Services – There will be a decrease in proactive inspections and public education programs.

Toronto Building – Due to the hiring freeze, there will be reduced bylaw enforcement, particularly the Sign bylaw. The public submitting development applications will also experience delays at building application counters. The Green Roof Initiative will be delayed. The adoption of a bylaw regulating construction related vibration will also be delayed.

Court Services – By redeploying 50 per cent of the staff who work in the customer phone service office, there will be as long as 20-minute wait-times for telephone inquiries. Clients may be referred to the internet or be required to visit court offices in person.

Children’s Services – Funding for new services at community run family resource centres in under serviced areas has been cancelled until the end of the year. Funding to make City-operated daycares accessible to clients with disabilities has been deferred.

Mayor’s Office – Renovations to the Mayor’s office and the second floor of City Hall have been cancelled. Additional staff needed to meet requirements of the City of Toronto Act will not be hired. The Mayor’s initiative on Economic Development Opportunities for Toronto to promote investment has been deferred, resulting in cancellation of the economic mission to China and Los Angeles.

Administrative Divisions – As a result of the hiring freeze and other cost containment measures, service provided in administrative areas of the City which directly support day-to-day operations will be reduced. Reduced service will be in effect at parking tag counters, tax and water counters, and vendors will experience delays in the payment of invoices. In addition, services that support front line staff, such as Information Technology, will be reduced resulting in longer system down times and impact public service.

-City of Toronto Press Release

While both The TTC and Toronto Police Services have until the fall to announce their 30 and 10 million dollar respective cuts, they provided the city with a preliminary estimate. While The TTC has so far found $6 million and is now determining where the remaining $24 million will come from, the Toronto Police Services Board has decided that no more than the $3 million it has already found will be cut from its budget and is instead seeking to transfer court security, a $43.5 million expenditure, back to the province.

“Toronto is the only city in North America with a population of over two million people that continues to rely solely on property taxes to deliver services,” said Councillor Shelley Carroll, chair of the City Budget Committee. “A city as large and diverse as Toronto, with unique transit and policing needs, requires sources of revenue other than an unfairly structured property tax system to pay the cost of the services the City needs to succeed.”

Ontario is the only province in Canada where social programs are paid for through property taxes.

ABC News, May 1, 2001:

In the early 1960s, America’s top military leaders reportedly drafted plans to kill innocent people and commit acts of terrorism in U.S. cities to create public support for a war against Cuba.

The plans were developed as ways to trick the American public and the international community into supporting a war to oust Cuba’s then new leader, communist Fidel Castro.

The Kremlin is…plotting the return of the Russian fleet to a Syrian port on the Mediterranean Sea. The new Russian strategy envisions returning warships to a Soviet-era naval base at the port of Tartus.

It would mark the first time Russia has established a military presence outside the borders of the former Soviet Union since the USSR fell apart in 1991.

As dramatic as the Russian fleet’s return to Syria might be, Alexei Malashenko, an expert on the Muslim world at the Carnegie Moscow Centre, said his country’s navy remains in such a dilapidated state that it’s unlikely to affect the balance of power in the region, given the overwhelming presence of the U.S. Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean.

The Russian fleet’s return to Tartus would, for now, be just a statement of future intent, he said.

NewsMax, August 8th:

Syria’s U.N. ambassador, Bashar Ja’afari, flatly denied news reports that Moscow had asked Damascus for port facilities on the Mediterranean coast.

In an exclusive interview with NewsMax’s Stewart Stogel, Ja’afari said, “This is not true, there has been no request from the Russian Navy. We do have a “friendship” agreement, but there has been no agreement on the use of Syrian ports by the Russian Navy.”

Russian bombers have flown to the US airforce base on the Pacific island of Guam for the first time since the Cold War.

The aerial brinkmanship, known as “buzzing”, was part of an exercise yesterday designed to prove the nation’s resurgent military power.

Before the collapse of the Soviet regime, bombers routinely flew far over the Arctic, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans – the areas from where they would launch nuclear cruise missiles at the United States in case of war.

However the economic meltdown of the 1990s brought such manoeuvres to a halt.

Now, as the booming value of Russia’s oil and commodity trade has revived the economy, President Vladimir Putin has felt able to reassert his country’s military prowess.

The Russian military has…[recently] intensified air force exercises, sending strategic bombers to areas off Norway and Iceland, as well as Russia’s northeast corner, across the Bering Strait from Alaska.

On Tuesday, the commander of Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia said on Russian national television that the Ossetians had fired at a plane, apparently thinking it was Georgian.

The head of the analysis department for Georgia’s Interior Ministry said the plane might have released the missile after taking fire from [confused] Ossetian separatists on the ground.

Georgia said it had collected radar records from both its civilian and military air traffic controllers that clearly show an aircraft enter from Russia, fly to the area of the strike, then turn around and fly back into Russia.

Because the missile did not explode, many of the fragments were recovered. Georgian officials said the remains of [the] missile…made clear that it was one designed in Soviet times.

“…we are initiating a process of calling for a special session of the U.N. Security Council,” [said Georgia's Foreign Minister.]

According to the article, a previous attack in March led UN investigators to suspect Russian involvement but due to the lack Russian cooperation and the subsequent unavailability of any radar records, no accusations were made.

According to the BBC, this huge lego toy appeared without explanation on Zandvoort beach in Holland.

A missile that landed in Georgia was ditched, not fired, by a Russian jet as it fled Georgian airspace, a Georgian official said on Wednesday.

An investigation suggested the pilot did not fire but jettisoned the missile and fled after friendly forces in South Ossetia — which backs Russia — mistakenly fired an anti-aircraft missile at his jet.

“The pilot of the fighter jet decided to get rid of a guided missile he had on board,” said the official, who did not want to be identified. “That explains why it did not explode.”

A spokesman for Russia’s defense ministry dismissed that explanation.
A spokeswoman for South Ossetia’s separatist administration said it was “absurd,” and that its forces in the area only had light weapons.
A spokeswoman for the European Commission in Brussels said the full facts of the missile incident were not yet known.

Security watchdog the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe is preparing a report which may shed light on the origin of the missile.

Georgia accused Russia of “undisguised aggression” Tuesday, saying two Russian fighter jets intruded on its airspace and fired a missile that landed near a house. Russia denied the allegation.

“Russian aircraft haven’t conducted any flights over that area and haven’t violated Georgia’s airspace,” spokesman Alexander Drobyshevsky said in Moscow.

The missile did not explode.

Georgian officials frequently claim Russian military violations of its airspace, accusations Russia denies.

In the same post, I quoted a Washington Post article which mentioned that the US Office of Special Counsel had previously conducted its own investigation and found that a briefing given by Karl Rove’s deputy Scott Jennings at the General Services Administration in late January had violated the Hatch Act due to its partisan political nature.

Below is a video of a hearing from that investigation. Being questioned is Lurita Doan, the General Services Administration Chief.

Why is this relevant?

While the location and the people watching the briefings may differ, in both cases the briefings were created and presented by Karl Rove or his staff and presented to government officials on government property.

If presenting these partisan briefings to members of a governmental organization in charge of supplies has been found to violate the Hatch Act, I can’t see why it would be any different when the briefings are being given to members of the Department of Justice.

In the wake of a deadly bridge collapse in Minneapolis, a top Ontario engineer says many bridges in this province are reaching the end of their intended lifespan and need significant maintenance funding to avoid a similar catastrophe here.

The Toronto Star, August 6th:

Robert Copeman was walking to church when he noticed the bocce-ball-sized gap in the façade of the railway bridge and the hunk of concrete that had fallen onto the abutment below.

“There are still cracks up there. You can still see the cracks,” Copeman said.

[The Canadian Food Inspection Agency,] Canada’s food watchdog, and Loblaws Inc. are warning consumers that cans of No Name French Style Green Beans are being recalled from the marketplace because they may be contaminated with Clostridium botulinum, the bacteria that causes botulism.

No illnesses associated with the Loblaws product have been reported.

This week, city staff are expected to deliver reports detailing how much and where the cuts will be. City finance officials say the city’s rainy-day funds, known as reserves, are virtually depleted.

MarketWatch, August 3rd:

The House Foreign Affairs Committee staff “will investigate whether officials from the Internet company Yahoo! misrepresented the company’s role in a human rights case in China that sent a journalist to jail for a decade,”…referring to Chinese journalist Shi Tao.

Shi was jailed after he posted an account of a government crackdown on democracy activists online, and Yahoo provided Chinese authorities with information about his email account, the statement said.

“It is bad enough that a wealthy American company would willingly supply Chinese police the means to hunt a man down for shedding light on repression,” Committee Chairman Tom Lantos said in the statement, adding that, “Covering up such a despicable practice when Congress seeks an explanation is a serious offense.”

Yahoo general counsel Michael Callahan told a House subcommittee in 2006 that when the company divulged identifying material about Shi, it “had no information about the nature of the investigation.”

But Lantos references documents posted by the San Francisco-based Dui Hua Foundation in late July. Those documents purport to show a request by Chinese police for information about Shi from Yahoo, specifically regarding an investigation into the “illegal provision of state secrets.” See the documents posted online.

The Toronto Star, August 4th:

On Friday afternoon, a woman found an object that looked like a land mine while walking her dog near a creek and called police.

…photos of the device were sent to the Ontario Provincial Police and the military ordinance disposal unit, which confirmed it was a piece of military ordinance. A search uncovered another device in the water about two metres away from the first one, which had been in a culvert under the road.

The military detonated the devices rather than risk transporting them, and has collected debris from the detonation area.

“We’re not absolutely positive at this point in the investigation that these were anti-tank ordinances,” [Strathroy police Sgt. Mike] Overdulve said, though he added that police suspect they are.

The Raw Story, August 1st:

White House senior adviser Karl Rove has rebuked a Senate Judiciary Committee subpoena and will not appear Thursday to testify about his role in the firing of nine US Attorneys, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said late Wednesday.

“It is a shame that this White House continues to act as if it is above the law. That is wrong,” Leahy said. “The subpoenas authorized by this Committee in connection with its investigation into the mass firings of U.S. Attorneys and the corrosion of federal law enforcement by White House political influence deserve respect and compliance.”

At this point the democrats might not even bother bringing contempt of congress charges against Rove since according to this Boston Globe article, the Justice Department has said it won’t prosecute the charges brought against the last two Bush aides who ignored the subpoenas.

Washington Post, August 4th:

Justice officials attended 12 political briefings at the White House, and another held at the Department of Agriculture, from 2001 to 2006…At least five were led by Rove or included presentations by him. One March 2001 meeting included a “political update” from Rove and a discussion on “how we can work together to advance the President’s agenda.”

The White House has denied that the briefings were improper, saying they were merely informational meetings for political appointees.

[House oversight committee Chairman Henry] Waxman is investigating whether the meetings violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in partisan political activity on federal government property.

The Office of Special Counsel, conducting its own investigation, has ruled that a briefing at the General Services Administration in late January violated the Hatch Act.

Scientists believe warming could open up the famed Northwest Passage to year-round cargo shipping by 2050, as well as lay bare an estimated 9 billion tonnes of Arctic oil and gas deposits.
-AFP, August 2nd

All signatories to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea have ten years from the date they signed it to provide evidence backing their claims for the region. Since Russia signed in 1997, they have until the end of this year to back their claim that the Arctic seabed and Siberia are linked by a single continental shelf. To this end, a Russian expedition arrived at the North Pole on Thursday, planting a Russian flag on the Arctic Seabed while gathering samples and other data.

In response, Canadian Foreign Minister Peter Mackaye remarked on Thursday, “Look, this isn’t the 15th century. You can’t go around the world and plant flags and say, ‘We’re claiming this territory,’” Since Canada signed the UN pact in 2003, it has until 2013 to present its case to the UN.

Last Friday Michael Byers, the Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and International Law at the University of British Columbia, told CBC, “…without a serious shift in political will, and an infusion of financial resources…Canada will miss its deadline in 2013. We’re talking about such a large expanse of frozen ocean that the actual technological challenge is comparable to a moon mission, and I’m afraid we haven’t done everything that needs to be done.”

Coverage:

Associated Press, August 3rd:

The boards of Dow Jones and Murdoch’s News Corp. signed off on [an] agreement early Wednesday, capping the media mogul’s three-month pursuit. The [$5 billion] deal is expected to close within the next month.

The Journal…would have undergone a “long, uncomfortable period” if the Murdoch offer had been turned down, [Wall Street Journal Editor Paul] Steiger said. Given the state of the newspaper industry, the Journal likely would have been forced to undergo major cost-cutting, he said.

MediaMatters, July 8th:

News Corp. took time out last week to announce that the Fox Business Network will begin broadcasting into 30 million cable television homes this October.

The launching of the FBN and the possible purchase of the Journal are inexorably linked; the latter would not have been pursued without the former. Murdoch wants to marry the Journal with the FBN to create a business news juggernaut.

Murdoch has already publicly promised that the FBN will be “more business friendly” than its competitors, and not “leap on every scandal.” [Fox News President Roger] Ailes agreed, telling The New York Times, “Many times I’ve seen things on CNBC where they are not as friendly to corporations and profits as they should be.”

Murdoch insists that if he purchased the Journal he would never interfere with the newspaper and that he would be a fool to damage the Journal’s premier brand value; its reputation. He has pledged to “continue to promote journalistic integrity.”

To calm fears, the media mogul offered to set up what he calls an “independent, autonomous editorial board” to oversee the Journal, much the way he did in the 1980s when similar concerns were expressed about Murdoch’s purchase of the respected Times of London.

CNN Money, August 3rd:

A foundation run by a member of the proposed independent panel that will aim to ensure the editorial integrity of Dow Jones & Co Inc has financial ties to the company’s new owner, News Corp, the Wall Street Journal reported.

…Nicholas Negroponte is currently overseeing the non-profit group One Laptop per Child…[and] News Corp donated at least 2 million USD to the foundation.

The newspaper also said that News Corp executive vice-president Jeremy Philips is on the foundation’s board.

Washington Post, August 2nd:

In an e-mail interview with Reuters in May, Negroponte described Murdoch as a personal friend and a key backer of the OLPC foundation.

A News Corp spokesman said the company saw no conflicts of interest in Negroponte’s appointment.

You can watch the episode in full here.

After waiting over a day for the 2006-2007 annual ODWAC report to be posted online, i emailed the council and asked when it would be made available to the public. I received an answer this morning:

“The Council’s Annual Report, was indeed due yesterday, but according to our Terms of Reference, it is due to the Minister of the Environment. Upon receipt of the Report, it is up to the discretion of the Minister as to when to publicly release it. I wish I could offer you a more definitive answer, but I really don’t know when the report will be released.
If there is something specific you were looking for, check out our website, or call me.”

I called the guy and asked about whether the report recommended reducing the amount of tritium allowed in drinking water. He told me that there was no mention of tritium levels in the report because they are currently working on a new report dealing exclusively with that issue. While originally due in February, he mentioned that this report would more realistically end up reaching the Minister of the Environment by October at which point it would released to the public at her discretion.
It seems extremely convenient that every provincial panel or council charged with assessing a possible election issue are expected to release their findings just after the election.

While looking at today’s blog information, I noticed that one of the hits had come through a link from another web site. Interested, i clicked the link and was brought to the login page for a website called RepuTrace.

RepuTrace advertises itself as “the All-In-One Corporate Intelligence Tool which can also be used in the areas of brand and reputation monitoring.” The website notes, “A single allegation can escalate into the swift demise of your valued reputation.” To this extent they monitor blogs, forums, message boards, consumer sites, videos, and images for anything directly related to their clients.

Here is an example from the website of RepuTrace in action:

“After locating discussion about a planned environmental protest (3 busloads of protesters) outside a company’s location on an on-line chat room, the RepuTrace Team sent an urgent notification-along with the located link-to the company’s Corporate Security Department days in advance. As a result, the company was well prepared and deployed uniformed guards in place to ensure all civilian traffic had access to their location and effectively managed the protesters.”

After some brief research, I discovered that RepuTrace is only one of many similar services offered by a company called CoreX Technologies and Solutions which seems to be in the process of repackaging itself as RepuMetrix. The full range of services offered are:

RepuTrace™, consumer opinion, employees concerns, competitors strengths and weaknesses and emerging threats to a company’s reputation, brand and products.

BlogEagle™ Swooping in to grab what people are saying on blogs and chat rooms about your company or developments affecting your industry.

PressPanther™ Diligently tracking media outlets of all sizes and kinds to monitor specific news and information to give you a unique, global perspective.

BrandProbe™ Is vital to business. It searches all forms of consumer conversation connected with a company, product or brand to ensure it is perceived as desired.

Every blogger i could find who had examined the RepuTrace IP addresses that had visited them found the origin in Thornhill, Ontario. This user in particular found that he was being monitored by Ontario Power Generation. Because of this I’m pretty sure that Turtle City was looked at because of my mention of Ontario Power Generation a day or two ago.

So to summarize, if you write anything on the internet about a company employing one of CoreX’s services, the site will be monitored, the risk to the company assessed, and if you’ve said anything negative the company will likely be informed.

PepsiCo Inc. will spell out that its Aquafina bottled water is made with tap water, a concession to the growing environmental and political opposition to the bottled water industry.

According to Corporate Accountability International, a U.S. watchdog group, the world’s No. 2 beverage company will include the words “Public Water Source” on Aquafina labels.

-July 26th Reuters Article

The Issue:

In June, Greenpeace released a report criticizing Canada’s regulatory limit on tritium, a radioactive isotope and by-product of many nuclear power facilities.  According to the report, “Canadian regulatory limits for tritium in drinking water are some of the most lax in the world.”
(pdf of the report)

Conflicting Views :

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty:
“There is no evidence the release of radioactive tritium into the Great Lakes by Ontario nuclear power plants poses a public health threat.”

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission:
“Tritium levels around the province’s nuclear plants are not a health hazard.”

Ontario Power Generation:
“I would say that our plant would not operate if we believed there was any safety threat.”

June 2007 Greenpeace Report:
The levels of tritium around the facilities are so high, children under four and pregnant women shouldn’t live within 10 kilometres of one of them. Furthermore, anything grown within five kilometres of a nuclear generating station shouldn’t be eaten. (paraphrased)

The Facts:

Current Legal Limits on Tritium in Drinking Water:
▪ Canada: 7,000 Bq/L (Health Canada)
▪ United States: 740 Bq/L (EPA)
▪ European Union: 100 Bq/L (CNSC)
▪ World Health Organization Guideline: 1,000 Bq/L (WHO)
(A Bq is a Becquerel, the derived unit of radioactivity.)

Whats Being Done About It:

In 1994, an Ontario government panel recommended reducing the Canadian limit to 100 Bq/L, then lowering it further to 20 Bq/L over five years. In face of a Hydro One claim that such a change would cost the company over 1 Billion Dollars, the government refused to institute the reforms, claiming that “the interim risk limit of 100 Bq/L for tritium in drinking water proposed…was inconsistent with international regulatory philosophy.“

Last September, the Toronto Board of Health urged the federal government to lower the amount of tritium to that recommended by the 1994 provincial panel but no changes were implemented.

According to a June 12th CBC article however, Ontario Environment Minister Laurel Broten has ordered the provincial Drinking Water Advisory Council to look into Ontario’s current regulatory limits and assess whether or not they should be changed. According to a source within the ODWAC, the special report on tritium regulation was originally due to the Minister’s office by February of this year but will likely now be finished by October. Upon completion, the report will be sent to the Minister’s office and be made publicly available at her discretion. While this might seem like a potentially important election issue, the convenient timing of the report’s due date will likely give the current government a de facto pass on the subject.

Considering the fact that Ontario facilities have something of a poor history regarding tritium leaks (ie. Pembroke, Pickering), the relative lack of teeth in our current regulatory policy is something that should be taken very seriously.

Unfortunately however, the federal regulations currently adopted by the Ontario government are only part of the story. According to a Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission report, only Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec have actually opted in to the federal guidelines while “all other provinces do not have prescribed limits for tritium.“

Back in late April and early May i did some research into the US attorney firing scandal only to discover that the central issue had been ignored by much of the mass media. Essentially, the Bush administration has been employing the US Justice Department to step up and institutionalize as many new voter suppression laws as they can. As more draconian voting laws are instituted, the less minority voters, who typically vote democrat, end up at the polls, leading to an increased likelihood of the next US federal election tipping in favour of the Republicans.
The government-appointed republican attorneys who refused to pursue trumped-up voter fraud prosecutions or other partisan campaigns were fired or pressured into resigning. After the Justice Department announced that the firings were done due to performance-related issues, the scandal began.

Below I have highlighted key quotes from several articles on the subject which help illustrate the way this administration has employed the Justice Department for partisan goals.

May 14th Washington Post Article:

“Nearly half the U.S. attorneys slated for removal by the administration last year were targets of Republican complaints that they were lax on voter fraud, including efforts by presidential adviser Karl Rove to encourage more prosecutions of election- law violations.Through legislation and litigation, Republicans have pressed for voter-identification requirements and other rules to clamp down on what they assert is widespread fraud by ineligible voters. Starting early in the Bush administration, the Justice Department has emphasized increasing prosecutions of fraudulent voting.

Democrats counter that such fraud is rare and that GOP efforts are designed to suppress legitimate votes by minorities, the elderly and recent immigrants, who are likely to support Democratic candidates.

Ever since the contested 2000 presidential election, which ended in a Florida recount and intervention by the U.S. Supreme Court, both political parties have attempted to use election law to tip close contests to their advantage.”

April 11th New York Times Article:

“Five years after the Bush administration began a crackdown on voter fraud, the Justice Department has turned up virtually no evidence of any organized effort to skew federal elections, according to court records and interviews.”

May 18th Slate Article:

“With no notice and little comment, The American Centre for Voting Rights—the only prominent nongovernmental organization claiming that voter fraud is a major problem, a problem warranting strict rules such as voter-ID laws—simply stopped appearing at government panels and conferences. Its Web domain name has suddenly expired, its reports are all gone (except where they have been preserved by its opponents), and its general counsel, Mark “Thor” Hearne, has cleansed his résumé of affiliation with the group. The group was founded just days before its representatives testified before a congressional committee hearing on election-administration issues. The group identified Democratic cities as hot spots for voter fraud, then pushed the line that ‘election integrity’ required making it harder for people to vote.”

May 17th Houston Chronicle Article:

“Among Republicans it is an ‘article of religious faith that voter fraud is causing us to lose elections,’ Masset said. He doesn’t agree with that, but does believe that requiring photo IDs could cause enough of a dropoff in legitimate Democratic voting to add 3 percent to the Republican vote.”

The US House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing yesterday on allegations of waste, fraud and abuse at the new US embassy in Iraq (which is now around the same size as Vatican City). Construction of the embassy, which so far sports a $600 million price tag, is being overseen by a Kuwaiti firm since according to the US State Department, no US company would meet their terms. Most of the testimony given at the hearing accused First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting Co., the company in charge of the construction, of essentially kidnapping workers and forcing them to build the embassy under poor conditions.

Rory Mayberry, a medical technician who worked at the embassy site under a First Kuwaiti subcontract, offers his testimony below.

First Kuwaiti declined the committee’s invitation to testify and are now under investigation by Alberto Gonzales’s Justice Department for the allegations brought forward in the hearing.
The Inspector General of the State Department who did attended a session of the hearing was quoted by the Washington Post as saying, “Nothing came to our attention that caused us to believe that trafficking-in-persons violations” or other serious abuses “occurred at the construction workers’ camp at the new embassy compound.”

“…city manager Shirley Hoy asked all divisions and agencies, including the police, to find a total of $100-million in savings this year.”

I don’t understand why this was not reported on until now since this will likely lead to many new announcements of budget cuts in almost every area funded by the city.
And apparently it’s already started; the library budget was reduced by $1.2 million yesterday leading to these changes. The police, however, have decided to join the TTC in deferring their cuts until October.

from the webpage:
Document uncovers the details of a planned coup in the USA in 1933 by right-wing American businessmen.
The coup was aimed at toppling President Franklin D Roosevelt with the help of half-a-million war veterans. The plotters, who were alleged to involve some of the most famous families in America, (the owners of Heinz, Birds Eye, Goodtea, Maxwell House, as well as Prescott Bush) believed that their country should adopt the policies of Hitler and Mussolini to beat the great depression.
Mike Thomson investigates why so little is known about this biggest ever peacetime threat to American democracy.

You can listen to the program in full here.

The concentrated focus of these cuts as well as the spur-of-the-moment way in which they were announced seems transparently political.
Rather than cutting programs here and there, the city has directed all its cuts (maybe even more than necessary) to the TTC, announcing it in an intentionally shocking way that has likely left most citizens both outraged and slightly confused.

The result is that the city’s ‘we need more money’ cause instantly gains more public attention which will in turn likely lead to an increased level of public pressure on the provincial government with little over two months left before the election.
The logic seems to be, ‘Sure, in the meantime we might have to suffer with an even more inadequate transit system than usual, but once the provincial election comes around we might actually see some real money!’

update:
The TTC have decided to defer all cuts until October (article).

update:
Further cuts have been announced, lowering the budget of emergency services by 30 million dollars (artcle).
This fits with the theme since the province likes to mention how they paid for 30 new EMS vehicles as well as half of the subsequent staffing and maintenance costs back in 2002.