statism watch

Jeff Gray, Globe and Mail
June 30, 2008

‘Peak oil’ theorists say house prices outside cities will collapse as the cost of gas rises, forcing people to choose urban living

According to some doomsday scenarios, spiking gas prices could turn the cul-de-sacs and two-car garages that surround North America’s cities – built over the past 60 years and designed for the convenience of people with cars – into tomorrow’s slums.

The predictions for the most part come from subscribers to the theory of “peak oil,” which holds that crude prices will shoot permanently upward as global demand outstrips dwindling supply, ruining the economy. But their predictions are getting a second look now, as suburbanites, especially in the United States, grumble at the rising price of a fill-up.

Some warn the cost of gasoline will make the most sprawling U.S. suburbs so unattractive that housing values there will collapse, forcing many people to abandon their homes for urban areas better served by public transit and leaving only squatters, criminals and those who can’t afford to leave the outskirts.

Could it happen in Canada? Many experts doubt that gas prices, while bound to rise, will shoot up so suddenly as to strangle the suburbs, which do not sprawl to the extent that many do in the U.S. But it is clear that a shift away from the traditional suburb is also under way in Canada. Suburban municipal governments are scrambling to retrofit sprawl with denser development and better public transit to keep people moving, responding to concerns not just about the rising price of gas, but also about carbon emissions and traffic congestion.

Evidence that the suburbs are under siege as oil prices skyrocket is easy to find. In a recent essay in the Atlantic Monthly entitled The Next Slum?, Christopher Leinberger writes that the slide of many U.S. suburbs goes deeper than that country’s subprime mortgage crisis. Mr. Leinberger is a real-estate developer, a professor of urban planning at the University of Michigan and a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, a liberal think tank.

While foreclosures caused by the mortgage meltdown have left, in Florida’s Lee County, one in every four homes empty, Mr. Leinberger argues that a profound shift is taking place, driven by demographics, lifestyle changes and gas prices, as people choose urban, denser areas friendly to walking, cycling and public transit.

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Trying to improve public transit across Toronto’s suburbs is the task set for Metrolinx, the new regional authority created by the province and governed by a board of mostly municipal politicians. It is expected next month to release a draft long-range transportation plan that could include billions of dollars in public transit along with controversial measures such as road tolls.

Metrolinx board member Paul Bedford, former chief planner for the City of Toronto, says suburban residents will need to wrap their minds around a more urban lifestyle, taking public transit more often and living with denser development around them.

“So many people I know, probably two generations, have grown up in the suburbs,” he said. “All they’ve known in their life is a subdivision, two or three cars and shopping at the mall. They don’t know any other life.”

In the Vancouver area, where sprawl is less dramatic, the debate has been driven not just by gas prices, but also by B.C.’s new carbon tax, which takes effect July 1, said Cheeying Ho, executive director of Smart Growth B.C., a non-governmental organization.

Both the carbon tax and rising gas prices “will definitely influence how development is moving forward, and how suburbs get recreated, redeveloped and retrofitted,” she said.

Full Story | See Also: Oil, oil everywhere? Well, just maybe | Road tolls, a bitter pill that works | World has enough oil reserves, says BP boss |  Is it time for toll roads? | Toronto part of ‘transnational mega-region’ | Vancouver to import road tolls from UK | UK proposes national road tolls to cut congestion | Motorists to pay London toll

The New York Times
June 30, 2008

Did Bear Stearns melt down — or was it murdered?

That is one of the big questions that Bryan Burrough, who co-wrote the best-selling 1990 book “Barbarians at the Gate,” tries to answer in a lengthy article in the August Vanity Fair magazine.

Mr. Burrough spoke with many Bear executives and board members who described in vivid detail the events that unfolded that fateful week in March when Bear Stearns was ultimately forced to sell itself to JPMorgan Chase for a pittance.

According to Mr. Burrough’s account, Bear did not have a liquidity problem, at least at first. In fact, he said it had more than $18 billion in cash to cover its trades when the week began. There were no major withdrawals until late in the week, after rumors flew that the company was in trouble.

A top Bear executive told Mr. Burrough, “There was a reason [the rumor] was leaked, and the reason is simple: someone wanted us to go down, and go down hard.”

Bear executives frantically tried to find the source of the rumors, but failed to do so. They have their suspicions, and they have turned over the names to federal authorities that are investigating the matter.

Two possible sources named in the article — albeit with few supporting details — are hedge funds: Chicago-based Citadel, run by Ken Griffin, and SAC Capital Partners of Stamford, Conn., run by Steven Cohen. The third was one of Bear’s main competitors, Goldman Sachs.

All three firms denied any involvement in spreading the rumor, according to the article.

Several Bear executives also told Mr. Burroughs that an individual may have been spreading rumors about the firm that week — Jeff Dorman. Mr. Dorman briefly served as global co-head of Bear’s prime brokerage business until resigning to take a similar position at Deutsche Bank. One Bear executive said, “We heard Dorman was saying things last summer […] At the time we reached out to Deutsche Bank and told them he better stop it.”

But the rumors caused a run on the bank and depleted Bear’s capital base. Alan Schwartz, the firm’s chief executive, then reached out to his counterpart at JPMorgan, James Dimon, for help. Mr. Schwartz called Mr. Dimon, who was eating dinner with his family, celebrating his 52nd birthday.

Mr. Burrough described the call this way:

Dimon stepped outside onto the sidewalk. Schwartz quickly explained the depth of Bear’s plight and said, ‘We really need help.’ Still irked, Dimon said, ‘How much?’ ‘As much as 30 billion,’ Schwartz said. ‘Alan, I can’t do that,’ Dimon said. ‘It’s too much.’ ‘Well, could you guys buy us overnight?’ ‘I can’t — that’s impossible,’ Dimon replied. ‘There’s no time to do the homework. We don’t know the issues. I’ve got a board.’

Mr. Dimon then called the New York Federal Reserve and worked out a deal where the government would lend the money to JPMorgan, which would then lend it to Bear Stearns. Bear would live another day — but just a few more. Bear executives thought they had 28 days to pay the money back. The article recounts a conversation that Mr. Schwartz had with federal officials informing him that he had far less time than he thought:

Schwartz’s phone rang. It was Tim Geithner of the Fed, with the Treasury secretary, Hank Paulson. Paulson came right to the point. ‘You’ll recall I told you when we cut this facility [that] your fate was no longer in your hands,’ he told Schwartz. ‘Well, we don’t plan on being here on Sunday night like we were last night. You’ve got the weekend to do a deal with J.P. Morgan or anyone else you can find. But if you’re not done by Monday, we’re pulling the plug.’ And, like that, Bear’s 28-day cushion evaporated. The Fed’s credit line was good only till Sunday night.”

The news came as a shock to Bear executives.

When Bear’s chief financial officer, Sam Molinaro, heard the news from Mr. Schwartz he said, “You’ve got to be kidding me.” The firm was eventually forced to sell itself to JPMorgan to avoid a bankruptcy filing.

Source | See Also: Soros points out regulated markets fail to operate on market fundamentals, calls for more regulation | Competition study calls for lowered barriers to foreign ownership, bank mergers | Massive overhaul urged on foreign investment in airlines, media, and banks | Bilderberg Seeks Bank Centralization Agenda | Secretive Bilderberg Group Reverses Policy, Releases Press Release and Attendance List

Jill Drew, Washington Post
June 30, 2008

BEIJING, June 29 — Thousands of people thronged a police station in southwestern China to protest the alleged coverup of a teenage girl’s rape and murder, witnesses and officials reported Sunday. The crowd set fire to a government complex and several police vehicles.

The violence, which began Saturday, was brought under control by authorities at about 2 a.m. Sunday. There were conflicting reports about the number of injuries and arrests as news of the riot spread over the Internet. Pictures and video from the incident were posted on Chinese online discussion forums and Web sites but quickly became inaccessible, apparently as government censors stepped in.

Spasms of public anger against perceived injustices or government corruption occur periodically in China, but this weekend’s riot, in the seat of Weng’an County in Guizhou province, was larger and more destructive than usual. The government has been anxious to contain such incidents, especially as it prepares to host the Olympic Games in August, pledging to show the world its prosperous, “harmonious” society, as the ruling Communist Party calls it.

Children as young as 12 began blocking the entrance to the police station sometime after 4:30 p.m. Saturday, said a middle school teacher who witnessed the incident. The teacher, who identified himself only by his surname, Zhang, said he then saw students carry two police cruisers into the building’s first floor and set them ablaze.

“Police could not control them,” he said in a telephone interview.

An official at the Weng’an County People’s Hospital said five injured police officers were being treated there. He declined to comment on the extent of their injuries or whether others had been admitted. Repeated calls to the local public security bureau went unanswered Sunday.

An official at the local firehouse said it took six hours to put out the flames, which in online videos could be seen ripping through the first and second floors of the building complex. Thick black smoke billowed from the many broken windows. Cars that had been smashed and overturned were burning in front of the complex, which housed the local Communist Party committee, the county government and the local police station.

“Some of the people fought with us,” the official said. “They didn’t want us to put out the fire.”

Five firefighters were injured and one was hospitalized, he said. The videos showed a crowd estimated at 10,000 people, most of whom were watching or taking cellphone pictures as small groups of teenagers ran with sticks or metal rods in their hands.

The Reuters news agency cited a faxed statement from the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy that said the riot erupted after police used force to disperse hundreds of students who had gathered at the complex to press police about the case. The Hong Kong-based group said one protester was killed and more than 150 injured. It said about 200 people, including dozens of students, had been arrested.

The Associated Press reported that officials walked the streets with megaphones and that local television stations were broadcasting pleas Sunday for participants to turn themselves in.

The state-controlled New China News Agency published a short story on the incident Sunday morning that said the chaos broke out after people were “dissatisfied with the medico-legal expertise on the death of a local girl student.”

According to Internet and news service reports, the student’s body was found in a river last week. After a brief investigation, police declared her death a suicide. The girl’s family, however, said there was evidence she had been raped and most likely murdered. Three suspects who had been seen with the girl shortly before she disappeared were brought in for questioning but released the next day. Two of the suspects are relatives of local public security officials, the reports said.

Last week, the girl’s uncle went to the public security bureau but was severely beaten by people who relatives believe are connected to the police, according to Internet reports. The uncle reportedly died from his injuries Saturday afternoon, sparking the demonstration. Calls to a family member were not answered Sunday.

Source 

Sinclair Stewart, The Globe and Mail
June 29, 2008

NEW YORK — With his 78th birthday approaching, it’s only natural that George Soros has turned reflective, and begun to take the full measure of his legacy. Gazillions of dollars? Check. Respect from powerful peers and world leaders? Check and check. Philanthropic renown, bordering on hagiography? Big check.

And yet, this isn’t quite enough for Mr. Soros. The father of the modern-day hedge fund, the man who has donated billions of dollars to spread democracy in Eastern Europe (and who spent millions in a failed attempt to foil George W. Bush’s re-election bid) now craves something money can’t buy: recognition as a philosopher.

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His theory amounts to a broadside against conventional economic wisdom, and holds that the perceptions of investors have a reflexive relationship with reality – that these perceptions can inform and alter the fundamentals on which supposedly rational markets are based. It is also an attack on market fundamentalism, and the belief that the financial system can resolve its own problems with minimal intrusion from regulators.

That orthodoxy has all but melted alongside the subprime mortgage sector, where indiscriminate lending has dealt crippling blows both to Wall Street and Main Street.

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He created the Quantum Fund, one of the world’s first hedge funds, and when he wasn’t relying on back-pains or gut instinct to guide his trading, he used his theories to help identify potential bubbles – places where investors’ attitudes began to distort fundamentals, creating a vicious circle of self-reinforcing behaviour that would eventually collapse under its own weight.

This latest bubble, he claims, has been more than 20 years in the making, and became acute when banks began moving loans off of their balance sheets via derivative products such as collateralized debt obligations.

For one thing, the new holders of these loans, including hedge funds, were poorly supervised. To compound matters, the products themselves were so complex that the regulators could not properly assess the risk; instead, they relied on the risk management systems at banks and credit rating agencies to monitor potential dangers. Gradually, he claims, the regulators started to believe that markets could self-regulate.

This month, he told a U.S. Senate hearing that speculators are helping to drive up the price of oil, and urged them to act. Although he is encouraged that regulators are beginning to target speculators, and working to deflate bubbles in commodities like energy and food, he doesn’t think the problems have been truly felt yet in the economy at large. Far from it.

At home, the collapse in housing prices is likely only halfway complete, he said; banks could still be riven by massive loan losses; and inflation is threatening even more pain for consumers.

It is on the world stage, though, that Mr. Soros foresees the most profound shift.

He predicts that the coming years will mark an end to U.S. dominance and the greenback’s position as the main international reserve currency, and that this will engender a period of political instability.

Vague, perhaps, but Mr. Soros would argue that’s precisely the point. His theory isn’t about eliminating uncertainty. It’s about embracing it.

Full Story | See Also: Competition study calls for lowered barriers to foreign ownership, bank mergers | Massive overhaul urged on foreign investment in airlines, media, and banks | Bilderberg Seeks Bank Centralization Agenda | Secretive Bilderberg Group Reverses Policy, Releases Press Release and Attendance List

Caroline Davies, The Guardian
June 28, 2008

Gardeners across Britain are reaping a bitter harvest of rotten potatoes, withered salads and deformed tomatoes after an industrial herbicide tainted their soil. Caroline Davies reports on how the food chain became contaminated and talks to the angry allotment owners whose plots have been destroyed

Gardeners have been warned not to eat home-grown vegetables contaminated by a powerful new herbicide that is destroying gardens and allotments across the UK.

The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has been inundated with calls from concerned gardeners who have seen potatoes, beans, peas, carrots and salad vegetables wither or become grossly deformed. The society admitted that it had no idea of the extent of the problem, but said it appeared ’significant’. The affected gardens and allotments have been contaminated by manure originating from farms where the hormone-based herbicide aminopyralid has been sprayed on fields.

Dow AgroSciences, which manufactures aminopyralid, has posted advice to allotment holders and gardeners on its website. Colin Bowers, Dow’s UK grassland marketing manager, told The Observer that links to their products had been proved in some of the cases, but it was not clear whether aminopyralid was responsible for all of them and tests were continuing. ‘It is undoubtedly a problem,’ he said, ‘and I have got full sympathy for everyone who is involved with this.’

He said the company was unable to advise gardeners that it was ’safe’ to consume vegetables that had come into contact with the manure because of pesticide regulations. ‘All we can say is that the trace levels of aminopyralid that are likely to be in these crops are of such low levels that they are unlikely to cause a problem to human health.’

The Dow website says: ‘As a general rule, we suggest damaged produce (however this is caused) should not be consumed.’ Those who have already used contaminated manure are advised not to replant on the affected soil for at least a year.

…

Sue Ainsworth, 58, an education consultant, said around 20 allotments at her site in Hale, Cheshire, had been affected. ‘We first noticed with the potatoes. As they came through, they were deformed, all curled over and rotten underneath. But the worry is that the courgettes also planted on the manure are fine – but are they safe to eat? This must have affected thousands of people. I am really worried about this product and really think it should be withdrawn.’

Full Story

Eric Reguly, The Globe and Mail
June 28, 2008

They’re being called the next Microsofts – companies on the cusp of reaping the rewards from the boom in global agriculture and a looming shortage of food. Two of them, Monsanto and Syngenta, are betting big that years of toiling in the lab will pay off with bigger yields – not just for farmers, but shareholders too

BASEL, SWITZERLAND — Prince Charles would not be amused by the concoctions brewing in the labs of the seed companies trying to feed the world.

Ten years ago, the Prince accused genetic engineers of taking us into “realms that belong to God and God alone.” Genetically modified (GM) organisms are new life forms, invented by benign Doctor Frankensteins in lab coats. Other god-fearing moralists, including the European Union’s scientific and agricultural boffins, more or less agreed. The Frankenfoods could turn into genuine monsters, they warned, endangering humanity and nature as we know it. The EU has not approved a GM seed in a decade.

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Seeds are just part of the story. Monsanto and Syngenta do a booming business in herbicides, fungicides, insecticides and other “crop protection” sprays and seed coatings designed to pump up the farm action and capture the loyalty of the farmer who wants one-stop shopping.

Whether the hype around plant technology will match the reality, though, is an open question. The first generation of GM crops was pretty much a dud in terms of yield improvement. Monsanto and Syngenta admit as much – crops designed for herbicide and bug resistance, they say, have been the priority.

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In spite of its size, Syngenta is not well known beyond Western Europe. Monsanto is famous in the United States and beyond, thanks to a few notorious products made when it was a different company. Founded in 1901 by a cigar-chomping Irishman called John Francis Queeny, Monsanto (taken from his wife’s maiden name) started life as a saccharine and aspirin producer and branched into all manner of products, from detergents to herbicides.

Later, it made PCBs, dioxins and other toxic chemicals. Monsanto was identified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as being “a potentially responsible party” for 56 contaminated, or “Superfund,” sites. Weary of the endless litigation, Monsanto spun off its industrial chemicals into a separate company in the late 1990s.

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One tool the companies use to their advantage is the farmers’ desperation. The companies use sophisticated regional pricing; the basic rule is, the more bugs you have, the more you pay. In parts of the country prone to rootworm, like the Midwest corn belt, rootworm-fighting seeds will fetch a higher price. The same seed in, say, the Northeast, where the worm is rarer, is cheaper.

GM seeds are sometimes given to farmers at no charge so they can plant them side by side with non-GM seeds and compare the yields. The agribusiness companies know farmers won’t come back unless they get the highest yield for the least cost.

The runaway success of Syngenta, Monsanto, Pioneer and rivals is not universally cheered.

Syngenta and Monsanto don’t allow farmers to save unused patented seeds for the next planning season. Syngenta claims it has never sued a farmer who violates the sales agreement.

Not Monsanto. The company says it has launched about 120 lawsuits against farmers in the past decade. The May issue of Vanity Fair magazine reported on what it called “ruthless legal battles against small farmers,” including the videotaping of farmers and store owners. Mr. Begemann said the article was full of “half-truths and outright lies.”

While Monsanto goes after seed pirates, food safety groups and some scientist and nutritionists are telling the GM companies to slow down. These are, after all, new life forms, where genetic material from one organism is inserted into the genetic code of another. “Like many others, I do not think the potential long-term effects of GM crops has been adequately tested,” Rosemary Stanton, an Australian nutritionist, wrote in the May issue of Australian Doctor. “The GM genie is not something that can be put back in the bottle if future research uncovers problems.”

Bill Freese, a science policy analyst for the Center for Food Safety in Washington, is concerned about the alacrity in which GM foods have been approved, in spite of the lack of long-term research on the foods’ potential risks, or lack thereof, on human and animal health, plant life and the environment.

Congress, he said, has yet to pass a single law to govern GM foods and the regulatory process “is haphazard.” It is spread among eight federal agencies, which, he said, rely on laws and statutes written before GM food and animals became a reality. “We have called on the FDA [Food and Drug Administration] to have a mandatory approvals process and we want to see better data generated,” Mr. Freese said. “We’d like to see long-term animal feeding trials by independent scientists, and analysis for environmental impacts.”

Monsanto and Syngenta insist their GM products are safe. “Biotech products are more studied than anything out there,” Mr. Begemann said. “There is nothing in the science that says we should be concerned.”

Full Story | See Also: Monsanto Plans to Save World with its Biotech Crops | Billions needed annually to raise food production: UN chief | Fishermen clash with police at EU | Food crisis grips Afghanistan | High-level UN task force to tackle global food crisis | Farmers to kill off 150,000 pigs | Codex Alimentarius — An Emerging Threat

Tonda MacCharles
Jun 28, 2008

Many forces operating under wrong assumption device not a `prohibited firearm,’ research shows

OTTAWA–Evidence at British Columbia’s Taser inquiry may mean police forces across Canada, including the Ontario Provincial Police officers who zapped a suspect in Norfolk County near Simcoe this week, could be slapped with Criminal Code charges and wrongful death lawsuits.

B.C. police complaints commissioner Dirk Ryneveld revealed new information first unearthed by an Ontario consultant that shows most police agencies in Canada are wrongly operating, likely illegally, under the assumption that the Taser is not a “prohibited firearm.”

In fact, research by Ottawa-based consultant John Kiedrowski indicates Taser guns are actually explicitly defined in Canadian criminal law as “prohibited firearms” – a designation that brings much stiffer rules around storage, training, certification and usage.

Likewise, any offence with a firearm, such as unauthorized use, would bring harsher mandatory minimum jail penalties.

Kiedrowski, who was unavailable to comment, recently completed an independent report for RCMP Commissioner Bill Elliott on Tasers and the rules governing their use. The RCMP says it cannot release the report because it is not fully translated.

Ryneveld told the inquiry Kiedrowski briefed him on his concerns about Tasers, and Ryneveld said he believes Kiedrowski’s concerns warrant a closer look.

Full Story | See Also: Inquiry says ‘insidious’ TASERs being used as tool of convenience, should be reclassified, restricted under criminal code | Man dies in custody after Taser incident involving Ontario police | Ban Tasers if RCMP doesn’t curb use by year’s end: Commons committee | One-third of people shot by Taser need medical attention: probe | RCMP firing Tasers multiple times at subjects, probe reveals | U.S. jury shocks Taser, investors, with rare loss in court | Tasering violated suspect’s rights, judge rules | RCMP willing to change Taser policy, inquiry told | Tasers pose risk to heart, MDs testify | ‘Peel and Stick’ Tasers Electrify Riot Control | Canadian police have been brainwashed, Taser inquiry told | Mounties censor Taser report | Taser group’s chair to defend stun guns at public inquiry | Chicago study calls Taser’s safety claims into question | Officer injured in Taser demonstration

CBC News
Thursday June 26, 2008

The Canadian military is being criticized by a UN investigator for a lack of accountability for civilian deaths in Afghanistan, where more than 200 civilians have been killed by international military forces this year, a recent report suggests.

The United Nation’s special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Philip Alston, told CBC News that senior Canadian officers, among those from other NATO countries operating in Afghanistan, have refused to provide him with information about civilian casualties when asked.

“They said, ‘We don’t have the information; we can’t give it to you. We promise you that we look at individual cases and we do it really very conscientiously.’ Good, so give me the results. ‘Well we don’t have them,’” Alston said.

In May, Alston estimated more than 200 civilians had been killed by foreign forces during the first four months of the year, often in joint operations with Afghan security forces. He said secrecy and a dearth of public information regarding the casualties was jeopardizing support for the mission.

Alston said in May that many of the attacks did not appear to involve any intention to kill civilians and were considered lawful, occurring at night during surprise raids or when soldiers fired on wrongly suspected vehicles or passers-by.

However, it was “absolutely unacceptable for heavily armed internationals accompanied by heavily armed Afghan forces to be wandering around conducting dangerous raids that too often result in killings without anyone taking responsibility for them,” Alston said in a statement released last month.

The CBC’s Brian Stewart reported Thursday that the raids, dubbed “hunt and kill” operations by American soldiers, are conducted by Canadian JTF-2 commandoes, as well as British and American soldiers. The raids are so secret that some Afghans believe the attacks are really execution missions, Stewart said.

“To the extent that those sort of raids go on fairly systematically, they set up a situation in which people are likely to be shot to death,” Alston said.

Full Story | See Also: US Counterinsurgency Manual Leaked, Calls for False Flag Operations, Suspension of Human Rights | Report: U.S. Gave Green Light For Taliban Prison Attack | Don’t look, don’t tell, troops told in response to Afghani child abuse | Post-traumatic stress disorder’s hidden scars | Over 100 complaints about access to govt. info on Afghan mission: report | Canada sets up new military spy unit | Bid to Block Afghan Detainee Inquiry Slammed | Army begins using $150,000 artillery shells | FBI documents contradict 9/11 Commission report | Truth or Terrorism? The Real Story Behind Five Years of High Alerts | 9/11 widows call for new investigation after revelations of White House, commission ties | Director of 9/11 commission “secretly spoke with Rove, White House” | Eight U.S. State Department Veterans Challenge the Official Account of 9/11 | Twenty-five U.S. Military Officers Challenge Official Account of 9/11 | Ex-Italian President: Intel Agencies Know 9/11 An Inside Job | Afghan poll not as clear as it seems | 9/11 – the big cover-up? | New Bin Laden Video: 100% Forgery | What Ottawa doesn’t want you to know: Government was told detainees faced ‘extrajudicial executions, disappearances, torture and detention without trial’ | The Lies that Led to War | U.S. Government Caught Red-Handed Releasing Staged Al-Qaeda Videos | US Allowed Taliban, Al-Qaeda Airlift Evacuation

Precious Yutangco, Toronto Star
June 27, 2008

Canada’s justice minister says suspected impaired drivers will no longer be able to refuse roadside sobriety tests and may face stiffer fines and longer jail times.

During a press conference held at John Quay on the Toronto waterfront this morning, Rob Nicholson, along with the Ontario Provincial Police, Toronto Police Service and Mothers Against Drunk Driving, sent a clear message that people driving while high or drunk will not be tolerated.

In an announcement made just in time for Canada’s first major holiday of the summer, Nicholson said drivers who are suspected of being high will no longer be able to refuse roadside sobriety tests.

Additionally, he said people who are suspected of being impaired by drugs and refuse to provide a blood or urine sample when they’re stopped can now be slapped with charges.

Police also now have a right to take any drivers suspected of being under the influence of drugs to a police station for more intensive tests or to extract a blood, urine or saliva sample.

Nicholson also said impaired drivers will face a minimum $1,000 fine for a first offence and up to a month in jail if they’re caught a second time.

He added that the government is closing “one of the great loopholes” in the system by making it harder for drivers to challenge breathalyser tests in court.

Full Story

Lisa Wright, Toronto Star
June 27, 2008

Canada as a nation just doesn’t work well enough, says panel head and former BCE chief

[Ed. Note. Both Lynton R. Wilson and co-panelist N. Murray Edwards are Bilderberg attendees. Mr. Wilson attended the global power broker's conference in King City, 1996, whereas Mr. Edwards was an attendee at this year's confab in Virginia. Note that immediately after attending the conference, Federal Reserve president Timothy Geithner also called for a global regulatory banking framework in the Financial Times.]

Canada must “step up its game” and become more open to foreign investment or risk losing its economic standing in the world to more “aggressive and determined” competitors, says the head of an expert panel that released its report on competition laws yesterday.

Lynton (Red) Wilson told the Economic Club of Toronto luncheon at the Toronto Hilton that the final recommendations of the government-commissioned Competition Policy Review Panel are “both a wake-up call and a call to action.”

“The urgency is what’s going on in the world. The pace of change. The way in which business is organizing itself. The Internet. All of these things are driving fundamental change,” he said. “Canadians are worried about their economic future. They see long-standing Canadian companies being taken over by international buyers, plant closures and painful labour market adjustments, exports to the U.S. threatened by a rising dollar and slowed by a thickening border.

“A recurring theme during our consultations was that Canada as a nation just doesn’t work well enough. We seem to be increasingly dysfunctional. We have trouble getting our act together.”

Meanwhile “powerful new competitors are emerging, especially the so-called BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China.”

He said the panel has every confidence that Canada can thrive in a more open marketplace, particularly when dealing with global suitors looking to scoop up Canadian companies. But Wilson stopped short of saying the massive takeovers of iconic Canadian mining companies Inco and Falconbridge in 2006 by Brazilian and Swiss firms would have gone differently had the panel’s recommendations been implemented by Ottawa, noting it’s just a “what if” at this stage.

“As Canadian business leaders we must become even more ambitious. The best way to ensure that successful Canadian businesses are not simply absorbed by international consolidators – to avoid being hollowed out – is to take the play to the other end of the rink,” said Wilson, chair of aviation firm CAE Inc. and a former BCE Inc. executive.

He referred to the need for more investment in research and development and in improving skills and talent at home while paying more attention to development opportunities outside the country.

The five-member panel also had discussions over the last year with international players, and found most of them criticize Ottawa for having a formal process related to foreign takeovers, noted Wilson.

As for bank mergers, he said the panel is not for or against them, but is saying there shouldn’t be a de facto ban on them as there is now.

“We think that they should be considered, and considered prudently,” he said.

Wilson said he didn’t know what, if any, recommendations would be implemented by Ottawa, but that an Industry Canada task force would probably respond to the report as early as the fall.

He noted it’s out of his hands now.

Source | See Also: Massive overhaul urged on foreign investment in airlines, media, and banks | Bilderberg Seeks Bank Centralization Agenda | Secretive Bilderberg Group Reverses Policy, Releases Press Release and Attendance List