statism watch

Alex Roslin, The Montreal Gazette
September 06, 2008

Canadians may have been consuming food from clones for years without knowing it, despite a Health Canada ban.

That’s one of the surprising revelations from documents on cloning from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency obtained under the access-to-information legislation.

About 800 cloned dairy cattle produced through an early version of cloning called embryonic-cell nuclear transfer and from embryo splitting have been registered in Canada since the 1980s, said a CFIA background paper cloning written in 2006.

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Jeff Gray, The Globe and Mail
September 6, 2008

Mayor David miller has been called a ‘dictator’ by his critics and stands accused of centralizing decision-making in his office. As city council gears up for the fall season, city hall reporter Jeff Gray does a little old-fashioned Kremlinology on who’s in and who’s out in the Millershevik Revoloution.

Our Most Glorious Leader Chairman David Miller, whose original revolutionary symbol was a broom, now seeks to have his Politburo meetings in secret and to have more direct control over the bureaucracy. His regime has already cast out some who have unwisely revealed ideological impurities.

The Pioneer

While not officially a member of the Politburo, Adam Giambrone – head and sole member of the Pioneer Millershevik Youth Movement – is now responsible for the People’s Commissariat for Public Transit.

The Double Agent

Adam Vaughan, a former master of televised propaganda now serving as an independent representative of the urban intelligentsia, often supports the regime but has criticized key policies, such as the Millershevik “Great Leap Downward” plan for the Gardiner Expressway.

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Joe Friesen, Globe and Mail
September 6, 2008

The RCMP have reopened a criminal investigation into the case of an officer accused of tasering a teenage girl while his colleagues held her down inside a police jail cell.

The girl, 16 at the time, filed a complaint with Manitoba RCMP last year and was told in July that an internal investigation had concluded no criminal offence was committed. But a month after the girl went public with her case, the RCMP decided to reopen the investigation, which will now be conducted by a senior investigator from outside the force.

The girl’s lawyer, Catherine Dunn, said the only thing that changed in the interim was the prominent coverage her client’s case received in the media.

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It simply wouldn’t be acceptable to have a discussion around transport globalization during the election, now, would it?

Federal study looks at road tolls

Paul Waldie, The Globe and Mail
September 6, 2008

Transport Canada asks whether charging motorists will curb greenhouse-gas emissions

Federal officials have launched a comprehensive study into the benefits of using tolls, congestion charges, parking levies and other “urban transportation pricing mechanisms” to help reduce pollution in Canada’s largest cities and pay for more public transport.

The study, commissioned this week by Transport Canada, will examine “how pricing can be used as a tool to induce greater efficiency and sustainability in urban transportation,” according to a request for tender document.

The cities to be examined are Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton.

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Betsy Powell, Toronto Star
September 6, 2008

Despite judge finding police witnesses lied about takedown

An Ontario Court judge has sent a man to jail for 75 days for obstructing police even though officers used excessive force with a Taser and then taunted him while lying handcuffed face down in broken glass.

Justice William Bassel convicted Irshad Ahmed despite finding police witnesses lied about their actions during the takedown.

But Bassel – who found the police actions would not have happened if Ahmed had complied with initial demands to open the door of his vehicle during a late-night stop in the entertainment district in February 2006 – also rejected testimony by the defendants as not credible.

The ruling left defence lawyers mystified, with one saying, “we have police officers who have clearly lied while under oath.” The other told Bassel it was police, not the defendants, who obstructed justice that night. The incident unfolded as police were investigating a claim that Ahmed’s passenger Omar Betty had punched another man the evening of Feb. 24, 2006.

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Michelle Shepherd, Toronto Star
September 6, 2008

Arabic-speaking soldier may prompt Canada to wade into legal debate

Peter Jemley is unique among the growing ranks of war resisters who have sought refuge in Canada.

For one thing, he’s old by military standards. The only reason the army considered the 38-year-old recruit three years ago was because the age cap had been raised to fill the U.S. military’s growing void.

The Tacoma, Wash., father of two young children also bucks the soldier stereotype. Jemley is a college history major, both quiet and fervently independent. If describing a bad situation he’s likely to say it “sucked,” then apologize for his profanity.

Now Jemley’s reasons for deserting set him apart too, and make his case a historic first.

He wants Canada to accept him as a refugee because he’s opposed to torture.

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AFP
September 6, 2008

MEXICO CITY (AFP) — A private jet that crash-landed almost one year ago in eastern Mexico carrying 3.3 tons of cocaine had previously been used for CIA “rendition” flights, a newspaper report said here Thursday, citing documents from the United States and the European Parliament.

The plane was carrying Colombian drugs for the fugitive leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman, when it crash-landed in the Yucatan peninsula on September 24, El Universal reported.

The daily said it had obtained documents from the United States and the European Parliament which “show that that plane flew several times to Guantanamo, Cuba, presumably to transfer terrorism suspects.”

It said the European Parliament was investigating the private Grumman Gulfstream II, registered by the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation, for suspected use in CIA “rendition” flights in which prisoners are covertly transferred to a third country or US-run detention centers.

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