statism watch

Joan Bryden, Canadian Press
Sep 17, 2008

OTTAWA–An audio tape Liberals were hoping to use as a weapon against Prime Minister Stephen Harper during the election campaign has been effectively silenced by delays in a court hearing into the Cadman affair.

Harper won an adjournment Wednesday, putting off the hearing into his request for an injunction to prevent the Liberals from using a controversial tape at the centre of bribery allegations in the Cadman saga.

While the judge did not set a new date for the hearing, which was to have started Monday, the Liberal party’s lawyer acknowledged there’s now no chance that the case will heard before the Oct. 14 election.

“This matter certainly will not be heard now before the election is completed,” said Chris Paliare.

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CBC News
September 17, 2008

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty is renewing his call for a ban on handguns.

McGuinty said the ban is the best way to reduce the types of killings and woundings that occurred Tuesday in the GTA.

After three separate shootings — including two killings — McGuinty was asked if anything can be done to stop the gunplay.

“I think we should be banning handguns,” he told reporters at Queen’s Park on Wednesday. “I know they are the weapon of choice. They are convenient. They are easily concealed.”

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CBC News
September 17, 2008

Scientists have noticed some disturbing changes in the water, and the reproductive organs of fish, in the St. Lawrence River near Montreal.

Concentrations of estrogen as high as 90 times the normal rate have been discovered just downstream from the island of Montreal, according to researchers from l’Université de Montreal.

“What we measured is about 100 times more than the level known to have significant endocrine-disrupting effects,” said Sébastien Sauvé, a professor of environmental chemistry at the university.

While researchers found estrodiol, a naturally occurring hormone that all women — particularly pregnant ones — release, they discovered synthetic estrogenic compounds as well.

“They’re really pharmaceuticals which are used either as contraceptives or in hormone replacement therapy,” Sauvé said.

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CBC News
September 17, 2008

A veteran RCMP officer has filed a lawsuit against top-ranking members of his own force over a sex crime investigation involving underage prostitutes that resulted in the 2004 conviction of a B.C. provincial court judge, CBC News has learned.

In a statement of claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court Sept. 9, Const. Justin Harris said he suffered a psychological condition that made him “unfit to return to his regular policing duties for an indeterminate time” as a consequence of an RCMP investigation into allegations he and other officers paid to have sex with teen prostitutes.

The prostitutes were at the heart of the case against former judge David Ramsay, who was found guilty of committing sexual offences against the underage sex workers and sentenced to seven years in prison in June 2004.

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What a coup for industry lobbyists this would be.

Donovan Vincent, Toronto Star
September 17, 2008

Toronto’s board of health officials should urge the province to provide long-term funding to vaccinate Grade 8 females against the human papillomavirus (HPV), a new public health report says.

The vaccine, Gardasil, is being administered free to girls – with parental consent – in Ontario schools to prevent up to 70 per cent of cervical cancers and 90 per cent of genital warts.

The program began after Ottawa provided $300 million for three years, beginning last year. Ontario got $117 million of that.

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New to the site? Visit the Memory Hole for a bit of context, to find out what we’re all about.

See also related to this article: Reports reveal concerns over drug use among Canadian military | Police officer stands trial for stealing fake cocaine in sting | Karzai’s kin linked to heroin trafficking | Confirmed: Mexico drug plane used for CIA ‘rendition’ flights | Afghani Narco-state Continues to Blossom under Puppet President | Toronto police, corrections officers arrested in connection with grow-ops | Crown complained of lack of Toronto police support in drug squad case | Third Cocaine Plane Surfaces and is Tied to Web of Government Connections | How the CIA infiltrated the DEA | Sloppy tradecraft exposes CIA drug plane | Drugs on crashed plane belonged to Mexico’s biggest dealer | DC9 with 5.5 tons of cocaine was CIA plane | Pulitzer Winning Journalist Who Linked CIA to Crack Sales Found Dead of Apparent Suicide | Dark Alliance: The Story Behind the Crack Explosion

CBC News
September 17, 2008

Some high school students are making money by selling junk food out of lockers at their Burnaby school despite a provincial ban on junk food sales now in effect in all B.C. schools.

The three Grade 11 students — who asked to be identified only as Weeman, The Fern and Goggles — told CBC News they made more than $200 in the first week of school by bulk-buying candy and chocolate bars, then selling them at a profit.

“I think it’s probably hands down the best idea we’ve ever had here — probably, actually, the only good one we’ve ever had,” Weeman, a student at Moscrop Secondary School, said Tuesday.

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Paul Moloney, Toronto Star
September 17, 2008

Slow installation speed, not better drivers, cited for $3 million shortfall

Toronto’s cash haul from issuing red-light infractions caught on camera in 2008 is likely to be $3 million lower than projected because of delays in installing new cameras.

The city had expected to reap about $5.2 million this year from handing out $180 tickets. Now the expectation is only $2.2 million.

Unfortunately, it’s not because people are driving more safely.

“I wish the shortfall was because people weren’t running red lights,” said Councillor Glenn de Baeremaeker. “I’d be the happiest chair of the works committee there ever was, if we found out we were short revenue because people were obeying the law. But that doesn’t appear to be the case.”

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Throwing bad money after bad…

CBC News
September 17, 2008

The world’s central banks continued to pump new cash into the global economy on Wednesday as governments desperately tried to keep the ailing financial system in North America and other industrialized regions afloat.

The Bank of Japan became the latest to join the money-lending parade, extending more than $28 billion US in new cash for companies.

The Japanese central bank is eyeing firms, mainly in the financial services sector, that either have huge losses from owning faulty debt or have invested in firms that have this type of nearly worthless asset on their income sheets.

Already this week, the global financial system has been rocked by the bankruptcy of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers, the buyout of Merrill Lynch & Co. by the Bank of America and Tuesday’s breathtaking takeover of insurer American International Group Inc. by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

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