statism watch

So much for the Freedom of Information Act. Also, note the blatant astroturfing Metrolinx is engaged in.

Jeff Gray, The Globe and Mail
February 27, 2009

Transportation agency urged to ‘salt’ public sessions with supporters to avoid having its plans hijacked

A confidential draft of a Metrolinx communications strategy advised the province’s Toronto-area transportation agency to “salt” its public consultation sessions with supporters in order to avoid having its plans “hijacked by nimbies or local politicians on the make.”

The Globe and Mail obtained most of the document through a request under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. But one paragraph from the eight-page draft strategy, drawn up in advance of Metrolinx’s 25-year plan released last year, was withheld under an exemption in the act for “advice to government.”

The Globe then obtained the paragraph separately. Under the heading “Consultation Process,” it reads: “Our consultation period needs to be tightly structured and telescoped. The last thing we need is for this to be hijacked by nimbies or local politicians on the make. These should be mainly informational briefings. We should salt the sessions with supporters. An orgy of consultation will mire this in controversy and delay.”

The revelation comes as Metrolinx faces complaints about its public consultation process on the proposed rail link from Union Station to Pearson Airport from the Weston Community Coalition, a citizens group that opposes the plans because of the increased train traffic through their community.

But Rob MacIsaac, the president of Hamilton’s Mohawk College and the chairman of Metrolinx’s board of mostly local politicians, said that while he wrote much of the document the offending paragraph does not reflect his views and was written by a consultant he would not name. [Ed. Note: Should this not be a matter of public record?]

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CBC News
February 27, 2009

The Obama administration has lost its argument that a potential threat to national security is grounds to stop a lawsuit challenging the government’s warrantless wiretapping program.

A federal Appeals Court in San Francisco on Friday rejected the Justice Department’s request for an emergency stay in a case involving a defunct Islamic charity.

Yet government lawyers signaled they would continue fighting to keep the information secret, setting up a new showdown between the courts and the White House over national security.

(more…)

Karen Howlett, The Globe and Mail
February 27, 2009

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty faces a bleak future for his province, as economist forecasts a shocking $13-billion deficit for the next fiscal year

TORONTO – Ontario is facing a deficit of $13-billion in the fiscal year beginning April 1, leaving Canada’s biggest province in far worse shape than the McGuinty government has acknowledged, Toronto-Dominion Bank chief economist Don Drummond says.

The picture will remain bleak for the foreseeable future, with Ontario mired in deficit over the next four years as spending on health care, education and other programs continues to climb in the face of plummeting revenues, Mr. Drummond said. By fiscal 2012-13, he said, the deficit will hit $17-billion.

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This may upset Al Gore a little, who’s busy making cash off of his carbon-trading business – the one he set up with Henry Paulson from Goldman-Sachs and the Federal Reserve. You know, the institutions that it’s difficult not to suspect have been put in charge of bankrupting Western economies. The pieces are beginning to fall into place here, and people should go over the Japanese report, first covered by The Register, with a fine-toothed comb. If it has credibility, it is far too important to ignore, because the carbon taxation schemes being dreamed up by the UN and international financial bodies will impact your life, and all productive activity on the planet, in ways that are difficult to fully appreciate.

Steve Watson, Infowars.net
February 27, 2009

Western media completely ignores major report from Japan’s Energy Commission

A major scientific report by leading Japanese academics concludes that global warming is not man-made and that the overall warming trend from the mid-part of the 20th Century onwards has now stopped.

Unsurprisingly the report, which was released last month, has been completely ignored by the Western corporate media.

The report was undertaken by Japan Society of Energy and Resources (JSER), the academic society representing scientists from the energy and resource fields.

The JSER acts as a government advisory panel, much like the International Panel on Climate Change did for the UN.

The JSER’s findings provide a stark contrast to the IPCC’s, however, with only one out of five top researchers agreeing with the claim that recent warming has been accelerated by man-made carbon emissions.

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CBC News
February 27, 2009

The job descriptions for the members of the Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission have been reworded following the resignation of the three former commissioners.

Justice Harry LaForme resigned from his role as chair of the commission in October, stating he had been unable to work with his two co-commissioners, who weren’t accepting his authority to make decisions.

He also suggested the two commissioners were under the impression their role was equal to his as chairman and insisted on making decisions by majority vote.

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Afua Hirsch, The Guardian
February 27, 2009

DNA samples of innocent to be kept on file

The government is planning to get around a European court ruling that condemned Britain’s retention of the DNA profiles of more than 800,000 innocent people by keeping the original samples used to create the database, the Guardian has learned.

A damning ruling last December criticised the “blanket and indiscriminate nature” of the UK’s current DNA database – which includes DNA from those never charged with an offence – and said the government had overstepped acceptable limits of storing data for crime detection.

Last month the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, said she would publish a white paper setting out “a more proportionate, fair and commonsense approach”, but she has not given any indication whether DNA samples already obtained would be destroyed. However, Home Office sources said the government, which was given three months to respond to the ruling, has “no plans” to destroy samples of DNA.

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Don’t miss the examples of abuse of this system (over and above it’s existence, that is) at the end of this article.

James Sturcke, The Guardian
February 27, 2009

Figures add to row over retention of information, ‘up to half’ those included have no criminal record

Genetic information taken from nearly 1.1 million children is now stored on the national DNA database, official figures show, and campaigners believe that as many as half of them have no criminal convictions.

The figure fuels the row about retention of personal information on the DNA register and on the police national computer for years after it ceases to be relevant.

The figures, revealed in a parliamentary answer to the Liberal Democrats, show that 1.09 million DNA profiles of people aged under 18 were held on the database with 337,000 under 16.

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