Marginal Notes: Alberta Government Fails High Risk Populations and Puts Public at Risk

The Alberta government initiated its H1N1 vaccination program on Monday, October 26 with no priority given to high-risk groups. On Tuesday, it opened one clinic at the University of Calgary for high-risk groups only with students, faculty and staff of the university being able to use the clinic after the first 48 hours of service. To remind people high-risk persons fall under one or more of the following six categories: Pregnant women. Children from six months to five years of age. People who live with children under six months old. People under 65 with underlying medical conditions. Immuno-compromised people and…

Creekside: Bill C-300 : In the minefield of the International Trade Committee

Canada is #1 in the world in mining and extractive industries in foreign countries. With over a thousand mining and exploration companies in 100 countries – about 5,000 projects – Canada has well over 50% of the global exploration and mining companies. There have been noises about human rights abuses.

On March 26, 2009, the Cons tabled a policy to deal with corporate social responsibility abroad : a “centre of excellence”, a voluntary industry compliance strategy, and a Con-appointed corporate social responsibilty official, Marketa Evans, who will report to the minister of trade once a year. She has no power to investigate abuses if the corps in question do not agree to it.
.
International human rights standards, however, refer to people, not corporations.
Bill C-300, An Act respecting Corporate Accountability for the Activities of Mining, Oil or Gas in Developing Countries, attempts to provide a mechanism for dealing with environmental and human rights violations supported or perpetrated by Canadian companies abroad.
.
From the Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development :
Oct 8 : A Canadian copper mine in the Philippines was dumping mine waste in the ocean. Its earthen dams broke, inundating villages below with toxic mine waste. Parents of dead children were paid $23 per child.
In Ecuador a Canadian mining company’s paramilitary agents issue death threats to local villagers opposed to the mine.
In Tanzania, a Canadian gold mine is leaking cyanide into surrounding rivers.
Norway’s government pension fund has dropped its shares in a Canadian mine in Papua New Guinea because it “dumps its tailings and its waste directly into a huge tropical river system”.

Oct.20 : A Canadian mining company in Papua New Guinea :

Numerous accounts of rapes show a similar pattern. The guards, usually in a group of five or more, find a woman while they are patrolling on or near mine property. They take turns threatening, beating, and raping her. In a number of cases, women reported to me being forced to chew and swallow the condoms used by guards during the rape.

Oct 22 : A tailings dam failure in Guyana in which the Canadian gov refused to hear the suit, a large cyanide spill at the EDC-supported mine in Kyrgyzstan, irreversible damage to local glaciers in Argentina, troops kill artisan miners in Tanzania to make way for a Canadian gold mine. Etc etc through about 30 countries.
Lawsuits are tried in the US courts because there is no opportunity to try them in Canada.

Export Development Canada is a crown corporation export credit agency, providing 8,300 Canadian companies operating abroad, mostly mining companies, with advice and money.
In response to questions about the need for Bill C-300 to safeguard human rights, Jim McArdle, a lawyer for EDC, explained that EDC is concerned that C-300 would force them to yank funding from Canadian corps found to be committing human rights abuses, and this would have a chilling effect on companies considering applying to the EDC for assistance. Despite already having their own CSR (corporate social responsibility) advisory group and a compliance officer, EDC has yet to yank funding from a single Canadian corp for any violation.

Further, McArdle said Canada adopting C-300 would “take Canadian companies out of the game”, give other countries an unfair advantage, and likely result in our companies relocating to another country with less stringent rules.
Hey, I guess that’s why we’re currently #1.

Peter Goldring, Con, suggests that with its emphasis on international human rights standards, this bill “amounts to a limit on Canadian sovereignty.”

Kevin Sorenson, Con Chair, suggests Bill C-300 would pave the way for “frivolous lawsuits”

CIDA : Not our job to handle complaints!

Deepak Obhrai, Con, says the definition of what precisely constitutes a human right is very open to misinterpretation and will hurt our mining companies.

Tell you what, Deepak, let’s just start off by dealing with the raping, killing, and displacing of brown people in the way of our profits and work back from that.

Another concern voiced was that the media would carry stories of abuses as soon as investigations began, thereby putting a potentially innocent company under a cloud until the issue was resolved. Yeah, just like people.

Every committee has at least one Con whose job is to ask leading questions about how wonderful the Con gov is. This job just requires stringing together a number of non-sequitors in the form of a question. Or not.
John Weston, Con, my MP :

“I would appreciate more specific comments on what the government is doing now. In other words, this is not a government that’s oblivious of human rights concerns. We created serious impediments for mining companies, with some of the things we’ve done in the name of human rights. We’re doing that to try to open up the competitive capacity of the mining companies. If you can’t do business and you don’t pay your taxes in Canada, then we can’t maintain our social safety net.”

Thanks for that, John.

On April 22, 2009 Bill C-300 passed second reading in the House by a mere 4 votes. With all Cons voting against it, it is now struggling its way through the minefield of the Foreign Affairs and International Development Committee - 6 Cons, 3 Libs, 1 Bloc and 1 NDP. Excellent work from Paul Dewar with Bob Rae looking for the middle ground.

Time to fire off a letter. Over at The Beav I’ve posted the email addies of the 20 Libs and 7 Dippers who missed the vote last time. They could use a note too.
.
.

Broadsides: Barely scary

Further to this, this and Wednesday’s treeware column, which I didn’t get around to blogging, this cartoon by Andy Marlette which says it all. And for good measure, a snip from Wednesday’s treeware musings: Mr. and Mississauga, this weekend, when your daughter spurns the Hermione sweater vest for the prostitot getup, be ready to put up a fight. Hey, don’t get me wrong. I loved to smear lipstick on my face and wear my mother’s…

Broadsides: No country for old-world men

Two weeks ago, Maria Shriver, in conjunction with the Center for American Progress, put out The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything. According to the CAP release, it is a groundbreaking examination of how “women’s changing roles are affecting our major societal institutions, from government and businesses to our faith communities.” For the first time in American history, women are half of all U.S. workers and mothers are the primary breadwinners or co-breadwinners in…

Written on the Body: Hallowe’en, a day to express your most whimsical, extreme persona…

…uh, unless you’re a girl.

I have to admit I was hoping this patronizing “sexy” costume trend would fade out, but it appears to be going strong.  I hope there are some little superhero and zombie girls out there tomorrow night to wear down my cynicism.
Image via Sociological Images
*UPDATE* Bitch Magazine is on it. Click this [...]

unrepentant old hippie: It lives

Our fiendish Socialized Health Care Death Panel was unsuccessful in putting the National Post to sleep — though in a chronic vegetative state, it remains on life support:
An Ontario judge has allowed insolvent media giant Canwest Global Communications to shuffle the money-losing National Post into a group alongside its other daily papers, which Canwest has [...]

Broadsides: Usual Suspects?

What with all the shenanigans surrounding the assassination of Dr. George Tiller last spring, somebody has seen fit to maintain a blog devoted to the murder. It’s called RoederWatch, for the prime suspect in what amounted to an act of domestic terrorism. Among its posts, this, about how Roeder’s anti-choice supporters attempted to raise fund for his defence by auctioning off some offensive material on eBay. Stuff like a prison cookbook by a woman in…

Broadsides: Dust in the wind

Very cool. Click here. Use the slider at the bottom to get a sense of relative size. Then ask yourself: Those people who believe that personhood begins when the sperm fertilizes the egg? Obviously not too acquainted with science.

unrepentant old hippie: The Love Life of Fruit Bats

Wild Kingdom, baby!  Here’s something I bet you didn’t know: even the lowly fruit bat likes a little fellatio to spice up its love life.
From New Scientist and NSFW (especially if your place of employment is the Bat Cave):

It’s true:  if it exists, there’s porn of it.
(h/t Shoq on twitter)

 

[...]

unrepentant old hippie: He’s here! He’s here!

Right here!  Here’s a picture!  Come and get him!!!

Pantingly posting as “breaking!!” the news that Dr. Carhart was at the press conference, along with  a picture (likely taken without his permission), seems to be sending a message of some kind.  I won’t speculate on what that might be, but I think it’s worth noting that [...]

unrepentant old hippie: Octopreggonunmom

So much for being the darling of the Forced Childbirth Movement. Check out Octomom’s Hallowe’en costume:

A pregnant nun surrounded by her kids dressed up as little devils — I think I just heard an explosion from the direction of Bill Donohue’s office.   Whoops!  Clean-up in Aisle… 666!!!

unrepentant old hippie: Murdered census worker update

It’s been a few weeks since there was any more news about the case of the Census worker who was killed in Kentucky last month, a crime that some feared might have been driven by anti-government sentiment.   Little information has been forthcoming about the investigation, but this week investigators  indicated that they expect a resolution [...]

Broadsides: Hotwire

Maybe if they wore fewer layers? I guess they made this between jetting to their fashion shows and shoots all over the world. I prefer this one. Bet the superhotties will go viral first. It might take some people repeated views until they get the message.

Broadsides: Date squares

Via Buzzfeed, ”13 Tips for Single Dames.” Classic and timeless. Here’s a couple of them. From the February 1938 issue of Click Photo-Parade magazine.

Broadsides: Future Shock

Wow. More here.

unrepentant old hippie: (Not) coming soon to a theatre near you

How the hell did I miss this?  The teabaggers are releasing a movie!
“They were ignored… they were mocked…” Bwahaa!
Nope, you won’t be seeing this one in any of those lieberal movie theatres, it’s one of those extra-special film projects that goes straight to DVD.  It’s…
“Teabaggers – the Documentary” (or something like that):

Awesome… although I [...]

Broadsides: Dr. Heckled and Mr. Hydes

Heckling is pretty much par for the parliamentary course in Canada. But many of us have noticed that women MPs — who make up a fraction of our elected representatives — tend to get heckled louder and longer than do the male MPs. In fact, NDP leader Jack Layton today commented on the sexist nature of parliamentary heckling. Yesterday, when Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett, who happens to be a doctor, tried to press the Conservative…

Creekside: Yes, CBC, how about that blood?

CBC challenges the protesters from the Bill C-311 demonstration in the House two days ago to explain “the discrepancy” between their crappy video clip in which the blood on Jeh Custer’s face from his bout with House security is not visible, but then suddenly is visible an hour later when he is interviewed on CBC. Is this incompetent slagging of protesters part of your new look, CBC?

Anyway, here ya go above, CBC, and again here. How about you explain that.

Con House leader Jay Hill also sees a nefarious conspiracy :

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today on a question of privilege in regards to the disturbance in the public gallery yesterday during question period and charge the member for Toronto—Danforth [that would be Jack Layton] with contempt for his involvement in this incident.

It has now become quite clear that the people who disrupted the proceedings of this House were guests of the leader of the NDP. That member booked room 237-C from 11:30 to 1:30 p.m. yesterday afternoon prior to Question Period for the use of that group. It was set up, according to the parliamentary functions room request form, for theatre-style seating, standing microphones for questions, and media feed, all provided by the House of Commons.”

Yes, the NDP booking a meet with a group of youth concerned about our crap environment policy, some of whom later staged a flash mob protest in the House, is all the proof I need that the NDP were behind the protest.

Ooh, look :

Environment Minister Jim Prentice is also seen here at a meeting on the Hill with the now infamous House hecklers. Was Prentice also behind the protest, Mr. Hill?

*snerk*

All this bs about blood and conspiracies makes for great telly, doesn’t it? Must be very galling to the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition who put months of work into getting the word out on our mia environmental policy, only to have their message collectively ignored by Cons, Libs, and the media in favour of blood and bs.

Update : The Natty Post, The Star and the Globe and Mail all pile on with more bs about faked injuries and blurry pix. Bah. h/t Ben Powless

.

unrepentant old hippie: Ebay runs amok, chilling free speech, raping Constitution

Just to reiterate my update in the “Auction for Roeder” post, Ebay has announced that it won’t allow the anti-abortion terrorists’ auction:
An eBay auction planned by abortion opponents to raise money for the man accused of killing Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller will not be permitted, company officials said Tuesday.
“Based on the details we know [...]

Antigone Magazine: Feminists Who Totally Rock, Part 1

Welcome to the first post of Feminists Who Totally Rock!
 Today I am pleased to present two interviews, one with Rebeca Monzo and one with Terrie Chan. Read on and enjoy!
 Rebeca Monzo is one of the head co-ordinators of the Beautiful One Conference as well as an ordained minister!
 
 What was it that inspired you to become a [...]

Next Page »