contact May 29th, 2008
“The federal government is secretly negotiating an agreement to revamp international copyright laws which could make the information on Canadian iPods, laptop computers or other personal electronic devices illegal and greatly increase the difficulty of travelling with such devices.”
[via]
contact May 24th, 2008
The producer of Uranium says uranium “might have” leaked into Lake Ontario. We know that really means uranium “definitely without a doubt leaked” into Lake Ontario.
From the nyt:
“OTTAWA — Cameco, the world’s largest uranium producer, has told the Canadian nuclear regulator that its refinery might have leaked uranium, arsenic and fluorides into Lake Ontario.
A section of the Port Hope, Ontario, plant of Cameco, the world’s largest uranium producer.
The plant at Port Hope, Ontario, across the lake from Rochester and down the shore from Toronto, first refined uranium for the Manhattan Project during World War II. It has been temporarily closed since July to remove contaminated soil.
A spokesman for Cameco, Lyle Krahn, said Wednesday that a computer model created for the cleanup, which is several months behind schedule, indicated that the radioactive and toxic materials have been polluting a harbor adjacent to the factory. The harbor leads directly to the lake.
The company notified the regulatory agency, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, about the finding at a meeting last week and now plans drilling tests to confirm the contamination and to measure its extent.
“We’re anticipating that material may have been entering the harbor,” Mr. Krahn said, adding that Cameco did not know how long it would take to confirm any possible pollution.
A spokesman for the agency, Aurèle Gervais, said: “The Port Hope UF6 plant matter has been ongoing for some time and the harbor issue is a recent development,” using the chemical formula for uranium hexafluoride.
In a background paper prepared for the agency’s commissioners last week, its staff concluded that the potential remained for continued water pollution from the plant.
Cameco in general and the aging Port Hope refinery, which transforms mined uranium into forms suitable for electrical power reactors, have long been targets of environmental groups and the regulatory agency.
After a flood last year closed one of the company’s mines, which produces about 10 percent of the world’s uranium, Linda J. Keen, then the head of the regulatory agency, said her commissioners and staff had a “lack of confidence” in Cameco and its management…”
contact May 4th, 2008
From msn.ca:
“Canada cannot remain immune to the skyrocketing food prices that already affect much of the world and it may be only a matter of months before the impact here has a major impact on the economy, says a new report from Bank of Nova Scotia.
Except for baked goods, Canada been mostly spared the price spikes in basic foods that has roiled the developing world and even caused two major food retailers in the United States to ration some types of rice as a “precaution” against hoarding.
Because most agricultural commodities like grain, fuel and fertilizer are priced in U.S. dollars, the stronger loonie has cushioned Canadians from many of these shocks. Consumers have also benefited from stiff competition among grocery chains.
“But I don’t think Canada can escape the sort of food pass-through that has been going on in the global economy indefinitely,” says Derek Holt, vice-president at Scotia Capital Economics, who wrote the report.
“This is the year it starts to catch up to Canada. We’ve already started to see in some key categories and that will intensify in the summer months.”
Scotiabank’s warning is the latest in several issued recently by Canadian businesses and international agencies.
The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization reports that global food prices have increased 57 per cent from last year, while the price of rice has doubled.
Meanwhile, the World Bank has forecast the higher prices are likely to last at least two years before moderating slightly.
Holt said that Canadian spending habits could change profoundly once food prices begin rising, along with higher gasoline and heating prices that have already hit Canada.
“It’s a very material risk that people will start seeing themselves having to spend dozens or hundreds of dollars a month more on basic groceries, home heating and gasoline costs,” Holt says.
“You’ve got to do something, so you start to rein in spending on everything else and you postpone plans buy that HD television, or build a backyard deck.”
Several analysts have also forecast that Canada’s holiday from food price shock will not last forever.
But where Holt’s analysis differs from others is that he believes the likely impact will not be higher inflation, but lower prices for everything except food and energy.
Holt argues that sky-high energy and food prices could actually be disinflationary for Canada because consumers will have less to spend on everything else.
“That becomes a very dangerous scenario where you can have some sectors doing very well, food and energy, but other sectors see their pricing power totally evaporate,” Holt said.
While low inflation is generally regarded as a good thing, disinflation could trigger an economic slump because it may result in consumers and businesses holding back on purchases and investments in expectations of lower prices down the road.
“I think rationing in food is a possibility,” he said. “But an even bigger danger is that we go back to the days when we thought price and wage controls were a smart thing, this time applied to a particular sectors.”
One encouraging development is that farmers have begun to switch to cash crops to take advantage of the higher prices, but Holt said it will likely take three to four years before the higher production is felt in the market.”
contact March 30th, 2008
Yesterday’s turn out in Toronto for Earth Hour. Check it out at Treehugger.
contact March 12th, 2008
From the economist:
“PAYING TAXES is, for most people, both unavoidable and irksome. But how much hard-earned pay is taken by governments varies considerably across the world. Among the rich countries of the OECD, Germans shell out the most, with a worker earning an average income giving 43% of their gross pay to the state, with nearly half of that going towards social security. Workers in Poland hand over nearly 25% of their wages to social security; whereas Australians pay nothing at all directly. Mexicans and South Koreans enjoy the lightest taxation by some way.”
contact March 6th, 2008
From the star:
“Surveillance cameras make TTC riders feel safer and the plan to dramatically expand their numbers is okay with Ann Cavoukian, Ontario’s privacy commissioner.
“Installing 11,000 cameras on buses, streetcars, subway cars and in stations complies with privacy standards, Cavoukian said yesterday when she released the results of her investigation.
But the TTC must make some changes to ensure the network of seeing eyes is used only for legitimate purposes and never for voyeurism, as has happened in other cities, she said.
Cavoukian urged that the TTC:
Delete video data after three days unless it’s needed for a police investigation.
Conduct annual audits to make sure privacy rules are followed.
Test a privacy-enhancing technology, under development at University of Toronto, that automatically encrypts people’s images.
The recommendations are meant to balance the legitimate needs for transit system safety and passenger privacy, Cavoukian stated.
TTC chair Adam Giambrone endorsed her findings and said his staff will be coming back with a plan for implementing them.
Privacy International, the London-based organization whose complaint trigged Cavoukian’s investigation, was less pleased.
“It is clear … the Commissioner has given up the ghost of privacy and become resigned to the inevitability of video surveillance technology,” the group said on its website.
The group argues there is no public-interest justification for the $21 million security system….”
contact March 6th, 2008
From cbc:
“Alberta’s privacy commissioner has ordered a Calgary nightclub to stop scanning patrons’ driver’s licences, disputing the bar owner’s stance that the practice curbs violent behaviour.
Nyall Engfield filed a complaint to the office in August 2005 after his driver’s licence was scanned before he could enter the Tantra Nightclub at 3rd Street and 10th Avenue S.W. He claimed his personal information was collected without his permission.
Tantra and its parent company, Penny Lane Entertainment Group, argued the scanning system was for their customers’ safety and discouraged troublemakers from entering.
In a ruling released Wednesday, Frank Work, Alberta’s information and privacy commissioner wrote: “The organization did not provide any evidence to establish that collecting the complainant’s driver’s licence information, or that of other patrons, is in any way a deterrent to violent behaviour.”
Work ordered Tantra to cease scanning licences because “it has no reasonable purpose for doing so,” and to destroy the information it’s already collected from other patrons.
The Alberta Liquor and Gaming Commission said it would…”
contact March 1st, 2008
From the nyt:
“The Canadian military has resumed handing over prisoners captured in Afghanistan to the Afghan government, a practice it quietly suspended late last year over concerns about torture, the military said Friday.
Speaking to reporters in a conference call from Kandahar, Canada’s operational base in southern Afghanistan, Lt. Col. Grant Dame did not say when the transfers had restarted and said they were being made on a “case-by-case basis.”
“In other words, we’ll exercise discretion each and every time we transfer a detainee,” he said.
The resumption of transfers comes as Parliament is reviewing the country’s combat mission in Afghanistan and as two human rights groups are challenging the transfers in court.
The transfers were ended in November after a Canadian prison inspection team concluded that at least one detainee had been tortured and heard complaints of torture from several others. A heavily censored government report said that one detainee showed inspectors a braided electrical cable and a rubber hose that he said were used for beatings…”
contact February 29th, 2008
From treehugger:
“Why worry about keeping church and state separate when oil and automobiles already poison North American political culture? Here’s the latest dustup:- a trade war threat by a Canadian official against US presidential candidates. Analysis by category.
Car Making
Canada exports numerous cars that are designed in the US, assembled in Canada, and then sold in the US, bringing many jobs and sustaining a positive balance of trade for Canada (which does not want things messed up by challenges to NAFTA by US Democrats).
Lobbying
Neither do the Detroit-based car companies and the US oil companies operating in Alberta, all of which seem to have positive relationships with the present US Federal and the Canadian National Governments. Tactical similarities between national leaders of the US and Canada are remarkable:- see: Prime Minister Mini-Me Cans Science Advisor
US Politics
On the campaign trail, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton both have been trash talking NAFTA a bit lately, taking a populist stance toward jobs and health and environmental protection. For Ohio’s sake.
Canadian Politics….”
