Hi there and welcome to my blog. This is the portal page and where I will post whatever interesting is happening in my life or, anything that has piqued my interest or, what ever happens to piss me off on a given day. A kind of diary. On the bar below and on right side of the page there are some links to things that interest me as well.
Thanks for dropping by and by the way. I like your shirt.
In the face of two new European studies debunking controversial Dr. Zamboni's "Liberation Treatment" for Multiple Sclerosis Saskatchewan's Premier figures damn the torpedoes. full speed ahead. Who knows what drives him but I'd wager it was a meeting with someone in small town Saskatchewan or from his church who came to him with a heart wrenching story about living with MS and not a well thought out strategy from within the Saskatchewan Ministry of Health.
When you run a government filled with members whose business experience is limited to small town Dairy Queens and implement dealerships and whose scientific knowledge is just about nil, you can get away with this kind of thing.
There is very little being said by the Saskatchewan medical community, they know enough not to bite the hand that feeds them. Speak out and it is easy pretty easy to find yourself replaced by an old party hack out here on the prairies.
The question if you ask me is "Why does Saskatchewan have the highest rate of MS in the country."
The Montreal Gazette reports that Dr. Jock Murray, a professor emeritus and founder of the Dalhousie Multiple Sclerosis Research Unit, said he doubts wall will get much support in his willingness to fund clinical trials.
"It's an unusual decision for a politician to select a specific therapy, unproven therapy, for a specific disease. It becomes then a political process. Whoever can put the most pressure on politicians will get the priority for medical research..."
What a way to run a health Care system. I thought there was a national strategy of some sort.
The next think we expect that Brad will do is to offer copper bracelets free to arthritis sufferers.
As long as there are crippling and fatal diseases out there will be desperate people keen to find alternative treatments. I guess we have to be thankful that Brad wasn't in power when Laetrile treatments were the rage in Mexico.
You may have noticed, buried in the back pages of your newspaper, that Kenyans voted yesterday to support their new constitution.
Kenya, which borders Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda and Tanzania, is the fourth largest economy in sub-Saharan Africa and has long been known for its corrupt politics.
This move certainly has the potential to reshape the political landscape in the country and it is an opportunity to move away from ethnic and tribal rule, bring in democratic rule and also should help the country focus on development and battling endemic corruption
The proposed constitution retains a presidential system but places checks on the executive. The president will now be impeachable and key appointments have to be submitted to parliamentary approval. The post of prime minister will be scrapped. A senate is created to include representatives of 47 newly-created counties. There a limitation on the number of ministers.
What makes this all interesting for me is that I have been reading M. G. Vassanji's The in-Between World of Vikram Lall, a book about an African born Asian man's lfe growing up in Kenya from his early years as Mau Mau violence swirled around him, the country's moves to self government and the massive corruption all too familiar when newly independent countries struggle with managing power in politics.
It is a story of a family's struggle with those changes and it is a story about corruption.
I you are interested at all about how this country got into the state it found itself in, I'd recommend giving this book a read.
A good deal is being written these last couple of days about the new American documents being posted on WikiLeaks. They say a great deal about our Afghan war, how badly it is going, the relationship amongst the players and they give more detail about several situations than have here-to-date been released.
What many Americans have found the most troubling is that the documents show that their administration, particularly under George Bush, glossed over much of the detail and painted a picture much rosier than the reality. No real surprise there to us cynics.
The Canadian reaction to the leaks was initially a brush off saying that the documents were American and that they didn't concern Canada so "No comment".
Later in the day however the government was forced to response when journalists discovered that the documents reference four Canadian soldiers being killed by friendly fire in the form of heat seeking bombs guided by U.S. troops.
At the time the government said they had been killed by enemy fire. In fact Defence Minister Peter McKay still insists that is what happened. The Minister's spokesperson said yesterday "The loss of four Canadian soldiers on September 3, 2006, was the result of insurgent activity in the Panjwai district of Afghanistan."
I know that when you are trying to "sell" an unpopular war to the folks at home "killed by insurgents" goes down a lot better that "killed by our friends by mistake" but, I for one, prefer a little more honesty from my politicians.
Put to the smell test, this one fails. Ask yourself, why would an American military report claim responsibility for killing Canadian troops if it was the Taliban all along?
Ask yourself, can we trust anything Peter McKay has to say? McKay has proved himself less that trustworthy from the promise not to merge the PC Party with the Alliance, to his responses during the Afghan detainee debacle up to this week when he claims that the government has "always been open and forthright".
Well, I am back from my holiday although, being retired, I'm not sure what it was a holiday from. Perhaps from badminton, blogging and Bushwakkers.
It got me thinking about how much camping has changed for me, over the years. In the 1960's I can remember those old canvas tents that leaked in the rain and smelled musty all the time. We ate heavy breakfasts, bologna sandwiches for lunch and weiners and beans for supper. We also drank a lot of beer.
These days we mix it up. A few days camping balanced with a couple of days in a hotel. Our last evening in the tent we stayed at one of my favorite campsites in the National Park above Radium, B.C.
I had a nap in the afternoon while Shelley sat outside and read Ulysses.
We drove down to the hot spring early evening for a soak then made a supper of chicken breasts stuffed with mushrooms, freshly picked corn on the cob and new potatoes, washed down with a bottle of Quail's Gate Pinot Grigio.
This morning started out lovely but arount 8:00 the fog rolled in from the Pacific. It played around for a while, in and out but although the town of Tofino was spared, the beaches were pretty socked in.
We walked around and up and down a bit and to be honest it all seemed a bit sureal. The tide was out and the fog was so thick that from the water's edge you could hardly see the shoreline. There was a moderate swell so the surf wasn't bad and the surfers were out in force. Surprisingly once we were on the beach it was quite warm although in the trees above the shore it was cold. Tenters must feel that damp cold deep into their bones.
Tomorrow we hit the road again and drive to Vancouver.
I forgot to mention that while at the Vancouver Island Music Festival we tented in an area set aside for volenteers. They weren't sure exactly where to put us, there was a small section set aside for performers which is where they let us set up. We had a bit more space that most of the others.
The first evening our camping neighbours moved in beside us. It turned out they were a husband and wife team called The Trollsons a pair of very funny children's entertainers who have been touring since 1995.
I love this area of the country. Long Beach is magnificent. We spend the better part of the day walking the beach and climbing up and down rocky outcroppings marveling at the inter-tidal life. Shelley is becoming an expert in identifying differant types of sea weed.
One more day exploring then off to Vancouver. I would move here in a heartbeat if I had an extra $1,000,000 for some where to live. At least that is how I feel about it in the summer. I am not sure about "storm season".
Several years ago some forest giant was planning to cut timber on Meares Island across from Tofino. Bob Bossin from Stringbank let us know that a young First Nation's artist called Joe David was selling prints to raise funds for the fight. He was working out of Bill Reid's studio and my brother and I tracked him down one night a bought a couple of prints. Mine has been hanging in my living room for over 25 years now.
So, now here we are in Tofino staying at the Inn at Tough City and our room's balcony looks right across the water to Meares Island. The image is the one hanging on my wall all these years.
We drove on from Nanaimo to Courtney and the Vancouver Island Music Festival.
We has a ball. There was lots of good music and the festival has a very good vibe. The crowd were great. Very laid back. Lots of B.C.bud. I could live here, no problem.
It was quite hot and sunny to at time in the afternoon anywhere without shade became a bit much to handle for any length of time. Luckily they have a couple of stages in the woods and there is a river running through so, many of us spent a little time cooling off with a swim.
We moved on from Juniper Creek through Cashe Creek to Lilioet, Pemberton, Whisler and on to Horseshoe Bay. I always like that ferry ride.We spent the night in Nanaimo.
They have done good things with their old city centre. We decided Greek food would be fun considering that Regina's Greek fare is decidedly lacking. I called for reservations and was told that they were closing at 8:00. We were disappointed but somewhat resigned to having something else but when we passed the place it seemed open so we went in anyway.
Oddly they greeted us with open arms so we had a small Greek feast and a bottle of Retisina. It was very good
We camped at Juniper Creek just before Cashe Creek heading west. A great spot. Hot! The trains are a bit close though. I thought a couple were coming right through the tent in the middle of the night.
We drove from their through Lilloet to Pemberton. An amazing road but it took us 2 1/2 hours to go 180 km.
We are in Nanaimo. Had a great Greek meal last night
It has been a bit tough to keep this blog up these days. I was sitting on an arbitration panel for several days them there is all the work that comes after the hearing is done.
I am on vacation now heading for the Vancouver Island Music Festival in Courtney/Comox.
The picture above is Takakkaw Falls. We camped in Kicking Horse campsite in Yoho National Park then drove up to the fall.
For all you geography nuts it is the 13th highest in the world
Good to get a break and I love thise mountains. I have been on the prairie too long
Less damage than your average hockey riot but certainly more than your average protest. Toronto is still reeling from the G20 photo-op that Harper insisted be held in the city.
First let me say that the black block got in the way of things and their tactics did nothing more than help to slience legitimate voices of protest. So, instead of voices of dissent we saw images of burning cars. It gave a reason for the authorities to justify the police to get out of control.
I don't think anyone felt reassured by listening to the Toronto police chief over the weekend. First they didn't use tear gas, then they did. He still won't admit using rubber bullets although a very credible CBC journalists reports that a woman standing very close to him went down like a stone after being hit with one.
Saturday the police stood by and watched black block protesters smash windows and burn police cars, later in the day and on Sunday they charged the crowds and arrested almost 900 poeple, mainstream media photographers and journalists along with people out for a walk beating some of them up. We will see the real tally when we see how many of the "thugs" arrested are actually convicted of anything serious.
So...what went wrong. To start with it was a formula for disaster.
They;
Erected huge barriers denying people access to their own city
Brought in huge police presence in riot gear
Demanded journalists carry acreditation to be covering the events on the streets of the city
Snuck through legislation which seriously eroded Canadian's rights
Confused a citizan's right to protest with violent acts of vandelism
Lost control of the situation
Reacted violently and out of control in frustration
Were outsmarted by a rag tag group of black block activists
I have been in my share of demonstrations including the G8 in Calgary where the police were just as present. I was on the street working with a cameraman trying to witness the events. I know how these things can easily get out of hand.
Before being too quick to assess blame on the thousands of legitimate protesters don't forget that in Montebello the police were exposed, acting as agent provocteurs, dressed as block block members, preparing to throw stones into the crowd to try to provoke violence. If it hadn't been for the fact that they were challanged by a bunch of middle aged trade unionists with a video camera to record the whole thing we never would have known.
So Toronto, you blew it and you know it. Don't forget to make Harper pay come election time.
And by the way Toronto, dump that police chief will you. He is working against you.
It sounds like the print media are preparing to waste hundreds of gallons of ink once again writing about that old convict and rascal Conrad Black.
It seems that an unrelated court ruling in the USA has opened a door to allow him to once again try to appeal, at least a part of his conviction. He is back into the same Chicago court that has twice denied his attempts to appeal in the past. At least he will be spending his own money for a change.
Sucessful or not, I hope that as a convict he is denied entry to Canada. He has done enough harm here already.
Today is the anniversary of the start of the Korean war.
Backed by the USSR and China the North overpower the south and had moved as far as Soeul and beyond by the time the Americans and Commonwealth countries got involved. Canada sent over 26,000 troups and 1,557 of them were killed.
For some reason, in Canada no one really talks much about the Korean War and what ever lessons might have been learned there.
The only reason I remember, I am sure, is that around that time my father was a Sergeant in the army and was a tank mechanic. I was about seven when he shipped out.
I don't remember much about it to be honest except that;
we shipped over left over large Christmas candles. They used them to provide light in the shelters they dug into the side of the hills.
He was in charge of a tank with a crane in the back but no gun on the front
The tank was called the Contented Cow
He brought us back really neat silk jackets from Japan and,
He was a minor celebrity in our small town for a while.
So, making no attempt to glorify our role in Korea, we should at the very least remember it.
I have been neglecting this blog for a few days with family visits and the fact that I had to sit as a panel member to hear an arbitration case this week. But I'm back.
I love the names brew pubs come up with to name their beer. My favorite brew pub Bushwakker's has, Slough Shark, Sodbuster Brown Ale and my favorite, Mother-in-Law, a blend of stout and bitter.
Earlier this spring they started carrying Trephination Double IPA again, I remember having a conversation about where the name might come from. No one seemed to know. So I looked it up.
The word trephination means an opening made by a circular saw. The word is mainly used to describe an operation which involved removing a piece of the skull from a living patient to expose the tough fibrous membrane forming the outer envelope of the brain.
Generally, it is surmised that, on the living, it was performed to provide for the escape or entrance of spirits.
The practice pretty much disappeared in modern times but sometime in the early '70s (he doesn't remember exactly when), a jeweler from Pennsylvania by the name of Peter Halvorson secured a power drill to his bathroom ceiling and proceeded to perforate his skull. He reported that it took several drill bits. They kept getting clogged with blood and bone. Halvorson stopped when he felt the drill give way and penetrate into the cranial cavity. No report as to why he did it.
I wonder if we really should be drinking this stuff.
I find it hard not to be cynical about the appointment a British Lord and Ken Watkin, a former judge advocate-general of the Canadian armed forces, as "independent" observers on the Israeli investigation into the attack on the Freedom Flotilla. These observors are Isreal's attempt to sooth international criticizm of a badly flawed process.
If Canada was really interested in an unbiased look at the attack on the flotilla they would insist that this is an Israeli attempt to legitimize an illegitimate process and insist on an inquiry led by the United Nations.
I know that many readers want to write to their Members of Parliament asking that the government change their position on this matter.
and:
a) press for an end to the 3-year blockade of Gaza by the State of Israel;
b) support a UN–mandated independent inquiry on the attack on the Freedom Flotilla
The United Church of Canada has a link that makes that easy. It has a draft letter which you can edit if you like or send it as it is. It also has e-mail links to the leaders and to every MP in Ottawa.
I am watching the World Cup and feeling lazy today but I thought readers might be interested in this story which I found in the Montreal Gazette.
A Twitter that account claims to be that of British Petroleum's public relations department appeared on line, but the messages are a little bit, well, odd for a battling a massive oil spill.
"Please do NOT take or clean any oil you find on the beach. That is the property of British Petroleum and we WILL sue" reads one "tweet" from the account BPGlobalPR.
"If we had a dollar for every complaint about this oil spill, it wouldn't compare to our current fortune. Oil is a lucrative industry!" says another.
"Proud to announce that BP will be sponsoring the New Orleans Blues Festival this summer w/special tribute to Muddy Waters," reads a third.
The fake account was created on May 19 by an unknown Twitter user and has quickly attracted nearly 20,000 followers - four times more than the real BP Twitter account BP-America.
Other messages on BPGlobalPR:
"The good news: Mermaids are real. The bad news: They are now extinct."
"The ocean looks just a bit slimmer today. Dressing it in black really did the trick!"
"Thousands of people are attacked by sea creatures every year. We at BP are dedicated to bringing that number down. You're welcome!"
Toby Odone, a BP spokesman, told Advertising Age that the company is aware of the fake account, but has apparently not taken any steps to have it removed.
"I'm not aware of whether BP has made any calls to have it taken down or addressed," Odone told Ad Age. "People are entitled to their views on what we're doing and we have to live with those.
The so-called private member’s bill to scrap the long gun registry issue will probably come to a vote sometime this month. I say "so-called" because this bill is in every way but in name a government bill. Put forward by Morden Manitoba's own Candice Heppner this bill is top of the Harper agenda. They have pulled out all the stops to get it passed.
It looks like the Liberals will insist that party's Mps vote against the bill but chances are it will pass to primarily because NDP leader Jack Layton refuses to "whip" his members into defeating the bill. How ironic is that?
This whole debate has been kind theatre of the absurd from day one. It has been hard for me to figure out what the whole issue is all about. Why are these guys so passionate about shutting down the registry anyway? The police chief's support it. The police associations support it. The RCMP supports it. Most reasonable Canadians support it.
The registry was put into place by the Liberals
I know, I know. Liberal legislation bad, Conservative legislation good.
The registry is too complicated for the shooters to understand and it is expensive.
If that is true isn't it the government's responsibility to cut through the red tape and make the process more streamlines and cheaper to use? How do we manage to issue drivers licences, marriage licences, and dog licences without bogging the system down?
The registry is ineffective because so many gun owners has so far refused to register their weapons
The only reason that people have refused is that the government have put an long gun registry amnesty program into place, refusing to prosecute anyone acting in defiance of the law.
The registry interferes with my right to bear arms.
Sorry Bubba, you have been watching too much American television. No such wild west Doc Holiday spirit here in Canada
A Leger poll taken in Quebec tells us that almost 75% of Quebecois want to keep the registry. Two thirds of Conservative voters want to keep it. In the 18 to 25 age group a stunning 85% want to keep the long gun registry.
So there you have it. It has been a phony argument from day one. It would be entertaining if is wasn't so chilling. The debate, if we can call it that has unleashed a kind of underbelly of Canadian society we usually don't see.
We saw Yorkton's own, MP Garry Breitkreuz refer to the Canadian Chiefs of Police Association as a cult because of their opposition to scrapping the registry and suggested that Liberals beat up Iggy because of his stand supporting the regiustry. Breitkreuz's communications staffer, Brant Scott, who wrote that release has now moved on and has landed a job heading up the new Canadian Shooting Sports Association's Communications Office in Ottawa.
That is the same group that anonymously hatched a poll asking questions like, "As a legal firearms owner, who are you more afraid of? Police of Criminals?". They then promoted to poll asking their members to respond. A majority, 58.85% said they were more afraid of the police. I don't know about you but all this makes me a bit nervous.
In addition, Stockwell Day quietly stacked the Firearms Advisory Committee almost entirely with pro-gun advocates including one who argued that more guns in the hands of students would have save lives in the Virginia Tech massacre in which 32 people were killed. Another described the gun used in the Dawson College shootings as a fun gun to shoot.
Did I mention that the members of the group's names have never been released by the government except once by accident in a letter by Breitkreuz. (Not the sharpest tool in the shed) Those names are secret Gary.
So hold on to your hats. It ain't over yet. Sometime in June this whole issue will come up for a vote. MPs have a choice. Let them know how you feel and let's put this whole issue behind us.
