On Home Gardening

Photo - Shelley Banks

I try to put in a garden each summer with varying degrees of success.

My herbs have always done well and the thyme, oregano, tarragon and chives come back faithfully each year and from time to time my sage makes it but usually I have to but a new plant in the spring.. I never manage to winter over the rosemary no matter how carefully I try to pot the plant and bring it in.

I have done well with annuals like basil, cilantro, dill, fennel, arugula and sage but vegetables and  I don't have a very successful relationship. My soil is just too much like clay to make any root vegetable happy.

My tomatoes either don't ripen or they get blight, my potatoes got a kind of fungus and the cabbage white butterfly just chews the hell out of anything that resembles, or even rhymes with any plant in the cabbage family.

So, this year I planted lots of onions, some leeks and tried carrots once again.  They are normally stunted and deformed but this year we got a nice crop of bright orange carrots and even if they are a bit stubby. We are happy about it.

So,  in October I'm going to put in some garlic for next year, I'll try mixing in even more peat and sand to try once again to make that soil a bit easier to work and hopefully in the spring I'll find that right combination of crops to keep us fed and happy next summer.

Some Thoughts About Employment

The issues around employment and unemployment are complex. The questions about why people remain unemployed when jobs down the road go begging are many and I am not so sure I have many answers but I came across a couple of situations recently which, I thought, at the very least are interesting. They tell us a lot, I think.

First, when I was in Val Marie a couple of weeks back, having lunch in the hotel "dining room" three guys wandered in for a beer and a bite.I thought they were a curious trio, obviously not locals and a few miles off the beaten track to be tourists they were, as it turned out, Newfoundlanders working in Frontier about 70 km west of there. About 13 km west of Climax to be concise.

"You boys are a long way from home." I said, and asked what brought them to Saskatchewan.

Things are tough in Newfoundland since the fishery closed down they told us. The small town they are from has virtually no jobs but they were reluctant to pull up stakes and leave the family home. They had tried Fort McMurry and didn't like the raw atmosphere of the place, so quit.

 They had been hired by an Ontario recruiter to work as assembly line workers at Honeybee, a farm implements manufacturer in Frontier who flies them home to Newfoundland for two weeks off, every seven weeks.

What a shift in lifestyle, from a Newfoundland outport to a small prairie village. It can't be easy.

What is it about the work that is so unappealing that Saskatchewan residents won't take the jobs?

The second odd situation is in the trucking industry.

Trucking companies are having a hell of a time getting, and keeping drivers. There are several factors at play here. Driving truck is a tough job. The work is solitary, the food is bad and the pay is worse. Drivers mostly get paid by the mile so generally drivers are only making money when the wheels are turning. If they get caught in a snow storm, have to wait a couple of days in some god forsaken place for they next load or if road construction slows them to a snails pace they are not often not making enough to cover the cost of their meals. If they are earning any money at all.

A large portion of the workforce is closing in on retirement and young men and women are not exactly lining up at the door, looking for a career driving a semi. Virtually every trucking company there is are looking for drivers.

A lot could and should be done to improve the lot of Canadian truck drivers' wages, working conditions and general quality of life but that would take a concerted effort and cooperation involving, the trucking companies, the unions, the manufacturing industry who are doing the shipping and governments.

Unfortunately for Canadian drivers, in a move which looks very much like collusion, instead of doing that, they have decided that instead of tackling the worklife problem, the best sloution is to bring in foreign drivers to fill the void.  It started with drivers from the UK but, many of them got fed up and went home so the latest batch of drivers are from the Ukraine, Indonesia and Mexico.

Little is done by the employers to help them to integrate into the existing workforce, setting them apart and making it difficult for them to fit in. Driving conditions are quite different that what they are used to and many of them have never seen snow, not to mention drive in it.. For many it will be a very tough winter. Cranking down a set of dollies at minus 40 can be tough enough for someone born on the prairies but for a person who, up until now has lived their life in Veracruz?

Like I said. No easy answers but, lots of question about where we are going.

I Admit to Having Mixed Feelings

Over the last few weeks there has been a growing movement against the plan to store, spent nuclear waste here in Saskatchewan.

Petitions have been visible at most public event and a walk against nuclear waste, left Northern Saskatchewan on July 27 heading for the provincial legislature in Regina. The trek, a 820 kilometre walk, arrived in Regina yesterday. They will present a petition to someone at the legislature, I assume today.

Their Facebook site says "The purpose of our Walk is to wake people up to the reality that northern Saskatchewan is being targeted to store millions of used nuclear bundles which would be highly radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years. We will carry a petition to the Legislature that people may sign, directing the government to legislate a ban on nuclear waste storage and transportation in our province."

Well, Northern Saskatchewan is where that stuff came from to begin with.

I am not a big supporter of nuclear energy. We can't trust governments to tell us what is safe and what is not. It all makes me a bit nervous to be honest. And it didn't make me feel any better learning that some of the fuel "spilled" in the Japan nuclear disaster most likely originated in Saskatchewan.

I haven't signed the petition however.  I can't help but think it is a bit hypocritical for us to take the huge uranium mining royalty revenue to fund provincial services, to promote the jobs created by uranium mining with much fanfare, to ship that uranium elsewhere for it to be processed as fuel. Then, when the  fuel is spent, wash our hands of it and refuse to deal with storage.

Just saying.

The Last of Hellier's Plan

Roger Laye and I wearing the square rig,
somewhere warm

I see that Harper has decided to unravel one of the few things remaining from Paul Hellier’s failed experiment to unify the Canadian Armed Forces into one cohesive unit.

If you will pardon this overused expression, unification represented a sea change in the way the navy identified itself and operated. The “square rig” uniform identified sailors as such and despite being a bit archaic, we preferred it that way.

I left the navy as most of these changes were beginning. We knew by the time I headed out to civie street that before long we would all be wearing green uniforms with shirts and ties. I got out just in time but, if you read No Badge Killick you will know that my leaving had nothing to do with Hellier’s bold plan. Other things were afoot.

I don’t know how those serving on ships today feel but to me somehow Royal Canadian Navy rings a bit more true than Canadian Armed Forces – Maritime Command.

Canadians for Tax Fairness

There is a new group on the scene. Canadians for Tax Fairness say they promote a progressive tax system, based on ability to pay, to fund the public services and programs required to meet our social, economic and environmental needs.

They also tell us a couple of things about money and who has it.

For example, what is rich, and what is really rich?

Last year, the average income for the top 10 US athletes was $44.6 million. Wow! The top 10 pop stars averaged $87.2 million. If you think that is over the top, right? Well, think again.

The average income for the top 10 hedge fund managers was $1.7 billion. Yes, that’s billion.

The term “billions of dollars” is now thrown around with such frequency that many people simply have no feel for what it means. In their book, The Trouble With Billionaires, Linda McQuaig and Neil Brooks put it in perspective: “Imagine this: you are given one dollar every second. At that rate, after one minute, you would have sixty dollars. And after twelve days, you would be a millionaire – something beyond most people’s wildest dreams. But how long would it take to become a billionaire? Well, at that rate, it would take almost thirty-two years.”

A billion dollars is an astronomical amount of money. And those with billions, hundreds of millions, tens of millions or even a few million can certainly afford to contribute more taxes to build and maintain a healthy 21st century society.

Taking a look at the corporate world. Do you wonder if Canadian Corporations are hurting so much that our Harper government has to give them tax cuts. No so, Erin Weir writes in Rabble, Canadian corporations sit on a huge amount of cash. He tells us that that private non-financial Canadian corporations held $471 billion in cash in the first quarter of 2011 saying “If corporate Canada already has half a trillion dollars more than it wishes to invest in physical or financial assets, there is no reason to expect that corporate tax cuts will boost investment. On the contrary, if the government collected more of this money and invested it directly, Canada would have more investment in total,” 

To read more go to their site

The Western World isn't Broke. Just Misguided

Standards and Poor's finally had the nerve to say out loud - albeit very softly - what everyone has known for years now. The American economy is in deep, over it's head.

The downgrading of the US credit rating down from the highest level to a notch below is sending waves through the global economic community. Everyone is jittery. You have to ask yourself why get nervous now? We all have known this for some considerable length of time. The rating agency probably should have done this years ago and should have moved with a stronger hand than it has.

It isn't only the US. A world economic reality check is well overdue.

Don't get me wrong. The United States is not broke.  The United States is a very rich nation. In fact most of the countries in the Western World including, those in the European Economic Union, are doing very well. It is their government's that are screwed up.

We have all heard the right wing economic mantra about needed corporate tax cuts, lower royalties, business  incentives and tax breaks for those who are best able to carry their fair share. We have been told again and again. "If it is good for business. It is good for the country." To my amazement voters bought in so  for decades now, we have seen the tax burden shifted incrementally to the middle class.

The simple truth is that business is clearly, not pulling their weight. Any hint of increased taxes or royalties and they threaten to pull up stakes and to move their operations to the third world.  Business has no loyalty so who do we pander to them? How many times have we seen multinationals pull up stakes after taking millions in government grants for retooling. How many corporations feel the need to contract services off-shore, putting those who built the company up from scratch out of work, before we say "enough is enough?"

I am convinced that future generation are going to look back at this time, shake their heads and wonder, "What were they thinking?"

The western world isn't broke. It is just misguided and gutless.

Bean counters, what do they know?

Regina is a Funny Town

I don't think I've seen so many people on the Scarth Street Mall before - ever - but the Regina Folk Festival's Stage was packing them in on Sunday. The place was solid people

Hawkley Workman perhaps said it best, gesturing to Beer Brothers patio, "I don't know but, if that was my bar, I'd be open." Indeed. What a missed opportunity.

I could have used a beer and a late snack. Perhaps next year the owners will get a little better tuned in, to what is happening downtown.

What Are You Waiting For?

I can't say enough about Grasslands National Park. It is a real treasure and one that, while I wouldn't want to see it over run with tourists, should be better promoted.

We stayed in Val Marie, the best bet for people wanting to visit the park. There are a few options open but those seeking a high end spa treatment, supper at the Keg and a round of golf might as well drive on to Banff.

The Crossing B&B and campground give you the option of sleeping in  a tipi for a few days, Rosefield B&B is a bit more remote but not quite as off the grid as it claims to be but my favorite is The Convent. It is just that, an old convent, converted into a B&B by Robert and Mette Duncan. Breakfast of course is included but smart diners will chose to eat supper there as well. Mette does the cooking and it is the best place to eat in town, bar none. .

The couple also have a great house they will rent for a week at a time. Completely renovated by Robert it has all the amenities including satellite TV if you want to waste time watching the tube. There are three bedrooms, a couple of sitting rooms and a fully equipped kitchen. All for $600 a week. We stayed there and loved it.

Robert is they guy to talk to if you want to get off the beaten track. He knows the area like to back of his hand and is willing to share his knowledge with very little prodding. He steered us to a very special spot outside the park about 15 km from town. It has scores of tipi rings, a large medicine ring, a couple of  ceremonial turtles and perhaps a few burial cairns. I have seldom been to a spot with so much historical significance and it has no signed pointing to it, no explanatory kiosks and isn't noted on any of the maps I found.

There are over 3000 archaeological sites within the park.

We spent a good deal of time exploring Grasslands. Photographing wild flowers, hunting out bison and looking for rattlesnakes. (We did find bison but struck out with snakes) We specially loved it during the time photographers call the golden hour, just before sunset. The light is magnificent and I took over a thousand photographs. Some of the sunsets would take your breath away.

So, don't wait, head to Grasslands and get out of the natural prairie grasses, hike up to the top of a butte and savour the prairie wind.

A gopher having a bad day

Silly Season

OK, I can't sit on my hands about this any longer. Even my family are on my case wondering why I haven't blogged about it.

The NDP's interim leader, Nycole Turmel was a member of the Bloc. So what. Canada's English language mainstream media are running with a story that doesn't deserve much more than a nod. The Globe & Mail has their knickers in a knot and Christie Blachford, now writing for PostMedia, has worked herself into a lather about it.

It is no bloody wonder that Quebec feels a bit isolated from the rest of Canada. The Toronto based English media personify the cultural divide. They just doesn't get it and their ability to dismiss the Bloc as a one issue party baffles me. The Bloc's position in the House on most issues was very progressive and their commitment to enlightened social policy was commendable. A great many Quebecois supported them for that reason alone. After all, the Liberals blew it in Quebec with the sponsorship scandal, the Blue Meanies were just too far right and until this election, they just weren't sure about the NDP.

Now spurred on the the attention given to the matter by the media the political parties are in full flight and you have to wonder how they manage to dredge up the gall.

• Even the Bloc got into the action. Their own interim leader, Louis Plamondon, was a Conservative Member of Parliament for the better part of a decade. 
• The Conservative Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities Denis Lebel was an active member of the Bloc Quebecois.
• The recently refurbished, Maxime Bernier was a political aide to former Premier Bernard Landry who made all employees declare their loyalty to an independent Quebec.
• Bob Rae was the NDP Premier of Ontario.

Politicians have switched parties like it was Canada's national sport.

So, no need for Stephen Harper to climb up on his sanctimonious high horse about it all. Come on Canada relax, it is August, we don't have the energy for all this crap.

Turmel is a placeholder leader until, either Jack comes back or perish the thought, can't return and has to be replaced. Putting a competent person into place who is not a contender for party leader, when and if that situation arises, was a very honourable thing to do. Lets respect his decision and get on with summer.

Still in Grasslands

The view from 70 mile Butte

We are still driving the back roads of South Western Saskatchewan, in Grasslands National Park and area, seeking out bison, black tailed prairie dogs, rattlesnakes and burrowing owls with mixed success.

Not to many pictures to post at this point as I am shooting using the Olympus Raw Format and the small laptop computer I have with me won't edit them. I have to wait until I get home to use Photoshop.

My partner in crime and other ventures however has a better equipped laptop than I than I do and is wisely shooting in jpeg. She has some pics posted on her site.

Snakes and Black Widows? What am I doing Here?

Rest assured, I'll keep my eyes peeled

The signs tell me that the bison are wild and can be unpredictable and dangerous so be careful. Another warns me that there are black widow spiders out here and the last thing we see before we head onto the trail to 70 Mile Butte is a sign, in both official langlages warning us about rattlesnakes

I don't even like garter snakes. What the hell am I doing here? Worse still, this walk today was my idea.

Grasslands National Park, despite those aforementioned drawbacks is amazing. It is a huge, beautiful country out here. I am so glad they decided to save these grasslands.  From the top of the butte you can see for miles. Incredible vistas.

Four more days of hiking and driving back roads, checking out old ranch sites, looking for bison and deer and things to photograph.

No rattlesnakes yet but you can bet, we are keeping our fingers crossed.  .

The CRTC Meets to Look at Internet Billing

Konrad von Finckenstein, looking interested

Anyone who reads this blog knows that the CRTC is not my favourite group of regulators. Not that I have anything against regulators in general, in fact I think we need more of them here in Canada, or at the very least, at least we could use regulators who actually do their jobs.

In Ottawa this week the CRTC is hearing submissions from Canada’s internet giants who are trying to gouge even more than they already charge us for the service. Canadians we are reminded, already pay more for internet service that most other people in the world.

The CRTC, if things run true to form, will try to find a way to give the big guys what they want. Screw the consumer.

I note that at the hearings, Open Media’s Steve Anderson, got a rough ride from the commissioners. First CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein - no, no that is really his name – got annoyed with Anderson who was trying to point out that internet costs were already prohibitive for some who live with within lower income brackets. Finckenstien pushed Anderson saying that he as well beyond the scope of the hearing. To be fair, Anderson most likely be unfamiliar with the finer points of the CRTC tango, a dance perfected by broadcasters, communications companies and the CRTC commissioners.

Then Vice Chair for telecommunications, Len Katz, started to push Mr. Anderson about Open Media’s “non-partisan” status in light what he saw as links to union groups. He also asked how many members it had, and who was funding it.

Katz who has a strong background with the industry giants Anderson is fighting against and one could easily assume is not pro-union, seemed to find fault with the fact that a couple of unions support Open Media. In fact the list of supporters is quite broad and includes 500,000 Canadian citizens.

The vice-chair of broadcasting, Tom Pentefountas, quoted Open Media as saying in the past that Bell’s position in the hearing is “self-serving,”. Pentefountas who seems to have missed the point of these hearings took Anderson to task for referring to Bell Canadian those terms said “Your interest is just as self-serving, is it not?”.

A Montreal lawyer and friend of Stephen Harper’s former communications director Dimitri Soudas, Pentefountas was named vice-chair of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission in a storm of controversy earlier this year. He is startlingly unqualified for the job. I have more credentials than he does.

It was advocacy by Open Media that led to the public outrage over Internet pricing and download limits that prompted the hearings in the first place.

The commissioners would rather not be there.

If Craven is King. We Have to Ask Why

Get drunk, fall down, miss the music

I can’t figure out why the Craven Country Jamboree is King here in Saskatchewan, but it is. We went once after someone gave us a couple of free tickets but, we never went back. I’m no prude, public nudity doesn’t bother me and I am always up for a party but...Craven just isn’t my scene and to be completely honest, I’m not a big country music fan anyway.

Craven sure is popular with the political crowd though.

First let’s get one thing straight. The Craven Country Jamboree is a business, no ands, ifs or buts. It is also a business with lots of political friends.

This year like much of Saskatchewan, the Craven campsite was well under water. Dispite other businesses, homes and farms that are still under water the three day festival was first in line for a handout.

Much to many people’s surprise, they were given a over $1.5 million by the Saskatchewan Watershed Authority to build berms to prevent future flooding of the site. Evidentially the business met the criteria for the emergency flood damage reduction program, and since it qualified, they got the cash. Not bad for a business that actually only provides service, if we could call it that, three days a year.

Then, festival organizers were pumping water out the area when the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) grew concerned with the number of fish trapped within the site. They ordered the pumps turned off.

Then the area MP, Tom Lukiwski who you generally never hear from, saw an opportunity for a little media face time and stepped in. What is more important after all, spawning fish, or a three day piss-up.

Before you know it the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Keith Ashfield ordered the pumps turned back on. There was no way he was going to let those pesky fish get in the way of a private business’s ability of operate. The Minister reversed his own department’s decision. He obviously knew better what the Blue Meanies are all about when he said “ For such an important economic and cultural event to be affected in this way is contrary to the principles this government stands for."  Even we bloggers couldn't have wrapped up the Conservative agenda better than that.

Now as the festival gears up we are gleefully told that taxpayers will provide the services of 36 RCMP officers for crowd control and that last year at 160 people were arrested and put into cells at least overnight for a variety of charges, including being intoxicated in a public place, public mischief, impaired driving, assault, theft and one sexual assault.

Some cultural event.

Don’t get me wrong, most festivals couldn’t survive without financial help from government. Festivals help to weave what is a part of our cultural fabric but there are community oriented festivals and there are business festivals. There is a difference and I for one am feeling ripped off.

This year, if you love good music in an outdoor setting and you don’t particularly like getting shit faced or taking your clothes off, come down to the more family friendly Folk Festival. Probably no one will get arrested, the music is great and you will have a wonderful time.

Reduce the Risks of Working Alone

Early this summer, on the night of June 30th to be exact a Yorkton gas station attendant, working alone was murdered, for what was most likely, no more than a couple of hundred dollars. The victim, Jim Weibe was working alone. Not long after, police arrested 20 year old Kyle Furness and have charged him with first degree murder.

Weibe joins a growing list of people who met their ends while working alone, overnight for shitty pay, in gas stations and convenience stores across North America. They are basically sitting ducks waiting for the next lowlife to crawl out from under some rock.

Weibe’s friend Aaron Nagy is trying to do something about that. He has started an on-line petition and a Facebook site in an effort to convince the government to bring in legislation which would protect people in Weibe’s situation. He says, no one should be working alone. I agree with him, no one should be working alone, particularly in the middle of the night.

Nagy is on the right track but, I can tell you, he has an uphill battle. I would be amazed if this business friendly Saskatchewan Party Government gives the issue much more than lip service.

The issue of people working alone extends far beyond gas station attendants.

In 2001 after SaskTel employee John Davies was shot and died while trying to restore telephone service to the Star Blanket Reserve I looked very closely at the issue and wrote a Health and Safety report entitled Reducing the Risks of Working Alone.

I gave a few seminars on the subject trying to raise awareness of the risks and we talked to the government of the day, but from my perspective, not a great deal has changed in the last 11 years.

Information available to employees who are concerned about working alone in Saskatchewan are grossly inadequate and guidelines for employers lack strong legislation to back them up. Surprisingly even the Alberta guide on the issue does a better job.

It is time to fix this issue. Let’s get at it.

Personal Tragedy Becomes a Contest

I always thought we Canadians lived within a caring society but the bottom line is that the fundamental responsibility for helping out the less fortunate and those in need lies within our social safety net. These days however we see the role of taking care of those less fortunate shift into the public forum. I can hardly buy groceries these days without being asked to donate a dollar for this and another for that. Since I shop every day it get a bit tedious but more than that it signals that the government isn't doing a very good job. Then I discovered that it was worse than I ever thought.

For a few Regina families real life took another step closer to the world reality entertainment this week as Rebuilding Dreams is pitting a group of families in desperate need, against each other, in an effort to "win" a house makeover.

In a move that I think is just about as crass as it comes, we are encouraged look on line and read about five families that are all facing very tough personal situations. Then we are asked to vote on line for the family that needs help the most. The last time I looked the Strong family was well into the lead which made me wonder how the Bridal or Nagy or any of the other families must feel.

All five families are facing a daunting struggle to survive within a social service system that is obviously very badly broken. We should be asking ourselves, even within what Brad Wall calls a boom economy, why do so many fall through the cracks.

I am intrigued as to why a community that elects right wing governments that barely maintain services, will support a contest where families have to "out tragedy" each other and ask you to donate on line. Surly, that is kind of like turning personal  hardship into a sport. The Romans were more civilized that that.

Facebook is all a Twitter.

The prize is a big one. The group says the family that "wins" will receive:

A brand new home customized to the family’s needs. The website says their home will be rebuilt and furnished for the family. This will be similar but not quite as extravagant as the popular television show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Assuming there are lots of donations the prize pack could also include debt reduction for the family if the fundraising events are as successful as we anticipate.

The family that comes second may, if there is enough money donated, get some basic renovations that will help this family get by for awhile and provide for any of their urgent needs they may have.  

And if their fundraising far surpasses our expectations, the group says they will be providing a renovation package to a third family.

The group is hoping to raise $100,000. There is a very long way to go. So far they have raised $2,785.

Sponsors are lining up to provide goods and service to the family that wins. For example, Urban Sun provide the family with Tanning and Spa Services Package, Jump.ca is providing a couple of cel phones to the family and Group 5 Security will be providing secutity for the site during reconstruction.

It all just gives me a sick feeling in my stomach.

Climax is My Favotite

Photograph by Shelley Banks

I love unusual place names and it is often fun to speculate why the founding families chose one particular name over another. Newfoundland has lots of fun names and growing up in Quebec St Louis de Ha Ha was always good for a chuckle.

Saskatchewan is no exception.

There is Forget which is no comment on how memorable the town may or may not be. It is actually named after Amédée E. Forget, the first Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan.

These days Saskatchewan seems to have difficulty pronouncing French names. The town of Bienfait is pronounced Bean Fate out here.

Adanac of course is Canada spelled backwards.

My favourite town slogan has to be, “New York is big but this is Biggar” They are celebrating their 100th birthday this year.

Eyebrow is northwest of Moose Jaw  and

You have to ask yourselves, what were they thinking when they named Smuts.

You can't get a good cup of tea in Earl Grey and I hope the local softball team in Penzance is called the Pirates.

One of my favourites has to be Climax. I have always wanted to drive down to see if there really is a sign that says “Thanks for visiting, Come Again.

Eastend is in the south-western part of the province and Southend is in the northeast.

Alsask is very close to the Alberta/Saskatchewan border so that kind of makes sense then, just down the road is the tiny town of Mantario which has to make you ask, “What were they thinking?”

Mantario is so small that they only have five streets. 1st Avenue runs basically east/west parallel to highway #44 then running north/south, each one block long there are 1st street west, Main Street, 1st Street East then 2nd Street East. You would think with a town that size they could have given the streets names instead of numbers without confusing anybody.

While we were driving to Grasslands park last week we drove through Mankota which is not all that far north of Montana, much further from North Dakota and about 450 km from Manitoba.

Go figure.

Happy Birthday Canada

Despite our nation's move to the right, our warts and frustrations Canada is still a pretty damn good place to live.

Happy 144th Birthday  Canada

A good afternoon to fly kites and being Friday. A good evening to play floor hockey

Just Another Imposter

I'm Not Sure About the Honesty Part

I hate organizations and groups of people that give themselves names that misrepresent what they do, who they are or what they stand for. Groups that try to project one image while they in fact, are something completely different.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation for example. Not a group representing the interests of people concerned about taxes but a cranky, right wing group mostly funded by business interests. Their pro-Conservative stance on spending, particularly when it might actually benefit people, not private sector business, drives me crazy.

I am probably not much more than a cultural Christian but, I find it offensive that the term Christian has been appropriated by the relatively new fundamentalists whose use of the term, dismisses any of the more traditional churches as, not quite up to snuff.

Pro-life groups are not about celebrating life. Most of us, after all, are pro-life. We want to hang on to it as long as we can.

Pro-lifers lobby against a woman’s right to choose to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. Surely that is something quite different.

The Progressive Conservatives did change their name to just the Conservatives. Now that was honest but I do admit, off point.

The latest in this long line of imposters I came across is HonestReporting Canada. They had a letter published in the Globe and Mail today complaining about a story which looked at the new flotilla trying to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza which featured an interview with a Canadian who was aboard a ship in the last attempt to bring supplies through the illegal Israeli blockade into Gaza, and who was arrested in the process.

Until today I had never heard of HonestReporting Canada but just a little investigative research would tell anyone who bothered to look that HonestReporting Canada are not what they seem.

Now I suspect that anyone who tries to criticize the organization will be labelled anti-Semitic, which I am not, but here goes.

HonestReporting, was founded in the UK in 2000, at the onset of the Palestinian uprising which by the time it was done saw a death toll estimated to be 5500 Palestinians and over 1100 Israelis, as well as 64 foreigners.

HonestReporting's self-declared mission is to expose what its members consider bias against Israel in the western media.

HonestReporting Canada was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Toronto.

HR's self-declared mission statement claims that,

Israel is in the midst of a battle for public opinion – waged primarily via the media. To ensure Israel is represented fairly and accurately "'HonestReporting'" monitors the media, exposes cases of bias, promotes balance, and effects change through education and action


HR defines itself "as an organization dedicated to defending Israel against prejudice in the Media" they will provide resources to anyone wishing to advocate for Israel. We have seen it again and again. Any attempt to offer both sides of the very complex Middle Eastern story with be met with howls of outrage and accusations of  antisemitism. This group and others are basically propagandists all but working for the government in Israel and never far from the official party line. 

If we take a good look at the honesty exprerssed on their website look no further that their description of
the organization’s Executive Director Mike Fegelman. They say Mike is someone who “specialized in broadcasting and international reporting. An eight-year veteran of the Canadian journalism industry, Mike was a former editor-in-chief, reporter, and anchor of various news programs and publications.”

I don’t know how they define veteran but if he is a “veteran” I must be the leader of the free world.

Mike it seems was the editor and writer of a free Ottawa weekly newspaper produced by Carleton University Journalism Students and his news anchoring experience was at the University Campus Television Station. Veteran - my ass.  Talk about honest reporting.

 Honestly, the group isn’t about honesty in reporting. It is basically a Jewish nongovernmental organization using what critics claim are coercive tactics to silence critics of Israeli government policy.

My New Favorite Spot

Grasslands at dusk

After several years of  complaining about the lack of facilities, the state of small town Saskatchewan motels and the legendary bad roads we decided to head down to Grasslands National Park (West Block) this week end.

We decided to leave the Trans Canada and wind our way from small town to small town across Southern Saskatchewan. It was an interesting drive, quite pretty but the state of many of those smaller roads put the lie to Brad Wall's claim that there is an economic boom here in Saskatchewan.

At this point the park encompasses about 500 square kilometres. It will be several years before the park is completely established but eventually, it will cover 900 square kilometres in two blocks along the Canada - U.S. border in southwestern Saskatchewan. It might take a while. The federal government will continue to purchase the land on a willing-seller/willing buyer basis and says there will be no expropriation . Ranching has got to be a tough life so bit by bit the old timers are retiring with no one in the family willing to take over the spreads.

Grasslands National Park is my new favorite spot.

The park is an amazing find. Miles and miles of grasslands, with barely a tree in sight it almost defies your imagination. After years of ranching, grazing destroyed many native grasses but with careful management those species are coming back along with prairie flowers. 

Deer Feeding in the Coolie

Wildlife has returned as well. A bison herd was reintroduced a few years ago as were black footed ferrets which had become extinct in the wild. There are burrowing owls, black tailed prairie dogs, antelope, deer, swift foxes, coyotes and of course rattlesnakes. 

There are at least 12,000 tee-pee rings in the park. This is where first nations peoples camped and hunted in summer months.

The challenge now is finding new undiscovered sites. They seem to be all over the park but, with all the rain this year, the grasses and flowers are so prevalent it is hard to make out the rings through the green growth.

There is no question that we will be going back again and again. The country is magnificent and we met some pretty interesting people as well.

We stayed in Val Marie in the old converted, Convent Inn, owned by Robert and Mette Duncan which while it isn't fancy, is very comfortable and the food was great. Robert loves to chat and tell stories and is more than willing to help you find new places to explore the area. I'd recommend the place without hesitation.

At supper we notices a group of about six women that it turned out were on a photo workshop with photographer James Page who recently moved from Victoria to Val Marie. We had seen his book Wild Prairie in the afternoon and  we had a good chat with him about the park and the photographic opportunities there. We cross paths with them that evening as we moved through the park just before sunset.

The Duncans also have a lovely two story house in the village they rent out by the week for around $600. It would be a deal at twice the price.

If you want to camp, there is a campground in town or, about five km south at the Crossroads you can RV it, tent or rent one of their tee-pees for $20.00 a night.

You may not know much about the park but, if you like wide open spaces, there is nothing like it. Visit now before people from Ontario and Europeans discover it and over run the place.

And in the News Today

Canada Post Fiasco

I am always impressed by how governments manage to turn public opinion in the face of all logic.

The Postal Workers were holding rotating strikes to put pressure on the Canada Post, a Crown Corporation, to put a better offer on the table. Canada post was determined, in collective bargaining to undermine pension benefits. While I might have missed the odd day’s delivery, I was pretty much getting regular mail delivery.

Canada Post then locked their employees out. The mail stopped. The Government then expressed concern about the stoppage. 

Instead of telling Canada Post to lift the lock-out the government brought in legislation and after a NDP filibuster delayed the passing for some time, the legislation passed and the mail will move again on Tuesday.

Canada Post is legendary for their bad industrial relations record. The government has just rewarded Canada Post's bad behaviour by forcing workers back on the job, something they would have done willingly, just not for every day.

Listening to the debate around the dispute I was disappointed to hear some Canadians rise to support the Harper Government’s reaction. On the face of it no one will admit voting for these guys but too many are pretty eager to buy the Harper “For the good of the economy” argument  hook, line and sinker.

I don't object to legislating Postal Workers back to work after a strike has actually begun to have a real effect on the economy but when they are locked out by the same government that controls the legislative agenda. That is another thing.

The Ugly Canadian

It’s an old story. Foreign companies come into a developing nation bring with them the promise of hard cash for a struggling government.

Resources are exploited, people are displaced and a way of life ruined all in the name of the economic good the benefit of which few but government officials and local businessmen ever see.

This time it is Peru and the companies are Canadian. Some are familiar, some not. I am sure there are good guys and bad guys although it is tough to sort out who is who. The list includes Barrick Gold, HudBay Minerals, Bear Creek Mining, Sukkiden, First Quantum and others.

The locals say that farmland is being destroyed, water polluted and although the government may be seeing an increase in revenue, local people have yet to see benefit from the operations. No schools, no good hospitals, no new roads.

Protests have become ugly and the government in response has revoked the mining rights from at least one Canadian Company, Bear Creek. In typical corporate bully boy fashion, the company says they will sue under the Canada-Peru Free Trade Agreement. 

Hands up now, everyone who knew there was one. 

Always There For a Laugh

Those of us who read the Regina Leader Post can always find a couple of things to post fun at.

In Monday’s edition of the paper lived up to expectations.

There is a special feature about what entertainers who are coming to Saskatchewan this summer. Reading about k.d. lang in this morning’s paper my breakfast partner pointed out that the reporter must not have been paying attention at J-School when they talked about, the backbone of any story, the 5 W’s.

Jeff Dedekker somehow managed to leave out the When, Where and the Why. For those who may be confused, k.d. lang is playing the Regina Folk Festival in Victoria Park, downtown Regina, August 6th at 10:45

We were also quite mystified by the headline, “On Line Dating Linked to Rise in STDs”

Frankly it defies imagination.