Canada

Meal subsidy for the poor

01/30/2007 by Debra

Dr. David McKeown and members of Toronto’s board of health want the province to increase social assistance rates to include a “nutrition allowance” to help the poor pay for healthy meals.

Dr. Mckeown points out that a basic food basket for a family of four costs $538.43 a month.

Contrast this with the amount given to MPs to cover four days a week of food expense.

This means MPs in Ottawa four days a week during the time the House of Commons sits can get more than $17,000 a year in the form of meal money to use to pay their mortgages. And it is absolutely, unquestionably and inarguably wrong.*

*Garth Turner:The meals-for-mortgages scam [Read more…] about Meal subsidy for the poor

schadenfreude*

01/29/2007 by Debra

*Pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others.

Story speaks for itself…wonder how this will impact their thoughts on fair use…

OTTAWA — Conservative attack ads fired at Liberal Leader Stephane Dion may end up sideswiping the ruling party after questions were raised about possible breach of copyright laws.
The television ads, which began airing Monday, use footage from last fall’s Liberal leadership debates to deliver the message that the new Grit leader is weak, indecisive and an environmental failure. But that footage belongs to a consortium of TV networks which pooled their resources to provide live coverage of the debates. The Cable Public Affairs Channel provided the pool camera for each debate.
The networks are now looking into how the Conservatives obtained the debate footage for their ads.

Smile you’re on Deadbeat Camera

01/27/2007 by Debra

The Ontario government has decided to post your picture and personal information if you don’t pay up on your child support.

the website will include names, physical descriptions, last known addresses and occupations.

While I am unsympathetic to those who can and simply refuse to pay child support, there can be legitimate reasons why support payments have fallen behind. And we all know that the government is famous for mistakes.

They do apparently rely on the permission of the person owed the money, however, many people involved in these situations are quite adversarial and so might consider the smack at a former spouse before all else.

I think we are becoming far too comfortable with the idea of stealing peoples privacy “for the greater good”.

Cameras everywhere, more and more stringent ID requirements, less privacy and fewer civil rights.

These are easy targets, of course, who doesn’t want parents to fulfil their obligations? But if we do not protect the rights of those who we may feel do not deserve them, we set up easy inroads to take away the rights of those that we feel do.

We may agree that it is easier to prosecute if a crime has been captured on video. But do we agree that all our movements should be recorded?

Where does the line between defence and offence blur?

Nuance, it’s the new black!

01/18/2007 by Debra

Nuance used to be a good word

Dictionary meaning:
1. A subtle or slight degree of difference, as in meaning, feeling, or tone; a gradation.
2. Expression or appreciation of subtle shades of meaning, feeling, or tone: a rich artistic performance, full of nuance.

New meaning:
1. Riding the fence with a picket up your ass (see E. May abortion policy)
2.Trying to save corporate face by changing a policy but pretending not to..

example

Royal Bank has changed its U.S. dollar account policy and will now let dual nationality Canadian customers open the accounts as long as they meet standard residency and other requirements.
Canada’s biggest bank issued what it called a clarification of its policies “due to confusion” surrounding the issue.
A brief statement from the bank said it asks for proof of citizenship and residency for any individual client wanting to open a U.S. dollar account.
“With some exceptions, RBC will provide a U.S. dollar account to dual citizens of sanctioned countries as long as they meet our ‘know your client’ and ‘anti-money laundering’ requirements, which include proof of residency in Canada,” the bank said.

An RBC spokesman in Montreal said the bank “just nuanced our position to a certain extent.”

nuance

The Children’s Health and Nutrition Initiative

01/17/2007 by Debra

OTTAWA – The Children’s Health and Nutrition Initiative – a proposal to make safe and healthy food available to all of Canada’s children – will help working families address real concerns relating to childhood obesity and malnutrition.
NDP children’s advocate Olivia Chow (Trinity Spadina) says the initiative calls for universal nutritious food programs to make breakfasts, snacks or lunches available to any child in Canada under the age of 18, in venues deemed most appropriate by each local community. This initiative will mean that no Canadian child will go to school hungry.
The initiative was unveiled today in Ottawa by a group of concerned Canadians led by Chow, Dr. Robert Cushman, former Medical Officer of Health for the City of Ottawa, and Ulla Knowles, a parent and Student Nutrition Facilitator at FoodShare Toronto.

Providing children with nutritious food has a long history.

Today most countries provide for at least one good meal per day. There has been some success here with school breakfast programs but they depend heavily on support from corporations who are not likely to be providing fruits and cheese and other foods children may not have access to at home.

[Read more…]

Is Canada a soveriegn country?

01/16/2007 by Debra

It’s getting hard to tell.

First we turned from peace keepers to war mongers.

Then

An American policy has forced Montreal’s Bell Helicopter to ban 24 employees from working on a U.S. military contract because of their nationalities.

and now

The Royal Bank has refused to open American dollar accounts for people of certain nationalities since April 2006, Radio-Canada reported Monday.
Canadian citizens with dual citizenship in Iran, Iraq, Cuba, Sudan, North Korea or Myanmar are affected.
The bank didn’t agree to an interview with Radio-Canada, but did confirm the report.
The Royal Bank is conforming with U.S. Treasury Department laws.

Conforming with US Treasury laws???

Holy crap did I sleep through the invasion? Are we now the Northern Division of the States?