My opinion

Thorium and Nuclear Power

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http://tinyurl.com/4t5ojde  

The link above will take you to the Daily Telegraph, U.K. story about thorium.

Neil Reynolds writing in the Globe and Mail this morning updated the story with the news from China that its first thorium-fuelled reactors would come on line in 2015.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/opinion/with-thorium-we-could-have-safe-nuclear-power/article2030383/

According to these two reporters, Canada followed the American lead and continued to use uranium rather than thorium because it produces plutonium and therefore bombs!

So for years we have been paying higher and higher energy costs, with more and more pollution from coal-fired plants when a cheap, relatively harmless form of nuclear energy was readily available. Thorium-fuelled Candu reactors won’t explode(no hydrogen), don’t produce dangerous side-products(plutonium), and are cheaper to run because the world is abundantly supplied with the stuff. Oh and it can feed on plutonium waste.

Are there problems?

Not so many as far as I could find out. The group Physicians for Social Responsibility published a “fact sheet” that seemed to be more opinion than fact. In any event we will all know fairly soon with China and India leading the way.

I want to know why no one at the political level is talking about this.

Saudi Women’s Rights

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http://www.amnesty.ca/SaudiArabia/5.php

A woman in Saudi Arabia, who had started or joined an online movement to allow women to drive, has been detained, along with her brother, after she put a video of herself driving on the internet. In 1990 a group of religious scholars issued a fatwah(edict) against women driving. Why? Who knows? Just another example of the inequality women endure in that country. The abhorrent guardianship  system that restricts women’s movements unless accompanied by a male “guardian” is another of the human right abuses that continue there.

I think the men of Saudi Arabia should be embarrassed and ashamed that they treat the women of their country like children, and allow religious police to arrest them, abuse them, beat them, force them into false confessions and sentence them to such inhumane punishments as lashing for such crimes as wearing “indecent” ie western clothing.

Sakineh

Sakineh remains in prison.

http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/news/zpravy/havel-launches-ai-campaign-in-support-of-political-prisoners/638683

The link above details the Amnesty campaign to free her and two other political prisoners. Havel, of the Czech republic, himself a former political prisoner believes his own release came much sooner because of voices raised from outside.

http://freesakineh.org/

Please sign the petition.

The Writer’s Chores

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A few short years ago, a writer  expected to write, submit, work with an in-house editor not only on the minutia of the galley proofs but also on the book itself. A good editor could help turn a so-so book, a pig’s ear of story into a silk purse. Not today; not unless you are an important author all ready. The chores of today’s beginners include: sending a polished manuscript to the publisher, which needs little in the way of revision; designing or helping to design the cover; inventing a marketing plan; garnering quotes for the book; revising the galley proofs; writing and releasing a press release…the list goes on.

In my case, because my current book, The Facepainter Murders has all ready been released electronically, I am at the revising the galley proofs stage. This involves a line by line review, to catch everything from spelling errors(few) to consideration of the proper use and punctuation of the em dash. Until recently I didn’t know the em dash had a name, much less rules about its use. Now I’m on familiar terms with Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style, and recently had another look at Eats, Shoots, and Leaves, Lynn Truss’s amusing and informative little book about the comma.

At the same time, I’m writing the third book in this series, taking protagonist Anne McPhail to Bermuda, as well as revising another non-series book.

No money to be made at my level in the book-writing business, but it’s excellent at keeping the brain going, and I hope forging new connections.

Check out Nancy Pratt’s blog– http://nancyhereandthere.wordpress.com/2011/05/13/basket-weaving-and-vote-counting for her accounts of travels in Ecuador, and her photos of the people of Ecuador

Saudi Women

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‘Saudi Women Revolution’ makes a stand for equal rights – CNN.com.

http://www.hrw.org/en/world-report-2011/saudi-arabia

The laws as they pertain in women in Saudi Arabia have so much potential for harm it’s difficult to know where to start. I fear for the safety of the brave women in the Saudi Women Revolution movement. It is intolerable in the 21st century that women, all the women in a country, are placed under the guardianship of a man. It doesn’t matter how competent she is, or how incompetent, avaricious, cruel or self-serving her brother, husband, father or son happen to be. The potential for all kinds of abuse is very high.

State-sponsered abuse as detailed in the Human Rights Watch report, such as lashing for the crime of “appearing in court without a male guardian” is abhorrent and primitive.  That woman went to jail as well as receiving 300 lashes. The male population treats its female population as though they were slaves. Some poor women actually seem to have a variation of Stockholm syndrome, claiming to “love their guardianship.”

I think we need to speak out against such human rights abuses whenever we can, as we did over the case of Sakineh in Iran.

Harper’s Quotations

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Tories collected Harper quotes that could come back to haunt him – The Globe and Mail.

Do all political teams do this: collect the sayings of their leader that could get him into trouble? These are not Mao’s Thoughts or Bartlett’s Quotations. These are statements, musings, if you will, of Harper’s over the years, compiled by his loyal staffers.

I wonder how they chose. They must know which are the issues that matter most to Canadians, which statements are likely to raise the ire of the average(not neocon) voter, and which ones to try to bury.

Take health care, the quotes in the Globe article come as no surprise. Harper, it seems to me, is first and foremost a man devoted to the idea of capitalism and the idea that it is cheaper to run a system with private money. It isn’t. We only have to look to our neighbours to the south to know that. Facts, awkward aren’t they?

How about law and order? He thinks we need more prisons and more people in them and he wants to set the time for the crime, based on what? Not facts.

What about statistics themselves? He doesn’t like those either. Facts again. His solution is to end the practice of 170 years and shut down the long form census. He thinks he knows better than the statisticians which method produces reliable data.

How about immigration:

You’ve got to remember that west of Winnipeg the ridings the Liberals hold are dominated by people who are either recent Asian immigrants or recent migrants from eastern Canada: people who live in ghettoes and who are not integrated into western Canadian society.” Report Newsmagazine, January 2001.

500 pages. The Globe only quoted a few of them.

Coalition

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The attack ads, and the language of war in the reporting of the campaign, the appeal to fear, the creation of panic, all of these are part of this election as they have been of the last several. I’m tired of it, and of the politicians who have such contempt for the voter. We haven’t had a discussion of the major problems in this country.When one starts, ie the Liberal discussion on health Care, Harper falls back on the  “oh-my-god they might form a coalition”.  I

t appears to me that most people don’t even know what a coalition is, or that it is the usual way of doing politics in many vibrant democracies. If parties won seats in proportion to their popular vote, we would all ready have a government that represented the majority of people in this country, and yes at least two of them would have to agree on how to govern. That means that the NDP concern for the social network, the Liberal concern for health care and the social programs of the Bloc, as well as the environmental agenda of the Greens would be taken into account when drafting policy.

Or perhaps the Conservatives could convince one of the others to join them.

We would be less likely to have a government that was unresponsive to the majority of the  people, reflecting only the views of the neo-con right.

But what was Ignatieff thinking, giving Harper a gift like this? I suppose he got into the habit while teaching to answer questions honestly, and so continues. Yes, under our system a coalition is possible. Will that happen? Would it mean the government was any less representative of the people’s will. i don’t think so, to either question.

Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

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Happy birthday, Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms! …and thanks for nothing, Stephen Harper

POSTED ON APRIL 17, 2011

The Liberal Party invited readers to share this post from their website.

I’m old enough now to have gone through many changes of Prime Minister, from Mike Pearson(the first one I can remember) to John Diefenbaker, to Pierre Elliott Trudeau–I first voted in his first election–to Brian Mulroney and Jean Chretien and so on. I have been inspired, enraged, alienated, hopeful and full of despair that the country would survive. But I never felt the leaders didn’t embrace our rights and freedoms until now.

The mistrust began with Harper’s first public statements and has gone on. The proroguing of parliament, the police on the streets during the G20/G8, and the treatment of citizens as though they were cattle, made me call enough. Many people think this election was for nothing. It wasn’t for nothing. The government has been held in Contempt of Parliament. That is constitutionally a very big deal, meaning the government tried some American-style politics, withholding information until the eleventh hour,  within our parliamentary system, and got caught. The loyal opposition has the right to information, whether Harper like it or not.

Look at the quote from 2011. Harper fails to understand that the Supreme Court is the check on the government and if he doesn’t like a ruling he has to go back to Parliament and change the law. If he can’t, that means the majority doesn’t agree with him. Too bad.

So I don’t trust him, certainly not with a majority.

Today marks the 29th anniversary of the adoption of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The Charter is universally treasured by all Canadians, guaranteeing their fundamental civil rights from infringement by any level of government.

There is one person who won’t be celebrating the Charter’s birthday, and that’s Stephen Harper.

Today, Stephen Harper committed to reinstate Bill C-49, legislation that targets refugees instead of human smugglers, and according to the Canadian Bar Association breaches the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Stephen Harper has never embraced the Charter:

“I agree that serious flaws exist in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and that there is no meaningful review or accountability mechanisms for Supreme Court justices.” (Stephen Harper,Globe and Mail, June 13, 2000)

“I consider the notwithstanding clause a valid part of the Constitution . . . It’s there to ensure that the courts themselves operate within the Charter and don’t become a law unto themselves.” (Stephen Harper, Canadian Press, May 15, 2004)

“‘We’re concerned and we think Parliament, not the court, should be making these decisions.’  Harper also agreed with Premier Ralph Klein’s stance that the Alberta government invoke the notwithstanding clause with respect to the decision.” (Stephen Harper on the Ontario Court of Appeal Decision that legalized same-sex marriage, Calgary Herald, June 13, 2003)

“‘Right from the beginning, the Charter has been controversial. There were a large number of politicians, a large number of provincial premiers who did not support that approach to civil liberties in this country.” (Stephen Harper, Kitchener-Waterloo Record, September 29, 1994)

Leaders Debate

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First I didn’t watch it all. I get tired of spin and “talking points” and mostly of Harper. I did see the exchange in which Ignatieff said :

“A majority? … Majorities are things you earn when you earn the trust of Canadian people and you haven’t earned the trust of the Canadian people because you don’t trust the Canadian people.”

He hit it square on as far as I am concerned. A few posts ago I went through the events this year that have upset me most, but it all comes down to this. Harper is a control-obsessed man, whose attitude is his way or the highway. I have always liked the Canadian history of compromise and negotiation. I don’t trust him to govern for all of us if he gets a majority. He sure didn’t when he had a minority.

How many more odd ideas like cancelling the long form census are hiding beneath that perfectly-coifed hair.

What about his insistence on following a punishment instead of rehabilitation agenda? He calls it law and order, but I see him ignoring facts, or bending them to fit his pre-conceived ideas.

And throwing young women out of his rallies. How’s that for controlling?

If we must have a minority, I hope it’s a Liberal one. After all, most people in this country vote for left of centre parties.

Catastrophic Drug Program

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Lack of catastrophic drug program a black eye for Canada – The Globe and Mail.

Rare or orphan diseases are identified by their frequency in the population. Treatment provision for these illness varies from province to province. A previous article by Linda Priest in the Globe and Mail details all of this. You can read it here:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/time-to-lead/national-drug-policy-for-rare-diseases-has-fallen-between-the-cracks/article1970960/

But it’s not just orphan diseases that can be catastrophic for those afflicted. Multiple Sclerosis is relatively common in Canada, affecting both sexes. In Ontario the cost for a 4 week treatment with Avonex, a once a week injectable costs almost 2000$. Every month. For life or until relapse and then the drugs get more expensive. There is a new medication, oral, relieving the patient of the painful intramuscular injections, but it cost almost twice as much.

In Ontario, the Trillium Drug Plan can help, if the medication is listed in the Ontario Drug Benefit Formulary, or can be covered as a limited use. The patient pays a deductible and must reapply every year if they also have some private drug benefit. FYI the drug benefits only cover the drugs the government wants to cover, not all of them. and certainly not the newest.

The country lags behind other first world countries, way behind, because there is no National program. What we do have is a National Disgrace. Oh yes, and new fighter jets.

Harper and the Youth

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Matt Gurney: Strong leaders don’t hide from young voters | Full Comment | National Post.

What sort of behaviour is this? Two young women, determined to attend the rally of every Federal candidate for leader, are thrown out of a Conservative rally because “they have ties to the Liberal Party”. What were the ties? The young woman had attended the Liberal rally and she had  her picture taken with Michael Ignatieff and posted it on her Facebook page.

Whoever approached the young women, also took their badges, given after they had registered for the rally. Who was he?

So it appears that Harper must be protected from the voters. These were young people, young women. I would be proud of a daughter who wanted to be that informed, and I am appalled at a so-called leader who has goons remove young people of the “wrong” political stripe from his rally, who is clearly afraid of taking questions– I mean five a day, come on–. I guess he doesn’t think he can convert anyone by his speeches and only wants to speak to those all ready in his camp.

Matt Gurney was spot on today. so read his column.