FROM THE GLOBE AND MAIL

When jails become a jobs program

ALSO SEE: BILL TO ABOLISH EARLY PAROLE PASSES COMMONS

Should the country's biggest job-creation program really be that of the Correctional Service of Canada? The jails plan to hire 5,000 new employees, according to Don Head, the commissioner. He says the service is trying to count up the costs of the government's multiple crime bills. Did no one think to do that first?


Even apart from all those jobs is the cost of the new infrastructure needed to house a spike in the number of prisoners. Canadians may be asked to pay billions of dollars more each year. Yet the Conservative government has provided no comprehensive costing, and none for a new bill, Bill S-10, that provides for mandatory-minimum sentences for some drug crimes, such as six months for growing six or more marijuana plants.

The costs of crime bills such as S-10 are at the heart of a dispute between the government and the opposition. The House finance committee is asking for government cost estimates. Liberal finance critic Scott Brison asked Speaker Peter Milliken last Friday to find the government in contempt of Parliament for not providing those estimates. The government claims the costs are a “cabinet confidence.”

Its position is untenable. This is a government that stresses fiscal rectitude and the promotion of financial literacy. Why should Canadians be told to ask more informed questions about private investment or borrowings, on the one hand, and give the government a blank cheque on the other?

Given a tab potentially in the billions, it is hard to see what social need drives such spending. Nearly half the country disregards the law on marijuana use, according to the government's own statistics. This should tell the government there is no appetite for stiffer penalties. Overall, 44.5 per cent of Canadians said in 2004 that they have used marijuana at least once; while 14.1 per cent reported using marijuana in the previous 12 months (up from 7.4 per cent in 1994), 45.7 per cent of users reported using it just twice or less in the past three months. Few Canadians spend much time worrying about cannabis.


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Declaration by President Obama and Prime Minister Harper of Canada - Beyond the Border

Beyond the Border:
A Shared Vision for Perimeter Security and Economic Competitiveness

The United States and Canada are staunch allies, vital economic partners, and steadfast friends.  We share common values, deep links among our citizens, and deeply rooted ties.  The extensive mobility of people, goods, capital, and information between our two countries has helped ensure that our societies remain open, democratic, and prosperous.
 
To preserve and extend the benefits our close relationship has helped bring to Americans and Canadians alike, we intend to pursue a perimeter approach to security, working together within, at, and away from the borders of our two countries to enhance our security and accelerate the legitimate flow of people, goods, and services between our two countries.  We intend to do so in partnership, and in ways that support economic competitiveness, job creation, and prosperity.
 
We have advanced our prosperity through the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement and the North American Free Trade Agreement.  Over $250 billion of direct investment by each country in the other, and bilateral trade of more than half-a-trillion dollars a year in goods and services create and sustain millions of jobs in both our countries.  At the U.S.-Canada border, nearly one million dollars in goods and services cross every minute, as well as 300,000 people every day, who cross for business, pleasure, or to maintain family ties.
 
The United States and Canada share a long history of cooperation in defending our values and freedoms.  We stand together to confront threats to our collective security as partners in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.  We work shoulder-to-shoulder in the defense of both our nations through the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).
 
We share responsibility for the safety, security, and resilience of the United States and of Canada in an increasingly integrated and globalized world.  We intend to address security threats at the earliest point possible in a manner that respects privacy, civil liberties, and human rights.
 
I. Principles
 
We intend to work together in cooperation and partnership to develop, implement, manage, and monitor security initiatives, standards, and practices to fulfill our vision.  We recognize that our efforts should accelerate job creation and economic growth through trade facilitation at our borders and contribute directly to the economic security and well-being of both the United States and Canada.
 
We intend to strengthen our resilience – our ability to mitigate, respond to, and recover from disruptions.  Success depends on readiness at all levels of our governments, within our communities, and among private sector owners and operators of our infrastructure, systems, and networks.  We rely on secure communications and transportation networks, including our civil aviation system, and we intend to work together to make them resilient enough to continue operating in the face of a natural disaster or attack.
 
We expect to use a risk management approach where compatible, interoperable, and – where possible – joint measures and technology should proportionately and effectively address the threats we share.  Effective risk management should enable us to accelerate legitimate flows of people and goods into the United States and Canada and across our common border, while enhancing the physical security and economic competitiveness of our countries.
 
We build on the efforts of many partners – from police and other emergency workers to our armed forces – who continue to safeguard us from the complex threats we face.
 
We also recognize that cooperation across air, land, and maritime domains, as well as in space and cyberspace, our enduring bi-national defense relationship, and military support for civilian authorities engaged in disaster response efforts and critical infrastructure protection, have all contributed significantly to the security of our populations.
 
We recognize that greater sharing of information will strengthen our ability to achieve the goals of this vision.
 
We intend to work together to engage with all levels of government and with communities, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector, as well as with our citizens, on innovative approaches to security and competitiveness.
 
We value and respect our separate constitutional and legal frameworks that protect privacy, civil liberties, and human rights and provide for appropriate recourse and redress.
 
We recognize the sovereign right of each country to act independently in its own interest and in accordance with its laws.
 
We expect to work together with third countries and with international organizations, and intend to facilitate security sector reform and capacity building around the globe, to enhance standards that contribute to our overall security.
 
Key Areas of Cooperation
 
Addressing Threats Early
 
Collaborating to address threats before they reach our shores, we expect to develop a common understanding of the threat environment through improved intelligence and information sharing, as well as joint threat assessments to support informed risk management decisions.
 
We intend to develop an integrated strategy that would enable us to meet the threats and hazards that both our nations face, including natural disasters and man-made threats, including terrorism.
 
We expect to continue strengthening our health security partnership, through existing mechanisms for cooperation on health emergencies, and by further enhancing our collective preparedness and response capacity to a range of health security threats, including influenza pandemics.
 
We intend to work together to uncover and disrupt threats that endanger the security of both the United States and Canada and to establish those agreements or policies necessary to ensure timely sharing of information for combined efforts to counter the threats.  We intend to ensure we have the ability to support one another as we prepare for, withstand, and rapidly recover from disruptions.  We intend to make the Agreement Between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of Canada on Emergency Management Cooperation, updated in 2008, a cornerstone of these efforts.
 
To increase security, counter fraud, and improve efficiency, we intend to work together to establish and verify the identities of travelers and conduct screening at the earliest possible opportunity.  We intend to work toward common technical standards for the collection, transmission, and matching of biometrics that enable the sharing of information on travelers in real time.  This collaboration should facilitate combined United States and Canadian screening efforts and strengthen methods of threat notification.
 
In order to promote mobility between our two countries, we expect to work towards an integrated United States-Canada entry-exit system, including work towards the exchange of relevant entry information in the land environment so that documented entry into one country serves to verify exit from the other country.
 
We intend to cooperate to identify, prevent, and counter violent extremism in our two countries.  By working cooperatively on research, sharing best practices, and emphasizing community-based and community-driven efforts, we will have a better understanding of this threat and an increased ability to address it effectively.
 
We intend to formulate jointly United States-Canada privacy protection principles that should inform and guide our work in relation to facilities, operations, programs, and other initiatives contemplated by this Declaration.
 
We intend to work together to promote the principles of human rights, privacy, and civil liberties as essential to the rule of law and effective management of our perimeter.
 
Trade Facilitation, Economic Growth, and Jobs
 
We intend to pursue creative and effective solutions to manage the flow of traffic between the United States and Canada.  We will focus investment in modern infrastructure and technology at our busiest land ports of entry, which are essential to our economic well-being.
 
We will strive to ensure that our border crossings have the capacity to support the volume of commercial and passenger traffic inherent to economic growth and job creation on both sides of the border.
 
To enhance our risk management practices, we intend to continue planning together, organizing bi-national port of entry committees to coordinate planning and funding, building, expanding or modernizing shared border management facilities and border infrastructure where appropriate, and using information technology solutions.
 
We intend to look for opportunities to integrate our efforts and where practicable, to work together to develop joint facilities and programs – within and beyond the United States and Canada – to increase efficiency and effectiveness for both security and trade.
 
We aim to build on the success of current joint programs by expanding trusted traveler and trader programs, harmonizing existing programs, and automating processes at the land border to increase efficiency.
 
We will look for ways to reduce the cost of conducting legitimate business across the border by implementing, where practicable, common practices and streamlined procedures for customs processing and regulatory compliance.
 
We intend to work towards developing an integrated cargo security strategy that ensures compatible screening methods for goods and cargo before they depart foreign ports bound for the United States or Canada, so that once they enter the territory of either we can, together, accelerate subsequent crossings at land ports of entry between our two countries.
 
We recognize the importance of the U.S.-Canada Framework for the movement of Goods and People across the Border During and Following an Emergency, agreed to in 2009.  It underscores the importance of coordinated, cooperative, and timely border management decision making to mitigate the impacts of disruptions on our citizens and economies.
 
Integrated Cross-border Law Enforcement
 
We intend to build on existing bilateral law enforcement programs to develop the next generation of integrated cross-border law enforcement operations that leverage cross-designated officers and resources to jointly identify, assess, and interdict persons and organizations involved in transnational crime.
 
We intend to seek further opportunities to pursue national security and transnational crime investigations together to maximize our ability to tackle the serious security threats that these organizations and individuals present.
 
We intend to improve the sharing among our law enforcement agencies of relevant information to better identify serious offenders and violent criminals on both sides of the border.
 
Critical Infrastructure and Cybersecurity
 
We intend to work together to prevent, respond to, and recover from physical and cyber disruptions of critical infrastructure and to implement a comprehensive cross-border approach to strengthen the resilience of our critical and cyber infrastructure with strong cross-border engagement.
 
The United States and Canada benefit from shared critical and cyber infrastructure.  Our countries intend to strengthen cybersecurity to protect vital government and critical digital infrastructure of national importance, and to make cyberspace safer for all our citizens.
 
We intend to work together to defend and protect our use of air, land, sea, space, and cyberspace, and enhance the security of our integrated transportation and communications networks.
 
II. Implementation and Oversight
 
The United States and Canada intend to establish a Beyond the Border Working Group (BBWG) composed of representatives from the appropriate departments and offices of our respective federal governments.
 
Responsibility for ensuring inter-agency coordination will rest with the President and the Prime Minister and their respective officials.
 
We intend for the BBWG to report to their respective Leaders in the coming months, and after a period of consultation, with a joint Plan of Action to realize the goals of this declaration, that would, where appropriate, rely upon existing bilateral border-related groups, for implementation.
 
The BBWG will report on the implementation of this declaration to Leaders on an annual basis.  The mandate of the BBWG will be reviewed after three years.

FROM CALGARY HERALD/ TORONTO STAR

U.S.-Canada security perimeter has existed for decades claims haarper

BY BARBARA YAFFE, CALGARY HERALD FEBRUARY 12, 2011 4:02 AM 

Those fretting about a loss of Canadian sovereignty resulting from a North American security perimeter might (!) want to consider Prime Minister Stephen Harper's recent declaration that "a threat to the U.S. is a threat to Canada."

The statement was largely overlooked in media reporting on a White House news conference Feb. 4, when Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama announced talks about the security perimeter initiative.

But this is the second time Harper has delivered such messaging. In February 2009, when Obama visited Ottawa, the prime minister decreed: "Threats to the United States are threats to Canada."

This notion, in fact, "is a refinement, but consistent with" the 1940 Ogdensburg Agreement struck by then prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King and then American president Franklin Roosevelt, reports former diplomat Colin Robertson, an authority on Canada-U.S. relations.

That agreement introduced closer Canadian-American military co-operation and established the Permanent Joint Board of Defence.

A country's military surely is the greatest symbol of its sovereignty and, in recent years, the two countries have arranged for their security bureaucracies to become more closely intertwined. This merging of operations has prompted little apparent nervousness or backlash on either side of the border.

Yet, when Canada and the U.S. talk about co-ordinating government regulations and standards, nervous Nellies come out of the woodwork to issue warnings about loss of sovereignty.

On the military side, since 1957, the two countries have co-operated through a binational North American Aerospace Defense Command, or Norad.

While this body for decades safeguarded continental air space, in May 2006, it moved to add the guarding of Canadian and American maritime approaches to its duties.

In February 2008, Canada and the U.S. signed an agreement allowing the use of forces from one nation to support the other during a civil emergency, when asked.



Read more:http://www.calgaryherald.com/Canada+security+perimeter+existed+decades/4270907/story.html#ixzz1Dk5sl3Dj

FROM CBC NEWS

Wal-Mart Canada to open 40 supercentres

Supercentre format coming to Manitoba and Quebec


Wal-Mart Canada plans to open 40 new supercentres in the coming fiscal year, a move the company says could generate more than 9,200 store and construction jobs.

The retail giant says it will open the new Canadian supercentres — which combine groceries and general merchandise under one roof — in its upcoming fiscal year starting Feb. 1.

The company says it will invest roughly $500 million Cdn in the expansion, which will involve building some new locations and renovating and relocating some existing stores.

The location of all the new stores has not yet been announced, but the company confirmed it would be introducing the extra-large stores in Manitoba and Quebec for the first time.

Wal-Mart Canada spokeswoman Susan Schutta said three Winnipeg stores would be converted into supercentres:

• Winnipeg South at St Mary's Road and Bishop Grandin Boulevard.
• Winnipeg Central at Empress Street and Ellice Avenue,
• Winnipeg West at Portage Avenue at Buchanan Boulevard.

Wal-Mart opened its first Canadian supercentre in Ontario in 2006, and the format has since expanded to Alberta, B.C. and Saskatchewan.



Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2011/01/26/walmart-superstore-canada.html#ixzz1CWgGhGJi

Brainwashed by the residential schools. This behavior compliments the conditioned hatred for ones culture/self. Instead of challenging the status quo, the oppressor is only seen in 'themselves' as opposed to seen in the oppressor from which you are alienated from. Thus "black on black crime" first nations people defensively detaching from their own culture etc. The reality is that getting back with the cultural roots is the cure for many of Canadas First Nations people trapped in the urban misery.


Cree community bans FNs spirituality


By Annette Francis
APTN National News
OUJE-BOUGOUMOU, Que.–An overwhelmingly Christian Cree community in northern Quebec has banned sweat lodges and all forms of First Nations spirituality.

The ban was imposed after a local family built a sweat lodge in their backyard with the help of a friend, triggering major controversy throughout Ouje-Bougoumou, which means, “the place where people gather.”

Redfern Mianscum said he built the sweat lodge to help people, but his dream was short-lived. The evangelical Christian majority in the community, which sits about 722 kilometres north of Montreal, turned against it.

The band council then passed a resolution against the all forms of First Nations spirituality, calling it shamanism, and had it torn down in early December.

“They see it as evil or something that’s not good and I heard somebody say that it is a form of witchcraft,” said Mianscum.

The lodge was built on Lana Wapachee’s property. She was going through a hard time and wanted help. To her, the sweat lodge was a God-send.

“It felt good to see them working together for healing for a moment,” she said. “Though I felt scared, I felt, what are people gonna say?”

Soon a petition started to circulate around the community calling for the sweat lodge’s removal.

The petition drew so much attention that the band council called a meeting which Wapachee said was rigged.

“There was a plan, a strategy,” she said. “They wanted…to take down the lodge and at the end of the general assembly, the community got up and they passed the resolution.”

The resolution said the Cree community’s elders did not want any form of “Native spirituality or practices” in Ouje-Bougoumou.

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From The vancouver sun

2010 hottest year in Canada on record


Environment Canada has quietly released its climate report for 2010, confirming that it was the hottest year on Canadian record books.

National temperatures exceeded average values by a whopping 3 C, the warmest since record-keeping began in 1948, says the report, posted on the department's website Monday.

"All of the country was above normal, with most of Nunavut and northern Quebec at least 4 C above normal," says the report, that highlights 2010's northern heat wave on its map in red.

"An area over southern Alberta and Saskatchewan was the only part of Canada with close to normal temperatures this past year," it adds.

While the report makes no mention of heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, higher temperatures have long been predicted as a result of the rising levels of emissions to the atmosphere.

Climate change models predict Canada -- and the North in particular -- could undergo some of the most pronounced warming on the planet if emissions are not slashed.

Monday's report does say that Canada is warming. Of the 10 warmest years on record, four have occurred within the last decade, and 13 of the last 20 years are listed among the 20 warmest.


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These are the kind of people protecting the people who "protect" US

Russell Williams' day: Dump body, help plan security for world leaders


Adrian Humphreys, National Post · Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2011

The same day Russell Williams disposed of the frozen body of the second woman he murdered, the former air force colonel attended a top secret meeting in Toronto arranging security for the G20 summit, where he was to help protect the flights of U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders, the National Post has learned.

The Feb. 3, 2010, meeting of senior military leaders, chaired by Brigadier-General Jean Collin, commander of the armed forces in Ontario, shows the trust Williams maintained before he was unmasked as a deadly sex predator.

His never-revealed high-level role also highlights his unparalleled double life: helping arrange the air movement and protection of the world’s most powerful leaders at the same time his violent sexual behaviour spun out of control.

Williams was among those responsible for planning the air component of the summits, including the arriving and departing dignitaries and protecting the area’s airspace in conjunction with North American Aerospace Defence Command.

“I bet there are a few U.S. Secret Service guys perturbed right now over a serial killer helping plan the president’s movements. By that time in February, he would have known the entire procedure for arrivals and air movement for the summits,” said a military source. Another source, however, downplayed Williams’ importance in summit planning.

The meeting was convened on the ground floor of the Denison Armoury, headquarters for Joint Task Force Central, which coordinates army, air force and navy operations in the province.

Invited were senior military officials representing Canada’s army, air force and navy, each of which had specific responsibilities for the June summits of the G8 in Huntsville, Ont., and G20 in Toronto.

As commander of 8 Wing air unit and of CFB Trenton, Canada’s largest air base, Williams was to have a role in the visits of 20 heads of government, including Mr. Obama, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Chinese President Hu Jintao, British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Saudi king Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz.



Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/Russell+Williams+Dump+body+help+plan+security+world+leaders/4059890/story.html#ixzz1AUuQP6jC

From DAWGS blog

Calgary Social Services: "Anti-racist? We'll take your kids!"

Early this morning, five thugs broke into the home of anti-racist activists Jason and Bonnie Devine. Their four children were asleep upstairs. The goons attacked Jason and another male with hammers and bats.

The Devines are well-known in the area for their anti-Nazi activities, which most recently included leafleting an area where "Aryan Guard" members were known to hang out.

The children were not harmed--no doubt the brave Nazis were unaware that they were upstairs sleeping.

Enter Calgary Social Services.

Unbelievably, they are threatening to apprehend the Devine children unless the Devines stop their anti-racist activity.

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Hidden from History Books Systematically Destroyed across Canada
November 3, 2010 by Alex  
Filed under Eugenics & Depopulation, Intel Hub Featured Articles


Copies of the historic book Hidden from History: The Canadian Holocaust have disappeared this week from the libraries at McGill and Concordia Universities, and from local aboriginal resource centers, following on a similar disappearance of the book from the Vancouver Public Library and the University of B.C. Library system during October.

Librarians have not provided any clear reason how the books vanished so easily and quickly.

Hidden from History is the primary resource book that documents the evidence of the deliberate genocide of native people in church-run Indian residential schools across Canada. Published in 2005, its 500 pages contain documents, death records, official correspondence and eyewitness testimonies that prove a fifty percent death rate in the schools, and a clear intent by church and state to wipe out indigenous populaces under the guide of education and religion.

The disappearance of the books coincides with the sudden and unilateral banning without cause of Kevin Annett, the book’s author, from his decade-long public affairs program on Vancouver Co-op radio, after apparent RCMP intervention.
“This is hardly a coincidence” commented Kevin today in Vancouver.

“In 2008, the government admitted they employed document destruction teams during the 1970′s and ’80′s to systematically destroy residential school records. I believe those teams are still in existence, and are continuing to wipe the truth of our crimes from our collective memory. My information indicates that the RCMP and CSIS operatives are behind this action.

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