Canada

Hey Everyone,

 http://reddotcampaign.ca/ 

I heard about this on the CBC and I'm surprised it isn't more widely known ~ apparently its been available for several years.  Canada Post has a wesbsite you can go to to remove your address from advertisers' mailing lists.  Canada Post claims they will respect your wishes if you put up a note that says "No Flyers Please", although ad-mail addressed to a name in the household is usually still delivered. This website has a link to the Canadian Marketing Association's Do Not Contact Registry, with a form that I assume will remove your name from some national admail list.  There's also a letter to download, sign and give to your letter carrier (no envelope required) to further your request to eliminate junk mail from Canada Post.  read more »

I have been witness, on many occasions, to inapproprapriate police behaviour. I have witnessed people being roughed up, pushed around and harassed by the police in this city.  Such events are witnessed by other citizens all of the time. A cross between not knowing our rights, atomized individuality (refusing to interfere as it will cause them to be involved - thus somehow reponsible) and just plain denial (what they are seeing is actually unethical, immoral and against the law!) are allowing these situations to continue.  I find it amazing how quickly individuals dismiss one's claim of indiscretion because they have never seen such acts with their own eyes. Folks, especially who drive everywhere and don't participate in the culture of the core, will completely dismiss these observations.  In fact, an acquaintance of mine who witnessed such a situation, with his own eyes (he is a suburbanite who drives everywhere and actively refuses to take the bus), does not recall the event in the same fasion that he did immediately after the incident. He has actively changed what took place in his mind. I would suspect this shift of thought is to justify the occurance so he does not have to deal with the moral responsibility associated with witnessing police indiscretion. If such acts were filmed, there would be no argument. Nor would there be a problem in court proving the police indiscretion. It is so bad in this city, that I was not sure if I should write this, in a blog, that few people read, in fear of the slight chance the police will see it.  I would feel their retribution no doubt. It feels like dealing with organized crime - except these chaps are funded by the state and backed up by the judiciary.  What the hell is our police oversight committee doing about this? Not much.  read more »

London / January 17, 2008 – A group of queer students and their supporters marched on Health Canada’s London offices earlier today, demanding that a new policy around organ donation be immediately repealed based on both its homophobic nature and the increased deaths it will cause due to the rejection of otherwise healthy organs.

Members of Standing Against Queer Discrimination (SAQD), as well as supporters from Students Opposed to Hatred On Campus (SOHOC), the UWO Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), and members of campus NDP and Liberal groups gathered in downtown London today carrying signs and banners demanding that the recent policy, implemented without consultation and in secret, be replaced with one based on, as the group argued “Science – not stereotypes”. Marching through downtown, the protesters argued that the time had come to stand against homophobia, and that the policy was unjustified – calling instead for a policy based on “risky behaviours, not risky people”.  read more »

This article was published in the latest issue (December 2007) of Z Magazine. The Right to the City is  a growing movement in the US which challenges gentrification through collective organizing and grassroots mobilization.

This article was reposted with permission from Z Magazine. 

Right to the City

Battle for the Block
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I bring you Canada's Senate Hall of Fame, complete with a list of corporate sponsors, a 'how to' section on how to become a senator and the opportunity to vote on the next inductee.  This is brilliant.  Pure Genius. 

It's really scary when you think that so many of our senators sit on the board of directors of major corporations, some of whom are the worst this country has to offer.  For example, Senator Hugh Segal, is a director for SNC-Lavalin, a company that make bullets for the Pentagon and Canadian Forces, and he's reponsible for passing legislation with respects to Canada's foreign policy?  That's ludicrous.  read more »

How has this company been kept a secret for so long? The Zenn motor company produces a zero emission electric car that retails at just over $12,000 and they are made in Quebec!

"ZENN not only looks like a car; it performs like one, too. Equipped with front-wheel drive, brisk acceleration and capable of achieving a regulated maximum speed of 25 mph (40 km/h), it keeps pace with traffic on local streets to get you where you’re going safely and in good time. And ZENN’s battery efficiency gives you the freedom to cover a lot of ground: approximately 35 miles per charge (56 kilometres)."  read more »