delores's blog

Here is the whole press release from the BC Civil Liberties Association - Perhaps some international visitors to our Watershed Sentinel site will see it.

http://www.bccla.org

Vancouver, B.C. – The Provincial Government has told the BCCLA that the human rights organization’s communications are not welcome at the “International Media Centre” (IMC) during the Olympics. The refusal to distribute the BCCLA’s media release comes months after the BCCLA’s original request to communicate with the media at the IMC.

Commentator Greg Palast questions the slowness of the American response to the Haiti disaster, comparing it with Iceland's teams which have been on the ground for several days. He also details some of the brutal history of Haiti, including the  Duvaliers, but stretching back to a century of reparations paid to French merchants for compensation after the original slave uprising on what was once a fertile and prosperous island. 

http://www.countercurrents.org/palast170110.htm

I love to travel. I'm 28 and lucky enough to have spent most of my adult life working as a tour guide in Berlin, Germany. I can tell you travelling as a Canadian citizen has been a delight. But now that I am in Copenhagen, Denmark, I worry that will end this week .

I've been to twenty-five countries and every single one it is the same thing; people love Canadians. There is something about us people just like. It's always a warm reception everywhere I go.

What's to be said? Read and enjoy the irony

http://climate-chaos.blogspot.com/

As with the environment, which is being stripped of the meagre protections of due process through environmental assessments and debasement of the Fisheries Act, so with our civil rights.
This issue of civil rights is absolutely critical – we have LOST Habeas Corpus, first fought for by the barons of Britain against the totalitarian power of the King to arrest and hold people with no public oversight, about 900 years ago, and we are continually and ruthlessly being stripped of the rights which protected us from the state. And almost no one seems to notice or care. 
The ins and outs of so-called consumer protection are, as this writer says, almost insignificant compared to over-arching political impact of our loss of civil rights. Who cares, O Canada?  

Presentation to the Senate on Bill C-6: Canada Consumer Product Safety Act

Thank you, honourable senators, for allowing me to present my views concerning this Act.

No reasonable person would disagree with the need to protect Canadians from contaminated foods, from shoddily-constructed products, from mercury or other harmful chemicals in the paint of childrens' toys, in our water supply, our soil and air.  Canadians would not only agree with the need for this protection, they would demand it.

The BC Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) is keeping a watchful eye on the Olympic Games being held in Vancouver this February.

They are training legal observers and will have a toll free hotline for those that have experienced or witnessed restrictions to civil liberties or harassment during the Olympic Games.

Check their website: www.bccla.org

By Clara Broten, Oct 31, 2009

I wonder how many of the people standing in line for vaccines have already been exposed and are at the stage of being contagious before symptoms appear.

I wonder how people with arthritis who are dependent on paratranspo or the kindness of friends for transport are supposed to stand in line in the rain for three hours without having serious flare ups of their condition.

I wonder how people who are dependent on transpo, paratranspo, or the kindness of friends for transportation are supposed to get a number and come back in two hours when it is often an hour wait for Paratranspo, or an hour trip on OCtranspo to get anywhere.

The Atlantic November issue has a superb story online about the effectiveness of flu vaccines and Tamiflu, quoting epidemiologist Tom Jefferson and examining the lack of scientific rigour in the studies about whether the flu vaccine actually prevents deaths or illnesses, and citing reserachers who claim the seeming results are just a "healthy worker" effect. The story includes these lines: 

"As with vaccines, the scientific evidence for Tamiflu and Relenza is thin at best. In its general-information section, the CDC’s Web site tells readers that antiviral drugs can “make you feel better faster.” True, but not by much. On average, Tamiflu (which accounts for 85 to 90 percent of the flu antiviral-drug market) cuts the duration of flu symptoms by 24hours in otherwise healthy people. In exchange for a slightly shorter bout of illness, as many as one in five people taking Tamiflu will experience nausea and vomiting. About one in five children will have neuropsychiatric side effects, possibly including anxiety and suicidal behavior."

It does not delve into the fincial implications, stickinginstead to the medical debate, but does note that Tamiflu costs $10 a shot.

Read Does the Vaccine Matter? by Shannon Brownlee and Jeanne Lenzer in The Atlantic, and decide for yourself!  

Governments have developed the unfortunate habit of releasing controversial or distressing news on Friday afternoon when the media are basically packing their bags for the weekend. But last Friday the 4th of September was exceptional because two pieces of extraordinarily good news came sailing through the Ethernet.