1 GOVERNMENT OF CANADA PROMISES TO BE REASONABLE ON STIMULUS PROJECT DEADLINES Huh. (Globe And Mail). Wonder if Brad Trost got this memo.

2 STUPID TORY CENSUS SCHEME GOES TO COURT A French Canadian group will ask a Federal court in Ottawa to thwart the government’s brainless census shenanigans. A quote from the CBC story:

“Our fear is that government will no longer have the information it needs to design and elaborate programs and services,” said Marie-France Kenny, the federation’s president.

“This data is needed across the country,” she said. “We’re Canadian citizens. We’re not just French citizens, so of course we understand the need for this information for the entire country.”

The Tory plan is dangerous bullshit that harms the interests of ordinary Canadians and its supporters, if it has any, are at best well-meaning people who don’t get it and need to listen and learn and at worst, pardon the language, fucking arrogant, know-it-all assholes (and yes, I am comment-baiting but it’s also true and needs to be said).

3 TORY SENTENCING CHANGES AFFECT POOR AND ABORIGINALS MOST POWERFULLY Huh, if you change the law in such a way that keeps people of one specific ethnicity in jail for longer periods of time, isn’t that… what’s the word… oh yeah RACIST? Well? Isn’t it? (Globe And Mail)

4 SEGWAY COMPANY OWNER KILLED AFTER DRIVING SEGWAY OFF CLIFF Laugh all you want, but a man is dead here (MSNBC). The Guardian has a good piece on this, too.

5 ACTOR UNIONS WARN AGAINST HOBBIT MOVIE MALFEASANCE because the two studios producing the adaptation naughtily won’t negotiate with them. Not a surprise: Peter Jackson had to sue New Line Cinema to get all his money and MGM is traipsing along bankruptcy boulevard. (CBC) The Guardian also has a good piece on this.

6 CANADIANS PAID THE INTERNET $15 BILLION A few hundred of that was me ordering t-shirts. Story here (CP/Winnipeg Free Press).

BONUS BOASTING: WE’RE SO COOL Who wants to guess why me, Paul Dechene, Carle Steel, James Brotheridge, Craig Shutko, Kim Jay and the Bradvertizer were in Saskatoon this weekend?

Here’s a hint:

And yes it was great — far exceeded expectations. Wow.