1 QUEBECOR KILLS THE MONTREAL MIRROR Carle already blogged it but as one of the owners* of prairie dog it kinda behooves me to weigh-in on the shutdown of Montreal’s top alternative newsweekly, the Montreal Mirror. First, the financial problems facing print journalism are real and scary. But ya know, alt-weeklies are by definition scrappy, even pissy, critical-to-the-point-of iconoclastic publications. That’s why people read ’em. It’s not a surprise that a right-wing media corporation like Quebecor would shut the one they owned down. That’s just a bad fit. Especially in a province where youth are in revolt. The clampdown, man. It’s all about the clampdown.
2 SPEAKING OF YOUTH IN REVOLT AND CLAMPDOWNS The one Canadian province where the majority of students aren’t a buncha gutless wimps who roll over instead of sticking up for their political and economic interests is still all protesty. And yeah, I just called a lot of Canadian post-secondary students gutless wimps who won’t stand up for themselves. You may quote me on that. Hey, if you haven’t read Conway’s article on Quebec in the current ish, you should.
Oh and in other protest news, Natural Resource Minister Joe Oliver was embarrassed at a press conference by a doctor who doesn’t like the fact Stephen Harper’s Canada is cutting refugee health care, which one might say is immoral and disgusting.
3 ALSO, WAR IS PEACE AND FREEDOM IS SLAVERY British Columbia says natural gas is clean energy. Which, um, no. From Desmog Blog:
The claim that natural gas is a cleaner burning fossil fuel than oil and coal is highly debated when it comes to unconventional gas procured through hydraulic fracturing. In 2011, Cornell University published a study which found that shale gas produced from fracking produces between 30% and 200% more methane (the most powerful greenhouse gas) emissions than conventional coal and oil. Indeed, over a 20-year period, the study estimated the greenhouse gas footprint of shale gas is at least 20% higher than coal, and could be as high as 200%. This is only the emissions story. This does not include the serious public health, toxic chemical storage, and seismic shift concerns that are all related to hydraulic fracturing.
Dunno what else to say. Sadfgsdf.
4 NHL ENTRY DRAFT! The Oilers just picked Nail Yakupov! Who will my Columbus Blue Jackets take second overall? Or will they trade the pick? And what about Rick Nash? I AM OVERWHELMED BY THE EXCITEMENT. Here’s the Columbus Dispatch. Oh and the TSN live-stream I guess. UPDATE: They took White City’s Ryan Murray! HE’S FROM WHITE CITY OMG OMG
HAPPYPRIDE WEEK! Here’s a whale making rainbows.
