1 TRAIN RAID Quebec police used a warrant to search the offices of the train company involved in the Lac-Megantic calamity. In unrelated train tragedy news, the driver of a Spanish train that went off the rails, killing 80 people, is being investigated.
2 THEY WANT ANSWERS Canada’s premiers, who are meeting in Niagara On-The-Lake, support First Nations calls for a national inquiry into murdered and missing aboriginal women. “It is not a native women’s issue, or an aboriginal issue. For us, it’s a Canadian issue and everybody is affected by that,” says Michèle Audette of the Native Women’s Association of Canada. Story here.
3 RIGHTS FOR VICTIMS OF CRIMES The Conservatives want to bring in federal victims’ rights legislation. Who knows what that means or what it’ll do, besides look good on campaign ads. Meanwhile, Canada’s crime rate has fallen to its lowest level since 1972 and, oh good, Regina leads the nation in violent crime.
4 WHAT’S UP IN SASKATOON? They’re still talking about Joni Mitchell, there’s a link between bikers and street gangs and Mayor Don Atchison haz a sad about delays in a big riverside project.
5 A NARROW MAJORITY OF AMERICANS FAVOUR ABORTION LIMITS A narrow majority of Americans are apparently rubes who are highly susceptible to right-wing/religious propaganda, have a staggering willingness to tell other people what to do and possess a profound incapacity to put themselves in someone else’s shoes. Assholes.
6 SCIENCE IS AWESOME An awesome female scientist who discovered the structure of DNA but had been dismissed as a mere technician because of rampaging sexism gets a Google Doodle! Scientists at the University of Cambridge figured out cat allergies! A 72-million-year-old duck-billed dinosaur’s tail is being unearthed in Mexico! And it turns out that psychopaths DO have empathy! They can just switch it off! That isn’t better!
OWLS RULE Behold the proof, courtesy ZeFrank.