1 PROTEST AFTER PROTEST New Brunswick RCMP snipers in camouflage pointing rifles at First Nations anti-fracking protesters? Not okay at all, and protests are going on across the country as a result. Including in Regina.
2 CANADA SIGNS MASSIVE FREE TRADE DEAL WITH EUROPE Story here, and here, notably here, Maude Barlow on water rights implications here, and more here. Well, I’m excited about the cheese but as always with FTAs I’m suspicious about consequences for sovereignty and control over Canada’s economy. The story says exemptions have been negotiated for “public health care, public education, social services and culture” and we’re told negotiators “preserved the right of regional governments to prefer local service providers.” Well I’d hope so, but we’ll see. People should be EXTREMELY wary of “working groups to look at non-tariff barriers — regulations on health and sanitation, for example — that interfere with trade.” Free trade agreements have a tendency to lead to dangerous deregulation, which is farrr from the same thing as “cutting red tape”.
3 THROWING STONES IN SLEEPY GLASS HOUSES After fun-times Toronto mayor Rob Ford and a city councillor demonized a probably low-paid city worker for sleeping on the job, accusations started to fly that the publicly drunk, pot- and alleged crack-smoking, texting-while-driving mayor sleeps at city council meetings himself. Maybe don’t be such a judgy McJudgenstein, hey dude?
4 THE RIGHT TO SUFFER Ontario doctors can’t unilaterally end life support, says a judge. I can see this ruling being used for both good and evil.
5 SPORTS ARE BIG BUSINESS. BIG BUSINESS ISN’T ABOUT FUN If you want to make hot chocolate and take it to Rider games, well, fuck off I guess. Same applies to people who want to take hot chocolate spiked with peppermint schnapps to a Rider game, which is admittedly illegal but come on, ya buncha wet blankets. Sometimes a little naughty behavior is okay if you don’t get caught (or shitfaced).
6 HELP FOR FERAL CATS Here’s a nice story about People For Animals helping abandoned cats in Regina.
AND A BUNCH MORE STUFF! And Edmonton judge will release his decision on moving Omar Khadr out of federal prison today; University of Saskatchewan researchers are attempting to develop a portable concussion test; A 1.8 million-year-old fossilized human skull is interesting; a retired mixed martial artist who called Canadian health care “third world” after a bad experience in a Brandon hospital is thinking about moving to Saskatchewan; the U.S. ought to be more transparent about the civilians its drones have killed so we can yell at them properly; some cars were recalled for a “spider-related problem”, the bodies of a couple of assholes were pulled from that Kenyan mall; Lenovo is apparently pondering buying Blackberry and a Greenpeace protester who’s being treated like she’s a Somali pirate by Russia’s evil and insane regime is sad.
WHAT AN EEEEEDIOT Stephen Fry laughs at a homophobic Russian douche in this amusing video. Russia is currently thinking about taking kids away from gay parents, which is monstrous. Oh, and stupid, awful, homophobic thugs attacked a Dutch diplomat.
http://youtu.be/guam16BPXPY
