Just the Facts: Conservative daylight savings time

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Marston tables Prevention of Torture Act

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Marston tables Prevention of Torture Act

Liberals target wasteful abuse of Conservative “ten-percenters”

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PM congratulates Viviane Forest on winning silver at 2010 Paralympic Winter Games (Conservative Party of Canada)

Source : Conservative Party of Canada (subscribe)

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PM congratulates Josh Dueck on winning silver at 2010 Paralympic Winter Games (Conservative Party of Canada)

Across North America, the first Earth Day was mostly observed through “teach-ins.”  It was the brain child of Senator Gaylord Nelson and Denis Hayes.  The goal was awareness raising and education.  

Since that time, those threats have receded.  DDT has been banned.  Phosphates in detergents have been banned.  And the seven eastern provinces committed to reducing sulphur dioxide by 50% and the US met Canada’s standard and also committed to a 50% cut leading largely to removing the spectre of acidification of our lakes and rivers.

And from small beginnings Earth Day has emerged as an annual event.  Sometimes it has been lavish, with gala media star-studded concerts. Vanity Fair started doing Green themed magazines. Celebrity sizzle was added to the grassroots nature of Earth Day.

Here we are forty years after the first Earth Day. We can celebrate many victories, but the truth is, we have never faced such peril.  The climate crisis outweighs any other previous environmental threat.  In fact, it is such a large menace that the adjective “environmental” hardly applies.  It is a threat to our survival as a civilization.  Yet, governments fudge and delay.  The Harper government does not even grasp the science and certain elements of media proclaim there is no solid science.

We need to get back to the basics of the first Earth Day.  As the deadlines for Greenhouse Gas reduction loom, the date by which we should be 80-90% below 1990 levels is 2050.  Forty years from now.  So we are at an interesting time point.  We are exactly mid-way between the first Earth Day and the year by which we should essentially be a post-carbon society.

I hope that Greens across the country will organize or join in with Earth Day events organized as Teach-ins to educate about climate, green technologies, science, “how to talk to a climate denier” and other topics leading to a re-building of momentum toward the COP16 negotiations in Mexico.  

We have forty years of success to celebrate while we lay the groundwork so that our children can celebrate forty more years of success in 2050.

An invitation for Earth Day

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PM congratulates Colette Bourgonje on winning silver at the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games (Conservative Party of Canada)

Good Day Greens: Today is gonna be short and Sweet. I hope all have a great day, It’s Sunny here and just a Beautiful day. I’m off to watch Some twenty yr olds play Snowball(baseball with snow) tee hee hee! This should be alot of fun. Anyway It’s a good day to spend time with Friends n Family.  Have a GREAT DAY!!!!!! Warmest Regards….Sherry-Lynn

Just a HAPPY BLOG

Their rationale is that since Australia, New Zealand, and the European states violate their citizen’s right to privacy by conducting RBT, we should also do so in Canada!

The report suggests that relying on the judgement of police is a weakness in the current system of detecting drunk drivers.  However, if we cannot rely on the good judgement of police today, will we abandon jury trials tomorrow because we cannot rely on the good judgement of jurors?  What about the reliance on the good judgement of judges? 

In fact our entire legal system rests on good judgement of authorities plus Charter Rights – and that is a good thing.

Furthermore, their proposal does not meet the burden of proof that there is an overriding reason to violate our Charter right.  The annex of the report fails to present evidence that suggests that

(a) a system of random checks is more effective than a combination of other measures such as a lower threshold for blood alcohol level and more frequent RIDE checkpoints.

(b) random breath tests will be a deterrent to drunk drivers.  Higher fines for a first offence and stiffer penalties for subsequent offences would be more likely to provide an effective deterrent.  To quote an old saying, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”.

A greater concern is the current trend in the Canadian Government to violate our right to protection from unreasonable search in the name of public safety.  First the airports, now our cars, what is next – our homes?

The “logic” that the innocent have nothing to fear from such searches rests on the presumption that there is never a miscarriage of justice by the authorities.  If we remove Charter protection, then we have only the good judgement of the authorities to rely on.  History tells us that by itself this is not enough. 

Just ask Maher Arar.

Random Breath Testing Violates Charter Rights