Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Funky Funky Christmas...



A Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all, from the New Kids.

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Saturday, December 10, 2005

Nuclear Power Rant



"Wow, doesn't Point Lepreau look beautiful in the Spring-time?"
More like Silent Spring......
~~

The Ontario Power Authority has just released a 1000 page report noting that the province will not be able to provide enough power to residents by 2013, and must focus on creating renewable forms of energy. They also recommended shutting down the remaining coal-fire generating stations by 2009. Sounds great, right?

What do you suppose the Ontario government's idea of "safe, clean and reliable energy" is? (Energy Minister Donna Cansfield quote).

Nuclear power of course. That old refrain of cleanliness which I heard repeated again and again last year, while Lord whined that the Feds hadn't promised enough money for NB's clean and efficient Point Lepreau refurbishment projet, is once again the main reason given for using nuclear power. Is everyone really that short-sighted? How can any energy commission claim nuclear energy is clean, safe, efficient, and good for the environment?

Helloooo! Just because a nuclear power plant does not pump pollutants into the air, or dump slag into a local pristine stream, does NOT mean it's a clean renewable source!! Does the commission not know how nuclear power is generated? Do they not realize that the by-product of depleted uranium has a half-life of 4.5 billion years? (a little less than that, power plant uranium is 60% as radioactive as the naturally occuring uranium to which the half-life refers).

Why does no one consider the problem of disposing of radioactive waste? For the government waste doesn't qualify as a pollutant because the current politcal trend dictates that we only focus on emissions that contribute to climate change. What one-trick ponies. No polyphonic vision here; the ministers, commissions, premiers, and Prime Minister apparently all have tunnel vision and can only focus on one aspect of one problem at a time.

Further, no one mentions how Canada's CANDU reactors use Heavy Water so that we do not need to import enriched uranium. NO one is thinking about the amount of water that will need to be processed and used (all of which is currently being done by Bruce Co. in Ontario).... We're already entering a water crisis....

I've already written letters to my MLA and MP about this. I did it last year during the kerfluffle over Lepreau in New Brunswick. It seems every province is now going to be engaging in the same monologue. Get out your pens and keyboards!!! Force a dialogue!

Asked to support nuclear power in your province? Sorry, no CANDU.

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Tuesday, December 06, 2005

another election, more of the same



Does anyone actually think this election will produce a real change, anything different from what we've already got?
go to http://www.votebyissue.org/cbc/ to do a quiz and see how you align with the hopefuls on a variety of issues.

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Monday, December 05, 2005

In Memoriam



The above are the names of the women who died at the hands of a misogynist madman. We remember them because of the tragedy and shock of a group killing. But we must also remember the women who have died ever year since Dec 6, 1989. In that time, 30 women have been killed by their partners in New Brunswick. And elsewhere in the country we hear news everyweek of missing young women, of bodyparts strewn across neighborhoods, of another native woman found in a field.

I don't think we're remembering hard enough.
But I suppose it's not the men and women who do the remembering that are the problem.

~~
Feast your eyes on the following article from the Montreal Gazette, published on Dec 2 (a few days ago):

"Frustrated by the red tape involved in registering his rifle, a 59-year-old Québec bush pilot sent threatening emails to women's groups, vowing to finish what killer Marc Lépine started (Dec 6, 1989, École Polytechnique, Montréal). "You're next. Read and weep," Donald Doyle emailed the Fédération des femmes du Québec and Women's Legal Education and Action Fund, subject line "Women, Bitches, Sluts", with a picture of Lépine and a list of 24 female and one male activists. Doyle told Superior Court he blamed women's groups for seeking tighter gun controls.  Last week, Doyle, a divorced father of two girls, was found guilty by a jury on 33 counts of making death threats and 2 counts of improperly storing a firearm. The 10 months Doyle spent behind bars awaiting trial counted for double, making him eligible for parole immediately, as he has no criminal record. He was sentenced to 3 years probation and is forbidden to contact any women's groups in Canada and will be subject to a 10-year weapons ban. The prosecutor and women's groups applauded the sentence."
- Allison Hanes, The Gazette, Dec 02 05

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Friday, December 02, 2005

My top 3 questions for Federal players this Elexmas...

#1 Advancing Women’s Economic Security - Women in Canada who work full-time earn 70.5 % of what men earn. Also, women are more likely to have incomes below the poverty line because they do significant amounts of unpaid care-giving work. Will you and your party support the implementation of federal pay equity legislation, and the use of federal funds to increase social assistance rates across the country so that they exceed the poverty line? Further, will you and your party support the immediate establishment of a federal taskforce on women’s poverty?

#2 Implementing Aboriginal Women’s Human Rights - Aboriginal women in Canada continue to face systematic discrimination on the basis of their Aboriginal status and their gender, as is demonstrated by the over 500 missing and dead Aboriginal women in Canada. Will you and your party agree to prioritize action on Aboriginal women’s human rights by changing the current law (Bill C31) so that Aboriginal women have the same right as Aboriginal men to pass on Indian status to their children and grandchildren, regardless of previous history of “marrying out”; granting First Nations women matrimonial property rights equivalent to the rights of other women in Canada; and funding Aboriginal women’s organizations at the same level as their male-led counter-parts?

#3 Responding to Violence against Women and Girls - Shelter and transition houses in Canada still struggle to get enough money to keep their doors open and serve all of the women who are fleeing from violence . Will you and your party support an annual federal contribution of $50 million to support shelters and transition houses?

Borrowed from FAFIA (Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action) www.fafia-afai.org

http://www.amnesty.ca/campaigns/sisters_overview.php for Amnesty's Stolen Sisters Report (Missing Aboriginal Women)

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