A Snack Pack of Opinions

Egypt did it, and they did it right - a relatively peaceful revolution; so long as it continues... Although the army restrained themselves much to everyone's good fortune and democracy seems to be readying to bloom in the only soil it ever does; the loam of the people, the party did turn a bit nasty this week. I only hope the real purpose - which should be demonstrated in a people's march, soon-planned - is remembered. Even though, this is still one for the history books, folks - don't expect to see something quite so unforeseen, or needed, or accomplished in such little time again in your lives, as the ripple effect continues to spread. The IO doesn't.

Onto Bev Oda, good ol' Lying McLiarpants. So here's the full story, and now in Snack Pack size; she gets a document on her desk signed by the head of the Canadian International Development Agency, (which funds the group KAIROS - and has for decades), and the President of KAIROS itself, authorizing over $7 million from the federal government to fund their foreign aid operations. While it had already been signed and approved by others, she instructed a staffer to put 'not' in front of the approval for funding; and KAIROS lost the $7 million. She then testified to a Parliamentary committee that she "didn't know" where the 'not' added to the document came from.

Bullshit - and she admitted as much on Monday. Now the opposition is calling for her to be canned, (and rightly so), and the IO is calling for an election. The Harperites have done far too much damage to democracy, and now they're trampling on common decency as well. Enough!

AVAAZ.org is the site for online activism. They regularly roll out online petitions and awareness campaigns. This one has to do with a little known change in regulations being proposed over at the Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission. Basically, the idea is to water down the regulations around honesty in reporting. Why, you ask? Well, it could be because Canada won't allow the same insane, right-wing nutcases to grace our airwaves as the decrepit news media in the United States regularly does. So they're changing the lingo of broadcast regulations to allow a bit of leeway in reportage; effectively nullifying the validity of any news reports so long as the broadcaster doesn't 'know' it will cause public harm. Looks like the propaganda arm of the Harper government that's set to launch later this year - Sun News - is being given the red-carpet roll out. Who will be the Canadian Bill O'Reilly? The Great White North's Glenn Beck? If the idea of that style of 'reporting' - broadcasting unflinching, and more specifically, untrue, 'news' in support of Mr. Harper and hard 'C' conservativism into the homes of millions of Canadians - bothers you, get over there and sign the petition. And do it now. They're at almost 70,000 signatories.

And finally, yet another example of how Canada continues to fail it's indigenous peoples - as if we needed any more examples... The federal government used to run a subsidy program for high arctic communities; they put forward money to offset the cost of food transportation to the high North, thereby keeping prices down. In April, all that changes - they start giving the cash not for transportation - but directly to grocery suppliers, who are then 'expected' to pass the savings on to the consumer. But as the transition begins, prices are rising. Read it here.


And there's your Snack Pack. We had a sweet to start'er off and some indignancies for the finale. We hope you're satisfied.