Canada

Protests dog Alberta PR campaign

Posted by Shemuses from Globe and Mail

Conservationists will be rolling out an advertising campaign and dispatching polar-bear-suit-clad protesters this week in an attempt to derail Alberta's mission to Washington that is aimed at propping up the province's environmental image south of the border. Ron Stevens, Alberta's deputy premier and Minister of International and Intergovernmental Relations, said he will stress his province's commitment to "environmentally sustainable development of the oil sands" when he meets with U.S. government officials, industry representatives and policy analysts this week.

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Who Will Revive BC's Forests?

Posted by Shemuses from The Tyee

World relies on our 'lungs,' but replanting is lowest in 20 years. British Columbia is in a race against time to remove and replenish pine stands that have been killed by mountain pine beetle. At stake is B.C.'s contribution to staving off global warming.

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Canada deaf to growing hunger crisis, UN aide says

Posted by Shemuses from Globe and Mail

A key adviser to the United Nations has sharply criticized Canada for abandoning its leadership role in international development, and urged the country to step up its level of aid to poorer countries in the face of soaring food prices. Jeffrey Sachs, one of the world's best-known economists, accused the Harper government yesterday of adopting an "antagonistic," and occasionally "mocking," tone toward the implementation of the UN's Millennium Development Goals, a group of objectives aimed at alleviating problems ranging from poverty to global warming.

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'God-sent Land for Colored People'

Posted by Shemuses from The Tyee

BC's black pioneers arrived 150 years ago today. Why they came.

In April 1858, San Francisco's beleaguered and harassed black community sent a 35-member "Pioneer Committee" to Victoria. It was a response to an invitation to settle in the colony of Vancouver's Island, which was about to be flooded by American gold-seekers. The committee sailed on a steamer called the Commodore.

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globeandmail.com: Protesters disrupt Stelmach fundraising dinner

Posted by Shemuses from Globe and Mail

As protests go, the timing couldn't have been better. Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach was just about to deliver an anti-Greenpeace message to a Tory fundraising dinner Thursday, when two Greenpeace activists dropped from the ceiling with a large anti-Stelmach banner. "Stelmach, the best premier oil money can buy," read the large banner with a prominent Greenpeace logo. "Stop the tarsands!" The punchline of the Premier's speech was how he was planning trips to southern California and central Europe later this year to dispel the Greenpeace message that rapid oil sands development is creating an environmental disaster.

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'This Is Me, Take It or Leave It'

Posted by Shemuses from The Tyee

In photos and words, citizens of a gritty community create a vibrant self-portrait.

Paul Levesque has spent 40 years in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, and he sees the neighbourhood as a sole reminder of the way this city used to be. "It's the last of an era, of Vancouver built in the 1950s, '60s, '70s," he says, standing in the pouring rain at Hastings and Dunlevy. "It's unique. It's not fictional; it's reality. The east end community is not like any other community, because it's not plastic. It's not like keeping up with the Joneses, because we can't afford to keep up with the Joneses. It's a poverty-stricken area. It's painful. But it's also reality."

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Viacom's Hostility to Web Users Continues

Posted by Jeff from Dailyshownews

Since launching its new Web site for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, the Comedy Central network, whose parent company is Viacom, has as yet not offered an RSS feed for clips of the popular show (for now, you can use this one). As it releases new shows, such as Lewis Black's Root of All Evil and Lil Bush, it does so without providing an RSS feed for clips, as it used to here for earlier shows.

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