Canada

'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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Van City sizzles, T.O. fizzles

Posted by Shemuses from Globe and Mail

New York's finest are making waves on the West Coast while one of Toronto's best bolts elsewhere. As one city shines and another loses its lustre, Beppi Crosariol reports on what may be the passing of a prestigious torch: the culinary capital of Canada

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Poverty Built into BC's System

Posted by Shemuses from The Tyee

Two-year study looks at welfare policies' effects on people.

The report calls her Lorraine. After being cut off welfare for a reason she said was unfair, she had no income. She lost her home, started skipping more meals to save money and returned to prostitution. In hopes of leaving the sex trade, she went back to an abusive ex-partner who assaulted her badly enough to break some of her bones.

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Should Canada unhitch its American wagon?

Posted by Shemuses from Globe and Mail

Should Canada unhitch its wagon from the United States? A growing number of Canadians seem to think so. Polls show that a striking number of us view our giant neighbour as an irresponsible, even dangerous, superpower. The war in Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, Hurricane Katrina, President George W. Bush - all these have served to alienate Canadians (and others around the world) from a country that used to be an admired friend and ally. Meanwhile, the economic troubles south of the border - corporate corruption, the subprime mortgage crisis, the rising threat of recession - have made the United States look like an unreliable economic partner, too. So if the United States is in decline, both as a world leader and a trading partner, shouldn't Canada think about hedging its bets by...

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