Metaneos

Andrew Coyne: Problems behind aboriginal murders won’t be solved with a public inquiry Uh, thanks, Captain Fucking Obvious. Like we needed you to tell us that. A public inquiry is important, though. It's a needed ceremony. The world runs and operates on symbols and ceremonies. We First Nations understand this. We live and breath ceremony. The idea behind a public inquiry is for Canada to say, "We care." So long as Steven Harper and Andrew "Fucking Tool" Coyne are both ignoring and downplaying the need for a public inquiry, the longer Canada is showing there is no care from Canada for First Nations. It's a good first step, and Canada won't even take it.

Robin Williams didn't have depression. He had manic depression, which is entirely different. I have it. I'll share my own story. It's not really directed at any one person, but I hope people will take what I say to heart. It's the brain. Thoughts don't travel through it normally, not at all. They simply race through the brain, untethered. Looping, looping. Thoughts don't go from point a to point b . They go there, and come back, bearing gifts, and having pupped children, too, but only after having made numerous stops on the way. They might have even done some laps or two, like they were racing Nascar. But since these are manic thoughts, they kept turning right. Manic depression isn't at all sadness. It's closer to insanity. And when you're in the midst of an episode of manic, you might not even realize until after you've entered the circus tent, and then burned it all down to the ground that perhaps you're not quite right in th

thestar.com How ridiculously stupid.Pointless, even. What has happened to Canada's foreign diplomacy? Canada used to be respected, with heavyweights as its ambassadors, but Harper's reduced the foreign service into a gods-be-damned laughing stock. Canada's praises and rebukes used to carry weight, and sting, but are now brushed aside and ridiculed. And also, NATO countries seem to be hellbent on bumbling their way into armed, nuclear confrontation with Russia. These provocations will result, for now, in nothing but a chill from Russia. However, that's because Russia doesn't threaten, it simply does. If Russia feels under attack, she will retaliate in a way the Western governments won't like. Russia already took back Crimea, in a competent and bloodless coup, which was in the exact opposite manner the West creates 'regime-change'. Fortunately, most of what the West has done so far has been toothless, aside from plunging Ukraine into a civil war. The

The initial feelings in the First Nations community are shock, and outrage. To put it bluntly, this disaster has the potential to set back provincial and First Nations relations by decades, and to badly damage trust within communities for and against resource extraction. Opposition to projects such as Enbridge's Northern Gateway pipeline will also likely further entrench and radicalize.

The Prince George Citizen A tailings pond that breached Monday, releasing a slurry of contaminated eater and mine waste into several central British Columbia waterways, was growing at an unsustainable rate, an environmental consultant says. This company,  Imperial Metals Corp., has been facing these problems since 2011. "More water's coming over the year than they could deal with," Olding said. "They just kept building the walls up higher and higher every year and it got to the point where that was untenable." Where was the regulation? Apparently, this is more of that 'self-regulation'. Bill Bennett: "They've been monitoring it and reporting to the ministry every (day) since then." Wonderful. Except the feeling I'm getting from all this is, this happened because a mining company didn't care enough to correct its problems, partnered with a ministry that didn't care enough to help it. Both are already subtly implicating eac

thestar.com Water at a Toledo, Ohio, treatment plant has tested positive for microcystin, a toxin known to cause liver and kidney damage, leaving thousands of Ohio residents without water and prompting the governor to declare a state of emergency Saturday. This was something predicted by the EPA , but this is the first I've really thought of this sort of situation happening. I guess I can credit the Canadian government's policy of muzzling its scientists on the effects of climate change. Are Canadian communities at risk to this sort of development? I know my community's local lake was subjected to a harmless algal bloom, recently, but was this something that can change over time? Questions, and no answers.

A horrifying thought. The First Nations Financial Transparency Act is demagoguery. Simply a racist and awful piece of legislation, but what if it's merely a step in a grand process? Consider the ramifications: this Act turns public opinion squarely against First Nations leadership, right or wrong. Using public opinion, the government begins new legislation which places power in the government's hands, which allows the government to unilaterally fire chiefs and councilors, nationally. Without recognized elected leadership, the government then places band responsibilities into the hands of third party managers.

There's a great uproar in the media about Chief and Councillor's salaries in the news, recently, due to disclosures brought about by the First Nations Financial Transparency Act. I've had numerous thoughts, lately, about the effects such an act will have on First Nations, but nothing concrete. Everything is nebulous, right now. I'll write about this, soon. But for now, I'll leave these thoughts out in the open. The First Nations Financial Transparency Act is demagogy. It is absolute demagogy, in form, and in function.