Galleries

Excerpted from The Narwhal : Fairy Creek, the RCMP and a win for press freedom 21/7/22

The RCMP imposed restrictions on journalists seeking to report on arrests in “exclusion zones” set up by police to enforce a Teal-Jones injunction against protesters fighting old-growth logging on Vancouver Island.  The RCMP also provided incorrect information to both journalists and the court about the conflict.

 Justice Douglas Thompson concluded in his ruling that the RCMP failed to justify its “extensive” exclusion zones. The RCMP, he wrote, must “keep in mind the media’s special role in a free and democratic society, and the necessity of avoiding undue and unnecessary interference with the journalistic function.”

The ruling confirms the right to know what’s happening when a police force conducts mass arrests at the site of a major conflict and reinforces the right to see what’s happening on that scene, through the eyes of journalists.

“This is, without question, a watershed moment in the history of Canadian press freedom advocacy.” 

Brent Jolly, president of the Canadian Association of Journalists, after a coalition of journalism organizations won a  court victory over the RCMP’s actions at the Fairy Creek logging blockades.

Click on video

From Whitey on the Moon to a Jon Stewart’s New Trailer…bout sums up recent space cadet news!

• Watch Jon Stewart’s New Trailer — in Which Jason Alexander Plays Jeff Bezos Launching a Space Rocket That Looks Like His D*ck
• Jon Stewart@jonstewart·3h

THE GREEN IMPLOSiON

Former leader Elizabeth May has inexplicably remained silent!

Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

It remains unclear if there is any (non-criminal) organization in the world — let alone a political party, where people are expected to be conniving — that has treated its leader worse than the Green Party of Canada is treating Annamie Paul.Paul, who may or may not still even be a member of her party, has been subject to the most toxic internecine backbiting that seasoned political observers have ever seen in this country. (I say this as one who covered the Ontario Progressive Conservatives’ regicidal crusade against leader Patrick Brown in the months before the 2018 election.)It was this past spring that the Star’s Alex Ballingall first broke the story of the Greens’ undermining of their leader, the first Black person and the first Jewish woman to head a major political party in Canada.The slow-motion defenestration continued this week when Ballingall reported the party is considering reviewing Paul’s membership status (not just her leadership status).As Susan Delacourt, who covered the Liberals’ debilitating Chrétien-Martin war in the late 1990s and early 2000s better than any other journalist, wrote this week, the “Green Party of Canada is in all-new territory here.”“The assault on Annamie Paul’s leadership is now taking place [on] three fronts: confidence, cash and, unbelievably, membership in the party itself,” noted Delacourt.

Excerpted from Canadian Medical Association  /  Association médicale canadienne communication of July 15, 2021

CMA updates policy on firearms control: extensive consultations on public health impact

After consultations with physicians, provincial medical associations and national medical specialty associations, the Canadian Medical Association is releasing an updated firearms control policy.

Through this updated policy Opens in a new window, the CMA joins a number of other major associations, including the Australian Medical Association, the American Medical Association, the Canadian Paediatric Society and the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians, in recognizing firearms as a serious threat to public health, and one of the main causes of both intentional and unintentional injuries and death.

This policy affirms that gun violence is a public health issue, and that physicians should engage with citizens and government to reduce harm from gun violence,

Physicians have a unique perspective on firearms; as health care providers, they observe the lifelong health challenges that affect patients who survive firearm injuries. They also witness lives lost as a result of firearm use.

Firearm-related injuries and fatalities are a major cause of premature and preventable death in Canada. From 2013 to 2017, 3,703 Canadians of all ages died from firearm injuries — 75% of these deaths were from suicide while 20% of deaths were from homicide.

There is robust scientific evidence that a firearm in the home is associated with a higher risk of suicide and that safe storage of firearms is associated with a lower risk of completed suicides and unintentional injuries.

Court Painter watches stuff! He loves to watch stuff.He was fortunate to watch Tucker make a joke and Glenn almost not get it. Because of Court Painter’s technical prowess he was able to capture Tucker making a funny and Glenn almost missing it …and then posting it to the Youtube thingy.

Court Painter hopes you all get the joke!

CLICK THE LINK AND BE AMUSED OR NOT!

• https://youtu.be/6WfDFgEQXUo

Thanks to :

The Ink Anand Giridharadas Jul 12/21

Introducing my new reality show

“Billionaires Solve Problems the Government Solved a Long Time Ago and Then Explain How Much More Efficient They Are Than Government.”

I have an idea for a reality show. It’s called “Billionaires Solve Problems the Government Solved a Long Time Ago and Then Explain How Much More Efficient They Are Than Government.” I may ask Richard Branson to produce.

In the pilot episode, Elon Musk will “invent” something he calls the Digital Method of Verification. He will pioneer a whole system whereby people can take a driving test and receive a plastic card that I’m told Musk will refer to as a “license” and thus gain permission to drive on public roads.

In the second episode, Jeff Bezos will “innovate” a new kind of bookstore that buys books but then gives them out to people for free, so long as those books are returned. He will fund it with some of the money he doesn’t pay in taxes. He will call it the Lending Interesting Books to Raise Aspirations for Reading Youths, or LIBRARY, program.

In the third episode, Uber will “conceive” of a new system for moving large numbers of people at more affordable prices. It will offer rides in considerably larger vehicles, which, instead of picking you up exactly where you want, will stop at fixed locations around the city at particular times. In a shift, the company will also allow workers to unionize. Customers will recognize large boxy vehicles painted with the words “Bold Universal Solution,” or BUS.

In future episodes, Bill Gates will invent a new kind of school that everyone can go to for free, and Warren Buffett will devise a system whereby young people put money into a program that sends them a steady income when they’re old. Please tune in!

Full disclosure: Court Painter has produced very attractive portraits of the billionaires mentioned in the article in the hope that they will be scooped up at a fair price by the generous and wonderful innovators they all claim to be. Did we mention how attractive the price is with free shipping included and a certificate of authenticity…monthly payment terms can be arranged…

For the past few weeks, the preeminent political portraitist of the Great Dominion, Court Painter; complained that his Press Attache AHM was bugging him with this question: “Had he never wanted to be up in space like the space cadets Branson, Bezos & Musk?”

His answer was simple! He bought a hot air ballon with a fully equipped floating studio to capture the grainy visions of UFOs that frequent Calgary skies.

However today was a special day and while painting a grainy UFO above the Bow River, he saw another flying object that looked remarkably like a white jet with Virgin letters on its belly, disturbing the revery of his Up Up and Away Sunday painting mission. “The object moved like a bat out of hell and as rapid as a rattle snake at dawn … unlike any other thing I had ever seen in the air or through a sewer grate. I’ll never forget the set of dentures on the guy staring out the window! Truly an otherworldly sight!”

The elected component of the Canadian Parliament is the House of Commons Chambre des communes, with each member chosen by a plurality of voters in each of the country’s federal electoral districts, or ridings.

By 2019 approx. one third of the House of Commons seats were held by female members.

Court Painter thought he would paint portraits of talented members who have left for various reasons.

Mary Simon, Indigenous leader, will be Canada’s next governor general

From Nunavik, in northern Quebec, Simon has been an advocate for Inuit rights and culture, and is an Officer of the Order of Canada. She has also worked alongside the federal government on several files over many years, including as an Arctic ambassador. Now, she will take on the role of the Queen’s representative in Canada.