NOVA SCOTIA- NOUVELLE-ECOSSE- THE GOOD STUFF
VOICE OF THE PEOPLE-
VOICE OF THE UNDERDOG
Everyone who is conscious of oppression respects Rocky Jones.
Paul Thorne, New Glasgow
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AN IMPOSING LEGACY
I was out of the province when my dear friend was called to rest . In the past few days, I have followed your news coverage, read your editorial, read the comments and the b eautifu l piece by Sherri Borden Colley.
The tributes to date are only the beginning. Much more will follow over the years, for Rocky Jones was one of a kind — indeed a colossus for all times. Now is not the time to analyz e complex and heart-warming details. Now is the time to grieve with family, friends and well-wishers. Rocky was many things to us all.
Almost 40 years ago, on a cold February day, a young graduate student at Dalhousie was assigned to meet an academic from Africa at the Halifax airport and bring him to the Canadian African Studies Conference being held in the city.
Years later I wrote these words: "The first man who greeted me after airport clearance could not have been more imposing, more loquacious, more entertaining, and more affectionate. The man was Burnley (Rocky) Jones . . . It was Rocky Jones who introduced me to Halifax, to Dalhousie, to race relations, to the history depar tment , to his life and ambitions, all in the matter o f one ride from the airport to Lord Nelson Hotel . . . ."
We remained close for most of these 40 years, sharing conferences, platforms, meetings, and social hours in his former house on Windsor Street. Issues of social justice, give and take, share and care, were never absent on these o ccasions.
Thank you, Rocky. You have earned your eternal rest. Your legacy salutes you, dear friend.
Bridglal Pachai, Halifax
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Black Churches - The Rites of Passage Mentorship Project
Youth program aims to counter corruptive influence
MICHAEL LIGHTSTONE STAFF REPORTER
mlightstone@herald.ca @CH_Lightstone
Officials from black churches in the Halifax area have spent about a year developing a community program they hope will help keep young people safe, assist them in making good life choices, boost youths’ self-esteem and steer them far from nefarious adults.
The fruits of the clerics’ labour — the Rites of Passage mentorship project — were unveiled at an open house Saturday at a local church hall.
"We are in prevention mode," Rev. Kirby Spivey III told about 35 people at Cornwallis Street Baptist Church.
"We want to help (young people) navigate" through their early years, he said. "We want them to understand what’s going on with thems elves and their lives."
And older p eople lo oking to corrupt adoles cents or other youngsters need to back off, said Spivey, who is the pastor at New Beginnings Ministeries.
"Hands off these kids," he said. "There’s a counterforce in our city that is well aware of what’s going on and . . . what you’re doing is not OK."
The Rites of Passage program is for anyone aged 11 to 18.
While it’s a faith-based endeavour, participants aren’t required to be affiliated with a church. The program is to kick off in October and will operate twice monthly during Saturday mornings.
Trained adult volunteers are to guide participants through sessions covering such issues as heritage and culture, health and sexuality, family matters, spirituality and social graces.
Volunteers will be subject to police checks and other screening, the meeting was told.
Organized by officials at four churches, the program aims to connect children and teens with adult mentors who’d help direct youths toward becoming "healthy and successful young men and women," a brochure says.
Participants’ registration fees are $50 prior to Aug. 31, or $65 after that date.
Attendees at the open house heard church leaders say violence affecting the African-Nova Scotian community in Halifax Regional Municipality must not b e swept under the rug . They said the recent death in Halifax of social justice crusader Burnley (Rocky) Jones has left a void in the community.
"Part of the problem, in my eyes, is nobody says anything, and if you don’t say anything it becomes OK," Spivey said.
He added that leads to tacit approval of "the lifestyles that are going on in all o four communities."
The open house was run at a place within walking distance o f recent shootings being investigated by Halifax Regional Police, and near the sites o f where the bodies of past murder victims have been found.
Police received several calls at about 11:30 p.m. Thursday of gun shots near Charles and Creighton streets. Officers found a vehicle with bullet holes. No one was injured.
On Wednesday, two people, a 17-year-old boy and 23-year-old man, were hurt in a shooting in the area of Uniacke and Brunswick streets. That report came in at about 12:45 a.m.
Police say the victims are not co-operating in the investigation.
Spivey told The Chronicle Herald the new program will run during the next school year but organizers want to see it continue past this time frame.
He said families will be involved in the project, too, although parents and guardians shou ld know that "this is not a babysitting service."
It’s a grassroots attempt to promote responsible citizenship and reduce potential harm to kids and teens, Spivey said.
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Team off to Envirothon
CAMBRIDGE — A team from Central Kings Rural High School is representing Nova Scotia at this year’s North American Envirothon in Bozeman, Mont., which runs until Friday.
Students Katherine Flores, Emma Foote, Sarah Fancy, Olivia Sawler and Lucas Szymoniak and advisers Crystal Pulsifer and Bruce Carter are competing for recognition, scholarships and prizes at the annual environmental problem-solving competition for high school-aged students in the United States and Canada.
Participating teams complete training and testing in five natural resource categories — soils and land use, aquatic ecology, forestry, wildlife and current environmental issu es.
The Envirothon works in partnership with local conservation districts, forestry associations, educators and co-operating natural resource agencies to organize and conduct competitions at the local, regional, state and/or provincial level. Follow the team’s competition on Twitter @NSEnvirothon and Facebook at Envirothon Nova S cotia .
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CANADA GAMES
Nova Scotia- Nouvelle-Ecosse swims to three medals
August 5, 2013 - 9:04pm By BRIAN FREEMAN and STEVE BEZANSON Sports Reporters
Thomas Swinkels and Tim Ferris combined to win Nova Scotia’s first three medals at the Canada Summer Games in Sherbrooke, Que., on Monday night.
Swinkels, of Lower Sackville, secured Nova Scotia’s first gold medal by swimming to victory in the 100-metre para male breaststroke in a time of 1:20.51 at the Universite de Sherbrooke. Tyler Myrak of British Columbia was second in 1:23.86.
Meanwhile, at the same venue earlier in the evening, the 17-year-old Ferris picked up the province’s first medal by winning a bronze in the 50-metre Special Olympics male breaststroke. Magnus Batara of B.C. won gold in 36.80 and Elliott Moskowy of Alberta was second in 39.16. Kody Bourque of Tupper Lake was sixth in the same race.
Canada Games website: Schedule and results
Later in the evening, Ferris, a native of New Glasgow, added to his collection when he picked up a silver medal in the 100-metre freestyle. Moskowy won the event in 1:04.30, while Ferris was clocked in 1:07.19.
The soft-spoken Swinkels was actually a shade quicker in the preliminaries, winning in a time of 1:19.87.
"It was a great race and I was pretty confident I was going to swim well," Swinkels said of his effort in the final.
"I think I was a little faster in the prelims. But in the final I had a good turn at the 50, brought it home strong and it was still a good race overall.
"I’m just really proud to get a medal for Nova Scotia. It feels great and I just can’t wait to bring it back to the village."
Thomas Swinkels on the podium with his gold medal for the 100-metre breaststroke. (MEGAN MAHON / Communications Nova Scotia)
Ferris was equally esctatic over his performance.
"It’s amazing, everything just came together," said Ferris of his bronze medal win. "I’m really proud of myself right now.
"I was really hoping for gold in the 100 freestyle but it was just a really tough race. Still it’s amazing to win two medals in one day and I’m just really proud to represent the province."
•In other results from the pool, Jessica Ur of Halifax missed a bronze medal in the women’s 50-metre breaststroke by 0.6 seconds, settling for fourth spot. Laura Beck (Dartmouth) won the B final, Hannah Doiron (Dartmouth) was 16th in preliminaries and Olivia Feschuk (Halifax) was 20th.
Mohamed Eldah of Dartmouth also was less than a second from a podium finish. He placed fourth in the men’s 200 butterfly after posting the second-best time in prelims. Thomas Frazer (Dartmouth) placed third in the B final.
Sean Berrigan of Dartmouth was sixth in the men’s 50 breaststroke and Jeremy Ryant (Halifax) was fifth in the B final. Adam Deutsch (Kingston) was 16th and James Cormier (Bedford) 17th during morning preliminaries.
Ashley Wournell of Lake Echo finished 11th overall in the Special Olympics women’s 50-metre breaststroke and 12th in the 100 freestyle.
In the women’s 200 butterfly, Kassandra Parsons (Kentville) was third in the B final and Eveline Choquette (Auburn) finished seventh.
In the 400 individual medley, Feschuk was third and Choquette eighth in the B final. Doiron was 26th in prelims.
In the men’s final, Cormier finished seventh and Colm Somers (Halifax) was eighth. Darragh Somers (Halifax) was 23rd and Deutsch 25th in the morning.
Rebecca MacPherson (Canning) placed eighth in the 100 freestyle final and Sarah Polley (Halifax) was seventh in the B final. Beck was 26th and Aileen Feschuk (Halifax) 28th in prelims.
Berrigan was third in the 100 freestyle B final and Hayden Adams (Newport) fourth, while Geraint Berger (Bedford) was 27th in preliminaries and Ryant 28th.
Claire McNally (Hebbville)
was seventh in the A final of the 100 (S4-14) breaststroke para female.
SOCCER
Joelle d’Entremont tallied twice and the Nova Scotia women buried four unanswered goals Monday to rout Alberta 5-1 and roll into the quarter-finals at the Canada Summer Games.
The Bluenose squad clinched top spot in its three-team pool with the win, improving to 2-0 and advancing to play Manitoba this afternoon in the first playoff round.
"We’ve been working as a team for the past four years and it’s just so exciting to know that we can make it to the quarter-finals," d’Entremont said.
"Our goal as a team was to get a medal and I think we’re on the right track right now."
D’Entremont got Nova Scotia on the board first Monday at Bishop’s University.
Alberta netted the equalizer in the 23rd minute but Katie Ross restored Nova Scotia’s lead on a free kick after the Alberta goalie received a red card for straying out of her crease to handle the ball and thwart a Bluenose breakaway.
That penalty, and Ross’s ensuing goal, provided a key turning point in the contest, d’Entremont said.
"We needed to take advantage that they were a player down and we started it right with a goal," the 17-year-old from Dartmouth said.
Jessica Shaffelburg, d’Entremont and Rachel Burton, in the 86th minute, scored in the second half.
"All the way around it was a great team effort," coach Cindy Tye said.
"We know we have a competitive bunch here. It’s just a matter of if we can sustain ourselves over the five days because we play five games in five days. So our motto is really just one day at a time and get better every single day."
SAILING
Corinne Peters won her last two races to remain solidly in second place in the female singles Laser radial class.
At Lac Magog, the 18-year-old from Bedford started the day by finishing second to overall leader Natalia Montemayor of B.C., then was fifth in the next race.
Montemayor, who has been either first or second in all nine races, leads the eight-boat field with 11 points. Peters has 19 and Rebecca Abelson of Quebec is third with 27.
Also in the medal hunt, the double-handed 29er team of Gregory Simms and Devan Dube, both of Halifax, got progressively stronger in three races Monday to remain in third spot.
Simms and Dube won their final race of the day after starting with third- and second-place efforts.
In other results, Siobhan MacDonald of Mabou climbed from seventh to fifth in the 2.4 Para mix class, posting two third-place finishes and two fifths in four races.
Henry Machum of Halifax remained in sixth after nine races in men’s single-handed Laser. He was seventh, fifth, sixth and sixth in four legs Monday.
Krista Grunsky and Amy Minnikin, both of Halifax, are sixth in women’s double-handed 29er. They had two fourth-place showings Monday but also took an 11th in the middle race of the day due to a rules violation.
VOLLEYBALL
The men’s team wrapped up pool play winless in four matches after a 3-0 loss to New Brunswick on Monday.
Kristen O’Brien (Truro) topped Nova Scotia with 13 kills and Jonathan MacDonald (Halifax) had 11 in the 25-13, 25-23, 29-27 setback.
The men play a placement game this morning.
•On the women’s side, Nova Scotia was 1-2 after getting swept by Manitoba 25-22, 25-16, 26-24 on Monday afternoon.
Anna Dunn (Halifax) led the Bluenoses with 10 kills and Tara Gowan (Sydney) belted nine.
The women were playing New Brunswick in their final preliminary game Monday night.
TENNIS
At Rock Forest Recreation Centre, Nova Scotia won three of four in team singles competition.
Halifax’s Michaela Pugsley handled P.E.I.’s Helen Li 6-1, 6-1. Brent Wilkins of Dartmouth downed the Island’s August McIntyre 6-2, 6-2 and Rumana Rafiq of Truro outlasted Mylene Petitpas 6-4, 4-6, 10-8. Halifax’s Alistair Chauhan fell 3-6, 7-6, 11-9 to James Lantz.
Nova Scotia was third in its group with 15 wins and 13 losses.
SOFTBALL
At Parc Desranleau, Nova Scotia suffered its fourth loss in five games as Ontario romped to a 13-2 win in five innings.
Catcher Taylor Canning (Stellarton) had two hits for Nova Scotia and left-fielder Angela Moores (Dartmouth) drove in both runs with a fourth-inning triple.
The Bluenoses were also playing a late game Monday night against British Columbia.
BASEBALL
Nova Scotia mustered only one hit against New Brunswick’s Nick Gaudet in a 10-0 loss.
Second baseman Zachery Thibault (Yarmouth) had a single in the bottom of the sixth to break up the no-hitter against Gaudet, who fanned 10.
Nova Scotia is 1-3 with one pool game remaining.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/sports/1146146-nova-scotia-swims-to-three-medals
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CANADA MILITARY
Proud Canadian Soldier
best article on Afghanistan - Scott Taylor - here since 2002 supporting our Canadian men and women wearing r flags.... thank u
Cycle of war, retreat continues in Afghanistan
Last U.S. troops to leave troubled country by 2014
The stage is now set for the final act of the NATO-led military intervention in Afghanistan .
The U.S. has made it clear that by the end of 2014 they will withdraw the last of their remaining combat troops.
Most NATO allies, including Canada, have already ceased their contribution of combat forces.
Canada’s two-year commitment of 950 military trainers to the Afghan National Army is set to conclude in March 2014. At that time, our country’s 12-year-old mission in Afghanistan will effectively come to a merciful end.
To date we have lost 158 soldiers, another 2,000-plus injured and, as of yet, an incalculable number of veterans who suffer from the invisible wounds of combat stress disorder.
The most recent estimate indicates the cost to Canada for the war in Afghanistan , when you factor in the long-term medical costs associated with caring for our wounded warriors, is $22 billion .
While Canadian media reports would make a casual observer b elieve the Afghanistan war was a joint U.S.-Canadian affair, with a little help from the Brits, the fact is 47 countries contributed troops to the International S ecurity Assistance Force.
To date, that force has lost 3,358 and more than 10,000 have b een wounded. At least 30 nations have seen their soldiers’ blo o d spilled in Afghanistan since the force was first established by the Bonn Agreement in Decemb er 2 0 01.
The amount sp ent by this combined force to wage war on the Afghan insurgents will soon top US$1 trillion.
That figure is even more staggering when you realize the Taliban, who controlled Afghanistan prior to 9-11, had a GDP of little more than $2 billion in legitimate commerce.
Unfortunately, in this instance, all the king’s horses and all the king’s men and all the king’s gold could not put a broken Afghanistan back together again.
As the very name implies, the International S ecurity Assistance Force (originally just 5,000 strong ) was to help the Afghans achieve a secure post-Taliban environment from which a democratic central government would be able to take control.
However, after 12 years with the ranks of the international and U.S. forces swelling to more than 130,000 troops in theatre, and the employment o f the most s ophisticated weaponry and surveillance equipment on the planet, Afghanistan remains more insecure today than it was in 2001.
The Taliban that were routed by the initial U.S. invasion have not only regrouped and rearmed, but are now aligned with a variety of other insurgents and drug lords, who are tenaciously resisting the NATO-backed government of President Hamid Karzai in Kabul.
Four months ago, the U.S. officially handed over the responsibility for the counter-insurgency campaign to the Afghan s ecurity forces. Since then , the Afghan government troops have been getting clobbered by the Taliban at an alarming rate.
According to Afghanistan’s interior minister, more than 2,750 police officers have been killed during that period, with another 10,000 wounded.
To put that in perspective, that is an entire brigade wiped out and an additional division rendered hors de combat in just 120 days.
According to UN reports, the self-sacrifice of the Afghan security forces is having the opposite impact on their goal of protecting innocent civilians. In the first seven months of 2013, there have been more than 1,320 deaths and 2,535 injuries among Afghan citizens, many of them women and children.
This statistic is an increase of 23 per cent over the same period last year.
Such a sharp increase has ominous overtones for what will transpire when the U.S. and NATO forces begin their final exit next year.
Canadian troops who served in Afghanistan can take heart from the fact that they were never defeated in battle.
Our military and those of our NATO allies were not physically driven from Afghanistan by a feat o f arms.
Nevertheless, the international community did fail to achieve their mission .
Like the countless empires throughout history that attempted to subdue the Afghans, they were defeated by the stubborn resilience of the Afghan fighters. It was a death by a thousand cuts and unfortunately those cuts will continue until the last NATO troops withdraw.
And if history continu es to repeat itself, the Afghan tribes and factions will rally to their warlords and then continue to fight among themselves.
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News Release - Canadian Armed Forces Begin Annual Northern Operation
NR - 13.243 - August 1, 2013
OTTAWA – More than 1 000 Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) personnel will take part in Operation NANOOK 13, the premier annual CAF operation held in Canada's North, from August 2 to 23. Operation NANOOK showcases CAF personnel working in close partnership with many federal, territorial, and municipal agencies in a collaborative whole-of-government approach.
"Operation NANOOK effectively highlights the Department of National Defence’s contribution to Canada’s Northern Strategy," said the Honourable Rob Nicholson, Minister of National Defence. "By exercising robust capabilities, the Canadian Armed Forces not only contribute to a more visible government presence in the North, but also help strengthen Canada’s arctic sovereignty."
This year, Operation NANOOK will take place in four separate areas of the North; each location chosen for the particular geographical and topographical challenges that would enhance CAF training. The areas are: Whitehorse, Yukon, as well as Cornwallis Island, King William Island, and Resolution Island, all in Nunavut. The scenarios at these locations will illustrate CAF support to civil emergency management, confronting threats to public safety, and assistance to law enforcement agencies.
"Operation NANOOK is the largest annual training opportunity for the Canadian Armed Forces in Canada's Arctic region. This operation, and its various safety and security scenarios, provides us an outstanding opportunity to work and train with our Northern Canadian partners, while also demonstrating our operational capacity in the region," said General Tom Lawson, Chief of the Defence Staff. "The knowledge and experience gained by all of the participants in these training scenarios are highly valuable on many levels, not the least of which is the continued improvement of our ability to work together to help safeguard Canadians and to protect Canada."
As an Arctic nation, Canada is dedicated to fulfilling the North’s true potential as a healthy, prosperous, and secure region within a strong and sovereign Canada. Regular operations in the North demonstrate the CAF’s continued support to this national priority.
"Operations such as NANOOK provide very effective training opportunities that enhance the skills of our soldiers, sailors, airmen and airwomen, ensuring they remain ready and capable to meet safety and security challenges in Canada’s North," said Lieutenant-General Stuart Beare, Commander of Canadian Joint Operations Command. "Our well-trained and professional personnel routinely demonstrate the Canadian Armed Forces’ ability to respond to challenges anywhere in the Arctic while maintaining a visible presence to support Canada’s arctic sovereignty."
This is the seventh iteration of Operation NANOOK. In addition to NANOOK, the CAF conduct two other annual Northern operations: Operation NUNALIVUT in April and Operation NUNAKPUT from July to August. These activities complement other CAF routine operations that take place throughout the year across Canada’s North.
Notes to editor / news director: Still and video imagery of this operation can be found at: www.combatcamera.forces.gc.ca
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Statement - Launch of the New FORCES.GC.CA Website
NR-13.241 - July 26, 2013
The Department of National Defence (DND) and Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) wish to inform members of the public that we will soon be launching our newly restructured website, http://www.forces.gc.ca/, based on the Government of Canada’s Standard on Web Usability.
Through user testing, we have refined the new layout and design to make it easier for you to find the information you need online. We have eliminated outdated content and reorganized pages based on what users are trying to do or find on the site, rather than replicating the DND/CAF organizational structure.
The site will look different, but the information you need will still be available. If you have bookmarked DND/CAF web pages, these will need to be updated.
Content under the new top menu will be organized into six main categories: Jobs, Operations, Doing Business, Honours & History, Education & Training, and CAF Community.
The footer will have four main sections: About us, Contact us, News and Stay connected.
To assist you in finding the information you are looking for, we recommend that you start by browsing the topics in the top menu and in the footer. You can also use the Search bar located at the top right hand side of the site.
If you are still having difficulty finding what you are looking for please contact us at web.services@forces.gc.ca, and we will gladly assist you during this transition period.
The following tables include the new links for some of our most frequently used pages and RSS feeds. These links will be effective once the launch process is completed by July 31, 2013.
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Afghanistan Memorial Vigil
Honour- Afghanistan Memorial Vigil - going across Canada
Section Links
Operation ATTENTION
Operation ATHENA
Operation ARCHER
Operation APOLLO
Related Documents
Afghanistan Memorial Vigil Brochure
•PDF (7.69MB)
•HTML
Image Gallery
Ottawa, Ont.; July 8 2013 – The Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence is flanked by Commander Canadian Joint Operations Command, Lieutenant-General Stuart Beare (left) and Chief of the Defence Staff, General Thomas Lawson (right) as he addresses the family members of fallen during the unveiling of an Afghanistan memorial vigil on Parliament Hill. (Image number IS2013-1030-01 by Sergeant Matthew McGregor, Canadian Forces Combat Camera)
Ottawa, Ont.; July 8 2013 – Canadian Army Sergeant Major/Land Force Command Chief Warrant Officer Michael Hornbrook views the plaques of the fallen during the unveiling of an Afghanistan memorial vigil on Parliament Hill. (Image number IS2013-1030-05 Sergeant Matthew McGregor, Canadian Forces Combat Camera)
Ottawa, Ont.; July 8 2013 – Commander Canadian Joint Operations Command, Lieutenant-General Stuart Beare views the plaques of the fallen during the unveiling of an Afghanistan memorial vigil on Parliament Hill. (Image number IS2013-1030-06 by Sergeant Matthew McGregor, Canadian Forces Combat Camera)
Ottawa, Ont.; July 8 2013 – The Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence and Chief of the Defence Staff, General Thomas Lawson view the plaques of the fallen during the unveiling of an Afghanistan memorial vigil on Parliament Hill. (Image number IS2013-1030-09 by Sergeant Matthew McGregor, Canadian Forces Combat Camera)
"Ottawa, Ont.; July 8 2013 – The Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence speaks with Lise Charron and Darlene Cushman during the unveiling of an Afghanistan memorial vigil on Parliament Hill. (Image number IS2013-1030-15 by Sergeant Matthew McGregor, Canadian Forces Combat Camera)
Ottawa, Ont.; July 8 2013 – Master Warrant Officer John Lannigan assemble the Afghanistan Memorial Vigil, in the Hall of Honor in Parliament Hill. The Afghanistan Memorial Vigil was originally constructed in Kandahar Afghanistan, to remember all the Canadian soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice in that conflict. (Image number IS2013-2557-002 by Corporal McMillan, Canadian Armed Forces Combat Camera) © 2013 DND-MDN Canada
Ottawa, Ont.; July 9 2013 – A lone poppy rests in place beside one of the stone memorial plaques during the unveiling of an Afghanistan memorial vigil on Parliament Hill. (Image number IS2013-2558-05 by Corporal Kevin McMillan, Canadian Forces Combat Camera)
The Department of National Defence (DND) and the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) are marking more than a decade of service in Afghanistan.
In 2001, the Government of Canada began a defining chapter in Canadian history by joining international efforts to build an Afghanistan that is no longer a safe haven for terrorists, is better governed, more peaceful, and more secure.
The Memorial Vigil
One of the ways the DND/CAF are commemorating the service of Canadian personnel is through an Afghanistan Memorial Vigil. The Memorial Vigil contains 190 plaques representing 201 fallen: 158 CAF members, one Canadian diplomat, one Canadian civilian contractor, one Canadian journalist and 40 United States Armed Forces members who were under Canadian command.
As of 9 July, the Vigil is open to the public in the Hall of Honour on Parliament Hill. It will remain there throughout the summer until, at a later date, it will travel across Canada to a variety of cities and Canadian Forces Bases to ensure all families of our fallen and Canadians have the opportunity to view it.
With approximately 900 CAF members currently deployed in Afghanistan as part of Operation ATTENTION, important contributions continue to be made. The Vigil commemorates the hard work, dedication and sacrifice of CAF members during Canada’s mission in Afghanistan, and recognizes the support of military families, friends, and all Canadians.
By the end of Canada’s current training mission in Afghanistan in March 2014, the CAF will have been in Afghanistan about the same length of time as the First World War, the Second World War, and the Korean War combined. Once the last CAF troops have come home, the Government of Canada, including the DND/CAF, will take additional steps to recognize and commemorate all of the work and sacrifices Canadians have made in Afghanistan.
The Canadian Armed Forces military engagement in Afghanistan
More than 39 000 Canadian Armed Forces members have served in an Afghanistan theatre of operations or in support of the Afghanistan mission from other locations around the world. The Canadian Armed Forces:
•searched for terrorists in Afghanistan’s mountains and caves alongside U.S. forces (2002);
•increased security around Afghanistan’s capital city of Kabul while ensuring the safety of its residents (2003-2005);
•formed part of a Canadian "whole of government" team that supported development and governance projects in the southern province of Kandahar, to improve the life of Afghans (2005-2011);
•trained and mentored the Afghan National Security Forces (2005-2014);
•lived among the Afghan people to provide security so that development work could begin (2006-2008); and
•were recognized by NATO for their leadership role at the Kandahar Airfield Medical unit in establishing, supporting, and commanding the NATO Multinational Role 3 Medical Unit, the first ever NATO multinational field hospital in combat operations (2006-2011).
Canada’s whole-of-government mission in Afghanistan
The security provided by the Canadian Armed Forces greatly facilitated the work of other departments and agencies, including the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada; Public Safety; the Royal Canadian Mounted Police; Canadian civilian police departments; Correctional Services Canada; and the Canada Border Services Agency. In partnership with the Afghan Government, the Afghan people, and other nations, Canada helped:
•create better trained, better educated and more professional Afghan national security forces;
•improve access to education – school attendance is up nearly eight-fold since 2001, with a nearly 40% increase in attendance by Afghan girls;
•improve healthcare – maternal mortality has decreased by about two-thirds over the last ten years;
•strengthen the rule of law and human rights for Afghans, including for women and children;
•improve infrastructure, roads and irrigation systems; and
•provide skills development and job creation, contributing to improved economic growth.
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CANADA- AFGHANISTAN
Humanitarian Assistance
Helping those in need
Enduring poverty and conflict, among other factors, have greatly reduced the ability of the Government and people of Afghanistan to prevent, mitigate and respond to predictable and unpredictable disasters. This reality means that almost 8 million Afghans will probably need food assistance in the immediate future. Women and children are particularly vulnerable to crises and, as such, are a particular focus of Canada’s humanitarian assistance initiatives.
What Canada is doing
Canada is focusing its assistance on saving lives, alleviating suffering and maintaining human dignity in the aftermath of man-made crises and natural disasters, and strengthening the preparedness of the Afghan people to respond to these situations. We will also strengthen our partnerships with key Afghan humanitarian agencies such as the Afghan Red Crescent Society that are able to deliver life-saving assistance and that can support communities in need.
To support these objectives, Canada will fund key humanitarian agencies, including United Nations agencies such as the World Food Programme and UNICEF, and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, to ensure timely assistance for vulnerable populations affected by conflict and natural disasters.
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CANADA
Thousands of failed refugees lured home with federal government’s bonus
A year after Ottawa launched a controversial program to pay money to failed refugee claimants for leaving Canada, more than 2,000 people have taken up the offer.
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unless it's vice versa
Canadian law must apply to all police in Canada
Toronto Star — U.S. wants an unacceptable exemption from Canadian law for American police operating in this country. Ottawa should say no. Canadians expect police officers to respect the law of the land – our land. That was the understanding on which Prime Minister Stephen…
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GEEKS RULE \
NOVA SCOTIA-NOUVELLE-ECOSSE
ENTREVESTOR: A hackathon for Halifax
August 5, 2013 - 5:07pm By PETER MOREIRA | Entrevestor
Milan Vrekic is executive director of Volta, the co-working space for startups in downtown Halifax that is hosting a hackathon Sept. 14 and 15. (PETER PARSONS / Staff)
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The Halifax startup community is staging an event next month that could theoretically lead to improved services and greater efficiency in Halifax Regional Municipality.
Volta, the co-working space for startups in downtown Halifax, is hosting a hackathon Sept. 14 and 15 in which as many as 140 tech enthusiasts will work with municipal data to devise web- or mobile-based applications that the municipality and its citizens could use.
In a hackathon, tech enthusiasts come together for a weekend and are divided into teams that work together to develop a product. Often, they are given a theme or topic to work on.
"In this case, the topic is established as ‘community,’ and people will build their ideas around that," said Milan Vrekic, Volta’s executive director.
Although hackathons in the United States and Europe use specific themes, Vrekic is aware of no other such event that targets projects that will benefit a local community.
The interesting part of the hackathon is that the municipality is providing several sets of information through its Open Data initiative.
This hackathon is part of the wave of big data projects that are sweeping through Atlantic Canada this year. Big data, or data analytics, is the process of combing through unimaginable mounds of data to find information that a business, organization or government can use to raise revenues or improve efficiency.
This new industry is one of the hottest segments in the global technology industry, and Atlantic Canada is doing really well in it. IBM is setting up an analytics centre in Halifax, and Dalhousie and Acadia universities are establishing institutes to enhance their work with data.
What the region needs more of is end-users (mainly government or large corporations) analyzing data and figuring out how it can improve their operations. The region needs more early adopters for the technology produced by startups and universities.
That is what makes the Volta hackathon so fascinating. Under the leadership of Mayor Mike Savage, the municipality has opened up data sets in the following areas: crime statistics; civic addresses; street networks; community boundaries; bus routes; bus stops; transit scheduling data; building footprints; building symbols; municipal parks; municipal parks and recreation; trails; polling; solid waste collection areas; zoning boundaries; bylaw areas; and a digital elevation model.
(Details are available online at the HRM Open Data Catalogue)
What will the hackathon participants do with this data? No one knows yet, and that is the beauty of this sort of event. The thinking is that once a team starts bouncing ideas back and forth, it will come up with a more imaginative idea than any individual could come up with.
Vrekic said the hope is that by demonstrating the benefits of open data, the municipality can convince the provincial government to join in the process. He said the provincial tourism effort would benefit, for example, with an app that scanned people’s Facebook posts and Twitter feeds, determined their interests and sent them a personalized e-brochure highlighting things in Nova Scotia that they would enjoy.
As of Friday, 80 people had already signed up for the hackathon. Half are programmers. About one-fifth are designers, and the remainder are business people. Vrekic is hoping for about 10 to 15 teams at the event, which will be held at Volta on Spring Garden Road.
Peter Moreira is the principal of www.entrevestor.com, a news and data website for Atlantic Canadian startups.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/1146118-entrevestor-a-hackathon-for-halifax
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GEEKS RULE
UK
How a teenager who quit college early is using a laptop to save taxpayers £4million (and still lives at home with mum and dad)
Jordan Hatch is part of a team dragging government into the 21st century
Left college after AS levels to start work aged 17 on gov.uk website
Designed popular features, including a bank holiday checker
By Matt Chorley, Mailonline Political Editor
PUBLISHED: 09:22 GMT, 6 August 2013 | UPDATED: 09:54 GMT, 6 August 2013
The taxpayer is being saved millions of pounds by a group of internet geeks in jeans, a long way from the buttoned-up formality of mandarins in Whitehall.
Jordan Hatch is the youngest, having walked away from a degree or even A levels to join the Government’s Digital Service aged just 17.
Tasked with dragging the civil service into the 21st century, he aims to make government relevant to a generation more used to smartphones than form-filling.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2385318/How-teenager-Jordan-Hatch-quit-college-early-using-laptop-save-taxpayers-4million.html#ixzz2bDUsUUzg
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
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THE EVIL ALL POLITICIANS PLAY AT LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT BE THEY- the Bloc party, the Liberal, the NDP or the Tory.... they are all the same- it's profits over humanity, environment and assisting those really needing our help.... God bless our Canada.... it's always the everyday folks who actually affect change isn't it.
VOICE OF THE PEOPLE- TRYING 2 LEGALIZE 'FISH FARMS' AS HEALTHY WHILST DESTROYING NATURAL ORDER OF NOVA SCOTIA'S COASTAL BEAUTY... ewww fish farms breed lice n disease
Primer for mayor
In the July 30 Chronicle Herald, Mayor Karen Mattatall of Shelburne wonders why Cooke Aquaculture is "constantly on the defensive." That’s a dandy question. Let’s see if we can remind her:
1. Cooke Aquaculture this very year voluntarily chose to plead guilty to illegal usage of pesticides in its New Brunswick open net pen feedlots. That charge was accompanied by a $500,000 fine from Environment Canada. Many would hope we could avoid such behaviour by this company in its Nova Scotian operations. Just as many fear the behaviour is unavoidable and will be repeated.
2. Cooke Aquaculture received a $25 million package in 2012 based upon its commitment to create jobs in Nova Scotia processing salmon from its operations. Those jobs will never come to Shelburne or anywhere else as promised unless the government permits an incredible expansion of open net pen operations. Is the mayor prepared to pay that price relative to the environment and risk to wild fisheries? Is hers a "jobs at any cost" campaign?
3. Cooke Aquaculture has distributed for retail sale truckload after truckload of salmon anemia-infected salmon this year. Protocols are in place for processing the fish in plants. Hopefully its workers are largely protected. No protocols or labelling exist for the consumer, however. We are left with buyer beware in many more ways than one.
Perhaps all of the above is no big deal and we should ease up on Cooke and let it off that defensive posture.
I’m hosting a salmon BBQ tonight. I’m inviting the mayor to join me. I’m not completely certain of the origin and safety of the fish, but what the heck. Let’s live dangerously. We can reminisce about the good old days when our environment remained pristine and we didn’t need to worry about the risk to food safety.
Stewart Lamont, Tangier
AND..
Sea lice top target for Cooke
April 30, 2013 - 7:36pm By COLLEEN COSGROVE Business Reporter
Aquaculture firm focuses on finding new ways to treat infestations
Cooke Aquaculture CEO Glenn Cooke walking around one of the company’s pens. A subsidiary has pleaded guilty to the illegal application of a pesticide in New Brunswick in 2009. (CHUCK BROWN)
A guilty plea and a $500,000 court settlement means Cooke Aquaculture can put its three-year legal battle in the past and focus on finding new and approved methods to treat sea lice.
Cooke subsidiary Kelly Cove Salmon Ltd. pleaded guilty to the illegal application of a sea lice pesticide in fish-bearing waters in southwestern New Brunswick.
"The situation in 2009 goes back to when we had a dire circumstance in some of our farms in New Brunswick where we had high levels of sea lice and no approved or effective treatments. It was a difficult situation for us," company spokeswoman Nell Halse said Tuesday.
"We felt it was important to put it behind us and focus on the measures we’ve been taking since then to find other ways to deal with sea lice. That’s been our focus since that situation arose and subsequently had the charges laid."
Environment Canada enforcement officers found the pesticide contributed to lobster kills in southwestern New Brunswick. After a two-year investigation, the company was charged with 19 Fisheries Act violations; 17 of those charges were later dropped, including ones against chief executive officer Glenn Cooke and vice-president Mike Szemerda.
The company pleaded guilty Friday in St. Stephen provincial court to the remaining two violations.
The court accepted the proposed settlement that will see Cooke pay two $50,000 fines, put $50,000 into the Environment Canada’s Environmental Damages Fund and contribute an additional $350,000 for science, research and scholarships at the University of New Brunswick.
The $500,000 settlement is, according to Environment Canada, "one of the largest and most significant penalties ever levied" under the Fisheries Act.
Halse said the company is investing "millions" in research and development and regularly conducts lab and sea trials to test new methods to combat sea lice. She said Cooke "guarantees" that illegal pesticides will never again be used.
"We’ve taken a lot of measures to make sure (the sea lice situation of 2009) never occurs again in New Brunswick or anywhere else. We want to be able to maintain the health of our fish with the right prevention and treatment tools that do a good job in keeping the fish healthy."
Bruce Hancock, spokesman for the Aquaculture Association of Nova Scotia, said the charges and resulting guilty plea prove industry regulations are effective.
"Detractors (of fish farming) will say we don’t have the regulations in place to allow this industry to move forward, but the fact is there were regulations in place and there were people watching, and that’s how we got here today," Hancock said Tuesday.
"If anything, this should give us some assurance that the regulations did work in this situation."
Although the regulations were effective, he said the situation will undoubtedly have an effect on consumers’ opinions.
"It casts a shadow of a doubt on whether this is an industry that we can trust."
Karen Crocker, chairwoman of the St. Mary’s Bay Coastal Alliance, said consumer doubt, most notably among the men and women who depend on the aquaculture industry, is already prevalent.
The Cooke court settlement, Crocker said, does nothing but slap a multimillion-dollar company on the wrist. Cooke reported nearly $570 million in annual revenues last year.
The alliance is a community group opposed to large-scale aquaculture in southwestern Nova Scotia, and Crocker said the guilty admission is cold comfort.
"It adds to our fears. We’re proud fishing families that have fished for generations, and we have a product that we’re proud of, and now we have huge industrial salmon farms in our clean bays. … It’s only a matter of time before they have sea lice or need another pesticide."
Cooke recently received government approvals to build two large salmon farms in St. Marys Bay and two more in Jordan Bay near Shelburne.
Meanwhile, the company has work to do on its public image and consumer education in Nova Scotia, Halse said.
Market research undertaken in Nova Scotia recently revealed that residents support aquaculture and value the industry and its social benefits, but the majority knew little about farming processes or the company, Halse said.
"We’ve taken this information very seriously, and we’re investing in (human resources), hiring more communications people and are rolling out education opportunities in communities."
AND.. THE GOOD
look what the everyday youth of our world do.... the good... the honest... the fresh... the new- God how we love our kids
VIDEO- PORT MOUTON-NOVA SCOTIA
Scientists, volunteers work to restore habitat
http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/1146004-nippy-green-crabs-taking-bite-out-of-marine-eco-system
A CRABBY PROBLEM
A major invasion of little green crabs has done extensive damage to the Kejimkujik marine eco-system. Now, workers are starting to get the pests under control, and have introduced a new industry in the process.
By BEVERLEY WARE South Shore Bureau PORT MOUTON — The bu zz from dozens and dozens of rapidly clicking pincers grasping at the air puts one in mind o f S tephen King’s The Tommyknockers.
"They are nippy," understates Parks Canada eco-systems scientist Chris McCarthy, as he generously offers to pick one of the green crabs out of the cage. Sure enough, he gets bitten.
"That’s a pretty good little catch," McCarthy said, moments after leaning over the boat and hauling the cage out of the water, setting the little crabs’ claws into hyper-drive as the water pours back into the estuary and exposes the crabs to the air.
McCarthy has seen more than a thousand o f thes e crustaceans in one trap at a time — 1,139 to be exact — but that’s not as many as commercially licensed green crab fishermen haul in.
These little crabs have done an astonishing amount of damage to the marine eco-system at Kejimkujik National Park Seaside, formerly known as the Keji Seaside Adjunct, but they’ve also created interesting opportunities.
McCarthy and a group of volunteers and staff from Kejimkujik National Park are here in Little Port Joli Estuary, off Port Mouton in Queens County, to repair some of that damage as fishermen begin to take advantage of a new industry.
The European green crab first arrived in the waters off Nova Scotia in the 1950s, but those crabs were from the warm waters of the Mediterranean and a little more laid back than these fellows.
The invasive crabs that are doing all the damage now arrived in the mid 1980s from the ballast water of a ship outside Halifax Harbour. McCarthy said they came from Iceland and the Faroe Islands, between Norway and Iceland; they’re tough, voracious and aggressive.
They have decimated the vital eelgrass population in the waters here off Port Mouton and Port Joli as well as the soft-shell clam population, in the process damaging the ecology o f this coastal ecosystem .
"Eelgrass is the essential nursery for at least 50 per cent of the commercial marine species," said McCarthy.
Around 2007, scientists realized there was a serious problem.
"Eelgrass was disappearing quick and we know that all the smaller soft-shell clams out there were lacking, there’s none there. That’s what the birds, the migrating birds depend on, right, so it was really important that we get a quick fix as the eelgrass disappeared," McCarthy said.
Eelgrass went from 100 per cent in St. Catherines, the next lagoon over from Little Port Joli lagoon, in 1987, to nothing in 2010, while at the same time falling to three per cent in Little Port Joli.
"By 2010 we were down to 1.3 per cent of our original eelgrass, pretty scary," McCarthy said.
Today, the sea floor here is thick mud — "flocculent mud," as McCarthy likes to call it.
"When we get eelgrass, then it’s just this lush meadow and it’s just loaded with all kinds o f bio diversity so our idea was to get that eelgrass back. It also baffles the shore erosion and protects salt marsh and all kinds of stuff. It holds sediment, you see," Mc-Car thy said.
So scientists, volunteers, universities, the Native Council of Nova Scotia and fishermen have been working to restore the ecosystem by trapping and removing the green crabs and harvesting eelgrass from nearby Port L’Hebert and transplanting it into Little Port Joli Estuary.
This is the fourth year of trapping, and McCarthy said they have removed one million green crabs from the estuary so far, using just row boats and canoes — no motorized boats.
The crabs have been used for compost and fertilizer, and sold as lobster bait .
One day last week, McCarthy loaded up a wagon attached to a green amphibious Argo all-terrain vehicle with coolers filled with eelgrass, oars, 1,500 steel washers and as many white twist ties.
Volunteers walked or hitched a ride along three kilometres of a rocky, muddy path that was the mail delivery road for local communities in the 1800s.
Once at the shore, they piled into four row boats and three canoes and rowed out to a rock island to begin their restoration effor ts.
Sixteen-year-old Keegan Durovich is from North Carolina but spends much of his summer at his family’s other home at Eagle Head, outside Liverpool. He began volunteering at Kejimkujik National Park and National Historic Site when he was nine, catching and monitoring ribbon snakes.
On this project, he helps pull up the crab traps, count and measure the crabs, and determine their sex. The most crabs he’s taken out of any one trap this year is 57, though one year he removed 998 from a single trap.
Today, he’s threading eelgrass through steel washers that are then dropped overboard in predetermined lo cations and left to grow.
For Keegan, it’s the perfect summer day. "I like being outdoors, I like boats and I like doing work."
And he believes in what he’s doing. "Green crabs are invasive and they cut off the eelgrass roots where fish and marine animals lay their eggs, plus they’re killing the baby clams," he said.
As the volunteers arrived on the island, they sat on coolers and overturned buckets and got to work.
McCarthy said staff tested four methods of transplanting the eelgrass and settled on one that is simple yet extremely effective.
"In one of our plots last year we have a 100 per cent survival after two months and that’s really good. We’re looking for 50 per cent if we can get it," he said.
The secret is a 1 3 / 4 inch steel
washer with a 5 / 8 inch hole in the middle.
Volunteers took a white twist tie, which dissolves after two or three days in the water, put it half way through a washer then twisted it twice with the ends op en over the hole in the middle.
Then they placed eelgrass down through the hole in the middle and loosely wrapped the twist tie ends around the grass to hold it in place but not cut it .
Next, they went out in boats and took groups of 10 of these washers, held them by the eelgrass and dropped them over the side of the boat in predetermined lo cations.
Four of these groups of 10 were placed a metre apart to form a square. Each site had four of these squares, for 160 shoots per site. Transplants were set in five sites that day.
A diver then checked each site to make sure the eelgrass was straight and that the washers had settled into the mud. "Sweet!" McCarthy said as he saw eelgrass in Little Port Joli Estuary for the first time in 12 years.
"Go forth, brother," he said as he dropped a set of 10 eelgrass shoots into the water. "Geez, it’s amazing seeing it down there."
Now, not only is the eco-system recovering, but the invasive crabs have ended up providing a whole new industry for local fishermen.
"Right now, these are a hot commo dity for lobster bait b ecause it’s cheaper (than herring)," McCarthy said, plus fishermen get $100 for every crate of green crab.
"So the sweet part of this is you’ve got an exotic that can be used for lobster bait, it saves on using herring, which is a native species, and it’s cheaper and you’re doing better for the ecosystem the more you pull out," he said.
PHOTO
A group of volunteers prepares washers, which are threaded with eel grass and then placed in the water. Their work is part of an effort to restore eel grass to Kejimkujik seaside coastal estuaries, where damage has been caused by green crabs.
BEVERLEY WARE • South Shore Bureau
PHOTO
Scientists and volunteers have been working hard since 2010 to restore habitat damaged by an invasion of the European green crab at Kejimkujik National Park Seaside. Photos by BEVERLEY WARE • South Shore Bureau
AND....
One Billion Rising- breaking the chains
One Billion Rising- breaking the chains... of abuse by $$$$evil media turning our children in2 product toys of PAEDOPHILES.... do u really think 10 yr old girls shd wear thongs??? seriously???
0000000 One Billion Rising- breaking the chains... of abuse -plse don't turn r children in2 product toys of PAEDOPHILES
Protester: Lingerie store sexualizes kids
August 4, 2013 - 5:16pm By BEVERLEY WARE Staff Reporter
Victoria’s Secret draws fire for Call Me, Feeling Lucky underwear
Wyatt Habdspiker, 17, left, Meredith Ivany, 17, and Jacquline Jordan, 18, protest Sunday at the Bayers Road entrance to the Halifax Shopping Centre where Victoria’s Secret has its only Nova Scotia store. (MARK GOUDGE)
.
Jacqueline Jordan had more than enough cans of pop in the cooler for her small, three-person protest Sunday outside the Halifax mall that houses Nova Scotia’s only Victoria’s Secret lingerie store.
But the Fall River teenager was nonetheless enthusiastic about getting her message out, and received several car honks of support in return.
Jordan, 18, and two friends, all recent Lockview High School graduates, stood outside the Bayers Road entrance to the Halifax Shopping Centre early Sunday afternoon with signs for a couple of hours.
They said they believe young girls aged 12 to 15 are buying a line of suggestive Victoria’s Secret lingerie meant for older girls, and that that is wrong.
"They’re kids," said Wyatt Handspiker, 17. "I don’t think young children should really be trying to look sexy, because they’re so young. Adults and older men don’t want to see young children wearing skimpy, revealing clothing. It’s not right."
Handspiker hopes hearing that from other young people, and from a male, helps get the message out to young girls that such lingerie is inappropriate for them.
Victoria’s Secret has said its Pink line is targeted at college-aged girls and older. Jordan said her concern is that she has seen girls much younger than that buying the sexy underwear.
"We’re protesting against the sexualization and objectification of young girls by Victoria’s Secret," she said.
"I’m sure that many parents wouldn’t want to see their 12-year-old, 13-year-old girl wanting to buy lacy thongs that say Call Me and Feeling Lucky or T-shirts that say Less Talk and More Fun, things like that. It’s inappropriate for their young age."
While the chain says its Pink line is targeted at older teens and girls in their 20s, Jordan said some of its products are more suited for bodies that don’t have the curves older girls do.
She held her protest on the street on public property, saying she wanted to get people to listen to her message rather than hold the protest outside the store and get kicked out of the mall for being on private property.
"We’re very proud of her," said Jordan’s mother, Susan Jordan, who, along with her husband, John, stood on the sidewalk near their daughter and watched the protest.
"It’s character and not clothing that determines who you become and what you bring to society," Susan Jordan said.
"Jacqueline has taken it very seriously. It’s about what you present to the world, and we often talk about what’s the measure of a person — is it the outfit that you’re wearing or is it your sense of responsibility and who you become in this life?"
Jordan said she wants parents and the public to be aware that young girls are buying such underwear and, "I want them to realize that it’s not what a 12-year-old or 13-year-old should be doing when she’s that age."
Meredith Ivany said she joined the small protest because she believes women are over-sexualized in the media and that advertisers are targeting girls at younger ages.
Ivany said Grade 9 girls at her high school bought Pink lingerie, and she believes younger girls are wearing inappropriate clothing to school such as revealing, skin-tight shorts and see-through tops.
(bware@herald.ca)
http://thechronicleherald.ca/metro/1146012-protester-lingerie-store-sexualizes-kids
comment:
Thank you. Parents seem to not want to take any responsibility for their kids. If their kid is violent they blame tv and video games. It their teenage daughter is buying thongs from a lingerie store they blame the store. How about you the parent keep control over where your kids shop and what they buy? If you go to a shopping mall with them you keep them out of stores like Vic Secret or if you decide to go in with them then let them buy only what you feel comfortable with them wearing. If they go shopping alone or with friends then when they return home ask them to show you what they bought and if you feel it is inappropriate then YOU take them back to the store and have your kid return it. This line of lingerie is designed for adult women and adult women should be allowed to buy it and not have a handful of protesters dictate to them what they can sell to ADULTS! 'Nuff said
comment:
u know how single moms got around behaviour that is acceptable and non-acceptable 2 our kids- we told them WE WERE THE BANK- and meant it.... and all the things they liked.... were taken away... PERIOD.... until negotiated respectful behaviour was brought 2 the table... and implemented and pride was kept on all sides.... kids know when something is wrong.... they know.... and they know when something is right... they know...imho
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Oh Nova Scotia- we must dump way 2 many chiefs at the tops of these food chains on government $$$woof woof
TOO MUCH GOVERNMENT
Municipal change slow
As vicious circles go, this one’s particularly nasty.
For years, many Nova Scotia municipalities outside metro Halifax have struggled to balance the rising costs of providing services to their citizens with continuing losses to their tax base due to declining populations and closing or depar ting business es.
Continuing to raise taxes to cover costs is self-defeating, only serving to make jurisdictions less resident- and business- friendly. If there are few jobs, and it’s increasingly expensive to live there, why stay? On top of that, new federal environmental rules have added expensive infrastructure needs to an already long list.
Despite those realities, many Nova Scotia municipalities — with notable exceptions like Queens — have long resisted an obvious strategy: giving up all or some jurisdiction to save money via jointly offered services. Nova Scotians remain overgoverned at the municipal level, with 412 elected representatives in 54 municipal units.
Interestingly, almost 40 years ago the royal commission on education, public services and provincial-municipal relations, led by John F. Graham, advised Nova Scotia to reduce the number of municipalities to 11, each with 12 councillors. Their reasons, not acted upon, are as relevant today as in 1974: "Nova Scotia, as a low-income province, cannot afford an ineffective or uneconomical governmental structure. Were there a greater number of counties — even one more — not only would the county governments be reduced in capability, but the cost of public services would be increased unnecessarily and unconscionably."
In the last year, we’ve finally seen a number of municipalities, often urged on by a fed-up citizenry, agree to look at rationalizing the way services are offered. Though progress has been slow, it’s certainly better than none at all.
Growing community support in Kings County forced the issue onto municipal agendas. In Pictou County, six municipalities have finally agreed to funding a study. And, in CBRM, Mayor Cecil Clarke backed a governance study that recently called for sweeping changes, including centralizing services and combining administrative functions. Mayor Clarke has been refreshingly clear the community, for now, won’t get some services because it can’t afford them. Towns like Springhill, where the cost of town police eats up over half the budget, are also looking at alternatives.
The provincial government’s lack of leadership on this file has been disappointing. The NDP has proclaimed its concern about rural and small-town outmigration, but still left it to municipalities themselves to champion rationalizing governance, even though such efforts could help keep taxes down and municipal services going.
Frequently, small jurisdictions’ parochial self-interest has slowed or stalled progress.
The need for municipalities to become more efficient at delivering services is crucial.
Ultimately, the other critical factors needed to turn around decline are both a welcoming tax climate and, within our communities, a climate that nurtures — as opposed to being indifferent to, or worse, stifling — economic growth .
Granted, the province had to climb out of a structural deficit. But going forward, being among the highest taxed jurisdictions in Canada isn’t a recipe for future success.
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SENIORS, DISABLED AND HOMELESS VETS HAVE IT MIGHTY HARD DON'T THEY- even in Nova Scotia
HRM rejects seniors complex
Proposed seven-storey building violated zoning r ules, councillors decide
CITY HALL REPORTER LAURA FRASER lfraser@herald.ca @CH_ljfraser
Halifax regional council killed a proposed seniors housing complex Tuesday night after opponents argued a seven-storey building would violate zoning and affect property values in the westend neighbourhood.
The congregation at St. John’s United Church conceived the idea for the project about seven years ago while discussing the future of its land at Windsor and Willow streets.
The co-chairwoman of the church’s development team said the project would have filled the need for affordable housing in the urban core, while making it possible for the shrinking church group to build and maintain a new home.
"Obviously people are disappointed," Louisa Horne said Wednesday. "It’s been a lot of effort to put forward something that we thought was a very valuable and needed addition to our neighb ourhood.
"Based on all the research and data we had, this was a very logical next step for us."
Horne said it could be years — if ever — before another proposal comes forward. The congregation will consider the decision and collectively decide how to proceed.
For now, the derelict church will remain fenced off, as the group continues to worship in the Maritime Conservatory of Performing Ar ts in the winter and in St. Andrew’s United Church in the summer.
Reaction to the proposed project — which would have included the seniors complex, a church, a glebe house and community space — had been mixed since public hearings began in 2011.
City staff had first recommended that the lo cal community council reject the project, arguing that the highest point of the complex would be more than double the allowable 10 metres.
"Based upon a detailed review of the site, its low-density surroundings and the existing planning policies and zoning context, it is found that the proposal is too large and is too significant of a change for the area," the staff report says.
There were, however, no concerns about increased traffic, wind or shadows, according to stu dies.
The area’s councillor, Jennifer Watts, declared a conflict of interest in the vote because she’s a member of the church.
Coun. Waye Mason, however, sided with the majority, which rejected the project 10-6. The Peninsula South-Downtown councillor said his decision was difficult because he sees the need for more density in the urban core and cheaper housing.
But in the end, he said, the proposal seemed too far outside the municipal planning strategy and other blu eprints guiding growth .
"There’s no doubt that the idea of doing something like Spirit Place is important and valuable, but the thing is, there are some very compelling arguments and concerns about the way it (phased into) the neighbourhood," Mason said.
"At the end of the day, when you’re granting somebody else new property rights to change what’s allowed to be built, you have to also consider how that impacts the property rights of the people who already live there."
Liz Cunningham’s home backs onto the property and she spoke out against the project Tuesday and at previous meetings.
In an email Wednesday, she said the process has been hard on the neighbourhood and on the church.
She said she’s happy that council rejected the proposal but she’s hopeful the church and neighbourhood can come up with a compromise in the future.
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CANADA MILITARY NEWS: July24- Nova Scotia bullies caught by ANONYMOUS- BULLIES/PAEDOPHILE HUNTING/ NOVA SCOTIA NEWS MILITARY-VOTING/ REHTAEH PARSON- WE WANT JUSTICE-Peter Mackay stepping up 4 victims in Canada- about damm time
http://nova0000scotia.blogspot.ca/2013/07/canada-military-news-july24-nova-scotia_24.html
PAEDOPHILE ALERT/PAEDOPHILE ALERT/PAEDOPHILE ALERT
OKAY this monster like little boy's junk- jail his arse- and nail his junk 2 the jailyard wall 4 the billion rising - breaking the chains- of abuse of little kids... ok?
Crown: Declare Nickerson dangerous offender
GORDON DELANEY VALLEY BUREAU
gdelaney@herald.ca @ch_gdelaney KENTVILLE — Dangerous offender status will be sought for a Yarmouth County man who kidnapped and sexually assaulted two women last year.
Gordon Frank Nickerson, 36, will return to Kentville provincial court in October for a hearing. Eight days have been set aside for the Crown to make its case that Nickerson should be declared a dangerous offender.
That means he could be locked up indefinitely.
Crown and defence lawyers gave Judge Alan Tufts, who will hear the application, a status report Wednesday. Crown attorney Jim Fy fe said he plans to proceed with the application.
Crown prosecutors have said they will present evidence of Nickerson’s criminal record, inclu ding prior kidnapping and sexual assault convictions in British Columbia in 2006.
Nickerson has already had a psychological assessment that ruled he was criminally responsible and is fit to stand trial.
But he pleaded guilty in April 2012 to multiple charges, including two of kidnapping, four of sexual assault and four of assault.
He also pleaded guilty to break and enter, breach of a peace bond, dangerous driving and fleeing the scene of an accident.
Defence lawyer Ken Greer has said that his client agrees with much of the information in the report and is prepared to ensure the hearing is short and doesn’t involve more stress and trauma for the victims.
The charges stemmed from an incident in February 2012 in which two women from Wedgeport were reported missing.
Later that day, they escaped from a vehicle involved in a threecar crash in New Minas, near Exit 12 on Highway 101.
Nickerson fled the scene and was pursued on foot by police. He was later arrested in the Kentville area, suffering from multiple stab wounds to his neck and wrists.
At least five witnesses are expected to be called at the dangerous offender hearing.
The Crown may also call victims from assault convictions in 2003 and 2006, when Nickerson was living in British Columbia , along with a psychiatrist from the East Coast Forensic Centre in Dartmouth who did the psychological ass essment .
Nickerson has a history of violent offences, particularly against women he is romantically involved with, according to National Parole Board documents.
There has been no bail hearing, but Nickerson has consented to be remanded until his hearing .
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SOMEHOW - let's find a way 2 have business and environment both in Nova Scotia okay?- we want our young 2 stay at home in Nova Scotia- in the 70s.... we all rushed 2 Ontario.... and in the 80s we came back with experience, innovation and incredible work ethic which is inbred in Nova Scotians...
same here- hopefull... BUT NOVA SCOTIA MUST TIGHTEN the rules and obligations of law of any business so taxpayers are not $$$ with the cost...again and again and again... right?
Imagine our province with less tartan, more oil titans
Take a minute and suspend disbelief.
Imagine Nova Scotia as a prosperous boom province with busy ports, a thriving offshore oil and gas industry, a global innovation centre for alternative energy research and development and a networked community of startup enter pris es.
I know. I know. It seems over the top. This is, after all, Nova Scotia with our laid-back lifestyle, beautiful coastline and our perennial "have not" provincial distinction .
But pleas e come and walk with me.
Imagine a Nova Scotia with less tartan and more titans, a province with more youth incoming than outgoing, a place that keeps immigrants with gainful employment, supportive communities and excellent schooling.
Try to fathom a Nova Scotia that doesn’t always have to go cap-in-hand to Ottawa.
Visualize a province that is whacking back its debt and deficit through economic growth and workforce productivity.
Think about a place that’s let go of legacy thinking around job creation as a function of government bailouts and governmentfunded payroll rebate schemes.
Imagine, if you will, a Nova Scotia that has shed the "not" in "have not," and isn’t looking down the barrel to a dreary future of too many old people needing health care and not enough youth to do the work and generate the taxes to pay for it .
OK, so there. We’ve indulged. And we’re still here.
Admittedly, these imaginings are not easy. Some might even call them delusional, esp ecially when we see the NDP government trying to spin thos e au dited financial statements released this week.
We learned that the province’s overall debt has reached $14 billion, the highest it’s ever been. The government spent $10.4 billion and had revenues of $10.1 billion, leaving a deficit of $302.7 million. When the budget was introduced, the deficit was predicted to be $211 million.
Personal income tax revenues fell short of projections by $53 million last year. Yet the government’s prediction for the coming year assumes an increase of $180 million .
All right, I didn’t say this was going to be easy. But visualization is the first step.
Last week, I wrote about the burgeoning community of startups in the region, a network of small enterprises generating tech ideas and applications, some of which have been sold for big money.
It’s a grassroots, bottom-up approach to economic growth rather than a top-down government- led model. This holds great promise for this region.
And there’s something else out there, too. And it could be big: offshore oil and gas.
Both BP and Shell have committed a billion dollars each to explore parcels of territory offshore Nova Scotia. Shell currently has four massive seismic vessels (with support vessels) conducting 3D surveys on the Shelburne Basin .
In April, BP will conduct a seven-month campaign to survey the Scotian Slope for potential drilling locations. That program will involve up to seven vessels.
These ships are top-of-the-line, big and expensive. These companies wou ld not b e committing this sort of money if they didn’t think something was up on Nova Scotia’s offshore.
Geologically speaking, some of this exploration is occurring under the layer of salt in the seabed. This "pre-salt play" has uncovered massive reserves of petro-chemicals off the coasts of Brazil and West Africa.
When you think that Nova S cotia was connected to West Africa some 300 million years ago, it makes sense that the geology is similar and p otential for hydrocarbon deposits does exist.
Some think there are deposits out there on the scale of the U.K. and Norwegian North Sea combined.
Of course, it’s too soon to go to the bank on that. Lord knows we’ve been disappointed before with the offshore promise.
But it is important to imagine what this cou ld mean for our province, to have the audacity to imagine something better.
Some think there are deposits out there on the scale of the U.K. and Norwegian North Sea combined.
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Nova Scotia A to Z E: Egypt
Proud Canadian makes his votes count
By Kelly Shiers
Rany Ibrahim voted with his heart on the day he swore allegiance to his chosen country and became a Canadian citiz en .
A wide smile spreads across his face as the 37-year-old remembers that ceremony and collecting the documents that made it all official.
And, just a few short days later, those incredible steps to a Halifax polling station.
For one more vote.
It was May 2, 2011, and Ibrahim clutched those official papers, knowing they were just what he needed to prove he was eligible to vote in Canada’s 41st national election .
"I couldn’t wait. I was very anxious to cast my ballot," he says.
"In Egypt, our votes were usually put in boxes and those boxes dropped in the Nile — or burnt. Votes never counted, so for me, it was, I want my vote to count.
And it counts here."
By then, Ibrahim was no stranger to Canada. He had come in 2002, leaving behind his parents and younger brother, to study at University of New Brunswick on a scholarship.
The only p eople he knew in Fredericton were Canadian exchange students he had met while studying in Egypt.
Ibrahim wasn’t sure how long he would stay. Not too certain he would excel in an education system so different from what he knew. Not sure if he would like it.
Certainly, Ibrahim didn’t come dressed for it.
"Well, I came with winter clothing (by) Egyptian standards," he says, recalling the 45-degree heat of a North African summer that dips to 25 degrees when the season changes.
"I remember just getting out of the plane, getting this first breeze, and the cold just freezing my ears. For a second, it was like, ‘What did I do?’ It was like I walked into a fridge."
But Ibrahim stayed, deliberately opting to immerse himself in the lo cal community and make friends from around the world who had also come here to study, rather than to surround himself only by Arab-speaking ex-pats.
He flourished, finishing a degree at UNB, then enrolling at Cape Breton University in Sydney and later Dalhousie University in Halifax, where he has also taught international business.
And Ibrahim marvelled at the things — besides the weather — that make life so different in Canada, especially politics.
In the Egypt of his youth, participating in political discussions could lead to jail time and a black mark that could mar his family and follow him all his life, he says.
Here, Ibrahim immersed himself in student politics. He watched in awe as former premiers from different political parties sat side by side at a university panel dis cussion . And was shocked when he had an opportunity to meet then-prime minister Paul Martin.
"I walk in, and there’s just one guard. That’s stuff that’s just unprecedented for someone from Egypt who sees the president have an army before and after him, blocking the streets, just moving from one palace to another."
Those differences are never far from his mind.
He closely watches the political tribulations and developments in his native land and wonders just what the future may hold for family and friends as Egypt struggles with democracy.
Today, the former international student works with the Nova Scotia Office of Immigration, promoting Nova Scotia as a destination for immigrants from around the world.
Ibrahim says he looks at them and is reminded of himself all those years ago.
And he finds his passion in meeting them, selling them on this province and encouraging a welcoming environment for their arrival.
But Ibrahim prides himself on giving back to the communities that have given him so much.
His activities have included serving as a member of two university senates and member of the board of governors at Cape Breton University.
He has been a member of the Nova Scotia minister of immigration advis ory council, and a volunteer with organizations such as Amnesty International.
His accomplishments have not gone unnoticed.
This summer, he was named one of the year’s RBC Top 25 Canadian Immigrants, awarded to inspiring newcomers.
Add that to recognition from the House of Assembly and the Fusion newcomer award, which recognized his positive contributions to Halifax.
"It’s been (more than) 10 years here, and I’ve loved every minute of it. There are some challenges — maybe I come a couple of times to doubt, but I am glad I never gave up," Ibrahim says.
"People keep telling me I could be in Vancouver making twice the salary, and it’s still a beautiful place. I am biased. I say Nova Scotia is more beautiful (and) it’s not just about the money.
"It’s about people, place, a sense of community, and here, the community op ened their arms to me, welcomed me as one o f their own .
"And that’s something I took to heart."
It’s about people, place, a sense of community, and here, the community opened their arms to me, welcomed me as one of their own.
Rany Ibrahim
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