The Hill ..

Oliver Moore Halifax — From Saturday's Globe and Mail

Video of a Halifax-area principal wrestling one of his students to the ground and manhandling him through the halls has sparked a furious debate here on school discipline and raised the always-fraught issue of race relations. The leaked surveillance tape shows Ken Fells, a black man with a military background, grappling with 14-year-old Josh Boutilier. The 74-second video on YouTube shows the white student trying to push past the principal before he is hurled to the floor and frog-marched to the office in a full-nelson. “Everything just went blank and I didn’t know what do,” Josh said on Friday. “I wasn’t hurt at the time because I was in really bad shock, but after a couple of hours I started to hurt real bad.” But Mr. Fells’s vocal supporters say surveillance videos rarely show the whole picture and school staff need the discretion to deal with students who pose a danger. The Black Educators Association rallied to his defence. . What threat the principal believed Mr. Boutilier posed that day in March has not been revealed. Mr. Fells is not speaking and the Halifax Regional School Board will not discuss the specifics of the incident. The student, who acknowledges getting into trouble in the past, admits he was breaking the rules by using a cellphone. He said he refused to surrender it to staff and that Mr. Fells was “stalking” him through the school immediately before the incident on the video. After an eight-hour meeting last month, with supporters of Mr. Fells demonstrating outside, the board opted to remove him from Graham Creighton Junior High School in Cherry Brook. But contrary to the recommendation of its own staff, it decided not to fire him. He will get a new assignment in the fall. That decision has proved hugely controversial. “A friend was saying, had the situation been in reverse, had that been a white principal who took the same action against a black student, would the outcome have been the same?” said Wayne Coady, a father of three grown children. “There could have been a riot.” It was learned Friday that the incident’s fallout had reached even into the marriage of board superintendent Carole Olsen, who admitted it was her husband who leaked the video. “My husband has apologized to me and to the elected board,” she said. “… I had no prior knowledge of the release of this video.” Ms. Olsen had been criticized for seeking Mr. Fells’s dismissal, and her husband, apparently hoping to support her position, sent the video to Frank magazine. It wound up at YouTube, where it has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. “I’ve never seen anything quite like what Ken Fells did with that student,” said Paul Bennett, a career educator who was vice-principal at Toronto’s Upper Canada College, headmaster at Halifax Grammar School and now runs Schoolhouse Consulting. He said school staff dealing with stubborn pupils have two options: phoning the student’s parents or calling the police. “No … use of force other than self-defence is permitted,” he said. Corporal punishment is specifically banned under the Halifax board’s code of conduct, but physical contact is not. Chairman Irvine Carvery said staff need discretion to act in dangerous situations. “You take every measure allowed to eliminate that threat,” he said. Mr. Carvery said the elected board members who opted to retain Mr. Fells heard more evidence than was available to the staff who recommended he be fired. He added that neither Mr. Fells’s vocal supporters nor his prominence in the black community were factors considered by the board.

Canada could buy a lot of aid for price of summit security, critics say
Susan Delacourt
Ottawa Bureau
Toronto Star

OTTAWA – Three years’ worth of vastly improved health facilities for women and children in developing countries; $1,000 tuition cuts for every student in Canada; 11,000 new construction jobs.

These are among the suggestions being offered to Prime Minister Stephen Harper on better ways to spend the nearly $1 billion earmarked for security for the G8 and G20 summits next month.

That $1-billion figure, in fact, is quickly emerging as an important benchmark, with Harper under increasing pressure to emerge from those summits with spending commitments over and above his security costs – dollars directed toward the less fortunate abroad, for instance.

But that would be a massive increase – a doubling, in fact, of the $500-million budget that International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda was boasting this week as the highest-ever aid commitment in Canada’s history. Now, however, next to the security price tag for the summits, it is looking like a drop in the bucket.

“We could make a really landmark Canadian investment in maternal and child health around the world, that would do more than any single thing to meet those millennium development goals,” says Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff. “We could simply lead the world.”

The New Democrats, seeing what the Conservatives are willing to fork over for security, are calling on Canada to put $1.4 billion over five years into foreign aid directed at maternal health, as requested by the international Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health.

That breaks down into roughly $300 million a year – so it would take three years to spend what Harper’s government has committed to security costs for three days of meetings in Huntsville and Toronto at the end of June.

“When you can spend a billion dollars to send out sound cannons on protesters in Toronto, the least you can do is provide $1.4 billion over a couple of years to provide front-line health services to women in the Congo. It’s a no-brainer,” says NDP foreign-affairs critic Paul Dewar.

Dewar said that with $1.4 billion extra from Canada over the next five years, women and children in poor countries such as the Congo could mean more medical clinics closer to the people who need them, better transport to health facilities and a boost in “front-line” services, getting clean water and food to children, for example, who need those basics in the first years of their lives.

Oda, however, told the Commons committee on the status of women this week that Canada would be paying for its summit commitments out of the existing international-aid budget.

“Our government has been increasing its international aid by 8 per cent every year. That 8 per cent remains in the base of CIDA, in our international assistance, and then we build 8 per cent on top of that. That brings us to $500 million for international assistance, the largest amount ever in the history of Canada,” she said.

Ignatieff was in his Toronto riding having lunch on Friday and found that the $1-billion number has touched a nerve with the public.

“People came up right out of the queue and said ‘what is going on?’” Ignatieff told the Star. “The public really doesn’t like this.” In addition to boosts in the aid budget, Ignatieff said he’d much rather see the money being spent on reducing students’ tuition, creating jobs for the unemployed or even improving broadband access for rural Canadians.

In the House of Commons this week, as well, NDP MP Olivia Chow cited a number of ways to spend $1 billion.

“Three percent of that $1 billion would provide all Canadian children a nutritious and healthy breakfast or snacks every day. We can lift all seniors out of poverty by increasing the guaranteed income supplement,” Chow said.

“Canada could pay one-third of the costs of the millennium development goal and save the lives of over 10 million women and children by 2015.”

Ignatieff says that his party is going to be demanding an official accounting for security costs that he describes as “off the charts.”

“It’s simply impossible to understand,” he said.

Irene Mathyssen, the NDP’s status-of-women critic, said she is troubled by the prospect of how this $1 billion is going to be spent – silencing protest and keeping world leaders safe, when those dollars could be stretched much farther if devoted to making lives safer abroad.

“A billion dollars for security alone. What about all the other extraneous expenses?” Mathyssen said. “I think we should be investing that in human beings.”

Last Updated: Friday, May 28, 2010 | 6:44 PM ET Comments731Recommend165.
CBC News

Prime Minister Stephen Harper told representatives from Canada's cities and towns on Friday that the federal government's two-year infrastructure stimulus program will end on schedule next spring.

In his address to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities in Toronto on Friday, Harper said the thousands of infrastructure projects were an important part of Canada's economic recovery, but warned mayors and other municipal representatives that they can't expect to live on stimulus funds forever.

"People can't live on adrenalin, and economies can't live on stimulus," Harper said.

The $43 billion infrastructure program must end March 31, 2011, to let the government begin reducing the deficit and lead the recovery from last year's global financial crisis, the prime minister said.

He insisted Canada "will lead the way" in the coming G8 and G20 summits to push for countries to get their fiscal houses in order.

"Canada was the last major developed country dragged into the recession, and we will be the least affected by it and will emerge from it fastest and in the strongest position of them all," Harper said.

The prime minister also praised municipal leaders for their "absolutely decisive" work in getting infrastructure projects started, saying the partnership has been "one of the best things we've had going for us."

Mayors from Canada's largest cities argued at this week's meeting that it shouldn't take a global financial crisis for municipalities to get the fiscal help they so desperately need.

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff criticized the prime minister and how the current government views its relationship with municipalities.

"And this relationship doesn't end on March the 30th, 2011. It's just beginning," Ignatieff told the FCM.

"The prime minister came here this morning, and he said we're turning off the taps. The stimulus is ending. And my vision of this is we're in this for a long haul, because we've got a country to build together."


Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2010/05/28/harper-municipalities.html#ixzz0pO2bVnfB

Alberta Liberals are proposing a $50 tax credit for voting

by Aaron Wherry on Wednesday, May 26, 2010 4:20pm - Macleans.ca


For democracy to thrive, it perhaps must inspire. And if politicians fail to offer the necessary motivation, maybe money can.

After just 41 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot during the last provincial election, the Alberta Liberals are proposing that each citizen who votes in the next one receive a $50 tax credit. “It’s an attempt to push people to think maybe a little bit outside the box,” says Liberal Leader David Swann. “We’re headed for trouble if more and more people check out of this democracy.”


Turnout in Alberta was at 60 per cent as recently as 1993, but has fallen in each of the last four elections. This mirrors what has occurred federally, the last national election drawing an all-time low of 58.8 per cent. With just shy of a million votes cast in the last provincial election, a tax credit would have cost the Alberta government approximately $48 million. “I guess one would have to ask, ‘what’s democracy worth?’ ” says Swann.

The Canada Elections Act already has some incentives built in: citizens are allowed three consecutive hours, without penalty by their employer, to cast a ballot, and portions of financial contributions to parties are tax deductible. The idea of a tax credit for voting has been floated before, but it doesn’t appear any jurisdiction has enacted such a policy. Critics lament that anyone would vote for financial gain, but a tax credit is a less punitive alternative to the mandatory voting imposed in some countries. In Australia, where voting is compulsory, those who fail to show up at the polling station must provide a valid reason for not doing so or pay a $20 penalty. Turnout there has historically averaged about 95 per cent. “We looked at Australia and how they increased their voter turnout by using a stick,” says Swann. “And I’m more inclined to the carrot.”

Calgary MP among 300 people named in BMO's civil lawsuit over mortgage fraud
Last Updated: Friday, May 14, 2010 | 4:08 PM ET Comments346Recommend134.
CBC News

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says Calgary MP Devinder Shory has not been accused of any criminal wrongdoing in connection with an alleged mortgage fraud against the Bank of Montreal. (CBC)Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he won't take any action against one of his Calgary MPs who has been named in a Bank of Montreal civil lawsuit over what the bank alleges was a massive mortgage fraud.

Devinder Shory, the Conservative MP for Calgary Northeast and a lawyer, is among the 300 people, including Alberta lawyers, mortgage brokers and four BMO employees, named in the suit.

On Thursday, the RCMP and Calgary police announced they had launched a joint criminal investigation into the alleged mortgage scam and that as part of that investigation they would be speaking to the people named in the suit but not only them.

Nothing in the bank's statement of claim has been proven in court.

"The member in question is not, to our knowledge, accused of any criminal wrongdoing," Harper told reporters on Friday during a visit to Quebec. "He is involved in … a civil dispute over a private matter."

In a statement issued last week, Shory said he has done nothing wrong and will defend himself vigorously.

'Nothing to do with government business'

The bank alleges the scam, which it says took place between 2006 and 2007 and involved 14 inter-connected groups, could end up costing it as much as $30 million.

Opposition MPs went after the matter during question period in the House on Friday, accusing the government and the prime minister of dragging their feet in handling the issue.


Legal documents allege millions of dollars generate dby the scam have been transferred to such countries as Lebanon, India, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan. "Certainly, the Bank of Montreal regards this [matter] as serious and credible," Liberal MP John McKay of Scarborough said. "The RCMP and the Calgary police regard it as serious and credible; the Law Society of Alberta regards it as serious and credible.

"The only person who seems to think this is not serious and credible is the prime minister. When will the member from Calgary Northeast be removed from this Conservative caucus?"

"That member's question is neither serious nor credible," Ontario Tory MP Pierre Poilievre replied. "This matter is before the courts, and it has nothing to do with government business."

The police probe of the matter is expected to be long and complicated, an RCMP spokesman said Thursday.

BMO alleges ringleaders of the fraud network would buy properties at market value but convince the bank they were worth much more and subsequently obtain a grossly inflated mortgage. They would then pocket the difference.

The architects of the fraud are accused of recruiting people, mostly new immigrants, to be "straw buyers" who allowed their name to be used to obtain the mortgage on a property in exchange for a payment.

Eventually, the fraudsters walk away from the scheme, leaving the straw buyer on the hook. The bank is usually forced to foreclose on the mortgage.


Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2010/05/14/cgy-harper-shory.html#ixzz0o0bkMZsx

Well, it's quite simple actually. Our civics class decided to create an online scrapbook, to save the environment. So, I will post 5 articles! That's right ... ONLY five! They'll be about the government. What your job is to pick as many articles as you want from my blog and (here's the fun part ...) COMMENT ON THEM! It could be anything, either positive or negative. We just want to hear from you! So Mr. Rioux's class ... yes, YOU! Start reading and enjoy! :)

Signing out ... Keerthana Rajkumar :D
* Sorry, I'm having a total explorer moment. :)