Posts from our progressive community

Thursday May 16 international launch of 42 minute doc Do the Math: The Movie, "the story of the rising movement to change the terrifying math of the climate crisis and fight the fossil fuel industry."
In Vancouver it's showing at Langara and four other venues. To find one near you, look here.

Meanwhile Justin Trudeau tours western Canada giving pressers criticizing Harper for not doing enough to promote Keystone XL. I get the strategy. Don't give Steve anything to hit and eventually when Steve implodes the oil industry will have a really popular hopey changey corporate guy in their pocket - a Canadian Obama for us. Someone who supports arbitrary arrest and detainment for three days without charge while being questioned and held without trial for a year if you don't co-operate, but who we will at least like better than we like Steve. Would that be better than having Steve? 
Makes it hard to take seriously the idea of anybody-but-Steve electoral co-operation.

Purple Library Guy said something interesting at Dawg's :
"I'd find the whole thing a bit easier to swallow if it were phrased a bit differently. Say you said "getting the left and centre-right to co-operate against the fascists". The moment someone says "getting the left to co-operate" when we're talking about Liberals, I conclude someone's trying to scam me."Seconded. 
.

We were up very early this morning, which was not difficult for me, since I hardly slept all night, most likely from drinking alcohol too late at night, which keeps me up... but what are holidays for. The Eurostar train from London to Paris is twice the price later in the morning, and we'd both rather have more time in Paris than an extra hour of sleep. Although don't ask Allan to choose when the alarm rings at six.

We've taken the Eurostar once before, our last time in London and Paris (1998). It now leaves from St. Pancras Station, a beautiful new glass structure built expressly for these international trains. The station was packed, but they're super efficient and the train left right on time. We ate breakfast on the train and barely registered the time before we arrived.

We decided to shelp our stuff on the Metro from Gare du Nord to the hotel, in the 7e arrondissement, and although a bit difficult in some of the big correspondances - the exchanges between Metro lines - it was no big deal, and worth it.

We're staying in the Hotel de la Motte-Piquet, near the Ecole Militaire Metro stop. It's exactly what we want and expect in this city: a small, simple, clean room. I decided to spend more than we usually would to get a great location. We're only here for two nights and I didn't want to spend it traveling back and forth from an outlying area.

After showering and changing, we had lunch in a bistro down the street - the perfect little Paris lunch: two croque madames, a half-litre of vin rouge, and we shared a tarte au pomme for dessert. If you've never had the pleasure, a croque monsieur (rough translation: Mr. Toasty) is a toasted ham and cheese, and a croque madame is the same with an egg on top. But this description doesn't come close to describing the Paris bistro version, on thick crusty bread, with mounds of gooey Gruyere, delicate ham, and a small green salad on the side.

I had a brief moment of sticker shock from the bill, not because the prices are high, but because the dollar against the euro is not a pretty sight. We couldn't possibly afford to spend this much every day, but we both agree that Paris is not the place to start counting pennies. We will be more careful in Spain, and things also will be less expensive.

After lunch, we went for a walk, and ended up walking towards and around the Eiffel Tower. It's Spring Break week here, plus a national holiday in France, plus, well, it's the Eiffel Tower, so the crowds are enormous. But we managed to saunter around, take a bunch of photos (like we don't have enough photos of the Eiffel Tower! but this is with our new camera), and generally soak up the atmosphere.

I used to dislike the Tower itself, thinking it was a mess of exposed iron and not much else, but I just didn't get it. Now I see its grace and lyricism, so small achievement from iron. I love the exposed lattice work, the little curlicue details you see up close, the contrast of heavy powerful iron and the graceful arching curves. Imagine this was the tallest building in the world from when it was built (1899) until the Empire State Building went up in 1930.

We walked over the beautiful Pont d'Alma, where all the tour boats are lined up. We spotted what we think was a houseboat, or at least someone's private pleasure boat, decked out in house plants and comfy chairs. We made our way back to the hotel slowly, through the very tony neighbourhood. We stopped for coffee and tea, sitting side by side in the rattan chairs, facing the street.

Ahhh, Paris. It is so beautiful. Just walking around here makes you feel so good. This is now my fourth time in Paris, my third with Allan. I can't even think about it being my last... which is what I said last time, and why we're here now.

Later on, we set out to see if our favourite bistro, Au Gigot Fin, was still in existence. We have read that it closed (after more than 80 years) and reopened under new management with a new name, but we weren't completely certain that even the new incarnation was still in business. This involved a long metro ride and several correspondances... and our little haunt was indeed gone. Oh well. We had to try. And we figured out a shorter way to get back.

Allan was concerned that it might be getting late to get dinner in "our" neighbourhood, but when we got back there, around 9:00, it was still hopping, the bistros and brasseries full, everyone eating outside on the wide sidewalk. We had dinner at the same place we had lunch, Cafe Central. Another perfect bistro meal: garlicky-buttery escargot, entrecote for Allan, carpacio for me, frites, salade, vin rouge. Apparently we must drink red wine twice a day. It's the law.

Tomorrow is our only full day here. We are going to the D'Orsay in the morning, which has undergone a huge renovation, although it was breathtaking to begin with. After that, we're not sure, except Allan has a place picked out for dinner. The description in Time Out sounds like our old lost bistro love.

My French is awful. I have been focused on getting my Spanish up to speed, and it completely gets in the way of my being able to think in French, even for the simplest necessities. My accent is abominable, as always. I can understand the language pretty well, at least in the context of traveling, and have no problem reading French, but speaking... ugh. And what's worse, I'm miles ahead of Allan, so all the speaking is left to me. (My friend NN may remember this from our first trip together. She did all the talking and I was the mute friend.) Objectively this is no big deal. French people in general are very willing to speak English and work with your limited French. But my French has been better in the past, and I wish I had more skill in this department.

Who knew?   It seems the Harper government's support for the high-carbon, Athabasca Tar Sands is actually compassionate, even altruistic.  We're just doing our best to help out the world's poor and needy.

A gaggle of Canadian academics and science types just sent Ol' Joe Oliver a letter asking him to be an adult about our bitumen trafficking.

"...some of your recent comments give us significant cause for concern. In short, we are not convinced that your advocacy in support of new pipelines and expanded fossil fuel   climate change into account in a meaningful way. 

Avoiding dangerous climate change will require significantly reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and making a transition to cleaner energy. 

The infrastructure we build today will shape future choices about energy. If we invest in expanding fossil fuel production, we risk locking ourselves in to a high carbon pathway that increases greenhouse gas emissions for years and decades to come."

Joe is hotfooting it through Europe this week, trying to convince those ungrateful Euros that it wouldn't be right to label bitumen dirtier than other fossil fuels but his spokesman, Chris McCluskey, wasted to time plucking the heart strings.

 "Cutting off oil production would create great economic hardship, especially for the poorest nations who already suffer from an energy deficit.  Indeed, one and half billion people are now without electricity. We have an obligation to responsibly develop our resources, protect the environment, create economic growth for Canadians and share our energy with the world."

Now you might not have known that we were going to "share" our energy with the world, especially not with the people of the poorest nations like the United States and China.  And that's why guys like McCluskey get paid the big bucks - to open your eyes.

If the mightiest military in the world is okay with the opium trade then what are we doing busting kids for pot?

The current opium policy of American forces in Afghanistan is strictly "hands off."   You don't destroy it, you don't trample through opium fields, you don't even encourage the farmers to plant something else.

“They’re a source of stability,” Maj. Charles Ford, the bookish operations officer at 3-41 Infantry, says of Afghanistan’s poppies. Sitting in a plywood-walled office at a Forward Operating Base in Kandahar city in early April, Ford cites all the people in Afghanistan who rely on poppies for some or all of their income: the Taliban, granted, but also millions of everyday farmers and their families as well as all levels of corrupt Afghan government from the subdistricts up to Kabul.

Fortunately for all these groups, there are some 400,000 acres of poppies in Afghanistan — “enough to go around,” according to Ford, who is responsible for devising his battalion’s combat strategy. Plentiful and lucrative — 15 pounds of poppy paste, the output of a typical acre family plot, sells for around $600 in a country where $.25 buys bread for a day — the illicit crop offers “access to prosperity” for much of Afghanistan. And that access is all that most Afghans really want.

Leave the poppies alone, and most Afghans will happily go about their business farming and selling the colorful crop — or so Ford’s line of thinking goes. Granted, once processed into heroin and distributed in Russian and European cities, heroin can become a pretty serious danger to public health. But that, frankly, is not the U.S. Army’s problem, whereas Afghan security is.

Conversely, attempting to eradicate poppies — as has been the Army’s policy in the recent past — could mean destitution for countless Afghans. Sure, destroying the flowers might deprive the Taliban of one of its major revenue streams, but the violent popular backlash against eradication would probably represent a net victory for the insurgent group.

Could it be because Senator Duffy was tipped off by the man investigating him for expense improprieties?

Or could it be because once more, an errant staff member is to blame for Conservative 'irregularities'?Recommend this Post

The first bit National Household Survey is out, and aside from it’s methodological issues, there’s still lots of data to pour through.

Over the next few days I’ll be looking at lots of it in prep for a presentation to the BC Humanist’s Vancouver meeting this Sunday on this data and our recent poll. Details

But one myth I want to quickly debunk is the tendency to report Canada having a tiny fraction of atheists based on these numbers. Based on the NHS data, Statistics Canada estimates that there are 48,675 atheists in the country, a number that is utter rubbish.

The Survey asks what religion a person is, to which the answer “atheist” is illogical (unless you are religious about your atheism).

We also can’t claim that the “No religion” responses are uniformly atheist – the BCHA poll found about half of those who don’t practice a particular religion or faith do not believe in a higher power, or about 20% of BC. While people may not self-identify as atheist when asked ill-formed questions, they’re still out there not believing in god(s).

When we think of nuclear screw ups it's usually the Soviet Union/Russia that comes to mind -  Chernobyl, submarine accidents, old nuclear reactors jettisoned at sea, that sort of thing.

It turns out the United States has its own nuclear quagmire, the 586-square mile Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Benton county, Washington, hard alongside the Columbia River.   They've been accumulating nuclear waste at Hanford going back to the Manhattan Project in WWII.   From the early 40s until the last reactor was shut down in 1987, some 208 million litres of nuclear waste was held in now-decaying underground tanks on the site.

Big plans have been underway for years to relocate all that dangerous nuke waste and store it for centuries at something called the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant.   There's a snag.  Officials now think the waste has become way too dangerous to handle.   They're a little twitchy over potential chain reactions, hydrogen explosions and leaks caused by metal corrosion.

Time is not on their side.   About 60 of the 177-underground tanks are already leaking and the rest are considered in danger of following suit.

Overall, the tanks hold every element in the periodic table, including half a ton of plutonium, various uranium isotopes and at least 44 other radionuclides—containing a total of about 176 million curies of radioactivity. This is almost twice the radioactivity released at Chernobyl, according to Plutopia: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters, by Kate Brown, a history professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. The waste is also physically hot as well as laced with numerous toxic and corrosive chemicals and heavy metals that threaten the integrity of the pipes and tanks carrying the waste, risking leakage.
The physical form of the waste causes problems, too. It’s very difficult to get a representative sample from any given tank because the waste has settled into layers, starting with a baked-on “hard heal” at the bottom, a layer of salt cake above that, a layer of gooey sludge, then fluid, and finally gases in the headspace between the fluid and the ceiling. Most of the radioactivity is in the solids and sludge whereas most of the volume is in the liquids and the salt cake.

As Bart Simpson would say, "Ay, Carumba!"   But wait, there's more!   This time the focus is on the men and women who hold the launch keys for America's nuclear missile arsenal.   In Minot, North Dakota, 17 of them have been pulled off alert duty and sent for retraining.


The Air Force is putting a brave face on the incident, downplaying its significance.   But the official account doesn't square with an internal e-mail from the deputy commander of the operations group who wrote,

"We're discovering such rot in the crew force that your behavior while on alert is accepting of  [violations in weapons safety directives, possible compromises in launch codes and other shortcomings] all in the name of not inconveniencing yourselves."

Underground grow-op found under fake horse paddock Fake fire pit, dog house and horse paddock all hid underground operation CBC News Posted: May 7, 2013 2:16 PM PT

Canada’s  Provincial and Federal governments can be said to be implicit partners in this ‘enterprise,’ and so many others around BC and the rest of the country,  since they refuse to acknowledge that legalizing marijuana would make all this infrastructure an expensive waste of time and money….unfortunately, we as taxpayers get stuck with a massive bill for the bust, the so-called clean -up and the legal fees, the incarceration (rare) of the perpetrators…and for what?
We are so pathetic…..

Mankind now numbers well in excess of 7-billion and we're expected to reach 9-billion before long.   Here are a few stats to help you keep that in perspective.

When Columbus "sailed the ocean blue" and in American myth discovered the New World, 1492, the world population stood at around 500-million people.

Somewhere in the early 1800's that doubled to a billion people.

In the 1920's we hit the two billion mark for the first time.

By 1959 we upped that to three billion.   Less than one lifetime later we're well past seven billion.

Now let's go back to the death and resurrection of Christ.  In 1 A.D., the planet's population was roughly 250-million.   We're now adding over a million more people every five days.

So, where do we stand?  Well we all stand atop 57-million square miles of land of one sort of another of which about 12-million square miles is arable land.

In 1959 there were 12-acres of land for every human being, about 3-acres of arable land.   That was enough to meet all our needs quite comfortably.   Now we're down to 5-acres per person or about one acre of arable land.   By 2039 that could be down to 2-acres of land per capita, roughly .4 acres of arable land.   And that's without factoring in arable land lost to sea level rise; salination of coastal freshwater resources;  desertification from our exhaustion of once fertile farmland; cyclical floods and droughts resulting from our broken hydrological cycle.

Anybody see how this ends well?  If you do, send your ideas to your government and the U.N. and don't delay.   In the meantime maybe we should sit down and have a grownup chat about growth, starting right here in Canada.

Why here?   Because, according to researchers at the Global Footprint Network,  Canada is one of less than a handful of northern hemisphere countries (four, max) that retain a biomass surplus.   That means our ecological pants aren't too tight for us just yet.   And that means we have options, very important planning options, that almost no other countries have and all of them only wish they had.

Most countries fell into ecological deficit at a time when they didn't know better.  We didn't truly grasp the relationship between biomass sufficiency and ability to maintain a healthy economy and society.  Canada still has options that other countries lost years ago but we'll lose them in the very same way if we don't decide to safeguard our ecology for the future.

The British government's energy and climate change secretary, Ed Davey, is fighting back against climate change skeptics within the ranks of his own coalition government.   Davey is a Liberal Democrat.  His party wants action on climate change.  The LibDems, however, prop up the Cameron Conservatives where, true to course, the rightwing climate change skeptics lurk.

Ed Davey, the energy and climate change secretary, is to use a major speech at Clarence House on Wednesday afternoon to fight back against the increasingly vocal climate change scepticism of other sections of the coalition.

His uncompromising speech, seen by the Guardian, promises stronger action on global warming and follows the admission by his party leader Nick Clegg that green issues are now some of the most serious flashpoints between the coalition partners. The Liberal Democrats have long sought to be seen as strong on the environment, a core issue for the party's voters. But they have suffered setbacks in government as the Treasury has cut renewable energy support and an increasingly vocal number of Tories oppose windfarms, money for low-carbon projects and tougher targets for UK emissions cuts, all of which the Lib Dems support.

Leaving aside whether Stephen Harper's previously-undisclosed media monitoring is actually right in substance, Brian Jean isn't entirely wrong as to why he and other Con MPs are facing it:
Conservative MP Brian Jean, who is on the list, said he’s not sure why he was flagged, but also said he isn’t troubled by it.

“They must be interested in what their colleagues are doing, right? I mean the government must be. It seems to make sense from a party position that you would be interested in what your members are saying,” he said.The only problem is that so far, it's the public rather than the party picking up the tab for an effort aimed strictly at the Cons' partisan interests:
The Harper government has spent more than $23 million over the last two years on media monitoring — including more than $2.4 million tracking some of its own backbench MPs in television interviews, radio and print, according to documents tabled in the House of Commons earlier this week.

The names of 65 Conservative backbench MPs — or just about 64 per cent of all Tory MPs who have no ministerial or any parliamentary secretary duties — are included in a list of search terms the federal government paid third-party contractors to monitor in news media from April, 2011 to December, 2012, although some of the terms were also monitored in early 2013.

MPs and staff in every office The Huffington Post Canada contacted Wednesday were bewildered to learn who was named on a list of politicians the Privy Council Office (PCO) tracks. (The PCO is the prime minister’s department).
...
All Conservative MPs were meant to be included, Rivet added. “Things may have been missed. It was our intention to include everyone,” he said. (Most opposition MPs are not being tracked according to the documents tabled Monday). So the real question for the Harper regime is this: why is he forcing the public to pay for media monitoring which is obviously aimed at party management rather than any legitimate function of government? And when will the Cons reimburse Canada's public purse for the money they've taken already?

I have written several posts in this blog about institutions and their many shortcomings, shortcomings that seem directly proportional to their age. The longer one exists, the more prone an organization seems to becoming increasingly insular, self-referential, and self-reverential.

One of the institutions most frequently targeted here is law enforcement. Whether examining local or national forces, it is clear that the temptation to overstep, misuse and abuse authority is too much for some to resist. Failure to seriously acknowledge that fact only leads to a greater likelihood it will recur, often more frequently or on an even larger scale.

Perhaps the most notorious instance of police abusing their authority and subsequent organizational inertia in responding to it was the G20 Summit of 2010 in Toronto. The details of that infamous weekend are well-known, and I have posted about it numerous times; in the aftermath of that weekend of mayhem, a G20 Criminal Investigative Project was formed to pursue and bring to justice the non-police criminals who contributed to the violence of that weekend.

As The Star's Rosie DiManno reports in today's edition, despite the legacy of illegalities perpetrated by the police and their commanders, that Project is today to be given a team award originating with Professional Standards:

[It is] being presented to some of the 82 members of the Toronto Police Service who are being honoured on Thursday along with a handful of officers from other law agencies

As Ms DiManno tartly observes:

There is little to feel proud about in the aftermath of that weekend of wreckage and trampled rights. Goodness, a slew of lawsuits against police for alleged abuse of force are still winding their way through the courts. And much of this city lost faith in its upholders of law and order, unprepared as they were to avert the chaos that erupted, then overly zealous in response to top-down orders that they “take back the streets.”

But that reality doesn't seem to exist in Policeland, it would seem.

The authorities, however, should be aware that it has not been forgotten in the larger world of public opinion. Recommend this Post

Today in Ottawa we will be seeing one more reason to junk the Ontario Separate School System: High school students from Ottawa Catholic schools will have time off to join the anti-abortion protesters. Communications officer Mardi de Kemp said the... Dr.Dawg http://drdawgsblawg.ca/

Here, on how all of Canada could lose out if Christy Clark's B.C. Liberals are able to follow through on their plans to eliminate the Therapeutics Initiative which has provided needed information about the effectiveness of prescription drugs.

For further reading...
- More background about the current status of the Therapeutics Initiative is available here and here.
- And the efforts to reduce public purchasing costs for generic drugs discussed in the column include the national initiative reported on by CBC, as well as Alberta's more recent push.
- But hopefully my concern will be rendered moot by the election of a new B.C. government. And the latest revelations in the long-running B.C. Rail scandal may go a long way toward making that happen.

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- George Monbiot writes about the absurdity of the right-wing choice to promote inequality in the name of competition among the wealthy when the ultimate results are worse for everybody:
The capture by the executive class of so much wealth performs no useful function. What the very rich appear to value is relative income. If executives were all paid 5% of current levels, the competition between them (a questionable virtue anyway) would be no less fierce. As the immensely rich HL Hunt commented several decades ago: "Money is just a way of keeping score."

The desire for advancement along this scale appears to be insatiable. In March Forbes magazine published an article about Prince Alwaleed, who, like other Saudi princes, doubtless owes his fortune to nothing more than hard work and enterprise. According to one of the prince's former employees, the Forbes magazine global rich list "is how he wants the world to judge his success or his stature".

The result is "a quarter-century of intermittent lobbying, cajoling and threatening when it comes to his net worth listing". In 2006, the researcher responsible for calculating his wealth writes, "when Forbes estimated that the prince was actually worth $7 billion less than he said he was, he called me at home the day after the list was released, sounding nearly in tears. 'What do you want?' he pleaded, offering up his private banker in Switzerland. 'Tell me what you need.'"

Never mind that he has his own 747, in which he sits on a throne during flights. Never mind that his "main palace" has 420 rooms. Never mind that he possesses his own private amusement park and zoo – and, he claims, $700m worth of jewels. Never mind that he's the richest man in the Arab world, valued by Forbes at $20bn, and has watched his wealth increase by $2bn in the past year. None of this is enough. There is no place of arrival, no happy landing, even in a private jumbo jet. The politics of envy are never keener than among the very rich.
...
In order to grant the rich these pleasures, the social contract is reconfigured. The welfare state is dismantled. Essential public services are cut so that the rich may pay less tax. The public realm is privatised, the regulations restraining the ultra-wealthy and the companies they control are abandoned, and Edwardian levels of inequality are almost fetishised.
...
Can we not rise above this? To seek satisfactions that don't cost the earth and might be achievable? The principal aim of any wealthy nation should now be to say: "Enough already".- Meanwhile, Andrew O'Hagan writes about Margaret Thatcher ultimate legacy in leaving the U.K. a "greedier and seedier place". And Frances Russell points out the futility of a race to the bottom on taxes.

- Haroon Siddiqui and Stephen Gordon discuss the damage the Harper Cons have done to Canada's census. And Jennifer Ditchburn writes that rural Canada will be particularly hard hit by a lack of reportable data to allow for evidence-based policy.

- But then, Jonathon Gatehouse reminds us that Harper is generally eager to make sure that facts don't find their way into public debate - as evidence by his muzzling of federal scientists. And Andrew Coyne notes that the Cons' abhorrence of pure research makes little sense even from the most restrictive of libertarian viewpoints.

Canada's lawless abortion regime rightfully stands as a beacon to progressive countries struggling to escape patriarchal attitudes to women's health and reproductive freedom.

But as we've noted recently (here and here), Australia has grabbed the patriarchal bull by the RU486 (aka 'home abortion pill') horns.

Pioneered by Dr Caroline de Costa, the medication is set to be added to Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory list, which would lower the cost from $300-400 to $36 for woman who can pay and $12 for women on benefits.

(For those interested, there is -- of course -- a political angle. When Tony Abbott, former seminarian nicknamed the Mad Monk, was Minister of Health in a previous government, he fought tooth and nail to keep RU486 out of the country. Now that he is Liberal leader of the opposition, feminists and pro-choicers are dredging up that unsavory past to paint him in a light unfriendly to women.)

Meanwhile, in Canada, RU486, or mifepristone, remains unapproved by Health Canada.

In fact, the most recent reference I can find to it in medical literature is a paper from 2005 by Jennifer LaLiberté.

Mifepristone has been around for more than 20 years. It is considered to be very safe and is the preferred method of medical abortion in many countries, most notably France.
Use of mifepristone (Mifeprex®) has been associated with fewer deaths than Tylenol or Viagra, and is safer than full term pregnancy.Antis love to cite the rare instances of complications and really really love to cite the ickyness of the process. In fact, some like Big Nursie Stanek, absolutely revel in descriptions of cramps, bleeding, and pain.

But, frankly, only people who believe women's reproductive organs mirror Barbie's smooth plastic parts, think that being female is all sugar and spice.

Who among us hasn't has a narsty bloody crampy period and wondered just what was happening? Is this a miscarriage, we wonder? We don't know, do we? We just deal with it.

Today, on March of the Feti Day, as hundreds (of bussed-in Catholic schoolchildren) gather on Parliament Hill to shriek abuse and hatred at women, it seems appropriate to ask: just what the hell is going on with RU486 in Canada?

It has many benefits: safety, lower complication rates than other medical abortions, privacy, and -- in particular -- cost. In a universal healthcare system, it is the duty of policy makers to satisfy patients while minimizing cost.

A recent news story about Health Canada may shed some light on our federal health regulatory body.

In mid-April this year, there was a badly bungled recall of birth control pills.

Apotex, the maker, discovered that some lots of pills contained not one week of sugar-pills (included to insure that women take a pill every day) but TWO weeks, significantly raising the chances of unintended pregnancy in women who thought they had that covered.

Apotex informed Health Canada of the problem last Thursday. However, Health Canada and Apotex failed to inform the general public of the problem until last Monday, nearly a week after the problem was first identified. A Health Canada spokeswoman explained that an urgent recall was not issued immediately because the problem with the pill was not considered life-or-death. Instead, the department and Apotex issued a “Class II” recall, reserved for products that may cause temporary health issues, or where the probability of a serious health impact is low.

In other words, risk of accidental pregnancy was not deemed serious enough to trigger an urgent product recall.

The department upgraded the recall on Monday to a Class I recall after realizing some women who shouldn’t become pregnant for medical reasons could be affected.

Health Canada spokeswoman Blossom Leung said in an e-mail the recall assessment takes health impacts into account, not “lifestyle impacts” such as unplanned pregnancy, which is why the urgent product recall was only issued Monday.A department that considers an unplanned pregnancy a 'lifestyle impact' and not, for some women, a devastating health risk, is -- one might say -- a tad tone-deaf to the reproductive needs of Canadian women.

And we're not the only ones wondering what's up. Here, pharmacist and lawyer, John Griess, writing about OxyContin compares the US FDA's approach to Health Canada's. The FDA would not approve a generic form of OxyContin, considered to be hella more dangerous to addicts than the reformulated version, while Health Canada saw no problemo with it.
Health Canada’s focus on bioequivalence with no mention of its duty to “protect the public by minimizing risks” highlights the difference between the two organizations, and indicates why clinicians and Canadians should be concerned about what’s going on at Health Canada.So, as fetus fetishists stomp their widdle feet on Parliament Hill today, we ask: What is Health Canada doing to provide Canadian women and families with the widest possible choice of legal, safe, preferred, and cost-effective medications to terminate pregnancy?

After all, isn't that the most rational (i.e. non-religious) argument fetus fetishists have? That they don't want to pay for 'lifestyle issues' of slutty women?

Seems Health Canada doesn't want to either, even at a greatly reduced cost to taxpayers.

We at DJ! suggest that women raise the issue with their doctors and OB/GYNs. Also, we should inform ourselves about the safety and efficacy of mifepristone. We will need to counter the lies of the antis if/when this issue ever comes up in Canada.

ADDED: Gail of ROAR in PEI has some trenchant thoughts.

Andrew Coyne has an interesting take on the National Research Council's new mandate. The NRC was originally established to do the kind of research which business could not and should not do:

Hence it is well-established economic principle that basic research is the sort of thing governments should fund. By the same token, however, government should not be in the business of funding applied research, that is research directed to commercial uses. Not only is this unnecessary — business can perfectly well fund this sort of thing on its own — but it inevitably tilts the pitch in favour of certain activities over others: some technologies, innovations, products, firms and industries will be funded, at the expense of the rest.
The Harper government likes to claim that it is devoted to "free markets." But, Coyne writes, that claim is patently false:

After so many previous episodes — the auto industry bailouts; the proliferation of subsidies and tax breaks to other favoured industries, even including the venture capital industry; the extension of regional development subsidies to every part of the country; to say nothing of its highly discretionary foreign investment policy, jawboning of banks, etc. etc. etc. — it should by now be clear to everyone: This can no longer be described as mere political posturing. It accurately reflects the government’s current thinking on the economy. We have to stop talking about the Harper government having “abandoned its principles”. Whatever might once have been the case, these are its principles.
This is a government which believes in market intervention -- not in favour of ordinary citizens, but in favour of business:

It is simply wrong to refer to the Harper government as “free market” in orientation. Its economic policy is, and has been for some time, heavily interventionist — perhaps the most interventionist of any government since Trudeau’s.
Stephen Harper claimed he was in favour of accountability -- then shut down all avenues to it. He claimed he was fiscally responsible then ran up the biggest deficit in Canadian history. He claims that markets should be allowed to function freely, but insists that they function according to his rules.

Coyne's point is simple: You can't believe a word he tells you. He's a fraud.

Saw this the other day over Twitter ... Abortion pill now a reality. Australia sits poised to list RU486 as part of their Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, which will make the once very expensive drug, available to all Australian women at a hugely lower price.

Medical abortion.
Safe, effective and ACCESSIBLE.

So I google RU486 and I see that the World Health Organization added RU486 to it's Model List of Essential Medicines, an inventory of 312 drugs that are considered benchmarks in meeting worldwide "priority health care needs". (article, 2006) It is apparently, the preferred choice for medical abortion. Available in Australia, WHO thinks it's important, it must be available in Canada. 

Then I quickly see that it is not approved for use in Canada. (sigh) "RU486 is available in all countries of the European Union except Portugal, Italy and Ireland. It is also available in the United States, China, India, Russia, Australia and South Africa, amoung others." What the frack? What is currently being used in Canada is Methotrexate , not as effective as RU 486.  Why would one version of medical abortion, the less effective version be the only one available?

The discussion of medical abortion is particularly relevant to PEI, since we have the lovely distinction of being the only province in Canada that discriminates against women by denying access to abortion services within the province. Remember that old public service commercial (ran in the Maritimes anyway) showing a man and a kid in a boat, and the man throws some garbage overboard: 'where does the garbage go dad' says the kid, and the dad replies 'away'. Out of sight, out of mind, it becomes someone else's problem. Well, that's the abortion services situation on PEI, held in place by our Premier, Robert Ghiz and our Health Minister, Doug Currie.

Recently we found out that some medical abortions ARE being provided on PEI (Who knew! Not me, but then how would I since it's none of my business what a woman and her physician decide to do about her primary health care. I trust women. And I trust the physicians that advise them). Our Health Minister would like us to believe that access in another province is acceptable and that lumping this primary care service in with other tertiary (or specialty) health care services that need to be accessed outside the province is appropriate. COMPLETE crap. Primary care services belong in community hospitals and the hospitals are already equiped to provide these services. What this policy does is create a class system where the 'haves' have access and the 'have nots' are shit out of luck. Now haves vs havenots is a new dynamic, but when we're talking about women being able to say when and if they will have a child, women being able to control their most basic bodily functions, the ramifications of such a policy, something akin to forced childbirth ... is an evil I just didn't think our country or our 'gentle island' was capable of perpetrating. In any case, on to medical abortion:

CBC.ca/pei 'Health PEI not tracking Medical Abortions'.
CBC Radio, Island Morning Medical Abortion.
The Guardian - Medical abortions available in PEI.

I have to really wonder why RU486 is not available in Canada especially considering our current Prime Minister has said he has no agenda that would see the abortion discussion reopened, in otherwords, he would not see abortion restricted. Certainly not offering what is the preferred drug for medical abortions would be seen as a definite restriction! On top of that he has seen motions put forward by Conservative MPs regarding abortion and met them with clear and concise opposition (Hon. Gordon O'Connor, CPC on M312 - scroll down! It's an epic smack-down, it's worth reading several times in fact). Unless of course his agenda is to just 'leave that discussion entirely alone and neither move back nor forward'. Which may be the case. Like my dog when I find him on the sofa, and he doesn't move, doesn't so much as blink, I assume he's hoping I don't see him and that things can just carry on without any big hassle. No one make any sudden movements and we'll all go about our business as usual. Well, maybe that's not the best analogy, but I'm fresh out of humor about abortion agendas.

Some background. What is Medical Abortion?
Canadians for Choice
Women's Health Matters
What is RU486 - this article is a bit dated I think ... so some facts/info may have changed, but it'll get you started.

Why is RU486 not approved in Canada? "The drug of Choice" appeared in a Halifax publication, 'The Coast' in 2006 and goes into some of the barriers that has prevented the drug from being available to women here.

If Stephen Harper and the Conservatives wanted to really convince Canadians that they don't have an agenda to restrict abortion, why not see RU486 approved in Canada? Why not allow women access to the most effective drug? Why not increase the power and the privacy that resides in the physicians' office: between the physician and their patient? 

Harper's complacency and apparent unwillingness to be proactive on the topic, especially considering the rate at which his Conservative MPs continue to expell all manner of 'let's raise the abortion issue while pretending not to raise the abortion issue because too many citizens are ignorant to our crafty ways and too few reporters investigate our motives' would beg action on his part ... IF that is ... he really did not have an agenda or secretly support an agenda that would see abortion services slowly restricted in Canada. So I say again, why isn't RU486 approved in Canada?

Oh, here is the latest Conservative stinky egg to fall out of the hayloft: 'Equality Motion' - try not to giggle at Woodworth wanting us to believe that he's actually surprised the Abortion Rights Coalition didn't support his motion.

The downside to RU486? Access to a safer, more effective private abortion. You heard me, that's the downside. If that sounds like it doesn't make sense - welcome to the anti-choice position.

Of course ... change could be right around the corner ... we say that on PEI all the time ... we say it with a bit of a chuckle as we are often wrong, but it's good to stay positive. Change could be happening very very quietly, it could be happening right now in fact.  You see, many politicians do want to bring about change, but they need their hands held and they need constant support and they need reassuring and they need everyone to 'maintain low tones' otherwise they git scared and run off. That's why they get paid the big bucks and retire with a juicy pension. Nevermind that women who access services and those who provide services are often put at risk ... politicians need a safe, effective and private way to bring about change ... well ain't that ironic. 'Cause women need a safe, effective and private way to bring about change too ... change in their pregnancy status.

Nothing to do with abortion is every going to be secret, and why should it be.  Canada is a pro-choice country and although we are not without our glitches in the system
-PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND-
we should be ensuring that part of an extensive sexual health education includes knowledge of and access to Plan B (the morning after pill) and RU486 (medical abortion) so that many early unwanted pregnancies can be dealt with safely, effectively and privately.  I read somewhere that as many as 30% of unwanted pregnancies, in countries where RU486 is used, are ended with medical abortion. Between that and Plan B it would seem that surgical abortion would be on the decline even. Isn't THAT a nifty thing. That must scare the pants off the anti-choice crowd, that women would be able to deal with such a high percentage of unwanted pregnancies so privately ... ssssshhhhhhh!

(a booming and sophisticated voice now bellows)

Will Canada be next to approve RU486?

Will the women of Prince Edward Island find medical abortion to be a helpful step in addressing the lack of leadership and integrity amoung their elected officials in bringing abortion access to PEI?

Will decision-makers on PEI recognize the need for a mandatory and comprehensive education program at the highschool level on PEI that teaches our youth about Plan B and Medical Abortion along with all the other fun birth control, sex and sexual health 'stuff'? (I know, that one is hilarious).

Will women on PEI see primary care surgical abortion services finally established in PEI?  Because the hypocrisy of offering medical abortions and not surgical abortions is ridiculous on so many levels.

Like a good old fashioned cliff hanger! I'd love to say that's entertaining but really it's a tad tedious waiting for PEI to move into the current century and for our Premier, Robert Ghiz and our Health Minister Doug Currie to grow a pair of ovaries and bring about the policy change that Island women deserve. To see that women on PEI have access to what is an essential part of their primary health care.  But then, we'll get this done with our without them, and increased access medical abortion, with RU486 would be a good start.

Expanded, Not RESTRICTED Abortion Options - From 'Dammit Janet'

Stay tuned, this discussion is far from over:
A bit of light for abortion on PEI
Way of the Future: Medical abortion, private, safe, cheap

Links to be added later

We had breakfast in a little cafe (what New Yorkers call a coffee shop, a real working-person's breakfast spot) in R's neighbourhood. This was my only opportunity to have a full English breakfast on this trip, and it was yummy.

We got a bit of a late start, but that was probably best in the long run. I either did poor research or didn't fully take in what I was reading, because we didn't realize the British Library was no longer part of the British Museum. Last time we were in London, the British Library was closed for its massive renovation. I had really enjoyed it when I was here before, and I knew Allan would want to see it. So first we went to the British Museum, learned our mistake, and got back on the tube to the King's Cross, where the new British Library is located.

The exterior is an unprepossessing building, but the interior is white and light and airy, designed around a glass-encased tower of books, with seating all around it. Scores of people were working in the open, sitting in chairs of very clever design - each comfy chair a small L, with a desk for a laptop and a side table for papers and books. There are also standing spots, where you can lean against a tall, slanted back support.

The Library's permanent exhibit has been updated and modernized. When I was there in 1985, if I recall correctly, it was a parade of male British writers and British historical documents. I do also remember seeing a Mozart score. I was still an English major at heart and that was fine with me. Now they've widened their lens. Along with Shakespeare and the Beowulf manuscript, there are early printed documents from China, Japan, Korea, and India, and along with the Gutenberg bibles there are korans and hagaddahs. The music section includes a Beatles display, and there are female authors other than Jane Austen. Also Magna Carta, the Lindisfarne Gospels, and many gorgeous illuminated manuscripts, which I love.

We only went to the permanent exhibit, although there were two current exhibits, one on propaganda and a beautiful display on the detective novel. There's also a huge philatelic collection, contained in a wall of metal plates, stacked side by side, that you can pull out to view. One interesting stamp we saw: from the Lodz ghetto in occupied Poland: judenpost.

In between the British Library and meeting Mara at her workplace, we thought we'd see some of London's great new architecture. We took the tube to London Bridge, came above ground, turned the corner, and WOW, there was The Shard. It's an exciting building.

We walked around to see it from different angles. Looking straight up, against a background of sky and drifting clouds, you get the disconcerting illusion that the building is falling towards you. Because of the building's transparent skin, it looks different at different times of day.

I gather from the media that Londoners have been put off by how expensive it is to visit the observation area - "The View From The Shard" - and how far in advance you have to book: advanced tickets at £25, day-of £30. Then we saw the kicker: "Immediate Access: £100." If you have the dough, you don't have queue up with the riff raff. A class system even for a tourist attraction.

We also saw City Hall, where Mara is working right now, and the top of "The Gherkin", which resembles a giant dildo more than a pickle. Although we didn't see it close up, it seems unappealing in the distance. The shape is interesting but the colour and pattern of the skin seems tacky.

When Mara got out of work, we took a long and seemingly complicated tube ride to Chiswick (pronounced "chis-ick"), and met Justin and their daughter A at a beautiful pub, the Duke of Sussex, a great setting and a really interesting Spanish-themed menu. We ordered a lot of food and wine, and had a really nice time. Mara's daughter is an amazing girl - smart, precocious, adorable, and altogether charming.

When it was almost A's bedtime, Dad and daughter took off, and Allan and I went to another pub and had a quick pint with Mara. Everyone inside was watching a Chelsea v Tottenham game. Neighbourhood pubs are one one of my favourite things about the UK. (They are disappearing, too. I'm told that in the country overall, an average of three pubs close each week.)

We went back to Mara's to see her flat, then a long tube ride back to R's neighbourhood. I love the tube. (We used the hell out of our day passes.) And I love London! This visit was mainly to see friends, but just being in this great city gives me such a charge. I fell in love with London on my first time there in 1982, and only like it more every time I've been back.

This morning we were up very early. R drove us to the tube, which we took to the St Pancras Station, and are now in Paris!