Pharmacy security

A rash of break-ins at local drug stores has store owners wondering what needs to be done to increase security and keep prescription drugs out of the illicit market.

Here’s a thought.

Anyone who has shopped at a major supermarket will notice the steel gates that ring the dispensary area when the pharmacist is away. The stores have those security features since the entire layout is based on designs in Ontario where drug stores have been required for years – by regulation – to provide that level of security.

78. The parts of a pharmacy in which prescriptions are compounded and dispensed for the public or drugs are stored or sold by retail shall be so constructed that they may be locked and made not accessible to the public in the absence of a pharmacist. R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 551, s. 78.

Maybe the local pharmacy regulatory board should bring in those types of security features for all drug stores in the province.

The local regulations only apply to drug stores that have specifically applied for that type of set-up.  The lock and leave regulations in Newfoundland and Labrador applies when the dispensary is closed but the rest of the store is open.

If a pharmacist is always available when the pharmacy is open, there is no need to complete the Application for Approval of Lock and Leave form. An application form is available from the Board’s offices, or from the website www.nlpb.ca should you later decide to apply for Lock and Leave approval. [Italics added]

The Ontario regulation applies to all pharmacies at all times.  When the store is closed, the extra level of security in the dispensary make it that much harder for thieves to break in, turn off security cameras and then take their time breaking into the narcotic safe.

Maybe drug store owners could try that before they talk about getting rid of all “narcotics and restrict them to hospitals or one central location where they're dispensed only when needed,” as the CBC story linked above said one pharmacist  suggested.

Just a thought.

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Crass political opportunism continues unabated

The guy admits he knows nothing about the issue.

But that doesn’t stop him from renewing his efforts at trying to take political advantage of a tragedy.

Sadly, he wasn’t alone at the time this started.

Sadder still, he’s now got support from the rest of his political colleagues at Tammany on Gower.

And don’t forget that’s even though he admittedly knows nothing about the subject, and as it almost goes without saying, the rest of his council buddies know even less about the subject.

Of course, it has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that this is an election year at city hall.

Nothing whatsoever.

And Mile One will make money.

No sh** update:  And lo and behold while that last sentence was written without benefit of having seen the print version of the Telegram, there in all it’s glory was a claim from last night’s council meeting that Mile One had actually made money last year without the benefit of a hockey team.

Of course, what council calls “profit” or “surplus” doesn’t take into account the multi-million dollar subsidy taxpayers funnel into the place. 

Again.

If we took that into account, the place would be certainly hundreds of thousands if not millions in the red.

Again.

And none of this taxpayer funded bullsh** has anything to do with the fact it is an election year.

What’s the phrase for that?

Oh yeah.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

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Provincial Tory pork star praises federal Connie cash

Local Tory stalwart Len Simms didn’t get the memo.

The former Provincial Conservative heavyweight, now holding down the heavyweight pork-post as head of Newfoundland AND Labrador Housing Corporation is praising the federal government’s stimulus package.

According to voice of the cabinet minister, Simms will have more than double the money to spend on interior and exterior renovations to public property – but hanks to federal cash.

That would be the evil federal government that always does nasty things to Newfoundland and Labrador.

Well, that is, the feds do that at least in the mind of the guy who funnels beaucoup provincial cash into Simms’ bank account.

Simms, you will recall, left his pork-post just long enough to run the Provincial Conservative campaign in 2007.  Just think of it as a form of in-out scheme.

There’s the in part of the scheme.

There’s the out part.

But the back “in” again part is apparently a double-whammy of salary plus pension.

 

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A little help for his friends

So which Progressive Conservative – maybe a member of the current House of Assembly - got the benefit of Ed Byrne’s constituency allowance to get elected?

Some time between August 2000 and April 2004, Ed Byrne used $3,000 of public money that was supposed to go toward Byrne’s constituency-related business to pay a campaign worker for work on a provincial by-election somewhere  in Newfoundland and Labrador.

By-election finance statements before 2005 aren’t available at the Elections Newfoundland and Labrador website so someone will have to troop along to Paul Reynolds’ office to get a look at the documents to see if the money was reported.

Plus, we can’t be sure that is the only such payment made out of the money Byrne is supposed to have misappropriated.  His agreed statement of facts recently in answer to fraud and corruption charges only accounted for a fraction  - 25% or so - of the total.

Then there’s things like the building supplies – lumber? – he bought and shipped up to his cabin in the woods. Did anyone check to see if it was dry-wall and  two by fours?  If there was a raft of two by twos in there, as well as washers and roofing nails and the timing was right, that might also turn out to be election-related purchases.  Two by two lumber, washers and roofing nails are used to hold up the ever-popular two foot by two foot election sign.

But what provincial by-elections were held in that time?

Trinity North (April 25, 2000)

Humber West (June 19, 2001)

Port de Grave (June 19, 2001)

St. Barbe (January 30, 2001)

The Straits and White Bay North (January 30, 2001)

Bonavista North (July 24, 2002)

Conception Bay South (November 12, 2002)

At least one of the Progressive Conservatives in those by-elections got a boost from public funds.

Which one was it?

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Moores linked to Airbus before 1984?

That’s the gist of documents found by CBC [ Globe’s got it too.], according to a story on the cbc.ca website:  former premier turned lobbyist Frank Moores dealt with KarlHeinz Schreiber about Airbus and political donations as far back as 1983.

Expect to see the Gin and Tonic Biographer – whose biography of Moores has a few gaps and errors in it as it is – in the media sounding more like an old friend of the family than the person who wrote the book on Frank.

It’s not like this situation hasn’t arisen before.

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Measurement and progress at Eastern Health

Without the benefit of a transcript, it’s hard to be 100% sure but your humble e-scribbler heard Jennifer Guy - Eastern Health’s vice president of partnerships and strategic communication  - claim that information everyone is in a tizzy about was a mere one inch from the top of the news release under scrutiny.

One inch?

Let’s check.

The information in question is simple enough to find:  there were 38 additional patients who’d met the criteria for breast cancer re-testing.

One only has to look 6.75 inches down from the top edge of the page or 4.75 inches below the headline to find it. 

One inch, Jennifer?

Hardly.

The actual number “38” is one inch from the top of the paragraph containing that information but that paragraph starts three and one half inches below the headline.

That “38” appears, incidentally, in the the fifth paragraph of the news release.

Normally, releases should put the most important information at the front.  As one scans down the page, the information becomes relatively less and less important.  That’s how reporters scan them and that’s how people working in communications normally write them.

Well, at least they ought to write them that way.

Using that approach, the most important information in this release is that “Eastern Health would like to inform the public that it is moving forward with the implementation of recommendations from the Cameron inquiry report.” [PR writing hint:  “would like” is a terrible phrase since it suggests that you would like to do some but won’t or can’t.  in this case it seems to be an accurate use of the phrase but ordinarily it’s a meaningless cliché, at best.]

Then there are two paragraphs telling that a working group “has been established” that will meet bi-weekly (is that twice a week or every two weeks?) and figure out which recommendations to implement in what order. [PR writing hint:  The passive voice is bad.  Active voice is infinitely better.  In this case, we should have seen a release that told who did what, as in:  “Interim CEO Louise Jones today appointed…”.  If she did it in consultation with her successor, all the better.  Mention that somewhere.  If nothing else, this approach makes it plain that someone is actually responsible for taking action.  That would seem to be important in this case from all that has gone on.  Use of the passive voice makes it look like the whole thing is happening as if by some unseen and mysterious force.]

There will also be a “steering committee”, we are told, but what it does remains a mystery.

At paragraph four, there’s more of the “would like” stuff and here’s where we get into the problem.

Paragraph five, which has the real information in it, starts out by giving all the background bumpf about “challenges” in internal information systems and how some organization had been “engaged” to help out.

In short, before we get to the news here, someone first wanted to give the explanations that sound more like excuses again.

Then there’s the bit about the patients and retesting.

This is a lousy piece of work, by any measure.  if all the rest weren’t true, it is unfocused in that it draws together a raft of different elements and crams them in the one place.

The second last sentence commits Eastern Health to “full disclosure” of the results of the retesting process.  That sounds like a pat phrase that someone figured might be good but that really doesn’t convey the accurate information; “full disclosure” suggests that Jane Jones will have her test scores posted to the web along with her medical records and the complete details of how her case got lost.  Well, Jane and her 37 sisters in re-testing.

This was pretty much a bad release, badly handled and as it turns out since the thing became a controversy, badly handled yet again.

If we measured Eastern’s progress on implementing changes by the same standard the new vice president used today in measuring a news release from her department,  we’d find ourselves moving backwards rather than forwards.

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NB grid booked up

The New Brunswick electricity is booked, with only 310 megawatts of capacity expected to come free in 2015, according to the Telegraph Journal.

Preliminary studies of the New Brunswick system commissioned by Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro  show that while the existing grid could handle power from the Lower Churchill, the booked capacity  - particularly across the New Brunswick to Maine intertie - is “the limiting factor.”

"When you reach an intertie and it is fully booked, fully reserved, you need to reach an agreement with one of the holders of the capacity," said Sylvain Gignac, the president of the NBSO [New Brunswick System Operator], which polices the province's transmission lines.

"It will be tough without building new transmission, except if they reach a deal with one of the biggest holders, which are Hydro-Québec Energy Marketing (HQ Energy Marketing Inc.) and New Brunswick Power (NB Power)."

In the current configuration, Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro would have to cut a deal with an existing user to ship what the Telegraph Journal says would be 740 megawatts through New Brunswick.

The alternative would be to build new capacity.  Nova Scotia-based Emera is reportedly looking at a new connection from Canada into the New England market.

In an interview with the Telegraph Journal, Hydro chief executive Ed Martin repeated the standard Hydro forecast: 

Commercial customers in Newfoundland and Labrador could take on some of Lower Churchill's power, Martin said, adding that the closure of a thermal generator could free up a greater need for the project's power there.

But New England remains the No. 1 market for the company.

"We would certainly target there but we're in business and anywhere we have a need that we can fulfill, we're going to consider that," Martin said.

Martin did not disclose what customers those might be.  Environmental impact documents for the Lower Churchill project do include a demand forecast that shows a domestic need for power from the Muskrat Falls and Gull Island sites.  As well, the thermal plant at Holyrood will be maintained in operation – not closed as suggested in Martin’s comment – to help manage the transmission of power from the Lower Churchill.

Hydro seems to be counting on Emera to add to the capacity across the international border.  The recent deal between Hydro and Emera that sees the latter buy power from Hydro could well be part of a much larger, developing relationship between the two companies.

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Meeker: on media

If you think Winston Smith is shy and retiring, try Geoff Meeker who in his most recent posting laces into the coverage of Eastern Health in comparison to other coverage.

However, reporters took the premier’s controversial comments and rushed them to air and print without question. Perhaps it’s easier to take a juicy quote like “they should be shot” and run with it, rather than challenge – and provoke – the premier.

If I had been a reporter at that scrum, I would have guffawed right in his face. I would have said, “But premier, your government also issues sensitive news releases late on a Friday afternoon. It seems to be a common tactic for certain issues.”

Of course, the premier would deny. And I would offer to come back with specific examples. But the deed would be done – the premier’s balloon would be deflated – with cameras rolling and microphones recording.*

Yes, this would piss the premier off. I would likely be placed on some kind of blacklist. But I would still be able to attend scrums, and that’s pretty much all you need these days – one-on-one access to the premier happens infrequently anyway.

DH h/t Update:  As one commenter noted, Friday news releases are featured in a West Wing episode called “Take out the trash day”.

As Josh explained it to Donna:

Donna: What's take out the trash day?
Josh: Friday.
Donna: I mean, what is it?
Josh: Any stories we have to give the press that we're not wild about, we give all in a lump on Friday.
Donna: Why do you do it in a lump?
Josh: Instead of one at a time?
Donna: I'd think you'd want to spread them out.
Josh: They've got X column inches to fill, right? They're going to fill them no matter what.
Donna: Yes.
Josh: So if we give them one story, that story's X column inches.
Donna: And if we give them five stories ...
Josh: They're a fifth the size.
Donna: Why do you do it on Friday?
Josh: Because no one reads the paper on Saturday.
Donna: You guys are real populists, aren't you?

 

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Winston Smith: on health care

Shame this guy – we all assume he’s a male writing under a pseudonym – feels so constrained in sharing his views.

But there is a Parkway-sized pothole on the road to separatist health policy: it's a provincial jurisdiction. The many failures of health care in NL cannot be pinned on Ottawa. If the separatists criticized the running of health care, they would have to criticize DW, whose government has been running it for six years.

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Offshore board announces inquiry into helicopter crash

A news release from the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board:

The C-NLOPB announced today that in accordance with the provisions of the Atlantic Accord Acts pertaining to ‘Mandatory Inquiries’, the Board shall establish an inquiry into worker safety associated with the recent helicopter incident in the Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore area.

The inquiry will not examine issues covered by the investigation of the Transportation Safety Board.

While we believe it is important to announce the inquiry at this time, we continue to work on a definition of the mandate, terms of reference, selection of a commissioner for the inquiry, and timeline for inquiry completion.

A further announcement will be made when these details are available.

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That’s great but…

There are plenty of pockets of oil offshore Newfoundland that have “significant discovery” status that aren’t commercially viable finds.

Expect StatoilHydro’s announcement that it has found hydrocarbons in a well on the Flemish Pass to be super hyped to all get out.  Some people will be over the moon just like they were hysterical in the early 1980s over Hibernia and Hebron.

This find is in at least 1100 metres of water.

Statoil Hydro will apparently apply to the offshore regulatory board to have this well declared a significant discovery. 

Before anyone gets excited, here’s the official definition of that term:

"a discovery indicated by the first well on a geological feature that demonstrates by flow testing the existence of hydrocarbons in that feature and, having regard to geological and engineering factors, suggests the existence of an accumulation of hydrocarbons that has potential for sustained production."

Look at that word “potential”.  Notice as well that nowhere in there does the word phrase “commercially viable” appear.

News of a find offshore is great but….

And it’s the stuff after the but we need to think about.  More information down the road and we can make a better judgment if this actually means anything more than the fact they’ve found oil.

Strong update: For those who missed it, local oil industry expert Rob Strong did a great interview on the StatoilHydro announcement with Radio Noon.  If they post an audio file, we'll link it.

Rob is well known in the local industry having been in it from the beginning. He did a great job of balancing the excitement that comes with a find of any type offshore with the wisdom borne from experience that there is still a long way to go before anywone starts uncorking the champagne.

Rob talked about the deep water and the challenges that come from drilling that far out in that much water.  Technology has come a long way but there are plenty of issues to be addressed in trying to bring oil into production that far out and down, even allowing for it to be large enough a find to be commercially viable.

Of course, too, we all have to recall that area is outside the current 200 mile exclusive economic zone.  No one has resolved yet what, if any, implications arise for anything that far out to sea from the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

That's the thing:  StatoilHydro's announcement is great.

But...

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How Irish aren’t we: budget deficit version

Here’s an idea for public finance we are not likely to see around these parts:

Irish politicians  - both in the Republic and in the North - are taking pay cuts to help deal with the country’s financial woes.  Cabinet in the Republic is slicing pay by 10%.  The opposition party leader is lopping off five percent of its pay and senior executives at the national broadcaster are taking a “significant reduction” in pay.

A tip of the derby to Guido Fawkes for that one.

Around these parts, government is facing a record forecast deficit.  We’ll have to wait until  next spring to see if it comes through as predicted in the budget.

In the meantime, cabinet is forecast to increase in size by one new portfolio plus all the attendant costs budget spending will likely stay at record heights for the next three years.

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Federal funding for universities

The Conservative government in Ottawa wants to funnel cash to the country’s universities but it wants to have a say in how the money is spent.

This is a curious change for a party elected not so very long ago with a supposed commitment to limiting federal spending in areas of provincial jurisdiction.

This is curious too since the provincial government objecting to the scheme is not the most chest-thumpingly independentist/sovereignist/autonomist one, but rather the supposedly demonic one in central Canada.

Ontario – of all provinces -  doesn’t like the strings attached to the Ottawa cash.

Education is an area of exclusive provincial jurisdiction under our constitution. Over the past 40 years that exclusivity has eroded in practice to varying degrees largely due to the federal decision to spend its cash in universities.  Many reasons are advanced for the spending and some of them are persuasive. 

For the most part, however, the federal government has not usually reserved for itself, as it wants to do in this case, the right to approve or disapprove of a project even though half the funding involved will come from either the provincial government or the university.

If the federal government wants to support research and development across Canada it may do so.  However, it should do so without restriction.  The money ought to be available to anyone – within or without a university – who can do the work.

On the other hand, if the federal government merely intends to funnel cash to a particular area of research, restricts the work to universities and then proposes to control the whole affair, it has crossed into an area where Canadians should not allow them.

How odd that no one seems to find this whole thing objectionable.

No one that is, except the Government of Ontario.

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Coincidence: Abitibi union version

Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union leaders met with Danny Williams in St. John’s in early April.

As a Canadian Press story put it on April 2, 2009:

"It really does create a lot of uncertainty ... and our members and retired members are uneasy about what's taking place," he [CEP president Dave Coles] said from Halifax, as he was returning from a meeting with Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams.

A day after returning from the meeting, the union decided that the federal government needed to step in an bail out the company.  From cbc.ca on April 3, 2009:

Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union president Dave Coles says Stephen Harper must intervene.

"Our demand of the government is that it take care of the Canadian workers.… I want the prime minister to get off his duff and do something for Canadian workers," said Coles.

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Pentagon eyes VH-71 cancellation

As part of re-shaping defence spending, the Pentagon is proposing to scrap a purchase of an EH-101 variant, dubbed the VH-71, to replace the aging Sea Kings used by the Marine One presidential flight.

The 101 beat out Sikorsky’s S-92 in a competition that ended last year.

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Rio Tinto responds to aluminum downturn

Via company news release:

Rio Tinto Alcan today announced it will slow the construction of the Yarwun alumina refinery expansion in Gladstone and curtail annual bauxite production at its Weipa mine to 15 million tonnes (from 19.4 million tonnes in 2008) due to the sharp fall in alumina and aluminium demand and prices in recent months.

Announcing the decision, Rio Tinto Alcan Bauxite and Alumina president Steve Hodgson said the depressed state of the market and a sharp cutback in demand made further tough decisions necessary.

 

Someone needs to ask Wade Locke about that great big gi-enormous project that was supposedly coming any day now to Labrador.  Hint:  it was an aluminum plant.

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Continuing the Cougar S-92 SAR spin: CBC or Cougar?

CBC is running an exclusive interview with Cougar helicopters employees about the search and rescue mission its dedicated SAR helicopter flew the day one of its S-92s crashed.

There’s a paragraph in the middle of the CBC online story that leaps out for attention, given the focus in media coverage on the whole issue of 103 Squadron being on exercise at the time of the incident:

Cougar normally supplies backup to the Canadian Forces for search and rescue operations run out of its base in Gander, in central Newfoundland. But on March 12, the base's Cormorant helicopters were involved in a training exercise in Cape Breton, so Cougar's own rescue team was pressed into service.

“Pressed into service”.

That makes it sound like something was jury-rigged and unprepared, like Cougar didn’t normally do this sort of thing.

As the saying goes, nothing could be further from the truth. Cougar provides dedicated search and rescue service to the offshore oil industry.  It isn’t an accident.  They didn’t throw something together in haste that day.

Well, they shouldn’t have thrown it together because they apparently already knew where 103 Squadron was when CHI91 launched that Thursday morning and therefore knew the flying times involved.

Nothing in the CBC online story explains why it took the Cougar SAR flight so long to launch.

There is plenty of good stuff for Cougar and its people.   It’s a nice piece, the kind any public relations person would be happy to see in this sort of story given the inevitable questions that are already being asked about every aspect of this incident including Cougar’s own SAR response.

But given that the attack on 103 Squadron is largely a media-driven angle, one has to wonder:  is the spin in this piece coming from CBC or Cougar or both?

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Just shoot me

Gunplay  - or more accurately stating that people ought to be shot for certain things not normally associated with capital punishment offences  - is apparently quite the popular rhetorical device.

MP stirs up new fuss in apology to taxmen
The Gazette February 2, 1985

A Progressive Conservative member of Parliament who said last year that federal income tax officials should be shot has re-ignited the controversy with a grudging "apology."

Union officials who represent Revenue Canada's 14,000 taxation workers say the so-called apology from Cariboo-Chilcotin MP Lorne Greenaway amounts to a further "deliberate insult." They have now complained to
Prime Minister Brian Mulroney about the British Columbia back-bencher's behavior.

Greenaway set off the fuss last March when, as a member of a Tory caucus task force on Revenue Canada, he told a public meeting in Kamloops: "The only way we are going to straighten (tax department officials) out is to take them out and shoot them."

Said it before

Greenaway noted at the time that he had said the same thing on at least one other occasion.

But despite repeated demands by the Public Service Alliance of Canada for a retraction, and complaints to the prime minister and Revenue Minister Perrin Beatty, Greenaway did not respond for 10 months. Finally, on Jan. 25, he wrote the following letter to David Flinn, president of the union's taxation component:

"Dear Mr. Flinn:

"Perhaps if some of your people heard the witnesses that came before our Revenue Canada task force last March in Kamloops, B.C., heard of the abuses by Revenue Canada employees (against) taxpayers, saw the devastation caused, you might just begin to understand why one could be
driven to such an intemperate remark as I made at the time. I'm sorry we have a system that allows such horrors. I've been ordered to apologize and I do so."

That reply is "totally unacceptable," Flinn insisted. "This whole thing has been 10 months in the commode and still his attitude hasn't changed. In a brief telephone conversation Greenaway denied he had been
ordered to apologize by Mulroney and said his comments were "no big deal."

"I was told to apologize by my staff, so they wouldn't have so much work to do and so many phones to answer," he said.

Beatty characterized Greenaway's Kamloops remarks as regrettable but understandable.

"What he tried to do was set it in some context, which was that over the course of the time he spent as a very diligent member of the task force he'd heard a succession of stories where ordinary people had their rights affected, and he felt very strongly about it."

Beatty said nobody believes Greenaway's comment about shooting tax officials was meant to be taken literally.

 

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Rookie Liberal MP sorry for Lepine line

Times Colonist, January 25, 1994

 

Rookie Liberal MP Jag Bhaduria apologized and pleaded for forgiveness Monday for once telling Toronto school board supervisors they should be shot.

In a trembling voice, Bhaduria told the Commons he “deeply regrets” the comments in a 1989 letter to his former employers.

 

“The letter was written at a low point in my life, when I was under tremendous stress relating to my career and my family,” said the MP for Markham-Whitchurch-Stouffville.

The statement appeared to satisfy Prime Minister Chretien. “It's enough because it's an apology,” Chretien said as he hurried past outside the Commons.

Herb Gray, the government House leader, said Bhaduria had not offered to withdraw from the Liberal caucus and gave no indication the party was pressing him to do so.

In 1989, Bhaduria wrote to the Toronto board of education's director saying that Marc Lepine, who massacred 14 women at the University of Montreal, should have lined up certain school board supervisors “against the wall and shot all of you. That would have been the most satisfying day of my life.”

 

That statement was written just a few days after the rampage.

He was in a long-running battle with the board at the time. Bhaduria, a teacher who was born in India, argued he had been denied a promotion to vice-principal because of racial discrimination.

Liberal Party officials have said they learned of the letter after Bhaduria's name was already on the ballot for the Oct. 25 federal election.

Meanwhile, other controversies about Bhaduria's have surfaced.

In a 1977 interview in Maclean's magazine, Bhaduria said he had bought “quite a few” high-powered rifles after being racially attacked and threatened.

Shortly after his election last October, Bhaduria appeared in court as a character witness for Kuldip Singh Samra, who had already admitted to killing two men and wounding a third in a 1982 courtroom shooting.

Samra, who defended himself, argued he should be convicted of manslaughter. But he was found guilty of first-degree murder.

Bhaduria, 50, testified that “I found you [Samra] were a great humanist who believed in humanity and equality for all.”

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Cabinet ‘should be shot' over flights, Mohawk says

Ottawa Citizen, October 13, 1994

Mohawk leader Billy Two Rivers angrily suggested Wednesday that the federal cabinet should be executed for their support of low-level military flights over Labrador.

Calling them "pimps and "whoremasters”, Two Rivers said Prime Minister Jean Chretien and his ministers are making money from foreign countries for the flights even though it is causing Innu women to have miscarriages.

"Sometimes, I don't think they are human beings in the way that they think If they are robots and they are just machines serving the establishment, then maybe they should be put against the wall and shot,” said Two Rivers.

He also said the Pope is a "hypocrite” for not vocally supporting the Innu after they met him in Rome.

The former professional wrestler, who is known for being outspoken, made the comments to a meeting of Quebec and Labrador Indian chiefs.

Peter Penashue, president of the Innu Nation, immediately distanced himself from Two Rivers' comments. He said the Kahnawake leader's intentions were good but he should rephrase his harsh statements.

But while Two Rivers acknowledged that he made his speech in anger he refused to apologize. He said he was speaking on behalf of the Mohawk community of Quebec.

Quebec and Labrador chiefs approved a resolution demanding the government immediately stop the "murderous flights and begin environmental hearings.

The government is looking at increasing the number of annual flights by 5,000, bringing the number to 15,000 a year.

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Elton John says he will apologise over Madonna tirade
Agence France Presse (English)
October 29, 2004

Elton John has said he will apologise to Madonna, after launching an expletive-laced attack on the Material Girl for lip-synching on stage.

"Would I apologize to her if I saw her? Yeah, because I don't want to hurt any artist's feelings," Sir Elton said in an interview in the latest edition of Entertainment Weekly magazine.

"It was my fault. I instigated the whole thing," he said. "But (lip-synching) applies to all those bloody teenage singers."

Attending an awards ceremony in London earlier this month, Sir Elton was incensed to find that Madonna had been nominated for best live act.

Taking to the stage, Sir Elton blasted: "Madonna - best f****** live act? F*** off. Anyone who lip-synchs in public on stage ... should be shot."

In the interview, the pop legend acknowledged that he had spoken out of turn.

"I don't want to escalate it because I like Madonna," he said. "She's been to my house for dinner. It was something that was said in the heat of the moment, and probably should not have been said."

At the time, Madonna's US spokeswoman Liz Rosenberg had flatly rejected Sir Elton's accusations, saying that Madonna neither lip-synched nor spent time "trashing" other artists.

Sir Elton argued that the media reaction to his comments had been out of proportion to their content.

"It was like I said I think all gays should be killed or I think Hitler was right," he said. "I just said someone was lip-synching."

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MLA demoted for saying Premier should be shot

The Globe And Mail March 10, 2005

 

A Saskatchewan opposition politician who suggested Premier Lorne Calvert should be shot has been taken off committees and stripped of his critic duties.

Saskatchewan Party Leader Brad Wall took action yesterday against MLA Jason Dearborn for his comments at a public meeting last month. Mr. Dearborn member of the legislature for Kindersley, was meeting municipal officials when a reeve suggested someone would be shot if school board amalgamation caused taxes to go up. Mr. Dearborn replied his candidate would be the Premier. He has since apologized.

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Emera's role in wheeling deal

A quick review of the raw video of the wheeling deal news conference [cbc.ca/nl link] led to something that means we have to change our view of this deal a bit.

Emera is not the broker of further deals, as we took it earlier. It is the customer, at least as far as Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro is concerned.

At about the 17:25 minute of the news conference, the Premier says quite plainly that the power is sold on the Canadian side of the border to Emera which then is free to sell the power to the market. There's also a reference by Ed Martin at 23:24 to Emera selling power in New England, New York or into Ontario having taken delivery on the Canadian side of the international border.

Since Emera doesn't actually operate as a power distributor in New York, apparently, it's take from sales in the Empire State will be affected by the wheeling and other costs associated with the sale.

The Premier refers at about 25:55 to an escalator clause being in the contract but there is no indication of how that works. It could be something as simple as an inflation adjustment. No matter what it is, the figures tossed out by Ed Martin - maximum $80 million - don't match up with the returns from selling power that takes maximum advantage in the summer month demand spikes in New York.

Taken altogether that reinforces the notion - at least as far as the revenue projections go - that this deal is somewhat better than the previous arrangements. Ed Martin refers to 40 to 45% better than deals over the "past five to 10 years."

However, we also have to consider that the current market prices for electricity may also be better than they were even six to seven years ago. Any suggestion that this deal and the concept of wheeling power is responsible for the increase in prices would be like the government trying to take resposibility for oil being $150 a barrel last summer.

As one last caveat, take note of the references to making more as prices go up, subject to Emera taking a profit. That's all true. However, the downside is equally true, namely that if prices drop, Hydro will make less money. Notice there was no talk of having a floor price.

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Spin doctor: heal thyself

Danny Williams is miffed that Eastern Health issued a news release Friday that included information that 38 more people had been identified who should have had their cancer screening tests redone.

Well, miffed is not the right word. He’s pissed off.

To quote the Premier:

"It's disgraceful. They should be shot over there."

Now that’s bad enough.

Just imagine just for a second if someone – in an authentic and understandable rage - had used those very words to described, for argument’s sake, the inactions of ministers or other officials a wee bit closer to the Premier’s heart than the bureaucrats at Eastern Health.

Okay, that’s a fairly obvious bit of Danny Williams’ favourite standard: the double one. He’s also practicing his other art: spin doctoring.

Then he added this bit:

"This is about people's lives … They have a right to be told," Williams said. "They have a right to be told in a proper manner. There has to be proper disclosure; there has to be someone there to answer questions. It's not something you do at the tail end of a Friday afternoon."

He’s right about that much.

And he’s right that the crucial bit of hard news ought not to have been buried in a news release that, as it would seem, was deliberate structured in all respects to obscure the kernel of news that directly affected people’s lives.

But to be perfectly frank, on a go backwards basis, it’s not like a whole raft of people much closer to the Premier’s political and administrative heart than the Eastern Health crew haven’t done exactly the same thing at least once before.

The culprits: Jerome Kennedy and the crew in government comms.

The incident: the risk of identity theft, not to forget potential disclosure of the details of medical records over the Internet.

The time: January 2008.

The news release: hard news buried at paragraph seven of an 11 paragraph news release.

Can we really fault people for following the examples offered by the tone at the top?

Say it ain't so update: The irrepressible fountain of uncomfortable truths, otherwise known as labradore, has compiled the Chronicles of Ridicule, that is, the litany of examples of the current administration releasing information late on a Friday or at other odd times when no one is available to comment.

He missed a couple on Equalization within the last six months, of course, but that's for another time.

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