For standing up for ourselves, our beliefs, and folks we love, women are often called a bitch.
When we demand social justice, women are often called a crazy bitch.
Just goes to show you conservative men lack both imagination and decent comeback lines.
National Post to close Friday without court support Last Updated: Thursday, October 29, 2009 | 2:10 PM ET Comments0Recommend1 CBC News Unless a court approves a plan to move the National Post into a company with Canwest's other newspaper holdings by Friday, the paper's owners will shutter the paper, court documents have revealed.Unless a court approves a plan to move the National Post into a company with Canwest's other newspaper holdings by Friday, the paper's owners will shutter the paper, court documents have revealed. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)
The National Post newspaper will cease operations unless a Toronto court approves a new ownership structure for the paper by Friday, the paper's owners say.
A committee overseeing the company's restructuring "has made it clear it would not continue to allow the funding of the losses of the National Post past Oct. 30, 2009," a Canwest Global Communications Corp. court filing released Thursday says.
"In the absence of any funding for its operating losses, it is doubtful that the National Post could sustain its operations."
Earlier this week, Canwest announced it had reached a deal that would allow it to transfer ownership of the paper into its newspaper unit, to be known as Canwest Publishing Inc. The National Post has been segregated from the Canwest newspaper unit since 2005, when the other newspapers were spun out into an income trust.
Canwest still needs to get court and senior lender approval for the transaction it offered on Tuesday. The deadline for that decision is Friday, Oct. 30.
The company has been under court protection from creditors since last month. The newspaper has lost more than $60 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in the last four years, Canwest CFO John Maguire revealed in the filing. The National Post Company currently has 277 employees.
The announcement comes amid speculation that Canwest, which is seeking court protection from its creditors, is preparing to sell its newspaper division.
Industry analysts say Canwest could fetch more than $1 billion for its newspaper assets as signs of life in the finances of the newspaper industry drive up interest in acquisitions.
Canwest newspapers include the Montreal Gazette, Ottawa Citizen, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Free Press, Winnipeg Free Press, Saskatoon StarPhoenix, Vancouver Sun and the Victoria Times-Colonist.
Dr. Carolyn Bennett - I hate your guts. You made me agree with a conservative. Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq wasn’t satisfied. She told the CBC, “We are in a pandemic situation where Dr. Bennett should know better. First Nations communities should not be used as punching bags for a political party.” And ... Carolyn.. honestly.. Shame on you.
OTTAWA — Liberal MPs apologized Wednesday for distributing a household flyer that attacks the government’s handling of H1N1 among aboriginals with the slogan “No vaccines, just body bags.”
The flyer, mailed as a message from Liberal health critic Dr. Carolyn Bennett, features a picture of body bags in a lab and a sick aboriginal child.
Grand Chief Ron Evans of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs told a parliamentary committee the flyer was “very disturbing...it’s really troubling to our people.”
The pamphlet arrived on doorsteps after an investigation into an incident in which an official ordered 100 body bags for a First Nations community in Manitoba struggling with an H1N1 outbreak. The investigation concluded there was no ill will and the number was a miscalculation.
Evans said the fact the flyer was apparently sent after the incident was resolved suggested the affair is now being politicized.
Bennett apologized, saying her party’s intentions were honourable.
Using the Cree expression for “I’m sorry,” Bennett said, “We would never do anything to offend; we did believe that raising attention for the real dire needs that we saw when we were [in Manitoba] was uppermost in our minds.”
Fellow Liberal MP Rob Oliphant suggested the flyers had been printed before the outcome of the body-bag investigation was known.
But Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq wasn’t satisfied. She told the CBC, “We are in a pandemic situation where Dr. Bennett should know better.
“First Nations communities should not be used as punching bags for a political party.”
I am all for gender equality, both ways, for men and women, and I know that the motivation here is to help men bond better with their children…. But something about this just ain’t right.
A male Swedish college student, Ragnar Bengtsson, 26, has begun pumping his breasts at three-hour intervals in a 90-day experiment to see if he can produce milk. If he succeeds, he said, it could prove "very important for men's ability to get much closer to their children at an early stage." A professor of endocrinology told the daily Aftonbladet that male lactation without hormone treatment might produce "a drop or two," but suggested that men instead consider offering their breasts to babies as a matter of comfort and warmth, rather than as food. Bengtsson, who will report regularly on his progress via Stockholm's TV8 channel and the station's Web site, acknowledged that his timetable would sometimes require that he pump during classes.
Of course our favourite pretty boy would race to protect his man...it's not about THAT colonial practice. Geesh! Silly Indians..they just don't get "context".
By Jorge Barrera, Canwest News ServiceSeptember 30, 2009Comments (1)
Prime Minister Stephen Harper should apologize for saying Canada has "no history of colonialism," some First Nations leaders say. The prime minister made the statements during a news conference in Pittsburgh last Friday while talking about the virtues of Canada.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper should apologize for saying Canada has "no history of colonialism," some First Nations leaders say. The prime minister made the statements during a news conference in Pittsburgh last Friday while talking about the virtues of Canada.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper should apologize for saying Canada has "no history of colonialism," some First Nations leaders say.
The prime minister made the statements during a news conference in Pittsburgh last Friday while talking about the virtues of Canada.
"We also have no history of colonialism," said Harper during the G20 summit news conference in Pittsburgh. "So we have all of the things that many people admire about the great powers but none of the things that threaten or bother them."
While there was no immediate reaction to the statement, the words stuck a nerve among some First Nations leaders who are now demanding the prime minister apologize. They said it contradicted Harper's apology for Indian residential schools and ignored Canada's origins as a colonial creation of the British and French. They also said the Indian Act and conditions on reserves are still living vestiges of Canada's colonial history with First Nations.
"It is not the truth. There should be a retraction for sure and an apology," said Ghislain Picard, grand chief of the Assembly of First Nations of Quebec and Labrador.
In a statement, Picard said: "Denying the history of colonialism in Canada is like denying the holocaust."
The Prime Minister's Office said the comments have been taken out of context and misunderstood.
"It was in response to a question from Reuters about Canada's voice and role in the international financial market. Basically, the prime minister was giving some context and saying that unlike past global empires, Canada does not have a history of colonialism with respect to the financial market," said spokeswoman Sara MacIntyre. "Past global empires have implemented policies that are colonial in nature. It was really focused on the international financial scene . . . I think it has been misunderstood and the prime minister stands behind his apology that was made last year."
Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau, the former head of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, also said the statement had been taken out of context.
"It is important to consider the context of (Harper's) comments last week," said Brazeau in a statement. "The prime minister sought to differentiate Canada's history with that of past global empires with histories of colonialism. (Harper's) apology for the tragedy of Indian residential schools last year clearly acknowledge the wrong doings and racist policies of Canada's past."
Canada's leading native organization, the Assembly of First Nations, the national arm, did not return requests for comment.
Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Ron Evans said he wanted to hear the AFN's new leader Shawn Atleo speak out about the issue. Evans said he was writing a letter to the prime minister about the matter.
"I am just shocked that someone would say something like that knowing the history of their own country," said Evans. "They tried to destroy a race of people."
Michael Cachagee, executive director of National Residential School Survivors Society, said the prime minister's statement undercut last year's seminal residential school apology.
"This man speaks with a forked tongue," said Cachagee. "He has mud on his face on this one. Colonial pie."
During the apology delivered last June, Harper never mentioned colonialism, but Evans referred to one passage he said offered a textbook example of colonialism.
Harper said: "Two primary objectives of the residential schools system were to remove and isolate children from the influence of their homes, families, traditions and cultures, and to assimilate them into the dominant culture. These objectives were based on the assumption aboriginal cultures and spiritual beliefs were inferior and unequal."
With a file from Reuters
Here is Harper's full statement as quoted by Reuters:
I had the misfortune/fortune this morning to have a discussion with a person (I'll call "creepy dude") who had been hired by my contractor to help build an extension on my house. I’ll skip the preliminary discussion and jump to the comment I made that I hoped would defuse an earlier situation but led to another.
I said: “Marc Emery will accept extradition and can expect to spend FIVE YEARS in prison for selling seeds to grow pot to US citizens, Roman Polanski drugs a US child of 13 years, has sexual relations with her, accepts in the US court of law that this was an offence, runs from the sentencing, offers the girl HUGE amounts of cash (that she accepts) and wants the world to condone his activities because she took the cash settlement. If the world accepts this then what is the value statement being made about women and children?
Creepy Dude said: Woawh! It’s not the same; in some places it’s ok to have sex with prostitutes AND she said it was ok, she even took money!
I said (with gritted teeth): So you would condone a 33 year old man having a sexual encounter with your daughter after he drugged her? (He has two daughters, an older one who left home at age 13 and lives with his wife’s parents and a young one still at home)
Creepy Dude: Hey I’m not into kids, I don’t personally think its ok but who am I to judge? (Me now thinks there is a reason why his daughter left home)
I said: If you are not able to judge that plying a child of 13 years with drugs so you or a friend of yours can stick your penis into the child is wrong then you are part of the problem.
Post what you want. It’s NEVER acceptable. That sleaze tried to tell ME that because I was transitioning careers (from a social researcher who has spent a great number of years examining this issue to another career – that quite frankly offers me less heartbreak and more rewards) that I PROVED his point – “see you can’t win.” To which I responded: It’s not a hockey game. I didn’t start the advocacy work and I’m not the solution but hundreds and thousands of women and men led the way and millions more the world over will agree with me: SEXUAL EXPOITATION IS WRONG and I will not let anyone take back a single step forward we have taken.
He left the job site before I could fire him. He said: “I don’t have to put up with aggressive, domineering, and condescending women; My wife is a CRA - I’m taking my tools and going home.”
And that’s why this site exists because I am a crazy bitch to think its wrong to drug and sexually exploit children and youth. Wild eh?
I just had to get this off my mind. Tomorrow I will link to the Polanski and Emery story. And sure tomorrow I might clean up some details but first I had to off-load the disgust I was feeling.
According to Reuters the normally "wooden" (apt description) Stephen Harper became inexplicably giddy at a G-20 press conference, declaring Canada the envy of the world, stable politics, stable banks, economy rebounding nicely, and ABSOLUTELY NO HISTORY OF COLONIALISM: "We also have no history of colonialism. So we have all of the things that many people admire about the great powers but none of the things that threaten or bother them," he said. (full article below) Ahem. Allow me 50 words or less to refute this.
I could mention too, that a few years ago when Stockwell Day was leading the party his bodyguards (aka thugs) decided to shove native protestors. Video
Only a year and a half ago in his apology to Indian Residential school survivors Harper said: "We now recognize that, far too often, these institutions gave rise to abuse or neglect and were inadequately controlled, and we apologize for failing to protect you. Not only did you suffer these abuses as children, but as you became parents, you were powerless to protect your own children from suffering the same experience, and for this we are sorry. The burden of this experience has been on your shoulders for far too long. The burden is properly ours as a government, and as a country. There is no place in Canada for the attitudes that inspired the Indian residential schools system to ever again prevail."
So if he wasn't talking about colonialism, what did he think he was apologizing for?
PITTSBURGH (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, appearing to forget that his countrymen are generally known for their modesty, declared on Friday that his nation was the envy of the world.
Harper, usually a fairly wooden performer, seized on a routine question at a news conference and used it to deliver an impassioned defense of his 33-million strong nation and how well it has coped with the global economic crisis.
"Canada remains in a very special place in the world. ... We are the one major developed country that no one thinks has any responsibility for this crisis," he said to laughter.
"In fact, on the contrary, they look at our policies as a solution to the crisis. We're the one country in the room everybody would like to be," he said at the end of the summit of the Group of 20 advanced and developing nations in Pittsburgh.
Canada, which was running a budget surplus before the recession and avoided major banking problems, has been less affected by the crisis than many of its partners.
Harper said the other G20 nations "would like to be an advanced developed economy with all the benefits that conveys to its citizens and at the same time not have been the source, or have any of the domestic problems, that created this crisis".
By this stage of his comments, the initial premise of the question had long since vanished and Harper -- who leads the right-leaning Conservative Party -- was focusing on several other factors that in his mind make Canada so irresistible.
"We're so self-effacing as Canadians that we sometimes forget the assets we do have that other people see," he said, speaking with a rare passion.
"We are one of the most stable regimes in history. ... We are unique in that regard," he added, noting Canada had enjoyed more than 150 years of untroubled Parliamentary democracy.
Just in case that was not enough to persuade doubters, Harper threw in some more facts about the geographically second-largest nation in the world.
"We also have no history of colonialism. So we have all of the things that many people admire about the great powers but none of the things that threaten or bother them," he said.
And his final verdict?
"Canada is big enough to make a difference but not big enough to threaten anybody. And that is a huge asset if it's properly used."
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