MORE ON CANADA'S NURSING HOMES SCANDAL

Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story "Federal leadership needed for nursing homes to improve quality care". The article is written by a Nicole Bernier. The basic scandal has been in the news for several months now. Numerous studies have found that increasingly nursing homes are using inappropriate drugs to "handle" elderly residents rather than proper nursing care and attention. These drugs include antipsychotics as well as antidepressants. It turns out that the use of antipsychotics for residents sufferring from dementia can increase their risk of death by 60%. Basically it's all about goverment underfunding and staff shortages. Ms. Bernier feels that meaningful involvement from the federal government is an absolute necessity. This involvement would include national standards for longterm care as well as better funding.

They say a society is judged by how they care for their most vulnerable. By this standard Canada has nothing to be proud of.

TO SERVE AND COLLECT

The front page headline in today's Waterloo Region Record is titled "Broken cameras put region in red". So red light cameras we've been told are solely for road safety and not just another hidden tax on citizens. Horse feathers! When the Region are so dependent upon revenue from red light cameras as well as other so called driving infractions that a cutback in tickets seriously negatively affects their budget deficit then you know what it's all about. Based upon 48 years of both commercial and private driving, I know that speeding tickets are a huge scam and revenue producer. They do not make for better drivers, they make for drivers who do not smartly pass a vehicle on their right and then pulling back into that lane themselves. Instead they oh so slowly creep up into their blind spots, sit there for a while and if they don't see any hidden or lurking cruisers then inch by 1.5 km/hour faster than the vehicle they are passing. It's all about the police nailing the drivers who are intelligent enough to know better than to drive in a pack if there is the opportunity to get out of a tight knit group and into an area where you have better visibility ahead as well as manoeveribility to change lanes if something suddenly crops up in front of you.

I would love to see exactly how many red light tickets are all about the one idiot in five hundred who floors the vehicle when he is well back from the intersection and catches the yellow caution; knowing full well he'll never make it across in time. I expect that the majority are trying to make left hand turns and indeed may get ticketed because they wait upon an oncoming driver who is both slow and late for the green. Also according to a study published here in the Record a few months back ; these red light cameras are actually causing accidents as drivers knowing the heft of the ticket, slam on their brakes the instant the caution light comes on, thus getting rearended. Then there are the idiot drivers with a green light who are braking all the way up to the intersection and through it because the caution light might come on. When will our idiot authorities understand that the majority of drivers are trained by the stupidity of the enforcement? Very few tickets for no turn signals, then guess what. No tickets for driving too slowly for conditions then guess what? And on and on including driving in the left hand, fast lane with nobody in the right lane and cars backed up behind you in the left lane. So called "sin" taxes have always been problematic especially when the revenue is not being spent to improve conditions related to the alleged sins. This is simply legalized theft.

GOVERNMENT/INDUSTRY CONTEMPT OF CITIZENS

How is it possible for a non scientist, non professional to make an environmental discovery of significant magnitude, literally twenty feet away from one of if not the most environmentally studied site in Canada? Personally I don't think it is possible. That being said I'm not casting doubt on the likes of Lois Gibbs, Erin Brockovitch etc.. In their case the authorities, not to mention the guilty corporations, had to that point in time, at the least, maintained plausible deniability. That is the difference with Chemtura Canada in Elmira, Ontario. They were known back in November 1989 as Uniroyal Chemical and they managed to allegedly, single handedly, shut down an entire town's water supply. Hindsight being twenty/twenty we have since learned that they had assistance in their world class pollution activities.

Since then a new source of water has been obtained from twelve miles away and again allegedly the Elmira aquifers are being remediated with the goal of restoration by 2028. That deadline is beyong highly unlikely and the local citizens advisory committee (CPAC) along with Woolwich Township havs formally said so in a Resolution passed by both groups in 2012. The province of Ontario via their Ministry of the Environment (M.O.E.) have made the right sounds only but done nothing. Sixteen days ago I discovered what appears to be the biggest coverup yet. The same evening I enlisted two CPAC members to accompany me with cameras and combined with further research it appears that there may be a Dioxin/DDT "sink" off the Chemtura site both on private property and in the downstream floodplain of the Canagagigue Creek. This "sink" is the likely reason for ongoing detections at dangerous levels of Dioxins and DDT downstream in the creek. This Thursday the M.O.E. will present their Workplan for this season's testing in the creek almost all the way to the Grand River.

I believe that both government and industry still cling to the "Dilution is the solution to pollution mindset". If it's too expensive to clean up properly then just let it go. It will over decades or even centuries disperse and merely spread toxins to the entire planet thus making it everyone's problem and not just ours. These are the people who are leading us over the edge.

POLICE STATE ANYONE?

Last Saturday's Waterloo Region Record informs us that police forces routinely release negative information about citizens despite them having zero criminal convictions for anything whatsoever. The article is titled "420,000 in police database never convicted". Gee I wonder if that's why the Harper Tories weren't willing to give me a national volunteer award last year. Did they perhaps check with the Waterloo Regional Police, whom I routinely criticize here, and find out that I was charged with Obstruct Police many years ago? The charges were so pathetic and fabricated that they never even got to court. The charge was dropped actually based upon the stupid Regional Police having given me permission to attend a function only for them to be waiting there to arrest me. Is it any wonder many citizens have thinly veiled contempt for the senior management of the Waterloo Regional Police Service? As far as I'm concerned they're nothing more than puppets for our Region of Waterloo Council.

This article makes it plain that citizens are put into this database frivolously at the discretion of whomever. It is an abuse of our rights and is quite contemptible. What a great way to put consequences on mentally ill people, activists and anyone who dares question the status quo. What a way for petty police or politicians to get even with honest citizens exercising their constitutional rights. Only in Canada you say?

REGULATORY FAILURE & CRIMINAL CHARGES IN LAC MEGANTIC

Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story "Lac-Megantic paid a heavy price for regulatory failure". The trio at the bottom of this scandal are being scapegoated for years of sucessful industry lobbying to avoid proper safety rules and regulations. Incompetent political leaders combined with "...a too cosy industry relationship." set the stage for this disaster. Transporation Safety Boards, unions and others gave warnings for years about inadequate rail cars, undermanned trains and a lack of inspectors. Where are the criminal charges for those at the top? The answer is absolutely nowhere in sight. perhaps after the dust settles there may be some civil suits naming those truly guilty. In that case count on confidentiality clauses, gag orders etc. to avoid public embarassment. Meanwhile it will probably be taxpayers money paying off the victims. Call it injustice or call it corruption, both words apply.

FULL DAY KINDERGARTEN & OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM

Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys this article by Peter Shawn Taylor titled "Full-day kindergarten will deliver a lifetime of regrets". Mr. Taylor has four major complaints with this Liberal initiated program. Firstly it doesn't improve outcomes for the vast majority of children. Secondly it is prohibitively expensive and thirdly it punishes independent daycares. Finally and fourthly it it misdirects needed resources away from the province's most vulnerable children. Economist Don Drummond produced a report for the provincial government which among hundreds of recommendations to get their financial house in order stated that full-day kindergarten had to go. Well politically that wasn't on our "education" premier's agenda at all.

Mr. Taylor ends his article by saying that "...full-day kindergarten is the reason their (parents) taxes keep going up, the education system is sclerotic, businesses and jobs keep leaving the province, and the budget is never balanced.". Let the teachers and educrats have fun looking up "sclerotic".

GOVERNMENTAL & BUREAUCRATIC NEGLIGENCE IN TURKEY MINE DISASTER

There has been a story both yesterday and today in the Waterloo Region Record. Yesterday's is titled "Mine ignored toxic gas: media" and today's quotes the Turkish Prime Minister, Erdogan. Currently five individuals are charged with negligent death and the prime minister has promised that all the guilty will be charged appropriately. This is the worst mine disaster in Turkish history and high toxic gas levels were known to be present two days prior to the disaster. As is usual around the world, government supervision of health and safety matters has been superficial.

CHILD KIDNAPPING BY THE STATE IN CANADA

It's good to know that various provincial bureaucrats and politicians across Canada are second to none when it comes to stupidity and racism. This should put in perspective our various governments' so called multiculturalism and multi ethnic policies of the last couple of decades. Their behaviour was self serving then just as it currently is.

Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story "Premiers asked to look at 60s Scoop adoptions". Thousands of aboriginal children were taken from their homes and raised in non-native households from the 1960's to the 1980's. These adoptions have been likened to the residential schools and an intentional government policy to "take the Indian out of the child.". Of great interest to me is the active participation of so called child welfare agencies. It sort of makes you think that they were less interested in individual children's welfare and more interested in following government directives. What a country we live in. What pathetic individuals we as voters put into positions of authority. Shame on all of us.

FEDERAL TORY POLITICIANS CONTINUE TO DECEIVE

Last Thursday's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story "How myth of Canada's skills gap was shattered" written by Carol Goar. From the auditor general, economist Don Drummond and the Toronto Dominion Bank; it appears that the labour force statistics the feds were relying on, were complete nonsense. Oh what a surprise. Purely coincidence that our federal Conservative government would cherrypick the statistics to suit their ideological bent. Their source of employment data was ...are you ready...Kijiji. No kidding! With this acclaimed source the Conservatives have been grossly mismanaging Canada's economy and labour force. They have pretended that jobs in Canada are going unwanted and unfilled at a time of absolutely ridiculous and unheard of youth unemployment. Even experienced Canadian workers are hurting due to the massive exporting of jobs offshore combined with massive influxes of Temporary Foreign Workers. It is clear thast our federal government is not working for us. far from it they are working to exacerbate the income gap in canada. government policies grotesquely favour capitol and power at the expense of our working classes. May the majority of hardworking Canadaians reward the Progressive Conservative party at the next federal election for their dispicable labour policies.

OUR "JUST-US" (Justice) SYSTEM STRIKES AGAIN

Justice Gary Hearn in his immaculately insulated, financially well off and protected environment as a provincial Judge stated that "This could so easily have been avoided." This attitude is the diametrically opposite of U.S. state laws referred to as "hold your ground laws". Here in Canada with the assistance of idiot prosecuters and judges, Canadian citizens not only can't hold their ground they are further attacked by our legal system for defending themselves. Canadians are not supposed to even respond verbally to unprovoked insults and threats. Did this judge actually ignore the evidence? The dead party has a history of unprovoked violence including convictions for using a tire iron as a weapon. The now convicted party phoned the police first. He fled the scene to avoid an escalation. The incredibly stupid and aggressive now dead man "chased after them". He used his car as a weapon both to force the other man's vehicle to a stop and then to attempt to hit him. He pulled a tire iron and approached the man he had forced to stop and found out the hard way that Mr. McNaney was prepared to fight for his life. He introduced the instigater to the business end of a knife thus finally ending the confrontation started and escalated by Mr. Radisic.

The irony in all of this? If Mr. McNaney had been an on duty cop he would simply have shot Mr. Radisic post haste as soon as Mr. Radisic drove aggressively towards him. Failing that and showing more patience and discipline than has been exhibited particularily by Toronto police, he'd have shot Mr. Radisic dead when he approached with the tire iron in his hand. Is there a double standard here? You'd better believe it. Is the judicial system hypocritical in the extreme? You'd better believe it. Would they have convicted a cop carrying a radio, pepper spray, baton, Taser and a handgun for defending himself from an individual with a long criminal history of violence? Hell they would never even charge him. Citizens are on their own and I sincerely hope that both the judge and prosecuter some day have to face a life threatening situation with nothing more lethal than their dicks in their hands and their babysitters (police) miles away. The title of today's story in the Waterloo Region Record is "Man jailed three years for road rage death".

CRIMINAL CHARGES FOR LAC-MEGANTIC

Far too often corporate irresponsibilty resulting in human death goes unpunished and even unacknowledged. Every now and then however a case both so egregious and so publicly horrifying occurs. Then those very same politicians who responded to corporate lobbying by weakening safety legislation or leaving massive loopholes in it; suddenly discover virtue and justice. At Lac-Megantic 47 people died totally unecessarily. This was no "accident" whereby a sleepy or inattentive car/truck driver for example drove into the side of a train derailing it and spilling it's contents. This was a stopped train without external forces involved, simply by gravity rolling downhill into a town where it jumped the track and exploded. The issues involved also should include the inherent safety of the railcars themselves. Highly explosive and flammable contents should only be shipped in the absolute safest railcars available. This issue may well receive short shrift in the desire to lay blame and punishment on those closest to the tragedy.

Three individuals only have been charged with criminal negligence causing death. The train engineer, the traffic controller and the manager of train operations are facing these charges. Corporate decisions and procedures far higher up the ladder may well have been more appropriate. The story in the Waterloo Region Record is titled "Lac-Megantic: three accused freed after arraignment".

PROVINCIAL MINISTRY OF TRANSPORTATION MISSING IN ACTION?

On April 28/14 the Waterloo Region Record carried this story "Commercial vehicle safety blitz finds 1 in 6 unsafe". This was a jont venture between several regional/municipal police forces and the Ontario Provincial Police. Noticeably absent in this story is any mention whatsoever of the Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MOT). 71 Highway Traffic act charges were laid on 124 vehicles stopped for inspection. 22 of these commercial vehicles were pulled off the road. The more serious charges included defective brakes, improper tires and improperly secured loads. Personally having driven trucks commercially for decades I can attest to the absolute rarity of ever having your vehicle stopped and examined even for the most basic safety issues. It kind of makes you wonder just what the MOT are doing with the hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayers money they are spending.

HOMEOWNERS ADDICTED TO DRUGS

Well to be a little more specific homeowners can be addicted to drugs for their lawns. What I am recently beginning to understand is that the labelling on these chemicals can be misleading. I know for instance that the herbicide Roundup is actually known as Glyphosate and is one of the largest sellers to homeowners in North America. As a direct result Glyphosate is commonly found in both ground and surface water. What I just confirmed recently is the very popular Weed-B-Gon is just 2,4-D in disguise. can you believe it? I bought some a year ago and went out to check the label. I couldn't find a thing saying 2,4-D. I've now looked on Wikipedia and numerous other websites and there it is. 2,4-D is the active ingredient in Weed-B-Gon. How the hell is this legal? So much for consumer protection. What a f...ing country we live in.

NURSING HOMES ADDICTED TO DRUGS

Yesterday's Waterloo Region Record carried this story "Nursing home gets $50,000 to cut back on drugs". A report from the provincial health ministry last month found 45% of all nursing home residents age 65 to 79 were on anti-psychotic drugs. Nearly 1/3 of residents were on sedatives and 11% of all seniors in nursing homes were on both. It turns out that many residents were taking the drugs off label ie. for non prescribed uses. There is a litany of serious health side effects and the purpose of giving unprescribed drugs to seniors had more to do with controlling behaviours by drugging patients when there were staff shortages. I first posted here about this practice on April 23/14.

DEFENDING THE INDEFENSIBLE

Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story "Kenney defends use of foreign workers". Apparently Windsor and other former automotive manufacturing hotbeds in Ontario/Canada have lost their skills. We are to believe that as manufacturing over the last decade has fled to lower cost jurisdictions, so too has Canadian skills, experience and knowledge. How else do you justify bringing in allegedly skilled workers to work in the automotive sector from outside Canada?

As bad as this is we also learn that both our provincial and federal governments have also been hiring temporary foreign workers. Apparently tax paying home grown workers and their parents are the second choice in the domestic labour market. Clearly the Progressive Conservatives are convinced that Canadians are stupid in the extreme. Canadians pay sales taxes, income taxes, property taxes and neverending taxes just for the right to have Canadian jobs and experience ignored by our own local companies and provincial/federal government departments. The time is long overdue for this country to be taken back from the filth that we in our stupidity have put in charge.

SAME OLD, SAME OLD SAFETY IS FOR THE COMPANY NEXT DOOR

Tuesday's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story: "Safety board changes hurting injured workers". It's written by Marc Xuereb president of the Waterloo Regional Labour Council. Marc was also well known locally for many years for his work in community social justice initiatives. Mark is stating that decades of cuts to the Ontario Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) have resulted in injured workers being denied the benefits they deserve. This includes all kinds of cute ways to achieve less payouts to injured workers while pretending to follow the rules. marc refers to the "pre-existing condition" rule being nothing more than a "sick joke". Marc further states that "The board and the Liberal and Progressive Conservative governments it has answered to for the past 20 years have given in too easily to their business friends' demands to lower their costs. Now employers get to save money by paying lower safety board premiums and not investing in safer workplaces.".

CANADIAN POLITICS SMELLS

Carol Goar has done it again with an excellent retrospective of the lows of Canadian politics. Yesterday's article in the Waterloo Region Record is titled "Canadian politics saturated with shamelessness". Carol states "There is nothing new about scandal in Canadian politics. History is replete with tales of ministers on the take, greedy public officials and corrupt mayors.'.

She illustrates her thesis with examples galore. Rob Ford's the mayor of Canada's largest city and his behaviour, Prime Minister Harper's behaviour towards his own free spending appointees in the Senate, Jason Kenney's about face from permitting abuses in the Temporay Foreign Workers' program to suddenly shutting it down due to those same abuses becoming public knowledge and on and on. Pierre Polivre, Vic Toews and Peter Mackay also get dishonourable mention. The bottom line for Ms. Goar is that Canadians are so jaded they no longer demand or expect political wrongdoers to take responsibility for their actions must less repent or reform. It just no longer happens. Underlings may get thrown upon the sword but those truly responsible simply deny and obfuscate.

CATHOLIC SCHOOLBOARD FIRES TEACHER

Well I'm sorry but sometimes a double standard or at least a flexible standard is required. In the case of Mrs. Lavigne, she is undoubtedly guilty of bad judgement which is not a criminal offence. Last Saturday's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story " High school teacher fired over sex with her student". Along with the overall bad judgement one could certainly add that she is a horrible judge of character. Of all the possible eligible males to have a fling with she picked the one who had no couth, no character, no manners and certainly no conscience. For him it was all about immediate fun combined with longterm social enhancement and aggrandizement. He was bragging to his multiple buddies before, minutes after and subsequent to that about having his way with the female teacher.

Without any thought apparently to her, her family, her immediate job and her career he cheeerfully threw her under the bus. He was not 'victimized" in any way, shape or form. He has not been traumatized or exploited in any way, shape or form. If anyone was vulnerable and naive it was the teacher, not the student. Readers of this Blog know that I rarely have much sympathy for teachers but this case is the exception. Crown prosecuter Melissa Ernewein "has said she will seek a substantial jail term.". Oh that is such a good idea. I'm sure that a stiff jail sentence will do two things: 1) It will put in sharp focus society's hypocritical stance on sexual misconduct 2) it will cause sufficient guilt that the real perpetrater (the boy) will be forever cured of his immature and selfish attitude towards a sexual partner. Oh we should all be so lucky for that to happen.

RUBIN "HURRICANE" CARTER

Mr. Carter passed away last week at age 76. My source for this posting is last week's CBCnews.ca . Rubin Carter was one more in a long litany of wrongfully convicted citizens who spent years in jail based upon little or no evidence. It was almost a "driving while black" style offence that got him arrested. A triple murder had occurred and Mr. Carter's car was described as being similar to one seen leaving the crime. Also Mr. Carter and the perpetraters shared a skin colour which seemed to be ample evidence for the all white jury in 1966. A decade later after witnesses had recanted their testimony, one of them then reaffirmed his original testimony and Mr. Carter and colleague were convicted a second time for a triple murder. Finally in 1985 a federal judge ruled that Mr. Carter's and his colleague Mr. Artis's convictions were based "upon an appeal to rascism rather than reason and concealment rather than disclosure." The Crown being unsatisfied with a general lack of real evidence had also suppressed evidence favourable to the defence.

Also interesting is that Mr. Carter being a man of principle found it necessary to break ties with the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted when they did not object more strongly to the appointment of prosecuter Susan Mclean to the Ontario Court of Justice in 2004. Ms. Mclean had been involved in the wrongful and improper conviction for murder of Guy Paul Morin in Ontario. It is good to know that police, prosecuters and judges are just as incompetent, lazy and biased here in Ontario as well as throughout Canada and the U.S.. Our "justice" system doesn't need a tweak, it needs a top to bottom overhaul. Too many satisfied and vested interests have long blocked overdue reform.

MORE WATERLOO REGION DECEPTION

Last Saturday's Waterloo Region Record carried Jeff Outhit's article titled "Politicians peddle Ion rail with infomercial gimmicks and shell games. Jeff pricks the Region's accounting balloon big time. Average homeowners allegedly will only pay an additional $11 per year in taxes to pay for the LRT. Jeff shows the numbers are closer to $77 per year per homeowner when all is considered. He goes into details as to how regional polticians justify their creative accounting. Isn't it reassuring to know that politicians at all levels have mastered the fine art of puffery and deception and ours are no exception. It's not about you or me, it's all about them.