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.