MA-Horus posted:

I'm not surprised, motherfuckers.

There's a reason that a 1bedroom+den/1bathroom condo at Regent Park goes for 80k over asking these days.

quote:

Photos of Malnourished Children Show Horrors of Yemen's Forgotten War

By LENA MASRI LONDON — Sep 13, 2016, 4:27 PM ET



A boy lies on a hospital bed in Yemen's port city of Al-Hudaydah. His eyes are full of life, but his skinny body tells another story: His arm is so thin that he can wrap his lips around it. His ribs stick out under his skin. He is one of 1.5 million children in Yemen who are suffering from malnutrition.

“The health care system is about to collapse. Sometimes the children cannot get to the health center. Lack of clean water can give children diarrhea,” Meritxell Relano, UNICEF’s representative in Yemen, told ABC News.

Photos from Yemen show that malnourished children are some of the victims of an overlooked conflict: Yemen’s 18-month-long civil war. President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, supported by an alliance of Arab states led by Saudi Arabia, is fighting against the Houthi group and supporters of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The conflict intensified after U.N.-brokered peace talks in Kuwait last month ended without an agreement.



The war has led to a lack of food and jobs. National systems are on the verge of collapse, especially the health system. Back in June, the price of a basic food basket was the highest in the past six months, while the prices of cooking gas, diesel and petrol also increased significantly, according to a UNICEF report published in the end of July. The current conflict is affecting the fragile economy, and the central bank reserve is running low causing a severe shortage of cash, the report said.

“Poverty has increased because of the war. There’s a lack of food and a lack of jobs and income for the parents. People who are internally displaced are vulnerable to the loss of income. Many factories’ economic production has been destroyed,” Relano said.

Out of the 1.5 million children who are suffering from malnutrition, according to UNICEF, 370,000 suffer from severe acute malnutrition, a life-threatening condition that requires urgent treatment.

Relano said that many malnourished children probably live on bread and maybe tomato sauce. As part of their treatment at health centers, the children are fed “Plumpy'Nut,” a peanut-based food that is high on nutrition and resembles peanut butter. Among the children Relano met at one of these health centers was a 6-month-old baby who weighed only 6.6 pounds. She also met a mother of five children, including twin babies. One of the babies had died of malnutrition. So the mother was at the health center with the other twin who was very malnourished.

“She was trying to make sure that she would stay alive,” Relano said.

More than 1,100 children have been killed in the war in Yemen, while nearly 1,700 have been injured, according to UNICEF.

David Corbett posted:

I was just reading through my super-bougie health insurance benefits booklet and I was struck by the blanket refusal to treat anything related to intentional acts of self-harm, explicitly noting that this refusal applies *regardless of whether the acts were committed while sane or insane*.

While I have never attempted or completed any form of self-harm (at least by any relevant definition), it seems bizarre to me that this form of illness can continue to be treated differently to any other. I can understand that we wouldn't want to cover a completely sane man who harms himself for gain - if any such person indeed exists - but pretending that an injury isn't an injury because of mental illness is awful.

Frankly, it's grossly discriminatory and I'm not sure why it and similar provisions haven't been struck down on human rights grounds. I can't imagine refusing to treat illnesses that are common in groups falling along other protected grounds (no HIV/AIDS treatment, no sickle-cell anemia support, no treatment of ovarian cancer, etc.)

Helsing posted:

quote:

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was impeached for manipulating government accounts. It’s alleged she was illegally moving funds between accounts, to make up deficits in social programs.

Now she’s gone.

That seems to me small potatoes compared to some of the shenanigans the Liberals have got up to.

Rousseff’s approval ratings plummeted from a high of 79% in March 2013 to 10% in March this year. Hmmm. Who does that remind me of?

Oh, Kathleen Wynne, who’s been polling in the single digits recently and who was noticeably not front and centre during the recent Scarborough Rouge-River byelection, in which voters gave Liberals a stern spanking.

The way out of this is controversial. It’s not a path that’s taken often.

Nor should it be.

It’s one that would take courage on the part of Dowdeswell. It’s our version of recall legislation.

There’s precedent for the vice-regal officer to step in and dismiss a government under extraordinary circumstances, according to constitutional lawyer Ronald Cheffins, a former justice of the courts of appeal for B.C. and Yukon, a former vice-chair of the Law Reform Commission of British Columbia, and a professor emeritus of the University of Victoria.

Writing in the Canadian Parliamentary Review, Cheffins cites earlier precedents in B.C. and Manitoba when lieutenant governors have threatened premiers with their power of dismissal if they didn’t shape up.

“None of the above should be taken as an invitation to vice-regal representatives to dismiss first ministers, but it does remain not only a clear legal power of a lieutenant governor or governor general, but also in extraordinary circumstances, in accordance with constitutional practice,” Cheffins writes.

In Australia in 1974, Gov.-Gen. Sir John Kerr dismissed scandal-plagued Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and replaced him with the leader of the Liberal opposition, Malcolm Fraser. Parliament was dissolved, an election called and Fraser won in a landslide.

We’ve suffered enough. We can’t afford any more of this chaotic government.

Send a message to Dowdeswell that she can’t ignore: email lt.gov@ontario.ca or write her at Office of the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, Queen’s Park, Toronto, Ont., M7A 1A1.

flakeloaf posted:

We have them here in Ontario too, but an involuntary patient has the right to demand a review of their case, and making that demand suspends the facility's power to compel treatment. I've done Form 1 holds, they're a giant pain in the rear end and the doctors always seemed pretty miserable about them too.

CLAM DOWN posted:

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-vacant-home-tax-1.3761496

Empty home tax coming to Vancouver. Hopefully this helps crash the market and maybe I'll be able to afford my own place one day Thanks Gregor you handsome stud.

Subjunctive posted:

Aren't you the cutest!

It relies on a voluntary declaration that the home is empty, just like all the other declarations that are being diligently pursued right now in the field of real estate.

quote:

Mulcair attempted to address the party's questions about its identity as the retreat began Wednesday morning.

"Those are our core values: environmentalism, pacifism, feminism, socialism," Mulcair said to applause from the room.

The caucus retreat is also looking at how the NDP can face off against Justin Trudeau's Liberals as they enjoy an extended political honeymoon. That includes sessions on communications and social media strategy.

"Going beyond the imagery, going beyond the press conference, talking to Canadians about what's actually happening," Mulcair said of the task facing his caucus.

Helsing posted:

lol


I'm glad Thomas " "winds of liberty and liberalism" Mulcair rediscovered the NDP's socialist principles. They're always in the last place you look!

Pinterest Mom posted:

Christina Blizzard would like you to write the Queen to fire Kathleen Wynne

EvilJoven posted:

Someone needs to find a way to get Trudeau to just eat a lot of loving cheese or something. I bet a fat ugly Trudeau wouldn't get himself a second term.

EvilJoven posted:

Someone needs to find a way to get Trudeau to just eat a lot of loving cheese or something. I bet a fat ugly Trudeau wouldn't get himself a second term.

quote:

For the first time at an Alberta criminal trial, a television camera will be allowed into the courtroom Thursday to record the long-awaited decision in the Travis Vader murder case.

Edmonton's Court of Queen's Bench Justice Denny Thomas ruled Tuesday he will allow cameras into the court, after he heard submissions last week from lawyers representing a consortium of media outlets — including the CBC, Global, CTV, The Canadian Press and Postmedia — who argued for the access.

The prosecutor in the case argued against allowing cameras.

But Thomas said the Crown's argument failed to convince him that allowing a camera to record the verdict would create a serious risk to the administration of justice. On the contrary, the judge said he hoped allowing the application would increase public confidence in the justice system and would raise public awareness.

He said he hoped that having a camera in court would make the public more aware "that judges are obligated by law to give reasons for their decision which are both comprehensible and transparent."

Vader is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the July 2010 deaths of seniors Lyle and Marie McCann.

After a six-month trial, Thomas is scheduled to hand down his decision in the case on Thursday morning.

OSI bean dip posted:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/judge-rules-cameras-can-be-in-courtroom-for-travis-vader-murder-verdict-1.3760161


Cannot wait for more Canadian content via our court system.

Monaghan posted:

ugh I really hope that this does not become a trend.

OSI bean dip posted:

You can thank Alberta for allowing this dumb idea.

EvilJoven posted:

Someone needs to find a way to get Trudeau to just eat a lot of loving cheese or something. I bet a fat ugly Trudeau wouldn't get himself a second term.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/09/14/tony-clement-imf-christine-lagarde-trudeau_n_12009602.html posted:

HALIFAX — Candidates vying for the leadership of the Conservative Party took aim at the International Monetary Fund on Wednesday, saying its endorsement of the Trudeau government's "left-wing ideology" will only kill jobs and plunge the country further into debt.

Leadership candidate Tony Clement went so far as to accuse Christine Lagarde, the head of the respected international body, of "spouting left-wing ideology" when she praised the fiscal policies of the federal government a day earlier in Ottawa.

"I don't care if it's the Queen of Sheba — if you're advancing theories based on left-wing ideology that means more tax and more spend, it will not create jobs," he said on the last day of the Conservative caucus retreat in Halifax.

"We're not going to fall down the same cliff again just because some expert from outta town has said it's ok."

Lagarde met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday and gave her stamp of approval to his economic initiatives, adding that she hoped they would "go viral" and spread to the European Union.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/cupe-sue-hydro-one-1.3761389 posted:

The Canadian Union of Public Employees is suing the Ontario government over the sale of Hydro One, the province's electricity transmission monopoly.

CUPE president Fred Hahn says the union's lawyers served the Ministry of the Attorney General on Tuesday with notice of intent to sue, but the government said today it still was "not aware of any action from CUPE."

CUPE claims the Liberals inappropriately mixed government and party business by holding fundraisers with cabinet ministers for up $10,000 a plate, including one attended by bankers who allegedly profited from the sale of Hydro One shares.

The union says it's using the lawsuit to argue that shares of the electrical transmission utility should remain in public hands and that the sell-off, which began last year, is opposed by most Ontarians.

"It seems remarkable to me that a provincial government would act in a way that is so broadly unpopular," said CUPE Ontario president Fred Hahn at a morning news conference at Queen's Park.

The Liberals plan to sell up to 60 per cent of the huge utility, which also serves as a local electricity distribution company for 1.3 million homes, mainly in remote and rural parts of Ontario.

With today's announcement, CUPE is serving the province with 60 days notice of its intention to file the lawsuit. The union says it can't get into specifics about the lawsuit until it's officially filed in November.

The province raised $3.2 billion from selling 30 per cent of Hydro One so far.

The Liberals say the money raised from the privatization of Hydro One is needed to fund public transit and infrastructure projects and to pay down debt.

However, Hahn said, the move is not in the best interests of the province.

"This is one piece of a much larger chorus of opposition that this government needs to pay attention to," said Hahn. "We have firm belief that we can stop them."

sliderule posted:

Tony Clement for CPC leadership. He's the right blend of laughable and punchable to make the inevitable Liberal reelection entertaining.

quote:

As departments drilled down into the issues, Di Paola said, they found two “root causes” — the information public servants were plugging into the system was wrong or untimely, and the processing time of transactions at the Miramichi, N.B., pay centre were slower than expected.

There are “pieces” of the pay administration that are not working, she said, but Phoenix “as a technology is working.”

She said the 80,000 people in the backlog awaiting extra pay are not considered Phoenix problems. They ended up not getting paid what they are owed because the information was not put into the system properly.

Chris Aylward, president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, said Wednesday he was dismayed at Di Paola’s explanations.

“Basically, what she did today was blame everyone else for this pay debacle, except that department that is responsible for paying employee,” he said.

Alyward questioned why the department didn’t insist on mandatory training for such a major system overhaul. He also objected to her insistence that the problem was not with the system but with the users.

“We’re talking 80,000 people who didn’t input their information properly? I find that hard to believe. And there is no system problem or problem with the pay system? I find that extremely hard to believe,” Aylward said.

“It’s embarrassing when we have a manger responsible for the implementation of a new pay system who blames everyone else but the pay system itself … and (she’s saying) ‘It’s either your HR people or employees themselves who are not inputting data properly,” he said.

Phoenix was designed so the payroll and human resources systems are integrated. The government bought off-the-shelf software and “reconfigured” and “customized” it to handle the 80,000 pay rules and rates of pay for public servants.

“As long as the information is in Phoenix, people will get paid,” Di Paola said.

She said the department teamed up with the Canada School of the Public Service to develop training for public servants on how to use the system. The online program was aimed at all users. Departments who have opted out the school’s training programs were given CDs and training modules.

She said departments were responsible for assessing their own readiness to “go live” with Phoenix in February and April. She said the system was thoroughly tested between June 2014 and January 2016 to ensure the information from the human resource system was flowing to Phoenix like it was supposed to and all seemed to be working.

Di Paola said she was concerned when she began hearing thousands of people were facing pay problems after the second rollout.

She said the realization kicked in that people hadn’t mastered the system and the learning curve “was much longer than we expected.”

In hindsight, she said, training should have been mandatory. She said only deputy ministers could have made training mandatory and that, if she could do it all over gain, she would have pressed Treasury Board and senior management to make it so.

She said she provided regular monthly updates to the human resources community, stressing how critical it was that they master the system. She said concerns were raised along the way that human resources staff may not realize how central their role was to Phoenix’s success but she insisted she was “as sure as I could be” before both rollouts that they were ready.

Jordan7hm posted:

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/blame-insufficient-training-not-phoenix-for-pay-debacle-bureaucrat


How the gently caress is this woman still employed.

RBC posted:

i just found out that the liberal government is proposing exactly the same collective agreement for psac that the conservatives came up with before they left office lmao

quote:

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Nine homes in Vancouver’s exclusive Point Grey neighbourhood worth a combined $57-million have been bought by students, according to new documents shared by the NDP.

A total of $40-million worth of that property involved securing a mortgage.

“And when we looked into it, we realized that one of the students who was on title for one of the properties had actually bought and sold another home during the period making $1.15-million in the process, and raising questions for us, for how that was possible,” says NDP housing critic David Eby.

flakeloaf posted:

Or put a citizenship/PR requirement on it.

flakeloaf posted:

It's crime, stupid.

jm20 posted:

End the primary residence capital gains exemption basically