Asbestos in Gillam

These photos were shared on facebook today by a resident of Gillam Manitoba.

This is the local dump in Gillam Manitoba. According to the tags, these are bags of asbestos fibres.  

I got this from the Town of Gillam website,

GILLAM WASTE DISPOSAL GROUND	[Return]
March 3, 2012
The Town of Gillam Council made an informed decision to accept non-hazardous waste into the Gillam waste disposal ground. Approval and guidelines were received from Manitoba Conservation for the handling and disposal of the material and the work will carry on over the next few days. Due to the increased traffic at the waste disposal ground, we are asking the public to use caution when utilizing the site. MAYOR AND COUNCIL

Non-hazardous material.  Nice try.  We already know that asbestos is a dangerous poison and it was removed from all the houses when I was a small child in the 1970s.  I have vivid memories of workmen coming to drill holes in the sides of many houses and removing it as I played nearby. You can still see evidence of those holes on some houses. 

From the photos, you can see some of the bags are all ready coming apart.  Those that aren’t, will come apart eventually.  

If you have ever been to a dump, then you’ll know that dumps are a favorite hangout of birds, bears and other creatures.  Does it cause cancer and lung disease in animals do you think?  Or does it only do that to humans?

I would have been shocked, save for the recent stories about the asbestos industry in Canada over the past year or so.  

Prime Minister Harper has been the new champion of the Canadian Asbestos industry for sometime.  So I guess situations like this were only a matter of time.

 

It’s Not Rocket Science Just Mark Your X

Kids, kids, kids….

When they told you at school that voting was a privilege, a right and your duty. You know, the way to have your say in how this country is run. They were actually not joking. It wasn’t an exaggeration or some fancy newspeak way of tricking you.

It’s great that lots of you have paid enough attention to be worried about the state of Canada. It’s even more great that you guys have bothered to speak out all over this vast internet via facebook and youtube. A+. Excellent. Good job making viral videos and this nifty website called shitharperdid.com. Super pleased.

However; we have a serious problem. There is another movement going on that has gathered way too much steam. Boycott The Federal Election is a completely dumb idea (Dave, I mean you too even though you are totally NOT a kid anymore). Not voting because someone you have never met doesn’t think the way you do, is not going to be a very effective way of making them think your same kind of thoughts.

I will tell you a sneaky way to exchange ideas with other people that actually works. Try talking to them. Hell, it even works on people who are old and people who are rich. I’ve tried it many times and man is it ever cool. You can even use it on politicians.

Here are some general instructions:

Step 1. Using your GOOGLE machine, attempt to find the local contact info for a Canadian political party in your vicinity.

Step 2. If you happen to have a CELL PHONE or an ORDINARY PHONE, dial the number provided by GOOGLE. If someone answers the telephone, tell that person that you are interested in getting involved in politics and you would like to find out more about their party and what they stand for. Chances are that person will say GREAT!!! and proceed to start a conversation with you. If that conversation goes well, you might go to their geographical location to meet those people and see if you like them.

**helpful hint…if you go and meet those people and discover that you can’t stand them because they seem crazy; (and this can happen. Hey, it’s a risk you take whenever you put yourself out there) By all means, run away. Do not FREAK OUT. Simply repeat step 2.**

You should now be able to cast your ballot with confidence. Steps 3 – 5 are only for those who have extra time on their hands and/or feel that we could all benefit from their revolutionary ideas.

Step 3. Once you have discovered a group of people who seem somewhat reasonable to you, start hanging out with them. This will allow you the opportunity to spread your smart ideas and impress others with your wit and charm.

Step 4. Help out, get to know the candidates and then you will know who to vote for.

Step 5. If you still can’t bring yourself to vote for anyone, become a candidate yourself or if you get really desperate; start your own political party. That’s what Tommy Douglas did. How do you think we got The Green Party and The Pirate Party? No, it’s not easy, but it’s totally allowed.

As far as joining an existing party, shit, that’s super easy! They actually want you to! They will be all smiley and everything when you show up! They especially love it when smart young people show up at their office!

Put your money where your mouth is kids. Don’t leave politics to the losers and the wingnuts. If you care about how you live and how your neighbours live, go out and vote.

Never forget this; the wingnuts always vote and they always vote for other wingnuts.

Wave Bye Bye To The Nice People

We’ve all heard the news. Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government has fallen.

5 years of absolute bullshit….

Contempt of Parliament. Historical and shocking. (maybe he’ll go to jail and he can play piano there…)

Vote of non confidence and they’re out.

It’s about time. and I LOVE that Fox News refered to Conservative MPs as “Harper’s underlings“. Astounding.

Let’s go to the polls fuckers. Game on.

Welcome Back Khadr? Harper Says No Way

there are lots of photos but i couldn't stand to look at them

I can’t believe that I actually have to write about this issue.

We have all heard the name Omar Khadr off and on for the last few years, but I wonder if many of us have connected all the dots in this story. Allow me to do that now.

Omar Khadr is a Canadian citizen. Really, that should be all we need to know about him, but there is more.

It shouldn’t matter which country or who did it. His rights have been violated, period. The supreme court of Canada ruled this week that his constitutional rights have been violated while he was in another country. That should mean Foreign Affairs will demand his instant return to Canada. End of story. If it were me or my kid, you’re goddam right I’d expect action. I’d be screaming my head off about it and so would you.

Under the Harper regime, nothing is that simple anymore, is it? All joking aside, Stephen Harper and his lapdog Dimitri Soudas are the biggest douchebags ever. AARRRGGGGG They both completely suck.

Just so you don’t all jump down my throat at once, I include Dimitri Soudas because he is the official spokesman, and when I saw him on the news regarding this issue I just wanted to slap him so badly. Mr. Soudas repeatedly said that the government will not ask that Mr. Khadr be returned because blah blah blah blah blabbidy blah. And so forth.

Let’s clear up a few things here, shall we?

Omar Khadr was fifteen years old at that time. A kid.

He is charged with murder as a war crime and terrorism. Let’s entertain that possibility for a second. If this happened in Canada, he would be protected by the young offenders act. What’s that mean? Well, for one thing he would have been in and out of a youth detention center in two shakes of a lambs tail.

During a raid by the American Army, Omar Khadr had a house fall on top of him, got stepped on by the American GI who found him, he was blinded and then shot twice in the back. That is the summary of his “capture”. He arrived in at Guantanamo Bay in critical condition. They hung him by his wrists anyway. Then they shone LCD lights in his eyes for awhile. That my friends, is the tip of the iceberg, there’s a whole lot more, I just can’t bear to get into it.

Reporters have been calling it torture. Where I come from, we sometimes call that child abuse.

The poor guy has been there for seven years. He’s a grown up now. He’s also the last westerner left there. Everyone else has been brought home by their countries. I have little doubt that he is right fucked by this time and will never be alright. He’ll need years of therapy at the very least. His lawsuit asks for ten million. I should hope so! It should come out of Harper’s personal bank account if you ask me.

Incidentally, guess who the Supreme Court of Canada says violated his constitutional rights? A Canadian government official. Proud to be Canadian now?

“King” Stephen and The Alberta Runaround

Once upon a time, there was an ordinary boy. His name was Stephen. He did not like to be ordinary. He thought that it would be much more fun to be a king. As he grew older, Stephen began to realize, as many children do, that his dream of becoming king may not ever come true.

You see, the country that he lived in already had a Queen. Even though the Queen was very old and might die at any time, Stephen was not a prince and therefore, he was not in line for the throne. Not being in line for the throne meant that he could never be king.

“That’s not fair!”, he cried.

Even though he was very upset, Stephen knew that it was the way his world worked.

Just like all children in his country, Stephen went to school and read many books about the world. All of the books told him the same thing; he could never be king. But Stephen didn’t care, he wanted to be king anyway.

When he got a little older, Stephen studied at The Calgary School. The Calgary School, developed something called “The Alberta Runaround”. Now, The Alberta Runaround is a very specialized and effective style of manipulation. When used properly, it can be almost guaranteed that you will get what you want and look good at the same time. It is based on bullying and uses 3 main principles; triangulation, scapegoating and stalling.

Triangulation is a mind game that works just like a triangle. Simply explained, you befriend 2 people and pit them against each other. This drives a wedge between them and in the end, you are seen as the hero by both just before you screw them over. They never see it coming. You can find very good examples of this used in TV reality shows, such as Survivor and Rock of Love.

Scapegoating is a good thing to try if you want to influence a whole group. In case of trouble, there must always be some poor sucker to blame. Preferably someone kinda powerless who can’t easily resist.

Causing a lengthy delay for no good reason, is often referred to as stalling. Stalling is a terrific way of jamming up your enemies or your friends, depending on the situation.

Should you get desperate, then you can rely on a little something called JFDI. That stands for Just F*#*ing Do It. This almost always works, because we all know that it’s easier to seek forgiveness than to ask for permission.

Oh, how Stephen loved The Calgary School because a lot of other children there wanted to be kings too. They were just like him! How nice!

There was a magical being at The Calgary School, sort of like a fairy godmother, but not, called Tom Flanagan.

Mr. Flanagan taught Stephen that besides having a Queen, the government in their country also had a Prime Minister. Prime Minister certainly seemed like a wonderful thing to be and a lot like being a king. Best of all, anyone could become Prime Minister, even if they were just ordinary.

Stephen said “Please Mr. Flanagan, tell me how to become Prime Minister.”

Mr. Flanagan liked Stephen, so he told him to join a political party and try using The Alberta Runaround. Stephen did as he was told and got on to the business of convincing a lot of people to vote for him in the election. Many, many others agreed with Stephen’s ideas so he became the leader of his political party. Once he became the leader, Stephen still had to win another election and then, only then, could he become Prime Minister.

Stephen knew that this would be a very difficult task indeed, because his political party was only popular in one part of the country.

Again, Stephen asked Tom Flanagan what he should do. Mr. Flanagan told Stephen that The Alberta Runaround works everywhere, not just in Alberta. This made Stephen very happy indeed, because he had been practicing, and he was getting quite good at it.

Stephen was able to use The Alberta Runaround to take over another, much more respected political party and steal their name. Once he had done that, he became Prime Minister quite handily.

Now, being the Prime Minister was lots of fun, but Stephen had not forgotten that he really wanted to be king.

So, he told Mr. Flanagan that he still wanted to be king. Well, as you can imagine that would be a near impossible achievement in a country that already had a Queen.

Mr. Flanagan thought about this question for some time. Finally, he knew that the only way for Stephen to become king was to change the philosophy of the citizens using The Alberta Runaround on the whole country for a very long time.

With that, Stephen prorogued parliament and used JFDI to take power.

That’s how Stephen Harper used The Alberta Runaround to become King of Canada and nobody was allowed to live happily ever after.

Prime Minister’s Pants Officially On Fire

Without question, Stephen Harper resembles Nelson Muntz as he bullies his way around The Canadian Government.

He stomps around Ottawa shaking his fist at everyone that he has control over and then demands that they stay quiet. And just like any bully, he runs away the minute he is confronted.

In a move that is highly reminiscent of a schoolyard lunch money shakedown, Harper has once again convinced The Governor General to do his bidding and not to tell.

In a “private” telephone call, Michaelle Jean was convinced, again, to prorogue Parliament. He called her on the phone? Seriously…

I seem to recall last time it was such a big deal that Harper was practically in tears begging the Governor General to please please please, meet with him so that he could ask her to suspend Parliament so he could have more time to save his ass. Now, he thinks it is no big deal and he’ll just give her a quick phone call to set it up.

pfft.

Even though the Conservatives claim that proroguing Parliament is common practice, it really isn’t. Harper is the only Prime Minister to ever suspend Parliament in this manner and for these bullshit reasons. It is actually highly unusual for this to go on unless the Parliamentary agenda is complete. In other words, it’s not really meant to be used in lieu of a fake sick note.

The Conservatives are also pretending that there are routinely 6 or 7 throne speeches in a 4 year term. No there are not. Try 3 or 4, max.

Harper claims that he is doing this in order to fix the Canadian economy. Really?!? Let me ask this then; who exactly will be “fixing” our economy if nobody is going in to work?

Once again, I call bullshit.

So now he leaves us with no Government in session throughout the entire Olympic Games when visitors and who knows who else will be converging on us from every country in the known world. What that means to us Dear Reader, is that if something does go down, Harper will be making all the decisions alone and unsupervised. Terrific.

The Queen can call Parliament back any time she wants, and I think that she should totally do just that. If he were my kid, I’d never let him get away with this.

Things Are Different Now. But Are They Better?

Remember way back a long, long time ago? Me too.

The first time I drove through Calgary was so long ago that I can’t remember anything about it except the Pink Elephant popcorn.

I blew through there again in the mid eighties and it was a very small shithole of a city. The only thing going for it was the zoo. Things pretty much stayed that way for years.

Then Calgary grew, and it became more and more annoying to me every time I drove from Vancouver to Winnipeg. I always thought of it as the place where the Trans Canada Highway slowed down to 50k/hr.

I was there on a visit last week and I can tell you that it has really grown since the last time I paid any real attention to it. The whole city looks bran spankin’ new. Too bad it’s all the same and all the same colour. Beige, beige and more beige. Beige grass, no trees and tumbleweedy as ever.

How was my visit? Thanks for asking, I’ll tell you all about it.

First thing I noticed was that someone had the brilliant idea to give all the new streets the same name. Cool.

So picture me driving around, trying to find my way back from sev, I go down Cooper’s Gate, turn left on Cooper’s Drive, past Cooper’s Way, Cooper’s Street, Cooper’s Blvd and Cooper’s Trail. Awesome.

What’s your address? 123 Cooper’s. Great should have no trouble finding it.

Calgarians tried to tell me that they have alot of trees, but I could tell they were lying and not just mistaken. They are so close to Banff that they have all seen trees and must know what they look like. The other thing missing was flowers. I know it is fall and the flowers would all be dead anyway, but there weren’t even any dead scraggly flowers or even flower beds for that matter. Lotsa rocks. Mostly big rocks. Oooh, decorative!

Lots and lots of litter. That was interesting. Apparently, Calgary is one of the last places left in Canada where you can still experience the secret joy of throwing your Tim Horton’s cup out the car window.

By far, the weirdest thing about Calgary is that Calgarians absolutely LOVE Calgary. They go on about it’s fabulousness for hours.
Calgary is the best city on earth.
Calgary has the best hockey.
Calgary has the best football.
Calgary is the easiest city to learn your way around.
Calgary drivers are the best.
Calgary has the best zoo.
Calgary has the best lifestyle (does it?).

Calgarians never complain about their city like the rest of us do.

What else does Calgary love?

You know it; Stephen Harper.
They cannot get enough of the guy.
I heard about him and his greatness til I was writhing in pain and ready to scream. They actually worship him as some sort of Messiah. I was surprised there isn’t a new temple built in his honour. They lectured me for hours about how the Liberals try to make him look bad and trick us all into thinking he sucks, but Calgarians know better.

If only Harper could be made our king, then we’d all live happily ever after.

Stop Saying You Will Vote For This Man Because I Can’t Take It Anymore

Although I think that the most recent poll showing that the NeoCons hold 40% of the nation in the palm of their hand is wrong; I can’t help but stress about it because that’s what I was hoping the last 2 times this yahoo got elected.

Look, the guy is a great piano player and a great front man, but that doesn’t mean he should be running the country. I have had alot of experience in the music industry and I can tell you that the singer is usually the last guy that you want in charge of the gig money. Mick Jagger is the one and only exception to the rule and trust me when I say this, Stephen Harper is no Mick Jagger.

This country is being suckered! Look at his track record from just this week, he’s screwing us over completely and selling us out at the same time! Stop liking him and thinking he is cool! He isn’t! I don’t care if he let Rick Mercer have a sleepover at his house.

Steve-O says he never heard anything about the torture going on in Afghan prisons. Even though the information was given directly to him 4 years ago. Fine, maybe he just skimmed it and then no one really mentioned it again. That could be possible, sure he was probably distracted by the kids running amok or something. It happens. Torture is no big deal anyway, unless it’s you that is being tortured.

Here’s another piss off. Harper has decided that instead of pulling our troops out of Afghanistan in 2011, we’ll leave them there and just make it a civilian operation. Doesn’t that just sound like the cat’s ass? Maybe we can get Haliburton and Blackwater to help us out. Whatever happened to being cool and aloof when we get invited to these things?

A few years ago, Bush asked Harper if he could post a few soldiers in Fort MacMurray because it’s probably a target for those evildoers, and of course he said, “Sure!”. Luckily there’s no extra land in Fort Mac, so the American army has no place to pitch their tents.

Let’s not forget about the bribery and bullshit going on so blatantly, right here at home. The Conservatives have been handing out big fat tax money laden cheques to all their cronies. How come I only ever get that lousy hundred bucks a month? I don’t think I even got a GST check last time either. What the hell? Jerks.

Not only that, but the Harper government is under investigation by the ombudsman for patronage. Which for you newcomers, means that they have been handing out all the fancy jobs and government contracts to their nearest and dearest friends. Incidentally, they aren’t supposed to and if they do, they are supposed to make it look like they didn’t. Keep your backroom deals in the backroom please.

He’s trying to sign some stupid deal with America to sell them our resources (hydro and water), for some ridiculously low, set price that can never go up. We also have to keep supplying them even if we start to run out and don’t have enough for Canadians. Don’t forget that Buy American scam that Harper agreed to. As a result of that, Canadian companies like New Flyer and GM have had huge orders cancelled and employees are losing their jobs. So thanks.

Canada is down more than 57 billion dollars and it really looks like someone has run off with the take from the door.

Can’t Leave You Guys Alone For Even A Second

Holy crap you guys!

I thought we went over this, here , here and here. What’s up with this new poll?

40% blue?!? Are you freakin’ serious? That can’t be right.

I’m sure it’s just because the more literate citizens of Canada have call display, so they weren’t counted in the poll. This is probably a poll of the idiots who answer calls from 1-800 numbers right around dinner time.

Monkey’s Paw?

We got news yesterday and today that Canwest Global is entering into bankruptcy protection. The scheme will probably divy up ownership and control amongst the creditors. Which means……..that Global will no longer be a family run business. How did this tragedy occur?

Well, just because I have no insider knowledge of banking wizardry, doesn’t mean I don’t have an opinion. You know that I do, and here it comes.

According to Daddy; Izzy and Babs were/are very nice and very hardworking and deserving of all their lottery winnings. Daddy has alot of other interesting things to say too, but we’ll leave that out for now. We will say that Gail is a lovely girl who puts huge energy into all kinds of important philanthropy. We can also say that the 2 boys are well dressed with lovely wives and seem to take this empire running business very seriously.

So how do we answer the burning question?

Following this story and trying to make sense of this has been confusing, I know. Nerds all over the world are analyzing and speculating like crazy. It’s in every paper and on every news broadcast. If you pay too much attention to it, you will get dizzy and fall down.

Luckily, I have analyzed the analysis and I think I have the answer. Alliance Atlantis.

Right, the crumbling of Canwest Global is suspiciously linked to the downfall of another Canadian family run business with Winnipeg connections and that would be Seagrams. I suspect that Alliance Atlantis is an unlucky talisman just like in the story about the monkey’s paw.

When Edgar Bronfman Jr. took the helm, Seagrams branched out exponentially just like Global has done over that last few years under Leonard and David Asper. I’m not saying that growing the company was wrong or bad, not at all. Both Seagrams and Global benefitted from that growth at first and for a while it seemed like there was no stopping them.

And then…

Edgar Bronfman Jr. bought Alliance Atlantis which seemed like a fabulous and exciting idea at first. Shortly afterwards, Bronfman wound up with no more family empire and a reputation in tatters.

Last year, Canwest Global also aquired Alliance Atlantis and now it looks like they too are on the verge of collapse. Any good psychic should be able to tell you that this looks like more than mere coincidence. Hmmmmm.