Awaz Apni

Multiple shots have been fired at the National War Memorial in Ottawa, just steps from the nation's parliament. Witnesses reported seeing a man running toward the government buildings, which have been placed on lockdown. A soldier has been wounded in the attack, Canadian media report. The incident comes amid the nation's raising of its terror threat level from low to medium, after a Muslim convert was killed by Quebec police after hitting two soldiers with his car. "Shots fired at War Memorial at 9:52am today; one person injured," Ottawa Police tweeted on Wednesday. A government official earlier said the raised threat level was in response to an increase in online "general chatter" from radical groups including Islamic State and al-Qaeda. Ministry spokesman Jean-Christophe de Le Rue said on Tuesday that the increased level "means that intelligence has indicated that an individual or group withi...

  G8 sets timeframe for Afghan withdrawal Awaz Apni: The G8 group of major world powers set a five-year timeframe for the government of Afghanistan to take increasing control of its own security. The communiqué, released at the end of the two-day Muskoka summit in Canada, represents the first time the international community has put a clear timescale at the highest level for the conclusion of the foreign intervention in Afghanistan, which began in 2001. And it sets a probable end date for the withdrawal of Britain’s 10,000-strong deployment in the country. It came a day after Prime Minister David Cameron indicated that he envisages the bulk of UK troops coming home from Afghanistan by the time of the next general election due in 2015. The agreed communiqué by G8 members Britain, the US, Russia, Germany, France, Italy, Canada and Japan – calls on the Afghan government to set out ...

First the recession didn't even exist ( No recession for Canada , er.. well maybe a "technical" one ), and now the recession is going away . yep , ok , uh-huh , sure , I believe you Stevie After all, your finance minister has such a good track record

... that 'Status Indians' face threat of extinction , since the Indian Act was implemented specifically for the purpose of eradicating indigenous peoples and culture. Indian Status was designed to reduce the Indian population, a neat solution to the "Indian Problem". Within a few generations, it was assumed, the Indian population would nearly disappear. This was ensured through the restrictive nature of Indian Status: an indigenous woman who married a white man lost her status, as did her children, plus if you were enfranchised to vote or got a university education you were no longer considered an Indian. In the past 40 years there have been many changes to the Indian Act, some positive and some negative, but most aboriginals in Canada are unable to access the benefits of the Act, while dealing with many of the negative consequences of their heritage. Canadians often display an incredible degree of racism, particularly towards aboriginal individuals and groups. Don...

Member of Parliament Alex Atamanenko (NDP) has reintroduced his Private Members Bill (C-343) to ban the release, sale, importation and use of Terminator technology. What is Terminator? Terminator Technology genetically engineers plants to produce sterile seeds at harvest. It was developed by the multinational seed/agrochemical industry and the US government to prevent farmers from re-planting harvested seed and force farmers to buy seed each season instead. Terminator seeds have not yet been field-tested or commercialized. In 2006, Monsanto bought the company (Delta & Pine Land) that owned Terminator. Terminator is sometimes called Genetic Use Restriction Technology (GURTs) - the broad term that refers to the use of an external chemical inducer to control the expression of a plant's genetic traits. Member of Parliament Alex Atamanenko (NDP) has reintroduced his Private Members Bill (C-343) to ban the release, sale, importation and use of Terminator technology. Actions you can ...

Hahahaha! From Rick Mercer The National Post agrees : Canadian banks – saved from stomping around as monoliths on a world stage backed by Canadian taxpayers -- are the least ugly in what can only be called a reverse beauty contest among banks. You know how we used to laugh at the guy who keeps all his cash in a big old sock, or the woman who has all her savings under her mattress? Well, the risk-averse look pretty smart right about now . Phew! Thanks goodness the regulators saved the banks from themselves.

Here's an article by Wayne Roberts of the Toronto Food Policy Council , quoted in full because I don't know how to link to it on Facebook. SHARING WORK AND FOOD CREATES AN UPSIDE TO THE ECONOMIC DOWN BY Wayne Roberts Unlike most people, Thomas Homer-Dixon doesn't think today's world economic crisis is very complicated. He thinks it's very complex, which makes for a world of difference in understanding which government anti-recession programs will fail (most of them) and deciding which ones can help. Homer-Dixon, who chairs a centre for global systems analysis at the University of Waterloo, is one of the world’s leading thinkers in the field of “complexity theory,” and the author of several international bestsellers, including The Ingenuity Gap and The Upside of Down. He brings a missing dimension to thinking about remedies to the looming economic collapse that that’s so far been excluded from public and media debate. “If ever there was a case of experts not knowin...

Usually the Toronto Star has pretty decent writing, but this was one of the poorest pieces I've seen in a while. There are some good points made, but the headline ("In shrinking workforce, women may surpass men") is misleading, and the writing jumps around without leading to any reasonable conclusion. Perhaps this is nitpicky, but there is some sloppy math here. The article claims "there's a possibility women will soon outnumber men in the job force." The numbers quoted in the same article don't really bear that out, unless you define "soon" as "probably never". According to StatsCan, there were 7,295,900 men with full-time jobs in January 2005 and 6,297,400 women working full-time. By January 2008, that number had dropped to 7,186,800 for men and to 5,339,200 for women. And as of last month, it fell further, to 7,095,000 full-time jobs for men and slightly for women, to 5,339,000 full-time positions. So the trend shows in the longe...

AMagazine NEW DELHI: Britain, Canada and Australia have advised their citizens visiting India not to travel to Mumbai. The US have not yet updated any travel advisory. This follows reports that terrorists were specifically looking for British and US passport holders at the two five-star hotels which they attacked late Wednesday night in Mumbai. The British Foreign Office advised against “all non-essential travel to Mumbai until further notice”. “If you are currently in Mumbai we advise you to stay indoors and monitor the media,” it added, noting that they should contact their travel agent for information as some flights have been cancelled. The Foreign Office also gave Mumbai and Britain phones numbers for British citizens or their relatives to contact for information. “We advise all British nationals in the city to stay indoors until local authorities advise that it is safe to go outside,” the notice added. The Australian foreign ministry's travel advice also had a similar tenor, ...

CNews ISLAMABAD: Over 10,000 Pakistani and foreign observers are monitoring general elections in Pakistan. The election commission has issued 1050 accreditation cards to foreign observers and 4600 cards to the local observers. Foreign observers mostly came from United States, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, Britain, Germany and France as well as from Japan, Bosnia, China, Nigeria, Belgium, India, Estonia, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Moreover, observers have also arrived in Pakistan from Holland, Scotland, Switzerland, Italy, Spain and Hungary. The foreign office has issued visas to 3000 foreign observers that will be lapsed on February 25. The election authorities have also issued observers’ cards to the diplomats of America, Britain, Canada and Japan. Provincial election commissioners of Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar and Lahore and 125 District Returning Officers have also issued accreditation cards to over 4400 observers. Mr. Grant, a representative of International Foundation For Electoral Sys...

KARACHI: ‘Pakistan Idol’ program for the music-lover youths kicked off here from the Geo platform, aims at hunting out the talented youths from all across the world and help them achieve their right place in the society.This was announced here in a Pakistan Idol inaugural function marked by a colorful musical night studded with the renowned trendy vocalists winning the hearts of the audience at the PAF Museum and making Pakistan Idol a milestone in the promotion of music talents here.A British television program Pop Idol telecast on October 5, 2001 touching the height of success transcended to the different countries and the Geo Television Network in collaboration with the Pop Idol’s franchise company Fremantle Media laid the foundation of Pakistan Idol. This unique program aims at exploring talented singers and giving them their rightful place.Prior to Pakistan Idol, this program has successfully proved its worth in over 41 countries including Britain, US, Canada, Germany, United Arab...