Wednesday-Night

February 20, 2008
(Planet Ark) GENEVA - Climate change threatens the human rights of millions of people who are at risk of losing access to housing, food and clean water unless governments intervene early to counter its effects, experts said on Tuesday.
At a conference on climate change and migration, United Nations officials said rising sea levels […]

DHS Defies Congress By Going Forward Now
By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
January 22, 2008
Defying Congress, the Department of Homeland Security is pushing to tighten identification requirements at U.S. land borders starting Jan. 31, when it no longer will allow Americans or Canadians to enter the country by presenting a driver’s license or declaring their […]

Do see last week #1345 - a wonderful evening with Marc Garneau - good conversation and great photos by Robert Galbraith
If two weeks ago our theme was Let it Snow, this week should likely be Winter Wonderland. However, we confess that after digging ourselves out of the house (resisting the temptation to hi-bear-nate), aching […]

Oh the weather outside is frightful
And the news is not delightful
The pundits’ll trumpet our woes
While the country is clearing the snows.
Pierre Marc’s at the meeting in Bali
And there’s taekwondo in Cali
(We had to reach for that)
Chavez is wiping his tears
While Putin’s stoking all the world’s fears
At home, rates and loonies are […]

POLITICS: 1968 and the Birth of Diversity
Analysis by Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, May 13 2008 (IPS) - The year 1968 has become a symbol, but not necessarily one that is easy to sum up. High-profile violent events involving multitudes of people marked it as revolutionary, but it is hard to define the nature of […]

21 November 2007
The Bouchard-Taylor hearings aside, Canadians are more tolerant
There is a growing backlash against suggestions we are not accommodating
MICHAEL ADAMS, Freelance, The Gazette
“I have often regretted my speech, never my silence,” Greek philosopher Xenocrates said. One wonders whether, when the Bouchard-Taylor commission on reasonable accommodation has aired the thoughts of every Quebecer who chooses […]

30 October 2007
National Post
Apologies, but I am a semanticist and a pedant. It genuinely irks me that flammable and inflammable mean the same thing. Technically, to indicate that something would not burn one would have to label it “uninflammable.” And so it is with the term “reasonable accommodation.”
The debate over just how much newcomers need […]

19 September 2007
While Montreal lives up to its aspirations as an international city this week with two major conferences underway, we are as always dismayed by how little the average - or even above-average - citizen knows about the UN presence here. If pushed, some outside the aviation fraternity might be able to identify ICAO, […]

10 September 2007
Canada’s chief electoral officer, Marc Mayrand, on Monday again entered the current controversy about whether veiled Muslim women can arrive veiled at polling stations. Mr. Mayrand says there nothing in the current law texts that requires them to identify themselves by removing their veils. The electoral officer says it’s not up to him […]

February 7, 2007
This message of dribs and drabs makes no claim to any sort of thematic coherence (much like many Wednesday Nights). We would welcome other offerings, should you wish to suggest them, provided you stay away from the U.S. presidential candidates - it’s too early to take anyone seriously; and the arrest of astronaut […]