Sunday, July 4, 2010
Friday, July 31, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
More Atlantic Canadians Seek Credit Counselling
The Money Mart on Prince Edward Street. Many people rely on payday loans to get by.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
Festival Zoofest : Des Insultes Qui Ne Font Pas Rire
Le petit Theatre Ste. Catherine, où le festival Zoofest présente des spectacles en anglais seulement, se retrouve au centre d’une controverse.
© Le Journal de Montréal / Mathieu Turbide
Monday, July 13, 2009
Bird Deaths in Tailings Ponds Renews Questions About Tar Sands Impact on Environment
More than 500 ducks, many of them mallards similar to this one, died after landing in a toxic tar sands pond.
An Environmental Mismatch Harmful To The Economic Development And The Reputation Of The Components Of The Pan-Canadian Territory.
The current federal structure puts a brake on the evolution of the canadian states in term of environmental and sustainable development. Some canadian territories have assumed their own environmental policies on a strict economic perspective, putting their own energy choices with their environmental impacts completely to the opposite of the interests of other canadian regions. For example: the exploitation of tar sands gives the future state of Alberta, the full extent of an economic development based on the actual price of fossil fuels across the world economy .
However this choice is currently assumed by the entire country of Canada affecting the production of greenhouse gases which are harmful to the biosphere on a global scale.
The positions of the future State of Ontario and the State of Quebec, to take these two cases among many others throughout the Commonwealth of Canada, are at the forefront of respect for the planet efficient use and high development of the strategies of the renewable energies. They would normally be the objects of great esteem and receive carbon points in their favor. On the economic front, sales of green energy, is as promising as that of oil at the time of the first global survey of the deposits.
The start of the new structure of the Commonwealth of Canada will end the environmental asymmetry which comes from the federation of 1867 dispositions which pulls down all the components of its territory for one of its provinces. It will require the State of Alberta to compensate from its wealth, for its production of greenhouse gases. It will eliminate the stigma that comes from a state choice to decide for the global energy choice of all the others. The energy policy choices are states choices Energy policy is an independent and distinct form of policy which should be a political choice of each component of the Commonwealth of Canada for it’s own state : assuming at the same time the full consequences of the choice of energy exploitation.
These choices should be betterly covered in a modern structure able to cope with the actual impacts of globalization. The future, puts us behind when a region becomes a concern of all the social economic infrastructure of one of the largest territories of the world whose political future is very promising for the benefit of a restructuration claimed by specialists from all sectors of the economy but which is put on hold by the sterile argument of proponents of a federal infrastructure and those who would move immediately to a state form of local government. These two are actually wrong.
The lifting shields on both sides, the large expenses on advertising campaigns brandishing their own ghosts have thrown discredit on the entire political class in Canada. We know the abuse and loss of energy in sponsorships. It artificially creates a false issue, a false threat in both camps, where an efficient solution is smooth and very far away from dangers. We must play the development of Canada betterly and the raise of a modern infrastructure that will be the focal point of coming generations and the entire international community.
Pierre Castonguay
Une Asymétrie Environnementale Néfaste Pour Le Développement Économique Et La Réputation Des Composantes Du Territoire Pan-Canadien.
Une asymétrie environnementale néfaste pour le développement économique et la réputation des composantes du territoire pan-canadien.
La structure fédérale actuelle met un frein au développement des états qui la composent en matière d’environnement et de développement durable.
Certains états canadiens ont assumés, dans une perspective économique, des choix énergétiques avec des impacts environnementaux complètements à l’opposés de ceux des autres régions. À titre d’exemple : l’exploitation des sables bitumineux permet au futur état de l’Alberta, de saisir la pleine mesure d’une relace économique fondée sur le prix lucratif des dérivés des carburants fossiles à l’échelle de l’économie mondiale.
Cependant ce choix entraîne actuellement tout l’état canadien dans une production de gaz à effets de serres qui nuisent à la biosphère sur une échelle mondiale.
Des états comme le futur État de l’Ontario et celui de l’État du Québec, pour ne citer que ces deux cas parmi tant d’autres à travers le Commonwealth du Canada, sont à l’avant garde du respect de la planète par l’utilisation efficace et fortement développée des énergies renouvelables. Ils seraient normalement l’objets d’une grande estime et recevraient des points carbones en leur faveur. Sur le plan économique, la vente d’énergie verte s’avère aussi prometteuse que celle du pétrole au temps des premières prospection des gisements mondiaux.
La mise en chantier du Commonwealth du Canada permettra de mettre fin à une asymétrie environnementale qui fait subir aux provinces des choix que la fédération de 1867 fait assumer en tirant vers le bas toutes les composantes de son territoire pour une seule de ses provinces actuelles. Elle obligera l’État de l’Alberta à compenser à même sa richesse, pour sa production de gaz à effet de serre. Elle éliminera le discrédit que fait subir un état qui assume des choix énergétiques indépendants et distincts des autres à toutes les composantes du Commonwealth du Canada.
Les choix de politique énergétique sont des choix étatiques. Ces choix méritent d’être mieux assumés dans une structure moderne en mesure de faire face aux impacts actuels de la mondialisation. L’avenir, nous met en retard quand le présent d’une région devient la préoccupation de toute l’infrastructure sociale économique d’un des plus grands territoires du Monde dont l’avenir politique est des plus prometteur au profit d’une restructuration largement réclamée par les spécialistes de tous les secteurs de l’économie mais qui est mise en veilleuse par la querelle stérile des tenants d’une infrastructure fédérale et de ceux qui voudraient passer immédiatement au statut d’état..
Les lever de boucliers des deux camps, les coûteuses campagnes publicitaires qui brandissent leurs fantômes ont jetés le discrédit sur toute la classe politique canadienne. On connaît les abus et la perte d’énergie des commandites. On crée artificiellement une fausse problématique, un faux péril dans les deux camps ; là où une solution performante existe sans heurts ni dangers. Il faut dédramatiser le développement du Canada et en faire une infrastructure moderne qui sera le point de mire des générations montantes et de toute la collectivité internationale.
Pierre Castonguay
Monday, July 6, 2009
The Empty Shells and the Terra Cotta Bowl
A young man came to see a wise man saying : Master, I want a united Canada, a strong Canada, a Canada economically profitable, a Canada that respects its citizens, whatever their origins. I want this Canada for the next election. The master considered the young man seriously, and after a long silence, he said : explain to me how you listen to the Canada from the West. The young man replied, I take this old shell that comes from the Pacific Ocean and on a day of high winds roar I hear the sea when I put my ear to the shell. Then the master asks the young man to explain how he listens to the Canada from the East. The young man replied: I take this old shell that comes from the Atlantic Ocean and a day of high winds roar I hear the sea when I put my ear to the shell.. Then the master asked him to explain how he listen to the Canada of the Center. The young man says to him on a day of high winds roar I put my ear to the old empty shells and hear the waves of the great lakes and rivers.
Then the master retired, asking the young man to wait. The waiting has been very short and the young man was delighted when the master came back to him after a few minutes.
The master said : there are three vials in which I have put tap water. Then the master opens the first bottle and insert a few grains of salt. He tends the vial to the young man and says, here is your Canada of the West. Then the master opens the second vial and insert a few grains of salt. He tends the vial to the young man and says, here is your Canada of the East. Finally the master takes the third bottle and gives it to the young man while telling him : this is your Canada of the Center. You no longer have to wait for new elections and by mixing the water from the three flasks in a bowl of clay: the Canada that you want will be inside.
Incredulous, the young man told the master : but I will get nothing but the lightly salted water in a bowl of baked clay. The master said to him, you are absolutely right. In listening to the sound picked up by two empty shells per day of high wind, the Canada that you get is a little bit of salt water in a bowl of baked clay. From one election to the other, you listen to some empty shells during these days of high winds which makes you believe that you hear the ocean sounds.
If you want a united Canada, a strong Canada, a Canada economically profitable and which respects its citizens, whatever their origin pulls up your sleeves, no matter what political party in which you are involved : NDP, the Bloc, the Liberal or Conservative Party:
- Do not expect to receive the new Canada in the forthcoming elections
- It takes ten years of inter-partisan work
- This requires the participation of planners, economists, citizens, politicians, sociologists, political scientists, business men and media
In ten years from now, you will have moved from the Canada of empty shells in which you hear the sea to the Commonwealth of Canada. Canada is a fluid mosaic of which you hear the echo of the flux and reflux in your empty shells. Canada needs to meet the exigencies of globalization of the new millennium and to become more modern and flexible than the bowl of clay and the old shells of the 1867 constitution and it’s amendments. Canada needs you with all your honesty, all your insight and your determination. Forget the current sectarian political parties, put your energy on the unity of those who want to build a better future for future generations by putting an end to sterile disputes of the past.
To those who will tell you that the Commonwealth of Canada is a future projection of the mind and an illusion, answer back that from elections to elections you have listened to the old parties and their empty shells in which you have believed you could listen to the sea.
The new Canada will come to those who have the strength and audacity to put Canada on a design table and who will be able to clean sweep of the political ideas who advocate the status quo. The next Canada to come doesn't belong to any political party, it belongs to all Canadians regardless of their origins and allegiances. It is the sum of the pooling of our forces for a better future.
Pierre Castonguay
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