I encourage everyone to watch this video of veteran reporter and TVO anchor Steve Paikin commenting on police behaviour towards protesters at the G20 and confirming that rubber bullets were, indeed, fired at the crowd he was in despite the protestations of Toronto Police chief, Bill Blair.
Update: For those of you who prefer the written word, read Paikin’s article in the Ottawa Citizen today on the problems with the handling of the G20 protests.
Hyundai and Raser Technologies today announced that they would be partnering in an effort to produce electric and renewable energy trucks and other vehicles for commercial and government use in the United States.
“We are committed to meeting the challenges of global climate change in the two key industries that can reduce fossil fuel emissions the most, renewable energy and electric vehicles,” said Dr. Min, Chairman of Hyundai. “We selected Raser as a development partner because of their leadership in electric vehicles, and their sizable holdings of highly valuable renewable resources,” concluded Min.
Three models of extended range electric trucks are to be produced under the agreement between the two companies for sale to the US. The first trucks have already been purchased by the energy giant PG&E in California.
Raser Technologies was also responsible for the electric version of the Hummer vehicle. The above video was produced before they announced their partnership with the giant Hyundai.
Over the weekend, a very small group of “thugs” were the excuse that the Conservative government and the Toronto police needed to brutalize and antagonize peaceful demonstrators at the G20. The above is just one video illustration of the lengths that Toronto police went to in order to break up peaceful protests around the downtown Toronto core where world leaders were meeting to hammer out global policy issues.
The Conservative-run CTV television station and others repeatedly showed a few videos of vandals doing damage to shop windows and setting police cars on fire. Missing from this completely unevenly handed coverage were videos like the one above, more of which can be found on Rabble.ca.
A journalist from The Guardian, a British newspaper, was beaten and detained with no cause after not having the proper press credentials, but being present in the crowd of protesters. He was punched in the stomach and elbowed in the back, all over not having the right press pass.
More stories are sure to come out in the weeks and months to come, but for now this is just the tip of the iceberg. Yes, it was deplorable that some protesters thought that they had to resort to violence. No, their behaviour was not the excuse needed to treat all protestors like thugs. The confrontational atmosphere was set up weeks in advance, and political activists were monitored by CSIS in the weeks leading up to the G8 and G20, in an attempt to essentially keep protesters away. This government has a lot to answer for, although given Harper’s disdain for any media except CTV means that there will be no answers – until we can vote again.
Update: Check this report from Jesse Ship of AOL Canada, who was arrested and detained without cause at Queen and Spadina.
This past Wednesday, industry minister Jim Prentice announced that power companies had been instructed to phase out coal plants as a method of generating electricity in order to cut down on carbon emissions. While it is laudable, environmental groups are waiting to see just how much the proposed legislation actually does when it comes out, given the Conservative government’s poor track record on environmental issues so far.
The wording from the environment minister was vague and promised that each coal-fired plant would be shut down at the end of its “economic life”, which could potentially be years from now. At face value, this smells like greenwashing from the Harper government, trying to satisfy the environmentalists and their energy lobby buddies all in one shot.
Being an organic mattress company, we’re firmly behind the concept of organic bedding; especially when it looks as awesome as the bedding from Amenity Home. They print all of their designs with eco-friendly inks on 300 thread count organic cotton. They are designed to become softer after each washing.
The company also features lovely hemp pillows that match their lovely bedding. Because we are exceedingly fair, we should mention a couple of other organic bedding producers:
Natural Beauty Canada
This outfit makes each bedding set to order.
Gaiam
This online organic purveyor offers a great organic bedding selection, of which their organic nantucket quilt and sham may be one of the most attractive.
Photo by Reuters
While their men were discussing important things like politics, the first ladies of some of our most important world leaders were subjected to an agenda today that insulted their collective intelligence. Michelle Obama, Carla Sarkozy and Samantha Cameron were unsurprisingly nowhere to be found near this event.
First on the agenda? Press photos. Why they couldn’t have just done that and left the rest off is completely beyond me. Fellow feminists, do not read on unless you have had your mouth-foaming shot today. The morning was the first in a series of events that Laureen Harper put together for the women, because you know, going over important world issues and that sort of thing is such a bother and best left up to the men.
Then, the wives were shown how to bead moccasins by an Aboriginal artist and how to cane a canoe seat. Because that’s useful stuff, isn’t it ladies? I’m sure you’ll go home and immediately incorporate that into your craft-filled lives that surely have nothing to do with important volunteer programs or fundraisers for worthy causes. Stay tuned for the rest of the weekend, when they’ll no doubt be swapping recipes and exploring macrame techniques. What bollocks, as Sam Cameron must have said when she saw the agenda.
Usually when Japan says something, we become a little afraid. This time, however, they make gobsmackingly good sense. Go to bed early to save carbon dioxide. Brill!
The Japanese government has launched a Morning Challenge campaign, which proposes that an extra hour of sunlight in the morning traded off for a lit hour basking in an electronic glow at night will save carbon dioxide emissions. And how! But can you really tell a gaming and anime-obsessed populace to give up an extra hour of their passions? That remains to be seen.
The good Gov also recommends spending that extra hour in the morning doing yoga, eating breakfast, and improving lifestyle, presumably to try to save on health care in the bargain. Why not? Sounds good, in theory. Would I do it? Um… I’ll get back to you once I’ve nailed a few Super Mutants in Fallout 3.
Once in a while, greenies guiltily pick out some disposable plates at the grocery store for those times when you just have too many people over to wash dishes. Usually we pick the cardboard plates so that they will compost, but the problem with those is that they can get soggy if we use a lot of salad dressing or are serving food that is coated with a marinade of any kind. What to do?
If you are a discriminating eco-hostess, you order disposable bamboo plates. While their price tag is decidedly above that of the standard disposable dinnerware, they are sure to make a big impression. Best of all, they are available in bulk sizes if you want to use them for a backyard wedding or just order a bunch all at once with your friends.
The plates are made by Bambu from 100% organically grown bamboo. They are FDA approved as being food safe, and will break down within 4-6 months of being thrown out. Much prettier than the cardboard ones, we might add!
While it may seem like a no brainer, it is worth pointing out today that the federal judge that struck down the moratorium on offshore drilling in the Gulf owned stock in Transocean, the world’s largest offshore drilling company and the owner of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. The judge, Martin Feldman, held as much as $15,000 worth of stock in Transocean as of 2008, and since has acquired stock and other financial instruments in other oil companies and oil industry related companies, including Halliburton.
Feldman was appointed by Ronald Reagan in 1983. If this isn’t a case of wolves looking out for the sheep, I don’t know what is.
The White House will speed an appeal through the courts in order to overturn this ridiculous and obviously biased decision.
Last year, I had the honour of speaking to Michael Potter, the man at the helm of Eden Foods, to find out more about their BPA-free cans. I was truly impressed by the man at that time and the company as they gladly paid an extra few cents a can to make their product as BPA free as possible. While this sounds like a small amount, most food producers, including organic food companies, work off of such a small margin that this would be a profit-killing move for most food producers, but not for Eden Foods. They make it work.
If you have ever drank soy milk or eaten any quantity of organic food, you have probably heard of Eden Foods. Eden offers organic tomato products, organic pastas, beans and traditional Japanese imported foods, as well as many other products. Their 2010-2011 catalogue features over 250 foods. Where did it all begin?
Eden Foods Company was started in the 1960s. Natural foods weren’t widely available at the time and a group of young people decided they would start a company that produced foods produced from natural whole grains and food grown without any harmful toxins and additives.
As word got out, Eden Foods grew into a natural food store selling whole grains, beans, soy foods, sea vegetables, cereals, nut butters and much more. The store soon expanded and added a cafeteria and books, inviting their customers for a longer stay. At the time, it was one of the few places you could get natural, organic and macrobiotic foods.
Soon enough, stores from all around called Eden Foods asking how they could get the food they were selling. They wanted to carry the same natural foods as Eden Foods did.
By 1972, Eden foods opened its first warehouse where they would establish relationships with Japanese food makers; they would import the sea vegetables, teas and most of their rice vinegar from there. Eden soon become a major natural food company distributing to the United States and Canada.
Eden Foods is cleansing the environment by:
