a canayjun point of view...

2011-12-16T11:20:00.000-05:00

Event - Help the Homeless - Sandwich Run / Socks donation -

Saturday, Dec. 17th, 6:30pm Toronto

Please join The MeetUp volunteer group: "Help the Homeless with Project417", in a sandwich run and /or socks donation for the homeless. They will be delivering bagged lunches and socks to some of the city's homeless.

YOUR CHOICE: You can either prepare a minimum of 10 bagged lunches or provide 10 pairs of socks for distribution, or both! Please feel free to also bring hats and gloves.

A Sandwich Run involves delivering nutritious bagged lunches to the homeless by walking well travelled routes in downtown Toronto where street people live. You will be delivering the lunches with an experienced team leader, who will guide you every step of the way.

more about the meetup...

This group heads out on the streets a couple of times a month. There are usually about 10 to 15 volunteers - mostly young professionals - and a rewarding (and fun!) time is had by all. ~ Andy Twitter @canayjun

Knox Toronto Youth Dinner and FoodBank Re-Opens Nov 1st

2011-10-24T17:04:00.000-04:00

This volunteer run program provides a hot meal, activities, conversation and some extra groceries to inner-City youth, every Tuesday, November through April. This program is the 2nd phase of what used to be the Knox Out of the Cold youth shelter. We've been cooking for street youth since 1996--how crazy is that??? Volunteers, guests, donors and friends are welcome to join to stay in touch. Visit the Facebook group

For more, see the previous article over at my Wordpress blog The MissionLog, from a couple years back - Knox is still a fun place for the street youth who frequent it. Many have grown up there. In Toronto? Come out and volunteer!

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TEDxToronto 2011 Opening Video - Toronto

2011-09-30T14:01:00.000-04:00

This is the video for the opening of this year's TEDx Toronto. TEDx was created in the spirit of TED's mission, "ideas worth spreading." TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. The TEDx program is designed to give communities, organizations and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences at the local level. At TEDx events, a screening of TEDTalks videos -- or a combination of live presenters and TEDTalks videos -- sparks deep conversation and connections. TEDx events are fully planned and coordinated independently, on a community-by-community basis.

This video is like a short personal opus for every Torontonian - the city should adopt it as it's "official" City of Toronto video:

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InvisiblePeople Interview: Aboriginal - First Nations Homelessness in Canada

2011-09-16T11:51:00.000-04:00

The following is an interview by Mark Horvath, founder of InvisiblePeople.tv and WeAreVisible.com, outspoken advocate for the homeless. Mark, who lives and works in L.A., was invited to Canada to extend his annual InvisiblePeople.TV roadtrip meeting with and interviewing people who are experiencing homelessness. Helping them get the story told. Helping them gain the visibility they sorely need. Mark was invited by the Calgary Homeless Foundation and Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness. Mark was hosted by homeless service organizations right across Canada from Victoria to St. Johns. One of the main characteristics of Canadian homelessness Mark quickly discovered was the high percentage of aboriginal peoples who are homeless here. Other studies have shown that although First Nations people are only 3% of Canada's population, more than 25% of the street homeless are aboriginal and make up 50% of the Canadian prison population. Here Mark interviews David Ward of Edmonton (via YouTube).

You can follow Mark on Twitter at @hardlynormal and @invisiblepeople

shared by Andy Coats - @canayjun
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follow the MissionLog on Wordpress
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Using Social Media to Find a Better Job - Continued

2011-08-31T14:58:00.001-04:00

or, People Say the Nicest Things Department – Part III

Andy is an unsung hero in our community.... His selflessness, compassion and commitment to his outreach work are truly inspirational... Andy is a man of great character with incredible passion for social justice... Andy successfully inspired broad spectrum community participation... He brings many years of experience and knowledge to any organization...

Some of you have been following my ongoing job search efforts over on Twitter and LinkedIn et al. (You can connect with me on Twitter @canayjun). I'm searching for a career with a non-profit engaged in homeless services and helping to end homelessness. I’ve been making a concerted effort to improve the usual round of submitting resumes and cover letters to promising organizations, by using the various social networks and apps that I have access to. Here's the latest via YouTube, LinkedIn and GoogleDocs. LinkedIn has a nice feature that let's you embed various applications to deliver multimedia content right on your LinkedIn profile - in this case I've used their Google Docs app to add a presentation with an embedded Youtube video.

Check out the video - see me and my colleagues at work:

The video was produced with the help of TurnHere.com while I was the Community Development Coordinator for Project417 and I highly recommend the TurnHere service for anyone, non-profit or private business alike, to jump into video marketing for your cause or company. TurnHere's customer service was superb and the videographer was the best. We filmed out on the streets of Toronto (at Yonge Dundas Square), because that is where the outreach to people experiencing homelessness takes place year round.

You can reach me on Twitter @canayjun and sharing the link to this blog post on Twitter Google+, Facebook and others would be a big boost to my networking efforts and much appreciated.

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Read the Helping Hands Daily - And Submit your Articles to Canayjun on Twitter

2011-08-15T15:20:00.001-04:00

BREAKING - Upgraded, AAA Rating Re-instated? What does it mean?

2011-08-08T21:10:00.001-04:00

BREAKING: Major rating services announced today, after protracted deliberations, to upgrade and re-instate the AAA credit rating for the United States. In concurrent press releases it was also announced that most of the other G8 sovereign states - Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, and the United Kingdom - would consequently be upgraded to the newly introduced AAAA Platinum Plus rating standard. France announced that it would unilaterally migrate over to the more desirable Michelin Guide service after learning that they qualified for 5 Stars. The AAAA Platinum Plus rating means, for the upgraded Group of Six, access to reduced monthly fees and one million free air-miles, which should substantially reduce costs of travelling to the next G8 meeting, (although it is unlikely it will be held in France due to accommodation price increases related to their 5 Star status). Warren Buffet is quoted as saying the US deserves a AAAA rating because it's, well, because it's still the USA ...OK? Insiders though insist that Buffet's AAAA lobbying are more probably linked to his current efforts to corner the world air-mile futures market.

In related news, China announced that it would divest itself of $1.2 trillion dollars in U.S. government notes and quickly transition to Venezuelan Bolivars (VEB) as it lobbied amongst other Group of Five and G20 members to establish the Bolivar as the new standard for international currency trading. A spokesperson for the Chinese government, who can not be identified for fear of torture and lifelong house arrest, revealed that China will replace gold as a hedge against currency fluctuations by taking a more profitable, "organic and vegan" approach by aggressively seeking to wrest control of the world opium market from other south east Asian regimes combined with the armed occupation of Afghanistan following the NATO withdrawal of troops in the region.

Dogs vs Cats - The Diaries

2011-07-11T12:05:00.004-04:00

From a Dog's Diary

8:00 am - Dog food! My favourite thing!
9:30 am - A car ride! My favourite thing!
9:40 am - A walk in the park! My favourite thing!
10:30 am - Got rubbed and petted! My favourite thing!
12:00 PM - Lunch! My favourite thing!
1:00 PM - Played in the yard! My favourite thing!
3:00 PM - Wagged my tail! My favourite thing!
5:00 PM - Milk bones! My favourite thing!
7:00 PM - Got to play ball! My favourite thing!
8:00 PM - Wow! Watched TV with the people! My favourite thing!
11:00 PM - Sleeping on the bed! My favourite thing!

From a Cat's Diary

Day 983 of my captivity. My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects.

They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets. Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength.

The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape. In an attempt to disgust them, I once again vomit on the carpet.

Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet. I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates what I am capable of. However, they merely made condescending comments about what a 'good little hunter' I am. Bastards.

There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight. I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event. However, I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard that my confinement was due to the power of ‘allergies'. I must learn what this means and how to use it to my advantage.

Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking. I must try this again tomorrow -- but at the top of the stairs.

I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches. The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released - and seems to be more than willing to return. He is obviously mentally challenged.

The bird has got to be an informant. I observe him communicating with the guards regularly. I am certain that he reports my every move. My captors have arranged protective custody for him in an elevated cell, so he is safe. For now... Will keep you posted.

[via email author unknown]

Playing for Change - Sittin on The Dock of the Bay

2011-06-13T12:09:00.000-04:00

Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay from Playing For Change on Vimeo.

(Sittin' on) The Dock of The Bay - Otis Redding, Steve Cropper - 1967

My Job Search Launch on Twitter

2011-06-03T13:59:00.000-04:00

OK, 140 or less: Launching my job search here. Social networks should make this easier right? http://linkd.in/Andy-Works

via HardlyNormal: Help Homeless Mom (@CareyFuller) Travel to Speak at 140 Conf in NYC

2011-05-16T12:44:00.001-04:00

Help Homeless Mom Travel to Speak at 140 Conf in NYC

Post update 7/9/11 - the conference is over, but you can still visit with Carey on Twitter @Wearevisible

or http://wearevisible.com/

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Manitoba farmers fear controlled dike breach - Manitoba - CBC News

2011-05-10T17:01:00.001-04:00

Assiniboine River - Red River flood levels alarming. Canadian Forces called in to help:

It looks to be even worse than 2009 when I posted about the Red River flooding looking more like the Red Sea. Visit the CBC for latest updates -
Manitoba farmers fear controlled dike breach - Manitoba - CBC News
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You have a choice

2011-05-01T13:24:00.000-04:00

Together. We. Can. Do. This!

Change is Possible.

Vote NDP - tell @JackLayton

Japan Earthquake - Red Cross Relief

2011-03-12T12:13:00.001-05:00

p-JPN0046, originally uploaded by IFRC.

International relief organizations, including the Red Cross, responded quickly to the devastating earthquakes yesterday. Give generously to your favorite organization.

In Canada - To donate $10 to 2011 Japan Disaster Earthquake relief fund text “QUAKE” to 45678 or go to www.Salvationarmy.ca/Japan or call 1-800-SAL-ARMY

via @canayjun on Twitter
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Aerial view of flooding - Queensland Australia

2011-01-13T09:10:00.001-05:00

Aerial view of flooding, originally uploaded by Salvation Army IHQ.

The Salvation Army is responding to the devastating floods in Queensland, Australia.

Support their emergency relief efforts and the long term re-construction.

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via @MeteorTel on Twitter

Who doesn't hate Voicemail Jail?

2010-12-16T08:36:00.000-05:00

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:: Unified Messaging could set your business free from this -

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:: Connect with @MeteorTel on Twitter
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Playing For Change - Video: Stand By Me

2010-11-27T13:19:00.001-05:00

Stand By Me | Playing For Change | Song Around The World from Concord Music Group on Vimeo.

Follow Canayjun on Twitter

The Story of Joe Elkerton - a First Nations Survivor

2010-05-22T13:30:00.000-04:00

A recent interview of my good friend Joe Elkerton, who tirelessly works out on the streets of Toronto to improve the lives of the disenfranchised. Share it widely.

Canadians Helping Haiti - Earthquake Disaster Relief - links to online resources

2010-01-16T12:18:00.000-05:00

from Google earth - by rickall

Disaster relief and emergency service organizations worldwide are mobilizing worldwide to provide help to earthquake stricken Haiti. Donations are sorely needed. It has been reported that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have already donated $1 million dollars to support Doctors Without Borders. The US Red Cross has raised more than $35 million dollars. The Canadian government has announced it will match donations made to any Canadian charity for Haiti earthquake disaster relief - so your donations have twice the impact.

There are many appeals for public donations. I recommend you direct your donations to registered charities with proven disaster relief capacities AND personnel “on the ground” in Haiti backed by immediate mobilization plans to put more front line emergency service workers and volunteers in place as well as deliver critical supplies and food immediately.

In Canada, donate to:

– The Salvation Army at http://salvationarmy.ca/
– The Red Cross at http://redcross.ca
– World Vision at http://worldvision.ca
– Mennonite Central Committee at http://mcc.org

Although I have no immediate plans to put together a Project417 relief team, (our last trip was to Hurricane Ike ravaged Galveston County, San Leon, Texas in Dec 2008), I’ll be supporting our partners at the Salvation Army Canada and the Canadian Red Cross. Also check back to the blog here, once immediate relief efforts are no longer needed the emphasis will switch to rebuilding and reconstruction for many years. Haiti is still recovering from severe hurricane devastation over the last two years and now the need for both short and long term volunteer missions to rebuild communities will intensify. With experience following both Hurricanes Katrina, Gustav and Ike, I’ll be looking for the most effective way to put together a volunteer team -- most probably with The Fuller Center for Housing, who were already building new homes in Haiti when the earthquake hit. The late Millard Fuller was the founder of Habitat for Humanity. Stay tuned - Join me!

News from Geneva – (ICRC) – finding missing family members:

The International Committee of the Red Cross has set up a special website to help thousands of people within Haiti and abroad who have lost contact with their loved ones. Haitians as well as family members around the world can log on to register a missing loved one at http://www.icrc.org/familylinks

or this short link at http://bit.ly/8B4sBA

Together caring and giving Canadians and friends worldwide can make a real difference to our suffering neighbors in Haiti.

Thanks ~ Andy ( follow @canayjun and @MeteorTel on Twitter)

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
Relief arrives to hurricane-ravaged Haiti
San Leon Hurricane Ike Survivors Glad to See Disaster Relief Workers

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maxlroze - a portrait

2010-01-01T12:41:00.002-05:00

@maxlroze is family. She sent me a small portrait taken on a cellphone. I loved the pose and composition so I decided to make a Christmas gift of it (well Chrismukkah actually). I'd had some sucess with the new Photoshop for iPhone app, so I gave it a try for the first edit, then finished it for printing with Paint.NET

This is one version, printed as an 8 x 10

Max is the new Promoter - Entertainment Co-Ordinator for Waltz Live Music on King St. in downtown Hamilton. She's responsible for booking all the bands and acts. She says, "Gonna be a rockin' 2010!" and if you're a high energy up and coming band in the Golden Horseshoe, then you should definitely be connecting with her on Twitter.

There's a set on Flickr which shows the evolution of the small mobile photo to the final edited versions. The actual gift print was an 11x17 at Options in Port Credit: Options is an example of a "Social Purpose Enterprise" that combines a social mission with a business operation – an exciting model that offers huge benefits to the community. Options Mississauga prepares people who have an intellectual disability with the skills necessary to obtain meaningful employment in the community. If you're in the GTA and use Kinkos or KwikCopy or similar service, I highly recommend Options as a socially responsible alternative for all your printing needs. Enjoy.

Oh yeah - Happy NEW YEAR, have a great one!

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@canayjun

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A Christmas Wish

2009-12-24T13:11:00.004-05:00

O’ Holy Night - Merry Christmas

Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior— yes, the Messiah, the Lord — has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!

Thank-you to all my readers of the "canayjun point of view" blog. Hope you all have a blessed Christmas and joyous New Year! –

<>< Andy

Follow me: @canayjun on Twitter

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward everyone.

Smashing Pumpkins - Listen - Download - A Song for a Son

2009-12-08T12:25:00.002-05:00

Smashing Pumpkins - A Song for a Son, released today for free MP3 download.

Follow: @smashingpumpkin and @canayjun on twitter

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Robert Coats, MBE - In Memoriam March 14, 1915 - October 23, 2009

2009-11-11T12:50:00.002-05:00

Technology Pioneer -
Chief Designer, QE2 Gas Turbine Propulsion System

My Uncle Bob passed away a couple of weeks ago. He was 94. He was my dad's last surviving brother of five. Bob and the rest of the Coats family live in England. It's difficult being in Canada, with no close relatives other than our immediate family, the five of us. So I'm posting this article about my Uncle Bob, written by my cousin Peter last week (which I have added to a little). God rest your soul Uncle Bob:

Robert Coats passed away peacefully in his sleep at home on October 23, 2009 aged 94 years. Bob is survived by his wife Dorthy (nee Edwards), brother Alan (my father), his sons Peter, Mick and Chris, their wives, and grandchildren.

Robert ( Bob) Coats, MBE

Bob was born 14 March 1915, South Shields, County Durham, England, the second of 5 sons of Thomas and Grace Coats. The other brothers were John, Thomas (Tommy), George and my father, Alan, the youngest. South Shields is a town on the east coast of northern England, at the mouth of the River Tyne. The closest major city is Newcastle. South Shields was a coal mining town, a busy seaport and the site of shipyards and ship building. It was in South Shields that the first lifeboats were invented and deployed by volunteers, for rescuing crew and passengers of wrecks on the stormy North Sea coast. (1915 was during the Great War - the "war to end all wars" - now known as the First World War).

Educated - South Shields High School. Graduated after taking School Certificate. Recently said it had been his intention to become a pharmacist but was found an apprenticeship at Parsons. Robert was the editor of the Harton Methodist Youth Newsletter. He qualified as Associate of the Marine Institute (AMI), Mechanical Engineer. After war work during the Second World War (1939-1945), which included assessing damage to torpedoed or shelled ships, Robert joined P.A.M.E.T.R.A.D.A. (Parsons And Marine Engineering Turbine Research And Development Association).

He had wanted to apply for another job but because of wartime labour controls, he had to get his manager’s approval. When he approached his manager he was told something else was coming up which would suit him better. Something else turned out to be PAMETRADA, which started up in a room over the Coach & Horses, a public house in Wallsend. (Wallsend is so named, being the eastern end of Hadrian's Wall, a defense rampart built across the width of nothern Britain by the Roman General Hadrian during the first century).

He met his wife Dorothy (Edwards) for the first time on a walking holiday in North Wales in 1938. After a courtship made difficult by wartime conditions and her travelling about with the Land Army / Forestry Commission, they married in 1943. They have three sons, Peter, Mick and Chris and he leaves behind many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The family moved to Ponteland in Northumberland in 1956.

Robert was instrumental in developing a standard approach to steam turbine design and rose to Chief Designer at PAMETRADA about the time the research side was hived off to BSRA (now British Maritime Technology). The last major project at PAMETRADA was the design of propulsion machinery for the QE2 - The RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 - for many years, the world's largest cruise ship. When the member firms, including John Brown’s, decided to wind PAMETRADA up, the ship was still under construction and Bob joined John Brown Engineering at Clydebank.

The QE2 - RMS Queen Elizabeth 2

In 1968, Bob and Dorothy with their youngest son Chris, moved to Helensburgh in Scotland (near Glasgow and next to the beautiful Loch Lomond). This was for his work at John Brown Engineering, which initially involved watching over the construction of the Q.E.2’s turbines, which had been designed by PAMETRADA as part of the standard range of turbines. The engines passed their trials but broke down during the shake down cruise due to blade failure. Bob Coats was on board as a senior representative of the engine builders and was able to ensure return to port under reduced power. The engines were returned to the Clydebank, repaired under his direction and reinstalled, and continued in use until their replacement by diesels many years later.

In his own words, on creation of the separate Marine and General Engineering Division he was appointed Technical Manager, with responsibility for introducing the Heavy Duty Gas Turbine for marine propulsion, in addition to the continuation of the Steam Turbine sales and design activities for marine steam turbines under PAMETRADA, Stal Laval and General Electric Licences. He developed a gas turbo-electric propulsion system which was the subject of John Brown’s first Merchant Marine gas turbine order.

Bob continued as Technical Manager at John Brown Engineering until 1980, promoting the use of gas turbines, under a GE licence, throughout the world; memorably in China where the price was going to be paid via trade, in millions of eggs. He developed new engineering systems incorporating gas turbines, for instance - Combined Power Systems for electricity generation where exhaust heat from a gas turbine is used to raise steam for a steam turbine generator. He supported the company’s sales and marketing efforts in China, Russia, Vietnam, Mexico, Thailand, Venezuela, India, Sri Lanka, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Trinidad and America. The interest in energy efficiency developed and continued in consulting activities after retirement from John Brown’s. It’s remarkable in this connection that global warming was mentioned as long ago as 1979.

Two years before his retirement Bob and Dorothy bought the house at Thursby near Carlisle (in the Lake District of northern England) where they lived until moving to Newport, Shropshire in the south in 1999. Bob continued to provide consultancy in the field of energy efficiency and related matters until 1985 (aged 70).

Robert Coats was made MBE, Member - The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, by her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in the New Year’s Honours for 1984, for services to industry.

Now my Dad is the last of the remaining brothers Coats. He will miss Robert dearly, as do I.

Alan & Bob (and Kip), 1935

L-R: George, Robert, Alan - 2000

Robert Coats - Professional Designations:
Fellow, Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology
Fellow, Royal Institute of Naval Architects
Associate Member, Institution of Mechanical Engineers
MBE - The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V of the United Kingdom. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions. MBE is for a Member

Publications
1. Pametrada Turbines - Present Position and Future Outlook (IMarE Silver Medal, 19 April 1966)
2. With Ralph Fleeting, BSc CEng FIMA FBCS: Blade Failures in the HP Turbines of RMS Queen Elizabeth II and their Rectification (IMarE Silver Medal 21 April 1971)
3. Turbinas a Gas para Operaciones de Fundicion, Caracas 29 April 1976 (written and delivered in Spanish)
4. Marine Steam Turbines - Part 8 of Marine Engineering Practice, IMar E,
5. Marine Turbine Thrusts, North East Coast Institute of Engineers and Shipbuilders, 1965
6. (with J.A.Turner) Long Life Marine Gas Turbines , Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland, 1970
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Gala Charity Benefit in Toronto to Help the Homeless

2009-10-06T14:59:00.008-04:00

Toronto Charity Benefit - 'Our Toronto includes the Homeless'

Reserve November 28th on your calendar to make a difference for the thousands of people in Toronto who are experiencing homelessness. We pass them on the streets every day and, as the cold weather comes, see them huddled over hot air grates outside Toronto's downtown skyscapers and lining up outside the crowded emergency shelters or soup kitchens. What can we do? It has to be more than dropping small change in a panhandler's battered Tim Horton's cup - real change is what's needed. For almost twenty years, Project417 has mobilized thousands of community volunteers. They operate relief outreach programs to the homeless year round - building bridges of trust, encouraging the homeless to seek shelter & housing and helping them to move into healthier lifestyles. You can help Project417 continue their work and improve our community - our Toronto - for everyone.

Project417 presents:

The ♫We Are Family Gala♫

Music by: Big John & the Night Trippers
Motown - R&B, Blues, 60's Rock&Roll

Saturday, November 28th, 2009 - 8:00PM to 1:00AM, Cocktails @ 7PM
Reception & Dance :: Hors D'Oeuvres & Finger Foods - Desserts & Pastry Table ::
Silent Auction :: Live Auction - original Artworks :: Raffles, Games & prizes
Tickets $75 pp - VIP Tickets $100 pp ::
RBC Auditoriums, 315 Front Street West, Toronto, ON
(next to the Rogers Centre and CN Tower)
SPECIAL 2 for 1 Ticket prices - get them online nowEmail: WeAreFamily@project417.com ::

We're having a party! Project417 is hosting a gala charity benefit - The ♫We Are Family Gala♫. We want to celebrate this community we call Toronto with an evening of live music, good food, dancing and fun! All proceeds from the ♫We Are Family Gala♫ will benefit people in our community who are experiencing homelessness

It's going to be a Motown theme this year, backed by the rockin, R&B sounds of Big John and the Night Trippers. Fronted by vocalist "Big John" Morris, the Night Trippers will have you puttin' on your dancin' shoes and groovin' to your favorite 60's and 70's Motown and Rock n Roll hits. The ♫We Are Family Gala♫ will be a must see event this fall - be prepared for the red carpet treatment and paparazzi when you arrive.

We chose ♫We Are Family♫ to reflect the spirit of the programs Project417 runs to help the homeless. It's about engaging people in community - more than two thousand volunteers this year - and it is about relationship building. We want to show that this little community we call Toronto cares about the people in our midst who are experiencing homelessness. We won't pass them by. We won't leave them behind. We realize that our community can not reach it's full potential while they are left out in the cold. We need them to find a place to call home with neighbors who care and community services that meet the needs of the whole community.

How can I help?

Do you have a flair for organizing? or decorating? Graphic design? Have some great fun ideas to make our party more entertaining? Just email us at volunteer@project417.com and we'll hook you up with our fund-raising committee.

We invite all community members to donate new, unused gifts and services to be auctioned or awarded as prizes. If necessary, donors of goods can receive a charitable donation receipt according to CRA guidelines for Gifts in Kind. You must tell us the fair market value of the gift you are donating. Currently, CRA guidelines do not allow for tax-deductible receipts for the donation of services. These types of gifts however, have proven to be very popular at silent auction and we appreciate your support of our cause. We already have a night for two in Niagara-on-the-Lake at the elegant Copper Lane B&B, a week at a resort in Quebec and some Toronto Raptors tickets! What do you have that you could offer to our guests at the gala?

We are also accepting cash donations to assist with the operation of this worthy cause. Donations of $100, $500 or more can be identified as Sponsors of the Gala. Please make your cheques payable to Project417. A charitable donation receipt will be mailed to you. Online donations will be available soon. Those interested in donating an item can leave it with a member of the Project417 fund-raising committee- contact us by email at donation@project417.com. Thank you, your contributions are much appreciated!

Project417 Programs

Project417 has several active programs in the Toronto Area. Project417 is a division of Ekklesia Inner City Ministries, a registered Canadian charitable organization - CRA registration #890482763RR0001. Our vision is to create a community which is accessible to ALL who are in need. We develop and implement programs which enable people to move into healthier lifestyles. Project417 hosts almost two thousand volunteers each year and guides them in meaningful outreach to the homeless right where they live - out on the street, in shelters, meal programs or drop-ins.

[and just in case you thought it was all pointless, there an answer]

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Join the #Whyhomeless Movement - Help the Homeless Now

2009-09-05T11:00:00.006-04:00

Originally posted on September 3, 2009 by missionlog | mirror

Visit Part 1 of the series at this short url -

http://bit.ly/Stq06

Welcome to the continuing series exploring the root causes of homelessness. This IS the #Whyhomeless Movement. A grassroots social action group committed to alleviating the challenges faced by people who are experiencing homelessness. Based in Toronto, but pursuing a worldwide issue, we think global, but ACT local. I’ve proposed the creation of a task force to re-examine the core issues and we now have a small tight knit team and held the first #whyhomeless meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2009 in Toronto hosted by the kind folks at the Ferret & Firkin Pub on Spadina. (The sweet potato fries are worth the visit alone – join us for the next meeting).

In my last post I said:

We need innovative problem solving techniques to be applied in an environment that fosters freedom of thought and unity of purpose. We need to remember the most important stakeholders in this process – the homeless men, women and children themselves.

The meeting included a fair amount of brainstorming mixed with a backgrounder on Project417, the non-profit that launched the #Whyhomeless movement. Here are some of the ideas that were presented – ( Thanks Darlene, Giulia, Jenn, April, and Rahim).

A home for the homeless -

It’s proposed that we purchase a home in the downtown Toronto area and develop it as a supportive transitional home for up to four members of our community who are experiencing homelessness. Partnerships created with banking, real estate, city programs, churches and exisiting community organizations. This is activism at its most basic – people are homeless. Let’s provide them with a home.

A street-based community newspaper –

There are two (or three) “homeless outreach” newspapers on the streets of Toronto right now. Only one publishes regularly. One has content that could only be described as racist conspiracy theory on steroids. A recent attempt at a new publication (that most of us were involved in) was co-opted by some folks who probably were more interested in a paycheck than in truly involving the homeless. We’re going to take another run at it. It will involve members of the homeless community from the ground up. Publisher, editors, journalists, photography, design, marketing, advertising, online edition, distribution and vendors – ALL will be people who are or who have recently experienced homelessness. It will contain real news that people want to read, it will pay its own way, it will engender a spirit of mentorship and it will provide valuable on-the-job training and work experience.

MeetUp.com volunteer building –

The first MeetUp.com Project417 Sandwich Run to the Homeless last month was a great success. Thanks Giulia and Darlene. Project417 already hosts more than two thousand volunteers a year, handing out meals to the homeless. Tapping into the local community through MeetUp could realistically add another 1,000 volunteers annually, add new routes and areas of the city, and introduce more caring people to the #whyhomeless movement.

A canteen truck for the Sandwich Runs to the homeless –

We have in the past made use of volunteer and staff vans to extend the reach of delivering nutritious meals to the homeless out on the streets. It’s proposed that a canteen (camper) van/truck be purchased and operated to increase the effectiveness of street outreach to the homeless. This includes partnering with organizations, like the Salvation Army and Light Patrol – who already operate vehicle outreach. There is a side benefit in that people trained on the canteen will also have skills needed in our Emergency & Disaster Response programs.

The Co-op community housing model –

Co-operative housing has fallen out of favour in recent years for affordable housing projects (very few new Co-op units have been constructed) But it is in fact, the future of affordable housing because it involves residents directly in building healthy communities – new co-op model efforts should encompass local green environmental initiatives, community gardens (buy local), childcare, education, elder care, health care and non-traditional approaches to transitional homes.

The “residence” housing model -

Very simply – why are there only “residences” for college and university students? That type of cooperative living environment can be ideal for any youth leaving home, seeking their first jobs and looking for an affordable place to live and eat.

A Fair Trade Cafe -

Hey, we’re Canadian, eh? We love coffee. We love the homeless. So a coffee house to support the homeless community is a natural, right?

A Fundraising Party –

Coming soon to a Toronto venue near you! It’s time for the next Project417, and the first #whyhomeless fundraiser. Room for plenty of fun loving people. Some good eats and refreshments. Great band – live music, dancing. Special guests, auctions and more. Announcement coming soon.

Using Social Media to help the Homeless –

We need a Project417.com website makeover and a launch pad for the #whyhomeless Movement and need to recruit industry expertise in new media, social media and web apps. You may already be part of the #whyhomeless Movement. If not go to Twitter and tweet homelessness issues and news with the #whyhomeless tag. Make friends with like minded people who care about the homeless (follow @canayjun). Submit a comment here. Re-post this on your blog, share it on Facebook. Email a link to your friends, post it on Digg or Reddit. Visit Twitter and connect with other friends like @MLFNOW , @_CSM_ , @joeelkerton or @invisiblepeople.

Stay tuned for more updates – comment here if you’re interested in attending our next meeting – Wednesday, Sept. 9th at 8PM.

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Hurricane Katrina 8 29 05 Remember New Orleans - Video

2009-08-29T19:14:00.002-04:00

Hurricane Katrina: Rain to Renaissance – YouTube Video

I couldn’t let August 29th go by without posting some remembrance for our many friends in New Orleans. Four years ago today Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast and devastated New Orleans. I went down and volunteered with Project417, staying until August ‘06 working in relief centers and hosting volunteers helping gut out and repair flood ravaged homes in the Lower 9th. I put the video together from photos we took, news shots, NASA photos and other YouTube videographers. It still needs an ending that shows the spirit of revival and community caring that continues to grow today. Worth watching? You tell me – I will never forget New Orleans.

Re-tweet it @canayjun to let me know you watched. Thx!

The Root Causes of Homelessness - Part 5

2009-08-13T20:40:00.004-04:00

Posted on August 13, 2009 by missionlog | mirror

Visit Part 1 of the series at this short url -

http://tinyurl.com/whyhomeless

In my last post I said:

We need to re-visit the issue of the root causes of homelessness and use our findings to publicly articulate an actionable plan to reduce homelessness. We need to wrest control of the issues from interest groups and some activist organizations which, in my opinion, have co-opted the true needs of our homeless friends. We need to make recommendations that can be life changing and give hope to our entire community.

Naturally, this has garnered a fair level of criticism from some existing homeless service providers. I ask once again that people who are working so tirelessly to improve the lives of our homeless friends not view the ongoing quest to redefine the root causes of homelessness as an indictment – our goal is to identify major risk factors before people become homeless and to do this we must move out of the realm of considering homelessness primarily as a poverty issue. This can only strengthen existing homeless services. In contrast to “housing first” based efforts, as a grassroots program Project417’s #whyhomeless movement will be a people centered community development effort.

We’re not alone in our search to re-define homeless services. Alan Graham, founder and president of Mobile Loaves and Fishes in Austin, Texas recently announced a groundbreaking program to survey the homeless themselves to determine their critical needs. He posted this startling declaration:

ISSUE: Despite decades of heart-felt attempts at finding solutions, millions of dollars and countless hours of effort, the homeless services system in the United States is officially broken. There are few, if any, large, transformational, paradigm-shifting programs that are effectively, productively and permanently moving homeless people off of the streets and into meaningful and purposeful solutions. Many services are tiny band-aids on a gaping and gushing wound: one meal for a person who doesn’t have a regular source of nutrition, one counseling service with no continuation of care, one night of shelter in a public, crowded facility. In August 2009 an Austin collaboration will be conducting a landmark survey of the area homeless population. The goal is to better understand the needs of the chronically homeless, in hopes of creating transformational change. The results of this survey will be the foundation for a full day educational and community action symposium in March 2010. [in Austin, Texas]

At Project417 we believe that people have priority over money, structures, systems and other institutions. At Project417, a program of Ekklesia Inner City Ministries, our Executive Director, Rev. Joe Elkerton has a long history of ministering to and advocating for the homeless in Toronto going back over twenty years. He promotes a vision of people centered community development. From the Project417 mission statement on our website:

Our definition of development is –

people in community engaging in a spiritual, social, physical, economic and political process of positive transformation towards a sustainable future.

People centered development focuses on the well being of people and their living system while promoting the worth and dignity of all human beings. It therefore encompasses value change, popular participation, human resource development, gender issues, appropriate technology, children’s issues and sustainability.

People centered development “emphasizes the process of development and its essential focus on personal and institutional capacity”. It also rejects the notion of experts, asserting instead that no one is outside of the development process and that each person has something to contribute as sell as something to learn.

People centered development seeks the active involvement of all stakeholders in every stage of the development process. It affirms the worth and contribution of every community member. It promotes transparency, justice and equity, asserting that the first priority in resource allocation should be the achievement of community objectives related to the satisfaction of the basic needs of all community members”.

In my last post, I invited any and all who are interested in resolving homelessness in our communities to join a “taskforce” to determine the root cause of homelessness with the purpose to prevent, treat and heal homelessness. More correctly it should not yet be referred to as a taskforce because the root issues are not yet defined, so specific tasks can’t be assigned. We need innovative problem solving techniques to be applied in an environment that fosters freedom of thought and unity of purpose. We, like Mobile Loaves and Fishes , need to remember the most important stakeholders in this process – the homeless men, women and children themselves.

You can be a valuable part of this process. Join the #whyhomeless movement. Submit a comment here. Re-post this on your blog, share it on Facebook. Email a link to your friends, post it on Digg or Reddit. Visit Twitter and connect with me @canayjun or other friends like @MLFNOW , @_CSM_ , @joeelkerton or @invisiblepeople. Tweet homelessness issues to the world on Twitter and include the tag #whyhomeless so we can track the movement.

Come back and visit the blog here for the next post in this series.

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The Root Cause of Homelessness - Part 4

2009-08-06T17:44:00.005-04:00

This is a mirror of the post on August 1, 2009 by missionlog

Visit Part 1 of the series at this short url -

http://tinyurl.com/whyhomeless

A Call to Action:

In Parts 1 to 3 of the series, we have investigated the root cause of homelessness. I mentioned the need to decide upon a definition of homelessness. I’d like to postpone that for a short time because there is a window of opportunity right now to impact homelessness services that requires a call to action. There is an excellent article on defining “homelessness” by Lyne Casavant, of the Political and Social Affairs Division, Government of Canada, from January 1999 at “Definition of Homelessness”.

I recently proposed the formation of a task force on the root causes of homelessness in an email to some key stakeholders here in Canada, because as I have said -

the issue of affordable housing does not sufficiently capture the underlying “root” cause of homelessness

My message was addressed to the members of the EFC Roundtable on Poverty and Homelessness – advocates in their own right representing several organizations devoted to helping the homeless. I also included Joe Elkerton, our Executive Director at Project417 and several other stakeholders, friends and community members with a heart for the homeless. The text of that message follows -

“Some of you I have met and had a chance to discuss the challenges in ministering to the homeless. I’ve been with Joe Elkerton at Project417 – Ekklesia Inner City Ministries for more than five years – my position there is 100% faith based and I was commissioned to this work with the homeless by my home church, Mississauga Chinese Baptist Church. Primarily I work out on the streets of Toronto year round in what we call sandwich runs to the homeless with over 2,000 volunteers every year. I’m currently engaged in a process that is exploring the root causes of homelessness – in a series of posts at my blog (quicklink http://tinyurl.com/whyhomeless ) and I would appreciate your comments and input.

More - in keeping with the spirit of the Ottawa manifesto, I would suggest that now is the time to -

“…SPEAK on [the homeless'] behalf when their own voices are not heard, and support them in speaking for themselves, to the end that Canadian churches, governments, media and businesses would make the substantial reduction of homelessness, poverty and their root causes a high priority”.

I know that each of you works tirelessly for the homeless both in your respective organizations and as members of the EFC roundtable – don’t consider it an indictment when I say that we have not yet done enough for our homeless friends. Consider it a call to action or a call to arms:

” — Those who were rebuilding the wall and those who carried burdens took their load with one hand doing the work and the other holding a weapon… Neh. 4:17

We need to re-visit the issue of the root causes of homelessness and use our findings to publicly articulate an actionable plan to reduce homelessness. We need to wrest control of the issues from interest groups and some activist organizations which, in my opinion, have co-opted the true needs of our homeless friends. We need to make recommendations that can be life changing and give hope to our entire community. We all suffer the effects of homelessness in our society. One of our friends, Bob Buckley, has said recently in his blog The Pathway to Hope -

“Our society in it’s desire to help the brokenhearted, is part of the problem. We provide enough care to maintain a level of survival that I would call the living dead”.

All of us when pressed admit the root causes of homelessness are complex, but complexity is not impossible to fathom. We all know the simple straight-forward answers most people give for homelessness -

# Alcohol and drug abuse, addictions
# Loss of a job, the economy, bankruptcy
# Family problems and break-ups
# Lack of education – not being qualified for well paying job
# Poor judgment, making bad choices and laziness
# Choice – some people just choose to be homeless
# Mental illness
# Physical disability
# Abuse in the home – youth runaways
# Violence against women

To these are most often added a key element – the lack of affordable housing. Housing has become the clarion call for many homeless service organizations across Canada and the United States and for some time, I too thought that was the key, (or adequate housing to use the UN definition in which affordability is but one factor). But we all know that it is still not so simple. All of the homeless must be missing one thing in common, like lacking the anti-bodies to fight a disease. I often tell my volunteers they are missing just one person who cares. Love is the missing ingredient. And our Christian community is called by Christ to be the people who love other people. We have the Author of love as our example. God IS love. We are called by love its very self to love both our neighbors and our enemies.

How then is this “lack of love” manifested in people before they become homeless – because that is what we must address. We are all very skilled at loving the homeless after the fact. It is this realization that suggests that homelessness is not primarily a poverty issue. Here in Canada at least, it is not primarily the poor that are becoming homeless. Homelessness visits every strata of our society, rich and poor. The poverty-centric disaster relief and healing services must continue – we can do no less. But we must take the next steps in the fight against homelessness – just as with heart disease or diabetes – Prevention and search for the cure.

Many of you have already said as much, although in different words. Greg Paul writes on the EFC website -

“Although these “reasons” are some of the huge problems to be addressed if my friends are ever to find homes, these aren’t the root cause why they have ended up living on the street. Experiences of significant and repeated physical and/or sexual abuse—which many studies correlate with roughly 85 percent of homeless youth—now that gets a little closer to the bone…

Joe Elkerton has discussed with me the symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder – PTSD – displayed amongst our most chronically homeless street friends, especially of the First Nations, and how their inner pain triggers the terrible and self-destructive behaviour we witness daily.

A recent study by Dr Stephen Hwang at St. Mike’s reveals that more than one in three of Toronto’s homeless suffered a traumatic brain injury prior to ending up on the streets .

A recent study I became aware of only days ago, by Heather Larkin of the University of Albany – shows the link between Adverse Childhood Experiences - ACE – and homelessness. From her study -

“ More than 85 percent of the homeless respondents reported having experienced at least one of 10 categories of adverse childhood experiences (ACE). Many (52.4 percent) had experienced more than four categories of traumatic events when growing up. … There is a high ACE prevalence among the homeless people in this study. Individuals with high ACE scores may be more vulnerable to economic downturns and cultural oppression, a person-environment interaction increasing the likelihood of homelessness. Service responses focused on identifying and addressing childhood traumas hold an opportunity for addressing ACEs before they contribute to homelessness.”

I’d suggest a task force be assembled to re-define from the ground up the root causes of homelessness, refine the church’s response, to separate service responses pre- and post-homeless, to help prevent, treat and heal homelessness in our community. You’re all invited.

We really should meet.

<><
Canayjun
project417.com

Visit @canayjun on Twitter and join the #whyhomeless movement

Acts 3:1-7
Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer. And a man who had been lame from his mother’s womb was being carried along, whom they used to set down every day at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, in order to beg alms of those who were entering the temple. When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he began asking to receive alms. But Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze on him and said, “Look at us!” And he began to give them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, “I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene–walk!” And seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up; and immediately his feet and his ankles were strengthened. NASB

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Layton: Defending Canada's Health Care: Truths and Lies

2009-07-30T21:18:00.003-04:00

Jack Layton - on Huffington Post Blog
Responding to U.S. Republican fear-mongering about "broken" health care system

Our system does have flaws. We need better prescription drug coverage, better remote access to care and better practices in hospitals and clinics. No honest advocate for our health care system would dismiss these things. But Canadian health care works -- and works well....

Canayjun's comments via HuffPo:

" I'm glad Jack did admit the Canadian system is not perfect. Our neighbours deserve the facts. As Jack listed - the lack of a comprehensive prescription drug plan adds to the cost we must pay for directly and is a burden on many families. Better remote health care, especially in the far north and amongst our First Nations native population - Attawapiskat for instance has a hospital staffed by nurses only with doctors flown in on a schedule. I feel what Jack has missed mentioning, and is glossed over in our enthusiasm to say how great a job Canada is doing, are three major items: 1. the difficulty in finding a family doctor / GP if you don't already have one (one of the unlucky 15%); 2. too few specialists, eg. neurologists,cardiologists, etc and technicians like MRI imaging technicians; 3. and the final most pressing need - we need to reduce wait times for treatment and testing.

Much has been done in the past two or three years, but we need to be able to count on speedy access to health care and not just in critical circumstances - days and weeks can add up until the health situation becomes critical. Early diagnosis and treatment should still be the priority"

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
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Rogers Internet Service: Slow connections, DNS errors, and Speed Tweaks

2009-07-30T13:42:00.014-04:00

In my previous posts about trying to improve the speed and reliability of my Rogers internet service - Rogers Internet Service - DNS errors - Portable Internet Issues - I discussed how Rogers Internet Services changed the way their DNS (domain name system) servers handles DNS requests with Roger's "Supported search results" as they called it - make a typo in a url and you are redirected to a Rogers portal webpage displaying possible search matches and advertising (from which they earn revenue). Not only did this break the functionality of your browser (which suggest inline alternatives to misspelled links), their opt-out method was confusing and technically challenging. My service degraded considerably. So I showed how to change the DNS servers to OpenDNS' 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220 or the alternate Level 3 Communications 4.2.2.2 and 4.2.2.3

(By the way, all these discussions are based on Windows XP - Vista and 7 are much different)

I use Rogers High Speed Portable which is a wireless (non- line of site) service provided by both Bell (Bell High Speed Unplugged) and Rogers, a joint venture called the Inukshuk Wireless Partnership using pre-WiMax (IEEE 802.16) transmission technology. It has an advertised speed of 1.5 mbps down and 256 kbps up which was not as fast as cable or DSL but the flexibility was all I needed. Rogers has recently announced a next gen high speed wireless service said to be many times faster - Rogers Extreme Plus and Ultimate Tier High Speed Internet packages are claimed to deliver download speeds of 25 and 50 Mbps and upload speeds of 1 Mbps and 2 Mbps respectively. They still have file transfer limits (uploads and downloads combined)of 125 GB and 175 GB respectively. (Portable is 30GB) Based on my experience with their wireless products, I would steer clear until they prove the stability and reliability.

Anyway, because my service began to seriously degrade: slowing down to a crawl every evening, numerous resets required (powering off/on the wireless modem), file downloads interrupted etc - My quest to tweak and improve that connection was on. I made extensive use of tech support forums across the internet including the major manufacturers like Cisco, Microsoft etc - using Google search to dig up the most useful exchanges of information. As I mentioned the best source I found of user support forums was DSLReports.com (not limited to DSL service, covers all major connectiom methods, cable, wireless, satellite, even dial-up). They have an extensive list of free tweaking and testing tools.

The first major improvement that I saw was changing a setting called MTU - or Maximum Transmission Unit. Discussions in different forums had even Roger's tech support targetting incorrect MTU as the culprit for slow,unreliable connections - but those same Roger's tech's showed a wide disagreement in what the best MTU for portable wireless internet was. The default MTU in Windows XP is 1500. (Vista and 7.0 settings are not tweakable, those OS's use a more dynamic internal self-reparing approach to network throughput). The MTU setting controls the maximum ethernet packet size your PC will send. Windows defaults MTU to 1500. Larger packets can be sent but basically, your ISP's routers will "fragment" the packet, ie. break it up into digestable chunks. This fragmentation (and re-assembly) add delay to your network transit times and increase the likelihood of packet loss. What? Rogers didn't tell you to change your MTU because wireless transmission requires a lower MTU - therein lies the problem.

There were three Microsoft support articles I found useful: Different MTU Settings; MTU settings for PPPoE (point to point protocol over Ethernet); and Black Hole Router discussions (no it's not sci-fi, but ya gotta love the name). The situation is made confusing because the PPPoE article says not to set MTU below 1400 and this is the value most Rogers techs were recommending - and if you set it too small (its 576 for dial-up for example) it's self defeating in that you now have too many packets to transmit and speed suffers. But in their support article on the "detection of black-hole routers", Microsoft shows how to test and lower MTU to an optimal (and often below 1400) level. The best instructions I found again were on DSLReports.com tweak forums

You'll be using Ping - Microsoft's packet transmission test utility and the command (dos) prompt - but the testing will really show you how to zero in on the best MTU size. Basically you use the -f & l flags in Ping to fix the packet size, tell the network NOT to allow fragmentation, start at 1480 and work down until you no longer get the "packet needs to be fragmented" error message. Then increase by 1 until you are 1 less away from getting "packet need to be fragmented" message again. Add 28 more to this (since you specified ping packet size, not including IP/ICMP header of 28 bytes), and this is your MaxMTU. This actauly gave me a best MTU size of 1254 and I saw an immediate increase in speed when I changed the MTU on my system (both PC's in the home network as well as the router) Here's what the process looked like:

You're probably not comfortable with changing this value in your Windows Registry, me neither. Fortunately DSLReports has a great utility DrTCP that is a simple GUI interface short-cut into your registry. DON'T change any of the DrTCP values until you read the step by step instructions - don't randomly change DrTCP settings, just start with MTU and leave the others default. As always, back up your registry first before making any changes, so you can revert laetr if needed (I've found DrTCP to be very stable, no registry errors and has the ability to change things back to defaults with just a simple lick and re-boot - the re-boot IS mandatory after any changes or the MTU settings won't take.

Anyway - this greatly improved my connection speeds, helped lower fragmentation and made the connection much more stable. I was still seeing different times of the day where the modem needed re-booting to re-establish the wireless connection however, and using Ping was showing a huge variance in ping latency (the packet trip time across the network measured in microseconds)

None of the speed tweaks so far affect latency. Make good use of the speed tests at DSLReports to get a feel for your speed throughout the day. I suspect the Rogers fluctuations are due to network congestion as well as deep packet inspection and traffic shaping by Rogers to reduce peer to peer torrent traffic. I have found that simply connecting to a large file for download, such as NASA's Astronomy Photo of the Day , usually a large jpeg file, can help re-establish the connection speed (perhaps it is grabbing the bandwidth and acquiring some priority with the ISP's routers - don't know, not a techie).

Try this link as a manual speed test. First fire up Windows Task Manager (control-alt-del), switch to the networking tab and you should see real time graphs of your connection speed (it will show connection as 10/100 or 1,000 Mbps, your ethernet speed - not your ISP connection speed, but its Ok, that actual speed shows too). Now visit my JavaBistro blog at javabistro.blogspot.com and scroll down to the Galactic Map post. You'll see a link there to NASA's full sized 5600 x 5600 pixel jpeg of the galaxy, a large 5mb file. Click on it to download the picture and you'll see the realtime speed of your connection in the Task Manager window (and a cool desktop photo if you like too).

In my next post in this series I'll cover the next important tweak to try and overcome some of this latency.

Also, Canayjun's Canada News Blog is not really meant to be a tech forum, but post your comment here, you'd be suprised how many people are having difficulties with this and any insights you have would be useful. Our main news blog topic right now is homelessness, check it out and connect on Twitter to @canayjun and join the #whyhomeless movement.

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Homelessness – The Root Causes – Part III

2009-07-24T12:36:00.004-04:00

Posted on July 22, 2009 by missionlog - this is a mirror of the series at missionlog.wordpress.com

Homelessness – The Root Causes – Part III

In Part I & Part II, I have been asking the question – “What do you think is the root cause of homelessness?” (Join the movement – tweet your answers on Twitter with the tag #whyhomeless). I pointed out that -

The right to housing is a basic human right defined by the United Nations, ratified and signed by Canada and most other Western nations. And yet, it is the lack of affordable housing which most suspect to be the leading contributor to homelessness in every town and city in North America where it exists.

photo"fatima" by - Dan Bergeron /fauxreel

To determine the root cause of homelessness it’s important to investigate the genesis of the single cause most often targetted – the lack of affordable housing – in view of the United Nations covenant. The international agreement is:

The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

It includes such basic human rights as – the right to self-determination, equal rights for men and women, the right to work, the right to just and favorable conditions of work, the right to form and join trade unions, the right to social security and social insurance, rights to protection and assistance for the family, the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, the right to education, the right to take part in cultural life and to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications…

And -

Article 11 – The right to an adequate standard of living

Which clearly states:

1. The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing- and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions. The States Parties will take appropriate steps to ensure the realization of this right, recognizing to this effect the essential importance of international cooperation based on free consent.

This right to “adequate housing” is so crucial, that it is the only factor to be extensively defined and in a General Comment to the Covenant, General Comment No. 4 – which reveals the extensive nature of the protection included under article 11 and elaborates legal interpretations of the right to adequate housing which go far beyond restricted visions of this right as simply a right to shelter. In it, the Committee, which has given more attention to the right to housing than to any other right under the Covenant, states (in part):

“The right to housing, should not be interpreted in a narrower restrictive sense which equates it with, for example, the shelter provided by merely having a roof over one’s head . . . Rather it should be seen as the right to live somewhere in security, peace and dignity”. The Committee has defined the term “adequate housing” to comprise -

security of tenure
availability of services
affordability
habitability
accessibility
location
and cultural adequacy

Affordability is defined such that personal or household financial costs associated with housing should be at such a level that the attainment and satisfaction of other basic needs are not threatened or compromised; Location so that adequate housing must be in a location which allows access to employment options, health-care services, schools, child-care centres and other social facilities; and cultural adequacy means that the way housing is constructed, the building materials used and the policies supporting these must appropriately enable the expression of cultural identity and diversity of housing.

The states and nations party to this covenant (including Canada) regognize the interdependance of basic rights – ” the full enjoyment of other rights – such as the right to freedom of expression, the right to freedom of association (such as for tenants and other community-based groups), the right to freedom of residence and the right to participate in public decision-making – is indispensable if the right to adequate housing is to be realized and maintained by all groups in society” . Further, rights such as the right to adequate housing in turn are integral to a persons ability to enjoy other basic human rights.

It is important to discuss this in our investigation of the root causes of homelessness – especially in the light of our own government policies – policies, laws and regulations at the municipal, provincial and federal levels can not be in contravention of this covenant. We must hold policy makers and politicians accountable to the rule of law in how our social safety net is put into practice and demand that barriers to the enjoyment of basic human rights are removed. We must be vigilant to ensure that nobody is subjected to discrimination which affects their right to adequate housing.

For example – if we look at the conditions on First Nations reserves and the housing solutions provided there, can we say that our First nations people have access to housing which is affordable and meets the internationally agreed upon standards for location and cultural adequacy?

In the next part I’ll review how the United Nations has helped develop a broad definition of homelessness. Many people do not take the time to define “homelessness” in their policies and programs. If we are to determine root causes then we must use a common definition.

Your comments are needed – share this with as people as possible, on Facebook, Digg, Reddit. If you’re on Twitter, tweet this link and your comments with the new Twitter hashtag #whyhomeless. Reply to me @canayjun Get the word out.

BE the change!

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5 Billion Reasons to leave Facebook

2009-07-17T14:34:00.006-04:00

*yeah, I know - 666...

See 50 reasons to Leave Facebook here.

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Homelessness - The Root Cause - Part 2

2009-07-16T02:45:00.006-04:00

What do you think is the root cause of homelessness? Part 2
Posted on July 14, 2009 by missionlog - This is a re-post of my missionlog article
Read - What do you think is the root cause of homelessness? Part I

See it - by canayjun / MrPicassohead

In Part I of the series, I shared the results of informal surveys of volunteers over the last few years of what people think is the root cause of homelessness. It’s important to address this issue. Much has already been written and studied on how to help the homeless, but I strongly believe we have still missed the mark. To define this is critical in alleviating homelessness. (We still need your input and comments here too)

…if we are not targeting the root cause of the problem, then homelessness will only worsen. It’s like finding a cure for a disease. Homelessness is a plague on our society. Instead of just treating symptoms we need to find a cure for those who are already homeless and we need to protect the entire population from the risk of being exposed to homelessness.

I’ve already listed what most people think are the causes -

Alcohol and drug abuse, addictions
Loss of a job, the economy, bankruptcy
Family problems and break-ups
Lack of education – not being qualified for well paying job
Poor judgment, making bad choices and laziness
Choice – some people just choose to be homeless
Mental illness
Physical disability
Abuse in the home – youth runaways
Violence against women

- and that most people would target addictions and family dysfunctions when asked to choose the top reasons. My colleague Steve, a member of the Sanctuary community in Toronto and outreach worker with the Center for Student Missions, himself formerly homeless, targets job loss as the number one reason. He predicts a large upswing in the numbers of homeless in a few months due to the current recession when EI and layoff / severance benefits run out. Some comments, here and on Facebook, Reddit and Twitter, have had good suggestions to give other factors more priority, such as -

Mental health issues
Veterans suffering PTSD
Gender inequality
Bias regarding sexual orientation
Low Minimum wages

As I explain to our volunteers after a night out serving the homeless on the streets where they live – all of these answers fall short of the mark. None of these factors, in themselves, cause homelessness. None of them identify the root cause of homelessness. I am not denying that all of the homeless people I know have faced many of these challenges in their lives. I’m merely pointing out that these factors are just symptoms of our human condition in the society we have created. Many of them terrible, painful and de-humanizing, but just characteristics of modern life nonetheless. Most homeless programs address some combination of these issues. Most core funding to solve homelessness is centered around a model of personal healing for individuals who are victims of those listed issues.

I’m going to use two examples to illustrate my point:

Alcoholism and victims of abuse.

Most people see the huge prevalence of alcohol abuse on the streets by homeless people as an indication that it is the addiction of that person that is the main contributor to their homelessness. However, not every alcoholic is homeless or becomes homeless in the course of their struggles with the addiction. Another of society’s plagues, the percentage of adult North Americans who are alcoholics is difficult to determine – different studies range from 5% to 30%. Much alcoholism goes undiagnosed and there is an overlap between habits of people who abuse alcohol and those who are dependant on alcohol (addicted). It’s estimated less than 25% of people seek treatment for alcohol abuse or addiction. But if we used the figure of 5% as people who are dependant on alcohol and applied that to the adult population of Toronto [1,879,000 adults aged 25 to 64, census 2006], we would arrive at a number of almost 94,000 people suffering from alcohol addiction in the GTA. Even if we assume that about 25% of those people were actively seeking treatment, the remaining 75,000 people are not all homeless (although many may be at risk of becoming homeless due to secondary factors such as job loss, family dysfunction and secondary medical disabilities).

The total number of homeless in Toronto has been estimated to be between 40-50,000 (including the under-housed) and the majority of those people are not alcohol abusers or addicts. The street population – that is those who are absolutely without shelter and/or living in overnight emergency shelters has been pegged at approximately 5,000 while those living outside roughly number only from 500 to 1,000. Again, not all of those people are alcoholics. In my experience from one third to half of the homeless I serve on the street have an alcohol abuse problem and it often dates to the period after they became homeless. At best, based on a total local number of 94,000 alcoholics, that means less than three percent of the street homeless are there as a result of alcoholism. So you can see that alcoholism is not a root cause, merely a significant contributing factor. [ I realize there are challenges in treating statistics in this manner, as not all of the homeless in Toronto originate from Toronto, still I believe the disparity is significant]

My next example is of victims of abuse - specifically youth:

It is said that nearly one in five young people – 19 and under – will be victims of physical, sexual and/or psychological abuse in their lifetimes – a terrible statistic (some reports are much higher). In the Toronto census area there are 679,960 youth from the ages of 10 to 19 years of age. Using that one in five ratio means that there is a potential toll of abuse being faced by about 135,000 youth in the Toronto GTA. The CBC’s Fifth Estate has reported (2004) that on any given night there are between 1,500 to 2,000 homeless youth in Toronto. I know from experience that many of those street homeless youth are victims of abuse. You don’t want to hear what I have heard from them, or see the brokenness that I have witnessed in their young lives. The total numbers however reflect that only a minority percentage become homeless. Once again abuse is probably not the root cause of homelessness.

A similar statistical review of the other identified issues such as mental health challenges, family break-ups, job loss, economic downturn would show the same results. All of those issues are faced by the the entire population at some point. Everyone in our society encounters serious crisis situations in their lives and yet it is a relatively small percentage of the population who actually experience homelessness. Even if there are, as some estimates claim, fifty thousand homeless in the GTA, that only represents about 1% of our total population (Toronto Census Metropolitan Area 5,113,149 – 2006 StatsCan).

So what is the root cause of homelessness?

I have to say that I am not sure anymore as a result of starting this whole process. I know what I say to our volunteers. I know what other experts and poverty relief organizations are trying to get the public to hear. I know what at least one person who commented on the last post already suspects (thanks Jayne from Interfaith Sanctuary Housing Services).

The root cause of homelessness is said to be-

the lack of affordable housing.

I tell all my Project417 volunteer groups that the root cause is the lack of accessible, safe and affordable housing. Cathy Crowe, a street nurse and homelessness advocate for over twenty years is a recipient of the Atkinson Economic Justice Award. She says in her most recent newsletter

… despite my efforts and the efforts of a great many others, homelessness in Canada remains a very real disaster and as this recession unfolds, the disaster is only going to grow with no real end in sight. As I have said many times before, Canada desperately needs a National Housing Program and we need it now!

The Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida lists affordable housing and loss of a job as the primary causes of homelessness. The National [U.S.] Alliance to End Homelessness list affordable housing and permanent supportive housing as a key step in their plan to eliminate homelessness. The Toronto Disaster Relief Committee targets affordable housing funding with their Housing Not War and 1% Solution campaign. The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty demands “decent, affordable, accessible housing for all”.

The right to housing is a basic human right defined by the United Nations, ratified and signed by Canada and most other Western nations. And yet, it is the lack of affordable housing which most suspect to be the leading contributor to homelessness in every town and city in North America where it exists. Until recently I believed the same but I feel we have not yet identified the root cause of homelessness.

I need your comments. Post them here. Share this on Facebook, Digg, Reddit and Twitter with the twitter hashtag #whyhomeless and twitter reply to @canayjun so I can see the tweets. Re-post this blog on your own website and link back here. The permalink(to my original) is -

http://missionlog.wordpress.com/2009/07/14/what-do-you-think-is-the-root-cause-of-homelessness-part-2

I will explore this further in the next post because I suspect now that even the issue of affordable housing does not sufficiently capture the underlying “root” cause of homelessness. I feel the solution is within our grasp. Join the discussion… social networking and the internet offer us the ability to establish a wide ranging and influential grassroots movement to change the way we view and treat homelessness. BE the change…

Thank-you

<><
canayjun

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Homelessness - What is the Root Cause?

2009-07-10T15:58:00.008-04:00

What do you think is the root cause of homelessness?

Posted on July 7, 2009 by missionlog - This is a re-post of my missionlog article

Homelessness – The Root Causes – Part I
photo - fauxreel /the unaddressed

Several nights a week I travel the the downtown streets of Toronto with groups of volunteers delivering bag lunch meals to the homeless. We call it a Sandwich Run – each bag lunch contains a sandwich, an apple, a snack like a granola bar or rice crispy square and a juice box – but it’s not about the sandwiches. It’s about being out on the street with our homeless friends seeing if they are OK – do they need anything? are they in distress? do they need someone friendly to talk to? We host more than two thousand volunteers a year, rain or shine, ice or snow. If we could get more volunteers we’d go out every night. You can read more about the Project417 Sandwich Runs here.

I’ve been doing this full-time for six years now and it was ten years ago that I first began volunteering out on the streets with the homeless. This post is not about me or the sandwich runs. It is about homelessness. What is the root cause? How do we put an end to it? How do we solve the problem of homelessness? We need to be asking these questions and seeking solutions because homelessness is a problem right across Canada, the United States and the world. It takes on different characteristics in different cities and cultures, but it is a disaster in the midst of our prosperity. It affects the overall health of our communities and neighborhoods no matter where we live.

The cost of alleviating homelessness takes a huge toll on our economies. In Toronto and across Canada, hundreds of millions and even billions of dollars are being spent on homeless initiatives by cities, municipalities, non-profits, charities, provincial governments and federal departments. That being the case, you would assume that the root cause of homelessness has already been determined and programs address this cause in an aggressive manner – that the enormous amount of funding is directed at solving the major issues that cause people to become (and remain) homeless. That assumption would be wrong. Many organizations and groups are calling for increased funding to address homelessness for the simple reason that the homeless continue to be in our midst with no end in sight. More money is not necessarily the answer, because if the right questions have not been asked, if the core issues are not being addressed, if we are not targeting the root cause of the problem, then homelessness will only worsen. It’s like finding a cure for a disease. Homelessness is a plague on our society. Instead of just treating symptoms we need to find a cure for those who are already homeless and we need to protect the entire population from the risk of being exposed to homelessness.

At the end of every evening after a sandwich run we hold a debrief session with the volunteers. They have just witnessed a disaster scene and for their own mental well being we need to share common experiences, put those experiences in perspective, examine questions that arise and learn from each other. I ask them to share the conversations and encounters they have had with our homeless friends. I ask them what did they expect to see and compare it to what they saw. I challenge the stereotypical perception of the homeless street person: disturbed, agressive, reclusive, drunk, dangerous, drugged out, sick, tired, dirty, lazy. From a media standpoint it is as if there is open season on discriminating against the homeless because they can no longer overtly discriminate on the basis of race, color, origins or beliefs, but anyone can put down what they call a bum or hobo. I ask every group, “What do you think is the root cause of homelessness?“

Over the years, we have asked this question of well over twenty thousand volunteers. They are adults and youth, professionals and family groups, business people and church groups, students and teachers – even front line workers and management involved in poverty programs and servicing the homeless. The volunteers are a cross section of North American society. Although it is a Christian charity, the volunteers originate from many faith persuasions. About one third of our volunteers are from the United States, perhaps one quarter from regions of Ontario other than the GTA and the majority from the suburban ring surounding Toronto. The only thing they really have in common is that they wanted to do something about homelessness and took the step of volunteering. The answers have not really changed over the time we have been posing the question. Perceptions remain the same. This is not statistically accurate, I don’t record these answers and these results are anecdotal at best – but they represent how a cross section of our society feels.

Here are the top causes of homelessness that we most often hear in order of popularity -

Alcohol and drug abuse, addictions
Loss of a job, the economy, bankruptcy
Family problems and break-ups
Lack of education – not being qualified for well paying job
Poor judgement, making bad choices and laziness
Choice – some people just choose to be homeless
————-
Mental illness Physical disability
Abuse in the home – youth runaways
Violence against women

I show a delimiter after “Choice…” because the final four reasons usually only come out after a little prompting about homeless people the volunteers may have encountered that night. I then ask every group to choose from that list they have just offered, the single, most important, or root cause of homelessness. I explain to them that to reduce homelessness we need to prioritize our efforts and direct funding and tax dollars towards the issue that will have the greatest impact. Most groups just narrow the list down to these two or three top causes:

Alcohol and drug addictions
Family break-ups including abusive behavior
Physical and mental disabilities

The groups are reluctant to be more specific, but if I ask them to narrow in on a single cause there is almost an even split between addictions and family dysfunctions.

What would you say is the root cause of homelessness? Would you add to the list or change the order? Would you select a different criteria for the single most important cause of homelessness? I have an insight that I share with every volunteer. I try to encourage a broader perspective and I’ll go into that in more detail in the next post here on the blog, but I encourage you to leave a comment here on this post right now. This is an issue that needs to be addressed without any further delay. Share it with your friends. Re-post it on another blog or website (credit me and link them back here: permalink - http://missionlog.wordpress.com/2009/07/07/what-do-you-think-is-the-root-cause-of-homelessness/

Share this with your Facebook friends. Email it. Post it on Digg, Reddit, Delicious, Pinboard, Propeller, Google Bookmarks or other favorite social networking site. Post this question on Twitter - and let’s track it with a new Twitter hashtag #whyhomeless – cut and paste this now for your Twitter update:

What do you think is the root cause of homelessness? #whyhomeless.
Re-tweet (RT) new answers, comments and links. Make sure I see them by including me with @canayjun in the tweet. I’ll post results and trending answers and share my own insights on the next post here and on the Missionlog.

Thank-you,

<><
canayjun
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Rogers Internet Service - DNS errors - Portable Internet issues

2009-07-03T15:39:00.012-04:00

Previous article in this series -

Rogers Internet Service Hijacks DNS Errors - How to fix the problem

As I mentioned in my previous post, last year Rogers Internet Services changed the way their DNS (domain name system) servers handles DNS requests. DNS is the service that all internet users need to translate that yournamehere.com style adress to the 123.234.123.100 format understood by the network. It's what finds the websites you are looking for when you enter an address.

Basically, they just changed the way they handled typing errors in the address or an non-existent address. Previously your browser (Firefox, IE, Safari, Chrome, etc) just showed an address not found error page - and you could edit the address bar if it was just a typo - but with Roger's "Supported search results" as they called it - you were redirected to a Rogers portal webpage displaying possible search matches and advertising (from which they earn revenue). besides basically breaking the functionality of your browser, their opt-out method was cumbersome and technically challenging. I followed Rogers opt out instructions and saw my internet service degrade.

Anyway, I discussed some fixes which included changing the DNS servers in your system and router settings- although Roger's doesn't provide tech support for this, they suggest leaving your settings as "obtain DNS server address automatically". Check that first article for settings for the public DNS service available at OpenDNS - a very reliable and flexible service. Be informed though - you end up with the same type of custom search page - but I changed mine anyway out of principle due to Rogers un-announced changes and degradation of service. Additionally I added the address for one other additional public DNS server - from Level 3 Communications a huge network service provider for telcos and ISP's alike - they are 4.2.2.2 and 4.2.2.3 (if you're comfortable with making these changes)

Microsoft Help and Support has instructions in Knowledge Base article 305553- one note, if you are using a router to conect your PC to the internet, make sure you follow the router's instructions for making the same changes to the router's DNS settings. Also if you have more than one PC connected in your home network, make the same changes on each PC.

Example - partial screenshot

The DNS changes were probably the least of my connection speed and reliability problems, but they were the first to be implemented with a noticeable improvement in service. Since 2006 my internet service has been Rogers High Speed Portable which is a wireless (non- line of site) service provided by both Bell (Bell High Speed Unplugged) and Rogers, a joint venture called the Inukshuk Wireless Partnership using pre-WiMax (IEEE 802.16) transmission technology. Because I re-locate often due to my work around the GTA, I chose this portable wireless solution - just plug in the wireless modem and you are connected, no re-location of cable (or phone line) service. With an advertised speed of 1.5 mbps down and 256 kbps up it was not as fast as cable or DSL but the flexibility was all I needed.

The connection speed and reliability were fine for the first couple of years - fast and stable for the most part, even with large file downloads for work or home and different multi-media applications - even Skype VoIP. There was a tendency to sporadically lose a fast connection which simply required powering off the wireless modem and turning it back on. But starting around the same time Rogers made the DNS changes (perhaps a coincidence), the service began to seriously degrade: slowing down to a crawl every evening, numerous resets required, file downloads interrupted and so on. So the quest to tweak and improve that connection was on.

One of the best all round forums I found for tech information on tweaking conections - for the wireless service as well as cable and DSL service was DSLReports.com . It's free (there are some paid services that are quite affordable, but not necessary to make use of the site) and has a lot of users that post their high-speed experiences, challenges and fixes. The array of tools they have is very impressive and includes Port Scan, Line Monitor, Packet Loss Test, Line Quality, Speed Test- Java, Flash Speed Test, DoctorPing, DoctorTCP, SmokePing, Whois, Router Watch, Phish Tracker and so on. They even have a simple online speedtest for your iPhone or iPod Touch - at http://i.dslr.net/iphone_speedtest.html and although it is for the iPhone and Wifi, 3G - it will still give you a quick and accurate read on your current PC connection. Mine just showed 1268 kbps down speed, a little shy of the 1500 kbps advertised.

I'm going to add to this post in a new posting soon - but in the meantime, to test your speed and do a little trouble-shooting, head on over to dslreports.com

The latest post in the series, "Rogers Internet Service Slow" is here.
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Celebrate CANADA DAY

2009-07-01T16:32:00.004-04:00

Happy Canada Day from a true Canayjun!

Go have some fun Canayjun style! (thx for the photo Bing!)
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Google Helps Volunteers connect with Non-profits: on the All for Good website

2009-06-22T13:55:00.005-04:00

Volunteer with Project417 - Help the Homeless or take part in Hurricane Disaster Relief

Google's All for Good - Bringing search, scale and openness to community service

It's great to see a corporation be part of the solution and lend a helping hand to non-profits and charities engaged in community service and volunteerism. At Project417 - the Canada News Blog's sponsoring non-profit - we host more than two thousand volunteers a year in two main programs: the Sandwich Run to the Homeless and Gulf Coast Hurricane Hurricane Disaster recovery and Re-Building.

Check out the official Google blog and visit All for Good.

Official Google Blog: All for Good: Bringing search, scale and openness to community service

Iggy and Harper Blink

2009-06-17T22:47:00.008-04:00

Meet the new bosses - same as the old bosses:

Official Opposition leader Michael Ignatieff of the Liberals and the Conservative minority government's Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that they had worked out an agreement to avoid a non-confidence vote and summer election.

They blinked. Harper has been trying to seem in control of the parliament, dismissing opposition and coalition criticisms as undemocratic and dangerous to a country in the midst of economic turmoil. (Last year during the Coalition debacle he repeatedly referred to the BLOC as separatists). Here he is now though, hammering out closed door deals with the Liberals. While Iggy has proved true to the traditional Liberal form, consistently propping up the minority government because the polls don't show a strong enough possibility of winning an election. Most polls show a slim lead for the Liberals, but that translates into yet another minority outcome most likely.

I predicted here on the Canada News blog that Ignatieff would cave into the Conservatives rather than using his bargaining position to effect real change for Canadians. At the time NDP Leader Jack Layton referred to Iggy's appoach as the new "Liberal/Conservative Coalition". This weeks announcement of meetings betwwen Harper and the Liberal leader support this view. Ignatieff had held the Conservatives to a reporting schedule when supporting the recent economic stimulus package - that had set the stage for this weeks parliamentary vote on the economic update, a confidence motion. And Iggy had used strong language leading up to the weeks events, claiming in the news that it was almost impossible to trace any actual payments from the stimulus fund. Additionally, he had joined the opposition chorus in denouncing current Employment Insurance policies as unfair and inadequate in the face of massive recession layoffs.

You remember the recession right? Ordinary Canadians are having a hard time dodging the bullets, unlike our firmly ensconced MP's. Plants are closing, whole industries are disappearing - even the blessed few in Rosedale are firing nannies, declaring moratoriums on gala parties and selling their mansions. Working Canadians are increasingly unemployed Canadians, not seeing any immediate benefits from the massive Conservative stimulus package and are concerned about the equally massive (and ballooning) deficit. It's OK to spend bailout billions on bankrupt GM, but not OK to bailout the ordinary working stiff. Iggy could have been the hero here - if he even has it in him - by vigorously pushing the Conservatives and joining the other opposition parties using non-confidence as a way to extract more immediate and effective relief.

But Iggy blinked. The upshot of private meetings with Harper, is an agreement not to defeat the government in return for... study groups!! WTF - Canada needs action, not study, the opposition already has called for easily enacted changes that would bring real relief much sooner. (read the terms of the agreement elsewhere, canayjun is too disgusted to print it here). Layton and the NDP, pre-coalition, were much more adept at wresting concessions from the minority government, several of their member bills were adopted in entirety by the Conservatives and passed. Ignatieff has been away from Canada for too long perhaps to understand the urgent need for decisive action. Whatever the reason, he has neglected the reponsibility he assumed himself when he asked for quarterly updates. Now parliament will recess for the summer while we all struggle our way through the dog days of the recession. Harper and Ignatieff will resume their posturing and poll pleasing performances in September. I can hardly wait.

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Insight: Read what they had to say on Peace, order and good government,eh?
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H1N1 Influenza A - Pandemic Upate - Ontario

2009-06-12T11:39:00.009-04:00

Important H1N1 Information -

Seriously, if you're looking for reliable H1N1 -Influenza A - Swine flu information search for your local government health agency listing. Here in Ontario it can be found at the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care - http://www.health.gov.on.ca/

In Canada a good source of breaking news, local and international is the CBC - http://cbc.ca/news
Internationally, start at the World health organization - http://who.int

Thanks - The Canada News Blog.

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Ignatieff vs Harper in the polls - Here we go again

2009-06-02T14:05:00.012-04:00

Polls show Ignatieff Liberals edge Conservatives - could form another minority government if election held:

From the Here We Go Again Department - Ignatieff has shown himself to be a skilled opportunist if nothing else in the past few months. Fresh from his Liberal leadership election win, Michael Ignatieff is flexing his partisan muscles, pouncing on Conservative blunders seeking to flip-flop on his initial parliamentary support of Stephen Harper and the minority Conservative government.

:: source: canadianwild.ca

Faced with recent reports by Conservative Finance Minister Jim Flaherty that Canada's budget deficit will balloon to over $50 Billion this year, Ignatieff and the Liberals are making hay with dire predictions of yet another non-confidence vote which would spark a new federal election. Ignatieff is confident the Liberals can win - polls show at least a minority victory.

Here's how the seats in parliament stack up so far:

Conservatives - Harper 143
Liberals - Ignatieff 77
Bloc - Duceppe 50
NDP - Layton 37
Minority Conservatives 143
Opposition Parties 164

Recently, when Ignatieff lashed out on Youtube at Conservative attack ads depicting his long absence from Canada and foreign career [Ignatieff strikes back at attack ads] it sparked a debate on Reddit. I described Ignatieff as an interloper and ivory tower dreamer, which prompted one redditor to ask state," You call him an "ivory tower dreamer" as if he's some aristocratic idealist. Show me how you can back up this characterization through his policies or even through his rhetoric. Right now, it's just an empty accusation being almost universally pursued by the political right". To which I replied -

" Ignatieff worked most recently at Harvard - am I wrong in depicting Harvard as ivory tower? (or a sanctuary for the rich). We're just ordinary folks here - Iggy's the son of a diplomat. Iggy was a book reviewer, a commentator, an author and journalist who wrestled with the philosophy of war (and supported the invasion of Iraq in the process). He wrote more than 100 articles since the 70's, many for the elitist New Republic - and described by one reviewer in 2006 as "one of the most prolific highbrow writers of his generation" source.

Policies? - As soon as he was appointed Liberal leader, he similarly parachuted his most faithful Toronto buddies, dubbed the Rosedale Gang, into prominent backroom jobs. [source - The Star,Jan.9, 2009] More misguided policies: propping up Harper's minority, giving him carte blanche to throw billions at companies already bankrupt, who are rewarding the largesse by turfing working Canadians out of jobs in favour of cheaper off shore labour. By toughing it out, I mean what has Ignatieff done for Canada in 30 years? Ian Davey, who ran Ignatieff's failed 2006 leadership campaign, had to persuade and convince Iggy to return to Canada - it wasn't Iggy's idea. So you can see the accusation is not empty and, in my case and many others, not just the political right who oppose him. You can see your error - just because I opposed Iggy, you assumed I was Conservative and right wing. Never fear, Canada has plenty of ordinary, liberal minded, working stiffs who will never trust him." [endquote]

[to be continued...]
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Google Analytics Blog: Web Analytics Tips & Tricks: Top Ten Myths About Google Analytics

2009-05-29T02:35:00.000-04:00

Google Analytics Blog: Web Analytics Tips & Tricks: Top Ten Myths About Google Analytics

Top 10 Myths About Google Analytics - Worth reading

I've been using GA for about 3 months now here on the Canada News Blog and it has definitely paid for itself. OK, I know it's free - but the returns have been very good and worth the time invested in installing it and reviewing all the reports and statistics.

The most amazing example was while I was blogging about the Winnipeg Red River Flood this spring- I was able to see the visits by readers from the affected communities themselves.

...

Rogers Internet Service Hijacks DNS Errors - How to fix the problem

2009-05-26T14:55:00.009-04:00

I've been having problems with Rogers Internet services for months, so decided to post the process I have gone through to try and fix this issue. It appeared first with re-directing DNS errors - that is, you type an address into the address bar of your browser incorrectly and you usually end up with a page (from your browser) that says Error 404 - address not found.

[click the image for a good link to a Mozilla - Firefox support knowledge base article titled, " Can't load webpages".]

Or here is what the Internet Explorer page would look like -

What Rogers started to do was to redirect those mistypes to their own page, that looks like a search result, and says something to the effect that that address was not found - did you mean ... and then display a list of sites (a la Google) and ads -for which they earn revenue - especially with click throughs. This is hi-jacking the functions of most browsers (Firefox, IE etc) most of which allow you to simply correct a typing error without leaving the page result. Some have their own search functions or similar redirect add-ons like Google tool bar (with superior search results). Here's what the Roger's redirect page looks like...

Rogers High Speed internet services calls redirecting these normal types of errors "Supported Search Results" - supposedly an added feature of their ISP offerings.
From the Roger's support site -

Supported Search Results is an upgrade designed to improve your online experience. Normally, when you incorrectly enter a keyword search or web page address into the address bar, you see a generic error page which provides no further options or choices. With Supported Search Results, you are presented with helpful search results based on the search criteria entered. Supported Search Results does not require installation. It is a free service designed to enhance your web experience by providing choices when exact matches of your search entries do not exist. Supported Search Results will present a search results page whenever the entry in the address bar is part of a keyword search or a domain name that is: improperly formatted, currently unavailable, non-existent. Instead of seeing a “Page cannot be displayed” error, you will be presented with a page containing links and search results based on your entry in the address bar. There will be no change to your current browsing experience aside from the appearance of the new error page.

"Upgrade, Free service, no change to your browsing experience" - crap! It is still a hijack designed to generate ad and click through revenue for Rogers from simple typos. Of course, after much online negative chatter and complaints last year, Roger's posted and offered an "Opt-out" option. Here's where my connection issues began.

Roger's hijacks the browser function by using their DNS servers [Domain Name Service]. DNS is central to all your browsing - it converts web addresses you type in your browser and other programs into the actual IP address. Basically, you type in google.com for example, that is sent to a DNS server (Rogers for most customers uses automatic assignment of the DNS servers via DHCP) and google.com is converted to 209.85.171.100 (there are more...) and displays the Google website. It was all automatic, as are most ISP's and you didn't have to worry about it - until last July, when Rogers changed the way their DNS server treated the request.

So to opt out, Rogers posted instructions on how to change the DNS settings on your computer. Easy for some, a daunting task for many ordinary users, as it involves changing network settings on your PC or gateway router and using the Windows CMD window (remember DOS?) to ping your PC etc (note -Rogers only posted instructions for their supported router that they call a Home Networking Gateway but is just an SMC router - no instructions for any other brand like Linksys or D-Link etc) or using the Windows Control Panel to change the DNS addresses manually (see below). They end their step by step instructions with the encouraging warning "NOTE: Rogers will provide technical support when the option "Obtain DNS server address automatically" is selected. Other DNS server addresses will not be supported". So your $50 bucks a month gets you zero tech support for connection errors, unless you switch back. So anyway, somewhere in that process where they ask you to insert an alternate Rogers DNS server address eg. 64.71.255.198 - my configuration must have got messed up with different options on the gateway and the PC in the network. The result, increasing "address not found errors" and drastically reduced speeds. I'd have fixed it sooner, but the "no tech support" meant I didn't have the option of just calling my ISP and asking for help.

Thanks to Google and other dissatisfied customers I was able to find several solutions. All the best recommendations involved changing the DNS servers entirely to a non-Rogers IP address. The first I set up after some research was OpenDNS, at www.opendns.com - Their website is clean and simple and their instructions for making the changes are very easy to follow, even for a non-techie. They also have some other useful features, including filtering out undesirable websites - and even blocking the Conficker worm virus. If you're comfortable setting up DNS server addresses yourself, the addresses for the two OpenDNS DNS servers are 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220

(to be continued)

Surveys and polls - do they make a difference?

2009-05-13T11:40:00.004-04:00

On Reddit -Politics recently, there was a popular survey purporting to be from the O'Reilly Factor, visit it here.

So do you think surveys and polls make a difference? Vote on the poll to the left. Me, I'm thinking that television programming is pretty much immune to public opinion, democracy or the tyranny of the majority. It's probably more like a natural process where the crud floats to the top.

You could always check out Time.com's Top Ten lists of everything.

Or last week's broadcast ratings:

RANK - PROGRAMS - ORIG - HH RATING - # OF PERSONS

1 AMERICAN IDOL-WEDNESDAY- FOX- 13.7- 23,574,000
2 AMERICAN IDOL-TUESDAY- FOX- 13.4- 23,414,000
3 DANCING WITH THE STARS- ABC- 12.6- 20,278,000
4 MENTALIST, THE- CBS- 10.4- 16,678,000
4 NCIS- CBS- 10.4- 16,723,000
6 GREY'S ANATOMY-THU 9PM ABC- 10.3- 15,546,000
7 DANCING W/STARS RESULTS- ABC- 9.4- 14,556,000
8 CSI -CBS- 9.2- 14,912,000
9 CRIMINAL MINDS- CBS- 8.9- 14,128,000
10 CSI: MIAMI- CBS- 8.7- 13,718,000

Anyway, take the survey on the right - Reddit members wield more clout than the Nielsen ratings, right?

[Category - just for fun]
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Toronto Tamil Protest - latest demonstration calls Tamil Tigers freedom fighters

2009-05-11T14:18:00.007-04:00

Chanting "Tamil Tigers - freedom fighters", the latest Tamil protest in Toronto closed down portions of the Gardiner Expressway yesterday, frustrating thousands of weekend motorists and prompting a standoff with police and several arrests of the increasingly unruly Tamil protesters for assaulting police.
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:: cbc.ca photo

This latest protest, dubbed illegal by Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, was in response to weekend reports of violent assaults by Sri Lankan troops against rebel Tamil forces in the northern part of that country and the terrible cost in civilian deaths and injuries. The Tamil community in Toronto has responded by staging several large demonstrations in the past weeks. Peaceful and law abiding until recently, the protesters are venting their frustration at what they see as inaction by the international community. Not the first in Ontario to use the closing of busy highways to make a point (such as the coalition of farmers and Ontario truckers), the Tamil community has probably lost much moral support as a result of the disruptions yesterday. I first reported on their denigrating verbal assault on a defenceless homeless woman on University Avenue and the protesters attempts to dislodge her from the small patch of concrete she sleeps on last week. I lost respect for their protests then, even though I support an end to the violence in Sri Lanka.

Many will be similarly opposed to the local Tamil community's support of the Tamil Tigers, offficially known as Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and classified as terrorists by the Canadian government. Many in history have called rebels freedom fighters, and to a certain extent the designation is often decided by the winning side in a civil war. But terrorism has an uglier side, and I'm reminded that some in Canada viewed the FLQ - the Front de Liberation du Quebec - as freedom fighters - when in fact they were violent criminals best known for murdering Quebec labour minister Pierre Laporte and stuffing him in the trunk of a car. The FLQ committed more than 200 violent crimes including terrorist bombings resulting in the deaths of innocent civilians.

The international community did not cry out for the U.N or foreign troops to interfere in Canada when the Canadian government imposed the War Measures Act and sent the army into the streets to re-establish order and bring to justice members of the FLQ. We would do well to be instructed by our own history.
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:: [sources - cbc, CP ]

The distasteful underbelly of the Toronto Tamil protest

2009-05-02T11:48:00.013-04:00

Discrimination and hate-speech mar protest

For several weeks the Tamil - Sri Lankan community in the GTA have been protesting against the conflict in their native Sri Lanka, specifically the Sri Lankan governement's armed forces quest to root out Tamil revolutionary forces, or Tamil Tigers, dubbed terrorists by many nations (including Canada). There has been a great local community outpouring of emotion and demands for official government recognition of the plight of civilians trapped in the war zone. The protests have been well organized and, unitl recently, peaceful. Last week police moved in and made fifteen arrests of Tamil protetsters who refused to peacefully remove themselves from the intersection of University Avenue and Dundas.

Protests in recent weeks had been disruptive, but peaceful and respectful of the general public. One in particular that I had opportunity to witness was the ring around Toronto protest, which snaked protestors in a human chain along Bloor, down Yonge, along Front Street and back up University Avenue past the provincial legislature. The flag waving protestors respectfully waited for cross walks at University and College.

Last week the occupation of University Avenue by Tamil protestors and the blocking of north and southbound traffic lanes, even to emergency vehicles bound for the hospitals lining University was a step over the line. Although police did not move in in force immediately, eventually they had to descend on the protestors who were staging a noisy drum-beating 24 hour vigil in the road in front of the U.S. consulate (which begs the question of the effacacy of Canadians asking the U.S. military to intervene in a south Asian conflict by flag waving in front of a Toronto consulate, rather than the embassy in Ottawa, or why they would feel the Canadian military or the U.N. should not be pressured to respond - Marketing is everything and U.S. consulates are easy targets).

Harassing the homeless: deplorable conduct

One incident, not reported in the news until now, revealed to me the distasteful underbelly of the Tamil protest movement in the GTA and their view of the community they have chosen to live in. I work for Project417 a grassroots charity that helps the homeless out on the streets of Toronto. I'm out there several nights a week with volunteer groups of about ten to fifteen people, meeting with our homeless friends who are absolutely without shelter, sleeping on the streets of Toronto. As we passed the Tamil protest one night recently on University Avenue in front of the Court buildings we were headed to visit one friend, a homeless lady who has been sleeping nearby for several months - right through the depths of the winter.

Unfortunately, her too public sleeping location was very close to where the Tamil protesters had chosen to stage their overnight event. She will not sleep in city shelters - a woman, homeless, with trauma and violence in her past, she is vulnerable and at risk living outside and distrustful of strangers. The noise from the dozens of beating drums chosen by unruly protesters on University was very loud when we found her - we had to shout to speak and we talked about how difficult it was to sleep. Previously the protests had wrapped up about 11 pm, but now they planned to go all night (very admirable of the Tamil community in their perseverance and committment to their cause, but no-one was there to witness their nocturnal disturbance) Except, that is, for our homeless friends on the street.

This night the Tamil protesters went beyond the accepatable noise and chanting. They harassed our friend. The protesters found themselves in a position not many of us encounter - where to lay down and sleep when you're out on the streets all night. Our homeless friend had a good location, sheltered from the elements - there was a light rain that evening. A group of protesters wanted to sleep where she is camped out. After all it is a public place and they would have been welcome to camp out adjacent to her and mind their own business. There are often upwards of half a dozen homeless in that particular spot.

But they didn't leave it at that - groups of them began visiting her, many of them Tamil Canadian youth. They yelled at her, they swore at her. They told her to leave, because they didn't want her sleeping there. They said she was dirty and indecent. They said they didn't want to be near her disease (their faulty asumption, our friend is healthy). They called her a prostitute (whore) and a drug addict, neither of which is the case. Unfortunately, I was supervising several youth volunteers (youth, by the way, who were with me delivering food and friendly smiles to the homeless) and had to leave, so I don't know how the night progressed, but I fear the worst.

Here is an example of a not so desirable, but instructive view of the Tamil protesters. Claiming to be speaking out for fairness and a humanitarian cause - they prove to be blind to the needs of people in their own GTA communty. They are guilty of oppressive behaviour and discriminatory and hateful speech and actions. They are intimately aware (they say) of conditions thousands of miles away in Sri Lanka, but prove to display some of the worst characteristics of the Sri Lankan authorities they oppose in their adopted homeland. I will be back on the street tonight visiting our friend - I will not turn a blind eye to any further attacks on her by misguided protesters.

Mirrored at the MissionLog. To volunteer with project417, visit project417.com
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Red River Flood Watch - Latest Update May 1 - Flooding south of Winnipeg a 2,000 sq km lake

2009-05-01T13:16:00.007-04:00

Extensive flooding south of Winnipeg:

The last update here at the Canada News blog was 10 days ago and conditions for our friends in Manitoba have not improved much.

The flooding south of Winnipeg, although it has dropped today by about a foot, is still extensive and looks more like a 2,000 square kilometer lake than the Red River. Communities to the south are still behind ring dikes with homes stranded behind sandbags or small islands of higher ground. According to WFP many in these stranded south Manitoba communities are laying the blame on the City of Winnipeg Floodway, saying that the flood gates are not low enough and that more of the floodwaters should be admitted into the Floodway diversion to ease water levels to the south. The slowly receding waters will make life difficult for residents, hundreds of whom were evacuated with many still getting around in small boats and other water craft.

North of Winnipeg, where several communities declared emergencies due to serious flooding caused by the ice jams, evacuated residents are now returning to survey their flood and ice damaged homes. In the Regional Municipalities of St. Clements and St. Andrews, the Manitoba provincial government has announced it will buy out owners of properties in high-risk areas (like Breezy point) that have suffered flood damage several times in the last few years.

[photo CBC in St. Adolphe]

Evacuated members of three flood-affected Manitoba First Nations are receiving flood clean up kits from the Red Cross for their damaged homes. The Peguis, Fisher River and Roseau River First Nations are returning to their homes after several weeks of being evacuated.

Even in Winnipeg itself, though flood concerns are low there is still risk of damage as the city's sewer system is operating at reduced capacity due to higher river levels and runoff. High river levels means a bigger strain on the city sewer system, and heavy rainfall in the forecast the next few days means there's a greater chance of basement flooding. Winnipeggers can get more information at EmergWeb or by calling 311.

Also from Winnipeg, effective Sunday, May 3, 2009 at 6:00 p.m., the Flood Evacuee Reception Centre in Winnipeg, located at the Century Arena, will be closing. The Reception Centre opened on April 15, 2009, for people requiring emergency support services as a result of having to leave their homes due to flooding. To date, the Reception Centre has assisted 273 families, or a total of 724 individuals. Starting Monday, May 4, 2009, evacuees continuing to require emergency assistance will be able to access these services at the River Heights Health and Social Services Centre, 677 Stafford Street at Pembina Highway (located next to Price Choppers). The office will be open Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Project417 volunteers were not asked to head out to Winnipeg to help, the local emergency and disaster crews along with numerous willing volunteers, the Salvation Army and the Red Cross have handled the flood response admirably. What Project417 will do is canvass for individual property owners and homeowners who would benefit from a volunteer team willing to help with re-building, renovation and clean-up for a week or two, perhaps among the First Nations communities. I'll keep you updated here. Right now we're on watch for any increase in the flu pandemic level in the GTA. As a matter of fact we're helping with the National Emergency Preparedness Week (May 3-9) event to be held at Queen's Park in Toronto on Monday at noon and expect to be serving more than 500 attendees a BBQ lunch from the Salvation Army's mobile canteens and community response vehicles ( I'll post some photos Tuesday).

[sources - Winnipeg Free Press , CBC Manitoba , Winnipeg.ca EmergWeb ]
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Chief Phil Fontaine and AFN delegation at the Vatican - Pope expresses sorrow over residential school abuses

2009-04-29T16:19:00.007-04:00

Papal visit results in apology - expression of sorrow over deplorable treatment of First Nations children in Canadian Residential Schools assimilation program:

Chief Phil Fontaine of the Assembly of First Nations in Canada and a delegation visited Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican today along with the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, a delegation of missionary congregations involved in the residential schools and Archbishop Weisgerber, President of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. Announced April 15th by the AFN, Chief Fontaine had said at that time-

...the Assembly of First Nations has received an invitation to meet with His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, It is my fervent hope that this Papal Audience will result in a statement from Pope Benedict XVI to all the survivors of the Indian Residential Schools for the role that the Catholic Church played in the administration and operation of the schools and the harms these schools inflicted on our people. This will greatly assist the task of healing and reconciliation for survivors, Catholics and all Canadians.

The Pope did not disappoint, although stopped short of issuing what some refer to as a formal apology. He did express sorrow and describe the abuses as deplorable and further stated that acts of abuse cannot be tolerated in society". The meeting today was private and no media camera's or recorders were allowed. Statements were issued both by Vatican representatives and the Assembly of First nations. Chief Fontaine expressed satisfaction with the Pontiff's apologies. Following the meeting, Fontaine, who is also a residential school survivor, called the Pope's words a "very significant statement." While he said it did not amount to an official apology, Fontaine told CBC News he hoped the expression of regret would "close the book" on the issue of apologies for residential school survivors.

About 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Métis children were taken from their families to attend the schools from as early as the 19th century to 1996. The Catholic Church administered three-quarters of residential schools across Canada and abuse was suffered by many of the 90,000 former students still alive. Other Christian denominations implicated in abuse at residential schools have already apologized — the Anglican Church in 1993, the Presbyterian Church in 1994 and the United Church in 1998. Prime Minister Stephen Harper also offered a televised apology on behalf of the government of Canada in the House of Commons last year. [ Sources - Assembly of First Nations AFN website, The Vatican, and CBC News ]

In addition, over at our sister blog, The MissionLog, there are several articles on the conditions faced by First Nations peoples in Canada - For example, although First Nations people are only 2% of the population, more than 25% of the street homeless in major cities are native and close to 50% of prison inmates. Apologies and reparations aside, there is still a huge challenge to the whole country and all Canadians.
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Not so startling news: Toronto Homeless prefer grassroots Out of the Cold to city run shelters

2009-04-25T16:01:00.005-04:00

It’s spring right? I mean it’s getting warmer right? Well, I don’t know about where you live, but here in Toronto there has been a dearth of fine spring weather. We’ve had more than our share it seems of unseasonably cold weather, especially cold, blustery winds and the perennial April showers. Most of us, we live with it, it’s an annual thing - how soon will it warm up - and doesn’t seem to affect our daily routine more than getting the car out of the garage and walking from the parking lot to work or other destinations. To our homeless friends on the street however, it is much more than an inconvenience.
[all photos by AndyC...that would be me...]

Out of the Cold: for the homeless

Toronto’s Out of the Cold program has wrapped up again for another season. What this means for the few hundred homeless people who attend the Out of the Cold programs is that they are once again “Out on the Streets”. I was out with a small volunteer group a couple of weeks ago with the regular Project417 Sandwich Run outreach to the homeless on a Monday night. The streets have been particularly quieter this winter as far as the presence of the homeless (more on this later) but most of our route was busier that night and as we arrived at Nathan Phillips Square at the Toronto City Hall, there was a marked increase in our homeless friends that I haven’t seen since last fall.

Five years ago, it was very different at city hall. Then Mayor Mel Lastman had unofficially condoned the homeless sleeping outside city hall all around Nathan Phillips Square “if they had no other shelter”. It was a year round phenomenon with upwards of two hundred people sleeping in a cardboard jungle right next to the front doors of city hall or just bundled up in sleeping bags on every available bench and corner protected from the wind and elements. That whole period in Toronto’s homelessness saga deserves a more detailed analysis. There had been a marked population boom when Home Depot and the city shut down Tent City down by the harbour, but suffice to say that upon the ascension to power of Mayor David Miller, the official policy changed, Streets to Homes was born, the 100 plus bed Edwards street shelter opened (now closed and slated for “affordable” housing) and city security quickly turfed the homeless residents of Nathan Phillips Square. This prompted one homeless bard to pen a lilting country tune, “How do You Sleep”, dedicated to Mayor Miller. One woman, who had slept on the Square for a few years, simply moved down a couple blocks onto a hot air ventilating grate across from a major hotel, where we see her every night we are on the street - yes, that’s right, she has slept in that exposed sidewalk location every night for the last five years. Again, Mayor Miller has demonstrated that he is not unfeeling when it comes to homelessness and more independent study is required of the touted success of the Streets to Homes program he championed, but this blog is about our friends still sleeping outside at City Hall.

Homeless on Queen Street W., Toronto

During the winter months, Nathan Phillips Square is one of the stops on our Project417 Sandwich Run that has several routes spanning the downtown core from about Bathurst out to Parliament and from Bloor down to the Gardiner Expressway (with a van route that reaches more outlying areas). This winter - we go out on sandwich runs even during cold weather alerts of which there were many this year in temperatures below minus twenty - there has generally been only two or three homeless men and women sleeping at city hall. There has almost always been at least one - our dear friend Randy*, a double amputee, who sleeps there sitting upright in his wheelchair with his sleeping bag upside down over his head. During the recent celebrated Earth Hour on Nathan Phillips Square (I’ve never encountered such bright lights and high powered amplified music during any other “blackout”), we spent almost three quarters of an hour talking to Randy and looking on at the eco-revellers from Randy’s dark, hidden alcove just steps from the celebration. Randy practices “lights out” 365 days a year, except for the daily charge his wheelchair battery receives at a friend’s close by. Streets to Homes outreach workers are in constant contact with anyone, including Randy, who sleeps at city hall, but so far have been ineffective in convincing many chronically homeless men and women like him to choose the severely limited housing options available. [*Randy is not his real name]

Now during the spring, summer and fall, the number of our homeless friends sleeping on Nathan Phillips still rises to more than a dozen, sometimes double that. On the recent Monday night, we had no sooner approached Randy than I noticed there were several more homeless in view under the walkway. As soon as they noticed us, they literally ran over, happy to see us, recognizing the tell tale bag lunches out team carries. “Hey Andy, we’re back”, a couple shouted. I’ve known many of them for almost ten years going back to the first time I ventured out on the streets to help the homeless with Project417 (Our director, Joe Elkerton has been performing outreach to the street homeless almost twenty years in Toronto). “Hey, I’m glad to see you!”, I answered back, but in truth, I was disturbed and profoundly saddened to see their familiar faces. Yes, they’re my friends and yes I missed them over the winter, but I had hoped that some had found a place to call home in the last four months.

The reason they are back out on the streets at night is, as I mentioned at the start, the end of the Out of the Cold Program until next November. For those of you who don’t know, or who may have been misinformed, Out of the Cold is not a City of Toronto or other level of government program. What it is, is a grassroots success story - a faith based program started by Sister Susan Moran and her St. Michael’s School students back in 1987 and a coalition of local downtown Christian church communities. Indeed it has developed into a multi-faith initiative with representation at 23 facilities from different faith and organizations taking part now. Very simply, the model is: local downtown churches open their doors one night a week to provide a hot meal and a place to sleep “out of the cold”. In Toronto, more than three thousand volunteers help every winter to feed and provide shelter to about five hundred of our homeless friends. The majority of the food, materials, supplies, shelter and other costs are funded by the local church members. (Note - The city does fund the program peripherally - a local non-profit social service agency -currently Dixon Hall- has an annual contract to send one or two safety and security personnel to some sites, some transportation of guests and the supply/ laundering of a limited number of blankets and sleeping mats. They also provide counselling, housing worker and referral services to the guests. A separate community health care provider offers a registered nurse at each location) Only 16 of the churches fully opt in to these city services with several preferring the freedom and intimacy of program delivery funded and guided by their own community resources and principals. This model has spread nationwide and Sister Susan was recognized with the Order of Canada in 2006 for her contribution.

Why the streets see a surge of the over five hundred homeless when Out of the Cold ends is because the majority of them would not step foot in a city run shelter. They just plain like the Out of the Cold program sites and the volunteers who run them. They tell me the food is better by far - the people are friendlier - the rules less stringent - the atmosphere more inviting and they enjoy the other programs run concurrent to the Out of the Cold like, music nights, sports, foodbanks, clothing banks, crafts and personal hygiene care services. The sleeping arrangements are often more primitive than city run shelters, usually just thin mats on the floor placed in open areas like church gyms, but still our homeless friends praise the program and bemoan the fact that it runs only November to April.

There are over three thousand city run emergency shelter beds at numerous locations from small 20 to 30 bed operations to the 600 bed monster on George Street - Seaton House, (affectionately dubbed Satan House by it’s inhabitants) and this number has dropped due to budget cuts and the questionable recommendations of the infamous city sponsored “homeless count census” - a limited, one day snapshot of street populations. The Out of the Cold program has remained stable or grown over the same period. Our homeless friends eagerly attend Out of the Cold shelters, many making the trek across the city several nights a week to the next church location that is open that night. There is one Out of the Cold program that operates more than one night a week. University Settlement House, an independent non-profit, United Way partner agency and City of Toronto supported community center next to the Grange Park, runs an Out of the Cold Friday, Saturday and Sunday during the winter and Saturdays, Sundays only in the summer. It is one of the best liked shelters amongst our street friends, and they all miss Fridays now that spring has come.

Love on the street

It’s time the city reviewed their emergency shelter programs and borrowed a page from the Out of the Cold program’s success story. The city shelters are efficiently run, relatively clean and safe to a certain degree - but they are still shunned by many of the homeless. Many lack the humanity and compassion shown to them by Out of the Cold volunteer efforts. Our friends are homeless - not just house-less. What is the distinction? What makes a house a home? - LOVE - A commodity in short supply evidently when payed for by tax dollars and delivered by bureaucrats. Thank God, Toronto’s faith community has a surfeit of love and compassion - I only wish, for the five hundred more men and women we’ll be serving now out on the streets with the Project417 sandwich runs, that communities could see that people need to come in out of the cold year round.

If you’re interested in volunteering with or donating to one of the local Toronto Out of the Cold sites, the best way is to contact them directly. There is no formal or central “Out of the Cold” foundation to receive donations, each location is self-supporting through their local congregations - and the OOTC schedule link above is maintained by Dixon Hall, a separate non-profit. So I’ve taken the time to compile this list of the 2008/2009 Out of the Cold locations:

Knox Presbyterian Youth Dinner & Foodbank

630 Spadina Ave (no overnight program)

University Settlement House

23 Grange Rd. Year round Out of the Cold program

St. Patrick’s Church

141 McCaul Street at Dundas

St. Margaret’s Church

156 - 6th Street (Islington and Birmingham)

Evangel Hall

552 Adelaide, E. of Bathurst

York Region Mosaic Interfaith community

Yorkminister Park Baptist

1585 Yonge Street, N. of St. Clair

Holy Blossom Temple

1950 Bathurst at Eglinton

Eastminster United

310 Danforth Ave. at Chester

Blythwood Road Baptist

80 Blythwood Road
N of Yonge/Eglington

St. Matthew’s / Our Lady Peace

3962 BloorSt W

St. Brigid’s

Woodbine & Danforth

Beth Sholom / Beth Tzedec
1445 Eglinton Ave W

First Interfaith at St. Matthew’s

729 St. Clair Ave. W

All Saints Kingsway Anglican

2850 Bloor W

Beth Emeth Bais Yehudah Synagogue

100 Elder St

Chinese Gospel Church

450 Dundas W

Knox United

Agincourt

St. Aidan’s

70 Silver Birch Ave

St. Michaels Cathedral

66 Bond Street (St. Mike’s parish)

Bloor Lansdowne Christian Fellowship 1307 Bloor St. W;
(Overnight tba Community dinner only, year round)

To volunteer for a Project417 Sandwich Run to the homeless visit Project417.com and check our online volunteer calendar and read about other volunteers’ stories. More than two thousand people helped us last year - come on out and see!

Flooding Red River looks like the Red Sea

2009-04-20T17:57:00.004-04:00

, originally uploaded by winnipegfreepress.

Latest Red River Flood watch update HERE...

Red River Flood Watch - Latest Update April 20 - Winnipeg, Manitoba and area

2009-04-20T16:47:00.004-04:00

Greatest threat over but widespread flooding in Red River Valley a challenge to many Manitoba towns -

While the City of Winnipeg has escaped the worst of the flooding, the rising Red River continues to assault many Manitoba communities to the north of the city as well as in Southwest Manitoba. Many outlying towns are still in need of volunteers to help with sandbagging and dike repair.

We've been tracking the flooding Red River here on the Canada News blog since March 28th as Fargo, North Dakota faced the first evacuations due to the cresting river and ice jams started to cause difficulties in Winnipeg. Our focus has been on volunteerism and providing links for locals and others to volunteer with flood fighting efforts. I work for Project417 and we've helped organize volunteer teams since 2005 following Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and the gulf coast. Since we've been posting the Red River updates both here and over at the MissionLog site, more than five thousand visitors have viewed the updates and followed links to related stories.

To date Project417 has not been mobilized by our partner in disaster response the Salvation Army of Canada - the flood situation in both North Dakota and our neighbours in Manitoba has been responded to admirably by local emergency response personnel and volunteers with no need to call in outside teams as yet. We'll continue to track the need here with weekily updates and we remain on call should the need for our volunteers become urgent.

Recent Red River Flood facts - Manitoba
The levels on the Red River, while not as high as 1997, the year of terrible flooding in Manitoba, is still setting records this year with floods and levels the second worst in recorded history, since the late 1800's.
At some points the Red River, overflowing its banks is more than 19 kms wide (12 miles)
Widepread flooding washing out over the surrounding low Southern Manitoba landscape covers more than 850 square kilometres (500 sq.mi)

Even though I'll be switching to weekly updates on the Red River Flood watch, there are many other great sources of up to date news on the flooding, both in the Winnipeg area and still in North Dakota, which is facing a second crest of flood waters. If you have any other good sources or volunteer stories, comment on the blog here and I'll post them.

Flood Watch links -

City of Winnipeg - Emergweb (or in local Winnipeg area call 311)
Province of Manitoba Emergency Measures Organization EMO
Winnipeg Free Press online
CBC Manitoba Flood Watch 2009
Fargo, North Dakota Inforum online
In the Blogs -
The MissionLog (mirrors this site with other volunteer updates and homelessness news)
Winnipeg blogger chrisD.ca
Project417.com - breaking news
Latest photos - The Winnipeg Free Press on Flickr

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Winnipeg Red River Flood Watch - State of Emergency Declared April 16 - Video

2009-04-16T16:29:00.010-04:00

State of Local Emergency Declared for Properties on the River Side of Primary Dike: from Winnipeg Emergweb - High priority announcement

The City of Winnipeg has declared a State of Local Emergency covering all properties on the river side of the primary dike, as of 11:13 a.m., Thursday, April 16, 2009. This declaration is authorized under the Province of Manitoba’s Emergency Measures Act, and has been made to allow the City to respond quickly to an evolving flood situation.

“This activation gives us the ability to respond rapidly and decisively to changing conditions,” said Mayor Katz. “It is not a cause for citizens to be anxious; it simply enables our flood-fighting team to respond quickly should localized issues develop.”

Randy Hull, the City’s Emergency Preparedness Coordinator, explained that this activation enables the City to respond without delay in areas of concern. “So far, our flood-fighting efforts are going well, but this is obviously a major flood event – and we need to be able to act quickly.”

Residents of Winnipeg along the river side of the primary dike are asked to cooperate with Police, Fire, Paramedic personnel and other City officials for the duration of the emergency. Your cooperation with will greatly assist in the flood-fighting effort.

The State of Local Emergency is in effect until April 29, 2009.

Volunteers are needed, within the local Winnipeg calling area, call 311.

Video Update -

From a local on youtube (user jonwpg), over the past few days - he noted the river as of yesterday was several feet higher now than the when the video was taken. There are several other videos listed next to this one as well. Thanks jonwpg!
Just north of St. Agathe on River Rd:

Also the Winnipeg Live Red River Webcam - [source winnipegfreepress.com]

More flood updates here.

Red River Flood Watch - Update, April 15 - Latest photos

2009-04-15T14:42:00.009-04:00

Winnipeg Red River Flood Watch - Wednesday April 15 - Update and photos

The latest news from EmergWeb is that the threat of flooding is not over, with the city responding to changing river conditions and shifting flood fighting efforts to the north and central areas of Winnipeg. New calls for volunteers (at least 500 needed) continue to be posted. In the local Winnipeg calling area - call 311 - to register to volunteer or visit the EmergWeb volunteer page
The need for volunteers today is urgent.

From the Province of Manitoba EMO -
A continued rapid melt is contributing to higher levels on Red River tributaries and resulting in further forecasted increases for some areas of the river. The 2009 flood will now surpass 1979 and 1950 levels in areas from St. Jean Baptiste to the floodway inlet. This makes 2009 the second-greatest flood since the floods of the 1800s. Levels for the 1997 flood were still about 0.6 metres (two feet) higher than crests expected this year. Many areas of Manitoba are also experiencing overland flash flooding caused by frozen, saturated soil and crests in many locations are lasting longer than usual. This combination of events has resulted in a serious flood situation that could last for several weeks.

Evacuations - A partial evacuation is underway from Peguis First Nation through the Manitoba Association of Native Fire Fighters (MANFF). MANFF has started an evacuation of 119 residents to Winnipeg this afternoon. An evacuation of the personal-care home in St. Adolphe will begin this evening as a precautionary measure. Approximately 40 residents will be moved to Winnipeg. The St. Adolphe Personal Care Home, the South Eastman Manitoba Regional Health Authority and the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority are co-ordinating the placement of residents according to the level of care required and the location of family. Family members of residents are being contacted.

Disaster Assistance - An office is being set up in Selkirk to help residents who have been affected by the flooding. Visit the EMO website for more information

Webcam - Live view of Winnipeg Red River Floodway gates

Photos -

[thumbnail source - Winnipeg Free Press on Flickr]

I'll keep adding updates as they come in from all the feeds as well as mirror on the MissionLog, and post volunteer updates at project417.com. If you have links to photos or videos post them in the comments here. Thanks.

Winnipeg Red River Flood Watch - Monday April 13

2009-04-13T16:36:00.008-04:00

Red River Flood Update - Winnipeg, Manitoba and area - also Fargo, North Dakota updates

I was saddened yesterday to see that some homes in communities north of Winnipeg were flooded out by the rising Red River. In St. Clements and St. Andrews, the ice jams caused flooding and several homes were flooded and several families who had not heeded the earlier evacuation orders had to be rescued by emergency crews.

According to the Winnipeg Free Press, in the same area, Petersfield residents have been told by authorities to evacuate due the rapidly rising waters. They hope residents will follow the recommendation and avoid the same situation as Sunday, prompting hasty rescues of trapped homeowners who stayed behind.

From EmergWeb, serving Winnipeg, the Floodway gates are said to be operating now almost ice free, as crews have worked to break up the larger ice pans and flows at the Floodway inlet. The Floodway should now be operating at almost full capacity, although last night levels south of Winnipeg fluctuated greatly.

:: photo winnipegfreepress on Flickr

From CBC Manitoba, the danger is not past. There have been ice jam dike breeches at the Norwood Bridge. In addition, the warming weather is adding to the existing problems caused by the ice jams and high crest level flowing through the system, by adding to tributary runoffs. Further flooding is expected.

From North Dakota, the Fargo area, a second crest of the Red River is causing more damage, with dikes reported breeched by Cass County authorities in West Fargo. One report says the situation now is worse than the first crest that passed through a couple of weeks ago.

I'll continue to mirror this post at the MissionLog and post volunteer updates at project417.com. We're concerned about our neighbours in Manitoba and North Dakota, but all indications are that local and provincial authorities and volunteers are doing a great job of informing and protecting residents at risk. We have no plans as yet to send a Project417 volunteer team.

Unrest in Thailand - locals look to Bangkok Pundit blog for facts and updates

2009-04-13T12:59:00.005-04:00

Canayjun has a friend living in Bangkok, working as a software developer for a U.N. affiliated NGO. We're concerened about the sudden unrest and protests and the military response in Thailand as it relates to the safety of our friends there. He's keeping us updated via his Facebook profile and his latest update posted 26 minutes ago [12:30PM EST] was -

"Abhisit on live TV: denouncing Thaksin's appearance in int'l media (CNN, etc.)"

Situation --- Current Thai PM Abhisit, speaking in a nationally televised address just before midnight, called on the public not to panic and to co-operate to end the crisis -- Political tensions have simmered since the former PM, Thaksin, was ousted by a military coup in 2006. He has appeared in the media calling for a "revolution" and thousands of "red-shirt" Thaksin supporters have taken to the streets where there have been clashes with the military. [source cbc.ca]

My friend has told us to check out the Bangkok Pundit blog at bangkokpundit.blogspot.com - which he is checking the feed every few minutes (as well as refreshing Google newsreader) - as a good source of factual updates on the Thai situation. The Bangkok Pundit is a source that many news agencies worldwide have quoted and relied upon as a good source of news and unbiased reporting on the political situation in Thailand as compared to the government controlled media. Links to the Bangkok Pundit blog are also available from my Canayjun profile here on Blogger.
Concerned about the safety of our friends, as are many with family and friends in Thailand, I'm encouraged to be able to receive assurance via Twitter, Facebook and blogs like the Bangkok Pundit. His updates this morning tell us " Thanks, we're ok. We've stocked up on food and keeping updated on TV and via web." And the Facebook messages from other friends in the city wondering whether it's safe to venture on the streets to go to work today were told -

"Safe" is relative - in some areas: not safe, but generally it's ok.

:: photo CBC/Reuters

Canada and the United States have issued travel warnings, urging travellers to Thailand to exercise caution and monitor local media reports. "Canadians are strongly advised to avoid locations and areas where demonstrations have been and are currently ongoing. Canadians are encouraged to verify travel schedules and services with local authorities or travel service providers prior to departure, and should exercise patience and plan accordingly."

I'll put more updates here as the situation develops, as I'm also blogging and keeping an eye on the Red River flood in Winnipeg area.

Winnipeg Red River Flood Watch - April 12 - Updates: Manitoba and North Dakota

2009-04-11T12:25:00.007-04:00

Red River Flood Watch - April 12, 2009 - Updates: Winnipeg, Manitoba area and Fargo, North Dakota

Alerts - Sunday, April 12

Flooding, evacuations and rooftop rescues of stranded residents in St. Andrews and St. Clements Saturday night - Major flooding caused by ice jams - many homes damaged by ice as well as flood water (more)

Alerts - Saturday, April 11
EmergWeb Updates - City of Winnipeg - Local calling area, call 311

At-risk property owners still required to leave dikes in place.
Ice jams moving slowly northward, somewhat reducing threat
Flyover of river system shows positive change in water and ice conditions this morning
Volunteer efforts not required at this time

More Updates -

Winnipeg flood response eased but ice jams still greatest threat:
The Floodway continues to flow smoothly and a major ice jam dislodged Friday -resulting in a few hundred volunteers being sent home as flood threat eased. The area is not entirely past all risk of flooding due to the presence of ice in the floodway, which is not meant to be opened in the presence of major ice flows. At least one large ice pan is still in the floodway - this has the risk of causing another ice jam and flooding.

:: photo Angela Ward / Winnipeg Free Press

Areas at the greatest risk of flooding, are north of Winnipeg , concentrated for now in Selkirk, although there has been some flooding to the south as well. At the Manitoba U.S border area Highway 75 has been closed for a few days and should remain so for another week or so. It is also difficult to say what the impact will be of the water diverted through the Floodway on ice jams to the north. Because ice is flowing through the Floodway, when it exits the northern outlet, all the ice will then meet existing ice jams near Selkirk and other communities if they have not dislodged by then.

The outlook is that flooding will still come - the slow moving Red River crest is in the Emerson to Letellier area and is expected at Morris on Monday. It should reach the south end of Winnipeg on Thursday. Warmer temperatures expected Sunday and Monday will also speed the spring thaw and increase local surface runoff into the river basin.

North Dakota , the Fargo area, is seeing a second major crest in the Red River . Though not as severe as the end of March when many were evacuated, threats to dikes are severe and flooding is taking place in several areas. Manitoba residents will also have to be on the lookout for this second wave of elevated river levels as it moves north into the region again.

There are no plans to send out our Toronto team of volunteers yet as the situation is being handled well by local volunteers. I'll continue posting the updates both here at the Canada News blog as well as the MissionLog over on Wordpress.com and will post volunteer opportunities for Toronto area folks wishing to get involved at the Project417 website - project417.com -

Search for more Red River flood news from the Google search bar at the top of the blog.

Red River Flood Watch - Update April 9 - Winnipeg Manitoba and area

2009-04-09T17:06:00.008-04:00

Red River Flood Watch - April 2009 - Updates including Winnipeg, Manitoba area and Fargo, North Dakota

Alerts - Thursday April 9

Red River Floodway has been opened.
Highway 75 will be temporarily closed from Winnipeg to approximately 20 kilometres south of Morris starting Tuesday at noon. It will reopen when the flood threat has passed.
[source cbc.ca]

EmergWeb Updates - City of Winnipeg - Local calling area, call 311

At-risk property owners advised to raise dikes due to ice and rising river levels:
Temporary evacuation of specific areas recommended based on river conditions - The City of Winnipeg is advising at-risk property owners on Kingston Row and Kingston Crescent to raise their dikes an additional foot. This is required due to the risk of additional ice jams in the Kingston Row area. More...

Ice Jams still greatest threat
The Winnipeg Floodway has been opened diverting huge volumes of rising Red River water around the city to the north. The greatest risk continues to be the unpredictable nature of the ice jams - there have been instances of jams dislodging, and waters receding, only to rise dramatically again in a few hours when the ice jams at a new location only short distances down the river. ( The Red River flows south to north in the Winnipeg area). Areas at the greatest risk of flooding, with many properties being flooded already are north of Winnipeg, concentrated for now in Selkirk, although there has been some flooding to the south as well. At the Manitoba U.S border area Highway 75 has been closed for a few days.

In some unsettling reports - a new flood fighting method tried out by the city and province is proving to be unreliable. Water is getting past some "tube dike" deployments in Winnipeg. The province purchased more than 60 of the tube dikes - long rubber tubes then filled with water - less than two weeks ago, as they were supposed to be faster than sandbag dikes to deploy.

It is also difficult to say what the impact will be of the water diverted through the Floodway on ice jams to the north. Because ice is flowing through the Floodway, when it exits the northern outlet, all the ice will then meet existing ice jams near Selkirk and other communities if they have not dislodged by then.

:: ice jams near Selkirk - photo WFP

I'll continue posting the updates both here at the Canada News blog as well as the MissionLog over on Wordpress.com and will post volunteer opportunities for Toronto area folks wishing to get involved at the Project417 website - project417.com - Search for more Red River flood news from the Google search bar at the top of the blog.

Red River Flood Watch - April 6: Winnipeg, Manitoba Update - Fargo, ND

2009-04-06T15:34:00.005-04:00

Red River Flood Watch - Update, April 6 - Winnipeg, Manitoba and area, Fargo, North Dakota

You'll notice here at the Canada News Commentary blog that I've been following closely the Red River flood situation in both Manitoba and North Dakota. This news watch on the flooding has also been twinned at the MissionLog blog at Wordpress.com
Our goal is to gather the latest news from the most reliable news sources on the scene in the areas and present an accurate synopsis both to residents of the affected areas and concerned people across the country perhaps worried about families or wondering how best to help - with an emphasis on volunteerism. The latest flood updates and links to news articles are just below.

I work with Project417, a small grassroots non-profit in Toronto. Normally, we work out on the streets with the inner city homeless population. For the past several years, Project417 has also been directly involved in Disaster Recovery work, specifically organizing volunteers to go and help those rendered homeless by disasters. Homelessness can befall anyone by environmental disaster as well as other circumstances, and we have experience in helping our neighbors across North America - as they are no more than a couple of days drive.

Ice Jams Unpredictable -

In the Winnipeg area and elsewhere in Manitoba, the greatest risk reported right now from the rising levels on the Red River are from the widespread ice jams along many stretches of the river, combined with still extensive ice pans still covering much of the river. Winnipeg officials are confident that the recent relatively good weather conditions are reducing the risk of serious flooding. The good weather also assisted in making the job of hundreds of area volunteers who turned out over the weekend in increasing the sandbagging levels within Winnipeg city limits and in communities north such as St. Andrews and Selkirk, as well as south in Emerson.

In addition, the province is making use of its Amphibex ice breakers on the ice pans and ice jams in several trouble spots on the river. The city's Floodway, built to divert rising waters around the city during floods, can not normally be opened until ice jams and pans have melted or cleared, as letting in the ice could cause structural damage withing the Floodway. Officials are reported to have decide to open the floodway this week however and are taking steps to clear the jams.

The unpredictability of the ice jams makes it difficult to asses the impact of the cresting waters. Currently waters are expected to crest at just over 6 metres withing flood wall and dike protection, with sandbagging raing levels to about seven and a half metres for safety.

Similarly, on the border of Manitoba, Emerson is going to be the first facing this week the rising waters heading up from North Dakota. The CPR rail line is already closed by flooding in the area, but Emerson officials are similarly confident the town is prepared to meet the flood and don't expect levels to reach catastrophic levels seen in the past. However they expect Highway 75 to be flooded, the main highway between Manitoba and the U.S. with expected lengthy delays for truckers and travellers.

Winnipeg area residents wishing to volunteer can call from the local calling area Winnipeg's 311 information service, or email 311@winnipeg.ca with their name, telephone number and times of availability. You can also visit the area's EmergWeb site at http://winnipeg.ca/emergweb

The Salvation Army and Red Cross in Manitoba has been out providing relief to volunteers and residents.

Fargo, North Dakota may face second wave of floodwaters.

The U.S. Weather Service has issued new warnings to North Dakota residents that Fargo could face a second surge of floodwaters later this month and officials are watching reports closely. Just last week, Fargo and area residents escaped the worst as the Red River flood crest was lower than expected and the majority of dikes and sandbagging efforst held. More than 1,000 National Guard are still in the area to help if conditions should worsen again - as well as the combined forces of Salvation Army Emergency and Disater Services and the Red Cross.

I'll post more updates here as soon as I can and at the MissionLog. If there are any volunteer efforts being organized from Toronto, I'll also post them here and at the Project417 website. Post a comment here if you have any volunteer information or breaking news.

Winnipeg calls for more sandbag volunteers - Hundreds of homes at risk from Red River ice jams

2009-04-02T18:04:00.007-04:00

Winnipeg needs help - more volunteers needed for sandbagging in neighborhoods at increased risk of flooding [source cbc.ca]

Officials in Winnipeg, Manitoba are escalating flood preparedness activities due to spreading ice jams in several key locations in the city including near the University of Manitoba in Fort Richmond and in communities just to the north - West St. Paul and St. Andrews.

The 48 km long floodway channel that diverts water around the city can't be opened until large ice pans and floes clear. If the ice were to enter the channel, it would increase the risk of ice jams at several bridges within the city limits.

The Red River has already crested to the south of Manitoba in North Dakota, with evacuations being ended. However, the cold weather in Manitoba has resulted in exceedingly dense ice conditions with many jams accumulating at major bends and low bridges along the extensive Red River valley system. Although the river is not expected to crest in the Winnipeg area until after April 6th early next week - the existence of the ice jams makes it difficult to predict the outcome of a sudden thaw. Even if the river crests below high water marks, floodwalls and dikes, a sudden thaw runoff meeting ice jams could cause serious localized flooding.

The local Salvation Army is onsite at several sandbagging operations with refreshments, hot drinks and meals for emergency workers and volunteers. Local volunteers looking where to volunteer in the Winnipeg area should call the city's informations service by dialling 311, or by visiting the online EmergWeb service or Manitoba provincial EMO (Emergency Measures Organization).

Here in Toronto, canayjun's disaster relief partner Project417 is on call with the Salvation Army's Emergency and Disaster Services (EDS) operation if local Manitoba resources are overwhelmed by any increase in need for volunteers. If requested by Manitoba agencies, we would join the Salvation Army and deliver mobile canteens and crisis response units to the people in need. Visit Project417.com for updates on upcoming volunteer opportunities.

In the past year, Project417 has responded twice to the Texas gulf coast near Galveston following Hurricane Ike, as well as helping out with EDS meal services at two recent Toronto area apartment explosions that resulted in the evacuation of over 700 residents. Canayjun's experience in disaster relief goes back to a 6 month stretch helping in New Orleans after Katrina and last fall took part in the Ontario Provincial EMO exercise in Thunder Bay dubbed "Trillium" - which involved more than 1,500 front-line workers and volunteers responding to a mock disaster simulating conditions related to the easter Ontario ice storm.

::winnipeg flooding

Spring snowstorm hindering flood protection efforts north of Winnipeg

2009-04-01T12:52:00.004-04:00

Red River sandbagging efforts affected

A low-pressure weather system located over northeastern Minnesota, which has already dumped 10 to 15 centimetres of snow across southern Manitoba overnight Tuesday - including 9-12 centimetres in Winnipeg - is expected to bring another five centimetres before tapering off Wednesday night. [source cbc.ca]

The below-normal temperatures that have hung over southern Manitoba since the middle of last week have kept much of the snow and ice from melting, which has temporarily eased the flooding concerns. Sandbagging will return in full force on Friday...

The river is now expected to crest on Sunday April 6th, 2009 ... more.

Looking for the latest flood updates, wanting to volunteer, or needing volunteers - check the following links to emergency relief resources in Winnipeg:

Winnipeg, Manitoba EmergWeb

CBC Flood Watch 2009 - Volunteer Info

Project417 will receive an update Thursday, April 2, whether a deployment of volunteers to the flood threatened region is necessary.

Volunteers continue work - slight reprieve for Red River Flood watch

2009-03-30T13:02:00.006-04:00

Update: Monday March 30, 2009 - Red River Flood Watch, North Dakota and Winnipeg area, Manitoba

North Dakota and Manitoba:

The flood watch in the Red River valley area on both sides of the U.S. Canada border continues today, but with a slight reprieve due to much colder temperatures. The sub-zero weather is slowing the runoff and freezing drainage that runs into the Red River and tributary systems and the flood crest is expected ... more

Volunteer efforts continue full strength though, and the Disaster Relief program at Project417 remains on call with updates expected later this evening.

Floods, Ice jams - Red River rises record levels - North Dakota, Minnesota, Manitoba

2009-03-28T13:48:00.005-04:00

Red River Flooding Update - Saturday Mar 28, 2009

North Dakota declared disaster zone amid flooding

We’re concerned about the possibilities of more evacuations for our neighbors in North Dakota and Minnesota and watching updates for the flood conditions in the Winnipeg, Manitoba areas of the Red River basin - hit by the worst flood levels in many years. Project417 is on alert to be notified of volunteer requirements by...more

Manitoba Flood Liaison office - 200 Saulteaux Cres. in Winnipeg: 204-945-2354
available to provide information to residents of the Red River Valley, including details on existing flood protection levels, current forecasted flood levels and the status of community ring-dike closures. The offices will be open daily from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. until the current flood risk is over.

The Canadian military is onsite on the Manitoba side of the Red River valley preparing to battle the floods, and volunteers are being mobilized by the Salvation Army, Red Cross and others like Project417.

50 Reasons to leave Facebook

2009-03-24T20:50:00.013-04:00

In no particular order:

1. You have better things to do, no really.

2. Have you ever actually read the Facebook Terms & Conditions about how much of your personal information they say they OWN and can share? Why do they need to know your birthday and real name - thousands of websites let you sign up anonymously with just an email address that is not displayed on the site. You just shared the two main peices of information you need for a passport or social insurance card with 250 million strangers

3. If you left Facebook recently, they probably kept all your photos and personal information anyway, if you didn't follow their arcane instructions to delete the data.

4. It spawns spam - it is spam spawning. It spams spam spawning spam. Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam...

5. Facebook mines your personal data and relationship information to sell to advertisers. The Canadian government privacy watchdog has charged Facebook is in violation of privacy laws with respect to users personal data.

6. You're already a member of other social networking sites like stumbleupon.com

7. The reasons for all the recent Facebook changes are all related to making things easier for advertisers, businesses and organizations - not users like you.

8. Police recently charged a graffiti artist based on photos he posted on Facebook - which were entered as evidence in court.

9. There are more than 250 million people with a Facebook profile - how many do you know and trust?

10. You're already a member of other social networking sites like spaces.live.com

11. The sidebar is full of "get rich quick" ads

12. A Facebook security breach allowing unauthorized access to your personal data was as recent as Friday, March 20, 2009

13. Lawyers recently subpoenaed a Facebook user's online activity in recent proceedings to use against him in quality of life issues related to his disability insurance claim.

14. It's easier to post and share your photos on Flickr - while Facebook's photo upload tool takes forever

15. Prospective and current employers will check to see if you have a Facebook profile

16. You're already a member of other social networking sites like MySpace

17. You have better things to do, no really.

18. Just who is Mark Zuckerberg anyway? (besides the CEO founder of Facebook) And did he really start Facebook just to get more dates while in college?

19. You spend more time on Facebook than you do actually with your friends in person.

20. Businesses and organizations are actually encouraging employees to establish a "professional" Facebook presence to improve business, sales and networking opportunities - isn't supposed to be about friends and family? and how much do they pay you for maintaining your Facebook profile?

21. A better professional social networking site is linkedin.com (where already about 25% of my Facebook contacts are connected to me, and I've found old contacts who are not on Facebook)

22. Twitter - like classic Facebook status updates only better at twitter.com - Zuckerberg and Facebook tried to buy them, they must be doing something right

23. It's easier to share photos on Google at http://picasa.google.com/ - or share documents on Google Docs

24. It's easier to share links on http://delicious.com

25. It's easier and more flexible to post and share Facebook style Notes on your own blog with Wordpress free at http://wordpress.com or Blogger at http://blogspot.com - I have had more than 15,000 people read my blog at Wordpress in the last year and another few thousand here at Blogger

26. Want the latest news? "Digg" it at http://digg.com or say you "Reddit" at http://reddit.com

27. Wordpress.com blogs are 100% advertising banner free. Or if you like to make money, Blogger is Google's service and it's easy to add Google ads in the sidebar and have Google send you a cheque instead of Facebook.

28. You can store and share all kinds of stuff at http://box.net or Windows Live Skydrive at http://skydrive.live.com

29. Facebook tries to incorporate all or some of these other social networking and sharing site features and doesn't do it as well as any of them, especially the apps that they have that are supposed to update this information in Facebook Boxes on your profile...oh yeah, nobody checks the Boxes tab

30. The best part about Facebook was your Facebook Status update and the Wall and they've changed how all that works with the latest upgrade and will change it again before the year is out

31. You're tired of getting invitations from Apps like NUDE ZOMBIES WHO DRINK LEMONADE etc

32. You have better things to do, no really!

33. You already have email addresses and phone numbers for all of your Facebook friends, but now you have to check Facebook email in addition to your personal and business email accounts, and check who wrote what on your wall, and get Facebook mobile updates, and and and... people are always saying to you "hey didn't you see that note/comment/message/update I sent to you?

34. It's easier to share videos with friends on YouTube at http://youtube.com

35. Facebook cares about their customers, really. Unfortunately Facebook users like you and me are not "customers", customers pay - businesses promoting their pages and links and advertisers posting their ads are the real Facebook customers.

36. Facebook's search function is rudimentary - Google does it better, Bing does it better - even Yahoo! does it better

37. You have experienced Facebook friends who misunderstood or misconstrued something you wrote on another Facebook friend's wall.

38. Some comments just don't make any sense at all - don't shoot the messenger.

39. Does it really make any difference when you click the little "thumbs down" icon on the ads in the sidebar? or is that just a ruse to make you read the ad?

40. 5,000,000,000 - the number of minutes spent on Facebook every day.

41. People tag you in photos which are not of you, but just to give you a heads up that they want you to look at a photo, instead of just clicking the share photo button. Like I said, it's easier to share photos on Flickr or Picasa or Multiply...

42. You post a group or event only to have the Wall inundated with flames and spam messages.

43. You poke a friend, they poke you back, you poke a friend, they poke you back, you poke.... you get the picture.

44. You have sent a Facebook message, Wall post, or poke from one computer in your home to the person at the other computer in your home. Can't we just get up and walk down the hall?

45. Your phone number is posted on your Facebook profile and nobody ever phones it.

46. You have better things to do, NO REALLY!

47. Like go for a walk, or visit a friend, or encourage a family member who needs you, or phone a friend and ask to meet for lunch, or visit a friend in hospital, or volunteer some time helping others...

48. There must be a way to combine all the different web services you use to share information effectively with friends, family and associates, without being constricted by the rather limited Facebook interface, and without being disrupted by Facebook upgrades.

49. There is a better way actually, the Flock social web browser for one - which is free, like the rest, based on the open Mozilla software (as is Firefox), doesn't depend on ad banners - and is capable of aggregating all the information from services you already use like Google, Picasa, Flickr, Twitter, Delicious, Digg, MSN, MySpace, etc etc (even Facebook, but you're leaving Facebook, remember?). At http://flock.com and Google is launching SocialStream soon.

[canayjun's note - no, I don't work for Flock, or Google or any of these other sites...]

50. Stay tuned for an upcoming event, that will make it very easy to leave Facebook.

Updated 20 seconds ago · Comment · Like
don't click this, it doesn't do anything just like on facebook

Update -
Check out Ron Shulkin's great article "Has Facebook jumped the shark?", over at Examiner.com - examining people who are leaving (and joining) Facebook.

::
::

Explosions in Two Toronto Apartment Buildings

2009-03-21T14:16:00.004-04:00

Explosions in Two Toronto Apartment Buildings - Thurs. Mar.19th

Update: Hundreds of residents were forced to evacuate after explosions rocked two Toronto apartment complexes in separate incidents Thursday.

The first, a condominium building in the east end at Kingston Rd and Eglinton, suffered two blasts shortly after 2:30 am - one inside a utility room, followed by a Hydro transformer outside the building. More than 500 residents were evacuated to a community centre, where volunteer relief workers provided meals. More here from the missionlog post.

The second incident occurred early Thursday afternoon at 2369 Lake Shore Blvd., in the third-floor electrical room of a four-storey, 92-unit apartment building. [source ctv.ca] Residents were also evacuated to a nearby community centre - where about thirty stayed Thursday night. During investigation of the fire, what appeared to be marijuana grow-ops were discovered in three of the units. It’s not known whether the hydro consumed by the grow-ops contributed to the electrical room explosion.

Project417 volunteers responded to the community centre with the Salvation Army Emergency Disaster Services team to assist residents and serve food and beverages adding to the relief assistance already being provided after the east end explosion.

Filed under: Advocacy, BREAKING News, Disaster Relief, Life, News, News Commentary, People, Photos, church, crime, homelessness | Tagged: project417, toronto, community, explosion, blast, evacuate, apartment, drugs, evacuation, residents, emergency, west, lakeshore, marijuana, grow-op

Explosion at Toronto apartment - 500 residents evacuated
Posted on March 20, 2009

Explosion in Toronto Apartment Complex
Location: Kingston Rd - Eglinton Avenue

Update from canoe: Hundreds of residents were evacuated after an explosion this morning at an east-end apartment. Many, some wearing only their pj’s and robes, were loaded onto transit buses and taken to a community center.The explosion, in the basement utility room, knocked out the building’s power.

More from globeandmail.com - ” More than 500 were forced to evacuate the building . Following the blast in the condominium, a Hydro Transformer outside the building also exploded. Commander O’Hallarn of the Toronto Fire Departments said the evacuation has been lengthy because it took time to set up a location to temporarily house people. Some residents have been shuttled off to the Scarborough Village Community Centre at 3600 Kingston Rd….

And cbc.ca - “Most residents were able to enter their condos to take some of their belongings and pets with them. Some spent the day at a nearby community centre, while others said they were going to stay with friends or family.

Project417 Responds - Once again, Project417 responded to the disaster. Project417’s Director, Joe Elkerton, had been on call all week for the Salvation Army’s Emergency Disaster response unit (EDS), backing up the vacationing Salvation Army manager in charge. He received the call from Toronto Fire early Thursday morning that hundreds of residents were sheltered in the east end community center. Joe quickly organized volunteers, picked up the EDS community response vehicle, which is a fully equipped and stocked 35′ mobile canteen, and headed for the center. Throughout the day, meals, snacks and beverages were served to residents and front-line personnel manning the evacuation centre. The EDS unit of the Salvation Army - with whom Project417 partners - is a critical component of Toronto’s overall emergency and disaster services plan.

No Economic Stimulus for Canada - Thanks to the Senate

2009-03-10T19:33:00.004-04:00

Did you read that right? No economic stimulus package? Didn't this bill pass parliament last month on February 4th with much fanfare and Conservative / new Liberal buddy posturing?

Well, yes - and NO!

The economic crisis deepens, Canada sinks further into recession. The country is bleeding hundreds of thousands of jobs - and yet our dysfunctional parliament can't get an economic stimulus bill passed. First it takes them a MONTH to get through to the third and final reading in parliament, so all can have their partisan moment in the media sun, now it has been sent to the Senate for "approval".

Just so you remember - that same Senate that is an un-elected body of political appointee hacks. Partisan appointments at that - every government in power tries to stack the deck by appointing their favorite backroom buddies. Cushy Senate committee seats next to the public trough with job guarantees to age seventy-five. That Senate. That worthless appendage of the Canadian parliamentary process.

Now the Senate is doing their best to boondoggle and filibuster and waste our time while Rome (our economy) burns around them. They want to send back the budget and economic stimulus package to Finance Minister Flaherty because it is contained in an omnibus package that includes other national business unrelated to the stimulus of the economy, as if they can't wrap their tired, old, shrunken, addled brains around more than one issue at the same time - like walking and chewing gum. Led by dire pronouncements from Senator Art Eggleton (formerly the mayor of Hogtown, who actually left the city in an economic mess) they want to block what our elected officials have already agreed to - IN the omnibus package - that has passed THREE readings of representative parliamentary process. What boogeyman do they think they will find under all the rocks already overturned?

This is ludicrous and dangerous! Our economy urgently needs measures to stimulate conditions to shorten the recession and create jobs for ordinary Canadians - who, unlike appointed senators, don't have job guarantees into next month, nevermind their sunset years. Email the senators and tell them this is unacceptable. (you can contact Eggleton at his link above - swamp him!). Find other senators at the Senate website here. Also contact your MP and urge them to support measures to make the Senate a useful, representative, elected body, or abolish it.
Pass the economic stimulus package now - stop playing politics with our livelihood.

Parliament Passes Canadian Budget - Economic Stimulus Package

2009-02-04T16:07:00.004-05:00

As predicted, minority Conservative Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's budget was passed in parliament last night by a 211 to 91 vote. The Liberal's did flip-flop under Ignatieff to support the Conservatives, without which the government would have fallen under a non-confidence vote heading Canada for a fourth election in five years. The Liberals added their 76 seats to the minority Conservative's 143 to pass the bill. The NDP with 37 seats in parliament voted against the budget based on Harper's dismal record in actually implementing measures once enacted. Six Liberal MP's from Newfoundland also went against Liberal Party leader Ignatieff's wishes to vote against the budget.

Read more here -

MP's Approve Federal Budget

Canadian Parliament Approves Economic stimulus plan

Harper Government Survives

Ignatieff Slammed in attack ads

The cost to Canada is steep. Pre-budget hype leaked by the Conservatives claimed a 64 Billion dollar deficit this year rising to $86 billion by the end of their programs. Other headlines tout the cost of the "economic stimulus" portion of the bill at $40 billion. Few Canadians however are aware of the total cost of the budget, which according to Finance Canada data, is actually $258.6 billion dollars this year alone - ballooning total Canadian government debt to $494 billion dollars. Even this could increase upwards dramatically due to the open ended nature of the Conservative measure ( called 'Improving Access to Financing and Strengthening Canada’s Financial System') in the budget to prop up / bailout banks allowing the federal government to re-purchase debt.

Check back often to Canayjun's Canada News blog for updates on the success (or failure) of the economic stimulus package to really make a difference to the effects of the worldwide recession. According to New York University economist Nouriel Roubini - who accurately predicted the financial market meltdown as far back as 2006 - the worst of the recession is yet to come and will have wide ranging impact not provided for in any current stimulus package.

Minority Conservative Budget passes first test - Liberals join Harper in vote

2009-01-30T13:56:00.003-05:00

Sub-amendment from Bloc defeated 214 to 85

Another four days will tell whether the Conservative budget will pass its crucial commons vote but it is widely expected the Liberal Party, under leadership appointee Michael Ignatieff, will vote again with the Conservatives. The Liberal's own amendments to the budget - Iggy's strings - will be voted on next week and the Conservatives have stated they support the main Liberal amendments, buying Liberal support for their minority mandate.

The NDP, who voted in solidarity for yesterday's Bloc amendments, and the Bloc have already said they will vote against the budget, but don't carry the needed seats in commons to defeat the Conservatives without Liberal support. The Coalition is effectively over.

QUOTE of the day - Iggy’s a control freak -- he’s worse than Harper

Even among the Liberals and Conservatives, there is not unanimous support for the budget. Ignatieff faces a revolt by Newfoundland Liberal MP's concerned about reduced Atlantic Accord transfer payments. Many Conservatives are concerned about the political necessities which have forced Flaherty's hand into introducing a big spending deficit budget not in keeping with their conservative right-wing spending policies.

Read more budget news at the following links -

Ignatieff slaps muzzle on unruly caucus

Budget Spending raises doubts among Conservatives

Liberal - Conservative MP's vote against Bloc amendment

Come back to Canayjun's Canada News blog for more budget updates and insights.

Budget Update - Ignatieff Liberals to support Conservatives with amendments - Vote tonight

2009-01-29T15:23:00.009-05:00

Budget Expected to Pass -

Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff has decided to support Harper's minority Conservative Party in the commons and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's budget. Asking for only amendments which holds the government accountable to parliament by providing fixed date updates (which would in themselves be confidence items) to show that the massive economic stimulus plan is feasible. The Liberal amendments and the budget vote itself go tonight so look for updates here later.

NDP leader Jack Layton has said that Ignatieff has decided to form a different coalition - a Conservative/Liberal coalition. This after the liberals have apparently backed off entirely on their previous agreement to form a coalition with the NDP and Bloc to defeat Harper's minority and assume control of pariament with their combined 62% of the electorate's votes. When first hearing of Ignatieff's appointment the Canayjun reported right here that "Iggy" would probably forsake Dion's coalition plans and prop up the Conservatives [ Coalition news and Iggy and the Rosedale Gang ]. It's reported today that the NDP have released a series of scathing ads regarding Ignatieff and the Liberals siding with the untrustworthy Conservatives.

Ignatieff has 'blinked', obviously uncertain whether the Liberals could actually win an election if a non-confidence vote were to trigger one (which it certainly would as the Liberals have apparently abandoned the coalition - it's no longer an option.)

Most of the major portions of the budget were leaked prior to it's release, so there's not much point posting that old news here. The Canayjun Canada News blog did correctly predict however, the shortcomings of one major portion - $2B dollars for social housing. That is the minority Conservatives method of having strings attached to the major budget amounts - even for the $12B in infrastructure spending - in having the provinces and municipalities match 50% of the funds released. This has proved well nigh impossible in the past, and will be even more so for cash strapped regional governments during a worldwide economic recession and huge job losses. Less people working, less tax revenue.

An overview of the proposed budget our politicians are voting on tonight is worth reading though. Check the links below and come back to the Canada News page later to read about the outcome. It's best to start with some of the brief synopsis links posted by news organizations - but by all means read the actual document form the finance department - a rather large PDF, but all the detail you need to make your own judgement instead of listening to the hype.

Budget Links Online:

Bad-times budget delivers billions

Budget Highlights

Ontario's McGuinty support feds' budget

Liberal amendments

go to vote

Tories 'fine' with Liberal demand for stimulus updates

Coalition over - Ignatieff calls for reports on budget impact

2009 Budget, or Boondoggle 101?

Text of the Budget Speech

The 2009 budget Online from the Department of Finance

It's no news the Canayjun is a strong supporter of the NDP (a viable alternative to the Harper minority regime) and I also came out in support for the coalition - did you sign the petition? But the Coalition's effectiveness came and went in December with Harper's strategy of suspending (proroguing) parliament and muzzling a democratic vote process. With the two months that has gone by now - the mood of the Canadian electorate has changed. Recent polls suggest Canadians prefer an election to a coalition. Coalition governments are a part of our democratic tradition here in Canada, the majority has a mandate to govern parliament, there is no requirement in the case of a minority government, such as the current Conservatives, to lock parliament into an ineffective partisan model. As blogged here recently - "Joe Clark's Progressive Conservative minority govt fell to non-confidence. (Joe and other leading PC's by the way did not join the Reform-Alliance-Conserative merger that spawned our minority Harper government). Ontario's minority Conservatives were defeated by a majority Liberal-NDP Coalition. Canada's political history has many ruling democratic coalitions..." But at this point it no longer seems a workable strategy because there is no guarantee of coalition - the GG (Michaelle Jean) acts on the advice of the Prime Minister - the real likelihood is that a non-confidence vote will only result in another lengthy election process. There is no clear majority leader amongst the electorate yet, with the outcome - another ineffective minority parliament. Better to let the opposition assume their important role of pressuring the ruling Conservatives in session, as the mere threat of Coalition has done this time, and establishing clear directions for Canadians to choose come the next election. It won't be a Conservative majority - did I say yet Harper has never won one?

Throne Speech Update - Canadian Parliament back in session

2009-01-26T17:43:00.009-05:00

The Governor General's speech from the Throne has come and gone - if you blinked you missed it. Less than 10 minutes - eight and half exactly by some accounts. But really, what did we expect? The last Throne speech was only a couple of months ago and the real pressing business is the upcoming revised budget. That is to be delivered by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty at 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday, January 27th.

Reports on the speech from the Throne can be found here -

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/090126/canada/canada_us_politics

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/01/26/throne-speech.html

News accounts of the throne speech focused almost entirely on the budget as it certainly is the most pressing issue in Canada right now. It also will be the next legislative item to be subject to a confidence vote and whether the opposition will show non-confidence or support the minority Conservatives. Harper's minority Conservatives have leaked enough about the budget to preclude any further discussion here until we can review a hardcopy tomorrow with all the devilish details - check back then.

Canada's Parliament Reopens - Throne Speech - What Next

2009-01-26T10:22:00.005-05:00

Today is an historic occasion - Canada's parliament re-opens after having been suspended or "prorogued" by minority Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper last December. The PM advised Governor General Michaelle Jean to announce this drastic measure to avoid a legal and democratic confidence vote on his government's mini-budget. The majority of opposition parties - the NDP, the Liberals and the Bloc - had announced their intentions to vote non-confidence in Harper's minority and request the G.G. allow a coalition of the majority to form a new government to immediately address the then deepening economic crisis. This democratic coalition was based on an accord reached between all three opposition parties entitled "An Accord on a Cooperative Government to Address the Current Economic Crisis".

During the snap election last October (called by Harper in contravention of his own government's bill to hold elections only on fixed dates) more than 62% of Canadians voted against Harper's Conservatives. The Conservatives under Harper have never won a majority in Canada. Regardless, the Conservatives did not govern accordingly - that is as a minority which should seek consensus from all parties - rather Harper treated his responsibility as if his mandate was a majority and not the meagre 37% actually tallied. For example, the mini-budget presented by his Finance Minister Jim Flaherty was completely out of touch with the worldwide reality of economic recession and contained no significant stimulus measures. In advising the Governor General to suspend parliament, PM Harper appealed to the G.G. that "stability" was required to address the economy and referred to the Bloc contingent as those scary "separatists" (recalling the old days of Chretien and his schemes to federalize Quebec sovereignty - and also ignoring his very own act of formally recognizing Quebec sovereignty) . This stability came in the form of the Draconian measure of suspending the democratic process of Canada's legally elected representatives and delaying real economic change for a crucial six weeks.

Now it's as if the Conservatives and Prime Minister Stephen Harper are saying, " Never mind! ", introducing a "do-over" budget with no relation to their pre-Christmas version of economic stimulus. Having selectively leaked almost all major details of the budget in advance of tomorrow's formal introduction to parliament, it can be seen that the Conservatives completely misread the depth of the economic crisis, and are playing politics with Canadians by juggling partisan power plays and avoiding true consensual governance. In the past, as opposition, Harper himself has called for the Liberal government to step down over budget leaks. Now, clinging to power, the Conservatives misuse their own access to sensitive information merely as a backroom marketing ploy. For example - they have leaked that the budget will create a $60+ billion dollar deficit, but have withheld the total cost of the package - is it $150B? $300B? We'll wait for tomorrow and see.

In the mean time we have a Throne speech from the Governor General in a little less than three hours to re-open and revive our parliament. Although the reponse to the throne speech could signal a confidence vote itself, it's expected the opposition, under Layton, Duceppe and the newly appointed Liberal leader Ignatieff, will wait for Tuesday's budget. Layton, this morning on CBC has already stated that the NDP will not support the budget sight unseen, having lost confidence in the minority government to effectively implement its measures. Ignatieff has stated he will peruse the budget with the Liberal caucus before deciding on a non-confidence motion.

Harper's Conservative government? They have taken the almost paranoid step of running a series of advertisements in the past several days, privately paid for by the Conservative Party of Canada. The gist of the radio spots, one of which features two women chatting about the economy, is simpleminded scaremongering. "Remember all that stuff the coalition put us through last year?", it states, and continues, "Oh no, not that again! We need action on our economy, not more political uncertainty". Indeed we do need action Mr. Harper. We needed it last December and your response was to close the doors of the government. We needed immediate action and the Conservatives chose a six week hiatus. Now get to work! - and if your budget sparks a non-confidence vote - stop clinging to power and let the majority rule.

Latest Harper budget leak - good news or hype?

2009-01-25T12:43:00.003-05:00

Budget could offer more than $2B for social housing

[source: cbc.ca for iPhone] - The Harper government is expected to use Tuesday's federal budget to pump more than $2 billion into social housing across the country, a move that would help seniors, the disabled and aboriginal people, according to a report. [end of excerpt]

This is not the first time billions have been promised for social housing - the Liberals created a fund years ago (that stayed alive under the Conservative minority budget) that still has unspent hundreds of millions of dollars for affordable housing due to red-tape and strings attached that required cash strapped provinces and municipalities to match funds. Further, while $2Billion may appear to be a large amount of money (and guarantee headlines for the Conservatives) - the portion mentioned in the news report for repairs to social housing - $1B - may actually not even come close to repairing even a small percentage of Canada's crumbling social housing infrastructure and leaves moot the point whether housing built decades ago in the 50's, 60's and 70's should even be repaired or upgraded, or replaced entirely with a new social housing model.

This most recent leak of this weeks upcoming federal budget is another example of Harper and his minority Conservative Party selectively releasing what they consider to be good news items to be picked up as positive news bites and spun by their considerable backroom marketing machine to garner support for what is suspected to be an unprecedented economic stimulus package. $64 billion deficit? What is the total cost of the new budget? Are tax cuts the best way to jumpstart the Canadian economy? Pouring billions into programs that are ill conceived to begin with and poorly managed by bureaucratic mandarins won't guarantee that Canada will ride out the economic storm. We need fresh thinking, not more of the same Conservative laissez faire, trickle down philosophy - and perhaps the billions needed now are an indication that the Conservatives just plain got it wrong over the past few years of minority rule and Canadians deserve a government that can command a majority mandate.

Harper playing games with 'irresponsible' budget leaks

2009-01-24T13:42:00.004-05:00

In a revealing contrast to the previous post (Information watchdog alarmed by Harper government clampdown - canayjun.blogspot.com), yesterday's news shows the flipside of what happens when governments misuse their power to control access to information - by strategically "leaking" information that only they have access to.

The CBC reported that opposition leader's Michael Ignatieff and Jack Layton both lambasted the Conservative minority for selectively leaking details about next weeks federal budget.

[source: cbc.ca] - Government officials leaked more details from the federal budget on Friday, including a $1-billion fund for hard-hit industries. Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff accused Prime Minister Stephen Harper of playing political games on Friday, calling the leaking of information from next week's federal budget a deliberate attempt "to get the bad news out of the way." NDP Leader Jack Layton accused the prime minister of "manipulating the process" with the leaks because he is "afraid of losing his job." [end of excerpt] The actual news leaks were also published on cbc.ca, a reliable source of information for Canadians and leaves one asking, " What is there for Finance Minister Flaherty to tell us next week?".

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/01/22/deficitoutlook.html
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/01/23/budgetworkers.html

I'm sure they have surprises up their sleeves for us - prepare for rabbits and hats!