Rob Ford - Ignorant, mean, or both?

Free nurses? No thanks, says Mayor Rob Ford - Healthzone.ca
Well, from our knowledge of Ford so far, we know that he is both mean and ignorant.
This time, he is turning down the offer from the province, of 2 free nurses who would work with new immigrants on disease prevention and would work with the poor to promote health services.

Excerpts from news story:

Mayor Rob Ford has rejected the province’s offer to hire two public
health nurses for Toronto at no cost to the city, drawing rebukes from
both the provincial health minister and a loyal council ally.

Ford’s Monday decision
marked the second time he has opposed a provincial health initiative
that would not have required any city funding. In February, he was the
lone dissenter in a 44-1 vote to accept provincial money for an effort
to encourage residents to be screened for HIV and syphilis.

...

A majority of the hand-picked committee voted with him. But in a rare
display of executive disharmony, budget committee chair Mike Del
Grande, public works chair Denzil Minnan-Wong, planning chair Peter
Milczyn, and and parks and environment chair Norm Kelly opposed.

Said Minnan-Wong on Tuesday: “The province is paying for two nurses
full-time. Why would you say no to additional public health nurses to
help out? Why would you say no?”

Speaking to reporters after the vote, Ford said he was concerned the
city would eventually have to pay. “Who is going to be on the hook for
it once the provincial funding goes? We are,” he said. “We have enough
people in public health right now.”

Filion called Ford’s fear “nonsense.” The nurses would simply cease their work if the provincial funding ever expired, he said.

“It’s a bizarre situation, it’s completely unprecedented, and I can
only assume it’s based on one of two things: complete ignorance of the
facts of the situation, or a deliberate case of using ideology to
trample on the most vulnerable in society,” Filion said.

The nurses can still be hired if a majority of council votes to
overturn the decision. Two thirds of council must first agree to take up
the issue.

Marijuana poised to become legal in Canada July 11, 2011

Pot laws ruled unconstitutional - thestar.com
Excerpt:

An Ontario Superior Court judge has ruled that the federal medical
marijuana program is unconstitutional, giving the government three
months to fix the problem before pot is effectively legalized.

In an April 11 ruling, Justice Donald
Taliano found that doctors across the country have “massively
boycotted” the medical marijuana program and largely refuse to sign off
on forms giving sick people access to necessary medication.

As a result, legitimately sick people
cannot access medical marijuana through appropriate means and must
resort to illegal actions.

Doctors’ “overwhelming refusal to
participate in the medicinal marijuana program completely undermines the
effectiveness of the program,” the judge wrote in his ruling.

“The effect of this blind delegation
is that seriously ill people who need marijuana to treat their symptoms
are branded criminals simply because they are unable to overcome the
barriers to legal access put in place by the legislative scheme.”

Taliano declared the program to be
invalid, as well as the criminal laws prohibiting possession and
production of cannabis. He suspended his ruling for three months, giving
Ottawa until mid-July to fix the program or face the prospect of
effectively legalizing possession and production of cannabis.

Make anti-vaccine parents pay higher premiums

Make anti-vaccine parents pay higher premiums - CNN.com
People wilfully putting their children, who they are responsible for, and the community at risk should be forced to pay, or, at least held accountable to the community.

Rethink Alberta

CBC News - Canada - Anti-oilsands ads target Alberta tourism
Regardless of whether they compare the Alberta oilsands to what is
happening in the Gulf of Mexico, you have to admit that the damage and
pollution happening in Alberta due to the way the oilsands are being
mined is something that should be of great concern to Albertans and
Canadians. Hopefully, these ads will wake up enough people and put
enough pressure on government and the oil companies to shape up, or, at
least be begin to wake people up about the problems with the oilsands.

Watch the Rethink Alberta video ad here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmd5dtZd4lc

See also:
Toronto Star: Anti-oilsands ad urges tourists to "Rethink" visit to Alberta.

Protesting G8/G20 - part one

An Invitation: From Copenhagen to Toronto | Toronto Community Mobilization Network
The Group of 8 Leaders and the Group of 20 Leaders are meeting in
Ontario, from the 25th to the 27th of June, 2010.

Following the collapse of the Copenhagen Climate Summit, they will
be discussing the global economy, development and climate change.

These gatherings are about trying to fix capitalism, a system that
cannot be fixed; about creating unsustainable trading solutions to
ecological catastrophe; about ensuring the continued exploitation of
people of colour and the South and about celebrating war as a means to
create puppet allies and maintain imperialist power. The so-called
leaders at these gatherings do not represent us. ...

NO to sound cannons at G20 Summit in Toronto & other notes
1. Common sense out of the RCMP on this one: "Mounties
shun ‘sound cannons’ in urban settings ahead of G20." A few points
here...the RCMP reviewed the use of the "Long Range Acoustic Devices"
and decided they weren't for crowd-control. The Vancouver Police also
committed for the Olympics not
to use the alert function on these cannons. Further, the Globe report
contains another warning from a doctor at Sick Kids about the prospect
of hearing damage. As this writer put it, "...there
but for a cool-headed officer at the controls, the entire grassroots of
our city could be chancing hearing loss." I think we can fairly
offer up a resounding NO to the use of these devices at the G20 and
beyond. The risk is too great for citizens to bear.

They Don't Value Democracy
...
Protesters in the streets are essential in a democracy. If there is
civil unrest, the media needs to see it, otherwise it’s assumed all is
well. The more than $1,100,000,000.00 the Conservatives are spending of
our tax money to HIDE and suppress protest at the G20 meetings, is an
attack on democracy in this country. Its not
Harper’s first attack on our democracy and freedoms, and it’s
probably not the last.

Conservative cover-up of their fault in the lysteriosis deaths coming back to haunt them

HealthZone.ca - News & Features - Opposition slams Tories over listeriosis secrecy

"What has the prime minister got to hide?"

Conservatives don't care about your health safety

HealthZone.ca - Diet & Fitness - Vets target meat inspection plan

During the Conservatives' last term, they began cutting back on inspectors. As a result, we had the lysteriosis outbreak(s). Now, they want to further dismantle the inspection system.
How many people do they have to kill with their negligent policies before they and the public catch on?

How many more people must die?

Poison food crisis shows Harper’s contempt for government

The entire handling of this emergency demonstrates callous
incompetence. Worse, it reveals a lethal contempt by Harper for the
most basic role of government - ensuring public health and safety. It
also reflects a hostility of government as a constructive force in our
society.

Since his first days in office in 2006, Harper has steadily cut
funding for food safety programs and inspectors, shifting ever greater
responsibility to the food companies themselves.



According to current Treasury Board of Canada forecasts, funding for
food safety programs will have declined by almost 30% from $359
million in 2006-07 to $254 million in 2010-11 under Harper's watch.



At the same time, a secret government document recently brought to
light by a government employee reveals that the government has been
planning to let the foxes further guard the henhouse by expanding
industry self-policing of food safety.



The listeriosis crisis is reminiscent of the poison water scandal that
rocked Walkerton, Ont., in 2000. That disaster was caused in large
part by government cutbacks and a deliberate weakening of provincial
inspection and safety procedures by the Ontario regime of Conservative
Premier Mike Harris.



Harper's cabinet now includes some of the same ministers who were part
of the Harris government, ministers who should have learned the
obvious lessons of the Walkerton tragedy.



That they did not makes an even more chilling point: the ineptitude
now apparent in Ottawa is not merely a failure to learn the lessons of
Walkerton. It bespeaks an ideological contempt for anything and
everything that government can do to better society.

Due to changes made by the Harper government, tens of thousands of Canadians may die.

The Gazetteer: Stephen Harper's Canada.....Worse Than Listeriosis?

"And listeriosis may be the least of it. The same November 2007 Cabinet decision that handed self-inspection to the owners of meat plants did the same for operators of animal feed mills and cut back the avian influenza preparedness program. Yet bad animal feed led to the epidemic of bovine spongiform encephalitis (mad cow disease), and in an influenza pandemic tens of thousands of Canadians may die. Listeriosis pales in comparison. Overall, it would seem that, as a country, Canada is far less prepared now for epidemics than in the past......"

NDP want to put the inspectors back in the meat plants

globeandmail.com: Put inspectors in every Canadian meat plant: Layton

NDP Leader Jack Layton wants meat inspectors on the floor of every meat processing plant in Canada.

Standing outside Parliament today, Layton says it's the only way to prevent another disaster like the listeriosis outbreak that's been blamed for 17 deaths.

Mr. Layton also wants imported meats made subject to the same kind of inspections Canadian meats undergo.

Mr. Layton continues to blame the outbreak on the government, saying the Conservatives want to let businesses do whatever they want without oversight.

The Harper government reduced the meat inspections. As a result, people have died. The Harper government also plans on reducing meat inspections across the country. Jack Layton and the NDP actually care about human lives and want to put the inspectors back in the plants so people don't die and get sick.