Canadian Dimension Blog
http://www.canadiandimension.com/blog/2008/06/more-bloggers-arrested/

Chris Webb, June 17th, 2008

If I lived in China, the fuzz would soon be knocking at my door.

The University of Washington says an increasing number of people are being arrested for using websites to expose human rights abuses or to criticise governments.
Since 2003, 64 people have been arrested for publishing their views on a blog - more than half of those were in China, Egypt and Iran.

The average prison sentence was 15 months. Researchers say the true figure could be much higher. The clampdown is not confined to ‘undemocratic’ regimes: in the last four years, British, French, Canadian and American bloggers have also been arrested.

Written by Michael Clow
Sunday, 01 June 2008 18:26
e-connexions.org

-- 1 June 2008

The word “self-sufficiency” invokes certain concepts and emotions which sloganeers associated with the current Graham Government have employed to win our approval for a package of diverse economic initiatives. This article analyzes the appropriateness of this slogan, and the policies they are intended to sell us on.

[Editor’s note: The following paper was originally presented by Dr. Michael Clow,
Professor of Sociology at St. Thomas University, at the New Brunswick and Atlantic Studies Research and Development Centre’s 2008 Self-Sufficiency Conference, May 9-10, 2008. It is relevant to the other articles this month (such as the UNB Woodlot development and proposed uranium mining) since, as the author argues, the short-sighted and narrow way in which progress is defined in this province has lead to the trend of sacrificing the environment for unsustainable economic gain.]

Craig Hubley
LaHave, NS

Bill Denyar's Sunday op-end (Atlantica: regional co-operation for global success) amazingly fails to state the real case for short-sea shipping to US Northeast ports - it saves post-Panamax freighters from longer trips and stringent security requirements. Halifax can arbitrage US paranoia and congestion by inspecting and ordering containers for efficient NYC or Boston pickup. However, one such freighter carries up to 33,000 loaded containers. Trucking these even in good weather on radically upgraded roads is madness: Road wear, accidents, prohibitive fuel costs, 33,000 trucks running to Halifax empty on schedules too tight for sleep? Good for gas stations, truck dealers, mechanics shops, bulk exporters like lumber mills, and best of all for undertakers and coffin makers. Atlantic Provinces Chambers of Commerce had better look at their allies - closely. New Brunswick's government seems to have been hypnotized by the same folks.

Janice Harvey
May 21st, 2008

Most readers, I suspect, will be surprised to know that the Shawn Graham government has just completed a year-long "public engagement initiative" (known on the inside as PEI) which proposes a new approach to involving the public in setting policy goals and participating in their implementation. You are forgiven for letting this one slip by unnoticed. Frankly, the government couldn't have been more cagey about keeping its public engagement flagship project distinctly out of public view.

Let me back up. I vaguely remember an announcement last year that the government had hired Ottawa public policy guru Don Lenihan to head up some initiative on public engagement. I heard nothing more (and frankly forgot about it) until late fall when, by chance, Mr. Lenihan was a guest speaker at a course I was taking at UNB. In class that evening, I learned vague details of a few public engagement pilot projects underway in the province.

Moir: True costs of uranium mining outweigh benefits

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2 April 2008
Moncton, New Brunswick

Fundy Royal NDP candidate and economist Rob Moir was among the keynote speakers at Moncton's Public Awareness meeting to discuss the effects of test drilling and uranium mining on our health and ecosystem. Dr. Moir's presentation outlined the overall effects that uranium exploration and mining has on the economy.

Moir toasted the crowd with a glass of Moncton city water, and commenced by saying, "Thank you Moncton for keeping water public, and here's to keeping it free of radioactivity."

The market says Lepreau 2 is not 'risk free'
JANICE HARVEY
February 20th, 2008

In case some readers only get their information on the nuclear power
industry from this paper, some outside perspective may be useful.

The Globe and Mail article (Feb 13), "Is private money ready to go
nuclear," by energy reporter Shawn McCarthy is especially pertinent,
since the proposal to build a new ACR-1000 reactor at Point Lepreau
suggests it will be paid for by private money.

Reactor designer AECL (a federal Crown corporation) has teamed up with
SNC-Lavalin, General Electric, Hitachi and Babcock & Wilcox (makers of

Mark D. Connell
February 8th, 2008

The announcement by Premier Graham that his government hopes to build a new nuclear reactor at Point Lepreau defies belief. The Premier, it seems, has lost his moral compass.

The last ice age retreated approximately 9,000 years ago. During that
glacial period most of Canada, including the Maritime region, was
covered with a sheet of ice more than one kilometer thick. Continental
glaciers creep outwards from their centers at an inexorable rate of
one to several meters a day toward the margins, scouring and grinding
down the landscape in the process. The weight of these continental ice

The Saint John District Labour Council is holding a rally at 12 noon, Friday, February 15th in front of the Telegraph Journal Office (210 Crown Street, Saint John).

Send a message to the newspaper that we want a labour voice and fair taxation!

JANICE HARVEY
February 13th, 2008

Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive." Sir Walter Scott's immortal warning is an apt characterization of the nuclear web being spun in New Brunswick. Neither the media nor the opposition Conservatives seems to be trying to understand what's going on. Yet the very public release of what everyone expected to be the long-awaited Lepreau-2 feasibility study last week should have prompted some very pointed questions.

AECL's feasibility study wasn't released that day. Instead, Minister Keir unveiled a surprise "viability study" prepared by a third-party consultant, MZ Consulting. At best, the report reads like a cautionary tale, citing several very thorny conditions to be met before a

Fournier: Bilcon action groundless
By DAVID JACKSON Provincial Reporter
Wed. Feb 6 - 7:37 AM
http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/Front/1036279.html

A company seeking more than US$188 million in damages related to the government rejection of its Digby Neck quarry proposal doesn’t appear to have a leg to stand on, says the chairman of the environmental review panel that recommended the project not go forward.

The chairman, Dalhousie University professor Robert Fournier, said Tuesday he doesn’t think the panel’s report, released in October, is grounds for the challenge that Bilcon of Delaware and four individual owners of the company — members of New Jersey’s Clayton family — have launched.