Natural Resources Minister to the head of Canada's nuclear safety watchdog: "...these events cast doubt on whether you possess the fundamental good judgement required ... [There is] .. a lack of confidence by all parties in your judgement."   more »

In December, Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn sent a letter to nuclear safety regulator chief Linda Keen saying, essentially, tell me why we shouldn't fire you. Today, Keen fires back with a blistering response accusing Lunn of interfering with the "administration of justice."   more »

Earlier, I noted that DeSmogBlog, a blog which aims to de-bunk the spin from climate change deniers, had sharply criticized Democratic candidate Barack Obama for a lousy green plan. Now, after howls from others in the green movement, DeSmogBlog has apologized to Obama and withdrawn a “Smogmaker of the ...   more »

Late last year, as our the loonie became more valuable than the American dollar, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty wanted to put pressure on Canadian retailers to end the price differential on identical products sold in Canada and the U.S. He had convened a meeting of retailers at his Ottawa offices shortly after returning from some international finance meetings in Washington, D.C. To make his point about price differentials, Flaherty (left) went out and bought the most recent Harry Potter in Washington and then bought it again in Ottawa.... Now, as it turns out, the Canadian publisher of the Harry Potter series, Raincoast Books of Vancouver, says it is suspending its publishing program because of the loonie's rise: Even with Harry Potter, and other titles that have won or been short-listed for every major literary prize in Canada, [Jamie Broadhurst, vice-president of marketing at Raincoast] said the company's 13-year-old publishing division has remained unprofitable.

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Senator Larry Campbell (Liberal-British Columbia) is the former mayor of Vancouver, a former RCMP drug squad officer, and, as BC's chief coroner, was thought to be the model for the TV series Da Vinci's Inquest.... More prisons and more people in prisons has not worked for our southern neighbours, and there is no logic behind the move to increase criminal penalties for drugs...

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This is not, apparently, a joke: The new Australian government is ready to demand that ISPs block access by home and school Internet users of Web content which contains pornography and violence.... Online civil libertarians yesterday warned the freedom of the internet was at stake, while internet providers are concerned the new measures could slow the internet in Australia down to a crawl.

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