Captain Cook’s club, a gift of the Nuu-chah-nulth, comes closer to home

By Alex Ballingall and Nancy Macdonald - Wednesday, May 9, 2012 at 1:26 PM - 0 Comments

Jason Payne/ PNG

The finely carved 32-cm yew club had to travel a long way before Margarita James got to see it. Her clansfolk gave the treasured object to Captain James Cook back in 1778. That spring, he was sailing off the coast of what is now British Columbia, looking for the Northwest Passage. Cook moored his ship in the sheltered cove near Yuquot, a Nuu-chah-nulth village, on Vancouver Island’s Nootka Sound. It is believed that Chief Maquinna, the direct ancestor of the Mowachaht-Muchalaht First Nation’s current leader, gave the sculpture to Cook before the famed explorer continued north to survey the foggy inlets of the Pacific Northwest.

Now, thanks to the goodwill of art collector Michael Audain, the artifact is back in B.C. and on public display after a 234-year absence. James was there when the club arrived at University of British Columbia’s Museum of Anthropology from New York in late March. “It was overwhelming,” recalls James, the president of the Land of Maquinna culture society. “You could almost feel the power of the elders, the power of the chief’s family that gifted it.”

Mystery surrounds the club’s use and symbolic meaning. It features a detailed hand grasping a sphere, which experts speculate may represent the sun, the moon or even a human head. While the museum houses other, less expertly carved yew clubs with the same motif, they are larger and less delicate, suggesting that the club given to Cook served a ceremonial rather than a practical purpose.

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In British Columbia, school may not be out for summer

By Alex Ballingall - Monday, May 7, 2012 at 10:59 AM - 0 Comments

For many elementary and high school students in B.C., this could be the last year they get to run out into the dazzling June sun with the knowledge that they won’t have to touch a pencil for more than two glorious, homework-free months. George Abbott, the B.C. minister of education, introduced legislation in Victoria last week that will give B.C. school districts the power to change the classic school calendar by spreading the summer holidays throughout the rest of the year.

The idea of a year-round calendar is hardly new, and proponents argue that a more balanced schedule—three months on, one month off—decreases so-called “learning loss” that occurs over long summer breaks. They also say it lets parents and teachers holiday outside peak travel times. “Teachers love it. Parents love it,” says Katie Sullivan, principal of Kanaka Creek Elementary School in Maple Ridge, one of a handful of B.C. schools already on the “balanced calendar.” (Under the current rules, every year the school must seek approval from the ministry to set its own calendar.) Sullivan has noticed her students need less time to review previous lessons after breaks, and that teachers seem more energized. She says the model is the envy of teachers in the Fraser Valley city, and that there’s a waiting list to get in her classrooms. Although it might not be right for all schools, Sullivan backs the bill. “I support choice,” she says.

Not so for Susan Lambert, president of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation. By devolving authority on school calendars, she says the government is putting the stability and standards of the B.C. school system at risk. “I’m very concerned about the impact on families of a chaotic school system, where any school can be on a different schedule.”

Regardless of such concerns, the long, lazy days of summer will likely get a bit shorter for many B.C. students.

What you’re thinking: finding religion and lost in traffic

By Alex Ballingall - Monday, May 7, 2012 at 10:22 AM - 0 Comments

British Columbia: People in B.C. have far less confidence in the police than those in the rest of Canada, according to a recent poll. Just 27 per cent of B.C. respondents trust the RCMP, while 28 per cent expressed confidence in municipal police forces. The Canadian average for support of local and provincial cops was 40 per cent.

Manitoba: God lives on the Prairies. According to a recent poll, people in Manitoba and Saskatchewan are the most religiously inclined in Canada. Fifty four per cent of respondents from those provinces said religion is important to them, compared to 42 per cent among Canadians as a whole, while 79 per cent from the Prairies professed a belief in God.

Ontario: A recent survey found nearly two-thirds of people in the Greater Toronto area feel their daily commute is “detrimental” to their quality of life. It’s little surprise, then, that 70 per cent would pay a toll or higher taxes if they knew the money would be spent on transit that would ease traffic, according to the poll. Another option: work from home—which 95 per cent would prefer to do.

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New Brunswick: From miracle to ‘meh’

By Alex Ballingall - Wednesday, May 2, 2012 at 1:56 PM - 0 Comments

Photograph By Blair Gable

Uncertainty hangs over Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in southern New Brunswick. Cuts are coming. “It’s kind of scary,” says Rick Jenkins, 45, a shop steward for the Union of National Defence Employees at the base. “We’re not being told when we’re going to know,” he says. “It’s just unknown.”

For a province hailed for its “miracle” economy 15 years ago, this has become the order of the day. Canada’s major banks are predicting the province is in for some of the weakest economic growth in the country. The Bank of Canada anticipates New Brunswick’s GDP will grow just 1.5 per cent this year, the lowest of any province. Alberta, by contrast, is expected to grow 3.4 per cent. In 2011, the provincial economy incurred a net loss of more than 4,100 jobs. Last month the unemployment rate rose to 10.2 per cent, while in Canada as a whole it inched down to 7.2 per cent.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Under former Premier Frank McKenna’s reign, from 1987 to 1997, the province balanced its books and enjoyed a boom in call centre and technology jobs. The “McKenna Miracle,” as it was called, set New Brunswick apart from its Maritime brethren. In the years since, though, the province came to rely overwhelmingly on the public sector for its growth. Now the federal and provincial governments have slammed on the brakes in an effort to tackle deficits. Transfer payments from Ottawa to New Brunswick have flatlined after a decade of annual increases of more than five per cent, while the defence department recently announced at least 120 civilian jobs will be lost in the province. Other federal departments are expected to dramatically downsize in New Brunswick, while the province itself plans to shed 1,500 positions over the next three years.

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Moira Stilwell’s motherhood issue

By Alex Ballingall - Thursday, April 26, 2012 at 2:06 PM - 0 Comments

Photograph by Stephen Hui

British Columbia MLA Moira Stilwell wants to make it easier for B.C. medical students studying abroad to land residency positions in their home province. Stilwell, recently named parliamentary secretary to Health Minister Michael de Jong, wrote a report on the subject in December called “Action Plan for Repatriating B.C. Medical Students Studying Abroad.” In it, she argued that British Columbians studying medicine outside North America have a tough time returning home to work.“The primary challenge they face is in regard to accessing residency positions in B.C.,” Stilwell wrote. What she didn’t state in her report: the fact that her son is one of those students.

When asked about her personal stake in the issue, Stilwell was undeterred.“It’s not about one person, it’s about thousands of Canadian kids abroad,” she told the online newsmagazine The Tyee last week. Health Minister de Jong, meanwhile, told the B.C. news website that he was unaware Stilwell has a son attending med school in Ireland.

As it stands now, residency positions are only open to graduates of North American programs, which share the same accreditation process. Those studying outside the continent must pass exams before they can apply for Canadian residencies. Stilwell’s report recommends that B.C. create 57 new residency positions before opening up the application process to B.C. students at medical schools outside North America.

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The British are coming—for our gold

By Alex Ballingall - Thursday, April 26, 2012 at 11:24 AM - 0 Comments

On April 2, Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney stepped in front of a business crowd in Waterloo, Ont. to speak about the state of Canada’s foreign trade. His message, more or less, was this: we need to break our national reliance on exports to the U.S.–the country is a wounded behemoth, and we would do better to focus on trade with economic up-and-comers. By that the governor probably meant the likes of China and India. But by looking at our trade numbers, one would think Canadian exporters are taking it to mean the U.K. as well.

Over the past decade, the value of Canadian exports to the centre-piece of the Commonwealth have skyrocketed. In 2011, they hit a record high of $18.8 billion, up more than 324 per cent since 2002. The U.K. is now Canada’s second biggest export partner–while China is only third.

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Vikileaks tweeter faces ethics committee on Parliament Hill

By Alex Ballingall - Wednesday, April 25, 2012 at 11:05 AM - 0 Comments

Adam Carroll, the ex-Liberal staffer who was fired after he admitted to setting up the Vikileaks30 Twitter account that spread details of Public Safety Minister Vic Toews’ divorce, was grilled by MPs at a hearing on Parliament Hill Tuesday. Carroll showed no remorse at the ethics committee hearing, saying he opened the account to protest against Bill C-30, legislation trumpeted by Toews that prompted a national outcry over online privacy concerns and the extend of police surveillance powers.

“I felt compelled to urgently bring public attention to the threat that Bill C-30 would impose on our rights and our privacy,” Carroll said, quoted by the Toronto Star. “I took an approach that simply argued that if the minister felt strongly that he should know everything about us, perhaps we should know a little bit more about the man who wants unrestricted access to our information.”

Carroll declined to answer several questions about how affidavits about Toews’ divorce ended up in the hands of the Liberal Party. He also insisted that he acted alone in created the Twitter account. ”I was never ordered nor asked to do it. I never discussed my actions with any member of Parliament,” he said, quoted by the Montreal Gazette.

NDP member Charlie Angus eventually called the hearing a “fishing expedition for Mr. Harper’s war room” as Carroll was peppered with questions from Conservative MPs who appeared to try and link the other members of the Liberal Party to the affair. When described by Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro as a “good soldier” who took the fall for the Liberals, Carroll responded by quoting Del Mastro himself: “To use his words: baseless smears, or in the acronym, B.S.”

Second worker dead after Prince George sawmill explosion

By Alex Ballingall - Wednesday, April 25, 2012 at 10:49 AM - 0 Comments

A second worker has died after an explosion leveled a sawmill in Prince George, B.C. on Monday night. The 24-year-old man was airlifted to hospital in Edmonton, where he died Tuesday, the CBC reports. His identity isn’t being revealed until his family has been notified.

Earlier Tuesday, it was confirmed that Alan Little, 43, had also died after the explosion at the Lakeland Mills sawmill. The two deceased were among 24 employees on site when a “ball of flame” consumed the sawmill.

As the Globe and Mail reports, all sawmills in the province will undergo mandatory safety reviews regarding sawdust build-up. “We believe this is a prudent step to take… Combustible dust and dust accumulation is an issue,” vice-president of corporate services at WorkSafeBC Roberta Ellis told the newspaper. “We are looking at the issue of dust. Of course, we are.”

In January, a similar explosion killed two workers at another sawmill in the community of Burns Lake, B.C.

The two incidents have sparked concerns over the implications of dust build-up from processing trees that have been afflicted with the mountain pine beetle, an insect that has ravaged forests in the B.C. Interior in recent years. Although no concrete evidence has been found linking the explosions to the beetle-killed trees, Caribou North MLA Bob Simpson told the Canadian Press that many say the logs crumble apart more easily and produce more dust.

George Astrakianakis, an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia, said it’s “entirely plausible” that dust from pine beetle trees is responsible for the explosions, since more dust increased the risk of a large inferno is something sparks a fire.

Britain double dips into recession

By Alex Ballingall - Wednesday, April 25, 2012 at 10:33 AM - 0 Comments

The British economy has fallen back into recession for the second time since the financial collapse of 2008. The news came after a poor report by the Office of National Statistics that showed the economy of Britain shrank by 0.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2012. That followed an earlier contraction of 0.3 per cent in the last quarter of 2011. It is the first “double-dip” recession for the country since the 1970s, the New York Times reports

The poor results contradict forecasts of modest growth made by many economists. The main reason for the disappointment, the newspaper reports, was the biggest fall in construction output in three years, a decline in industrial output and stagnant activity in the services sector, according to the Financial Post.

The numbers are bad news for the country’s coalition government, which has been pushing a controversial austerity agenda. The opposition Labour Party has been arguing that more economic stimulus is needed to revitalize growth. But as the Guardian reports, finance minister George Osborne says the government will stick to its deficit reduction plan.

“It’s a very tough economic situation,” he was quoted as saying. “It’s taking longer than anyone hoped to recover from the biggest debt crisis of our lifetime. The one thing that would make the situation even worse would be to abandon our credible plan and deliberately add more borrowing and even more debt.”

Two arrested after dangerous booby traps found on popular Utah hiking trail

By Alex Ballingall - Wednesday, April 25, 2012 at 10:13 AM - 0 Comments

Two young men in Utah have been arrested for setting potentially deadly booby traps along a popular hiking trail south of Salt Lake City. One of the traps was a 20-pound boulder rigged with wooden spikes that, when triggered by a trip wire, would swing across the trail at head height, the Washington Times reports. The other was a spike-filled pitfall trap, according to the BBC.

Benjamin Steven Rutkowski, 19, and Kai Matthew Christensen, 21, were arrested and released on bail last Saturday. They say the traps, which were built around a makeshift shelter, were meant for animals. Prosecutors are reportedly preparing misdemeanor charges all the same.

“It took some time to build these traps. They took rope, heavy-duty fishing line, and they intended what the traps were going to do,” said Utah County Sherriff’s Sgt. Spencer Cannon. “This is a shelter put together by people, visited by people – anything that would be impacted by their device would have to be humans.”

The traps were found by keen-eyed U.S. Forest Service officer James Shoeffler, who spotted the trip wires while on routine patrol. As the BBC reports, Rutkowski and Christensen were nabbed by police based on Facebook comments they made in recent days.

“A lot of people go up there after dark, as well,” Cannon told the Associated Press. “We’re very, very fortunate that it was Officer Schoeffler who found it.”

Ignatieff responds to furor over Quebec separatism comments

By Alex Ballingall - Wednesday, April 25, 2012 at 10:07 AM - 0 Comments

Nothing shakes up the country’s pundits and politicians like a few comments on national unity from a prominent Canadian. In February, an uproar followed remarks made by Liberal MP—and son of a legendary prime minister—Justin Trudeau regarding his willingness to support Quebec separatism if the country continues down the path the Conservatives are taking in Ottawa.

On Tuesday, it was Michael Ignatieff’s turn. The former Liberal leader prompted a flurry of reactions after he told the BBC, in an interview about the prospect of a Scottish referendum on independence, that “over time the two societies will move ever, ever further apart. That is I think what the Canadian example will tell you. . . It’s kind of a way station. You stop there for a while. But I think the logic eventually is independence, full independence.”

Today, Ignatieff responded by circulating a statement to media institutions like the CBC and theGlobe and Mail:

“The interview on the issue of the referendum on Scottish independence made clear that Canada offers an internationally recognized model for the conciliation of political differences. I also shared my concerns about the future of this country: we must not drift apart and we must not allow illusions about each other to divide us. Canada is bigger than our differences. We need to affirm our faith in a country that has always proved strong enough to embrace the national identities, language and culture of us all.”

“I oppose the separation of Canada and Quebec, as I oppose the separation of Scotland and the United Kingdom, and we need to face any threats to our unity with determination and resolve. The argument we need to make to our fellow citizens who choose the separatist option ought to appeal to hope rather than fear. We are stronger together than apart, stronger in the embrace of our differences and stronger in the prosperous life we have built together over the centuries.”

While commentators heaped scorn (or praise, as in the case of Parti Quebecois leader Pauline Marois) on Ignatieff, many missed the CROP poll on the Quebec sovereignty movement published by La Presse on Tuesday. It found that 36 per cent of Quebeckers support independence, a lacklustre figure when compared with figures from the 1990s.

US officials find mad cow disease in California

By Alex Ballingall - Tuesday, April 24, 2012 at 4:40 PM - 0 Comments

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says it has found its first case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease since 2006, the Wall Street Journal reports. A California dairy cow tested positive for the disease, making it the fourth infected cow ever found in the U.S.

USDA officials have reportedly stated that no meat from the cow has entered the food system. In 2003, major importers of U.S. beef temporarily blocked the meat in the face of BSE scare. This time, the USDA says they don’t expect any major importers of U.S. beef—like Japan and South Korea—to ban the product from their countries.

The organization conducts tests on about 40,000 cows every year.

Monday morning blues? Your employer should care.

By Alex Ballingall - Tuesday, April 24, 2012 at 12:39 PM - 0 Comments

Holly Ford Brown/Flickr

Monday morning—time for another work week. But it’s raining. You feel numb, sluggish and burnt out. The days roll by without lustre, and, at the worst of times, you feel alienated and powerless in your job.

Sound familiar? Don’t be surprised. These are common feelings associated with work-related mental health issues, symptoms of a problem that is much more widespread in Canada than you may think. A survey of employees and managers published last summer by the Conference Board of Canada found that 44 per cent of respondents had personally experienced a mental health illness, whether it be anxiety, depression or work-related stress. In 2007, Ipsos Reid released a study showing that 26 per cent of Canadian workers suffer from depression.

It’s a problem that, until recently, hasn’t received adequate attention, says Ian Arnold, professor of occupational medicine at McGill University and an expert on psychological health in the workplace. ”Very few workplaces in Canada have systems in place to deal with mental health,” he says.

That’s something many hope to change. Michael Kirby, a former senator and past chair of the Mental Health Commission of Canada, helped launch a campaign this month called Not Myself Today. The campaign’s website calls on Canadians to share stories of how mental illnesses have affected them or their loved ones, and invites them to sign a pledge to push for improvements in mental health. More than 13,000 people have signed on so far, and the organization behind the campaign, Partners for Mental Health, has raised $5 million in the past six months, mostly from private sector donations, says Kirby. His ultimate goal is to mimic the success of campaigns to fight breast cancer by creating a grassroots initiative to combat mental illness.

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Patagonia goes from jackets to wild salmon jerky

By Alex Ballingall - Tuesday, April 24, 2012 at 11:54 AM - 0 Comments

Kevin Fleming/Corbis

Patagonia Inc., the California-based apparel company that was one of the first to switch to organically grown cotton, has embarked on a new quest: selling wild salmon jerky while promoting sustainable fishing practices. Working with Aboriginal communities along British Columbia’s Skeena River, Patagonia catches fish upstream from areas where salmon stocks have declined. The jerky is made locally in a processing facility. “I want to show the [food] industry that this is the way it should be done,” says company founder Yvon Chouinard in a promotional video warning of the dangers of fish farming and overconsumption. The jerky comes in three flavours (smoked pepper, smoked teriyaki and smoked chili pepper), but netting consumers—and changing the fishing industry—won’t be easy. A two-ounce packet costs US$12.50, and Patagonia will have to rely on its clothing distribution chain to sell the jerky.

Pollster survey ‘strongly’ suggests non-Tory supporters were targeted in voter suppression scandal

By Alex Ballingall - Tuesday, April 24, 2012 at 10:05 AM - 0 Comments

The Ekos polling firm has found strong evidence that non-Tory supporters were targeted in the voter suppression effort during last year’s federal election campaign.

The Globe and Mail is reporting that voter suppression activities were surveyed in seven ridings where election results are currently being contested in Federal Court. They included calls that directed voters to polling stations that didn’t exist, as well as phone calls from people falsely claiming to represent Elections Canada, Ekos Research Associates told the newspaper.

“These results strongly suggest that significant voter-suppression activities took place that were targeted at non-Conservative voters,” Ekos Research said in an affidavit filed as part of the Council of Canadians’ legal challenge of the results in the seven ridings, CTV reports. The findings are “highly statistically significant and we can say with confidence that this is not an artifact of chance,” Ekos president Frank Graves wrote.

The survey found that people in the seven contested ridings were 50 per cent more likely to receive the misleading phone calls than people in 106 other ridings that were consulted. It also found that NDP, Liberal and Green Party supporters were about three times more likely to receive the erroneous calls about polling station locations than Conservative voters during the last two or three days of the election, the Globe and Mail reports.

What’s more, the survey found a connection between people who told canvassers that they wouldn’t vote Conservative and those who later said they received the misleading phone calls.

PCs win strong majority of 61 seats in Alberta election

By Alex Ballingall - Tuesday, April 24, 2012 at 10:03 AM - 0 Comments

The final results of Alberta’s provincial election are in: the Progressive Conservatives of Premier Alison Redford have maintained their decades-long grip on power by winning a strong majority (61 seats out of 87) in the Alberta legislature. The Wildrose Party, pegged by poll after poll as the likely election victor, captured just 17. The Liberals, led by Raj Sherman, came up with five seats, while the NDP took four.

“Every Albertan knew that this election was about choice,” Redford told cheering supporters in her downtown Calgary victory speech, quoted by the CBC. ”A choice to put up walls or to build bridges. A choice about Alberta’s future. Tonight, Alberta chose to build bridges.”

Pollster Bruce Cameron told the CBC that the Alberta Tories somewhat unexpected win may be linked to strategic voting in an effort to stave off a right-wing Wildrose government. “The social and moral and ethical issues that the Wildrose raised in the last week really brought some of those Liberal and ND voters over, and that’s what really contributed to the massive win,” Cameron told the CBC, referring to controversial homophobic and racial comments from Wildrose candidates during the campaign.

“Well, folks, tonight we found out that change might take a little longer than we wanted,” Wildrose leader Danielle Smith said during her concession speech, quoted by the National Post. “I acknowledge that we wanted to do better and we expected to do better. Am I surprised? Yeah. Am I disappointed? Yeah. Am I discouraged? Not a chance.”

Rod Love attributed to win to the enduring strength of what he called “the PC brand” when speaking with the National Post. “It shows once again that the Progressive Conservative of Alberta brand is the strongest brand in Canadian history. It can earn all kinds of hits and set backs and still earn the loyalty of Albertans,” he told the newspaper. ““The undecided voters broke toward the PC brand they knew as opposed to the Wildrose brand that they didn’t know, that they didn’t have that visceral connection to.”

Bond auctions calm euro zone fears after Dutch government collapse

By Alex Ballingall - Tuesday, April 24, 2012 at 10:02 AM - 0 Comments

Better-than-expected government bond auctions in Europe are providing some comfort to those worried about a resurgent euro zone debt crisis after the Dutch government collapsed in the face of austerity talks this week.

Successful auctions were reported Tuesday in the Netherlands, Spain and Italy, sending the countries’ bond yields on an overall downward trajectory. According to the Financial Times, the Netherlands sold 1 billion euros in notes maturing in 2014 at yields of 0.523 per cent, while Italy auctioned off 2.5 billion euros of 2014 debt at 3.35 per cent. For its part, Spain sold 1.9 billion euros of three month and six month bills.

“This is a good result in the circumstances. It looked bad yesterday but they managed to sell this in a couple of minutes,” an Amsterdam-based bond trader who declined to be named told Reuters.

Despite the good news, Société Générale analysts are warning that the collapse of the Dutch government led by Prime Minister Mark Rutte could lead to a credit rating downgrade, and have dire consequences for the monetary union:

The political vacuum left by Rutte’s cabinet and the sombre IMF analysis of the country’s public finances, mean that a downgrade is more likely than not by the time the next government is sworn in. . . There are [also] wider implications in that it shows how the battle over fiscal control and the implementation of austerity has intensified.

Testimony describes Osama Bin Laden plot at New York terror trial

By Alex Ballingall - Tuesday, April 24, 2012 at 9:55 AM - 0 Comments

A British man convicted of plotting to blow up a plane with a bomb in his shoe conjured up the words of Osama Bin Laden in testimony at the trial of another would-be terrorist in New York.

Saajid Badat’s evidence was recorded in Britain and played Monday on TV screens in the Brooklyn courtroom, where Adis Medunjanin is on trial for allegedly planning to bomb the New York City subway system in 2009. The 29-year-old Bosnian-born U.S. citizen denies involvement in a plot to bomb the New York subway.

Badat, 33, described how Bin Laden recruited him in 2001 for an attack on a trans-Atlantic plane, telling him that it would wreak havoc on the U.S. economy. In a one-on-one meeting with the al-Qaeda leader in Afghanistan, Badat was told that ”the American economy is like a chain,” the BBC reported. ”If you break one link of the chain, the whole economy will be brought down. . . So after the 11 September attacks, this operation will ruin the aviation industry and in turn the whole economy will come down.”

Badat said he also met with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged “mastermind” of the 9/11 attacks currently detained in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The courtroom heard how Badat had accepted his suicide mission, but changed his mind once he got back to Britain. His fellow plotter, Richard Reid, proceeded with the plan, but failed in his attempt to blow up a plane with a shoe bomb.

As the BBC reports, Badat was released from British prison in 2010—two years before the end of his sentence—after providing evidence against Mohammed in 2008. In return, he was granted parole, housing, Internet access and unemployment benefits. He now works in the U.K. and is bound by an agreement to testify against other accused terrorists.

Gun-toting granny thwarts robbery attempt in shoot-out with assailants

By Alex Ballingall - Tuesday, April 24, 2012 at 9:51 AM - 0 Comments

It’s one thing to rob somebody’s grandma. It’s another to try—and fail.

A gun-totting grandmother in the U.S. state of Georgia recently foiled a robbery attempt by getting in a shootout with two armed men. Lulu Campbell, 57, had dropped off her 15-year-old grandson at her daughter’s house when two men approached her car demanding she open it and fork over some money.

According to the Herald Sun, Campbell “regularly carries a gun on her hip,” and so, she responded to the mens’ demand by saying: “Baby, you’re going to kill me anyway, so I don’t have to open it.”

That’s when one of the men shot a gun at her, but missed, according to Campbell’s account. She then pulled out her .38 revolver and returned fire, striking one of the robbers in the chest.

“I saw the guy in front of me, and I said, ‘Oh my God, there are two of them’. I said I’m going to take one of them with me. That’s what was in my head,” Ms Campbell told the Macon Telegraph.

She continued exchanging fire with the second man until he fled the scene, police said.

The man Campbell shot is reportedly in hospital under 24-hour guard, while the second man is still on the run.

But maybe it’s not surprising that Campbell, a gas station and convenience store owner, is a quick draw. She’s had experience firing guns at people: according to the Telegraph, she also shot her husband and his mistress 35 years ago.

Shauna Sarah Ferguson

By Alex Ballingall - Tuesday, April 24, 2012 at 5:38 AM - 0 Comments

Illustration by Team Macho

Shauna Sarah Ferguson was born at Yellowknife’s only hospital on May 26, 1953. Her father, Cliff Van Oostdam, a mining engineer, had moved there for work, with his wife, Harriet. Shauna was their third child, born after Joanna and Jay, but it wasn’t long before they moved south to Regina. There, life changed dramatically.

When Shauna was a toddler, Cliff disappeared and started a new family in Mexico, leaving them on the edge of town, barely a block from the sprawling prairie. “We didn’t know what we were missing,” says Jay, Shauna’s older brother. “My dad just wasn’t there.”

With their dad gone, and their mom working full time as a SaskTel secretary, Shauna was free to indulge her freewheeling nature. “We could go wherever we wanted,” says Jay. Shauna, who kept her red hair cropped short, would take long, adventurous bike rides, leading neighbourhood kids over streams and rolling hills far from home, convincing them to spend an extra hour tromping through the woods. More than once, in the middle of the night, Shauna and her teddy bear stole away onto the moonlit fields nearby, only to be brought home by a neighbourly farmer. “She’d push the envelope as far as she could,” laughs Jay.

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Northern Ontario MP quits NDP to sit as independent

By Alex Ballingall - Monday, April 23, 2012 at 3:19 PM - 0 Comments

Bruce Hyer, a Member of Parliament from northern Ontario, has quit the NDP to sit as an Independent in the House of Commons. He is the second MP from the social democratic party to jump ship since last May’s federal election. In January, Quebec MP Lise St-Denis crossed over to join the third-place Liberal Party.

The Thunder Bay, Ont. MP was one of two NDP caucus members to break with their party to vote with the Conservatives in favour of abolishing the long-gun registry. Then-interm leader Nycole Turmel punished Hyer and John Rafferty, the other MP who voted with the government, by stripping them of their critic roles and preventing them from rising to ask questions in the House of Commons.

Hyer hasn’t explained the reason for his departure from the NDP. He was not given any critic responsibilities in new leader Tom Mulcair’s shadow cabinet, which was revealed last week.

Insurance brokers file complaint against RBC and BMO

By Alex Ballingall - Monday, April 23, 2012 at 12:18 PM - 0 Comments

Canada’s insurance brokers have filed an complaint with the federal government against the Bank of Montreal and the Royal Bank of Canada, claiming the large banks are treading outside their designated jurisdiction by advertising insurance services online.

In 2009, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced that Canada would maintain a strict separation between the banking and insurance sectors. The removal of barriers between the two industries in the U.S. has been widely credited with precipitating the 2008 financial collapse.

BMO and RBC both claim to be playing by the rules spelled out by Flaherty, which came into effect on March 1. But the Insurance Brokers Association of Canada has sent a letter to the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) alleging that the two banks still have information posted on their websites that contradicts the new rules.

“This all started two-and-a-half years ago when the minister asked the banks to voluntarily take the information off of their bank websites, and they said that they would comply once the regulations were in place,” brokers’ association spokesperson Steve Mansyk told the Globe and Mail. ”These banks are not complying with the regulations.”

Dutch PM resigns after budget talks crumble

By Alex Ballingall - Monday, April 23, 2012 at 11:58 AM - 0 Comments

Mark Rutte, the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, handed in his resignation to Dutch Queen Beatrix after budget negotiations between his coalition government and a far-right opposition party fell apart over the weekend.

For the past 18 months, Rutte has led a partnership between his VVD party and the Christian Democrats. Their coalition was upheld by the support of the anti-Muslim Freedom Party, led by the controversial Geert Wilders.

Since March 7, there have been regular talks over how to implement an austerity budget that would meet European Union guidelines by cutting16 billion euros in government spending. At the core of the debate was a possible hike to the country’s Value Added Tax (VAT), a wage freeze for civil servants and spending cuts to foreign aid and health care. On Saturday, Wilders walked out on these negotiations.

“The plan is not in the interest of (Freedom Party) voters,” said Wilders, quoted by The Telegraph. ”We cannot live up to the demands Brussels is putting on us. Money is being taken from the wallets of pensioners.”

The Netherlands is one of four euro zone countries that still has a triple A credit rating. But that status may now be in jeopardy thanks to the political tumult caused by the budget talks.

Rutte is expected to address the Dutch parliament on Tuesday, when he will provide details about the timeline of a now imminent election.

Albertans take to the polls in provincial election

By Alex Ballingall - Monday, April 23, 2012 at 11:24 AM - 0 Comments

It’s voting day in Alberta, and the entire country is watching.

“This election will define our future, and it will also describe to the rest of Canada who we truly are and what we want to be,” said Alison Redford, who has been Alberta’s premier since winning the Progressive Conservative leadership last year, quoted by the National Post.

The newspaper is reporting that polls put the upstart Wildrose Party on the cusp of winning a majority in the province’s 87-seat legislature. That would make them the fifth political party ever to form government in Edmonton by ousting the Progressive Conservatives that have ruled since 1971.

Both Redford and Danielle Smith, the Wildrose leader, toured the key election battleground of Calgary on Sunday. Polls show Wildrose has the lead in rural Alberta, while the more progressive parties tend to have strong support in Edmonton. Calgary, therefore, may prove to be kingmaker region in today’s election.

One of the key issues that has dogged Redford during the campaign has been to so-called “do-nothing committee,” which paid MPs thousands of dollars to hold meetings that never happened. At first, the PC leader was dismissive of the controversy, but in the first week of the campaign she flipped on the issue and ordered her caucus to pay the money back.

Members of the Wildrose Party, meanwhile, have generated headlines for making homophobic comments and suggesting that white candidates have an electoral edge over visible minorities.

According to the National Post, Wildrose was able to raise more money than the Progressive Conservativess during the election campaign, taking in $2.3 million compared with the $1.8 million raised by the PCs.