jacee

The case of Kimberly Rogers caused a second look at 'welfare fraud': She was convicted for collecting both student loans and welfare. She graduated from college, a straight A student though subject to chronic depression. She was cut off welfare for life, ordered to repay her loans and welfare ($62,000) and sentenced to house arrest. (How could she repay without working?) She died in her upper floor apt during a heat wave with no food in the apt, eight months pregnant at the time. Another perspective: A woman has MS. She socializes once a week, requiring her to spend the day before and after in bed to rest up/recuperate. The day she comes out she looks healthy and enjoys herself. Some wealthy people in her social group think she's committing fraud, not really disabled, because she makes the effort to look good and enjoy her 3 hrs a week of socializing. Pigs! :angry:

I will add (seriously) that where it exists, welfare fraud is often in the private small business sector, where losses are counted against income and negative earnings qualify a family for welfare. We went through massive expensive investigation of welfare fraud with Mike Harris, and very little was found. He didn't seem to care about the private business sector's contribution somehow, and they are selddom identified by those concerned about welfare fraud ... because they are working ... though apparently 'at a loss'. (While feeding their families in their restaurants ... accounting for the losses perhaps?) AMWO, maybe you should find out whether welfare fraud exists in your jurisdiction before you send your protest 'callout'.

Ya, I'd like to see that too! A bunch of preppy rich people in designer labels parading through the streets protesting 'welfare fraud'. Let me know where/when and I'll bring my video camera. Suggest you come 'downtown' ... ie, to the belly of the beast. Thanks AMWO. I needed a good laugh.

"not their fault" is stupid and irrelevant @-/People who live by their wits on the street often steal. That's reality. My point was that the protesters are naive not to recognize and protect themselves from the reality. Wtf was your stupid point ? FYI I don't subscribe to the notion that violent criminals should be treated leniently because of (eg) childhood abuse. A violent criminal is dangerous to the public regardless of why he/she is like that and shouldn't be on the street UNTIL successfully treated for the disorder: IE, there should be treatment options available to the courts, not just incarceration, which tends to exacerbate the problem. One of the biggest myths that the hard-right-wing perpetrates against lefties is that we think the 'poor abused violent criminals' should be on the street. Not true: We think they should be locked up in treatment facilities. Unfortunately, guilty/not guilty, putting them back on the street/sending them to jail (ie, school for criminals) are the only options the courts have unless the perps are deemed 'insane'. So go peddle your stupid myths elsewhere. And MAYBE consider that better social and health services would help a lot in treating violent children before they become violent adults. In case you weren't aware, it is a well known fact that $1 spent on appropriate intervention for at-risk kids saves $7 in future costs to taxpayers (lawyers, judges, courts, jails, health costs, welfare etc.) Despite that well known fact, hard-right-wing punitive types like yourself much prefer to spend 7 times the money so they can see people punished rather than see them grow into healthy contributing taxpayers. Imo, you are the sick ones. In fact, the sociopathy of the greedy hard-right-wing is costing taxpayers a LOT of money so you can have the sick pleasure of seeing adults punished who could have been saved as kids. And it's also a known fact that rich sociopathic predators frequent 'old boys' clubs where abducted children are sometimes the 'entertainment'. Preying on people to acquire wealth is not their only 'greed'. I'm not accusing you personally, but most men 'in the loop' are aware of such practices, and the fact that child sex slavery rings require cooperation, collusion and customers throughout the justice/policing/governance/child care and wealth communities. Canada is a major centre for the abduction and exploitation of children. Children taken into care are not even counted, let alone accounted for: They just 'run away'.

http://m.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/oecd-slams-canadas-lack-of-prosecution-of-bribery-offences/article1959569/?service=mobile I think it's both - ie, we have weak laws enforced weakly. From what I've gleaned from links posted ... Canada's laws relevant to operations outside the country require very explicit connections of illegal events to company leadership HERE in Canada - ie proof of planning the events HERE before conviction can occur. That's what happened in the case of the Ecuadorian case posted: The courts could not convict the company directors because there wasn't evidence of planning HERE in Canada. It's a loophole, and the legislation that would have closed that loophole was defeated in parliament a year ago. From above link: In Canada, the question is: Was the plot formed or hatched here? Some component has to be based here,” explained Mark Morrison, a partner with Blake Cassels & Graydon LLP who specializes in anti- corruption compliance. “That makes it much more difficult to prosecute.” By contrast, the U.S. prosecutes its citizens accused of bribery abroad even if there is little or no geographic connection to their home country and the U.K. is planning changes to its laws to do ikewise. The law protects the companies from prosecution. Also there is the issue of the RCMP anti-corruption unit with few resources to pursue these complex crimes, whose officers are frequently 'reassigned' to other duties. In that regard, I will say that the RCMP functions much more as a 'tool of the government' than our provincial and local police forces: Their oath is to "obey lawful orders" - ie, protect the 'state', while the (eg) OPP and Toronto Police Services' oath is to "uphold the Constitution" - ie, individual rights. The RCMP are much more subject to political interference than other police forces. I would guess some/all of those "reassignments" are politically motivated. I can read that between the lines of what the RCMP said in relation to the anti-corruption unit: The anti-corruption unit is being corruptly disempowered, imo. AND the TSX has no standards for the companies it lists. Also ... companies claim they don't pay "bribes", they are "extorted" with threats of violence by locals: ie, if they pay the official the money,. The government will (violently in many cases) suppress the protests of local people. I'm not sure what the distinction is, but the fact remains that companies that are willing to do business where local protesters are violently subdued by the state, are likely to register as Canadian companies because we let them get away with it.

Do tell bc ...An outsider perspective IS valuable here. Please share any info you can. And ... I would like to know whether the stock exchange in the US has any standards/legal requirements of mining companies, etc, re human rights and environmental violations applied to determine whether a company can be listed. Thx.

I think that's an unfortunate case of us believing in our our PR propaganda. We are NOT seen that way by people in the countries where our extraction industries operate. Canada has been criticized by the UN for decades for relying so heavily on destructive extraction industries. In our own country, the extraction industries have devastated MANY Indigenous communities. In Eastern Ontario, uranium mining finally affected wealthy (Ottawa) retirees, who got a taste of the government's intractable persistence in supporting that horrifically destructive industry, when prospectors conducted drilling for samples on their property, clearcutting trails without their permission or knowledge and leaving behind radioactive waste. http://www.ccamu.ca/history.htm They went to First Nations people for help. There are MANY such examples of predatory practices in Canada, and now around the world. Indigenous people everywhere are passionately opposed to Canada's extraction industries and the ruthless 'private security' forces they employ to harass, intimidate and sometimes murder protesters (eg, Peru). My point in posting this topic is to raise awareness that Canada is NOT seen as 'nice' in many parts of the world, and many parts of the country, because our governments not only look the other way from human rights violations re extraction industries, but also actively prevent legislation and oversight (eg, TSX) that would constrain the industries, and also provide billion$ in subsidies to these industries, out of our pockets. http://www.miningwatch.ca/news/suppressed-report-confirms-international-violations-canadian-mining-companies Oct 18, 2010(Ottawa) A report obtained by MiningWatch Canada reveals that Canadian mining companies are implicated in four times as many violations of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as mining companies from other countries. The report was commissioned by the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) in 2009 but was never released to the public.

... very little ... that became public, perhaps?

Not "ok" - catch 'em if you can and secure yourselves from them - but reality.Street survival is nasty stuff. I can't quite understand the protesters keeping that much cash around. There must be a credit union somewhere around. Hope they've learned a lesson!

The 'usual suspects' voted for Ford! Police are the darlings of the right wing. One of Ford's campaign promises was 100 new officers.

That might be the US's reason - like impending nationalization of resources by Saddam :ussein was in Iraq.However, I think it's also indisputable that the vast majority of Libyan people wanted him gone. It was interesting watching Obama at the time, hanging back and letting other Nato members make the decision, in comparison to George Bush's aggressive misinformation campaign to justify war against Iraq after 9/11, which was unrelated to Iraq.

Did you look at all the reports at the link, or search for your own?It is odd that reports of such burials of very large skeletons are frequent in the 1800's but end about 1900, except for one. There are reports that the discoveries of these Caucasoid skeletons were suppressed, as US takeover of Indigenous lands proceeded, and also that info about the highly evolved Mound cultures was suppressed as settlers were brainwashed to believe that Indigenous cultures were 'primitive', racist propaganda used to justify their destruction.

Canada's mining sector is problemmatic at home and abroad. Since the government - past and present - collude with them and do nothing about environmental destruction (huge in mining) or human rights violations, mining corporations from other countries register as Canadian while working in developing countries. The setup is the usual, a corrupt government 'approves' a mine project that will destroy a watershed that local people - usually Indigenous people - rely on to keep them alive, so they oppose the mine and protest its presence. Mining companies hire private 'security' who have been implicated in many human rights violations themselves, or in collusion with armed forces of the country. Recently, a massacre of 70 Congolese locals, using some of the mining company's vehicles and firearms. In Peru, 8 locals were killed by mine security. In Ecuador and elsewhere intimidation of protesters is common strategy, including death threats. These companies are all listed on the TSX which, unlike banks, has no human rights or environmental standards. What Next for Corporate Accountability in Mining? On October 27, 2010, the Canadian Parliament voted down Bill C-300, the "Responsible Mining Act". In the absence of any meaningful government measures to make Canadian mining companies responsible for their actions, the victims have taken to the courts. On November 8, 2010, an association representing Congolese citizens filed a class action against Anvil Mining Limited in a Montreal court alleging that by providing logistical assistance the company was involved in human rights abuses, including the massacre by the Congolese military of more than 70 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo in October 2004. On November 25, 2010, the Ontario Court of Appeal heard the appeal of the Ontario court's dismissal of three Ecuadorian villagers' suit against Copper Mesa Mining Corporation and the Toronto Stock Exchange over physical assaults, death threats and various human rights violations against local community members carried out by the mining company's agents, in turn funded by the TSX. On December 1, 2010, a lawsuit was filed against HudBay Minerals for the death of indigenous Mayan Q'eqchi' community leader Adolfo Ich Chaman at the hands of the company's security forces in Guatemala on September 9, 2009 Mining is a troublesome industry in Canada too, destroying the land and lakes and rivers that provide livlihood for First Nations communities. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchenuhmaykoosib_Inninuwug_First_Nation In 2008, six leaders of the community (Chief Donny Morris, Jack McKay, Sam McKay, Darryl Sainnawap Cecilia Begg and Bruce Sakakeep) were imprisoned for protesting development on their traditional land by Platinex Inc.. Ya we know it makes jobs and wealth but ... would you want one near your Muskoka Lake? Or clearcutting? Oil extraction? Wouldn't you protest too? What would you do in the position of the local people? What would you do in government? Canada is heavily dependent on very destructive industries, and a mecca for some unethical operators. What should the TSX do? Why doesn't it have any standards? The environment is OUR environment that people need to survive. Shouldn't the TSX show some respect for that? And shouldn't Canadians be concerned that Canadian corporations are giving us a bad name around the world? We talk about the US propping up and colluding with oppressive governments to extract oil ... but Canada does it too.

Because some of them do have to steal to live.

Where do the red-haired giants of North America fit in this? Just curious. Ancient Giants of North America Midwest Mound Builders 1888 In Minnesota, 1888, were discovered remains of seven skeletons 7 to 8 feet tall. (St. Paul Pioneer Press, June 29, 1888). 7 skeletons, placed in a sitting position, were uncovered from a burial mound near Clearwater, Minnesota. The highly unusual skulls double rows of teeth in both the upper and lower jaws. It was also noted that the foreheads were low and sloping, compared to "normal" human skulls. 1892 "Where Proctorville now stands was one day part of a well paved city, but I think the greatest part of it is now in the Ohio river. Only a few mounds, there; one of which was near the C. Wilgus mansion and contained a skeleton of a very large person, all double teeth, and sound, in a jaw bone that would go over the jaw with the flesh on, of a large man; The common burying ground was well filled with skeletons at a depth of about 6 feet. Part of the pavement was of boulder stone and part of wel preserved brick." Ironton Register

Hmmm ... they don't have security set up? That's a bit surprising. All they need is people watching, and whistles.

I expect it's a no sell. End of story.Clearly the world is moving on without those repubs.

I don't think anyone is planning on using them for distances, but we should have had them for cities long ago.

Ya that unreported crime really keeps the cops hopping! Has Ford actually found any 'waste' anywhere yet? I didn't hear the outcomes of the marathon public hearings. He's just another private sector businessman who assumes everybody else is ripping off his tax money, but has no clue what public employees do. Perhaps he's learning. No talk of the cops selling off their million$ in equipment for suppressing public protests.

Ya ... it was a great coup, eh?! Once in a while, when really necessary, the tail can wag the dog, eh?! Good dog. (patpat) Ok, maybe Canadians can be snarky too ... in our own subtle way.

Awwwww ... you are jealous of semi-literate unemployable ex-con alcoholics getting $600 a month. Isn't that special! Whack your head against the wall a few times, really REALLY hard, then you can have your lifelong dream of joining them! If you smoke, you'll reroll your (saved) butts for the last week of the month. You'll go out on garbage night to pick bottles out of recycle bins to buy a quart of hitest beer. You'll stand in line at foodbanks and the welfare office, and only get your abcessed tooth fixed when the dentist isn't booked, so you'll lose a few. You will have a good drunk for a few days at cheque time, and lots of fighting and arguing and screaming and some real creepy crazies around (your beer case) too. Enjoy! Get back to me on how it goes, eh? It's really easy to have that 'dream life' ... if you really want it.

Like I said ... rude and snarky.It's unattractive and unCanadian.

Good find Rick.I like the ending too: Those dismissing the Occupy movement, started by Vancouver's own Adbusters culture jamming magazine, are foolish. The very wealthiest men in America aren't just worried about inequality— they are pre-occupied with it.

Naw ... just you BC, because you make such snarky rude comments here, where you are a guest from another country.