Wild Bill

Actually, Conrad Black is one of my heroes. As for McVety, to me he's just a bible thumper. Seems to have a good heart but he uses his Bible as a replacement for his brain. Who the heck is Gerry Nichols?

GH, of course North Korea was notified! Such notifications have been standard practice probably back as far as caveman days, at least for civilized countries. I'm not certain if North Korea returns the favour. The reason is PRECISELY to prevent misunderstandings! The old USSR and NATO used to do it all the time. It was routine. The problem with this specific geographic area is that although it is rather out of the way and hasn't been noticed or cared about since the days of MASH 4077, suddenly North Korea has decided to lay claim to the area, arbitrarily. Perhaps there's rumours of undersea oil or perhaps El DictatorDongotator is just feeling his hemorrhoids, who knows. Whatever, South Korea and its western allies CAN'T simply say "Oh well, go ahead and take it if it makes you happy!" If they were to do so, it's guaranteed North Korea would promptly claim something else! So North Korea sinks a ship and now fires off some shells, expecting that South Korea will get upset but will wuss out before things get out of hand. That seems to have been North Korea's strategy for years. Make promises, go along with things for a while and then break them. As long as they don't push TOO far they know they'll get away with it! After all, it wasn't that long ago they thanked Bill Clinton for all the food and fuel aid and promised sincerely to abandon their nuclear program. Look how well that's worked out! It puts South Korea in a very awkward position. They don't want an all out war but they really don't want to get shelled or lose a ship full of sailors every so often. They also are well aware that if they keep wussing out it will not only keep happening but likely the attacks will get worse. It's a very dangerous game. If North Korea pushes their southern adversary into a corner things might get out of hand.

Perhaps the real reason Universities have gone down this path is simple - young people today just aren't as smart as they used to be! By 'smart' I don't mean raw intelligence. That is likely genetic and fairly constant from generation to generation. Rather, I mean wisdom. It's been proven that the adolescent brain is not fully developed. Where it lags compared to an adult is with the ability to envision future consequences and with seeing contradictions between new data and old assumptions. In past generations the compensation came from how young folks were taught. They were given values that may not always have been 100% positive but virtually always did not impart any harm. The idea of free speech and respectful tolerance of opposing views was one of those values. Today's teachers seem to be overwhelmingly leftwing, particularly at the university level. It is they who are imparting their values to adolescents, who tend to swallow them without question. Once you have accepted the idea that "left is good" and "right is evil" it is very easy to seize the 'drama' of striking a blow for good by silencing an 'evil' speaker. These young people likely are not even seeing the contradiction they're causing to the concept of free speech! They aren't seeing the consequences! To them, if a speaker opposes what their leftwing profs have taught them they see him as the 'devil'. Who wouldn't try to oppose the devil? The very act of doing so must automatically make yourself more 'good'! Their thinking is just too shallow to realize that it is wrong to stifle contrary views, or that it would justify someone else stifling their own. Fortunately, give their brains another 10 or 20 years of development and most of these students will have learned to see contradictions between what they've been taught at school and what life and their own pursuit of knowledge has imparted to them. You don't see many 35 year old protesters trying to silence Christie Blatchford. Still, something should be done about the 'brainwashing' of the typical university student. Perhaps academics should be forced to undergo survival training, or agricultural working, or anything that directly teaches cause and effect. I've met many arts profs who I swear have no idea where to put the fulcrum to work properly with a lever yet consider themselves experts on the merits of their political philosophy.

A clear cut case of the government being in the wrong. Should never have happened! The argument for the need to use the land for wartime is one thing. Not giving it back when promised is quite another.

No one is saying that the other provinces don't have inept governments. Just that Quebec is perhaps the worst! Let's face it, your choices are basically Charest with his scandals or the PQ, who are mostly NDP types who hopped about the separatism train. They appeal to the heart but not the head. In all these decades they have never talked about Quebec's finances after the separation, except to BS Quebecers that they will somehow still get their CPP, Old Age Security, Disability and EI cheques when they have become a separate country. They seem to have forgotten what Trudeau told them at the beginning of their movement, that if they leave they are OUT! ALL THE WAY OUT! Quebec governments have enjoyed an easy ride. Ottawa essentially has bribed them with transfer payments to stay in the country. The amount of federal money pouring into Quebec has made budgets very easy. Today all of Canada except Alberta has been experiencing tough economic times. Quebec is feeling pressures it's not used to recognizing, let alone managing. Hence the latest forecasts in the mainstream media that Quebec is heading for bankruptcy.

You bite women? Well, chaque a son gout, I suppose. Still, the idea creeps me out. Sounds like something from an episode of "Criminal Minds"...

That's interesting. There were a few cases around rural Hamilton over the past few years, after the start of the Caledonia protest. Native hunters from Six Nations were hunting deer on not only public lands but private, non-native farmers' farms. Their claim was that they were entitled to hunt whenever and wherever they wanted. Naturally, some farmers took exception. Also, the public lands were near parks where hikers and walkers were a bit disconcerted to hear the odd bullet whizzing by! Civic officials and Six Nations council members had some talks and the problem disappeared. Obviously, the hunters were acting on their own and not sanctioned by their Council. Still, the fact that they would even do such a thing goes to their education, character and sense of safety. Again, I point out that a wise man thinks out the consequences of his actions. Only a child or someone with only the sense of a child does whatever pops into his head without thinking it through. Makes me wonder at the average age (or IQ) of those natives who initiated the Caledonia protest. Anyhow, CR's posts have implied that natives can indeed hunt wherever or whenever they wish, including private land, unless I'm mistaken. If that's the case, your link would imply a contradiction. If CR is right, I can't think of a better way for natives to create bad will than to waltz onto a farmer's field with no permission and start shooting. Or for police to be embarrassed if they do nothing about it, law or no law. Perhaps the bands in Manitoba are more sensible than in Caledonia.

You still don't get it, August. Or you're dodging it, perhaps. People understand perfectly that Newfoundland needed someone to ensure financing. They also understand that if the electricity had to be carried across Quebec she certainly would be entitled to be paid for the service. What has caused the hard feelings is the EXORBITANT price Quebec has received! It is SO high that it is equivalent to robbery! And the fact that it was locked in for decades was salt in the wound. It's as if someone held a gun to YOUR head and told you "You will rent me your home for 100 years, for $50 per month!" Newfoundland had no choice but to sign the Churchill Falls deal. They were so close to the deadline that if the deal fell through or they walked away the cancellation charges and the charges against the committments they had already made would have bankrupted them. So they did what they had to do, but of course they have never forgotten. The history is moot anyway, August. Even if they hadn't signed the Churchill Falls deal, they now have an opportunity to make a deal with Nova Scotia. Why not? Where is it written that they MUST deal with Quebec? Hell, there's no guarantee that Quebec will even be part of Canada within a few decades. If that became the case, Newfoundland would owe Quebec nothing more than they would owe Germany, Botswana or any other foreign country. For that matter, neither would the rest of Canada.

Do YOU speak for all of Haldimand County? You may feel that Six Nations is ahead of the game right now, under a McGuinty government. That's what I mean by short term thinking. Let's get back to this debate next year, after McGuinty no doubt wins an overwhelming majority based on his support for Six Nations...NOT! Do you expect the same support under a government of any other party? Do you think you will have McGuinty forever? Hell, McGuinty's policy in Caledonia might very well help contribute to his downfall! You can bet that if it's perceived as such there will be little support from Queen's Park ever again.

What you're leading towards is what effect the protest had, Argus. A simplistic view is that it garnered national attention to the land dispute in and around Caledonia. However, it's obvious a lot more happened. First, a town of 40,000 people has lost faith in their police and at least the present provincial government. Not much faith left over for the feds, either! Second, negative feelings towards Six Nations by their non-native neighbours would seem to have gone UP and not down! Third, we have national newspapers like the Globe and Mail featuring a columnist who has written a definitive book on the lawlessness of the situation. The National Post featured full pages of excepts from the book for 4 days. While the protesters may feel they have won a battle with the provincial government in the long run it may cost them the war. Being accused of being "soft on the natives" may become an election factor. Politicians tend to be amoral beasts that are obsessed with their own political survival. Few of them will favour natives over any dispute if it might cost them their position. Lastly, many non-natives may have started to distrust having any business dealings with Six Nations, for fear that the rules may end up changed at any time. It's unfortunate. Once again, it's not about native issues. It's about clumsy, poorly thought out tactics on the protesters part. Many of the militants did not even come from Six Nations! They will have moved on, leaving the native people who have lived there all their lives to try to pick up the pieces. It's like an obnoxious drunk at a party bothering people until finally he starts a fight and gets knocked down. As he lies there on the floor should he congratulate himself for at least getting some attention? There seems to be a trend towards violent protesters, not just the natives at Caledonia but also with yahoos at universities who disrupt meetings to prevent people they don't happen to approve of from speaking. The trend is quite negative. While only a few are likely to support mandatory hanging of the more obnoxious ones nonetheless fewer people care if the police use painful force or onerous court charges. The protesters' cause seems to rarely garner increased support. Rather, they likely lose more than they gain. AS I've said before, there seems to be a "drama queen" factor happening. Protesters seem to get off on the notoriety but are rather shortsighted about the effects on their goals. Oh well, I'd be apathetic if I had the energy...

Perhaps they all attended the alma mater of Bullwinkle J Moose - Wossamotta U. - where he had received an honorary Mooster's Degree.

Bob, I'd be the first to agree with you that the reserve system is a classic case of letting leftwing social engineers have free rein over a people. After more than a century we can see the inevitable results. For this alone the First Nations have been well and truly wronged. However, we should keep in mind that there are reserves and there are reserves. They are NOT all the same! Different bands, different people and different attitudes. Some are VERY progressive and some sadly are the cliche "welfare bums". There is a wide range in between. Also, there are individuals on every reserve who find a way to advance themselves despite their challenges. That's just human nature. Sooner or later we will see another Einstein, Feynman or Hawking come from a reserve. It's not likely to have a first name of Charter but it will happen.

Touchy! The concept of "sauce for the goose..." obviously offends you. I firmly believe that "we should do unto others as they have done unto you". It's the only way to teach some people manners. Still, it's interesting how you are so fervent to defend someone ELSE! One might almost suspect that someone is using two personas on the same board...

They're just drama queens, Angus! They are so proud of what they were able to do but don't have the wit to know if it was a positive or a negative action in the first place. No sense of ethics and no perspective. A clear case of prolonged adolescence. Medical science has been telling us that the part of our brains that deals with cause and effect takes longer to mature. That's why adults are supposed to keep adolescents in check. They can't be trusted on their own!

What are you talking about? Her book is full of quotes with OPP officers! You're just pulling premises out of your butt and spinning arguments. You sound like someone decrying "The Cat in the Hat" as cruelty to animals, because its obvious you never read even the flyleaf, let alone the entire book. You should change the filter in your dreamcatcher once in a while.

Oh dear! Now I feel quite guilty! Of course that's what must have happened! He was a logical human being and then suffered some sort of traumatic brain injury to the side of his brain responsible for logic and cause and effect. I feel sorry that he suffered so and apologize for picking on a clear handicap.

Nearly happened a few times. When someone loosens the wheel nuts on a housewife's car TWICE it's fortunate no one got killed indeed. Or how about Sam Gualtieri? http://www.caledoniawakeupcall.com/news/SamGualtieri.jpg http://www.caledoniawakeupcall.com/updates/070915spectator7.html "Caledonia - Six Nations leaders have condemned the beating of a Caledonia home builder during a confrontation at a residential building site Thursday, calling it "an atrocity." Sam Gualtieri, 52, suffered serious facial injuries and possible brain damage when he was assaulted with boards or other clubs inside a house he's building for his daughter at Stirling Woods in Caledonia. Mohawk Chief Allen MacNaughton expressed anger and disgust when he was shown a picture of the beaten man yesterday. "I believe it's an atrocity, sir," MacNaughton told Joe Gualtieri, 46, who had taken the pictures of his injured brother at West Haldimand General Hospital earlier in the day. MacNaughton and Cayuga subchief Leroy Hill had expressed their regrets to the Gualtieri family at a press conference minutes before the younger brother walked up to them and showed the pictures. "I believe he was a blow away from dying," Gualtieri said as he laid the pictures on the table in front of them. MacNaughton also distanced himself from the native protesters who were allegedly involved in the attack. "We cannot condone the violent actions of a few that resulted in Sam Gualtieri being hospitalized. We wish to extend our regrets to Mr. Gualtieri's family and pray for a full recovery," he said." So even Chief MacNaughton admits some violence happened. Good thing the whole protest and the policing weren't handled by simpletons. And no one got killed. Whew!

It would be impossible to become an engineer and believe that "logic is a mere delusion". Engineering does NOT work by some sort of shamanistic, magical view of the Universe. More likely he's some sort of ultraleftwing lawyer. That's an incompatible skill set with engineering. You can't fix a computer motherboard by waving a rattle at it made out of a turtle shell. I formed this opinion from things he specifically told us. I'm simply taking him at his word.

Who would have done the killing? If an OPP officer stops a native and that's considered confrontational, are we to think it would have provoked the OFFICER to shoot the native? What everyone is tiptoeing around is that the OPP and on up to McGuinty were afraid that the NATIVES would start shooting! Or that they would put someone in such fear for their life that they fired first, a la Dudley George. Me, I take a simpler view on how things should have been handled. If you do something criminal you should be arrested. If you murder someone you should be hung! Race is irrelevant. Red, white or green, the law should apply to everyone equally and so should its penalties. Special treatment according to race is racism in itself and frankly, rather patronizing.

I stand corrected! And I am impressed! Forgive me for my false assumption but after been instructed so many times the past few years by posters like CR who tell me that the native "Cosmic All with Nature" approach to education and life is superior to the white man's education surely you can understand why I was so mistaken! I'm sure I recall him lecturing us about traditional medicine a time or two, or it could have been one of his precessors. It wasn't that long ago he told us that logic was merely a delusion. No one gets through engineering school with that sort of a belief. So I retract what I said and what's more, heartily approve! Hopefully, CR will show up and agree with the two of us! Perhaps one of those firms will be kind enough to give him a job and teach him something practical. As a techie myself I admit I have my biases. Meanwhile, I have to ask if these firms are staffed by people EDUCATED in their trade on reserves? IOW, are there schools on reserves that teach such engineering or do students have to study off-reserve for this education? Lastly, how does Six Nations stack up on your list of such links? As a reserve, are they as progressive as the others that you cited? If so, I owe them an apology as well.

Yes August, I feel I do have to yell! Are you blind? The price per kilowatt hour was in the largest print of all! 1/4 to 1/5 of a penny per kilowatt hour! How much do you pay for your electricity, August! That purchase price is absurd and gives a FANTASTIC profit margin to Quebec Hydro! It's like conning someone into supplying you new cars for your dealership at $50 per car! If you think a price like that is fair, even at the time the deal was signed, then I crown you the greatest robber baron in history! Meanwhile, just what do you have against Newfoundland anyway? I mean, the sight of a Quebecer knocking the idea of the feds giving a province money - isn't that rather hypocritical? How did the rest of Canada benefit from federal money given to Olympic Stadium?

Have you ever bothered to google up the history of the Churchill Falls deal, August? You can yell all you want that it was fair but you don't have to convince me. You have to convince the entire population of Newfoundland! I've given you this link before, from a Montreal newspaper: http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/story.html?id=17f52755-7ede-45a5-8b2f-6a8b7d004957 "The infamous Churchill Falls hydro agreement - giving Quebec long-term access to discount-priced power from Newfoundland and Labrador - was not only a bad financial deal for Newfoundland, it was also signed under coercive conditions, which may raise "substantive questions of business ethics and law," according to newly released research on the 1968 deal." "In the 1960s, Newfoundland began talks with Hydro-Quebec to sell power from Churchill Falls, because Quebec would not allow Newfoundland to transmit the power through Quebec to other markets. Quebec still gets power today at bargain-basement prices from Churchill Falls, and has a legally binding contract to do so for a total of 65 years, until 2041. That contract was initially designed to last only 40 years, from 1976 (the year Churchill Falls power came onstream), to 2016. According to the new study, a letter of intent, or draft contract, signed between Hydro-Quebec and CLFCo in 1966 gave each side the option of renewing the contract - under mutually agreeable terms and fresh negotiations - upon its expiry in 2016. By 1968, however, after years of negotiating under such terms, Hydro-Quebec suddenly altered its demands, only months before the final deal was signed. It wanted an automatic renewal of the contract, without negotiations, for another 25 years starting in 2016. And it wanted a guaranteed price even lower than the original price paid before the renewal. "That's like me asking you, 'Why don't you agree to sell me your product at a lower price than prevails today, starting 50 years from now and continuing up to 75 years from now," Feehan said. "It's so incredible, you wonder how anyone could have conceived it." Hydro-Quebec's new demands, although extraordinary, were impossible for CFLCo to refuse because the company was then in the midst of building the hydro project, was heavily in debt, and nearing the end of its cash flow. By February 1968, it had only three months worth of money left. If it refused Hydro-Quebec's demands, and Quebec walked away from its commitment to purchase Churchill Falls power, CFLCo wouldn't be able to raise more money to finish construction, sell any electricity or repay its debts. It would almost certainly go bankrupt. An archived, handwritten note by one of CFLCo's chief negotiators, written at the time Hydro-Quebec issued its new demands, calls the automatic renewal clause a "do or die condition." The study also says Hydro-Quebec made the demand days after learning about CFLCo's financial pressures. Hydro-Quebec had access to this information because while it was negotiating with CFLCo, Hydro-Quebec was also a minority owner of the company, and its president sat on CFLCo's board." Do you even know what Quebec is paying Newfoundland for power from Churchill Falls, August? "The present purchase price under the contract is approximately one-quarter of one cent per kw/hr and the renewal contract fixes the purchase price at one-fifth of one cent for the 25 year period beginning in 2016. This will mean that, for the remaining 32 years of the power contract, Upper Churchill power will be sold to Hydro-Quebec for less than 5 per cent of its recent commercial value. This permits virtually no return to CFLCo and its shareholders for the next 32 years." Now, tell us why on earth Newfoundland would want to sign any more hydro deals with Quebec!

Perhaps it was, but there is a grain of truth buried beneath the insult, Melanie. How many computer lathe operators, software engineers, engineers of ANY kind!, or similarly highly educated professionals are graduating from schools on native reserves? How many aboriginal engineers were involved in the Apollo program? When's the last time an aboriginal university discovered a better way for gene splicing? It's all very well to want to live a traditional lifestyle but it will always need to be subsidized by money created somewhere else. You can only sell so many dreamcatchers to build an economy. When I had my quadruple heart bypass operation there was an aboriginal man in my ward having the same operation. He was quite happy to have the operation! It didn't bother him that without the white man's medical knowledge he would have died. Both of us knew we were dependent on the skill and long hours of study from a white doctor who had graduated from a non-native school system. Both of us were equally grateful to the lady! To hear some on this board tell it, natives on reserve are independent and self-reliant. I guess it depends on what context you measure those factors. I wouldn't mind having an aboriginal surgeon, as long as he didn't earn his medical degree on the reserve!

You're just rationalizing, August. Newfoundland has good reason to want to avoid any more electricity deals with Quebec, after being burned so badly on the last one. It's not just Quebec, either. The Churchill Falls deal was rammed through with Ottawa help so there is little trust federally either. Williams probably fears that if he opens negotiations with Quebec he'll get ramrodded into some deal where he has to give Quebec the power for a penny a kilowatt until the year 2367, or something equally ridiculous. If he can make a deal with Nova Scotia on his own he probably feels much safer. Asking for federal money is just what every province does. Can't hurt to ask and he might even get some! He has some seats to offer Harper and so does Nova Scotia. For that matter, it could lead to a deal with New Brunswick. If he can do it without dealing with Quebec, why shouldn't he? Once burned, twice shy!

Exactly! I thought a Trekker reference appropriate 'cuz those constantly telling us the natives did nothing wrong tend to science-fiction style excuses. I find it interesting that for months and months we have been told that no native at Caledonia committed any act of violence at all and now we have a protest against someone who researched and reported all the violence and are told that the AUTHOR is to blame for focusing on all the "violence and lawlessness" that heretofore was dismissed as imaginary and a vile canard of an accusation! It's like arguing with Jehovah Witnesses - a fruitless game.