maplesyrup

-from the Globe How should Canada's Supreme Court justices be selected? By the prime minister 1497 votes (14 %) By a parliamentary committee 6046 votes (57 %) Other 3086 votes (29 %) I guess most Canadians think our PM has too much power.

What was that expression: "No Taxation Without Representation". Once someone steps down as a MLA, there should be a by-election within two months at the most. What is the rationale for allowing the Premier to decide? It should be a fixed period just like general elections are now beginning to have fixed term dates. I say Campbell is a coward for not calling the by-election, because he knows his candidate is going down to defeat. That is no excuse, and the voters in Surrey have been without representation for way too long. It makes a mockery of the electoral process. :angry:

Questioning of court nominees unacceptable: Cotler I am willing to bet that whether or not you approve of this so-called new process depends entirely on whether or not you like the new nominees. Martin should never have opened this can of worms, because obviously the Conservatives don't like the nominees, so of course they don't like the process. All this has done is given the Conservatives another opoortunity to whine.

I don't know if people realize it but the partitionists actually want the separatists to win a referendum, and that way the federales will be forced to act and to possibly actually have to send in troops if need be to protect those Canadian citizens living in Quebec who want to remain Canadian. Partitionists believe only this way will this nonsense be put to rest.

It all boils down to the partition aspect, and whether the people who don't get their way will accept the results. And it is not like we do not have some recent violent past - the FLQ, the bombs, the maiming of that Canadian Armed Forces demolition expert, the kidnapping and murder of Laporte and the kidnapping of Cross, and the War Measures Act of course. Chances for serious violence are quite high I'm afraid.

My understanding is that the company was split up into basically two sections: the fund-raising part which was the responsibility of the founder, and which was the successful part, and the geological part, or the supposed gold discovery part, by the geologist, which turned out to be the disasterous part. I don't think anything necessarily was done wrong in the Canadian end of things, the fund-raising part; however, I'm quite intrigued by the geological end of the mining operations end of things in Indonesia. I also found it telling that when the shit hit proverbial fan so to speak, the founder stayed and dealt with all the aftermath, the press, the irate shareholders, the RCMP, etc., while the geologist has never returned to Canada, and has been holed up in Cayman Islands ever since. My understanding is that if you are out in the field and you have what you think is a profitable ore body discovery, you basically sleep with your core samples. In other words, you never let them get out of your sight. I'm not sure this process was ever followed. Also when you have core samples and you are going to send them to the assay office, the geologist would normally keep one half of the core sample as back up. This process was not followed, and the whole core sample apparently was crushed up, and sent to the assay office. Even more intriguing, there was someone that the founder had brought in from a major mining company, Barrick Gold, with impeccable credentials, who was on the Board of Directors of Bre-X, who supported this crushing of the complete core sample process. I also remeber there being a fire in the core sample area on Bre-X's property in Indonesia. As well, there was a subsidary of SNC I think, that had been hired by the founder to oversee the testing of assay results. The name of the company escapes me at the moment. I do remember though, what happened when, after Freeport had been awarded the major partner position to develop the mine by President Suharto's people, and they came back with the results of their testsing showing no gold. The founder immediately hired a firm to to conduct a forensic audit which confirmed there was no gold, and they, or another company even found out how the assays were tampered with, where it was done, and by who. The whole report was on on the Internet for years although not sure if it is still around. Throughout that whole sorry process though the founder stayed and faced the music, and I think the stress of it all actually eventually killed him. The geologist on the other hand has never ever returned to Canada, even though he has been on trial over insider trading charges by the OSC, which is still ongoing if you can believe it. He wouldn't even return to Canada when the results of the no gold by the consultant were delivered to Bre-X. Now we have reports that suggest the Suharto family were actually involved in the fraud, and a possible Bre-X connection with the man caught in the Shuswap area of BC. Dubious past can mean a lot of things, but i am not aware of any criminal activity on the part of either of the two principals. I know when there is a catastrophe people do look for someone to blame and there is no question that people were looking for a scapegoat or somebody to hang the event on. I find it amazing though that the RCMP stopped their investigation, and now the news of the Suharto family involvement and yet narry a word from any ofr the several different authors, with supposed solid research skills. This reminds me a lot of the press. One journalist get a lead or a story ,and like a bunch of sheep, many of the other journalists jump on board. Where is the critical thinking? All very strange. Do you think we will ever know the real truth?

Except for same-sex marriages!

This is a good topic. One comment I find intersting from some Quebeckers is that they prefer the US to the ROC. However, more often than not, when you explore where they have been in the ROC, they haven't. It is often just the sovereignist dogmatic response. Why couldn't the ROC do a trade with the US: Alberta and Quebec for Hawaii and Alaska.

Actually it is the reverse and Canada is on a roll. I think we have even picked up some gold and silver now - sounds like a good Canadian mining operation. Remember the first few days - the cupboard was bare as Mother Hubbard would say. Wow - rain in the Lower Mainland. Long time no see!

How long has it been now that the people in Surrey, BC haven't had any representation in Victoria? Why doesn't Premier Campbell call the by-election? We already know Campbell is a lush, but it looks like he is a coward too! Call the by-election Premier Campbell - you coward! :angry:

This jerk Hahn, or whatever his name is, who is in charge of BC Ferries, needs to get the boot - imagine going to a conference to give a speech on privatization. Who the hell does he think he is? Are the BC taxpayers paying for his trip? For one thing he is way overpaid. This must be Premier Campbell's secret agenda. What is he anyways, a lush like Campbell, one of Campbell's drinking buddies? :angry:

Stoker....thanks for the heads up about the show. I saw your post too late and I don't receive the history channel. I am curious what they said about who was responsible for this debacle - did anyone watch it?

Well, one thing for sure, apart from the Foothills, that is the end of any more debate on same-sex marriage. Any opposition is toast as they say at breakfast!

Canada's Supreme Court has an impeccable international reputation, unlike that of the US whose court has beeen politicised to the point where they have been discredited in the eyes of the world.

Louise Charron, Rosalie Abella named to top court posts These appointments have the fingerprints of Justice Minister Cotler all over them.

Awaiting Martin on Kyoto I suppose we will have to depend on the Jack Layton New Democrats to hold PM Martin 's feet to the fire on this election promise as well.

I just wasn't sure where to put it as it is not necessarily religious, although it could be considered that, I suppose.

The RCMP were investigating Bre-X, and then out of the blue they put their invrestigation on hold. Does anyone know why the RCMP didn't pursue the case as apparently they knew who actually did the salting, based on a report done for the Bre-X CEO, but not necessarily who was pulling the strings behind the scene? Is there anyone here at all familiar with the case?

Huge public sector strike looming Civil servants, like the rest of us, deserve decent wages and benefits. Let's see who wants some fairness and who wants to crush the weaker elements in Canadian society, eh!

Web sites explore 'The Da Vinci Code' THE PAGAN CHRIST Is there a connection between these two stories? I think there well may be, but I am curious what others think. It is interesting to speculate as more and more scientific historical research opens up our real past history, whether or not eventually Christianity will even continue to exist, as it appears that so much of our so-called Christian history is pure bunk and based strictly on mythology.

Well, in light of the latest news, it certainly seems like Jennifer Wells, as well as the authors of the other, was it 3 books on the Bre-X gold fraud, similar to the Bre-X corporate executives, actually didn't have a clue what was really going on concerning the involvement of the Suharto family in the salting of the gold. And actually it was the investigative work of a Canadian forensic mining expect, hired by the CEO of Bre-X, that figured how and where the fraud took place, specifically about the salting of the gold. But who was behind it, this latest news bombshell concerning the Suharto family, is sure to set tongues wagging once again.

Editorial: By any other name This is about the stupidist editiorial I have ever encountered. Especially in light of the news that the Indonesian Royal Family, the Suhartos, were behind the fraud. What do you think?

One thing I was always suspicious about - de Guzman committing suicide by jumping out of that helecopter. I do believe he was either thrown out or he is still alive. He was in no way suicidal, the man had 2 or more wives, right up there with those folks at Bountiful, BC.

"Suahrto family had engineered the salting of the Bre-X gold mine Is this for real?

Nortel, Bre-X, Livent — where are our Googles? Does anyone remember Bre-X Minerals? What really happened there? Who were the culprits? Why did the RCMP stop cold with their investigation? Why has there never been a court case? What about John Felderhof - the company's geologist, who was responsible for the gold discoveries, and who says the gold is still there, but has never ever returned to Canada since the resuts of no gold were announced. WTF?