oh i fee so so sorry for the government of canada. not

Grow up PMO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

awww the government did not get its way
TO BAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No harm' in asking for Khadr release, judges argue

Janice Tibbetts, Canwest News Service

Janet Hamlin/AFP/Getty Images

OTTAWA -- A federal lawyer conceded Tuesday that she cannot "point to any risks" in the federal government seeking Omar Khadr's repatriation to Canada. But she urged a federal appeal panel to reject the prospect, because judges should not be second-guessing the foreign-policy decisions of elected officials.

Justice Department lawyer Doreen Mueller reluctantly made the admission when she was repeatedly quizzed by the bench on why the Conservative government refuses to ask the United States to release Khadr from detention in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"If the government makes the request, is there a negative impact on its security interests?" asked Justice Karen Sharlow. "What is the harm in asking?"

"I can't point to any risks," acknowledged Ms. Mueller, who was in court to argue a Conservative government appeal to an April court ruling ordering the government to seek Mr. Khadr's return from the U.S. military unit, where he has been detained for seven years as a terrorism suspect.

Ms. Mueller told the Federal Court of Appeal that Justice James O'Reilly was out of line when he "interfered with government foreign affairs"by ordering the government to act. Moreover, the order was particularly extreme, given there is only a "remote hypothetical possibility" that the U.S. would agree to Mr. Khadr's release, Ms. Mueller said.

Mr. Khadr's lawyer, Nathan Whitling, told the court many countries have secured the repatriation of their citizens, and even non-citizens, from Guantanamo Bay.

"Canada should do what it can to assist Mr. Khadr," said Mr. Whitling. "The fact that it might not work is not justification for doing nothing."

The appeal court reserved its decision on whether to uphold Mr. O'Reilly's unequivocal decision, which concluded the Harper government violated Mr. Khadr's Charter right to fundamental justice, and Canada's human-rights obligations, by years of indifference toward the young man.

Mr. Khadr, who was born in Toronto, was only 15 when he was captured by U.S. forces in Afghanistan. He is accused of murder as a war crime by throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. army medic in July 2002.

In his decision, Mr. O'Reilly took into account that Mr. Khadr was given no special status as a minor, even though he was barely 16 when he arrived at Guantanamo Bay in October 2002.

Moreover, the Canadian government had "direct involvement"in Mr. Khadr's maltreatment at the military camp by handing over information to U.S. authorities to use against him, all the while knowing the teen had been tortured through sleep deprivation, said Mr. O'Reilly.

Ms. Mueller argued that Canada's duty to protect its children ends at the border, and that Mr. O'Reilly got it wrong by surmising that the country's special justice system for minors applies abroad.

"It is one thing when Canada is prosecuting a child . . . but it is quite another thing to say that Canada has these same obligations when a Canadian child is being prosecuted by another country," she said.

Justice John Evans, however, countered it is "a different situation" if there is a Canadian connection to mistreatment of a Canadian child abroad.

Justice Marc Nadon quizzed Ms. Mueller on why the government's appeal factum glossed over Mr. O'Reilly's "serious finding" that Canada was knowingly involved in Khadr's sleep-deprivation torture.

Ms. Mueller responded that it was a "great leap" for Mr. O'Reilly to conclude that Canada condoned Khadr's mistreatment by knowing he was sleep-deprived before officials questioned him, then passed intelligence on to the Americans.

"It is not possible to say Canada condoned his mistreatment," said Ms. Mueller, asserting that complicity would have required "active direct conduct" by government officials.

The Harper government has maintained Mr. Khadr is charged with a serious crime, and the government should wait to find out if the U.S. intends to drop charges before making any moves.

Mr. Khadr's trial was suspended in January after U.S. President Barack Obama said the military unit would close within a year. Mr. Khadr is the only remaining westerner at the prison.

WHY are we not doing this???

Those of you living in Canada, it would be incredible if you could call in 1 -800-267-8376 dial 3, followed by 1. Ask about why the Canadian embassy in Tehran refuses to accept injured protesters when many other embassies do. IT DOES work, trust me and it will make a HUGE impact it we all did it. The fight for democracy will never end

Persian Canadians Network

Government of Canada could have serious liability!

Author's note: This post will be my personal perspective. I will attempt to be as factual as possible
however, since this is a developing situation, all information is subject to change.

According to published reports, the world is going to run out of the base material for most medical isotopes by July of this year. There has been a breakdown of the Chalk River medical isotope material reactor. It is a 52 year old reactor that was supposed to be shut down in the year 2000 and replaced by 2 new nuclear reactors so Chalk River could be decommissioned. The new reactors were given the names Maple 1 & Maple 2. They would have been coming on line by now if things went according to plans made by the then Liberal government. However, that all changed with the election of the Conservative party in 2006. The new government decided to shelve Maple 1 & 2 due to cost overruns and certification requirements. They then told the regulatory body (A.E.C.L. - Atomic Energy Canada Limited) running Chalk River to baby the current reactor in an attempt to keep it going for another couple of years. Last year, the reactor started getting cranky and they had to shut it down for a couple of months causing the first worldwide shortage of medical isotope material. More on that later. They managed to get the reactor back online after the Government of Canada forced the Nuclear Regulatory Safety Commission and A.E.C.L. to restart it before repairs or retrofit were completed. This required an act of Parliament. Parliament did this because it didn't look very good for one of the largest suppliers of medical radioactive material to not have a working reactor. Canada provides 50% of the world supply of material and the world supply of isotopes will not be replenished until we can get a medical/research reactor online. The most conservative estimate to get the 52 year old reactor up and running is 3 months however that assessment is highly flexible. They are still having problems finding a cooling line leak among other problems.

But that is only the beginning. The base material from Canada is shipped internationally to many companies and government institutions to be converted into medical isotopes.

Now, moving on to what a medical isotope is. Is is used as a disease detection marker. The most obvious examples are several different types of cancer detection tests, lung scans and an alternative to the cat scan die (luminescent die) as some people are allergic to the die but not to another type of isotope. The list of procedures where isotopes are used is an extensive one. The particular isotopes used have a very short shelf life.

How will this affect all of us? For any of the procedures I have mentioned, that test will not be able to be done or done with an alternative method that is less accurate in in a lot of cases, much more difficult to perform. Depending of the type of test the doctor wants done, there will be a lot of people put at risk, especially cancer patients.

Now the liability argument. Canada is under international contract to supply this radioactive material. The very least that could happen is that all of our customers turn around and sue us for breach of contract. At the very worst, civil suits might be filed due to the death of patients that did not receive proper treatment and care because isotopes were not available to run much needed tests. As well, there will be massive diplomatic fallout due to the lack of the material. In rare circumstances, criminal proceedings could be brought against institutions and companies. I've never heard of this happening before but even the political party in charge could be sued. For the record, since I am not a lawyer, I don't know if any of these scenarios could happen except for the standard civil suit.

I think this situation should be getting much more national and international attention than the current fiasco over E.I. reform, which for my international audience stands for employment insurance (for unemployment). This is a subject you could fight over in an election instead of the usual petty bickering that has been happening over the last 3 years. After all, millions of peoples lives could be at risk and thousands could die.

lets see if this passes in to law or gets in to Cort or the supreme cort looks at it?

ISPs must help police snoop on internet under new bill

Last Updated: Thursday, June 18, 2009 | 3:02 PM ET Comments579Recommend219

CBC News

Internet service providers would have to make it possible for police and intelligence officers to intercept online communications and get personal information about subscribers under bills tabled Thursday.

"We must ensure that law enforcement has the necessary tools to catch up to the bad guys and ultimately bring them to justice. Twenty-first century technology calls for 21st-century tools," said Justice Minister Rob Nicholson as he announced the new bills with Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan at a news conference in Ottawa.

The bills are intended to modernize the Criminal Code and help law enforcement officials chase those suspected of using the internet and other new technologies to communicate and commit crimes, as well as maximize the ability to conduct international investigations, Nicholson said.

Targets 'safe havens'

One bill, announced by Van Loan, would require telecommunications and internet service providers to:

• Install and maintain "intercept-capable" equipment on their networks.
• Provide police with "timely access" to personal information about subscribers, including names, address and internet addresses, without the need for a warrant.

Van Loan said the bill won't provide new interception powers to police, but simply update the legal framework designed "in the era of the rotary telephone."

He noted that police can already get the authority to intercept communications, but the network is often incapable of allowing such interception.

"Criminals, child pornographers, organized crime members and terrorists are aware of these interception safe havens. They identify them and gravitate towards them to exploit them and continue their criminal activities undetected, out of the reach of the investigative powers of law enforcement."

Van Loan added that internet service providers are currently not required to provide subscriber information to police and the Canadian Security Intelligence Agency (CSIS), and may be unwilling to provide such data without a police warrant, slowing down the investigation of crimes such as child sexual exploitation or online theft.

ISPs must preserve data

The other bill, introduced by Nicholson, would:

• Allow law enforcement officials to obtain transmission data that is sent or received via telephone or internet if authorized by a production order or warrant
• Require telecommunications companies to keep data related to specific communications or subscribers if that information is needed in an investigation and requested via a preservation order.
• Make it a criminal offence for two or more people to agree to or arrange child sexual exploitation by means of telecommunications.
• Modernize the system for tracking warrants.

Nicholson said the government believes the proposed legislation strikes an "appropriate balance" between law enforcement's investigative powers to protect public safety and the privacy and rights and freedoms of Canadians.

Law enforcement officials at the news conference praised the bill.

Calgary deputy chief of police Murray Stooke said police have been requesting the modernization of laws related to interception of communications for a decade. He added that the government consulted broadly with Canadians and interest groups before introducing the new legislation.

"We do understand that the privacy concerns of Canadians must be respected," he added, "but at the same time, we have a growing gap in terms of our capacity [to investigate crimes]."

However, University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist wrote in his blog Thursday that the bills are "pretty much exactly what law enforcement has been demanding and privacy groups have been fearing. It represents a reneging of a commitment from the previous Public Safety Minister on court oversight and will embed broad new surveillance capabilities in the Canadian internet."

Cost to ISPs

Tom Copeland, head of chair of the Canadian Association of Internet Providers (CAIP), which represents dozens of smaller Canadian ISPs, said Thursday he fears the bill requiring internet-tapping capability could put some of his members out of business.

Van Loan said the companies themselves will have to pay for new equipment to meet the requirements, although the government will provide "reasonable compensation" when retrofits to existing hardware are needed.

The companies will have 18 months to make the changes, but there will be a three-year exemption for those with less than 100,000 subscribers.

But even that may not be enough time for some small providers, as they usually buy used, older network equipment that wouldn't be tappable, he said. Buying that new equipment could cost $15,000, and even if the government covers half, the remainder would be a "significant burden," Copeland said.

"I know a lot of providers who couldn't come up with the other half – it's just not the margins we have."

With respect to providing subscriber information without a warrant, Copeland said he is glad the bill brings some "clarity and consistency" to the issue. Previously, he said, ISPs were unsure whether providing that information would violate the Privacy Act and leave the companies vulnerable to a lawsuit.

He said the other bill introduced Thursday represents no real change to ISPs.

Taser inquiry can find Mounties at fault ....good!

Court rules Taser inquiry can find Mounties at fault

Last Updated: Monday, June 15, 2009 | 11:59 AM PT Comments278Recommend170

CBC News

Clockwise from top left: RCMP officers Const. Gerry Rundel, Const. Bill Bentley, Cpl. Monty Robinson and Const. Kwesi Millington challenged the right of the Braidwood Commission to make a finding of misconduct. (CBC)

The B.C. Supreme Court has dismissed a constitutional challenge questioning whether a provincial inquiry can find fault against the four RCMP officers involved in Robert Dziekanski's death.

Justice Arnie Silverman ruled Monday morning in Vancouver that the inquiry properly warned the officers that it might accuse them of using the Taser on Dziekanski when it was "not justified," of giving "misleading" testimony and of misrepresenting the facts.

The judge said the inquiry's commissioner, retired judge Thomas Braidwood, is entitled to make such findings in his final report into the October 2007 death and is not prevented by any lack of jurisdiction.

Lawyers representing the four officers, who made the constitutional challenge, argued in court last Friday that Braidwood's findings were effectively allegations of criminal misconduct, and therefore outside his jurisdiction.

But Silverman ruled that argument was invalid, and also dismissed the officers' claims that the commission should provide additional details of what they did wrong.

Constables Gerry Rundel, Bill Bentley and Kwesi Millington, and Cpl. Monty Robinson were all present when Dziekanski died after being stunned several times with a Taser at Vancouver International Airport.

The officers could still appeal the decision, but for now it means the Braidwood inquiry would likely begin hearing closing submissions on Friday.

Burst of 24 messages from downed Air France flight.

Burst of 24 messages from downed Air France flight offers few clues for investigators

Module body

RIO DE JANEIRO - With black boxes yet to be found from the Air France jet that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, investigators are struggling to draw conclusions from physical evidence and a burst of 24 automatic messages sent from the plane in the minutes before it disappeared.

A full transcript of the messages provides some new insight, but no answers.

An aviation industry official with knowledge of the Air France investigation told The Associated Press that the transcript - found on www.eurocockpit.com and first reported by The New York Times on Saturday - was authentic but inconclusive.

"There is a lot of information, but not many clues," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to discuss the matter.

The official said jets like the Airbus A330 that crashed automatically send such maintenance messages about once a minute during a plane's flight. They are used by the ground crew to make repairs once a plane lands.

The first error message on the transcript indicates a problem in one of the plane's bathrooms at 2245 GMT (7:45 p.m. local time; 6:45 p.m. EDT) May 31 - an error that wouldn't raise much alarm. But a burst of 14 messages all sent at 0210 GMT June 1 (11:20 p.m. local time May 31; 10:20 p.m. EDT May 31), is where the trouble began, the industry official said.

Investigators have focused on the possibility that external speed monitors - called Pitot tubes - iced over and gave false readings to the plane's computers.

"The messages that came in (at 0210 GMT) include the problem with conflicting speed readings," the aviation industry official said. "Everything that happens from there results from the failure of the Pitot tubes."

Air France ordered the tubes replaced on the long-range Airbus planes on April 27 after pilots noted a loss of airspeed data in a few flights on Airbus A330 and A340 models.

Another message indicated a fault with the "rudder limiter," a mechanism that limits how far the plane's rudder can move. It is one of the few messages directly tied to physical evidence investigators have. The nearly intact vertical stabilizer - which includes the rudder - was fished out of the water earlier this week by Brazilian searchers.

If the rudder on the Airbus A330 were to move too far while travelling fast, it could shear off and take the vertical stabilizer with it - which some experts theorize may have happened based on the relatively limited damage to the stabilizer.

The industry official, however, said the error message pertaining to the limiter didn't indicate it malfunctioned, but rather that it had locked itself in place because of the conflicting speed readings.

"When that fault kicks in, the limiter locks into place based on the last known 'good' speed," he said. "It doesn't mean there was something wrong with the rudder."

Airbus has said one of the automatic messages showed a change of cabin pressure equal to an altitude change of more than 1,800 feet (548 metres) per minute, but that the company did not yet have enough information to interpret this yet.

The search for bodies and debris from Air France Flight 447 took on renewed urgency, meanwhile, as experts questioned how much longer efforts would prove fruitful, even as six more bodies were pulled from the Atlantic.

Almost two weeks after the crash, Brazil's military said that June 25 has been set as a tentative date for halting efforts and that starting Monday officials will meet every two days to evaluate when to stop the search, depending on whether they are still recovering bodies or debris.

Finding the plane's flight data and cockpit voice recorders - whose locator signals begin to fade after 30 days - is key to determining how and why the Airbus A330 went down en route to Paris from Rio de Janeiro, possibly after breaking up in the air. Debris and bodies from the jet also contain crucial clues, and warm water temperature affects the length of time a body floats and remains visible to searchers.

According to the Brazilian military, the water temperature in the areas they are looking is averaging about 82 F (28 C) - warm water that speeds up the process of a body surfacing, floating and then sinking once again, said William Waldock, who teaches air crash investigation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona.

"At this point, it's not really surprising you are hearing them (the Brazilian military) talking about an end to the search," Waldock said.

In water temperatures like those in the search area, he said, an intact body could likely float for two or three weeks - Air France Flight 447 went down May 31 with 228 on board. Those warm waters also mean there is a lot of marine life in the area and "they'll break a body down faster," Waldock said.

Navy Vice Adm. Edison Lawrence said the Brazilians "have information" that a French ship had found six more bodies, which would bring the total to 50. It was not clear when the bodies were recovered; Lawrence said he thought it was either Thursday or Friday. It wasn't immediately possible to verify the information with French officials.

Medical authorities examining 16 bodies already brought onto land in Recife have refused to release information about the state of the corpses.

Meanwhile, military ships and planes continued to struggle in worsening weather looking for more bodies and debris.

The plane's recorders - perhaps the best hope of definitively learning what went wrong - remain elusive. A French nuclear submarine is scouring the search area in the hopes of hearing pings from the black boxes' emergency beacons. The first of two U.S. locator listening devices won't arrive until Sunday.

Weather in the mid-Atlantic was bad and getting worse. Rains reduced visibility for ships, and cloud cover blocked satellite imagery.

So far, there is no evidence of an explosion or terrorist act, but a number of clues that describe systemic failures on the plane.

Experts have said the evidence uncovered so far points to at least a partial midair breakup of the Airbus A330.

-

Associated Press Writers Marco Sibaja in Recife, Brazil, Alan Clendenning and Stan Lehman in Sao Paulo and Elaine Ganley in Paris contributed to this report.

AF447 system failure/warn message list ?.

Hello
I am looking for a list of systems failures and warning messages for this downed flight. The press were either told or given a briefing or transcript of the information received by Air France maintenance on June 1 or 2/09 when the flight started having difficulties. Every news story I read discloses a different set of failures or warnings than the next story. Somebody would have had to put this in list form as as so many new reports use only a portion of a minute of information. From what I can see, it looks like the full stream of data came in with information spanning 14 minutes of events aboard the flight however, news stories are only using part of one minute. I would very much like to ready the other 13 minutes. If you know where I can find that information, please post the source and/or the link in this form or you can send it to: msdogfood@hotmail.com
Thanks