Tag Archives for Canada

Intensely Political Mennonites Should Pay for Their Free Speech

Damn straight; free speech doesn’t require government subsidy…

You can write pretty much whatever you want, but if you do so you cannot hide behind the financial largesse of the taxpayer.

Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s; or, don’t be hypocrites! Leading to various fellow travellers and tiresome anti-Tory types to moan on about censorship and free speech.

In fact, the Mennonites themselves can be a little fuzzy about free speech, as I found out when I was lecturer-in-residence at the Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg.

For a week I delivered a number of speeches on various theological and social issues, and was stunned how secular and even mocking of Christianity some of the students and especially staff were.

Many were also outraged and wanted me silenced for daring to say at a Christian college that Jesus was God, marriage was the union of a man and a woman, and life begins at conception. Perhaps I should have asked for a tax-break.

You see, while the Mennonites are divided and do contain many fine people, their left wing is powerful and, if you’ll forgive the phrase, aggressively pacifist.

This alleged pacifism — itself a misunderstanding of Christ’s teaching — translates less to deploring violence than to opposing the United States, capitalism, the West, and more recently Israel.

They’re intensely political and they detest the Conservative government.

And all that is being said here by the authorities is that nobody is above the law or the tax code, and that while you have a right to speak your mind, you need to do so with an honest heart and clean hands.

B.C. Man Who Botched Son’s Home-circumcision Guilty of Criminal Negligence, Top Court Rules

Good; some procedures are best left to medical professionals (if undertaken at all)…

The Supreme Court has ruled that a British Columbia man who tried to circumcise his 4-year-old son on the kitchen floor of his house is guilty of criminal negligence causing bodily harm, aggravated assault and assault with a weapon.

The top court was asked to hear whether his attempt was allowed under freedom of religion provisions.

The botched surgery happened in April 2007. He used a carpet blade that he purchased at Home Depot earlier that day and sterilized. He didn’t give his son any anesthetic, just four ounces of homemade honey wine.

According to the Crown, the father lacked the medical skills to perform a circumcision. He tried to circumcise himself in 2005 using a Zhenxi ring, or circumcision ring. It wasn’t successful and the father had to be rushed to a hospital.

The circumcision he performed on his son two years later wasn’t successful either and there was significant bleeding, which the father stopped with the help of a veterinary blood-stopping agent and paper towels. “The result,” according to court documents submitted by the Crown, was “the foreskin on D.J.’s penis stuck out like two arms. D.J. was not circumcised. He was disfigured.”

The pair cannot be named.

In 2009 the man was charged with criminal negligence causing bodily harm, aggravated assault and assault with a weapon. He was convicted of criminal negligence causing bodily harm but acquitted of the other two charges. The B.C. Court of Appeal found him guilty on all counts, and he appealed to the Supreme Court.

The father, as a Jehovah’s Witness, said he believes circumcision is necessary to “make things right with God.”

The Jehovah’s Witness church does not condone or forbid circumcision.

The man also argues he didn’t intend to hurt his son and took many safety precautions including consulting doctors (who advised him against it) and reading about circumcision online.

So, he claimed he did it for religious reasons, but his ‘church’ doesn’t even take a stand on the matter…

Lock him up and throw away the key.

The Hunt for Canada’s $1,000 Bills: There are Nearly a Million Left, Most in the Hands of Criminal Elites

Only being circulated amongst themselves, generally.

The remaining Canadian $1,000 notes are the highest denomination legal tender in the Western world.  Postmedia files

More than 10 years after the $1,000 bill disappeared from circulation 946,043 of them are still out there, somewhere.

The whereabouts of almost $1-billion worth of the banknotes is a mystery rekindled this month at Quebec’s corruption probe when a witness spoke of a safe over-stuffed with cash, including $1,000 notes, inside a political office.

Retired on May 12, 2000, for being mostly used in criminal transactions, any $1,000 note deposited at a bank is destroyed, although the bills — nicknamed “pinkies” by gangsters because of the pinkish-purple ink — remain legal tender.

Money-laundering experts believe most of the missing bills continue to circulate among criminal elites who use them to pay large debts, with the recipient, in turn, using them to pay their own debts with only a portion of the notes bleeding off into the legitimate banking system.

“They are used now to pay off IOUs, not as traditional cash. They are used for buying and selling but not for cashing, because they know if they cash them, it is traceable,” said Jeffrey Robinson, a New York-based author of several landmark books on money laundering.

“They keep paying with them, over and over, and it’s only the last guy in line who has to worry about cashing them.”

The notes were retired as part of the fight against organized crime at the recommendation of the RCMP, said Jeremy Harrison, spokesman for the Bank of Canada.

I’m sure I’ve come across one (belonging to someone else) sometime in the last decade; I’m pretty sure I’ve seen one in person.

Barbara Yaffe: Decriminalization of Pot is a Sensible Idea Whose Time Has Come

Exactly.

The Harper Conservatives have newly nixed the idea of reforming Canada’s pot laws but that’s not stopping activists in B.C. from mobilizing for decriminalization.

The issue is back in the news following Nov. 6 votes in Colorado and Washington to relax marijuana legislation.

Like Canada’s government, the Obama administration, remains opposed, making a showdown between state voters and Washington, D.C., almost inevitable.

The same sort of showdown, between B.C. and Ottawa, doubtless would ensue should a proposed 2014 referendum to decriminalize pot be endorsed by B.C.’s voters.

[...]

B.C. decriminalization, promoted by a group calling itself Sensible B.C., would represent a first step in addressing the mess that is the existing system of cannabis oversight.

Right now, marijuana use is illegal under the federal Criminal Code.

Sensible B.C. wants:

• B.C. to pass a Sensible Policing Act, directing police away from searches, seizures or arrests for drug possession; and to establish a commission enabling citizens to help devise a legally regulated, taxed cannabis system.

• Ottawa to grant a legislative exemption that would allow the province to regulate and tax pot.

The longer term goal, of course, would be to discourage pushers and illegal growers through establishment of government-run cannabis outlets where individuals could make their purchases legally.

Sensible B.C.’s campaign officially launched its effort in October. The group is in the process of hosting information sessions around B.C., including a stop next January in the Lower Mainland.

[...]

It’s worth noting that many supporting decriminalization aren’t pot users; they’re pragmatists who recognize prohibition isn’t working and want to stop wasting police and court resources (some 3,000 people in B.C. get charged annually for pot-related offences). They’re folks who want taxation imposed on a B.C. industry worth as much as $8 billion a year.

Sensible B.C.’s website predicts: “Decriminalizing the simple possession of cannabis … will save taxpayers money, help unclog our justice system and stop young people from having their lives ruined over a joint.”

What a sensible idea.

Very much so.

A.Y. Jackson Canvas Showing Canadian Mine that Fuelled Atomic Bomb Emerges at Auction

Interesting.

A.Y. Jackson’s “Radium Mine,” painted in 1938, is to be sold Nov. 22 at the Heffel Fine Art fall auction of Canadian art. (Courtesy Heffel Fine Art)

An all-but-forgotten, 74-year-old painting by the Group of Seven’s A.Y.  Jackson, a large canvas on which the renowned artist depicts the Northwest  Territories mine that produced uranium for the world’s first atomic bomb, has  emerged from the obscurity of a private collection to be sold this month at one  of three major fall auctions of Canadian art.

Jackson’s Radium Mine — nearly a metre wide and held since it was painted by  the family of Gerald LaBine, the artist’s friend and the owner of the mining  operation along the eastern shore of Great Bear Lake — represents a remarkable  convergence of the histories of Canadian art, national industrial development  and the global nuclear age.

The painting, to be sold Nov. 22 at a Heffel Fine Art auction in Toronto,  shows a bird’s-eye view of the mine site on a peninsula jutting out into the  lake, located about 440 kilometres northwest of Yellowknife. Radium Mine,  expected to sell for up to $300,000, was exhibited only once, in 1939, and has  remained with the LaBine family as a prized memento of Jackson’s visit to the  site just before the outbreak of the Second World War.

Another Jackson painting of the mining operation is held by the National  Gallery of Canada.

“Not only is Radium Mine one of Jackson’s finest works,” state’s Heffel’s  catalogue entry for the painting, “it is also historically significant. At its  heart is the story of two exceptional Canadians — a gifted artist and a bold  entrepreneur — linked by their thirst for adventure, imagination and love of  their nation.”

But there is a darker subtext to the image, as well, linking Jackson’s scene  to the world-changing devastation unleashed upon Japan when the first atomic  bomb was dropped on Hiroshima in August 1945. Uranium extracted from what became  known as the El Dorado mine site had been Canada’s key contribution to the  Manhattan Project during the war.

Port Radium’s miners and the Dene workers employed in transporting the  radioactive material south from Great Bear Lake would go on to suffer high rates  of cancer. That led to Deline — the aboriginal community nearest to the mine —becoming known as the “village of widows.” In recent years, the Canadian  government has funded cleanup efforts around the mine as part of a long-term  environmental remediation project.

[...]

The painting is expected to sell for between $900,000 and $1.2 million, the  highest estimated value of any artwork to be auctioned at the Sotheby’s sale.

Worries Grow over Mandatory Minimum Sentences for Drug Offences

While America is moving in the direction of more freedom regarding drugs, Canada is moving away from that, ironically.

Canada’s public prosecutors are bracing for an onslaught of new trials as mandatory minimum sentences for drug offences come into effect – adding pressure to a system they say is already overburdened.

The tougher sentences, which came into force last week, are meant to address “serious, organized drug crime” and range from a minimum jail term of six months for growing six or more marijuana plants to at least three years behind bars for running a potentially dangerous methamphetamine lab in a residential neighbourhood.

The government says the stiffer sentences will help clamp down on gangs and organized crime. But prosecutors say they could cause serious delays as those who might have previously pleaded guilty in exchange for a lesser sentence opt for a full trial instead.

“If you take away the ability of a prosecutor to plea bargain some of these cases out and try to triage some of them through the court system, that alone will increase the amount of trials that we have,” said Rick Woodburn, president of the Canadian Association of Crown Counsel. “It ties our hands, effectively.”

The effects of the mandatory minimum sentences could be particularly problematic, Mr. Woodburn said, because the country’s court system is already being strained by a spike in larger and more complicated criminal cases.

The number of “complex” and “mega” files handled by federal prosecutors increased by more than 47 per cent over the past four years, according to a performance report published last week by the Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC).

“It’s almost a double whammy,” said Lisa Blais, president of the Association of Justice Counsel, the union that represents prosecutors. “You have more complex cases combined with also more volume of cases and I think that’s a very dangerous recipe for the right to a speedy trial.”

This is what happens when you’re governed by either liberals or neocons…

10-year-old Canadian Violinist to Debut at Carnegie Hall

Talented girl.

Canadian violinist Mercedes Cheung discussed her upcoming debut at New York’s Carnegie Hall on CTV’s Canada AM on Nov. 12, 2012.

Canadian violinist Mercedes Cheung may only be 10 years old. But the  diminutive prodigy from Markham, Ont. has already set a musical record to be  envied by older artists.

In May of 2012, Cheung became the youngest violinist in the world to record  the entire set of the Paganini 24 Caprices for a new DVD and CD. Not only did  she record the difficult pieces, she did so all in one take.

On December 28, the student at The Juilliard School in New York will achieve  another first, when she becomes the youngest artist to perform the entire  Paganini set at Carnegie Hall.

“I started playing one or two Paganini pieces when I was seven. Then I  started to work on all of them last year,” Cheung told CTV’s Canada AM on  Monday.

Cheung was originally slated to make her Carnegie debut in November of 2012,  but saw the pivotal moment in her career postponed due to Hurricane Sandy.

A Wildrose Party Coup D’Etat?

Unlike these whining HuffPo progressives, if what they report on here is real, I think it’s good news, and I say, bring it on.

Albertans need real choices, rather than the non-choice they had last time around.

Let them have two socially ‘progressive’ parties with two slightly different economic platforms, and a real conservative party with socially conservative and fiscally conservative principles, rather than three different socially ‘progressive’ parties with slightly different economic platforms, which isn’t a choice at all.

Memorial Became Powerful Symbol of Sacrifice

The Kandahar memorial.

A soldier places a poppy on a plaque during at the cenotaph Remembrance Day ceremonies at Kandahar Air Field.

Erected in Afghanistan in 2006, the Joint Task Force Cenotaph honouring the names of soldiers who died in the war became a powerful symbol of sacrifice at the base.

By the time it was dug up shipped to Ottawa the day after Remembrance Day last year, it featured 149 plaques to honour fallen Canadian Forces members, Foreign Affairs official Glyn Berry, Canadian journalist Michelle Lang, and a civilian Marc Cyr. The other 40 plaques honour the 39 U.S. military and one civilian member who died while serving under Canadian command.

The only plaque remaining to be added was for Master-Corporal Byron Greff. The 28-year-old Lacombe soldier was killed in action Oct. 29, 2011, when a suicide bomber attacked a NATO bus convoy transporting members of a security force in Kabul.

As the Cenotaph was dug up, career reservist Capt. Bob Hackett seized a piece of the marble that lay broken in the dust of Khandahar to bring home as his own token of remembrance.

Hackett, 59, was the Adjutant for the Canadian Helicopter Force in 2011. During tours in 2006 and 2009, he was in charge of all VIP visits to the combat operations at the Canadian-led Regional Command South in Kandahar, spending a total of 808 days in Afghanistan. He said there’s a world of difference between Remembrance Day ceremonies in Afghanistan and at home in Canada.

“The plaques and the names and the photographs are right there in front of you,” said Hackett.

“You’re not just standing in a parade. You’re looking at the monument so it’s a much more somber event because its all still very fresh.”

His son, a teacher at Ross Shepard High School, Hackett has appeared via teleconference to students on Remembrance Day to share what the day means to soldiers serving overseas.

Hackett believes Canada’s youth have a better idea of what soldiers experience in wartime today than when he was a child looking at the black-and-white photographs of soldiers killed in WWI or WWII.

“I think a lot more people have been exposed,” said Hackett. “They’re able to see memorial ceremonies on TV. They can see the footage of the convoys on the Highway of Heroes and when they were repatriating the remains from Canadian Forces Base Trenton to Toronto.

“Certainly the loss of life in the World Wars was much higher, but there wasn’t that closeness,” explained Hackett. “Now, everybody knows somebody or has met somebody who has served.”

The Trews did an excellent song and video in memory of the fallen Canadians in Afghanistan (proceeds going to the families left behind):

Veteran Still Haunted by Korean War

Lest we forget.

OTTAWA 018- A woman places a poppy on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier following the Remembrance Day ceremony at the National War Memorial in Ottawa November 11, 2011. Chris Roussakis/QMI Agency

The cold reality of poverty during the Korean War still haunts 82-year-old Edmonton veteran William Harrison, a reality he says some young people don’t fully comprehend.

Harrison served with Canadian military for 29 years, including overseas near the end of the Korean war in 1953.

Harrison says he didn’t see much battle action, but what he did see was thousands of Koreans struggling to survive.

“It was absolute poverty. People searching garbage bins and that so they could get enough to eat,” he said.

“I didn’t think that Korea would ever get back to the place it is today. When we were there, we didn’t think they’d come around like they did.”

It was called Canada’s “Forgotten War.”

Over 26,000 were deployed, with 516 Canadians were killed during battle in Korea. To the people they helped liberate from communist suppression, the Canadians were heroes. But it would take decades for Canadians to fully acknowledge the sacrifice.

Harrison says he doesn’t think that many young people fully grasp just what the thousands of soldiers before and after him had to go through.

“I don’t believe they realize the hardships that we had to go through. You don’t come in out of the cold. If it’s raining, snowing, cold, doesn’t matter. You stay out there.” he said.

Harrison, like other Canadians, proudly sports his poppy on his left lapel. But for the 82-year-old, the red marker that symbolizes so many lives lost, has an even greater meaning.

His father was killed during his own service in World War II, and his brother lost his life in the battle at Vimy Ridge.

He says wearing his poppy is his way of paying tribute to them, as well as others.

“We have a family tradition of military service. (The poppy) means remembering. Especially my dad. It definitely means a lot to me.” he said.

The Meaning of Remembrance Day

For soldiers, it’s even more meaningful, though not observed so much in the field.

Vigar said he didn’t have to find the time to stop and remember amidst the firefights. For soldiers like Vigar and Churchill, remembering the men and women wounded or killed in Afghanistan was a part of daily life during the war.

“It was every time we left that gate,” explained Vigar. “The entire tour. From day one to the last day.

“We had like 18 to 20 guys die on tour, most of them around Christmas, so every time you rolled out of there you went ‘Man, there’s a great chance someone could potentially not come back.’

“Instead of thinking about soldiers who did things in the ‘40s, as important as that is, I thought about the guys that I’m with and hoping they didn’t end up on a wall somewhere or on a picture.”

“We try and find time all the time,” agreed Churchill.

“Whether that person passes away around Remembrance Day or it’s June and someone passes away, you have to find time all the time to remember people. You can’t just keep it to one day.”

Soldiers in Afghanistan don’t wear poppies in November, the Strats explained.

Many who lost friends in the war wear silver or black armbands, said Vigar, or opt for Remembrance Day tattoos featuring the names of soldiers they knew and the date they died.

[...]

In Edmonton for Remembrance Day this year, Churchill and Vigar said they were happy to be able help the youth place poppies on the headstones of veterans during Friday’s “No Stone Left Alone” campaign and to acknowledge the sacrifices made by Canada’s soldiers and peacekeeprs alongside the public.

But that’s not the true Remembrance Day for Churchill.

“Sitting in the Legion, having a beer with the old guys, that’s Remembrance Day for me,” said Churchill.

“Having a beer with a veteran and him telling you stories and he’s asking you questions but you’re like ‘I don’t want to say anything, you’re way harder than I ever will be!’ That’s what you think in your head,” Churchill smiled.

The Strats note that while veterans from WWI have passed away and as the veterans from WWII approach 80 or 90-years-old, the loss is felt.

“When those guys are gone, it will be a huge loss,” said Churchill.

“The face of veterans has definitely changed, I think,” said Vigar.

New Species of Dinosaur Found

Unfortunately, a vegetarian kind, not a carnivore, alas.  Still, pretty cool.

An artist’s rendering of newly discovered dinosaur Xenoceratops foremostensis, which was identified from fossils originally collected in 1958, is pictured in this undated handout photo. Approximately 20 feet long and weighing more than 2 tonnes, the newly identified plant-eating dinosaur represents the oldest known large-bodied horned dinosaur from Canada. (Royal Ontario Museum/Supplied)

Researchers say they’ve discovered a new species of dinosaur after identifying the bones of three dinosaurs found near the village of Foremost, Alta., in 1958.

The scientific significance of the bones wasn’t understood then, so the bits of 80-million-year-old skull were cocooned in plaster and wrapped in burlap. Then they were tucked away.

Now rediscovered, the species of horned dinosaur has finally been given a name — Xenoceratops foremostensis — in part as tribute to the little community of 500 people.

“We’ve always known we’ve had unique individuals living here,” Foremost Mayor Ken Kultgen said of the now identified early settlers.

Locals recall a large dinosaur find had been made in the ’50s. But they thought it must have been just one of many species that pop up in the region.

But the giant plant eaters — more than six metres long and weighing over two tonnes — were special. They represent the oldest known large-bodied horned dinosaur from Canada.

Legion Sees Red Over White Poppy Campaign

No doubt.

The white poppy symbolizes the mourning of civilian deaths in war, the environmental devastation war causes, rejection of war as a tool for social change, and a call for peaceful conflict resolution. (CARMINE MARINELLI/ QMI AGENCY)

Every November for over 10 years now, a white “peace poppy” has joined the traditional red one on Teresa Gagne’s lapel. The Royal Canadian Legion thinks the white poppies are disrespectful.

The white poppy symbolizes the mourning of civilian deaths in war, the environmental devastation war causes, rejection of war as a tool for social change, and a call for peaceful conflict resolution.

“The best thing we can do for veterans — the ones who died and the ones who are serving — is to try to end war,” Gagne said.

She first heard about white poppies over a decade ago, though they originated in Britain in 1926. At first, she made her own. Now she orders them from the Peace Pledge Union in Britain, which makes them, to distribute them through Vancouver Peace Poppies.

Gagne said the white poppies attract a lot of curiosity.

“People were very interested, very supportive.”

But the Royal Canadian Legion, which raises money for veterans by selling red poppies, isn’t happy about the white version. Joanne Henderson, poppy fund coordinator for B.C. and the Yukon, felt the white poppy was disrespectful because it causes confusion.

“Our red poppy not only represents remembrance but also represents the peace that we’ve been able to enjoy today,” she said.

“I don’t think that there’s a better symbol of peace than the red poppy.”

However, Gagne, whose father is a WWII vet, said she feels the white and red poppies go hand in hand: red representing military sacrifice, and white civilian deaths.

“I don’t think there’s anything disrespectful about using Remembrance Day to also remember the other victims of war,” she said.

Gagne said she thinks that the peace poppies also have the power to resonate more with Canada’s immigrant population, particularly those who have experienced the effects of war from a non-Canadian perspective.

Henderson’s still not convinced.

“It isn’t white poppies that grow over their bodies, it’s red poppies,” she said, referring to the flowers that flourished after the bombardment of Flanders Fields.

Vancouver Peace Poppies has been distributing more of the white pins every year, from a mere 500 in 2009 to close to 3,000 this year.

Red poppies raise money through donations, while Vancouver Peace Poppies ask for a $1 donation for the poppies. According to Gagne, more than two-thirds of that covers the cost of importing the poppies from Britain; whatever’s leftover subsidizes peace poppies for groups such as schools, guides and brownies.

Churchill, King George and Downed Nazi Planes

Decades after documenting war, Canadian rediscovers of trove of photos.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill,from the personal collection of Jack Ford, taken by a member of the RCAF 414 Photo Unit.
Jack Ford collection

Some of the details of that long ago day are smudged, blurred by the almost 70 years that have passed since Jack Ford found himself at an Allied airstrip in France, a few weeks after the D-Day landings, fumbling with his camera, fighting nerves, aiming his lens at Sir Winston Churchill.

Mr. Ford later became a Mad Man – a deal-maker, vice-president of what was then MacLaren Advertising, the largest ad firm in Canada. But at the time, he was “Private Nobody,” he says, a lowly soldier, only even lowlier than most soldiers because he carried a camera and film canisters for RCAF Squadron 414’s Photo Unit instead of a gun.

On that June day in France, however, he was in the middle of the action. Listening as the question — “Could you let me take your picture before you put that cigar in the mouth?” — passed from his lips to the ears of a British Prime Minister famous for giving stirring speeches and perhaps even more famous for being photographed with a stogie clenched between his teeth and a scowl on his face.

“Three planes had arrived that day and we didn’t who it was,” Mr. Ford says, hopping about his room in Sunnybrook hospital’s veterans wing, pantomiming the Prime Minister’s reaction to his anti-smoking request. “We were told to grab our cameras. It was Churchill, [Field Marshal Bernard Law] Montgomery and King George VI. It was Churchill — and the King!

“And I was scared s—less, and Churchill, he was just staring at me and so his handler says, ‘What’s the problem, Sonny?’ I told him I wanted a picture without the cigar and so Churchill hands it to his handler, makes a face at me and then…”

He smiled, or he almost did, for a young Canadian war photographer in a never-before-published photograph that would languish, for decades, in a box in Mr. Ford’s basement. The picture is a forgotten wartime treasure, and just one among thousands taken by Mr. Ford and the other photographers and Spitfire pilots of Squadron 414 while they advanced across Western Europe.

Lots more great pics; check ‘em out.

Windsor Dog Hailed as Weight Loss Champ

Less food, no treats and lots of exercise.

Pet foster parent Tracy Calsavara is happy Sam is back to his energetic self after a lot of walking and swimming.
Photograph by: Jason Kryk, The Windsor Star

There’s no nice way to put it: Sam was fat. Really fat.

When the six-year-old Labrador mix waddled into the Windsor-Essex County  Humane Society back in January, he strained the scales at a whopping 174 pounds  – obese for a dog of his build and breed.

“He was extremely overweight. He had difficulty just getting around,” recalls  Humane Society executive director Melanie Coulter.

“When he was taken out for a walk, for example, he couldn’t step over a  parking curb.”

Running was impossible for the portly pooch, and strolling short distances  left him winded.

How did Sam let himself go so badly? The usual reasons: sedentary living and  too much snacking.

Coulter said Sam was turned over to the animal shelter because his original  owner couldn’t take care of him anymore due to human health issues.

When Humane Society representatives arrived at Sam’s home to pick him up,  they saw he had two feeding bowls: one full of kibble and the other full of  Milk-Bones.

The constant availability of food and the lack of exercise was a recipe for  packing on pounds. “He was kind of, almost, loved to death,” Coulter said.

The Humane Society’s solution was simple: Sam was sent to a foster home,  where he was put on a restrictive diet and an activity regimen.

Tracy Calsavara fostered Sam – the sixth dog she’s brought into her home to  care for until a permanent home could be found.

Calsavara said she used portion control with Sam’s meals – measuring out his  kibble morning and night – and she cut out all his treats.

And with four kids in the house and three other dogs to play with, Sam got  plenty of exercise.

“Everybody walked him,” Calsavara said.

Twice a day Sam strolls his LaSalle neighbourhood. At first he could only  manage 10 to 15 minutes but he worked his way up to 45.

Along with the daily walks, Sam was regularly taken for swimming at the Essex  Animal Hospital’s aquatic therapy centre.

During the summer season, he also swam in the foster home’s in-ground  pool.

At first, Sam had difficulty keeping up with the foster home’s other dogs -  Abby and Lola are both labs and Crooks a partially paralyzed beagle.

He was also too chubby to squeeze through the pet door.

But as the months passed and the flab disappeared, Sam grew more and more  energetic. And two months later, Sam could fit through the pet door.

“He was just so glad to be active and be among other dogs,” Calsavara said,  adding she considered every milestone a victory.

Now 10 months later and 78 pounds lighter, Sam is loving life more than ever  – and he’s ready for adoption.

Reminds me of the Volkswagen ad dog:

Customer Complaints Prompt Shoppers Drug Mart to Turn Off Christmas Music

Good; it’s way too early, greedy business!

Customer complaints have prompted Shoppers Drug Mart to shut off its Christmas music, but the jolly jingles will be back later in the year.

Spokeswoman Tammy Smitham said the national pharmacy chain normally starts playing holiday tunes at the beginning of November. They had no idea it got on people’s nerves.

But now that the chain has some 45,000 Facebook fans giving feedback in real time, Shoppers has gotten the message.

“We looked at the volume of feedback that we were getting. From the majority, we’ve heard people say it’s too early,” Smitham said.

As of Friday at midnight, Frosty The Snowman and Jingle Bell Rock will be axed for the usual top-40 fare.

But Christmas lovers need not fear — the festive tunes will be back.

“It has not been cancelled. It will be back closer to the holiday season,” Smitham said.

Reactions from customers on Facebook have been mixed. Some said Christmas music should be kept at bay until after Remembrance Day out of respect for veterans.

Others criticized the store for a move they perceived as political correctness run amok.

“It’s the Christmas music that gets everyone in the spirit of the season. Why do we as Canadians have to conform to others and their way?” Wendy Cole wrote in the Facebook comments — a sentiment echoed by others.

Smitham said that while Shoppers has a commitment to diversity in the workplace, “it’s really just people felt it was too early for holiday music.”

Complaints aside, within an hour of making the announcement, more than 2,200 people had “liked” it on Facebook.

Tim Hortons Opens First Fly-in-only Location in Northern Manitoba

So now Indians living in the ass-end of nowhere (well, one such nowhere-land), can get their Timmy’s.

A new Tim Hortons opened up in Oxford House, a small community of around 2,800 in northern Manitoba, the first to open in a fly-in-only reserve.

Hundreds line up for the first day of service at the Oxford House Tim Hortons on Monday.

Residents of a remote community in northern Manitoba will no longer have to  go without their double-double and maple-glazed doughnut after Tim Hortons  opened its first-ever “fly-in” franchise.

The iconic chain’s latest restaurant opened Monday in Oxford House, a First  Nations community of about 2,800 that is not accessible by road. Oxford House is  located about 1,000 kilometres north of Winnipeg.

“Wherever I go, I see line-ups at Tim Hortons, usually at least 15 cars, and  it is good to have it here, too,” said Chief Timothy Muskego, as a long queue  formed inside the coffee shop Monday following the grand opening.

Tim Hortons opened its first Northern Canada location in Iqaluit in 2010,  but this marks the first franchise in a fly-in-only community.

“We try to bring the best to the north that we can find in the south, and we  listened to what the community’s needs are. And in this case, Tim Hortons was  identified,” said Edward Kennedy, CEO of The Northwest Company, which built the  new shopping centre hosting the Tim Hortons.

On Monday, Tim Horton’s handed out 1,000 insulated travel mugs and poured  more than 100 litres of coffee as hundreds of people came out to celebrate the  new addition. Even those who don’t normally drink coffee showed up for the big  event.

“I’m not a big coffee drinker, but for Timmies, yeah I will,” said Victor  Grieves, sipping a cup after the ceremonial ribbon cutting by 106-year-old Sarah  Harper.

Another resident Jessie Bee added: “A lot of people like Tim Hortons coffee  and it tastes good.”

We are the Tim Hortons Nation.

Rookie Lawyer Mike Lickver Raps His Way to Bay St. Law Firm Job

Whatever works, I guess…

Mike Lickver capped his odyssey from law school to articling to being hired at a big downtown law firm by making a rap video about the journey.

The Toronto native penned “Law School Husslin 3,” in which he boasts “money taller than Big Bird” and “big Cohibas like Castro.” He also shot a glossy, six-minute short featuring a Lamborghini, Bridle Path mansion and bikini babes.

Earlier this month, the 28-year-old premiered the flick and performed the track at the legal community’s annual AIDS fundraiser at KoolHaus, wearing camouflage pants and a hoodie.

The video was shot in New York, Miami and Toronto during Lickver’s three-month break before starting work at Bennett Jones as a securities, mergers and acquisitions specialist.

It cost less than $5,000, thanks to corporate sponsors and pro bono work on the tune, which is available on iTunes and Amazon, with proceeds going to Canfar, the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research.

While Lickver’s previous university-era videos lauded husslin’ — hip-hop parlance for overcoming obstacles — in the context of tuition, studying and professors, the trilogy finale crows about making it to the major leagues.

“We made it through the struggle of law school, through the struggle of articling and now we’re here and we’re kind of blowing the glamorous lawyer lifestyle out of proportion and saying ‘We did it, its time to celebrate,’” said Lickver of the video, which co-stars law school buddy Jesse Mighton, who landed in the corporate restructuring group at Goodmans.