It’s a long weekend: some federal stories

Every so often I have to clear out my browser tabs, or the whole thing bogs down. Most of them are about federally based stories today, which is just as well – on a long weekend, local stories tend to dry up (except, in this case, for the one big ongoing story).

Excellent piece in the Globe about federal Bill C-38 and the slow death of Parliament at the hands of the Harper Tories. It’s brief, it’s cogent, and you should read it.

Canada used to have a terrific, world-class freshwater research station on a lake system in northwestern Ontario. It ran for 40 years and produced key studies about acid rain, the effects of phosphates on ecosystems and other pieces of ecological knowledge important not just in Canada but to the world’s aggregate knowledge of how freshwater lakes work.

Not any more. Tories have closed it down.

Last week, a United Nations Special Rapporteur came to Canada and pointed out that although we’re a relatively affluent country, “one in ten families with a child under six is unable to meet their daily food needs.” UN guy Olivier de Schutter suggested Canada might consider a national food strategy. Jason Kenney blew him off.

The retirement of Madam Justice Marie Deschamps from the Supreme Court will leave another seat open for a Tory appointment. Keep an eye on that space.