Google Camels, Insite Drug Injection and Revenue Canada

GOOGLE: "Street Views" Of The Liwa Dessert

 

   Google has become famous for it's wide range of unusual "Street Views" such as mountains, oceans, and volcanoes.

  Not to mention the funny scenes accidentally captured.

   And then there are their amazing  "Time Machine views."

   Somehow, the idea of a camera "viewing" a dessert "street" struck me as funny. Just when I didn't think Google could still surprise me anymore.

The Insite Safe Drug Injection Sites Saves Lives

      There was a flurry of nearly 40 potentially fatal overdose incidents last week in Vancouver. Workers at Insite saved these lives by delivering naloxone (an effective and easy to administer antidote for heroin overdose). Without Insite they would have died. Several Canadian cities are looking to expand the use of a medication that has been shown to save lives by countering the effects of a life-threatening prescription drug overdose.

     There is obviously a need not only for controlled injection sites such as Insite, but also for outreach programs that can deliver naloxone to users who accidentally overdose on faulty prepared heroin wherever they may be. Overdosing is a part of life (or death) for addicts. It is an addiction - not a sin
     The federal Canadian government has made no secret of its dislike of supervised injection facilities. June 5, 2013, the Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health, announced new legislation for supervised consumption sites in a press release. On the same day, the Conservative Party of Canada initiated a “Not In My Backyard” campaign. We thus have a surreal situation in which a government is introducing a bill to seemingly advance an objective that the ruling party is actively resisting.

OUR CANADIAN GOVERNMENT IN "ACTION"

1) The Charities Directorate of Revenue Canada has cracked down on a small group of 300 nature watchers as the latest group to worry that its charitable status may be revoked because of "political activity". What had they done? They had written a letter to the government concerning the effects of pesticide chemicals on the bee and bird populations. I don't see how this is "political activity" unless the bees are being encouraged to  vote NDP. Or maybe our government is concerned about too much interest in the "the birds and the bees"?

     In 2012-13 a special squad of 15 auditors started to enforce this tax rule on charities, starting with a number of environment groups. It went on to target some 52 charities like social justice and poverty groups, many of them critical of Conservative government policies which they choose to consider as "political activity".
     No group has been de-registered (so no money has been saved), but the audits have been expensive and disruptive for many of the groups which operate on a shoestring. The threat of de-registeration is nothing but bullying.

2) This week Canada Post is beginning the closure of delivery to Canadian homes in favor of "Superboxes". There have been concerns about the whole idea, although it is widely used in the USA. So widely used that Canada is purchasing our Superboxes from USA companies without giving any chance for Canadian firms to bid on the rather lucrative contract(s).

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 (disclaimer)

The following is kind of political but is not meant to be partisan. We are having a Federal Election on October 19, 2015, dictated by LAW (although somehow our last election was held earlier than that). I thought I should make some acknowldgment of the "funny" things around out election. It is held 36 days after it is called, but we are already in FULL ELECTION MODE.

1) In "Party of One" (just published, so I haven't read it yet), investigative journalist Michael Harris closely examines the majority government of a prime minister essentially unchecked by the opposition and empowered by the general election victory of May 2011.

Harris looks at Harper’s policies, instincts, and the often breathtaking gap between his stated political principles and his practices.

 2) The Government has put out a Trudeau attack ad by email to their faithful. In their email they are urging people to pass it on, so here I am - advertising for the Conservatives.  It is called transparency.

From their email:

"As you’ll see, the Prime Minister’s job is a serious one, and only one leader is up to it.
  I encourage you to take a minute and watch it here:    www.conservative.ca/?p=5577
  This is an ad we want all Canadians to see, and I hope I can count on you to share it with 3 people who haven’t seen it yet."

Funny that they only send it out to people they know. If you visit their site to view it they will first ask for your name, email and postal code. They don't seem to care if it is a real name, let alone yours . . . or a valid postal code ... or email address. 

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Insite - Vancouver Supervised Drug Injection Site -10 years of SUCCESS

            FOUR KUDOS to Insite for:

1) For having the insight to recognize ways of mitigating social problems associated with rampant drug use in their neighborhood

2) For being the FIRST Supervised Drug Injection Program in North America (established Sept 2003)

3) For 10 years of successful (no fatalities) operation in Vancouver, British Columbia and still going strong

4) For proving they CAN survive the efforts of a government ideologically opposed to its operation.

There are short videos detailing the daily operation of the Insite facility

     From Insite's beginning, the Canadian Federal Government has tried (unsuccessfully) to prevent Insite's operation and to close it down, requiring court orders to keep it open in: 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2011.

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THE RCMP IS AN "ARM'S LENGTH" OPERATION ?

As has been said in a lot of the recent media:  
"The RCMP should be above suspicion, a crucial national institution that cannot be forced to lie by the government"

1) In 2008 the RCMP was complicit in attempting to discredit and undermine the Insite operation even to the extent of "quietly funding study critical of Insite effort". The Globe and Mail reported: "e-mails show the RCMP tried to discredit Vancouver's supervised-injection clinic and are part of a pattern of interference in science by the federal government". 

2 ) In 2010, McLeans magazine reported:

     "The Mounties were set to publicly acknowledge the benefits of projects like the Insite facility.    Then they backed away (because) . . . that would have been a politically awkward move for the          federal police, since Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government is firmly committed to shutting down Insite."

3 ) In 2014 The RCMP helped create a handbook entitled, United Against Terrorism. It was a joint

effort between Islamic Social Services, the National Council of Canadian Muslims and the RCMP. It was released Sept 29, 2014.

    On Oct 1, 2014, the RCMP suddenly withdrew their support for their handbook "specifically stating that it could not avoid using the terms "Islamist terrorism,” “Islamic extremism” and “jihad" as was suggested on the back cover. Is it a coincidence that those terms are favorites of Harper and his Government, as is a term he has personally coined, "Islamicism"?

4) This spring (2014) , when the RCMP moved to ban a kind of semi-automatic rifle that can be easily converted to full automatic, Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney angrily denounced the Mounties as “unelected bureaucrats,” and reversed the decision. 

5) And recently, while the world (including the Canadian Government) is concerned about going to war in Iraq (again), Leona Aglukkaq, the environment minister, told the House of Commons the public safety minister had told the RCMP to reverse their researched decision to cancel their researched plan of replacing some their muskrat hats with wool ones.

    According to the Ministry of Public Safety (on a different topic), “The RCMP has complete autonomy to direct its own personnel matters.” I guess that doesn't include head wear.

     As one commentator said, " The PMO is fully aware of the RCMP head gear but claims to know nothing about the $90,000 given to Senator Mike Duffy by the then Chief of Staff of the Office of the Prime Minister of Canada.

makes one of these

three of these 

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