WTF-Ask military to help with H1N1: Ottawa councillor

An Ottawa city councillor wants to call in the Armed Forces to help conduct swine flu vaccinations.

Coun. Bob Monette said Thursday he has written to federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq asking if doctors, nurses and medics from the Canadian Forces could be deployed in cities across Canada to help with the H1N1 vaccinations.

Monette said the idea came to him after speaking with a constituent who’s a member of the Forces.

“Why not think of all the possibilities?” Monette said.

“This was one more possibility that I found was worthwhile looking into, and let’s see if anything comes from it. If we can get one or two doctors, a nurse, to help out, then it’s worthwhile,” he said.

Ottawa-Orleans MP Royal Galipeau has endorsed Monette’s idea. He said he’s also written to the health minister and to the minister of defence.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2009/11/06/dnd-swineflu.html?ref=rss

Thank you, conservative government

*Errr…WOW.*

OTTAWA – Chiefs in northern Manitoba are not impressed with Ottawa’s most recent shipment of materials to prepare for an expected H1N1 influenza outbreak: body bags.

At least four first nations in northern Manitoba were sent body bags in shipments of supplies from Health Canada intended for the H1N1 influenza.

Garden Hill Chief David Harper said the nursing station in Wasagamack got 30 body bags and God’s Lake received 20 of them, along with boxes of hand sanitizer wipes and masks. Body bags were also included in shipments to Garden Hill and St. Theresa Point, but Harper said the number was unknown.

Harper said this is an offensive action from Health Canada.

“This says to me they’ve given up,” he said.

Harper said normally the RCMP always have a few body bags in their offices on reserve but the nursing station has not received them before.

Manitoba NDP MP Judy Wasylycia-Leis was incredulous and planned to ask the Health Committee this afternoon for an immediate investigation for the “callous, insensitive and incompetent” action.

“It’s unbelievable,” she said. “It’s the ultimate expression of incompetence from Health Canada.”

She said Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq won’t support the shipments of flu kits and her department took weeks to send hand sanitizer in the spring but now they are sending body bags.

“This is a time of worry and anxiety already and for Health Canada to respond in this way gets to the heart of what the chiefs have been saying about them all along.”

A spokeswoman for Aglukkaq said the minister could be ready to respond to this at a news conference scheduled in Ottawa on H1N1 this afternoon.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/Ottawa-ships-body-bags-to-northern-Manitoba-reserves-59489677.html

Cornwall man treated for mystery illness in Ottawa

A Cornwall Crown attorney who returned from Mexico with a mysterious illness is believed to be one of a handful of people in Ontario who may be linked to an outbreak that is confounding health authorities, provincial officials say.

Guy Simard, 47, was airlifted to The Ottawa Hospital in late March and admitted into the intensive care unit, a hospital official said Thursday. Simard spent 11 nights in hospital before being released April 9.

Ontario officials confirm they have been warned to be on the lookout for unusual illnesses in Canadians returning from Mexico.

The outbreak has Canadian public health officials scrambling to discover the nature of the deadly flu-like illness that has already killed 20 people in Mexico and has left that country’s medical authorities without any answers.

According to Dr. Danielle Grondin, the acting assistant deputy minister for infectious diseases, what is known so far of the the mysterious illness — often called severe respiratory illness (SRI) — is that it strikes healthy people aged 25-44 years and quickly worsens. The outbreak is confined largely to the south and central parts of Mexico, and of the 137 people who have been struck by the unknown virus, 20 have died. Very little is known about the virus or how it spreads, but it is being described in Mexican media as SARS-like.

Grondin, however, said that the description is wrong. From what is known by Canadian authorities so far, it does not appear to be a SARS-like outbreak, she said. She hopes that 51 samples from Mexico that are now being tested at the infectious diseases laboratory in Winnipeg will soon provide some important clues.

Grondin said Canadian authorities are doing everything to help Mexico get to the bottom of the outbreak.

As a precaution, public health authorities, family physicians and hospitals across the country have been placed on high alert to look for any unusual flu-like symptoms in patients. The government’s pandemic surveillance alert has been increased to a state of high vigilance. The federal government, however, has not as yet issued a travel ban to Mexico but is warning prospective Canadian travellers to be vigilant and take precautions against flu.

“There is no evidence as of now that the illness in Mexico is an illness like SARS,” Grondin said.

“It is serious in Mexico, but nothing in Canada. At this point, there are no clusters of SRI in Canada. There are no health concerns for Canadians.”

Dr. Arlene King, who leads the Centre for Immunization and Respiratory Infectious Diseases at the Public Health Agency of Canada, said her organization just learned about the severe respiratory outbreak in the “last couple of days.”

“There are pneumonia outbreaks, probably of an unknown origin at this point in time, occurring in Mexico,” King told a news conference Thursday, where she was named the province’s new chief medical officer of health.

“A number of different clusters have occurred over the last month or so … and these have obviously created concern related to their potential to get larger and to spread outside Mexico.”

According to reports, Guy Simard’s illness was considered life-threatening at one point. He was attached to a ventilator and received at least one blood transfusion, according to the Cornwall Standard-Freeholder.

On Thursday, the province’s acting chief medical officer of health, Dr. David Williams, said Simard’s case is one of about 10 being looked at for links with a severe respiratory outbreak in Mexico.

“We haven’t ruled it out and we haven’t ruled it in either. It’s still (under) investigation,” he told reporters Thursday.

“It starts off as a respiratory illness and it just gets worse and worse. It’s quite severe. We’re not talking just a mild issue.”

Grondin told reporters in Ottawa that it is unlikely that the illness of the patient treated at The Ottawa Hospital is related to the Mexican outbreak, but she said the situation is being monitored closely.

Ottawa Hospital spokeswoman Allison Neill said that hospital staff were unaware of the unusual nature of Simard’s illness when he was admitted in late March.

“We would only learn that this week,” she said.

“Even with this patient coming in from Cornwall and us not knowing what was going on … all the proper protection and procedures were in place at that point. Our professionals have no real concerns.”

Simard was released in “good condition” on April 9. He has still not returned to his duties in the Crown attorney’s office. He reportedly may suffer permanent lung damage due to the illness. An e-mail to Simard’s work account was not returned Thursday.

Neill says The Ottawa Hospital hasn’t seen any other patients with similar conditions.

“We’ve not seen any other activity in any other patients or staff,” she said.

Pressed by reporters in Ottawa on why the federal government is allowing Canadians to travel to a country where 20 normally healthy people have died suddenly from an unknown disease, Grondin said it is not up public health authorities to tell Canadians where to travel. She said the information public health authorities have so far doesn’t warrant a travel ban. She those intending to travel to Mexico should make sure they’ve had their flu vaccine and take other precautions, such as washing their hands. They should also see their doctor if they have a cough that also includes sneezing.

But Grondin said the travel advisory could change, depending on the results of the tests being done in Winnipeg.

“At this stage, it is not for us to close borders. We don’t want to generate undue scare,” she said.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Health/Cornwall+treated+mystery+illness+Ottawa/1527693/story.html

Canada can’t muzzle me

The Canadian immigration minister Jason Kenney gazetted in the Sun yesterday morning that I was to be excluded from his country because of my views on Afghanistan. That’s the way the rightwing, last-ditch dead-enders of Bushism in Ottawa conduct their business.

Kenney is quite a card. A quick trawl establishes he’s a gay-baiter, gung-ho armchair warrior, with an odd habit of exceeding his immigration brief. Three years ago he attacked the pro-western Lebanese prime minister, Fuad Siniora, for being ungrateful to Canada for its support of Israeli bombardment of his country. Most curiously of all, in 2006 he addressed a rally of the so-called People’s Mujahideen of Iran, a Waco-style cult, banned in the European Union as a terrorist organisation. On one level being banned by such a man is like being told to sit up straight by the hunchback of Notre Dame or being lectured on due diligence by Conrad Black. On another, for a Scotsman to be excluded from Canada is like being turned away from the family home.

But what are my views on Afghanistan which the Canadian government does not want its people to hear? I’ve never been to Afghanistan, nor have I ever met a Taliban, but my first impression into the parliamentary vellum on the subject was more than two decades ago. At the time the fathers of the Taliban were “freedom fighters”, paraded at US Republican and British Tory conferences. Who knows, maybe even the Canadian right extolled these god-fearing opponents of communism. I did not, however.

On the eve of their storming of Kabul I told Margaret Thatcher that she “had opened the gates to the barbarians” and that “a long, dark night would now descend upon the people of Afghanistan”. With the same conviction, I say to the Canadian and other Nato governments today that your policy is equally a profound mistake. From time to time and with increased regularity it is a crime. Like the bombardment of wedding parties and even funerals or the presiding over a record opium crop, which under our noses finds its way coursing through the veins of young people from Nova Scotia to Newcastle upon Tyne. But it is worse than a crime, as Tallyrand said, it’s a blunder.

The Afghans have never succumbed to foreign occupation, heaven knows the British empire tried, tried and failed again. Not even Alexander the Great succeeded, and whoever else he is, minister Kenney is no Alexander the Great. Young Canadian soldiers are dying in significant numbers on Afghanistan’s plains. Their families are entitled to know how many of us believe this adventure to be similarly doomed and that genuine support for troops – British, Canadian and other – means bringing them home and changing course.

To ban a five-times elected British MP from addressing public events or keeping appointments with television and radio programmes is a serious matter. Kenney’s “spokesman” told the Sun, “Galloway’s not coming in … end of story.” Alas for him, it’s not. Canada remains a free country governed by law and my friends are even now seeking a judicial review. And there are other ways I can address those Canadians who wish to hear me.

More than half a century ago Paul Robeson, one of the greatest men who ever lived, was forbidden to enter Canada not by Ottawa but by Washington, which had taken away his passport. But he was still able to transfix a vast crowd of Vancouver’s mill hands and miners with a 17-minute telephone concert, culminating in a rendition of the Ballad of Joe Hill. Technology has moved on since then. And so from coast to coast, minister Kenney notwithstanding, I will be heard – one way or another.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/21/george-galloway-canada

Russian jet chased by Canada before Obama visit

OTTAWA – On the eve of Barack Obama’s visit to Ottawa, a Russian jet approached Canada’s Arctic air space and had to be turned away by Canadian warplanes, Defence Minister Peter MacKay said Friday at a news conference on Parliament Hill.

With Obama poised to leave American soil for the first time as U.S. president on Feb. 19, the joint Canada-U.S. aerospace command, Norad, detected the Russian plane. Two of Canada’s CF-18 fighter jets were scrambled to intercept one Russian aircraft, MacKay confirmed.

At the time, Canada’s was preparing to host the world’s most popular politician on what would be his first international trip after weeks of preparation that included some of the tightest security ever. Indeed, the airspace over Canada’s capital was temporarily closed to all planes but Obama’s own Air Force One, which arrived and then departed after the seven-hour visit.

MacKay said at no time did the Russian plane enter Canadian air space.

“It’s not a game,” said MacKay, adding that Canada takes the approach of such aircraft seriously.

The incident was disclosed Friday morning at a joint news conference on Parliament Hill with MacKay, Gen. Walt Natynczyk, the chief of the defence staff and U.S. Gen. Gene Renuart, the commander of Norad.

In 2007, Russia planted its flag on the seabed below the North Pole and resumed flights of strategic bomber jets over the Arctic Ocean, a practice that stopped after the fall of the Soviet Union. The Harper Conservatives have since unveiled an Arctic strategy to assert Canadian sovereignty, and spur economic and social development in the Far North.

Relations between Russia and the West have been strained since last August when Russian forces marched into Georgia following the Georgian army’s occupation of the breakaway province of South Ossetia.

Weeks after that, MacKay travelled to Iqualuit to reinforce his Conservative government’s new sovereignty policy, where he put Russia on notice that Canada intended to be vigilant about foreign incursions in the region.

“We’re obviously very concerned about much of what Russia has been doing lately,” MacKay said last August. “When we see a Russian bear approaching Canadian air space, we meet them with an F-18,” added MacKay, referring to Arctic patrol flights by Russian bombers. “We remind them that this is Canadian air space, that this is Canadian sovereign air space, and they turn back. And we are going to continue to do that, to demonstrate that we are watching closely their activities here.”

Renuart is on a scheduled visit to Ottawa and was to address a major symposium later Friday at the annual meeting of the Conference of Defence Associations Institute.

Norad is the jewel of Canada-U.S. military relations, and it celebrated its first half decade in existence last year.

Norad was conceived in the Cold War to serve as an early warning system against a nuclear missile attack from the then Soviet Union.

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, and following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks it remains a major tool in the defence of North America.

A Canadian officer permanently holds the No. 2 position at Norad headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo. On the morning of 9/11, it was a Canadian general who was on duty and who ordered the closure of North American airspace, and who dispatched Canadian and American warplanes into the continent’s skies moments after New York and Washington were attacked by hijacked commercial airliners.

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=1335735

Two men missing after helicopter plunges into Quebec lake

MONTREAL — Two men are missing in the frigid waters of a Quebec lake following a helicopter crash northeast of Ottawa.

Quebec provincial police say two other passengers swam 500 metres to shore through the frosty waves of Lac Simon after the chopper went down Wednesday evening.

The missing men also climbed out of the helicopter but never made it ashore, police said.

“The four of them got out of the helicopter and they swam for the side of the lake, but just two (of them) arrived on shore,” provincial police spokeswoman Melanie Larouche said Thursday.

“The two others dived (went under), unfortunately.”

A 33-year-old man from Blainville, Que. and a 48-year-old man from Laval, Que., were treated at a local hospital for hypothermia. The older man was then released, police said.

Back at Lac Simon, police divers, local firefighters and a Canadian Forces helicopter were still scouring the lake Thursday for the pilot, a 49-year-old man from Lorraine, Que., and a 63-year-old man from the Montreal area.

A Griffon helicopter from CFB Trenton’s 424 squadron flew to the area, about 75 kilometres northeast of Ottawa, on Wednesday night.

Larouche said police still haven’t determined why the 2007 Robinson R44 model helicopter crashed. Police said the chopper belongs to the pilot, who also owns a cottage on the lake.

Several witnesses called police Wednesday around 6 p.m. when they saw the chopper drop out of the sky.

Larouche said many relatives of the missing men were gathered Thursday near the water’s edge.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5gyLh4RAqcpCdq-X_8CWJHpLk45Nw

L’humiliation pour Harper “la terreur”

Les conservateurs canadiens devaient former un nouveau gouvernement minoritaire après les législatives anticipées du 14 octobre. Mais les méthodes de leur chef, Stephen Harper, ont convaincu les partis d’opposition de s’entendre pour prendre le pouvoir.

Que se passe-t-il au Canada ? La presse est frappée de stupeur face aux événements qui se déroulent à Ottawa depuis une semaine. “Quel choix amer doivent maintenant faire les Canadiens : un gouvernement dirigé par Stephen Harper, dont les méthodes en ont déçu plusieurs ; ou un gouvernement emmené par Stéphane Dion, le chef du Parti libéral, massivement rejeté par le pays il y a six semaines [lors des législatives anticipées qui se sont déroulées le 14 octobre] ? Que le gagnant puisse devenir le perdant et que le perdant puisse devenir le gagnant est un scénario que personne n’aurait pu imaginer il y a une semaine. L’auteur de ce scénario est Stephen Harper, dont les erreurs de jugement ont permis la signature, le 1er décembre, d’une entente de coalition – bonne pour dix-huit mois – entre Stéphane Dion, Jack Layton, le chef des néodémocrates [NPD, gauche], et le séparatiste Gilles Duceppe à la tête du Bloc québécois”, note Jeffrey Simpson dans le Globe and Mail.

L’énoncé économique présenté par le ministre des Finances Jim Flaherty, le 27 novembre, a mis le feu aux poudres. Son bilan avant le dépôt du budget fédéral en janvier 2009 devait fixer les orientations du nouveau gouvernement. Perçu comme une attaque profondément partisane, il a provoqué la colère des partis d’opposition alors que leur appui est nécessaire aux conservateurs minoritaires au Parlement canadien. Stephen Harper, qui croyait pouvoir passer en force, fait désormais machine arrière. Mais il est trop tard pour son gouvernement, car une motion de censure pourrait être votée et de nouvelles élections convoquées. Pour éviter ce scénario, les trois partis d’opposition ont donc préféré s’entendre entre eux et former un projet de coalition gouvernementale. Les libéraux et les néodémocrates formeraient le nouveau cabinet que les indépendantistes du Bloc québécois appuieraient au Parlement sans y prendre part. Cette situation inédite dans l’histoire du pays ne finit pas d’étonner. Stéphane Dion, chef démissionnaire du Parti libéral après les résultats calamiteux des dernières élections, deviendrait Premier ministre du Canada d’ici à ce que sa formation se choisisse un nouveau chef, en mai prochain !

Jeffrey Simpson note que “si cette coalition prend le pouvoir, le Canada aura un dirigeant intérimaire que presque tous les députés libéraux préféreraient ne pas voir à leur tête”. Certains commentateurs estiment que les libéraux sont excités par l’odeur du sang et qu’ils sont prêts à tout pour prendre le pouvoir. La presse est cependant unanime pour désigner Stephen Harper comme responsable de ce climat délétère. Le quotidien de gauche The Toronto Star affirme que “la coalition entre libéraux et néodémocrates est aujourd’hui préférable au régime conservateur dirigé par Harper. Celui-ci a démontré que pour lui l’idéologie et la logique partisane étaient plus importantes que de former un bon gouvernement.” Plus à l’ouest, Don Martin, du Calgary Herald, estime que “ce qui est en train de se passer marque la fin de Harper le téméraire. Il a été réduit au statut de simple mortel, bataillant pour sauver sa peau comme une terreur soudainement vulnérable aux attaques de ses rivaux et de certains membres de son propre parti.”

Au Québec, Michel David du Devoir s’inquiète des effets du bras de fer qui se déroule à Ottawa sur la campagne électorale en cours dans la province. “Quelle qu’en soit l’issue, la crise politique qui ébranle le Canada aura inévitablement un impact sur l’élection québécoise du 8 décembre, ne serait-ce qu’en réduisant encore davantage le peu d’intérêt que la population y a prêté jusqu’à présent.”

http://www.courrierinternational.com/article.asp?obj_id=92200

As much as 15 cm of snow to blanket Ottawa

Ontario’s first winter storm of the season is expected to slam into the nation’s capital Tuesday, blanketing Ottawa with about 15 centimetres of the white stuff, Environment Canada is warning.

Residents in western Quebec and eastern Ontario can expect to see heavy rain become thick white snow beginning Tuesday evening.

“Expect the change sometime around 5 or 6 o’clock in the evening,” said CTV Ottawa meteorologist J.J. Clarke.

By the time residents wake up on Wednesday, a blanket of snow will cover the ground in the regions between Ottawa, Renfrew and Algonquin.

Areas under a winter storm watch include: Prescott, Russell, Cornwall, Lancaster, Maxville, Alexandria, Plevna, Sharbot Lake, western Lanark County, Renfrew, Pembroke and Barry’s Bay.

The storm system, which is intensifying over the eastern U.S. seaboard, will bring with it northwesterly winds gusting up to 70 km/h, causing whiteout conditions and dangerously low visibility for drivers.

The fall storm will hit as many bright coloured leaves still hang on Ottawa trees. Large amounts of packed wet snow may bring down tree trees limbs and power lines, warned Environment Canada.

Last year, the first major snowfall hit the area on November 16. The winter of 2007-08 was one of snowiest in recent memory, with snowfall levels approaching the 1970-71 record of 441.1 centimetres.

Sidewalks and front porches should be all clear for trick-or-treaters on Halloween night as sunny sky and warm temperatures are forecast for the region on Thursday and Friday.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20081028/Ottawa_storm_081028/20081028?hub=TopStories

Instant poll finds Dion clear debate winner

French-speaking Canadians surveyed by Ipsos Reid immediately after Wednesday’s debate said the Liberal Leader won the night, and one in five viewers say they changed their mind.

TORONTO — Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion clearly prevailed in the French-language leaders’ debate, according to viewers surveyed by Ipsos Reid immediately after Wednesday’s telecast.

The online poll found 40 per cent of voters said Mr. Dion won the debate, compared with 24 per cent who gave the contest to Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe. Conservative Leader Stephen Harper came in at 16 per cent, NDP Leader Jack Layton at 11 per cent, and Green Party Leader Elizabeth May at just 1 per cent.

A Crop poll for La Presse with a smaller sample size found Mr. Dion ranked second, trailing Mr. Duceppe by only 6 per cent among viewers who rated their performance as “excellent” or “very good.” Only 18 per cent said Mr. Harper had won the debate.

While there was no knock-out punch, Mr. Dion was at ease in his native tongue and set the agenda by promising he would implement a five-point economic action plan within 30 days of becoming prime minister. He may have also benefited from low expectations after a rocky campaign plagued by poor polling numbers.

First televised leaders’ debate of the 2008 election campaign turns into a wide-ranging and substantive discussion of policy.

The Ipsos Reid poll found 36 per cent of viewers rated Mr. Dion as the leader who sounds and acts most like a prime minister, ahead of Mr. Harper at 31 per cent. One in five respondents – 20 per cent – said they had changed their mind about who to vote for as a result of viewing the debate.

The debate, which took place at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, was seen as critical to Mr. Harper’s effort to win a majority government and to Mr. Dion’s efforts to revive the faltering Liberal campaign. The bout saw Mr. Harper raked over the coals, smiling thinly as his opponents did most of the talking. The multipronged barrage appeared to leave the Conservative Leader resigned to having to weather the onslaught.

Other findings:

• 41 per cent of voters said Mr. Dion offered the best policies and ideas during the debate. In second was Mr. Duceppe at 22 per cent, Mr. Layton at 19 per cent, Mr. Harper at 13 per cent and Ms. May at 1 per cent.

• Mr. Layton was ranked most likeable and the person voters would most like to go out with for a bear or coffee. Mr. Layton was also viewed to be the most visually attractive (33 per cent), following by Mr. Duceppe at 22 per cent, Mr. Dion at 19 per cent, Mr. Harper at 15 per cent and Ms. May at 5 per cent.

A total of 637 French-speaking Canadian voters were polled online immediately after the debate. The results are considered accurate plus-or-minus 3.9 per cent, 19 times out of 20. The data were statistically weighted to ensure the sample’s age, sex, regional and party support composition reflects that of the actual French-speaking voter population. The sample was drawn from a pre-recruited panel of 12,000 voters from Ipsos Reid’s internet panel.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081002.welxndionlead1002/BNStory/politics/home