h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Friday June 27.

Cool, cloudy, and blustery day (for a change)... It is supposed to rain, but since the Weather Channel also says the humidinty is down, I have my doubts.

"Privacy Commisioner" George Radwanski continues to deny wrong-doing over allegations that he gave contracts to people with "personal ties", spent public money for personal meals with family and friends, and blew a $500,000.00 on travel and expenses for himself and his senior director general of communications, Dona Vallieres.... amongst other things. He had been strangely silent for several weeks after the allegations began circulating, only surfacing last week to counter critics.

Algonquin Native leaders are asking the National Capital Commission to keep away from a burial ground next the the old Scott Paper plant, located beside the Museum of Civilization when the site is converted into a park.

"Historians believe an Algonquin burial ground is near the former Bedard's Hotel, a building that stood on the land during the 19th century. Workmen digging behind the hotel in 1843 unearthed at least 20 aboriginal skeletons."

IMHO: Judging from the NCC's sorry history of considering anything but their own financial stake in any venture, it may require court order to have their wishes taken into account. I also wonder when an effort will be made to acknowledge the presence of the burial mound located in the MacDonald Gardens Park just east of Lowertown, currently capped with a disused bandstand....

Not news from Ottawa, but worth noting...

The makers of Kaopectate, have agreed to cut the amount of lead contained in the the diarrhea remedy after a settlement with the state of California was approved Thursday. While the liquid version is no longer available the remedy in available in caplet form, and contains 25 micrograms of lead in every adult dose, or 50 times the level at which California requires a warning label.

IMHO: No wonder the bottle was so bleeding heavy!

And finally... The Guess Who and Amanda Marshall will be some of the talent entertaining Canadians during the Parliament Hill festivities this year....

Wouls that be "American Woman" I just heard?????

Hmmm... looks like I didn't miss much. I'm in London right now.

Lucky you....

I spent yesterday diggin up the fron t garden and installing a whole pile of new plants... We had these scraggly Yew trees out front which were threatening to take over the entire yard. They are now gon, and we now have a fairly big garden now.

Today, we went out for a belated Father's Day/Mom's Birthday BBQ. Got to see the new pony and I got a lot of photos of the barn swallows. I got a couple of the pony, but as soon as we decided to go out and look at him, it started pouring rain. The horses just stood there looking bored, so I have about 5 photos of them all in the same position. Hardly National Geographic material....

According to an article in the Ottawa Citizen, more schools are quietly opting for bland classroom materials. Even the personal journal is "considered too risqué in some schools"...

"Some of this censorship is trivial, some is ludicrous, and some is breathtaking in its power to dumb down what children learn in school," writes Diane Ravitch, author of the recently published The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn.

Tracking a similar trend in the United States. She reviewed education policy over a three-year period and found that children's classics like "The Little Engine That Could" have been banned in some school districts -- the train in the story is male in some versions.

IMHO: If God had wanted us to think She'd have given us a brain.....

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The on again, off again, settlement process for former students at Indian residential schools who choose to pursue out-of-court settlements appears to be on again.

Ted Hughes, a former federal and provincial judge, has been selected to oversee a team of (estmated) 32 officers who will evaluate cases those those who wish financial settlements in the faster, out-of-court settlement process. It is hoped that this will clear some of the 11,000 claims still pending. It is estimated that, if all of the cases pending went through the courts, the entire process could take 50 years.

Ralph Goodale, Minister of Public Works, in a written statement issued Friday stated, "In the interests of those who have waited so long for justice, we want to be able to move faster, saving on administration and stress for the victims".

Hughes has headed several commissions of inquiry, including a celebrated inquiry on behalf of the federal government into police handling of demonstrators at the 1997 Asia-Pacific economic conference in Vancouver.

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Only two same-sex marriages took place at Toronto's City Hall yesterday. Despite most news reports citing lack of interest by gay couples, the low numbers were due to the fact that the judge on duty for the day, citing "religious reasons" refused to conduct any same-sex marriages.

IMHO: Judges who are performing civil marriages are either going to have to step down from officiating at civil marriages, period, or be replaced if they cannot, for their own personal reasons, perform marriages which have been legally licensed.

Certainly, religious or civil officients, who are not officiating as official municipal or provincial representatives should be free to refuse on the grounds of religious or personal conviction. However,in the same way that a judge who has personal objections to particular matters must either set them aside when presiding in court or step down, court-appointed representatives performing civil marriages for the state, should not have the right to refuse on personal or religious grounds.