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This isn't exactly true given the rise of federal and provincial Human Rights Tribunals in Canada. Jailtime may not be a big risk, but financial ruin is.

http://www.macleans.ca/article.jsp?content=20080227_1488_1488

Ted Kindos of Burlington, Ont., has already spent $20,000 of his own dough defending himself against a "human rights" complaint and estimates he'll add another six figures to that before it's all done.

Keep in mind this is occurring OUTSIDE OF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND THE COURT SYSTEM

I am deeply ashamed this can and does happen in Canada today. General discontent against these Human Rights Commissions is building, but not fast enough.

They are either there for doing research and thus don't care about learning or they aren't sure what they are doing there and just needed a job.

You're confusing "All University Professors" with the elusive and endangered "Tenure Track Faculty". Most professors nowadays are employed as sessional instructors. That means that they are working part time on a contract which only lasts for a single semester, have no job security, no benefits of any kind, limited access to resources such as office space or the library, and are typically paid next to nothing.

Any illusions they may have had about doing actual research in their field should have disappeared after their first semester of being exploited, and if they really "just needed a job" they would have been better off serving drinks or flipping burgers. The hours and pay are a lot better and at least there would be some possibility of career advancement that way.

This is nothing new, but it's getting worse every year. Consider Allison Dube, at the University of Calgary. Despite teaching at the same school since before many of his students were born, working full time hours and winning numerous awards for excellence in teaching, he can barely afford to continue working.

"Telling the story of his first contract with U of C, Dube explains that he earned about $25,000 for one year's work--or five half-courses. Thirteen years later, in 2002-2003, his earnings have actually gone down, even though he is teaching the same number of courses with about four times more students."

"Poor economic conditions for faculty hiring have prevailed on and off since the 1990s. As a result, permanent, second-class faculty pools of sessional workers have developed in otherwise "excellent" and "academically free" postsecondary institutions. As one administrator put it, "As long as the administration can pay sessionals, why would they give a term appointment? They can get everything done sessionally. It is cheaper... I think that people are surprised when they find out how bad it really is. Especially 15 years with no job security or benefits.""

Honestly that has more to do with overproduction of Ph.Ds from some departments, notice that most of the people talked about in the article are from arts. The telling part of the article isn't that they're getting paid so little by the Uni, it's that the only time a second job was mentioned it was for a call centre.

I don't think the situation is as bad for the sciences, where Universities have to compete with high paying industry to attract people. These people can then demand things like professorships. In the arts there's just not as much industry demand for the graduate degrees so the Universities can pay them a lot less.

Really, I think the solution is to reduce the number of graduate positions available, this will free up funding to pay faculty better although it will probably reduce the amount of research done (I honestly don't know anything about the quality or value of research from the arts).

They are either there for doing research and thus don't care about learning or they aren't sure what they are doing there and just needed a job.

You're confusing "All University Professors" with the elusive and endangered "Tenure Track Faculty". Most professors nowadays are employed as sessional instructors. That means that they are working part time on a contract which only lasts for a single semester, have no job security, no benefits of any kind, limited access to resources such as office space or the library, and are typically paid next to nothing.

Any illusions they may have had about doing actual research in their field should have disappeared after their first semester of being exploited, and if they really "just needed a job" they would have been better off serving drinks or flipping burgers. The hours and pay are a lot better and at least there would be some possibility of career advancement that way.

This is nothing new, but it's getting worse every year. Consider Allison Dube, at the University of Calgary. Despite teaching at the same school since before many of his students were born, working full time hours and winning numerous awards for excellence in teaching, he can barely afford to continue working.

"Telling the story of his first contract with U of C, Dube explains that he earned about $25,000 for one year's work--or five half-courses. Thirteen years later, in 2002-2003, his earnings have actually gone down, even though he is teaching the same number of courses with about four times more students."

"Poor economic conditions for faculty hiring have prevailed on and off since the 1990s. As a result, permanent, second-class faculty pools of sessional workers have developed in otherwise "excellent" and "academically free" postsecondary institutions. As one administrator put it, "As long as the administration can pay sessionals, why would they give a term appointment? They can get everything done sessionally. It is cheaper... I think that people are surprised when they find out how bad it really is. Especially 15 years with no job security or benefits.""

All this, and you're pissed about your professors having the temerity to not prepare elaborate Broadway productions for every single lecture? Try this: Dig around in your pockets for all the loose change you can find and put that on the table along with five pieces of paper and a broken pencil. Now, quit your job and using only the resources in front of you design and teach three full year courses on microprocessor design, quantum theory, and the history of art in the Spanish Netherlands. When you are done you may treat yourself to a cheese sandwich.

Those are the conditions that your professors are working under. They're not lazy, they're not there just for the money, they're working as teachers because they really want to. Only a complete idiot would subject themselves to that kind of job if they didn't. If you want to be annoyed at anyone for the poor quality of lectures you have been forced to sit through, get annoyed at the University administration for treating their staff like dogs.

Worse than dogs, really. At least the dog gets fed.

This case stems out of a much larger issue regarding abuses by Canada's Human Rights Tribunal.

...travels through RIM(TM)'s central server in Canada

Canada, eh? That's one of those unstable, oil-rich nations run by a fundamentalist dictator, that supports all kinds of terror, right?

No there's just less hentai in Canada, and more consumers of hentai in the United States; it's not illegal according to any statute here, we just don't have as many pervs as you do.

That and we'd rather preoccupy ourselves with the Real Thing!

If by nothing you mean 50 million pounds then I would agree with you. In fact, the man is a freakin' multi-millionaire thanks to his investments in the buying and selling of carbon credits and his speeches about how in 10 years our entire world is going to be half underwater. Granted, that is an exaggeration, but for instance he suggests that Manhattan is going to be almost completely submerged in our lifetime, and Florida will cease to exist. Oh, let's not worry about reports that this is not likely to happen for another 2000 someodd years. I'm sure Gore in all of his infinite wisdom is closer to the truth.

There was quite a bit of interesting analysis of the American legal system surrounding the Conrad Black case. A nice example is here.

A relevant point is 5) Statute creep.

"One of the ugliest features of American justice is the way that laws designed to address very particular situations are allowed to metastasize and be applied to anything a prosecutor fancies."

The overarching theme is this: in the American justice system, the deck is heavily stacked in favour of the prosecution. This is popular with the voting public because it feels like "tough on crime" but it doesn't necessarily serve justice.

What crime, the crime of exercising freedom of speech?

While we don't have to agree with what is posted, by allowing free speech you in fact guarantee your own freedoms. We can express opinion, joke or criticize Jews, Catholics, Christians, of various sorts, politicians even but the Hindu and Muslims are off limits? Not a very level playing field.

I can understand giving out the IP in certain circumstances where threats and violations to humanity are concerned, but options, jokes, differing viewpoints are different. It then becomes a tool to coerce and intimidate.

I guess Google has no moral code. And we also learn about the intolerance to other view points that some specific religions have. And I would not put too much credence to being in Canada, I am quite sure CSIS can get IP addresses for the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal. A Macleans article like this one made the commission, which is turning out to be the minority ( 2%) using them to hunt down differing opinions.

3. Mark Steyn's thesis is that muslims are taking over the west, "breeding like mosquitoes," and that they plan to replace our western legal system with Sharia law. And he is pretty offensive in the way he argues it.

You do know the mosquitoes phrase is a quote from Norwegian imam Mullah Krekar, right?

"We're the ones who will change you," the Norwegian imam Mullah Krekar told the Oslo newspaper Dagbladet in 2006. "Just look at the development within Europe, where the number of Muslims is expanding like mosquitoes. Every Western woman in the EU is producing an average of 1.4 children. Every Muslim woman in the same countries is producing 3.5 children." As he summed it up: "Our way of thinking will prove more powerful than yours."

So is it hate speech against Muslims to quote a Muslim? (By the way, the above link is the original "hate speech" article in question.)

But the REAL issue of why he's on trial is because McLean's [sic] magazine (Canada's largest circulated magazine) has him as a regular contributer while refusing to let anyone offer a rebuttal. So, people complained.

Except the complainers were demanding the magazine publish an unedited five page rebuttal in the magazine. No magazine allows that.

Incitement, or political debate? You decide. Macleans has an excerpt from Mark Steyn's book.

3. Mark Steyn's thesis is that muslims are taking over the west, "breeding like mosquitoes," and that they plan to replace our western legal system with Sharia law. And he is pretty offensive in the way he argues it. But the REAL issue of why he's on trial is because McLean's magazine (Canada's largest circulated magazine) has him as a regular contributer while refusing to let anyone offer a rebuttal. So, people complained.

If the "REAL" issue is that they didn't publish a rebuttal, why is the Human Rights Commission involved at all? The magazine was privately-owned, was it not?

Also, article for context. See the last paragraph for mosquitoes quote.

I hope Mark Steyn gets decent treatment: http://www.macleans.ca/article.jsp?content=20071130_111821_7448

Thanks, I've already added a couple of those sites to my bookmarks, too bad they don't have RSS feeds. Ill look at some of the rest of them in a bit.

As for me, being Canadian, (but living in Europe) and using a lot of politics with my teaching (English teacher), I try and keep a diversified list. I'll try and list them more by theme than amount visited.

Canadian:
The CBC - Dissapointing RSS feed, they don't have too much/day, but it's always good to see what they have to say on Canadian politcs.
The Globe and Mail - The best site for at least a bit thoughtful Canadian news.
The CTV - OK, pulp, but once in awhile it's interesting to see what pulp has to say about things.
TSN - Sports, got to keep up with hockey and curling, none better.
Macleans - The Canadian equivalent of Time, some of their stuff is really great.

International:
The BBC - Probably the best English language news in the world, enough said.
The Guardian - Better analysis than the BBC, but not the sheer volume.
Al Jazeera - More balanced than what you'd think, at least the English version ... well, except for the editorial cartoons.
NY Times - Amazingly crummy RSS feed, seeing as it's one of the biggest newspapers in the US (but probably still better than the CBC).
Deutche Welle - Not the best site, either, but as I'm living in Germany ...

For actually thinking:
The Christian Science Monitor - I'm not religious, and except for a few things (see their "about us"), neither are they. What they are is the most balanced news in the US I've ever seen. They are thoughtful, honest and as far as I can see don't pander to any particular point of view.
Sign and Sight - This is only if you want to spend some time actually reading, as it's not meant for the masses. It takes articles by thinking people from across Europe and translates them into English.

Others: The Register - Tech news with a British sense of humour, and people think they are biased because of it.
Neil Gaiman's Blog - Not as interesting as it used to be, but I've learnt a lot about the book/publishing world through his blog.

Yes, I'm an information hound, and I like to see as many points of view as possible. I've tried fox news a couple of times, but most of the topics I'm interested in they've just taken things off the wire, so nothing new. What I also do is search google news when I find an article I want to get more points of view on. I don't use the service itself, but they are great for finding out who is saying what about a particular topic - you might even find a new angle that hadn't been said 100 times before.

the liberals only pay attention to self-promoting issues

Unlike the Conservatives? You mention trust funds (I think you mean income trusts, genius. Trust fund is what enables Mulrooney Jr to spend all his time at pissups)? Do I need to remind you that your precious Cons campaigned on the promise to eliminate those trusts? And then reneged on their promise and weren't going to do it until the opposition hammered them to do so in parliament?

Also, how about Con Heritage Minister Bev Oda and her tax payer funded limo to the Junos? Or how about how Bev Oda is thoroughly owned by the Recording Industry? You know, Hollywood's Member of Parliament?

I think the Libs deserved to get ousted, but anyway you slice it, he Cons are worse.

They did nothing about it (or anything else for that matter) when they were in power.

You're right. Far worse to do nothing than to sell out your nation to corporate interests.

...in the June issue of MacLeans magazine (Canada's "Time").

Volpe's acceptance of these contributions was widely mocked and derided. The website cited in this thread was launched, and got a fair bit of coverage online.

Mr. Volpe subsequently decided to return the donations given by these kids. At about the same time, the website above had its DNS record SUSPD for one of many reasons (the Canadian Internet Registration Authority, CIRA cited a different reason in a press release (failure to provide valid Canadian contact information, as required by CIRA rules for a ".ca" domain) than that apparently given to the domain registrant (disrepute).

The interesting questions I find are (1) how influential were Volpe's minions in getting this site quashed, given that he was a member of the former Liberal government and CIRA operates under the authority of the Canadian Governmental department Industry Canada, and (2) what due process rights does any (".ca") domain owner have, given the speed with which this process executed (especially in light of all the legal expertise which is present on CIRA's board of directors, apparently not even bothering to ask for any court order or proper investigation against this site).

This link was posted by another commenter, I have seen similar news stories at other sources. The findings were not the result of deliberate scientific inquiry, but rather an observation from a team of police investigators. The number of investigated pedophiles who had an interest in Star Trek was neither 99% nor "all but one", but a significant, surprisingly large number in comparison to the general population.

Note that no one is saying that Star Trek fans tend to be pedophiles, nor that Star Trek in any way turns people into pedophiles. There seems, however, to be statistical evidence that Star Trek appeals much more to the group of pedophiles investigated by that police team than the average population, which might be an interesting factoid about pedophiles.

Good point! Also, a high percentage of child molesters are Trekkies.

http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/justice/article. jsp?content=20050530_106573_106573

I read this article some time ago that gives some interesting insights into the "evil" that Wal-Mart causes.

Assuming that its true that Wal-Mart actually makes a positive economic impact in communities (and to poor families), then what the hell are we complaining about?

Try this one on for size...

Like it or not, usually what is inflicted on the citizens of the U.S. of A. by business folks also happens to canadaians. I never understood why some canadians thought it would be any different than that.... Business is pretty much multinational now and the governments of the world are becoming more more under the influence of the big multinationals...

Basically all these folks at macleans did was call a US company that got the records directly from Bell Canada, Telus Mobility, and Fido/Rodgers...

So which cell phone company in canada do you work for again?

Maclean's Magazine did a story on this in November. The magazine purchased the Canadian privacy minister's phone records.

Beautiful way to make a point.

Two months ago, Macleans (Canadian magazine) ran a story on this, but they took it one step further: they bought the cell phone records of Canada's Privacy Commisssioner, Jennifer Stoddart. It was remarkably embarassing. Reading the Maclean's article was entertaining, so if any Canadian's missed it, check it out.

I like your sig link but here's another one for ya about trekkies, kinda off topic though:

http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/justice/article. jsp?content=20050530_106573_106573

Your loaded question implies there's a serious problem with the current system in the U.S, and that's just not the case. Fresh water is cheap and plentiful in the majority of the U.S. and that's not about to change any time soon.

I live on the northern side of the great lakes. I'm surrounded by fresh water. Yet every summer without fail I find my area in atleast 3 fresh water bans (no lawn watering, restricted laundry, etc.)

Population density is increasing everywhere in North America and the situation is most definately getting worse - especially with all the pollutants we're putting in our water. This increases the need for treatment facilities thereby reducing the availability of clean water.

Matter of fact, a quick Google brought up this interesting piece that discusses a piece of the North American water situation.

My problem with this is that it was a reactionary tactic, and one that is not really effective. The problem is that programmers are never taught how to document things and why they must, and taking an artistic writing course doesn't really change that. Part of the problem is that producing documentation should really be a course of it's own, and a required course at that.

Although, in the interest of disclosure, I should mention that the University I went to was ranked, year after year, as the worst university in Canada (out of 49 universities) in nearly every category. The few categories it didn't rate dead last in, it rated very near the bottom (usually second last). I obviously made a poor choice, and this has coloured my view of these things. However, my inability to succeed at that programme was all my own fault (far too many mistakes, such as poor scheduling, course selection and self discipline).

Yeah, you know the Star Trek readers are definitely being watched.

http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/justice/article. jsp?content=20050530_106573_106573

And this is the really scary part of library record snooping -- not the ones who are looking at people who check out The Anarchist's cookbook, but doing searches and serveillance for more casual connections -- hunting down trekkies because they might be pedophiles. -- Hunting down people who read american history because they might be "too patriotic" -- where does it end!?

This technology has been previously explored by Canadian researchers. I can't find a better link right now bet here's a MacLeans story about one of the scientists. From the article: by attaching sensors over the face and throat muscles that form words, scientists can detect what a person is saying through mouth movement -- in a form of indirect lip-reading -- even in a noisy jet cockpit.

To clarify, Waterloo was ranked the top school in the "comprehensive" category, which has 11 candidate schools ranked. Most of the other top Canadian schools are in a different category, "Medical Doctoral," which includes schools that have medical schools associated with them (having a medical school has an impact on funding levels, I believe).

Macleans rankings

Waterloo is a top school, but I felt it should be noted that it may not be THE top school.

Also, Macleans is not necessarily as much of an authority as most people would like to think, but that's another matter.

The difference is between someone looking into your apartment with binoculars when you change, and someone raping you.

In Canada and many other countries, they're calling this the reverse brain drain.

The #1 beer in Canada is Budweiser

"Blues"? Bah. Everyone knows the number one beer in Canada is the King of Beers.

Right now I plan on going to a college that is either in New England, New York, or south east Canada.

South? We don't have that. We have a west, an east, and a far north.

In any case, if you're considering schools in Canada, I highly suggest that you take a look at the Maclean's Canadian University Ranking, if you haven't already.

If you're looking out east (and I mean east of Ontario), I've heard nothing but good things about Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia. Plus, you can see the school ring from a mile away, you'll never have trouble identifying fellow alumni. (It has a big black 'X' on it)

In Ontario, U of Toronto is good for just about everything, and is in a huge city, whereas Guelph has one of the best bio/chem programs going, and a laid back complete-university-town feel to it.

Alternate suggestion: University of British Columbia on the west coast. You have to go all the way to the west end of the country, but some of the bonuses included with this school are good weather, good weed, easy access to world-class skiing, and a topless beach.

Speaking of topless, in Ontario bare female breasts are perfectly legal. I can tell you from experience that this facet of the law is often incorporated into frosh week activities.

Good Luck!

I have yet to find any university that comes close to matching Waterloo's program

Please allow me to rub your face in something for just one minute here.

University of Waterloo: SECOND-best in its class

The above post listed the rankings for Canadian medical doctorial universities instead of the rankings for universities in the comprehensive category.

C'mon up to Canada for your education. The tuition is about half (or less) of what it is in the states, if you're gay you can get married, and we're about to decriminalize marijuana.

Better yet, you don't have to pay to see our rankings:

1 Toronto
2 Queen's
*3 McGill
*3 Western
5 UBC
6 Montreal
7 Alberta
8 Sherbrooke
9 Ottawa
10 McMaster
11 Dalhousie
12 Saskatchewan
13 Laval
14 Calgary
15 Manitoba

The article you cite seems to paint UW as consistently the #1 Canadian university. The site seems to state that UW has been #1 for 10 years running. I beg to differ.

If you care to look at the actual site of the magazine that does the university rankings (scroll to the bottom) you can see that waterloo placed 3rd last year. The year before that, they placed second. In the past 5 years, both Guelph and Simon Fraser have consistenly outranked Waterloo, and both have placed #1. Guelph was #1 two years ago, Simon Fraser was #1 before that.

Sorry to shatter your conceptions.

The link you give (which conincidentally, is to the UW's student newspaper) cites only the reputation rankings, a meaningless figure culled from a survey of high school guidance counsellors.

>What I already see happening is the start of a movement to put the teeth back in the public side of the copyright bargain.

Here's a little "proof" that the people are (finally) starting to wake up and fight back. In a nutshell: A long time politician loses because his party sits with their thumbs up their asses while the supreme court takes away a long standing Canadian right: The right to watch American television. Its not directly copyright, but it sure does smack of the same style of a lot of today's copyright laws.

If this party loses their majority government in the upcoming Federal election due to this law I think it would bring tears to my eyes to finally see Canada wake up and tell this government we won't take US-style save-the-company-before-the-people politics lying down.

Thats why real canadians dont by time "canada", they read there own news magazine: Maclean's Magazine

If your not a Canadian youve probably never heard of it - almost every Canadian does.

Besides, as a post states below, saying Time-Canada is really a cop out for reselling commercial propaganda.

Most Canadians who are interested in this kind of magazine don't read times (this may shock you, but we're not interested in your local US news) but rather subscribe to Macleans.

Having a leading university review Carnivore is a Good Idea (TM).

Having a leading American university review Carnivore is a Bad Idea (TM). Why? Oh, sure, like the FBI doesn't have any research or academic interests. Puh-LEASE.

Just fire up one of them there Carnivore machines to a Canadian university (lots to choose from, and even a handy ranking tool to help). The FBI can't come snooping, us Canucks will be pretty much impartial, and with luck the machine will get hung up at Customs and the FBI will have to pay duty on the thing.

It would be very helpful if they laid out the specifics as to how they based their ratings, ie. how much weight did they give to manuals, how much to support, etc... For example, the Canadian magazine Maclean's rates Canadian universities every year (and always causes quite a still on campuses) but clearly lays out how much weight they give to each of the categories, rather than simply say the Univesity of Calgary is the best (which they didn't say but I 'biasedly' believe to be the case).

So in the case of this article about Linux distributions, I could dismiss it's findings if they based 90% of the rating on manuals if, for example, I never read manuals.
-dr

It would be very helpful if they laid out the specifics as to how they based their ratings, ie. how much weight did they give to manuals, how much to support, etc... For example, the Canadian magazine Maclean's rates Canadian universities every year (and always causes quite a still on campuses) but clearly lays out how much weight they give to each of the categories, rather than simply say the Univesity of Calgary is the best (which they didn't say but I 'biasedly' believe to be the case).

So in the case of this article about Linux distributions, I could dismiss it's findings if they based 90% of the rating on manuals if, for example, I never read manuals.
-dr

It would be very helpful if they laid out the specifics as to how they based their ratings, ie. how much weight did they give to manuals, how much to support, etc... For example, the Canadian magazine Maclean's rates Canadian universities every year (and always causes quite a still on campuses) but clearly lays out how much weight they give to each of the categories, rather than simply say the Univesity of Calgary is the best (which they didn't say but I 'biasedly' believe to be the case).

So in the case of this article about Linux distributions, I could dismiss it's findings if they based 90% of the rating on manuals if, for example, I never read manuals.
-dr