Concord Cancer Survival Study

5-year relative survival for breast, colorectal, and prostate cancer was generally higher in North America, Australia, Japan, and northern, western, and southern Europe, and lower in Algeria, Brazil, and eastern Europe. (Canada ranked second overall in patient survival for breast cancer, third for prostate and for colorectal cancer in women, and sixth for colorectal cancer in men.

  Source: The Lancet 

Foreign Policy Site

We suggest our readers take a look at this site.

It is produced by Carleton U & a team under the guidance of professer David Carment.

  Source: CIFP 

Canadian Premiers Meet

Discussions focus on labour market and trade issues, as well as Premiers’ on-going commitment to addressing climate change.

Prior to the meeting BC Premier Gordon Campbell said: "After 400 years, Canada's potential and prosperity are still constrained by competing regulations and differing standards that prevent Canadians from moving, living and working in all parts of the country. Different regulations and standards have restricted professionals and businesses from working or investing in different provinces without jumping through hoops that cost time and money."

  Source: Council of the Federation 

Carbon Tax  (Liberal)

  See: Liberal  Planned  Carbon Tax

Asteroid-hunting satellite a world first

Canada is building the world’s first space telescope designed to detect and track asteroids as well as satellites.

Called NEOSSat (Near Earth Object Surveillance Satellite), this spacecraft will provide a significant improvement in surveillance of asteroids that pose a collision hazard with Earth and innovative technologies for tracking satellites in orbit high above our planet.

Weighing in at a mere 65-kilograms, this dual-use $12-million mission builds upon Canada’s expertise in compact “microsatellite” design.

  Source: NEOSsat 

Coffee OK

Regular coffee consumption was not associated with an increased mortality rate in either men or women. The possibility of a modest benefit of coffee consumption on all-cause and CVD mortality needs to be further investigated

  Source: Annals of Internal Medicine

Canadian Partnership Against Cancer

Launch of Canadian 30-year cancer prevention study, June 11, 2008 – marks the official launch of The Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow Project – a study of 300,000 Canadians that explores how genetics, environment, lifestyle and behaviour contribute to the development of cancer.

  Source: Canadian Partnership Against Cancer

Defence Department Disaster

No sooner had the Prime Minister unveiled the Canada First Defence Strategy with money to buy than defence contractors started refusing to bid saying they could not break even.

When the Government of the day was in opposition it criticised the military procurement system as "a sad story of delays, starts, stops, restarts or abandonment."

It seems that Canada's military machine is not ready to buy but at the same time is ready to complain that it needs new equipment.

See The  Declaration

Arctic Council abides by but makes no effort to interpret Law of the Sea 

........An extensive international legal framework applies to the Arctic Ocean as discussed between our representatives at the meeting in Oslo on 15 and 16 October 2007 at the level of senior officials.

Notably, the law of the sea provides for important rights and obligations concerning the delineation of the outer limits of the continental shelf, the protection of the marine environment, including ice-covered areas, freedom of navigation, marine scientific research, and other uses of the sea.

We remain committed to this legal framework and to the orderly settlement of any possible overlapping claims.......

Go To The Full Declaration

Product named Desire Promoted to Enhance Sexual Performance

Health Canada is warning consumers not to use Desire, an unauthorized product promoted to enhance male sexual performance.

This product may pose serious health risks in certain patients.

Lot 0070263 of the product was found to contain the prescription drug phentolamine, which is not indicated on the label.

Desire is labelled as manufactured by Desire LLC, and distributed by StarChem Labs, of Farmingdale, New York. The product may be available at retail outlets across Canada, and over the Internet.

Go To The Full Report

Biofuels a Biobummer

"Subsidies to ethanol and biodiesel are significant and growing, but that they are rarely an efficient way of achieving many of the policy objectives they are supposed to be supporting."

"Rather than proposing yet more subsidies, policy makers should be thinking of how to turn off the tap, or at least prevent the already strong flow from turning into a torrent."

"The same benefits could be achieved through more widespread use of E10 (a blend of 10 per cent ethanol and 90 per cent gasoline), which any car built since 1980 can safely run on."

"Rather than spend scarce resources encouraging .. the expansion of filling stations equipped with E85 pumps, countries should let consumer demand drive purchases and investments."

Go To The Full Report (pdf)

Canada Matters

Justin Trudeau video

What Joe Citizen can do towards a Canada that matters globally.

A YouTube video.

A Canadian citizen may well say that there is little that can be done towards making sure that Canada which has so much going for it, Both human and natural resources, but Trudeau contends that speaking out makes a difference.

Go To The YouTube Video

Carbon Lost. Carbon Found

Scientists claim to have located the 'missing carbon sink' in tropical forests that are absorbing around one billion tonnes more carbon than previously thought.

They looked for it here and they looked for it there, but the carbon had vanished into thin air.

 So it seemed in the case of the 'missing carbon sink', a billion tonnes of human-generated carbon assumed to be absorbed by northern forests, but unaccounted for in field studies.

Scientists now say they have located the missing carbon in tropical forests that are removing much higher quantities of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than realized.

Of the 8 billion tonnes of carbon that human activity produces each year 6.4 from fossil-fuel emissions, and 1.6 from deforestation, mainly in the tropics, on average, 3.2 billion tonnes remain in the atmosphere, 2.2 billion tonnes are stored in the oceans and 2.6 billion tonnes are sucked up by land-based carbon sinks, mainly forests.

See: Nature Magazine

International Researchers Warm to Canadian Arctic Project

Climate change and Arctic sovereignty issues have created much global interest in Canada's Polar Continental Shelf Project.

Located at the edge of Resolute Bay's in one of the most unforgiving and isolated spots on the planet. The project got its start 50 years ago when Canada's government realized that it knew very little about the High Arctic.

 See: Polar Continental Shelf Project

Vitamin D - Bottled Sunshine?

 A study will investigate claims that a lack of vitamin D could be linked to ailments such as cancer, heart disease and multiple sclerosis.

The Canadian Cancer Society and the Canadian Pediatric Society say the evidence on the benefits of taking more of the sunshine vitamin is so strong that they are recommending large doses of it – amounts that, for some ages, are five to 10 times higher than what the government advises..

 See: Health Canada

Visible 'minorities'?

By 2017 (if Statistics Canada projections hold true)  the number of visible 'minorities' could climb by  23 per cent.

Canada could change NAFTA terms

Canada Prime Minister Harper said at the close of a NAFTA summit that Canada is in a stronger position than when the Canada-U.S. free-trade agreement was negotiated during the 1980s.

“We are a secure, stable [energy] supplier. That is of critical importance to the future of the United States,” Mr. Harper told reporters at the end of the North American leaders' summit known as the Three Amigos. “If we have to look at this kind of an option, I think, quite frankly, we'd be in an even stronger position now than we were 20 years ago, and we'll be in a stronger position in the future.”

Mr. Harper said he did not want to reopen NAFTA, but he is not the first Canadian politician to link opening the free-trade deal and energy. International Trade Minister David Emerson did so in February after Mr. Obama and Ms. Clinton criticized NAFTA. The agreement prohibits Canada from cutting oil exports to the United States during worldwide shortages unless supplies are also cut in Canada.

The future of NAFTA became a topic of significant discussion in Canada after both Mr. Obama and Ms. Clinton broached the idea of reopening the deal during the Democratic primaries.

See NAFTA site:Secretariat

Invisible No More

More than five million Canadians — or, one in six — now belong to a visible minority group, according to the 2006 Census.

With a population of 1.3 million, South Asians now make up the largest visible minority group in Canada, surpassing the Chinese at 1.2 million.

See how Canada's provinces, territories and largest cities break down by ethnic group. Statistics Canada

Did you know? The Canadian Satellite Anik1 was launched 1972

Canada is giving consideration to the proposed sale of MDA of Dextre, Canadarm and Canadian Satellite technology fame to a U.S. company.

Hugh Thompson, an MDA spacecraft systems engineer and Paul Cottle, a former MDA optical engineer said..... "Only U.S. citizens are allowed access to U.S. classified information,"

Mr. Thompson, represented a group of MDA employees when he testified this week in front of a Commons committee examining the sale. "Canada will lose access to technology that has been developed by Canadians in Canada for the benefit of Canada."

As an example, Mr. Thompson said when MDA was owned by a U.S. firm in the late 1990s, Canadian employees were prevented by American regulations from working on even non-secret programs. MDA returned to Canadian ownership in 2001 and the federal government pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into the company to build it up as the nation's premier space industry firm.

Mr. Cottle, predicted that after the U.S. company obtains the B.C. firm's sophisticated technology, that will be the last Canada sees of it.

Once the technology becomes part of U.S. classified programs, no foreigners, even those who developed it, will be allowed access, said Mr. Cottle, a U.S. citizen. "That's just the way it works in the U.S.," he explained. "And once that happens, MDA jobs will be lost."

Dextre the Canadian Robot

Dextre is an essential tool for maintaining and servicing the space station. With its dual-arm design providing added flexibility, Dextre will remove and replace smaller components on the Station’s exterior, where precise handling is required.

It will be equipped with lights, video equipment, a tool platform and four tool holders. Dextre can perform dexterous tasks by sensing various forces and moments on the payload. In response, it can automatically compensate its movements to ensure the payload is manipulated smoothly.

With its two arms, Dextre will load and unload objects, use robotic tools, attach and detach covers and install various units of the Space Station. It will either be attached to the end of Canadarm2 or ride independently on the Mobile Base System and have Canadarm2 deliver equipment to it for servicing. It also has four cameras that will provide the crew inside the Station with additional views of the work areas.

Like Canadarm2 and the Mobile Base System (MBS), the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator will be controlled by the crew inside the International Space Station. This system will allow the crew to perform many of the tasks that would otherwise require an astronaut to perform during a demanding spacewalk. Dextre is a sophisticated dual armed robot, which is part of Canada's contribution to the International Space Station (ISS).

Along with Canadarm2, whose technical name is the Space Station Remote Manipulator System, and a moveable work platform called the Mobile Base System, these three elements form a robotic system called the Mobile Servicing System (MSS). The three components have been designed to work together or independently.

Turn the Corner

(Ed: Following from GovCan). With its Turning the Corner plan, the Government of Canada is taking action and putting into place, for the first time in Canadian history, one of the toughest regulatory regimes in the world to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Plants that began operating in 2004 will face even tougher requirements to force them to use cleaner fuels and green technology. New oil sands plants and coal-fired power plants coming into operation in 2012 or later will face the toughest requirements of all.Growth in the oil sands must occur responsibly.

The oil sands are one of Canada’s greatest natural resources, and a major engine of our economy, but we have a responsibility to future generations to ensure that they are developed in an environmentally responsible way. Without additional action today, emissions from the oil sands will grow dramatically in the coming years. The Government of Canada will require all oil sands plants to meet a tough new emissions standard. Plants that began operation in 2004 or after will face an even tougher standard based on the use of cleaner fuels. Plants starting operations in 2012 will be required to meet the toughest targets of all which will effectively require putting into place new carbon capture and storage technologies to prevent the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. This requirement will also accelerate the development of additional new clean technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The Government of Canada believes that it is simply irresponsible to keep building dirty coal-fired power plants. Coal-fired plants will have to meet a tough new emissions standard. We will also bring in regulations that will effectively end the construction of dirty coal-fired plants, starting in 2012. Utilities that want to build coal-fired plants in the future will be required to meet targets based on the use of clean technologies, such as carbon capture and storage.

Source:Taking Action to Fight Climate Change

Regrow damaged nerves

Neuroscientists, brain surgeons, graduate students, rehabilitation specialists and neurologists are joining forces to develop new technology aimed at repairing and regenerating peripheral nerves that connect the brain, spinal cord, and the body.

The Western Canada Regeneration Initiative, with members from the universities of Calgary, Alberta and Saskatchewan, has been awarded a $2.25 million team grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to study how best to heal and regrow nerves that have been damaged by injury or disease.

See:Calgary University

Global Polio and Tuberculosis Control - Afghanistan

Eliminating polio in Afghanistan—one of only four remaining indigenous reservoirs of the disease in the world—requires mass immunization of all children under the age of five. To address this need, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) has provided strong support to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative since its inception.

CIDA committed $5 million to the initiative, which led to clear results - between 2003 and 2006, the number of children in rural Afghanistan aged 12 to 23 months that received the full dosage of oral polio vaccine increased from 30 percent to 70 percent.

CIDA’s contribution of $17.5 million to the World Health Organization (WHO) will help build on these positive results by providing sustained funding for the implementation of the initiative.

See:CIDA

See:Bad Canada

Carbon Tax/Lower Personal Tax - Revenue Neutral?

“Millions of Canadians are taking steps each day to conserve energy, whether by taking public transit, changing their light bulbs or turning down their thermostat. These Canadians should be rewarded,” says Dr. David Suzuki.

“Meanwhile, carbon-intensive industries and activities severely damage our climate at no charge to the polluter.” “Right now, the atmosphere is treated like a free dumping ground,” added Dr. Suzuki. “This must change and there is growing support in this country with the principle that polluters must pay.”

Pricing Carbon: Saving Green - A Carbon Price to Lower Emissions, Taxes and Barriers to Green Technology outlines a series of findings that present a strong case for the federal government to introduce a carbon price that puts a fee on the emission of greenhouse gases.

See:David Suzuki Foundation

Canada has been scientifically healthy. Not so its government.

Comparisons of nations' scientific outputs over the years have shown that Canada's researchers have plenty to be proud of, consistently maintaining their country's position among the world's top ten (see, for example, Nature 430, 311–316; 2004).

Alas, their government's track record is dismal by comparison.

Science has long faced an uphill battle for recognition in Canada, but the slope became steeper when the Conservative government was elected in 2006.

See:Nature Magazine

Greenhouse gas emissions 2006

See:Report

Resale home activity lower

“CREA had expected the growth in average price to slow in 2008, which is reflected in many markets.

Sales levels are returning to what we would consider, on an historical basis, as more normal activity.” says Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) President Ann Bosley.

Last month, seasonally adjusted unit sales declined by 0.4 per cent from the month before and 8 per cent from January, 2007. Some of the country's weaker markets were in Alberta and parts of Ontario including Durham Region and St. Catharines & District.

See:CREA

$2,000,000,000 for CO2 burial

$2B for Carbon capture and storage, CO2 emitted from oil and gas operations, coal-fired power plants and industrial facilities injected deep into the ground..

Dr. Gunter (2007 Nobel Peace Prize) suggests Canada is losing a technological race against the Americans, the Europeans and the Australians to develop and deploy the CCS technology, which could be exported to emerging markets.

Abu Dhabi, an oil-rich member of the Persian Gulf state United Arab Emirates, has entered the field with plans to capture up to 15 million tonnes of carbon dioxide and inject it into aging oil fields to enhance recovery.

“The message is that the other governments are looking at an order-of-magnitude higher investments than Canada is in order to move CCS along,” Dr. Gunter said. “So it will be interesting to see if we get in the ball game or not.”

Progress in Canada is stalled by debates over who will pay the steep cost of capturing CO2 from industrial and energy sites; how the pipeline system will be financed; and who will assume liability for long-term underground storage sites. Is $2B enough?

Canada's task force on CO2 seems to think so, in its January 2008 report it says: Federal and Provincial governments should allocate $2 billion in new public funding to leverage the billions of dollars of industry investment in the first CCS projects; this funding should be distributed expeditiously through a competitive request for proposals process so that these phase-one projects are operational by 2015.

See: The ecoENERGY Carbon Capture Report

See: Canadian Carbon Storage Initiative