Women will not compete in ski jumping at the 2010 Games. Photo Credit: Media Canada

On December 22nd, the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear the appeal of the female ski jumpers who wished to compete for the first time at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, ending the women’s court battle. The SCC gave no reason for its decision.

The unfortunate legacy of exclusion of women’s ski jumping from the Winter Olympics will hereby continue in Vancouver.

Upon hearing this news, my first inclination was to accept the IOC’s rationale: that women’s ski jumping lacked sufficient participation to be included in the Olympics, on a national and an individual level. Not enough gals, not enough countries, and a simple equation.

After all, this is Canada’s Olympics; our Olympics. Surely a country that prides itself on tolerance, multiculturalism and gender equity would not idly allow gender discrimination to prevail in Vancouver, the most populous city ever to host the Winter Games.
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Prime Minister Stephen Harper conversed with Chinese Premier Wen Jiaobao on Thursday.

Premier Wen Jiaobao of China delivered a rebuke to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Thursday. According to Premier Wen, one of the country’s most popular and senior politicians, Harper’s visit to China has been tardy, and diplomatic meetings between the leaders of the two countries have been too infrequent. The proverbial slap on the wrist may have been an innocuous chiding. But it speaks to the tenuous nature of Canada’s diplomatic relationship with the People’s Republic.

Although Harper and Chinese President Hu Jintao conversed a fortnight ago at the APEC conference, President Hu has not visited Canada in nearly five years. Harper, who has declined opportunities to venture to China in the past, is making his first ever visit.
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According to Campaign 2000, child poverty in Canada remains a major issue.

On Tuesday, Campaign 2000 released its annual report on child poverty in Canada, and propounded an alarming statistic. According to the organization’s estimates, ten per cent of Canadian kids currently live in poverty. Among First Nations children, this figure is even more disturbing: one in four.

The statistics represent a lack of progress over the last 20 years, according to Campaign 2000, in terms of combating child poverty in Canada.

The report also mentions that the disparity between rich and poor appears to be widening in our country, as since 1989, the average income of families with children in the wealthiest tenth of the population increased by 33 per cent compared to an increase of just 16 per cent for those in the poorest tenth of the population.

Campaign 2000 places particular emphasis within the report on the plight of Canada’s Aboriginal people, stating that the Canadian Aboriginal population has increased by 45 per cent since 1996, compared to eight per cent in the non-Aboriginal population. Meanwhile, Aboriginal people face higher rates of unemployment and sub-standard living conditions than their non-Aboriginal counterparts.
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The political means of addressing climate change are once again up for discussion.

Nostradamus was right. The year 2012 will certainly bring the end of an era.

Next month’s UN convention on climate change in Copenhagen reminds us that the Kyoto Protocol is on its last legs.

Indeed, the world’s first legally-binding legislation on greenhouse gas emission and climate change, for years battered and bruised through political conflagrations, diluted by the rhetoric of parliamentarians and spokespersons, pondered, plied and twisted through years of delay, and ultimately never ratified by the United States, is in need of a successor. And if Environment Minister Jim Prentice’s prognostications prove accurate, a definitive deal will not be reached in the Danish capital.
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Ross Rebagliati is preparing for a new kind of competition

Constituents in the British Columbia riding of Okanagan-Coquihalla may be in for a good old-fashioned Western showdown leading up to the next federal election.

That’s because on Monday snowboarding’s first Olympic gold medalist, British Columbia Sports Hall-of-Famer and Kelowna resident Ross Rebagliati, was officially nominated the new Liberal candidate for the riding.
His Conservative opponent? Veteran politician Stockwell Day, a former leader of the Official Opposition, current Minister of Foreign Trade, and a nine-year incumbent whose political popularity in the Okanagan speaks for itself.

And there ain’t enough room in this town for the both of ‘em.
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Prince of Pot Marc Emery, in a familiar pose

We Canadians can all sleep a little bit easier at night.

That’s because Marc Emery, Vancouver’s Prince of Pot and officially one of the DEA’s most wanted kingpins, is off the streets and in prison, awaiting extradition to the United States on drug and money-laundering charges. His capture represents a major victory in the War on Drugs.

For ten years now, Emery has corrupted the very fabric of our society by selling marijuana seeds and donating virtually all of the after-tax proceeds to cannabis-friendly organizations with a mind to “overgrow the government.” A pot activist and retailer since 1994, Emery has had many run-ins with the law. 10 arrests, in addition to police raids in 1996, 1998 and 2005 of his Hemp BC headquarters would have crippled a lesser evildoer, but Emery (and I ask that my readers forgive the analogy) is as resilient as a weed, unerring in his insubordination.
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