Auditor General Sheila Fraser has made the assertive announcement that despite billions of tax dollars being poured into airport security over the past few years, an act as simple as a background check on the people who work there are run without much thought at all.

If at all…

Day to day, we are led to believe that there is a chance that authorities would not know if those working behind airport security lines were terrorists or drug smugglers.

Fraser’s latest report, zeroing in on wasted government money, includes an account of airport security clearance being granted to someone with assault and weapons convictions, and someone who was under investigation for a murder relating to drug smuggling at a large airport.
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Of no surprise to anyone, it is now being reported that Canada’s environmental inspector has found that much of the federal governments plan to save the planet from global warming was nothing more than lip service paid to the Canadian public.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s administration has rationed billions of taxpayers’ dollars for environmental initiatives. All of which promise to reduce Canada’s total greenhouse gas emissions by 80 megatonnes, which is roughly 10% nationally.

However, Environment commissioner Scott Vaughn has given our fearless leader and his cronies less than favourable marks in a failing-grade report card released on February 5th.
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Chalk River Nuclear Site

A radioactive spill has materialized at the weathered Chalk River nuclear reactor, located west of Ottawa.

Officials say that this took place because the reactors workload had recently been amplified to meet the demand for medical isotopes, used in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

The reactor supplies 70% of the world’s medical isotopes, and a potential shutdown of the plant could leave millions of Canadians, and people the world over, suffering from cancer and heart ailments without the necessary treatments.
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President-elect Barack Obama Will Make His First Presidential Visit to Canada

President-elect Barack Obama has announced that his first international trip as the newly elected President of the United States will be to Canada.

The Prime Minister’s office confirms that the president-elect has accepted Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s invitation to visit Canada soon after he is inaugurated on January 20th.

Transition aides for the president-elect say that Obama picked the United States neighbour to north as his first trip within North America as president, but they could not discuss the date for the trip or its itinerary.

The Office of the Prime Minister has also said that it has been in close contact with Obama’s transition team and an official for the transition team says that aides for the president-elect and Harper have been discussing specifics of the trip in recent days.
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Prime Minister Stephen Harper had a far less dreary outlook on the state of the Canadian economy in a recent interview with Maclean’s magazine.

Harper believes that Canada is in a strong economic position compared with others and should be able to exit the recession relatively quickly.

Has Harper changed his tune for the benefit of the Canadian people? It’s obvious that this is a move of a political nature. Remember everyone, Parliament isn’t in session currently, and when it does come back, we may be heading back to the voting booths should the idea of a coalition government still be present. Yet, political observers believe that Harper will remain in power. As well, the Liberals have backed off from their attacks, and Harper himself has stated that he doesn’t want to go back to the polls.
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Robert Semrau held in military police custody

A Canadian Forces captain must now await a custody hearing after having his day in military court on January 6th.

At least one witness testified as seeing Capt. Robert Semrau, of the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment, shoot and kill a severely wounded and unarmed insurgent during an ambush in October.

The hearing will decide whether Semrau will be released until his trial, which isn’t expected until sometime after the summer.

This issue should ignite some heated debate across the country about whether this act can be considered a mercy killing or whether it is, in fact, murder.

It is reported that Semrau was commanding an Operational Mentor and Liaison Team on Oct. 19 in the Helmand province of Afghanistan when they, as well as Afghan soldiers, were ambushed. With help from American military helicopters the insurgents were fought off. After the air strike, Afghan soldiers moved in and found one Taliban fighter dead, along side another who was still armed but severely wounded. Once disarmed, it was determined that the insurgent’s wounds were “too severe for any type of treatment.”
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