“There is systematic campaign to reduce the flow of scientific evidence to Canadians,” said Scott Findlay, a U of O biology professor.

“As a result, the public hears and sees only information that supports federal government policy or ideology. That’s not evidence, that’s propaganda.”

Biology, especially environmental research, has been one of the areas hit hardest by this summer’s federal budget cuts.

This summer’s federal cuts have ended all funding to an Arctic atmospheric research lab called PEARL, and the Experimental Lakes Area in northwestern Ontario.

Both are leading centres of real-world experiments to study our land and water in ways that no one can do in a lab. Both have international reputations.

"The Harper government is the most environmentally hostile one we have ever had in Canada. Harper pulled Canada out of the Kyoto protocol, gutted the Fisheries Act (our strongest freshwater protection law), and hollowed out our environmental assessment legislation, making it easier for extractive industries to get licences to exploit," said Maude Barlow, a former UN advisor on water and chair of the Council of Canadians. "It is heartlessly shutting down a programme that costs very little to run given the incredible benefits it brings, in order to silence the voices who speak for water."

Ms. Oda’s decision to step down comes ahead of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s planned cabinet shuffle, expected to start in August and continue into September. The shuffle is expected to be significant, a reflection of the mishaps and missteps of the Conservative caucus.

Thrust into the spotlight this year because of a trip to London, England, where she stayed in a luxury hotel on the public dollar and ordered a $16 glass of orange juice, Ms. Oda wasn’t expected to survive the cabinet shuffle.

Ms. Oda stayed at the Savoy hotel in London, a swanky hotel frequented by royalty, when she could have stayed at a cheaper five-star hotel. She also hired a limousine to drive her around during the trip, at a cost of $1,000 a day.

She later paid back the difference between the costs of the two hotels.

OTTAWA—Hemmed in by a deteriorating world economy, the federal government and the Bank of Canada are recalibrating their strategies in hopes of preserving growth in Canada without inciting a dangerous housing price bubble.

...snip...

“We just came back from the G20 meeting of leaders and finance ministers and the reality is that the European situation is very challenging, to put it mildly,” Flaherty said. “So my job is to look at our own country and look at the residential real estate market and make the best judgment that we can.”

In a speech in Halifax, Carney chimed in, “Federal authorities have taken additional prudent and timely measures to support the long-term stability of the Canadian housing market, and mitigate the risk of financial excesses.

“Our economy cannot depend indefinitely on debt-fuelled household expenditures, particularly in an environment of modest income growth,” the bank governor pointed out.

Flaherty said he acted to toughen mortgage rules for the fourth time in six years to slow the growth of a real estate bubble. He noted that the bursting of the U.S. housing bubble caused long-term damage to the American economy.

The government is tightening mortgages by reducing the maximum amortization for a government-insured mortgage to 25 years from 30 years.

It is also lowering the maximum amount Canadians can borrow when refinancing a property to 80 per cent from 85 per cent of the value of their homes. Flaherty has complained in the past about people using their homes at ATM machines.

And government-backed mortgage insurance will no longer be available for homes with a purchase price of more than $1 million.

In an article published Wednesday in Science and Translational Medicine, Gary Kobinger and several others outline the cocktail of antibodies they used to treat macaque monkeys infected with the most lethal strain of Ebola virus. All the macaques treated 24 hours after infection recovered, as did half of those treated after 48 hours.
It’s big news for a notorious virus, which can kill up to nine of every 10 humans infected (the most virulent strains of flu, by comparison, kill about five of every hundred infected). Up until now, the best treatment was only good for less than an hour after exposure.

The Department of National Defence has funded much of his research so far, but has indicated in this year’s budget it may cut back on anything except but Arctic security and cybersecurity.

But critics say the government's true colours are coming through more clearly and with a more systemic impact in a controversial budget bill they argue fundamentally changes the power balance between employers and employees — all to the detriment of workers.

One of the measures is so sneaky, says NDP MP Pat Martin, nobody seemed to notice the line buried deep in the 452-page Bill C-38 that simply states, "The Fair Wages and Hours of Labour Act is repealed," giving no explanation.

With those 10 words, Ottawa intends to wipe out a 1985 law compelling contractors bidding on federal contracts to pay "fair wages" and overtime.

"I would have missed it and I'm from that industry. It was number 68 of 70 bills that they changed," said Martin, a former journeyman carpenter and construction worker.

Martin notes that unlike most measures in the budget bill, there was no prior discussion of the measure or even a signal such a change was contemplated.

"It's a solution without a problem. The only conclusion I can come up with is that it's a war on labour and the left. It's what the Americans did with the right-to-work states and the end result is $8 or $9 an hour is now the average wage in places like North Carolina."

A dogged anti-abortion protester has lost a big step in her legal battle to defy an 18-year-old injunction against picketing Toronto abortion clinics.

In an 8-1 decision The Supreme Court of Canada upheld Friday two lower appeal rulings that underlined criminal powers to enforce injunctions in the absence of any other law on the books.

It means if the Crown decides to proceed yet again, Linda Gibbons, 63, will face a new criminal trial for breaching an injunction issued on Aug. 30, 1994.

That order was meant to keep protesters at least 18 metres away from clinics, in the wake of a wave of tension-filled protests, and the firebombing of Dr. Henry Morgentaler’s Toronto clinic in the years after the country’s top court struck out Canada’s abortion law.

While Woodworth may be playing dumb regarding the potential implications of flooding the matter with light aka redefining fetuses as people, it's obvious to just about everyone—except maybe those still in utero—where this kind of debate reaches its logical conclusion. And this sad attempt to start down the road to making abortion a criminal act (since, you know, it'd be killing human beings) has upset a lot of people on all sides of the issue. Even fellow Conservative members were quick to denounce Woodworth's move.

Conservative whip Gordon O'Connor spoke during the debate and said he wasn't buying Woodworth's claims that this was all innocent truth seeking: "the ultimate intention of this motion is to restrict abortions at some development stage in Canada." He urged all of his colleagues to vote down the motion, and he said women should continue to be able to have abortions "without the threat of legal consequences." He also, amazingly, said that whether everyone likes it or not, abortion will always be a part of our society, and he doesn't get why pro-lifers "want to impose their belief on others through the Criminal Code." Well, if you'd like an answer to that Mr. O'Connor, make a stop by almost any abortion clinic in the United States, and you'll likely find a number of protestors who'll be willing to scream an explanation into your ear at top volume.

"I think as a Caucasian I have an advantage. When different community leaders such as a Sikh leader or a Muslim leader speaks, they really speak to their own people in many ways. As a Caucasian, I believe that I can speak to all the community," (Wildrose candidate) Leech said on CHKF-FM, a multicultural station in Calgary. He clarified Tuesday that he was trying to say he wasn't at a disadvantage being a white man representing a multicultural community.

That wasn't good enough for Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi, who took to Twitter to express his dismay.

"It's not that he shouldn't have said it. It's that he shouldn't believe it. He has not yet said whether he does," said Nenshi. "His clarification did not in any way address the content of his comments. Does he believe ethnic (politicians) speak only to some?"

But unlike previous launch failures, the repressive, isolated neo-Stalinist regime now headed by 20-something Kim Jong Un was quick – at least by Pyongyang’s standards – to admit the fiery failure.

The era of the Big Lie may finally have ended in North Korea, decades after most totalitarian regimes realized that even a brutally-repressed people can’t be kept collectively ignorant.

In the coming days, watching how Pyongyang plays the failure may signal whether the new leader really heralds a new era. The old ‘Big Lie’ of claiming success has been jettisoned. But if the rocket’s failure is blamed on foreign enemies, then the new era may not be so new.

Rick Santorum may be gone, but his campaign debt is not forgotten.

Just an hour after he ended his bid for GOP leader on Tuesday, Santorum circulated a thank you email to supporters — and asked them for one last cheque.