''David Rosenberg supports loonie as reserve currency''

From FinancialPost

''David Rosenberg is throwing his support behind the Canadian dollar being included as a reserve currency at the IMF.

The chief economist and strategist at Gluskin Sheff + Associates noted that the loonie has already become a de facto global currency as central banks continue to add Canadian dollars to their reserve portfolios.

He said this reflects Canada’s growing importance in the global economy, its prudent monetary policy, a truly AAA sovereign rating and a pro-business majority government.''

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''Canada’s housing market: is it a cooling? Is it a crash?''

From Macleans

''Last Friday, rating agency Moody’s announced that almost all of Canada’s biggest banks might be in for a credit downgrade, citing “concerns about high consumer debt levels and elevated housing prices.” It was just the latest warning that, after soaring for 14 years, Canada’s housing market might be finally headed back to Earth.''

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''Canada Shifts Toward China With $15 Billion Nexen Deal''

From Business Week

''Cnooc Ltd. (883)’s $15.1 billion cash takeover bid for Nexen Inc. (NXY) (NXY) signals a Canadian shift toward China and away from the U.S. as the nation’s traditional oil and natural-gas partner and main export market.

Canada’s oil sands reserves, the third-largest recoverable crude deposits in the world, were developed in part by U.S. money as companies such as California’s Richfield Oil Corp. brought technology to extract bitumen from boreal peat bogs half a century ago. Now, for the first time, a Chinese company will own and operate oil-sands crude production as well as Nexen’s shale-gas assets in British Columbia, along with leases in other parts of the world.''

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''Imperialism Redux: Canada Colonizes Honduras?''

From MR Zine

''Canada is presented as a model case of government upholding the values of transparency, efficiency, and fairness in private-sector development that Romer and his colleagues are promoting.  So, for example, charter city judiciary and police for Honduras could be developed by Canadians, with institutions such as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) assisting to set up an "honest and efficient" police force.''

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Maple Spring: 'Canada vs totalitarian govt crackdown'

From RT.com ....With Andrew Gavin Marshall

''Police arrest 400 Canada students furious over tuition hikes''

From RT.com

''Quebec students consider moves to suspend Bill 78''

From Voice of Russia

''The Russian Foreign Ministry earlier this week has expressed its concern over reports of violation of protesters' rights in the United States and Canada.

In Canada May 22rd marked the 100th day of students protesting over tuition increases and the Bill 78 newly passed by the National Assembly of Quebec, French-speaking Canadian province.  Last week the government of Quebec got fed up with occasionally violent protest and introduced a tough law that would make protests more difficult to organize and impose high fines on those who disobey.''

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''RAW 250,000 Massive Montreal Rally marks 100 days of Student Protests''

Montreal: ''Thousands take to the streets on 100th day of strike''

From Montreal Gazette

''A protest that organizers are describing as the single biggest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history choked the streets of downtown Montreal in the middle of Tuesday’s afternoon rush hour as tens of thousands of demonstrators expressed outrage over a provincial law aimed at containing the very sort of march they staged.

But within three hours of the march’s start, police were reporting that criminal acts were being committed as the windows of at least one bank were smashed.''

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Canada: "Harper government monitoring online chats about politics"

From News1130


"The Harper government has been monitoring political messages online, and even correcting what it considers misinformation. One local expert says the government is taking things too far.

Under the pilot program the Harper government paid a media company $75,000 to monitor and respond to online postings about the east coast seal hunt."


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''Opposition accuses government of misleading Canadians on F-35''

From Ottawa Citizen

"The Conservative government found itself on the defensive Wednesday as opposition parties accused it of misleading Canadians by claiming for months the F-35 program was on schedule and on budget.

Interim Liberal leader Bob Rae focused on a statement Prime Minister Stephen Harper made during the last federal election in which he indicated Canada had signed a "contract" with the U.S. that would exempt it from any increase in the price of the F-35.

"A lot of the developmental costs you're reading in the United States, the contract we've signed shelters us from any increase in those kinds of costs," Harper said in Mississauga, Ont., on April 8, 2011."

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Canada: "Dad goes to jail for 4-year-old daughter’s drawing"

"After seeing the image in question, the school’s staff became shocked as well. So much so, in fact, that they rang up child welfare officials and local law enforcement and arranged for them to meet the girl’s father at the end of the school day. By that evening, Sansone had been handcuffed, whisked away to jail and forced to remove his clothes so he could be subjected to a strip search."


wtf?.........from rt.com...

''Canada partly shutters embassy in Syria''

its getting hot in syria.....

"Canada has reduced its diplomatic staff at its embassy in Damascus to a skeleton crew amid mounting unrest in Syria, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird announced Tuesday.

"Due to the growing instability in Syria, Canada has reduced its diplomatic staff in Syria to core personnel only," Baird said in a statement."

from now lebanon...

''The Economic Outlook for Canada is Dire Says the Bank of Canada''

read more from dollar vigilante...

"One typically doesn’t look to government bureaucracies for hard-nosed, objective discussions on the economy.  Far too often official reports are skewed to paint a much rosier picture than what is unfolding in reality.  Case in point, the repeated denials from Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve, Fannie Mae and various oversight committees circa 2006 that the US housing market was anything but an excellent place to invest your money.

So, imagine my surprise when the December 2011 Financial System Review, published quarterly by the Bank of Canada (BoC), landed in my inbox and I discovered that it contained a very sobering look at Canada’s economy and the many systemic risks we are facing!  It’s not surprising that this report was not picked up by the main stream news, because if they did the popular opinion of Canada’s invincible, recession-proof economy, may begin to crumble."

Canada: "Titanic clash looms over proposed Northern Gateway pipeline"

read more from the star...

"A biologist, an energy lawyer and an aboriginal geologist will sit down Tuesday in a recreation centre in the wilderness of northern British Columbia to initiate what could be the fiercest environmental standoff ever seen in Canada.

Before the hearings in B.C. and Alberta are completed next year, more than 4,000 people are expected to appear before the three-member panel vetting the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline from Alberta through the Rockies to the B.C. coast."

''Canada to evacuate nationals from Syria''

read more.........from afp via daily star......

"Canada announced Thursday it was organizing an evacuation of its nationals from Syria, saying the situation in the violence-wracked Middle East nation "continues to deteriorate."

Foreign Minister John Baird said Ottawa had "have directed officials to undertake a voluntary evacuation over the next month" and in the meantime was calling on Canadians "to leave Syria immediately, by any available means and while options exist."

POLICE STATE: ''Cops Hide Surveillance Cameras In Trees Outside Man's Home''

from mox news.......

Canada: 'Stretched food banks a measure of Canada’s frail recovery'

from mail and globe....

"The number of Canadians using food banks has declined slightly, but persistent demand indicates many are struggling in a frail economic recovery.

More than 851,000 individuals visited a food bank in March alone, a number that’s little changed from last year’s record and still 26 per cent above prerecession levels, Food Banks Canada’s annual survey, to be released Tuesday, shows"...........READ MORE

Canada: "One-third of Montreal’s infrastructure needs repair, 12 structures critical"

from globe and mail........

"Nearly one-third of Montreal's deteriorating road structures need repair work and a dozen of them are considered in critical condition.

That's according to a study that examined 555 pieces of infrastructure under local jurisdiction.

The report released by the city today found 12 were in the most critical shape, 44 were deficient, 38 were mediocre, and another 81 were just generally deteriorating".........READ MORE

Canada: 'Trade war looms over new Buy American threat in U.S.'

from the star......

"A trade war with the United States loomed Wednesday after the Harper government vowed to fight the latest move by Washington to exclude Canadian companies from bidding on billions of dollars worth of economic stimulus projects.

International Trade Minister Ed Fast acknowledged that the rebirth of the Buy American threat caught Ottawa completely off guard.

“I was very surprised and certainly disappointed that the Obama administration has returned to that kind of a trade barrier initiative,” he told CBC-TV"..............READ MORE