Old Home Remedies

Is Canada’s ability to fight terror being hobbled by Federal Court judges who are making it hard for officials to keep foreign suspects in detention indefinitely, or on a tight leash?

Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan worries that may indeed be the case. “It raises questions about whether we can protect national security and I can tell you I am concerned,” he told Canwest News Service this week. “I spend a fair bit of time thinking about it.”

Van Loan’s remarks came in the wake of judicial blows last week to Canada’s controversial “national security certificate” regime – the law that allows Ottawa to hold foreign terror suspects in preventive detention indefinitely, or under close watch, until they can be deported. (more…)

LONDON — The sudden death of 14-year-old girl was very unlikely to have been caused by the anti-cervical cancer vaccine she was given hours before she died.

Natalie Morton, who died in a hospital Monday only hours after being the given the Cervarix vaccine, had a “serious underlying medical condition which was likely to have caused death,” according to Caron Grainger, the director for public health at Coventry, where the girl went to school.

Grainger said he was waiting for more test results but added: “Indications are it was most unlikely … vaccination was the cause of death.” (more…)

Firms vow long fight as Ontario seeks to recoup health costs of smoking

Sep 30, 2009 04:30 AM
Rob Ferguson
Queen’s Park Bureau

Tobacco companies are promising a long, hard fight as Ontario sues them for $50 billion to recover the costs of treating citizens with smoking-related illnesses since 1955.

The lawsuit filed Tuesday has been expected for months, after the province passed a law last March clearing the way for it. But this marks the first time the government has put a price tag on the legal action, which was applauded by the Ontario Campaign for Action on Tobacco. (more…)

PERTH (Reuters) – Australia rolled out a nationwide vaccination drive for H1N1 influenza on Wednesday in a bid to arm itself against a possible outbreak of the disease.

Health Minister Nicola Roxon said 5.5 million doses of the vaccine have been delivered across the country, enough to vaccinate about 30 percent of the population, and two million doses each month will be made available until January.

The campaign is Australia’s biggest mass vaccination and is estimated to cost over A$100 million ($87.95 million). Vaccinations will start with those most at risk in the pandemic, including health care workers, pregnant women and the chronically ill. (more…)

As most of you know, Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Kellan Lutz and the whole Eclipse gang hit up the Players Chophouse Saturday night for a private party hosted by Jackson Rathbone’s band, 100 Monkeys, among others.

While we’re sure our invitation just got lost in the mail, we were able to track down a friend of the Twi-crew who was in attendance at the purposely private get-together.

A rep for Players Chophouse confirms the party took place with most members of the Twilight cast present (always gotta officially check, ya know), but we were way more curious about the Robsten interaction.

Here’s what we could get out of our insider: (more…)

The Toronto stock market closed higher Tuesday, supported by the gold and telecom sectors, but investors were cautious following a surprise drop in U.S. consumer confidence that called into doubt the strength of a U.S. economic recovery.

The S&P/TSX composite index rose 56.27 points to 11,394.99.

The U.S. Conference Board reported consumers’ confidence in the economy fell in September – the index stands at 53.1, down from a revised 54.5 reading in August – as worry by Americans over job security offset any enthusiasm about the rally in the stock market. Economists had expected a reading of 57. (more…)

When asked if the on-and-off prospect of a fall federal election could affect provincial plans for the harmonized sales tax, Premier Gordon Campbell insisted not.

“I would expect that any government would live up to the commitments that are made by previous governments,” he told my colleague Jonathan Fowlie recently. “We have an agreement with the federal government on how we’ll proceed with this. It’s with the federal government and we would expect it to proceed.”

Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, who signed an agreement in principle with the province on the HST back in July, said pretty much the same thing on a visit to Victoria.

Ottawa has a standing offer for provinces that wish to harmonize their sales tax with its national goods and services counterpart. Transition money available on a per capita basis. (more…)

Roman Polanski’s arrest in Switzerland has left his latest film in limbo, with several months of work before the political thriller is ready for theaters.

Polanski’s agent, International Creative Management chief Jeff Berg, said Polanski had completed much of the editing on “The Ghost.” But other postproduction work, including music scoring and sound mixing, had yet to be done, Berg said.

Based on the novel by Robert Harris, “The Ghost” stars Pierce Brosnan as fictional former British leader Adam Lang and Ewan McGregor as a ghostwriter hired to help complete his memoirs. The cast includes Kim Cattrall, Tom Wilkinson, Olivia Williams and James Belushi. (more…)

NUFARM and the state-owned Sinochem have laboured long and hard to produce an unusual document — a heads of agreement for a “non-binding” proposal to acquire the Australian-based international agrichemical group.

Nufarm first announced a preliminary approach by Sinochem in July and since the parties have been negotiating, with Sinochem permitted to carry out extensive due diligence.

If the deal proceeds it will be by way of a scheme of arrangement.

At this stage of the process, the parties normally have signed a binding implementation agreement. But what Nufarm and Sinochem have signed is no more than an agreement to try to reach agreement. There is, as yet, no firm deal. (more…)

MELBOURNE (Dow Jones)–Telstra Corp.’s (TLS) senior management Tuesday sought to reassure investors that their key focus is on preserving shareholder value as the company continues to negotiate with Canberra on proposed changes to its structure. Earlier this month, the Australian government it wants Telstra to either voluntarily split its retail operations from its network assets or face tighter regulations, asset divestments and being cut off from taking up more wireless spectrum – starving it of growth.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has said that the planned moves will improve competition in the Australian telecommunications sector, which Telstra dominates. (more…)