Quebec. People say "non" to austerity

http://instagr.am/p/K8GBkeSCGs/

T3 Charlottetown Transit sets a new single-day record - Business - The Guardian

T3 Charlottetown Transit sets a new single-day record - Business - The Guardian: "Mike Cassidy, owner and president of T3 Transit, told The Guardian this morning that the system put through a new high of 1,534 passengers on Wednesday.
That tops the previous high, set in January 2011, of 1,483 passengers in a single day."

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Canada News: RCMP spied on B.C. natives protesting pipeline plan, documents show - thestar.com

Chief Na'Moks of the Wet'suwet'en Nation, left, Chief Martin Louie of Nadleh Whut'en, centre, and Chief Jackie Thomas of the Saik'uz nation attend Enbridge's annual shareholders imeeting in Toronto on Wednesday.

MARK BLINCH/REUTERS

Canada News: RCMP spied on B.C. natives protesting pipeline plan, documents show - thestar.com: "The RCMP has been spying on a group of British Columbia First Nations whose vocal opposition to Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline has taken them to the company’s annual shareholders meeting in Toronto, according to documents obtained through an access-to-information request."

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Three Paths to Near-term Human Extinction

Three Paths to Near-term Human Extinction: "Russia is headed directly for loss of 30% of its permafrost by 2050. Tundra fires could accelerate planetary warming. This year, the Northeast Passage was open as of July 27th. This is a massively dire situation for the Arctic. In fact, we’ve passed a de facto tipping point with respect to Arctic ice."

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How corporate media covers protest

CBC Books - Saving our cities from cars

CBC Books - Saving our cities from cars: "Cars are ruining cities. That's the premise of Taras Grescoe's new book, Straphanger: Saving Our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile. And if North America doesn't aggressively change its transit course, cities like Phoenix, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Vancouver and Toronto could be in big trouble."

'via Blog this'

Oil trolls rule Canada and the USA

Oil lobbyists approved Harper’s climate policy as ‘elegant’ approach: "OTTAWA — The federal government asked the oil and gas industry last fall to review its foreign climate change policies, which were then approved by lobbyists as “an elegant” approach, reveals newly-released correspondence."

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FCM - FCM welcomes NDP call for federal leadership on public transit

FCM - FCM welcomes NDP call for federal leadership on public transit: "The average Canadian spends almost 32 working days a year commuting to and from work. According to a 2011 report by the Toronto Board of Trade, Metro Montréal and the Greater Toronto Area have average daily commute times of more than 75 minutes. These are the worst commute times in a ranking of 23 world cities. That costs commuters dollars, time and lost quality of life. It costs businesses trying to move goods and connect with customers. It costs municipal taxpayers, who must pay to build more roads to support increasingly inefficient transportation. And it costs the national economy, because the more time people and goods spend on the road, the less they contribute to the economy."

'via Blog this'

Global Montreal | Walkable cities are healthier, study says

Global Montreal | Walkable cities are healthier, study says: "Walkability was measured by a tool called the “Walkability Index,” designed to evaluate neighbourhood design features like residential density, retail ratio and land-use mix. It showed that the shape of neighbourhoods directly affected physical activity levels. According to Monica Campbell, director of Healthy Public Policy for Toronto Public Health, for every person in Toronto who preferred living in an auto-oriented neighbourhood, 12 preferred to live in a walkable neighbourhood. In fact, Toronto residents walked for utilitarian reasons 2.7 times as often and used transit 2.5 times as often, as residents in the least walkable neighbourhoods.

The situation was similar in not only Vancouver, but also for those living in suburbs.

“The neighbourhood has a strong effect on behaviour, in terms of how physically active they are and how healthy they are,” said Campbell. “What we find in our suburban areas is that people who live in that sprawled condition is that they have a greater body weight, the obesity rates are about 30 per cent higher.” "

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The Case for Permanent Free Public Transit | Halifax Media Co-op

The Case for Permanent Free Public Transit | Halifax Media Co-op: " Don’t forget that car travel is heavily subsidized as a matter of course, with governments across the country spending billions each year on highways, bridges, tax breaks for car companies and business that use vehicles, and the like. Construction of the Washmill Lake Underpass was approved by council last year even though it was $8 million over budget – $2.4 million more than the net increase to Metro Transit’s budget over the next 5 years, after the new contract negotiatied with the transit workers’ union.

Let's keep free transit on the agenda after March 31st."

Click Here to listen to the interview
Ben Sichel will be on New957 Radio Sunday Morning at 10am to discuss free transit
http://www.news957.com/
Follow @bsichel

Buses, ferries offer free rides after Halifax transit strike | CTV News

Buses, ferries offer free rides after Halifax transit strike | CTV News: "As part of the agreement, council said public transit would be free of charge for the rest of the month."

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Expand Car-Free Sundays (Waterloo)

A Better Vision: Saving Car Free Sundays from Jeff Outhit | Mike Boos: "Don’t let our representatives be ashamed of investing in healthy lifestyles, community, and civic pride. Our governments invest hundreds of millions of dollars locally on car-centric infrastructure that keeps us isolated and is slowly killing us. There should be no stigma for investing a comparably paltry couple thousand on promoting and celebrating a healthier lifestyle and future. As citizens, we should be open about supporting and thanking representatives who have the courage and vision to make these investments, and urge them to complement these events with more permanent active transportation infrastructure."

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Metro - What if transit were free?

Urban Compass by Colin Fast

METRO WINNIPEG

Metro - What if transit were free?: "Politicians and policy makers like to roll out expensive plans to build rapid transit to attract even more riders, but I have to wonder why no one is talking about the one surefire way to boost transit use.

What if it were free?"

Toronto - Transit City is Back!

Province to Ford: ‘Council rules supreme’ - The Globe and Mail: "In a very public affirmation of awkward relations between the province and its largest municipality, Premier Dalton McGuinty has denied Rob Ford’s claim that the province will proceed with the mayor’s transit plan despite a momentous city council rejection."

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Agents-provocateur uncovered at labor rally

 

Do you understand how agents-provocateur function? Can you spot them? Do you know what a false-flag operation is? If these terms are new to you, you must do some study, and soon. Black bloc and certain other groups provide a comfortable pond in which the provocateur fish can swim. They take advantage of the emotionally motivated and the naive. Keep alert.