Paying the rent for our use of First Nations land (in the Toronto Star)

"[Canadian PM Steven Harper] is encouraging Canadians to continue believing that we are the generous benefactors of the First Nations people, but that is not true. They have been our benefactors since the days of the fur trade and we have become one of the wealthiest societies in human history.

"The bad news is that we have been left holding the bag and the profits from a 200-year-old land heist. The good news is that there is a clear path forward. To strengthen the chain between the First Nations and non-aboriginal Canadians, we must turn our gaze from the shortcomings of First Nations people onto our own."

Full article: Strengthening the chain between First Nations and non-aboriginal Canadians.

Catherine Murton Stoehr is an instructor in the department of history at Nipissing University.

Heather Mallick: iPad factory misery leads to suicides (in the Toronto Star)

"If you thought robots worked through endless Chinese nights you were wrong. When human labour is as cheap as it is in China, only human labour will do.

"Only this kind of labour could produce electronic gadgets for the price we in the West like to pay. We worship the god of Cheap and Shenzhen’s millions make this possible."

Full article: iPad factory misery leads to suicides.

Coconut Oil Touted as Alzheimer's Remedy (CBN TV - Video)

Coconut Oil Touted as Alzheimer's Remedy - CBN TV - Video.

This looks pretty promising. Actually Indian doctors have been saying for years that coconut oil should not be confused with other (long chain) fats, as it has a completely different effect on the body.

Here's a recent article by Dr. Carolyn Dean: Coconut Oil for Alzheimer's.

Michael Geist on why his website went dark to protest U.S. restrictions on Internet (in the Toronto Star)

"Even if SOPA dies, the mounting battle over Internet restrictions seems destined to continue. In the U.S., a son-of-SOPA is bound to appear should the bill die, while in Canada the government has remained steadfast in supporting the Bill C-11 digital lock rules despite public opposition."

Full article: Michael Geist’s website went dark to protest U.S. restrictions on Internet.

Michael Geist holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law.

Traumatic brain injury may be treated by transplanted human stem cells (in the Toronto Star)

"Using rats as well as an apparatus that simulates brain damage on human neurons, [Dr. Ping] Wu and her team of researchers identified a key molecular mechanisms through which implanted human neural stem cells aid recovery from traumatic axonal injury – which involves damage to the axons and dendrites which are the pathways for nerve communication in the brain."

Dr. Wu is a professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch.

Full article: Traumatic brain injury may be treated by transplanted human stem cells.

David Olive: Keystone, Northern Gateway pipelines raise questions that need answers before approval (in the Toronto Star)

"In an ideal world, we would embrace conservation and greatly accelerated development of alternative sources of energy to make unnecessary the construction of Gateway and the even longer Keystone XL pipeline to take Athabasca crude the entire length of the U.S. to refineries on the Texas coast.

"But that won’t happen, not for decades if ever. Canadians and Americans will ultimately consent to these two projects with their combined 4,000 km of three-foot-diameter pipe at a total estimated cost of $13.6 billion. Energy security will trump the many risks.

...

"These two megaprojects raise enough disturbing questions that their advocates have resorted to scare tactics in promoting them.

...

"“In the current environment, it is easier to get a nuclear power plant approved than an oil pipeline,” complains securities analyst Stephen Paget in a recent note to investor clients.

"Given the sorry record of pipelines and the tankers they feed, that’s as it should be."

Full article: Keystone, Northern Gateway pipelines raise questions that need answers before approval.

Will Obama address climate threat in State of the Union speech?

By Brad Johnson - Cross-posted from ThinkProgress Green in grist.org.

Will Obama address climate threat in State of the Union speech?.

Tim Harper: Stephen Harper won’t impose a social agenda on Canada, but he will export it (in the Toronto Star)

"It appears that Harper is true to his word, he will not impose a social agenda on Canada where it won’t wash, but he will export it to other jurisdictions.

"Reopen debate, no. Export those views, yes.

"Unless, of course, the tinfoil crowd is just a little ahead of its time."

Full article: Canada News: Tim Harper: Stephen Harper won’t impose a social agenda on Canada, but he will export it.

Haroon Siddiqui: Stephen Harper apes Republican nuttiness (in the Toronto Star)

"An electoral drubbing for Republicans would discredit the policies Stephen Harper took from their extremist theology."

Full article: Stephen Harper apes Republican nuttiness.

Thomas Walkom: Stephen Harper’s Northern Gateway pipeline parody (in the Toronto Star)

"The federal government's depiction of environmental critics as foreign dupes would be laughable if it weren't so serious."

Full article: Canada News: Walkom: Stephen Harper’s Northern Gateway pipeline parody.

The breakfast of the future: three courses and seaweed cornflakes (in the Toronto Star)

The breakfast of the future: three courses and seaweed cornflakes - Healthzone.ca.

Don Tapscott: 20 big ideas for 2012 (Reuters.com)

Don Tapscott is Adjunct Professor at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, and is the author of 14 books.

Don Tapscott | Analysis & Opinion | Reuters.com.

Buddy Roemer: GOP Pres. Candidate Who Backs Occupy, Campaign Finance Reform, Excluded from Debates (interviewed in Democracy Now!)

Buddy Roemer: GOP Pres. Candidate Who Backs Occupy, Campaign Finance Reform, Excluded from Debates.

A Republican candidate who has served 4 terms in Congress, and been a state governor, excluded from Republican debates. Who would have thought it?!

David Ignatius: The endangered middle class (in the Toronto Star)

David Ignatius is a columnist with the Washington Post.

"In a passage that is eerily similar to some of what appeared in Foreign Affairs in the 1930s, Fukuyama notes: “Many people currently admire the Chinese system not just for its economic record but also because it can make large, complex decisions quickly, compared with the agonizing policy paralysis that has struck both the United States and Europe in the past few years.”

"That’s a warning sign — when people look to a totalitarian state for a system that works."

Full article: The endangered middle class.