News Read and Produced by Drew Pascoe
Stories written by Samah Fadil, Jonathan Moore, and Gareth Sloan
Current News
Hello there and hope you all had a brilliant summer and don't mind my sporadic posting of news stories here. For more regular post you can check out the New Media and Politics blog (it's a lot more opinionated -- these are news stories you shouldn't miss regardless of how busy school and life get).
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) study has found that Canada spends more and more on higher education, an increasing percentage of the cost is borne by students and their families. In financial terms, the benefits of a postsecondary education to individuals and Canadian society at large far outweigh the costs -- the OECD estimates that the average Canadian man with a college or university education makes more than three times what he put into getting such an education, both in terms of direct costs and lost wages. For the average woman, the gain is more than double the cost.
Findings contained in Education Indicators in Canada, a wide-ranging collection of data released by the Council of Education Ministers, that looks at education levels found Canadians are better educated than they were a decade ago and have some of the highest rates of post-secondary attendance in the developed world.
Sadly and incomprehensibly the report also shows that women are graduating from both high school and post-secondary in much higher numbers than men, but continued to earn far less in the workforce.
Fri, 09/03/2010
News Read By Erica Fisher and Produced by Drew Pascoe
Stories written by Chris Hanna, Alina Gotcherian, and Erica Fisher
It look's like you don't have Adobe Flash Player installed. Get it now.
Wed, 09/01/2010
Read by Emily Brass and Elle Magni.
Produced by Nicholas Fiscina.
Stories written by Candace Roscoe, Emily Brass and Erica Fisher.
It look's like you don't have Adobe Flash Player installed. Get it now.
News September 1st 2010
Mon, 08/30/2010
Read and produced by Lachlan Fletcher.
Stories written by Chris Hanna, Erica Fisher and Marcin Wisniewski.
It look's like you don't have Adobe Flash Player installed. Get it now.
News August 30th 2010
News read and produced by Drew Pascoe
Stories written by Chris Hanna, Alina Gotcherian, and Candace Roscoe
It look's like you don't have Adobe Flash Player installed. Get it now.
The RCMP report on the long-gun registry has surfaced and it is described as an important tool for law enforcement. Will the tough on crime Tories notice anything that disagrees with the narrative they've been trying to manufacture? It costs less to run than building a fake lake and is described as being cost efficient in reducing firearms related crime. It is also said to promote the public safety. This should be a no-brainer then, right?
Statistically the Canadian Firearms Act saves lives and millions of dollars a year. The Conservatives have not made a case for the proposed changes to the Firearms Act.
The story about two Russian military TU-95 Bear bombers flying within 56 kilometres of Canadian soil, just when the House of Commons defence committee is getting ready to examine the government's single-bid purchase of the new generation of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, makes it look like the Tories are trying to manufacture an excuse for $16 billion dollars worth of spending. Aiming your jets at someone else's airspace and veering off before you cross it is an old Cold War style game. A way of testing response time and seeing if the other side is awake. This is the second time in the last few weeks that this has taken place and both times the news organizations took the time to note that this is not an uncommon occurrence -- four bombers have been intercepted this year, and it happened sixteen times last year.
That...
Wed, 08/25/2010
Read by Elle Magni.
Produced by Nicholas Fiscina.
Stories written by Candace Roscoe, Jonathan Moore and Gareth Sloan.
It look's like you don't have Adobe Flash Player installed. Get it now.
News August 25th 2010
Mon, 08/23/2010
Read and produced by Lachlan Fletcher.
Stories written by Chris Hanna and Nicholas Fiscina.
It look's like you don't have Adobe Flash Player installed. Get it now.
News August 23rd 2010
In 2009 the New York Times called the fight over Arctic territorial claims, The biggest land grab since colonial times, and said it was accelerating as nations scramble to claim writ over hundreds of thousands of square miles of ocean floor, much of it believed to be rich in natural resources.
Determining who controls the Arctic Ocean's seabed won't play out until a few years from now. Russia has decided to postpone its Arctic bid to 2013 while Denmark and Canada have until 2012 and 2013, respectively, to file claims of which Canada's are well supported by maritime law. Norway became the first nation to win control of Arctic territory, when the commission finished its review of Oslo's claims north of Svalbard, a region that lies far south of the North Pole. This leaves Russia, Canada, Denmark and the US to sort out the remainder of the Arctic riches.
What has all the maneuvering been about? The U.S.G.S. (US Geological Survey) has also run an assessment of undiscovered oil and natural gas reserves in the region and concluded that the continental shelves are a veritable treasure trove. Specifically, according to U.S.G.S. estimates, hidden within the continental shelves lies between 22 and 256 billion barrels of oil and as much as 2,990 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. These numbers are significant. The mean estimate of undiscovered oil reserves is more than double the amount of oil that has been previously found in the Arctic. Also, the median estimate of undiscovered natural gas in the Arctic represents about 30% of the world’s undiscovered reserves.
And there is the Northwest Passage. One day, the fastest way between Asia and Europe will be across the Arctic Ocean from the Bering Strait in the West to Baffin Bay and the Davis Strait in the East. There are a number of possible routes but the quickest and most likely to be ice-free for extended periods of time are those that traverse through Canada’s...
