The president of the Vancouver chapter of the Hells Angels says people have been rude to him and his feelings have been hurt since the group was ruled a criminal organization by an Ontario judge last year.

In an affidavit filed in B.C. Supreme Court, Rick Ciarnello lists a number of public snubs including a couple in a restaurant who asked to be moved because they didn't want to sit next to him after he walked in wearing Hells Angels colours.

He also claims he has been treated rudely by his local supermarket staff, and he says many people are no longer friendly toward him, and instead fear him or avoid him altogether.

His lawyers say these snubs violate Ciarnello's rights under Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and they want key sections of the federal anti-gang legislation struck down.

(from CBC News - British Columbia)

1. Tim Hortons is bigger than McDonalds in Canada - its been #1 since 2002
2. The chain accounted for 22.6% of all fast food industry revenues in Canada in 2005
3. Tim Hortons commands 76% of the Canadian market for coffee and baked goods (based on the number of customers served)
4. Tim Hortons holds 62% of the Canadian coffee market (Starbucks, is #2 at 7%)

Tim Hortons officials say they will open a store at the Kandahar military airfield in Afghanistan within the next few months.

Canadian soldiers have reportedly been lobbying for weeks for the move.

Tim Hortons says it will convert a trailer and deliver it to the Canadian Forces for use in Afghanistan. Military personnel will be able to purchase selected baked goods and beverages, including coffee. The Canadian Forces Personnel Support Agency, the morale and welfare arm of the Canadian Forces, will be responsible for staffing and training, and also for operation of the trailer.

"I know I speak for all the men and women of the Canadian Forces when I say that I'm delighted to hear this news," Gen. Hillier said in the news release.

"Opening a Tim Hortons to serve our troops in Afghanistan strengthens an already superb relationship between two great Canadian institutions. I would like to thank Tim Hortons for their endless support of the Canadian Forces over the years."

OSHAWA, Ont. -- Police say a woman out for a night of dancing didn't realize she had been shot in the chest until hours later -- when she noticed she was bleeding.

Police say the victim, in her 20s, left the club Friday night unaware of anything wrong, but later had trouble sleeping.

She eventually noticed she was bleeding from the chest and went to hospital yesterday morning. Police say she is in good shape and was able to walk in to the hospital.

Investigators are trying to trace back the night's events to pin down where the woman was when she was shot. Police have confirmed she was hit with a bullet and not a pellet.

• adopting the British system of driving on the left; this was to be gradually phased in over five years with large trucks first, then buses, eventually including small cars and bicycles last
• providing higher education by building taller schools
• abolishing the environment because it's too hard to keep clean and it takes up so much space
• end crime by abolishing all laws
• making bubble gum the national currency, so that it could be inflated or deflated at will
• counting the Thousand Islands to make sure none were missing
• exploiting acid rain as an electrical energy source by placing dissimilar-metal electrodes in Canadian swimming pools in order to use them as batteries
• making Canadians stronger by putting steroids in the water

Harper promises Toronto a place in government

M. Night Shyamalan, writer and director of The Sixth Sense, became interested in a proposed movie based upon the novel, but has dropped the project in favour of another. Another director, Alfonso Cuaron, director of the third Harry Potter movie, expressed interest in making it. Now Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie 2001), might be directing the adaption.

DemocraticSPACE does not endorse strategic voting (i.e. where voters cast their ballot for their second choice party to prevent a less favourable party from winning). We believe that Canada should explore options of adding an element of proportionality into our electoral system to ensure fair and accurate representation in parliament.

Methodology: Democratic Space takes the results of the last election as a baseline of support and adjusts each riding by the change of support in a given region based on a rolling average of the latest opinion polls. For the Democratic Space projections for individual polls, click here.

Methodology: Jord.ca obtains its projections by applying the latest poll results for each region to the relevant provices via Professor Werner Antweiler's Election Forecaster. Read more...

A man from Newfoundland and Labrador has received a two-month prison term for charging a moose with a snowmobile and killing it with an axe.

Anthony Norris, 25, of Trinity committed a "horrendous and heinous act," according to provincial court Judge Gloria Harding.

Wildlife investigators said they received a tip days after the moose was killed in March 2005, when a group of people drove snowmobiles and ATVs to a party at a cabin near Indian Bay.

When a moose wandered onto the groomed path, Norris plowed into it several times with his snowmobile until its hind legs were broken, said investigators. Norris then jumped on top of the animal, which put up a struggle to escape.

People in the group decided the moose should be put down because of its injuries. Norris then killed the moose with an axe.

He was convicted of harassing wildlife with a snowmobile and hunting big game without a licence.

After serving his time, Norris will be on probation for two years and be prohibited from hunting for five years.

The judge also ordered Norris to seek counselling.

Man From Canada Acts Like He's Not Cold

January 4, 2006 | Issue 42•01

BOSTON—While visiting family in Boston, Geoff MacArdle of Ottawa refused to admit that he was cold Monday. "This is nothing—this is like May in Ottawa," insisted MacArdle, wearing a light spring jacket despite 23-degree temperatures. "Where I'm from, we have picnics in this weather." MacArdle then went indoors, saying he had nothing to prove.

"[T]here are those who vote Green, because they assume that the Green Party of Canada is more or less like the Greens of Europe: democratic, socially and economically progressive and strong defenders of the environment ... [T]he assumption [is] that the Green Party is at least, well, Green ... In the last election, based on the policy platform on its website, the party was right wing on social and fiscal policy and both the Sierra Club and Greenpeace rated them below the NDP (and in most categories, below the Bloc) on environmental policies. Unfortunately, little has changed. Some things are actually worse."

Came across the links via audrawilliams.

A pilot project in Alberta has cut wait times for hip and knee surgeries to a fraction of what they were before.

The numbers show patients waited just six weeks on average from the time they had a complaint to the time they saw a specialist. The normal wait time is nine months. And the time between seeing a surgeon to the operation was reduced to about seven weeks from 11 months.

A number of changes contributed to the increased efficiency:

• Patients go to special central assessment clinics where they are examined by a team of health professionals. The goal is to get the patient to the clinic within 17 days of seeing a family doctor.
• The number of surgeries performed in each operating room has been bumped up to three or four from just one or two.
• Surgeons work with a team of nurses and physical therapists to move patients through the system, with high-priority cases completed first.

The year-long project, which started in April, will see a total of 1,200 surgeries performed. The average wait times seen within the pilot project are even lower than the new national standards announced by provincial and federal health ministers last week -- 26 weeks for knee and hip surgeries.

Final results will be released next spring. Provincial officials say breast and prostate cancer patients might also benefit from a similar diagnostic and treatment system.

The soundtracks from these films are highly sought as well. They're often a blend of samples and sounds from popular music, but blended together into funky riffs and jazzy rhythms. They fell firmly out of the American mold of porn music. These soundtracks can sell for thousands and thousands of dollars. Here is how one reviewer describes the soundtrack from The Initiation: "Without question one of the best Quebecois 'maple syrup porn' soundtracks, it is a beautiful (and funky) listen. Jazz-heads dig this for the sublime 'Pauvre Amour' while scat-aficionados justly consider 'Psychedelic Party' a Holy Grail track. There's also sweet French beat and funk. Dancefloor material; headphone candy; serious listening gratification."

Albertans are in the fortunate position of wondering what to do with extra money.

In Lethbridge for a cabinet meeting Tuesday, Premier Ralph Klein announced that every man woman and child in the province - except prisoners - would get $400 tax-exempt energy dividend cheques by the end of the year from the province's unbudgeted surplus, the result of sky-high oil and gas revenues.

Klein said details of the distribution haven't been worked out - he'll leave that to the bureaucracy. He said there'll be some kind of eligibility requirement in order to receive the money.

Klein said this is a one-time only bonus for Albertans. He said his government will still give energy rebates this winter to help consumers pay for high home heating costs.

The premier said finance officials re-calculated year-end surplus projections, now expected to be $6.8 billion.

Klein said $2.6 billion of the unexpected surplus would still be split between capital projects -- such as schools and health-care infrastructure -- and investments into some kind of savings, perhaps endowments.