Early testing shows that a severed foot sent to the headquarters of Canada’s ruling Conservative party, a severed hand found in another package and a torso found in a garbage heap in Montreal all come from the same man, Montreal police said Wednesday.

Police added they were closing in on a suspect.

“The suspect and victim knew each other,” Montreal police Cmdr. Ian Lafreniere told reporters. “It isn’t linked to organized crime.”

The packages with the foot and the hand, found Tuesday in Ottawa, were mailed from Montreal. It wasn’t clear why they were mailed.

Police discovered the severed foot after Jenni Bryne, a top political adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, opened a bloodstained box at Conservative party headquarters on Tuesday.

When Bryne opened the box, a foul odor overcame the office.

“It was such a horrible odor. I’m sure many of us will not forget it,” Conservative Party spokesman Fred DeLorey said.

Police said the package was addressed to the Conservative Party of Canada and not to a specific person.

Police confirmed Wednesday that they intercepted a second package containing a human hand at an Ottawa postal facility late Tuesday. Police wouldn’t say where the package was addressed. Canada Post wouldn’t comment on the two discoveries.

Ottawa police said they were consulting with counterparts in Montreal after a janitor there discovered a severed male torso in a suitcase in a heap of garbage behind an apartment building on Tuesday.

Police in masks have been going through the apartment building and zeroed in on a unit from which a rotten stench was drifting out, a building resident said.

In Ottawa, political staffers were keeping a nervous eye on the mail.

“It’s very upsetting,” Opposition New Democrat member Yvon Godin said. “It could be just one crazy person that did it, but at the same time we have lots of people unhappy in our country, the way the country is going.”

Opposition Liberal member Justin Trudeau called the packages horrific.

Article source: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/police-severed-foot-party-office-16453809

OTTAWA, ONTARIO — Today, the Honourable Beverley J. Oda, Minister of International Cooperation, announced Canada’s support for a new Education for Employment (EFE) initiative to meet the growing demand for a skilled workforce in developing countries. Working with the Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC), this initiative will provide further support to build a country’s institutional capacity to fill the need to hire trained employees as their economies grow. Minister Oda announced a new initiative for the Andean region in addition to an extension to an existing EFE initiative in Africa, based on significant results it already achieved.

“Sustainable economic growth is the most effective way to achieve poverty reduction because it provides gainful employment opportunities and increases incomes that result in stronger families, improved communities, and a better future for their countries. During this time of global economic restraint, developing and emerging countries will see their economies grow faster than in many industrialized countries,” said Minister Oda. “The increased demand for a skilled workforce must be met locally and Canada is intent on helping developing countries build their capacity so their own people can fill future employment opportunities. Together, with ACCC, we have built a unique model that engages public and private partners in education and training institutions, a model that will meet the needs of local employers.”

The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) has developed EFE initiatives in partnership with ACCC in Africa, South America and the Caribbean.

The EFE initiative in Africa began in September 2008 in Mozambique, Senegal, and Tanzania, and has already achieved significant results in all three countries. With CIDA’s support, this project has developed 56 technical and professional training programs and 21 entrepreneurial modules, and trained 514 trainers and 105 academic administrators. With the engagement of the private sector and educational institutions, the program has created networks connecting employers, educators and government. The Government of Canada’s contribution, through CIDA, is $20 million from 2008 to 2012. Today, Minister Oda announced an extension for an additional $2.8 million over 9 months from October 2012 to June 2013.

“When training and market needs come together, then we can achieve outcomes that result in stronger enterprises and more employment, which really drives economic growth. Canada’s colleges and institutions have helped to build our own economy to become one of the strongest globally. The ACCC will continue to be a partner with CIDA to effectively address poverty reduction in developing countries,” concluded Minister Oda.

The Minister also announced a new EFE initiative for the Andean region that will help establish a network of institutional partners, increasing institutional capacity and creating opportunities for people in the region. The Government of Canada’s contribution through CIDA is $19.6 million over 5 years from 2012 to 2017.

Backgrounder

CANADA SUPPORTS EDUCATION FOR EMPLOYMENT IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Today’s announcements are the new Andean Regional Education for Employment Initiative and an extension to the African Education for Employment Initiative. These initiatives are part of the current Education for Employment program at CIDA, which recognizes the important role of Canadian colleges and institutes in transferring successful elements of the Canadian model of demand-driven technical and vocational education and training (TVET) to institutions in developing countries.

The Education for Employment in Africa aims to support private sector development through workforce training and micro-enterprise support in sectors of the economy where there is a lack of qualified workers and entrepreneurs. The goal of this initiative is to help reduce poverty by supporting private sector development. The program brings together the needs of businesses for stability and the creation and maintenance of sustainable jobs, and the necessary improvements in continuing education for the labour force. The program is already delivering significant results in the three countries. The Government of Canada’s contribution, through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), is $20 million from 2008 to 2012 and the extension is for an additional $2.8 million over 9 months from October 2012 to June 2013.

The Andean Regional Education for Employment Initiative will work with national and regional governments, employers, unions and other employment agencies and educational institutions to modernize the delivery of vocational training, and it will help to establish a regional network of institutional partners. The Government of Canada’s contribution through CIDA is $19.6 million over 5 years from 2012 to 2017.

Current CIDA funded initiatives with the ACCC also include the CARICOM Education for Employment: which aims to strengthen Caribbean institutional capacity to implement and promote occupational standards, workforce certification, and demand-driven technical and vocational education and training (TVET). The increase in institutional capacity will help create meaningful employment for TVET graduates and skilled workers in the region. The project also improves access to pertinent labour market information so that technical and vocational courses are better aligned with employers’ needs. Under the auspices of the ACCC, Caribbean institutions collaborate with private sector representatives in the region as well as with relevant Canadian organizations to benefit from Canada’s experience in developing TVET programming and a more decentralized and entrepreneurial approach to college management. The Government of Canada’s contribution through CIDA is $19.6 million over 5 years from 2011 to 2016.

© Marketwire 2012

Article source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47630674

Enlarge image

RIM Takeover Set When Board Obeys Shareholders

Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) BlackBerry signage hangs above the company’s booth at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) BlackBerry signage hangs above the company’s booth at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

Research In Motion Ltd. (RIMM) investors see
an outright sale as the best choice for the BlackBerry maker
after a series of failed turnaround efforts led management to
explore strategic options.

RIM said this week it hired JPMorgan Chase Co. and RBC
Capital Markets to help it find a partner or license its
operating system. That won’t be enough to reverse the company’s
stock decline and flagging sales, said RIM investor Vic Alboini,
chairman of the Toronto-based investment firm Jaguar Financial
Corp. He’d rather attract a buyer, such as Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) or
International Business Machines Corp. (IBM)

“We would like to see a sale of the company or a breakup,
and if a breakup, the sale of each of the parts,” said Alboini,
who has urged RIM to sell itself since at least September.
“We’re pushing and cajoling RIM to get to the promised land of
a sale or breakup.”

RIM, beset by shrinking market share, executive turnover
and product delays, tumbled 7.8 percent yesterday, bringing
declines in the past year to more than 76 percent. The company
said this week that it will probably report its first quarterly
operating loss since 2004, and Chief Executive Officer Thorsten Heins has yet to give a release date for the next generation of
BlackBerry phones aimed at reinvigorating sales.

Seeking Partnerships

The company’s next steps may include forging partnerships,
licensing its software and looking at “strategic business model
alternatives,” Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM said. It’s also
attempting to streamline operations by reducing spending and
headcount.

“It’s a business model that’s badly broken, but it’s got
assets that are worth something to somebody,” said David Baskin, president of Toronto-based Baskin Financial Services
Inc., which manages C$450 million ($437 million) in equities.
While he doesn’t own RIM shares, he’s considering investing in
the company because of the takeover prospects. “You don’t hire
a banker unless you’re considering a sale,” he said.

Heins, who took over from RIM co-founders Jim Balsillie and
Mike Lazaridis in January, hasn’t ruled out a sale of the
company, though he said in March he’s not focused on that
scenario.

RIM declined to comment beyond reiterating previous
statements made by Heins.

“As Thorsten said on the company’s fourth-quarter earnings
call, ‘We believe the best way to drive value for our
stakeholders is to execute on our plan to turn the company
around.”’ RIM said in an e-mail. “This remains true.”

Saying the Opposite

Heins’s stance may just be a smoke screen, said Tom Caldwell, CEO of Caldwell Securities Ltd. in Toronto, which
manages more than $1 billion in assets. His firm sold its RIM
stock about six months ago, while keeping a few thousand shares
in retail accounts.

“The best way to say you’re considering a sale is to say
you’re not for sale,” Caldwell said. “I think they’re looking
for a buyer for the whole thing.”

U.S. companies have plenty of cash to spend, and Microsoft
has to be seen as a front-runner to buy the BlackBerry maker,
Caldwell said. RIM would give Microsoft a bigger foothold in the
smartphone market, where it’s competing against Apple Inc. (AAPL) and
Google Inc. (GOOG) Microsoft already has a partnership with Nokia Oyj (NOK1V)
to build devices based on the Windows Phone software.

Private-Equity Interest

U.S. private-equity firms also may be attracted to RIM,
Caldwell said. A restructured RIM focused on the corporate
market might be the kind of business that a buyout firm would be
interested in, particularly if RIM has already cut some of its
fat, he said.

RIM said this week that it will be making “significant”
reductions in spending and staffing as it looks to save $1
billion in operating costs this year.

Nokia, based in Espoo, Finland, also could be a bidder for
RIM’s phone business, said Jaguar’s Alboini. Facebook Inc. (FB), the
world’s largest social-networking company, is another
possibility, he said. That company is trying to bolster its
mobile-phone services. Buying RIM would bring a captive audience
for ads, which “could partially solve their mobile advertising
gap in revenue,” Alboini said.

IBM and Microsoft are the two most logical acquirers of
RIM’s network-services business if the company were broken up,
Alboini said. That division operates encrypted e-mail servers
and handles other functions for corporate customers.

Representatives of Microsoft, IBM, Nokia and Facebook
declined to comment on whether they would consider buying RIM.

BlackBerry 10 Release

Acquirers are unlikely to consider a deal before RIM
introduces BlackBerry 10 later this year, Peter Misek, an
analyst at Jefferies Co., said in a report. Facebook is an
unlikely buyer, and Microsoft will probably wait to see how its
own Windows 8 software fares before acting, he said. Government
restrictions also could hamper acquirers outside North America.

At the same time, RIM’s falling valuation has made it an
increasingly affordable target. The stock has dropped more than
90 percent from its mid-2008 high, when RIM’s hold on business
users was secure and the iPhone had only been on the market for
a year.

“You’ve got a lot of cash, a lot of assets and a lot of
patents,” said Don Yacktman, founder of Yacktman Asset
Management, RIM’s seventh-largest investor. The firm held about
9.7 million shares of RIM at the end of the first quarter,
giving it a stake of about $100 million in the company.
“There’s still a lot of value there.”

Google spent about $12.5 billion for Motorola Mobility
Holdings Inc. this month to boost its patent portfolio. RIM was
part of a group that included Apple and Microsoft that paid $4.5
billion to buy bankrupt Nortel Networks Corp’s 6,000 patents and
patent applications.

Todd Johnson, a fund manager at BCV Investment Management
in Winnipeg, Manitoba, said a buyer may step forward before the
BlackBerry 10 rollout. While his firm doesn’t own the stock, he
bought shares himself a couple of weeks ago when they were
trading around $11.

“You’d think someone would come in ahead of BlackBerry
10,” Johnson said. “The user base, a network operating center,
high-end security. Someone’s got to want that.”

To contact the reporter on this story:
Hugo Miller in Toronto at
hugomiller@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Nick Turner at
nturner7@bloomberg.net

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Article source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-31/rim-sale-set-when-board-obeys-holders-corporate-canada.html

By Bill Mann, MarketWatch

PORT TOWNSEND, Wash. (MarketWatch) — Is Canada’s manufacturing sector suffering from “Dutch Disease”?

This has nothing to do with elm trees, and everything to do with Canadian politics and economics. The “disease debate” isn’t going away soon — in fact, it may well be the central issue of the next Canadian federal election.

At the heart of the debate is the question: Is Canada’s strong, petro-fueled dollar hurting its struggling manufacturing sector by making Canadian exports too expensive? That’s what Thomas Mulcair, Canada’s recently elected opposition leader in Parliament, has been consistently and robustly asserting. It’s touched off a nasty political debate in Ottawa.

The “Dutch Disease” term was coined back in the 70s to describe the Netherlands’ exports becoming more costly when its currency soared following offshore-gas discoveries there. Canada’s dollar, the loonie, is currently trading above the U.S. greenback, and U.S. dollars buy most of Canada’s exports.

Mulcair, leader of the NDP ( which, its founding documents say, is still officially socialist) is blaming Canada’s alleged case of Dutch Disease for the loss of half of the 500,000 manufacturing jobs, mostly in Ontario and Quebec, the sector has lost. Mulcair, the bearded socialist — right-wing Lenin alert! — resigned from the Liberal Party not long ago and joined the NDP after he’d been Environment Minister in Quebec and refused to go along with a Liberal plan to allow private development in a provincial park.

Mulcair’s attacks on Canada’s oil-sands industry for its “non-sustainable” nature and its environmental costs have raised the ire of western Canadian leaders, who accuse Mulcair of trying to foment an east-west political divide in Canada. Mulcair will be in Alberta Thursday, but the province’s premier, Allison Redford, will be unavailable.

Almost all of the NDP’s seats in Parliament are from the non-oil sands areas of Quebec and Ontario.

Mulcair, who’s casting himself as a strong environmentalist — Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s political base is in the heart of Alberta’s oil-sands industry — once wrote the preface to a book called “Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and The Future of a Continent.”

Ironically, Mulcair has cooled it on the Dutch-Disease rhetoric this week — he’s on a tour of Alberta’s vast oil sands sponsored by — of all things — a big oil company, Suncor Energy


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.

We’ll learn if Mulcair tones down the anti-oil rhetoric after flying over the fields. I wouldn’t count on it: After flying over the oil sands during the 2008 election, Mulcair’s NDP leadership predecessor, the late Jack Layton, blasted Harper for “refusing to protect the North from the toxic discharges of his friends in the big oil companies.”

Mulcair’s Dutch Disease assertion has caused unusual acrimony in Parliament, with one of Harper’s ministers charging that Mulcair’s attacks on the western oil industry are hurting national unity. The Minister, James Moore, even went so far as to say bluntly, “The fact is, western Canada is driving the Canadian economy. We are the future.” Take THAT, eastern Canada.

David Frum, a regular panelist on U.S. cable news shows, is a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush. He’s also a Canadian whose mother was a well-known Canadian Broadcasting Corp. broadcast journalist. Frum suspects Mulcair is angling for a carbon tax.

Frum, writing in Canada’s National Post, said that while a carbon tax may be a good way to respond to greenhouse-gas emissions, “it would do nothing to help Central Canadian manufacturers. Manufacturers use energy, too — lots of it. A carbon tax will raise the price of their energy inputs and thus the cost of their products.”

Frum has a good point, and University of Ottawa economics professor Serge Coulombe suggested that Canada’s “petrodollar problem” could be offset by offering federal tax breaks for investment in Canadian manufacturing.

Of course, Canada isn’t the first country to face challenges caused by a resource-based economy. Take the Netherlands, which Mulcair is now casting as disease-ridden.

The Dutch haven’t done so badly, Frum points out: The Netherlands have remained one of the world’s strongest economies. When ranked by GDP per capita it’s currently in the world’s top nine, according to the IMF.

Frankly, this “Dutch Disease” scenario seems to be something that Mulcair pulled out of his, um, briefcase, to fuel debate in Parliament. Harper’s majority Conservative government is solidly in the driver’s seat there. Mulcair is following a long tradition in Canada of trying to ignite a partisan debate — trying to, one might say, throw oil on the fire, or embers.

Harper’s government, elected last year, has been predictably slipping in the polls as it enters its second year in solid control after years of minority-party rule.

Recent polls suggest that the only significant population area in Canada where oil-sands development isn’t popular is in Mulcair’s — and the NDP’s — political home base, Quebec. The NDP leader has called for a crackdown on water and air pollution in the oil sands, which would boost costs for the companies developing the oil sands. Harper and Alberta say they’re doing just that.

Mulcair has told western Canada’s leaders not to take it personally. It’s federal. Dutch Disease and the oil sands, he’s stated, is “the defining element in the next election campaign in Canada.” The feisty Mulcair added on a Canadian TV show that a debate over the oil sands and its economic and environmental impact “is a fight we’ve been looking for.” (Shades of Sen. Mitch McConnell’s line three years ago that defeating Pres. Obama’s is the Republicans’ top priority).

It doesn’t appear to be a fight he and the NDP are going to win in the long run. Most polls I’ve seen show that Canadians realize the oil business is driving their economy, despite its environmental downside.

Finally, the usually reasonable Frum notes that despite “Dutch Disease,” manufacturing remains about 14% of GDP in the Netherlands — not that much lower than Canada’s 16%.

He concludes: “Quality of life is high. The Netherlands is not exactly a sob story”

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Article source: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/does-canada-have-dutch-disease-2012-05-30

OTTAWA, Ontario — A porn actor is wanted in a gruesome case of dismembered body parts that were mailed to different places including the headquarters of the Conservative Party of Canada, police said.

Luka Rocco Magnotta, 29, is wanted for homicide, Montreal police said Wednesday at a news conference.

According to an official close to the investigation Magnotta worked as a porn actor and there is video of the crime. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk publicly about those details.

Magnotta, believed to originally be from Toronto, was renting an apartment in a working-class Montreal neighborhood. It was behind that building that police found a man’s torso in a suitcase in a heap of garbage Tuesday, police said. That same day, a foot was found in a package mailed to the Conservative party headquarters in Ottawa, and a hand found at postal warehouse in the Canadian capital. The package with the hand was addressed to the Liberal Party of Canada. Early testing shows the three body parts come from the same man, police said.

Police in masks combed through the blood-soaked Montreal studio apartment on Wednesday. A blood stained mattress remained there after they left.

“For most of the officers that were there all night long this is the kind of crime scene they’ve never seen in their career,” Montreal Police Cmdr. Ian Lafreniere said.

Lafreniere said they are investigating the possibility that other body parts might have been mailed. He said the suspect and the victim knew each other. He said it isn’t linked to organized crime.

The packages with the foot and the hand had been mailed to Ottawa from Montreal. It wasn’t clear why.

“As a father, I would have trouble sleeping at night knowing that the suspect was in my neighborhood,” Lafreniere said.

Police said Magnotta is also known by the names Eric Clinton Newman and Vladimir Romanov. They described him as white, 5 feet 8 inches tall (1.78 meters) with blue eyes and black hair.

His internet presence indicates he is a bisexual porn actor and model.

Police discovered the severed foot after Jenni Bryne, a top political adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, opened a bloodstained box at Conservative party headquarters Tuesday.

When Bryne opened the box, a foul odor overcame the office.

“It was such a horrible odor. I’m sure many of us will not forget it,” Conservative Party spokesman Fred DeLorey said.

Police said the package was addressed to the Conservative Party of Canada and not to a specific person.

Canada Post wouldn’t comment on the discoveries.

Eric Schorer, the manager of the building where the suspect lived, said Magnotta had been living there for about four months but hadn’t been seen around in a while. He said there were never any complaints about noise in the unit, and that Magnotta passed a credit test to rent there.

“He seemed like a nice guy,” Schorer said.

Richard Payette, who lived across the hall from Magnotta, said the door of Apartment 208 was left open for part of the day on Wednesday. Payette said there was an overwhelming smell drifting out into the hallway, like bad meat.

An online video showing a man that looks like Magnotta shows him committing violent acts against kittens. The video contains at least one photo made available by Montreal police Wedesday that identified the man as Magnotta. For nearly two years, the name has been notorious among animal-rights activists looking for a man who tortured and killed cats and posted videos of it online.

“It’s very upsetting,” Opposition New Democrat member Yvon Godin said. “It could be just one crazy person that did it, but at the same time we have lots of people unhappy in our country, the way the country is going.”

Opposition Liberal member Justin Trudeau called the packages horrific.

Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20120531/cn-canada-severed-foot/

MISSISSAUGA, Ontario–(BUSINESS WIRE)–

Tech Data Canada, a leading distributor of IT products, logistics
management and other value added services recently announced a
partnership with Pivot3,
a top provider of unified storage and compute appliances. Tech Data
Canada is now authorized to distribute the Pivot3 vSTAC™ VDI products to
its partner network throughout Canada. The Pivot3 vSTAC VDI appliance
family makes VMware View deployments simple, affordable and channel
consumable for the 100 to 1000 desktop target market. Pivot3 vSTAC™ VDI
appliances unify storage and servers eliminating the need for any
specialized IT expertise required to configure and integrate separate
SAN storage, servers and software into a VDI solution.

“Partnering with Pivot3 adds a compelling offering into our existing
VMware-based line-card by providing us with the opportunity to deliver
simple and affordable desktop modernization to our mid-market VMware
View solution providers,” said Greg Myers, Vice President, Marketing,
Tech Data Canada, “Our View solution providers will be able to quickly
deploy a virtual desktop infrastructure at an attractive price point to
both the reseller and the customer.”

“The strength of Tech Data’s partner network and their focus on serving
the desktop virtualization mid-market, make them a perfect partner to
distribute Pivot3 VDI solutions,” said Olivier Thierry, CMO of Pivot3.
“The mid-market has been clamoring for a View appliance-based solution
that has enterprise class features and yet is simple, scalable and
affordable.”

TSK, a UK-based company that delivers high performance workplaces for
corporate organizations, recently implemented the Pivot3 vSTAC VDI
product. Mark Eades, IT manager at TSK commented, “We were very
impressed with how well the Pivot3 vSTAC VDI installation went, making
our VMware View 5.0 deployment both simple and affordable. It eliminated
the complexities and skill levels normally imposed.”

In support of the this partnership, Pivot3 recently announced its VDI
Channel Ready program consisting of many unique elements designed to
maximize lead opportunity and qualification for Tech Data resellers and
solution providers. Beyond the traditional online resources, there are
unique online tools for VDI self-configuration and ROI analysis.
Additionally, prospects can “Test Drive” a live, hosted 300 to 400
desktop scenario complete with workload simulation, login storms,
scale-out of desktops and performance reporting. The Channel Ready
program is also designed to enhance sell-through with all VMware and
Microsoft license revenues flowing to the resellers. In addition, deal
registration is available to partners.

About Pivot3

Pivot3 was founded in 2003 on the idea that today’s stack of servers,
storage and networks could be radically simplified and unified to drive
down complexity and cost. The company has over 500 customers across the
globe deploying the Pivot3 storage and compute STAC™. Pivot3 products
are deployed in the data protection, digital surveillance and rich media
markets and have seen particular success in the public sector,
transportation, education and retail vertical segments. The company has
won numerous awards and was most recently selected by the Wall Street
Journal for the prestigious “2011 Next Big Thing” category. To learn
more about Pivot3, visit www.pivot3.com.

Find the latest news and information about Pivot3 vSTAC™ VDI and P Cubed
online:

• Desktop
  virtualization whitepaper
• Product
  information
• VMware
  Reference Architecture
• Test
  Drive Pivot3
• Pivot3
  VDI Configurator
• VMware
  View POC Solutions
• VMware
  Rapid Desktop Program Support
• Twitter

About Tech Data

Tech Data Corporation (TECD) is one of the world’s largest
wholesale distributors of technology products. Its advanced logistics
capabilities and value added services enable more than 125,000 resellers
in more than 100 countries to efficiently and cost effectively support
the diverse technology needs of end users. Tech Data generated $26.5
billion in net sales for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2012 and is
ranked 109^th on the Fortune 500^®. To learn more,
visit www.techdata.ca.

Follow Tech
Data Canada on Twitter
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Data Canada on Facebook

Article source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/tech-data-canada-partners-pivot3-173300324.html

By Bill Mann, MarketWatch

PORT TOWNSEND, Wash. (MarketWatch) — Is Canada’s manufacturing sector suffering from “Dutch Disease”?

This has nothing to do with elm trees, and everything to do with Canadian politics and economics. The “disease debate” isn’t going away soon — in fact, it may well be the central issue of the next Canadian federal election.

At the heart of the debate is the question: Is Canada’s strong, petro-fueled dollar hurting its struggling manufacturing sector by making Canadian exports too expensive? That’s what Thomas Mulcair, Canada’s recently elected opposition leader in Parliament, has been consistently and robustly asserting. It’s touched off a nasty political debate in Ottawa.

The “Dutch Disease” term was coined back in the 70s to describe the Netherlands’ exports becoming more costly when its currency soared following offshore-gas discoveries there. Canada’s dollar, the loonie, is currently trading above the U.S. greenback, and U.S. dollars buy most of Canada’s exports.

Mulcair, leader of the NDP ( which, its founding documents say, is still officially socialist) is blaming Canada’s alleged case of Dutch Disease for the loss of half of the 500,000 manufacturing jobs, mostly in Ontario and Quebec, the sector has lost. Mulcair, the bearded socialist — right-wing Lenin alert! — resigned from the Liberal Party not long ago and joined the NDP after he’d been Environment Minister in Quebec and refused to go along with a Liberal plan to allow private development in a provincial park.

Mulcair’s attacks on Canada’s oil-sands industry for its “non-sustainable” nature and its environmental costs have raised the ire of western Canadian leaders, who accuse Mulcair of trying to foment an east-west political divide in Canada. Mulcair will be in Alberta Thursday, but the province’s premier, Allison Redford, will be unavailable.

Almost all of the NDP’s seats in Parliament are from the non-oil sands areas of Quebec and Ontario.

Mulcair, who’s casting himself as a strong environmentalist — Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s political base is in the heart of Alberta’s oil-sands industry — once wrote the preface to a book called “Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and The Future of a Continent.”

Ironically, Mulcair has cooled it on the Dutch-Disease rhetoric this week — he’s on a tour of Alberta’s vast oil sands sponsored by — of all things — a big oil company, Suncor Energy


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.

We’ll learn if Mulcair tones down the anti-oil rhetoric after flying over the fields. I wouldn’t count on it: After flying over the oil sands during the 2008 election, Mulcair’s NDP leadership predecessor, the late Jack Layton, blasted Harper for “refusing to protect the North from the toxic discharges of his friends in the big oil companies.”

Mulcair’s Dutch Disease assertion has caused unusual acrimony in Parliament, with one of Harper’s ministers charging that Mulcair’s attacks on the western oil industry are hurting national unity. The Minister, James Moore, even went so far as to say bluntly, “The fact is, western Canada is driving the Canadian economy. We are the future.” Take THAT, eastern Canada.

David Frum, a regular panelist on U.S. cable news shows, is a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush. He’s also a Canadian whose mother was a well-known Canadian Broadcasting Corp. broadcast journalist. Frum suspects Mulcair is angling for a carbon tax.

Frum, writing in Canada’s National Post, said that while a carbon tax may be a good way to respond to greenhouse-gas emissions, “it would do nothing to help Central Canadian manufacturers. Manufacturers use energy, too — lots of it. A carbon tax will raise the price of their energy inputs and thus the cost of their products.”

Frum has a good point, and University of Ottawa economics professor Serge Coulombe suggested that Canada’s “petrodollar problem” could be offset by offering federal tax breaks for investment in Canadian manufacturing.

Of course, Canada isn’t the first country to face challenges caused by a resource-based economy. Take the Netherlands, which Mulcair is now casting as disease-ridden.

The Dutch haven’t done so badly, Frum points out: The Netherlands have remained one of the world’s strongest economies. When ranked by GDP per capita it’s currently in the world’s top nine, according to the IMF.

Frankly, this “Dutch Disease” scenario seems to be something that Mulcair pulled out of his, um, briefcase, to fuel debate in Parliament. Harper’s majority Conservative government is solidly in the driver’s seat there. Mulcair is following a long tradition in Canada of trying to ignite a partisan debate — trying to, one might say, throw oil on the fire, or embers.

Harper’s government, elected last year, has been predictably slipping in the polls as it enters its second year in solid control after years of minority-party rule.

Recent polls suggest that the only significant population area in Canada where oil-sands development isn’t popular is in Mulcair’s — and the NDP’s — political home base, Quebec. The NDP leader has called for a crackdown on water and air pollution in the oil sands, which would boost costs for the companies developing the oil sands. Harper and Alberta say they’re doing just that.

Mulcair has told western Canada’s leaders not to take it personally. It’s federal. Dutch Disease and the oil sands, he’s stated, is “the defining element in the next election campaign in Canada.” The feisty Mulcair added on a Canadian TV show that a debate over the oil sands and its economic and environmental impact “is a fight we’ve been looking for.” (Shades of Sen. Mitch McConnell’s line three years ago that defeating Pres. Obama’s is the Republicans’ top priority).

It doesn’t appear to be a fight he and the NDP are going to win in the long run. Most polls I’ve seen show that Canadians realize the oil business is driving their economy, despite its environmental downside.

Finally, the usually reasonable Frum notes that despite “Dutch Disease,” manufacturing remains about 14% of GDP in the Netherlands — not that much lower than Canada’s 16%.

He concludes: “Quality of life is high. The Netherlands is not exactly a sob story”

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Article source: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7B0528E560-AA7C-11E1-9705-002128049AD6%7D&siteid=rss&rss=1

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) – Canada’s federal opposition party leader, who has criticized the oil sands boom as harmful to the country’s manufacturing sector, prepared on Wednesday to make his first visit to the massive resource development in Alberta, where his comments have sparked anger.

New Democratic Party leader Thomas Mulcair, slated to tour Suncor Energy Inc’s oil sands operation on Thursday, has said the manufacturing sector is being hollowed out by a Canadian dollar that has surged due to the boom in oil exports.

Quebec-based Mulcair’s comments, which characterized the situation as “Dutch disease,” angered Alberta Premier Alison Redford, who said they threaten to deepen East-West divisions. She will not meet with the leader of the left-wing party, having already committed to an economic forum in the United States.

Mulcair’s tar sands tour is seen in Alberta as an important introduction to an industry that has eschewed the left-leaning NDP with its history of support from organized labor. Nationally, recent opinion polls have shown Mulcair and his party approaching and even surpassing Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives, major supporters of the oil-industry.

“Our simple message is simply that we want to work for sustainable development in all regions of Canada,” Mulcair told reporters in Ottawa. “There’s nothing specific to the West in our message … we’re going to say that we want legislation enforced and legislation that is there to protect human health and ecosystems.”

Joe Oliver, the federal natural resources minister, said the opposition leader’s trip to the heart of oil country does nothing to change an anti-industry stance. The NDP has also been highly critical of the environmental impact of development.

“The NDP is trying to dress up an anti-resource agenda in sheep’s clothing. It is clear that they want to shut down an industry that employs hundreds of thousands of Canadians and provides billions in revenues to governments across Canada to pay for social programs such as education and health care,” Oliver said.

‘OIL SANDS FEVER’

The Pembina Institute, an environmental research organization, released a report backing Mulcair’s assertion that the resourced-based economies in western Canada have boomed over the past decade and outperformed exports from the manufacturing centers in Ontario and Quebec, where their goods have become uncompetitive as the currency has climbed.

“While Canada is exploiting its comparative advantage with respect to natural resource extraction, the rate of change is causing significant challenges in central Canada — making it difficult for this region to adjust to incredibly rapid structural changes in the economy,” Pembina wrote.

That is one, though not the only, factor in the loss of 550,000 manufacturing jobs between 2004 and 2010, it said.

“The result appears to be a uniquely Canadian strain of the Dutch disease that could be called ‘oil sands fever’ — a strain that is beginning to create clear winners and losers in Canada’s economy and could pose a significant risk to Canada’s competitiveness in the emerging clean energy economy,” it said.

Pembina recommended setting up a Norwegian-style federal savings fund for oil and gas revenue to work against currency appreciation and to soften the impact of boom-and-bust commodity cycles while moving to cleaner energy sources.

However, another think tank, the more conservative Macdonald-Laurier Institute, released a paper arguing that Ontario, Quebec and other provinces enjoy benefits from the oil and gas industry that outweigh any negative effects from the higher Canadian dollar.

The institute said that while foreigners are buying more oil and fewer manufactured goods from Canada, numerous studies have shown that the energy and pipeline industries are spending more to buy goods and services across the country.

“This shows the danger in a naive assumption of the ‘Dutch disease’ critique of Canadian energy exports,” it said, referring to a term first used to describe the decline of the manufacturing industry in the Netherlands in the 1960s following the discovery of major North Sea natural gas reserves.

(Additional reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by David Gregorio)

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/canada-opposition-leader-heads-west-amid-oil-scrap-203256323--finance.html

A porn actor is wanted in a gruesome case of dismembered body parts that were mailed to different places including the headquarters of the Conservative Party of Canada, police said Wednesday.

Luka Rocco Magnotta, 29, is wanted for homicide, Montreal police said at a news conference.

According to an official close to the investigation Magnotta worked as a porn actor and there is video of the crime. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk publicly about those details.

Magnotta, believed to originally be from Toronto, was renting an apartment in a working-class Montreal neighborhood. It was behind that building that police found a man’s torso in a suitcase in a heap of garbage Tuesday, police said. That same day, a foot was found in a package mailed to the Conservative party headquarters in Ottawa, and a hand found at postal warehouse in the Canadian capital. The package with the hand was addressed to the Liberal party of Canada. Early testing shows the three body parts come from the same man, police said.

“Some police officers have never witnessed a crime such as this,” Montreal Police Cmdr. Ian Lafreniere said.

Lafreniere said they are investigating the possibility that other body parts might have been mailed. He said the suspect and the victim knew each other. He said it isn’t linked to organized crime.

The packages with the foot and the hand had been mailed to Ottawa from Montreal. It wasn’t clear why.

“We’re talking about a very disturbed person. It’s very graphic. We’re still missing parts of the body,” Lafreniere said.

Police said Magnotta is also known by the names Eric Clinton Newman and Vladimir Romanov. They described him as white, 5.8 feet (1.78 meters) tall with blue eyes and black hair.

Police discovered the severed foot after Jenni Bryne, a top political adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, opened a bloodstained box at Conservative party headquarters Tuesday.

When Bryne opened the box, a foul odor overcame the office.

“It was such a horrible odor. I’m sure many of us will not forget it,” Conservative Party spokesman Fred DeLorey said.

Police said the package was addressed to the Conservative Party of Canada and not to a specific person.

Canada Post wouldn’t comment on the discoveries.

Eric Schorer, the manager of the building where the suspect lived, said Magnotta had been living there for about four months but hadn’t been seen around in a while. He said there were never any complaints about noise in the unit, and that Magnotta passed a credit test to rent there.

“He seemed like a nice guy,” Schorer said.

In Ottawa, political staffers were keeping a nervous eye on the mail.

“It’s very upsetting,” Opposition New Democrat member Yvon Godin said. “It could be just one crazy person that did it, but at the same time we have lots of people unhappy in our country, the way the country is going.”

Opposition Liberal member Justin Trudeau called the packages horrific.

Article source: http://www.stltoday.com/news/national/canada-name-suspect-in-body-parts-case/article_827aa585-91de-5f8d-ac7e-79c06288a99e.html

By Louise Egan

OTTAWA |
Thu May 31, 2012 4:35am IST

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadian police on Wednesday named a man with a bizarre Internet trail as an alleged kitten-killer and bisexual porn star as their suspect in a gruesome case involving a dismembered torso, mailed-out body parts, and what one senior officer said was the worst crime scene his force has ever seen.

Montreal police released a photograph of, who also uses the pseudonyms Eric Clinton Newman and Vladimir Romanov, and asked people across Canada to help locate him.

A man identified as Luka Rocco Magnotta appears on several Internet sites, with photos that match those of the man in the police mug shots. The sites make references to Magnotta as the man shown in Internet videos allegedly suffocating kittens and feeding one to a python.

Other websites describe Magnotta as a male model and a bisexual actor in adult films.

“Police have never witnessed a crime scene such as this,” Montreal police Commander Ian Lafreniere said after investigators searched an apartment at an undisclosed Montreal location. He did not describe the scene in detail.

In the first gory discovery in the case, a severed foot was mailed to the headquarters of the governing Conservative Party in Ottawa. A hand was intercepted in the mail, also in Ottawa.

Then a torso was found in a suitcase in a garbage pile in Montreal.

“As a father, I would have trouble sleeping at night knowing that the suspect was in my neighborhood,” Lafreniere said.

He said Magnotta and the as-yet-unidentified victim knew each other but offered no details.

He said Magnotta was not previously known to police and he declined to comment on what social media said about him.

The blood-stained package containing a decomposing foot arrived on Tuesday at the Conservatives’ offices in downtown Ottawa, a few blocks away from Parliament in the country’s safest city.

“It was such a horrible odor I’m sure many of us will not forget it,” said Fred DeLorey, a Conservative Party spokesman.

Police intercepted a second suspicious package at an Ottawa postal depot. It contained a human hand.

Meanwhile in Montreal, a janitor, curious about an abandoned suitcase in a pile of garbage, opened it to find a headless torso inside, with no arms or legs.

“We’re missing parts of the body so it’s difficult for us at this time to identify the body 100 percent,” Lafreniere said.

(Additional reporting by Alex Paterson; Editing by Bill Trott and Janet Guttsman)

Article source: http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/05/30/canada-body-parts-package-idINDEE84T0JX20120530