Dog burns in Driving Crash

Around 4 am, police found a car bursted into flames on the GO transit tracks. Sadly, inside the car was a burnt one-year-old dog. Police are now charging the suspect of impaired/drunk driving and animal cruelty. "Incidents involving drunk driving and pets are rare.When people go out drinking they don't tend to bring their pets," said Ian McConachie, spokesperson of the Toronto Humane Society. The 18-year-old Daniel Rodrigues - who also fled the scene - will face severe charges in court on February 19th.

This incident involving an 18-year-old who drove while drunk allows us to look back at the law that was eventually aborted. This is the law that was originally designed to enforce and prevent teen drunk-driving, but overtime was over-ruled and terminated. Yet here we see a teen nearly killed by the crash. Perhaps if the law was still in place, wouldn't the teen have hesitated, thought twice and thus minimizing the chances of this incident? I believe that regardless of the amount of teens disagreeing with the law, it is essential and only beneficial to teen's own lives that the law returns and is enforced.

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/564497

Suspicion over the shooting of a 23-year-old

December 31, 2008 2 am, Robbie Tolan and his cousin, Anthony Coooper, were returning home when they were stopped and threatened with a gun on their driveway. The police, who they claimed did not identify himself, was carrying a flashlight and a gun directed in their direction.
"We did not kno it was a police officer," said Cooper. "He said, 'Stop. Stop.' And we were like, 'Why? Who are you?'"
The police officer then ordered them to lie down. Momments later, Tolan's parents came outside wondering what the noise was about. Unfortunately, the mother was involved as "the cop wpushed her against the wall," said Tolan's uncle. Wondering what the officer was doing, Tolan looked up from the ground and asked the offier until he was shot in the chest. Later when the officer was questioned, he claimed he believed that the car Tolan and Cooper were driving was a stolen SUV. Although it was eventually found that it was not in fact stolen. "There's no doubt in my mind that if these had been white kids this does not happen," said David Berg, Tolan's attorney. The police officer was a 10-year veteran of the police force that had a good record.

There is clearly some racism inherent in the global society. To erase and solve the mere existence of prejudice is impossible for there is no such thing as a flawless society. The incident of Robbie Tolan proves this as the white police officer, clearly did not appreciate the black family. Yet there is a way to prevent it. The society has already made a law that all are equal and any actions towards a race is illegal, yet there should be a higher punishment for those who act malevolently against a certain race.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/01/08/baseballer.shot/index.html

Tokyo requests for a lower pay to workers

Toyoto Motor Corp claimed on Thursday they were to negotiate with workers so they can minimize the salaries to cope with the world's slump in demand. Thus, Toyota spokeswoman Ririko Takeuchi states that a decision was made to slow the production at all Japan's plants for approximately 11 days over February and March - essentially a stoppage of Japan's top automaker. In addition, 3000 temporary workers are to be "shed" by the end of March. Fortunately, the job cuts have not severely affected the company as there are still 316,000 of those who are employed globally at Toyota. However, as Toyota President says,"Protecting employment is of utmost importance for us, but tough market conditions are likely to continue, and they could get worse."

It is obvious that the global economy is not faring well and the situation has begun to affect everyone. The Japanese, one of the many who recognize the decline in the global economy, will be forced to slow their productions. Who needs cars at a time like this? This will cause a chain effect as when cars stop producing, those who create parts for the cars will be unable to sell their metal, coal, etc. The future seems bleak as industries and companies will slowly crumble.

http://business.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090108.wtoyota0108/BNStory/crashandrecovery/home?cid=al_gam_mostemail

Western Canada to soon cut operations at B.C

Western Canadian Coal Corp. claims on planning to reduce operations at mines in British Columbia. If this indeed happens, hundreds of jobs will become effected since there is a decline in demand from steel makers. By reducing operations, it will cause the original rate of 1.3 million tonnes to 750,000 tonnes of coal per year. It is said the event will take place by the end of January. Western Canadian plays a role in the world as they produce metallurgical coal from mines and sell it to world's steel makers. Unfortunately, the world presently has a slumping economy that gives countries such as Asia ideas that there will be no growth in steel sales. As a result, there is a low demand for coal that is usually needed to fuel the furnaces that create steel.

Recently, we have seen America's economy go on a decline. From the Lehman Brothers to the GM and Chrysler, America has not been doing well as a whole. Presently, we can see that an economic crisis in one country does not simply stay in that country. Other's problems can become ours as well as Western Canada's troubles clearly show everyone. As Asia has not found benefit in buying coal to create steel, parts of Canada that produce the coal has become affected. As to make matters worse, U.S may no longer be a buyer of coal depending on the situation of the GM and Chrysler. I believe Harper should take immediate action towards company declines such as these as to avoid future problems.


http://business.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090106.wwestern0106/BNStory/Business/home?cid=al_gam_mostemail

Huge plummet in December Canadian auto sales

Canadian sales of General Motor Vehicles dropped a huge amount of 19.5 percent, clearly a horrible year for automakers. An auto analyst claims that the drop in major companies may soon show that Canada is in a "automative recession." For instance, GM sold an approximate of 21,000 cars and trucks last month while it sold 26,090 in December 2007. With observation to these trends, the majority of the automakers suggest a slow Canadian sale for December.

The collapse of General Motor Vehicles will without a doubt cause many to go temporarily unemployed. Yet, the automakers have experience in their line of work and have the expertise to join another workforce that asks for their skill. Thus,the problem of unemployment is minor. Nevertheless, Harper decided to help the automakers with at least 5 billion dollars. Where did this money come from? This money will be recovered by increasing the tax dollars from citizens. More importantly, does Harper's action of helping one company signify that he intends to help other companies in need as well? Certainly, if another company requests for help Harper cannot deny it after he has just helped the GM and Chrysler, or will he? Overal, Harper's action of helping the automakers is one-sided and full of flaws.

http://www.wheels.ca/article/493415

Third-Hand Smoke?

Parents often open their windows or use a fan to clear out the air of second-hand smoke, but recent studies now prove that the 'prevention' of second-hand smoke is in fact of little use. Third-hand smoke is a term given to the next dangers of non-smokers being exposed to toxics. “When their kids are out of the house, they might smoke. Or they smoke in the car. Or they strap the kid in the car seat in the back and crack the window and smoke, and they think it’s okay because the second-hand smoke isn’t getting to their kids,” Dr. Winickoff continued. “We needed a term to describe these tobacco toxins that aren’t visible.” Studies show that although the parents may smoke in a seperate room such as the kitchen, it does not ensure the safety of their children. After smoking, gases and particles hold on to the smoker's hair, clothes and house furnitures and remains even after the smoke is not present anymore. These gases and particles include heavy metals, carcinogens (cancer risk) and frighteningly even radioactive chemicals that children can get on their hands.

Presently, a vast number of parents are addicted to smoking, but attempt to avoid the risk of second-hand smoking to their children. With the new risk of third-hand smoking, a new law must pass in order to avoid the perils of cancer for the children. The new law should include a restriction to smoking in the house if one has children as to minimize the chances of the children ingesting carcinogens.
"The belief that second-hand smoke harms children’s health was not independently associated with strict smoking bans in homes and cars, the researchers found. On the other hand, the belief that third-hand smoke was harmful greatly increased the likelihood the respondent also would enforce a strict smoking ban at home," Dr. Winickoff said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/03/health/research/03smoke.html?em

Hockey Player Hits His Head On Ice and Dies

21-year-old Don Sanderson died 3 weeks after hitting his helmetless head on the ice during a fight. As the story was recounted,Don Sanderson, the defencemen, was fighting with the forward, Corey Fulton, when Sanderson's helmet came off. Near the end of the brawl, both players fell and Sanderson's head hit the ice causing him to go out cold for 30 seconds before regaining consciousness. Unfortunately, Sanderson fell in a coma over time and was on life support until his death on January 2nd 2009. Presently, Sanderson's death requests for firmer rules on wearing helmets.

Perhaps one of the greatest issues in hockey is the fighting that is seen as "part of the game." Should brawls be banned in hockey? Although the security of helmets play an important role, it was ultimately the fight that began the perils towards death. An increase of penalty towards those who choose to fight on ice must take action as to decline the amount of possible misfortunes. The "enforcers" on ice are not completely neccessary when one could simply raise the punishment. Therefore, the presence of penalty instills the hestiation to those who may choose to break the rules thus minimizing the amount of 'accidentts.'


http://www.thestar.com/Sports/article/560798