National Aboriginal Day

Bear River First Nation Heritage and Cultural Center is the place to be on Sunday, June 21, 2009.

National Aboriginal Day Festivities will be held on:

Sunday, June 21, 2009 at the Bear River First Nation Heritage and Cultural Center.

Everyone is welcome to attend!



We will be having: A Native Fashion Show, Traditional Drumming, Dancing, Singing, Basket-Weaving Workshop, Traditional Wood-Splint Flower Workshop, Medicine Wheel Workshop, Talking Stick Workshop, Porcupine Quill Embroidery on Birchbark Demonstration, Games for children and the young at heart, and a FEAST.



See you there!



Respectfully

Wanda Finigan (Supervisor)
(902) 467-0301
http://www.bearriverculturalcenter.com/

Ocean Day Celebration

Ocean Day Celebration
Wednesday June 10. 2009
Scavenger Hunt - Chowder - Movie

5:30pm False Harbour Rain or Shine
Intertidal Scavenger Hunt for Young and Old with 2 Marine
biologists. Prizes! Wear rubber boots, slippery rocks!
Registration required by June 8. Tel. 742-5542

6:30pm Beacon United Church Parlour
Local-Haddock-Chowder (bring dessert to share) and Ocean
Movie
Tickets $5.00. Purchase required by June 8. Available from
Margrit Tel. 742-5542
and Donna at the Beacon Church Office (9-1)

Event sponsored by TREPA (Tusket River Environmental Protection
Association)

from Tom

Subject: An image of our peak-oil future--enjoy! tomhaynespaton
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Please see attached image of lunch spot saved on “mule-efficient” farm….

The farmer as accomplished craftsman and
artist…

Enjoy,

Tom

Petition from Tom

Please help free this brave lady, whose crime is speaking out for democracy for
Burma's people.
Thanks,
Tom

Date: Tue, 19 May 2009 21:55:39 -0300
Subject: Fwd: Six days to Free Aung San Suu Kyi
From: japanesegallery@gmail.com
To: ematlanticcanada@hotmail.com



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Alice Jay - Avaaz.org

Date: Tue, May 19, 2009 at 9:17 PM
Subject: Six days to Free Aung San Suu Kyi
To: "japanesegallery@gmail.com"












Hi - Thanks so much for signing the petition to free Aung San Suu Kyi and
Burmese political prisoners. Over 200,000 of us have signed, but there's just 6
days left to act and numbers count - let's send the email below to all our
friends and family:






Dear Friends,





After 13 years of detention, Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has been
jailed again on trumped up charges by the brutal Burmese regime. Call on UN
Secretary General to secure her and all political prisoners' release:











Burma's democracy leader and Nobel Peace prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi, has
been locked up on new trumped up charges, just days before her 13 years of
detention was due to expire. She and thousands of fellow monks and students have
been imprisoned for bravely challenging the brutal military regime with peaceful
calls for democracy.




Risking danger to speak out for their jailed friends, Burmese activists are
demanding the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners and
calling on the world to help. We have just six days to get a flood of petition
signatures to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon calling on him to make their
release a top priority -- he can make this a condition for renewed international
engagement. Follow the link to sign the petition, and forward this email on to
friends to ensure Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners are freed.
Burmese activists will present the global petition to the media on May 26th:




http://www.avaaz.org/en/free_aung_san_suu_kyi



On May 14th, Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested and sent to jail, charged in
connection with an American man who allegedly sneaked uninvited into the
compound where she is being held in Yangon. The charges are absurd -- it is the
Burmese military, now accusing her of breach of house arrest, that are
responsible for the security of the compound. It is a pretext to keep her
detained until after elections which are set for 2010.




The Burmese regime is renown for its vicious repression of any threat to full
military control - thousands are in jail in inhumane conditions and denied any
medical care, there are ongoing abuses of human rights, there is violent
repression of ethnic groups, and over a million have been forced into refuge
across the border.




Aung San Suu Kyi's is the greatest threat to the junta's hold on power. Her
moral leadership of the democracy movement and the legacy of her landslide
victory in 1990 elections means that she is the only figure who could face down
the military in elections next year. She has been detained over and over again
since 1988 -- under house arrest and allowed no contact with the outside world.
But this scandalous new detention in the notorious Insein Prison without medical
care could be very dangerous because she is seriously ill.




Sources say that the military regime is fearful of this unified and massive
online call to the UN -- over 160 Burma exile and solidarity groups in 24
countries are participating in the campaign. And the Secretary General and key
regional players that are looking to re-engage with the Burmese regime, can
influence the fate of these prisoners. Last week Secretary General Ban Ki Moon
said: 'Aung San Suu Kyi and all those that have a contribution to make to the
future of their country must be free'. Let's overwhelm him with a global call to
urgently act on his words and stop the arrests and brutality:




http://www.avaaz.org/en/free_aung_san_suu_kyi

Posts from Tom

Forwarded Message: An image of our peak-oil future--enjoy!
An image of our peak-oil future--enjoy!Thursday, May 21, 2009 11:00 AM
From: "Tom Haynes-Paton" To: undisclosed-recipients


Please see attached image of lunch spot saved on “mule-efficient” farm….

The farmer as accomplished craftsman and
artist…

Enjoy,

Tom


_________________________________________________________________
Windows Live helps you keep up with all your friends, in one place.
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9660826





DATE: Tue, 19 May 2009 22:03:17 -0300
SUBJECT: FW: Six days to Free Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's Nobel Peace prize winner,

Please help free this brave lady, whose crime is speaking
out for democracy for Burma's people. Thanks, Tom

Date: Tue, 19 May 2009 21:55:39 -0300 Subject: Fwd: Six days
to Free Aung San Suu Kyi From: japanesegallery@gmail.com



For immediate release

The Digby Area Board of Trade is hosting an all
Candidates forum for the Candidates seeking to represent the citizens of Di=by
Annapolis on Wednesday May 20th 7:00pm at the Digby Legion on Mount Street.=All
three of the Candidates have agreed to participate : Cindy Nesbitt for the=20
Conservatives and Sherri Oliver for the New Democratic Party and the incumb=nt
Harold Junior Theriault for the Liberals.

The Digby Area Board has over the years hosted this
type of event for every municipal, provincial and federal contest to encour=ge
voter participation. The Members of the Board believe that it is vital for=20
voters to meet the candidates and understand their positions on the issues =hat
are important to their community.

The public will be invited to pose their questions
in this moderated forum. All are welcome.

The Digby Board is a non-profit and this
Forum is a public service. We would respectfully request that the Media use=20
this as part of their public service announcements.

For more information please contact Kris Herron,
President DABT 902-245-8879

Election- Tom

From: Tom Haynes-Paton
Date: Mon May 11, 2009 12:04 am
Subject: Do you know what election reform actually means? I didn’t. A 28-min. mini-seminar. tomhaynespaton
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“Tom, what is this ‘proportional representation’
election reform you support?”



I was stumped.



I have been an advocate for election reform
but when asked for details, I found I really couldn’t
explain it beyond the vague need for some redefining of voting districts.



Election
reform in fact has two parts, a
reorganization of voting districts and a radically new, challengingly-complex
but
fair, voting system.



Election reform will eventually come to Canada.
Now is the time to educate ourselves about it.



So please, if you would, take this 28 min. mini-seminar, mainly viewing videos,
on election
reform which I’ve hastily edited together.



Then watch the issue play itself out this
Tuesday, May 12, in the British Columbia
referendum.



For the second time in four years, B.C.
voters will be casting a second ballot during the provincial election that
could fundamentally transform the way they choose their provincial politicians:
they'll be voting on whether to replace the current first-past-the-post
electoral system (Canada, India, UK, USA) with the single transferable vote
(Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, Scotland, Malta, city elections in Mass. and
Minn. etc.). The latter proportional representation system, known in BC as
BC-STV is being recommended by the Citizens Assembly on Election Reform.



A variation of STV in BC in 2005 came
within 2.4% of meeting the 58% threshold the government had set for adoption in
a referendum. The BC Gordon Campbell government has now raised that requirement
for adoption to 60% for Tuesday’s referendum because the Liberals and the
Conservatives favour the present system, winner-take-all, through which we give
the two biggest political parties the freedom to rule alternately without
accountability.



To start the seminar, here are two
overviews of the new reform system by proponents:



First watch the following 38-second spot.
Cut and paste the following.



If you are unable to watch the animation
screen, there is a detailed explanation of the BC-STV system if you scroll down
on this site. Or watch the animated spot and then come back to this page after
the seminar for more details (written material is also cut/pasted below).



1.
http://www.stv.ca/learn



Second, a 6-minute 32-second explanation
and endorsement of BC-STV by a former BC politician and deputy premier who voted
against reform in 2005 and why she has changed her mind.



2,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhccpzI4lbQ&feature=channel



Third, is the
following 3-min. animated explanation of
the present system that we work under in Canada, first-past-the-post. Rather
than “winner-take-all”, I would call it ‘winning-party-takes-all’:



3, http://www.citizensassembly.bc.ca/flash/fptp-full



Fourth, watch the three-minute 30-second animated explanation of BC-STV,
particularly the section on
the new system of tabulating votes. This is challenging stuff and I had to
watch it a couple of times to begin to grasp the new vote tabulation system in
which our vote is not wasted because we have a second choice etc. on the ballot.




Our present system of
winner-take-all democracy is a no-brainer and undemanding of us. Proportional
Representation in Canada will require
effort and responsibility on our part to keep politicians accountable.
Understanding this new proportional
representation system also requires extra effort on our part now. To create real
democracy won’t come easy.



4. http://www.citizensassembly.bc.ca/flash/bc-stv-full



For a more detailed
explanation of the vote tabulation, see the following original Australian
animation (adapted to the BC election)
which filled in some of the blanks in the vote counting system for me.



(optional) http://www.ecsa.sa.gov.au/canada/flash500.htm



Thanks for watching. The
mini-seminar is over!

My thanks to Jennifer Hill of Vancouver/Digby for sending
across country tons of helpful information on the debate going on right now in
BC.



For those of you who
wish to go deeper, below are more information sites on the BC debates including
the opinions of opponents. Also Wikipedia sites on the different systems.



There is also a second
proportional representation system, MMC, used in Germany and elsewhere. MMC was
recommended for Canada in
2004 by the Law Commission of Canada (not adopted) and defeated in
referendums in PEI and Ontario.



So when you go to the
polls in our up-coming NS provincial election, ask yourself if a different
electoral
system might serve us citizens of Nova
Scotia better by requiring our elected officials be accountable to us
rather than to their political party bosses.



Cheers,



Tom
Haynes-Paton-----------------------------------------------------------------

from Klaus and Shirley

Subject: FW: farmers market in Digby & Open Garden Concept tomhaynespaton
Offline
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> Date: Fri, 1 May 2009 18:50:27 -0300
> Subject: farmers market in Digby
> From: klausshirley.langpohl@gmail.com

>
> Hi. The workshop with John brought about some interesting thoughts
> about "research"
> and therefore Klaus and I will do a bit of that on the l6th of May at
> the first Digby
> Farmers Market. We wanted to support this initiative ,which will
> result in a permanent
> farmers market in downtown Digby in the following years. We received
> some interesting information from the department of agriculture about
> the amount of
> money a farmer gets for different produce - pennies per pound. No wonder
> the UK farmers are so excited with the very aggressive movement of "sell
direct"
> to the consumer, with all the government support to make sure it
> works. So we will
> give a mini report after the l6th on what we found If there is any brochure
or
> banner, etc to put behind our table (which will be selling homemade baked
beans,
> brown bread, organic honey with the comb floating in it and pizzelles
> which Klaus
> will be making on the spot) please let us know. My sister live in Middleton
and
> could pick them up for us - she actually is the cook in this endeavour!)
>
> Also Greg Turner who is the science teacher in the Digby
> High School, is the head of the Enviro Team there and very open to the kind
> of thing we wish to do in the schools. Warren Paton is his friend and
> if you wish
> to have us help in any way let us know.
>
> FYI
>
> OPEN GARDEN CONCEPT - more than a u-pick - a viable model for small farms
>
>
> The community garden and cooperative gardens have been some of the ways
> people in communities have tried to supply their own food. Our neighbour,
> M&P Farm, is about to do a new innovative twist on this concept and
> we believe that perhaps this model would be of interest to many small farmers
> in Canada. Richard Bridge , a cooperative lawyer and farmer and a member of
the
> BC Center for Social Enterprise was very interested in this project
> and suggested that
> we take pictures all summer and write an article for the Center in the
> Fall. He
> said "it could be a good model for small farms in Canada".
>
> This small traditional Nova Scotia farm has one acre of land ploughed
> for growing
> veggies, and there is a raspberry garden, high bush blueberries and fruit
trees.
> The non-heated greenhouse will hold melons, red peppers, tomatoes and
> strawberries. The family has made a small stand ,up where the garden is, for
> a scale, baskets and bags for holding the produce you pick. This is
> an organic garden.
> They have made a large map of the garden showing where everything is growing.
> . Each member pays $25.00 for a membership card with their name and
> number on it. You can pick what you wish and when you wish from the gardens.
> There is no minimum purchases required in the season.. You pick the
> volume of whatever you wish from the garden and weigh it and clean it
> yourself. You
> register your purchases in a book in the shed and put your number beside each
> purchase. This gives the farmer the volume yield from the garden which the
> members picked, and also a good record of the income brought in from this
> particular marketing strategy.
>
> There will be a limited number of members this year to insure the
> "learning curve"
> to be smooth. Orientation, Newsletters and Shared recipes and a sense
> of community are also
> a part of this program. They see "education" as part of this program also.
>
> Who has joined this Open Garden System?
>
> Seniors who wish to have more variety and less volume of any one thing and who
> live in apartments or who cannot do the work of keeping an entire garden, yet
> wish to still harvest and eat fresh produce;
>
> Summer Residents who wish to eat local, fresh produce, but are not
> here in time
> to put in a garden or who love the idea of picking their own fresh
> produce when they
> want to but want a very flexible schedule ;
>
> Busy working people who simply do not have the time to tend a garden but
> want to have their family still experience where their food comes from
> and eat healthy.
> It becomes a learning experience for the children also.
>
> M&P Farm will still have their roadside stand where they sell the
> produce which they
> harvest and also sell handmade local soaps and other things from their
> neighbours.
>
> The farm is doing experiential tours this summer - showing how to milk their
> Jersey cow and explain the lives of their sheep and where the blue
> eggs they sell come from. She is a "chef" and her future plans are to
> also sell baked goods.
>
> They are in the process of making a website. This is an excellent
> example of the Creative Thinking and transformations taking place in
> our Rural area of the Southwest Nova Biosphere Reserve Area.
>
> cheers,
>
> Klaus and Shirley

CBC

If you are unable to access to sign the petition, please look at:

http://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#inbox/12067f0395745621
Tom

100,000 to Save the CBC!





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spam/nonspam?Ricken Patel - Avaaz.org to me show details 2:46 PM (2 hours ago)
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Dear friends across Canada,




Our call to save the CBC from drastic budget cuts will be delivered to
Parliament tomorrow - let's urgently tell friends and blow past our 100,000
signature goal!


Sign the petition!





In just 6 days, almost 100,000 of us have come together and signed the petition
to Save the CBC and Radio Canada from deeply damaging budget cuts - one of the
largest online petitions in Canadian history!



Tomorrow, MPs from each opposition party have agreed to jointly receive our
petition and deliver it in Parliament to the government. While they do, planes
will fly over Parliament Hill trailing giant banners
that deliver our message and the number of signatures on the petition.
We're already getting media calls, and on Saturday we'll be
distributing thousands of Save the CBC buttons at the high profile
Genie Awards.



Our message is getting out, but it's only as powerful as the number of people
that sign it -- click below to sign if you haven't and let's forward this email
to as many friends as possible - let's blow past our 100,000 goal by tomorrow!



http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_the_cbc/



The CBC is vital for Canadian art, culture and identity. These
cuts have been forced on it for no good reason - the CBC has asked the
government for sensible bridge financing - borrowing against their
funding next year to spread the cuts out and make sure vital assets
aren't damaged this year. The government has refused because, as we
know from numerous past statements from Prime Minister Harper, they
have an ideological agenda of opposition to a public broadcaster.
They'd like to see the CBC privatized and sold off. With the CBC
already forced to get half of its revenue from advertizing (compelling
it to carry expensive American TV shows) that process is well underway.
Even while the CBC survives in name, it's public character and mission are under
attack.



With enough of a public outcry, we can reverse the government's decision. But
even if we don't, a powerful statement is being made, to this government and
future ones, that Canadians want the CBC and Radio Canada to survive
as public service broadcasters. If enough of us act together now,
they'll think twice the next time they look to undermine the CBC, and
together we'll form a voice that can empower our national broadcasters
to fully return to their precious public service mission.



http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_the_cbc/



With hope and determination,


Ricken, Lisa-Marie, Laryn and the Avaaz Canada team


PS - the best group providing information and opportunities to get more
deeply involved in this issue is Friends of Canadian Broadcasting - you
can see their website here:

http://www.friends.ca

Concerts on Sunday!

There are likely people you know singing in this concert. There will be trumpets, a fiddle, spoon playing, kids doing a couple of songs, the rest doing a lovely number of selections from a beautiful Italian tenor song, to Rita McNeil, to a lively "Sparrow's Jig" and more...
Join us in this celebration of spring and an early celebration of Mother's Day. Both kids and adults have worked very hard to bring you this afternoon or if you wish evening of wonderful music and performances are expensive to produce. So come on out on Sunday, either at 3 pm or 7 pm at the Trinity Church in Digby. Tickets $7 from a choir member (call Sharon at Marshall's Gifts 245 4606 or someone else you know in the choir) or $10 at the door.
Sing in Spring! I know you'll be singing along, or at least tapping your toes!
Kathleen