Six in the Morning

1. SMELLS LIKE MORE TORY HOMOPHOBIA: Word came out yesterday that Canada's Conservative government rejected a funding request from Montreal's gay and lesbian arts festival, Divers-Cite. This despite the fact that the festival met the criteria laid out in the new tourism funding program. And it looks like all was well with the application right up until it was sent to Minister Tony Clement's office for final approval. This all comes on the heels of Conservative MP Brad Trost's claims that the majority of Conservative caucus members don't support funding gay events, claims which contributed to MP Diane Ablonczy losing her job for funding the Toronto Pride Festival, but oh no, the Conservatives aren't homophobes, look at all the senior cabinet ministers leaping to her defense, and see, the organizer of Montreal's gay and lesbian arts festival says they've been funded just fine under the Conservatives.... Gosh. Well, if Divers-Cite is leaping to the Conservatives defense, they can't be homophobes, now can they? I imagine part of what inspired them to defend the Conservatives is they didn't want to put their funding request in jeopardy. How'd that work out for you? Oh yeah, it got rejected. (Globe and Mail)

2. HARPER GOVERNMENT INDIFFERENT TO ABDELRAZIK'S PLIGHT: Apparently, Harper's Conservatives were apprised of the fact that Sudan was planning to "dissapear" Abousfian Abdelrazik, but instead of protesting, they sent a non-committal response. (Globe and Mail)

3. HANG ON, I THOUGHT WE ALREADY HAD A WALMART: Oh bloody joy, Saskatchewan is soon to be home to two Walmart supercentres. One of which will be part of the slab of retail in the Grasslands commercial development in Regina's south west. In other news, the soon-to-be-Wallmartless Southland Mall is gearing up to become an empty shell of its former self a la the Golden Mile. (Leader Post)

4. SASK GOVT TO MAKE CHANGES TO MIMINUM AGE OF EMPLOYMENT: The announcement will come later today. Any guesses on how low it'll go? (Leader Post)

5. GOVERNMENT TO LAUNCH COPYRIGHT CONSULTATION: The Conservatives are launching a national consultation on copyright in the digital age. Bad news is the Conservatives have shown themselves to be leaning towards more draconian copyright measures along the lines of what they have in the United States and this could all be prelude to them putting out something to that effect and claiming it's what the public wants. The good news is that presumably with this consultation coming up, they won't try to drive through their draconian copyright legislation from last year any time soon. (rabble.ca)

6. RCMP CONSIDERING ARCTIC INTELLIGENCE NETWORK: In an effort to thwart organized crime in Canada's northern territories, the RCMP is looking into ways to expand their criminal intelligence network northward. (CBC)