My comments are newspaper articles that are published. (PART VI)

Various newspapers around the world invite their readers to submit their views for publication on the various articles they publish. What follows are nine submissions of the many of mine that were published. I will quote in part some of what was published by THE TORONTO STAR and then give you my published comments typed in bold.

Courts need to crack down harder on dangerous drivers caught behind the wheel when their licences are suspended, says Ontario Transportation Minister Jim Bradley. And ordinary citizens can play an important role in curbing the problem by calling authorities when they know a suspended driver is taking to the streets, he added. The Toronto Star, detailed how suspended drivers caused more than 1,300 collisions in the province in 2006 – and told of a Toronto woman, Gloria O'Neill, a repeat offender who hit a pedestrian and dragged him to his death. Provincial police caught more than 5,800 banned drivers last year, but many get away.

Imprison repeat offenders

Gloria O'Neill, a repeat offender who hit a pedestrian and dragged him to his death is the poster child of drivers who drive with a suspended licence. Here is how I think they should be dealt with. For a first offence, another year added as a suspension of their licence and a $1000 fine with 20% victim surcharge. Second offence; two-year suspension and $2000 fine with 20% surcharge along with impound of vehicle for 15 days and 30-days in jail. Third offence; three year suspension and $5000 fine with 20% surcharge along with six months impound of vehicle and six months in jail. Fourth offence; five-year suspension and $10,000 fine with 20% surcharge, seizure of vehicle which is to be sold at public auction, one year imprisonment. If anyone is killed by the offender when driving the vehicle while under suspension, permanent ban of driving along with appropriate term of imprisonment

Published on Thursday, September 11, 2008


A man accused of beheading a fellow passenger on a Greyhound bus uttered not a word in court Friday and the victim's friends were still at a loss as to how anyone could have attacked someone they say never hurt a soul. Passengers said the young man died in an appalling attack in which his seat-mate silently stood up and repeatedly stabbed him before severing his head and carving up his body. The bus company has proposed that no one be permitted to enter a bus with their carry on luggage. They are to store it in the luggage compartment.

It is a very foolish proposal

I think the bus company's proposal that all passengers be prohibited from bringing carry-on bags into the bus is nonsense. If a maniac intends to kill someone, he could do it just by bringing a small knife on board the bus, a knife that is concealed in his jacket pocket.

Published on Monday, September 1, 2008


Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger denied a clemency appeal from Stanley "Tookie" Williams, the alleged founder of the Crips gang and a resident of San Quentin's death row. He was sentenced to death in 1981, but is said to have found some kind of redemption during his 24 years in jail. He's authored several children's books, and has become about as vocal an anti-gang advocate as one can be from inside prison. Williams was even nominated for two Nobel prizes – one for peace, one for literature. Despite that, he was executed.

His execution was necessary

Any man who shoots a store keeper lying face down on the floor in the back with a shotgun and then later murders a family of three, deserves no sympathy whatsoever. I strongly suspect that his change of attitude was a gimmick to garnish sympathy that he wasn't entitled too. He didn't even have the decency to apologize to the families of the victims he murdered.

Published on December 12, 2005


Bell and Telus Mobility announced last month that they will charge cell phone customers not covered by calling plans 15 cents for each incoming text message. The Conservative government has no intention of interfering with the day-to-day business decisions of private companies.

It is a breach of contract

Trust large companies to breach their contracts with their customers. The only way you could avoid paying the text receiving calls would be to turn off your cell phone. But then that would create even a greater problem since no one could communicate with others who have cell phones. The proposals of those two communications giants was no different than if gas stations charged you extra money for driving onto their property to buy gas.

Published on Saturday, August 09, 2008


A Chinese dairy that sold milk powder linked to kidney stones in infants and one death knew weeks before it ordered a recall that the product contained a banned chemical, the Health Ministry said Saturday. The official Xinhua News Agency reported Saturday that the dairy, Sanlu Group Co., was ordered to stop production as the number of sick babies rose to 432. A Health Ministry statement gave no indication why Sanlu Group Co., China's biggest milk powder producer, failed to warn consumers immediately. In 2004, more than 200 infants suffered malnutrition and at least 12 died after being fed phony formula that contained no nutrients. Some 40 companies were found to be making phony formula and 47 people were arrested.

Phony milk in China: What's next?

China has to punish people very severely who operate firms that sell goods that put people at risk. Last year, China executed a man who was responsible for the deaths of many people re faulty medicines being sold. I believe that anyone responsible for deaths re faulty medicines and/or food products should be sentenced to life in prison without parole and hard labour to boot. Further, if their products only cause illnesses to its customers without causing deaths, they should be sentenced to 25 years in prison. If they manufacture goods that are capable of causing death or illness, they should be sentenced to prison for ten years. Of course, the authorities have to be convinced that the manufacture of faulty medicines and food product was deliberate and not accidental. Maybe this will put an end to this problem taking place in China.

Published on Saturday, September 13, 2008


Large propane facilities across Ontario will face greater scrutiny in the wake of Sunday's deadly explosion in Downsview, promises Consumer Minister Harinder Takhar. The Technical Standards and Safety Authority, which implements provincial law on handling of propane, issued a mistake-riddled list mapping the location of large facilities, including one in Toronto that didn't exist, another that was a townhouse development, and one in Keswick that was sold a decade ago.The TSSA, created in the mid-1990s by the Progressive Conservatives, is required to inspect the propane tank filling facilities of various sizes – 337 in the Greater Toronto Area, 1,708 in the province, according to the flawed list – every three years. Operators also must do annual self-inspections. The TSSA has been under fire increasingly since Sunday, first about its inability to identify a list of locations of similar facilities, then about the frequency of required inspections.It was not uncommon for companies to be told to stop doing certain things but be allowed to continue operating.

Protection of public shouldn't be left to private supervision

The recent propane tanks explosions is evidence that the private sector should not be the official watchdog for chemical and gas facilities. There is too big a responsibility towards the public safety to have people in the private sector monitoring these facilities. Unfortunately, the government of Ontario has pawned off that kind of responsibility to the private sector so that they can save money. That's the kind of thinking that gets people killed.

Published on Monday, August 18, 2008


Presumptive U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is shrugging off a crude comment aimed at him by Rev. Jesse Jackson. He made the comment to a guest before an interview on Sunday's Fox & Friends, whispering that Obama was "talking down to black people." Jackson added: "I want to cut his nuts out." Jackson said he was responding to a question from a fellow guest about speeches Obama has given on morality to black churches. He later acknowledged that it was wrong for him to use the term, but noted that he did so in private to a reporter without first ascertaining that what he said was off the record.

Speaking off the record

It is absolutely imperative that when you speak to a reporter, if there is anything you don't want made public, you tell the reporter that what you are going to say is off the record. Only when the reporter says to you that what you are going to say is off the record, do you tell him what you don't want the public to read about later. Reverend Jackson presumed that what he said was off the record. That is a presumption he should not have made.

Published on Friday, July 11, 2008


This isn't the first time a boss has picked an unqualified woman just because she agrees with him and opposes everything most women want and need. Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It's about making life fairer for women everywhere. Selecting Sarah Palin, who was touted all summer by Rush Limbaugh, is no way to attract most women, including die-hard Clinton supporters. Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Clinton. Her down-home, divisive and deceptive speech did nothing to cosmeticize a Republican convention that has more than twice as many male delegates as female, a presidential candidate who is owned and operated by the right wing and a platform that opposes pretty much everything Clinton stood for – and Barack Obama still does. McCain could have chosen a woman who knows what a vice-president does and who has thought about Iraq; someone like Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison or Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine. McCain could have taken a baby step away from right-wing patriarchs who determine his actions, right down to opposing the Violence Against Women Act.

Sarah Palin is the wrong choice

Perhaps many American women will vote for McCain because they know that if he dies in office, a woman will become president. That is a foolish reason to vote for McCain. Sarah Palin has no experience in dealing with world affairs and the vice presidency is not a fitting school of diplomacy. McCain has clearly shown that he is not the man who should be voted in as president of the United States. How can any American believe that he is their best choice when he couldn't even choose a good running mate?

Published on Friday, September 05, 2008


Amid an international media frenzy over the flawless launch of the $10 billion Large Hadron Collider beneath Geneva, Switzerland, Canadian scientists involved in the project were quick to note it will take years, possibly a generation, before a worldwide grid of data-crunchers can determine what, if anything, it all means. A deeper understanding of the making of the cosmos is what particle physicists hope to glean from data that will begin flowing out of the 27-kilometre man-made tunnel beneath the Franco-Swiss border in as little as 10 days, when scientists create the first light speed collision of proton beams more slender than a human hair. Yesterday's launch, nevertheless, marked a critical milestone, with the mammoth, colder-than-space spherical tube that was 14 years in the making functioning flawlessly after the first full injection of particle beams to explain the big bang.

What happens if they don't get the big bang?

Wouldn't it be funny if in trying to re-create the big bang, all they got was ‘poof’. Unfortunately, some of us may not be around to hear that 'poof'. What I am really curious about is, if they do re-create the big bang, will they see all the chemicals that existed in the original big bang? If not, then what is the purpose of trying to re-create the big bang?

Published on Thursday, September 11, 2008