News for the unnewsed

By Morgan Haigler

Another Tory MP says a silly thing


Tory Member of Parliament for Calgary-Centre Lee Richardson unleashed a storm of opposition fury after he was recently quoted blaming “people that have grown up in a different culture” for crime in Calgary.


“They don’t have the same background in terms of the stable communities we had 20, 30 years ago in our cities and don’t have the same respect for authority or people’s person or property,” Richardson said in an interview with Fast Forward Weekly.


He would later say he regretted his remarks, but not before the New Democratic Party and Liberals demanded his resignation. It is unknown at time of press whether Richardson and Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz– who earlier this month referred to the listeriosis outbreak as a “death by a thousand cold-cuts”– will be given a private detachment of RCMP officers in order to ensure they never talk to media ever again.





EEEL gets bigger


The construction of the University of Calgary’s new EEEL building continued this week, expanding to the edge of the existing ICT building and effectively blocking off Campus Drive from 32nd Ave NW. The U of C’s $1.5 billion expansion plan also includes the Dr. Fok Ying Tung International House and the Taylor Family Digital Library. It is expected the three projects will engulf the entire campus sometime within the next two years, leaving the campus a desolate wasteland of steel pillars and rebar.





Rock out with your debate out


Sept. 27 marked the first U.S. presidential debate between senators Barack Obama and John McCain. The economy was first and foremost among the candidates. Wednesday marked the French-language leader’s debate for the Canadian election, in which party leaders Stephen Harper, Stephane Dion, Jack Layton, Gilles Duceppe and Elizabeth May spoke about the Canadian and U.S. economy and the arts. The next debate for both countries is Oct. 2, where the American vice-presidential candidates Joe Biden and Sarah Palin face off against the Canadian English-language leader’s debate for prime-time television ratings.