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Passports needed by
2008
New security rules released by the Bush
administration will bring changes to crossing the border
between Canada and the US. Visiting Canadians and returning
Americans will need either passports or special border-crossing
cards to enter the United States by Jan 1, 2008.
"We are asking U.S. and Canadian citizens to
consider travel in and out of the United States as
equivalent to travelling to Europe or Asia," said
Elaine Dezenski, deputy assistant secretary at the
Department of Homeland Security. Dezenski is in charge
of the Policy and Planning, Border and Transportation
Security Directorate.
The Canadian government has known of the new security
plans for months. In a statement made outside the Commons,
Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan remarked that Canada
would review its requirements for American citizens.
"There's
no point in either of us going off in a direction without
working together to determine how best we can facilitate
the flow — a free flow — and movement of
low-risk individuals." Almost 200 million cross-border trips are made each
year.
From soldier to senator
Romeo Dallaire, the 58-year-old retired
general whose morale was crushed and military career
ended by the horrors of the 1993-94 Rwandan genocide,
was named to the Canadian Senate this month by Prime
Minister Paul Martin. Dallaire told the Canadian Press
that he “relishes the idea of getting inside government
instead of preaching from outside.”
"Hopefully, I'll be able to bring a more specific
influence into decisions that are being taken,” he
said in an interview.
Child soldiers, human rights and help for the poorest
countries are high on his list of priorities.
Dallaire, a well-respected soldier and winner of the
Governor General's Award for his best-selling memoir
about the Rwandan crisis, Shake Hands with the Devil,
says he wants to emphasize international human rights
and development when he speaks in the Liberal caucus
and in the upper chamber.
"I think that Canada has, in fact, learned a
lot from that last Rwandan experience," he said. "It's
certainly my ambition to continue to work towards Canada's
involvement ethically and morally in advancing human
rights."
Canada's world heritage
fossils
Nova Scotia will spend $1.1 million
to develop the Joggins fossil cliffs as part of a campaign
to have the area recognized as a UNESCO world heritage
site.
“It's a unique site,” John Calder, a geologist
with the provincial Department of Natural Resources,
told the CBC. "The fossil trees here have entombed
the very first reptiles and many other species of amphibians
within the trees."
The Joggins fossil site covers 10 kimometres of cliffs
up to 30 m high along the coast of the Bay of Fundy.
Daily tides continually erode the cliff face and expose
new fossil beds. Preserved in the cliff face are fossil
swamp forests, including standing tree trunks up to
6 metres high, a vast array of invertebrates, fish,
amphibians and remains of the world’s early reptiles.
An evaluation team from the United Nations will visit
the site next year, with a final decision on world
heritage status expected by 2007.
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