Angel >> Municipalities banning pesticides

The regional county municipality of Thérèse-De Blainville, which includes seven small towns north of Laval, announced that strict bylaws prohibiting the use of pesticides on public and private property will come into effect in January. This is the first time a group of towns have harmonized their bylaws to create no-pesticide zones. Following a federal Supreme Court ruling last June that allowed Hudson, just west of Montreal, to ban pesticides, other municipalities have followed suit. Non-compliance means a fine of up to $4,000. The towns say they will also pressure both the feds and the province for stricter anti-pesticide laws.

Insect >> CanWest-Global, again

First, Canada’s largest media chain fired Russell Mills, the well-respected publisher of the Ottawa Citizen, who had recently called for the prime minister’s resignation in an editorial. The dismissal of Mills, who had been honoured Saturday by Carleton University for his service to journalism, has been criticized by the Vienna-based International Press Institute. The next day, Monday, a national editorial in Southam papers frothed about the dangers of protesters in a ludicrous harangue, calling them “a furtive cabal of self-appointed world-savers” hell-bent on “breaking glass, spray-painting office buildings, throwing bricks at police and, often, creative uses of urine and feces.” Come back Conrad! All is (almost) forgiven!