| MAYworks Festival
MAYworks Festival of Community Solidarity and Culture begins April 28 and runs until May 9 in Calgary.
Organizer Lily Phan describes the festival as an opportunity to come together "in our common struggles for a more healthy, just and culturally vibrant society."
Highlights of this year’s festival include a performance by Aboriginal hip-hop band Warparty on April 30, the annual ARTworks exhibition from April 28 to May 2 and the Calgary Anarchist Book Fair on May 1 and 2. All these events are at the Alexandra Centre in Inglewood.
Also on May 1 there will be a free breakfast and parade at Prince’s Island at 11:30 a.m.
Various workshops and public forums will also be held throughout the festival.
There will also be a forum on youth and politics on May 4 from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at the Kahanoff Centre. For information on any of the MAYworks events call Grant Poier at 714-0783 or check out the website at mayworks.dyndns.org.
Pesticides
People concerned about the human health impacts of pesticides got support last week from the Ontario College of Family Physicians.
After conducting a comprehensive review of pesticide research around the world, the college found a link between industrial and home and garden pesticides and various cancers, birth defects and neurological diseases.
The college is urging consumers to reduce their use of pesticides. The cancers connected to pesticides include non-Hodgkins lymphoma, prostrate, brain and pancreatic cancer and leukemia.
Drugged driving
The federal government has just amended the Criminal Code of Canada to allow police to force drivers to take Standardized Field Sobriety Tests if they have a reasonable suspicion a driver is under the influence of drugs.
The test evaluates a driver’s ability to multitask.
If the driver fails that test they can then be taken to a police station and evaluated by a certified Drug Recognition Expert.
If the police officer determines that the driver is on drugs, he or she could be forced to give a saliva, urine or blood sample.
Refusing to do so is now a criminal offence.
The RCMP is spending $4.1 million to get the program underway across the country. |
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