| About two dozen supporters of same-sex marriage staged a rally in downtown Calgary on January 31. Protestors held up signs that said "Hatred is not a family value" and "A God of love does not condemn," as well as a large rainbow pride banner.
Rally organizer Randi Warwick says she decided to organize the rally because Ralph Klein wasn’t representing the voice of people in favour of same sex marriage.
"I know a lot of people who are for same-sex marriage. They view it as a human rights issue," she says. "It’s a wonderful way of expressing love."
Cora Bailey is a member of the Pride Rainbow Project, a group that is attempting to create a two-mile rainbow banner to get into the Guinness Book of Records and make a statement about supporting gay rights. The banner is currently 147 feet and a portion of it was held up at the rally.
She says same-sex marriage "just comes down to equal rights" and that it’s "unfathomable" why some people are opposed to gays or lesbians marrying each other.
Liberal MLA Harry Chase, who was at the rally as well, says he’s anticipating a bill being passed that would allow same-sex marriage across the country.
"Another group is being included in the rights the majority has and that’s extremely important to me," he says.
Justice minister Irwin Cotler introduced a same-sex marriage bill into Parliament on February 1. The bill contains provisions to allow religious institutions to refuse to marry homosexual couples. Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper is vowing to keep up the fight against the bill, as are premier Ralph Klein and various religious groups.
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Nine candidates have announced their candidacy for the Ward 10 byelection, including former alderman Diane Danielson, on February 28.
The byelection was called after Margot Aftergood resigned amidst controversy surrounding mail-in ballots. A police investigation into voter fraud and a provincial inspection of election results are under way. Aftergood has maintained all along she did nothing wrong.
The candidates for Ward 10 are Manfred Baum, Brad Berard, Andre Robert Chabot, Allan Foster, Dale Galbraith, Antoni Grochowski, Barry Lindemann and Douglas Service.
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Mount Royal’s campus radio station CMRC, which previously could only be heard on campus at 107.5 FM, will now be broadcasting live around the world via the Internet at www.cmrcradio.ca.
CMRC started 30 years ago in a janitor’s closet that doubled as a control room. It recently relocated into a new facility with high-tech studios and digital broadcasting and editing suites.
Station manager Andrew Johnson says he’s excited about all the potential new listeners for the station.
The Alberta College of Art and Design, Bow Valley College, Mount Royal College, SAIT and the U of C have signed a memorandum of understanding that outlines their commitment to work together on increasing access to post-secondary education in Calgary.
The institutions will work on creating easier transferability between educational organizations and to increase access to post-secondary education by adding 19,000 full-time seats by 2010.
"Obviously the government will have a role in that. They’ve indicated something is coming," says Larry Lalonde, spokesperson for SAIT.
Lalonde says the five institutions decided to formally join together because industry told them there’s a shortage of skilled workers and "they’re looking to us to help address that problem....
"That benefits students because there’s obviously jobs for them when they graduate but for us it’s a challenge to make sure we have the programs that provide the right skills for students," says Lalonde. |
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