School Board Axes Controversial Policy Banning Grades of Zero

A remarkable switch to common sense in N&L schools

Teachers now able to award zeroes for grades, deduct marks for late assignments

CBC News 

Newfoundland and Labrador English School District CEO Tony Stack says he believes students will adjust to the change in policy. (Gary Locke/CBC)

The Newfoundland and Labrador English School District (NLESD) has ended a controversial policy that kept teachers from deducting marks when work was handed in late.

That means teachers are now able to award zeroes for grades, and students can no longer wait until the end of the term to pass in assignments.

Teachers had complained the policy was unfair to students who did meet deadlines, and that it created extra work at the end of the year. 

"Any policy has to survive the realities of the classroom, and we learned from our policy development,'  said NLESD CEO Tony Stack. 

"At times, you'll have to adjust and we adjusted the course, in this case, and I think what we've got now is a very good balance." 

Students will face adjustment

At Gonzaga High School in St. John's on Thursday, the news was all the students could talk about at lunchtime.

Gonzaga High School may be the home of the Vikings, but like other schools in the province, it will no longer be the home of a policy that prevented zeroes from being given out to students. (Gary Locke/CBC)

Rhys Northcote said many students were surprised by the news, and that students who are used to passing in work late won't be able to do it anymore.

"After tests, we don't get to redo them anymore. If we miss it we need a doctors note, otherwise we just get a zero for it."

Gonzaga High School student Rhys Northcote says the the new policy will be an adjustment for students. (Gary Locke/CBC)

The NLESD says it did realize there were unintended consequences to a policy that was designed to encourage students to complete their work, instead of teach them to get used to loose deadlines.

"I'm sure right now as we speak in classrooms, the subtle changes to what we've done are being talked about and shared with students, and they will adapt as they always do," said Stack

Fentanyl Killed Quebec Couple Found with Unharmed Child

I'm finding more and more stories like this where a couple with a child are doing hard drugs. As dangerous as hard drugs are now with fentanyl often poisoning them, it is insane to be using when you have children. Your primary responsibility as a parent is for your child! If you have children and you are doing drugs, STOP, FOR GOD'S SAKE!

Couple found in advanced state of decomposition, believed to have been lying dead in bed 4 days

CBC News 

A Gatineau couple found dead and decomposing in their apartment alongside an unharmed three-year-old died from an accidental fentanyl overdose, a coroner has found.

The bodies of 20-year-old Amélie Gauthier-Matte and 33-year-old Christopher Lecouvie were discovered in an advanced state of decomposition, their bodies lying intertwined on a bed at their rue ​Bégin home near Moussette Park on Monday, Feb. 27. 

They're believed to have died four days earlier, on Thursday, Feb. 23, but weren't found until the child was noticed throwing toys out a window, according to coroner's reports released Thursday.

What did that child go through in those 4 days? Can you even imagine? Throwing toys out the window was probably a God-thing. 

That prompted a neighbour and friend of the couple to check on them.

Drugs found in their systems

Gauthier-Matte and Lecouvie both had fentanyl, MDMA and methamphetamine in their systems, toxicology results showed. Gauthier-Matte also had heroin metabolites in her system, while Lecouvie showed cannabis in his, the reports said.

They died from respiratory failure caused by fentanyl intoxication, the coroner concluded.

Hakim Farhat, who regularly visits a friend in the same building, told CBC News in February he last saw the couple three or four days before they were found dead.

"They were in the balcony, I remember... I think they were with a couple of friends but nothing really like a hard party or anything. They were just talking or something. Sometimes I see them barbecue, sometimes I see them playing with the kid on the balcony, but I never expected such a thing to happen," Farhat said.

Neighbours said the couple had been living in the apartment for at least six months. 

People, you don't gamble with your life when you have children. You will be called to account!

French-Algerian Millionaire Vows to Pay Burqa Ban Fines in Austria

He's already paying them elsewhere in Europe

© Global Look Press

As less than two weeks are left before the ban on Muslim face veils coming into force in Austria, a French businessman of Algerian origin called on Austrian Muslim women to defy the ban, offering to pay all their fines.

“I am reaching out to all women in Europe and especially to women in Austria who voluntarily wear the burqa, I will always be there and pay the fines,” Rachid Nekkaz, a French property dealer and a millionaire with Algerian roots, who says he is not personally a “face veil advocate,” told the Austrian Servus TV in an interview seen by Reuters. The interview will be aired on Thursday evening.

“If one accepts religious freedom, one must also accept the manifestations of religion,” he also said, adding that he seeks to protect the people’s right to openly demonstrate their religious beliefs, the Austrian APA news agency reports.

Child brides are a manifestation of religious beliefs, are you in favour of that M. Nekkaz? How about honour killings? Supporting a tradition that makes women invisible is not doing anything to help those women. It is keeping them confined to a cotton prison and for one reason only - because Islamic men appear completely unable to control themselves.

Nekkaz already pays fines for Muslim women wearing face veils in public places defiance of the ban in such countries as France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland. He even established a special organization called “Touche pas à ma constitution” (Do not touch my constitution) that settles these bills.

According to Nekkaz, he already spent around € 300,000 ($360,000) covering face-veil fines in various countries.

His proposal, however, was slammed by Austrian authorities. Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz already threatened the businessman with charges over “incitement to commit an offense.”

“We would certainly not let it happen,” Kurz said, adding that "those who would wear the niqab or burqa in Austria should expect to face the consequences,” APA reported.

The minister, who is also a leading candidate of the Austrian conservative Austrian People's Party (OVP) at the forthcoming parliamentary elections, said that Nekkaz’s words should be examined for whether they constitute an “administrative offense,” adding that the millionaire could also “face appropriate consequences.”

You could try and charge him with 'administrative' crimes, incitement to commit an offense, etc. Or, you could alter the fines making them much higher and use it as a source of revenue. You could also adjust the law to either introduce jail terms for repeated offenses, or simply double the fine for the 2nd offense, triple it for a third, quadruple it for a 4th, etc. You could also remove them from welfare rolls for consistently breaking the law.

Why aren't the French already charging him for subverting the law?

“We will not tolerate any symbols that are aimed at establishment of a parallel society [in Austria],” Kurz said.

Austria approved the ban on full face veils in May, as part of a large "integration law" which the Foreign Ministry says is aimed at encouraging people to assimilate into Austrian culture. The legislation comes into force on October 1.

However, the legislation called the “Anti-Face-Veiling Act,” which is also commonly referred to as a “burqa ban,” covers not only the conservative Muslim headwear, such as burqa or niqab. People wearing balaclavas, covering their faces with scarves or even wearing medical masks without sufficient reasons could also be found in violation of the new law.

Only 3% of 2.2mn Migrants Who Entered Europe Since 2015 Sent Home – Pew Research

FILE PHOTO © Wolfgang Rattay / Reuters

More than half of the immigrants who arrived in the EU, Norway and Switzerland in 2015 and 2016 still have no legal asylum status, and only 3 percent of the 2.2 million newcomers were returned to their homeland.

Meanwhile, those rejected for asylum are likely to “disappear” rather than allow themselves to be deported, the paper indicates.

The most systematic study of the biggest migration wave in Europe since World War II has been conducted by the Pew Research Center on the basis of official Eurostat data, and shows that the continent still has not dealt with the migrant crisis.

 Although the peak of media attention came in 2015, when 1.3 million asylum applications were filed, almost as many – 1.2 million – came in 2016, many from migrants who arrived the previous year, before moving to a different destination inside Europe in the hope of better chances of citizenship and a better livelihood. Germany was the most popular application country, taking 45 percent of all the asylum seekers on the continent.

Forty percent of all applicants have been approved, with the highest rate of acceptance among those who said they were fleeing from Syria, 80 percent of whom have no legal residence in Europe. On the other hand, only 2 percent of the 80,000 Albanians, whose homeland is not suffering from any recognized humanitarian crisis, have been designated as refugees.

But this does not mean they were forced to go home: 89 percent of all Albanian immigrants are still inside the EU, waiting for their initial application and appeal to go through, and only 9 percent have given up and decided to travel back across the border. Similarly, 77 percent of Kosovars, Afghans and Iranians are still being processed, with many banned from working officially and resident in temporary state-provided accommodation.

In total, 52 percent of all immigrants are still in the application phase.

Thus, only 8 percent of newcomers have been definitively told that they cannot stay in Europe. The location of majority of those – some 5 percent of the total migrant influx, or more than 100,000 people – is listed as “unknown,” suggesting that they may have settled somewhere illegally, left Europe, or changed identity in another bid for residency within the EU.

Though varying backgrounds of the migrants makes direct comparisons difficult, the most welcoming European countries are the Netherlands (52 percent of applicants approved), Germany (50 percent) and Sweden (48 percent). The least likely to grant asylum is Hungary, which has given green light to just 1 percent of all asylum claims.

Khamenei’s New World Chaos

From a blog called Iran2407, this is a pretty good summary of what is happening in Islam in the Middle East

Iran has for decades been trying to create the chaotic conditions necessary for the 12th Imam to appear.

Muslim prophecy has him appearing in a world gone mad and bringing peace, order and Islamic rule, ie Sharia Law. 

Sounds a lot like the Biblical prophecies of the anti-Christ.

It would seem that two factors are influencing and re-shaping regional alliances. The first being the victories over ISIS (especially in Syria), and the second being the Qatar-Gulf crisis.

We are witnessing the creation of two distinct blocks. The first being the Saudi camp, including UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Egypt and others. It would be wrong to call it the “Sunni block”, as it is not entirely Sunni, but it can most probably be identified by the more “Western” alignment, as it has the support of the United States and other Western countries. The second block includes Iran, Turkey, Qatar, and a mix of proxy groups like the Hezbollah based in Lebanon, Houthis based in Yemen, the Hamas from Gaza, Shiite militants and others, has already been termed by the Gulf House as the “new axis of dissent”. They also cannot be identified by one Islamic religious school, or ethnic belonging, as they are a mix, but it is clear that the fighting forces are dominated by Shiite militants & proxies, and they are more aligned with Russia, at least in the fight in Syria. Despite different interests and ambitions, this opposition alliance is emerging as a clear block.

The Qatar-Gulf crisis was exploited wisely by Iran. By rushing to Qatar’s support, Iran drew Qatar closer into the “new axis of dissent” block. Qatar brings with it a rich financial resource. Turkey and Iran provide military might, willing aggression and an extended territory foundation.

The Saudi-UAE alliance did achieve a success in toppling the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in 2013, but that dwarfs in comparison to the territory gains by Iran. It is quite clear now that Syrian territory, liberated from ISIS, is becoming a stronghold for Iran and its allies. Shiite radicalism taking over from Sunni radicalism. As Andrew Taylor expects in Bloomberg “as Syria crumbles – only Iran is a sure winner“. Taylor continues and warns that “the Shiite crescent from Tehran to the Mediterranean we have been talking about and fearing for decades is going to be formed in front of us”.

The problem surfacing from the new blocks is the lack of geo-strategic stability. The Saudi block may be more “nation-state” aligned, absent of a radical world dominating vision, but, as Kissinger wrote recently, they do lack a geo-strategic concept. They also lack determination. The problem with the “axis of dissent block”, is that they do have determination and they are leading to a clear future – not “new world order”, but “new world chaos”. The common factor at the moment in the axis of dissent block is the defeat of ISIS, but beyond that – all hell can break loose. The only prediction that seems to be correct is the appearance of a comparable entity to ISIS, or the creation of an Iranian radical empire.

Kissinger authored an article recently chaos and order in a changing world. If the vision of Iran domination in the Middle East comes true, we will fear the chaos and the order.

Major Terrorist Attack in Australia ‘Inevitable’, says Counter-Terrorism Chief

The New Normal - Aussie style

Learning to live with fear and accepting the inevitability of a radical Muslim massacre

FILE PHOTO © Edgar Su / Reuters

One of Australia’s top counter-terrorism officials has joined the ranks of people advising citizens to learn to live under a threat of terrorism, saying that a major attack on Aussie soil is inevitable.

“I don’t like to say it but it will happen,” Mark Murdoch told the media on Wednesday. The 37-year-old veteran, who serves as assistant commissioner for counter-terrorism in New South Wales, opined that “It’s inevitable”.

“Despite everything that is being done and the good work that law enforcement and intelligence is doing, without wanting to create unnecessary fear within the community, it’s going to happen,” he added.

Murdoch, who is scheduled to retire in November, said security agencies are unable to stop radicalization through social media, and they are hard-pressed to identify potential lone wolf attacks by individuals and small groups. Such attackers only need easily-available tools to stage attacks, “and then all of a sudden we get something like a meat grinder.”

“What that tells us is that while we are pointed in a particular direction by intelligence sources, we need to maintain an open mind because in this business anything can happen at any time.” the official said.

Last month Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull laid out his plan to reduce the risk of terrorist attacks in the country. Among other things, it includes placing barriers in public places to prevent vehicular attacks similar to those in Nice and Barcelona.

Hamas Invites Palestinian Authority to Control Gaza 'Unimpeded'

This is a curious step by Hamas and I can't help but wonder what they are up to. It does not seem likely that they are simply doing 'the right thing' for the people of Gaza whom they used as cannon fodder in their war against Israel. I fear something suspicious is going on.

By Ray Downs 

Hamas Chief Ismail Haniyeh flashes the victory gesture upon his arrival on the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing, in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday. The delegation of the Hamas leadership is returning from Cairo to Gaza after long meetings with the Egyptian government the agreement on reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah. Photo by Ismael Mohamad/ UPI. | License 

UPI -- The chief of Hamas' Political Bureau said Tuesday that the group is ready to receive the Palestinian Unity Government in Gaza.

"To show Hamas' seriousness to bring about reconciliation, we invite the unity government to come and assume its duties in Gaza unimpeded," Ismail Haniyeh told reporters during a press conference in the Gaza Strip, according to the Middle East Monitor.

He added: "We have opened the door wide before [Fatah's] decision-makers to take courageous decisions to unite the Palestinian people as our cause faces huge challenges. We are keen to end the siege on Gaza and we have exerted much effort to do this through the gate of the reconciliation."

The announcement is a reiteration of Hamas' decision on Sunday to dissolve its governing body in the Gaza Strip to give the Palestinian Authority full governmental control in Gaza.

Hamas has controlled the Gaza Strip for more than a decade, but recently agreed to demands set by Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, to hold elections, which haven't occurred since 2007.

Mahdi Abdul Hadi, director of Passia, an East Jerusalem think tank, told the New York Times that Haniyeh and Yehya Sinwar, Gaza's new prime minister, are eager to work with Abbas and Fatah, the controlling party in the Palestinian Authority.

"Lift the siege, let people breathe," Abdul Hadi said. "Electricity, water, salaries, medical -- instead of explosion."