All festival details are available at the Heart of the City Festival website here

Wed. 28 October - Sun. 8 November 2009

Over 80 events at over 30 venues throughout the Downtown Eastside

I'm particularly drawn to the event on November 7th

Illuminating the Four Corners: an outdoor multi-level event at Main and Hastings featuring visual projections on buildings and through windows; DTES musicians and poets performing from windows, rooftops and soap boxes; a welcome song with Sam George; music of the DTES Samba Band; a theatrical reenactment of a 1935 milestone at the Carnegie Museum; songs from the Carnegie Village Choir Project led by Beverly Dobrinsky; ending with a street celebration on the four corners.

and from elsewhere on the site a different presentation of the themes and styles of this project......

Sponsored by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and conducted by Gallup, this survey of 26 communities across the States, '.... probes the emotional factors that bind people to place.'

Press reaction has been very interesting, using the results and weighing them against the expected reaction to the recent recession.

A few press links are below

The New York Times blog

USA Today

Globe and Mail

A Google News search is here for continued overview of response to the findings.

Search the news for Soul of the Community

Soul of the Community

L + P = $

'Translated, it means that communities able to inspire loyalty and passion among residents are also likely to see a swell in their financial outlook.'

'.......researchers found perceptions of economic prosperity are not the leading drivers of attachment feelings among residents. Instead, most of the 14,000 respondents rated social offerings (such as entertainment and other venues that promote interconnectivity among residents), openness (acceptance of diversity) and community aesthetics as the top qualities that influenced decisions on where to anchor their lives and careers.'

(Globe and Mail)

Resource material (below) includes a summary PDF, a data file and one of the best PP shows I have seen for while - almost every slide a '....aha...so that means...'

Main page

http://www.soulofthecommunity.org/

Reports page with the resources that follow

http://www.soulofthecommunity.org/overall-findings/

While here are the links to a PDF, a data file and a Powerpoint

http://www.soulofthecommunity.org/files/2009/overall-2009.pdf

http://www.soulofthecommunity.org/download/2009/raw_data.zip

http://www.soulofthecommunity.org/files/2009/overall-2009.ppt

(CP) - 56 minutes ago

FORT SASKATCHEWAN, Alberta -- Shell Canada vowed to ramp up security to keep protesters out of its properties after Greenpeace activists scaled smokestacks and a construction crane to unfurl banners at an oilsands upgrader expansion project northeast of Edmonton.

After spending 24 hours roped high up on the structures near Fort Saskatchewan, Alta., the Greenpeace activists were arrested by members of a special police climbing team just after 5 a.m. Sunday at Shell's Scottford project.

"It was a peaceful resolution to what could have been a very dangerous situation," said RCMP spokesman Cpl. Darren Anderson.

In Calgary, Shell spokesman Phil Vircoe expressed concern about "Greenpeace's unsafe and confrontational tactics. This placed their own safety at risk and also the safety of others who were on site at that time and throughout this process."

Four protesters had agreed to an RCMP request to climb down from their perches Saturday evening after hours of negotiations.

But nine others refused to budge, and members of an RCMP and Edmonton Police Service climbing team donned ropes and harnesses and scaled the towering structures to arrest them, said Anderson, the RCMP spokesman.

"These police officers are specially trained in rappelling and use of ropes and have some background in mountaineering training as well," he said.

Many of the protesters agreed to climb down using their own equipment, Anderson said. But two of them refused to descend on their own and had to be brought down by the police team.

A total of 16 Greenpeace protesters were arrested during the incident.

Charges, including mischief and breaking and entering, were expected to be laid against all of them and they were expected to appear in court at a later date, Anderson said.

Mike Hudema, a Greenpeace activist who remained outside the plant, said the people who took part in the protest are passionate about trying to draw attention to an industry his group blames for dramatically increasing greenhouse gases.

"Every activist that was in there was prepared to be arrested and was willing to face the repercussions of that to hopefully push our world leaders to turn away from toxic developments like the tarsands," Hudema said.

The protest began early Saturday morning. Streaming video on a Greenpeace website from climbers dangling above massive storage tanks and a network of large metal pipes showed protesters unfurling banners that read "Climate Crime" and "Climate S.O.S."

After mounting several such protests in recent weeks at Alberta oilsands facilities, Hudema said he hoped that interrupting the industry's activities helped Greenpeace make its point about the oilsands industry.

"We've been able to stop at least a portion of the damage that the tarsands are doing to our planet. I think that's one thing that we've accomplished," he said.

Shell officials said the latest protest did not affect the neighbouring petrochemical refinery in Fort Saskatchewan and was confined to an area under construction, where few employees were working at the time.

Last month, protesters chained themselves to heavy earth-moving equipment at a Shell oilsands mine near Fort McMurray, Alta., bringing work at one pit to a halt. They were not charged in that incident.

Nearly a week ago, 10 protesters were arrested trying to block shipments of thick tar-like bitumen to a Suncor plant near Fort McMurray.

Hudema said the latest action was aimed at nudging negotiators to look for greener options at a climate-change conference in Bangkok. Officials there are paving the way to a new pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

Vircoe said Shell has launched a full-scale audit to determine how security at the Fort Saskatchewan site was breached and to fix any problems.

The number of security staff there has been increased and protocols tightened, including increased patrolling of the perimeter of the fenced-in site, he said.

The latest incident has also highlighted the need for the industry as a whole to be more vigilant about security, Vircoe said.

"The incident serves as a reminder, a stern reminder, that our industry must work even harder to strengthen our approach to security across the province here in Alberta and right across the country," he said.

Premier Ed Stelmach has expressed frustration at the number of protesters who've been able to gain access to such sites in recent weeks, and has said they are being coddled while breaking the law.

"We understand his frustration and we share his concerns around security at all of the various energy sites across the province," Vircoe said.

As to whether company officials are coddling the protesters in allowing their actions to go on for several hours at a time, Vircoe said the company's main goal is to ensure the safety of everyone involved.

"Our concern, right from the very beginning, is for the safety of the activists, to make sure nobody gets hurt, the safety of our employees on the site and any of the public who are in the area around the facilities," Vircoe said.

-By Lisa Arrowsmith in Edmonton.

Copyright © 2009 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Original here:

Globe and Mail: Calgary -- PetroChina International Investment Company Ltd. [PTR-N] will buy a 60 per cent stake in privately-owned oil sands firm Athabasca Oil Sands Corp. in a deal that oil patch insiders see as a key vote of confidence in Alberta's massive bitumen reserves.

The $1.9-billion deal will give PetroChina a large stake in a company whose assets contain about five-billion barrels of bitumen.

"Oil sands projects are very capital-intensive long-term investments and difficult to fully finance in the traditional equity market," Athabasca chairman Bill Gallacher said in a release. Athabasca "therefore decided to look for joint venture partners, and these strategic joint venture arrangements with PetroChina, one of the world's largest energy companies, can ensure that the MacKay River and Dover projects will be developed in timely manner, which is excellent news for Alberta and the rest of Canada."

Rumours of the impending deal pushed up shares in several small junior oil sands companies, including UTS Energy Corp. [UTS-T] and Connacher Oil and Gas Ltd. [CLL-T], on a belief that major outside investment interests are once again prepared to invest in the oil sands.

"It's great news for the oil sands business. It shows that there are still large, sophisticated, deep-pocketed companies out there prepared to write big cheques," said one Calgary banker.

In return we get the chance to 'invest' in the dollar store crap this oil grab will enable China to continue to produce to satisfy our 'needs'

Original here:

Canada's biggest dollar-store chain, which expanded and prospered while consumers pinched their pennies, now plans to go public as the economy heals and markets thaw.

Dollarama Group LP, the Montreal-based chain with 585 stores, plans an initial public offering of more than $250-million this fall, cashing in on its success during the recession, investment banking sources said.

The deal marks the continued thawing of an IPO market that froze during the financial crisis. It also gives its majority owner, Bain Capital LLC, a much-needed win.

An IPO from a name-brand company such as Dollarama would mark the third large corporate debut on Canadian public markets in as many months, marking the end of a nine-month drought in IPOs that began in 2008. Insurer Genworth MI Canada Inc. and power company Magma Energy Corp. went public on the Toronto Stock Exchange this summer, raising $850-million and $100-million respectively.

A number of companies have also sold stock recently as investors bet on a full-fledged recovery. WestJet Airlines Ltd. raised $150-million this week, and investment bankers said Dollarama would make much the same pitch to potential shareholders.

Discount and dollar stores have generally been able to make sales gains in the recession as cash-strapped consumers look for bargains.

Dollarama recently hired advisers to work on the sale of 25 to 30 per cent of the company, sources said. The chain is 80 per cent controlled by Boston-based Bain, which purchased its stake in 2004 from chief executive officer Larry Rossy in a deal that valued Dollarama at $1-billion.

Bain is expected to target its IPO campaign at Canadian investors, as domestic retailers such as Shoppers Drug Mart Corp. and Loblaw Cos. Ltd. draw premium valuations compared with U.S. peers. As the leading player in its sector, Dollarama will attempt to claim the same lofty status. Bain was a minority owner of Shoppers when the drugstore chain went public in 2001.