A man inside a shark fin store in Hong Kong on November 26. (AFP Photo/Aaron Tam)It's been banned in Toronto, Mississauga, Pickering and Brantford. Now, the NDP wants to ban shark fins across the country.

NDP Fisheries and Oceans critic Fin Donnelly chose a popular seafood restaurant in Vancouver, on Friday, as a backdrop to launch his petition seeking to end the importation of shark fins to Canada.

"Thousands of signatures would show the federal government that there is support for this issue and that we need to act immediately on it," Donnelly told Yahoo! Canada News.

Harvesting of shark fins is already illegal in Canada and the U.S., but importing the delicacy is not. Many restaurants across the country continue to serve the traditional Chinese shark fin soup, a dish reserved for special occasions such as weddings.

Donnelly says shark populations are plummeting around the world as 73,000,000 sharks are killed for their fins each year.

"We're certainly small players in terms of the demand for shark fins on the global perspective, but we can be a large

(Regina Leader-Post)For the first time ever,  people in Saskatchewan on average make more money than people from Ontario.

According to new data from Statistics Canada, Saskatchewan now has the second-highest average wage in the country after Alberta.

Average weekly earnings in the prairie province were $906.22 in September, up 6.9 per cent from the same time last year.

In contrast, Ontario wages dropped 1.3 per cent compared with September 2010 — to $889.13 from $901.16.

The national average declined 0.3 per cent to $872.75 a week.

Saskatchewan's numbers are buoyed by an economy that, in recent years, has been fueled by development of the potash industry and steady expansion in oil and gas extraction.

The numbers represent "very good news" for the province, according to Richard Long, Human Resource and Organizational Behaviour professor at the University of Saskatchewan.

"We've never been as high as we are right now in terms of wages relative to the rest of Canada," Long told the Star Phoenix.

"This

Former Saskatchewan Premier Roy Romanow attends the First Ministers Conference on Health in Ottawa on Wednesday, September 15, 2004. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred ChartrandCanada's health ministers have gathered in Halifax this week to discuss amongst other things, a new deal to replace the Canada Health Transfer, which funnels billions into provincial coffers each year and expires in 2014.

While the common refrain is that our system is in dire need of more federal funding, former Saskatchewan premier Roy Romanow says a lack of money is not what ails our health care system.

"In 2004, $41 billion over 10 years with an escalator was advanced to the provinces. But it was not made conditional by Ottawa on major improvements to renovate the system, to modernize it, and to control costs…The consequence (was) the provinces took the money and roughly maintained the (same) system," Romanow, who headed the 2002 federal commission on the future of health care in Canada, told CTV News' Powerplay.

"Do we (spend) more money to do more? I would say that's the wrong thing."

Romanow says he wants to see the provinces be held accountable for making their health

The toughest drunk driving laws in the country seem to be working.

According to the British Columbia government, the number of drunk-driving deaths in that province dropped 40 per cent during the first year of tougher impaired driving penalties.

"Forty-five more people are alive today because of the changes," Premier Christy Clark said at a press conference Wednesday.

Under the new law introduced in September 2010, drivers with a blood-alcohol level of between 0.05 and 0.08 - the so-called "warn" range - face an immediate three-day driving ban. They also face possible vehicle impoundment and fines or related fees of up to $600.

B.C.'s success has motivated at least one province to follow its lead.

Alberta's government will introduce a similar law in its legislature next week.

The new legislation, however, will not come without resistance.

Libya's Prime Minister designate Abdurrahim El-Keib gestures during a news conference in Tripoli November 22, 2011. REUTERS/Mohammed SalemAs the Harper government paid tribute to its "great military success in Libya" on Thursday, a leaked UN report revealed that torture, lynchings and abuse are continuing in the post-Gadhafi era.

Documents obtained by "The Independent" newspaper, note thousands of Libyans, including women and children, are being illegally detained by rebel militias.

"An estimated 7,000 detainees are currently held in prisons and makeshift detention centres, most of which are under the control of revolutionary brigades, with no access to due process in the absence of a functioning police and judiciary," states the communique, which is to be presented to the UN Security Council next week.

"There have also been reports of women held in detention in the absence of female guards and under male supervision, and of children detained alongside adults."

The report does praise the NATO operation for liberating Libya after 42 years of totalitarian rule but presents a grim scenario of the growing power of the armed

Four former Vancouver mayors have joined the growing chorus of voices calling for an end to the prohibition of marijuana.

Mike Harcourt, Philip Owen, Larry Campbell and Sam Sullivan have each signed an open letter urging politicians to consider legalization and regulation of pot, saying those policies will increase taxes to government, remove illicit profits that lead to gang violence and eliminate costly legal proceedings.

In theory, legalizing marijuana seems like sound policy.

According to a recent report commissioned by Stop the Violence BC,  incidents of drug market violence are on the rise despite the "war on drugs" which has collectively cost North American taxpayers over $240 trillion over the last 40 years.

Neill Franklin, who heads Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, recently told the Vancouver Province editorial board that the criminalization of pot in is the direct cause of most murders in British Columbia.

Not only would legalizing marijuana save us the hundreds of

On the heels of the Auditor General's report which lambasts the Canada Border Services Agency, CTV News has discovered a shocking loophole involving the sale of Canadian weapons technology.

According to the WikiLeaks cable CTV cites, there are "hundreds of foreigners and dual-citizens" in Canada "creating front companies to procure weapons parts and technologies that they then export to their home countries."

The cable, from 2008,  says George Webb of CBSA, telling Frank Ruggiero of the U.S. State Department that his "hands were full targeting hundreds of mostly Iranian and Chinese foreigners and 'lots of Canadian dual-nationals' involved in 'non-legitimate businesses.'

"They create front companies for the purpose of procuring defense technologies," Webb said in the cable, which was written by a U.S. State Department official and approved by Ruggiero.

Webb also complained that after CBSA officials make the arrests, the suspects are often released on bail by judges, and they "simply