Syria fires more Scud missiles as refugee projections climb

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The head of NATO condemned the Syrian government's return to firing Scud-type missiles yesterday, saying they were "acts of a desperate regime approaching collapse."
NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that surveillance captured evidence of the firing of fresh rounds of missiles yesterday morning, Reuters reports, while American officials confirmed independently to The New York Times that the Scud missiles had resumed after an apparent lull from their initial use last week.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem denied the reports as "untrue rumors," according to the Times.
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CBS reports that a half-dozen Scuds were fired overnight from an Army base near Damascus toward a nearby rebel base.
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Gen. Rasmussen's comments were echoed in the worries of Syrian rebel chief Salim Idris, who told CBS News that he is "very afraid" President Bashar al-Assad will resort to firing chemical weapons using Scuds. He said his contacts still with the regime said that the Syrian Army is preparing to use the missiles in the rebel-controlled northwest.
There is not much additional concrete information about the use of Scud missiles in Syria, CBS notes, because they are "mobile" and it is "hard to pinpoint from where they were fired." They are also not very accurate.
CNN reports that analysts believe that the Assad regime has as many as 400 Scud missiles on hand.
Rasmussen cited the past 24 hours' events today as he defended the NATO deployment of Patriot antimissile systems along the Syrian-Turkish border.
"The fact that such missiles are used in Syria emphasizes the need for effective defense protection of our ally Turkey," he told reporters today, according to Reuters. "The recent launch of missiles has not hit Turkish territory but of course there is a potential threat and this is exactly the reason why NATO allies decided to deploy Patriot missiles in Turkey, for a defensive purpose only."
In a move heavily criticized by Syria, Iran, and Russia, NATO recently approved the placement of an American, Dutch, and German Patriot antimissile system along the border of NATO member Turkey. The deployment of the battery requires troops to operate the missiles, as well – the US is sending 400 to the area, according to The New York Times.
Meanwhile, the United Nations revised its refugee projection numbers again – at least the fourth time it has done so – bringing the estimate up to 1 million in the next six months, according to a separate New York Times report.
Panos Moumtzis, the UN regional coordinator for Syrian refugees, said the new forecast was based on the fact that 2,000 to 3,000 Syrians are fleeing across national borders every day. Mr. Moumtzis added that the number of refugees could reach 1.85 million if there were a mass exodus from the country, the Times reports.
Radhouane Nouicer, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Syria, said yesterday that "there are nearly no more safe areas where people can flee and find safety."
The UN is seeking $1 billion for refugees outside Syria and $519 million to boost its aid provisions for 4 million people inside Syria – 20 percent of the country's population.

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US ex-marine to be released from prison after violating Mexico's strict gun laws

The American ex-Marine who has been holed up in a Mexican prison in one of the most dangerous regions along the US-Mexico border is reportedly going to be released today, in time to return home for Christmas.
Jon Hammar's crime: He carried an antique gun across the border from Texas that his family says he was planning to use on a hunting trip in Costa Rica. But en route he passed through Mexico, where despite record levels of violence, such arms are prohibited without permission from the Mexican government.
Recommended: How much do you know about Mexico? Take our quiz.
Republican lawmakers rallied around Mr. Hammar's case, circulating photos of him chained to his jail bed. Some even called for Americans to boycott travel to Mexico until his release.
Hammar’s case came to light at a sensitive time in the gun-control debate. News broke on his August arrest in the wake of the Newtown tragedy, where an American took the lives of 20 elementary school students ages 6 and 7 last week, as well as six adults at the school and his mother.
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The Newtown shooting has sparked sympathy around the world but generated renewed criticism from south of the border, where politicians point the finger at the US, saying lax gun laws have contributed to Mexican drug violence.
Mexican law professor John Ackerman, writing in The Huffington Post, said this week that among the 60,000-plus death toll in Mexico, there are many innocent victims, including children. Regarding Newtown, he writes, “The National Rifle Association (NRA) should be applauded for its willingness to 'offer meaningful contributions to help make sure this never happens again.' But the discussion should be guided just as much by the plight of Mexican children as by the fears of suburban mothers.”
MEXICAN GUN LAWS
Hammar’s case has highlighted the stark difference between American and Mexican gun laws.
Hammar's mother, Olivia Hammar, told CNN that her 27-year-old son has been behind Mexican bars since August, after he stopped for gas in Matamoros, the notorious border town across from Brownsville, Texas, en route to Central America.
He was driving with a friend in his Winnebago, and the car carried four surf boards, according to Mrs. Hammar. But he also packed an antique shotgun passed down from his great-grandfather, CNN reports.
He has been in jail for four months but his family only took the case public recently.
Hammar reportedly declared the weapon with US border agents and then Mexican officials, and Republican lawmakers lobbying for Hammar’s release have said he was given “bad” information by US officials about the laws in Mexico, where gun laws are, at least on the books, prohibitive.
Guns are as easy to buy on the black market here like any illegal good, but unlike in the US, Mexican citizens who seek to legally own a weapon must apply for one through the country’s department of defense. There are no gun stores; all weapons are purchased through the government, after extensive background checks.
But this case also carries a certain amount of irony.
Over the six years of former President Felipe Calderon's administration, when the "Drug War" hit a fever pitch, drug traffickers have been documented using all manner of weaponry, from grenades, to so-called “matapolicias” or “police killers,” to monster “narco” tanks.
Some of those weapons, ammunition, and defense mechanisms are confiscated and their owners arrested. But with impunity rates at over 90 percent, most of the perpetrators go free.
But the one sitting in Mexican jail for four months was this young American carrying an antique shotgun. And while he did break Mexican law, his plight also highlights the extreme challenges facing the Mexican justice system, as drug traffickers – probably this very second – are employing combat-style weapons with little fear of getting caught, let alone languishing in jail.

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Japanese firms set spending record in buying up foreign assets

In the late 1980s, when Mitsubishi Estate bought Rockefeller Center and Sony snapped up Columbia Pictures, the Western media were full of stories of Japan’s imminent global economic domination. "Japan as No. 1" was a best-seller, and US autoworkers dramatically took sledgehammers to Japanese imports.
But by the end of 2012, Japanese corporations will have bought more foreign companies, spending more in dollar terms, than they did at the height of the '80s bubble economy. No one, however, seems to be taking notice.
The silence speaks to how a country as well-known for cute pop culture as for cutting-edge technology – and which powerful corporations once feared as a foreign predator – is now seen as down on its luck, struggling to recover from disaster. This perception – along with the fact that foreign takeovers are far more frequent, there are more global powerhouses, and Japanese cars are built around the globe – has allowed Japanese firms to go on an unprecedented spending spree overseas without any of the backlash seen decades ago.
“Japan has gone from being the 'exotic' in the 1960s, to a 'threat' in the 1980s, to just being a part of a rich, cosmopolitan human existence,” says Devin Stewart, senior fellow at the Carnegie Council and former director of the Japan Society in New York. “People learn about Japan and its culture nowadays because it is an important part of the world as we know it. It's a place people relate to.”
Recommended: Think you know Japan? Take our quiz to find out.
In 1990, at the height of the asset bubble in Tokyo, "Japan Inc." made 463 acquisitions of foreign firms. This year, the total is set to top 500 for the first time, with a record total spend of more than 7 trillion yen ($83 billion). IT giant Softbank’s $20 billion takeover of Sprint Nextel Corp., announced in October, will be the biggest foreign takeover ever undertaken by a Japanese company.
The acquisitions this time around are spread across a wide range of industries, rather than the trophy buys of prime real estate that unnerved America during the days of Japan’s roaring bubble economy.
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“There was a slightly indiscriminate hue to Japanese buying in the late '80s, and companies have learned to be more sophisticated, rather than appearing to be carrying around large wads of cash in their back pockets,” says Yuuichiro Nakajima, head of Crimson Phoenix, a cross-border mergers and acquisitions advisory firm with offices in Tokyo and London.
OVERLOOKING A KEY POINT
Japan’s financial institutions, their fingers burned badly by the bursting of the bubble that left them with massive, unrecoverable loans, survived the worldwide crash of 2008 relatively unscathed, having taken a more cautious approach than their Western counterparts. Indeed, it was Japanese investment bank Nomura that bought large chunks of Lehman’s European and Asian businesses after the bankruptcy of the US institution in 2008 that triggered the global financial crisis.
Commentary on Japan often points disparagingly to its shrinking population and domestic market, the challenges of recovering from the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, and its enormous national debt, which at well over 200 percent of GDP is outranked globally only by Zimbabwe. However, it’s often overlooked that the country’s overseas assets exceed its foreign liabilities by around $3 trillion.
“It seems strange, but Japan is also the world’s biggest creditor nation and has acquired very large overseas assets over the past 30 years. It gets a very good return on these, providing income of 14 to 15 trillion yen ($166.5 to $178.5 billion) a year,” points out Masayuki Kichikawa, chief Japan economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) in Tokyo. “It is this which helps protect Japan from financial crisis, despite the huge government debt.”
And Japan's activity is often overshadowed as the world fixes its eyes on Japan's giant eastern neighbor. “In some ways China has taken the place of the Japan of yesteryear: It has huge firepower and is buying across multiple sectors,” suggests Mr. Nakajima. “And, with China, many of these buyers are state-owned, bringing into question whether the motivation behind acquisitions is strictly profit.”
Yet even China, which almost certainly will displace the US as the world’s economic powerhouse, doesn’t evoke the fear Japan once did.
“But despite the differences between Japan, which was and is a democratic ally, and China, which is not an ally and is nominally communist, the fear about China today seems tame compared with the hysteria about Japan in the 1980s,” says Mr. Stewart of the Carnegie Council. “Back then, Japan was 'taking over the world.' Perhaps people are just more sophisticated about the world and know China faces enormous challenges, as all countries do.”

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Politis & Matovina, P.A. Earns BBB Accreditation

Politis & Matovina, P.A. announced its recent accreditation by BBB Serving Central Florida. As a BBB Accredited Business, Politis & Matovina, P.A. is dedicated to promoting trust in the marketplace.

Daytona Beach, FL (PRWEB) December 21, 2012
Politis & Matovina, P.A. is committed to BBB's Standards of Trust. This week, Politis & Matovina, P.A. announced its recent accreditation by BBB Serving Central Florida. As a BBB Accredited Business, Politis & Matovina, P.A. is dedicated to promoting trust in the marketplace. According to BBB reports by Princeton Research, seven in ten consumers say they are more likely to buy from a company designated as a BBB Accredited Business. BBB is a resource for the public, providing objective, unbiased information about businesses.
"We are pleased to be a BBB Accredited Business because we value building trust with our clients," said Michael Politis, Senior Partner/Owner. "Our BBB Accreditation gives our clients confidence in our commitment to maintaining high ethical standards of conduct."
BBB Accredited Businesses must adhere to BBB's "Standards of Trust," a comprehensive set of policies, procedures and best practices representing trustworthiness in the marketplace. The standards call for building trust, embodying integrity, advertising honestly and telling the truth, being transparent, honoring promises, being responsive and safeguarding privacy.
About Politis & Matovina, P.A.

Politis & Matovina, P.A. is a personal injury law firm known for providing aggressive and high quality representation to injured victims, not insurance companies. With offices located in Port Orange, Ormond Beach, Palm Coast and Orange City, our firm focuses on ALL injury cases involving wrongful death, auto/motorcycle accidents, slips and falls, boating accidents, pedestrian accidents and bicycle/moped accidents. We also have departments dedicated to criminal defense and immigration law. We can be reached 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for your legal emergencies. Driven to achieve justice for our clients, we know that Results Matter. Let us put our experience to work for you. Visit http://www.TheJusticeAttorneys.com for more information.
About BBB

BBB's mission is to be the leader in advancing marketplace trust. BBB accomplishes this mission by creating a community of trustworthy businesses, setting standards for marketplace trust, encouraging and supporting best practices, celebrating marketplace role models and denouncing substandard marketplace behavior. Businesses that earn BBB Accreditation contractually agree and adhere to the organization's high standards of ethical business behavior. BBB is the preeminent resource to turn to for objective, unbiased information on businesses and charities. Contact BBB serving Central Florida at (407) 789-9008.

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Car-Specials.com Set to Give Customers a Fresh Car-Shopping Experience

Car-Specials.com is a new car search service that is bringing fun and excitement back to the car shopping game. With an ultra-fast, intuitive interface and a superior selection of new and used cars from local dealerships, Car Specials offers consumer-friendly search options and low-cost, dealer-centric service.

Carmel, Indiana (PRWEB) December 21, 2012
Car-Specials.com is a new kind of online automotive marketplace, offering efficient, customizable search options that cater to every different kind of car shopper. Whether a customer is looking for a new or used vehicle, or wants to search by color, make or body style, Car-Specials.com provides incomparable search functionality and a large selection of vehicles.
Veering away from the kind of automotive website that focuses on the sale and not the customer relationship, Car Specials.com focuses on giving consumers the connection to a particular vehicle that they would expect from walking into a dealership, all from the comfort of their own home. Car-Specials.com is currently in its pilot phase, adding new and used car deals from new dealerships every week.
By enabling visitors the option of selecting make, model, year, price range, body style, geographic location, and more, Car-Specials.com allows customers to take total control over their search. Unlike some of the larger car search engines, visitors can even search new and used vehicles at the same time. From sedans and coupes to SUVs, wagons, and sports cars, a wide variety of vehicles and brands assures that each customer can find their ideal vehicle, matching their lifestyle and budget, all in one place.
“Online car shoppers don’t want just any vehicle, they want the perfect one,” said Roger Laurendeau, President of Car-Specials.com. “We strive to provide the best vehicle choices and a streamlined system that makes the process of finding and purchasing a new car fast, convenient, and fun.”
Online car shopping is packed with large companies that charge dealers huge sums of money to list their vehicles. By contrast, Car-Specials.com is a small company with lower costs for dealerships, affording dealers the option of passing those savings on to the customer.
Customers interested in taking Car Specials for a test drive may visit http://www.car-specials.com. Dealers interested in working with Car-Specials.com to market their vehicles should contact Roger Laurendeau at 317-805-4933.
About Car-Specials.com
Car-Specials.com is an online automotive marketplace, dedicated to providing dealers with a wide-reaching, low cost option for marketing their vehicles online. Car Specials offers its customers lightning-fast search with a variety of customizable search options for finding their next new or used vehicle.

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Brand id│Strategic Partners Launches Revolutionary Personal Branding Success Program for Women

The Breakfast Club is a 12-month strategic mastermind program for Baltimore women who are ready to expand their “circle of influence, strategically map out their personal and professional path to success, and uplevel their visibility in the marketplace through personal branding.

Baltimore, Maryland (PRWEB) December 21, 2012
Two Maryland business women have partnered to unveil a program specifically designed to help 25 local entrepreneurs and executives dramatically elevate their personal and professional lives in 2013 and redefine the "goold old boy network.". The program is called The Breakfast Club, a 12-month strategic mastermind that will expand their “circle of influence” and strategically map out the personal and professional path to success of each participant through networking, personal branding, life coaching and strategic planning.
Founded by Jennifer Ransaw Smith, CEO of Brand id Strategic Partners, a full-service personal branding agency and Susan Stern, CEO of Live Now a Personal Success Coaching firm, The Breakfast Club is revolutionizing “business as usual.” This program leaves no stone unturned when it comes to mapping out a plan for success.
Although named The Breakfast Club, the program is so much more. In fact, a monthly breakfast is just a small component of what is being offered (held at Miss Shirley’s Inner Harbor). Twice a year, participants will meet at the Mt. Washington Conference Center for an all day “working session” to design personal and professional blueprints. In addition, each participant will have access to both Brand id Strategic Partners and Live Now group coaching programs, meaning they will spend six months working on their “personal brand” and four months working on their “life’s vision.”
“As far as the level of comprehensiveness, Susan and I wanted to put something uniquely special together that truly supported local women. So many women are not use to investing in themselves, so we wanted to use an affordable price point. “You are your greatest asset to your company, spouse, children and/or community. Our personal and professional lives are more connected than most people imagine, and investing in both aspects will dramatically uplevel your life this year, “says Susan.
Our members are going to get opportunities to elevate at every level. From networking monthly to yearly strategic planning and online support, we wanted women to be able to walk away knowing they had taken their lives to an entirely new level and felt supported every step of the way,” said Jennifer Ransaw Smith. “We wanted something for all of those women who know they want more, but just don’t know how to get it.”
The program is ideal for mid-to-senior-level executives and entrepreneurs who want to:

    Be surrounded by a group of women who are committed to helping you succeed
    Receive support, encouragement and inspiration as you skyrocket toward your goals
    Become more focused on where you are going and what you need to do to get there
    Expand their person “circle of influence”
    Be able to test ideas, connect with amazing resources and feedback
    Maximize what they are able to accomplish in a 12-month period
The Breakfast Club (http://www.breakfastclubonline.com) runs from January 24rd until December 31, 2013 and is limited to only 25 participants. First come, first served. The investment is $3,000 and payment options are available. For more information about the program, please visit http:///http://www.breakfastclubonline.com
Brand id│Strategic Partners is a full-service integrated personal branding agency that helps entrepreneurs, senior level executives, and subject matter experts transform from unknown to known. We offer a multi-disciplinary approach to brand elevation both on and offline by providing both business-to-consumer (personal branding) and business-to-business (leadership branding) communication strategy.

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Fleetwood Mac Tickets Take Off Online at BuyAnySeat.com

Tickets to Fleetwood Mac’s upcoming 34-city North American Tour are creating traffic spikes in search traffic online for seats, said Felina Martinez at ticket marketplace BuyAnySeat.com. The tour kicks off April 4, 2013 in Columbus, Ohio and is the band’s first trek since 2009.

Denver, CO (PRWEB) December 22, 2012
It’s hard to believe that it has been 45 years since Fleetwood Mac’s first album, and 35 years since they band released their best-selling Rumours album, which has sold over 20 million copies in the U.S. to date.
But like other iconic 60’s bands lately, Fleetwood Mac is heading back out on the road again. The group’s 34-city North American tour kicks off April 4, 2013 in Columbus, Ohio. The tour stops in numerous cities including New York, Chicago, Boston, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. The trek’s final concert is slated for June 12, 2013 in Detroit.
“Internet traffic for Fleetwood Mac tickets has been spiking,” said Felina Martinez at online ticket marketplace BuyAnySeat.com. “Part of this surge of new traffic may be related to the Holiday season and gift giving, but we believe it’s also due to the band’s legions of loyal followers of all ages around the globe.”
“Since Fleetwood Mac fans span all nationalities and age groups from pre-teens to those in their 70’s and 80’s, we’re proud to be able to offer buyers a complete selection of Fleetwood Mac tickets, with a worry-free guarantee to protect their purchase,” said Martinez.
“To access the continuously updated selection of tickets we have available, fans can go to BuyAnySeat.com and search for Fleetwood Mac – then select their tickets,” said Martinez.
Fleetwood Mac is a British-American rock band formed in London in 1967 by Peter Green, who had been playing in the blues band John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. He named the band in an attempt to entice Mick Fleetwood and John McVie to join him. While Fleetwood joined right away, McVie did not join for several weeks.
After years of member additions and departures, and tumultuous times within the band, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined the group – and the band finally found mainstream success with the 1975 release of a second self-titled album. The album became the band's first number one album in any country and their first multiplatinum album. This newfound success was repeated two years later with Rumours, which has become their best selling album thus far.
The next two albums, Tusk and Mirage, were not as successful as Rumours, despite an 18-month worldwide promotional tour. The albums still reached number four and number one respectively, and both reached double-platinum status.
The album Tango in the Night was released in 1987 and became the band’s best-selling album since Rumours, and ranked 3x platinum in the U.S. and 8x platinum in the U.K. The 90’s decade was one of limited success for the band, with the two albums released failing to chart very high in the U.S. The band's fortunes improved again with the release of the 1997 live album The Dance, which reached number one in the U.S. and 5x platinum status. The band also saw a modest success with 2003's Say You Will. (Sources: Official Website, fleetwoodmac.com and Wikipedia.com)
Both Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham released solo albums and toured last year. The band itself hasn’t released an album since 2003, but did tour together in 2009. Insiders say Christine McVie unfortunately will not be joining the tour this time. But for fans, there’s always hope.

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iPhone and iPad Affiliates Program Launched by iGearUnlimited

Leading online iPhone and iPad case maker iGearUnlimited is generating buzz with an affiliate program through Share-A-Sale. With two-tier commissions of 15% and 30%, it’s believed to be one of the most generous in the marketplace.

Chicago, USA (PRWEB) December 22, 2012
Internet companies often use independent sales people known as affiliates to help spread the word and generate sales. The best affiliate programs are those offering a popular product line along with a generous commission structure. With iGear’s very popular iPhone and iPad cases and with two-tier commission rates, its program is shaping up to be one of the most promising around.
iGear’s signature products include custom printed and laser engraved iPhone and iPad cases. Recognized as a leader in the industry, iGear uses only the best and the most advanced UV flatbed printing technology. iGear phone cases feature high resolution printing, vibrant colors, no peeling, and no fading. iGear is a G7-certified Master Printer, ensuring extremely accurate and consistent color. The company’s custom iPad cases have won accolades from various review sites, and is touted to be the world’s most perfect case for Apple’s iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad 4, and iPad Mini.
Other products include the company’s Racer bamboo case. Made of 100% solid bamboo, the Racer protects all sides and all corners of the iPhone 5, offering super-lightweight protection with an extremely thin profile. A new laser engraving option on the bamboo case allows customers to personalize the phone case with their own artwork. iGear also offers probably the only 3D laser etching technology available on the market, allowing customers to engrave 3-dimensional artwork using grayscale images.
The iPhone Tough Case is considered to be the most rugged case for iPhone 4, 4S, and 5 — it has even protected an iPhone 5 from a 32-foot free fall to a concrete driveway, while the phone keeps recording video the whole time. The company’s iPad Mini Portfolio Case is among the first cases available on the market, and offers simple, elegant protection at an economical price.
iGear’s new affiliate program is provided by Share-A-Sale.com, one of the most recognized names in Internet affiliate management, ensuring accurate sales tracking and timely commission payments. The two-tier structure allows affiliates to make direct sales to earn a generous 15% commission, and at the same time recruit additional affiliates to greatly increase their reach with a 30% commission on the down-line’s earnings.
“We’d like to richly reward the affiliates who bring us sales...” says Jimmy Sun, president of iGearUnlimited. “Our affiliates are always proud to showcase some of the best and most popular products in the industry while earning a generous commission.”
Interested affiliates are encouraged to visit iGear’s affiliates details page at iGearUnlimited.com. With just a few steps, affiliates can sign up with Share-a-sale.com and start earning commissions.
About iGearUnlimited.com

iGearUnlimited.com is powered by Sunrise Digital, an Inc. 5000 company established in 1988 and employs the most advanced equipment and technology, such as G7-certified HP Indigo and UV flatbed presses, laser engraving, and digital die-cutting, to create best-in-class color printing, P.O.P. retail displays, and signage products. A privately-owned enterprise, the company is based in Chicago and sells products worldwide.

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Aboriginal leaders to launch national protest in Ottawa today demanding change

OTTAWA - Aboriginal leaders are set to march through the streets of Ottawa today after meeting with a chief who is on a hunger-strike.
The leaders are taking part in a national protest march and rally organized by the movement dubbed Idle No More, which opposes the Harper government's omnibus budget legislation, Bill C-45.
On the eve of the protest, Attawapiskat First Nation Chief Theresa Spence repeated her call for a meeting with the prime minister and Canada's governor general.
Spence, who started a hunger strike this month, issued an open letter yesterday to Stephen Harper and Gov. Gen. David Johnston.
In it, she urges them to embark on a national discussion about the state of poverty among First Nations communities.
Spence says many communities face impoverished conditions, despite assurances from the government that progress is being made to alleviate poverty.
"Land and natural resources continue to be reaped by the federal and provincial governments through taxation of corporate resource companies with little compensation to First Nations for use of our traditional territories," Spence wrote.
"Trilateral discussions and financial action plans must be committed to in order to alleviate the existing state of poverty."
Spence said this week she has been growing weaker after living mainly on water and fish broth since Dec 11.
A spokesman for Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan voiced frustration Thursday at being unable to speak with Spence about her concerns.
"Since she began her hunger strike the minister has expressed his concern for Chief Spence’s health and he has indicated several times his willingness to meet with or talk to her," said Jason MacDonald.
"Unfortunately he has been unable to reach the Chief, and her colleagues have been unwilling or unable to share an alternate phone number where she might be reached."
Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo and up to five other chiefs are expected to take part in today's march and rally, along with a number of opposition politicians.
There will also be protests in a number of other Canadian cities.
Protests and marches have been held country-wide in recent weeks to demand the Conservative government reverse legislation that First Nations say will affect treaties and traditional land use.

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Mandatory minimums may face tough year in the courts with various challenges

TORONTO - The coming year could bring some clarity to the murky legal waters of the federal Conservatives' law-and-order agenda, particularly mandatory minimum sentences, even as new complications are added to the mix.
One of the government's omnibus crime bills churned through the courts in 2012, with several planks falling victim to declarations of unconstitutionality. Meanwhile, a new slew of provisions entered the fray in the form of a second omnibus bill.
Major players in the legal community are predicting 2013 will bring even more questions about the constitutional validity of the two bills, both heavy on mandatory minimum penalties and tougher rules for violent offenders.
But at least some of the questions already raised will be answered by Ontario's highest court early next year as it is set to convene a special five-judge panel for February to rule on mandatory minimum sentences for gun crimes.
Several different judges in Ontario this year had to consider the constitutionality of those firearm laws. Their differing decisions left a fragmented landscape. Hearing six of those cases at the same time gives the Court of Appeal for Ontario the opportunity to deliver a uniform ruling.
The mandatory minimums were upheld in most of the cases the panel will hear. The case in which the law was struck down is that of Leroy Smickle — a man who very well demonstrates the problems with the legislation, said his lawyer.
The "very foolish" Smickle was alone in his boxers in his cousin's apartment posing with a loaded handgun while taking pictures of himself to post on his Facebook page, the judge found.
Unbeknownst to him, members of the Toronto police Emergency Task Force were amassing outside to execute a search warrant in relation to Smickle's cousin, who they believed had illegal firearms. Smickle was caught red handed.
Ontario Superior Court Judge Anne Molloy convicted Smickle of possessing a loaded illegal gun, but found that sending the first-time offender to prison for three years was cruel and unusual punishment. She struck down the mandatory minimum, declaring it unconstitutional.
The government is appealing, and at the special hearing in February both federal and provincial Crowns are set to make arguments.
The Department of Justice said no one was available for an interview, and sent a statement touting its tough-on-crime agenda.
But critics of mandatory minimum sentences say they don't actually help reduce crime and do more harm than good.
"In terms of reducing crime they're usually thought of as having a possible general deterrent effect," said Anthony Doob, a criminology professor at the University of Toronto.
"There's been so much research on this that I don't think that's really a question anymore. Anybody who looks seriously at the effect of mandatory minimums...would know that they're not going to reduce crime in that way."
Having mandatory minimum sentences means more people will end up in prison, and putting a first-time offender through the paces of prison culture can leave them at the end of their sentence more likely to re-offend, Doob suggested.
"So what you may be doing in these circumstances... is in the long term an increase in crime," he said.
Mandatory minimums are nothing new — both Liberal and Conservative governments have enacted them. Commissions looking at the issue going back several decades have called for mandatory minimums to be abolished.
Court decisions striking them down aren't new either. One of the biggest cases was from 1987, when the Supreme Court of Canada struck down a seven-year minimum sentence for importing a narcotic.
But this year saw a torrent of new legal challenges as the provisions from the 2008 legislation finally made their way through the backlog of the courts.
And those court delays will only get worse with the flood of new mandatory minimums, suggested Rick Woodburn, the president of the Canadian Association of Crown Counsel.
He wouldn't comment on the validity of the legislation, but said "a bill like this increases the workload."
Crowns typically offer plea bargains with conditional sentences to less serious offenders, but with more lenient sentences for certain crimes gone, guilty pleas — which save court time and resources — are drying up, Woodburn said.
"We're seeing that the delays are starting to get longer and longer in a very short period of time. There's no coincidence that delays across the country can be directly linked to the omnibus bill."
Another frequent criticism is that mandatory minimums strip discretion from judges, who know all the facts of a case and are the best equipped to determine an appropriate sentence. It's a blunt instrument to deal with a complex problem, said Smickle's lawyer, Dirk Derstine.
"Our judges know perfectly well that possession of firearms is a very, very serious thing," he said. "Really, what this indicates is a lack of trust in the judiciary."
Derstine also represents Hussein Nur in another case that will go before the Appeal Court panel in February. In that case, which came a few months before the Smickle decision was issued, the trial judge found merit to the constitutional challenge, but dismissed it.
Superior Court Judge Michael Code found that there were many circumstances in which a three-year sentence could end up being cruel and unusual, such as in the case of John Snobelen, a former Ontario cabinet minister who never got around to registering a gun in Canada after buying it among the contents of a ranch in the U.S. His wife told police about its existence during marital difficulties.
But the judge said the Crown, as it did in the Snobelen case, can decide to proceed to a summary conviction, which is treated less seriously and with less jail time than indictable offences. Snobelen was granted an absolute discharge.
That option in the firearms offence saves the law from being declared unconstitutional, Code said. But, he warned, "one unwise Crown election" may invalidate the whole sentencing scheme.
Nur also argued that the difference in penalties for summary conviction and indictment is arbitrary and Code agreed.
The government raised the mandatory minimum sentence for possession of a loaded prohibited firearm from one year to three years as part of the 2008 omnibus bill. But it didn't change the sentencing options for the same charge under a summary conviction.
The maximum sentence on a summary conviction for the crime remained one year. That has left a two-year gap that "makes no rational sense," Code said. It appears as though it happened by mere oversight, not by some advertent decision, he said.
He found that Nur's charter challenge of arbitrariness had merit, saying the gap "emasculates" the sentencing provisions and "will inevitably lead to unfit sentences" for less serious firearm cases. But Code found that he had to dismiss the challenge on a technicality.
In Quebec, the provincial bar association launched a legal challenge last month seeking to strike down sections of the 2012 omnibus bill involving mandatory minimums. The bar association said mandatory minimums don't protect the public and represent an unconstitutional interference from one branch of government, the legislature, in the business of another, the judiciary.
There will be more challenges to the new sentencing laws in the new year, professors, lawyers and other legal experts predict. University of Ottawa professor Carissima Mathen suggested that minimum sentences for some drug laws that came into effect this year are vulnerable.
Some experts say the new provisions mean that someone growing six marijuana plants in their own home could be sentenced to six months, but a person growing the same amount in a rental unit could get nine months.
Enacting mandatory minimums is an easy way to appear tough on crime, critics say.
"The reality is, if you don't care about sentencing policy but want to show some activity...you can pick a random offence and give it a mandatory minimum," Doob said.
Francoise Boivin, the NDP justice critic in Ottawa, said many problems will arise from the fact that the raft of new sentencing laws were enacted as part of omnibus bills.
"This is a huge, huge overhaul of the whole system to really implement your ideology on the issue," she said. "It's scary to know that you've changed so many laws — and not simple laws. Each one would have deserved a long and hard look. You're talking about child pornography in one minute and then you're talking about terrorism the second half of the meeting. It's completely nuts."
Many of the constitutional challenges, including the one being heard en masse in Ontario in February, are expected to eventually be heard by the Supreme Court of Canada.

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