Who is Rawi Hage?

By macleans.ca - Thursday, June 12, 2008 at 9:35 AM - 0 Comments

The Montreal-based writer’s debut novel, De Niro’s Game, just won the 2008 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, a prize worth a whopping 100,000 euros.

FROM THE ARCHIVE: This immigrant is no saint, Noah Richler’s piece in Maclean’s on Hage’s award-winning book.

If the campaign comes to you, come to Maclean's, but frankly we're not holding our breath

By Paul Wells - Thursday, June 12, 2008 at 9:10 AM - 0 Comments

So has anyone actually heard a Dion’s Tax On Everything radio ad or seen Oily the Splot at the gas station? Hope springs eternal.

Please, PLEASE don’t debate the propriety or cleverness of the Tory ads this time. We get it. It’s evil. It’s brilliant. It’ll never work. It’ll change history. Blah-de-frickin-blah. But please DO tell us if you’ve seen or heard one — paid media, NOT news reports — and be as specific as you succinctly can about specifying where.

Thanks.

Julie Couillard: Blind date

By Paul Wells - Thursday, June 12, 2008 at 9:05 AM - 0 Comments

So it turns out that Julie Couillard met Max Bernier under the same circumstances that got that guy fired from Michael Fortier’s office two days ago: the fine folks at Kevlar Real Estate, who continue to deny that Julie Couillard was their employee, set her up with Bernier so she could push their project to build a new federal office building in Quebec City. (WARNING to readers allergic to French: the link takes you to an article in the cursed language of Molière. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. ABANDON HOPE ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE!!!!) (Sorry, but a couple of readers requested that). (But I digress.)

So Philippe Morin from Kevlar, according to La Presse, set Couillard up with Bernier, her previous relationship with Bernard Côté — the guy in charge of the office-building file at Fortier’s office — having lost its spark.

It is surprising what a bunch of gossipy busybodies can find out.

The Commons: The Apology

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, June 12, 2008 at 12:08 AM - 10 Comments

A day of many words. And perhaps some promise.

The Scene. The moment came later than expected. Indeed, according to the official itinerary, the Prime Minister was due to start speaking at precisely 3:02 pm. But it was not until fully 3:15 pm that everyone was seated and Stephen Harper was called by the Speaker to begin.

He strode into the House of Commons with 11 representatives of the native community—last among them 104-year-old Marguerite Wabano, the eldest remaining survivor of Canada’s residential schools, tiny and dressed all in blue, a cane in one hand and her granddaughter by her side. Behind the Prime Minister walked Chuck Strahl, Minister of Indian Affairs, and Strahl’s parliamentary secretary Rod Bruinooge, himself an aboriginal Canadian.

The delegates took their seats in the centre aisle, positioned in a circle before the Prime Minister. Government House leader Peter Van Loan, as demure and dainty as he may ever be, stood and moved that time be allotted for response from these visitors to this place. Each party duly consented and the motion carried unanimously.

Mr. Harper then stood, laid out his script on the green velvet lectern placed on his desk and, finally, began.

“Mr. Speaker, I stand before you today to offer an apology to former students of Indian residential schools,” he started, simply enough. “Today, we recognize that this policy of assimilation was wrong, has caused great harm and has no place in our country.”

Not for the last time, a packed Commons stood and applauded, hoots, hollers and the beat of drums coming down from the galleries above. Continue…

So that's why Mulroney couldn't make it to committee …

By kadyomalley - Thursday, June 12, 2008 at 12:05 AM - 0 Comments

He’s in London, doing important international business stuff:

Dissident investor’s calls for INM board shake-up rejected

Attempts by the Irish entrepreneur Denis O’Brien to vote out large elements of the board of Independent News & Media, the international media group which owns The Independent, were firmly rebuffed at a shareholders’ meeting in London yesterday, with one director branding Mr O’Brien’s campaign as “offensive and juvenile”.

Mr O’Brien, who did not attend the meeting, voted his 25 per cent shareholding against all resolutions put to shareholders, including adoption of the accounts and re-election of a number of directors. But his efforts drew limited support and the resolutions were passed comfortably. [...]

Mr O’Brien’s strictures failed to make headway at a generally supportive meeting which saw Sir Anthony give an upbeat assessment of the outlook for the company.

Defending the company’s corporate governance record, Brian Mulroney, a non-executive director and former prime minister of Canada, said that he had served on many boards including Barrick Gold and Blackstone and none of them exceeded Independent News & Media in terms of transparency and integrity.