In his spare time

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, March 23, 2009 at 1:25 PM - 5 Comments

Michael Ignatieff reviews Leslie Gelb’s new book in the Times.

Talk of Bretton Woods II may be overambitious, but some new global architecture of financial regulation and oversight, or at least more effective coordination of national regulation, is going to be necessary once we touch bottom in this financial crisis. American financial misrule may have gotten us into this mess, but it will be American leadership that will have to dig us out, with the help of solvent allies with good banking systems, like Canada’s, among others.

ITQ Committee Lookahead: Man, all the good stuff happens behind closed doors.

By kadyomalley - Monday, March 23, 2009 at 1:07 PM - 6 Comments

Or so we assume. I bet they even have sandwiches — and date squares. Anyway, the committee listings for this afternoon has a distinctly clandestine theme: out of the seven meetings currently on the schedule, just three are slated to take place before the prying eyes of the public, liveblogging or otherwise.

One of those, at least, has the potential to be a lively outing: National Defence, which has called in the head of the Russian Embassy’s political section to explain just what was going on with that aborted fly-by through Canadian airspace last month – on O-Day, no less!

Continue…

Back to your regularly scheduled programming

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, March 23, 2009 at 12:18 PM - 5 Comments

Nice to get back to Ottawa and find that the top story, at this hour, is a clip of some comedians joking around on an American network six days ago.

His master's voice: I have seen the future, and it looks like Australia in 2002

By Paul Wells - Monday, March 23, 2009 at 12:10 PM - 18 Comments

So when The Australian’s foreign editor Greg Sheridan wrote last week, “Australian diplomacy is in a dreadful mess. It is the least resourced and most thinly spread diplomatic tool of any country with which Australia could possibly compare itself,” he reckoned without the profoundly collegial spirit of Stephen Harper, who is always eager to make sure Australia can compare itself favourably to somebody.

Hence this extraordinary story in Le Devoir (warning: It’s published in Not English), which shows that between the Conservatives’ first, 2006-2007 budget and 2010-2011, the Department of Foreign Affairs budget will have been cut by $450 million, a 19% cut. This is way better than that piker John Howard, who merely held his country’s foreign-affairs budget stagnant for a decade. Continue…

No panacea in Petro-Can-Suncor deal

By macleans.ca - Monday, March 23, 2009 at 12:02 PM - 2 Comments

It’s official: Oil sands giant Suncor Energy Inc. has agreed to buy Petro-Canada for $19.3 billion, a record takeover that will create Canada’s largest energy company. Not that it will solve any of the malaise being felt in Alberta’s oil patch. The fundamental problem remains–oil sands are just too expensive at current crude oil prices, no matter how big you are. “In the end,” writes the Wall Street Journal‘s Keith Johnson today on the Environmental Capital blog, “Canada’s oil sands are at the fringe of oil production anyway: The combined company’s oil sands production represents less than 10% of Canada’s total crude production, which in turn accounts for only about 4% of global output. What’s important about Canadian production is that it represents a rare potential growth area among non-OPEC countries; places like Mexico, Russia, Norway, and Central Asia are all seeing steady declines in output.” What we need for an oil sands surge, Johnson adds, is $100 oil; don’t hold your breath.

The Wall Street Journal

Smoke this, wash that, puke, repeat

By macleans.ca - Monday, March 23, 2009 at 11:50 AM - 12 Comments

Potheads take heed: scientists have discovered an increasingly recognized syndrome afflicting marijuana abusers worldwide. Addicts apparently experience severe vomiting and bouts of compulsive bathing. The researchers at Creighton University of Omaha, N.E., were studying the neurobiology of marijuana when they noticed this trend, which has also been observed by Australian scientists. There is no explanation for the syndrome at this point, but they want to spread the word, especially to high school students, who are among the most fervent cannabis smokers. The only way to stop the syndrome, say scientists: quit the bud.

ScienceDaily

Travelling with Mom

By Ann Ireland, Takeoffeh.com - Monday, March 23, 2009 at 11:42 AM - 0 Comments

Every winter for the past eight years, my mother  – now 85 – and I flee Ontario for two weeks at a snazzy Mexican resort. The unwritten rule is that we don’t whine when things go wrong – and mostly they don’t. But last year, on day one, Mum tripped and toppled onto the lobby floor of the hotel.  Does time slow down in such moments? If only it did; perhaps then I would have shot out a hand and performed the rescue. Instead I stooped onto the floor beside her, cradling her head, and watched in horror as a bump rose on her forehead and her right eye began to swell shut. She winced as I helped her to her feet.

‘My wrist,’ she cried.

Hours later we returned from the storefront clinic where a doctor wearing stilettos took X-Rays and diagnosed una fractura of the wrist. Mum’s bound forearm now rested in a sling. We tiptoed along the resort’s path toward our room while I gripped her good arm. Suddenly the place looked like an obstacle course: why on earth did they build rocky steps to the beach and countless stairs around the pool area with no handrails in sight?

Continue…

MacKay fights Fox with Fox

By Andrew Potter - Monday, March 23, 2009 at 11:04 AM - 12 Comments

By now I’m sure you’ve heard about the Fox news video, where a bunch of nobodies spent a few minutes in the wee hours last week making fun of the Canadian military. Defence Minister Peter MacKay is apparently going to reply to this  infandous outrage by… appearing on CTV today.

Who cares if parliament is back today? What would be the point of defending our national honour in the House of Commons before a bunch of nobodies? Who cares about parliament anyway? Not the defence minister. You got something to say? CTV is the place to be.

Habs for sale?

By macleans.ca - Monday, March 23, 2009 at 11:01 AM - 0 Comments

The Montreal Canadiens are up for sale. We learn as much courtesy of La Presse’s absurdly plugged-in columnist Réjean Tremblay, who today confirmed the rumours swirling around the famed (if currently floundering) sports franchise. It seems owner George Gillett is looking to unload the team, along with the Bell Centre and Gillett Entertainment Group. La Presse also speculates would-be owners: Cirque du Soleil honcho Guy Laliberté, Research In Motion’s Jim Balsillie and famous husband René Angelil.

cyberpresse.ca

The European Union elbows into the Arctic debate

By macleans.ca - Monday, March 23, 2009 at 10:50 AM - 0 Comments

Jostling over who should control which parts of the Arctic has so far mostly engaged Canada, Denmark, Norway, the U.S. and Russia—all countries with long Artic coastlines. Now the European Union is reportedly planning to stake its claim to a say in the region’s future. Among the EU’s objectives: promoting sustainable use of far North resources. But it’s not all environmentalism. When it comes to offshore oil and gas in the Arctic, Der Spiegle reports the European Commission now “sees these resources as potentially playing a role in enhancing the European Union’s energy security.”

Spiegel Online

GallowayWatch: Okay, it's not just us. This whole CIC/CBSA thing really is confusing.

By kadyomalley - Monday, March 23, 2009 at 10:16 AM - 81 Comments

According to Barbara Jackman, who is heading up the Galloway border ban legal team, the decision to bar him from entering the country does seem to have been preemptive.

In an emailed response to a query from ITQ, she notes that Galloway “did not need to apply for a visa to visit Canada”, although she suggests that he could have informed the Canadian High Commission of his upcoming visit “as a matter of courtesy”.

Even if that turns out to be the case, however, it doesn’t really explain the apparent involvement of the Canada Border Services Agency:

What is unusual about the ‘refusal’ is that [name deleted], the Immigration Program Manager at the High Commission in London did not just say “we” consider you inadmissible but said that the preliminary assessment of the Canadian Border Services Agency was that he is inadmissible. I have never seen an overseas refusal rely on the Canadian Border Services. It is the Canada Immigration who make decisions on applications for admission to Canada, not that it appears there even was an application for admission.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m really looking forward to reading the full injunction request, which his lawyers will presumably release within the next day or so. At the very least, that should least answer the question of which department, agency or minister is ultimately responsible for the initial finding of inadmissibility.

Auditor General demands stimulus accountability

By macleans.ca - Monday, March 23, 2009 at 10:03 AM - 1 Comment

Sheila Fraser, the federal auditor general, has served notice that she won’t be going easy on the government’s stimulus spending package. And Fraser, who became a household name to many Canadians for her reports on the sponsorship scandal back in 2004, appears to side with the opposition, in calling for at least some advance details on where the Tories plan to spend that $3-billion fast-track fund they are insisting be established with virtually no strings attached.

Ottawa Citizen

Impending closure of American-run Iraqi prison reverses injustice

By macleans.ca - Monday, March 23, 2009 at 9:50 AM - 0 Comments

The United States is releasing hundreds of inmates from Camp Bucca as part of an effort to close the facility in southern Iraq, which once held as many as 26,000 detainees, this summer. The decision goes some way toward reversing a miscarriage of justice, as those detained at Camp Bucca were not formally charged and could not see the evidence against them. But as the Washington Post explains, local residents, as well as police, government, and intelligence officials, fear that emptying the prison will repopulate the ranks of the Sunni and Shia militias that caused widespread anarchy and bloodshed in Iraq two years ago.

Fed up with Hamid Karzai

By macleans.ca - Monday, March 23, 2009 at 9:40 AM - 0 Comments

The United States and Europe plan to appoint a “chief executive” or “prime minister” in the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the British Guardian newspaper alleges. Afghanistan’s international allies have become increasingly frustrated of late by what they see as incompetence and corruption in Karzai’s government. But with the president expected to win re-election this year, they have lost hope of replacing him and are instead trying to bypass and dilute his authority. 

Guardian.co.uk

Hardline Saudi clerics want to ban women from TV, print media

By macleans.ca - Monday, March 23, 2009 at 9:40 AM - 0 Comments

A group of conservative hardline clerics has urged Saudi Arabia’s new information minister to ban the playing of music and music shows on television. The clerics’ statement to Abdel Aziz Khoja (who was appointed by King Abdullah last month) said “No Saudi women should appear on TV, no matter what the reason. No images of women should appear in Saudi newspapers and magazines.” The requests are likely to fall flat despite the pressure the new minister is under to please conservative Saudis, because Khoja’s appointment was part of a re-organization effort to remove several hardline figures from government.

Associated Press

A not-so-model Mountie

By macleans.ca - Monday, March 23, 2009 at 9:35 AM - 0 Comments

Last year, Sgt. Russell Hannibal was acquitted of using excessive force after firing his Taser twice in two days. Although the charges didn’t stick, it was hardly the first time his on-the-job actions came under scrutiny. It turns out the B.C.-based RCMP officer has been disciplined on four previous occasions for misconduct ranging from lying to a superior about an expense claim to trying to date a 16-year-old girl whose phone number he obtained while on duty. On another occasion, Hannibal was reprimanded for telling a fellow officer: “Your ass is mine.” The sergeant is now stationed behind a desk in Vancouver. When contacted by a reporter, he refused to answer any questions.
 
The Vancouver Sun

Tiny car, huge market

By macleans.ca - Monday, March 23, 2009 at 9:30 AM - 0 Comments

The Tata Nano, India’s $2,000 ‘people’s car,’ makes its commercial debut today. It’s been a little over a year since plans for the ultra-cheap car were initially unveiled by Tata Motors, and in that time much has changed in the auto industry. Experts say now more than ever, the tiny car offers some valuable lessons for Detroit. The Nano isn’t about building market share (which most car makers obsess over), it’s about creating an entirely new market. Tata also came up with a new supply and manufacturing system, that doesn’t rely on large, complex  assembly  plants (parts are shipped to local businesses instead). There are huge risks here, but it is a bold shot at cracking wide open untapped emerging markets. Down the road, it could be a huge threat to the old giants like G.M.

BusinessWeek

Obama's Afghan envoy frames the challenge

By macleans.ca - Monday, March 23, 2009 at 9:30 AM - 0 Comments

In a major interivew, Richard Hollbrooke, U.S. special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, dismissed reports that Washington is looking for a way to lower expectations of success in stabilizing Afghanistan. He reaffirmed President Barack Obama’s vow to pour more military and diplomatic resources into the region. Hollbrooke singled out the Pakistani frontier town of Quetta as a Taliban stronghold, saying “some of the worst people in the world” are there—”planning further attacks” in the region and even the West.

BBC News

March Madness really is madness

By macleans.ca - Monday, March 23, 2009 at 9:25 AM - 1 Comment

David Barash, professor of psychology at the University of Washington, asks why Americans are so obsessed with watching sports. The answer: because they’re lazy, primitive and obsessed with belonging to a group. He argues that the behaviour of sports fans is “normally done by pigs, in the mud, or by seedlings, lacking a firm grip on reality.” As opposed to the behaviour of someone who writes a thousand-word academic article about how much he hates sports fandom; that’s perfectly normal. 

The Chronicle Review

Dodging space junk

By macleans.ca - Monday, March 23, 2009 at 9:20 AM - 0 Comments

Space junk—the bits and pieces of failed rockets and broken-down satellites—is becoming an increasing headache for NASA. This past weekend, the Shuttle Discovery had to move the International Space Station out of the way of an approaching piece of metal, just four inches across. It was the third such incident in recent weeks, and a big deal given that even the smallest collision could lead to a catastrophic hull breach. “Space debris is becoming an ever-increasing challenge,” NASA flight director Kwatsi Alibaruho says. When it comes to dodging junk, “it’s a big deal. It’s very tiring. Sometimes it’s exhausting.”

Los Angeles Times

God in mortgage default

By macleans.ca - Monday, March 23, 2009 at 9:15 AM - 0 Comments

“There is definitely a trend,” said Dan Mikes, a banker who has specialized in church loans for 18 years at Bank of the West in Walnut Creek, Calif. “Historically, there were no [church] foreclosures.” Bankers considered churches a pretty safe bet, said Mikes. Passing the plate provides a steady source of income, church budgets are flexible and religious folks pay banks back. That all changed in the late 1990s, bankers say, around the same time subprime mortgages and McMansions became hot. Churches competed to keep up with Pastor Jones across the street. They have a café, we want a café. They have a 1,000-seat auditorium, we want a 2,000-seat auditorium. New banks heard churches were a safe market to dabble in. They over-estimated churches’ growth projections and threw money at them, said Mikes.

Religion News Service

So, how do you feel about activist auditors general, Prime Minister?

By kadyomalley - Monday, March 23, 2009 at 7:47 AM - 15 Comments

Because this could get interesting:

Auditor General Sheila Fraser says the government should be prepared to defend its rationale for changing any rules or processes and spell out who is accountable in its race to get stimulus money out the door.

As her office prepares for a audit into the expected spending frenzy of the next two years, Canada’s spending watchdog laid out her expectations for the management of stimulus money in a recent letter to Treasury Board Secretary Wayne Wouters.

“In all our audits, the criteria we use are based mainly on the government’s own rules,” she wrote in the letter. Should the government decide to modify its normal processes in delivering the Economic Action Plan, we would expect the rationale to be clearly documented and accountabilities to be clear.”

She warned that public servants and politicians rushing to get that money into the economy better balance speed with “due diligence.” That demands “a sound analysis of risk” and a level of scrutiny in approving programs and projects that are “commensurate with those risks.”

“I appreciate managers will face challenges in implementing the plan, given very tight time constraints. They will need to balance the government’s wish to move quickly with the requirement to exercise due regard,” she said.

She also seems to be siding with some of those whiny, high-maintenance, hyperdemanding opposition members on the question of whether the government should provide at least a “rudimentary list” — and not, presumably, just pictures of the prime minister holding court in front of various scenically shovel-themed backdrops — of the projects that will benefit from the $3 billion quick start fund:

She also said she didn’t have any concerns with the principle behind the $3-billion fund to fasttrack projects between April and June, but she questioned why the government couldn’t give MPs a rudimentary list of the programs and projects that will be financed.

“It’s not unreasonable.

$3 billion is a fair bit of money and they must have ideas, even in broad strokes, how that money will flow between April and June,” she said.

“I must say that I don’t buy the argument that they can’t tell them something — maybe not the detail of, say, what festival, or how much, but they could at least say where the money is going, whether it’s (to) infrastructure or festivals.”

“Festivals”? My goodness, how did that word worm its way into the discussion?

Suncor closes in on deal to buy Petro-Canada

By John Intini - Monday, March 23, 2009 at 1:00 AM - 1 Comment

On Sunday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Calgary-based Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s second largest oil exploration and refining company, is close to acquiring Petro-Canada in a $15 billion deal. In what amounts to a 30 per cent premium on Petro-Canada’s share price, the takeover would create Canada’s largest energy company (EnCana Corp. currently holds that title). The Canadian government, however, must approve it since legislation prohibits any single shareholder from owning more than 20 per cent of Petro-Canada, Canada’s fourth largest refiner. The WSJ piece, citing people ‘familiar with the matter,’ claimed the government is supportive. Sources in Calgary say Petro-Can is planning to make an announcement before trading begins on Monday.

Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Reuters

International Talk Like William Shatner Day Has Come And Gone, But Its Spirit Lives On Inside Us

By Jaime Weinman - Monday, March 23, 2009 at 12:29 AM - 1 Comment

Canadian voice actor/comedian/impressionist Maurice LaMarche didn’t give us much advance notice in declaring March 22 to be “International Talk Like William Shatner Day,” but his instructional video will help us get ready for the… next… InternationaltalklikeWilliam… Shatner Day.

You know, when I first heard LaMarche and others doing their Shatner impressions in cartoons, I didn’t know where they were getting the “pause” gimmick. That’s because I just hadn’t noticed it much on Star Trek, though now I notice it whenever he does it. (It got more out of control as the series went on, as vocal tics often do.) And I recall his inflections being pretty normal when he voiced Kirk on the Filmation Star Trek cartoon. He’s by no means the only actor who pauses in weird spots, but it’s associated with him because it’s become the voice impersonator’s shorthand for Shatner, something to identify the impression even if the voice itself isn’t dead-on.