Hail, hail, the gang's all here

By macleans.ca - Friday, March 27, 2009 at 12:14 PM - 3 Comments

More than a year after the government announced its intention to hold a full judicial inquiry into the Mulroney/Schreiber affair, the first round of public hearings are slated to get underway next week. On Monday, the Oliphant Commission hears from two former cabinet ministers—Progressive Conservative Bill McKnight, who served as Mulroney’s energy minister, and Liberal Marc Lalonde, who worked for Karlheinz Schreiber as a “lawyer and lobbyist.” The Commission will also hear from former Mulroney chief of staff Derek Burney and Elizabeth “Beth” Moores, who was married to the late Frank Moores. The first witnesses were announced at a special hearing on Thursday, during which the judge bowed to Mulroney’s request for “clarification” on his ruling on standards of conduct by reassuring Mulroney’s legal team that he has “no intention of prying into the private affairs of the former prime minister.”

Montreal Gazette

Quebec recalls Tasers from police

By macleans.ca - Friday, March 27, 2009 at 11:39 AM - 0 Comments

There will be no more Tasers on Quebec streets—at least, not in police officers’ hands. The province has recalled the devices after testing revealed some of them didn’t meet the manufacturers’ standards. Provincial officials wouldn’t specify how they had malfunctioned in testing, but did say none of the weapons had been used on a person. The recall follows a CBC investigation that found some stun guns deliver stronger jolts of electricity than the manufacturer had specified.

CBC.ca

The number of women in crisis in Calgary soars

By macleans.ca - Friday, March 27, 2009 at 11:16 AM - 1 Comment

The number of women seeking help from Calgary shelters is escalating at an alarming rate, with three times as many calls being placed to the area’s shelters over the last year. Advocates say the tough economic times are one factor for the spike. Last month alone, 1,366 calls were made to the Calgary Women’s Emergency Shelter help line. With shelters full, counsellors and outreach crisis workers have had to place women and children in hotels. Police statistics are also troubling, indicating that more than 12,000 domestic violence calls are made annually, and three to five children in every Calgary classroom have seen their mothers assaulted.

The Calgary Sun

Ghost-twitterers

By macleans.ca - Friday, March 27, 2009 at 11:13 AM - 1 Comment

Celebrities love using Twitter, but they don’t always like writing. So some stars are using Twitter to communicate with their fans, but letting somebody else write the 140-character messages. 50 Cent is only one of many famous people who lets his web manager update his Twitter feed; singers, actors and politicians have turned Twitter into a committee effort. But some celebs aren’t too happy about the as-told-to Twittering. Shaquille O’Neal, who says he writes all his Twitters himself, says that “If you need a ghostwriter for that, I feel sorry for you.”

The New York Times

Is Gordon Campbell giving away B.C.?

By macleans.ca - Friday, March 27, 2009 at 11:07 AM - 9 Comments

Fear runs rampant these days in British Columbia that a planned “recognition and reconciliation” bill on aboriginal title will effectively turn over control of the province’s land to First Nations. Unlike their counterparts in the rest of the country, most indigenous nations in B.C. did not sign treaties ceding control of their traditional lands. This has led to a long-running legal conflict in which the courts have mainly sided with the natives, which in turn forced the province to embark on a new treaty process. That process bogged down, but the Campbell government now appears determined to settle the issue once and for all. And what is known about their government’s plan has alarmed a lot of people. “Recognition of aboriginal title over all of B.C. will, by law, give the new indigenous nations the right of veto over future use and development of all land in the province, and the right to extract rents,” warns Jeffrey Rustand, in-house counsel with the Canadian Constitution Foundation, in today’s Vancouver Sun. “Did any of the premier’s advisers think this through?”

The Vancouver Sun

Following the money

By macleans.ca - Friday, March 27, 2009 at 10:58 AM - 0 Comments

Is cigarette smuggling becoming as big a problem as the drug trade? The flow of contraband smokes from Indian reserves that straddle the US/Canada border is now worth an estimated $1.3 billion a year and is rapidly growing. This joint investigation from the Montreal Gazette and the Center for Public Integrity in Washington, follows the money and the links to biker gangs and the Mob. A recent RCMP intelligence report suggests that there are now 105 organized crime groups (of various levels of sophistication) involved in the business.

The Center for Public Integrity

The attack of the traffic cameras

By macleans.ca - Friday, March 27, 2009 at 10:56 AM - 2 Comments

The use of traffic cameras is exploding in the U.S. There are now over 3,000 of them being used to catch red-light runners and speeders. For drivers, it’s stoking a lot of anger. Residents in one town in Illinois recently boycotted a mall until a camera at its entrance, which was being used to catch people making rolling right turns on a red, was removed. In Arizona, one man was arrested for attacking a camera with a pick axe. Some have labelled the use of these cameras a budget gimmick. While they’re almost universally hated, they do bring in much-needed revenue for the municipalities that use them.

The Wall Street Journal

Obama's Afghanistan speech

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Friday, March 27, 2009 at 10:39 AM - 0 Comments

Below is Obama’s speech this morning on Afghanistan. He announced  4,000 new troops on top of the additional 17,000 additional combat troops he had already authorized, bringing the total US deployment there to 60,000. He announces new benchmarks, more money for reconstruction and aid, as well as for anti-waste oversight in Washington. And he included this bit aimed at allies ahead of the NATO summit in France and Germany next week:

“My Administration is committed to strengthening international organizations and collective action, and that will be my message next week in Europe. As America does more, we will ask others to join us in doing their part. From our partners and NATO allies, we seek not simply troops, but rather clearly defined capabilities: supporting the Afghan elections, training Afghan Security Forces, and a greater civilian commitment to the Afghan people. For the United Nations, we seek greater progress for its mandate to coordinate international action and assistance, and to strengthen Afghan institutions.”

“And finally, together with the United Nations, we will forge a new Contact Group for Afghanistan and Pakistan that brings together all who should have a stake in the security of the region – our NATO allies and other partners, but also the Central Asian states, the Gulf nations and Iran; Russia, India and China. None of these nations benefit from a base for al Qaeda terrorists, and a region that descends into chaos. All have a stake in the promise of lasting peace and security and development.” Continue…

Bomb blast at mosque in Pakistan

By macleans.ca - Friday, March 27, 2009 at 10:32 AM - 0 Comments

A suicide bomb attack at a mosque near the town of Jamrud in the northwest Pakistani town of Jamrud has killed at least 48 people, with the death toll expected to rise. Jamrud, in the Khyber tribal agency, is in an area where Pakistani Taliban have been especially active, targeting Pakistani security forces who are protecting convoys bringing supplies to Nato troops in Afghanistan. Jamrud has also been the scene of sectarian violence between Sunni and Shia Muslims. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. 

BBC News

Obama's new plan for Afghanistan

By macleans.ca - Friday, March 27, 2009 at 10:31 AM - 0 Comments

U.S. President Barack Obama is unveiling a new American strategy for Afghanistan this morning. Officials said the plan will treat the insurgencies in Afghanistan and Pakistan as an integrated problem. It is also expected to involve outreach efforts to Afghanistan’s neighbours, including Iran. Obama has already ordered that 17,000 additional American troops be sent to Afghanistan to help secure the country. To this number, he has added another 4,000 soldiers, who will embed with and train Afghan security forces.

The Washington Post

"We're already well through the screwing-up phase of our operation"

By Paul Wells - Friday, March 27, 2009 at 8:44 AM - 24 Comments

On a trip to Afghanistan, David Brooks opts, on the whole, for optimism. Sarah Chayes, who’s been there longer, is less cheered. This will be a heavy Afghanistan day at Inkless, and not only here. Let’s talk more after lunch.

Iggy v. The Carbon Tax

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, March 27, 2009 at 1:40 AM - 51 Comments

Michael Ignatieff talks in Kamloops.

“We took the carbon tax to the public and the public didn’t think it was such a good idea,” he said. ”I’m trying to get myself elected here and if the public, after mature consideration think that’s the dumbest thing they’ve ever heard then I’ve got to listen.”

Girl power? Helena Guergis in Obamaland

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 10:50 PM - 11 Comments

Michael Wilson, Valerie Jarrett, Helena Guergis at the White House. Photo: Leslie Kossoff

One of the most prized gets in town is face time with Valerie Jarrett, one of Obama’s closest advisors, who mentored him in politics, co-chaired his transition team and has followed him from Chicago to Washington, DC. Her appearance last week at an event by a newly-formed Democratic-connected business group, Business Forward, was a major draw for a group that costs up to $75,000 to join. “If I am a company and if I see these folks are delivering Valerie Jarrett, I am signing up because there are few people in town who can deliver her right now,” a Democratic lobbyist told The Hill newspaper.

So guess who else got personal delivery of Jarrett? On Thursday, Helena Guergis, Minister of State for the Status of Women, had her own meeting with the Obama confidante. A nice little diplomatic coup.

As it happens, Jarrett is the head of a newly formed inter-agency White House Council on Women and Girls, a group that activists have complained has no full-time staff, cabinet level leader or set meeting schedule. Continue…

Ezra Levant, liberal

By Andrew Potter - Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 10:36 PM - 95 Comments

Ezra Levant swing by the office this afternoon; he was in town pimping his new book Shakedown, a pretty devastating look at the Human Rights industry in Canada. I’ve never met him before, but he seemed almost giddy when he showed up, fresh from a signing at a downtown Chapters where — apparently — there was a healthy lineup to get him to sign copies of the book.

Good on him. I was never a huge fan of Ezra’s political leanings, and the Western Standard was not really my cup of tea. But printing the Danish cartoons was courageous, and his subsequent fight with the AHRC was deeply principled and very nicely handled. Anyway, we had a nice chat for an hour or so, about everything from the origins of the human rights commissions to constitutional interpretation to the Galloway affair. He’s smart, engaging as hell, and his book is going to sell boatloads.

I’ll have a review of the book soon, and I might try to publish our discussion as a Q&A somewhere. Meanwhile, my personal  takeaway from our discussion is the subject line of this post. More later.

The Commons: The prudence of pessimism

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 7:01 PM - 13 Comments

The Scene. Thomas Mulcair had tried to reason with the government.

“According to StatsCan, of the 300,000 people who have lost their jobs since the election, only four out of 10 workers have qualified for EI. Parliament has spoken and called upon the government to reform employment insurance. Today, the conference board repeated that,” he said. “Why is it doing nothing to help?”

“Mr. Speaker, let us not quibble about the statistics that he is citing,” sighed Diane Finley, accusing Mulcair of misconstruing the situation and “playing petty partisan politics with the futures of real people.”

Now, the NDP deputy leader was merely mad, yelling and pointing across the aisle. “Mr. Speaker, in September, the Conservatives were saying there would be no recession and no deficit. In November, it was a technical recession and small surplus. In January, it was a recession and some deficit. In the past 24 hours, both the parliamentary budget officer and the TD Bank are predicting record deficits and a long recession,” he reported. “What purpose is served by continuing to misstate the facts as she just did on the deficit, the recession and unemployment? Start telling the truth to Canadians. Start respecting the votes in the House and we can start implementing resolutions like the EI proposals adopted two weeks ago. Start helping Canadians and stop lying.”

The Conservative side howled at the allegation. The Speaker reprimanded Mulcair. And Jim Flaherty stood to offer a rare response. Continue…

For the record: Obama won't legalize (and tax) pot to fix the economy

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 6:46 PM - 5 Comments

Today the president held an “on-line town hall.”

According to the White House, over the past two days more than 92,000 people submitted more than 100,000 questions to Obama and cast over 3.5 million votes to determine which ones he should answer.

The purpose of the exercise is part PR and part to keep the president connected to what is on Americans’ minds. Most questions had to do with the economy.

He asked, they answered:

Obama: “I have to say that there was one question that was voted on that ranked fairly highly, and that was whether legalizing marijuana would improve the economy and job creation. And I don’t know what this says about the online audience… but I just want… I don’t want people to think that — this was a fairly popular question. We want to make sure that it was answered. The answer is no, I don’t think that is a good strategy to grow our economy. So. All right.”

More About the CBC

By Jaime Weinman - Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 6:14 PM - 6 Comments

One of the budget-cutting devices the CBC has announced is that they’re cutting the episode orders of many of their shows: The Border, Being Erica, Little Mosque on the Prairie and This Hour Has 22 Minutes will have fewer episodes.

Bill Brioux understandably thinks this will hurt the CBC more than it helps:

The Border has had two 13 episode seasons so far. Cutting it back to, say, nine or 10 cuts a month out of an already short run. Thirteen is already nine less than most hour long TV dramas on U.S. networks. Do you start late and give other shows a chance to steal away viewers? Shorter runs also impact DVD packages, foreign sales and on-line extensions…
TV is all about keeping the lights on. You can’t do anything without the content.

I guess there’s precedent for a show being given a shortened episode order as a condition for being allowed to come back for another season, but normally networks implement budget cuts by cutting down on production costs, particularly cast members. (As mentioned before, when you see a show downsize its cast, it’s often because the network demanded a lower per-episode cost.) And there’s a reason for that: it’s not good for networks to have fewer episodes. If you have fewer new episodes to run, you have to find something to run in the place of the missing episodes, meaning either reruns, or some other show that probably doesn’t do as well. Neither of those things will make as much money as a first-run episode.

Of course, the reasons for this decision may be legitimate ones that outsiders can’t understand, but from an outsider perspective, it does look like this could be a real blow to some of the CBC’s shows. There’s a reason you haven’t seen the American networks change the title of 24 to 21 and make it the story of 87% of Jack Bauer’s day.

Week in Pictures: Mar. 21st – Mar. 26th, 2009

By macleans.ca - Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 5:43 PM - 1 Comment

FAQ: Ontario’s new ‘single sales tax’

By Philippe Gohier - Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 4:49 PM - 30 Comments

How much is it going to be?
The tax will be 13 per cent—the sum of the existing PST (8 per cent) and the GST (5 per cent).

When does it come into effect?
July 1, 2010.

What’s the point of putting the two together if the tax rate is no different than the current one?
The McGuinty government claims the measure will save businesses as much as $500 million by making it quicker and easier to file taxes. The move will also exempt companies from paying any sales tax on purchases aimed at making taxable goods for sale and for which they currently pay the PST. Exported good would be similarly exempt.

Are there any other exemptions?
Yes. Books, children’s clothing and shoes, children’s car seats and car booster seats, diapers and feminine hygiene products—all of which were already tax-exempt—will not be subject to the single sales tax.

Will it increase the tax on any items?
Home renovations, gasoline, home-heating oil, haircuts and fast food, for which the PST doesn’t currently apply, will be subject to the harmonized rate. So prices for those items will increase by eight per cent.

Can I get any of it back?
The province claims its wide-ranging tax reform package, which includes tax cuts for businesses and individuals, will end up slashing the vast majority of Ontarians’ tax bill by about 10 per cent. It has also negotiated to have Ottawa help offset the costs of the new single sales tax by mailing rebate cheques to most residents.

How does the rebate work and when do I get the money?
Families earning less than $160,000 and individuals earning less than $80,000 will receive $1,000 and $300, respectively. The first cheques will be mailed out in June 2010, with subsequent payments taking place in December 2010 and June 2011.

How much money will the government make?
Finance department officials say the entire tax reform package will cost the province $2.3 billion, not counting the $4.3 billion Ottawa will contribute to ease the transition to a harmonized tax. The single sales tax, however, will generate over $2 billion in extra revenue for the province.

A nation in a town

By Margaret McMillan - Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 4:40 PM - 1 Comment

In 1912, Stephen Leacock published his masterpiece, Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town. In it, the people of Orillia, Ont., thinly disguised as Mariposa, stood in for all Canadians, and we were skewered as we’ve rarely been skewered since: our pomposity punctured, our hypocrisy shown up, our smugness mocked. We haven’t stopped reading it since.

Leacock’s Mariposa knows about the outside world even if the outside world does not know much about Mariposa. In small towns, says the narrator, people have lots of time to read the newspapers cover to cover. In Jefferson Thorpe’s barbershop they talk about the future of China or the relations between the German Kaiser and his parliament. Some Mariposans go away to college; the local MP had two sessions at one years ago and that makes him a man of learning. And the outside world, from time to time, impinges on Mariposa. In the spring, the rough lumbermen, some of whom are local farm boys, come down from the north and lie about drunk on the sidewalk outside the hotel. The discovery of minerals to the north creates great excitement. (Sudbury’s nickel and copper were found in the 1880s; silver at Cobalt in the 1900s; and gold was struck at Kirkland Lake in 1911 as Leacock was writing his sketches.) The mining boom lures Mariposa’s savings and its more adventurous men. Some of its sons go to fight in the South African war; many more, although no one knows it, will fight and die in the First World War.

Continue…

Suhana Meharchand v. James Moore

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 4:36 PM - 71 Comments

This is what happens when someone facing the potential of unemployment is given the opportunity to interview a cabinet minister.

Forget everything bad I said about robots

By Scott Feschuk - Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 4:20 PM - 11 Comments

It’s been a while since I raised the potential threat posed by robots. In fact, it’s been so long that some readers have emailed to accuse me of having been bought off and silenced by the menacing robo-industrial complex. Let me assure you: nothing, with the exception of a Conservative TV commercial depicting Stephen Harper as empathetic, could be further from the truth.

But my thinking has definitely evolved. A year ago, I described the many horrors of the forthcoming robocalypse and how—thanks to advances in robotics—all humanity is destined to lead lives that are much more leisurely and, come the blood-soaked dawn of the robot revolution, much more over.

Continue…

The 2009 Ontario Budget: Big deficits, big spending

By Philippe Gohier - Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 4:17 PM - 13 Comments

If imitation is truly the sincerest form of flattery, it’s safe to say Ontario’s got a crush on the federal government. Mirroring the federal Conservatives’ pre-emptive strikes in the weeks leading up to their January budget, the McGuinty government announced well before Thursday that the upcoming budget would usher in multibillion dollar deficits for the coming years—$3.9 billion for 2008-09 and $14.1 billion for 2009-10—and that it would substantially boost its short-term spending on infrastructure. On the eve of budget day, it “leaked” information about the only major showstopper—that the province would harmonize its sales tax with the GST.

The hope appears to be that spreading the bad news over days or weeks lessens the shock of just how dramatically the province’s fortunes have changed in the past year. Make no mistake: these are grim times for Ontario. Government revenues are down $2.9 billion since last fall, and by the end of this fiscal year are expected to fall $3.5 billion short of the figure projected in last year’s budget. Revenues will drop even further, falling $4.6 billion short of pre-recessionary projections. “Ontario is in the middle of a global financial storm not of its making,” the province’s finance minister, Dwight Duncan, told reporters on Thursday.

ALSO AT MACLEANS.CA: Answers to the most common questions about the government’s new ‘single sales tax’

The province appears to be just as anxious to share the responsibility for getting out of the economic crisis as it is to deflect blame for it. In a briefing session on Thursday, officials said they are counting on the stimulus packages in the U.S. and Ottawa to help breathe life into Ontario’s economy. In the meantime, the McGuinty government will follow their lead and try to spend its way out of the crisis.

Like in the U.S. and at the federal level, infrastructure is at the top of the shopping list. In all, Ontario has committed $34 billion over two years to stimulus spending, with more than 19 of every 20 of those dollars (or $32.5 billion) earmarked for infrastructure projects. For the most part, “infrastructure” translates into improvements to Ontario’s transportation grid and its health care facilities, with projects ranging from the expansion of northern Ontario highways to the construction of a new hospital wing in Toronto. A further $1.2 billion has also been set aside to top up the federal government’s investments in social housing. In all, the province boasts that its budget will “create or support” some 314,000 jobs over the next two years.

Though finance department officials pledged to get the stimulus money flowing quickly, the most contentious item in the budget won’t take effect for another 15 months. On July 1, 2010, the provincial government will merge its provincial sales tax with the GST to create a single 13 per cent tax collected by the federal government, with 8 per cent going to the province. The McGuinty government boasts the change will save businesses $500 million by simplifying the tax-filing process. But some products, on which consumers currently pay GST but not PST, will now be taxed 13 per cent. The cost of gasoline, haircuts, fast food, home heating fuel and a wealth of others, will increase by 8 per cent.

The McGuinty government is hoping a package of tax cuts and rebates will offset the sting of the increased cost on some consumer goods. Most notably, the agreement between Ontario and Ottawa reached earlier this month calls on the federal government to deliver $4.3 billion over two years to the province “to help offset the transition costs associated” with the new tax. The provincial Liberals have already committed to redistributing $4 billion of that money in a series of rebate cheques totalling $1,000 for families to earning less than $160,000.

Opposition parties have already seized on Duncan’s tax measures as a cash grab. “It’s appalling,” says interim provincial Conservative leader Bob Runciman, “to pile on more debt, more taxes on the backs of struggling families.” The Conservatives and the NDP have both said they will oppose the new tax and plan to make it an issue in the next election.

There’s little doubt this budget—and the harmonized sales tax in particular—will figure prominently when the parties hit the campaign trail in 2011. In fact, voters were reportedly voicing their concerns about the tax to their MPPs long before budget day. But the McGuinty Liberals appear to have planned for the backlash already. The last of those rebate cheques will be in Ontarians’ mailboxes two months before they go to the polls.

Econowatch

By Duncan Hood - Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 4:15 PM - 2 Comments

Did Suncor and Petro-Canada just make a huge mistake? After all, when they announced their all-stock $19-billion deal to merge earlier this week, it looked like they were just taking one struggling oil company and hitching it to another one. It’s hard not to conclude the end result will simply be a really big struggling oil company.

The problem is, the planned merger doesn’t fix the underlying problems at both companies: oil is still trading at less than half of last year’s $147 high. Separating oil from mucky grit is still so expensive that many oil sands operations are becoming unfeasible. Worse, TD Economics has just issued a report saying we likely won’t see a sustained rally in oil for a couple of years yet. So you can’t blame some observers for calling this merger misguided.

Continue…