Who r u to diss my book?

By macleans.ca - Monday, June 29, 2009 at 2:33 PM - 3 Comments

Just as social media has altered the relationship between authors and readers, it’s starting to affect the relationship between writers and reviewers. When veteran American novelist Alice Hoffman read a mixed review of her latest novel by Roberta Silman in the Boston Globe, she reacted—in one sense—like a pro: she hit the roof. In a series of furious tweets to her fans, Hoffman played the Famous Writer Card (“Now any idiot can be a critic. So who is Roberta Silman?”); the Feminist Card (“Girls are taught to be gracious and keep their mouths shut. We don’t have to.”); the Provincial Critic Card (“This is a town where a barking dog is the second top story on the news”); the Lousy Paper Card (“No wonder there is no book section in the Globe anymore—they don’t care about their readers, why should we care about them?”); and the Post Your Enemy’s Email & Phone Number Online Card (encouraging fans to further validate her reaction and “tell her what u think of snarky critics.”). Just because Hoffman, in the opinion of most observers, came out looking like a hyper-insecure idiot, doesn’t mean she might not have taken one for the writers’ team. Just something else for reviewers to keep in mind. As for Silman, she can perhaps reflect that Twitter-assault beats a drink in the face at the next literary launch.

Media Bistro

Oh fudge

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, June 29, 2009 at 1:59 PM - 16 Comments

Never mind its series on our declining democracy, surely the Toronto Star is due a National Newspaper Award for its continuing coverage of cabinet-level cussing.

While Elliott coped well with defeat, her husband, federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, appeared bitter during the crowded celebration at a downtown pub, astonishing Tories with his demeanour. Three sources told the Star that Flaherty told Tory MPP Ernie Hardeman (Oxford) to “f— off” because he hadn’t supported Elliott.

50 houses to go up in West Bank

By macleans.ca - Monday, June 29, 2009 at 1:03 PM - 0 Comments

The Israeli Defence Ministry has approved the building of 50 new homes in West Bank settlements despite U.S. calls for a halt on construction. This comes as Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak travels to the US for talks meant to end a clash between the two countries over settlement issues. Israel seized the West Bank from Palestinians during the six-day war in 1967, and 2,500 Israeli homes are currently under construction in the territory. But Israel could be softening its hard-line position. Barak said Sunday that his government may agree to a three-month moratorium on all construction within settlements.

Reuters

Mother of 555-pound boy faces criminal charges

By macleans.ca - Monday, June 29, 2009 at 1:03 PM - 1 Comment

A South Carolina mother is facing charges for allowing her 14-year-old son to balloon to 555 pounds. Jerri Gray allegedly failed to bring her son to several medical appointments, prompting the state to send notice that he was going to be apprehended. Afraid of losing her son, Gray fled with him to Baltimore, where they were intercepted by police. In addition to child neglect, she is also charged with custodial interference.

ABC News

Try this at home

By Andrew Potter - Monday, June 29, 2009 at 12:50 PM - 17 Comments

YouTube has launched a training hub for  journalists who want to learn from the best in the business. It features short video tutorials including Katie Couric on how to interview, Nicholas Kristof on covering a global crisis, and Arianna Huffington on citizen (i.e. “unpaid”) journalism. Her accent kills me:

What it takes

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, June 29, 2009 at 12:44 PM - 9 Comments

Jim Travers speculates on the possibility of change.

Where we’re headed is more opaque. As former Ontario NDP premier and now federal Liberal Bob Rae pointed out earlier in this Star series, Canada is badly in need of a selfless champion. There’s an immediate opening here for a leader who cares deeply enough about democracy to willingly peel away powers stealthily taken and ferociously guarded…

None of this will happen until someone more saint than politician makes it the prime minister’s business to roll back the office’s extraordinary authority. Barring that, followers that leaders have been pushing around for so long will have to declare that enough is more than enough. In the absence of one or the other, democracy will continue its slide into sham-ocracy.

Never mind all that

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, June 29, 2009 at 12:43 PM - 2 Comments

Doug Saunders suggests all that blustery talk of The North is a bunch of hooey.

In fact, it is emerging that the North never really has been a major part of the Canadian identity. A more accurate representation was outlined two years before Confederation by British Liberal leader and future prime minister William Gladstone. He stood in the House of Commons, during an 1865 debate about whether to grant semi-independence to the colony, and dismissed Canada glibly as a “long and comparatively thin strip of occupied territory between the States on one side, and the sterility of pinching winter on the other.”

Lawrence Cannon carries on undaunted.

An unproductive Parliament

By macleans.ca - Monday, June 29, 2009 at 12:42 PM - 2 Comments

Two veteran political observers struggle to justify the existence of Parliament in a review of the session just passed. “I found most of the debate and discussion in Parliament pretty trivial. It’s posturing, name-calling, bullying, threatening, and all too often mean-spirited and nasty as well,” says professor Ned Franks. But it is not just the tone that was dispiriting, it was the relative lack of legislative accomplishment—relatively little of substance happening after Parliament dealt with the government’s massive budget. “The government introduced a relatively small number of bills, half of which got royal assent. Of those that did receive approval, a number of them were routine estimates approval and one of them was the budget. There wasn’t a lot of impressive ones when you think beyond the routine business,” says David Mitchell, president of the Public Policy Forum.

The Hill Times

Goodbye to all that

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, June 29, 2009 at 12:24 PM - 14 Comments

Chris Selley memorializes the veiled-voter debate.

The first law that was supposed to do that is now in effect. But all it does is instruct poll clerks, having determined that a voter’s name and address are on the register, to ask for either one piece of photo ID that lists the voter’s home address or “two pieces of identification authorized by the Chief Electoral Officer each of which establish the elector’s name and at least one of which establishes the elector’s address.” So not only does it not ban veiled voting, in other words, but it doesn’t even require photo ID.

Nevertheless, when Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand said as much, he was pilloried. “We just adopted this spring… a law designed to have the visual identification of voters,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper fumed. “That’s the purpose of the law,” he added, astonishingly. Not satisfied with his boss’s gaffe, Tory MP Joe Preston—a real live member of the committee that OKed the legislation, apparently without having read it—then upped the ante. “I’d love for [Mayrand] to come here and try to explain to us what he doesn’t understand,” he said, causing numerous heads to explode in the few Canadian newsrooms that actually noticed what was going on.

One of the first public events I attended after arriving in Ottawa was Marc Mayrand’s press conference to respond to all this. For a half hour he sat and calmly refuted his interrogators as reporter after reporter told him how sorely mistaken he was. Then everyone went back to their offices, read the law and realized he was right. Probably one of the five best performances I’ve witnessed in these two years.

How we spent our weekend

By Paul Wells - Monday, June 29, 2009 at 12:15 PM - 98 Comments

Special Michael Jackson commemorative issue. On newsstands (in the overprivileged central parts of the country, anyway) now. A 72-page issue, from conception to printing in less than 48 hours.

And if you get all uptight, you’ll only be encouraging us.

Breaking: How Pierre Poilievre will spend his summer vacation.

By kadyomalley - Monday, June 29, 2009 at 12:12 PM - 47 Comments

As a charter member of the no-longer-being-referred-to-”blue-ribbon”-for-some-reason employment insurance working group/panel/whatever term gets Michael Ignatieff through the night.  Hot off the PMO newswire:

PRIME MINISTER STEPHEN HARPER ANNOUNCES MEMBERS OF EMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WORKING GROUP

OTTAWA –

Prime Minister Stephen Harper today announced the appointment of the Government’s members of the Employment Insurance working group. The Government’s representatives on the working group are:

• Hon. Diane Finley, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development;

• Pierre Poilievre, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister;

• Malcolm Brown, Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development.

I’m sure the other panelists can hardly wait for Poilievre and Marlene Jennings to get the chance to reenact some of the most memorable moments of summer committee hearings past.

Madoff sentenced to 150 years in prison

By macleans.ca - Monday, June 29, 2009 at 12:00 PM - 3 Comments

Disgraced financier Bernie Madoff has been sentenced to a staggering 150 years in prison. Madoff pleaded guilty last month to bilking hundreds of clients in an elaborate ponzi scheme worth billions of dollars. Judge Denny Chin settled on the sentence after hearing from 10 of Madoff’s victims at a hearing Monday morning. Chin opted for the stiff sentence despite the U.S. federal probation department’s recommendation that Madoff get a sentence of 50 years. Prosecutors had asked for a prison sentence of 150 years, while Madoff’s lawyer had requested the judge to hand down a 12-year prison sentence.

CBC News

Joe Jackson suspects "foul play" in death of son

By macleans.ca - Monday, June 29, 2009 at 11:52 AM - 0 Comments

Joe Jackson, Michael’s father, told reporters at the Black Entertainment Television Awards he suspects “foul play” in the death of his son. According to Joe Jackson, “Michael was dead before he left the house.” However, Jackson says that just “a few minutes” beforehand, Michael was “waving to everybody and telling them he loves them and all the fans at the gate.” The Los Angeles County Coroner says its post-mortem examination of Michael found no signs of trauma or foul play. However, after expressing their frustration with the inconclusive results of the first autopsy, the Jackson family hired a private pathologist to conduct a second one.

The Telegraph

The donut drain

By macleans.ca - Monday, June 29, 2009 at 11:51 AM - 2 Comments

Long the darling of Canadian donut eaters, Tim Hortons Inc. is about to make things official by headquartering itself in the country that loves its products. The firm filed an application with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to reorganize as a Canadian public company, which in retrospect seems long overdue. Fully 2,930 of the chain’s outlets are in Canada, compared to 527 in the U.S., where it has failed to unseat established rivals like Dunkin’ Donuts. The company is citing reductions in corporate taxes in Canada for the reason behind the move.

Associated Press

Search for bodies has ended

By macleans.ca - Monday, June 29, 2009 at 11:50 AM - 0 Comments

The Brazilian military announced that it has ended its search for bodies from the Air France jet that crashed almost a month ago. Airbus 330 was flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris when it plunged into the Atlantic on June 1—228 people were on board. So far, 51 bodies have been recovered, but a Brazilian spokesman said that the recovery of any more bodies was “impossible.” “It has been nine days since we have located bodies,” Brazilian air force spokesman Lt. Col. Henry Munhoz explained. A French-led team will continue to search for the plane’s black boxes—which will emit signals until at least July 2. The cause of the accident has yet to be established. An initial report by France’s Investigation and Analysis Bureau (BEA) will be released later this week.

BBC News

Partial recount begins in Iran

By macleans.ca - Monday, June 29, 2009 at 11:49 AM - 0 Comments

A partial recount of the ballots cast in Iran’s disputed presidential election is under way. However, authorities in Tehran have already extended their deadline to investigate claims of electoral fraud by five days, meaning the final certification of the ballot likely remains days away. The country’s ruling Guardian Council plans to re-count a randomly selected cross-section of votes representing 10 per cent of the total ballots cast. Opposition candidates have so far refused to send monitors to the recount out of concern they may send the impression they endorse a process they say will do nothing to change the outcome of the election.

Meanwhile, four local staff working at the British embassy in Tehran remain in custody, accused of instigating and directing massive protests that erupted following the June 12 presidential election that returned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power and that most observers believe was rigged. “The embassy sent staff among the rioters to direct them in order to escalate the riots so that the rioters could file fabricated reports about the [rallies] to the world from various locations,” Iranian Intelligence Minister Gholam-Hoseyn Mohseni-Ezhei said. Nine local staff were originally detained, but five have now been released.

CNN

The New York Times

BBC News

Mike Duffy has learned something while sitting in the Senate

By Scott Feschuk - Monday, June 29, 2009 at 11:31 AM - 22 Comments

Decades as a journalist and decades more as a sentient Canadian apparently did nothing to prepare Mike Duffy for the shocking revelation that awaited him upon being appointed to the upper chamber. As the Senator himself put it while traveling in Kelowna: “Once you get in there, you realize that every piece of legislation passed by Parliament has to go through the Senate prior to adoption.”

Sweet bearded Jesus! Do the Fathers of Confederation know about this?? Someone alert the ghost of Adams Archibald!

Wait – there’s yet more that the intrepid Duffy has uncovered: “And the Senate rules are different than the House of Commons. Senate committees can’t sit while the Senate is in session, so that puts you in the situation of having some pretty long days.”

Holy nutballs! Next thing you know we’ll be finding out Continue…

It's like Newsies but without the feel-good song and dance number

By macleans.ca - Monday, June 29, 2009 at 11:03 AM - 0 Comments

Despite weeks of increasingly frantic negotiations, the Globe’s editorial, advertising and circulation workers gave the paper’s latest offer a resounding thumbs down on Saturday, voting 89 per cent in favour of a walkout. With just over 48 hours to go before deadline, the two sides head back to the bargaining table on Tuesday, but if talks collapse, workers are prepared to hit the picket lines at midnight on July 1st.

The Canadian Press

The million mark

By macleans.ca - Monday, June 29, 2009 at 11:02 AM - 0 Comments

Monday, a new benchmark was announced by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); the number of swine flu cases in the United States has reportedly reached 1 million. CDC said that many cases were mild, although 127 people have died since the H1N1 virus emerged almost three months ago. The average age of those who died in the US is 37. CDC’s number is much higher than the cases actually reported to authorities, and is based instead on survey material. But there is a silvery lining to all this, BBC medical correspondent Fergus Walsh insists. If those figures are correct, it suggests that the fatality rate from swine flu is much lower than authorities originally thought. Of the 1 million estimated cases, only 3,000 have required hospital treatment. Still, Dr. Anne Schuchat of CDC warns that swine flu might return this autumn in a much more virulent form.

BBC News

Last one out of the inner sanctum, turn out the lights, deadlock the door

By macleans.ca - Monday, June 29, 2009 at 11:00 AM - 0 Comments

Somehow, we’re sure that Dan Brown is indirectly responsible. The Ottawa Citizen reports that a Masonic temple was one of the targets of a petty crime wave in Lanark County last week that also hit a nearby restaurant. Among the items taken last Tuesday night: a ceremonial sword, as well as a “ceremonial mallet” and “two bags of Masonic paraphernalia.” The investigation continues.

Ottawa Citizen

Don't come around here no more

By macleans.ca - Monday, June 29, 2009 at 10:56 AM - 4 Comments

The welcome mat that Pierre Trudeau laid out for Vietnam-era draft dodgers has been rolled back up by the Conservative government, the Ottawa Citizen reports. Although Canada’s policy on war resisters has not officially changed, documents obtained from Citizenship and Immigration under access-to-information laws reveal the “underlying message” that “there is no appetite for intervening politically” to provide sanctuary to Iraq war deserters, and that refugee-claim officers have been advised to be “particularly vigilant” about refugee claims from such Western democracies as the United States.” Shortly after taking over the CIC portfolio last fall, Jason Kenney publicly referred to such claims as “bogus.” According to the Citizen, as many as 50 American war deserters have filed for refugee status, and there may be “dozens more living beneath the radar.”

Ottawa Citizen

"We have finally learned to fight"

By Michael Petrou - Monday, June 29, 2009 at 10:52 AM - 0 Comments

An online version of my first print article on the upheaval in Iran is here. A follow up is on the newsstands now.

GiornoWatch: Pack your bags, random ministerial senior staffer, you're going to …

By kadyomalley - Monday, June 29, 2009 at 10:52 AM - 4 Comments

… wherever the Giornorganizer General tells you to go, that’s where.

Just a few days before the first anniversary of The Gioreformation, we get a weirdly fascinating — and 100% unnamed-sourced –Hill Times story on the Lord of Langevin Block’s latest Machiavellian machinations:

The Prime Minister’s Office is in the midst of reviewing the most senior staffers in Cabinet ministers’ offices with an eye to shuffle chiefs of staff to fill four vacant positions and to better prepare for the next Parliamentary session and federal election. [...] Guy Giorno, chief of staff to the Prime Minister, deputy chief of staff Darrel Reid, principal secretary Ray Novak, senior adviser to the chief of staff Jay Dorey, and chief of staff to the Transport Minister Chris Froggatt are overseeing the shuffle of chiefs of staff. [...] The Prime Minister’s Office plays a key role in Cabinet staffing and in most cases has a final say in hiring senior staffers for ministers’ offices.

Not everyone, it seems, is delighted at the prospect of having their office thrown into turmoil by a PMO-imposed changing of the guard:

Continue…

Pitney vs. Milbank: Free controversy!

By Paul Wells - Monday, June 29, 2009 at 8:30 AM - 39 Comments

The guy from the Huffington Post gets the guy from the Washington Post all huffy, after Barack Obama called on Pitney to ask a question from a Real Iranian last week. I’m left wondering when Dana Milbank, who was hired to be irreverent, appointed himself Gallery Cop. Anyway, enjoy:

Here’s Dana upholding the rigorous standards of the profession. To be clear: There’s nothing wrong with dressing up like a dork for a cheap larf. I try to do it at least twice a month. But it makes you look like you’re maybe a bit of a pathetic old-media hack if you act like this and then get all shirty at a blogger.