Masters of the universe in free fall

By Brian D. Johnson - Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 3:20 PM - 0 Comments

You forget you’re watching Matt Damon. He’s playing a spy. But with a dorky moustache, a toupée and an extra 20 lb. puffing out his features, there’s no trace of the dynamic secret agent from the Bourne franchise. In Steven Soderbergh’s The Informant!, an off-kilter comedy based on a true story of corporate corruption, Damon plays Mark Whitacre, an agri-biz honcho who became the highest-ranking whistle-blower in U.S. history during the late ’90s. But unlike most whistle-blowers—such as the one in The Insider or Soderbergh’s own Erin Brockovich—he is no straight-arrow hero. Far from it. While spending years wearing a wire to help the FBI expose a price-fixing conspiracy, Whitacre spins an elaborate web of lies, and embezzles millions from the company he was ratting on.

Premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival (Sept. 10-19) and opening commercially next week, The Informant! is one of a new breed of movies about men of influence in dire straits who invent their own cracked ethical code. Each year, TIFF showcases the fall line of serious films that vie for Oscar glory, pictures that presume to tell us something about the human condition. And whether by accident or design, many of this year’s most prominent titles reflect a new fashion in heroism that seems tailor-made for the recession: moral bankruptcy.

The new Hollywood hero is a high-flying master of the universe who’s losing altitude as fast as the ground vanishes beneath his feet. He’s a liar, a fraud, a womanizer, a drug addict, a nutcase, or all of the above. He’s Michael Douglas as a disgraced car magnate with a wrecked marriage and a runaway libido in Solitary Man. He’s David Duchovny as the head of a model family that turns out to be an utter sham in The Joneses. He’s Nicolas Cage as a crack-smoking cop who hallucinates reptiles in Werner Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. Or Peter Sarsgaard as a smooth con artist who seduces a 16-year-old English schoolgirl in An Education, soliciting her father as a gullible accomplice. Or Ricky Gervais as a screenwriter who discovers the marvel of dishonesty in The Invention of Lying—a comedy set in a world where everyone tells the truth.

Continue…

CBC orchestra re-unites

By macleans.ca - Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 2:54 PM - 0 Comments

The CBC Radio Orchestra, which was de-funded by the CBC a year ago, has re-united under the name “National Broadcast Orchestra.” Though stripped of government money, the band will try to continue bringing Canadian music and artists into our homes; its first concert under the new name will feature modern Canadian music as well as a Canadian pianist’s orchestration of an unfinished Beethoven piece. The music director, Alain Trudel, says the orchestra will mostly focus on studio performances that will be made available on YouTube and in other multimedia formats. To tour and do more full-length concerts, they’ll have to get more funding, which is difficult in a recession, but Trudel says that he’s determined to keep the orchestra together, although people tell him “we couldn’t pick a worse time to do this.”

The Globe and Mail

Avril Lavigne splits with husband

By macleans.ca - Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 2:54 PM - 3 Comments

Canadian pop star Avril Lavigne has broken up with her husband, Derek Whibley, according to the latest issue of US magazine. The magazine’s source says that “she dumped him and told him she was leaving him,” and kicked him out of their Bel Air mansion; divorce proceedings will start soon, the magazine reports. The couple has been married for three years, which is like the equivalent of a silver anniversary in show business.

Us Magazine

UPDATED AGAIN: Hark! Is that the rare, sweet sound of parliament working?

By kadyomalley - Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 2:38 PM - 100 Comments

According to the Globe and Mail, peace may be about to break out in the House of Commons:

The four parties in the House of Commons are nearing a deal to fast track the government’s new employment-insurance legislation and put it to its first vote as early as Friday.

Government House Leader Jay Hill invited his Liberal, NDP and Bloc Québécois counterparts to a closed door meeting just after noon to discuss the government bill, which was officially introduced in the House of Commons Wednesday afternoon.

The Liberals announced Thursday morning that they are offering to pass the bill quickly, in the hope of taking away the NDP’s stated reason for keeping the Conservatives in office for the short term.

“We don’t want to give Mr. Layton any alibis,” Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said.

Following the meeting, NDP House Leader Libby Davies told The Globe and Mail that all sides are close to a deal and that negotiations are expected to continue throughout the day. [...]

Will the much-anticipated EI reform bill make it through the House in time to allow the NDP to vote its conscience on the next confidence motion to come before the House? Tune in later today to find out!

UPDATE: No deal — yet. During his traditional response to the Thursday question, Jay Hill told the House that he had called a meeting of house leaders following the motions from the Liberals and the Bloc Quebecois earlier today, and had been “hopeful” that they would have worked something out by now, but “one of the parties” is still looking at the offer currently on the table, which would send the bill to committee by Friday afternoon.

WHEELS-WITHIN-WHEELS-UPDATE:

Okay. so here’s what I was able to glean from a brief post-QP foray to the foyer: The party holding up the deal to finish up with second reading by tomorrow afternoon is …. drum roll … the Bloc Quebecois! No, Duceppe hasn’t suddenly been seized with a case of the electoral vapors; it may actually be a very clever move.

If the bill goes to committee next week,  the Bloc can issue an open invite to Quebec union leaders to come forth and voice their near universal outrage over the paucity of the proposed measures, thus fortifying the party against any future accusation that they failed to stand up for unemployed Quebeckers  — and since the House wasn’t scheduled to sit anyway, it’s not like it would drag out the process; the bill could, in theory, be reported back the following Monday, and make it through third reading by Wednesday afternoon, make a brief stop in the Other Place for a sober second look, and be primed and ready for Royal Assent by the end of the week.

Depending on when the government tables the final stimulus update — which has to happen sometime during the week of September 28th, according to the June agreement — that could, in theory, allow the NDP to vote against the government when the Liberal confidence motion drops two days later.

'Nobody is afraid of the Bloc'

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 1:47 PM - 7 Comments

On his way out of town, Real Menard reflects on life in Ottawa.

“In 1993, the relationship between the Bloc and the other parties was more difficult,” says Ménard. “There were suspicions, and people didn’t really understand what the Bloc was, and we didn’t have a very friendly relationship at this time.”

With a referendum only two years later, tensions were high — something that has since cooled considerably.

“I think that now nobody is afraid of the Bloc,” he says. “People respect what we have done, people respect democracy, people vote for us. We are in the first polling position in Quebec, but this is not the same climate. It’s more comfortable, it’s more agreeable to work [in].”

What will they run on now?

By John Geddes - Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 1:40 PM - 5 Comments

Predicting the defining issue of a federal campaign is notoriously tricky. Old political hands will tell you elections always end up turning on the question of leadership. But leaders need something to talk about—that’s why they invented platforms. A well-crafted one can sometimes set the agenda, the way Stephen Harper managed to do in his last two campaigns with easy-to-understand pledges aimed at middle-income voters. Often factors beyond a politician’s control take over, the way the fresh memory of the sponsorship scandal blighted Paul Martin’s first run as Liberal leader. Perhaps the only time an election’s core concern is thought to be obvious going in is when the economy is in the tank.

Now, though, with speculation about a fall election heating up, even the formerly safe bet that this campaign would be all about the recession looks uncertain. Only a few months ago, just about everybody in Ottawa’s political set thought Harper had slipped in under the wire by winning last fall’s election just before Canadians realized that the financial meltdown of 2008 was the prelude to a full-blown recession. But with only a minority, there was no way he could dodge having to run this year or next on how his Tories managed through the slump.

Or could he? Listen to Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff spelling out exactly what he wants voters to base their next choice on. “The ballot question,” Ignatieff said as his caucus girded for battle at a summer’s-end meeting in Sudbury, Ont., “is, ‘Who is best placed to lead Canada into the economy of tomorrow?’ ” That’s a far cry from, say, “Who can best lead Canada out of its current economic miseries?” Or, “Who screwed things up here in the first place?” The clear implication of Ignatieff’s ballot question is that Liberals no longer believe voters can be counted on to punish Harper for leading Canada into hard times.

Continue…

Well that spoils the surprise

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 1:23 PM - 23 Comments

PETA announces its intention to barge in on the Prime Minister’s speech this evening.

MEDIA ALERT – MEDIA ALERT – MEDIA ALERT

CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER’S NEW YORK VISIT TO BE MARRED BY PETA PROTEST

‘Bloody Seal’ to Barge Into Hotel as Stephen Harper Addresses Business Leaders

What: As Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper meets with Canadian and American business leaders at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York today, a PETA member dressed as a bloody seal will barge into the hotel to urge him to heed the call of world leaders—including President Obama and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin—to end Canada’s gruesome and cruel seal slaughter. PETA members will hold signs that read, “Harper: Stop the Seal Slaughter.” PETA’s campaign against the massacre will continue through the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver.

The protest comes just one day after PETA members targeting Harper in Washington, D.C., dressed as bloody seals and stopped traffic on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the Canadian Embassy. Just hours after the Washington protest, three PETA members dressed as nuns disrupted Canadian Parliament in Ottawa with their “save the seals” message…

Murray Albert Nesbitt 1951-2009

By Kate Lunau - Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 1:00 PM - 5 Comments

Murray Albert Nesbitt was born on Sept. 5, 1951, in Brussels, Ont., just east of Lake Huron. With two older sisters and a younger brother, he was the third child of Florence and George Nesbitt, who had a farm outside Blyth, not far from Brussels. Both parents sometimes worked off the farm—Florence had a job at a grocery store, while George ran a farm drainage business—so the kids were often left to do the farm work and get supper on the table. Even then, Murray had a love of heavy machinery, helping his father when he could. “Once you get diesel fuel in your veins, you never lose it,” he used to say.

As a teen, Murray didn’t care much for school, and sports weren’t his thing, but he had many friends, and a wicked sense of humour. His sister Brenda Kitching recalls how, when she got married, she felt “disappointed” that Murray disappeared from the reception without saying goodbye. She and her husband left, unaware that her brother, then 18, had hidden in the back seat. “We drove about four miles, and then up pops Murray, having a laugh,” she says.

After high school, Murray took a job at a nearby trailer factory. Out and about in Blyth with a friend, he spotted Connie Nethery, a local farm girl, and strolled over “with the intention of getting an introduction,” she recalls. The two struck up a relationship, going on dates to the drive-in; they were married on April 28, 1972. The bride made her own wedding dress, which had an empire waist. “We had so much to talk about,” Connie says. “We could talk forever.”

The couple had a son, Jeff, in 1972, and a daughter, Cathy, in 1974. Connie initially stayed home with the kids, while Murray did shift work. In addition, “he had a ditching machine and a backhoe, and did work on the side,” says Jeff. “Dad told me I first ran a backhoe when I was two years old.” Murray was a member of the Lions Club, the Masonic Lodge, and the Royal Canadian Legion. A testament to his community involvement, he served as councillor for more than 14 years, first for the village of Blyth and later for the township of North Huron (amalgamated in 2001). “He was a great union man,” Connie says. “He believed in fairness above all.”

Yet Murray “had his demons,” says Jeff, who notes that his father battled alcoholism for much of his life. “He wasn’t home as much as the kids would like,” adds Connie. Cathy Nesbitt-Timmons, their daughter, admits she sometimes missed her father; yet her memories of him are happy ones. “I remember him saying, ‘I’ll take you for a drive and get you a treat,’ ” Cathy says. “He stopped at a farm stand and bought peas in a shell. That was his idea of a treat!”

In 1980, Murray took a job at the Sifto salt mine in nearby Goderich, where he would work for almost 30 years. Murray had many jobs, starting as a scaler (scraping salt off the wall), then blasting with dynamite. “His favourite was central control,” Connie says, which involved “making sure the salt spilled in the right places.”
Yet mining could be dangerous: in 1981, “there were two fatalities in a two-week period, both of them on our shift,” says Allen Robb, now the union health and safety rep at the mine, who trained Murray. “It was hard to accept.” In 1996, Murray’s partner was buried in a salt pile. Murray dug him out with his bare hands; the man survived. The mining industry as a whole has gotten much safer since then, Robb says: in the early ’80s, about 20 miners across Ontario would die each year, he notes. Now, it’s closer to two. “If we can go from 20 to two, we should be able to get that to zero,” Robb says. “Murray and I would talk about that.”

In July, Connie retired from her job (she’d worked at Farm Credit Canada since 1980). That same month, Murray celebrated his five-year anniversary with Alcoholics Anonymous. A doting grandfather to five young kids, he “desperately wanted to make up for lost time,” says Cathy. He and Connie had purchased a trailer and were making trips to Arizona. At work, Murray had earned enough seniority to work above ground. Jeff took a job at the Sifto mine, too, and would drive to work with his father. Murray didn’t plan to retire till he turned 65.

On Aug. 25, a year to the day after Jeff began working at the mine, Murray was inside a storage dome, knocking down salt piles with an excavator. The excavator began to leak oil; Murray set about clearing salt away from the machine so mechanics could get in to fix it. “He must have been too close to the chute,” Robb says. “They’re covered with salt, so maybe he wouldn’t realize.” Although the incident is still under investigation, Murray somehow fell into a chute and was buried in salt. He was 57 years old.

Getting off the grid

By Brian D. Johnson - Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 12:37 PM - 0 Comments

Los Viajes del viento (The Wind Journeys)

By now, George and Oprah and the rest of the Hollywood circus have left town, and with them the horde of U.S. media junketeers. They gave us a good ride, showing up with a glut of stellar films to promote. But even the best of them—from Up in the Air to the Road—only took us deeper into the psychosis of our own culture. And they kept people like me so busy that there was no time to get off the grid and explore the wilder extremes of world cinema that TIFF makes available. But finally I’ve had a chance to do that. My journey into wild began with two films by Werner Herzog: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans and My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done. These are urban American crime stories, and the former features a Hollywood star, Nicolas Cage. But no matter where Herzog shoots—the Amazon, Alaska, Antarctica or Los Angeles, he seems to find the jungle, and madmen who are drawn into it. My Son, My Son and Bad Lieutenant are both murder stories about characters going insane, and they form a good- cop/bad-cop matched set. It’s the murderer who goes crazy in My Son, My Son, which is based on a true story of matricide in Los Angeles by a actor who becomes consumed with playing Oedipus on stage; in Bad Lieutenant, it’s the cop, a crack-smoking maniac played by Cage. Despite the urban settings, in both movies Herzog finds room for a menagerie of exotic animals: fish, snakes, flamingos, ostriches, iguanas, alligators. It’s as if he travels with the jungle in his carry-on. I had the extraordinary pleasure of interviewing the German filmmaker on two separate occasions in the past couple of days. I’ll be writing more about that, and his movies. later. But I feel it’s more urgent to tell you about the most recent film I’ve seen, which may be my favorite of the festival so far—an amazing first feature from the wilds of Colombia called Los Viajes del viento (The Wind Journeys). Continue…

On socialism

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 12:24 PM - 25 Comments

Also from Dominic LeBlanc’s scrum yesterday. This is what it sounds like when coalitions die.

Question: What do you think of the Liberal, the NDP supporting the, propping up the government?

Dominic LeBlanc: I think the NDP showed today that they’re for sale and not for a very high price.  I think if Tommy Douglas were alive today, he’d be very, very ashamed of the NDP leadership of Jack Layton.

This is also perhaps as close as Parliament may ever get to a “Yo Momma” joke.”

"Des effaces, t'en veux-tu?!"

By Philippe Gohier - Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 12:23 PM - 4 Comments

Apropos of nothing, here’s a first-rate pétage de coche by Jean-Luc Mongrain:

I don’t think I’d heard the word “duo-tang” in at least five years.

[via La Clique du Plateau]

Top official in Montreal was once a FLQ member

By macleans.ca - Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 12:22 PM - 5 Comments

According to an exclusive report in La Presse, André Lavallée, the vice-chairperson of Montreal’s executive committee and the mayor of the Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie borough, was once a member of the FLQ, going so far as to participate in a robbery to finance the group. In 1971, a 19-year-old Lavallée was active in the Michèle-Gauthier cell of the separatist organization and acted as a lookout when a fellow member robbed a bingo hall in Montreal. The operation turned out to be a dismal failure. The cell had been infiltrated by police, who organized the robbery but forewarned the priest in charge of bingo night in the church basement. As a result, Lavallée and his three compatriots made off with a paltry $31.90 and a few bingo cards. All three were fined $25 for their roles in the incident, but came away without a criminal record. The Keable commission, which inquired into police misconduct during the October Crisis suggested it was “stunning” that “on the one hand, police tried to stop the members of the Michèle-Ouimet cell from fleeing by shooting six rounds at them, while on the other, the sentence requested by the crown wasn’t exemplary.”

La Presse

First fall swine flu outbreak

By macleans.ca - Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 12:21 PM - 1 Comment

The first outbreak of H1N1 this fall has rocked isolated Aboriginal communities on Vancouver Island, according to the Canadian Medical Association Journal. A physician in nearby Tofino, B.C., has treated “dozens” of cases, most of which have been “fairly mild.” Patients, most of whom were between 20 and 40 years old, recovered with Tamiflu, the only medication that the virus is susceptible to. A baby and an adult over 50 were hospitalized. One death from H1N1 is suspected.

Canadian Medical Association Journal

You paid how much?

By macleans.ca - Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 12:20 PM - 5 Comments

The Dallas Stars will be the first NHL team to try a dynamic pricing system for ticket sales. That means tickets for games against better teams on better nights of the week (like Saturdays) will be priced higher than mid-week games against lower ranked teams. Other factors, like how well the Stars are playing and the timing of the game (are the Dallas Cowboys playing on the same day?) may also factor in, so that prices will constantly be in a state of flux. Buying tickets to hockey games will be a lot like buying airline tickets. The idea hasn’t been warmly welcomed by fans (or scalpers), who argue they lose out when it comes to buying tickets to the best games and don’t really benefit when it comes to less desirable ones. But it is already catching on in other professional sports, like baseball, and could become standard in the NHL.

Yahoo! Canada Sports

Associated Press

A new Tory star?

By John Geddes - Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 12:15 PM - 24 Comments

The star candidates who are trotted out before federal elections tend to have worked in one of several typical careers: lawyer, professor, business executive. But the Conservatives just might have a new recruit for a campaign this fall—or whenever the next election comes—whose resumé reads more like an adventure story.

Chris Alexander is arguably the most celebrated Canadian diplomat of recent years. Just 34 years old when he took over as Canada’s ambassador to war-torn Afghanistan in 2003, his youth, idealism, and a certain air of derring-do have attracted admiring media attention. Alexander went on to become the UN secretary-general’s deputy special representative in Afghanistan, spending six years in the country before coming home recently with his new wife, former Danish army officer Hedvig Boserup. Continue…

About those body bags

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 12:14 PM - 20 Comments

A statement from the Health Minister.

“During a conference call with First Nations organizations yesterday morning it was brought to my attention that there were reports out of Manitoba that Health Canada had delivered body bags to a remote First Nation Community in that province as part of H1N1 preparations for the Fall.”

“What happened is unacceptable. It was insensitive and offensive. As Minister of Health and as an aboriginal I am offended. To all who took offence at what occurred, I want to say that I share your concern and I pledge to get to the bottom of it. I have ordered my Deputy Minister to conduct a thorough and immediate inquiry into the situation. I will make the result of the inquiry public.  I will continue to work with First Nations communities and the provinces and territories to ensure all Canadians are informed and protected against H1N1.

“I was born and raised in remote communities and I understand the challenges better then anyone – that’s why I have met frequently with First Nations organizations. Anyone suggesting that our Government’s solution to H1N1 is body bags is sensationalizing this situation.

“There is strong co-operation taking place with First Nations people at the community, regional and national levels, as well as with provinces and territories, to ensure that all Canadians are informed of and protected from the H1N1flu virus.  As Health Minister I am fully committed to these efforts.”

Happy 60th Birthday, Road Runner

By Jaime Weinman - Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 12:00 PM - 4 Comments

This counts as a TV post because many of us grew up watching these things on TV: I am reminded that this is the 60th anniversary of the very first Road Runner cartoon (which was released to theatres on September 17, 1949). Nobody really thought that “Fast and Furry-ous” would be the start of a long-running series; Chuck Jones intended it as a sort of reducto ad absurdum of all the “chase” cartoons that were proliferating at the time, almost a self-parody of the rituals and rules that go into making a cartoon like this. Of course it caught on and became the pilot for a popular series that we all loved because it was so formulaic, and because the only question in every scene was just how the Coyote would fail. And from the very first film, most of the elements were in place: the fake Latin names, the “meep-meep” voice provided by background artist Paul Julian, and even the choice of a dance from Bedřich Smetana’s The Bartered Bride as the theme song.

[vodpod id=Groupvideo.3438686&w=425&h=350&fv=videoId%3D19d53%26videoName%3Dd4b3e5df7f6ca469009b5485adbb4c77_0%26videoServer%3D12%26videoHasSubtitles%3D0%26videoAds%3D0%26videoPreviewName%3D%252Fd4b3e5df7f6ca469009b5485adbb4c77_prev_1.jpg%26videoAutoAutostart%3D0%26hasHD%3D1%26HDMode%3D0%26theme%3D-1%253B-1%253B-1%253B-1%253B-1%253B-1%253B-1%253B-1%253B-1%253B-1%26hnd%3D0]

With Warner Brothers having canceled its Looney Tunes Golden Collection series, and with nobody showing the cartoons on TV, I’ll repeat again that the company is really missing the boat by cracking down on YouTube uploads of these cartoons: instead of pulling them off, they should be starting an official YouTube channel and uploading as many cartoons as they can. YouTube is, at this point, the only place where younger viewers are going to get introduced to these cartoon characters, which in turn will help to build the brand of the characters and help the merchandising/licensing efforts. It’s a clear sign of the screwed-up handling of these properties (not just by WB but by other companies with classic cartoon characters on their roster) that they are now primarily of interest to people who were old enough to watch them on TV or in theatres.

UPDATED: Hey!LookOverThereWatch: Maybe next time, they'll have an Ignatieff puppet!

By kadyomalley - Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 11:53 AM - 94 Comments

She’d have to check her voluminous gallery listserv archives to be absolutely certain, but ITQ is fairly sure that this is the first time the NDP has ever convened a press conference to demand answers from the leader of one of the other opposition parties:

CREDIBILITY WATCH

Mr. Ignatieff, it’s time to come clean on HST

OTTAWA- Forty-eight hours ago Michael Ignatieff’s position on tax harmonization was contradicted by Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty.

Since then Mr. Ignatieff has refused all media requests on the issue, leaving his ever-changing stance on this tax grab up in the air.

Today, NDP MPs Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay) and Don Davies (Vancouver-Kingsway) will hold a press conference to seek clarification on the issue.

-30-

Meanwhile, in the House of Commons right this minute, the Liberals and the Bloc Quebecois are attempting to convince the other two parties to support a motion to fast track the employment insurance bill so it can be sent to committee immediately, and passed at all stages a few days later. Oddly, neither the government nor the NDP seems terribly keen on the idea. ITQ can’t imagine why they suddenly seem so uninterested in, well, making parliament work.

UPDATE For the truly parliamentary-details-obsessed amongst y’all, here is the text of the motion proposed by Liberal House Leader Ralph Goodale:

That for the purposes of our consideration of Bill C-50, an act to amend the Employment Insurance Act, which will begin in government orders today, the House agrees to conclude its consideration of this bill at all stages by the normal time of adjournment tomorrow, including examination of the bill in the committee of the whole instead of a standing committee, if that is necessary to meet this timetable.

When he failed to get unanimous consent, the Bloc’s Pierre Paquette moved a similar motion, which would have sent the bill to committee immediately:

Que nonobstant tout article du Règlement ou usage habituel de la Chambre, le projet de loi C-50, Loi modifiant la Loi sur l’assurance-emploi et augmentant les prestations, soit réputé renvoyer immédiatement au Comité permanent des ressources humaines, du développement des compétences, du développement social et de la condition des personnes handicapées conformément à l’article 73(1) du Règlement.

The next Da Vinci Code?

By Brian Bethune - Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 11:53 AM - 3 Comments

It’s still uncertain to what extent the Recluse of Exeter will emerge from the high-tech security of his rural New Hampshire home to help publicize The Lost Symbol. Dan Brown’s long-awaited follow-up to The Da Vinci Code goes on sale Sept. 15; so far, publisher Doubleday has confirmed that Brown will appear on The Today Show, and talk to the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. There is, of course, no compelling practical need for Brown, who vies for the title of world’s most famous author with Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling, to do anything at all. The Da Vinci Code has sold more than 80 million copies in 50 languages since its 2003 release. Doubleday claims it’s been read by about 10 per cent of all the adult humans who can read. No matter how much effort author and publisher pour in this time, the new novel is hardly likely to equal those once-in-a-lifetime sales figures.

On the other hand, having printed a record first run of five million hardcover copies of The Lost Symbol, Doubleday clearly expects something on the order of the second-highest-selling novel of all time. The publisher and its marketing partners, especially Amazon—which has some 70,000 copies on pre-order—have been ramping the buzz up to fever pitch. No more than 10 key personnel at Doubleday’s various offices have been allowed to read the novel. Plus one outsider: Today Show host Matt Lauer, who signed—possibly with his own blood—a non-disclosure agreement, so that he could sprinkle daily clues during the final pre-release week about sites mentioned in The Lost Symbol. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, in an unintentionally hilarious letter posted on its site, declared the online retailer was moving heaven and earth to keep its stash secure, including “24-hour guard in its own chain-link enclosure, with two locks requiring two separate people for entry.” (What, no death rays? No three-headed dog named Fluffy?) Leaving nothing to chance—in marketing as well as security—Doubleday also sent a memo to librarians, warning them they will surely encounter “a few crazies hovering around the desk a couple days early, inquiring about copies, then inquiring again, then trying to peek around the desk, etc. But please, please don’t lend them out early.”

Even Brown’s best post-publication efforts can’t make much of a difference to all that. But there is still an expectation—a demand, actually, in our celebrity-obsessed age—that he respond to widespread curiosity, and talk about himself and his work. That’s probably not a congenial idea for the very private author. He complained, in the early days of the Code’s success, that he could no longer fly on commercial aircraft because of the crowds of autograph-seeking fans, waving everything from well-thumbed copies to air-sickness bags. And Brown can’t have enjoyed the escalating attacks from disgruntled scholars and militant Catholics, both enraged by the novel’s Jesus-marries-Mary-Magdalene-and-founds-the-royal-family-of-France backstory, or by the vicious comments from lovers of good prose.

Continue…

They read us! They actually (maybe) read us!

By Martin Patriquin - Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 11:38 AM - 4 Comments

BEFORE

AFTER

Now, far be it from any Maudit Anglais to presume that we are read by anyone other than the usual miscreants, bottom feeders, pant-suited losers and/or our parents. But some coincidences are too delicious to ignore.

Two weeks ago, in those heady days when decrying anyone succumbing to the temptations of the socialists and the separatists didn’t make you sound like a hypocritical twit, we here at DMA posted a light hearted ribbing of the Conservative’s “CPC Energy”,  the party’s rather pathetic go-get-the-university-vote initiative. “[A] cliché of edgy fonts and out-there lingo,” we humbly said, before going back to the ashram to meditate.

Lo’ and behold, poof! The face of the intiative, a  frizzy-haired, lobotomized-looking university student, has disappeared from the site–presumably to eat Kraft Dinner and chug bong water, or something. In his place, the pleasant, hairless mug of noted old white guy Mike Duffy, who wants to poll you on taxes and arctic sovereignty. Ah, that’s the Conservatives we know and love.

Another couple of things: if you’re sort-of campaign slogan is “Michael Ignatieff: It’s Not About You. It’s Just About Him.”, it’s pretty rich that your entire site page is devoted to… Michael Ignatieff. Laureen and the kids have been pushed to the margins in favour of Ignatieff’s huge mug. (It’s somehow bigger than Duffy’s, which is a feat indeed.)

Also, please and thank you: when quoting Maclean’s on your website (with no link to the actual story, we might add), kindly spell the name of the magazine correctly, apostrophe and all.

How jigsaw puzzles got her through

By Julia McKinnell - Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 11:20 AM - 0 Comments

Before the plan went awry, British novelist Margaret Drabble believed she would retire from writing fiction a calmed and contented person, and “become a jigsaw expert.” To that end, she would write a history of the jigsaw puzzle. She pictured producing a work that would make “a pleasing Christmas present . . . Unlike two of my later novels, [it] would not upset or annoy anybody. It didn’t work out that way,” she reveals in a new book.

Shortly after conceiving of the project, her husband, Michael Holroyd, was diagnosed with an advanced cancer that led to two major operations and a regime of radiation and chemotherapy. “As the months went by,” Drabble confesses, “I felt myself sinking into the paranoia and depression from which I thought I had at last emerged.”

Holroyd’s medical ordeal weakened his immune system, leaving the couple mostly housebound. Drabble set up a jigsaw workstation in their London home. “I could pass a painless hour or two, assembling little pieces of cardboard into a preordained pattern, and thus regain an illusion of control.” However, instead of gathering facts for her jigsaw history, she found her mind kept wandering back to her childhood and the evenings she spent with her aunt Phyllis, her mother’s younger sister, who always found room on her messy kitchen table to lay out the pieces of a jigsaw.
The Pattern in the Carpet: A Personal History with Jigsaws is “not a memoir,” Drabble explains in the foreword, “although parts of it may look like a memoir. Nor is it a history of the jigsaw, although that is what it was once meant to be. It is a hybrid,” she writes, explaining, “I have never been a tidy writer.”

Continue…

Good for business

By Karen Pinchin - Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 11:08 AM - 3 Comments

As the dusty red pickup truck bounced across Botswana’s rural outback, business graduate student Malaz Sebai nervously anticipated his first encounter with the country’s marginalized and indigenous San people. It was a steamy two-hour drive, and for Sebai, who had spent most of the summer in a small office coordinating the sale of handmade arts and crafts from the region, it was the culmination of an unusual career decision.

In the summer of 2008, while other M.B.A. students and graduates were working their way up through soon-to-be suffering banks and blue-chip corporations, Sebai volunteered as assistant manager with San Arts and Crafts, a non-profit wholesaler of handicrafts made by the impoverished tribe. At the time, he was halfway through earning his M.B.A. degree at Concordia University’s John Molson School of Business in Montreal. He concedes that working in Africa, and at such a small organization, was an unconventional choice, particularly considering the high-powered jobs for which business school grads traditionally aim. But he doesn’t regret it. “When we arrived at the village, we met these poor women we were helping, and there were children everywhere, and all these women were all kneeling on the floor selling their goods,” Sebai recalls. “Without us, these people would never have had access to that opportunity. I think that volunteer work is something that’s very valuable. Especially in this climate, when you go and apply for three positions and there are 150 candidates, this is really the type of thing that will set you apart.” Continue…

Elaine McCoy's straight-talk express

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 11:03 AM - 15 Comments

The Alberta senator insists on applying fact to the great cigarillo debate.

So, what exactly are the facts behind Bill C-32? Proponents of the bill insist that smoking cigarillos leads children to increase their cigarette addiction. Yet Health Canada’s own research fails to support their allegation. According to the latest Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey, the trend line for cigarette smokers under 18 has remained virtually flat over the past four years … As to cigarillo consumption … the latest survey clearly demonstrates that most Canadians who buy and consume flavoured tobacco products are of legal age to do so…

Call me a level-headed legislator, if you like, but I must say I prefer to base my decisions on evidence.

Helping the revolution

By Michael Petrou - Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 11:00 AM - 2 Comments

Payam Akhavan was working in The Hague as a legal adviser to the prosecutor’s office of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia when students in his homeland of Iran took to the streets in numbers that had not been seen since the early days of the Islamic Revolution. The July 1999 demonstrations began as a peaceful protest against the closing of a reformist newspaper, but when the government responded by sending the Islamist Basij militia to raid a university dormitory and throw students off upper-floor balconies, it escalated into a confrontation between the guardians of Iran’s theocracy and those who wanted to reform or overthrow it.

Akhavan, whose family left Iran in 1975 and who is now a professor of international law at McGill University, had long believed there was a desire for democratic change in Iran. He and other exiles frequently discussed how this might come about and whether they could do anything about it. But there appeared to be little momentum coming from within Iran, until that July. “We awakened to the fact that what we always knew was an undercurrent of discontent in Iran had finally spilled over,” he says. “And from that point onward there was some consideration given to how can we begin to help these people.”

A year later, another uprising in another part of the world gave Akhavan hope and direction. In October 2000, a non-violent revolution forced the resignation of Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, who was subsequently turned over to the tribunal in The Hague. Within less than a year, the man who had brought so much death and destruction to the Balkans went from governing a nation to pacing a jail cell and facing charges of war crimes and genocide in a UN-backed court. Barely a shot had been fired.

Continue…