This week: Good news/Bad news

By Michael Friscolanti - Friday, October 23, 2009 at 9:30 AM - 1 Comment

Face of the week
Feeding time: A zookeeper feeds milk to a newborn male giraffe at a zoo in Duisburg, Germany. The giraffe was born on Oct. 3.

A week in the life of Axl Rose
Welcome (back) to the jungle. Fresh off of being accused of plagiarizing material for Guns N’ Roses’ latest album, Chinese Democracy, the 47-year-old front man announced on Monday a series of Canadian tour dates that will take his band to 13 cities—from Winnipeg to Moncton, N.B. On Wednesday, The Middle, an ABC sitcom set in Indiana, debuted featuring a character named after Rose, who hails from the Hoosier state. Continue…

When the referee wasn't looking

By Paul Wells - Friday, October 23, 2009 at 9:00 AM - 164 Comments

We’re all exhausted up here in Ottawa. We are so busy telling you whether there will be an election (Yes!) (No!) (SO EXCITING) that we sometimes don’t notice things. Sometimes the government doesn’t mind our not noticing, and it plays little tricks to encourage the not noticing. So on a Friday afternoon the government announced it was putting a question to the Supreme Court of Canada. Friday afternoons are an excellent time to say things if you don’t want them noticed. Yet it is such a rare thing for a government to put a question to the Supreme Court that some of us reported it this time, even though it had happened on a Friday afternoon. All the same, by Monday most of us had forgotten it had even happened, because we needed to spend more time wondering whether there will be an election (Yes!) (No!) (SO EXCITING).

The question the Harper government has put to the Supremes is whether the federal government has the power to establish a national securities regulator, a body for writing and enforcing the rules around transactions like stock trades. The question really is whether Canada will provide a single regulatory climate for investors, or a patchwork of different ones. Continue…

Econowatch

By Jason Kirby - Friday, October 23, 2009 at 8:30 AM - 3 Comments

As tongue-lashings go, it was rather sedate. When the Bank of Canada left its overnight interest rate at 0.25 per cent on Tuesday, it took the opportunity to send a message to currency markets. If the loonie continues to approach parity with the American greenback, it will “more than fully offset” the recent signs of recovery.

Those would hardly be fighting words—normally. Except this isn’t the normal world. It’s the rarefied realm of central banking, where economists hang on every intonation for hints of future policy changes. In that context, the warning came like a blow to the solar plexus. It worked, too, for now. After climbing nearly 18 per cent this year, the Canadian dollar fell two cents immediately following the central bank’s statement, to US95.3 cents. Continue…

High-priced stunt

By Jason Kirby - Friday, October 23, 2009 at 8:20 AM - 7 Comments

Where were you when the empty balloon floated over Colorado? Last week’s drama-turned-alleged-hoax was no presidential assassination or shuttle disaster. But the clichéd question is still getting asked a lot lately. Where were you when Michael Jackson died, or during his funeral, or when the jet plane miraculously landed on New York’s Hudson River? Nowadays, the answer is often the same: at the office, watching it happen instead of doing any work.

Even before last week’s story about the boy in a runaway balloon was exposed as a possible scam, a question emerged. What happens to the economy when millions of workers simultaneously ignore their jobs and gather around the TV, surf for gossip about the weird family behind the stunt, or Twitter each twist and turn of the story? “The amount of work hours that are wasted by people playing around on computers is already mind-bogglingly astronomical,” says Robert Thompson, a professor of media studies at Syracuse University in New York. “When something like Balloon Boy or Michael Jackson’s death comes along, workers all waste their time on the same thing.” That collective procrastination can easily add up to vast sums at a time when the recession is already hammering companies. Continue…

Meghan McCain fights back, Georgia May Jagger models, and Jean Sarkozy gets a boost

By Ken MacQueen - Friday, October 23, 2009 at 8:00 AM - 2 Comments

The thorn in Stelmach’s side
It was a rough week for Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach. A new poll suggests he and his Progressive Conservatives are in free fall. His televised speech, intended to reassure Albertans about his handling of the recession, was widely panned and his attempt to set an austerity example with a 15-per-cent cut in his premier’s allowance fell on deaf ears. The nurses’ and teachers’ unions have rejected his call for voluntary wage freezes. And on Saturday, the Wildrose Alliance chose former journalist Danielle Smith as its new leader—continuing the Alliance’s evolution from cranky protest party to credible conservative alternative.

To ghostbust, you must first believe
Peter Aykroyd, an 87-year-old former federal civil servant who lives in a spirit-infested family homestead north of Kingston, Ont., has penned one of the season’s odder memoirs. A History of Ghosts: The True Story of Seances, Mediums, Ghosts, and Ghostbusters tells the multi-generational story of his spiritualist family. The foreword is supplied by his famous son, Dan, Saturday Night Live comedian and co-writer of the hit movie Ghostbusters. Dan writes how his family, from his great-grandfather onwards, were serious and scientific investigators of the paranormal. “Part of Ghostbusters’ appeal derives from the cold, rational, acceptance-of the-fantastic-as-routine tone that Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, director Ivan Reitman, and I were able to sustain in the movie,” he writes. With good reason: the Aykroyds are believers. Dan’s grandfather was a Bell Telephone engineer who considered the possibility of contacting the spirit realm via a crystal radio set. And one of Dan’s daughters, he writes, claims “glops of light and other shapes attend her when pictures are taken in and around the old family farmhouse.”

They did it for their families
An extramarital affair with a legislative assembly clerk has damaged the personal life and reputation of Northwest Territories Premier Floyd Roland. Now his political future rests with Ted Hughes, a no-nonsense former judge and one-time B.C. conflict-of-interest commissioner. Hughes conducted a hearing in Yellowknife to determine if Roland breached the public trust by keeping secret his relationship with clerk Patricia Russell. Both were married and have since left their spouses to live together. During the hearing Russell denied allegations she shared confidential caucus discussions with her lover. Roland told Hughes they kept the affair secret out of consideration for their families. Hughes may table his report by the end of October.

Beatles vs. Stones, next generation
The children of two of rock’s biggest names have taken a different approach to fame. James McCartney, son of Paul, has always avoided attention. He recently debuted his band Light to just 30 people in a tiny Oxford pub. McCartney, 32, and his band went to extraordinary attempts to conceal the name and parentage of their lead singer. “James has a way with melody,” wrote an approving gossip columnist for the tabloid Sun, “and a set of pipes which are more than a match for his dad’s.” Meantime, Mick Jagger’s toothy daughter Georgia May Jagger is sprawled topless atop a Union Jack in a new advertising campaign for Hudson Jeans. While crossed arms or strategic camera angles keep the photos just on this side of decency, they have still caused a stir, because, to paraphrase an old Beatles tune, she is just 17.

This little piggy went to Paris
Newsmakers spoke in haste last week when it suggested Paris Hilton was unlikely to acquire a British-bred micro-pig because the extremely intelligent animals aren’t available in the U.S. Hilton has now ordered a bred-in-the-U.S. Royal Dandie Extreme miniature pot-bellied pig from an Oregon breeder. “So excited for my new piglette [sic] to come home to me,” she Tweeted on Friday. The always predictable folks at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals are less than enthused, saying she treats her pets as “disposable.” In fact, the pet-loving Hilton has quite a menagerie; it’s boyfriends that end up in the discard pile.

From hell, straight to Whistler
Skateboarding San Diego chef Dave Levey survived the fire-and-brimstone of celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay to win the top prize on his Hell’s Kitchen reality show on Fox TV. Levey wins a job for a year working under executive chef James Walt at Araxi Restaurant in Whistler. He starts Jan. 4, barely a month before the start of the Winter Olympics. Of course, he’s survived greater challenges. Not only did he endure the usual hazing by Ramsay, he spent most of the competition in pain after breaking his wrist. Such grit, combined with the 32-year-old’s skater-boy vibe, should make for a perfect Whistler fit. Levey says the tightly edited reality show was mostly real. “What people saw,” he says, “is very similar to who I am.”

Curves and all
Meghan McCain, daughter of former U.S. Republican presidential candidate John McCain, would like to get something off her chest. “Don’t call me a Slut,” she thundered in her column on the Daily Beast website. The furor erupted after McCain used Twitter to post a picture of herself spilling out of a low-cut tank top. Reaction to a revealing photo of a Republican-values gal generated almost as much Web traffic as a certain Colorado family’s errant balloon. First an abashed McCain Tweeted an apology: “I have clearly made a huge mistake and am sorry 2 those that are offended.” Then she got mad. “Honest, I don’t feel that I have anything to feel ashamed of,” she wrote in her column. “I’ve always embraced my curves and will continue to do so.”

Kids say the darnedest things
Lisa Scott of Paulina, La., promised her son Tyren she’d take him to see U.S. President Barack Obama, so last Thursday they went to the President’s town hall meeting in New Orleans. Tyren raised his hand during a question period and Obama gave him the floor. “I have to say, why do people hate you?” he stammered. “They supposed to love you…. God is love.” The President gave a diplomatic reply about how such anger is politically motivated, and people are worried about their futures. The answer was fine, but the question later gave some commentators pause. Just when and why had the hate and rage so troubling to a young boy become a daily part of American discourse? “It was a pretty good question, I must say,” Tyren’s mother later reflected.

Free from Evin
Newsweek journalist Maziar Bahari was released on bail Saturday after almost four months in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison. Maziar, who holds dual Iranian- Canadian citizenship, was arrested June 21 after reporting on the demonstrations following President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election. “Hopefully this is a sign that other journalists who continue to languish in jail in Iran will also be released in the near future,” said Annie Game, executive director of Canadian Journalists for Free Expres sion. Bahari’s wife, Paola Gourley, is confined to a London hospital where she is due to give birth to their first child on Oct. 26. It’s unclear if Bahari, who still faces charges, can leave Tehran to attend the birth.

Fortunately, only the marriage is dead
Just three years ago they were rockers in love. The musical marriage in 2006 of Avril Lavigne and Sum 41 frontman Deryck Whibley ended last week with Lavigne filing for divorce. Neither said what caused their “irreconcilable differences.” Lavigne was seen this summer in St. Tropez with oil heir Brandon Davis. Whibley was recently in Las Vegas with model Hanna Beth Merjos. It may simply be they married too young. As Lavigne said on her website, “Deryck and I have been together for 6 years. We have been friends since I was 17, started dating when I was 19, and married when I was 21. I am grateful for our time together, and I am grateful and blessed for our remaining friendship.” And Whibley is grateful to be alive. Internet rumours last weekend had him dead—not a good start to single life. Luckily that was just a hoax.

Spacing out
There’s a bit of a ham in any politician but the Elvis-loving former Japanese premier Junichiro Koizumi is uncommonly blessed. He once famously crooned the King’s tunes while on an official tour of Presley’s Graceland mansion. But now Koizumi, 67, is really reaching for the stars. His newest gig is as a voice actor for an extraterrestrial hero who fights aliens from outer space in the movie Mega Monster Ball: Ultra Galaxy. Sure, it was great to be premier of a major world power, but being Ultraman King has its advantages.

Sarko’s son also rises
Jean Sarkozy, all of 23 and repeating his second year at the Sorbonne, has been given a boost into the family business by his father Nicolas. The French president has appointed his son chairman of La Défense, the public agency administering France’s biggest business district, in west Paris. There are predictable cries of nepotism and even some of Sarkozy’s cabinet squirm at claims he is running a presidential monarchy. Sarkozy has denounced the “hysterical manhunt” against his son. Jean maintains a dignified silence, relying on what critics concede are two of his greatest assets: his golden good looks and his very nice hair.

More numbers

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, October 23, 2009 at 1:44 AM - 73 Comments

The CBC offers its analysis of stimulative spending.

According to the analysis of the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund, Conservative ridings have received about 60 per cent of the funding, compared with 40 per cent for opposition ridings. For example, the Saskatchewan riding of Liberal House Leader Ralph Goodale, who has been a vocal critic of the stimulus spending, has received about $4.8 million. But the Conservative riding next door received about $6.5 million. Crunching the numbers in a sample of other ridings across the country shows a similar pattern.

Meanwhile, McGregor & Maher look at what money from a specific fund for struggling communities went to what projects in the Industry Minister’s riding.

The Commons: 'Tell the truth!'

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 6:55 PM - 45 Comments

The Scene. Ralph Goodale stood, broad and booming, with a particularly provocative turn of phrase.

“The Conservatives,” he said, “are engaged in an orgy of partisan abuse.”

And you needn’t apparently take Mr. Goodale’s word for it.

“Three independent investigations confirm the research of the member for Parkdale-High Park,” he continued. “A shocking part of the stimulus plan is earmarked for partisan Conservative purposes. Will the Conservatives admit this is a threat for those who didn’t vote for them?”

The Prime Minister stood, apparently quite confused by the Liberal house leader’s tone.

“Mr. Speaker, the program for the reconstruction of leisure facilities is a very important measure for the Canadian economy and for communities. I do not understand at all why the Liberal Party of Canada opposes such projects and, even in their own counties. The allegations of the honourable member are quite untrue and, indeed, the Liberal deputy premier of Ontario said so.”

So there. Continue…

Suicide spree hits France Telecom

By Rachel Mendleson - Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 5:20 PM - 4 Comments

France Telecom has a problem—a suicide problem. Twenty-four employees at the third-largest telecommunications company in the world have committed suicide in the past 20 months. The reason, according to union representatives, is the unusually high stress levels employees endure at work. Circumstances surrounding some of the deaths have lent credence to this position: before one 52-year-old worker killed himself in July, he reportedly penned a note that read, “I am committing suicide because of my work at France Telecom. That’s the only reason.” A 32-year-old woman who leapt from her office building in front of her colleagues and a 51-year-old who jumped off a bridge in the Alps cited similar motivations.

Predictably, there were cheers last week when France Telecom’s second-in-command resigned. Louis-Pierre Wenes, nicknamed “cost-killer,” was behind a massive restructuring that saw the company lay off 22,000 employees between 2006 and 2008. (The French government even chimed in: a spokesman for the country’s ruling Union for a Popular Movement party applauded the resignation, calling it “a very important move.”) In addition, France Telecom announced it would suspend 500 job transfers, and offer staff counselling services and access to an emergency hotline.

According to the World Health Organization, in 2005 France experienced 17.6 suicides per 100,000 people. With a staff of 100,000, France Telecom maintains its suicide rate is not particularly unusual. And the company isn’t the first in France to be plagued by suicide: an inquiry into working conditions at automaker Renault, launched in 2007 after three workers at a single plant committed suicide in four months, concluded that the level of stress staff experience was four times the national average; Peugeot experienced six suicides the same year.

Hillier on Afghanistan troop training "schemes" that "lack credibility"

By John Geddes - Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 5:10 PM - 14 Comments

This week’s issue of Maclean’s (on newsstands today—get ‘em while they’re hot) features Kate Fillion’s  interview with Gen. Rick Hillier as the retired chief of defence staff promotes his newly published memoir A Soldier First: Bullets, Bureaucrats and the Politics of War.

Most of the considerable controversy generated by the book swirls around Hillier’s recounting of old clashes with his political masters and the public service. But in the interview he wades none too delicately into a very current issue—the possible role for Canadian troops in Afghanistan after they are withdrawn, as promised by the government, from fighting in Kandahar in 2011.

Defence Minister Peter MacKay and Dimitri Soudas, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman, have both commented on this thorny question in recent weeks.

MacKay said any Canadian soldiers who remain in Afghanistan beyond 2011 will move to non-combat roles that might include training Afghan forces. Soudas elaborated by stressing that ongoing training will be “in training facilities” and “Canadian soldiers will not be doing combat training of Afghan soldiers in harm’s way.”

That’s important because, as I’ve pointed out before, much of the current training involves Canadian troops working closely with Afghan units in the fighting zone. Training today largely means mentoring Afghans in those dangerous places where IEDs explode and firefights errupt.

Is there a safer way to teach those Afghan recruits? Hillier doesn’t think so. Here’s what he told us about the sort of scenario sketched by Soudas: “You can come up with all kinds of schemes to hide away in a camp and train people for the Afghan army or police, but they lack credibility. If you try to help train and develop the Afghan army or police in southern Afghanistan, you are going to be in combat.”

Malaysian model caned for drinking

By Tom Henheffer - Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 5:00 PM - 15 Comments

Six lashes—that’s Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno’s sentence for quaffing a beer with a few friends in a Malaysian bar. Kartika, a part-time model, will be the first woman caned there, and her case has divided the Southeast Asian country. Drinking isn’t technically illegal in Malaysia, but since Kartika is Muslim she is subject to Islamic sharia law, under which the consumption of alcohol is a punishable offence.

Moderates and non-Muslims say the ruling establishes a dangerous precedent by disregarding human rights and undercutting the mainstream Malaysian legal process. According to Hamidah Marican, executive director of Sisters in Islam, which works to strengthen women’s rights in Malaysia, “Kartika’s case has . . . caused damage to Malaysia’s reputation as a model Muslim country.” Continue…

Edgar Bronfman Jr. ordered to stand trial in Vivendi probe

By macleans.ca - Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 4:40 PM - 2 Comments

Montreal-born businessman Edgar Bronfman Jr., chief executive of Warner Music, will stand trial in Paris with six other former executives of the French media giant Vivendi SA, on criminal charges that they mislead investors while transforming a former water utility into a high-flying entertainment conglomerate. It is not immediately clear when the trial will be held. The executives, among them former Vivendi CEO Jean Marie Messier, have been the focus of a five-year investigation into market manipulation, distribution of false financial information, and misuse of corporate funds at the company. Today’s long-awaited decision by the investigating judge overrules a January recommendation by Paris prosecutors to drop the case. Bronfman became a vice-chairman in 2000 after Vivendi Universal bought his family’s Seagram distillery business. The charges are expected to buttress a U.S. class action suit lodged by investors who say they suffered billions of dollars in losses after the company lied about its revenue and earnings. Vivendi has counter-sued in Paris to block French residents from participating in the New York case. Bronfman resigned from the Vivendi’s board in 2003 and led a group of private-equity firms in the $2.6 billion purchase of Warner Music from New York-based Time Warner Inc.

Bloomberg.com

She Rocks The Airwaves From Coast To Coast

By Jaime Weinman - Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 4:34 PM - 5 Comments

I’m not saying that this is the title sequence that defines the early ’80s, because, well, I’ve never seen a single episode of the show it belongs to. (Wikipedia says it aired in syndication in 1982-3, just preceding the glut of first-run syndicated comedies.) But come on: a show starring a wisecracking puppet, supported by Corey Feldman and the other girl from Vega$? With a peppy theme song and credits that tell us what everyone’s relationship is to the puppet? This was TV circa 1982.

There have been worse periods for television — there were actually quite a few good shows that started in the 1982-3 season — but thanks to a combination of network desperation and the rise of the first-run syndie market, there have been few eras where more insane (and cheap-looking) stuff made it onto our TV screens.

Wanted: Pot reviewer

By macleans.ca - Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 4:22 PM - 2 Comments

A Colorado alternative paper, Westword, has received more than 100 applications for the “meagerly compensated” job of marijuana reporter. The state, which allows medical marijuana to be sold to those with prescriptions, is experiencing a boom in marijuana shops catering to all price points and social brackets. So in addition to commenting on the attributes of White Widow and Afghan Gold Seal, the journalist will also spend considerable time evaluating the various stores. “After all, we can’t have our reviewer be stoned all the time,” says the job posting.

BBC News

Fist bump wards off flu

By macleans.ca - Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 4:21 PM - 6 Comments

Dr. Tom Feasby, the dean of the University of Calgary’s faculty of medicine, has stopped shaking hands due to the threat of swine flu, and he appears to have convinced Alberta Health Minister Ron Liepert to do the same. Rather, Feasby favours what he calls the “pound,” but which in ghetto parlance (or at least in the Republican understanding of ghetto parlance, as demonstrated last year after Barack Obama was spotted “pounding” his wife) is called the fist bump. Handshaking, Feasby tells fast forward weekly’s Jeremy Klaszus, is a “recipe for transmitting disease … We need to replace it with something. The pound offers that.” Liepert, at first skeptical, has reportedly “pounded” Feasby and is now a convert.

Fast Forward Weekly

Farmers' markets for seed savers

By Pamela Cuthbert - Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 3:40 PM - 3 Comments

It’s for the birds, right? Saving and spreading seed is what Mother Nature does while we’re not looking. So why is there an increasingly popular grassroots movement of seed swappers, most of them new, urban growers, who are taking matters into their own hands? It’s the latest chapter in the local foods craze that meticulously traces sources: “field to fork” has now become “seed to spoon.”

“There’s a garden revolution going on,” says Vandana Shiva, the world’s leading seed-saving activist, on the phone from her home in Dehra Dun in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand. Shiva, who earned her Ph.D. in physics from the University of Western Ontario and who is making a rare appearance at the University of Toronto this month, ranks as the grand protector of small-scale farmers and gardeners. In 1987, the pre-eminent powerhouse, author and environmentalist founded the Navdanya association in India that supports farmers with seed banks, educational programs and what she calls the “right to seed.” Says Shiva, with unblinking conviction, “For every urban gardener who keeps exchanging seed, that’s the highest duty and governments will have to bend to this.” Continue…

Pie wars

By Jessica Allen - Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 3:40 PM - 0 Comments

This autumn hundreds, maybe thousands, of fruit-filled, double-crust pies—the sort grandma use to make two or three of at a time—will be entered into pie baking contests across the country. The recipes, often fiercely guarded relics passed down on stained five-by-seven-inch index cards, will vary endlessly. Some will call for specific fruit combinations or grinds of flour, while others will detail particular methodologies. But you’re bound to find one common denominator: these golden crusts will be crafted by home bakers using lard or vegetable shortening, rather than butter, which is the choice of many professional pastry chefs and domestic goddesses like Martha Stewart.

The pros argue that an all-butter wins on taste, and they may be right. But will the crust be as tender and flaky? Every pie eater has an opinion (sorry Martha; I’ll take Aunt Ruthie’s Crisco crust over your classic French pâte brisée any day). And so, too, does every baker. Continue…

San Francisco has to pay for its sins

By Mark Steyn - Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 3:00 PM - 69 Comments

Seven and a half years ago, a girls’ school in Mecca caught fire. Many of the pupils were able to escape the burning building, but unfortunately they ran straight into the hands of the mutaween, Saudi Arabia’s “religious police,” who flayed them for having fled the conflagration without first putting on their head scarves and then drove them back to die in the flames. Fifteen schoolgirls perished—for being “immodestly” dressed. Remember that story? Robert Ferrigno does:

“The upper windows of the madrassa blew out, glass shimmering as it fell through the air. Five girls clustered on the outer balcony, far above the street, raising their arms to the sky, howling, their white night clothes billowing up past their knees . . . Continue…

Alexander 'Sandy' Collie Shaw 1944-2009

By Rachel Mendleson - Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 3:00 PM - 0 Comments

Alexander “Sandy” Collie Shaw was born on April 30, 1944, on Rothiemurchus Estate in the Scottish Highlands, overlooking the Cairngorm mountains. In accordance with family tradition, Sandy came into the world in an upstairs bedroom of his grandfather’s farmhouse, and was placed in the bottom drawer of an old dresser. His parents, Andrew and Isabel Shaw, named him after his uncle, a member of Scotland’s Lovat Scouts, who died earlier that year in an avalanche near Jasper, Alta., during wartime training. Sandy’s father, a heavy-duty mechanic, was often on the road, so Sandy spent his early years at the farmhouse with his mother and older sister before moving to nearby Aviemore.

Growing up, Sandy and his friends occupied themselves on the wooded hillside trails, gathering berries and exploring. Before there was a ski resort in the area, they would carry their skis up the slope on foot. An athletic boy, he played soccer, and joined the Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team. His sense of compassion was ingrained early on: sister Anne was severely disabled, and brother John, 15 years his junior, had Down’s syndrome. Continue…

Top ten wild places

By Chris Robinson, Takeoffeh.com - Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 2:22 PM - 3 Comments

“Chris’ Top Ten Favourite Places” is a regular feature of top travel destinations selected from Chris Robinson’s personal experience. In a career which has included several of the biggest vacation companies in the world, Chris has travelled to over 150 countries. This week, Chris covers his top ten wild places.

Ah! The call of the wild! Every so often I feel the need to refresh the spirit by experiencing some of the wild and wonderful places that this planet has to offer. None of these places in my Top Ten are easy to get to – they wouldn’t be wild places if they were – but they all repay the effort of travelling there with unique experiences. Continue…

The fall of a would-be bomber

By Michael Friscolanti - Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 2:20 PM - 9 Comments

Zakaria Amara and his co-conspirators Saad Khalid and Saad Gaya

A few weeks before police busted the so-called “Toronto 18,” Zakaria Amara was working one of his typical afternoon shifts at a Canadian Tire gas station in suburban Mississauga. By then, the RCMP had the entire place bugged. The phone line was tapped, the kiosk was equipped with a hidden microphone, and an undercover surveillance team, parked nearby, was eavesdropping on every word.

On May 1, 2006, at precisely 10:07 p.m., the officers were listening when Amara confided in one of his fellow suspects, telling his friend he “won’t feel sorry” if the cops throw him in jail “as long as I’ve tried my best.” His best, of course, was a bloody plot to set off simultaneous truck bombs at the Toronto Stock Exchange, the downtown headquarters of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), and an unnamed military base. As Amara would later boast, “it’s gonna be kicking ass like never before.” Continue…

No relief for illegal immigrants

By Michael Friscolanti - Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 2:20 PM - 20 Comments

Like so many other illegal immigrants desperate to avoid deportation, Nell Toussaint is down to her last resort: an application for mercy on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. Broke, jobless and suffering from severe kidney problems, the 39-year-old Grenada woman, who has lived in Canada for a decade, seems like an ideal candidate for 11th-hour clemency—the type of person who would surely endure “undeserved or disproportionate hardship” if forced to leave.

The federal government receives hundreds of similar requests every year, and approves more than half. But bureaucrats won’t even read Toussaint’s application—because she is too poor to pay the $550 processing fee. Continue…

How e-mail rots your brain

By Brian Bethune - Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 2:02 PM - 36 Comments

John Freeman, 34, is the American editor of the eminent British literary magazine Granta, a job he took on in May after 10 years as a book critic, regularly writing for 200 English-language publications around the world, including Canada (which he calls “the only matriarchal literary society”). In other words: a literati’s literati. Yet his own first book is not a novel, but The Tyranny of E-Mail: The Four-Thousand-Year Journey to Your Inbox (Simon and Schuster), an impressive piece of literary nonfiction that blends history, sober judgment and controlled rage. Freeman spoke with Brian Bethune about what e-mail is doing to our work productivity, spare time, attention spans, eyesight, brain function and relationships:

Q: The e-mail stats are truly mind-boggling: 650 million messages every 10 minutes, 37 trillion a year in total, and each one of us office drudges getting 200 or more a day. It’s endless.
A: It’s out of control. I was getting two or three hundred a day in my job as president of the National Book Critics Circle. I thought this is just me because I’m in touch with a thousand book critics, but when I saw that figure I thought this isn’t just my problem. And if everyone has this problem it’s going to make us all incredibly tetchy and angry and more prone to talk rather than listen.

Q: And to misunderstand each other?
A: Yeah. That’s the big problem. Continue…

The end of cheap power in Quebec?

By Tom Henheffer - Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 2:00 PM - 20 Comments

Things are always changing in Quebec, but for a long time the province’s citizens could count on at least one constant—cheap, government-subsidized energy. But with a $4-billion-plus deficit staring it in the face, Jean Charest’s Liberal government is looking for ways to save money, and one idea it has floated is to raise the price of electricity at the government-owned Hydro-Québec.

The province had a moratorium in place on rate increases between 1999 and 2003—since then, home energy prices have grown by 16 per cent. Now it looks like they might climb higher, perhaps significantly. The Liberal government is considering raising rates by an average of $265 per household per year—doing so could bring in revenues of $1.4 billion. It could also mean the Liberals might be able to avoid other proposed fee increases, including CEGEP tuition hikes and adding toll roads. Continue…

COC and CBC on the road to court

By Michael Friscolanti - Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 1:40 PM - 2 Comments

Disclaimer: if the following article violates a trademark or patent that belongs to the Canadian Olympic Committee, we are very, very sorry. In no way is this story an attempt to improperly profit from slogans or phrases rightfully owned by the COC.

Now to the news. The Canadian Olympic Committee—notoriously protective of its brands and logos—is locked in a court battle with the CBC over the network’s continued use of a rather generic catchphrase: “Road to the Games.” The COC, which owns the slogan “Road to Vancouver,” is accusing the public broadcaster of defying its trademark and trying to “mislead viewers into believing” it is affiliated with the 2010 Games. Continue…