The Taliban and Jews may share common ancestry

By macleans.ca - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 12:52 PM - 4 Comments

Politically, there are few groups as different and as diametrically opposed as the Taliban and the Jews. But when it comes to genetics, the two may be much closer than you’d think. At the behest of Israel, Indian geneticist Shahnaz Ali has been asked to investigate the possible connection between a lost tribe of Israel and the Afridi Pathans, based in the Lucknow region of India. The research, funded for the first time by Israel’s Foreign Ministry, seeks to explore a long-standing theory that the Afghanistan’s Pashtun fighters—and the Taliban—are descendents of the Pathans. The Pathans are thought to be descendents of the Ephraim tribe, one of the 10 Israelite tribes, who purportedly settled in India after being ousted from Israel by Assyrian invaders in 721 B.C.E. If Ali’s research validates this belief, says Navras Aafreedi, a researcher in Indo-Judaic studies, it could “have interesting ramifications for Muslim-Jew relations in particular and the world at large.”

Haaretz

Getting America off oil

By macleans.ca - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 12:51 PM - 5 Comments

T. Boone Pickens, the influential Texas oil man, has long been a proponent of wind energy, which he argues could be used to power cities and free up natural gas supplies. That gas, he argues, could in turn be used to power America’s trucks and buses. His efforts to wean America off of foreign oil have had little effect though, despite spending over a year campaigning and US$62 million of his fortune. So this week, Pickens is launching a new ad campaign, this time playing on the fear factor and national security concerns. One commercial opens with Arabic script, which he reads in English: “Go back to sleep, America; the oil crisis is over.” He then adds, “I don’t think so.” The 81-year-old goes on to say America imports nearly 70 per cent of its oil “much of it from countries that don’t like us.” Skeptics still doubt that he can convince America to adopt natural gas as a transportation fuel, especially as focus turns more towards electric and hybrid vehicles. But Pickens is undeterred. “All you need to do is get the oar in the water,” he tells the New York Times. “Then you are on your way to get off OPEC oil.

New York Times

How to give

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 12:45 PM - 1 Comment

The Department of Foreign Affairs has an online guide to giving, including a list of reputable organizations. Those inside the Queensway can rally around the newly formed Hill Helps Haiti group. CIDA has announced that the federal government will match all donations and explains here how that will work.

Mitchel Raphael on Paul Martin’s huge gift and why Martha is smarter than Justin

By Mitchel Raphael - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 12:40 PM - 18 Comments

Battle of the IQs
In late January, politicians from different levels of government will appear on CBC’s Test the Nation, including Liberal MPs Justin Trudeau and Martha Hall Findlay. The two had to fill out forms for the show; Hall Findlay had hers returned because she had neglected to provide her IQ. She asked the organizers if Trudeau provided his, and they said yes. So in the IQ box she noted “five per cent higher than Justin Trudeau.”

Olivia lightens Jack’s load
NDP MP Olivia Chow bought her husband, NDP Leader Jack Layton, a Kindle for Christmas. Chow was inspired when she saw the device being used by Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn A-in-chut Atleo at the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen. Layton was lugging piles of books around with him so Chow thought this would be a great way to lighten his load. Chow, meanwhile, has no plans to get one herself. She prefers to read books the old-fashioned way. Also on the technology front, Toronto Liberal MP Rob Oliphant got his very first iPod from his husband, Marco Fiola. The MP, who as a United Church minister spent 24 Christmases at the pulpit, is happy he now gets to go home for the holidays to his parents’ place in Sault Ste. Marie.

May feels bad about the epiphany party
This Christmas was the first time Green Leader Elizabeth May wasn’t home. She decided after attending the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen that she would stay in Europe for a holiday with her daughter. The trip started off with a buzz: May says the plane she took from London to Copenhagen also had Jane Goodall aboard. May saw many friends in Copenhagen, “but it was like a family reunion on the Titanic.” The conference was a nightmare in terms of waiting. In one line she found herself next to former MP Bill Blaikie, now Manitoba’s minister of conservation, whose duties include dealing with climate change and recycling. She said the Danish army took pity on them and handed them coffee and tea through the fence because it was so cold. May spoke at a University of Toronto event in Copenhagen to launch sustainability books. She was joined by the Assembly of First Nations National Chief Atleo and Bianca Jagger, who is a force behind the 350.org climate-change movement. May got accreditation to the conference through the European Green Party but so many people were accredited that few could even get into the main building. Back home, another disappointment for May: she wouldn’t be able to host her famous annual Epiphany party on Jan. 6. She told Capital Diary she hoped anybody who used to show up for the event at her Ottawa home and wouldn’t know she no longer lives there would have seen the “for sale” sign (yup, the house is still for sale) and realize the party wasn’t on. May was unable to organize the party in her new B.C. home because she was told she would have to be in court that day. She and the Green party are being sued by John Shavluk, who was dropped as a Green candidate after comments that could be construed as anti-Semitic came to light.

Xmas citizenship
Liberal MP Glen Pearson is in Sudan this month for groundbreaking ceremonies for two high schools for which he helped raise funds. Part of the money came from former PM Paul Martin, who gave Pearson a personal cheque for $100,000. The schools will take three months to build. Pearson will bring Martin and his wife, Sheila Martin, to an official opening in January 2011 when the temperatures are more temperate. Pearson has three children who were adopted from the Sudan and for Christmas the final two received their Canadian citizenship cards.

A Hostile Climate

By Patricia Best - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 12:10 PM - 25 Comments

Gord Nixon, 52 years old and chief executive officer of Canada’s largest bank, drove home from his downtown Toronto office one day in late July as per usual, to his mid-town manse on a neatly tree-lined street. By the time he got home he was apoplectic. The entire route, all the way to his front door, was postered with messages on light poles reading “Help us Mrs. Nixon,” aimed at his wife, Janet. That was in addition to similar notices plastered in the downtown core in the previous weeks. The posters didn’t say who “us” were, but Nixon knew what it was about.

It was the most provocative step to date in a campaign against the Royal Bank of Canada launched by a U.S.-based environmental activist group few in Canada had heard of—the Rainforest Action Network (RAN). The group’s purpose: to stop lending in Canada’s oil sands. Not cut lending, stop lending altogether.

RBC is, to be sure, a formidable target—it’s a bank with over $720 billion in assets. But RAN is also a force to be reckoned with. In the past 15 years, it has managed to get U.S. corporations like Citigroup, Home Depot and Boise Cascade to make concessions on environmental issues. It’s a slick organization posing as a grassroots and granola outfit; it counts a number of Hollywood celebrities among its supporters, and the Ford Foundation and Rockefeller Brothers Fund among its donors. But it’s also a radical group that believes in creating a “business nightmare” for its corporate targets, according to its own literature. Its letterhead logo is a black panther, evoking extreme activism of the past, and it trains its members in civil disobedience. Its leaders speak like M.B.A. grads—Mike Brune, its executive director, has an accounting degree from Westchester University, but he has also been arrested at least 11 times.

Continue…

"We are working against the clock"

By macleans.ca - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 11:54 AM - 0 Comments

Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon says Canadians should expect more of their fellow citizens to join an ever-growing list of casualties in Haiti. So  far, three of the approximately 6,000 Canadians living in Haiti have been confirmed dead, but Cannon warned “that we expect more casualties to be reported as search and rescue operations unfold.” In all, the Red Cross estimates the death toll could be between 45,000 and 50,000. Ottawa announced yesterday that it would match Canadians’ donations to the ongoing aid effort in Haiti following the devastating earthquake in the capital of Port-au-Prince. Two Canadian warships carrying humanitarian aid are set to leave for the Caribbean country Thursday and two aircraft are already on their way. Meanwhile, the U.S. is rushing up to 3,500 soldiers and 2,200 marines to the scene of the tragedy to help with the rescue effort. Rescuers have so far been slowed in their ability to find survivors due lack heavy lifting equipment, leaving many to use their bare hands. According to the BBC, “the situation is increasingly desperate” and aid has only begun “trickling in.” Elisabeth Byrs, who works with the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, says at the moment, “the priority is to find survivors. We are working against the clock.”

CBC

Toronto Star

BBC

Today's poll points to a feel-better budget

By John Geddes - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 11:49 AM - 65 Comments

Initial reaction to today’s Ekos poll will be that the Stephen Harper’s Conservatives are paying a surprisingly heavy price for suspending Parliament. No doubt that’s a key part of the story.

But the Tory slide began before prorogation. Ekos President Frank Graves reported prolonged “downward pressure” on Tory numbers in the poll he released a week ago, noting then that the Afghan detainee issue hurt the Conservatives in the waning weeks of 2009. Today’s poll, showing the Conservatives and Liberals virtually tied, discovers that trend continuing with remarkable strength.

As is almost always the case, political fortunes appear to be turning, not on isolated smart moves or single missteps, but on combinations of events that reinforce and amplify impressions, good or bad.
Continue…

Uganda debates new anti-gay bill

By macleans.ca - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 11:48 AM - 0 Comments

In Uganda, an anti-homosexuality bill put forward by the ruling party is being reconsidered due to “foreign policy issues.” Domestically, the legislation is widely supported; however, Western donors have been critical. Homosexuality is already outlawed in the country. But leaders want drastic new measures to stifle what they see as an increase in same-sex relationships. A particularly controversial proposal is the new offense of “aggravated homosexuality”—when one of the participants in a homosexual act is a minor, HIV-positive or a “serial offender”—and carries the penalty of death. Additionally, anyone convicted of gay sex  under the new bill would be subject to life in imprisonment. Some leaders, like Ugandan ethics and integrity minister James Nsaba Buturo, say that the overall bill will pass—but he admits that the death penalty provisions will likely be omitted due to international pressures. Others, like Frank Mugisha, chair of Sexual Minorities Uganda, say the bill will fail, and the debate is “just wasting time.”

The Guardian

BBC

Children's trinkets full of toxic metal

By macleans.ca - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 11:40 AM - 0 Comments

Cheap metal jewelry imported from China may contain high levels of cadmium, a heavy metal that’s more toxic then lead, and should be kept away from young children, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. The warning comes after an Associated Press investigation tested cadmium levels in 103 pieces of jewelry from major chains like Wal Mart. Twelve items contained at least 10 per cent cadmium, and several were almost entirely made of the heavy metal. It’s believed that cadmium is starting to replace lead in toys as a result of tighter U.S. Regulations on lead content that were put in place after a toddler died in 2006 from swallowing a toxic charm. “Now we hear about cadmium in jewelry. This is unacceptable,” said Inez Tenenbaum, head of the CPSC. Health Canada has run similar tests on children’s toys, but has so far refused to publicly release it’s findings.

CBC

Granny nannies

By Katie Engelhart - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 11:40 AM - 19 Comments

When Esther Heckbert told her mother she wanted to leave the Philippines to work as a babysitter abroad, her mother was leery. “She said, ‘babysitter? You’re done university!’ ” The two were folding laundry at their home in Isabela. Esther, who has a degree in business administration, had high hopes. “I said, a babysitter abroad can make a lot of money. From there, you can upgrade yourself: you can get citizenship.” For decades, thousands with the same profile—young, female, Filipino—have come to Canada to work as babysitters. Twenty-five years since arriving, Esther has helped rear dozens of Canadian tots: first as a nanny and then as the owner of a nursery school. But a few years ago, she sensed a changing wind.

She left babysitting behind, sought retraining, and now works under a more whimsical title: granny nanny.

She joins a growing rank of babysitters-turned-eldercare workers: a nod to shifting demographics. In 2008, just under 14 per cent of the Canadian population was over 65; it will be more than 25 per cent by 2044. At the same time, seniors are increasingly shunning the option once pressed on them: nursing homes. Now, most care to frail, older adults is provided outside facilities, says Norah Keating, human ecology professor at the University of Alberta. As more seniors stay home, we’re racing to import and train professionals to care for them. That dash has created a new class of caregivers, many of whom are undertrained, unregulated and unprotected—and with this a new set of problems. Continue…

Eye test to detect Alzheimer’s

By macleans.ca - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 11:35 AM - 0 Comments

Using fluorescent markers that attach to dying cells in the retina, giving an early indication of brain cell death, scientists say they’ve developed a simple eye test that could detect Alzheimer’s and other diseases before symptoms develop. So far, the research has been done on mice, although human trials are planned for next year, which could lead to an opticians test for the disease. Currently, scientists have to rely on MRI scans or post-mortems to investigate what happens inside the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. In the new technique, cells show up as green dots as they absorb fluorescent dye. The test could help scientists to see how the disease progresses by comparing retinal cell death a few weeks apart. Francesca Coredeiro, lead author from University College London Institute of Ophthalmology, told the BBC: “Few people realise that the retina is a direct, albeit thin, extension of the brain. “It is entirely possible that in the future a visit to an optician to check on your eyesight will also be a check on the state of your brain. “I hope that screening for Alzheimer’s will be available within five years.”

BBC

China: a cyber victim?

By macleans.ca - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 11:33 AM - 0 Comments

The ubiquitous Google brand might be pulling out of China. With new evidence that Chinese cyber attacks are targeting human rights activists, Google execs threatened on Tuesday to shut down google.cn. Chinese leaders have fired back, saying they oppose hacking and are victims, not perpetrators, of the vicious online schemes. Google launched google.cn in 2006. But from the start, the Internet behemouth has been forced to grant concessions to Chinese leaders; namely,
Google censors material opposed by the Chinese government (like information about the Dalai Lama). But a senior company source says “it’s time the Chinese people had unfettered access to information.” Still, others aren’t patting Google on the back just yet; one liberal Chinese blogger says the news is “definitely not good,” and that any effort that impedes Internet access will ultimately play into the government’s hands.

The Guardian

Scenes from a television war

By Colby Cosh - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 11:05 AM - 71 Comments

The Conan-Leno fight is clearly a generational one. I have yet to hear anyone in my online social network declare for “Team Leno”; I’m not sure that there is any such thing, or who would be part of it if there were. Consider this: Jay Leno was at one time one of the most respected standup comedians on Earth, and continues to perform live all over the continent and refine his live act. Conan O’Brien, a Harvard man who spent no more than ten seconds paying comic dues of any kind, has no traceable experience of standup. And yet every single standup comic I’ve heard or seen weigh in on the feud has backed Conan—even though he appears to be walking away from the Tonight Show, which has been the dominant economic force in their industry for more than 50 years. There’s something happening here, but what it is ain’t exactly clear.

At first I was tempted to wonder if blowback from the 2007-08 Writer’s Guild strike was playing a role here. Some comics were uncomfortable with Leno making a side deal to do struck work by writing his own monologues for the Tonight Show. But Leno was exonerated in WGA hearings, and besides, union hatred of blacklegs can’t account for the mass popular agitation against Leno. Moreover, from a strictly business standpoint, Conan started this whole fracas during his 2004 negotiations with NBC when he demanded that the countdown be started on Leno’s Tonight Show tenure. This game of musical chairs, with Conan, Leno, and Jimmy Fallon trying to squeeze together onto two bus seats, would never have existed if not for that maneouvre. Any such move against Johnny Carson would have been regarded as an appalling act of showbiz regicide.

In part, surely, this affray is being perceived as a replay of the Leno-Letterman war. (Wars, one notices, often come in pairs.) Back then, Leno’s cartoonish scheming coupled with his interruption of what was perceived as a natural monarchical succession, with Letterman as the rightful heir, to turn industry and popular sentiment against him. Over time, Leno proved that NBC had made the correct business decision. But like King John he couldn’t shake the bad reputation he had earned by stepping out of line. He made matters worse by giving the world a safe, sterile Tonight Show, without the slyness or the dimly anarchic aura of Carson’s version. Though, again, it must be to somebody’s taste. Leno seems a lot like Margaret Thatcher—you never heard any performer or intellectual in England say they didn’t loathe her with every cell of their body, and yet she kept on winning elections.

Letterman himself has seen a lot of his edge dulled in the meantime; I can’t be alone in having found his Late Night work seminal, but finding myself unable to watch him fawn over celebrities and extract cheap laughs from audiences now. Owing to events, however—9/11, the heart bypass, marriage, progeny, and even his philandering—he has somehow grown in American affections. Conan, who already loomed larger than Leno in the annals of American comedy before anybody thought of giving him a talk show, is certainly serving as a proxy or champion for Letterman in people’s imaginations. If the spirit of the revolt against Leno could be summed up in a single phrase, it might be “Not again!”

Maclean's Interview: U.S. Ambassador David Jacobson

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 10:55 AM - 6 Comments

David Jacobson is Barack Obama’s new ambassador to Canada. A Chicago-based corporate lawyer and Democratic activist, he was second-in-command of Obama’s record-setting campaign fundraising operation. His first trip to Canada was a family outing to Niagara Falls at age seven. Upon starting his new job in October, his priority was to see the country. He spoke with Luiza Ch. Savage about his Great Canadian Road Trip.

Q: You recently completed an eight-week coast-to-coast road trip across Canada in which you visited all 10 provinces, met all the premiers, attended the Grey Cup, checked out Whistler Olympic Park, and sampled poutine. What was the most memorable moment of the trip?
A: There were a bunch. The single most memorable thing I did, and this may sound corny, I went with [Saskatchewan Premier] Brad Wall to a dinner given for 12 reservists in Regina who were about to leave for Afghanistan. It was an incredibly moving experience. Here we were, people from two different countries with a common goal. The patriotism on both sides was moving.
I also delivered a letter from President Obama to [Toronto-area nun] Sister Constance Murphy to celebrate her 105th birthday. She is the oldest living American in Canada.

Continue…

Confirmation of Tony Clement's status

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 10:49 AM - 11 Comments

Given the sort of company Tony Clement apparently keeps, he must now be counted among this country’s elite.

You'll never guess what Dan Hill thinks of his own song

By Dan Hill - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 10:00 AM - 15 Comments

Z100 in New York City was on the phone, the biggest radio station in the world. It was a gorgeous summer afternoon in 2007, and I was all set to hit the bike trails for a couple of hours, kick up my heart rate and soak up some sun. My idea of fun did not include partaking in some smartass radio prank involving my most loved and loathed song, Sometimes When We Touch.

The DJ’s faux-macho baritone was coming at me fast and loud.

“Hey, Dan, great of you to go along with this Donny Osmond gag. He’s minutes away from arriving at our station to debut his new single, a remake of your classic. This is how it’s gonna go down,” the disc jockey prattled on in his low, Jolly Green Giant voice. He peppered me with instructions, pausing every now and then to shower me with compliments on my past success. As I dutifully took note of my role in this Dan-Hill-trips-up-Donny-Osmond scenario, I began feeling like an artifact, about as relevant as a reconstructed dinosaur in the museum of pop trivia.

Continue…

Europe’s war against Islam

By Michael Petrou - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 9:50 AM - 93 Comments

Perhaps it is fitting that it was French President Nicolas Sarkozy who came to the defence of the Swiss, who voted in November to ban the construction of new minarets in their country. Sarkozy’s father was an immigrant to France, and his mother’s ancestors included Ottoman Sephardic Jews from Thessalonica. Sarkozy’s father abandoned his family and refused to help them financially. Sarkozy grew up poorer than his peers and resented it. “What made me who I am now is the sum of all the humiliations suffered during childhood.”

He was, in other words, something of an outsider. It wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine that he might be predisposed to sympathy toward the millions of other outsiders now trying to find their place in Europe—the continent’s growing Muslim population. Yet Sarkozy reacted to the Swiss vote by urging that it be respected. “Instead of condemning the Swiss out of hand, we should try to understand what they meant to express and what so many people in Europe feel, including people in France,” he wrote in the French newspaper Le Monde. “Nothing would be worse than denial.” He urged French Muslims, who make up four per cent of France’s population and are more numerous than in any other country in Europe, not to challenge France’s Christian heritage and republican values.

Sarkozy, a populist politician, was simply reflecting widespread popular discomfort about Islam in Europe. A 2008 survey funded by the Germany Marshall Fund of the United States found that more than 50 per cent of respondents in Germany, Italy, Holland, and France believe that “Western and Muslim ways of life are irreconcilable.” Another study, by the Pew Research Center, revealed an increase in negative views toward Muslims and Jews in Europe from 2004 to 2008. (Attitudes towards Muslims and Jews in the United States improved during the same time period.)

Continue…

Parks & Recreation: Cast First, Characters Later

By Jaime Weinman - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 9:41 AM - 5 Comments

Since my last post was so downer-y, here’s a link to a piece about a show that I think is on its way to achieving something like greatness, Parks & Recreation. This is an interview with Aziz Ansari (Tom), who talks about the fact that  the producers didn’t actually have a character for him to play when they hired him:

Take his first meeting with Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, the successful sitcom masterminds behind the American version of “The Office.” The duo was looking to cast an upcoming NBC show and thought Ansari might be a good fit—even though they had no idea what form the concept, story line, or characters would take. “They were like, ‘You’re someone that we think might be cool to have in the mix,’ ” recalls Ansari. “I was like, ‘I’ll be honest with you: This is pretty much my dream job.’ “

Of course there’s no generalized rule about whether it’s better to come up with a character and then look for someone to fit that character, or to cast a performer and build a character around him/her. It goes both ways, and can work great both ways. Parks does seem like a show that was built in large part around performers, since it’s a star vehicle for Poehler, and filled out the cast with people like Rashida Jones and Ansari that the producers knew they wanted to work with.  Nick Offerman was someone they’d been trying to find a part for on The Office, without success, so they found a spot for him on the new show. That might help explain the show’s slow start (they couldn’t really know who these people were until they saw them in action, since the characters were conceived as excuses to use these people), as well as how much it took off once the writers could connect performer with character.

Ekos: "Prorogue" comes from a Latin phrase meaning, "turns out people do care about process stories"

By Paul Wells - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 8:07 AM - 117 Comments

Our their Kady has the results and analysis. The regional numbers seem odd.

A million years ago — OK, it was two weeks — I wrote about some random shopkeeper in the heart of Ottawa who’d noticed this prorogation thing and decided, all for himself, that he didn’t like the smell of it. I don’t want to attach totemic significance to that, but this week’s polls suggest the Conservatives’ own actions have been their own worst enemy.

Dominick Dunne’s last big party

By Mark Steyn - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 6:00 AM - 13 Comments

Dominick Dunne died last August and with uncharacteristically bad timing—a day after Ted Kennedy. According to the New York Times, the family wanted to delay announcing his death until the Teddy ululations blew over. But, with the media diving headlong into a vat of mawkish drivel about “The Last Lion” and “The End of Camelot” and showing no inclination to climb out this side of Thanksgiving, the Dunnes threw in the towel and, for the first time in a long time, the high-society crime chronicler found himself relegated to a table at the back of the room, metaphorically speaking. I wrote about him in this space a few days later, mainly because he was a better man than Ted and he didn’t deserve such a total eclipse.

The poor timing was especially poignant because Dunne had evidently given a lot of thought to his death. His last novel, Too Much Money, written when he knew he was dying, has just been published to faintly bewildered reviews. A strange, slight book, it seems to have befuddled the critics: even those who profess to like it can’t quite make the case for it, and give the vague feeling the two thumbs up are one for the road and old times’ sake. The book is suffused in mortality, to the point that one of its principals is a gay undertaker from a prominent Manhattan funeral home who got bitten by the bug when he was 13 years old and waited five hours in line to see Judy Garland in her casket. The moment he glimpsed her red shoes, he knew he wanted to be a mortician. Forty years on, he’s keeping busy, and not just with funerals. He’s taken to squiring Dodo Van Degan, a society widow who finds her gay undertaker escort surprisingly good company:

“She often sat with Xavior at night in the Grant P. Trumbull Funeral Home when he was embalming a body. Afterward they would fool around a little.”

Continue…

“There will be blood, glass and debris everywhere”

By Michael Friscolanti - Wednesday, January 13, 2010 at 9:57 PM - 4 Comments

For a man who insists he is innocent, Shareef Abdelhaleem sure spent a lot of time worrying about police surveillance teams. The accused Canadian terrorist was so afraid of being photographed by CSIS and the RCMP that he grew increasingly paranoid about meeting in certain places or being seen with certain people, especially outdoors. Three weeks before being rounded up as part of the “Toronto 18”, he asked Zakaria Amara—the group’s confessed ringleader—whether he thought the authorities were watching him. “No,” he assured him. “Not anymore.”

The irony, of course, is that Abdelhaleem’s every word—including that chat with Amara—was being secretly recorded by the very investigators he was desperate to dodge. As he now painfully realizes, anti-terror cops used at least two tiny microphones to capture his conversations: one inside the Canadian Tire gas station where Amara worked, and another hidden somewhere on the body of a police informant named Shaher Elsohemy. In other words, whenever Abdelhaleem mused about whether police were watching him, he was speaking directly to them.

Abdelhaleem’s stress level about being caught fluctuated depending on the day, says Elsohemy, who is now testifying at the criminal trial of his old “friend.” On May 15, 2006, for example, Abdelhaleem told the RCMP’s undercover asset that “he does not believe authorities know anything about this plot.” Three days later, though, he said a CSIS spy followed he and Amara as they drove around Mississauga. “He told me they went after [the CSIS agent] and tried to check him out,” Elsohemy testified on Wednesday. “They videotaped him, too. Mr. Abdelhaleem believed his picture was taken, too.”

Now 34, Abdelhaleem is charged with participating in a now-infamous terrorist plot to detonate truck bombs at three locations in southern Ontario, including the Toronto Stock Exchange. Although 18 suspects were rounded up in the sensational raids of June 2, 2006, only four were accused of actually participating in the bomb conspiracy. Three of those men, including the mastermind Amara, have since pleaded guilty, but Abdelhaleem has chosen to fight the charges in court. He denies any involvement, and claims that the RCMP’s prized informant cannot be believed because he was paid $4 million for his covert services.

Despite the other confessions, Abdelhaleem is considered innocent until proven guilty. However, in order to walk away a free man, he must convince a judge that he was oblivious to a murderous plot that clearly unfolded right under his nose—and, as the wiretaps reveal, he spent hours talking about.

“He described it as ‘the perfect crime,’ ” said Elsohemy, answering questions from the prosecution. “He said this plot will screw Stephen Harper, the government and the military, and might lead to Canada puling its troops out of Afghanistan because they are not tough like the British and the Americans.”

A former Air Canada flight attendant with a university degree in agricultural engineering, Elsohemy infiltrated the group by “dangling” his ability to acquire large quantities of explosive fertilizer from his “uncle’s” company. Amara, who had already built and perfected a cell phone-controlled detonator, trusted Elsohemy enough to place a $5,500 order for three tonnes of ammonium nitrate, the missing component of his would-be bombs.

According to Elsohemy, Abdelhaleem was Amara’s loyal deputy—the buffer between the ringleader and his newfound chemical supplier. It was Abdelhaleem, Elsohemy said, who placed Amara’s order, delivered envelopes full of cash, and boasted that their attack would “shut down” the entire country.

Testifying for the third consecutive day, Elsohemy said Abdelhaleem was obsessed with every aspect of the plot, from how to store the fertilizer to how to profit from the explosion. “Shareef went to a library and checked the stock market situation after Sept. 11th,” he testified. “He said our money could be increased seven times.”

In one breath, Abdelhaleem talked about fleeing the country 15 days before the attack (perhaps to his sister’s house in Cleveland) in order to avoid suspicion. In the next, he talked about being sentenced to ten years at Kingston Penitentiary, “where he will be considered a leader” by other Muslim inmates. “He also explained to me that when he thinks about being arrested, it is only after the fact, after the bombings,” said Elsohemy, a stocky, well-spoken man with a bald head and a pair of glasses. “He never imagined that the arrests would happen before the bombs were detonated.”

As for those bombs, Elsohemy said Abdelhaleem relished in the carnage they would cause. One of the three selected targets, the CSIS headquarters in downtown Toronto, “will be affected from the main floor to the top floor,” Abdelhaleem said. “There will be blood, glass and debris everywhere.” In his words, the attack will be dubbed “The Battle of Toronto.”
But of all the tough talking he did in the weeks leading up to the arrests, surveillance was a recurring theme. According to Elsohemy, Abdelhaleem believed that because he was in charge of purchasing the ammonium nitrate—and not driving one of the three truck bombs—he could be not convicted of a serious offence. “He said he will probably be charged with assisting, but not performing,” said Elsohemy, who has yet to be cross-examined. “In his opinion, as he described it to me, he thought there was a difference between assisting and performing. If he didn’t drive the truck, that was not performing.”

In some ways, it’s hard to blame Abdelhaleem for his flawed logic. Determined to keep his plot a secret, Amara didn’t share every aspect with every accomplice. Two of his underlings—Saad Khalid and Saad Gaya—were tasked with renting a storage facility and unloading the delivery of ammonium nitrate. Two others—Abdelhaleem (allegedly) and Elsohemy—were in charge of securing the chemicals. The parallel groups never crossed paths. In fact, Abdelhaleem did not even meet his two Saads until they were arrested and thrown in the same prison wing.

Which is exactly the way Abdelhaleem preferred it, Elsohemy said. In the days before the bust, Elsohemy began to press Amara for more details. He wanted to know how the detonators worked, how many people were involved in the plot, and when the event would occur. When Amara suggested that the three of them meet at a Toronto park to discuss specifics, Abdelhaleem refused. He didn’t want to draw any further attention to himself, Elsohemy said, and he questioned his friend for wanting to know so much. “It’s better not to know,” he said, according to Elsohemy. “If you are arrested and you go under a lie detector test, if you don’t know something, you don’t know it.” Translation: Abdelhaleem was more than happy to be a naïve accomplice, because the consequences were far less severe.

Instead of a meeting, Amara suggested that Elsohemy record his questions on a USB memory stick and hand it to Abdelhaleem. Again, Abdelhaleem was furious. “You shouldn’t ask questions about things that don’t involve you.” But Abdelhaleem did as he was told, Elsohemy said. He delivered the USB stick to Amara.

On March 26, one week before Elsohemy and his entire family vanished into the witness protection program, he met the ringleader at the Café de Khan restaurant in Mississauga, in the same strip mall as the Al-Rahman Islamic Centre, the mosque where they attended Friday prayers. Amara handed him a USB stick. It included an audio message with answers to all of Elsohemy’s questions, and a short video depicting his homemade detonator in action (on the carpet of Amara’s living room, surrounded by his daughter’s toys).

Later that day, Elsohemy drove to an RCMP safe house and handed the memory stick to investigators. Played in court on Wednesday, Amara’s message assures Elsohemy that “nobody even knows you exist”—except two people. Amara. And Shareef Abdelhaleem.

The informant is back on the stand Friday morning.

Helping the homeland

By Martin Patriquin - Wednesday, January 13, 2010 at 9:46 PM - 1 Comment

The earthquake hit roughly 15 kilometres outside Port Au Prince just before five o’clock yesterday, just as the country was settling into another bustling, sweaty nightfall. Within a matter of hours of the disaster, 3000 kilometres away in Montreal, Haitian community organizers Will Prosper and Carla Beauvais had lined up some 30 celebrities to perform a concert on January 21 benefiting those affected by the earthquake.

Hours later, some good news: the city of Montreal had called, and said the group could likely broadcast the event live in its downtown open air theatre—meaning thousands more could watch the event. The event, Prosper believes, will raise at least $25,000, not counting corporate or other private donations.

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Hell for a Basement

By Andrew Potter - Wednesday, January 13, 2010 at 6:27 PM - 31 Comments

UPDATE: Well, I guess it didn’t go so well

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I’m off to Edmonton tomorrow, where I’ll be speaking at this year’s  CUP conference. I’m excited for two main reasons: First, I’ve  never been to Alberta, except for a drive-through as an infant and a couple of afternoons spent at the Calgary and Edmonton airports. Second, one of the keynote speakers at the conference is Adrienne Arsenault, who I think is the best correspondent at the CBC, and one of the best journalists in the country, period.

Anyway, like most eastern bastards I have my own private Alberta, which is a mashup of the following favourites:

Politician: Peter Lougheed

Song, set in: Northern Wish, Rheostatics

Musicians: Nickleback. Ha! kidding. SNFU, I think, though I love kd lang’s version of Helpless.

Hockey team: Flames, obviously. It was impossible to like Gretzky and the Oilers when I was growing up.

Hockey player: I’d like to say the Sutter clan, but I have to go with Jarome Iginla.

Film: Is Kitchen Party set in Alberta? I can’t remember. If not, then this one, because of the cast.

Novel: The Trade, by Fred Stenson

Artist: Peter von Tiesenhausen, one of the most inspired, and inspiring, artists I have ever met.

"A sea of devastation"

By Charlie Gillis - Wednesday, January 13, 2010 at 6:14 PM - 2 Comments

In that first fleeting moment, as the walls shook and a rumble coursed through her second-floor office in mid-town Port-au-Prince, Magdalie Boyer thought a transport truck must have somehow breached the surrounding walls, and struck the low-rise building. But as ever in Haiti, the truth was much worse than anything the rational mind might summon.

As Boyer and her co-workers at World Vision gathered in the courtyard below their building, the extent of tragedy about to engulf their city began to sink in. “The neighbourhood behind our building—one of the nicer ones in the city—was a mess,” says Boyer, a communications director for the international aid organization, who is permanently stationed in Haiti. “The walls around it had crumbled into the streets, so cars couldn’t get through. There were fallen trees, streetlamps hanging, roofs that had collapsed completely. Imagine a parking garage with the decks collapsed. That’s what a lot of the buildings in this neighbourhood looked like.”

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