Miller time

By macleans.ca - Monday, February 22, 2010 at 4:08 PM - 0 Comments

Olympic Photos: Sunday February 21st, 2010

By macleans.ca - Monday, February 22, 2010 at 2:44 PM - 0 Comments

Afghan army far from ready to lead

By macleans.ca - Monday, February 22, 2010 at 2:22 PM - 3 Comments

For several years now the Stephen Harper government in Ottawa, like military and political leaders in Washington, have stressed training up the Afghan National Army to take over from western forces in fighting the Taliban. For instance, just before Christmas, Defence Minister Peter MacKay made a point of congratulating 20 new graduates from a junior staff officers’ training program in Kabul. But the message of progress now looks hollow. The New York Times reports from the field that claims the Afghan military is planning the missions and leading them don’t square with what journalists are witnessing. The story chronicles everything from lax discipline, to officer arrogance, to Afghan soldiers who don’t aim before pulling the trigger. In the operations described, American Marines lead in every sense. Not a promising picture as the Canada plans to pull out its troops next year and the U.S. to begin drawing down theirs.

New York Times

Prostate cancer linked to suicide, heart attack

By macleans.ca - Monday, February 22, 2010 at 2:14 PM - 5 Comments

Men with prostate cancer are at higher risk of suicide and heart attack, especially within a year of their diagnosis. A study in a recent issue of Journal of the National Cancer Institute, based on 340,000 prostate cancer patients in the States between 1979 and 2004, shows that 148 men committed suicide and 6,845 died of cardiovascular diseases. The researchers say these findings represent “the tip of the iceberg of anxiety, mood disturbance, and perhaps other mental illness (or suffering) after a prostate cancer diagnosis.” They conclude that emotional counselling and support for prostate cancer patients is critical to their survival.

Science Daily

BBC charged with unbalanced reporting

By macleans.ca - Monday, February 22, 2010 at 2:09 PM - 3 Comments

If a news organization decides to air a controversial speech, is it guilty of biased reporting? Lord Carlile, the British government’s terror watchdog, thinks so. The BBC’s broadcasting of Sir Terry Pratchett’s speech in favour of “euthanasia  tribunals” is, in Carlile’s mind, evidence of biased journalism and a “campaigning stance” to make assisted suicide legal. In a letter to Sir Michael Lyons, the chairman of the BBC trust, Carlile has also taken issue with a veteran presenter’s on-air admission that he smothered his partner, who was dying of AIDS. (The presenter has since been questioned by police on suspicion of murder.) For its part, the BBC says it had “no legal obligation” to tell police about the presenter’s confession.

Telegraph

Rights and Democracy: Loyalty and Competence

By Paul Wells - Monday, February 22, 2010 at 1:40 PM - 188 Comments

This one takes some twists and turns. Follow along!

Lawrence Cannon names Gérard Latulippe as president of Rights and Democracy. “An exceptionally qualified candidate,” says he. (Cannon also “expresses the Government of Canada’s support” for a forensic audit at an agency whose books are edited every year by the auditor general, an agency that was evaluated by Cannon’s own department in 2008 and found to have no irregularities in its books. A man of few words, or at least few coherent words, Cannon gives no explanation for his change of heart.)

Latulippe is the National Democratic Institute country director for Haiti. He has also worked for NDI in “countries such as Jordan, Libya, Iraq, Georgia, Mauritania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Egypt.” This blog is an unabashed fan of NDI, which admits a “loose affiliation” with the U.S. Democratic Party (its loose-affiliation counterpart is the International Republican Institute, and here at Inkless, we like them too.) NDI is a world leader in educating political parties about their own countries’ political systems and ensuring that elections are fought vigorously and fairly. But, as that notorious opponent of transparency and accountability Ed Broadbent likes to point out, Rights and Democracy has a broader mandate than NDI and IRI. That’s the “Rights” bit, which consists in advocating for the basic human rights of speech, association and so on, down to something as basic as the right to food in Malawi. Latulippe may be able to learn new tricks, but he will have to, because Rights and Democracy isn’t NDI, nor is it the “Canadian Centre for Advancing Democracy” advocated by Stephen Fletcher based on a report by Tom Axworthy and… and…

…Éric Duhaime?

Oh now that’s interesting. This corner is also fond of Duhaime (we like everyone today!), a wisecracking, whip-smart political staffer from Quebec City who served as an advisor to Mario Dumont right up until Dumont left his ADQ party in a flaming wreck. But before that, Duhaime ran the Quebec desk at the Office of the Leader of the Opposition back when the Leader of the Opposition was the then-beleaguered Stockwell Day. (Before that he was an advisor to Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe, forcing this other Éric Duhaime to note that he is “not the Éric Duhaime who changes political parties the way he changes shirts.”)

But I digress. Except I don’t, really, because when Duhaime, who now wants a Canadian equivalent of NDI, was working in Stock’s shop, the Canadian Alliance’s Quebec political lieutenant was… Gérard Latulippe. “Stockwell Day is our leader, he is the only one who can win in every region of Canada,” reads a letter by Quebec Stockaholics that Latulippe signed when things got a bit dicey. Continue…

Private lives and the public interest

By Andrew Coyne - Monday, February 22, 2010 at 1:39 PM - 40 Comments

The hypocrite in our times is not, as of old, the libertine posing as moralist—Tartuffe, or Angelo in Measure for Measure—but moralists posing as libertines. Today we are most keen to advertise not our virtue but our worldly indifference to others’ faults, fearing not that we might be accused of the same so much as that we might be thought of as prigs. Judge not lest ye be judgmental.

This is particularly so when it comes to the political arena. On those not infrequent occasions when a politician is found to have behaved badly in his private life, there is always a crush of apologists racing to the nearest rooftop to shout how little they care. Cheats on his wife? Yawn. Drunk every night? Big deal. Takes hundreds of thousands in cash from fugitive international arms dealers? Doesn’t everyone?

From Adam Giambrone to Maxime Bernier, from Bill Clinton to Brian Mulroney, whenever the issue arises the same debate is replayed. Does the public have a right to know about a politician’s private affairs? How much? How far?

Continue…

A cure for peanut allergies?

By macleans.ca - Monday, February 22, 2010 at 1:32 PM - 2 Comments

A cure for peanut allergies could soon become a reality, Cambridge scientists say, as they’re set to begin the largest-ever trial to find a treatment for potentially fatal allergies. The team will give increasing doses of peanut flour to 104 British children, the BBC reports, the equivalent of five nuts a day. In an earlier study, 20 of 23 sufferers could eat more than 30 peanuts safely. The trial will involve more than 100 seven- to 17-year-olds, and will be carried out over three years. The peanut flour doses, which will begin at about one milligram, will be added to yogurt. Researchers warned people against attempting such trials at home.

BBC

The LESS THAN KIND Writing Awards

By Jaime Weinman - Monday, February 22, 2010 at 1:30 PM - 4 Comments

Well, they haven’t officially changed their name yet, but the Writers’ Guild of Canada Award nominations were announced today, and Less Than Kind got four out of the five nominations for half-hour comedy writing. Less Than Kind is well-liked and had a number of different writers submitting episodes, so five writers in all received nominations for the show, including creators Marvin Kaye and Chris Sheasgreen and producer Mark McKinney.

The one-hour drama nominees are a more diverse group of shows, though Being Erica‘s lack of a nomination (it got one for webisode writing but not regular episode writing) is a bit unexpected.

The  kids’ shows category has  two nominations each for Family’s multi-camera The Latest Buzz and YTV’s single-camera How To Be Indie. If this were an episode of one of those shows, they would compete furiously, almost ruining their friendship, and in the end the award would be taken by the only other nominee, Family Biz.

You Knew He Would Comment On Last Night's Game

By Jaime Weinman - Monday, February 22, 2010 at 11:36 AM - 5 Comments

Yeah, these Downfall clips are getting old, but we all wanted to know what the internet’s most popular commentator had to say about the hockey game last night.

Whole books could be written on the cultural meaning of the Downfall meme. The movie was supposed to show that Hitler is not some kind of mythological figure, and it’s been used by North American video-makers to turn Hitler into a kind of new-minted mythological figure — Hitler the pop-culture critic. Of course this meme is not really about Hitler; it’s about our own tendency to over-react and take pop culture and sports way too seriously. But it’s also part of a tendency to turn Hitler’s mannerisms and pop-culture portrayals into something separate and different from the real person. The Hitler from Inglourious Basterds, who is based almost entirely on previous pop-culture portrayals of Hitler and gets a more satisfying retribution than he did in real life, is the Hitler for the current generation. Or maybe it’s this Hitler:

Concordia "floaties" welcomed home

By Tom Henheffer - Monday, February 22, 2010 at 11:21 AM - 5 Comments

Carrying a fluffy pink blanket and wearing a gigantic smile, Shelley Piller was up long before dawn, waiting on an empty concourse at Toronto’s Pearson airport for her daughter Elysha to return home.

“I’m going to cover her in this blanket and I’m going to take her home, and give her a bath and feed her as much as I can possibly feed her.”

Elysha was one of 48 students on the S.V. Concordia, a sailing ship that doubled as a travelling high school and university. A microburst, a sudden massive gust of wind, toppled the three-masted boat off the coast of Brazil late last Thursday evening. It sank in minutes, leaving every soul on board to fight for survival in leaky life rafts for two days and nights.

“We’re just so happy that they’re all okay. It’s a miracle,” says Piller.

After pulling each other from flooded classrooms and cutting the life rafts free, the students and crew were forced to bail constantly to keep shin-deep water from sinking their small boats. As they fought to collect rainwater and survive on rations, many became sick from dehydration, but they managed to keep their spirits high by singing Disney songs.

“There were low points and high points,” says Mark Sinker, the ship’s history and English teacher. “When there was water in the rafts and people were shivering, morale was very low. But overall I think people kept their spirits up.”

Piller, her husband Tony, and three sons, Lucas, Sam and Trevor, stood waiting, wearing their scarves and winter coats, with sleepy grins and hands in their pockets. A few other families were scattered around the airport, holding coffee and sitting at shops with metal gates still drawn shut.

Brent Tripp waited for his brother Jamie, a world traveller who was working as a crewman on the Concordia. Early Friday morning Brent got a call from his mother—at first all he could make out was the word “sink.” He was always afraid something would happen to Jamie, and thought the worst might have finally happened. Eventually his mother told him everything was okay, and his brother called Sunday morning.

“I pick up the phone and there was a quick delay, then ‘hey brother’ came across” says Tripp, his voice quivering slightly. “Both of us had a huge little breakdown.” He added that although he knew his brother was safe physically, it was worrisome to think what psychological toll the accident might have taken. “The next thing we went into was Olympic men’s hockey. So it was kind of nice to know that my brother, the guy that I love so much, he was still there.”

He said he plans to take it easy once they’re reunited.

“I would just like nothing more then to cram in the back seat of our little four door car and just take him to a little restaurant, buy him some lunch and have a beer.”

As the minutes ticked by the concourse started to become a hub of activity. Alumni from previous voyages arrived, holding bristol board signs declaring “Welcome Home Floaties” and “S.V. Concordia Forever.” Dozens of reporters began rushing back and forth. The families were ushered into a secure area, and a mob of camera’s surrounded the door. Cheering could be heard from inside. Emboldened with the spirit their travelling school was meant to instill, the alumni sat in front of reporters, forcing them to back up about 10 steps so they would have room to greet their friends.

In the end, the parents and children decided not to meet with the media, and went out through side gates. But  Nigel McCarthy, CEO of the Class Afloat program, did eventually address the crowd.

“Today is a day of celebration,” he said. “There’s been lots of tears and there’s been lots of joy. There have been children jumping up into their parents’ arms. It’s a beautiful day.”

Feeling Fleeced by Taxes and Fees?

By Ron Pradinuk, Takeoffeh.com - Monday, February 22, 2010 at 10:54 AM - 4 Comments

Whether it is an overseas airline ticket, or a seven day all-inclusive vacation, we feel battered by sticker shock by the time we get the final tally. Where did all those extras come from?

Air Tickets: Multiply by 2

The airlines have no control over the taxes but they do determine their own fuel surcharges and some fees.

A fare quote I recently searched to London, England from Winnipeg displayed at $512 return, until the additional airline charges for taxes, fees, charges, and surcharges were tallied. At $487 dollars, my fare had suddenly doubled. I felt duped – and I’m in the business.

The exact same itinerary on Aeroplan points tacked an extra $569 in charges onto my ticket — with no breakdown of what made up the wrist slapping fee. Only after cancellation did I learn that of the $569, fully $369 was for Carrier Administrative Service Charges. Roughly translated, this catchall phrase masks fuel surcharges and anything else the airline chooses to impose as a booking fee.

Advertised prices for package tours seem really low right now

Checking the taxes and surcharges with tour operators is a much more daunting task but, like the airlines, they are subject to certain government taxes that they can’t avoid.  However, non-tax fees and surcharges are a different matter. Some operators include these fees in their prices and some add them as extras.

With so many apparent deals to southern destinations, ads lure us to believe we can fly, sleep, eat, drink and beach for under $800. Using Toronto to Cancun as my base comparison, I found a 4 star property on line for only $777. The taxes and service charges totaled $272 — a third more than the original price.

Strangely enough, it did not matter whether the price for the vacation was $800 or $1800 the ‘taxes’ were still $272 – considering taxes are usually a percentage of the price, there was no way to understand the math. The one exception was on the WestJet Vacations site where the extra charges were only $120.

It’s no wonder consumers are skeptical about travel pricing – feeling caught in a ‘deal or no deal’ guessing game. The travel industry does itself a disservice in confusing and frustrating consumers.

Why are fees and taxes not regulated?

It is astounding that an ordinarily legitimate item such as a ‘surcharge’ can shelter a variety of items from administration to fuel. Shouldn’t those be built into the price?

According to ACTA, the Association of Canadian Travel Agents, the federal government has an obligation to get involved. However, federal versus provincial jurisdictions for travel products hamper finding an across the board solution.

A few years ago ACTA was part of an industry wide lobby effort which resulted in airlines voluntarily agreeing to show all inclusive pricing in ads for domestic flights. But, for competitive reasons, international fares are not covered by this agreement.

ACTA is now lobbying for all inclusive pricing in all travel advertising, and transparency for what each individual charge represents.

Are taxes really taxes? What’s a service fee? And do fuel charges have any relationship to the cost of oil on the international market, even with forward contracts, common in the airline industry?

Beyond the obvious practicality of regulating travel pricing, ACTA also wants to remove perceived travel agent culpability in collecting the extras. The front line agent takes the brunt of consumer anger over surprise charges which smack of ‘bait and switch’ gimmicks. In realilty, the travel agent not only has no control over the additional fees, but sees these actions by airlines and tour operators as a way of reducing the commissions they pay travel agencies.

Ultimately, we are all on the receiving end of a mismanaged system – where travel companies are compelled to keep advertised prices low in order to compete in a cut throat marketplace. The only way to level the playing field is with government imposed rules which will eliminate the $99 come on.

By Ron Pradinuk
Ron Pradinuk is president of Journeys Travel & Leisure SuperCentre, a travel products retail outlet www.journeystravelgear.com , as well as Winnipeg based Renaissance Travel. He is past national president of the
Association of Canadian Travel Agencies.

Photo Credits: Franck-Boston, volschenkh

Militant 7-year-old vegetarians

By Julia McKinnell - Monday, February 22, 2010 at 10:39 AM - 129 Comments

Photograph by Andrew Tolson

In the film Mommie Dearest, Hollywood legend Joan Crawford tries to force her adopted daughter to eat a piece of meat. “She negotiates everything like a goddamn Hollywood agent,” Crawford complains to her housekeeper. “Christina, eat your lunch. You are not getting up from this table until you have finished that meat.”

Two years ago in Vancouver, Carolye Kuchta’s six-year-old daughter Celia declared that she would no longer eat meat; her son had once made the same adamant pronouncement. Kuchta, a meat-eater, would never force her kids to eat meat but admits she had misgivings about the potential health risks of a meatless diet, and that switching to accommodate her kids’ food preferences was “pretty inconvenient at first.”

“Of course, as parents, we think it’s just a fad—like when Maxwell wanted to sleep on the floor in a tent forever, and that lasted a week.” Maxwell’s vegetarianism lasted six months. Celia was a different story. “She announced at the table one day that she was vegetarian, and that was it, there’s been no going back.” Celia turns nine in March. “She feels it’s her mission in life to help the planet and protect nature.”

Continue…

Caption Challenge: Special Olympic Edition No. 2

By Scott Feschuk - Monday, February 22, 2010 at 10:33 AM - 73 Comments

Lindsey Vonn, poster girl of the 2010 Winter Games, has just crashed out of the Ladies’ Super Combined. Gamely, she walks the media cattle chute to answer the same questions over and over, though – to be fair to reporters – they are sometimes asked with hilarious accents. Finally, she reaches the wretches of the print media. She is weary. She looks around. Once and then again she meets the gaze of Continue…

Canadian ice dancers gunning for gold

By Nancy Macdonald - Monday, February 22, 2010 at 10:07 AM - 7 Comments

UPDATE: Canadian ice dance duo Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir took home the gold medal with a stunning 221.57-point program. The pair inched ahead of their American rivals—and best friends—who took second place with 215.57 points. In the ice dance world, the win is a historic one. Since the sport was invented in 1976, no North American team had ever won gold. Virtue and Moir began skating together when she was seven and he was nine; they were so small that Tessa was able to lift Scott on the ice.

*****

On the ice, they’re fierce rivals; off-ice, they’re the best of friends. Last night, Canada’s ice dance team, Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue faced-off against Americans, Charlie White and Meryl Davis. The two teams train together at the same Canton, Mich., rink, Arctic Edge; they also share the same Russian coaches, Marina Zoueva and Igor Shpilband. Both Moir and White are ex-hockey players, and fierce fans of the game, who relax together with video games during competitions.

But last night, they were all business, as Virtue and Moir vaulted into first, heading into tonight’s Free Dance final at Vancouver’s Pacific Coliseum; they’ve got an almost three-point lead over their American pals.

The beautiful Canadian duo—who’ve skated together since they were seven and nine—danced a flawless, fiery and emotional flamenco program; with it, they set the stage for Canada’s first figure skating gold medal at the Vancouver Games.

It would mark a major moment for the sport; no North American team has won an Olympic gold since ice dance was introduced in 1976. Russian teams, in fact, have taken seven of the nine gold medals. Russians Maxim Shabalin and Oksana Domnina—the reigning world champions, and gold medal favourites—sit in third, with 106.60 points, almost five points behind the Canadians.

The Russian dancers had grabbed an early lead; last night’s program, however, fell flat. It was met with a kind of stunned silence from the audience at the Pacific Coliseum (with the odd boo ringing out from some corners of the rink). They were dancing a program that won them global infamy last month; at the European championships in Estonia, they took to the ice in tribal-themed outfits, and danced an “Aboriginal-inspired” program.

They’d toned it down last night—to make it “more authentic, and less theatrical,” Shabalin explained to reporters afterward. He, for example, had lightened the hue of his skin suit, and they wore fewer leaves, and had less white paint on their faces, arms and legs; the haunting drumming, meanwhile, had been removed from the music. Shabalin said he still couldn’t understand why it was seen as offensive, and very much liked “this unique culture.” The program ended with a nose-to-nose greeting, a so-called “Eskimo kiss.”

The North American pals, who shared warm embraces after tonight’s skate, were clearly happy with the placement. “Man, I’m glad it’s the four of us in first and second,” said Moir. “That’s the way it should be.” “We train with them—we see them every day,” added White. “They’re our best buds—it’s awesome.”

Moir and Virtue’s performance brought smiles to Canada’s figure skating squad, who’d suffered through a dark day; yesterday morning, they learned of the sudden death of the mother of teammate, Joannie Rochette—Virtue’s roommate at the Athlete’s Village. “It’s devastating,” said Virtue, fighting back tears, after skating last night. “I feel so much for Joannie. We’re all here to support her.”

Get Back, Leno

By Jaime Weinman - Monday, February 22, 2010 at 9:40 AM - 10 Comments

I’m a little late in commenting on NBC’s Jay Leno Tonight Show promo (it aired during their Olympics coverage but not ours, which is a small price to pay for getting more actual Olympics coverage). It’s every bit as smug as everyone says it is, calculated to reinforce all the negative stereotypes about the host.

The idea of doing it as a Dallas-style dream sequence would have made him seem much more sympathetic; it’s hardly an original thing to parody, but at least it wouldn’t make Leno seem like a parody of himself. It’s like the network watched all the Leno spoofs and said, “yes, Jay is a smirking, oblivious guy who cares only about his expensive cars and has literally learned nothing from this experience” (since the promo is similar to the one that brought him to 10 o’clock). Either they don’t want to disprove the stereotypes or they’re actively playing to the segment of the audience — a sizable segment, of course — that missed Leno and wants him back where they think he belongs.

And if they were going to spend all that money to get the song, I’d at least have liked them to add some new lyrics for the occasion. Something like:

Leno took the show that briefly had been Conan’s,
Just so he could save his staff.
Baby-boomer dads and Tucson Arizonans
Once again can learn to laugh.
Get back, get back, get back to where your schtick belonged.
Get back, you hack, though Conan thinks that he was wronged.
Get back, Leno.

Leno bombed at ten, and quickly got rewarded,
Just like guys who ran the banks.
Everything he’s done is kind of crass and sordid,
And Bill Carter sends his thanks.
Get back, get back, get back to where the viewers thronged.
Get back to crack a joke that’s creaky and prolonged.
Get back, Leno.
Tell jokes.

Groan Canada, groan

By Charlie Gillis - Monday, February 22, 2010 at 1:19 AM - 27 Comments

VANCOUVER — Before we call the royal commission, or start sacrificing livestock, there’s a statistic worth considering from tonight’s hockey travesty: Team Canada outshot the United States by a ratio of 2 to 1, which is not so much a moral victory as a guy-wire to stabilize our wobbling national pride.

The only score that matters is the one on the blinding, deafening contraption hanging above centre ice, of course. And that read 5-3 Uncle Sam. Which is why U.S. coach Ron Wilson got to needle his counterpart Mike Babcock at the post-game news conference with reminiscences of how the Americans outdid Canada at the 1996 World Cup.

But even Wilson could see the 45-22 total at the bottom of his game sheet, and he wasn’t about to deny that his win came courtesy of the hot handed goaltender he now hopes to ride into the medal round. Ryan Miller, the 29-year-old star of the Buffalo Sabres, was better, much better, than Martin Brodeur on this night, and when you outplay the greatest man to ever strap on pads, that earns kind words from the coach.

“Ryan played every bit as well as I’ve seen him play throughout the season, in the numerous times we’ve played him,” said Wilson, who coaches the Toronto Maple Leafs in his other job. “He makes four or five huge saves a game and he did that today.”

The rest of the U.S. team will be given a morning off tomorrow, Wilson added, deadpanning: “But Ryan will have to work on his puckhandling and rebound control.”

Miller, for his part, described it as one of the biggest games he’d ever played. ”I had a Game 7 down in Carolina to get to the Cup and missed that one,” he said. “Winning this one felt really good. We got the goal support, though, scoring five goals against Canada. I thought that was just a great job by our guys.

“When things happened we responded. We didn’t get nervous or anxious. We just kept playing. When they scored that second goal, and we probably had the better chances in the second period and I was really happy to see that.”

The magnitude of the result shouldn’t be overstated—Canada must now play Germany to reach the quarterfinals, but is hardly out of the tournament. Still, it does raise the urgency level of questions that have nagged Babcock since Canada opened the tourney with flat first period against Norway.

One of them revolves around goaltending, thought to be the country’s strong suit as recently as Christmas, but in question in the weeks leading up to the Olympics. Brodeur, perennial all-star Roberto Luongo and Marc-André Fleury, last year’s Stanley Cup winner, all appeared to be off their games. And on this night Brodeur’s legendary penchant for puckhandling got him in trouble, as he coughed up the puck and was forced to cover it during the first shift of the game. A faceoff ensued and U.S. defenceman Brian Rafalski rifled a shot off Sidney Crosby’s stick and into the bottom corner of the net.

Eric Staal tied it for Canada with a nice deflection off Brent Seabrook’s shot, but the Americans replied 23 seconds later, after Brodeur muffed a clearing attempt, putting the puck right on the stick of Rafalski. His old New Jersey teammate made no mistake, pounding it past the sprawling goalie.

Thus began a see-saw battle, with Dany Heatley drawing Canada even at 3:32 of the second before Chris Drury and Jamie Langenbrunner scored consecutive goals for the Americans—the latter coming seven minutes into the third. At that point, Canada threw everything it had at Miller in a series of feverish forechecks, culminating in a power-play goal by Sidney Crosby with just over three minutes left.

It was a tap-in on a lovely pass out of the corner by Rick Nash, but seems notable now for the unconverted chances that proceeded it, including one stunning glove save Miller made on Jarome Iginla while lying prone on the ice.

The last-minute hero for the Americans? That would Ryan Kesler—he of the ill-advised remarks yesterday about how he “hates” the Canadians (which Canadians he didn’t specify, but most assumed he meant the national men’s hockey team). With 45 seconds remaining and the Canadian net empty, Kesler lunged around a backchecking Corey Perry to poke in the insurance goal, his linemates piling on him in joy.

With that, Canada officially moved on, or so the coach would have us believe. “We’ve chosen a longer route to get to where we want to go,” was Mike Babcock’s benign spin, but he’ll surely spend the next 48 hours trying to figure out where he took a wrong turn.

Why, for instance, can’t he seem to find a winger to work well with Sidney Crosby and Rick Nash, potentially his most potent offensive duo? Why does a defensive corps bedecked with Stanley Cup winners and fresh-faced stars seem determined to seek out landmines and step on them? What about goaltending? Babcock said he wanted to look at game tapes before deciding who to start on Tuesday. Yet he allowed that “tonight was a night when we would like to have been better in that area.”

What Babcock can take from this letdown is the obvious fact his team is nowhere near giving up, not on him, not on the fans and certainly not on each other. They took 14 shots in the third and would have taken the Americans to overtime were it not for Miller’s heroics.

“If we play hard like that, if we play desperate like that and control the puck the way we did down low, I like our chances against any team,” Crosby said after the game. “It just didn’t go our way tonight.”

Three periods, three venues

By Scott Feschuk - Monday, February 22, 2010 at 12:56 AM - 14 Comments

A makeshift sign outside the Archdiocese of Vancouver tells passersby they will find within “a chapel” and “a big screen TV.” The people who walked in Sunday afternoon weren’t looking for a chapel.

The big screen was tuned to CTV coverage of the Olympics. The Canada-U.S. hockey game was approaching. At first, the crowd was made up mostly of older couples. One man quietly read a copy of The B.C. Catholic. But as gametime neared, more families and younger people rolled into the Archdiocese, located just a few blocks from Canada Hockey Place. Nearby restaurants and bars were jammed. The lineup for Live City and its jumbo screen stretched around the block. As one father of two put it: “This place is our fallback plan.” “Mine too,” said the only guy in the room in a USA hockey sweater.

“Either of you Catholic?” I asked.

“Not so Continue…

Martin Brodeur: Not a goaltender

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, February 22, 2010 at 12:06 AM - 60 Comments

The Heritage Minister tweets his colour commentary.

I hope Brendan Shanahan, Cam Neely and Ray Bourque come out in the 3rd

Fyi, shots in the game 45-22 for Canada. 3rd period: 14-3

Start Luongo next was my point: Fyi, shots in the game 45-22 for Canada. 3rd period: 14-3

U.S. beats Canada 5-3 in men's hockey

By macleans.ca - Sunday, February 21, 2010 at 10:04 PM - 6 Comments

The Canadian men’s hockey team have got a tough road ahead—with tonight’s 5-3 loss to the U.S., Canada finishes second in its pool and must now play Germany on Tuesday in a qualification game. If Canada successfully beats out Germany, the team will in all likelihood be matched against Russia on Wednesday.

CTV News

A Silver Lining on a Bad Weekend

By Jonathon Gatehouse - Sunday, February 21, 2010 at 9:54 PM - 0 Comments

In the end, she just couldn’t hang on.

Kristina Groves entered the final lap of the women’s 1500m speed skating race with the narrowest of leads—just 0.07 seconds.

But as she rounded the home stretch, she knew it didn’t feel like victory. With a 100 metres to go, and the home crowd rattling the rafters, the legs were burning too fiercely, the lungs gasping the tiniest bit too hard for air. And the speed dropping off faster than she hoped, or had come to expect.

At the finish, the 33-year-old from Ottawa looked up at the scoreboard and confirmed her suspicions—a silver medal-winning time of 1:57.14, a quarter-second behind Ireen Wurst of the Netherlands. Martina Sablikova of the Czech Republic took bronze.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve felt that way,” said Groves, who came into the Games ranked first in the world after 1500 metres. “I just tied-up in the last 100 metres. It was tough, you can’t move. It’s sorts of like the wheels are falling off.”

The medal was Groves second of the Games, to go with a bonus bronze she captured for Canada in the 3000m last weekend. But it was not the colour she wanted, or the performance she expected of herself.

“We’re always looking for the perfect race, and I didn’t have it today,” said Groves.

She joked about looking better in silver anyway (Groves should know, she won one in the same race at the Turin Olympics, and added another in team pursuit.) But she couldn’t hide her disappointment.

“Overall I’m satisfied, but deep in my heart, I really wanted to win that race.”

Christine Nesbitt, who captured Canada’s only speed skating gold so far in Vancouver in Thursday’s 1000m, finished sixth, .37 seconds off the podium. Coming into the Games, Nesbitt was ranked second in the world, behind Groves, stoking hopes of a two medal performance for Canada.

She said her gold medal performance took more out of her than she expected.

“Usually, I have the fastest first lap in the 1500m, and often the faster second lap. Then I just hold on for dear life at the end,” she said. “Tonight I didn’t.”

But in sharp contrast to the 1000m, where Nesbitt was visibly angry at herself for winning by just .02 seconds, the defeat was leavened by Groves’ and her own success.

“I still won a gold medal, so I can’t be that disappointed,” she said.

Winnipeg’s Cindy Klassen, the defending Olympic champion, finished 21st with a time of 2:00.67. The double knee surgery she underwent in 2008, and long recovery, have clearly robbed the six-time Olympic medalist of once fearsome speed. Klassen still owns the world record for the 1500m — 1:51.79, set in 2005. Brittany Schussler, also of Winnipeg, battled equipment problems to finish a distant 35th.

Heading into the final week of competition, Groves, still has a chance to establish herself as Canada’s Queen of the Games. On Feb. 24th, she will compete in the 5000m, with teammate and defending Olympic champion Clara Hughes. Next Saturday, she will be part of Canada’s number-one ranked pursuit team, perhaps finally earning her gold.

But for now, Groves is relieved that her toughest skate of the Games is done.

“They’re all hard, but the 1500 is the worst. It’s a combination of speed and endurance.” she said. “Sometimes you can taste blood in your lungs.”

Miller time

By Michael Friscolanti - Sunday, February 21, 2010 at 9:32 PM - 0 Comments

Four years ago, Bode Miller was the world’s reigning Alpine champion and the official poster boy for America’s medal hopes at the Turin Winter Games. And then he opened his mouth. He told one reporter that he liked to get “wasted” before hitting the slopes—“It’s like driving drunk only there’s no rules about it in ski racing”—and when his commitment to winning came under attack, he just kept on talking. After failing to capture even a single medal in 2006, Miller joked that at least he “got to party and socialize at an Olympic level.”

Tonight, Miller is finally partying for all the right reasons: his first gold. An outcast who arrived in Whistler as barely an afterthought, the 32-year-old American is making everyone forget what he failed to do last time around. His victory in today’s Super Combined follows the silver and bronze he captured earlier this week, making Miller, at least for now, the most decorated athlete of the Vancouver Games.

Yet in typical Bode Miller fashion, he isn’t buying into any token storylines about redemption or forgiveness. When asked if the gold medal is that much sweeter, considering the ups and downs of his career, he refused to bite. “I think, if anything, it means less to me than it would have earlier,” he said. “Earlier, I didn’t quite have the same peace of mind about my skiing and certainly myself.” Translation: Miller doesn’t need anyone, especially reporters, telling him that he’s finally made good.

“The gold medal is great,” he said. “It’s perfect. Ideally, that’s what everyone is shooting for. But the way I’ve skied in these last races is what matters. I would have been proud of that skiing with the medal or not. The three medals are kind of a distraction more than anything else because it makes everyone think I’m proud of the races because I got the medals, and really I was as proud of the races when I came across the finish line not knowing whether I’d won or not.”

For those who don’t follow Alpine skiing, the Super Combined is a two-heat race split into a downhill portion and a slalom portion. Miller was seventh after the first run, 0.76 seconds behind the leader. But his slalom performance—one of the best of his career—propelled him into first place with a total time of 2:44.92. Ivica Kostelic of Croatia earned the silver, while Silvan Zurbriggen of Switzerland took bronze. Ryan Semple was the top Canadian, placing a distant 15th. “I was exhausted in between runs,” Miller said. “But within ten seconds before my second run, I started to get that little bouncy feeling where everything hones in and you start to feel the shivers a little bit. I started to get that energy. I’m using the Olympics for what it’s supposed to be: an inspirational tool.”

His fans—including hundreds of flag-waving Americans standing at the finish line—are certainly inspired. This is a man, after all, who had quit the World Cup circuit last year and contemplated retirement. When he finally did decide to start skiing again, it wasn’t until November, just three months before the Opening Ceremonies in Vancouver. “Everybody is psyched about him being back on the team and we’re all super proud of his accomplishments here,” said fellow U.S. skier Ted Ligety, who finished fifth this afternoon. “I feel like he’s a lot more motivated this time around, and I think he likes having those performances where’s not really expected to win.”

Even Miller can agree with that. “I didn’t have the energy and the enthusiasm,” he said of Turin. “I just didn’t really necessarily want to be there for a number of reasons that I’ve always talked about. I also didn’t want to not be there. I was incredibly conflicted.”

Not surprisingly, Miller doesn’t like to reminisce about the old days. When journalists try to ask him questions about his “rollercoaster” journey or past mistakes, he always offers the same answer: “I’ll leave that up to you guys.” But even with a gold medal safely around his neck, it’s clear that the sting of 2006 is still very fresh in Miller’s mind.

“IOC-bashing is probably not the ideal line of questioning to go through, but the Olympics is definitely in my mind a two-sided coin,” he said. “It has all the best things of sport: amazing energy, enthusiasm, passion and inspiration. It’s what changes lives, and in that sense it’s the pinnacle of what sports and camaraderie is. On the flip side of that is the opposite: the corruption, the abuse and the money. I’m not pointing fingers, but that’s what was bothering me. And being thrust in the middle of that—being the poster boy for that when it’s the absolute thing I despise the most in the world—was really draining on my inspiration and my level of passion. Those are the things that I function on when I’m racing, so I just had the plug pulled out on my most important fuel source. It had been happening for a year, and it was just too much.”

This year, Miller has too much of something else: medals.

Kristina Groves wins silver

By macleans.ca - Sunday, February 21, 2010 at 9:21 PM - 0 Comments

Ottawa native Kristina Groves has won her second medal of the Games by snagging silver in the women’s 1,500-metre speed skating race. Her first medal was bronze in the 3,000-metre. Ireen Wust of the Netherlands walked away with the gold, while Martina Sablikova of the Czech Republic took the bronze. “I didn’t skate my technically best. I was searching for the perfect feeling, but it was only sometimes there today,” said Groves.

Toronto Star

Oh so close

By Jason Kirby - Sunday, February 21, 2010 at 8:24 PM - 12 Comments

It’s becoming the most common utterance of these games. “Oh.” Not the vowel that comes before “Canada” in all that spontaneous anthem singing at curling matches and in Robson Square. No, it’s the disappointed cry heard at ski events in Whistler and on Cypress Mountain when Canadians medal hopefuls crash out on the slopes.

The “oh” was particularly gut wrenching today in the men’s ski cross at Cypress. After a slow start by Chris Delbosco in the final race of the day, he found himself trailing in last place. The overwhelmingly Canadian crowd, boisterous all day long, seemed stunned. Then after a burst of power Delbosco swept past Norway’s Audun Groenvold and into third place. For a brief few seconds, the screams from the stands were deafening. But on the second-to-last jump before the finish line, Delbosco made a move for silver. Instead he hurled off the course, smashing his head when he landed.

Ohhhhh.

Then silence. There was some polite clapping when Switzerland’s Michael Schmid claimed the gold, followed by Austria’s Andreas Matt and Groenvold.

After a long delay as he went through an anti-doping test, a visibly shaken and bruised Delbosco faced reporters. Speaking even more quietly than usual, the American-born dual Canadian citizen explained what happened on the course. “I wasn’t content…,” he paused to choke back tears, “I don’t know, third place, I guess it’s all right for some people.”

Delbosco’s performance coach, Dave Ellis, said the athlete has a good track record of coming back from behind, but this time it just didn’t work out.

“Chris is a guy that takes those moves and he’s a guy that pulls off those moves,” he said. “He made a risk and unfortunately it’s another fourth place story for Canada.”

When tallying up how many medals Canada has won during these Games, does it count if we had one, then gave it back?