And the Oscar for most awkward speech goes to, Still using his noggin and Sticking it to Dave

By macleans.ca - Friday, March 12, 2010 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

And the Oscar for most awkward speech goes to…
Roger Ross Williams, director of the best documentary short, Music by Prudence, was accepting his Oscar when Elinor Burkett, the film’s producer—who looked more like a stage crasher to the millions watching at home—interrupted. “Let the woman talk,” she said, grabbing the mic. It later emerged that Burkett had pulled her name from the credits due to creative differences and the pair had been embroiled in a legal battle. But that didn’t stop her from rushing the stage to accept the honour. Afterwards, Burkett accused Williams’s 87-year-old mother of blocking her path with a cane. Williams sees things a little bit differently: “She pulled a Kanye,” he says, comparing Burkett’s Oscar-night performance, which has become a YouTube sensation, to Kanye West’s interruption of Taylor Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards last fall.

Still using his noggin
Lieut. Ian Fortune was on a fairly routine mission to pick up a dozen injured soldiers in Afghanistan’s Helmand province when he flew directly into a firefight. The 28-year-old British pilot was shot in the head through his helmet, just above the eyes, but refused to relinquish control of his helicopter. He was able to get his Chinook, which dates back to the Falklands War, and the 20 people on board back to the base safely. “Even with blood pouring into his eyes, he would not let go,” said Mike Brewer, a TV host who was on the aircraft filming a series for the Discovery Channel. Fortune suffered minor injuries and is in recovery.

Sticking it to Dave
Having captured the world’s attention with his overtime heroics in Vancouver last month, Sidney Crosby seems to have suddenly become a bit camera shy. The 22-year-old hockey star reportedly turned down the opportunity to do David Letterman’s Top 10 list when his Pittsburgh Penguins were in New York last week to play the Rangers. Meanwhile, the mystery of his missing Olympic gear remains unsolved. To try to speed up the return of Sid the Kid’s golden glove and stick from the Games, which disappeared after he scored the game-winning goal in the final, Reebok Canada is offering a $10,000 reward, no questions asked.

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Someone rescue Robert Pattinson

By Brian D. Johnson - Friday, March 12, 2010 at 6:00 AM - 4 Comments

Robert Pattinson, the smouldering star of the Twilight franchise, is the most besieged heartthrob on the planet, and you can’t blame him for being embarrassed by the adulation. He acts as if he’s been confused with someone else—which is true, in the sense that his fans seem to have him hopelessly mixed up with his Byronic character, the vampire Edward Cullen. He can’t leave his hotel room without being mobbed by teenage girls. Last week, when he showed up for a taping of The Daily Show, the screams from the teenage audience reduced Jon Stewart’s high altar of smart satire into The Ed Sullivan Show waylaid by Beatlemania. Which Pattinson seemed to find no less ludicrous than his host. But the more he sloughs off the attention with that twitchy, self-deprecating English charm, the more charismatic he seems. He’s Hugh Grant trapped in the body of a young Brando.

In an age of carefully groomed celebrity, Pattinson is a rare thing: the self-effacing superstar. The 23-year-old actor has good reason to feel sheepish. All we’ve seen him do is pose as an oddly chivalrous vampire in a couple of jejune vampire movies. There’s no denying his screen presence, and it looks like there may be a pretty good actor lurking behind the pretty face. But as his fame outstrips his work, he must feel pressure to prove it.

Now we can see Pattinson tackle a (somewhat) more serious role in Remember Me. Directed by Allen Coulter (Hollywoodland), it’s a more mature movie than Twilight, and his character is painfully mortal, but it’s still a romance. Despite some promising romantic comedy that bubbles up as boy meets girl, it soon gives way to earnest drama. With a backstory rooted in tragedy, the film is set in New York in the summer before Sept. 11, 2001. Which means someone is on a collision course with destiny: tears before bedtime.

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Jaffer & Guergis: a power couple, unplugged

By Colby Cosh with Chris Sorensen and Aaron Wherry - Friday, March 12, 2010 at 6:00 AM - 114 Comments

Photograph by Andrew Wallace/Toronto Star

Wearing a navy pinstripe suit, a blue check shirt, and a vibrant yellow and lime-green striped tie, Rahim Jaffer cut a dapper figure in a courtroom in Orangeville, Ont., a sleepy town of 27,000 northwest of Toronto. The former politician, his hair gelled neatly in place, sat near the back of the gallery on the morning of March 9 while the court dealt with its quotidian diet of scandal: a domestic dispute, a 17-year-old arrested for marijuana possession, a woman caught skimming from her employer. For his part, Jaffer, 38, looked confident. With good reason.

Jaffer would shortly plead guilty to a charge of careless driving, and promise to pay a fine of $500; the court was told he had already made a charitable donation of an equivalent amount. As part of the plea deal, the Crown had agreed to drop two more serious charges against Jaffer—drunk driving and possession of cocaine—but did not offer much in the way of explanation. On the morning of Sept. 11, 2009, Jaffer had been pulled over by police for speeding through the village of Palgrave. The OPP officer detaining him was said to have smelled alcohol on his breath; the ex-politician was reported by the OPP to have failed multiple breathalyzer tests, and when he was arrested and searched, an unspecified quantity of cocaine was allegedly found “on his person.” Nonetheless, there were “significant legal issues” surrounding those charges, Crown attorney Marie Balogh told the court, and she foresaw no reasonable chance of conviction. She refused to answer questions from reporters after the trial. Brendan Crawley, a spokesman for the attorney general of Ontario, stated later that “there were issues related to the evidence that led the Crown to determine that the most appropriate way to proceed was with the plea resolution.”

Justice Douglas Maund wrapped up the proceedings, telling the accused: “I’m sure you can recognize a break when you see one.” Outside the courthouse, Jaffer did not respond to the judge’s remark or to any questions about the dropped charges. “I know that I should have been more careful,” he said. “I once again apologize for that and I take full responsibility for my careless driving. And that’s really all I have to say this morning.”

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Nickname challenge: Guergis & Jaffer

By Scott Feschuk - Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 6:51 PM - 87 Comments

The Liberals are attempting to apply the nickname “Bonnie and Clyde” to Conservative couple Helena Guergis and Rahim Jaffer. Decent enough, in that it conveys a sense of lawlessness. Can we top it?

My entry: Screech and Chong.

Winner gets a slap on the wrist and the opportunity to refer, without repercussion, to one of the provinces of our federation as a “sh*thole.”

UPDATE: A nickname is a tricky thing. You’ve got to balance creativity with usability. Jack’s entry – B*tch Sassidy and the Crackdance Kid – gets a 10 for creativity. But would people Continue…

The Commons: What this is about

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 6:02 PM - 90 Comments

The Scene. “Mr. Speaker, the detainee issue—”

The leader of Her Majesty’s loyal opposition had barely completed the words before members opposite were groaning and moaning and muttering. They had apparently arrived this afternoon hoping to be entertained. Alas, Michael Ignatieff, in the face of futility and unpopularity, continues to insist on using this time to ask questions.

“—is about fundamental issues about Canadian democracy,” Mr. Ignatieff continued. “It is about the respect for human rights, our international obligations under the Geneva Convention and ministerial responsibility to fulfill those obligations. We on this side of the House have called for months for a full public inquiry about the Afghan mission, going right back to the beginning in 2001, and no new information will change this party’s position on that issue.

“I ask the Prime Minister once again: Will he do the right thing and allow Justice Iacobucci to lead a full public inquiry?”

The Prime Minister stood here to shrug and dismiss and repeat himself. “We have asked Justice Iacobucci, who is a very respected Canadian, to review that work and ensure that all information is indeed available,” he concluded. “I think that information continues to show that all personnel of the Canadian government have acted with regard to their obligations at all times.”

Perhaps it is the Prime Minister’s hope that this can be matter can be bored to death. And, indeed, there may be something to that. Patience is not exactly prized in Ottawa. It is remarkable, to a certain extent, that this issue has persisted as it has, enduring despite the constant allure of shiny things like Helena Guergis. Continue…

Hey look: The prime minister rides madly in all directions

By Paul Wells - Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 6:00 PM - 2 Comments

A little early this week, my column from the print edition mostly just quotes the throne speech. To high-larious effect!

Harper's rut

By Paul Wells - Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 4:20 PM - 179 Comments

“In support of building a stronger Canada,” said the Harper government’s Speech from the Throne, “the government’s agenda will be clear and focused.”

Perhaps I should specify. That’s what they said—or gave unto Michaëlle Jean to say—in their first Throne Speech. Four years ago.

In the latest Throne Speech, earlier this month, Stephen Harper and his crack team of recalibrators had a bit more to say. They pledged to “launch a digital economy strategy.” To “extend support for…prototyping of new space-based technologies.” To “ensure that unnecessary regulation does not inhibit the growth of Canada’s uranium mining industry.”

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Haiti's next crisis: rain

By macleans.ca - Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 4:17 PM - 2 Comments

Haiti’s rainy season usually begins at the end of March and the beginning of April, but there have been heavy rains in the past few days, so it looks like the wet weather may be arriving early this year. It will be deadly for thousands of Haitians who have been living in makeshift tent cities since the January earthquake. “When the rains come, there will be endless illness in the camps,” says Rüdiger Ehrler, of the aid organization German Agro Action. Tuberculosis, typhoid fever, diphtheria and malaria are all expected. And because Haiti’s natural rainforests now survive on only a tiny portion of the country, the soil can’t soak up sudden downpours, making mudslides and flooding common during heavy rains. For Canadians who thought the worst was over for Haiti, the next few weeks could be a sad surprise.

Spiegel Online

Bestsellers

By Brian Bethune - Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 3:24 PM - 3 Comments

Top-selling fiction and non-fiction titles (week of February March 8th, 2010)

Fiction

a

Non-fiction

LAST WEEK (WEEKS ON LIST)

Violence breaks out in Athens

By macleans.ca - Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 3:04 PM - 14 Comments

More than 30,000 people descended into the streets of Athens during a general strike Thursday to protest the wide-ranging spending cuts announced by the Greek government. Things quickly turned ugly, with masked protesters attacking riot police, who responded with stun grenades and tear gas. The strike was the third in just over a month and forced the closure of the country’s airports, government offices, hospitals and schools. Greek officials announced two weeks ago they would be slashing public spending by over $65 billion in a bid to curtail the country’s debt problems. “They are trying to make workers pay the price for this crisis,” said Yiannis Panagopoulos, leader of Greece’s largest union, the GSEE.

CBC News

Week in Pictures: March 3rd – March 10th 2010

By macleans.ca - Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 2:54 PM - 0 Comments

When it comes to recalls, Toyota's not alone

By Kate Lunau - Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 2:36 PM - 5 Comments

First, it was Toyota issuing recall after recall. Then others, including Honda, Nissan, and General Motors, followed suit. With millions of vehicles from different auto manufacturers affected over the last few months alone, drivers could be forgiven for feeling nervous. But experts say these seemingly massive recall numbers shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Following harrowing reports of runaway vehicles, Toyota issued its largest-ever recalls, covering some 5.6 million vehicles in just the U.S. As executives were hauled before U.S. Congress, other automakers rolled out campaigns of their own (last week, GM recalled 1.3 million North American vehicles over faulty power steering). With Toyota drawing fire over its alleged foot-dragging on safety issues, rival automakers likely “didn’t want to be tarred with the same brush,” says Craig Hoff, a professor of mechanical engineering at Kettering University in Flint, Mich.

But the pile-up of recalls also shows how, in such a highly integrated industry, problems can spread like wildfire. In a growing trend, Toyota is one of several manufacturers using “the same platform—the underpinnings of a vehicle—across a variety of models,” Hoff notes. Some even share designs and parts with competitors, and are reducing the number of suppliers they deal with, creating even more overlap. France’s PSA Peugeot Citroën had to recall nearly 100,000 vehicles made in the Czech Republic, where it shares a factory with Toyota; and the Pontiac Vibe, sold by GM but jointly manufactured with Toyota, was also subject to a recall. This week, Daihatsu Motor, a subsidiary of Toyota, recalled 275,000 vehicles in Japan.

According to Tony Faria, an automotive expert at the University of Windsor, “today’s cars are as safe, or safer, than before.” But as companies move to an ever-smaller number of platforms and suppliers, he says, recall numbers “will keep getting bigger.” M

What might have been

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 1:52 PM - 14 Comments

Canadian Press delves into a proposed, but ultimately rejected, plan to put the Afghan army in charge of detainees.

NATO allies lobbied Afghan’s president for a separate legal framework to handle prisoners captured around Kandahar in late 2006 but those efforts “went nowhere,” say internal memos. The records outline an early strategy of the Canadian government as it faced pressure from the International Red Cross and others to take more responsibility for captured Taliban fighters…

The idea was to let the fledgling Afghan army operate a detention facility built by the U.S. rather than rely on either the National Directorate of Security or the country’s shaky correctional system. The proposal included a demand that Afghanistan create a separate legal framework for terror suspects, similar to the U.S. system of military tribunals. Afghan President Hamid Karzai was pressed to carve out “a new detainee policy that would have made the Afghan army responsible for prisoners and created a new class of detainees, but efforts have gone nowhere,” says a Dec. 4, 2006, memo.

Aftershocks hit Chile

By macleans.ca - Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 1:30 PM - 1 Comment

Chile was rocked by a 7.2 aftershock just minutes before the country was set to swear in new president, Sebastian Pinera. It was the second aftershock of the day, following an earlier one that measured 5.2, and served as a reminder of the massive 8.8 earthquake that struck last month, destroying 500,000 homes and killing hundreds. After his swearing-in, Pinera urged coastal residents to move to higher ground and had the hall of Congress, which itself lies close to the coastline, evacuated.

CBC

'Our humble wish that your Excellency is not burdened in future with frivolous requests for prorogation'

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 12:59 PM - 31 Comments

The prepared text of Michael Ignatieff’s speech in reply to the Speech from the Throne.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Prime Minister shut down Parliament, he said, to “recalibrate” the government’s agenda. We were told to expect vision, ambition, great plans in the Speech from the Throne.

There is none of that here.

“Recalibration” was a fiction. A flimsy excuse from a Prime Minister who gambled on cynicism and lost.

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Photo gallery: Politics and the Pen

By Mitchel Raphael - Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 12:34 PM - 2 Comments

The Writers’ Trust of Canada handed out their annual $25,000 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for political writing to John English for Just Watch Me: The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, 1968-2000 at the annual Politics and the Pen gala dinner in the Fairmont Château Laurier ballroom. Politics and the Pen is one of Ottawa’s A-list events and and brings out top politicians and authors like Margaret Atwood and Russell Smith.

Tiger hires George W. Bush’s spokesman

By macleans.ca - Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 12:31 PM - 13 Comments

At some point—this month, next month, whenever—Tiger Woods will return to the golf course. And when he does, the reporters will be waiting for him, full of uncomfortable questions that have nothing to do with his putting stroke or his short game. Which is why Woods has hired Ari Fleischer, George W. Bush’s former presidential press secretary and a guru in the field of image repair. Fleischer, who clashed with the White House press corps between 2001 and 2003, was reportedly in Tiger’s house this week, talking strategy for a planned return to action at the Arnold Palmer Invitational March 25. Now a highly paid consultant, Fleischer’s client list includes juiced-up slugger Mark McGwire, and the Green Bay Packers, who sought his help on how to deal with the fallout over the team’s nasty split with star quarterback Brett Favre.

New York Post

Italy’s libraries reach deal with Google for online preservation

By macleans.ca - Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 12:26 PM - 1 Comment

One way to preserve literary masterpieces: cut a deal with Google. Faced with a short supply of librarians and a tight budget for archiving, Italy has reached an agreement with the online search engine to allow it to digitize the contents of the country’s two national libraries. One million old books, all dated before 1868—thereby avoiding copyright concerns—will be scanned at centres in Florence and Rome, and made available for free over the Internet. In return, the libraries will receive digital copies of the books. The deal, which is similar to the one reached with public libraries in New York City, France and Germany, comes as Google faces legal battles over its scanning project.

CBC

Oakville baby spurs Lohan lawsuit

By macleans.ca - Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 12:17 PM - 2 Comments

McAllister Kerr, a bubbly, hyperactive tot from Oakville who is just learning to speak, is at the heart of a $100 million (U.S.) lawsuit filed against the brokerage firm E-trade by Lindsay Lohan’s representatives. McAllister plays a smooth-talking, computer enhanced baby who explains to his girlfriend that he didn’t call her last night because he was busy on E-trade. In the course of his explanation, the other toddler jealously asks if he was hanging out with “that milkaholic Lindsay”—the seemingly innocent line at the core of the suit. Lohan’s representatives say she has single name recognition, like Madonna or Cher, meaning the simple use of Lindsay is a reference to her, and that the commercial is supposed to parody her life. The company that made the ad, for its part, says the name was picked as an in-joke about someone on its accounting team, while McAllister would rather do handstands and play with his toys then speak out on the issue.

Toronto Star

Thérèse Rochette (1954-2010)

By Kate Lunau - Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 11:39 AM - 4 Comments

Thérèse Rochette was born in Lanoraie, Que., a town 60 km northeast of Montreal on the St. Lawrence River, on June 6, 1954. Her father, Arthur Guèvremont, was a lumberjack; mother Antoinette stayed home with Thérèse and her brother Michel, who was older by four years. Michel remembers Thérèse as a determined child who, “once she had a goal, had to succeed.” She loved being outside, and skating was one of her favourite activities: every winter, when parts of the St. Lawrence froze over, the Guèvremont family would take to the river, which Michel calls “our skating rink.” But it was dangerous, he adds: the ice could crack, and sometimes, people drowned.

As a teenager, Thérèse struck up a relationship with Pierre, a local boy who was friends with Michel from school. The two fell in love, and talked of marriage, but their plans were cut short when, in 1975, Pierre was killed in a car crash. “She had a very hard time,” Michel says. To comfort herself, Thérèse would listen to Édith Piaf’s L’Hymne à l’amour, a song of love and loss.

It was about a year later that she met Normand Rochette, a kind-hearted man from nearby Île Dupas, Michel says. The two were married, and settled in Normand’s hometown; Thérèse took a job working with the elderly in a senior citizens’ home, and Normand, in construction. “We grew up along the St. Lawrence and we’ve never been able to leave,” says Michel, a welder, who now lives in Berthierville, just over the bridge from Île Dupas and up the river from Lanoraie.

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Canada Reborn

By Andrew Coyne - Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 11:38 AM - 48 Comments

Photograph by Brian Howell

For God’s sake don’t change the name.

Whether the Own the Podium program makes sense in overall policy terms can still be debated. The case for governments paying athletes to play games is far from clear, and it is easy to imagine all of the other uses that might have been made of the program’s $117-million budget.

But in terms of athletic excellence—winning medals—the program is an indisputable triumph. Do I need to rehearse the results? The most medals ever for Canada at a Winter Games, good for third place overall. The most gold medals of any country in these Games—indeed, more than any country has ever won at a Winter Games in their history.

As impressive was the breadth of the Canadian achievement. We medalled in nine different sports, spread amongst two dozen different athletes or teams. And lurking just off the podium, 23 fourth- or fifth-place finishers. All told, Canadians placed in the top five in 37 of the 86 events at these Games. Can any country match that?

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The Best—and Worst

By Scott Feschuk - Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 11:35 AM - 31 Comments

Passing judgment on various elements of the Vancouver Olympics using a numerical ranking from zero to 10, with zero being a complete disaster and 10 being utter perfection, would be a crude and highly superficial way of looking back on the XXI Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver.

So what are we waiting for?

11.0 Men’s. Hockey. Gold.

10.0 Canada vs. Russia. I’m sure there have been louder places to be than Canada Hockey Place for the men’s hockey quarter-finals—inside a jet engine, for instance, or across from Kirstie Alley at dinner. It was so loud I could hear the noise with my pancreas. Team Canada’s total domination over the Russian side was nice, too.

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Corey Haim Looks For Some Answers

By Jaime Weinman - Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 11:25 AM - 1 Comment

I don’t have much to say about Corey Haim, except that it’s a sad story. But here’s the main title from his 1987 flop sitcom Roomies (which he got after his breakthrough movie role in Lucas), where he co-starred with Rocky‘s Burt Young.

This promo explains what the show was about:

'Go Canada Go'

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 11:22 AM - 46 Comments

The prepared text of the Prime Minister’s reply to the Speech from the Throne.

“Thank you, Mr Speaker, for allowing me to respond to the Speech from the Throne, which was delivered last week by Her Excellency the Governor General.  But before getting into the details, I’d like to say a few words about Canada’s extraordinary results at the recent Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler.

“And, of course, I want to talk about more than just the marvellous staging of the Winter Olympics by the organizers and the warm embrace given to athletes and visitors alike by British Columbians.  I think none of us who know the west coast were surprised by that.  But, as we all know, our athletes, our young men and women, went out and set a new record for the number of gold medals ever won by any nation at a Winter Olympic Games.  Fourteen golds, Mr. Speaker.  And, of course, along with seven silvers and five bronze, 26 medals in total, that’s the most ever won by our country at the Winter Olympics.  Indeed, out of 80 countries, our athletes garnered 10 per cent of all the medals awarded.  That is an extraordinary performance.  There is no doubt that we are proud of our athletes.

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