Mitchel Raphael on why the speaker of the house didn't recognize a 'great Canadian'

By Mitchel Raphael - Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 11:20 AM - 3 Comments

Ultimate Fighting champion hits the Hill
MPs from all parties joined a long lineup on the Hill to pay homage to Ultimate Fighting Championship champ and Quebec native Georges St-Pierre. Among those in line were Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe, who got an autograph for his grandson, and Liberal MP Justin Trudeau, who said he used to train in the same boxing gym as St-Pierre. MP Glenn Thibeault is a big UFC fan and also the NDP’s sports critic. Ironically, he has requested a royal commission to examine violence in sports. But the MP stresses that the difference between the UFC and, say, hockey, is that the premise of the UFC is “structured” fighting as opposed to what he calls “gratuitous” violence. St-Pierre was invited to the Hill by Heritage Minister James Moore, who calls the UFC champ “a great Canadian.” (Moore owns the UFC video game and plans to get the new edition when it hits stores.) The minister hopes that Ontario will follow the lead of British Columbia, Quebec, Alberta and other provinces where the fights are allowed. Moore had hoped to have St-Pierre recognized by Speaker Peter Milliken after question period, but then found out that also sitting in the Speaker’s gallery that day was Bogdan Borusewicz, Poland’s speaker of the Senate, and Vice-Admiral Dean McFadden, head of the Canadian navy, who was there to commemorate the centennial of the Canadian navy. Moore decided not to ask the Speaker to recognize St-Pierre so as not to upstage the other dignitaries present. That message apparently didn’t get through to some Tories who were visibly disappointed when St-Pierre wasn’t recognized. Treasury Board president and UFC fan Stockwell Day, for one, looked upset and let out a loud “aw.’” Transport Minister John Baird shouted out to St-Pierre: “I would have recognized you.”

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Insurance for Paris fare fraudsters

By Kate Lunau - Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 11:20 AM - 0 Comments

Benoit Tessier / Reuters

Sneaking onto the Paris Métro to avoid paying the fare is a tradition as old as the subway system itself—but it carries the risk of getting caught, and the prospect of a hefty fine of up to 72 euros (about $95 Canadian). Now, enterprising groups of fare dodgers are banding together to create an insurance policy of sorts: by paying into a common pot each month, they collectively cover any fines incurred by members. They’ll keep at it, they say, until Paris starts offering public transit for free.

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Week in Pictures: May 13th – 19th 2010

By macleans.ca - Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 11:17 AM - 0 Comments

Stormy weather, scary birthday

By by Barbara Amiel - Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 11:00 AM - 5 Comments

Bettmann / Corbis

I was thinking about Lena Horne at the time. “Stormy weather, since my man and I ain’t together,” which just about sums it up for me. She came to Toronto and sang that at the Prince George Hotel, which belonged to my first husband’s parents. That hotel was levelled to make way for the Toronto-Dominion towers so we could all spend lifetimes in a Hades of underground parking. Now Lena’s dead, I’m three marriages on, the sun never stops shining on my stormy weather in this subtropical state—but Lena did live till 92 and had a revival of sorts later in life.

The man on the gate phone who interrupted this train of thought said he was doing the census. I had no way of knowing who he was because the gate is miles away and it was dark out anyway. “I’m not a U.S. resident,” I replied (no point telling him the IRS says I am resident and so does the CRA—too much information), “I’m just visiting,” which I thought was polite when what I really meant was, stick it, I’m not going to fill out your damn form.

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If you liked it then you should have put a synchrotron accelerator storage ring on it: university teachers smash the CERC patriarchy

By Paul Wells - Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 10:52 AM - 58 Comments

The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) has been one of the most persistent critics of the Harper government’s science and technology policy. It was CAUT president James Turk who got yelled at and kicked out of Gary Goodyear’s office last year while attempting to critique the then-latest federal budget. Here, the organization takes a stand against the Canada Excellence Research Chairs program, which funds 19 lead investigators from around the world, to the tune of $10 million each for a 7-year research project. Rather famously, the program named 19 men and no women for the CERC chairs.

My column in the brand-new edition of our magazine, which should appear online tomorrow, paints an almost completely positive picture of the CERC program, because I spent the day talking to university administrators. The CAUT speaks for a certain chunk of the population of university teachers, who have different interests, and because I love an argument, I thought I’d post their news release in full. There’s a lot here that I don’t endorse, but here. Let’s keep the conversation going at least. — pw

“The announcement of the awarding of 19 Canada Excellence Research Chairs brings into focus ongoing concerns about the Government of Canada’s approach to scientific research. As the organization representing most of Canada’s researchers, many of whose research plans are limited by under-funding, CAUT questions the value of a program that imposes new costs on institutions and diverts resources, fails entirely to address long-standing gender equity concerns, and represents the latest in a series of attempts by the government to steer scientific research. Continue…

YouTube sells out

By Jason Kirby - Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 10:20 AM - 3 Comments

Photograph by Jessica Darmanin

Of all the racy videos that Samantha Mack, an exotic dancer from Vancouver, has posted on YouTube, she still can’t figure out why that one got banned. Earlier this month Mack uploaded a video, in which she dons a bright bustier and various bikinis, to promote a breast cancer charity event. By the carnal standards of the Internet, it was downright innocuous. Even so, 19 hours later the company sent her a message to say it was inappropriate and had been removed.

“They say YouTube is not for porn­ography, but are they considering me grabbing my boobs and saying, ‘These should be cancer free,’ to be pornography?” she asks. “I was alarmed.”

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Take your meds—if you can get them

By Tom Henheffer - Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 10:00 AM - 5 Comments

Mark Blinch / Reuters

With dozens of prescription drugs unavailable and hundreds more on back order, pharmacists in Saskatchewan are scrambling to find alternative medications for patients. “It’s worsening and there seems to be no end in sight,” says Ray Joubert, registrar with the Saskatchewan College of Pharmacists. “We need to solve it before something disastrous happens.”

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No prior experience

By Philip Slayton - Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 10:00 AM - 1 Comment

J. Scott Applewhite / AP

On Monday, President Barack Obama nominated Elena Kagan, U.S. solicitor general, to the Supreme Court of the United States. If confirmed by the Senate, Kagan will fill the vacancy created by the resignation of 90-year-old Justice John Paul Stevens. Kagan is 50. She will likely sit on the court for a very long time, still making the law of the land when Obama is off doing the obscure good works that are the lot of ex-presidents. Now the brutal confirmation process begins. Public hearings by the Senate judiciary committee will happen soon. (If the committee recommends Kagan, her confirmation by the full Senate will likely follow.) Anything can happen at the committee hearings. Justice Clarence

Thomas described his own colourful 1991 confirmation hearing as a “circus” and “national disgrace.”

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Will new rules put vision at risk?

By Anne Kingston - Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 9:40 AM - 31 Comments

Photograph by Simon Hayter

British Columbia’s Health Services Minister Kevin Falcon is clearly willing to incur the medical establishment’s wrath.

Since his surprise March 18 announcement that B.C. would deregulate eye care exams on May 1, Falcon has shown steely resolve in ignoring the condemnation of international ophthalmological societies, optometrists, the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, and the College of Physicians and Surgeons, all of whom accuse his government of putting the vision of the province—and potentially the nation—at risk.

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'This is not the hill you want to die on, for God’s sake'

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 9:21 AM - 46 Comments

Jim Prentice says there’s no need to have the auditor general review MP expenses. Jack Layton’s spokesman says it doesn’t make sense to have the auditor general review expenses. Pat Martin says it is time to open the books. Rob Anders says it’s inevitable. Shawn Murphy says it’s time for MPs to talk it over with the AG and decide the parameters of an audit.

Canadian brews up a comeback

By Tom Henheffer - Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 9:20 AM - 1 Comment

The Canadian Press

After four stagnant years, Canadian is back. The beer, brewed by Denver- and Montreal-based Molson Coors, posted a surprising five per cent jump in sales in its first quarter over the same period last year, and its overall market share is on the rise. “Over the last few years we’ve wandered away from the roots of the brand,” says Dave Perkins, president and CEO of Molson Coors Canada. Now, he says, “we’ve rediscovered our roots.”

A big part of that is a return to the patriotic brand of ad it made famous 10 years ago with its “I am Canadian” rant. The new campaign, called “Made from Canada,” proclaims that Canada has “more square feet of awesomeness per person then any other nation on earth,” and features sweeping shots of mountains cut with scenes of shinny players and cheering, snow-covered crowds.

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Bestsellers

By Brian D. Johnson - Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

Top-selling fiction and non-fiction titles (week of May 17th, 2010)

Fiction

Non-fiction

LAST WEEK (WEEKS ON LIST)

No California-clichéd Italian here

By By Jacob Richler - Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

Photograph by Sandy Nicholson

Rob Gentile wanted brains—a whole lot of them. To be exact, he wanted 800 little white ones plucked from the most innocent and unsuspecting lambs available, possessive of young, tender lobes as yet untoughened by disappointment or complicated thought. “They’re harvesting them for me now,” he told me calmly one recent afternoon in the kitchen of his downtown Toronto restaurant Buca—they being the myriad suppliers he was leaning on hard for the cause.

The thinking is that if you were to string all the little brains together and hook them up to even the smallest of watch batteries they would easily outpunch Sarah Palin thought for thought. But chef Gentile actually had something else in mind: sage, namely, and some minced rosemary, oregano, parsley and freshly ground pepper. First he will cut each brain in half and soak it in cold water to flush out the blood. Then each half-lobe will be embalmed in a blanket of prosciutto and fried crisp with a scattering of capers and foisted on the unwary public gathered at the Royal Ontario Museum on June 13 for a fundraiser called Toronto Taste.

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Making a case for the oil sands

By John Geddes - Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 9:00 AM - 12 Comments

AP Photo / Jeff McIntosh

Back in 2007, the Alberta Enterprise Group, then a new business organization, sent a delegation to Washington as its first big initiative—only to be greeted by global warming activists dressed as polar bears. Three years later and those same environmental image problems have prompted the group to shift its focus from selling Alberta abroad to shoring up its image at home. “The challenge isn’t just in Washington and Europe,” says David MacLean, the group’s vice-president, “it’s right here in our own backyard.”

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Things you always wanted to know but had no one wise enough to ask

By Scott Feschuk - Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 8:20 AM - 4 Comments

Photo Illustration by Taylor Shute

To make it as a columnist in the 21st century, you need to be willing to tackle the tough questions that confront modern society. Or you can be a white, middle-aged male.

I am all two of those things. Let’s do this.

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Not just their Big Fat Greek Funeral

By Mark Steyn - Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 8:00 AM - 200 Comments

Yiorgos Karahalis / Reuters

From the Times of London: “The President of Greece warned last night that his country stood on the brink of the abyss after three people were killed when an anti-government mob set fire to the Athens bank where they worked.”

Almost right. They were not an “anti-government” mob, but a government mob, a mob comprised largely of civil servants. That they are highly uncivil and disinclined to serve should come as no surprise: they’re paid more and they retire earlier, and that’s how they want to keep it. So they’re objecting to austerity measures that would end, for example, the tradition of 14 monthly paycheques per annum. You read that right: the Greek public sector cannot be bound by anything so humdrum as temporal reality. So, when it was mooted that the “workers” might henceforth receive a mere 12 monthly paycheques per annum, they rioted. Their hapless victims—a man and two women—were a trio of clerks trapped in a bank when the mob set it alight and then obstructed emergency crews attempting to rescue them.

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It's a tough morning if you're an Olympic mascot

By Scott Feschuk - Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 6:26 AM - 34 Comments

There hasn’t been a more disastrous debut since the opening beats of my 2 Live Crew cover band. But screw it: I don’t care what everybody else says. I like the new Olympic and Paralympic mascots. And I especially like them in this photo. They look like anthropomorphized Wii controllers being caught by the paparazzi stumbling home from an all-night bender at Super Mario’s. What? Gay? Us? Run!

Wait - why run when we can... levitate!

According to 2012 Olympic mythology, Wenlock (left) and Mandeville were inanimate objects that came to life one day when they were exposed to the beams of a rainbow – which is a nice little tale, and also exactly how we ended up with Clay Aiken. Kids will love them because Continue…

How smart is your city?

By macleans.ca - Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 5:15 AM - 5 Comments

The Canadian Council on Learning has scorecards for over 4,500 cities and communities in Canada with five years worth of results and trends—plus interactive maps and charts to help you compare your city/town to one next door or one on the other side of the country. Find your city/town now.

RELATED ARTICLES
Canada’s smartest cities 2010: With learning mostly stalled, is your city a bright spot? | Overall rankings
Why does Montreal rank so poorly? | Canada’s most cultured cities
Surprising Saskatoon | Canada’s most socially engaged cities
Canada’s most wired cities | Canada’s most active cities

Canada's most wired cities

By macleans.ca - Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 5:00 AM - 3 Comments

Source: Statistics Canada, special tabulation, unpublished data, Survey of Household Spending, 2008. Note: Unless indicated, data reflects Census Metropolitan Areas.
Source: Industry Canada’s Broadband Office, 2007.
* Data for these cities only available at the economic region level.

CLI Measure: Proportion of Canadian households reporting annual expenditures on Internet services in the home.
CLI Measure: Proportion of Canadian households with access to broadband internet service, including wirless, digital subscriber line (DSL), or cable.


RELATED ARTICLES
Canada’s smartest cities 2010: With learning mostly stalled, is your city a bright spot? | Overall rankings
Why does Montreal rank so poorly? | Canada’s most cultured cities
Surprising Saskatoon | Canada’s most active cities

Surprising Saskatoon

By Claire Ward - Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 5:00 AM - 3 Comments

Photograph by Nayan Sthankiya

The Tragically Hip’s Gord Downie may have been on to something when he famously referred to Saskatoon as the “Paris of the Prairies.” In 2010, Saskatoon emerged as a leading centre of culture and learning, ranking second overall in the Canadian Council on Learning’s Composite Learning Index, beating Ottawa and Calgary, and finishing well ahead of Toronto. Behind that ranking are some surprising revelations about Saskatoon, which topped the list as the most socially engaged, and is one of the most literate cities in Canada.

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Canada's most active cities

By macleans.ca - Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 5:00 AM - 1 Comment

Source: Statistics Canada, special tabulation, unpublished data, Survey of Household Spending, 2008. Note: Unless indicated, data reflects Census Metropolitan Areas.
* Data for these cities only available at the economic region level.

CLI Measure: Proportion of Canadian households reporting annual expenditures on sports and recreation facilities.

RELATED ARTICLES
Canada’s smartest cities 2010: With learning mostly stalled, is your city a bright spot? | Overall rankings
Why does Montreal rank so poorly? | Canada’s most cultured cities
Surprising Saskatoon | Canada’s most socially engaged cities | Canada’s most wired cities

Why does Montreal rank so poorly?

By Nancy Macdonald - Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 5:00 AM - 51 Comments

THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Graham Hughes

It’s hard to imagine that cosmopolitan Montreal, with its feted music scene, mountains of arts funding, work-to-live inclination and literary sensibility, would place anywhere but at the very top of a list of Canada’s Most Cultured Cities. An even bigger surprise is to find it near the bottom.

True, cultural opportunities abound in Montreal. There’s the world-class Montreal Symphony Orchestra, L’Orchestre Métropolitain, L’Opéra de Montréal, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, a half-dozen music festivals, including the Montreal International Jazz Festival and Pop Montreal, and no fewer than a dozen museums.

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Canada's most cultured cities

By macleans.ca - Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 5:00 AM - 9 Comments

Source: Statistics Canada, special tabulation, unpublished data, Survey of Household Spending, 2008. Unless indicated, data reflects Census Metropolitan Areas.
* Data for these cities only available at the economic region level.

CLI Measure: Proportion of Canadian households reporting annual expenditures on printed reading material.
CLI Measure: Proportion of Canadian households reporting annual expenditures on live performing arts.
CLI Measure: Proportion of Canadian households reporting annual expenditures on admissions to museums and other activities.

RELATED ARTICLES
Canada’s smartest cities 2010: With learning mostly stalled, is your city a bright spot? | Overall rankings
Why does Montreal rank so poorly? | Surprising Saskatoon
Canada’s most socially engaged cities | Canada’s most wired cities
Canada’s most active cities

Canada's most socially engaged cities

By macleans.ca - Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 5:00 AM - 0 Comments

Sources:
Statistics Canada, Canadian Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating, 2007
Canadian Council on Learning, Survey of Canadian Attitudes toward Learning, 2008
Statistics Canada, special tabulation, unpublished data, Survey of Household Spending, 2008
Note: Unless indicated, data reflects Census Metropolitan Areas.
* Data for these cities only available at the economic region level.

CLI Measure: Proportion of Canadian engaged in unpaid work as part of a group or organization
CLI Measure: Proportion of Canadians who socialized with people from other cultures a minimum of a few times a month.
CLI Measure: Proportion of Canadian households reporting spending on membership in or contributions to social clubs or organizations.

RELATED ARTICLES

Canada’s smartest cities 2010: With learning mostly stalled, is your city a bright spot? | Overall rankings
Why does Montreal rank so poorly? | Canada’s most cultured cities
Surprising Saskatoon | Canada’s most wired cities | Canada’s most active cities