A few more for the list

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 3:18 PM - 0 Comments

The United Church chimes in.

“We see this as a step backward at a time when Canadians need access to reliable census information to help build a more equitable and just society,” says the Rev. Bruce Gregersen, General Council Officer, Programs.

The Registered Nurses Association of Ontario and the Ontario Public School Board Association too.

"Anti-Anti-Racism"

By Jaime Weinman - Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 2:14 PM - 48 Comments

I read this last week, but it seems to have extra resonance now because of the whole Shirley Sherrod thing: blogger Ed Kilgore writes about Fox News’s obsession with the New Black Panther story and the phenomenon of “anti-anti-racism.” Kilgore is a former policy director at the middle-of-the-road, Southern-dominated Democratic Leadership Council, and he also recently turned up on some of those emails from the now-infamous liberal mailing list “Journolist.”

Anti-anti-racism is the notion that spurious charges of racism are a bigger problem than racism, but it also embraces the idea — which you hear very often from Fox News and related outlets — that the “real racists” are so-called reverse racists. Rush Limbaugh in particular spends a lot of time on this, arguing that the Panther story is part of a pattern of “payback” by the Obama administration against white America. (If it’s not part of a pattern of payback, then it’s just one of many cases that got dropped for one reason or another.)

Connected to this is the idea that white racism is no longer a major problem, and that there are organizations with a vested interest in pretending that there is. That’s what Karl Rove’s mentor Lee Atwater was saying when he talked about the coded appeals he used to appeal to white Southerners: he was arguing that because he had switched from open racial appeals to “coded” appeals that played on white fears about where their tax dollars were going, he was really “doing away with the racial problem one way or the other.” Organizations like the NAACP, which consider such ideas (like Reagan’s famous “Welfare queens” anecdotes) to be coded racism, are portrayed in this line of thought as the real cause of racial tension in the U.S.; if they’d just stop reading racism into things, the thinking goes, everything would be fine.

Now, accusations of racism probably got thrown around indiscriminately after Obama’s election — at the very least, for those of us who remember the ’90s, there’s no real sign that Obama is hated worse than Bill Clinton was. But anti-anti-racism basically posits that people are always wrong to read racism as a motive unless someone is openly, undisguisedly racist, with no code language. Except that’s never been the way racism manifests itself; even when racism was more socially acceptable, a lot of it came from people who denied up and down that they were racist. So saying that racism can never be “read in” more or less means that racism can’t be discussed.

This all culminated in Andrew Breitbart’s release of the edited Shirley Sherrod tape: it was in response, remember, to the NAACP’s call for the Tea Party to purge itself of racist elements — a call that caused at least one Tea Party spokesperson to embarrass himself completely. By releasing the tape, Breitbart was purporting to show that the NAACP supports anti-white racism and that the real problem is with them. It backfired, for once, though I don’t expect Breitbart’s career to be derailed by it; the U.S. media seems to be as eager to pick up his items as they were Matt Drudge’s items during the Clinton years. But the issue is going to go on: it’s increasingly believed in some circles that, as Ann Coulter puts it, “we don’t have racism in America anymore,” and that racism is almost always a false charge that people fling around to shut down debate about the real stories (New Black Panthers, Sherrod’s racism, or whatever it’s going to be next week).

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David Tilson will not submit to your tyranny

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 2:12 PM - 0 Comments

Whatever his concerns about previous efforts “to force Canadians to divulge detailed personal information under threat of prosecution,” Tony Clement did still, at last report, “strongly encourage” Canadians to participate in the new voluntary survey. Conservative MP David Tilson is not so encouraged.

“I’ve completed the long-form in the past and quite frankly, I don’t know why the government needs to know all that information about people,” Tilson said. “If the government sends the (new) survey to me, I won’t be completing it. Because it’s voluntary, I have no reason to be completing it.”

Col. Russell Williams, accused sex killer, makes brief court appearance

By Michael Friscolanti - Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 2:06 PM - 0 Comments

Russell Williams—the disgraced colonel accused of murder, sexual assault and dozens of perverted home invasions—is one step closer to a trial. During a brief court appearance this morning in Belleville, Ont., the former commander of Canada’s largest air force base was told that a pre-trial hearing has been scheduled for Aug. 26. Dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit, and appearing via a video link from the Napanee, Ont., jail he now calls home, Williams responded with two words: “Thank you.”

Exactly what will happen on Aug. 26 remains unclear. Despite reports that the 47-year-old plans to plead guilty, neither the Crown nor the defence is commenting on the rumours.

Today’s court appearance comes one year and one week to the day after Williams assumed command of 8 Wing/CFB Trenton, the Canadian Forces’ busiest and most strategically important air base. Police now allege that during the colonel’s six-month stint as boss, he led an elaborate and violent double life as a sexual predator. Arrested on Feb. 7, he is charged with killing two women—Marie-France Comeau, a corporal stationed on his base, and Jessica Lloyd of Belleville—and sexually assaulting two other women after sneaking into their houses. In April, he was slapped with 82 additional charges connected to a series of bizarre break-and-enters in which the thief targeted only one thing: women’s undergarments.
Williams, who appeared dejected but healthy, has yet to enter a plea.

Among those sitting in the packed courtroom today was Andy Lloyd, Jessica’s older brother. It was the first time he laid eyes on the man who allegedly murdered his little sister. “It’s something I have to do for myself,” he told reporters outside. “It’s a bit of a shock but I’m prepared for it.”

While Williams’ criminal case continues to crawl toward a conclusion, he is also the target of a civil lawsuit. His first alleged sexual assault victim—a 21-year-old woman who was blindfolded, tied to a chair, stripped naked and photographed while her baby daughter slept in a nearby room—is demanding nearly $2.5 million in damages for his “harsh, vindictive, malicious, horrific and reprehensible” conduct. The victim, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, says in her statement of claim that she has been forced to develop “certain psychological mechanisms in order to survive the horrors of the assault,” including “denial, repression, disassociation and guilt.”

The lawsuit also names Williams’ wife, Mary-Elizabeth Harriman, as a defendant. It claims that six weeks after her husband was arrested, she entered into a “secret” deal to “fraudulently” acquire his share of their Ottawa townhouse “in an effort to defeat the Plaintiff’s claims.”

Harriman, the associate executive director of the Ottawa-based Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, has not spoken publicly since her husband was charged. But in court documents, she denies any wrongdoing and insists that she paid “valuable consideration” for Williams’ stake in the home. “The timing of the transfer was not unusual given the crisis facing the marriage,” writes her lawyer, Mary Jane Binks.

In sworn affidavit signed on June 2—the day after her 19th wedding anniversary—Harriman claims that “as a result of the charges, my previously anticipated future and financial security had become jeopardized.” Along with the home, she says, Williams “transferred to me additional assets in response to my concern for my financial security as against him.”

“I had absolutely no intention whatsoever to have the matrimonial home fraudulently conveyed to me for the purpose of defeating the claims of the Plaintiff,” her affidavit continues. “At all times my intent in executing the conveyance was to provide for my financial security as against my husband.”

As part of her defence, Harriman is also asking a judge to order a publication ban on all the evidence she plans to present, including personal financial statements and further details about her work at the Heart and Stroke Foundation. “The revelation of the criminal charges against the Defendant Williams and my identity as his wife has been devastating to me,” she writes. “The publication of further particular details of my professional life, personal financial situation, and legal affairs could have a significant negative impact upon me personally and professionally.”

A hearing on the matter, originally scheduled for July 27, has been postponed until Oct. 19.

Go forth, and re-evangelize

By Stephanie Findlay - Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 2:00 PM - 0 Comments

CHANG W. LEE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Even as the Vatican deals with the fallout of the continuing sex abuse scandal, Pope Benedict XVI has announced that he is setting up a team to “re-evangelize” the West to counter the rising secularization of once-Catholic countries, including Canada.

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Helena Guergis and Rahim Jaffer cleared by RCMP

By macleans.ca - Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 1:56 PM - 0 Comments

Independent MP Helena Guergis and her husband, former MP Rahim Jaffer, have been cleared of allegations of criminal wrongdoing leveled against them this year by the RCMP, according to the couple’s lawyers. Guergis and Jaffer released statements through their lawyers on Wednesday saying the probe is finished and no further action will be taken against them. PMO spokesperson Sara MacIntyre said Guergis will not be invited to rejoin the Conservative Party caucus, and that there were “several factors” that led to her departure from cabinet and caucus. MacIntyre said the Ethics Commissioner is still looking into a letter written by Ms. Guergis to promote a company that was involved last year in discussions with Mr. Jaffer’s own business. RCMP Sergeant Stéphane Turgeon confirmed that the probe is over.

Globe and Mail

Economy slowing, says Bank of Canada

By macleans.ca - Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 1:52 PM - 0 Comments

The Bank of Canada announced Thursday that Canada’s economy is slowing since the initial burst out of recession. The bank highlighted growing risks to the country’s economy in its latest Monetary Policy Report, where it reported the global economy is recovering, but not yet self-sustaining. The bank says this year’s second-quarter growth will be less than half what it was in the first quarter, and will fall further in the third quarter of 2010 to 2.8 per cent. On Tuesday, the bank elected to raise its benchmark overnight lending rate by 25 percentage points to 0.75 per cent, the second consecutive hike after the rate sat at an emergency low of effectively zero since April 2009.

CBC

The census debate beyond Canada

By macleans.ca - Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 1:45 PM - 0 Comments

As the Canadian federal government’s decision to cancel the long version of the census questionnaire turns into an unexpected political fiasco, the gradual demise of traditional census-taking elsewhere in the world continues apace. But in Europe, at least, the reason some countries are abandoning the old-fashioned way of collecting information about their people has nothing to do with claims of government intrusiveness. According to this Economist article, the shift has to do with the availability of massive computerized data bases, which government statisticians can mine more efficiently for the sorts of facts that they used to have to ask citizens to provide directly. Scandinavia leads the trend, with Britain expected to follow soon. The US remains committed to old-school census, as do some historians and statisticians, who are alarmed by the move away from periodically surveying the populace.

Economist

Stephen Harper engages in a little cowardly vandalism

By Paul Wells - Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 1:42 PM - 0 Comments

If you click the link where Munir Sheikh’s resignation letter was posted only last night (for instance, the link in Aaron’s post), you see that the link now takes you to a one-line non-answer press release from five days earlier.

This government is that afraid of one stubborn ex-bureaucrat.

For posterity’s sake, here’s the letter, posted elsewhere.

Who loves hockey more than the queen?

By macleans.ca - Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 1:40 PM - 0 Comments

Getty Images

Atlantic Canada: Asked to rate their level of pride in a number of Canadian institutions and features, Atlantic Canadians picked the flag, with 93 per cent saying it makes them moderately to very proud. The Canadian Forces (82 per cent) and hockey (79) followed close behind. The monarchy finished last, with 40 per cent saying it makes them moderately to very proud.

Quebec: Quebecers seem to think their debt levels are just about right—14.9 per cent believe their personal debt will increase in the next six months, compared to the national average of 20.7 per cent. But only 29.2 per cent believe their personal debt will decrease, the lowest percentage in the country.

Ontario: People from Ontario don’t like to admit it. Only three per cent introduce themselves as being from Ontario to someone they’ve not met before. Or maybe they’re just more patriotic, since 97 per cent of them introduce themselves as Canadians first (compared to 72 per cent for the nation as a whole, and a mere 32 per cent for Quebecers).

Manitoba/Saskatchewan: Parents in these two provinces are most likely to send their children away for at least part of the summer, with 61 per cent planning to pack them off to a relative’s house.

Alberta: Does this mean a fall election? Just over 50 per cent of Canadians think the federal government is headed in the right direction. The number is highest in Alberta, at 60.7 per cent.

British Columbia: Seventy per cent of B.C. residents plan to cut back on restaurant meals, snack foods and live sporting events now that the 12 per cent HST is in effect. And more than half said they plan to do more shopping in Washington state now that B.C. residents can apply for a sales-tax exemption there.

SOURCES: Angus Reid, Nanos, Angus Reid, Ipsos Reid, Ekos, Ipsos Reid.

Fanfare for the Commonwealth

By Patricia Treble - Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 1:40 PM - 0 Comments

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When Kamalesh Sharma, the Commonwealth’s secretary-general, met Sen. Hugh Segal during a June visit to Ottawa, the Canadian politician thought it was for a chat about the 54-nation group, of which he’s an outspoken proponent. Instead, it was a discreet job interview. Last week, Sharma announced Segal was one of 10 members of the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group (EPG), tasked with setting out “decisive recommendations on how to strengthen the Commonwealth” and ensure it “remains relevant to its times.”

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The long form long list

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 1:34 PM - 0 Comments

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce dips a toe in the pool of concern.

“We supported the previous system because it provided Canadian businesses with accurate statistical data to use in their planning,” Kathryn Anderson, director of communications with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said in an e-mail. “If the government proceeds to make completion of the long form voluntary, we will want to see what measures it will implement to ensure that the data generated by the census are comprehensive and reliable.”

For those of you scoring at home, you can add the town of Smith Falls to the list of those opposed, alongside provincial governments in Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Prince Edward Island, representatives from the United Way, Canadian Labour Congress, Toronto Board of Trade, Canadian Nurses Association and Canadian Public Health Association, city officials in Edmonton, Calgary and Red Deer, Ottawa city council, former clerk of the Privy Council Alex Himelfarb, the chief economist of the Greater Halifax Partnership, the French Language Services Commissioner of Ontario, the executive director of the Société franco-manitobaine, the Canadian Medical Association Journal, the Canadian Jewish Congress and the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association, the Quebec Community Groups Network, the president of the CD Howe Institute, the Canadian Council on Social Development, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, the director of Toronto Public Health, Mr. Census, the Statistical Society of Canada, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the Canadian Marketing Association, the Canadian Federation of Francophone and Acadian Communities, the Executive Council of the Canadian Economics Association, the director of the Prentice Institute at the University of Lethbridge, the senior economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, the Canadian Institute of Planners, the Canadian Association for Business Economics, the co-chairman of the Canada Census Committee, Ancestry.ca, the Canadian Association of University Teachers and the former head of Statistics Canada. Not to mention, the man who was, until last night, Canada’s chief statistician.

Fraud charges against Gillani dropped

By macleans.ca - Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 1:24 PM - 0 Comments

Nazim Gillani, the Toronto-based businessman whose connections to Rahim Jaffer set off a series of lobbying investigations into the activities of Jaffer and Helena Guergis, has been cleared of fraud charges. The judge and prosecutor in the wire fraud case against Gillani say there was no reasonable prospect of convicting Gillani. Gillani testified before a Commons committee that he nurtured a business relationship with Jaffer in a bid to land government contracts, allegations the former Conservative MP denied.

CBC News

North Korea bristles over foreign military drills

By macleans.ca - Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 1:21 PM - 0 Comments

North Korea is getting increasingly agitated at the United States and South Korea’s plans to conduct a naval exercise in the Sea of Japan later this week. The military maneuvers are expected to involve 20 ships, 20 aircraft and 8,000 personnel over 4 days. “The decision to hold military drills is a major danger for the security of the region,” said a North Korean official, Ri Tong-il, reported the BBC. The North Korean comments came just a day after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced new sanctions on the country, following an investigation that linked the sinking of the Cheonan ship with Pyongyang. North Korea disputes the U.S. sanctions and says that they violate a UN statement released after the incident in March. North Korea and China object to the foreign military drills.

BBC News

StatsCan chief resigns in outrage

By macleans.ca - Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 1:06 PM - 0 Comments

Munir Sheikh, the head of Statistics Canada, published a public letter Wednesday evening which lambasted the Harper government’s plan to change the mandatory long-form census to voluntary. In the letter, Sheikh also tendered his resignation. Sheikh, a world renowned statistician, was reportedly compelled to write the letter after Industry Minister Tony Clement said that he and StatsCan believed that a voluntary census would suffice. “I want to take this opportunity to comment on a technical statistical issue which has become the subject of media discussion … the question of whether a voluntary survey can become a substitute for a mandatory census,” Sheikh wrote. “It can not,” he concluded. “Under the circumstances, I have tendered my resignation to the prime minister.” Sheikh’s resignation will make it difficult for the Tories to move forward with their proposed census changes. But despite growing opposition to the census changes, the Harper government has yet to announce a new census strategy.

Globe and Mail

Boney M censored in the West Bank

By macleans.ca - Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 1:01 PM - 0 Comments

Boney M, the 1970s disco group lead by Maizie Williams, was told not to sing one of their biggest hits at a concert in the West Bank on Wednesday. Williams says the Palestinian concert organizers warned her not to sing “Rivers of Babylon.” and she doesn’t know “if it was a political thing or what.” The song’s chorus quotes from the Book of Psalms, referring to the exiled Jewish people’s desire to return to Israel. Palestinians dispute the right of the Jews to return to land they say belongs to them. The organizers told Williams the song is “inappropriate.”

Jerusalem Post

How to kill a patent troll

By Colin Campbell - Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 1:00 PM - 0 Comments

After wrangling a $600-million settlement from Research in Motion in 2006, the patent-holding firm NTP filed lawsuits last week against six other big tech firms, including Apple, Motorola and Google, arguing the companies infringed on its wireless email patents. Critics say NTP is a “patent troll”—a firm that collects patents but doesn’t actually produce anything. Paul Kedrosky, a venture capitalist and blogger, argues the time has come to abolish these software and business method patents altogether.

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Canadian teen detained in Cuba after car crash

By macleans.ca - Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 12:56 PM - 0 Comments

A 19-year-old Canadian man has been stuck in Cuba for four months and is facing up to three years in a Cuban prison after getting into a car accident that he says wasn’t his fault. Cody LeCompte of Simcoe, Ont. was visiting the communist country with his mother Dannette in April when the pair’s rented Hyundai was “broadsided” by a truck at an intersection. After the accident, police detained LeCompte in his hotel room because Cuban law requires drivers to prove in court that they are not at fault for an accident causing injury. His single mother is in Cuba alongside him, waiting for a court date to be set. She says she’s spent $30,000 on lawyers and other costs related to the four month extended stay. A Foreign Affairs Canada spokesperson told the Toronto Sun that it will not interfere in the judicial process of a foreign country. LeCompte will have to wait for a trial.

Canoe

Learning Islamic finance

By Julia Belluz - Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 12:40 PM - 0 Comments

MOSAB OMAR/REUTERS

Starting in September, students can enrol in Canada’s first university course in Islamic finance. Walid Hejazi, the professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management who is developing the three-day program to begin in January 2011, says it will cater to executives who “want to get an edge to differentiate themselves.” Participants will study sharia-compliant financial instruments (Islamic law prohibits usury), as well as the legal and tax implications of Islamic finance.

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Theft? There's an app for that.

By Kate Lunau - Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 12:40 PM - 0 Comments

Getty Images

Over one million people packed the streets during Toronto’s Pride Parade on July 4. One of them took off with Ren Bostelaar’s iPhone. Bostelaar was manning a tent for Henry’s, the Toronto camera store where he works as a senior training specialist. “My phone was low on juice, so I’d plugged it in at the back of the tent,” says Bostelaar, 27. “I figured it’d be safe,” but someone reached down, grabbed it and disappeared into the crowd.

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Inception: It's like I dreamed about a guy who didn't know what dreams are like

By Paul Wells - Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 12:32 PM - 0 Comments

The big problem with Inception is that it’s a 21st-century heist movie. I’m going to try to get through this without spoilers, but basically one tycoon needs to get another tycoon to do something, so he turns to a rag-tag team of mercenaries. They spend half the movie figuring out a plan to get Tycoon B to do the thing in question, and the other half of the movie executing the plan. It doesn’t quite go according to plan. They must improvise. Gee, I didn’t see that coming.

And the plan is ridiculously ornate. Really all they needed to do was kidnap Tycoon B, shoot him in the kneecaps, and yell at him. But then the movie would be 10 minutes long and it would have no CGI footage of Paris folding up like origami. And then where would we be?

Basically we’d be in The Score, to me the ridiculous progenitor of the ridiculous 21st-century heist movie, with Robert De Niro as a Montreal jazz-club owner (don’t get me started) who needs something fancy out of the Montreal customs house, assembles a rag-tag team of mercenaries, and spends many times more money on his ridiculously ornate plan than the fancy thing in the customs house is worth. You had the same thing, with better clothes, in Soderbergh’s assorted Danny Ocean movies and in that thing with the Minis in the subway (again with Edward Norton. No wonder he always looks scruffy: his profit margins are no good.)

Anyway, Christopher Nolan has now taken it to the point where, if we need something fancy out of the customs house, we need multiple dream dimensions, Paris folding like a pipe cleaner, freight trains down the Champs Elysées, what have you. Where, again, all he had to do was kneecap the mark and he’d be good to go.

The other big problem with Inception is that it is rigorously faithful to the logic of the dream worlds it creates. It is an exquisite little puzzle box, gears within wheels, all pristine, all following the rules everyone keeps explaining to Ellen Page in all the endless tell-me-doctor scenes. If they tell you in the first reel how a dream behaves, you can rest assured that in the helter-skelter final reel, the dreams will actually follow those rules. Which is nuts, because when did a dream ever follow rules? You’re talking to your neighbour and suddenly he’s a chipmunk, and then you’re onstage with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers at Budokan but you’re wearing a dress and you don’t know the tune they’re playing, and then you’re falling and mmmmm, custard pie. That’s how a dream works. Nolan’s dreams are like one long Ph.D. thesis defence.

I can’t imagine the story pitch: “And then they have these things called ‘Dreams.’ A dream is an extremely linear experience that follows a half-dozen rules faithfully…” At that point any self-respecting executive would have said, “Get back to us when you figure out what a dream is actually like.” Which is why it took Christopher Nolan to make this film: You needed a director of such stature that studios would swallow his most absurd premises.

Anyway, as usual, the lighting was superb.

China's major golf complex

By Stephanie Findlay - Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 12:20 PM - 0 Comments

Darren Carroll/Getty Images

This October, the Mission Hill golf club on Hainan Island, China, is hosting a pro-am event, the Mission Hills Star Trophy, where celebrities like Matthew McConaughey, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Phelps are expected to attend and professional golfers can win a US$1.28-million top prize.

This is no ordinary golf club, though. The billion-dollar property currently boasts six courses (the plan is to build a total of 10), 525 hotel rooms, an adventure park, a man-made beach, and what has been described as maybe the world’s biggest collection of women aged 18 to 24, with 3,000 young female caddies currently living on-site.

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An iPhone can save a child?

By Chris Sorensen - Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 12:00 PM - 0 Comments

Getty Images

So-called “CrackBerry” addicts and their iPhone-crazed equivalents often seem to care more about their devices than the people around them. But as part of a new public safety campaign, General Motors thinks it has found a way to turn that boorish behaviour into a 21st-century life-saving tool.

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A solar plan overheats

By Kate Lunau - Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 12:00 PM - 8 Comments

DENIS BALIBOUSE/REUTERS

In Ontario, a plan to subsidize homeowners’ solar panels has been too popular. Earlier this month, admitting participation has “vastly surpassed expectations,” the Ontario Power Authority cut the price it pays for power generated from ground-based solar panels. Through the microFIT Program, it had been offering 80.2 cents per kilowatt hour over a 20-year period—about 20 times the going rate for power. Now, under a proposed adjustment, ground-mounted projects of 10 kilowatts or less would get 58.8 cents per kilowatt hour.

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