Cheap at half the price

By Josh Dehaas - Thursday, July 29, 2010 at 8:40 AM - 0 Comments

Getty Images

The best way to help Denmark’s unemployed immigrants? “If we want to get them out of the ghettos we will have to pay them less,” said Karsten Lauritzen, a member of the coalition-leading centre-right party Venstre and a spokesman for Danish prime minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen.

Unemployment is high among Denmark’s 450,000 immigrants. Supporters say businesses would be more likely to take chances on new employees, who may have shaky Danish, if they can pay them less than the 100 krone ($17.80) per hour starting wage. If Lauritzen gets his way, employers would be allowed to pay a starting wage of half that, 50 krone ($8.90) per hour.

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Geert Wilders goes global

By Jane Switzer - Thursday, July 29, 2010 at 8:20 AM - 0 Comments

BEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images

Controversial Dutch Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders last week announced his intention to spread his “stop Islam, defend freedom” message across the West via international alliances in an effort to ban sharia law and immigration from Islamic countries. Wilders told reporters on July 15 the movement would initially launch in the U.S., Canada, Britain, France and Germany later this year. Though it is starting at a grassroots level, Wilders said he hopes the initiative will eventually influence legislators, or spawn its own lawmakers.

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The Moldovans are coming!

By Patricia Treble - Thursday, July 29, 2010 at 8:00 AM - 0 Comments

Konstantin Chernichkin/Reuters

It is now easier than ever for Moldovans to flee the poorest nation in Europe. Neighbouring Romania just opened two consulates to keep up with the crushing demand for passport applications under a special Romanian decree. And that has the European Union worried about a flood of Moldovans legally entering its economically struggling area.

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Brad goes to the Wall for MS miracle cure

By Colby Cosh - Thursday, July 29, 2010 at 5:36 AM - 103 Comments

On Tuesday, the Globe‘s Patrick White discussed Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall’s announcement that he wants to set aside cash for trials of Paolo Zamboni’s “liberation therapy” for multiple sclerosis. White says that Wall’s audible “serve[s] up an uncomfortable nudge to political leaders elsewhere who have largely avoided the emotionally charged debate” over the Zamboni technique.

This is factually true. But the wording seems hard on our “political leaders”—most of whom have, and I’m just guessing here, avoided the “emotionally charged debate” because the debate is not really their business, but that of deputy ministers, health bureaucrats, foundations, and research establishments. To be sure, there is a place for improvisational, rapid-response policymaking at the top of the pyramid of state where justifiable public demand for it exists. But “the squeaky wheel gets the grease” is a dangerous maxim, full of moral hazard, and hardly a fit foundation for a system of funding scientific research. (Surely no level of hell can possibly be hot enough for opposition politicians who abuse a scientific controversy in order to establish their emotional bona fides.)

Wall’s moment of inspiration will have the effect, intended or not, of encouraging sufferers of painful, intractable illnesses like MS to besiege the Saskatchewan legislature directly with appeals for the latest internet nostrum-of-the-week. Nobody’s good intentions will stem that tide: let thy voyage unto Regina begin now, O ye with lupus, ye sore afflicted with fibromyalgia! Having conjured a research project into existence in the interests of anecdote-armed Victim A, on what grounds will Wall and his successors be able to turn away B, and C, and D?

It bothers me that Wall talks of the “hope” offered to MS patients by the Zamboni theory as if it were a virtue in itself; it seems to me that this is precisely what remains to be decided—whether the hope consciously cultivated by a handful of instant medical celebrities is fully justified, or whether it is an irresponsible, tragic delusion propagated for personal gain. It could well be either: the story of Barry Marshall reminds us that weird, unanimously heckled theories sometimes turn out to be true. The patients themselves can hardly help experiencing hope, though I rather admire the stoicism, evidently informed by experience, of one CBC.ca commenter (indeed, this may be the first cogent utterance ever made by any CBC.ca commenter):

This is the third “cure” I have seen for MS in my lifetime and it wont be long before it too is relegated to the scrap heap to lay beside the hyperbaric oxygen chamber and the snake farm. I still hope to see the one that works but this isn’t it.

How could anyone be so pessimistic? Well, even leaving aside the history of MS quackery and hype, there is no shortage of circumstantial reasons. The “liberation therapy” tag is an obvious mark of heavy con-artist and/or halfwit involvement in the publicity effort. Why not go all the way and just call the Zamboni technique “super amazing unicorn magic”? In newspaper accounts (and even in our own exemplary coverage), recipients of the therapy often report renewed energy without necessarily enjoying total relief from symptoms; this may not be a sign of the placebo effect at work, but it is certainly consistent with it. And it is hard to understand how the instantaneous improvements so often described by the “liberated” can possibly be consistent with Zamboni’s actual theory of MS etiology—i.e., that poor drainage of blood from the brain encourages, over a long term, the formation of cerebral iron deposits that then lead to immunological issues and demyelination of the nerves.

These things make you go “hmm”, and when you throw in the additions to the “hmm” list provided by a March review of the Zamboni theory published in Annals of Neurology, you start sounding a little like a downed power line. Zamboni’s study claimed to be able to distinguish the intracranial veins of MS patients from those of normal people perfectly. This is not a figure of speech: they claimed literal perfection. “They reported that only MS patients and not controls met the criteria for abnormal extracranial cerebral venous outflow. This observation perfectly overlapped with the diagnosis of MS, with a reported 100% sensitivity, 100% specificity, 100% positive predictive value, and 100% negative predictive value.” Major “hmm” points there.

The authors of the review also point out that Zamboni’s proposed etiology offers no obvious explanation for why women contract MS twice as often as men, or why incidence rates around the globe get larger with greater distance from the equator. They wonder why, if MS is a vascular disorder, it almost never appears after the age of 50. They ask why retinopathy and other known consequences of poor vein drainage aren’t statistically associated with MS. Perhaps most interestingly, they point out that sufferers of head and neck cancer have, for more than a century, been receiving a (horrifying-sounding but surprisingly inconsequential) treatment known as “radical neck dissection”, which involves, among other things, the total removal of the jugular veins. If Zamboni were right, one would have expected demyelination and MS symptoms to have been noticed in these patients immediately, or at least at some point since 1906.

There might be good answers to these questions, and, indeed, Zamboni’s angioplasty/stent approach might relieve MS symptoms for reasons having nothing to do with his theoretical ideas. But his treatment will have to do significantly better than placebo in proper trials, because angioplasties and stents come with known mortality risks. And if Zamboni and his advocates are to receive the benefit of all the hypothetical “ifs”—it might work for some reason we don’t yet understand!—then common sense demands that the “ifs” whose spear-points run in the other direction be considered: everybody who’s had “liberation therapy” might drop dead at midnight on New Year’s Eve for reasons we don’t yet understand!

A frozen piece of heaven (or hell): The Dessert Poutine

By Martin Patriquin - Wednesday, July 28, 2010 at 9:03 PM - 0 Comments

Paul Patates has lived on the same corner in the Montreal neighbourhood of Pointe St Charles for 52 years. It’s an enduringly popular spot, mostly because it does the simple things right: hand cut fries, house brewed spruce beer, steamés with just the right rubbery-weiner-meets-soggy-bun goodness. In a time of tiresome poutine haute cuisine–foie gras! Merguez sausage!–Paul’s is a lesson in straightforward perfection: pile of fries and a bag of curd cheese, topped with hot, fresh gravy. It does what a good poutine is supposed to do: thoroughly indulge that evil little part of your brain that craves salt, grease and decadence.

Which brings us to the dessert poutine, the subject of DMA’s very occasional and totally irregular summertime foodie diversion.

The restaurant began offering this absurdity in June. Owner Dany Roy says it was invented by the folks at Taylor Ice Cream Machines, apparently to capitalize on Quebec’s obsession with its signature dish. It is marketed by dairy behemoth Québon and sells for $5.60. ”Quebecers are crazy about poutine,” Roy says. “We dream about it.”

Like bagels from Toronto and governors from Alaska, the dessert poutine makes no sense whatsoever, yet is just as car-crash compelling to fathom. Start with a thick swirl of soft serve ice cream, add chocolate wafer sticks (fries!), miniature marshmallows (cheese curds!), Cracker Jack popcorn, (er, gravy stained cheese curds?) and smother it in caramel sauce, the sugary approximation of Paul’s poutine gravy. In the above picture, Patates waitress Loretta presents the dessert. “Sometimes people get a poutine for lunch and then a poutine for dessert,” Loretta, who seems to know better herself, says. “It’s mostly guys.”

The dessert poutine tastes like a tarted up caramel sundae, and goes down  so quick you almost forget about how much you’re going to hate yourself in an hour. Which is what a good poutine is supposed to do, come to think of it.

10 unexpected uses for your BBQ

By Julia Belluz - Wednesday, July 28, 2010 at 5:57 PM - 0 Comments

Photo by Anna Williams. © 2010, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. From Everyday Food, July/August 2010.

Before you limit your grilling repertoire to easy burgers and boring steaks, think again. Here are ten unexpected uses and recipe ideas for your BBQ in time for the long-weekend.

1. Grill your salad: Instead of the usual cold lettuce and vinaigrette, try tossing the salad on the BBQ for a rich and warm meal starter.

• Grilled Asparagus, Zucchini and Halloumi Salad
• Salad with Grilled Radicchio & Knob Onions
• Grilled Greek Salad
• Grilled Peach Salad with Bresaola

2. Don’t bake—barbeque your bread: Escape your overheated kitchen during the hot summer months and head outdoors to do your baking.

• No-Knead Bread On the Grill
• Better-Than-Pita Grill Bread

3. Get beyond “beer can chicken”: Succulent chicken drunk on a can of beer has become a staple of the summer BBQ. But there are other ways to pair fizzy drinks and poultry.

• Cola-can chicken
• Beer Can Turkey Breast with BBQ Gravy

4. Fire up a sandwich: No need for a sandwich press or toaster when you already have a barbeque fired-up in your back yard.

• Grilled Asparagus Wrap
• Reuben-ish Sandwich
• Grilled Lamb Sandwiches with Grilled Green Onions

5. Vegetarian grill: Though meat is synonymous with a barbeque, a firm tofu steak or even tofu-kabob can make a delicious and healthy substitute to more carnivorous fare.

• Grilled Oregano Tofu with Tomato Salsa
• Savory Tofu-on-a-stick
• Grilled tofu lettuce wraps

6. Outdoor rice: In Spain, paella is often cooked outdoors over a grill. But even Indian lamb biryani can be taken outside.

• Speedy BBQ lamb biryani
• Paella with Rabbit and Artichokes

7. Better than wood oven pizza: You don’t need to be in Italy for a classic wood oven pizza al forno. Your Canadian barbeque can finish a pizza margherita that rivals the stuff of the wood oven.

• Grilled Pizza with goat cheese, caramelized red onions, sauteed zucchini
• Grilled Pizza with Pesto and Buffalo Mozzarella
• Grilled Asparagus and Ricotta Pizza

8. BBQ dessert: Avoid running the oven for hours to make your homemade sweets and bake them in the backyard instead. With the right tools, the results are the same (or better).

• Chocolate Brownie Cake
• Prize Winning Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
• Grilled Banana Split

9. Go for grilled fruit: From spiced oranges to drunken strawberries, try finishing your meal with fruit from the grill for a smoky-caramelized flavour.

• Grilled Plum Kabobs
• Burnt Oranges With Rosemary
• Cinnamon-Grilled Peaches
• Grilled Strawberries with Pimm’s and Vanilla Ice Cream

10. And if you must have a burger…: Here are suggestions that will get you out of your beef burger rut.

• Herbed Turkey Burger
• Thai Curried Beef Burgers
• Salmon Burgers with Dill Tartar Sauce
• Lamb Burger with feta and sun-dried tomatoes

The rolling people

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, July 28, 2010 at 3:32 PM - 0 Comments

As of tomorrow morning, I’m on the road, again. In this case that means following Michael Ignatieff around southern Ontario—Thornhill, Toronto, Burlington, Stoney Creek, St. Catharines, Niagara Falls, Oakville and Mississauga. The trip concludes with a visit to Caribana where the Liberal leader will, in a party tradition that dates to Laurier, be made to jump and wine.

I last saw Mr. Ignatieff on the road nearly two years ago during the 2008 election, the result of which was a magazine story, the content of which may or may not still be relevant. I last saw Mr. Ignatieff beyond the walls of Parliament last fall, the result of which was a magazine story, the content of which may or may not still be relevant.

For the perspective of someone who is not, nor has ever been, a member of the parliamentary press gallery, the Citizen’s Matthew Pearson (full disclosure: he’s a good friend of mine) rode the Liberal bus for the first few days of this summer’s tour and came back with 1,600 words on what he saw.

Home sales level out

By Josh Dehaas - Wednesday, July 28, 2010 at 3:00 PM - 0 Comments

Getty Images

Following 16 months of gains, Canada’s housing market is finally showing a hint of weakness. Home sales slipped 8.2 per cent in June. Economists say it was an odd time for the market to run out of steam, considering the rapid job growth of the past six months. But, they add, there’s no reason to panic. Many are calling this a healthy development, a re-levelling and a return to something more sustainable.

While oversupply continues to depress prices in America—banks repossessed a record 270,000 U.S. homes this spring—Canada’s supply and demand are simply getting back to normal, says Adrienne Warren, an economist with Scotiabank. Marc Pinsonneault, senior economist with National Bank, agrees. “You saw sales going down,” notes Pinsonneault. “But you also saw new listings going down.” Pinsonneault says the June numbers are a result of Canadians starting to heed Mark Carney’s debt warnings. In March, the Bank of Canada governor cautioned Canadians that rising mortgage rates could put the squeeze on them, especially considering household debt has reached record levels.

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Wikileaks files shine a light on life in Afghanistan

By Philippe Gohier - Wednesday, July 28, 2010 at 2:51 PM - 0 Comments

Tens of thousands of pages of secret military files obtained by Wikileaks and posted online this week paint a disturbing picture of the war in Afghanistan. From the Pakistani intelligence community’s apparent cooperation with Taliban fighters to insurgents’ previously undisclosed use of heat-seeking missiles, the military logs show a conflict that has escalated dramatically since the U.S. invasion in 2001.

What the documents also reveal is the extent to which Afghanistan’s institutions are either hopelessly corrupt or altogether broken. Below, we’ve compiled some of the most telling details included in the logs (all figures are in U.S. dollars). We’ve also posted a database with all the logs online for you to add your own findings in the comments.

1,116
Percentage increase in the number of incidents classified as “enemy actions” between 2004 and 2009

32
Average number of incidents classified as “enemy actions” in 2009, per day

72
Number of attacks on Afghan forces by fellow Afghan forces between 2004 and 2009

169
Number of documents related to friendly fire incidents

46
Number of references to “decapitation” or “beheading”

252
Number of references to amputation

10
Number of incidents where amputation was termed “severe” or “traumatic”

4
Total number of times Osama Bin Laden is mentioned in the logs

$50
Street price of an AK47 in Afghanistan (2007)

$50-$70
Monthly salary of a teacher in Ghazni (2007)

Less than $120
Monthly salary of a member of the Afghan National Police (2007)

$120-$200
Amount paid by Taliban fighters to locals willing to shoot at coalition forces, per attack (2006)

$900
Monthly salary paid to the governor of Panjshir province (2007)

$1,000
Raise the governor “happily” received from President Karzai after complaining about his wages, per year (2007)

$40,000-$50,000
Bribe money required to secure “a police chief position or government position” with officials in Kabul (2008)

87
Total number of documents discussing bribes

$200
Monthly salary paid to counter-narcotics agents to eradicate poppy fields (2007)

$300
Amount paid to villagers who destroy their poppy fields, per acre (2007)

$750-$1,000
Bribes paid by local farmers to prevent the eradication of their poppy fields, per acre (2007)

$4,000
Amount paid by Taliban for 40 kg of wet opium (2009)

752
Total number of detainees at the Detention Facility in Parwan (DFIP), which replaced the Bagram Theater Internment Facility (BTIF) in late 2009 (December 2009)

16
Estimated age of a detainee held at BTIF who was initially “believed to be under the age of 15 years old” (October 2009)

Much ado

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, July 28, 2010 at 2:47 PM - 0 Comments

Conservative backbencher Jim Abbott—an MP for the last 17 years—says the census isn’t much of a controversy now, but nor was it before.

The veteran MP, who’s announced he’s not going to run in the next federal election, said the census controversy is not finding any traction among constituents in his Kootenay-Columbia riding. ”We’ve had one telephone call and the person was exasperated with people trying to make a story about nothing and that was our one telephone call.” Nor have any of his constituents expressed concerns about the census to him in the past, he says.

Leaky pipeline spills three million litres of oil into Michigan river

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, July 28, 2010 at 2:21 PM - 0 Comments

A leak in a 76-centimetre pipeline built in 1969 was detected in southern Michigan on Monday, and efforts are underway to contain and clean up 3,319,708 litres of oil that spilled into a creek that flows into the Kalamazoo River. The river is one of the state’s major waterways, and the leaky pipe carries about 30 million litres of oil daily from Griffith, Indiana, to Sarnia, Ontario. Calgary-based Enbridge Inc.’s affiliate Enbridge Energy Partners LP of Houston initially estimated that about 3,100,161 litres of oil spilled into Talmadge Creek before the company stopped the flow, but Michigan state officials maintain the 3,319,708 litres figure is correct. As of late Tuesday, oil was reported in at least 26 kilometres of the Kalamazoo River downstream of the spill. Company officials said the spill appeared to be contained and oil wouldn’t likely drift much more downstream.

Toronto Star

More than half of Canadians would back burqa ban: poll

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, July 28, 2010 at 2:15 PM - 0 Comments

More than half of Canadians think burqas should be banned in public, according to a poll for QMI Agency. The Leger Marketing online poll found 54 per cent of people surveyed said the government should follow France’s lead and not allow women to wear burqas in public for safety and transparency reasons. The web survey, conducted between July 19-22, asked 1,526 people to choose the statement that best reflects their view of France’s move to ban women from wearing a burqa in public. The sentiment was particularly strong in Quebec, where 73 per cent of respondents said they would support a ban. Older Canadians were more likely to agree with a ban, with 71 per cent of those 65 years and older choosing that option. Only 40 per cent of Canadians 18-34 years old said burqas should be banned. The survey question did not explain the difference between the burqa, the niqab and the hijab.

Toronto Sun

The state long ago stopped caring about your toilet ownership

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, July 28, 2010 at 2:04 PM - 0 Comments

Further to this, the word “toilet” does not appear on the new National Household Survey. The word “bathroom,” as in the 2006 census, appears only to note that such rooms not be counted.

According to Statistics Canada, the census last asked about toilet ownership in 1961. The question that year asked “whether there was an inside flush toilet and whether there was one or two or more.”

The Prime Minister at the time was noted nanny statist and famed Ottawa elitist John Diefenbaker.

Google to take on Facebook

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, July 28, 2010 at 2:01 PM - 0 Comments

Google is in talks to develop a broad social networking and online games service that would rival Facebook, according to insiders. Though Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt remained tightlipped on whether or not a Facebook-like site will be released, he did say in an interview this week that “the world doesn’t need a copy of the same thing,” reported the Wall Street Journal. Analysts say that Google is developing a social networking service after losing advertisers to Facebook and Twitter. The games, like Zynga’s “Farmville” which has more than 60 million players and is played on Facebook, attract billions of dollars in revenue and have attracted bigger companies into the market. Google has partnered with Zynga, a game-site, and recently bought Orkut, another social network service.

Wall Street Journal

General Motors closes last plant in Windsor

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, July 28, 2010 at 1:47 PM - 0 Comments

Five hundred workers at General Motors in Windsor will punch out for the last time on Wednesday as the company closes its transmission plant, the last of the automotive giant’s facilities that once employed 7,000 people in the city. GM used to be one of Windsor’s biggest employers, but dwindled over the years to just one remaining plant. In May 2008, the company eliminated 1,400 jobs in Windsor and announced it would close the transmission plant by the end of this month. Despite the grim news, employees persevered. In November 2009, even after they knew their plant would be closing, workers raised $160,000 for the local chapter of the United Way—15 per cent more than what they raised in 2008. GM still operates plants in Ingersoll, St. Catharines and Oshawa, Ont.

CBC

Saskatchewan to fund controversial MS treatment

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, July 28, 2010 at 1:44 PM - 0 Comments

Saskatchewan has become the first province to fund clinical trials into a controversial new treatment for multiple sclerosis pioneered by Paolo Zamboni. The Italian doctor found that MS patients had blocked veins in the neck and thorax, a condition Zamboni dubbed Chronic cerebro-spinal venous insufficiency, or CCSVI, and that administering an angioplasty to clear the veins reduced symptoms and in some cases halted progression of the disease. Until now, provincial governments have refused to weigh into the heated debate on CCSVI which has pitted the medical establishment’s call for more scientific research and MS patients’ eagerness to be tested and treated now. Premier Brad Wall’s announcement “serves up an uncomfortable challenge to political leaders elsewhere who have largely ignored the emotionally charged debate,” the Globe and Mail writes. It’s an issue with particular resonance in the province which has the highest rate of MS in the country. “There isn’t anybody who doesn’t have a family member or friend who is battling it,” Premier Wall told the paper.

Globe and Mail

A Cable Guy Takes Over At ABC

By Jaime Weinman - Wednesday, July 28, 2010 at 1:12 PM - 0 Comments

For those of us who are intrigued by the resignations and hirings of faceless TV executives (who control what we can and can’t see), last night Steve McPherson, who’s been the head of ABC since 2004, announced his resignation. This came just days before ABC’s presentation to the Television Critics Association, and a little over a month before the new season starts. It’s an awkward time for him to step down, but apparently his conflicts with his bosses, particularly his superior Anne Sweeney, became untenable. (Update: This article proposes an alternate story for why he left, though it’s not confirmed and McPherson’s lawyer told Variety that it’s all “gossip and innuendo.”)

McPherson’s tenure at ABC shows that it’s sometimes difficult to judge how well or badly an executive is doing. By some standards, he’s done very well, developing or supporting several major hits. By sheer numerical standards, though, the network’s ratings have fallen to near-NBC levels. It seems that the handful of hits — most of which are now aging — sort of distracted from the fact that the network wasn’t coming up with new shows to succeed them. Also, under McPherson, ABC had probably the most expensive development process in the business: they were known for their incredibly lavish pilots, many of which (like Pushing Daisies) created an almost-impossible standard of production values for the series to live up to.

His replacement, Paul Lee, immediately seemed like the obvious choice, given that he’s done an impressive job at ABC Family: he took a mostly-useless cable network, which had changed its name so often I’ve forgotten what it was originally, and built it into a success, with some very fine shows like Huge. (He also canceled The Middleman, which makes him an object of hatred on the internet, though.) That doesn’t mean, though, that he’s guaranteed to suceed at the bigger job. Lee rebuilt ABC Family by creating a brand that fit almost exactly between two other Disney networks: ABC is the grown-up network — so to speak — Disney Channel is the kids’ network, so ABC Family would be the transition spot, where people go when they’re too old for Disney Channel. And it can be used to plug shows on ABC, helping to build young viewers’ interest in shows that are on the big network.

That doesn’t apply as much to a big broadcast network; they have “brands” but they’re very vague, or should be. Sometimes a cable executive from a network with a very focused, tightly-branded lineup struggles with the more diverse offerings at a broadcast network: a recent example is Peter Liguori going from FX to Fox. Lee may have an easier time of it because ABC Family is more of a mainstream network, and does shows in genres that are pretty familiar on broadcast — albeit with mostly younger characters. Comedy development seems like a weaker spot for ABC Family than drama, but I don’t know how much of that is due to Lee specifically.

The final thing: with new blood at ABC, maybe this is an opportunity for someone to cut the music scoring at the network’s shows. All it takes is a few phone calls telling producers that not every scene needs to have music under it, and that the audience will get that a scene is supposed to be funny without wacky pizzicato plucking. (I’ve said before that the biggest advantage of Modern Family‘s mock-doc format is that it allowed them not to have a ton of music, a rarity at this network.) Of course, the new guy might decide he wants to put his stamp on the network by ordering even more music, which would mean shows will have 42 minutes of scoring instead of just 40.

Scott Reid Maverick Watch

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, July 28, 2010 at 12:52 PM - 0 Comments

On at least a couple of occasions over the last 15 years, the census has been a subject of debate in the House. In 1996, Deborah Grey moved a motion that sought to make “Canadian” a recognized ethnic origin—see here, here and here. In 2005, Bill S-18, which dealt with the release of census records, was debated and passed—see here and here. During debate on the latter, Conservative MP Scott Reid offered the following observation.

Mr. Speaker, I want to follow up on the suggestion that the long form be made voluntary. One concern I would have if that were to be done would be that people would exclude themselves on a non-random basis, which means that the data collected, while still true of those who filled it out, might not actually be representative any more of the population as a whole.

People are selected right now on a random basis for the long form. Given the very large number of Canadians and given that these forms are intended primarily for the purposes of data that is aggregated into very large areas–provincial levels, whole metropolitan areas, or national data–I wonder if we could simply reduce the number of people who are required to fill out the long form.

Debate rages over validity of Ansel Adams originals

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, July 28, 2010 at 12:23 PM - 0 Comments

A California construction worker has learned that 65 glass negatives he bought at a garage sale for $46 may actually be worth $207 million. After a six-month investigation, experts say the dramatic black-and-white photos of western American landscapes represent the “missing link” in Ansel Adams’s career. Rick Norsigian says he bought the photos approximately 10 years ago and has had them in a box under his pool table ever since. Experts thought the photos had been destroyed in a 1937 fire at Adams’ Yosemite National Park studio. However, the National Post reports that some are disputing the claim. “I think it’s irresponsible to claim that they’re Ansel’s,” said Matthew Adams, president of the Ansel Adams Gallery. “We think it’s a very significant claim and we think it’s not accurate.”

CTV News

National Post

U.S. and Canada continue joint Arctic mission

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, July 28, 2010 at 12:14 PM - 0 Comments

The U.S. State Department has announced a joint U.S.-Canadian venture to the Arctic to map out the seabed and prove territorial jurisdiction over the continental shelf and Arctic sea floor. The joint expedition is a continuation of a 2008 U.S.-Canada collaboration. The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy and the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Louis S. St-Laurent will participate in the mission which will be conducted from August 7 to September 3. “Both the U.S. and Canada will be collecting scientific information to satisfy the criteria for delineating the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles as set forth in the Convention on the Law of the Sea,” the U.S. Department of State said. If the criteria is satisfied, the U.S. and Canada will have rights to the governance of the area and resources, like oil and minerals, in the seabed.

CBC News

America.gov

Wildfire closes in on Kamloops, B.C.

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, July 28, 2010 at 12:06 PM - 0 Comments

About 75 homes in Kamloops, B.C. have been evacuated and 100 more families have been told they may have to leave later in the day after a rapidly spreading wildfire was sparked Tuesday night. The 30-hectare blaze started in a dry, grassy area in the southeast area of the Barnhartvale neighborhood. So far, no homes have been damaged.

CBC News

Toddler left inside hot van at Calgary casino

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, July 28, 2010 at 12:04 PM - 0 Comments

Police at a casino near Cochrane, Alta. had to break a van’s window Saturday to rescue 1-year-old girl left inside during 27 C heat. The child’s father was inside the casino at least 45 minutes when a Stoney Nakoda Resort employee noticed her. The baby was dehydrated, but otherwise unharmed. Charges are pending against the father.

CBC News

Man Booker Prize longlist of 13 books announced

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, July 28, 2010 at 11:12 AM - 0 Comments

Two Canadian authors have made it onto the longlist for the £50,000 ($80,000) Man Booker Prize for Fiction. Lisa Moore of St. John’s, N.L., was nominated for the novel February, and Emma Donoghue of London, Ont., was recognized for her novel Room. The other longlisted books include: Parrot and Oliver in America, by Peter Carey; The Betrayal, by Helen Dunmore; In a Strange Room, by Damon Galgut; The Finkler Question, by Howard Jacobson; The Long Song, by Andrea Levy; C, by Tom McCarthy; The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, by David Mitchell; Skippy Dies, by Paul Murray; Trespass, by Rose Tremain; The Slap, by Christos Tsiolkas; and The Stars in the Bright Sky, by Alan Warner. The Booker shortlist of six books will be announced Sept. 7, and then a winner will be declared on Oct. 12.

Vancouver Sun

Guardian

"Pakistan must not promote the export of terror," says Cameron

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, July 28, 2010 at 10:41 AM - 0 Comments

In a speech to Indian business leaders in Bangalore, David Cameron, the prime minister of Britain, suggested that he was close to agreeing with the Indian assertion that the authorities in Pakistan have a hand in exporting terrorism. “We cannot tolerate in any sense the idea that this country is allowed to look both ways and is able, in any way, to promote the export of terror, whether to India or whether to Afghanistan or anywhere else in the world…it is not right to have any relationship with groups that are promoting terror.” This speech comes just after the leak of thousands of war logs, many of which contain references to the support of the Taliban by Pakistan’s ISI intelligence agency. When asked whether Pakistan exports terrorism, Cameron said: “It is well documented that that has been the case in the past and it is an issue that we have to make sure that the Pakistan authorities are not looking two ways.”

Guardian