Reading between the lines of Garry Breitkreuz’s gun registry column

By Scott Feschuk - Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 4:54 PM - 0 Comments

Louis Andre Gregoire replaces a shotgun in the rack in a downtown Montreal outdoor store. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson

Why the gun registry needs to go.

- published Aug. 30 at The Mark

The media war over the hotly contested long-gun registry is in full swing, and it isn’t pretty. The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) is lobbying hard to keep our tax dollars flowing into the black hole that is the registry.

Goddamn those police chiefs – haven’t they see the Star Trek reboot? Those black holes are spooky. Spock fiddled with that damn red matter and, boom, suddenly there’s a black hole and they’re getting thrown back in time. I don’t have the sideburns to make it through the 1970s again!

Taxpayers should be incensed at the CACP for co-opting the role of policy-maker. When law enforcement managers try to write the laws they enforce, history has taught us we risk becoming a state where police can dictate our personal freedoms.

Happily, this hasn’t happened yet, so Garry Breitkreuz still has Continue…

And how then shall we defend ourselves against the British invaders?

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 3:50 PM - 0 Comments

While lamenting the “media war” and the “political aggravation” surrounding the gun registry, Conservative MP Garry Breitkreuz frets for our impending police dictatorship.

When law enforcement managers try to write the laws they enforce, history has taught us we risk becoming a state where police can dictate our personal freedoms … Why are the police chiefs so strident in their quest to keep the registry in place? They won’t admit it, but it appears they don’t want Canadians to own guns. To that end, they need a database that will help them locate and seize those firearms as soon as a licence or registration expires.

Gemini Nominations Announced

By Jaime Weinman - Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 3:13 PM - 0 Comments

The Gemini awards for outstanding achievement in Canadian television have been announced; Toronto Life has a non-PDF list of nominees. Flashpoint and Less Than Kind are among the most-nominated shows. Among non-nominated shows, Being Erica is one of the more surprising omissions (the five drama nominees are Durham County, Flashpoint, The Tudors, Republic of Doyle and Stargate Universe).

Also, while Dan For Mayor made the list of comedy nominees, CTV’s other comedy, Hiccups, did not; while Dan is much the more deserving of the two, this omission on top of Corner Gas‘s final-season Gemini snub suggests that Brent Butt has some kind of Gemini Awards hard luck (though in this case it could simply be a strict question of merit). Among the shows that did get nominated in that category, I feel like Little Mosque is kind of coasting at this point.

Climate change skeptic to push for $100-billion annually to fight warming

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 2:19 PM - 0 Comments

Bjørn Lomborg, once compared to Adolf Hitler by UN climate chief Rajendra Pachauri, will publish a book next month that calls climate change “one of the chief concerns facing the world today.” The Danish economist, once considered a thorn in the side of environmentalists everywhere, has even picked up an endorsement from Pachauri for his new book, Smart Solutions to Climate Change. Lomborg says the book is not an about face as some critics have called it; he has always believed in man-made global warming. What’s new is his belief that it is possible and worthwhile to reverse warming by spending money. Lomborg examined 15 possible policies to fight climate change and asked five economists to rank the policies on effectiveness. With carbon taxes at the bottom of their lists and spending on research and development high on their lists, Lomborg concludes that governments should abandon the taxes and spend $100-billion a year on developing technologies to reverse warming instead.

Guardian

RCMP accused of spying on prison sex

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 2:14 PM - 0 Comments

In Kamloops, B.C., seven people, including four RCMP officers, allegedly watched two women having sex on closed circuit cameras and did not do anything to stop them. Guards have an obligation to stop sexual activity among detainees, said a Kamloops RCMP Staff Sergeant to the Toronto Star. An investigation is being conducted by the Kamloops RCMP and the RCMP headquarters in B.C. over the incident, which took place on August 18. However, critics note that after recent scandals the public is skeptical of the RCMP’s internal investigations.

Toronto Star

Afghan bomb attack kills 21 soldiers in 48 hours

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 2:04 PM - 0 Comments

A series of bomb attacks in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, have killed 21 American soldiers in 48 hours. The attacks, which began Friday, leave the death-toll of the NATO coalition at 484. This year, the total number of deaths is expected to surpass last year’s total of 521. The coalition says the increasing numbers are because of an influx of insurgent reinforcements. Lately, the Taliban is using homemade bombs made from old shells and homemade explosives concealed in roads, tracks, walls, streams and buildings.

The Telegraph

TIFF: an itch-free film festival after all

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 1:57 PM - 0 Comments

The glitzy Toronto International Film Festival is safe from a bedbug infestation after all. Following fears that the downtown Toronto Scotiabank Theatre was infested—prompted by a moviegoer’s tweet that she was bitten by bedbugs at the site—an investigation with sniffing dogs was conducted. Cineplex Entertainment, which runs the Scotiabank Theatre, declared that the TIFF venue is pest-free. “At Cineplex, the safety and security of our guests and staff are our number one concern, which is why we took this claim very seriously and acted immediately,” said Pat Marshall, VP of communications at Cineplex. The theatre will host thousands of film fest patrons for movie screenings from Sept. 9-19.

Hollywood Reporter

GDP growth hits a speed bump

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 1:38 PM - 0 Comments

Canada’s economic growth slowed in the second quarter due to reduced household spending and an uptick in the country’s trade deficit. Statistics Canada announced Tuesday that GDP growth had slowed to two per cent from the 5.8 per cent growth registered in the first quarter. The lower-than-expected growth figures—analysts predicted Canada’s GDP would grow at a 2.5 per cent clip—is expected to ease the pressure on Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney to raise interest rates. “Momentum in growth has waned,” Derek Holt, an economist at Bank of Nova Scotia’s Scotia Capital unit told Bloomberg, “but the report still signals a domestic economy that is in fairly good shape.”

Bloomberg

Review concludes Vancouver safe injection site is effective

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 1:34 PM - 0 Comments

An article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal reviewing the history and effectiveness of Vancouver’s safe-injection site has concluded that the facility reduces needle sharing, cuts overdose deaths and allows for addiction treatment. Its authors are also urging the federal government to give up its Supreme Court of Canada challenge aimed at shutting the facility down. Insite opened in 2003 in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, allowing drug users to inject their own heroin under the supervision of a nurse. The Conservative government has been long opposed to the site, arguing that it fosters addiction. The B.C. Supreme Court and B.C.’s Appeal Court both ruled that the site is a health care facility that is under the province’s jurisdiction, and should operate with federal government money. The Supreme Court of Canada is expected to hear arguments on the issue later this year.

CBC

‘If we can find a way to move forward’

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 1:33 PM - 0 Comments

In the wake of Jack Layton’s announcement yesterday, Charlie Angus, one of the dozen NDP MPs whose votes will decide the fate of the gun registry, doesn’t seem entirely committed to voting for C-391 on third reading. But Jim Maloway, who has repeated his intention to vote for C-391, is unmoved.

Regardless, said Maloway, he still plans to vote with Hoeppner. ”Nothing there changes my view on the long-gun registry,” said Maloway.

He also said Layton’s proposal is too little too late. ”This bill just went through committee last spring,” said Maloway. “Where were all these amendments at the committee?”

Obama to announce end of U.S. combat mission in Iraq

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 1:28 PM - 0 Comments

U.S. President Barack Obama headed to Texas to thank troops at a military base ahead of a speech Tuesday in which he will declare the end of America’s seven-year-long combat mission in Iraq. Though U.S. presidents rarely make addresses from their official office, it will be Obama’s second time since mid-June, when he addressed the nation about the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Obama vowed to withdraw all but 50,000 U.S. troops by Aug. 31, a reduction of about 90,000 forces by the end of his first 20 months in office. A White House spokesperson repeatedly brushed aside questions about whether Obama would credit Bush’s troop surge with helping to pave the way for the withdrawal, as he was a vocal opponent to former President George Bush’s plan to boost U.S. troop strength by thousands in 2006.

CBC

North Korea news agency hints at Kim Jong-il’s successor

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 1:14 PM - 0 Comments

North Korea’s state news agency confirmed leader Kim Jong-il’s recent trip to China, heightening speculation that Kim is preparing to appoint his youngest son as heir. His latest trip came days ahead of a Workers party assembly, which some analysts think will be used to indicate that he wants his son Kim Jong-un to follow him as leader. The last such gathering took place in 1980, and was used to signal that Kim Jong-il had been chosen as successor, naming him to a senior position in the party. He took power when his father died 14 years later, in 1994. Media in North Korea and China did not mentioned Kim Jong-un in their reports, despite earlier rumours that he had accompanied his father to China.

Guardian

Somewhere Stephane Dion nods quietly

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 12:35 PM - 0 Comments

Bjorn Lomborg, not a leader.

The world’s most high-profile climate change sceptic is to declare that global warming is “undoubtedly one of the chief concerns facing the world today” and “a challenge humanity must confront”, in an apparent U-turn that will give a huge boost to the embattled environmental lobby…

In a Guardian interview, he said he would finance investment through a tax on carbon emissions that would also raise $50bn to mitigate the effect of climate change, for example by building better sea defences, and $100bn for global healthcare.

Saskatchewan will pay private clinic for surgeries

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 11:45 AM - 0 Comments

The Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region is booking surgeries at the private Omni Surgery Centre, saying that use of the private clinic will help reduce wait times. The clinic will charge the government about 11 per cent less per knee surgery than the local hospital, allowing the province to do more surgeries. Health Minister Don McMorris said that because no one will be allowed to pay to jump the queue, the public health care system will remain intact. The opposition NDP has called the move “a step down the road” to privatization. The Saskatchewan Union of Nurses has also expressed concern.

CBC

Jellyfish found by girl in Manitoba lake

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 11:42 AM - 0 Comments

A girl in eastern Manitoba discovered dozens of jellyfish swimming in Star Lake at Whiteshell Provincial Park. The girl and her family scooped one up with a jar and brought it to the University of Winnipeg for further investigation. It turned out to be the Craspedacusta sowerbyi, a freshwater jellyfish from China that has been observed in many U.S. states and parts of eastern Canada, but never before in Manitoba. U of W biologist Eva Pip told CBC News that the species may be a “red flag,” for the environment. “It shows how disrupted the ecosystems are now everywhere, and especially freshwater,” said Pip.

CBC

Will Toronto have an itch-free film festival?

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 11:38 AM - 0 Comments

Not even the glitzy Toronto International Film Festival is safe from the bedbug infestation that is sweeping Canada. A moviegoer recently tweeted that she thinks she got bedbug bites at a downtown Toronto movie theatre, where thousands of film fest patrons will screen movies from Sept. 9-19. Shortly after the Tweet, TIFF co-director Cameron Bailey wrote on his
Twitter account that the staff at the venue in question, the Scotiabank Theatre, is going to investigate and stamp out the problem. “Before bedbugs becomes today’s meme: we’re on it, we’re talking to Cineplex & are planning for an itch-free (festival),” wrote Bailey.

Toronto Star

Lap dancers are more than just pretty faces

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 11:26 AM - 0 Comments

Academic research from the University of Leeds has found that one in four women who work as a lap dancer in Britain has a university degree, while one in three women were in some form of education, with about 14 per cent working to fund an undergraduate course and about six per cent to fund a postgraduate degree. The majority of dancers like their work, and say they were not pressured into the job. Instead, they chose lap dancing for the money or because it complemented their main careers. “These young women do not buy the line that they are being exploited, because they are the ones making the money out of a three-minute dance and a bit of a chat,” said Dr. Teela Sanders, one of the researchers on the year-long study. On average, a lap dancer took home 232 pounds for a shift after paying the club commission and fees, giving most an annual income of between 24,000 and 48,000 pounds.

The Province

Multiple Sclerosis severity might change with seasons

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 11:21 AM - 0 Comments

By comparing brain scans of patients with weather patterns, U.S. researchers have found that patients show higher levels of disease activity in the spring and summer, the BBC reports, which could have implications for testing new medicines that might show different results in different times of year. While it isn’t clear why warm weather might be a factor, other studies have suggested that vitamin D from the sun could have a protective effect against MS, which is a long-term inflammation of the central nervous system. By comparing MRI brain scans of 44 people (from 1991 to 1993) with temperature, solar radiation and precipitation over the same time, they found that lesions were up to three times more likely to appear in warmer spring and summer months. Adults with untreated MS had eight weekly scans, then eight scans each two weeks, then six monthly checkups, averaging 22 scans per person; after one year, 310 new brain lesions were found in 31 people.

BBC

Brisk walks can help prevent cancer

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 11:11 AM - 0 Comments

Experts in the UK are reporting that about 10,000 cases of breast and bowel cancer could be prevented every year if people did more brisk walking, the BBC reports. In fact, any moderate exercise should achieve the same results: 45 minutes a day cold prevent about 5,500 cases of breast cancer, they say, stressing that the total time spend active is crucial. Cycling or swimming at a leisurely pace, dancing, gardening, and housework could all be included in this category, the World Cancer Research Fund says in its report.

BBC

The inexperienced lifer

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 11:05 AM - 0 Comments

Over the weekend, Jeffrey Simpson lamented for the lifers he sees as presently dominating federal politics. He defined a lifer as one who has been involved for a long period of time at any level of politics, not just as a candidate or elected representative. In this way, for instance, Mr. Harper is a lifer because he has been involved in politics since the mid-80s.

The academic research in this regard—though Simpson’s definition complicates a direct comparison and his focus on party leaders is relevant—has generally raised the alarm about the exact opposite concern: that our MPs have too little experience and are too prone to turnover. To wit. Continue…

Great split-seconds in rock history

By Scott Feschuk - Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 10:26 AM - 0 Comments

Since the Internet was created solely to aid in our workplace procrastination, thereby undermining our collective productivity and allowing the less advantaged citizens of China and India to gain economic ground in pursuit of the same middle-class fulfillment that drives many of us to the ritual use of psychotropic drugs, let’s indulge. Today’s task: identify great moments from great rock songs – not just the songs themselves, but the split second within that is not merely awesome but ALL KINDS OF AWESOME.

These selections can range from the obvious (the first chord after the “Onetwothreefour!” near the end of Born to Run) to the more esoteric (I’ve always loved the handclaps before the final chorus of Rebellion (Lies) by Arcade Fire). Or perhaps your tastes trend toward the way Chris Martin of Coldplay sings from the very depth of his vagina in the climactic “Ooooos” of Clocks.

Other instants that come immediately to mind:

• The “I don’t know-ow!” in Something by The Beatles.

• That first surge of electric guitar just as Continue…

A wasteful, ineffective, important tool to promote public safety

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 9:11 AM - 0 Comments

The RCMP’s evaluation of the Canadian Firearms Program—which you didn’t need to see because the Public Safety Minister’s office had already told you what you needed to know—is officially released today. Canadian Press had an early look and the CBC posted a leaked copy. The following from the report’s findings.

Firearms registration is a critical component of the entire firearms program. The program, as a whole, is an important tool for law enforcement. It also serves to increase the accountability of firearms owners for their firearms, by linking registered firearms to licensees. An acceptable level of compliance toward long gun registration is essential for improving the Registry’s utility as a tool to promote public safety … Canadians are receiving value for their tax dollars from the CFP. Overall, the Canadian Firearms Program is cost-effective in reducing firearms-related crime and promoting public safety through universal licensing of firearms owners and registration of firearms in Canada.

Conservative MP Candice Hoeppner, sponsor of Bill C-391, was quick with a response, proclaiming in an release last evening that “the RCMP report supports what I’ve been saying all along – that the long-gun registry is wasteful and ineffective.”

Adventures in interwebbery

By Scott Feschuk - Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 8:20 AM - 0 Comments

I buy all kinds of stuff I don’t need from Apple and Amazon. Why? Because it’s so damn easy. These companies have figured out how to make the Internet transaction convenient, simple and – most important – speedy. The want-it part of your brain starts and finishes its dirty work before the what-wait-we-don’t-need-another-stupid-productivity-app part of your brain even kicks in. Things move so fast that with just one moment of weakness and one click I wound up the owner of MGMT’s god-awful new record. Curse you, Steve Jobs!

And then there are the companies that Just Don’t Get It, the companies that make the process of buying something so tedious and so unpleasant and jammed with more queries than a Ken Dryden digression. (Where are we going as a country? What do we stand for? What does it mean to Continue…

Maybe they're peaking early

By Paul Wells - Monday, August 30, 2010 at 11:11 PM - 0 Comments

Gallup tonight is reporting the largest Republican lead ever over Democrats in a generic congressional ballot. Eh. Ver. Ten points. (Democrats have often held greater advantages over the Republicans; for decades after World War II, the House pretty much came with a built-in Democrat advantage.) And Republicans are twice as likely as Democrats to say they’re “very” enthusiastic about voting in the fall.

President Obama’s Iraq speech tomorrow should be interesting.