This week has four sketches

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, October 31, 2010 at 10:50 AM - 0 Comments

Our weekly look back at all we saw and heard.

Monday. Repeat after Rona
Tuesday. Leave it to MacKay
Wednesday. Stephen Harper lets it all out
Thursday. Sergeant Harper deploys his decibels

"I'm not Hitler, You're not Hitler"

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Saturday, October 30, 2010 at 10:52 PM - 0 Comments

My colleague, Patricia Treble, and I were not certain what to expect of the Rally for Sanity and/or Fear. We just hoped it would be funny.

The National Parks Service, which runs the National Mall in downtown Washington, DC, where the rally was held on Saturday, had provided Comedy Central a permit for 60,000 people.  But it was clear this was going to be a much bigger event the minute we approached our suburban Virginia subway station and saw a line was forming outside of dozens of people waiting to buy tickets. On the platform of the Metro crowds jostled to get on already-packed trains. Many people had so much trouble getting on the trains, that they had traveled away from Washington to the very start of the lines in Virginia and Maryland just to get a seat – and discovered those trains were packed too.

Despite the crush, the mood was light with riders going out of their way to be pleasant and considerate – as though they were trying to prove that they really were sane. Although the Daily Show and Colbert Report attract young viewers, there was a notable scattering of grey hair and wrinkles in the crowd. Arriving at our destination, we were greeted by volunteers offering directions and a cart offering Starbucks Frappuccinos and San Pellegrino bubbly water.

Best costumes at the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear (PHOTOS)

On the Mall, the crowds seemed to be the biggest since Obama’s Inauguration in January 2009. [See a discussion of comparative crowd sizes here.]

The metro system reported that 329,000 people had used the system by 2 pm. (The rally began at 1pm.)

Even 90 minutes before the rally, it was hard to move around. Many people had given up trying to get onto the Mall, and were camped out on side streets. We spoke to one woman who had arrived at 7 a.m. only to discover other people had snatched up prime spots four hours earlier, at 3 a.m.

A few signs:

“Tea parties are for little girls and their imaginary friends.”

“Ruly mob”

“Civil is Sexy”

“Big signs are for bullies”

“Don’t tread on anybody”

The people who came said they weren’t just there for jokes and music. They really were tired of the shouting.

“I don’t like it when you yell at me like that,” said a sign carried by Shabi Rostani, 28, who came from New York City. Her twin sister, Behar, asked politicians to “tone it down a bit.” She said she is tired of the extremes since they are “turning people against each other.”  Shabi Rostani had never been to a political rally before.  “I vote but don’t go to events like this,” she said. “They’re making an event for people who don’t go to events.”

“I might disagree with you, but I’m pretty sure neither of us is going to hell,” said Charlotte Martin’s sign. “I have to listen to them,” she said of her Republican neighbours in San Antonio, Texas. “They have to listen to me.”

“I think sanity is a good goal for American politics,” observed Tom Dowd, 48, who came from the eastern shore of Maryland and had spent 3 and a half hours battling the Metro system.

**

On stage it was one part satire—and one part painful earnestness. Stewart began by satirizing the trappings of modern political rallies on the Mall. There was a satirical benediction by Father Guido Sarducci, in which he went through a list of religious denominations and pleaded with God to send a sign to show which one is the “right one.”

There was also a ritual poem, read by Sam Waterston, and written by Colbert with the intent to instill “fear” in his audience, with lines such as: “You’re probably going deaf / kids back home cooking up crystal meth,” and “There was a man from Au Clair / who wouldn’t joint the panic about Hispanics / and later was killed by a bear.” But Stewart also attempted to appropriate some of the trappings. There was a decidedly non-ironic rendition of the Star Spangled Banner by a group of former servicemen called the 4Troops, and a sincere plea not to litter.

Much of the act was Stewart pleading for calm while, Colbert, after being coaxed out of his underground “cave of fear”, and rescued in a Chilean-style mining capsule, proceeded to incite terror. “You are reasonable for now. You will be a panicked mob once I release the bees.” When that was not enough to cause fear of stings or allergic reactions, he added that his killer bees were coated with peanut butter.

What came next was perhaps the most potent moment of the rally. Stewart and Colbert came out in matching stars-and-stripes sweaters – the literally wrapped-in-the-flag style that is emblematic of Republican activists and especially Tea Party sympathizers.

Colbert blasted Stewart: “I’m wearing it,” he said. “But you’re desecrating it.” Stewart shot back: “Everyone has the right to be patriotic.”

Colbert’s portrayal of right-wing commentators was so true to life that their reaction, when it came, could have been written by the comedian himself. For example, conservative activist and blogger, Andrew Breitbart, said: “It’s very motivating for conservatives to have that stereotyped group of Manhattan elitists, know-it-alls, snarky, smarmy liberals to be looking down on average Americans.”

Stewart occasionally tried to tweak liberals – especially in the media. In a musical number, he poked fun at the firings of Juan Williams by National Public Radio and of Rick Sanchez by CNN, after each made controversial comments about Muslims and Jews respectively. Later, on a serious note, Stewart said, “Not being able to distinguish between real racists and tea partiers, or real bigots and Juan Williams or Rick Sanchez, is an insult not only to those people, but to the racists themselves who have put in the exhausting effort it takes to hate. Just as the inability to distinguish terrorists from Muslims makes us less safe, not more.”

And so it was that the rally was one part satire, one part concert (acts included Kid Rock, Sheryl Crowe, T.I., Cat Stevens, Ozzy Osborne, and the Roots), and a dose of Boy Scout law. To the extent that Stewart is an influential tastemaker for at least part of the population, he was using his wit and irony to call for a decidedly un-ironic earnestness that boiled down to a version of “Why can’t we all just get along?”

But it also seemed to us that rather than mock the patriotism of the conservative activists and the Tea Party movement, Stewart was urging young liberals to not cede patriotism to the political right — effectively granting them permission to claim it and wear it un-ironically. He and Colbert sung a song about “The greatest, strongest country in the world,” which can be interpreted as mockery. But it appeared to be intended as an affirmation of the American-ness of the left – and a yearning for the right to acknowledge it.

“America’s perfect and there’s nothing to fix / My PIN code is 1776,” sang Colbert.

“You can tax all my cash to help out a stranger / but I’ll sue city hall if they put up a manger,” chimed in an off-key Stewart.

And they both chorused: “There is no one more American than we.”

The rally succeeded in transcending mere sarcasm. On the one hand, it gave voice to Democrats who are tired of Republicans talking in a nasty, loud voice about their president – the way Democrats not so long ago mocked and vilified George W. Bush. But it also expressed an anxiety that there is less and less of center in American politics – that extremes on both sides are taking control and moderates and bipartisanship are punished.

In the sea of placards on the Mall, one stood out.

“It’s a sad day when our politicians are comical — and I have to take our comedians seriously.”

UPDATE: We now have a photo  gallery of the wittiest rally signs here.

Stewart and Colbert in "Rally Tally"

By Jaime Weinman - Saturday, October 30, 2010 at 7:37 PM - 0 Comments

The Rally To Do Something Or Other is over, and with it, a few days in which The Daily Show and its spinoff (or the Stewartverse) have topped the list of TV-related things to write about. You can read the full text of Stewart’s closing speech here.

I can’t say I really enjoyed watching most of the rally, though it got more fun as it went on, but then these things are tricky to watch on television or, in this case, live-streaming. They’re not shows performed with an audience for the benefit of the viewer at home, they’re done for the people who are there — even if many of them have trouble seeing or hearing anything if they’re standing too far way from the stage — and the people at home are peripheral.

So this wasn’t exactly a TV show, except for a few bits that were clearly aimed at the home viewer, like Tim Meadows’ return appearance as P.K. Winsome. (Colbert has tried to create a few recurring characters who parody established pundit-show figures, but Winsome is the one who’s lasted the longest. He’s a combination of two typical characters from pundit shows: the black Republican who gets on cable news a lot because there aren’t many black Republicans, and the guy who uses his news appearances as a thinly-disguised excuse to advertise his business.) Otherwise, it was, like any rally, a news event as much as a show. And that’s the source of the weirdness and the questions about how to respond to this thing, because it is simultaneously a parody of a rally and a straight-up, actual event, complete with questions about how many people showed up and whether it was a politicized rally.

Personally, I wish it had been more politicized, not because I think it would change minds, but just because it would have given the event more bite than the message Stewart was actually trying to convey. His belief that the media is making things worse by blowing everything out of proportion, and that people would have an easier time getting along if it weren’t for the 24-hour news culture, has been pretty consistent over the years; what he said in his final speech is similar to what he said in his famous appearance on Crossfire all those years ago. I think there’s an argument that it’s really a dodge to keep from really outright taking a partisan political side and giving up the “only sane man” pose.

If you read the speech, it’s a nice statement of his belief that people are people no matter where they are, and that they are not partisan attack machines in their everyday lives. Which is true, but a bit irrelevant to the message and mission of news, and of politics. There’s not much conflict between saying that people of opposing views can get along and work together in everyday life and that people of opposing views can’t get along and work together in politics. So the media’s picture of a world where nobody can get along  is probably more accurate than Stewart’s rosier picture — at least when it comes to politics. Stewart does a good job of ripping the way 24-hour news views politics — a vicious sporting event where the game is the only thing that matters, and nothing has any real consequences for real people’s lives. But that could be closer to the truth than his view that reasonable people can come together to solve problems if the pundits just stop shouting.

Update: My collague Luiza Ch. Savage was there in person, and has a report on the live experience of the rally and its attendees.

Elsewhere, Christine Becker, who was there live, has a post on the experience of the rally, how it differed from the televised experience, and the “visceral feeling of unity” it gave to the participants.

Never let a crisis go to waste

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, October 29, 2010 at 10:28 PM - 0 Comments

In the aftermath of an international terror scare that is presently topping the news in the United States and Britain, one that necessitated the scrambling of Canadian fighter jets, the Prime Minister’s Office identifies the most important takeaway.

The Prime Minister’s Office pointed to the incident to support their decision to buy 65 F-35 fighter jets. “Whether it is the CF-18s or the F-35s, Canada’s air force needs the right equipment to protect Canadian airspace,” said Harper spokesman Dimitri Soudas. “Michael Ignatieff’s Liberals and their coalition partners would cancel the deal to buy the F-35s. They would rather use kites to defend Canada than fighter jets.”

How Rob Ford won Toronto

By Nicholas Köhler - Friday, October 29, 2010 at 5:20 PM - 0 Comments

Nick Kouvalis, Rob Ford, George Smitherman| Donald Weber/VII Network/ Cole Garside

In the weeks after Richard Ciano and Nick Kouvalis joined the Ford For Mayor campaign last spring, the two market researchers and conservative political activists launched into a series of interviews with their new, colourful candidate for the Toronto mayoralty race, plumbing the depths of Rob Ford’s past. “Is there anything we need to know?” Ciano, who is 36, and Kouvalis, 35, asked Ford—repeatedly—once they’d dealt with the obvious: the homophobic slurs, drunken outbursts, the talk of “Orientals” working “like dogs.” Nope, said Ford. And that was the end of it.

Until August, that is, when Ford, Kouvalis and a 14-year-old campaign volunteer were zipping through the streets of downtown Toronto—and Ford got a call on his cellphone. Kouvalis had instructed Ford many, many times to stop answering his own phone. One day, he told him, he would be sorry. “He didn’t listen,” Kouvalis says. “That’s his brand. He answers the phone.” This time it was Jonathan Jenkins, of the Toronto Sun, asking Ford about a Florida marijuana charge dating back to 1999. Ford looked over at the 14-year-old and, on the question of whether Miami police had ever plucked a joint from his back pocket, apparently chose to prevaricate. “No, to answer your question,” he told Jenkins. “When I say no, I mean never. No question. Now I’m getting offended. No means no.”

Continue…

All is politics

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, October 29, 2010 at 5:00 PM - 0 Comments

Ken Dryden laments for the press gallery.

Political writers, almost irresistibly, make everything about politics, and for the great majority of Canadians the conversation dies. The tone of political stories is so grim; so transactional and cynical. This book is about Canada. It is about us, and what we have in us to be. Ours is a big, exciting story. The people at the events in Ottawa and Montreal got that. The people who wrote blurbs on the cover of the book – Canadians who have lived intense Canadian lives and expressed Canada in their work – they get it too.

Susan Delacourt responds.

Conrad Black’s partial victory

By Chris Sorensen - Friday, October 29, 2010 at 4:26 PM - 0 Comments

Conrad Black has scored another partial victory before the U.S. criminal justice system, but it’s not clear whether it will be enough to prevent him from going back to jail.

A U.S. appeals court on Friday reversed two counts of fraud against the former chairman of Hollinger International Inc., who was once accused of masterminding a “corporate kleptocracy” that defrauded shareholders of millions. But the court also upheld Black’s more serious obstruction of justice charge, which stemmed from security camera footage that caught him removing 13 boxes of documents from his Toronto offices while under investigation. “No reasonable jury could have acquitted Black of obstruction,” wrote Judge Richard Posner of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in his ruling.

As well, the court upheld a single count of fraud relating to a $600,000 payment to Black and his co-defendants as part of deal struck by Hollinger to sell newspapers to two companies in 2007. Continue…

Opening Weekend: Inside Job, Tamara Drewe, Hornet's Nest

By Brian D. Johnson - Friday, October 29, 2010 at 4:23 PM - 0 Comments

Gemma Arterton in the title role of 'Tamara Drewe'

Given a choice between idle escape and rigorous education at the multiplex, most of us would opt for escape. That’s the whole point of movies, isn’t it? To go elsewhere. But, if you’ve got the stomach for it, the best bet among the films opening this weekend is a densely factual documentary that offers no escape whatsoever from our sordid mess of a world. Charles Ferguson’s Inside Job is a ruthless investigation into the causes of the 2008 financial meltdown. It’s a bit like attending a high level university lecture, with slick visuals and a sombre narrator (Matt Damon, the most trusted man in showbiz) explaining the nuts and bolts of what amounts to the biggest bank heist we’ve ever seen in a movie. The information and analysis comes at us hard and fast. It makes you want to take notes, not eat popcorn. Oscar nominated director Charles Ferguson, a former high-ranking academic, expects us to keep up. And it’s fun trying. To me, economics is like particle physics. Just trying to hold it all in my head for a few moments is a challenge. But Inside Job is well worth the mental effort. To read more about this high-fibre documentary, go to my piece in last week’s magazine: Watching Wall Street squirm. The other two movies I’ve looked at this week—Tamara Drewe and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest—are easier to watch. Both titles refer to provocative, headstrong women, and both films are underwhelming. Tarama Drewe, however, is by far the more enjoyable of the two. No matter what I say, fans of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series may want to race out to see Hornet’s Nest, but they will inevitably be disappointed. And fans of movies by British director Stephen Frears (The Queen, Dangerous Liasons)  may rush to Tamara Drewe, but this is not his best work. Still, it’s by far the more enjoyable of the two films, if only for the quality of the acting and the sumptuous landscapes.

Tamara Drewe

This ensemble comedy, set in the rolling English countryside of Dorset, has a kooky provenance. It’s based on a graphic novel, by Posy Simmonds, which was in turn inspired by Thomas Hardy’s classic novel Far From the Madding Crowd. The story is set in a bucolic writer’s retreat called Stonefield, which is owned by a famous crime writer, Nicholas Hardiment (Roger Allam), and his stoical wife and manager, Beth (Tasmin Greig). While Nicholas churns out bestsellers without breaking a sweat, patronizes aspiring writers, and seduces young women, Beth does her best to be the good wife,  tending the garden, raising chickens, cooking fabulous meals—and editing his manuscripts. Trouble arrives at a neighbouring farm in the form of Tamara Drewe (Gemma Arterton), who comes home to sell off the family manor. Once an awkward ugly duckling, Tamara is now a saucy babe with a nose-job who parades around in cutoffs. She once had a teenage crush on Andy Cobb (Luke Evans), a rugged gardener and handyman and who resents the landed gentry. As a boy, he saw his family home sold to Tamara’s family. Those simmering class resentments are stirred up again as Tamara takes up with a preposterous rock star (Dominic Cooper), who seems to have studied at Russell Brand’s Aldous Snow School of Bratty Entitlement. He, meanwhile, is being stalked by a pair of obsessed teenage girls from the local village. As Nicholas, the celebrity crime writer, tests his wife’s patience with another bout of adultery, one of the retreat’s writers—a homely American academic (Bill Camp) who’s mired in a book about Thomas Hardy—begins to offer his long-suffering wife the affection she’s missing.

If that sounds like a lot of plot summary, it’s just the beginning. The story and the characters are too contrived for words. I guess that goes with the graphic novel turf. But I enjoyed watching Tamara Drewe, which plays like a rural Woody Allen movie. The satirical asides about literary ambition and pretension are all nicely observed. Allam and Greig made a convincing train wreck of a couple. And both the English landscapes and the movie’s English Rose, Gemma Arterton, are so sublimely beautiful they seem barely real. But then again, maybe that’s the bold aesthetic of the graphic novel creeping in. As Frears candidly points out, “When I met her, Gemma Arterton did immediately remind me of the drawings because, well, she’s so curvy, isn’t she, she’s like a sort of line drawing in her own way. She’s a wonderful girl, warm and funny. I thought, ‘Oh, I’d like to watch her for 90 minutes.’ I mean – as simple as that, really.” Sounds like a lazy excuse for making a movie. But at least he’s being honest. Continue…

Companies to watch

By macleans.ca - Friday, October 29, 2010 at 2:56 PM - 0 Comments

Getty Images

British Columbia Automobile Association, Burnaby, B.C.
Diversified consumer services
Cole Engineering Group Ltd., Markham, Ont.
Construction & engineering
C.S.T. Consultants Inc., Toronto
Diversified financial services
The CUMIS Group Limited, Burlington, ONT.
Insurance
FSC Architects & Engineers, Yellowknife
Professional services
Gibson Energy ULC, Calgary
Oil, gas & consumable fuels
Klick Inc., Toronto
IT services
Mars Canada Inc., BOLTON, ONT.
Food products
Northern Savings Credit Union, Prince Rupert, B.C.
Consumer finance
R.C. Purdy Chocolates Ltd., Vancouver
Specialty retail
Saskatchewan Blue Cross, Saskatoon
Insurance

The right way to think about Question Period

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, October 29, 2010 at 2:24 PM - 0 Comments

There are those who believe QP in its present form is without relevance or purpose. I disagree. And so, apparently, does the Prime Minister. This from a Hill Times interview with Lawrence Martin, author of Harperland.

You talk about how the media didn’t know about the Prime Minister’s daily Question Period Cabinet strategy meetings until much later in the game. Is the PM still holding daily QP Cabinet meetings?

“Yeah they are. This was an enormous change and nobody put anywhere near the amount of preparation for Question Period that Stephen Harper did—the old slogan, ‘Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.’ He was briefed in the morning first thing about what questions might come up at Question Period and again at lunch time with some of his top advisers, and then they’d have the full Cabinet session, which is almost like a dress rehearsal, about what questions might be thrown out and actually the Cabinet ministers sort of put them under more pressure. But they also liked it because they had more access to the Prime Minister, they could chat with him after the meeting and also Harper got a better sense of who was performing in the Cabinet, what they know and how they could present themselves.”

Appeals court overturns two counts against Conrad Black

By macleans.ca - Friday, October 29, 2010 at 1:38 PM - 0 Comments

Conrad Black’s criminal convictions in the United States have been whittled down to just one count of fraud and another of obstruction of justice. A U.S. appeals court today reversed two counts of fraud against the former CEO of Hollinger International Inc. Black, who was accused along with other executives of defrauding shareholders of the newspaper company, has already served more than two years in a Florida prison in relation to the charges. The appeals court was tasked with determining whether Black’s original fraud charges should still stand after the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year significantly narrowed the definition of so-called “honest services” fraud that prosecutors had used in their arguments against him. It’s now up to prosecutors to decide whether he should be retried on the reversed charges—an eventuality that several legal experts have suggested is unlikely. Although Black will now have to be re-sentenced on the remaining charges, it’s not clear whether he will need to go back to jail.

CBC News

Risk management

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, October 29, 2010 at 12:59 PM - 0 Comments

CP discovers concerns about another multi-billion-dollar defence purchase.

In a report likely to add more fuel to the fire over the multibillion-dollar military helicopter mess and the purchase of stealth fighters, the department’s Chief of Review Services found oversight lacking in the $3-billion Fixed-Wing Search and Rescue project…

The Forces’ own internal auditor warns it was on the same shaky ground as the helicopters. ”Within each phase of DND risk management methodology, certain risk management practices were not in place in the project office,” said the May 2009 review, obtained by The Canadian Press under the federal access-to-information law.

On the F-35 debate, John Geddes has posted his conversation with Lieutenant-General Angus Watt. And to that you can add the views of former assistant deputy minister Alan Williams (at the 18-minute mark of that video) and Liberal senator Colin Kenny, not to mention the previous submissions of Steven Staples and Paul Mitchell.

Talking F-35s with a former head of the air force

By John Geddes - Friday, October 29, 2010 at 11:40 AM - 0 Comments

Lieutenant-General Angus Watt retired about a year ago as chief of air staff in the Canadian
Forces. That gives him a particular vantage point on the government’s plan to spend about $16 billion to buy and maintain 65 F-35 fighter jets—close enough to know the details, but a bit detached from the ferocious debate that’s erupted over the sole-sourced procurement.

Not surprisingly, Watt is a big fan of the Lockheed Martin jet, also known as the Joint Strike Fighter. He’s a sharp critic, though, of the job the federal government is doing selling the deal to the Canadian public. This is an edited version of his conversation with me earlier this week about the controversial F-35 project.

Continue…

Clinton under Senate scrutiny over oil sands

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Friday, October 29, 2010 at 11:21 AM - 0 Comments

To recap, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, recently said that she was “inclined to” approve TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline that would stretch from Alberta as far as Texas.

Now a group of Senate heavyweights, led by Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, are raising concerns about the pipelines and Clinton’s prejudging of the approval process. Several of the 11 senators are members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The have sent a detailed letter with a laundry list of pointed questions about the pipeline.  One of them calls Canada’s bluff:

“The DEIS states that ‘producers in Canada have indicated that if the US market is not available to them, much of the crude would be shipped outside of North America. particularly to Japan, China and India…”

- What is the current status of the pipeline proposals to the West Coast?

- What is the capacity of these pipeline porposals relative to the capacity of pipelines to the U.S., with and without Keystone XL?

Etc.

It will be interesting to see the response from State.

The full letter is here.

North and South Korea exchange gunfire at border

By macleans.ca - Friday, October 29, 2010 at 11:11 AM - 0 Comments

Tensions are at a boiling point along the border running between North and South Korea as gunfire was exchanged between soldiers on Friday. South Korean officials say soldiers from the north fired across the demilitarized zone at one of their guard posts, which then retaliated with three shots under the rules of engagement. There was no damage and this is the first time ground troops have fired at each other in two years, but the incident follows several naval standoffs, including one where a South Korean warship was torpedoed, killing 46 sailors. The scuffle comes just before a group of hundreds of elderly Koreans were set to unite with long-lost loves ones from across the border over the weekend, and while troops are on high alert in the lead up to the G20 conference scheduled for Nov. 11 and 12.

Christian Science Monitor

We have only ourselves to blame

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, October 29, 2010 at 11:09 AM - 0 Comments

The Prime Minister’s Office was very nearly a $10 million operation last year, but only because the Prime Minister is so committed to communicating with each and every one of us.

He explained that the rise in PMO expenses is the result of two things: A larger communications staff to help the prime minister and his ministers communicate with Canadians; and, to a lesser extent, increased travel by Harper throughout Canada as he informed the public of the government’s actions to fight the recession.

“Communicating is always important. But it’s even more so when Canadians are worried about their economy and what their government is doing to address it. So it’s important to return every phone call and have the prime minister out there communicating.” MacDougall said a larger communication staff is needed because “news is happening all the time now, there’s more media formats and more outlets.”

BHP Billiton had eyes on Potash as early as 2006, documents show

By macleans.ca - Friday, October 29, 2010 at 11:07 AM - 0 Comments

BHP Billiton Ltd. laid eyes on Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. well before it launched its US $38.6-billion hostile bid earlier this year, court documents show. Evidence emerging from the lawsuit Potash Corp. filed against BHP in a U.S. District Court in Illinois last month includes an internal recommendation that the Australian miner buy the Canadian potash producer dated as early as 2006, when Potash Corp. was valued at US$ 13 billion. The Saskatchewan-based company is using the documents to build its case that BHP misled investors on both its takeover offer and its plans for entering the potash business. BHP denies the allegations, and released a statement calling the lawsuit “entirely without merit.”

Globe and Mail

Forget 'Saw 3-D.' This is authentic horror.

By Brian D. Johnson - Friday, October 29, 2010 at 11:00 AM - 0 Comments

You think the movie is too graphic? The book has a five-page description of severing muscle fibres and tendons one by one | Chuck Zlotnick

This Halloween weekend the blood will be flying on screens across the land as one of horror’s goriest franchises springs back to life with Saw 3-D. But if you’re looking for a truly horrifying, and more authentic, tale of amputation, wait for 127 Hours, which opens in Canada Nov. 12. In this harrowing true story, that classic horror trope—don’t go down to the basement!—takes on a whole new twist. The “basement” is the bottom of a slot canyon in a remote Utah desert, and the bogeyman is a “chockstone” boulder that falls on a climber and traps him there for five days—until he finally frees himself by sawing through his right forearm with a cheap stocking-stuffer penknife.

Based on the 2004 memoir by Aron Ralston, 127 Hours is the latest film from Danny Boyle, who dramatizes Ralston’s story with a gonzo assault on the senses that makes the director’s previous films, from Trainspotting to Slumdog Millionaire, feel tame by comparison. For a movie that consists largely of one actor agonizingly stuck in the same place, there’s nothing static about 127 Hours. And considering that we know how the story ends before we go in (“Two tickets please for the movie about the guy who cuts his arm off”), it’s remarkably suspenseful—a roller-coaster ride that draws gasps and shrieks, and left this critic emotionally and physically exhausted. During the film’s premiere last month at the Toronto International Film Festival, the climactic scene of Ralston (James Franco) performing surgery on himself had some viewers feeling faint and bolting for the exits.

Continue…

Russell Williams's neighbours

By Michael Friscolanti - Friday, October 29, 2010 at 11:00 AM - 0 Comments

PHOTOGRAPH BY MELISSA TAIT/ JEROME LESSARD/QMI AGENCY

As Russell Williams was settling in for the first night at his new home—a tiny, solitary cell in the depths of Kingston Penitentiary—his old home on Cosy Cove Lane was dark and empty, as it has been for months. Next door, a family still searching for answers finished their Thursday dinner. “We played cards at this table with him,” says Ron, sitting beside his wife, Monique. “We drank beer at this table with him. And if somebody asked me today: ‘Did I ever see anything?’ The answer would be ‘No, absolutely nothing.’ ”

Like so many others who once considered the ex-colonel a close friend, Ron and Monique still can’t fathom the two faces of their former neighbour: the Russ who was always welcome in their Tweed, Ont., kitchen—and who enjoyed a special bond with their two children—and the Russ who kicked off his vile crime spree inside this very same house. “When we look back, we feel so stupid,” Ron says, shaking his head. “You shouldn’t, but you do. You can’t help it.”

The former commander of Canada’s largest air force base pleaded guilty last week to 88 charges (dozens of break-ins targeting women’s lingerie, two home-invasion sexual assaults, and two first-degree murders), but his chilling transformation from respected officer to serial predator began right here, just a few steps from his infamous lakefront cottage. It was Sept. 9, 2007, and while the family next door was visiting a dying relative eight hours away, Williams strolled through their open front door and headed straight for the bedroom of Ron and Monique’s 12-year-old daughter.

Continue…

US home prices dive back to the future

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Friday, October 29, 2010 at 10:59 AM - 0 Comments

This interesting chart suggests that in some markets, prices have been dialed back a decade. Via Calculated Risk.

Given where Las Vegas appears on the chart, it’s no wonder Senate majority leader Harry Reid is trailing Sharron Angle.

Quaid claims refugee status, says he's not crazy

By macleans.ca - Friday, October 29, 2010 at 10:57 AM - 0 Comments

Veteran Hollywood actor Randy Quaid, 60, told the Immigration and Refugee Board in Vancouver today that he and his wife are fleeing the U.S. because of a “a monstorous ring of accountants, estate planners
and lawyers.” Quaid told the court they are “are mercilessly slandering me and trying to kill my career and, I believe, murder me in order to gain control of my royalties.” Quaid became emotional in front of television cameras outside the hearing and said that eight of his friends have “suddenly and mysteriously” been killed, by what he calls “star whackers.” The list of killed celebrity friends includes Heath Ledger and Chris Penn. “We are not criminals, nor are we fugitives from justice, nor are we crazy,” he said. Quaid will find out on Nov. 8 whether he will be allowed to stay in Canada. His wife, Evi Quaid, will be allowed to apply for citizenship, because her father was Canadian. The couple was arrested in Vancouver on U.S. warrants on Oct. 21.

Vancouver Sun

Indonesia tsunami death toll rises to 408

By macleans.ca - Friday, October 29, 2010 at 10:50 AM - 0 Comments

The death toll following a massive tsunami that struck Indonesia on Monday has climbed above 400, with a further 33 people killed by a volcanic eruption in central Java. Rescuers, primarily working out of nearby West Sumatra, are struggling to reach Indonesia’s islands because a boat shortage, caused by the tsunami, is making it almost impossible to deliver supplies. Thousands are currently displaced and living in refugee camps while the injured are treated in small and often isolated island hospitals.

CTV News

Islamists, Iran, and a "Just and Sustainable Peace" — media response

By Michael Petrou - Friday, October 29, 2010 at 10:45 AM - 0 Comments

The National Post and the Ottawa Citizen have editorials. (The Post acknowledged that Maclean’s broke the story; the Citizen did not.)

Lorne Gunter has a column.

The Citizen covered last night’s conference.

Here is the original story.

Cost of government is rising

By macleans.ca - Friday, October 29, 2010 at 10:43 AM - 0 Comments

Yesterday, a number of financial records and receipts surfaced from Parliament Hill, revealing that the annual cost of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office has ballooned to nearly $10 million, an increase of 30 per cent over the last two years. Other revelations included the tab for the PM’s travels in 2009-10: $6,904,790. Former governor-general Michaëlle Jean also had a big travel budget: her annual spending on foreign trips nearly doubled over the last three years, and her office spent nearly $2.65-million on trips and preparation work by advance teams in the 2009-10 fiscal year. MPs spent $10.2-million last year sending flyers into their competitors’ ridings, making it the third-largest expenditure of the near $143-million parliamentarians spent in all. There’s also those G8/G20 summits: the RCMP are expected to submit final receipts currently estimated at about $330 million. That would bring the total security bill for last June’s international gatherings to about $750-million.

National Post