The open era

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 12:51 PM - 0 Comments

The Liberals have now set out their open government agenda, which would, in addition to restoring the long-form census, include as follows.

Make as many government datasets as possible available to the public online free of charge at opendata.gc.ca in an open and searchable format, starting with Statistics Canada data, including data from the long-form census; Post all Access to Information requests, responses, and response times online at accesstoinformation.gc.ca; and Make information on government grants, contributions and contracts available through a searchable, online database at accountablespending.gc.ca.

David Eaves has some thoughts. The NDP’s Charlie Angus has also tabled a motion generally calling on the government to pursue open source ideals.

Elections Canada to shut down Conservative riding association

By macleans.ca - Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 12:45 PM - 0 Comments

Elections Canada is moving to shut down the Conservative riding association that held a fundraiser at which Natural Resources Minister Christian Paradis mingled with officials from companies doing renovation work on Parliament Hill. A filing in the Canada Gazette indicates the riding association hasn’t met its annual reporting requirements and its official de-registration will occur on October 31. Paradis has admitted discussing the allocation of contracts at last year’s fundraiser and one of the construction company officials who was present at the event, Paul Sauvé of LM Sauvé, claims his company paid an unregistered lobbyist with connections to the Conservatives to obtain a $9 million contract with the federal government. The government has rejected suggestions the contracts were awarded in exchange for donations to the Conservative party.

The Globe and Mail

Battling in Washington and Afghanistan

By macleans.ca - Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 12:40 PM - 0 Comments

'Obama's Wars': Bob Woodward offers juicy portraits from Obamaland, concentrating more on political struggles in the U.S. than war abroad; Goran Tomasevic/Reuters

OBAMA’S WARS
Bob Woodward

The title refers less to actual combat than to closed-door battles in Washington as Barack Obama spent months wrestling over questions left unanswered by his predecessor: what are we trying to do in Afghanistan? And how the heck do we get out? Obama, who campaigned on the promise of a swift withdrawal from Iraq, quickly runs into a brick wall of Pentagon brass committed to a long war in Afghanistan. Obama asks for three options, but his generals keep bringing him one: 40,000 troops for a “counter-insurgency” effort aimed at “defeating” the Taliban. Woodward’s Obama—cool and cerebral, but constrained by finances and political realities—eventually downgrades to a more modest aspiration of “degrading” the Taliban enough that the whole mess can be handed over to Afghan security forces. Distrustful of his top generals, and beset by doubts, Obama personally dictates a plan for a surge of 30,000 troops followed by a drawdown to start in July 2011.

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Children conceived in spring at risk of food alergies: study

By macleans.ca - Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 12:27 PM - 0 Comments

The season at which a baby is born or conceived seems to impact their health, with a new Finnish study suggesting that children conceived in early spring are more likely to develop food allergies. Lead researcher Dr. Kaisa Pyrhonen suggested this could be because of an increased pollination in spring, exposure to sunlight (related to vitamin D synthesis) and viral infections. Still, families shouldn’t plan pregnancies around specific times they said, because it was only an observational study. In it, the team looked at 5,920 Finnish children born between 2001 and 2006. From birth to four years old, 961 were tested for food allergies; up to the age of 4, the chances of having one varied according to when they were born, from 5 per cent for those born in June and July, to 9.5 per cent in October and November. A child whose first three months of fetal development ended in April or May were three times more likely to be allergic to milk and eggs than those who reached the stage in November or December. Past studies have shown that babies born in autum and winter are more likely to have eczema and asthma.

Business Week

Conan O'Brien's Guest List Includes Canadians

By Jaime Weinman - Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 12:19 PM - 0 Comments

How’s that for a needy-sounding subject heading? Anyway, Conan has announced its guest list for the first week, which includes Seth Rogen and Michael Cera, some token Americans like Tom Hanks, Jon Hamm and, for NBC jokes, O’Brien’s old creation Jack McBrayer. (Okay, it wasn’t McBrayer his show created, it was McBrayer’s “page” character, which Lorne Michaels transferred from Conan O’Brien to 30 Rock in a very successful inter-company crossover.) My fellow Ottawan Jon Dore will be a guest comic on the last show of that first week.

Few of the guests have anything to promote right at this moment — though it’s possible Cera has another flop movie coming out that we just haven’t heard about — so it’s hard to know yet what kind of ability Conan will have to get big name guests (stopping by talk shows to promote their projects) on a regular basis.

Depression gene identified

By macleans.ca - Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 12:12 PM - 0 Comments

Researchers at Cornell Medical College have found a gene that can cause symptoms of major depression, and might be able to use this information to help treat it, Reuters reports. The researchers are testing a gene therapy technique in the brains of patients with Parkinson’s disease, which could perhaps be adapted to treat depression. The causes of depression are complex and different patients respond to different treatments. The gene is called p11, which is in a part of the brain tied to reward satisfaction. It helps regulate serotonin, a chemical tied to mood, sleep and memory that’s often targeted by antidepressants.

Reuters

The founding fathers?

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 12:00 PM - 0 Comments

Robert Baldwin (left) and Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine brought a new approach to government in Canada; John Wycliffe Lowes/ June Forbes McCormack/Archives

It is on page three that John Ralston Saul’s new book might first shock its readers. There, in the midst of describing a riot that clogged the streets of Montreal on an April afternoon in 1849, Ralston Saul describes Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine as “the first real prime minister of a democratic Canada.” John A. Macdonald does not turn up for another 178 pages.

With all due respect to John A., the story of LaFontaine and his kindred spirit Robert Baldwin—set out in the latest instalment of the Penguin Extraordinary Canadians series edited by Ralston Saul—is about how we got to 1867. It is about how two complicated and burdened men brought Canada to responsible government. “If you got [George-Étienne] Cartier and Macdonald on the phone and said, ‘Okay, how do you explain Canada?,’ they’d say, ‘Oh, it’s really, really easy, LaFontaine and Baldwin.’ Their idea was LaFontaine and Baldwin’s idea,” says Ralston Saul. “It’s a technical, constitutional, boring detail as to how many votes and how you get a majority. Of course, in politics, you have to worry about these things. But that’s not what it was about. It was actually about a different kind of relationship between peoples, between religions, between languages. A different approach toward the public good, non-violence and so on.”

Indeed, in lavish detail, Ralston Saul revives not only Canada and Canadian life at the moment of this new beginning, but these two men as they found their respective ways as individuals and allies. It is a dramatic time, but it is amid the tumult that much of what has come to define Canada—much of how we define ourselves—was established. As Ralston Saul writes, “The ongoing dramas of Canada—positive and negative—were shaped and energized as if in perpetuity by these two men and their great friendship.”

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Backward bending

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 11:56 AM - 0 Comments

Stephen Gordon sorts through the corporate tax cut rhetoric.

If the CIT cuts go through and are later rescinded, we will not see a recession in which some 233,000 people lose their jobs. Instead, long-run incomes will be about 1.4% lower than they otherwise would have been. I think rescinding the CIT cut would be a mistake, and that it will cost less than the advertised $6b figure. But it wouldn’t be the worst mistake we’ve seen in the last five years.

Wanted: lost languages

By Julia Belluz - Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 11:20 AM - 0 Comments

Getty Images

In 2008, K. David Harrison, a linguist at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, travelled to Arunachal Pradesh, India, a remote northeast region of the country, which even Indians need a permit to reach. As a specialist in endangered languages, Harrison was searching for speakers of two little-known tongues—Aka and Miji. But he stumbled upon an incredible discovery: a third, hidden language, Koro. “Koro had never been noticed by outsiders,” says the Canadian-born anthropologist. But Koro was also concealed from within. “The Koro lived closely with the Aka, and downplayed the differences between them, believing they spoke a dialect of the Aka language,” Harrison says. “What’s cool is this is a small language, intermingled with a dominant group. You would think it would be abandoned by its speakers. But it has persisted, and we don’t know why.”

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Need a job? Do NOT look for one.

By Scott Feschuk - Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 11:00 AM - 0 Comments

In Rhonda Byrne’s view, mortality—like eyeglasses and cancer—are for sad sacks. So just smile, and you’ll be fine. Istock; AP; Illustration by Bradley Reinhardt

Released in 2006, The Secret harnessed the power of positive thinking and enthusiastic! punctuation!! It claimed that the blueprint to a happy and prosperous life lies in politely asking “the Universe” for a happy and prosperous life, please. “When you think about what you want,” author Rhonda Byrne explained, you attract it by causing “what you want to vibrate at the right frequency!” If nothing else, this provided a plausible explanation for why Quarter Pounders start to shake when Kirstie Alley pulls up at the drive-thru.

Byrne has now produced a sequel, The Power—and she’s cut out the middleman. No longer do you need to climb upon the Universe’s lap with a wish list. Simply express feelings of “love” for what you desire—cash, health, the telepathic powers of Aquaman—and it will be delivered to you. To assuage skeptics, the book is padded with deep quotes from such esteemed figures as Jesus Christ, Sophocles and the guy who draws “Dilbert.”

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Faster, pussycat, kill, kill

By Jane Switzer - Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 11:00 AM - 0 Comments

Phototake/CP/ Altrendo images/Getty Images

When Patrick House gets to know someone, he often finds himself silently assessing them for Toxoplasma gondii, a single-celled parasite doctors and scientists are linking to increased aggression and recklessness, among other things. “I find myself typing people as, ‘Oh, they probably have it,’ or, ‘They probably don’t,’ ” the Stanford University neuroscientist says. “I imagine whether or not people have it in their brains, based on personality profiles.”

About one-third of the world’s human population carries a Toxoplasma infection, the origin of which is overwhelmingly associated with an unlikely sinister source: the common house cat.

Though it can only reproduce sexually in a cat’s gut, Toxoplasma gondii can make its way into humans through contact with cat feces, eating undercooked infected beef or chicken, or drinking untreated water. (It can also be passed on in the womb—which is why pregnant women are told to stay away from cat litter.) Its effects vary: many people with Toxo don’t even know they have it; others can take seriously ill and are at risk for everything from suicide to schizophrenia.

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Burning down the house

By Jaime Weinman - Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 11:00 AM - 0 Comments

The emerging trend in the Tea Party era seems to be defending the seemingly indefensible; J. Scott Applewhite/AP

It was a situation that seemed unambiguously wrong at first glance: earlier this month, the fire department from South Fulton, Tenn., let a house burn to the ground because the owner hadn’t paid a $75 fee for fire service in rural areas. But according to many U.S. conservatives, the fire department did the right thing. “Letting the house burn,” wrote Jonah Goldberg, author of the bestselling Liberal Fascism, “will probably save more houses over the long haul. I know that if I opted out of the program before, I would be more likely to opt in now.”

There was more. On his radio show, Glenn Beck said that if the fire had been put out, owner Gene Cranick would have been an example of “sponging off your neighbour’s resources.” Bryan Fischer, writing for the Christian conservative group the American Family Association, said that “the fire department did the right and Christian thing”—“we cannot make foolish choices and then get angry at others who will not bail us out.” Fischer added that Christians who believe the house should have been saved have “fallen prey to a weakened, feminized version of Christianity.” It’s a trend in the Tea Party era: defending the seemingly indefensible.

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From Russia with arms

By Jane Switzer - Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 11:00 AM - 0 Comments

Damir Sagolj/Reuters

Alleged Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, dubbed the “Merchant of Death” for his hand in a number of bloody global conflicts, is on the last leg of a final appeal to save himself from extradition to the U.S. on terrorism charges. Bout was arrested after a 2008 sting in Bangkok, where he allegedly promised to supply weapons to U.S. agents posing as Colombian FARC rebels. His imprisonment set off a tug-of-war: a Thai court originally rejected Washington’s extradition request, prompting the U.S. to put forward new money-laundering and fraud charges in an attempt to keep Bout detained if the Thai court ordered his release. But that plan backfired; an appeals court reversed the decision against extradition, trapping Bout in a legal morass until the additional charges were dismissed last week, clearing the way for his extradition.

Bout is notoriously secretive about his past (Russia continues to demand his release, calling him an innocent businessman). But his beginnings are as humble as they are mysterious. He was born in the then-U.S.S.R. to an auto mechanic father and a bookkeeper mother in Dushanbe, the capital of what was Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic. After reportedly completing a special training program with Soviet military intelligence, Bout, who is said to be fluent in six languages, graduated from the Military Institute of Foreign Languages in Moscow, and subsequently visited Africa while working as a military translator in Mozambique and Angola. His alleged foray into arms dealing began after he was discharged from the military in 1991. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, a new world of opportunity opened. Bout took advantage of unused airplanes sitting on airport tarmacs, and perhaps unsold weapons; beginning with three cargo planes purchased for $40,000 each, he grew his fleet to four dozen aircraft registered in African and Middle Eastern countries with lax regulations.

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Green eggs and ham

By Julia Belluz - Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 10:40 AM - 0 Comments

Enviropig; University of Guelph

“When I look at the Enviropig,” says professor Richard Moccia, associate vice-president of research at the University of Guelph, “I’m in awe and amazement at the ability of humans to create this technology.” Though the pink mammals look, oink and act like regular Yorkshire pigs, they were created in a lab. In 1999, scientists at Guelph added an E. coli gene and mouse DNA to a normal pig embryo. The result: the “greener” Enviropig pig. Though no one has ever tasted an Enviropig, testing on its internal organs and meat cuts revealed it’s identical to a regular oinker. Except that this transgenic animal may solve an environmental problem, namely pollution caused by pig farming.

We know all about eating local foods, recycling and carpooling to reduce our environmental footprints. But how about opting for animal products genetically modified to be greener? A number of researchers in Canada and around the world are working at the frontiers of genetic modification to create animals—from pigs to trout—that they claim are less injurious to the environment.

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Let them eat a non-representative sample of cake

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 10:31 AM - 0 Comments

Statistics Canada celebrates in style.

The first World Statistics Day was celebrated at Statscan on Wednesday with guest speakers, free coffee and enough vanilla cake to feed 400 of the agency’s 6,000 employees. Statistically speaking, that means 93 per cent of staff had to go without.

Human smuggling, immigration anxieties, and the Canadian way

By John Geddes - Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 10:11 AM - 0 Comments

Today’s announcement of the new Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada’s Immigration System Act (when will the revolt against Overly Wordy and Politically Contrived Names for Acts commence?) is bound to be interpreted, naturally enough, as a bid by the government to crack down on human traffickers who prey on the dreams and desperation of people determined to come to Canada whatever it takes.

But I suspect that the prime motivation behind the Conservative government’s rush to draft the bill, after a rusty boatload of Tamil refugees arrived in Vancouver last summer, was not to find practical ways to crack down on the snakeheads. Prime Minister Stephen Harper signaled the real aim more accurately this week when he said,  “A failure to act and act strongly will inevitably lead to a massive collapse in public support for our immigration system.”

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Mexico's other big boom

By Chris Sorensen - Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 10:00 AM - 0 Comments

Getty Images

Tourists may be thinking twice about Mexico amid escalating violence linked to drug cartels, but the bloody war that’s claimed some 28,000 lives over the last four years hasn’t stopped investors from piling into the nation’s economy. The Latin American country recently sold US$1 billion worth of 100-year government bonds—the largest century-bond offer on record and the first to come out of the region.

For the Mexican government, it’s a no-brainer: a rare opportunity to take advantage of reduced borrowing costs at a time when developed countries are holding the line on record-low interest rates. But some observers are concerned investors are getting carried away, arguing the sale is evidence of a credit bubble in the making. For one thing, a lot can happen in 100 years, and economists say rising interest rates in developed countries will ultimately make the lower-quality Mexican debt less attractive. And while there’s ample evidence of continued investment in Mexico, which has benefited from the North American Free Trade Agreement and boasts a growing middle class, it remains a developing country with an economy that still counts tourism as an important industry—an industry at constant risk as the death toll mounts.

A yankee fight over soccer

By Claire Ward - Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 9:40 AM - 0 Comments

Darren Staples/Reuters/ Steven Senne/AP

Financially challenged Liverpool Football Club may soon become debt free, but not without a fight. Its American owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, oppose their own board’s decision to sell to another U.S. concern, John Henry’s New England Sports Ventures (NESV), on the grounds that the takeover deal “dramatically undervalues the club” and could represent a potential loss of $233 million. NESV, owner of the Boston Red Sox—who have won the World Series twice since NESV took control in 2002—promises to bring back a culture of winning and remove all acquisition debt. “[NESV has] demonstrated, at Boston, exactly what we would like them to demonstrate here,” Martin Broughton, chairman of Liverpool, told the BBC.

Hicks and Gillett, who have made efforts to frustrate the sale, may lose their $233 million in loans to Liverpool if the proposed deal proceeds this Friday. The $485-million takeover agreement includes $323 million to settle with the Royal Bank of Scotland, $65 million to cover non-banking liabilities, and $97 million for the proposed new Anfield stadium in Stanley Park, leaving not a penny to repay the current owners.

Noise pollution

By Kate Lunau - Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 9:40 AM - 0 Comments

PHOTOGRAPH BY JESSICA DARMANIN

A promise to curb pollution has been a key selling point for SunChips—an ad shows the brand’s compostable bag breaking down into soil. But for its U.S. customers, noise pollution has proven a bigger concern. In a video on his blog, one air force pilot deemed the bags, which crinkle more noisily than previous packaging, louder than “the cockpit of my jet.” A Facebook group called, “Sorry but I can’t hear you over this SunChips bag” has over 49,000 members.

All this uproar caused Frito-Lay to announce it will stop using the packaging for most of its snacks. (SunChips Original will keep the noisy bags, a spokesperson said, adding that it’s working on a quieter version.) In Canada, the bag’s noise seemed to fall on deaf ears: Frito-Lay Canada says it’s had a positive response to the bags, and will keep the biodegradable packaging as is: noisy, but green.

A call for freedom that China should not ignore

By macleans.ca - Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 9:20 AM - 0 Comments

YM YIK/EPA/KEYSTONE PRESS

Last year’s Nobel Peace Prize awarded to U.S. President Barack Obama was an embarrassment to all concerned. Given Obama’s slight record of accomplishments up to 2009, it was an award based on name recognition and hope rather than any evidence of achievement. The same cannot be said of this year’s winner, Chinese human rights activist Liu Xiaobo. While he may not be a household name in the West, Liu has earned this award through decades of thoughtful commitment to peaceful dissent. The prickly reaction of the Chinese government merely adds to the importance of the award.

China recently became the world’s second-largest economy. This rapid growth, and the dramatic reduction of poverty it has entailed, is nothing short of a miracle. But despite all this economic advancement, the country’s achingly slow progress on human rights cannot be overlooked. It is now clear that development alone will not inevitably lead to democracy in China. The regime’s authoritarian impulses are too strong. There must also be a catalyst.

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Liveblog: Col. Russell Williams hearing, day 4

By Cathy Gulli - Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 9:12 AM - 0 Comments

WARNING: The following contains graphic testimony that readers may find disturbing.

For more on the first day of Russell Williams’s hearing go to: The dark, depraved side of Russell Williams revealed in court

[10:51 AM]
Court is closed. Williams is handcuffed again, and led out of the courtroom. First he speaks to his lawyer again. He is escorted out, shackled.

[10:37 AM]
Justice Robert Scott says that there is an expression often said, “Nothing surprise me anymore.” Of that adage, he says, “That has no meaning here.”

The judge suspects that long before his firs crime Williams had these thoughts.

“He will forever be remembered as sado-sexual serial killer. he lived a charmed life. … his double life fooled most people. He may be best described in the biographical sense as Canada’s bright shining lie. Russell Williams’s fall from grace has been swift and sure. his crimes have adversely affected this country and this community, all victims alike.”

Justice Scott says his sentencing is meant also to serve as a deterrent to others. He is also taking into account Williams’ statement to the court. “I found it to be sincere.”

“Although I would be less inclined to adopt the Crown’s shock and awe presentation to the court,” he says it demonstrated the escalation of crimes.

He asks Williams to please stand up. He does. The judge reads out the sentences:

Count 1, life imprisonment for the murder of Comeau

Count 2, life imprisonment for the murder of  Lloyd, to be served concurrently

Counts 1-73, 75-78, 81-86, all property offences, 1 year on each count, to be served concurrently

Counts 73, 74, 79, 80,  two sex assaults and confinement, 10 years on each count, to be served concurrently

Police will take Williams immediately to Kingston penitentiary.

The judge also imposes a lifetime weapons prohibition, sex offender registry for life, DNA data banking orders. He imposes the $8,800 victim fines, and orders the destruction of items seized.

He lets Willams sit down. He tell him that he is eligible for parole after 25 years, “but that’s no guarantee that you will be eligible at that time.”

[10:32 AM]
Judge asks Williams if there is anything he wants to say.

Williams stands up, facing the judge, with his back to the majority of the people in the courtroom.

“Your honour,” he pauses. He puts his hand in pocket, then on the bar around the prisoner box. “I stand before you indescribably ashamed. I know that the crimes I hve committed,” he stops, crying, “have traumatized many people. The family and friends of Marie France Comeau and Jessica Lloyd in particular have suffered and continue to suffer profoundly desperate pain and sorrow as result of what I’ve done.” He is crying. “My assault of [the sexual assault victims] has caused them to suffer terribly as well. Numerous victims of the break and enters have been seriously distressed. My family has been irreparably harmed,” Williams says through tears. “The understandable hatred that was expressed yesterday and has been palpable throughout the week has me recognizing that most will not accept this: I very deeply regret what I have done. And the harm I’ve caused,” he stops, crying. “I’ve committed despicable crimes, your honour,” he pauses again, crying, “in the process, betraying my family, my friends and colleagues and the  Canadian Forces.” He stops again to collect himself. “Excuse me,” Williams says, and then continues: “I shall spend the rest of my life knowing that I ended two vibrant, innocent and cherished lives. My very sincere hope is that my detailed confession on the night of Feb. 7, my full cooperation with investigators since, and ultimately my guilty pleas earlier this week have in some way served to temper the very, very serious harm I’ve caused my victims, their families and friends. Thank you.”

[10:27 AM]
Edelson says there are many questions about why Williams committed these crimes. Why?

He says the standard of criminal responsibility was met by Williams.

Edelson hopes that Williams’ “guilty pleas my be viewed as an atonement. He cannot stand before this court and expect forgiveness. We can hope that his act of pleading guilty may in some way at some time help in the healing process.”

“It is unlikely that anyone affected with ever fully recover from his crimes.”

Edelson says he is not intending not to raise sympathy for his client. He will be in prison for the rest of his life, and will only be eligible after 25 years. He pleased guilty knowing that.

He says the defense would be remiss if it did not quell media speculation that Williams got special treatment.

Describing the “seismic” violations Williams carried out, Edelson says that his client “knows he stands at the epicenter of these shock waves. He is prepared to take responsibility for the damage he has caused.”

[10:18 AM]
Williams’ lawyer Edelson stands to speak.

He says the defense takes no issue with the life sentences that will be imposed against Williams.

Edelson says that nothing can change the legal consequences since Williams has pled guilty. This puts the lawyers in a paradoxical position. They can’t do much to change the sentences, but says that the guilty pleas of Williams may serve to some degree as reparation.

It’s not the role of the defense to address the victim impact, says Edelson, but it does wish to acknowledge their suffering. “Their pain is incalculable and really beyond our comprehension.”

He says we live in society where the accused has the right to declare “I am not guilty.” He continues, “The act of pleading guilty is a rarity.” He says Williams’ exceedingly uncommon pleas to first-degree murder have allowed the justice process to proceed quickly and “lessen the turmoil” of a long case.

He points out that Williams did not have to tell the police about the break-ins, many of which had not even been reported by the victims. He also notes that Williams was fully cooperative in helping the police find evidence, even leading them to Lloyd’s body, and decoding his complex computer filing system containing the footage of his crimes.

Edelson says there is nothing the defense can say about Williams life that hasn’t already been reported.

[10:14 AM]
Burgess is contrasting the brave fight Marie France Comeau put up against Williams as he raped, tortured and killed her. He contrasts Jessica Lloyd thinking of her love for her mother while Williams raped, tortured and killed her.

“Can there be any greater contrast between evil and good?”

He asks the judge to impose full sentences on all counts.

Claps take over the courtroom.

[10:03 AM]
Crown Lee Burgess asks the judge to impose a lifetime weapons prohibition against Williams. He notes that Williams will be put on the sex offender registry, and in the DNA bank.

Burgess also asks that the $100 victim fine for every count against Williams not be waived. He said since Williams has assets and a pension, he should be required to pay the $8,800.

Next, he asks for anything Williams used in carrying out these crimes be destroyed: Clothing, sex toys, rope, zipties, duct and electrical tape, his cameras, hard drives, computer, tapes. He also asks that Williams’ Pathfinder be turned over to the Crown. The judge asks to what end, will it be sold? Burgess says, “I don’t know how much value is left. … It’s going to be crushed.”

“This year has been very difficult for this community. … We have been shocked and saddened. But that’s not what defines this region. We have come together in mutual support.”

Burgess describes the “monstrosities” that Williams inflicted on so may people, made more devastating because he held the rank of colonel, who was supposed  to be—and was—seen as a leader. “He exploited that to divert suspicious. He laughed at us … as he lived the life of a serial killer by night.”

He points out that on the night Williams committed one sexual assault, he had earlier gone to drop the puck at the local hockey game. Williams carried the Olympic torch, and the community cheered him on.

Describing the trauma and violation suffered by the victims. The crimes lasted a few hours, Burgess said, but “the scars will last a lifetime.”

[10:00 AM]
Williams is led into the courtroom. He stands in the prisoner’s box, his handcuffs removed by an officer. Like all he days before, his lawyer whispers in his left ear, he nods, and sits down. He resumes his hunched forward position, looking down. Then the judge enters, all rise.

[9:59 AM]
A mic has been put in the prisoner’s box.

[9:53 AM]
Lawyers are assembling in the courtroom. Word is that Williams’ attorney Michael Edelson will make remarks today for the first time since the hearing began on Monday.

[9:21 AM]
Fourth day of the sentencing hearing for Russell Williams, the disgraced colonel who has pled guilty to dozens of break-ins, two sexual assaults, and two murders. Footage of the crimes, and of his confession has run out. Victim impact statements have been read through tears. Weariness is palpable. Word is today will be the last. Williams may make a statement. Court resumes at 10 AM.

McDonald’s at the Château Laurier

By Mitchel Raphael - Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

McDonald’s hosted MPs at a reception at the Fairmont Château Laurier. (Left to right) Liberal MP Rob Oliphant, John Betts,
president of McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada Limited, Liberal MP Bonnie Crombie and Dave Henderson, chief financial officer.

.

Liberal MP Derek Lee.

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Bestsellers

By Brian Bethune - Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

Top-selling fiction and non-fiction titles (week of October 18th, 2010)

Fiction

Non-fiction

LAST WEEK (WEEKS ON LIST)

A wrap on shipping costs

By Colin Campbell - Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 8:40 AM - 0 Comments

Walter Hodges/Getty Images

In advance of the all-important holiday shopping season, dozens of major U.S. retailers are joining together to launch a service they believe will help win over big-spending consumers. For US$79, shoppers can sign on to a program called Shop­Runner, which offers free, unlimited online shipping (and free returns) at partner stores like Barnes & Noble and Shop.NHL.com.

Online commerce is worth US$140 billion and growing in the U.S. But it has been dominated by the e-commerce giant, Amazon.com. Other retailers hope Shop­Runner will help them take on Amazon and its own unlimited shipping program, Amazon Prime, which has an estimated five million members globally, notes the Wall Street Journal.

These shipping services are seen as a simple way to entice new shoppers and encourage repeat purchases. Once they’ve paid for Shop­Runner, consumers have an added incentive to keep shopping in order to get their money’s worth in free shipping.