Our democracy runneth over

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, December 3, 2010 at 12:35 PM - 16 Comments

A Globe story—about democratic reform legislation, mind you—citing unnamed government officials is contradicted by an unsigned government email. Kady O’Malley spots one irony. Susan Delacourt finds another.

… it’s interesting that on the matter of a bill on democratic reform, there are “higher” people in government, who know more than the elected people about what’s going on. If that’s not an argument for reform, I don’t know what is.

Meanwhile, the Liberal critic seems eager to see a vote.

China to boost interest rates

By macleans.ca - Friday, December 3, 2010 at 12:34 PM - 1 Comment

Authorities in Beijing have announced they will tighten access to credit in what the government is describing as a “prudent monetary policy” aimed at tackling inflation in the country. China’s inflation spiked at 4.4 per cent this past October—well above the target rate of 3 per cent. The spike in inflation was largely driven by a 10.1 percent jump in food costs and analysts say November inflation might rise still higher. The central bank said in its latest quarterly report it would “gradually return policy to a normal position,” indicating interest rates would rise.

Washington Post

Music: A Balding Handelian

By Jaime Weinman - Friday, December 3, 2010 at 12:15 PM - 7 Comments

The new classical recording I’ve been listening to lately is “Sento La Gioia,” “Ombra Cara,” the first solo album for the American countertenor Bejun Mehta. Like most countertenors, he does a lot of his work in baroque opera, singing parts that were originally written for castrati, so the album naturally focuses on the work of the most popular baroque opera composer, Handel.

Because the countertenor voice is a manufactured voice — no one sings like that naturally except, again, castrati — many countertenors are unsuccessful baritones who decided to try falsetto singing. That describes Mehta; having had little success as a musician as an adult, he became a record producer (a common occupation for people who know music but can’t make a living performing it). In the late ’90s, when baroque opera exploded in popularity and countertenors like David Daniels were becoming increasingly popular choices for castrato parts, Mehta decided to convert himself into a countertenor, and found he was really good at it; within only a few years he was one of the best in the business.

There are pluses and minuses to having a castrato part sung by a countertenor. The absolute most important thing, of course, is that these are parts that were written to be played by men, and unless you assign them to a countertenor, you have to cast them with women. It’s fine to have a teenaged boy played by a woman, but many of these characters are heroes and warriors and, in the most popular baroque opera, Julius Caesar. And it’s hard to create a theatrically believable production when you have a woman pretending to be a Roman emperor.

The disadvantage is that the countertenor is not (thank God) a castrato and isn’t always equipped, vocally, for the demands of these parts. The lead roles in these operas require leading-man and leading-lady type of voices that can fill a theatre. A falsetto voice is limited in power and volume, meaning that countertenors tend to have greater success in concert than in opera houses. René Jacobs, the conductor of Mehta’s album, used to be a very successful countertenor himself, but now that he’s a successful conductor, he usually gives the biggest castrato parts to women because he feels that voices like his are not up to the vocal demands.

Mehta has had more success in the theatre than most countertenors, though. And while what a voice can do in the theatre doesn’t matter on a record, the recording does give an idea of why he’s become one of the better operatic countertenors. First, his voice really does sound “manly,” very important for a falsetto singer who wants to play operatic parts (as opposed to something like Messiah where the singers have no fixed gender). He manages to give it enough weight and variety of colour that it sounds like a guy with a high voice, rather than a guy trying to sound like a soprano. There are moments that remind you that some of these very difficult pieces — like the long tour de force mad scene from Orlando, an opera that has nothing to do with Florida — were written for a singer with a richer lower range than a countertenor can muster, but for the most part, his technique and diction are so good, and the voice so pleasing in timbre, that you don’t get the feeling that you’re “settling” for a countertenor.

Fantino says Charter was good for criminals

By macleans.ca - Friday, December 3, 2010 at 12:13 PM - 67 Comments

In his first interview since winning the federal riding of Vaughn, Conservative MP Julian Fantino said Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms has “in fact, benefited some criminals.” Liberal MP Justin Trudeau was quick to criticize the new Tory MP, reminding Fantino he is “not a cop any more.” Fantino shot back accusing Trudeau of embracing a “hug-a-thug philosophy.”

Winnipeg Free Press

'The prime minister's decision'

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, December 3, 2010 at 11:05 AM - 49 Comments

The federal government was preparing last December to deal with the “the prime minister’s decision” to do away with the long-form census.

Human Resources and Skills Development Canada: Less reliable data would “compromise their ability” to determine EI eligibility, assess skills development and retraining, and apply the federal-provincial agreement on labour mobility.

Indian and Northern Affairs Canada: “Absence of reliable long-form data will not allow them to effectively manage, evaluate, and measure performance of programs in areas of aboriginal health, housing, education, and economic development.”

Citizenship and Immigration Canada: A broad range of programs dealing with selecting and settling immigrants, including a pan-Canadian agreement on foreign credentials would be hit. “A question in the long form on country of educational attainment specifically provides information to support this program.”

Chile's president gets a yellow card

By Nadja Drost - Friday, December 3, 2010 at 10:00 AM - 5 Comments

There are allegations that Piñera was involved in a coach's resignation ; Head coach Bielsa in November | Alex Ibanez/Presidencia de Chile; Ivan Alvarado/Reuters

The stunning rescue of 33 miners did wonders for Chilean President Sebastián Piñera. After the miners rose from the depths, Piñera’s popularity climbed by 10 points to 63 per cent, according to a poll conducted by Adimark, a government-commissioned polling firm. Now, his approval ratings may hinge on the future success of Chile’s national soccer team.

As he toured Europe shortly following the mine rescue in October, Piñera, who won the presidency last January, was treated as Latin America’s new star, still riding the crest of a wave of popularity. Until, that is, he found himself in the crosshairs of a controversy centred on perhaps the one thing Chileans will rally around more than 33 miners stuck underground: soccer. “Soccer is having an effect on politics, and the direct responsibility for this lies with the president,” said Mauricio Morales, a professor of political science at Diego Portales University in Santiago. “We have never seen this before in Chile. Never.”

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What do we want from them?

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, December 3, 2010 at 9:51 AM - 22 Comments

Alison Loat follows Samara’s last report with an op-ed.

With that in mind, it’s time to consider giving our MPs a proper job description. Being an MP is a critical job in our democracy, and there needs to be some consistency in our collective understanding of its key components, responsibilities and expectations … it is the responsibility of the Canadian citizenry to define the job of our elected representatives. After all, if the employer – in this case, the Canadian voter – doesn’t give its employees in Ottawa a clear sense of what’s expected of them on the job, who’s really to blame when that job doesn’t get done?

Not exactly an accurate reflection

By John Geddes - Friday, December 3, 2010 at 9:40 AM - 134 Comments

Government video of DrugsNot4Me.ca

There’s no denying the federal government’s new anti-drug TV ad tells a disturbing story. A freshly scrubbed adolescent in her well-appointed bedroom looks like she might be about to relax with a couple of Justin Bieber tunes. Instead, an eerie soundtrack starts up. “One, two, kicked out of school,” sings a hollow, girlish voice straight out of a horror-movie trailer. “Three, four, snort some more.” Soon she’s trashing the room, then randomly snipping off some of her own hair, and finally scratching at the angry needle marks on her forearm. “Five, six, need my fix.” It’s a relief when the spooky carousel music stops and a calming adult narrator advises kids to check out Health Canada’s DrugsNot4Me website.

The ad, which is called “Mirror,” was launched on Nov. 17 by Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq. Her department is spending $1.06 million to make the spot so ubiquitous on teen-oriented TV that two-thirds of 13- to 15-year-olds are expected to see it by next March. The Conservatives also hope it carries a message for their mothers and fathers. “To Canadian parents,” Aglukkaq said, “we’re on your side, and you have our support in helping your kids say no to drugs.” Few would argue with that goal, of course, but researchers and front-line doctors who work with teen addicts are critical of key elements of the strategy.

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How many? (II)

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, December 2, 2010 at 7:48 PM - 13 Comments

For the fourth consecutive day, Lawrence Cannon was pressed during QP to say how many children have been detained and transferred by the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan. For the fourth consecutive day, this did not result in an answer.

Afterward I emailed Mr. Cannon’s office with the following.

According to the Canadian Forces records released in September, 439 individuals were detained by the CF in Afghanistan between 2002 and 2008. Two-hundred and eighty-three of those individuals were transferred. Two questions: How many of those detained were juveniles? How many of those transferred were juveniles?

That was eventually forwarded to the Department of National Defence, which responds as follows. I’ve bolded the portion that seems most particularly applicable to the questions at hand. Continue…

Afghanistan: The leak isn't the story

By Andrew Potter - Thursday, December 2, 2010 at 5:23 PM - 17 Comments

Reporting from Afghanistan by Canadian media is focused almost entirely on Kandahar. But as the kerfuffle over ambassador William Crosbie and the leak about the contents of the wilileaks memos reminds us, what is going on in Kabul is in many ways more interesting. In particular, it is important to pay attention to what prompted Crosbie’s outburst in the first place.

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Oreste Mordini | 1920-2010

By Julia Belluz - Thursday, December 2, 2010 at 5:00 PM - 0 Comments

Illustration by Julia Minamata

Oreste Mordini was born in Torino di Sangro, Italy, on Sept. 23, 1920. His parents, Nicola and Maria, ran a farm in that hilly part of Italy, on the Adriatic Sea. As a child, Oreste was charged with shepherding the family’s sheep and milking the cows. When he wasn’t busy helping his parents and nine siblings work the land, he’d play with the chickens and rabbits, and tend to the family garden—a hobby that would remain constant in his life.

Oreste became accustomed to doing a lot with little at an early age. Nicola and Maria made sure the children always ate, but other daily necessities were sometimes lacking; Oreste would fashion shoes from leftover wood and rubber. After grade school, he worked on the farm full-time, but when Oreste was 19, the Second World War broke out. He joined the war effort, training as a medical assistant in Italy.

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Week in Pictures: November 25th – December 2nd 2010

By macleans.ca - Thursday, December 2, 2010 at 4:35 PM - 1 Comment

Rights and Democracy: an odd cameo appearance

By Paul Wells - Thursday, December 2, 2010 at 4:11 PM - 47 Comments

Remember the great old days when the entire cast of Homicide: Life on the Streets would suddenly appear, in character, in an episode of Law and Order? Geek heaven. That’s how I felt last week when I saw a fascinating bit of testimony from the much-noted Nov. 23 meeting of the Commons Government Operations committee.

That was the meeting at which construction-company boss Paul Sauvé testified that he received a $9 million contract to renovate Parliament’s West Block after he paid $140,000 to Gilles Varin, who knew people in the Conservative party. Here’s the key bit from a PostMedia account of that testimony:

“Varin was suggested to us strongly as a man who had strong connections with the Conservative government and that was the go-to-guy for this type of small-cap infrastructure spending contracts,” Sauve told the government operations and estimates committee in the House of Commons. “So yes, because we paid, we received.”

He goes on to suggest all sorts of links between the construction business and organized crime in Quebec, which I know will come as profoundly saddening news to Maclean’s readers and/or Members of Parliament. But where it gets really interesting for followers of the endless Rights and Democracy saga is when Liberal MP Geoff Regan notices the passive voice in the quote above (“Varin was suggested to us strongly…”) and decides to tug at that thread:

Hon. Geoff Regan: Thank you.

Who told you that you should go to see Mr. Varin because he was the guy to see?

Mr. Paul Sauvé: We had a board member called Claude Sarrazin, who was a Conservative, I believe, at least in spirit, who requested us to contact Gilles Varin, and brought him to my attention, to my office. Continue…

Death before justice

By Julia Belluz - Thursday, December 2, 2010 at 4:00 PM - 2 Comments

Yad Vashem Photo Archive/AP

He was accused of aiding in the murder of 430,000 Jews at the Belzec death camp, and of shooting 10 people dead. But before Samuel Kunz, 89, could stand trial, he died on Nov. 18 in his home near Bonn.

Kunz, born in Russia to an ethnic German family, was captured by the Germans during the Second World War and given the choice of becoming a POW or working with the Nazis. He allegedly chose the latter, and was accused of leading Jews into gas chambers and throwing corpses into mass graves. He allegedly shot and killed wounded prisoners, and Jews trying to escape trains headed for a death camp.

After the war, Kunz resumed a seemingly normal life in Germany. He worked as a civil servant, and though he was questioned about his past, the former guard avoided trial. In April, Kunz became the third-most-wanted living Nazi when he caught the attention of investigators preparing for the trial of John Demjanjuk, the man accused of being an accessory in the murder of nearly 30,000 people. Kunz was to stand trial next year.

Mars and Venus on Earth

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, December 2, 2010 at 3:55 PM - 36 Comments

Elizabeth May talks to Newsweek about the differences between men and women when it comes to the environment.

It’s always risky to speak about how women and men are different. But it would be wrong for me to ignore that a lot of the good that comes in the world is from motherly instincts. We cannot have any notion that our children are going to have a livable world if we don’t apply ourselves to political decisions—like making sure our governments ease our addiction to fossil fuels. A big part of urban concerns is to have healthy, locally grown food—a lot of that comes from moms going to the stores and seeing that the food is full of pesticides and doesn’t come from around here. Perhaps it is motherly.

A fierce desire to protect the vulnerable certainly comes from wanting to protect kids, but I wouldn’t want to portray women in green politics as more caring than men. Many men are great feminists, and many women are not. I see [Canadian politician] Stephen Lewis as a strong feminist, then I look at Sarah Palin and I think, oh dear, oh dear.

Jihad in the Caucasus?

By Stephanie Findlay - Thursday, December 2, 2010 at 3:00 PM - 1 Comment

Musa Sadulayev/AP

An increasing number of recent terrorist attacks in Russia’s North Caucasus have attracted the attention of analysts who point to a growing role of Arab fighters and even preachers in the region. “North Caucasus jihadis’ linkage to the global jihad is now at a level in which clerics have become influential and are sought out for fatwas and advice,” writes Murad Batal al-Shishani, a political analyst at the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington-based political think tank, noting what appears to be the spreading influence of Arab Salafist ideologues.

Among the recent examples of an Arab presence is the highly publicized but not unique death of 24-year-old Jordanian Anas Khalil Khadir, who was killed in Chechnya in June after joining jihadist groups there. And in August, Jordanian Salafist ideologue Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi and Syrian cleric Abu Basir al-Tartusi condemned the fracturing of jihadist groups in Chechnya and the North Caucasus, advocating they unite under the militant Chechen Islamic leader Doku Umarov.

That’s not to say that Arab terrorists are overrunning the region. Paul Crego, a specialist on the Caucasus and cataloguer at the U.S. Library of Congress, says that the “Arab fighter,” though a real threat, doesn’t mean there’s a unified Caucasus jihad movement. And Arabs ultimately act as individual players, aligning themselves with different militant Islamic factions within the region.

Crego acknowledges that “there has been some radicalization of the Islamic movement in the North Caucasus, and outside influence from Islamic militants.” But, he notes, “if you took away all jihad, whether global or local in the North Caucasus, you would still have the issue of people who have been treated very badly by imperial Russia for the past two centuries.” And for that, he says, “I don’t see an easy resolution.”

Canadian prostitution laws in limbo

By macleans.ca - Thursday, December 2, 2010 at 2:50 PM - 9 Comments

The Ontario Court of Appeal has ruled that Canada’s prostitution laws will stand for at least several more months while government lawyers prepare an appeal of a landmark ruling that essentially decriminalized prostitution. The court ruling on Thursday means the laws banning communicating for the purpose of prostitution, keeping a common bawdy house, and living off the avails of prostitution will continue to be valid. (Earlier in 2010, an Ontario Superior Court judge struck down the three laws.) Today’s decision extends the stay on the lower court’s ruling until April 29, putting pressure on the government to expedite the appeal process. This means it is still against the law for prostitutes in Ontario to work in brothels and openly solicit customers.

CBC News

Berlusconi and Putin: a close—and financially rewarding?—friendship

By macleans.ca - Thursday, December 2, 2010 at 2:41 PM - 1 Comment

According to diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks, U.S. diplomats suspect Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi could be “profiting personally and handsomely” from secret deals with the Russian prime minister, Vladimir Putin. This “financially enriching relationship” has been observed by members of Berlusconi’s political party and from the hostile government of Georgia, according to the cables. American embassy staff outlined allegations that Berlusconi had been promised a cut of huge energy contracts, and that the prime minister had taken a “single-handed” control of Italy’s dealings with Moscow, with the main goal of pleasing the Russian leader. Under Hillary Clinton, the State Department in Washington sent a special request to the Rome embassy this year, asking for extra intelligence-gathering on the allegations about the men. The cables said the personal ties between the two were close, “with Putin’s family spending long visits at the Berlusconi family mansion in Sardinia at Berlusconi’s expense.” A contact in Berlusconi’s office told the embassy of “exchanges of lavish gifts.” In January 2009, the U.S. ambassador in Rome wrote that it was “hard to determine” the basis of the Berlusconi-Putin friendship. “Berlusconi admires Putin’s macho, decisive and authoritarian governing style, which the Italian PM believes matches his own.” However, “contacts in both the opposition centre-left Partito Democratico and Berlusconi’s own PdL party have hinted at a more nefarious connection. They believe that Berlusconi and his cronies are profiting personally and handsomely from many of the energy deals between Italy and Russia.”

The Guardian

Mozart vs. the thugs

By Josh Dehaas - Thursday, December 2, 2010 at 2:40 PM - 3 Comments

Getty Images

Police in Christchurch, New Zealand (pop. 348,000), say they’ve reduced crime in the city’s pedestrian mall from 77 incidents per week in October 2009 to just two per week a year later—by piping Mozart through loudspeakers. But the Press newspaper, which carried the report, sent Pop Tart, its music critic, to eat her lunch there and conduct her own study of whether classical music was making the site safer. “I had only just sat down when a thug hovered into view,” she writes. “ ‘Give us a bite,’ thug said. Mindless Mozart playing around us, thug punched the tree behind my head and then walked off.” Then two teen girls began brawling. Pop Tart concluded that anti-social acts were still happening, but that there were just fewer shoppers left at the boring mall to harass.

Musicologist Lily E. Hirsch has, however, documented successful police efforts to shoo away hooligans with music. But how does it work? The best theory is that classical tunes signal to thugs that they don’t belong in a given environment. But it seems strange that the earliest example Hirsch noted was a handful of 7-Eleven stores in British Columbia that used classical music to scare off loitering teens in 1985. If Mozart and Bach signal to teens that they don’t belong at 7-Eleven, who will buy the chain’s Slurpees?

Swearing as a second language

By Emma Teitel - Thursday, December 2, 2010 at 2:20 PM - 5 Comments

Teaching adults English grammar as well as its naughty parts, says an ELL coordinator, is a lesson in survival skills | Joe Raedle/Howard Lipin/Getty Images

English as a Second Language (ESL) now goes by the new, politically correct name of English Language Learning (ELL), in official recognition of the fact that immigrants new to Canada may know more than one language already. That doesn’t, however, make the average ELL student a champion of political correctness. At least it’s doubtful that Amira Azad, an Iranian Muslim woman in her mid-40s, had cultural sensitivity on the brain when she interrupted our ELL tutorial on the prepositional phrase. “May I ask a question?” she said, and then leaned closer to whisper: “Tell me please, what is the difference between a slut and whore?”

“The first sleeps with a lot of men,” I answered when I recovered, “and the second gets paid to do the same.” “Oh,” she said, “same in Iran.” Amira (who, like the other students interviewed, requested that her name be changed) asked roughly 30 similar questions that day, compiling a mini lexicon of English curse words and expressions that she covered with her hands every time the program supervisor walked by. Writing down the definition of “bitch,” she noted: “Thank you. My sons will be punished.”

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Mitchel Raphael on Trudeau's strut down the catwalk, moustache and all

By Mitchel Raphael - Thursday, December 2, 2010 at 2:00 PM - 9 Comments

Justin Trudeau’s $1,600 lunch
The fourth annual What a Girl Wants fundraiser for the Canadian Liver Foundation featured local firefighters peeling off their uniforms, and a performance by drag queen Dixie Landers, who lip-synched to Bette Midler’s cover of Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy. The performer wore bright pink stilettos and received a compliment from none other than Laureen Harper, who told Ms. Landers, “I love your shoes.” Hollywood glamour was the dinner’s theme, and each table in the Fairmont Château Laurier ballroom was named after a silver screen icon. Mrs. Harper sat at the Marilyn Monroe table along with Justin Trudeau and one of the evening’s organizers, Annette Martin of the Canadian Liver Foundation (and wife of National Post columnist Don Martin). One table over sat Liberal MP Hedy Fry, sporting a Marilyn Monroe purse and matching shoes. Labour Minister Lisa Raitt showed off a small pink glittery purse she picked up at Wal-Mart for $5. Among the items auctioned off that night: lunch with Trudeau. When Capital Diary asked Mrs. Harper if she planned to bid, she quipped, “I just had dinner with him.” The Liberal MP fretted, tongue-in-cheek, that his new moustache—grown to support the Movember prostate cancer awareness campaign—might have a negative impact on bidding. So Trudeau took to the catwalk, loosening his tie, which raised appreciative cheers—and $1,600 for the charity. Liberal MP Kirsty Duncan bid $500 and won a Sex in the City jewellery cuff worn by Kim Cattrall’s character Samantha Jones. Duncan plans to donate the piece to another liver charity in honour of a Grade 9 student she mentored in her senior year of high school. They formed a close bond, but the younger student subsequently died of liver disease.

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NASA finds entirely new form of life

By macleans.ca - Thursday, December 2, 2010 at 1:47 PM - 9 Comments

NASA is set to deliver an important press conference today, but hours before, news has leaked they’ll be announcing the discovery of a new form of life – one that doesn’t share biological building blocks of anything currently living on Earth, Wired reports. NASA scientist Felisa Wolfe Simon will announce they’ve found a bacteria whose DNA is alien to what we know. Discovered in the poisonous Mono Lake in California, it’s made of arsenic, which was thought to be impossible. The press conference is to take place at 2 pm Eastern.

Wired

Justin Bieber – "Baby" Live! 2010

By macleans.ca - Thursday, December 2, 2010 at 1:46 PM - 0 Comments

Keeping track of patients and their implants

By Kate Lunau - Thursday, December 2, 2010 at 1:40 PM - 5 Comments

About 29,000 Canadians had hip replacement surgery in 2007-2008;The devices keep evolving; traditional implant (left) and newer type | Mehau Kulyk/Photo Researchers; AP Photo/Tom Gannam

On the evening of Aug. 27, Lincoln Bryant, a Presbyterian minister in Kingston, Ont., was watching the news. A report came on that left him stunned: DePuy Orthopaedics Inc., a U.S. company, had announced a global recall of two implants used in hip replacement surgery. Bryant, 53, suffers from hip dysplasia, an instability in the joint. In January 2008, after years of managing the pain, he had hip resurfacing surgery, a type of hip replacement that preserves more bone. Since then, the pain has gotten worse; he can’t be on his feet more than a few hours at a time. “I didn’t know what I had in my body,” he says, but he suspected it might be a DePuy implant.

The next day, feeling increasingly worried, he phoned his surgeon, but was unable to reach him, playing phone tag with a secretary for a few days. (Kingston General Hospital, where Bryant says he had the surgery done, couldn’t confirm details of his story for privacy reasons.) His situation was complicated: unrelated to the recall, in January he’d filed a complaint against his surgeon with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO), which regulates doctors in the province, and was awaiting his hearing.

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