Talk shops

By Paul Wells - Thursday, June 30, 2011 at 5:07 PM - 12 Comments

So there’s this thing called the Community of Democracies. It’s truth in labelling: it’s a loose international assembly of countries that at least claim to be democracies. It’s not perfect — Egypt and Yemen signed its founding declaration in 2000, apparently with a straight face — but it puts democratic freedom at the heart of its mission and makes that aspiration a guiding principle for its existence and action.

Every year the Community of Democracies has a ministerial meeting. Steven Fletcher, who was then the Minister of State for Democratic Reform, attended on the Harper government’s behalf in 2009. “I appreciated the opportunity to meet with experts on democracy assistance and government officials to share Canada’s commitment to take on a more active role in supporting democracy on the world stage,” he said at the time. Lawrence Cannon, then the Minister for Foreign Affairs, attended last year’s ministerial conference. “The Community of Democracies is an important forum for supporting and strengthening democracy around the world,” Cannon said then.

You know where this is going, don’t you. Continue…

The royal tour in pictures: William and Kate arrive in Ottawa

By macleans.ca - Thursday, June 30, 2011 at 4:42 PM - 1 Comment

The watcher

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, June 30, 2011 at 3:52 PM - 12 Comments

Tabatha Southey questions the Internet surveillance portion of the government’s promised omnibus crime bill.

Imagine that, because you’re pressed for time, you take a cab to the library. The cab driver is obliged by law to install a device that will monitor where he takes you. While in the cab, you call your friend to talk about your day. The phone company is obliged to track whom you talk to and for how long. At the library, you speak to a librarian, who jots down your query, because legally he must. He directs you to a specific shelf, and notes that too; each book you open will be recorded as well. Later, you see a film. The theatre notes which one, as it has to….

Most Canadians would be outraged about this situation, unless someone explained to them that all these actions – the visiting, conversing, research, commerce and movie watching – were conducted on the Internet. Substitute search engines for libraries and cabs, and telecommunications companies for the theatre, and lots of people quiet down.

Cancer-causing parasites cause havoc in Southeast Asia

By macleans.ca - Thursday, June 30, 2011 at 3:17 PM - 0 Comments

In northern Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, the Koreas and China, rivers are infested with tiny fluke worms, parasites that can enter the human body when seafood is eaten raw, Reuters reports. Most infected people are men, and they can develop bile duct cancer in their forties or fifties as a result. Health authorities in northeast Thailand now plan to screen people for these worms with an annual stool examination, and those who are infected will be treated with drugs. This is the top cause of mortality in the region, authorities note, but can be treated with just one tablet of praziquantel, which is given free.

Reuters

We’re totally cool, really

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, June 30, 2011 at 3:14 PM - 23 Comments

The Conservative Party of Canada would like to assure you that they’re the total opposite of everything the media has tried to make them out to be.

Gaza-bound boat damaged on Turkish coast

By macleans.ca - Thursday, June 30, 2011 at 3:13 PM - 10 Comments

A boat that was destined for Gaza as part of an “aid flotilla” was damaged this week, The Washington Post reports. Fintan Lane—leader of an Irish humanitarian group that plans to deliver aid to Gaza—said this is the second time a ship headed for the Israeli occupied territory was damaged on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast this week. Lane believes the Israeli government is responsible for a gash in the shaft of his group’s boat which prevents them from embarking their mission. Mark Regev, a representative of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, refused to comment on the incident, though he did say that Israel is often blamed for wrongs it does not commit.

The Washington Post

Fidgeting can help improve fitness

By macleans.ca - Thursday, June 30, 2011 at 2:45 PM - 0 Comments

Short bursts of light-intensity physical activity, like walking around the office or climbing stairs, can boost fitness levels among obese people, according to a Canadian study. Queen’s University researchers followed 43 men and 92 women who were inactive and abdominally obese, measuring the duration and intensity of movements and testing their cardio-respiratory fitness levels. Participants wore an accelerometer to track how much they moved. A cumulate 30-minute increase in moderate physical activity through the day offered benefits, according to their findings. This was hailed as important, since many people don’t do a strenuous, structured 30-minute workout in the day, or don’t like going to the gym. Instead, health experts could promote other physical activities, like housework, climbing stairs or walking around the office, as helpful.

CBC News

How to celebrate our 150th?

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, June 30, 2011 at 1:33 PM - 14 Comments

We could build a couple NHL arenas. Or we could lower the voting age, institute mandatory voting and reopen the Constitution.

Canada’s 150th birthday bash in 2017 could highlight the fun and symbolic — such as a nationwide hockey tournament and a cross-country canoe pageant — but could also involve serious policy changes, such as lowering the voting age to 16 or instituting mandatory voting, newly obtained public documents show…

Bureaucrats reckon 2017 could be an opportunity to reopen debate on Canadian federalism. ”This discussion has been held for boomers (in the ’80s and ’90s), but it’s not closed yet,” officials write. “By 2017, a whole new generation will have a whole new outlook.” Jeremy Diamond, director of the Historica Dominion Institute, expressed support for democratic reform initiatives. He said the 18-24 age range is ripe for increased political participation, and that Canada’s 150th could be an ideal time to restart the constitution debate.

UN tribunal issues arrest warrants in Hariri murder investigation

By macleans.ca - Thursday, June 30, 2011 at 1:15 PM - 0 Comments

The UN-backed tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri has issued four arrest warrants for people accused of being involved in the murder, according to the country’s state prosecutor. Local reports say the warrants are for senior members of Hezbollah, a major Shia militant and political group in Lebanon with alleged ties to Syria and Iran. Hezbollah has repeatedly denounced the tribunal and has vowed retribution for being singled out. Hariri and 22 others were killed in February 2005 when a bomb exploded near his motorcade as it passed through central Beirut. According to the BBC, many in the country are skeptical that the warrants will lead to actual arrests, since Hezbollah is now a strong force in the Lebanese government. The group claims the tribunal is a plot orchestrated by the United States, Israel and France. They have repeatedly denied playing any role in Hariri’s murder.

BBC News

Top court to hear terrorism law challenge

By macleans.ca - Thursday, June 30, 2011 at 1:14 PM - 2 Comments

The Supreme Court of Canada said Thursday the first person ever charged under anti-terror laws will have a chance to appeal the legal definition of “terrorist activity.” Momin Khawaja was sentenced to 10 ½ years in prison in 2008 after he was convicted of five terrorism charges, but Ontario’s highest court later increased his sentence to life with no chance of parole for 10 years. Khawaja’s lawyer has argued to Ontario’s appeals court that the definition of “terrorist activity” is unconstitutional, but the court rejected the appeal.  His lawyer says the definition violates the Charter right to express religious beliefs and political opinions because it requires the terrorist act to be done for political, religious or ideological reasons. Khawaja’s lawyer is expected to also try to get his sentence reduced.

CTV News

NATO security force kills insurgent in air strike

By macleans.ca - Thursday, June 30, 2011 at 1:12 PM - 2 Comments

Following a terrorist attack on the Hotel Intercontinental in Kabul on Tuesday, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) killed Haqqani insurgent leader Ismail Jan in an airstrike on Wednesday. Jan, who was deputy to a senior Haqqani commander, was linked to the hotel attack that killed 12 people.  The Taliban has taken responsibility for the attack, but ISAF says the Taliban-backed Haqqani network is equally to blame. The attack followed President Obama’s announcement that he would begin withdrawing American troops from Afghanistan. Many people in the country are concerned as to whether Afghan security forces can hold their own against the Taliban without Western support.

Reuters

Sorry Rob, the gay pride parade is part of the job

By Andrew Potter - Thursday, June 30, 2011 at 1:10 PM - 31 Comments

Tory Zimmerman/TORONTO STAR

From kissing babies to sitting through interminable public ceremonies, the cost of being a politician in a democracy is that you have to submit to a handful of ritual humiliations simply because the people expect it. The prime minister of Canada has to pretend to like hockey. The American president has to attend church and otherwise act like he believes in God. Even Kim Jong Il has to feign interest in mundane things. As for the mayor of Toronto, he has to march in the annual Pride parade that celebrates the diversity of human sexuality in the city’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community.

The current holder of that office, Rob Ford, does not agree. He has made it clear that he has no intention of attending the annual parade, which often takes place over the July 1 long weekend. And despite being strongly encouraged to change his mind by virtually every newspaper columnist and editorialist in the land, Ford is digging in. Yet oddly enough, it is the mayor’s own bizarre recalcitrance that forms the strongest argument for why he needs to be there.

There are actually a number of reasonable arguments to be made in support of Rob Ford’s position. To begin with, suppose we take at face value his claim that it’s nothing more than a scheduling problem, that the Pride parade conflicts with a decades-old Ford family tradition of spending the weekend at the cottage in Huntsville, Ont. To the extent to which Pride is about engendering respect for love in all its plenitude, a magnanimous LGBT community should be willing to grant him his traditional hetero-normative family time.

Continue…

MS therapy trials get federal funding

By macleans.ca - Thursday, June 30, 2011 at 1:07 PM - 8 Comments

The federal government will fund clinical trials of a controversial treatment for multiple sclerosis patients. Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq says a scientific working group created by the government last year has agreed a clinical trial of so-called liberation therapy, which looks at narrowed neck veins as the cause of MS, should go ahead. The approval comes despite a spate of recent studies that doubt the main cause of MS is narrowed neck veins. She says the team unanimously deemed it safe enough to proceed based on scientific reports on the procedure. Researchers conducted numerous studies on narrowed neck veins after an Italian doctor theorized it could be a factor in the development of MS. The doctor said unblocking neck veins could help relieve symptoms. Many Canadians with MS have gone overseas for the procedure, which currently isn’t offered in Canada.

The Chronicle Herald

First-degree murder charge for teen

By macleans.ca - Thursday, June 30, 2011 at 1:00 PM - 7 Comments

A 15-year-old boy has been charged with first-degree murder after the van he was at the wheel of crushed a police officer. York Regional Police Constable Garrett Styles was dragged by the minivan for about 300 metres before the van rolled on top of him. The van had snagged Styles after he had reached inside the vehicle for the keys when he discovered the van didn’t belong to any of the occupants inside during a traffic stop. The teen is still in hospital with serious injuries. Reports say the boy is now a quadriplegic. He is scheduled to appear in court July 7.

The Globe and Mail

Sarkozy attacked by pedestrian

By macleans.ca - Thursday, June 30, 2011 at 12:51 PM - 0 Comments

A man is in police custody and may face up to 3 years in prison and a 45,000 euro fine after attacking French President Nicolas Sarkozy during the his walkabout in Toulouse, France on Thursday. Sarkozy, 55, was shaking hands with people behind a fence, when a man reached out his hand, took the President by his suit lapel, and pushed him to the ground. Plainclothes security guards were quick to jump in and arrest the man, who is currently detained in Agen.

The Daily Mail

The last 25 years in books

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, June 30, 2011 at 12:10 PM - 8 Comments

Samara and the Writers’ Trust of Canada have released their shortlist for the best political book of the last quarter century.

Included is Right Side Up by our own Paul Wells.

10 new rules for saving 3D cinema

By Brian D. Johnson - Thursday, June 30, 2011 at 12:10 PM - 4 Comments

Paramount Pictures; Getty Images; Photo illustration by Taylor Shute

It was hailed as the biggest revolution in cinema technology since colour. But less than two years after the triumph of Avatar, 3D seems to be wearing thin. For the first time since the new digital format was launched, the majority of viewers are choosing to watch 3D movies in 2D versions—at least in the U.S., where a 3D ticket bears a $5 premium. There, 2D outpaced 3D at the box office by about 60 per cent for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Kung Fu Panda 2, Green Lantern—and in advance sales for the final Harry Potter movie. Canada is another story. “We see movies consistently outperforming in 3D,” says Cineplex Entertainment spokesperson Pat Marshall, explaining that Cineplex charges just a $3 premium. But as American audiences abandon 3D, studio executives who once embraced it as cinema’s salvation are sounding the alarm. Jeffrey Katzenberg, head of DreamWorks Animation, called the trend “heartbreaking.” Blaming a glut of bad 3D movies from other studios, he told the Hollywood Reporter: “We have disappointed our audience multiple times now, and because of that I think there is genuine distrust.”

3D’s big test is Transformers: Dark of the Moon, which opened Tuesday. James Cameron convinced Michael Bay to shoot in 3D, providing the tech he created for Avatar. But armed with that third dimension, Bay’s blitzkrieg style of kinetic action is exhausting to watch. And it will take more than a sci-fi sequel to restore our faith. To cop a phrase from Bill Maher, here are 10 New Rules for saving 3D:

1. Sell 3D and 2D tickets at the same price. Studios complain 3D movies cost more to make, while exhibitors carp about upgrading theatres. Who cares? Viewers suspect they’re being gouged. If you’re trying to acclimatize the audience to an iffy new technology, level the playing field. That would also be the acid test of 3D quality—to see how many people would still choose to see the 2D version.

Continue…

Two charged in death of Canadian soldier in Afghanistan

By macleans.ca - Thursday, June 30, 2011 at 11:43 AM - 0 Comments

Two Canadian soldiers have been charged with manslaughter in connection with the death of Cpl. Joshua Caleb Baker, who was killed by an explosion in a training exercise outside of Kandahar city in February 2010. In a statement, the Department of National Defence identified Maj. Darryl Watts, the officer in charge when Baker was killed, and Warrant Officer Paul Ravensdale, who was responsible for safety. “It is alleged that proper safety procedures were not followed during the training exercise,” said Defence officials in a news release. Ravensdale and Watts also face four counts of unlawfully causing bodily harm for the four other soldiers who were injured during the exercise that killed Baker. The charges now have to be approved before they will be sent to a court martial. Baker, 24, was the 140th Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan.

Ottawa Citizen

From Fellini to Lady Gaga: a new exhibit showcases the birth of Paparazzi

By Claire Ward - Thursday, June 30, 2011 at 11:23 AM - 0 Comments

Shot and edited by Claire Ward & Erica Alini
Interview by Brian D. Johnson
Produced by Claire Ward

Will and Kate are on their way

By macleans.ca - Thursday, June 30, 2011 at 11:21 AM - 2 Comments

Newlyweds Prince William and Kate Middleton, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, are en route to Canada after leaving London’s Heathrow Airport early Thursday morning. The royal couple is scheduled to land in Ottawa at 2 p.m. Thursday, where they will be greeted by Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson and a host of other dignitaries. They will then be whisked off to the National War Memorial, where they will meet Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his wife Laureen before laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. They are also scheduled to meet Governor General David Johnston at a welcoming ceremony at Rideau Hall before attending an evening barbeque with Canadian youth leaders. The couple is flying to Canada on a Canadian Forces jet. Canada is the only Commonwealth country to fly the royal family on its own military aircraft.

CBC News

How closely will you follow the royal visit by Prince William and Kate Middleton?

By macleans.ca - Thursday, June 30, 2011 at 11:02 AM - 8 Comments

Let’s not make a deal

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, June 30, 2011 at 10:43 AM - 67 Comments

Before and during last week’s filibuster, it seems there was nearly a deal.

Last Friday, talks involving a federal mediator appear to have brought Canada Post and the union close to a settlement. The union wanted final offer selection replaced by mediation-arbitration which attempts to find middle ground in contract disputes.

Comartin and Godin met with Raitt. There was agreement that if the company and the union could agree on this, the back-to-work legislation would be withdrawn. By Friday evening, both Canada Post and the union had a tentative settlement that outlined agreement on some key issues such as wage rate, according to a source. Other outstanding issues would be sent to arbitration.

But after midnight came word that Raitt’s office had apparently turned down the deal, a source said. As the filibuster continued in the Commons, Harper crossed the aisle to speak with NDP Leader Jack Layton. During their conversation, Layton questioned whether there had been “political interference.” Harper denied it.

Postal workers are now preparing to challenge the back-to-work legislation in court.

Maclean’s 3rd annual Toughest Canada Day Quiz Ever

By macleans.ca - Thursday, June 30, 2011 at 8:00 AM - 7 Comments

And once you’ve completed this year’s edition, try your hand at 2010 edition and the 2009 edition. Don’t forget to let us know how you did in the comments!

Bestsellers – Week of June 27th, 2011

By Brian Bethune - Thursday, June 30, 2011 at 8:00 AM - 0 Comments

Top-selling fiction and non-fiction titles

Fiction

Non-fiction

LAST WEEK (WEEKS ON LIST)