LA Dodgers file for bankruptcy protection

By macleans.ca - Monday, June 27, 2011 at 11:53 AM - 0 Comments

The Los Angeles Dodgers have filed for bankruptcy protection. The organization’s owner Frank McCourt blamed Major League Baseball for rejecting a $3 billion television deal that he says would have solved the Dodgers’ cash flow problems. The deal would have given News Corp’s Fox Network broadcasting rights for Dodger’s games and injected the beleaguered organization with $385 million upfront. McCourt is heavily in debt, having been unable to fulfill payroll and other financial obligations. He is also reportedly mired in bitter divorce proceedings with his estranged wife Jamie. A Los Angeles Superior Court judge is expected to decide in August whether the McCourts will divide ownership of the baseball team.

Reuters

Canada Post says it will be fully operational by Tuesday

By macleans.ca - Monday, June 27, 2011 at 11:45 AM - 0 Comments

Canada Post says the country’s mail will start moving again on Tuesday after the federal government legislated locked out workers back on the job over the weekend. The agency will unseal its red mailboxes on Monday, with mail sorters reporting for duty the same day. Mail delivery will be back to normal on Tuesday, though Canada Post says a backlog could mean delays in the processing of letters and parcels.

Globe and Mail

Charlie Angus wins at filibustering

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, June 27, 2011 at 11:44 AM - 0 Comments

Glen McGregor tallies the word counts from last week’s all-hours debate.

Charlie Angus proved himself the Filibuster Filler. He spoke more than 11,000 words, more than any other MP. To put that in context, Angus spoke for 41 times the length of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address … Angus’s words in the House were also, cumulatively, seven times longer than Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech on the Washington Mall.

The official transcript of the 68-hour day is now here.

Baird goes to Benghazi

By macleans.ca - Monday, June 27, 2011 at 10:55 AM - 0 Comments

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird was in Benghazi on Monday to meet with Libyan rebel leaders in their stronghold. Baird described the secret trip as a fact-finding mission, saying “This is one of the many steps that need to happen as Canada and [the National Transitional Council] go forward together. Baird also travelled to Sicily to meet with Canadian troops that are taking part in a NATO-led mission in Libya. Fighting between the rebels and forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has reached a standoff, with anti-government fighters laying claim to much of the East and pro-Gadhafi troops controlling the western part of the country, including the capital Tripoli.

CTV News

Diabetes rate has doubled, research suggests

By macleans.ca - Monday, June 27, 2011 at 10:52 AM - 0 Comments

Based on new worldwide projections from researchers from Imperial College London and Harvard University, who looked at 2.7 million people worldwide, the total number of people with diabetes (all types) has likely risen from 153 million to 347 million, the BBC reports. They believe that 70 per cent of this rise is due to people living longer. The increase has been most pronounced in the Pacific Islands: in the Marshall Islands, for example, one-third of all women are now diabetic. The team looked at type 1 and type 2 diabetes, but researchers believe that most cases are type 2, which is linked to lifestyle and obesity. The U.S. has the highest rate of all developed nations.

BBC News

Sons of unfaithful men more likely to cheat, study shows

By macleans.ca - Monday, June 27, 2011 at 10:46 AM - 0 Comments

A team of Czech scientists has concluded that men are more likely to stray within their own relationships if their fathers were unfaithful while they were growing up, the Daily Mail reports. At the European Human Behaviour and Evolution Association, researcher Jan Havlicek said that boys grow up learning what’s appropriate from their fathers, among other role models. The team, based at Charles University in Prague, looked at 86 couples, questioning men and women individually and in confidence on several topics to do with their relationships. Daughters don’t seem to be as affected by parental infidelity, they noted.

Daily Mail

TV Finale Linkage

By Jaime Weinman - Monday, June 27, 2011 at 10:36 AM - 0 Comments

Check out this inventory of “24 accidental TV finales that worked as series-enders.” One thing this reminds me is just how few real, planned-out finales there are, in the grand scheme of things: even after the concept of the series finale caught on (and, despite The Fugitive, it didn’t really catch on for non-limited-run series until the late ’70s), most shows cannot do full-fledged finales because most shows are still trying to continue when they get canceled, and most of the ones that get canceled don’t know for sure when they make their last episode.

There’s some reason to think that it doesn’t really hurt a show in the long run if it doesn’t have a finale – in fact, some shows were discouraged from making finales because of the fear that a finale hurts a show’s chances in syndication. (A show without a finale can sort of keep going in perpetual motion, which is the purpose of syndication; Gilligan’s Island might have lost some viewers in reruns if they’d ever run an episode where they get off the island. The fact that it was open-ended meant that the 80-something episodes could be run again and again without it being very noticeable; same with Star Trek, and Married With Children, and the many still-running shows in syndication, like The Simpsons.) But as always, what works in reruns is extremely frustrating in first-run. Apart from shows that are canceled in the middle of an actual ongoing storyline, even shows that don’t require a finale can leave you frustrated if they end without one.

One way to deal with this, if the final episode is no good as a finale, is to look for an earlier episode that can sort of serve as a summing-up of the series. The Simpsons may never have a finale, or if it does it might be an unplanned one. (To do a finale when the shows are made so many months in advance, the producers would either have to decide in advance that this will be the last production cycle, or Fox would have to spring for an extra episode after the cycle is over. Both are possible with a show as successful as The Simpsons, but it’s entirely possible that they might someday wind up having to tack a finale-style scene onto an existing episode, as King of the Hill did.) But fans already argue that the movie sort of serves as a finale, or that “Behind the Laughter,” the big meta-episode, is the logical end-point. To take another James L. Brooks show, the last produced episode of Taxi doesn’t really work as a finale (it’s the one where Jim gives everybody $1000 to teach them the joys of charity), but the last episode produced for the third season, “On the Job,” basically does seem like a finale: the cabbies all go out and get other jobs, mostly lose or hate them, and admit that they are meant to be cab drivers because “we stink at everything else.”

I think if we can find an episode that works thematically as a finale, it doesn’t always matter if there’s a big finale where big changes happen in the characters’ lives; Everybody Loves Raymond was one of the few shows that did a full-fledged finale that was almost purely thematic, and it worked.

What parliamentary democracy looks like

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, June 27, 2011 at 9:05 AM - 0 Comments

Brian Topp considers the meaning of last week’s filibuster.

A majority government is in place, and it can ultimately get what it wants. But a real opposition, fighting on a real issue, can make things go very slowly indeed – so that Canadians can judge the issues, and see what Mr. Harper’s government is doing in the bright light of day … In a panel discussion about this matter a couple of days ago, a Conservative friend suggested that the current debate in Parliament shows the New Democrats have some “growing up to do.” In fact it is the Conservatives who have some growing up to do. They need to learn that having power is not a license to abuse it. And that the people of Canada elected 308 MPs, including a muscular Official Opposition that will work, within the rules of our democracy and long into the night, to shine a light on misjudgments and misgovernment.

This is the week that was

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, June 26, 2011 at 4:18 PM - 0 Comments

The Conservatives were bashful. And mysterious. And succinct.

The House talked and talked and talked and talked and talked about sending Canada Post employees back to work. And then it stopped.

The government tabled the Afghan detainee documents. Which you can read more about here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. Continue…

Filibusted

By Aaron Wherry - Saturday, June 25, 2011 at 11:17 PM - 0 Comments

Earlier this evening, with the defeat of several proposed amendments, the House of Commons officially passed Bill C-6. In brief comments to reporters, the Prime Minister pronounced victory.

After a completely unnecessary delay, I’m nevertheless pleased that very soon Canadians will again have access to the postal services, particularly small business and charities, and of course, this is the only thing that Canadians ever really wanted. So congratulations to the Minister for her leadership in this … We know what side the public was on and I think today members of Parliament on the other side finally started to get that message.

The New Democrats are nonetheless claiming a certain kind of success.

Towards a resolution?

By Aaron Wherry - Saturday, June 25, 2011 at 4:48 PM - 0 Comments

A new round of negotiations between Canada Post management and employees failed to result in a deal, but Bill C-6 is now about to pass second reading in the House.

The Liberals have come forward with proposed amendments and the NDP will follow suit when the House moves into committee of the whole to continue debate. Government House leader Peter Van Loan met with NDP House leader Thomas Mulcair a short time ago to, I am told, discuss amendments and process.

The Commons: In a state of “suspended animation”

By Aaron Wherry - Saturday, June 25, 2011 at 1:07 PM - 0 Comments

Shortly after the clock passed midnight, a dozen Conservatives sang happy birthday to their colleague, David Sweet. His birthday had actually just passed—he was born on June 24, 1957—so the gesture was a bit belated. But perhaps owing to the pizza party the Prime Minister had apparently been hosting, the government side seemed a jovial bunch, eager to find fun wherever it could be found.

As luck would have it, they had all been summoned to the House of Commons at this late hour for a vote—specifically on an NDP-authored motion to delay moving forward with Bill C-6 for another six months. The official filibustering of this particular piece of particularly contentious legislation had commenced some 27 hours earlier. What began on Thursday was now moving into Saturday. Except that, so far as the reality within these four walls is measured, with the House having not yet adjourned for the day, this was still Thursday. Indeed, there in the middle of the room sat the four-sided calendar, reminding all who could see it that here they remained trapped in June 23. Continue…

Peter Falk’s Greatest Speech

By Jaime Weinman - Saturday, June 25, 2011 at 12:23 AM - 0 Comments

Peter Falk died yesterday, and what’s amazing about the guy is that for an actor with a fairly specific, familiar persona, he had a really varied body of high-quality work. He was one of TV’s greatest detective characters; he was Professor Fate’s button-pushing sidekick in The Great Race, he did great dramatic work with John Cassavetes in Cassavetes’ own films and Elaine May’s Mikey & Nicky. But the moment I automatically selected to represent Falk is his delivery of this speech (written by Andrew Bergman) in one of the great film comedies of the ’70s, The In-Laws. The writing is good enough on its own, but Falk’s delivery of it – as a man who has made up the most ridiculous, implausible lie possible and is delivering it with total commitment – pushes it into all-time greatness.

The short version

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, June 24, 2011 at 5:56 PM - 0 Comments

Talks between the Conservatives and New Democrats apparently resumed this afternoon, but there’s no report as yet of progress. Meanwhile, iPolitics has a delightfully abridged version of last night’s House debate.

Using advanced algebra, Meg Wilcox has figured out that this filibuster could go until next Saturday. Or into eternity.

Reading the documents: What the detainees said

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, June 24, 2011 at 4:54 PM - 0 Comments

The documents tabled this week can be viewed in their entirety here. Herein, a series of posts on some of the noteworthy files and disclosures contained therein.

With the exception of the aforementioned DFAIT10, the files between DFAIT2 and DFAIT34 cover updates on the transfer of detainees between June 2007 and November 2009.

The memos marked DFAIT3, DFAIT4, DFAIT5, DFAIT7, DFAIT9, DFAIT11, DFAIT16, DFAIT19, DFAIT30 and DFAIT33 include allegations of mistreatment.

The Jets return to Winnipeg

By macleans.ca - Friday, June 24, 2011 at 4:51 PM - 0 Comments

National Hockey League sources have told the Canadian Press that Winnipeg’s second NHL team will have the same name that its first did. A formal announcement about the return of the Winnipeg Jets is expected to be made before the franchise makes the seventh overall pick in the NHL entry draft Friday night in Minnesota. But the player Winnipeg chooses with its first draft pick will put on a generic black and grey NHL jersey, rather than a jersey with a Jets logo. Speculation about the name of the new team had run wild, with suggestions ranging from the Falcons to the Moose.

Globe and Mail

Toronto greets the King of Bollywood

By macleans.ca - Friday, June 24, 2011 at 4:10 PM - 0 Comments

The “King of Bollywood” arrived in Toronto on Friday for the 12th Annual Indian Film Academy Awards, CTV News reports. Shah Rukh Khan—or “King Khan” as his fans call him—is only one of many Indian superstars in town for the awards. His arrival was met with reporters and screaming fans; no doubt pleased to see the actor break into dance on the hotel floor. Other Bollywood stars staying in Toronto include Anil Kapoor, Bobby Deol, and Sonu Sood. Networks anticipate the awards show, which airs on Saturday night, will draw in more than 600 million viewers internationally. This is the first time the IIFA will take place in North America.

CTV News

Labour Minister: We will sit until back-to-work legislation passes

By macleans.ca - Friday, June 24, 2011 at 3:42 PM - 0 Comments

The Conservatives are ready to sit through the NDP’s filibuster of the back-to-work bill that would end the Canada Post strike “until the legislation passes,” Labour Minister Lisa Raitt told reporters today. The bill is still far from being approved in the House, she said, but the government won’t back down. Raitt also said the Conservatives would consider changes to the bill, though she added that her party had only engaged in “general discussions about principles” with the NDP, and hasn’t yet received specific amendment proposals from the opposition. New Democrat lawmakers oppose a clause in the back-to-work bill that sets annual wage raises at between 1.5 percent and 2 percent until 2014. All 103 NDP lawmakers have unlimited time to speak at every stage of debate on the bill, potentially delaying its adoption for days.

Bloomberg

Conceding the point, sticking with the policy

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, June 24, 2011 at 2:54 PM - 0 Comments

The government’s delegation in Geneva offers an interesting admission.

The Canadian delegation at an international summit admitted Thursday it agrees with the work of a United Nations scientific panel that wants limits placed on the export of chrysotile asbestos, but Canada still won’t back the move … The Canadian delegation on Thursday said the expert panel’s guidance document, which included its recommendation to list the carcinogen on Annex III, was “appropriate and the criteria for listing was met. Canada is not in a position to support the listing.”

Meanwhile, Sarah Schmidt tries to get the government to unequivocally state its position on the Rotterdam Convention and is duly stymied.

Conrad Black back in jail for up to 13 months

By macleans.ca - Friday, June 24, 2011 at 2:36 PM - 0 Comments

Conrad Black has been resentenced to 42 months in jail on fraud and obstruction charges by a U.S. federal court judge in Chicago, but will only face up to 13 months in prison because of time already served. The former media baron must also pay a $125,000 fine. Black’s jail time could be reduced to just 6 months if he displays good behaviour. If he remains in the U.S. after his release, Black must spend two years under “supervised release.” However, he has reportedly indicated a desire to be deported to Canada. During Friday’s sentencing, Black’s wife Barbara Amiel collapsed and had to be escorted out of courtroom by paramedics. Upon exiting the building with her husband, Amiel told the CBC that she had had “too little sleep.” Black, 66, previously served 29 months of a six-and-a-half year sentence in a Florida prison before the U.S. Supreme Court stuck down the law under which he was originally convicted. The Judge Amy St. Eve, who served the resentencing, is the same judge that handed Black his original convictions in 2007. Black has two weeks to appeal the decision, but his lawyer is asking for six.

CBC News

More Conrad Black

Giving CUPW less than they bargained for: an Ottawa tradition

By John Geddes - Friday, June 24, 2011 at 2:13 PM - 0 Comments

Looking back at the Maclean’s story about the back-to-work legislation Jean Chretien’s Liberals imposed to end the 1997 postal strike, I think we might be able to guess at where Stephen Harper’s Tories got the idea of giving the postal workers less than Canada Post had last offered at the bargaining table:

Union officers were particularly irked by the wage settlement the government chose to impose as part of the back-to-work legislation (it breezed through the House of Commons in a single day last week, endorsed by a final vote of 198 to 56 with only Bloc Québécois and New Democratic Party MPs opposed). Under the terms of the package, postal workers, whose base pay is now $17.41 an hour, will receive a 1.5-per-cent salary hike this coming February, another 1.75 per cent the following February and a final 1.9 per cent in February, 2000.

The imposed settlement is not only far distant from the 8.6-per-cent increase over two years CUPW was seeking, but is even marginally less than the offer Canada Post had on the bargaining table when talks finally collapsed. That called for annual increases over the next three years of 1.5, 1.75 and two per cent. What is more, management’s offer would have commenced last August. “It amounts to an average loss per worker of $991 over three years,” complained CUPW director of research Geoff Bickerton. “I can think of only one reason the government acted as it did – pure vindictiveness, payback time for the workers.”

For the record, the government denies the charge. Both Labor Minister Lawrence MacAulay and Public Works Minister Alfonso Gagliano, under repeated questioning in the Commons, continually described the settlement as “fair.” 

Still talking

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, June 24, 2011 at 1:28 PM - 0 Comments

Debate on Canada Post began yesterday around 10:30am, paused for QP and then resumed just after 3pm.

Labour Minister Lisa Raitt emerged a short time ago to update everyone on the state of negotiations.

Hansard is officially updated through 8:30pm last night, but here is a transcript of Jack Layton’s epic speech (about 50 minutes from start to finish and coming in around 6,500 words). Continue…

“Socialism” doesn’t faze NDP leader Andrea Horwath

By macleans.ca - Friday, June 24, 2011 at 1:12 PM - 0 Comments

Provincial NDP leader Andrea Horwath says she has no problem using the word ‘socialism’ in conjunction with her political party, the Ottawa Citizen reports. Horwath’s comments came after the federal NDP party abstained from voting on whether or not to remove ‘socialism’ from its constitution at a Vancouver convention on June 18. The provincial leader, who says the word fits neatly into her value system, will launch a “vision statement” at an NDP Toronto gathering this weekend, detailing new, consumer-driven party policies, including reforming the provinctial HST and eliminating ambulance fees. The event will host approximately 1000 candidates, voters, and delegates.

Ottawa Citizen

Prosecutors can renege plea deals

By macleans.ca - Friday, June 24, 2011 at 1:09 PM - 0 Comments

The Supreme Court of Canada has unanimously ruled the country’s Crown prosecutors can renege on plea bargains. The top court’s decision came after an Alberta woman argued a crown’s cancellation of a plea agreement was a violation of her Charter rights. The woman had been charged with impaired driving causing death and injury in a 2006 crash that killed a couple and injured their son. The woman was offered a plea deal that consisted of a $1,800 fine because the Crown believed there wasn’t a reasonable likelihood of conviction. But when news of the plea agreement reached the province’s upper ranks, prosecutors were told to renege on the deal because the assistant deputy minister believed it was “contrary to the interests of justice.”

Vancouver Sun