Female Rwandan minister guilty of genocide, rape

By macleans.ca - Friday, June 24, 2011 at 1:00 PM - 0 Comments

A UN-backed tribunal for the Rwandan Genocide has sentenced former women’s development minister Pauline Nyiramasuhuko to life in prison for her role in the genocide, kidnap and rape of Tutsi women and girls. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda prosecution accused her of ordering and helping in the massacres of Tutsis in southern Rwanda. Hutu militia and soldiers killed about 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus during the 1994 genocide. Nyiramasuhuko was found guilty on seven of the 11 charges she faced during the 10-year long trial.

BBC News

RCMP officers charged during B.C. murder investigation

By macleans.ca - Friday, June 24, 2011 at 11:58 AM - 0 Comments

Four RCMP officers have received charges, including breach of trust and obstruction of justice, related to their conduct during an investigation of the 2007 gangland slayings that left six dead in Surrey, B.C. One of the officers, Sgt. Derek Brassington, allegedly had a relationship with a woman accused of playing a role in the killings. The woman is a potential witness in the future trials related to the killings. She also reportedly had relationships with Dennis Karbovanec, who already pled guilty in the slayings, and Jamie Bacon, who is charged with playing a role but is yet to stand trial. Other officers facing a total of 20 charges are Staff Sgt. David Attew, Cpl. Paul Johnston and Cpl. Danny Michaud. RCMP Chief Supt. Janice Armstrong said the officers had abused public’s trust of police, and that she was deeply disappointed. All four officers have been suspended without pay.

CBC News

The Internet is a 99 cent store

By Jesse Brown - Friday, June 24, 2011 at 11:51 AM - 0 Comments

The answer is 99 cents.

The questions are many: What’s your debut novel worth? What are you willing to pay for a video game? How much does the best song ever cost?

Also: how do you compete with free? How do you beat piracy? What am I willing to pay in order to not feel like a leech?

One dollar minus one penny seems to be the magic number when selling virtual goods that can otherwise be easily acquired for free. Self-published authors are discovering that when they drop their sticker price from $2.99 to $.99, sales shoot up, and their titles rapidly climb the charts. Rovio, makers of Angry Birds, have built a multimillion dollar business, a buck at a time, and now preach the gospel of that sweet spot price. Kindle Singles are Amazon’s bargain-priced short e-books, which are breathing new life into long-format journalism. Nine of the 10 best selling apps right now on iTunes are priced under a dollar. As different industries experiment with a range of pricing schemes for their wildly divergent products, they are all arriving at the same conclusion: 99 cents.

So is the web just filled with cheapskates, or what?

Maybe, but we’re righteous cheapskates. Any content seller who has tried putting their wares online at the same sticker prices as in brick and mortar stores deserves a bit of dollar store justice for playing customers like chumps. Some have even demanded higher prices for digital downloads. This betrays an outright contempt for consumer intelligence. Baked into the price of a DVD at HMV are manufacturing, printing, and shipping costs, retail space rental and the hourly wage of the stockboy who pointed you to the right aisle. Eliminate all of that, and the consumer rightly feels entitled to a significant savings. Pretend this isn’t true, and you’ll be lucky to get 99 cents.

There’s more to it of course… 99 cents is a magic number that for most people means they don’t have to think too hard about pushing “buy”.  Most folks are still getting used to paying for a download, and the low price point allows more and more people to get comfortable with virtual goods. For more experienced users who know how to find content for free, .99 cents is about what it’s worth to not have to bother.

Should a song cost the same price as a movie? Do we value a great book no more than a time-wasting iPhone game? I don’t think so, an in time I imagine that content sellers will regain a bit more pricing flexibility in the hearts and minds of consumers. But for now, I’d buy that for a dollar.

Jesse Brown is the host of TVO.org’s Search Engine podcast. He is on Twitter @jessebrown.

Kissing couple to lunch with Tony Blair

By macleans.ca - Friday, June 24, 2011 at 11:40 AM - 0 Comments

It seems everybody wants a piece of the famous kissing couple from Vancouver’s recent hockey riot, even the political elite. Tony Blair is slated to have lunch with them during their upcoming trip to Australia, according to the couple’s recently-hired agent, who also happens to also represent the former British prime minister. A photograph of Scott Jones kissing his girlfriend Alexandra Thomas as they lay on the pavement amidst the blazing violence of Vancouver’s riot has become an iconic image from the event. Jones, who is an aspiring comedian, and Thomas quickly hired an agent to help them handle public attention. The couple has already appeared on American and British breakfast television programs and has been interviewed by the CBC. Their agent says he’s already working on a $10,000 endorsement deal from an Australian-based jeweler.

Postmedia

Blackberry CEOs no longer billionaires

By macleans.ca - Friday, June 24, 2011 at 11:26 AM - 0 Comments

RIM and Blackberry CEOs, Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, are not the billionaires they used to be, The Globe and Mail reports. An investigation by Forbes magazine reveals that due to Research in Motion’s rapid decline in the stock market, Balsillie and Lazaridis, once worth almost $2 billion, respectively, are now in the $800 million bracket. According to Forbes journalist Louisa Kroll, the CEOs would have remained billionaires were they not so generous with their fortunes. Lazaridis has put millions into schools, including the University of Waterloo, and Balsillie founded one: the Balsillie School of International Affairs. RIM shares continue to decline.

The Globe and Mail

MPs pull all-nighters as Canada Post debate drags on

By macleans.ca - Friday, June 24, 2011 at 11:19 AM - 0 Comments

The opposition NDP is pulling out all the stops to delay the passage of the Conservatives’ Canada Post back-to-work legislation for as long as possible. At each stage of the debate, every single member of the NDP is rising to speak for 10 to 20 minutes. MPs are reportedly pulling all-nighters as the debate is expected to continue into the week end. Interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae called the whole situation “shambolic,” saying the Conservatives could have simply accepted NDP amendments to the legislation that called for a “mediation/arbitration” process. The Globe and Mail reported on Friday that MPs are sleeping on office couches and surviving on pizza and lemon-water. The paper also reported that members of the Bloc Québecois broke out some scotch at some point early Friday morning. The NDP is alleging the government’s legislation is a slap in the face for striking workers since it will give them lower wage rates than Canada Post had originally offered. The Conservatives maintain the legislation necessary to reinstitute mail delivery in Canada, which they say is a vital service in the Canadian economy.

The Globe and Mail

Revealing inconsistency

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, June 24, 2011 at 10:37 AM - 0 Comments

Terry Milewski notes two redaction curiosities in the latest raft of documents.

Still, the “international relations” exception seems to be extremely flexible. Ditto, “national security.” In fact, the definition of what’s important to censor and what isn’t seems to be both flexible and constantly shifting. In another baffling example, there’s a document which says a prisoner was deprived of sleep for [X] days. We must not know how many days! And, yet, we do! In another version of the same document, we can see that it was … four days. Somehow, the national security of both Canada and Afghanistan seems unaffected by this revelation.

As I detailed last year, there exists a field report that has been released in two different versions: one in which the word “assault” has been redacted, one in which the word has been disclosed. The document has actually been released on three separate occasions: first with the word redacted, then with the word unredacted and then again with the word redacted.

The work wasn’t done

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, June 24, 2011 at 8:39 AM - 0 Comments

While the Prime Minister’s Office apparently declines to say whether the opposition leaders were asked if they wished to proceed with the detainee document review, it is clear the panel of judges was not done reviewing some of the material—including documents identified by the government as being subject to cabinet confidence.

Parliament’s dissolution meant that the judges no longer had any committee of MPs to turn to for input. Post-election, the judges were looking to discuss their findings with a renewed committee of MPs, but no such committee was formed. “We were advised by the government that it is unlikely that the [committee] will be renewed,” the judges wrote in their June 15 letter.

So they handed over what they had done and left some work dangling – including documents over which the government had claimed absolute secrecy. “We did not undertake a review of the government’s claims of cabinet confidence since we received confirmation of these claims only before Parliament was dissolved,” the judges wrote. “Nor did we complete our review of all of the government’s claims of solicitor-client privilege.”

Greg Weston reviews how we got here.

Elizabeth May’s summer reading?

By Mitchel Raphael - Friday, June 24, 2011 at 2:26 AM - 0 Comments

Green leader Elizabeth May’s assistant carries her copy of the Afghan detainee documents.

Opening Weekend: how bad is ‘Bad Teacher’?

By Brian D. Johnson - Friday, June 24, 2011 at 12:25 AM - 0 Comments

Cameron Diaz in 'Bad Teacher', scamming a school charity car wash to raise cash for her boob job

The photo above is not from Cars 2. This week a scheduling conflict forced me to choose between seeing an environmentally correct Pixar animation movie about talking cars or an R-rated comedy starring Cameron Diaz as a slutty teacher. Gee, tough call. I suspected Cars 2 would be the bigger movie, and maybe the better one. But how good could it be? And besides, what could I possibly learn from from a talking car sequel wired with a message about the evils of gasoline? (The critical consensus so far, by the way, brands Cars 2 a lemon.) Cameron Diaz playing a tramp teacher “who doesn’t give an F,” as the tagline says—at least that’s something we haven’t seen before. So in the interests of lower education, I signed up for Bad Teacher. I mean, with Diaz, Jason Segel, Justin Timberlake and Lucy Punch in the cast, how bad could it be?

Well, it could be a lot better. Whenever Hollywood tries to push the envelope with a new high concept, there’s always a certain frisson. Bad Teacher‘s concept, succinctly contained in the title, is attractive: a jaded, foul-mouthed, gold-digging teacher keeps a stash of booze and pot in her desk, naps while her class watch a Stand and Deliver DVD the first day of school—and launches various scams to buy herself a boob job with the goal of seducing a wealthy but dorky colleague played by Justin Timberlake. Like Bridesmaids, Bad Teacher taps the under-served appetite for raunchy comedies about women behaving badly. And it, too, has a heroine locked in a nasty rivalry with a goody two-shoes—a sucky teacher played by Punch. There are some good laughs along the way, but the conceit wears thin. After Bridesmaids has raised the bar,  Bad Teacher kicks it down a notch or two. The script (by Gene Stupnitsky & Lee Eisenberg) leers at its skanky heroine from a distinctly male point of view. And director Jake Kasdan seems more focused on detonating the gags than developing the characters. Despite the likeable cheek of the premise, and a game performance from Diaz, Bad Teacher gets just a passing grade. Continue…

In the midnight hour

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, June 24, 2011 at 12:11 AM - 0 Comments

With the NDP’s Matthew Kellway on his feet addressing the House, debate of Bill C-6 has now carried over into a new day, at least so far as the outside world is concerned. Mr. Kellway is not quite electric, but the discussion remains mostly on topic*.

Under the rules of debate, MPs are entitled to speak for 20 minutes, with another 10 minutes subsequently set aside for questions and comments from other members.The Prime Minister and the leader of the opposition are not so restricted and earlier tonight Jack Layton took about 50 minutes to say just about everything he could say about the subject at hand. We are now on our third Speaker of the evening (Andrew Scheer having ceded the chair to Bruce Stanton who has ceded the chair to Barry Devolin). The NDP is promising to propose amendments, but not quite yet.

CP’s Stephanie Levitz has a report from the scene. The Post and Globe explain the state of play.

*Spoke too soon. Michael Chong has risen on a point of order to note that members are not supposed to read their speeches from prepared texts and the House is now gripped with vaguely debating the principles, practicalities and conventions related to this point.

The Commons: Two words to say so much

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, June 23, 2011 at 6:48 PM - 0 Comments

The Scene. John Baird seemed to stumble before catching himself.

“Mr. Speaker, our government is, and has always been,” he said this afternoon in response to a question from the NDP side, “committed to handling Afghan… Taliban prisoners in accordance with our international obligations.”

Taliban prisoners is indeed the preferred honorific. And four years after the treatment of those transferred to Afghan authorities by the Canadian Forces became a matter of public concern—four years after allegations that Canadian-transferred detainees had been punched, choked, whipped and electrocuted by Afghan officials—much of the government’s response to so many questions of human rights, war, torture and parliamentary privilege would seem to involve this two-word phrase.

Continue…

Is Toronto Mayor Rob Ford right to skip the city’s gay pride parade?

By macleans.ca - Thursday, June 23, 2011 at 6:21 PM - 0 Comments

How do you get a smoker to quit?

By Julia Belluz - Thursday, June 23, 2011 at 6:09 PM - 0 Comments

The Statement: “These labels are frank, honest and powerful depictions of the health risks of smoking, and they will help encourage smokers to quit, and prevent children from smoking.” (Kathleen Sebelius, U.S. secretary of health and human services, 06/21/2011)

On Tuesday, the FDA ramped up its war on tobacco by introducing nine new graphic warning labels for cigarette packages. This means that after decades of having only text caveats, America’s smoke packs will feature soot-stained lungs, rotten teeth, cadavers, and crying babies.

Given all the attention paid to labeling, Science-ish wanted to know: how much does packaging matter to smokers? And do non-smokers pay attention to the warnings? Continue…

Bestsellers – Week of June 23rd, 2011

By Brian Bethune - Thursday, June 23, 2011 at 5:59 PM - 0 Comments

Top-selling fiction and non-fiction titles

Fiction

Non-fiction

LAST WEEK (WEEKS ON LIST)

The government’s case against Cindor Reeves stinks

By Michael Petrou - Thursday, June 23, 2011 at 4:50 PM - 0 Comments

Since beginning four years ago to dig into the story of Cindor Reeves — the man who helped bring former Liberian president and warlord Charles Taylor to trial in The Hague, and whom Canada is now deporting — I have occasionally worried that there might be some missing piece of the puzzle that I didn’t have. Perhaps the government has information about Reeves that would explain its determination to send him back to Liberia, where he faces murder, other than incompetence, malice, and a perverted sense of justice. Continue…

Kidnap victim says she was too fearful to attempt escape

By macleans.ca - Thursday, June 23, 2011 at 4:15 PM - 0 Comments

“I let him think I wanted to be there,” a kidnapping victim told a New Brunswick court today. A Moncton woman testified that she was abducted, held for 26 days, and sexually assaulted by Romeo Cormier. In a cross-examination, Cormier’s lawyers inquired why she did not smash a window when she saw people outside or throw a hammer at the aggressor. “It would have gotten his attention—it would have gotten me dead,” she replied. When asked if she consented to sex, she responded, “I didn’t stop him.” She did not attempt to fight him because she was certain she could not overcome a man of his size. Cormier is facing six charges in connection with this case, including kidnapping and sexual assault.

CBC News

A fine day for a filibuster

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, June 23, 2011 at 3:46 PM - 0 Comments

While the House of Commons girds for the potential filibuster of back-to-work legislation for Canada Post employees, a poetry reading is being conducted inside John Baird’s constituency office.

The legislation includes wage increases for workers that are lower than what Canada Post included in its last offer to the union. During question period, Layton asked the prime minister to remove the section on wages from the bill and refer the matter to an arbitrator.

“The prime minister has rendered collective bargaining pointless in this country,” Layton told question period. “He’s signaling that if you can’t get what you want at the bargaining table, never mind, Ottawa will legislate it for you if you’re an employer. Why bother to bargain? It’s a terrible precedent.”

A Vancouver rioter speaks

By Nancy Macdonald - Thursday, June 23, 2011 at 1:36 PM - 0 Comments

During the Vancouver riot, Coquitlam, B.C. native Robert Snelgrove was caught on camera walking out of The Bay Sears carrying stolen cosmetics. The next day, he turned himself into police. Snelgrove, 24, a cell phone salesman, has been suspended without pay from his job and may be fired. Below, he tells Maclean’s what prompted his actions, how sorry he is, and what it’s like to be shamed by an Internet mob.

Q: Tell me about Game 7. How did you end up downtown?

A: I’m not really a sports fan. I got involved because all my friends started watching the games. I live on Seymour at Robson, right above Granville Street, and I got caught up in the whole excitement of the city. It was really, really exciting. I was watching Game 7 at a friend’s condo in Coal Harbour.

Q: When did you hear about the riots?

A: I had heard about it briefly on the news. Then, walking home, I found myself in the middle of it. It was like nothing I’d ever seen in my life before—like WWIII.

Q: At what point did you decide to jump in?

A: I don’t have a criminal record. I’ve never stolen anything in my life. I was standing outside The Bay, watching people breaking windows, smashing things, and lighting things on fire. I didn’t do that at all. When I saw multiple people break the window and walking out with stuff, I got caught up in it… It was a spur of the moment thing. Normally I would never think like that. I’m not trying to defend it, but it was one of those things—everyone’s doing it, so I might as well try it. I was quite intoxicated. I wasn’t in the best state of mind. Continue…

‘Nothing changes’

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, June 23, 2011 at 1:20 PM - 0 Comments

Graeme Smith talks to the director of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.

Are the security forces still beating people and electrocuting people?

Generally, in the various forces, it’s still a bad situation with the prisoners. One change is that before they were abusing people in front of us, and now they are doing it in hidden places.

FBI arrests James “Whitey” Bulger

By macleans.ca - Thursday, June 23, 2011 at 12:58 PM - 0 Comments

81-year-old James “Whitey” Bulger—once the alleged leader of the Irish-American Winter Hill gang in 1970s Boston—has been arrested by the FBI for his alleged involvement in 19 murders. His 60-year-old girlfriend, Catherine Greig, was detained as well. Greig was the subject of 30-second public service announcements aired by the FBI in Santa Monica, Calfornia, where the fugitive couple had been living under the names Charles and Carol Gasko. The FBI’s bust came shortly after receiving a tip generated by the local PSAs. Firearms and cash were found in Bulger’s apartment. The couple will appear in court on Thursday.

BBC News

Random dude wants to be your employee on LinkedIn–can you say no?

By Erica Alini - Thursday, June 23, 2011 at 12:53 PM - 14 Comments

A few weeks ago, I sung LinkedIn’s praises in a piece that reviewed the company’s stellar performance in recent years, and downplayed the importance of its undoubtedly inflated IPO.

Chris Herbert, a Maclean’s reader and founder of a marketing and business development company, left an interesting comment on the story. He too is a fan of LinkedIn, he wrote, but has a quibble with the site: phantom employees. Several people have claimed to be employees at his Mi6 Agency, he told Maclean’s in an interview, when, in fact, they aren’t. It’s an issue other business owners have been complaining about for a while. Continue…

Potato chips the worst culprit in slow weight gain, 20-year study shows

By macleans.ca - Thursday, June 23, 2011 at 12:50 PM - 0 Comments

According to a series of three studies published in today’s issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, small changes like eating fewer potato chips, drinking less pop and sleeping better could help prevent long-term weight gain, the CBC reports. Potato chips were the worst offender, according to Harvard University researchers. The team looked at lifestyle factors and weight gain every four years among three separate groups of 50,422 and 47,898 women, and 22,557 men, all free of obesity or chronic disease when the study started over 12 to 20 years. Physical activity and TV-viewing influenced changes in weight, and the foods associated with the most weight gain included potato chips; other potato-based foods; sugary drinks; and unprocessed and processed meats. Meanwhile, some foods were associated with weight loss, like vegetables, whole grains, and yoghurt.

CBC News

Assad supporters try to storm U.S. ambassador’s residence in Damascus

By macleans.ca - Thursday, June 23, 2011 at 12:40 PM - 0 Comments

Supporters of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad assembled outside of the Damascus residence of U.S. ambassador Stephen Ford on Thursday. The group shouted insults and attempted to climb the wall, likely in response to the Syrian government’s recent success in thwarting rebel dissent, CNN reports. EU pressure in the form of sanctions and asset freezing has influenced the Assad regime to promise minimal reforms, but the regime’s mistreatment of civilians continues. Official Syrian government documents were leaked on Wednesday, which stated that selected workers and students are required to participate in pro-Assad rallies or face pay reductions and academic credit loss. The authenticity of the document was never confirmed, but Ammar Qurabi, chairman of Syria’s National Organization of Human Rights, says it is legitimate.

CNN