MPs, Senators spend more than $250k on foreign travel

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, June 21, 2011 at 12:31 PM - 4 Comments

Parliamentarians tabled documents on Monday which reported MPs and senators spent more than a quarter of a million dollars on out-of-country trips. MPs and Senators spent $277,160 on 15 trips abroad, including a Conservative MP, a Liberal Senator and secretary’s $19,154 six-day trip to Brazil. The transportation bill for the two politicians and the secretary was $15,618, while hotels cost $1,813 and per diems totaled $1,360. Other trips included a $30,057 trip to Warsaw, Poland and Strasbourg by a Liberal Senator. A Conservative Senator took part in the Warsaw portion of the trip. Green Party Leader Elizabeth May said the trips should be reviewed by the Auditor General, but also said cultural exchanges are good for Canadian diplomacy.
The Hill Times

Assad makes second amnesty offer

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, June 21, 2011 at 12:25 PM - 0 Comments

Syria’s president has ordered amnesty for people accused of crimes allegedly committed up until June 20, the country’s state news agency reports. The move comes just a few weeks after Bashar al-Assad first offered amnesty on May 31 for all political prisoners in the country, including members of the Muslim Brotherhood. Human rights groups have criticized the amnesty offers as merely symbolic and part of the Syrian government’s overtures to the opposition.  The amnesty order came one day after Assad said in a televised address that reform demands were legitimate, but that armed gangs were to blame for the violence in the country. Rights groups say more than 1,300 civilians have been killed in the Syrian authorities’ crackdown on protesters, while at least 10,000 more refugees have fled the country, crossing the border into Turkey.

Al Jazeera English

Sudanese Army cracks down violently on rebels

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, June 21, 2011 at 12:22 PM - 0 Comments

Thousands of rebels in the Nuba Mountains of central Sudan are refusing to lay down their weapons as government forces loyal to President Omar Hassan al-Bashir attempt to violently crush insurgencies in the area. The Sudanese Army and its allied militias have reportedly bombed several villages, executed elders, burned churches and vowed to shoot down any UN helicopters entering the region. Thousands of people are flooding into a rapidly expanding refugee camp as they flee the violence. Rebels in the area are demanding more political autonomy, just weeks before southern Sudan officially secedes and becomes an independent country. The New York Times reports that there will be many other restive areas in Sudan, even after the south secedes. The areas, which include the Nuba Mountains, Darfur, Blue Nile State and Kasala, are home to mostly non-Arab peoples and have a history of tension with the group of Arabs who govern the country.

The New York Times

New U.S. tobacco warning labels show graphic images

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, June 21, 2011 at 12:19 PM - 0 Comments

New U.S. tobacco labels, which must appear on cigarette packages and in advertisements no later than September 2012, will show disturbing images, including dead bodies, diseased lungs and a man on a ventilator, and a man smoking a cigarette through a hole in his throat, Reuters reports. The new labels were proposed in November under a new law that put the tobacco industry under the control of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. This is the first change to U.S. cigarette warnings in 25 years. More than 221,000 Americans will be diagnosed with lung cancer this year, accounting for about 14 per cent of all cancer cases.

Reuters

Canada’s top soldier wants NATO’s big job

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, June 21, 2011 at 12:13 PM - 0 Comments

Canada’s Chief of Defence Staff, General Walter Natynczyk, is reportedly gunning for NATO’s top military position. According to sources within the alliance, Natynczyk hopes to become Chairman of the Military Committee, which becomes available in September. In this position, Natynczyk would be the principal military advisor to NATO’s Secretary General, but would need the permission of the prime minister, since Canada would have to pay for his salary, staff and security personnel.  Each Chairman of the Military Committee holds the position for three years. It is currently held by Admiral Giampaolo Di Paola, an Italian. The last Canadian to hold the job was General Raymond Henault in 2008. 

National Post

Canada’s top soldier wants NATO's big job

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, June 21, 2011 at 12:13 PM - 0 Comments

Canada’s Chief of Defence Staff, General Walter Natynczyk, is reportedly gunning for NATO’s top military position. According to sources within the alliance, Natynczyk hopes to become Chairman of the Military Committee, which becomes available in September. In this position, Natynczyk would be the principal military advisor to NATO’s Secretary General, but would need the permission of the prime minister, since Canada would have to pay for his salary, staff and security personnel.  Each Chairman of the Military Committee holds the position for three years. It is currently held by Admiral Giampaolo Di Paola, an Italian. The last Canadian to hold the job was General Raymond Henault in 2008. 

National Post

A non-binding, voluntary basis for encouragement to consider fundamental change

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, June 21, 2011 at 12:07 PM - 66 Comments

The government has now tabled its Senate Reform Act.

It would not require provinces and territories to implement consultation processes but would strongly encourage them to do so. It also demonstrates support for those provinces that have already undertaken legislation to establish such democratic processes. 

The Act includes a voluntary schedule, based on Alberta’s Senatorial Selection Act, which would set out a basis for provinces to enact democratic processes. 

The Act would not be binding on the Prime Minister or the Governor General when making appointments to the Senate.  However, it would require the Prime Minister to consider the recommended names from a list of elected Senate nominees when recommending Senate appointments. 

Liberals push for CCSVI trials in Canada

By Anne Kingston - Tuesday, June 21, 2011 at 12:06 PM - 35 Comments

On Monday, a group of Liberal MPs swung the ongoing debate over CCSVI treatment for MS patients back into the federal court, metaphorically speaking. At a press conference held in the Parliament Hill foyer, Liberal MP Kirsty Duncan announced a private members bill advocating clinical treatment trials would be tabled at the earliest possible date. Liberal Senator Jane Cordy plans to introduce a similar measure in the Senate.

CCSVI has been a political hot-potato since late 2009 when research by Italian vascular surgeon Paolo Zamboni identified venous blockages in the neck and chest of MS patients; clearing them with a basic balloon angioplasty, he reported, significantly reduced symptoms, even arrested the degenerative disease’s progression in some cases. Canadian MS patients, estimated to number between 55,000 and 75,000, who clamoured for testing and treatment were told it was not available. Many neurologists—along with the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada– expressed concern the procedure was unproven and risky. Continue…

'Problematic if misused'

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, June 21, 2011 at 11:28 AM - 3 Comments

Former cabinet minister Chuck Strahl says the government should support the addition of asbestos to the Rotterdam Convention.

Canada has to decide if asbestos should be listed in the Rotterdam Convention as a product that is ‘flagged’ as potentially harmful. We should do that, not because chrysotile, or white, asbestos is the most dangerous (it’s not) or because it cannot be used safely in some circumstances (it can), but because importers and exporters have the right to know it can be problematic if misused.

While the government still refuses to say whether it will support the listing of asbestos, Julia Belluz takes to our new blog Science-ish to take apart the claim that chrysotile asbestos can be used safely.

Can asbestos be used "safely"?

By Julia Belluz - Tuesday, June 21, 2011 at 9:44 AM - 48 Comments

Photograph by Flickr user shaymus22

The Statement: “All scientific reviews clearly confirm that chrysotile [white asbestos] fibres can be used safely under controlled conditions.” (Dimitri Soudas, PMO communications director, 06/15/2011)

Chrysotile, or white asbestos, is back in the news again, and doctors around the world are questioning the Canadian government’s championing of a substance that has been banned in most developed countries. “My jaw dropped when I heard [Soudas’ statement],” says Dr. Matthew Stanbrook, a specialist in respirology at Toronto’s University Health Network and assistant professor in the department of medicine at the University of Toronto. “It’s so completely misrepresentative of the science.” Continue…

Nouns, adjectives and politics

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, June 21, 2011 at 9:43 AM - 9 Comments

Kathryn Blaze Carlson considers socialism and the future of the NDP.

The distinction between “democratic socialism” and “social democracy” grew up in the post-war period, and by the late-1960s, many European parties of this ideological bent started calling themselves social democratic. While a lay person might think the ordering of terms is six of one, half a dozen of the other, sequence actually matters. “It’s a question of which is the noun and which is the adjective,” Mr. Sears said. “If you believe in social democracy, you can say you are a democrat who believes in a system of social justice. If you’re a democratic socialist, you can you are a socialist — whatever that means — who believes in the achievement of socialist ends through democracy.” When asked whether he would describe Mr. Layton as a socialist, Mr. Capstick said, “No. He’s a social democrat.”

Sino-Forest or sigh-no-forest?

By Colby Cosh - Tuesday, June 21, 2011 at 8:23 AM - 22 Comments

Timber company Sino-Forest is locked in a fascinating battle for survival against Carson Block, a stock analyst with a mixed record of publicity attacks on Chinese-based enterprises. With professional analysts reluctant to say what they make of Block’s “strong sell” report on Sino-Forest, I’m in no position to endorse it as a piece of financial advice or investigative journalism. Considered strictly as entertainment, however, the report is remarkable. Continue…

Strategic Review: In which the "Follow that car!" strategy doesn't quite work

By Paul Wells - Monday, June 20, 2011 at 9:03 PM - 8 Comments

The story so far:

I’ve been trying to find out what the government is cutting from spending over the next three years under the “Strategic Review” rubric. There’s a whole annex in the budget that was introduced in March, and again after the election in May, bragging about these excellent cuts. And they sound excellent. “As a result of these reviews, departments are streamlining operations, realigning their activities and transforming their organizations to deliver better programs and better results to Canadians,” Annex 1 of the budget says.

Well, great. This is a good-news story I want to help spread to all Canadians. Fiscal discipline and smart program design, bundled together in a perfect ball of caring. Help me tell this story, I said to the government! Streamlining operations how? Realigning which activities? Transforming in what way? Programs that will be better how?

Sadly my many efforts have led to seriously mixed results.

So I was glad last Tuesday to read this paragraph in Tim Naumetz’s Hill Times article:

“The secretariat that supports the Treasury Board Cabinet Committee provided The Hill Times with a breakout summary of the total reduction in spending due to program cuts or reductions, separate from the spending reductions that will be due to the lapse of infrastructure programs.”

This breakout summary apparently detailed ” $720-million worth of program and operating cuts over the next year.” Damn. Where can I get some of that? So I sent an email to the press shop at the Treasury Board Secretariat. Here’s what I asked:

Hello,

The Hill Times reports that your office furnished them with “a breakout summary of the total reduction in spending due to program cuts or reductions, separate from the spending reductions that will be due to the lapse of infrastructure programs.”

Can I get a copy of the same thing?

Also, can you confirm that this is the same as the “Strategic Review” spending reductions detailed in Annex 1 of Budget 2011 — or explain to me the difference, if it’s not the same?

Thanks very much. I’m reachable by email or at 613-…

I was employing a fairly common technique that’s a bit like a runner or bicyclist slipstreaming behind a truck. Material has already been released — now just give me the same material. The hope here is that all the usual excuses have been exhausted on the first guy, and I can just skip to getting the answer.

It wasn’t quite that easy. Continue…

The Commons: Why so bashful?

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, June 20, 2011 at 6:12 PM - 16 Comments

The Scene. Here was Rona Ambrose’s chance. Late in the hour, the New Democrats had sent up Nycole Turmel with an urgent bulletin. ” ‘Public Works managers informed their employees Monday the department will shed about 700 jobs over the coming three years, including the elimination of 92 auditors,’ ” she informed the House, reading aloud from a freshly published news report.

“Is it true?” Ms. Turmel wondered.

And so here stood Ms. Ambrose, afforded a great opportunity to loudly and proudly luxuriate in those “Conservative values”—those “Canadian values,” as the Prime Minister is lately fond of putting it. Here she was practically invited to not only confirm the hundreds of public sector jobs eliminated, but proclaim her government’s belief in those hallowed principles of conservatism: limited government, fiscal prudence, personal liberty and the righteousness of the unfettered market. Here was her chance to champion with soaring prose, or at least exclamation points, a new awakening of freedom, a new day for an empowered nation casting off the shackles of tyranny.

Instead, she said this: “Mr. Speaker, as part of our continuous efforts to become more efficient and more effective, Public Works has achieved the strategic review target set out by Treasury Board.”

To Ms. Turmel’s yes or no question, this seemed the most banal way possible—a lullaby of bafflegab—of confirming the affirmative. Continue…

Tunisia's ex-president sentenced to 35 years

By macleans.ca - Monday, June 20, 2011 at 5:08 PM - 1 Comment

A Tunisian court has sentenced the country’s former president, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, and his wife, Leila, to 35 years in jail. The country’s former power couple was convicted in absentia of theft and the unlawful possession of large sums of foreign currency, jewellery, archaeological artifacts, drugs and weapons. Ben Ali and other members of The Family fled Tunisia in January after being ousted from government by mass protests. Ben Ali and his wife were also ordered to pay 91 million Tunisian dinars (S65 million) in fines and could yet face more charges.

The Guardian

Welcome to Science-ish

By Julia Belluz - Monday, June 20, 2011 at 4:47 PM - 11 Comments

Every day, newspapers and websites are filled with grandiose health claims (chocolate heals the heart one day, and causes obesity the next) and statements about health care that aren’t based in evidence. Science-ish has had enough. A joint Maclean’s, Medical Post, and McMaster Health Forum project, Science-ish will check the latest health-related headlines against the evidence—and hold politicians, opinion leaders, and journalists to account. Our modest aim? To improve health reporting, and the quality of information about the health-related issues of the day. Contact Medical Post associate editor Julia Belluz at julia.belluz@medicalpost.rogers.com with any comments or queries.

The quiet cuts

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, June 20, 2011 at 3:54 PM - 11 Comments

Bill Curry reports on cuts at Public Works.

Public Works managers informed their employees Monday the department will shed about 700 jobs over the coming three years, a move one union leader says will include the elimination of 92 auditors. The cuts to auditing staff at Public Works come just as the department is in the midst of overseeing a $35-billion wave of military purchases – including new ships and icebreakers – that carries political implications as Canada’s regions battle over the contracts.

Obama's real opponent

By John Parisella - Monday, June 20, 2011 at 3:54 PM - 3 Comments

Last week’s Republican debate in New Hampshire featured a steady diet of attacks on Barack Obama. Mitt Romney said Obama had failed America. Michele Bachmann declared Obama would be a one-term president. All the candidates, evidently suffering from short memories, blamed today’s economic woes on the Obama administration. Some called his policies European in character and incompatible with American values.

Pundits generally concluded that Romney and Bachmann came off the best. No one really based their assessment on the content of any candidates’ policies, focusing instead on style. Romney stayed on message and Bachmann downplayed the looney/fringe characteristics her detractors often attribute to her. Continue…

U.S. in talks with Taliban

By macleans.ca - Monday, June 20, 2011 at 2:02 PM - 1 Comment

U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has confirmed the U.S. is currently in talks with the Taliban with a view to ending the war in Afghanistan. Gates says the talks are still preliminary and that U.S. troops will remain in Afghanistan through the end of the year at least in order to keep military pressure on the Taliban. “Real reconciliation talks are not likely to be able to make substantive headway until at least this winter,” Gates says. “I think the Taliban have to feel themselves under military pressure and begin to believe they can’t win before they are willing to have a serious conversation.” Gates recently announced he would be stepping down after serving as defense secretary under both the Bush and Obama administrations.

New York Times

Autism diagnoses more common in IT-rich regions

By macleans.ca - Monday, June 20, 2011 at 2:02 PM - 0 Comments

A new study from Cambridge University had found that autism is more commonly diagnosed in regions rich in information technology (IT). The study, published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, was conducted in three geographical regions in the Netherlands, including Eindhoven, a major technology and industrial hub. The two control regions had similar-sized populations and a similar socioeconomic class. They found that school-reported prevalence of autism spectrum conditions in Eindhoven was 229 per 10,000, much higher than Haarlem and Utrecht (84 per 10,000 and 57 per 10,000 respectively). “These results are in line with the idea that in regions where parents gravitate towards jobs that involve strong ‘systemizing’, such as the IT sector, there will be a higher rate of autism among their children, because the genes for autism may be expressed in first degree relatives as a talent in systemizing. The results also have implications for explaining how genes for autism may have persisted in the population gene pool, as some of these genes appear linked to adaptive, advantageous traits,” said Simon Baron-Cohen, director of the University of Cambridge’s Autism Research Centre, who led the study.

Cambridge University

Libyan government accuses NATO of bombing civilians

By macleans.ca - Monday, June 20, 2011 at 1:42 PM - 0 Comments

Libyan officials say an errant NATO missile killed another 15 civilians in Tripoli on Monday. The allegation comes just a day after the military alliance admitted a “weapons failure” led to civilian deaths this weekend, when a missile struck a residential neighbourhood in the capital. Government representatives took a BBC journalist to the site of Monday’s bombing, which pulverized a building. NATO says Monday’s strike hit “a key Gaddafi regime command and control node” and not a private residence, as Libya’s government claims. Still, the allegations of civilian threats are putting the credibility of the mission at stake, Italy’s foreign minister warned on Monday. “We are not properly informing [Libyan] public opinion which can’t compete with Col Gaddafi’s daily media propaganda,” Franco Frattini said, “and Nato needs to think about that.”

BBC News

Where are the documents? (II)

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, June 20, 2011 at 1:39 PM - 9 Comments

Sources tell the Sun that the first disclosures from the Afghan detainee document review committee will be released Wednesday.

If this does indeed come to pass, the next question will be whether the review committee will be reinstated. It was established with the agreement of the leaders of the Conservatives, Liberals and Bloc Quebecois. I’ve asked both the Conservative and Liberal sides whether they are respectively interested in restarting the process, but both have so far avoided answering the question directly.

'Jackass' star Ryan Dunn killed in car crash

By macleans.ca - Monday, June 20, 2011 at 1:08 PM - 0 Comments

Ryan Dunn, who starred in the ‘Jackass’ series of movies alongside Bam Margera and Johnny Knoxville, has died in an early morning car crash. Dunn and a passenger were killed when the Porsche 911 GT3 they were driving flipped over a guard rail and burst into flames just after 2:30 am. The passenger has not yet been identified. Police say speed may have been a factor in the crash, but it’s unclear if alcohol was involved. The last photo posted to Dunn’s Twitter account showed him drinking what may have been an alcoholic beverage. Dunn was 34.

Philadelphia Inquirer

Q&A with the U.S. State Dept. official leading the Keystone XL pipeline review

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Monday, June 20, 2011 at 1:06 PM - 4 Comments

Below is  my interview with Daniel Clune, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State — the official at the US State Department responsible for managing the review process of TransCanada PipeLines Ltd.’s application to build the Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico.

The review process consists of two main parts: an Environmental Impact Statement and a National Interest Determination.

My article based on the interview is here: What’s blocking the Keystone XL pipeline?

(The transcript has been slightly condensed.)

Q – Why is this approval process taking so much longer than the ones for Keystone I and Alberta Clipper?

Continue…