Julian Assange fights extradition in a London court

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 11:50 AM - 0 Comments

Australian WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s attorney fought to prevent his client’s extradition to Sweden over sexual assault charges in a London court on Monday. Defence attorney Bob Emmerson contends that the Swedish authorities have no right to extradite Assange because the European arrest warrant they’re using to detain him is flawed. As well, the accused is wanted for questioning only, which, Emerson argues, makes extradition unfounded. Assage denies the charges against him, claiming only consensual sex took place. He currently resides under house arrest in a Bungay, England estate belonging to a wealthy supporter. Assange fears Sweden will send him to the United States where a grand jury is investigating WikiLeaks—and its disclosures of classified U.S. information. If the court rules in favour of extradition, Assange says he will take his case to Britian’s Supreme court of the European Court of Human Rights.

CBC News

Gadhafi ready to step down, says France

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 11:44 AM - 0 Comments

France’s foreign minister Alain Juppe said on Tuesday that his government has been contacted by travelling Libyan officials who say Moammar Gadhafi is “prepared to leave.” The minister, however, was quick to point out that such contact does not constitute negotiations. He also refused to identify the officials with whom France had spoken, other than to say that they were close to the embattled Libyan leader, and that they travel to various major capitals as messengers. Juppe also said there is a growing international consensus that Gadhafi must leave power in order for the conflict to end. Meanwhile, French parliament is slated to vote Tuesday on whether to remain involved in the UN-mandated NATO mission in Libya. That vote is expected to pass.

CTV News

Brett Sutter, pleads guilty to ‘disorderly conduct-fighting’

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 11:33 AM - 1 Comment

Former Calgary Flames forward Brett Sutter pleaded guilty to charges of ‘disorderly-conduct fighting’ in Scottsdale City Court on Monday after sucker-punching a 38-year-old cab driver outside a sports bar in the Arizona suburb on November 11. The Scottsdale Police Department report says bar employees forced Sutter, 24, to leave the premises—where the Flames’ annual rookie dinner was taking place—just before 2 a.m. when he punched the cabbie unprovoked. Sutter was arrested and spent the night in jail, though he apologized for his actions several times, in slurred speech. The cab driver suffered a bloody lip, for which Sutter will pay a $323.60 fine. The rookie forward was traded to the Carolina Hurricanes shortly after the incident. He will appear in Scottsdale court again for a restitution hearing on September 15.

The Calgary Herald

Mike Wallace Maverick Watch

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 11:23 AM - 2 Comments

The Conservative backbencher says the House needs to better scrutinize government spending.

Conservative MP Mike Wallace (Burlington, Ont.), vice-chair of the House Government Operations Committee, told The Hill Times on Monday that MPs should do a better job of scrutinizing government spending, but also they don’t have the time, expertise or resources to do an adequate job … 

“I’ve been on a number of committees now and I’ve sat in on others and not just for mains, but for supplementary As, Bs, Cs, [they] would get to the House of Commons without ever being reviewed by a committee. I think that committees should be more proactive on making sure that it’s a priority agenda item,” he said, explaining that it’s difficult also to keep track of everything and compare them to previous years to make an informed decision about passing them,” Mr. Wallace said.

Afghan president’s half-brother assassinated in Kandahar

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 11:17 AM - 0 Comments

Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s younger half-brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, was assassinated by one of his bodyguard ons Tuesday. The Taliban was quick to take responsibility for his killing. Karzai was head of the provincial council in Kandahar and a prominent business broker in the area who had been accused of profiting from the region’s drug trade and taking cuts from lucrative foreign contracts. In a leaked American diplomatic cable, Canada’s ambassador to Afghanistan said Karzai embodied the country’s corrupt patronage system. President Hamid Karzai was reportedly in tears at the news of his half-brother’s death. In recent months, the Taliban has sent suicide bombers to kill the Kandahar police chief. They also kidnapped the son of the city’s main prison director.

Globe and Mail

Astronauts carry out final shuttle-based spacewalk

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 11:06 AM - 0 Comments

The last spacewalk ever to be part of a space shuttle mission is underway outside the International Space Station. NASA’s Mike Fossum and Ron Garan started their 6-and-a-half hour spacewalk at 9:22 a.m. ET Tuesday, when they switched their spacesuits to battery power. Even though the two astronauts arrived at the ISS on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft earlier this year, the spacewalk is considered part of the last-ever shuttle mission of the Space Shuttle Atlantis. That’s because Fossum and Garan are retrieving a broken ammonia pump outside the space station that will return to Earth on Atlantis. They will also install the Robot Refueling Mission, a box of tools and satellite components that will allow the Canadian Dextre Robot to test whether it can handle tools to repair satellites in space.

CBC News

A boycott signifying what?

By macleans.ca and Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 10:20 AM - 34 Comments

Steven Edwards considers John Baird’s boycott.

As one of the six chairs of a United Nations disarmament committee for 2011, Canada has been meeting with North Korea — the current chair — in select meetings since January … Diplomats pointed out Monday that Canada, which took on the chair at the beginning of the year, appears to have had no objection to attending these meetings alongside North Korea from January through to the beginning of North Korea’s tenure less than two weeks ago. To many, Canada’s participation in those meetings shows it tacitly recognized the communist state as a “chair-in-waiting.”

Some PR advice for you ruthless despots

By Scott Feschuk - Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 9:25 AM - 0 Comments

iStock, Getty Images; Photo Illustration by Taylor Shute

News item: Between 2006 and 2009, Sir David Frost and others were paid a large consulting fee to try to improve the international image of Col. Moammar Gadhafi.

Memo: To All the World’s Dictators

From: Feschuk Worldwide Consulting & Backrubs

It’s a tough time to be a ruthless despot. Several of your kind have been hounded into exile or targeted by air strikes. Those who remain face a growing sense of anxiety and, even worse, increased odds of getting stuck beside Kim Jong Il at the next dictators’ brunch.

To ensure you’re not the next to be toppled, you could turn for help to a renowned public figure like David Frost. According to news reports, the famed broadcaster was paid £57,000 to help the Libyan leader become perceived as a “thinker and intellectual.” Alas, it’s tough to argue this was money well spent. Gadhafi is today viewed as a thinker in much the same way that Kim Kardashian is viewed as a petite.

Continue…

A cry for help

By Aaron Wherry and macleans.ca - Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 9:05 AM - 12 Comments

Mackenzie Grisdale’s full report on heckling includes a few explanations and observations from MPs, including this from the NDP’s Bruce Hyer.

He said, “a lot of backbenchers feel useless and this is one of the areas in which they can vent their frustrations and pretend to be useful.” We have also seen that when MPs are unable to get relevant answers from Ministers, they often respond by heckling. Further, the relatively low amount of attention paid to government backbenchers by Cabinet may also contribute to some MPs’ desire to heckle as a means to attract attention, if not from the executive, at least from the media.

Stephen Harper and the conditional country

By Paul Wells - Monday, July 11, 2011 at 9:49 PM - 239 Comments

This is getting to be worth noting. From the Prime Minister’s speech in Calgary this weekend:

“In a few short years, we will celebrate the 150th anniversary of our united country. If, in 50 more years, we wish our descendants to celebrate Canada’s 200th anniversary, then we must be all we can be in the world today, and we must shoulder a bigger load, in a world that will require it of us.”

It’s no accidental phrasing. From his speech to the Conservative convention in Ottawa in June:

“In a few short years, we will celebrate the 150th anniversary of our united country. If, in 50 more years, we wish our descendants to celebrate Canada’s 200th anniversary, then we must be all we can be in the world today. Therefore, my friends, our party’s great purpose is nothing less than to prepare our nation shoulder a bigger load, in a world that will require it of us.”

Pretty much verbatim. So a question arises. What does he mean, “if?”  Continue…

Bin Laden’s DNA obtained by CIA prior to raid

By macleans.ca - Monday, July 11, 2011 at 6:09 PM - 4 Comments

The CIA recruited a Pakistani doctor to organize a fake vaccination program in Abbottabad, Pakistan in order to obtain Osama bin Laden’s DNA, the Guardian reports. Dr. Shakil Afridi, a senior health official who oversees the Khyber region, was allegedly approached by the U.S. intelligence agency last summer after it had tracked bin Laden’s courier, Abu Ahmad al-Kuwaiti, to the al-Qaeda leader’s Abbottabad compound. Dr. Afridi travelled to the Pakistani town in March to set up a free hepatitis B vaccination program, and paid government health workers, among the few people with access to the bin laden compound, generous sums to take part, thereby bypassing health services management. A nurse, Mukhtar Bibi, gained access to the compound while Afridi waited outside, and reportedly obtained DNA from bin Laden’s children, which was then compared to a sample taken from his deceased sister. Afridi is now in the custody of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, having been arrested for cooperating with the U.S. Relations between the two countries remained severely strained following the U.S. Killing of bin Laden on May 1st.

The Guardian

Don’t call it a doctrine (II)

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, July 11, 2011 at 5:08 PM - 19 Comments

John Baird dismisses a Palestinian bid to have statehood recognized by the United Nations.

“We think it’s distinctly unhelpful to seek a public-relations declaration within the UN General Assembly. Obviously, it would be without any meaning,” Baird said Monday … “We believe that statehood should be the product of a negotiated permanent peace with security for both the Palestinian and Israeli people.”

He said he’d be thrilled to welcome a new Palestinian state, but only after peaceful negotiations with Israel. Baird also affirmed the Harper government’s unwavering support for the Jewish state, which has sparked criticism in the past. ”Canada has taken strong, principled stands with respect to supporting liberal democracies, and with respect to this issue,” he said. ”There has been certainly a change under the leadership of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and I certainly wouldn’t see us changing on that regard.”

How politics have come to dominate the debt ceiling debate

By John Parisella - Monday, July 11, 2011 at 4:43 PM - 38 Comments

Even though we have heard countless references and discussions about the risks associated with rising the US debt ceiling, we should not be surprised that there is still no deal as the supposed deadline of August 2 looms. The debate over a compromise solution has become so politicized both sides are now hardening their positions rather than looking for compromises.

The Republicans have staked their positions: no new taxes and massive spending cuts, in particular to entitlement programs. The presence of a vocal and uncompromising Tea Party contingent makes it difficult for the more moderate Speaker of the House, John Boehner, to deliver votes on a compromise deal with Barack Obama. Consequently, the odds of an historic deal between Obama and the Republicans appear very remote. Continue…

Men of a Certain Age and Uncertain Future

By Jaime Weinman - Monday, July 11, 2011 at 4:22 PM - 3 Comments

This is the week TNT will decide what happens to the show “Men of a Certain Age.” They’re waiting until the Emmy nominations come out, to see how many nominations it gets (Andre Braugher got a nomination last year). To encourage the network to pick it up in spite of its relatively small and very non-young audience, Maureen Ryan and Alan Sepinwall both have posts today arguing the same thing: it deserves a third season because quality is important, and this is the highest-quality show TNT has. From the Variety piece, it seems like the reason the show still has a shot at the network is for that very reason: its supporters are arguing that it has “cachet and long-term potential” and that having a critically-acclaimed series will help the prestige of a network that is mostly known for popular meat-and-potatoes programming.

This is the best show TNT has, and I would be happy to see them jump at any excuse to pick it up again. Whether that particular excuse will work, I don’t know. In theory, a prestige show is the perfect balance to a lineup of money-making but less-prestigous projects. In practice, as has been said many times, a low-rated show has a better chance at a network without a lot of hits. The more hits a network has, the more it expects of every show.

I don’t usually blame promotion for the success or failure of a show, but I do feel like better promotion of Men of a Certain Age could have helped it Not to get a million more 18-49 viewers; the best ad campaign in the world can’t do that. But some networks have a way of making it seem like a potentially great show is on its way – HBO, Showtime and AMC are all good at creating excitement for the arrival of an important series, excitement that becomes part of the narrative surrounding the show (even if the show itself is like The Killing and doesn’t live up to the hype). TNT’s promotion of Certain Age seemed pretty standardized and not really aimed at anyone in particular, which is fine for its usual shows. (TNT, along with USA, is one of the cable networks that looks for hour-long scripted shows that don’t need awards to live.) But this one has no hook; it’s a small, personal show about small, personal things, and it’s a one-hour drama that isn’t particularly melodramatic, always one of the toughest sells in TV. With all that, it’s not an unpopular show, but because of the subject matter, cast and title, isn’t a show with a lot of youth appeal.

A way to counteract all of that might have been to concentrate on building buzz for the show and making it seem like this was an important, personal piece of work – because that’s what it is. But I got the feeling that the network was almost as surprised at the power of the show as some reviewers were. (People who disliked or were indifferent to Ray Romano before often like MOACA, though “even if you hated him before, you’ll love him now!” is not a good selling point for any show.) A network doesn’t have a lot of power to affect the number of viewers a show gets – though TNT undoubtedly could have helped MOACA by not splitting its second season in two, one in winter and one in summer. But creating buzz is, to a large extent, the network’s responsibility; good promotion gets people talking about a good show, and the network can then justify renewing the show because people are talking about it. Instead it’s seemed like critics here and there are talking about the show without much help from the network, and that’s not enough.

Update: One thing I forgot to mention was the question of compatibility with the network’s slate of reruns, something a lot of basic-cable shows and networks run into. (One recent random example: USA is now scrambling to create a slate of single-camera half-hour light comedies, because it bought the rerun rights to Modern Family and wants some compatible original programming by the time that show arrives.) Men of a Certain Age isn’t a great fit with the other original dramas on TNT, but it’s an even worse fit with the reruns – Bones, The Mentalist, Law & Order. (Rizzoli & Isles, starring Angie Harmon, is obviously a good bet to attract people who come to the network for the L&O reruns.) Though its audience is not the same as Everybody Loves Raymond‘s, I could see it being better off on a network that had Everybody Loves Raymond reruns in the mix.

Canada to boycott UN disarmament body

By macleans.ca - Monday, July 11, 2011 at 4:08 PM - 12 Comments

The federal government has announced it will boycott the UN’s Conference on Disarmament to protest North Korea winning its chairmanship. The body serves as a venue for disarmament negotiations between member countries and is especially focused on nuclear disarmament. The irony of having the North Korean delegation, which has been aggressively pursuing nuclear weapons development, was not lost on Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, who announced the boycott on Monday. “It’s just unacceptable and it’s frankly wrong,” he said. Baird added Canada would return to the forum after August 19, once North Korea will be done presiding over it, and will seek to change its current system of a rotating presidency.

CBC News

Don’t call it a doctrine

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, July 11, 2011 at 3:57 PM - 11 Comments

John Baird proudly announces a boycott of the UN conference on disarmament on account of North Korea’s chairmanship.

“Our government has consistently taken a principled approach to dealing with North Korea’s nuclear aspirations. As a result, today we are suspending our participation in the UN Conference on Disarmament.

“North Korea is simply not a credible chair of this UN body. The regime is a major proliferator of nuclear weapons and its non-compliance with its disarmament obligations goes against the fundamental principles of this committee. This undermines the integrity of both the disarmament framework and the UN. Canada will not be party to that.”

Liberal foreign affairs critic Dominic LeBlanc is unimpressed. Continue…

U.S. partially cuts off Pakistan

By macleans.ca - Monday, July 11, 2011 at 3:10 PM - 6 Comments

Pakistan’s balance sheet will be short $800 million after the U.S. decided to suspend military aid payments to the country. The relationship between Pakistan and the U.S. has been steadily deteriorating for months, reaching a new low point after the assassination of Osama bin Laden. Over the past 10 weeks, Pakistani authorities have arrested an army major on charges he helped the CIA find bin Laden and expelled more than 100 U.S. military personnel. According to the New York Times, the deferred money represents more than a third of the $2 billion in miltary aid the U.S. sends Pakistan. About $300 million of the funds were earmarked to pay for patrols along the Afghan border.

Bloomberg

Will those genetically modified soy beans make you sick?

By Julia Belluz - Monday, July 11, 2011 at 2:56 PM - 52 Comments

Photo by Karen Eliot/Flickr

The Statement: “To date, Health Canada has not identified health risks associated with GM foods that have been approved for sale in Canada.” (Stephane Shank, Health Canada spokesperson, 07/05/2011)

Codex Alimentarius Commission—a group of the world’s food safety regulatory agencies—reached consensus last week on new guidelines that will make it easier for food makers to label products with genetically-modified ingredients. The new guidelines are voluntary, though, so don’t expect advertisements about GMOs on the box of your favourite breakfast cereal anytime soon. And part of the reason Canada has not moved to mandatory labeling of GM foods is because, as Stephane Shank put it, “To date, Health Canada has not identified health risks associated with GM foods.”

So, is GM food really safe?

We called Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, a researcher in food distribution and safety at the University of Guelph, to find out. He told Science-ish, “There is no scientific evidence out there that would suggest GM seeds or foods that contain GMOs have health risks to consumers.” Dr. Charlebois did add this note of caution: the key phrase in Shank’s statement was ‘to date.’ “GMOs have only been accessible or readily available to consumers since 1994, so that’s 17 years ago. That’s not a whole lot of time for us to fully appreciate the risks around GMOs.”

Discourse around genetically modified organisms—defined by the WHO as “organisms in which the genetic material (DNA) has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally”—has been a political and scientific battlefield. As a 2009 Nature news feature pointed out, “No one gets into research on genetically modified (GM) crops looking for a quiet life. Those who develop such crops face the wrath of anti-biotech activists who vandalize field trials and send hate mail… [Those] who suggest that biotech crops might have harmful environmental effects are learning to expect attacks of a different kind. These strikes are launched from within the scientific community and can sometimes be emotional and personal…”

There’s also the knee-jerk reaction by the public—often reflected in the media—that these food items are borderline ghoulish, unnatural, and therefore potentially harmful to human health. Just think about the coverage of the transgenic “Frankenfish” salmon. The fish was developed decades ago by AquaBounty Technologies to grow faster than naturally occurring salmon, and has been waiting for a final seal of approval from the Food and Drug Administration for years. (Just last week, House lawmakers in the U.S. voted to bar the regulatory body from okaying the Franken-salmon for mass consumption, though the bill still needs to pass through the Senate.)

Despite the political battles and the public’s wariness about these foods, Dr. Douglas Powell, a professor in food safety at Kansas State University who sat on the Canadian Biotechnology Advisory Committee (CBAC) in the early 2000s, was even less cautious than Charlebois when talking about the potential of GMOs to harm to humans. “(The CBAC) reviewed everything that was out there and there was nothing to show GMOs present a risk to health.” In fact, Dr. Powell has since moved away from researching the subject because, he says, “I got tired of talking about hypothetical risks.”

Science-ish is a joint project of Maclean’s, The Medical Post and the McMaster Health Forum. Julia Belluz is the associate editor at The Medical Post. Got a tip? Seen something that’s Science-ish? Message her at julia.belluz@medicalpost.rogers.com or on Twitter @juliaoftoronto

Photo gallery: Racing fashion at the Honda Indy

By Zoran Milich - Monday, July 11, 2011 at 2:39 PM - 0 Comments

The Honda Indy celebrated its 25th anniversary this weekend in Toronto. It’s as good a place as any to see the unique fashions of the racing world. Click through the gallery below for a peek at the racing-inspired looks on display. (Photographs by Zoran Milich)

On heckling

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, July 11, 2011 at 2:33 PM - 6 Comments

In a pair of posts, Mackenzie Grisdale considers the practice of heckling.

The heckles that MPs said resonated the most were personal attacks. Often, MPs were reluctant even to divulge examples of heckles they recalled, while some would refer vaguely to “racism and sexism” or “homophobic” remarks. However, specific examples of personal attacks include a comment from a male Conservative MP who recalls heckles “Targeting a Conservative’s religious beliefs” and “Labelling a rural MP from the prairies a redneck.” Another MP noted that heckles sometimes touch on physical disability as well. 

One female Conservative MP heard someone yell at her, “That was dumber than you look.” This MP raised other points as well: “Personal attacks like ‘idiot, liar, stupid, chicken’ and heckling about gender (usually aimed at women by women), for example alleging the women are puppets, stooges, robots under the direction of men [are] particularly offensive.”

How to dress like a duchess

By Anne Kingston - Monday, July 11, 2011 at 12:20 PM - 7 Comments

Arthur Edwards

Catherine, duchess of Cambridge isn’t making any public addresses during her Canadian tour. Not that she needs to. Her clothes have been speaking volumes for her.

The tone was set with her travelling outfit—a navy blazer by Toronto-based label Smythe Les Vestes over a navy sheath dress by French designer Roland Mouret and Manolo Blahnik stilettos. It offered foreshadowing of the diplomatic, politically correct, safe choices to come, evident in her arrival outfit: a navy lace “Cecile” sheath by another Canadian—Erdem Moralioglu, the popular Montreal-born, U.K.-based designer.

Occasional nods to her Canadian hosts have been carefully inserted: a flag-red fascinator topped with a fabric maple leaf worn to Canada Day celebrations on Parliament Hill along with a diamond maple leaf brooch borrowed from Queen Elizabeth II. In Charlottetown, fittingly, there were natty nautical details on a cream knit Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen dress.

Continue…

Photo gallery: How to dress like a Duchess

By Anne Kingston - Monday, July 11, 2011 at 12:00 PM - 0 Comments

Click on a thumbnail to enter gallery

‘Prince of pot’ contracts superbug in prison

By macleans.ca - Monday, July 11, 2011 at 11:58 AM - 11 Comments

Vancouver’s self-proclaimed “prince of pot,” Marc Emery, has been infected by a superbug known as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), according to his wife Jodie. She says Emery, who is currently serving a five-year prison term in a Mississippi facility, was diagnosed with the condition a year ago, when a boil located above his buttock tested positive for MRSA. Emery is two years into his sentence for conspiracy to manufacture marijuana via a mail-order cannabis seed operation.

Ottawa Citizen

Tabloid phone hackers allegedly target 9/11 victims

By macleans.ca - Monday, July 11, 2011 at 11:42 AM - 1 Comment

A former New York police officer claims News of the World reporters contacted him for help to hack into the voicemails of 9/11 victims. The allegations come one day after the 168-year-old tabloid published its final edition after it was revealed reporters hacked the phone of a murdered British schoolgirl in 2002. The former officer told Britain’s Daily Mirror newspaper that reporters wanted 9/11 victims’ phone numbers and call details so they could access private phone data. He says he turned down the requests.

CBC News