Tire pressure

By Erica Alini - Thursday, August 11, 2011 at 9:00 AM - 1 Comment

Bloomberg/Getty Images

There are a number of ways to profit from a commodity bull market. One is savvy stock-market betting on things like coal and iron ore. Another is digging out as much of the stuff as possible while prices are high. A third one: selling giant tires.

They are the rubber whoppers, measuring about 3.5 m in diameter, used on the wheels of mining trucks. Resurgent global growth and China’s appetite for raw materials haven’t just propelled gold over US$1,600 an ounce, they have also tripled the price of mining-truck tires, Bloomberg News reports. Normally about $30,000 to $60,000 apiece, the gargantuan tires are now selling for up to $100,000, or as much as the combined pre-tax annual income of an average Canadian couple with two kids. When one considers that mining trucks run on six wheels and wear out tires in about 12 months, the cost of keeping a mining vehicle on the road could be $600,000 a year.

Big mining conglomerates such as Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, and mining equipment giants such as Caterpillar, are relatively sheltered from the current price hike because they rely on contracts based on considerably lower figures, according to Kevin Rohlwing of the Tire Industry Association. But unless another crisis cools off the global demand for commodities, the supply squeeze is likely to last. In fact, the current market resembles the first half of 2008, when giant tires reached $150,000 apiece. “The bottleneck is typical” when the economy heats up, says Rohlwing.

Continue…

The Turmel referendum

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, August 11, 2011 at 9:00 AM - 8 Comments

Respondents to a Harris/Decima survey seem mostly unmoved by Nycole Turmel’s Bloc Quebecois membership.

The Canadian Press-Harris/Decima survey found that only about 20 per cent of respondents considered it a major issue. Almost half — 46 per cent — said her earlier affiliation with the party isn’t an issue. Just over a quarter of those polled called it a minor issue.

A majority of respondents said they had heard about her Bloc membership — which she ended in January — while 41 per cent said they were unaware.

Bestsellers – Week of August 1st, 2011

By Brian Bethune - Thursday, August 11, 2011 at 8:00 AM - 3 Comments

Top-selling fiction and non-fiction titles

Fiction

Non-fiction

LAST WEEK (WEEKS ON LIST)

ON THE WEB: For book reviews, feature articles, interviews and recommended reading by celebrities, check out our books page at macleans.ca/books
Columnist Mark Steyn is currently on leave. He will return.

Three men killed in Birmingham violence

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 6:07 PM - 0 Comments

Three men were killed while protecting their property in what appears to have been a hit-and-run as violent riots continued in Birmingham on Wednesday. Haroon Jahan, 21, Shahzad Ali, 30, and Abdul Musavir, 31, were among a crowd of about 80 people who were guarding property from rioters when they were mowed down by a car near a gas station. A 32-year-old man has been arrested. Jahan’s father, Tariq, appealed for calm. “I have lost my son – if you want to lose yours step forward, otherwise calm down and go home.” Rioting has spread to the cities of Manchester, Wolverhampton and West Bromwich, with 350 people having been arrested in the region since Monday.

BBC News

What your gym teacher never told you about stretching before exercise

By Julia Belluz - Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 6:05 PM - 15 Comments

Photo by Pensiero/Flickr

You don’t need to look very far to find advice about stretching and exercise: the oft-cited wisdom is that they should go hand-in-hand, like peanut-butter and jelly or Bonnie and Clyde. You’ve surely heard that a little stretch before and/or after a work-out helps muscles warm up, keeps injuries at bay, and stress and muscle tension away. Continue…

AMC, the Possible Decline and Not-Yet Fall

By Jaime Weinman - Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 5:43 PM - 6 Comments

Following up the departure of Frank Darabont from The Walking Dead, The Hollywood Reporter has a long article on the subject, saying that he didn’t quit, AMC fired him. Though the article’s sources don’t shed a lot of light on why that happened, or exactly what happened. Someone does mention the point, previously mentioned here and elsewhere, that Darabont was unused to the job of showrunner, but the person who mentions it is an “agency source” – people closer to the show insist he was doing fine in terms of bringing the episodes in on time and on budget.

Their sources seem to confirm that AMC is under increased pressure to show profits, and that the network squeezes every penny, even by the usual standards of cable networks. (And let’s remember that working on the average cable drama, good or bad, means really long hours and less-than-pleasant working conditions for crews. These shows wouldn’t exist if they couldn’t be shot faster and cheaper than even the usual TV drama.) I said earlier that we were hearing less about the AMC/Walking Dead negotiations because the network owns the show, which means we don’t have the studio leaking things to the press to improve its bargaining position. The article notes another effect of AMC’s ownership: the studio can’t threaten to shop it to another network, the way Sony threatened to take Breaking Bad away. People have wondered why AMC is being tighter with Walking Dead, the biggest hit it has, than with the shows that don’t get a third as many viewers. It may be partly because the network has more latitude to cut the budget on its own property, while the studios provide a buffer between the network and the creator on Mad Men and Breaking Bad. It’s one of the downsides of the “vertical integration” model of networks owning their shows.

Amusingly, the entire article goes without a single mention of The Killing, which (until the Walking Dead news started to break) was the biggest sign that AMC was losing its way. It’s coming back for a second season and already nobody remembers it.

Don’t become the story

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 4:49 PM - 7 Comments

The Prime Minister’s Office would like Conservative MPs to refrain from bringing too much attention upon themselves as it pertains to this year’s provincial elections.

“During these elections you may be called upon by a provincial candidate to assist them in their election. Please keep in mind that we do not want the federal government to become a story in any of these elections,” he warned….

The memo notes that, “In provinces where there is only one ‘conservative’ option, we may all make efforts as individuals on private time to assist the election of that option — provided that we comply with this policy.”

One might wonder whether Stephen Harper, with his comments at Rob Ford’s barbeque, already violated this rule about becoming the story.

Celebrating the $100-a-month child benefit. Again.

By John Geddes - Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 4:47 PM - 33 Comments

When I received a government news release today reminding me to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Universal Child Care Benefit, I thought, as I donned my colourful paper hat, “Has it really been a year? Time flies. Why, it feels like only last month we marked five years of those $100-a-month federal payments to parents for every kid under age six.”

Wait a minute. Now that I check, it was only last month. I have removed the hat.

Continue…

‘The benefit of the doubt’

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 3:27 PM - 40 Comments

Without commenting on Abousfian Abdelrazik, mind you, Jason Kenney suggests we put our faith in the government in cases such as his.

“I read the protected confidential dossiers on such individuals, and I can tell you that, without commenting on any one individual, some of this intelligence makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck,” he said. “I just think people should be patient and thoughtful and give the government and its agencies the benefit of the doubt.”

But, as Campbell Clark notes in that story, the leak of CSIS documentation raises plenty of questions. Indeed, supporters of Adil Charkaoui want an inquiry into that leak.

More wanted

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 2:23 PM - 9 Comments

Vic Toews is interested in expanding the government’s most-wanted list.

Toews told Postmedia News the new list would include immigrants who were either convicted of a crime in Canada, or since their arrival it has been found they were convicted in their home country.

 Toews said he wants any new list to be both “sustainable and productive.” ”What I don’t want to happen is we do this for two weeks and then everybody goes away and forgets about it,” he said.

Mars rover reaches massive crater after 3-year trek

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 1:56 PM - 0 Comments

NASA’s Opportunity rover has finally reached its most important target, a massive 20-km crater called Endeavour, after three years of traversing the planet’s surface, New Scientist reports. The crater rim is littered with rocks that are thought to be over 3.5 billion years old, dating from the wettest period of the planet’s history. Opportunity and its sister rover, Spirit, previously looked at rocks immersed in acidic and salty water, but this crater seems to have held water that could potentially have supported life. Opportunity is looking for clues as to whether Mars, now freeze-dried and barren, was once habitable.

New Scientist

Second man charged with threatening Ford

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 1:53 PM - 0 Comments

Toronto police have arrested a second man accused of threatening to kill Mayor Rob Ford, according to the CBC. Robert Dunlop was picked up at the end of July and charged with uttering death threats. Another man, Anthony Vela, was arrested and charged with the same crime on July 14. The mayor’s staff say the alleged threats won’t change the way he does his job. “The mayor continues to go to public events. He was at the Taste of the Danforth [festival] last weekend. He is at football games. He still continues to return phone calls and regularly makes constituency meetings a priority,” his press secretary Adrienne Batra said.

CBC News

Drug residue found on minister’s money

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 1:51 PM - 8 Comments

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews was busted with a cocaine-laced $20 bill Tuesday during a tour of border security facilities at Toronto’s Pearson Airport. An officer with the Canada Border Services Agency assured Toews the doped bill was nothing unusual. The drug trade is a cash business; many bills carry drug residue. In fact, border officials don’t usually test money for dope, as passports and luggage are considered more reliable.

QMI Agency

North American markets shed points after ‘dead cat bounce’

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 1:45 PM - 0 Comments

Stock markets in North America took another tumble Wednesday morning after rebounding from previous losses on Tuesday, with one investment analyst calling yesterday’s gains a “dead cat bounce.” Speculation is increasing that the sovereign debt worries in both the U.S. and Europe might draw the global economy back into a recession. On Wednesday, the S&P/TSX composite index was down 41 points to 12,068. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 3.68 per cent. The Nasdaq composite fell 74 points to 2,408.36. The Canadian dollar also took a hit, down 1.52 cents to US$1.0064 by late-morning. While Asian markets had made some advancements, European markets were down on Wednesday. London’s FTSE fell 3.05 per cent, while the CAC in Paris and the DAX in Frankfurt each dropped more than 5 per cent.

Vancouver Sun

Taliban responsible for shooting down U.S. helicopter killed in airstrike

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 1:23 PM - 1 Comment

The Taliban is responsible for downing a Chinook that left 38 U.S. and Afghan personnel dead, including several members of SEAL Team Six, the special forces unit responsible for the assassination of Osama Bin Laden. NATO leaders say the airstrike killed a Taliban leader and one of the insurgents who took down the military helicopter on Saturday. U.S. General John Allen told the press that his army “will continue relentlessly to pursue the enemy”.

BBC News

Harper visits Colombia to finalize free trade agreement

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 1:19 PM - 6 Comments

Prime Minister Stephen Harper visited Colombia on Wednesday to celebrate a free trade agreement the Latin American country will make with Canada. Harper will visit President Manuel Santos in Bogota, where he will also lead a roundtable with Canadian businesspeople to discuss opportunities in Colombia. The free trade deal comes into effect officially on August 15.

The Globe and Mail

Turkey’s PM says Syrian tanks pulling out of Hama

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 1:13 PM - 0 Comments

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan expressed optimism for reforms in Syria on Wednesday, saying tanks are withdrawing from the beleaguered town of Hama, where human rights groups say up to 300 people have been killed by government forces during weeks of unrest. Erdogan said he expects the government of President Bashar al-Assad to implement reforms within 15 days. Erdogan’s comments come a day after Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu met with Assad and other Syrian officials for more than six hours in Damascus. Meanwhile, reports emerged Wednesday that Syrian tanks and troops had descended upon two other towns in the northwestern region of the country, where activists say one person has been killed and 13 wounded.

Montreal Gazette

Whose sovereignist is on first?

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 12:50 PM - 25 Comments

While the Prime Minister’s Office tries to explain the difference between Denis Lebel and Nycole Turmel, Pat Martin invokes the red-baiting days of yore.

“In my first life, ‘Are you or have you ever been a member of the communists?’” Mr. Martin said to The Hill Times. “That’s what this ridiculous thing is starting to remind me of…

“I came from B.C. where my union had a lot of communists in it, and I moved to Manitoba and I become the head of the Carpenters Union there right away and it was ‘Aw, he’s a communist that was parachuted in from B.C.,’ which was completely untrue and unfair because I went as far as forming the NDP caucus of the Carpenter’s Union in B.C. because I didn’t want to be associated with the reds,” he said. “This does smack of that, that Red-baiting thing that puts you in such an uncomfortable position,” Mr. Martin said.

The Other Other Darrin

By Jaime Weinman - Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 12:25 PM - 2 Comments

I’m actually a big fan of Bewitched, especially the first season, which was one of the most ambitious and interesting seasons of TV in the ’60s. But I don’t get the point of remaking it. There are few shows that are more of their time than Bewitched, which is part of the reason the producers had so much trouble turning it into a movie; the meta-movie idea they went with was silly, but it was an attempt to solve an unsovable problem.

Bewitched is first and foremost about the roles women are expected to play and the increasing pushback against those roles: Samantha Stephens is a woman who is better, smarter, more talented and powerful than her husband, but is expected not to show it. Her mother, a free-living woman (separated from her husband) and a proud member of a counter-culture, tries to push her toward freedom, which she’s not completely sure she wants to embrace, while her husband sees his wife’s superiority as a threat to his sense of self-esteem as the “master” of the house. It’s the story of a society in transition, just like Mad Men – which is also about a Madison Avenue man who keeps a secret and drinks an awful lot. Some terrible shows of the same era used these ideas as text rather than subtext, like Mona McCluskey, a much-derided flop about a poor man who marries a rich girl and insists that they live only on his salary – and she agrees, because he’s the man, after all, blah blah blah. Bewitched endures because it turned the realistic text into fantasy subtext. But its themes are very much tied to its era.

Presumably any remake will try to bring it into the modern era – unless Mad Men mania among executives has made them decide to do it as a period piece. But if they try to reboot it without the ’60s subtext, they might as well just make a new show about a man married to a witch. That’s not copyrighted.

But then networks are interested in rebooting old franchises, despite the lack of success of most of these reboots. (Even Hawaii 5-0 has not performed anywhere near as well as the network expected it to, probably because it’s not very interesting.) Bewitched has a certain appeal as a franchise because, unlike many sitcoms, it travels the world, being popular in many cultures and languages. A Bewitched reboot would probably sell into lots of foreign markets whereas just any old witch sitcom would not. Still, it seems a little pointless.

Speaking of Bewitched, here are the lyrics to the theme song, which were never used on the show. Again, very, very ’60s. Almost as much as Samantha and Darrin’s tendency to drink heavily from their fully-stocked bar in every episode.

Kenney vs. Amnesty International

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 12:23 PM - 0 Comments

Immigration minister Jason Kenney and Amnesty International have gone head to head over the release of names and photos of suspected war criminals facing deportation from Canada. The human rights organization wrote an open letter to the government about thirty people wanted for deportation, saying the list doesn’t live up to Canada’s human rights and international justice obligations. Seven of the people on the list have been arrested. Kenney posted a letter in response on his website that said the people on the list have already received due process, and that the rights group is “squandering the moral authority” of campaigns that oppose brutal regimes.

Toronto Sun

NDP support stays strong

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 12:20 PM - 10 Comments

Support for the federal New Democrats hasn’t been harmed despite the revelation of interim NDP Leader Nycole Turmel’s past ties to the Bloc Québécois. A new poll shows that support is up slightly since the May 2 election at 31 per cent. The Angus Reid/Toronto Star poll also shows half of voters aren’t worried about Turmel’s BQ past, while 41 per cent said they were concerned. Nearly half of those polled said the NDP should “definitely” or “probably” replace the interim leader, but 67 per cent of NDP voters said they’re either unconcerned or not very concerned by Turmel’s previous ties. This may indicate why support for the party hasn’t waned amidst the controversy.

Toronto Star

Political correctness gone mad?

By Alex Derry - Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 9:30 AM - 62 Comments

Photograph by Cole Garside

Canada, despite a reputation for being an inclusive society that celebrates diversity, will have to defend itself against UN concerns about racial discrimination—all over a term designed precisely to combat racial discrimination. Next year, for the second time in five years, a delegation from the Ministry of Canadian Heritage will appear before the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, to answer criticisms over Ottawa’s use of the term “visible minorities.” The committee deems it to be out of step with the “aims and objectives” of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Canada’s use of the term “seemed to somehow indicate that whiteness was the standard, all others differing from that being visible,” says committee member Patrick Thornberry, a professor of international law at Keele University in Britain.

“That’s just crazy,” says Tom Flanagan, a political scientist at the University of Calgary and former adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. “It’s the internal logic of professional bureaucrats gone amok.”

Canada was last brought before the 18-member UN committee in 2007. Comprised of diplomats and academics tasked with monitoring member states’ implementation of the convention, it found the term itself discriminatory. And it didn’t stop there, faulting Canada’s Anti-Terrorism Act and its potential for racial profiling of ethnic groups, as well as the country’s treatment of undocumented migrants and asylum-seekers, systemic discrimination of Aboriginal people, and a disproportionate force used by police on African Canadians. But the objection to “visible minorities” topped the list of concerns. While the committee (which doesn’t include a single Canadian member) was quick to rebuke Canada’s use of terminology, it refrained from recommending any alternatives—it asked that Ottawa “reflect further” on its use.

After the 2007 rebuke, Ottawa went to work consulting experts and holding workshops. The result was a 74-page report examining “visible minorities” through the years. It said the term is “specific to the administration of the Employment Equity Act,” designed to protect visible minorities, women, Aboriginal people and the disabled against workplace discrimination. While the EEA interprets “visible minorities” as “persons, other than Aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour,” it also specifies that only employees who wish to identify themselves to their employer need do so. Flanagan traces the roots of the term to “the identity politics of the 1970s and ’80s,” when neologisms like multiculturalism entered the bureaucratic lexicon.

The EEA itself emerged from the 1984 Abella commission establishing the principle that employers must use practices that increase minority representation. Nearly 5.5 million Canadians self-identify as part of a visible minority. “I don’t see the point of replacing it, it’s not a pejorative term,” says Flanagan. The government concluded no other category adequately addressed the labour market disadvantage faced by these groups. Further, it encourages proactive accommodation of diversity in the workplace. The report also said that Canada has “no plans of changing its standard usage,” a position it will defend when it appears before the Geneva-based commission again in early 2012.

“Some people consider affirmative action and quotas as racist,” says Jason Maghanoy, a Filipino-Canadian playwright in Toronto, “but sometimes you need to force diversity.” Maghanoy says it’s a matter of choice that he identifies himself as part of a visible minority when he applies for arts grants. “I always identify myself as Asian and I don’t feel discriminated against when I do.”

While many Canadians might dismiss the committee’s concern, it doesn’t mean the EEA couldn’t stand to be updated. Flanagan admits that while “visible minorities” doesn’t need to be replaced, “as a working term, there are some problems with it.” Michael Bach, national director of diversity, equity and inclusion at global accounting firm KPMG, supports the UN recommendation and says that while the legislation was a benchmark for progress in the workplace 25 years ago, he has never been a proponent of “visible minorities.” It’s archaic, he says, and reinforces the view that white is the norm. “We should be asking ourselves what is the right term,” says Bach. One proposed alternative is “racialized communities.” But this makes many people on both sides of the debate uncomfortable: it’s either an example of political correctness gone too far or it reinforces racial stereotypes. Ultimately, says Bach, the government should be involving minority communities in the process.

And real inequalities still exist today. “Decision-makers, those in positions of power,” says Maghanoy, “are still predominantly white men.”

Foie gras? Das ist verboten!

By Cigdem Iltan - Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 9:25 AM - 7 Comments

Photo by claude.attard.bezzina/Flickr

French foie gras makers say they feel like chopped liver after a German food fair decided to ban the French delicacy this year. Producers of the fatty duck and goose liver have accused the biennial Anuga fair of bowing to pressure from animal-rights activists. Its production is banned in several countries because of how it’s made: birds are force-fed grains in a process the French call gavage so that their livers swell to abnormal sizes. But the decision has resulted in a diplomatic spat between the two countries. Ministers have threatened to boycott the Cologne fair, while French Foreign Trade Minister Pierre Lellouche told the German ambassador the fair should drop the ban or else risk disrespecting European law on the free movement of goods.

The sale and production of foie gras is responsible for 35,000 French jobs, Lellouche says, and the ban could have “global repercussions.” But German officials say the issue is up to fair organizers. The controversy has ruffled feathers across France’s political spectrum: the leader of the rural values party, Chasse, Pêche, Nature et Tradition, blamed the dispute on “anti-gavage extremists,” while a Socialist senate member said “it’s like banning German sausages in France.”

The Detergent House?

By Emma Teitel - Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 9:20 AM - 1 Comment

Nomadic Luxury

Leading Australian detergent Vanish NapiSan believes it has a squeaky-clean solution for U.S. President Barack Obama and his nation’s debt woes. The Reckitt Benckiser brand wants to “sponsor” the White House for US$25 million, if the American government allows its signage to appear on the White House lawn for the next five years. And that’s not all: Vanish NapiSan would also like exclusive naming rights to the historic building. According to representatives of the company, the White House is the most logical choice of billboard as it’s the “most high-profile white building in the world.”

While the idea seems like more of a marketing gimmick than a realistic plan, NapiSan, in an effort to prove it means business, has begun working with a D.C.-based communications firm to confirm that the project is both constitutional and politically viable (i.e., how desperate is Obama, really?).