The minister and the helicopter

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 8:45 AM - 5 Comments

Defence Minister Peter MacKay apparently had one of Newfoundland’s three search-and-rescue helicopters dispatched to pick him up from a fishing trip.

MacKay’s office defended the move, saying it was an opportunity for the defence minister to see the helicopters’ search-and-rescue abilities up close. ”After cancelling previous efforts to demonstrate their search-and-rescue capabilities to Minister MacKay over the course of three years, the opportunity for a simulated search and rescue exercise finally presented itself in July of 2010,” a statement from MacKay’s office said. ”As such, Minister MacKay cut his personal trip to the area short to participate in this Cormorant exercise.”

However, military sources say no search-and-rescue demonstration was planned until the very day MacKay’s office made the request to pick him up.

The resurrection of John Galliano?

By Leah Mclaren - Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 8:40 AM - 6 Comments

Antonio de Moraes Barros Filho/WireImage/Getty Images

Earlier this month, a Paris court found fashion designer John Galliano guilty of “public insults based on origin, religious affiliation, race or ethnicity,” for his now-notorious anti-Semitic rant in a Paris café.

It was, of course, a crime for which the disgraced designer had months ago been sentenced in the court of public opinion, and rightly so. The diatribe in which he slurred “I love Hitler” in the faces of a couple of astonished women was caught on video and later posted online. After Galliano’s arrest in February, for which he was dropped both as head of the House of Dior as well as his own eponymous label, his career prospects seemed forever dashed. But now that the court case is over and the dust is beginning to settle, some fashion world observers are speculating that a comeback might be in the cards. “Given how superficial the fashion world can be—and how cynical—it could be that Galliano’s very notoriety makes him a short-term money-spinner,” Telegraph deputy fashion editor Luke Leitch wrote last week after the verdict came down.

The court found the designer guilty after hearing testimony from patrons who’d experienced Galliano’s abuse on several separate occasions over the past year. Plaintiff Geraldine Bloch testified that the designer remarked on her “dirty Jewish face” and called her a “ ‘dirty whore’ at least a thousand times” in a 45-minute rant as she shared a drink with a friend on the patio of La Perle, an establishment located in the Marais, the lively gay district and historic Jewish quarter of Paris. And another victim, Fatiha Oummedour, told the court of a separate occasion on which an inebriated Galliano taunted her as “ugly Jewish” at the same café a few months earlier.

Continue…

South Africa appoints a preacher to the court

By Jen Cutts - Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 8:30 AM - 0 Comments

Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters

In a notably headstrong move, South African President Jacob Zuma two weeks ago chose a controversial pastor to lead his nation’s highest court for the next 10 years. Mogoeng Mogoeng, 50, a judge who belongs to a church that claims homosexuality is a “deviation” curable by prayer, told an interview panel that he’d been chosen by God to serve as chief justice of the country’s Constitutional Court.

Opposition parties, legal associations, and women’s and gay rights groups objected to his candidacy, citing past rulings they called homophobic and insensitive to violence against women (in a country with shockingly high rates of sexual assault). In one example, in 2007 Mogoeng suspended the sentence of a man who had tried to rape his estranged wife, arguing he had used “minimum force” and had been “aroused” by the victim, who was “clad in panties and a nightdress.” The judge countered that other, harsher rulings by him had been deliberately overlooked.

Mogoeng, who will also head the commission that recommends further judicial appointees, was the only nominee for the position. At least one rights group, AfriForum, has said it is looking into launching a legal challenge of the selection process.

Bestsellers – Week of September 19th, 2011

By Brian Bethune - Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 8:00 AM - 0 Comments

Top-selling fiction and non-fiction titles

Fiction

Non-fiction

LAST WEEK (WEEKS ON LIST)

Harold Norman Lynge

By Richard Warnica - Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 8:00 AM - 0 Comments

Illustration by Julia Minamata

Harold Norman Lynge was born on a wheat farm in the fertile Regina Plains on March 29, 1922, the son of Amelia and Kristian, Lutheran immigrants from Jutland, Denmark. Kristian came to the New World in 1914. He worked in Chicago but returned home twice to woo his bride. Eventually, Amelia agreed to join him. She booked passage to Montreal in 1919. Later that year the two settled on a rented section of land just off the old Soo Highway between Drinkwater and Moose Jaw. Harold arrived three years later. His only sister Marie was born the next year. He had no brothers.

Harold grew up in a farmhouse without running water or electricity. There was never much money, Marie says, but always plenty of food. Amelia canned anything: potatoes, carrots, turnips, even chickens. But at harvest, it was her pies that drew crowds from neighbouring farms. Marie says she had a happy childhood. “But I’m not sure my brother felt the same way. He was a very intense person. He worried about mother and dad and the hardships they were facing.”

During the school year, Harold and Marie travelled by horseback more than six kilometres through the snow to a one-room schoolhouse. Harold rode the faster animal, a great brown beauty named Stuffy. Marie’s mare, Jessie, was older and slower. “When Harold was ill, I was thrilled because I could race his horse,” she says. The early exposure stuck with Harold. He was a dedicated horseman for most of his life. He “could ride anything on four legs,” says his wife, Amy.

Continue…

Opposition for the record

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, September 21, 2011 at 10:09 PM - 4 Comments

However inevitable the bill’s passage, the Liberals have proposed the following reasoned amendment to the government’s omnibus crime legislation.

That the motion be amended by deleting all of the words after the word “That” and substituting the following:

“this House declines to give second reading to Bill C-10, An Act to enact the Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act and to amend the State Immunity Act, the Criminal Code, the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, the Youth Criminal Justice Act, the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and other acts, because its provisions ignore the best evidence with respect to public safety, crime prevention and rehabilitation of offenders; because its cost to the federal treasury and the cost to be downloaded onto the provinces for corrections have not been clearly articulated to this House; and because the bundling of these many pieces of legislation into a single bill will compromise Parliament’s ability to review and scrutinize its contents and implications on behalf of Canadians.”

Mahmoud Abbas finds a way to scare Israel

By Jody White - Wednesday, September 21, 2011 at 8:13 PM - 20 Comments

Israeli politician Abba Eban said in 2002 that the Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. For the past nine years of the interminable Israeli/Palestinian peace process, events have largely played out in support of this view. But a growing chorus of support at the United Nations for the recognition of a Palestinian state is evidence that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has learned from the failures of his predecessors and is now creating opportunities of his own, to the dismay of Israel and the United States.

In the 47 years the Palestine Liberation Organization has existed, it has used a combination of negotiations, armed resistance and terrorism to work towards its goals of self-determination and the right of return for Palestinian refugees. The campaign’s longevity attests to its lack of success.

President Abbas is now pursuing a new strategy. Instead of laying his demands at the door of Israel and the United States, he is making a two-pronged approach to the United Nations in order to shame a superpower and cast light on the groundswell of support for his cause amidst the developing world. Continue…

Slacktivism defeats Lawful Access

By Jesse Brown - Wednesday, September 21, 2011 at 8:02 PM - 19 Comments

There were no rallies against the Conservatives’ “Lawful Access” legislation. No marches, riots, demonstrations or happenings. Canadians who opposed the overreaching and wrongheaded online surveillance measures fought them (where else?) online.

Over 70,000 Canadians clicked to sign a “Stop Online Spying” petition posted by OpenMedia. Yesterday, the Harper government’s omnibus crime bill was introduced—a bundle of bills that had been assumed to include the new warrantless tracking measures. But Lawful Access was nowhere to be found.

OpenMedia quickly issued a press release claiming victory, and rightfully so. Despite a concerning lack of interest in the issue on the part of the mainstream media, OpenMedia successfully educated and activated tens of thousands of Canadians. Was their petition the reason the legislation was omitted? I suppose a letter sent last March signed by the provincial privacy commissioners, which cautioned the government about the invasive nature of the proposed laws may also have had an impact.

It’s also true that Internet service providers were less than thrilled about the prospect of building and maintaining the technical apparatus to constantly spy on their own customers. We may never know for certain what made Justice Minister Rob Nicholson think twice, but I’d hazard a guess that playing a major role in the decision was the prospect of facing down a growing horde of angry netizens, demanding answers to questions few aging legislators are equipped to answer. For example:

• How can you assure us the tracking data will be safely stored when governments routinely lose and leak personal data?
• Will the police access the data through a web portal? If so, what happens when it gets hacked?
• Will the police be allowed to build software “bots” that crawl through our data looking for suspicious online activity?

Better to simply wipe the digitally illiterate laws from the bundled bill than stand accountable for such poorly conceived policy. Lawful Access may very well return unbundled as its own separate bill. If so, those emboldened by their effectiveness so far in fighting it will surely pounce on the wounded legislation. But I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole thing just quietly goes away.

Think about it: 70,000 Canadians signed an online petition against Lawful Access, and we don’t yet have Lawful Access. Around 100,000 Canadians joined a Facebook group against a backwards Copyright reform bill, and we don’t yet have backwards Copyright reform. Almost half a million Canadians signed a petition against wholesale usage-based billing, and we don’t have that either.

The ethereal nature of these protests may be the key to their success. Their message to legislators is simple: thousands of Canadians are against what you’re doing. Right now they are angry in their homes, at their computers. Proceed and they may be angry at your door, or at the polls.

Considering its effectiveness, maybe it’s time to think of a more respectful term for online political engagement than “Slacktivism”.

Pirate politics aren’t just for hackers

By Jesse Brown - Wednesday, September 21, 2011 at 7:45 PM - 2 Comments

Dave Morris/Flickr

The Pirate party of Germany stunned the European political establishment last week by capturing 8.9 per cent of the vote in the Berlin state elections. Fifteen pro-hacker Pirates are now sitting in the local legislature.

Are we going to see more hooded sweatshirts and neon overalls in politics? Perhaps. As many as 18 European and North American countries (including Canada) have officially registered Pirate Parties, with Pirates holding office in five of them. While our own nascent Pirate party has yet to break through to the mainstream, it might be wise to keep an eye on it. In fact, Pirate politics across the globe deserve attention. Here’s why: Continue…

The Commons: The Finance Minister goes rogue

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, September 21, 2011 at 6:36 PM - 80 Comments

The Scene. Bob Rae was making fun—pointedly, but sarcastically, mocking the government’s decision to spend $20 million for advice on how to reduce spending. It was, if nothing else, a decent bit of amusement for a Wednesday afternoon.

“Mr. Speaker, a review of public accounts show that the government spending on professional and special services, including the use of consultants, has gone up from $7.24 billion to well over $10 billion, a cumulative increase of over $7 billion,” the Liberal leader informed the House. “I’d like to ask the minister of finance, what does he think the chances are that the $20-million consultants he’s just hired are going to come back and say, ‘You know what a good way is to save money, cut the use of consultants?’”

Here Mr. Rae returned to his seat and here the Finance Minister stood. And here—after some superfluous mocking of Mr. Rae’s time as premier of Ontario—are the altogether remarkable sentences that Jim Flaherty offered in response.

“Yes, we are having experts from outside look at government spending. Yes, we should. Government should not be the sole judge of the way it’s run. We need advice from the outside.”

Had he mispoken? Had he momentarily lost control of his mouth? Did he realize people could hear him saying these things?

Apparently not, because a a few moments later he was saying such things again. Continue…

The Fox News primary

By Jaime Weinman - Wednesday, September 21, 2011 at 4:10 PM - 4 Comments

Last month Walter Shapiro watched 50 hours of Fox News, trying to get a sense of which Republican Presidential candidates are portrayed the most positively – in other words, who the organization seems to be backing. His finding, you won’t be very surprised to hear, was that Fox News doesn’t like Ron Paul or Jon Huntsman, is trying to downplay Michele Bachmann, and loves Rick Perry. Perrymania is all over the place. Romney is not being attacked either, just clearly treated as the runner-up in the network’s affections: “Perhaps because he could still be the GOP nominee next year, Romney is being treated gingerly.” Continue…

My top 5 TIFF moments

By Jessica Allen - Wednesday, September 21, 2011 at 4:10 PM - 1 Comment

Here's Alexander Skarsgard and me, hanging out like old friends.

5. BREAKING AWAY

TIFF caused major downtown traffic mayhem. It was so nuts that my well-tempered colleague Brian D. Johnson even blogged about how annoying it was trying to travel from event to event. Not for this gal, though. I rode my bike to every downtown press conference, interview, film screening and red carpet and then hauled myself back uptown to the Maclean’s office, sometimes clocking in more than 25 km a day. I even biked to all the parties all dolled up in a dress and heels. And didn’t I feel oh-so-smug while I passed gridlocked cars! That is, until I fell off my bike standing still at an intersection. That’s right, I was stationary before I fell.

4. FREE FOOD! Continue…

This week in ministerial accountability

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, September 21, 2011 at 3:48 PM - 1 Comment

While Tony Clement was more than happy on Monday to talk to reporters outside the House about the G8 Legacy Fund, he continues to remain seated when opposition members rise to inquire about the matter during Question Period. And with John Baird away from the House of Commons, opposition questions directed at Mr. Clement are now being handled by Deepak Obhrai, the parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Mr. Obhrai is an able reader of the government’s preferred lines, but his exact level of responsibility for the administering of the G8 Legacy Fund is unclear.

RCMP to name, shame grow-op owners in online list

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, September 21, 2011 at 3:07 PM - 24 Comments

The RCMP is now publishing an online list of grow-ops and other houses where pot plants have been seized in Canada. The list, divided by province, features addresses, the number of plants snatched and the date the raids took place. Some other kinds of drug labs are also listed. The Mounties say the list is neither comprehensive, nor guaranteed to be accurate.

CBC News

RCMP

Sue Heck Fandom

By Jaime Weinman - Wednesday, September 21, 2011 at 2:40 PM - 0 Comments

Tonight The Middle is back, so I have to say again that I really like that show. I haven’t seen the season premiere episodes yet, but I hope they do well against The X Factor. It has its own style that sets it apart from other shows – its portrayal of lower middle-class characters on a network mostly devoted to upper-class escapism, its splashy use of colour. (Sometimes it’s almost an object lesson in the visual points you can make by choosing colours carefully, or how a splash of bright red or pink can keep a show from becoming too downbeat.) The character of Sue Heck, as played by Eden Sher, has definitely become the breakout character, and an example of how the show manages to avoid being cliché-ridden or depressing. There’s nothing very new about a gawky girl with braces and middle-kid syndrome, and the character is sort of a distaff Charlie Brown, if with less self-awareness as to just how much the universe is out to get her. But Sher plays the part with so much enthusiasm, and the show somehow stops just short of gratuitous cruelty. So far, anyway. There’s enough realism in the character, and enough of a glint of hope that things might get better, that it remains funny. Of course, secure in the knowledge that Sher will keep the character from becoming totally pathetic, the writers are then able to use her as a repository for every humiliation anyone has ever gone through at that age, or any age.

Rhetoric in practice

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, September 21, 2011 at 1:52 PM - 0 Comments

John Geddes measures the government’s new crime legislation against a real world example.

That probably sounds about right to most people: serious time for serious crime. But, then, most people, reading the word “manslaughter,” won’t be conjuring up the sordid facts of a drunken squabble that turns tragic. A judge, however, must consider such wretched details. That’s why we have them.

Meanwhile, the Ottawa Citizen’s editorial board says it’s difficult to see how the new measures would’ve had any effect on the case of Randall Hopley.

Cancer-stricken Clifford Olson reportedly near death

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, September 21, 2011 at 12:51 PM - 3 Comments

Convicted child-killer Clifford Olson is dying of cancer, Vancouver radio station CKNW reported Wednesday. The mother of one of Olson’s victims told the station that Corrections Canada told her the man may have days to live. Olson is serving 11 concurrent life sentences. He pleaded guilty to a series of murders in B.C in 1981. Sharon Rosenfeldt, whose 16-year-old son was one of Olson’s victim, says she was told Olson has been transferred from prison to a hospital in Laval, Que.

Canadian Press

Montreal ranks high on bike-friendly index

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, September 21, 2011 at 12:48 PM - 1 Comment

With its 535-km—and growing—bicycle network, popular Bixi bike-sharing program and vocal pro-pedaling lobby, Montreal tops North American cities on a new index of the best urban cycling centres. The Bicycle-Friendly Cities 2011 index, compiled by a Danish consulting firm, looked at 80 major cities around the world. Montreal ranked No. 8, best in North America, and with a bicycle infrastructure that “should embarrass other cities on that continent,” according to the compilers of the index. Still, the consultants found room for improvement, suggesting Montreal put bike lanes on both sides of designated streets, for safety reasons, rather than sticking with the current bi-directional lanes on just one side. The top three cycling cities were in Europe: Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Barcelona. But they were followed, perhaps surprisingly, by Tokyo, just a notch ahead of Berlin.

Montreal Gazette

Der Spiegel

Obama lays out opposition to Palestinian bid for statehood

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, September 21, 2011 at 12:46 PM - 1 Comment

Barack Obama formally declared the U.S. would not support the Palestinian Authority’s bid for statehoood in a speech before the U.N.’s general assembly. The U.S. president urged the international community to pressure Palestinians and Israelis to re-open peace talks. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has already rejected Obama’s proposal and called for the General Assembly to grant the Palestinian Authority observer status. “Let us cease our endless debates on the parameters,” Sarkozy told the U.N. less than an hour after Obama spoke. “Let us begin negotiations and adopt a precise timetable.”

New York Times

Who might be in, who’s definitely out

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, September 21, 2011 at 11:50 AM - 4 Comments

Despite a report that he’s made a decision to seek the NDP leadership, here’s what Paul Dewar said on his own behalf after QP yesterday.

You know the leadership convention is March 24^th I believe and January is the drop-dead date for people to submit their name. I have been talking to people across the country.  There is a group of people who are organizing on my behalf.  I’ve been in touch with them regularly and I’ll be, you know, staying engaged with them and hearing from them as to the support that they’ve heard from across the country and I’ll make a decision at that point when I’ve heard back. But, you know, when you’re talking about something as important as leadership, you need to – I think it’s important to take the time to talk to people.  This is – you know, this is a seven-month process and so I’ve got a team in place that have been talking to people across the country and organizers and we need to hear back from all of them and making the decision based on that feedback so.

In response to a subsequent question, he used the phrase “if I was to run.” Conversely, Megan Leslie is now definitely not running, as she explained in a note posted to her Facebook friends this morning. To wit. Continue…

Israel, Palestine and Canada

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, September 21, 2011 at 10:45 AM - 64 Comments

The Prime Minister comments on a Palestinian bid for recognition at the United Nations.

“I think there’s no likelihood of this initiative by the Palestinian Authority doing anything to further the peace process. I think it’s possible that it could be counter-productive,” Mr. Harper told reporters outside the UN meeting on Libya. “But I would say, if the Palestinian Authority is serious about establishing a sovereign state, the method to do that is not a declaration here at the United Nations. It’s to get back at the negotiating table and negotiate peace with Israel.”

The end of the war on drugs

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, September 21, 2011 at 9:45 AM - 29 Comments

Rob Silver wonders if the Liberals might have an opportunity to do something bold on drug policy.

When Bob Rae said Tuesday, in a clear statement of the obvious, that the “war on drugs has failed,” he is also stating that consistent Liberal Party policy (with a minor interruption when we supported decriminalization of marijuana) was a failure. But if we are really reinventing the Liberal Party then why are we in any way bound by the past. Why wouldn’t we take the statement the “war on drugs has failed” to its only logical conclusion, namely that “the Liberal Party of Canada would therefore end the war on drugs. We will legalize and regulate drugs. We were wrong in the past to support policies that based on objective evidence do not work and only have destructive consequences domestically and internationally but we have learned from our mistakes and if Canadians trust us to form government again, we will do things differently.”

The end of the long-form census

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, September 21, 2011 at 8:45 AM - 7 Comments

Munir Sheikh reviews the demise of the long-form census, his resignation and the ramifications for Statistics Canada.

As if this were not enough, the government’s decision on the long form census has the potential for a substantial impact in reducing the quality of Statistics Canada data.

Data quality may be affected in a variety of ways. First, it will affect the long form survey data. It is a statistical fact that a voluntary survey cannot become a substitute for a mandatory census because of uneven response rates from different population groups and different size geographic areas. Increasing the sample size cannot offset this problem. Hence, many data users including the federal government will lose the data quality they need. Second, to the extent that the long form census data provide a benchmark for other Statistics Canada surveys, the quality of data from these other surveys would deteriorate.

REVIEW: Sex, Mom, and God: How the Bible’s Strange Take on Sex Led to Crazy Politics—and How I Learned to Love Women (and Jesus) Anyway

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, September 21, 2011 at 6:55 AM - 3 Comments

Former evangelist Frank Schaeffer may have quit the business and turned his back on what he now calls “our dreadful, vengeful little God,” but the man clearly still has a knack for sermon titles. And Sex, Mom, and God is nothing if not a righteous, furious, cringe-inducing and surprisingly nuanced sermon delivered in book form against Schaeffer’s heavenly demons. Schaeffer knows the evangelical world well; his father Francis Schaeffer was also a father to America’s evangelical right who oversaw its post-Roe vs. Wade politicization. Frank followed in his father’s footsteps—he helped produce Ronald Reagan’s 1984 anti-abortion book—before an abrupt, late ’80s volte-face that, in many respects, he’s still trying to explain.

Sex details Schaeffer’s upbringing at L’Abri, his parent’s Swiss commune and base for their evangelical publishing empire. He was an obsessively horny teenager damned by the Good Book; Schaeffer argues that he was warped by the Bible’s violence and distinct anti-female tracts. (His frequent citing of Leviticus is a reminder how, when it comes to brutal misogyny, hard-core rap could take a few lessons from the Old Testament.)

Saving him from all of this is Edith, Frank’s beloved mother, at once a lingerie-wearing, Bob Dylan-quoting free spirit and an unalloyed proselytizer of her husband’s fire and brimstone—“a much nicer person than her God,” as Schaeffer writes. Schaeffer loves his mother too much to call her a hypocrite, but it is difficult to otherwise imagine this ebullient mother who loved life and high fashion in practically equal measure was also responsible for such subservient tracts as The Hidden Art of Homemaking. (Like her son, Edith had second thoughts.) Schaeffer’s contention that most, if not all, of organized religion’s shortcomings stem from hang-ups over sex is nothing new. What’s compelling about Sex is Schaeffer himself, who bashes away at what he held dear for so long.