Dancing about architecture

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 2:38 PM - 0 Comments

The Liberal party executive has released its “Roadmap to Renewal” and party president Alf Apps has penned an accompanying treatise on “Building a Modern Liberal Party“—87 pages in all of agonizing and pondering and hoping.

The Star and Globe review some of the highlights, including the fun fact that “Liberals estimate that approximately 80 of their 308 riding associations across the country are now dormant.”

Egregious slip threatens Perry’s race

By macleans.ca - Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 1:32 PM - 0 Comments

An embarrassing brain freeze during the latest Republican presidential debate on Wednesday raised serious questions about Rick Perry’s chances in the race to win his party’s nomination to challenge U.S. President Barack Obama in 2012, the Washington Post reports. “It is three agencies of government when I get there that are gone,” the Texas governor said, laying out his plan to eliminate a number of U.S. government agencies. “Commerce, Education, and the — what’s the third one there? Let’s see,” Perry added. He was unable to recall the third agency. The governor later described his own performance as “embarrassing” in a later media appearance.

Youtube

The Washington Post

In and out and settled?

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 1:17 PM - 0 Comments

(This post last updated at 8:24pm.)

Both the Ottawa Citizen and CTV are reporting word of a settlement in the in-and-out case, possibly in relation to the charges against four Conservative party officials. Full history of the in-and-out controversy here.

Update 1:18pm. Canadian Press has details.

The party is set to agree to what a caucus source called “administrative imperfection” for the way it handled advertising spending during the 2006 federal election. As a result, sources say charges against four senior Conservative officials – including two senators – for breaking the Elections Act are being dropped.

Update 1:24pm. Glen McGregor’s FAQ is probably the easiest way to get up to speed. Last March, the House passed a motion deeming the financing scheme to be “an act of electoral fraud.” Three years ago, chief electoral officer Marc Mayrand explained his view in detail before a parliamentary committee.

Update 2:46pm. The Globe confirms.

In return, the Conservative Party of Canada and its fundraising arm are pleading guilty to lesser charges that characterize what took place as a mere error instead of intentional misconduct. At the same time, the charges against four Conservative officials – two sitting senators – are being dropped.

CTV reports the party has been fined $50,000. The Supreme Court will still apparently hear the separate dispute between the Conservative party and Elections Canada.

Update 3:24pm. A statement from Elections Canada. Continue…

RCMP sex scandal hits senior officer

By macleans.ca - Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 1:10 PM - 0 Comments

A candidate for the job of commissioner of the RCMP has been accused of helping a Mountie facing an investigation for sexual misconduct, CBC News reports. According to a statement of claim, Deputy Commissioner Peter German reortedly allowed Sgt. Robert Blundell to review copies of an investigation into allegations that he had assaulted and and sexually harassed four female colleagues before he was interviewed by investigators. German denied he did anything improper, adding that he complied with RCMP policy in forwarding the information. German’s is the latest development in an ongoing sex scandal that’s turned the spotlight on the RCMP. It all started when Cpl. Catherine Galliford alleged systemic sexual harassment by male officers that left her suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder in a CBC interview on Monday.

CBC

Not in service

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 12:54 PM - 0 Comments

Two weeks ago, the NDP spent a considerable amount of QP haranguing the government side about problems at Service Canada. The Globe has now spent a few days detailing further troubles—government cuts, computer troubles and a complaints office that you can’t complain to. One assumes this will land back on Human Resources Minister Diane Finley’s desk at QP on Monday.

“The unemployment rate hasn’t dropped and the number of claims that has come in over the past couple of months has actually gone up,” Ms. Crowder said. And “they’ve started to reduce the [temporary] staff even as the claim load hasn’t reduced to the extent that they thought it would.” … The department has assured politicians that benefits to the unemployed will not be affected by the funding review, Ms. Crowder said. But the resources that are used to process those payments could be vulnerable. “So HRSDC needs to come clean on exactly how they are going to meet their obligations with regard to cuts,” she said, “and they haven’t done that yet.”

Canada Pension Plan Fund takes hit

By macleans.ca - Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 12:21 PM - 0 Comments

In a sign that turmoil in the global economy is taking a toll on Canadians’ retirement savings, the Canada Pension Plan Fund indicated in a statement on Thursday that its net assets were down by nearly $1 billion at the end of the third quarter. The fund had $152.3 billion in net assets at the end of September, down from $153.2 billion at the end of the second quarter, the Globe and Mail reports.

The Globe and Mail

Former European commissioner likely to lead Italy

By macleans.ca - Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 12:01 PM - 0 Comments

Former European Commissioner Mario Monti appeared to be the favorite to become Italy’s new prime minister, replacing Silvio Berlusconi, who is set to resign as soon as parliament approves a package of key economic reforms. As in Greece, consensus in Italy is building around the idea of an interim government lead by a technocrat at the helm of an emergency coalition. Monti, currently the president of Milan’s Bocconi university, is “the choice of investors, Italy’s opposition parties and Giorgio Napolitano, head of state,” the Financial Times reports. Berlusconi, who had initially insisted the country should head for snap elections, appears to have decided to back Monti, caving in to pressure from his own party and the markets.

Financial Times
Reuters

Former ECB vice-president to lead Greece

By macleans.ca - Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 11:47 AM - 0 Comments

Lucas Papademos, a former vice-president of the European Central Bank, is set to become Greece’s new prime minister, leading a government of national unity, Reuters reports. Greece’s new crisis coalition will be sworn in on Friday. The incoming PM, who is also a former central banker who steered Greece into the eurozone, said that membership in the monetary union will aid the country’s ability to reform. He also added that no specific date had been set for new elections.

Reuters

‘It’s important that we have our say’

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 11:24 AM - 0 Comments

Laurin Liu goes back to school.

She shared an anecdote to show them “how people really aren’t used to seeing young people in politics.” On one of their first days of work in the House of Commons, an MP from another party tried to give one of her young NDP colleagues an envelope, thinking she was a messenger or a page.

Rick Perry Forgets His Lines

By Jaime Weinman - Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 10:38 AM - 0 Comments

Behold the instant classic moment from the Republican debate last night, with Rick Perry forgetting which agency of Bloated Big Government he intends to do away with. I, too, have a tendency to forget one item on a list every time I try to make a complete list. On the other hand, I’m not running for high political office.

I think I agree with those who say that it’s the “oops” and the attempt to look sheepish and make a joke of it that really sinks Perry here. Forgetting what he was going to say is one thing, but a failure to take it seriously just reinforces the idea that Perry isn’t really taking this whole President thing seriously, and thinks his rugged regular-guy-ness will excuse anything.

So, in short, get ready for still another round of discussions about which previously-undeclared candidate could swoop into the race and give the primary voters an alternative to Mitt Romney. Remember when that alternative was going to be Rick Perry? Those were the good old days.

So-so-so, so much for union solidarity in Quebec

By Martin Patriquin - Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 10:32 AM - 0 Comments

Fanny Levesque/Canadian Press/Le Soleil

By appearances alone, Bernard Gauthier makes for a great villain. His nickname is Rambo, and though he came by it honestly enough—he served eight years in the Canadian military—it is fitting for 200-plus-pound man with a mohawk, an earring and a mouth that would mightily challenge even the most adept broadcast censor.

A construction worker practically since he could pick up a hammer, Gauthier is arguably the most notorious and divisive union figure in Quebec today. He is a hero to the men he oversees as a representative with the FTQ-Construction, the largest construction labour union federation in Quebec; his critics, and there are many, see him as a thuggish throwback who rules jealously and fist-first over his territory.“We are against violence, but honestly, telling a goddamn bastard that he’s a goddamn bastard feels good,” Gauthier told Maclean’s from his office in Sept-Îles recently. “It’s liberating. It takes out 50 per cent of the rage in your heart. And now you can’t do it. If you do, you’re accused of intimidation, tabarnac.”

Gauthier sees many bastards in his life these days, chief among them the members of Jean Charest’s Liberal government, whose proposed law, Bill C-33, would remove the union movement’s power to dictate which union members get to work on which job site in the province. Continue…

“Where is your honour?”

By Michael Friscolanti - Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 10:13 AM - 0 Comments

Michael Friscolanti is covering the honour killing trial for Maclean’s, filing regular reports from the Kingston, Ont. courtroom to Macleans.ca and weekly dispatches for the magazine. The reports will continue for the duration of the trial, which is expected to run into December.

Prosecutors have told a jury in Kingston, Ont., that Mohammad Shafia was a tyrant of a father, an Afghan immigrant so obsessed with restoring the “honour” of his family that he drowned his own daughters because they wore make-up and dated boys and had dreams of their own. But during the opening moments of his post-arrest interrogation, broadcast in court for the first time on Wednesday, Shafia looks hardly the menace, slouched in a wooden chair and barely whispering his responses.

Wearing slacks and sandals, he tells the cop on the other side of the table that being slapped in cuffs was a “violation of his right,” that his life is “ruined,” and that the person who really killed his kids “should be found” and punished. Continue…

Maverickish (II)

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 9:30 AM - 0 Comments

On second thought, Maxime Bernier isn’t even vaguely critical of Michael Ferguson’s appointment to auditor general.

Later, when The Globe asked for an interview with the minister over his concerns with the appointment, Mr. French emailed this edited version of his previous statement: “Minister Bernier has complete confidence that Mr. Ferguson will respect his engagement to learn French this year. The Minister believes he is fully qualified and the best man for the job.”

‘Prudent planning’

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 8:30 AM - 0 Comments

Scott Clark and Peter DeVries find the Finance Minister’s budget update to be “lacking in transparency, accountability, and a realistic assessment of economic and fiscal prospects and risks.” And they suggest Mr. Flaherty start planning like Paul Martin did.

Mr. Martin’s lesson was simple. Once you have chosen the policy actions you believe are required, and given the economic assumptions, choose “risk adjustments” or “allowance for prudence” that will virtually guarantee you will not miss the target. Such a situation is “win-win” for the government. If the economy turns out better then you get credit. If the economy performs as bad as assumed you also get credit for your “prudent planning” …

Mr. Flaherty wants to now claim that he will eliminate the deficit in 2015-16. This is a mistake because the risks and evidence are stacked against this happening. It is virtually certain that he will have to revise his planning assumptions before or in the 2012 budget. It will be even more embarrassing if he has to revise it immediately after the budget.

Bestsellers – Week of November 7th, 2011

By Brian Bethune - Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 8:00 AM - 0 Comments

Top-selling fiction and non-fiction titles

Fiction

Non-fiction

LAST WEEK (WEEKS ON LIST)

This is the Leafs fan’s weakness: we get way too high and way too low

By Dave Bidini - Wednesday, November 9, 2011 at 7:07 PM - 0 Comments

The editor is laughing. He is laughing and holding his Habs belly. He is laughing and slapping his Habs knee and pointing at the screen with his Habs finger because he knew this would happen. He bet some friends that it would. He is filling his Habs wallet with his winnings. He is getting a beer. This is too funny. Way too funny.

The editor is laughing and I am writing, and that the Habs have struggled to find themselves over the last few days is beside the point. By contrast, the Leafs have completely lost themselves, and even though the writer knew that he would eventually be forced to write this column, he thought that maybe his instincts would betray him; maybe luck would sway and a new day would find him and the team and the land. Continue…

Want privacy? Expose yourself.

By Jesse Brown - Wednesday, November 9, 2011 at 5:21 PM - 0 Comments

Hasan Elahi/Tracking Transience

Hasan Elahi, an academic and artist with no shady dealings to hide, found himself in an unfortunate position. Upon returning to the U.S. from an international flight nine years ago, he was held for questioning by government authorities. The questioning continued for six months. It seems Elahi had been confused with someone very sinister, someone connected to the Sept. 11 attacks. The long process of convincing federal law enforcement agents of his innocence was tense and frightening, but he did.

Sort of. After he was cleared, Elahi was still nervous about traveling. Was he on any lists? Had he been flagged for more scrutiny? Would he be watched?

He shared his worries with the FBI, who suggested that if he told them in advance about his travel plans, they would do their best to make sure he’d have clear passage. So he divulged his information to government officials–personal information that he had no obligation to share. It worked. So he shared more, and then more.

Today, Elahi shares everything. He exposes every minute detail about himself on his website. He tracks his whereabouts with the GPS data in his phone. He photographs every place he visits, every meal he eats and every men’s room he–you get it. There are 46,000 photos on his site. He dug into his own past, creating a log of every flight he’s ever taken. And the authorities have made use of his self-exposure; Elahi’s server logs reveal that his site has received visits from the Department of Homeland Security, the CIA., the National Reconnaissance Office and the Executive Office of the President.

Why does he do this? To make a point, in part, and also to make art. But mainly Elahi snitches on himself in the hope that he will be left alone. In a recent New York Times Op-Ed, he wrote that, “in an era in which everything is archived and tracked, the best way to maintain privacy may be to give it up.”

Perhaps he’s onto something. Intelligence agencies like the FBI are in the business of uncovering the covered. If the data they seek is hidden in plain site, they are robbed of their primary purpose. All that’s left for them to do is making sense of the reams of data that’s been handed to them, a task that can prove very difficult.

It turns out that Big Brother has a very boring job–99.9 per cent of the time, our private data is irrelevant. Finding the needle in the haystack is a task many wish computers were better at. But identifying criminal relevance is a contextually sensitive activity at which humans beat computers every time.

That’s why true privacy may lie in voluntary exposure. The more of us who leak our lives, the harder it will be for authorities to watch any of us. As Elahi puts it, “if 300 million people started sending private information to federal agents, the government would need to hire as many as another 300 million people, possibly more, to keep up with the information.”

Of course, not all of us are conceptual artists like Elahi, with the time and skills needed to build a website with which to track ourselves. Thankfully, we have Facebook.

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

What happened to the Liberal party?

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, November 9, 2011 at 4:53 PM - 0 Comments

In a speech to a Liberal riding association in Halifax, Stephane Dion considers the history and future of the Liberal party.

In 2008, as Liberal Leader, I did talk about the economy.  I truly believed that the main focus of my campaign was the economy.  The Green Shift’s subtitle was: “Building a Canadian Economy for the 21st Century.”  But because I was promoting sustainable economy, which I strongly believe must be the economy of the 21st century, I was perceived as a one-issue candidate, exclusively preoccupied by the environment.  I failed to convince Canadians of the link that exists between economy and environment.  And we paid the price.

In 2011, I am sure Mr. Ignatieff talked about the economy in his speeches.  But the voters did not hear him, and neither did the Liberal candidates who were so busy campaigning in their ridings.  Most of our communications plan was about helping families: housing, daycare, home renovations, family caregivers, tuition fees, etc.  In the midst of global economic turmoil, we appeared to abandon the themes of employment and economic security to Stephen Harper’s Conservatives.  It seemed that we were trying too much to look like the NDP.  Unfortunately, the natural NDP voters chose the original over the copy and many Liberal supporters who were worried about the economy went over to the Conservatives.

Hologram Bob Hope Must Host the Oscars

By Jaime Weinman - Wednesday, November 9, 2011 at 4:17 PM - 0 Comments

I thought Eddie Murphy wasn’t a bad choice for Oscar host, considering the nature of the show and what it requires. I guess I was wrong. Or at least, since he’s quit, we’ll never find out one way or another. But let’s put it this way: if he felt he couldn’t perform without the guidance of Brett Ratner, then you have to figure that he probably wasn’t going to be very good anyway.

Now comes the fun part, where the Academy runs around trying to find a new host. (Also a new producer, but let’s be honest here: the producer doesn’t matter that much, because the Oscar show is pretty much the same every year. The producer of a show like this mostly makes a difference in the bits that most people don’t care about – the comedy bits, which are mostly the same from year to year. The bulk of the show is taken up by stuff that is out of the producer’s control.) If Hologram Bob Hope is not available or not compatible with the new operating system, then I don’t have a lot of suggestions. Conan O’Brien would have been a possibility if his show were a bigger hit. There will probably be at least some Ricky Gervais talk, which wouldn’t excite me personally, but would excite Hollywood – and Hollywood is what this show is for, after all. Other than that, we’ll just have to wait and see who they get, but we can safely predict that no matter who they get, we’ll all gather online to complain about how boring the show is.

The negotiator

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, November 9, 2011 at 4:02 PM - 0 Comments

Romeo Saganash touts his history as a negotiator for Cree communities in Quebec.

“I can do this job and I think in Canada we need a better prime minister than we have right now,” he said.

“Our policies need to meet of course the economic objectives, but also the social and environmental objectives,” he said. The agreements he negotiated with hydro, forestry and other companies as deputy grand chief at the Grand Council of the Crees and as its director of Quebec relations and international affairs met those objectives, he said. ”I will try to bring nationally what I did locally in northern Quebec.”

Mr. Saganash also has some thoughts on foreign policy.

Canada’s spy watchdog mired in controversy

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, November 9, 2011 at 3:26 PM - 0 Comments

An oncologist and hospital administrator federally appointed to head Canada’s Security and Intelligence Review Committee was reportedly involved in a business deal with a Montrealer allegedly connected to coup plots and arms deals in developing countries, the Globe and Mail reported on Tuesday. SIRC’s chairman Arthur Porter allegedly wired $200,000 to Montreal-based consultant Ari Ben-Menashe for him to secure millions of dollars in infrastructure investments in Porter’s native Sierra Leone. Though the deal is neither illegal not an obvious conflict of interest, it does reflect at least bad judgement by a federal appointee with access to highly classified information held by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. In a further development bound to raise eyebrows in Ottawa, the National Post reported today that Dr. Porter offered Canadian Senator David Angus the position of honorary consul general to Sierra Leone in casual conversations. Angus is chairman of the McGill University Health Centre, a role that essentially puts him a notch above Porter, who is the organization’s chief executive.

National Post

Maverickish

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, November 9, 2011 at 3:25 PM - 0 Comments

Through a spokesman, Maxime Bernier kind of sort of says something that might be considered a mild indication of some kind of dissent.

“While Minister Bernier would have preferred that the candidate chosen for the position of auditor general was already bilingual, the minister has complete confidence that Mr. Ferguson will respect his engagement to learn French this year,” said Bernier’s spokesman, Scott French, in a statement sent to Postmedia News.

Condi Rice on her night with Peter MacKay

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Wednesday, November 9, 2011 at 3:24 PM - 0 Comments

In her new political memoir, No Higher Honor, Condoleezza Rice, devotes little ink to her dealings with Canada. Most mentions are fleeting and rate less than a sentence: there is Canada training police in Haiti, “standing aside” during the Iraq invasion, “bristling” while other NATO countries limited their own rules of engagement in Afghanistan, or participating in “unsettling” meetings on the lack of military coordination there. Former prime minister Jean Chretien gets a sentence all to himself for telling other G8 leaders he was “appalled” by a speech in which George W. Bush called for the ouster of Yasser Arafat.

And then there is Peter MacKay. He gets almost a page.

It turns out their evening together in Nova Scotia 2006 was more than just grist for the gossip mill — Rice credits it with helping her decide not to quit her job. Continue…

France calls for “unprecedented sanctions” against Iran

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, November 9, 2011 at 2:43 PM - 0 Comments

France’s Foreign Minister Alain Juppé called for “unprecedented sanctions” on Wednesday if Iran fails to address questions from the international community about its nuclear program, the Wall Street Journal reports. On Tuesday, the United Nation’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, officially acknowledged for the first time that the Iranian regime appears to have developed technologies needed to produce atomic weapons. “The elements of the IAEA report on the military activities, together with the accumulation of enriched uranium and the intensive ballistic trials program, leave few doubts on Iranian intentions,” Juppé said.

The Wall Street Journal