Can you hear me now?

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, December 12, 2011 at 12:52 PM - 0 Comments

So that one’s swearing of the oath can be confirmed, Jason Kenney has ordered that head coverings must be removed during the swearing of citizenship ceremonies.

Kenney said the move follows complaints from citizenship judges, MPs and others who’ve participated in citizenship ceremonies who have argued it’s hard to tell whether veiled individuals are actually reciting the oath. “Requiring that all candidates show their faces while reciting the oath allows judges, and everyone present to share in the ceremony, to ensure that all citizenship candidates are, in fact, taking the oath as required by law,” he said in Montreal.

The full directive is here.

Russian protests encourage Putin challengers

By macleans.ca - Monday, December 12, 2011 at 12:41 PM - 0 Comments

A long-time ally of Russian Prime Minister and presidential candidate Valdimir Putin has proposed the creation of a new liberal party, Reuter’s reports. Former finance minister Alexei Kudrin says there is a need to counterbalance Putin’s United Russia, especially after the flawed parliamentary elections of Dec. 4. Since then, tens of thousands of Russians took to the streets in solidarity against the Putin regime, seeking accountability for rigged election results. There is some concern, however, that Kudrin’s new part would merely be a political decoy for for Putin, providing only a semblance of democratic opening. Some even believe Putin and Kudrin may be working together. After serving as finance minister for Putin for eight years, Kudrin was forced out of government after arguing with President Dimitry Medvedev over excessive military expenditures. As well, the New York Times reports that Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, who owns the New Jersey Nets basketball franchise in the U.S, among other assets, said he intend to challenge Putin in the upcoming 2012 presidential elections.

Reuters

The New York Times

This year’s constitutional crisis

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, December 12, 2011 at 12:21 PM - 0 Comments

The Liberals want the Governor General the block the Canadian Wheat Board bill.

The government will almost certainly seek Royal Assent for this legislation in the coming days. As Leader of the Liberal party, I would ask most respectfully that full consideration be given to awaiting final disposition of this matter by the courts before the legislation receives Royal Assent.

Though long before the Federal Court ruling, David Johnston has actually already been asked about the possibility that he would deny royal assent to a bill concerning the Canadian Wheat Board.

After pausing and then saying he couldn’t say much without “definitely crossing some lines,” Johnston said he felt it would no longer be appropriate for the Governor General to veto a bill that had passed in both the House of Commons and the Senate. “To take it away from that particular matter, and put it in a more general context, we do have responsible government,” Johnston said. “Canada really is the birth of responsible government…. They may have had it in the States, but it took a civil war between 1860 and 1865 to solve some of those issues. Canada’s had responsible government since 1842, and that’s really what’s at stake” if a Governor General were to veto a bill.

Attawapiskat chief denies accepting Government-appointed manager

By macleans.ca - Monday, December 12, 2011 at 12:14 PM - 0 Comments

The office of the federal minister of Aboriginal Affairs issued a statement Sunday wrongfully declaring that the chief of the troubled Attawapiskat First Nation had accepted the government’s imposition of a third-party manager to oversee the community’s expenses. “That’s a lie,” Chief Theresa Spence reportedly told the producer of CTV’s Question Period on Sunday when asked about the statement. Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan then appeared on the show suggesting the information his office had released was correct. “The first nation is working with the third-party manager. The third-party manager’s in place. It’s been in, he’s been in place for some time now,” Duncan was quoted as saying in The Globe and Mail. The minister’s statement on Sunday also detailed how the government has pledged to send 22 modular homes to the community of 1,800—seven more than originally promised. The imposition of a third-party manager—who is being paid $1,300-a-day—has been roundly rejected by Attawapiskat’s leadership. Spence wrote in an open letter later on Sunday that “this continued insistence of Third Party Management is causing yet another crisis in our community.” She pointed to the interruption of the band’s cash flow as a major reason for her rejection of the government’s third-party manager.

The Globe and Mail

Countries agree on new roadmap for climate treaty

By macleans.ca - Monday, December 12, 2011 at 10:40 AM - 0 Comments

The 194 countries at the global climate talk in Durban, South Africa agreed on Sunday to negotiate a new global climate treaty by 2015. The post-Kyoto arrangement, though, would not take effect until 2020, the Financial Times reports. The new set-up extends the key provisions of the Kyoto protocol, which expires at the end of 2012, for another five years and envisions a new, successor pact that will include the world’s top greenhouse gas emitters: China, the U.S. and India. However, rules for developing countries would continue to be laxer than for developed economies.

The Financial Times

Who’s on first?

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, December 12, 2011 at 10:30 AM - 0 Comments

The Aboriginal Affairs Minister and Attawapiskat chief seem to have communication issues.

When the minister, John Duncan, said the band’s chief had agreed to have third-party manager Jacques Marion supervise finances, co-host Craig Oliver said he had just spoken to Chief Theresa Spence. She says that’s a lie,” Oliver said. “She did agree to everything else you said but did not agree to work with the third-party manager. We have a serious conflict here.” Then Duncan said, “We talked to her within the last hour.” To which, Oliver replied, “We talked to her 10 minutes ago.” The minister concluded: “The reality is the third-party manager is in place.”

In a telephone interview with CTV News after the program’s conclusion, Spence said: “He’s a liar, because I didn’t say I agreed. Third party is not the answer here. We declared an emergency crisis, not a crisis on finances.”

Alberta’s oil for Alaska’s natural gas?

By macleans.ca - Monday, December 12, 2011 at 10:22 AM - 0 Comments

The Obama administration’s move earlier this year to delay approval—or rejection—of the proposed Keytone XL pipeline, which would link Alberta’s oil sands to refineries on the American Gulf Coast, rocked the Canadian energy industry. The decision on Keystone won’t now be made until after next year’s U.S. presidential election. Into the policy void steps Gregg Easterbrook, author of Sonic Boom: A Guide to Surviving and Thriving in the New Global Economy, with a proposal for an entirely new pipeline strategy. In this New York Times commentary, Easterbrook argues Washington’s strategic priority should be shifting its energy economy from heavy reliance on imported oil to more consumption of American natural gas. That includes huge Alaskan natural gas reserves. His proposition: “American consent for moving Canadian oil-sand products across the Midwest should be tied to Canadian consent for an Alaskan natural gas pipeline across British Columbia.” This “package deal” would satisfy the Alberta oil patch and the growing U.S. lobby for a made-in-America energy strategy. As well, Easterbrook points out that natural gas contributes considerably less to global warming than oil or coal.

The New York Times

The NDP’s human shields of tedium

By Scott Feschuk - Monday, December 12, 2011 at 9:40 AM - 0 Comments

CP; Getty Images; Photo Illustration by Taylor Shute

The first debate of New Democratic Party leadership hopefuls, televised live on CPAC, answered a number of important questions: Ottawa? Broken. Conservatives? Out of touch. Production values? Can’t afford them.

The Republican presidential debates in the U.S. have featured expensive-looking video backdrops. The NDP opted for something much cheaper: humans. They shoehorned women and men behind the nine contenders to succeed Jack Layton. Presumably, party officials wanted to convey the multicultural appeal of the party—and they would have succeeded, too, had audience members not looked as though they were contestants on a reality show entitled Remain Grim-Faced or This Puppy Gets Stabbed.

Still, these human shields of tedium were easily the most fascinating element of an otherwise platitudinous affair. For instance, there was a moment when front-runner Brian Topp caught fire with a passionate call to action—but then one of the guys behind him started picking at his ear. (At his own ear, to be clear—not at Topp’s ear. Still: distracting.)

Continue…

‘Very routine’

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, December 12, 2011 at 9:30 AM - 0 Comments

On Thursday, the NDP pressed Julian Fantino with specific questions about Peter MacKay’s helicopter ride. Mr. Fantino wandered off script just long enough to say that the Defence Minister’s ride was “a very routine endeavour.”

On Friday, the New Democrats sent Ryan Cleary after this point.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday in this House, the Associate Minister of National Defence described a flight on a search and rescue helicopter fromva fishing camp as “a very routine endeavour indeed.” “Routine” is taking a taxi to an airport. “Routine” is taking a taxi to work. I would like to ask the associate minister exactly what he means by “routine”. How frequently does the minister use a search and rescue helicopter to get back from vacation?

Standing in for Mr. Fantino, who was standing in for Mr. MacKay, Chris Alexander ignored this question as best he could.

Syria’s shifting sands

By Michael Petrou - Monday, December 12, 2011 at 9:30 AM - 0 Comments

Murad Sezer/Reuters

There is a point at which a regime has committed so much cruelty against its citizens that it will never again have their consent to be ruled. Its choices are then to continue and increase its brutality, or be toppled.

Surely this stage has now been reached in Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad is trying to crush, with force, the anti-government uprising that has taken the country to the brink of civil war.

Protests in Syria began cautiously, with demands for reforms, demonstrations against police brutality and displays of solidarity with protesters in Egypt and Libya. But each time Syrians marched, security forces arrested, beat or shot them. Their defiance grew.

Continue…

The conservatives’ Martha Stewart

By Mitchel Raphael - Monday, December 12, 2011 at 9:20 AM - 0 Comments

Photography by Mitchel Raphael

MP reads carefully in House

The annual All-Party Party was held at the Government Conference Centre this year since the usual venue, the West Block, is closed for renovations and asbestos removal. The event—which thanks all who work on the Hill, from staffers to cleaners to Hill security guards—was started years ago by NDP MP Peter Stoffer. This year it was taken over by Liberal Sen. Jim Munson and Liberal MP Mauril Bélanger. The entertainment lineup had guitar-strumming NDP MP Andrew Cash who, in the early ’80s, founded the Toronto punk band L’Étranger with fellow NDP MP Charlie Angus. Also performing was the band Marabou, made up of local university students including Claude Munson, the senator’s son. The senator confessed that the music genes did not come from his side of the family because “I failed the triangle in Grade 3.” The handful of MPs who showed up to support the men and women who serve them on the Hill were late because of extended voting time around Bill C-10, the controversial Conservative omnibus crime bill that Green Leader Elizabeth May and other NDPs challenged with a series of amendments. Liberal MP Mark Eyking tried to pass the time during all the votes by reading The Help, a book he bought his mother for Christmas and happened to have on him that night. He was careful not to break the spine so it would be new when he gave it to her.

Continue…

Newsmakers: Dec. 1-7, 2011

By Cathy Gulli, Kate Lunau, Martin Patriquin, Emma Teitel and Alex Ballingall - Monday, December 12, 2011 at 9:20 AM - 0 Comments

BDG/Rex Features

Superman comes to the rescue

The first comic book to break the $2-million mark was sold last week. The near-mint condition Action Comics No. 1—the first with Superman—sold for $2.16 million, and had most recently belonged to Nicolas Cage. The actor-cum-comics connoisseur paid $150,000 for the comic in 1997, but later had it stolen; it was returned last year. Cage, who has been struggling with a $6.2-million IRS bill for back taxes, has been liquidating his real estate assets, often swallowing significant losses. His affection for the man of steel is no secret: he named his son Kal-El, Superman’s birth name.

Beggin’ for B.C.

Premier Christy Clark made a trip to Parliament Hill, begging for relief on the $1.6 billion the B.C. government now owes the feds. B.C.’s decision to repeal its new harmonized sales tax has put the premier, who faces an election in 18 months—and is legally bound to balance the budget—in a tough spot. Clark pitched the Prime Minister on a scheme to give the province “credit for time served”—the 2½ years the HST will have been in place in B.C. (the hated tax is set to be dismantled in March 2013). Good luck with that, premier.

Continue…

Good news, bad news: Dec. 1-7, 2011

By macleans.ca - Monday, December 12, 2011 at 9:10 AM - 0 Comments

Good news

NASA found a habitable planet much like Earth, 600 light years away. (NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech/AP)

Deficit chopper

Defence Minister Peter MacKay continued to face fire this week for abusing military resources when he ordered a Cormorant helicopter to pick him up from a Newfoundland fishing trip last year. MacKay claimed the purpose of the flight was “familiarization” with search-and-rescue operations. Emails from military commanders, however, characterize this as a “guise” (using a boat and car would have taken only 90 minutes longer). MacKay hasn’t acknowledged the error of his ways, but at least cost-conscious Forces officers knew right from wrong, advising their boss that they would follow orders but that his plan was wasteful.

Vlad the paler

Russian PM Vladimir Putin’s cult of personality took a hit as his United Russia party received slightly less than 50 per cent of the vote in a fraud-riddled election, down from 67 per cent in 2007. A pre-election crackdown on critics was followed by tension at polling stations, which appear to have been deluged with pre-marked ballots. Protesters descended on Moscow’s Triumphal Square in larger-than-usual numbers after the election. With disaffection rising, the dream of “Russia without Putin!” may lie within reach.

Continue…

A contest of manners

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, December 12, 2011 at 8:30 AM - 0 Comments

Brian Topp again livens up an NDP leadership debate.

While candidates avoided confrontation, some in the audience were undeterred from interacting. In his opening remarks, Brian Topp spoke for double his allotted time, despite two warnings from the moderator, and was finally booed by a small group of delegates – a blunder referenced by some audience members afterwards. “Brian Topp — when he ignored the moderator — took the audience to boo him off stage,” delegate Matthew Laird said. “It was very much a turn-off.”

More on Saturday’s discussion from the Times-Colonist, Canadian Press, Georgia Straight and Globe and Mail.

How Bauer emerged as hockey’s undisputed top equipment brand

By Alex Ballingall - Monday, December 12, 2011 at 8:20 AM - 0 Comments

Mitchell Layton/Getty Images

Aside from world-class skill and athleticism, there’s one thing nearly every player in today’s NHL has in common: they wear something made by Bauer Performance Sports. In recent years, the hockey equipment maker that pioneered modern skate technology has become an industry behemoth, controlling 49 per cent of the global market for hockey gear. “We are number one in every category,” boasts president and CEO Kevin Davis.

Roughly 90 per cent of NHL players wear at least one piece of Bauer equipment. Seven out of 10 wear Bauer skates. As the puck dropped on the current NHL season, Bauer was the top hockey stick provider for the league’s players—beating out rival Easton—thanks in part to the introduction of the new Vapor APX model. Meanwhile, Bauer says it has surpassed legendary brand CCM—bought by Reebok in 2004—to become the leading seller of sticks, helmets, skates and goalie equipment.

It’s a radical change of fate for the company, which just a few short years ago seemed all but down and out. Sports giant Nike bought Bauer in 1994, when hockey’s growth in the U.S. market seemed almost limitless, buoyed by the latest fad of in-line skating. But by 2008, with the economy in a tailspin, hockey participation rates in Canada falling and the U.S. hockey experiment in shambles, Nike dumped it, selling to investment firms Kohlberg and Co. (best know for buying distressed companies) and Roustan Inc. for US$200 million—a steal compared to the US$395 million Nike paid in 1994. Davis admits it was a “very uncertain time.”

Continue…

Meanwhile, in Quebec

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, December 11, 2011 at 3:10 PM - 0 Comments

Former MP and party finance critic Daniel Paille is the new leader of the Bloc Quebecois.

He and the Prime Minister are well-acquainted.

The latest in world-needs-more-Canada news (Nordic dep’t)

By Colby Cosh - Sunday, December 11, 2011 at 1:46 AM - 0 Comments

I learn from a sister publication that a handful of economists in Iceland is recommending that the volcanic statelet adopt the Canadian dollar. News from Iceland is always of special interest in Canada, where the Icelandic diaspora has given us legitimate world-historical notables like William Stephenson and, er, the other William Stephenson. The inherent vulnerability of Iceland’s own currency, the króna, has had Icelanders looking at the euro as a refuge, but that option has been yanked off the table for the time being, and may be permanently unavailable within weeks.

One of Canada’s contributions to humanity, as it happens, is the theory of optimum currency areas. The loonie-ization advocates argue that the Canadian dollar is a good choice because Iceland is dependent upon commodity exports and thus has a business cycle more or less in sync with Canada’s. Iceland is also part of the EFTA, with which Canada has a rudimentary free-trade agreement. But that agreement doesn’t cover services and credentials. Mundell’s test for optimality would require free movement of labour between the countries, a common language, and, ideally, some fiscal-transfer mechanism to smooth out the differential effects of the single exchange rate. There is a strong presumption that a currency area should actually be a contiguous area, or very nearly one. Continue…

This is the week that was

By Aaron Wherry - Saturday, December 10, 2011 at 4:59 PM - 0 Comments

The NDP leadership contenders made their first impressions. Bruce Hyer napped. Robert Chisholm defended his unilingualism. Paul Dewar proposed a new kind of vote subsidy. Thomas Mulcair pitched cap-and-trade.

Chuck Strahl complicated John Duncan’s timeline. The citizens of Attawapiskat turned away the auditor, who’s costing them $1,300 per day. Peter MacKay had a history with helicopter rides. The Liberals double-checked. A retired major came to the minister’s defence. And the minister threatened to sue. Peter Goldring became an independent. MPs failed in their duty. And Jim Hillyer celebrated (and then kind of tried to sort of apologize). Continue…

Finding a rights balance

By Charlie Gillis - Saturday, December 10, 2011 at 11:00 AM - 0 Comments

George Kovacic

Over the last couple of years, dozens of school boards across the country have introduced anti-discrimination policies aimed at protecting gay, lesbian and transgendered students from bullying. In most places, the initiatives have passed unopposed. But when the public board in Burnaby, B.C., tried to do so last spring, battle lines quickly formed.

Conservative parents demanded to know what the policy would mean for students who objected to homosexuality on religious grounds. Would they be told their views are discriminatory? Would they be “re-educated” if they spoke their minds? Supporters, in turn, accused the group of perpetuating homophobia and in short order things got ugly. Epithets flew on the comments sections of news sites, including racial slurs singling out Asian and Muslim parents opposed to the proposal (one comment on a story on Xtra.ca, the website of Canada’s gay and lesbian newspaper, featured a slur directed at Asian businesses, with the threat, “You will be run out of town”). Competing protests turned board meetings on the issue into media circuses. Demonstrators hoisted signs bearing slogans like “All love is the same,” or “Leave our children alone.”

It’s a controversy, in short, that seems sure to spawn a profusion of human rights complaints—the sort that commissions and tribunals have been eager to weigh in on in the past (a hate-speech complaint over the insult on Xtra.ca is already in the works). But if the protagonists go down this road, they’re bound to find a changed landscape at the other end. Over the past few weeks, Canada’s highest court has issued decisions curbing the powers of human rights tribunals, or making it harder for certain complainants to get a hearing, while government MPs have thrown their support behind a private member’s bill that would get the federal commission out of policing speech altogether.

Continue…

And so we come full circle

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, December 9, 2011 at 9:28 PM - 0 Comments

John Baird informed the House this morning that detainees in Afghanistan will now be transferred to American forces.

Mr. Speaker, with the combat mission in Afghanistan now complete, I am pleased to inform the House that our government has signed an arrangement with the Obama administration to facilitate the transfer of detainees captured by Canadian Forces in Afghanistan to U.S. custody at the detention facility in Parwan. The U.S. operates this facility with full agreement of the Afghan government and detainees can be prosecuted under Afghan law. Canadian officials will continue to be present on the ground to monitor all Canadian transferred detainees until they are sentenced or released.

It was concerns about how the United States treated detainees—and the example of Abu Ghraib—that led to the decision to transfer detainees to Afghan custody in the first place.

This week has four sketches

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, December 9, 2011 at 4:41 PM - 0 Comments

Sunday. First impressions, hastily made
Monday. ‘It is the cover-up that buries one’
Tuesday. A fish story, in verse
Thursday. The tiny, perfect Conservative 

Tim Hortons lasagna: just like Mom never made

By Jessica Allen - Friday, December 9, 2011 at 4:32 PM - 0 Comments

I adore lasagna; all kinds of lasagna. I love the sort my mom used to make with canned mushrooms, slices of processed mozzarella and ground beef flavoured with garlic powder and onion; I love the classic Canadian version that other mothers used to make (the one with cottage cheese smothered between layers of noodles, a tomato-dense meat sauce and grated mozzarella from a plastic bag); I love President’s Choice and No Name frozen lasagnas, even though they take, like, forever to cook in the oven; and I love the quintessential lasagna alla Bolognese that comes courtesy of the Italians in Emilia-Romagna, a north-eastern region famous for producing Ferraris, Fellini and food.

They’re so crazy about food in Bologna, the region’s capital and arguably the gastronomical capital of the country, that they even codify classic recipes, for posterity’s sake. Like lasagna alla Bolognese. How does this version differ from what many Canadians grew up eating? Continue…

Gender equality and democracy (II)

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, December 9, 2011 at 2:54 PM - 0 Comments

Dan Arnold troubleshoots Paul Dewar’s proposal to increase the number of women seeking office.

Of course, as with any incentive scheme, there are unintended consequences. To begin with, the easiest way for a party like the Liberals to cash in on that 90k a candidate would be to run nothing but women across Alberta and in other unwinnable ridings. Luckily for the Liberals, there are plenty of unwinnable ridings to choose from.

Other parties trying to cash in may not be quite so lucky. To reach these quotas, many parties (especially the Conservatives) would likely resort to appointing dozens of female candidates in unheld ridings. Sure, having more women in politics is an admirable goal, but is it worth overruling the will of local riding associations? And what about the lack of aboriginals, visible minorities, and youth in politics? This proposal does little for them.

Dan suggests raising the election expenses rebate for female candidates as an alternative.

America’s war on blogs

By Jesse Brown - Friday, December 9, 2011 at 2:44 PM - 0 Comments

Hip hop, being a genre borne of copyright infringement, has always had a less tortured relationship with intellectual property than the rest of the music industry. Piracy and commerce coexist peacefully. The release of free street tapes and deliberately leaked singles are common teasers for an upcoming album. These “grey market” tactics have been absorbed by the rap hype machine to the point where they’re just another part of the product supply chain. It’s not some hippyish “free culture” thing either, but an effective form of marketing. In the lucrative world of hip hop, piracy is all about the Benjamins.

Try telling that to the Department of Homeland Security. Their Immigration and Customs Enforcement wing started seizing dozens of domains a year ago, wiping entire websites from the Internet based on ongoing (and unproven) copyright violation investigations (I wish I could explain to you what copyright has to do with Homeland Security, but I cannot).

Continue…