What the Tori Stafford jury didn’t hear

By Richard Warnica - Friday, May 11, 2012 at 9:18 AM - 0 Comments

In the months before Tori Stafford was kidnapped and killed, Michael Rafferty, the man accused of her murder, performed Internet searches for “underage rape”, “real underage rape” and “real underage rape pictures,” according to a computer search conducted by police but never shown to the jury now deliberating in Rafferty’s trial.

Police also found evidence Rafferty possessed or accessed child pornography, had a penchant for violent sex and, days before the blond Stafford was killed, downloaded a Hollywood movie about the kidnapping of a young blond girl. None of that evidence made it to the jury either, however, as the judge in the case, Justice Thomas Heeney, ruled that it was either illegally obtained or would have been unduly prejudicial. (Read Blatchford in today’s Post for more on the judge’s pre-trial rulings.)

The jury was sequestered late Thursday afternoon. Rafferty stands charged with first-degree murder, abduction and sexual assault. Heeney, however, told the jurors they could also find Rafferty guilty of manslaughter or second-degree murder, depending on his level of involvement in the killing.

Lawrence Cannon named Canada’s new ambassador to France

By Richard Warnica - Thursday, May 10, 2012 at 3:33 PM - 0 Comments

Former Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon became the latest losing Tory to cash in Thursday, when Prime Minister Stephen Harper named him Canada’s new ambassador to France. Various Parliament Hill types tweeted the news in the early afternoon, with many pointing out just how great a gig losing as a Conservative has become.

“Lawrence Cannon becomes Ambassador to France,” wrote iPolitics’ Elizabeth Thompson. “Unemployment rate among defeated #CPC candidates continues to drop.”

“Lawrence Cannon as ambassador to France,” added Janice Tibbets, formerly of Postmedia News, “talk about coming out ahead after losing the election!!”

Our own Paul Wells, for one, was surprised by the news. “Trying to remember whom I assured that Cannon, a famous Pontiac homebody, didn’t want a foreign post and wouldn’t take one,” he tweeted. “I’m going to be gloated at. Sigh.”

Of course, no one here at Macleans.ca would dream of gloating at Wells, our illustrious Political Editor. In fact, we were not entirely sure, until this moment, that gloating was something you did “at” people at all.

I, for one, welcome our new wolf overlords

By Richard Warnica - Thursday, May 10, 2012 at 2:09 PM - 0 Comments

DNA evidence has confirmed that an animal shot in New Brunswick last month was a wolf, the first killed in that province since 1876. Meanwhile, experts believe an animal killed recently in Newfoundland was also a wolf, the first spotted there since the 1920s. The evidence here points to one of two conclusions. Either wolves are returning to the Maritimes after being hunted to near-extinction decades ago or wolves are taking over Canada, starting from the east and moving inexorably west, conquering a terrified populace one province at a time. It’s impossible for me to say which is true. I am not a scientist. But stay tuned here for more updates. (Hears howling in the background. Looks over shoulder. Flees.)

Green groups not the only charities taking foreign cash: CP

By Richard Warnica - Thursday, May 10, 2012 at 1:05 PM - 0 Comments

Environmental charities are not the largest recipients of foreign cash in the Canadian non-profit sector. At least not according to the Canadian Press. A CP analysis of tax records shows that, for all the heat green charities are taking over foreign money, only one—Ducks Unlimited Canada—is among the top ten recipients of charitable donations from outside Canada.

According to the story, most of the foreign money being funnelled into Canadian charities is actually coming from large organizations like the UN, which provide in-kind donations (food, supplies, etc.) which then end up recorded in tax forms as cash. McMaster University also made the donation list, partly because tuition from foreign students counts as “foreign funding.” (They also received a sizeable foreign grant for nuclear research.)

Still, the debate over foreign money and Canadian charities is, and will remain, about the environment, or, more specifically, the oil sands. People interested in climate change all over the world feel they have a vested interest in slowing or stopping development of the sands. To do that, they quite logically want to influence Canadian public opinion. Donations are good way to do that. The Conservatives, however, feel that’s dirty pool. (Or at least they feel like there’s something to be gained from pretending they feel that way.)

Caught in the middle of this is Tides Canada, a Vancouver charity that acts as a sort clearing house for other donors, including those from abroad. (Full disclosure: I once worked on a journalism fellowship funded by Tides.) Exactly how much money the organization is getting from abroad, however, is a bit of an open question. From the CP piece:

Tides Canada has reported $7.8 million in foreign income, according to CRA tax returns. That makes it the 16th-largest recipient of foreign money.

However, U.S. tax records show a different amount.

Annual filings to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service from tax-exempt and non-profit organizations show the Tides Canada Foundation has received more than $63 million from wealthy American foundations. That would put it third on the list of Canadian charities that received funding from outside the country.

The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation gave the Tides Canada Foundation almost $33 million, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation gave it nearly $14 million, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation gave it $11 million, and other groups gave it smaller amounts.

Ross McMillan of Tides Canada said wording on the CRA tax form changed in 2009 to include a line for revenue received from all sources outside Canada. Prior to this charities only reported foreign funding under “other gifts.”

Perhaps not surprisingly, the Canada Revenue Agency is now auditing Tides to make sure the organization is complying with all relevant laws.

Global booze giant humiliated after quashing rival’s prize

By Richard Warnica - Thursday, May 10, 2012 at 10:59 AM - 0 Comments

It takes some work for the British bar awards to become interesting to anyone other than British barmen. So credit distillery giants Diageo for doing something ham-handedly horrible enough to get the world’s attention.

Diageo, owners of Guinness, Johnnie Walker and other big label liquor names, used their influence to quash a top prize for a tiny rival at the British Institute of Innkeeping’s annual award ceremony last Sunday. After learning that an independent Scottish brewer was set to win Bar Operator of the Year, Diageo officials became incensed. They threatened to pull all sponsorship from the evening if one of their own bars didn’t take home the award, according to various reports.

Unfortunately, the name of the original winner—craft brewers BrewDog—had already been carved onto the trophy and when the replacement winner was announced, the victors refused to accept the prize. BrewDog, meanwhile, launched a social media campaign aimed at humiliating Daigeo for its actions. On Wednesday, the larger company backed down, issuing an “unreserved” apology to BrewDog and the BII.

Damascus bombing kills dozens

By Richard Warnica - Thursday, May 10, 2012 at 10:58 AM - 0 Comments

At least 55 people were killed and hundreds more injured after two car bombs exploded in downtown Damascus Thursday. The attacks, which tore the front off a major intelligence compound in the Syrian capital, could signal the end of a fragile cease-fire.

From the New York Times:

Two suicide car bombs laden with more than 2,200 pounds of explosives erupted at the busy Qazzaz intersection, completely destroying 21 nearby vehicles and damaging more than 100 others, according to a statement from the Interior Ministry read on state television.

The compound housed two major branches of the military intelligence, one known officially as the Palestine Branch but ironically nicknamed the “Sheraton” by prisoners because detainees from so many nations had been incarcerated and tortured there over the years, activists said.

…

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, although the running commentary on the official media was that it was the work of “terrorists” being financed by Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The opposition blamed the government of President Bashar al-Assad, claiming it was trying to frighten ordinary Syrians over the cost of opposing the government by proving its own claims that Al Qaeda was bent on destabilizing the country.

A cameraman filming the aftermath of the first explosion caught the second blast. Via Al Jazeera:

B.C. Mountie sues force for harassment

By Richard Warnica - Thursday, May 10, 2012 at 10:07 AM - 0 Comments

A prominent Mountie who came forward earlier this year with claims of widespread sexual harassment in the RCMP is now suing the force. Catherine Galliford claims she was sexually assaulted, harassed and abused throughout her 16-year career, according a statement of claim obtained by the CBC.

Maclean’s wrote about Galliford’s ordeal and her claims that sexism within the RCMP hampered its investigation into missing women in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside late last year. From the piece:

Galliford said during an internal affairs meeting with RCMP staff this April that a senior officer “did nothing” with information that could have broken open the Pickton murders more than two years before his arrest, and attributed the flawed investigation to sexist attitudes and misogyny. In two extended interviews with Maclean’s this week, she said her examination of a file from the Coquitlam RCMP, with information dating as far back as 1997, showed the force had more than enough information by the late 1990s to obtain a warrant to search the Pickton property. Instead, surveillance on the farm was curtailed, indicative, she says, of the “indifference” that marked the investigation of the disappearance of women from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, and a “misogynist” attitude toward women.

She said in October 2001 she read an RCMP file dealing with the Pickton farm as she briefed herself on her assignment with the missing women’s task force. “I had one of those ‘oh, no’ moments because I saw what was already on the file. There was enough evidence there for another ITO (information to obtain a search warrant),” she said. She said the file included evidence of guns on the site of the farm, as well as women’s clothing, government identification and an asthma inhaler later tied to one of Pickton’s victims. Yet, she said there was only a cursory attempt at surveillance, which was cut short because it was impossible to see activity at Pickton’s trailer, which was set back far from the road.

Galliford has been on sick leave from the RCMP since 2007. Her lawyer says her career with the force is likely over.

Federal prisons overflow; Vic Toews clamps down on prison porn

By Richard Warnica - Thursday, May 10, 2012 at 9:20 AM - 0 Comments

Lars Hagberg/CP Images

The Conservative government’s so-called “tough on crime” agenda is creating a predictable crunch in federal prisons. According to documents obtained by the Globe and Mail, prisoners have been sleeping in trailers, interview rooms and gymnasiums in recent years, even as the number of inmates sleeping two-to-a-one-person-cell continues to climb.

Federal incarceration rates have been climbing of late after remaining generally static or falling for decades. From the Globe:

Part of the latest increase can be attributed to the government’s tough-on-crime agenda. At the same time, the government will lose 1,000 beds after it closes aging penal facilities such as Kingston Penitentiary and Leclerc Institution in Laval, Que., but says it will more than make up the difference with new units.

The Office of the Correctional Investigator has fielded increasing complaints from both inmates and corrections staff about double-bunking. Two areas of concern are the Edmonton Institute for Women, where women have been housed in interview rooms and family visiting areas, and Kitchener, Ont.’s Grand Valley Institution, which set up a trailer for up to 16 women inmates. Across Canada, the percentage of inmates double-bunking rose from 9.4 in August, 2009 to 17.4 in April, 2012 – nearly three times the historic low of 6.1 per cent in 2004.

Meanwhile, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews announced plans Wednesday to make more inmates pay for their own room and board while incarcerated. One thing he doesn’t want them to pay for, however, is porn.

Newsmakers: Apr. 26-May. 4, 2011

By Richard Warnica - Monday, May 7, 2012 at 10:41 AM - 0 Comments

John McDonnell/Getty Images

Double lucky

Winning a big lottery jackpot once is improbable. Twice? That’s near impossible. But don’t tell that to Virginia Fike. The Berryville, Va., woman bought two winning tickets to a single Powerball draw recently. Each one was worth a cool US$1 million. After taxes, Fike will take home about US$1.4 million—not a bad haul for what started as a stop at the gas station. Fike found out she’d won while visiting her mother in the hospital. She plans to spend the money on her parents and bills.

Pipelines, no. Pot farms, yes.

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson has come a long way from the juice farm. The former organic smoothie magnate has an iron grip on city hall. Now he’s flexing his political muscle outside his own jurisdiction. Robertson wrote a comment piece for the Vancouver Sun urging the federal government to think twice about a proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion that could nearly triple the number of oil tankers off Vancouver’s coast. Days later, he added his name to an open letter calling for the legalization and taxation of marijuana. Seven other B.C. mayors also signed the letter, but Robertson’s name was by far the most prominent on the page.

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Bravery award raises outrage at Awkesasne

By Richard Warnica - Monday, May 7, 2012 at 10:36 AM - 0 Comments

Adrian Wyld/CP

It’s a thin line, sometimes, between brave acts and foolish ones. Just ask Mike Biron, a constable with the Akwesasne Mohawk police near Cornwall, Ont.

Late last month, Governor General David Johnston pinned the Medal of Bravery on Biron’s chest. In the official citation, he praised the officer for trying “desperately” to pull an elderly couple from a burning car. But less than two years earlier, Biron faced criminal charges related to that wreck. Even today, the family of the couple who died in the crash blame Biron for causing it. They’ve sued him and his force, and are outraged by the award.

The controversy stems from a pursuit on Cornwall Island in November 2008, when Biron chased a suspected tobacco smuggler through the streets at more than 160 km/h. The suspect, Dany Gionet, a 21-year-old from Quebec, blew through two four-way stops before his van crashed into another car. The two vehicles caught fire. Biron and Canadian Border Services officer Yves Soumillon tried to yank the older couple from the other car, but they were too late. Gionet, along with Eileen and Edward Kassian from upstate New York, died at the scene.

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Around the world: the Taliban’s finest

By Richard Warnica - Thursday, May 3, 2012 at 10:20 AM - 0 Comments

Afghanistan: A mid-level Taliban commander hoping to collect the bounty on his own head turned himself in to police. Mohamad Ashan was wanted for planning IED attacks on Afghan soldiers. Officials had offered a US$100 reward for his capture. But Ashan, evidently confused about how these things work, walked up to a police checkpoint, waved his wanted poster and demanded the cash prize, according to the Washington Post. The officers arrested him.

Japan: A Tokyo zoo has called off the search for a baby penguin who flew—or more accurately climbed out of—the coop. The bird is thought to have scrambled its way up a large rock to escape its enclosure. Zoo workers scoured a nearby river with no luck. They hope to start again in a few months when the penguin will have moulted and grown into its more distinctive, adult plumage.

U.S.: The State of California cancelled an annual report on Australia’s kangaroo harvest. Governor Jerry Brown highlighted the marsupial check-in as one of more than 700 unnecessary and expensive reports state bureaucrats file every year. Among others scheduled to be dropped is one on crocodiles and another on the Loma Prieta earthquake, which happened in 1989.

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Bringing hockey to the desert

By Richard Warnica - Thursday, May 3, 2012 at 9:38 AM - 0 Comments

AP

Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, the president of Turkmenistan, would make a great NHL general manager. He’s a dictator with a history of extravagant, illogical spending. And despite great wealth, mostly from oil and gas, he has failed to lift his country (read team) up the UN standings for health and human achievement.

It is fitting then that hockey appears to be Berdymukhamedov’s newest obsession. The Central Asian autocrat has ordered his government ministries to start their own hockey teams. He appeared recently at a youth hockey tournament in the capital of Ashgabat, decked out in full gear, flaunting his 54-year-old vigour.

The apparent goal is to make Turkmenistan—a largely desert state where summertime temperatures top 45° C—a hockey power. Critics might suggest the country, where poverty remains endemic, could find better uses for its money than pricey indoor rinks. But great hockey minds never listen to the critics. Just ask Brian Burke.

Someone gave Peter Pocklington some more money

By Richard Warnica - Tuesday, May 1, 2012 at 10:57 AM - 0 Comments

In some ways, the most startling part of this story may be that someone gave Peter Pocklington money again. The former Edmonton Oilers owner and one-time most hated man in Canadian hockey has had a string of financial problems since losing his team in 1998. He declared bankruptcy in 2008. He was charged with bankruptcy fraud in California in 2009. To top it all off, he pleaded guilty to perjury in 2010.

Now Pocklington, a resident of California, is in trouble again. He’s been accused of securities fraud in Arizona. According to documents filed with that state’s Corporation Commission, Pocklington and partner John McNeil overstated the amount of gold they could recover from a surface-mining operation in La Paz county. Using estimates investigators allege are faulty, the two raised more than US$4.8 million from investors.

Securities officials have asked the commission to levy cease and desist orders, fines and restitution payments against the pair. But Pocklington denies doing anything deliberately wrong. “Any errors made in the past were born of inexperience and naïveté, not malice or avarice,” he wrote in an email, “and they were quickly rectified.”

A Canadian hockey pro in Kazakhstan

By Richard Warnica - Thursday, April 26, 2012 at 2:10 PM - 0 Comments

KHL Photo Agency

About four years ago, Kevin Dallman, a Niagara Falls, Ont., native and former junior hockey star, looked set for the kind of journeyman career common to players not quite good enough to be permanent pros.

Dallman, who once scored 86 points in a single Ontario Hockey League season, had spent six years bouncing between the NHL and hockey’s minor leagues. By 2008, he seemed destined for another six of the same. But rather than settle, Dallman took a risk. Instead of signing another two-way contract with an NHL team that would have allowed management to send him back to the minors, he moved to Kazakhstan, where he has since become the unlikely face of professional hockey in Astana, the capital.

But now the honeymoon between Dallman and the Kazakhs looks like it’s over. After four years as captain of the country’s best professional team—Barys Astana of the Russian-based Kontinental Hockey League (KHL)—Dallman is back in Canada now, waiting for his agent to find him a new deal.

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Iconic drummer and singer, Levon Helm, is in the final stages of cancer

By Richard Warnica - Wednesday, April 18, 2012 at 12:25 PM - 0 Comments

Levon Helm, the drummer and sometime vocalist for iconic folk-rock group The Band, is dying. In a statement released on his website, his family says he is in final stages of lung cancer.

Helm sang on some of The Band’s best known songs, including The Weight”:

Helm was born on May 26, 1940 in Arkansas. The 71-year-old lives in upstate New York. For many years he was the sole American member of the mostly Canadian group, which grew out of a Ronnie Hawkins backing band and played with Bob Dylan for many years. In 2007, New York Magazine named him “the coolest singing drummer of all time”, partly for performances, like the one below of “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”, from Martin Scorsese’s “The Last Waltz.”

Is the federal immigration system a failure?

By Richard Warnica and John Geddes - Wednesday, April 18, 2012 at 10:44 AM - 0 Comments

Photograph by Cole Garside

Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney sees deep flaws in Canada’s immigration system. For too long, he argues, the system has been drawing ambitious newcomers who arrive here ready to work only to find their qualifications aren’t recognized, their experience isn’t valued, or their skills aren’t in demand. “We’ve got to stop this practice,” he said in a major speech in Toronto last month, “of inviting highly trained people to come to Canada if they don’t have jobs or they’re not likely to succeed in the labour market.”

As one of the most visible federal ministers, Kenney has made sure his critique of the system he runs is widely heard and broadly accepted. In particular, companies echo his complaints about Canada bringing in 250,000 newcomers a year, and still failing to provide the workers they need to fill gaps, particularly in the fast-growing West. But as Kenney continues his withering attack, it’s worth asking: Is the federal program really the unmitigated disaster he suggests? Not by international standards, where Canada is rated highly for its successful integration of immigrants into the economy, or even by some of the yardsticks Kenney has been using to argue Canada’s existing immigration system needs to be completely overhauled.

Some of the clearest evidence showing the program’s success comes from Kenney’s own department. For instance, Kenney points to the so-called provincial nomination program—through which provinces bring in immigrants chosen to fill job vacancies—as the model for reform. But according to figures provided to Maclean’s by Citizenship and Immigration Canada, any edge enjoyed by the provincial programs is small and short-term. The average yearly earnings for provincial nominees range from $35,200 to $45,100. That’s only better at the high end than the $36,400 to $42,700 average range for the earnings of immigrants who entered Canada through the federal skilled workers doorway. And by the fifth year after arrival, according to Citizenship and Immigration Canada data, the federal skilled workers’ incomes outpace provincial nominees by, on average, $2,000 to $7,000 a year.

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Bank of Canada denies British are after Mark Carney for Bank of England job

By Richard Warnica - Wednesday, April 18, 2012 at 10:19 AM - 0 Comments

The Bank of Canada has officially denied a report that governor Mark Carney is being headhunted by the British. The Financial Times reported Tuesday that Carney, who has three years left on his seven-year Canadian term, was being sought as a replacement for the outgoing governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King. That report, however, was “not accurate,” a bank spokesman told the Canadian Press.

Carney is seen as something of a rock star in international financial circles. He also spent years in London working for Goldman Sachs. At the same time, many doubt the British would appoint a foreigner to head their central bank.

Carney himself has yet to address the rumours. On Tuesday, however, he did again suggest interest rates will soon go up in Canada and warned consumers not to delay getting their debts under control.

U.S. investigators searching for 21 Colombian prostitutes, said to be involved with Secret Service agents and soldiers

By Richard Warnica - Wednesday, April 18, 2012 at 10:17 AM - 0 Comments

A prostitution scandal that overshadowed U.S. President Barack Obama’s recent trip to the Summit of the Americas has led investigators back to Cartagena, Colombia, where they’re now looking for as many 21 women thought to have been involved with Secret Service agents and military personnel in the lead up to the event. The agents and soldiers are thought to have brought the women back to their hotel after a night of heavy drinking, those familiar with the investigation told the New York Times. The police were called after one of the women says she wasn’t paid.

Prostitution is legal in certain areas of Colombia. But few of those who work in Cartagena seem worried by the scandal.

From the Times:

The city’s prostitutes, many using English-friendly names like Lady, Daisy and Paola, say all the international attention might be good for business. They shrug their shoulders at all the fuss.

“Now we are world-class, with the president’s bodyguards coming to try out Colombian girls,” said one freelance prostitute who walks the streets of the walled city and came to Cartagena from her hometown, Cali, because she preferred well-heeled foreign clients.

While a Tracy Chapman video played on a flat-screen television next to the bar at Angeles, another club, another prostitute explained how she and her co-workers were required to be tested for AIDS as often as once a week. The brothels insist that all clients use condoms, she said, describing how she paid the brothel owner about $6 a day to rent a tiny room and preferred to call herself an escort or a companion rather than a prostitute.

Giving foreign telecoms greater access to Canadian market poses public safety risk, ‘secret’ document claims

By Richard Warnica - Wednesday, April 18, 2012 at 10:08 AM - 0 Comments

Security officials believe a government plan to allow foreign firms greater access to the Canadian telecom market could pose a “significant risk” to public safety, according to documents obtained by Bloomberg. Industry Minister Christian Paradis wants foreigners to be able to own up 100 per cent of smaller telecommunications companies, a move that could increase competition in a market currently dominated by Rogers, BCE and Telus. Security officials, however, worry that move could compromise Canada’s “intelligence priorities.”

From the story:

“The security and intelligence community is of the view that lessening or removing restrictions from the Telecommunications Act, without implementing mitigation measures, would pose a considerable risk to public safety and national security,” Daniel Lavoie, a senior official with Public Safety, said in a letter to Industry Canada.

The letter, which was marked “secret” and dated Feb. 25, 2011, was obtained by Bloomberg News under Canada’s freedom-of- information law.

(snip)

Canada is the latest country to express concerns about the involvement of foreign companies in the telecom sector. The U.S. in October barred China’s  Huawei Technologies Co. from bidding for work on a national emergency network. Australia last month banned Huawei, China’s biggest maker of telecom equipment, from contracts to build a national broadband network being developed by the government.

New federal judges overwhelmingly white, the two exceptions being Metis

By Richard Warnica - Wednesday, April 18, 2012 at 9:58 AM - 0 Comments

Ninety-eight out of 100 recently appointed federal judges are white, according to a Globe and Mail investigation. The two exceptions were Metis judges in B.C. and Alberta.

From the piece:

The lack of diversity among judges raises searching questions in a country where one in five citizens belongs to a visible minority and where many people can expect to see a bench that does not reflect them.

The opaque nature of the appointment process is equally startling. Judges with vast powers of interpretation under the Charter are still appointed behind closed doors. To obtain a glimpse of recent patterns, The Globe has used Internet searches and culled information from judicial sources and law firms where judicial appointees worked.

In related news, a candidate for Alberta’s Wildrose Party said Sunday that as a Caucasian he has an advantage over other, presumably non-white, candidates. He later apologized for the remark, saying that he “loves all of the people, all of the cultural groups.”

The mysterious case of the trademarked beard

By Richard Warnica - Wednesday, April 18, 2012 at 7:00 AM - 0 Comments

A libel suit related to a trademarked beard recently prevented a prominent Russian mathematician from travelling abroad for a conference. Mikhail Verbitsky was sued years ago by a man named I.V. Pugach after Verbitsky ridiculed Pugach’s claim to have exclusive rights to a particular facial hair design. On his blog, Verbitsky lambasted Pugach for trying to have the bearded Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho’s books taken off the shelves in Russia.

From a New York Times blog:

Pugach, whose real first name is obscured by those two initials and whose last name (perhaps adopted) means “scarecrow,” claims to have trademarked a certain beard: the type with no sideburns that covers just the chin and the patch above the upper lip. He says this beard is the exclusive province — even a “racial attribute” — of the Russian people and maintains a Web site that rants about violations of his exclusive rights to it. In his opinion, misuse of the beard, which includes its being worn by non-Russians, amounts to “genocide” (his term).

Verbitsky, according to the story, had no idea the suit had been launched. When he didn’t defend himself, a judge ruled in Pugach’s favour. Nothing came of that ruling, however, until Verbitsky was prevented by a border guard from leaving Russia because of the unpaid judgment. He has since hired a lawyer to fight the claim.

In China, a princeling’s lifestyle causes controversy

By Richard Warnica - Tuesday, April 17, 2012 at 11:12 AM - 0 Comments

Fascinating stories abound about Bo Guagua, the son of two Chinese Communist Party officials caught up in a massive political and criminal scandal. Bo’s father, Bo Xilai, was once a rising star within the party but has lately been stripped of all posts and stands accused of corruption and abuse of power. His mother, Gu Kailai is suspected of murdering a British businessman whose exact ties to her son are not totally clear.

The whole affair has drawn attention to Bu Guagua’s own globe-trotting lifestyle, which has so far included stints at an elite English private school, an undergraduate degree (barely squeaked out) at Oxford and acceptance at Harvard’s Kennedy School, arguably the most prestigious graduate institute for the study of politics in the English-speaking world. More salaciously, Bo has also been known to drive a Ferrari and a Porsch, throws lavish parties and is pictured online peeing on an Oxford fence, posing with his shirt off and just generally living the kind of life not expected of the grandson of Chinese communist heroes.

Two related points stuck out to me. One, the cognitive dissonance of Bo Xilai simply denying entirely his son’s way of life. From the Times story:

Last month, a few days before he lost his job as party chief of Chongqing, Bo Xilai was forced to respond to questions about how his modest government salary could support his son’s tuition and expensive tastes. He called the accusations “sheer rubbish,” and insisted that Mr. Bo had won full scholarships, although he did not address the allegations in detail. “A few people have been pouring filth on Chongqing and me and my family,” he told reporters. “They even say my son studies abroad and drives a red Ferrari.”

The other, similarly dissonant, from Oxford  explaining why Bo, by the Times account a pretty substandard student, was let in:

Oxford administrators dismissed the idea that Bo Xilai’s stature as a rising political star played any role in his son’s admission. “That kind of stuff just doesn’t happen,” said Ruth Collier, Oxford’s head of information. “If this young man won a place at Balliol, he got in on his merits.”

Harvard, for the record, wouldn’t comment on how a young man once suspended for an entire year by Oxford gained admission to one of its most exclusive graduate schools. A final random point: What do you think it’s like to be one of the girls in this photo?

Scripture could have prevented bubonic plague, controversial Alberta candidate says; climate change science not settled, leader adds

By Richard Warnica - Tuesday, April 17, 2012 at 11:08 AM - 0 Comments

A controversial pastor running for Alberta’s Wildrose Party dominated news in that province again Monday after his leader doubled down in her support of him and audio clips from two of his sermons were released on YouTube.

Edmonton Southwest candidate Allan Hunsperger was thrust into the spotlight Sunday after a blog post in which he suggested gays and lesbians would burn in hell for all eternity if they chose to live they way they were born became public. Opponents have called for Hunsperger to step down. But on Monday Wildrose leader Danielle Smith stood by the preacher.

From the Edmonton Journal:

“The views he expressed are his personal views in the context of him being a pastor and I’m not going to discriminate against anyone, not on the basis of sexual orientation and not on the basis of their religion,”  Smith said Monday, referring to her Edmonton South West nominee Allan Hunsperger. “I believe in freedom of religion and I believe religious people do have an opportunity and should be encouraged to run for political office.”

Smith’s defence didn’t impress Journal columnist Paula Simons, who called Hunsperger   ”an unabashed old-school homophobe who makes Rick Santorum look like a drag queen at a Pride Parade,” in her Tuesday column:

 Hunsperger is entitled to his personal religious beliefs. The state cannot, should not tell pastors what to preach. Within his church, Hunsperger has a constitutional right to gay-bash as much as he pleases.

But Hunsperger isn’t just a pastor. He chose to stand for office. Smith’s Wildrose Party chose to elect and accept him as its nominated candidate. His public comments on gay rights and school board policy are entirely relevant to voters evaluating his fitness, and the fitness of his party.

Meanwhile, two heavily edited clips from Hunsperger sermons were also released online Monday. In one, he says that, in God’s eyes, the Holy Land belongs to Israel. In another, he suggests circumcision can prevent HIV (an idea for which there is considerable scientific evidence) and later that “the bubonic plague would not have happened if men had paid attention to the scripture.”

Finally, in actual policy news, Wildrose leader Danielle Smith doesn’t believe the science on climate change is settled, which is, itself, kind of unsettling.

Robocall probe spreads to Conservative HQ: Source

By Richard Warnica - Tuesday, April 17, 2012 at 10:32 AM - 0 Comments

Elections Canada investigators have spread their robocall probe to Conservative Party headquarters, according to a story by Glen McGregor and Stephen Maher, the reporters who first broke news of the case.

From the Ottawa Citizen:

Nearly a year after the investigation began, the agency is trying to determine why database records provided by the party appear to be missing entries that could help identify who downloaded the phone numbers used to make fraudulent robocalls, according to a source familiar with the probe.

 Investigators also are inquiring about a phone call from Conservative headquarters, made the day before the election, to RackNine, the Edmonton voice-broadcasting company whose servers were used to send out the robocalls.

The party has consistently denied playing a part in the alleged robocall scheme, which is said to have involved fraudulent calls to non-Conservative supporters during last year’s federal election.