Charest seeks to deter student protesters with threat of hefty fines

By Alex Ballingall - Friday, May 18, 2012 at 9:55 AM - 0 Comments

Quebec Premier Jean Charest has proposed legislation that will crack down on student protesters and the unions that support them.

He is seeking tough new measures that would bar demonstrations inside and within 50 metres of university buildings, the Globe and Mail reports. Additionally, any protester found guilty of causing the cancellation of classes could be fined between $1,000 and $5,000. If the same offence is committed by a leader of a student organization, the fine could be as much as $35,000. If a group or student federation stops others from attending class, it could be forced to pay up to $125,000. For protesting groups of  10 or more people, there will also be a requirement to inform police at least eight hours in advance of a demonstration.

The legislation, called Bill 78, is expected to pass through Quebec’s National Assembly on Friday, but it will expire on July 1, 2013, the Globe and Mail reports.

Stéphane Beaulac, a constitutional expert at the University of Montreal, told the CBC that the law is one of the most repressive he has ever seen, but that it doesn’t appear to violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. ”On the face of it, it does not constitute in my view blatant infringement of freedom of association, freedom of expression,” he was quoted as saying.

Student groups, unsurprisingly, have rallied against the bill, setting up a website for people to sign an anti-Bill 78 petition. “This is actually a declaration of war against the student movement and not only against the student movement, but it restricted the liberty of speech, the liberty of association,” said Martine Desjardins of the university students’ federation, the FEUQ, quoted by the CBC.

Facebook could raise $18 billion at IPO

By Alex Ballingall - Friday, May 18, 2012 at 9:52 AM - 0 Comments

After setting its share price at $38, Facebook is set to become the first U.S. company to be worth more than $100 billion at its debut. As the Financial Post reports, the social network could raise up to $18.4 billion on its initial public offering today on the Nasdaq Stock Market, an 18 per cent share of the company.

“It will be bananas,” Greencrest Capital analyst Max Wolff told the newspaper. “This is all about the future, so it really is a lottery ticket.”

Facebook’s valuation for its IPO is the third-highest ever, after two Chinese banks that went public in 2010 and 2006, Time Magazine reports.

But there is some skepticism about Facebook’s huge valuation, especially since it raked in $3.7 billion in revenue last year.

“A $104 billion market capitalization puts Facebook at more than 100 times its trailing earnings,” wrote John Constine and Kim-Mai Cutler for technology blog TechCrunch. “That’s a big multiple to live up to, and it will likely need to add bold new revenue streams to justify the mammoth valuation.”

California rocks set woman’s shorts on fire

By Alex Ballingall - Friday, May 18, 2012 at 9:50 AM - 0 Comments

A 43-year-old woman was out at the edge of the Pacific Ocean last Saturday, playing with her kids at California’s San Onofre State Beach. At some point, the kids gave her two rocks they’d found. The woman pocketed them in her cargo shorts. It was a normal day… until she went home, that is.

Standing in her kitchen in San Clemente, Calif., the rocks suddenly caught fire, and her shorts burst into flames. To no avail, the woman followed the oft-repeated protocol, stop-drop-and roll. After her husband managed to pull off the burning shorts, the rocks fell to the floor and continued to sizzle and spread smoke through the family’s home, the Orange County Register reported.

“I spoke directly to the paramedic on the call,” Capt. Marc Stone of the Orange County Fire Authority told the Associated Press. “He’s worked 27 years as a paramedic and specifically on the beach areas, and it’s the first time he’s ever seen anything like this.”

The woman was taken to hospital with third degree burns, and is undergoing surgery, according to the Orange County Register.

Days later, reports are emerging that the rocks were coated in phosphorus, a naturally occurring mineral found in rocks that, in its elemental form, can burn when exposed to air. If confirmed, the origin of the phosphorus will remain a mystery, although early speculation points to a nearby military base called Camp Pendleton. There’s also a nuclear power plant in the area.

Greece swears in caretaker government, Spain’s borrowing costs jump

By Alex Ballingall - Thursday, May 17, 2012 at 10:25 AM - 0 Comments

Greece has sworn in a stop-gap government that will lead the country until it heads to the polls for a new general election on June 17. Interim Prime Minister Panagiotis Pikrammenos, a former judge, appointed a group of economists, academics and diplomats to the new caretaker cabinet, after party leaders elected on May 6 failed to form a government.

Greece’s political saga continued to send shockwaves across financial markets and the rest of the eurozone on Thursday, with nervous investors asking a steep price in exchange for buying new Spanish bonds. Though the Madrid’s auction was met with strong demand, yields on 10-year bonds came dangerously close to the levels that forced Greece and Portugal to take bailouts, Bloomberg reports.

“This points to the fact we’re running out of road of debt sustainability for Spain. Ultimately, some form of outside intervention will be necessary,” Richard McGuire, senior fixed-income strategist with Rabobank International in London, told Bloomberg.

Thursday’s auction came after Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy warned that soaring borrowing costs could shut the country out of international markets. ”Right now there is a serious risk that (investors) will not lend us money or they will do so at an astronomical rate,” Rajoy told parliament recently, as quoted by the CBC. “The spread has risen a great deal, which means it’s very difficult to finance oneself and to do so at a reasonable price.”

Ratko Mladic war crimes trial suspended

By Alex Ballingall - Thursday, May 17, 2012 at 10:06 AM - 0 Comments

Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian-Serb general who is facing war crimes charges at the Hague, had his trial suspended indefinitely on Thursday. The presiding judge, Alphons Orie, postponed the trial because of “significant” errors made by the prosecution in disclosing evidence to Mladic’s defence team, the New York Times reports.

The newspaper reported that Orie told the court he would try to set a new trial date as soon as possible. The announcement came just one day into the hearings, where prosecutors detailed how Mladic led Serbian troops into the Bosnian Muslim town of Srebrenica in 1995. Some 8,000 men and boys were killed there in the attack. The massacre is thought to be the worst atrocity committed in Europe since the end of the Second World War.

Prosecutor Peter McCloskey earlier told the court that his case wouldn’t be about whether or not the crimes were committed, which he said is not a matter of dispute, but about pinning responsibility for them on one individual. “We have video of two of the actual executions themselves. So let me be perfectly clear, the crime will not be the main focus of this prosecution. This case will be primarily about one issue. The individual criminal responsibility of Ratko Mladic,” he said, quoted by the BBC.

Mladic faces 11 charges before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

Police arrest 122 as student protests turn violent in Montreal

By Alex Ballingall - Thursday, May 17, 2012 at 9:51 AM - 0 Comments

Police arrested 122 people overnight on Wednesday as student protests turned violent in Montreal. Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets for the 23rd straight night after Premier Jean Charest announced the suspension of the current semester until August, a move that many believe will prevent a negotiated settlement to the student strike, now in its 14th week.

The CBC, about 50 people at the head of the marching protest hurled objects at riot police and smashed windows. Police charged at the protesters, sprayed tear gas and threw flash bang grenades to break up the crowd. The CBC also reports police beating protesters with batons.

“We need to bring down the pressure where strikes are still on. We need to bring back social peace,” Charest said when announcing the suspension of classes, which will affect 14 colleges and 11 universities, which are currently closed down due to the strike, the Globe and Mail reported. Legislation to officially suspend the current semester could be introduced as early as Thursday, according to the Canadian Press.

Charest also made it clear that his Liberal government will not back down from the proposed 75 per cent hike in tuition, spread out over five to seven years, and promised tougher police presence at schools in August to ensure students will be able to return to class, if they so choose.

Student leaders reacted to the announcement angrily. “The bill that the government is proposing to table is an anti-union law, it is authoritarian, repressive and breaks the students’ right to strike,” CLASSE spokesman Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, whose group represents a majority of striking students, was quoted as saying by the Globe. “This is a government that prefers to hit on its youth, ridicule its youth rather than listen to them.”

Student organizers are planning a large street demonstration in Montreal on Tuesday.

‘Frankenfish’ allegedly shows up in B.C. pond

By Alex Ballingall - Thursday, May 17, 2012 at 9:34 AM - 0 Comments

Evidence has surfaced that the highly invasive “Frankenfish” from Asia has turned up in the B.C. Lower Mainland.

A video posted on YouTube purports to show the fish, otherwise known as a snakehead, swimming in a pond at a Burnaby park. As the CBC reports, a biologist will inspect the pond to determine whether the fish has indeed found its way to Canada. “We’ve contacted the Ministry of Environment to find out the protocol for dealing with this and we’ve also contacted a biologist to come in and actually confirm that it is actually one of these snakehead fish,” Don Hunter, Burnaby’s assistant director of parks, told the CBC.

Known for their unusual appearance and rows of jagged teeth, snakeheads feed on just about anything: other fish, frogs, birds—even pets. Needless to say, the eel-like creatures, which hail from China and Siberia, are considered a threat to native species. And with their ability to grow up to a metre long, and a lung capacity that allows them to wriggle on land and travel between bodies of water, it’s no secret how they earned their sinister nickname.

“This little creek eventually runs into the Fraser River,” Environment Canada B.C. Environment Ministry invasive species expert Matthias Herborg told the Canadian Press. “Them getting into the Fraser, that would be one of our biggest nightmares.”

Tories lash out after UN official calls for national food program in Canada

By Alex Ballingall - Thursday, May 17, 2012 at 9:13 AM - 0 Comments

Olivier De Schutter, the UN special rapporteur for food, has caused a stir by criticizing food security in Canada. Speaking Wednesday, De Schutter called for a national program that will address many Canadians’ lack of access to proper food.

“We have a large number of Canadians who are unacceptably too poor to feed themselves decently,” he was quoted as saying by the CBC. ”We have in this country more than 800,000 households who are considered food insecure… This situation is of great concern to me.”

The UN official also pointed out that food bank visits in the country are on the rise, and said this is a symptom of failing social safety nets.

The Conservative government was quick to denounce De Schutter as a “patronizing academic” who would be better off focusing on other UN countries with more inequality than Canada. Canada is the first developed country De Schutter has visited as UN special rapporteur.

“There are, what, 193 members of the UN? I think most Canadians would think that spending 11 days in Canada on this issue – his time would be better spent elsewhere,” said Foreign Minister John Baird, quoted by Al Jazeera.

Charest invokes ‘special law’ to suspend semesters in Quebec’s boycotted schools

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, May 16, 2012 at 9:14 PM - 0 Comments

Quebec premier Jean Charest announced a law on Wednesday night to suspend classes 11 universities and 14 CEGEPS across the province currently affected by student boycotts.

CTV reports:

In a bid to end a 14-week conflict with students, Charest stood alongside Education Minister Michelle Courchesne as he announced that the school’s impacted by student boycotts would be closed until August. Students would be able to finish their winter semesters by September.

Police violated rights, used violence at G20 summit: report

By Richard Warnica - Wednesday, May 16, 2012 at 12:16 PM - 0 Comments

Police working Toronto’s G20 summit committed systemic civil rights violations, resorted to violence and blindly followed orders, even those they questioned, according to a scathing report from the Office of the Independent Police Review Director.

The 300 page tome found the Toronto Police Service planning for the summit “incomplete and inadequate.” The Prisoner Processing Centre, where more than a thousand prisoners were detained was “poorly planned, designed and operated.”  And record keeping means no one actually knows how many people were arrested that weekend.

The Star has full breakdown of the report here. You can also read the entire document itself here.

Romania’s science minister copies other people’s science, resigns

By Richard Warnica - Wednesday, May 16, 2012 at 11:18 AM - 0 Comments

Ioan Mang, the education and research minister in Romania’s new government, resigned Tuesday after allegations surfaced that at least eight of his academic papers had been lifted, nearly entire, from other sources.

From Nature:

The allegations first began circulating on 7 May, just hours after Prime Minister Victor Ponta, a Social Democrat, announced the appointment of Mang and other ministers of the new government. Last week, former prime minister Emil Boc, of the Democratic Liberals, called for Mang’s resignation, dramatically waving the allegedly plagiarized articles and the original papers in front of television cameras.

The scandal has dismayed many Romanian scientists, who are already nervous that the incoming centre-left coalition government might reverse some of the energizing reforms that were introduced by the previous centre-right coalition to improve the country’s sluggish research system.

Mang is, or was, I suppose, a computer scientist. His political career in Romania is now over. But should he wish to restart it somewhere else, he might want to consider Alberta, where copying academic papers is somewhere above throwing money at homeless people on the list of acceptable political sins.

Facebook doubles down on IPO; Yahoo gets compared to a leaky sewage pipe

By Richard Warnica - Wednesday, May 16, 2012 at 10:15 AM - 0 Comments

Facebook is moving to increase the size of its initial public offering by 25 per cent, a source has told Reuters, a move that comes despite increased fears over the social media giant’s longterm revenue potential. General Motors announced plans Tuesday to pull its advertising from the site. But that doesn’t seem to have quelled investor interest in the stock.

From Reuters:

Facebook, founded eight years ago by Mark Zuckerberg in a Harvard dorm room, will add about 85 million shares to its IPO, floating about 422 million shares in an offering expected on Friday, the source told Reuters, declining to be identified because the information was confidential.

The expanded size, coupled with Facebook’s recently announced plans to raise the IPO price range, would make Facebook the third-largest initial share sale in U.S. history after Visa Inc and GM. Facebook declined to comment on the increased IPO size, which was first reported by CNBC on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, on Gizmodo, Mat Honan has a long, interesting read on how Yahoo killed Flickr and what lessons that failure holds for other tech giants swallowing startups.

Because Flickr wasn’t as profitable as some of the other bigger properties, like Yahoo Mail or Yahoo Sports, it wasn’t given the resources that were dedicated to other products. That meant it had to spend its resources on integration, rather than innovation. Which made it harder to attract new users, which meant it couldn’t make as much money, which meant (full circle) it didn’t get more resources. And so it goes.

As a result of being resource-starved, Flickr quit planting the anchors it needed to climb ever higher. It missed the boat on local, on real time, on mobile, and even ultimately on social—the field it pioneered. And so, it never became the Flickr of video; YouTube snagged that ring. It never became the Flickr of people, which was of course Facebook. It remained the Flickr of photos. At least, until Instagram came along.

The whole piece is worth reading, but if you want Honan’s view on Yahoo in one sentence, this one probably does it:

 If the Internet really were a series of tubes, Yahoo would be the leaking sewage pipe, covering everything it comes in contact with in watered-down shit.

Alberta may join Ontario in fight against doctors’ fees

By Richard Warnica - Wednesday, May 16, 2012 at 9:52 AM - 0 Comments

Ontario may soon have allies in its fight to claw back fees for some physicians. Alberta, which recently gave doctors an $181 million raise, has signalled it too is looking to cut costs, joining B.C., Nova Scotia and Manitoba in the battle against the (medical fee) bulge, according to a story in Wednesday’s Globe.

The Globe’s Adam Radwanski, meanwhile, has a good breakdown of exactly who stands to lose money under the Ontario plan, and why:

Three groups of specialists – radiologists, cardiologists, ophthalmologists – have seen their pay rise astronomically since the 1990s, largely because advances in technology have enabled them to perform more procedures than previously. Now, Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals want to cut their rates by double-digit percentages, generating hundreds of millions of dollars in savings. It’s not the only measure aimed at freezing the total amount spent on doctors’ wages, which effectively means a cut to per-doctor spending, but it’s the largest one.

It’s easy to see where the government is coming from. Cataract surgeons are acknowledged even by many doctors to be overpaid, with some making more than $1-million annually. Diagnostic radiologists join them in averaging more than $650,000 in annual fees, making them the two highest-paid groups of doctors. Cardiologists aren’t much behind, averaging nearly $600,000 annually. Even subtracting overhead costs that doctors pay, that’s a lot of money for fairly straightforward work, by medical standards.

Trial begins for the ‘Butcher of Srebenica’

By Richard Warnica - Wednesday, May 16, 2012 at 7:56 AM - 0 Comments

The trial of Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian-Serb general who helped plan and oversee the Siege of Sarajevo, is underway in The Hague. Mladic stands accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity for orchestrating a savage program of ethnic cleansing that culminated in Srebenica in 1995, where more than 7000 Muslim men and boys were murdered.

From the BBC:

Prosecuting counsel Dermot Groome said they would prove Gen. Mladic’s hand in the crimes.

“Four days ago marked two decades since Ratko Mladic became the commander of the main staff of the army of Republika Srpska – the VRS,” he said.

“On that day, Mladic began his full participation in a criminal endeavour that was already in progress. On that day, he assumed the mantle of realising through military might the criminal goals of ethnically cleansing much of Bosnia. On that day he commenced his direct involvement in serious international crimes.”

Mr Groome said that by the time Gen. Mladic and his troops had “murdered thousands in Srebrenica” they were “well-rehearsed in the craft of murder”.

Mladic, who spent more than a decade on the run, hidden from justice in Serbia, has called the charges “monstrous.” In court Tuesday, he faced not only the prosecutors but a hostile audience as well.

From the NY Times:

In the crowded public gallery, a group of survivors from Bosnia murmured insults as Mr. Mladic appeared with one woman shouting “vulture” as he turned to scan the crowd and give a thumbs-up sign as he spotted an acquaintance.

During a break Kada Hotic, who had traveled from Srebrenica, was sobbing “He ordered the killing of my husband, my son, my two brothers and my brother-in-law,” she said. “Now that I look him in the face, I want revenge.”

Chinese telecom’s Canadian ties raise security fears

By Richard Warnica - Wednesday, May 16, 2012 at 7:53 AM - 0 Comments

A former top U.S. intelligence official is sounding the alarm about a Chinese tech firm’s entrance into the Canadian telecom market. In an interview with CBC, Michelle K. Van Cleave, who was the head of U.S. counter-intelligence under George W. Bush, called Huawei Technologies a “stalking horse” for Chinese military and security designs. The company has been banned from major telecom projects in the U.S. and Australia, but has already inked partnerships with Canadian companies including Telus, Bell, SaskTel and WIND Mobile.

From the CBC:

Van Cleave says the intelligence community fears digital “back doors” could be hidden in the telecommunications networks, allowing spies to steal American and Canadian secrets and ultimately disrupt everything from public utilities to military operations in the event of international conflict.

She says the U.S. government’s actions to prevent Huawei from taking over U.S. telecom companies, or participating in major infrastructure projects, “is the right thing to be doing.”

The Harper government’s own Department of Public Safety warned more than a year ago that Canada’s telecommunications network is too important to be left to foreign companies.

In a secret memo written in 2011 and obtained under the Access to Information Act, a senior public safety official says “the security and intelligence community” believes that throwing open the Canadian telecom market to foreign companies “would pose a considerable risk to public safety and national security.”

GM drops Facebook ads days before IPO

By Richard Warnica - Tuesday, May 15, 2012 at 4:59 PM - 0 Comments

General Motors announced plans to stop advertising on Facebook Tuesday, just days before shares in the social media giant are set to hit the open market. Executives at the auto making giant just aren’t convinced the ads work, according to the Wall Street Journal, which—though I’m not an expert on the subject—seems like a pretty good reason not to spend money on something.

GM plans to continue pouring money into its Facebook presence, but only through “content” (branded pages, etc) as opposed to paid advertising. The move comes at an unfortunate time for Facebook, which is set for an initial public offering with a valuation of up to US $104 billion dollars Friday. From the WSJ:

Although GM’s $10 million worth of ad spend on Facebook won’t impact its $3.7 billion in revenue, the move is a disappointing development for the social network and could hurt if more big advertisers choose to follow suit.

GM’s pull back comes as marketers are increasingly questioning paid advertising on Facebook. Some advertisers said they find it very difficult measure the effectiveness of Facebook ads.

Did Texas execute another innocent man?

By Richard Warnica - Tuesday, May 15, 2012 at 4:10 PM - 0 Comments

A new investigative report by the Columbia Human Rights Law Review is providing the best evidence yet for what many have long suspected, that Carlos Deluna, executed by the State of Texas in 1989, did not kill gas station attendant Wanda Lopez in 1983. Deluna denied the killing until the moment of his execution. For years he told police and that another man, Carlos Hernandez, had committed the crime. (Hernandez was well known to police; after his death he bragged about getting away with Lopez’s murder, according to relatives.)

You can read a good summary of the Law Review argument, as well as an interview with the original prosecutor— who defends his work—in the Houston Chronicle. The journal itself has published a massive online archive of interviews, sources and documents related to the investigation on its website. (You can also read the entire 400-page investigation there.) The Chicago Tribune did a three-part investigation of the same crime in 2006, which you can read here. David Grann, arguably the best magazine writer in the world, wrote an award-winning piece on another disputed Texas execution in 2009. Read it here.

EU dodges recession; Greece stumbles toward new vote

By Richard Warnica - Tuesday, May 15, 2012 at 1:36 PM - 0 Comments

The EU and the Eurozone narrowly dodged a second recession in three years, with better than expected growth in Germany masking continuing weakness elsewhere on the continent.

From CNN:

Initial readings on gross domestic product, the broadest measure of an economy’s health, released Tuesday showed Germany’s economy grew 0.5% in the first quarter, an improvement from the decline of 0.2% at the end of 2011.

…

The growth in Germany was enough to have GDP in the 27-nation EU and the 17-nation eurozone that uses the common currency both remain unchanged compared to the previous quarter, following a 0.3% decline on that basis at the end of last year. Economists had forecast that both would fall into recession with another quarter of falling GDP.

Eleven EU 11 countries remain in recession, however, including Italy, where GDP fell by 0.8 per cent in the first quarter. In Greece, meanwhile, coalition talks collapsed less than two weeks after national elections were held.

From Reuters:

(A) spokesman for President Karolos Papoulias said the process of seeking a compromise had been declared a failure and a new vote must be held.

He did not immediately give the date for the new vote, but elections rules suggest it will be in mid June. A caretaker government would be formed on Wednesday, the spokesman said.

“For God’s sake, let’s move towards something better and not something worse,” Socialist party leader Evangelos Venizelos told reporters after the meeting. “Our motherland can find its way, we will fight for it to find its way.”

Byron Sonne, accused G20 plotter, not guilty on all charges

By Richard Warnica - Tuesday, May 15, 2012 at 1:10 PM - 0 Comments

Byron Sonne, an accused G20 saboteur and professed civil libertarian, was found not guilty on all charges in a Toronto court Tuesday.

Sonne spent 11 months in jail after his initial arrest before being bailed out. He was accused of four explosives-related charges and a single count of counselling mischief not committed for exposing flaws in the G20 security fence. Macleans.ca blogger Jesse Brown is tweeting live from the courtroom. You can read his life scroll of the judge’s verdict there.

You can also read his extensive coverage of all things Byron Sonne at Macleans.ca here.

Top Murdoch lieutenant charged in phone hacking probe

By Richard Warnica - Tuesday, May 15, 2012 at 11:41 AM - 0 Comments

Rupert Murdoch’s former top-lieutenant in the UK was charged Tuesday with conspiring to pervert the course of justice. Rebekah Brooks, her husband and three aides stand accused of trying to hide information from police investigating the News of the World phone hacking scandal.

From the BBC:

The charges relate to alleged offences in July last year including concealing documents and computers from police.

The former News of the World editor and her husband said in a statement: “We deplore this weak and unjust decision.”

The charges are the first in an inquiry lasting 18 months – more than 40 other people remain on police bail in the investigation.

You can read the Crown Prosecutor’s press release here. Further coverage from the Guardian, the NY Times, and the Wall Street Journal.

Brooks stands accused of, among other things, conspiring to remove seven boxes from the archives of News International, a move reminiscent of one that proved problematic for Conrad Black.

The slow, quiet death of Vic Toews’ Internet surveillance plan

By Richard Warnica - Tuesday, May 15, 2012 at 11:36 AM - 0 Comments

The Conservative party has quietly shelved Bill C-30, the Internet surveillance act Toews once asserted was vital to cracking down on kiddie porn. The bill is unlikely to resurface before the summer recess. In fact, it may never come back at all, wrote John Ibbitson in Tuesday’s Globe:

If the Harper government still wants to pass a law that would make it easier for police to track people who use the web to commit crimes, it will have to start from scratch.

That new bill, if there is one, will probably be shepherded by a different minister. That’s how much damage this botched legislation inflicted on the government and on Mr. Toews.

Ibbitson believes the prime minister is likely to prorogue Parliament before holding the debate necessary to send the bill to committee. If that happens, the so-called “lawful access” bill dies and the Tories start over, possibly with a new public safety minister to shepherd it through Parliament and the court of public opinion.

Tories set to redefine EI, ‘suitable work’

By Richard Warnica - Tuesday, May 15, 2012 at 9:27 AM - 0 Comments

No job is a bad job, according to Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, who made the comments Monday in the latest sign yet the Tories will soon expect Employment Insurance recipients to take whatever work is available, no matter the pay or their own qualifications.

Government leaders have hinted for months that an EI overhaul is on the way. But the details have remained murky. Speaking to reporters Monday, Flaherty fleshed out those plans somewhat, saying there will soon be a “broader definition” of what’s known as “suitable work”—in other words, the kinds jobs recipients are expected to apply for and take before qualifying for benefits. “I was brought up in a certain way,” Flaherty said, according to the Globe and Mail. “There is no bad job. The only bad job is not having a job. So I drove a taxi. You know, I refereed hockey. You do what you have to do to make a living.”

Quebec Education Minister Line Beauchamp steps down, says she’s no longer ‘part of the solution’

By Richard Warnica - Monday, May 14, 2012 at 5:08 PM - 0 Comments

Quebec’s education minister is resigning, not just from cabinet, but from politics altogether, walking away from a tuition dispute that has sparked months of protest and chaos across the province.

From the Canadian Press:

Line Beauchamp said she was not resigning because of violence and intimidation related to the student strikes this spring.

The move leaves Premier Jean Charest with the thinnest possible parliamentary majority — with a one-seat advantage in the legislature, where the Liberals hold 63 of 125 seats including the tie-breaking Speaker.

Making the announcement at a news conference with the premier, Beauchamp said she was actually leaving because she didn’t feel like she was helping to solve the problem.

‘I am resigning because I no longer believe I’m part of the solution.’

Maclean’s Alex Ballingal was in Quebec recently reporting on the demonstrations.

Students began walking out on their classes in February. More than three months later, the dispute has become the longest student strike in Quebec history. The stubborn persistence of the strike has left many in the rest of Canada scratching their heads over why there’s been such uproar. Even in Quebec, the intensity of the protests has puzzled observers. “The whole political and media class has been taken by surprise,” says Eric Pineault, a sociologist at the Université de Quebec à Montréal (UQAM). Quebecers currently enjoy the lowest tuition in the country. And never mind that with Premier Jean Charest’s proposed hike, the average tuition in Quebec would then be the second-lowest in Canada. Yet more than 165,000 students are on strike indefinitely. Many of them will lose their semester if they don’t head back to class soon. How did the movement attain such strength and longevity?

The answer lies largely with a particular thrust in Quebec society that links ideals of social democracy—such as widely affordable university education—to a sense of national identity. These ties date back to the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s, a time when Quebecers became maîtres, or masters, of their own province, instituting changes that gave Quebec a more left-leaning bent than elsewhere in North America. “The Quiet Revolution is a very important moment in Quebec history,” says André Pratte, editor of Montreal’s La Presse newspaper. “Every time someone questions the decisions that were made at the time, it’s almost as if you are trying to destroy a very important part of that moment.”

Martin Patriquin, meanwhile, analyzed the fallout from strike on his blog on Friday.

And as bad as it is, the situation is actually worse than it appears. That’s because the government has, in the last round of negotiations, allowed the student associations a say over how the universities spend their money—a power the student associations themselves won’t likely relinquish in the future.

Though it was scuttled by the students, the deal hashed out last week will likely serve as a blueprint for  any settlement between the students and the government—which will come some time in the next year, Inshallah. It includes a clause by which an ”interim council” is set up to examine university expenditures, and apply the savings (if any) to a corresponding reduction in student fees, up to $125.

Ron Paul halts campaign, sort of

By Richard Warnica - Monday, May 14, 2012 at 3:17 PM - 0 Comments

Republican hopeful and noted gold bug Ron Paul announced to his followers Monday that he would stop actively campaigning in new states.

From the NY Times:

Mr. Paul made no mention of Mitt Romney, and he did not say he would spend time helping defeat President Obama. Instead, he vowed to continue pursuing a “delegate strategy” that would provide his movement influence at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., this summer.

“I hope all supporters of liberty will remain deeply involved — become delegates, win office and take leadership positions,” he wrote. “I will be right there with you. In the coming days, my campaign leadership will lay out to you our delegate strategy and what you can do to help, so please stay tuned.”

What exactly Paul plans to do at the convention remains to be seen. Some believe he’s mostly angling for a prominent speaking role at what is, essentially, a televised infomercial for the Mitt Romney campaign. Others, however, believe he’s in it at this point to build cache for his son, and likely successor to his movement, Rand Paul.