Who’s suing whom
By Jason Kirby - Wednesday, November 14, 2012 - 0 Comments
Crushed by a bull and an art forgery
British Columbia: A woman in Surrey is suing tech giant Apple Inc., alleging the company’s operating system, iOS4, enabled anyone with “moderate computer knowledge” to track her movements. While the suit by Amanda Ladas doesn’t seek a specific amount, it alleges Apple’s “deceptive acts” entitle anyone who joins the suit to “punitive” damages. Apple has yet to respond.
Alberta: During a rodeo event in Edmonton in 2010, Carol Edith MacKechnie claims she was in the front row when a bull, Rewind, threw its rider and lept into the stands, crushing her. In her $450,000 suit against the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association, MacKechnie, then 53, claims she suffered internal injuries, post-traumatic stress disorder, and an “accelaration” of Alzheimer’s disease. The allegations have yet to be proven.
Ontario: The keyboardist for the band Barenaked Ladies, Kevin Hearn, has sued a Toronto art gallery alleging it sold him a painting by Aboriginal artist Norval Morrisseau, which he believes is a fake. In the suit, Hearn says he became suspicious when “numerous individuals” raised questions about its authenticity. A lawyer for Maslak McLeod Gallery denied the allegation and said it will file a defence.
Quebec: Montreal clothing maker Gildan Activewear has been sued by U.S. giant Fruit of the Loom for trademark infringement. In the lawsuit, Fruit alleges the company removed labels of clothing made by a Fruit subsidiary, and sold it as its own. In a statement Gildan said it’s investigating the label switch, calling it an error and “small glitch.”
Nova Scotia: The family of the man who designed the Bluenose schooner is suing the province for copyright infringement after the launch of a restored replica, the Bluenose II. Descendants of William James Roue, whose design was the basis for the Bluenose in 1921, claim ownership of the design and are seeking compensation and to prevent use of the name Bluenose for the replica.
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The Calgary Stampede at 100
By Colby Cosh - Friday, July 6, 2012 at 6:59 AM - 0 Comments
It may be over-the-top and at times dangerous, but Calgary’s Wild West show is the best party in Canada
Photograph by David Campion
How did Calgary become the world capital of rodeo, the annual home of the “Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth,” the place most specially consecrated to the spirit of the cowboy? It is a rather odd circumstance: Americans must think something went badly awry on the map to have “Cowtown” end up north of the 49th parallel, in the old British Empire. It turns out that the whole thing was thought up by a johnny-come-lately who had nowhere else to turn.
Guy Weadick was born into a New York family of fast-talking Irish-American lawyers in 1885. That’s the year the last spike was driven into the Canadian Pacific Railway and Louis Riel helped the Metis stage their doomed bid for autonomy in the West. Weadick was only eight years old when the historian F.J. Turner blew the game-over whistle on the march of the American frontier. But with a head full of dime novels, young Weadick skipped Rochester to seek out the last cooling embers of the Wild West. The northern edge of the Great Plains is where he found them, spending time on Alberta ranches in 1904 and 1905.
Weadick developed riding and roping skills good enough to earn him a spot in Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show. Cody’s show and others like it brought the splendour and drama of the West to the world. But unlike Cody, the stylish, audacious Weadick was motivated by a sense of sacred mission: he thought the frontier should be commemorated in the West, for the West, with the world as invited guests.
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Beware of seniors driving scooters
By Julia McKinnell - Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 2:40 PM - 4 Comments
A Vancouver Island safety rodeo tries to rein in an often Wild West way of getting around
Here in Qualicum Beach on Vancouver Island, where the median age of residents is 60.9 (the oldest in Canada), you can’t stroll the main street without seeing a senior on a mobility scooter zipping into the pharmacy or zooming into a bank. For seniors who’ve failed a driving test or voluntarily relinquished a licence, the vehicle is a boon. There is no education class to take or test to pass. No insurance or licence is required. Speed limits don’t apply to mobility scooters, so you can’t get a speeding ticket.And if you’re a little unsteady one day from prescription medications and the scooter weaves a bit through traffic, “there’s not going to be an impaired charge,” says Const. Stewart Masi of the Oceanside RCMP detachment in Parksville, B.C. Mobility scooters are classified as pedestrians, he explains. “It’s like if they were walking down the street impaired. They’re not breaking any laws.” Continue…
