When it was reported over a week ago that PMO spokesperson Dimitri Soudas had literally called bullshit on claims fed to the press by Alykhan Velshi, it didn't sound as though Soudas was merely accusing Velshi of being misinformed. In fact the Toronto Star article in which this was reported informed us that: [Soudas] ... could not explain why the communications director to the immigration minister would tell the Star about the potential floor-crossers if they didn't exist. That sounds very much like as close to an admission from Soudas as we're likely to get that Velshi pulled the information …
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One of the enduring myths about this country is that we have this unlimited supply of fresh water and this isn't something we have to worry about. Wishful thinking. Climate change, hydro power destroying Canada's rivers Canada's rivers are at risk and some are even close to drying up because of climate change and growing demand for water, warns a new report. In its report "Canada's Rivers at Risk: Environmental Flows and Canada's Freshwater Future," the WWF-Canada looks at the health of 10 major rivers, not by analyzing the water quality but by assessing their water flow. ... According to the …
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Goldman Sachs 2009 bonuses to double 2008's On Thursday, Goldman Sachs will announce the firm's bonus payments for 2009. Analysts expect the bonus pool to mushroom to $23 billion -- double the bonus pool paid to employees in 2008. Oh look. There's more. Congressional lawmakers today expressed concern that another AIG bonus fiasco could soon unfold, on the heels of a new watchdog report criticizing the Treasury Department for failing to oversee pay plans at AIG before the bailed-out company dished out $168 million in retention payments in March. ... It could happen again, in March, when AIG is …
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Updated. Please see below. If you've been following the story of the Military Police Complaints Commission's attempts to hold public hearings into the treatment of detainees in Afghanistan then you'll recognize the name Richard Colvin. He's the Canadian diplomat who had previously expressed his willingness to testify and who had already defied the federal government's attempts to gag him by submitting a sealed affidavit. That affidavit was unsealed today and it's now easy to see why the government may have been a bit uncomfortable at the prospect of Colvin revealing what he knows. As the …
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Yesterday was what some refer to as Black Tuesday. The second Tuesday of the month is when Microsoft releases the operating system and application patches that weren't actually urgent enough to require immediate deployment. So when I booted up this morning I wasn't surprised to see the familiar message that there were updates awaiting download. But I was a bit surprised at how many there were. Microsoft releases biggest patch on record Microsoft Corp. issued its biggest software patch on record on Tuesday to fix a range of security issues in its programs, including the yet to be released …
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Ever since Liberal MP Gerard Kennedy accused the Conservative government of using the stimulus funds to reward some ridings in the country for electing Conservatives, I've been watching to see if the news media would follow up. It seems a much better use of the airwaves or newspaper column inches than endless speculation based on the whisperings of anonymous party strategists. And it takes the accusation of partisan spin out of the story when it can be reported as independent analysis rather than the usual he said/she said. So credit where credit's due to The Chronicle Herald: Spreading the …
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Canadian position prompted walk-out at climate talks The government's push to abandon much of the Kyoto protocol prompted dozens of developing countries to walk out on Canada's address during recent climate talks in Thailand, The Canadian Press has learned. The mass walkout came after the Canadian delegation suggested replacing the Kyoto Protocol with an entirely new global-warming pact, according to one of the negotiators and notes taken by others at the meeting. I'm so proud! We can now clear a room faster than any other country in the world! Incidentally, note this: U.S. President Barack …
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This is another edition of What Lindsay Stewart Said. …
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From an article reporting that Taser International is now recommending that users of its products avoid aiming for the chest: "When possible, avoiding chest shots with electronic control devices avoids the controversy about whether ECDs [electronic control devices] do or do not affect the human heart," said the bulletin said. ... Taser International says the risk of a cardiac arrest in connection with Taser use is low, but if this were to happen after the weapon hits the chest area, it would place police and the company in the "difficult situation of trying to ascertain what role, if any, the …
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The whole video was called Learning To Smile. This song, the closing tune, is called Gum Tree Canoe. …
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The latest dead tree issue of Maclean's is sitting beside my keyboard and the cover touts an exclusive story about our prime minister. No, it's not a hard hitting exposé about the politicization of the bureaucracy. And it's not a follow up investigation of the accusations that the stimulus funds are going predominately to Conservative ridings. It's "exclusive photos and interview" of Stephen Harper on his pop music debut. One of the photos shows the PM and his family crossing the street in imitation of the famous Beatles Abbey Road photo. Apparently those "exclusive" photos were taken …
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Ray Bonneville was born in Canada and raised in the U.S. He's a dual citizen and a Juno Award winner. That caption on the video that says "Blues for T-Bone" is a description. The title is Duke's Blues and it's a slow blues instrumental by the co-founder of Roomful of Blues and former member of The Fabulous Thunderbirds. A few weeks ago when I posted a vid featuring Lucky Peterson I mentioned that he was a keyboardist as well as a guitarist. On this performance of Little Red Rooster he's on Hammond Organ and backed up by Australia's Mighty Reapers. Have a good weekend. …
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CBC, Friday, Oct. 9, 2009: U.S. President Barack Obama is humbled by his Nobel Peace Prize, which was awarded to him by the Norwegian Nobel committee "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between people." Glenn Greenwald, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2009: ...yesterday, Sen. Joe Lieberman successfully inserted into the Homeland Security appropriations bill an amendment -- supported by the Obama White House -- to provide an exemption from the Freedom of Information Act's mandates by authorizing the Defense Secretary to suppress long-concealed photographs of …
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Now that we've been softened up with different media stories for a week or so: Troops to stay in Afghanistan after 2011: MacKay Canada's troops will stay in Afghanistan even after the combat mission ends in 2011, Defence Minister Peter MacKay told the House of Commons defence committee Thursday in Ottawa. ... The role of the troops will change from fighting a war to development and training, MacKay said. He side-stepped the question of how Canada will carry out such a mission with the resurgency of the Taliban in many parts of southern Afghanistan. The Conservative government will respect a …
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Bump and update. The original post was published yesterday and the update is below. Liberal trio looking to defect, Tories say OTTAWA-A Conservative government official said Monday there have been discussions with three Liberal MPs interested in crossing the floor to the Tory side over the past month. After a number of paragraphs of speculation concerning Liberal MP Ruby Dhalla, we get this: Conservatives wouldn't disclose the names of the three Liberal MPs they say are considering defection, but said Dhalla was not likely to be among them. They suggested Dhalla was circulating the defection …
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I just spotted this in a post Aaron Wherry wrote last night: For the record, that was Carolyn Bennett, objecting to the Health Minister's that there was no pandemic preparedness plan until the Harper government took power. I think there's a word missing there and it sounds very much as though Leona Aglukkaq is attempting to claim that there was no pandemic preparedness plan in Canada when the Conservatives took office. When I first got involved as the webmaster at Flu Wiki and we were discussing how to organize information, pandemic preparedness plans was one of the first subjects to be …
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Guilty until proven innocent isn't acceptable. It just isn't. Of all the political parties I would have expected the NDP to be the first to stand up for that. Any time the justice system operates on the basis that people have to prove their innocence, abuse follows. We should know that by now. H/t Jeff Jedras …
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There have been a number of developments with regard to the Military Police Complaints Commission's attempts to hold public hearings since I last posted on it. The short version is: government obstruction continues. The subject of that last report was the government's effort to put a metaphorical gag on all the witnesses. In comments to that, arborman suggested that the intent was probably to silence one or two without making the attempt obvious and while his analysis may well have been correct, the attempt to avoid having attention paid to any particular witness seems to have failed. Later …
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Today's installment of "Why Canada should think again about Afghanistan" comes from the Globe and Mail. The context is an Afghan general stating that the Afghan National Army (ANA) will be able to take over the fight against the Taliban on its own by 2013 which prompts this from a Canadian general: "You could make the case" that Canada is ending its combat role in Afghanistan two years too early, said Gen. Tremblay. "It's really up to Canada to decide it. And so far we're out of here." This story repeats what I've read elsewhere: that the ANA already consists of 96,000 troops which sounds at …
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From Greg's Sunday morning meditation: ... the Liberals are going to have a tough time growing their party beyond the limited range in which they find themselves. If you look at the polls, this is not because of the NDP. The NDP is stuck in its own historical range and has been for years. What has changed is the rise of specific issue parties, the Bloc and the Greens. To me, it is no coincidence that the rise of the Greens especially, has happened at the same time Liberal support has fallen. If you add the two parties' support together you get the traditional Liberal numbers. The NDP, for all …
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For Ottawa, tough choices loom over Afghanistan As the U.S. rethinks its strategy on Afghanistan, pressure is mounting on Canada to make a clear decision regarding the future of its hard-fought mission there. If you read the story carefully, you might be left wondering just who is applying this pressure. You can see at least an acknowledgement that Obama is reviewing strategy though no consideration of the possibility that he might make a decision that could have a profound affect on what anyone else does or could do in Afghanistan. But putting that aside for the moment, there has been a clear …
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Tonight's opening tune is an old traditional song called Tell Old Bill. This was a country song before Ry Cooder got hold of it. It was originally recorded by Jim Reeves. Cooder and company give it a slightly different flavour than on that original recording. This one ought to leave you feeling good as we head into the weekend. Levon certainly looks like he's enjoying it and he was 68 when this was recorded. …
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You'd almost think there was some central headquarters shaping the message and sending out the talking points. No, I'm not talking about Liberal bloggers all posting up exactly the same Jack Layton quote at the same time. I'm talking about Afghanistan. On Wednesday it was Jack Granatstein in the Globe and Mail* suggesting that we need another Manley commission to chart the future of Canada's involvement there. On Thursday it was the editorial board of the Toronto Star telling us that we really need to hurry up and have that debate. And today, it's the Canadian Press (as picked up by the …
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UN head fires envoy amid dispute over Afghan election results Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has removed Washington's top diplomat at the UN mission in Afghanistan following a row over the level of transparency in the recent presidential election. The departure of Peter Galbraith is seen as a victory for Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who had objected to the American's bid to be more outspoken about the alleged fraud in the Aug. 20 poll. Mr. Ban's office said the UN chief made the decision "in the best interest of the mission." I first saw this reported at the Times two weeks ago. That article, …
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That's the question posed by MP Paul Dewar at the end of this Canadian Press report. Federal lawyers are trying to block government witnesses from testifying before a military watchdog investigating the treatment of Taliban prisoners in Afghanistan, The Canadian Press has learned. The Justice Department has invoked national security and told the Military Police Complaints Commission that subpoenaed witnesses will be allowed to appear at the inquiry, but they will be instructed to say nothing when hearings begin next month. ... The order effects "every single government employee" slated to come …
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I've been wondering why Liberals haven't made more of the fact that the change their leader made in Outremont was not from one appointed candidate to another but from an appointed candidate to an open race for the nomination. I would have thought they'd take the opportunity to frame this as representing a rededication to grass roots democracy instead of looking for any opportunity to change the subject. Then it occurred to me that maybe they don't want anyone to think that Outremont is the beginning of a trend. That would explain it. I think the most interesting development in American …
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Charkaoui demands apology from government A Moroccan-Canadian man who was imprisoned or under surveillance for six years under a federal security certificate said Tuesday he wants a formal apology from the federal government. ... Charkaoui also said he has not ruled out seeking compensation from the federal government. "There are legal avenues open to me," he said. In comments on one of the previous posts about the security certificate stories skdadl suggested that she'd like to see a public inquiry into the methods and mistakes of CSIS. I replied that I didn't think it was likely because I …
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How to Keep Iran in Check Without War Seventeen years ago, in January 1992, the U.S. Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare of the House Republican Research Committee, asserted that there was a "98 percent certainty that Iran already had all (or virtually all) of the components required for two to three operational nuclear weapons." That same month, Binyamin Netanyahu told the Knesset that "Within three to five years, we can assume that Iran will become autonomous in its ability to develop and produce a nuclear bomb... (The nuclear threat) must be uprooted by an international front …
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The Wikipedia article on David Bromberg describes his style as "eclectic." Close enough. He gets some help from John Sebastian on harp on this one. I've seen Lucky Peterson described as "a child prodigy of the blues." He's on guitar on this one though he's equally adept on keyboards. Do I need to introduce The Neville Brothers? This tune was written by slide guitar wizard Sonny Landreth. Have a good weekend. …
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I've been ignoring the current controversy over the Liberal nomination in Outremont until I read this at CTV and a particular phrase jumped out at me. The fierce squabble over Martin Cauchon's political comeback is symptomatic of a party that has lost sight of the most basic tenets of democracy, says a former national director of the Liberal party. "We've turned into one big appointment society," Sheila Gervais told The Canadian Press. "It's a perfect democratic deficit storm." I remember the democratic deficit. It's that thing that Paul Martin was going to eliminate. I don't think I've used …
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Charkaoui nearly free The Federal Court of Canada said Thursday a security certificate against a Montreal man who has been imprisoned or under surveillance for six years will be dropped. Judge Danielle Tremblay Lamer said the only question remaining is how soon it will happen. This was expected. The government and CSIS are standing by their claims about Charkaoui but that's to be expected too. In the absence of solid evidence to back up their claims, he'll soon be a free man which is the way it's supposed to work. Meanwhile he spent two years in jail and four years under house arrest. I wonder …
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Has it occurred to anyone else but me that his statements about Israel and the Holocaust are exactly where Ahmadinejad wanted the world's attention to be focused? In which case, it was nice of so many people to accommodate him and maybe that's why he continues to have that insufferably smug smile on his face. Now he can go home and tell Iranians that the world continues to be against them. I don't think it pays to lose sight of the fact that while there may have been serious problems with the recent Iranian election, Ahmadinejad does have a base of support in the country. …
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Tory plans for U.S.-style prisons slammed in report The Conservative government plans to bring in an American-style prison system that will cost billions of taxpayer dollars and do little to improve public safety, according to a report to be released Thursday in Ottawa. The 235-page report, A Flawed Compass, is a scathing review of the government's plan, which it calls "immoral, unethical and illegal." The report was co-authored by Michael Jackson, a law professor at UBC, who described the Conservative plan as: "an ideological rant. All their recommendations are just that they believe in …
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David Olive, after thoroughly rebutting Prime Minister Harper's attempt to take credit for the homecoming of Tim Hortons Inc.: The next time I see Mr. Harper holding forth in a donut shop with a sneeze guard for a backdrop, I'll be thinking of Mary McCarthy's admittedly cruel assessment of bitter rival Lillian Hellman: "Every word she writes is a lie, including 'and' and 'the.'" …
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How strong a message does the Canadian delegation to the UN send by snubbing the president of Iran when our prime minister is snubbing everybody else including the president of the United States, the country that Harper himself calls our greatest friend and ally? H/t to Scott Tribe for the last two links. Edited for clarity. I could imagine someone saying "the Canadian delegation to what?" …
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The Globe and Mail posted two different stories related to Security Certificates last night. The first article concerns Mohamed Harkat and reports that the house arrest and constant surveillance he's been subject to will stop in favour of much less onerous measures. Some lesser restrictions - including an order to keep wearing an GPS ankle bracelet, stay away from cellphones and stay within the confines of greater Ottawa - remain as the government continues its long running bid to deport Mr. Harkat as a threat to Canada. Harkat had been in the news recently when a Federal Court Justice …
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Impolitical wants me to know that Michael Ignatieff will soon restore my faith in Liberals by making the Parliamentary Budget Office an independent office with the ability to report directly to the public. This is despite the fact that Liberals joined with Conservatives in blocking a move to do just that in July. I've been pointing out indications of the "culture of secrecy" in the federal government since Jean Chrétien was prime minister. The Conservatives have been particularly bad on this issue but the trend began with Liberals (and grew worse under Paul Martin than it was under …
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I've noticed at least a couple of Canadian bloggers take note of this story which has General Stanley McChrystal warning that we're risking defeat in Afghanistan and this next year will be decisive. I agree with the general that the situation is dire but I'm not sure that defeat is the appropriate word because it remains unclear what victory is supposed to look like. But I don't believe this next year is decisive. That train left the station a long time ago. I would also like to point out to those who are nodding in agreement with McChrystal that his report was leaked and it was done for the …
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'Hush' over Afghan mission must end: Kenny Liberal Senator Colin Kenny says politicians are too afraid of offending soldiers and their families by questioning Canada's role in Afghanistan, but it's important to have an honest debate about the mission. I couldn't agree more. At least I couldn't have agreed more if the Senator had spoken up earlier. Senator Kenny was in the news recently after writing an op-ed for the Ottawa Citizen about the mission in Afghanistan in which he used the word "retreat." It created a bit of a stir. In this follow-up story from CTV we find a rebuttal of Kenny's …
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A column by Angelo Persichilli in today's Toronto Star that seems intended to give us some serious analysis of recent political events gets off to a rocky start. "Don't upset me or I'll do what you want" is the subtle message that Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff was quietly delivering to NDP Leader Jack Layton during the last 12 months. But Ignatieff hasn't been the Liberal leader for 12 months. Persichilli has just written the Liberal-NDP coalition out of history. It's not a typo because it's repeated part way through the column: I'm sure that during the last 12 months the ideologues have …
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