27 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  1. This really is tip so I’ll dare repeat it. If the Liberals do form the next government I’d say this piece is truly prescient.
    The anti-Ibbitson: brilliant: “The anti-nation”, Dan Dunsky (produces “Diplomatic Immunity” for TVO), Toronto Star, Jan. 9, excuse length.
    http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&call_pageid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1136635118803
    Excerpts:
    ‘..today, Canada is really three nations: Quebec, the West, and the multicultural cities.
    Quebec is already separate within Canada. To the average Quebecer, the Canadian federal government is essentially irrelevant. Quebecers make almost all their own political and social choices, and international markets are as influential an economic force in the province as is the rest of Canada, perhaps more so…
    Meanwhile, more than one-third of Western Canadians believe it is time to consider separating from Canada, according to 2005 survey data. Western Canadian alienation is nothing new, but it has lately taken a different form with the rise of the Conservative Party, which dominates the region and is the official opposition…
    This leaves Canada’s increasingly multicultural cities. Five cities are home to 43 per cent of Canadians; Toronto alone accounts for 17 per cent of the total population. Canada’s cities are also the primary destination for immigrants and refugees to the country. About 20 per cent of Canada’s residents � and half of Toronto’s � are foreign-born, compared with 11 per cent in the United States, 5.6 per cent in France and 4 per cent in the U.K. Cities are therefore the testing ground for Canada’s multicultural experiment.
    However, multiculturalism rejects the idea that a single set of organized cultural beliefs and political principles are foundational to the nation’s public life. So multicultural Canada cannot demand, as other countries can and do, that new arrivals adapt to the country’s traditional cultural and political forms because, as the minister of citizenship and immigration has said, “we’ve developed, as a Canadian value, an appreciation of diversity � if not a complete nurturing of that diversity.”
    Furthermore, multiculturalism has today become an anti-Western impulse, specifically one that sees the United States as the locus of all manner of evil in the world. Therefore, large segments of Canada’s urban areas should be seen to be, in effect if not in intention, hostile to the Western political tradition in general and to American ideals in particular.
    In truth, Canada is now a country of three solitudes � four, if Canada’s ever more assertive native population is included � where each has increasingly little in common with the others. Quebec’s secessionist political parties obviously do not believe in trying to bridge these gaps. Significant portions of Canada’s Conservative Party probably do not believe in doing so either, though the party will not acknowledge this publicly. This leaves the federal Liberals as the only major party attempting to be pan-Canadian in its appeal [this election will show if the Conservatives can be perceived as pan-Canadian, which in fact they are trying to be]. And their only way of appealing to these disparate groups is by reference to the mythical Canadian values described earlier. “As the only truly national party,” Prime Minister Martin said this month, “we will defend Canadian values.”…
    Canadians should be mature enough to question whether the country created in 1867 is still acting in the best interests of all its citizens in 2006.
    Just as few predicted the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the break-up of Canada also seems far-fetched. Nevertheless, American policymakers should consider the possibility. In 1999, President Clinton said the United States “valued our relationship with a strong and united Canada. We look to you; we learn from you. The partnership you have built between people of diverse backgrounds and governments at all levels is… what democracy must be about, as people all over the world move around more, mix with each other more, live in close proximity more.”
    But what if the “partnership” Canada has built no longer supports America’s global roles and responsibilities? What if the essential condition for Canadian unity is an anti-American value system built into the national political process? In that case, it is unclear that Canada is a long-term ally of the United States out of anything more than economic necessity. In that case, is it still in America’s interest to support Canadian unity?’
    Mark
    Ottawa

  2. Captains Corner-Canada: “…if Harper gets his majority, the investigations into Adscam, Option Canada, and the income-trust insider trading will truly begin in earnest, as well as any other malfeasances. As one commenter from the Canadian capital put it, shredders in Ottawa have begun working overtime now.”
    I bet. Heh!

  4. i can guarantee you folks… if a radical muslim decided to burn a Danish flag,he would be hoisted from the yard arm in its place…

  5. “This creates strong suspicions the Liberals are waiting for an opportunity to go back to the Americans on missile defence at a later date,” said Mr. Staples, of the left-leaning Polaris Institute.
    “You’ve got to wonder why they are so sensitive on releasing even basic information.”
    Last year, Prime Minister Paul Martin declined to join the missile defence system, although his government has given its approval for the joint Canada-U.S. Norad alliance to relay missile warning information to the shield’s commanders.
    Click here
    http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=dd8471ef-e2e7-49f9-ad80-66ecfd69ec34&p=1

  8. Chan denies anti-gay stance
    Chinese-language newspaper quoted Richmond MP as saying he opposes gays� right to marry
    Peter O�Neil, Vancouver Sun
    Published: Monday, January 09, 2006
    OTTAWA –Multiculturalism Minister Raymond Chan has denied that he advocated using the Constitution�s notwithstanding clause to deny homosexuals the right to marry.
    Chan�s advocacy of the clause was reported in late April in the World Journal, a daily Chinese-language newspaper published in Vancouver that targets the Taiwanese immigrant community.
    The reporter who wrote the story, now being circulated in an English translation, says he stands by its accuracy.
    According to the story, Chan said he would advocate using the clause to stop Bill C-38, which passed in the House of Commons in late June.
    However, a new statement issued by Liberal party headquarters quotes Chan as saying: �I have never been willing to use the notwithstanding clause to deny same-sex couples the charter right to marry.�
    �This has been my position since the Supreme Court of Canada confirmed same-sex marriage as a charter right and reaffirmed the protection of religious freedom in 2004.�
    Roy Ruan, the reporter who interviewed Chan and wrote the April story, laughed when Chan�s new statement was read to him.
    Ruan noted that the minister was upset at the time about anti-gay-marriage groups attacking him.
    Ruan told The Vancouver Sun that Chan, while still refusing in April to say how he�d vote on C-38, said he�d personally �prefer to use the notwithstanding clause.�
    Chan, an evangelical Christian, voted for C-38 when it was passed in the House of Commons.
    Now he says he was misquoted and insisted that Ruan is incorrect.
    �I have always been very clear� that the notwithstanding clause isn�t a preferred option, Chan told The Vancouver Sun Friday.
    Neither Ruan nor Chan has a tape recording of the interview.
    Chan was quoted in the article as attacking a group called Defend Marriage B.C. for accusing him of being pro-gay-marriage.
    Chan was paraphrased saying he hoped to stop the legislation using the section of the Constitution that allows Parliament to override charter rights for up to five years.
    The issue is controversial because Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin has frequently accused the Conservatives and leader Stephen Harper of being too eager to trample on individual rights by invoking the notwithstanding clause, which has never been used by a federal government since the charter came into force in 1982.
    Chan is seeking re-election in the Richmond riding, where more than 40 per cent of the constituents are ethnic Chinese.
    He is running against Darrel Reid, the former president of Focus on the Family (Canada). Chan has attempted to portray Reid as hostile to the charter. >>>> more
    http://www.proudtobecanadian.ca/blog/

  9. EKOS withholding poll results because they are too shocking
    Translation…
    Monday 09 janv 2006
    FEDERAL ELECTIONS
    To grip majority?
    Marie-Claude Malboeuf
    The last daily survey of firm EKOS translates a so spectacular opening of the conservatives that the firm decided to wait this evening before revealing its results, in order to double his sample of 500 guarantors. “Our data are if surprising that it would be irresponsible to reveal them at one time as critical as the paddle of the debate”, explained to the Press the president of EKOS, Frank Graves. If the guarantors repeat themselves today, one will be able to evoke the possibility of a majority Conservative government, says it. “While waiting, the conservatives have at least the wind in the veils. Something is occurring, it is certain. What remains to be specified, it is the exact width of this increase.” According to the sounder, the Conservative wave strikes everywhere in Canada, including in Quebec, where it harms the Qu�b�cois Block especially. Elsewhere, they are the liberals who bail out. This weekend, a survey CPAC-SES Research revealed already that 23% of the Inhabitants of Quebec would prefer to have the Conservative chief Stephen Harper like Prime Minister, whereas only 13% of them thought the same thing before Christmas. The liberal Paul Martin and the bloquist Gilles Duceppe collect for their part 18% and 17% of supports, which represents a tumble. The advance of the Conservative Party was felt for the first time last week. The voters had just learned that the royal Gendarmerie of Canada inquired about an escape of privileged information, which could imply three liberal ministers and collaborator close relations of Paul Martin. Since, the media unearthed a new scandal by revealing the existence of another investigation of the GRC – this time, about Option Canada, organization having received a subsidy of 4,8 million Ottawa, without one knowing too much with what this money was employed. A book of the Norman journalist To ballast fate today on the subject, at the same time as a book of Gilles Toupin, corresponding parliamentary of the Press in Ottawa, which proposes for its part a “panorama” of the scandal of the mixed liability companies. Attention with the ind�cisD’ after another survey, carried out by the Decima house for the Canadian Press, outside Quebec, the undecided voters more tend to support the liberals the conservatives. The undecided ones of English Canada are worried than the average by the scandal of the mixed liability companies and tend less to want change. The revelation is interesting, since the traditional surveys hold account of the only voters having made their choice. However, according to the survey of Decima, 47% of the voters are still undecided, including 14,2% of undecided “truths” and 32,4% people pulled about between two parties. The voters who hesitate between the liberals and the conservatives leaned in a number equal for each one of these two parties to the moment of the survey. But they tend to think that the liberals would be placed best to control, and Paul Martin, the best choice like Prime Minister. They on the other hand perceive the conservatives like the party having the best approach on the questions which are due to them in heart.
    With the Canadian Press.
    Harper majoritaire ?
    http://www.rapp.org/url/?EVT8JRQS
    conservativelife.com

  10. Good article about how Sarmite Bulte was bought by the copyright industry.
    And Michael Geist’s lastest is worth reading as well. This is what’s at stake:
    Corporations should not be given the absolute power to regulate how Canadians enjoy their music. But thanks to Sarmite Bulte and her friends, we can expect the industry to:
    install more invasive “anti-piracy” software on our computers;
    restrict legal iPod use, and control how and where we enjoy music;
    place punitive tariffs on new music uses and channels that don’t serve corporate interests;
    and restrict how music fans discover new music by controlling podcasts, music blogs and other legitimate fan activity on the internet (check SOCAN tariff 22)

  11. Regarding Kathy’s reference to Murney and his commenters: I asked a former friend of mine, a late-blooming convert to UBC lesbianism who was rabidly pro-choice, what she thought of the selective aborting of female fetuses. She literally flew into a rage. She condemned the practice as barbaric, said that there should be a law against it, and she stopped just short of calling for capital punishment for it’s practitioners.
    It must have been my facial expression which compelled her to pre-emptively and angrily disavow any inconsistency on her part. I hadn’t said anything, but I learned that there was a Women’s Studies-propelled ovarian dispensation which decreed that having a Y-chromosome automatically invalidates opinions on certain topics (which over time came to include the category of “everything”), and also that the arguments of those women who held the wrong opinions could be dismissed without consideration or response on the grounds that any woman who would hold such opinions had been obviously brainwashed by the patriarchy.
    She voted Liberal, by the way — but that’s neither here nor there.

  12. ATTENTION ONLY CONCERNED CANADIANS WHO THINK THAT THERE’S A POSSIBILITY, HOWEVER SMALL, OF A CABINET MINISTER CLOSE TO THE PRIME MINISTER MISREPORTING FINANCES –
    Friends, check out the links for “Screechin’ Annie” [quote/unquote] that Kate posted at:
    http://stephentaylor.ca (Jan. 9th)
    &
    http://saveoureardrums.blogspot.com/2006/01/anne-riddle-me-this-if-you-would.html
    As well as being the Minister responsible for Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, Anne McLellan is our beloved Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister. And there may have been (intentional? couldn’t be… could it?) misreporting to Elections Canada and seriously fishy accounting irregularities.
    Q: Am I the only one who thinks there’s a story here?

  16. Ed:
    Oh.
    I thought it was the result of Paul Martin vomiting before tonight’s debate.
    I really should have paid attention in science class …

  18. The UBC Election Stock Market Poll as of 2pm.
    http://esm.ubc.ca/CA06/index.php
    CPC up 4 and the Libs down 3 in about 4 hours.
    Liberals 95
    CPC 130
    NDP 25
    Bloc 57
    I think the Liberals are tanking fast. Martin has said nothing to counter *any* of the bad news concerning the recent IT or Option Canada scandals and investigations.
    If Martin doesn’t win big in the debates tonight, or if Harper doesn’t screw up completely, this election is over.

  19. Does anyone know where we can find the “offensive” cartoons referred to in the NY Times article?

  20. Martin has been positioned beside Harper tonight so he can have a Mulroney-like moment, waving finger in face of TOry leader and shrieking about Canadian values. Nails-on-the-board Annie doing her best to say RCMP investigation isn’t really an investigation, and for God’s sake, would somebody please rip out her sinuses or adenoids? I can still hear her when i press ‘mute’

  21. CBC must have received a lot of flak for their “reality check” about the Conservatives raising taxes. They’ve actually posted a pretty good comparison of how the parties’ various tax cuts and spending promises add up.
    Result? It’s not even close!

  22. just got this via email…lmao
    silly svend
    one wonders just what he expected??
    ————————————
    Past brush with law is hurting Robinson’s chances at comeback, poll finds
    CanWest News Service
    Monday, January 09, 2006
    Svend Robinson’s past troubles with the law are derailing his bid to become MP for Vancouver Centre, a poll suggests. Liberal Hedy Fry, the riding’s MP since 1992, is in the lead in a Mustel Group Poll. Ms. Fry had 41% support among decided voters, compared with 33% for New Democrat Mr. Robinson, 19% for Tony Fogarassy, the Conservative candidate, and 7% for Jared Evans of the Green party. Mr. Robinson quit politics in 2004 after confessing to stealing a ring. Evi Mustel, president of the polling firm, said there were striking results in answers to the question: “Why have you chosen not to vote for Svend Robinson of the NDP?” Twenty-five per cent cited “past criminal charges” or “honesty, integrity, and character.”
    � National Post 2006

  23. I think Svend may have over-estimated how much his gayness will affect voting patterns. There are a ton of gays in his new riding, but I think most of them are smart enough to see beyond the “mental illness” rationalization for a very stupid act.
    Besides, Hedy (disgusting, lying slob that she is) ain’t no homophobe, either!

  24. Strong is the mentor, paypal of AdScam Martin.>>
    Claudia Rosett
    January 10, 2006, 9:28 p.m.
    Strong Implications
    What the Park arrest portends.
    excerpt:
    On July 16, 1997, Strong met with Park in New York, according to Volcker. That was two days after the reform package was announced. Within the week, again according to Volcker, Park traveled to Baghdad, picked up at least $1 million in cash, took it to Jordan and deposited it in a newly opened account in Amman’s Housing Bank. From that account, the bank that same day issued the $988,885 check, made out to “Mr. M. Strong” and dated July 30, 1997.
    A few days later, Park was back in New York, where, according to Volcker, Strong’s calendar showed an August 4 meeting with Park. By August 5, Strong had endorsed over the check as part of a transaction transferring to Park from another businessman, Theodore Kheel, an interest in Strong’s family-controlled company, Cordex � which soon after went bankrupt.
    In September, 1997, according to Volcker, Park made another trip to Iraq, obtaining yet more cash, which he again deposited in a Jordanian bank � again converting some of it into a bank check made out to “M. Strong,” this one dated Sept. 14, 1997, in the amount of $30,000. Volcker reports that Strong did not remember the payment. What became of this check is unclear.
    A month after that, on Oct. 13, 1997, Kofi Annan announced that in keeping with his reform plan, the Iraq-program office was to be opened under longtime U.N. staffer Benon Sevan. Two days later, on Oct. 15, 1997, Sevan set up shop. Saddam went on to scam Oil-for-Food to the hilt, allegedly bribing Benon Sevan starting the following year, in 1998, and kicking out the U.N. weapons inspectors, while Annan urged the Security Council to radically expand the program. By the year 2000, Saddam was demanding increasing kickbacks on oil sales, a baseline ten-percent kickback on almost all relief contracts, funneling rising payoffs to select contractors, and was well into his strategy of trying to buy influence among U.N. Security Council members China, France, and Russia.
    Strong remained at the U.N. until early 2005, although his further duties appear not to have involved the Oil-for-Food program. With the rank of undersecretary general, he served from 1998-2002 as Annan’s special adviser on human security, and from 2003 until early 2005 as Annan’s personal envoy to the Korean peninsula. Strong stepped aside last spring, when questions were raised about whether he might be the mysterious “UN Official #2” involved in meetings mentioned in an initial complaint against Park issued by New York federal prosecutors on March 21, 2005.
    The Volcker committee’s failure to note Strong’s role in the U.N. restructuring that created the Iraq-program office may perhaps be ascribed to the fact that the executive director of Volcker’s inquiry, former Canadian government official Reid Morden, recused himself from the portion of the investigation pertaining to Park and Strong. Morden did this because during the same years in which Oil-for-Food was taking shape, Morden himself, then running the Canadian government’s atomic-energy company, had business contacts with both Strong and Park.
    For example, in a footnote on page 100, volume II, Volcker’s Sept. 7 report informs us that during that period Morden sent a letter dated Oct. 16, 1996, to both Strong and Park “requesting on behalf of the Canadian atomic energy company the support of Mr. Strong and Mr. Park for the sale of ‘Candu 9’ nuclear reactors during their upcoming meetings in Korea with Korean leaders.” The Volcker report adds that the 1996 trip made by Strong and Park to Korea was not related to Oil-for-Food.
    Morden is now supervising the archives of the Volcker committee, which ended its inquiry into Oil-for-Food in October, but has agreed to make some documentation available until at least March 31st to judicial authorities of countries conducting their own investigations (after which there is serious danger the Volcker committee may hand over the archives to the shredder-prone mercies of the U.N.). In reply to a query about whether Morden’s current responsibilities might entail a conflict of interest, a Volcker committee spokesman says Morden “continues to recuse himself from any inquiries that touch on Mr. Strong.” >>
    http://www.nationalreview.com/rosett/rosett200601102128.asp

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