April 29, 2004
Go nominate Don Cherry! The nomination form is here, (note it is only open to Canadians living in Canada or abroad.)
16:16: From commenter Nik, it's possible Don Cherry's contract won't be picked up by CBC next season (and the article further notes that there may not be NHL play in 2005 unless they can settle the contract dispute.)
22:00: Paul's aboard!
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Thanks for the link. A 1991 Ontario arbitration law permits such arbitration according to religious principles, just as rabbis in Jewish communities and priests in Christian communities help to resolve civil disputes, said Brendan Crawley, a spokesman for the Ontario attorney general."People can agree to resolve disputes any way acceptable," Crawley said in an interview. "If they decide to resolve disputes using principles of sharia and using an imam as an arbitrator, that is perfectly acceptable under the arbitration act."
As the article notes, this is only for civil disputes and sharia tribunals cannot rule for third parties, including children. The key quote is from Concordia anthroplogy professor, Homa Hoodfar, who notes:
"I just feel this is completely 'black box' and nobody knows what is in it, and yet the government is giving the go-ahead for it. They didn't consult the Muslim community. They didn't put out a discussion. Nobody knows what it is."We can say that about a lot of decisions up here: they just land with no warning or public discussion.
What hasn't been assessed by those who approved the tribunals are the consequences if a Muslim woman elects to let a Canadian civil court arbitrate civil issue such as divorce. Alia Hogben of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women said:
"If I am a woman of faith, and the community of people who see themselves as leaders say that if I do not follow the sharia court here, the Islamic Institute, then I will be tantamount to blasphemy and apostasy," Hogben said in a debate shown on Canadian television. "And you know that in some countries, apostasy means death sentence."
It's a pretty balanced piece, free of hysteria and addresses concerns over the tribunals.
(Link via Right Wing News.)
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April 26, 2004
In another related story, RCMP commissioner Guiliano Zaccardelli told an international conference on counter-terrorism that Canadians need to begin to assess how best to balance security and privacy, noting that these assessments have yet to take place among lawmakers as well as citizens:
Zaccardelli said Canadians haven't even talked about that balance.Is it just me, or was that admission downright embarrassing? at a conference on counter-terrorism, no less.
I predict that the upcoming meeting between President Bush and Prime Minister Martin will be spun by the Canadian media as Martin giving Bush advice and offering expertise in whatever the government's Expertise Flavour of the Week might be at the time (I think we can safely rule out balancing security concerns with privacy, though.) The US government will acknowledge the visit, probably in a press briefing, and there won't be much spin but platitudes aplenty: "The President and Prime Minister had a very fruitful discussion ... it was a valuable exchange of ideas ... they got along quite well ... shoulder to shoulder ... the Terrence-Phillip issue didn't come up ..."
Apr. 28 - 17:55: Here's a brief overview of the security plan and there's more in depth at CTV news including this curious bit:
To ensure that civil liberties are protected as the country strengthens its security systems, a new advisory body will be established, called the Cross-Cultural Roundtable on Security.It will be composed of representatives of cultural groups and religious communities and will provide a forum for concerns about how security efforts may be affecting Canada's multicultural society.
"The National Security Policy protects our collective security interests in a way that reflects core Canadian values of tolerance, openness and respect for fundamental rights and freedoms," said McLellan.
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April 25, 2004
Millholland asserts his innocence and that he would never be party to bribery or corruption. The article concludes with a lofty assertion of high principles and decency:
Mr. Millholland has travelled to Iraq several times and he has been an outspoken critic of the sanctions and the U.S. occupation. He said he got Oilexco into the oil-for-food program as a way of helping people in the country and he resents any suggestion that he was an apologist for the Saddam regime.Think of the children. How original.He said he welcomed the UN review of the oil-for-food program. "It wasn't a total failure from a humanitarian perspective," Mr. Millholland said. "But the other side of it was the corruption of it. The questions from the diplomatic side is, did they know about the corruption and overlook it and say that it was something that was inherent in the system and it was a lesser of two evils. In other words, if you have kids that are dying, do you stop the food going in to stop the corruption and cause more kids to die?"
A real reporter would have asked "And when you found no kids had died because of the sanctions but many died due to the expired drugs and substandard hospital equipment, did you feel like a total idiot?"
Or "When you learned that Saddam had a prison just for children, did you feel the slightest twinge of doubt?"
Or even "Can you describe how you felt when the bodies of children clutching their dolls were unearthed in mass graves?"
The reporter, by the way, is Paul Waldie.
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Joe Clark, the saviour of all that was worthwhile in the conservative movement. The Liberals loved it and because the Liberals loved it, the media did too. In the service of the Liberal Party and Liberal government, they built his political acumen out of all proportion to what the man is really capable of. It also served their own ends.Apr. 27 - 12:35: Joe Clark should have stayed Joe Who. Now Paul is on his case... and Bob is running a contest to Name Joe Clark's World.He became a legend in his own mind as he began to believe all the nice things his political enemies were saying about him!
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Mustafa, 26, an Islamic school official in Ottawa, has memorized the guide and says it's a handy tool for his students. He didn't want his last name published."It's very important given the (political) climate we are living in," he said.
The guide is free and available upon request, but an abbreviated version can also be downloaded from the CAIR-CAN website. It is part of the group's Ottawa Raid Community Kit, a larger education campaign dealing with the fallout from the RCMP raid on the Khawaja family home in Ottawa last month.
Canadian-born Mohammad Momin Khawaja, 29, faces two terrorism-related charges. Details of his case remain secret, but it's the first time a charge has been laid under Canada's Anti-Terrorism Act.
"It's been a huge shocker for the community," he added. "In this case, it is a family well-known in the community."
"So there is certainly this fear that if it can happen to someone who is so run-of-the-mill in the community, then it can happen to me."
What's missing? They mention Mohammad Momin Khawaja, and you might well think I mean the Khadr family who's brazen flouting of their terrorist sympathies and close association with bin Laden, however loathsome, is not in violation of Canadian law.
Maybe you're thinking of would-be LAX bomber Ahmed Ressam, but he's in jail in the US, not Canada, because an American border guard caught him. His roommate in Montreal, Mustapha Labsi, was also said to be trained by al Qaeda, but he was arrested in London and released after serving a 6 month sentence.
Maybe you're thinking of Raouf Hannachi, who Ressem says recruited him. He returned to Tunisia.
And what of fellow al Qaeda trainee Adil Charkaoui, known to Ressem as Zubeir Al-Magrebi, who remains in Canadian custody on a security certificate and may be a sleeper of the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group?
Amr Mohamed Hamed of British Columbia was killed at an Afghan al Qaeda training camp in 1998, but not Montreal Abderaouf Jdey, who's martyr suicide note was found in Kabul and for whom the FBI has issued a world-wide warrant for his arrest.
Maher Arar was released by Syria without explanation shortly after the US vetoed a UNSC condemnation of Israel for bombing a terrorist camp in Syria. I thought it was wrong to send him to Syria when he was first detained in the US on principle, and his release from Sytia is not, for me, proof of his innocence (except in the "until proven guilty" sense.)
Does the name Mohammed Abdullah Warsame ring a bell? He too is under inditement in the USA.
The most dangerous Canadian until his capture in Thailand may have been Jabarah who was in charge of al Qaeda operations in Asia and played a leading role in the Bali bombing.
[Apr. 26 - I got up this morning and it hit me: Hambali, who is not a Canadian, was captured in Thailand. Jabarah was taken into custody in a third country, deported to Canada, and from here turned over to US officials to a hue and cry from the media and civil rights groups. His home is St. Catharines. His brother was killed in a shootout with Saudi police.]
The truth about the political climate we're living in is that it makes everyone nervous. The truth about CAIR is a rant for another time.
Apr. 26 - 9:10 Fred points out I forgot Marc Lepine, born Gamil Rodrigue Gharbi, of the 1989 Montreal Massacre. Thank you for the reminder and the link, Fred.
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April 22, 2004
Mark reports that the morning show on Q107 has been having fun with this round of the play-offs. Apparently they've got this ditty going:
We hate the Flyers.
Bobby Clarke is a Maggot.
Okay, it isn't poetry, but it is emotionally satisfying.
Guess you'd have to remember some play-offs during the 70's to get how some of us feel about the Flyers (and I'm not saying it's rational, it just is.)
Next superstition we invoke is putting the Leafs poster up in the window (never ever put it up during the first round of the play-offs. That's bad luck.) Gotta run and do that like now - no, wait, let the Men Do The Work.
I think we're now allowed to say "the Leafs could go all the way this year if they can just get past Philly" but I have to check.
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From the Telegraph, UN officials 'covered up Saddam theft of billions in aid for Iraqis':
Saddam Hussein diverted huge sums from the £60 billion United Nations oil-for-food programme for the poor and sick of pre-war Iraq to foreign governments and vocal supporters of his regime worldwide, the US Congress heard yesterday.The Telegraph also has a scathing leader (editorial) Iraq has enough troubles without adding the U.N. which concludes:Senior UN, French and Russian officials were alleged to have connived at the scandal, said Claude Hankes-Drielsma, who is leading the Iraqi Governing Council inquiry into the affair.
He said some suppliers, mostly Russian, routinely sent out-of-date or unfit food, or sent fewer goods than were paid for and padded out contracts. In that way they created an excess that could be skimmed off by Iraqi officials.
One of those named in Iraqi files as having received bribes on the sale of oil is Benon Sevan, the UN official in charge of the programme. Mr Sevan, who is on extended leave pending retirement, denied the claims.
Mr Hankes-Drielsma, a former leading executive at the London-based auditors Price Waterhouse, said that Saddam and his henchmen pocketed billions in surcharges and bribes.
The biggest humanitarian scheme in the UN's history had provided the dictator and "his corrupt and evil regime with a convenient vehicle through which he bought support internationally by bribing political parties, companies, journalists and other individuals of influence.
"The very fact that Saddam Hussein, the UN and certain members of the Security Council could conceal such a scam from the world should send shivers down every spine in this room today."
There are enough problems attendant on the birth of democracy in Iraq without burdening the country with an organisation that proved so inadequate in confronting the previous dictatorship, whether over oil for food or defiance of Security Council resolutions. George W Bush and Tony Blair may welcome shedding the odious status of occupiers. But they should be under no illusions that the UN will prove an adequate substitute. Given its record in the Balkans and the Middle East, their continuing faith in that body as providing a unique cloak of legitimacy is astonishing.more...
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April 21, 2004
One car exploded in Az Zubayr and then, 30 minutes later as people gathered at the scene, a second suicide car bomb went off in the same location, police officer Hassan Kahlaf said. He said that the first bomber was dressed as a policeman.18 children on their way to school are among the dead.
The rage such atrocities arouses is too immense for words. May the bullets of our soldiers find and target the bastards that plan these murders.
20:49 Alaa has a pointed response to the coverage by the Arabiya reporter on the scene. Read it. (End update)
A Dane who disappeared in Iraq April 11 has been found dead.
No information has been released about the man's identity or nature of his death. Did he, like Fabrizio Quattrocchi, show too much courage for his captors?
Another Canadian has been taken hostage. From the Canadian Office of Foreign Affairs:
A spokesperson for the department said Rifat Mohammed Rifat (sic) has been missing since April 8. Ottawa confirmed on Tuesday he is Canadian and has been kidnapped.Thanks to Nik for sending me the link. Nik comments in the emailHe is alive, the spokesperson said, but Ottawa doesn't know who kidnapped him or where he's being held.
Rifat, 41, was last seen leaving work at a prison west of Baghdad, where he was working for a Saudi company doing repairs.
His brother, Ali Rifat, reported him missing.
It's not clear his captors know he is Canadian.
"It's not clear his captors know he is Canadian." But it's pretty DAMNED CLEAR they don't give a f***. (Lightly edited by me.)
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In an excellent display of solidarity, two Canadian bloggers have redesigned the look of their site to bring you the Government of PolSpy located in Canaduh.
However, with tabs like "Boondoggles" and "Song Parodies," they come much closer to the "Common Look and Feel layout" that many Canadians believe federal sites should have. Bring it on indeed.
But it seems there's just no pleasing the federal government. The undeclared federal election up here has produced a lot of undeclared federal campaigning and thus inevitable (albeit declared) name-calling and labelling.
One label is that the Conservative Party is Un-Canadian. That has always been implied by the Liberal Party, but to come right out and say it? So much for values as tolerance, diversity, and freedom which are Canadian and which the Liberal Party defends by being intolerant, undiverse and attacking the freedom to disagree with them.
In the USA, the issue of national defense has been attacked as paranoia-mongering by some Democrats and leftists and they continually defend themselves against unmade accusations of unpatriotism. Up here, the issue of Canadianism is defended by the Liberal party and some leftists with paranoia-mongering and they accuse the Oppostion of unpatriotism.
This strategy was unveiled by the Liberal Party campaign co-chair David Herle, and, as Jay posted here,
What's amazing about Herle is his ability to conclude that if you take issue with the Liberal agenda in Canada you are anti-Canadian.Evidently, the Liberals plan to be the Committee on Un-Canadian Activies until election day.Usually, when a political party sees its agenda and performance as synonymous with the nation it is well past time for that party to spend some time in Opposition. The last thing Martin needs is a senior party operator telling people that Canada and the Liberal Party are, well, the same thing.
Spin Killer interprets all this succinctly:
If you ask the Liberals a question they can't answer...you are a bigot redneck!
So what are Canadian values? Maybe these? Or how about these? Exactly how do the Opposition parties violate them?
Laurent wonders when waste, mismanagement, embezzlement, theft, fraud, lies, misrepresentations, corruption, cronyism and patronage became Canadian values.
Ouch.
Maybe the Liberals might consider hiring Occam's Carbuncle, who has come up with these campaign slogans (link via Let It Bleed.)
Normally I'd demand the Liberals campaign on the issues, but as a main issue is the Liberal Party itself, that could be a problem.
Interesting times.
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April 19, 2004
The problem remains the same for too many of the cases: no witnesses willing to speak up.
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Fadel had been working for the International Rescue Committee in Iraq when he and another associate, Nabil Razouk, 30, an Arab from East Jerusalem, were kidnapped.
There has been no new information on Razouk.
Once his captors saw a photocopy of his Canadian passport, he was taken to the office of Muqtada al-Sadr in Najaf.
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April 18, 2004
On the bright side, it could give Paul material for tomorrow. Screeching Bill Graham is one of his favourites.
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A Moroccan extremist faction suspected of carrying out the March 11 bombings in Madrid had a sleeper cell in Montreal and Ottawa, according to a Moroccan press report.The article notes that Nfia may have made these assertions under torture.The newspaper also claimed that Adil Charkaoui, the Montrealer held on a security certificate and alleged by authorities to be an al-Qaeda sleeper agent, is one of two members of the Canadian cell of that extremist group.
Yesterday's edition of Aujourd'hui Le Maroc said the information was given to investigators by Nouredine Nfia, an imprisoned leader of the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group.
Mr. Charkaoui, the newspaper said, was in charge of logistics, sent a laptop computer to the group, and twice wired $2,000 (U.S.) to it.
The other Canadian sleeper agent was a 28-year-old Ottawa resident who was identified only as "Abdeslam the Canadian," it said.
(I have no memory of where I came to find this link. My apologies if I lifted it from someone without credit.)
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April 17, 2004
Why did we amalgamate again? Oh right, to reduce duplication in services and save money by reducing the numbers of civic workers and thus reducing the tax load on residents and the need for payments from the province.
The words "dismal failure" spring to mind.
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Joe is a Torontonian, which everyone probably already knows, but he also likes two of my favourite authors: Tokien and Bronowski. I'm particularly gratified as it's been a long time since anyone has mentioned the latter, who argued that the imagination is absolutely required in science.
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April 16, 2004
Last Thursday, there was a knock on my door and a friendly fellow from Canada Post had a registered letter for me. The letter was from a lawyer with the Department of Justice (DoJ) acting for the Treasury Board.Read the whole thing; Jim adamantly denied he copied anything, and points outThe Government of Canada has requested that I cease and desist from what they contend is reproducing the Government of Canada's corporate signature, the Canada wordmark and the Common Look and Feel layout.
Surprisingly, the letter was sent from Ottawa, dated April 8 and it arrived here on the morning of April 8. Ottawa is over 400km away. Canada Post can be fast.
If I were to take a $100 million cheque into my bank and the signature read, "Definitely NOT Reg Alcock," I'm fairly certain the bank would know right away that the cheque did not bear the signature of the Treasury Board president Reg Alcock.At first glance, it does resemble official Canadian websites, but only at first glance. For one thing, it says very clearly "Definitely NOT the Goverment of Canada." For another, it gets right down to business without the obligatory introduction page, Mission Statement, language selection, and all the other fun pages you impatiently click through to get the information you seek. Most importantly, it is not written in bureaucratese.
As I said, clearly not a government site.
It would have been more to the Treasury Board's credit had they asked for some pointers on how to construct a web site that actually greets and meets the visitor's needs instead of the pissy approach.
Jim speculates that the high volume of traffic he's had over Adscam may have triggered the letter, and although it sounds paranoid, I'm actually inclined to believe him because there is a precedent.
Last December, bullying tactics were used in an attempt to shut down the parody site Paul Martin Time which was first reported by Boing Boing here (see posts and media coverage on the threatened lawsuit here.)
The creators of Paul Martin Time made some changes to the website's appearance, but that was not what Mr. Martin's representatives really wanted: they want the web site gone altogether.
The Treasury Board would do well to back off. The web logging community has some experience in acting in unison (for example, publicizing and championing Iranian bloggers when their government caught and arrested them) and however much it may appear that we are divided by a great political chasm, we do understand the right of free speech sufficiently to know that we must stand by and defend one another against censorship and harassment.
Taking on the one site that lists all bloggers in Canada may simply be a supremely stupid move, but if they are actually serious and try to regulate the appearance of web logs, the alarm bells will go off everywhere.
Please visit Jim's site and read his post on this battle. Your freedom may depend on it.
Hmm, Jim reports something odd in this post.
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April 13, 2004
Abdul Karim Khadr was released last January by Pakistan authorities after being shot in the spine during a shootout with al Qaeda forces and the Pakistan army last October. He is in need of medical care and has returned to Canada to receive it.
He doesn't qualify for OHIP (free health care) until he has been in the country for 3 months, although the Canadian government has not confirmed that to be the case.
His wounds were sustained during hostile actions against a friendly nation (Pres. Musharref was in Canada only a few months ago and addressed the Parliament) and too I don't know if OHIP would cover injuries sustained from such activity.
The reaction by the Oppostion was predictable, but not the widespread sentiment about the return.
It may be due in part to the fact that the Khadr family (brief history here, much more detailed history here) has taken advantage of Canadian openness on far too many occasions. The country was shocked when one of the sons, Abdurahman Khadr, returned to Canada after his release from Guantanamo and admitted that, despite their protestations of innocence, the Khadr's had in fact been activer supporters of al Qaeda, knew Osama bin Laden, and even stayed at his residence.
A great many Canadians had believed they were innocent, so it's not hard to imagine how they felt when they learned they had been played for fools.
Except for Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, of course. He expressed his views today:
Until Ottawa says otherwise, McGuinty said Canadian citizens Maha Elsamnah, her 14-year-old son Karim and his brother Abdurahman Khadr, 21, are as entitled as anyone else in Ontario to receive health-care coverage or apply for social assistance benefits.Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham also spoke up:
Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham said Tuesday in Toronto that the Khadrs have rights as citizens.There you have it: it's a law enforcement issue."The thing about Canada is that we live in a society of law - we have to deal with terrorism, we have to deal with many problems."
"There is a man out west accused of serial murder that they're investigating but the investigation and the trial will be conducted within the Canadian legal framework and within the Charter (of Rights). The Khadr's have citizenship and they're entitled to that."
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"(The tape) shows him giving a different name and saying he's Israeli and this is what we've been trying to correct," [Fadi's brother Ghayas] Fadel said in an interview from his home near Montreal.The Canadian ambassador to Jordan, John Holmes, held a televised news conference in Amman today to confirm Fadi's identity.
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