Sleeping Bear

Mark Totan is the artist -- originally from Nunavut he now lives in Alberta.

Voluntary action required in criminal law

The Court of Appeal decision in R. v. Luedecke, 2008 ONCA 716, released Friday, deals with a claim that a man was not guilty of sexual assault because he was sleepwalking. In discussing the claim the Court reviewed the need for conduct to be voluntary for it to be criminal.

A central assumption in criminal law is that conduct which is criminal is voluntary and, accordingly, punishment is not mere vengeance but serves a purpose. If conduct is not voluntary the justification for punishment is problematic.

Quaere how many crime of passion are committed without some element of compulsion?
The Court writes:

[53] Conduct that is not voluntary cannot be criminal ... . The voluntariness requirement is a principle of fundamental justice protected by s. 7 and s. 11(d) of the Charter: R. v. Daviault (1994), 93 C.C.C. (3d) 21 (S.C.C.), at pp. 48-49, 69.

[54] A claim by an accused that his or her conduct was involuntary and should result in an acquittal for that reason can arise in a variety of very different circumstances. Automatism is the legal term used to describe one specific kind of involuntary action: see Bratty v. Attorney General for Northern Ireland, (1963) 3 All E.R. 523 (H.L.), per Lord Denning at pp. 408-409; Parks, per La Forest J. at p. 302. Automatism refers to involuntary conduct that is the product of a mental state in which the conscious mind is disassociated from the part of the mind that controls action. A person in a state of automatism may perform acts, sometimes complicated and apparently purposeful acts, but have no control over those actions: William Wilson, et al., "Violence, Sleepwalking and the Criminal Law: (2) The Legal Aspects" (2005) Crim. L.R. 614, at pp. 615-16. North P. put it this way in R. v. Burr, [1969] N.Z.L.R. 736 ( C.A. ), at p. 744:

In my opinion then there is now clear judicial authority for the view that in order for a defence of automatism to succeed, the person whose conduct is under review must be unconscious of what he was doing. In short that what he did was an unconscious involuntary act... [I]n my opinion, the evidence must be sufficient to lay a proper foundation for the plea that the accused person acted through his body and without the assistance of his mind, in the sense that he was not able to make the necessary decisions and to determine whether or not to do the act. [Emphasis added.]

[55] The disassociative state that is the hallmark of automatism can be caused by many things including disease, mental illness, concussion, drugs, and parasomnia. Each of these conditions can produce a condition in which an accused, while capable of complex, apparently goal-oriented conduct, is incapable of exercising any control over those actions. As will be discussed below, the cause of the automatism is an important consideration in characterizing the nature of the automatism.

Flocke saves the day

Uuaaargh! Flocke, heroine of the Polar Sea, in a bitter fight with the dangerous giant squid. It's a matter of life and death. But fearless Flocke throws herself into the floods and destroys the monster.

Colby Cosh

Maybe this is not exactly the right time to be returning to that old wellspring of Western political grievance, but the wake of a federal election is always a time when the "monolithic" voting tendencies of Albertans become the subject of renewed derision and anger elsewhere, and it remains frustrating for us. Our conservative ideological habits are fair game for criticism; what's bothersome is that the mere fact that most of us agree with one another is singled out, in itself, for contempt. Let me state for the record that we do not love the dominance of a single party for its own sake; we were the ones, remember, who found a firm tug-of-war footing opposite Quebec and tore the old Progressive Conservative party in half, from its pie hole to its pant legs. We're aware that painting our electoral maps blue with an extra-large roller is boring and creates an impression of conformity, but we don't regard politics as entertainment. No one, especially in this most recent federal election, could credibly accuse us of not acting on our own basest, most self-evident interests. One cannot simultaneously complain that the united Conservatives are a vehicle for alien, savage Alberta values and then grouch that the alien savages themselves support the party. And, obviously, fear of what our neighbours will think doesn't have much to do with how we conduct ourselves politically. No threat of community vengeance appears to be discouraging busy, successful people from declaring themselves to be Liberals or New Democrats. Rest assured, every time out, those parties do manage to field a full province-wide slate of more or less respectable candidates: lawyers who somehow know their practice won't suffer, church elders who know that working for "social justice" will do nothing but burnish their credentials, charity organizers who know that the fellow Albertans in their Rolodex will keep signing up for their banquets and golf tournaments despite their heresy, farmers and teachers who know that they'll still be able to return to a job or rent pasture from their neighbours when the dust has settled. Yes, Alberta's "monolithicness" -- er, monolithicity? -- does make for boring TV coverage on election night. It is rare to see a human being as unhappy as a regional anchor forced to recite an endless list of victorious Tory incumbents. But as it happens, the horserace-watching was a little livelier on this particular Tuesday. In Edmonton-Strathcona, a riding engineered such that the votes of rich neighbourhoods have traditionally drowned out the voices at the University of Alberta, Rahim Jaffer met his unexpected Waterloo; ahead for much of the night, Canada's first-ever Muslim MP watched in dismay as late campus polls threw the race to New Democrat Linda Duncan. Anyone who thinks informal grassroots co-operation between the parties of the left is an impossibility should be studying this constituency very closely. Liberal candidate Claudette Roy, an Order of Canada laureate and the acknowledged leader of a sizable federally-supported francophone enclave that lies within the riding, could have been expected to mount a formidable challenge for the seat. But Strathcona Liberals decided to rally around the NDP's Duncan, spreading the word by back channels and on the net, and Roy's campaign remained in first gear. In 2006, Jaffer got 42% of the vote to Duncan's 33% and the Liberals' 18%. Jaffer's share was exactly the same this week, but Duncan edged him out with 42.5% as Roy captured a perfunctory 9%. If Stephen Harper tries to ask for another election before the opposition parties are feeling confident in their ability to stop him through their own distinct efforts, we are likely to see a lot more of this sort of co-ordination, as frustrated leftist voters strive for the unity their leaders refuse to contemplate. That would mean a lot more Conservatives losing ostensibly three-way races with vote shares approaching or exceeding 40% -- a phenomenon in Canadian politics that is currently rare to the point of being exotic. National Post colbycosh@gmail.com

Belinda?

Lots of folks have been commenting that Belinda might make a good leader.

I hadn't thought of it -- and am very unsure about it -- but there seems to be some support.

(I still like Flocke)

How not to help the homeless

Reports from British Columbia today speak of a decision where a judge ruled the homeless have a right to camp in local parks. Some call this a landmark victory for the poor in Canada.

Ignoring the legals merits of the decision -- and those are questionable -- the underlying thinking is wooly headed patronizing claptrap that hurts the homeless and society as a whole.

There is a real homeless problem in Canada. But the problem is invisible.

How so? Well, there are untold people without a home cadging a foldaway bed from friends or family. They are not "homeless" in the sense they have no address, but they are without a home, a place to call their own. These folks often, usually in fact, have jobs but they don't have the money to get a place for themselves. These are people who need help to get shelter; proper government incentives to build lower price housing, to improve the quality of jobs available and to increase rental accomodation will solve this problem.

The street people we see are usually not there because of low wages but rather because of mental health or addiction issues. To allow them to camp in public parks does not address their real issues. These are people who need to be taken into care, treated and, G-d willing, sent back into the wider world able to care for themselves. Saying they can sleep in a park merely condemns them to a brutal, and likely short, life while making what is a needed place for public recreation unusable. We need residential mental health beds and a park bench is no subsititute.

Caring for street people is not the same as enabling them and saying "fine, like on the street". It means taking them into care, feeding and treating them.

Look to Matthew 25:

'Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry, and you gave me food to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in; naked, and you clothed me; I was sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me.'


See story below:

B.C. court says homeless can camp in parks
Jim Gibson , Canwest News Service

VICTORIA - The city's homeless can now set up camp in Victoria parks, according to a B.C. Supreme Court decision Tuesday.

"Yesterday it was illegal to set up my tent. Today it isn't," said David Johnston, one of the homeless activists who argued they have a right to sleep outdoors on public property.

Lawyer Catherine Boies Parker, who acted on behalf of the homeless campers in their court challenge of the city's anti-camping bylaw, confirmed the 108-page judgment upheld their argument that a City of Victoria bylaw that prohibits using "temporary abodes" like tents and large tarpaulins for shelter in parks and public spaces violates the rights of the homeless.

She said the judgment noted that in the absence of sufficient safe and secure beds for the homeless, it was unconstitutional for the city to prevent them from erecting some form of shelter to protect themselves from the elements.

The decision came three years after a group was arrested in October 2005 for setting up a "tent city" in a Victoria park. The eviction sparked the court challenge.

"We don't have to search every morning and night for a place to sleep," Johnston said.

He predicted that tent cities will spring up in other municipalities once the decision becomes widely known.

Such encampments "might be the thing which saves us from the economic crush," he said.

At a city hall news conference, Mayor Alan Lowe predicted the impact of the decision will be felt throughout Canada.

"This judgment demonstrates what years of cuts to social programming and housing programs has done. Municipal governments were never in the business of providing housing and social support services to individuals in need," Lowe said, calling on higher levels of government to respond to the court decision.

The judgment does not bode well for city parks, Lowe warned. "Our city parks are not equipped to support camping of any kind.

"We've seen first hand the ill effects of tent cities. In 2005 . . . we saw a tent city that had become a hub of illegal activity, health concerns and vandalism," he said.

"These are not acceptable conditions for our parks and green spaces, but even more importantly these conditions are not acceptable for the homeless."

9-year-old drives for drunk mom: police

You couldn't make this up.

NATIONAL POST
 
Canwest News
 

OTTAWA -A Lanark County OPP officer did a double take on Sunday when he saw what looked like a child slowly driving toward him on County Road 1, just south of Perth. After pulling the car over, the officer found a nine-year-old girl driving the car home for her mother, who was in the passenger seat. The woman was concerned that she was unable to drive because she'd been drinking at a party. It was just after 10 p. m. The 35 -year -old Drummond North Elmsley Township woman was charged with careless driving. Her name was not released. Perth is 60 kilometres west of Ottawa.

James Morton
1100 - 5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4

All these names

Why don't we wait and see what happens? We have a Leader.

The Conservatives are fomenting discord and they'd love to see a nasty leadership fight -- of course we do have a lot of names but any of them would do well in a leadership role:

Michael Ignatieff
Martha Hall Findlay
John Manley
Bob Rae
Gerard Kennedy
Frank McKenna
David Peterson
Flocke the German Polar Bear Cub
Ken Dryden
Scott Brison
Joe Volpe
Ralph Goodale

James Morton
1100 - 5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4

Gunman opens fire in Calgary bar, injures 5

This is a terrible crime. Canada has a sad history of random gunfire in public places -- this may be the act of a deranged individual or a heartless criminal. Either way, whoever it is must be removed from society -- thank G-d it seems no one died!

Gunman opens fire in Calgary bar, injures 5


The shooting happened around 1:30 a.m. at the Mirage Bar & Grill on 10th Avenue S.W.
"[He] fired off numerous rounds from what we believe to be a handgun. Several victims were hit and then the offender fled the bar," said Calgary police Duty Insp. Rob Williams.

Two men are in hospital in potentially life-threatening condition. Three other bar patrons - two men and a woman - were treated for minor injuries and released.

Story here:

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/cbc/081017/canada/calgary_lounge_shooting

Dion's Monday press conference

We'll see. After the story yesterday proved wrong I am going to believe such information when and if it happens... .

Dion expected to call it quits Monday


OTTAWA - Stephane Dion is expected to announce his resignation as Liberal leader on Monday.
Dion, who has been in seclusion since taking his party to its second-worst defeat in history, has scheduled a news conference for 2 p.m. ET Monday.

Liberal insiders say Dion has grudgingly accepted that he can't survive a mandatory leadership review vote, scheduled for May, and will announce his decision to step aside

CBC Radio 2 tries again

The subway ads in Toronto show an "all new schedule" for CBC Radio 2 -- they claim "a music mix you won't hear anywhere else".

We'll see.

The first schedule put Radio 2 in a crowded company of lite hits fm.

Maybe they realised the error and are fixing it?

Questioning an accused in the absence of counsel

Yesterday's Court of Appeal decision in R. v. Woods, 2008 ONCA 713 considered the confession rule and what the police may do once an accused has consulted counsel.



The short summary is that questioning in the absence of counsel is proper provided the statements made are otherwise free and voluntary.



The Court cited, with apparent approval, the trial ruling of Justice J. Bryan Shaughnessy saying:



[7]               In ruling the statement admissible, the trial judge noted that "there is nothing in the confessions rule which prohibits the police from questioning the accused in the absence of counsel after the accused has contacted or retained counsel."  He also concluded that there was nothing in the manner or duration of questioning that raised an element of oppression and that the appellant willingly volunteered information, even though he knew that he was not required to talk to the police and that he had been advised by counsel not to do so.  The trial judge also recognized that the questions asked by the police were, for the most part, simple and straightforward and appropriate to the appellant's limited cognitive abilities and that there was no police attempt to use aggressive techniques or non-existing or fabricated evidence to elicit answers from the appellant...".

Flocke speaks

She outlines her future leadership plans...

Another B.C. bombing

RCMP's terrorism unit investigating B.C. bombings

The RCMP's national terrorism unit is investigating a second explosion on a gas pipeline in northern B.C. near Dawson Creek, causing some to fear more attacks are on their way.

The force says it appears both explosion are linked, and there was a threatening letter sent to local media.

Zimbabwe talks remain deadlocked

The best coverage on the ongoing chaos in Zimbabwe remains that from Al Jazeera

Power-sharing talks in Zimbabwe between Robert Mugabe, the president, and Morgan Tsvangirai, his rival the prime minister designate, have again become deadlocked over control of the country's ministries.

After nearly eight hours of talks on Thursday, Nelson Chamisa, a spokesman for Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MC), said negotiations had stalled.

"We have reached a deadlock over key ministries," Chamisa said.

Fill story here:

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2008/10/2008101620221680680.html

"What we seek to achieve is the equitable distribution of key ministries," he said. "There has been some movement, but not enough to seal the deal.

Duty of terminated employee regarding competing with former employer

Last week's Supreme Court of Canada decision in RBC Dominion Securities Inc. v. Merrill Lynch Canada Inc., 2008 SCC 54 continues the Court's recent work revisiting employment law in Canada.

The case dealt with damages for breach of contract but also with the duty a terminated former employee has with respect to competing with the old employer.

The Court writes:


[18] ... Generally, an employee who has terminated employment is not prevented from competing with his or her employer during the notice period, and the employer is confined to damages for failure to give reasonable notice (Southin J.A. for the majority).  To this general proposition Rowles J.A. may be read as adding the qualification that a departing employee might be liable for specific wrongs such as improper use of confidential information during the notice period.   This appears to be consistent with the current law, which restricts post-employment duties to the duty not to misuse confidential information, as well as duties arising out of a fiduciary duty or restrictive covenant: see G. England, Employment Law in Canada (4th ed. loose-leaf), vol. 2, § 11.141.  Neither of the latter duties are at issue here. 

[19] For the purposes of this case, the law may be accepted as summarized by the preceding paragraph.  The contract of employment ends when either the employer or the employee terminates the employment relationship, although residual duties may remain.  An employee terminating his or her employment may be liable for failure to give reasonable notice and for breach of specific residual duties.  Subject to these duties, the employee is free to compete against the former employer.
James Morton
1100 - 5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4

2005 Boxing Day gunfight -- a dreadful crime that deserves real punishment

This is a tragic case and the sort of situation where the existing system of punishment can work. The criminals here were not motivated by addiction or mental illness -- they should, if convicted, be punished both as an example to others and to ensure they do not kill again. It is cases like this that make the arguments for sentencing young people as adults make very good sense.


Crown outlines last moments of Creba's life

The first trial stemming from the 2005 Boxing Day gunfight that left teenaged shopper Jane Creba dead is underway, with the Crown outlining the final moments of her life.
Jane, 15, was out with her sister on Yonge Street north of Dundas Street. Jane left to cross the street and find a washroom at the Pizza Pizza restaurant.

"That was the last time Alison Creba saw her sister alive," Crown prosecutor Kerry Hughes told the court.

A a gun battle between two groups broke out on the street, which was crowded with holiday bargain shoppers. Jane got caught in the crossfire and died of her wounds in front of a Foot Locker store. Six other people were wounded.

Hughes told the court that police found a 9mm Ruger semi-automatic handgun in the pocket of the accused, known only as J.S.R., when they arrested him at a subway station 40 minutes after the shooting.

"It was not the gun that killed Jane Creba," Hughes said.

However, seven of eight shell casings and two of the four bullets recovered from the scene are linked to that firearm, she said.

The accused was 17 at the time of the shooting. As a result, his identity is protected under the provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

He is on trial for second-degree murder, six counts of attempted murder and five firearms-related offences. He has pleaded not guilty.

J.S.R. is the first of nine people to go to trial in the case. Seven of those awaiting trial are adults and one is a young offender.

Full story here:

http://news.sympatico.msn.ctv.ca/abc/home/contentposting.aspx?isfa=1&feedname=CTV-TOPSTORIES_V3&showbyline=True&newsitemid=CTVNews%2f20081016%2fcreba_trial_081016

Flocke shakes off the election results

Oh dear. A sign of ageing

Taking the subway back to the office a nice young woman looks to me and smiles and then ... seeing a newly vacant seat ... offers it to me... .

Maybe I should stop wearing a bow tie???
James Morton
1100 - 5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4

Attack Bear?

Dion staying or going?

Whatever happens there is no immediate rush -- nothing much is going to happen in the next week.

Officials deny Dion to announce resignation Thursday

OTTAWA - Liberal party officials were denying reports that Stephane Dion would be resigning his leadership on Thursday.

There has been widespread speculation he plans to quit after losing 19 seats in Tuesday's vote but will stay on until a successor is chosen. But a spokesman sent an email saying the report in a Toronto newspaper is not true.

"This morning there are media reports that M. Dion will be resigning today," wrote George Young. "This is not the case.

"We will properly advise the media when M. Dion is prepared to speak publicly."

Dion, leader for 22 months, went to ground after Tuesday's election defeat, the Liberals' worst showing in more than a century.

Liberals were full of praise for Dion on Wednesday, but their words sounded more like a eulogy than a celebration. One insider said Dion is a decent man and nobody wants to kick him when he's down.

Party insiders said the bitterly disappointed leader spent the day calling defeated candidates, licking his wounds and reflecting on his future.

Liberals won only 76 seats in Tuesday's election, down from 95 the party had before the election was called.

Their share of the popular vote fell to 26 per cent - two points lower than the party's disastrous showing under John Turner in 1984 and only four points higher than the party's all-time low in 1867.

Conditional sentence hearing for breach

If a person on conditional sentence breaches the terms of that sentence there must be a hearing within 30 days to determine if the breach justified sending the person to jail.



When does the 30 day period run from?



Today's Court of Appeal decision in xxx rules the period runs from the date the person is arrested for the breach. The Court rules:





[11] There are three possible triggers for the commencement of the 30 day period in s. 742.6(3) of the Criminal Code. In chronological order, the possibilities are:



the arrest of the offender for the new offence;



the issuance of the warrant of arrest for breach of condition; and



the execution of the warrant.

...

The wording and the logic of s. 742.6 compel the conclusion that "the offender's arrest" in s. 742.6(3)(a) refers to his arrest for breach of condition, not for the new offence.

Martin in today's Globe

Interesting political prediction -- Harper, Dion, Duceppe and Layton all gone before the next election.

We'll see.

Harper did well but he should (from a Conservative view) have done better. And with a recession he might call it quits for next time.

But who will take over???

And what about us???

Thornhill riding

Here's the report from the Georgina paper -- I wish the result was different but Susan was tremendously gracious. Peter Kent won and he deserves congratulations -- which I give here.

Being an M.P. is such a diverse community is a difficult and important job; it will be a challenge anyone and I wish Mr. Kent well.

Kadis concedes to Kent in Thornhill

Thornhill
October 15, 2008 11:27 AM
By: Caroline Grech, Staff Writer

The third time proved not to be the charm for Thornhill’s Liberal incumbent Susan Kadis.

Tory challenger Peter Kent, 65, was elected the winner just after 11 p.m. with a little less than half of the votes cast for the federal Conservative candidate.

At the time of this report early Wednesday morning, Mr. Kent had 20,581 votes, Ms Kadis sat at 17,189, followed by the NDP’s Simon Stelchick with 2,930 and Green challenger Norbert Koehl with 2,230.

“We didn’t win this time, but we will next time,” Ms Kadis said from the Paradise Banquet Hall in Vaughan.

She doesn’t believe any one factor contributed to the loss, it was a variety of things.
Thornhill will be red again, Ms Kadis said.

And she said is pleased the Liberals held the Tories to a minority government, something she felt was important.

Ms Kadis congratulated Mr. Kent on becoming the new MP for Thornhill. Liberal supporters were tearful, while Ms Kadis said she would continue her work in the community.

Mr. Kent said during the campaign that leadership was an important issue this time around and that Prime Minister Stephen Harper was the best person to lead the country. He also said that it was important for Thornhill residents to have an MP that was on the government’s side of the House.

A bridge too far

Until they elect an M.P. they remain a protest party... .

With no elected MPs, Greens face uphill battle

Despite the largest federal campaign the Greens have ever staged, and a high-profile spot for leader Elizabeth May in the national televised debates, the party has again found itself in the political wilderness.

Not only did May fail to unseat Conservative Peter MacKay in her riding of Central Nova, but her party was completely shut out from the House of Commons.

Worse, the Greens spent a reported $4 million on the campaign -- a record amount for the party which includes $2 million worth of loans.

Even British Columbia MP Blair Wilson, who changed his political stripes to Green earlier this year after he was elected Liberal back in 2006, lost his seat to Tory candidate John Weston.
Still, the party did see an upswing in popular support across the country, garnering more than 900,000 votes, or about seven per cent of the total. In the 2006 election, the Greens received 4.5 per cent support -- about 660,000 votes.

Will China bail out the West? BBC

With nearly $2 trillion (£570bn) worth of foreign currency reserves, China is being touted by some as the potential saviour of the Western banking system.

China's booming exports have enabled it to mass huge foreign reserves
 
In order to bail out ailing financial firms, Western governments need money - and China seems a good place to get that much-needed cash.
 
But Chinese economists say that while Beijing is ready to play its part in the rescue efforts, it will not be writing any blank cheques.

Senior Chinese officials say they are more focused on their own, internal problems, such as avoiding a domestic economic slowdown.
 
And any help offered by the Chinese government to solve the current financial crisis is likely to come with strings attached.
 
Gigantic loan?
 
China's burgeoning exports over recent years have helped the country build up the world's largest foreign exchange reserves. The power equation is changing and the Chinese are pleased with this... In their eyes, this also proves that the Chinese model is working.

Figures released this week show these reserves now total $1.9 trillion.
 
Writing in the Financial Times, US-based economist Arvind Subramanian suggests the US could borrow some of this money.
"The Chinese government could offer to lend up to $500bn to the US government for the rescue of its financial sector," wrote Mr Subramanian, of the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
 
In fact the Chinese have already been doing something similar for a number of years. Beijing has been buying up US government debt, which has allowed the US to spend beyond its means.

"China is already helping the US economy and, if possible, it will continue to do this," said Zhao Xijun, of Beijing's Remin University of China.
 
Shared burden
 
But Mr Zhao, deputy dean of his university's school of finance, made it clear that China alone could not solve all the world's financial problems.
 
Other emerging economies, such as Russia, India and Brazil, will also have to help, he said.
 
"It's not sufficient for emerging economies or developed countries to do this on their own. They must get together," added Mr Zhao.

And even though China might have the money to help out, it is not certain that there is the political will to put the world's financial crisis at the top of the agenda.

Chinese leaders have already indicated that they believe Western governments should clean up their own financial problems.
 
Domestic priority
 
Yi Gang, vice-governor of the People's Bank of China, made this point at a meeting of world financial leaders in Washington last week.
 
"The World Bank should urge the developed countries to shoulder their due responsibilities in stabilising the global economy," he said.
 
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has added his comments to the debate. He said his country would do its bit to help stabilise world financial markets.
 
But in a telephone conversation with Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown, he also made it clear where China's priority lay.

"The most important thing for China now is to handle its own affairs well," China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported him as saying.
 
And for all its foreign exchange reserves, China is still a developing country with its own problems that will require lots of money to fix.

Just a few days ago, the Chinese leadership promised to double incomes in rural areas - where most of its people live - over the next 12 years.
 
The government will have to try to meet these promises despite what independent Chinese economist Andy Xie believes will be an economic slowdown in China.
 
He said the county had largely escaped financial problems affecting others, but would have to look to other areas of the world to generate future growth.
 
"China needs to play a bigger role in circulating money among emerging economies," he said.
 
Political strings
 
Even if China does agree to help with the global financial crisis, there will almost certainly be conditions attached to any help the Chinese government offers the West.
 
"The Chinese are definitely looking for some give and take," said Willy Lam, of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Specifically, Beijing will want guarantees that it will be able to buy US assets without the opposition that this has generated in the past, he said.
 
Its new-found leverage over the US could also lead to the Chinese making political demands on its counterparts in Washington DC, added Mr Lam.
 
China has just registered its opposition to the US sale of $6.5bn-worth of arms to Taiwan, a self-governing island that China considers its own.
 
"The power equation is changing and the Chinese are pleased with this, although they do not want to gloat too much," said Mr Lam.

"In their eyes, this also proves that the Chinese model is working."
 
Source: By Michael Bristow,  BBC News, Beijing,
October 15, 2008  
James Morton
1100 - 5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4

Rocky and Mom

Something to smile about!

A final gaffe?

Did a momentary blip cost Harper a majority?

Interesting article...

OTTAWA - Almost every moment of this campaign, Stephen Harper was the congenial, sweater-vested uncle who spoke constantly about his family and projected an unwaveringly sunny disposition.

It was the moment he strayed from the script that might have cost him a Conservative majority government.

In that brief instant Harper dropped the gloves, tossed aside the metaphorical sweater-vest, and took a swipe at artists as rich elites who were somehow unlike normal Canadians.

It's hard to gauge the precise impact of those words but they coincided with a Conservative slide in the polls in Quebec, the province that was supposed to serve as the building block toward a majority.

Full story here:

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/indepth/us_elections/s/capress/081015/national/fedelxn_harper_newsmaker_2

Objections must be clearly made

Today's Court of Appeal decision in Wiseman v. Home Depot of Canada Inc., 2008 ONCA 706 makes clear just how important it is, should there be a concern about evidence, to make an objection clearly for the record.

Absent an objection it will be almost impossible to ground an appeal on the admission of evidence.

The Court ruled:

[5]               As to the admissibility of the statement, it is not clear on the record that Home Depot's counsel (not counsel on the appeal) objected to its admissibility when it was entered into evidence. It is also not clear that the trial judge would necessarily have excluded the statement even if an objection had been made.
James Morton
1100 - 5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4

Election blues

The real concern is the historic low in support. There was a poor voter turnout everywhere -- Liberal voters stayed home. That cannot happen again.

Dion's future questioned after renewed Tory minority

BRODIE FENLON AND CAMPBELL CLARK Globe and Mail

Stéphane Dion's future as Liberal Leader is the key post-ballot question as final results from Tuesday's election show his party sank to its lowest level of popular support since Confederation.

The Conservatives under Stephen Harper return to Parliament with a stronger minority government of 143 seats on the strength of gains in Ontario and British Columbia, though they fell short of a majority due largely to campaign missteps in Quebec.

But the focus Wednesday turned quickly to Mr. Dion, whose party ended the night with 76 seats – down from 95 when the election was called – and just 26.2 per cent of popular support, a historic low that surpasses the 28 per cent the John Turner-led Liberals garnered in 1984.The Conservatives won 37.6 per cent of the popular vote, up one percentage point from 2006
James Morton

Yes, we lost

I haven't filled my blog with lots of fun pictures of bears or smiles and thoughts largely because I have been thinking (and trying to do a little work).

There's no two ways about it -- we lost this election.

I don't mean that in the superficial way; of course the Conservatives got more seats so in that sense we 'lost'.

Rather I mean this was an election where the Conservatives really didn't do a good job. Their campaign was plagued by gaffes and glitches and more they faced an economic meltdown that would shake any party in power.

But we didn't take control of the election. We never put forward a clear vision of what a Liberal future would be; and look at the bump we got when even a hint of a vision came out in the debate.

Individual candidates, whether they won or lost, did a fine job.

And my concern is not another 'it is the Leader's fault'.

Our problem is a lack of focus on core Liberal values -- a failure to make clear that we are the centre and we will run the country in a sensible and just fashion.

How do we fix this?

Well, we need to rebuild. We need to show leadership that speaks to Canadians and that says 'here is a plan'.

We need, perhaps, a new Red Book.

And we need to start now. Harper will come back to Parliament and dare an election. If we are weak, if we cannot articulate an alternate vision, and soon, we will be in for a long Conservative minority which might just turn into a majority.

The children of Israel wandered forty years in the desert. Yes, that brought new strength but we don't need forty years -- perhaps forty months but we must act now.

Let's retake Canada.
James Morton

Fluffy Flocke

Loonie tunes

The Loonie is going nutz. Up and down. Why? Probably the uncertainty over the economy and the price of oil. Tonight's uncertain election doesn't help either. We'll see -- I predict stability at 90c
James Morton

Tonight's tale

So much time spent for an election that looked to be as pure politics as any. An election called for political reasons alone -- an election likely to lead to much as what we had before.

But then the market collapsed and now gosh, the election matters.

What will happen tonight?

We'll see but go and vote!

James Morton

Time's up: Canadian voters choose prime minister

It's now up to Canada and Canadians.

OTTAWA - Canadians will elect their prime minister and government Tuesday after 37 days of campaigning and hurried, last-minute pitches from the major party leaders.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Liberal Leader Stephane Dion sprinted across the country Monday, trying to shake any loose votes in their direction. Speaking at a rally in P.E.I., Harper said the party needs every seat it can get, and urged supporters not be complacent by counting on a victory.

The last poll of the campaign by The Canadian Press Harris-Decima suggested the Conservatives were headed toward a second straight minority government.

But pollsters and pundits are at odds on how election night will play out in Ontario, which is home to a third of the 308 ridings up for grabs.

As the campaign wound down, Harper continued to push a familiar message: the Liberal carbon-tax plan is irresponsible in a time of economic uncertainty.

Dion implored Quebecers to vote Liberal instead of Bloc Quebecois in a bid to replace the Conservatives instead of merely stopping them.

The Liberal leader - who has accused the Tories of misrepresenting his Green Shift plan - is expected to cast his ballot in his home riding of St-Laurent-Cartierville in the evening.

Meanwhile, Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe, who is preparing to cast his ballot in a Montreal-area riding, said he doesn't think a third minority government in four years will escalate tensions between Ottawa and Quebec.

Jack Layton of the NDP maintained Monday he's running to win government, despite a final polling snapshot suggesting his party is racing towards a third-place finish.

Layton plans to cast his ballot alongside his wife, Olivia Chow, in Toronto.

Elizabeth May of the Green party will watch the election results roll from her campaign headquarters in New Glasgow, where she hopes to unseat Tory cabinet minister Peter MacKay.

Election Day

Vote!
James Morton

Sukkot

Statement by Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion on Sukkot

On behalf of the Liberal Party, I would like to extend my best wishes to the all those in Canada and around the world celebrating Sukkot.

With its origins in the practice of Jews traveling to the Temple in Jerusalem to worship, this festival encourages observers to build temporary dwellings for entertaining and relaxing like those built by the Israelites during their 40 years of wandering in the desert after the Exodus from Egypt. It is a time to remember God's benevolence in providing for the Jewish people.

As you gather with friends and family to take part in this occasion over the coming days, I hope you will accept my warmest wishes for a meaningful festival.

Conservative defamation

Clearly despair motivates this:

A Toronto Liberal incumbent has won a court injunction against his Conservative rival ordering him and his campaign to pull a defamatory campaign flyer that alleges he has a poor attendance record.

Ontario Superior Court Justice George Strathy ruled Sunday that Conservative candidate Axel Kuhn and his staff must stop publishing and distributing a brochure that makes false claims about Borys Wrzesnewskyj.

The pamphlet claims Wrzesnewskyj skipped dozens of parliamentary committee meetings, but the Liberal incumbent for the riding of Etobicoke Centre said he's only a full-time member of one of the six committees listed in the brochure.


In his ruling, the judge wrote that the words in Kuhn's flyer are "clearly defamatory."


"They imply that the plaintiff has been derelict in his duties as a member of Parliament and that he does not deserve to be paid his salary," Strathy wrote.

"Based upon the sworn evidence of the plaintiff, the words cannot be justified."

James Morton

Thanksgiving -- History

The first North American Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1578 when the English Navigator, Martin Frobisher, held a formal ceremony in Newfoundland. He did this to give thanks for surviving the long sea journey, and other settlers arrived in Newfoundland, and the tradition was continued by them.

In 1879, Parliament declared November 6th a national holiday of Thanksgiving. Over the years this date changed, and on January 31, 1957, Parliament declared the second Monday in October of each year to be "A Day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed".

HAPPY THANKSGIVING ALL

Worst global recession since 1983 — if we're lucky

Cheerful story in today's Financial Post


The world may be heading for its worst recession in a quarter of a century - if it's lucky. A steep slump looks likely as the credit squeeze crunches economies from the U.S. to Singapore and panic engulfs global financial markets.

"It's certainly going to be the worst since the 1980s," says Bradford DeLong, an economics professor at the University of California at Berkeley who worked at the U.S. Treasury Department from 1993 to 1995. "The hope is that it won't become the worst unemployment business cycle since the Great Depression."

Of special concern: The two big bulwarks of the global economy in recent years - U.S. consumer spending and the rapid growth of emerging markets - may be finally giving way in the face of the 14-month-old financial turmoil.

That raises the odds that the coming economic decline will be long and deep, despite U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's US$700-billion financial rescue plan, similar efforts by European leaders and the coordinated interest-rate cuts engineered by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and other central bankers last week."

This is the worst crisis I've seen in my 50-year career," William Rhodes, senior vice chairman of Citigroup Inc. in New York, told fellow bankers in Washington on Sunday. "We still have to deal with the effects on the real economy here and elsewhere."

Full story:

http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=877719
James Morton

Naomi Wolf on the Creation of a Fascist State

Wolf is waaaaaaay out there but this is interesting:

It's week one of the fascist state, says US feminist and author, Naomi Wolf.

A very interesting argument in this YouTube video
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XgkeTanCGI> of an October 4th, 2008
interview.

James Morton

Not Tough On Crime But Smart On Crime

A tough approach that might work
Instead of shuffling repeat offenders in and out of jail for property crimes, we should be sending many of them to mandatory addiction treatment

James C. Morton
The Ottawa Citizen

Monday, October 13, 2008

Kicking an addiction is extremely unpleasant and requires willpower and usually some money, neither of which street addicts have.<http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/idl/otct/20081013/142662-52150.jpg?size=l>
CREDIT: Ian Smith, Canwest News Service
Kicking an addiction is extremely unpleasant and requires willpower and usually some money, neither of which street addicts have.

In a season of tough talk on crime, I would like to propose a challenge to our political leaders. In this country, one group of criminals commits a disproportionate number of crimes that we could easily reduce with more coercive sentencing. However, our usual form of coercion -- imprisonment -- doesn't work for them. They need a different kind of sentence. But to make that happen -- and to significantly reduce the number of crimes they commit -- would require a degree of will and wisdom that our legislators can't seem to muster.

The legal system refers to these men -- they are almost all men -- as chronic offenders. What everyone knows -- but the justice system doesn't acknowledge -- is that they are also drug addicts, hooked on heroin or crack cocaine. They steal not for gain but to support their addiction, to pay for their next fix.

This has nothing to do with getting high. For an addict, the point is to avoid the effects of withdrawal -- in the case of heroin, including cramps and muscle spasms, fever, cold sweats and goose bumps (hence the phrase "cold turkey"), insomnia, vomiting, diarrhea and a condition called "itchy blood," which can cause compulsive scratching so severe that it leads to open sores. For addicts, drug use is not a lifestyle choice that's easy to change.

Many have been addicted for their entire adult lives, and as a result have spent half their lives behind bars, serving dozens of sentences for minor crimes. These are the "revolving door" criminals that some critics point to -- arrested, tried, sentenced to a few weeks or months, then dumped back out on the street, only to be arrested, tried and convicted again a few weeks later.

Canada has hundreds of criminals like that, mainly in the larger cities. Vancouver alone recently identified 379. According to a report by the Vancouver Police Department, the vast majority were addicted to drugs or alcohol. Many also suffer from a mental disorder, generally untreated. In the five years between 2001 and 2006, Vancouver's few hundred chronic offenders, as a group, were responsible for 26,755 police contacts -- more than 5,000 contacts per year, 14 a day. The costs are staggering. Arrests, prosecutions and incarcerations end up costing some $20,000 per criminal per month -- per month! There has to be a better way.

Punishment alone is not it, though, for a couple of reasons. For one, the idea of punishing criminals is based at least partly on the concept of specific deterrence. You steal, we lock you up. Applied most strongly to property crimes -- which is what these offenders mainly commit -- specific deterrence assumes that the criminal is a rational actor who will consider: Is it worth it? And in fact, specific deterrence often works; many offenders really do stop committing crimes after fairly short jail sentences. But not addicts.

The problem is the presumption of a rational actor. That is exactly what we do not have with drug addicts, who do not -- usually cannot -- stop to consider the likely punishment for a crime they are about to commit. They see only the escape from the more immediate and dire punishments of drug deprivation. By comparison, the threat of being caught and thrown in jail is nothing.

As well, because chronic offenders tend to commit minor crimes and draw short sentences -- say, 30 to 90 days for theft -- their lives shift constantly between jail and the streets.

We could use longer sentences to "warehouse" chronic offenders -- the American "three strikes and you're out" approach. But long-term imprisonment would be a very high-cost way to deal with what is really a public health issue.

And there's the crux of the problem. The criminal justice system is not designed to treat addicts. While prisons do provide some drug treatment, it is almost always short-term and underfunded. And these offenders, with their short sentences, rarely get even that. The voluntary drug treatment programs offered by the public health system seldom work for them either, because kicking an addiction is extremely unpleasant and requires willpower and usually some money, neither of which street addicts have.

Clearly, Canadians need more protection from chronic offenders than we are now getting. While their crimes may be petty, their victims number in the thousands. And those victims are left not only with a monetary loss, but also with a lingering fear that affects their sense of personal safety and their trust in the criminal justice system. But blaming that system, as many do, misses the point -- which is our failure as a society to deal with severe drug and alcohol addiction.

With chronic offenders, the first step is to recognize that what we have is an issue of both criminal law and public health. The next step is to require addicted offenders to undergo serious, long-term drug treatment.

Canada's experience with mandatory drug treatment is quite limited. In the late 1970s, British Columbia passed legislation under which heroin addicts could be compelled to take part in an intensive government-funded treatment program. The Supreme Court of Canada upheld the statute but the provincial legislature ultimately repealed it, concerned about civil liberties. (This was the time of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.)

These days, Vancouver's Downtown Community Court tackles street crime by taking guilty pleas and moving the accused into treatment as part of their sentencing, but only with their consent, which misses the point.

We're less constrained with juvenile offenders. Since 1996, Alberta law has required minors with an apparent alcohol or drug addiction to participate, with or without their consent, in an assessment and treatment program. Saskatchewan and Manitoba have similar legislation and even allow parents of drug-addicted children to ask a court to require treatment, whether or not the child is in trouble with the law.

Although the research is scant, mandatory treatment does appear to have about the same success rate as voluntary treatment. A 1970s American study looked at the effectiveness of methadone maintenance treatment for those who entered the program under high, moderate or no coercion and found no significant difference in outcomes for the three groups.

Given the costs of incarceration -- not counting the costs to future victims -- paying for mandatory drug treatment for them hardly seems an issue, even if it only works some of the time. As for whether mandatory treatment is somehow inhumane, how humane is it to sentence these addicts to punishments we know don't work and then dump them back on the street no better than before?

More than costs or moral qualms, though, the main obstacle to mandatory drug treatment for addicted offenders is probably institutional. Both the justice system and the health system have entrenched groups with turf to protect: prisons, parole boards, hospitals. Collaboration would mean breaching walls; even with good intentions, a mandatory treatment program would raise irksome issues such as which ministry pays, health or justice, and which is responsible. But don't we elect our leaders to solve such problems?

The question is not whether we will be soft on crime but whether we can be smart about crime. Crime in the real world is not an exciting TV show. Crime has real costs and victims. Politics aside, Canadians generally -- and victims of crime specifically -- deserve evidence-based criminal justice policies that actually reduce crime. Our challenge is to make the tough choices that move beyond "tough on crime" rhetoric and produce real change.

Harper admits PCs may lose; Conservative or Liberal minority probable, PM says

Don't be deceived by this -- a Liberal win is possible, especially with the Green Party holding 11% and who knows what the will do the to vote split -- the Prime Minister is talking down his chances in the hopes of a Conservative majority.

So long as people assume Harper won't win they may decide not to bother voting.

We need every vote!

Harper admits PCs may lose; Conservative or Liberal minority probable, PM says
Edmonton Journal Monday, October 13, 2008
Page: A1 / FRONT
Section: News
Byline: Mike Blanchfield
Dateline: OTTAWA
Source: Canwest News Service

Canadians will elect another minority government on Tuesday, Stephen Harper said Sunday, while admitting his Conservatives may not be the winners.
James Morton

Tory Peter Kent wants more private delivery of medicare

If he isn't supporting two tier care what is he supporting? I guess with the economy doing so well we can afford to cut back on the social safety net.

OTTAWA -- A Conservative candidate's suggestion that a private clinic be used as a model for health delivery across Canada prompted opposition charges that Prime Minister Stephen Harper wants to expand for-profit health care outside the public system.

Peter Kent made the comment during a recent campaign debate in Toronto's Thornhill riding.

He subsequently insisted in an interview with The Canadian Press he was not backing the contentious notion of a separate system of private health care.

His Liberal opponent in Thornhill and Green Party leader Elizabeth May countered that an expansion of private hospitals modeled after the Shouldice Hospital -- which profits in part by providing hernia surgery paid through the public system for Ontario residents -- would erode medicare and lead to a two-tier system.

"Thornhillers don't need to be reminded that the best example of efficient private delivery of public health care is right here in our own community," Kent said in the debate last week with Liberal incumbent Susan Kadis and other Thornhill candidates.

"We need more Shouldice institutes right across the country," he added. "That's one way we'll be able to meet the challenges of health care".The Liberals circulated Kent's statement by email and he confirmed them in a weekend interview.

Full story here:

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/mobile/CTVNews/20081010/election2008_healthcare_tory_081012/20081012?pr=0
James Morton

Peter Kent Video Disowned By CTV

Attention Political/Entertainment Editors:

Statement from Robert Hurst, President of CTV News and Current Affairs, CTV Inc.

TORONTO, Oct. 12 /CNW/ - Peter Kent, Conservative Candidate for the Thornhill, Ontario riding and former journalist has produced a video which
includes appearances by notable Canadian journalists including Pamela Wallin and CTV News' Lloyd Robertson. These taped appearances by Ms. Wallin and
Mr. Robertson were made over two years ago for a broadcast industry event.
CTV would like to clarify that neither Ms. Wallin, Mr. Robertson nor CTV News have in any way publicly endorsed Mr. Kent, the Conservative Party of
Canada or any other political party or candidate.

<<
Robert Hurst
President of CTV News and Current Affairs, CTV Inc.
>>

ZooAtlanta panda mother and baby

Little Rocky seems to be getting along just fine!

Cadman tape not altered -- Doesn't change Harper's position

Facts? Who cares about them! It's all political so I suppose it's irrelevant but if Harper loses there will be costs to pay.


Harper maintains Cadman tape findings won't undermine defamation case

Prime Minister Stephen Harper didn't show any sign Saturday of backing off a defamation lawsuit against the Liberal party despite a finding that a key audio recording was not altered as he claimed.

Jeremy Hainsworth, THE CANADIAN PRESS

"The Liberal party's got a big problem in court - that's all I can say," Harper told reporters in London, Ont.

Harper launched a lawsuit against the Liberals during a raging controversy this year over allegations in a book by B.C. author Tom Zytaruk that the Conservatives offered the late independent MP Chuck Cadman a $1-million life insurance policy in 2005 in exchange for his help in defeating the minority Liberal government of the day.

Full Story here:

http://news.sympatico.msn.ca/Election_08/ContentPosting?newsitemid=197948072&feedname=CP_EN_ELECTION&show=False&number=0&showbyline=True&subtitle=&detect=&abc=abc&date=True

Justice system fails

There's little I can say to this -- the system failed and failed badly. When you add to this to the wrongful convictions from Dr Smith it becomes hard not to see the system as needing a total overhaul.

At times there seems to be an almost random element of chance -- luck not justice.

Punishing the innocent and freeing the dangerous -- not what we need.

Perhaps I am being too negative -- the judges and JPs and police and lawyers do try in good faith to do justice but gosh, sometimes it just seems hopeless.

Laissez-faire justice

• The case of Danial Gratton, a serial predator of children charged this week in an abduction of a seven-year-old girl in Edmonton, raises questions about whether Canada's liberal approach to sex offenders is working.

Community protection seems to have been far from a primary concern of the authorities. His prison terms were woefully brief. His parole came with little explanation or evidence of serious thought by the National Parole Board. The authorities told him he was a moderate risk to re-offend, yet was being given "the least restrictive measures to manage your risk in the community."

Short sentences and extended community supervision – that has been how the system treated Mr. Gratton from the start. From 1982 to 1985 he committed multiple sexual assaults (the parole document that reveals this information has redacted the information on his victim or victims) and was sentenced in 1990 to just 90 days in jail, with 30 months probation. In 1991 he was convicted of sexual interference against a seven-year-old girl and received a 30-day intermittent sentence (presumably served on weekends) and six months probation. Finally, from 1996 to 2000 he sexually abused six children aged 2 to 8, one of them (by Mr. Gratton's estimate) 70 times. (The parole decision contains no details on the nature of his assaults.) For that he received just six years in jail and a long-term offender designation under which he is subject to a 10-year supervision order once set free. He was freed on parole after just four years.

Story here:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081010.weparole11/EmailBNStory/specialComment/home
James Morton

Harper quits if he loses

Now that is raising the stakes mighty so!

Presumably Harper says this because he is (a) trying to energize his people and (b) trying to plant seeds of grief in the Liberal Party.

Why do I say so?

Because the Tories without Harper are in a wasteland and they know it. For all practical purposes the Conservative Party is Harper.

And if we lose (and we may) a Leadership battle while a minority government struggles through a recession might be divisive enough to hold off a Liberal resurgence.

James Morton

Junkies stay hooked behind bars

Why are IV drug users in prison not being treated for their addiction? Why are they able to get drugs in prison? Note, even from a selfish standpoint of a non drug user, this is a vector for AIDS growth in the general community.

There is really no excuse for the failure to have proper addiction treatment programs in Canadian prisons.

ANDRÉ PICARD

From Friday's Globe and Mail October 10, 2008 at 10:05 AM EDT

Injection-drug users who are incarcerated are less likely to kick their habit than those who remain in the community, new Canadian research shows.

In fact, there is strong evidence that addicts who end up in jail are more likely to stay hooked longer and less likely to be treated for addiction, according to the research published in the medical journal Addiction.

"The simple explanation is that by incarcerating people, you limit their access to help," Evan Wood, a researcher at the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV-AIDS, said in an interview.

"While it may be politically popular to jail injection-drug users, it's not a very effective public health measure," he said.

The study followed 1,603 intravenous drug users in Vancouver for almost a decade. During the study period, 842 of them (just over half) stopped injecting drugs for a period of at least six months.

The data were derived from the Vancouver Injection Drug User Study, which has been ongoing since 1996. Two-thirds of the users spent time in jail at some point, mostly for drug-related crimes.

Researchers also tried to determine the effect of incarceration on drug use by focusing on the minority of IV drug users - one in five - who were incarcerated for the first time during the study period. Incarceration was defined as "being in detention, prison or jail overnight or longer in the previous six months.

"The paper showed that pre- and post-incarceration drug use was virtually the same. In other words, jailing drug addicts did not help them overcome addiction.

Researchers found that those who were jailed were 57 per cent less likely to give up drugs for a period of six months or more, compared with those who were not jailed.

The study also found that IV drug users with access to methadone programs (methadone is a drug used to wean heroin users from their addiction) were 62 per cent more likely to kick their drug habit for a period of six months or more. Methadone programs are available in the community but not in prison."This is a simple research paper, but it has an important message," Dr. Wood said.

"We need to look at the most effective solutions for dealing with drug crime," he said.

"Locking up drug addicts is ineffective."

According to the paper, 30 per cent of female prisoners and 14 per cent of male prisoners in Canadian federal penitentiaries are serving sentences for drug-related offences. The numbers are probably higher in provincial jails, but there are no good data.
James Morton

Recent Polls

It's hard to tell from the polls what exactly is going on.

But a sense is pretty clear -- the BQ is way way ahead in Quebec followed by the Liberals with the Conservative trailing.

Ontario though is close with a slight Tory edge.

That means Ontario is the key and if we get out the vote solidly we might have a Prime Minister Dion. Flip side, if we fail, there may be a majority Conservative government ... .

James Morton

Stravinsky - On the election? (Actually something else but it fits)

Our arduous time of sharp and shifting events, of despair and hope, of continual torments, of tension, and, at last, of cessation and relief.

An observation

A young couple was sitting in a hotel lobby downtown this past week.

I noticed them without much interest.

Another older couple approached. The woman in the older couple looked much like the woman in the younger and I assumed the older couple were the parents of the young woman.

In fact the older couple greeted and hugged the young man and then turned to the young woman and said how glad they were to meet her.

I wonder if anyone realised the young man had found his mother in his girlfriend? How very odd!

James Morton

Harper considers eliminating questions Sunday

Harper wants to avoid questions to avoid any gaffes.

He knows a majority Conservative result is (just) possible and is looking for Canadians to overlook that -- Canadians don't want a majority government just now.

Bottom line -- we need to get out the vote because Prime Minister Dion is also (just) possible.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper suggested voters should ignore the opinion polls in the closing hours of the federal election campaign ... . Mr. Harper urged voters to disregard what pollsters predict for Tuesday's general election.

"There's a million polls. Don't be fooled by any of them, this is a close election," Mr. Harper said in London, Ont.

...

A Conservative official said the party is considering not having Harper take any questions from reporters on Sunday, or possibly a reduced number from his usual 10 questions.

Full story here:

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/election-2008/story.html?id=876091
James Morton

Canada's bank bailout explained

Thanks to an anonymous poster here is a decent explanation of the Canadian bank bailout:

http://watch.ctv.ca/news/#clip101550

Flocke speaks out on the election polls

Enough!!!!!

Canada's Bank Bailout -- $800 for every man, woman and child in the country

A banker friend explained the bailout -- sort of.

The government is buying $25B of pooled mortgages; the government is borrowing the money to buy the debt.

I still don't understand why.

If the pooled mortgages are in fact a good deal why not sell them to Canadian investors looking for a safe investment? Or are the pools maybe not so safe?

It still seems a problem to me -- and something I would have liked discussed in Parliament (or at least explained properly by the Finance Minister).

James Morton