Barack Obama, if elected (which seems likely) will be the first American President of colour.
But he will not be someone who comes from purely humble roots (how many degrees of separation?).
While his father's background is somewhat unclear, he was a successful and well educated man from Kenya. His mother's family history is better known and shows a family well established in the history of America. It aslo shows connections to royalty -- a common theme in American Presidential candidates (in fact, it is striking how many American Presidents have royal blood).
Anyway, Obama's bloodline consists of Luo (Kenyan), English, German, Irish, Welsh, and smattering of French and Dutch ancestries. His pedigree shows different groups of people spanning several generations from different places.
Obama’s Kenyan ancestry is sketchy, and is known in detail only through the male line. Much of his known family tree is through his maternal side, and it is here that we find many interesting relations to the senator.
Obama can count at least two royal ancestors: William I “the Lion”, King of Scotland, and Henry II of England. He is related to at least six US Presidents: Jimmy Carter (half 7th cousins three times removed), Harry Truman (7th cousins three times removed), the 2 George Bushes (10th cousins once and twice removed, respectively), Woodrow Wilson (husband of Obama’s 6th cousin five times removed), and James Madison (3rd cousin nine times removed). He is also a ninth cousin once removed of Vice-President Dick Cheney.
See Obama’s family tree here:
http://the.hesperos.googlepages.com/AncestorsofBarackHusseinObamaJr.pdf
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Oopsie ...
Sask. government official suspended after 'dangerous' prisoner mistakenly freed
REGINA - Public faith in Saskatchewan's corrections system was again brought into doubt Friday after a dangerous prisoner was mistakenly released in Regina and it took more than a day to notify RCMP and the minister responsible for the error.
"The confidence in the system has to be questioned now," said Corrections, Public Safety and Policing Minister Darryl Hickie.
Full story here:
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/081024/national/sask_missing_prisoner
REGINA - Public faith in Saskatchewan's corrections system was again brought into doubt Friday after a dangerous prisoner was mistakenly released in Regina and it took more than a day to notify RCMP and the minister responsible for the error.
"The confidence in the system has to be questioned now," said Corrections, Public Safety and Policing Minister Darryl Hickie.
Full story here:
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/081024/national/sask_missing_prisoner
Close recount for Dosanjh
Wow -- that's cutting it pretty darn close... .
Dosanjh hangs on to B.C. seat by 22-vote margin
High profile Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh will hold onto his seat in Vancouver South after a judicial recount awarded him a 22-vote victory Friday.
The recount was ordered when the final tally in last week's federal election showed Dosanjh beat Conservative candidate Wai Young by just 33 votes.
The recount began behind closed doors at 9 a.m. Friday morning.
Meanwhile, a judicial recount is expected to start on Monday for the riding of Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca, where incumbent Liberal Keith Martin bested Conservative candidate Troy DeSouza.
Recounts are automatically ordered by Elections Canada when a candidate wins by less than 0.1 per cent of total votes.
Story here: http://news.sympatico.msn.ctv.ca/abc/home/contentposting.aspx?isfa=1&feedname=CTV-TOPSTORIES_V3&showbyline=True&newsitemid=CTVNews%2f20081024%2fDosanjh_election_081024
Dosanjh hangs on to B.C. seat by 22-vote margin
High profile Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh will hold onto his seat in Vancouver South after a judicial recount awarded him a 22-vote victory Friday.
The recount was ordered when the final tally in last week's federal election showed Dosanjh beat Conservative candidate Wai Young by just 33 votes.
The recount began behind closed doors at 9 a.m. Friday morning.
Meanwhile, a judicial recount is expected to start on Monday for the riding of Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca, where incumbent Liberal Keith Martin bested Conservative candidate Troy DeSouza.
Recounts are automatically ordered by Elections Canada when a candidate wins by less than 0.1 per cent of total votes.
Story here: http://news.sympatico.msn.ctv.ca/abc/home/contentposting.aspx?isfa=1&feedname=CTV-TOPSTORIES_V3&showbyline=True&newsitemid=CTVNews%2f20081024%2fDosanjh_election_081024
Going out for a pint may never be the same
Britain's beloved pint may be facing a downsizing.
The office that sets measurement standards said yesterday that its proposed two-thirds pint measure for draft beer and cider could be on tap as soon as April.
The pint is so much a part of British life that it survived the European Union switch to half-litres.
Supporters of the new-size glass hope it will appeal to female drinkers, who traditionally eschew a full pint.
James Morton
1100 - 5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
Credit crunch could be 'final blow' to global poor
Ottawa Citizen , Oct. 25, 2008
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned his top lieutenants yesterday
that the global financial crisis jeopardized everything the United Nations has done to help the world's poor and hungry. "It threatens to undermine all our achievements and all our progress," Mr. Ban told a meeting of UN agency chiefs devoted to the crisis. At a meeting also
attended by the heads of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, Mr. Ban said the credit crunch that has stunned markets worldwide compounded the food crisis, the energy crisis and Africa's development crisis. "It could be the final blow that many of the poorest of the
world's poor simply cannot survive," he said, in one of his bleakest assessments of the impact of the financial turmoil.
James Morton
1100 - 5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
Arrests in Pakistan Marriott hotel bombing
Al Jazeera reports that arrests have been made in the Marriott hotel bombing. One can only hope the criminal are brought to justice.
Four held over Pakistan hotel blast
The arrested men appeared in a Rawalpindi court on Friday
Police in Pakistan have arrested four men in connection with last month's suicide bomb attack on the Marriott hotel in the capital Islamabad.
Fifty-five people died and around 160 were injured in the September 20 bombing after a lorry loaded with explosives blew up outside the hotel.
The men, arrested on suspicion of "indirect involvement" in the bombing, appeared in a Rawalpindi court on Friday.
Altaf Ali Khattak, a senior police official, said: "The court has given us a seven-day remand for these men and we will continue our investigation."
The suspects are being held under various sections of anti-terrorism legislation and are yet to be formally charged.
A governmental licence is property for bankruptcy and personal property security purposes
Yesterday's Supreme Court of Canada decision in Saulnier v. Royal Bank of Canada, 2008 SCC 58 holds that a governmental licence, even when granted in the discretion of the government, is property under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act ("BIA') and the Personal Property Security Act ("PPSA"). This is a very important decision with implications broadly in civil law and family law especially in terms of collection issues.
A case summary follows.
Saulnier held four fishing licences. In order to finance his fishing business, he signed a General Security Agreement ("GSA") with a bank, as well as a guarantee for the debts of his company. The company entered into a parallel GSA. The GSAs gave the bank a security interest in "all . . . present and after acquired personal property including . . . Intangibles . . . and in all proceeds and renewals thereof". In 2004, the fishing business faltered and Saulnier made an assignment in bankruptcy. The following year, the receiver and the trustee in bankruptcy signed an agreement to sell the four licences and other assets to a third party for $630,000, but Saulnier refused to sign the necessary documents. The trustee in bankruptcy and the bank brought an application for declaratory relief. Saulnier claimed that the commercial fishing licences did not constitute "property" available to a trustee under the federal BIA, or to a creditor who has registered a GSA under the PPSA.
The Court's task was to interpret the definitions of "property" in s. 2 of the BIA and of "personal property" in s. 2 of the PPSA in a purposeful way having regard to their entire context, in their grammatical and ordinary sense harmoniously with the scheme of the Act, the object of the Act, and the intention of Parliament. A fishing licence is unquestionably a major commercial asset. The holder of such a licence, issued at the discretion of the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans under s. 7(1) of the Fisheries Act, obtains a good deal more than merely permission to do that which would otherwise be unlawful. A s. 7(1) licence confers to the holder a right to engage in an exclusive fishery under the conditions imposed by the licence, and a proprietary right in the fish harvested and the earnings from their sale. The subject matter of the licence, coupled with a proprietary interest in the fish caught pursuant to its terms, bears a reasonable analogy to a common law profit à prendre which is undeniably a property right. While these elements of the licence do not wholly correspond to the full range of rights necessary to characterize something as "property" at common law, the issue is whether they are sufficient to qualify the "bundle of rights" conferred on S as property for the purposes of the BIA and PPSA.
In an industry where holding one of a very restricted number of licences is a condition precedent to participation, the licence unlocks the value in the fishers' other marine assets. While "commercial realities" cannot legitimate wishful thinking about the notion of "property" in the BIA and the PPSA, these statutes are largely commercial instruments which should be interpreted in a way best suited to enable them to accomplish their respective commercial purposes.
The BIA is intended to achieve certain objectives in the event of a bankruptcy which require, in general, that non-exempt assets be made available to creditors. The s. 2 definition of "property" in the BIA should be construed accordingly to include a s. 7(1) licence. Parliament unambiguously signaled an intention to sweep up a variety of assets of the bankrupt not normally considered "property" at common law, and this intention must be respected if the purposes of the BIA are to be achieved. It is important to look at the substance of what is conferred, namely a licence to participate in the fishery coupled with a proprietary interest in the fish caught according to its terms and subject to the Minister's regulations. While it is true that the proprietary interest in the fish is contingent on the fish first being caught, the existence of that contingency is contemplated in the BIA definition and is no more fatal to the licence's proprietary status for BIA purposes than is the case with an equivalent contingency arising under a profit à prendre. It follows that the trustee was entitled to require S to execute the appropriate documentation to obtain a transfer of the fishing licences to the third party purchaser.
A holding that a fishing licence is property in the hands of the holder for limited statutory purposes does not fetter the Minister's discretion under the Fisheries Act to issue, renew or cancel a fishing licence, according to the exigencies of the management of the fisheries.
The fishing licence is also "personal property" within the meaning of s. 2 of the PPSA. The definition of "intangible" in that section includes an interest created by statute having the characteristics of a licence coupled with an interest at common law. The grant by the Minister of a licence, coupled with a proprietary interest in the fish caught, is thus sufficient to satisfy the PPSA definition. The registration is therefore valid to include the s. 7(1) licence and, in the absence of any other PPSA defence, the bank is entitled to proceed with its PPSA remedies.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Woof! Pit Bull ban upheld
Pit bulls are dangerous and unpredictable dogs that have the potential to attack without warning, the Ontario Court of Appeal said Friday in Cochrane v. Ontario (Attorney General), 2008 ONCA 718 upholding the province's ban on the animals.
The Ontario government enacted the Dog Owners' Liability Act in 2005 to ban the breeding, sale and ownership of pit bulls after several incidents in which the dogs attacked people.
The Appeal Court ruled Friday that the ban on the breed does not violate any constitutional rights, as lawyers had argued.
The law survived a constitutional challenge in March 2007, though some changes were ordered. Superior Court Justice Thea Herman said a ban on "pit bull terriers" was unconstitutionally vague because it didn't refer to a specific type or breed of dog.
But the Appeal Court disagreed, restoring the law to the form in which it was enacted.
"The total ban on pit bulls is not 'arbitrary' or 'grossly disproportionate' in light of the evidence that pit bulls have a tendency to be unpredictable and that even apparently docile pit bulls may attack without warning or provocation" [para 33] .
"This evidence of unpredictability provided the legislature with a sufficient basis to conclude that the protection of public safety required no less drastic measures than a total ban on pit bulls." [para 33].
The Court also held the standard of review for a legislative decision was not whether it was right but whether there was a reasoned basis to support it:
"As I have stated, the test for a breach of s. 7 on grounds of overbreadth is whether the law is “arbitrary” because there is no “reasoned apprehension of harm” or whether the law is “grossly disproportionate” to the legislative objective. To meet that test, the appellant had to satisfy the onus of demonstrating that the legislature did not have a basis for a “reasoned apprehension of harm” from pit bulls or that the action taken by the legislature was “grossly disproportionate” to the risk posed by pit bulls. " [para 25]
The case, while interesting generally, also contains some useful language about presumptions. This analysis is important not only for criminal and quasi-criminal but also in adminstrative law contexts. The Court writes:
"[59] In R. v. Downey, [1992] 2 S.C.R. 10, at p. 21, Cory J. referred to the landmark case of R. v. Oakes [1986] 1 S.C.R. 103, at p. 115, where Dickson C.J. identified two types of presumptions:
Presumptions can be classified into two general categories: presumptions without basic facts and presumptions with basic facts. A presumption without a basic fact is simply a conclusion which is to be drawn until the contrary is proved. A presumption with a basic fact entails a conclusion to be drawn upon proof of the basic fact. [Citations omitted.]
[60] Presumptions without basic facts are the legal starting point for the determination of a factual issue. Presumptions without basic facts relate to placement of the legal or evidentiary burden of proof as a matter of law. The presumption of innocence is the classic example. Until the Crown proves the guilt of the accused beyond a reasonable doubt, the accused is presumed to be innocent.
[61] Presumptions with basic facts operate by either permitting (a permissive presumption) or requiring (a mandatory presumption) the trier of fact to find the presumed fact upon proof of some other “basic fact”. For example, the provision in the Narcotics Control Act at issue in Oakes required the trier of fact to find an intention to traffic drugs (the presumed fact) upon proof of possession of drugs (the basic fact). Similarly, the provision at issue in Downey involved a presumption from basic facts: s. 212(3) of the Criminal Code provided that “[e]vidence that a person lives with or is habitually in the company of prostitutes… is, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, proof that the person lives on the avails of prostitution”.
[62] As Downey and Oakes make clear, the focus for inquiry in relation to the presumption of innocence guaranteed by s. 11(d) is this: does the legislative provision create a situation where the accused is liable to be convicted despite the existence of a reasonable doubt?"
A bodycheck to remember!!!
Look at this Milan Lucic check, you actually see a large piece of the glass smack Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Mike Van Ryn in the head. Perhaps the greatest argument for the necessity of helmets we've seen in quite a while.
The hit came 18 seconds into the second period tonight in Boston; what makes this play even more amazing is that Van Ryn scored the Leafs' first goal almost exactly six minutes later, sparking a rally of four unanswered goals for a 4-2 Toronto win over the Boston Bruins.
The hit came 18 seconds into the second period tonight in Boston; what makes this play even more amazing is that Van Ryn scored the Leafs' first goal almost exactly six minutes later, sparking a rally of four unanswered goals for a 4-2 Toronto win over the Boston Bruins.
Really evil criminals
This is the sort of crime that really is despicable and there is no basis to feel any sympathy for the criminal.
Con artist targets Alberta grandmothers
EDMONTON (CBC) - A woman posed as a granddaughter in an attempt to swindle money from seniors in a home, police said on Friday.
The woman called up two residents of a seniors lodge in Bonnyville, northeast of Edmonton, in late September and pretended to be their granddaughter, telling them she was in trouble and needed thousands of dollars wired to an address in Quebec.
"What can you say about someone who preys on a senior in the lodge to take away their money? There are things in life that are low and there are things in life that are very, very low," said Bonnyville Staff Sgt. David Elliott.
The fake granddaughter seemed to pick her targets at random then strung them along based on what the elderly women were saying, he said.
Story here: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/cbc/081024/canada/calgary_fake_granddaughter
Con artist targets Alberta grandmothers
EDMONTON (CBC) - A woman posed as a granddaughter in an attempt to swindle money from seniors in a home, police said on Friday.
The woman called up two residents of a seniors lodge in Bonnyville, northeast of Edmonton, in late September and pretended to be their granddaughter, telling them she was in trouble and needed thousands of dollars wired to an address in Quebec.
"What can you say about someone who preys on a senior in the lodge to take away their money? There are things in life that are low and there are things in life that are very, very low," said Bonnyville Staff Sgt. David Elliott.
The fake granddaughter seemed to pick her targets at random then strung them along based on what the elderly women were saying, he said.
Story here: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/cbc/081024/canada/calgary_fake_granddaughter
Transplanted cornea still sees after 123 years
Amazing story and, to me, oddly moving.
Transplanted cornea still sees after 123 years
But 'my vision's not great,' says 80-year-old man who received eye in 1958
OSLO - Bernt Aune’s transplanted cornea has been in use for a record 123 years — since before the Eiffel Tower was built.
“This is the oldest eye in Norway — I don’t know if it’s the oldest in the world,” Aune, an 80-year-old Norwegian and former ambulance driver, told Reuters by telephone on Thursday. “But my vision’s not great any longer.”
He had a cornea transplanted into his right eye in 1958 from the body of an elderly man who was born in June 1885. The operation was carried out at Namsos Hospital, mid-Norway.
Story here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27339516/from/ET/
Transplanted cornea still sees after 123 years
But 'my vision's not great,' says 80-year-old man who received eye in 1958
OSLO - Bernt Aune’s transplanted cornea has been in use for a record 123 years — since before the Eiffel Tower was built.
“This is the oldest eye in Norway — I don’t know if it’s the oldest in the world,” Aune, an 80-year-old Norwegian and former ambulance driver, told Reuters by telephone on Thursday. “But my vision’s not great any longer.”
He had a cornea transplanted into his right eye in 1958 from the body of an elderly man who was born in June 1885. The operation was carried out at Namsos Hospital, mid-Norway.
Story here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27339516/from/ET/
Infection after unprotected sex covered by disability policy? SCC to decide
Top court to hear insurance case
Ottawa Citizen, Oct. 24, 2008
The Supreme Court of Canada agreed yesterday to consider whether a B.C.
man is entitled to $200,000 in disability insurance for being rendered
paraplegic after having unprotected sex. The case pits the Co-operators
Life Insurance Company against Randolph Gibbens, 47, who contracted
genital herpes in 2003. The virus attacked his spine and paralysed him
from his abdomen down. Mr. Gibbens won twice in British Columbia courts,
which acknowledged that his behaviour was foolish, but that he lost the
use of his legs by accident because he could not have anticipated it.
James Morton
1100 - 5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
Coffee, tea or hot chocolate? All make you happier
Reports today are headlined "coffee makes you happy" and the like.
And there is a report in Science that studies people and their mood once they have a coffee -- but read the details.
It's not the coffee but the warmth that cheers folks up.
"Physical warmth can make us see others as warmer people, but also cause us to be warmer -- more generous and trusting -- as well," said John Bargh, a professor of psychology at Yale University in Connecticut, whose research appears in the journal Science.
So coffee is good but so is tea, hot chocolate or anything warming.
Bali bombers to be executed soon
These guys are no nonsense!
Indonesia says to execute Bali bombers in early Nov
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia will execute three Islamist militants convicted of the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people in early November, a government official said on Friday.
The men -- Imam Samudra, Amrozi and Mukhlas, also known as Ali Ghufron -- were sentenced to death in 2003 for their roles in the nightclub bombings on the holiday island.
The attacks by the Southeast Asian militant group Jemaah Islamiah (JI) were intended to scare away foreigners as part of their drive to make Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, part of a larger Islamic caliphate.
"The Indonesian attorney general office decided that the plan to execute Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Ali Gufron will be conducted in early November 2008," Jasman Pandjaitan, spokesman for the attorney general's office, told reporters.
The executions will take place on the island of Nusakambangan, where the three men are being held in a maximum security prison, officials said.
Full story here: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/081024/world/international_us_indonesia_balibombers
Indonesia says to execute Bali bombers in early Nov
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia will execute three Islamist militants convicted of the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people in early November, a government official said on Friday.
The men -- Imam Samudra, Amrozi and Mukhlas, also known as Ali Ghufron -- were sentenced to death in 2003 for their roles in the nightclub bombings on the holiday island.
The attacks by the Southeast Asian militant group Jemaah Islamiah (JI) were intended to scare away foreigners as part of their drive to make Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, part of a larger Islamic caliphate.
"The Indonesian attorney general office decided that the plan to execute Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Ali Gufron will be conducted in early November 2008," Jasman Pandjaitan, spokesman for the attorney general's office, told reporters.
The executions will take place on the island of Nusakambangan, where the three men are being held in a maximum security prison, officials said.
Full story here: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/081024/world/international_us_indonesia_balibombers
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Amending an indictment on appeal
Today's Court of Appeal decision in R. v. Deutsch, 2008 ONCA 727 considers when a appellant court has the authority to amend an indictment to conform with the evidence given at trial.
The short answer is that such amendment will only be allowed where the change is minor and does not go to the heart of the case as argued. Further, such amendment will only be made if the amendment would, in fact, have an effect on the result from the trial.
The Court held:
[32] Whether the court accepts the Crown's analysis or duty counsel's analysis, the result is the same - the charge as framed in the indictment was not established by the evidence.
[33] What remains to consider is the Crown's request to amend the indictment to conform to the evidence. Duty counsel submits that the amendment sought by the Crown changes the gravamen of the offence by specifying a different untruth. According to Mr. Hutchison, such an amendment would go beyond the scope of s. 683(1)(g).
CONCLUSION
[34] I start with the observation of Cory J. in R. v. Tremblay (1993), 84 C.C.C. (3d) 97 (S.C.C.) at 114:
It is, I think, an extraordinary step for an appellate court to amend the charge materially and then to enter a conviction on the basis of the charge as amended.
[35] I would not invoke the court's jurisdiction to grant the amendment sought by the Crown. I am not persuaded that if the amendment were made, it would necessarily follow that the appeal would or should be dismissed. I say this because, in my view, the oral evidence of Mr. Younger and the documentary evidence of the name search, admitted pursuant to s. 30 of the Evidence Act, would not be sufficient to establish the guilt of Mr. Deutsch. In this respect I agree with the "two potential sources of authority" submission advanced by duty counsel. The evidence of Mr. Younger and the name search only addressed Mr. Deutsch's lack of authority to practice before the state courts. Such evidence did not address the "Federal courts" issue in a way that would support the Crown's case.
[36] If the amendment were made, I believe it would raise further questions. What is "the New York State Bar"? What evidence is there that such a body, if it exists, did or did not grant Mr. Deutsch a licence to practice law? Mr. Younger's evidence does not answer these questions. Mr. Younger's evidence speaks mainly to the registration of those who may practice in the state courts. I observe that Mr. Younger testified that his office did not certify the good standing of attorneys in New York State. According to his evidence it is the four appellate divisions of the Supreme Court who have jurisdiction over the admission and discipline of attorneys and who certify their good standing.
NHL hit by falling dollar
Here's a story that raises an issue I wouldn't have thought of. But this is an issue across the board. Where there are talented people who can work in either the U.S. or Canada the falling loonie will make it harder for Canadian firms to attract and keep the talent. Of course, the lower labour costs for manufactured goods may well offset the increased talent costs -- the issue is not simple.
Falling loonie has Canadian NHL teams worried
The unpredictable nature of the loonie means the NHL's six Canadian teams are involved in a high-stakes contest of chicken, trying to stay one step ahead at all times.
The unpredictable nature of the loonie means the NHL's six Canadian teams are involved in a high-stakes contest of chicken, trying to stay one step ahead at all times.
The unpredictable nature of the Canadian dollar means the NHL's six Canadian teams are involved in a high-stakes contest of financial chicken, trying to stay one step ahead of the loonie at all times.
It's a game they can ill afford to lose.
As recently as last November, the Canadian dollar briefly reached $1.10 US, and still hovered above par with its American counterpart in May. But on Wednesday the once-mighty loonie plunged below 80 cents U.S., and it could keep falling, according to market experts.
Not surprisingly, NHL owners north of the border are monitoring this situation closely.
NHL teams pay their players in American currency, which means the plummeting Canadian dollar has serious ramifications on the league's Canadian clubs.
Full story here:
Leadership
Shrunken Liberal caucus mulls strategy, leadership
OTTAWA - A sharply reduced group of Liberal MPs is meeting in Ottawa to discuss their parliamentary strategy and the way forward in the race to replace Leader Stephane Dion.
Toronto MP Michael Ignatieff, one of the leadership front-runners, won't prejudge what the federal party will decide when it comes to leadership rules and timing nor how the Liberals will handle confidence votes in the Commons.
OTTAWA - A sharply reduced group of Liberal MPs is meeting in Ottawa to discuss their parliamentary strategy and the way forward in the race to replace Leader Stephane Dion.
Toronto MP Michael Ignatieff, one of the leadership front-runners, won't prejudge what the federal party will decide when it comes to leadership rules and timing nor how the Liberals will handle confidence votes in the Commons.
On the Word of God
Interesting piece by Father de Souza in today's Post
On the Word of God
Father Raymond J. de Souza,
National Post
Can the Bible be rescued from Biblical scholarship?
That's putting it too strongly, but in broad terms that is the question before a major international meeting at the Vatican. It's called a "Synod of Bishops," a triennial meeting of the pope and several hundred Catholic bishops regarding matters of Catholic faith and practice. At this session of the synod, Quebec's Cardinal Marc Ouellet has the central role after Pope Benedict himself.
The topic this time is the Word of God -- the sacred scriptures in the life of the Church. Yet the questions being dealt with are of wider interest; the same issues are being dealt with in the fissiparous Protestant mainstream, in the expanding worlds of evangelical Christians and beyond the Christian world -- they are highly relevant to shape of Islam in the 21st century.
Catholics are not fundamentalists, meaning the scriptural word is not read simply as bald fact. The long tradition holds that the scriptures are intended to teach what is true about salvation, using the literary and historical techniques that human writers use. Unlike the Koran, which pious Muslims believe is the Word of God written in the words of God, Catholics have held the scriptures to be the Word of God written in the words of men. Hence literary and historical analysis is needed to understand the Bible properly -- along with the structure of the faith itself.
The last bit has been neglected. In the 19th century, techniques of historical and literary criticism were increasingly used in Biblical scholarship. Enormous attention was paid to ancient languages and archaeological finds. There was painstaking effort to peer behind centuries of translations to what the original texts said. With fits and starts, this "historical-critical" method was given support by the Catholic Church and mainstream Protestant denominations. A great enthusiasm accompanied studies that would reveal what the Bible really said.
The results, though academically impressive to the guild of Biblical scholars, were ambiguous for the Church as a whole. The long tradition of Biblical preaching, beginning with the Church fathers, was set aside in favour of more and more
intensive examination of less and less. Entire doctoral theses were written on two or three Biblical phrases, and the whole field came to resemble linguistics and anthropology more than theology. It ceased to nourish the faith of ordinary people and impoverished the preaching of clergy. The centuries-long drive to make the Bible more accessible to ordinary Christians resulted in Biblical study being reserved to the scholars' guild, of which many considered faith itself to be an obstacle to the correct reading of the texts.
"Either the [Biblical scholars] and theologians rigorously interpret the Bible in faith and listening to the Spirit," Cardinal Ouellet said in his opening address to the synod, "or they hold to the superficial characteristics of the text, limiting the considerations to historical, linguistic or literary ones."
Pope Benedict appointed Cardinal Ouellet as "relator" of the synod, the person responsible for framing the issues in the opening address and summarizing the three weeks of discussions which conclude this week. It's an influential role, as the synod's deliberations will likely shape how scripture is taught in seminaries, for example, in the next generation. If Cardinal Ouellet carries the day, the superficial -- history and literature -- will lead to, not obscure, the Biblical word in its depth, as an account of God's saving action.
The synod has not called for abandoning the historical-critical approach, but rather wishes to balance it with the witness and tradition of the faith. Existing Biblical scholarship peels away layers of faith and tradition to get at a "scientific" reading of the Bible, but succeeds in peeling so much away that there is little left of interest. A recent book about Jesus was entitled A Marginal Jew -- which is more or less what historical analysis alone would tell us. But why should anyone be interested in a marginal Jew from a time long ago in a place far away?
In a devastating remark at the synod, Pope Benedict said of German Biblical scholars -- his former colleagues -- that they too often leave Jesus still in the tomb. They are not unlike Thomas Jefferson, who edited his own version of the Gospels, literally snipping out with scissors all the supernatural and miraculous bits. Jefferson though he was getting at the real Jesus.
The real Jesus is both a man of history and an object of faith. Biblical studies have been rather long on the history and short on the faith for nearly 150 years. The synod in Rome -- led by Quebec's archbishop -- seeks to change that.
On the Word of God
Father Raymond J. de Souza,
National Post
Can the Bible be rescued from Biblical scholarship?
That's putting it too strongly, but in broad terms that is the question before a major international meeting at the Vatican. It's called a "Synod of Bishops," a triennial meeting of the pope and several hundred Catholic bishops regarding matters of Catholic faith and practice. At this session of the synod, Quebec's Cardinal Marc Ouellet has the central role after Pope Benedict himself.
The topic this time is the Word of God -- the sacred scriptures in the life of the Church. Yet the questions being dealt with are of wider interest; the same issues are being dealt with in the fissiparous Protestant mainstream, in the expanding worlds of evangelical Christians and beyond the Christian world -- they are highly relevant to shape of Islam in the 21st century.
Catholics are not fundamentalists, meaning the scriptural word is not read simply as bald fact. The long tradition holds that the scriptures are intended to teach what is true about salvation, using the literary and historical techniques that human writers use. Unlike the Koran, which pious Muslims believe is the Word of God written in the words of God, Catholics have held the scriptures to be the Word of God written in the words of men. Hence literary and historical analysis is needed to understand the Bible properly -- along with the structure of the faith itself.
The last bit has been neglected. In the 19th century, techniques of historical and literary criticism were increasingly used in Biblical scholarship. Enormous attention was paid to ancient languages and archaeological finds. There was painstaking effort to peer behind centuries of translations to what the original texts said. With fits and starts, this "historical-critical" method was given support by the Catholic Church and mainstream Protestant denominations. A great enthusiasm accompanied studies that would reveal what the Bible really said.
The results, though academically impressive to the guild of Biblical scholars, were ambiguous for the Church as a whole. The long tradition of Biblical preaching, beginning with the Church fathers, was set aside in favour of more and more
intensive examination of less and less. Entire doctoral theses were written on two or three Biblical phrases, and the whole field came to resemble linguistics and anthropology more than theology. It ceased to nourish the faith of ordinary people and impoverished the preaching of clergy. The centuries-long drive to make the Bible more accessible to ordinary Christians resulted in Biblical study being reserved to the scholars' guild, of which many considered faith itself to be an obstacle to the correct reading of the texts.
"Either the [Biblical scholars] and theologians rigorously interpret the Bible in faith and listening to the Spirit," Cardinal Ouellet said in his opening address to the synod, "or they hold to the superficial characteristics of the text, limiting the considerations to historical, linguistic or literary ones."
Pope Benedict appointed Cardinal Ouellet as "relator" of the synod, the person responsible for framing the issues in the opening address and summarizing the three weeks of discussions which conclude this week. It's an influential role, as the synod's deliberations will likely shape how scripture is taught in seminaries, for example, in the next generation. If Cardinal Ouellet carries the day, the superficial -- history and literature -- will lead to, not obscure, the Biblical word in its depth, as an account of God's saving action.
The synod has not called for abandoning the historical-critical approach, but rather wishes to balance it with the witness and tradition of the faith. Existing Biblical scholarship peels away layers of faith and tradition to get at a "scientific" reading of the Bible, but succeeds in peeling so much away that there is little left of interest. A recent book about Jesus was entitled A Marginal Jew -- which is more or less what historical analysis alone would tell us. But why should anyone be interested in a marginal Jew from a time long ago in a place far away?
In a devastating remark at the synod, Pope Benedict said of German Biblical scholars -- his former colleagues -- that they too often leave Jesus still in the tomb. They are not unlike Thomas Jefferson, who edited his own version of the Gospels, literally snipping out with scissors all the supernatural and miraculous bits. Jefferson though he was getting at the real Jesus.
The real Jesus is both a man of history and an object of faith. Biblical studies have been rather long on the history and short on the faith for nearly 150 years. The synod in Rome -- led by Quebec's archbishop -- seeks to change that.
This is totally insane!!!
TOKYO - Japanese police say a 43-year-old piano teacher's sudden divorce from her online husband in a virtual game world made her so angry that she logged on and killed his digital persona. She used his identification and password to log onto the popular interactive game "Maple Story" to carry out the virtual murder in mid-May. A police official in the northern city of Sapporo on Thursday quoted the woman as saying that she was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning and that made her angry. The official said the woman had not plotted any revenge in the real world. She has not yet been formally charged, but if convicted could face a prison term of up to five years or a fine up to $5,000. Players in "Maple Story" raise and manipulate digital images called "avatars" that represent themselves, while engaging in relationships, social activities and fighting against monsters and other obstacles. The woman used login information she got from the 33-year-old office worker when their characters were happily married, and killed the character. The man complained to police when he discovered that his beloved online avatar was dead.
* LIFE IN THE 1500'S *
I'm not sure this piece floating around the web is really all true (in fact I know it's not) but it's a good read so enjoy...
The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be .
Here are some facts about the 1500s:
Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odour. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.
Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the Bath water". [This just can't be right -- a bath tub, no matter how big, isn't big enough to lose a baby in].
Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and dogs and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying, "It's raining cats and dogs".
There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.
The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying, "Dirt poor". The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entranceway. Hence the saying a threshhold.
(Getting quite an education, aren't you?)
In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme, "Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old".
Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could "bring home the bacon". They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and "chew the fat".
Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.
Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper crust.
Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake.
England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift.) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be, saved by the bell or was considered a ...dead ringer. [This isn't right. The bells from a grave are 19th Century; besides that's not the origin of dead ringer -- see below].
And that's the truth. Now, whoever said History was boring!
AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY, WELL SORT OF, DIFFERENT:
"A dead ringer"
Meaning: An exact duplicate.
Origin
We use phrases all the time without really giving their meaning a great deal of thought. You may well know that dead ringer means exact duplicate, but why is that?
To a non-English speaker the two terms appear to have nothing in common. So, why dead; why ringer?
Let's first dispense with the nonsensical idea that's sometimes put forward as the origin of this phrase, i.e. that it refers to people who were prematurely buried and who pulled on bell ropes that were attached to their coffins in order to attract attention.
How does the premature burial derivation of 'dead ringer' explain why it means 'exact duplicate'? There's no evidence for this idea.
Better not to dwell on it any longer and get on with the real origin, and back to why dead; why ringer?
A ringer is a horse substituted for another of similar appearance in order to defraud the bookies. This word originated in the US horse-racing fraternity at the end of the 19th century. The word is defined for us in a copy of the Manitoba Free Press from October 1882:
"A horse that is taken through the country and trotted under a false name and pedigree is called a 'ringer.'"
It has since been adopted into the language to mean any very close duplicate. As a verb, 'ring' has long been used to mean 'exchange/substitute' in a variety of situations, most of them illegal.
From the same period is the term 'ring castors', meaning to surreptitiously exchange hats. Castors, or casters, were hats made from beaver fur.
From the 20th century we have the Australian phrase, 'ring in the gray (or knob)', meaning to substitute a double-sided penny for a genuine one. Coming more up to date we have 'car ringing', which is the replacing of the identification numbers on a stolen car with those from a genuine (usually scrapped) vehicle.
So, that's ringer; what about dead? Dead, in the sense of lifeless, is so commonly used that we tend to ignore its other meanings. The meaning that's relevant here is exact or precise. This is demonstrated in many phrases; 'dead shot', 'dead centre', 'dead heat', etc.
An Ashkenazi haggadah from the mid 15th Century
This is a mid-15th century manuscript now in the British Library.
It consists of 49 leaves of thick vellum.
The haggadah was written and illuminated by Joel Ben Simeon called Feibusch Ashkenazi. A different artist, from southern Germany, added some illustrations after the Haggadah had left Joel ben Simeon. The present day artifact includes a dark-brown leather binding dated to the 15th century.
Note the wine stains that bear witness to the use of this haggadah in the Passover celebration.
Hartford police say that a fake cop was busted after stopping the real one
Oh dear -- as criminals go this one seems especially dumb...
Hartford police say that a fake cop was busted after stopping the real one
HARTFORD, Conn. - Police say a Connecticut man playing police officer picked the wrong person to pull over.
Israel Gomez was arrested after pulling over an off-duty Hartford police lieutenant. Police say 20-year-old Gomez turned on flashing lights and used a siren and loudspeaker to coax police Lieutenant Ronald Bair off the road.
Bair called for backup, and officers arrested Gomez and 20-year-old Esteban Cardona.
Gomez is charged with impersonating a police officer, reckless driving and improper use of red flashing lights.
Cardona, who was driving another car involved in the bogus traffic stop, is charged with reckless driving.
Hartford police say that a fake cop was busted after stopping the real one
HARTFORD, Conn. - Police say a Connecticut man playing police officer picked the wrong person to pull over.
Israel Gomez was arrested after pulling over an off-duty Hartford police lieutenant. Police say 20-year-old Gomez turned on flashing lights and used a siren and loudspeaker to coax police Lieutenant Ronald Bair off the road.
Bair called for backup, and officers arrested Gomez and 20-year-old Esteban Cardona.
Gomez is charged with impersonating a police officer, reckless driving and improper use of red flashing lights.
Cardona, who was driving another car involved in the bogus traffic stop, is charged with reckless driving.
Internet, cellphone: 'the new essentials' Belt-tightening consumers more likely to cut back on movie tickets, DVDs and top-tier cable, study finds
The world have changed!
GRANT ROBERTSON
Globe and Mail, Oct. 23, 2008
Amid the threat of tough economic times, Internet and cellphones have
become
Almost like heat and water for consumers - they are among the last
monthly expenses That households are willing to cut from their budgets
during a recession.
A survey conducted last week in Canada and the U.S. suggests that if
consumers are forced to reduce spending, they will look almost
everywhere else in their Household budgets before they unplug their
computer or switch off their BlackBerry.
James Morton
1100 - 5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
Tiger's back ... as a caddie
Now that would be an intimidating round of golf!Four months after U.S. Open, Tiger Woods back at Torrey Pines as caddie
SAN DIEGO - Four months after his epic U.S. Open victory, Tiger Woods returned to Torrey Pines on Monday without a limp.
He didn't have golf clubs, either.
Hopping from a cart, Woods walked up to 59-year-old John Abel, doffed his cap and extended his right hand. "Hey, I hear you're looking for a caddie. I'm Tiger Woods - pleased to meet you."
Out of action since beating Rocco Mediate in a 19-hole playoff for his 14th career major, Woods came back to Torrey Pines to deliver on his end of the "Tee Off with Tiger" online sweepstakes sponsored by Buick.
Showing no signs of his season-ending knee surgery a week after the U.S. Open, Woods wore a green caddie's bib inscribed with Abel's name as he guided him around the back nine of the South Course, where he has won six times in the Buick Invitational and once in a U.S. Open he called his best ever.
Full story here: http://sports.sympatico.msn.ca/Golf/ContentPosting?newsitemid=83852039&feedname=CP-GOLF&show=True&number=3&showbyline=True&subtitle=&detect=&abc=abc&date=True
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Walter Benjamin -- why the fame?
Reading this week's New York Review of Books I was struck by the fact Walter Benjamin was referred to numerous times in various articles.
The topics ranged from America's world status, to the writings of Karl Kraus in Vienna between the Wars, to Paul's Letter to the Romans.
Why?
Anyone who has read Benjamin, really read him, must agree he is close to incomprehensible. Arcades is an interesting jumble but that's what it is -- a jumble. Some of the journalism is focused but those pieces are just one off newspaper articles. None of Benjamin's big work is very focused (of course, in fairness, Heidegger is even worse -- what on earth is the deal with Being and Time???).
Benjamin's worldview is (somewhat) more sympatico than it was, say, 20 years ago -- G-d is more in style today than in the 80's.
But viewing the world from a modified Talmudic view cannot, standing alone, be enough to make an intellectual titan otherwise the NYR would be full of Rabbis or Jesuits.
Neither can it be Benjamin's story which, while tragic, was hardly heroic. (Thinking the Spanish were going to send him back to the Germans he killed himself. Perhaps that made sense -- the Nazis would have been specially cruel to Benjamin, and they were noted for cruelty -- but, of course, Benjamin was wrong and the Spanish had no intention of sending him away. So he died in vain).
I'd like to finish this entry with a good answer to why Benjamin is so 'hot' but have none to offer. Perhaps a reader does? Regardless, it is odd.
James Morton
1100 - 5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
The topics ranged from America's world status, to the writings of Karl Kraus in Vienna between the Wars, to Paul's Letter to the Romans.
Why?
Anyone who has read Benjamin, really read him, must agree he is close to incomprehensible. Arcades is an interesting jumble but that's what it is -- a jumble. Some of the journalism is focused but those pieces are just one off newspaper articles. None of Benjamin's big work is very focused (of course, in fairness, Heidegger is even worse -- what on earth is the deal with Being and Time???).
Benjamin's worldview is (somewhat) more sympatico than it was, say, 20 years ago -- G-d is more in style today than in the 80's.
But viewing the world from a modified Talmudic view cannot, standing alone, be enough to make an intellectual titan otherwise the NYR would be full of Rabbis or Jesuits.
Neither can it be Benjamin's story which, while tragic, was hardly heroic. (Thinking the Spanish were going to send him back to the Germans he killed himself. Perhaps that made sense -- the Nazis would have been specially cruel to Benjamin, and they were noted for cruelty -- but, of course, Benjamin was wrong and the Spanish had no intention of sending him away. So he died in vain).
I'd like to finish this entry with a good answer to why Benjamin is so 'hot' but have none to offer. Perhaps a reader does? Regardless, it is odd.
James Morton
1100 - 5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
Cameras caught suspect minutes after shoot out that killed Creba: Crown
A few minutes after Jane Creba was killed during a downtown Toronto gun battle almost three years ago, one of the alleged gunmen in the shoot out was captured on a surveillance camera inside a taxi, court heard on Wednesday.
The defendant known as J.S.R. is seen with a cell phone in his hand, apparently giving instructions to the taxi driver after fleeing the crowded scene where Ms. Creba was caught in the crossfire.
The 20-year-old defendant — who can only be identified as J.S.R. because he was a youth at the time of the Boxing Day 2005 incident — is on trial in Ontario Superior Court. He is facing one charge of second-degree murder, six counts of attempted murder and several weapons offences.
J.S.R. was arrested at a downtown subway station about 40 minutes after the shoot out with a 9-mm Ruger semi-automatic handgun in his possession.
The young man is not accused of killing Ms. Creba, but of firing several shots at a person identified by Crown attorney Kerry Hughes as wearing a "stop snitching" t-shirt, who instigated the gun battle. The "stop snitching" person is alleged to have fired the shot from his .357 Magnum that killed Ms. Creba.
Full story here:
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/archive/2008/10/22/cameras-caught-suspect-minutes-after-shootout-that-killed-creba-crown.aspx
James Morton
1100 - 5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
The defendant known as J.S.R. is seen with a cell phone in his hand, apparently giving instructions to the taxi driver after fleeing the crowded scene where Ms. Creba was caught in the crossfire.
The 20-year-old defendant — who can only be identified as J.S.R. because he was a youth at the time of the Boxing Day 2005 incident — is on trial in Ontario Superior Court. He is facing one charge of second-degree murder, six counts of attempted murder and several weapons offences.
J.S.R. was arrested at a downtown subway station about 40 minutes after the shoot out with a 9-mm Ruger semi-automatic handgun in his possession.
The young man is not accused of killing Ms. Creba, but of firing several shots at a person identified by Crown attorney Kerry Hughes as wearing a "stop snitching" t-shirt, who instigated the gun battle. The "stop snitching" person is alleged to have fired the shot from his .357 Magnum that killed Ms. Creba.
Full story here:
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/archive/2008/10/22/cameras-caught-suspect-minutes-after-shootout-that-killed-creba-crown.aspx
James Morton
1100 - 5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
No parole for notorious B.C. camping killer
This story is worth reading if only to use as an illustration of the fact that "25 years no parole" does not mean "25 years and out" but rather it means what it says, that is, 25 years before a convict can be considered for parole. And so here 25 years elapsed and parole was sought but denied.
No parole for notorious B.C. camping killer
A man who killed six members of the same B.C. family more than 25 years ago has been denied parole.
David Ennis, known as David Shearing at the time murders, had his first parole hearing Wednesday at the Bowden Institution in central Alberta.
In August 1982, Ennis killed George and Edith Bentley, their daughter Jackie Johnson, son-in-law Bob and grandchildren Janet, 13, and Karen, 11.
...
The investigation eventually led to Shearing, who now goes by his mother's maiden name of Ennis, and he was arrested in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., in November 1983.
Following an intense interrogation, Shearing eventually confessed to shooting the six family members, loading the bodies into the car and setting it on fire.
In April 1984, he pleaded guilty to six counts of second-degree murder and received a sentence of life in prison with no eligibility for parole for 25 years.
Full story here:
http://news.sympatico.msn.ctv.ca/abc/home/contentposting.aspx?isfa=1&feedname=CTV-TOPSTORIES_V3&showbyline=True&newsitemid=CTVNews%2f20081022%2fEnnis_parole_081022
No parole for notorious B.C. camping killer
A man who killed six members of the same B.C. family more than 25 years ago has been denied parole.
David Ennis, known as David Shearing at the time murders, had his first parole hearing Wednesday at the Bowden Institution in central Alberta.
In August 1982, Ennis killed George and Edith Bentley, their daughter Jackie Johnson, son-in-law Bob and grandchildren Janet, 13, and Karen, 11.
...
The investigation eventually led to Shearing, who now goes by his mother's maiden name of Ennis, and he was arrested in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., in November 1983.
Following an intense interrogation, Shearing eventually confessed to shooting the six family members, loading the bodies into the car and setting it on fire.
In April 1984, he pleaded guilty to six counts of second-degree murder and received a sentence of life in prison with no eligibility for parole for 25 years.
Full story here:
http://news.sympatico.msn.ctv.ca/abc/home/contentposting.aspx?isfa=1&feedname=CTV-TOPSTORIES_V3&showbyline=True&newsitemid=CTVNews%2f20081022%2fEnnis_parole_081022
15th Century Book of Hours
15th CenturyHeures d'Etienne Chevalier
This magnificient Book of Hours is in the Louvre. Having looked at a silly humour webnote on the Fifteenth Century I decided to review some real materials related to the world 500 years ago and ran across this wonderful illustration.
Etienne de Chevalier, treasurer to King Charles VII, commissioned Jean Fouquet, one of the greatest artists of the fifteenth century, to create this Book of Hours.
The original miniatures exist as fragments of the Livre d’heures d'Etienne Chevalier (1450-60), forty of the leaves are at the Musée Condé, Chantilly. Two at the Louvre, one at the Bibliothèque Nationale, and one at the British Museum.
Documentary sources of the 15th and 16th centuries show that Fouquet, an early renaissance French painter and illuminator, held international repute. He is also famous for his illuminations for the French translations of Boccaccio and of Josephus’ Antiquities of the Jews manuscripts located at the Bibliothèque Nationale.
Al Qaida -- merry pranksters?
This is just mischief making -- my general sense is, whatever Al Qaida suggests... do the opposite... .
Al-Qaida-linked Web site backs Senator John McCain as president
WASHINGTON - Al-Qaida supporters suggested in a Web site message this week they would welcome a pre-election terror attack on the U.S. as a way to usher in a McCain presidency.
The message was posted Monday on the password-protected al-Hesbah Web site. It says if al-Qaida wants to exhaust the United States militarily and economically, "impetuous" Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain is the better choice.
It says that's because he's more likely to continue the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Story here:
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/081022/world/al_qaida_us_election
Al-Qaida-linked Web site backs Senator John McCain as president
WASHINGTON - Al-Qaida supporters suggested in a Web site message this week they would welcome a pre-election terror attack on the U.S. as a way to usher in a McCain presidency.
The message was posted Monday on the password-protected al-Hesbah Web site. It says if al-Qaida wants to exhaust the United States militarily and economically, "impetuous" Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain is the better choice.
It says that's because he's more likely to continue the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Story here:
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/081022/world/al_qaida_us_election
A diving loon
Canadian dollar's plunge could help Canada weather economic slowdown
TORONTO - A number of factors combined to push the Canadian dollar below 80 cents US for the first time in more than three years Wednesday, but experts say the plunging loonie could actually help Canada weather a global economic slowdown.
Canada's manufacturing sector suffered as the dollar soared above parity with the U.S. greenback over the past year, making Canadian goods more expensive for other countries and hurting export-based industries, the auto sector in particular.
Now its drop may help protect Canada's manufacturing heartland - Ontario and Quebec - from the effects of a worldwide recession.
TORONTO - A number of factors combined to push the Canadian dollar below 80 cents US for the first time in more than three years Wednesday, but experts say the plunging loonie could actually help Canada weather a global economic slowdown.
Canada's manufacturing sector suffered as the dollar soared above parity with the U.S. greenback over the past year, making Canadian goods more expensive for other countries and hurting export-based industries, the auto sector in particular.
Now its drop may help protect Canada's manufacturing heartland - Ontario and Quebec - from the effects of a worldwide recession.
Review of legislative history in statutory interpretation
Today's decision in Rodrigues v. Ontario (Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal), 2008 ONCA 719 deals with the difficult issue of when legislative history may/ought to be considered.
At the Divisional Court level it was found to be a jurisdictional error not to refer to such history when interpreting statutory/regulatory language. Such finding, to this author, seems problematic. While it may be wise to refer to legislative history to such suggest the failure so to do leads to jurisdictional error seems implausible.
In any event, the Court of Appeal (in a split decision) found the jurisdictional determination was wrong and the tribunal from whom review was taken did not lose jurisdiction by the failure to consider the legislative history.
The Court of Appeal referred to the dissent in Divisional Court with approval saying:
[20] As for legislative history, Swinton J, found that the Tribunal's failure to refer to evidence of legislative history did not deprive the Tribunal of being accorded deference, or render its decision patently unreasonable. Moreover, legislative history was not the focus of the argument before the Tribunal. She referred to Rizzo & Rizzo Shoes Ltd. (Re), [1998] 1 S.C.R. 27 at para. 35 for the proposition that evidence of legislative history only plays a limited role in statutory interpretation. In any event, it is not fatal to a Tribunal's decision that specific mention is not made of certain evidence: Trotta v. College of Nurse of Ontario, [1991] O.J. No. 348 ( Div. Ct.).
James Morton
1100 - 5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
At the Divisional Court level it was found to be a jurisdictional error not to refer to such history when interpreting statutory/regulatory language. Such finding, to this author, seems problematic. While it may be wise to refer to legislative history to such suggest the failure so to do leads to jurisdictional error seems implausible.
In any event, the Court of Appeal (in a split decision) found the jurisdictional determination was wrong and the tribunal from whom review was taken did not lose jurisdiction by the failure to consider the legislative history.
The Court of Appeal referred to the dissent in Divisional Court with approval saying:
[20] As for legislative history, Swinton J, found that the Tribunal's failure to refer to evidence of legislative history did not deprive the Tribunal of being accorded deference, or render its decision patently unreasonable. Moreover, legislative history was not the focus of the argument before the Tribunal. She referred to Rizzo & Rizzo Shoes Ltd. (Re), [1998] 1 S.C.R. 27 at para. 35 for the proposition that evidence of legislative history only plays a limited role in statutory interpretation. In any event, it is not fatal to a Tribunal's decision that specific mention is not made of certain evidence: Trotta v. College of Nurse of Ontario, [1991] O.J. No. 348 ( Div. Ct.).
James Morton
1100 - 5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
Internet crime???
Dutch teens stole items in online video game
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — A Dutch court has convicted two youths of theft for stealing virtual items in a computer game and sentenced them to community service.
Only a handful of such cases have been heard in the world, and they have reached varying conclusions about the legal status of “virtual goods.”
The Leeuwarden District Court says the culprits, 15 and 14 years old, coerced a 13-year-old boy into transferring a “virtual amulet and a virtual mask” from the online adventure game RuneScape to their game accounts.
“These virtual goods are goods (under Dutch law), so this is theft,” the court said in a summary of its ruling.
Identities of the minors were not released.
The 15-year-old was sentenced to 200 hours service, and the 14-year-old to 160 hours.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — A Dutch court has convicted two youths of theft for stealing virtual items in a computer game and sentenced them to community service.
Only a handful of such cases have been heard in the world, and they have reached varying conclusions about the legal status of “virtual goods.”
The Leeuwarden District Court says the culprits, 15 and 14 years old, coerced a 13-year-old boy into transferring a “virtual amulet and a virtual mask” from the online adventure game RuneScape to their game accounts.
“These virtual goods are goods (under Dutch law), so this is theft,” the court said in a summary of its ruling.
Identities of the minors were not released.
The 15-year-old was sentenced to 200 hours service, and the 14-year-old to 160 hours.
Typical courthouse hallway
An unmistakable mix of the stately and grubby -- here is 112 Court, guilty pleas, at Toronto's Centreal Ontario Court of Justice Courthouse -- Old City Hall.
Iran's threats are not based on any proven capability
From Haaretz:
Two days ago the press in Teheran reported on a huge exercise of Iran's air force, including claims of a practice air attack on Israel.
About 100 warplanes, it was claimed, flew 1,200 kilometers and demonstrated their capabilities - something that can be seen as a counter to the reports in June that the Israel Air Force had conducted a similar exercise, which included the simulated bombing of Iran.
The problem with recent statements on a preemptive attack on Israel, and even more so with the reports of the Iranian air force exercise, is that they are not based on any proven capability. A cautious estimate would be that the damage Iran could cause to Israel today is very limited.
The Iranians would have to rely on their local representatives in the region, Hezbollah and Hamas, or to wait until they obtain nuclear weapons - two or three years down the road, even according to the most pessimistic estimates in the West.
Most Iranian warplanes are remnants from the days of the Shah, obsolete American planes. Prof. Anthony Cordesman, a senior U.S. strategic analyst, said in a lecture last July that only a few of the 300 warplanes the Iranians have are capable of flying at all, and that they lack advanced aeronautical systems. It is highly unlikely that a significant number of such planes could penetrate Israeli defenses.
The second possibility for an Iranian attack is with long-range ground to ground missiles. But Cordesman, like other military experts, claims the Iranian missile program is less advanced than it may appear to be. He estimates the Iranians have a few dozen - and no more than a hundred - missiles with a range capable of reaching Israel.
The launch capabilities of Iran's missiles have been tested only a few times and it is very hard to estimate their accuracy. For now, without the ability to mount nuclear warheads on these missiles, an attack would consist of only conventional weapons. In other words, the damage they could cause would be similar to the destruction left by the Iraqi Scud missiles during the 1991 Gulf War.
It's hard to imagine what good such an attack would do for Iran in the near future. After all, this would be the best way to guarantee an Israeli counter-attack, as well as firm international intervention to halt the Iranian nuclear program, a program that constitutes such an important goal of the Iranian government.
Full story here:
Native leaders divided over future of residential schools panel
Remarkable story in today's Globe. This Commission is too important to let fail.
Native leaders divided over future of residential schools panel
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
OTTAWA — As one of the commissioners put it Tuesday, how can it be that the commission given the historic task of helping Canada toward a national reconciliation on Indian residential schools was ultimately unable to reconcile with itself?
Justice Harry LaForme's sudden resignation as commission chair Monday, in which he cited an intractable power struggle with the other two commissioners, has at a single stroke thrown the entire process into doubt. One native group, Ontario's Anishinabek Nation, said Tuesday it has lost confidence in the commission and that the two remaining commissioners must be fired.
James Morton
1100 - 5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
Native leaders divided over future of residential schools panel
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
OTTAWA — As one of the commissioners put it Tuesday, how can it be that the commission given the historic task of helping Canada toward a national reconciliation on Indian residential schools was ultimately unable to reconcile with itself?
Justice Harry LaForme's sudden resignation as commission chair Monday, in which he cited an intractable power struggle with the other two commissioners, has at a single stroke thrown the entire process into doubt. One native group, Ontario's Anishinabek Nation, said Tuesday it has lost confidence in the commission and that the two remaining commissioners must be fired.
James Morton
1100 - 5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
Inflammatory, inaccurate and ill considered intelligence
Part of the Iacobucci Report has been released - it's not pretty. It refers to "inflammatory, inaccurate and ill considered intelligence."
Canada must act strongly to protect itself and aid our allies but torturing innocents, especially innocent Canadians (dare we suggest at least in part because of their racial background), is not only wicked (too weak a word) but more, it's counter productive.
James Morton
1100 - 5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
Pranksters take over online petiton to keep Stéphane Dion
There is an on-line petition seeking to keep Stéphane Dion as Leader of the Liberal Party. Now, of course, he is the Leader and will remain so until the Leadership vote but the petition suggests he ought to stay on afterwards.
In the words of the petition:
Stéphane Dion is a Leader
Sadly the actual petiton seems to be more of a joke than a serious attempt to engage the Party. So we see these names and comments:
471. M.Ignatieff: "Stephane, we didnt get the job done"
467. Bob Rae: GET OUT!
463. Do U. Gettit: Dion and Liberals deserve each other!
462. S Dion: Dions his real character shone through when he refused to accept responsibilty for the election loss. This guy has no character
445. Green Shaft: Shift to the right
444. Jack Layton: We should team up.
And all this is a shame because Stéphane Dion is a true Liberal and a man who deserves credit for taking some difficult decisions, especially recently. He is an honourable man and someone who will be long remembered as such; he deserves better than silly nonsense.
The petition is here if you want to look at it:
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Liberal death spiral -- I think not
Just a few years ago we were reading about how the Conservatives were history.
The major Parties go up and down. The Tories are doing well now and we are not. There's a reason for that and we better fix the problems but the Liberals will win again (as will the Tories).
Still, this is an article worth thinking on.
Are the Liberals in a death spiral?
How a once-dominant party developed the Tory Syndrome - and 12 steps to cure it
ANDREW STEELE
The Liberal Party of Canada is the most successful political party in Western democracy. It is Canada's natural governing party. A Liberal leader inevitably becomes Prime Minister.
That and four dollars will buy you a coffee at Starbucks.
History is littered with the corpses of successful political parties. The British Liberals ruled England when it was the global hegemon, and yet proved unable to bridge class divisions and fell between the cracks. The American Whigs elected two presidents and produced the "Great Triumvirate" of Senators Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun and Henry Clay.
The Italian Communist Party routinely secured the support of one-quarter to one-third of voters until it dissolved in 1991, a victim of global history.
Liberals should let go of any illusion that their party is the exception to the rule "thou art mortal." There is no guarantee it will ever be back in government. There is no protection it enjoys from the reality of low fundraising, declining membership and internal division. If Liberals do not wake up and grasp the peril of their situation, they will join the ash heap of history.
George Perlin coined the phrase "the Tory syndrome" to describe the death spiral of poor election showings, leading to internal dissention, leading to a distressed and distracted leader and his cadre, leading to lack of attention to party building, fundraising and policy development, leading to yet another poor election showing, and so on.
Since John A. MacDonald died, the Conservatives were trapped in this endless process of self-recrimination and circular firing squads. MacDonald was followed by no fewer than four leaders in five years. Periodically, the Conservatives would emerge from the wilderness to government, but every loss was followed by internal feuding even worse than before.
John Diefenbaker would not go quietly and was a constant knife in the back of Bob Stanfield. Joe Clark's brief government was followed by three years of war with Brian Mulroney. Mr. Mulroney's electoral success temporarily quelled the dissent — at least in caucus — but at the cost of dissolving the voting coalition into progressive and Reform factions.
The Liberals are now trapped in this cycle.
Since John Turner's departure from Cabinet in 1975, there has been some factionalism between ins and outs in the Liberals: Trudeau-Turner, Turner-Chretien, Chretien-Martin. But while those fights were distracting, since 2000 the Liberals have basically been consumed by internal divisions.
The success of the Martin faction in forcing Jean Chretien to set a departure date exacerbated the problem, as it left Mr. Chretien in control of the legislative machinery of government even as he lost the party. The result was fundraising rules that hobbled the corporate-donation dependent Liberals far more than the membership-heavy Conservatives, NDP or Bloc.
Full story here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081021.WSteele21/BNStory/politics
James Morton
1100 - 5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
War Memorial At Old City Hall,Toronto
I had not realized the cornerstone was laid by Field Marshall Earl Haig. Quite a remarkable stone.
India launches moon mission
What a remarkable achievement! In a generation India has gone from rural poverty to landing on the moon. This is something for the whole world to admire.
Britney judge declares mistrial Spears had faced up to six months in jail and a fine if convicted
The judge in Britney Spears' trial for driving without a valid Californian licence has declared a mistrial after jurors failed to reach a verdict.
The 26-year-old pop star was not present to hear the decision, after eight-hours of deliberations. The charge related to an incident in Los Angeles last August, when the pop star was photographed hitting a parked car and leaving the scene. US prosecutors did not indicate whether Spears would face a retrial.
After a second day of deliberation, the foreman of the jury said they had failed to reach a unanimous conclusion after three votes. On Monday the jurors had said that votes were stuck at 10-2, but did not reveal which way they were leaning.
Superior Court Judge James A Steele had questioned whether more could be done to encourage discussion or reach a verdict. "I think with each return to the assembly room, everyone becomes more entrenched in their position," the foreman replied. 'Straightforward case'
There was no mention during the trial of the accident that led to the charges, as agreed by the defence and prosecution. The omission led to the jury's other question: "Why was she stopped in the first place?" During the trial, the prosecution had said it was "a straightforward case" - the singer's address was listed as Beverley Hills so she should have a Californian driving licence.
Ms Spears' lawyer, J Michael Flanagan, told the jury during the defence that there was no dispute she had been driving but said that, at the time, she had a valid Louisiana driving licence. He argued that Ms Spears did not need a Californian driving licence because she was only a temporary resident of Los Angeles.
Mr Flanagan rejected a plea deal which would have resulted in a $150 fine saying Ms Spears did not want a criminal record. She had faced up to six months in jail and a fine if convicted, but this was considered unlikely as she had no previous convictions.
Computing joke -- ha ha ha!
For all of us who feel only the deepest love and affection for the way computers have enhanced our lives, read on.
At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated:
"If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon."
In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release
stating:
"If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics." (and I just love this part)
1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash........ Twice a day.
2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.
4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive ----- but would run on only five percent of the roads.
6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single "This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation" warning light.
I LOVE THE NEXT ONE!!!
7. The airbag system would ask "Are you sure?" before deploying.
8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key, and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.
9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
10. You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off.
At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated:
"If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon."
In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release
stating:
"If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics." (and I just love this part)
1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash........ Twice a day.
2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.
4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive ----- but would run on only five percent of the roads.
6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single "This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation" warning light.
I LOVE THE NEXT ONE!!!
7. The airbag system would ask "Are you sure?" before deploying.
8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key, and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.
9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
10. You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off.
Looks like a rocky marriage ...
Iowa couple ordered to stay apart after woman bites fiance before wedding
IOWA CITY, Iowa - A judge has ordered a suburban Chicago woman to stay away from her fiance - two weeks before their wedding.
Johnson County Judge Stephen Gerard ordered 23-year-old Rucha Patel on Monday not to have contact with the man after she was charged with domestic abuse causing injury.
Her fiance's name was not released.
Police say Patel drove over the man's foot and then bit his hand when he took away her keys to prevent her from driving. It was not known why he tried to stop Patel.
Patel told the judge the marriage was scheduled in two weeks.
IOWA CITY, Iowa - A judge has ordered a suburban Chicago woman to stay away from her fiance - two weeks before their wedding.
Johnson County Judge Stephen Gerard ordered 23-year-old Rucha Patel on Monday not to have contact with the man after she was charged with domestic abuse causing injury.
Her fiance's name was not released.
Police say Patel drove over the man's foot and then bit his hand when he took away her keys to prevent her from driving. It was not known why he tried to stop Patel.
Patel told the judge the marriage was scheduled in two weeks.
Income gap growing wider; Canada lags behind 17 developed countries; has no detailed plan to fight poverty, study finds
Sometimes these studies say less than they appear but income inequality rates are significant. If poverty is defined as being, say, the lower third of people then poverty never decreases.
Income gap growing wider; Canada lags behind 17 developed countries; has no detailed plan to fight poverty, study finds
Laurie Monsebraaten
The Toronto Star, Oct. 21, 2008
Poverty and inequality rates in Canada have been on the rise since 1995 and are now higher than the average developed nation, according to a new study.
The income gap is growing throughout the developed world, but the gap between rich and poor in Canada widened more dramatically than in most countries between 1995 and 2005, according to the report released in Paris today.
The 20-year analysis by the 30-member Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development found only Germany saw a similar rate of increase during the past 10 years.
"After 20 years of continuous decline, both inequality and poverty rates (in
Canada) have increased rapidly in the past 10 years, now reaching levels above the OECD average," says the report.
As in other countries, more single-parent households and people living alone are contributing to income inequality in Canada.
And wages for the rich are increasing, while they have been stagnating or dropping for middle and lower income workers, the report says.
Most affected have been young adults and families with children.
Canada spends less on cash transfers, such as unemployment and family benefits, than other OECD countries and that may be one of the reasons the country fares worse than others, the report suggests.
The report echoes concerns raised by Canadian social research groups about growing income disparity in Canada at a time of strong economic growth.
"It's a consistent repudiation of the trickle-down theory," said Armine Yalnizyan, an economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, which has written several reports on the issue.
"Even in a period of dramatic growth in the job market - and Canada has been a leader in job growth in the G-7 in the last 10 years - trickle down has not happened," she said.
The OECD report underscores the need for federal action, she said, adding every political party except the recently elected federal Conservatives had plans to cut poverty in their campaign platforms.
"It will be interesting to see how the other parties form a coalition of interest on this issue, or if they do," Yalnizyan said.
With U.S. Democratic leader Barack Obama ahead in the polls and promising to cut poverty in half in that country within 10 years, Canada may soon be one of the only developed countries without a detailed plan to address the problem.
But Lesley Harmer, a spokesperson for retiring Human Resources Minister Monte Solberg, said the government is "taking real action to support Canadians who need help."
In an email, she listed "vital social programs" the government is strengthening: the Working Income Tax Benefit; the recent extension of affordable housing and homelessness programs; the new retired disability savings program; $100 monthly child care benefits; and supports for seniors, skills training and post-secondary education.
When asked if the government plans to introduce a strategy with goals and timetables she said: "I think what I sent you stands."
Income gap growing wider; Canada lags behind 17 developed countries; has no detailed plan to fight poverty, study finds
Laurie Monsebraaten
The Toronto Star, Oct. 21, 2008
Poverty and inequality rates in Canada have been on the rise since 1995 and are now higher than the average developed nation, according to a new study.
The income gap is growing throughout the developed world, but the gap between rich and poor in Canada widened more dramatically than in most countries between 1995 and 2005, according to the report released in Paris today.
The 20-year analysis by the 30-member Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development found only Germany saw a similar rate of increase during the past 10 years.
"After 20 years of continuous decline, both inequality and poverty rates (in
Canada) have increased rapidly in the past 10 years, now reaching levels above the OECD average," says the report.
As in other countries, more single-parent households and people living alone are contributing to income inequality in Canada.
And wages for the rich are increasing, while they have been stagnating or dropping for middle and lower income workers, the report says.
Most affected have been young adults and families with children.
Canada spends less on cash transfers, such as unemployment and family benefits, than other OECD countries and that may be one of the reasons the country fares worse than others, the report suggests.
The report echoes concerns raised by Canadian social research groups about growing income disparity in Canada at a time of strong economic growth.
"It's a consistent repudiation of the trickle-down theory," said Armine Yalnizyan, an economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, which has written several reports on the issue.
"Even in a period of dramatic growth in the job market - and Canada has been a leader in job growth in the G-7 in the last 10 years - trickle down has not happened," she said.
The OECD report underscores the need for federal action, she said, adding every political party except the recently elected federal Conservatives had plans to cut poverty in their campaign platforms.
"It will be interesting to see how the other parties form a coalition of interest on this issue, or if they do," Yalnizyan said.
With U.S. Democratic leader Barack Obama ahead in the polls and promising to cut poverty in half in that country within 10 years, Canada may soon be one of the only developed countries without a detailed plan to address the problem.
But Lesley Harmer, a spokesperson for retiring Human Resources Minister Monte Solberg, said the government is "taking real action to support Canadians who need help."
In an email, she listed "vital social programs" the government is strengthening: the Working Income Tax Benefit; the recent extension of affordable housing and homelessness programs; the new retired disability savings program; $100 monthly child care benefits; and supports for seniors, skills training and post-secondary education.
When asked if the government plans to introduce a strategy with goals and timetables she said: "I think what I sent you stands."
Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission loses key leader
This is a major blow to the commission and its credibility
Chairman quits troubled residential-school commission
NEW.BRUNSWICK (CBC) - The leader of a commission charged with chronicling the dark history of Canada's residential schools resigned on Monday, citing major differences between himself and his two commissioners.
Harry LaForme, an Ontario Court of Appeal judge who has chaired the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission since April, said in his resignation letter that the panel is "on the verge of paralysis" because his commissioners do not share his vision or accept his authority.
He said the commissioners - native health expert Claudette Dumont-Smith and lawyer Jane Brewin Morley - want to focus primarily on uncovering and documenting truth while he also wants to have an emphasis on reconciliation between aboriginal and non-aboriginal Canadians.
LaForme also accused the commissioners of wanting to make decisions by majority rule even though they were appointed to simply offer advice and assistance.
"At the heart of it is an incurable problem," LaForme said in his letter to Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl, which he made public in a press release.
"The two commissioners are unprepared to accept that the structure of the commission requires that the commission's course is to be charted and its objectives are to be shaped ultimately through the authority and leadership of its chair."
Story here:
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/cbc/081020/canada/canada_truth_resignation
Chairman quits troubled residential-school commission
NEW.BRUNSWICK (CBC) - The leader of a commission charged with chronicling the dark history of Canada's residential schools resigned on Monday, citing major differences between himself and his two commissioners.
Harry LaForme, an Ontario Court of Appeal judge who has chaired the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission since April, said in his resignation letter that the panel is "on the verge of paralysis" because his commissioners do not share his vision or accept his authority.
He said the commissioners - native health expert Claudette Dumont-Smith and lawyer Jane Brewin Morley - want to focus primarily on uncovering and documenting truth while he also wants to have an emphasis on reconciliation between aboriginal and non-aboriginal Canadians.
LaForme also accused the commissioners of wanting to make decisions by majority rule even though they were appointed to simply offer advice and assistance.
"At the heart of it is an incurable problem," LaForme said in his letter to Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl, which he made public in a press release.
"The two commissioners are unprepared to accept that the structure of the commission requires that the commission's course is to be charted and its objectives are to be shaped ultimately through the authority and leadership of its chair."
Story here:
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/cbc/081020/canada/canada_truth_resignation
Deficits not so bad???
Maybe we shouldn't be so afraid of a deficit?
Don't hurt provinces to stave off deficit: premiers
Canada's premiers have asked the prime minister to find ways to prevent a potential deficit that would not harm the provinces and territories.
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said he doesn't want the federal government to balance its future budgets by downloading expenses.
"I hope that collectively we'll be able to suggest to the prime minister that he... not pursue through some ideological slavishness a balanced budget agenda that at the same time has a real impact hurting Canadians," McGuinty told reporters.
"I think the first principle again has to be: do no harm."
McGuinty also said Ottawa shouldn't pull back funding for health care and education in favour of preventing a deficit.
"Infrastructure projects are important to us, continuing to fund health care and post-secondary education, those are important to us," he said.
"I think the first thing we need to do together is ensure that any policies we might deploy don't further harm Canadians and Ontarians."
McGuinty is considering whether his own province could run a temporary deficit as a way to avoid cutting major services, although he conceded it might be politically unwise.
"You don't have a lot of choices," he said.
"I'm not sure I've heard an economist lately -- and these are economists, not politicians -- who are saying they are adamantly opposed to running a temporary, cyclical deficit."
Full story here:
http://news.sympatico.msn.ctv.ca/Canada/ContentPosting?newsitemid=CTVNews%2f20081020%2fPremiers_meeting_081020&feedname=CTV-NATIONAL_V3&show=False&number=0&showbyline=True&subtitle=&detect=&abc=abc&date=True
Don't hurt provinces to stave off deficit: premiers
Canada's premiers have asked the prime minister to find ways to prevent a potential deficit that would not harm the provinces and territories.
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said he doesn't want the federal government to balance its future budgets by downloading expenses.
"I hope that collectively we'll be able to suggest to the prime minister that he... not pursue through some ideological slavishness a balanced budget agenda that at the same time has a real impact hurting Canadians," McGuinty told reporters.
"I think the first principle again has to be: do no harm."
McGuinty also said Ottawa shouldn't pull back funding for health care and education in favour of preventing a deficit.
"Infrastructure projects are important to us, continuing to fund health care and post-secondary education, those are important to us," he said.
"I think the first thing we need to do together is ensure that any policies we might deploy don't further harm Canadians and Ontarians."
McGuinty is considering whether his own province could run a temporary deficit as a way to avoid cutting major services, although he conceded it might be politically unwise.
"You don't have a lot of choices," he said.
"I'm not sure I've heard an economist lately -- and these are economists, not politicians -- who are saying they are adamantly opposed to running a temporary, cyclical deficit."
Full story here:
http://news.sympatico.msn.ctv.ca/Canada/ContentPosting?newsitemid=CTVNews%2f20081020%2fPremiers_meeting_081020&feedname=CTV-NATIONAL_V3&show=False&number=0&showbyline=True&subtitle=&detect=&abc=abc&date=True
Monday, October 20, 2008
Palestinian rivals invited to talks
Interesting story from Al Jazeera tonight. A Palestinian state needs to have a coherent government.
Egypt has invited the Palestinian rivals Hamas and Fatah to meet in Cairo on November 9 for talks aimed at restoring Palestinian unity."We received yesterday a draft of the Egyptian vision for Palestinian reconciliation which includes a call for a full Palestinian dialogue in November," Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, said on Monday. "Hamas has no problem in attending [such a meeting] and we were the first to call for Palestinian-Palestinian talks to end the internal conflict," Barhoum said.
The two main Palestinian movements have been bitterly divided since Hamas seized full control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, pushing out security forces loyal to Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president and Fatah leader.
Dr Abdallah Abdallah, a member of the Palestinian parliament for Fatah, told Al Jazeera: "The Egyptian government has submitted its invitation to all thirteen Palestinian factions."
He did not confirm if Fatah would attend the talks.
Usamah Hamdan, a senior Hamas official, told Al Jazeera: "Abu Mazen [Abbas] does not intend to attend direct talks with Hamas and Fatah, or the meeting being held with all the Palestinian factions."
But some members of Hamas will attend this meeting. This draft needs a lot of work to be a good proposal for the Palestinians. It shows that Fatah has a very negative position which will not help the Palestinians reunite themselves," he said.
Presidential term
The divisions between Fatah and Hamas have grown worse in recent weeks amid a disagreement over when Abbas's presidential term ends.
Hamas has said that Abbas, elected in January 2005, will cease to be president once his constitutionally mandated four-year term officially expires on January 8.
Abbas loyalists, citing a Palestinian law, say that presidential and parliamentary elections must be held at the same time, which would extend his term to 2010.
"The Egyptian government has submitted its invitation to all thirteen Palestinian factions," Dr Abdallah Abdallah, a member of the Palestinian parliament for Fatah, told Al Jazeera. Abbas has called for the establishment of a politically independent national unity government to pave the way for elections to be held at an agreed upon time.
Full story here: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2008/10/20081020171048255908.html
Holocaust survivor dedicated himself to community
'He helped hundreds of people, financially, morally, in every way,' his only son remembers
Misha Wajsman was remembered this week as a Holocaust survivor who dedicated himself to perpetuating memory and improving the lives of others.
Misha Wajsman was remembered this week as a Holocaust survivor who dedicated himself to perpetuating memory and improving the lives of others.
Wajsman, who died in the hospital this week at age 91, was born to a prominent family in the city of Lutsk, then part of Poland, now in western Ukraine. His father, Pinchas, was president of Mizrachi and a major sugar beet producer and sent Misha to college in Warsaw. He was studying pre-law there when the Germans invaded Poland in September 1939.
After a lull in the fighting, Misha Wajsman returned to Warsaw to resume his studies, but when the Germans pushed east to invade the Soviet zone of influence he fled and ended up in the Soviet Union. He never saw his father or only sister again, both of whom perished.
He joined the Red Army as a junior officer in its transportation section and served until war's end. An avid athlete, in 1947 he won the Moscow table tennis championship at the Dynamo Sports club.
He and his wife, Dora Alperin, who lived in the neighbouring Polish town of Rovno, emigrated here from France in 1959. She died in 1995. Misha spent most of his working life as a sales manager in the wholesale meat business.
Wajsman and survivors from the same area established the Montreal branch of the Federation of Wolynian Jews. At its height, this self-help organization had a membership of 600 Montreal families. With survivors in New York and Los Angeles, they created a museum in the town of Givatayim, east of Tel Aviv, called Hechal Wolyn, a two-storey museum decided to the memory of Jewish life in the towns and villages they had abandoned.
"Every village has a room and there are files on many of the families who lived there," said his only son, Beryl Wajsman, editor of the Suburban and founding president of the Institute of Public Affairs, a social advocacy agency."His life was davke (committed) - you do because you've got to be engaged. He helped hundreds of people, financially, morally, in every way." Wajsman financed the translation into English of Yad Vashem's "Holocaust of Wolynian Jewry".
In the early 1960s, he saw two women crying at the Jewish cemetery on de la Savane Rd., his son said. They were bemoaning the lack of a monument with names of relatives and their towns, so they could recite prayers for the dead.He was instrumental in getting the monument built, as well as a memorial outside Lutsk where about 17,500 people were murdered by German soldiers.
He was also active in the campaign in the 1970s to allow the emigration of Soviet Jews and other pro-Israel campaigns, and was a vice-president of the Jewish Community Council. "Misha was not a prisoner of the past, he always lived for the future," Rabbi Reuben Poupko of Beth Israel Beth Aaron Congregation told a funeral service Thursday at Paperman & Sons. The campaign for Soviet Jewry was "a passion of his life" and he avidly supported Israel Bonds and Magen David Adom, the Israeli Red Cross, Poupko said.
Wajsman attended the Zichron Kedoshim Synagogue, which includes several merged congregations and the Anshei Ukraina - the congregation of families from Ukraine and what was once eastern Poland.
"He was a secular man, but traditional and loved cantorial music," Beryl Wajsman said. The family in Poland prayed at the so-called fortified synagogue of Lutsk (rebuilt after the war but no longer used as a house of prayer). That is where he heard some of the greatest cantors of the inter-war years and became a connoisseur of cantorial music, recalled Rabbi Avrohom Jacks of Congregation Zichron Kedoshim. Wajsman is survived by Beryl and daughter-in-law Nancy.
James Morton
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What voids consent to sexual intercourse?
It is an interesting question what exactly voids consent for sexual intercourse.
Clearly if the nature of the act is disguised -- say there is a claim this act is a medical procedure (sounds crazy but such cases have occured) -- there is no valid consent.
But what if someone misleads their partner as to, say, job status ("I'm a doctor") or marital status ("I'm separated")?
Neither of those falsehoods goes to the nature of the act and so are generally not taken to void consent.
HIV status?
That does not go to the nature of the act but it certainly changes the risks involved.
Regardless, to have unprotected sex knowingly with a positive HIV status is a very wicked act.
Crown says women's consent void in HIV trial
Jurors heard opening arguments Monday in the landmark trial of an HIV-positive man, accused of first-degree murder in the deaths of two women he allegedly had unprotected sex with.
It is the first time an HIV case has led to murder charges.
The Crown prosecutor said Johnson Aziga, 52, first learned he was HIV positive in 1997 but continued to have unprotected sex without disclosing his condition to his partners.
Aziga was first arrested and charged with 11 counts of aggravated sexual assault in 2003.
He was accused of having unprotected sex with at least 11 women without disclosing his HIV-positive health status.
However, two of those charges were elevated to first-degree murder after two of the 11 women later died from an HIV-related cancers-- one in December 2003 and the other in May 2004.
The two women he is accused of killing were from Toronto. For the first time ever, the jury will be able to hear from the murder victims. In the weeks before they died they recorded their testimony -- one on videotape, the other on audiotape.
Of the remaining nine women, five of them have contracted HIV.
"One may immediately think of a violent rape scenario," prosecutor Tim Power told the jury. "That is not what this case is all about."
Even though the sex between the man and the women was consensual, prosecutors said in fact, the women's consent is void because they didn't know they were having intercourse with someone who is HIV positive.
Davies Bagambiire, Aziga's lawyer, told reporters outside the courtroom that he plans to challenge "each and every aspect" of the allegations.
Full story here:
http://news.sympatico.msn.ctv.ca/Home/ContentPosting?newsitemid=CTVNews%2f20081020%2fHIV_trial_081020&feedname=CTV-TOPSTORIES_V3&show=False&number=0&showbyline=True&subtitle=&detect=&abc=abc&date=True
Clearly if the nature of the act is disguised -- say there is a claim this act is a medical procedure (sounds crazy but such cases have occured) -- there is no valid consent.
But what if someone misleads their partner as to, say, job status ("I'm a doctor") or marital status ("I'm separated")?
Neither of those falsehoods goes to the nature of the act and so are generally not taken to void consent.
HIV status?
That does not go to the nature of the act but it certainly changes the risks involved.
Regardless, to have unprotected sex knowingly with a positive HIV status is a very wicked act.
Crown says women's consent void in HIV trial
Jurors heard opening arguments Monday in the landmark trial of an HIV-positive man, accused of first-degree murder in the deaths of two women he allegedly had unprotected sex with.
It is the first time an HIV case has led to murder charges.
The Crown prosecutor said Johnson Aziga, 52, first learned he was HIV positive in 1997 but continued to have unprotected sex without disclosing his condition to his partners.
Aziga was first arrested and charged with 11 counts of aggravated sexual assault in 2003.
He was accused of having unprotected sex with at least 11 women without disclosing his HIV-positive health status.
However, two of those charges were elevated to first-degree murder after two of the 11 women later died from an HIV-related cancers-- one in December 2003 and the other in May 2004.
The two women he is accused of killing were from Toronto. For the first time ever, the jury will be able to hear from the murder victims. In the weeks before they died they recorded their testimony -- one on videotape, the other on audiotape.
Of the remaining nine women, five of them have contracted HIV.
"One may immediately think of a violent rape scenario," prosecutor Tim Power told the jury. "That is not what this case is all about."
Even though the sex between the man and the women was consensual, prosecutors said in fact, the women's consent is void because they didn't know they were having intercourse with someone who is HIV positive.
Davies Bagambiire, Aziga's lawyer, told reporters outside the courtroom that he plans to challenge "each and every aspect" of the allegations.
Full story here:
http://news.sympatico.msn.ctv.ca/Home/ContentPosting?newsitemid=CTVNews%2f20081020%2fHIV_trial_081020&feedname=CTV-TOPSTORIES_V3&show=False&number=0&showbyline=True&subtitle=&detect=&abc=abc&date=True
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