Shafia deliberations continue

It's always hard to read a jury but the fact they have taken this long suggests they are giving the defence a close consideration. My guess (prediction is too strong a word) is that we will not see straight convictions on first degree -- we will see second degree or perhaps even an acquittal for some of the accused.

The locusts have no king, yet they go forth

Proverbs 30:27

Nunavut and especially Iqaluit Hotels

There are no Marriott Hotels in Nunavut. Indeed, there are no Holiday Inns, Comfort Inns or Motel 6s.

The closest thing to a chain are the Inns of the North, which is a loose association of inns in the hamlets. In truth, when visiting a hamlet you take what you can get. Usually the inns provide a single bed, bathroom and a tv; you get a bed and not a room so you may be given a roommate. If you want a room to yourself you have to say so and pay more; and if there are many guest that may not be available. In the south these inns would be the most basic of roadside motels -- on the other hand, the places are generally very clean and perfectly respectable.

In Iqaluit there is considerable choice although the hotels are often booked so your options may be limited. Iqaluit hotels rent rooms not beds so you never have the issue of an unexpected roommate. I have stayed in four places in Iqaluit: the Frobisher, the Hotel Arctic (formerly the Nova - most people still call it that), the Capital Suites and the Navigator.

The Frobisher is the closest hotel to a southern hotel -- probably on the level of a Holiday Inn. You want to stay on the 5th floor to avoid noise; each room has a flat screen tv with dvd player. There is a business centre with painfully slow computers (all computers are slow - they are running on a satellite feed). The hotel is part of a complex with two movie theatres, a swimming pool, a convenience store and a pub. There is also a hotel dining room. I usually stay here if I can -- the main downside is you are not especially close to anything else and it's a 10 minute walk to downtown (a significant issue in the winter).

The Capital Suites is also good and right downtown. As the name suggests the rooms are suite with a kitchenette and separate bedroom. There is a business centre and laundry but the hotel has no restaurant so you either have to buy food and cook it or go out.

The Hotel Arctic is ok. The rooms are big and have a fridge, microwave and a coffee maker. There is no business centre or laundry. There is a perfectly ok restaurant and a pub -- make sure to get a room far away from the pub if you want to sleep at night. The hotel is a curious mix of shabby and new. It was recently bought by Northern Properties and so may well be upgraded soon; the hotel is right downtown just opposite the legislature. I generally take the Hotel Arctic as my second choice because it has a restaurant.

The Navigator Inn calls itself the Premier Hotel of Iqaluit -- perhaps it is the first hotel here? Some of the rooms have been redone and have king sized beds with whirlpool tubs. That said most of the rooms are tired. But the hotel has a restaurant and free laundry. It is located a little bit away from downtown going towards the airport but this just adds a two minute walk so location is not a problem. It's not my first choice but it's not terrible.

The Discovery Lodge is a little further out of downtown going towards the airport. I haven't stayed here but am told it's fine -- it caters to construction workers largely. I have eaten here and the food was fine -- it has a pretty decent restaurant.

There are a couple of bed and breakfasts. They are quite far from downtown and I can't say much about them. Perhaps in the summer they would be fun?

Pandas Need Chicken Soup

Everyone needs some chicken soup for the soul - even pandas.

The Wuhan Zoo in central China has been feeding its two pandas home-cooked chicken soup twice in a month to reduce stress and give them a nutritional boost, a zoo official said Friday.

He Zhihua said 3-year-old Xiwang and Weiwei (see photo) - literally meaning "Hope" and "Greatness" - were tired and suffering from a little shock since the start Tuesday of the weeklong National Day holiday, one of the biggest travel seasons of the year.


On Wednesday, up to 30,000 people swarmed the zoo and about 1,000 tourists packed the panda enclosure, shouting to get the animals' attention, He said. The pandas paced restlessly.



"They had been getting less sleep, and they had to run around more," he said. "We felt it would be good to give them the soup because they were fatigued and had a bit of a shock."



Reflecting the Chinese tradition of drinking slow-cooked chicken soup for health, the zookeepers boiled roosters in water overnight and added a pinch of salt to the concentrated stock.



The pandas were served 1 kilogram of soup in giant dishes, in addition to their regular diet of bamboo, milk and buns, He said.



It was a hit.



"They drank it all like they drank their milk. They loved it," he said.

See story here:

http://news.sympatico.msn.ca/UnusualNews/ContentPosting?newsitemid=90122039&feedname=CP-ODDITIES&show=False&number=0&showbyline=True&subtitle=&detect=&abc=abc&date=True

Class actions and preferable procedure

Fischer v. IG Investment Management Ltd., 2012 ONCA 47 deals with when a class action will be allowed. A class action will not be allowed if there is a preferable process to vindicate class claims. The Court writes:

[43]         Turning to the merits of the Divisional Court's preferable procedure analysis, in my view, the error in principle that led to the motion judge's incorrect conclusion on preferability was more fundamental than his alleged failure to recognize that a substantial amount of the monetary damages claimed by investors went uncompensated in the completed OSC proceedings. The question whether the OSC settlements provided investors with all or substantially all of the monetary relief that they seek in the class action is not the proper focus of the preferable procedure inquiry.[4] In other words, the Divisional Court did not ask itself the right question.

[44]         The second element of the preferability inquiry described in Hollick requires a comparative analysis as to whether a class action would be preferable to other reasonably available means of resolving the class members' claims.[5] The preferability inquiry must necessarily take into account the central characteristics of the proposed alternative proceeding as a means of resolving the claims. This exercise includes, but is not limited to, considering the following characteristics of the alternative proceeding: the impartiality and independence of the forum; the scope and nature of the alternative forum's jurisdiction and remedial powers; the procedural safeguards that apply in the alternative proceeding, including the right to participate either in person or through counsel and the transparency of the decision-making process; and the accessibility of the alternative proceeding, including such factors as the costs associated with accessing the process and the convenience of doing so.

[45]         These characteristics must be considered in relation to the type of liability and damages issues raised by the class members' claims against the defendants in the putative class action and the manner in which they are addressed, if at all, in the alternative proceeding. The court must then compare these characteristics to those of a class proceeding through the lens of the goals of the CPA: judicial economy, access to justice and behaviour modification.

Crown in closing argument

In closing the Crown should not seek to sway by emotion but by logic and reason. Obviously in any trial there is some emotional response - that's normal. But Crown closing should be focused on facts and logical conclusions, not drama. This is Canada and not a Hollywood TV show:

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/01/26/christie-blatchford-evidence-is-overwhelming-shafia-deaths-no-accident-prosecution-tells-jury/