The Agonist - Canada

Canadian parents win legal battle against homework

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:35:38 -0800

Nov 21

The Guardian - Usually it is the children, not the parents, who are loath to spend their evenings practising spelling and learning times tables. But a Canadian couple have just won a legal battle to exempt their offspring from homework after successfully arguing there is no clear evidence it improves academic performance.

Shelli and Tom Milley, two lawyers from Calgary, Alberta, launched their highly unusual case after years of struggling to make their three reluctant children do school work out of the classroom.

After waging a long war with their eldest son, Jay, now 18, over his homework, they decided to do things differently with their youngest two, Spencer, 11, and Brittany, 10. And being lawyers, they decided to make it official.

Canadian diplomat alleges troops in Afghanistan were complicit in torture

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:01:08 -0800

Julian Borger | Halifax | Nov 20

The Guardian - The Canadian government was fending off calls for a public inquiry on torture today after allegations from one of its senior diplomats that Canada was complicit in the torture of Afghan detainees.

Richard Colvin, who was second in command at Canada's Kabul embassy in 2006 and 2007, said that Afghans swept up in security sweeps by Canadian troops during that time were routinely handed over to the Afghan intelligence services.

"According to our information, the likelihood is that all the Afghans we handed over were tortured," Colvin told Canada's parliament. "For interrogators in Kandahar, it was standard operating procedure.

"In other words, we detained, and handed over for severe torture, a lot of innocent people."

Colvin said his frequent memos about the abuse were ignored and that senior officials attempted to cover up Canada's complicity until prisoner transfer procedures were changed in 2007, partly as a result of his complaints.

Montreal to see terracotta warriors

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:40:54 -0800

Montréal, Québec | November 19

CBC - China's terracotta warriors are coming to Montreal in 2011.

The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal will receive rare visit of 14 of the warriors — life-sized replicas of soldiers of the Qin dynasty — it announced on Thursday.

The 14 are among the more than 8,000 life-sized terracotta figures discovered since 1974 near Xi'an, China, and believed to date from the 3rd century B.C.

An exhibit of 20 of the warriors at the British Museum in 2008 was a huge hit.

Khadr to face charges in U.S.

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:05:55 -0800

Washington | November 13

CBC - Omar Khadr will be transferred to the United States from Guantanamo Bay to face charges in a military commission, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday, on the same day that the Supreme Court of Canada heard a federal government appeal in his case.

It is unclear when or where the 23-year-old inmate will be transferred, but he is one of 10 high-profile detainees to be sent to the U.S. to face justice.

Five of those inmates, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackings, will be on trial in a federal civilian court in New York City.

Five other inmates, including Khadr, will be headed to military commissions in the United States on a variety of terrorism charges.

News of his transfer came on the same day as the Canadian government pleaded its appeal in the Supreme Court on Khadr's latest case. Ottawa asked the top court to overturn a Federal Appeal Court decision to uphold a lower-court ruling that required Ottawa to try to repatriate Khadr, the only Western citizen still being held at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

On Friday, Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre told reporters that "any decision to ask for Mr. Khadr’s return to Canada is a decision for the democratically elected government of Canada and not for the courts.”

Asked whether that meant the government would ignore the Supreme Court's decision if it rules against it, Poilievre repeated that Khadr's fate should be decided by an elected government and not the courts.

9/11 suspects to be tried in New York: Official

Reuters, By Jeremy Pelofsky and James Vicini, November 13

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Friday that he planned to seek the death penalty against the five men accused of plotting the Sept. 11 attacks if they are convicted in federal criminal court.

"I fully expect to direct prosecutors to seek the death penalty against each of the alleged 9/11 conspirators," Holder told reporters in unveiling plans to try the men, including the alleged plot mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, in federal court.

Mohammed and four other top terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay are to be sent to New York to be tried in a criminal court, the first major step to closing the controversial prison.

U.S. will try 9/11 plotters in New York, foresaking military trials

Miami Herald, By Carol Rosenberg, November 13

Confessed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his four co-accused will face a federal trial in New York City — not a military tribunal in Guantánamo, Attorney General Eric Holder announced Friday.

Charges against the alleged al Qaeda kingpin have not yet been filed in the Manhattan court.

But President Barack Obama's administration has decided to abandon a Pentagon prosecution and pursue the case of the mass murder case of nearly 3,000 people on Sept. 11, 2001 in a civilian setting.

"They will be brought to New York -- to New York -- to answer to their alleged crimes in a courtroom just blocks away from where the Twin Towers once stood,'' Holder said.

Khadr to face U.S. military tribunal

The Globe And Mail, By Paul Koring, November 13

Canadian Omar Khadr, the last westerner left in Guantanamo Bay, will face trial by military tribunal unlike the high-profile Sept 11, 2001, attacks plotters who will be brought to New York for trial in a civilian courts where they have far greater rights and protections, U.S. officials announced Friday.

Mr. Khadr's lawyer Barry Coburn, accused the administration of resorting to Bush-era injustice.

“We thought that the incoming Obama administration signalled a new day with respect to these cases, a new respect for civil liberties, an abhorrence of torture, a respect for the time-honored legal procedures and protections that are mandated by the Constitution and enforced by the federal courts,” he said.

Instead and despite the president's promises it has failed “to make these fundamental protections available to Omar Khadr, who was fifteen years old when he was detained in Afghanistan as a child soldier and has been locked away in Guantanamo ever since, is, quite frankly, devastating and shocking to me personally.

“I had thought this administration was better than that.”

Key 9/11 Suspect to Be Tried in New York

New York Times, By Charlie Savage, November 13

WASHINGTON — Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-described mastermind of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and four other men accused in the plot will be prosecuted in federal court in New York City, the United States attorney general announced Friday.

But the administration will prosecute another set of high-profile detainees now being held at the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba — Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who is accused of planning the 2000 bombing of the Navy destroyer Cole in Yemen, and four other detainees — before a military commission.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced those decisions in a news conference Friday at the Department of Justice. The arrangements would mean that civilian prosecutors would handle those detainees accused of the 2001 terrorist attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, northern Virginia and Pennsylvania, while the 2000 attack against the Cole would remain within the military system.

No detainee is being moved right away. Under a law Congress enacted this year, lawmakers must be given 45 days notice before the executive branch moves any Guantánamo Bay detainee onto United States soil.

The decision marks a milestone in the administration’s efforts to close the Guantánamo prison, something that President Obama announced shortly after taking office that he would do within a year, but that has proved difficult to achieve because of uncertainty about what to do with the detainees housed there.

Canadians still 'distrust' United States: poll

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:46:33 -0800

Ottawa | Nov 2

AFP - Canadians are no more loving of the United States under its current leadership than during George W. Bush's presidency, suggested a poll published Monday.

But they do like President Barack Obama a whole lot more than his predecessor, said the Historica Dominion Institute survey of 1,018 Canadians.

Obama was viewed favorably by 86 percent of respondents, compared to only 21 percent for Bush in 2005.

"What's striking about these findings is how Canadians have detached their personal view of Barack Obama, whom they quite like and respect, from the United States, which they still view with skepticism, even distrust," said Andrew Cohen, president of the institute.

Compared to results of a similar poll taken four years ago, Canadians have a marginally improved view of Americans as individual people, with 71 percent expressing a favorable view in 2009 versus 68 percent in 2005.

Canadians were split as to whether the United States is now "a force for good in the world." Forty-four percent agreed while 46 percent disagreed. This question was not asked in 2005.

Man who took Dziekanski Taser video given journalism award

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:51:27 -0700

Ron Nurwisah | October 28

National Post - Paul Pritchard, the Victoria man who shot the footage of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski being Tasered by RCMP at the Vancouver International Airport, has been given the first ever Citizen Journalism Award from the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression.

"Without the tape we wouldn't have had the journalistic investigation, the year-long inquiry into the incident, and we wouldn't have seen the safer use of the taser by police departments across the country," said CJFE President Arnold Amber in a press release.

The crumbling case against the Khadrs

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:30:31 -0700

While Canada's designated citizen whipping boy, Omar Khadr, remains incarcerated in the US concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay, it's becoming increasingly apparent that evidence against his elder brother, Abdullah, was also obtained through torture-induced "confessions". These young men are both members of the unit once described by Barbara Frum's evil spawn as "Canada's first family of terrorism." That catchy phrase seems, at this point, to provide the only shield for government prosecutors, given that little or no provable evidence has materialized concerning the two imprisoned Khadr brothers (and notwithstanding a significant rewrite of that pesky "right to face one's accusers" aspect of the court system in this case.) The youngest of the three brother seems to have escaped attention but he is also imprisoned, in this case by his quadriplegia, (thanks to an American shoot-out.) Then again, perhaps prosecutor's aren't interested in that child's recollections because the family patriarch was also killed in that attack. Pops, being stone cold dead, is obviously exempt from prosecution so there'll be no trial where troubling questions about his true culpability could be raised. Nevertheless, it seems to me some actual evidence of the rest of the family's wrongdoing should be examined in a court somewhere that is devoid of procedural improvisation. To put minds at rest on this, neither Canadians nor American's should fear that finding these kids to be innocent of the charges against them would result in their release into society. So far, court orders notwithstanding, we just keep 'em locked up indefinitely anyway. After all, at the end of the day, WE know better than the courts, don't we? David Frum has already told us all we apparently want or need to know about Canada, about Who's Who in the world of terror, and which of his denominated "axis of evil" enemies are readying for military attack.

Lifting the cover on Canada's spy files
By Michelle Shephard, October 26, for the Toronto Star

Debate unfolds in courts over how to safeguard nation's security while still respecting civil rights

Only the judge and lawyers could see "John" behind a large screen in a Toronto courtroom. The Canadian spy entered through a separate entrance each day last week and a "Do Not Enter. Sealed by Judge's Order" sign hung on the door as he took his place on the hidden witness stand.

While his identity may have been shielded, the agent's testimony in the extradition case of Abdullah Khadr gave an unprecedented glimpse into the covert world of international terrorism cases.

John told the court that the Americans wanted to render Khadr to a U.S.-run foreign prison – perhaps Guantanamo Bay or one of the undisclosed "ghost sites" – but that the Canadians and Pakistanis refused to consent to his transfer.

He testified about the $500,000 bounty the CIA paid the ISI, Pakistan's intelligence agency, and gave detailed answers about the delicate dance that went on between Ottawa, Islamabad and Washington. It seems everyone wanted information from Khadr but no one had the evidence to charge him – until Khadr confessed – which is the crux of the case. Was his abusive treatment (which the prosecution conceded took place after his arrest in Pakistan) enough to render anything he said about purchasing weapons for Al Qaeda inadmissible (even when he repeated these claims in Canada?)

If Ontario Superior Court Judge Christopher Speyer throws out Khadr's statements, then the case crumbles, and Canada would be unable to extradite the 28-year-old Canadian to the U.S. for trial. The case continues this week.

Grim Reaper greets Bush in Canada: ‘GWB, I am your biggest fan’

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 02:53:24 -0700

John Byrne | Oct 22

Raw`Story -

Ex-president gets standing ovation from paid crowd

During a visit to speak in Canada Tuesday, former president George W. Bush was met with signs, songs, screams and a black-clad Grim Reaper. And a little applause.

Protesters outside the speech carried signs emblazoned with such phrases as "Bush is a war criminal," "Bush lied, 1,000s died" and "Canada is not Bush Country," according to a Canadian press report. As a crowd mushroomed, police erected metal barricades.

Bush spoke at the Shaw Conference Centre in Edmonton where he led a talk, "A Conversation with George Bush." Tickets to the event ranged from $30 to $100. All 2,000 tickets sold out, and ticketholders were frisked and made to show their tickets twice upon entrance.

One protester carried a nine-foot tall Grim Reaper tagged with signs that said "GWB I am your biggest fan" and "Thanks for 8 great years."

NATO "A Corpse" Says Former Canadian Military Head

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:05:12 -0700

Former Canadian Chief of the Defense Staff has this to say in his forthcoming book, "A Soldier First: Bullets, Bureaucrats and the Politics of War:"

Afghanistan has revealed that NATO has reached the stage where it is a corpse decomposing and somebody's going to have to perform a Frankenstein-like life-giving act by breathing some lifesaving air through those rotten lips into those putrescent lungs or the alliance will be done.

Now, I'm not surprised to hear someone say this. I've been saying for years now--at least six--that the defensive alliance part of NATO has long been dead. There are a lot of reasons for this, but it's been clear for quite some time that NATO has become just like the Concert of Europe, by inviting too many members into the club, it was watered down in post-Napoleonic Europe and NATO has duplicated the same process. A new order isn't really in the offing as of yet and the current state of affairs will continue, as the collapse of Concert of Europe did, for a great deal of time. What arises in its aftermath is anyone's guess.

One last note: the idea that the Ukraine or Georgia will ever be a part of an effective defensive alliance with the US is laughable as well.

Baffin Island reveals dramatic scale of Arctic climate change

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 01:29:14 -0700

Steve Connor | Oct 20

The Independent - Study delves back into 200,000 years of history to demonstrate the devastating impact of global warming

A frozen lake on a remote island off Canada's northern coast has yielded remarkable insights into how the Arctic climate has changed dramatically over 50 years.

Muddy sediment from the bottom of the lake, some of it 200,000 years old, shows that Baffin Island, one of the most inhospitable places on Earth, has undergone an unprecedented warming over the past half-century. Scientists believe the temperature rise is probably due to human-induced warming. It has more than offset a natural cooling trend which began 8,000 years ago.

Instead of cooling at a rate of minus 0.C every 1,000 years – a trend that was expected to continue for another 4,000 years because of well-known changes to the Earth's solar orbit – Baffin Island, like the rest of the Arctic, has begun to get warmer, especially since 1950. The Arctic is now about 1.C warmer than it was in 1900, confirming that the region is warming faster than most other parts of the world.

Canada quietly asks EPA to weaken anti-pollution measures

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 09:18:29 -0700

Martin Mittelstaedt | Oct 18

Globe and Mail - Embassy in Washington asks agency to alter plan that would force lake freighters to stop burning dirty bunker fuel

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed tough new measures to reduce the health toll from air pollution around the Great Lakes by forcing lake freighters to stop burning dirty bunker fuel.

But the plan has an unusual opponent: The Canadian embassy in Washington has quietly asked the EPA to weaken the measures, arguing that they could harm trade. It wants ships to be allowed to continue using the high-polluting fuel and to instead install smokestack scrubbers that would clean up their emissions. The Canadian recommendation, if accepted, could delay the clean-air measure for years, because the technology for the scrubbers does not yet exist.

The embassy asked the EPA to make the changes in a letter last month, marking a rare instance in which Canada has lobbied the United States to weaken air-pollution controls designed to reduce health problems linked to breathing dirty air. Because winds carry contaminants back and forth across both sides of the Canada-U.S. border, the EPA proposal would also lead to air-quality improvements in Canada.

The Canadian position is supported by the Great Lakes shipping industry, which is warning that the costs of complying with the proposed environmental regulations are so high that they will force companies to scrap some of the iconic steamers that now ply the lakes carrying everything from salt to iron ore.

To My Fellow Canucks

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 02:44:10 -0700

From Our Family to Yours.

Canuck, Haydn & Frosty (Eski-Poo0

Canada: Layton delves into uncharted waters to keep Harper afloat

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 10:52:22 -0700

Steven Chase and Bill Curry | Ottowa | September 19

Globe and Mail - The future of Stephen Harper's minority government now apparently rests in the hands of Jack Layton's New Democrats, who have previously made a virtue of opposing Tory legislation.

As expected, Mr. Harper's Conservatives survived a parliamentary confidence vote on several budget measures Friday after both the Bloc Québécois and NDP voted in their favour – with the Liberals opposing.

But later that day, Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe took to the microphone to make it clear that the Tories should not count on his party's support in future confidence votes. Mr. Duceppe emphasized that while he continues to support a popular home renovation tax credit approved in yesterday's budget vote, he has no interest in propping up the Tories on a regular basis. He suggested the NDP would be the only party keeping Mr. Harper in office. He said the Bloc would vote against the Conservatives in motions that test parliamentary support for Mr. Harper.

Interested especially in what Canadian Agonists think of this

Harper and the God thing

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 12:22:15 -0700

QUEBEC CITY, Quebec, September 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a notably personal interview in Quebec City, Prime Minister Stephen Harper explained that God's judgement on his life was more important to him than the judgement of history. The story will be published in the September edition of Prestige magazine.

His comment came while speaking about his family, saying that his relationships with his wife and two children are more important to him than political accomplishments. "The important thing, for me, is to preserve family ties," he said. "I can win elections, but if I lose my family, it's a disaster."

"To be honest with you," he continued with a laugh, "I am a lot more concerned by God's verdict regarding my life than the one of historians."

Ohhhhhh boy. What does it take these days to elect a politician who worries about present day issues affecting constituents more than whether his actions will earn him a free pass at the pearly gates.

Frankly, Mr. Harper's admitted reliance on mythology to support his decisions are amply sufficient grounds for a Lack of Confidence motion in Parliament, imo.

Anyway, you don't have to be a rabid evangelist like Harper, he who allows Canada's continued participation in the aimless, pointless Afghan campaign and encourages the endless torture of a Canadian child, you don't have to be Harper to script the great afterlife interview that awaits him. But when it comes to God stuff things may not turn out exactly as hoped....

SO YOU WANT TO BE AN ANGEL
Episode 1
The Stephen Harper interview

Prime Minister Harper enters the enormous interview room where God Almighty is perched high on a dias, seated on a golden throne. God beckons Harper to step closer.

God: Ok. So. Carper.

Harper: Respectfully, that's "Harper", sir. With an "H"?

God: Where are you from, Harper?

Harper: Uhm, Canada, sir...

(God looks momentarily bewildered)

Harper: (continuing) ...Canada. That's that big, snowy country north of....

God: (interrupting) I know where it is, for son's sake.

Suddenly God stops speaking, holds his hands to his temples for a beat, deeply concentrating.

Harper goes to say something but God shushes him, listening. He looks back down at Harper.

God: Apologies for that. I tell my secretary, Miss Take, to hold all calls during interviews, but this time she says it's critical. I have to smite Americans again. A couple of my zingers and the Bush administration finally goes bye bye, but the malcontents are back at it each others throats again anyway. Can you believe it? They're upping the troop level in Afghanistan. Guantanamo is still open. And now they're ripping each other apart over universal health care. How many smites does it take? Something about Glenn Beck? Teabaggers? You heard of those guys?

Harper: Well, I....

God: Never mind. Just a sec.

God grabs his staff and whips it through the air a couple of times. Brilliant lights flash and crackle all around. Thunder shakes the room. There is the sound of distant moaning. Then silence.

God: Now then. Harper. Canada, you say. Refresh my memory. What was your job there?

(beat)

Harper: I... uh... I was the head of Greenpeace, sir?

Bloc 'convinced' election coming

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 18:45:04 -0700

Quebec | September 8

Canadian Press - Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe says he's convinced Canadians are headed to the polls this fall.

The Bloc is already planning a double-barrelled blast at Michael Ignatieff and Stephen Harper, including ads that tear a strip off both adversaries. It's the first time in memory that it's targeted the two biggest national parties at once, in an indication of how Quebec appears to have become a three-way battlefield.

"I've acquired over recent days across Quebec the firm conviction that, barring a major change, there will be an election," Duceppe told a news conference Tuesday in Quebec City. "Mr. Ignatieff was clear – he can no longer back away. As for Mr. Harper, he is inflexible and has not given any signs of openness."