The Agonist - Canada

Canadian poll: Give U.S. deserters status

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 07:32:24 -0700

Toronto | July 2

UPI - Nearly two-thirds of Canadians polled said they support Canada giving defecting U.S. soldiers permanent resident status.

The online Angus Reid survey of 1,001 Canadians found 64 percent of respondents favor giving refuge to an estimated 200 U.S. soldiers who didn't want to fight in Iraq. By gender, the poll found women (69 percent) were more supportive of the defectors than men (57 percent).

Early last month, Parliament passed a non-binding resolution by a 137-110 vote, to freeze the deportation of U.S. deserters, but the minority Conservative government is going ahead with one high-profile case involving Corey Glass, who fled to Toronto from the California National Guard two years ago, the Toronto Sun reported.

Abortion rights activist Morgentaler named to Order of Canada

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 07:05:29 -0700

Caroline Alphonso and Bill Curry | July 1

Globe and Mail - Henry Morgentaler, 85, the country's best-known abortion-rights crusader, has been named to the Order of Canada, the country's highest honour.

Governor General Michaëlle Jean on Tuesday announced 75 new appointments to the Order of Canada. The new appointees include five Companions, 26 Officers, and 43 Members, as well as one Honorary Officer.

Dr. Morgentaler was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada. He was awarded “for his commitment to increased health care options for women, his determined efforts to influence Canadian public policy and his leadership in humanist and civil liberties organization,” the Governor General said in a press release.

The award not only praises a man who has changed the face of health care, but will also reopen the divisive debate about abortion rights in Canada. While the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the country's abortion law in 1988, the debate over whether it should be legal, and in what circumstances, has not abated.

Happy 141st Canada

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:02:29 -0700

Ottawa | July 1

CBC - Tens of thousands of revellers converged on Parliament Hill on Tuesday to wish Canada a happy 141st birthday.

Canadians knew Khadr was tortured, judge reveals

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:32:39 -0700

Andrew Mayeda | Ottawa | June 26

Can West - Canadian officials knew that Omar Khadr was subjected to an interrogation practice at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that violated international law against the use of torture, a Federal Court judge revealed Wednesday, in deciding what evidence can be turned over to Khadr's lawyers.

The Supreme Court last month ordered the federal government to surrender files compiled by Canadian Security Intelligence Service CSIS, Foreign Affairs and other government agencies and departments, on Khadr, the Canadian accused of being an al-Qaida terrorist and killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan in 2002.

Man dies in Ontario police custody after taser used

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 06:23:58 -0700

June 24

CTV.ca - A 36-year-old Ontario man is dead after a confrontation with Ontario Provincial Police on Monday during which he was Tasered by officers.The death comes just days after the RCMP said it would restrict the user of the controversial Taser device.

Sgt. Pierre Chamberland said police were responding to a report of a man causing a disturbance in Norfolk County, about 130 kilometres southwest of Toronto, at about 10:30 a.m. ET Monday. "Upon arrival police located a male who was combative and during the encounter police had to deploy a conducted energy weapon," Chamberland told CTV's Canada AM on Tuesday.Chamberland would not say whether the man was known to police or whether the Taser was used more than once.

Liberal leader Stéphane Dion offers Canadians change they can believe in.

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 18:25:47 -0700

Stéphane Dion was confident, coherent and positive yesterday as he launched his party's long-awaited "green shift" (previously known as the "permanent tax on everything") before an attentive audience of relieved Liberals and curious onlookers. He looked, at last, like a winner with a winning idea.

We'll see if the budding excitement in the Liberal ranks fades over the summer, if Dion's shrill critics successfully pick his idea to shreds, and, most important, if he can convince Canadians his plan really is revenue neutral -- that the $15.5 billion he wants to raise in new taxes on fossil fuels will make its way back to taxpayers and businesses to help offset rising energy costs. But today, at least, Conservatives and New Democrats should be nervous.

British Columbia case gets stranger by the foot

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 02:22:07 -0700

Doug Ward | June 19

Vancouver Sun - The discovery of a sixth human foot — the second in three days — on the coastline of British Columbia provided more dread Wednesday to the growing mystery of whom the feet belong to — and how many more are out there, waiting to be found.

The latest, a right foot encased in a men's black Adidas running shoe, was found on a spit at Campbell River on the eastern side of Vancouver Island. All six of the feet — five rights and a left — have been found since August.

One-third of people shot by Taser need medical attention: probe

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 06:21:14 -0700

June 18

CBC - About one in three people shot with a Taser by the RCMP receive injuries that require medical attention, according to a joint investigation by CBC News/Radio-Canada and the Canadian Press.

The media outlets, which analyzed the Taser-use forms RCMP officers are required to fill out if they draw a stun gun, examined reports from 2002 to 2007. According to the data, 28 per cent, or 910 of the 3,226 people who were shot, had to go to a medical facility.

But a detailed examination of the forms revealed that many more people are injured, yet never see a doctor.

In three years worth of reports obtained under Access to Information legislation, people suffered injuries including burns, puncture wounds from the probes, and head wounds from falling. In many cases, however, the person was not taken for medical treatment.

Canada: Allberta NDP rejects alliance with Liberals, Greens

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 17:58:20 -0700

Jason Fekete | June 15

canada.com - Alberta NDP members overwhelmingly rejected Saturday a coalition with the Liberals and Greens, as all of the province's opposition parties ponder their political futures following crushing election defeats.

Gathering at a downtown Calgary hotel for their annual convention, a few hundred NDP members almost unanimously shot down a resolution that called for an electoral alliance with the Grits and Greens.It would have seen the parties trade off candidates in some ridings to avoid vote splitting, in hopes of forming government and implementing proportional representation.

But a long line of NDP members -- including Leader Brian Mason -- spoke out against the proposal, arguing Liberal and Green supporters may look to the Tories before they vote for the NDP. "It's clear and it's what I wanted," Mason said following the vote. "I wanted to move forward on revitalizing the NDP and building it into a party that can take on the Tories right across the province. This helps set the stage for that."

CBC torpedos "Hockey Night In Canada" theme

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:03:05 -0700

National identity threatened by the Canadian Broadcasting Corpse and, oh no, Colbert noticed!!! Oh, the shame. The shame of it all.

Government ready to drop copyright bomb

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 06:14:53 -0700

Peter Nowak | Ottawa | June 11

CBC - The government is ready to introduce controversial new copyright legislation that experts believe will introduce harsh new restrictions on downloading, copying songs to CDs and music players, unlocking cellphones and time-shifting of television shows.

Minister of Industry Jim Prentice and the Minister of Canadian Heritage Josée Verner will unveil the bill to amend the Copyright Act on Thursday at 10:45 a.m. ET with brief statements, followed by a question-and-answer session with the media.

Critics fear the bill will mirror the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which similarly brought in restrictive measures and opened the door for copyright owners to enact huge lawsuits against violators.

Canada's native people get a formal apology

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 05:33:33 -0700

Christopher Guly & Maggie Farley | Ottawa | June 12

LAT - Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized Wednesday to the nation's native people for "a sad chapter in our history," acknowledging the physical abuses and cultural damage they suffered during a century of forced assimilation at residential schools.

"Today, we recognize that this policy of assimilation was wrong, has caused great harm, and has no place in our country," he said to applause.

Events I can't wait to miss....

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 09:21:01 -0700

How did Vancouver get so lucky? (gag.) Here's Colin "mobile chemical labs" Powell on a motivational speaking tour that, incredibly, includes my town. I wonder if he will give hints on where you find the chutzpah to lie before the assembled nations of the world, in order to "lead" them into support for military invasion of a member country. Maybe he'll discuss his own responsibility, in part, for the wholly needless deaths of thousands, perhaps tens of thousand, of innocent Iraqis and American since the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Maybe he'll provide insights on how he expects to avoid being hauled up before the International Criminal Court (when America gets sane again) by giving a motivational speaking tour outside the US, with ticket prices at over $350 a pop.

Union blockades GM headquarters in Oshawa

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 06:04:52 -0700

CBC | Oshawa, Ont., | June 4,

CBC - Union members set up a blockade outside General Motors' Canadian headquarters on Wednesday, a day after the automaker announced it was halting production at four factories across North America.

Between 20 and 30 trucks have blocked the entrance to GM's corporate headquarters in Oshawa, Ont., Canadian Auto Workers Local 222 president Chris Buckley told CBC. About 100 union activists and local leaders are gathered at the site.

Guantanamo judge dismissed in Khadr case

Thu, 29 May 2008 19:01:44 -0700

Jane Sutton | Miami | May 30

Reuters - The U.S. military judge in the war crimes trial of a young Canadian prisoner at Guantanamo was abruptly relieved of further duties in the case on Thursday.

The dismissal came on the same day that Pentagon prosecutors filed new charges against three other Guantanamo prisoners and defense lawyers accused the prosecutors of trying to rush cases to trial before the November U.S. presidential election.

The chief judge for the U.S. war crimes court at the Guantanamo naval base notified lawyers that a new judge had been assigned to hear the case of Canadian prisoner Omar Khadr, who is accused of murdering a U.S. soldier with a grenade during a firefight at a suspected al Qaeda compound in Afghanistan in 2002.

The e-mailed notice, forwarded to journalists by Khadr's military defense lawyer, did not even mention the judge previously handling the case, Army Col. Peter Brownback, nor say why a new judge was assigned.

Brownback had said previously he wanted to retire. But Khadr's lawyer, Navy Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler, called the timing suspicious because Brownback had recently threatened to suspend the Khadr case unless prosecutors turned over key evidence to the defense lawyers.