the cutting room floor

Psychic's proximity to PM made Christians queasy

2011-09-21T18:22:00.004-04:00

(Spiked)

By Jorge Barrera (2006)
the cutting room floor

The presence of a psychic who claims to commune with angels and the dead in Prime Minister Stephen Harper's entourage has caused concern in some Christian circles.

While the prime minister has made light of the issue in the House of Commons, the spiritual activities of his image consultant has made those who take the unseen world seriously a bit queasy.

"The Christian Church in general would have some degree of concern with any dimension of occultic activity," said David Hazzard, assistant superintendent for the Pentecostal Assemblies Across Canada. "I do not know what she is involved in, but the Biblical world view recognizes the reality of spiritual power."

Friends of Harper's image consultant Michelle Muntean say she communicates with angels who relay messages from the dead, according to reports.

Harper's office has said they do not pay Muntean for any psychic work and that she is on as part-time staff.

Opposition parties have been clamouring for details on how much she is paid and the NDP has filed a formal request to obtain the information.

Muntean, a former television makeup artist with CBC, recently traveled with the prime minister to the Vimy Ridge ceremonies in France. She selects the prime minister's suits and adjusts his ties to ensure he projects the proper image for the cameras.

Charles McVety, president of the Family Action Coalition and head of a Christian college, said Harper should be concious of his Christian constituency.

"It is very dangerous to meddle with the occult and this goes over like a lead balloon in the Christian community," he said. "Having a psychic as an image advisor is a negative that could cost him at the polls if he doesn't do something to correct it."

If Harper does consult the spirits, he wouldn't be the first prime minister to seek other-worldly guidance. Prime Minister Mackenzie King had conversations with his dead mother and dog.

Former prime minister Jean Chretien's wife Aline consulted psychic JoJo Savard and Nancy Reagan looked to an astrologer.

The spoils of war; A Baghdad story plays out in Canadian courts

2011-09-20T20:44:00.012-04:00

(Richard Galustian and a SkyLink employee Mike Douglas in happier days)

RAW

(The following story is from 2009. It was found on the cutting room floor. Note, Ontario court ruled against Galustian who appealed. Galustian won one appeal in US court. He contacted me recently and said he was still fighting the case.)

By Jorge Barrera (2009)

the cutting room floor

A former top U.S. official involved with the reconstruction of Iraq and the subsidiary of a Canadian firm operating in that country were the subject of a probe by the U.S. military’s major corruption fraud unit, according to allegations contained in an Ontario lawsuit launched by a British security contractor.

Richard Galustian, a security contractor who worked for the U.S. government in Iraq, launched the multi-million dollar lawsuit against SkyLink Group of Companies, senior company officers, subsidiaries of the firm, a former employee and retired Col. John Holly, the former director of logistics in Iraq for the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers.

Galustian alleges in an affidavit filed in support of the lawsuit that Holly and agents acting for SkyLink Group were involved in the creation and dissemination of a fake Iraqi warrant for Galustian’s arrest.

The affidavit alleges that the warrant was used to force him into dropping a demand for a 10 per cent stake in SkyLink Arabia Galustian claims he was promised. The warrant put Galustian’s life in danger in Iraq, wrecked his business reputation and drove him out of the country, the affidavit alleges.

SkyLink Arabia was a subsidiary of Toronto-based SkyLink Aviation, which was part of SkyLink Group of Companies, according to court documents filed as part of the lawsuit.

SkyLink Aviation and SkyLink Arabia provide transportation services with operational expertise in high risk regions.

SkyLink Aviation landed a $36 million contract last year to provide six Mi8 helicopters for use by the Canadian military in Iraq.

Galustian has also launched a defamation lawsuit in the U.S. against Lawrence Peter, the director of the Private Security Company Association of Iraq (PSCAI), over the distribution of the arrest warrant to the association’s members, military officials and diplomats in Iraq.

The meeting with the FBI

Galustian, owner of ISI International, said in an interview he discussed the relationship between Holly and SkyLink Arabia for “several hours” with investigators from the F.B.I. and the military during an August 2008 encounter in London. He would not reveal details on the record, but said the investigators were interested in dealings between Holly and SkyLink Arabia.

“They asked about Holly and SkyLink,” said Galustian in an interview with the cutting room floor.

The investigators also discussed the 16-page affidavit which was filed last July with the Ontario Superior Court as part of the ongoing, multi-million dollar lawsuit seeking damages for slander, libel, breach of fiduciary duty and conspiracy among other claims, Galustian said. The affidavit said the allegations made by Galustian in his U.S. court fight drew the attention of federal and military investigators.

Galustian was contacted last summer by Scott R. Wilk, special agent in charge of the Middle East Major Fraud Field Office, who asked him to meet and discuss Holly and firms involved in the reconstruction of Iraq, the affidavit said. Wilk was “investigating the PSCAI, certain PSCAI members and (John) Holly,” Galustian states in the affidavit.

Galustian filed a paper copy of a July 6, 2008, email from Wilk with the court.

“I understand you have a ongoing lawsuit concerning PSCAI and John Holley. I’m the Special Agent in Charge of the Major Corruption Fraud Unit for the Middle East and I would like to see if I could meet you in Dubai to set up a meeting to discuss information regarding PSCAI and members of that organization as well as Holley (sic),” wrote Wilk at 1:20 p.m. from email address scott.wilk@iraq.centcom.mil. The subject line of the email read “RE: Meeting.”

Galustian said he never met with Wilk, but the London meeting stemmed from Wilk’s initial invitation.

Wilk did not respond to a request for comment.

The F.B.I. agent involved in the discussion with Galustian did not respond to requests for comment.

None of the allegations have been proven in court.

Holly resigned from his post on Sept. 3, 2008, said U.S. Army Corp of Engineers spokesperson Suzanne Fournier.

No statement of defence has been filed by the defendants in response to the affidavit.

“No one has admitted anything in the public record,” said Arthur Hamilton, a lawyer with Toronto firm Cassels Brock and Blackwell who is representing SkyLink Group. “There is no concession to anything that has been said so far.”

A lawyer who has acted for Holly, Phil Tunley from Toronto firm Stockwoods LLP Barristers, refused to comment.

A statement of defence filed by SkyLink Group in response to Galustian’s original 2006 lawsuit claims no deal was ever made to hand Galustian 10 per cent of SkyLink Arabia.

SkyLink Group, which said it was the “parent company” of SkyLink Arabia, also claimed it had no “assets, conducts no operational activities” and “is not involved in any business activities in the Middle East,” according to the 2006 statement of defence.

Fantastical...far-fetched

Galustian’s claims were called “fantastical... far-fetched” and “a complete fabrication,” in a memorandum filed last year by Peter as part of his defence against the U.S. lawsuit filed by Galustian with the U.S. District Court, Eastern Virginia District.

That lawsuit is currently on appeal after the federal judge ruled Iraq would be a more appropriate venue for the case.

The arrest warrant

What began as a Canadian lawsuit over an alleged broken promise for 10 per cent of SkyLink Arabia in 2006 ballooned into a two country legal battle after an Iraqi warrant for Galustian’s arrest surfaced in 2007.

Galustian claims his lawyer, George Karayannides, a Toronto partner with Heenan Blaikie, received a copy of the warrant on Jan. 30, 2007, from a SkyLink Group lawyer. While the Jan. 25 dated warrant — a copy of the original and a translation were filed in court — made no mention of a charge, Galustian alleges that the SkyLink Group lawyer informed Karayannides that Galustian was wanted on “allegations of terrorism.”

“I was incensed by this outrageous and obviously false warrant,” said Galustian, in the affidavit.

The British Foreign Office investigated the warrant and interviewed the judge whose name was affixed to the document. The judge said the signature was not his, that he was not working that day, and that “he suspected that the police were involved” in its creation because the court stamp used on the document was genuine.

Galustian alleges in the affidavit that a “sworn translator” in Baghdad by the name of Riadh Al-Hasan said that he received the original stamped warrant for translation from a SkyLink Arabia employee.

A Baghdad consultant for SkyLink Group, acting on a request from a firm employee, bribed “or coerced” an Iraqi police officer into forging the warrant, Galustian alleges in his affidavit. The warrant was then handed to Holly who passed it on to Peter on Feb. 6, 2007, for distribution, the affidavit alleges.

Holly was “aware that the warrant was a forgery,” but acted because he had been promised Galustian’s 10 per cent interest in SkyLink Arabia as part of a side deal with parent company SkyLink Group, the affidavit alleges.

In an affidavit sworn by Holly and filed with the federal court in Virginia, the former Marine said he never had “any business or ownership interest in SkyLink Arabia or any private security company.” Holly also claims he played no role in the awarding of contracts in Iraq.

Holly does admit he passed the warrant to Peter after it was reviewed by a U.S. Army Corp of Engineers lawyer “because it potentially affected the operations of private security companies in Iraq.”

When contacted by the cutting room floor, an employee with SkyLink Arabia said his firm was part of SkyLink Aviation, before denying it a short while later once he learned he was speaking with a journalist.

U.S. private equity firm Apollo Investment is currently finishing off a deal to purchase majority shares in SkyLink Aviation from SkyLink Group.

Apollo would not comment on the lawsuit or its deal for SkyLink Aviation. The deal, however, was confirmed by a spokesperson for SkyLink Group and the Department of Defence, which received a letter last November advising the department of the deal.

The impact of the Apollo deal on the lawsuit remains unclear.

The New York Times reported in February that U.S. federal authorities were investigating senior American military officers as part of a probe into graft around the $124 billion reconstruction of Iraq. The Times reported that investigators were examining the activities of two senior military officials — who were named — and reviewing information offered by an American arms dealer and contractor who was killed in Iraq in 2004.

'They tortured him, they stomped on him'

2009-11-20T19:49:00.007-05:00

Bashir Makthal in undated photo

(Don't really know why this particular story never made it. There have been others about Bashir.)

By Jorge Barrera (2009)
the cutting room floor

The Conservative government needs to do more to free a Canadian man facing a life sentence in Ethiopia or he may end up like his older brother whose death last Friday was caused by torture suffered in prison, says a relative living in Addis Ababa.

Bashir Makhtal, 40, an ethnic Somali born in Ethiopia who emigrated to Canada as a teenager, was sentenced in August by an Ethiopian court to life in prison on terrorism charges. An appeal court hearing of his case was scheduled for Friday, the relative said. Makhtal denies all charges. The Conservative government has also pledged to work on bringing the Toronto resident home.

Makhtal’s 29-year-old niece, however, said the government should work faster to free him because his life faces increased danger the longer he remains in prison.

The woman, who only wanted the name Fadamuk used because she feared government reprisals, said her prayers for Makhtal have turned more urgent after watching her uncle — Makhtal’s older brother — die last Friday, three months after his prison release.

Hassan Ahmed Makhtal, in his late 50s, died from various complications caused by the torture he endured in prison, said the niece, who cared for her uncle in his last days.

“They tortured him, they stomped on him ... there was a big bruise on his head and it was from being hit with the butt of a gun,” she said, through an interpreter during a telephone interview with cutting room floor from her home in Addis Ababa Friday. “He was in pain ever since he came out ... he could not fold his legs without feeling pain, there were bruises all over his skin, there were green and blue bruises.”

She said Makhtal’s body was so broken when he came out of prison a doctor who examined him asked whether he had been in a car accident.

Imprisoned in 2007, Makhtal was kept in a dark, dirt-floor prison cell. Prison guards drenched the floor with water so he would be forced to drink mud to quench his thirst, she said.

“His advice was for the Makhtal family to flee this place, that they will never be safe here,” Fadamuk said. “They use to tell him that his family was all gone and dead.”

Only Fadamuk and another woman attended Makhtal’s burial. The rest of the family was either in prison, like Makhtal’s 16-year-old son and Bashir Makhtal, or had fled to Kenyan refugee camps and to other parts unknown. Fadamuk said her own children fled with their grandmother three years ago.

She now survives on a little money from a relative in Canada and keeps a low profile, not even daring to venture to the local Internet cafe to sign up for an email address.

Fadamuk said the Ethiopian government has persecuted the Makhtals because a family patriarch was the founder of the Ogaden National Liberation front, a group committed to gaining independence from Ethiopia.

Bashir Makhtal, who was born in the Ogaden region, was detained by Kenyan authorities in December 2006 when he tried to cross into the country from Somalia.

He was one of about 100 foreigners arrested at the same time, all of them accused of belonging to fundamentalist Islamic terror organizations.

Most of those detained have since been repatriated by their governments.

“Why is Bashir the only foreign national that his government has not come to him?” said Fadamuk. “Even African governments that don’t give any aid to Ethiopia and they came to have their citizens released. Why has Bashir’s not come for him?”

Makhtal was deported without due process to Ethiopia in January 2007, where he remains.

Ottawa-based human rights activist Fowsia Abdulkadir, who acted as the interpreter during the interview with Fadamuk, said it’s time for the Conservative government to get tougher with Ethiopia, which received over $85 million in aid from Canada in 2006-2007.

“Where does the aid go? Does it go to the people who need it or is the government using it to build a military machinery that oppresses people?” said Abdulkadir, who has campaigned for Makhtal’s release and is a member of the Ogaden Human Rights Committee.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's government is growing increasingly more repressive, clamping down on civil liberties and snuffing dissent, according to critics at home and abroad.

“Neighbourhood-level ‘cadres’ report minor occurrences ... including residents’ whereabouts and visitors,” reported Brussels-based think tank International Crisis Group in September. “Barely visible to outsiders and foreigners, this (government) party control discourages dissent and constantly reminds people who is in charge.”

Canwest (oops!) Sun Media reporter caught in Stoffer-Duffy shrapnel; Sen. Brazeau is offended

2009-11-06T20:49:00.004-05:00

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/note.php?note_id=172525808727&ref=nf

Leftist Media

Today at 8:11pm

On November 5, 2009, I received a call from reporter, Althia Raj of CanWest media regarding a two-part article she was doing on the Senate.

In the article published the same day entitled, "NDP: 27 new Tory senators will cost $177M". According to NDP MP, Peter Stoffer, these are the calculations he came up with.

Here are the questions the reporter asked me directly:

1) What do you make of the NDP assertion?
2) Are the calculations accurate?
3) Is there anything else you would like to add?

Here were my direct responses to the reporter:

1) First, Mr. Stoffer was walking around the Senate offices last week looking for extra Canadian flags and pins, which I gladly provided him with. Second, it's nice to see the NDP has extra time on their hands to undertake such an initiative given the fact that what really matters to Canadians is the economy and H1N1, as we speak. Third, it's no surprise to anyone the NDP would target the Senate given the fact that NDP members would likely never serve in the Senate. Fourth, the NDP should do their homework and see that one of the mandates of the Senate is to represent the interests of minority groups across Canada, including Aboriginal peoples so would abolishing the Senate reflect the needs and aspirations of Canadians who are minorities? Fifth, the NDP should ask themselves what it is costing taxpayers in Canada to have the Bloc Quebecois in our federal parliament? The NDP should be accountable and answer this question to all Canadians because they were the ones less than a year ago who were willing to support a coalition with a separatist party for their own self-serving interests at the cost of taxpayers. Lastly, if the NDP wants to focus on the cost of the Canadian Senate, lets compare the cost of the Senate vs the House of Commons.

2) The Conservative Party of Canada is the only party in Canada that supports reforming the Senate. Prime Minister Harper has attempted to introduce legislation in the past to reform the Senate only to be rejected by the Liberals. Earlier this year, the government introduced legislation to set term limits to 8 years in the Senate and all 27 newly appointed Conservative Senators, including myself are committed to working towards Senate reform to make this instituion more accountable and reflective of the needs of Canadians.

The reporter stated in her article, "But 34-year-old Sen. Patrick Brazeau, who would earn $9.4 million according to NDP calculations, promised he wouldn’t stay in the Senate that long.“(Stoffer’s) numbers are deeply skewed and are not applicable,” Brazeau said.

It's important to bring context to my quote, which the reporter failed to do. The figures of NDP MP Peter Stoffer includes all 27 new Senators serving until the age of 75 years of age. However, if we are successful in passing our legislation to limit term limits to 8 years, these fugures are absolutely not accurate and skewed. Moreover, the reporter writes, "But 34-year-old Sen. Patrick Brazeau...promised he wouldn’t stay in the Senate that long." I never promised anything to anyone but I did commit to doing what I can to help pass our government's Senate reform legislation.

What did it cost taxpayers in Canada when a busload of Liberal Senators were appointed? Did the NDP raise this then?

It's sad in this day and age when reporters ask specific questions during an interview and one takes the time to answer openly, honestly and in good faith. However, those same reporters fail to properly report the reponses given and miserably fail to bring context to what they publish. I suppose it's all about selling papers and giving themselves credibility. Luckily, most Canadians see through todays media and call it for what it's worth.

3) I had nothing else to add.

Regardless, the Conservative Party of Canada supports Senate reform. Perhaps the more interesting article should have been: why doesn't the Liberal Party? Maybe it could have been why the NDP has so much time on their hands to have an opinion on the Senate? I'll digress, as I have just answered my own questions.

They are going to shoot

2007-09-27T13:49:00.000-04:00

Voices from cyberspace: how Burma's bloggers are bearing witness to the unfolding revolution
Published: 27 September 2007

Dawn 109,Rangoon

A lot of rumours are flying around Yangon [Ran goon]. I am getting awfully paranoid. The military has been ordered to shoot. I heard... that "they have been ordered to shoot." Even now, a co-worker is saying: "They are going to shoot." I just saw with my own eyes that more than 500 monks... have marched on Bo Gyoke Aung Sand Road. There were other people too, walking along the side, holding hands, holding Buddhist flags, singing and clapping hands. They were chanting: "To the uncountable living beings living in uncountable universes to the east, May they be free of danger, May they be free of anger, May they be free of sufferings, andMay their hearts be calm and peaceful. May there be peace on earth."

Kto Hike

All over Rangoon, thousands of people are marching on foot, some on bikes, from 26th Street to 33rd Street. Soldiers in police uniforms are using tear gas bombs, officers are shouting orders to fire just above peoples' heads. Guns are firing continuously. Students from Main University Road are now marching towards 80th Street. On 26 September, a Buddhist monk was beaten to death by plain-clothed thugs while he was praying at the Shwe Dagon Pagoda in the centre of Rangoon. The dead body was carried back to the Sadu Monastery in Kyee Myindine. My part-time duty is working on Emergency YGH... at about 2 pm, 5 patients were coming to our Emergency... for gun shot wounds... 1 patient died on spot on arriving at hospital... 4 r still bad in Diagnosis... The patient's attendant said he was not in d line of protest... they were chatting and watching d protest line and sitting on Cafe Bar near Shawe Dagon Pagoda... Government military car was crossing to d protest line and randomly shot all of them...

Sein Khaloke

Buddhist monks are chanting: "All humans be free from killing and torturing, Our compassion and love spread all over country" and "Peace on earth".

Mya, Rangoon

A monk who took part in the protests came to us and told us about his experiences. He said: "We are not afraid, we haven't committed a crime, we just say prayers and take part in the protests. We haven't accepted money from onlookers although they offered us a lot. We just accept water. People clapped, smiled and cheered us." The monk seemed very happy, excited and proud. But I'm worried for them. They care for us and we pray for them not to get harmed.

Mg Khar, Rangoon

The current situation can lead to civil war because the junta still holds the power and the opposition might use this opportunity to launch an armed struggle. We want things to change peacefully, not through a civil war. But if there's no way to avoid the armed struggle, the people will choose it and the conditions in our poor country may become worse. International pressure, including from China and Russia, is very important for the future of Burma at this moment.

Soe Soe, Mandalay

I am not sure where these protests are going to lead, but I am sure it's not at a good sign. Many people are expecting a great change soon. I am not sure if the monks will be joined by students, workers, or even soldiers. We are very insecure because we don't know what the government is planning. There is some news in the government-controlled newspapers that the monks are trying to agitate the public. This can be a big excuse for them to start attacking the monks. I hope there won't be any bloodbath this time like there was in 1988.

Kyi Kyi, Rangoon

I am really sorry for our country and our people because we are under the control of the wicked junta. We haven't got arms, we wish for peace, a better future and democracy. We are hoping that the UN Security Council will put a pressure on the junta. We are so afraid.

David, Rangoon

Now the junta is reducing the internet connection bandwidth and we have to wait for a long time to see a page. Security forces block the route of demonstrations. Yesterday, the junta told people in Rangoon and Mandalay not to leave their houses from 9pm to 5am. I think if the junta decides, they will cut off communication.

Thila, Rangoon

Riot police and soldiers are beating monks and protesters at the east gate of Shwedagon Pagoda. They are starting a crackdown by all means. Regardless of this, just after noon, about 1,000 monks from a nearby monastery started a march to Shwedagon Pagoda.

Yi, Rangoon

I saw a truck full of police with guns, which looked like AK47. The military junta has been making us miserable for nearly two decades.

Eyewitness, Rangoon

Riot police started to chase the monks and beat them up. Then about 200 were hauled off onto the trucks and driven away. About 80 monks were taken away.

the revolution

2007-09-20T23:32:00.000-04:00

will now be frenetic

what to make of this

2007-09-20T22:44:00.000-04:00

Much transpires in Caledonia of late.

Rainin' in paradise

2007-09-14T10:33:00.000-04:00

Canada tried to "bribe" African countries to reject U.N. decleration on indigenous rights: CanWest

2007-09-13T09:38:00.000-04:00

Last week, after the African countries announced their support for the revised document, a senior official with the African Indigenous Caucus accused Canada of having tried to use aid as a bribe to keep them on side.

"By approaching Africa, which had so many problems, and trying to use aid as a tool, Canada was committing a crime," said Joseph Ole Simel, caucus co-ordinator, according to UN note-takers.

Stonechild murdered over gun deal?

2007-09-13T09:37:00.000-04:00

Stonechild killed over gun deal, hearing told

Darren Bernhardt

CanWest News Service

Thursday, September 13, 2007

SASKATOON -- The notorious freezing death of Neil Stonechild 17 years ago was a murder calculated to keep him from testifying at a trial, and had nothing to do with police, a commission hearing was told Wednesday.

A career criminal, known as X to protect his identity, told the Saskatchewan Police Commission in Saskatoon that a gun deal gone bad led to Stonechild's murder by a man against whom he was scheduled to testify.

A second man set to testify about the ill-fated deal was shot dead four months later, X added.

"I never ever heard anything about the cops. If they took him to a field and kicked the shit out of him, there'd be somebody making a fuss about it (in the prison system)," he said.

The first time he heard of possible police involvement was "on the news" when the story broke in early 2000, said X.

The 34-year-old is in a federal penitentiary and appeared Wednesday handcuffed on the stand. His former cell mate was the person against whom Stonechild, 17, and the other man were to testify, he claimed. The cell mate, known as AA, either performed the killings himself or ordered them after learning the men "ratted him out," said X.

"He (Stonechild) was taken out of town and beat up. That's what I heard. He (AA) basically said all rats should be dead and they got what they deserved," said X. "And he said Neil was lucky that's all he got."

Asked what that meant, X replied: "Freezing to death rather than a bullet to the head."

Back in the 1990s in Saskatoon, AA and his brother and their friends were feared by everyone, said X, who worked for them by delivering drugs, kicking in doors to collect on debts, "protecting hookers and holding guns to people's heads," he said.

"It was known by everyone that if you went against (AA and his brother), you paid the price," he said, adding, "I'm risking my life by sitting here now."

He learned of AA's link to Stonechild in 1996 but never went to police out of fear of retribution. His family begged him not to testify Wednesday but X said he's no longer afraid of AA.

"I've tooken (taken) my licks. I'm at the same calibre now," he said.

Climate change nothing special: 500 scientists

2007-09-13T09:05:00.000-04:00

WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A new analysis of peer-reviewed literature reveals that more than 500 scientists have published evidence refuting at least one element of current man-made global warming scares. More than 300 of the scientists found evidence that 1) a natural moderate 1,500-year climate cycle has produced more than a dozen global warmings similar to ours since the last Ice Age and/or that 2) our Modern Warming is linked strongly to variations in the sun's irradiance. "This data and the list of scientists make a mockery of recent claims that a scientific consensus blames humans as the primary cause of global temperature increases since 1850," said Hudson Institute Senior Fellow Dennis Avery.

Other researchers found evidence that 3) sea levels are failing to rise importantly; 4) that our storms and droughts are becoming fewer and milder with this warming as they did during previous global warmings; 5) that human deaths will be reduced with warming because cold kills twice as many people as heat; and 6) that corals, trees, birds, mammals, and butterflies are adapting well to the routine reality of changing climate.

Despite being published in such journals such as Science, Nature and Geophysical Review Letters, these scientists have gotten little media attention. "Not all of these researchers would describe themselves as global warming skeptics," said Avery, "but the evidence in their studies is there for all to see."

The names were compiled by Avery and climate physicist S. Fred Singer, the co-authors of the new book Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years, mainly from the peer-reviewed studies cited in their book. The researchers' specialties include tree rings, sea levels, stalagmites, lichens, pollen, plankton, insects, public health, Chinese history and astrophysics.

"We have had a Greenhouse Theory with no evidence to support it-except a moderate warming turned into a scare by computer models whose results have never been verified with real-world events," said co-author Singer. "On the other hand, we have compelling evidence of a real-world climate cycle averaging 1470 years (plus or minus 500) running through the last million years of history. The climate cycle has above all been moderate, and the trees, bears, birds, and humans have quietly adapted."

"Two thousand years of published human histories say that the warm periods were good for people," says Avery. "It was the harsh, unstable Dark Ages and Little Ice Age that brought bigger storms, untimely frost, widespread famine and plagues of disease." "There may have been a consensus of guesses among climate model-builders," says Singer. "However, the models only reflect the warming, not its cause." He noted that about 70 percent of the earth's post-1850 warming came before 1940, and thus was probably not caused by human-emitted greenhouse gases. The net post-1940 warming totals only a tiny 0.2 degrees C.

The historic evidence of the natural cycle includes the 5000-year record of Nile floods, 1st-century Roman wine production in Britain, and thousands of museum paintings that portrayed sunnier skies during the Medieval Warming and more cloudiness during the Little Ice Age. The physical evidence comes from oxygen isotopes, beryllium ions, tiny sea and pollen fossils, and ancient tree rings. The evidence recovered from ice cores, sea and lake sediments, cave stalagmites and glaciers has been analyzed by electron microscopes, satellites, and computers. Temperatures during the Medieval Warming Period on California's Whitewing Mountain must have been 3.2 degrees warmer than today, says Constance Millar of the U.S. Forest Service, based on her study of seven species of relict trees that grew above today's tree line.

Singer emphasized, "Humans have known since the invention of the telescope that the earth's climate variations were linked to the sunspot cycle, but we had not understood how. Recent experiments have demonstrated that more or fewer cosmic rays hitting the earth create more or fewer of the low, cooling clouds that deflect solar heat back into space-amplifying small variations in the intensity of the sun.

Avery and Singer noted that there are hundreds of additional peer-reviewed studies that have found cycle evidence, and that they will publish additional researchers' names and studies. They also noted that their book was funded by Wallace O. Sellers, a Hudson board member, without any corporate contributions

one of Canada's greatest poets

2007-09-12T22:33:00.000-04:00

SAMUEL HEARNE IN WINTERTIME

John Newlove

I.	In this cold room I remember the smell of manure on men's heavy clothes as good, the smell of horses. It is a romantic world to readers of journeys to the Northern Ocean- especially if their houses are heated to some degree, Samuel. Hearne, your camp must have smelled like hell whenever you settled down for a few days of rest and journal-work: hell smeared with human manure, hell half-full of raw hides, hell of sweat, Indians, stale fat, meat-hell, fear-hell, hell of cold.
2.	One child is back from the doctor's while the other one wanders about in dirty pants and I think of Samuel Hearne and the land - puffy children coughing as I think, crying, sick-faced, vomit stirring in grey blankets from room to room. It is Christmastime the cold flesh shines. No praise in merely enduring.
3.	Samuel Hearne did more in the land (like all the rest full of rocks and hilly country, many very extensive tracts of land, tittimeg, pike and barble, and the islands: the islands, many of them abound as well as the main land does with dwarf woods, chiefly pine in some parts intermixed with latch and birch) than endure. The Indians killed twelve deer. It was impossible to describe the intenseness of the cold.
4.	And, Samuel Hearne, I have almost begun to talk as if you wanted to be gallant, as if you went through that land for a book - as if you were not SAM, wanting to know, to do a job.
5.	There was that Eskimo girl at Bloody Fall, at your feet, Samuel Hearne, with two spears in her, you helpless before your helpers, and she twisted about them like an eel, dying, never to know.

Omar Khadr

2007-09-12T12:48:00.000-04:00

The Unending Torture of Omar Khadr

JEFF TIETZ / Rolling Stone 24aug2007

He was a child of jihad, a teenage soldier in bin Laden's army. Captured on the battlefield when he was only fifteen, he has been held at Guantanamo Bay for the past four years — subjected to unspeakable abuse sanctioned by the president himself Jeff Tietz

In July 2002, a Special Forces unit in southeast Afghanistan received intelligence that a group of Al Qaeda fighters was operating out of a mud-brick compound in Ab Khail, a small hill town near the Pakistani border. The Taliban regime had fallen seven months earlier, but the rough border regions had not yet been secured. When the soldiers arrived at the compound, they looked through a crack in the door and saw five men armed with assault rifles sitting inside. The soldiers called for the men to surrender. The men refused. The soldiers sent Pashto translators into the compound to negotiate. The men promptly slaughtered the translators. The American soldiers called in air support and laid siege to the compound, bombing and strafing it until it was flat and silent. They walked into the ruins. They had not gotten far when a wounded fighter, concealed behind a broken wall, threw a grenade, killing Special Forces Sgt. Christopher Speer. The soldiers immediately shot the fighter three times in the chest, and he collapsed. When the soldiers got close, they saw that he was just a boy. Fifteen years old and slightly built, he could have passed for thirteen. He was bleeding heavily from his wounds, but he was — unbelievably — alive. The soldiers stood over him.

"Kill me," he murmured, in fluent English. "Please, just kill me."

His name was Omar Khadr. Born into a fundamentalist Muslim family in Toronto, he had been prepared for jihad since he was a small boy. His parents, who were Egyptian and Palestinian, had raised him to believe that religious martyrdom was the highest achievement he could aspire to. In the Khadr family, suicide bombers were spoken of with great respect. According to U.S intelligence, Omar's father used charities as front groups to raise and launder money for Al Qaeda. Omar's formal military training — bombmaking, assault-rifle marksmanship, combat tactics — before he turned twelve. For nearly a year before the Ab Khail siege, according to the U.S. government, Omar and his father and brothers had fought with the Taliban against American and Northern Alliance forces in Afghanistan. Before that, they had been living in Jalalabad, with Osama bin Laden. Omar spent much of his adolescence in Al Qaeda compounds.

(More)

Curious Fisk article

2007-09-12T12:33:00.000-04:00

Robert Fisk: Even I question the 'truth' about 9/11
Published: 25 August 2007

Each time I lecture abroad on the Middle East, there is always someone in the audience – just one – whom I call the "raver". Apologies here to all the men and women who come to my talks with bright and pertinent questions – often quite humbling ones for me as a journalist – and which show that they understand the Middle East tragedy a lot better than the journalists who report it. But the "raver" is real. He has turned up in corporeal form in Stockholm and in Oxford, in Sao Paulo and in Yerevan, in Cairo, in Los Angeles and, in female form, in Barcelona. No matter the country, there will always be a "raver".

His – or her – question goes like this. Why, if you believe you're a free journalist, don't you report what you really know about 9/11? Why don't you tell the truth – that the Bush administration (or the CIA or Mossad, you name it) blew up the twin towers? Why don't you reveal the secrets behind 9/11? The assumption in each case is that Fisk knows – that Fisk has an absolute concrete, copper-bottomed fact-filled desk containing final proof of what "all the world knows" (that usually is the phrase) – who destroyed the twin towers. Sometimes the "raver" is clearly distressed. One man in Cork screamed his question at me, and then – the moment I suggested that his version of the plot was a bit odd – left the hall, shouting abuse and kicking over chairs.

Usually, I have tried to tell the "truth"; that while there are unanswered questions about 9/11, I am the Middle East correspondent of The Independent, not the conspiracy correspondent; that I have quite enough real plots on my hands in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Iran, the Gulf, etc, to worry about imaginary ones in Manhattan. My final argument – a clincher, in my view – is that the Bush administration has screwed up everything – militarily, politically diplomatically – it has tried to do in the Middle East; so how on earth could it successfully bring off the international crimes against humanity in the United States on 11 September 2001?

Well, I still hold to that view. Any military which can claim – as the Americans did two days ago – that al-Qa'ida is on the run is not capable of carrying out anything on the scale of 9/11. "We disrupted al-Qa'ida, causing them to run," Colonel David Sutherland said of the preposterously code-named "Operation Lightning Hammer" in Iraq's Diyala province. "Their fear of facing our forces proves the terrorists know there is no safe haven for them." And more of the same, all of it untrue.

Within hours, al-Qa'ida attacked Baquba in battalion strength and slaughtered all the local sheikhs who had thrown in their hand with the Americans. It reminds me of Vietnam, the war which George Bush watched from the skies over Texas – which may account for why he this week mixed up the end of the Vietnam war with the genocide in a different country called Cambodia, whose population was eventually rescued by the same Vietnamese whom Mr Bush's more courageous colleagues had been fighting all along.

But – here we go. I am increasingly troubled at the inconsistencies in the official narrative of 9/11. It's not just the obvious non sequiturs: where are the aircraft parts (engines, etc) from the attack on the Pentagon? Why have the officials involved in the United 93 flight (which crashed in Pennsylvania) been muzzled? Why did flight 93's debris spread over miles when it was supposed to have crashed in one piece in a field? Again, I'm not talking about the crazed "research" of David Icke's Alice in Wonderland and the World Trade Center Disaster – which should send any sane man back to reading the telephone directory.

I am talking about scientific issues. If it is true, for example, that kerosene burns at 820C under optimum conditions, how come the steel beams of the twin towers – whose melting point is supposed to be about 1,480C – would snap through at the same time? (They collapsed in 8.1 and 10 seconds.) What about the third tower – the so-called World Trade Centre Building 7 (or the Salmon Brothers Building) – which collapsed in 6.6 seconds in its own footprint at 5.20pm on 11 September? Why did it so neatly fall to the ground when no aircraft had hit it? The American National Institute of Standards and Technology was instructed to analyse the cause of the destruction of all three buildings. They have not yet reported on WTC 7. Two prominent American professors of mechanical engineering – very definitely not in the "raver" bracket – are now legally challenging the terms of reference of this final report on the grounds that it could be "fraudulent or deceptive".

Journalistically, there were many odd things about 9/11. Initial reports of reporters that they heard "explosions" in the towers – which could well have been the beams cracking – are easy to dismiss. Less so the report that the body of a female air crew member was found in a Manhattan street with her hands bound. OK, so let's claim that was just hearsay reporting at the time, just as the CIA's list of Arab suicide-hijackers, which included three men who were – and still are – very much alive and living in the Middle East, was an initial intelligence error.

But what about the weird letter allegedly written by Mohamed Atta, the Egyptian hijacker-murderer with the spooky face, whose "Islamic" advice to his gruesome comrades – released by the CIA – mystified every Muslim friend I know in the Middle East? Atta mentioned his family – which no Muslim, however ill-taught, would be likely to include in such a prayer. He reminds his comrades-in-murder to say the first Muslim prayer of the day and then goes on to quote from it. But no Muslim would need such a reminder – let alone expect the text of the "Fajr" prayer to be included in Atta's letter.

Let me repeat. I am not a conspiracy theorist. Spare me the ravers. Spare me the plots. But like everyone else, I would like to know the full story of 9/11, not least because it was the trigger for the whole lunatic, meretricious "war on terror" which has led us to disaster in Iraq and Afghanistan and in much of the Middle East. Bush's happily departed adviser Karl Rove once said that "we're an empire now – we create our own reality". True? At least tell us. It would stop people kicking over chairs.

All that is alive merely evaporates

2007-09-11T22:10:00.000-04:00

Russia unveils its ‘vacuum bomb'

Reuters

September 11, 2007 at 5:21 PM EDT

MOSCOW — Russia has tested the world's most powerful vacuum bomb, an explosive device unleashing a destructive shockwave with the power of a nuclear weapon, the military said on Tuesday.

The bomb is the latest in a series of new Russian weapons and policy moves unveiled as President Vladimir Putin tries to reassert Moscow's role on the international stage.

"Test results of the new airborne weapon have shown that its efficiency and power is commensurate with a nuclear weapon," Alexander Rukshin, Russian deputy armed forces chief of staff, told Russia's ORT First Channel television.

"You will now see it in action, the bomb which has no match in the world is being tested at a military site," the state-controlled channel said. It showed a Tupolev Tu-160 strategic bomber dropping the bomb over a testing ground. A large explosion followed.

Pictures followed of what looked like a flattened multi-storeyed block of flats, surrounded by scorched soil and boulders.

"The defence ministry stresses this military invention does not contradict a single international treaty. Russia is not unleashing a new arms race," the channel said.

Such devices generally detonate in two stages. First a small blast disperses a main load of explosive material into a cloud, which then either spontaneously ignites in air or is set off by a second charge.

This explosion generates a pressure wave that reaches much further than that from a conventional explosive. The consumption of gases in the blast also generates a partial vacuum that can compound damage and injuries caused by the explosion itself.

"The main destruction is inflicted by an ultrasonic shockwave and an incredibly high temperature," the report said. "All that is alive merely evaporates."

"At the same time, I want to stress that the action of this weapon does not contaminate the environment, in contrast to a nuclear one," Mr. Rukshin said.

Poetry is...

2007-09-11T13:35:00.000-04:00

By Poet Stephen Brockwell

I hesitate to start with definitions, but it’s fair that you understand what I mean when I talk about poems, poets, and poetics. Many take these terms for granted, but the residual math student in my brain can’t resist searching for useful, stab-in-the-dark definitions of these terms. For the sake of inclusiveness (which will be of value later), I think of a poem as a gathering of gestures that a spectator (visual) or audience (auditory) – reader, viewer, listener – experiences as “poetic.” The Greek root of the word poesis suggests making or creating, but I prefer the implied reciprocity of gathering. A poem is never simply made up, never created from nothing; it is always assembled, put together from parts. This is, of course, true at many levels – the simplest, sound and word, are the subjects of this session; the increasingly elaborate gatherings, and gatherings of gatherings, we’ll think about later: line, sentence, utterance, trope, form, poem.

But let’s return to the gestures. I’ve said that I want to be inclusive – I want to include visual poetry, dance, painting, architecture. It may seem too inclusive to use the word gesture for the raw material of poems. But I don’t believe it would be wise to draw sharp distinctions at this point. Do we want to demand, for example, that a tone poem should simply be called a symphony? Do we want to insist that the calligraphic script of traditional haiku serves only as ornament? Do we want to draw a fixed boundary between poetry and song, and thus excise medieval ballads and Shakespeare’s songs from our repertoire of poems? I don’t think we learn much by drawing such boundaries without first thinking about what might be lost if we do.

A gathering of gestures is poetic if it holds certain aesthetic properties that would be absent if the gestures were gathered differently, or if they were presented by themselves. Let me point out that this notion of a poem hearkens back to Aristotle’s definition of tragedy. In The Poetics, Aristotle defined tragedy as an imitation of an action that is serious, complete and of a certain magnitude. Some might say that a work of art is poetic if it is whole, indivisible, and integral, or that it should be open, ambiguous, and inventive. The important point is this: the pleasure in a gathering of gestures depends on the spectator or audience. Poetry is ultimately subjective – no single human can authoritatively pass unequivocal judgments on a poem or a body of work. Besides, passing judgment is not the poet’s primary function; passing judgment is a secondary function as the poem’s first reader.

Poetics is the articulation of particular arts of gathering gestures. I like the sound of that, but I think it’s insufficient. It invites the lurking difficulty in this terminological exercise. What’s art?

I think of the poet as nothing but the poem’s first listener or reader, the person who for the first time takes up the gathering, beholds it, re-gathers it and takes it up again.

Poetry begins in the body as sound. The abdomen, diaphragm and lungs propel the breath; the larynx and vocal chords vibrate; the pharynx, oral, and nasal cavities resonate; the lips, tongue and palate articulate – wind, string and percussion in a single blood-and-bone box. Our subtle and elastic vocal apparatus is capable of a greater diversity of sound than any other acoustic instrument that I can think of (if you think of an acoustic instrument that can produce a wider diversity of sounds than the mouth in full flight, tell me). We have taught, or been taught by, our bones, tendons, cartilage, muscles, nerves and neurons to distinguish between ah and eh?, bah! and be, and to make art from such distinctions and their playful variations. The private reader who rides a bus, book-in-lap, whose swinging irises signal their immersion in a text, partakes of the sound of poetry even in silence. I would leave it to a neurologist to prove the following intuition: the act of reading stimulates the same parts of the nervous system that produce and recognize speech.

The first act that fastened sound to a thing, an action or a state of mind is almost certainly lost to us, which is too bad because it was the first mighty good poem. It's easy enough to think of the obvious: a cry of pain or pleasure becomes a sign for pain or pleasure; a … The fundamentals of an interesting poem would have found expression in the first utterances (if there was a big bang of language) – stimulating, memorable, contagiously repeatable sound, a mind-grabbing trope, speech: a poem.

Visual representation of sound ... think of the pictographic quality of hieroglyphics and oriental characters.

Tangible versus intelligible: a dog finds dirt tangible because it can put it in its mouth; it cannot make dirt intelligible. Is language necessary for intelligibility?

At the atomic level of sound, a poet needs to walk with his tongue in stop-motion through the spaces between one sound and another, between vowels in a diphthong, between the consonants in “diphthong”, and between syllables in a word. See Fenolossa on time and transitive verbs. See Ormsby on "Poetry as Isotope."

A poet is the kind of person who will, in the course of an hour or two, hunt for the longest, richest single syllable for the pure pleasure of feeling the sound in the mouth in the same way that a baby squishes applesauce in its fingers: blenched, droughts, fraught, strains, stretched, straights, strengths. A poet – and a decent reader of poetry – must enjoy the sound and taste of these words. Let me clarify what I mean by the taste of a word: I mean its mouth-feel, its physical presence in the mouth, its effect on the tongue over the only apparently brief moment of its existence between other words.

Word as act; word as thing. Certain words seem to resemble what they signify. The word stretch, for example, takes a long time to say. I've heard that the Dutch word for stretch has the same properties. Plato's dialog Cratylus concerns this topic. Cratylus believes that words were once much closer to things in themselves. Hermogenes believes that words are nothing but conventional associations between sounds and things that are established by agreement. I'm of the opinion that many poets are willful cratylists - they want to believe that poems invoke directly what they refer to. Some do; I have no doubt about it. By the way, this goes well beyond simple onomatopoeia. See Genette on Valery (and Cratylus).

Even if poets must accept the conventional nature of language, I think they do so grudgingly. A good poet compresses the distance between signifier and signified to a point, a white dwarf star that shines, out of view, like the phosphorus at the bottom of the sea in A. M. Klein's “Portrait of the Poet as Landscape.”

Things to consider for the workshop:

Carefully choose a single syllable word that you find particularly beautiful, ugly, sonorous or discordant. Describe the physical properties of the word in clear and simple language. Write a brief critique of the word; explain why you find the word heavy, light, gorgeous or gaudy.

Bp Nichol's “Drum and a Wheel” depends for its effect on an asymmetrical moving frame. Pick a simple phrase and put it through a similar procedure.

Think about Rimbaud's “Voyelles”. Pick a few of your favorite consonants and write a few lines for each.

References
bp Nichol's "Cycle #22"
Peter Van Toorn's translation of Rimbaud's Voyelles
Rimbaud's Voyelles
Eric Ormsby's essay "Poetry as Isotope"
Ernest Fenolossa "The Chinese Character as a Medium for Poetry"
Gerard Genette's "Valery and the Poetics of Language"
Louis Zukofsky's "Peri Poietikes"
George Johnston's "Shadowy"

Weston on the dance of the seven veils

2007-09-11T09:47:00.000-04:00

Lifting veil on voting
Elections Canada enforcing changes Conservatives passed
By GREG WESTON

As Canadians mark the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Stephen Harper is apparently mad as hell over Islam's veiled voters, and isn't going to take it anymore.

What got the otherwise fun-loving PM fired up was a press release from Elections Canada stating veiled Muslim women will be able to vote in the coming federal byelections in Quebec.

Naturally, driver's licences and other photo ID used by most voters to confirm their identity at the polling booth are of little value with only a pair of eyes behind a Muslim niqab.

Instead, a Muslim woman not wanting to unveil can now qualify to vote by producing a second piece of non-photo identification approved by Elections Canada.

Alternatively, she would be entitled to a ballot if both she and another registered constituent in the same riding swore out affidavits.

The same rules will apply to all future federal elections.

"I profoundly disagree with the decision," Harper reportedly said at the end of his recent meetings with Pacific Rim leaders in Australia.

"I have to say that it concerns me greatly because the role of Elections Canada is not to make its own laws, it's to put in place the laws that Parliament has passed. So I hope they'll reconsider this decision."

Otherwise, the PM warned, "Parliament will have to consider what actions it's going to take to make sure that it's intentions are put into place."

CONTROVERSY

All of which sparked much heated controversy in other political quarters (and some truly lamentable journalism).

Quebec Premier Jean Charest wholeheartedly agreed with the PM, calling the matter a "bad decision."

Lawrence Cannon, the federal transport minister from Quebec, said: "Political correctness has superceded common sense. These are the kinds of things ordinary people don't understand."

One of the reasons ordinary folk might be confused is that most of the aforementioned commentary from Harper et al is at best misinformed.

Elections Canada didn't "decide" anything new.

In response to inquiries from reporters covering the federal byelections, the agency simply reiterated the government's "statutory requirements regarding the identification of electors wearing face coverings."

Far from the federal electoral office "making its own laws," as the PM claims, it is simply enforcing changes to the Elections Act passed by Harper's own government last year.

Those changes were based on hearings and an extensive report last year by a parliamentary committee which, in turn, was reviewing the 2005 recommendations of the then-chief electoral officer.

After all that, parliamentarians decided in their collective wisdom that the best way to deal with the veiled voter issue was to find other ways for Muslim women to vote.

If the prime minister "profoundly" disagreed with that decision, as he now says, he forgot to mention it at the time his government was passing the legislation.

The other problem legislators have recognized is there really isn't much of a problem.

More than 80,000 Canadians voted in the last election by mail-in ballot, no facial recognition required.

As numerous Muslim groups have been quick to point out in the past few days of controversy, there are maybe 50 women in all of Quebec who wear the eyes-only niqab.

And all of them, we are told, are used to showing their faces at banks and other places that require official identification.

Lift the veil on this issue and the problem is entirely in the eyes of beholders.

When the revolution starts to go off the rails

2007-09-06T20:52:00.000-04:00

September 5, 2007
Caracas Journal
A Culture of Naming That Even a Law May Not Tame
By SIMON ROMERO

CARACAS, Venezuela, Sept. 4 — Goodbye, Tutankamen del Sol.

So long, Hengelberth, Maolenin, Kerbert Krishnamerk, Githanjaly, Yornaichel, Nixon and Yurbiladyberth. The prolifically inventive world of Venezuelan baby names may be coming to an end.

If electoral officials here get their way, a bill introduced last week would prohibit Venezuelan parents from bestowing those names — and many, many others — on their children.

The measure would not be retroactive. But it would limit parents of newborns to a list of 100 names established by the government, with exemptions for Indians and foreigners, and it is already facing skepticism in the halls of the National Assembly.

“I need to know how they would define those 100 names,” said Jhonny Owee Milano Rodríguez, a congressman representing Cojedes State. “For example, why not 120? This seems arbitrary to me.”

Mr. Milano, 55, said his first name, Jhonny, spelled as such, was inspired by the international ambience of the oil town in eastern Venezuela where he was born. Owee, he said, was erroneously entered in the birth registry instead of Oved.

The bill’s ambition, according to a draft submitted to municipal offices here for review, is to “preserve the equilibrium and integral development of the child” by preventing parents from giving newborns names that expose them to ridicule or are “extravagant or hard to pronounce in the official language,” Spanish.

The bill also aims to prevent names that “generate doubts” about the bearer’s gender.

Some of Mr. Milano’s colleagues in the National Assembly, which is controlled by supporters of President Hugo Chávez, include Iroshima Jennifer Bravo Quevedo, Earle José Herrera Silva and Grace Nagarith Lucena Rosendy. Legislators need to approve the bill before it becomes law.

Whimsical names can also be found in other Latin American countries. Honduras has first names like Ronald Reagan, Transfiguración and Compañía Holandesa (Dutch Company), according to the newspaper El Heraldo. In Panama, local news media this year reported name-change efforts by an Esthewoldo, a Kairovan and a Max Donald.

But Venezuela’s naming tradition rivals or exceeds that of its neighbors, many people here say. Some first names in Venezuela include Haynhect, Olmelibey, Yan Karll and Udemixon, according to a list compiled by the novelist Roberto Echeto.

Other names here easily roll off the tongue in English, like Kennedy or John Wayne, or in Russian, like Pavel or Ilich, reflecting influences from the cold war era.

Municipal clerks’ offices, where parents register their children, have become forums for debating the possible restrictions.

“The children of my cousins are named Keiserlin, Jeiserlin, Keifel, Yurubi, Arol Kiling,” said Leidy Marrero, 29, a budget analyst. Ms. Marrero named her newborn daughter Mariángela, combining María and Ángela.

“It’s a question of taste,” she said in an interview at the clerk’s office in the San Bernardino district of Caracas, explaining her opposition to the measure. “It is a parent’s right.”

Some parents exercise that right more liberally than others.

Software searches of the voter registry find more than 60 people of voting age with the first name Hitler, including Hitler Adonys Rodríguez Crespo; eight Hochiminhs, among them Hochiminh Jesús Delgado Sierra; and six Eisenhowers, including Dwight Eisenhower Rojas Barboza.

Unusual names in Venezuela are often grist for awe or humor, but the issue is also politicized, given President Chávez’s gusto for renaming things, with critics of the bill claiming it would enhance his government’s naming authority in a realm where the fancy of parents still holds sway.

One of the president’s first moves was to change the country’s name from Republic of Venezuela to Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Part of Avenida Páez here has been renamed Avenida Teheran in a nod to Iran. The currency, the bolívar, is to be called the “bolívar fuerte,” or strong bolívar, starting next year.

In an editorial, the newspaper El Nacional described the measure as “malicious.”

The authorities may yet bend to public will. Germán Yépez, an official with the National Electoral Council, said the measure originated after children were given names like Superman and Batman. Still, he said in comments broadcast on radio, he welcomed “this type of positive reaction and suggestions.”

Not everyone denounces the bill. Temutchin del Espíritu Santo Rojas Fernández, 25, a computer programmer, explained that his first name was inspired by the birth name of Genghis Khan, often spelled Temujin in English. He said he frequently had to correct the spelling of his name on official documents.

And in Venezuela, where the tax authorities require name and national identity number for every purchase needing a receipt, pronouncing and spelling out Temutchin del Espíritu Santo can get tiring, Mr. Rojas Fernández said. “With a name this complicated, you lose time,” he said.

“It also creates social problems,” he continued. “When interacting with others, not everyone can pronounce your name. I have to pronounce my name five times and spell it twice.”

José Orozco contributed reporting.

The word "Exclusive"

2007-09-06T14:40:00.000-04:00

just doesn't mean the same thing anymore.

Veil removal not required for fed vote

2007-09-06T14:03:00.000-04:00

Thu, 2007-09-06 01:36.

John Elston

(Reporting by Brian Lilley, CFRB Ottawa Bureau Chief)

It was an explosive issue during the last provincial election in Quebec, now it is back. Elections Canada is ruling that Muslim women will not have to remove their veils in order to vote during the September 17_th by-elections in Quebec.

A new federal law, which received royal assent in June of this year, will require Canadians to prove their identity before casting a ballot. Voters will be asked for government issued photo-id before being allowed to vote. Those without the required id can provide two other pieces of acceptable identification or have another voter in the district vouch for them.

While Muslim women will be asked for photo-id such as a driver's license, they will not be required to remove their veil. A spokesman for Elections Canada tells CFRB that women may choose to remove the veil but if they opt not to, they can simply provide a second piece of identification in addition to the driver's license. Women who choose not to unveil will also be given the opportunity to swear an oath and have another voter vouch for them, but Elections Canada says two veiled individuals will not be allowed to vouch for each other.

PUBLICATION:	The Ottawa Sun
DATE:	2007.04.10
EDITION:	Final
SECTION:	News
PAGE:	6
BYLINE:	JORGE BARRERA, NATIONAL BUREAU
WORD COUNT:	274

Muslims face unveiling Tory bill in Senate would require voters to show government-issued ID

Veiled Muslim women might be forced to show their faces at the voting booth if a government bill quietly making its way through the Senate becomes law, says Canada's new chief electoral officer.

The bill, which has passed through the House and is being studied by a Senate committee, would require voters to show government-issued photo ID at the polls.

ALTERNATIVE ID

Marc Mayrand says the bill, if passed, would plop the controversial issue of the veil, which created a stir during the recent Quebec election, on the lap of Elections Canada.

"If it passes, it will have to be addressed," Mayrand tells Sun Media. "We have to review the situation."

The bill also allows for alternative identification authorized by Elections Canada. Those without identification can have someone else registered in the same polling division vouch for them by swearing an oath.

The Muslim Canadian Congress sees no problem with the bill.

"We believe that no one who covers their face should be allowed to vote," says congress founder Tarek Fatah.

"If men came up wearing masks, they would not be allowed to vote, so why should women covering their faces be allowed to vote?" he asks.

Fatah says Muslim groups causing a stir over the issue of veils at the voting booth want to increase hostilities between the Muslim community and the rest of Canada.

The NDP has opposed the legislation, dubbing it "a Big Brother bill" because it promises to hand personal information over to political parties and candidates.

Public outrage forced Quebec's electoral officer to reverse a decision that allowed Muslim women to wear the niqab at the voting booth.

MASKED THREATS

Marcel Blanchet received calls from voters threatening to disrupt the election by wearing masks and Halloween costumes to polling stations.

Mayrand says Blanchet faced an "exceptional situation" that could have spun "out of control."

Voters are currently not required to show photo ID during federal elections.

Under the bill, Elections Canada would be required to create lifetime identifying numbers for the more than 22 million voters. Birth dates would also be included on permanent voters' lists, updated yearly and available to parties and candidates.

Federal Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddard has raised concerns about including birth dates on voters' lists

On the Road turns 50

2007-09-05T12:10:00.000-04:00

Where have you gone Jack Kerouac?

Today is the 50th anniversary of On the Road
...
The purity of the road. The white line in the middle of the highway unrolled and hugged our left front tire as if glued to our groove.
...
In no time at all we were back on the main highway and that night I saw the entire state of Nebraska unroll before my eyes. A hundred and ten miles an hour straight through, an arrow road, sleeping towns, no traffic, and the Union Pacific streamliner falling behind us in the moonlight. I wasn't frightened at all that night; it was perfectly legitimate to go 110 and talk and have all the Nebraska towns--Ogallala, Gotehnburg, Kearney, Grand Island, Columbus--unroll with dreamlike rapidity as we roared ahead and talked. It was a magnificent car; it could hold the road like a boat holds on water. Gradual curves were its singing ease. 'Ah, man, what a dreamboat,' sighed Dean. 'Think if you and I had a car like this what we could do. Do you know there's a road that goes down Mexico and all the way to Panama?--and maybe all the way to the bottom of South America where the Indians are seven feet tall and eat cocaine on the mountainside? Yes! You and I, Sal, we'd dig the whole world with a car like this because, man, the road must eventually lead to the whole world. Ain't nowhere else it can go--right? Oh, and are we going to cut around old Chi with this thing! Think of it, Sal, I've never been to Chicago in all my life, never stopped.'
'We'd come in there like gangsters in this Cadillac!'
...
So in America when the sun goes down and I sit on the old broken-down river pier watching the long, long skies over New Jersey and sense all that raw land that rolls in one unbelievable huge bulge over to the West Coast, and that road going, all the people dreaming in the immensity of it, and in Iowa I know by now the children must be crying in the land where they let the children cry, and tonight the stars'll be out, and don't you know that God is Pooh Bear? the evening star must be drooping and shedding her sparkler dims on the prairie, which is just before the coming of complete night that blesses the earth, darkens all rivers, cups the peaks and folds the final shore in, and nobody, nobody knows what's going to happen to anybody besides the forlorn rags of growing old, I think of Dean Moriarty, I even think of Old Dean Moriarty the father we never found, I think of Dean Moriarty.
-30-

When I killed a seagull in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut

2007-09-05T12:01:00.000-04:00

The trigger pulled and nothing happened but the guy I was with laughed and said I had to cock it, like in the movies, and then I felt the power. The gun exploded in my arms. The seagulls continued to circle char snared on nets left bare by the Hudson Bay tide. I aimed again, eye up the thick barrel of the shotgun following the corkscrew flight path of one seagull as it descended and ascended.

It burst like a small firework of feathers and dropped into tall grass rimming the shore. It lay like a contorted angel, one wing a mangled blood bone feather mess. A small thread of red traced a path from its eye down its soft neck and its beak opened once. I was told to crush its skull with a large stone.

I had swallowed the tequila worm earlier in a shack owned by NHL player Jordin Tootoo’s parents that sat a few kilometers from Rankin Inlet down a dirt road kept smooth by men in pick-up trucks with a tire tied to the tailgate through tundra that flowed over the edge of the world.

Nunavut falling apart

2007-09-05T11:39:00.001-04:00

A former colleague at Sun Media has an interesting story today that quotes from an internal Indian Affairs document that says Nunavut is falling apart:

"Nunavut faces a particular governance and human capacity challenge," the report reads. "Urgent social issues threaten to seriously hinder development and governance and to leave a generation behind."

Sounds a bit alarming, but then Nunavut has been on financial life support from the beginning and its well-known social problems are legion. But are things seriously coming apart? Inuit were relocated to the far north, as in the case of Resolute in 1955, to assert Canadian sovereignty so it is still in the interest of Ottawa to ensure Nunavut thrives.

The story also says that: "Enhanced surveillance with space-based satellites, new measures to drive economic development and fast-tracked settlements of Native land claims are included in a sweeping Arctic sovereignty plan that could be launched with a "major reference" in this fall's Speech from the Throne."

I wonder what Native land claims the government is referring to? Nunavut was the product of a massive land claim deal.

This don't look so hot for Harper and co.

2007-09-05T11:33:00.000-04:00

So the Naumetz and Mcgregor hit parade continues....

Fine print made ads legitimate, Tories say
National party commercials tagged as candidate messages

Tim Naumetz and Glen Mcgregor
The Ottawa Citizen

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

The federal Conservative party presented television commercials produced for its national campaign in the 2006 election as advertising for local candidates by tacking fine-print lists of candidates and ridings to the end of the ads.

The costs of the ads, broadcast in Quebec and Ontario, are part of the $1.2 million worth of advertising that has sparked a court battle between Elections Canada and the Conservative party and led to a brewing political storm over allegations the party exceeded its total campaign spending limit.

The ads, some of which invoked the Liberal sponsorship scandal by stating they were paid for with "clean money," are also the subject of an examination by federal Elections Commissioner William Corbett. His investigators began looking into the spending after Conservative candidates attempted to claim reimbursements for the costs as part of their local campaigns.

One commercial, among eight TV ads and two radio spots obtained by the Citizen from Elections Canada, features a group of Canadians in a diner watching a TV with images of Paul Martin, Justice John Gomery and former public works minister David Dingwall. The ad became familiar to voters across the country and featured Judge Gomery's quote about a "culture of entitlement" in the sponsorship scandal.

The ad also features Mr. Dingwall's equally-infamous quote, "I'm entitled to my entitlements," made during a Commons inquiry into his expense account as president of the Royal Canadian Mint.

The only reference to local Conservative candidates comes at the end of the ad, which says, in small lettering, that it was authorized and paid for by the official agents in seven electoral districts in the Greater Toronto Area. The candidates are not named. The name of one of the ridings, Vaughan, is misspelled as "Vaughn."

The dispute between Elections Canada and the party hinges on whether the ads were intended to promote local candidates, or whether they were part of the national campaign.

A Citizen review of campaign spending for all parties in the election found that the Conservative party transferred large sums of money, up to $50,000, to more than 50 candidate campaigns, primarily in Quebec and Ontario.

The Tories set up an intricate system for the candidates to use the money to pay the party for radio, TV and other advertising. Under orders from party headquarters, official agents for the candidates involved were required to fax signed copies of bank transfer instructions to the party, which a party financial officer later used to instruct the candidates' banks to forward payments for the ads.

Several candidates told the Citizen the process was intended to allow them to claim 60 per cent of the advertising expenses in rebates from Elections Canada.

The scheme also might have allowed the party to spend money on advertising outside its $18.3-million overall campaign limit by channelling the costs through the ridings. The party ended the campaign $270,000 under its legal limit.

Elections Canada has rejected the rebate claims from candidates, saying they have produced no evidence they actually contracted the advertising themselves and that local ads are intended to benefit individual candidates.

The party says the ads are legitimate expenses incurred by their candidates because they carry the fine print identifying the official agents of the campaigns that the party says funded them.

"Our tag lines are clearly identified," said Conservative party spokesman Ryan Sparrow. "These ads were paid for by local campaigns, and that's our party's position."

But Elections Canada says the tag lines listing the official agents are "not relevant" in determining whether the ads are legitimate expenses for the candidates.

"Under the Canada Elections Act, for costs to be claimed as an election expense by a candidate, the property or service for which the cost was incurred must be used to directly promote or oppose a candidate during an election period," said Elections Canada spokesman Serge Fleylel.

Bush for president

2007-08-30T14:43:00.000-04:00

aliveinbaghdad.org

2007-08-30T13:59:00.001-04:00

Waiting for the illusionist

2007-08-30T09:57:00.000-04:00

(photo: jorge barrera)

Chavez laying hands on a heat stroke victim during the final rally before the 2004 referendum on his presidency.

"....opening a way among the lepers and blind men and cripples who begged the salt of health from his hands...."
The Autumn of the Patriarch, Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Just before he took office in 1999, Chávez traveled with Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez to Cuba. "I was overwhelmed by the feeling that I had just been traveling and chatting pleasantly with two opposing men," Márquez later wrote of the two faces of Chavez. "One to whom the caprices of fate had given an opportunity to save his country. The other, an illusionist, who could pass into the history books as just another despot." With Chávez's legacy still unfolding, we are left to choose the face we prefer to see.

A night in 23

The Saturday before the referendum vote I stayed in the 23 Enero barrio, named after the day in 1958 that dictator Perez Jimenez was overthrown. Here the most militant of Chavez' grassroots supporters live and fight and one aging revolutionary told me blood would flow if Chavez lost the vote. “I never thought we would get the revolution without a bullet,” he said. All night gunfire and fireworks burst in a darkness drenched with Salsa music. The Tupamaros were running security and their radios crackled every time an unidentified vehicle entered the barrio. Everyone was armed. The guy I was with stuffed a Glock 9 mm in his pants before we went for a walk by the wall of martyrs painted with the faces of their assassinated comrades. I slept for a couple hours that night in a 1950s era concrete slab apartment building so infested with crime my billet would not go up certain staircases fearing we could be mugged on the way to his sparsely decorated apartment with the single crucifix hanging on a bare wall in the guest room. We ate arepas at 5 a.m., unable to sleep as a result of the endless racket that rocked the night. By 7 a.m. I entered the school house where Chavez was expected to cast his ballot. Media were beginning to assemble there and I bought a coffee for one of the soldiers who said he hadn’t eaten breakfast that day. Smoking filterless Mexican cigarettes handed out by a reporter for Narco News we waited for the Man to arrive. A Colombian radio reporter told me democracy had ended in Venezuela. “He won’t leave without bloodshed,” he said.

I got a picture of him

Pandemonium met Chavez when he arrived. Penned in a small area just outside the voting booths, the hundred or so journalists and photographers crushed to the front the moment the president appeared before the microphone. A cameraman climbed on my back to get off a shot. Soldiers barred the doors as Chavez left. Outside, barrio residents had gathered in a frenzy of hero worship as the media banged on the metal gates and shouted to bet let out. When the gates opened a mad wave of television cameras and reporters gushed out, everyone straining to get close to Chavez, to ask a question, take a final photo. Our wave swirled into the mass of red-shirted, dancing Chavez supporters delirious in the presence of their savior held at bay by the armed presidential escort. As Chavez’ motorcade left and the waters subsided a Brazilian journalist tugged my arm and with a beaming face showed me a photograph in his small digital camera. “I got a picture of him,” he said.

The Man won

At 4 a.m. Monday there was a banging on my apartment door. It was my neighbour. “Chavez won, Chavez won.” Rain was falling in torrents. I called a cab that hushed through the empty mirrored streets to downtown. The cab’s radio was on and Chavez was rolling into his victory speech. I put my tape recorder over the back speakers. “The people have spoken with the voice of God.” The cab driver stopped near an alley that led to Miraflores, the presidential palace. There, aglow in television lights that turned each raindrop into a sliver needle, Chavez stood in a balcony, the Venezuelan flag draped over the railing. “The Man won, the Man won,” screamed a dancing woman into my tape recorder. It was a controlled riot of ecstasy. A fire dancer twirled a flaming baton that seemed impervious to the water that had drenched my shirt to the skin.

I thought we were going to win

At 6 a.m. I walked by a Catholic church in central Caracas. The rain had subsided and through the open door I could see several people standing, rosaries in hand, heads bowed. A man walked out. He was from Catia, a working-class neighbourhood with a thriving black market of electronics, gold and pirated DVDs. He had tears in his eyes. He voted against Chavez. “I thought we were going to win,” he said.

Another day of furrowed brows in PMO press office

2007-08-30T08:52:00.000-04:00

McGregor and Naumetz strike again. This one is a sizzler. And, in other news, the Canadian political system gets a sudden overhaul while you slept.

In other news

2007-08-29T13:04:00.001-04:00

Maybe we should pay more attention to this?

Could this

2007-08-29T11:08:00.001-04:00

stalemate continue until after the provincial election?

What a difference

2007-08-29T10:48:00.000-04:00

a day makes. Twenty-four little hours.

One consuming flame

2007-08-29T09:04:00.001-04:00

The combatants collided like thunderbolts and all was one consuming flame
Frederich Holderlin, Hyperion

I first walked into Centre Block on Parliament Hill in 2004, the first autumn of the Martin minority government and the neo-gothic spires rang with the shouts of partisan war. The ground beneath my feet shifted on the hour, the half hour and sometimes every minute. The plotters in the backrooms played the game like teenagers around a Risk board. One moment blue moved in from Europe to crush red in Africa but orange moved its pieces to strike blue's remnants in Europe from Iceland. The dice clattered like snare drums in a military parade as the pundits debated the exact measurements of each leader's body bag.

This time, however, it appears the frenzy of those days will be eclipsed by the mad cacophony that will shake the limestone walls of power and the dust from opening skirmishes already clouds the reddening horizon. The parties will fight like starving dogs for the bits of percentage points still scattered around the bowl of voter intentions for that is all that is up for grabs.

Perception out there

2007-08-28T12:02:00.000-04:00

URGENT! JUDGE ILLEGALLY ORDERS ALGONQUINS TO BE

INVADED WED. AUG. 29TH. Brothers, Sisters, Friends, Allies,

Supporters, and Environmentalists needed!

MNN. August 28, 2007. Judge Gordon Thompson has ordered the

Algonquins who are blocking access to a proposed uranium mine

north of Sharbot Lake to leave immediately. The people have been

told to expect the police on Wednesday, August 29th. All supporters

are asked to come to the site to help maintain the peace. This is only

the beginning of things to come under the conservative regime with

the help of the liberals at Queen’s Park Toronto. The Bush

administration in Washington DC needs uranium for their military

industrial schemes.

(The rest)

In my thoughts

2007-08-28T10:40:00.000-04:00

today

Best Journalism of the summer

2007-08-28T10:30:00.001-04:00

This, I think, is the third story they have unleashed on this topic. Brilliant. Two of the best in the biz....

Election watchdog 'examining' disputed Tory ad expenses
Elections Canada referred case to commissioner

Tim Naumetz and Glen McGregor
The Ottawa Citizen

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Federal election watchdog William Corbett is "examining" disputed advertising expenses claimed by Conservative candidates in the last election.

Elections Canada confirmed yesterday that it referred the issue last April to Mr. Corbett, who as Commissioner of Canada Elections has the power to pass on cases to prosecutors.

"The Chief Electoral Officer has asked the Commissioner of Canada Elections to examine the circumstances surrounding the media-buy program," said Serge Fleylel, an Elections Canada spokesman.

Mr. Corbett's involvement indicates the potentially serious nature of the dispute between Elections Canada and the Conservatives over $1 million in advertising costs its candidates paid the party, after the party transferred the money to them.

Liberal MP Dominic LeBlanc says the decision to send the case to the commissioner raises the stakes for the Conservatives.

"For a whole file to be referred to the commissioner, separate and apart from the normal Elections Canada bureaucracy, kicks it up to another level," he said.

Violations of the Elections Act that Mr. Corbett enforces are subject to fines and imprisonment.

There could also be political consequences for the Conservatives if it were proved they broke the rules during an election campaign they ran largely on ethics.

The Conservative party would not comment on Mr. Corbett's involvement. The party says it is in full compliance with the Elections Act.

The month after Mr. Corbett was asked to examine the media buy, 34 official agents for Tory candidates took Elections Canada to Federal Court. They are challenging Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand's refusal to approve some candidate claims for radio and television advertising from the 2006 campaign.

If the court upholds Mr. Mayrand's decision, the party could be forced to list the cost of the advertising under its national campaign, pushing it over its allowed expense limit, in violation of the Elections Act.

Elections Canada disallowed some Conservative candidates from claiming the advertising expenses, saying the candidates failed to provide "clear evidence" that they incurred the advertising costs.

"The need for such evidence became imperative when doubts arose as to whether the expense was incurred by the candidates and whether these candidates and their agents had in fact contracted for the purchase of the advertising," wrote Barbara McIsaac, lawyer for Elections Canada, in a letter filed in Federal Court.

The ads were funded through what some officials referred to as an "in-and-out," whereby the party transferred money to candidates who bought the ads, Ms. McIsaac wrote.

Transfers from political parties to candidates are common among all parties and legal, the Conservative party says.

The "regional" ads in question promoted the candidates who paid for them, as indicated by the "tag lines" that referred to their official agents, the party says. Payments were processed via the party as an "administrative convenience," the party says.

A letter to Elections Canada from the media placement agency that handled the Tory ads says the 2005-06 campaign media buy for the party was divided into four sections: party ads for Quebec, ads for the rest of Canada, and two separate buys for participating candidates inside and outside Quebec.

"Appropriate invoices reflecting goods and services rendered were separately issued to participating Conservative candidates and to the registered party based on the four segments identified," said the letter from Retail Media, the company the Tories used. The letter is part of the court record.

Several Conservative candidates have separately told Elections Canada and the Citizen that they believed the money they paid was for national campaign advertising.

Yesterday, one former Conservative candidate said he was surprised to learn that his official agent was among the 34 named as applicants in the Federal Court case.

Gary Caldwell, who ran an unsuccessful campaign in the Sherbrooke, Que.-area riding of Compton-Stanstead, said he did not know his riding was involved in the litigation.

"I assumed we weren't in that because I never authorized that," he said. He said he was content with Elections Canada's decision to disallow the expense claim for ads he bought through the party and had considered the matter closed.

In an amended financial statement, the expense was listed instead as an amount not included in campaign expenses and became ineligible for the 60-per- cent rebate Elections Canada pays for allowed costs.

"It is rather a strange position that we find ourselves in," Mr. Caldwell said. "Technically, I'm contesting it and verbally I'm saying we're not."

Mr. Caldwell is running as candidate for the Green party in the next federal election. He said he left the Conservatives because he was dissatisfied with the government's efforts on environmental issues and with Prime Minister Stephen Harper's failure to strengthen the role of MPs in the House of Commons.

The Conservatives say candidates were not consulted about the case because the ads were bought by their official agents.

Once approved by a judge, the name of Mr. Caldwell's agent and several others will be dropped from the case.

Lawyers for both sides have agreed to let the names of only two agents stand in the case. In the election, the agents represented losing Conservative candidates in Dartmouth, N. S., and London, Ont.

Whatever decision the court makes in those cases will likely set a precedent for the other candidates' returns.
© The Ottawa Citizen 2007

Who moves next?

2007-08-28T09:01:00.001-04:00

Algonquin on 'red alert' after order to end blockade
The Ottawa Citizen
Tue 28 Aug 2007
Page: C1 / FRONT
Section: City
Byline: Ciara Byrne
Source: The Ottawa Citizen

An order demanding the Algonquin community quit its blockade at Sharbot Lake immediately has put members on "red alert."

"We're filling this place up," said Paula Sherman, co-chief of the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation, who said she's surprised the events have turned sour so quickly. The community now awaits a possible confrontation in what they said they hoped would be a peaceful protest.

Since June, the Ardoch community and Shabot Obaadjiwan Algonquin First Nation have been battling Frontenac Ventures over a proposed uranium mine. The company's plans to drill core samples ended when the First Nations people moved in and blocked the area on June 28.

Last Thursday, Christopher Reid, a lawyer for the Ardoch, said his clients had pulled out of the case, in which Frontenac sought a permanent injunction to remove the blockade.

A judge said the Algonquins should remove all signs and vehicles, but he did not mention removal of the protesters.

Then last night, Mr. Reid received notification from Justice Gordon Thomson of the Ontario Superior court of an interim injunction. The injunction stated that any representative or supporters would have to leave immediately. It also stated that Frontenac would have "unfettered and unobstructed access" to the property.

The OPP had expressed reluctance to get involved. But the injunction gives them authority to arrest and remove any person who contravenes the order.

"This is the result of what happened in the court after we left," said Mr. Reid. "As far as the Ardoch are concerned, there's no change."

Ms. Sherman added: "The bottom line is we won't be leaving here. We will continue to secure this entire area. People have already begun to flood in here when the news went out."

Ms. Sherman said the court was warned the increasingly tense situation could turn ugly.

"We said if this was to transpire and to escalate, hundreds of people would pour into this site and that's exactly what's happening."

Fight night

2007-08-27T17:50:00.000-04:00

The Ottawa Sun
© Copyright 2006, Sun Media Corporation
PUGILISTS LOOK FOR A SHOT AT GLORY BY SLUGGING IT OUT ON A STORMY SATURDAY
AT THE LAC LEAMY CASINO Sunday, February 26, 2006
Tag: 0603261222Edition: Final
Section: News Length: 88 linePage: 7

BY JORGE BARRERA, OTTAWA SUN

Left. Right. Left. Left. Right. Left.
Leather smacks leather. Grunt. Breathe.
In a small room off the back corridors of the Lac Leamy Casino theatre, super-lightweight World Boxing Council champion Hermann "Black Panther" Ngoudjo prepares for his title fight against a Chilean. The room was designed for tamer performers. The two mirrors, facing each other, are framed by light bulbs and the lack of ventilation allows for the smell of sweat to quickly dominate.
Left. Left. Right.
Smack.
The boxing ring is a built extension to the usual stage where the play-by-play commentators for TVA watch and narrate the battle on canvas to half a million viewers in Quebec. Around 800 people gathered in the theatre to watch the fight card yesterday. Emerging from the fluorescently lit back corridors, the boxers are met by backstage dimness. A soft, cascading light falls from a small spotlight in the ceiling. The vaseline on Chilean Juan Carlos Alderete's face glistens, the pronounced cheek bones. He will enter first. The fog machine hums and Alderete's manager coughs. Antonio Bajas twirls a towel and complains about the smoke in Spanish.
KILLED WITH A PUNCH
Alderete, Mundo Hispanio WBC champion, enters the ring through a side doorway that leads between rows of tables, each with a number tag attached to a thin stick standing upright. Tin tubs with Bud beer bottles sit in the middle of the majority of tables peopled by mostly men, some women. There are a few who have been here since early afternoon; it is now early evening and bottles find the floor more frequently.
On the first table, the one next to the doorway, there is no beer. Here sits boxing legend Gaetan Hart, 52. A man once died as a result of a Hart punch.
Boxing has changed, he said.
"Too much technical, not enough fight, blood," said Hart, who lives in Hull. "In my time, I liked boxing so much I wanted to give people what they paid for."
Hart believes Canadian super-middleweight champ Jean Pascal, a 23-year-old boxer from Laval, Que., has the stuff.
"He is going to be a real world champion," said Hart, whose nose bears contours fashioned by leather bound fists. "He likes to put on a spectacle and that is what people want, a spectacle."
Pascal fought a 32-year-old from Tennessee nicknamed "Hurricane" whose manager was turned back at the border. Eric Howard made the trip to fight Pascal on a day's notice. He asked former world champ Otis Grant, the top contender for the WBC super-middleweight belt, to help out with the managerial duties.
Midway through the first round, a promoter with GYM pulled Grant out of the corner. Pascal and Grant fight for the same team. Grant could not help the enemy.
'HE WAS SCARED'
The fight ended on a technical knockout in the second round. It was a hollow victory for Pascal who was training to face former WBA light-middleweight champ Carl Daniels.
Fear kept Daniels at home, said Pascal.
"Last minute he pulled out, maybe he was scared," said Pascal. "Why not, I'm Jean Pascal."
Grant, 38, no longer fears death. Shortly after losing to boxing great Roy Jones Jr. in the 10th round, Grant was in a car accident that put him into a coma. Grant will get a title shot if he wins an upcoming April fight.
"I am doing it differently this time," said Grant, who started fighting at
11. "I got more aggressive, I think I am a lot smarter. I train a bit
different. I train a lot more scientifically."
But today, Grant is helping Ngoudjo prepare for his title defence and in the backroom he is fiddling with water bottles in a tin tub of ice. CCR is playing softly.
"Being too nervous is not good," said Ngoudjo, 26. "You lose control."
In the 12th round, Ngoudjo nails Alderete with a right hook. The fight ends in a TKO win for Ngoudjo. In the dressing room, Alderete is told by a boxing official he is suspended from boxing for a month based on the ring-side doctor's assessment and the likelihood of concussion.
Alderete, who holds the Chilean championship, walks into Ngoudjo's dressing and, after handing the champ a flag of his home town of Castro, says in Spanish he only trains a couple of hours a day. But Ngoudjo and his handlers don't understand Spanish. They think it could be an insult and turn to me asking anxiously, "what did he say? what did he say?"
I translate.
"I don't believe him," said Ngoudjo, after Alderete leaves.

2007-08-25T11:00:00.000-04:00

Klan claims to be growing in Sask.

Veronica Rhodes

Saskatchewan News Network

Saturday, August 25, 2007

REGINA -- Roughly 70 years ago, the Ku Klux Klan was one of the largest organizations in the province, with only the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool claiming more members.

Now, the controversial group aimed at asserting white pride claims to be once again growing in Saskatchewan.

Regina resident Christian Waters is a high-ranking officer with the Canadian branch of the Brotherhood of Klans (BOK), considered to be the largest Klan group in North America. Waters' membership with the group was confirmed in an e-mail and phone call by Jeremy Parker, imperial wizard of the Ohio-based BOK.

Waters, who writes under an alias on the group's website, claims that over the past two years, the BOK's membership in Saskatchewan has gone from one (himself) to roughly 250 members, and around 3,500 Canada-wide. Of the Saskatchewan members, he said that while there is a strong base in Regina, many live in rural areas.

"It is actually growing faster than I would have ever predicted it to, which in some ways is alarming to me because it shows there is a lot of people who are getting real tired of what is going on in Canada," he said in a face-to-face interview.

"As years have shown, the Klan has always surfaced in times of trouble, in times of people being very unhappy with their government, with what is going on around them."

Waters became a member of the group six years ago, after spending time chatting with other BOK members online. The group's concerns surround what its members deem as the "open door" immigration policy, which results in too many immigrants -- legal and illegal -- entering Canada and making it a "haven for terrorism," Waters said.

What the group sees as unfair advantages provided to First Nations people, such as what Waters calls "free" education, government grants and employment and education positions reserved solely for minorities, also raises the ire of members. The group wants a level playing field, which Waters believes doesn't exist.

"Through the multiculturalism of Canada, it seems the white race has been unfortunately the one race that has been shuffled underneath the carpet," he explains.

"I ask, where is our white pride days?"

Waters claims he doesn't have a problem with anyone who represents their race and culture with pride, but he says he does not always see that in the neighbourhood he lives in -- the Core area.

"Unfortunately it is the majority of one race that is making up the major majority of the problems with drug abuse and the penitentiary occupation in Saskatchewan. They say we're not doing enough for them, we're not giving them enough, we're not this and that. Myself, as a middle-aged white Christian man, I look at it and think, 'We've given them quite enough,' " he says.

Myke Agecoutay, tribal vice-chair of the File Hills Qu'Appelle Tribal Council, says anyone who believes First Nations people receive any sort of special treatment is obviously not familiar with the social issues facing aboriginal people.

"We know our people live in Third World conditions. We know that our children have no food at home, our children don't make it to school, our parents don't have the proper life skills to raise their children. We know that reality is out there," he said.

Agecoutay admits to being alarmed at the apparent increase in KKK membership and that First Nations people are considered a concerning issue for the group.

"The traditional image of a KKK member is not that of a peaceful front. It has a history of being violent and full of hatred, so that is always going to stick in the minds of anybody who hears the word 'KKK' -- that this is a group filled with hatred and racial tendencies throughout everything they do," Agecoutay said.

Waters insists the BOK is a Christian-based organization that is not hate-based and does not tolerate violent or criminal acts. The BOK is not associated with skinhead or neo-Nazi groups, Waters said, adding that it is a "disgrace" to fly a Nazi flag.

"I take offence if someone calls me a racist because it is not racist to be in love with my race," he said.

But Waters acknowledges the KKK has a violent past around the time of the civil rights movement, a period he believes falls far away from the group's intentions when it was created in Tennessee in 1865 during the first era of the Klan.

"During the 1960s and the civil rights movement when unfortunately there was the lynchings of blacks and things like that, there was all sorts of groups popping up all over that would use the Klan's name but weren't necessarily functioning as the Klan . . . There were a few bad apples that has cost us over 40-some years of misconceptions in the world," Waters said.

Ron Bourgeault, a sociologist at the University of Regina, said he is not surprised to hear of a rising interest in the KKK in Saskatchewan.

"In fact, I'm wondering why it hasn't been sooner," he said.

Bourgeault suggests members of the group may be right-wing political supporters who have become disenchanted with the Conservative party, especially in rural areas.

"They see (the Conservatives) as gone too establishment, they no longer reflect their interests about Indians and immigrants and things like that. They would drift away and are probably being attracted to (Waters)," he said.

The KKK is known as the "invisible empire" because of the secrecy surrounding its members. Waters explains group members do have occasional private gatherings, but most of their interaction is through the Internet.

Waters says the group is considering holding a public rally, possibly as soon as this fall. If the rally was to be held, the imperial officers who would speak at the gathering would be cloaked in the white ceremonial robes and hoods, he said.

RCMP spokesperson Heather Russell said no inquiries or complaints have been received about the group and nothing on BOK Canada's website is considered illegal. If its members were to hold a public rally, it is expected the RCMP would monitor the event.

Bourgeault calls Waters "adventuristic," adding that such an overt gathering may only result in further alienating people, not picking up support.

"He's basically waving the flag and people will reject that. He's not going to win a lot of converts; he may pick up a few disenchanted people who aren't sophisticated," Bourgeault said.

"But people who . . . may complain and gripe and be politically incorrect about Indian people . . . will just turn around and say, 'These guys are too extreme.' They don't reflect what is going on in a lot of peoples' minds."

The Saskatchewan Coalition Against Racism's Bob Hughes said views similar to those held by Waters have long been obvious in other people's attitudes, but may be growing in light of the increasing focus on immigrants and First Nations people.

"It's interesting that people have to hide around. Come on out if you're proud of what you believe in. Speak out. Have a public meeting," Hughes said.

In the U.S., the BOK promotes local political involvement for its members, which the Canadian branch may follow. Waters said the group plans to lobby government in the future regarding certain legislative changes, which may include tightening of immigration policies and stricter punishments for gun crimes and sexual offenders.

"We are going to prove to Canada and the Canadian people that we are going to achieve our agenda, but it is going to be through peaceful, law-abiding ways," he said.

(REGINA LEADER-POST)

The Blue Apartments

2007-08-24T12:46:00.000-04:00

(A continuation of an earlier post exploring how I ended up on the wrong end of a termination letter)

I am not sure if the blue apartments continue their existence in Kenora. They were the first place I looked for lodging when I moved to this small city by Lake of the Woods to work for the now defunct Kenora Enterprise weekly newspaper. The landlord took me to the basement and down a narrow, dimly lit hallway. Pipes lined the ceiling. The air moved like water in a lagoon. A baby cried through the walls, the television. A squat woman with glassy eyes stood in one doorway, her black hair hung like wet yarn to her shoulders. The landlord opened the door to the apartment advertised on the front door. It had no windows and smelled like years-old sweat.

Later I stood in the window of one the apartments, which was more of a simple room with a sink and no toilet. A 16 year-old from one of the northern fly in communities lived there and he was in the middle of a drug transaction with some friends. From the window I saw one of his friends leave the front door and walk to a building cross the street. A few minutes later another young man emerged from that building and disappeared around the corner. Not long after, while we chatted, there was a knock on the door. The drugs had arrived. "You wanna smoke" said one of the guys. The 16-year-old said he didn't do crack. Two others left. One came back, face and eyes blown behind tears.

Max

Things began to go wrong for me at the Kenora Daily Miner and News during the Max Kakigamic case. I had move to the competing daily from the Enterprise three months after my arrival in Kenora. The editor of the Enterprise called me an "asshole" when I quit, taking a pay cut to work for the daily. Not long after he sold his newspaper to Sun Media-owned Bowes, which also owned the Miner and News.

I knew I had to soon find another job after the editor of the Miner received a call from Kenora police chief George Curtis urging him to remove me from the police beat. My editor complied and put me onto city hall. The phone call had been triggered by my confrontation with the lawyer representing the man accused of Kakigamic's murder. There was a publication ban on the trial. I had included every detail already published about the case in my coverage. The accused's lawyer did not like this. During one court hearing the lawyer asked the judge to repeat his publication ban order. I took this as a threat. I was the only reporter at the hearing. After the judge left I confronted the lawyer and challenged him to cite any story that even came close to breaching the ban. He said a story I had written describing the nightmares Kakigamic's mother was having about her son's killer was inflammatory against his client. Curtis had been on the stand that day and heard our argument and used it as an example of why his force wouldn't deal with me. I was a "loose cannon" he said.

There were two other reasons.

A Kenora police officer had drowned during a private dive and the Winnipeg Sun wanted the story. I wanted to work for the Sun. I had always romanticized the Sun tabloids. I pushed hard to get details. I went down to the police station to maybe talk to some of his colleagues. Curtis confronted me at the station, roared I was a scavenger and kicked me off the property.

The second came after the OPP investigated a false claim I had sifted through files at the OPP's courthouse office. I have no idea how this was sparked and I wasn't even aware of it until my editor informed me about it while he explained why I would be removed from the cops beat.

Mongering little shit disturbing asshole

While covering city hall I reported on a late 1990s city council motion restricting the use of pesticides on municipal property. I remembered there were little signs on the front lawn of the police station advising that the grass had been sprayed and wrote a story. Curtis phoned me. The moment I answered the phone he attacked. " You mongering little shit disturbing asshole." I would not call him names, I said. My editor heard this exchange, walked over and hung up the telephone. Curtis later phoned to apologize.

But the damage was done.

I will buy you flowers, someday

I have one regret from Kenora. Kakigamic's mother asked me to lay flowers at the place where her son was found beaten to death, the imprint of a heavy boot tattooed on his neck.

I never bought the flowers.

The Shawn Brant effect

2007-08-24T11:39:00.000-04:00

Algonquins staying put: lawyer; Protesters threaten violence if attempts are made to remove them from uranium mine site

Frank Armstrong

Friday, August 24, 2007 - 00:00

Local News - Attempts to forcibly remove a group of Algonquins who are blocking access to a uranium exploration site near Sharbot Lake will be met with violence, one of the group's lawyers warned yesterday.

"If there's an attack on that camp by the OPP or anyone else, there are thousands of volunteers on short notice ready to pour into that site," Chris Reid, lawyer for the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation, told a court in Kingston.

Native groups across North America are monitoring the situation and will join the Algonquins if there's any attempt to force them off the land, Reid said.

"If that happens, there will be violence, but it will not be started by our people," he said.

Members of the Algonquin and Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nations have been camped out since June at the entrance to an area of land between Clarendon Station and Mississippi Station that is being prospected for uranium by Frontenac Ventures.

The Algonquins say the land is theirs because, in 1873, the British government signed an agreement proclaiming land not sold to or surrendered to the Crown belongs to their native allies.

Because it's their land, the Algonquins say the provincial government shouldn't have given Frontenac Ventures the right to prospect there and should have consulted them first. They say they're afraid a uranium mine could destroy the local water table and that they won't budge until the provincial government talks to them.

Oakville-based Frontenac Ventures claims it will be in serious financial trouble if it can't soon continue its work. The company is suing the Algonquins for $77 million and has asked the court to remove the Algonquins from the land.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Gordon Thomson issued an order last week that appeared to demand an end to the native occupation, but the OPP refused to co-operate with that order and both Reid and Frontenac Ventures lawyer Neal Smitheman had trouble interpreting it.

Thomson pulled Reid, Smitheman and lawyers representing the OPP and the Ontario attorney general into court yesterday to clarify his order, but a half day of debate didn't shed much more light on his directions and sparked frustration on all sides.

"It dumbfounds me frankly that there's confusion here," Thomson said. "If we went down to the corner of Princess and King streets ... any member of the public would understand exactly."

For the first time in several days of court appearances, however, the lawyers seemed to agree with one another: None of them completely understood the order.

In it, Thomson asks the OPP to control access to the land with a combination lock.

It also says that all signs, vehicles, buildings and other material erected by the protesters must be removed.

The carefully worded 20-page document, says the order isn't intended to prevent "legitimate protest," except that which includes occupation or denial of access to the land.

"It is my view that the public interest requires that the courts do their best not to intervene unless and until there is no other resort available," Thomson writes.

The order was issued last week, but the Algonquins are still camped out on the site.

Frontenac Ventures staff went by the site on Saturday, the day after the deadline for the protesters to leave, but at least two protesters were still there along with three camping trailers, a number of tents, portable toilets, firewood and several flags.

Frontenac Ventures project manager Jamie Fairchild said outside the court that he brought a lock for the gate to the Sharbot Lake OPP detachment, but it was refused.

OPP lawyer Chris Diana told the court that the provincial police force doesn't want to play "gatekeeper" because it would appear as if they were taking sides on the issue.

"That would make it difficult for the OPP to defuse tensions," Diana said.

Because the OPP generally doesn't enforce civil orders, the police force would have to receive court authorization to remove the protesters before it could act, he said, citing the federal Courts of Justice Act.

"They need to know if they are authorized to remove the protesters and if the protesters are allowed to stay on the site," he said. "It appears the protesters will not leave voluntarily."

He added that the OPP were not requesting authorization.

Thomson suggested the protesters might have to move a few metres to put their camp firmly on Crown land and off of private property, but he said they wouldn't necessarily have to leave their camp.

On the other hand, all of their equipment does have to go, as described in the order, the judge said.

After the hearing, Smitheman told reporters outside the courthouse that he thought Thomson had ordered the Algonquins to abandon their blockade, but he found out yesterday that wasn't the case. He said he was "dumbfounded" by the judge's interpretation of the order yesterday.

"What he seems to have said in his order is that access to the property will be restricted, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the people who are occupying the property have to leave right away," Smitheman said.

If the protesters aren't forced to leave the site and the OPP end up locking the site, the protesters will be locked inside, he pointed out.

"What is clear, and his honour made this clear today, is that all the placards and the paraphernalia, vehicles and material are supposed to be removed, but Mr. Reid made it clear that's not going to happen either, so it's an unfortunate situation that we find ourselves in today."

Although a judge will begin hearing the application for a permanent injunction on Sept. 20, Smitheman said his clients don't know what to do from here on in.

"Even if we were to attempt to enforce that order, it still doesn't provide my client with access to the property to do the things that need to be done," he said.

It also doesn't give them an opportunity to sit down and resolve the situation, he said.

"We're not going to spend money and involve ourselves in a violent situation for nothing," he said.

Smitheman described yesterday as a "sad day" because it became apparent that the rule of law isn't going to be obeyed.

Reid insisted at the beginning of yesterday's hearing that his clients do respect the laws of Canada.

He pointed out that none of the Algonquin protesters or their non-native supporters had attended court for the first time and said they no longer want to participate.

"They mean no disrespect to the court at all. They respect Canadian law for the most part," he said. "They don't get much respect in return, but they said they can't be here and ... hear themselves and their elders described as criminals."

With the local Algonquins dropping out of the hearing, a 6,000-person group of Algonquins decided they should step in to represent the interests of this First Nation group regarding the affected land.

Bob Potts, the main negotiator representing a different Algonquin group that has been negotiating with the federal government since 1992 over a land claim that encompasses 14, 000 square miles of land, including the Parliament buildings and the City of Ottawa, made his first court appearance yesterday.

farmstrong@thewhig.com

2007-08-24T11:09:00.001-04:00

Summer in Ottawa ends this October

2007-08-22T08:59:00.000-04:00

(A shorter fall sitting could make it difficult for the Conservatives to pass this promised legislation.)

MPs back Oct. 16
Harper will delay recall of Parliament until after the Ontario election
L. IAN MACDONALD, Freelance
Published: 6 hours ago

Any day now, the Harper government will announce a new session of Parliament, beginning with a Throne Speech on Oct. 16.

This is no October surprise, and the date is no coincidence. Not only does it fall after Thanksgiving on Oct 8, but after the Ontario election on Oct. 10. The Conservatives in Ottawa want to stay off television and out of the news to give John Tory and the Ontario Progressive Conservatives a clear shot at defeating Dalton McGuinty's Liberals at Queen's Park.

Er, on second thought

2007-08-22T08:51:00.000-04:00

Mayor dropped call for police probe
O'Brien didn't instigate OPP investigation into Kilrea allegations, despite public claim

Gary Dimmock
The Ottawa Citizen

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

On Jan. 13, a day after Mayor Larry O'Brien learned he had been accused of offering to cover a rival's expenses if the rival withdrew from last year's mayoral race, he called the police and asked for a full investigation to clear his name. But the Citizen has learned that the next day, when told he needed to file a formal complaint, he declined to do so.

The investigation was over before it began.

The current police probe was only launched after the Citizen reported the allegations, two months later.

But last month, the mayor told CFRA radio that the current investigation was at his request.

In an interview with Citizen columnist and radio host Mark Sutcliffe, Mr. O'Brien claimed responsibility for instigating the probe: "As soon as I became aware of this last January, I immediately went to our police chief and I immediately went to the OPP, months and months before this became public, and asked for a full investigation.

"That investigation commenced and I think the investigation covers an awful lot more issues than simply what Larry O'Brien has been doing. So I'm very comfortable with the way this is unfolding ... We have been completely, 100-per-cent co-operative (with the police) in every way, shape or form, providing them every ounce of information needed and I am quite comfortable that as this thing rolls out over the next four or five weeks and comes to a conclusion that the City of Ottawa will be very comfortable."

The mayor expressed confidence in the OPP and said: "I ... like the way they're moving on this. They're going to be very, very, very thorough, and for that I'm appreciative."

After telling Mr. Sutcliffe he did not intend to follow through on a threat to sue the Citizen over the story, the mayor concluded: "I'll just be happy when this is over and we can all go forward and live happily ever after."

On Jan. 12, the mayor learned in an interview with the Citizen that one of his rivals in the last election, Terry Kilrea, had alleged that Mr. O'Brien had offered him $30,000 to cover his campaign expenses and help him get a federal appointment if he withdrew from the race.

At the request and expense of the Citizen, Mr. Kilrea swore to his allegations in an affidavit. He also passed a polygraph test, again at the expense of the Citizen, about the contents of the affidavit. Mr. Kilrea's allegations have not been proven in court and Mr. O'Brien has not been charged with any crime.

Mr. O'Brien asked then-Ottawa police chief Vince Bevan to investigate Mr. Kilrea's allegations. The Ottawa police turned the file over to the Ontario Provincial Police to avoid any appearance of conflict of interest.

For the OPP to launch an investigation, Mr. O'Brien would need to file a formal complaint.

On Jan. 14, he declined to do so.

On Feb. 10, the Citizen reported on the allegations and the existence of the affidavit. The current OPP investigation was launched on March 27 after the Ottawa and District Labour Council lodged a complaint based on the affidavit by Mr. Kilrea.

The labour council did not obtain the affidavit from the Citizen.

In the Jan. 12 interview, Mr. O'Brien denied making the offer, but acknowledged two meetings with Mr. Kilrea took place. He also acknowledged that he spoke to his lawyer after talking to Mr. Kilrea about campaign expenses.

Mr. Kilrea, a court-enforcement officer, says while he was tempted by the alleged offer, he turned it down 25 days later at a meeting with Mr. O'Brien in the parking lot behind a Tim Hortons.

The Kilrea affidavit details two meetings with Mr. O'Brien. Mr. Kilrea swears in the affidavit that the mayor not only offered to cover his campaign expenses up to $30,000, but also alleges that, citing help of a top federal Tory, he explored the idea of getting Mr. Kilrea an appointment to the National Parole Board.

John Reynolds, the co-chair of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's 2006 campaign, has firmly denied any link to the alleged offer.

2007-08-21T23:56:00.000-04:00

Caledonia redux

2007-08-21T12:38:00.001-04:00

Algonquins to continue uranium site blockade

Last Updated: Tuesday, August 21, 2007 | 10:56 AM ET

CBC News

Two First Nations communities plan to continue blocking access to a potential uranium mining site in eastern Ontario despite a judge's order.

"Our plans at the site are to continue to secure the gate and not permit entry into our lands without our permission," Bob Lovelace, former chief of the Ardoch First Nation, said Tuesday. "And certainly the exploration company will not be permitted to do any test drilling."

He was responding to Ontario Superior Court Judge Gordon Thomson's 20-page interim decision, issued quietly last week, that bans entry to the property near Sharbot Lake by anyone except "the owner with the valid registered deed."

The ruling also orders the removal of all "signs, vehicles, buildings and other paraphernalia" erected at the site by either the Algonquins or the mining exploration company Frontenac Ventures since July 1, 2007, the Kingston Whig-Standard reported.

However, it allows for a qualified archeologist to search the property for sacred indigenous burial sites.

Protesters from the Ardoch and Shabot Obaadjiwan Algonquin First Nations have been blocking the entrance to the site, about 60 kilometres north of Kingston, since June.

The mining exploration company Frontenac Ventures Corp., which wants to do some test drilling for uranium, is suing the Algonquins for $77 million and seeking a judicial order to remove First Nations protesters from the site.

The interim decision came the same week the Algonquins sent a letter to Premier Dalton McGuinty announcing that they were pulling out of the court process and asking the Ontario government to intervene in the dispute.

The Algonquins say they are concerned that uranium mining would contaminate water and cause other environmental damage on property that comprises ancestral lands they never properly surrendered.

Lawyers for the various parties are to discuss the order in court on Thursday.

A decision on the requested injunction, which would grant Frontenac Ventures full access to the site, is to be made in September.

The site includes privately owned property, but is mainly land that Ontario considers to be owned by the Crown. The Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nation is in land-claim negotiations with the federal and provincial governments.

With files from the Canadian Press

Algonquins put out the call

2007-08-21T12:29:00.000-04:00

Just received this. I coincidentally blogged about this situation earlier today and wondered what Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty will do on this with an election looming this fall.

Paula Sherman is co- Chief of the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation.

We issued a statement saying we were not going to participate in the injunction process in the courts any longer . The same day we issued this the judge released his decision telling us to leave the site. We are of course refusing to do that since Algonquin law requires us to be here protecting our lands from uranium exploration and mining. Frontenac Ventures has asked for an emergency teleconference with the judge for Monday or Tuesday to say that we are refusing to leave and to ask for a full injunction to be issued against us in his favour allowing him to come back with full access to the site. The judge has asked all the lawyers to show up on Thursday, so we are not sure whether or not the judge will issue a full injunction on Monday or Tuesday after the teleconference or wait until Thursday when the lawyers will all be there.....................but since we stated that we were no longer participating in the court, the judge will probably rule in favour of Frontenac and issue a full injunction wherein Frontenac will ask the OPP to enforce it (which is not in the current order) so then we will have to see what happens.

We need to have as many people as possible show up during the week to make it a risk to public safety to come in and hall us all out. They don't have to come inside the blockade, but can be outside it..................................we just need a large amount of people to be here..................

Miigwech
Paula

Thinking of Vick I recalled this afternoon in Caracas

2007-08-21T09:35:00.000-04:00

Saturday afternoon at the cock fights and the place smells like chicken shit. The man leaning over flimsly metal railing overlooking the fight pit asks me which rooster I think will win. He is swigging a Polar. The roosters have been placed in a transparent Plexiglas box divided into two compartments. One side is carved with the word "Chávez." I pick that rooster. The man wants me to bet, but I say no, fearing this is some sort of con.

The box is attached to a rope slung over a pulley hanging from a beam above. Slowly, it rises. The awkward dance begins tentatively at first, then, feathers flared, one leaps, spurs and beaks flash across blood-stained industrial grey carpet littered with bits of feather, flesh. Men shout and bang.

Feathers and dust float on beans of sun pouring through gaps in the tin roof.

Bangs and shouts.

They fight to the death or for 30 minute when it ends with the single ring of the judge’s hand-held bell. The judge sits behind a door with a sign reading "juez" along boards ringing the fight pit. The first row of chairs around the pit are cushioned, the seating in the remaining three or four rows are a mix of dented folding metal chairs and concrete steps. Above, other men lean over the railing along the balcony, swigging beers and betting 5,000 to 10,000 (around $2.50 to $5) bolivars a fight.

"It’s my obsession," says Edgar, who raises roosters in Caracas. "You have to feed them three times every day. At 6 a.m., even if you are hung-over you have to get up. At noon, even if your woman has no food, you feed the roosters. And again in the evening."

The pit is about the circumference of a mid-sized above-ground swimming pool. Polar beer banners are strung from the rafters. The marker-scrawled betting board hangs above the betting cage near the entrance.

The roosters are armed with spurs made from turtle shells honed into 2.5 centimeter claws. Before the fight the rooster’s leg is wrapped in boxing tape with a hole cut where the natural spur once jutted, now shaved. The new spur is fastened with silicone and thick thread before it is again wrapped with tape.

The rooster’s beak is sharpened with a file. Dagger-like.

After about 10 minutes, my pick has drawn blood, slicing the neck of its opponent now a mess of twitching feathers sprawled on the carpet. The stronger animal pounces on its prostrate opponent and begins picking at the head, pulling out an eye-ball before the judge ends the fight. The feathers of the beaten chicken are drenched a deep dark crimson. Its owner crouches over the body and lifts up gently, cooing soft words as blood pool in a teardrop at the tip of its honed beak, its body weakly expanding from short gasping breaths.

Of four fights that afternoon, two end this way. One fight runs the full 30 minutes. The judge brings out a white rooster and teases the combatants. He does this three times. If the roosters react and snap back at least once it’s called a draw. If one of the rooster cowers, or fails to react, it loses. The fight is a draw.

The cock fight arena, or gallero, sits in a back corner of El Silencio, a run down central Caracas neighborhood that once housed government offices. Now, the homeless sleep on the sidewalks and the edges buildings are crumbling from the erosion of neglect. I have been told the place is a nest of thieves, ready to slice a stranger’s throat or pump a bullet in their chest for a gold necklace.

A few blocks away sits the National Electoral Council building and beyond that the National Assembly. Nearby is Miraflores, the presidential palace.

Former AFN national chief Ovid Mercredi on Strahl

2007-08-21T08:53:00.000-04:00

"He sounds like a minister who doesn't want to listen to the people he's affecting," Mr. Mercredi said.

With an election looming what will McGuinty do if the Algonquins refuse to leave?

2007-08-21T08:50:00.000-04:00

Sides explore mine ruling; Lawyers seek clarity on edict over standoff

Rob Tripp

Tuesday, August 21, 2007 - 00:00

Local News - A judge has ordered an end to a two-month-old native occupation that has prevented a prospecting company from digging for uranium on land near Sharbot Lake, according to a lawyer for the firm.

"The first thing that his honour ordered is for the occupation to cease, I mean that's what I read, and then that only certain people [be] allowed on the property and only under certain conditions," said Neal Smitheman, who represents Frontenac Ventures Corporation. The company wants to drill samples to see if it's feasible to operate a uranium mine on land roughly 60 kilometres north of Kingston. The site includes private property and Crown land.

Two native groups, the Ardoch Algonquins and the Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nations, have occupied the site and blocked the firm, claiming the land is part of disputed territory subject to ongoing land claim negotiations.

They also cite concerns about environmental damage and damage to native heritage.

Frontenac Ventures went to court, seeking an injunction to stop the occupation and also seeking millions in damages from the protesters. Last week, a Superior Court judge in Kingston issued a 20-page interim decision.

"Under no circumstances shall there be entry onto the subject property by anyone else other than an owner with a valid registered deed," Justice Gordon Thomson wrote.

The decision also orders the removal of all "signs, vehicles, buildings and other paraphernalia erected" there by any of the parties to the court case since July 1, 2007.

The parties can't agree how to interpret the decision, so they'll be back in court Thursday.

"It's somewhat vague in parts and nobody's exactly sure what it means," Chris Reid, a Toronto lawyer acting for the Ardoch First Nation, said in an interview yesterday.

Reid believes the decision does not order an end to the occupation. "Nowhere does the order say to the OPP, 'This is an illegal demonstration, you should arrest these people,' " he said.

Smitheman said the OPP, who have been keeping watch over the standoff, have taken the position that it's not clear what the judge meant.

"So they're not about to agree to an order, let alone enforcing an order, until that can be clarified," Smitheman said. "They are, I suppose, approaching with extreme caution."

The lawyers agree that the judge ordered that an archeologist be brought onto the property to conduct an investigation.

The sides can't agree on who chooses the archeologist and who pays. The company offered to appear at the property with an archeologist yesterday, Reid said, but his clients weren't consulted about the person hired.

"No real steps have been taken since then, it's safe to say," he said.

The dispute may become more complicated this week because the native groups are expected to appear in court and tell the judge they will refuse to participate in the legal proceedings.

The groups sent a three-page letter to Premier Dalton McGuinty last week, asking him to intervene and help broker a deal.

In the letter, they state that they appreciate the challenge the court faces, but the adversarial system, contrary to traditional Algonquin-style dispute resolution, damages the relationship between Aboriginal peoples and the Crown.

"While we respect the Ontario Court system and the rule of law, we cannot inure to the Court in this case and will not be proceeding any further with the Court process as it relates to Frontenac Venture's motion for an injunction against us," states the letter, signed by Doreen Davis, chief of the Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nation and Paula Sherman, co-chief of the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation.

"There's been no response yet to that letter," Reid said.

A copy of the letter was filed with the court.

"I don't know what the judge's response will be to me standing up and saying, with all due respect, we're not participating any further in this," Reid said.

Clarifying the judge's order may be irrelevant, he said.

"This occupation is going to remain unless there's a negotiated agreement," Reid said.

In an interview last week, McGuinty said the situation may also involve the federal government.

"If we have a role to play, we will play the part," he said.

The premier's office declined to provide comment yesterday.

A rotating group of native protesters, typically numbering 20 to 30, are camping out at the site around the clock.

A full hearing on Frontenac Venture's application for an injunction is scheduled for Sept. 20.

rtripp@thewhig.com

Sad Sad Sad Sad so Sad

2007-08-20T23:11:00.000-04:00

MONTEBELLO, Que. — As riot police fired tear gas and pepper spray to hold back demonstrators outside the Montebello summit Monday,

Stephen Harper shook hands with George W. Bush and dismissed the protest as a “sad” spectacle.

The prime minister welcomed Bush to the North American Leaders’ Summit as the U.S. president stepped off his helicopter on to the lush grounds of the posh — and heavily guarded — Chateau Montebello.

“I’ve heard it’s nothing,” the prime minister said when asked whether he’d seen the protesters. “A couple hundred? It’s sad.”

(So sad)

Those attending demonstration not "civilized human beings": Thomas D'Aquino

2007-08-20T20:39:00.000-04:00

But Thomas D'Aquino, president of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, said getting access to political leaders is not the only way to be heard.

"I do not say to myself, 'If I don't get an hour with the prime minister in the next six months, I'm going to go out and protest and reject the system outright,' " he told CBC News.

"I don't do that because civilized human beings — those who believe in democracy — don't do that."

"I do not say to myself, 'If I don't get an hour with the prime minister in the next six months, I'm going to go out and protest and reject the system outright,' " he told CBC News.

"I don't do that because civilized human beings — those who believe in democracy — don't do that."

"I do not say to myself, 'If I don't get an hour with the prime minister in the next six months, I'm going to go out and protest and reject the system outright,' " he told CBC News.

"I don't do that because civilized human beings — those who believe in democracy — don't do that."

"I do not say to myself, 'If I don't get an hour with the prime minister in the next six months, I'm going to go out and protest and reject the system outright,' " he told CBC News.

"I don't do that because civilized human beings — those who believe in democracy — don't do that."

Exclusive: PMO poised to replace Sandra Buckler

2007-08-20T12:52:00.000-04:00

Alexander Panetta

2007-08-19T23:39:00.000-04:00

ruins the party

Interesting

2007-08-17T22:06:00.000-04:00

story

A message from Emmanuel Goldstein

2007-08-17T12:12:00.000-04:00

www.zeitgeistmovie.com

Correction

2007-08-16T12:16:00.000-04:00

Really?

Peter's red herring

2007-08-16T11:27:00.000-04:00

Despite the mass migration of half of Canada to Alberta the sober and enlightened heads still take Alberta separatism seriously.

"Before a potentially destructive constitutional reference to the Supreme Court occurs, cooler heads should prevail. Alberta should strengthen its existing laws to control greenhouse-gas emissions. In turn, federal opposition politicians should realize they could win their battle for Kyoto and lose the war for national unity. Political compromises should be struck. Mr. Lougheed deserves gratitude for his timely intervention."

With Lamborghini-driving Albertans roaring around Calgary and instability in the Middle East for the next several hundred generations I fail to see how anything could seriously damage Alberta's petroleum economy. If foreign oil firms continue to work in Venezuela regardless of the constantly changing regulatory landscape, what makes anyone think these same firms would abandon Alberta over tougher environmental regulations?

The feds make bad soup

2007-08-16T10:19:00.000-04:00

Plight of Afghan prisoners echoes Chief Rickard case

George Beaver

Thursday, August 16, 2007 - 07:00

Local News - The Expositor's recent front page story, "Afghan detainees case secret," was not just about the prisoners who were turned over to the Afghans allegedly to be tortured.

It also was about the unusual provisions of the Canadian Evidence Act, which forbade anyone to reveal that a court application to release documents had even been made.

Under these provisions, the court registry must keep these files separate from the other court files and not tell anyone about them. This sets up a great way for the prime minister or any other minister to deny that someone had made an application to challenge the refusal of the federal government to release certain records related to the handling of suspected Taliban prisoners.

This repressive provision reminded me of a similar provision in the Indian Act.

In the 1920s and 1930s, it was illegal for Indians to take the federal government to court or even to collect money in order to pay a lawyer to sue the government.

This loophole in the legal system led to injustice in many forms to a lot of First Nations people.

An example is what happened to the Tuscarora Chief Clinton Rickard. In 1928, Chief Rickard got the U.S. Congress to pass a bill reaffirming the Jay Treaty and supporting Canadian-born aboriginal people's right to cross the border.

This was especially important to the Six Nations people, who have relatives on both sides of the border.

In 1930, Chief Rickard was asked by the Algonquin Chiefs to come to their first Grand Council at Maniwaki, Que. Sixteen Algonquins had taken part in the first Border Crossing Celebration in 1928 at Niagara Falls.

falsely charged

At Maniwaki, Chief Rickard made two speeches. In one he talked about the type of education given at the Tuscarora reservation.

He noted that they had no more than half an hour of religious instruction in any one day.

The commissioner of education thought this was a good idea and said he was issuing similar orders to the schools in his charge.

The Algonquins were pleased with his visit and invited him back to the Second Grand Council the next year.

In 1931, as the chief and his first wife walked about taking pictures before the first session at which he was scheduled to speak, he saw two men also taking pictures.

During intermission, they came up and asked the chief if he would like to go on a sightseeing tour.

They did not tell him they were undercover RCMP officers. When he and his wife agreed, they were driven by car straight to the local Indian agent's office and shown an arrest warrant already prepared for him.

He was falsely charged under Section 141 of the Indian Act with soliciting money at Barriere, Que., between April 16, 1931, and Sept. 15, 1931, to sue the Canadian government.

He had only arrived in Quebec on Sept. 14, 1931, and had never been to Barriere, which was north of Maniwaki.

He was immediately thrown into jail and the next day was taken to Hull, Que., 136 kilometres away. He was constantly interrogated. He was not allowed to see his wife or brother and not allowed to write or call anyone.

After six days of refusing to plead guilty to the false charge, he was fed soup, which made him violently ill.

For four days he lay ill without medical care.

At last, he was taken before a judge and released on his own recognizance. He was so sick he could hardly walk.

This shameful episode is recounted in the book Fighting Tuscarora, The Autobiography of Chief Clinton Rickard, edited by Professor Barbara Graymont, head of the Department of History and Economics at Nyack College, Nyack, N.Y.

The plaintiff in this strange case, which had no hearing and no trial, was later shown to be the Department of Indian Affairs.

Now that god is dead

2007-08-16T08:29:00.000-04:00

here,

we must search

follow the dj

t>

Not a lone voice

2007-08-16T01:09:00.000-04:00

Mi'kmaq chief keeping wary eye on Strahl

New Indian Affairs minister remembered as Reform hardliner

Last Updated: Wednesday, August 15, 2007 | 4:45 PM AT

CBC News

A Mi'kmaq chief in Nova Scotia is wondering whether the new minister of Indian Affairs will live up to his reputation as a Reform hardliner.

Millbrook Chief Lawrence Paul described Chuck Strahl, named to the portfolio Wednesday, as a "die-hard Reformer." Strahl, 50, had been agriculture minister.

"We don't know what his policy is going to be," Paul said. "I do know that if he takes a hard line against the aboriginal people of Canada, there's going to be a lot more protests.

"In reality, the one who's running the show is Primer Minister [Stephen] Harper, and all his cabinet ministers and MPs have to kind of follow his lead. So, I guess that's where it rests at the present time."

As a Reform MP in 1999, Strahl spoke out against native fishing rights in Atlantic Canada.

His party was then asking the governing Liberals and the Supreme Court of Canada to suspend a decision upholding the rights of some First Nations to fish out of season.

Strahl, a former logging contractor, said then that the federal government should extend year-round fishing rights to non-native fishermen, too.

Paul hopes to meet with the new minister soon to talk about economic development.

A spokeswoman for Strahl said he was getting settled in his new office and was not available for comment

Fall election

2007-08-15T11:21:00.000-04:00

A man, who soon will shape the minds of our twisted, cyborg youth believes a federal election will come this fall.

I have my doubts. Watch this if you are bored.

Mercury

2007-08-15T11:20:00.000-04:00

A poison stronger than love.

Peace, order and slightly corrupt government

2007-08-15T10:52:00.000-04:00

The flies continue to swarm, delirious in the bursting stench of corruption that emanates from the putrefying legacies of two of our recent millionaire prime ministers.

Not Vic

2007-08-14T13:36:00.000-04:00

Not Vic. Chuck Strahl appears to be going to Indian Affairs

Strahl's department was also sitting on top of a cover-up involving North American's largest standardbred race track that was knowingly publishing questionable information in betting programs they sold.

If Jim Prentice leaves Indian Affairs

2007-08-14T11:05:00.001-04:00

could we see a Robert Nault-type take the helm?

Imagine Vic ?

A mother's story

2007-08-14T11:01:00.000-04:00

as in the case

former prime minister

I admire deeply

no attempt to minimize

a mother's story

[iggy remix] REVISION-V-3 Lib Conv Victory08-draft

2007-08-12T23:30:00.000-04:00

A prudent leader will save democracies from the worst, but prudent leaders will not inspire a democracy to give its best. Democratic peoples should always be looking for something more than prudence in a leader: daring, vision and — what goes with both — a willingness to risk failure. Daring leaders can be trusted as long as they give some inkling of knowing what it is to fail. They must be men of sorrow acquainted with grief, as the prophet Isaiah says, men and women who have not led charmed lives, who understand us as we really are, who have never given up hope and who know they are in politics to make their country better. These are the leaders whose judgment, even if sometimes wrong, will still prove worthy of trust.

In politics, you mean what you say, you never say what you mean

2007-08-12T11:00:00.000-04:00

So it's Sunday and there are church bells. As I continue to ponder the Riddell affair and Ottawa's mayor Larry O'Brien's criminal investigation thoughts of Grewal begin to emerge. Remember Gurmant Grewal, the B.C. Tory MP who launched a sting operation against the Liberals when the Paul Martin kingdom teetered oh so precariously? Remember the transcripts of the "negotiations" with Martin's chief of staff Tim Murphy and Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh as they tryed to seduce Grewal's budget vote?

The art of the political deal hinges on emphasizing what is understood rather than what is said so when questions arise everyone can tuck and bend the corners of truth, a sort of origami.

The transcripts tug lightly at the black curtains.

Meeting with Mr.Ujjal Dosanjh and Mr.Tim Murphy in the Confederation Building
At 1:00 PM on Tuesday May 17th, 2005

(Noise)
GG - Hello, how are you?
UD - Fine, how are you? I didn't know last night (about Belinda).
GG - No, no, you knew that.
UD - Honestly I didn't know this was.
GG - You indicated last night, I thought you knew it.
UD - I was told that someone was coming but I did not know who it was.
GG - It seems there might be some more...
UD - Those from Newfoundland are suspected.

--snip--

GG - We have to rush through because of the Question Period.
UD - Today, Question Period is at 2 PM
GG - Don't you have to prepare for it?
UD - No, I can just prepare in 5 minutes in the car.
I think Belinda has made it easier for you, because you got what you wanted.
GG - That's true. It's easier. From two perspectives it's clear. Nobody can say anything to us. You want the Parliament to work. Parliament has a shortage of Members.
UD - In fact, cabinet can be arranged right away. For the other, you don't want to lose the advantage. If you do right away, you lose the advantage of numbers. Those are the issues.
GG - Anyway, let's talk
UD - I talked to the PM moments ago. He said he is going to Regina right now and he said he will be happy to talk to you over the phone tonight or in person if you want to move. I think you should have thorough conversation with Tim.
GG - OK
UD -Tim is the Chief of Staff, it's just like talking to the Prime Minister
GG - Right.
UD - About right away, no one, cabinet right away is difficult to lose the number.
GG - I understand, on the other side what is the situation in Senate, there are rumours of many vacancies to be...
UD - There is only one in BC
GG - but more in other provinces 16 or 17, all have not been filled yet, only 6-7 filled.
UD - Some have been filled in.
GG -
(TV voice in the background)
UD - It is delayed.
GG Now number is very crucial, 151 to 151
UD - In Senate, there is a big majority
GG - Yes, that's true.
UD - I think you should actually think long term
Page 1
GG - Hu.. hu
UD - Obviously, you would only do it if it is right for you. It is always right thing for us.
GG - Yes, personally, I understand.
UD - But you will do the right thing. I will push as far as I can. At the end, I don't control those things. That is why it is important for you to meet him after the PM. He just told me now that he will talk to you after the discussion if everything is alright.
GG - Ask who?
UD - If it appears there is some understanding. If there is no understanding, there is no use to talk to him.
GG - inaudible (Punjabi name) was prepared to be a leadership candidate...for us it.. any difference because we represent the ethnic minority.
UD - That's right, it is easier for you to use the same kind of language. This is the time to keep the country together, you can't line up with the Bloc. You should go out on a high principle. Go out on high principles. In a sense people might say "inaudible" That is not a bad thing for you. Like one of your former Leaders. She was leader in your party.
GG -She was a leadership candidate, right.
UD - she was one of the leaders in the party.
UD - Did you talk to Nina?
GG - Yes, but we are not decided, we have not made up our minds yet, we are still dwindling. It depends. If Cabinet is quick we'll go ahead with it. If Cabinet takes its time we probably won't.
UD - Under this circumstance, it is difficult. Cabinet is quick
GG - A day here or there doesn't matter --very understandable.
UD - You lose the numbers
GG - You get the numbers immediately and if one goes to the Senate it might be better.
UD - Next 6 months, if one goes to Senate, you lose the numbers. This is the game of numbers. (indistinct)
GG - Yes, I agree, that's why you wanted to do it.
UD - It is not an easy thing. I wouldn't. You really have to think. My own thinking is it might be possible. Nobody will make you totally blunt promise, because that is not done in politics, usually, Cabinet right away may be possible... You might be better off for yourself, about saying all you're looking for is for your wife rather than for you cause you'll have a pension of something you can go right away...you can ask for both but that might be the only thing that might be feasible. I haven't talked to him, that's just my way of thinking... I'm talking to you for your own welfare. I think you should tell Tim what you have in your mind. They way of approaching it isn't the way it's done. Then that is not good for you. I know that you might not be ready to do it right now but you certainly be looking for a significant appointment for her, not for you. How old are you now.
GG - 47
UD - Your pension?
GG - After 8 years. At 55
UD - You will get after 8 years.
Page 2
(Tim Murphy Walks In.)

--snip--

GG - Fine, thanks.A fantastic news for you today!
TM - Ya! it cannot have been an easy decision... but I think obviously it is a good news story for us.
TM - Something is going on strange inside, so
UD - I told him, I didn't know until this morning. He called me around 9:35 or something
TM -Yeah.
GG - Hu Hu
TM - Absolutely, not surprisingly, we were sworn to secrecy. It is the first time I have been involved in politics where I have media sitting in that room, emailing me as to what is going on.
GG - Media knew it before you?
TM - Usually in this town you know everything leaks, everything leaks. It was pretty tightly held.
UD - the Pundits were sitting...laughs
TM - What's going on!
TM - As you know with this its still the balance of power hangs with the 2 independents, right.
GG - Hu..Hu
TM - Assuming Carolyn Perrish, which I think she will vote with us it will be 151 to 151
GG - No 152 to 152
TM - Well, because of pairing 151 to 151 because of Stinson and Efford. There're two independents. We need one of two to vote with us to avoid and election, unless other thing happen. Right as this point, I don't what is going to happen. My sense is that David Kilgour is unlikely to vote for us, but he is an unpredictable man. As far as I know he has been member of three parties now. And then Chuck Cadman. I think actually Chuck Cadman is an honest man. He has not made up his mind and he's goiung to wait and see

Page 3
what his riding wants and what the right thing to do is and so I truthfully think with Cadman we won't know until Thursday.
--snip--

GG - And they...always a long term-impact. This will the talk of the town, not of the town, not of the country, of the world. People will know in India, they will talk in India too, it will be a big thing for many people. So it will depend on what what we talk
UD - Have you spoken to your wife and you are speaking on behalf of both of you?
GG - Hu Hu
TM - As you may know Ujjal and I have spoken last night and again this morning and talked to the PM. And I think that the way Ujjal described it to me, and I think it's a sensible one and I'm thinking about how Ujjal came into cabinet the importance of honesty, faith and trust in the relationship and that at that one level Ujjal take risk, on an other that his faith was rewarded and there is an element of trust underlying that, obviously, and I accept that can be difficult and sometimes difficult burden to bear in politics ummm ummm because it feels sometimes like it is a career and hobby that does not operate on trust very much. That's why I wanted to come 2 reasons - one is, PM was quite happy to do this, but literally he is going to get a plane to meet the Queen, but he is prepared, depending on how the conversations go, to talk to you directly both by phone and subsequently in person as you, as we see it fit. But obviously we're obviously at a point where 2 votes don't vote with govt then the budget passes - so um 2 votes from the Conservative side of the ledger can make a difference, a significant difference. One doesn't, two do. I think that, as you say, you may have seen the PM say we are not, you know he's said it, I'm not offering and I'm making no offers. And I think that is a narrative we have to stick to it, and I don't want to make the PM a liar. That's not to say that's what we are doing, but I think it is important that we can be honest about it. But there also, we understand that those people who take risk, ought to be rewarded for the risks they take and, you know, that as you look through the process of, you know, making a difficult decision, thinking about implications for you personally and then what that means that as we get out from under this, the gold fish bowl of right now and into a calmer temperature over the summer, that then I think our flexibility to do things in that clamer period of times goes up considerably. And you know that I can help people out in transitions, you know, even in that environment, you know as someone says, I've got a comfort problem within a party I am part of, given the difficult choices facing me and that may mean I have to move to an independent status and then out of that independent status, in truth, then flexibility also increases, right? to do some things that well and independent MP can make, you know, can make a contribution that someone whose shown and stood up for a vision of the country and a personal set of beliefs that they believe that matter to them. They can do that in way, they can articulate that point of view saying hang on. I have a principled point of view that I'm bringing to the table here. I'm a person of principle. Am I being offered anything, I can say "no", right, because it's a point of principle that kind of principled stand is the kind of principled stand that people look to and say "that ought to be rewarded." Does that sound right to you?
UD - Yes it sounds right to me and then at the end, in two or three months, if both of them felt that way they want to come and join,
TM - Absolutely
UD - it will be more credible at that point for you.

Page 5
TM - Yeah, no sorry, I did not want to in any way preclude that, I mean obviously you'll have to feel what you are comfortable doing and what, where your personal space is and what both you and your wife, let me make one thing absolutely clear that we are, umm, we're a welcoming party and we will do everything we can do to be welcoming, you know obviously for us continuing to expand our base in BC and in prominent communities in this country is a political priority for us so it's a welcome mat that has a lot of nice comfy fur on it. Laughs
UD -I think what Tim is saying about trust is that most of these things do happen with trust and you have to feel comfortable with that and at the end, of course if Chief of Staff stated that certain conduct ought to be rewarded in due time that trust can be interpreted 99.9% of the time. Sometimes you can't do it because the circumstances will kill you. I told him about my conversations with the PM when I came
(Tea is served to all)
TM-Let me put one more little fact that I hope we can keep this one fact in this room. You should understand from my perspective, you know, I have two things I'm going to say--one of which is, David Peterson, in terms of Belinda Stronach. David Peterson was the conduit. DP called me on Friday and obviously we had a conversation through him as an intermediary on a basis of trust and not surprisingly, if it did not work out, then Belinda Stronach did not want to be in the position of being hurt by the discussion and so we did that on the basis of trust. Between us, it almost didn't happen, but it was on the basis of trust. Ujal Dosanjh is a crucially important minister in this government, and yet I could not tell him because I had given a promise, until today. Right? And so, that I think is lesson about two things. One of which is, we live up to our commitments and secondly this conversation no matter what happens, is something that happens with us, that is it Ok?
GG - Sure
TM - And the fact that no one knew that Belinda was doing this is proof that keep to those commitments no matter what happen. Ok. So I want you to know that and have that comfort
GG - Since there is no decision from either side, so we have to keep it at that.
TM - Absolutely.
GG - If it is positive or negative decision, whatever, we will respect it
TM - The second thing is and I want you to know this and again that remains in this room that this discussion we only have. I don't even know if Ujal knows this, there are others in your caucus who have asked “I will do this if you will do this or that or the other thing,” and we have said no, period. Right? In truth, I don't think that actually serves us or that individual well, right. Because, it has been a kind of, you know, they have asked for a reward outside of politics and I just don't think that's--the Prime Minister does not think--that's the right thing to do. I want you to know, you might say there is an element of trust in what's been happening here, but there's a reason for that, because frankly it's better for us to be honest with you, frankly it's better for someone like you to work on that basis. I don't know if you agree with that, Ujjal. I don't even know if you knew that, and I ask that you not talk to your other caucus members about that. That there, some of them are getting close to retirement or less interested in battle and are looking for a way out and we have said no to them.
GG - Hu..hu

Page 6
UD - Today in politics you don't leverage, if you do this thing, I'll do that.... it doesn't happen that way... and, out of that trust, as it grows, there are rewards. That's part of that trust relationship. As you know, it's never a bargain.
TM - There are some days I think Ujjal doesn't think it's that big a reward. But...
[Laughter]
UD - Somebody said this morning, Belinda... I said she's going to be Minister of Health...and somebody said "hey, I'm Minister of Health".
[Laughter]
GG - Another thing which will facilitate for us to talk is, if I may be blunt
TM - Absolutely
GG -..in this room. I am unnecessarily being targeted by Joe Volpe. It may be his duty to do certain things up to certain limits but beyond that, he crossed that line. He twisted the fact to the extent that he has to stick labels on me, put words in my mouth, to come to the point what he is alleging. I honestly was talking to Ujjal, I deserve an apology from him. I have stated in the committee, that I am asking people to sign letters of intent to post a bond. No one has ever gone to, for getting visitor Visa, no one has ever gone to or sent to a lawyer. No one has ever signed a bond. No one has ever paid a fee to the lawyer to make that thing happen. No one was given a cheque; money has not been a factor. Why would he go out and say that I was profiteering from it. He has put out a figure of $1.5 to 2 million.
TM - He said that in public?
GG - Yes in public, he is libel actually and I can easily sue him for that
TM - I will talk to him.
UD - What I told Gurmant is that on the Ethics issue, there is nothing we can do. It's a matter before the Ethics Commissioner.
GG - I agree.
UD - But on the other hand, if we can work something - if there is an arrangement or understanding that we arrive at, we can certainly make that part of the package.
TM - Yep
GG - For me to agree to anything that will be a prerequisite otherwise I'll look stupid...
TM - Yes, I can understand that.
GG - ...that I'm talking something and on the other hand I'm being accused of something, the Minister needs to verify the facts, if he agrees that he twisted the facts and went overboard, he crossed the line then he owes me an apology - He stated on CPAC that my office was like a cash cow. Two months have passed, not a single individual has come forward because there is no one existing who has signed any bond. The Ethics Commissioner is investigating and I am pretty sure I will be coming clean. I am confident, because I have done nothing wrong. What have I done, I have told them. And they can verify that.
TM - When are you expecting the Ethics Commissioner's Report?
GG - I don't know, but timing is important. I can not have any control. I told the Ethics Commissioner --
TM - [Inaudible]
GG - ... yeah, I know -- Judy took so long as I told the Ethics Commissioner that timing is crucial. Damage is being done in the meantime, but the damage will stop by doing the right thing and the right thing is that the Minister can withdraw his comments --he
Page 7

partially withdrawn his comments in the House. That withdrawal is so partial, it doesn't look like a withdrawal. He has issued two apologies recently; the third one can blend with the other two, it won't make a big difference, but it will at least make my way clear and my conscience clear too.
TM - Yeah...
UD - I think that can be...let me think it out loud for a moment on that score. On the rest of the understanding can be reached at. On that score, I think it would be pretty easy for --I would suggest to my colleague Joe, its pretty easy for him to say, "I have spoken to Mr. Grewal, he has explained the situation to me. I do believe that he has not received any money pursuant to any of those letters of intent for bond."
GG - And that he apologizes for making those comments. He regrets the inconvenience Caused.
UD - He regrets...
TM - It would be really nice if we could get the Ethics Commissioner to give an interim report or something else to take the cloud off, that would be helpful.
GG - They are investigating as we speak, so
TM - Yes
GM - So...
UD - The ethics issue is about the bonds, right?
GG - The ethics issue is about two things. One am I contravening any rules of Immigration? Second, that - did I take any money? So...
UD - Did you take any money?
GG - I did not take any money, which can be cleared. Contradicting any provisions of the Immigration Act, that can be determined by the Ethics Commissioner or other experts. But according to me, when people come to you and me or any other MP for asking favours visitor visas, we ask them, "are you sure the individual will go back, right"? Only then will we intervene for a visitor's visa. Whether this is a verbal commitment or a written commitment, what difference does it make? Visitor visas are intended for visitors to come and visit our country and return to the country of origin. If they have stated to me verbally or in writing, what difference does it make. Don't they tell the same thing at the embassy?
UD - I think that is an issue that we can work on.
TM - I agree.
GG - Mmmm
UD - That's a minor issue. I know it is important to you.
GG - Ya.
UD - You look silly doing this - that is an understanding
GG - We don't have much time.. if the apology...-work it out today, for example, Tomorrow I may be talking to the big guy and the road will be clear for us to make any decisions.
TM - Have you um,
UD - Both of those things happen together in sequence. There may be a little gap.
TM - Have you...
GG - Sorry ?
TM - Sorry...go ahead
Page 8
GG - No no you go ahead
TM - I was just saying, have you done or has any polling been done in your riding as to what your riding things about the need for an election, or is it much like Cadman's: 60 plus percent?
GG - Ok? So, that makes my job easier
GG -We do not have any scientific polling done. But, talking to people, even some of my own staunch Conservatives, they are double-minded OK? So to be honest my constituents, the majority of them would not look forward to an election.
TM - Right
GG - Ok? So that makes my job easier.
TM - Ya
GG - I have sent my householder...that will come in due course to confirm what I'm observing at the moment.
TM - Right
GG - My perception would be confirmed. On the other hand we have mixed reaction... some people say "get them out" and they don't deserve 'blah blah blah' so you use the wording, you know, and the others say 'no, no, no' don't do it.
TM - My guess is your householder will probably bias towards wanting an election because people who are angry are more likely to send a reply
GG - Right. I agree
UD - I think you should really focus on - my sense usually is and Tim correct me if I'm wrong, that much of the discussion is carried on generally with you, and then when you see the big guy that we are close to an understanding.
TM - Ya, that's right. The Belinda thing was all done [inaudible]
GG - Mmmmm
UD - You should chat with him, figure out where you're at
GG - Ok
TM - Let me ask you this
UD - And if you are inclided to then do it and you say you will do it
TM - Can I ask you - how free are you in talking to Joe Volpe in trying to clear this hurdle out of the way. How much, if anything can I tell him?
GG - You can tell Joe Volpe that look, Joe was my friend, we were working together in the gym almost every single day in the past. If I had something to do in the party, I did ask him sometimes - we were going so well. I had his private number, as well at one time.
TM - Ya
GG - The problem is that after this bump in our relationship, he is doing it for one single reason, that the candidate who is running against me from your side is his personal friend. Joe Sukh Dhaliwal, Joe stayed out of 36 days campaign, 6 days in Surrey at his residence. Joe told me he was feeling like home, that they had given him so much warm welcome. Okay? Then a few comments were made during the campaign which are on the record, for example, Judy Sgro came there twice during the campaign, and she said, for any immigration work to go to Suhk Dhaliwal, not to Gurmant Grewal. If a minister states that on the record, it could be potentially harmful for her. Second, she was given some money, people are bragging about it - Sukh's people - [inaudible] thousand dollars which she didn't report anywhere, ok?
TM - RightPage 9
GG - I told Judy that I knew, and she should stop saying that. If I had used another avenue to make the same statement, she would have been in trouble.
TM - Right, right
GG - Ah thirdly, for this visa thing. He's simply exaggerating in the Indo-Canadian media more than anywhere else because of his relationship with him.
TM – rightUD I think what Tim was asking you is can he talk Joe about the apology
GG - I was coming, so if you tell him, look in knowing him and knowing the purpose, let's forget the purpose, Gurmant thinks that we can come back to normal, but I can take very serious offence to Volpe's false statements being repeated continually. He can take an action with the Ethics Commissioner that can be completed soon. But my conversation with you is that he must apologize and I will not accept less than that. Otherwise I am going to take legal action against him. My party is pushing for that. He has stated that I have asked people to sign bonds personally on my name, or my party's name or on the Leader's name. He has said it in the House. Either he can prove it or he can pay the price for it. He has said my office is a cash cow., He has to prove it or he will be liable. If he says I was profiteering from it, he is liable. As he said, that I have made $1.5 or 2 million dollars out of it, which I did not - he is liable for that. I can sue him for these slanderous and defamation.
UD - You get angry about it don't you? I have another question that Tim was asking you. When he's talking to Joe, he has to then tell Joe, why he is talking to Joe. How much can he tell Joe about this conversation?
GG - No don't tell him anything, please
TM - That will be a challenge
GG - I believe that this information remain here, but. But..
UD - Then we only to talk to him once this decision is made, before you go out.
GG - No, no, that will not be the right thing to do, I tell you why. When I am going out and making the statement, this thing has to be clear - reasonably well in advance.
UD - It will be.
GG - Let me answer this - what you can tell him is that look something is happening and we want you to apologize, issue an apology, probably in the House or in writing. I want it in writing but he can also do it in the House with the understanding that something is happening and if it too much, then I will take legal action and it will jeopardize what we are doing.
UD - May I say this? I never bargain about these things, you guys. I am not a good negotiator. But that we would be able to prevail upon him to do that if we know we have an understanding and you're coming. Then I think Tim or I or anyone else will talk to him and say do this, we need it.
TM - Yeah
UD - He'll do it, because there is a follow-up get together and say 'Joe we need it' and he'll do it before you announce.
GG - Let me put it this way,
UD - There will have to be an understanding in place before we do it.
GG - I understand your point of view, my viewpoint is that we are here together and taking the risk, we're taking the risk, I am here for the reason, Ok? So second, if we have to get that thing out of it and it won't have any side effect or it does not negatively impact
--snip--

TM - Sorry, I'm just going to be very clear, what I 'm proposing is one of two things - there is one or two ways to go. One of them is you do what essentially you need to do, and we do what we need...we come to an agreement based on something is going to happen, based on the fact that you know, and I know that Ujjal knows something is going to happen. I go to Joe Volpe and I say "don't ask me why, but at 10:30 am tomorrow you're issuing this statement.
GG - That's fine.
TM - But, I do that, I force him to, based on the fact that we have a deal, if I don't have what I am saying is the best I can get him to is to say "I'm not gong to say anything more, people say excessive things, I'll wait for the Ethics Commissioner and be bound by the results' So those are the only....
--snip--

TM - "..no deals." So I think we should, I know we're shorthanding you here, but let's not because I don't think it's good for either of us. But I think we all understand what we are talking about..

UD I think that suits us. Do you want to spell it out. Are you happy with the kind of understanding Tim has given you?
Page 12
GG - If you ask about happy, no, but I do understand what he is saying. Happy I will be when I know, not exactly but some sort of nature of what kind of things will happen after that -- what the time frame, what will happen, those kind of things you know. I will sit not with the Independents for very long then it will be in my best interest to be there where I wanted to be, ok?
TM - Ya
GG - It will be in your best interest too.
TM - Ya
GG - Sitting independently, neither I'm yours or I'm theirs, I don't think that I will stay there comfortably.
TM - But you know and that makes sense
UD - Actually, Belinda has given you an opportunity to not go independently, if you choose
GG - Ya, exactly, if we have to do it, lets do it properly
UD - I don't have a problem
GG - I don't want to do anything half-heartedly. I have not done so ever and I won't do it.
TM -Ya that's fair.
UD -That's fair. I think Belinda has opened that door, because you are going to do it without Belinda. The other scenario for your credibility would have been better.
GG - Tim, I was telling Ujjal that Belinda being leadership candidate gave you some high profile. My situation, two of us are the only Sikh people, Sikh's are very active, ethnic communities - BC-wise, Ontario-wise..it will have an impact on other ridings too.
TM - Yes I hear you... I know that a little bit.
GG - The benefit is much much much different than Belinda
TM - Yes, I agree with you. I know that a little bit and you may not know this and I'm not even sure UD knew but when I used to be a liberal party organizer in my history-and in 1990 in the leadership for our party between Martin and Cretien and I mean obviously one of the communities that was very active was the Sikh community and I got to know a little bit about the connections that were across the county in the community. So I accept what you're saying
GG -If I go anywhere in Canada and they talk about us, people will give you some reflection (talk over)
UD-Maybe you can talk, you want me to leave for a few minutes
TM - No that doesn't, it's up to you (talk over)
UD - He wants things spelled out but it's pretty difficult to do
GG - I will not talk with the Big Boss like that, but Tim can. Ujjal I'm contradicting your advice a little bit OK? The understanding that, if possible, my wife would be the preference for that adjustment, possibly in the Senate. So that's the understanding, but Ujjal told me not to mention it like this. I understand why he is doing that. That's nothing, but clarity is always better, it doesn't harm any - either of us
TM - That's right
GG With you that understanding - how you talk and how you communicate will be up to you. I don't want to be either left in the dark or perceiving something which may not

Page 13
be the situation actually. So what we know what we are doing, where we are - it makes it more comfortable to say yes or no.
TM - And for you?
GG - For me, whatever you think is reasonably appropriate. I may be eligible for a pension soon, in about 8 years/9years. This is something that my investor has been informed of (inaudible) since I got elected, until recently, so that gives you some indication.

TM-Well I have to - there is a challenge around the Senate, per se that is not to say other options are not possible. I mean in truth we have a single BC vacancy with someone potentially appointed and we don't literally have a vacancy after that for a year and a half I think (UD..) in that range, anyways it's Jack Austin, the next retiree, I think, and our problem is that we have already talked to someone about the existing vacancy, we have not appointed the person because it felt a little unseemly to do so when literally the government could fall, it just felt like the wrong time so we did not proceed, but it's... Now I understand what you are saying in terms of wanting some sense of security for your wife and that is understandable. So that - so security is the kind of thing you can look at.
GG - I do not what to be rude or anything, but I thought it is a sense of security. It could be a question in my decision making
TM - No, I understand
UD - (inaudible) That will be considered
TM - I understand what you are saying, security matters.
GG -The reason is - is that in my part we have only two seats ethnic minority, women from B.C. So the work I have done I have not done I have not burned any bridges in my party. My party does appreciate the work I have done. My leader does appreciate, he took the bullet for me on this cases which normally the leaders don't. You know that
TM - Ya
GG In Joe Volpe's case, my leader told me to be quiet and he'll take the bullet for me and he did. It normally doesn't happen that way. So I'm having a brighter future, if we have a government you know, that - so I think that if I'm doing it then it's a kind offer but I must be accomplishing a bit where I stay, if I stay where I am. So if I cross the floor then have some sense of permanent/(equivalent) security
TM - Yes
GG - Anyways, so we'll leave it there.
UD - His wife is not going to win the next seat if she's a Liberal
TM - Yeah, No. I understand that.
GG -I may, she may not.
TM - Ya
GG - If I'm a Liberal in my riding I will win easily.
UD - If he decides to run, if he decides to run.
TM - Yes
GG - Let's say, hypothetically, if I'm in cabinet and I'm running as a Liberal in the next election - not a problem.
TM - Right
GG - Anyways, so we'll leave it there
TM - Ok
Page 14
GG - I'll leave it there. I'll leave it up to you, but I think that Joe Volpe thing needs time sensitive I should say
TM - I understand
GG If it done sooner than tomorrow when we are, if we were to make an announcement tomorrow, I'm prepared because it is done the day before.
UD - So you want to talk with - are you comfortable with what Tim has said to you then?
GG - What's that ?
YD - You agree security matters, he agrees security matters
GG - Right, we can resolve that
UD - That will be resolved subsequently
GG - You see, trust is one thing but knowing what we are trusting is another thing. We may have to trust not to get this information out. We agree. For the rewarding , trust is there, but we have to be clear what we are trusting
TM - Right
--snip---

Could Harper be asked, under oath, about $50k pay off?

2007-08-10T13:46:00.000-04:00

PM enjoys no privilege in candidacy case: expert; Court to hear claim today that Harper needn't testify

Tim Naumetz, OTTAWA CITIZEN, Aug. 10, 2007

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has no legal ground to claim parliamentary privilege prevents him from being compelled to testify in a libel action he faces from a former Conservative over the past federal election, says an expert on parliamentary rules.

A court hearing is scheduled today where Mr. Harper's legal counsel will argue the prime minister cannot be forced to answer questions or swear testimony in the lawsuit by Ottawa lawyer Alan Riddell.

The hearing is the latest in a string of court arguments and sworn examinations sparked by Mr. Riddell's claim that Mr. Harper and Conservative party president Don Plett defamed him over his decision to step aside as an election candidate at the party's request.

Mr. Riddell reached an agreement with the party to give up his quest for the nomination in Ottawa South as long as the Conservatives compensated him for about $50,000 in costs associated with his nomination campaign and successful appeals of earlier party decisions to disqualify him as a candidate.

Mr. Riddell, who lost a bid to win the riding as a Conservative in the 2004 election, gave in to party requests that he step aside in favour of star candidate Allan Cutler, a former public servant whose internal complaints about questionable contracts led to a public furore and an inquiry into the sponsorship scandal.

But after Mr. Riddell publicly confirmed he had agreed to step aside, Mr. Harper and Mr. Plett told reporters there was no agreement between the party and Mr. Riddell.

Superior Court Justice Denis Power earlier this year ruled there was an agreement, and said the party's claim that Mr. Riddell had breached an implicit confidentiality clause did not nullify the agreement.

Despite the favourable court ruling for Mr. Riddell, the prime minister and the party have so far failed to reach an out-of-court settlement with Mr. Riddell, and Mr. Harper instead plans to argue he cannot be compelled to answer Mr. Riddell's allegations directly while Parliament is in session.

But parliamentary expert Joe Maingot, whose book on the subject of parliamentary privilege has become a reference text for parliamentarians as well as lawyers, says the protection is not available to MPs who are being sued or are part of a legal action.

"A member is elected to serve in Parliament," Mr. Maingot said. "What he says and does in Parliament is immune. Outside, he's like everybody else."

Mr. Maingot said parliamentary privilege protects only sitting MPs from being forced to testify as witnesses in cases involving someone else.

Remembering Princess Tona Tomah

2007-08-09T21:44:00.000-04:00

August 9, 2007

Remembering the full life of Princess Tona Tomah

By GREG OLIVER - Producer, SLAM! Wrestling

Princess Tona Tomah
- photo by Bill Mobley, courtesy Bob Leonard

Amid the turmoil of late June, and the major media coverage of Chris Benoit's horrible actions, the passing of woman wrestler Princess Tona Tomah in Phoenix received little attention. It's unfortunate because she lived a full, fascinating life.

One of the few legitimate Native American professional wrestlers, Tomah toured the continent, dabbled in boxing, helped promote, and raised a gaggle of kids through a series of marriages. She died June 15, 2007, at the age of 72.

Born Mercedes Waukago on June 5, 1935 on the Whitearth Indian Reservation in Minnesota, she followed a sister into athletics and wrestling, working on the carnival circuit at the age of 14, taking on all-comers: men, women, and even de-clawed baboons.

According to her youngest son, Piper Carle, his mother desired more. "She wasn't all that enthused about living on a reservation. She wanted bigger and better," he told SLAM! Wrestling.

In the 1950s, there was only one man who controlled women's wrestling -- Billy Wolfe, of Columbus, Ohio. Not only did Tomah seek out Wolfe for training, she was also, apparently, married to him for a short while. She was 18, and he was in his 60s, said her son. "I know they separated because of his indiscretions. He had affairs on her, and stuff like that. That was the parting of the ways. She was his protégé," he said.

Taking advantage of her heritage was a natural. Princess Tona Tomah would enter the ring in a full Indian headdress, and her war cry would get the crowd going. "She had the whole outfit," said occasional opponent Laura Martinez. The name "Tomah" is in reference to Tomah, Wisconsin.

Usually a babyface, when she performed on a reservation, her opponent would be a target of vitrol; in her autobiography, Penny Banner tells about almost being scalped at such a show when she took on Tomah. "The fans liked her. They thought she was real good," said Martinez.

"Princess Tomah is a Chippewa Indian who is fast heading for feminine wrestling fame. This 22-year-old Indian girl was born on a northern-Minnesota reservation," reported the Tuscon Daily Citizen in 1960 (obviously having been worked on her age).

Princess Tona Tomah was a pioneer during a trip north to the Stampede Wrestling promotion. "Tona was a good solid hand. She had plenty of fire, and was a good gate attraction, especially with First Nations folks as she was about the first Indian girl wrestler to work here," recalled former Stampede promoter and photographer Bob Leonard. "I recall her having her two very young kids on tour with her here, and that was quite a handful for her, but she seemed to really enjoy having them along."

Ah yes, the children.

Even her son, Piper, can't exactly pinpoint the number of marriages his mother had. But he can list off his siblings:

The first born was Robin Michel Carle; he is the son of Tomah and Canadian midget wrestler Little Beaver (Lionel Giroux).
The second son was Chip Arthur Reed Carle, and his father was a model.
The third was Lionel Ernest Carle, and his father is wrestler Jerry London (Jerry Aitken) from Hamilton, Ontario.
Tomah was predeceased by her daughter, Tona Tomah Illa, who died October 14, 2005 in Scottsdale, Ariz., at the age of 41. She contracted hepatitis, got sick, and complications from pneumonia and the infection killed her, said her half-brother, Piper.
The fourth son, and last child, was Piper Carle, born in 1965.

In the obituary in the Phoenix newspaper, Piper, Tona Tomah Illa and her daughter -- Tomah's granddaughter -- Javette Goostree are the only survivors listed. Piper adhered his mother's wish not to list her "disrespectful" offspring.

"She had a hard life and a lot of bumps. She raised five kids singlehandedly and she never picked up a straw, a needle, a pipe. She wasn't a drug addict. She didn't smoke cigarettes. She was a good mother," insisted Piper, who quit his job as a carpenter to be his mother's caretaker in her final months.

Much of Princess Tona Tomah's life was centered around Arizona, where she found a home and influenced many people. She was involved in the Native American community, helping raise money for the Warrior Boxing Club. For a fundraiser, she even got in the ring after 25 years to box again to raise money. According to Piper, his mother was in the first sanctioned women's boxing match in Arizona, at Phoenix's Exhibit Plaza. "That was in six rounds, and she won by unanimous decision. My mom had boxed 13 men before she was allowed to box women legally."

At the West Side Athletic Club in the 1960s, she helped Eddie Sullivan get into pro wrestling, and knew Wayne Coleman before he was ever Superstar Graham. Betty Clarke, who became a pro wrestler, was a babysitter for Tomah at one point.

Another was "Big" Bill Anderson, who would go on to help train wrestlers like Ultimate Warrior and Louie Spicolli. "I first met Tona in 1973 while I was training and working for Kurt Von Steiger as a ring announcer," said Anderson. "She was around every promotion that came into Phoenix for the next 30 years. The wrestling business was in her blood, and she couldn't stay away from shows."

According to Arizona historian and former wrestler Dale Pierce, Tomah was around Phoenix's Madison Square Garden all the time, and ran some wrestling shows of her own in the mid-1980s. She would often help out at WWF shows in town, shepherding the ring when necessary or working the door.

"Tomah knew numerous shoot moves," said Pierce. "She taught me and several others a front facelock which, fortunately, I only had to use once in a bout. This was when a new ref jumped in the ring on me on promoter's orders and was wearing street clothes. I thought he was a mark."

"She was a tough woman," confirmed Anderson. "Many male wrestlers were afraid to anger her. Thankfully, we always were very friendly with one another."

Another friendship was with the late Dr. Jerry Graham, said Pierce. Arizona lore tells of a time where she and Graham were either arrested or barely escaped arrest when they were drunk and decided to take target practice on the lights of a giant cross on a church in Utah.

Tomah's career would down in the 1960s, and she was involved in law enforcement for years, as well as keeping up with her passion for boxing and wrestling. In 1993, she was honored by her peers in the Ladies International Wrestling Association (LIWA) in Las Vegas.

For the last 20 years, "she was content with herself," said Piper Carle. "She pretty much lived by herself. Her other sons would kind of come in and out, back and forth."

A bad car wreck disabled Tomah. "The last few months, she couldn't walk anymore, so she was homebound. I quit my job and became her home healthcare provider. She was a diabetic for over 40 years too," said Piper.

"My mom pretty much knew she was passing away. Once she couldn't walk after being that physical all those years, it took her will to live, it seemed to me. And when her only daughter, the only one she really wanted, died, there wasn't a whole lot for her."

Greg Oliver founded SLAM! Wrestling with John Powell way back in 1996, and has been writing about pro wrestling since 1985. His third book The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame: The Heels (with Steven Johnson) has just come out from ECW Press, complimenting The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame: The Tag Teams (also with Johnson) and The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame: The Canadians. Order them all from the SLAM! Wrestling Store. He can be emailed at goliver@canoemail.com.

Terry Kilrea and Allan Riddell

2007-08-09T21:09:00.000-04:00

Allan Riddell has sued Mr. Harper and Don Plett, the president of the Conservative party, over their claims in November 2005 there was no agreement between Mr. Riddell and the party for him to step aside to let Mr. Cutler run in the campaign that fall.

The agreement, which a Superior Court judge ruled last year had been reached between Mr. Riddell and the Conservatives, included a promise that Mr. Riddell would be compensated for expenses he incurred while campaigning for the Conservative nomination in Ottawa South.

But the Conservative party claims the agreement also included an unstated term of confidentiality, which it says Mr. Riddell breached when he publicly disclosed its existence.

Tim Naumetz, Ottawa Citizen, May 16, 2007

Are there any similarities with that other one that has attracted a police investigation?

Larry O'Brien eaten by history

2007-08-09T15:16:00.000-04:00

Oh Larry, how could it have gone so wrong? You who rode the landslide wave to the big chair with the fancy necklace, the naked-headed sorcerer who conjured Calian from thin air.

And now you are under police investigation.

I met Larry a couple of times while working for the Ottawa Sun covering the mayoral race. Larry once faked he head butted me, ala Zidane. I was asking him to clarify a statement he made during the first candidate's debate.

We don't give them a hand (out), we give them something else, he had said referring to the beggars who crawl out of the gutters and scurry about city sidewalks hand cupped for rain.

"What's that something else?" I asked and asked again, before the municipal debate on homelessness.

And then he fake head butted me.

But now there are emails, courtesy of the Ottawa Citizen’s Gary Dimmock.

“After a face-to-face meeting with Larry O'Brien in July, Terry Kilrea, a mayoral candidate at the time, clearly thought he had been offered help in getting a federal position that could lead to him quitting the race.
Days after that meeting with Mr. O'Brien, Mr. Kilrea e-mailed his one-time rival, asking, "Anything new?"
Mr. O'Brien replied: "No. I like the fuss about light rail though. How did it go with John last night?"
Mr. Kilrea replied, saying he never got a call, referring to one he expected from John Baird, then the federal Treasury Board president.
The next e-mail, sent from Mr. O'Brien's BlackBerry account, said: "i will get a hold of him next week."
A few hours later, Mr. Kilrea advised: "John and I are meeting tomorrow afternoon."
The mayor responded: "Great!!!!!!! Good luck."
This exchange happened days after a July meeting at an outdoor cafe at 700 Sussex Dr. Mr. Kilrea has insisted in a sworn affidavit that at that meeting, Mr. O'Brien offered to cover his campaign expenses if he dropped out of the race.”
OTTAWA CITIZEN May 23, 2007

Hmm.

And then there is this from Dimmock again.

“Ontario Provincial Police detectives investigating Mayor Larry O'Brien have been told that Heather Tessier, his executive assistant and niece, telephoned a key witness and suggested that he should forget certain conversations when talking to police.
The alleged call from the mayor's assistant came a few days before the witness was to be interviewed by Det. Sgt.
Brian Mason of the OPP anti-rackets squad. The witness later agreed to a taped police interview, in which he described the alleged telephone call.
Ms. Tessier has told the Citizen that she has been advised not to comment on the story. Det. Sgt. Mason also declined to comment.
Ms. Tessier, like many others, has been interviewed by police investigating allegations by Terry Kilrea that Mr. O'Brien offered to cover his campaign expenses and help him seek an appointment to the National Parole Board if Mr. Kilrea dropped out of last fall's mayoral race.
In a search warrant dated May 29, which authorized police to seize e-mails from a private residence, Det. Sgt. Mason noted that he was looking for the messages as potential evidence in a criminal case.
The detective cited two suspected offences under Section 125 of the Criminal Code: Influencing or negotiating appointments or dealing in offices. The search warrant specifies that police are investigating whether: "... Larry O'Brien, between the 01st of July 2006 and the 31st of August 2006 did in the expectation of a benefit of $30,000 solicit the resignation of Terry Kilrea from the City of Ottawa Mayoral race of 2006 contrary to section 125 (b) of the Criminal Code." The warrant also outlines the police theory for another suspected offence under investigation: "That Larry O'Brien, between the 01st of July 2006 and the 31st of August 2006 did procure to be given to Terry Kilrea a reward of an appointment to the National Parole Board as consideration for the cooperation by Terry Kilrea to withdraw from the 2006 City of Ottawa Mayoral race which would improve Larry O'Brien's chances of winning the election contrary to section 125 (a) of the Criminal Code." A copy of the search warrant shows that police were searching for a record of electronic correspondence from Ms. Tessier, among others. ?
OTTAWA CITIZEN, June 21, 2007

O'Brien, Kilrea, Baird, who else will this tale give us?

2007-08-03T13:44:00.000-04:00

wow. the whole world can read me.