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Posted by Scott Tribe on October 14, 2010, at 8:00 am |
You might remember Abousfian Abdelrazik, a Canadian citizen who was detained in Sudan on terrorism suspicions, who was then released by the Sudanese when they could find no basis for the charge. The Harper government then tried to keep him out of Canada, claiming he was dangerous (but doing so while they allowed him to take refuge in the Canadian Embassy). A judge would have none of it, and forced the government to allow him to return home. Mr. Abdelrazik understandably decided to sue the government – in this case, 27 million $ for his (mis)treatment. The Conservative government has decided to dig in and claim they owe Mr. [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on September 23, 2010, at 7:56 am |
Briefly this AM, and as a short follow up to Impolitical’s thoughts on Canada possibly losing out on the rotating UN Security Council seat up for election, one of the reasons I’ve read that might cost Canada votes – and possibly the seat – was the fact several nations didn’t think Harper should have skipping out on the speeches at the UN over climate change, and questioned Canada’s commitment to tackling serious issues. As you might recall, Harper chose instead to spend part of his time at a Tim Horton’s donut shop, and sent Environment Minister Jim Prentice instead (as I recall, he was at Timmy’s the same day [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on September 1, 2010, at 4:29 pm |
Not to steal Galloping Beaver’s thunder, but I think this bears repeating:
Abousfian Abdelrazik, a Montreal man who was stranded in Sudan for six years, has been given the green light to sue the federal government and Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon. In a written ruling released on Monday, the Federal Court gave Abdelrazik the right to proceed with the lawsuit, which is seeking $27 million in damages…
and a bit more:
“The government was arguing that individuals could not sue for torture and they were also arguing that there was no legal duty on the Government of Canada to protect Canadians detained abroad..”
So apparently, the [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on August 23, 2010, at 10:36 am |
Just an aside on the Australian general election that took place over the last few days. Australia’s electoral setup is a modified Westminster-parliamentary system similar to Canada’s (the main difference being they use preferred ballot or Instant Runoff voting to elect their lower house, and Single-Transferable Vote to elect their Senate). The election has resulted in a “hung Parliament”, or a minority Parliament – the first since World War II. The battle is between the Labor Party and the conservative Coalition.
What’s that? A coalition you say?
A coalition of 4 parties actually. It’s led by the Liberal Party (which is not very “liberal”; think of it in the [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on July 12, 2010, at 12:49 pm |
A few things today:
The Sun Media chain, apparently not content with its one loathsome editorial on the G-G, decided to engage in an almost similar loathsome one on Omar Khadr today (I’d rather link to my progressive colleague Pogge then directly to it). Kory Teneycke has been rather bored, it appears, and decided to dally in the editorials for a couple of days.
Speaking of macabre, this fits the definition nicely too:
Alligator bites off man’s hand in Florida canal
Florida wildlife officials say a 10-foot (3-meter) alligator bit off a man’s hand while he was swimming in a canal with friends..Officials managed to catch the gator and [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on July 6, 2010, at 11:41 am |
So the PRIDE Toronto parade is over for another year. The topic of controversy again this year was whether or not QuAIA (Queers Against Israeli Apartheid) should be allowed to march into the parade or not. First, they were disbarred; then after considerable pressure, they were reinstated, much to the dismay of some folks – a lot of them who happen to be Toronto mayor candidates (more on that later).
The subject of Israel and Palestine is a hot potato topic I don’t wade into that often, because like the abortion debate, there is often no seemingly middle ground between the 2 sides of the issue. It is polarized [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on June 23, 2010, at 10:05 am |
No doubt many of you have seen this today, where in an exclusive TV interview with CBC, the director of CSIS levels serious accusations that a couple of cabinet ministers in provincial governments and perhaps in BC’s municipal governments are suspected being in the control of “foreign governments”.
I find the public timing of this declaration odd: first off, why would CSIS publicly admit they were suspicious of this and be so specific about where they were looking for Manchurian candidates? Doesn’t that alert those folks CSIS is watching them/investigating them and compromise the investigation? Also, I’m pretty sure that the Prime Minister and/or the Cabinet would have to [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on June 17, 2010, at 12:47 pm |
On this particular day, it’s the Economist’s editors who decide to ask the question about what Harper was thinking about when he put together the Billion Dollar Boondoggle known as the G8/G20 Meetings. Rather stern stuff here:
A loonie boondoggle: Ostentation in a time of austerity
…The prime minister has become the butt of jokes for commissioning an artificial lake, complete with mock canoes and recordings of the call of the loon, for the G20 summit’s media centre—which sits just yards from the real Lake Ontario. In Muskoka taxpayers are on the hook for a refurbished steamboat that won’t even float until the summit is over, and new outdoor [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on June 16, 2010, at 1:43 pm |
Random thought #1: Maybe it’s just me, but it looks to me to be a tad paranoid to be ripping out trees, saplings, bushes or any other random plant because the security units for the G8/G20 summit are afraid branches will be used as weapons by protesters. All of this tree cutting is presumably factored into part of the Billion Dollar Budget for this event. Hopefully the tree-replacing as well.
Random Thought #2: The Liberals and Ignatieff released their foreign policy platform yesterday afternoon. My own impression of it? It seems to me that Ignatieff’s foreign policy stances are definitely to the right of past Liberal leaders – [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on June 3, 2010, at 1:18 pm |
No surprise that Harper would do so; he’s done it before where he talks about some aspect of domestic politics while he’s abroad. I guess he feels that everyone is watching his trip, so they’ll be paying more attention. Today, in the UK, the talk arose of coalition government there, and the parallels between that scenario and what could play out here.
Harper was today asked about coalition governments; specifically about the parallels between what has happened in the UK, withe the recent coalition government agreement with the Liberal Democrats and the Conservative Party, and what could occur in Canada. His answer was this: “Losers don’t get to [...]
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