All entries by this author

Strange gifts from Santa: HST in Ontario and BC and Afghan “detainee-abuse” testimony in Ottawa

Dec 9th, 2009 | By | Category: In Brief

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2009. With Santa just starting to pack his sleigh up at the melting North Pole, only a few will be relieved to read “Ontario passes bill to create HST … Harmonized 13-per-cent tax to take effect July 1.” (Or “HST bill passes, 13% tax starts July 1 … BC expected to follow […]



Remembrance of coalitions passed … and the Canadian rebellion tradition

Dec 6th, 2009 | By | Category: In Brief

TORONTO. SUNDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2009. Yesterday marked the 172nd anniversary of William Lyon Mackenzie’s ill-fated (and no doubt somewhat comic-operetta) march down Yonge Street in a much earlier incarnation of this city – the height, as it were, of the Upper Canadian Rebellion of 1837. On a perhaps vaguely related but much more recent wave […]



Has British empire risen again in new climate-change Commonwealth summit at Trinidad and Tobago?

Nov 30th, 2009 | By | Category: In Brief

TORONTO, CANADA. NOVEMBER 30, 2009. In this city once known as “the citadel of British sentiment in America,” our current resident Ontario historian Randall White has prepared a short but sweet report on this past weekend’s Commonwealth summit in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. CLICK HERE for the full sweep of his commentary, “Commonwealth’s […]



Edge-city suburbs can run dark and deep … jealous husband guilty in Greater Toronto double murder

Nov 27th, 2009 | By | Category: In Brief

On Wednesday, November 25, 2009 a jury of his peers convicted Chris Little of Markham, Ontario of the double murder of his ex-wife, Julie Crocker, and Paula Menendez, the ex-wife of Julie Crocker’s lover, radio sportscaster Rick Ralph, on February 12, 2007.  The sentence will be officially pronounced today. But it must at least be […]



“Canada Handed Over Afghans for Torture” – what is Richard Colvin doing if he isn’t trying to tell the truth?

Nov 20th, 2009 | By | Category: In Brief

The broad Canadian public finally caught up with diplomat Richard Colvin’s story about how “Canada Handed Over Afghans for Torture” this past Wednesday, November 18, when he testified before a Canadian House of Commons committee in Ottawa. But the crux of his testimony has been available since the middle of October, when his affidavit for […]



Obama and the emperor: was he really bowing to Okinawa?

Nov 17th, 2009 | By | Category: In Brief

The usual suspects inside the USA today are complaining about President Barack Obama, again. This time it’s over his bowing to the emperor of Japan this past weekend. “‘Maybe he thought it would play well in Japan. But it’s not appropriate for an American president to bow to a foreign one,’ said conservative pundit William […]



Jason Kenney’s new citizenship guide – are some Canadians today more equal than others?

Nov 14th, 2009 | By | Category: In Brief

Canada’s Conservative minority government has just introduced a new guide for prospective new Canadian citizens. The person responsible for this quite ideologically charged political document is Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney. And our always controversial Citizen X thinks its essential subtext is that some Canadians really are more equal than others. How else, Citizen […]



Waiting progressively for the next federal by-elections in Canada : Donolo, Byers, and Iggy republic?

Nov 8th, 2009 | By | Category: In Brief

So there actually will be four Canadian federal by-elections tomorrow, Monday, November 9 – in two ridings in Quebec (Hochelaga and Montmagny—L’Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup), and one each in British Columbia (New Westminster—Coquitlam) and Nova Scotia (Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley). It would be quite surprising if the Liberal Party of Canada won in any of these ridings, based on its […]



Trial date put off again in mysterious Bruce Peninsula case

Nov 4th, 2009 | By | Category: In Brief

Dr. Henry Janssen was found shot to death in his red Chevy pickup truck, on Scenic Caves Road, in Ontario’s idyllic Bruce Peninsula community of Jackson’s Cove, just after 9 PM on January 22, 2008. Only two days later his friend and neighbour, retired corporate executive Allan Wayne Powney, was charged with his murder. Powney […]



Life in jail for Bandidos biker killers in Southwestern Ontario

Nov 1st, 2009 | By | Category: In Brief

The case of the “worst mass murder in Ontario history” that our roving reporter, Citizen X, first wrote about in the middle of April 2006 has now concluded, at the end of October 2009. It finally solves the late-winter massacre of eight men involved in the Toronto chapter of the Bandidos biker gang, in the […]