In Brief

G20 diary 2010 .. police finally go overboard .. new global village leaders take small step ahead, maybe?

Jun 28th, 2010 | By | Category: In Brief

TORONTO. SUNDAY, JUNE 27, 2010. 11:15 PM ET. Customary Sunday dinner guests begged off this evening. They live just outside the G20 security zone downtown, and have to dig their car out of an alleyway. They did not want to confront the too many police on the streets near their house, who often seemed to […]



G20 diary 2010 .. “What you guys are doing, it’s breaking my heart”

Jun 27th, 2010 | By | Category: In Brief

TORONTO. SUNDAY, JUNE 27, 2010. 12:30 AM ET. Now that darkness has descended on the city, the mood about the G20 protest that suddenly turned violent yesterday afternoon has shifted somewhat. My own feelings, to some degree at least, have shifted somewhat too. A Canadian Press report captures key features of what I saw on […]



G20 diary 2010 .. black bloc protesters just politically mindless thugs

Jun 26th, 2010 | By | Category: In Brief

TORONTO. SATURDAY JUNE 26, 2010. 5 PM ET. There is so much local reporting on the G8/G20 meetings in this region of the world right now. The online edition of the Toronto Star, eg, has been running a good live blog on the hardworking journalists’ view from the streets, as it were – first in […]



Into the hot season 2010 .. with Edison Chen’s comeback in Shanghai .. and the “Peterporn” scandal in Indonesia

Jun 22nd, 2010 | By | Category: In Brief

As promised, we are marking the official launch of summer in this northern land of lakes and forests – and too much unfortunate flooding in two prairie provinces – with an update on the 2008 naughty pictures of born-in-Canada Chinese entertainer Edison Chen: and a parallel report on the alleged naughty videos of the Edison […]



Happy summer holidays Canadian House of Commons .. goodbye to all that British monarchy, etc, etc, etc ..

Jun 17th, 2010 | By | Category: In Brief

[UPDATED JANUARY 31, 2011, JULY 24, 2012]. I have been asked by the editors to jot down a few quick words of au revoir to the Canadian House of Commons, which is  “preparing to rise today for its summer break”: (1) THE LATEST EKOS POLL also unveiled today shows, for cross-Canada popular vote (rounded to […]



Afghan documents deal at last .. NDP may have a point, but .. (and but again?)

Jun 16th, 2010 | By | Category: In Brief

[UPDATED BELOW – JUNE 16, 1:45 PM; JUNE 18, 2:40 PM]. So the crazed prospect that there just might be a snap Canadian federal election, triggered by some ultimate failure to agree on managing Afghan detainee documents, among the four political parties currently represented in Parliament, seems to have at least almost ended. We speculated […]



What if there was a snap Canadian federal election over Afghan docs .. and the Harper Cons pulled a Rob Green?

Jun 13th, 2010 | By | Category: In Brief

SUNDAY, JUNE 13, 2010. 1:15 AM. [UPDATED JUNE 14 BELOW.]  A few of us came into the office on a Saturday night, to catch up on some World Cup TV, far from the madding crowds at home. One of us was also catching up  on the latest Afghan detainee documents developments in the alleged nations’ […]



Yes We Naoto Kan – Japan’s new PM (“a social progressive and a fiscal hawk”) will be raising taxes

Jun 11th, 2010 | By | Category: In Brief

Japan, which still has either the second or third largest economy in the world (depending on exactly how you measure these things) is back in the news. And its reappearance seems vaguely pregnant with potential intriguing messages for such places as the United States and Canada. Today’s Globe and Mail, eg, ran an Associated Press […]



No merger (yet?) but .. you only really “win” an election in Canada when you get a majority in Parliament

Jun 9th, 2010 | By | Category: In Brief

So the sudden rumour Warren Kinsella apparently started yesterday  – that “serious people are involved in discussions at a serious level” about a Liberal-NDP merger – has now been officially squelched by both Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff and New Democrat leader Jack Layton.  We are, it would seem, back to Ignatieff’s “coalition if necessary but […]



American politics as a perpetual election .. or Super Duper Tuesday 2010 : a view from the northern lights

Jun 8th, 2010 | By | Category: In Brief

“The radio crosses boundaries which stopped the press,” the near-great Canadian economic historian Harold Innis declared in the late 1930s, in a talk on “Canadian-American Relations” at the University of Maine. Television just stiffened the trend, starting in the 1950s. And now the Age of the Internet, starting in the 1990s, is crossing boundaries all […]