In Brief

No great expectations for EI working group in Ottawa

Jul 23rd, 2009 | By | Category: In Brief

OTTAWA. The still mysterious Employment Insurance Working Group is apparently meeting for the first time this afternoon. The rain is setting the right kind of  mood. You may or may not recall that this group was hastily nailed together last month to avoid a Canadian federal election this summer. If it comes up with some […]



Ontario Bandido biker murders trial moves into high gear

Jul 22nd, 2009 | By | Category: In Brief

It is now more than three years and three months since we first reported on what is still being described as “the largest mass murder in Ontario history.” It involved the assassination of eight Bandidos biker gang members and associates from the Toronto region, on a farm in the same old agrarian democratic heartland of […]



Why does Hawaii still have a Union Jack in its flag, just like Ontario and BC?

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

The Japanese official summary is just called “Statement by the Chief Cabinet Secretary on the Visit to Canada and the United States of America by Their Majesties the Emperor and Empress of Japan.” But in Canada their majesties visited the capital city of Ottawa July 3 to part of July 8. Then they were in […]



Alona Bay memories of the 1960s on Lake Superior Day 2009

Jul 19th, 2009 | By | Category: In Brief

According to Ontario politics columnist Jim Coyle, in the Toronto Star this past Monday, today is (more or less officially, it seems) Lake Superior Day. (“A few months back … Algoma-Manitoulin MPP Mike Brown won unanimous support in the Legislature for his resolution to establish the third Sunday in July …  as Lake Superior Day.”) […]



Guess who else is happy Sarah Palin is quitting?

Jul 16th, 2009 | By | Category: In Brief

No one will be too surprised to hear that among the American people who are pleased  Sarah Palin will soon be resigning as Governor of Alaska are many Alaskan Native Americans (or aboriginal peoples, as we officially say in Canada’s Constitution Act 1982). Take, e.g., Myron Naneng, “president of the Association of Village Council Presidents, […]



Yes, Virginia, passports at the border pick everyone’s pockets .. and don’t catch any more terrorists either

Jul 16th, 2009 | By | Category: In Brief

Just in case you had any doubts, two current events in the USA today confirm that the increasingly “tighter border” between the United States and Canada, in vain pursuit of US anti-terrorism policy over the past eight years, “hurts [the] economy” on both sides of the line. To start with, about “500 officials, experts and […]



Look who’s supporting Senate reform in Canada now!

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

Those who still think nothing serious in Canada is ever going to change should take a second look at the editorial on Senate reform in the July 13, 2009 edition of the Toronto Globe and Mail. Hardly anyone reads editorials. (Or anything having anything to do with Senate reform in Canada.) But it still says […]



North American deep integration .. just another conspiracy theory?

Jul 12th, 2009 | By | Category: In Brief

It’s hard to know just what to make of the sometimes intense concern about “the fifth annual summit of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, now operating under the title of the North American Leaders’ Summit, scheduled on the [US] State Department calendar to occur in Mexico,” this coming August 8—11. Critics of […]



Did PM apologize to Pope for putting wafer in pocket?

Jul 12th, 2009 | By | Category: In Brief

Headlines like “Harper and family meet with Pope” or “Harper, Pope discuss economy, values” have prompted the (Catholic) girl who answers the phones here to ask: “Did he also apologize to the Pope for putting the communion wafer in his pocket at Romeo LeBlanc’s funeral?” The answer is almost certainly not. Mr. Harper has already […]



Garbage strike road back to Tory Toronto?

Jul 12th, 2009 | By | Category: In Brief

Toronto is not the only place with a garbage and civic workers strike this summer. Windsor’s has been going on for three months. (It’s not quite three weeks in Toronto so far.)  A somewhat different paramedics strike in the public sector is now underway in BC too. And of course nobody outside Toronto cares about […]