Many critics fear the 2010 Games will smother free speech. But a rapid proliferation of cell-phone cameras and open-source websites could make potential restrictions hard to enforce, a UBC journalism professor said Thursday evening.Heh. That's what we're here for.
“We’ve had this weird thing happen where the eyes of big brother are sort of turned around,” Daniel W. Burnett told a forum on the 2010 Games and civil liberties.
Over the course of that year-and-a-week, I've spent a lot of time working with some amazing, amazing people on Michael's leadership campaign and, very soon thereafter, the Liberal election readiness team. It was, and is, a kick-ass team. But the Fall 2009 election that we'd been getting ready for wasn't to be. Sigh. It's now looking like it'll be next Spring, or next Fall, or maybe even the Spring after that (though I doubt it).My focus, and this wee website's, will therefore turn more to municipal and provincial politics - and punk rock, and hockey rink philosophy, and the law, and bad puns, and clumsy alliterations, and the other stuff I like.I'll continue to knock around the Reformatories, of course, as they never seem to stop providing material - here and here, just in this week alone - but not 24/7, as I've been doing since I signed on to Iggy's team.Read it here.
When Ignatieff hired Kinsella, the Liberals were essentially tied with the Conservatives. On the day Donolo fired Kinsella, the Liberals are 15% behind. I call it the Kinsella Effect; Donolo calls it time to end amateur hour, and bring in some grown-ups.I can't help but agree. Warren Kinsella's antics have been one of the longest-running series of gaffes to plague the Liberal Party since Iggy got into the game. Now what are we going to make fun of?
Though I'm a Conservative booster, I've got to be candid: I predict that with Kinsella gone, Ignatieff will begin to close that 15-point gap.
Hi Keith,And...was it yesterday? The days blur together sometimes...I got an answer from - presumably - someone in his office:
I know this is kind of a dumb question, but I was just wondering: what is the status of the Private Member's Motion - M-446 - that you had raised? Did it ever see the light of day, or is it still buried amongst the other PMMs?
Either way, kudos to you for raising it, and for your principled stand for freedom of speech in Canada.
Cheers!
-Walker
Walker, the motion itself has not come up for a vote, but there has been a lot of progress on the file. Thanks to the motion and the resulting media attention, Section 13 of the HR Act has been reviewd by a HOC committee and even the head of the HRC has said that it is flawed.
Thanks for your kind words - I'll pass your note along to Keith
-Jeff
The booklet warns that "barbaric cultural practices that tolerate spousal abuse, `honour killings,' female genital mutilation, or other gender-based violence" are punishable crimes in this country. In the more innocent Canada of 1995, such an admonition would have been unthinkable.
A confidential government document obtained by Public Eye states BC Housing will use "Extreme Weather response protocols" to deal with the "higher number of homeless persons requiring assistance" during Vancouver's 2010 Winter Olympic Games.
Those protocols open up around 600 temporary shelter spaces in Metro Vancouver.
But they will also allow police to use a soon-to-be granted power that will let them forcibly take homeless people to a shelter.
In an interview with Public Eye, Pivot Legal Society lawyer Laura Track said, "If the plan is to use the extreme weather protocol to open up more beds during the Olympics, the corollary is that during the Olympics the police will have the ability to use force to take people off the streets."
But Housing and Social Minister Rich Coleman said the government won't be abusing those protocols, stressing they'll only be used if the conditions triggering them actually exist.
"If there's no extreme weather during the Olympics, no protocol gets activated," he promised.
And I'm afraid that's just the beginning. I'm picturing like, 28 Days Later-type anarchy due to the shortage. It could be that the Eggo in our systems has been what is keeping us calm all this time.Leggo my Eggo! No, seriously, there's a shortage
[...]
Kellogg Co. says there will be a nationwide shortage of its popular Eggo frozen waffles until next summer because of interruptions in production at two of the four plants that make them.
The company's Atlanta plant was shut down for an undisclosed period by a September storm that dumped historic amounts of rain in the area.
Meanwhile, several production lines at its largest bakery in Rossville, Tenn. are closed indefinitely for repairs.
Company spokeswoman Kris Charles says it will take until the middle of 2010 before shelves around the country are stocked at pre-shutdown levels.
Already customers are noticing near-empty Eggo shelves on the freezer aisle at many grocery stores. They are lamenting the shortage on blogs, Twitter and Facebook.
Kady O’Malley calls me draconian. The National Post says I’m a luddite. It’s all over my comments that MP twitter posts lie between the banal and the inane. Have no fear national media — your ability to read what Carolyn Bennett eats for breakfast will not be shut down. I only wish I could have gotten this national uproar over the crisis being faced by children in Attawapiskat who are sleeping in tents tonight.Geez, and to think that this all started with one lousy fat joke. I miss the good ol' days when we were talking about communion wafers.
Nick Xenophon, an independent senator, presented letters to the Australian Parliament from seven former Scientologists which he said showed that the secretive church was a front for physical violence, intimidation and blackmail.
“I am deeply concerned about this organisation and the devastating impact it can have on its followers,” he told the Australian Senate in Canberra. He called for a Senate inquiry.
The State Crime Command of New South Wales police yesterday confirmed that Mr Xenophon had handed over the letters for investigation. Fed- eral police have also been contacted.
Kevin Rudd, the Prime Minister,said that many Australians had “real concerns” about Scientology. “I share some of those concerns,” he added. “We would like to proceed in a cautious and methodical way in examining those matters and then we’ll decide what, if further, parliamentary action is necessary.”
Aaron Saxton, a member of the church in Australia and the US between 1989 and 1996, said in one of the letters that he had participated in the “forced confinement and torture” of others. Other letters described how individuals were pressured to hand over large sums of money to the church, leaving them in poverty.
Carmel Underwood, a former executive director of the Sydney branch of the church, wrote that Scientology executives covered up a case of child molestation and pressured pregnant staff to abort their babies so they could keep working for the church. “There are many who are still suffering and being abused financially, physically and mentally,” she wrote.
Kevin Mackey, 46, a farmer, wrote that the church sought cash donations from members for the “crimes” of drinking alcohol or watching pornography.
“Scientology is not a religious organisation — it is a criminal organisation that hides behind its so-called religious beliefs,” Mr Xenophon said. “The letters received by me contain extensive allegations of crimes and abuses that are truly shocking.
“These victims of Scientology claim it is an abusive, manipulative, violent and criminal organisation, and that criminality is condoned at the highest levels.”
The Church of Scientology has dismissed the allegations as “an outrageous abuse of parliamentary privilege” but said that it will co-operate with police. “Senator Xenophon is obviously being pressured by disgruntled former members who use hate speech and distorted accounts of their experiences in the church,” it said. “They are about as reliable as former spouses are when talking about their ex-partner.”
Feel like putting your voting hat on?The Globe asks: Help us select the decade's Nation Builder
I nominated Omar Khadr & Family. Hell they're no worse than some of the previous recipients like Maher Arar. Or you could nominate Mark Steyn or Ezra Levant...hmmm.
