admin – Page 130 – David Akin’s On The Hill

Suicide by cop, the county's strip club bill, and could Black be back?: Tuesday's A1 headlines and political daybook

Suicide by cop, a county warden’s strip club bill and could Black be back? : Listen to my four-minute audio roundup of what’s on the front pages of the country’s newspapers plus highlights from Tuesday’s political daybook by clicking on the link below.

You can also get these audio summaries automatically every day via podcast from iTunes or via an RSS feed by subscribing to my AudioBoo stream. Both the iTunes link and the RSS link are at my profile at AudioBoo.fm. Look in the top right corner of the “Boos” box.

Homicide rate plummets; RCMP kill man; an exclusive with a plane crash survivor: Monday's A1 headlines and political daybook

Edmonton Sun Front Page Homicide rate plummets in Vancouver; RCMP kill Alberta man; and an exclusive with a plane crash survivor : Listen to my four-minute audio roundup of what's on the front pages of the country's newspapers plus highlights from Monday's political daybook by clicking on the link below.

Federal court judge: Bringing Khadr home is only "cure" for constitutional violations

I'm in the paper this weekend arguing that, for a variety of reasons, our political leaders just can't ignore the case of Omar Khadr, even if they think he ought rot in prison.

Khadr is a Canadian, born in the same city as Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Toronto) and that means, that, at some point, he's going to come home.

Here are some grafs from the decision, released July 5, 2010, by the Honourable Mr. Justice Zinn of the (Canadian) Federal Court, who gave the government seven days to come up with a “remedy” for the violation of Khadr's constitutional rights, a violation the Supreme Court of Canada had ruled has occurred. The government, last Monday on day 7, appealed Zinn's decision to the Federal Court of Appeal. Here are some of the paragraphs from Zinn's decision [PDF]– i call your attention to paragraph number 23:

[3] Omar Khadr was born in Toronto in 1986. He is a Canadian citizen. He has spent most of his life away from Canada in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and most recently in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

[4] In July 2002 there was a gun battle at Khost, Afghanistan, between troops from the U.S. and persons alleged by the U.S. to be terrorists. During that battle, a U.S. soldier was killed by a grenade which the U.S. alleges was thrown by Mr. Khadr, who was then 15 years old.

[5] Mr. Khadr was seriously injured in this battle. He was taken into U.S. custody and treated by U.S. troops. He spent some time at Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan before being transferred to Guantanamo Bay on October 28, 2002. He remains there.

[7] In February and September 2003, agents from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the Foreign Intelligence Division of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) travelled to Guantanamo Bay and questioned Mr. Khadr. The information obtained by these Canadian officials was provided to the U.S. Mr. Khadr was interviewed again in March 2004 by a DFAIT official who knew, prior to the interview, that Mr. Khadr had been subjected by U.S. authorities to a program of sleep deprivation. A report described this technique and its purpose:

In an effort to make him more amenable and willing to talk, [blank] has placed Umar on the “frequent flyer program.” [F]or the three weeks before [the] visit, Umar as not been permitted more than three hours in any one location. At three hour intervals he is moved to another cell block, thus denying him uninterrupted sleep and a continuous change of neighbours. He will soon be placed in isolation for up to three weeks and then will be interviewed again.

[8] The actions of these Canadian officials were soundly criticized by the Supreme Court of Canada which found that their conduct violated the principles of fundamental justice.

This conduct establishes Canadian participation in state conduct that violates the principles of fundamental justice. Interrogation of a youth, to elicit statements about the most serious criminal charges while detained in these conditions and without access to counsel, and while knowing that the fruits of the interrogations would be shared with the U.S. prosecutors, offends the most basic Canadian standards about the treatment of detained youth suspects.

[15] On April 23, 2009, Justice O’Reilly allowed the application for judicial review of the “ongoing decision and policy” of the Government of Canada not to seek the repatriation of Mr. Khadr to Canada: Khadr v. Canada (Prime Minister), 2009 FC 405. He found that Canada had infringed Mr. Khadr’s rights under section 7 of the Charter, which provides that:

Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.

[16] Justice O’Reilly ordered Canada to remedy this breach of the Charter by requesting the U.S. to “return Mr. Khadr to Canada as soon as practicable.”

[23] In my view, … It would be an effective remedy only if the U.S. agreed to the request and did return Mr. Khadr to Canada. If he was released, then he would be removed from U.S. detention, and it was his detention that the Court found to be the consequence of Canada’s breach of his Charter rights, and it was his detention that the Charter obliges Canada to cure.

The "ironic turn" of the global financial crisis: Where the G20 went wrong

Mark Blyth and Neil K. Shenai writing in the latest issue of Foreign Policy:

The global financial crisis has … taken an ironic turn. The same large multinational financial firms that sought government bailouts are now shocked and surprised by the spending of “profligate” governments. Indeed, these actors are now speculating against the very governments who brought them back to life by shorting their debt. As a consequence, governments across Europe are adopting austerity measures to outflank the positions of these speculators.

…in order to say that the global stimulus policy has failed, it is necessary to consider the counterfactual of no fiscal stimulus at all. There is already a natural experiment of this case: the countries of Eastern Europe that decided not to inject large amounts of liquidity into their national economies. For example, in May 2009, as the United States and Western European countries were consciously expanding public deficits, Latvian President Valdis Zatlers set his government on course for “severe budget stabilization measures” and several “structural reforms,” many of which resemble what the G20 is wishing upon itself today. Yet Latvian GDP fell more than 17 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009, while unemployment grew to more than 16 percent, and government finances — the theoretical beneficiary of all this belt-tightening — collapsed because of falling tax revenue. These results were replicated from Estonia to Romania with even worse results, suggesting that the G-20 member states should perhaps be careful what they wish for.

It is likely that France, Germany, and the United Kingdom will move to cut their deficits dramatically, which will lead to a rise in eurozone unemployment, a decrease in the purchase of U.S. exports, and a faltering of global economic recovery. Falling economic growth in the G-20 states will further lower consumption and increase unemployment. Meanwhile, the financial sector will see its equity holdings shrink and its balance sheets worsen once again. Such a scenario makes it quite possible that these same financial institutions will argue that the stimulus was not big enough and should be tried again — but now from a more leveraged position. To see a glimpse of such a future, look at Japan: seesawing between spending and retrenchment cost Japan 15 years of growth and employment between 1990 and 2005, when Japan’s economic policymakers were swayed by exactly the same sort of arguments that are ascendant in the G-20 today.

What lies ahead [as a result] is a harmful populism that allies U.S. Tea Party activists with Greek public-sector unions.

Arsonist wanted for missing McCanns; nightmare at the Stampede and inside Club Gitmo: Saturday's A1 headlines and political daybook

Ottawa Sun club Gitmo Arsonist wanted for missing McCanns; nightmare at the Stampede and inside Club Gitmo: Listen to my four-minute audio roundup of what's on the front pages of the country's newspapers plus highlights from Saturday's political daybook by clicking on the link below.

Killer mom walks; $16B fighter jets; lifeguard heroes: Friday's A1 headlines and political daybook

Edmonton Sun Bon Jovi front Killer mom walks; $16 billion fighter jets; and lifeguard heroes: Listen to my four-minute audio roundup of what's on the front pages of the country's newspapers plus highlights from Friday's political daybook by clicking on the link below.

Oilsands PR battle; killer hogweed; no smoking while driving: Thursday's A1 headlines and political daybook

Calgary Sun PR battle over the oilsands; noxious toxic hogweed in T.O., and a new kind of driving ban in Manitoba: Listen to my four-minute audio roundup of what's on the front pages of the country's newspapers plus highlights from Thursday's political daybook by clicking on the link below.

No sympathy for Khadr and life at the Iggy Cafe

David Akin at Guantanamo

I've just spent the last few days at Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Station where I learned, in no particular order, that accused Canadian terrorist Omar Khadr thinks the whole U.S. military commission process is a sham; that the suspected terrorists he's jailed with started computer classes there this week; and that military personnel and journalists start their day with breakfast at the Iggy Cafe. As for Khadr, you can read some reports on what I've been up to here and here, but there is also a new poll out this morning from Angus Reid Public Opinion which concludes that a majority of Canadians have little sympathy for the plight Khadr is in. That said: Canadians, being a nation of people with sharp and subtle minds, appear to be able to tell when the system is gamed with 42 per cent of us doubting that the military commissions set up to try Khadr and other suspects will be able to do a fair job of it.

Meanwhile, Canadian reporters who normally find themselves reporting on Parliament Hill — that would be me and Canwest's Andrew Mayeda — were chuckling to find that the mess hall at the U.S. Naval Station is the Iggy Cafe — it's formal name is the Gold Hill Galley — which we, of course, assumed that Guantanamo must be a stop on Michael Ignatieff's Liberal Express tour. Here's a picture (left) of your correspondent patiently waiting outside for the the bus get fixed on get on the road to Gitmo. (It's called Iggy Cafe, incidentally, for all the iguanas on the island.)

UPDATE: The link seems problematic at the Angus Reid site. If you're having trouble, point your Web browser to http://www.visioncritical.com/ and try to navigate your way to the poll. As of Wednesday it was down near the bottom left of the page under the “News” section.

Tax dollars for Canada Day: The Scorecard

On Canada Day, I noted that Heritage Canada issued a press release touting the fact that Natural Resources Minister Christian Paradis showed up for the celebrations in his riding in Thetford Mines with a $35,000 to help cover the costs of cake and fireworks. So I asked Heritage Canada what other communities got federal grants for Canada Day. The media relations folks at Heritage Canada promptly returned my call and said they could provide summary data but that a list of individual grant recipients would take a bit more time. So, until that list of individual grants pops up, here is that summary list of approved funding for the Celebrate Canada period which include National Aboriginal Day (June 21st), Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day (June 24th), Canadian Multiculturalism Day (June 27th) and Canada Day (July 1st). This is for the 2010-2011 fiscal year:

Alberta	$567,334
British Columbia	$834,315
Manitoba	$221,360
New Brunswick	$288,305
Newfoundland and Labrador	$256,670
Northwest Territories	$83,432
Nova Scotia	$263,552
Nunavut	$83,432
Ontario	$2,002,356
Prince Edward Island	$98,335
Quebec	$1,601,885
Saskatchewan	$290,112
Yukon	$83,432
CANADA	$6,674,520.00

So did everyone get their fair share? Pretty close, if you think each province should get a slice of the funding pie that is roughly equivalent to their slice of the population pie. Quebec, actually, got a little less compared to its share of Canada's population. So did Ontario. P.E.I and New Brunswick appear to be the biggest losers. B.C. got a bit more. Here's that list:

	Pct of Population	Pct of Celebrate Canada funds
Alberta	8.5%	10.9%
British Columbia	12.5%	13.3%
Manitoba	3.3%	3.6%
New Brunswick	4.3%	2.2%
Newfoundland and Labrador	3.8%	1.5%
Northwest Territories	1.3%	0.1%
Nova Scotia	3.9%	2.8%
Nunavut	1.3%	0.1%
Ontario	30.0%	38.7%
Prince Edward Island	1.5%	0.4%
Quebec	24.0%	23.2%
Saskatchewan	4.3%	3.1%
Yukon	1.3%	0.1%

Khadr, a Stampede first and a Bay Street lunch: Tuesday's A1 headlines and political daybook

Winnipeg Sun Khadr, a Stampede first, and a Bay Street snub: Listen to my four-minute audio roundup of what's on the front pages of the country's newspapers plus highlights from Tuesday's political daybook by clicking on the link below.