Colleague Daniel Renaud reports on this odd image, reproduced on the front page of Le Journal de Montréal (below) this morning: Charest Mort au pied du Khadir. It is a poster, found but not seized, apparently, by police investigators in the house of Amir Khadir, the separatist Québec Solidaire MLA. Police were at his house after the arrest of his daughter Yalda during the student protests. Continue reading A separatist fantasy: The death of Charest?
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In London UK: Where the press is going gaga for Queen's floating pageant
I’m in London, England right now, covering the visit by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, his wife Laureen, and their children Ben and Rachel as they represent Canada at Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee. The big event Sunday – in driving rain and chilly temperatures (10 C) — was the Thames Pageant. The Queen, in her royal barge, the Spirit of Chartwell, led a flotilla of 1,000 boats of all kinds down a seven-mile stretch of the Thames. Some of my favourite paragraphs from the wall-to-wall-to-wall coverage in the papers here:
Continue reading In London UK: Where the press is going gaga for Queen's floating pageant
Quebec Student leader Nadeau-Dubois evicted for unpaid rent – The Prince Arthur Herald
It’s an odd story to be sure — a student leader at the centre of these massive protests in Montreal — fails to pay the rent. But what’s odder is the excuse Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois and his buddies tried to use on the judge:
The landlord alleged that the March and April rental payments, each of $950, were never made. Nadeau-Dubois alleged that they were made on March 12th and April 2nd respectively. On each occasion, he and his roommates purportedly left envelopes stuffed with $950 in cash in their landlord’s unlocked, outdoor mailbox. As evidence of this, they adduced bank receipts showing two $1000 withdrawals from Mr. Nadeau-Dubois’ personal bank account which they argued constituted sufficient proof of the payment. When the Régie suggested that these were proof of nothing more than two separate, one thousand dollar bank withdrawals, Nadeau-Dubois responded with what Judge Guay referred to as “syllogisms from Mr. Nadeau-Dubois and circumstances alleged to the detriment of the landlord.”
via Student leader Nadeau-Dubois evicted for unpaid rent – The Prince Arthur Herald.
Want to see what unlimited money in politics gets you? Bring on the race-based attacks
This is the first election cycle in the United States since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that anyone could spend as much as they like — with little or no disclosure — attacking or supporting candidates or political parties in an election. Thus was born the SuperPAC (PAC standing for Political Action Committee) where billionaires can fund ad campaigns saying whatever they want and the candidates they are supporting are, by law, not allowed to tell them a thing.
And while campaigns controlled by the candidates themselves can certainly be vicious and aggressive in going after their opponents, SuperPACs, as we saw in the Republican primary can take it to a whole new level. Continue reading Want to see what unlimited money in politics gets you? Bring on the race-based attacks
With all the hunger and food security issues in the world, the UN focuses on… Canada?
My column across our papers today takes a look at the visit this week and next of a special envoy from the United Nations, the UN Rapporteur on the Right to Food. Its the first time this Rapporteur, who has just wrapped up missions to Syria and Benin, has decided to ‘investigate’ food systems in a developed country:
I’m not so sure Canada should be honoured in achieving this ‘first.’ In fact, it feels rather like there’s a nosy, do-gooder pestering one of the world’s model citizens when there are dozens of ne’er-do-well nations whose citizens would benefit from international scrutiny.
Not only that, this do-gooder reports to the United Nations Human Rights Council, a group whose legitimacy and credibility is untenable so long as that council’s current membership includes Cuba, Saudi Arabia and the nastiest human rights offender of them all, the Democratic Republic of Congo.
SuperMoon!
Politics, Twitter, and the MSM: What to make of it all?
Highly recommend an essay by Jean Burgess and Axel Bruns in a recent issue of Journalism Practice. It’s called “(Not) The Twitter Election: The dynamics of the #ausvotes conversation in relation to the Australian media ecology”. [Like most scholarly publishers, the publishers of this paper insist on locking this up behind a paywall so you’ll have to seek out your favourite library, I’m afraid] Here’s the abstract:
This paper draws on a larger study of the uses of Australian user-created content and online social networks to examine the relationships between professional journalists and highly engaged Australian users of political media within the wider media ecology, with a particular focus on Twitter. It uses an analysis of topic-based conversation networks using the #ausvotes hashtag on Twitter around the 2010 federal election to explore the key themes and issues addressed by this Twitter community during the campaign, and finds that Twitter users were largely commenting on the performance of mainstream media and politicians rather than engaging in direct political discussion. The often critical attitude of Twitter users towards the political establishment mirrors the approach of news and political bloggers to political actors, nearly a decade earlier, but the increasing adoption of Twitter as a communication tool by politicians, journalists, and everyday users alike makes a repetition of the polarisation experienced at that time appear unlikely.
Some quick notes after reading the paper: Continue reading Politics, Twitter, and the MSM: What to make of it all?
The Wildrose bus and its, er, odd tire placement
UPDATE: Scroll down for the poll!
The Wildrose Party and its leader Danielle Smith today unveiled the election bus it will use this spring in an attempt to unseat the Progressive Conservatives and Premier Alison Redford. Seems to me Wildrose is off to an, um, eye-catching start. (Photo credit: Amber Bracken Edmonton Sun.) Continue reading The Wildrose bus and its, er, odd tire placement
Ontario's sorry court document system and other Web bits
Recommended bits from around the Web:
- At the SLAW blog, Simon Fodden puts up some extended quotes from Justice David Brown who delivered “a scathing and at times sardonic denunciation” of Ontario’s Sorry Court Document Management System Ripped by Judge
- Over at Forbes, Elise Ackerman notes that Government Investigations of Google Pile Up. Back at the SLAW blog, Michael Lines provides an excellent Google Roundup of how the company that once promised itself to do “Do No Evil” may be drifting from that mission.
- Tufts University professor Daniel Drezner puts up a relatively provocative post at Foreign Policy asking Should Women Get Ph.Ds in international relations? Continue reading Ontario's sorry court document system and other Web bits
The beefcake pics! Trudeau vs Brazeau fight for the cure!
The Papineau Pugilist, Liberal MP Justin Trudeau (left) is all set to take on the Senate Slugger, Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau (right), on Saturday, March 31 at the Hampton Inn Ottawa. Can’t make it? Don’t worry — Sun News Network has the exclusive broadcasting rights and we’ll be showing it live!(Thanks to mediaball.ca for those great pix.)
It’s all for a great cause, too — raising money for cancer research.
Ringside seats are already sold out but there’s singles left. Find more info at fightforthecure.ca
We’ve been watching both men train and it looks like a decent matchup. Brazeau looks to have a heavier punch but Trudeau is taller with a longer reach and looks pretty quick on his feet. Good luck, gentlemen!