Jack’s Newswatch

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan — The convoy that transports Canada’s top soldier in Afghanistan hit a roadside bomb Friday, killing one member of the general’s tactical team and injuring five others.

It was the second time this week that Brig.-Gen. Jonathan Vance, the commander of Task Force Kandahar, has found himself a stone’s throw from an enemy attack in Afghanistan.

Killed in Friday’s attack was Cpl. Nicholas Bulger, 30 — who hailed from Peterborough, Ont., and was with the Edmonton-based 3rd battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry.

He had been travelling behind the general’s vehicle when the blast occurred.

Cpl. Bulger leaves behind his wife, Rebeka, and two daughters, as well as his mother, brothers and sister.

He is the 121st Canadian killed since the country’s mission in Afghanistan began in 2002 — and the third to die in less than a month.

[More]

Liberal leader says Tories’ personal attacks pit Canadian against each other

By Chinta Puxley – 2 hours ago

WINNIPEG — Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff is accusing the Tories of dividing Canadians through personal attacks on his patriotism and by dredging up controversial remarks about Ukrainians made 15 years ago.

During a stop in Winnipeg Thursday - part of an election-style tour of the west - Ignatieff told a friendly Liberal crowd that the Conservatives are undermining what makes Canada great by attacking his commitment to the country and multiculturalism.

By criticizing him in attack ads for living outside Canada for many years, Ignatieff said the Tories are insulting everyone who was born outside of Canada or works in another country.

“When they attack me, they are actually attacking the thing that makes us a great society - that hunger to succeed,” he said to applause.

“I’m proud to have been out of the country. I’m proud to measure myself against the best the world can offer and I’m proud to have come back to serve.”

more…

Inuvik, N.W.T. — The conversation in this town of 3,500 in the Western Arctic should be about aboriginal self-sufficiency, environmentally responsible Northern development and a new clean-energy storehouse with immense potential. After all, the proposed $16.2-billion Mackenzie Valley natural-gas pipeline project was supposed to be under construction by now.

Instead, the talk is about the regulatory bungling, federal government inaction and fading industry interest in what would be one of Canada’s largest infrastructure projects.

Meanwhile, a new threat has emerged: Big gas discoveries in shale rocks that are cheap and closer to customers, making the pipeline an even tougher proposition by the time all hurdles are cleared, perhaps two years from now, perhaps longer.

“The Mackenzie pipeline appears to be frozen, not just in the ground, but in red tape,” Floyd Roland, N.W.T. Premier, said at last month’s Inuvik Petroleum Show, reflecting the dark mood, despite the 24-hour daylight embracing this community on the shore of the majestic Mackenzie River.

[More]

An Iranian-Canadian journalist who was detained in Tehran during post-election protests has been charged with belonging to a Western-orchestrated conspiracy to overthrow the clerical regime, according to Iranian media.

Maziar Bahari has a home in Toronto but has lived in Iran for more than a decade, and worked for Newsweek magazine.

He is one of more than two dozen journalists and bloggers seized in a sweep of suspected opponents of the government, which has been battling protests since it endorsed elections last month widely criticized as fraudulent.

“The spokesperson for the Iranian foreign affairs ministry said that Bahari was part of a network of U.S. and British-led unrest,” said Morteza Abdolalian, an Iranian-born journalist and blogger who monitors the Iranian media. “They charged him with working for this network, following his arrest.”

There have been unconfirmed reports that Bahari “confessed” during his detention.

[More]

The Ontario Court of Appeal has dismissed a constitutional challenge to Parliament’s anti-gang law, upholding the convictions of two former Hells Angels found guilty of committing extortion “in association with” a criminal organization.

Steven “Tiger” Lindsay and Raymond Bonner argued the legislation, introduced in the aftermath of Quebec’s biker wars and in anticipation of the Hells Angels’ arrival in Ontario in 2002, was unconstituitonally vague and that minor criminals or even innocent people could be subject to its harsh penalties.

The court disagreed.

[More]

Chrysler workers in Ontario were back on the job Monday after the auto manufacturer halted production for two months while it was undergoing bankruptcy proceedings in the U.S.

About 3,500 workers who work the morning and afternoon shift returned to Chrysler’s minivan plant in Windsor, Ont and about 3,800 workers returned to work at a second plant in Brampton, Ont.

Employees working the third shift are expected to return to their jobs on July 27 after the summer break.

For Brampton workers, it will be a four-day work week. A problem with a supplier means the plant will shut down again next week. Then, the facility shuts down for its annual two-week summer break in mid-July.

Workers say they are just happy to be employed again after being off the job since May 4.

[More]

OTTAWA — After his third-ballot victory on Saturday, the newly anointed leader of the provincial Progressive Conservative party is taking little time in preparing for his shift to power.

Tim Hudak, who is promising to steer the Conservatives back to the political right, will meet with interim party leader Bob Runciman on Monday to go over the transition process, according to a release. Hudak vowed throughout the campaign to focus on middle-class values as leader of the opposition, a title he hopes to change in the next provincial election in 2011.

Election readiness will be the focus of a strategic planning meeting scheduled for next month that Hudak asked party president Ken Zeise to convene, the release added.

Hudak also said he is seeking “meaningful” involvement from his three rivals in the leadership race — Frank Klees, Christine Elliott and Randy Hillier — and will meet with each in the coming days.

[More]

MARKHAM — Ontario’s Progressive Conservative party took a right turn Saturday as it elected Niagara-area MPP Tim Hudak — a man who has promised a return to middle-class values and plain talk conservatism — as its new leader.

Hudak, 41, whose campaign slogan was “Right for Ontario,” won the leadership in a third-ballot decision against fellow MPP Frank Klees.

Hudak wasted little time in fixing his sights on the province’s Liberal government.

“Dalton, your days are numbered,” he said, addressing Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty. “It’s time for a change. … We must take Ontario down an entirely different path than we are on. Ontario is dead last in economic growth.”

Hudak said he would fight “tooth and nail” to stop a Liberal plan to harmonize the provincial sales tax with the federal GST, a move that will add the eight-per-cent tax to a range of products.

The Liberals, in turn, were quick to portray Hudak’s victory as a return to a Mike Harris-style government, a reference to the former premier who implemented a regime of tax and spending cuts.

Hudak, whose wife, Deb Hutton, was a senior Harris advisor, was endorsed by Harris as his choice for leader.

“Hudak will be running for the third Mike Harris term,” said Attorney General Chris Bentley. “He’ll be fronting, the Harris gang will be pulling the strings. The only thing the Tories could agree on during this convention were the politics of division — how much to undermine human rights, pitting one group of Ontarians against another. That’s not how you build a strong province.”

But Hudak was unapologetic about his campaign, which included a pledge to disband the province’s human rights tribunal.

[More]

Updates:

4:06 pm EDT, June 28th, 2009 — Video Tim Hudak Victory Speech

Notes:

Thanks for making the video available, Darryl.  I’m certain many will be interested.

I’ll also note I linked a free ad to the Ontario PC site an hour ago in my sidebar.  If visitors are interested they can go there to find out more and “oh yes”…there is also that “pic” I created yesterday and posted.  I want to keep things moving…

…And so, there is now a PC ad in the video area of my sidebar.  Bob Runciman no less.  How can you not like this man?

 

Toronto taxpayers are sick of paying more and getting less, and are looking for a leader who presents a clearly thought-out vision for the city’s economy, finances and infrastructure, says John Tory, who is mulling a run for mayor.

Mr. Tory, who stood for the job once before and stepped aside as leader of Ontario’s Progressive Conservative party in March, said yesterday he is still weighing his future and whether it even includes politics.

But he said yesterday a “draft Tory” movement has reached out to him about the possibility of presenting a fiscally conservative alternative to left-leaning Mayor David Miller in 2010.

“This discussion arose out of people approaching me as opposed to me going out and proactively meeting with or talking to anybody about this,” the 55-year-old said, emphasizing he has not made up his mind. “I’ve been approached by everyone from provincial politicians, to municipal councillors to, in some respects more importantly, lots of average citizens as I sort of walk down the street or go about my business. They expressed interest in this so certainly when people came in a more formal way to put the idea forward I had to at least listen to what they were saying.”

Despite his bruising foray into provincial politics, Mr. Tory remains a respected political name with a public profile as a fiscal conservative with a social conscience. In an interview, he was explicitly critical of the Miller years at city hall.

“I just think there hasn’t been enough done to be able to assure taxpayers that they’re getting good value for their money. I just don’t think it’s been a hallmark of the last number of years at all. Not only has it not been a hallmark, I think it’s been an afterthought, if that,” he said yesterday. “And I think people just can’t afford it any more. They can’t afford to go on paying more and getting less. It’s just not an equation that people are prepared to put up with in any other area of their life and why should they be when it comes to municipal government?”

[More]

It appears Canada Day is going to be a big fizzle in many parts of Toronto, with festivals, celebrations — even the city-sponsored fireworks display — cancelled.

City officials say they cancelled the festivities because of the continuing strike by municipal workers.

Without the unionized workers the shows can’t go on — so the city is pulling the plug on about a dozen planned festivals, a sports tournament and even the traditional Canada Day fireworks display at Ashbridge’s Bay.

“I know many Torontonians look forward to our Canada Day celebrations,” city manager Joe Pennachetti said at a Thursday afternoon news conference.

“While we remain hopeful there will be a timely resolution to the strike, July 1 is fast approaching. Please be reminded that the city-run Canada Day events … and those that have permits to take place on city property, are cancelled.”

The Ashbridge’s Bay fireworks display has been held for decades and brings thousands of people to Toronto’s east-end beaches for the show.

[More]

Tangible evidence that billions of dollars of government aid to the financial sector is finally starting to lift the real economy emerged Thursday as Bank of Nova Scotia reported a jump in lending activity in the auto market, which is helping to turn things around for the ailing industry.

“Global auto sales have rebounded to the highest levels since August 2008,” said Scotia Capital’s Global Auto Report.

The reason is that the credit taps are finally opening up after being all but shut since the collapse last fall of Lehman Brothers and the failure of the shadow banking system which provided much of the financing for car loans worldwide.

New money is flowing back into the system courtesy of the U.S. government’s US$200-billion asset-backed securities program and a similar program from Ottawa which has just started to pump about $12-billion into securitized car loans.

[More]

The federal government is telling the courts to back off when it comes to the Omar Khadr case and leave foreign affairs decisions to the Prime Minister and his cabinet.

In a hearing yesterday, Justice Department lawyer Doreen Mueller urged the Federal Court of Appeal to reject the Federal Court’s April ruling that the government should request Mr. Khadr’s return from the United States.

Ms. Mueller said the Crown rejects the view that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms applies when Canadians face charges outside the country.

“There is clearly no duty to protect citizens under international law,” Ms. Mueller told the court.

The Federal Court has concluded that Mr. Khadr has Charter rights because Canadian officials were involved in his interrogations and shared information from those sessions with United States authorities.

Mr. Khadr is in custody at the U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and military proceedings against him are in limbo.

[More]

The loss of thousands of cabinet and executive branch e-mails concerning the biggest privatization deal in British Columbia’s history is so shocking that defence lawyers in a politically charged trial still can’t believe it has happened.

Both inside and outside the Supreme Court of B.C. yesterday, lawyers were expressing disbelief that e-mails from 2001 to 2005 related to the $1-billion sale of BC Rail could have been purged from the government’s data system while a trial concerning the deal was before the courts.

“At the moment, our view is that these must be recoverable,” said Michael Bolton, who, together with other defence attorneys, has sent a letter to the government’s lawyer asking for a detailed explanation of how a data search was done.

“We don’t accept at face value that these things have been lost … because e-mails are recoverable as long as there are backup or storage tapes,” Mr. Bolton said.

Court was told on Monday that e-mails being sought by the lawyers defending three former provincial employees – Dave Basi, Bob Virk and Aneal Basi – are not recoverable because the government doesn’t keep electronic backup tapes more than 13 months.

Wiped out, according to George Copley, a lawyer representing the B.C. Executive Council, are four years of tapes covering the crucial period when the government negotiated the sale of BC Rail to CN Rail.

Mr. Copley filed affidavits from government officials saying none of the e-mails can be recovered.

[More]

Updates:

7:19 am EDT, June 24th, 2009 — Alexander: Hints of Nixon In B.C. Liberal Rail Affair

Notes:

Off topic but CTV is now reporting that Romeo Leblanc has passed away.

OTTAWA — Federal lawyers are appealing a court ruling that ordered the government to seek Omar Khadr’s return from Guantanamo Bay.

The federal government has filed an appeal of a Federal Court ruling that it seek the return of Khadr, 22, from the U.S. military prison in Cuba.

Judge James O’Reilly ruled in April that the Conservative government’s refusal to demand repatriation of Khadr offends fundamental justice.

The judge ruled that the government must ask the United States “as soon as practicable” to send Khadr home.

Opposition parties have demanded that Khadr be brought home and tried in Canada, if necessary, in light of the court decision.

But Prime Minister Stephen Harper told Fox News this month that Canada won’t be taking any Guantanamo Bay detainees.

Harper told the U.S. network that he is “not offering Canada as a safe haven for anyone that the United States considers to be a terrorist.”

[More]

TORONTO — The city known for its cleanliness may be in for stinky start to summer as thousands of Toronto municipal workers went on strike Monday morning after contract talks failed.

The two unions representing about 24,000 indoor and outdoor workers together announced just after midnight they were at a deadlock with the city and had no choice but to walk off the job.

The impasse means residents will be scrambling to get care for their children as scores of daycares, recreation centres and summer camps are shuttered.

Mark Ferguson, president of CUPE Local 416, said while the city had tabled a proposal as late as 9:30 p.m., the bargaining team felt those offerings were “garbage.”

“It was an attack, a vicious attack on our membership,” he told reporters.

“Unfortunately, our bargaining committee has had to take a decision to take a strike to ensure that the collection agreement that has been negotiated over decades remains intact.”

[More]

Updates:

12:13 pm EDT, June 22nd, 2009 — Gee: Unions living in dreamland