Britain is officially eating crow just a month after its sportswriters' unrestrained trashing of the Vancouver Games and Canada's controversial Own the Podium program for Olympic athletes.
The head of UK Sport -- the funding body for elite British athletes and a key player in preparing for the 2012 Summer Games in London -- says his country will emulate Own the Podium in a bid to match Canada's record-setting, host-nation performance at Vancouver.
"At first a lot of people were critical of Canada's Own the Podium program, saying that it wasn't very sporting, and it had some bad press," UK Sport chief executive John Steele told a media briefing last week as Britain unveiled its medal projections for the 2012 Games. "But as soon as it started to do well, then everyone thought it was a great idea and were a lot less critical," he noted. "We will probably use a different strap line but the idea for 2012 will be very similar, and it is something we definitely want to use as a tool for success."
Steele added: "Medals are the aim of our funding, as we have a responsibility to the British public."
The comments, UK Sport spokesperson Russell Langley said on Thursday, mainly indicate the agency is "just continuing what we started last year with Team 2012" -- and that, like Own the Podium, "a private investment stream is key in funding our athletes to supplement the public funding we already get."
But Steele's praise for Canada's medal-winning strategy for Vancouver 2010 -- which ultimately yielded a best-ever total of 26 medals for this country, including a Winter Olympics record 14 golds -- is sure to redden some faces in the British press corps.
Caustic columns by several U.K. journalists -- including one early in the Winter Games that claimed Own the Podium had offended all visiting athletes from around the world -- became one of the main storylines in the days following the opening ceremony at the Vancouver Olympics.
Canada's "highly unpleasant Own the Podium program, in which they seek to exploit home advantage to the last nanosecond," wrote Times of London correspondent Simon Barnes, "has alienated the world they are supposed to play host to."
He added: "Home athletes always have an advantage: getting ugly about it is neither necessary nor appropriate."
The Guardian's Laurence Donegan also slagged Own the Podium and opined that Canadians, "in pursuit of their own Olympic dream, appear to have forgotten that national characteristic for which they are best known: politeness."
British sports officials, however, declined to join the Fleet Street bandwagon.
Sebastian Coe, the legendary middle-distance runner and head of the London Olympics organizing committee, applauded Canada's "very, very successful" hosting of the Games and expressed gratitude to Vancouver organizers for offering advice and an example ahead of London 2012.
"Our Games will be better for the help we have had here," he said last month.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has cashed in on his bet with U.S. President Barack Obama over the Olympic men's gold-medal hockey game.
The U.S. president's top representative in Canada, Ambassador David Jacobson, delivered a 24-pack of Molson Canadian to the doorstep of 24 Sussex Drive on Friday morning.
Mr. Harper and Mr. Obama had each wagered a box of beer on the outcome of the Canada-U.S. men's Olympic final, which was won by Canada 3-2 in dramatic fashion on Sidney Crosby's overtime goal.
Mr. Obama, through Jacobson, added an extra case of Yuengling, the president's American brew of choice had he won the friendly wager.
"To show there's no hard feelings, the president also threw in a case of Yuengling on top of the Molsons," Jacobson told the prime minister, adding he also wanted to "congratulate the Canadian people on the Games."
"They were great, the athletes were great and the spirit and hospitality were great to my people and around the world."
Mr. Harper responded in kind, lauding the American athletes and visitors to the Games -- and thanking them for making good on their wager.
"David, you guys always fulfil your promises to us and we appreciate it."
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs wore Team Canada's colours during his daily briefing in Washington a week ago after losing a similar bet to Mr. Harper's spokesman Dimitri Soudas.
Mr. Soudas said the two cases of beer would be donated to the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.
Construction will soon be under way on the first Lowe's home improvement store in Saskatchewan at 4555 Gordon Road in Regina, Lowe's Canada announced Thursday.
"Lowe's commitment to expanding throughout Western Canada continues with our first location in Saskatchewan," Alan Huggins, president of Lowe's Canada, said in a press release.
The Regina store will have 103,000 ft2of retail space and offer more than 40,000 home improvement products under one roof.
The store will be located in the Grasslands commercial development, a project of Harvard Developments of Regina, south of Harbour Landing subdivision in southwest Regina.
A separate 32,000 ft2 garden centre will offer a wide selection of flowers, bushes, trees and garden supplies.
The store represents an investment of approximately $20 million and will create up to 150 new jobs, the release said.
With 2009 sales of $47.2 billion US, Lowe's Companies Inc. serves approximately 15 million customers a week. Lowe's operates more than 1,700 home improvement stores in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
Founded in 1946 and based in Mooresville, North Carolina, Lowe's is the second-largest home improvement retailer in the world.
Lowe's opened its first Canadian store in 2007 and currently has 16 stores and employs more than 2,800 in Canada.
Customers at a Walmart store in southern New Jersey are expressing dismay after hearing that someone used the public address system to order "all black people" to leave.
As she left the store Wednesday, customer Sharon Osbourne of Williamstown said she considers Sunday's announcement "appalling, stupid and sad."
A male voice came over the public-address system that evening at a store in Washington Township and calmly announced: "Attention Walmart customers: all black people leave the store now."
Management apologized. Officials with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. say that it was "unacceptable" and that they're trying to determine who made the announcement and how it happened.
Remember Maxime Bernier, the guy who left confidential documents at his ex-girlfriend's house?
Onstage at a swish Ottawa gala in a creamy-white tuxedo, the former foreign affairs minister jokes about his "lost script," which would be a cheeky reference to the lost briefing documents that led to his lost ministerial portfolio.
The political and diplomatic crowd love it.
Onstage in Calgary, before the federal budget, there he was, calling for a freeze on spending growth.
In Quebec's largest daily newspaper, the favourite son from the Beauce urges a go-slow approach to climate change, declaring no "consensus" around the science underpinning claims of global warming. And now here he is, alone on the podium at the Manning Centre's networking conference for conservatives, telling them how the party can do a better job of explaining its policies in Quebec.
Almost two years since his May 2008 resignation from cabinet after it was revealed he had left government briefing documents at the apartment of Julie Couillard, an ex-girlfriend with ties to Montreal bikers, Bernier is suddenly ubiquitous.
Bernier draws a big crowd at the Manning conference. He delivers a lengthy speech, entirely in accented but fluent English, reaching only now and then for the right words to tell the room that many Quebecers are just like them.
"Quebecers don't want the government to take care of them from the cradle to the grave," he says. "I think we have too much government on our backs."
It is classic small-c conservatism served up with a healthy dose of admiration for Reform Party founder Preston Manning, and his former policy writer and current Prime Minister, Stephen Harper.
Their prescriptions in the 1990s for smaller government, lower taxes, a decentralized federation, and less regulation in people's lives were "very courageous," says Bernier.
On climate change, Bernier draws applause when he says there is no "scientific consensus on the causes and extent of global warming," but denies being a denier. "I didn't say that I don't believe in global warming. I don't want global warming to be a religion."
It makes no sense to spend "billions and millions" on it without a scientific underpinning, he adds. It's a strong performance, laced with a shrug of the shoulders when asked by audience members what Quebec wants. How can Canadian conservatives show they care about Quebec and grow the party's fortunes there? Decentralization and smaller government, not token gestures of affection, he answers.
"What Quebecers want is constitutional peace and for us to focus on the economy," he says.
But conservative policies have to be sold to Quebec in French in a way that emphasizes "Quebecers' particularities and sensibilities" or risk alienating them for "negating Quebec's specific character."
"Whether you like this or not, this has been part of Quebec's political culture for two centuries, and it's not going to change anytime soon. To sell conservative policies in Quebec, you have to take this into account."
Later, he's got words of praise for how his federal Conservative party is faring. The party's disappointing results in the last election were due to the inability to correctly "communicate" the messages around arts funding cuts, says Bernier. And he denies his bullish stand on global warming will hurt the cause. He says Quebecers do not vote on single issues. Moreover, he says a number of his caucus colleagues have told him his climate-change comments "helped them in their riding."
Watching from the audience is Tom Flanagan, a University of Calgary political scientist and a former campaign director and top aide to Mr. Harper.
"I guess the campaign has started," Flanagan says with a smile after Bernier's speech.
In Dr. Flanagan's view, Bernier looks as if he is setting the stage for a future leadership bid, and he's seen a few of those. Dr. Flanagan wrote the book Harper's Team, which chronicled Mr. Harper's climb to power.
Even if Bernier's appeal to grassroots conservatives beyond Quebec is uncertain - dependent on who else is in the race, says Flanagan - there are lots of other reasons to run for the top job in any party: higher profile and more say in party policy and where the party goes from here.
But if he does indeed have leadership ambitions, a smiling Bernier is not about to wade into those waters. He shakes his head.
"I have a leader, I am proud of my leader," he says, when asked outright if all of this is about a future leadership bid. "It is only you journalists who write that."
Are you still a loser that uses Windows XP because you are too good to switch to Windows 7? Well, you should probably upgrade. Windows 7 is incredibly excellent in comparison to Windows Vista.
And here's another reason: when Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 9, it won't run on Windows XP.
In fact, it won't run on anything that is an earlier version of Windows than Windows Vista SP2.
The National Hockey League is trying to fast-track a new rule that would punish players who deliver blindside hits to opponents' heads.
The rule, proposed at the league's board of governors meetings in Florida earlier this month, could be instituted before the start of the Stanley Cup playoffs in April, a move believed to be unprecedented in the NHL.
"There are a lot of moving parts," NHL spokesman Frank Brown said Wednesday. "There still are a number of processes that need to be followed. In order for any rule change to be implemented, it needs to be considered by the competition committee, it needs to be approved by the board of governors."
"That's not as easy as flipping a light switch."
The NHL's regular season ends April 11, which doesn't allow much time for the competition committee, which includes five active players, and fully address the proposed rule. The NHL is reportedly preparing a DVD for the league's players featuring examples of what would be allowed under the proposed rule.
Hits to the head have become the NHL's burning issue this season, following serious injuries to Marc Savard of the Boston Bruins and David Booth of the Florida Panthers. Savard is expected to miss the remainder of the season with a severe concussion after he was blindsided by the Pittsburgh Penguins' Matt Cooke on March 7. Booth, meanwhile, was out of the line-up for three months after suffering a concussion when he was hit by Mike Richards of the Philadelphia Flyers in an October 24 game.
Toronto Transit Commission chair Adam Giambrone may be a champion of public transit, but he has nothing against taxis, as records of city councillors' 2009 office expenses show.
Giambrone expensed more than $3,000 in cabs last year, including a trip home after taping an episode of his Ride the Rocket TV show on a streetcar.
About $2,400 came from his office budget, with the rest billed to the Toronto Transit Commission.
Giambrone, like other councillors, has a city-provided Metropass. He also expensed $256 in tokens plus some weekly and monthly Metropasses for his staff, including $173.50 in July for "staff travel."
One cab ride is billed as a "ward survey during the strike," referring to last summer's garbage strike.
For a second year, he also expensed private French lessons, although the $2,299.50 he spent was down from almost $4,000 in 2008. He said last year the expense was justified because he's Toronto's representative at AFMO, an association of French municipalities in Ontario and does interviews with Francophone media.
In total, the TTC chair spent $41,801.90 of his maximum $53,100 budget.
Giambrone (Ward 18, Davenport) dropped out of the mayoral race last month amid a sex scandal in which he lied to the Toronto Star about his relationship with a university student. He has since been defending his chairmanship of the TTC.
In an emailed response to questions from the Toronto Star, Giambrone wrote: "I am on the TTC 4-5 times a day and this is my main mode of transportation. Many people see me on the system everyday and can attest to this."
He added that he walks, cycles, takes public transit and taxis to the many events he attends every day.
"Clearly there are not enough taxis bills submitted for this to be my main mode of transport. There are, however, sometimes when taxis are needed due to time constraints or what I am carrying with me (i.e. files). All expenses fit within the Council policy."
The biggest spender on council was Michael Walker (Ward 22, St. Paul's), who came within $48 of the limit. He announced last week that he is not seeking re-election in the October election.
The lowest spender was, as always in recent years, Rob Ford, who billed taxpayers for nothing, merely notifying city officials he spent $708.78 of his own money on council business.
On Wednesday morning, Ford (Ward 2, Etobicoke North) called Giambrone's cab expenses "ridiculous."
"I've taken two cabs in 10 years of politics and I think they were for fundraising dinners after council," said Ford, who is rumoured to be set to launch a mayoral campaign. "He's the TTC chair -- how does it look that he's taking cabs everywhere?"
Ford said the councillors' office budgets, which don't include $205,557.47 in another budget for the equivalent of three full-time staff members, is "nothing but a slush fund."
He said he doesn't expect other councillors to spend nothing but $20,000 would be more than enough to cover all legitimate expenses, saying the mail-outs, advertisements, skating parties and other similar expenses are "shameless self-promotion that don't benefit the public."
Prime Minister Stephen Harper waltzed through his first interview gig on YouTube on Tuesday and along the way he gave a thumbs-up to the seal hunt and the crackdown on "guns, gangs and drugs" and a firm thumbs-down to legalizing pot.
"The reason drugs are illegal is because they are bad," Mr. Harper said. "And even if these things were legalized, I can predict with a lot of confidence that these would never be respectable businesses run by respectable people."
Canadian Patrick Pichette, Google's bilingual chief financial officer, conducted the interview, and made a point of saying the question about marijuana, which he asked last, won the most votes from those who participated in the YouTube challenge.
"Well, it's a good question," Mr. Harper responded.
The 40-minute interview broke no new policy ground for the prime minister, who appeared relaxed as he gave long, uninterrupted answers to questions posed by Canadians and relayed by video or by Mr. Pichette.
The only hitch was that the interview, taped earlier Tuesday, was posted more than an hour later than was scheduled. A Google official later blamed technical problems for the delay, the problems in uploading an interview that was twice as long as expected.
The questions were straightforward and pressed Mr. Harper on such current hot topics as the $56-billion budget deficit and his government's current handling of the Afghan detainee issue.
Someone identified as B. Jonte of Waterloo, Ontario, asked Mr. Harper why the government was not more open on the Afghan prisoner issue and why it always responds to "legitimate" questions about the issue with "'support our troops' and look the other way."
Mr. Harper said he disagreed with the premise of the question and said that it's important to state there is no evidence Canadian soldiers have done anything wrong. He pointed to his appointment of Frank Iacobucci, a former Supreme Court justice, to review the contents of still secret documents to decide what can be released as proof of his openness on the issue.
Mr. Harper flatly rejected a questioner's appeal to cancel the 2010 commercial seal hunt, saying there is "no danger" of the seal population disappearing and that his government would continue to "vigorously defend our sealers" in the face of domestic and international criticism.
"There is no scientific evidence that says the seal population is in jeopardy," he said.
On mandatory sentencing, he said that although he didn't think crime was out of control in the country, there are "worrying growth areas, particularly if you look at the areas of guns, gangs and drugs, and this is a growth area, not just in Canada, but around the world."
Mr. Harper's YouTube appearance was a clear bid to try to connect with an audience that considers YouTube part of its daily online diet, which is sad for those who visit YouTube on a regular basis. The Prime Minister's Office described the move as a chance for "Canadians to have unfiltered and immediate access to information."
The interview was taped at Rideau Gate, the Government of Canada's elegant guest house situated across the street from the prime minister's Sussex Drive residence.
Google spokeswoman Wendy Rozeluk said that the tape was unedited, and that there was no vetting of the questions by the Prime Minister's Office.
However, Mr. Harper did not go into the interview blind. He and his staff, like anybody else with access to the Internet, were able to tap into YouTube's Talk Canada site to read the questions in advance to quickly ascertain the most popular subjects.
Mr. Harper's appearance was the finale of an arrangement made by the PMO and Google, which owns YouTube, to carry a live feed of the speech the prime minister gave in the House of Commons last Thursday in response to his government's throne speech.
U.S. President Barack Obama engaged in a similar YouTube event last month after his State of the Union address.
YouTube users were encouraged to post their questions for Mr. Harper, with a promise the most popular questions would be asked at the virtual town hall on Tuesday night.
By the time voting was cut off on Sunday afternoon, a total of 5,128 people had cast 170,000 votes on 1,797 questions, according to the tally posted on YouTube's Talk Canada site.
A Conservative member of the Ontario legislature says that Toronto should form its own province because communities outside the metropolis are not being heard.
Bill Murdoch, who represents the riding of Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound, says the idea came to him at an agriculture meeting where recurring complaints brought him to the conclusion "we're never going to change this as long as we have a Toronto-driven government running Ontario."
The "straw that broke the camel's back" is the current spread of coyotes in his parts of the province, he said, a matter locals would like to settle by placing a bounty on them.
"They'll never let you do that in Toronto," he said.
He says the sheer size of the city, and its voting power, means that Queen's Park is more likely to cater to Toronto's every whim.
Murdoch admits the goal has little to no chance of success, but says the suggestion would at least launch a debate.
Honda Canada announced Tuesday that it will recall thousands of vehicles after fielding owner complaints involving brake pedals. The recall involves 24,680 Odyssey and 4,137 Element vehicles in Canada from the 2007-2008 model years. The company plans to modify the vehicle stability assist modulator, which is connected to the ABS braking system.
The announcement in Canada coincides with a recall of more than 400,000 vehicles in the United States involving similar models.
Honda said the complaints reported that the brakes felt "soft" or "gradually exhibit a pedal height that gets lower (closer to the floor) before the vehicle stops." In vehicles reporting this, the condition increased over time.
"It's not something that suddenly happened" but occurred over time as customers reported "my brake pedal feels funny," Richard Jacobs of Honda Canada Inc., said Tuesday.
No confirmed accidents were reported in Canada as a result of the brake pedal concern, but some have been reported in the United States.
"There have been a few accidents and several minor injuries (in the U.S.)," said Jacobs. "But it's mostly been just from consumer concern over the feel of the pedal; it seems to be a little more 'spongy.'"
Honda said some modulators could allow small quantities of air in, which over time, could accumulate and result in the "soft brake pedal" or "low brake pedal" being reported by customers. The fix will remove air from the units and seal it so as to prevent it from coming in, something Jacobs described as "a very quick in-and-out procedure."
Honda said not all recalled models reported these issues, but the company was recalling all units to "assure all customers that their vehicles will perform correctly." The company plans to notify customers beginning at the end of April, so can they bring their vehicles in to Honda dealers.
Jacobs said people concerned with their vehicle's current performance would be asked to bring them in immediately.
"There are things we can do right now but there's a specific process that will be ready," in the next few weeks, he said.
The recall was announced as the chief executive of competitor Toyota Canada was expressing regret at the "anxiety and inconvenience" that the company's recent recalls have caused its Canadian customers.
"Over the past few months, many Canadians have wondered whether Toyota vehicles are safe, and we regret that this has caused our customers both anxiety and inconvenience," Toyota Canada CEO Yoichi Tomihara told the House of Commons transport committee.
Toyota Canada executives were summoned to testify before the committee to explain why the company has been forced to recall millions of vehicles worldwide.
Toyota has recalled more than eight million of its vehicles since November 2009 because of instances of unintended acceleration.
Canadian movie pirates were put on notice yesterday after a Montreal DVD bootlegger pointed out by the FBI was sentenced to two-and-a-half months in prison.
Geremi Adam, who is 27 years old, is the first Canadian to be convicted under a new Criminal Code provision that bars the illegal videotaping of a film in a commercial movie theatre.
Quebec Court judge Claude Parent ordered the guy to serve an additional seven days in jail before release as he has been in custody since January 12 while awaiting sentencing.
During his trial, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the FBI pointed to Adam as the main movie pirate in Montreal, which is a hotbed for bootleg DVD making owing to the city's two main languages, French and English.
Canadian film distributors and exhibitors applauded the conviction and sentencing under new changes to the federal Copyright Act, which bars the unauthorized recording of movies in local theatres for personal or commercial use.
"Film theft costs jobs and affects thousands of Canadians who make their livelihoods in the movie business or in related industries," Patrick Roy, president and CEO of Montreal-based distributor Alliance Vivafilm, said after Adam was sentenced
Ellis Jacob, president and CEO of Cineplex Entertainment, Canada's largest movie chain, added: "We hope that today's judgment will provide a further deterrent to would-be criminals that illegally recording a movie in a theatre can result in jail time."
Jacob in 2007 came under fire from Twentieth Century Fox, as his own chain and other Canadian movie theatres, especially in Montreal, were cited as a major source of illegal recording of Hollywood movies.
With movie piracy suddenly a hot button issue, the Government of Canada soon after introduced and eventually passed anti-pirating legislation to put local DVD bootleggers out of business.
What do you do when you are in a romantic situation with your boyfriend/girlfriend? Well, typically, you would kiss. And here in Canada, there's no law against kissing in public, or is there? Well, we won't go into that, because it's Canada.
But, in Dubai, things are different. A British couple in Dubai that was caught kissing in public may be going to prison over their romance--for up to a month. Why? Well, it's all because an Emirati woman/mother complained that her child saw them kissing and had seen their "indiscretion."
The couple, a British man living in Dubai and a female friend, were arrested in November on accusations of kissing and touching each other intimately in public and consuming alcohol, their lawyer said. They were ordered to be imprisoned for a month.
The case is the third time in less than two years in which British couples have hit the headlines by falling foul of decency laws in Dubai, a flashy Muslim emirate popular with sun-seeking Western tourists and expatriates.
A lawyer for the potentially-cute couple that launched an appeal on Sunday said that there had been no inappropriate kissing and the two were just friends. A verdict in the appeal is expected on April 4, 2010.
"There was no lip kissing. It was just a normal greeting that is not considered offensive," lawyer Khalaf al-Hosani told the court, adding the complainant's testimony was contradictory.
The British man's mother in London said her son, Ayman Najafi, had vowed to clear his name.
"My Ayman is a good boy He's very wise and mature. I can't believe it," his mother Maida Najafi was quoted as saying in The Independent. "He knows the rules over there. He would never do that. He wouldn't even do it over here."
The couple, who are free on bail, were also fined 1,000 dirham ($272) for illegal consumption of alcohol, the lawyer said. They are to be deported after the completion of their jail sentence. Wow, you kiss someone and you go to prison, and eventually get deported.
Dubai's foreign population has expanded rapidly in recent years as expatriates flocked to the Gulf Arab trade and tourism hub for its tax-free earnings and year-round sunshine.
The changes have challenged the Emirati population, which is now vastly outnumbered by foreigners, raising concern that their emirate's rapid pace of growth is a threat to their social and religious identity in what remains a deeply conservative region.
In a high-profile case in 2008, a British couple narrowly escaped jail after a court found them guilty of engaging in drunken sexual activity out of wedlock, and for doing so in public on a beach in the emirate. They were sentenced to three months in prison followed by deportation, but had their jail terms overturned on appeal.
In a separate case this year, a British couple who shared a hotel room managed to escape trial in Dubai for having sex out of wedlock by producing a marriage certificate. A British embassy spokesman said it could confirm that a British national was arrested in November and the mission had provided consular assistance, but gave no further details.
Sony and the estate of late music legend Michael Jackson have signed a record-breaking 250-million-dollar deal for distribution rights through 2017, U.S. media said Tuesday.
The blockbuster deal involving as many as 10 new Jackson projects may include computer videogames as well as music and film releases, the Los Angeles Times said.
"The audio rights span across different projects," said Rob Stringer, chairman of the U.S. label Columbia Epic, a division of Sony, reported the Times. "There may be theater. There may be films and movies. There may be computer games -- or multimedia platforms that I don't know about today that will happen in 2015."
Described by Sony and Jackson's estate as the most lucrative music contract on record, the deal would guarantee the late singer's heirs at least 200 million dollars, the Wall Street Journal said. The deal would go a long way to easing burdens left behind by Jackson, whose lavish lifestyle and spending sprees marked up hundreds of millions of dollars of debt.
After his death, a Los Angeles court named Jackson's mother, Katherine Jackson, 79, guardian of his three children, Prince Michael, 12, Paris, 11 and Prince Michael II, 7, as well as of his estate, which includes his Neverland ranch and rights he held to songs by The Beatles.
Sony's contract "exceeds all previous industry benchmarks," entertainment lawyer John Branca, one of the estate's executors, told the New York Times. The closest comparable contracts would be rapper Jay-Z's 2008 accord with Live Nation worth 150 million dollars for recordings and concerts.
Since his death on June 25 last year, Sony has sold some 31 million Jackson albums worldwide and his estate, by the first anniversary of his death, is expected to have made 250 million dollars from the sale of music, merchandise and tickets to the posthumous concert movie "This Is It," the Journal said. Jackson died at his rented mansion in Los Angeles after an overdose of powerful prescription drugs, as he was preparing to perform a series of comeback concerts in London.
The star's doctor Conrad Murray last month pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter in connection with the sudden death, but has admitted administering the drugs to the singer. The first recording under the new contract, according to the New York Times, will be the soundtrack for "This Is It" -- which showed Jackson rehearsing his comeback concerts in the weeks leading up to his death -- and by November a new album of unreleased recordings.
Branca said his co-executor on the estate John McClain is already working on selecting the unreleased material.
"They've got over 60 unreleased recordings that they're choosing from," Branca said he was told by McClain, according to the LA Times. "The first album will have around 10. There's some very recent stuff and vintage stuff that deserves to be shared with Michael's fans."
Branca also noted that the other high-earning careers held by dead music legends indicated the value of Jackson's brand.
"If you look at Elvis and the Beatles, and how their brands are thriving, they only hint at what the future holds for Michael," Branca said.
In October, Forbes Magazine named Jackson as number three in its annual Top-Earning Dead Celebrities list, earning 90 million dollars in the months after his death.
Fashion legend Yves Saint Laurent topped the list with 350 million dollars in posthumous earnings, while Elvis Presley came just behind Jackson with 55 million dollars.
Marijuana activist Marc Emery's battle to avoid going to a U.S. prison got a boost this week in the House of Commons for some apparent reason.
Three MPs -- Libby Davies of the New Democratic Party, Ujjal Dosanjh of the Liberals and Scott Reid of the Conservatives, presented a petition asking Justice Minister Rob Nicholson not to sign extradition papers that would send Emery south to serve a five-year sentence for selling marijuana seeds online in 2005.
More than 12,000 Canadians signed the petition.
"In Vancouver, everywhere I go, people make a point of expressing good wishes that I don't get extradited," Emery said Monday.
His removal order has been sitting on the justice minister's desk since January 8, 2010.
"Nine weeks have passed and he hasn't made that decision, so something is keeping him from doing it," said Emery, who noted the Conservatives could score political points, especially with young voters, if his extradition is halted.
All three MPs told the Commons that Emery's extradition smacks of unfairness.
Canadian courts have established a person convicted of selling marijuana seeds should face a fine of $200. In the U.S., a person could be sentenced to life in prison for the same crime.
Emery, 52, and two employees were arrested in 2005 by Canadian police acting as agents for the U.S. department of justice. He is not facing a charge in Canada.
Reid, an Ontario MP, told the Commons that the Extradition Act states the justice minister "shall refuse to surrender a person when that surrender could involve unjust or undue or oppressive actions by the country to which he is being extradited."
Davies, the MP for Vancouver East, said she has found broad support for Emery.
"People don't understand why Marc Emery should be extradited. He was never prosecuted in Canada for these crimes, and I think people see it as a question of Canadian sovereignty," she said.
Dosanjh, MP for Vancouver South, said: "It appears to me that we have assisted a foreign government arrest a man for doing something that we wouldn't arrest him for doing in Canada."
"As a former premier and a former attorney-general, I sense a certain degree of unfairness in the process."
Congressional Democrats took the first step on Monday toward a quick final vote on a healthcare overhaul and House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi vowed to muster the votes needed to pass it.
With a close vote expected later this week, House Democrats hustled to line up support and President Barack Obama hit the road in Ohio to push his case for a sweeping overhaul of the $2.5 trillion healthcare system.
Republican opponents promised to make Democrats who support the healthcare bill pay in November's congressional elections, when Democratic control of Congress could be threatened by political fallout over the issue.
But Democratic leaders counselled nervous lawmakers to hold firm and pass the bill, which has been the focus of a political battle that has mired the Congress in legislative gridlock for nine months.
"We need courage," Obama told a crowd in Strongsville, Ohio, during his third road trip in the past week to rally support for his top legislative priority. "This debate is about far more than politics."
The House Budget Committee began the drive toward a final vote, advancing changes sought by House Democrats and Obama to the Senate-passed healthcare bill. Democrats Chet Edwards and Allen Boyd, who opposed the House-passed bill in November, broke with their party on the largely party-line 21-16 vote.
House Democratic vote-counters say they are still short of the votes necessary to pass the overhaul but Pelosi was confident they will hit the magic number by week's end.
"When we bring the bill to the floor, we will have the votes," Pelosi told reporters.
The overhaul would constitute the most dramatic changes to the healthcare system in more than four decades, extending coverage to more than 30 million uninsured Americans and banning insurance practices like refusing coverage to those with pre-existing medical conditions.
Health insurer shares were mixed on Monday as the broader market was little changed. The Morgan Stanley Healthcare Payor index was up 0.2% and the S&P Managed Health Care index dropped 1.1%.
Obama also maintained the upbeat tone put forth by the White House during the weekend, telling ABC News: "I believe we are going to get the votes. We're going to make this happen."
Republicans condemn the health bill as a costly government takeover that would lead to higher insurance premiums and less consumer choice. They plan to launch a series of television ads against House Democrats who support the overhaul.
Wow, attack ads... not surprising.
"If there's one thing the American people didn't want, it was for us to make healthcare more bureaucratic and expensive," Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and House Republican leader John Boehner said in a joint commentary in The Wall Street Journal.
Democrats are waiting for final cost estimates from the Congressional Budget Office and more advice from the Senate parliamentarian before unveiling a final package and deciding the exact process for passing it. In a two-step procedure, House Democrats want to approve the Senate's version of the bill and make changes sought by Obama and House Democrats through a separate measure passed under budget reconciliation rules.
Those rules require only a simple majority in the 100-member Senate, bypassing the need for 60 votes to overcome Republican procedural hurdles.
Pelosi said it was undecided whether the House would take a direct vote on the Senate-passed bill or include it in a separate vote on the reconciliation package. The House Rules Committee will meet on Thursday to determine the process.
House Democratic leaders met in Pelosi's office on Monday to discuss their options but announced no final decisions. "When we have the substance then we will decide on the process," Pelosi said.
The changes in the reconciliation bill include expanding subsidies to make insurance more affordable and extending more state aid for the Medicaid program for the poor.
They also would eliminate a controversial Senate deal exempting Nebraska from paying for Medicaid expansion costs, close a "doughnut hole" in prescription drug coverage for seniors and water down a tax on high-cost insurance plans.
Republicans want Democrats to vote directly on the Senate bill, which includes unpopular provisions like the Nebraska Medicaid deal, so they can use the vote against them in November.
"To resort to these kinds of tactics to deal with this is just plain wrong," Representative David Dreier, the senior Republican on the House Rules Committee, told reporters.
Now that mixed tapes have disappeared from today's lexicon, it's time consumers cough up a little cash for a private copying levy for iPods and other MP3 players, according to a private member's bill tabled in the House of Commons Tuesday.
The Government of Canada, when run by the Liberals, first introduced private copying provisions in Canada's Copyright Act in 1997 so musicians could be compensated when consumers purchased blank tapes or compact discs to make mixed tapes or CDs.
The levy, set by an independent board, is charged to manufacturers and importers and passed on to retailers and consumers. The money is then distributed to musicians and other copyright holders.
Charlie Angus, the NDP's digital affairs critic who is also a musician, coincidentally, says it's time the copyright law is updated so the levy is extended to the next generation of devices that consumers using for copying music for personal use.
"Digital locks and suing fans are not going to prevent people from copying music from one format to another," he said. "The levy is a solution that works. By updating it, we will ensure that artists are getting paid for their work, and that consumers aren't criminalized for moving their legally-obtained music from one format to another."
Angus' proposed amendments to copyright act also include a "fair dealing" to permit the reasonable use of copyrighted materials in some circumstances. This would expand the exemption to non-commercial copyright infringements for researchers, innovators, educators and artists when copyrighted material is used appropriately.
The move on Tuesday by the NDP copyright critic is a direct challenge to the Conservative government, as the Conservative government is expected to introduce a copyright reform package in the current session Parliament.
Donna Simpson, who is 42 years old and lives in Old Bridge, New Jersey, already tips the scales at 600 pounds but says she won't be satisfied until she's gained enough weight for herself to weigh 1,000 pounds, to grab the title of world's fattest woman, the London Daily Mail reported.
That's why she's gone on a junk-food-eating-spree. However, Simpson has given herself two years to hit the millennium mark. She earns her chow bucks, a whopping $750 a week, with a website where men pay her to watch her eat fast food.
"I love eating and people love watching me eat," Simpson said. "It makes people happy, and I'm not harming anyone."
Sure, she's not harming anyone but herself.
"I do love cakes and sweet things. Doughnuts are my favourite," she said. She's also fond of burgers and fries - an important part of her 12,000-calorie-a-day diet - and carefully avoids exercise.
Simpson already holds the Guinness World Record as the fattest mom, 532 pounds when she gave birth in 2007. She says her boyfriend Philippe, 49, eggs her on.
"I think he'd like it if I was bigger. He's a real belly man."
The chief executive of Toyota Canada on Tuesday expressed regret at the "anxiety and inconvenience" that the company's recent recalls has caused its Canadian customers.
"Over the past few months, many Canadians have wondered whether Toyota vehicles are safe, and we regret that this has caused our customers both anxiety and inconvenience," Toyota Canada CEO Yoichi Tomihara told the House of Commons transport committee.
Toyota Canada executives were summoned to testify before the committee to explain why the company has been forced to recall millions of vehicles in worldwide.
"Nothing is more important to Toyota than the safety and reliability of our products to our customers," said Toyota North America president Yoshi Inaba.
Stephen Beatty, a managing director with Toyota Canada, noted that the company decided to recall vehicles here, despite the fact that all-weather floor mats that caused problems with accelerators in the United States have a different design in Canada.
"In a perfect world, there would be no recalls, and that is always our goal. But we also know we cannot assume a perfect world," said Beatty, noting that Toyota's parent company has developed a six-point global plan to renew its focus on quality since the recalls.
However, Liberal MP Joe Volpe suggested the company had skirted a dangerous line in the pursuit of profits.
Calling it "a good day for victims of crime," Saskatchewan's justice minister applauded a court decision ordering killer-turned-author Colin Thatcher to turn over the profits of his book Final Appeal: Anatomy of a Frame.
In a decision released Monday, Court of Queen's Bench Justice Ted Zarzeczny upheld the provincial Profits of Criminal Notoriety Act. The law allows the government to seize any profits from those convicted of certain serious crimes who "directly or indirectly" recount their offences for profit.
"Victims of crime should be able to take some comfort knowing that people will not profit as a result of these things," Justice Minister Don Morgan told reporters.
Neither Thatcher nor a spokesman for ECW Press Ltd., his Toronto-based book publisher, could be reached for comment. Thatcher had argued the law was unconstitutional, impacting his free speech rights, and that his book didn't fit within the law's scope. Zarzeczny disagreed.
The Government of Saskatchewan had initially resisted enacting such a law last year before abruptly reversing itself. In the words of Zarzeczny, "Word of the proposed publication of such a book prompted a public and political uproar." When the government passed the act on May 14 last year, it was made retroactive to June 1, 2007 to encompass Thatcher's book, released last September.
"This is something we introduced on a very quick basis as you are aware. So we are pleased it was upheld," Morgan said.
Thatcher, who exhausted every legal remedy in fighting his murder conviction, has 30 days to file an appeal of the ruling.
Morgan was unsure exactly how much money is potentially at stake, but said the Justice Ministry will move quickly to clarify the amount. The book has reportedly been selling well. Under his contract, Thatcher received an initial advance of $5,000, to be applied against royalties of 10% of book sales on the first 5,000 copies sold, 12% on the next 5,000 and 14% on anything over 10,000 copies.
It's also unclear exactly what will become of the seized profits. The legislation provides for the money to be given to either the family of the crime victim or victim services. Morgan has acknowledged that could mean the recipients would be Thatcher and Wilson's three adult children, who are oddly supportive of their father. Wilson also has siblings in the U.S.
"I wouldn't want to see the money in Mr. Thatcher's hands either directly or indirectly. So we'll have to look at it and see what's appropriate. We have no past history of dealing with this so we are in new territory," said Morgan, adding the final decision will be made by the Saskatchewan Party cabinet.
Thatcher, the son of a former Liberal premier and a former Progressive Conservative MLA himself, was convicted in 1984 of first-degree murder in the shooting death of his ex-wife JoAnn Wilson. He was paroled in 2006 after serving 22 years.
Zarzeczny's decision opens with a bit of literary flourish, uncharacteristic of often dry, legal rulings, as he notes, "JoAnn Wilson was brutally murdered January 21, 1983 in the garage of her home in Regina across the street from the Saskatchewan Legislative Building. Her murder shocked the Regina and Saskatchewan community, as did her shooting and wounding at that same residence a year and one-half or so prior."
"This notorious homicide became even more so when, after a lengthy period of police investigation, Colin Thatcher was accused and ultimately, on November 6, 1984, convicted of her murder in the first degree."
In handling the challenge to his book himself, Thatcher told the court in December that he's been steadfast in proclaiming his innocence and that's part of the reason his book doesn't fit within the scope of the act.
"I'm hardly going to be recounting a crime I did not commit," he said, adding the book was intended to be an analysis from the defence's perspective, questioning the evidence that put him behind bars.
But Zarzeczny said Thatcher's book clearly falls under the law because it recounts the circumstances relating to Wilson's murder and Thatcher's feelings on the case. The judge also noted the ending of Final Anatomy "engages in what can only be described as either a chilling or bizarre recounting of a scenario" of how the murder could have taken place.
The judge ruled the law did not violate Thatcher's Charter rights since he can write the book, just not profit from it. If the law did violate his rights, "the Act constitutes a reasonable limit demonstrably justifiable in a free and democratic society," Zarzeczny added.
While four other provinces have similar laws, this is the first time such legislation had been challenged in Canada, and the ruling could establish a precedent.
The Saskatchewan Party government points out that the NDP Opposition is "obstructionist," while the NDP accuses the Saskatchewan Party of "bullying."
Another game of chicken is underway at the legislative assembly over sitting hours, and the ultimate result may be some long, talk-filled days ahead.
Saskatchewan Party House Leader Dan D'Autremont has tabled a motion that would allow the legislative assembly to sit from 8 a.m. to midnight.
He told reporters it's necessary because the NDP is not allowing legislation to proceed to committee and won't agree on a specified amount of time for debating each bill, meaning each must be allotted the maximum 20 hours.
The NDP has "given no indication whatsoever that any of the pieces of legislation will move forward in a timely fashion," said D'Autremont. "This is not something we want to do. My colleagues and I would prefer not to do this. But we need to be prepared if we have to go to extended hours."
But NDP House Leader Kevin Yates said the government is looking for something the NDP never asked for when it was in power.
He said he indicated in a meeting with D'Autremont that the NDP was prepared to work with the government but simply wanted more information on what it was bringing forward. The government then sprung the notion of extended hours, said Yates.
"We need to see everything before we know what it is. The other thing is, like I told him, is that each piece of legislation impacts various groups and we're consulting with those groups and there may be issues in these bills that we don't understand, so there may be amendments we want to make to those bills. All that work takes time," said Yates, noting the Opposition had co-operated with the government in passing three bills when the session began last fall.
While by agreement the legislative assembly has a set start and end date, Yates said there are provisions in the rules that allow for it to be automatically extended by five days. But D'Autremont said that's exactly what the Opposition wants -- to instead have the number of days extended to allow it more question periods to blast the government.
This is not the first time the two sides have wrangled over extended hours.
In the spring sitting of 2008, the legislature briefly adopted extended sitting times of 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. when the government wanted to ensure there was enough time for debate on the budget and six bills it wanted passed. The NDP resisted a unilateral change to the legislature rules that it said was the result of government bungling of the legislative schedule.
An agreement was reached after about ten days, although there were only extended hours used on three days. If an agreement isn't reached this time, the current motion will come forward for debate on Tuesday.
Five couples wed at the Municipal Palace in Mexico City, which legalized same-sex marriage in December. The law authorizing such unions has been challenged by the federal government.
Mayor Marcelo Ebrard was on hand to witness four of the five couples signing their marriage certificates at the end of a 20-minute ceremony. The fifth couple, flying in from another state to take advantage of the new rule, arrived late and was married after the others.
Mexico City's left-leaning legislature approved gay marriage and opened the way for adoptions by homosexual couples on December 21, provoking a wave of uproar from religious groups in the Catholic nation and conservatives, including President Felipe Calderon.
The attorney general has lodged an appeal against the move at the Supreme Court and a string of states are seeking to apply measures to specifically prohibit gay marriages. Two men were recently married in Argentina, the country's second gay marriage, after a judge approved the union ahead of possible legislation there, too.
Lol Kin Castaneda, 33, and Judith Vazquez, became the first gay couple to marry. They wore matching ivory dresses as they led the multiple ceremonies.
The couple met nine years ago, when Miss Castaneda was already an activist for gay rights and Miss Vazquez was planning to become a nun.
"They're now a family recognized by the law, with rights and obligations," said Hegel Cortes, the judge, as the couple kissed.
What do you do when you're old but still healthy and feel that you have nothing to live for? Well, you would commit suicide. Well, that's what some people would think.
And in the Netherlands, this appears to soon become reality.
The country's MPs will discuss the "right to die" proposals after a campaign forced a debate by collecting over 100,000 signatures in support.
The influential Dutch "Right to Die" campaign, active since 1973, has launched new "vrijwillig levenseinde", or "of free will", demands to extend euthanasia beyond assisted suicide for terminally ill people.
The group has proposed training non-medical staffers to administer a lethal injection to healthy people over the age of 70 that "consider their lives complete" and want to die.
Under the plans, the suicide assistants would be certified and would be required to make sure that patients were not temporarily depressed and had a "heartfelt and enduring desire" to die.
Marie-Jose Grotenhuis, the campaign's spokeswoman, said: "We've been overwhelmed by the amount of reactions, especially because people took it so seriously and reactions were mostly positive."
Euthanasia was legalised in Holland in 2002 and the new proposals have been backed by the majority of people in Dutch opinion polls.
The Royal Dutch Medical Association is divided over calls to extend euthanasia beyond those suffering from painful terminal illnesses and has set up a committee to examine the proposals.
Sander Hofman, the association's spokesman, said: "For instance, a doctor probably has a role in easing the suffering of a person who is refusing to eat or drink."
Several European countries, including neighbouring Belgium, allow euthanasia for terminally ill people who wish to die. Britain and France allow terminally ill people to refuse medical treatment but stop short of allowing active assisted suicide.
The Dutch legalisation for euthanasia for the terminally ill was preceded by decades of negotiations that attached stringent conditions and medical supervision. Up to 2,500 euthanasia cases were reported in Holland in 2009, up nearly 10%, rising over the last decade as doctors have used to the practice.
But, even if the Dutch parliament approves the extension of euthanasia to health elderly people, any new legislation would take over a decade to implement.
The seemingly unstoppable Canadian dollar posted its ninth straight winning session Wednesday and is destined for parity with the U.S. greenback this summer, says a top Canadian economist.
The loonie grew ever closer to that mark Wednesday, closing at 97.48 US cents and flirting with a high last seen five months ago. It has been on a tear since the government released data early this month showing the economy growing at a blistering five per cent in the most recent quarter.
The growth figures, combined with a slightly more hawkish tone from the Bank of Canada, have prompted traders to conclude the bank will soon raise rates to keep the economy from overheating.
Avery Shenfeld, the chief economist at CIBC World Markets, said Wednesday he expects a rate hike in July and growing demand for Canadian investments will drive the loonie beyond parity with the U.S. dollar.
It will climb as high as $1.02 US by September, before dropping to 97 cents US by year's end, he forecasts.
"If, as we expect, the (Bank of Canada) is out in front of the U.S. Federal Reserve by a couple of quarters (in raising interest rates), a higher Canadian dollar will help tighten monetary conditions," Shenfeld said in a report. "It's easy to see the Canadian dollar running a few cents through parity after the first hike."
Many consider the bank to be between a rock and a hard place. If it raises rates, it will push the dollar to parity and put a serious damper on exporters. But if it does not raise rates, then the bank would appear soft on inflation and also possibly damage the economy.
"I think it's an error. They will raise rates, but they shouldn't," said Benjamin Tal, also an economist with CIBC. "It will cool down the economy a little bit, so the hope is they will not do too much. They don't really have a clear target, so they will test the waters with maybe 50 to 75 basis points and take it from there."
The dollar's last dance with parity occurred in July 2008, when oil prices spiked above $145 US a barrel. The Bank of Canada made what it referred to as a conditional commitment almost a year ago to keep record low interest rates of 0.25% steady until the second half of 2010.
With an economic recovery now apparently taking root, many are banking on Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney acting sooner rather than later.
"Nobody should be surprised if the Bank of Canada begins hiking rates as soon as its June-end line in the sand has passed," said Shenfeld, adding he expects rate increases will be implemented at a measured pace. "There's the uncertainty that the Bank of Canada will still face regarding the global outlook after 2010. It's not just Canada that will be weathering a fiscal tightening; it's the U.S., Europe, Japan and China as well."
"Banking reforms could restrain lending room globally, and the U.S. housing market, the root source of the 2008-09 shock, is still a mess. Going full bore with rate hikes in the first year or so of recovery risks having to do an about-face if any of these minefields blow up," said Shenfeld.
What do you do when you are a celebrity talk show host that recently lost your job? Well, like many of those who are unemployed and bored, you would obviously surf the Internets aimlessly, and even go on Twitter.
So, recently, Conan O'Brien was bored and decided to follow a Twitter user named Sarah Killen at random.
Now, Killen has tons of followers and she answers their questions about her life, including her wedding, and other stuff.
In fact, Killen has described some perks of being followed by Conan O'Brien... she has received wine, a limo, a wedding gown for her wedding day and a new computer... and meeting rapper Ludacris.
A Windsor surgeon who performed two unnecessary mastectomies is seeking to have her privileges reinstated at Windsor's Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital in the midst of three investigations into her practice. Dr. Barbara Heartwell, who is under investigation by the hospital, the Ontario Ministry of Health and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, will make her case before a panel of hospital board members at a formal hearing today.
Heartwell's troubles began three weeks ago, when Hotel-Dieu announced she had misread a pathology report and performed an unnecessary mastectomy last fall on Leamington, Ontario woman Laurie Johnston, who never had breast cancer.
On February 23, Heartwell voluntarily stopped performing surgeries at Hotel-Dieu after it was revealed she also removed Janice Laporte's cancer-free breast in 2001.
But three days later, Heartwell "unexpectedly" withdrew her agreement and wanted to return to the operating room. In a rare move, Hotel-Dieu's interim chief of staff at the time, Dr. Kevin Tracey, immediately suspended her privileges, hospital officials said Tuesday.
Under the Ontario Public Hospitals Act and hospital bylaws governing professional staff, Heartwell was entitled to have her suspension reviewed by Hotel-Dieu's medical advisory committee -- comprised of leading physicians at the hospital -- within five days. The committee then makes a recommendation to the hospital's board of directors on whether to reinstate privileges.
A panel of board members will hear submissions Wednesday from the medical advisory committee and Heartwell, who will attend the hearing with her lawyer.
Hospital board chairman Egidio Sovran said the board will act as a quasi-judicial decision maker and "must act impartially in accordance with relevant legislation."
The board will make its decision after considering arguments from both sides.
Heartwell can appeal the decision to the Health Professions Appeal and Review Board, an independent tribunal that holds hearings concerning doctors' hospital privileges. Hotel-Dieu is currently reviewing all of Heartwell's past cases. The Ministry of Health also got involved recently, sending investigators to Windsor.
In addition, the ministry is also reviewing about 3,000 pathology reports following the January 4 suspension of another Hotel-Dieu medical official, pathologist Dr. Olive Williams, over errors in her work. Williams, who analyzed specimens for all three hospitals in the area, has since resigned from Hotel-Dieu.
The College of Physicians and Surgeons is investigating both Heartwell and Williams.
Remember when Brian Mulroney was the Prime Minister of Canada? Well, I can't say that I can, as he became the Prime Minister of Canada before I was born, and stopped being the Prime Minister when was I was about three years old. Well, he is one of the masterminds behind the North American Free Trade Agreement, which saw free trade between Canada, the United States and Mexico, or NAFTA, as it is called.
Well, the Conservative government sought Tuesday to fend off a new trade threat from U.S. lawmakers pushing legislation to scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement. The anti-NAFTA bill, which has 28 Democratic and Republican sponsors, comes only a month after Canada and the U.S. reached a deal to end a protracted dispute over Buy American provisions in the $787 billion economic stimulus package.
With U.S. midterm elections coming in November and the American economy still losing jobs, the legislation could portend another wave of protectionist sentiment on Capitol Hill.
"We are closely following this bill, of course," International Trade Minister Peter Van Loan told reporters in Ottawa. "Our evaluation is that this is certainly inconsistent with the direction that the Barack Obama administration has chosen."
At issue is legislation introduced last week in the House of Representatives by Representative Gene Taylor, a Mississippi Democrat who cited America's near-10% unemployment rate as the motivation for trying to kill the trade agreement involving Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.
Taylor, a member of the influential Blue Dog caucus of conservative Democrats, is a 10-term congressman who voted against passage of NAFTA in 1993. He blames the treaty for a 29% drop in U.S. manufacturing employment over the ensuing 17 years.
"At a time when 10 to 12% of the American people are unemployed, I think Congress has an obligation to put people back to work," Taylor said when introducing the bill. "Timing is everything in life and it's the right time to pass this legislation. Proponents have had more than enough time to make this work. It didn't."
The legislation proposes the U.S. withdraw from NAFTA within six months of the bill's passage.
Taylor has assembled an eclectic crew of Democratic and Republican co-sponsors for the legislation. On the political left are Ohio congressman Dennis Kucinich, a perennial presidential candidate, and Pete Visclosky, the Indiana lawmaker responsible for inserting the Buy American language into last year's stimulus bill. Obviously, someone has too much American pride.
Among the three Republican backers of the bill is Texas Representative Ron Paul. Yeah, how did we know that Texas would come into the picture?
Paul, a former GOP presidential candidate, has stoked fears of a NAFTA superhighway "the width of several football fields" that would stretch from Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico.
The anti-NAFTA lawmakers face a tough challenge in advancing their legislation at a time when Congress is focused on passage of a healthcare bill. They also face significant resistance from President Barack Obama, who used his state of the union address in January to champion free trade as a way for the U.S. to grow its way of the recession.
The Buy American deal struck in February between the Government of Canada and the U.S. government was a "demonstration of the Obama administration's commitment to free trade," Van Loan said.
"And as such, we are optimistic this (anti-NAFTA legislation) will not come to pass."
Still, Canadian officials are wary because anti-NAFTA sentiment tends to spike ahead of elections. One national U.S. media outlet has described an "outbreak of protectionist fever" in Congress as the November midterms approach.
"NAFTA has become a moniker for anxiety about globalization and worries about the economy," said Maryscott Greenwood, executive director of the Canadian American Business Council. "There's a lack of awareness about the important role that Canada and the United States play in each other's economies. There is just a real fundamental misunderstanding about how integrated our supply chains are."
NDP Leader Jack Layton, who favours renegotiating NAFTA, said he hoped the U.S. bill might bring renewed political pressure on the Obama administration to renegotiate environmental and labour agreements in the treaty.
"So maybe what we're seeing here is the beginning of a shift in the U.S. Congress that could lead toward some renegotiation which we think is -- it's high time that that happened," Layton said.
In addition to the anti-NAFTA bill, Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown last week introduced his own legislation that would require the U.S. to review all existing trade agreements before entering into new deals.
"We need hard data on the effect our trade agreements have on American wages and jobs, so that we know what we are getting ourselves into before we move forward," Brown said.
Other lawmakers continue to write Buy American provisions into other pieces of legislation. New York Senator Charles Schumer, for instance, this week introduced Buy American amendments into a green energy bill. It was aimed at requiring only U.S.-made equipment to be used in power plants fuelled by renewable energy, such as wind.
Simon Cowell has finally confirmed his engagement to his make-up artist girlfriend Mezghan Hussainy on a U.S. TV talk show. The TV mogul not only confirmed his engagement but also coyly admitted to the chat show host that a wedding is on the cards, according to multiple tabloid reports.
The Internets was abuzz with reports last month that Cowell and Hussainy have gotten engaged during a dinner date. Reports emerged at the time claiming that Cowell popped the question during a romantic dinner at Mr Chow restaurant in Knightsbridge, London on Valentine's night, and his makeup artist sweetheart presumably has happily answered "Yes."
Cowell, 50, and Hussainy, 36, were recently spotted hugging and kissing in public, fuelling speculation that they are an item. The two have reportedly been dating since last summer, but the two were never pictured together until last month when reports emerged claiming that Cowell shared his first public kiss with his new lady love during a break in filming for ITV1 talent show Britain's Got Talent.
After much speculation, the X Factor supreme officially confirmed his engagement to his Afghan-born sweetheart, known as Mish, during an appearance on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" on Monday night, People.com reports.
Besides the engagement confirmation, Cowell also broke the news that he and Hussainy are getting hitched and that he is thinking of one day becoming a father.
When Leno broached the engagement subject, Cowell first tried to remain coy but soon admitted to it.
During the interview, Leno asked the music mogul: "Are rumours you're engaged true?"
After a moment of pause, Cowell responded, "Are they true? Well, I do have somebody in my life now, Jay, yes. And I kind of made a decision this year to make somebody happy."
"So you're doing this just to help someone?" the show host asked.
U.S. Ambassador David Jacobson says that high-level talks are underway to ensure that Canada gets its gold medal beer.
Ten days after the U.S. hockey team lost to Canada in the men's Olympic final, and after President Barack Obama lost a beer bet with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the goods have yet to be delivered.
But Ambassador Jacobson promised the "exact details are still being worked out" and that the beer will be delivered.
He also promised Canadians that Mr. Obama's press secretary, Robert Gibbs, would don a red and white hockey jersey at a news conference as was the agreement in a side bet between Mr. Gibbs and his Canadian counterpart, Dimitri Soudas.
Ambassador Jacobson made the comments following a speech in Ottawa on Tuesday.
Earlier, he congratulated Canada for both its performance at the Winter Games and the tremendous job it did preparing and hosting them.
"I want to pay tribute to the organizers and I want to announce we are deporting Sidney Crosby," he quipped about the Pittsburgh Penguin who scored the winning goal for Canada.
"It was a tough day," he added.
"My country developed Hollywood endings but your country delivered one."
If Canada had lost to the U.S. in the finals, Mr. Harper would have owed Mr. Obama a case of Yuengling, which, like Molson in Canada, is the oldest brewery in the U.S.
The head of Canada's prison system says that there will be "major construction initiatives" in the coming years to cope with federal legislation to imprison more offenders longer, which is an assertion backed by new spending estimates that are showing a 43% increase in penitentiary capital costs next year.
Don Head, commissioner of the Correctional Service of Canada, set the stage for prison expansion in a recent email, obtained by Canwest News Service.
In a brief note to staff sent on Dec. 23, Head announced changes to the senior ranks of the prison system "to best prepare itself to implement many of the changes associated with several of the pieces of legislation that will result in a growth of our inmate population."
The government has previously said it is only contemplating expanding existing facilities or building more prisons to handle an anticipated influx of federal offenders.
"Any conversation before has been general musing," said Liberal public safety critic Mark Holland. "What this says to me is that they know what they are doing, they know what they are building -- they are just refusing to let it go public."
Critics have questioned the need for a prison-building boom in times of fiscal restraint and declining crime rates, particularly when they say there is no evidence that longer sentences work in cutting crime.
"This is basically pouring money down a rat hole," said Craig Jones, executive director of the John Howard Society.
He predicted the prison service is on the verge of becoming "the largest building contractor in Canada."
Government spending estimates, released last week, show the prison system's tab for capital expenditures for the coming fiscal year will increase 43%, to $329.4 million in 2010-2011, from $230.8 million in 2009-2010.
Head's email does not specify whether the federal construction initiatives mean building more prisons or expanding existing ones.
But Christine Cversko, a spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, said there are no plans to build new prisons, and that the money will be spent on "updating and improving" existing facilities.
"Our government is making decisions based on what we need to do in order to make our communities safe," she said in an email. "Releasing criminals onto our streets early has a much higher cost than keeping criminals behind bars."
The government, in a written response last fall to a question posed by Holland, reported that the system "will be able to accommodate anticipated prison population within the existing infrastructure" in the short term, with the possible addition of portable facilities.
The government acknowledged, however, that the Correctional Service would "have to look to construct additional permanent accommodations" in the long term, including new units or institutions.
A 2007 report on prison reform, written by a government-appointed panel, called for the creation of new regional correctional facilities.
The Conservative government has refused to divulge a total tab for its initiatives to imprison more offenders, citing cabinet confidences.
Kevin Page, the independent parliamentary budget officer who keeps an eye on federal spending, is calculating the cost at the urging of the opposition Liberals. A report is expected this spring.
The government has proposed or passed several pieces of legislation that would impose mandatory minimum jail terms for a variety of crimes. One bill, which became law last month, would end a judicial practice of giving offenders a "two-for-one" credit on their sentences to compensate for time spent in pre-trial custody.
The government also has committed to introducing legislation to end "statutory release" after prisoners serve two-thirds of their sentences, in favour of earned parole tied to following a corrections plan.
Justin Piche, a doctoral candidate at Carleton University in Ottawa, has conducted research showing the provinces are also on a building spree, with plans to inject more than $2.8 billion into expanding or renovating existing facilities, or building new ones.
A weekend admission by former Alaskan governor and U.S. vice-presidential hopeful Sarah Palin over her family's use of the Canadian healthcare system while growing up in Alaska has critics of the outspoken hockey mom crying foul online.
"My first five years of life we spent in Skagway, Alaska, right there by Whitehorse," Palin said during a speech in Calgary on Saturday. "Believe it or not -- this was in the '60s -- we used to hustle on over the border for healthcare that we would receive in Whitehorse. I remember my brother, he burned his ankle in some little kid accident thing and my parents had to put him on a train and rush him over to Whitehorse and I think, isn't that kind of ironic now. Zooming over the border getting healthcare from Canada."
It was little surprise that Sarah Palin's first visit to Canada would be in Calgary. And there was little shock that she was able to curry favour with the local Albertan crowd by speaking at length and with much authority about the Alaska government's process of securing TransCanada for the Alaska Pipeline Project.
But given Palin's previous warnings about the ills of expanding government role in U.S. healthcare, American media and the general blogosphere were buzzing over the claim.
On the Daily Kos website, one post -- entitled Sarah "The Death Panel Queen" Palin Went to Canada for Healthcare -- called the former Alaskan governor "opportunistic" and "hypocritical."
"It's good enough for her, but not for the rest of the American people who don't have easy access to Canada and a system that isn't based on wage discrimination?" the post made on the left-leaning political blog stated.
And Gawker.com also pointed out Palin's comment, writing that her family put her brother on a train "and sent him to Canada for the socialism."
Palin has previously claimed Canada should dismantle its public healthcare system and called the push by U.S. President Barack Obama to nationalize the American system "irresponsible," suggesting the move would allow "death panels" to choose whether Americans would live or die.
The Yukon reference was the only time healthcare was mentioned in Palin's speech or in her subsequent interview with Conservative Senator Pamela Wallin, who is still best known as a veteran TV journalist.
Wallin instead pressed Palin on why she wanted to be a political leader if she was warning members of the Tea Party Patriots -- a disparate group of anti-tax, libertarian activists -- not to take someone on as their leader because "a politician will disappoint."
Palin also spoke about how, as governor, she significantly hiked state taxes for oil companies, or, in her words, "readjusted the value" of extracting a resource that belong to Alaskans.
Several conservative Alberta politicians were in attendance at the Calgary event, including former premier Ralph Klein, federal cabinet minister Stockwell Day, Calgary MPs Rob Anders and Lee Richardson, and Wildrose Alliance leader Danielle Smith -- who has drawn many comparisons to the former U.S. vice-presidential hopeful.
Nearly one-third of Quebec residents say that the province should have its own Olympic team separate from Canada's, according to a survey conducted in the days following the Vancouver Games. Now that's just bizarre...
But that's good news for Canadian unity, says Jack Jedwab of the Montreal-based Association for Canadian Studies, which commissioned the poll probing Canadians' feelings in the wake of the host country's record-setting success at the 2010 Winter Olympics - highlighted by dazzling individual performances from several Quebec athletes.
Jedwab says the poll results suggest that only Quebec's unwaveringly "committed sovereigntists" - and almost no one else in the province - feel strongly that Quebec athletes should be competing under the blue-and-white Fleur-de-lis rather than the maple leaf.
"I think that's a good outcome," he says, adding that, beyond the hardcore backers of Quebec independence, "There doesn't seem to be a lot of support for the idea" of a Team Quebec competing at the Olympics.
The national survey of 1,500 Canadians was conducted last week by the firm Leger Marketing, following Team Canada's climactic gold-medal victory in Sunday's Olympic hockey final and the Games' closing ceremonies.
The results, which included responses from about 400 Quebec residents, are considered accurate to within 3.9 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. While 29% of Quebec residents expressed support for a separate Olympic team, the idea was rejected by 65% of the Quebec's population.
Predictably, the Team Quebec concept received negligible support in other parts of the country, ranging from 6% of respondents in Atlantic Canada to about 1% in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
In general, the survey found that Canada's huge haul of medals - more than half of them gold - overwhelmingly stoked respondents' pride in Canada.
Meanwhile, 86% of the Canada's overall population - including 79% of those polled in Quebec - said the sight of Canadian athletes on the Olympic medal podium left them feeling "a stronger sense of pride in Canada."
Among the most memorable achievements was Canada's first home-soil gold medal, won by moguls competitor Alexandre Bilodeau of Rosemere, Quebec.
Perhaps the Games' most inspiring performance was the bronze medal won by figure skater Joannie Rochette of Ile Dupas, Quebec, who suffered the sudden loss of her mother days before the event. And Charles Hamelin of Ste-Julie, Quebec, was Canada's top podium finisher with two gold medals in short-track speed-skating.
Jedwab says such triumphs by Quebec athletes don't generally help the cause of Quebec separatists, who early in the Games criticized the lack of French-language content in the opening ceremonies.
But Jedwab says those critics from Quebec "became very quiet during the last few weeks" of Vancouver 2010 as a series of medal-winning athletes from the province were literally or figuratively wrapped in the Canadian flag, and watched by millions as they stepped to the podium amid the strains of O Canada!
Those athletes "became poster people for Canada," says Jedwab. "It's an ideal vision of the best of the country, and it's very unifying."
Ronald Smith, the only Canadian on death row in the United States, is one step closer to Montana's execution chamber after an appeal court ruling that upheld his death sentence for the brutal murders of two American Indian men in 1982.
But Smith's 25-year fight to avoid a lethal injection for his crime, which has revived the Canadian debate over capital punishment, could ultimately gain a boost from parts of the ruling made Friday, which highlighted his rehabilitation in prison, the "pitiful" failings of his initial defence lawyer and the power of Montana's governor to grant clemency in the case.
In fact, the Seattle Ninth Circuit judges, who upheld Smith's sentence in a 2-1 ruling, nevertheless appeared to send a message directly to Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, who has the authority to commute the 52-year-old Canadian's death penalty despite the failed appeal.
"By all accounts, Smith has reformed his life," majority judges Sidney Thomas and Margaret McKeown stated in their decision.
"He has developed strong relationships with various members of his family and has taken advantage of the educational opportunities offered by the prison that houses him. He has expressed deep regret for his deplorable actions."
However, the judges noted that "the consideration of these issues are beyond our jurisdiction in this case. Clemency claims are committed to the wisdom of the executive branch."
Mark Warren, a Canadian human-rights specialist who has testified on Smith's behalf, said on Sunday that the "extraordinary" phrasing of the judges' ruling is a silver lining in the rejected appeal.
"In 20 years of reviewing death-penalty decisions, I've never seen more surprising language than the final paragraph in the Smith opinion," he said. "The court signalled as clearly as it could that Ron Smith should be granted clemency by the governor of Montana."
Smith, who is from Red Deer, Alberta, initially asked to be executed after confessing to the murders of Harvey Mad Man and Thomas Running Rabbit during a drugs-and-alcohol-fuelled hitchhiking trip to the United States with two Canadian friends.
Smith later claimed that depression, fear and bad legal advice had prompted his prison death wish, and he began trying to avoid execution with help from Canadian government officials.
The clemency issue shot into the Canadian political spotlight in October 2007 when it was revealed that the Conservative government was abruptly ending years of efforts by Canada's diplomats to convince Montana's top politician to commute Smith's death sentence.
Canadian government officials at the time said they were "not going to seek clemency in cases in democratic countries, like the United States, where there has been a fair trial."
But the new hands-off policy, defended at the time by Prime Minister Stephen Harper as consistent with his government's tough-on-crime policies, was ruled "unlawful" last year by the Federal Court of Canada, which ordered federal officials to restart their lobbying effort to prevent Smith's execution.
The Government of Canada later agreed to re-launch the clemency bid, but Smith's lawyers indicated last year that a renewed push to convince Schweitzer to commute the death sentence would likely only begin in earnest after the Ninth Circuit appeal was decided.
Now, because of the court's split decision and the life-and-death issues involved in the Smith case, his legal team is expected to seek an "en banc" review of Friday's ruling by a wider panel of Ninth Circuit judges.
A further appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is also an option, but history suggests Smith stands little chance of winning there.
For now, only Schweitzer's intervention could halt the momentum toward Smith's execution.
Britain is officially eating crow just a month after its sportswriters' unrestrained trashing of the Vancouver Games and Canada's controversial Own the Podium program for Olympic athletes.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has cashed in on his bet with U.S. President Barack Obama over the Olympic men's gold-medal hockey game.
Construction will soon be under way on the first Lowe's home improvement store in Saskatchewan at 4555 Gordon Road in Regina, Lowe's Canada announced Thursday.
Customers at a Walmart store in southern New Jersey are expressing dismay after hearing that someone used the public address system to order "all black people" to leave.
Remember Maxime Bernier, the guy who left confidential documents at his ex-girlfriend's house?
The National Hockey League is trying to fast-track a new rule that would punish players who deliver blindside hits to opponents' heads.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper waltzed through his first interview gig on YouTube on Tuesday and along the way he gave a thumbs-up to the seal hunt and the crackdown on "guns, gangs and drugs" and a firm thumbs-down to legalizing pot.
A Conservative member of the Ontario legislature says that Toronto should form its own province because communities outside the metropolis are not being heard.
Honda Canada announced Tuesday that it will recall thousands of vehicles after fielding owner complaints involving brake pedals. The recall involves 24,680 Odyssey and 4,137 Element vehicles in Canada from the 2007-2008 model years. The company plans to modify the vehicle stability assist modulator, which is connected to the ABS braking system.
Canadian movie pirates were put on notice yesterday after a Montreal DVD bootlegger pointed out by the FBI was sentenced to two-and-a-half months in prison.
What do you do when you are in a romantic situation with your boyfriend/girlfriend? Well, typically, you would kiss. And here in Canada, there's no law against kissing in public, or is there? Well, we won't go into that, because it's Canada.
Sony and the estate of late music legend Michael Jackson have signed a record-breaking 250-million-dollar deal for distribution rights through 2017, U.S. media said Tuesday.
Marijuana activist Marc Emery's battle to avoid going to a U.S. prison got a boost this week in the House of Commons for some apparent reason.
Congressional Democrats took the first step on Monday toward a quick final vote on a healthcare overhaul and House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi vowed to muster the votes needed to pass it.
Now that mixed tapes have disappeared from today's lexicon, it's time consumers cough up a little cash for a private copying levy for iPods and other MP3 players, according to a private member's bill tabled in the House of Commons Tuesday.
Donna Simpson, who is 42 years old and lives in Old Bridge, New Jersey, already tips the scales at 600 pounds but says she won't be satisfied until she's gained enough weight for herself to weigh 1,000 pounds, to grab the title of world's fattest woman, the London Daily Mail reported.
The chief executive of Toyota Canada on Tuesday expressed regret at the "anxiety and inconvenience" that the company's recent recalls has caused its Canadian customers.
Calling it "a good day for victims of crime," Saskatchewan's justice minister applauded a court decision ordering killer-turned-author Colin Thatcher to turn over the profits of his book Final Appeal: Anatomy of a Frame.
The Saskatchewan Party government points out that the NDP Opposition is "obstructionist," while the NDP accuses the Saskatchewan Party of "bullying."
Five couples wed at the Municipal Palace in Mexico City, which legalized same-sex marriage in December. The law authorizing such unions has been challenged by the federal government.
You don't see much of Jerry Seinfeld on his own new NBC show, The Marriage Ref, which he lets someone else host.
What do you do when you're old but still healthy and feel that you have nothing to live for? Well, you would commit suicide. Well, that's what some people would think.
The seemingly unstoppable Canadian dollar posted its ninth straight winning session Wednesday and is destined for parity with the U.S. greenback this summer, says a top Canadian economist.
What do you do when you are a celebrity talk show host that recently lost your job? Well, like many of those who are unemployed and bored, you would obviously surf the Internets aimlessly, and even go on Twitter.
A Windsor surgeon who performed two unnecessary mastectomies is seeking to have her privileges reinstated at Windsor's Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital in the midst of three investigations into her practice. Dr. Barbara Heartwell, who is under investigation by the hospital, the Ontario Ministry of Health and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, will make her case before a panel of hospital board members at a formal hearing today.
Remember when Brian Mulroney was the Prime Minister of Canada? Well, I can't say that I can, as he became the Prime Minister of Canada before I was born, and stopped being the Prime Minister when was I was about three years old. Well, he is one of the masterminds behind the North American Free Trade Agreement, which saw free trade between Canada, the United States and Mexico, or NAFTA, as it is called.
Simon Cowell has finally confirmed his engagement to his make-up artist girlfriend Mezghan Hussainy on a U.S. TV talk show. The TV mogul not only confirmed his engagement but also coyly admitted to the chat show host that a wedding is on the cards, according to multiple tabloid reports.
U.S. Ambassador David Jacobson says that high-level talks are underway to ensure that Canada gets its gold medal beer.
The head of Canada's prison system says that there will be "major construction initiatives" in the coming years to cope with federal legislation to imprison more offenders longer, which is an assertion backed by new spending estimates that are showing a 43% increase in penitentiary capital costs next year.
Nearly one-third of Quebec residents say that the province should have its own Olympic team separate from Canada's, according to a survey conducted in the days following the Vancouver Games. Now that's just bizarre...
Ronald Smith, the only Canadian on death row in the United States, is one step closer to Montana's execution chamber after an appeal court ruling that upheld his death sentence for the brutal murders of two American Indian men in 1982.
