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."
One day after Avatar was disappointed at the Oscars, a Vancouver restaurant owner plans to file a lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court today claiming copyright infringement against director James Cameron and other makers of the highest-grossing film of all time.
Emil Malak, 57, says the similarities between his Terra Incognita and James Cameron's Avatar are too striking to simply be a coincidence.
Malak's lawyer Suzan El-Khatib said the claim to be filed today will name, among others, Avatar writer and director James Cameron, his company Lightstorm Entertainment Inc., and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.
El-Khatib said there are both general and specific similarities in the two stories including the premise of humans going to mine precious minerals on a planet inhabited by indigenous people.
In both stories, she said, a tree is a focal point and contains the collective memories of the indigenous people. In Terra Incognita, it is a Life Tree. Cameron calls it the "Hometree."
Even the characters are similar, she said, with both incorporating spotted faces, long braided hair, flat noses and yellow eyes.
"They are quite alike," El-Khatib said yesterday.
She said the suit will make a claim against the defendants for "damages for copyright infringement for substantially reproducing, adapting and publicly presenting, or in the alternative authorizing such acts, the plaintiffs work as a literary work and a cinematographic work entitled Avatar."
Malak, who owns the Bellaggio Cafe at Hornby Street and Robson Street in Vancouver, began thinking about his sci-fi tale in 1996 at the suggestion of his then seven- and eight-year-old sons who wanted him to write something more exciting than the opera and historical fiction he'd been working on.
It was a turning point in Malak's life. In 1996 he had lost his Granville Island Hotel in a $5 million bankruptcy.
"I took a three-year sabbatical. I lived on about $2-300 a month. I stayed with my brother in Richmond and did nothing but write," said Malak.
He began putting pen to paper for what he calls his "children's story" in 1997 and in the end he figures he spent $100,000 on his script.
He hired a graphic artist to draw his character designs and a screen writer to co-write the script. He took a screen writing course and first copyrighted his work with the Writers Guild of Canada in 1998. He copyrighted it with the guild nine more times between 1998 and 2003, every time he advanced the story and characters.
In a February 27, 1998 note filed with his documents at the Writers Guild of Canada, he wrote that he was copywriting his work because he was "afraid of the big boys."
"I had just lost Granville Island (and) lost $5 million so you become very intuitive. You don't trust anybody," said Malak. "I was so scared someone was going to steal it."
Malak, who was born in Egypt, educated in England and moved to Canada in 1993, believes it was October 2002 when he sent his script and graphic designs to about twenty movie studios including Cameron and his company Lightstorm Entertainment Inc.
He got no response and the script was never returned to him. Malak was stunned to learn of the similarities between his story and Avatar when the movie was released late last year.
Malak told The Province newspaper he believes that James Cameron had an idea similar to his - to write about indigenous people on another planet - but there's no way to account for stories that are up to 60% similar in his opinion.
"Is it possible that two ends can come up with so much similarities? Life tree, same mining material just called different names, the tails?" said Malak. "The basic building blocks of both stories are very similar."
In the end, Malak believes Avatar was shaped in part by his story and he is filing the B.C. Supreme Court writ today because he wants it to be known. He insists it's not about the money.
"I eat three times a day. I have a great life," he said. "The big boys have to recognize you can't just take things and make it a part of yours and walk all over the small guys."
"In my own heart I'm very happy and very comfortable that my vision has become a blockbuster."
Former Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin is pitching a reality series on Alaska to television networks.
Entertainment Weekly first reported that the former Alaska governor and Survivor producer Mark Burnett have been meeting with network executives at ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX while Palin was in Los Angeles this week for her spot on The Tonight Show.
Burnett told The Associated Press that he approached Palin with the idea for the show. It would be shot in the style of Discovery's Planet Earth show, focusing on the natural beauty of Alaska.
Palin and her family would be on camera in the show, but Burnett said it wouldn't focus on her family life. Instead, Palin would visit commercial fishing boats, coal and gold mines, and other industries unique to her state.
"It's being in and experiencing the great charm and beauty of Alaska with Sarah Palin," Burnett said.
Alaska's former governor is such a ratings magnet that the series should draw interest from broadcast and cable networks, he added.
On The Tonight Show this week, Palin joked with host Jay Leno that the difference between Alaska and Los Angeles is that "here when people have a frozen look on their face, I find out it's Botox."
On Thursday, publisher Harper Collins announced that it has commissioned Palin to write a book about her patriotic and spiritual values.
Palin, 46, who is believed to be eyeing a bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, is already a bestselling author for her 2009 memoir, Going Rogue: An American Life, which describes her entry into U.S. national politics during John McCain's failed presidential bid.
The book spent six seeks as a bestseller and sold more than 2.2 million copies.
NBC's new show, The Marriage Ref, debuts tonight at 9 p.m. CST.
Seinfeld was a show about nothing, and one that came out of a simple conversation between Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David.
Twenty years later, a conversation between Seinfeld and his wife Jessica has created The Marriage Ref.
"It's the same kind of thing," Mr. Seinfeld said in January, recalling his conversation with Larry David "It was an off-handed remark that didn't go away."
So now, innocuous domestic disputes, like whether a husband should be allowed to keep his stuffed dog, get celebrity opinion.
With Seinfeld's buddy, fellow comedian and host Tom Papa weighing the information and rendering a verdict.
"We figure if you're in a relationship," Papa said, in explaining the celebrity participation, "You're as much an expert as anybody else."
It's an expertise born out of experience.
"Basically, if you're married, you know fights never end," Papa said, "One of you just kind of shuts up, but the fight comes back eventually."
That is, until The Marriage Ref has his say.
"It's a very pro marriage show," Papa said, "This isn't whether you should leave or not, who's cheating. At the heart of it all, it's married couples that really love each other."
And hopefully, still do after The Marriage Ref intervenes.
The Paralympic flame began making its 10-day trek to Vancouver yesterday after it was lit at Parliament Hill in Ottawa yesterday.
While significantly smaller than the Olympics, the Paralympics are in growth mode. After five decades it has evolved from an off-year adjunct to the Olympics into a fully fledged partner staged in the same host city.
And both events were planned by the same group, said Sir Philip Craven, International Paralympic Committee president.
"They've gone out right from the start with the intention for it to be one organizing committee and two connected Games in a great festival of sport, and I think it is fantastic," he said.
Vancouver will mark the first time the word Paralympic has been in the organizing committee's name, the first time the Olympic and Paralympic flags have flown side by side at city hall and the first Paralympic countdown clock.
Another indicator that the Paralympics' presence is expanding is in the ability to attract sponsors.
Korean electronics giant Samsung signed on last week as a worldwide partner for the Paralympics, joining Visa, tech firm Atos Origin and Otto Bock.
Carla Qualtrough, the head of the Canadian Paralympic Committee, said having former mayor Sam Sullivan, who is a quadriplegic since a skiing accident at 19, as the Paralympic ambassador, has helped make Vancouver the most accessible Games ever.
Three days after Canadians belted out "O Canada!" to celebrate Canada's Olympic hockey win, Stephen Harper's Conservative government is asking whether the anthem should be changed.
The phrase "In all thy sons command" has some women calling for a gender-neutral version, Industry Minister Tony Clement says, citing an email from a constituent.
"For 50 years... I've listened to our anthem and felt excluded by the line," Tina Prietz, 60, of Huntsville, Ontario, wrote to Mr. Clement. "Yes, you've guessed it, I'm female."
The Conservative government said in Wednesday's Speech from the Throne that it will ask Parliament to examine the original wording of the anthem. Officials said later a parliamentary committee will study whether the phrase "In all thy sons command" should be changed to "Thou dost in us command," which the Office of the Prime Minister says is the wording from the original version.
Mr. Harper's aide Andrew MacDougall said the government does not have a view on the change.
Prietz said she was proud to see so many Canadians win gold medals and hear the national anthem during the Olympics, but added some of the words stick in her craw.
"I would love to see the anthem slightly changed to 'In all of us command,'" Prietz said.
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff doesn't object to a more "gender-sensitive" anthem, but said the government should take serious steps to improve the status of women. The anthem is based on lyrics penned in 1908, and slightly altered in the 1980 National Anthem Act. The original French version survives unaltered.
British "supermodel" Naomi Campbell will not face charges related to assault accusations by her driver, New York police said Wednesday.
The 39-year-old model was accused of striking her driver from behind and causing his head to hit the steering wheel of the car Tuesday afternoon. By the time police arrived at the scene in Midtown Manhattan, Campbell had left on foot, apparently.
New York police said in a statement Wednesday that the driver "filed a harassment complaint, but elected not to pursue criminal charges" and that there would be no arrest.
Campbell's spokesman Jeff Raymond said after the incident that there should not be a rush to make a judgment on the supermodel and that "there is more to the story than meets the eye."
This situation was not Campbell's first brush with the law.
In 2008, Campbell was sentenced by a London court to 200 hours of community service after pleading guilty to assaulting two police officers during an expletive-filled incident after she had discovered an airline had lost one of her bags.
Campbell also spent five days mopping floors and cleaning toilets as part of a community service sentence in New York in 2007 after throwing a mobile phone at her housekeeper during an argument over a pair of jeans. She was also ordered to attend anger management classes.
In a previous incident with a telephone in 1998, Campbell assaulted an assistant, Georgina Galanis. The model agreed in 2000 to plead guilty in a Toronto court to the assault in exchange for expressing remorse, paying Galanis an undisclosed amount of money and attending anger management classes.
The world's most famous ogre, Shrek, his princess and his motley crew of friends will open the Tribeca Film Festival next month, with the final chapter of the series making its world premiere in 3D in New York.
Shrek Forever After, the fourth instalment of DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc.'s series and the first in 3D, will screen on Tribeca's opening night April 21, 2010.
A 33,000-seat covered stadium would cost an estimated $386.2 million or $431.2 million if the roof is retractable, and could operate successfully in downtown Regina, according to a major feasibility study released Monday.
The next step, however, is determining who might cover the bill.
After a lengthy technical briefing and press conference where politicians called it a historic day, neither city, provincial nor federal leaders were willing to commit to a dollar amount for the project, and they noted no decisions have been made yet about whether it will proceed.
Last year's preliminary estimate of $350 million did not include costs such as land, while the new figures include land, consultants' fees, furniture and fixtures. The report projects the stadium could have annual cash operating surplus once up and running, and annual operations would have $30.6 million in indirect and indirect GDP impact.
But capital grants from funding partners or alternative revenue streams would be needed to cover the initial construction costs, said the report, which studied the possible design, costs, private sector interest and economic impact of a new facility to replace the aging Mosaic Stadium.
"The feasibility report says it is feasible to go forward. Now we will look at the capital accumulation phase," said Enterprise Minister Ken Cheveldayoff, whose Saskatchewan Party government indicated a decision about whether or not to proceed, will be made by late spring.
"We'll talk to the federal government, the provincial government, the city and the Roughriders to put a plan in place," Cheveldayoff said. "I can say right now that each partner would have to come to the table and contribute for this report to go forward."
Cheveldayoff said "all kinds of things" will be considered as possible provincial revenue streams to fund capital costs, such as a partnership with Saskatchewan Gaming Corporation, the government-owned business that runs the Regina and Moose Jaw casinos. Other ideas include a lottery where proceeds would go toward the stadium or a seat licence system where the purchaser would have the right to buy season tickets for a certain seat.
"I'm not saying that's how we're going to do it. But (those are) ideas that are coming forward," Cheveldayoff told reporters.
Regina Qu'Appelle MP Andrew Scheer was non-committal about what kind of support could be forthcoming from the Conservative government, as he spoke about the importance of the federal infrastructure stimulus spending but also the need for a return to balanced budgets.
"As Minister Cheveldayoff said, no decisions have been made," said Scheer, adding that at this point no formal request for money from the province has been made, either.
"This ends the feasibility study portion. They're going to have a lot of discussions on the provincial government end. We'll take a look at what comes out of that," said Scheer.
"I love football, love sports... but you have to put on that fiscal responsibility hat, too," said Scheer, whose brother-in-law is Seattle Seahawk and former Regina Ram punter Jon Ryan.
The report says stadium naming rights are estimated at $480,000 a year, which could be used to help pay financing costs. The Regina Hotels Association has also committed $10 million over 15 years. On the operating side, the report suggests that a new stadium could turn a profit in an average year of more than $1 million if 31 events were held.
For example, the stadium could have a cash surplus on an annual basis with 11 CFL games; a university and high school football schedule; one major, three minor and four small concerts each year; and eight miscellaneous events, such as motocross or conferences.
Seating could expand to 45,000 for major events such as Grey Cup, or 53,000 for major concerts.
Regina Chamber of Commerce chief executive John Hopkins said he's encouraged that the stadium report indicates the project would not require ongoing operating subsidies, and he expects other businesses will be on board in helping it move forward.
"I suspect that there will be others that will jump up to the forefront and say we want to be part of this and we'll continue to see that," Hopkins said.
Regina Mayor Pat Fiacco said he's interested in seeing which private sector partners step forward as the three levels of government also begin discussing what they can offer.
"I think the funding partners have to have their discussion. Now that we have the study out of the way, now we can get started on next steps," Fiacco said.
A major tenant of the proposed new building -- the Saskatchewan Roughriders Football Club -- said what is proposed in the study "is an amazing new home for the green and white."
"This is a very exciting prospect," said Riders board chair Rob Pletch. "We just think about the dimensions that this adds to our football club, to consider us having a domed retractable roof, hopefully, stadium as our home base."
Construction is pegged to take three years, during which time the impacts on the provincial GDP would be an estimated $195.5 million.
The site being eyed is the current location of the CP rail yards south of Dewdney Avenue between Lorne Street and Scarth Street. The report notes that CP is planning to move its 20-acre intermodal operations to the global transportation hub west of the city, likely by fall of 2012, pending regulatory approval.
CP is also looking at whether it could change its rail operations to free up another ten acres downtown, the report said.
"CP has agreed in principle, subject to conditions and approvals, to sell the downtown site provided issues relating to its relocation of its operations can be resolved," the report said.
NDP MLA Warren McCall, whose Regina Elphinstone-Centre constituency includes the proposed location, said the proposal looks great on paper but there are funding questions that will need answers.
"In terms of making progress on this project, we think one of the biggest stumbling blocks is (Premier Brad) Wall government's mismanagement of the finances," McCall said, pointing to the Saskatchewan Party government's overestimation of potash revenues that led to a summary deficit in the last budget. "In terms of who would fund it, you'd like to see who is bringing what to the table."
Toronto filmmaker Charles Officer turned away from cameras Monday, overcome with emotion following the announcement of the 30th annual Genie Awards nominations.
Officer said he was "streak in the streets" ecstatic that his debut feature, NURSE.FIGHTER.BOY, had received nods for best picture and best direction.
And that was before a reporter informed him that he had received a total of ten nominations.
"We got how many?" he said. "Holy shoot! I didn't know that at all."
Esteemed actor Gordon Pinsent and actress Tatiana Maslany, who was recently honoured at the Sundance Film Festival, announced the nominations for the 30th annual Genie Awards on Monday at a Toronto hotel.
Polytechnique, director Denis Villeneuve's examination of the Montreal massacre in 1989, in which Marc Lepine killed 14 female college students, led the pack with 11 Genie Awards nominations. Other standout films include Before Tomorrow with nine nominations, Grande Ourse: La cle des possibles, The Master Key (eight nods) and Fifty Dead Men Walking (seven).
"This year's nominations reflect a national cinema that is courageous in its storytelling," Sara Morton, CEO of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, said in a statement. "They are films created from the wealth of cultures, communities and historical moments that make up the Canadian identity."
The acting contenders include Joshua Jackson (One Week) and Stephen McHattie (Pontypool) for best actor, and Madeline Piujuq Ivalu (Before Tomorrow) and Karine Vanasse (Polytechnique) for best actress.
Officer's indie film about a friendship between an ex-boxer, a boy and his ailing single mom stars Clark Johnson and Karen Leblanc, who are nominated for their leading roles.
"It's our community getting it out. I'm not just saying the black community; I'm saying the community of artists, people who are working on similar projects. We're all working together; we're trying to make movies. It's hard as hell. So to get recognized for doing something personal and sticking true to your guns is the ultimate thing," Officer told reporters. "I brought a lot of people in who've never worked in film. The boxers in it... these kids that I got to work with, when they see this film getting nominated, they're going to feel inspired."
The other best picture nominees are Polytechnique, Fifty Dead Men Walking, Before Tomorrow and 3 Saisons.
The 30th annual Genie Awards will take place on April 12 in Toronto.
Students who filmed two suspended teachers performing a lap dance at Churchill High School and posted the event on the Internet could face serious disciplinary action.
The students appear to have violated the Winnipeg School Division's zero-tolerance policies forbidding the use of cell phone cameras and other devices in schools.
School board chairwoman Jackie Sneesby refused to rule out punishment for the students Monday.
"We haven't finished the investigation. It (disciplining students) hasn't been discussed yet," Sneesby said in an interview. "It isn't anything we would do without thinking about it."
Teachers Chrystie Fitchner and Adeil Ahmed have been suspended with pay after being filmed performing a lap dance, including simulated oral sex, at a school spirit event in the school gym two weeks ago.
Sneesby would only say the senior administration's investigation was not completed yet.
The policy on WSD's website forbids the use of cell phones, video cameras, and similar devices in schools. The only exception is for school projects, but even that use requires prior approval by the principal.
During the open portion of Monday night's regular school division meeting, trustees Mike Babinky and Kristine Barr asked that they be provided with an update during the subsequent closed session. Superintendent Pauline Clarke said she would be reporting behind closed doors on process, but there would be no update Monday night on the investigation into the lap dancing teachers.
Babinsky emerged from a closed-door meeting Monday night to tell reporters senior administrators had not given trustees any new information. Babinsky said he was told repeatedly his continuing to express his opinion about the Churchill situation could jeopardize the eventual outcome of the case.
However, Babinksy said he was assured in the closed-door meeting that unidentified division personnel have been talking to Churchill students about the impact of both the incident with the two teachers and a traffic accident that recently sent a Churchill student to hospital.
Despite being told not to express his opinion, Babinsky speculated the division could fire the teachers, could allow their contracts to expire or the teachers themselves could choose to resign. Babinsky suggested Education Minister Nancy Allan could even consider cancelling their teaching certificates.
Winnipeg Teachers Association president Dave Najduch said the two teachers have heard nothing yet from the division. They have been suspended with pay since February 19.
Jay Leno returns to The Tonight Show tonight, and so does his desk, which is a sign that struggling network NBC wants its flagship late-night TV program to return to normal after Conan O'Brien apparently failed as its host.
More than a month after O'Brien left The Tonight Show in a bitter break-up with NBC and three weeks after Leno signed off from the network's ill-fated The Jay Leno Show at 10 p.m., Leno slips back into his old seat as The Tonight Show host.
The question is: will viewers, who crowned him the king of late-night TV for 15 years in that coveted role, rejoin him? In what is expected to be largely the same tried and tested formula of celebrity chat, monologue, odd headlines and musical interludes, Leno's opening week is packed with a stellar line-up including Winter Olympics champions Lindsey Vonn and Shaun White, flamboyant American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert, footballer Brett Favre and politician Sarah Palin.
Perhaps more important, or symbolic, is that he is bringing back the office desk he ditched for more casual arm chairs in a much-talked about change of style on The Jay Leno Show.
"They have to go back to the formula that was working, and they have to hope they get the viewers back," said Marc Berman, senior TV writer with Mediaweek.
NBC axed The Jay Leno Show earlier this year because of complaints from local affiliates who said its poor ratings were providing a weak lead into their late news programs. His genial image took a hit in the bitter reshuffle that ended in January with Conan O'Brien's $45 million exit from the coveted The Tonight Show hosting job after just seven months.
Apart from advertisements during NBC's Winter Olympics, promotion for Leno's return has been low key. In his only major interview since The Jay Leno Show was removed from the television airwaves, Leno told Oprah Winfrey that he would have his work cut out to recapture his audience. "I think there's a lot of damage control that needs to be done. The only way you can fix these things is to try and do good shows, not be bitter, not be angry or upset or whatever," Leno told Winfrey.
Ratings for The Tonight Show slid after O'Brien took over in June 2009, allowing rival David Letterman on CBS to take a consistent lead in the battle for late-night network viewers for the first time since 1994.
Leno, 59, was enjoying about the same 5.3 million average audience for The Jay Leno Show as he had during his 17-year tenure on The Tonight Show. Most TV analysts think Leno will struggle to get the same numbers immediately. But Steve Sternberg, former analyst with Magna Global, said speculation of a backlash from supporters of O'Brien was "gibberish" because he has a different fan base.
"Jay Leno's image with his fans has not soured at all. While Conan fans may be justified in their anger, it really has no impact on Leno," Sternberg wrote in his blog The Sternberg Report last week.
"The average median age of Jay Leno (viewers) on The Tonight Show was 54. This means half of his viewers are 55 or older -- generally an age group that is very loyal. There's no reason not to expect them to happily welcome him back to his old time slot," Sternberg wrote.
Figure skater Joannie Rochette, who captured the hearts of Canadians for her bronze-medal performance in the grief-stricken days following the death of her mother, carried the Canadian flag into the closing ceremonies for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games last night.
The smiling Joannie Rochette waved to the adoring crowd as a huge contingent of the 206-member Canadian team, 86 of whom won a medal during the 2010 Winter Games, marched into the stadium, forming a circle with athletes from 81 other countries around the lit cauldron. Some of the home-grown athletes carried their own Canadian flags, and ski cross gold medallist Ashleigh McIvor sport a maple leaf tattoo on her cheek.
Cheryl Bernard's curling team looked thrilled with their silver medals, showing them off proudly to the boisterous crowd, two days after the disappointment of losing the gold-medal match.
The Canadian Olympic Committee revealed that Joannie Rochette would carry the flag into BC Place Stadium during a news conference Sunday morning. Joannie Rochette told reporters she was thrilled to be given such an honour, but was surprised when the COC approached her because a record number of Canadians had won gold during the Winter Games and, in doing so, rewrote Olympic history books. Nonetheless, Joannie Rochette was happy and gracious Sunday morning when speaking to reporters about her role in the finale.
"I thought, 'Why me?'" she said, smiling shyly. "This is such a big honour because during this whole Olympic experience I've been carried by so many Canadians."
Joannie Rochette's mother died of a heart attack on the morning of February 21, shortly after arriving in Vancouver to see her daughter compete in the women's figure skating event. Despite having been an only child who was extremely close to her mother, Joannie Rochette decided to continue to compete and, against the odds, performed so well she captured the bronze medal four days after the tragic death.
It has been a week of incredible highs and lows for the pleasant, 24-year-old woman from tiny Ile Dupas, Quebec.
"A lot of things happened this week that made me cry," she said in French.
She then added in English: "It has been a tough week for me but I am going to walk into that stadium in celebration of how great Canada was at the Games... I want to walk into that stadium with a big smile on my face because I'm proud of my skating."
And that is exactly what she did to the delight of 60,000 spectators, most of who were on their feet cheering as the Canadian team walked onto centre-stage wearing the popular knit Canadian sweaters. Joannie Rochette told reporters that she wanted to thank her fellow athletes for their friendship, many fans for all their e-mails and messages, and the COC for its support, noting the organization didn't put pressure on her to perform but allowed her to make the decision.
"What I can tell you about the Canadian team is that it is the most closely knit team there is at the Olympics and I could really witness that because I could not be here without my teammates, without their support, without all the help I got," she said.
Nathalie Lambert, the COC's chef de mission for the Games, said Joannie Rochette was chosen because she touched the entire country and inspired the other athletes with her gutsy and emotional performance.
For Prime Minister Stephen Harper, there was more riding on Sunday's hockey game than just national pride in his favourite sport. There was also a case of Molson Canadian in it, which is great beer.
Mr. Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama each wagered a case of beer on the outcome of the Olympic men's hockey final. Now that Canada has won, Mr. Obama now owes Mr. Harper a case of Molson Canadian. If the U.S. had won, Mr. Harper would have owed Mr. Obama a case of Yuengling beer.
Mr. Harper congratulated the Canadian men's team in the locker room after the game, his press secretary Dimitri Soudas said in an email.
"We're really proud of you all. You've done a great job on behalf of the country, not just this gold, which we all wanted so bad... but 14 gold... an Olympic record for any country in the Winter Olympics. Congratulations," Mr. Harper told the team.
Both leaders chose symbolic brews. Molson is North America's oldest brewery, founded in 1786 by John Molson. Molson Canadian is also an official supplier to the Vancouver Olympics and is known for its TV ads that play up nationalism over Canadian favourites like hockey, winter, and summers at the cottage. The company merged with U.S.-owned Coors in 2005.
Yuengling is the oldest brewery in the U.S. and was founded in Pennsylvania in 1829. Mr. Soudas made his own bet with his U.S. counterpart, Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs. The two had initially bet on the women's final when Canada beat the U.S. 2-0. Mr. Gibbs was to wear a Canadian hockey jersey for the first 15 minutes of a media briefing, but Mr. Soudas and Mr. Gibbs decided to go another round over the men's gold medal game. The men's team win confirms Mr. Gibbs will have to don the red and white sweater.
"Well. I've always thought that the colours of red, white and. That's it. Just red and white bring out the colour of Robert's eyes," Mr. Soudas said in the e-mail. "I'll be sending Robert a Team Canada jersey to remember and cherish for the rest of his life the closest friendship between any two countries in the world."
Team Canada's dramatic overtime win in the gold medal game sent hockey fans from across Canada pouring into the streets in full party mode Sunday.
From Vancouver party-central to Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, the hometown of overtime hero Sidney Crosby... and even in Afghanistan, people dressed in red and white celebrated Canada's 14th gold medal win. And then they took the celebration outside.
Streets erupted in jubilation at ground zero of the celebration where spectators had put their cheers on hold after an 11th-hour U.S. goal sent to the game to overtime.
Out in the streets of Vancouver, fans waved flags and honked their horns as crowds celebrated the nail-biting gold-medal finish to the Olympic Games.
Chants of "Go Canada Go!" filled the air, followed by several boisterous rounds of O Canada.
Recently, two teachers in Winnipeg were suspended after a video of a male teacher giving a female teacher a lap-dance surfaced. Well, it appears that students have identified the male teacher, and it's apparently a guy named Adeil Ahmed.
They have described the teacher as a fun and popular math and science teacher who only started working at Churchill High School this semester. In fact, one student said that Ahmed graduated from university only last year.
The original video of the lap dance has garnered international attention and has more than half a million views on YouTube. A second, higher-quality video was posted on YouTube yesterday, showing the lap dance from a different angle.
It shows Ahmed straddling teacher Chrystie Fitchner while she was seated in a chair. Fitchner throws her hands back while Ahmed at first grinds against her and then pretends to perform oral sex. Students say that Fitchner "paid" him with fake money.
Damn teachers and their stripping ways...
To watch the higher-quality video, there is a video above.
A Saskatchewan school of architecture is moving beyond the brainstorming stage and accelerating fast toward a blueprint that could see the college built in downtown Saskatoon. That would be so cool. That way, I could potentially become a real architect, instead of saying that I am an architect named Art Vandelay.
"It was just an idea last summer. Now it's an idea that's been recognized as something that could really make a difference," said Charles Olfert, regional director of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. "I could see this in two to three years, potentially, and I might have said five to 10 years last summer."
One of the ideas that has been floated, but would require city hall support, is locating the school in a renovated city-owned John Deere building in the warehouse district once 25th Street is extended to Idylwyld Drive. Locating 300 to 400 students in downtown Saskatoon would provide a $3-million to $4-million per year economic benefit once the program is underway, Olfert estimates.
A feasibility task force struck by the council of the Saskatchewan Association of Architects in early 2008 to study the creation of a program said a school would fit well in either Regina or Saskatoon. Since the past summer, there have been discussions of working with the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science & Technology and a possible undergraduate program focused on construction management at the University of Regina.
Charlie Sheen's publicist announced on Tuesday that the actor has entered rehab and is taking a break from television's top-rated comedy, Two and a Half Men, prompting the network to announce it is temporarily halting production of the show.
"As a preventative measure, Charlie Sheen has entered a rehabilitation facility," publicist Stan Rosenfield wrote in a four-sentence statement that did not specify why Sheen, 44, was seeking treatment. The statement asked for privacy for the embattled actor.
Sheen's bosses expressed support for the actor in a statement that said production of Two and a Half Men would temporarily stop.
"CBS, Warner Bros. Television and [executive producer] Chuck Lorre support Charlie Sheen in his decision today to begin voluntary inpatient care at a treatment centre," the statement said. "We wish him nothing but the best as he deals with this personal matter."
The statement offered no timetable for when the show would resume taping. The move comes roughly two months after Sheen was arrested after a fight with his wife at his Aspen, Colorado home. Prosecutors later charged the actor with felony menacing and misdemeanour charges of third-degree assault and criminal mischief.
The most serious charge carries a maximum three-year prison term.
Assistant district attorney Arnold Mordkin said Tuesday he had not heard about Sheen entering rehab and could not discuss what bearing it might have on the case. Sheen's wife, Brooke, is also in rehab seeking treatment for an undisclosed reason, her attorney Yale Galanter said Monday. She is still asking that the charges be dismissed, he said.
A couple of teachers that were engaging in some interesting misconduct recently have been suspended after they were caught on video. And of course, the video went viral.
The video in question, which was taken last Wednesday during a busy pep rally for students in grades 9 to 12 at Churchill High School in Winnipeg, shows students giggling, gasping and screaming as female teacher receives a strip club-style lap dance from a male teacher.
By Thursday afternoon, students were spreading a minute-long video of the dance amongst each other on Facebook... and by Tuesday afternoon, clips from the video were aired on the CBC.
The minute-long clip, which looks like it was recorded on a cellular phone, shows the male teacher bobbing his head near the female teacher's genitals, and grinding his rear end against her crotch.
The teachers, who are said to be relatively new teachers, were sent home with pay after a parent complained about the video, said Winnipeg School Division trustee Michael Babinsky.
Damn teachers and their strip-club-style lap dances...
A Milan court convicted three Google Inc. executives on Wednesday for violating the privacy of an Italian boy with autism by letting a video of him being bullied be posted on the site in 2006, which is presumably YouTube.
Google, which will appeal the six-month suspended jail terms in Italy, also heard that European Union antitrust regulators were looking into complaints about it from three online firms. Google said it was confident it would avoid formal investigation by the European Commission.
It said the Milan verdict "poses a crucial question for the freedom on which the Internet is built" as none of its employees had anything to do with the video.
"They didn't upload it, they didn't film it, they didn't review it and yet they have been found guilty," said Google's senior communications manager, Bill Echikson, in Milan.
The court convicted senior vice-president and chief legal officer David Drummond, former Google Italy board member George De Los Reyes and global privacy counsel Peter Fleischer. Senior product marketing manager Arvind Desikan was acquitted. The executives, none of whom are based in Italy, do not face actual imprisonment as the sentences were suspended, while an appeals process in Italy can take many years.
They were not in Italy for the hearing. Drummond is based in California, Fleischer in Paris and Desikan in London, while De Los Reyes has since retired, Echikson told news agency Reuters.
The complaint was brought by an Italian advocacy group for people with Down's Syndrome, Vivi Down, and the boy's father, after four classmates at a Turin school uploaded a clip to Google Video showing them bullying the boy. Vivi Down was a plaintiff because it was named by the boys in the video, a lawyer for the group said. But Google's Echikson and the prosecutor said on Wednesday the boy had autism, not Down's as widely reported during the three years of the case.
"A company's rights cannot prevail over a person's dignity. This sentence sends a clear signal," public prosecutor Alfredo Robledo told reporters outside the Milan courthouse.
The video was filmed with a mobile phone and posted on the site in September 2006.
Google argued that it removed the video immediately after being notified and cooperated with Italian authorities to help identify the bullies and bring them to justice. It says that, as hosting platforms that do not create their own content, Google Video, YouTube and Facebook cannot be held responsible for content that others upload.
Drummond said in a statement the verdict "sets a dangerous precedent" and meant "every employee of any internet hosting service faces similar liability." He said the law was clear in Italy and the European Union that "hosting providers like Google are not required to monitor content that they host".
Fleischer said if employees were "criminally liable for any video on a hosting platform, when they had absolutely nothing to do with the video in question, then our liability is unlimited."
The prosecutors accused Google of negligence, saying the video remained online for two months even though some web users had already posted comments asking for it to be taken down.
Censoring of websites has become a hot issue in Italy in recent months, following a spate of hate sites against officials including Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
The government briefly studied plans to black out Internet hate sites after fan pages emerged praising an attack on the premier, but the idea was dropped after executives from Facebook, Google and Microsoft agreed to a shared code of conduct rather than legislation.
Google counsel Julia Holtz said the scrutiny by EU antitrust regulators "in all likelihood... will not go anywhere. The Commission has not expressed any hint of guilt."
The Commission can fine companies up to 10% of their revenues and has imposed billions of Euros of fines on Intel and Microsoft for breaking antitrust rules, though it was far too early to say if Google could be fined.
Google said British price comparison site Foundem and French legal search engine ejustice.fr had complained that its search algorithm demoted their sites in results and Microsoft-owned Ciao from Bing had complained about its terms and conditions.
Google has 90% of the global search market compared to 7.4% for Yahoo and Bing combined, according to November data from research firm StatCounter. The company has drawn increasing regulatory scrutiny as it has grown.
The Vancouver 2010 Olympics will be the most heavily watched Winter Games in history, a senior official with the International Olympic Committee said Tuesday. Timo Lumme, who was responsible for the sale of television and new media rights, said the Games will receive about 24,000 hours of coverage around the world by the Games' broadcast or "old media" partners. That's a 47% increase over the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy.
"I think that testifies that the Olympic Winter Games or the Olympic Games in general continues to must-see programming," said Lumme, managing director of TV and marketing services.
He said the broadcast coverage is now matched by Internet and mobile media, which has exploded since the Turin Games.
"So the total amount of coverage we expect -- adding up all the coverage throughout the world -- should exceed around 50,000 hours by the end of the Games," Lumme said.
The IOC says that 3.5 billion people or more than half the world's population will have watched at least some coverage of the Games.
In Canada, CTV reported that Sunday's hockey game between Canada and the U.S. was the most-watched sports program in Canadian history, with an average audience of 10.6 million viewers. In the United States, 167 million people, or more than half the U.S. population, have already watched the Games on NBC, Lumme said. Last Thursday, the Olympic knocked American Idol out of first place in the ratings.
Despite those numbers, NBC has said that it expects to lose more than $200 million broadcasting the Games. But Lumme said the IOC has no plans to change the way it selects official broadcasters.
"The IOC has never forced any broadcaster to pay over any money," he said. "At the end of the day, through a bidding process, the broadcaster that wishes to pay the most gets the deal. That's the way it's been and that's the way it will be in the future."
Lumme said the IOC remains confident that the Olympic Games will continue to command a "premium price."
"What that price is, in whatever market, will be decided by market forces," he said. "That's out of our control."
Keith Pelley, president of Canada's Olympic broadcast consortium, avoided questions about whether that group of companies is in the same position as NBC.
"Right now, we've said what we're going to say about the economics leading into the Games," he said. "Now, we're totally focusing on the actual Games and we'll address the consolidated numbers shortly thereafter."
Pelley would only say that the response of Canadians has exceeded expectations.
"Canadians have embraced these Games way more than we anticipated," he said. "It really has become something that has galvanized a nation."
The consortium represents radio, print, digital media and twelve different television networks, including CTV, that will broadcast the Games in 22 different languages.
No matter where they're from in the world, it seems like many people want to get a piece of Saskatchewan at the Winter Olympics. Upon his arrival Monday at the Saskatchewan pavilion in Vancouver, Regina citizen Davin Stachoski noted the longest line-up was not to get into the venue; it was to have your picture taken in front of a green screen that would eventually be superimposed on a photo of either a wheat field, a potash mine or Gainer the Gopher at Mosaic Stadium.
"It kind of boggled my mind being from Saskatchewan, but it was really cool to see people lining up for it," Stachoski said with a laugh.
But while many from all over the world were trying to take in what they could of Saskatchewan, particularly during Tuesday's Saskatchewan Day, when 500 people were lined up waiting for the pavilion to open
"I watched the first week on TV but then getting out here... what you don't expect is the amount of people," said Stachoski, who with his girlfriend Raeleen Walbaum is attending hockey, curling and speed skating until they return to Regina on Thursday. "You have to be prepared for lineups everywhere. It's tough to find a place to get a drink or have supper."
"The crowds are overwhelming, but the atmosphere is amazing. You see people from all over the world, hear so many different languages. It's incredible."
"The fever is all over the city."
Regina's Cathie Kryzanowski and her husband Dale returned home Tuesday after five days of watching hockey, figure skating and ski jumping. While they didn't get into Canada Hockey Place on Sunday to watch the home team take on the U.S. in men's hockey, the Kryzanowskis did catch the game on the big screens at the Saskatchewan pavilion.
"There were good Saskatchewan sports fans there and ones we adopted," said Cathie. "It was second best to being at the game, I think. Saskatchewan sports fans are enthusiastic sports fans so it was almost like coming home to watch the game."
The sights, sounds and taste of Saskatoon will be exhibited at the Vancouver Winter Olympics today as Saskatoon Day takes over at the Saskatchewan pavilion. Saskatoon Day gives the city a promotional opportunity and gives home-grown singers a chance to display their talent to Olympic spectators from around the world.
"It's a real focus on what makes Saskatoon a special place to visit or do business," said Todd Brandt, president and CEO of Saskatoon Tourism.
Mayor Don Atchison will host a reception at the pavilion for the media and business contacts. Atchison will also be part of the unveiling of "Sunny," the new mascot for the city. Meanwhile, Saskatoon-born singers Kyle Riabko and Megan Lane will perform, as will Earl Pereira and his band Mobadass.
The entertainment at the pavilion will play a large role in promoting Saskatoon.
"People come for the food and beverage but they end up staying because of our entertainers," said Trent Fraser, director of marketing and production for the Saskatchewan Pavilion.
The pavilion has been welcoming more than 8,000 people a day, while Fraser said organizers were expecting about 4,500 to 5,000 visitors daily.
"We are one of those go-to pavilions and word on the street is that we have one of the better ones," Fraser said.
The City of Saskatoon representatives will be showing a promotional video at the pavilion throughout the day today. The video will also be shown on the six-storey translucent dome at the pavilion so people outside can see it. Fraser estimates more than 50,000 people will walk by the dome because it is located within walking distance of BC Place, GM Place and Molson Hockey House. There will be several prize giveaways at the pavilion today, and people standing in line will be given Saskatoon pins as well as forms to enter draws. Another prize featured on Saskatoon Day is a free trip to Saskatoon.
Man, if I were visiting Vancouver, I'd sign up for a free trip to Saskatoon, even though I already live in Saskatoon. Now, if my name was drawn and I already live in Saskatoon, how would that work? Would I get to leave Saskatoon then fly back?
"Half the battle is getting people to Saskatoon because once they get there, they like what they see in the city," Brandt said.
Bison burgers will be featured at the pavilion as will Harvest Meats sausage from Yorkton. Saskatoon berry tarts will be given out today as well.
Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol has agreed to appear on a reality show, despite her mother's well-documented objection to reality.
In agreeing to appear on the ABC Family series The Secret Life of the American Teenager, Bristol is breaking with family tradition, and Governor Palin said: "We Palins don't like reality. It's not our thing."
Wow, she really sounded stupid there...
The former Alaska Governor said she is allowing her daughter to engage with reality for the duration of the show "just so long as it doesn't become a regular thing."
Governor Palin's husband Todd was also asked to be on the program, Governor Palin confirmed, but declined to do so because it would have required him to emit sounds.
Local Seinfeld fans in Tallahassee, Florida rejoiced this past Monday when one of the show's best known characters arrived in the rain!
Larry Thomas, or the Soup Nazi in the episode titled "The Soup Nazi," was the star attraction for a United Way fundraiser at the Double Tree Hotel.
And, of course, it did involve soup.
Patiently signing ladles and preparing for pictures with eager fans, Thomas is no stranger to using his now-famous Seinfeld character to aid groups that give back to communities. Thomas has worked numerous events, including one for rescue workers who lost their homes after Hurricane Katrina. Thomas said he was happy to help United Way of the Big Bend.
"United Way has been around for so long," Thomas said, "You know the money is going to the right place."
Thomas helped United Way put on its second annual "All Souped Up" event, which featured soups from several local facilities.
For many of those who attended, the ability to donate to the United Way and meet the famed Soup Nazi was a sweet deal.
"How could you pass up a chance to see the Soup Nazi in person?" said Jonathan Fox, an attorney with the state Senate who braved the rainy weather. "And particularly on a day like today, it's perfect soup weather."
If only the crowd could have hugged Joannie Rochette for three solid minutes, ensuring she stayed on her feet through a performance that we're told was cathartic but surely must have been hellacious too, they would have all felt better.
The figure skater from Ile Dupas, Quebec was everyone's daughter on Tuesday night at Pacific Coliseum, essentially adopted by Canadians not long after her mother Therese died early Sunday of a heart attack at age 55, leaving Joannie and father Normand to grieve under the sporting world's microscope.
But then she did the remarkable, she stood on her own, taller even than anyone could have hoped, with a medal chance still in her grasp at the end of the short program. She's third, locked in for bronze at 71.36, seven points clear of Japan's Miki Ando in fourth.
Korea's Yu-Na Kim boosted her own world record to 78.50 to lead the way, as expected, with Japan's Mao Asada hard on her heels at 73.78. Their duel kicked the energy into high gear but Rochette's sheer brilliance under immense strain infused the building with an overload of emotion.
She broke down in a flood of tears as the crowd stood to roar their approval and support. Her face was a palette of sorrow. In the kiss and cry area she called out in French again and again to her mother and the emotion rolled through the building in waves, finally settling when Julia Sebestyen of Hungary took her turn at centre ice.
"I feel good," Rochette said not long afterwards, in a statement made to Skate Canada official Mike Slipchuk. "Hard to be precise, but 10 years form now I would want to come back and try this again. I have no regrets."
The fans did their part and she continues to marvel at the value of their good wishes.
"Very nice, warm welcome," Rochette said. "Hard to handle but I appreciate the support. I will remember this forever."
This Olympic moment, the one she trained from conception to fruition over four years, belonged to everyone now, and if that sudden and overt expression of interest and empathy leant her short program skate a voyeuristic overtone, it was innocent enough. Gawd, nobody wanted to see her fall.
We may hate to lose to them in hockey, but it appears we don't mind being the subject of America's online edification. Since it appeared on February 12, the video "Tom Brokaw Explains Canada to Americans" has been viewed over 215,000 times on one YouTube channel. The search term "Brokaw explains Canada" has also been logged as the #1 Twitter topic in Canada.
Despite the fact that the six-minute video was aired on NBC before the Olympic opening ceremonies, it has picked up steam online, where it's been linked to by ex-pats and citizens from both sides of the border.
The reason for the video's popularity, said the head of the The Historica-Dominion Institute, is that the rousing images of Canada are now at the centre of American attention, which is a place we rarely find ourselves.
"It's a valentine to Canada," said Andrew Cohen, president of Toronto-based. "It was very, very flattering."
And with tourism hurting since 9/11, the implications could be far-reaching. "That's free advertising. That's millions of dollars in advertising," he said.
The NBC clip features journalist Brokaw enlightening viewers on Canada's geographic beauty, the merits of our role in the Second World War (noting Canada participated before the U.S. did) and contemporary symbols such as the Highway of Heroes.
"If you're in a fight, you want the Canadians on your side," Brokaw said at one point.
The video also mentions the strength of the Canada-U.S. trading partnership with $1.2 billion transacted every day, the fact that Canada is its largest supplier of oil to the U.S., and both countries' history of welcoming immigrants.
The online comments for the video have ranged from gushy to nostalgic, with a majority being predominantly positive.
Cohen said the "love letter" to Canada leaves out right-wing criticisms about the border or healthcare, as well as some important details about Canadian diplomacy and peacekeeping.
"This isn't a political science seminar, it's NBC. It's mainstream America. It's not contentious. And by-and-large, (the information) is probably true," said Cohen. "To be honest about Americans and Canada is that they don't know very much. And so what I liked about that is it frankly told them important stuff."
Maybe that's why "Brokaw explains Canada" is also one of the most popular search terms on Twitter in the U.S. too.
Remember Leo Laporte? If not, you should be slapped. Anyway, he has a show called The Tech Guy, which provides support to technology users.
Below, a woman calls and complains that her wireless Internet connection has "disappeared." But as it turns out, she didn't even have a connection in the first place... and she had been stealing the connection from someone in her neighbourhood and had been doing her online banking and other stuff during the past 18 months... over an unsecure connection!
A snowboarder in Iowa is turning heads on the slopes. Well, that's because Wesley Muresan is just three years old and he's only been snowboarding for two months.
You can't miss Wesley at Sundown Mountain in Dubuque, Iowa. He's there with his eight-year-old brother and parents several times a week.
"Both my kids are home schooled so we bought a pass here as part of their physical education class and they just loved it," says his mother Danielle.
"Like everybody on the lifts above, they're all watching him, cheering him on," says Nolan Whoe, Wesley's instructor.
They're not just cheering him on because he's a little snowboarder who manages to make it down the hill. They're cheering him on because of how he gets down the hill.
"He does rails in the big terrain park. He does launch rails, box rails, rainbow rails, he goes off jumps. He grabs his board while he's in the air," says his mother.
He even gets a little frustrated when he doesn't make a jump, but mistakes are okay when you've only been snowboarding for two months.
"We thought we'd spend all year on the beginner hill, we didn't think we'd ever be off of it. But they just love it. They do it just for the pure joy of it. You can tell they love it so much," says Danielle.
His parents say if Wesley wants to take up snowboarding competitively, they'll support him as long as he's having fun.
There is no good time for the grief Joannie Rochette is feeling as she copes with the sudden death of her mother Therese. There is only bad and worse and this is surely the latter.
It is an unthinkable burden for a 24-year-old, who is no doubt already feeling the expectations of medal-hungry Canadians at a home Games that seems to be slipping away, already skating under the weight of a silver medal from the 2009 world championships. But she's still here.
She took the horrible news delivered by her father Normand and long-time coach Manon Perron at 6 a.m. on Sunday morning that her 55-year-old mother and biggest fan had died of a heart attack, and she steeled herself.
"She demonstrated a lot of control," said Benoit Lavoie, Skate Canada president. "Right after she remained composed. You had a feeling she was going back to her Olympic mode to cope."
It was no surprise to those who know her well neither that Rochette will compete Tuesday, nor that she practiced her short program Sunday and did it without breaking down. Arriving last in her group, and after quickly wiping away tears, she took the ice, waved to her father and five family friends in the seats, and with chin high and a smile pasted on her face she got through what had to be an incredibly difficult skate.
Normand, wearing a red Canada Olympic team coat, dabbed at his eyes with a tissue as he watched his daughter's every move.
"Joannie is a very courageous person. Just to be there this morning (for) the practice I was very impressed," said her Canadian teammate Cynthia Phaneuf. "She's going to get through this. She's just so strong. I think she is doing the right thing. She is not going to get any better just staying in her room. She is maybe a person to look up to, yeah?"
Rochette has to do what feels right, and the only one who knows what that will be at any given moment now is her. She almost immediately told Skate Canada officials she will compete and though they are ready to support whatever decision she makes Monday, Tuesday or Thursday, they are convinced she will follow through. That seems to be what everybody wants for her, what everybody thinks she needs.
"I know that she'll find the strength and the courage from her friends, her close friends, from her team, from her coach Manon, from the millions of fans who will be sending their thoughts and their love," said Brian Orser, a former Olympic skater and now coach of Korea's Yu-Na Kim, touted as the gold-medal favourite here in Canada. "I'm proud of her that she's continuing to compete because she's a great competitor. She's in great shape and she'll be skating for the right reasons."
"Manon and Joannie have a really tight bond and they have each other through this because Manon was really close to Joannie's mother as well. Together they will get through this and as a coach I think you have to allow her to grieve when she needs to. And I think it has to take its natural course."
We here at Huy's HomeTurf!!!@Home also wish Joannie the best and we are truly sorry for her loss. Good luck to her!
And, the fact that she is now skating in memory of her mother is even more encouraging for us. Again, good luck to her!
Long-time Conservative political strategist Patrick Muttart ended up as fodder for a Fleet Street tabloid Sunday in connection with preparations for an expected spring election in Britain (an election in Britain... which is due by June). A Daily Mail story mocks advice it says Mr. Muttart gave to Conservative Party Leader David Cameron as he prepares for Britain' first televised election debates. Yeah, that's kind of sad... Britain is having its "first" televised debate.
"Stare down Brown... and bring your own bottled water: David Cameron's TV tactics, courtesy of Canadian election guru," the Daily Mail headline reads.
The British Conservative Party leads in the polls over Gordon Brown's Labour Party, which will be trying to win a fourth term in office during a vote to be held on or before June 3.
"David Cameron has been secretly advised to stare at Gordon Brown in televised Election debates to make him feel uncomfortable," the Mail on Sunday said in a February 21 story. Well, if it's true, that's hilarious!
"According to documents seen by The Mail on Sunday, the Tory leader has also been urged to avoid drinking water provided by television studios because it is served so cold it 'tightens the throat.'"
While it made fun of some of Mr. Muttart's suggestions, the Mail described him as the man credited with masterminding Prime Minister Stephen Harper's election victories.
"He taught the conservative movement in Canada how to win elections again," the Mail quoted a commentator as saying of Mr. Muttart.
The British Conservative Party, however, distanced itself from the Canadian's suggestions, telling the Mail that it was "unsolicited" and that Mr. Muttart was not involved in a television debate preparation.
Mr. Muttart, who now works at a U.S. public affairs and political strategy firm, said the Daily Mail story was completely overblown. He said his suggestions were part of an email conversation with a British Conservative, and nothing more.
"I'm not working for David Cameron," Mr. Muttart told The Globe and Mail recently.
"The email in question was part of an exchange between me and a British Tory acquaintance; the continuation of a dialogue about TV debates that started previously at a private dinner in London with politicos from around the world," the Canadian political strategist said. "That's it."
And then Mr. Muttart reached for that classic phrase that political operators use to scorn media coverage they disdain.
"Must be a slow news day in the U.K," he said.
To read the article mocking Mr. Muttart in question, click here.
Lilydale, the company that previously had commercials with a guy that possessed a funny accent, is being acquired by an Ontario-based company called Sofina Foods for about $130 million in a deal that ends its 70 years as a producer-owned poultry processor.
Privately-owned Sofina, based in Markham, Ontario, will pay $75 million in cash and debentures, and assume bout $55 million in debt.
Sofina, which has about 1,200 employees at six facilities, produces mostly beef-and-pork-processed meats under private labels, and their own Fletchers, Cuddy, Quality Meats and Vienna brands.
Lilydale has 2,100 employees at two Edmonton plants, one single plant in Calgary, Abbotsford and Port Coquitlam, B.C., and Wynyard, Saskatchewan.
An emotional Tiger Woods apologized for his "irresponsible and selfish behaviour" today as the golf superstar broke his silence on the sex scandal that engulfed him last year. In a brutally honest self-assessment which was broadcast live across every major network in the United States, the 34-year-old confirmed he had been in rehab for 45 days where he was reportedly seeking treatment for sex addiction.
Repeatedly apologizing to family, friends and fans, Mr. Woods gave no clue as to when he might return to professional golf, saying only that it would be "one day" and that it might possibly be this year.
"I want to say to each of you simply and directly: I am deeply sorry for my irresponsible and selfish behaviour I engaged in," Mr. Woods told a hand-picked audience of friends and journalists at the USPGA Tour Headquarters. "For all that I have done, I am so sorry. I have a lot to atone for."
Mr. Woods' squeaky-clean image was left in tatters last year after a mysterious late-night car crash outside his home in Florida was followed by a string of lurid revelations about his personal life. More than a dozen women were linked to the billionaire sports star in the weeks following the car crash. Woods later admitted "transgressions" in his private life and had not been in public until this week.
Today, he emerged before a spellbound nation to apologize and admit that he had been in a rehabilitation centre for 45 days and that he would return to therapy following his statement.
"It's hard to admit that I need help, but I do," Woods said. "For 45 days from the end of December to early February I was in inpatient therapy receiving guidance for the issues I'm facing," Mr. Woods said. "I have a long way to go. But I've taken my first steps in the right direction."
Woods said that during a sporting career which had seen him elevated to iconic status, and on course to become the most successful golfer in history, he had begun to feel that "the normal rules don't apply."
"The issue involved here was my repeated irresponsible behaviour. I was unfaithful. I had affairs. I cheated," Woods said. "I stopped living by the core values that I was taught to believe in. I knew my actions were wrong, but I convinced myself that normal rules didn't apply."
"I never thought about who I was hurting. Instead, I thought only about myself. I ran straight through the boundaries that a married couple should live by. I thought I could get away with whatever I wanted to."
"I felt that I had worked hard my entire life and deserved to enjoy all the temptations around me. I felt I was entitled.'
"Thanks to money and fame, I didn't have far -- I didn't have to go far to find them. I was wrong, I was foolish. I don't get to play by different rules."
"The same boundaries that apply to everyone, apply to me. I brought this shame on myself. I hurt my wife, my kids, my mother, my wife's family, my friends, my foundation and kids all around the world who admired me."
"I've had a lot of time to think about what I've done. My failures have made me look at myself in a way i never wanted to before. It's now up to me to make amends. And that starts by never repeating the mistakes I've made."
Mr. Woods used the occasion to scotch reports that his wife Elin physically attacked him during the incident on November 27 which triggered the scandal.
"Some people have speculated that Elin somehow hurt or attacked me on Thanksgiving night," Woods said. "It angers me that people would fabricate a story like that. Elin never hit me that night or any other night."
"There has never been an episode of domestic violence in our marriage, ever. Elin has shown enormous grace and poise throughout this ordeal. Elin deserves praise, not blame."
Mr. Woods also kept fans guessing about when he may return to the sport following his self-imposed exile.
"I do plan to return to golf one day. I just don't know when that day will be," Woods said. "I don't rule out that it will be this year. When I do return, I need to make my behaviour more respectful of the game."
"Finally, there are many people in this room and there are many people at home who believed in me. Today I want to ask for your help. I ask you to find room in your heart to one day believe in me again. Thank you."
Immediately after the statement, Mr. Woods stepped from the podium to embrace his mother Kultilda, who was sitting in the front row.
Organizers moved Wednesday to squelch mounting criticism of the Winter Games by allowing greater public access to the Olympic cauldron and fighting back against attacks by the international media. Under fire for everything from malfunctioning ice-making machines to the lack of snow on Cypress Mountain, the Vancouver Organizing Committee insisted that the Games are going well and that they're correcting any problems as they occur.
"You have to keep some perspective," John Furlong, VANOC's chief executive officer, told reporters. "There's thousands of things going on in the Olympic theatre, and I think we should be talking about sport and (athletes) and Olympic records."
"The things that happen -- they need to be remedied when they happen. But it's not reasonable to think that as you move around a large city, that stuff won't happen when you have this many people here."
Furlong said VANOC moved as quickly as it could to deal with complaints about the chain-link fence around the Olympic cauldron on Vancouver's waterfront. By Wednesday morning, organizers had shifted the fence closer to the cauldron, opened an eye-level gap for spectators and photographers, and set up a viewing area on a nearby rooftop.
"People can now get above the cauldron, they have a great view deck there and the visuals today obviously are spectacular," he said.
Furlong then reeled off a list of things that he says are going well, including sold-out venues, massive television audiences, limited traffic congestion and the positive reaction to media facilities, athletes' food and the warmth of Canadian volunteers and fans. The Games, however, continue to be dogged by misfortune. Nineteen people were injured at a concert Tuesday night when the crowd surged forward and a barricade collapsed.
All were treated at the scene and nine were taken to hospital for further assessment. The changes VANOC made overnight to the security fencing around the cauldron met with mixed reaction from the thousands of people who came down to see it at Jack Poole Plaza.
Almost from the moment the area was opened, long lines formed, snaking down a long ramp toward the float plane base on the waterfront. Others stood in front of the fence, lifting their cameras up through the still-too-high gap so that they could get a picture. Others simply photographed their family members and friends showing the flame still locked behind the tall chain-link fence.
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling is again facing plagiarism charges. Her name has now been added as a defendant in a lawsuit against her publishers. The lawsuit, which is being brought in a London court by the estate of the English children's author Adrian Jacobs, alleges that she lifted concepts that include wizard contests, wizard prisons, wizard hospitals, and wizard colleges – from his 1987 book "The Adventures of Willy the Wizard: No. 1 Livid Land" and used them in writing "Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire."
The lawsuit was originally brought against Rowling's publisher, Bloomsbury Publishing, and her agent, Christopher Little (who was also Jacobs' agent). The Jacobs estate apparently had thought it was too late to sue Rowling, as "Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire" was published in 2000. But now, they say, they have discovered "legal cause of action against [Rowling] within the last six years."
The Jacobs estate is calling the lawsuit "a billion-dollar case."
It's not the first time that Rowling, estimated to be the world's wealthiest author, has had to defend herself against charges of plagiarism. One prominent case involved a 2002 suit brought by American author Nancy Stouffer who claimed that her character "Larry Potter" bore a striking resemblance to Rowling's "Harry Potter." Stouffer eventually lost her case and an appeal three years later.
Library Journal writer Lauren Barack called it right while discussing plagiarism charges against Rowling last year.
"Given the success of Rowling's Potter series it seems unlikely that she'll stop being a lightning rod for suits of this nature," Barack wrote. "While her stories are hugely popular, they do mirror many archetypes and story arcs found in popular tales."
Rowling has never cited a single author's works as the inspiration for Harry Potter. In interviews at different times she has mentioned sources as diverse as Chaucer, Shakespeare, and "The Narnia Chronicles" by C.S. Lewis as influential to her. In the United States, courts make a distinction between "fair use" and copying when considering plagiarism cases.
If the pavilions at the 2010 Winter Olympics are a party, Saskatchewan may be the belle of the ball. Just days into the Games, the Government of Saskatchewan's Olympic pavilion has been a hot ticket, kicking off with a line-up before the site even opened on Friday and filled to capacity ever since.
"It's exceeded all of our expectations," Saskatchewan Tourism, Parks, Culture and Sport Minister Dustin Duncan said Sunday, after returning to Saskatchewan from Vancouver.
Duncan said pavilion organizers had been expecting about 5,000 visitors a day, but surpassed their projections immediately, with more than 7,000 visitors on Friday, just under 6,000 on Saturday and a whopping 9,000 on Sunday.
"It's been extraordinary. At any given time we've had 100 people waiting to get into the pavilion," he said.
The Saskatchewan Pavilion has two areas, the Experience Centre, a domed area where visitors can learn more about Saskatchwean, and the Entertainment Centre, which showcases Saskatchewan talent, artists and food. So far, the visitors seem to be hungry for a taste of the Prairies.
As of Monday morning, Duncan said the pavilion had sold 2,100 bison burgers, 1,100 perogies and 700 saskatoon berry tarts.
An Olympic feeding frenzy even forced the closure of the kitchen for about an hour on Saturday afternoon, after the pavilion ran out of food. Duncan said new stocks of saskatoon berries are being shipped west from Saskatchewan to keep the supply of tarts topped up. A green screen, where pavilion visitors can have their photos taken in seminal Saskatchewan scenes, has also been a hit, Duncan said.
Of course, the attention doesn't come cheap. At a total cost of about $4.1 million, the pavilion was criticized by some for its high cost, including when an additional $500,000 was approved by the government late in January.
But Duncan says it would have been "a horrible mistake" not to have a strong presence at the Winter Olympics, and he believes the decision to invest in the pavilion is already paying off for Saskatchewan.
He said traffic to the pavilion's website and to the Saskatchewan Tourism site have both increased, and he expects more attention with special events such as Roughrider Day, which is still to come.
He said visitors to the pavilion appear to be a broad range of people, including some provincial ex-pats who try to skip the line.
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...
One day after Avatar was disappointed at the Oscars, a Vancouver restaurant owner plans to file a lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court today claiming copyright infringement against director James Cameron and other makers of the highest-grossing film of all time. 
Former Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin is pitching a reality series on Alaska to television networks.
The Paralympic flame began making its 10-day trek to Vancouver yesterday after it was lit at Parliament Hill in Ottawa yesterday.
Three days after Canadians belted out "O Canada!" to celebrate Canada's Olympic hockey win, Stephen Harper's Conservative government is asking whether the anthem should be changed.
British "supermodel" Naomi Campbell will not face charges related to assault accusations by her driver, New York police said Wednesday.
The world's most famous ogre, Shrek, his princess and his motley crew of friends will open the Tribeca Film Festival next month, with the final chapter of the series making its world premiere in 3D in New York.
Toronto filmmaker Charles Officer turned away from cameras Monday, overcome with emotion following the announcement of the 30th annual Genie Awards nominations.
Jay Leno returns to The Tonight Show tonight, and so does his desk, which is a sign that struggling network NBC wants its flagship late-night TV program to return to normal after Conan O'Brien apparently failed as its host.
Figure skater Joannie Rochette, who captured the hearts of Canadians for her bronze-medal performance in the grief-stricken days following the death of her mother, carried the Canadian flag into the closing ceremonies for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games last night.
For Prime Minister Stephen Harper, there was more riding on Sunday's hockey game than just national pride in his favourite sport. There was also a case of Molson Canadian in it, which is great beer.
Team Canada's dramatic overtime win in the gold medal game sent hockey fans from across Canada pouring into the streets in full party mode Sunday.
A Saskatchewan school of architecture is moving beyond the brainstorming stage and accelerating fast toward a blueprint that could see the college built in downtown Saskatoon. That would be so cool. That way, I could potentially become a real architect, instead of saying that I am an architect named Art Vandelay.
Charlie Sheen's publicist announced on Tuesday that the actor has entered rehab and is taking a break from television's top-rated comedy, Two and a Half Men, prompting the network to announce it is temporarily halting production of the show.
A Milan court convicted three Google Inc. executives on Wednesday for violating the privacy of an Italian boy with autism by letting a video of him being bullied be posted on the site in 2006, which is presumably YouTube.
The Vancouver 2010 Olympics will be the most heavily watched Winter Games in history, a senior official with the International Olympic Committee said Tuesday. Timo Lumme, who was responsible for the sale of television and new media rights, said the Games will receive about 24,000 hours of coverage around the world by the Games' broadcast or "old media" partners. That's a 47% increase over the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy.
No matter where they're from in the world, it seems like many people want to get a piece of Saskatchewan at the Winter Olympics. Upon his arrival Monday at the Saskatchewan pavilion in Vancouver, Regina citizen Davin Stachoski noted the longest line-up was not to get into the venue; it was to have your picture taken in front of a green screen that would eventually be superimposed on a photo of either a wheat field, a potash mine or Gainer the Gopher at Mosaic Stadium.
Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol has agreed to appear on a reality show, despite her mother's well-documented objection to reality.
Local Seinfeld fans in Tallahassee, Florida rejoiced this past Monday when one of the show's best known characters arrived in the rain!
If only the crowd could have hugged Joannie Rochette for three solid minutes, ensuring she stayed on her feet through a performance that we're told was cathartic but surely must have been hellacious too, they would have all felt better.
Long-time Conservative political strategist Patrick Muttart ended up as fodder for a Fleet Street tabloid Sunday in connection with preparations for an expected spring election in Britain (an election in Britain... which is due by June). A Daily Mail story mocks advice it says Mr. Muttart gave to Conservative Party Leader David Cameron as he prepares for Britain' first televised election debates. Yeah, that's kind of sad... Britain is having its "first" televised debate.
An emotional Tiger Woods apologized for his "irresponsible and selfish behaviour" today as the golf superstar broke his silence on the sex scandal that engulfed him last year. In a brutally honest self-assessment which was broadcast live across every major network in the United States, the 34-year-old confirmed he had been in rehab for 45 days where he was reportedly seeking treatment for sex addiction.
Organizers moved Wednesday to squelch mounting criticism of the Winter Games by allowing greater public access to the Olympic cauldron and fighting back against attacks by the international media. Under fire for everything from malfunctioning ice-making machines to the lack of snow on Cypress Mountain, the Vancouver Organizing Committee insisted that the Games are going well and that they're correcting any problems as they occur.
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling is again facing plagiarism charges. Her name has now been added as a defendant in a lawsuit against her publishers. The lawsuit, which is being brought in a London court by the estate of the English children's author Adrian Jacobs, alleges that she lifted concepts that include wizard contests, wizard prisons, wizard hospitals, and wizard colleges – from his 1987 book "The Adventures of Willy the Wizard: No. 1 Livid Land" and used them in writing "Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire."
If the pavilions at the 2010 Winter Olympics are a party, Saskatchewan may be the belle of the ball. Just days into the Games, the Government of Saskatchewan's Olympic pavilion has been a hot ticket, kicking off with a line-up before the site even opened on Friday and filled to capacity ever since.
