From Cork to Toronto

An interesting comment made on Andrew Coyne's blog in reference to the proposal for a Team Quebec in the World Ice Hockey Championships - "Godot10" wrote Somebody should tell Guy Bertrand that (like Team Slovakia did when it became a country), Team Quebec would have to start out in Group C in the World Championships, to get to Group B, to get to Group A. i.e. There isn't enough seasons for Quebec to get through from Group C to Group A to make the 2008 World Championships. I don't think the rest of the world is going to give up a spot just so Quebec can satisfy its hockey ego. The comparison to England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland in soccer which others have made is not quite appropriate, since Britain does not field an aggregate team which one or more of its constituents opposed, and in any case those teams actually predated rather than postdated the European and World competitions. With the exception of curling provincial teams are not very usual in pop...

What I found interesting about Michael Chong's resignation was not that he did so - it was clear he had been marginalised in this matter in a way Stephane Dion would never have been in a matter so clearly in his jurisdiction - but why he did it just before the vote, had his press conference and then didn't even record a nay vote as Garth Turner and the fifteen others did but absented himself as several other Tories did. If Michael Chong had a principled objection to this vote his resignation should have come immediately after Harper's announcement of the government's motion on nationhood for Quebec - what made him pause a while? Perhaps he was urged to wait and see what happened on the Liberal benches and if they were in disarray some alternative strategy was planned. Michael Chong may have shown principle in refusing to go along with Cabinet collective responsibility but he has shown more proof that we currently have a one man with one vote Cabinet and also that he ...

Hansard, November 27 Hon. Jim Karygiannis (Scarborough—Agincourt, Lib.): next intervention Mr. Speaker, I realize how difficult this must be for the minister. Just today we had two soldiers killed in Afghanistan and tomorrow or the next day their remains will be brought home, draped in a Canadian flag and a nation will be very thankful of the work that they were doing in that part of the world, not a nation of nations, but a nation. I am sure that the minister will join me in recognizing that we are paying respect to them as a nation for the work that they are doing in fighting for human rights, justice and peace around the world. I am wondering what we tell the parents of the two soldiers who are coming back. Do we say that this is a nation which is grateful to your sons and daughters or is this a nation of nations which is respectful to your sons and daughters? I am wondering if the minister will share with us the exact expression that he is going to use when he meets those t...

It was previously thought that Mr Blunkett, through his time as Home Secretary of the United Kingdom , to be a privacy invader without compare, particularly through his championing of flawed ID cards. The Big Brother Awards even named the "Lifetime Menace Award" after him. It seems now that he's a private citizen without access to the juicy fruits of State investigation, he reveals himself to be a defender of the right to private conversation . Nice to know he still has the ability to lead a double life .

It's going to be hard for the Tories to make much hay out of the allegations of attempts to keep corruption investigations in Toronto Police out of public view while Julian Fantino was chief - most Tories probably wish that Fantino, who was more or less to TPS what Lastman was to City Hall, was one of them. The investigators claim co-operation was lacking and that the stress led to many of them becoming ill . One wonders if this didn't make for a better story now that Fantino, now on his second posting under the Liberal government, is back in the policing business and getting the "law and order" types, particularly in Caledonia, all excited. Anyone know if this was previously doing the rounds?

It's difficult to credit the actions of the UCPD cops who resorted to Tasering a student (youtube.com) who, against regulations, was in the college library without student ID and was reluctant to leave. The student should not have refused to leave but I doubt the announced review will allow what appears to be current UCPD practice to go unreproved. It is even more difficult to credit Kathy Shaidle who considers herself a Catholic rebroadcasting this intolerant cackle of glee : Let's see more of this… Police taser UCLA student for behaving like a jackass. My God, this cannot happen often enough. Do you have any idea how happy it makes me to watch a black cop taser a college student who is being a huge, whiny baby and screaming "This is an abuse of power!" (No, it's the violence inherent in the system.) And just when you think this story can't get better, there's a hilarious video. Screams of anguish never sounded so beautiful. What makes this even b...

Next time you meet an environmentalist potsmoker ask them where the energy came from for their pot. It's becoming clear that eliminating grow-ops such as this one and the 1,000 watt incandescent lights used for growth would save more energy in Toronto than all those CFL bulbs (and dodgy LED christmas lights) Toronto Hydro are giving out. Apparently apartment blocks are popular with growers because power is part of the rent rather than being individually charged and thus disproportionately high bills being easy to spot. I don't actually have a problem with pot being legalised but growing pot in an old apartment block while rewriting in dodgy manner likely to cause fire, not to mention taxes having to be paid to relocate innocent co-residents - well, that's just uncool man...