Richard Colvin's testimony will test the mettle of Canada's national reporters. Will they treat this as an issue that goes to the nation's soul, or as just another he-said, she-said episode in the partisan gamesmanship of Parliament Hill? So far, Paul Wells of Maclean's is passing the test with flying colors. Within hours, Wells refuted one element of the "bucket defence" Conservative MPs put up against Colvin's testimony. Conservative MPs are arguing that these prisoners were, after all, trained to tell tall tales about horrible treatment to attract sympathy. This is a standard argument made by torture apologists. It is probably true...

18 November, 2009

Canadian diplomat Richard Colvin told the Commons Committee on Afghan Detainees today that virtually all the prisoners Canada turned over to Afghan security forces in 2006 and 2007 were tortured. Colvin says senior Canadian military and civilian ignored his warnings about the abuse, and Red Cross officials who tried to intervene could not get their phone calls returned for three months. Here is: The Canadian Press account of Colvin's testimony. A transcript of his opening statement. Video of Bob Rae questioning Peter MacKay on the allegations in Question Period. Stories from CBC, the Toronto Sun, the Toronto Star, and the Globe and Mail. If anyone...

18 November, 2009

This morning's Ottawa Citizen offers another hint of how the Harper Government might rule if it ever gets a majority. Internal correspondence sent by mistake to CanWest News Service shows that while then-Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon pretended to support a Liberal motion urging the government to produce legislation supporting airline passenger rights, his office was pleading with the major airlines to step up their lobbying efforts against the motion. The documents also show that Transport Minister John Baird's office failed to consult consumer groups while developing its Flight Rights Canada campaign last fall, but sought and received industry approval at every...

18 November, 2009

New Yorker writer (and Port Medway summer resident) Calvin Trillin, who claims to hold the record for consecutive columns by an American about Canada (at two), deconstructs poutine in the magazine's Food Issue, out today. The piece itself is available on line only to subscribers, but here is a New Yorker podcast about it: Hat tip: Sarah Cooper-Ellis...

17 November, 2009

CBC Cape Breton's Information Morning host Steve Sutherland did a deft job Tuesday Morning holding Finance Minister Graham Steele's feet to the fire on the NDP's no-deficit, no-tax-hikes, no-program-cuts campaign pledge. Steele had a well-rehearsed answer, including a far-fetched analogy about a family doctor whose honest diagnosis gets overruled by four specialists, but Sutherland was politely persistent. He pressed Steele twice more to explain the glib falsehoods at the core of the NDP's spring election platform. "The fact is that we were acting on the best information we had at the time," Steele said. "The fact is that now we are in...

17 November, 2009

Contrarian reader Kirby McVicar offers an interesting take on Mayor John Morgan's problems with the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society: "The mainlanders are out to screw us all!" This is what I call Mayor Morgan's race card. Morgan says the Halifax/Ottawa bunch are keeping Cape Breton down with unfair distribution of wealth, with judges who are political appointees, and by using ECBC as a political tool that lets "outsiders" and "mainlanders" have it all. Cries of "Go, John, go!" can be heard from 80% of the kitchens in CBRM. And when the mainland media take on Johnny-Boy's opinions, you'll hear this same group say,...

17 November, 2009

Contrarian reader Colin May writes : Do you know anyone who believed the three promises made by DD and his colleagues ? Did you believe they would be able to keep the ERs open ?  Everyone in the health business knew it was BS. Voters just wanted rid of Rodney, they cared less about reality. The less said about the media the better. Looks like Premier McNeil in four years, about the only bright light in the Canadian Liberal firmament. Stan Jones adds: While I tend to agree with the recommendations in the report, I wonder if it isn't true that Dexter and Steele knew...

17 November, 2009

Jane Purves writes: I'm amazed that a man who has been mayor, i.e., in the higher echelons of the establishment, for what? ten years? can still get away with being considered anti-establishment....

16 November, 2009

This morning, Contrarian observed that Darrell Dexter had to have known he could not keep the three main promises of his June campaign: no deficit, no tax increases, and no program cuts. Sure enough, the premier jettisoned all three promises at a news conference this morning, and lamely tried to ascribe his about face to new information: But there are economic realities that we are faced with today that we did not know six* months ago. and: We have information now that no one had six months ago. Do tell. What new information is that? The Economic Advisory Panel report offers little that wasn't known long...

16 November, 2009

Contrarian is working his way through the Economic Review Panel's 95-page report. At first blush, it seems a sensible document, offering a balanced approach to navigating the economic mess the MacDonald government left us in. Premier Darrell Dexter choose wisely in selecting Donald Savoie, Elizabeth Beale, Tim O'Neil, and Lars Osberg to carry out the review. All are respected, progressive, and fair-minded. But before we get too deep into discussing the pros and cons of their recommendations, something needs to be said: Darrell Dexter campaigned on a triple-barreled promise: not to run a deficit; not to raise taxes; and not to cut programs....

15 November, 2009
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