Canada, the most awesome place on earth

I must confess, I was a little hestitant at first to include this quote in "Married to the Mob?" just because it seemed so over the top:
"If [organized criminals] were asked to invent a country, it would look exactly like Canada."
–Antonio Nicaso, Jan. 23, 2006

It’s so reassuring to find independent verification:
"The current climate legally in […]

Another Canadian history lesson

You may have seen this story in the Globe and Mail: Canada urged to build foreign spying agency.
"Canada has always been dependent on the free intelligence handouts that it receives from its close allies, notably the U.S. and the U.K.," Sir Richard Dearlove, the head of MI6 from 1999 to 2004, recently told a University […]

Got a date

Photo credit: Kevin Steel

Who is this? This is Hessa. She was working the Federal Environmental Agency UAE - S S Lootah International booth at the trade fair which was part of the Globe 2006 conference on climate change and technology which ended last night (here’s a list of exhibitors). I stopped to talk to Hessa […]

Meeting Mo

Photo credit: Kevin Steel

You may see a picture like this in tomorrow morning’s Globe and Mail. It a shot of Maurice Strong making introductory remarks at the opening plenary for the Globe 2006 conference in Vancouver at around 8:30 AM PST. One of the sponsors of the event is The Globe and Mail (Globe 2006? […]

A working MP

LaSalle—Émard Member of Parliament Paul Martin appears to be doing a great job representing the interests of his constituents at… the United Nations? Oh wait, the story says this was "private meeting." Ottawa Citizen: Martin has private UN meeting with Annan–’No note takers’ in room for encounter held at ex-PM’s request

Drawing conclusions

Jeremy Lott just called me up from out on the east coast to tell me about this entry on his new joint blog 4pundits.com. It seems the entire staff of the New York Press, a weekly, quit after the publisher told them they could not run the much discussed Danish cartoons in their paper. Said […]

We stand

American Jeremy Lott gives his northern neighbour a little Big Apple exposure in a column for the New York Press: GIULIANI TIME, EH? Canada gets itself some guns.
…arming border officials might give new meaning to the last line of the country’s national anthem. You know, the part where hockey fans sing, “We stand on guard […]

Tobin out

I, Kevin Steel, would like to take this opportunity to announce that I do not intend to seek the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada. My primary reason is that nobody wants me to run; there’s that plus family considerations. I had hoped to get my announcement out before Brian Tobin told everyone he […]

Groan, not another one

Check out this story today in Australian News: Kickback ‘paid through shadowy agent’. And where was that shadowy agent based? You guessed it, Canada.
Albert Shimoon, based in Ottawa, often referred to expenses he incurred in Iraq and the high cost of doing business there, and Mr Joyce said he did not think that might have […]

Panama hat

A Jan. 23 editorial in The Panama News is asking questions about alleged Oil-for-Food briber Tongsun Park. They want to know why Park was headed to Panama and did it have anything to do with the expansion of the canal:
…some good investigative work by La Prensa journalists Mónica Palm and Betty Brannan Jaén has uncovered […]