Blog of Adam Daifallah -- author, journalist, law student. Lover of politics, writing, golf, curling, fitness, fashion, bacon and maple products -- not necessarily (but probably) in that order. Partisan of the Anglosphere. Contact me via email at adam@daifallah.com. This summer I am joined by Keir Wilmut and Omar Soliman.
Those watching the trial of Conrad Black et al are reporting interesting things from the courtroom. First, it seems that prosecutor Julie Ruder's closing statement yesterday was a smash hit; it is almost universally being acknowledged that he has a special "connection" with the female jurors. Today, the sense I get is that the defense team is not performing as well as hoped. (Admittedly it is very tough to get an accurate read on these things from pundits and observers; only God knows what the jurors are actually thinking.)
I have been religiously following this trial since Day One. It has been pretty tiresome at some points, but I wanted to get all the information I could. From all the media reports I've read and watched -- from Steven Skurka to Mark Steyn to the CBC (Neil MacDonald!) and CTV, even the horrendous stuff on Toronto Life's website and Tom Bower's bloviating in the Sunday Times -- I have seen nothing that should lead a fair-minded jury to convict these men of any crime. How can anyone claim the Patrick Fitzgerald gang discharged itself of its duty to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt by relying on the oral testimony of David Radler? No incriminating documents have been put into evidence, only papers that show that veritable armies of accountants, lawyers and boards of directors approved everything.
As has been noted by Steyn and others, it seems the prosecutors in their closing arguments tried to focus on the moral issues surrounding the non-compete payments and not the legal question of how they were done. (They were done legally.) This prosecution team appears to have figured out that emotion -- not cold facts -- is usually what matters most.
I really wish I had seen the trial in person, but from what I know I have to confess that I'm concerned. Let's hope the Conrad team closes with a bang tomorrow. They may need it.
Today is Bob Barker's last show as host of the Price is Right. To mark the occasion I have compiled a series of videos of the rarest and most exciting event on the show -- the Double Showcase win! Gotta love the bells and sirens.
Thank you Bob, for teaching so many people so much and for 50 years of entertainment.
The Toyota Prius has become the flagship car for those in our society so environmentally conscious that they are willing to spend a premium to show the world how much they care. Unfortunately for them, their ultimate ‘green car’ is the source of some of the worst pollution in North America; it takes more combined energy per Prius to produce than a Hummer.
....
Through a study by CNW Marketing called “Dust to Dust,” the total combined energy is taken from all the electrical, fuel, transportation, materials (metal, plastic, etc) and hundreds of other factors over the expected lifetime of a vehicle. The Prius costs an average of $3.25 per mile driven over a lifetime of 100,000 miles - the expected lifespan of the Hybrid.
The Hummer, on the other hand, costs a more fiscal $1.95 per mile to put on the road over an expected lifetime of 300,000 miles. That means the Hummer will last three times longer than a Prius and use less combined energy doing it.
Well, Sheila Fraser's done it again. This time she has the former lieutenant-governor of Quebec in her crosshairs:
The audit showed that $239,000 was spent by the former Lieutenant-Governor to cover personal expenses or for activities that could not be linked to her official duties. In addition, $129,000 was claimed from the federal government for accommodation and meal expenses already covered by the Government of Quebec. Finally, $343,200 intended to cover expenses incurred in the provincial capital was instead considered by the former Lieutenant-Governor to be supplementary pay.
Regarding that second sentence: if that allegation is true, wouldn't that mean she outright stole $129,000? We need an explanation.
Way to go, Madame Thibault. (That rhymes!) This is exactly the kind of publicity we needed associated with the monarchy in Quebec.
A former juror in the Conrad Black trial says she didn't see enough evidence to convict Lord Black during her time at the trial.
Sandra Grubar spent just over three weeks on the jury before asking to be dismissed in April to care for her 89-year-old father.
"I just never thought he would be found guilty," Ms. Grubar said in an interview. The case "was pretty shaky."
Ms. Grubar, a manager at a Chicago packaging company, said she has been following the trial since she left the jury. She said some recent evidence has been compelling for the prosecution, but she still isn't convinced there will be a conviction.
At best, she said, the trial demonstrated that Lord Black and the others "were really sloppy" in their business deals.
If Ms. Grubar is a weathervane, it's looking good for Lord Black.
1. The CRTC has ruled that it will not "allow" to own CityTV as part of its purchase of the CHUM media empire. How in this day and age of a multiple-thousand channel TV universe the CRTC is still considered relevant is a mystery.
2. The Supreme Court has ruled on an important case, concluding that we have yet another Charter-protect right -- collective bargaining:
In its 6-1 decision, the SCC threw out sections of the B.C. Health and Social Services Delivery Improvement Act, saying it was contrary to the charter because it interfered with the collective bargaining process.
The SCC agreed with a bid from a group of British Columbia health unions attempting to overturn the 2002 provincial law that erased portions of their contracts.
The justices said the collective bargaining process is protected by Section 2 of the charter.
"The protection enshrined (in the charter) may properly be seen as the culmination of a historical movement towards the recognition of a procedural right to collective bargaining,'' they wrote.
The implications of this decision are potentially far-reaching, especially in areas of the public sector where there are quickly-changing needs due to technological advances, budget shortfalls, etc... specifically healthcare, which is where this case originated from. Kudos to Judge Deschamps for being the lone dissenting voice.
Via Paul Wells, from the unlikeliest of sources we are treated to the most coherent explanation of why the government was right to keep Winnie Mandela out of Canada: Layton and Dion might want to ask a black South African office worker named Nicodemus Sono what he thinks of the woman now routinely referred to as a "human rights activist." In 1997, Sono described to South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission how, nine years earlier and in the midst of the anti-apartheid struggle, Madikizela-Mandela and her henchmen savagely beat and killed his son, Lolo.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu's commission concluded that Madikizela-Mandela was complicit in that killing and at least 11 other murders or attempted murders – sometimes because the victims were deemed (usually incorrectly) to be informers, sometimes because they were troublesome.
The commission also concluded that she took part in the savage beatings of others in the desperately poor black Johannesburg suburb of Soweto who ran afoul of her so-called Mandela United Football Club. One victim testified that she whipped him. In another instance, two youths had slogans carved into their chests and battery acid poured on the wounds.
At the time, Mandela United was part of the anti-apartheid African National Congress, a then illegal organization that is now the governing party. In 1997, a senior ANC official testified that during the late '80s the party was so alarmed by the tactics of Mandela United "thugs ... often directed by Madikizela-Mandela herself" that it tried to shut the unit down.
Good for Walkom for diffusing the truth. This is why no international figure who has been showered with accolades and pomp and circumstance ought to be completely shielded from probing inquiry. There are often inconvenient -- even ugly -- realities below the surface. This stuff almost makes you want to cut Rob Anders some slack.
OTTAWA -- Liberals are poised to derail Prime Minister Stephen Harper's cherished Senate reform agenda.
Sources told The Canadian Press that Liberal members of the Senate's legal and constitutional affairs committee will recommend Wednesday shelving a bill that would impose eight-year limits on senatorial terms.
Liberals, who hold a big majority in the upper house, will insist that the Senate not proceed with the bill until the Supreme Court of Canada determines whether it's constitutional for Parliament to proceed unilaterally, without provincial consent.
Nice excuse. They could go ahead with the bill and let the Courts decide after.
As we continue to countdown the days until the retirement of the mighty Bob Barker, today we watch a video of the only person I know personally to have competed on the Price is Right. Ottawa's Jonathan Snoek (currently living in Vancouver) has a tough time with 3 Strikes (and even scares Bob) but looks to have had a lot of fun regardless. Jon, don't worry about it. It probably would have been a pain in the ass to get the car over the border anyway.
UPDATE: Canada AM goes to visit Bob. On the third video, note the woman from Montreal (she described herself as a "professional student!") who cancelled her wedding to try to get into the show's audience.
To the relief of just about everyone, the Québec budget passed yesterday. The PQ and the ADQ opposed the package, but to avert an election, the PQ had all of their members but three sit out the vote.
The PQ and ADQ opposed Charest's $950-million across-the-board tax cut. The ADQ said they wanted the money to go to debt reduction instead. The PQ claimed people who make more than $75,000 a year are "rich" and don't need a tax cut.
For months, I've been telling anyone who would listen that the ADQ is not an ideologically consistent conservative party. They showed it again this week. One could argue there's nothing unconservative about wanting to apply new money to debt repayment. But Quebec has the highest income taxes in North America, making it rather uncompetitive, and with a small percentage of the population paying such a high amount of tax, tax cuts for all who pay them was particularly urgent. The ADQ really disappointed this week.
