Michael Ignatieff was in Burlington this morning, giving a rousing and firm stump speech to a crowd of over 200 (somewhere between 200-250 is the estimate), including bigwigs like Oakville Mayor Rob Burton , former Senator Betty Kennedy , federal Liberal candidate Deb Gillis , and several Burlington and Milton candidates for city council, including Mark Carr and Marianne Meed Ward , and Cory Judson .

All in all, it was an event to remember. Maybe not as noisy and crazy like Conservative events, but Ignatieff certainly...

R. v. Cornell 2010 SCC 31 was released today. It permitted a search of a residence made without prior announcement but in so doing set out the customary process. The Court held:

[18] Except in exigent circumstances, police officers must make an announcement before forcing entry into a dwelling house.  In the ordinary case, they should give: "(i) notice of presence by knocking or ringing the door bell; (ii) notice of authority, by identifying themselves as law enforcement officers and (iii) notice of purpose, by stating a lawful reason for entry: Eccles v. Bourque, [1975] 2 S.C.R. 739, at p. 747.

[19] Neither the wisdom nor the vitality of the knock and announce principle is in issue on this appeal. Experience has shown that it not...

How would you feel if you were arrested on fake charges, and when you show up in court to defend yourself, you find the state pretending that you were never charged? This happened in Canada over the last month. Most Canadians couldn’t imagine this sort of state corruption happening here, and now it is. It’s happened to your countryman, David Vasey. Remember those mocked Liberal ads from the Paul Martin campaign? The imagination of a 4 year old attack ad has an air of validity now, thanks to the overbearing abuses by politicians and police at the G20. The police had no authority to arrest people within “5 meters” of the “public work” zone, yet Toronto’s chief of police directed...

I always love when Rob Anders is in the news - it's always a hoot. That's why I couldn't help but laugh out loud when Rob Anders popped up today and claimed that he had knowledge that Chinese influence is running deeper than even CSIS admits. This is due to apparent Chinese promises of gifts and beautiful young women. He even says members of the federal government are under constant pressure. I'd love for him to name names....

"Five key bridges in the western portion of the T'Railway Provincial Park that closed in 2008 are now re-opened to park users. [The five bridges are being ] replaced as a result of a $3.6 million allocation in Budget 2010: The Right Investments For Our Children and Our Future ."

That's part of the first paragraph of a happy-news release from the province's environment.  It's one of dozens issued every week in July as part of the happy-news offensive mounted by the provincial government in the run up to August's scheduled polling by the provincial government pollster.

The release leaves out much relevant detail.

Not surprisingly,...

R. v. Pickton, 2010 SCC 32 ( http://bit.ly/9CNGF8 ) was released about 45 minutes ago.

The appeal was dismissed but the Court had concerns about the trial. That said, in light of the overwhelming evidence of guilt the appeal was dismissed.

The main thrust of the Court's concern was that the trial judge ought not to have limited his instructions to what the parties argued but ought to have also dealt with the possible routes to guilt disclosed by the evidence.

A summary follows:

The accused was charged with several counts of first degree murder after the police found the dismembered remains of the victims on his property.  Throughout the trial, the Crown maintained that the accused had actually shot and killed the  women....

There is one thing, aside from Hockey, that Canadians have perfected. It is the art of complaining. We complain about our leaders, the economy, those damnable Americans, the atheist-statist nutters in Toronto, the fascist-zealots in rural BC/Alta., the lines at Tim Hortons, the warm government beer, the cold but chaotically priced private beer, those damnable [...]

If we're going to have a Conservative government, can we at least not have a dumb one? Is that too much to ask?

Now partisans on the left may say that the term...

, which is a refreshing change for...

"A week after Mr. Ignatieff's comments, they started questioning me, saying, 'What happens if we decide to invest in you...

Interesting how people of integrity who hold to important principles in the face of the blow hard Stephen Harper finds themselves having to forfeit their jobs in order to remain true to principles that (virtually) all Canadians embrace.

Munir Sheikh, the former head of Stats Canada who opposed Harper's mindless move...

Notwithstanding my admittedly ridiculous behaviour on the morning the iPad came out, I did not line up all last night to be one of the first to get the new iPhone. Instead, my daughter and I hung out on Queen West and got additional body piercings. One of my lawyers/besties is in Los Angeles, this morning (happy birthday, Kill For You), and he wants to get one. He says he’ll pick one up for me, but I think I’ll wait. There have been too many stories about too many iPhone 4 problems for me to jump into the deep end of the pool on this one. This represents an unusual moment of restraint and matu...

...

Stephen Harper...very unlikely? He'd snap something. Jack Layton could probably break-dance while rapping in Lithuanian, but his party's full of weirdos. The Quebecois have...

 The old Capitol theater is literally standing on her last legs after more than 120 years in the city of Woodstock. This coming week the process of removing the icon from the city is set to begin. According to the City of Woodstock, the removal will cost taxpayers nearly $500,000.00 as the owner of the building has no insurance and according to her, has no money to cover the costs. The old building contains some asbestos which requires some delicacy in handling for removal.
 Frankly, this all could have been avoided.
  Instead of allowing tax breaks to property owners who have vacant property, the city should be charging a premium rate for unoccupied property which would encourage the landlord to try and rent it out in earnest to gain a better rate...

Canadian News..Oxford county politics, International news and more. Major focus on Woodstock, Ontario politics....

Officials are being wooed by China, Tory MP says

First it's the head of CSIS issuing a warning over Chinese Authorities infiltrating Canadian politicians...now it's the government themselves.
Instead of issuing warnings...why not give us a list of names of the politicians whom the government feels are being infiltrated by the Chinese government? Or Better yet, why don't we have recall so we can fire the offending politicos? Canadian News..Oxford county politics, International news and more. Major focus on Woodstock, Ontario politics....

I’ve come to the conclusion this morning that the Conservative War Room must think the media and public are stupid, or they are hoping everyone out there has amnesia or memory loss on their behaviour with regards to how they’ve treated the public service since being in power. Let me list a few examples to refresh your memory. In the most recent case of this, we’ve seen Industry Minister Tony Clement and company attempting to hide behind Munir Shiekh and Statistics Canada when they got criticized over dumping the mandatory longform Census, claiming that it was deemed perfectly acceptable by Statistics Canada to change to a voluntary longform. Unfortunately for them (but fortunately for Canada), Shiekh wouldn’t allow StatsCan’s credibility to be dragged through...

Oh look, the Russians are coming, again: "Canadian jets repel Russian bombers." There is word to Sun Media (QMI) from Peter " uniform " MacKay that two Canadian jets scrambled to meet Russian bombers on Wednesday. That sounds so familiar.

Now, apparently these Russian bombers stressing that although the planes...

Mark Bonokowski, that is. His disappearance from the T.O. Sun masthead appears to stem from the fact that he is on vacation , as confirmed by this tweet from the 27th , and not from the fact that the Vampire Teneckcye sacked his ass out the door.

...Although he's been on vacation since the 25th, and his name was only pulled down on the 27th . And why would you pull a name for that anyway?

Anyway, have a good vacation Mark! But be careful when you get back to...

Canadian News..Oxford county politics, International news and more. Major focus on Woodstock, Ontario politics....

http://www.woodstocksentinelreview.ca/ArticleDisplay....

A new study made by international scientist support the fact that climate change is real. The scientist show that all the effects that climate change was expected to do has happened. Everything from air temperature is going up to humidity, and everything from Artic ice to glaciers has been disapering. This just restate the thruth about the climate of the planet that it is actually happening, and that he so called "Climategate" is just one big hoax. The truth is that the global temeprature has risen 0.56 C.  Which means that the Climate is changing , and that We should stop arguing on the truth (that the climate is changing) and talk about solution to the problem like a Carbon Tax and investments in alternative energy.

But Jane Lubchenco, the administrat...

Brian Lilley:

As for which public schools he did go to, it appears Ignatieff was a student at Manor Park public school in Ottawa's east end. After graduating from Upper Canada College he went on to the publicly funded University of Toronto.

This is the same Brian Lilley who, yesterday morning, implied that Iggy had spoken falsely about receiving a public education in Canada, and who seems to have spent the hours since rewriting the piece so he could maintain its sneering tone in the face of contradictory evidence. Being QMI, we'll never get a retraction out of him. But if anyone has the dough to threaten l...

The Government of Quebec and the federal government started talks recently aimed at achieving an agreement on revenue sharing for any oil and gas in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canadian Press reported .

Details about what the deal would entail, and when it would be implemented, remain vague. But [federal natural resources minister Christian] Paradis described the broad outlines while standing next to [Quebec natural resources minister Nathalie] Normandeau at an event earlier this week.

"We're talking about an administrative deal," he said.

"The goal is to creat...

Whatever Iggy's faults, us party people gotta stand up for our right to party! Or to quote the wisdom of some of Canada's greatest philosophers:

We can dance if we want to, we can leave your friends behind
'Cause your friends don't dance and if they don't dance
Well they're no friends of mine

How hard would it be for the Canadian government to just adopt a policy that says, if you are a Canadian citizen and you get into trouble outside the country then our top priority is to help you?
Oh, yeah, him .
Never mind...

My title is an unlikely name for a cause backed by Hollywood celebrities and musicians. That’s why it has another name, and is funded by a greenwashing effort by BP and other oil companies. “Be The One” is an oil industry effort to make the US government (AKA taxpayer) responsible for funding the clean-up of oil along the Gulf and Atlantic coast. The US Government said it “will not rest” until the people living at the Gulf are “made whole”. The actions of BP and Transocean injured the Gulf and its people, and they are 100% responsible for the out of control gusher that flowed for months and it’s cleanup. “BP The One” will be a failed greenwashing attempt. “Be The One” may have pulled down its sponsors page to avoid fur...

R. v. G. C., 2010 ONCA 539, released today, makes clear that an accused must show grounds as to why sentencing credit should be given for time spent in the community even on strict terms of judicial interim release:

[3]               The first ground is that credit should have been given for the time served on strict pre-trial bail.  In our view, there was no error in law in the circumstances of this case.  R. v. Downes (2006), 79 O.R. (3d) 321 (C.A.) imposes an onus on the offender to put forward the hardship.  ...

[4]        &...

I give him his due, fully, for courage in this moment and to the Liberal cr...

It's not a pirouette beind Her Majesty, but it's still cool. I also wonder what Conservative leader, since Joe Clark marshalled the Calgary Pride Parade, would make a summer campaign based on events like this.

Even better, as Monty ably points out , why does Stephen Harper have no summer campaign at all?

...

The Facebook group Canadians Demanding a Public Inquiry into Toronto G20 have released the list of the most urgent questions that an inquiry into police behaviour during the protests should answer:

1. Why were the police forcing peaceful protesters out of Queen's Park on Saturday when that was the designated protest area? ...

2. Were special powers actually extended to police for the duration of the G20 summit? If so, what exactly were they? ...
3....

I hope for nothing but the best for Shawn and his family. Statement by Parry SoundMuskoka Federal Liberal Association Huntsville - July 29, 2010 Shawn Pudsey, the Liberal Party of Canada's nominated candidate in Parry SoundMuskoka, made the following statement today: "It is with a heavy heart that I have decided to step down as the candidate for the federal Liberal Party in Parry SoundMuskoka. A number of years ago, I was treated for cancer. It seems to be making a re-appearance. But the prognosis is good, and I am not going anywhere. I do, however, have to take this issue seriously and make health my priority." "I discussed the matter last evening at a meeting of the Parry SoundMuskoka Federal Liberal Association. I want to thank all of our local riding...

When you make the According to police, the c...

Ignatieff, visiting MuchMusic:


h/t Susan Delacourt twit pic.

Be kind in the comments :)

And I don't mean the capital of Montana.

Ms. Guergis in the news again:

Even Guergis doesn't deserve this
But no one deserve...

Anne Milton would like that.

Fat, not obese.

I spent yesterday touring areas of Southern Alberta and meeting with people severely affected by this year’s floods. Hopefully we can get some help to these people who have gone through so much. Please read the letter I sent today to Premier Stelmach, urging the government to step up and help these damaged communities. July 29, [...]

From CBC:

The federal government should be able to eliminate the annual budget deficit by 2015, a year ahead of schedule, the Conference Board of Canada said Thursday.

A report by the think-tank said it all depends on the government sticking to its promises to constrain spending.

In its February budget, Ottawa projected a budgetary shortfall of $54 billion in 2010 but said annual deficit...

Nor have I ever played in the NHL.

NFL.

CFL.

Been an MP, MPP or a professional speed skater.

But, and I am not admitting anything to the court, I may have said I did the above things in the hope of seducing a PYT [pretty young thing] at some point in my dubious past.

It may have even worked.

Saber Qashor, a thirty year old married [read: dog] in Jerusalem has been ordered jailed for 18 months. His crime was that thirty minutes after being approached on a downtown J-town street by woman he was hitting that hard in an office building stairwell.

His crime, according to what I am reading in this release, was he introduced himself as Dudu, which is a common Isr...

Early childhood career training.

In Scotland they get all upset.

What this is is pole dancing classes. Up Yer Pole is advertising pole dancing classes on its website, http://upyerpole.com/, for 9 to 16 year old girls. A reporter from...

You first, 'k?

And you are going to die sooner than I am.

That is if you are an elite athlete.

Bill Lankof has some interesting info in his Such as: "The average elite athlete will die by age 67, considerably lower than the 76-year life expectancy of the average American, and according the NFL Players' Association, the average life expectancy of an NFL player is 58 years."...

Ottawa Defence Department computers in Ottawa have been used to alter information on a Wikipedia page critical of the Conservative government's decision to spend billions on a new stealth fighter.

...

...

Every time I and others voice concern about what Stephen Harper would do if his 'new' Tory party gained a majority, the rapid response is that Harper has no hidden agenda, that raising this issue is flogging a dead horse, that the Liberals will not gain any traction with such claims. In short, Harper's defenders say that the leopard has changed its spots, and can...

Listen, don't blame me, we have only one talk radio station in english in your capital so CFRA it is.

Lowell Green came up with a new one, at least new to me.

Multi-ghetto. Replacing multi-ethnic.

To think that he ran for the Liberals back in the day.

In response to my last post, an anonymous commenter (who was pretty obviously a Tory staffer - hey, it doesn't seem like they have better things to do during work hours ) countered that he/she had been to 10 different Stephen Harper events and it was wrong for me the criticize Harper for his vanishing act this summer. Hilariously enough today a map has come out detailing the Prime Minister's coming and goings this summer and oddly enough there aren't even 10 events total:

...

Briefly, My colleague the Jurist at his blog details some more blanket condemnations of the Conservatives bone-headed/ideological move to kill the mandatory longform census, but he did miss one article that should be read – C.E.S Franks at the Globe and Mail explains why Munir Shiekh resigned, and the probable chain of events. He isn’t impressed: The problem Mr. Sheikh faced was not the choice between voluntary survey or mandatory census, but that the minister went public with inaccurate claims about the advice he had received. Mr. Clement was selective to the point that his public claims have not accurately reflected the advice given by Statistics Canada and its public service head. This misrepresentation called into question the integrity of Statistics Canada, the office of t...

“Unpaid work is perhaps the biggest contribution that women make to the economy. In Canada unpaid work is estimated to be worth up to $319 in the money economy or 41% of GDP; globally the numbers skyrocket to $11 trillion US. Most unpaid work in Canada and around the world is performed by women. In Canada, the 1996 Census was the first to collect data on unpaid work, marking a major breakthrough for feminists across the country and providing an example for other countries around the world. What do the statistics tell us? Women and men in Canada have similar total workloads but men spend most of their time, 4.5 hours a day, in paid work and 2.7 hours in unpaid work. For women, the statistics are reversed with 2.8 hours in paid work and 4.4 hours in unpaid work.2 Women perform 2/3...

And in no particularly political order here are a list of books that I’ve read that I think everyone should read in preparation of an election or campaign. These are plucked from my shelf so it isn’t a complete list, albeit this list is one I’m very familiar with seeing that I’ve read each of [...]

RIM copies Apple, Apple copies RIM: It’s just me, but I’d recommend the two companies stick to doing what they already do very well: RIM manufacturing a terrific device for email, Apple manufacturing terrific touch-screen computer thingies. I’m not sure they advance their corporate interests by providing a pale version of what the other guy does better. The Giorno Factor: I know Guy and I like him. I don’t agree with his views on many, many subjects, but he’s a smart cat. The notion, however, that he’s really the Prime Minister, and not Stephen Harper, is mistaken. Chiefs of Staff are important, but nobody should be under the impression that The Boss is anything other than The Boss: that has always been so. The character and focus of the Harper...

The other week David Akin penned a commentary piece about an Ipsos-Reid poll that showed Canadians were evenly split about the census issue. It was trotted forward as proof positive that this was a non-issue that the press was blowing out of proportion. Well, things have changed. A more recent Angus-Reid poll shows that the numbers are shifting. Those opposed to the government's decision (47%) has stayed constant but, in contrast to the poll Akin cited, Canadians have possibly become more aware of the issue and support has dwindled to 38% per cent. But dig deeper and the story is gets more interesting. Only one-in-four Canadians (24%) agree with the Conservatives assertion that the Long Form Census is intrusive and 58% think it yields data that is important to make policy decisions in all...

From respected journalist to on-air Con shill to Senator, the downfall of Mike Duffy has been slow and steady.    Now it's just about complete with Duffy being sent in as the point-man to represent the government on-air regarding the current turmoil in the Mounties' top management .

The Red Serge may have a lot of problems right now, but is The Duff the best Harper can send in?

Moreover, if a civilian was needed to clean up the mess in the first place, why didn't Harper appoint someone who actually had prior civilian police oversight?   Bill El...

 Frankly, Michael Harding says there is nothing that he as mayor can do about the mess of a methadone that sits at 461 Dundas street. It's totally understandable that we need one of these places here, but it is completely unacceptable that there is no real component of REHAB here. Woodstock needs a full service rehab centre to deal with this e...

http://bit.ly/dhsQK8

The Baryluk/Townley-Smith case involves a client who says her lawyer went on a "frolic of her own" and started frivolous law suits without instruction. This part of the case is not all that complicated. Lawyers act as agents for their clients and ought not and must not do anything the client does not authorise.

The more difficult point raised is whether regulators ought to have acted earlier in dealing with the seemingly bizarre claims asserted on behalf of Ms. Baryluk (And factually the claims do seem delusional -- they assert a vast criminal conspiracy among judges and others front by Warner Bros).

While on the surface such intervention would have been sensible, in fact closing down unusual l...

No question but that President Obama is in trouble in the polls.

There are many explanations -- the Republicans see him as big government socialist while many Democrats see him as not going far enough in reforms.

Regardless, there is a long time before the next Presidential election and remember Ronald Reagan slid in the polls even worse than Obama but still recovered for re-election.

And Obama has accomplished a lot (whether that's good or bad depends on your political position):

http://bit.ly/92QhtN

"This month, President Barack Obama signed into law a financial reform bill aimed at preventing another financial crisis. It cost him financial backers on Wall Street, but gave consumers new protection...