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THE PEACE PROCESS RESURRECTS Herbert Zweibon Now that Arafat is dead, world leaders see an opportunity to jump-start the moribund "peace process." Says Prime Minister Blair: "I have long argued that the need to revitalize the Middle East peace process is the single most pressing political challenge in our world today." And President Bush: "We've got a great chance to establish a Palestinian state, and I intend to use the next four years to spend the capital of the United States on such a state." To be sure, the President predicates this commitment on the emergence of a peaceful, democratic...

2004-11-16 Critics wrong to paint Bush as religious fanatic Rory Leishman, London Free Press Why do so many commentators persist in disparaging U.S. President George W. Bush as a dangerous Christian fanatic, while lauding the likes of John Kerry as a champion of the separation of church and state? After all, it was not Bush, but Kerry, who professed in a nationally televised presidential leadership debate that, as a Christian, he believes "everything you do in public life has to be guided by your faith, affected by your faith." Few of Kerry's backers were alarmed by this statement, because most...

4-11-26 Left-wing whiners play politics of petulance HERMAN GOODDEN, London Free Press Welcome to the new petulance. I would have thought the emotive, left-leaning armies of Barbra Streisand and Alec Baldwin might have remembered the humiliation of 2000 when their rash ultimatums to disassociate themselves from any country where George W. Bush was president, ultimately had to go unfulfilled. I could have sworn things would be different on the left this time. Surely they knew what whiners they looked like last time and would repent. For the sake of their own self respect, they would have to focus more on...

American post-vote posturing nonsense JIM CHAPMAN, London Free Press It has been interesting and sometimes quite annoying to watch and listen to the American commentators in the aftermath of the U.S. election. At the more or less final count, George W. Bush had won 51 per cent of the popular vote to John Kerry's 48 per cent. Yet to hear some of the Republican commentators, their party staged a major triumph, a complete vindication of their president's record and proof positive that they speak for the great majority of U.S. citizens who reject the liberal media elite version of America....

2004-10-27 Democrats can't accept 'no' SALIM MANSUR, For the London Free Press This U.S. presidential election is too close to predict. It could also remain undecided the evening of Nov. 2 and, like the 2000 U.S. vote, provide a feast for lawyers. The most pernicious effect of the last U.S. presidential election was the "un-American-ness" of the losing Democrats. By not accepting the results, they stained the presidency with their rancour. Another close presidential vote a generation ago elected John F. Kennedy as America's 35th president, and it was widely known to have been stolen. Richard Daley, the Democratic mayor...

2004-08-17 Health-care costs on critical list Rory Leishman, London Free Press In an offhand comment last week, Prime Minister Paul Martin rejected the idea of a comprehensive national pharmacare plan. He insisted the proposal is simply unaffordable. The provincial premiers disagree. Last month, they unanimously called upon Ottawa to introduce and pay for a national plan to provide Canadians with prescription drugs, but neglected to estimate the cost of the program. That cost is bound to be considerable. Independent experts suggest the total could range anywhere from $7 billion to $12 billion a year. Martin has promised no more than...

Hate crimes probe launched A London man's postings on websites target blacks, Jews and gays. RANDY RICHMOND, Free Press Reporter 2004-08-19 02:30:16 Police have launched a hate crimes investigation of a London resident who regularly ridicules blacks, Jews and gays on the Internet. London police confirmed the investigation yesterday, just as four Ontario anti-hate groups and an Ottawa human rights lawyer publicly called on the province and London's force to investigate the man. "Hate of one is hate of everybody. That is completely contrary to what Canada is supposed to stand for," said Leo Adler, director of national affairs for...

This article appeared in Consent #33 (January 2004) Kyoto or Else? - Richard Hummel "We all use models, good or bad, to guide our actions. Most often they are simply in our brain. That's how we are able to play ball. A 'superball' tricks us on the second bounce until we learn why." Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering at the University of Toronto, Richard Hummel joined the university in 1961, where he participated in an experiment with a reservoir and 7 vertical connected glass tubes to demonstrate a simple but, like the 'superball,' unexpected result. His computer programming class found...

MDs urge $1B for health care The CMA says the money is needed to address shortages in nurses, physicians, and technicians. SHERYL UBELACKER, CP 2004-08-18 02:47:30 TORONTO -- The association representing Canada's doctors is calling on Ottawa to provide a whopping $1 billion to address the shortage of physicians and develop a strategy to ensure the country has enough health providers to care for patients. At its annual meeting in Toronto yesterday, the Canadian Medical Association said health-reform experts have identified shortfalls among all types of physicians, nurses and technicians as a major obstacle to reducing long waiting lists for...

Media must work at getting it right GEORGE CLARK, London Free Press Do you think the media generally gets things right? Do you have concerns about the bias of reporters or the media organizations themselves? Do you worry that the concentration of media ownership in this country has an impact on the way the news is gathered and reported? According to a recent report card on the Canadian media, Canadians have a positive impression of accuracy in the media, responsiveness to their readers, listeners and viewers, and play an important part in society. Interestingly, the figures are almost exactly the...

Health-care future in doubt Considering that not only well-being, but life itself, can depend on good health care, it is troubling that public confidence in medicare continues to erode. Only 45 per cent of respondents believed their children or grandchildren will receive health care of the quality Canadians get today, according to an Ipsos-Reid poll commissioned by the Canadian Medical Association. Thirty per cent gave public health care a C grade, and 11 per cent gave it an F. Prime Minister Paul Martin and the provincial premiers will confront this nation's No. 1 priority when they meet to -- in...

NATIONAL POST Latest News Press Holdings International to buy Hollinger Inc. for $605.5M Canadian Press Sunday, January 18, 2004 TORONTO -- A private British newspaper, hotel and retail company is paying more than $600 million to buy Conrad Black's embattled Hollinger publishing group in a blockbuster deal announced Sunday. Press Holdings International Ltd., a company owned by Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay, announced it had signed a deal with Black to buy his controlling stake in Hollinger Inc. of Toronto for $8.44 a common share. Including cash bids for preference shares and other debt, the deal values Hollinger Inc....

Can a Return to the Moon Revive the Spirit of Apollo? By Edward Hudgins Our reactions to President George W. Bush’s plan to return to the Moon and eventually go on to Mars might start with a reference to Ayn Rand’s essay on “Apollo 11.” In it she related her thoughts about the launch and landing of the first manned mission to the lunar surface. She described the experience of visiting the Kennedy Space Center to witness the take-off of the huge Saturn V rocket, of seeing it ride a trail of flames into the sky and and hearing and...

Smart newspaper readers make up their own minds Paul Berton, Editor-In-Chief 2004-01-17 03:30:38 So George W. Bush has announced to the world he doesn't read newspapers. That's right folks, the leader of the most powerful country on Earth, the man with his finger on the button, the man to whom so many look for leadership, lets other people read the newspapers. They tell him what's important, what's being published, or at least what they think he should know is being published. He admitted this last month in an interview with Diane Sawyer on ABC as 11 million people watched. "I...

CN BC: Editorial: No Shortage Of Scandal, Or Of Political Pure (08 Jan 2004) Arrow Lakes News British Columbia What is it about the changing of the annual calendar that brings scandal to our B.C. Liberal government? Twelve months ago, 2003 was barely a couple of weeks old when Premier Gordon Campbell downed one too many martinis and wound up in the Maui drunk tank. And how else would we ring in another year, but with the sight of cops carting off boxes of evidence from the legislature in Victoria? The police say the search warrants executed at the legislature...

A fragile hope for peace SALIM MANSUR, For the London Free Press There were two striking developments of great promise in the first week of the New Year, in a part of the world smouldering under layers of conflicts several decades old. In Kabul, Afghanistan, the 502-member loya jirga, or grand council, representing all the people of that ethnically varied country, approved a new constitution delicately balancing Islam and democracy. There is a promise here of an old tribal society emerging steadily after decades of warfare, fanaticism and terrorism, with the help of the international community and Canada's involvement, into...

Onward Muslim Soldiers An Essay-Review by Hugh Fitzgerald Habent sua fata libelli, wrote the Roman. Books have their dates, and books have their fates. Onward Muslim Soldiers (Regnery Gateway), by Robert Spencer, was published in the spring of 2003, but by the very nature of its subject matter it does not date. And as to its fate? In a rightly ordered world, its fate would be clear: the book would be translated into all major languages; it would be on the shelves and, more importantly, in the minds, of all those whose duty it is to instruct us. For Onward...

RCMP boss sees racism post-9/11 CP 2004-01-03 04:14:05 TORONTO -- Canada's top Mountie acknowledged yesterday Muslims across Canada have faced rank discrimination since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Speaking to a crowd of 7,000 gathered for a conference on reviving the spirit of Islam, RCMP commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli said the terrorist attacks shook the country to its core, but should not shake Canadians from their course of rooting out racism. "There has been a backlash of violence and of vandalism," Zaccardelli said. "For many of you, these have been personal and they have been painful." He said no one...

2003-12-24 2003: Year of epochal progress SALIM MANSUR, For the London Free Press Only those infected by cynicism fail to see the promises unfolding since a U.S.-led coalition toppled a monstrous Iraqi tyrant. Only those infected by cynicism fail to see the promises unfolding since a U.S.-led coalition toppled a monstrous Iraqi tyrant. A generation from now, historians of another era looking back at the early years of the 21st century may see the year 2003 in a more favourable light. It was a momentous year by any standards. It will be remembered primarily for the war to liberate Iraqis...

University of Western Ontario and well-known among lawyers as one of the most prominent legal commentators in Canada. Everyone who still appreciates our national heritage of freedom under law should ponder his latest book, aptly titled, The Most Dangerous Branch: How the Supreme Court of Canada Has Undermined Our Law and Our Democracy. With this title, Martin ironically alludes to the assurance by Alexander Hamilton in the Federalist Papers on June 14, 1778, that the people had nothing to fear from the powers conferred on the judiciary by the proposed Constitution of the United States. He wrote: "The judiciary, from...