By Frank Moher Does Justin Trudeau have a little meter in his pocket that tells him which way to tack on issues of the day? Does he pull it out and the needle tells him “Slightly Left” or “Slightly Right”? Of course he does. It was passed down to him by the previous leader of […]
terrorism
The shootings: How the media fed our inner monster
By Montreal Simon You think you know the story. You’ve seen the pictures on TV a million times. Over and over again. You’ve seen how the media have tried to explain what happened, and how they’ve framed the narrative, complete with more heroes than you can count. You know what Stephen Harper wants you to […]
We won’t be intimidated by the PM, either
By Montreal Simon It was for me, strangely enough, the most terrifying moment of a nightmarish day. Standing in a crowded subway station, waiting for a train to take me home, watching the fear on people’s faces. It was only a few hours after most of them must have heard about, or seen what had […]
A Modest Opinion – You’re going to jail . . . because maybe you might do something, possibly
By Nathaniel Moher In “This isn’t news” news, the Conservatives recently pushed through a bill that nobody else wanted. That’s the beauty of our system — a Prime Minister can be held in contempt of Parliament, for the first time in the history of Canada, and not only be re-elected but given a majority. Yay, […]
Curiously convenient: Canada’s me-too bomb plot decoded
Last week, U.S. talk show host Jack Blood offered a dissection of a recent New York Times article about the arrest of two Canadian residents charged with plotting to attack a VIA Rail train. While we haven’t been able to source everything he has to say (we’ve done our best), Mr. Blood is smarter and […]
Changing the channel on Justin
By Alison@Creekside On Thursday, three days after the Boston Marathon bombings, the Cons still had an opposition day scheduled for Monday — a day on which the opposition parties set the day’s agenda. But then on Friday, an hour after learning that Justin Trudeau would spend it introducing his “Backbenchers’ Spring” motion, Government House Leader […]
Is CSIS replaying the Arar card?
By Alison@Creekside A leaked 2004 CSIS report from LaPresse on Thursday purports to be a summary of a conversation between Abousfian Abdelrazik and Adil Charkaoui in 2000 in which they plotted to blow up an airplane enroute between Montreal and France. It has already been enthusiastically repeated across our national press: CBC: CSIS file reveals plot to bomb […]
Lessons for Project Samosa
By Alison@Creekside The publication ban on Project Samosa, the RCMP’s latest salvo in the war on terror, has the media scrambling to get unnamed sources and security experts to augment and substitute for accounts of court proceedings. By a happy coincidence for war on terror fans, this allows for far more pants-pissingly terrorfying conjecture than […]
Ottawa expands its terror kit
By Alison@Creekside Your government announced on Friday that it needs more powers to combat terrorism. Justice Minister Rob Nicholson: “These provisions are necessary to protect our country from the threat of terrorism.” A redo of the panicky, now-defunct Anti-terrorism Act of 2001, the new Combating Terrorism Act includes preventive arrest and forcing people to testify […]
Abdelrazik: Let the questions begin
By Alison@Creekside Justice Minister Rob Nicholson announced in Question Period Friday that the government will comply with, rather than appeal, the Federal Court decision ordering it to repatriate Abousfian Abdelrazik, stranded in Sudan since 2003. Good. As Chris Selley writes: “It’s all over but the thousands of unanswered questions”Here’s one. How much did this July […]
