Editorials
Editorial / Op-Ed
Ever since the oil scare of 1973, if not before, Ontario and
Quebec premiers have been asking Ottawa to build a high-speed rail
corridor from Quebec City to Windsor. Now Dalton McGuinty and Jean
Charest are trying it.
Editorial / Op-Ed
We hardly needed a four-year inquiry to tell us that the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Security Intelligence
Service bungled the initial investigation. This was, as Major says,
the "worst mass murder in Canadian history: In all 331 people died,
but because of slow, confused, and often inept police work, nobody
was ever convicted of the bombing. Key evidence was destroyed,
agencies squabbled, officials passed the buck.
Co-operating reluctantly with the inevitable, members of
Parliament have discovered that it would, after all, be "in the
public interest" to let Auditor-General Sheila Fraser know how they
spend $580-some million of tax money on the operation of the House
of Commons and Senate.
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Obama has no solution to world's oil addiction
Barack Obama's strange Oval Office speech Tuesday night was strong on "trust me" sincerity but short on specifics. And no wonder. Just as the full might of the United States government is impotent in the face of a broken pipe under the Gulf of Mexico, so the whole global-governance machine seems powerless before the world's voracious appetite for ever-harder-to-extract oil.
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A closer eye on the RCMP
The RCMP have been in a lot of hot water in recent years: the Maher Arar case, the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver airport, the shooting death of Ian Bush in British Columbia, an internal pension scandal, and more.
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A closer eye on the RCMP
But to the fury of its critics, the federal police force seemed to be able to just walk away from its self-inflicted injuries, free to not testify at inquiries and even freer to spurn the recommendations of such probes.
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'Fair' can be foolish in doling out grants
Too many questions remain unanswered after Industry Minister Tony Clement appears to have unilaterally changed his mind about what events are eligible for federal tourism subsidies. The amount of money involved -$50 million -is not enormous, but the principle deserves attention.
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Prudence not the only virtue
In 1522, Juan Sebastian Elcano and the raggedy, starving remains of his crew arrived in Spain, completing the first circumnavigation of the globe. Now the project is so mundane, a teenager can do it alone.
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Partnerships require a shot of morphine
The McGill University Health Centre will surely remain a public-private partnership. Twelve years after authorities announced the bilingual teaching hospital would be built, PPP contracts have been signed and work has started. It's too late to turn back, and, frankly, nobody could stomach any more delay. Most people are just glad the MUHC train has finally left the station, as MUHC head Arthur Porter puts it.
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As oil washes ashore, Bhopal's lesson is clear
Death-toll numbers in the disaster will never be better than approximate, but about 3,000 people are believed to have died at once, and another 15,000 since. Others were sickened with permanent consequences. The victim total is believed to be around 25,000 in what is still the world's worst industrial accident.
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And another thing ...
The Quebec Community Groups Network, meeting this weekend in Quebec City, has a strange problem. This loose federation of anglophone groups and institutions exists for mutual support while carefully avoiding almost any activity anyone could call political. The list of member groups shows the diversity: the Canadian-Italian Business & Professional Association, the Council for Anglophone Magdalen Islanders, the English-Language Arts Network, the English-Speaking Catholic Council, the Quebec Federation of Home & School Associations, the Townshippers' Association, Youth Employment Services, and more, 32 in all. The QCGN is not a voice for anglo Quebec so much as a clearing-house for anglo organizations, a self-help group rather than a political unit.
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Why do parties deserve public funding?
The next Conservative election platform will reportedly contain a promise to abolish government funding of political parties. This excellent proposal promises to generate a lively and interesting debate.
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NDP and Liberals should go their own ways
Michael Ignatieff and Jack Layton agree on one thing, and it's not the need for a merger of their parties, but very much the opposite: This week's breathless CBC report about high-powered members of the two parties holding secret talks about a merger are "ridiculous" (Ignatieff) and "fiction" (Layton).
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LESLEY CHESTERMAN
A rare dessert where cherries work
We're heading straight into cherry season and I couldn't be happier. Food writers tend to gush over strawberries being the ultimate summer fruit, and then peaches take up all the recipe-page ink.
DOUG CAMILLI
Oxygen therapy room may keep Tiger's wife from Lapland exile
Elin Nordegren still hasn't filed divorce papers, but everyone expects that she will. Now RadarOnline.comreports that among the swag she will be demanding is that $80-million (U. S.) mansion on Florida's Jupiter Island.
ARTHUR KAPTAINIS
One conductor, one contralto, two Montrealers
Talk about your good news and your bad news. Although the good news -the engagement of Yannick Nezet-Seguin as future music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra -was less expected than the bad.
PAT DONNELLY
The Jazz Singer hits many right notes
Every year Montreal's Yiddish Theatre launches its latest production right in the middle of the festival rush. Which means I don't always get there for opening night.
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