Mock Turtle

From the Chronicle-Herald reporter’s affadavit to the Nova Scotia court today. Not only, as it turns out, an effective argument against a frivolous injunction against publication, but also a much-needed reminder for the often acquiescent pool of Canadian political reporters:

In exercising the freedom of the press, The Halifax Herald Limited engages its reporters to gather news of interest and importance to the public. It is an expensive and time-consuming exercise. All media are under financial pressure in this aspect of our business. The sources through which we obtain are not always simply accessed. It is our function to scrutinize and report on government. To do that adequately, we endeavour to be fair but cannot confine our inquiries to government press releases or material government chooses to make available to the public at the time and in the manner that best suits government for its political ends.

1 Comment »

I’m probably showing my age, but I’m relieved that the grownups have intervened and cancelled a planned rave in the old Don Jail. The new owner’s site had the wrong tone, and something like this was probably inevitable. More here and here.

The old jail could be used as a performance art venue, but in all decency it has to be in a context that works with themes around suffering and despair, both experienced by the inmates and by their victims, and by the people who worked in the building before it was a Doors Open curiosity.

The place has a dark history – not playfully Gothic dark, but really seriously dark, and I don’t think that’s registered with the people offering ‘ghost tours’. More below the fold.

Continue Reading »

Comments Off

Missed this the other day, but it jibes nicely with the giddy excitement about the Canadian economy reporting a mere 5.4% (annualized) contraction in the first quarter of 2009. -5.4%, guys! Practically growing! Never mind that the outlook is not for growth for the rest of the year, but for continued, if not necessarily as significant, contraction, while the now-official recession drags on. Who cares if there hasn’t been such a bad GDP reading since 1991. Green shoots!

And so, this makes sense:

Canadians optimistic about economy despite downturn: Poll

According to the article, the poll results show that Canadians have not been more optimistic about the economy in EIGHTEEN YEARS. Which, come to think of it, is also 1991, a miserable time of contraction that led to a painful, slow, lost decade (or most of one) in Canada. Good to see Canadians still have the sharp insight into the economic state of the nation displayed back then.

And there’s this: “Last weekend, 53 per cent of those surveyed said they thought the economy was in either in “good” or “very good” shape.” If this is the economy in “very good” shape, I’d hate to see the “fair” iteration.

Comments Off

It’s time to set some new rules around use of the phrase “in this economy.”

Rule number one: If the extra fee you’re talking about can be counted on your hands, “in this economy” does not apply.

Example, courtesy the Star:

Cathy Dernick’s eyes widen in surprise as she learns that come June 1, she’s supposed to start charging customers at her north Toronto women’s clothing shop five cents for every plastic shopping bag they use.

“I didn’t know that,” says Dernick, then adds: “Poop. In this economy.”

Her customers are buying clothes. And they’re going to care about 5 or 10 extra cents?

We need more rules to rein this in. More suggestions/examples?

2 Comments »

Several weeks after the first case of secondary transmission in Canada, and a few hundred hundred “mild” cases of flu later, the Ontario government issues new guidance for clinicians. Key changes:

- health care workers now to wear N-95 mask and eye protection when examining all patients with influenza-like illness (ILI); last guidance (April 28) only recommended this for patients will Mexico travel history

- specimens for laboratory testing now mandatory for patients with moderate to severe ILI; previously, no testing was required for patients without travel history.

- However, they’d rather not know about every case of novel H1N1, thank you very much… there is no mandatory reporting and no mandatory testing of those with “mild” influenza. The basic message: we got it — it’s spreading like wildfire. There’s no way to control it, so let us know if you notice anything weird.

Comparing the April 28th guidance with the May 19 guidance provides a pretty good indication that the new flu has been, most likely, underreported in Ontario. While 284 cases were confirmed by lab testing by yesterday, and the majority of those had no connection to Mexico, it’s just a fluke that most of those cases were tested, since there was no guidance suggesting doctors should do anything other than pat patients on the head.

Many will argue that, with this illness being so mild and all, neglect can only be benign. I don’t agree. For one thing, the “mild” flu knocks many people out for weeks. For another, the less accurate the guidance, and the more laissez-faire the treatment advice, the more cases like this. And this.

Comments Off

Who to believe? Yesterday, infectious disease expert Allison McGeer of Mount Sinai Hospital told the Canadian Press she is starting to “question the delusion that this was actually going to quiet down and we weren’t going to have a first wave” of cases as weather got warmer. Today, she tells CP24 the level of flu activity is, unusually, increasing right now: “I suppose it could shut itself off at any given time. But the last couple of days look like we’re going to see a (flu) season.”

But if it’s a delusion, it’s one still firmly held by the head of the Public Health Agency David Butler-Jones, who tells Canadian Press today that “It looks at this point like we’re over the worst of it in Canada for this season.”

Also of interest in yesterday’s CP story, this assertion from an influenza expert from the University of Michigan:

“I think in addition you have far more transmission in Canada than anyone is saying — it’s not just imported cases and circles around imported cases.”

Will be interesting to see if anyone follows up on this.

Comments Off

From a Star story on tonight’s Tamil protest. Emphasis added:

Dave Crowell, a Grade 8 teacher with his class on a field trip from Saskatchewan to study citizenship and immigration, explained to his class the right to protest.

“At the moment we live in a democracy,” he said he told them. “This is a peaceful demonstration. This is how a minority group makes a statement.”

Comments Off

As the Tamil blockade of the Gardiner continued on Sunday night, Twitterers reacted to Bill Blair’s warning that the expressway could possibly still be closed the following morning. For a good approximation of the dominant fear-mongering, largely xenophobic tone of messages posted, see Christie Blatchford in today’s Globe. Here’s a lazier example:

No kidding. I’m not surprised. We’d all like to see peace in SL, but I’m afraid this group is losing support fast in T.O.10:17 PM May 10th from Tweetie in reply to XXX

I particularly like the insouciance of “We’d all like to see peace in SL”, as if a. the Twitterer would give it a moment’s thought if continued Tamil protests hadn’t brought the issue to a place of prominence in media coverage and b. it’s just another nice-to-have that we’ve all, at some time, vaguely daydreamed about (presumably taking place somewhere far, far from any Toronto-area thoroughfare).

Comments Off

---

In case anyone missed it: BruceR is home safe and sound after eight months as an intelligence officer on the staff of an ANA brigade in Kandahar province, and is blogging up a storm.

Comments Off

Did the 80 layoffs at the Globe include all the copy editors? From Joanne Kates’ review of Globe Bistro this morning:

Despite evidence to the contrary, some people are afraid of eating pork.

Come again?

2 Comments »