THE gap between earnings by the rich and the poor is the widest in 30 years, the OECD said in a report released Monday. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development said the average income of the richest 10 per cent in OECD nations is now nine times the average income of the poorest 10 [...]
By YVES ENGLER WOULD Stephen Harper attack Libya simply to justify spending tens of billions of dollars on F-35 fighter jets? Perhaps. But, add on doing it for major Canadian investors, reinforcing his “principled” foreign policy rhetoric and reasserting Western control over a region in flux and you pretty much have the range of reasons [...]
By HAROON SIDDIQUI -- Toronto Star CANADA pays dearly whenever Stephen Harper lets his ideology, partisanship, controlling nature or stubbornness trump common sense, or the advice of his ministers and civil servants. While prime ministers have the final word, in Harper’s case it’s only his word that counts — regardless of the cost, at home [...]
DENIS RANCOURT THIS is the kind of obviousness that a child can see—though the child may, later in life, become browbeaten into believing that the obvious problems are “non-problems”, to be argued into nonexistence by careful reasoning and clever choices of definition. — Roger Penrose … so obvious that it takes really impressive discipline to miss [...]
By HAROON SIDDIQUI TWO men, and two men alone, have decided to extend the Canadian military mission in Afghanistan by three more years. Stephen Harper did not seriously consult his cabinet, nor did Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff consult his caucus. They also cut the Commons out of the loop. Both are following the precedent of [...]
VANCOUVER - A British Columbia court will start examining Monday whether Canada's polygamy laws are constitutional. B.C. Supreme Court will hear a case that began in an obscure fundamentalist Mormon community in the province's southeast corner. The provincial government has asked the court to decide whether the laws that prohibit polygamy violate the right to [...]
A WOMAN alleged to have stabbed her daughter in the head in a so-called “honour” crime in Montreal – apparently because the 19-year-old arrived home late – will undergo a psychiatric evaluation to see whether she's fit to stand trial. Johra Kaleki, 38, was scheduled to be arraigned Monday but her lawyer argued successfully that [...]
A CALGARY woman Norma Goldring regrets getting the H1N1 shot. Her doctor told her it likely caused a rare and painful disorder. Ms Goldring said she felt compelled to get an H1N1 vaccine because she is diabetic and has had a heart attack, two factors that Alberta Health noted as putting people at higher risk [...]
JUNIOR Foreign Affairs minister Peter Kent is suggesting Canada stands ready to throw its full military weight behind Israel, telling a Toronto publication that "an attack on Israel would be considered an attack on Canada." His office says Mr. Kent, the minister of state for Foreign Affairs of the Americas, was merely "paraphrasing" what Stephen [...]
AGENCIES COLONEL Russell Williams, the former commander of CFB Trenton is charged with the first-degree murder of Jessica Lloyd, 27, who was found dead Monday, and Cpl. Marie-France Comeau, a 38-year-old air force flight attendant who was murdered in November. The 46-year-old Williams is also charged with forcible confinement, break and enter and sexual assault [...]
