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The final round of voting for the 2008 Canadian Blog Awards has begun. Wmtc is one of five six (oops, sorry) finalists for Best Progressive Blog. And that's just what I wanted! Thanks to everyone who voted. You can vote for wmtc or the progressive blog of your choice here . Naturally, Allan's Joy of Sox is a finalist for Best Sports Blog. You can vote for it here . Congratulations and good luck to every finalist!

Meanwhile, U.S. war resisters in Canada are still threatened with deportation. Join us this Wednesday, December 3 , for an update on the present situation, and to learn more about where we're headed. Speakers will include war resisters Robin Long, speaking from jail in the US, Jeremy Hinzman and Nga Nguyen, Patrick and Jill Hart, and Dean Walcott, plus a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War speaking from the US. When: Wednesday, December 3, 7:00 p.m. Where: United Steelworkers Hall, 25 Cecil St (south of College, east of Spadina), Toronto To be followed by: A benefit concert featuring Chloe Watkinson and the Crossroads , Grossman's Tavern , 379 Spadina Ave, 9:00 p.m. As always, more info at the War Resisters Support Campaign website.

Wow! Is this really happening? Did I actually see the words "negotiations for a coalition government" in a news story?? I have to laugh at how out of the news loop I've been. We were very busy with family and friends, and only seeing stories the New York Times considers front-page. You can be sure Harper's tottering Government wasn't one of them! We had internet access at both my mom's and my brother's houses, but when I'm having a great time with people I see only once a year, I figure the news can wait a few days. After all, it's probably the same old thing. Yesterday, after driving for ten hours on very little sleep, I had no intentions of spending any time online. But imagine my surprise when I was blind-copied on emails to both the NDP and the Liberals about their negotiations for a coalition government! I ran downstairs to shout the news to Allan: the Harper Government is teetering on the brink, had to execute an about-face to survive, and i

Here's an update I received from the War Resisters Support Campaign while I've been celebrating Thanksgiving in New Jersey. Corey Glass, now living in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, was supposed to have a hearing in Federal Court last Friday, November 21, concerning his appeal of his negative Pre-Removal Risk Assessment and Humanitarian and Compassionate applications. The hearing did not take place. Instead, the Ministry of Justice backed off, saying that Corey could file a new PRRA and a new H&C application, at no further cost. This means Corey was going to win in Court. Rather than have that happen, the Justice Ministry just let it go, for now. Corey now earns some time to submit new applications. And now that Corey is married to a Canadian citizen, he's also being sponsored for Permanent Resident status. Jeremy Hinzman's application for "leave to appeal" to the federal Court in the negative decisions on his PRRA and H&C application has been granted.

Greetings from New Jersey! The Canadian Blog Awards are back, and the first round voting has begun. You can vote for wmtc or your blog of choice in these categories: Best Blog , Best Political Blog , Best Personal Blog , and Best Progressive Blog . I will not be voting for wmtc in all of those categories, but I won't dissuade you from doing so! I'd like to make the next round for Best Progressive Blog. Anything else would be gravy. Whatever you do, please vote for Joy of Sox for Best Sports Blog , because it is. One vote only. Enjoy!

We're off for our annual trip to New York and New Jersey for US Thanksgiving. We spend today driving, then have four days of seeing various family and friends, drive back Saturday, and go to work on Sunday. This trip is one of the highlights of my year. We see my mom, some good friends, including my siblings, and all our nieces and nephews and their partners. Plus my oldest friend, New York City. I didn't exactly grow up in "Father Knows Best" or "The Cosby Show"; enjoying family get-togethers is something newly wonderful to me. Make a few choice subtractions (death and divorce? you say that like it's a bad thing!), stir in some excellent additions, sprinkle with a lot of people who are at last happy with their own lives, and you have a completely changed experience. Throw in a road trip - to anywhere - and I'm happy. I'll check in every day, but meanwhile, please play the 56/5 game if you haven't already.

Go to the book you're reading now. If you're not reading a book, go to the last book you read. Turn to page 56. Find the 5th sentence. Write the sentence in a comment here, along with the book title and the author's name. Don't dig out your favourite book or a book that you think sounds cooler. Use the book you're reading now. I'll start. "In his history of Plymouth colony, Governor Bradford himself provides one answer: robbing Indian houses and graves." 1491 , Charles C. Mann Thanks to M@ for the cool game, slightly tweaked here.

This is from Tim and Cathy Baskin, from our fundraising drive . * * * * On the Kindness of "Strangers" This is a personal thank-you note to many people whom I have never personally met. My name is Tim. In August of this year my wife, who is undergoing treatment for cancer, was hospitalized with severe build-up of fluid around her lungs. We spent almost the entire month in the hospital, and I say we because I was there with her almost the whole time. When the woman you've spent 31 years with has a terminal illness you are very reluctant to leave her at the hospital and go on about your business, assuming things will be fine. The day after she was released from the hospital her car broke down - transmission trouble. It would cost more to repair than the car is worth. I am self-employed, so there was practically no income while she was in the hospital. We have no insurance. We do receive assistance with her expenses, but we still pretty much just get by. After losing almost

Several readers have sent me this. I don't know what it's from or who is asking the question, but I love it! This seems very timely to me, as I've been thinking about involuntary military service as a form of slavery . I'd love to see the kind of civil disobedience Zinn imagines here! Unfortunately, resisters themselves can't risk arrest, and until I'm a citizen, neither can I. And I can't encourage people to do anything I can't do myself. But it's a beautiful dream, one I'm sure many of a Campaigner has entertained.

I didn't have a chance to blog about the idea Ontario is floating to discriminate against young adults , so I'd like to let Impudent Strumpet do it for me. Please go read her excellent post, "I'm glad Dalton McGuinty isn't my father". A teaser: These aren't children, they're young professionals just starting out. They are legally adults, they need to be treated equally to all other adults rather than put under specific restrictions just because of their age. While it is true that many, if not most, people under 22 haven't fully launched yet, that doesn't justify the law as treating them as less than fully adult. Their not having launched is between them and their parents, a private arrangement between family members. My mother does my taxes (Q: Why? A: Because she's a professional and I'm not.) but that doesn't mean it's reasonable for the law to require that people under 30 get their tax return signed by their mother. When my

This week, 16-year-old Eri Yoshida became a seventh-round draft pick for the Kobe 9 Cruise, a baseball team in the independent Japanese League. The Cruise is a new team, opening its first season in April. Yoshida, a pitcher, has been playing baseball since the second grade. Yoshida says she began throwing her sidearm knuckleball after her father showed her a video of Red Sox knuckleballer Tim Wakefield. In a tryout earlier this month, Yoshida held male batters hitless for one inning , helping her become one of the 33 players picked in the draft. Yoshida's new manager said, " Her sidearm knuckleballs dip and sway, and could be an effective weapon for us." Upon hearing about Yoshida, Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield said: Hope I can see her pitch one day. I'm honored that someone wants to become me. I wish her the best of luck. Maybe I can learn something from her. ... It's funny that I've reached that point in my career that people want to emulate me. I'm gl

Many bloggers mentioned the good news coming out of the corporate landscape when Google publicly opposed California's Proposition 8 . Now Google has gone several steps further in marking Transgender Remembrance Day, which was yesterday. November 20th marks Transgender Remembrance Day, which takes on a special significance in a world awakening to the need for unity among all people. In observing this day, the Gayglers — the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) group within Google — extend their wholehearted support to the LGBT community at large, as we reflect on the senseless violence perpetrated against transgender people around the world. People who identify or express their gender differently than the one assigned to them at birth usually call themselves transgender or transsexual. All too often, they are subjected to a range of not-so-subtle prejudices and transphobia, from verbal abuse to physical violence. Imagine walking into a public restroom in a state of dread o

As I've mentioned , this is Puppy Mill Awareness Week, a project of the Humane Society International Canada and the Humane Society of the United States. After an eight-month investigation, the Humane Society of the United States accused Petland, the national pet store chain, of selling dogs bred under appalling conditions at puppy mills around the country. Many Petland stores are being supplied by large-scale puppy mills, although customers are routinely informed that the dogs come only from regulated breeders, the Humane Society said Thursday. They are buying from puppy mills where these dogs are not treated like pets," Michael Markarian, an executive vice president with the Humane Society, told a news conference. "They're treated like a cash crop, where mother dogs live in wire cages, sometimes stacked on top of each other in filthy, dirty, cramped conditions, where they receive little socialization or human interaction or exercise." Dogs from puppy mills are s

We recently (finally) saw "Who Killed The Electric Car?" . I had a few minor problems with the movie, but it's very informative, and worth seeing. It was especially interesting to see this movie as the North American auto makers are asking the government - that is, the taxpayers - for enormous sums of money to save their dying business. Would this money be attached to guarantees to build and market more fuel efficient vehicles? We know the vehicles already exist, all they have to do is build and sell them - instead of suppressing and destroying them. Would this money even be attached to a guarantee of jobs in North America? Neither will happen, and neither should this bailout. Meanwhile, if you haven't seen this movie , please do. I felt it could have come down much harder on the US government and its connection to oil wealth, and I don't feel the consumer can be rightly blamed for the failure of the electric car, according to what we saw in the movie itself. But

There are few things that bug me more than someone who puts down people for supposed ignorance while displaying ignorance of their own. Maybe it's the kind of thing that should make me laugh. Unfortunately, it makes me grit my teeth. Following a few links, I found myself at a website called Read The Fucking Manual . It appears to be an IT person complaining about computer users who call for tech support earlier in the process than this person thinks they should. I have no doubt that some people who call companies for tech support might do more to solve the problem on their own before they call. On the other hand, tech support exists for a reason. Computers are available to all, including people with poor reading skills, people who have trouble learning from a manual, and people with zero computer experience. The tech support number doesn't say you must struggle in frustration for a certain number of hours or days before calling. If you've spent money on a product, and you c

Robin Long, serving a 15-month sentence in military prison for refusing to participate in the invasion and occupation of Iraq, has written a letter to President-elect Barack Obama. It's being circulated by Courage to Resist. Dear President-elect Obama, My name is Robin Long. I am currently serving a 15-month sentence at a Naval brig in California. I am locked up for refusing to participate in the invasion of the sovereign nation of Iraq, a military action I felt was wrong and an action condemned by most of the international community. It was illegal and immoral. My sentence also includes dishonorable discharge. I was no doubt made an example, because not only did I refuse to deploy by going AWOL but I spoke out. I spoke out about the atrocities that are going on over there and also the extensive web of lies the Bush administration told us and Congress, to go over there. I did all of this very openly while AWOL in Canada, where I was making a life for myself. When I joined the Army

Tomorrow, Friday, November 21, is the next Iraq Moratorium day . The Moratorium is a series of personal, public actions taken to show opposition to the continuing US occupation of Iraq. Iraq Moratorium is a grassroots, decentralized movement. Everyone can participate: on your own, with a friend, or as part of a community or organization. Taking a Moratorium action can be as simple as wearing a peace button to work or hanging a sign in your cubicle. You can stand on a street corner during rush hour with a few people holding signs calling for peace and troop withdrawal. You can join a vigil. You can tape a sign in your car window. Here's a report on what Iraq Moratorium is doing in Wisconsin . The Raise Hell for Molly Ivins Campaign will be participating tomorrow. Litchfield County, Connecticut is part of the solution . You can find an event here , or look up your local peace and justice group, or you can do simply do something on your own. The idea is to interrupt your normal routi

Today on Radio Humber, the radio station of Humber College, there'll be an interview with war resister Patrick Hart, talking about his experiences, and also with me, talking about the War Resisters Support Campaign . It will air sometime between 1:00 and 2:00 on a program called @Humber. You can listen online here. Click "listen live". Many thanks to my friend and co-worker Shauna for taking an interest and making this happen. Shauna's a student at Humber College's School of Media Studies & Information Technology, and no doubt will one day be a big-time radio personality. * * * * Update: I just found out the station is splitting up the interviews. Patrick's portion will air today, and mine will run tomorrow. I hope you'll tune in!

The Humane Society International of Canada is asking us to make November 16 to 22 Puppy Mill Action Week . Puppy mills are places of horrible cruelty and deprivation. Adult dogs are forced to breed until they die of exhaustion or complications, often bleeding to death. The puppies are raised under horrendous conditions, in tiny, overcrowded, wire cages, in which they can't stand properly, with no medical attention, no human contact and barely adequate nutrition. The puppies are then cleaned up - superficially, so they appear presentable - and sold to pet stores, usually the kind found in malls. Puppies from puppy mills have a laundry-list of medical and behavioural problems. They often die shortly after being brought home, or the people who buy them are overwhelmed and either surrender or abandon them, or have them put down. It's a short, miserable life of suffering for a dog who never should have been brought into the world. Although puppy mills violate all kinds of animal-cr

While I was reading Lawrence Hill's The Book of Negroes (post here ; interview with the author here ), I thought a lot about what freedom means. What it means to be a free person. Hill's novel explores slavery, the slave trade, and the journey of the African peoples to North America and beyond. In one part of the book, some slaves are able to earn money through their own skills; their owners allow them to hire themselves out for day labour. So for a tiny portion of their life, they are paid for their work. But they are still slaves - because the condition of involuntary servitude isn't only determined by whether or not a person gets paid for his work. Although these people are temporarily earning money, they are not free to make the decisions that determine the course of their own lives. They are not free to marry as they choose. Not free to raise their own children. Not free to refuse to have sex with their owner. Not free to get up and leave. They are still owned. In tho

From The Telegraph (UK), during the US election campaign. The Republican vice presidential candidate attracted criticism for accusing Mr Obama of "palling around with terrorists", citing his association with the sixties radical William Ayers. The attacks provoked a near lynch mob atmosphere at her rallies, with supporters yelling "terrorist" and "kill him" until the McCain campaign ordered her to tone down the rhetoric. But it has now emerged that her demagogic tone may have unintentionally encouraged white supremacists to go even further. The Secret Service warned the Obama family in mid October that they had seen a dramatic increase in the number of threats against the Democratic candidate, coinciding with Mrs Palin's attacks. And now, from AP. Cross burnings. Schoolchildren chanting "Assassinate Obama." Black figures hung from nooses. Racial epithets scrawled on homes and cars. Incidents around the country referring to President-elect Ba

Two friends of mine, along with many other bloggers, have written about a horrendous incident that took place recently in Toronto. Jane Currie and Anji Dimitriou, a couple, were attacked and beaten. Their assailant, Mark Scott, spewed homophobic filth at them, spat in the face of one of them, and punched them, while the couple's child watched, screaming. Onlookers intervened, pushing the assailant away and calling the police. The man was charged with assault, but not with a hate crime. From what I understand of Canadian law, this was obviously a hate crime and the charges should reflect that. My problem is I don't think there should be a type of crime called a hate crime. (I understand that bigotry is considered an aggravating factor, reflected in sentencing; the words "type of crime" may not be legally correct. Nevertheless, I hope you'll understand my meaning.) Of course I think this kind of violence is horrible. Every normal person does. In addition, I'

When Conservative MP Ken Epp was trying to get C-484, the so-called "Unborn Victims of Crime Act" , passed, I heard him reveal his true motives in public. In a debate with abortion-rights activist Carolyn Egan on the TV show "Legal Briefs", Epp finally admitted that the point of the bill was not, as the Conservatives claimed, to protect pregnant women from domestic violence. Throughout the debate, Epp repeatedly claimed that this bill has nothing to do with granting legal status to a fetus, is not anti-abortion, could not be used to prosecute pregnant women... on and on. Carolyn and others (it's a call-in show) were insisting that if the goal truly is - as proponents of the bill claim - to bring harsher penalties for attacks on pregnant women, why not put forth a bill that would make pregnancy an aggravating circumstance which would automatically trigger a harsher sentence? Why put the emphasis on the fetus? Honickman asked Epp if he would support such a bill.

Remember this? Army Unit to Deploy in October for Domestic Operations Beginning in October, the Army plans to station an active unit inside the United States for the first time to serve as an on-call federal response in times of emergency. The 3rd Infantry Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team has spent thirty-five of the last sixty months in Iraq, but now the unit is training for domestic operations. The unit will soon be under the day-to-day control of US Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command. The Army Times reports this new mission marks the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to Northern Command. The paper says the Army unit may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control. The soldiers are learning to use so-called nonlethal weapons designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals and crowds. I posted about it back here , and spelled out a few of my fears here . Well, I'm not satisfied that we're out of the

Thank you to all my US friends who were part of this. If anyone has reports or pictures, please send them along.

A hero of music and feminism has died. Rosetta Reitz, who rescued female jazz and blues giants from the trash heap of history, died in Manhattan at at the age of 84. I know Reitz's name as the founder of Rosetta Records, but I've learned from this obit about her richly varied life. Ms. Reitz (pronounced rights) came by her interest in jazz through her husband and male friends, but as the feminist movement gathered steam in the 1960s, she noticed something was missing: the music's women. So she started collecting old 78s of performers like the trumpeter Valaida Snow, the pianist-singer Georgia White and a bevy of blues singers who had faded from memory. At the same time, she unearthed lost songs by more famous artists like Bessie Smith, Ida Cox and Ma Rainey. "In that decade of the 1920s, when jazz was really being formulated and changing from an entertainment music to an art form," Ms. Reitz said in an interview with The New York Times in 1980, "these women

For the third time, the Harper Government is trying to block public hearings on whether it knew that Canadian Forces were transferring prisoners to Afghan authorities, despite knowing they could be tortured. The hearings, which would be conducted by an independent federal policing watchdog, the Military Police Complaints Commission, were due to begin Dec. 4. The Justice Department filed an Oct. 30 application seeking a Federal Court order "prohibiting the chairperson [of the MPCC] and the commission from investigating" the allegations, the Globe and Mail reported Friday. Government lawyers have argued that the commission should only be allowed to investigate specific cases of torture, not all prisoners that were under a torture risk, according to the Globe and Mail. The government has issued two previous calls to the Federal Court to stop the public hearings — the first occurred in April, the second in September. Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who had previously pledged the g

Recently in comments, M@ mentioned that the movie "Why We Fight" is now available for free online. If you haven't seen this great documentary, it goes a long way towards explaining the US war machine - why it exists, and who benefits from it. I personally couldn't sit through a full-length movie on my computer, but if you can deal with the format, it's well worth your time. It's here . M@'s tip reminded me that I never posted about another free movie opportunity. Michael Moore is giving away downloads of his new movie, "Slacker Uprising". You only need to be a resident of Canada or the US. Sign up is here ; you enter your email address and receive a link to a free download. For a mere $9.95, you can purchase "Slacker Uprising" on DVD. We always buy Michael Moore's movies, to help support his important work, and because we love them. The extras are usually great. For ten bucks, this is a no-brainer for me.

Remember the gray wolves that were threatened by Republicans, who tried to strip the animals of Endangered Species Act protection? Recent background to this story (and photos) are here , here and here . A federal judge restored the wolf's protected status, and the government dropped their efforts to de-list them. Well, they're at it again. Here's the most recent update from the NRDC Action Fund, the lobbying arm of the Natural Resources Defense Council. It's not pretty. As the Bush Administration rides off into the sunset, it's taking a deadly parting shot at the wolves of Yellowstone and the Northern Rockies. This 11th hour attack would strip wolves of their Endangered Species protection and leave them vulnerable to mass slaughter by Northern Rockies states. Those states have plans that could kill nearly 1,000 wolves in the first year alone. We need to fire back 100,000 Official Citizen Comments and fend off this life-threatening attack. We don't have a mome

An addendum to my last post. We won't be seeing anything resembling an amnesty for Iraq War resisters any time soon, but that doesn't stop US military recruiters from using Obama's election as a selling point. Vet Voice reports: Within 24 hours of Barack Obama's election, an Army career counselor sent out a recruiting e-mail promising that the new president would "get us out of Iraq," reports VetVoice's Brandon Friedman. "What are you waiting for?" the e-mail asks, arguing the election of Obama makes now the perfect time to join up. . . . The relevant text says: "24 Month Mobilization Deferment. A President Elect who says he'll get us out of Iraq. What are you waiting for? Stop taking your chance's [sic] in the IRR and be safe from deployment for 2 years. By that time our new President will have gotten us out of these other countries." See the VetVoice post for screen shots and commentary. Throw this on the already giant

There's a dangerous misconception out there about how the recent US election affects the US war resisters in Canada. Two words: it doesn't. Put aside all thoughts of amnesty or pardons or any help from the United States. The war is still going on. In case you missed it: the war is still going on. The US still occupies Iraq. Is the new Commander-in-Chief going to tell troops during an ongoing war that it's all right to desert? If Obama begins a troop pull-out it will be at least a year before the US is out of Iraq. And Obama has already said he wants to send more troops to Afghanistan. Can anyone really believe that during an ongoing war, the Commander-in-Chief is going to welcome home deserters? And a Democrat, already perceived as weak on "defense" [sic!], the first African-American President, under beyond-intense scrutiny, is going to defy the laws of his own military and alienate at least half the population, in order to help people the military doesn't

Wmtc readers are incredible when it comes to suggesting where I can find exactly what I'm looking for. Among the many great tips I've gotten from you guys are Jamie Kennedy Wine Bar , now our number one spot for birthday lunches, and the Red Room , where I've conducted several interviews before Campaign meetings. So once again, I appeal to readers who know Toronto. I need two spots in the King-Dufferin area. It's for an interview, but I need a two locations because I don't know if we're meeting for breakfast or dinner. For an interview I need someplace: not outrageously loud, inexpensive enough that I can pick up the tab, relaxed and friendly, and someplace where we won't be rushed if things go well and my victim really starts talking. Whadda ya got?

Canadian readers all heard about a mistake made by Ancestry.ca in a photo used for a Remembrance Day ad. US and other readers probably didn't hear about it, so here's the story. Call it a Remembrance Day story that a leading genealogy website would rather not remember. To honour the memory of the Canadian soldiers who died in the First World War, Ancestry.ca was offering, until the end of the month, a free Web search of military databases that contained the records of this country's soldiers. A half-page ad that ran in a Toronto newspaper on Sunday, adorned with a large red poppy, was titled "My Grandfather. My Hero," with details of how to do the search. But the colour ad featured a photograph of a German, not an Allied soldier, a blunder that angered some veterans and historians. The above story shows the ad with the blunder. I saw the headline, skimmed a paragraph or two, thought "Oops," and moved on. So I didn't realize that veterans and others q