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Canadian humanitarian aid worker kidnapped in Iraq Canadian Press April 8, 2004 OTTAWA (CP-AP) - A Canadian humanitarian aid worker was kidnapped in southern Iraq, the Foreign Affairs Department said Thursday. Fadi Ihsan Fadel was taken hostage while doing work for the New York City-based International Rescue Committee, a non- governmental organization. "We are currently seeking further information on his status, whereabouts and well- being and hope he will be released soon," said Foreign Affairs spokesman Sameer Ahmed. He would not confirm where Fadel was born, his age or where he lives in Canada. Ahmed also would not say where...

Speech to Liberals pro Bono work OTTAWA -- Paul Martin's Liberals may have found just what they're looking for. Pop superstar Bono is expected to be a marquee attraction at the party's convention next week, adding glitter to what has been a lacklustre leadership race. The U2 frontman is expected to make a guest speech at an evening party at which Liberals will celebrate the coronation of Martin as the federal party leader. The Irish rocker was wooed by the Martin campaign in an attempt to spice up the victory celebration his organizers expect to hold a week from Friday....

Marc Emery rubs some people the wrong way. And that's precisely his intention. Yesterday afternoon, Emery showed up on the front steps of London police department headquarters and lit a marijuana cigarette -- or in his words, a "giant bomber" -- that he then passed among about 75 onlookers. Rub. As others fired up joints and pipes and pot smoke swirled toward police headquarters, Emery claimed that smoking pot is not only legal, but morally and ethically right. "Marijuana does not impair," he told the crowd. "Marijuana enhances!" Rub rub rub. Emery was here as part of his self-described Summer...

Marc Emery, former London pot activist and bookstore owner, is coming home today to light up at a familiar place -- the steps of the London police station. Emery, now of Vancouver, grabbed headlines in the 1990s with unsuccessful stunts to get arrested for smoking pot and selling books on illegal drugs in front of the police station. Today, the ex-owner of City Lights bookstore plans to smoke up as part of his Summer of Legalization tour, says Cannabis Culture, a magazine he publishes. But with the law on pot possession now hazy, it's likely Emery won't be busted. "Simple...

In the world of flesh and bone, the world offline, people keep making inappropriate assumptions about how I stand on the Possibly Upcoming War Of The U.S. And Others Against Iraq. It's not anyone's fault but mine, since I've avoided categorical statements about the war. Antiwar friends assume me to have a "kill them all, God will know his own"-type position, and militarist friends think I will enjoy picking apart, or simply pointing and laughing at, arguments against the war. I do enjoy it, sometimes. There is a sense of satisfaction in finding the weak premise in an otherwise convincing...

When London's new smoking bylaws kick in July 1, employers and owners and operators of public places will be responsible for enforcement. By MARY-JANE EGAN, Free Press Reporter The onus will be on owners and employers to prevent smoking in public places and workplaces when London's new smoke-free bylaws take effect July 1, the city's medical officer of health says. Under the current bylaw that prohibits smoking in restaurants but permits it in bars, owner-operators can be charged only if they fail to provide proper signs stating smoking is prohibited, Dr. Graham Pollett said. If the signs are up and...

I've been researching North Korea quite a bit lately and I thought I'd share some of my favourites with freepers. Here are three very interesting articles about the hermit kingdom. First, a travelogue:Happy Birthday, North KoreaI headed for the lavatory to relieve myself of what had been Pyongyang Beer an hour ago (and I noted that the sign for the toilet said WC, with no Korean characters) when I came across a couple of people from our group talking to a black man, the first I had seen in Korea. Soon I was talking to him, too. He was from...

(Canada) Officers cleared in dog's shooting But Bear's owner was distressed to learn the German shepherd was shot four times. By KELLY PEDRO, Free Press Crime Reporter Nine officers involved in a botched drug raid in which they killed a family dog were cleared yesterday by an internal London police investigation of any wrongdoing. But Marcie Carroll, whose apartment was mistakenly raided by police, was upset to learn Bear, her six-year-old German shepherd, was shot four times by police, not once as they first told her. "She has had an opportunity to learn things . . . she has not...

Canada: Romanow commission report says private health clinics should go OTTAWA (CP) - In a properly funded public health system, there should be no need for private clinics offering MRI scans or minor surgery, the Romanow commission said Thursday. Growing reliance on private diagnostic services "is eroding the equal access principle at the heart of medicare," said the report, which urged governments to reconsider the practice of sending workers' compensation cases to private orthopedic clinics for fast-track surgery. "Rather than subsidize private facilities with public dollars, governments should choose to ensure that the public system has sufficient capacity and is...

'No reason' for botched raid: lawyer Saturday, October 26, 2002 By KELLY PEDRO, Free Press Reporter The lawyer for a London woman whose dog was shot and killed by police when they raided the wrong apartment is questioning the validity of their warrant. "It doesn't appear to us that there was any reason for this to have occurred," said Faisal Joseph, the lawyer representing Marcie Carroll. "We . . . want to find out what basis they had for the warrant and what investigation police had done before they started to kick in a door and discharge a firearm." The...

Of the ruler, by the ruler, for the ruler Diane Francis, National Post There's no other way to put it. Prime Minister Jean Chrétien is an international embarrassment whose ill-timed comments bashing America on the government-owned network last week have damaged Canada in the eyes of our neighbours. It's also perplexed them.Mr Chretien appeared to say perceived Western greed and arrogance were among the underlying causes of the Sept. 11 attacks. His office later criticized comments that he was blaming the U.S. for the attacks.Last week in New York, I had a conversation with an investment banker who was very...

The wretched and the capitalists get together William Watson, National Post For my sins, which must have been considerable, I have just finished reading the final political declaration and the official implementation plan, all 54 single-spaced pages of it, of the World Summit on Sustainable Development. Actually, they're not the final, final documents but the unedited final drafts, which are all that the United Nations has managed to get onto the official summit Web site in the two weeks now since the summiteers left Johannesburg.The political document, which is only four pages, is bad enough. "We the representatives of the...

Uncommon Knowledge #702: ENEMIES OF THE STATE: Why the U.S. Is Hated In a 2002 Gallup poll, only 22% of the people questioned in ten Muslim nations viewed the United States favorably. Why does the United States foster such hatred in the Islamic world in particular? Is it our foreign policy—our support of Israel and of repressive Arab regimes in the Mideast? Or is it our culture? Does globalization spread American values that are simply antithetical, thus disruptive, to the traditional Islamic view of society? Just what should we do to win this struggle for the hearts and minds of...

Poll: 45% say Liberals are corrupt Party's own pollster finds a gap of only one percentage point on integrity issue Jane Taber National Post OTTAWA - Forty-five per cent of Canadians believe the Chrétien government is corrupt, according to a new poll by Pollara Inc., the Liberal party's own pollster.Of those 45%, the national polling firm found, 65% believe the corruption runs "right through" the entire government while 30% believe it is "just around the edges" and 5% said they don't know.Forty-six per cent of the nearly 1,700 respondents did not believe the Liberals are corrupt and 9% said they...

Peter Robinson: Welcome to Uncommon Knowledge. I'm Peter Robinson. Our show today, the last two decades of the twentieth century. The '80s and the '90s were both dominated by two term presidents and both enjoyed long, economic expansions yet the two decades are on something of teeter-totter, those who liked the '80s under Reagan tend to dislike the '90s under Clinton while those who liked the '90s under Clinton tend to think of the '80s under Reagan as the greed decade. How come? Joining us today, two guests. P.J. O'Rourke is the best-selling humorist. His most recent book is entitled,...

Root causes of our pair's downfall Mark Steyn - National Post Where do I begin to tell the story of how great a wrong can be?I was in the Canadian VIP pavilion at Salt Lake when Jamie and David were cruelly cut down on Monday -- or, as I like to think of it, 2/11. "This is outrageous!" I cried, leaping to my feet, falling backwards and landing on top of Brian Tobin, Allan Rock and Bill Graham (a perfect triple putz). "Canada must reverse this injustice!""Well, now, hold on," said Naomi Klein, emerging from the no-hospitality suite. "Did Canada ...

Ever wonder why Canada's journalists have a peculiarly statist ideological tilt? You could start to answer the question by taking a look at the country's journalism schools. Nobody pays much attention to these operations and with good reason; the training of journalists is about as interesting to watch as the training of pipefitters and dental hygienists. But when some of the big players in journalism education start to lecture the rest of us on the grand sweep of journalism and the media, and their role in society and the economy, everybody should pay attention.Over the last week, two pooh-bahs in ...

The Six-Lesson Schoolteacher, by John Taylor Gatto The Six-Lesson Schoolteacher by John Taylor Gatto, New York State Teacher of the Year, 1991 Call me Mr. Gatto, please. Twenty-six years ago, having nothing better to do, I tried my hand at schoolteaching. My license certifies me as an instructor of English language and literature, but that isn't what I do at all. What I teach is school, and I win awards doing it. Teaching means many different things, but six lessons are common to schoolteaching from Harlem to Hollywood. You pay for these lessons in more ways than you can imagine, ...

Freedom springs from capitalism Elizabeth Nickson National Post SALTSPRING ISLAND - The English taught me to write, so I often, in Canada, get into trouble where pretty writing reigns, but pretty writing married to clear thinking is not quite so respected. As the Globe editor who hired me when I returned to the country a couple of years ago said, "You're a little different from our usual writer, which is basically the school of velvet glove stroking cherished beliefs." Well ick, spare me. I like a reaction. Or, as that Anglo-Catholic Oxbridgian novelist and essayist A.N. Wilson, said, not so ...