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Full Comment (Free subscription) | 11/27/2009
Thursday's episode of the Richard Colvin saga featured a diplomatic effort to put softer edges around the government's campaign to discredit the whistleblower diplomat on his Afghan detainee torture allegations. David Mulroney, Canada's ambassador to China and the former top diplomat in Afghanistan, filed only respectful disagreement and denials that Canada had ever knowingly transferred detainees...
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Full Comment (Free subscription) | 11/26/2009
OTTAWA — When Cabinet ministers were attacking diplomat Richard Colvin’s credibility and denying his warnings about the Afghan torture of detainees handed over by Canadian soldiers, it wasn’t a fair fight. Mr. Colvin triumphed because he had spent 18 months on Afghan soil, visited its prisons and talked to detainees. The ministers were merely engaged in political bluster. But now...
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Full Comment (Free subscription) | 11/25/2009
My friend’s email arrived with an unmistakable sense of urgency, including one of those red exclamation marks in the margin. “Have you seen the pictures of you on Facebook? You’d better get on it. Quickly.” Uh-oh. Turns out pictures had been posted by several Facebook “friends” showing me dressed up for Halloween as a flasher — a provocative costume that seemed...
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Full Comment (Free subscription) | 11/24/2009
Lacrosse players call it an ‘unsettled situation' when their defence is out of position and a loose ball allows the enemy to score. There's also a maneuver called "face dodging", in which the player with the ball uses the stick to protect his eyes from being poked out. This may explain why Prime Minister Stephen Harper was posing for pictures in his Ottawa office with the Canadian...
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Dawg's Blawg (Free subscription) | yesterday
... and he can't smirk his way out of it forever. Even seasoned mainstream journalists are appalled . Don Martin succinctly makes the point that needs to be made: If Mr. Colvin's correspondence reached high into government circles and warned of detainee torture a full year before the transfers were stopped, the Conservatives have a serious problem that could qualify as a war crime. But if Mr....
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Full Comment (Free subscription) | 11/24/2009
Pure torture How not to manage detainee abuse allegations, the Liberals' latest ill-begotten attempts at reinvention, and a shocking lack of tweets. Jeffrey Simpson in The Globe and Mail , James Travers in the Toronto Star and Don Martin in the National Post , agree: By indulging their basic instinct to dump manure on any perceived threat, the Conservatives heroically buggered up their handling...
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Macleans.ca (Free subscription) | 11/23/2009
What A Girl Wants was a fundraiser for the Canadian Liver Foundation, which included a fashion show and Ottawa firefighters. Below, Justin Trudeau has a dance off with Kenzie Potter from Conservative House leader Jay Hill’s office. One of the organizers Annette Martin (centre), wife of National Post columnist Don Martin, with Labour Minister Rona Ambrose [...]
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Cincinnati Enquirer (Free subscription) | 11/22/2009
The construction of the amphitheater will be funded with the $30,000 state grant and a $30,000 match from the 4th at the Fort Committee. The city of Fort Thomas will contribute money to the construction, but the amount has yet to be determined, said City Administrator Don Martin. Martin valued the free dirt and grading provided by Duke Energy at a $200,000 value.
