If you're already homesick for an outdoor farmers' market, check out this video

It's by the Journal's photographer and videographer, Ryan Jackson. The video, shot at the downtown farmers' market,  captures why it is that we look forward to Saturdays in summer.

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Rocky Mountain Wine and Food Festival Ticket Giveaway

We've got two tickets for the Rocky Mountain Wine and Food Festival to give away. The festival is at the Shaw Conference Centre on Nov. 5 and 6. E-mail your contest entry to mailto:livingwell@edmontonjournal.com Put wine and food festival contest in the subject line and please put your name and day time phone number in the body of the e-mail. The tickets will be left for the winner at the Will Call office at the Shaw Conference Centre. The contest ends on Friday Oct. 29. For information on the festival go to Rocky Mountain Wine and Food Festival.

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A cautionary tale for the liberal interventionist

Margaret WentePublished Thursday, Oct. 28, 2010 5:00AM EDTLast updated Thursday, Oct. 28, 2010 9:36AM EDT207 comments

The main revelation in the latest cache of documents from WikiLeaks is not the collateral damage inflicted by American troops on innocent Iraqis (although there’s plenty of that). It’s the damage inflicted by Iraqis on one another. The liberation of Iraq from Saddam Hussein and his chamber of horrors turned the entire country into a chamber of horrors. Of the 109,000 deaths recorded in these newly released U.S. military documents, which span the period from 2004 to 2009, the vast majority were Iraqi civilians murdered by other Iraqis.

It’s a classic case of doing bad by trying to do good. And it’s a cautionary tale for any would-be peacekeeper or liberal interventionist – if there happen to be any left – who thinks we can rescue people from themselves.

I was a liberal interventionist back then. In my defence, I was in the best of company – Michael Ignatieff, Christopher Hitchens and Andrew Sullivan, among others. Liberal interventionists believed that the Iraqi people (to say nothing of the rest of the world) would be a lot better off without Saddam. I’d met Iraqis in Canada who showed me the torture wounds they’d acquired in Saddam’s dungeons. I knew about the gassing of the Kurds and the ethnic cleansing at Hilla, where Saddam’s thugs would take people out at night to dig their own graves, then shoot them. I wasn’t an imperialist, I was a humanitarian.

When I went to Iraq a few months after the war, it dawned on me that the road to freedom from tyranny might be longer than I’d thought. I met many people, especially in the U.S. military, who were valiantly trying to do the right thing. I met brave Iraqis and earnest democracy promoters who were endeavouring to teach the locals the ins and outs of fair elections. Optimism was in the air. But the retaliations had already begun.

Kidnappings and revenge killings had become routine. The police were corrupt and feared. Society was tribal – people identified first and foremost with their clan, whose network of enemies and allies was impossible for outsiders to figure out. Millions of angry young men couldn’t find work. Iraqis were incredibly conspiracy-minded and superstitious, and many of them believed in genies. I came to believe that the U.S.-led invasion had let the genie out of the bottle, and not necessarily for the better.

Later, people blamed the ensuing chaos on the Americans’ lack of postwar planning and the decision to disband the Iraqi army. I think the chaos was inevitable, no matter what.

These WikiLeaks documents (released last week to a handful of international media outlets) are important because they show just how disastrous Operation Iraqi Freedom really was. As Der Spiegel explained, they show how the struggle between Shiites and Sunnis unfolded, how society became brutalized, and how kidnappings, executions and prisoner torture became part of everyday life.

The abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison were mild compared with the atrocities inflicted by Iraqis on each other. The Shia-controlled Interior Ministry ran secret jails in which inmates, most of them Sunnis, endured the same kinds of torture as those inflicted by Saddam. They were burned with boiling water, had their fingers amputated, and had electroshock applied to their genitals. When U.S. forces discovered the brutalities, they simply filled out incident reports and forwarded them to the local authorities.

As the distinction between insurgents and government employees became increasingly fuzzy, militias operated in the open, under the eyes of security forces. IEDs were planted everywhere. Al-Qaeda forces planted bombs in corpses, babies’ cribs and teddy bears, as well as on live children, who were known as “paradise boys.” Not surprisingly, U.S. troops tended to shoot too early rather than too late.

Afghanistan, by contrast, is supposed to be a “good” war. But it’s hard to fight a good war in a violent society with bad guys on every side. And I fear that those Canadians who long for the good old days, when our military served virtuously as “peacekeepers,” are just as deluded as I was back in 2003. The world’s conflict zones don’t look like Cyprus any more. They look like Iraq and Afghanistan – ugly, violent places where high-minded moral interventions are often futile, or worse.

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Canada's 2010 health spending predicted to inch up to $192-billion: report

Total health-care spending in Canada this year is predicted to reach almost $192-billion, up almost 5 per cent over 2009, says a report by the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

The 155-page report, released Thursday, says that figure translates into about $5,600 for each man, woman and child in the country.

“Over the last 10 years, we've seen the growth in health-care spending over and above population growth and inflation,” said Chris Kuchciak, manager of health expenditures for CIHI. “However, what's different this year is that the growth rate in 2009 and 2010 seems to be decelerating.”

Taking inflation and population growth into account, actual per-capita health-care spending is expected to rise by just 1.4 per cent this year, Mr. Kuchciak said from Ottawa.

“The growth rate of 1.4 per cent is actually the lowest growth rate in the last 13 years.”

Mr. Kuchciak said a number of factors are likely behind the shrinking growth rate in health spending, including belt-tightening by provinces in response to the 2009 recession.

A similar squeeze on spending occurred during the mid-1990s, a period of restraint when the growth in health spending was either flat or negative, he said, noting that the trend was reversed in the late ‘90s when governments made a concerted effort to boost allocations to health.

“So there were significant investments in health care. But now fiscal positions have changed and we see that growth rate decelerating.”

The report shows health-care spending is expected to account for 11.7 per cent of Canada's gross domestic product in 2010, down from 11.9 per cent in 2009, but above the 10.7 per cent share of the GDP in 2008.

Mr. Kuchciak said hospitals, prescription and over-the-counter drugs, and doctors' services remain the three biggest-ticket items.

Hospitals are still the largest at 29 per cent, he said. “That's actually declined over the years. Twenty-five, 30 years ago, hospitals accounted for over 40 per cent of health-care spending.”

“What we've seen over time is a growth in the share attributable to drug spending – that's been growing – but also in the last four years, physician spending has actually outpaced the growth of drugs and hospitals.”

This year, drug costs are expected to carve out 16 per cent of the health-care spending pie, while physician services are predicted to take up almost 14 per cent.

“Yes, physician spending has grown faster than the other two categories,” Mr. Kuchciak said. “We know there are more physicians today than there were years ago. There's more demand for the use of physician services as well as compensation.

“Those are factors that could play into that increase in spending.”

The report also says government spending on health care this year is expected to reach $135.1-billion, while private-sector spending – which includes both private insurance and out-of-pocket expenses – will reach an estimated $56.6-billion.

For more than a decade, public- and private-sector health spending in Canada has been growing at about the same rate, with the public sector accounting for about 70 per cent of the total health-care bill and the private sector for the rest.

While Canadians over the age of 65 account for less than 14 per cent of Canada's population, CIHI found they consume almost 44 per cent of all health-care dollars spent by provincial and territorial governments. In 2008, the latest year for which data is available, the provinces and territories spent an average of $10,742 per senior, compared with $2,097 on those aged one to 64 years old.

For Canadians age 80 and older, health spending averaged $18,160 per person, more than three times the roughly $5,800 spent per senior under the age of 70.

However, the report shows that the share spent on those 65-plus has not changed significantly over the past decade.

“While it is true that care is costlier for people who are 65 and older, we have not seen a rise in the proportion we spend on seniors,” said Jean-Marie Berthelot, CIHI vice-president of programs. “An aging population may have an impact on health-care spending, but so far the average expenditure on seniors has not risen faster than for younger Canadians.”

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Harper foreign policy merely a ‘mild negative,’ poll finds

Posted on Thursday, October 28, 2010 11:58AM EDT93 comments

Pollster Frank Graves has some advice on how Stephen Harper’s Conservatives can turn their humiliation on the world stage into a win: Blame it on the elites.

A new EKOS Research survey, released Thursday morning, shows voters “are underwhelmed with Canada’s actions on the world stage.” Asked whether they disapproved or approved of the Harper government’s foreign policies, 37 per cent said they disapproved compared to 21 per cent who approve and 35 per cent who don’t care either way.

“The data seems to suggest that the Tories don't have huge problems on foreign policy,” Mr. Graves told The Globe. “Wins like Haiti and losses like UN net out as mild negative.”

But the more troubling finding for the Conservatives is the perception the Harper government’s foreign policies are affecting the country’s international credibility.

“On that front there is a clear lean to seeing the net impacts as clearly corrosive to our reputation,” Mr. Graves aid. “This is something many Canadians care about. We have a narcissism of insecurity about how we are seen outside our borders and this could become a significant problem.”

In the EKOS poll, 45 per cent of respondents said Tory foreign policy had a negative effect on Canada’s global reputation, 22 per cent said it had a positive effect and 21 per cent said it had no effect at all.

So how do the Conservatives deal with these results? Mr. Graves has a suggestion.

“The government needs to keep Canadians focused on how things are pretty good and we can't risk the adventure of change,” he said, pointing to the Tory message track that a change in government would mean a coalition of Liberals, NDP and Bloc.

More than that, though, the Tories should play up the anti-elite phobia that’s out there – a phobia that seemed to come through in the election of conservative Rob Ford as mayor of Toronto.

“They will also need to sharpen case that many of these incidents are the vanity preoccupations of the elites and not the bread-and-butter issues of ‘ordinary’ Canadians,” the pollster said.

For fear of being accused of only giving advice to the Conservatives, Mr. Graves also has some thoughts for Michael Ignatieff’s Liberals.

“The challenge for opposition is to fit all of the indigo incidents such as prorogation, census and UN embarrassment into an overall thematic that doesn't wax and wane as the individual issues do,” he said. “And they need to make that narrative simple and emotionally resonant. For example, the government's know nothing-ism approach is producing rule by belief rather than reason and lampooning our previously stalwart international brand.”

The poll of 1,312 Canadians was conducted between Oct. 20 and Oct. 26. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

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How George Smitherman’s dead-end run for Toronto mayor went wrong

Published Thursday, Oct. 28, 2010 4:04AM EDTLast updated Thursday, Oct. 28, 2010 11:25AM EDT362 comments

In late August nothing was going right in George Smitherman’s bid to become mayor. The papers were full of scandalous stories of Rob Ford’s arrest for drunk driving and drug possession, but his popularity only seemed to be growing.

The Smitherman camp had invited Liberal pollster Michael Marzolini, architect of Premier Dalton McGuinty’s majorities, to diagnose what ailed the troubled campaign. During one Marzolini focus group, a middle-aged woman explained that she would overlook personality failings in a mayor – as long as he didn’t waste her taxes.

“It was the most powerful thing I’d ever seen,” recalls campaign manager Bruce Davis. “People knew [Mr. Ford] had these character flaws. They knew all that …”

And, by all appearances, they didn’t care.

This revelation should have been an omen of what was to come: the felling of Ontario’s powerful former deputy premier by an unlikely municipal renegade wielding a simple message.

From the start, Mr. Smitherman’s team suffered from being a “big tent” affair with myriad advisers from across the political spectrum. His strategists knew the election was fast becoming a referendum on Mayor David Miller’s approach to governing, set against a backdrop of economic uncertainty and irritation over tax hikes and political perks. Polling data showed the city was deeply split over Mr. Miller’s record. But Mr. Smitherman and his brain trust couldn’t decide which side of the urban divide they wanted to win over. When they finally placed their bets, it was too late.

In many ways, Mr. Smitherman put himself at a disadvantage from the outset, says Ryerson University politics professor Myer Siemiatycki: He played a quiet, cagey campaign early on, let his opponents set the agenda and failed to adequately set himself apart afterwards.

“He needed to more pointedly and directly try to puncture the assumption that the city was totally broken down and in need of a major overhaul. Because once he conceded that, he could not win ... He could not sell himself as the better fixer.”

CAMPAIGN BEGINS

On a flight home from Florida in early January, Mr. Smitherman took out a pad of paper and started scribbling ideas about what he wanted to do as mayor.

The famously combative, intensely partisan Liberal had first hinted at a run during last year’s garbage strike, with a showy bid to clean up the city. A few weeks later, Mr. Miller announced he wouldn’t seek re-election, leaving the field wide open. Before long, a clutch of Mr. Smitherman’s long-standing advisers – including Tory strategist Jaime Watt, Liberal adman Gordon Ashworth and NDP pollster Bob Penner – began meeting. It was late November, 2009, and most observers expected he would be taking on radio host John Tory.

Upon his return from Florida, Mr. Smitherman arranged to meet Bay Street lawyer Ralph Lean, a top political fundraiser, at the King Edward Hotel on Jan. 8. Mr. Lean, who had planned to back Mr. Tory until he pulled out, was now looking for a place to park his support. Over breakfast, Mr. Lean told Mr. Smitherman he had two major concerns – spending and transportation – and that he’d be interviewing Rocco Rossi later that morning.

The two men had history: In the mid-1990s, when Mr. Smitherman was former Toronto mayor Barbara Hall’s executive assistant, they’d butted heads over the Air Canada Centre (Mr. Lean represented the Raptors). “For two years I worked with him, fought with him and yelled at him,” said Mr. Lean. They emerged from that encounter with a mutual regard.

After breakfast ended, an emboldened Mr. Smitherman marched up to City Hall and, with the media looking on, registered to run. Afterward, he took what looked suspiciously like a victory skate on the rink in Nathan Phillips Square.

Through the early spring, Mr. Lean and his network had little trouble generating cash for the campaign among Liberals and downtown Tories.

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Gold Medal Plates is in Edmonton again this week

Wednesday, I’ll be judging at the event, a sold-out fundraiser for the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic teams. Many fit athletes are expected at the Shaw Conference Centre for Gold Medal Plates, including Adam van Koeverden and Alex Bilodeau. To date, Gold Medal Plates has raised some $4 million for the Olympic movement in Canada.

Follow me on Twitter (@eatmywordsblog) as I join forces with Edmonton food and wine judges including Nathin Bye of Wildflower (last year’s winner and one of the 10 chefs pictured at right competing in the 2009 event). I’ll announce the 2010 Edmonton winner on edmontonjournal.com at the evening’s end. Here are the chef competitors: Tracy Lydster of The Dish, Shane Chartrand of L2 at the Fantasyland Hotel, David Omar of Zinc, Jan Trittenbach of Packrat Louie and Daniel Costa of Red Star. Returning favourites are Paul Shufelt of Hundred, Michael Brown of Pradera at the Westin, Paul Campbell of Cafe De Ville, Andrew Fung of Blackhawk Golf Course, and Susan Kellock of Skinny Legs and Cowgirls.

The event has been such a huge success that organizers decided to push it past the original goal of collecting funds for the Vancouver 2010 games. Now, it’s a yearly competition. Edmonton is the first city in the Canada-wide contest, which culminates in the national championship Feb. 18 and 19, 2011, in Kelowna.

 Go to goldmedalplates.com for more information.

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Rob Ford tapped into a zeitgeist that goes beyond Toronto

Gary MasonPublished Thursday, Oct. 28, 2010 5:00AM EDTLast updated Thursday, Oct. 28, 2010 8:34AM EDT74 comments

Toronto’s mayoral race was so intriguing, so lush with irony, it engrossed Canadians across the country.

Vancouver is awash in transplanted Torontonians who couldn’t get enough of the fight for city hall. Rob Ford is a compelling, controversial figure even in Lotusland, and now that he’s mayor of the centre of the universe, people can’t stop smiling.

Why are so many delighted with Mr. Ford’s ascension? People love to see the Toronto establishment squirm and taken down a notch. The fact that the city’s elites were so horrified at the thought of being governed by someone they clearly felt was better suited to running a car dealership in Okotoks, Alta., made his victory even sweeter.

There are people who look and sound like Rob Ford sitting on city councils from Winkler, Man., to Smithers, B.C. To see him mocked as much for his appearance as his policies had many westerners cheering even harder for him. It undoubtedly helped seed the schadenfreude that has enveloped his unlikely triumph.

His win was a victory for the little guy – the common man who may not possess the same refined vocabulary as his more educated colleagues but, nonetheless, speaks a language that a great swath of Canadians understand perfectly.

Even I felt a certain sympathy for Mr. Ford. Not that I didn’t think his platform was bereft of intelligent analysis and new ideas. It was. Rather, it was the view, sometimes articulated in the media, that he would be a colossal embarrassment to the city not just because of what he said but because of the way he looked. If he weighed 60 pounds less, would he still have been as unappealing? Spare me the talk that the vituperative reaction he elicited was strictly about his policies and had nothing to do with the image he projected.

Anyway, it’s over and done with. Mr. Ford is mayor, and political junkies everywhere are debating whether the man tapped into a countrywide zeitgeist or exploited voter rage specific to Greater Toronto.

Put another way: Could Rob Ford get elected in Vancouver or Montreal, cities that, like Toronto, see themselves as sophisticated and urbane and immune to a mayoral candidate with the kind of gonzo qualities ascribed to Mr. Ford? I think the answer is yes, at least a version of him spouting an iteration of Mr. Ford’s successful Stop the Gravy Train campaign slogan.

Take Vancouver, where taxpayers are feeling the heat, too. It’s why the campaign to stop the HST wasn’t just popular in the northern half of B.C., as many first believed would be the case. It had support everywhere, including Vancouver’s tony west side.

Then there’s the Olympic Village fiasco, in which taxpayers possibly stand to lose hundreds of millions of dollars. Still, the current city council persists in going ahead with previously promised social housing on the site that’s costing in excess of $100-million when the units could be sold at market rates.

New dedicated bike lanes, meantime, are costing millions and are opposed by store owners who say they aren’t being used and will hurt business.

Enter a mayoral candidate in next fall’s civic election campaigning on a Ford-like theme: Stop the Madness.

He (or she) promises to sell the proposed social housing at the Olympic Village in order to recoup as much of the public’s money as possible that’s been sunk “into this mess.” He also campaigns to end bike-lane expansion and put a freeze on hiring at city hall. He vows not to raise property taxes beyond the rate of inflation, to give people “a chance to catch their financial breath.”

“Enough is enough,” our red-faced candidate bellows, jowls shaking. “People are having a tough time putting food on the table and we’re building bike lanes and the most exotic and expensive social housing in the world. What’s next? Free daycare for city workers? It’s time to take back city hall and stop this recklessness once and for all.”

Think Rob Ford couldn’t happen in a place like Vancouver? Think again.

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Parentage is about more than DNA

Angela Campbell and Robert Leckey21 comments

A woman born of a genetic sperm donation is challenging the law that prevents her from knowing her genetic father’s identity. Her court case began in Vancouver on Monday. We don’t doubt her sincerity in claiming that finding her genetic father is important to her. But the emphasis on genetic heritage central to her claims and others like it exemplifies a troubling trend that calls for further scrutiny.

The intense focus on genetic origins comes at an odd moment. The certainty with which genetic connections can now be established seems to have increased their importance. DNA testing now provides incontestable proof. But today’s science also makes genetic connections look much less important. All humans have 99 per cent of their DNA in common. A parent and child share slightly more, 99.5 per cent.

Olivia Pratten, 28, acknowledges that she has a “dad” who loves and cares about her. But her biological father, “who created half” of who she is, remains a mystery.

Whatever her feelings, it’s scientifically wrong to say Ms. Pratten’s biological father created half of who she is. It’s also wrong in other ways. As in all cases, upbringing and cultural surroundings are largely responsible for who we are.

It sounds as if Ms. Pratten owes much of her personality and identity to her “dad.” That’s so whether she resembles him or has shaped herself in contrast to him.

She has the right to be wrong in her thinking about her identity. She also has the right to think about her origins by focusing on her genetic make-up. But whether a judge should strike down the current law so as to identify a man who donated sperm anonymously is another question entirely. The judge also must take other viewpoints than Ms. Pratten’s into account. So must legislators who eventually study this issue.

We recognize the interest that donor children have in knowing their genetic origins. But is it a right that trumps all others?

The rhetoric of genetic connection risks erasing social bonds between parents and children. It implies that identity results from genetics. And the idea that genetic origin makes people who they are devalues diverse means by which people form families. Consider adoptive parents or parents who conceive through assisted conception. They may be gay or straight. Such parents are not mere caretakers of someone else’s genetic heritage. They contribute to their child’s identity.

The judge hearing Ms. Pratten’s claim must consider the consequences of recognizing a right to know one’s genetic parentage.

Overturning donor anonymity would reduce the supply of donor sperm. It would be harder for infertile couples to conceive a child. In the United Kingdom, the supply of donor sperm plummeted after rules prohibited anonymous donations.

And does Ms. Pratten’s claim go both ways? Once we elevate genetic connection over social bonds developed over time, why wouldn’t a donor have the right to trace his “children” connected to him by DNA?

An ethical assessment of claims by individuals born of anonymously donated genetic material to find their genetic heritage must take account of the potential harms to other people.

A full and fair evaluation of this debate entails recognizing the multiple interests it engages. People will weight these interests differently. We think they at least belong on the table.

Angela Campbell and Robert Leckey teach family law at McGill University.

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Andrew Fung knocked himself out last night for Gold Medal Plates

Today, the gold medal winner was still riding high.

"It's exciting, it was like a dream," he said in a phone interview Thursday morning from Blackhawk Golf Course, where Fung is executive chef.

Fung, 32, says he was inspired to create his award-winning duo of Alberta beef after a trip to Las Vegas last winter, where he saw hanger steak being used at Joel Robuchon Restaurant. Robichon used the flavourful, but challenging cut, in a steak sandwich, but Fung thought it would also work well as a carpaccio or another thin-sliced and marinated meat. He decided to do an Asian twist and tackle a beef tataki with ginger and scalllion relish, shaved Asiago (to hint at the Italian carpaccio style) and cold pressed olive oil with a tangy ponzu sauce.

"I am the only one with an Asian background (in Gold Medal Plates) and so I thought I would go with that," he says.

He started by serving gyoza, stuffing the egg-y dough with braised short rib and a bit of foie gras to add a little fat flavour. A veal reduction  and apple puree and oven-dried tomato confit accompanied the dish.

For more beautiful pictures of stunning food shot by Journal photographer Greg Southam, go to our photo gallery at edmontonjournal.com/photos. For more on Gold Medal Plates.

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In honour of LitFest and Radio Active, here are three of my favourite food memoirs

The first is a New York Times bestseller, written by Ruth Reichl, called Tender at the Bone. Ruth was for many years the editor of Gourmet magazine, which ceased publishing a couple of years back. She was also a food reviewer for the New York Times and I had read her account of those years in her book, Garlic and Sapphires. I really enjoyed it, so I went back to look for others she had written and found Tender at the Bone. The book is a coming-of-age story that examines Ruth's roots, and shows the reader how she came to be a food writer.

Ruth (at right in this 2006 photo by John Mahoney of the Montreal Gazette) was strongly influenced by her relationship with her mother, Miriam, who had bipolar disorder, and was very difficult to live with. She was also a frighteningly bad cook, who liked to work with leftovers that had gone off. She frequently poisoned her guests. Ruth says one of her early life lessons was that food could be dangerous, and she would sometimes stand guard during her mother's dinner parties to make sure that one of Ruth's favourite people wouldn't actually eat a certain casserole made from a two-week-old turkey carcass. Here's a great quote from the book:

“Like a hearing child born to deaf parents, I was shaped by my mother's handicap, discovering that food could be a way of making sense of the world. At first I paid attention only to taste, storing away the knowledge that my father preferred salt to sugar and my mother had a sweet tooth. Later, I also began to note how people ate, and where. My brother liked fancy food in fine surroundings, my father only cared about the company, and Mom would eat anything so long as the location was exotic. I was slowly discovering that if you watched people as they ate, you could find out who they were.”

Tender at the Bone also contains recipes and it ends when Ruth is in her early twenties. Her story is picked up later in Comfort Me With Apples. She recently released another book called Not Becoming my Mother.

My second choice is a book of straight-up essays (no recipes) written by one of the iconic American food writers, M.F.K. Fisher (MFK stands for Mary Frances Kennedy). She was born in 1908 and died in 1992 at the age of 83. She wrote more than 20 books in her lifetime, most about food and travel. I have only read one of her books, The Gastronomical Me, written in 1943. She had a really exciting life, lived in France, was married several times and had other tumultuous love relationships with men and women alike. Some say Fisher practically invented the American food memoir genre. She has a unique style, she uses words that don't seem to fit until you think about it, and you really get to know her personality through her writing.

In one chapter of The Gastronomical Me, she writes about being at away at a girl's boarding school and seeing one of her teachers, Mrs. Cheevers, feed fresh oysters to the school nurse in a way that suggests Mrs. Cheevers was in love with the nurse. Listen to what she says about in this chapter, called The First Oyster:

“As she watched the old woman eat steadily, voluptuously, of the fat cold, mollusks, she looked so tender that I turned anxiously toward the sureness and stability of such small passions as lay in the dining room.”

So like Ruth Reichl, Fisher (at right in this Journal file photo) examines the way life is played out through food.

My third choice is a more light-hearted read, and is called Cooking for Mr. Latte, A Food Lover's Courtship. It's by Amanda Hesser. She has been a food reporter and columnist for the New York Times since 1997. She's also written an award-winning cookbook called The Cook and the Gardener, and is a trained chef.

This book is a love story. It traces the relationship between Amanda and her husband-to-be. She talks about things like how they staked out their own culinary territory in the relationship. He was kind of a burger guy, and she ate at New York's high-end restaurants. These are relationship issues we all encounter in one form or another.

My favourite chapter is the one in which she cooks for Mr. Latte for the first time. Here's what she says:

"The first meal you cook, for someone is intimate. Not just if it's for a date. And not just because no one cooks anymore – it really has nothing to do with whether you are a good cook or not. It's an entry into the way you think, what you've seen and know, the way you treat others, how you perceive pleasure. Dinner guests can see by how you compose a meal if you are an ungenerous hothead or a nurturer, stingy or clever, fussy or stylish.”

And then she gives you a number of recipes for dinner dates (and other occasions), including Salmon and Crème Fraiche on Black Bread Toasts and a Roasted Guinea Hen. I don't think a roasted guinea hen sounds very romantic. I think a man likes a nice steak, to be honest, but that's my book. All of the chapters in Cooking for Mr. Latte have recipes you'll want to try. It's a fun book.

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enRoute Magazine has just announced its 10 Best New Restaurants across Canada

Last year, Cindy Lazarenko of Culina Highlands scooped one of the top 10 positions awarded by enRoute, but this year, no Edmonton restaurants made the grade. Still, Calgary is but a short jaunt, and our sister city to the south is the home of one of the winners, Charcut Roast House, the new restaurant in the Hotel Germain.

I visited Charcut in June while on a Travel Alberta tour of the south part of the province, and it is a truly innovative concept - hopelessly devoted to meat. The restaurateur and chef duo, Connie DeSousa and John Jackson, make all their own charcuterie in house. They actually brought a pig's head (face missing, don't worry, it  looked like a meat-stuffed football) to the table to show us one of their house-made creations. Charcut was also the first time I'd ever tasted a dish made of bone marrow, and it was so buttery rich (and plated in serving dishes made from hollowed-out bones) I have since searched for it on many a menu. This search is usually in vain...although last night at Gold Medal Plates, Bronze Medal Winner Shane Chartrand used bone marrow in a sweet pea puree that accompanied his monkfish-stuffed steak tartare. Go Shane!

Here's what enRoute judge and food writer Sarah Musgrave had to say about Charcut Roast House: “In a city of steakhouses, Charcut is a meathouse. Their version of the Cowtown standby, the prime rib special, sees locally sourced, range-fed beef strung up, smoked, spit-roasted and dripping with jus.”

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A reader named Keith is looking for hard bread from Newfoundland

Here's his plaintive note, asking for help:

"I made a trip to Newfoundland this summer and fell in love with the local cooking to the extent that I bought a cookbook at great expense. Unfortunately, I can't find some of the ingredients (specifically hard bread) in our local grocery stores. I've tried to contact the Purity website but I haven't gotten an answer yet. The website says that "selected" Safeway, Superstore, IGA, etc. stores carry hardbread but none of the ones I've visited. Do I need to travel to Ft. McMurray to find supplies for my brewis? I tried in grocery stores around the Newfoundland colony in our city and didn't find anything.

Have you ever done a column on Newfoundland cuisine and researched out where someone can buy the ingredients? I think that it's a really unique Canadian cuisine."

Have any readers had any luck tracking down specific East coast ingredients? Comments welcome!

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Tory MP gets boost from advocacy group in quest for decorum

Posted on Thursday, October 28, 2010 11:22AM EDT47 comments

A group of Canadians who say they are embarrassed and insulted by the antics in the House of Commons have launched a campaign in support of a motion by Conservative MP Michael Chong that aims to make the daily Question Period more functional and less hostile.

Mr. Chong is appearing Thursday before the Commons Committee on procedure and House affairs where he will outline his proposals.

At the same time, a non-partisan group called Canadians Advocating Political Participation just launched an online petition to inform Canadians and to help them have their say.

The petition is the first part of a four-phase campaign that CAPP chapters say they will use to engage the media and ordinary Canadians with local MPs and put forward ideas to pressure politicians to make Question Period even stronger.

“The goal of the campaign is to build pan-Canadian support for a strong Question Period reform motion to come out of this committee,” Glyn Lewis, the eastern co-ordinator for CAPP said in telephone interview.

“I think that the lack of civility is an affront to our national conversation and I think that the broken discourse in the House of Commons has turned a lot of people off from following the issues. And if you are not following the issues, how can you be engaged in the democratic process?”

Mr. Chong’s proposal, Motion 517, says the Commons should:

» Elevate decorum and fortify the use of discipline by the Speaker;

» Lengthen the amount of time given for each question and answer;

» Require that ministers respond to questions directed at them;

» Allocate half the questions each day for backbench members;

» Dedicate Wednesday exclusively for questions to the Prime Minister;

» Dedicate the rest of the week for questions to ministers other than the Prime Minister.

The committee has six months before it is required to report back to the House with recommended changes.

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Painting for a cause: Celebrities auction art for charity

In PicturesPublished Thursday, Oct. 28, 2010 12:13AM EDTLast updated Thursday, Oct. 28, 2010 6:57AM EDTMore than 100 prominent Canadians – from Members of Parliament to stand-up comedians – have created works of art to be auctioned on eBay to support the Kidney Foundation of Canada Hide caption

Wrestler Bret (the Hitman) Hart's tableau – depicting a cat coming to the rescue of a tied-up polar bear – is an allegory for his divorce. “I wanted to do something that might catch the buyer's attention, catch their kids' attention,” he said. “When I was doing it, I was wondering what everyone else would think it was.” In case you hadn't figured it out: he's the polar bear, the rat represents his ex and the cat (in a red-white-and-blue mini-skirt) is his American girlfriend. The chicken is just a chicken.

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Nova Scotia Liberal MP Scott Brison's masterpiece is an impressionistic take on Cape Blomidon and the Minas Basin at low tide from Kipp's Beach in front of his house.
The picture – soft blues and reds – was painted in one day while he sat on the beach or got some perspective from his verandah. He first took a picture of the scene on his BlackBerry (what else?) and then drew it onto the canvas.
Mr. Brison is pretty pleased with his effort, as was his partner. “When Maxime came home ... he couldn't believe I did it myself. Not that he thought it was good, it was simply not as bad as he had expected it would be,” he said.”

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Hiccups star Brent Butt created his painting at a work table on the set of the sitcom between takes. His inspiration? Contemplating his next stand-up tour. “I know that microphone better than I know my own face,” he told The Globe and Mail from the show’s Vancouver studio during a break. “I did it a little bit at a time, and by the end of a day, I had it done.” Mr. Butt has been contributing paintings to the fundraiser for several years. He made some of his previous works in hotel rooms while on the road. Visual art comes naturally to the 44-year-old, who drew his own comic book before starting his career in show business.

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He may be best known for his deep, mournful singing voice and wild beat poetry, but Leonard Cohen has also created numerous paintings and line drawings. The one on offer here is a print of a work from 2008. It’s a typical Cohen, depicting everyday objects in his famously spare style.

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Toronto Argonaut slotback Andre Durie stuck to a familiar subject in his work.

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Liberal MP Justin Trudeau’s image depicts the Peace Tower on the building in which he and his father have both made their names.

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Retired NHL player Stephane Richer opted to paint the number on the back of his Habs jersey when his team won the Stanley Cup in 1986.

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Cape Breton fiddler Natalie MacMaster was one of several painters who chose a nature theme.

$(document).ready(function() { globe.article.gallery('1775693','8','normal'); });0 comments Thursday, Oct. 28, 2010 9:55AM EDT

A gallery of images from the life of the legendary Rolling Stones guitarist

Thursday, Oct. 28, 2010 5:17AM EDT

See pictures of life aboard HMCS Winnipeg

Thursday, Oct. 28, 2010 1:19AM EDT

Images from the opening match of the World Series

Thursday, Oct. 28, 2010 12:13AM EDT

More than 100 prominent Canadians – from Members of Parliament to stand-up comedians – have created works of art to be auctioned on eBay to support the Kidney Foundation of Canada

Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2010 11:07PM EDT

Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2010 9:10PM EDT

Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2010 6:19PM EDT

Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2010 5:29PM EDT

A select guide to the best shows on Thursday

Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2010 4:44PM EDT

Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2010 11:01AM EDT

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Canada toughens sanctions on North Korea

Posted on Thursday, October 28, 2010 1:22PM EDT7 comments

Canada is drafting “tough” new sanctions against North Korea in direct retaliation for its sinking of a South Korean warship earlier this year, the Harper government said Thursday.

Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said Ottawa is also downgrading its already-limited diplomatic relations with the rogue nuclear state.

Mr. Cannon said the sanctions will prohibit imports and exports to North Korea, with certain humanitarian exceptions.

Earlier this year, Canada announced stiffer restrictions on trade, investment and other bilateral relations with the communist dictatorship – as well as suspending high-level visits by its officials.

Those measures followed the sinking of the Cheonan, a South Korean navy ship, which killed 46 sailors.

Three experts from the Canadian navy joined the multinational team that investigated the incident, and concluded the warship was sunk by a North Korean torpedo.

“They went out deliberately and they sank a South Korean ship with a torpedo,” Mr. Cannon said Thursday. “We had three Canadian investigators part of that. They determined beyond any reasonable doubt that this was an act of aggression and therefore Canada is taking retaliatory measures.”

The Foreign Affairs Minister conceded that Canada's level of interaction with North Korea is already quite low.

But he said Canada's actions are important because they are based on a “position of principle” – a common refrain from the Harper government after its historic failure to win a temporary United Nations Security Council earlier this month.

“The impact is, of course, an impact we will see down the line. But it's extremely important that as a member of the world community we all act together.”

Mr. Cannon said Canada does not want its action in any way to be seen as targeting the North Korean people, some of the poorest and most downtrodden in the world.

He said Canada already delivers about $6-million worth of food aid to North Korea through the UN World Food Program.

As part of its new diplomatic crackdown, Canada is implementing a “controlled engagement policy” that will limit bilateral contact on four issues: regional security, human rights, North-South Korean issues and consular cases.

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Kinsmen Sports Centre has a new eatery

So now once you've worked out HARD, you can have a refreshing fruit shake, including a Pina Cow Lada, with banana, coconut, and other healthy fillings. Breakfast options include a protein muffin ($3), or breakfast-in-a-glass with muesli and yogurt, or an egg wrap. Small meals like feta chicken and veggies, or a lime shrimp curry round out the menu.

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Newfoundland Liberal apologizes for questioning Premier’s mental health

Published Thursday, Oct. 28, 2010 2:00PM EDTLast updated Thursday, Oct. 28, 2010 2:12PM EDT0 comments

The new spin doctor for the Liberal Opposition in Newfoundland and Labrador has apologized for an e-mail that raised the prospect that Premier Danny Williams is mentally ill or in the last stages of a venereal disease.

Craig Westcott said in a statement released Thursday that he's sorry for the “unacceptable” e-mail to the Premier's office — which was private correspondence — that asked if Mr. Williams is being treated for a mental condition or other illness.

The former journalist just signed on earlier this month as the Liberal Opposition communications director. He has criticized the Premier's policies in the past and has been labelled by the most ardent Williams supporters as a “Danny basher.”

“I want to strongly apologize to everyone who, rightfully, was offended by my reference to mental health issues in such a manner,” Mr. Westcott said in a five-paragraph apology sent to media.

“It wasn't my intention to disparage anyone suffering with a mental health issue, but I see now that that was the effect and I am sorry for having done so. I deeply regret that the contents of the email (have) added further stigma to an issue that needs more public support and understanding.”

Mr. Westcott was editor of The Business Post when he wrote to the Premier's communications director, Elizabeth Matthews, 20 months ago. Under the subject line “A delicate matter,” he asked if Mr. Williams was receiving any medical treatment.

“Please excuse the nature of this question,” Mr. Westcott wrote on Feb. 27, 2009.

“I regret to have to ask it, but it may be germane given the premier's behaviour. It has been suggested to me that Mr. Williams is bipolar. Another person suggested to me that he acts as if he is suffering in the later stages of syphilis.”

The Premier's office didn't respond to the e-mail at the time, but released it to media Wednesday after a cabinet minister raised it on a radio program.

Acting Liberal leader Kelvin Parsons said the overwhelmingly popular Mr. Williams released the private e-mail in an effort to bully and discredit Mr. Westcott.

Mr. Parsons initially tried to downplay the contentious e-mail as a joke, but Mr. Westcott was then accused by open-line radio callers of trivializing serious mental-health issues.

Mr. Westcott ran unsuccessfully for the federal Conservatives in 2008, when Mr. Williams made national headlines with his ABC – Anything But Conservative – campaign. The acerbic effort shut Prime Minister Stephen Harper's candidates out of all seven federal ridings in the province.

Mr. Williams accused Mr. Harper of breaking a 2006 promise to exclude non-renewable energy sources from the calculation of federal equalization payments. Relations between the two men have since improved.

Mr. Westcott wrote the 2009 e-mail to the premier's office a few weeks after Mr. Williams lambasted Ottawa for what he saw as punitive federal budget measures that he said would cost the province $1.5-billion over time.

Mr. Parsons has said Mr. Westcott was hired for his writing and communication skills, and that his job is safe despite the “distraction” of the e-mail controversy.

Mr. Westcott concluded his apology by saying he'll make no further comment on the matter.

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Part 1: Has Canada failed in Afghanistan?

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Published Thursday, Oct. 28, 2010 10:30AM EDTLast updated Thursday, Oct. 28, 2010 1:07PM EDTThe mission was futile defence analyst Peter Langille suggests, while Ret. Lt-Gen. Michael Jeffery argues it's difficult to measure success when the objectives keep changing.37 comments

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Convicted killer charged in cold-case deaths of three sex workers

Published Thursday, Oct. 28, 2010 12:14PM EDTLast updated Thursday, Oct. 28, 2010 1:39PM EDT0 comments

Toronto police have charged a man they are calling a serial killer with three counts of first-degree murder for the slayings of prostitutes in the 1990s.

Peter Dale MacDonald, 52, appeared in court on Thursday in relation to the deaths of three Toronto women. He is currently serving a jail sentence for a separate murder conviction.

“Today, the Toronto Police Service cold case squad arrested a serial killer,” said Staff Inspector Mark Saunders, unit commander of the homicide squad.

Mr. MacDonald is charged with the deaths of Julianne Middleton, Virginia Coote and Darlene McNeill. Their bodies were found in Lake Ontario, near Sunnyside Pool in the city’s west-end, between 1994 and 1997. All three were strangled.

Mr. MacDonald is currently in jail for the 2000 murder of James Campbell in Toronto.

In January, he was charged in connection with the death of Michelle Charette, 40, who was killed in Windsor, Ont., in 2000.

Mr. MacDonald’s name originally surfaced in connection with the 1994 deaths of Ms. Middleton, 23, and Ms. Coote, 33, but police didn’t have evidence to back charges then, said Detective Sergeant Steve Ryan. The body of Ms. McNeill, 35, was discovered in 1997.

New evidence surfaced over the past six or seven months, Det. Sgt. Ryan said. Mr. MacDonald was living in Toronto at the time of the murders, he said.

Staff Insp. Saunders credited the hard work of Toronto police officers and co-operation with other forces for the breakthrough. He said investigators worked hard to put “small pieces of the puzzle together.”

“Today’s investigation took just over 16 years of putting those pieces of the puzzle together to reach that conclusion.”

Police are asking anyone with information about Mr. MacDonald between 1994 and 1997 to contact them.

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They're cutting a really big cheese this weekend at Spinelli's

Italian Centre Shops (north and south side) have some 80 different varieties of cheeses at each location. This weekend, the two stores are hosting a special cheese-tasting event. Owner Teresa Spinelli says they'll be cutting into the world's largest wheel of Emmanthaler. This is quite a claim, and I wouldn't miss it if I were you.

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PM defends trade talks with Ukraine despite Kiev’s strong-arm tactics

Stephen Harper arrived Sunday to a Ukraine of diminishing freedoms and rising strong-arm tactics. And yet the Canadian government is working to sign a free-trade deal with the regime.

The Prime Minister landed in Kiev from the meeting in Switzerland of La Francophonie, the 70 nations with links to the French language and culture. That group’s final communiqué stressed the importance of protecting human rights and the rule of law no fewer than three times, even though many of its governments are either undemocratic or corrupt or both.

How does this Conservative government square the contradiction of seeking business deals with countries whose governments exhibit varying degrees of unsavouryness, while taking a principled stand on human rights?

The answer, according to the Prime Minister, is to deny the contradiction exists.

The question assumes “that there is an inherent tension between these two issues, between wanting to do business and raising issues of human rights and the rule of law,” he told a reporter Sunday when asked how he juggled the two subjects in conversations with leaders.

“And I will not deny that sometimes there is tension. But in fact these go hand in hand.”

That tension may enter the room when Mr. Harper meets with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, whose government has tightened its grip since its election in February – even as negotiations proceed on a trade agreement with Canada. An early sign of an agreement is the deal to be signed this week that allows young people to work, study and travel more easily between both countries.

On the first leg of his European trip, the most tangible product of Mr. Harper’s time at La Francophonie was announcing a new $43-million commitment to aid for francophone African countries. But that organization has a reputation for glossing over questions of rights and freedoms simply because there is little of either in so many member countries. Switzerland volunteered to play host to the this year’s gathering of La Francophonie after a last-minute coup in Madagascar, the original host, forced a change of venue.

The next gathering, in 2012, is to be held in Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a desperately poor nation that is emerging uncertainly from a civil war that, at its height, was killing 45,000 people a month.

Thirty of the 70 member states are designated either Not Free or only Partly Free by the human-rights watchdog Freedom House.

Yet Africa is increasingly attracting investment, with growth rates well above that of the developed world. And Ukraine is also doing better this year, thanks in part to the relative calm that Mr. Yanukovych has imposed on the tumultuous state.

That calm has been imposed by cracking down on freedom of the press and blatantly trying to undermine opposition parties.

Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based organization that monitors press freedom around the world, downgraded Ukraine in its latest annual ranking from 89th to 131st.

Mr. Harper, whose government is still smarting from the unexpected failure on Oct. 12 to win a seat on the UN Security Council, maintains that he has no difficulty having free and frank exchanges with leaders who don’t like to hear hard truths.

“We raise [human rights issues] frankly with them,” he said. “I tend by nature to be fairly direct and that’s what I am in these conversations.”

Mr. Harper is scheduled to meet with Mr. Yanukovych, but he has also arranged to meet with rival politician Yulia Tymoshenko during his two-day visit.

In a twist on the human-rights-or-business dichotomy, the Prime Minister said he talked about human rights with world leaders in countries where they were lacking because without them, Canadian businesses wouldn’t be able to thrive.

Mr. Harper’s argument is simple: impartial courts, freedom of the press and dignity of the person are good for both parties in a contract.

“Canadian companies … need rule of law and human rights,” he said. “Where those things are problematic they create severe problems for Canadian business.”

Companies, he argued, need reliable and enforceable laws to conduct business, and worry about the impact of consorting with oppressive regimes on “their own self-image.”

Of course, Canadian businesses have been operating in countries with unpleasant regimes for many a year. Each prime minister has balanced the two sides of the rights-versus-business conversation his own way. Mr. Harper started out emphatically emphasizing rights, only to learn to his sorrow that countries like China do not like to be lectured to or to be cold-shouldered.

The dichotomy will become increasingly difficult as the century evolves – and as waning democracies court and confront rising powers.

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Pension reform won’t be easy, Jim Flaherty warns

The lines are being drawn between Ottawa and at least one province over how to reform a pension system that will be hard hit as the baby-boom generation moves into retirement.

The federal government is having a difficult time negotiating changes to the Canada Pension Plan with the provinces that would mean higher premiums for Canadians, but also increased benefits. Alberta, for example, is opposed to any increases and feels a private-sector option is preferable.

In an exclusive interview with The Globe and Mail after his meeting with G20 counterparts, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty outlined his expectations for pension reform in advance of his next meeting with provincial finance ministers in December in Kananaskis, Alta.

He played down expectations of a wide-ranging deal on pension reform this fall, acknowledging he’s not sure Ottawa has the support of enough provinces to move ahead with changes to CPP.

“This is not something that will happen quickly,” he said. “We have to first of all agree on where we’re going and make sure everybody’s happy with that. We already have at least one dissenting province and as you know there’s a quota rule in there, and I don’t know what the position of Quebec is.”

Reforming CPP requires the support of two-thirds of the provinces representing two-thirds of Canada’s population.

When Canada’s finance ministers last met in June, Mr. Flaherty announced that government officials had been assigned to hammer out specifics on a pension-reform plan and that the work should be “complete” by their next meeting.

Mr. Flaherty also said at the time that there was consensus – but not unanimity – on the need to bring in “modest” enhancements to CPP benefits that would be paid through higher premiums.

There appeared to be broader agreement at the time on the idea of regulating the private sector to create a new, lower cost, pension option for workers who do not have a pension. It could also be used by small businesses as a way of offering a pension to employees.

Alberta Finance Minister Ted Morton supports this private-sector option, but remains strongly opposed to enhancing the existing CPP.

Mr. Morton told The Globe’s editorial board earlier this month that he fails to understand why broad enhancements to CPP are on the table when several studies have shown the problem of insufficient retirement savings is primarily limited to middle-income earners who work for small private-sector employers.

“So why, when you have a fairly narrowly defined retirement-income problem that needs to be solved, why do you come in with a CPP hike that hits everybody?” he asked rhetorically. “And particularly, why do you do it when we’re trying to come out of a recession and job creation is probably the most important thing governments are doing. In the end, it’s a payroll tax.”

Mr. Flaherty suggested things are moving more quickly toward a joint plan to improve financial literacy among Canadians through education.

Canadian pension expert Keith Ambachtsheer, who warned in September that the talks have fallen behind schedule, has recently offered another update.

In an Oct. 19 note, he writes that based on private discussions with officials in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia, reaching a deal by December remains a challenge.

Mr. Ambachtsheer, the director of the Rotman International Centre for Pension Management, said opinion appears to be coalescing around the idea of paying for benefit enhancements for middle-income earners by increasing the Year’s Maximum Pension Earnings (YMPE), which is currently set at $47,200. Under that scenario, CPP premiums would not increase for those earning less than the maximum, but those earning above the YMPE would pay CPP premiums for a longer period until they hit the new maximum.

“And there are those who continue to argue that ‘don’t fix what isn’t broken,’ and that we should instead focus our attention fully on the ‘private pension innovation’ path,” writes Mr. Ambachtsheer.

“There is increasing recognition that even the ‘raise the YMPE’ path has considerable implementation challenges attached to it.” Questions remain, he said, over how high to raise the YMPE, how to integrate with current [defined benefit] plans, how to test and explain intergenerational fairness and how to deal with serious disappointment by many when they realize that, whatever is done, it will only have major impact decades from now.

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Court case seeks to strip sperm donors’ anonymity

Two years after launching a court action with the hope of learning the identity of her biological father, Olivia Pratten will be in court Monday for the beginning of a trial that could have major implications for people conceived through artificial insemination – and donors involved in the process.

Ms. Pratten, 28, is seeking to have B.C.’s Adoption Act declared unconstitutional because it gives adopted children rights to obtain records of their biological parents that are not provided to people who are conceived with the help of donated eggs or sperm.

The court action also seeks to have the province introduce legislation that would require donor records to be maintained and to make those records available to people who are conceived from donated eggs or sperm.

For Ms. Pratten, who works as a journalist in Toronto, the case has far more than personal significance.

“This is not just about me,” Ms. Pratten said Friday. “There have been a lot of people conceived this way. And I’ve got a lot of support from people in B.C., in Canada and from other donor conception groups in Australia and in the United Kingdom.

“It’s really about having larger society recognizing that we have rights and needs. Because for as long as this practice has been going on, the child has been the last person who’s been thought about.”

Ms. Pratten was conceived through sperm donation and has known that fact since she was five years old. Her parents, now separated, support her legal action and her desire to learn more about her biological father. Ms. Pratten’s mother, who used the services of a Vancouver fertility clinic, first sought records concerning the sperm donor who was involved in Ms. Pratten’s conception in 1988.

There is no provincial regulation that requires donor records to be maintained.

The court action names the province and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia as defendants.

The province applied to have the case dismissed, arguing that records for Ms. Pratten’s sperm donor father no longer exist and that the case is “moot.”

In October, the Supreme Court of B.C. ruled the trial could go ahead.

“This is a serious matter, and the plaintiff and others are directly affected,” Justice Miriam Gropper wrote in her decision. “The province has not demonstrated that there is a better avenue for Ms. Pratten and others like her to address these issues.”

At the federal level, egg and sperm donations are regulated by Assisted Human Reproduction Canada under the Assisted Human Reproduction Act, which was introduced in 2004.

The legislation prevents donors’ health records from being destroyed, but still allows donors to remain anonymous.

The government of Quebec has challenged the Assisted Human Reproduction Act, arguing it encroaches on provincial jurisdiction, in a case that has gone to the Supreme Court of Canada. The top court has yet to rule in that case.

Ms. Pratten, meanwhile, is hopeful that her court date will result in expanded rights for her and others who may want to know more about their biological heritage.

“When I lived in Vancouver and went to [University of British Columbia], I used to think – he could be my professor, I could pass him on the street, my mom and I could sit next to him on the bus and all three of us wouldn’t know who we are,” Ms. Pratten said. “It’s about wanting to fill in the blank and know, this is who he was.”

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Is B.C.'s sockeye boom a one-off?

When the Cohen Commission inquiry into the decline of sockeye salmon in the Fraser River opens evidentiary hearings Monday in Vancouver, it will be haunted by an unexpected, stunning turn of events on the waterfront.

After Prime Minister Stephen Harper appointed British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Bruce Cohen to head a judicial inquiry into last year’s collapse of sockeye stocks – the fish came back. And they came back in bigger numbers than anyone had seen in almost 100 years.

In 2009, about 11 million sockeye were expected, but barely one million showed up, sending economic and cultural shockwaves along the coast as commercial, sport and aboriginal fisheries closed.

The disaster of 2009, which came after three years of poor returns, was seen by many as the end of salmon on what had been the world’s most productive rivers.

But then everything changed, and 35 million sockeye came streaming back to the river this summer and fall.

The Cohen Commission will focus on the decline of Fraser sockeye, not on the big run that still has the waterfront buzzing. But some of the submissions will urge him to examine the surplus of salmon in 2010 – even though that’s not his job.

One of the most interesting submissions, and the only one to come from someone with a medal named after him, has already been filed by Timothy Parsons, a professor emeritus at the University of B.C. and honorary research scientist at the Institute of Ocean Sciences.

Dr. Parsons (after whom the government’s annual Timothy R. Parsons Medal for outstanding contributions to the field of ocean sciences is named) believes this year’s amazing sockeye run is a one-off event, and that it would be wrong to take it as a sign the fish have bounced back.

The sockeye boom of 2010, he said, looks like it was caused by a volcanic eruption in Alaska, in 2008.

Relying on research done by Roberta Hamme, an assistant professor in the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences at the University of Victoria, Dr. Parsons speculates that the eruption of the Kasatochi volcano fertilized the sea, and stimulated the growth of the salmon, leading to higher survival rates.

Ms. Hamme, in a paper published in the science journal, Geophysical Research Letters, reports that a shower of iron-rich ash fell on the Gulf of Alaska after the eruption.

Using satellite imagery and oceanographic data gathered by a Department of Fisheries and Oceans vessel, she concluded the ash caused an explosion in phytoplankton, in an area more than 1000 kilometres wide.

“It’s fascinating,” Dr. Parsons said of her findings. “And it falls in line with my research.”

In the early 1970s, he led an experiment that fertilized Great Central Lake, on Vancouver Island, to see what impact it had on young sockeye. The fish grew 35-per-cent larger and the run increased from 52,000 to 373,000.

Later, he studied food chains in the sea and concluded that salmon productivity can change dramatically in the Gulf of Alaska depending on the type and density of phytoplankton populations.

He said the sockeye that returned to the Fraser this year would have been in the Gulf of Alaska at the peak of the phytoplankton bloom, at a stage in their lives when they were feeding heavily and growing rapidly. The run of 2009 would have passed through the fertilized area, too, but as mature adults headed home to spawn, and they would not have benefited much from the phytoplankton bloom.

“This extraordinary event, I think, might account for the 34.5 million return,” he said.

Dr. Parsons says the Cohen Commission should consider the issue, because if he’s right, it could point to a whole new way to manage West Coast salmon stocks, which has less to do with population dynamics and more to do with observing an array of oceanographic factors.

“To me we have to change the whole nature of fisheries research,” he said. “I’ve been saying this for a long time, but I guess it wasn’t until this volcano blew up that there had been such a good case.”

The Cohen Commission is holding hearings in Vancouver starting this week and running through December.

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16-year sentence for Toronto 18 terror ringleader

Published Monday, Oct. 25, 2010 11:27AM EDTLast updated Monday, Oct. 25, 2010 12:26PM EDT56 comments

The ringleader of the so-called Toronto 18, who had pleaded guilty to terror charges that included attacking Parliament, has been sentenced to 16 years in prison.

Fahim Ahmad had pleaded guilty in mid-trial to participating in a terrorist group, importing firearms and instructing his co-accused to carry out an activity for a terrorist group.

Mr. Ahmad has a credit of 8-1/2 years for time served and is eligible for parole in 3-1/2 years.

Evidence presented in court included dozens of intercepts, including one where Mr. Ahmad can be heard suggesting going to Parliament to “cut off some heads” and “kill everybody.”

Court heard Mr. Ahmad, 26, was the leader of a terror cell and held two training camps to assess his recruits' suitability to help him attack Parliament, electrical grids and nuclear stations.

Of the 18 people charged, seven had their charges dropped or stayed, four were found guilty and seven pleaded guilty.

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Tight mayoral races in cities across Ontario

Published Monday, Oct. 25, 2010 10:20AM EDTLast updated Monday, Oct. 25, 2010 1:00PM EDT30 comments

Ontarians head to the polls Monday to elect their mayors, councillors and other municipal officials.

Voters in several cities face hotly contested mayoral races, including in Toronto, Mississauga, Vaughan, London and Ottawa. Polls are open until 8 p.m. ET.

In Toronto, the battle for the mayor’s chair is between Rob Ford and George Smitherman, who recent opinion polls suggest are virtually tied. Joe Pantalone is running a distant third.

Mr. Ford defined the campaign with his cost-cutting message and Mr. Smitherman, a former provincial Liberal cabinet minister who was initially considered the man to beat, was forced to adapt his message.

Given that the polls are so close, turnout will play a huge factor in determining who becomes the city’s next mayor. Advance polls recorded a huge increase in turnout, with 77,397 people casting early ballots.

The divisive nature of the campaign was illustrated this weekend when a Tamil radio advertisement and derogatory signs denigrated Mr. Smitherman’s homosexuality. Mr. Ford, an Etobicoke councillor, said neither he nor his campaign were behind the ads or the signs.

In the most closely watched election in decades in Mississauga, several challengers have lined up to take shots at legendary incumbent mayor Hazel McCallion. In previous elections, Ms. McCallion has taken more than 90 per cent of the vote. She is expected to win again this year, but political watchers will pay close attention to the vote tally to judge whether her support is slipping.

In Vaughan, incumbent Linda Jackson is facing challengers Maurizio Bevilacqua and Mario Racco. Defamatory lawn signs recently cropped up around the city accusing the three front-runners of a mixture of criminal activity and personal transgressions.

In London, Mayor Anne Marie DeCicco-Best is being challenged by Joe Fontana in a tight race. Mr. Fontana, a former Liberal MP, unsuccessfully challenged Ms. DeCicco-Best during the last election.

In Ottawa, incumbent Mayor Larry O’Brien is trailing behind frontrunner Jim Watson, a former provincial Liberal cabinet minister. In an unprecedented move, Mr. O’Brien apologized to Ottawa residents earlier this month, characterizing the first two years of his term as a “disaster.”

After polls close at 8 p.m., come back to globeandmail.com for live coverage of the Toronto mayoral race as well as live results for Toronto council seats and key races in the GTA.

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Air India families decry payment amounts

Published Sunday, Oct. 24, 2010 11:24PM EDTLast updated Monday, Oct. 25, 2010 9:22AM EDT90 comments

As the federal government tries to bring closure to the 25-year-old Air India bombing with proposed ex-gratia payments to family members of the victims, previously invisible fissures within the group are coming to the surface with implications that could complicate the healing process.

At a private meeting last week, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney spoke with relatives of the 329 people who were killed in 1985 when a bomb, hidden inside a suitcase, exploded on Air India Flight 182 bound for India from Toronto. In June of this year, Mr. Justice John Major released a voluminous report into the bombing, detailing how the federal government and Canada’s national security agencies bungled the case both before and after the attack. The report called for, among other things, symbolic compensation.

A handful of family members have publicly complained about the dollar figures raised in discussions with them by Minister Toews and Minster Kenney, despite requests from the government that they refrain from speaking to the media. The government did not make a formal offer, but pointed out that previous ex-gratia payments – which are made without admission of legal liability and have been given to Japanese-Canadians who were placed in internment camps during the Second World War, as well as those forced to pay the Chinese head tax – have ranged from $20,000 to $25,000.

Contacted for this story, most family members declined to speak for the record about their reaction to the figure; some said their primary concern is seeing the national security recommendations of Judge Major brought into force, and that money is not an issue. Others, however, expressed outrage.

Esther Venketeswaran, whose father Trichur Krihnan Venketeswaran died in the bombing, called the amount “insulting, demeaning, disrespectful.

“All we’re asking from the government is an appropriate, respectful dollar figure to help us get our life back. That’s all we’re asking. Step up and do the right thing,” she said.

The disparate reactions may be related to the ad hoc manner in which lawsuits were launched immediately following the bombing. In his report, Judge Major pointed out that the size of settlements varied, and in some cases, families say they received nothing.

In an interview, Ms. Venketeswaran and her mother Ann Venketeswaran, a retired nurse, said they felt left out of the initial organizing of litigation, partly because they live near Niagara Falls, Ont., geographically removed from most of the other families. In all, Mr. Venketeswaran’s wife and two children received about $315,000 from the airline itself, $60,000 of which was handed over to legal fees, the family said. They have received nothing from the government, they said.

More than three years ago, Ann Venketsewaran, 74, was evicted from the home that her and her late husband purchased in the late 1970s. The original mortgage had been paid in full, but she took out a home equity loan a few years ago to help pay for her daughter’s education, and was unable to make the payments, she said.

Asked what figure would restore their faith in the government, the mother and daughter answered in unison: “$1-million.”

“If $1-million wasn’t feasible, I would have gone with $750,000,” Esther Venketeswaran said. “But $20,000 is not even in the ballpark. It’s missing the mark completely.”

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Toronto, it’s no time for cynicism. Every vote counts

Marcus GeePublished Monday, Oct. 25, 2010 12:51AM EDTLast updated Monday, Oct. 25, 2010 12:57PM EDT209 comments

People find all kinds of reasons not to vote: “I don’t know what the candidates stand for; they’re all the same; elections don’t make any difference; my vote doesn’t really count; it’s all so boring anyway.” Seldom have those excuses looked so weak as in the 2010 election for mayor of Toronto.

This has been the most compelling Toronto election in memory, a roller-coastering, lip-gnawing affair that could go either way when polls close at 8 p.m. Every vote counts. The result could change the future of the city.

Only someone numb from the neck up could find it boring. Among other things, the close-fought, 10-month campaign has featured the high-profile candidacy of a former deputy premier who happens to be a married gay father; the phenomenal rise of an angry suburban councillor whose “stop the gravy train” message has made headlines across the country; the revelation that said councillor was once busted for pot and drunk driving (and that no one seemed to care); the withdrawal of another candidate after his scorned lover told all to a local paper; and, finally, a photo finish that had the two leading men next to tied in opinion polling as election day approached.

In a campaign that has grabbed this much attention, you have to be almost willfully oblivious not to learn what the candidates stand for. Each of them has given scores of interviews and made countless announcements laying out their positions on everything from transit expansion to bed bugs. Each has a comprehensive website with biography, videos and detailed policy prescriptions, not to mention all the stuff on their Twitter feeds and Facebook pages. Together, they have jousted in dozens of debates, several of them televised or broadcast on radio for all to see and hear.

Anyone who has spent even a few minutes absorbing this onslaught of readily accessible information can tell that it’s nonsense to say all the candidates are the same. The three remaining hopefuls have starkly different policies and philosophies.

Joe Pantalone is a left-leaning “city builder” who would avoid drastic budget-cutting and carry on governing very much like outgoing Mayor David Miller, who has endorsed him as his anointed successor. Rob Ford is everything Mr. Pantalone is not: a populist foe of government waste who would slash spending. George Smitherman, while he has borrowed from Mr. Ford’s war-on-waste rhetoric, is a mainstream Liberal who would invest in “green jobs” and troubled neighbourhoods.

The two front-runners differ sharply not just in substance but in style. Mr. Smitherman is an outgoing, glad-handing A-type personality who tends to dash off in all directions. Mr. Ford is a lone wolf with a one-note howl. They would be very different kinds of mayors.

So don’t pretend that it doesn’t matter who wins. The outcome will not only set the direction of civic government in Toronto for the next four years – an entirely opposite direction from the present one if Mr. Ford wins. It could set the tone for elections at other levels as politicians elsewhere absorb the meaning of Fordism.

Civic elections, in their own right, are becoming more consequential. Four out of five Canadians live in urban areas. Many of the services voters depend on in their daily lives, from road maintenance to garbage collection, are delivered by cities. Cities are where it’s happening, which is why more and more politicians are doing as Mr. Smitherman did and quitting higher levels of government to run for mayor.

The mayor of Toronto matters. Thanks to amalgamation, the mayor leads a megacity of 2.6 million people. On paper, mayors are only first among equals, with one vote out of 45. But the fact that they are directly elected by the whole city gives them a big stick. No other single politician in Canada will have as many people put an X beside his name – not just his party’s name but his own name – than the winner in this election.

Who that winner is depends on the informed judgment of Torontonians. In a jaded world, cynical about politics and skeptical of politicians, voters often complain they are powerless. Here is a case where they can really make a difference. The leadership of Canada’s biggest city is in the balance. Vote.

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Demise of Nortel campus ends Ottawa’s high-tech dream

Published Sunday, Oct. 24, 2010 10:00PM EDTLast updated Monday, Oct. 25, 2010 7:30AM EDT57 comments

The Nortel Networks research campus in Ottawa once represented everything the city dreamed of becoming – a world-respected hive of activity staffed by the type of super-nerds who could change the world one algorithm at a time.

But that was then. The city’s dream of escaping its dreary bureaucratic reputation was officially put down this week by a rapidly expanding federal government that is desperate for office space.

While there will be no gravestone planted anywhere on the site’s 370 acres, an obituary is clearly in order. No longer will engineers in corduroy pants and patched sweaters waste away the days chatting about photonics and frequencies – the civil servants from downtown are moving to the suburbs.

Way back when, the Carling Campus, as it was known, was packed full of geniuses whose inventions were revolutionizing phone networks and clearing the way for the introduction of the Internet. Long before Research In Motion asserted its global dominance, Nortel was the country’s technological heavyweight – and it stacked up well against any challenger.

There was no hint of the ridiculously enormous catastrophe to come – that its shares would drop from $1,231 in the 2000s as crushing debt and changing markets forced the company to seek the shelter of bankruptcy courts. The good times were great, and you could hardly walk down the street without meeting someone who had just been hired by the world’s greatest telecom company.

Nortel at its peak was more than just a company, it was a catalyst for the city’s burgeoning technology community. It spun off dozens of high-tech companies and thousands of high-paying jobs, transforming the city into a technology hotbed.

Civic leaders were able to refer to the region as Silicon Valley North with straight faces, and when a monthly newspaper launched using that name, everyone agreed it was a brilliant idea. City officials even flirted with adopting a new slogan, which they all agreed to never speak about ever again after everyone came to their senses – Technically Beautiful.

“Nortel allowed the city to have some swagger and we all dreamed that we were replacing the old guard with a new generation of technology entrepreneurs,” said Martin Vandewouw, who worked at the campus in the 1980s and is now the president of KRP Development Group in Kanata. “It was all about technology, innovation and risk. It was everything that government was not, in the middle of a government town.”

The seeds for the campus were planted in 1961, when 46 engineers agreed to commute to the western edge of town at a company that was then called Northern Electric. The company was working along the fringes, developing technology that would eventually allow phone companies to connect calls from house-to-house without operators frantically plugging in wires.

The company’s engineers also wanted to prove that information could be transmitted over glass fibres, a suggestion that was outlandish at the time but is now the basis of the world’s high-speed telecom networks.

Their work had the potential to transform Ottawa from a sleepy government town to a burgeoning centre of innovation. Within five years, 800 workers were toiling away in what would eventually be the research and development headquarters for Nortel Networks.

The city would spend the next few decades telling itself over and over that it was indeed Silicon Valley North, just like its marketing materials said. There was reason for its swagger – the little research facility morphed over time into the globally respected Carling Campus, a world-class research hub creatively named after the street it faces (they were engineers, not poets), with 11 buildings and up to 10,000 super-geniuses working at any one time on any number of complicated and unlikely technologies.

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