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A 19-year-old boy was sentenced to life in prison yesterday, for the brutal murder of his younger brother. He was 16 years old when he killed his brother, who was 12. I can imagine few things worse for a family to live through. Here's what's troubling me. Kevin Madden has exhibited little or no remorse for his crimes or empathy for the people affected by them," [Justice David] McCombs told youth court yesterday. This is a constant theme in the legal justice system: remorse. The public, through the court system, wants to see a display of remorse, and this display is taken into account during sentencing. This strikes me as ridiculous, and blatantly unjust. First of all, not everyone can articulate their emotions. Some people simply do not have that power of expression. What's more, a person who has committed a terrible crime may have a huge conflict of emotions, perhaps too much to sort out and understand, perhaps well beyond his abilities of expression. And what of the...

Of known friends of wmtc... They moved to Canada : (political defectors unless otherwise noted) A&S (no blog) (arrived three days before us!) Alex E of Canadian Yankee Alex K of What does this win mean to the team (moved here for work, I believe) CaliGirl in PEI , since August 2002 Diamond Jim of Worst Attitude (arrived June 2005) Idealistic Pragmatist (the smartest of us all - here since 1997!) Katrinka Bobinka of Katrinka Thinks (moved here when she married a Canadian) Matt of This Nurse and partner YYZBoy of YYZ Life (arrived June 2005) Mollie in Victoria (no longer blogging, and I miss her!) Nick and Mason of Life Without Borders (arrived two days ago!) Pearl of Notes To A Nameless Daughter Tornwordo of Sticky Crows Tresy in Victoria (no blog) and of course Yours truly and my esteemed partner (arrived August 30, 2005) They're moving to Canada : Daniel and Alan of Would Be Canadians MSEH of Two Moms To Canada John and Gito of Wondrous Canadian Renewal (approved!!) ...

The great voting rights and fair election watchdogs Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman continue to dig for democracy. They've uncovered yet more evidence to throw on the already large mountain of dirt proving that the 2004 presidential election was stolen. Ohio election protection activists have won a landmark court battle to preserve the ballots from 2004's disputed presidential election, and researchers studying those ballots continue to find new evidence that the election was, indeed, stolen. Among other things, large numbers of consecutive votes in different precincts for George W. Bush make it appear ever more likely that the real winner in 2004 should have been John Kerry. Meanwhile, indictments and prison terms are mounting among key players in that tainted contest. . . . So far, even the limited inspection of ballots has yielded astonishing results. Three precincts in two counties have shown consecutive runs of Bush votes that qualify as "virtual statistical imposs...

From today's Toronto Star : Anger driving honk-for-peace protest Soldier's father fights for suicidal son Back in Iraq despite stress disorder By Dietland Lerner In August 2005, Staff Sgt. Bryce Syverson was in a military hospital on 24-hour suicide watch. Three months later, back at his base in Germany and on antidepressants, he learned that his tour of duty had been extended by 15 months. Last month, the U.S. military, desperate for soldiers, sent him to Iraq. He recently wrote to his father from the war zone to say he'd gone off his meds. What's a concerned parent to do? Honk for Peace. Standing in front of the Richmond, Va., courthouse for his 217th solo demonstration with a sign reading "Iraq's Oil Isn't Worth My Son's Blood," Larry Syverson knows vitriol. "At first I was called a communist, a traitor and even a homosexual. ... People told me to get a job, get a life, some people even yelled, `Go back to France!'" he says. The in...

I asked them to surprise me, and surprise me they did. Lear was great. The performances were understated and powerful. The staging flowed effortlessly on a bare thrust stage. The language was clear and riveting. Did Soulpepper stop rehearsing everything else and save it all up for Shakespeare? Do they secretly dislike Tom Stoppard and David Mamet? I'm kidding, of course, but I was impressed and frankly amazed. This was far and away the best Soulpepper production of the season. We actually had seen several of the actors before, including the actor playing Lear, who had a medium-sized part in Gogol's The Government Inspector , and both of the actors playing Regan and Goneril. Each turned in performances that dwarfed anything else we saw this year. By coincidence, the performance we attended was designated for school groups. The students looked high school age, or maybe older middle school. Before curtain, a few actors gave a talk, highlighting some key words, major themes and s...

Received at 1:02 p.m. entering gta :-) End of report!

It's the big one!! the americans have landed! They're over the border, and tonight they sleep in their new home. This is so cool.

Today we're seeing Soulpepper's production of King Lear . Allan reminded me that the cast is comprised fully of actors we haven't seen yet, so I'm a little more hopeful for a good show. I couldn't imagine anyone we've seen so far raving on the heath. In preparation for the play, we both read King Lear over the past week. For me it's the most tragic of all Shakespeare's tragedies. Positively heartbreaking. A few years ago, I decided I would read one or two Shakespeare plays a year, re-visiting what I read in college or reading some for the first time. I am always utterly floored by the beauty and genius of the language. I've been buying these great little Pelican editions. They have very well written introductions, easy to use footnotes, and these terrific matching covers that make me want to collect them all. And they're only five bucks! The re-reading plan was inspired by one of our Netflix festivals, as we call it when we gorge on movies by ...

Entering michigan and our new time zone. This will be the last state we are in...tomorrow canada :) If you're a new reader and these messages are leaving you confused, see Life Without Borders . More fed-up Americans on their way north!

Received at 1:17 p.m. Indiana baby!

Good morning from illinois! Just crossed the mississippi river. Eastward ho, pioneers!

Here's a great example of how the US media helps keep the population docile and ignorant. Check out Tennessee Guerilla Women's post (via Rising Hegemon ) showing Newsweek magazine covers around the world . I remember blogging about a similar occurrence when the rest of the world woke up to photos of bleeding children in a bombed-out Fallujah and the US media was chattering about, I don't know, was it JonBenet Ramsey? (I'm trying to find my old post, but haven't yet.) This is even more startling because it's the same magazine.

Here's a bit of Canadian politics that looks all too familiar to me: conservative government = budget cuts. Whether it was New York State's Teflon governor George Pataki or the massive Reagan-era budget cuts - for which funding was never restored - I've seen first-hand what that looks like. A tiny savings that taxpayers will never notice in their wallets, a freebie for voters who vote against "government handouts", or are biased against people who benefit from them, and for the programs themselves, devastation. And in this case, the Harper government cuts programs while while there's a budget surplus ! Paying down national debt is important. But how much money could Canada save if it stopped killing people in Afghanistan? ( Some opinions here. ) These are the kinds of programs many people love to mock - funding for groups mounting court challenges that test constitutionality, or stop-smoking programs for First Nations people - as wasteful or catering to ...

Entering Iowa...Whoo Hoo

This man is my new hero. Watch Keith Olbermann. (Transcript is there, too.) Jon Stewart, this is what you should be doing. Stephen Colbert, this is why I can't watch you. For me, it's too serious for satire. It's too awful. Watch.

At 12:50 PM today, I received this text message from a Denver area code : entering nebraska and central time zone

Man, did the Red Sox stink last night, making some nobody pitcher named Shaun Marcum look like the second coming of Cy Young. The game started out as an unlikely pitching duel, both pitchers taking a no-hitter into the 5th. But if I'm ever going to see a no-hitter, it's not going to be thrown by Tim Wakefield. The Jays had two good innings, but one run would have been enough to put the game out of reach. The Sox eeked out only two measly little hits - neither left the infield - and got one runner to second base, all night. Our last game at Skydome, Josh Beckett threw batting practice for Vernon Wells and Troy Glaus. Better luck next year, eh? In a year where Sox fans expected to be neck-and-neck with the Yankees all season, in serious contention for the division, finishing third behind the Blue Jays is too much to contemplate. However... I had a really good time last night. It felt great to be at a ballgame with new friends. ("New" meaning friendships made in Canada.)...

The final chapter in the Maher Arar case provides a stark contrast between Canada and the US. ( Some background here. ) Canada acted abominably in this instance, and has now changed its tune. As I'm sure you already know, the House of Commons voted unanimously to formally apologize to Arar after he was cleared of any suspicion of terrorist ties. Meanwhile, the US government looks for "compromises" that will make it technically legal for them to violate the Geneva Conventions . Canada hands over one man to torturers and it makes national news - overwhelmingly in support of the victim. The US continues to torture who knows how many victims on several different continents, and hides, justifies and defends its actions. Arar, however, still waits for an apology from Mr. Stephen Harper . From Star columnist Thomas Walkom: In the Arar affair, the worm has truly turned. When the Canadian computer engineer was arrested by U.S. authorities during a stopover in New York four years...

It's taken me just over one year, but now I know this place is really my home: I've organized my first baseball outing. Tonight, we'll see the Red Sox play the Blue Jays - sadly, a battle for second place - with friends we've met entirely through wmtc. Attending along with me and Redsock , will be Diamond Jim , James , his partner Lori, Matt of This Nurse and his partner YYZBoy . Five American defectors and two Canadian sympathizers! The game is the Blue Jays' last home game of the season, and our last glimpse of our Red Sox before the long baseball-less winter. But I look forward to the winter. Following baseball is a full-time job, and I need a vacation. This was an extremely disappointing season for Red Sox fans, the team starting out so strong, then being utterly decimated by injuries. And I do mean decimated - at times, nearly the entire starting lineup and a fair portion of the pitching staff were all hurt at the same time. Because of my strange team history,...

Tomorrow, Nick and Mason begin their drive across the continent, from Colorado to Toronto. Their three-day journey is the end of a long road - and a new beginning. I will always remember our drive from New York City , and the days that preceded it, with a great turbulence of emotion. I know something about what Nick and Mason have been going through this past week, and what the next week will be like. ( Nick recommends Tums , but I needed Klonopin!) Here's wishing Nick and Mason, and their furry family, a safe, speedy journey, a happy border crossing, and most of all, a loving welcome to Canada.

Search string of the day: do moose attack moving cars in canada

File this under the "Harper is acting moderately to gather support, then after he wins a majority, he will show his true ultra-conservative colours" school of thought. As you know from my past posts, although I dislike Harper's Conservatives, I'm not overly concerned about their effect on Canada at this stage of the game. However, I emphatically recognize the need for them not to get a majority government. I'm very clear on that. Thus when I saw the cover of the current issue of The Walrus , I flinched. It shouts: "Jesus in the House: Is the religious right taking over Stephen Harper's government?" The cover story, by Marci McDonald, is titled Stephen Harper and the Theo-cons: The rising clout of Canada's religious right . I haven't read the article yet. I've been avoiding it, as the prospect of said rising clout is so sickening. But I can't dismiss the question. When the religious right in the US started consolidating its power thro...

I received an email from an author of another "how to move to Canada" book, asking for a plug. Terese Loeb Kreuzer and Carol Bennett have written How To Move To Canada: A Primer for Americans . I thought about turning wmtc into a how-to book, and was excited about the idea for while. But I wasn't motivated to do the additional research that would make a book applicable to situations other than my own, and - more importantly - wasn't interested in doing the publicity that would be needed to get it out there. I've done book publicity, and I'm pretty good at it, but I'm not really interested in doing it again. Then there's the fact that a book like this can become obsolete by the time it hits the shelves. CIC changes procedures often, and they don't check with writers to see if they mind. So I decided against it. However, other people decided differently! I hope Americans find their resources helpful. The other current book I know of is Jo Davenport...

Search string of the day: 2006 email addresses of thirty-five years of age and above of all AISLING According to Statcounter, many people seem to believe there are lists of email addresses online, arranged in odd categories. "Email addresses of Japanese people who live in Canada" or "2004 email addresses of 40 year old women from Alabama" are typical.

Did anyone see the new Corner Gas this week? Is it still funny? I'm watching the repeat on Comedy tonight. Please tell me it's still funny. Of all the shows Canadians told me about, this is the only one I really liked. It would be nice if we got another full season before the inevitable decline.

Right after I asked about visiting Niagara region wineries , I saw a story in The Star on the Niagara Wine Festival , going on now through October 1st. We're planning to go out there a few days after the festival ends. Does anyone know if wineries are still good to visit that time of year? Will everything still be open? I'm also going to call to see if their "passport" - one-price admission to all the wineries - will be honoured when the festival is over. * * * * A few days ago we had some business in Etobicoke, the western edge of Toronto. Instead of taking the QEW and Gardiner, we drove down Lakeshore. Lakeshore was once Highway 2, the Hamilton-to-Toronto highway, the main artery into Toronto. Heading west on Lakeshore (alternately called Lakeshore Boulevard and Lakeshore Road) from Toronto, you pass through a string of neighbourhoods that are truly anachronisms. It's clear they were once the main streets of little towns, now pockets of mom-and-pop stores, hold...

As if on cue, a comment from a wingnut! It's the first wmtc has received in quite a while. I deleted it, but here it is without attribution: Thank you for leaving the United States. The fewer "progressives" that infest it, the better it's chances for survival. Great nations do not die, they commit suicide. And the leftwing is the knife with which Uncle Sam slits his wrists. This wingnut and I agree on a major point. I also think the United States has committed suicide. But seriously, can you imagine believing that the left in the US is what killed it? Whoa, baby. I thank him or her for the misused apostrophe. What would a troll comment be without at least one good grammatical error? I guess the wtmc comments and deletion policy, like everything else in my life, comes down to what feels right. I just can't leave crap like this on my blog, except in this form.

Whew. Already 6:00 p.m. and it's my first opportunity to post. My day-job has been very busy on Fridays, I can't find the time or focus to write anything. Instead, I bring you Daniel Ellsberg on why The World Can't Wait : why Americans must act now. Time to Drive Out the Bush Regime By Daniel Ellsberg The man who gave the world the Pentagon Papers delivers an impassioned plea to a new generation of activists to heed the lessons of Nixon and even Hitler when taking stock of the Bush administration’s nuclear ambitions. What follows is a slightly edited version of a speech Ellsberg gave on Sept. 7 at a "World Can't Wait — Drive Out the Bush Regime" rally in San Francisco — one of 50 meetings held that night to plan national protests in cities and towns across the country on Oct.5. I keep looking at that date on the calendar – Oct. 5. I think of 1969 — I was copying the Pentagon Papers with Tony Russo in that month, starting Oct. 1. My intention, however, at that...

Long-time wmtc reader Dean, a progressive living in Texas, has the uncanny ability to read my mind. He's forever leaving comments today about tomorrow's posts. Yesterday Dean noted : Barbara Ehrenreich maintains a website that she apparently doesn't make off-limits to hate-filled, sociopathic right-wing commentors. You Canadians might want to check out some of their comments on Ehrenreich's recent posts to get a taste of the obsessions and hatefulness of the American right-wing. For example, one from a few days ago declares that he doesn't care anything at all for those who suffered and died from Hurricane Katrina, that it's every man for himself and he wouldn't want to live around poor people anyway. And this in response to an Ehrenreich essay on how the unemployed in the US too often blame only themselves for their predicament. And even that comment is pretty mild compared to what you can hear on the street here or on many other sites any day of the week. ...

Here's a report from World Can't Wait on yesterday's protests and civil disobedience in New York. Scroll down for some powerful pictures. I've heard some concern about the October 5 action, because it's during the week. "I have to work." "I have school." "I can't go on a weekday." Please consider using a sick day or a vacation day, going in late, or walking out altogether. Work will survive one day without you. Think of it as a small sacrifice to the cause of preventing many much larger sacrifices. Think of it as a donation. I know it's an inconvenience. Activism does not always fit neatly into our lives. It's just one day. Allan and I skipped several (unpaid) days of work, at great expense, to attend massive rallies. I say that not because I think we're "better" or more committed than you or anyone else, but because I wouldn't ask anyone to do anything I haven't done myself. From World Can't Wait...

I am planning a little day trip to the Niagara wine region, for winery tours and tastings. We've done that in the Finger Lakes region in New York State and really enjoyed it. We were young and poor and the prospect of free wine was irresistible. For some reason we've never visited wineries when we've been in California, although I'm not sure why. For more than a year now, we've been driving past the signs for the wineries on our way back and forth from the Buffalo airport. It's kind of hard to forget they're out there. Tips, recommendations, favourites? As always, opinions are welcome.

Can anyone tell me how the protest went, yesterday in New York ? More later.

Last week I posted Daniel Ellsberg's plea , published in Harper's magazine , for a government insider with a conscience to reveal the US's plans to invade Iran - and not anonymously, through Seymour Hersh, but with verifiable proof, while they are still employed. If you haven't read that, please do. It's great. It's important. Today, to partially compensate for my violation of fair-use standards, I'm making another pitch for you to buy the new issue of Harper's . In it, George McGovern, the UN Global Ambassador on Hunger, who was the Democratic candidate for president in 1972, and William Polk, Middle Eastern Studies expert and author, have written "The Way Out Of War: A blueprint for leaving Iraq now". It's an excerpt from their new book, Out Of Iraq . Staying in Iraq is not an option. Many Americans who were among the most eager to invade Iraq now urge that we find a way out. These Americans include not only civilian "strategists...

When we moved first moved here, there was a health-food store called Alternatives right up the street. It used to have another location in Oakville, which had just gone out of business, and our local Port Credit location was clearly struggling. By November, their shelves were almost bare, and there were drastic reductions on anything that was left. The owner said they had bought by a Canadian health-food store chain, and the new store would be opening by February. Since that time, the store has been vacant and shuttered. There were only two other stores in that little strip, and one was a cafe that went out of business, too. The family-owned meat market , which features organically-raised, pesticide-free products, was all by itself, and I wondered how it would survive. Garbage occasionally piled up in the parking lot. It was starting to look a little grim. It stayed that way for a good six months. Then a new restaurant moved in where the cafe had been, a nice, pub-type place. A good si...

MSS of Fruits and Votes , who writes about elections and electoral systems around the world, has two interesting posts about Canadian electoral reform - in New Brunswick and in Ontario . Go. Read. Learn.

I can't remember the last time wmtc was this quiet for this long. Statcounter says about the same number of people are still reading every day, but maybe they're different people. Maybe most of the talkative people have drifted off and been replaced by non-commenting readers? Many people have been emailing comments. It's nice to hear from you all, but why not post, and possibly start a conversation?

Today's Toronto Star reports that, for the first time, a majority of Canadians oppose Canada's continued military presence in Afghanistan. Public support for Canada's military role in Afghanistan has dropped "precipitously" as more and more Canadians thinks troops are fighting an impossible mission, a new poll shows. . . . Currently, 49 per cent of Canadians oppose the Afghanistan mission, 38 per cent support it and 12 per cent have no opinion, according to an EKOS poll done for the Toronto Star. "There has been a precipitous decline. For the first time we see more Canadians opposed to the mission than in support of it," Graves said in an interview. In December, 2001, support for Canadian participation in military action in Afghanistan was at 62 per cent, with only 18 per cent opposed. By December, 2002, 50 per cent supported the mission, with 30 per cent opposed. And support has dropped more than 10 percentage points since early this year, the same ti...

Puppy was a really good dog, and if we hadn't already had two, we certainly would have kept her. But as it was, she was not a good match for our family. We were determined to find a home for her, but it had to be a good home. Someone who saw the flyer called to say she needed a dog, and she had a lot of room in her basement. I said, "You can't keep her in a basement, she'll be miserable, she'll bark all day - she needs to live with your family." To which the person replied, "Oh, she's a family dog?" - the way you'd say, "Oh, you have three heads?" At work, that became the catch-all phrase for bad dog-parenting and bad dog adoptions: "Ohhh, she's a family dog?" A month went by. We managed. A co-worker (not someone I knew, someone from a different shift) wanted Puppy. After much discussion, Second Foster Mom came uptown and took Puppy away. I cried. It didn't work out. SFM's husband didn't really want a dog,...

Things at home were a little tense, and a little crazy, but we knew we had to keep Puppy while we searched for a home for her. We gave her a bath, took her to vet for shots, and started spreading the word. Someone at work made us flyers. The person who made the flyers said it looked like we had performed some kind of evil experiment, cloning Gypsy and Clyde to produce a cross between the two. We briefly considered keeping Puppy ourselves, but three dogs in an apartment was just too much. Most importantly, it didn't seem fair to Gypsy. She was older, and slower, and the presence of an energetic, playful pup was clearly irritating her. Puppy would approach Gypsy where was relaxing, and nip and bat at her, trying to get her to play. "Play with me, play with me, play with me, play play play play play." Gypsy would drag herself up, somewhat painfully by that time, walk to the other side of the room, and flop back down again. Puppy would bounce over there. "Play with me, p...