Higgly

Why should draft status have anything to do with it? If they qualify, they qualify. I am certainly not in favour of Canada acting like the US draft police. We have enough problems with them trying to enforce their dumb-ass drug laws up here (Marc Emery et al).

When the Karlheinz Schreiber affadavits emerged, the opposition called for an inquiry. Steve said no. Brian Mulroney gets up and asks for an inquiry. Steve says yes. What do you have to do to get an inquiry? Be Steve's friend? Or should I use the word crony here?

Actually it's now 2 or 3 dozen people. This is a very big deal; I don't understand why more Canadians aren't really angry about it. My guess is that it's because the press is failing us on this issue in a big way.

geoffrey, I am with you 100%. We already have a sort of regulatory framework in the form of the Auditor General, but more needs to be done with respect to defining objectives and compliance with respect to those objectives. Oh for a system where an election campaign promise can bring the hounds of compliance down upon an elected politician's head!

Those lawyers are all pretty middle-classy. You are right about the military, though, and what they do is a big part of this. I see that Musharraf has now sequestered Bhutto for a second time, but I wonder why the western press is not focussing on other leaders - for example, Imran Khan (formerly the Gretzky of cricket) who is now a political leader and has been under house arrest since the whole thing started. Props to Adrienne Arsenault of the CBC who managed to scoop an interview with Khan.

I hate her too, but why do you say she hates Jews?

From Wikipedia... Personally, I'd be in favour of a more constrained definition. After all, we have to pay for the maintenance of the passage. I feel we should have the right to levy a toll.

What do you think the UK would do if the US were to sneak a nuclear sub through there unannounced?

One of the people found to have been wrongly convicted by Dr. Charles Smith in Ontario is a guy who was sent to prison for the murder of his niece, a child of 5 or 6. It turns out the girl died of natural causes, yet you can imagine the howls for blood this guy was subjected to. There are some intelligent arguments in this thread, but I do not understand how anybody can get past the wrongful conviction problem. It is the 900 pound gorilla in the room for me. Nothing gets past it.

edit. erroneous post.

Those are only a small part of the passage in question, though. In any case, Northern Ireland is a separate country with its own parliament.

What do you mean "claim it in 1973"?

Why 1973? The Northwest Territories were added to Canada in 1870. The RCMP ran a ship through there in 1940.

Great Britain does not include Ireland, the Irish Sea is neither a strait nor an archipelago, and if anybody tried to run a nuclear sub through there, you can be pretty sure both the Brits and the Irish would be on their case pretty quickly.

I don't mind all this stuff being in Ottawa (or the Ottawa region, if you consider Hull). If you go to any other National capital, you get to visit all the national treasures... Washington, Paris, London, what have you.

Yes that is an important distinction. The Northwest Passage is entirely within contiguous Canadian territory.

Good one. So after he's gone bankrupt from compensating one person for one year spent in jail, what then? This guy was working for the state, who was responsible for hiring him, paying him, and overseeing his work. This is like the Walkerton case in my books. Lack of management oversight is very likely a big part of the problem here and if so, the state pays. Big time. Hopefully all the death penalty advocates who frequent MapleLeafWeb are paying attention here. Many of the falsely convicted (as far back as 20 years ago) were convicted of murder, including the murder of children. A key question is whether the problem was with Smith or with the science. If it is Smith who was at fault, then there needs to be a determintion as to whether he was incompetent or sociopathic. If the science is at fault, then we have a whole different kettle of fish and the possibility that there are many, many hundreds more convictions at stake wherever the same science was used. All you CSI fans, take note. This is just part of the problem. There are also many problems caused by bad cops, bad crown attorneys and bad lawyers. If somebody bought a car that was as unreliable as our justice system, they'd be in the dealership demanding a refund.

There are people who have taken the time to do the research, and develop informed opinions, and then there are the Moxies...

Exackly. I watched an interview with Robert McNamara on PBS a while back and he said "We did not understand that the war in Vietnam was a civil war..." The "We did not understand" part should sound familiar.

It does if you are innnocent and you are holding on to every last shred of hope that this will be recognized. Like the many innocent men who have been released from murder convictions after it was found that their convictions were bogus.

A lot of money in Pakistan. Yes but who is listening to them? I don't agree at all. They represent a definable absolute. An escape from the whims of power. Something you can define and understand. A harbour. The law. A constitution. A real defined entity. You do not have to ask somebody what it means. It is written. Yes, but why are they heading there? They do not trust them? This is exactly what is turning against Musharraf. Just like good old Steve! Democracy. Ain't it wonderful!

Why not quote the whole post?

How would I know? I don't click links. Can you put it together in a paragraph? Otherwise, why would I care? Why argue with illiterates?

Not you, loser.

Watch for the candidate who says that Iraq is like Korea and we can expect 50 years of occupation. Heh. Heh.