http://www.themetropolitain.ca/http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/761http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/761Profiling yes, but do it right...Thanks for your courage...Keep the articles coming... readersThu, 11 Feb 2010 23:00:00 -0500http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/762http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/762J’ai failli intituler cet article Mes prédictions pour l’année 2010. Je me suis ravisé, car ma boule de cristal refuse de me révéler ce qui va se passer cette année. Tout au plus me laisse-t-elle entrevoir ce qui n’arrivera pas. J’ai dressé une liste de ces non-événements.  Voici la prédiction dont je suis le plus sûr : le gouvernement libéral dirigé par Jean Charest ne prendra aucune décision douloureuse. Attention : «douloureuse» n’est pas synonyme d’ «impopulaire». La création d’une commission d’enquête  sur la corruption dans l’industrie de la construction serait accueillie favorablement par la population, mais serait apparemment douloureuse pour M. Charest (je me demande pourquoi).Pierre K. MaloufThu, 11 Feb 2010 22:05:00 -0500http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/763http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/763La tragédie de l’Haïti continue à se déferler dans son ensemble. Les leçons qu’elle nous enseigne au quotidien vont au cœur de notre particularité. Si elle aura quelconque testament durable, ce sera de nous rappeler ce que signifie être humain. A story in scripture tells of two men. One, cool and detached, always involved in his own affairs looking for ways to accumulate wealth and power. The other, emotional and engaged, constantly involved in the actions and passions of his time...Beryl WajsmanThu, 11 Feb 2010 22:00:00 -0500http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/764http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/764Trois semaines après que la terre s'est soulevée sous leurs pieds, environ 200 000 personnes sont censées être mortes, écrasées sous des tonnes de béton émietté. Port-au-Prince est en ruines et les survivants fouillent les décombres pour de l'eau et un peu de nourriture. « Les damnés de la terre » de Frantz Fanon a pris une nouvelle signification alors que les images numériques de la catastrophe haïtienne commençaient à faire chemin à travers les médias. À son crédit, la planète a commencé à se rassembler et l'aide était en chemin...P.A. SévignyThu, 11 Feb 2010 21:30:00 -0500http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/765http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/765Les demandes de l’opposition fédérale pour une enquête sur la supposé influence négative du gouvernement Harper sur l'organisation Droits et démocratie sont inacceptables, mal conçus et corrosifs. Inacceptables parce qu’ils ne résonnent à rien de plus qu'une chasse aux sorcières cherchant un bénéfice politique sur la mort du défunt président de Droits et démocratie, Rémy Beauregard; qui est mort récemment d'une crise cardiaque. Mal conçu car ils démontrent une ignorance effroyable des lacunes de Droits et démocratie que ce gouvernement a essayé de corriger...Beryl WajsmanThu, 11 Feb 2010 21:00:00 -0500http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/766http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/766Remy Beauregard, the former president of Rights and Democracy, died of a heart attack the night of January 7, 2010.  Some of the staff of Rights and Democracy in the name of all of them released a letter dated January 11, 2010 calling on the leadership of the Board of Directors to resign, accusing them of harassment of the former president.  The accusation of harassment was directed against the chair and vice-chair of the Board, Aurel Braun and Jacques Gauthier, and the chair of the audit and finance committee, Elliot Tepper...David MatasThu, 11 Feb 2010 20:30:00 -0500http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/767http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/767One of the worst by-products -- among many -- of the rapid expansion of government in the past 50 years has been the politicization of everything, including aspects of personal daily life that government has no business in. Relationships, child rearing, garbage collection, even the replacement of light bulbs have come under government scrutiny..Lorne GunterThu, 11 Feb 2010 20:00:00 -0500http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/768http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/768If Harper prorogued Parliament merely to avoid answering questions about Afghan detainees there might be a basis for the indignity the opposition feigns. But Harper had a quick look at the polls before he called G.G. Michel Jean and you can rest assured that the tale of a terrorist who claims to have been roughed up after our soldiers handed him to Afghan authorities is destined for obscurity...Mischa PopoffThu, 11 Feb 2010 19:00:00 -0500http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/769http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/769The lack of political courage across all levels of government and most political parties is nothing short of shameful. The burqa (or niqab) is possibly the most offensive garment on the face of the earth: A head-to-toe covering worn by women who practice an extremist and some say perverted form of Islam. It is a symbol of repression, misogyny and, as French president Nicholas Sarkozy said last year, “debasement.” It should not be tolerated in any civilized society...Dan DelmarThu, 11 Feb 2010 18:30:00 -0500http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/770http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/770Sometimes tragedies do bring out the better angels of our nature. And they bring together new allies in common cause to help those who are always at the forefront of relieving human suffering. Much money has been raised for Haitian relief. World leaders meet at conferences to discuss reconstruction. Great concerts are held. All this is just and right.Alan HustakThu, 11 Feb 2010 18:00:00 -0500http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/771http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/771Washington, DC…Even before the seminal January 12 earthquake, Haiti was in trouble.  It was the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere with per capita income of less than $2 per day ($660/year) where 1 percent of the citizens held half of Haiti's wealth.  Even before the earthquake, statistics indicated that only a third of the population could access electricity and only 11 percent had piped water.  No city had a sanitation system; life expectancy at 61 years was the hemisphere's lowest, and the UN Human Development Index placed it 149 of 182 countries with all below it being African states.  The best and brightest of its citizens long ago escaped...David T. JonesThu, 11 Feb 2010 17:00:00 -0500http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/772http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/772In 2006, Canadian-Haitian intellectual Georges Anglades penned the tongue-in-cheek novella, 'What if Haiti declared war on the USA?' It explored a Haiti so totally destroyed in a war against imperial powers it's given a chance to climb out of three centuries of adversity by starting from scratch. Sadly, Anglades and his wife Mireille died in the January earthquake that ravaged the country they loved and worked throughout their lives to improve...Jessica MurphyThu, 11 Feb 2010 16:30:00 -0500http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/773http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/773Everyone in the non-stop debate on climate change has an opinion, but how much consideration has been given to the potential  seismic shift  in international diplomacy  that can be attributed  to  global warming?  What happens to nation states, to the realignment of political boundaries, and to shifting corporate interests as we become even more dependent on fossil fuels, and as forests disappear, farmland is exhausted and sources of fresh water evaporate? Alan HustakThu, 11 Feb 2010 15:30:00 -0500http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/774http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/774La Déclaration universelle des droits de l’homme adoptée par l’ONU en 1948 fut  mise à mal  dès le début. Aujourd’hui,  l’utopie universaliste est surtout menacée par l’islamisme, qui ne sévit pas qu’en pays musulman. Il est en train de s’implanter en Occident, où ses adeptes s’ingénient à imposer leurs traditions religieuses aux dépens des libertés individuelles, celles dont leurs femmes devraient jouir, et les nôtres également, qu’ils cherchent à détruire. C’est le cas notamment de la  liberté d’expression. «C’est pourtant sur ces terres, écrit Caroline Fourest, au coeur même des démocraties, que l’universalisme risque de succomber à force de tolérer les idées les plus intolérantes au nom du droit à la différence.»Pierre K. MaloufThu, 11 Feb 2010 15:00:00 -0500http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/775http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/775In the vast emptiness of the Kyzyl Kum desert that covers western Uzbekistan, there is a dark prison called Jaslyk. The very name causes local people to shudder. There, inmates are jammed into cells, 16 in each, sometimes forced to stand for days on end, forbidden to speak out loud. One day in 2002, two men were being tortured in Jaslyk. Their names were Muzafar Avazov and Khusnuddin Olimov. Submerged in boiling water, they were literally boiled alive, a form of torture otherwise unknown since the likes of 14th-century Scotland or the Roman Inquisition...Lauryn OatesThu, 11 Feb 2010 14:30:00 -0500http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/776http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/776Roy PiperbergThu, 11 Feb 2010 13:30:00 -0500http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/777http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/777Canadians can rarely feel smug when comparing themselves to their US neighbors, but when it comes to our banking sector our airs of superiority are justified.  While the Obama administration contemplates an overhaul of financial industry regulation and punitive taxation of banking executives’ bonuses, Prime Minister Harper announced in Davos that Canada has no intention of “micro-managing” Canada’s banks. Robert PresserThu, 11 Feb 2010 11:00:00 -0500http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/778http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/778Pendant et après la Seconde Guerre mondiale, C.D. Howe, un homme politique canadien, a présenté un grand projet de société pour transformer le Canada en une puissance industrielle de premier plan dans la seconde moitié du XXe siècle. Anticipant l'avenir, il a commencé à créer les industries nucléaire et aérospatiale du Canada, ainsi que l'infrastructure essentielle nécessaire pour bâtir une économie prospère et dynamique.Marc GarneauThu, 11 Feb 2010 10:00:00 -0500http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/779http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/779One day, Bob Morgan was happily working at his baking job when he was assaulted by a co-worker. The story is eerily reminiscent of the butcher who had a mishap while grinding beef to make sausage.\ The butcher was a skilled fellow with many years experience under his belt. As he was grinding the meat he realized he had to add more spices to the mixture. As he reached high atop the shelf, the pepper fell. When he tried to catch the falling container, he accidentally backed up into the meat grinder...Jack LockeThu, 11 Feb 2010 09:00:00 -0500http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/780http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/780One of the strangest and, at first blush, inexplicable aspects of the current social and political scene, remarked upon by many writers, is the swelling tide of antisemitic sentiment and the orchestrated, international campaign against the very existence of the Jewish state. We see it in the divestment campaigns of the churches, NGOs, and trade unions, in the proliferation of “Israel Apartheid Weeks” on university campuses, in the modern blood libel perpetrated by the Swedish press, and in the ramifying anti-Israel resolutions passed by the United Nations, exemplified most recently by the mendacious Goldstone report. Why should this be so?David SolwayThu, 11 Feb 2010 08:00:00 -0500http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/781http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/781Imagine, if you will a shoot -out between two of North America’s most famous French-Canadian word slingers, Michel   Tremblay and Jack Kerouac.  George Rideout’s Michel & Ti-Jean, playing at the Centaur until March 7, is an unexpected surprise, a daring, novel  audacious  idea that actually works on stage.  The encounter between the two takes place in 1969, one month before Kerouac drank himself to death.  Tremblay, who was then 27 and anxious to validate himself as a writer, hitchhikes to St. Petersburg, Fla., with a copy of his then as yet unproduced play, Les Belles Soeurs in his knapsack  to give to Kerouac to read.Alidor AucoinThu, 11 Feb 2010 05:00:00 -0500http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/782http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/782Kate McGarrigle was a free spirit who, with her much more restrained sister, Anna, enchanted us with their unornamented, honey-voiced duets in both official  languges.  Kate was the taller of the two, the slightly off kilter one, tart and earthy, the one who took charge on stage assuming everyone in the audience was a member of the family.Alan HustakThu, 11 Feb 2010 02:00:00 -0500http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/742http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/742Bring me one daisy,Bring me your smile,Darken my doorway,Through life's untimely trials.Write me a kind noteBring me one rose,Sit down beside me...    Leslie CottleThu, 07 Jan 2010 22:00:00 -0500http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/743http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/743Avant et depuis son implantation dans les écoles québécoises, le cours Éthique et culture religieuse (ÉCR) est mitraillé de critiques venant de tous les côtés : catholiques traditionnalistes, défenseurs de la laïcité, nationalistes «identitaires», etc.  Ces tirs croisés n’ébranlent en rien la flopée de théologiens qui dirigent en sous-main notre système scolaire, mais tant pis !  Continuons de répéter  que le roi est nu.Pierre K. MaloufThu, 07 Jan 2010 21:30:00 -0500http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/744http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/744Much time has been spent, and appropriately so, defending our privacy rights in this time of war on terror. The public must be convinced of their importance.  Justice Louis Brandeis called them “the most prized right of civilized nations.”Beryl WajsmanThu, 07 Jan 2010 21:00:00 -0500http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/745http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/745Dans les sphères rocambolesques du nationalisme québécois, il m’arrive parfois, au hasard de mes lectures, de tomber sur un article dont le titre accrocheur m’invite à lire plus avant. Parfois, c’est un auteur particulier qui m’attire, et il est vrai que j’en chéris quelques-uns. Louis Cornellier, dit « le Pieux », est l’un d’eux car je suis toujours certain qu’il ne me décevra pas. En effet, je serais bien déçu s’il fallait qu’un jour ses propos me plaisent, quoique je n’ai aucune crainte à cet égard. René GirardThu, 07 Jan 2010 20:30:00 -0500http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/746http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/746 Folk artist Tracey Chapman may be right. When people start talking about a revolution, it really does sound like a whisper. “People are angry,” said Maison du Partage food bank director Madeleine Daoust.”…really angry. There’s a lot of tension in the air and people are beginning to lose patience ….They know something’s wrong and for once, they’re not to blame.” P.A. SévignyThu, 07 Jan 2010 20:00:00 -0500http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/747http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/747Le 13 septembre 2009, la tenue d’une commémoration du 250ème anniversaire de la bataille des Plaines d’Abraham aurait été importante pour l’ensemble des Canadiens et ce, à plus d’un titre.  Il est encore temps de faire l’effort pour aller au-delà du délire de la dernière année et vraiment comprendre la falsification historique des indépendantistes à ce sujet.Bernard AmyotThu, 07 Jan 2010 19:30:00 -0500http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/748http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/748 The level of confusion and misinformation surrounding the real and perceived issues of “climate change” related to CoP 15 in Copenhagen is enormous, but it need not be.The real issue is not about “climate change”, but about the effects of global warming on the environment. Every adverse effect on the environment cited by people who study these things is always about the effect of warming.  H. Douglas LightfootThu, 07 Jan 2010 19:00:00 -0500http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/749http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/749 There is an aphorism to the effect that you can always make a sensitive person feel guilty. Extrapolate that judgment to a national level and one can conclude that Canada is so afflicted.There is much wrong, indeed evil, that is done in the world that we can do nothing to mitigate, let alone eliminate.   To paraphrase scripture, too often “we do those things that we ought not to have done and leave undone those things that we ought to have done.”  We cudgel ourselves with “what ifs.”   If we had only paid more attention; worked harder; spoken out; saved more/spent less, the wrong would be righted (or would never have happened at all). David T. JonesThu, 07 Jan 2010 18:00:00 -0500