Diebel tips for finding loons

It's Friday, it's summertime and the weather looks good. Let's lighten the mood with this late offering. 

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For delicious summer reading (non loon-related): I'm a huge fan of Henning Mankell, the Swedish mystery writer and creator of Insp. Kurt Wallander. I have a lounge chair waiting and a copy of One Step Behind all set to go tomorrow.

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A travel tip for Margaret Wente: You don't have to go as far in  Canada to find loons (the feathered variety) as she imagines. First, I should say I like Peggy Wente and think she's totally charming. I write this only out of a sense of duty to my roots. In her Globe column last weekend, she wrote about becoming a Canadian citizen in 1979 and her ensuing romance with the wilderness. Wilderness to her means the Nahanni, Queen Charlotte Islands and Algonquin Park and she says few Canadians experience that. Fair enough, but she goes further:  "Even though we've put loons and lakes on our money, hardly anyone lives near loons and lakes, or even sees them."

Them's fightin' words, lady, for somebody born and raised around Sudbury. The calls of loons and whippoorwills across northern lakes made up the soundtrack of my youth. I learned how to do most everything at family camps (not those effete southern cottages, mind you) and have friends across the mid-North - Sudbury, Timmins, Kirkland, etc.- who grew up the same way. I've spent extensive time in both the Western and Eastern Arctic and they're amazing places, but my primeval wilderness experience came in my own north.

Oh, re Pierre Trudeau's line: "A Canadian is someone who knows how to have sex in a canoe." Damn, and here I always thought a Canadian was someone who had sex with a Mountie. Too late.

Joking! Just joking.

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The PM is not our President. With a Global link to the Parliament Hill incident causing all the flap about Harper.

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Allan Gotlieb wrote the following in a recent Globe column (it's my Globe week): "If we are to seek to preserve our comparative advantage, we should now be aiming to deepen NAFTA, at least between Canada and the United States. Our aim should be to achieve a single economic space and a common security perimieter. "

I know, why don't we just get rid of the bother of even having a separate country?

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More fluff: I love reader email (ldiebel@thestar.ca) and blog comments for their richness, great ideas and, occasionally, moral support. Sometimes I even get an unintended giggle - none moreso than with the reader who took my heads-up to readers in a recent post on Honduras that upcoming links were in Spanish to mean I expect foreign countries to write their newspapers in English to please me - one blogger.

Yes, yes, that's exactly what I meant, running dog imperialist that I am. In fact, when I'm working in Latin America, I scream, wave my arms about wildly and make faces in order to be understood. That's what you do, right?

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A Confederacy of Dunces online book club: love the idea!

Now it's Panama for ousted Honduran president

OK, so it's not today. The latest on President Manuel Zelaya (capped because he's still recognized by UN, OAS, Canada, U.S., etc.) has him returning Saturday. Or so he says.

But now he's in Panama, a country that often hosts exiled politicians and military honchos. There's a lot of huffing and puffing about the age of coups in the Americas being over. The Organization of American States  warns Zelaya must be returned promptly or Honduras risks its OAS membership. (Oh no, not that!)

Meanwhile, Zelaya is in Panama, the renowned choice for exile of deposed politicians and retiring military honchos. The local Honduran press is full of reports (in Spanish, natch) of demonstrations against the allegedly corrupt "Mel" and provisional president Roberto Michiletti is busy appointing his cabinet. The big coffee unions publicly support the new leader. Zelaya has been told he'll return to an arrest warrant and police have begun scooping up his associates - ie. former telecommunications king, Marcelo Chimirri - on illicit enrichment charges. Allegations of cocaine-trafficking have surfaced in Honduras against Zelaya - and that certainly suggests co-operation between Honduran officials and U.S. drug authorities in Honduras.

All of the above are bad signs for Zelaya's return. The OAS is hardly an organization applauded for real action; besides, membership can easily be restored with a new Honduran president in November.

Earlier this week, I said I hope my cynicism about Zelaya's return is misplaced. If not, I won't keep bringing Decoder back to this sad tale of coups being alive and well.

Zelaya promises to be a good boy

Oh-ho, there's an interesting development with ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya. He promised this afternoon in New York he won't seek re-election if allowed to return to Honduras. That was apparently the big reason behind his ouster. He made the statement at a press conference at the UN, replying, "No, never," when asked if he would ever enter politics again. He said he will return Thursday to Honduras. And, from Buenos Aires, we learn Argentine President Cristina Fernandez may accompany him, along with officials from, among other organizations, the OAS.

So, can a defanged prez (to use a polite body part) go home again? President in name only until November? 

I didn't think of that. It would certainly be a creative solution, presumably ending the sabre rattling from Hugo Chavez. It took three years of pressure to pummel Aristide into shape (see previous posting) but this was mental massage at warp speed.

Meanwhile, Honduran officials say he'll be arrested for treason if he tries to return. Plus, rumours suggest a cocaine link for Zelaya. How original. Consider the U.S. regional drug task force based in Honduras.

Stay tuned - although I'm still betting against a homecoming.

AFL-CIO on Honduran coup

A link to the union blog.

Ousted Honduran president should be checking out real estate in Costa Rica

I hope I've gotten this one completely wrong, or should I say hope  Political Decoder's perspective is out-of-whack.

President Manuel Zelaya was ousted by a Honduran army coup on Sunday to denunciations from world leaders, including President Barack Obama, as well as rights groups like Amnesty. The knowledgable Larry Birns, director of the Washington-based Council on Hemispheric Affairs, sounded optimistic about his return in an interview Monday on CBC radio's As It Happens. Military coups are a bad thing, agreed?

Odds are, though, that Zelaya will stay Costa Rica, where he was unceremoniously dumped, until a successor is chosen in the November presidential elections. That's because the coup would have been highly unlikely without, at the least, a nod and a wink from the CIA. Things of that nature don't happen in the Americas without assurances the U.S. won't pull a Panama. It's the Monroe Doctrine writ large, and Honduras is in America's backyard. The U.S. still has 600 soldiers stationed at Soto Cano military base in Honduras, also the site of a regional U.S. task force on narco-trafficking, humanitarian issues and disaster relief (read  counter-terrorism). Washington is no fan of left-wing politicians, especially one so physically close as Zelaya, with his ties to Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, and efforts to change the consitution to allow him to run for re-election.

Venezuelan President Chavez blames the entire coup on the CIA.  Maybe, but unlikely; it wouldn't have been necessary. Top soldiers in most Latin American countries, including Honduras, have done their advanced training at the School of the Americas (renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security and Cooperation), and ties to the U.S. defence elite are maintained in many ways, including in-country spooks. (A link to an organization that opposes the existence of the Institute. ) Washington gets very nervous when Latin American or Caribbean leaders lean left. If something can be done, it is. 

I first witnessed how it works when then Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a former priest, was ousted in a 1991 army coup.  The State Department immediately denounced it, as did the big world agencies - just as the U.N. General Assembly moved this week to condemn the Honduran coup. 

However, three days after the coup I walked into army headquarters in Port-au-Prince to find the local CIA agent sitting there. (Sorry, naval attaché.) He was all chummy with coup leader Lt. Gen. General Raoul Cédras. Both men regaled me with stories of Aristide's lunacy, backed by bizarre documents lifted from the president's home by a shadowy Canadian, nicknamed (yup), "The Shadow." The documents were, to me, hilarious. In the age of snail mail, real weirdos sent reporters rants that would curl your toes - sometimes literally on toilet paper - and these documents were just like that. At the time, remember, the U.S. Administration wasn't supposed to be having buddy-buddy relations with the coup leaders and later backed a United Nations embargo that crippled the country's already improverished citizenry.

That was a Thursday. The next day, a top U.S. official in Haiti met privately with a select group of American reporters in Port-au-Prince and, Saturday, the big weekend U.S. papers carried the first stories about how Aristide had been unfit for the job, the coup was necessary, blah-blah. Obviously, the "proof" lay in those same wacko documents. The media covered them as if they proved something and that coverage fueled Aristide's opponents on Capitol Hill. By the time Aristide got back to Haiti in 1994, but he was a changed man, his liberation theory plans for his country in shambles. Of course, that's why he was allowed to return.

I learned covering the coup that U.S. policy is not monolithic - and I'm not talking here about division of powers -  and that the State Department, or even the president, can have very different objectives from the defence and intelligence communities. The latter usually wins if the issue involves security or perceived security. Witness Obama on Gitmo. Understanding Haiti would help me me see and write about the CIA hand in fabricating the "weapons of mass destruction" in the months leading up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Arguably, Dr. Paul Farmer's The Uses of Haiti is the best book on the country's tangled relations with the U.S., including the Aristide coup. Farmer is the physician and Harvard professor who spends six months of the year running a health clinic in Haiti with donated funds. (I should disclose he cites my coverage for the Toronto Star in his book.)

I wager the CIA signed off on the Honduran coup in ways that won't be proven for 30 years, if ever. Zelaya will malinger in Honduras during the  ongoing debate about his return - Will he? Won't he? - and that a new president, more pleasing to Washington's taste, will be "elected" in November. The coup has barely rippled in the public consciousness. 

I hope I'm out in left field on this one and I'll be happy to blog about it if I am. But I've seen this movie before.

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The Decoder (www.twitter.com/PoliticalDecode) will be back Thursday. Have a great Canada Day!

Michael Jackson: Was everything done to save him?

There's been a mountain of speculation about what drugs Michael Jackson was on at the time of death. But I have looked unsuccessfully in all the coverage of his death for a reference to a defibrillator. Yesterday, I saw Edward Chernoff, the lawyer for Jackson's doctor, Dr. Conrad Murray, being interviewed on Dateline NBC. (He's the doctor Jackson hired to accompany him on his planned comeback tour and who'd been living at his L.A. home for 11 days.) Chernoff insisted Murray didn't give Jackson injections of Demerol or OxyContin tablets. Then, he described the circumstances surrounding the doctor finding Jackson not breathing. He said it was Murray's habit to spend time with Jackson in his room when the king of pop was in bed, and had done so last Thursday. He left the room but returned (I got the impression on NBC he was away only briefly, but I could be wrong and on NBC's Today show today, Chernoff said Murray "happened" to drop by Jackson's room). Murray apparently found Jackson not breathing and checked to find he was still warm and with a faint pulse. He immediately began CPR, with one hand behind Jackson for support and the other pumping his chest. He then put Jackson on the floor to continue the procedure until help arrived.

It surprised me he didn't first use a defibrillator, the little machine that can restore a heartbeat or the rhythm of the heart. I used to be completely oblivious to the defibrillators one sees on the walls of airports and other places — that is, until I finally got around to taking a war correspondents' course (insisted on by the Toronto Star) a couple of years ago. Among other things taught that week in my course in Virginia, the instructors emphasized the importance of defibrillators. Obviously, they didn't expect us to carry one in our backpacks in a war zone, but they wanted us to be aware of their value so we could help somebody, should the need ever arise and one be available. Increasingly, I see them in public places. I would have thought Jackson's doctor would have had a defibrillator (which, as this link shows, works by momentarily stopping the heart and, in successful cases, restoring a proper rhythm) and used it, before beginning CPR. After all, the guy is a cardiologist. In any case, I'm not a doctor, but I'm curious about what medical personnel think.

It also struck me as odd that Murray apparently reported Jackson was still warm. If he'd only left the room for the brief time suggested by the lawyer (as I heard it) on Dateline NBC, Jackson would obviously be still warm. I'm not suggesting anything nefarious here, just waiting for authorities to release more details on Jackson's death.

Also, this appears to be a clear case where an inquest is required. Only then would issues, such as whether the doctor took all the proper medical steps in his efforts to save his patient's life, be resolved. There's been no indication an inquest will be held. Without it, we'll be left with speculation, nothing more.

Here's a useful link to the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation.

 

Toronto-Danforth to Mr. Layton: Where are ye, Jack?

THE CANADIAN PRESS

Hardly a lazybones, our Jack Layton. The NDP leader spends countless hours on the road and, undoubtedbly, pounds the pavement in his Toronto-Danforth riding. I couldn't find an itinerary at Layton's website, but (to be fair) the House just adjourned for the summer and he's likely taking a break.

But, I've lived in Layton's riding for five years, during which time we've had three federal elections, and he's never been to my door. Now, I admit I could have missed him, but I doubt it. NDP volunteers have been around and, like other political parties, left "Sorry, we missed you" tags. I've never found one saying the leader had been by. (Of course, for my job, I've talked to him countless times.)

I raise this because earlier this week, I opened my door on a steamy Toronto day to meet Adriana Mugnatto-Hamu - the Green Party's new candidate in the riding. She wanted to introduce herself, pass out some information and assure me she'd be back over the summer. Her card notes that, as a mother of five, she's "increasingly concerned about the climate and resource challenges my children will face." She lists groups she's involved with, including Post Carbon Toronto, Amnesty International and JustEarth. 

The underdog does the gruntwork and Mugnatto-Hamu is no exception. In Toronto-Danforth in last October's election, Layton sailed to victory with 20,416 votes (45 percent) to Green Party candidate Sharon Howard's third place finish with 5,934 votes (13.1 percent). Liberal Andrew Lang was second (13,291 and 29.3 percent). There's virtually no chance an unknown like Mugnatto-Hamu could sneak up on a party leader like Jack Layton in the next federal election.

Right?

Hey folks, win a chat with Iggy

Who dreams this stuff up? I mean, it's a cute idea, but . . .

Alf Apps, president of the federal Liberals, is offering Canadians a chance to see Leader Michael Ignatieff this summer. It's a longshot, but if you don't enter, you can't win. As Apps says in a recent email:

With Parliament having recessed for the summer, the immediate threat of an election has faded, but the Liberal Party still has work to do to make sure it is ready when the time does come. Throughout the summer, Michael Ignatieff will be traveling all across Canada, meeting with Canadians and sharing his vision for the future of our country.

Would you like for one of those meetings to be with you? We are planning two special stops on the tour, and we¹d like to give you a chance to win one of them for your riding. And all you need to do is become a member of the Liberal Party of Canada.

If you join on-line before Canada Day, you¹ll be entered in a draw for one of the two special visits. If your name is chosen, a visit to your riding will be added to the Leader¹s itinerary, and the agenda for that visit will include an opportunity for you to sit down in a private meeting with Michael  a unique opportunity for you to share your ideas for the future of the Liberal Party and for Canada.

The greater our numbers, the more effectively we can make a difference and get our great country back on track. Help us make Canada better. Join the Liberal Party today.

Thank you,  

Alfred Apps
President, Liberal Party of Canada

Let me get this straight. Two ridings get a special visit. Two? One person gets a private meeting? That's the prize? Let's hope Iggy's people at least provide a decent picnic basket.

I suppose other Liberal ridings get not-so-special visits - or none at all.   

Ginger the Pit Bull and the Law

Animals again. On a week with no garbage pickup, no day care and, possibly, no liquor, let's turn to animals to make sense out of life.

Frankly, I was surprised last week when the City decided to appeal the Ontario Court Justice ruling that, as my colleague Nick Aveling wrote, would have saved Ginger the pit bull's life. Two months ago, Ontario Court Justice Mary Hogan set aside a 2007 order to have Ginger destroyed, noting her "concern that such a dog would be ordered destroyed in circumstances where the dog had no culpability whatsoever."

She didn't accept the original findings about the fight between Ginger and a German shepherd cross, Buddy. In late 2005, Ginger was accused of attacking Buddy in a Toronto park and, following a 2007 trial before a Justice of the Peace in the Ontario Court of Justice, was ordered destroyed. Her owner, Philip Huggins appealed the death sentence and Hogan ruled Buddy had attacked Ginger, tearing off the pit bull's muzzle.

That's not the part of the ruling that makes the appeal by the City and Ontario Attorney-General's Office seem surprising to me. 

It's what has been said about the legislation itself. In granting the appeal last week, Court of Appeal Justice Russell Juriansz said the law is ambiguous.

That was Hogan's conclusion too. She criticized the Ontario legislation requiring pit bulls that bite, attack or pose a menace to humans or animals be automatically put down. She called it both ambiguous and absurd. You'll remember the legislation is the work of former attorney-general, Michael Bryant. Under his stewardship, the  Dog Owner's Liability Act (DOLA) was amended to forbid ownership of pit bulls in Ontario. It allowed existing animals to live with restrictions, including mandatory destruction for biting.

City and A-G lawyers went ahead with their appeal despite comments about "ambiguity" that suggest there's a problem with the law and with rulings based on the law. Justice Juriansz said the "ambiguity raises a question of law alone, that in my view is significant enough to warrant consideration by the court."

Does a pit bull that bites to save a baby's life from attack have to be put down? What about a dog that fights off a coyote? Justice Hogan pointed out the legislation means a pit pull that attacks a burgler must be euthanized. Should a dog that bites in self-defense be put down?

It is going to be an interesting decision. Clayton Ruby, the Toronto criminal and constitutional lawyer who's taken on Ginger's case for Huggins, says he's optimistic. He argues if the Appeal Tribunal (of three judges) agrees the law is ambiguous, the court could set conditions for determining what constitutes a bite, i.e. it can't be defensive or a rescue action. That would then have to be taken into consideration whenever the law is applied.

For now, Ginger is back with Huggins after being in custody with Toronto Animal Services for more than three years. The City of Toronto, says Ruby, had no power to take the dog away in the first place.

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Interesting analysis on the role of social networking in Iran from DailyDish blogger and former skeptic, Andrew Sullivan.

Fate of Toronto's 400 shelter animals during the strike

During the city strike, spare a thought for the animals housed at the city's four shelters. Animal lovers in this city are concerned about what's going to happen to them with unionized staffers on strike. The good news, according to Kevin Sack, communications director for Toronto, is that "the City is a lover of pets and animals and we'll do what we have to do to look after them — day and night."

Provisions have been made, according to Sack. First, normal operations have been suspended. One of the four centres is closed for the duration — the Horse Palace, Exhibition Place — and the other three have gone to shortened hours, 12:30 PM to 3:30 PM, Monday to Saturday, closed Sunday. The three open shelters are:

146 The East Mall (West Region)

13000 Sheppard Ave. W. (North)

821 Progress Ave. (East)

In an interview today, Sack said there are currently 400 animals in the care of Toronto Animal Services. There is, he added, "no change to our policy for the protection of these animals, as long as they are healthy and we don't run out of room." Asked what would happen if TAS ran out of room, he said the city would bring in more people to ensure animals are cared for. Under no circumstances, would more animals be euthanized. He stressed: "That is absolutely not the case . . . It's not part of our plan."

With two unions out, Sack said shelter animals are being looked after by management staff, which includes managers and non-unionized staffers from the animal centres, as well as other City staffers who have been re-assigned, and would have received proper training. He did not elaborate.

"They have more than they need," Sack said, of people looking after shelter animals during the strike. "Don't forget, these are dedicated people. They really care about the animals and will do whatever is required to protect their health and welfare." It goes without saying, he added, "they'll be incredibly busy."

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Perhaps one of the best sources during the strike is a great blog — onebarkatatime — written by a volunteer for Toronto Animal Services.  He has informed comment about the potential impact of the strike on the animal centres . My favorite part of this blog by "Fred" — really? — is his non-profile profile. (Maybe botox does work on sweaty feet, Fred. Of course, you'll never walk again.)