Taser inquiry: Mountie not a trained medical person

THE CANADIAN PRESS PHOTOS

Zofia Cisowski and, below, her son, Robert Dziekanski.

Given the template in which the commanding officer didn't have up-to-date first aid or Taser certification, there were many moments of sick humour during this week's questioning of senior officer, Cpl. Benjamin "Monty" Robinson. (By out-of-date, one should explain his first-aid certification expired in March 2003 and his Taser training in March 2006. Still, he testified he considered himself capable of offering medical assistance to Robert Dziekanski and give commands for Taser use, although he didn't carry one himself.)

Here's an example of the type of daily exchanges that had listeners groaning:

Don Rosenbloom, lawyer for the Polish republic, attempted to ascertain Robinson's awareness of Dziekanski's condition as lay on the floor, face down, hands cuffed behind his back.

Robinson had observed his ears were blue.

Rosenbloom explained to the inquiry that's what happens when someone is cyanotic: the extremities turn blue.

"Extremities?" asked Robinson, as if puzzled.

"Yes," said Rosenbloom. "Would you agree earlobes are an extremity?"

Replied Robinson: “I’m not a trained medical person."

For the record, it should be noted another officer considered Dziekanski's "blue discolouration" serious enough to merit a Code 3 emergency call to paramedics. Dziekanski was pronounced dead at the scene.

* * *

Liberal MP Mark Holland, the public safety/national security critic representing Ajax-Pickering, said he couldn't even imagine how Dziekanski's mother, Zofia Cisowski can sit daily, as she's been doing, and keep hearing and seeing (the video) and know, "this is the way her son's life ended."

But she continues to hold vigil in the Braidwood Commission inquiry room, listening, watching, occasionally sobbing softly or wiping her brow with a cloth. She looks like her deceased son, the same round face, almond-shaped eyes and dark hair. At 71, she shows what her son might have looked like had he lived another 31 years.

Dziekanski planned to live with his mother in Kamloops. On the more than 15 hours of travel from Poland, with a transfer in Germany, he'd lugged mostly beloved geography books in his suitcases.

He arrived in Vancouver at 3 p.m.; his mother was waiting for him. She waited until 10 p.m. and, having been assured by airport staffers her son wasn't there, drove home to Kamloops.

He wandered helplessly around the secure international arrivals area, with nobody apparently able to help him, before police were called. She drove home to a message saying her son had been found and was fine. Around 2 a.m., she began the drive back to the airport, only to discover the information was tragically false

The Pritchard Video: How good are your eyes?

I'm posting the Paul Pritchard video again, now the four Mounties involved when Robert Dziekanski died at Vancouver airport in their custody have all testified. (Yesterday's final day of testimony for the week focused on paramedic Allan Maciak who said Dziekanski was dead when his team arrived at the airport Oct. 14/07, about 10 minutes after he was stunned with an RCMP Taser five times.

Eyes of people in the courtroom, and the adjoining press room, blurred this week, gazing repeatedly at the amateur video and trying to follow whichever laser pointer was used to focus on an image. We had the advantage of seeing it enlarged, sections isolated and stopped. But it's still possble to do it without the court's equipment.

Here's the thing: The Mounties describe their calm entry into the airport arrivals section where Robert Dziekanski was located. Cpl. Benjamin "Monty" Robinson says he spoke to the Polish immigrant and, while he knew he didn't speak English, made a series of hand gestures to make his commands known. Stop, calm down, put your hands on the counter, etc. Earlier statements from the Mounties suggested Dziekanski was agitated and threatening when they arrived - before the hand signals began - and that once he picked up the stapler, he swung it wildly. That was later changed to just holding the stapler. A great deal of effort was spent in court staring at the video in an effort both to determine what Dziekanski was actually doing when police arrived and trying to pinpoint Robinson's hand gestures in a sequence of events that led to Dziekanksi ultimately pickeing up a stapler from a counter.

The next screening focused on what happened after Dziekanski was down, how the Mounties checked his medical condition, where Robinson's knee was in relation to his neck - which would have been an inadvisable use of pressure - and whether they rolled Dziekanski off his stomach.

The court had the advantage of having the sound of the Taser being administered added to the sound. Without that, it's hard to determine exactly when Dziekanski is being Tasered. The whole thing is rough going, but I leave it to readers to watch the video and determine what you can see.

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Mea culpa for not blogging from the Braidwood Commission yesterday. I'm writing for the weekend today and will return to it on Decoder a last time on Monday.

Back to the Pritchard video: Where's the corporal's knee?

As of Wednesday afternoon, the Braidwood Commission Inquiry is peering at the Paul Pritchard amateur video to determine where Cpl. Benjamin "Monty" Robinson's knee was when Robert Dziekanski was on the ground. Was he putting pressure on Dziekanski's neck?

The focus was on 24 seconds in the video, from 5:10 minutes to 5:34 minutes. You can see Dziekanski on his stomach and his head visible. Just below his head, Robinson's sole is visible. Lawyer Don Rosembloom, acting for the Polish republic, argues the angle of the sole of his shoe eans his knee - or some part of his leg - was resting on Dziekanski's neck, thereby applying pressure.

"I know where my knee was and it wasn't on his neck," said Robinson.

* * *

Robinson, who was the senior officer that night, is finishing his third day of testimony. He appears to be getting testy. Rosenbloom said when emergency crews arrived, Dziekanki had no pulse.

"If that's what you're telling me," said Robinson.

Braidwood Commission: Watching amateur video until eyes glaze

It's probably the most watched 10 minutes ever videotaped on the RCMP, with the possible exception of training videos. But this is no training video.

It's amateur video taken by bystander Paul Pritchard at the Vancouver International Airport in the early morning of October 14, 2007 and shows events in which four Mounties confronted Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski. Shortly, thereafter, Dziekanski was dead, having been jolted five times by an RCMP Taser.

Again today, Commissioner Thomas Braidwood, lawyers, spectators and witness RCMP Cpl. Benjamin "Monty" Robinson pored over details in the video at the public Braidwood Commission inquiry examining the events of Dziekanski's death. Every lawyer uses it in an attempt to show how statements from RCMP officers differs from scenes in the video. This morning's challenge was to pick out Dziekanski's hand movements before he moved to an airport counter and picked up a stapler. Were they threatening towards the four officers or, as suggested by lawyer Don Rosebloom, a mere fluttering of hands essentially at his sides?

* * *

Whenever the video differed greatly from today's testimony from Cpl. Benjamin "Monty" Robinson, he would remark: "I saw it."

At one instance, however, he gave a long description of how there were "small little movements" of Dziekanski's hands, but "you're not going to see that."

Asked Don Rosenbloom, lawyer for the Polish republic: "Can you see that?"

* * *

Robinson also seemed to have trouble understanding Rosenbloom's vocabulary.

"Important?" he asked, as if hearing a strange word for the first time. He was considering a question about RCMP Taser use.

* * *

Retired B.C. justice Thomas Braidwood certainly has a problem with names. Yesterday, he called  Walter Kosteckyj, lawyer for Dziekanski's mother, Zofia Cisowski, "Dziekanski" a couple of times.

Today, he keeps calling Rosenbloom, "Rosenberg."

Were it not for 10 minutes of amateur video

It's impossible to cover the Braidwood Commission inquiry without wondering how things would have turned out without the 10-minute amateur video of events shot by bystander Paul Pritchard.

Odds are it would be very different. Indeed, would there even be an inquiry into how Robert Dziekanski died after being jolted five times by an RCMP Taser? No wonder Pritchard had to get a lawyer to get the Mounties to release the video (and camcorder) they'd seized from him at the airport.

Supervising Mountie: "I failed to articulate well."

No kidding.

Once again, the testimony at this morning's Braidwood Commission inquiry into Robert Dziekanski's death was like going through the looking glass into Wonderland. On the stand, Cpl. Benjamin "Monty" Robinson - the supervising officer that early morning in 2007 - gave a very different account of events at the Vancouver International Airport in October, 2007, than what he initially told an immediate RCMP investigation into the "in-custody death" of Dziekanski. He was pronounced dead at the scene after receiving five Taser jolts.

"So you were wrong?" said lawyer Walter Kosteckyj (acting for the deceased's mother), repeatedly, about Robinson's earlier statements. He'd said, for example Dziekanski had stacked his luggage up against the door of the arrivals section.

"It didn't happen?" asked Kosteckyj.

"No," said Robinson.

One by one, Kosteckyj went through earlier statements and got the same matter-of-fact "no" from Robinson.

So, was Dziekanski really "swinging" a stapler at the team of four Mounties  and did he really try to "hit them with it."

"Ah, no."

And was he "angry and pissed off . . . kinda aggressive . . . not just where he's wired up."

"No."

Did it really happen "really quickly where he took the stapler and started swinging it at us."

"Not 100 percent accurate, no," replied Robinson.

Robinson even contradicted his earlier statement Dziekanski hadn't gone down after being Tasered once - out of five hits.

"You agree he went down?" asked Kosteckyj. "So that wasn't accurate either?"

"I didn't articulate that well, no."

* * *

Robinson obviously took advice from his lawyer, Reg Harris. Mostly, he seemed almost disinterested but he snapped to life whenever he could fire off at Kosteckjy: "I don't see where you're going with this."

He even did it when the lawyer was just asking him to point out his own location on the video of events that night taken by amateur Paul Pritchard.

At one point this morning, the inconsistencies in his testimony had a confused Commissioner Thomas Braidwood calling Kostekyj, "Mr. Dziekanski."

* * *

The morning's low point? Had to be when Kosteckyj was asking Robinson about Dziekanski's symptoms once on the ground. He'd already established Robinson's first aid certification had expired and was asking about breathing sounds. In his first report to the RCMP, Robinson  said they sounded like "snoring."

He tried to explain today, then stopped.

"You're smiling, sir!" snapped Kosteckyj, asking Robinson if he found something funny.

"No," came the reply.

No further explanation was offered.

Throughout that exchange, Dziekanski's mother, Zofia Cisowski sobbed quietly. She's been a constant presence at the inquiry.

Dziekanski's mother cries out at inquiry

As Cpl. “Monty” Robinson went into court this morning for his testimony at the Braidwood inquiry, Zofia Cisowski called out to him to say she wanted to talk. She said she had questions, but Robinson didn’t stop.

Her son, Robert Dziekanski, died after being Tasered five times by an RCMP team under Robinson’s command.

Later, however, Cpl. Peter Thiessen, from the RCMP’s communications section, told reporters she would be able to speak to Robinson. He said he spoke to Cisowski this morning to say, “Absolutely (she could), if that’s what she wants.”

He told reporters, huddled into a media room beside the Braidwood Commission at the federal courthouse, she “declined at that point.” He added the meeting could occur tomorrow.

Cisowski had been waiting hours for her son at the airport on the day he died.

Mountie can’t see himself

This morning’s Braidwood Inquiry into Robert Dziekanski’s death would be funny, if the subject weren’t so tragic.

Cpl. Benjamin Robinson

Today, commission lawyer Art Vertlieb questioned Benjamin (Monty) Robinson who, as corporal, was the commanding officer on the scene that early morning of Oct. 14, 2007 when the newly-arrived Polish immigrant died in the secure international arrivals area of Vancouver airport.

He had been Tasered five times by Robinson’s team of Mounties. Asked about seeing four Mounties on the scene, Robinson seemed puzzled.

“Weren’t there four?” asked the lawyer.

“Well, I can’t see myself,” replied Robinson.

A shortish man in dark shirt and jacket, Robison gave monosyllabic answers for most of the morning, or said: “I don’t know.”

He did note, however, that his own Taser training had been out-of-date since March, 2006.

Hey, Leaf Fans, it's not the Cup but the anticipation

Toronto Star Photos

The Flames’ Warren Peters battles the Leafs' Ben Ondrus

Yeah, right. Sure, it is.

Okay, sports fans, humour me. I admit I'm not a hockey writer and haven't played  since my time as a pathetic right winger in university days. But I'm a hockey fan au but and grew up in a home where nothing else existed  on Saturday night. Then, the franchise was about more than money. Recently, I read a report on the draft by my talented colleauge, sports reporter Paul Hunter. He began his story:

"As with any major construction project, it takes a while to see the results. But, yesterday, as general manager Brian Burke continued the teardown of the Maple Leafs, he added some valuable bricks and mortar for the foundation of a squad that will eventually be more competitive, possibly as early as next season."

Next season. Possibly. As early as. Leaf fans are so beaten down, even the promise of a promise of a good season (the gods willing) seems sweet. I don't get it. I know these are fighting words but Leaf fans are forgiving to the point of lunacy. The team hasn't made the playoffs since the 2003-04 season. Personally, I wouldn't shell out my hard-earned dollars to watch a team falter year after year. And the fighting - who gets that? Never mind what the polls say.  I don't understand how the league has turned the spectacle of the first draft into a game in which some teams try to lower quality in order to improve their chances for the next round. The heart has gone out of hockey. Meanwhile, the Leaf franchise is the richest in the NHL, pulling in $77.9 million a year in ticket sales, not counting pre-season games, according to a report on the hockey pot of gold last year by the Star's Rick Westhead.

I don't want a return to the days of exploiting players. Treating the "Rocket" like a work horse almost tore this country apart. But it can't continue like this. Leaf fans, get a grip. If you continue to come no matter, there's no incentive to change. How about a boycott? (Bet our multimedia editor Neil Sanderson is thrilled with that suggestion!)

I was going to blog a couple of other items today, but I think I'd be smart to shut up and go to ground. I'll be back Monday when I take the Decoder on assignment for a week.

Dubya, Go away already (except for Will Ferrell)

Petti Fong, the Toronto Star's Vancouver bureau chief, gets  the skinny on George W. Bush later today when she covers his "speaking" engagement in Calgary, so don't miss her reports. He's reportedly pulling in  $10,000 for the gig, small potatoes in the ex-president league, but damned hefty, wouldn't ya say, for a guy who likely thought Gitmo was a prison camp in Guantanamera?

I took a nostalgic little walk of my own down memory lane last weekend with a double dose of Bush, including Will Ferrell's broadway show, You're Welcome, America: A Final Night with George W. Bush, and Oliver Stone's W with Josh Brolin. I guess I just can't get enough after covering Dubya and, before him, his pappy, George Herbert Walker, in the White House. About Ferrell, what can I say but, wow! With this guy, you get lulled into the thinking about thumb-suckers like Talladega Nights (money-makers, no doubt, but not my taste) and forget how friggin' brilliant he is. I mean, genius. Says the show's promo: 

"Don't miss your chance to discover the man behind the myth, the truth behind the lies, and the logic behind the illogical in this limited Broadway event."

I marked my calendar for 9 pm last Saturday on HBO Canada for Ferrell's show. It's a dark, spiralling ever darker, portrayal that still had me falling off my chair for most of the 90 minutes. He sums up the family dynamic of Barbara Bush and clan in one seemingly ridiculous flight of fancy that absolutely nails it. I've read books and lengthy psychological takeouts that don't come close. I won't spoil your fun. Plus, actress Pia Glenn does Condoleezza Rice as a stripping, dancing sexbomb, enticing Bush around the Oval Office. I've read reviews suggesting, while Ferrell had insightful moments, a lot was simply ha-ha comedy. Don't believe it! You'll surely get another chance on HBO so don't miss it. Or run when it comes out on video. The credits list Ferrell as writer. . . masterful!

W isn't in Ferrell's league, but it is Oliver Stone after all, and he's always interesting. Besides, Josh Brolin has turned into an under-rated Edward Norton, which is pretty under-rated and pretty great. Richard Dreyfus was good as Dick Cheney, even though he later called Stone a "fascist" on The View, and said he did it for the money. The real showstopping performance was Thandie Newton's Ms. Rice. She played her like a female "Step 'n Fetchit." Or Butterfly McQueen as Prissy on valium. Withering. Worth the entire price of admission. Gotta see it too.

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Dear Iris, I'm sorry.

Yesterday, I wrote about a class action suit filed in Ontario Superior Court allleging Ottawa is  reponsible for "cultural genocide" over 20 years for removing children from Ontario reserves and placing them in non-native homes where they lost their identity,  The Star's Tony Bock  photographed plaintiff Marcia Martel (right). I want to share a link I received to a very personal blog post on the subject, written from a very different perspective.

International Water Day: Paint the Town Blue

It's that time of year when the Council of Canadians and other water preservationists get a little giddy. International Water Day is March 22, and the Council is brimming over with ideas for Canadians, individually and through organizations and communities, to spread awareness of declining water resources in Canada and the world. The above link to their "Blue Communities Project" is a starter kit for anybody ready to get involved.

In Ottawa festivities begin today, with the Parliament Buildings dressed up in a blue light show . The event is organized by the COC, the Polaris Institute and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). Maude Barlow, COC chairperson and senior adviser on water to the president of the UN General Assembly, asks Canadians to join in lobbying Ottawa to implement a national water policy. Said Barlow:

"The quality of Canadian drinking water exceeds that of almost any other country in the world. But without a national water policy to protect source water, promote public ownership of water services and ensure strong conservation strategies, we are beginning to see the impacts of a looming water crisis."

Barlow also urges Canadians to get into the spirit of the season of International Water Day and have fun. I'll raise a glass (of water) to that.

Decoding Peter Mackay: What? Li'l ol' me? For NATO Chief?

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Defence Minister Peter MacKay is seen with U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates outside the Pentagon March 4, 2009.

Defence Minister Peter MacKay fluttered like a debutante Monday when asked whether U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden's pushing him for the post of NATO secretary-general.  "That's breaking news to me," MacKay told a press conference in Ottawa. "I've never had discussions with Vice-President Biden about this."

Translation: "I've never been asked that particular question exactly as worded before. Besides, I've got people in high places to do that for me."

European members of the 26-member North Atlantic Treaty Organization, based in Brussels, reportedly favour continuing the tradition of appointing a European when a new chief is chosen mid-2009.

MacKay added: "I don't believe that a person's nationality, given the number of NATO countries there are, should ever be a bar to ascendancy of any role in NATO. I don't think traditions, in the sense of geography, should be a restriction on any position with NATO."

Translation: "Okay, I'm Canadian but what's the problem with that? When did the Europeans last pull their weight? Eh? Ehhhhh?"

MacKay told reporters there's a "growing appreciation" for Canada's role within NATO in Afghanistan, and beyond.

Translation: "You owe me."

An aide to the defence minister told reporters MacKay is not seeking the job.

Translation: "Hahaha. Get him (and me with him) outta there before the next election, puh-lese. The electorate is turning ugly. . . Sure, it's Brussels, but Paris is only a fast train away."

Flashpoint drops the ball

STAR FILE PHOTO

Hugh Dillon in Flashpoint.

Torontontians remember August, 2004, when an armed gunman shot and injured his wife, then ran, taking a female hostage en route and ending up in front of Union Station. I covered the tense standoff and remember seeing the woman's fear from behind police barricades. It ended when an Emergency Task Force (ETF) sniper from Toronto police killed the man with a single shot to the head. At the time, a Special Internal Investigations (SIU) unit ruled the Toronto Police department sniper took proper legal action in shooting the hostage-taker.

From that hostage-taking,  Mark Ellis and Stephanie Morgenstern created and wrote the Canadian police drama, Flashpoint, shown Friday on CTV, with the ETF morphing into the SRU (Strategic Response Unit). CBS picked up the show, a coup for Canadian television, and it's been a hit, although maybe its move from hot Thursday to lacklustre Friday (in television business thinking) is a bad sign.

Flashpoint is a smart, gripping and gritty production and, though I'm still waiting for my all-time favorite drama, Intelligence, to return, I've become a fan. Friday nights are often veg night after a writing push for the weekend papers and it's a treat to see a show with unabashed scenes of Toronto, instead of that stock footage to impersonate an American city. The writing is great and Hugh Dillon as tactical leader Ed Lane is coiled so tightly, it always seems he's about to go off. Enrico Colantoni plays Sgt. Gregory Parker, the squad's chief negotiator and the show gets into the human drama of officers in life-and-death situations, as well as the toll on their lives. We get to know them. The first episode was a thinly veiled re-enactment of the Union Station hostage-taking in 2004.

But last Friday's show was disturbing — or at least the ending was. This time, robbers break into a wealthy home using the connection between the Russian nanny and her boyfriend, a former Russian military type. It quickly goes bad and turns into a hostage-taking with two children involved. The SRU team is soon on the scene and, without rehashing the plot, it builds towards a finale with the armed Russian holding a little boy on one side of a room and armed SRU officers, Sgt. Paker (Colantoni) among them, on the other behind shields. Meanwhile, in the hallway, Lane (Dillon) and his partner are getting into position to get a clear shot. Parker negotiates and in a series of quick actions, the Russian is convinced to give up the boy and almost simultaneously, lets the boy go (and the child begins to move away), pushes his gun away on the floor in front of him and raises his arms in the air. At that moment, Ed Lane shoots him dead with a single shot to the head.

Then comes the denouement. Great, I figure, Lane is going to agonize over the fatal shot, while Parker telles him SIU (or Flashpoint equivalent) will be involved but not to worry, he'll be fine. But that's not what happens. Parker says he feels guilty about the way he handled the beginning of the afternoon's incident, then flips open his phone to call a woman he's dating while Lane ambles off.

Okay, it's TV-land, not real life. And I'm not big on those folk who think Jack Bauer promotes terrorism. All I expected from Flashpoint was a fleeting acknowledgement police snipers don't take out a man with his hands in the air without even the flicker of an afterthought, the mention of a potential internal investigation. You know, the way police forces across Canada do by training and experience.

Canadian environmental/health regulations face U.S. corporate muscle

Post-NAFTA, it's increasingly difficult for Canada to apply its own health and safety standards and we're soon to see another confrontation. This week, Ontario Environment Minister John Gerretsen introduced a new ban on a list of products, including the weed killer, 2,4-D, to go into effect on Earth Day (April 22). The federal government is already facing a $2-million notice of legal action from DowAgro Sciences - a division of Dow Corp. - that argues a similar ban in Quebec contradicts the North American Free Trade Agreement. Gerrestsen says he won't back down where the health and safety of Ontarians is concerned.

However, the history of NAFTA challenges in Canada hasn't gone well for Canadians. Ottawa backed down in a similar situation in 1997 when Ethyl Corp. sued Ottawa for $251 over the federal ban on the gasoline additive MMT, a substance Canada considers toxic. Canada backed down and allowed the additive, setting what has been seen by environmental groups as a dangerous precedent.

1,500 Layoffs by U.S. Steel Test of Investment Canada's Teeth

Federal Industry Minister Tony Clement says he's "surprised" by U.S. Steel's decision this week to indefinitely close operations at plants in Hamilton and Nanticoke, leaving ,1500 steelworkers jobless and uncertain about their futures. It was just 18 months ago the U.S. company purchased what was formerly Stelco, making commitments to the federal government through Investment Canada. Usually such commitments are for guaranteed capital investment in Canada. Said Clement yesterday: "We take the position that any company that has made Investment Canada undertakings has to live up to those undertakings. So we will be reviewing the situation."

However, neither Clement nor officials at U.S. Steel will release those undertakings, claiming privacy provisions. Given the track record by a succession of federal governments in failing to enforce Investment Canada deals, there's no reason to believe the government will keep U.S. Steel's feet to the fire this time. Layoffs like this are what occurs when governments allow critical sectors of the economy to be bought out by foreign companies who always protect their own workers first.  Rules for foreign ownership have been so relentlessly watered down in this country, they appear superflous. Still, U.S. Steel undertook commitments with Investment Canada and there's a very easy way to judge whether they are living up to these commitments: release the documents. If the minister is suprised, chances Canadians will be too. Privacy should be a moot point if an agreement has been broken. Leaving it Tony Clement and teams of timid federal lawyers to decide hardly seems an ideal solution for 1,500 workers who are hurting now.

Good news on the economy

Where do you see a headline like that these days. Get a lift, read this Toronto Star story that says Loblaw is rehiring. It may not mean the GDP isn't shrinking but it's not bad news. 

C-10 passes with only the Bloc and NDP opposed

The Equitable Compensation Act sailed through the Commons, with only a Senate vote and proclamation to become the law of the land. It means women in the federal public service will not have the same rights as women working elsewhere to fight for equal pay. The vote was 204-78; the Liberals voted with the Conservative government. 

It's stunning so few seem to care. Perhaps in a recession as deep as this, too many people feel it's not important, and that they are lucky to have jobs at all. But the erosion of rights is the erosion of rights. This time it's women. Next time . . . ?!

Doonesbury all a-Twitter

Omigod, Roland Hedley is about to scratch himself. Who could make the point better than Garry Trudeau?

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More on the Net: Judith Timson is sadly hilarious about sludge passing for comment.  I think you look great, Judy.

 * * *

Black Wednesday: It appears the "Equitable Compensation Act" will breeze through the Commons later this afternoon. Remember, that's the bill that strips the right of women in the federal public service to fight for equal pay for work of equal value. Winnipeg NDP MP Judy Wasylycia-Leis says her party tried everything to convince the Liberals not to support the government, without success. "We implored them, but the Liberals, true to form, support the government," said a sombre Wasylycia-Leis a few moments ago. "It's Black Wednesday. It marks the death of pay equity in the federal public service in this country and nobody seems to care." She says NDP members will wear black armbands in the Commons for the final vote.

Will get back to you later on the predictable outcome of the final vote.

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In case you haven't seen the CBC's Iggy satire worth a look.

The Stephen Harper Fan Club

For all those "swooning for Stephen," I've been meaning to pass on the  HarperGirl web site for some time. Go Ruby! 

A political reward in Canada for ignoring murder of women in Mexico

Human rights groups last week protested the appointment of Franciso Barrio Terazas, Mexico's new ambassador to Canada, sworn in last Thursday at Government House. He arrived carrying distasteful political baggage.

During his time as National Action Party (PAN) governor of the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua he ignored the murders of hundreds of women in the border town of Juarez, setting a pattern of disregard that continues - along with the murders - to this day. He might have done something. Instead, at a time when he could have taken these murders seriously, he suggested the women themselves, mostly workers in the city's foreign-owned maquiladoras, were somehow to blame. I've covered these horrific crimes many times and, for a Toronto Star story about the Juarez murders in 1997, tried to talk to the governor about his refusal to appoint a special investigator. He said it wasn't necessary. The story said:

"Last Tuesday, the day after the last victim was found, half-buried at the edge of town, strangled, her abdomen and breasts mutilated, Barrio (Terazas) said, "one should consider the (number of deaths) normal.

"I don't have time to talk about this," he told the Star with a flashing smile, an arm squeeze and a pat on the hand, when approached Monday.

So, it's hard to know his thoughts about how many women would have to die until the situation is no longer "normal."

He never did have time to talk about the murders. And they never did stop. The families of victims have been ignored, with little more to mark their losses than their graves and a memorial to mark a site in a cotton field where the remains of several women were found. Star photographer Carlos Osorio took the haunting photograph of one such site during an assignment we shared in 2006 to cover the contuing slaughter of women in Juarez.

The political posting for Barrio shouldn't be considered a surprise when Mexican President Felipe Calderon is a pal.