Give him an understandable, human quirk. Give him flaws. Give him a common enemy. Give him strong points and weak points. Give him strong internal dialogue. Give him desires.
New Year 2014 It's 2014! Let the new crap begin! New Year's Resolutions
I resolve to stop all my damn swearing. Crap! I already broke it. I set out a box of donuts at work today just to see how many New Year's resolutions I could mess with. Housework The kids in my neiborhood are back in school. Who am I gonna underpay to shovel the snow in my yard (to cut my lawn)? In the Spring, I wait for the neighborhood petition to mow my lawn If you want something done right, probably better not do it yourself?
Politics Honestly, do you think our prime minister has fixed everything yet? Ha! Thought so. I don't blame ALL politicians for the mess we're in...just the Conservatives, Liberals, the NDP and the Green Party. They call us the middle class because they're constantly sticking us between a rock and a hard place! If I'm elected, I promise to bring the heads of Parliament together...just listen fo a hollow, knocking sound.
Pickton Public Inquiry Aims To Understand How B.C. Serial Killer's Spree Went Unchecked For So Long
VANCOUVER - Families of serial killer Robert Pickton's victims have known the answer to who killed their loved ones for years.
On Tuesday, the process aimed at understanding why he was able to do it, how he was able to conduct such a prolific killing spree for so long, will get underway.
The families have been calling for public hearings since before Pickton was arrested and eventually convicted of six murders. For them, the convictions represent a frustratingly small number of victims and belies the scale of his crimes and the failings of the police and justice system to stop him.
Pickton's trial brought out the gruesome details of the killings themselves, but it only revealed what happened, not why.
Those answers are more complicated, and so too is the task of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry, ordered by the B.C. government last year after Pickton's final appeals were exhausted.
"The trial of Pickton just focused on his culpability, and not the quality of the police investigation. It didn't address why it took so long to apprehend that murderer," said lawyer Cameron Ward, who is representing the families of at least 17 of Pickton's victims at the hearings.
"I think our society has the right and the need to determine why the investigation unfolded the way it did, and why, for so many years this man was allowed to prey on vulnerable women in the Downtown Eastside."
Pickton was arrested in 2002 and convicted of six counts of second-degree murder. The remains or DNA of a total of 33 women were found on his farm, and he bragged to police that he killed 49.
He lost his final appeal at the Supreme Court of Canada last summer, clearing the way for the public inquiry.
The public inquiry will examine the role of the Vancouver police and the RCMP, and why neither force was able to stop a serial killer — or even acknowledge that one existed — as sex workers vanished in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
There have been persistent allegations the police did not take those reports of missing women seriously, didn't trust the sex workers, or simply didn't care.
The hearings will also look at the role of Crown prosecutors who, in 1998, decided not to charge Pickton with attempted murder after a sex worker was brutally assaulted at his farm a year earlier. Pickton remained free, and many of his victims were killed in the years that followed.
Some of the lawyers in the downtown Vancouver courtroom will almost certainly turn the focus on what advocates say are systemic problems that force impoverished, drug-addicted women into the dangerous sex trade in the first place.
Those issues aren't specifically in the inquiry's terms of reference. However, a set of less-formal hearings known as a "study commission" has already touched on some of them.
There will be allegations of negligence and wrongdoing, and lawyers for the families, the police, the government and others will argue about what changes are needed to prevent more vulnerable women from disappearing and dying.
"I'm not confident that sufficient lessons have been learned," said Ward.
"This was Canada's most horrific mass serial murder, and nothing I've read so far has convinced me that something similar couldn't happen again."
The hearings will also be the subject of continued controversy over legal funding for non-profit advocacy groups that were granted participant standing by commissioner Wally Oppal but were denied legal funding from the provincial government.
Nearly all of the groups that Oppal recommended receive funding have withdrawn, saying they simply can't afford to pay for a lawyer to cross-examine witnesses and present counter arguments to the well-paid legal teams of the provincial government and police.
Several of those groups plan to stage a rally Tuesday morning outside the Federal Court building where the inquiry will be held.
Critics say the government's refusal has shut out the voices of the same vulnerable groups that were victimized by Pickton a decade ago, who weren't listened to then and won't be listened to now.
"It's heartbreaking — it's exactly what went wrong in the first place, what's going on right now," said Kate Gibson of the WISH drop-in centre for sex workers, one of the groups that was granted status but denied funding.
"If we don't have counsel to participate and others don't have counsel to participate, it's as if the lawyers are talking to one another. When you don't have a full complement of voices, I'm not quite sure what that final report could look like."
Two independent lawyers have been appointed to broadly represent the interests of Downtown Eastside residents and aboriginals, and have been inviting input from the unfunded groups. Some of those groups have vowed to boycott the independent lawyers, while others are prepared to work with them.
The provincial government maintains it can't afford to provide more legal funding.
"We believe that there is adequate legal counsel for the families that have been impacted, and we expect the commission to continue," said Attorney General Shirley Bond.
Bond suggested public inquiries are different from trials and participants don't need lawyers. The province's Criminal Justice Branch is paying high-profile lawyer Len Doust to represent its interests at the hearings.
With or without the input of those advocacy groups, the inquiry will continue, hearing from dozens of witnesses in the coming months including academics, police officers and sex workers. It's not clear how long that will take.
In the end, Oppal will provide a report explaining why the system failed Pickton's victims and what should be changed.
Commission lawyer Art Vertlieb said he believes the inquiry will fulfil that mandate.
"I'm fully confident that with many good lawyers and the participants that were involved that we will sort out what happened and make recommendations that will be helpful," said Vertlieb.
"If we're not going to make a difference going forward, then why are we doing this? We're doing this because we think the issues are important and we want to make a difference."
Conservative Complaint Over Sponsorship At NDP Event 'Groundless,' Union Head Says
OTTAWA — The Conservative Party launched a "groundless, strategic assault" against the labour movement, the head of Canada’s largest private sector union said Sunday after the Tories accused the NDP of accepting improper sponsorships from trade unions.
Wayne Hanley, the national president of UFCW Canada, issued a press release Sunday evening after The Huffington Post Canada first reported that the Conservative Party had asked Elections Canada to investigate whether the NDP had broken the law by accepting money from unions to advertise at its national convention in Vancouver last June.
The allegations, Hanley said, are "a groundless, strategic assault on the labour movement, and on ordinary Canadians who are fed up with the vicious, partisan politics the Harper Conservatives are so proud of."
Hanley said the Tories are well aware that ads at fair market value are allowed and there was no election law breach.
"There is nothing amiss here,” he said. “UFCW Canada respected every rule and regulation in an open and completely transparent manner. It is cynical timing, so typical of the Conservatives, to launch this smear on working Canadians and their unions on the eve of the annual celebration of the achievements of the labour movement."
Hanley suggested the Tories were reacting to news that support for the NDP was rising following the public outpouring of sympathy after leader Jack Layton’s death from cancer on Aug. 22.
The Conservative Party released a letter to the media Sunday morning that its lawyer Arthur Hamilton had written to Marc Mayrand, the chief electoral officer of Canada on Aug. 31, 2011, requesting a review of what it suggested were inappropriate NDP sponsorships.
OTTAWA - Jack Layton knew what loomed Saturday when he spent almost four hours with his closest advisers on contingency plans in case his return to Parliament never happened.
Even as his strength ebbed, he mapped out scenarios for the leadership convention that might follow and for the challenges his successor would inevitably face.
"What he wanted from us was advice, plans on what would happen if he wasn't able to be back in the fall ... and what would happen if he were to pass away," said Anne McGrath, Layton's chief of staff.
It had been less than a month since a frail and hoarse NDP leader told a news conference he was stepping aside temporarily to fight a new cancer. He had already spent months fighting off prostate cancer, enduring the grind of the election trail.
Layton did not waste time after addressing a saddened and stunned nation, McGrath recalls.
"He said, 'OK, now that that's done, I'm going to pull my medical team together this week and challenge them to come up with a plan,'" she said Monday in an interview.
"So he knew it was tough, he knew it was an uphill battle, and it certainly was an uphill battle over the summer."
McGrath, who had worked closely with Layton since his successful 2002 leadership run, spoke to him daily. One of those calls came when he was receiving treatment at Toronto's Princess Margaret Hospital.
"He started to talk and then he said, 'Oh, I have to go, the medical team is here now,'" she remembered. "Then I was back on the phone with him probably 15 minutes later."
There were good days and bad days. Through it all, the unwaveringly positive politician's spirits did not flag.
"The Jack Layton that people see in the public is very much the same Jack Layton as he is personally. He was upbeat, he encouraged me to keep going.
"One of the difficult things for me was that he would often apologize to me. He would sort of say, 'I'm so sorry that you have to go through this,' which is so unbelievable to me that he would do that."
McGrath would see Layton weekly, usually on Saturday, at the home he shared with wife and fellow New Democrat MP Olivia Chow.
Her mid-August visit wasn't encouraging. McGrath asked Layton what kind of day it was.
"And he said, '50-50.' So it was a rough day."
This last weekend was better. McGrath arrived at about 3 p.m. for a meeting that included Layton, his wife, and Brian Topp, the party president.
Layton sat in a living room chair wearing a zip-up fleece and sweat pants McGrath had retrieved from Stornoway, the official Ottawa residence where he and Olivia had spent so little time.
"He said he thought that the pain management was going well, he said he was feeling a little bit more comfortable."
There were worrying signs, though. "He didn't look great. He was very thin. He was in some pain at different times."
Still, Layton's voice was actually stronger than at the news conference weeks earlier.
"He was awake and alert and talking, and challenging, actually," McGrath said.
"He was still very politically sharp. We were talking about the caucus retreats and the opening session of Parliament, and he was asking questions.
"I was presenting something to him, and he said to me, 'OK, talk me through what your thinking is on this.'"
Topp was clearly moved by the visit.
"I was struck at the enormous strength that Jack draws from his family, who were all around him and had been all summer," he said in an interview.
"And so Jack was exactly where he wanted to be in his beautiful, meticulously energy-retrofitted house, surrounded by the people he loved the most. And there's no question he was very ill indeed but he was still Jack Layton."
Before leaving just shy of 7 p.m., McGrath had a moment alone with her longtime political ally.
Parting was difficult, because she knew it might be the last time she saw Layton.
"I kissed him, I told him I loved him. I stroked his face, and then I left."
When McGrath's phone rang, she really wasn't prepared for the news.
"I was actually getting ready to go to bed and I got the call saying he's probably going to pass away in the next few hours.
"It's so funny to be so shocked, when you expect something, but you still are."
Layton was surrounded by family when he died in the early hours of Monday.
"He was at home, he was comfortable, it was peaceful," McGrath said.
"Any of us who've been through a cancer death, it's the way anyone would want it to be, with your family with you, and just a peaceful passing away."
[] His eternal optimism
[] His determination
[] His historic political win
[] His bad political judgment
[] His moustache
[] His love of family
[] His good political judgment
Jack Layton Memorial At Vancouver Art Gallery: A Moving Tribute
Jack Layton was the leader of the New Democratic Party, Canada's Official Opposition party. He died on August 22, 2011 from cancer. He was 61. A public memorial was held on the same day, at the Vancouver Art Gallery / Robson Square. The crowd gathered to remember a likeable politician, as paradoxical as it sounds.
An explanation about the orange pop for those not familiar with Canadian politics. The NDP is Canada's left wing party, and as little as 10 years ago had little influence, with just over a dozen seats in parliament. Under Jack Layton's leadership, it steadily gained ground until the 2011 elections, when the NDP stunned the nation by winning 103 seats and becoming the Official Opposition party. That election was dubbed the "Orange Crush", with NDP's official color being orange. Jack Layton died three months after that historical achievement by his party.
Music: Kevin MacLeod
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Jack Layton paraphrases Tommy Douglas's tale about mice voting for cats, at a rally in Saskatoon.
Quebec's sovereignty movement is weathering a tumultuous weekend, with infighting in Parti Québécois ranks over a new separatist party and the performance of leader Pauline Marois.
The new sovereigntist group, called Un Nouveau Mouvement pour le Québec, held a daylong colloquium in Montreal on Sunday, at which participants accused the PQ of failing the push for an independent Quebec by being unable to capture the votes of all Quebec separatists.
"We need to have an independent government that decides, legislator by legislator, what's in the best interest of Quebec," said psychologist Jean-Marc Labrèche, a Montreal candidate for the Parti indépendantiste, which started up in 2007 in reaction to the PQ's fall to third-party status in that year's election.
Three ex-PQ politicians — Pierre Curzi, Lisette Lapointe and Jean-Martin Aussant — attended Sunday's sessions, while MNA Louise Beaudoin couldn't make it. All four broke with the party in June over its support of legislation to block lawsuits against a sweetheart deal between Quebecor Inc. and Quebec City. The pact would give Quebecor tax-free control of the city's proposed $400-million hockey arena for 30 years.
Their decision to partake in the conference did not sit well with PQ faithful, several of whom, including former Opposition leader Jacques-Yvan Morin, penned an open letter condemning the trio and saying a new party would further divide the sovereignty movement, which already splits its votes between the PQ, Québec Solidaire, the Action démocratique du Québec and the wee Parti indépendantiste.
Beaudoin said she thought about the criticism and has enormous respect for Morin, but ultimately decided that if the Parti Québécois crumbles, "it's because it's no longer strong enough."
Sunday's conference also saw some people defend the PQ, which has been the standard-bearer for the province's sovereignty movement since the 1960s.
Pierre Dubuc, co-founder of a left-wing PQ faction called SPQ Libre that was expelled from the party last year, said he too worries about the sovereignty movement splintering, and he recommended separatists hold a general assembly to try to smooth over some of their differences. "It's important to regroup our forces," he said.
Marois criticized
But even amid the calls for reconciliation, a new flare-up plagued Opposition Leader Marois, who as recently as April received 93 per cent support in a confidence vote from party members — only to see her fortunes plummet when Beaudoin, Curzi and Lapointe quit the caucus in June, followed by Aussant and Benoît Charette.
In an interview with La Presse published Saturday, president of the PQ youth wing Christine Normandin said "work needs to be done" for youth members to keep their confidence in Marois. She added that she is not among the members of the party who have assured their unconditional support for its leader.
Later in the day, she issued a statement retracting her comments, saying she and the youth wing "totally support" Marois.
All the skirmishing was seized on by former PQ cabinet minister François Legault, who's heading up his own, right-wing political movement and told a youth conference in Montreal on Saturday that the infighting shows the debate over independence should be put on the back burner.
Legault said the Quebec independence movement just isn't as popular as it once was.
Legault's movement, called the Coalition for Quebec's Future, promises to focus on economic and social reforms and shelve the debate over sovereignty for at least a decade.
