Robert Latimer was convicted in 1994 of killing his daughter who was born with severe cerebral palsy. Latimer claimed that his actions were a mercy killing, that he was sparing his daughter any more pain. The case sparked a debate about mercy killing across the country.

He was convicted of second degree murder with the jury recommending that her serve only one year instead of the minimum of ten called for under law. The judge granted a constitutional exemption and sentenced him to two year, a decision overturned by the Supreme Court of Canada, which applied the minimum ten year term. He was denied parole in December on the basis that he had not show ‘sufficient remorse’ for his actions.

In an unexpected move yesterday, the appeal division of the National Appeal Board overturned the decision and ordered Latimer’s release on day parole. In the last five years, there has been 2,500 appeals of board decisions and only nine have been overturned. Latimer has served about seven of the ten years that were ordered. Read the rest of this entry »

Yeah, I really did write that title. As I’ve watched with some curiosity as Obama gained steam in his bid to become US President, actually the first black President, the thought has crossed my mind to wonder how long he’d be allowed to live during the quest. Face it, our American neighbours to the south do have a bit of a history in that regard.

It’s a question I have been loath to ask. It has been a generation or two since someone assassinated a prominent political leader in the US. It is possible that attitudes down there have changed and even the hard core revolutionary types can figure ways to fight other than through political murder. After all, Bush managed to get through his two terms without anyone taking a shot at him. Read the rest of this entry »

At the provincial Conservatives convention in London this week their leader, John Tory, received 66.9% support of the voting delegates. It is the same amount of support that Joe Clark received almost 20 years ago. Clark was decisive enough to decide that 2/3 wasn’t a clear vote of support and immediately triggered a leadership race that eventually saw him depart as leader of the federal Conservatives.

Not Tory, who couldn’t even manage to win his own seat in the last election, he announced first he’d have to think about it and then that he was staying. That says a lot about his style of leadership, he has displayed a dithering style so often that for him to be decisive and actually mean it would likely shock people. Read the rest of this entry »

Apparently I wasn’t really making a broad leap earlier this week when I speculated that the three suicide bombings in Kandahar province, one clearly targeting Canadians, may be as much about the Taliban terrorizing and killing as it was about them trying to influence politics back here in Canada:

I suspect that the timing is not coincidental. In addition to unnerving the Afghans and generating questions in their mind if they are better under the Taliban or the Afghan and international forces the Taliban is not unaware of the debate here in Canada on the future of Canada’s role in Afghanistan.

Making a similar connection yesterday Canada’s top soldier, Rick Hillier, appealed to the government to bring the debate on the future of Canada’s mission in Afghanistan to a conclusion as soon as possible. He also suggested that once concluded that an all party motion declaring support of the troops could go a long way toward good troop morale. Read the rest of this entry »

Looks as though Harper is determined enough to have the mission in Afghanistan continue that he was willing to meet Dion more than half-way in order to come up with a motion that would pass the House.

The government yesterday revised the motion on the mission to include most of the language that the Liberal counter-motion the week before included. There is one main which is, instead of the mission in Afghanistan ending February 2011 it would end in July 2011 with a full redeployment by the end of December. The motion doesn’t specify that the troops will be completely out of Afghanistan, just that they will be moved out of Kandahar province. It also doesn’t rule out combat action after February 2009 which the Liberals had originally demanded. Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t normally pay much attention to American politics. I get a bit tired of it being spread all over Canadian media while our politics rarely grace the papers or airwaves in the US. I guess you could say I have a bit of a tit for tat attitude toward their politics. I have to admit though, this race between Clinton and Obama has caught my attention to a degree.

I really didn’t think that the Americans had yet progressed to the point that either a woman or a black person would even get past the gate toward running for President. I fully expected it would not happen in my lifetime. Now it is possible that when it comes time for Americans to make the final choice it will slide over to the Republicans simply because they are running a more ‘traditional’ candidate — that would be a white, male. Read the rest of this entry »

Charles Roach’s ongoing objection to swearing an oath to the Crown aka Her Majesty to be a Canadian citizen lands in the Ontario Court of Appeal today. Roach, a lawyer, is trying to move a class action suit forward to have the swearing of the oath to the Queen declared unconstitutional.

The Trinidad born Roach has waged this battle for many years. Back in 1987 he fought against the oath when the Law Society of Upper Canada required all lawyers to be Canadian citizens and that is part of the swearing in of a new Canadian. He likens asking blacks to swear an oath to the Queen to asking Jews to swear an oath to Hitler.

You’d think that a clown who’d been in the country since 1955 would have learned by now that this country is a constitutional monarchy and the Queen is our head of state. An oath to the Crown is an oath of allegiance. In order to rule the oath unconstitutional is to throw out the constitution itself. Read the rest of this entry »

In a surprising nod to the march of time, Fidel Castro resigned as President of Cuba yesterday. Castro and Cuba have just always been in my life. I was just four months old when he wrested power and became dictator of the island.

Aligning his country with the Soviet bloc, Castro stood up to anything the US, and in particular the American CIA, threw at him. Of course, that was in the days before the fall of the Soviets and the era of making up excuses to invade countries to topple their leaders. Castro might not have fared well in today’s world climate.

Castro’s health has been deteriorating since at least the 1990s and became more profound in 2006 when he temporarily turned power over to his brother Raul. The exact nature of his illness wasn’t disclosed but he’s been rarely seen in public since then. His brother is his designated successor but it is expected that Fidel will remain a strong influence in the politics of Cuba. Read the rest of this entry »