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On the EU and David Cameron’s Base

David Cameron’s campaign to prevent the election of  Jean-Claude Juncker as head of the European Commission was a piece of sound and fury, writes International Affairs analyst Jonathan Manthorpe. His defeat would seem, on the surface, conclusive — except when considered as a work of domestic politicking. An excerpt of Manthorpe’s column: The humiliating defeat of British Prime Minister David Cameron in the election for the European Union’s top bureaucrat is probably the best thing that could have happened to him. Cameron took a calculated risk in the fallout from May’s elections for members of the European Parliament, in which right wing

Yesterday’s Man: Canada’s Peter MacKay

Canadian Justice Minister Peter MacKay has been the subject of a flurry of news stories, and almost as many satire pieces, about anti-woman comments  he is alleged to have made. Writer Charles Mandel responds with an opinion column for F&O’s THINK/Loose Leaf section: Peter MacKay is yesterday’s man.  According to Canada’s Justice Minister, women are dedicated moms and caregivers around the clock who are busy changing diapers, packing lunches and dropping the kids off at daycare. In contrast, men are dedicated fathers who are shaping the minds of the next generation. This old-fashioned, blatantly sexist attitude recently surfaced in a

Ruling Alters Canada’s Balance of Native Rights

Canada’s top court greatly expanded aboriginal rights in Canada’s westernmost province, in what may stand as a landmark decision affecting control of a vast swath of land and resources, in British Columbia and beyond. The case, Tsilhqot’in Nation v. British Columbia, was sparked in 1983 when the provincial government licenced a commercial company to log the Chilcotin. The licence was disputed by the Chilcotin residents who lived there long before the mid 2800s when — without their consent — England claimed the land as a colony, and named it British Columbia. Today the Supreme Court of Canada granted a historic

Affiliation and Dual Passports Complicate Journalist’s Case

“A Canadian is a Canadian and deserving of diplomatic protection, whatever one thinks of his or her affiliations,” writes  International Affairs analyst Jonathan Manthorpe. Today’s column deals with an Egyptian court’s sentences of three journalists this week. Two complications plague the controversial case: the tricky issue of dual citizenship, and their employment by Al Jazeera, a news outlet whose English service professionalism is widely respected, but not in any way matched by its controversial Arabic service. An excerpt: It’s easy and entirely justifiable to let loose an outraged rant at the prison sentences handed down in Egypt to three Al Jazeera journalists,

Canada’s Climate: Last Chance Tourism

By CHRIS WOOD  More or less as yesterday’s blog post (on Risky Business and Climate-Smart Development) was emerging from my keyboard, Canada’s federal government very quietly uploaded to the website of the Department of Natural Resources the closest thing Canadians have seen since 2008 to a comprehensive survey of Canada’s climate change vulnerabilities. In fact, Canada in a Changing Climate is avowedly an update on that earlier report — with little of significance added.  The nearly 300-page report confirms that all the climate trends apparent in 2008 continue: Canada is getting warmer and wetter — although droughts can still occur; big storms

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