Ezra's Apology, An Early Draft

Yesterday afternoon, we learned

Brian Mulroney called Liberals to say Sun Media will apologize tomorrow for offensive rant by @ezralevant vs @JustinTrudeau. #cdnpoli
— Robert Fife (@RobertFife) September 28, 2014

Today it was announced that Ezra himself would present the apology.  And I was able to secure a first draft of this document from one of my informants inside Sun News.  I have reproduced it below:

Dear Justin,

I know I've acted badly.  I've said things about your mom and dad that would've earned me a well-deserved punch in the mouth from a less finely bred man.  And I'm sorry for that.  But, Justin, there's something I have to get off my chest before I go any further.  

I love you, Justin.  I have for a long time now.  Since you first became an MP and I was back in Calgary defending The West from your dad's policies.  I saw you on on TV and I said to myself I'm gonna make that future liberal prime minister my number one.  

And I've tried, and tried.  Good Lord I've tried.  But you won't talk to me, you won't even look at me, and its made me crazy.   And when I get crazy, you know me, I talk crazy.  And when I talk crazy, the nations various regulatory agencies starting looking at my bosses like they might pull the plug on STV any minute.  And things get all messed up.  

But I'm done, Justin.  I'm done.  I won't follow you around anymore, if you say the word.  I've sent you a box of chocolates with a note saying how sorry I am, and a big bouquet of roses...the biggest I could find!  But you don't have to eat those chocolates, you don't have to read that note; you can through those roses in the dumpster, if you like.

But let me just say that a better man has not been created on this  Earth, Justin.  You are like an archangel, who has flown too low and broken his wings.  I do and will always worship the ground on which you walk. I would kill and die for you, Justin.

Ezra Levant

I imagine they'll be a few changes made to it before air time.

Sun News Prepares To Grovel

RT @RobertFife: Brian Mulroney called Liberals to say Sun Media will apologize tomorrow for offensive rant by @ezralevant vs @JustinTrudeau
— National Newswatch (@natnewswatch) September 28, 2014

If you're thinking WTF Brian Mulroney?

New Chair of Quebecor "@chevymo: Brian Mulroney? Why him? @cfhorgan @RobertFife @ezralevant @JustinTrudeau"
— Robert Fife (@RobertFife) September 28, 2014

And an update:

Even with apology for @ezralevant rant, @JustinTrudeau may ban Sun from campaign plane until Tory editorial links cut, say Libs #cdnpoli
— Robert Fife (@RobertFife) September 28, 2014

Turn the screws until they can be turned no further, say I!

Rumor: Harper To Bail On Failing Gov.

From Bourque:

...in recent days, a number of key Conservatives in Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, and Vancouver have confided to Bourque they envision a late-winter announcement that the PM will step down, triggering a spring leadership convention to choose his successor. A telltale sign is the growing amount of time and energy Harper is spending on the world stage, finding solace in the accolades of his fellow world leaders as his party treads water in national polls back home. Such was the case with a number of his predecessors as they contemplated their own 'best before' dates, including Pierre Trudeau, Brian Mulroney, and Jean Chretien. Each, one will recall, was succeeded by a caretaker Prime Minister who quickly succumbed to the opposition at the first available opportunity. Such was the fate of John Turner, Kim Campbell, and Paul Martin, all effective and capable politicians in their day, but each of them left holding the odious bag of public contempt for a party that dared to stay on in power too long. It is thought the suitable successor to play that role would be Jason Kenney, an obvious candidate to take the party into its inevitable hibernation in Opposition. So, to recap, the tea leaves suggest a Harper departure after the much promised 'balanced' budget in Winter 2015, followed by a leadership convention in Spring 2015, and a general election in Fall 2015. Or so it is whispered. 

So there you have it.

Die Media Die: New Round Of Layoffs At Sun Media?

,,,at the Ottawa Sun, in specific: It pretty much leaves the cleaning staff to run the place, perhaps a precursor to selling or shutting down.  Pretty soon there won't be anything left for Justin to boycott.

Live Coverage Of Doug Ford Scarborough Focused Virtual Town-Hall: Dofo Might Remove Bicycle Lanes

Via my twitter feed.  A bit of real news contained therein, perhaps.

Whoa. Doug Ford live call. He's telling me Chow/Tory going to put street cars down middle of road in Scarborough. #TOpoli
— Bigcitylib (@Bigcitylib2) September 24, 2014

9 bil for transit, says Ford. . BUILD TO 45 mil sales over 5 years for subway. P3s. Sale of Air Rights above stations.
— Bigcitylib (@Bigcitylib2) September 24, 2014

Raj asks about congestion. Complains re bikes. Rob will coordinate traffic lights. Trashes Eg Connects. May remove bike lanes. #topoli
— Bigcitylib (@Bigcitylib2) September 24, 2014

100 miles of bike paths to be removed if elected, did he say? #topoli
— Bigcitylib (@Bigcitylib2) September 24, 2014

Doug, who I refer to a Rob once in the tweets above, definitely said he will remove bike lanes.  I'm no longer quite sure he said 100 miles worth, or kms, or whatever.  But he definitely committed to removing them in the 416 suburbs.

In any case, for a little background: I got a call from the Doug Ford campaign inviting me to a Scarborough-Centric conference call with, apparently, 1,000s of other Scarberians.  There were live questions from screened participants (one mildly critical question regarding Rofo's drug use), and occasional survey questions.  The twitter feed is my best attempt to communicate the drift of it.  Some stuff might be worth following up on, like:

Volunteering stuff. Dofo coaches basketball at TCHC building. SOunds like he says he coaches baseball in Scar.
— Bigcitylib (@Bigcitylib2) September 24, 2014

...and:

Dofo tells stories of getting a kid off the streets in Scar because of coaching baseball. #topoli
— Bigcitylib (@Bigcitylib2) September 24, 2014

Justin Vs. Ezra

An interesting bit of tactics.

In fact, it would be just swell if Canadians thought of you as the typical, modern conservative, @ezralevant. Anything we can do to help?
— Gerald Butts (@gmbutts) September 20, 2014

Provoke The Ez into further ranting; hang  his words on the CPC government.  Interesting in that team Trudeau thinks they can pick a fight with someone who "buys ink by the barrel", as they used to say, and win.  It tells you something about the fallen state of today's MSM that this calculation actually makes sense.  

If you haven't followed the whole "photo-bomb" story, don't worry about it.  Or you can go through some of the links above.  To me the most interesting thing about it is the willingness of  the LPC to play rough with these idiots.   It used to be that representatives of the print media carried a bit of gravitas with them.  Now, given the industry's declining state, being criticized by a scribbler is akin to getting yelled at in the street by a homeless guy.  Why not give 'em a kick?  

In any case, the father of the groom has made a statement on his facebook page:

...as per usual, Ezra mucked up his facts.

Guilty Plea in Rehtaeh Parsons Case

The news, which as far as I can tell Canadas's major news organizations have yet to mention , is here.

As to the controversy around Anonymous' efforts to keep this case open and whether it amounted to on-line vigilantism,, I wrote at the time:

One thing that seems to have been overlooked is that much of the bullying took place over Facebook and other on-line forums.  Presumably Anon has IDed the four by digging through their on-line traces, and presumably, should they reveal their identities, they will do this on the basis of the material they have found, perhaps by re-publishing it.  If so, they will merely be regurgitating public statements made by the four suspects. I see nothing wrong with that.  I certainly don't see how it qualifies as vigilantism.

In fact, I think Selley and co. are ignoring the free speech angle in all of this.  They are essentially telling Anonymous (or whoever might identity the four males, as apparently there is more that one group looking for them) to self-censor the results of their on-line investigative work.  This is particularly hypocritical in Selley's case; he has always ready to go to the wall for the right to spew hate speech.  He is now asking that folks who may be in a position to forward the cause of Justice to keep their mouths shut.  That's hypocrisy of the worst sort.

Can't see anything wrong with that today.  Anon just did what the nation's journalist community should have done, if they hadn't been doing whatever it is they do nowadays, and call a job.

Die Media Die: Quebecor Ready To Dump T.O. Sun

...and other Sun Media media products:

“To be honest, if somebody was to call me [with an offer], I would certainly listen,” he said. “We understand that it is a declining business.”

And an interesting comment from T.O. Sun Family:

Who in their right mind would buy one of these papers? They are interconnected with publishers/sales managers, shared editorial service and here's the big non-selling point no damn presses! Remember when they thought it was a good idea to share services? Now it has made these papers almost worthless. Great call Stun Media. this would be akin to buying an ice company with no freezers.

Have a pleasant Sunday.

dEAR yOUTH o' scCOTLAND!!!!

iT is AS I FEARED!  Your elders HAVe bETRayed YOU!!!

You tRIED to coNvince THEM WITH SWEET REASONB@!!!  BUT THEY DIDN"T LISTEN!!!  tHEY fLUE off TO THE CASINO In their jewel encrusted walker with A JET PACK On the back, then took the way of all cowards with A NOVOTE!!!   The time FOR REASON!!!! is past!   ALl that REMAINS is violent  Uprising!!  kILL THEM, EAT them, take there stuff, and rip your OWN STATE from their dying hands!

xxx from Cdns

Ford's Prognosis

From the wiki for Liposarcoma:

Prognosis[edit]

The prognosis varies depending on the site of origin, the type of cancer cell, the tumor size, the depth, and proximity to lymph nodes. Well-differentiated liposarcomas treated with surgery and radiation have a low recurrence rate (about 10%) and rarely metastasize.^[3] Five-year survival rates vary from 56% to 100% based on histological subtype.^[3]

Best wishes to the mayor going forward.

John Tory's Statement Withdrawing From Upcoming Debates

"With Doug Ford entering the race and less than six weeks to go until election day, we have entered a new phase of the campaign. John has extraordinary demands on his time and, unfortunately, we are unable to accommodate every event and request." 

Team Tory elaborates further at the other end of  the link.  Short version: the man's running out of time.

From The Farmers Forum Survey: Wind Farms On Wolfe Island

I don't think the survey is on-line yet--at least I couldn't find it here--but WCO has
posted some of the highlights:

Farmers Forum surveyed a big chunk of Wolfe Island residents and found that 75 per cent approve of or are indifferent toward the 86 wind turbines they’ve been living with for five years.

There are also some hard numbers on what hosting a turbine on your property means $-wise:

We found that money makes a difference. Those landowners (many of them farmers) hosting one or more turbines, are delighted with the $10,000 to $14,000 they earn each year per turbine just to look at them. The wind turbine company hands over another $100,000 to the island annually. Improvements to the local outdoor rink are one of the many benefits. It’s like getting paid twice for having the good luck of living at the right place on the right island at the right 

$10,000 to $14,000 is actually on the low end of the figures I've heard (the largest been $50,000 per turbine).

The folks at Wind Concerns note some issues with the methodology: it appears to have been conducted entirely at the island's ferry dock and in a nearby coffee-shop.  But the result nevertheless backs up what more rigorous studies have shown, which is that most people in the neighborhood of wind farms are not particularly upset by their presence.

LPoC on Abortion Rights: Thumbs Up Or Down?

I dunno.  But at least I can see the reasoning behind this one (whereas the sense of holding open nominations continues to elude me.  Because nobody cares about process issues and the only news stories it will generate is when a nomination goes to heck).  Anyway, the reasoning is that the LPoC thinks there are votes for the taking in the NPD pond, and is willing to move towards that party a bit on a 2nd tier issue to grab them.  I'm not saying it will work; I'm just saying it was probably a calculated move, not Justin getting out of the shower one morning and telling the first reporter he met about this great new idea he had. 

After all, something similar did work for Kathleen Wynne.

Sun Sued Again!

Here is the grovelling apology:

“A column published in The Sun on November 14, 2012, and an interview that same day on Sun News expressed opinions of Tarek Fatah about a demonstration by the two of you during the November 11, 2012 Remembrance Day Service at Old City Hall, Toronto.

“We acknowledge that your shouts of protest did not occur during the Service’s two-minutes of silence honouring the deaths of members of Canada’s military but only after the police took your banner. As well, you have represented to us that neither of you are Taliban supporters, Islamists or Jihadis, and we accept your word on this.”

Read the rest through the link.

Tory MP Cheryl Gallant: My Last Marble Just Bounced Away Into The Fucking Abyss

From her website:

In 2005, the liberal government in Ontario passed legislation called the “Places to Grow Act” to align its land use/planning codes and government policies to United Nations Agenda 21. 

[...]

In a nutshell, [Agenda 21]  calls for government to eventually take control of all land use removing decision making from the hands of private property owners.  It is assumed people are not good stewards of their land and “the government” will do a better job if it is in total control.  Individual rights in general are to give way to the needs of communities as determined by the governing body.

[...]

U.N. Agenda 21 proponents cite the affluence of North Americans as being a major problem which needs to be corrected. The document calls for a redistribution of wealth, lowering the standard of living for Canadians so that maybe the people in poorer countries will have more.  Although people around the world aspire to achieve the levels of prosperity we have in our country, and will risk their lives to get here, North Americans are cast in a very negative light for our energy consumption. Agenda 21 aims to reduce Canadians to a condition closer to average in the world.  Only then, say the promoters of Agenda 21, will there be their social justice which is the so-called cornerstone of the U.N. Agenda 21 plan.

On her website she's taking a poll asking if opposing Agenda 21 should be made a CPC election issue.   Be sure to vote yes.

Toronto Set To Elect Henry Blake

Amiable, sort of clueless.  The kind of guy who wanders around saying "the world is a square, the world is a square" until someone tells him its a rhomboid, after which he goes around saying "the world is a rhomboid, the world is a rhomboid." Hopefully somebody tells him the Sheppard Subway is one big pander to the East end, which it won't serve as well as other transit options on the table.  But our beloved city could do worse, and at least our long, fat municipal nightmare will be over.

As for Olivia, I'm not sure what went wrong.  Her transit plan is by far the most reasonable, the most likely to get done sometime in the near future.  But maybe "more buses" isn't the stuff of big city dreams.  I'll probably still wind up voting for her, but that's mostly because I believe losing builds character

Arctic Gateway Route Relies On Global Warming To Thin The Ice

Stymied by opposition on the West Coast, the Alberta government has prepared a technical report outlining the possibility of an "arctic gateway" as an alternative means of getting their bitumen to market.

The entire report can be found here.  And below is a graphic showing some of the proposed routes out. (Note: click on the images for larger versions)

Contrary to news reports about it, the report authors seem to realize that their plan is a bit of a "hail Mary".  For example, it is "conceivable" that the plan could attract support among the local population "...if it can be done without undue risk to the environment..."  The text is filled with this kind of heavily qualified language.

 Furthermore, there is a handy chart which provides an economic benefits vs. environmental risk vs. "aboriginal subsistence value" ...

...which makes me think that it will be difficult to convince most of the First Nations in the area to sign on to the scheme.

And, ironically enough, the whole plan relies on global warning making the shipping season longer and therefore "... lessen required icebreaker escort/support, decrease transit times, and require much less ice-reinforcement of vessel hulls."  The entire eighth chapter is given over to discussing how the changes in the ice environment should enable increased tanker traffic in the area.

On the other hand, the passages relating to the effects of an arctic bitumen spill (possibly catastrophic), and the nation's preparedness for such a likelihood (0) make for some grim reading:

So there you have it.  Not really a serious alternative as far as I can tell.

In An Information-Based Economy When You Provide Crap Information You Hurt The Economy

From here.  Original stats-can report is here.

Away On Vaca

A period of light blogging will become even lighter as I head back to the Left Coast for a week and change with the family.  Although I will try and get a few posts in here and there.  But for now I leave you with:

Who Will Be Mark Steyn's Witnesses?

Just noticed another piece on Steyn's website re the defamation case climatologist Mike Mann has brought against him.  Its largely the same old same old, but then there is this bit towards the end:

I have a great legal team headed by Dan Kornstein, the man behind the most consequential piece of free-speech legislation enacted this century, and we've been interviewing prominent scientific witnesses tired of the climate of fear that Mann and his Clime Syndicate have imposed on their field.

Be interesting to see who he finds who can pass muster as an expert witness.  We are talking a very, very short list of possibles.  Also, Steyn references a recent post by Steve McI at Climate Audit.

Steve quotes par 2 of Mann's statement of claim:

And comments thusly:

But, needless to say, Mann had nothing to do with the development of the instrumental temperature data showing 20th century temperature increases.... 

And thusly:

Mann’s (false) claim to have been “one of the first” to document 20th century temperature increase was apparently based on MBH98 and MBH99, which he described later in the pleadings (paragraph 15) as “two research papers showing a steady rise in surface temperature during the 20th Century and a steep increase in measured temperatures since the 1950s”. Needless to say, these papers showed 20th century temperature data in key graphics, but the papers themselves were obviously about the proxy reconstructions, not the instrumental record.

Well, note the qualifier "apparently".  Maybe the claim is not based on these two papers.  Maybe its based on this 1994 publication, for example, in which Mann and his co-author write thusly:

 ...and conclude thusly:

Or maybe not, but its clear that Mann's work from the early 1990s (pre hockey-stick graph) dealt with the instrumental record.   At least so says his wiki entry:

Mann then joined the Yale Department of Geology and Geophysics, obtaining an MPhil in geology and geophysics in 1993. His research focused on natural variability and climate oscillations. He worked with the seismologist Jeffrey Park, and their joint research adapted a statistical method developed for identifying seismological oscillations to find various periodicities in the instrumental temperature record, the longest being about 60 to 80 years.

So his claim seems sound.  Steyn is flailing.  And McI....god his stuff is boring these days.  He needs to find another hobby.