Patrick Leahy, Congressman from Vermont, takes Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to task for the Maher Arar case in a Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing. It’s good to see someone in the US Government realizing that Canada (as well as the rest of the world) sometimes wonders what has happened to the USA that they thought they used to know. It’s certainly not the kind of country that now sends a Canadian citizen off to the Syria because they suspect that he might be a terrorist.
We knew damn well if he went to Canada, he wouldn’t be tortured! If he were held, he would be investigated. We also knew damn well if he went to Syria, he’d be tortured.
Here’s the whole exchange:
Someone here the other day told me that the US today (as it relates to Canada) was like ‘Someone had stolen away your big brother and replaced him with someone that you don’t recognize any more.’ With people like Gonzales running things, it’s no wonder that they don’t recognize the US. I certainly don’t.
BTW, for those outside Canada who don’t know of the case, Maher Arar was a Canadian citizen who was stopped at JFK airport, sent to Syria to be tortured and later was found to be completely innocent. He got a formal apology from the Canadian government, along with $10.5 million in damages. Say what you will about Harper, he’s no snake like Gonzales.
I thought I knew how a city could get when its home team was fighting its way toward a championship. I lived in Boston during that remarkable 2004 World Series victory that ‘reversed the curse’, etc. There is still a section in the Boston.com web site that may end up immortalizing the event for the next 86 years — which was the length of time between the two World Series trophies — if they have to. For all I know, there are probably folk songs about the Sox of ‘04 and hundreds of new baby boys christened ‘Johnny’, ‘Jason’ and ‘Manny’.
But for Canadians, Hockey seems to be more than just a sport. It’s a glue for country, including the new citizens (and landed immigrants), maybe because we all agree that Canada invented the sport, and deserves to be the world champions in it, even if things haven’t always worked out that way.
Add to that, a trophy drought of similar length to the Sox. Vancouver, who have not won the Stanley Cup since the ‘Millionaires’ won it back in 1917-1918, is noticeably hockey crazy, even for Canada. You see the cars everywhere, with the flags all over them. Today at the market I couldn’t help noticing more than a few guys wearing Canucks Jerseys. The CBC is running a photo contest of the craziest Canuck fan (you know, the ones who do the whole face-paint thing). If the team does win the cup, they are estimating a $2.1 million cost in Police protection to keep all of the celebrators from running amuck. Speaking of costs, tickets for tonights game were going for $320 for a pair from scalpers.
Some of my fellow Vancouver bloggers are also podcasters. One of them was highlighted for their increasingly popular podcast, Crazy Canucks. Check out the spot on the local TV station at John’s other blog: John Bollwitt blog or his wife and co-podcaster, Miss604. I think they’ve tapped into a real vein of Hockey Madness.
I write this after the home team lost in overtime. It seems that every time I watch they lose. So I’m not sure I’m going to watch the next again on Saturday, when they are away in Dallas.
As for the sports bar owners. I’m sure that although they do want the Canucks to win as much as everybody else, they’d much rather stretch this initial set of playoff games with the Dallas Flames to the full seven. Nothing crazy about that.
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