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On the eve of her departure for the UNFCCC COP13 in Bali, Jaime Webbe, Climate Change Officer for the Convention on Biological Diversity, will be with us this Wednesday and we very much hope that you will join us. It should serve as a fitting conclusion to the Unisfera Conference on Business & Sustainable Development. In light of Canada’s role in the outcome of the Commonwealth Conference (and the concurrent Australian election results), along with the release of Maude Barlow’s book “Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Fight for the Right to Water”, there is much fodder for climate change discussion, but of course, we will not be limited to one topic.
Wednesday 28 November 2007 0:50 OTTAWA: UN CRITICIZES CANADA ON ENVIRONMENT
A UN report has called on developed nations to start fulfilling their promise to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to provide tens of billion of dollars to help the world's poor countries to adapt to global warming. and Climate Change
Always lurking is the on-going fallout from the subprime fiasco and general global economic unrest - Henri-Paul Rousseau’s appearance before the government public finance committee to review the Caisse’s holdings of asset-backed commercial-paper (ABCP), rumored to be as much as $14 billion, may provide some grist for our economists’ mills.
With the (successful) return of former PM Nawaz Sharif (whom the New York Times considers “represents the most formidable challenge to Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s bid to remain as president for another term”), the political scene in Pakistan shifts yet again. According to the BBC, “he is thought to have made a deal with Gen Musharraf to prevent former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto doing well in forthcoming parliamentary elections”, but AlJazeera’s reporting emphasizes that the opposition parties are agreed that the restoration of democracy is foremost, although whether they will agree to boycott the January elections is moot.
Russia votes in parliamentary elections next Sunday, and while there is little doubt that President Putin’s supporters will be victorious, there is increasing repression of opposition leaders including the jailing of Garry Kasparov and the arrest of Boris Nemtsov.
And for all you political junkies, there’s a referendum coming on December 2 in Venezuela. Mr. Chavez is seeking to extend his powers including allowing him to run for re-election indefinitely, extend presidential terms from six to seven years, and giving him authority over the Central Bank and letting his government detain citizens without charge during a state of emergency. What’s interesting is that polls show strong opposition to his proposals.
In many discussions of the Darfur crisis there has been a certain emphasis on the role that China could play in its resolution. It is therefore not encouraging (although understandable) to learn that rebels have demanded that peacekeepers from China pull out of the Sudanese region just hours after the arrival of 135 Chinese engineers and furthermore, that the Sudanese government has said it will only accept non-African troops from China and/or Pakistan, while the rebels say they will accept anyone but the Chinese.
We confess that we have paid little attention during the run-up to the Annapolis Conference on Middle East Peace, and even with the last-minute announcement that Syria will attend along with a dozen other Arab states, there appears to be little hope that much will be accomplished — “There’s never been less skepticism about the peaceful intentions of the leadership of the other side. But there’s never been more skepticism about their capabilities to deliver.”
The battle between Mr. Sarkozy and the unions continues to fascinate (we had an excellent discussion last week with Jean-Marie Bergman on this topic) and coincidentally Jaime was in Paris for the first week of the strike. CBC Radio caters to our fascination with Sarko and France with an excellent item on “Dispatches” on November 25.
The peripatetic president has whipped off to China where he is voicing his concerns that if China does not allow the yuan rise, currency imbalances could become so great that the world cannot cope with them. A high-level European Community delegation is expected to deliver the same message later this week.
Much closer to home, we are keen to hear what Wednesday Nighters have to say about the Griffintown renewal project and there will no doubt be new developments in the Mulroney-Schreiber dossier. We also call your attention to Sean Silcoff’s great profile of Tullio Cedraschi in Saturday’s Financial Post.
As always, we suggest checking here and/or wednesday-night.com for updates, relevant and breaking news.
 Antonio Lamer |
Former chief justice Antonio Lamer's legacy heralded
Former Supreme Court chief justice Antonio Lamer will be remembered as a defender of judicial independence...
Former Supreme Court chief justice Antonio Lamer will be remembered as a defender of judicial independence and of the rights of the accused, as well as one of the judges most influential in determining how the 1982 Charter of Rights and Freedoms would affect the application of law.
Lamer died early Saturday in Ottawa after several weeks of declining health. He was 74.
Lamer was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1980. In 1990 he was named chief justice, serving until his retirement in 2000. more | CTV | goog
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Wednesday 28 November 2007 Matas and Kilgour . China harvests organs
FAINT HOPE FROM FADING MIDEAST LEADERS The Mideast
peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, which concluded yesterday with
a
promise of future peace, possessed a crooked kind of charm. US
President George W. Bush, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, all wildly unpopular leaders among their
own people, all with dubious authority to broker with the land at
issue—all decided that “the time is
right,” as Bush put it, for peace in the Middle East. In a
carefully worded joint statement, which artfully sidestepped any mention
of the most divisive issues, such as the future status of Jerusalem and
the right of Palestinian return, Olmert and Abbas agreed to engage in what
the
Globe describes as “intensive, ongoing negotiations,” aimed
at reaching a deal within the next year. The negotiations are to be
moderated by Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Today’s
sources spill a good deal of ink on whether the leaders are ready to make
the necessary concessions
to arrive at such a deal, and whether, if successful, they will be able to
sell that agreement to their respective publics. goto pengrowth.com/ then Go to webcast multimedia under Index
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November 28, 2007
The Big Seven are skeptical about the prospect of Mideast peace, but, for
the most part, commentators are not without hope. In an editorial in the
Post, Jonathan Kay concludes that, “as unfashionable as it may be
for jaded observers to express any optimism about the Middle East, we find
ourselves heartened by events in Annapolis,” while a tough-talking
and balanced editorial in the Star
expresses a similar sentiment: “However faint, Annapolis is a hope
and a prayer worth sustaining.” Only the
Citizen, which is surpassingly angst-ridden today, paints a picture of
insurmountable bleakness. David Warren’s one-sided editorial in that
paper (not available online) lays the blame for the moribund Mideast peace
process squarely on the Palestinians for refusing to recognize the
legitimacy of the Israeli state, and suggests that “nothing
essential has changed.” A separate article in the
Citizen supports Warren’s scepticism, referring to polls that
show that most in the Middle East are dismissing the talks as futile.
Still, most sources acknowledge that talking about peace is better than
not talking about it, even if the negotiators lack the power or popularity
to do much more than chat.
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