and other big global issues, the Canadian government has been working on deporting refugees back to Algeria. These deportations will happen despite such warnings as the following from the UK: “Alongside the violence committed by the Islamic armed groups over the last decade are numerous documented allegations of human rights abuses by the security forces and state-armed militias [in Algeria], including the enforced disappearances of at least 4,000 people, abductions, torture and extra-judicial killings.”

There’s more and MJ Milloy has the story: One of these things is not like the other. To really figure this out though, we must look at motivations. Obviously the government is trying to provide a reasonable back-story for some other initiative with Algeria – a trade deal or something most likely. They’re trying to deport people so that later on they’ll be able to say, “no, everything’s fine there, look we didn’t even have a problem deporting people!” Find the second generation motivation and you find the way to deal with the issue.

is that John Manley, Deputy Prime Minister, blames honesty for the monarchy furor that’s going on at the moment. Wow it’s tough to live in Canada sometimes. This whole story is ridiculous – Manley was chided into giving his opinion on the monarchy last week and now is being called upon by monarchists to step aside and NOT host the Queen when she visits Ottawa because he said that he wasn’t a huge monarchist, essentially. Of all the things to worry about, this isn’t even in the top 1000. I think some people in this country must be living in a really nice cozy fantasy land if they feel this is an important issue.

come pearls of wisdom, from time to time. Such is the case with new Canadian Foreign Minister Bill Graham, never an imposing or overly impressive figure though possessed of an interesting candour. Today he clarified the Canadian position to the current shenanigans between the US and Iraq, however, and he hits the nail on the head: “U.S. Has No Right to Invade Iraq, Canada Says.” Quote: “The further you move the argument away from an actual direct threat to a suggestion that, well perhaps, one day maybe… then of course you are opening the door to a basic destruction of the world order as we presently know it.”

This, of course, is exactly the US policy on this matter. So maybe the most amazing thing is that this piece appeared at all. I’m taking side-bets on how quickly someone else in the administration backs off the positions Graham noted in the article. I say within 4 hours. But even that is pretty much standard for the Canadian government – get one minister to proclaim the true policy of the government while another prepares the speech backing off that policy statement.

, Justice Minister Martin Cauchon has suggested that the government is considering decriminalizing marijuana possession. I haven’t used in over a decade, but I support this completely. I wonder if this is possible, though, when our very near neighbour still pretends to be waging war on drugs?

? A: his lips are moving. I would love to believe it’s not true, and I’ve met cops who have surprised and impressed me many times. But I’ve also seen a lot of the behaviour that M-J writes about. If anything, I think cops should be held to a higher standard, and as he writes, they often can’tmeet them. In general I have high standards. In society, we make rules and then I expect everyone to play by them. Just because you’ve been entrusted to enforce the rules doesn’t mean they apply less to you. Nor should you try to change the rules arbitrarily just cause it suits you to do so in the moment.