Mike Puddy didn't do anything wrong. The same can't be said, however, for the police who took him down.

Last June, Mr. Puddy was arrested on a Toronto street, man-handled, strip-searched and locked in a Toronto detention centre for two days -- all for a crime that he didn't commit.

He was charged for his role in a demonstration at the G20 summit in Toronto.

Yesterday Justice Melvyn Green acquitted Mr Puddy on all counts, and ruled it was the police -- not the demonstrators -- who acted as aggressors.

We reached Mike Puddy in Banff, Alberta.

Their patience is quickly turning to frustration.

Since May, more than one thousand barrels of leaked oil have been soiling the land near Wrigley in the Northwest Territories. And after assurances by Enbridge that the oil would be cleaned up, people of the nearby Pehdzeh Ki First Nation are losing faith in the company.

Local hunters first detected the leak on May 9th, and since then Enridge has worked to clean up the land. They plan to ship the contaminated soil to Alberta this winter, but for now they have no where to store the oily mess. So it remains sitting near Wrigley.

Yesterday members of the Pehdzeh Ki First Nation, like Maurice Moses, met with Enbridge to voice their concerns. Here's Mr. Moses's assessment of Enbridge's response to the spill, for the record.

He's off in Czech, without a paddle. Or a boat, for that matter.

Quebec's Julian Potvin-Bernal is Canada's champion in men's white water canoeing.

On his way to the Czech Republic for the world cup finals, his canoe -- and paddles -- were broken.

Mr. Potvin-Bernal wants Canada to qualify to compete in next year's Olympics, so he's racing to get a new boat made.

We reached Julian Potvin-Bernal in Prague.

I like to travel. And in an effort to distinguish myself from tourists, I try to abide by the old traveller's motto: "When in Rome, do as the Romans do".

But I have no doubt if I were in Rome this week, I would have shed all pretense of being an inconspicuous traveller, in favour of being an unabashed wide-eyed, jaw-gaping, camera-snapping tourist.

Because on Wednesday, in the middle of the busy Piazza Venezia, a bunch of street cleaners broke up a scuffle between opposing groups of centurions.

That's right. I said centurions. You know, the helmeted "Ave Cesare"-waving, Roman Empire kind.

Now I know what you're thinking. That I've probably got a pretty little Colosseum to sell you. Cheap.

But I don't, because it's true. It happened. At least, kind of.

To tell us more, we reached John Hooper earlier today. He's The Guardian newspaper's correspondent in Rome, where we reached him on his cellphone.

There were a few tears, a few laughs and a little bit of music.

It was all part of a fitting send-off for Kathleen Petty. Today was her final day as the host of CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning.

CBC listeners may also know Kathleen as the recent host of The House, and as a former guest-host of As it Happens.

She's known for her hard-hitting questions, her distinctive laugh and for her love of music. So what better way to pay tribute than through song?

Set to the tune of Dolly Parton's "Jolene," here's CBC Ottawa Radio host Alan Neal with "Kathleen," for the record.

Vive la France! Or perhaps I should say "Re-vive la France!" Et vite!

The latest numbers show that growth in France's gross domestic product has flatlined, and consumer spending is down.

Now normally, this wouldn't be cause for panic. But those trends coincide with a significant drop in the market value of several of France's major banks.

And that drop may be a response to rumours that, after the historic downgrade in the U.S. last week, France would be next to suffer a downgrade in credit rating.

Still, some commentators say there are even bigger issues at stake.

To give us some perspective on France's current predicament, we reached Catherine Lubochinsky in Figeac. She's the president of the European Money and Finance Forum.

Some things just can't be stopped.

And that's a bit of a problem for Greg Holland. He's a die hard Texas Rangers fan, and just loves going to the game. The problem is, he really doesn't like the wave. In fact, he hates it.

For two years, Mr. Holland has run a mostly futile "stop the wave" campaign.

But then this month, the Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Texas began running an official "no wave" message on its giant scoreboard.

We reached Mr. Holland in Arlington, Texas.

When Keiko Fukuda was a young woman she devoted herself to mastering judo. And it took her a lifetime, but she's still got plenty of life left.

Ms. Fukuda, who is ninety-eight years old, recently earned her tenth degree black belt -- that's the highest possible rank in the martial art. Until now, only a handful of judo masters have achieved this rank. And Ms. Fukuda is the first woman to ever do so.

Shelley Fernandez is a long-time friend and former student of Keiko Fukuda.

And Yuriko Romer is a filmmaker who is producing a film about Ms. Fukuda's life.

We reached Ms. Fernandez and Ms. Romer in San Francisco, California.

Well, that's an announcement the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band hopes to hear once again this weekend.

They're in Glasgow, Scotland tonight, on the eve of the World Pipe Band Championships which take place this weekend. The SFU band has taken the title a staggering six times in its history. There are nine Canadian bands competing in various levels at the event this year -- four at the elite Grade One level, including SFU. Last year, the group placed third in the top grade -- ater the Republic of Ireland's St. Laurence O'Toole Pipe Band, and in second place, Northern Ireland's Field Marshall Montgomery Pipe Band. So they're hoping to reclaim their title position this time 'round. Seven times lucky, right?

So to the them -- and to all the Canadian bands competing -- as a proudly pro-piping radio program, we say "sealbh math dhuit!".

We're going to march out now, to the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band, with their winning Medley from the 1999 World Championships.

This brings us to the end of As It Happens for this Friday, August 12th.

The show was produced this week by Laurie Allan, Kevin Ball, Ben Edwards, Natasha Fatah, Daniel Guillemette, Phil Heidenreich, Pacinthe Mattar (so long Pacinthe, thanks and come back soon!) David McDougall, John Perry and Kevin Robertson. Our interns are Chris Chang-Yen Phillips and Tomas Urbina. Our technician is Reynold Gonsalves. The show director this week is Ben Edwards. Our writer this week is Daemon Fairless.

Robin Smythe is the Senior Producer. And the Executive Producer of As It Happens is Lynda Shorten.

We'd also like to thank some other people who helped us out this week: Yvonne Gall in Vancouver, Chris Lane in Regina, Michael D'Souza and Keith Hart in Toronto, Marika Wheeler in Quebec City, and Kathy Porter in St. John's.

As It Happens will be back again on Monday, when Jeff Douglas returns to this chair.