Our Summer host today was Gillian Findlay.

Satire

It's Wednesday, August 23rd.

Iran continued its cat-and-mouse game with the international community yesterday when it announced it's ready to start "serious negotiations" over its controversial nuclear program.

Currently, foreign policy analysts believe what the Iranians mean this time is, "All right, all right, let's talk about this like reasonable adults" … or possibly, "Screw you, Yankee" … or "What's Britney doing with that Kevin Federline loser, anyway?"

This is the Current.

The Portnoy Case

Six people living in a church basement in Marystown, Newfoundland and Labrador have become the focus of an unusual dispute between the province and Ottawa.

Angela Portnoy and her five children have lived in the church for almost a year. Canada wants them out of the church basement, out of Marystown, and out of the country. The province wants them to stay.

Last week, the family was told its latest application to remain on humanitarian grounds was rejected. We had reaction from Angela Portnoy regarding the decision.

The Portnoys are nothing if not determined. That's because this isn't the first time they've faced deportation from Canada.

Angela, her husband Alexi, and two of their children first arrived in Montreal from Israel illegally in 1996. They were sent home in 2000 after their first refugee claim was rejected. But they came back. In 2001, the Portnoys returned, this time to the Newfoundland community of Marystown.

Alexi worked at a small business - a local pizza takeout. Three of their five children were born in Canada, the latest earlier this month.

Last fall, when the family was again told to leave, people in Marystown formed the Portnoy Action Committee, and arranged for the family to live in sanctuary. But just before Christmas, Alexi Portnoy was caught outside the church, arrested and sent back to Israel. He has since made his way to Mexico, hoping to return to Marystown.

With the help of Halifax-based immigration lawyer Lee Cohen, the Portnoy Action Committee resubmitted the family's claim to Immigration Canada. We heard reaction from Kay Turpin, co-chair of the committee.

Now here's the twist. Although immigration is a federal issue, the province's Intergovernmental Affairs minister, John Ottenheimer, now also plans to lobby Ottawa to let the Portnoy family stay.

But this raises some questions. The Portnoys are not the only family in Newfoundland and Labrador facing deportation. At least four other families, also Russian and Eastern European-born Jews, are in a similar situation waiting to be sent back to either Israel or Eastern Europe.

We heard from one of these people, Alex Krioulenko. Prior to his family's deportation notice last fall, both his parents had jobs and owned a house in St. John's. Alex had a part-time job and planned a post-secondary education.

Joining us in our Halifax studio to discuss the Portnoy case was the family’s lawyer, Lee Cohen.

Political Intervention

A provincial minister advocating for an immigration case could be seen as a needed intervention in an insensitive system -- or as unwelcome meddling, making a difficult job even harder.

To discuss the implications of the Portnoy case and the precedent it could set, we were joined by two people with a wealth of expertise.

Joe Bissett is a former ambassador to Yugoslavia and was the Director of Canada's Immigration Service from 1985 to 1990. He was in our Ottawa studio.

And in our Toronto studio, we had Mary Jo Leddy. She is the executive director of Romero House for refugees. She is also a professor of Theology at the University of Toronto and has been part of the sanctuary movement since 1991.

Listen to The Current: Part 1

(Due to various rights issues some segments may be edited for internet use)

The Current: Part 2

Moroccan Independence

They are a people with a unique dialect, unique culture, and unique government. But they're a people without land.

They call themselves by a number of names, but they're best known as the Saharawi.

Morocco annexed the territory in which they lived in 1975 when Spain withdrew from Africa. They ran to Algeria. For 30 years they've lived in camps controlled by a frequently violent independence movement, the Polisario.

Morocco says it has historical claims to the land, and has invested in its infrastructure. It encourages Moroccan nationals to move there. The international court doesn't recognize the Moroccan claims, but Morocco is unmoved.

It's built protective walls, hired police and resists a lot of enquiries about Saharawi independence.

We aired a documentary produced by the CBC’s Middle East correspondent, Margaret Evans. It first aired last December.

Last Word: Cricket

Cricket may appear genteel with its crisp whites and quiet formality. But sometimes the white flannel covers a lot of rage. And sometimes, it doesn't cover it at all.

This weekend, for the first time in cricket history, a Test match was forfeited when Pakistan refused to take the field after tea.

The Pakistanis were furious at being penalised for ball-tampering -- a tactic where the ball's condition is deliberately altered by continuously rubbing one side during play.

There are legal ways to this -- and ways that aren't, well, cricket.

The umpires awarded the match to England. It took the Test series 3-0.

A former Pakistani cricket star calls the umpire a mini-Hitler; Pakistani schoolchildren have set fire to the ump's picture in protest.

Even Pakistan's leader, President Pervez Musharraf -- a Patron of the Pakistan Cricket Board -- has called the allegations an insult.

We ended today’s show with some of those reactions from the cricket world and a theme by Booker T & The MGs which is now the anthem for English cricket.

Listen to The Current: Part 2

(Due to various rights issues some segments may be edited for internet use)

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