February 17, 2009

It's Tuesday, February 17th.

Sales are down in 20 out of 21 manufacturing industries across Canada ... all but printing.

Currently ... There's a lot more room to maneuver there now that the American companies are only printing money.

This is The Current.

US Politics - One Month of Obama

We started this segment with a clip of U.S. President Barack Obama speaking at his inauguration on January 20th, hitting his familiar themes of hope and change. But just seventeen days later -- at a townhall meeting on February 6th -- President Obama was already sounding as if the realities of governing were taking their toll.

We aired another clip of President Barack Obama defending his proposed economic stimulus package from some harsh Republican criticism. In the end, he got his package. It passed through Congress on Friday and he'll sign it into law today. But in the fight to get it, some observers saw a sense of exasperation that could signal tough times ahead for his administration.

For their thoughts on Barack Obama's first four weeks in office, we were joined by Beau Phillips. He's a former Republican strategist. He's now a partner with the consulting firm, Chlopak, Leonard, Schechter and Associates. He was in Alexandria, Virginia. And Jeff Nussbaum was Vice President Joe Biden's speechwriter during last year's campaign. He's now a partner with West Wing Writers, a speechwriting and strategy firm in Washington.

Al-Jazeera in Canada: Tony Burman

We started this segment with a report from Al-Jazeera's English-language television network during the conflict in Gaza last month. Al-Jazeera English was the only foreign television organization to have reporters inside Gaza during the conflict. And the network says its Gaza coverage sparked a 600 per cent increase in the number of people watching its internet video stream with more than half of those new hits coming from North America.

Al-Jazeera English is the offspring of the original Arab-language network. The original network has been a thorn in the side of most Arab governments at one time or another. And it is frequently criticized for having an anti-Israel and anti-semitic bias. Al Jazeera English is broadcast in more than 100 countries -- including, interestingly, Israel. But it is not available on cable or satellite television in Canada. And Tony Burman is hoping to change that. He is Al Jazeera English's Managing Director. He's also the former Editor-in-Chief of CBC News. Today, he begins the process of formally seeking cable and satellite carriage in Canada. And he was in Toronto.

Reforming Mexican Police

Over the last two years, 40,000 Mexican soldiers have been deployed in the fight against the country's drug cartels. And yet the problem is getting worse. Last year, 5,400 people were killed in drug-related violence in Mexico. And even the Mexican Government acknowledges that the police just can't keep up.

Across the country, police officers are badly paid, poorly trained and disproportionately poor and uneducated. And they don't tend to enjoy the respect of the people they're serving either. We heard from two police officers, Raul Cisneros and Lilliana Perez in Mexico City explaining the situation.

The Mexican Government has acknowledged that the country's police forces need to be reformed. And Walter McKay is trying to help with that. He's a former Canadian police officer who used to walk a beat in Vancouver. He's now the Director of the Police Certification Project at the Institute for Security and Democracy and he spoke to us from Mexico City.