It's Tuesday, January 13th.

In his final press conference, George Bush said the fact that Saddam Hussein didn't have weapons of mass destruction was a "significant disapointment."

Currently, You know, I'm really going to miss that guy.

This is The Current.


Part 1: The President-elect's policies and Canadian's

Across Canada, Barack Obama is posting approval ratings our own leaders can only dream of. In the run-up to the American Presidential Election, as many as 80 per cent of Canadians said they approved of Obama.

The fact that he's picked Canada for his first official state visit and that he'll likely be addressing parliament is fueling the enthusiasm. But there are some Canadians who are withholding judgment until they see the fine print on the President-elect's policies especially on economic issues. Historically, Democrats have been more protectionist, which can mean less trade with Canada. And during the campaign, Obama expressed concerns about NAFTA. That has people like Larry Skinner worried. He's a pig farmer near Listowell, Ontario and we heard a clip from him for the show.

For their thoughts on what an Obama Presidency will really mean for the Canadian economy, Anna Maria was joined now by Paul Cellucci. He's a former U.S. ambassador to Canada and he was in Boston for the show. And Anne Golden is the President and CEO of the Conference Board of Canada. It's a public policy and economic research group and she was in our Toronto studio.


Listen to Part One:



Part 2: God's Land

Forty years ago, a group of Canadian Mennonites packed up and headed for Bolivia. They went in search of good farm land and isolation. And that's what they got. But now, their quiet, comfortable existence has been caught up in a fierce political debate.

According to one study, the majority of arable land in Bolivia is concentrated on just 700 farms leaving many of the country's indigenous people with little or nothing. Evo Morales has vowed to change that. He's Bolivia's first indigenous leader and he's proposing a series of new laws on land ownership as well as a new constitution that Bolivians will vote on in two weeks. And if those laws pass, the Mennonites -- and there are nearly ten thousand of them -- could see their way of life disappear.

Freelance broadcaster Sarah Richards traveled to eastern Bolivia to visit these reclusive Mennonite communities. And she's prepared this documentary about their uncertain future. It's called God's Land.


Listen to Part Two:



Part 3: Libel Tourism

Rachel Ehrenfeld is an author who specializes in the field of counterterrorism. A little more than five years ago, she published a book called Funding Evil: How Terrorism is Financed and How to Stop It. In it, she named several people that she said were financing terrorist acts. One of the people she named -- a Saudi billionaire -- decided to sue her in England, even though her book hadn't been published there.

Under American libel law, the onus is on the person who feels they have been libeled to prove their case. But in the United Kingdom -- and elsewhere -- it's the opposite. The burden is on the person accused of libel to back up what she wrote.
Rachel Ehrenfeld eventually lost that case. And now she's fighting a campaign against what she -- and some lawyers -- are calling "libel tourism."
Rachel Ehrenfeld was in New York City.

Last Word

Yesterday, Prince Harry apologized for inappropriate -- some say racist -- comments he made three years ago while serving in the British military. But in his apology, the prince goes to great lengths to say that his intentions were not mean-spirited and that the context -- the way soldiers talk together -- should be taken into account.

So we asked Evan Wright what he thought about that. He has been embedded with Canadian and American troops. And his experience with U.S. Marines is chronicled in his book, Generation Kill, which is also an HBO mini-series. We'll leave you with his thoughts.


Listen to Part Three:



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