It's Thursday, June 25th.

Former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney has signed a deal to publish his memoir.

Currently, It'll be called "No Comment" and it will contain no vowels, verbs or nouns.

This is The Current.

Part One: Honour Killings

In the fall of 2006, Khatera Sadiqi was 20-years-old and in love. She and her fiancé, Feroz Mangal were planning a wedding and a future. Then, on September 19th, 2006, Khatera Sadiqi's older brother gunned down the couple as they sat in her parked car.

Hasibullah Sadiqi was angry that his sister had moved into her fiancé's family's home and that she was refusing to involve their estranged father in the wedding. Last month, after two days of deliberations, an Ottawa jury rejected Hasibullah Sadiqi's argument that he was out-of-control when he shot the couple and found him guilty of first-degree murder. That means a sentence of life in prison.

And it also makes Hasibullah Sadiqi the first person to be found guilty in Canada of first-degree murder for an honour killing. An honour killing is when someone murders a family member because the murderer believes the victim has brought dishonour on the family or wider country.

In their victim impact statements, the families of Khatera Sadiqi and Feroz Mangal said they came to Canada to escape this kind of violence. We aired some readings from the victim impact statements filed by the families of Khatera Sadiqi and Feroz Mangal.

This morning, we were joined by two people who have grave concerns for women whose families control them, threaten them and take away their lives. But they feel very differently about how the term "honour killing" is used.

Shahrzad Mojab is an Adult Education Professor and the former Director of the Institute for Women's Studies and Gender Studies at the University of Toronto. And Uzma Shakir is the former Executive Director of the South Asian Legal Clinic. They were both in Toronto.

Listen to Part One:

Part 2: Letters

It's time for our weekly foray into the mail. And our Friday host, Evan Solomon joined Anna Maria in studio to help with the mail.

Prison Breaks & Love: One week ago, police arrested escaped convict Andrew John Wood and psychologist Erin Danto ... just north of Kingston, Ontario. Erin Danto has remained in custody, accused of aiding Mr Wood in his escape from the Frontenac Institution, a minimum security facility in Kingston.

Erin Danto worked as a psychologist at the facility and police allege that she and Mr Wood had developed a romantic relationship. That allegation didn't surprise Bridget Kinsella. She is the author of Visiting Life: Women Doing Time on the Outside. She had a relationship with an inmate named Rory and she was on the program on Tuesday. After hearing this interview, we heard from you.

Iran Women - President Mahmoud Ahmedinijad will be sworn in for another term as President, despite protests in the country and admissions by the Guardian Council that there were election irregularities. At many of the demonstrations, women have been showing up in striking numbers. And on Monday, we looked back atthe role women played in political change in Iran. Farah Pahlavi is the widow of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi -- the last Shah of Iran. On Monday, she reflected back on his time in power. Her views incited many to write and we shared some of those letters.

Ervand Abrahamian has written a lot about Iran. He is the author of Iran Between Two Revolutions" and A History of Modern Iran. He was in New York City.

The God Debate: God has been under attack lately. First there was evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins' book The God Delusion. And then there was Christopher Hitchens with, God is Not Great. Well now the defence of God has been taken up by one of Britain's leading literary critics and theorists. Last Friday, author Terry Eagleton took a shot at Hitchens and Dawkins and this conversation prompted our listeners to add their thoughts.

Grunting: What do you call that sound? Grunting, shrieking ... whatever you call it ... That is the sound of young tennis sensation Michelle Larcher de Brito of Portugal. Her very vocal style of play at the French Open left some opponents complaining that she was interfering with their concentration. Yesterday on the program, we took on grunting on the tennis courts and our listeners had some comments to add to this discussion.

Passport Purgatory: Yesterday we heard about the saga of Abdilhakin Mohamed. He is an autistic 25 year old Somali Canadian who is marooned in Kenya because Passport Canada doubts he is who he says he is. We spoke with him in Nairobi yesterday and aired that brief conversation.

Listen to Part Two:




Part 3: Labour Concessions - CUPE

There are public sector picket lines up in a various parts of the country this morning. In Vancouver, ambulance paramedics have been on a picket line for 3 months - 5 percent of them anyway because the rest are designated as essential workers and only 5 percent are allowed to picket at one time.

Windsor's city workers in Ontario are in week eleven of a strike. And Toronto is moving into a fourth day with no garbage collection because of a city-wide strike of about 24-thousand municipal workers. And as the temperature climbs toward 30 degrees, the city's residents aren't happy. The Current's Natasha Dos Santos was at a transfer station yesterday, where people were lining up to cross a picket line to dump their garbage.

The main issues in the labour dispute are health benefits and the right to bank sick days. And, as you heard, many people think the worst economic downturn in decades is the wrong time for unions to be going to the wall on those issues.

But Paul Moist begs to differ. He is the National President of the Canadian Union of Public Employees. CUPE has 600,000 members across Canada, including the striking Toronto workers. Paul Moist was in our Ottawa studio.

Labour Concessions - Panel

But according to a poll conducted on Monday and Tuesday -- the first two days of the Toronto strike -- more than three quarters of residents are opposed to the job action. And 81 per cent would like to see the Ontario Government legislate the municipal workers back to work. Catherine Swift is no fan of the strike but thinks unions should be making concessions during recession. She's the President and CEO of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business and she was at her home just outside Toronto. And Jim Stanford is an economist with the Canadian Auto Workers Union. He was in our Toronto studio.

Last Word - Jerri Nielsen

Stay with us on CBC Radio One. Q is next. And later today on The Point ... The United Nations has singled out Canada as a major producer of methamphetamines and ecstasy. That's on top of our booming business in marijuana. And host Aamer Haleem is asking if Canada deserves our drug-pushing reputation. The Point is at 2 o'clock -- 2:30 in Newfoundland and parts of Labrador. And, tonight at 10 o'clock on CBC Television, it's The National.

We gave the last word this morning to Doctor Jerri Nielson. You may remember her dramatic story from ten years ago. She was an American physician working at the South Pole research station when she diagnosed herself with breast cancer and went on to treat herself until she was rescued in a daring airlift operation. Doctor Nielson died earlier this week, of cancer. She was 57. She spoke to us on The Current in September, 2003 and we ended the program with part of that conversation.

Listen to Part Three:



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