It's Tuesday, October 27th.

A loud protest in the visitors gallery of the House of Commons resulted in several arrests and the brief shutdown of question period on Monday.

Currently, parliamentary observers welcomed the return of more civilized behaviour during Question Period.

This is The Current.

Kidnapped Publisher

Many journalists have to put their lives on the line for their work. But until Friday night, Jagdish Grewal didn't think he was one of them. Mr. Grewal is the Editor and Publisher of the Canadian Punjabi Post, a daily newspaper published in Brampton, Ontario. He left his office late on Friday night. And before he got out of the parking lot, he was viciously attacked by three men. It's unclear what prompted the attack. But other Sikh-Canadian journalists have been targeted for holding views similar to Mr. Grewal's.

Jagdish Grewal managed to escape the attack and he was with Anna Maria in Toronto for the show.

Rupinder Hayer Bains

This is not the first time that a Canadian journalist who covers the Sikh community has been the target of violence or threats. The most high-profile case was the murder of Tara Singh Hayer wasthe publisher of the Indo-Canadian Times. He was shot-dead outside his home in Surrey, British Columbia in November, 1998.

Mr. Hayer had been outspoken in his condemnation of violence in the Sikh nationalist movement and was scheduled to be a witness in the Air India trial. His daughter, Rupinder Hayer Bains, is the current Editor of the Indo-Canadian Times and she was in Surrey.


Listen to Part One:

Too Big to Fail

On the morning of September 17th, 2008, U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson stood surrounded by two dozen staff members and announced that the United States was in the midst of an "economic 9/11." Lehman Brothers had filed for bankruptcy. Merril Lynch had sold itself to Bank of America to avoid a similar fate. And AIG was being kept afloat by an 85-Billion-dollar loan from the Federal Reserve. The United States was on the verge of financial collapse. And it was threatening to take the rest of the world down with it. Over the next few weeks, hundreds of billions of dollars would be ear-marked for a bailout - a move that is still being tested today.

Andrew Ross Sorkin was covering those events as they unfolded. He is the Chief Mergers and Acquisitions reporter for the New York Times. And in his new book, Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System and Themselves, he presents a behind-the-scenes account of what happened and how decisions made more than 10 years ago sowed the seeds of the current debacle.

Andrew Ross Sorkin was in New York City.


Listen to Part Two:

Gay Uganda


Uganda is a pretty tough place to live if you're gay. It's illegal for gays and lesbians to have sex with each other. And the maximum penalty is life imprisonment. Now a proposed new law would go well beyond that. It would require people who know someone is gay to report them to the police within twenty-four hours, or face their own jail term. It would also give a broader definition to the offense of homosexuality. And under some circumstances, the penalty for gay sex would be death.

Uganda's gay and lesbian community is outraged. But it is also afraid. The writer behind a blog called Gay Uganda is so worried about the government monitoring him that he wouldn't speak to us over the phone and would only answer questions by e-mail.

We read you excepts from his emails.

Gay Activist

Julius Kaggwa is with an activist group called Sexual Minorities Uganda. He is leading a campaign against the proposed law and he was in Kampala.

International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission

The Current requested an interview with the Ugandan MP who introduced the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. He wasn't available to speak to us. The bill isn't law yet. But it has caught the attention of human rights activists around the world.

Monica Mbaru says the bill is already responsible for an increase in homophobia and violence in Uganda. She's with the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. And she was in Capetown, South Africa.

Author

Jeff Sharlet says the aggressive stance against gay people in Uganda can be traced to a relationship between the country's President and a fundamentalist Christian group in the United States. Jeff Sharlet is a contributing editor with Harper's and Rolling Stone magazines. He's also the author of, The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism At The Heart Of American Power. And he was in Palm Beach, Florida.

Music Bridge

Artist: Theivery Corporation
Cd: Radio Retaliation
Cut: 10, La Femme Parellele
Label: ESL

Last Word - Ricky Gervais

We ended today's program with a word from British comedian Ricky Gervais. Yesterday, he was announced as this year's host of the Golden Globe Awards ... the first time the awards ceremony has had a host since 1995. Six years ago, the Golden Globes gave Ricky Gervais a big career boost when a little-known British sit-com called The Office won for best comedy series. That win helped pave the way for the now hugely popular American version.

In today's last word, a piece of Ricky Gervais' stand-up routine-- his musings on a nursery rhyme. We hope it cracks you up.

Listen to Part Three:

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