The National Blog

Loblaw Statements on Bangladesh Factory Collapse

2013-04-26T21:37:32Z

Loblaw Statements on Factory Collapse Statement from April 26th, 2013

We continue to express our condolences to those affected in Savar, Bangladesh and we are deeply saddened by this tragedy. Our priorities are helping impacted employees and their families, and driving change to help prevent similar incidents like this in the future.

In Savar, we are aligning with other apparel retailers to support local efforts and provide aid and resources. Senior representatives from Loblaw Companies' sustainable supply chain team will be en-route soon to meet with local officials in Bangladesh to get a precise response on what caused this tragedy. We are committed to supporting local authorities in the rescue and care of affected families. When we have more details, we will share with you.

We are committed to finding an approach that ensures safe working conditions, drives lasting change in the industry and help prevents other tragedies. To that end, on Monday, April 29, Loblaws Inc., is joining other retailers and the Retail Council of Canada in an urgent meeting of its Responsible Trade Committee to discuss how to address this unfortunate situation and be a part of the solution. Loblaw has engaged with the Federal Government through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for their assistance in our efforts. We've engaged with a number of organizations including Canada's Maquila Solidarity Network and their executive director Kevin Thomas to gain input into potential solutions, as well as international audit companies.

Loblaws Inc. vendor standards are designed to ensure that products are manufactured in a socially responsible way, for a safe and sustainable work environment. Our audits align with those of industry around the world, but we recognize that these measures do not address the issue of building construction or integrity. Loblaw is committed to finding solutions to this situation by expanding the scope of our requirements to ensure the physical safety of workers producing our products.

We don't have all the answers today, but we are taking steps to drive change, and to finding solutions to ensure safe working conditions at the production facilities with which we do business.

Statement from April 25, 2013

We continue to express our condolences to those affected by the tragedy in

Bangladesh and we are deeply saddened by this incident. We remain

persistent in our effort to reach our vendor in Bangladesh to understand

what caused this tragedy and to determine precisely how best to help the

employees and their families. We are committed to supporting local

authorities in the rescue and care of affected families. When we have more

details, we will share with you.

Loblaws Inc. has robust vendor standards designed to ensure that products

are manufactured in a socially responsible way, ensuring a safe and

sustainable work environment. We engage international auditing firms to

inspect against these standards. We will not work with vendors who do not

meet our standards.

Our audits align with those of industry around the world; however in light

of the recent tragedies in Bangladesh we recognize that these measures do

not address the issue of building construction or integrity. Loblaw is

committed to finding solutions to this situation by expanding the scope of

our requirements to ensure the physical safety of workers producing our

products. We want to improve and we want to find a solution that helps

stop these incidents from happening. We are in the process of reaching out

to industry groups like the Retail Council of Canada, other retailers in

Canada and abroad, as well as government in an effort to establish a

collective to undertake a review and address Bangladesh's approach to

factory standards. We are aware of a number of similar efforts around the

globe and we plan on playing an active role. We don't have all the answers

today. But we are committed to taking the necessary steps to drive change,

and find better solutions to ensure safe working conditions for production

facilities with which we do business.

Statement from April 24, 2013

We are extremely saddened to learn of the collapse of a building complex in Bangladesh and our condolences go out to those affected by this tragedy. The large complex, housing a commercial bank and shopping mall, also included a factory that produced a small number of Joe Fresh apparel items for Loblaws Inc. We will be working with our vendor to understand how we may be able to assist them during this time.

Loblaws Inc. has vendor standards, which spell out the standard requirements of working with us to ensure that products are being manufactured in a socially responsible way, and specifically prohibiting child harassment and abuse or forced labour; and ensuring fair pay and benefits and compliance with applicable health and safety regulations. We audit against these standards on a regular basis.

We hope to hear more from the authorities about the status of this situation and we are committed to supporting them.

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Rehtaeh Parsons was my daughter

2013-04-10T22:07:25Z

Glen Canning, the father of Rehtaeh Parsons, says he's too devastated to speak publicly about his daughter's suicide. He instead chose to post the following blog entry on his website. ]]> Glen Canning, the father of Rehtaeh Parsons, says he's too devastated to speak publicly about his daughter's suicide. He instead chose to post the following blog entry on his website.

By Glen Canning

My daughter was three years old when we went to watch Babe: Pig in the City. There's a part in the movie when Babe knocks over a goldfish bowl and the fish falls onto the floor and starts flopping around. When this happened Rae suddenly stood up on her chair in the movie theatre and started screaming for someone to help the fish. She cried for it as I tried to reassure her Babe would help (thank God he did) and that the fish would be alright.

That was the nature of my daughter Rehtaeh. She was like that her whole life. I couldn't go for a walk in Halifax with her without her asking me for change to give to someone in need. She was always looking out for people or animals that needed help. She called Animal Control Services on our neighbors because they left their dog outside too long. Her room and her life was always full of little creatures.

Sometimes her heart was too big, sometimes it scared me.

They say parents need to teach their children. Instead, it was Rehtaeh who was my teacher. My precious gift. She was the absolute best part of my life.

There's a wooden box in my house that holds all the memories I have of my beautiful little girl. The outfit she wore home from the hospital, a hand print in clay, art, school cards and drawings, mementoes of her life. Even a newspaper dated December 9th, 1995, the day she came into this world.
I tried to keep it all for her, to have someday when she grew up and had her own family. That day will never come.

Rehtaeh died April 7th at 11:15 PM. She was 17 years old.

She died struggling to live, much as she spent the last 18 months. She hung on right to the very end, when the nurses were telling us if she couldn't be declared brain dead soon they couldn't use her as an organ donor. We couldn't wait any longer. She couldn't live any longer. And right at the last moment there was a change in her blood pressure as the last part of her brain gave away. She knew she had to leave. It was time to let go and find peace.

It was so like her to hang on right up until the very last second. To give us all a chance to hold her hand, wipe her tears away, and kiss her beautiful face for the last time.

I tried my best to save my daughter's life. I believe that in my heart.

I asked her repeatedly what I could do, was I doing enough, what did she want from me? She said she just wanted me to be her dad. To make her laugh. To do everything possible to keep a part of her life normal. She said it helped more than I could ever know.

I prayed for the best while I prepared her for the worst. We went to counseling together. Sometimes I was the drive, sometimes the father, sometimes the counselor.

The worst nightmare of my life has just begun. I loved my beautiful baby with all my heart. She meant everything to me. I felt her heart beating in my soul from the moment she was born until the moment she died. We were a team. We were best pals. We often sat on my couch and laughed until we could hardly speak. When we weren't together she would call me or text me every single day, just to say hi, to say she loved me. The life I had with my daughter was a rare thing. It was wonderful, it consumed me. I was defined by it. It made my life rich and beautiful.

She was amazing.

Yesterday I looked at another wooden box. It will hold her ashes. I hate it.

I had to write something about this. I don't want her life to defined by a Google search about suicide or death or rape. I want it to be about the giving heart she had. Her smile. Her love of life and the beautiful way in which she lived it.

I found out this afternoon my daughter saved the life of a young woman with her heart. How fitting.

She also gave someone a new liver, a kidney, a new breath, and a new chance to love. She saved the lives of four people with her final gift of life. She was that wonderful.

Someone out there is going to look at the world with my daughter's eyes. The most beautiful eyes I have ever seen.

To the Justice Minister of Nova Scotia

Rehtaeh Parsons thought the worst outcome for her case would be no charges against the men who raped her but we all know better. The worst thing that could happen would be charges. That they would be found guilty, and that Rehtaeh would sit on a court bench and listen in utter disbelief as they were given parole, or a suspended sentence, or community service. All for completely destroying her life while they laughed.

Why is it they didn't just think they would get away with it; they knew they would get away with it. They took photos of it. They posted it on their Facebook walls. They emailed it to God knows who. They shared it with the world as if it was a funny animation.

How is it possible for someone to leave a digital trail like that yet the RCMP don't have evidence of a crime? What were they looking for if photos and bragging weren't enough?

Why was this treated like a minor incident of bullying rather than a rape? Isn't the production and distribution of child porn a crime in this country? Numerous people were emailed that photo. The police have that information (or at least they told us they did). When someone claims they were raped is it normal to wait months before talking to the accused?

You have the opportunity here to do something good and lets face it; the court system in Nova Scotia was just going to rape her all over again with indifference to her suffering and the damage this did to her.

My daughter wasn't bullied to death, she was disappointed to death. Disappointed in people she thought she could trust, her school, and the police.

She was my daughter, but she was your daughter too.

For the love of God do something.

***I've been contacted from media outlets from all over the world and as a past member of the media I understand why you all want to speak with me. You have all been very courteous, professional, and respectful. Please know, however, this is the only statement I am able to make. I'm [too] devastated.***

I feel like I'm dead inside.

King Kwong

2013-03-27T20:23:00Z

Every once in a while in this job I am honoured to shake the hand of history. That happened this week when I met Larry Kwong, a true gentleman if there ever was one and a real piece of Canadian history. Every once in a while in this job I am honoured to shake the hand of history. That happened this week when I met Larry Kwong, a true gentleman if there ever was one and a real piece of Canadian history.

When you mention the name "Kwong" in this country most people think of Normie Kwong, the Calgary Stampeders football player and the 16th Lieutenant Governor of Alberta.

The lesser-known Larry Kwong, is from Vernon, B.C. and he was the first person of colour to play in the NHL. Many folks think that was another Canadian too, Willie O'Ree from New Brunswick, a black man. But Larry, a Chinese-Canadian, played for the New York Rangers almost ten years earlier. By all accounts Larry was a true star of the game. He was a leading goal scorer for its farm club, the Rovers, when he laced up his skates as a Ranger on March 13th, 1948.

After sitting on the bench for two periods, his career in the NHL lasted exactly one shift about a minute in the third. His team lost 3-2 to Montreal and the Rangers lost a top prospect. Larry was so disappointed he left, going on to a fabulous career in the Quebec Senior League and overseas. Players like Jean Beliveau and Toe Blake remembered his playing skills years later.

What happened to Larry is as much about the Chinese struggle for identity in this country, indeed in North America, as it is about hockey. Larry told me that earlier in his career he would sometimes hold back, afraid his talent and his colour would be too much of a target. Yet he kept his composure, kept pursuing his dream and always maintained his dignity.

Larry will be 90 in June. Another young man with a Chinese heritage, teacher Chad Soon, is now helping to spread the word about Larry's accomplishments. This story is my little contribution and I tell it with pleasure. Larry is a true star, a Canadian hockey hero and a great one at that.
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Has anything really changed for India's women?

2013-01-14T18:30:16Z

Stephanie Jenzer was Nahlah Ayed's producer on this story.

Stephanie Jenzer was Nahlah Ayed's producer on this story. She filed this blog post from New Delhi:

A couple of nights ago, my colleagues and I were driving through the streets of New Delhi, trying to get a feel for the city after the sun sets.

More than a few young women had been telling us about their self-imposed curfews, how they don't feel safe to go out past eight o'clock, especially if they have to take public transportation. They felt that way even before the brutal rape and murder of a 23-year-old student last month.

The leering, teasing and groping from men is disturbing enough during the day, they all seemed to agree, unthinkable to contemplate trying to cope with it at night too. What about counting on the police for protection? Forget about that as well, they told us.

Faced with such massive public mistrust as well as stinging criticism in the wake of the young woman's gang rape, authorities here are trying to win back confidence with attempts at good public relations.

When our crew asked the police if we could accompany them on a night patrol of city streets, not only was our request readily accepted, but our escort was a female officer. Among the demands of protesters in India has been to increase the numbers of women cops. Right now, only a tiny fraction of the force is female.

So, correspondent Nahlah Ayed and camera operator Jonathan Castell hopped in the cramped back of a New Delhi police vehicle while I followed in another car.

We hadn't traveled further than a few kilometers when we hit one, then another and then yet another police checkpoint. In total we must have passed through more than a dozen sets of barricades in less than an hour. So many that our local fixer remarked he'd rarely seen as much police presence on the streets of New Delhi at night.

Early into our drive-along, as if on cue, the vehicle I was in got pulled over for an intense inspection. Not because the driver was speeding or navigating erratically, but because the cops had spotted me, with my blond hair obviously a foreigner, seated next to an Indian driver. Seemed it was reason enough to be suspicious and to take a closer look.

Perhaps demands for stricter policing are slowly coming into effect, but even if that's the case, many in New Delhi continue to question for how long.

The skepticism here is palpable. Just consider the statistics, numbers that have become oft repeated in the past month.

A woman is raped every 22 minutes in India.

In New Delhi alone, officials acknowledge that of the 635 rape cases brought to court last year, only one resulted in a conviction.

As very few rapes actually get reported, the situation for women is obviously a lot worse.

We kept hearing stories of some women who dared go to police to report molestations or rapes, only to face authorities who'd try to talk them out of it.

So, those checkpoints and measures, such as warnings on bus shelters and promises of fast-track trials for suspected rapists -- are they mere Band-Aids or actual solutions?

Many here believe what really has to change is a deep-rooted mindset among some men, that it's okay to harass women just because nobody has ever told them it's not okay. That rape is a woman's fault, or that it's just the way things are in Indian society.

Well, maybe not anymore. Skeptical or not, certainly a generation is waking up. The protests fueled by anger and disgust in the aftermath of a young woman's sickening assault have led many to now find their voice.

For many women it just hasn't necessarily led them safely onto the streets of New Delhi after the sun goes down... at least not yet.

Boomtown, USA

2013-01-04T21:14:54Z

Paul Hunter reports from North Dakota, where there's an oil boom for the ages underway. He looks at what this means for the state and the rest of North America.

Photo Gallery

While in North Dakota, Paul Hunter took these photographs to illustrate how the oil boom is changing the City of Williston.

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Science Stories of 2012

2012-12-24T16:53:48Z

Bob McDonald, host of CBC's Quirks and Quarks, tells us about the top science stories of 2012. ]]> Bob McDonald, host of CBC's Quirks and Quarks, tells us about the top science stories of 2012.

Part 2:

Greg Gilhooly's Victim Impact Statement

2012-12-03T20:32:05Z

My name is Greg Gilhooly. I was repeatedly sexually abused by Graham James over a three year period beginning in 1979. This is my victim impact statement. ]]>
My name is Greg Gilhooly. I was repeatedly sexually abused by Graham James over a three year period beginning in 1979. This is my victim impact statement.

I am not sure that I can adequately describe in words the full extent of the impact that Graham has had on me. Even as I write this he is not "Graham James", or "Mr. James", or even "the Defendant". To me he is still just "Graham", who was once a friend, a mentor, somebody who was going to help me become everything I dreamed of becoming.

All I ever wanted was to be the best me that I could be. It is easy to see now that Graham never for a moment cared about that. But at the time I put all the faith and trust that a fourteen year-old dreaming about his future could have into him. I have had to live with that decision for the rest of my life, every single day of my life.

The easy part of assessing impact is to consider the actual physical actions themselves. Still, words like "massaging", "touching", "fondling", "groping", "masturbating", "oral sex", and "ejaculating", words which attempt to describe various actions, can't come close to describing the horror of what was going on. I live with the horror of those actions, and there is no erasing them. And until they invent a pill that allows you to control your own dreams and nightmares, I never know when I will revisit those horrors in my sleep.

The harder part of dealing with Graham's impact is looking at who I was, who I became, and who I must become to better deal with this.

Graham left me with questions about myself that I have had to deal with for over thirty years, questions that would come up at times I couldn't control. They would haunt me in the middle of the night, waking me up in a sweat and leaving me unable to fall back asleep. They would come up in the midst of me working on a file at work, taking me back to a different time and place. The questions would be front and centre during a handshake or a seemingly normal conversation, me doing my best to put on a mask to get through the encounter until I could retreat to suffer in solitude. The questions would always be there throughout intimate moments with somebody I loved.

Who am I?

Why did he pick me? He must have seen I was weak. People must see me as weak. I must be some sort of joke.

Why did my body respond to his advances and actions? I must have liked it.

Why didn't I stop it? I must have wanted it. I deserve what I am feeling now. I deserve to feel like his leftover garbage.

How could somebody like him control somebody like me? I am worthless and weak. I am not the strong, tall, intelligent, athlete people see on the outside. I am a fraud.

I am a fraud, worthless and weak. What you see isn't real. I am a failure, and I deserve failure, not success.

Can't you see that I'm a fraud? I am a failure, not worthy of this success. I will show you I am a failure, worthless and weak.

What about the others I know who followed me? It's all my fault for not stopping him. I am responsible for their pain. I have enabled him in his crimes. I deserve to be punished.

Who am I? I am somebody who wanted it, who liked it, who is a fraud, who is worthless and weak, a failure who deserves to be punished.

Who am I? I am a fraud, his garbage, his enabler. I am somebody who doesn't deserve to live.

When I met Graham I was a fourteen year-old straight-A student who had already skipped a year in school, winning academic awards while playing AAA hockey and receiving athletic awards. A goalie, I had the lowest goals against average in our league while playing on a team that sometimes, but not always, advanced in the playoffs. I was scouted and recruited for both junior and college hockey. I didn't go to parties, the guys I played hockey with were a year behind me and at different schools, and I kept to myself. As a friend said, I didn't fit in with the geeks because I was a jock, and I didn't fit in with the jocks because I was a geek.

I was me. I was fourteen turning fifteen, gangly, even then almost six and a half feet tall. I was alone. All I wanted was acceptance, somewhere, in some group, someplace where I would fit in, where I would be understood. My goal was to go to an Ivy League school and play hockey, like my idol, Ken Dryden.

And then along came Graham. The hockey coach who was a teacher. The local star coach who was revolutionizing the game with his theories of Soviet and Swedish systems, who was on his way to taking his Midget AAA team to the national championships while bringing an academic focus to the game. With me he focused on my academic dreams as much as, if not more than, the hockey dreams. He was everything I could have wanted in a mentor. I, the scholar-athlete, was everything he, the teacher with a Masters in English (as he would tell us - only later did we learn he didn't even get his B.A. until he took courses while in jail after his first convictions) could have wanted. He told me he wanted to bring me up to his Midget team, two years older than my Bantam team, for the national championships. What he really wanted was something else.

He groomed me. He didn't touch me for months, but he made my world his. He told me he could get me into Princeton through his contacts. He worked with me, encouraged me, told me what I could do, told me that I was talented, and with a bit of a push, I could achieve my goals, academic and athletic. He told me that I had to keep his help secret, for various reasons that now seem stupid but then seemed real, as if he held all power over the walls which were closing in on me. And then he got me, and I thought that I had nobody to go to for help. He kept me under his spell by threatening to tell people I was gay, to tell the people at school that I was a problem, that my Ivy League dream would evaporate, that I wasn't deserving. Of course, as it turns out he had no contacts at Princeton, and I got in on my own in spite of him, not because of him. But he had me, and the abuse continued.

The physical abuse continued until I went away to Princeton. The mental abuse, it never ended. The dark thoughts, the answers to the questions, were always there.

People must see me as weak. I must be some sort of joke. I am not the strong, tall, intelligent, athlete people see on the outside. I am a fraud. What you see isn't real. I am a failure, and I deserve failure, not success. I will show you I am a failure, worthless and weak. I deserve to be punished. I am somebody who doesn't deserve to live.

I didn't deserve Princeton, so I would take a transcript full of A's and trash it by not doing the required course work. I believed that the hockey coach who recruited me at Princeton was Graham's "contact", and threw away any chance of success in the program through any number of self-sabotaging ways. Still I managed to get into the University of Toronto Law School, but of course the same pattern repeated itself. I played hockey for the U of T Varsity Blues, but without the contacts I needed. I managed to secure a position as a summer and articling student at Torys, one of the country's leading law firms, only to guarantee no hire back by skipping assignments in the midst of reviews of my work stating I was among the best students the firm had ever had.

Repeatedly, the innocent fourteen year-old pre-Graham boy could open doors to the most prestigious of institutions. Repeatedly, the post-Graham young man could shut them just as quickly. And not just shut them, but trash them. Burn bridges. Alienate those who had once supported him.

This cycle of stealing defeat from the jaws of victory has played out throughout my professional career, in my personal relationships, during my marriage, and with my friendships. I abused my body and in my self-loathing put on weight. Everything that I ever had that was good in my life I have broken. Everything.

I don't belong here. I don't deserve this. I am a fraud. What you think you see isn't real. The real me is a failure. I'll show you failure. I don't deserve to live.

Fortunately I was a failure at that too.

Except now I have come forward. I am getting help. I am in therapy. I am getting proper care and treatment. I have reconnected with my mother, brother, and sister. My daughter is a shining light in my life, while my former stepson shines too from a distance. I have support. I have begun reconnecting with friends who ask no questions, who forgive me for dropping out of their lives. I held my last job for almost six years in the midst of much upheaval, leaving at my suggestion to take time to deal with this situation. I will continue to get better, and the past will no longer define who I am. But the past will always be there, a part of that tapestry of life.

I am not to proud to admit that I know that I will need help going forward, as that is the true legacy of his actions. I will need the understanding and help of family, friends, and supporters to continue to get through this.

But I can now answer those questions he left with me, I can say the words, and I have begun to start living the answers, not just saying them.

I was a victim. It wasn't my fault. I'm not responsible for what he did to Todd or Theo or Sheldon. I deserved Princeton, and deserved whatever success I had there. I deserved the UofT law school and the Varsity Blues. I deserved Torys. I deserved to be General Counsel at CanWest. I deserved to be General Counsel at Cookie Jar Entertainment. I deserved to be married, to have a wonderful daughter and to parent a wonderful son. I deserve my friends. I deserve to be healthy and in-shape again.

I deserve a good life with a happy ending.

And all of that is good. But I was reminded again just last night that until they invent a pill that allows you to control your own dreams and nightmares, you never know when the horrors will reappear. When it comes to considering the impact on a victim when sentencing Graham, I urge everyone to take a moment to think about that - the horror never, ever. goes away.

Greg Gilhooly

Mums on a Mission

2012-11-07T19:44:47Z

There may not be campaigning on a wide scale for the top political jobs in China, but there's certainly campaigning on the part of concerned parents.

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You think you have it bad? Tired of your parents talking up your single status to their friends? Spare a thought for the children of the mums for whom Wednesdays and Sundays launch "please marry my kid" campaigns in Beijing's Temple of Heaven park. And just like political campaigners, they came armed with their best propaganda and sales pitch.

They lay pictures and CVs on small tables and benches for other parents to peruse. What sort of education? What sort of possessions, skills, hobbies? Marks good? How about your handsome son meeting my talented daughter?

With each other, they were gregarious, insistent. With the strangers looking on, they were considerably more shy. Some didn't want to show pictures of their children. And, as our friend (who we'll call Jen) explained, that's not just because they feel a bit embarrassed.

Sometimes, the son or daughter doesn't know what mom is up to. Jen had no idea her mom had been shopping her around at the park. Her mother claims she stopped when Jen discovered her secret but she's suspicious and still a bit irked. "Marriage is really important," explained one woman, helpfully. Jen's not yet convinced and, approaching 30, says she's worried she'll be considered a "leftover woman".

Such aggressive and enthusiastic campaigning in this season of global political wrangling somehow seems right but rather wrong here. China's once-in-a-decade leadership transition has enough at stake for an entire nation of 1.3bn to battle loudly and lobby. But, while most suspect they know who will take the top two spots, the rest of the process and the characters who will emerge victorious remain (and will remain) a complete mystery. China demands and likes it that way. The threat that public displays of dissent would create are seen as just too much.

So campaigning, griping, lobbying are both out of the question and pointless. But if you want your fix of politicking here, for now, it seems best to resort to watching the parks on Wednesday and Sunday--for the mums on a mission.

The Fight For Canada's Oil

2012-10-24T15:11:36Z

On Tuesday, October 24, and Wednesday, October 25, The National is in Alberta taking a closer look at the fight for Canada's oil. What's at stake? Who are the key players?
Tonight, we are in Calgary.

Peter has an interview with Don Wishart, TransCanada's Executive Vice-President Operations and Major Projects.

Carolyn Dunn follows the XL pipeline route and talks to people along the way about the stakes.

Duncan McCue looks at Kinder Morgan's plans to double capacity in its existing Trans Mountain pipeline to Vancouver, and ship more crude by supertanker.

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Why Obama chose fear over hope

2012-10-19T20:29:36Z

With the debates having changed the trajectory of the US election, it is now the conventional wisdom that Obama is missing a forward looking, aspirational message.
There are only two kinds of campaigns, as legendary pollster and campaign strategist Martin Goldfarb told me years ago: fear or hope. Obama is running a campaign of fear against Romney. As the race tightens in the stretch, many Democrats and pundits are asking why Obama has chosen fear, and where is the hope message that carried him to victory in 2008.

As I regularly say on The Insiders, when politicians or political parties are doing something that seems inexplicable, you could assume they're making a dumb mistake but it could also be more likely that they know something you don't know.

As I watch the Obama campaign, I think back to my experience helping to run the 2004 national Liberal campaign. Few decisions we made engendered more criticism from Party members and media than the fact that we were not running on Paul Martin's economic accomplishments in the 1990s. Slaying the deficit and growing the economy had been his signature accomplishments and the factors that threw him into political prominence. It seemed obvious that the economic record would be the centrepiece of the campaign. It was inexplicable that we spent our time defining and marginalizing Stephen Harper instead of trumpeting our accomplishments.

However, research had told us that in the intervening years, economic prosperity had come to be taken for granted and was not associated with any party or politician. More problematically, a series of spending controversies culminating in the Sponsorship scandal had removed any capacity to run on financial management skills. We could not run on our record as we saw it, because that was no longer the way voters saw it.

If Obama is running on fear rather than hope, it is likely because the very skillful team behind him has concluded that hope is not in their arsenal anymore. What they are left with is, "it could've been--and could be--worse."]]>

Touring Temple Square

2012-10-18T21:37:09Z

In learning more about Mormonism for our documentary, The Book Of Romney, we were taken on a special walking tour of Temple Square in Salt Lake City by a fellow who knows his stuff. ]]> By: Paul Hunter

In learning more about Mormonism for our documentary, The Book Of Romney, we were taken on a special walking tour of Temple Square in Salt Lake City by a fellow who knows his stuff - Richard Hinkley - a church elder and son of a former leader of the Mormon Church. Since there was only room for a small bit of that tour in our documentary we've edited together some of the raw footage so anyone can enjoy a kind of virtual walkabout.

Watch this clip for a lesson on Mormon history with stroll through the square, inside the Tabernacle and past the famous Temple itself.

'Fatal Deception' wins CMA award

2012-10-18T16:23:06Z

Fatal Deception, a documentary by Terence McKenna that aired on our program last February, has received an Award of Excellence in Health Reporting from the Canadian Medical Association.]]> Fatal Deception, a documentary by Terence McKenna that aired on our program last February, has received an Award of Excellence in Health Reporting from the Canadian Medical Association. The documentary examines if the federal government is relying on junk science to justify its support for re-opening asbestos mines in Quebec.

The team who created Fatal Deception are:

Gil Shochat, Producer
Joseph Loiero, Associate Producer
Alex Shprintsen, Co-Producer
Mark Bochsler, Camera
Charles Bergeron, Editor

Click here to see the full list of the 2012 Media Award for Health Reporting recipients.

The New Great Game

2012-10-12T15:55:38Z

The New Great Game is a special three-part series from filmmaker Alexandre Trudeau. Follow along as he navigates the world's most pivotal shipping route, the Straight of Hormuz, on board an oil tanker. ]]>
The New Great Game is a special three-part series from filmmaker Alexandre Trudeau. Follow along as he navigates the world's most pivotal shipping route, the Straight of Hormuz, on board an oil tanker.

At every turn, Alexandre tells the story of how ocean-borne trade is the foundation of a fraught and changing global economy. With his prime vantage point, he takes viewers through critical choke points on the route, painting a tense portrait of piracy, terrorism and security, that some of the world's most powerful nations are trying to control.

Part 1 of Alexandre's three-part series can be found here.

Be Yourself, Free Yourself

2012-09-25T02:00:00Z

As a journalist, I sometimes find myself thinking, "we have to find more reasons for people to want to turn on the television, rather than giving them the inclination to turn it off."
As a journalist, I sometimes find myself thinking, "we have to find more reasons for people to want to turn on the television, rather than giving them the inclination to turn it off."

There's a lot of bad news out there and many news organizations tend to gravitate toward it. I fear it has become our nature, maybe it always was. It can be more than a little overwhelming.

Then I hear about an inner city cop who just wants to make a difference, to give kids, many of them from immigrant families, a chance to learn new things, to "be themselves and free themselves," as he puts it. There can be a lot of ugliness on those streets and kids are easily pulled in. Constable Kevin Gibson has seen it, up close.

He's put a lot of "sweat equity" into Status4, and convinced some like-minded volunteers to join him. Their efforts deserve recognition. I think this is part of what "Only in Canada" is too. This new segment on The National reflects geography, culture, unique things happening in Canadian communities, big or small.

Constable Gibson had an idea, to use his musical abilities to develop a program where kids could learn to sing, to play, to be themselves, all offered free of charge. But, he is dreaming big and hopes to see programs like this right across the country. That makes it worth turning on the television for.

Click here to learn more about Status4 on their website
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Photo Gallery: Gjoa Haven, Nunavut

2012-09-11T15:56:53Z

In the second of a two-night special series from the north, Peter Mansbridge travels to the tiny hamlet of Gjoa Haven to hear from the local Inuit about their untapped knowledge of the mysterious expedition.

If Parks Canada has success in the renewed search for the lost Franklin expedition, it will be in part because the Inuit people of King William Island have pointed the way.

For generations, the Inuit have passed down an oral history about what happened to the ill-fated ships, including detailed stories about where it happened, and the struggle for survival.

In the second of a two-night special series from the north, Peter Mansbridge travels to the tiny hamlet of Gjoa Haven to hear from the local Inuit about their untapped knowledge of the mysterious expedition.

Watch the first part of the two-part series.

Finding Franklin will be broadcast on Saturday, Sept. 15th at 10 p.m. and 1 a.m., and on Sunday, Sept. 16th at 8 p.m.

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