Chinese consulate predics result of Toronto mayoral election

Amusing:

The Chinese consulate seems to be stepping into Toronto’s mayoral race by sending one candidate — George Smitherman —to speak at an “international mayors’ forum on tourism” in central China.

The four-day, expenses-paid trip starting Thursday, which includes a side trip to World Expo 2010 in Shanghai, is raising eyebrows because Smitherman has never held city office.

“The Chinese consulate is showing favouritism toward one mayoral candidate and that’s not very diplomatic,” said rival Giorgio Mammoliti, adding: “If Smitherman wants to go to China and pretend to be an expert on tourism, so be it.”

From the Star. Of course, the consulate is simply making an educated guess about who they'll be dealing with come fall, but it comes across as kind of presumptuous. Still, worse things have happened.

My dad told me once that before the 1988 federal election, a US official was asked by media about the progress of the Canada-US free trade agreement, and in explaining that the issue would be more settled after the election, casually mentioned the date of the election, before it was called. If true, this would mean that the Mulroney government told a foreign power about when they would call the election, before telling the Canadian people. That's far worse than a consulate speculating about who would win...

Quebecor eyes Fox News-style TV for Canada

This is not out of character for Quebecor, considering that they're Sun Media's parent company:

The former chief spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper is spearheading a bid by Quebecor Inc. to set up a Fox News-style TV station in Canada with an unabashedly right-of-centre perspective.

Quebecor has filed an application with the CRTC, Canada's broadcast regulator, to operate an English-language news channel. The application has not yet been made public but a source says an announcement on the venture is “imminent.”

Kory Teneycke served as director of communications to Mr. Harper in 2008 and 2009 and this week was appointed vice-president of business development at Quebecor Media Inc.

He's been working since last summer on contract for Quebecor, investigating the feasibility of creating a more unconventional news outlet that speaks to conservative-minded Canadians.

From the Globe. The scary thing is, this might work, and could have an impact on the electorate.

Could life exist on Mars?

It seems there are places on Earth as inhospitable as Mars, yet life exists there:

Researchers at McGill's department of natural resources, the National Research Council of Canada, the University of Toronto and the SETI Institute have discovered that methane-eating bacteria survive in a highly unique spring located on Axel Heiberg Island in Canada's extreme North. Dr. Lyle Whyte, McGill University microbiologist explains that the Lost Hammer spring supports microbial life, that the spring is similar to possible past or present springs on Mars, and that therefore they too could support life.

The subzero water is so salty that it doesn't freeze despite the cold, and it has no consumable oxygen in it. There are, however, big bubbles of methane that come to the surface, which had provoked the researchers' curiosity as to whether the gas was being produced geologically or biologically and whether anything could survive in this extreme hypersaline subzero environment. "We were surprised that we did not find methanogenic bacteria that produce methane at Lost Hammer," Whyte said, "but we did find other very unique anaerobic organisms -- organisms that survive by essentially eating methane and probably breathing sulfate instead of oxygen."

From ScienceDaily. However, there's a caveat here; while those conditions allow life to exist, it's possible that more hospitable conditions are required for the origin of life (hard to say, of course, since we've never seen it happen). The microbes discovered by these researchers may well have invaded from elsewhere.

US conducted research on torture -- report

Physicians for Human Rights reports that the Bush administration conducted research on "enhanced interrogation techniques" with human subjects:

In the most comprehensive investigation to date of health professionals’ involvement in the CIA’s “enhanced” interrogation program (EIP), Physicians For Human Rights has uncovered evidence that indicates the Bush administration apparently conducted illegal and unethical human experimentation and research on detainees in CIA custody. The apparent experimentation and research appear to have been performed to provide legal cover for torture, as well as to help justify and shape future procedures and policies governing the use of the “enhanced” interrogation techniques. The PHR report, Experiments in Torture: Human Subject Research and Evidence of Experimentation in the ‘Enhanced’ Interrogation Program, is the first to provide evidence that CIA medical personnel engaged in the crime of illegal experimentation after 9/11, in addition to the previously disclosed crime of torture.

This evidence indicating apparent research and experimentation on detainees opens the door to potential additional legal liability for the CIA and Bush-era officials. There is no publicly available evidence that the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel determined that the alleged experimentation and research performed on detainees was lawful, as it did with the “enhanced” techniques themselves.

Source (h/t escherichiacola at ontd_political). If this is true, it marks, not so much a new level of barbarism for the US, as a return to an old one...

Workers at 32 Toronto hotels vote to strike

Just in time for the G20 summit:

Just three weeks before the G20 summit, workers at 32 Toronto hotels have voted 94 per cent in favour of authorizing a strike if negotiations break down.

“If we do not reach an agreement, we intend to take a strike action on June 24,” Paul Clifford, president of Unite Here Local 75, said Thursday.

However, Clifford said that workers at only one hotel – the Novotel on the Esplanade – would actually go on strike, even though a third of the unionized hotels are currently in negotiations. About 100 workers at the Novotel are Local 75 members.

Local 75 does not want to disrupt the city during the summit of world leaders, he said.

From the Star. If I was them, I wouldn't have any compunction against striking at all 32 hotels; the G20 is already disrupting the city in a huge way, so why not stick it to them? Of course, the government would probably declare hotel workers an essential service and legislate them back to work if that happened...

Activist says Israelis shot webmaster in flotilla raid

The Israelis claim the shootings that occurred in the raid were self-defense; however this must be some strange new use of the term "self-defense" that I've never heard before:

Athens - Israeli commandos killed a Turkish activist on a ship trying to ferry aid to Gaza last week in order to halt the transfer of video images to the internet, a Greek activist said on Sunday.

"Up to half an hour after the attack, despite the electronic warfare measures, the Mavi Marmara continued to send images to the internet thanks to an ultra-modern system run by a Turkish volunteer," Greek activist Dimitris Plionis told the Eleftherotypia newspaper.

"Then, I saw him dead, with a bullet wound in his torso," said the mechanic, one of two Greeks on board the Mavi Marmara.

"The Israelis above all wanted to shut down the transfer of images. The Turks had installed maybe a hundred cameras that continuously broadcast images. The system went silent after its administrator was assassinated," he added.

Source (h/t -=+=- at babble).

Arizona is even worse than we thought

If you thought their immigration law was bad enough, check this out:

An Arizona elementary school mural featuring the faces of kids who attend the school has been the subject of constant daytime drive-by racist screaming, from adults, as well as a radio talk-show campaign (by an actual city councilman, who has an AM talk-radio show) to remove the black student's face, and now the school principal has ordered the faces of the Latino and Black students to be changed to Caucasian skin.

From the Huffington Post.