Canadá (Continuación)

MundoAmérica,

George Monbiot wrote a real porcupine of a column this week, excoriating Canada on its failure to act on climate change. The headline read, "Canada's image lies in tatters. It is now to climate what Japan is to whaling."

Brilliant! Just what smug Canada needs, a real seeing-to by an environmental wise man. Monbiot, a hero of mine, had earlier written a toned-down piece for the leaden opinion page of Canada's dullest newspaper, the Globe and Mail. I wish he hadn't done that.

The headline was "Please, Canada, clean up your act." Canada was not now the "corrupt petro-state" of the Guardian piece.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaMundoOriente Próximo, , ,

One man has Canada in an uproar. Former second-in-command at the Canadian embassy in Kabul, Richard Colvin, told a parliamentary committee in Ottawa that all detainees handed over to the Afghanistan government by Canadian soldiers were abused. The opposition parties have called for a public inquiry, but the Harper government has called Colvin's testimony into question. Now, Canada must yet again have a serious discussion about its role in Afghanistan.

Colvin sat before the parliamentary committee and flatly stated: "According to our information, the likelihood is that all the Afghans we handed over were tortured. For interrogators in Kandahar, it was a standard operating procedure."…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaReflexionesTestimonios,

After 19-year-old singer-songwriter Taylor Mitchell was killed this week by coyotes in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, the world has suddenly noticed the wolf's smaller cousin. Mitchell, a Torontonian who had recently been nominated for a Canadian folk music award, was attacked by two coyotes in Cape Breton Highlands National Park, in Nova Scotia on Tuesday. She was airlifted to a hospital in Halifax, but died from her injuries.

Her death has made global headlines, but any assumption that an attack this vicious is a normal occurrence has been rightly downplayed. For most Canadians, coyotes are a familiar, even urban, predator, known to target other small animals, and sometimes dogs or children.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica

Down is the new up: Canadians suddenly like Stephen Harper, but for the wrong reasons.

Michael Ignatieff's announcement on Monday that his Liberal party will not "actively seek to defeat" the Conservatives "by proposing their own confidence motions," was an almost direct contradiction to his resounding cry in September that Harper's "time is up". The Liberal threat to dismantle the Tory government is now effectively dead, and many Canadians couldn't possibly care less. We like Harper now. Unfortunately, it will get us nowhere.

The biggest political story of October hasn't been Ignatieff's troubles or the widening poll gap between the Tories and Liberals, or even some Tory MPs slapping their names or their party logo on government (read: taxpayer) stimulus cheques.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaEuropa, , , , , ,

The drastic climatic changes in the Arctic, viewed first-hand this week by an ‘alarmed’ UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, are threatening to unleash not only environmental catastrophe on the rest of the world but a furious political struggle between competing regional governments.

The Arctic Five - the US, Russia, Norway, Canada and Denmark (Greenland) - are scrambling to secure territorial rights to disputed and hitherto unclaimed parts of the world’s last great wilderness. This is partly because the retreat of local sea ice is opening up to exploitation what many leading experts think could be massive reserves of petroleum- even as much as 13% of the world’s undiscovered oil and 30% of its undiscovered natural gas.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica, ,

Canadians are rolling their eyes at the latest oddity to emerge from their confused, clogged immigration system: a white South African admitted as a refugee because he claimed he was being persecuted by black people.

His lawyer says the case sets a precedent, which it well might, although it's difficult to pin down exactly what it is. Brandon Huntley, a 31-year-old lawn sprinkler salesman who came to Canada on a work visa in 2006 and stayed illegally, told the Immigration and Refugee Board that he had been mugged and stabbed seven times by black people in his home country. He didn't report the attacks to the "untrustworthy" police.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica

Today, on Canada Day, 11 Canadians living in the United States share what they miss most about home.

Until 1982, Canada Day was known as Dominion Day. I always thought that had more of a ring to it. Beyond the zippy alliteration, it reminded us citizens that our domain of orderly domesticity was graced by the dominant power of our “Dominus.” And the rights granted therein to us by the glorious English crown through her colonial appointee, the right honourable governor general.

There was another problem with Dominion Day. Dominion was the name of a national grocery store chain. It would be like calling the Fourth of July D’Agostino’s Day.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica,

It isn't every day that one's very own hakapik arrives in the mail.

It is probably reasonable to assume that I'm the only person on my block to be the un-proud possessor of the aptly named bludgeoning and hacking instrument used to slaughter baby seals. 'Tis the season.

April 15 may be tax and tea-party day in the U.S., but it's baby-seal death day in Canada. Although the season began March 23 (19,411 down), the largest phase was to begin Wednesday, during which sealers will destroy and skin another couple hundred thousand seals, most between 25 days and three months old.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfricaMundoAmérica, , ,

For me and my family, Oct. 31 has always been significant. Not because it’s Halloween, but because that’s the day we arrived as refugees to a free part of the world.

Beginning in August 1972, thousands of Asian entrepreneurs fled the East African country of Uganda after its dictator, Idi Amin, declared us to be bloodsuckers, seized our property and gave us three months to leave or die.

My family and I had only Ugandan passports, so we couldn’t escape to Britain or India like many of our neighbors. We’d been in Africa for two generations; my father and his brothers owned a car dealership in Uganda’s capital, Kampala.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica,

This week, we the people of North America are staging two celebrations. The Fourth of July is the 232nd birthday of the United States, and it will be observed as John Adams prescribed in 1776: a “day of deliverance” in more ways than one, with “solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty ... pomp and parade ... shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other from this time forward forever more.”

In Canada, today, another ceremony will mark the 400th anniversary of Quebec City, the first permanent settlement in New France. The ancient city has organized a party that John Adams could not have imagined, with months of festivities, fireworks and performances.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaEuropa, , , , ,

With the Arctic ice melting, anticipated increases in Arctic shipping, tourism and economic activity, and Russia’s flag-planting at the North Pole last summer, there has been much talk in the press about a “race to the Arctic” and even some calls for a new treaty to govern the “lawless” Arctic region.

We should all cool down. While there may be a need to expand cooperation in some areas, like search and rescue, there is already an extensive legal framework governing the region. The five countries bordering the Arctic Ocean — the United States, Canada, Denmark, Norway and Russia — have made clear their commitment to observe these international legal rules.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Aboard Training Vessel Arctic Tern, off Newport, R.I.

Russia’s flag-planting caper at the North Pole last week captured the world’s attention. Harking back to the heady days of colonial imperialism and perhaps the success of Sputnik, a resurgent Russia dispatched from Murmansk a nuclear-powered icebreaker and a research vessel armed with two mini-submarines to stake a symbolic claim to the Arctic Ocean’s riches. Russia hopes that leaving its flag encased in titanium more than 13,200 feet beneath the frozen surface bolsters its 2001 claim that the Lomonosov Ridge is a geological extension of its continental shelf and thus the 460,000 square miles of resource-rich Arctic waters stretching from the North Pole to Eurasia fall under the Kremlin’s jurisdiction.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaEuropa, , ,

The world's children may soon be needing to write to Santa Claus in Russian if Moscow's claim to the North Pole, made this week without a trace of humour, is realised, giving new life to the phrase "cold war". No sooner had the Russians made their announcement than the US Coast Guard said it would be dispatching an icebreaker to the Arctic on a "research mission" on Monday.Sending submarines to the pole to plant a Russian flag on the seabed more than two-and-a-half miles down is all very well, but ignores the fact that there are four other countries with territory inside the Arctic Circle: Canada, Norway, the United States and Danish Greenland.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica,

After a group of Mohawks from the Tyendinaga reserve blockaded the railway between Kingston and Toronto two weeks ago, a near unanimous cry rose up from the editorial pages of Ontario newspapers and talk radio: Get Shawn Brant. Earlier this month Brant, a beanpole of a man, walked into a packed courtroom with his wrists and ankles shackled after handing himself over to the Ontario provincial police.According to court testimony, the arrest warrant - on charges of mischief, disobeying a court order, and breach of recognisance - violated an agreement between police and demonstrators, who were given immunity when they peacefully ended the blockade.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaEspañaModelo de EstadoModelo Territorial,

Los resultados de las elecciones del 26 de marzo en Quebec marcan un antes y un después en la vida política de esa provincia de Canadá, poniendo fin al modelo bipartito que conformaban el soberanista y socialdemócrata Partido Québécois y el federalista Partido Liberal (PLQ). La conservadora y autonomista Acción Democrática de Quebec (ADQ), liderada por el carismático Mario Dumont, aparece como la auténtica triunfadora del proceso electoral. Supera al PQ y se queda a muy pocos escaños de un PLQ que, a pesar de un notable retroceso en el número de votos obtenidos, consigue renovar la victoria de 2003.

En sus implicaciones para nuestro país, que son las que se contemplan en este artículo, las recientes elecciones en Quebec ofrecen algunas novedades de interés.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica,

Aunque formalmente se trate de unas elecciones regionales, asunto interno de la Federación Canadiense, es bien sabido que su invocación ha sido poderosa en este lado del Atlántico, y más concretamente en España y en Catalunya. Los resultados confirman de sobra que estamos ante un cambio espectacular; las cifras no engañan. Pero también vale la pena analizar si, además de su espectacularidad, el cambio en el Quebec es coyuntural (podría serlo) o, por el contrario, se sitúa en una trayectoria histórica que no puede ser ignorada.

Como es bien sabido, un partido gana, otro gana y pierde, y otro se descalabra, y ello tiene consecuencias inmediatas en el sistema de partidos y, por lo tanto, en la lógica parlamentaria y de gobierno.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaEspañaModelo de EstadoModelo Territorial,

Canadá vivió hace unas semanas un animado debate en torno al reconocimiento de Quebec como nación, provocado por Michael Ignatieff en el seno de la contienda por el liderazgo del Partido Liberal. Finalmente, fue derrotado por el padre de la política de la claridad, el ex ministro Stéphane Dion. Con su propuesta, Ignatieff pretendía garantizarse el apoyo de los compromisarios de Quebec y abrir la vía a una recuperación del voto liberal en la Belle Province, condición indispensable, según muchos analistas, para que los liberales puedan recuperar el Gobierno federal. El Bloque québécois -marca electoral del soberanismo en las elecciones federales- no desaprovechó la oportunidad: inmediatamente presentó una pregunta parlamentaria, requiriendo la opinión del primer ministro Stephen Harper sobre esta cuestión y la transformó en una moción en la que se proponía el reconocimiento de Quebec como nación.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica,

Stephen Carter, the prime minister of Canada, stunned the country last month when he proposed a resolution recognizing that the seven million “Québécois form a nation within a united Canada.” Anyone who has traveled to Montreal or Quebec City will recognize that Mr. Harper was merely stating the obvious, at least where the term “nation” is concerned. But for Canadians, Mr. Harper’s words reopened a long, tortured debate over national identity, and recast it in stronger terms than ever.

The background to his declaration is, of course, Quebec’s secessionist movement — strong enough to have monopolized Canadian politics for the last 50 years, but not quite strong enough to actually win a referendum on independence.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica,

News that Canada is to stage a reality TV show in which former Canadian prime ministers grill contestants on their leadership qualities before choosing a winner is, strictly speaking, not news at all. The Next Great Prime Minister is actually on its second outing, and the fact that the international news media have only just noticed it suggests that the wider world is even less engaged with the country's politics than are Canadians in the hallowed 18-35 age range, to whom the format is presumably designed to appeal.

Allowing former PMs Brian Mulroney, John Turner, Joe Clark and Kim Campbell to pick a notional future prime minister is probably no worse an idea than allowing Margaret Thatcher, Iain Duncan Smith and selected members of the old gang to pick a notional Tory leader.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica,

En su comparecencia ante la Cámara de los Comunes el pasado 23 de noviembre, el primer ministro de Canadá, el conservador Stephen Harper, explicó el sentido de la moción en la que proponía reconocer que los quebequeses «forman una nación en el seno de un Canadá unido», moción que fue aprobada este lunes con 266 votos a favor y apenas 16 en contra. La propuesta no sólo contó con el apoyo inmediato de liberales y socialdemócratas -e incluso con el asentimiento posterior de los independentistas del Bloc Québécois- sino que consiguió resolver a su favor las contradicciones internas del principal grupo de oposición.…  Seguir leyendo »