New Transparency Project gets $2.5 million

[via Privacy Commissioner of Canada] (emphasis added)

“The New Transparency: Surveillance and Social Sorting” received $2.5 million from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. [...]

The New Transparency has proposed a series of lofty goals – to make “visible the identities of individuals, workings of institutions and flows of information never before seen” – using surveillance as the key to gather this data. The project intends to focus on “three vitally important questions”:

1) What factors contribute to the general expansion of surveillance as a technology of governance in late modern societies?
2) What are the underlying principles, technological infrastructures and institutional frameworks that support surveillance practice?
3) What are the social consequences of such surveillance both for institutions and for ordinary people?

Sniffing for the right privacy balance

Interesting article by Ian Kerr,

Last Friday, the Supreme Court of Canada released two important privacy-related decisions, both addressing an increasing trend in which Canadian law enforcement agencies use police dogs to conduct random searches of public spaces.

[via Michael Gesit]

Errol Morris in GQ

A very interesting profile of Errol Morris in GQ.

Ask film buffs for a list of the greatest living American directors and you may hear the name Errol Morris, the documentarian who created an entirely new way of conducting interviews, made classics like The Thin Blue Line (which helped get a man out of prison), and this month gives us the fullest, most honest look yet [in the film Standard Operating Procedure] at the people who took part in Abu Ghraib

Zimbabwe arms return to China

Very good news.

• Arms destined for Zimbabwe returning to China, official says - CBC News
• Zimbabwe arms shipment returns to China - Guardian UK
• Zimbabwe-Bound Ship Heads Back to China - NYT
• China says Zimbabwe arms shipment to return to China - AP
• Chinese arms shipment to Zimbabwe turning back: Beijing - AFP
• China's Zimbabwe arms ship turned away by African nations - Telegraph UK

An excerpt from CBC (emphasis added),

A shipment of weapons destined to Zimbabwe from China will be returned after neighbouring countries refused to allow them to be shipped through their territories, a Chinese spokesman said.

Countries neighbouring Zimbabwe refused to allow the Chinese freighter carrying the weapons, which included mortar grenades and bullets, to dock at their ports.

"This cargo was not unloaded because the Zimbabwe side was unable to take delivery as scheduled," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu.

[...]

Jiang said the shipment was a purely commercial transaction that broke no laws and had nothing to do with the ongoing political crisis. [K: If China wants to be a true world power, commerce can no longer be the only consideration. Of course, the Chinese gov may have wanted Mugabe to stay in power and that will be a different issue all together.]

There is no international arms embargo against Zimbabwe, and China is one of the southern African nation's main trade partners and allies.

Pressuring Olympic sponsors

From Guardian UK - "Follow the money: Olympic protest movement turns its sights on to sponsors"

“It is a private meeting” - Tories’ bizarre farce

I am surprised and angry of how arrogant the Conservative government/party has become when it decided to selectively invite some media outlets while excluding some large media outlets including the Canadian Press, the CBC, Maclean's, the Globe and Mail (original scheduled but later canceled) and the Halifax Chronicle Herald. Here is an excerpt from CBC report (with video) (emphasis added),

CBC News requested to attend the briefings, but was rejected and told by party spokesman Ryan Sparrow that it was a private meeting, Boag said, adding reporters from the Canadian Press, Maclean’s magazine and Canwest Global Communications Corp. were also not permitted to attend.

Giving some reporters a briefing before Monday’s court release of the warrant allows the party a chance to shape the story, but it also creates the impression that the Conservatives need to spin it, Boag said.

Here is an excerpt from Canadian Press report “Conservative effort to limit raid damage leads to bizarre farce” (emphasis added),

The federal Conservatives made “false and misleading” statements in their financial returns for the last election and exceeded their campaign spending limit by over $1 million, Elections Canada says in a warrant that led to a raid on party headquarters.

A copy of the warrant and supporting materials was provided to The Canadian Press.

The documents were supposed to be made public Monday, but a bizarre attempt by the Tories to get ahead of the news by briefing select reporters on Sunday led to a slapstick scene that saw party representatives switching hotels, slamming doors and scampering down fire exits to escape pointed questions from journalists who weren’t invited to the meeting. [K: Are they for real here?]

The Conservatives have contended ever since the raid last week that they did nothing wrong and were surprised when the RCMP, acting on a request from Elections Canada, showed up with the warrant at their offices.

Elections Canada officials offered stark disagreement.

“The Conservative party of Canada exceeded its election expense spending limit for the 39th federal general election,” the 68-page supporting affidavit for the warrant alleges.

The document maintains that the Conservative Fund of Canada, the party’s official agent, filed financial returns “that it knew or ought reasonably to have known contained a materially false or misleading statement.”

And the affidavit, signed by Elections Canada investigator Robert Lamothe, alleges that Tory advertising transactions - commonly known as the “in and out” scheme - allowed the party “to spend more than $1 million over and above” its legal campaign limit of $18 million.

Here is an excerpt of a report from The Globe and Mail (emphasis added),

In releasing the abridged version of the documents to select media, the party hoped to give Mr. Sparrow, campaign organizer Doug Finley and party lawyer Paul Lepsoe a chance to explain the Conservative point of view.

In the end, the plan went horribly awry.

On Saturday night, Mr. Sparrow called a number of reporters to ask them to come to meetings that had been scheduled for yesterday at the Lord Elgin Hotel in downtown Ottawa saying it “would be worth their while.”

But media outlets who were not among those invited got wind of the meetings yesterday morning and began to ask what was going on.

When one reporter asked in an e-mail about the news conference, Mr. Sparrow replied: “No conference, not sure where you got that from.”

The reporter then flipped Mr. Sparrow back an e-mail in which he had told another reporter who was on the list that the briefing would be at “4:30 Lord Elgin, Boardroom 800. Embargo until 7:30 pm Sunday night.”

To which Mr. Sparrow replied: “I meet with journalists privately all the time.”

Shortly thereafter, the Liberals found out about the briefings and advised all of the Ottawa press gallery, some of whom were quite miffed to find they had been excluded. When they threatened to show up at the Lord Elgin, despite the lack of an invitation, the meeting was secretly moved to the Sheraton.

The first briefing for select television outlets took place but, by that time, the excluded reporters found out the new location and began to stake out the hotel.

That led the Conservatives to cancel all subsequent briefings, including the one they had planned with The Globe. And Mr. Sparrow, Mr. Finley and Mr. Lepsoe fled from the Sheraton down a back set of stairs.

CTV News (see its report) and Toronto Star (its report) are amongst the media outlets that got invited. But sadly, they now have, in my eyes, credibility problems simply for the fact that they were the “chosen” media outlets. Can I trust them to report fairly? Or are they known to be easily controllable and are on the “good side” of the Conservatives?

I haven’t gone to J-school and don’t know what is the proper journalistic and ethically right thing to do. But I wonder if and should the reporters from CTV News (Mike Duffy) and Toronto Star (Tonda MacCharles) have done the honourable thing and share their media package (hundred of pages of documents and CD) with their colleagues in other media outlets that got excluded?

Canadian Press said it right, it is surely one “bizarre farce”!

P.S. Here is an article in The Hill Times, "Conservatives confusing public on 'in and out' financing says Prof. MacIvor - It's the content of Tory Party's ads in question", analyzing some of the original issues that Elections Canada is investigating.

*******

Apr 21, 2008 Update: From CBC, "Tories overspent on election by $1M: HQ raid warrant"

Chinese Nationalism - Grace under fire

I am allergic to all forms of nationalism, be it Canadian, American, or Chinese nationalism. Here are some articles about some recent acts of Chinese Nationalism that alarmed me. In particular, the attack against Grace Wang (Qianyuan, 王千源), a Duke University Chinese student under attack.

• New Freedom, and Peril, in Online Criticism of China - WaPo
• Grace Wang and Chinese Nationalism - NYT Blog
• Grace Wang's home vandalized in China - Duke Chronicle (student paper at Duke where Grace is a student)
• Here is a NPR interview of Grace Wang on NPR - "Tibet Protests Stir Chinese Nationalism"
  
• Protests against French supermarket Carrefour spread
• France target of mass protests in China

And here is an excerpt from an insightful article written by Grace Wang in the Washington Post - "Caught in the Middle, Called a Traitor" (emphasis mine),

I study languages -- Italian, French and German. And this summer -- now that it looks as though I won't be able to go home to China -- I'll take up Arabic. My goal is to master 10 languages, in addition to Chinese and English, by the time I'm 30.

I want to do this because I believe that language is the bridge to understanding. Take China and Tibet. If more Chinese learned the Tibetan language, and if Tibetans learned more about China, I'm convinced that our two peoples would understand one another better and we could overcome the current crisis between us peacefully. I feel that even more strongly after what happened here at Duke University a little more than a week ago.

Trying to mediate between Chinese and pro-Tibetan campus protesters, I was caught in the middle and vilified and threatened by the Chinese. After the protest, the intimidation continued online, and I began receiving threatening phone calls. Then it got worse -- my parents in China were also threatened and forced to go into hiding. And I became persona non grata in my native country.

It has been a frightening and unsettling experience. But I'm determined to speak out, even in the face of threats and abuse. If I stay silent, then the same thing will happen to someone else someday.

So here's my story.

When I first arrived at Duke last August, I was afraid I wouldn't like it. It's in the small town of Durham, N.C., and I'm from Qingdao, a city of 4.3 million. But I eventually adjusted, and now I really love it. It's a diverse environment, with people from all over the world. Over Christmas break, all the American students went home, but that's too expensive for students from China. Since the dorms and the dining halls were closed, I was housed off-campus with four Tibetan classmates for more than three weeks.

I had never really met or talked to a Tibetan before, even though we're from the same country. Every day we cooked together, ate together, played chess and cards. And of course, we talked about our different experiences growing up on opposite sides of the People's Republic of China. It was eye-opening for me. [...]

Some people on the Chinese side started to insult me for speaking English and told me to speak Chinese only. But the Americans didn't understand Chinese. It's strange to me that some Chinese seem to feel as though not speaking English is expressing a kind of national pride. But language is a tool, a way of thinking and communicating. [...]

The next morning, a storm was raging online. Photographs of me had been posted on the Internet with the words "Traitor to her country!" printed across my forehead. Then I saw something really alarming: Both my parents' citizen ID numbers had been posted. I was shocked, because this information could only have come from the Chinese police.

I saw detailed directions to my parents' home in China, accompanied by calls for people to go there and teach "this shameless dog" a lesson. It was then that I realized how serious this had become. My phone rang with callers making threats against my life. It was ironic: What I had tried so hard to prevent was precisely what had come to pass. And I was the target.
[read the rest of the article]

Grace, your levelheadedness is truly a breath of fresh air and I really admire you and your family for being so brave. I hope some reasons will get into the head of the fen qing (angry youth), internet mob, and the people that have been threatening your and your family's safety.

The making of a Pulitzer winning photo

A video and story behind the making of a Pulitzer winning photo.

Dalai Lama - Golden Period

Here is a link to 43 minutes long and insightful video interview with the Dalai Lama by Ann Curry for NBC Nightly News (transcript included). Great job Ann. (emphasis added)

ANN CURRY:

China says you're not helpless. China blames you for it. (LAUGHTER) It calls you, "A wolf in monk's clothes. A devil with a human face. A terrorist." Are you a terrorist?

DALAI LAMA:

(LAUGHTER) You should judge. (LAUGHS) Is sometimes you see uh the wolf with Buddhist robe during Cultural Revolution, now these words is used. So, now again, you see they use these uh also they-- these old words. Okay, doesn't matter. But one thing I really consider is-- (SNIFF) uh because of official propaganda, millions of innocent Chinese in mainland China, who have no sort of, I would call access to know through sort of third information or some more, I think realistic information. uh they're only relying, they have to rely on their own, how to say, government sources. So, if those innocent Chinese, very sincere Chinese brothers, sisters-- millions of these people really feel-- how-- is something uh demon. (LAUGHS) Then I feel really sad. But otherwise no problem. Whatever you call me-- people call me-- I'm still a human being. (LAUGHTER) I'm still a simple Buddhist monk, and that's all. No problem. And in fact, as a Buddhist practitioner, this is-- now, this is real sort of test period that I sincerely practicing, sort of Buddhist teaching. Teaching of compassion, tolerance, and these things. If because of such sort of circumstances, if I lose my temper, heated. Then that means I'm not really sincere Buddhist practitioner. So, these are for practitioners, (UNINTEL PHRASE) Golden Period.

ANN CURRY:

A Golden Period?

DALAI LAMA:

Uh-huh (AFFIRM).

ANN CURRY:

Is this a period in which you are, as the Chinese government says, did you or your government encourage any of these protests in Tibet, in London, in Paris--

DALAI LAMA:

No.

ANN CURRY:

--in San Francisco?

DALAI LAMA:

No.

P.S. I applaud NBC for posting the full 43 minutes interview online. I hope CBC, CTV, and other news media in Canada will post more full length interviews online.

Beijing Olympics Water Trouble

From TorStar, "Beijing Games water policy troubling",

"There's just no water," she [Fan Xiangnu, straight-talking grandmother of 63] says bluntly, squinting into the sunshine. "So there's no wheat."

As she speaks, just 300 metres away a legion of labourers is hard at work building a broad canal to transport desperately needed water supplies.

But the canal won't supply her family – or those of the other parched peasants in this community.

Instead, the canal will take 300 million cubic metres of Hebei's remaining waters and rush them some 300 kilometres north to Beijing.

It's all part of the national effort to prepare for the Olympic Games.

The central government wants Beijing green and gleaming come August.

Green and gleaming it will be – even if it means others may have to go without.

A government slogan painted on a nearby wall trumpets the goal, urging everyone to support the project to "guarantee a secure water supply for the Olympics."

Ted Turner on Charlie Rose

Very interesting and insightful chat between Ted Turner and Charlie Rose. [Hat tip: Byron]

Canadian Stars fight Bill C-10

From CBC report (with video),

Members of Canada's film and television industry are on Parliament Hill Thursday to voice their concerns over a proposed bill that would give the government the power to deny tax credits to productions it considers offensive.

Canadian filmmaker Sarah Polley, actress Wendy Crewson and Brian Anthony, CEO of the Directors Guild of Canada, are among those appearing before the Senate committee on banking, trade and commerce, asking for changes to Bill C-10, an omnibus bill proposing a host of amendments to the Income Tax Act.

"These clauses are an attack on freedom of expression and will destroy film financing in Canada," Crewson said in a news conference ahead of her presentation.

It will cause TV and film producers havoc if the tax credits can be retroactively withdrawn as financing risk will simply to too high for investors to invest and banks to make loans or interim financing available.

Space technologies stay in Canada (for now)

Hot off the press from Globe and Mail (April 10, 2 AM EST) "Ottawa rejects space firm's sale to U.S.". (Note: also see my earlier blog entry about this sale and a link to a legal opinion.)

OTTAWA — The federal government has said no to selling Canada's leading space company to U.S. interests, concluding that the deal would not be in the best interests of the country, The Globe and Mail has learned.

Industry Minister Jim Prentice made the decision to issue an initial rejection of the deal on Tuesday, when he wrote a letter to the potential buyer, Alliant Techsystems Inc. of Edina, Minn., that said the takeover of MDA Corp. would not provide a “net benefit” to Canada.

Under Canada's investment-review law, the company has 30 days to make new arguments to the minister, and Mr. Prentice must then confirm his rejection. But Mr. Prentice's move signals his intention to take the unprecedented step of blocking a major corporate takeover, in an issue that has been fraught with controversy as opponents argued that the sale of MDA could impair Canadian sovereignty.

A spokesman for Mr. Prentice, Bill Rodgers, confirmed Wednesday that the note had been sent, but he was unable to provide further details. When contacted by The Globe and Mail Wednesday night, Alliant officials responded with a two-sentence statement that indicated that they are not willing to declare the deal dead. [...]

The proposed sale of MDA Corp.'s Information Systems Unit has raised nationalist sentiment and fears that Canada could lose control of the data from Radarsat-2 in a dispute over Arctic sovereignty. [K: I agree the Radarsat-2 data has an important role in our national interest and won't trust any US companies (which has to follow US government directives in case of national security related issues). At the same time, I reject the unfair negative implication associated with using words like "nationalist sentiment".] Alliant, also called ATK, is a U.S. weapons and space contractor. The systems unit is responsible for most of MDA's operations and 1,900 employees. [...]

Some of the staunchest criticisms came from within the Conservative Party. Tory MP Art Hanger voiced sharp concerns, and Conservatives on the Commons industry committee treated the sale with skepticism.

One Conservative MP, speaking on condition he not be named, said the sale had raised a surprising backlash among Canadians, who saw it as a point of pride being peddled to the United States – which might possibly use it against Canada's claim to Arctic waters.

I think Minister Prentice did the right thing here in rejecting the sale.

*******

Update: See report by CBC (with video report) and Reuters.

You can’t ignore child labour

I previously blogged about my friend Larry Giesbrecht’s insightful film call “Children who work“ about child labour in Egypt. It is nice to see World Vision launched a campaign to create more awareness around child labour. (look closely at the automatic revolving doors)

Romeo Dallaire at Engineers Without Border Calgary - Are all humans - Humans?

It was my great pleasure and deep honour to meet a true Canadian hero last month when Senator Roméo Dallaire came to speak at the Engineers Without Border event in Calgary.

The following are links to eight different excerpts of Dallaire’s March 16, 2008 speech.

• When a super power like the US is nervous and feels vulnerable

• Are all humans - Humans? Or some more humans than others? The legacy of Bill Clinton’s decision.

• On Child Soldiers. The special tragedy of girl child soldiers. Responsibility to Protect doctrine.

• Q&A about Darfur and Kenya
• World’s lack of action in Rwanda, Darfur, compare to Kosovo
• An era of world disorder
• Peace keeping is out, conflict resolution is in
• Moving away from era of classic war & classic peace keeping

Ryan Spencer Reed, photojournalist and contributing photographer to the Darfur/Darfur multimedia exhibit

It was real nice to meet and hear Ryan Spencer Reed, photojournalist and contributing photographer to the Darfur/Darfur multimedia exhibit, spoke when he was in Calgary opening the exhibit. As I blogged previously, I found some the following videos in Ryan’s site,

1. Quicktime slide show with beautiful music of some photos by Ryan
2. An video interview of Ryan set to some of his photos

In the following video, Ryan tells the story of how one of his photo was used by Newsweek very differently in its international edition and in its American edition. To me, it is a telling story of how US media are tailoring their story to their own national interest.

Here is my interview with Ryan where he shared with us his emotional experience in taking pictures in Sudan, and what can actions can people in the west take to stop the atrocities in Darfur (SudanDivestment.org).

“Lust, Caution” actress Tang banned in China

No one knows for sure if it was the sex scenes in Lust, Caution or being “unpatriotic” (to play someone “beautifying” those who had collaborated with the enemies in war) that caused actress Tang Wei to be banned in China (see news reports here, here, here, and here). What we know is the devastating effect of being deemed a “non-person” by China’s state censor (emphasis added),

“An order also went out banning any promotion of the actress, and newspaper websites were told to remove stories mentioning her. Websites also took down discussions of the ban, while attempts to search for her name on Google News were also blocked.“

Here is a trailer of Lust, Caution.

We in Canada shouldn’t be so smug as the Harper government is also trying to use Bill C-10 to censor artists’ creative freedom.

China, Olympics, Tibet, Dalai Lama

I love the above logo and t-shirt design, a real smart twist on a well-known brand.

I truly hope the human rights record will be improved in China. Will see how things change in the months to come.

1. Protesters interrupt ceremony for Beijing Olympics - CBC News with videos
2. Protests overshadow lighting of China's Olympic flame - AFP
3. Protesters disrupt Olympic flame lighting - International Herald Tribute
4. The Dalai Lama's moment of truth - Salon
5. China attacks Dalai Lama - Toronto Star via AP
6. Video from CP: Tibetan supporters denounce China
7. As Tibet Erupted, China Wavered - NYT

Canada top court tackles Gitmo

1. Top court tackles Gitmo - Toronto Star
2. Guantanamo detention under scrutiny in Canada
3. Guantanamo inmate wins hearing at top Canada court
4. Top court OKs hearing

Canadarm stays Canadian - for 30 more days

Vancouver-based MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. is an amazing world class company. I know from personal experience as I worked there for a few years in the early part of my career. So it was sad to see negative news of MDA planning to sell its Information Systems and Geospatial Services business (including technical teams and know how that built the iconic Canadarm, the newly launched Dextre, and the Radarsat 2 satellite) to Alliant Techsystems (an advanced weapon and space systems company).

Here are some news about the recent delay and an interesting and seems valid legal opinion from Rideau Institute,

• Ruling on sale of Canadarm delayed - TorStar
• Time to ground space firm's sale - National Post
• Ruling on sale of Canadarm, Radarsat to U.S. arms-maker delayed 30 days - Canadian Press - "Nobel laureate John Polanyi delivered a devastating critique of the sale this week: "There are many forms of short-sightedness. Selling your eyes is a rare form," observed one of Canada's most decorated scientists."
• Legal Opinion from the Rideau Institute - ACCESS DENIED: U.S. Law Will Limit Canadian Access to RADARSAT-2 Data if Sale of MDA’s Space Division Proceeds - PDF file
• Access Denied: U.S. Law Will Limit Canadian Access to RADARSAT-2 Data if Sale of MDA's Space Division Proceeds - from Fox Business of all places
• as an aside and for the record, here is a link to MDA Shareholders approve proposed sale transaction

When asked about this potential MDA divisional sale in Calgary recently, the well respected Senator Roméo Dallaire answered that it will be worst than the sale of the Canadian Avro Arrow. Here is an excerpt from the Arrow Wikipedia entry,

Following the Canadian government's cancellation of the Avro Arrow project in 1959, CF-105 Chief Aerodynamicist Jim Chamberlin led a team of 25 engineers to NASA's Space Task Group to become lead engineers, program managers, and heads of engineering in NASA's manned space programs—Projects Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. This team would eventually grow to 32 Avro engineers and technicians, and become emblematic of what many Canadians viewed as a "brain drain" to the US. Many other engineers, including Jim Floyd (whose design studies at Hawker Siddeley (Avro Aircraft's UK parent) on the HSA.1000 SST design studies were ultimately influential in the design of the Concorde^[20]) found work abroad in either the UK or the United States.

*******

March 23rd update: Marc Garneau, first Canadian astronaut and former head of the Canadian Space Agency, against sale of space technology - from CTV with video.

March 25th update: Here is a 1st March, 2008 CBC Quirks and Quarks program about Dextre (mp3 audio).