But facts can never intrude on mythmaking exercises such as the men’s hockey component of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. “Canada is Hockey Country” boasted signs in Vancouver; others suggested “Our Home, Our Game.” According to one excitable network sports anchor, Canada came to a standstill when its Olympic hockey faced the U.S. on the evening of Feb. 21. Newspapers even trotted out hyperbolic terms like “Super Sunday” to manufacture emotions. To be fair, one would be foolish to ignore the thousands upon thousands of fans in Vancouver who eagerly awaited this game to celebrate. Nor should the television audience be underestimated as hockey still possesses rabid supporters here. Nevertheless, plenty of Canadians did not care about this game, believing, correctly, that its result would have little effect on their quality of life.

Alas, the media struck a mournful tone after the Canadian men lost to the U.S. The impressively overblown “Bad Sunday gives way to Hell Week” suggested that the world, if defined by the success of the Canadian men’s hockey team, may be coming to an end. The Globe and Mail chose the more sober “Black Sunday, on ice”; its hockey hagiographer, Roy MacGregor, opined that the “Canadians were not terrible, but they were not very good.” Underwhelming performances obviously happen in sports, which produce zero-sum outcomes. But they should not provoke a national identity crisis and questions about the nature of the Canadian state. Ignoring the compulsion of sportswriters to assign national meaning to Olympic events, the loss to the U.S. exclusively belongs to the Canadian hockey team’s players and the administration who selected them. More importantly, this country’s fortunes do not depend on the success of its Olympic men’s hockey team.

Christopher White, a graduate student at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, launched a nonpartisan Facebook group called Canadians Against the Prorogation of Parliament. It now has more than 210,000 members, a number that grows daily. The group translated its online numbers into demonstrations on Jan. 23 in cities across the country. Michael Geist, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa, argues political elites misunderstood the power of digital advocacy.

…anyone who tells you that building a 200,000-person Facebook group is easy has never tried to do it. Indeed, Stephen Harper, Michael Ignatieff, Jack Layton, and Gilles Duceppe, the four national party leaders, have less than 100,000 members combined on their respective Facebook pages….the dismissal of social media as a useful tool for rallying support fails to recognize what marketers have long understood — word of mouth from a trusted source is always the most effective means of spreading a message. Political parties invest millions in ad campaigns trying to garner public support, but Facebook advocacy is potentially more effective because it’s all about word of mouth.

The Ottawa press corps, as insular as their counterparts in Washington, D.C., is starting to assess what the activist discontent means for Harper and for Canadian democracy. Here’s what really counts. There are 308 seats in the Canadian House of Commons; the party leader who wins the most seats becomes the prime minister. The Conservatives currently hold 145 seats, 10 away from a majority where they no longer require the support or subservience of opposition parties to pass their budgets and legislation in the House of Commons. If the Facebook group can convince swing voters in southern Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, that Harper’s anti-democratic practices damage the national interest, then the Conservatives will be weakened by the next election. Harper, who has appealed to a majority of Canadians, might even face a substantive leadership review after producing a third consecutive minority.

Bill Brioux writes it is the television networks who are the architects of their own demise.

Canada’s broadcasters want the Canadian Radio Telecommunications Commission [CRTC] to grant them something Canadians have never had to pay extra for before, a direct, monthly fee for access to programming – most of which they could watch on free feeds from U.S. border stations. The Canadian broadcasters claim that – especially during the recent recession – their business model is irreversibly broken and that they can no longer survive off ad revenue alone. What they really want is for the government and ultimately taxpayers to bail them out after decades of reckless overspending on American shows.

Credit Brioux with following the money spent by the networks such as CTV and Global.

One of the most damning statistics to come out of the whole fee-for-carriage debate is the amount spent importing content. CTV, Global and now Rogers-owned Citytv spend more than ten times as much buying American – over $700 million each year – than they do on Canadian entertainment shows…When they stood before the CRTC earlier this year, they offered no guarantee that the extra carriage fee revenue would be spent on Canadian production.

Here is Brioux’s first point, likening the networks to addicts.

So when CTV says they want carriage fee revenues in order to save local TV, why should anybody believe them? If CTV had access to carriage fee money last June, they would have spent it on Mad Men. They can’t help themselves. Giving them money is like enabling someone with a habit. Might as well hand the loot directly to the dealers at Warners, Paramount, Universal, Fox and Disney.

Brioux’s second point calls out CTV, together with Rogers, for spending more than $150 million U.S. to acquire the Olympic games. He suggests that figure was $50 million higher than the offer made by CBC, the public broadcaster. But now, according to Brioux, CTV wants the public to cover its losses. Interestingly, William Houston has reported that the CTV-Rogers consortium is set to lose money on the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games because its advertising sales are way between 30 percent and 35 percent lower than its initial goal.

 Yet the oligopolists at Canada’s cable and satellite companies are no more worthy of the public’s sympathies. Statistics Canada recently exposed their threats to raise monthly cable bills as hollow because of their sizeable profit margins.

The operating revenue of cable and satellite television companies totalled $10.3 billion (current dollars) in 2008, up 14.4% from 2007. It was the industry’s third consecutive year of revenue growth in excess of 10%. The cable industry’s profit margin before interest and taxes has been above 15% every year since the beginning of the decade and higher than 20% since 2004.

Perhaps the most important statistic is that more than 10 million Canadians, roughly a third of the country, subscribed to cable and satellite television by August 2008. Surely, these people deserve greater respect from their networks, their cable companies and their broadcast regulator.

On Dec. 10, the opposition parties passed a motion in the House of Commons, by a vote of 145 to 143, demanding the government release thousands of uncensored documents. Their motion, reports Canadian Press, cites “undisputed privileges of Parliament under Canada’s constitution, including the absolute power to require the government to produce uncensored documents when requested.” But Ottawa said it is prepared to ignore the parliamentary vote if there is information that could harm the security of its troops and civilians in Afghanistan. Defense Minister Peter MacKay went a step further, indicating the confidential information “could be helpful to the enemy.” This smear tactic was first seen in the public attacks on Richard Colvin, who was essentially described as a shill for the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

However, brutalizing the reputation of perceived opponents such as Colvin is not necessarily helping Harper’s Conservatives. Two separate polls, taken within a two-week span of each other, suggest that the Canadian public rejects the government’s position. A CBC-EKOS poll shows a majority believes that at least some of the prisoners transferred by Canadian troops to Afghan authorities were tortured. More importantly for Harper, more than 80 percent believe than there is a strong chance that government officials were aware of that happening. In late November, a Canadian Press Harris-Decima survey suggested Canadians are twice as likely to believe Colvin’s claim of abuse and that government officials knew what was happening.

We then photographed the individual prior to handing him over to ensure that if the Afghan National Police did assault him, as has happened in the past, that we would have a visual record of his condition.

Natynczyk’s information is crucial because it undermines Ottawa’s stance that there was no evidence of any detainee being transferred by Canadian troops who was tortured. The government launched rhetorical assault on a whistle-blowing diplomat and intelligence officer named Richard Colvin who raised the allegations. Colvin said that is likely that all prisoners captured by Canada in Afghanistan between 2006 and 2007 were tortured after being handed over to the authorities. The Globe and Mail reports on a protest by former diplomats against Defense Minister Peter MacKay’s public attack on Colvin. Unsurprisingly, opposition parties are calling for a public inquiry into the torture of Afghan detainees and for MacKay’s resignation.

The Commission notes the substantial support for the addition of AJE to the digital lists and considers that AJE will expand the diversity of editorial points of view in the Canadian broadcasting system. Further, despite concerns expressed by certain parties, there is nothing on the record of the current proceeding that leads the Commission to conclude that AJE would violate Canadian regulations, such as those regarding abusive comment.

The CRTC’s decision invoked its 2004 highly-conditional ruling regarding Al Jazeera Arabic’s bid for cable and satellite distribution. Here are the key details. 

The [cable and satellite] companies would have to retain records of all programming, not broadcast abusive comments as part of that programming and either alter or cut programming to ensure no abusive comment is aired. No company is willing to carry it as a result of the conditions. The first application by the Arabic-language channel was opposed by about 500 individuals or groups. Bernie Farber, chief executive officer of the Canadian Jewish Congress, accused the Al Jazeera Arabic channel of propagating “clear outright anti-Semitic Holocaust denial…Canada has CRTC regulations that target broadcasts that would promote hate.”

This time, Canadian Jewish groups neither embraced nor opposed AJE’s application. According to Farber, AJE agreed to form a consultative committee composed of representatives of the Canadian Jewish Congress, B’nai Brith Canada and the channel itself. Farber said the group is hoping to meet a few times a year but also as necessary. However, AJE’s managing director, Tony Burman, disputed the committee label in an interview with David Lepeska, The National’s chief Doha correspondent.

I’ve agreed to meet with them six months after we’re on air, and again 12 months after we’re on air, to discuss any concerns about our programming. I’ve committed myself to two conversations, and it’s not only Jewish groups: I plan to speak with a multitude of groups in Canada, including Arab groups.

For now, the immediate challenge is for AJE to negotiate an agreement with a Canadian cable company to put the channel on the air. It’s expected that will take place early next year. At least, that’s what Burman is hoping.  

We issued the following statement after confirming the release today of Canadian freelance reporter Amanda Lindhout and Australian photojournalist Nigel Brennan, both held in Somalia since August 2008…”We are relieved that the Amanda and Nigel are now free and that their ordeal has come to an end,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. “Our thoughts are with them and their families.”

CTV obtained a telephone interview with Lindhout shortly after she gained her freedom. She said she was beaten and torture, according to the interview transcript.

“It was extremely oppressive. I was kept by myself at all times. I had no one to speak to. I was normally kept in a room with a light, no window, I had nothing to write on or with. There was very little food. I was allowed to use the toilet exactly five times a day…So, basically, my day was sitting on a corner, on the floor, 24 hours a day for the last 15 months. There were times that I was beaten, that I was tortured. It was an extremely, extremely difficult situation.”

According to Lindhout, her abductors said they beat her because the money wasn’t coming quickly enough. At an official level, Ottawa says it doesn’t pay ransom, but the case of Robert Fowler and Louis Guay suggests otherwise. Details about what triggered Lindhout and Brennan’s release remain unclear. But here’s wishing her a safe return to Canada, a warm reunion with loved ones and a speedy recovery.

Until this week, a similar level of anonymity applied to Michelle Simson, a Liberal MP from the Greater Toronto area. Her biography details professional accomplishments in the banking and leasing sector, community involvement in hockey and is larded with the requisite amount of partisanship. It’s the kind of resume that’s sufficient to win a riding owned by the Liberals since 1988 without calling unnecessary attention to its owner. But Simson, like numerous MPs, uses Twitter to communicate with about 450 followers about her duties.

Lots of requests for my community calendar are flowing through the office. Glad we had an opportunity to highlight the beauty that is SSW [Scarborough Southwest}! After a very moving Remembrance day in riding, back to work in constit office today. …Just took part in moving Remembrance Day services at the Scarborough Cenotaph. A small tribute to our veterans and troops currently serving

Unfortunately, Simson’s Twitter use revealed her to be not only dull but meanspirited. Consider what she tweeted about the unknown Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro at a committee meeting on November 17.

In committee this morning. M.P. Del Mastro should grow up (not out). #lpc

Simson’s cruelty is that Del Mastro, like a lot of Canadians, is not slim. Del Mastro demanded an apology from Simson in the House of Commons later that day. “I apologize that I’m not perfect and perhaps my stature doesn’t meet the criteria that some members of the House might set but I have actually battled that problem since birth,” he said. Simson later apologized, noting her comment was out of line. Her brief foray into the national sphere over, she will likely be remembered as the MP who made fun of her colleague’s weight via Twitter.

The Monarchist League of Canada greets Their Royal Highnesses The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall as they embark on an exciting 11-day journey across our country. Their Royal Highnesses will be welcomed by Canadians in Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia. This Royal Homecoming provides Canadians with an opportunity to reacquaint themselves with our future King and head of state as well as to get to know the Duchess, who will have the chance to explore her own family connection with Canada.

After the Prince and Duchess leave on Nov. 12, the League will return to its slumbering state. Monarchy-obsessed Canadian citizens will be freed of their subject mentality and can resume their lives in an actual sovereign state. Over the next week, however, those of us who dislike the Royals can amuse ourselves with SCTV’s Sex Pistols parody, the Queen Haters.

Take that, Jennie Bond.

BTO broke up in 1977, though it reformed and disbanded several times over the next three decades amidst legal wrangling. But the newest twist, launched by drummer Robin Bachman and guitarist Blair Thornton, is now underway in a British Columbia Supreme Court. The two men are suing Randy Bachman and Turner for using their own names to prevent the pair from using the BTO and Bachman-Turner Overdrive names in connection to new recordings and live performances. The lawsuit argues Randy Bachman and Turner signed away their rights to the name Bachman-Turner Overdrive in three separate contracts agreed not to use that name without the consent of the other parties, according to Canadian Press.

“Much as Coca Cola is synonymous in the world with Coke, so too is Bachman-Turner Overdrive with BTO,” says the lawsuit filed last Friday….But in May 2009, the lawsuit claims that Randy Bachman’s company, Ranback, registered several names with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the Canadian Intellectual Property Office including the names Bachman-Turner, B.T.U., and Bachman Turner Union. It said Bachman and Turner have entered into contracts with concert promoters and agents to perform in Canada and Europe without the plaintiffs consent. The lawsuit alleges the defendants have passed off their services to the public and diverted business that was rightfully theirs, “causing the plaintiffs harm and damage and appropriating to themselves profits which were rightful profits of the plaintiffs.”

However, Canadian law gives the right to author and signed an international agreement to confer moral right in performances. That means if Randy Bachman or Fred Turner perform or if their work is used, they have a right to be associated it by their own name. Since Randy Bachman and Turner wrote the bulk of BTO’s material, it appears that status quo is to their benefit. But while we await the court ruling, legendary punks D.O.A. cover “Takin’ Care of Business.”

For fans of fine music radio, Randy Bachman’s Vinyl Tap program is broadcast weekly on CBC Radio.