[PHOTO] Street cat

Street cat
Originally uploaded by rfmcdpei

Living in Koreatown on Bloor Street, during good weather this independent-minded cat is regularly left by his owner to bask in the warmth outside. The sign behind the cat, barely visible, tells people to leave the cat be. For the most people, the cat is left, but that doesn't scare away the spectators (like me).

[LINK] "Arar in Canada when 'seen' by Khadr, hearing told"

The case of Maher Arar, a Syrian-Canadian computer technician who was sent by the United States (with Canadian help) to be imprisoned and tortured for nearly a year in Syria, just took another twist.

An FBI agent’s claim that Omar Khadr had seen Maher Arar at terrorist "safe houses" in Afghanistan was severely undermined today when a military court was told that Arar was in North America during the time in question.

FBI Special Agent Robert Fuller testified Monday that Khadr said he recognized a photo of Arar during an October 2002 interrogation.

Under questioning Tuesday, Fuller said Khadr saw Arar in Afghanistan during late September or October 2001.

A Canadian judicial inquiry determined in 2006 that Arar was working in San Diego on a business trip on the day of the 9/11 terror attacks — and back in Canada in October. In fact, Arar first drew the interest of the RCMP when he met another man they were watching in an Ottawa cafe Oct. 12, 2001.

The FBI claim has drawn ire in Canada and in Ottawa Tuesday Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said the government has not been shaken from its belief that Arar is an innocent man.

Arar has denied ever being in Afghanistan.

Fuller’s evidence was further undercut by revelations that the FBI notes taken during the interrogation stated Khadr was shown a photograph of Arar and at first said he "looked familiar." The notes recorded that "in time" Khadr stated "he felt he had seen" Arar.

[. . .]

Khadr’s lawyers had tried repeatedly to have this week’s hearing delayed so as not to end on the government’s evidence if Obama stops the trial.

Cannon stood by the results of the Canadian inquiry in which Justice Dennis O’Connor concluded Arar was a wronged man.

"Justice O’Connor did a fulsome report ... (and) the government acknowledged and accepted its recommendations," Cannon told the Star.

[. . .]

Paul Cavalluzzo, the commission counsel to Justice O’Connor, noted that the report concluded there was no evidence Arar was engaged in terrorist activity.

Cavalluzzo said that "given what’s happening at Guantanamo Bay, it wouldn’t surprise me if it was a product of torture, which means that it’s meaningless and useless information."

Navy Lt.-Cmdr. Billl Kuebler, Khadr’s Pentagon-appointed lawyer said Tuesday outside court that Khadr, who was 15 and gravely injured when he arrived at the U.S. base in Bagram, would have "confessed to seeing the Pope," to make his interrogations stop.

The distant possibility that Arar was, in fact, in Afghanistan contra his claims to date upsets me, but the methods that have been used and are being used by the Guantanamo system certainly disgust me.

[BRIEF NOTE] Actually and merely threatened academic strikes in Toronto

blogTo's Brady Yauch warns that at the University of Toronto, Toronto's premier university, the fear of a strike by staff is receding.

The union is asking the university to cover University Health Insurance Plan (UHIP). premiums for international students. UHIP is a private for-profit healthcare plan that currently charges about $3000 per year to cover international students and their families. The union is also looking for better childcare assistance and improved maternity/parental leave provisions to members with children. It's asking for smaller tutorial and lab sizes, while ensuring experienced TAs aren't forced out of the classroom. And the union wants to defend tuition assistance for unfunded students, which the university is trying to eliminate.

A spokesperson from the CUPE 3902 says that after months of deadlock, U of T is showing movement on maternity/parental leave, tutorial and lab sizes and a number of smaller issues. She also said that although U of T and the union have yet to come to any agreement, talk of a strike is premature, as the two sides have the next couple of weeks to work through their disagreements.

Plus, the relationship between U of T and the union is far more functional than the situation up at York--as both sides are closer on a number of key issues and the dynamics between the parties is far more functional.

What's York? "York" is York University, the youngest and second-largest of Toronto's two universites with a reputation for being decidedly left-wing.

Striking teaching assistants and contract faculty at York University have voted to reject a three-year deal, leaving in limbo the fate of 50,000 students who have been out of class for more than two months.

The vote, requested by the university and supervised by the Ontario Ministry of Labour, was greeted as a major victory by the union, members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

The union had recommended rejecting the deal. A total of 69 per cent of its 3,300 striking members cast a vote, with a total of 63 per cent voting no.

“We're obviously pleased,” union spokesman Tyler Shipley said. “This is a very clear indication from our membership across all three units that the offer on the table was inadequate.”

For students, the rejection certainly means more uncertainty and missed classes. The union is asking for a return to the bargaining table by 1 p.m. Wednesday, but the demand was flatly rejected by the university's president Tuesday night.

“We are not going back to the bargaining table … York is taking a stand to protect its academic and financial future,” said York president Mamdouh Shoukri, speaking at a press conference with union members pounding at the door, some shouting “shame.” Police had to be called in when university staff and union members got into a shoving match.

[. . .]

York's proposal was for a three-year deal, which included a 9.25-per-cent wage increase and improved benefits and job security.

[. . .]

The York contract is one of the most generous in the province and is widely seen by other locals as a benchmark for negotiations. The York workers also are looking for a two-year deal as part of an effort by CUPE to co-ordinate contracts on Ontario campuses to gain more clout through provincewide bargaining in 2010.

All this has definitely hurt York University. Yauch notes that "York has fallen to fourth place in the number of first-year applications in Ontario--down from the second place it traditionally claims," behind Ryerson University and the University of Western Ontario. The market decides, no?

[FORUM] What is Twitter for?

I've recently become a fan of Moleskine notebooks. My conversion was only recently: I bought my three-pack of cahiers sitting around for a couple of years, and only thought to tear the plastic wrapping off them when I realized I needed a new notebook. I like their mystique, even if it is inaccurately borrowed, I like the feel of the paper as I write on it, and I like their sturdyish black cardboard covers. It took me a while, but I ended up embracing them.

This brings me to the subject of Twitter. I've mentioned before that I have a Twitter account under the name "rfmcdpei," but I haven't used it since I got it. Is it just a low-bandwidth version of Livejournal or another blogging software? or, does it have particular advantages that I should know about? If you're a Twitter user, what do you use it for? How do you integrate it with the rest of your online life.

Thoughts?