[LINK] "Ignatieff okays ‘one-time' Newfoundland protest"

Martin O'Hanlon and Joan Bryden's article in The Globe and Mail makes for interesting reading.

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff is giving his Newfoundland MPs a “one-time” pass to break ranks and vote against the federal budget to protest the Harper government.

The Liberals are supporting the budget in a key parliamentary vote tonight so that the country isn't plunged into political instability in the midst of an economic crisis.

But Ignatieff said he's making an exception for his six MPs from Newfoundland and Labrador because the budget makes “radical” cuts in federal transfer payments to the province.

“This is not just about Newfoundland and Labrador, this is about the way Stephen Harper runs this federation,” Mr. Ignatieff said. “This tendency for unilateral, surprise action is damaging to the national unity of our country.

“Tonight, they will have a one-time vote against the budget in order to send a clear signal to Newfoundland and Labrador and the rest of the country that this is no way to run a federation.”

Ignatieff's announcement came after four Newfoundland MPs said they would vote against the budget, maintaining that it singles out their province and robs it of some $1.6 billion in federal funding.

Many accuse Mr. Harper of using the budget to settle a political score with Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams, who launched an “Anybody But Conservative” campaign during the federal election.

Mr. Ignatieff said he met Mr. Harper on Tuesday and asked him to “pause” the measure, but the Prime Minister refused.

Besides suggesting that Ignatieff doesn't have firm enough control over the Liberal Party caucus to command the expected unanimity, it also speaks to the strength of the nationalism that Newfoundland premier Danny Williams has managed to foster. Will a referendum on Newfoundland independence be that far off in the future, I ask (mostly in jest)?

[LINK] "Informer laments his role in terror case"

This isn't very impressive.

An RCMP agent who infiltrated an alleged homegrown terror cell testified yesterday he "felt bad" about playing a key role in helping recruit youths.

The testimony came as Mubin Shaikh recounted his role as a trainer at a so-called terrorist training camp, where leaders assessed the physical prowess and commitment to jihad of those in attendance, including four youths.

"I felt bad that because of my role, the consequence would be that these guys would be caught up in this case," said Shaikh, adding the youths were initially told the camp was for religious purposes.

"I just felt bad that I was there with everybody else."

The youths were among 18 people charged in 2006 for allegedly belonging to a cell plotting to detonate truck bombs. Charges have since been stayed against four adults and three youths.

The remaining youth was found guilty of terrorism-related offences in September, but his lawyers are seeking to have his charge stayed, alleging entrapment.

Defence counsel Mitchell Chernovsky and Faisal Mirza are arguing Shaikh committed criminal acts while he was an RCMP agent and acted as an instigator while at the camp in December 2005. At the time, they say, their client was an impressionable 17-year-old convert desperate for religious guidance.

But Crown prosecutors John Neander and Marco Mendicino say Shaikh was a confidential informer at the time, who was not tasked or given direction about what to do. He was, however, told not to break the law.

Court heard that while at the camp, Shaikh helped set up military-style activities, which included firearms training with a handgun brought by one of the alleged leaders.

He testified that he behaved like a "drill sergeant," encouraging the youths to work harder so they would be chosen for a second camp, and that he "emphasized the militant nature of the jihad."

When asked by Chernovsky if he played a "key role" in bringing the youth into the group, Shaikh said "yes." And when asked if he rejected the alleged ringleader's twisted version of Islam, Shaikh said he "passively" went along with it, never overtly denouncing terrorism.

But when questioned by Neander, Shaikh's role in recruiting the youth seemed less pivotal. "I wasn't about to blow my cover," said Shaikh. "I would've been pushed out of the circle and they would've pushed full steam ahead (with their plot)."

For the record, the group of alleged terrorists that Shaikh's associated with were the gang that gained international renown two years ago with reports of their plans to blow up Bay Street and CBC headquarters in Toronto, occupy Parliament Hill in Ottawa, and decapitate Prime Minister Harper, all part of a crusade against "Rome." Increasingly they've seemed more like fools than anything else; if they're manipulated fools in the bargain, well.

[LINK] "Economic crisis no time to talk Que. sovereignty: Sarkozy"

From the Montreal Gazette comes more evidence that Sarkozy has decisively broken from the traditional French policy, first and most famously set under De Gaulle, of not opposing if not outright supporting Québec separatism.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy downplayed Quebec sovereignty Monday, saying the world needs unity, not hatred and division, in Canada as it tries to face down an unprecedented economic crisis.

Sarkozy, who is preparing a major speech Thursday on the global economic collapse that is shaking Europe’s political foundations, appeared almost exasperated as he raised France’s role in the ongoing Canadian unity polemic.

“Do you really believe that the world, with the unprecedented (economic) crisis that it is going through, needs division? Needs hatred?” Sarkozy said at a ceremony at which he presented Quebec Premier Jean Charest with the France’s Legion of Honour medal.

He said disunity sends the wrong message to the Francophonie alliance of 56 French-speaking countries, many of them underdeveloped.

The Francophonie should be about unity, tolerance and openness, he told a gathering that included Francophonie Secretary General Abdou Diouf.

"Those who do not understand that, I don’t think they like the Francophonie, I do not think they have understood the message of the Francophonie - the universal values that we share in Quebec as in France: the rejection of sectarianism, the rejection of division, the refusal to retreat into oneself.”

Sarkozy seemed anxious to bury France’s long-standing policy of non-interference and non-indifference - called “ni-ni” in shorthand French - in Quebec’s possible separation from Canada.

Sarkozy, who outlined his pro-Canadian unity views in Quebec City last October, repeated his position that Canada is France’s close friend but Quebeckers are like siblings.

The ni-ni concept - long considered an irritant by Canadian federalists because the vague “non-indifference” statement implied possible support for Quebec separation - isn’t appropriate for friends or family, he said.

“The non-interference, non-indifference, honestly, it is not really my thing,” Sarkozy told a group of guests that included various senior French and Quebec government officials as well as Canadian billionaire Paul Desmarais, Quebec songwriter Luc Plamondon and Quebec actress-singer Carole Laure.