[PHOTO] Condos rising over the Distillery District, December 2012

[ISL] On the sabotage of potatoes of Linkletter Farms, Prince Edward Island

The National Post's John O'Connor in his article "Potato sabotage traced to P.E.I. town, where everyone seems to have a theory about who did the crime" describes an unsettling situation.

Sylvia Doiron knew the police would be coming to question her eventually. Where else were they going to go in Summerside, P.E.I., to speak with an expert about darning needles, the instrument at the centre of a major RCMP investigation that has folks around this pleasant seaside community of 15,000 wondering whodunit and why?

“It is a real mystery,” says Ms. Doiron, the owner of Pins & Needles, a sewing shop on Water Street. “It has been the talk of Summerside, because Linkletter Farms are a very well-known business around here, and the family is very well-liked. These are good people. Who would do such a thing?”

Nobody knows. Not the locals, although everybody seems to have a theory about the crime, and not the police, although they continue to press ahead with the investigation. But the facts are these: on Oct. 2 an undisclosed number of sewing needles were discovered in potatoes by workers at the Cavendish Farms plant in New Annan. Production was immediately halted, and the sabotaged spuds were traced to Linkletter Farms, one of the island’s top producers and a family operation with roots in Summerside dating from 1783.

Several additional Linkletter tubers, stabbed clean through with darning needles, surfaced in bags purchased by consumers at stores throughout the Atlantic provinces, triggering a massive recall of 800,000 pounds of potatoes. An X-ray machine set up in a police-secured potato storage facility was used to screen the suspicious spuds. The technique proved inadequate. Metal detectors were then acquired and farmers, working after hours, hour after hour, ripped open and swept clean countless bags of potatoes; a process that continues.

Meanwhile, 10 needles, not including those discovered at the Cavendish plant, have been found since Oct. 2 and sent to a forensics lab for further analysis. The potato industry is offering a $50,000 reward for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of the individual, or individuals, responsible for the crime.

The blame that is being cast on environmentalists, who--some hint--might have done this in retaliation for environmentally problematic deep-water wells, seems like the sort of thing that would be done in a situation like this. I'd be surprised if this was the case, for the reasons that environmentalist Sharon Labchuk states in the article. At this point, no one knows.

CBC Prince Edward Island carried a report on the reward that went into some detail about concerns that the brand of Prince Edward Island potatoes might be hit negatively.

The potato industry in Prince Edward Island is coming together to offer a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for recent potato tampering incidents.

The Prince Edward Island Potato Board said in a release Monday, up to $50,000 will be available in a fund recently set up.

[. . .]

Greg Donald is general manager of the potato board. In the release he stated, "For the health of Linkletter Farms and the entire industry, we know we all wish to see this incident resolved as quickly as possible."

Donald said people in the industry wanted to do something to help and that he believes consumers are viewing the tampering of Linkletter Farms potatoes as an isolated incident.

Donald said to the best of the board's knowledge, the incident hasn't had a wider impact on potato sales. He says the board has hired a consultant to see if the industry can further improve safety.

[LINK] "CBC reverses ban on journalist over Ghomeshi-Mansbridge remark"

The Globe and Mail's Simon Houpt notes the latest terrible misstep in reacting to the Jian Ghomeshi scandal. Trying to shut down Linden MacIntyre is a terrible idea, especially over discussions of workplace abuse.

The head of CBC’s news operation has overruled a directive that sought to bar the veteran journalist Linden MacIntyre from appearing on CBC News Network this week, after executives at the public broadcaster were offended by comments he made comparing chief anchor Peter Mansbridge to the disgraced radio host Jian Ghomeshi.

Jennifer McGuire, the general manager and editor-in-chief of CBC News and Centres, told The Globe on Thursday that Jennifer Harwood, the managing editor of CBC News Network, erred in sending out a memo late Wednesday announcing interviews that had been previously scheduled with Mr. MacIntyre in advance of his final report for The Fifth Estate had been canceled.

“Jennifer Harwood wrote a memo in the heat of the moment,” said Ms. McGuire. “The idea that Linden MacIntyre would be barred from the News Network is not true and is not what is going to happen.”

[. . .]

In her memo, titled “Standing up for Peter Mansbridge,” Ms. Harwood said Mr. MacIntyre had made “a disgraceful comment that is unfair and untrue. It’s time to stand up for Peter. And stand up for what’s good and right at the CBC.” She added: “The NN Execs and “the fifth estate” are aware that we are cancelling all Linden MacIntyre interviews on NN.”

In the Globe interview, which was published Wednesday afternoon, Mr. MacIntyre cited Mr. Ghomeshi’s “tantrums,” and said “he is allowed to bully and abuse people. You know, that’s the way it works, that’s what you put up with, whether it’s Mansbridge, [Peter] Gzowski, whatever. They were not like shrinking violets, either. So along comes Ghomeshi: ‘Oh, yea, he’s in the tradition of that.’ But somewhere along the way, it crosses a line. It does cross a line.”

[LINK] "The Real Lolita"

A John from Facebook linked to Sarah Weinman's blog post at Penguin Canada describing the genesis of Vladimir Nabokov's famous and controversial novel Lolita in a real-life abduction of a young girl, Sally Horner, by a pedophile. I will say that I've always read Lolita as a subtle but damning condemnation of the narrator, but Weinman's exploration of the girl whose story gave form to Nabokov's novel is entirely merited.

Vladimir Nabokov’s 1956 essay “On a Book Entitled Lolita” was an essay he never intended to write. He disdained literal mapping of nonfiction to fiction, as well as the search for moral meaning: “For me a work of fiction exists only insofar as it affords me what I shall bluntly call aesthetic bliss, that is a sense of being somehow, somewhere, connected with other states of being where art (curiosity, tenderness, kindness, ecstasy) is the norm.”

[. . .]

Lolita is a nested series of tricks. Humbert Humbert, the confessing pervert, tries so hard to obfuscate his monstrosities that he seems unaware when he truly gives himself away, despite alleging the treatise is a full accounting of his crimes. Nabokov, however, gives the reader a number of clues to the literary disconnect, the most important being the parenthetical. It works brilliantly early on in Lolita, when Humbert describes the death of his mother—“My very photogenic mother died in a freak accident (picnic, lightning) when I was three”—or when he sights Dolores Haze in the company of her own mother, Charlotte, for the first time: “And, as if I were the fairy-tale nurse of some little princess (lost, kidnaped, discovered in gypsy rags through which her nakedness smiled at the king and his hounds), I recognized the tiny dark-brown mole on her side.” The unbracketed narrative is what Humbert wants us to see; the asides reveal what is really inside his mind.

Late in Lolita, one of these digressions gives away the critical inspiration. Humbert, once more in Lolita’s hometown after five years away, sees Mrs. Chatfield, the “stout, short woman in pearl-gray,” in his hotel lobby, eager to pounce upon him with a “fake smile, all aglow with evil curiosity.” But before she can, the parenthetical appears like a pop-up thought balloon for the bewildered Humbert: “Had I done to Dolly, perhaps, what Frank Lasalle [sic], a fifty-year-old mechanic, had done to eleven-year-old Sally Horner in 1948?”

[LINK] "Did 'Liberal Studies' Enable Hong Kong's Youth Awakening?"

At Foreign Policy, Grace Tsoi suggests that the genesis of Hong Kong's youth-led protests might lie, in part, in an education program encouraging students to look critically at themselves and their society.

Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests would not have been possible without the deep involvement of thousands of students, who have shown a resolve that has belied the once-prevailing view of their city as apolitical -- and prompted the political elite there to search for explanations. The protests began on Sept. 22 with a student-led boycott, and students have composed the backbone of the sit-ins, which have crippled parts of the Asian financial center for more than seven weeks. But the government itself may have inadvertently planted the seeds of the protests years prior; in seeking answers, some members of Hong Kong's pro-Beijing camp have seized upon a secondary school curriculum known as "liberal studies."

In Sept. 2009, the government mandated liberal studies in secondary schools as part of education reform. The subject comprised six modules: personal development and interpersonal relationships, contemporary Hong Kong, modern China, globalization, energy technology and the environment, and public health. Contemporary Hong Kong has become the most controversial of all, as it broaches topics like political participation and the rule of law. As part of the curriculum, students are required to complete an individual project, which involves in-depth research and the submission of a 1,500 to 4,000-word report. At the time of the reform, rote learning had been the norm in Hong Kong's school system, and the subject was introduced to nurture critical thinking skills and raise students' awareness of issues influencing Hong Kong, China, and the world.

While no bright line connects the curricular reforms with the protests, many seen as sympathetic to Beijing view liberal studies unfavorably. "The possible connection" between the protests and the curricular subject "lies in the fact that there were many secondary school teachers supportive" of the protests, Priscilla Leung Mei-fun, a law professor and lawmaker, told Foreign Policy."A lot of political groups, including [protest leader] Benny Tai, gave speeches in secondary schools to promote Occupy Central," one of the terms used to refer to the protests. Although she added it was "okay for students to discuss politics," they are unable to "thoroughly understand difficult political theories and put them into action." Another legislator, Regina Ip, said she has discussed liberal studies with the curriculum's development committee and finds it wanting. Ip told FP, "The chairman [of the committee], an academic himself, said that too much revolves around current affairs."

[. . .]

When Hong Kong authorities accepted the liberal studies proposal back in 2000, it was before fears of gradual encroachment by Beijing had reached their current apex. The reviled anti-subversion law, later tabled before its implementation after thousands of city residents protested what they saw as an attack on their fundamental freedoms, wasn't proposed until 2003. In an October 2000 poll conducted by the University of Hong Kong's Public Opinion Program, 32.1 percent of respondents said they did not trust Beijing; in the latest poll in September 2014, 52 percent of respondents gave the same answer.

[LINK] "Byelection results show Liberals, NDP going in different directions"

CBC's Éric Grenier analyzed two recent federal by-elections, one in Ontario and one in Alberta. He argues that these indicate a continuing revival of Liberal strength across Canada, along with a pattern of NDP decline from its 2011 peak.

The Conservatives won both ridings up for grabs Monday with healthy shares of the vote, taking 49 per cent in Ontario's Whitby-Oshawa and 63 per cent in Alberta's Yellowhead. The Liberals finished a strong second in the former with 41 per cent, while garnering 20 per cent of the vote in the latter, the party's best performance there since 1993.

The New Democrats had no silver linings to find in the results, however, taking 10 per cent in Yellowhead and just eight per cent in Whitby-Oshawa, their lowest results in both since 2000.

[. . .]

The Liberals gained significantly in their share of the vote, almost tripling it in Whitby-Oshawa and increasing it nearly seven-fold in Yellowhead. The party picked up an average of 21.9 points in the two ridings, better than the average 18.6-point gain the party made in other byelections since Justin Trudeau became leader in April 2013.

The Conservatives dropped an average of 11.8 points, virtually identical to their average loss in other recent byelections. But that drop came from a higher share of the vote to begin with — the party actually decreased by a lower proportion on Monday than it has elsewhere since the last federal election.

For the New Democrats, the loss of an average of 8.9 points was worse than the party's previous byelection performances since 2011 (an average drop of 6.3 points).

[LINK] "Is the PQ ready for the Pierre Karl Peladeau show?"

Looking to Québec and the fortunes of separatism, CBC's Michelle Gagnon notes the benefits and the pitfalls of Québec media mogul Pierre Karl Péladeau's expected bid for the Parti Québécois leadership.

The minute new candidate Pierre Karl Péladeau stepped off Pauline Marois' election bus one cold Sunday last March, the speculation erupted about his ambition to become leader of the Parti Quebecois one day.

[. . .]

Peladeau's notoriety only increased after he settled down with Julie Snyder, one of Quebec's biggest TV stars and most prolific television producers.

Together, they turned Quebec into an almost unparalleled example of media convergence in North America, and he has been a regular in the pages of supermarket tabloids, many of which he owns. Occasionally, he even makes it into glossier gossip fare like Paris Match, as he did in July alongside his daughter's new godmother, Céline Dion.

[. . . H]e's widely seen as the man who sank the PQ's chances of winning the last election with his untimely cri de coeur about making Quebec a country.

He is also considered a deeply divisive figure for his reputation as a union-busting boss with at least 14 lockouts to his credit.

In fact, many on the PQ left have hovered between skepticism and outrage at Peladeau's inclusion in the leadership ranks, claiming he will move the party to the right at the expense of the PQ's traditional social democratic base.