Canada: A Corrupt Petrostate

The 2009 Munk Debate will be held tomorrow night. The Globe and Mail is having some kind of pre-debate show live streaming "chatty" type-a-thingy on it's website where you can send in questions. And you can sign up to watch the debate free on the web at the Munk Debate website.

This year's debate will see climate liars... er... "sceptics" Bjorn Lomborg and Nigel Lawson face Guardian science columnist, George Monbiot and Green Party leader, Elizabeth May.

Should be interesting.

I don't know much about Lawson, but Lomborg is one of these soft-in-the-middle climate deniers. He's not like, say, Christopher Monckton who scoffs at the idea that people are warming the planet. Lomborg accepts the scientific consensus on this (up to a point), he just figures that based on his cost/benefit analysis, we would do better to invest in things like ending poverty instead of making massive investments in reducing carbon emissions.

Oh, and he also thinks that we should stay away from international treaties because we've been trying that route for 20 years and look where it's gotten us.

Gee, Bjorn, the lack of action on climate change couldn't have anything to do with chaps like yourself sowing discord and discouraging action on the subject, could it? You're not really being on the up and up when you say a particular solution won't work if you're the guy fucking with it?

As for the "feeding the poor instead of fixing climate change" thing.... it's a false dichotomy. We're not making such massive investments in solving the climate change problem that it's taking aid away from developing nations. In fact, all this line of reasoning he's been trotting out for the past decade has accomplished is to give developed nations (like ours) a good, compassionate-sounding rationale to not invest in reducing carbon emissions. Of course, we don't ever seem to make any corresponding investments in helping the developing world, either.

Still, Lomborg's style of scepticism is a tough one to debate as he'll be doing an end run around the moral highground. (I can almost hear him trilling, "All you care about is carbon. I care about people.") Plus, I think Lomborg's one of these guys who got into the denial game out of a desire to be thought clever and be loved. In a debate I could see him moderating his position just to stay on the audience's good side and to diffuse Monbiot and May's position.

Which brings me to Monbiot... Love his column. Can't say much more except that he has some choice things to say about Canada -- that, as the title of this post suggests, we're turning into a corrupt petrostate. And, I hasten to add, I agree with him.

And May... well... she sure would make a fine PM.

Christmas Boogaloo

Not sure if Shane is planning a rundown of his favourite Christmas-themed movies like he did with his month-long Hallowe'en extravaganza, but with December looming I thought I'd get our coverage of the holiday season off to a start with this post. (Break)

Oh. Yeah. That.

Something tells me the Saskatchewan Roughriders are going to come up with a new marketing slogan (Sportsnet) next season. You think? (Vancouver Sun)

Six in the Morning

1. HOUSING HELP HARDLY HELPING: More than a year after the Harper government announced $1.9 billion in social housing support, less than one per cent of the money has been spent. (Globe and Mail)

2. BATTLE IN SEATTLE 10-YEAR ANNIVERSARY: You know, back in 1999 when all those dumb kids took to the streets in Seattle complaining about how the globalized economy was all "oppressive" and "unsustainable", the media called them idiot idealists. I don't know. Here we are a decade later and I'm thinking they've been pretty well vindicated. (rabble.ca)

3. FOOD BANK USE WAY UP: 790,000 Canadians had to use a foodbank in March of this year alone. That's an 18 per cent increase over last year. (rabble.ca)

4. WAS THAT REALLY SO BAD? Experts are saying the second wave of the H1N1 flu may have peaked. So much for the first pandemic of the 21st century. No zombies. Zzzzzzz. The real tragedy is, someone mentioned that when you glance at H1N1 it kinda looks like HiNi (pronounced Hi-nee) and now the bug has started to disappear and I never had much of a chance to spread that meme around. Hini flu. Hi-neeeeeeeee flu.(Leader Post)

5. THIS IS WHAT THEY'RE CALLING A RECOVERY? They're saying the recession's over because the Canadian economy grew last quarter for the first time in a year. But by how much, you ask? A whopping 0.4 per cent. (Globe and Mail)

6. LET'S JUST PRETEND THAT GAME NEVER HAPPENED: No, seriously. I won't bring it up if you don't. (Leader Post)

Pick of the Day: ZZ Top

Better late than never, I guess. ZZ Top, as most of you doubtlessly recall, was supposed to semi-co-headline a show at Mosaic Stadium with Aerosmith on Aug. 9. Then in early August at a gig in South Dakota, Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler fell off the stage and broke his shoulder. That led to the concert being cancelled, and ultimately, the break-up of Aerosmith. Guitarist Joe Perry now has his own band, by the way, which hits Regina Jan. 28 in support of Motley Crue at the Brandt Centre.

Tonight, though, ZZ Top is rocking the Conexus Arts Centre. In the press material I accessed, there's no mention of a back-up band. Mind you, with nearly 40 years in the biz, the Texas-based blues-rock trio don't exactly lack for tunes to do a full-length concert of their own. To get you in the mood to boogie, here's video off ZZ Top's recent concert DVD for "Sharp Dressed Man". (YouTube)

Ugh.

Sucks.

(TSN)

Saskatchewan Book Awards

Last night at Conexus Arts Centre the 17th annual Saskatchewan Book Awards gala was held. Book of the Year honours were captured by Margaret Hryniuk and Frank Korvemaker for their lushly illustrated Legacy of Stone: Saskatchewan's Stone Buildings (Coteau Books).

Other big winners included Wilfred Burton and Anne Patton, who received three awards (Publishing, First People's Publishing and First People's Writing) for Dancing in My Bones (Gabriel Dumont Institute); and Trevor Herriot, who garnered two awards (Non-Fiction and Regina Book) for Grass, Sky, Song: Promise and Peril in the World of Grassland Birds (HarperCollins). Connie Gault, meanwhile, captured the Fiction prize for Euphoria: A Novel (Coteau Books).

For a complete list of winners in the 14 categories visit www.bookawards.sk.ca

Pick of the Day: Grey Cup

Not technically in Regina, but half the city's probably in Calgary for the game, and it is on TV, so what the hell.

At the beginning of the week, the Riders were nine-point underdogs. Since then, the point spread's held steady. For a title game, that's pretty big. It's hard to argue with bettors though. It's not that the Riders are a bad team, far from it. While they had their ups and downs this year, they definitely exceeded even the most optimistic fan's expectations. Montreal, though, has been dominant all season long. They come into the game healthy, and as their 56-18 evisceration of the B.C. Lions last week would seem to indicate, they are playing at a very high level.

From a distance, it might seem like we're in for a repeat of 1997. That year, the Riders finished third, but with QB Reggie Slack running with authority, they were able to sneak past Calgary and Edmonton in the West semi-final and final. By that point, though, Slack was pretty banged up, and the Riders were no match for the Doug Flutie-led Toronto Argonauts who prevailed 47-23 in the Grey Cup in Edmonton.

The result could be the same this year, I suppose. As a team, Montreal is certainly on par with the Argos. But whereas the Riders' '97 Grey Cup appearance might be classed a fluke, this year's team deserves to be in Calgary as West division champions. Darian Durant has matured greatly as a QB this season, and as a team, the Riders are playing much better football than they were Aug. 21 when they lost to the Alouettes 34-25 in Montreal. That extends beyond the offence too. Special teams, led by returner Jason Armstead, have stepped up, and the defence was dominant in the last two games against the potent Calgary Stampeders offence.

Add in a boisterous pro-Rider crowd, and a tendancy Montreal's exhibited over the last number of years of not always playing their best football in the title game, and Riders just might have a shot.

Game time on TSN is 5:30 p.m. And for those of you who aren't big into football, Canuck indie rockers Moneen are at the Exchange tonight with Passenger Action and Sights & Sounds. Here's the video for Moneen's "Hold That Sound" off their 2009 album The World I Left Behind. (YouTube)

As well, head-bangers Municipal Waste, backed up by The Accused, are at Riddell Centre. Here's the video for "Sadistic Magician"off their 2008 album The Art of Partying. (YouTube)

Ed. Note: the Municipal Waste gig has been cancelled. The Moneen show, though, is still a go.

Coco Avant Chanel

I caught this biopic about famed French designer Coco Chanel (1883-1971) at a packed RPL Theatre last night. It stars French actress Audrey Tautou as Chanel, and focuses on the early part of her life. It begins, in fact, with her being dropped off with her sister at a convent at age ten. Raised from that point by nuns (whose austere black habits very definitely influenced her stripped down approach to fashion later in life), Chanel and her sister became cabaret performers after leaving the convent. Both caught the eye of French aristocrats, and lived for a time as kept women. Because of their low social standing, they were not considered to be marriage material, however, and Coco eventually spurned her lover and established herself as a much-sought-after hat and dressmaker in Paris where she began to build her fashion empire. Overall, definitely a film worth seeing, both from a fashion perspective, and for the insight it offers into the class system that existed in pre-WWI Europe. When the 2010 Academy Award nominations are announced Coco Avant Chanel should receive consideration for Best Foreign Language Film. It should also, unfortunately, be a shoo-in for a Hackademy Award (USA Today). Yeah, for that generation of women, smoking was a sign of rebellion. And Chanel was certainly a rebel. But to reinforce that I'm not sure it was necessary to show Tautou with a cigarette in practically every scene. Beauty, fashion, romance and cigarettes--overall, a pretty intoxicating mix. Anyway, here's the trailer for the film which plays tonight at the RPL at 9:15 p.m. and Sunday at 7 p.m. (YouTube)

Saturday Anger-Making News Bummers

A couple short updates before I plunge back into the editing maelstrom.

First, yesterday the Supreme Court ruled on a Wal-Mart labour controversy. Followers of the story will recall the corporate department store chain shut down a Jonquière, Quebec store in 2005 after its employees formed a union. The employees howled union-busting but Wal-Mart said pffft, the store just wasn't profitable. The case slithered up the legal food chain to the Supreme Court--and yesterday that court ruled with Wal-Mart. So much for activist judges. (Montreal Gazette)

Second, freedom of speech fans have a new one to get worked up about. On Wednesday night a U.S. journalist was harrassed at the border by Canadian guards who, according to the reporter, obsessively demanded to know if she was going to talk about the Olympics while in Canada. Amy Goodman, the host of the U.S. radio program Democracy Now was travelling to speak at well-known radical terrorist institution the Vancover Public Library to promote her new book, Breaking The Sound Barrier. The incident stinks. It sounds like border guards were paranoid about criticism of the Olympics and wanted to stifle it. This is crap and there need to be a full investigation. Canada is not a country that should be harrassing journalists. You can read the Globe and Mail story here, and here's the blog entry on the Democracy Now website.

UPDATE: And here's a link to Rabble's comprehensive coverage, which includes audio of Goodman.