Afghanistan detainees and the questions of who knew what and when about whether the prisoners Canada handed over to the Afghans were then tortured will continue to plague the Minister of National Defence. Diplomat Richard Colvin has already testified to the Military Police Complaints Commission and more recently the House of Commons Committee on Afghanistan about warning the Canadian government in 2006 of the risk of torture. Another important witness before the House Committee will be David Mulroney, who takes issue with Colvin.
The timing of Mulroney's appearance will be soon, but first the Committee members want to review related background documents.
Colvin says Afghan prisoners tortured, MacKay attacks evidence, Liberals, NDP want public inquiry (with links to backgrounders)
H1N1 vaccines and FluWatch
There will be a bit of a lull in flu news until the predicted next wave of the pandemic hits Canada. In the meantime, clinics across the country are opening up to all comers, not just the high-risk groups.
H1N1 vaccine becoming available to everyone, too early to be complacent
Crib recall
The biggest crib recall in U.S. (and surely Canadian) history, over 2 million cribs, will continue with manufacturer StorkCraft being swamped with requests from customers for the repair kits to make its plastic-hardware drop-side cribs safer.
This story has links to information from Health Canada about safe sleeping for infants, and about crib safety.
Stork Craft recalls 2 million drop-side cribs with plastic hardware in Canada and U.S.A.
Grey Cup this weekend, the party starts on Wednesday
Yes, Calgary will host the almost-home-town team, the Saskatchewan Roughriders against the Montreal Alouettes on Sunday. Green faces, green shirts, maybe even some green beer will be everywhere in Calgary starting tomorrow. If there are Montreal fans here, no one's admitting it.
There may be tickets on eBay, but they'll cost a fortune. The only sellers are disgusted Stamps fans who can't get over it.
Saskatchewan Roughriders and Montreal Alouettes headed for Grey Cup 2009
Bombing Montreal cafes
Someone is bombing cafes in Montreal. It's frightening for patrons and owners, and no one is saying who's behind it.
Celebrities and entertainment
The New Moon movie from the Twilight series is going to be a big draw this week still.
Susan Boyle's record is out and should get some attention. She was a sentimental favourite on the British version of American Idol, with her stirring "I Dreamed a Dream" that took the judges, the audience, and the world of YouTube by storm. In time for Christmas.
Flooding on Vancouver Island
As if they haven't had enough already, the people of Vancouver Island are going to get more rain, including in the already-flooded areas. Wednesday is predicted to be the peak flow day for the rivers, but the rain is forecast to keep going on into Thursday.
Stock exchange slowdown?
Since Thursday is American Thanksgiving, even though it's not a holiday here, trading does tend to slow down to snooze level. Who knows, maybe the TSX will be lively and maybe the cow will jump over the moon. Wednesday is a regular trading day in New York, but don't the traders there want to get home early so they can do whatever it is Americans do on Thanksgiving Eve?
Random picks
The BBC noticed that some Canadian H1N1 vaccine had to be recalled. It's old news here, but maybe that story will continue circulating for a while.
Bambi's picture should make the Wednesday papers, at least in Toronto. A deer found its way to downtown T.O. on Tuesday. Police and wildlife officials, with a vet from the Toronto Zoo, tranquilized and TASERed the deer, then took it back to the forest where the birds were singing and the sky was blue. Apparently the wandering ungulate had bedded down in a flower bed and looked quite nice, but unfortunately, Yonge Street is a deer-free zone.
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