MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines Tuesday paraded two Americans it suspects of having links to Muslim militants but one of the detained brothers noisily objected to the accusation.

James Stubbs, 56, a Muslim convert, and Michael Ray Stubbs, 55, were arrested on December 13 in a coastal town south of Manila and would soon be deported, military and immigration officials said.

James, a teacher from California who is married to a Filipino, also uses the name Jamil Daud Mujahib, they said.

"They have been meeting elements of terrorist organizations here," Immigration Commissioner Andrea Domingo told a news conference.

Domingo said some of the groups had been used to channel funds to Philippine militants affiliated with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network after they were set up by Mohammed Jamil Khalifa, one of the Saudi millionaire's brothers-in-law, in the late 1980s.

[. . . . ] more here on page two

"They came here on a no-visa entry," she said, adding that the brothers were considered "undesirable aliens for advocating destruction of property and planning to overthrow a government."

Domingo later clarified that the two were suspected of plotting against the government of the United States, not the Philippines.

Admiral Ernesto de Leon, the navy chief, said the brothers had not committed any overt criminal act but that the military had telephone records of calls by James to known members of home-grown Muslim militant groups.

Domingo and de Leon said the Americans had documents seeking donations to help build mosques and provide financial assistance to poor Muslims on the war-torn southern island of Mindanao.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein has given his U.S. captors information on hidden weapons and as much as $40 billion he may have seized while he was Iraq's president, an Iraqi official was quoted as saying on Monday.

"Saddam has confessed the names of people he told to keep the money and he gave names of those who have information on equipment and weapons warehouses," Iyad Allawi, a member of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, told the London-based Asharq al-Awsat daily.

"The Governing Council is searching for $40 billion worth of funds seized by Saddam when he was in power and which has been deposited in Switzerland, Japan, Germany and other countries under the names of fictitious companies," Allawi said.

Fatal shootings, discovery of dead body prompt police to ask public for help

The homicide rate in Toronto crept to its highest level in a decade after a bloody holiday weekend in which two young people were shot dead and police found a body they suspect is that of a missing teenager.

This comes as Police Chief Julian Fantino called on the federal government to review the criminal justice system.

Chief Fantino told reporters that the vast majority of gun crimes in the city involve people with criminal records, and that there are at least 73 street gangs operating in Toronto.

Without her attention, he often feels depressed

[. . . . ] But his integration into Canadian life went beyond that. Asim fell in love. He secretly dated another Pakistani Canadian, Farah, for two years and even proposed. But her family refused him. So, he decided to return to his first home and tradition: an arranged marriage.

The night they were married was also the first time Asim set eyes on Nida — a 22-year-old beauty and graduate student in international relations. She is bright, strong and mature — a perfect foil for Asim's chronic indecision and sensitive nature, his sisters decided.

Back in Canada, out of the family spotlight and without his bride's attention, he often feels depressed.

He talks to Nida once a week on the phone or on MSN chat. But sometimes, after he's run through the weather and his family's health, he's at a loss for things to say. He still doesn't know her well enough. "Maybe when she comes here, then I will have some thoughts. Something to talk about," he says.

OWEN SOUND—A former police sergeant, who served on the Hanover, Ont., force for 21 years, has been charged with 11 criminal offences, including assault with a weapon, forcible confinement and bank robbery.

Stanley Edwards, 51, of nearby Priceville, faces the charges in connection with a string of crimes committed across southwestern Ontario since early May, said provincial police Senior Constable Steve Starr.

"These are very serious offences involving weapons and violent assaults," said Starr.

Edwards was charged with break and enter Oct. 28 after police caught a man breaking into a grocery store in Durham, a small town east of Walkerton, said Inspector Rene Berger of West Grey Police.

Edwards was released on bail and then charged Dec. 3 with assaulting and forcibly confining a 47-year-old woman in a vehicle in London, Ont., said London city police Constable Tracy Swystun.

Edwards, who is currently in the Elgin Middlesex Detention Centre awaiting trial, was charged over the weekend with seven more counts in connection with the same woman — Edwards' common-law spouse.

Further investigation led Huronia West OPP to charge Edwards in connection with a May 5 bank robbery, when a man brandishing a silver-coloured handgun robbed a bank in Creemore, south of Collingwood.

Edwards took early retirement in 1997 after 21 years of service with the Hanover Police Department to start a tree and landscaping business.

VANCOUVER—One of the men connected to a weekend police raid on the legislature offices of two B.C. cabinet ministers said yesterday he's done nothing wrong and expects to be exonerated.

David Basi, assistant to Finance Minister Gary Collins, said in a statement released by his lawyer that he was told by the RCMP he "was not being arrested or charged at this time."

"He has co-operated fully with the police search," the statement said.

Basi, who was fired yesterday, made the statement a day after police raided the offices of Collins and Transportation Minister Judith Reid, seizing boxes of files.

RCMP spokesperson Sergeant John Ward said the raid was based on information related to an organized-crime drug case, as well as unrelated information discovered as a by-product of the 20-month drug investigation that resulted in the arrests last week of nine people.

He stressed the search warrants executed at the legislature were aimed at two non-elected officials and did not involve any elected provincial politicians. No arrests have been made nor charges laid in connection with the legislature raid, he said.

. . . it's not a political investigation," said Ward.

[. . . . ] Police did not name the ministerial staffers whose offices were searched. But the Vancouver Province said the searches involved records thought to be in the offices of Basi, who is active in both the federal and B.C. wings of the Liberal party, and Robert Virk, an assistant to Reid.

Basi's appointment was rescinded yesterday and Virk was suspended with pay.

Mug shots of deadbeat parents will be posted on a government Web site to locate those who have ignored court-ordered child support, Premier Dalton McGuinty said yesterday.

The provincial auditor's report yesterday criticized the government's handling of the Family Responsibility Office (FRO), which is charged with seeing that former spouses and their children get the money they are owed.

"(The government) is going to post the name and pictures of those we can't locate ... as they have done in Alberta, so we can help track them down, and we've also made a commitment to suspend (driver's) licences for those we have contacted ... (who) still refuse to make their payments," McGuinty said.

The Liberals say the office, which is $1.3 billion in arrears, was virtually ignored by the former Conservative government for more than eight years and will now require special attention.

About 23,000 women and children are on welfare because they either can't get their former spouses to pay up or they haven't been able to get the FRO to act on their cases.

HAMILTON - The man suspected of killing his 14-year-old stepson might never have come to Canada had it not been for bizarre set of circumstances that involved a groom-hungry Hamilton woman and the help of two local politicians.

Police arrested Ivan Vlad Miteiko at a downtown Hamilton house Saturday night after acting on tip from the public, said Staff Sergeant Peter Abi-Rashed of the major crimes unit.

Miteiko, 35, has been charged with first degree murder in the death of Ilya Kaspustyan and is to appear in court today.

[. . . . ] Miteiko had been separated from the woman for the past several months and did not live at the home, according to police.

He was also wanted on three counts of breaching of probation. Police wouldn't say to what those are related.

But it's not just Hamilton police who are interested in Miteiko.

"Immigration has arrested him for removal because he doesn't have any status in Canada," Abi-Rashed said yesterday.

It was another local woman, not Svetlana Kaspustyan, who was initially responsible for bringing Miteiko into the country in 1994.

The woman, who told her story to the Spectator in 1995, was interested in meeting an eligible Russian bachelor and intensively lobbied the federal government to grant Miteiko entry.

[The subject was ineligible to immigrate.] So the woman turned to her employer as well as former Wentworth Eat NDP MPP Mark Morrow for letters of recommendation. The letters were to help convince immigration authorities that she was a responsible citizen.

Stan Keyes, who is now Canada's Minister of National Revenue and an MP for Hamilton-West, also wrote a letter on the woman's behalf.

But it wasn't long before the woman realized she had made a mistake. [and she kicked him out]

[. . . . ] Later, Miteiko disappeared only to turn up again in 2003 at the centre of a murder investigation - something none of the people involved in bringing Miteiko to Canada could have foreseen.

But there were hints even eight years ago that the concerns of immigration officials should have been heeded more closely.

Keyes told the Spectator in 1995 that he wanted Miteiko returned to Russia and that it made sense listen to authorities when it comes to immigration procedures.

"Immigration can taste and smell these things," Keyes told the Spectator.

The 130-bed detention centre for youth between 16 and 18 who are awaiting trial is located on Horner Ave. in Etobicoke.

A report filed recently by Judy Finlay, Ontario's child advocate, calls on the government to immediately shut down the centre because of its culture of violence. Tony, who cannot be identified by his real name because of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, tried to hang himself on July 26, 2001, after he had been returned to the centre for breaching his bail on a charge of break and enter.

Fifteen months later, in October, 2002, a 16-year-old named David Meffe, who was also awaiting trial, succeeded in hanging himself in his cell at the centre. A coroner's inquest into his death begins on Jan. 19.

The duty of the child advocate is to ensure that youths who are in custody understand their rights and that laws are followed that protect them from abuse.

Finlay said her report, which deals with bullying and peer violence at the centre, would be an exhibit at the inquest.

Tony said that within an hour of arriving at the centre he saw kids being beaten up by other kids, without intervention by guards, and realized that he would have to defend himself.

Three homicides on the weekend -- 'This is getting nuts,' officer says

A Brampton man acquitted of second-degree murder only days ago was shot dead Saturday in what Toronto police are calling an execution.

The man was one of three weekend homicide victims, unrelated killings that have left Toronto police reeling.

While the killings had nothing to do with each other, police said two were gang-related, and Superintendent Ron Taverner said romantic notions of drugs, guns and gangs played a part.

"This isn't glamorous and this isn't Hollywood," Taverner said. "It's very sad."

The weekend deaths include:

Adrian Roy Baptiste, 21, of Brampton, who was shot in what police called "a planned execution" behind a townhouse complex on Lightwood Dr., in the Albion-Kipling Rds. area, around 3 p.m. Saturday.

Walter Trevor "Bling" Stewart, 28, who police are calling a known drug dealer, was hit with several gunshots around 4:50 a.m. Saturday when a gunman sprayed a highrise in the midtown Parliament and Wellesley Sts. area.

Christina Sukhdeo, 19, was found dead in a conservation area shortly after noon yesterday, five days after she disappeared from her Etobicoke home. A man who had a relationship with the victim, Toronto's 65th homicide victim of 2003, was taken into custody by police shortly before the body was found.

A non-fatal shooting last night capped the weekend of violence.
[. . . . ] "It was absolutely a planned homicide," Taverner said. Baptiste's death came just eight days after he was released from custody in Hamilton after he and Jahmar Reuben Welsh, 21, were acquitted of second-degree murder in the fatal shooting through the heart of Desmon Mingo of Hamilton on Feb. 19, 2002.

Their defence team argued in court that Mingo fired first when Baptiste and Welsh went to the east end of Hamilton to sell counterfeit money.

[. . . . ] In Hamilton, Desmon Mingo's grandmother, Gwen, said yesterday that she felt badly for Baptiste's family, but she had cooler words for the homicide victim.

"My sympathies goes out to his mother and his family," Gwen Mingo said. "As mothers we bring sons into the world and hope for the best."

However, when asked about Baptiste, she replied: "Adrian lived the life. They say so how you live, so how you die.... I feel for the family but I have mixed feelings about Adrian. I don't know how I feel yet."

She said she went to visit her grandson's grave on Christmas Day and found a card lying in front of it.

It said — according to her — "Deepest Sympathies" on the envelope and inside there was a message that read: "Yo Desmon, we beat the rap. You sucker."

[. . . . ] It's lucky that an innocent bystander wasn't killed, Kulmatycki said, noting that a stray bullet in a gang attack killed bystander Derek Yan, 40, in his Scarborough townhouse last month.

The brazen tit-for-tat gunfire that erupted before on Toronto streets now seems to be directly aimed at the criminal justice system itself.

Although Toronto police have dealt with retaliatory killings among various gang members in recent years, the bold Saturday-afternoon execution of a young man named Adrian Roy Baptiste appears to be linked to a recent verdict by a Hamilton court that acquitted him and a co-accused of second-degree murder.

[. . . . ] Just 10 days ago, a jury found Mr. Baptiste and Jahmar Reuben Welsh, 21, not guilty in the Feb. 19, 2002, shooting death of Desmon Mingo. Mr. Mingo, who was just 20, took a shot to the heart when a counterfeit-for-cash deal went awry.

The jurors, in acquitting the pair after a two-month-long trial, clearly accepted that Mr. Baptiste had pulled a gun in self-defence only after Mr. Mingo had opened fire at Mr. Welsh, and that he had fired it accidentally in the violent struggle that followed, during which Mr. Baptiste himself was shot in the leg.

"Right at this minute, it's hard to say for sure if it's a result of that particular verdict," Supt. Ron Taverner told The Globe and Mail yesterday, "but it looks like it."

Complicating the case is the fact that Mr. Baptiste was allegedly a member of the Bloods gang which operates in the Rexdale area and whose traditional rivals, the Crips, have been involved in numerous fatal shootings over the years, and that others may have wanted him dead for reasons not related to the trial.

"But the investigators have already been to Hamilton," Supt. Taverner said, "and they're taking the possibility [that the shooting was in reaction to the acquittal] very, very seriously.

[. . . . ] Toronto Police Chief Julian Fantino, while cautioning that police have not ascertained the motive behind Mr. Baptiste's killing, said yesterday that "if this is, in fact, what happened, it's a clear indication" that the courts are no longer immune to what he called "the law of the jungle," and "that's of very grave concern to me."

Even David Bayliss, the Toronto criminal lawyer who represented Mr. Baptiste at the Hamilton trial, was operating yesterday on the assumption that the killing may have been a particularly crude brand of street justice.

[. . . . ] Though the shooting occurred in midafternoon and the area was busy, Supt. Taverner said police are having only "limited success" with potential witnesses, whom he described as frankly intimidated by the gunfire and gang activity so common to the neighbourhood.

[. . . . ] Supt. Taverner runs 23 Division, home to Jamestown, a narrow sliver of Rexdale, which has been home to such rampant gunplay, chiefly among various crews of the Crips gang but occasionally directed against the rival Bloods, that in one particularly vicious period of less than a year no fewer than nine young men were killed by the gun.

The violence is so pervasive and so bold that homicide detectives routinely find few co-operative witnesses.

At the trial last year of Leon Boswell, convicted in the June 15, 2001, murder of Wayne Reid, the presiding judge, Mr. Justice David McCombs, clearly was shaken when one weeping witness told the court that she had been threatened and told to keep her mouth shut and was too frightened to testify.

But never before has it appeared so plain that there is a subculture whose members are utterly contemptuous not only of the police, who purport to solve murders, but also of the courts, which attempt to try these cases fairly.

[. . . . ] "You can defend Canada's interests, you can have differences in opinion and do it with a constructive tone," Martin said. "In fact, the sharper the differences in opinion, the more important it is to have a good relationship, so that it doesn't become personal."

War in Iraq

[. . . . ] "I believe that Prime Minister Chretien made the right decision [in not going into Iraq] and I said that at the time. I believe that we need good relations with the United States, but first and foremost are Canadian interests."

Pot decriminalization

[. . . . ] "I really don't think a young person should have a criminal record for the rest of their lives because they get caught with a very, very tiny quantity," he said, though added, "I think there is still room for debate over what is that quantity." [. . . . ]

Parliamentary reform

Martin said his other priority is parliamentary reform. He says he wants to see the end of the day where MPs are forced to toe the line and vote with the party so that the government can push through its own agenda, without concern for what its constituents want.

That will translate into more free votes in the House. [. . . . ]

One of the first issues that Martin plans to bring to a free vote in Parliament is the issue of same sex marriage.

“I believe that people are entitled to a national debate on this issue. That hasn’t happened yet and it has to happen in Parliament.”

“We will then have a free vote on whatever options we come up with. There may be more than one option. But it will certainly be a free vote.”

Part 2 - Martin on the war in Iraq and relations with the U.S.
Part 3 - Martin outlines his plans for spending on health care and defence
Part 4 - Plans for parliamentary reform and western Canada
Part 5 - Martin gets personal about his father and his temper
Part 6 - Closing remarks

Standing just metres from where one of two murder victims was gunned down yesterday, Toronto Police Chief Julian Fantino called for help in keeping the streets safe. "We're doing the best we can, we arrest people galore, we upload the justice system to excess, we recover guns right, left and centre," Fantino said.

"We do all those things that law enforcement is supposed to do and we do it well. Unfortunately, there's much to be done and most of it can't be left to the police."

MALL SHOOTING

Gunfire has threatened to drown out the Christmas carols in Toronto this past week -- Kirk Sweeney, 23, was murdered Dec. 22 at the G-Spot nightclub and gunfire at the Eaton Centre Christmas Eve sent shoppers ducking and one man to hospital.

Yesterday was even busier, as cops dealt with early morning shootings on Bleecker St. that left Walter Trevor Stewart Jr., 28, dead and Shane Derek Williams, 18, wounded. Both Toronto men are known to cops.

[. . . .] Another man was killed after a 3:30 p.m. shooting. He was hit in the chest near Lightwood Rd. and Albion Rd and driven to Etobicoke General hospital by a friend, then transferred to Sunnybrook, where he died last night.

[. . . .] A third shooting involved a man who was too drunk to tell cops where he was shot. He was treated and released at East York General hospital at 3 a.m.

Witnesses to such crimes must call police or anarchy reigns, Fantino said.

"Witnessing a crime and not coming forward to assist the police allows added protection for these gun-crazed gangsters to terrorize at will," he said. "That's something we just can't allow to continue."

To that end, the chief said Toronto cops will host a summit in the new year in the hopes of winning new allies in their war on gangs, guns and drugs.

EMBRO -- A police probe into the "suspicious" Christmas Eve death of a toddler found in an Oxford County farmhouse basement is now a full-blown homicide investigation. Ontario Provincial Police drew the distinction yesterday after receiving early autopsy results and collecting evidence from the scene. But Oxford OPP said little else about why they're now treating the death of 32-month-old Rebbecca Haney as a homicide.

[. . . . ] Police found the girl Christmas Eve, dead in the house her mother rented with another woman -- whom police say is her same-sex partner -- in an isolated, rural area near London, Ont.

Police confirmed the child was found in a room in the basement, but wouldn't say what type of room it is or whether the toddler was alone when found. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

[. . . . ] Haney said she put her daughter to bed about 7:30 p.m. Dec. 23. When she awoke the next morning, the girl was missing. Haney called police about 9 a.m. and OPP found the girl about six hours later.

[. . . . ] Misty Haney, her partner and a man were at the house when Rebbecca was reported missing. Police wouldn't identify the guest, but said he's dating a friend of both women.

Torontonians need to get behind their top cop and force Ottawa to overhaul the justice system so gangsters aren't running the city, a victims' advocate says. Joe Wamback, of the Canadian Crime Victim Foundation, backed claims by Police Chief Julian Fantino that too often police arrest career criminals only to find them back on the streets.

"It seems judges are in competition to give the lightest sentence. There is no consequence for violent crime, so there is no justice," Wamback said.

"Justice statistics from 65 countries show Canada is No. 1 when it comes to giving the shortest sentences to criminals."

In November, Fantino asked Ottawa to review the justice system but says he has had no reply.

Police need more help to keep thugs behind bars and off the streets, Fantino said after the recent rash of gang shootings.

"I'm 110% behind the chief," said Wamback, whose son Jonathan was badly beaten and nearly died in 1999. "Police need assistance keeping these horrific psychopaths from being released."

FREDERICTON (CP) - 2004 is to be a year of celebration for Acadians and, for many, it will also be a time for stocktaking.

They will be marking the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Samuel de Champlain in the New World and the establishment of the first French settlement on a small, windswept island between what is now New Brunswick and Maine. [Dochet's Island]
But they will also be reflecting upon their long struggle for survival as a people and whether the future will be kinder.

In the 400 years since Champlain and about 80 colonists settled on the island of St. Croix off southwestern New Brunswick, the Acadian people have endured mass expulsions and ongoing assimilation into the larger, anglophone population.

[. . . . ] "The 400th anniversary will be an occasion to say even though we're small, we're still here and not only are we still kicking, we're looking forward to the next 400 years," says Euclide Chiasson, president of the National Society of Acadians, which has members as far afield as Louisiana and France.

"If we can at least maintain where we are now in the Canadian landscape, demographically, well, I think we'll be doing great."

Chiasson says there are roughly 300,000 Acadians living in the Maritimes. The vast majority, about 250,000, are in New Brunswick.

He says that in New Brunswick, the Acadians have sufficient critical mass to protect themselves from the rapid assimilation that normally dooms small minorities.

[. . . .] But he says it is much better now and Acadian children can complete their entire education from kindergarten to university in French.

"I wouldn't say our culture is threatened, but I would say it has to be always defended or it would be swamped."

While the arrival of Champlain and the colonists in 1604 marked the beginning of the Acadian experience, the later expulsions of these first European pioneers surely defined their history.

[. . . .] "There will be thousands of activities in all of the Atlantic provinces through the year, but the big event will be the World Congress of Acadians in August in Nova Scotia," says Chantal Abord-Hugon, co-ordinator of Acadie's 400th Anniversary Committee.

"The congress will be a big reunion of Acadians coming from all over Canada and other countries and states, including Louisiana and France."

The celebrations, Chiasson says, have been given a boost by the fact that Ottawa recently endorsed a royal proclamation recognizing the expulsion.

[. . . . ] "It is more than a gesture of respect to Acadians," Chiasson says. "It is a statement that the strength and the wealth of this country lies in the diversity of its culture." [NB: more of the same "diversity" bilge -- NJC]

2004 will be just an opening act in the 400th anniversary celebrations.

2005 is an even bigger year because it is both the 250th anniversary of the first expulsion in 1755 and the 400th anniversary of the establishment of Port Royal in what is now Nova Scotia, the permanent settlement set up after Champlain's one, disastrous winter on St. Croix.

[. . . . ]In the spring of 1605, the survivors dismantled the buildings and moved to Port Royal.

The provinces are spending up to $2 million each for the 2004 celebrations, while the federal government is spending $18.8 million on a variety of related projects in France with an additional $10 million available for projects in Atlantic Canada through Canadian Heritage and the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency.
Organizers expect the anniversary to draw approximately 400,000 people.

The Canukistanian is a second-class citizen. Me too He is not fluent in "both official languages." Me neither Canukistanian reports "If you could speak both languages you were much more likely to succeed because that is what the government wanted." I have lived through this. Like Canukistanian, I chose not to take a tax-payer-funded lobotomy course in French that was being shoved down my throat touted as the key to further success. My values collided with government dictatorship policy. I am a moron.

[. . . .] My high school French is not Quebecois French and, anyway, is dusty from lack of use. That makes me ineligible for a number of jobs in Canada, not just leadership positions. [. . . .]

Several years ago, the oztario government spouted the phrase "English is the language of business; we do not need to legislate it into existence." Try calling your own gaddam hotlines or minister's offices and see how many people actually speak and understand the English language. The time to legislate English into existence has long passed. I am a fricken dinosaur, unwelcome in the country where I was born, worked and paid exorbitant taxes for decades.

In the fading days of 2003, I was happy to hear a new mandatory bilingualism policy in the federal public service is being given a second look.

The policy, introduced in November by former Treasury Board President Lucienne Robillard, will make fluency in French and English mandatory for most senior federal jobs.

To his credit, new Treasury Board President Reg Alcock admitted in an interview last week that he is reviewing the policy to determine if it discriminates against unilingual Canadians who aspire to jobs in the upper echelons of government.

Considering only about 20% of all Canadians are bilingual -- almost all of them narrowly concentrated near the New Brunswick-Quebec and Quebec-Ontario borders -- the answer to that seems obvious.

The other 80% will be out of luck when it comes to important roles in the public service. [. . . .]

***As the clock ticked down on his political career, Jean Chretien announced millions would be pumped into bilingual education across the country in an attempt to boost the fortunes of the French language in Canada.***

Did you know that the Acadians, who this coming year will be celebrating their 400th birthday, have a story to tell that boggles the mind. The quotes that follow are from my new history book -- Bastards and Boneheads [by Will Ferguson, Douglas & McIntyre]

"Acadia no longer exists, at least not on maps. The Acadian nation today is like a ghostly overlay, straddling the Maritime provinces and parts of Maine and Quebec. It is the oldest European community in North America."

[Ed. Note: This fact I was entirely ignorant of.]

"Acadia was established in 1605 when, after that first disastrous winter on St Croix Island, de Monts moved his fledgling colony to a protected cove where he built Port-Royal, a single, extended habitation -- a pattern so successful it would be used again a few years later at Quebec, where a second French colony was established.

The first Acadian settlers made friends with the Micmac people who fished and hunted in the area under the leadership of the irrepressible and Methuselah-like figure, the sagamo and shaman, Membertou. (Legend has it that Membertou was over 100 years old at the time and had been on hand to greet Jacques Cartier 80 years earlier.) With the English farther down the coast at Jamestown, Virginia and New France inland along the St Lawrence, the lines were drawn. In the middle was Acadia.

Acadia's greatest misfortune was one of geography; the colony was located at a crossroads, a continental cornice, where the hopes of France bordered the Imperial designs of the English. With their key strategic lands coveted and fought over, the Acadians found themselves caught between hammer and anvil in the power politics of the New Frontier. Everyone eventually had a go at conquering, capturing or razing Acadia, even the Dutch, who are, at best, a mere footnote in North American history."

[Ed. Note: As all Canadian students should know, the Acadians were eventually expelled from Canada and fled to Louisiana where their descendents live to this day. They are known simply as "Cajuns". What is not known was the sheer butchery of their people, the theft and destruction of their homes as they were driven away.

The instructions that Lawrence gave Colonel Monckton and the other English officers were blunt: Consider Acadians enemies of the state. Take them prisoner. Confiscate all cattle and crops. Force those in hiding to turn themselves in, 'by burning the Villages and destroying everything that can afford them the least shelter.' And although Lawrence never demanded that his troops separate families, he did encourage this practice as a way of breaking Acadian solidarity. 'I would not have you wait for the Wives and Children coming in,' he wrote, 'but Ship Off the men without them.'

'The deportation was done with astonishing speed,' writes historian Christopher Moore. 'In a matter of months, Acadia ceased to exist.'

It is no surprise at all that these people remember the past even though they later returned to Canada and started over. Who would not remember such things? I wish them all a very happy birthday and hope they have a wonderful year!

Speaking of the electoral reform, remember C-24? It becomes law on Jan 1st.

I know that you've always shared my dream of contributing financially to the Bloc and the NDP.

Bill C-24 received royal assent on June 19, 2003. Except for certain provisions including those concerning quarterly reports from registered political parties, Bill C-24 will come into force on January 1, 2004. This bill will amend the Canada Elections Act to extend disclosure and registration requirements for political entities, to introduce new limits on political contributions and to impose a ban on contributions from unions and corporations to political parties and leadership contestants. This bill will also provide for payment of a quarterly allowance to registered political parties, based on the percentage of votes obtained in the previous general election. This bill will also amend the Income Tax Act to increase the maximum tax credit for a political contribution from $500 to $650 and to allow electoral district associations to issue tax receipts.