2007

Wednesday November 28, 2007

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator - Wednesday November 28, 2007 Probe into hockey brawl between 8-year-olds A decision on whether to lay a criminal charge in connection with a hockey brawl involving eight-year-olds at a tournament in Guelph, Ont. will likely come on Wednesday, says a police spokesperson.Ê "It's the interaction between the two coaches -- whether or not that was a consensual fight or an assault," Sgt. Cate Welsh of the Guelph Police told CTV.ca on Tuesday.Ê Niagara Falls Thunder coaching staff allegedly spat at a counterpart with the Duffield Devils, Welsh said.Ê But what had everyone talking is the bench-clearing brawl erupting at the game's end on Friday, which involved such young players. Players for both sides belong to Novice AAA teams.Ê "This is a really rare incident," Richard Ropchan, executive director of the Ontario Minor Hockey Association told CTV.ca, adding he can't think of a similar one in his nine years with the OMHA.Ê "Certainly the fact that eight-year-olds are involved -- well, that certainly got my attention."Ê Ropchan added that the brawl "points right to the adults involved. You can't blame the kids for that."Ê Witnesses say there were cheap shots throughout the game, culminating with a fight. (Source: CTV News)Êhttp://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2007/11/26/ontario_leads_in_child_poverty.html Hockey, fighting, contact, brawl, coaches, aggressive, brutality, history, Roman, gladiators, Rome, war, violence, editorial cartoon, 2007

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday November 28, 2007

Probe into hockey brawl between 8-year-olds

A decision on whether to lay a criminal charge in connection with a hockey brawl involving eight-year-olds at a tournament in Guelph, Ont. will likely come on Wednesday, says a police spokesperson.

“It’s the interaction between the two coaches — whether or not that was a consensual fight or an assault,” Sgt. Cate Welsh of the Guelph Police told CTV.ca on Tuesday.

Niagara Falls Thunder coaching staff allegedly spat at a counterpart with the Duffield Devils, Welsh said.

But what had everyone talking is the bench-clearing brawl erupting at the game’s end on Friday, which involved such young players. Players for both sides belong to Novice AAA teams.

“This is a really rare incident,” Richard Ropchan, executive director of the Ontario Minor Hockey Association told CTV.ca, adding he can’t think of a similar one in his nine years with the OMHA.

“Certainly the fact that eight-year-olds are involved — well, that certainly got my attention.”

Ropchan added that the brawl “points right to the adults involved. You can’t blame the kids for that.”

Witnesses say there were cheap shots throughout the game, culminating with a fight. (Source: CTV News)

 

Thursday August 2, 2007

August 2, 2007

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday August 2, 2007

U.N. Authorizes Peacekeeping Troops for Darfur

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Tuesday to authorize a force of about 26,000 U.N. peacekeepers to help end more than four years of violence in the Darfur region of Sudan, which has left hundreds of thousands dead and forced millions from their homes.

The U.N. mission, one of the largest in the organization’s history, would assume authority by Dec. 31 over a force of about 7,000 African Union peacekeepers who have struggled to protect civilians. But U.N. officials said that it could be several more months beyond the deadline before the full force is deployed and that stemming the violence will be impossible without a political settlement between the government in Khartoum and numerous rebel factions.

The Security Council resolution grants the peacekeeping mission authority to use military force to protect its personnel, guarantee the safe travel of aid workers and provide protection for civilians. Hours before the text was adopted, the House voted to pass a bill that would shield investors and state and local governments in the United States from lawsuits if they divest funds invested in companies doing business in Sudan or Iran. (Source: Washington Post)

Marvellous Maps

 

Thursday July 26, 2007

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday July 26, 2007

Russia deploys mission to claim North Pole

A Russian expedition sailed yesterday for the North Pole, where it plans to send a submarine crew to plant a flag on the seabed and symbolically claim the Arctic for the Kremlin.

The mission is part of a race to assert rights over the Arctic, an icy wasteland that is rich in energy reserves and, as climate change melts the ice, could open up to form a lucrative shortcut for ships sailing between Asia and North America.

“The Arctic is Russian,” expedition leader and parliamentary deputy Artur Chilingarov told Russian TV. “We are going to be the first to put a flag there, a Russian flag, at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean, at the very point of the North Pole.”

One of their biggest worries is resurfacing at the same hole in the ice they dived into — missing it could mean becoming trapped as the mini-submarine is not powerful enough to break through the ice.

International law states the five countries with territory inside the Arctic Circle — Canada, Russia, the United States, Norway and Denmark, via its control of Greenland — are limited to a 320-kilometre economic zone around their coastline. (Source: Ottawa Citizen) 

 

Friday July 20, 2007

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday July 20, 2007

Black to remain out on bail

A Chicago federal judge on Thursday allowed convicted media tycoon Conrad Black to remain free pending his November sentencing but declined to let him return to his native Canada.

Conrad Black Cartoon Gallery

U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve restricted Black’s travels to the Chicago area and southern Florida, where he owns a beachfront mansion.

The ruling was a compromise between placing Black in jail as federal prosecutors wanted and giving him complete freedom. St. Eve said she does not think Black is “going to run and hide,” but indicated she’s not entirely convinced Black will return to Chicago for sentencing.

St. Eve said she would reconsider Black’s request to live in Toronto if his lawyers can provide more assurances that he will not start an extradition fight when it is his time to be sentenced. She continued to hold his passport and scheduled another hearing on the matter for Aug. 1.

“I think the judge is a very reasonable woman,” Edward Genson, one of Black’s attorneys, said after the hearing. (Source: Chicago Tribune)

 

Thursday July 19, 2007

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday July 19, 2007

Strip Conrad of Order of Canada, NDP urges

The reputation of former media baron Conrad Black, who fell from fortune to felon last week, could plummet even further now that the federal New Democrats are asking Rideau Hall to strip away Black’s Order of Canada.

Conrad Black Cartoon Gallery

The NDP has put in an official request to take away Canada’s highest civilian honour from the former head of Hollinger Inc., reasoning Black’s convictions for three counts of fraud and one count of obstruction of justice in Chicago on July 13 undermine the integrity of the award.

NDP heritage critic Charlie Angus told the Canadian Press that the Order of Canada was meant to represent the noblest achievements of Canada’s men and women, but “when someone falls below that standard by being convicted, in the past they’ve been removed from that order.”

Black’s leading defence lawyer, Edward Greenspan, e-mailed a statement to the Canadian Press saying that any move to strip Black of the order should wait until the judicial process is completed.

“Since we have announced that there will be an appeal, the only appropriate thing to do is to await the result of the appeal before any motion about his Order of Canada should be brought,” Greenspan wrote. (Source: CBC News)