News from the Old Country

In the past few days a couple of gas pipelines have been bombed in northern British Columbia. Both pipelines were in remote areas and damage was minimal.

The RCMP are treating the incidents as acts of vandalism rather than acts of terrorism. RCMP Sgt. Tim Shields says,

Under the Criminal Code, it would be characterized as mischief, which is an intentional vandalism. We don't want to characterize this as terrorism. They were very isolated locations and there would seem there was no intent to hurt people

Of course (with typical Canadian smugness) I can only speculate on how similar acts would be treated by law enforcement officials in some analogous American place. Like Alaska, say. No doubt (or so I imagine) the American government would seize upon such acts and use them as an excuse to curtail the civil liberties of its citizens.

And of course the Canadian government has its own (different, subtle) ways of limiting the basic freedoms of its citizenry. I'm not allowed to talk about them, though...

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Apparently there was also a national election in Canada this week. Don't feel bad if you weren't aware of it...

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Celine Dion will be playing The Tacoma Dome in Washington on October 18th. By sheer coincidence this also happens to be my daughter's birthday. Now there's no way I'll ever forget my daughter's birthday!

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MAILBAG: Reader Guy Lafleur asks:

If Quebec ever separates from Canada, will the Montreal Canadiens hockey team have to change its name?

Well, Guy, this of course is a question that has vexed philosophers and hockey fans in Canada for generations. Here's my take. Having won something like 26 million championships, I don't see the Canadiens organization as being too willing to give up that kind of brand name recognition. (Imagine, for example, George Steinbrenner finally losing it and moving the Yankees to Georgia.) I also think that Montreal supporters, Quebec separatists the lot of them, would love nothing more than to continue mis-spelling "Canadians." At least that's the way I see it!