MPs with dual citizenships

Dion among a dozen MPs with dual citizenships

At least 11 members of Parliament, other than Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion, hold dual citizenships, CBC.ca research has confirmed.

Dion was criticized this week because of his reluctance to give up his French citizenship. He was born in Canada but holds dual citizenship because his mother was born in France.

The Parliament of Canada website shows that 41 of the 308 MPs sitting in the House of Commons were born in 28 countries other than Canada, ranging from Uganda and Malta to China and the United Kingdom.

Many of these MPs qualify for dual citizenship. That puts them in the ranks of the 691,300 people living in Canada who hold dual citizenships, according to the 2001 census.

CBC.ca called their offices to check on their current status and found that the following MPs hold dual citizenships:

• Omar Alghabra (Ontario Liberal), with Syria.
• Raymond Chan (British Columbia Liberal), with the United Kingdom.
• Libby Davies (British Columbia NDP), with the United Kingdom.
• Jim Karygiannis (Ontario Liberal), with Greece.
• Wajid Khan (Ontario Liberal), with Pakistan.
• Maka Kotto (Quebec Bloc Québécois), with France.
• Pablo Rodriguez (Quebec Liberal), with Argentina.
• Michael Savage (Nova Scotia Liberal), with the United Kingdom.
• Mario Silva (Ontario Liberal), with Portugal.
• Lui Temelkovski (Ontario Liberal), with Macedonia.
• Myron Thompson (Alberta Conservative), with the United States.

Three of the foreign-born MPs' citizenship status remains unknown.

Health Minister Tony Clement's office had not returned repeated calls by Friday afternoon.

Keith Martin's spokeperson said the Liberal MP doesn't like to divulge personal information, and Conservative John Williams's spokesperson couldn't comment on his citizenship.

The remaining 27 MPs don't hold dual citizenships.

Other MPs may be eligible for dual citizenship through their parents or spouses, as is the case with Dion.

Many not interested in dual citizenship

Recent changes in laws allowing dual citizenship in other countries mean that some MPs born abroad are now eligible to renew the citizenship they had to relinquish when they moved to Canada.

However, many aren't interested in doing so, according to the CBC.ca survey.

Those include MPs born in Italy — such as Liberals Maurizio Bevilacqua, Albina Guarnieri, Maria Minna and Joe Volpe — and MPs born in India like Liberals Sukh Dhaliwal and Ujjal Dosanjh.

'At this point in time, I am a Canadian citizen.'-Liberal MP Sukh Dhaliwal

When Dhaliwal arrived in Canada, dual citizenship with India wasn't allowed. Now, though he could renew his Indian citizenship, he told CBC.ca, "At this point in time, I am a Canadian citizen."

Maria Mourani of the Bloc Québécois could be eligible for three citizenships. She is a Canadian citizen, but was born in Ivory Coast and held a passport from there. She also held a Lebanese passport, for which she was eligible through her parents.

Both passports have expired, but she is still eligible to claim citizenship with both countries.

Dual citizenship important to some

For some MPs, their second citizenship is important. Liberal Lui Temelkovski, a Macedonian-Canadian citizen, says he encourages his children to study abroad and learn other languages.

NDP Tony Martin was born in Ireland but does not hold dual citizenship. However, he understands why someone would want to hold two citizenships.

"There are a myriad of reasons for it … to participate as a citizen of the world," he said.

Many of the MPs told CBC.ca that the world is becoming smaller, and that their birth in another country reflects the many nations that make up Canada.

For others, like Libby Davies, the question came as a surprise.

"I don't know if I have dual citizenship," she said. "I guess I do. I've never renounced it, but I don't have a British passport. I consider myself truly Canadian."

5-Minute Meals That Slim

5-Minute Meals That Slim

20/05/2009 12:12:29 PM

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Slim down for summer with these fast, easy, MUFA-rich recipes.

By Tracy Gensler, RD, Prevention

More Links: 25 Belly Flattening Meals How Many Servings Are You Really Eating? 100 Ways To Cut 100 Calories

Your Flat Belly Building Blocks

If you think you're too busy to lose weight, we have one word for you: MUFA (pronounced "moofah"). Also known as "monounsaturated fatty acids," these plant-based compounds are the basis of the Flat Belly Diet, which can help you drop pounds and reduce belly fat. The even better news? Delicious foods such as olives, nuts and seeds, avocado, oils, and dark chocolate are some of the best sources of these healthful fats.

Our dietitians have developed a week's worth of unique Flat Belly Diet-approved meals and snacks that are easy to prepare and ready in 5 minutes or less, so you can slim down without stress. Research shows that eating this way may put you on your way to weight loss success: A study commissioned by Prevention at the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center found that overweight women who followed the diet for 28 days lost 8.4 pounds and nearly 2 inches around the waist. Choose four meals a day from this list (organized by MUFA so you can easily find a meal that suits your mood)--and you'll save time, flatten your belly, and boost your health.

MUFA Olives

HUMMUS, OLIVE, AND TOMATO
Spread 2 Tbsp hummus on each half of a toasted whole wheat English muffin. Top each half with 5 thinly sliced olives and a slice of tomato. Have 1 medium orange. Total calories: 362

MEDITERRANEAN SALAD
Toss ½ c chickpeas, rinsed and drained, with ½ c halved cherry tomatoes, 1 chopped cucumber, 10 large black olives, and 1 Tbsp lemon juice. Serve with 1 toasted large whole wheat pita. Total calories: 398

WAFFLES FLORENTINE
Prepare 2 whole grain waffles and spread with 2 Tbsp black olive tapenade. Top with ½ c egg whites, scrambled in cooking spray, and ¾ c spinach leaves. Have ½ c green or red grapes. Total calories: 393

ROAST BEEF SANDWICH
Toast 2 slices whole wheat bread and spread with 2 Tbsp green olive tapenade. Top with 3 oz organic deli roast beef. Have 1 medium pear. Total calories: 400

GRAB & GO CHEESE & CRACKERS
Mix ½ c fat-free cottage cheese with 1 c chopped red bell pepper and 10 sliced large black olives. Serve with 6 small whole wheat crackers. Have 1 medium apple. Total calories: 378

SPANISH-STYLE EGGS
Fry 1 whole egg with 1 egg white in 1 tsp olive oil. Place on top of ½ c salsa and 10 sliced large green olives. Eat with 6" whole wheat tortilla. Total calories: 383

MUFA Nuts & Seeds

ALMOND BUTTER WITH FRESH FRUIT
Spread 1 slice whole wheat bread with 2 Tbsp almond butter. Eat with ½ c each sliced strawberries and sliced kiwifruit. Total calories: 350

MANGO WALNUT SALAD
Top 3 c spinach with ½ c chopped mango, ¼ c sliced red bell pepper, 4 chopped baby carrots, 2 Tbsp walnuts, 2 Tbsp vinaigrette, and 1 Tbsp raisins. Eat with ½ large whole wheat pita. Total calories: 395

HAZELNUT PEAR CRACKERS
Spread 4 RyKrisp crackers with 2 Laughing Cow Light Garlic & Herb Wedges and top with 1 sliced medium pear and 2 Tbsp hazelnuts. Total calories: 383

CHICKEN LETTUCE WRAPS
Spread 6 Bibb lettuce leaves with 2 Tbsp hummus and top with 3 oz sliced grilled chicken and 2 Tbsp walnuts. Also have 1 c raspberries and 6 small whole wheat crackers. Total calories: 405

TAHINI TUNA PITA
Blend 3 oz can chunk light tuna, drained, with 2 Tbsp tahini, 2 Tbsp chopped parsley, and finely shredded ½ small carrot. Stuff into 4" whole wheat pita. Total calories: 364

SUMMER TOMATO SALAD
Layer 1 c arugula with 2 sliced tomatoes, 2 oz thinly sliced part-skim mozzarella, and 5 thin slices red onion. Dress with 2 Tbsp pine nuts; 1 tsp olive oil; and balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper to taste. Total calories: 391

MUFA Avocado

AVOCADO TOMATO HERBED WRAP
Spread 1 whole wheat wrap with 2 Laughing Cow Light Garlic & Herb Wedges and fill with 1 sliced small tomato, ¼ c sliced Hass avocado, whole basil leaves, and 1 tsp balsamic vinaigrette. Total calories: 367

AVOCADO MANGO SALAD
Mix 1 cubed mango with ¼ c diced Hass avocado and 2 Tbsp minced cilantro. Squeeze with juice of ½ lime and sprinkle with ground red pepper. Serve with wedges of 1 toasted large whole wheat tortilla. Total calories: 367

DIJON EGG SANDWICH
Scramble ½ c egg whites in cooking spray. Place on toasted whole wheat English muffin spread with 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard and top with 1oz reduced-fat Monterey Jack cheese and ¼ c cubed Hass avocado. Total calories: 386

AVOCADO BRUSCHETTA
Spread 2 slices toasted whole wheat bread with ¼ c sliced Hass avocado, mashed, and top with 2 sliced small tomatoes and salt and pepper to taste. Have 1 medium apple. Total calories: 374

SOUTHWEST VEGGIE BURGER
Fill 1 whole wheat bun with 1 black-bean veggie burger, 1 c mixed baby greens, ¼ c canned corn, ¼ c sliced Hass avocado, and 2 Tbsp salsa. Total calories: 383

MUFA Oils

CHEESY BEAN DIP
Mix ¾ c rinsed and drained kidney beans, mashed, with ¼ c diced onion, 1 Tbsp walnut oil, and 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar. Sprinkle with ¼ c shredded reduced-fat Cheddar cheese and microwave on medium until cheese is melted. Serve with 1 c sliced red bell pepper for dipping. Total calories: 389

SIMPLE SALMON SANDWICH
Mix 3 oz canned boneless, skinless wild salmon, drained, with ¼ c chopped red bell pepper, 2 Tbsp lemon juice, and 1 Tbsp olive oil. Top with romaine lettuce leaves and serve on whole wheat roll. Total calories: 413

ITALIAN TUNA
Blend 3 oz can chunk light tuna, drained, with ¼ c chopped red onion, 2 Tbsp capers, 2 Tbsp lemon juice, and 1 Tbsp olive oil. Serve with 4 RyKrisp crackers. Total calories: 346

SESAME SLAW
Mix 2 c broccoli slaw with ¼ c red bell pepper slices, ¼ c chopped canned water chestnuts, 1 segmented medium orange, 2 Tbsp sesame seeds, 2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar, and 1 Tbsp sesame oil. Total calories: 348

GREEK LENTIL SALAD
Mix ½ c canned lentils, rinsed and drained, with ¼ c each chopped tomato, chopped cucumber, and chopped red onion; 2 Tbsp red wine vinegar; and 1 Tbsp canola oil. Sprinkle with ¼ c crumbled feta cheese and 2 tsp dried oregano. Total calories: 383

MUFA Dark Chocolate

CHERRY CHOCOLATE SMOOTHIE
In a blender, combine 1 c fat-free milk, 1 c frozen cherries, 3 oz fat-free vanilla yogurt, and ¼ c semisweet chocolate chips. Mix until smooth. Total calories: 402

GRAB & GO CHOCOLATE CHERRY TRAIL MIX
Toss together ½ c whole grain O's cereal, ¼ c semisweet chocolate chips, and 1 oz dried cherries. Drink ½ c fat-free milk. Total calories: 429

STRAWBERRY CHOCOLATE COTTAGE CHEESE
Sprinkle 1 c fat-free cottage cheese with ¼ c semisweet chocolate chips and ¼ c sliced strawberries. Sprinkle with chopped mint leaves. Total calories: 379

CHOCOLATE BANANA BLAST
Mix sliced ½ small banana and ¼ c semisweet chocolate chips with 6 oz container unsweetened fat-free Greek-style yogurt. Total calories: 352

CHOCOLATE RASPBERRY OATMEAL
Mix ½ c dry oats (cooked with water to desired consistency) with ¼ c semisweet chocolate chips and 1 c raspberries. Total calories: 419

BLUEBERRY WAFFLE
Top 1 frozen whole grain waffle, toasted, with ¼ c semisweet chocolate chips and place in toaster oven or oven set to 350°F to slightly melt chips. Top with ¼ c blueberries and 2 oz fat-free vanilla yogurt. Total calories: 350

More slimming meals! Visit prevention.com/5minutemeals for 15 extra superfast belly-flattening recipes. If that doesn't satisfy your craving, check out the new Flat Belly Diet Pocket Guide, which packs 90 more delicious MUFA-packed meals. Available at flatbellydiet.com/pocketguide or wherever books are sold.

CBC's Stanley Cup final ratings among best ever recorded by the network

CBC's Stanley Cup final ratings among best ever recorded by the network

Jun 8, 2004
Source : Canadian Press

TORONTO (CP-AP)--The Stanley Cup final was a bonanza for the CBC and a bust south of the border.

Tampa Bay's 2-1 win over the Calgary Flames in Game 7 drew an average of 4.862 million viewers Monday night, making it the second-highest rated NHL game ever for CBC. Only coverage of Game 7 of the 1994 final between Vancouver and the New York Rangers drew more, with 4.957 million tuning in for the Rangers' 3-2 win.

But those numbers include pre-game and post-game coverage. The game itself Monday drew 5.560 million Canadians, which was up from 5.404 million in 1994.

The entire final averaged 3.735 million viewers--the highest-rated final round since the ratings were introduced in 1989. Last year's final between Anaheim and New Jersey averaged 1.507 million.

All four rounds of the 2004 playoffs averaged 2.154 million viewers, up 35 per cent from last season's 1.593 million.

The record audience for a sporting event in Canada, with more than 10 million English and French-language CBC viewers, was the Canadian men's gold medal hockey win over the U.S. at the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics.

In the U.S., the average rating for the five Stanley Cup final games on ABC were the lowest since the network began broadcasting the final again in 2000.

Monday's game got a 4.2 rating with a 7 share. That's down nine per cent from the 4.6 with an 8 for New Jersey's 3-0 win over Anaheim in Game 7 last year--the highest-rated NHL game since broadcast networks began carrying the final in 1998.

Still, the rating for Monday's game was well above the five-game average of 2.6 with a 5 share.

The rating is the percentage of all homes with TVs, whether or not they are in use. Share is the percentage of homes with TVs in use. Each rating point represents about 1.08 million households.

The U.S. ratings were anemic throughout the series. The first two games were on ESPN, with Game 1 tying for the lowest-rated Stanley Cup final game on the cable network since 1990.

© Canadian Press

Pakistan’s British-Drawn Borders

May 5, 2009

Pakistan’s British-Drawn Borders

By Robert Mackey

Library of Congress A map of the border between Afghanistan (in yellow) and British India (in pink) from 1893, the year the Durand Line was drawn. The Swat Valley was then considered a part of Afghanistan.

In their fascinating account of a series of interviews with a Taliban tactician in Tuesday’s New York Times, Jane Perlez and Pir Zubair Shah point to “one distinct Taliban advantage: the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan barely exists for the Taliban.”

In previous posts on The Lede, we’ve mentioned that Pakistan and the rest of the world believes that Afghanistan ends (and Pakistan begins) more or less where a 1,600-mile line was drawn on the world map in 1893, at the direction of a British colonial officer named Henry Mortimer Durand, who sought to define the outer edge of what was then British India. At the time, the Afghans grudgingly accepted this map, despite the fact that what became known as the Durand Line cut right through Pashtun tribal areas and even villages that they considered part of Afghanistan.

Sir Henry, whose portrait can be seen in Britain’s National Portrait Gallery in London, drew his line with the memory of Britain’s two failed wars against the Afghans fresh in his mind. Not long before, in 1879, during what the British call the Second Anglo-Afghan War, Sir Henry had completed and published an account of “The First Afghan War and Its Causes” begun by his father, Sir Henry Marion Durand. As Sir Henry noted in his introduction to the book (which has been scanned and posted online in its entirety by Google), his father, who died before he could complete the history, “had some special qualifications for the task,” having participated in that first, disastrous attempt to subdue Afghanistan, four decades earlier.

So, as the entry on Pakistan in the Encarta encyclopedia explains, splitting the Pashtun tribes was in some sense the whole point of what is still known today as the Durand Line:

As the British sought to expand their empire into the northwest frontier, they clashed with the Pashtun tribes that held lands extending from the western boundary of the Punjab plains into the kingdom of Afghanistan. The Pashtuns strongly resisted British invasions into their territories. After suffering many casualties, the British finally admitted they could not conquer the Pashtuns. In 1893 Sir Mortimer Durand, the foreign secretary of the colonial government of India, negotiated an agreement with the king of Afghanistan, Amir Abdur Rahman Khan, to delineate a border. The so-called Durand Line cut through Pashtun territories, dividing them between British and Afghan areas of influence. However, the Pashtuns refused to be subjugated under British colonial rule. The British compromised by creating a new province in 1901, named the North-West Frontier Province, as a loosely administered territory where the Pashtuns would not be subject to colonial laws.

In November, 2001, as the United States confronted the Taliban in the aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Cener and the Pentagon, Vartan Gregorian explained on The Times’s Op-Ed page how the arbitrary line the British colonial administration in India drew through “Pashtunistan” in the 19th century, which still forms much of the modern border, created problems that have still not been resolved in this volatile border region.

As the scholar Barnett Rubin noted in an article in Foreign Affairs in 2007, when the British left India in 1947 and the northwest part of the territory was carved into the new state of Pakistan, the Afghans stopped recognizing the Durand Line as a border:

Afghanistan claimed that Pakistan was a new state, not a successor to British India, and that all past border treaties had lapsed. A loya jirga in Kabul denied that the Durand Line was an international border and called for self-determination of the tribal territories as Pashtunistan. Skirmishes across the Durand Line began with the covert support of both governments.

While the two governments today are not actually fighting a war over the location of the border, the fact that the Durand Line runs right through the traditional Pashtun lands means that Taliban fighters from Afghanistan blend easily into the local population on the Pakistani side of the frontier. Suggestions from Pakistan to stop illegal border crossings by either putting down land mines or erecting a fence have been rejected by Afghanistan’s President, Hamid Karzai, who is himself Pashtun.

In January, Pierre Sprey, a former Pentagon official, told Bill Moyers in a discussion of American strategy for fighting militants along the Afghan-Pakistan border, calling the Pashtuns who live along both sides of the Durand Line “a tribe,” can be misleading. In an interview, Mr. Sprey said:

It’s not a tribe. It’s a nation. This is 40 million people spread across Afghanistan and Pakistan, you know, who don’t even recognize that border. It’s their land. … There’s 40 million of them. That’s a nation, not a tribe. Within it are tribal groupings and so on. But they all speak the common language. And they all have a very similar, very rigid, in lots of ways very admirable code of honor much stronger than their adherence to Islam.

Pakistan’s other borders were created in 1947 by another British colonial officer, Sir Cyril Radcliffe, who was made chairman of the boundary commission and given six weeks to carve a Muslim-majority state from British India. As the historian Karl Meyer wrote in his book “The Dust of Empire,” Sir Cyril “was a curious choice,” since he had never previously visited India. In a chapter called “Pakistan: Sins of Partition,” Mr. Meyer explained:

As Radcliffe’s former private secretary, Christopher Beaumont, later remarked in an interview, the chairman had never traveled east and “was a bit flummoxed by the whole thing. It was a rather impossible assignment, really. To partition that subcontinent in six weeks was absurd.”

Hundreds of thousands of people died in the ethnic cleansing that followed the imposition of the new border Sir Cyril drew between India and Pakistan. W.H. Auden made the absurdity of the way the border was created the subject of the poem “Partition,” published in 1966:

Unbiased at least he was when he arrived on his mission,
Having never set eyes on the land he was called to partition
Between two peoples fanatically at odds,
With their different diets and incompatible gods.
“Time,” they had briefed him in London, “is short. It’s too late
For mutual reconciliation or rational debate:
The only solution now lies in separation.
The Viceroy thinks, as you will see from his letter,
That the less you are seen in his company the better,
So we’ve arranged to provide you with other accommodation.
We can give you four judges, two Moslem and two Hindu,
To consult with, but the final decision must rest with you.”

Shut up in a lonely mansion, with police night and day
Patrolling the gardens to keep the assassins away,
He got down to work, to the task of settling the fate
Of millions. The maps at his disposal were out of date
And the Census Returns almost certainly incorrect,
But there was no time to check them, no time to inspect
Contested areas. The weather was frightfully hot,
And a bout of dysentery kept him constantly on the trot,
But in seven weeks it was done, the frontiers decided,
A continent for better or worse divided.

The next day he sailed for England, where he could quickly forget
The case, as a good lawyer must. Return he would not,
Afraid, as he told his Club, that he might get shot.

TV ON THE WEB

TV ON THE WEB

TheStar.com | Television | Denied the right to watch TV online? You've been geo-blocked

Denied the right to watch TV online? You've been geo-blocked

There are fixes for Canadians frustrated at barriers keeping them out of sites like Hulu and TV.com

Feb 08, 2009 04:30 AM

Bill Brioux
SPECIAL TO THE STAR

Say you want to watch that Saturday Night Live sketch you missed last week. You know – the funny one.

You're in Toronto, sitting in front of your powerful new computer screen. You go to Hulu.com, the digital streaming site owned by U.S. media giants NBC and Fox. It's like a big video jukebox filled with all your favourite shows, everything from 30 Rock and American Idol to Heroes and Fringe, available on demand 24 hours a day.

You click on a clip and up pops a stark black-and-white warning: "We're sorry, currently our video library can only be streamed within the United States." There's more, including a line about Hulu being committed to making its content available worldwide. But for now, step back, Johnny Canuck – you've been geo-blocked.

Geo-blocking – or geo-gating, as the networks prefer to call it – is how content providers like Hulu, and even Canadian networks like CTV and Global, restrict access to their online videos outside the territories where they hold the rights.

Except (shh!) there's an easy way around it. You don't have to buy a grey- or black-market satellite dish as you did in the old days to see HBO or ESPN. You don't need to send cheques to a cousin in Albany to cover your dodgy satellite bill.

Just download one program to your computer and before you can say "cross-border cloaking," Hulu can't tell who-loo they're dealing with, or what country you're from, letting you sneak into their store.

As many as a half-million Canadians, among 5.5 million Web surfers worldwide each month, are already using AnchorFree.com to do just that, according to David Gorodyansky, founder and CEO of the northern California company. AnchorFree offers an ad-supported virtual private network called Hotspot Shield that, in addition to boosting PC security, allows Canadians to view geo-blocked content. Once installed (a process that takes about a minute), the shield prevents content providers from knowing what country you are in.

"Our job is not to promote Hulu or offer them in regions where they're not available," says Gorodyansky. "We're just enabling people to be private and secure online. What people choose to do once they're private and secure is kind of their business."

AnchorFree makes money from ads posted at its site, including a banner that adds itself to your browser while the service is in use. Up to now, Gorodyansky says he has not received a cease-and-desist complaint from Hulu or anyone else.

There are other sites designed to guide Canadians and others around geo-blocked content, including SurfTheChannel.com. It acts like a search engine for video content, pointing users to the show they want to see via links to YouTube, Tudou (YouTube's Chinese equivalent), The WB, ABC Family and even Canadian sources like CTV.ca.

So then why not go straight to CTV.ca, asks Stephan Argent, CTV's vice-president of digital media. Argent says 337 million videos were streamed on the network's website in 2008, including CTV's popular TV hits Grey's Anatomy, Mad Men and So You Think You Can Dance Canada.

While it's hard to compare online and TV audience numbers, Argent says some of the younger-skewed shows CTV has licensed for Canada, like The CW's Gossip Girl, are more popular online than on TV.

Globaltv.com also offers Canadians 24-hour on-demand access to its TV hits, including 24, Family Guy and, yes, Saturday Night Live. Global started by streaming Survivor in 2006, and now offers 75 shows online (if you include its specialty-channel offerings such as Holmes on Homes and Trailer Park Boys).

As with CTV.ca, Global's clips or "webisodes" have a 15- or 30-second commercial attached, but that's still better than the ad-to-show ratio on broadcast TV.

So Argent argues Canadians have no reason to use reach-around products like AnchorFree to access geo-blocked U.S. sites. "Given the choice between doing something illegal that takes effort and a legitimate, high-quality product ... that's easy to use, I think the majority of people are going to choose the latter."

One current advantage of hopping the border and surfing content at Hulu or CBS-owned TV.com rather than, say, CTV or Global is choice. TV.com (geo-blocked in Canada) has the largest TV-show library on the Web, with 38,000 videos available at the click of a mouse. Besides current hits, it offers many classic shows from as far back as 1941. The top three oldies are currently The Three Stooges Show, The Twilight Zone and I Love Lucy. Worth using a geo-block "shield" to access? As Curly would say, "Soitenly!"

Canadian network sites, to date, have no such archived content. "The Americans have had a bit of a head start," concedes Pary Bell, Global's vice-president of content. "They can start looking at their Starsky & Hutches and CHiPs. We also have that opportunity to ... look at the back catalogue but, first and foremost, our largest demand is for what's hot right now."

But is using easy-to-access services such as AnchorFree illegal? Relax, says Michael Geist, a University of Ottawa law professor and media law expert (also a Toronto Star columnist). While he acknowledges that peeking across the border at content from a restricted zone "is effectively breach of contract," he feels that doing so is "unlikely to create any kind of liability on the part of the user."

Geist says networks and various rights holders are more likely to try to come up with technical ways to stop surfers from looking past their border zones. "One way to do that is to try to identify AnchorFree users specifically, or whatever the proxy service happens to be, and block anyone using the proxy."

The problem is that there are so many ways to access content nowadays – including the illegal ones. "Many of the content owners recognize that you're better off embracing the opportunity to monetize that traffic and that interest, rather than trying to set up barriers," says Geist.

Even the "gatekeepers" – the network executives trying to play by the rules and honour rights restrictions – acknowledge that the biggest gate may be the public's belief that the World Wide Web should be free, and barrier-free.

"It's a generational thing," says Michael Goldsmith, director of original content at Teletoon, which gets hundreds of emails from American kids frustrated at being geo-blocked from Canadian shows like Total Drama Action.

"Young people feel somewhat entitled to view content that's been made," says Goldsmith. "They know that it's been made and it exists. They have a really hard time grasping why they shouldn't be able to go online and just view it when they want to view it."

The dilemma, says Goldsmith, is that Canadian producers make money selling online rights to their shows in other regions. "We don't want the Americans to see it," says Goldsmith, "not because we don't want them to see it, but because it could jeopardize a business deal that's important to the health of a good producer."

Not every Canadian cares about such considerations, and programmers know it. Global's Pary Bell, a self-described "child of the Internet," understands that "it can be very frustrating to everyone who doesn't like the notion of territories in the online world." Maintaining territorial rights is not as easy online as it is with the "walled garden" of television.

So far, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission – which may soon have to change its name to the Canadian Media Commission – has not weighed in on geo-blocking. That will change with new media hearings set to begin in a few weeks.

Record Number of Jews slated for next U.S. Congress

Last update - 20:52 20/11/2008
Record Number of Jews slated for next U.S. Congress
By Brett Lieberman and Rebecca Spence, The Forward
Tags: jewish world, u.s. congress

When the new Congress debuts in January 2009, a record 45 Jews will take the oath of office: 32 in the House of Representatives and - regardless of the outcome in the still-contested Minnesota election - 13 Jews in the Senate.

Among the three newcomers to the House are a young, gay, multimillionaire entrepreneur; a seasoned veteran of New Jersey's rough-and-tumble politics, and a wealthy attorney who poured $2 million of his own money into a raucous campaign that now gives him the right to say he represents Mickey Mouse.

And even with all that, the record is bittersweet for those who work to elect Jews to public office. Some high-profile races fell short: Losers included Ethan Berkowitz at the hands of longtime Rep. Don Young in Alaska, blind rabbi Dennis Shulman in New Jersey and Josh Segall in Alabama.
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But those who won bring along their own share of news. Jared Polis, 33, a multimillionaire Internet entrepreneur who will represent Colorado's 2nd District, is the first openly gay non-incumbent male to be elected to the House of Representatives. (Barney Frank - who, notably, is also Jewish - came out after serving several terms.)

Polis made his fortune, estimated between $150 million and $200 million, while still in his 20s. The Boulder native, who served on the Colorado State Board of Education, founded BlueMountain.com, an online greeting card company that spun off from his parents' business, and sold it in 1999 for a reported $780 million. Polis also founded and sold the florist Web site Proflowers.com.

In recent years, Polis has devoted the bulk of his time to his philanthropic endeavors, with a focus on education. In 2004, he founded the New America School, an English-language school for new immigrants. There he took an unusually hands-on approach, serving as New America?s superintendent until last year.

Polis won a tough primary battle in a largely Democratic district that includes Denver suburbs with a growing Jewish population. According to David Shneer, director of the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder, the Jewish population of the Denver metro area grew by roughly 40% over the past 10 years. Polis' district includes the liberal enclave of Boulder as well as other Denver suburbs, though not the capital city itself.

Polis, who handily won the general election with more than 60% of the vote, said that neither his religion nor his sexual orientation cropped up much during the campaign. "I think they were both non-issues," he said. "The issues of most concern to voters in our district were the war in Iraq, affordable health care, improving our schools."

Still, both of those factors did come into play in recent weeks, when Polis received a "frantic" e-mail from a Barney Frank biographer who wanted to know whether he was left-handed. Why? As Polis explained, the biographer was working on a book titled "Barney Frank: The Story of America's Only Left-Handed Gay Jewish Congressman." If Polis were left-handed - which, he reassured the biographer, he is not - his election would have discounted the book's title.

Polis is a member of Congregation Har HaShem, Boulder's only Reform synagogue. The congregation?s senior rabbi, Deborah Bronstein, said that Polis embodies Jewish values. "He takes a lot of personal concern in nonprofits that have to do with helping people get ahead who might not otherwise," she said.

Where Polis brings a youthful and entrepreneurial zeal to office, John Adler, 49, brings 20 years of elective experience to the job of representing New Jersey's 3rd District, a seat that no Democrat had won since 1882. Adler, who spent the past 16 years in the New Jersey State Senate, where he was assistant minority leader from 1994 to 2001, won the seat of retiring Rep. Jim Saxton.

Residents of the South Jersey district, which includes Cherry Hill - where Adler lives and was a former councilman - and Ocean and Burlington counties, will have a stalwart supporter of Israel in their new congressman. Adler, who says he has been Jewish "virtually my entire adult life," converted from his Episcopalian faith in 1985 after meeting his wife in law school. He has served on the New Jersey-Israel Commission, which helps foster cultural and business relations between the Garden State and Israel.

In the State Senate, Adler cultivated a reputation as a well-respected legislator and chaired the Judiciary Committee. According to Rutgers University political scientist Ross Baker, he played a central role in helping Governor Jon Corzine push state Attorney General Zulima Farber out of office after it was revealed that the latter had outstanding speeding tickets and a bench warrant against her. "He brings legislative skills that are applicable to the House, and I predict that he will quickly move to make himself unassailable in that seat," Baker said.

At least for now, Adler, a member of Temple Emanuel in Cherry Hill, says that his focus is on helping struggling middle-class families, a core theme of his campaign. "This is the first decade since the Great Depression that the middle class stepped backwards," Adler said. "I am [eager] to address problems that have been plaguing America the last few years or my entire life."

In Florida's 8th District, Alan Grayson found success in his second run for Congress, winning a seat that includes part of Orlando, including Walt Disney World. Grayson, the surprise victor of the Democratic primary, defeated incumbent Republican Ric Keller in what the Orlando Sentinel called the ugliest fight in Central Florida House races.

Grayson, a Bronx native who lost a 2006 congressional race, spent more than $2 million of his own money this year to win the seat considered part of a GOP stronghold. As an attorney, he sued government contractors responsible for defrauding taxpayers and for supplying defective equipment to American soldiers. Keller tagged him as an "ultraliberal" who would vote to cut off funding for troops in Iraq, but apparently the voters believed otherwise.

Walk faster - you'll live longer

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New research shows that three or four hours of moderate exercise can help maintain a healthy body weight for those who carry the obesity gene.
Walk faster - you'll live longer
The You Docs
November 13, 2008

Gait speed could help predict how long you'll live. It may very well be another important vital sign, like heart rate, blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

The magic number for staying young is 3.6 kilometres an hour. Why? If you can walk that fast, you are better able to bounce back from an illness. That's why zippy over-65 walkers in a recent study enjoyed lower mortality rates.

So, time yourself (or your mom or dad) on a tread- mill or around the track. Get your speed up by intermittently picking up the pace for a short distance on a walk or a treadmill.

One easy way to increase your pace is to do it by the clock: For the first 10 seconds of every other minute, walk faster. Each week, keep up the faster pace longer.

Once you've got your walking mojo going, add some strength training, which will help you get faster as well as stronger. And walk every day.

Anger is a pain in the lungs

That fight you had with your spouse or the feelings you have for that son-of-a-rhymes-with-witch who cut you off on the highway may keep you from breathing easy. And that prevents your body from getting what it needs to operate your other systems.

Yes, you pay twice with anger: It hurts your lungs.

Although lung function naturally declines as you age, it may slip faster in perpetual hotheads. In one study, men who scored highest in hostility performed poorly on lung function tests, both at the beginning of the study and years later. Strong negative emotions seem to provoke inflammation and alter hormone function, which can knock the wind out of your lungs' sails.

Also, the kind of bad feeling that piggybacks on anger often goes hand-in-hand with smoking and inactivity. Each of these – anger, unnatural hormone levels, smoking and inactivity – goads the others to make lung function worse.

Next time you're seething (but not while driving), try this: Close your eyes, relax and imagine yourself far away from what's making you so mad. Breathe deeply with your forefinger on your navel and feel it move in and out.

Then see what kind of results you can get without yelling.

GOT A COLD? GET OVER IT

Three things help reduce the average time a cold lasts, from roughly five days to three. Do any of these the minute you start feeling cold symptoms:

1. Chicken soup: Have one cup four times a day. Ingredients in grandma's favourite remedy have anti-inflammatory properties that prevent certain white blood cells (neutrophils) from migrating to your airways and contributing to the inflammation that causes annoying cold symptoms. Chicken soup also contains compounds that help inhibit mucus production, and its heat and steam may help open nasal passages.

2. Vitamin C: Wash down 500 milligrams of the vitamin with plenty of water four times each day. It's not clear why this works, but research has shown that it does.

3. Zinc lozenges: Take one every six hours. Your immune system needs zinc to function. Just don't try taking zinc lozenges every day as a preventive step. Taking more than 100 mg of zinc daily over a long time actually hurts, not helps, your immune system. (Lozenges generally have around 13 to 20 mg of zinc.)

MORE with LESS MEAT

A little less meat (beef, pork, veal, lamb, elk, luncheon meats, sausage, etc.) on your plate could mean much less meat on your bones. People who eat few or no animal products are less likely to be overweight or obese than people who eat meat.

Not enough to scare you out of the steakhouse? Consider this: Dropping meat lowers your risk of diabetes and heart disease – in fact, postmenopausal women who substituted vegetable protein for their usual red meat lowered their coronary heart disease death rates by a whopping 30 per cent.

You don't have to go cold, uh, tofu. Just choose appropriate portion sizes and low-fat cooking methods. A serving of meat is equal to 85 grams (3 ounces), about the size of a deck of playing cards. Limit red meat to one serving per week, and don't overcook it.

When you trim the meat, fill the nutrition hole with enough protein, vitamins B-12 and D, calcium, iron and zinc. Get them with soy products such as tofu or soy burgers; legumes, lentils or garbanzo beans; low-fat dairy; dark green, leafy vegetables; nuts; and whole grains. And add a vitamin supplement twice a day as an insurance policy against an imperfect diet (do that even if you have meat).



A LITTLE BEND, A LOT OF BENEFIT

These days, yoga gets more love than the current So You Think You Can Dance star. And for good reason: It increases three "relax-it's-okay" compounds in your body. Best of all, you can get its rewards even if you're about as pliable as a two-by-four. Talk about a natural high.

Yoga boosts blood levels of serotonin, dopamine and endorphins – three natural feel-good substances. This ancient practice may boost mood even higher by preventing middle-age weight gain. One study found that it helped adults between the ages of 45 and 55 maintain or lose weight when they practised regularly for four years or more, as opposed to the pound-a-year gain that happens to most people.

And the effect of yoga on overweight people was especially dramatic: They gained 18.5 pounds fewer than those who did not practise.

So downward-dog it: You've got nothing to lose ... except maybe some mental and physical weight.

The You Docs, Mike Roizen and Mehmet Oz, are authors of the best-selling YOU: On a Diet. Send questions to the good doctors on their website, realage.com.