Holding the first hearing in 15 years on the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, lawmakers invited a quartet of veterans to testify on the subject and also extended an invitation to Donnelly, who has been working for years to protect our fighting forces from the malign influence of women.

Donnelly treated the panel to an extraordinary exhibition of rage. She warned of "transgenders in the military." She warned that lesbians would take pictures of people in the shower. She spoke ominously of gays spreading "HIV positivity" through the ranks.

"We're talking about real consequences for real people," Donnelly proclaimed. Her written statement added warnings about "inappropriate passive/aggressive actions common in the homosexual community," the prospects of "forcible sodomy" and "exotic forms of sexual expression," and the case of "a group of black lesbians who decided to gang-assault" a fellow soldier.

At the witness table with Donnelly, retired Navy Capt. Joan Darrah, a lesbian, rolled her eyes in disbelief. Retired Marine Staff Sgt. Eric Alva, a gay man who was wounded in Iraq, looked as if he would explode.

Inadvertently, Donnelly achieved the opposite of her intended effect. Though there's no expectation that Congress will repeal "don't ask, don't tell" and allow gays to serve openly in the military, the display had the effect of increasing bipartisan sympathy for the cause.

[. . .]

It was tempting to think that Donnelly had been chosen by Democrats to sabotage the case against open military service for homosexuals. But Republicans had consented to the witness panel, which also included retired Army Maj. Gen. Vance Coleman, a black man who likened the current policy to racial segregation in the military, and retired Army Sgt. Maj. Brian Jones, who argued almost as passionately as Donnelly for the need to keep the military straight.

What he contemplates without intermission, that for which he has an intuition and almost a taste, is Evil. He can thus glut himself to the point of obsession with the recital of obscene or criminal actions which excite and satisfy his perverse leanings; but since at the same time he attributed them to those infamous Jews on whom he heaps his scorn, he satisfies himself without being compromised. In Berlin, I knew a Protestant in whom sexual desire took the form of indignation. The sight of women in bathing suits aroused him to fury; he willingly encouraged that fury, and passed his time at swimming pools. The anti-Semite is like that, and one of the elements of his hatred is a profound sexual attraction toward Jews (46) (1995 edition)

klausnomi

Arias is the executor of Nomi's estate and is excited over plans to make a feature film of his life: "Alan Cumming really wants to play him which would be genius. It's based on my and Klaus' relationship as friends and lovers, told through my eyes, so maybe my part could be played by Gael Garcia Bernal, as I'm Mexican-German."

• Claus Vistesen worries that the economy of the Eurozone may be about to jump off a cliff.


• Amused Cynicism's Phil Hunt lets us know that Britain, too, has public officials who refuse to provide public services to non-heterosexuals and then claim religion as a defense.


• blogTO links to the story of a couple who decided to make their front yard and lawn over into a garden.


• Daniel Drezner writes about how the Chinese government, fearful that bad lending policies might create an American-style bubble, is trying to pressure banks to be more prudent.


• Hunting Monsters provides a rundown of the recent history and directions of Abkhazia.


• Do you want to take part in [murmur], Toronto's archive of stories, memories and thoughts about Toronto's different attractions and neighbourhoods accessible by cell phone? Go here.


• Strange Maps hosts a map of Spain from the 19th century that shows the major historical divisions of that country: Catalonia, the Basque Country, and the rest of Spain.


• Torontoist points out that Toronto's homicide rates place it in the middle third of Canadian cities and at the lowest end of American ones.


• Martin Wisse points out that the groups that decry terrorism can feel quite free to shove their own terrorist histories under the nearest rug.

Only now, at the end of the winter season, the English-and French-speaking Canadian residents of Florida are finally getting together. Their numbers are small, and language still separates them, but they gather in places like the Penalty Box Lounge in Fort Lauderdale or in the larger motels along the Sunny Isles oceanfront strip north of Miami to watch hockey games on television from Canada.

''Except for hockey at playoff time there is little contact made,'' said John Harmon, who writes under the name Jean Laurac in the French-Canadian newspaper Le Soleil de la Floride. ''Like in Canada, we live apart.''

It is a separatism of little rancor and less controversy at beaches and mobile home parks. Canadians have streamed into Florida for three decades, seeking relief from long winters and a higher cost of living back home.

A million or more Canadians can be found in Florida in the peak winter season, leaving 24 million or so compatriots behind to deal with the ice and snow. If you ask Canadians here, they will tell you without embarrassment that these figures would be reversed if those staying at home could afford to get down here every year.

[. . .]

Elderly men and women who speak few words of English play petanque, a lawn bowling game played with steel balls instead of wooden ones, at mobile home communities like Dale Village. Later, they may eat out in low-priced restaurants like Kerry's Fine Food where they can eat Quebec dishes like a mixture of ham, eggs, beans and sugar. In the evening, if they have access to satellite television from Montreal, they may watch weekly French language soap operas like ''Poivre et Sel,'' or ''Pepper and Salt,'' a comedy about elderly Quebecers like themselves.

Up the highway in Lake Worth, Evelyn Barron, an English-speaking retiree from Ontario, is indistinguishable from her American contemporaries in her winter activities, except for her twice-monthly luncheons at the Canadian Club of the Palm Beaches, where she joins others in singing ''O Canada.'' Later, at tea time, she savors butter tarts and a hot cup of brewed tea, which she says is unobtainable at most Florida restaurants.

[. . .]

''For people who don't speak English, there is cultural isolation in Florida,'' said Louise Rioux. From November to May, with her husband, Gerald Edwards, she broadcasts a daily 60-minute radio show in French of Canadian news, sports, interviews and entertainment from their south Florida home. This year they added 10 extra minutes of news in English.

''The French hang onto the program,'' said Mr. Edwards. ''It is their only means of getting news in Florida unless they receive a Quebec newspaper in the mail or have a television satellite dish.''

The rainiest June and July in city records has made Toronto the country's soggiest city this summer, and has put 2008 on the fast track to be the city's wettest year ever.

Morning showers and flash afternoon storms yesterday brought Toronto's two-month rain tally up to 272.8 millimetres (10.7 inches) as of 2 p.m. yesterday, eclipsing the previous record for the same period with eight days left to go.

The two months of regular downpour made Toronto the only city shattering summer rain records. It also makes us the rainiest area in the country over that time, said Dave Phillips, Environment Canada's senior climatologist.

"Toronto is the wettest location in the country," he said. "Nowhere even comes close."

Add the saturated summer to the snow-laden winter, and we're easily on pace to beat a 30-year-old record for the city's wettest year ever, Phillips noted.

Routinely waterlogged cities like St. John's, Halifax, Thunder Bay and Prince Rupert, "can't hold a candle to Toronto" over the last two months, the weather guru said.

The action on the western edge of Bloorcourt Village is all about Dufferin station. The doors leading to the subway spit and swallow noisy teenagers, busy-busy commuters, over-it moms with Dora the Explorer headaches and posturing XXL toughs. Watching it happen with a Nova Era takeout coffee, a kicky oldster from the retirement home across the street offers bites of his Drumstick before asking if I’m married or "looking."

This corner is classic Bloorcourt. To the east and the west, though, the neighbourhood paradigm is changing. A short walk west along Bloor towards Lansdowne, into Bloordale Village, reveals the Toronto Free Gallery’s "Toronto Free Library" exhibit, a broad and radical take on libraries, art and community. Walk along Bloor in the other direction, from Dufferin toward Montrose Avenue, and you can pick up hardcore 7-inches at Hits and Misses, or play DJ at Disgraceland.

For the purposes of Toronto’s indiegentsia, it used to be that Bloorcourt, in particular, was a useful neighbourhood for occasional terror-drinking at the 12:30 (where pints were a quarter or five bucks, depending on the bartender’s mood), more reasonable and respectable fun at Hurricanes and Ethiopian food at tiny, delicious Nazareth. Mysterious bars and men’s clubs fell between cheque cashing-joints and appliance stores. (Jankie’s Place, at Bloor and Dovercourt, was a constant source of fascination when I lived on nearby Shanly Street.) On top of these and on pretty side streets north and south of Bloor, rent was cheap and the Ossington subway stop was handily in the middle.

[. . .]

As happens every year in a different ’hood, the “artsies/student types” have invaded Bloorcourt and Bloordale, beginning a sticky process of reshaping a diversely populated neighbourhood in their own image, and towards their own needs and interests. (Leslieville, Little Italy, Trinity-Bellwoods, Beaconsfield Village, The Junction and, notably, Parkdale are all past subjects.)

Though the establishment of a handful of indie-ish businesses isn’t heavy enough to constitute straight-up gentrification, it happens to be an inevitable step (between Step One: Skid Row Neighbourhood is Bad Yet Cheap and Appealing and Step Three: Young, Cool Careerists Buy Homes, Demand Bespoke Coffee Grinds and Baby Toys). Whether it’s possible to manage the gentrification process so that artsy revitalization might raise living standards for established residents and business owners without squeezing them out remains to be seen, but Bloorcourt’s transition is slow enough, for now, that the community might have an opportunity to decide for itself what goes down.

The "Ergenekon network" or "Ergenekon" (Turkish: Ergenekon or Ergenekon terör örgütü) is an alleged clandestine Gladio-type ultra-nationalist terrorist organization within Turkey, plotting to foment unrest in Turkey, inter alia by assassinating intellectuals, including Nobel Prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk, with the ultimate goal of toppling the present government.

Revelations emanating from the investigation thus far have shown that many of the attacks attributed to separatist or Islamist groups or seen as hate crimes against minorities were actually "inside jobs."

The investigation into the gang, 33 of whose members were taken into police custody earlier this week as part of an investigation into an arms depot found in İstanbul in June of last year, has exposed solid links between an attack on the Council of State in 2006, threats and attacks against people accused of being unpatriotic and a 1996 car crash known as the Susurluk incident, which revealed links between a police chief, a convicted ultranationalist fugitive and a member of Parliament as well as links to plans of some groups in Turkey's powerful military to overthrow the government.

Meanwhile, 15 of the suspects detained on Tuesday on charges of membership in the Ergenekon terrorist organization were taken to a courthouse in İstanbul's Beşiktaş district under tight security on Friday, while one of them, retired Maj. Zekeriya Öztürk, was arrested. Three of the suspects were released on Thursday by the prosecutor after their interrogation was complete, while the court released one of the suspects.

The gang is a part of a structure named Ergenekon, declared a terrorist organization by the İstanbul Chief Prosecutor's Office, an aggregation of many groups of varying sizes, many of which have in their names adjectives such as "patriotic," "national," "nationalist," "Kemalist" or "Atatürkist." Ergenekon is the name of a legend that describes how Turks came into existence.

A number of those detained in the recent raids, including Veli Küçük, Sami Hoştan, Drej Ali and Muzaffer Tekin -- who was already in jail prior to Tuesday's detentions-- have repeatedly been named in many similar investigations.

The investigation has found that the Ergenekon phenomenon, also referred to as Turkey's "deep state," stages attacks using "behind-the-scenes" paramilitary organizations to manipulate public opinion according its own political agenda.

The Ontario Provincial Police warned a native activist they were on the verge of taking action if he did not immediately lift blockades of Highway 401 and a main railway line near Kingston last year.

OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino, in three late-night and early-morning telephone conversations with Mohawk activist Shawn Brant in June 2007, warned "your whole world is going to come crashing down" if the blockades were not immediately removed.

"Shawn, we're not negotiating any more. We've done it all night. Now I am telling you for the sake of all that is decent and holy and the things you're trying to achieve ... pull the plug or you will suffer grave consequences."

The police-generated transcripts, which provide a rare glimpse into the top-level, all-night negotiations that went on at the time Highway 401 and a vital rail corridor near Kingston were closed by native blockades, were released late yesterday after a day of see-saw court battles in which a publication ban was reversed three times.

Unknown to Brant at the time of Fantino's warning, police had a tactical unit and other equipment standing by, ready to intervene.

Under questioning by Brant's lawyer Peter Rosenthal during a preliminary hearing last August, Fantino conceded the OPP had both its Tactics and Rescue Unit and public order officers on site. He acknowledged the units included sniper teams.

"And they're referred to as sniper teams because they are trained to do what we understand the word sniper to mean, to be able to, at a distance, shoot people, right?" Rosenthal asked.

"If warranted," Fantino replied. "If necessary."

During the same hearing, Fantino said he knew his officers were recording his conversations with Brant.

"Now that this is out in the open I hope there will be some inquiries to find out why," said Rosenthal. "The Crown attempted to keep this information from the public by alleging that it was protecting Mr. Brant's right to a fair trial.

"In my view, after a week of hearings in Napanee it became absolutely clear that there was no content whatsoever to any claim by the Crown that it was protecting Mr. Brant. In my view, the publication ban protected Mr. Fantino."

Brant was a central figure in protests during last summer's national aboriginal day of action, which resulted in the closing of highways and rail lines near Kingston. The group controlled a section of Highway 401 between Belleville and Napanee for about 10 hours, halting all transportation.

At one point during the conversations Fantino told Brant, "I don't wanna get on your bad side, but you're gonna force me to do everything I can within your community and everywhere else to destroy your reputation."

Fantino told Brant that if he co-operated "... I am liable to say your issues are critical and they're important," but then went on to warn the native activist, "If you don't then I'm gonna go the other way and I'm gonna say that you are just destroying and you're abusing, you're using the people and you are actually being a mercenary about it, using the suicide of children and all those legitimate issues.

A European Union proposal restricting the trade of seal products would put the onus on other countries to prove that no seals were caused "avoidable pain, distress and any other form of suffering."

Wording of the proposed ban, which must still be approved by EU member countries, was finalized and released Wednesday.

"Seal products coming from countries which practice cruel hunting methods must not be allowed to enter the EU," Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas told a news conference in Brussels, his comments circulated in a statement.

"The EU is committed to upholding high standards of animal welfare."

The wording of the ban makes an exception for Inuit seal hunters, noting that "their subsistence should not be adversely affected. The hunt is an integrated part of the culture and the identity of the members of the Inuit society."


[. . .]

The majority of the seals killed by Canadians are shot off northern Newfoundland. But it is the clubbing of seals in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, often using a spiked club known as a hakapik, that has raised the most ire of animal rights activists. Several premiers have suggested banning the hakapik, an acknowledgement of its emotive power.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Dimas made clear recently to The Globe that clubbing seals would not be considered a humane method, suggesting that all Canadian seal products could be banned if any of the seals were clubbed.

Rebecca Aldworth, director of animal programs for Humane Society International/Canada, called the proposal a "historic step" and urged a complete ban.

"Citizens of Europe expect a total ban on seal product trade," she said. "The European Union should end its trade in all products derived from commercial seal hunts."

A Greek court has dismissed a request by residents of the Aegean island of Lesbos to ban the use of the word lesbian to describe gay women, according to a court ruling made public on Tuesday.

Three residents of Lesbos, the birthplace of the ancient Greek poet Sappho whose love poems inspired the term lesbian, brought a case last month arguing that the use of the term in reference to gay women insulted their identity.

In a July 18 decision, the Athens court said the word did not define the identity of the residents of the island, and so it could be validly used by gay groups in Greece and abroad.

The ruling ordered the plaintiffs to pay court expenses of €230 ($366.50 Canadian).

"This is a good decision for lesbians everywhere," Vassilis Chirdaris, lawyer for the Gay and Lesbian Union of Greece, told Reuters. "A court in Athens could not stop people around the world from using it. It was ridiculous."

He said the plaintiffs were free to appeal the decision in a higher court.

Lesbos, which lies just off the Turkish Coast, has become a gathering spot for gay women from round the world, especially at the village of Eressos, which is regarded as the birthplace of Sappho in the seventh century B.C.

Several residents testified during the trial that the use of the word lesbian had brought recognition to the island and boosted its tourist trade.

Dina Astalaki, owner of the other lesbian bar and restaurant in the village, Aubergine, is known affectionately as Mamma Eressos, because she looks out for the younger lesbian tourists. Astalaki lives with her German partner of 13 years. "Sometimes the women get a bit over the top," she says, "particularly in high season. But it's nothing compared with what groups of men get up to on holiday, I would imagine."

There has been the odd scandal surrounding the lesbian tourists on Lesbos, but not for a while. Eight years ago, the Candy Bar, a lesbian bar in London, organised a group trip to the island. Flyers advertising a "Wet Pussy Party" flooded Eressos, prompting the then mayor of the village to try to stop around 100 British lesbians from disembarking from their cruise ship for a stop off. Behaviour was lewd and loud, and to make matters worse for the islanders, the group was accompanied by a film crew from Channel Five, making a fly-on-the-wall documentary, Lesbians Go Mad on Lesbos.

[. . .]

Wendy Jansen came from Holland to work at Sappho Travel in Eressos five years ago. I ask her about the kerfuffle over the ownership of the word "lesbian". "There are homophobic people in every society," she says. "But in this place, where everyone relies on tourism, we cannot afford to ignore it." If there is negativity towards lesbians, says Jansen, it is from visiting Greeks, not the islanders.

"In this village, people are so used to lesbians that if the returning tourists come on holiday with a different partner, the locals notice. And if a couple [enter into a civil partnership], and come here on their honeymoon, locals often send champagne or flowers to them." One tourist, from London, tells me that when she split up with her girlfriend, whom she had been on holiday to the village with the year before, some of the islanders refused to speak to her when she turned up with a new woman. "They thought I was cheating on my ex," she laughs.

"At the end of the day, this is a Greek village," says Jansen, "not a lesbian one. It has not been 'invaded', or taken over. More than anything, it is cosmopolitan."

The phrase "tax haven" conjures a twin image of swimming pools and tedious form filling; of meeting to discuss your financial affairs with a Hawaiian-shirted adviser under a coconut palm. But never before has the package of fiscal inducements that exotic islands offer looked so alluring to wealthy people battered by the current financial markets and looking to shore up their assets in idyllic settings.

Whether it be retirees consolidating their pensions, entrepreneurs looking to establish off-shore companies or individuals on the hunt for centres of low taxation, the market is as international as the destinations. The mobile nature of modern-day business has further liberated high-flyers from key commercial capitals.

"Many people who have made money assume that the only thing to do is to move abroad," says Duncan MacIntyre, head of Coutts Private Office, which manages the needs of the ultra-wealthy. "But often their wants are different to their needs. I had one client who called me from his wardrobe in a hurricane saying 'get me the hell out of here'." And MacIntyre, the majority of whose clients are British, also points out that entrepreneurs are getting younger and the practicalities of living overseas, such as educating children, can be a challenge.

Nevertheless, the lure of fat financial carrots combined with blue seas and pristine beaches is fuelling a market that, for example, allows islands such as Anguilla in the Caribbean to offer luxury houses priced at $36m.

Today the couple have given up. They are packing their bags and getting ready to leave Beijing this month, joining the thousands of other Uyghurs, Tibetans and Mongolians who are fleeing under police pressure in the final weeks before the Olympics.

Ethnic minorities, migrant workers, petitioners and social activists are among the key targets of the Chinese security crackdown that has swept through Beijing in recent months. Now, with the Olympics just three weeks away, many of the targeted groups are making their final preparations to leave.

Some have little choice - they are being forcibly expelled by Chinese police. A British woman of Tibetan descent, Dechen Pemba, was deported from China last week. The 30-year-old teacher had lived in Beijing for two years and had a valid visa to work in China, but she was escorted to Beijing airport by a group of security agents who forced her onto an airplane with no explanation. The government later accused her of belonging to the Tibetan Youth Congress and engaging in "separatist activities" - charges that she strongly denied.

Tibetans and Mongolians are under pressure to leave Beijing because they are seen as potential Olympic troublemakers. Many people in Tibet and Inner Mongolia want greater autonomy and religious freedom for their regions of China. A wave of protests swept through the Tibetan regions this spring, sparking a harsh crackdown from Chinese authorities.

The Uyghurs are under greater pressure than any other ethnic minority because the government sees them not only as potential protesters but also as potential terrorists. The entire Uyghur population is often seen as a security threat, even though only a tiny fraction have been involved in radical or separatist activities.

Until recently, Beijing was home to dozens of Uyghur restaurants, specializing in the popular grilled food of their Muslim homeland, Xinjiang, in the remote northwest of China. But most have been forced to close over the past two years as the security clampdown has tightened.

Chinese police officials have forced some Beijing bar owners to sign secret pledges promising to prohibit blacks from entering their bars during the Olympics next month, a Hong Kong newspaper says.

The police denied the report yesterday, and most bars denied any knowledge of the pledges. But many African residents of Beijing say they are facing harassment from police and discrimination from bars as the Olympics approach.

"Bar owners near the Workers Stadium in central Beijing say they have been forced by Public Security Bureau officials to sign pledges agreeing not to let black people enter their premises," the South China Morning Post reported yesterday.

It quoted the co-owner of a bar who said that a group of police had recently visited his establishment to order it "not to serve black people or Mongolians."

Africans and Mongolians are often perceived as criminals in Beijing. Until this year, a number of young African men were openly selling drugs in the Sanlitun district, and many Mongolian women were working as prostitutes in the city.

[. . .]

In a notorious incident last September, dozens of black people were detained by police in a raid on bars in the Sanlitun district.

Witnesses said the police rounded up all the black people they could find, up to three dozen in total, and beat some of them with rubber truncheons.

Grenada's ambassador to China filed a complaint to the Foreign Ministry, saying that his son suffered a concussion and needed hospital treatment after he was clubbed on the head by police during the raid.

Africans have been coming to Beijing for decades as university students or traders. But many were forced to leave China this year because of new visa restrictions that made it difficult to renew their paperwork.

In interviews yesterday, a number of Africans said they are facing discriminatory rules from Beijing's bars and nightclubs as the Olympics approach.

A woman from Liberia, who is co-owner of a hair salon in Beijing, said she was outraged when she visited a popular Beijing nightclub and found that the entrance fee for black people was twice as high as for other foreigners.

The shooting deaths of three men early Sunday brought the number of murders in Toronto last week to six, the same week Statistics Canada released data saying the city was the safest in the country.

The three men found sitting in an SUV in the city's west end were probably victims of gang violence, police said.

It was a particularly violent weekend with a 28-year-old gunned down inside an east-end club Saturday morning.

He was killed after more than a dozen shots were fired inside the club, an attack that sent panicked club goers into a stampede to escape.

A 64 year old was stabbed to death earlier in the week and a 17-year-old was shot in the city's east end, in an attack linked to an earlier shooting in the same building which left a man in critical condition.

Sunday's shootings take the city's murder toll this year to 35.

Forty-one people were murdered at the same time last year. [My emphasis]

The rest of Canada is following British Columbia and Alberta's lead to create true national labour mobility with the aim of allowing Canadians certified in one province to work anywhere in the country.

At the Council of Federation meeting in Quebec City, the premiers agreed to amend the Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT) as of Jan. 1, 2009 to allow any worker certified for an occupation in one province or territory to be recognized as qualified in that occupation in all other provinces and territories.

By the next council meeting in August 2009, there will be a full agreement by the provincial governments to accept credentials from other provinces, said Manitoba Premier Gary Doer.

"We believe working people and their families want to have a situation where they do not have to go through 13 separate accreditation processes but rather one accreditation process," Doer told a news conference outside the council meeting.

"We believe working people and their families want to have a situation where they do not have to go through 13 separate accreditation processes but rather one accreditation process," Doer told a news conference outside the council meeting.

"We believe that a teacher is a teacher, a nurse is a nurse, a welder is a welder and we believe that will be accomplished with the accreditation acceptance of each of our jurisdictions."

Alberta and B.C., frustrated by delays with the national AIT originally signed in 1994, signed a bilateral provincial trade agreement of their own in 2006. The Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA), which recognized or harmonized more than 60 professional and trade standards between the two provinces, came into effect in 2007.

As for the amendments to AIT, the premiers stated any objections to full labour-market mobility will have to be clearly identified and deemed necessary to meet a legitimate objective, such as the protection of public health or safety.

“Under the new amendments, individuals will be able to take full advantage of their talents and education by having the freedom to seek the best opportunities for themselves and their families where they exist,” said B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell.

Provincial labour ministers will meet in the fall to ensure they meet the targeted date.

Greater Toronto is the safest large metropolitan area in the country, according to a report released yesterday by Statistics Canada.

Among urban areas with a population of 500,000 or more, Toronto residents reported fewer crimes per capita than residents of Montreal, Vancouver and Ottawa. Winnipeg had the highest crime rate, followed by Edmonton.

It is the first time that Toronto has scored last place when it comes to crime in the country's biggest cities. That spot is usually reserved for Quebec City, which reported the lowest crime rate of any large metropolitan area every year from 1991 to 2006. In 2007, however, Quebec City reported 4,524 crimes per 100,000 people, compared to Toronto's figure of 4,461.

The annual national crime report is compiled by the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, based on police-reported crime statistics.

It contradicts what seems to be a growing public perception that Toronto is rife with random violence – like the death of John O'Keefe, killed by a stray bullet on Yonge St. in January; or Hou Chang Mao, killed in gunfight crossfire a few days later in East Chinatown; or Dylan Ellis and Oliver Martin, shot dead in their SUV in front of Trinity Bellwoods Park in June.

[. . .]

The rate of violent offences in Toronto – 709 per 100,000 – puts it in the safest third of the pack of CMAs with a 500,000-plus population.

The murder rate in Toronto CMA in 2007 was 2.0 per 100,000, which was middle of the pack for the country's nine largest CMAs. Winnipeg's rate was the highest at 3.6.

But in 2007, Toronto had the most homicides of any CMA – 111 – and its highest rate since 1992.

[. . .]

The Toronto CMA, as defined by Statistics Canada, includes York, Peel, Halton and Durham and Orangeville police statistics as well as statistics from Ontario Provincial Police in Caledon, Nottawasaga, Aurora, Whitby and Mono.

• First, from The Toronto Star, confirmation that two people were shot, one a woman who was hit in the ankle by a bullet, the other a man who seems to have been shot in the chest. Police are still looking for the suspect. (Another, fatal, shooting has taken place in east-end Toronto, outside an apartment building where someone had gotten shot on Saturday. Guess which one will get more media attention in the morning papers.) Cultural capital, people, cultural capital.


• The Lousnbury at 'Aqoul has an extended post ("Ya Rayah...Ch7al nedmou lebad l-ghafline qblek: Southern Med & Socio Economics" on the generally positive prospects for solid economic growth across most of the Middle East and North Africa.


• Roger at blogTo starts an interesting conversation about bike theft from the recent arrest of a used bike shop owner for ... stealing bikes. (Double locks leave me feeling safest.)
  
• Centauri Dreams wonders what the chances are for the discovery of life on Saturn's water-geyser moon of Enceladus and if we're already able to detect it.


• Language Log's Arnold Zwicky isn't overfond of an excess of links.


• Strange Maps features a am f the world as seen from Paris, originally designed by a French magazine and publicized by a Swedish journalist.


• Finally, Martin Wisse reinforced from a recent annafdd comment elsewhere on the extreme subjectivity of the "race" used in "racism."