The Learning Revolution

Anka Mulder, president of the OpenCourseWare Consortium, says traditional universities should embrace, rather than fear, the move towards online learning.

Human development has always been driven by knowledge, and by our capacity to impart this knowledge, cumulatively, to succeeding generations. But as the pool of knowledge continually expands, and demand for access to it increases, the traditional means of sharing it are strained.

The Commons: Racists, anarchists, women’s rights and ‘McCarthyite demagoguery’

The Scene. The House had managed just half a dozen rounds this afternoon before the Speaker was first compelled to admonish those in attendance for the noise. Two more questions after that, he was calling for order again.

It should have been obvious then that we would not get through these 45 minutes without someone being accused of McCarthyism.

About halfway through Question Period, the NDP’s Mylene Freeman stood to state her disappointment with a Conservative MP’s recent choice of committee witnesses.*

Troubled times in Northern Ireland

A hundred years ago this week, half a million men and women in Belfast filed into City Hall to sign the Ulster Covenant: an official petition against “Home Rule”—a move toward a self-governing Northern Ireland, independent of Mother England. Enraged loyalists—convinced that Home Rule “would be disastrous”—gathered to defend their “cherished position” in his gracious majesty’s United Kingdom.

This Saturday, thousands of modern-day loyalists will take to Belfast’s crumbling main streets, to commemorate a battle won. Their republican neighbours—who would have rather seen Home Rule carried through a century ago—are already steeling themselves. The capital city is quiet now, but this past summer it hosted a string of ugly demonstrations that saw bricks, bombs and bullets exchanged across sectarian lines—and young riot officers turn water cannons against civilian crowds. With the memory of Northern Ireland’s bloody “Troubles” still fresh, Belfast residents are counting down to the big anniversary with practised wariness.

Trudeau attracting buzz, but Murray, Garneau, LeBlanc, Cauchon and others still exploring options to run for Grit leadership

PARLIAMENT HILL—Despite the wave of publicity over Grit MP Justin Trudeau’s intention to run for the Liberal party leadership with a nationwide campaign team already in place, Liberal MPs say other prospective candidates, including MP Marc Garneau and Martin Cauchon, one of Jean Chrétien’s most influential past Cabinet ministers from Quebec, are either likely to press ahead with their own plans to become candidates or are leaning in that direction.

Also in the wake of news that Mr. Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) is scheduling an announcement of his candidacy on Oct. 2, at an event in his Montreal riding, B.C. MP Joyce Murray (Vancouver Quadra, B.C.) told The Hill Times on Thursday that she is establishing an “exploratory team” to flesh out her own plans to enter the race and is no longer in the “considering” stage.

Air Force's F-35 recommendation was missing key information

The Royal Canadian Air Force trumpeted the F-35 fighter jet to Canada’s defence minister as the best option for the country even though it was missing key information on competing aircraft, according to a Canadian military insider.

Steve Lucas, former Canadian chief of the air staff, acknowledges in an exclusive fifth estate interview, to air tonight, that the military's recommendation in 2006 to their political masters in Ottawa was based on incomplete data.

Tories quietly table Canada-China investment treaty

The Conservative government is poised to adopt a sweeping new investment treaty between Canada and China without a single Parliamentary vote or debate.

The text of the Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement was released for the first time this week and members of Parliament are just starting to work their way through the legal document.

Rob Ford administration ‘compromised’ recruitment for city boards, ombudsman says

Interference from Mayor Rob Ford’s office that “compromised” the process for citizen appointments to 120 city boards and agencies included an attempt to stop staff from targeting “diverse” candidates in recruitment ads.

That’s the conclusion of city ombudsman Fiona Crean in a scathing report released Thursday — the results of which, compiled through dozens of interviews given under oath, were quickly contested by Ford and his allies even as they accepted all four of Crean’s recommendations.

Stephen Harper chooses the Waldorf over the UN in New York

OTTAWA—There’s a couple of ways to get from the Waldorf Astoria on Park Avenue in New York, over to United Nations headquarters on 42nd.

You can use 2nd Avenue, but you might make slightly better time heading along Lexington.

It should take about three minutes, but, you know traffic in midtown Manhattan. Better budget six minutes.

Top Rob Ford aide asked province to help with $2.8M in football field improvements

Earl Provost, one of Mayor Rob Ford’s top advisors, personally urged Queen’s Park to help bankroll $2.8 million in renovations to Don Bosco Catholic Secondary School’s football facilities, the Star has learned.

The unusual appeal for financial help for the football team coached by Ford was made on March 3 — a Saturday — and there was urgency to the request, sources say.

Ottawa keeps ADHD reports secret

Health Canada has detailed records of probes into ADHD drug safety, including fatalities, that it is keeping secret from the public.

Every six months to a year, drug companies submit summaries of side effects suspected to have been caused by their drugs worldwide, information Health Canada says it evaluates.

These summaries, called periodic safety update reports, are not available to the public.

“They may contain personal or confidential business information,” Health Canada said in an email to the Star.