How an Ex-Wall Street Power Player Embraced the Occupy Movement

As president of the Pacific Exchange in the late-1990s, Warren Langley oversaw the West Coast's biggest financial center, a trading floor where some 17 million shares of stock changed hands daily. Though he served at the pleasure of traders and investment banks such as Morgan Stanley, he is no longer interested in pleasing them. Yesterday, he stood on a hillside in San Francisco's Financial District in front Morgan Stanley's and Goldman Sachs' regional headquarters to declare his support for Occupy Wall Street West, a coalition of 50 groups planning a slew of anti-bank protests Friday.

"From the inside, I watched Goldman Sachs, the big banks, the hedge funds, bet our money and then get bailed out when they lost," said Langley, surrounded by protesters holding images of a devious-looking Mr. Moneybags (Monopoly) character. "I saw corporations and the 1 percent buy our congressmen and senators and then pay no taxes, get subsidies, and move jobs overseas. This is our last chance to level the playing field and let you and our kids and grandkids have the opportunities that I started with."

Langley, 69, began working in finance in the 1980s, rising to become CEO of Hull Trading Company, a $500-million proprietary trading firm active in stock options and derivatives. The job often involved pressuring the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to loosen financial regulations. "I was just trying to push the boundaries of things that would help me make profits," he confesses. 'I didn't perceive the risk to the economy, and I think that is the part that really changed for me."

Anonymous Responds To Megaupload Takedown; Claims Credit For DOJ, RIAA, MPAA, Universal Music Outages

The hacktivist group Anonymous launched its "largest attack ever" Thursday, claiming credit for a coordinated takedown of websites managed by the Department of Justice and organizations supporting controversial antipiracy legislation.

The attack, dubbed “Operation Payback,” came in response to Thursday's news that the Justice Department had shut down massive file-sharing site Megaupload. The attack also temporarily brought down the websites of the Recording Industry of America, the Motion Picture Association of America and Universal Music, among others, in retaliation for their support of antipiracy legislation in Congress, known as SOPA and PIPA.

On Thursday, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department said the web server hosting justice.gov “is currently experiencing a significant increase in activity, resulting in a degradation in service."

“The Department is working to ensure the website is available while we investigate the origins of this activity, which is being treated as a malicious act until we can fully identify the root cause of the disruption,” the spokeswoman said.

Anonymous also took credit Thursday night for taking offline the website of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI.gov.

The takedown of Megaupload, and the arrests of its CEO and several execs, sent shockwaves through the online community Thursday. An indictment accused the company, which is one of the world's most popular file-sharing sites, of costing copyright holders at least $500 million in lost revenue.

Northern Ireland Bombs Hit City Of Londonderry

DUBLIN — Two bombs planted by Irish Republican Army dissidents detonated Thursday night in the Northern Ireland city of Londonderry, but no injuries were reported as police quickly evacuated the area following phoned warnings.

Martina Anderson, a former Irish Republican Army member who represents Londonderry for the Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein, said one bomb left outside the city's main tourist office exploded as about 75 elderly residents of a nursing home were still being evacuated about 25 yards (meters) away.

She said IRA dissidents "need to come forward and explain how they believe this achieved anything, other than the disruption of vulnerable old people's lives."

Chief Superintendent Stephen Martin, the police commander in Northern Ireland's second-largest city, said much of central Londonderry would be sealed off Friday so that police could comb the bomb sites for forensic clues.

Police evacuated the city's major shopping center as bombs placed in nearby streets detonated within 10 minutes of each other. At least one bomb appeared to have been concealed in an abandoned gym bag.

Tasers most likely to be used on 'downtrodden,' study asserts

The use of Tasers by Canada's police forces represents a "teething new urban terrorism" that targets society's "downtrodden," says a study published this month that looked at more than two dozen deaths involving the stun guns.

Those most likely to get "tased" include the poor, mentally ill and chronic drug users, according to the study, led by Temitope Oriola, who received a Governor General's Gold Medal for academic excellence upon the completion of his doctoral studies at the University of Alberta last year.

"It is beneath the integrity of the RCMP — a well-respected organization by international standards — and other police establishments in Canada to continue to use the Taser without conclusive independent scientific evidence succinctly demonstrating its effects or consequences on the human body," the study, published in the journal Social Identities, concludes.

Steve Tuttle, a spokesman for Taser International in Arizona, said in a statement that the study reads more like a social commentary and falsely implies that Tasers caused all the deaths examined.

"The report is woefully out of touch regarding the realities facing Canadian law and enforcement," he said.

Tories ponder cuts to MP pensions after watchdog details lucrative trough

Treasury Board President Tony Clement is eyeing lucrative MP pensions as way of finding savings in his review of government spending – a move that could find support in the majority Conservative caucus.

A senior Tory MP, who asked not to be named, told The Globe the caucus will “support some reforms,” adding this will be a “caucus decision not an edict from PMO or Finance.”

Making the rounds of political talk shows Wednesday, Mr. Clement picked his words carefully about how he will handle the contentious issue. He said he has been “tasked with putting some options forward” on pension reform.

“I think you’ve got to be fair to the employee [the MP] but you also have to be fair to the taxpayer,” he told CTV’s Don Martin. “We are very cognizant of that.”

He added that no decisions have been made and that already the government is leading by example as MP and cabinet-minister salaries have been frozen this year. MPs earn $157,000 a year; cabinet ministers make $233,247 and the Prime Minister earns $315,000.

Tim Harper: Pipeline politics in Canada and U.S. a peril for Stephen Harper

OTTAWA—Pipeline politics appears to be settling in at the top of the North American agenda for the next two years, perhaps more.

There could be a day when both the Keystone XL and the Northern Gateway pipelines are built, but not before some political careers are badly bruised, if not killed.

In the U.S., the Keystone debate will revolve around jobs, but an emboldened environmental movement is ready for the next twist over the proposed TransCanada pipeline route in Nebraska.

In Canada, the Enbridge debate will pit a very determined Conservative majority government against an equally energized environmental movement.

But the Canadian debate holds another key player, First Nations communities, which ultimately may seal the pipeline’s fate.

On both sides of the border, there is peril for Stephen Harper.

Feds deliberately withheld info on recycling costs, Ambrose told

OTTAWA — The Public Works and Government Services Department deliberately withheld information from taxpayers that cast doubt on its explanation about replacing quality workstations at an Environment Canada building with brand new furniture, officials told their minister, Rona Ambrose, in a newly released memorandum.

The department publicly claimed last summer that a controversial decision to replace workstations in the Gatineau, Que., building, under renovations, would be 20 per cent cheaper than recycling its existing assets. But it privately told Ambrose its strategy was "evolving" and that it had received an unsolicited bid from an Ottawa office supplies company for recycled furniture that would be $1,000 per workstation cheaper than its existing contract to buy new furniture, excluding some other direct and indirect costs.

"This information did not form part of the response to media questions as this quotation did not have any impact on the decision taken earlier in February 2011," Ambrose was told in a briefing note prepared by her department released through access to information legislation.

Ambrose said earlier this week that a minister should not be getting involved in the department's decisions about public contracts. The department follows strict guidelines in its competition process for contracts.

Don't touch same-sex marriage laws, prof warns

OTTAWA – The Conservatives are being warned to back off their plan to fix Canada’s same-sex marriage law or risk making it more discriminatory.

The admonition comes from Kathleen Lahey, a law professor at Queen’s University who was legal counsel in the same-sex marriage litigation that led to the existing Civil Marriage Act.

It follows a promise Justice Minister Rob Nicholson made to change the law after being lambasted when reports surfaced claiming the Conservatives were changing their position on gay marriage.

But the Act doesn’t need to be amended, re-written or clarified, Lahey says.

Canada’s position on gay marriage was in spotlight last week after it was revealed that a federal lawyer argued that same-sex marriages performed in Canada are only considered valid in Canada if the unions are recognized in the couple’s home country.

The lawyer, Sean Gaudet, was presenting this argument in a case before the Ontario Superior Court, involving a foreign lesbian couple that wed in Toronto in 2005 and now want a divorce.

One of the women lives in Florida, the other in the United Kingdom. Neither jurisdiction recognizes same-sex marriage.

Tories eager to outsource more ad work

Ottawa wants to outsource more of its communications work, raising questions of oversight as public servants play a shrinking role in the growing federal budget for self-promotion.

Public Works documents show Ottawa is looking to hire private contractors for a bigger share of its communications work, including the use of public-relations firms in the creation and promotion of government programs.

After six years in power, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives have transformed the look – and sometimes even the name – of the Government of Canada through an aggressive focus on branding.

Government ads and websites feature heavy splashes of blue – the colour of the Conservative Party – and press releases promote the accomplishments of the “Harper government.” At times, these changes have riled the bureaucracy.

Millions were spent to promote the government’s stimulus plan under a branding scheme that will continue this year as “Economic Action Plan 2012” – even though stimulus spending is over.

Now, amid a push for smaller government, public servants will play a smaller part in this communications machine.

Don’t sell hundreds of TCHC homes, three ex-mayors urge city hall

In a rare move, three former Toronto mayors have co-written a letter urging Mayor Rob Ford and city council not to sell off nearly 700 Toronto Community Housing homes, most of which are single-family dwellings.

John Sewell, Art Eggleton and David Crombie say they’re concerned about the sale of the so-called “scattered houses’’ and the implications for the families currently residing in them.

The 675 homes — with a combined market value of at least $222 million — are spread across the city, many in well-established neighbourhoods. TCHC wants to use money from the sales toward covering a $650 million repair backlog for its rundown buildings.

The plan is to have residents in the houses typically moved into multi-unit public housing buildings. TCHC voted in favour of the sale during a raucous public meeting in October, where scores of residents currently living in the single family homes — and their supporters — decried the proposal. A report on the plan is set to come before Tuesday’s executive committee meeting.

The sell-off is a “strategy that should not be pursued,’’ the ex-mayors write.

“The scattered units, which promote (a) healthy income mix, are being sold off to repair the very structures which segregate low-income families,’’ says the letter, which is also addressed to Kathleen Wynne, Ontario’s minister of municipal affairs and housing.