NATIONAL NEWS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY / SOMMAIRE DES NOUVELLES NATIONALES
ADM(PA) / SMA(AP)
January 17 2014 / le 17 janvier 2014
MINISTER / LE MINISTRE
No related coverage. / Aucune couverture pertinente.
CDS / CEM
No related coverage. / Aucune couverture pertinente.
CAF OPERATIONS / OPÉRATIONS FAC
CANADA IN AFGHANISTAN / LE CANADA EN AFGHANISTAN
Critique of Mission in Afghanistan: Comment
Christie Blatchford: There's a great piece in the Canadian Military Journal written by an intense and
unorthodox Royal Military College professor named Sean Maloney. He describes a particular media
meme about Afghanistan, asking “Was it worth it?” He says the meme emerged in the absence of political
commentary or debate. His conclusion is that the crippling of Al-Qaeda was worth it all by its lonesome; I
agree. I also agree that there have been plenty of “measurable, positive effects” for the country and its
people. But mostly, I agree with Mr. Maloney is that we can't and won't know the full answer to the
question for decades (NP A5, Gaz A13, RLP B7, EJ A16, CH A14, SSP C9, Ctz A2).
DISASTER ASSISTANCE RESPONSE TEAM (DART) / ÉQUIPE D’INTERVENTION EN CAS DE
CATASTROPHE (EICC)
No related coverage. / Aucune couverture pertinente.
PROCUREMENT / APPROVISIONNEMENT
No related coverage. / Aucune couverture pertinente.
OTHERS / AUTRES
Canadian Foreign Policy: Comment
Jeremy Kinsman, Community of Democracies: Prime Minister Stephen Harper doubts that voters care
much about multilateral activism on big and lofty international issues. He doses them with military
patriotism and commercial nationalism. It's not too late for the government to articulate an agenda for
foreign policy that speaks to our values and our economic well-being, and again shines a plausible
“beacon” to the world community (NP A11).
Government Surveillance: Comment
Rick Salutin: The spread of surveillance has acquired the unstoppable aura of climate change. what can
we make of the surveillance wave, public and private versions? What you could call the Snowden phase
began last June in a torrent of exposés on official spying. They focused concern on government agencies
such as the NSA in the U.S. or the CSEC here. The general objection to monstrous surveillance isn't that
the wrong guys run it; it's that it's none of your damn business, whoever you are. It doesn't matter who's in
charge, including me or you. The problem isn't politics; it's human nature (TStar A15).
Espace d'entraînement pour les militaires
Deux ans après la fermeture du centre de ski Mont-Carmel, le Club Biathlon Mauricie, un organisme à but
non lucratif, le transforme en centre national de biathlon. L'organisme songe également à y tenir des
compétitions d'envergures nationale et internationale. On note entre autres, que l'on veut aussi accueillir
des groupes militaires ou autres qui ont besoin d'un vaste espace d'entraînement. Depuis novembre
dernier, le centre reçoit des Cadets de l'air toutes les semaines parce qu'ils ne peuvent plus pratiquer le
biathlon au Mont-Bénilde, à Bécancour, l'établissement ayant fermé ses portes (LN 2).
Trial of DND Bureaucrat
Coverage detailed the trial of DND bureaucrat Elliot Youden. It was noted the jury has so far failed to
reach a verdict (C. Cobb: Ctz C5; T. Spears: OSun 17).
Light Phenomenon in Quebec
Coverage of unusual light phenomenon in Quebec noted when contacted, DND said it is not aware of the
phenomenon (D. Deslauriers: KWS B2, ESun 62, TSun 27, OSun 2).
Back to Top
Section: Canada
Byline: Christie Blatchford
Outlet: National Post
Illustrations:
 Richard Johnson, National Post / Canadian Forces escorted children in and around the Horn of
Panjwaii in the Kandahar Province of Afghanistan prior to cessation of combat operations in
2011. Soldiers of the Royal 22e Regiment handed out candy while on patrol.
 Ethan Baron, Postmedia News / Canadian soldiers respond toincoming insurgent fire from
three directions in Helmand Province in July 2006.
Headline: A meme takes hold in absence of debate; Mission deserves a dialogue more
sophisticated
Page: A5
Date: Friday 17 January 2014
Source: Postmedia News
There's a great piece in the Canadian Military Journal written by an intense and unorthodox
Royal Military College professor named Sean Maloney.
I met him when I was in Afghanistan as an embedded journalist with The Globe and Mail in
2006.
I went to Kandahar four times for between four and six weeks a pop. He went on 10 operational
deployments, and, as the Canadian Army's historical advisor on the war there, had much more
access to information, troops and strategy than the average bear.
(Plus, of course, Mr. Maloney is a history teacher, and has taught in RMC's War Studies
Program.) His piece in the current CMJ is entitled “Was It Worth it?”: Canadian Intervention in
Afghanistan and Perceptions of Success and Failure.
It begins with his appearance at a University of Manitoba conference in 2012. He'd been asked to
give a presentation, and realized, pretty quickly, that he was punching above the heads of most of
the academics there, though those are my rude words, not his.
They were so focused, he writes, on a particular media meme (an idea, behaviour or style that
spreads widely in a culture, often by imitation) they weren't much interested in any new
information or insight he might bring to the subject.
The meme was and is, “Was it worth it?”, the first “it” being the Canadian mission in
Afghanistan, the “worth it” never really defined except in terms of a body count.
Mr. Maloney was surprised that the meme has so taken hold in a sphere where, as he says,
“...ideas are debated and the search for different angles, new information and fresh perspectives
were the epitome of the profession.” In the messy academic tradition, he was used to seeing such
debates serve “as a launch-pad for another round of discussion.”
“I did not see that in the Afghanistan case,” he says.
“I saw firmly held views ... that were dismissive of the facts, as they were, presented by a person
charged with understanding our involvement in that demographically damaged, nearly postApocalyptic country.”
So after the conference, Mr. Maloney had a gander at the genesis of the meme itself.
It emerged, he says, in July of 2011, as Canada ended combat operations in southern
Afghanistan.
Questioning the mission was neither new nor wrongheaded.
But in 2011, Mr. Maloney says, the difference was that the meme emerged in the absence of
political commentary or debate: The “Was it worth it?” meme, he says, “was essentially a
creation of the media and their fellow travellers, the pollsters.”
By his research, first came the CBC, which asked “Was it worth it?” during its Cross Country
Checkup call-in show; then came a poll commissioned by the Ottawa Sun, asking the same
question; then the National Post, etc.
“In approximately a fourweek time frame, the bulk of Canadian media outlets were asking the
same question, posed the same way, but only some were answering it, and then, selfreferentially,” Mr. Maloney says.
The meme re-emerged in the weeks leading up to Nov. 11, 2011. “As this was the first
Remembrance Day since the end of combat operations ... almost all Canadian media elements
deemed it useful to re-ask the question...
“The media outlets, all of them, used the same question again and again: “Was it worth it?” None
of them provided any further explanation as to what they meant by worth ... [they] implied,
without stating so up front, that what they meant by worth was the number of Canadian dead.”
And that was what dominated “the belief systems of a wide variety of people I encountered at the
conference, whether they were for or against Canadian involvement.”
Mr. Maloney reminds the reader, as he apparently also had to remind some at that Manitoba
conference, of the connection between 9/11 and Al-Qaeda (in late 2001, there were more than 30
Al-Qaeda facilities in Afghanistan and, as he says, “Nobody knew what Al-Qaeda was capable
of next”); that the U.S.-led Operation Enduring Freedom in 2001-02, in which Canada played a
role, “pulled away the Taliban shield and put Al-Qaeda to flight” and that Al-Qaeda, knock on
wood, remains unable to re-establish itself in Afghanistan.
There were significant Canadian accomplishments in later years - it was the Canadian Strategic
Advisory Team in Kabul that worked with the Afghan government to develop a strategic plan for
the country; it was Canada that stepped up, when Afghanistan couldn't, to battle the insurgency
in the south and lead the reconstruction effort.
None of it went perfectly, of course, and if there is still violence in the country, and corruption
and poppies, “We have done what we can to protect the Afghan people in southern Afghanistan,
regardless of what frame we want to put on it,” as it was “morally incumbent” upon us (and the
broader international community) to do, post Operation Enduring Freedom if “we apply the
axiom, 'you broke it, you buy it'.”
But incremental progress, Mr. Maloney points out, won't do, not in the “Was it worth it?” meme.
“It had to be gross progress, right now. It also had to be gross progress made understandable to
the common Canadian, or it did not count.”
His conclusion is that the crippling of Al-Qaeda was worth it all by its lonesome; I agree. I also
agree that there have been plenty of “measurable, positive effects” for the country and its people.
But mostly, I agree with Mr. Maloney is that we can't and won't know the full answer to the
question for decades.
After all, as he says, a paved highway (Canada built some of those) has a tangible, obvious effect
on the movement of goods. But “Ideas also follow roads into rural areas that were previously cut
off from mainstream society,” and measuring that takes time. “We just don't know yet.”
cblatchford@postmedia.com
Back to Top
Section: Issues & Ideas
Byline: Jeremy Kinsman
Outlet: National Post
Illustrations:
 The Canadian Press Files / Former prime minister Pierre Trudeau looks on as Cuban president
Fidel Castro gestures during a visit to a Havana housing project in 1976.
Headline: A betrayal of Canada's multilateral tradition; Our foreign policy should reflect our
reputation as 'good guys' with no record ofcolonial conquest - a developed country apt to care
about the underdeveloped
Page: A11
Date: Friday 17 January 2014
Source: National Post Kinsmanj@Shaw.Ca National Post
'What's happened to Canada?” is the question David Emerson kept getting asked abroad when he
was Foreign Affairs Minister in 2008. The impression recently channelled by Louise Arbour is
that Canada is “largely absent from the international scene.” The editor of a big audience
European publication wrote to me: “In the past Canada has been held up as a shining beacon on
the world stage. However, that reputation appears increasingly tarnished.”
Stephen Harper has chosen a “principled foreign policy” instead of Canada's traditional role as
honest broker. For Harper's latest foreign minister, John Baird, it is a change to “conviction
politics.” In a 2003 speech to the conservative group Civitas, Harper pressed “conservative
insights on preserving historic values and moral insights on right and wrong,” especially in “the
great geopolitical battles ... against modern tyrants.” It was the year he urged Canada to support
the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq as “an issue of moral clarity.”
In his 2013 book, The Longer I'm Prime Minister, Paul Wells suggests the value Harper cares
about most is smaller government. His skepticism about big government extends to large
international issues, especially multilateral schemes that could constrain national sovereignty,
such as concerted action to combat climate change.
Joe Clark, by contrast, sees Canadians as “multilateralists by talent and by instinct, but also by
interest.” Indeed, Canadians have placed international co-operation at the heart of foreign policy
for six decades, seeking remedies and safeguards for the threat of nuclear war, the glaring
economic disparity between North and South, apartheid, and the conflict between Arabs and
Israelis. Canadians built new alliances, including with civil society, which advanced human
security norms for universal justice, through the International Criminal Court, and a
responsibility to protect civilians at risk of mass atrocity.
Our generally multilateral methods were invested in a Canadian reputation, even an
internationalist brand, of helpful world citizenship. We were in our minds good guys with no
record of colonial conquest or aggressive intentions, a developed country apt to care about the
underdeveloped.
John Baird recently told the Israel Times that having put such “moral relativism” behind us,
Canada has now abandoned “worship at the altar of compromise and consensus,” which may
explain why Canada's star has plummeted at the United Nations, where South African High
Commissioner Membathisi Mdladlana described the Canadian approach as “abrasive and
combative.”
I have seen successive United Nations secretaries general, at several times of crisis, turn to
Canadian Foreign Affairs ministers as “family,” as the ones most likely to marshal consensus.
Canadians were valued as leaders, chairs, drafters, mediators, and peacekeepers because we
could work with others. We were not delusional about the UN's weaknesses, which are the
weaknesses of our world. But we always knew the alternative of no UN would be worse. We
were the best situated to work for the best we could get; and in the international division of
labour, our allies and others counted on Canada to work the world's conference rooms in ways
that others couldn't.
In the serious trade and payments universe in which our economy was invested, two generations
of economic officials in Ottawa and Geneva were real players, providing leadership to successive
rounds of multilateral trade negotiations. We sat on the “Quad” with the United States, the
European Community, and Japan. In time, the G7 became our focus for building co-operative
international governance.
On peace and security, to paraphrase Duke Ellington, UN peacekeeping was our melody but the
rhythm of NATO was our business. As an original NATO stalwart, Canada was labelled a Soviet
adversary during the Cold War. Yet, the lens through which Canada viewed the world seemed
ground to a prescription that could focus beyond America's binary global struggle against
communism.
Development assistance was a public and private Canadian vocation even if our own official
contributions never hit the targets Lester B. Pearson set for the world after he stepped down as
prime minister in 1968. Efforts extended to the Commonwealth and la Francophonie, which gave
Canadian prime ministers a valued forum of international leadership, including pursuing a
human rights agenda.
Stephen Harper doubts that voters care much about multilateral activism on big and lofty
international issues. He doses them with military patriotism and commercial nationalism,
adding calculated rhetorical gestures for specific diaspora constituencies on behalf of whose
issues, as Clark puts it, “we lecture and leave.”
A changed world does call for changed diplomacy, admittedly. The multilateral system is
arguably less productive as new poles of power jostle for position amidst a relative decline in
U.S. and EU influence. Everywhere, people are questioning their relationship to governments,
seeking, even in China and Cuba, the ability to influence decisions that affect their lives. Free
elections are a goal in most places, but the words heard most are “fairness,” and “dignity.”
John Baird's “dignity agenda” claims to address some of these trends. And there have been some
innovative approaches to Internet outreach to civil society in places such as Iran. But sadly, in
Canada itself, NGOs are regarded as adversaries. Government transparency and parliamentary
oversight, subjects on which we used to mentor transiting democracies, have been dumped.
On Iran, Baird's position is extreme. There is every reason to criticize the human rights regime in
Iran, but to refuse to recognize the possibility of change is obtuse. Having unprofessionally
closed Canada's embassy there, he presumed to know enough to call Hassan Rouhani's election
fixed and predicted that the nuclearsanctions deal would fail.
These verbal outbursts occurred on trips to drum up business in undemocratic Kazakhstan and
very repressive Bahrain, which escaped criticism. The first rule of principled diplomacy is
consistency. Without it, a country isn't taken seriously, which is pretty much what is happening
to Canada.
Our policy on Iran is presumably linked to Harper's effort to seek recognition as the most loyal
ally of Israel. Surrounded by 350 million Arabs and threatened by a potentially nuclear Iran, the
Jewish state indeed needs friends. But as author Ari Shavit recently warned, Israelis need to
confront the “moral, demographic, and political disaster” that is the military occupation of Arab
lands beyond the 1967 borders, and the continued expansion of Israeli settlements. Tom
Friedman writes in the New York Times: “If Israel doesn't stop the settlement madness, denying
the Palestinians a West Bank state, it will fit the caricature of its worst enemies.”
Helping Israelis find an equitable solution, rather than mere cheerleading, is what friends are for.
U.S. secretary of state John Kerry is shuttling regularly to the area, and American military
specialists are detailing plans to help ensure Israeli security after withdrawal from the West
Bank. Once, Canada provided the Israelis useful expertise on truce verification. Under the Oslo
accords, Israel accepted a working group on refugees only because Canada agreed to chair it.
Today, we're out of it.
The United States valued the range of Canada's international networks that we could sometimes
deploy usefully in a constructive way when U.S. superpower status was a disqualification.
Former U.S. secretary of state James A. Baker said Canada usually “gets it right,” even when the
U.S. didn't, such as on the wars in Vietnam and Iraq.
Brian Mulroney's ability to negotiate a free trade agreement (and an acid rain pact) with the
United States and yet take a quite different and prevailing tack on South African apartheid is an
example. Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton all valued the
contacts that Canadian prime ministers had. Pearson deployed Blair Seaborn to talk to the North
Vietnamese and Lyndon Johnson agreed to the Auto Pact. Pierre Trudeau broke from the pack to
open relations with the Chinese. Richard Nixon, advised by Henry Kissinger, followed.
The necessity for Canada's prime minister to have an excellent personal relationship with the
U.S. president is not discretionary. Instead of building one, Harper lines us up with Obama's
right-wing critics, valorizing Bibi Netanyahu's take over Obama's on the wisdom of a laboriously
crafted temporary agreement with Iran, or earlier on a G8 statement on the occupied West Bank
territories. When we ought to be coming up with ammunition for the U.S. president to use
against decriers of the oil sands, Harper instead loudly called Obama's politically fateful decision
on the Keystone XL pipeline a “no-brainer,” promising we “won't take no for an answer,”
whatever that means.
Going for greater world economic stature by diversifying economic partnerships beyond the
United States always has made sense. The Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement with the
European Union is a big deal. It is a building block for the construction of a common economic
home between North America and the EU, based on our massive inter-investment and shared
democratic and economic governance, however imperfect. But foreign policy needs to be a dual
track: We need strategic partnerships based on mutual economic interests, but at the same time
we need to insist on the right to express our society's solidarity with the rights of civil society
and human rights defenders governed by multiple international covenants. The two tracks can be
mutually reinforcing if done well.
It's not too late for the government to articulate an agenda for foreign policy that speaks to our
values and our economic well-being, and again shines a plausible “beacon” to the world
community. Canada's reputation for pluralistic fairness and economic well-being make us, in
BBC polls, the second most “popular” country, after Germany. But we have to trust others again,
including our own diplomats who represent our diplomatic legacy. It is an asset to deploy, not to
be sneered at.
kinsmanj@shaw.ca
A longer version of this article originally appeared in the most recent issue of Policy Magazine,
which appears online at policymagazine.ca. In the Canadian foreign service, Jeremy Kinsman
was head of mission in Moscow, Rome, London and Brussels (EU). He now directs a democracy
development project for the Community of Democracies and has positions at the University of
California, Berkeley and Ryerson University in Toronto.
Back to Top
Section: Opinion
Byline: Rick Salutin
Outlet: Toronto Star
Headline: Fight back against surveillance
Page: A15
Date: Friday 17 January 2014
The spread of surveillance has acquired the unstoppable aura of climate change. Just this week,
The Writers' Union of Canada reported that 5 per cent of its members said they'd been spied on;
7 per cent felt “some level” of harassment; and 60 per cent expect their work to be affected in the
future.
The National Security Agency in the United States admitted it has implanted devices to monitor
computers that aren't even on the Internet. And a bill backed by Stephen Harper would force
anyone applying for jobs with public agencies such as Elections Canada to “disclose” any
political party activity.
I'm deliberately jumbling categories because I think we're dealing with a sort of wave: laws,
technologies and public responses.
The amorphousness seems to overwhelm people and undermine their ability to fight back, or
even flail in rage. That appeared to happen in the ice storm. It's shocking how many people
simply accepted loss of power for days. But we've been numbed by a sense of inevitability in
climate-related horrors.
So what can we make of the surveillance wave, public and private versions?
What you could call the Snowden phase began last June in a torrent of exposés on official
spying. They focused concern on government agencies such as the NSA in the U.S. or the
Communications Security Establishment Canada here. That, in turn, elicited fears of incipient
fascist or totalitarian governments suppressing dissent - in right-wing garb like Bush-Cheney or
leftish camouflage like Obama. But the same fears applied: the bad guys are in charge and if
good guys were, things would be safer.
I don't agree. The general objection to monstrous surveillance isn't that the wrong guys run it; it's
that it's none of your damn business, whoever you are. It doesn't matter who's in charge,
including me or you. The problem isn't politics; it's human nature. Anyone is tempted to behave
badly, and will, with that kind of power.
It's not quite Christian original sin, though I think the religious doctrine arises from the same
existential realities. The bumper stickers that say, “If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing
to fear,” are dead wrong. You may have nothing to hide, but you have everything to fear. If you
doubt that, think of people in petty power positions such as immigration officials, educational
bureaucrats or parking violation ticketers. They don't all abuse their power, but many do some of
the time and some do all of the time.
So the answer isn't the right people in charge or in oversight positions. I have nothing against
short-term fixes but the ones put in place for intelligence overreach in the 1970s (in the U.S. or
here, with the creation of CSIS) started to crumble almost immediately and are now dust. The
long-term solution is to make sure no one has that kind of power. If that sounds like anarchism,
sue me.
Noam Chomsky, that endlessly fertile thinker, has been quoting the German-Jewish anarchist
Rudolf Rocker (1873-1958) a lot lately, on the need to challenge “structures of hierarchy and
domination . . . to demonstrate their legitimacy.” If they can't, “dismantle them and reconstruct
them from below.” Anarchism goes less and less out of style. And yes, I think underwear
bombers must be dealt with, but not by brainless, costly, counterproductive methods.
Meanwhile, all that focus on government spying lets private surveillers off the hook. “In theory
it's your choice to give data to private companies,” says U.S. critic Peter van Buren. “You could
stop using Facebook, after all.” I think he understates the symbiosis between the two realms: in
personnel, technology and mutual dependence. It's none of Google's damn business, either. But
resistance here seems just as futile. You can encrypt or install countermeasures, but those guys
will just create better ways to mine your data for ads, etc.
Then how about starting at the other end: deprive them of their motive by eliminating the profit
potential. How? Well, one reason insurance companies spy in the U.S. is to find pre-existing
medical conditions in order to deny coverage. That should vanish under Obamacare. And with
universal coverage here, there's no motive to start with. It's a sort of workaround against privacy
invasion. How widely you could deploy that strategy is another question - an intriguing one.
Rick Salutin's column appears Friday.
ricksalutin@ca.inter.net
Back to Top
Section: Actualités
Headline: Un centre national de biathlon verra le jour à Mont-Carmel
Page: 2 / FRONT
Outlet: Le Nouvelliste (Trois-Rivières)
Byline: Louise Plante
Illustrations:
 Cette montagne a été retenue comme site idéal, compte tenu de tous ses avantages: vaste
terrain, la montagne elle-même, qui présente une dénivellation intéressante pour ce sport, les
équipements et immeubles en bonétat, la possibilité de redonner au site sa beauté naturelle, sans
oublier l'ouverture d'esprit des propriétaires du site et de la municipalité de Notre-Dame-duMont-Carmel face au projet.
Date: Friday 17 January 2014
Dateline: Notre-Dame-du-Mont-Carmel
Deux ans après la fermeture du centre de ski Mont-Carmel, le Club Biathlon Mauricie, un organisme à but
non lucratif, vient de louer la montagne et est en train de la transformer en centre national de biathlon, un
sport olympique de plus en plus populaire, rendu célèbre au Québec par Myriam Bédard, médaillée d'or
des Jeux olympiques de 1994.
Sylvie Pronovost, présidente du Club Biathlon Mauricie, a confié qu'elle avait considéré cinq
emplacements en Mauricie pour la pratique de ce sport, (une combinaison de ski de fond style libre et de
tir à la carabine 22, tir à air comprimé et laser), et que cette montagne avait été retenue comme site idéal,
compte tenu de tous ses avantages: vaste terrain, la montagne elle-même qui présente une dénivellation
intéressante pour ce sport, les équipements et immeubles en bon état, la possibilité de redonner au site
sa beauté naturelle, sans oublier l'ouverture d'esprit des propriétaires du site et de la municipalité de
Notre-Dame-du-Mont-Carmel face au projet. «La proximité des lieux, les services en hébergement du
milieu et de Shawinigan et Trois-Rivières, tout y est pour répondre aux multiples demandes d'une future
clientèle de biathlètes», s'enthousiame Mme Pronovost.
Cette dernière précise par ailleurs que ce centre de ski qui avait ouvert ses portes il y a 50 ans, ne risque
plus de voir d'adeptes de ski alpin le fréquenter à nouveau. Par contre, on y fera une belle place au ski de
fond. «On veut redonner ses lettres de noblesse à cette montagne en rétablissant son équilibre naturel
tout en y développant une vocation récréotouristique, été comme hiver.»
L'organisme songe également à y tenir des compétitions d'envergures nationale et internationale. Par
conséquent, les aménagements en cours dans les pistes et champs de tirs tiennent compte des
standards nécessaires. On veut aussi accueillir des groupes militaires ou autres qui ont besoin d'un vaste
espace d'entraînement. Incidemment, depuis novembre dernier, le centre reçoit des Cadets de l'air à
toutes les semaines parce qu'ils ne peuvent plus pratiquer le biathlon au Mont-Bénilde, à Bécancour,
l'établissement ayant fermé ses portes. Le site a aussi accueilli l'organisme COSI, spécialisé en
secourisme international.
«Le biathlon a besoin d'un site performant pour les athlètes débutants et plus avancés», plaide Mme
Pronovost qui souligne qu'à Canmore en Alberta, ce sport connaît un développement incroyable, même
dans sa version estivale. Biathlon Mauricie souhaite même intéresser la Commission scolaire de l'Énergie
à implanter une concentration Sport-études en biathlon, comme il en existe déjà une dans la région de
Sherbrooke. Robert Adam, qui est secrétaire du club, est agent de développement à la Commission
scolaire de l'Énergie. «On vise les 5e année et 6e année de l'école primaire de Notre-Dame-du-MontCarmel et une autre à Val-Mauricie», précise-t-elle.
D'ici là, on achève de nettoyer le site qui a malheureusement souffert des vandales et de rénover les
chalets. Un plan de sécurité du site a été établi en collaboration avec la Sûreté du Québec, l'Association
des VTT et Quads de la Mauricie ainsi que le Club de motoneige de Champlain. Des dizaines de poteaux
électrifiés ont été enlevés. D'autres travaux sont actuellement en cours, dont la démolition des cabanes
des remonte-pentes. Par ailleurs, les cabanons des centres de glisse n'existent plus.
En attendant l'ouverture officielle, l'organisation demande à la population de ne pas utiliser la montagne,
qui est propriété privée, pour la glisse, la motoneige, le quad, la promenade à cheval, la chasse ou la
trappe. Mais cela dit, soucieux de se garantir l'acceptabilité sociale du projet, le nouveau centre de
biathlon songe à réserver un espace pour la glisse en famille sur son site. L'ouverture du Centre de
biathlon au public n'est prévue que dans quelques mois.
Un peu d'histoire
Rappelons que c'est le 17 janvier 2012 que les actionnaires de la station de ski Mont-Carmel, Dany,
Josiane et Yvon Lemay ainsi que Louis-Marc Bourgouin fermaient sans préavis la station. Cette
fermeture surprise était d'autant plus incompréhensible pour le conseil municipal de l'époque que ces
promoteurs étaient arrivés en 2008 avec un ambitieux plan de développement de près de 13 M$,
soulevant l'enthousiasme dans le milieu. En septembre 2011, on avait même annoncé l'installation de
nouveaux télésièges quadruples ainsi que l'acquisition d'un système d'enneigement artificiel pour toutes
les pentes. A cause des caprices de Dame Nature à l'hiver 2011 et 2012, le départ de la saison avait
toutefois été très lent.
Une vente à l'encan des équipements de la station, toujours propriété du même groupe, avait lieu en
juillet 2012, et plus de 400 personnes, dont plusieurs propriétaires de stations de ski de partout au
Québec, en ont profité. Malgré une rumeur, aucun acheteur toutefois n'avait tenté d'acquérir la totalité du
site qui avait ouvert ses portes pour la première fois en 1954, à l'initiative de Roland Lapointe.
En 1962, Fernand Gauthier et Claude Barbeau prenaient la relève pour une aventure qui durera plus de
40 ans faisant du Mont-Carmel le centre d'initiation pour des milliers de skieurs de la Mauricie. Certains
week-ends, on pouvait compter jusqu'à 30 autobus scolaires de skieurs, grâce entre autres à une
initiative du Club Kiwanis. C'est sous le règne de ces deux hommes d'affaires qu'apparaissent une
première remontée en arbalète et un système d'enneigement mécanique, suivis quelques années après
d'une remontée T-Bar. 1972 marqua un autre virage important avec l'agrandissement du chalet, un
troisième T-Bar et l'apparition de nouvelles pistes. La station de ski Mont-Carmel a aussi connu des
heures de gloire avec l'arrivée de la discipline du saut à ski.
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Section: City
Byline: Chris Cobb
Outlet: Ottawa Citizen
Headline: Jury deliberates HIV assault case; Gay activist accused of not disclosing disease
status
Page: C5
Date: Friday 17 January 2014
Source: Ottawa Citizen
Jury members deciding the fate of Ottawa gay community activist Elliott Youden will meet again
early Friday after apparently failing to reach a verdict during five hours of deliberations
Thursday.
Youden, a Department of National Defence bureaucrat, has pleaded not guilty to aggravated
sexual assault for allegedly failing to disclose his HIV-positive status to a 25-year-old Carleton
University student he met online.
The student, whose name is protected by a publication ban, testified that he had unprotected sex
during a passionate encounter after 32-year-old Youden assured him he was not HIV positive.
Youden was diagnosed HIV positive in 2008, two years before the encounter.
The man claimed that Youden promised to pay him $300 for sex. But Youden denied this,
adding that while he found the man “cute” he had no need to pay for sex because finding willing,
free sexual partners at the Gay 411 website was easy.
Defence lawyer Ian Carter told the jury Thursday that Youden had no reason to hide his HIV
status and revealed it to the man in an online message before they met. (Messages on the gay
website are automatically deleted).
Carter alleged the man concocted the story for police because he was angry that Youden failed to
respond to demands for money after they had sex.
The man testified that he agreed to go to Youden's apartment for the sole purpose of giving him a
massage for money but claimed he wasn't interested in sex with Youden and had used the
website only in an effort to make friends.
This claim was “illogical and defied common sense,” said Carter because the man admitted
arriving at the apartment with condoms but no massage oil.
Crown prosecutor David Elhadad countered that the complainant had solicited money for sex
and in so doing risked being charged when he lodged the complaint against Youden.
Elhadad questioned why Youden hadn't gone to police himself if he felt the man was attempting
to exhort money from him.
Youden testified he didn't want to report the matter because Ottawa police and the gay
community have strained relations.
That, said Elhadad, was “malarkey.”
“He (Youden) assured (the complainant) that he was not HIV positive, and it was on that basis he
agreed to have unprotected sex,” he added.
The man testified earlier in the week that he needed money to continue his studies and that, once
assured of Youden's status, had unprotected sex to give Youden a better experience and make
him more inclined to pay a substantial amount.
ccobb@ottawacitizen.com twitter.com/chrisicobb
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Section: News
Lead: The case of HIV-positive man accused of not disclosing his status to a sex partner is in the
hands of a jury.
Headline: Jury to decide fate of HIV-positive accused assaulter
Page: 17
Byline: TONY SPEARS
Outlet: The Ottawa Sun
Date: Friday 17 January 2014
The case of HIV-positive man accused of not disclosing his status to a sex partner is in the hands
of a jury.
Final arguments in the aggravated sexual assault trial of Elliott Youden, 32, wrapped up
Thursday, leaving jurors the afternoon to start sifting through evidence.
The short, well-ordered trial pitted Youden against a 25-year-old complainant, whose name is
protected by a publication ban.
The complainant says he asked Youden his status during a marathon pay-for-play sex session;
Youden says he told the complainant his status before they'd even met in person and that the
subject of money came up only when the complainant tried postcoital extortion.
Youden's lawyer, Ian Carter, said the Department of National Defence employee has always
been open about his status.
A member of Legalize AIDS -- which objects to what they see as the criminalization of people
with HIV -- even gave an interview to a local newspaper lamenting attempted murder
convictions registered against Steven Paul Boone, who a jury found purposefully tried to infect
numerous sex partners with the virus.
“(Youden) made no secret of the fact he was HIV positive,” Carter said, reminding jurors of
testimony Youden had disclosed his status during online chats in the lead up to the men's July
2010 meeting.
“The sex between the two men was fully informed and consensual.”
Crown prosecutor David Elhadad urged the jury to reject Youden's story.
The complainant was unshaken during cross and had numerous opportunities to embellish his
story, which he did not take.
He couldn't recall, for instance, how much Youden had allegedly promised to pay him for the
massage session.
Elhadad argued the complainant could have easily made up a dollar figure to make his testimony
more believable.
“He struggled with it and his answer was he can't recall the sum,” Elhadad said.
The complainant said the men had had one session of protected sex before Youden removed his
condom. Before they resumed, the complainant asked Youden about his status. Youden allegedly
said he was clean. This, Elhadad argued, makes sense.
“(Youden) was now in the throes of a very amorous session,” he said. “Why ruin it?”
Judge Robert Maranger told jurors the case comes down to whether or not they believe Youden
disclosed his HIV status.
Deliberations resume Friday morning.
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Section: News
Lead: SAINT-ADOLPHED'HOWARD, Que. -- A Quebec family has been seeing strange lights
in the sky for three years, and QMI Agency also observed the phenomenon this month.
Headline: Odd lights seen in Que. sky
Page: B2
Byline: DANIEL DESLAURIERS QMI AGENCY
Outlet: The Kingston Whig-Standard
Illustrations:
 photo by DANIEL DESLAURIERS/QMI agency A Quebec family has been seeinglights in the
sky for three years, but local businessman Benoit Meilleur says he doesn't believe in aliens.
Date: Friday 17 January 2014
SAINT-ADOLPHED'HOWARD, Que. -- A Quebec family has been seeing strange lights in the
sky for three years, and QMI Agency also observed the phenomenon this month.
At 6 p.m. on Jan. 9, a QMI Agency reporter saw six moving lights over a wooded area in the
Laurentians region an hour northeast of Montreal.
The objects appeared at the horizon and tracked across the sky, one after another, less than a
minute apart.
They came from the west and moved eastward in total silence.
QMI Agency observed 10 mysterious objects in less than 45 minutes.
The light show happened not far from the home of local businessman Benoit Meilleur, who
recalls spotting the light display for the first time in 2011.
He says he doesn't believe in aliens and insisted QMI Agency record the phenomenon before he
agreed to have his interview published.
The businessman says he was returning home one night when he saw a triangular object moving
very slowly near his house.
“At first I thought it was a plane,” he said. “It was so low and so slow that I could have hit it with
a golf ball.”
He called the Canadian Armed Forces.
“They told me they didn't detect anything,” said Meilleur.
He also contacted NORAD and Quebec provincial police, but made little headway.
“They even asked me if I was feeling alright,” said the businessman.
Meilleur's 18-year-old son Samuel says the lights tend to appear between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. every
night.
Contacted by QMI Agency, National Defence said it's not aware of the phenomenon.
daniel.deslauriers@hebdosquebecor.com
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