So tell me again: Why did we spend $3.4 billion on these things?

With Harper in Paris

Richard Colvin, bean counting at the food bank & the Grey Cup: Top newspaper headlines and Parliamen
Richard Colvin; bean counting at the food bank, and the Grey Cup: Listen to my three-minute audio roundup of what's on the front pages of the country's newspapers plus highlights from Friday's Parliamentary daybook by clicking on the link below.

In their own words: David Mulroney's opening statement at Afghanistan committee
"Richard Colvin willingly volunteered to go into a dangerous theatre of operations and undertook very challenging work at a time when . there was not a long line up of people to do so. He demonstrated bravery and dedication, and for that I am grateful. Richard was one of a very large number of people who brought ideas, suggestions and recommendations to bear for consideration. I didn't necessarily always agree with him, but I always listened."

Were Taliban captured by Canadians tortured when we put them in Afghan jails? No way to know
Suspected Taliban insurgents captured by Canadian soldiers in the fall of 2006 may have been tortured by Afghan authorities but Canada has no way of confirming it because it did not have the right systems in place at the time to track what happened to the people it captured, a Commons committee was told Thursday.

Afghanistan, animal cruelty, and Rider Nation: Friday's Top newspaper headlines and Parliamentary Da
Afghanistan torture claims, animal cruelty in Toronto and are the Green Riders Canada's team?:  Listen to my three-minute audio roundup of what's on the front pages of the country's newspapers plus highlights from Friday's Parliamentary daybook by clicking on the link below. You can also get these audio summaries via podcast from iTunes or via an RSS feed by subscribing to my AudioBoo stream. Both the iTunes link and the RSS link are at my profile at AudioBoo.fm. Look under my picture on the left hand side of the page.

Kick Canada out of the Commonwealth for climate change inaction, greenies urge
This just in: Global coalition demands Canada's suspension from the Commonwealth on climate grounds 26 November 2009 - A coalition of prominent figures from the developing world have joined a former UK development minister, a UN scientist and British environment and development groups to demand the suspension of Canada from the commonwealth for its record on climate change.The groups claim that Canada's lack of action on climate change is contributing to droughts, floods and sea level rises in small island states and vulnerable commonwealth countries such as Bangladesh, The Maldives and Mozambique. Canada's emissions have risen by 26.2% between 199