Canada's MaVirtue
Canada's "Virtue"
Canadian correspondent Clifford Krauss writes "Was Canada Just Too Good to Be
True?" from Toronto, questioning whether Canada is really as virtuous as it
wants to appear.
But Krauss assumes the liberal view that international
treaties and gay marriage laws are signs of political virtue and tolerance:
"Canadian cities are among the most ethnically diverse and safest in the world.
Canadian tolerance took real form during the past two years with the extension
of marriage rights to gays and lesbians in most of the country."
(Last November, Krauss
comparedU.S. gays getting married in Canada to U.S. slaves escaping the
pre-war South.)
Krauss broadens the concept of political virtue,
revealing that international treaties and acceptance of the theory of global
warming as fact are additional signs of good global citizenship: "Canada's
reputation as an exemplary world citizen comes from its strong support of the
International Criminal Court, a ban on land mines and the Kyoto climate control
accord. But there is another side to the story. While Canada signed and ratified
the Kyoto accord, making a commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions 6 percent
below 1990 levels from 2008 to 2012, emissions have risen to 24 percent above
1990 levels. The powerful domestic oil industry has lobbied effectively to
guarantee that the development of oil sands - a noxious source of carbon
dioxide - will go on expanding. In fact, Canada, where logging, mining and oil
interests are extremely powerful, has a less than sterling environmental
record."
For the full story from Clifford Krauss on Canada,
click here:
Hillary's Fundraiser Trial: Still Not National News
Deliberations are over and the case is in front of the jury in the trial of
Hillary Clinton's former chief fundraiser, David Rosen, who is accused of
concealing the cost of a celebrity fundraising gala for Clinton's 2000
Senate campaign.
Leslie Eaton's report from Los Angeles weighs some
final accusations: "But a lawyer for the Justice Department, Daniel A.
Schwager, said more bluntly than before in the two-and-a-half-week trial
that an organizer of the event, Aaron Tonken, had tried to buy access to the
Clintons through Mr. Rosen. Mr. Tonken allowed Mr. Rosen to use his $80,000
Porsche 911 convertible and arranged and paid for his stay at the Beverly
Hills Hotel, which Mr. Schwager called 'one of the swankiest hotels in
L.A.'"
Despite the spicy allegations, the Times keeps to its
trend of burying the trial updates in its Metro section. The Washington
Post, by contrast, takes the trial seriously as a national news story,
playing it on Page 2 on Wednesday and
Page 8 today.
For the rest of Eaton on the trial of Hillary Clinton's
fundraiser,
click here
