Try as we might, writes National Post columnist Sandra Rubin, we cannot picture Dale Lastman, co-managing partner of Goodmans, Sheila Block, senior litigator at Torys, or Peter Hogg, dean of the Osgoode Hall Law School, donning sequins, wigs and leather for an ear-splitting rock and roll number in front of 1,200 well-lubricated people And yet, it will be so – at the fundraiser Aidsbeat.
Coined the phrase
In a still relevant study of the Liberal party published a quarter century ago, former York University political scientist Reg Whitaker coined the phrase "The Government Party" to describe the astonishing ability of the Grits to retain power despite the heavy waves of political change that battered the nation for most of the 20th century, say Barry Cooper and David Bercuson in a commentary on Liberal rule in the Calgary Herald and reprinted in the National Post Sept. 18.
Suing government over pot
Law professor and lawyer Alan Young is representing a group of advocates for medicinal marijuana suing the government for acting in bad faith, reports The Globe and Mail Sept. 18. Court documents show that Allan Rock was poised to distribute medicinal marijuana just as he was replaced by Anne McLellan as Health Minister, he says. "We have, on record, a draft letter that he was going to send to authorized Canadians indicating that once the mechanisms of distribution were established, they would be receiving medicine in short order."
Wins funds to study medicare
Armine Yalnizyan, an economist who fights for social equity and justice and is director of an economics program at York, has received $300,000 from the Atkinson Charitable Foundation to carry out a three-year study on Canada’s medicare system, reports The Toronto Star Sept. 18.
Backpedalling on pot
Alan Young, law professor and lawyer, says in The Toronto Star Sept. 18 that it’s unclear whether the government has radically changed its policy regarding distributing marijuana to chronically ill people or whether it was deceiving Canadians all along.
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