The Vince Mai Project

Live jazz funk fusion sizzles at The Yale on Thursday, January 31 with the sounds of The Vince Mai Project. Get ready to dance to world beat rhythms as jazz trumpeter Vince Mai leads an ensemble of seasoned performers. A dynamic soloist and well-known member of various Canadian jazz and funk groups, Mai is deemed a top call studio musician in the Pacific Northwest. Mai’s 2006 release MBAND boasts 10 self-produced original compositions. This latest CD explores contemporary smooth-groove jazz from a world perspective, inspired by his travels and performances throughout Europe, Asia, and the Americas. www.mai-music.com

Show time for The Vince Mai Project begins at 9pm. No cover charge applies.

The Yale Hotel, Vancouver
www.theyale.ca

North America's first mayor of Chinese decent dies in Vancouver

THE CANADIAN PRESS

VANCOUVER - The first mayor of Chinese descent in North America has died at the age of 93.

Former Kamloops mayor Peter Wing died Thursday in Vancouver as a result of a stroke.

Wing was elected in 1966 and went on to serve three terms.

Along with receiving the Order of Canada in 1976, he also was awarded the Human Relations Award from the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews in 1977.

His brother David says Peter was proud to be from Kamloops and lived there for most of his life.

Wing is survived by his wife Kim.

New national museum will tread carefully in dealing with human rights issues

Steve Lambert, THE CANADIAN PRESS
WINNIPEG - It won't be an easy task, but the people planning the new Canadian Museum For Human Rights - the first national museum outside the Ottawa area - are hoping to portray sensitive issues such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict without setting off a firestorm of controversy and accusations that they are favouring one side over another.

To that end, they are about to launch public consultations and bring in academic experts to help determine which human rights issues should be featured in the museum and how they should be presented.

"The government is trying to get out ahead of the curve," said Arni Thorsteinson, chairman of the museum advisory committee which the federal government set up in October.

"They didn't do that with the war museum. So then people complained."

The Canadian War Museum angered Second World War veterans with a display that said there were questions about the morality of the Allied bombing campaign in Germany. The controversy ended up before a Senate subcommittee and in October, the museum announced it would change the wording of the display.

In an attempt to be fair to all sides, the government and human rights museum organizers will ask Canadians, starting in January, to submit ideas on what they want to see in the museum via a special website.

The government is also hiring academic experts, including Constantine Passaris, a professor at the University of New Brunswick who has served as chairman of the New Brunswick Human Rights Commission.

One of the potential political minefields for the museum is the Holodomor, the famine that claimed millions of lives in Ukraine in the 1930s.

Thirteen countries, including the U.S. and Ukraine, formally recognize the famine as a genocide - a deliberate attempt by the Soviet regime of Josef Stalin to eliminate an ethnic group.

Canada does not recognize it as a genocide, although the Ukrainian Canadian Congress is hoping the museum will include that exact wording.

"We'll be making our case and, frankly, sooner or later that won't be an issue because most countries and academics are moving in that direction of understanding," UCC executive director Ostap Skrypnyk said.

The UCC is raising money for what it hopes will be a permanent Holodomor exhibit at the museum.

Another issue for the museum will be having to choose among the many nationalities and other groups that have been involved in human rights issues both in Canada and around the world.

The plan is to cast a wide net - to feature not only different nationalities but also the disabled, refugees and others. The museum is expected to use some of its floor space for temporary displays that will be set up on a rotational basis.

The end result, Thorsteinson said, will be a museum that highlights human rights issues in a fair way and does not shy away from sensitive topics such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"It's probably something that should be addressed and we don't want to ignore it," he said.

The human rights museum, first proposed by the late media mogul Izzy Asper, is still in the fundraising stage. The federal government has promised to pay $100 million of the projected $265 million in construction costs, as well as operating costs that are expected to be $22 million a year. Organizers hope to have it open in 2010.

© The Canadian Press, 2007

Bell Canada awarded five-year contract to run National Do Not Call List: CRTC

THE CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA - Bell Canada (TSX:BCE) will operate the National Do Not Call List.

The CRTC announced Friday that it has awarded a five-year contract to Bell to keep track of those Canadians who wish not to be contacted by telemarketing firms.

The federal telecommunications regulator says Bell was the only bidder that complied with the requirements of their request for proposal issued in July.

The contract stipulates the list should be launched by Sept. 30, 2008.

Bell Canada will be responsible for registering numbers, providing telemarketers with updated versions of the list, and receiving consumer complaints about telemarketing calls, a CRTC release said.

The release also states Bell will operate the list using the fees that telemarketers will pay to subscribe to the list.

© The Canadian Press, 2007

Cash, not gift cards, the best present: consumers' association

(CBC) - The Consumers' Association of Canada is recommending that shoppers give cash instead of buying gift cards, which often go unused or come with many restrictions for their recipients.

"We recommend you forget about it completely and use cash," CAC spokesman Bruce Cran said.

One recent study in the United States reaffirmed other reports that consumers are losing out to retailers, estimating that 25 per cent of all gift cards go unused. Best Buy Co., for example, reported a profit of $43 million US from unused cards last year. Limited Brands Inc. recorded $30 million US in 2005 revenue because of unredeemed cards.

Canadians spent $1.8 billion on gift cards in 2006, and the amount is forecast to exceed $3 billion this year.

The consumers' association has received numerous complaints about gift cards, which often have unexpected expiry dates, restrictions on cash-back services and administrative fees, Cran said.

If consumers do buy gift cards, it's best to read the fine print, Cran said.

"They should be checking to see there are no charges against the card for the store or group issuing it to mind their money ... after all, this is cash," he said.

Ontario and Manitoba have banned expiry dates and administration fees on most but not all gift cards. Other provinces including Alberta are considering adopting similar policies.

Beijing threatens to punish those who spread rumours using text messaging

Anita Chang, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BEIJING - A Beijing city regulation clamping down on people who send text messages that "spread rumours" or "endanger public security" is a threat to freedom of expression, a watchdog group said Monday.

China Human Rights Defenders, an international network of activists and rights monitoring groups, said the recent regulation on text messages "raises serious concerns over the restriction of freedom of expression in China."

The group said in a statement that an average of 180 million text messages are sent every day and that text messaging has become one of the most important means of receiving information unavailable in the mainstream media.

The 2008 Olympics, which Beijing is hosting, offer a high-profile opportunity for protesters to air their grievances against China on issues like religious freedom, human rights and Tibetan independence.

Beijing police will work with government agencies and telecommunications companies to investigate and punish those using text messages to "spread rumours" or "endanger public security," the city government said in a notice posted on its website late last month.

Chinese authorities commonly use vague charges such as those to detain dissidents or others it views as a threat to the ruling Communist party.

Although the notice did not detail specific punishments, a story in the city's Communist party mouthpiece newspaper, the Beijing Daily, earlier this year said people who spread rumours or other false information are subject to detention for up to 10 days and a fine of up to $70.

China has more than 500 million cellphone users and text messaging has become an increasingly effective way to spread word of meetings or demonstrations.

This summer, plans to build a chemical plant in the southern coastal city of Xiamen were suspended after residents sent nearly one million text messages to friends and family, urging the government to abandon the project because of its alleged health and environmental risks.

Meanwhile, a Tibetan language online discussion forum was shut down this month for having content that was against Chinese law, according to a notice on its website.

The popular forum, which was hosted at www.Tibet123.com, was shut down for containing "illegal content," according to a notice on the website.

The notice says it "strongly condemns the 'rotten apple in the barrel' who published harmful information."

The notice then invites people to leave comments. It is not clear if the notice is from the site moderator or the government.

Media rights group Reporters Without Borders has called the site "the most dynamic forum in the Tibetan blogosphere" with over 6,200 registered members.

The Paris-based group said the site has been closed since Dec. 6. It was still inaccessible Monday.

© The Canadian Press, 2007

Canadian shoppers sticking close to home despite high loonie

Maria Babbage, THE CANADIAN PRESS
TORONTO - It's a familiar sight in shopping malls across the country - long lineups, exhausted customers weighed down with gift bags, stroller-pushing families sifting through red-tagged bargains to find the perfect present to tuck under the Christmas tree.

Yet despite all the hassles, many Canadians are sticking close to home this year when it comes to last-minute holiday shopping, ignoring the advantages of a high-flying Canadian dollar.

Some say it's the convenience of a quick drive to the mall, while others are making a conscious effort to shop in Canada.

"My family doesn't allow shopping in the States because we have to support the Canadian economy," said Carolyn Fraser, 43, one of hundreds of shoppers bustling through a downtown Toronto mall Sunday with her 15-year-old daughter, Kate Curley, and a friend.

Kendra Thomas, Curley's 16-year-old friend, said her family crosses the border to shop in Buffalo for a weekend about once every three months.

"I know my mom, she's done her (holiday shopping). Has been for awhile," she said. "But I never know what to get them until the last minute."

Savvy shoppers like Erich Fox, 39, who understands the perils of last-minute gift buying, came early to avoid the afternoon rush.

"Just executing the final plan," he said, carrying a pair of skates for his eight-year-old son.

"We had a couple of things we needed today. This is the first chance we had to get out without our kid around."

Retailers across the country have been trying to lure Canadians back after the loonie rose above parity with the U.S. dollar earlier this year.

Several have tried to match American prices, while others are risking a loss by offering big discounts.

But unpredictable weather, long lineups at the border and more convenient gift returns and exchanges are also keeping consumers from straying too far from home, said Derek Nighbor of the Retail Council of Canada.

"People are not wanting to travel on the roads very much and also, people are remembering that, 'If I want to return or exchange something, I think I'd rather do that in my home community than have to travel 20, 30, 50 kilometres away to do that,"' he said.

Canadian retailers are still expected to have a good year, thanks in large part to the strong economy, said retail consultant John Williams of J.C. Williams Group.

"There was a lot of hemming and hawing about whether cross-border shopping and the strength of the Canadian dollar would make a difference. It might have hurt some people, but generally, the retailers have had a very good showing to date."

Edmonton shopping malls were packed with thousands of last-minute shoppers Sunday, where getting out of the parking lots was almost as time-consuming as combing the shops for deals.

Some suppertime television newscasts were featuring helicopter traffic reports to warn shoppers of traffic snarls, especially around the mammoth West Edmonton Mall.

Scott Olsen, 25, a student at the University of Alberta, fingered baseball caps at a shop in another Edmonton mall - searching for the perfect gift for his girlfriend's younger brother.

"Finals ended this week so I was locked up in my apartment studying for finals and then I got the shopping done this week," he said.

Steve Iron - originally from Regina, but working in the oilsands of northern Alberta - was a man on a mission Sunday.

With the help of family members Stephanie and Crystal Bird, Iron was on the prowl for a toy for his three-year-old grandson - something he hadn't been able to find elsewhere.

"I'm looking for, I think it's a Transformer, the beetle, the bumble bee or something like that," he said. "I think everybody wants it."

Elsewhere in Canada, Christmas shoppers seemed to be moving a more leisurely pace.

There were few people on the streets of downtown Halifax.

"I don't think many people are scrambling," Mhari Lamarque, a 17-year-old clerk at the novelty candy store Freak Lunchbox, said as about 10 shoppers milled about.

Lamarque's colleague, Brian Innis, said the height of the shopping frenzy was Saturday when "everybody seemed to be like in a frenzy - they were on a mission. It was crazy."

In Montreal, Ste-Catherine Street was bustling as 11th-hour shoppers took advantage of unseasonably warm weather.

Still, many like university student Andrea Bailey, found the city's stores surprisingly quiet.

"I thought it would be a lot more hectic and chaotic than it really is," she said. "We only got here like 45 minutes ago and we've got like three people done so far."

Bailey's shopping partner, Kirk Lee Foon, said he's a seasoned procrastinator when it comes to holiday shopping."

"I'm a guy - I leave it to the last minute," he said.

"It's just tradition. Go out at the last minute and see what you can do and see what you can get. It's still the thought that counts."

Cold rain drenched Ottawa's Sparks Street Mall, where most stores were shuttered and shoppers were few and far between. It seems many consumers hit the stores a day earlier in anticipation of the dismal weather.

At a small nearby mall, the only signs of life flickered at the movie theatres and the liquor store.

"I can't get over how dead it is for the 23rd," said Ottawa resident John McAvity. "I mean, look, this mall's empty."

© The Canadian Press, 2007

Etiquette questions arise as airlines introduce in-flight Internet access

Anick Jesdanun, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK - Seat 17D is yapping endlessly on an Internet phone call. Seat 16F is flaming Seat 16D with expletive-laden chats. Seat 16E is too busy surfing porn sites to care. Seat 17C just wants to sleep.

Welcome to the promise of the Internet at 10,000 metres - and the questions of etiquette, openness and free speech that airlines and service providers will have to grapple with as they bring Internet access to the skies in the coming months.

"This gets into a ticklish area," said Vint Cerf, one of the Internet's chief inventors and generally a critic of network restrictions. "Airlines have to be sensitive to the fact that customers are (seated) close together and may be able to see each other's PC screens. More to the point, young people are often aboard the plane."

Technology providers and airlines are already making decisions. Some will block services like Internet phone calls altogether while others will put limits and install filters on content. And traffic management tools that are frowned upon on terra firma could be commonplace in the air.

Panasonic Avionics Corp., a Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. unit testing airborne services on Australia's Qantas Airways Ltd., is designing its high-speed Internet services to block sites on "an objectionable list," including porn and violence, said David Bruner, executive director for corporate sales and marketing.

He said airlines based in more restrictive countries could choose to expand the list.

The company also is recommending that airlines permit Internet-based phone calls only on handsets with wireless Wi-Fi capabilities - the technology delivering access within the passenger cabin. Bruner said the company believes Wi-Fi handsets use less bandwidth than telephone software that runs on laptops.

Airlines, he said, also could block incoming calls - and the annoying ring tones they produce - or designate periods of quiet time.

OnAir, which has European certification for airborne cellular services, plans to give airlines similar choices, chief executive Benoit Debains said. Although some airlines are concerned about noise, Debains said, enabling voice would generate more revenue than data-only services.

Air France, which plans to start allowing cellular calls through OnAir within months, said it would see how people use such services before crafting rules.

"Are you going to reach your wife to tell her what you did the entire day or just tell her, 'Can you pick me up at the airport?' " Air France spokeswoman Marina Tymen said, adding that passengers might tell the airline that data services fulfil all their needs.

U.S. airlines are largely taking the opposite approach.

With possible exceptions for crew and federal air marshals, flights on AMR Corp.'s American Airlines and Alaska Air Group Inc.'s Alaska Airlines won't have access to Internet-based phone services like EBay Inc.'s Skype.

Discount startup Virgin America is also considering a ban.

"An airborne environment is a confined environment," said Charles Ogilvie, Virgin's director of in-flight entertainment and partnerships. "You don't want 22B yapping away or playing on a boom box."

Airlines have offered in-flight phone services before, but their high costs have limited their popularity. By contrast, Internet phone calls are free or cheap, particularly for passengers already paying for in-flight access to check e-mail or surf websites.

Meanwhile, American, Alaska and Virgin have no plans to filter sites based on their content. At most, an airline may manage traffic and delay large downloads, or in Virgin's case give passengers the option of enabling controls for their kids.

"We think decency and good sense and normal behaviour" will prevail, said Jack Blumenstein, chief executive of Aircell LLC, which is launching service on some American and Virgin flights in 2008.

Alaska, which plans to start offering service on some flights in the spring, said the same guidelines apply whether a passenger is flipping through a magazine, watching a DVD on a laptop or surfing the Web.

"Occasionally we do have conversations with customers about content," Alaska spokeswoman Amanda Tobin Bielawski said.

In many ways, airlines are facing issues similar to those encountered by Wi-Fi networks on the ground - at airports, coffee shops and other public places.

Glenn Fleishman, editor of the Wi-Fi Networking News site, said operators of public networks generally do not filter because users are conscious that others can see what they surf. A coffee shop employee might occasionally ask a customer to leave, Fleishman said, "but those stories tend to be pretty far between."

Airplanes, however, are different because customers are in closer quarters and are more likely to include kids.

Allowing porn could subject an airline to harassment complaints much like an employer that refuses to clamp down, said John Palfrey, a Harvard Law School professor.

"I think they have a right to (filter), but I come up short of saying they have the responsibility," Palfrey said. "I'd rather have the responsibility in the hands of passengers and require them to be accountable for what they do on laptops and airplanes."

Airborne Internet activities - such as hacking and piracy - could raise new questions about which country's laws apply.

The in-flight services also could exacerbate long-standing grievances.

What if the passenger in front of you wants to recline, making it difficult to surf comfortably on your laptop? What if you're finishing a crucial e-mail on deadline and an adjacent passenger needs to leave for the bathroom? What if the person next to you keeps peering over while you're trying to review a confidential website?

Steve Jones, a University of Illinois at Chicago professor who specializes in Internet studies, said passengers and flight crews would need to undergo "the kinds of learning the ropes and learning the etiquette anytime we put new technology in new settings."

Just as most people have come to set boundaries for cell phone use in public settings, he said, "we will see develop social norms for using the Internet in flight."

-

A sampling of in-flight Internet offerings:

AIRCELL - Delivering high-speed Internet services using a 3-megahertz frequency band licensed from the Federal Communications Commission for $31 million in 2006. Initial service over continental United States, with plans to expand to Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. Service on some flights of AMR Corp.'s American Airlines and Virgin America to begin in 2008. Prices expected at about $10 a flight, though Virgin may offer cheaper, la carte services on seatback computers. Aircell LLC is based in Itasca, Ill.

LIVETV - Delivering e-mail and instant-messaging services only using a 1-megahertz frequency band licensed by the FCC for $7 million. Service over continental United States. LiveTV parent JetBlue Airways Corp. launched free service on one aircraft Dec. 11. LiveTV is based in Melbourne, Fla.

ROW 44 - Partnering with Hughes Communications Inc.'s Hughes Network Systems to deliver high-speed Internet services via satellite. Global coverage planned. Scheduled to launch on an aircraft of Alaska Air Group Inc.'s Alaska Airlines in spring 2008. Alaska hasn't set prices; free service for frequent fliers is possible. Row 44 Inc. has headquarters in Westlake Village, Calif.

PANASONIC AVIONICS - Partnering with Intelsat Ltd. for satellite-based, high-speed Internet services. Global coverage planned. GSM cellular phone offerings through AeroMobile Ltd. approved in Australia. Tested on Australia's Qantas Airways Ltd., with other, unnamed airlines expected in late 2008. Panasonic plans to charge about $12 an hour or $22 per 24-hour period. Panasonic Avionics Corp., part of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., is based in Lake Forest, Calif.

ONAIR - Leveraging standard GSM cellular phone technology to deliver voice, data and Internet services. Approved by European Aviation Safety Agency, with coverage elsewhere pending. No current plans to offer service in North America, where many cell networks use different technology. Following Dec. 17 launch on Air France, OnAir plans to service European no-frills carrier Ryanair Ltd., British Midland Airways Ltd. and Portugal's TAP by mid-2008. Fees will vary and generally will be billed directly by passenger's cellphone provider. OnAir is a joint venture between aircraft manufacturer Airbus and SITA, an information-technology company serving airlines. OnAir has headquarters in Geneva.

© The Canadian Press, 2007

Lost in Translation meets High School Musical

Canadian director Chris Grismer has teamed up with High School Musical producers to gamble that an all-teenage-girl ska band from Japan will be the next big thing

GUY DIXON
Globe and Mail

Most culture seekers have a recurring thing with Japan. Kitsch iconography, street fashion, even teen-tinged pop can turn fascinating, sometimes compulsory after being reimagined by the Japanese.

So leave it to Hollywood producers, with the help of a Canadian director, to tap into that perennial Japanophilia. No less than the producers of the wildly popular High School Musical are behind a plan to turn Oreskaband, an all-girl teenage ska band (of all things) from the southern industrial city of Sakai, Japan. (of all places) into the next big crossover hit on this side of the Pacific.

Already getting noticed on various Japan-culture blogs and websites, Oreskaband couldn't seem further removed from the faux Romeo and Juliet sugar high of Disney's successful High School Musical and its seemingly endless sequels and offshoots. Producers Barry Rosenbush and Bill Borden aren't entirely moving away from the winning formula. After all, there's still the upcoming High School Musical 3 and another film along similar lines, American Mall, due out next year.

But they are trying something different with the feature-film vehicle for Oreskaband titled Lock and Roll Forever, currently in production and scheduled for next summer.

The six-piece band is a real, working group of energetic musicians still in their teens, including a guitarist, bassist and drummer, and a horn section. The girls met in junior high and already have a sizable following in Japan. They play feel-good ska and, decked out in shiny ties and touches of black and white checkerboard, they're cute (like real girls, though, rather than High School Musical Barbies).

But the band's name, literally “I am ska band,” uses the informal ore, an idiom that a schoolboy would use, not a group of girls. It hints at subtle irreverence, the antithesis of the wide-eyed, sexed-up girlishness of Japanese anime characters or the hyper-exaggerated Little Bo Peep look in Japanese street fashion. But unlike Avril Lavigne and her neckties and skater pose, there's little sexual coyness with Oreskaband.

Rosenbush calls the film A Hard Day's Night meets Lost in Translation. The screenwriter for the High School Musical films, Peter Barsocchini, is also connected with Lock and Roll. But to give it a different feel and ratchet up the hip quotient with anime-style animation scenes and long music segments, the producers have chosen Chris Grismer to direct. The Toronto-based director is known in part for his music videos for Broken Social Scene, Arcade Fire and others.

“I didn't have a template,” Grismer says. “They kind of let me go nuts. I got to create all sorts of weird animated sequences and big rock 'n' roll musical numbers [with] real punk rockers. It was a lot of fun.”

As Rosenbush describes it, the story revolves around “six Japanese high-school girls with a big rock 'n' roll dream, whose paths cross with an unscrupulous promoter played by Lucas Grabeel, one of the stars of High School Musical. He says, in an offhand remark when he sees them, ‘Girls, if you ever come to California, I'll make you rock 'n' roll stars.'”

The girls take him at his word; they raise the money, fly to Los Angeles and show up on his Beverly Hills doorstep. “He had no intention of ever seeing them again. And now this rat bastard, unscrupulous rock 'n' roll promoter is stuck with six adorable, hard-playing, rock 'n' roll girls,” Rosenbush says.

“We're going to reach to the same audience that we reached out to [with] High School Musical,” he adds.

And do we already detect spinoffs and sequels? “From your lips to God's ears,” he says hopefully.

But the film also commits a number of Hollywood no-nos: The first portion will be in Japanese with subtitles. And in addition to the anime-style sections, it will include a number of musical scenes that don't propel the plot but simply feature music for its own sake.

And there is one troubling aspect, the title Lock and Roll. It seems to make fun of Japanese English pronunciation right from the start. But that's a quality of the movie Lost in Translation that Grismer says he has been very conscious of avoiding. “That was definitely a consideration. That was how a lot of people felt about Lost in Translation in Japan, that they were being made fun of,” he says. “With this movie, I didn't want to take these girls and do that with them, because you can easily slip into that Jerry Lewis, ‘Me so sah-wy' comedy.”

Not only would that not go over with audiences in Japan, where the film is planned for wide release, it wouldn't be accepted by the pop-culture Japanophiles elsewhere whom the producers seem to want to entice in order to make the film more than High School Musical Goes to Japan.

Mazda 3 owners want to sue for bad locks

(CBC) - Hundreds of Canadian drivers who own a type of Mazda 3 car that has lock flaws are trying to get approval for a class action lawsuit against the company, saying their vehicles are sitting targets for thieves.

The drivers who initiated the lawsuit - who live in British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec - say their Mazda 3 cars have been broken into because of a defective lock mechanism that makes it easy for anyone to open the door.

Mazda Canada has already admitted the generation of Mazda 3 cars in question has a problematic locking mechanism, and the company has offered to retrofit vehicles for free with a reinforcement device.

Locked doors on Mazda 3 models built between 2004 and 2007 can reportedly be opened without forcing the frame or breaking the window.

The drivers who have brought the lawsuit want to be compensated because they don't believe the company's repair fixes the problem and the car's value has dropped due to its tarnished reputation, said Vancouver lawyer Jim Hanson, who is leading the legal battle. They also want the cars recalled, he said.

The drivers hope to get permission to go ahead with the lawsuit in January 2008.

"We're still at the stage of trying to identify from a scientific point of view what the failure is," he told CBC News. "And it appears that Mazda has not taken the proper steps at this point to remedy the defect. Our position is that they're selling shoddy goods."

Mazda Canada has installed several reinforcement devices for owners who have approached their dealers, said Gregory Young, a Toronto director of the company's corporate public relations, in a recent interview with CBC News.

"It's not a model issue. It's a generation issue," he said.

The problem has been fixed in newer generations of the Mazda 3. Cars produced since January 2007 have a "countermeasure reinforcement on the lock," Young said.

'Word travels very quickly'

Customers who want greater security should look at purchasing a security system, he suggested.

That's as much as the company can do in what is a delicate situation, he said.

"Word travels very quickly," he said. "And we've been careful to not create a problem for all Mazda 3 owners with break-and-enter artists attempting to break into cars."

Mazda's offer to retrofit cars for free doesn't go far enough, Hanson said.

"The fix isn't being imposed as a recall. We're not convinced the fix is remedying the defect, and we think the failure is occurring even in the cars that have the fix."

Drivers with Mazda 3s now own cars that are perceived to be lemons, "because of the image this car has on the marketplace," Hanson said.

"It may be that the reputation of this vehicle may be diminished, with or without the fix. People may not want this car because it may be the target of thieves."

Telefilm Canada announces funding for 11 English-language projects

THE CANADIAN PRESS
MONTREAL - Telefilm Canada announced funding for the production of 11 English-language projects on Thursday.

The federal cultural agency is distributing the money under the Canada Feature Film Fund and the Low Budget Independent Feature Film Assistance Program, which gives under $500,000 to first-time directors.

Receiving the most funding at $2.5 million is "Splice," about a genetic scientist couple who create the world's first human/animal hybrid. Vincenzo Natali is director.

Next at $1.7 million is director Deepa Mehta's "Heaven on Earth," which follows a young bride as she leaves India to build a new life in Canada.

"Freezer Burn" is a Grant Harvey-directed tale of a former professional hockey player who thwarts an alien invasion. It got $1.5 million, as did the Gary Yates-directed "High Life," about petty criminals with a dream.

Getting $1.4 million is David Schultz's "45 RPM," in which two teens attend a big rock 'n' roll party in 1950s New York.

Other films getting over $500,000 but under $1 million include: "One Week," about a man who flees his lifestyle for something more adventurous; "Growing Op," about a teenage boy living in a suburban grow-operation (Thom Fitzgerald is executive producer); and "Toronto Stories," about a young boy lost in the Big Smoke (Sook Yin-Lee is co-director).

In the low-budget category is "Nonsense Revolution," about a teen who dies in a drunk driving incident and comes back to Earth as a frustrated angel. Fitzgerald is producing.

"The Harton Interviews" is a horror about world domination by alien creatures that look human.

And "Puck Hogs" follows a men's recreational hockey team.

© The Canadian Press, 2007

Sharp, Toshiba consider LCD tie-up amid rising competition for thin flat panel displays

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TOKYO - Toshiba and Sharp are considering a tie-up in the liquid crystal display panel business, officials said Friday, amid intensifying competition for thin flat panel displays.

Toshiba is discussing links with Sharp, known for the Aquos brand of flat-panel LCD TVs, Toshiba spokesman Keisuke Omori said.

Japan's business daily Nikkei reported Friday that Toshiba plans to buy LCD panels made at Sharp's new state-of-the-art plant for incorporation into its own televisions. The move would mean that Toshiba will end its current ties with Matsushita Electric Industrial and Hitachi, it said.

The Nikkei said the two companies are expected to announce the alliance plan Friday. Omori said nothing has been decided.

Sharp spokeswoman Miyuki Nakayama said the company is considering an alliance with Toshiba but declined to elaborate.

The talks come as Japan's thin flat panel displays business appears to be going through a major shake-up amid heavy competition from rivals in South Korea.

Earlier this week, Japanese media reported that Matsushita, Hitachi and Canon are in talks to jointly develop the next generation of ultra-thin flat panels in an apparent bid to catch up on Sony's lead in the new technology.

The technology, called organic light-emitting diode, or OLED, has won attention as a possible replacement for today's liquid-crystal and plasma displays.

The three makers are also looking into a joint 300 billion yen ($2.65 billion) investment to build a new LCD factory, according to the reports.

© The Canadian Press, 2007

Burger King takes fast-food trans fat crown; Ottawa threatens regulations

Colin Perkel, THE CANADIAN PRESS
TORONTO - Popular restaurant chain Burger King has gained the dubious distinction of having the highest levels of artery-clogging, obesity-inducing trans fats in its french fries, chicken nuggets and other meals compared with its fast-food peers, according to federal data released Thursday.

The detailed, groundbreaking data are from Health Canada testing of leading-brand prepackaged foods such as cookies and frozen potatoes, as well as favourite treats from selected restaurants.

"Burger King seems to have been crowned in this data as the king of trans fats," said Sally Brown, CEO of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada.

"Not all companies are reducing them in all products, but Burger King isn't reducing them in any products."

Low-cost trans fats provide taste and texture to a wide range of foods and are used for frying, but they are also maligned for increasing levels of bad cholesterol and lowering those of good cholesterol.

As such, they pose a serious long-term health risk.

"Trans fats are unsafe at virtually any quantity," said Rocco Rossi, who heads the foundation's Ontario arm.

"We are facing an unprecedented crisis in terms of rising rates of obesity, rising rates of childhood obesity that will lead to untold misery for countless Canadians in the future."

Last year, a federal task force recommended trans fats make up no more than five per cent of total fat content in all foods, including restaurant servings. A two per cent limit applied to edible oils and spreadable margarines.

Burger King exceeded those levels by between four and almost nine times in products ranging from chicken nuggets and french fries to apple turnovers and fish filets. For example, the chain's chicken nuggets contain almost 20 per cent fat, of which more than one-third is trans fat.

In response, Burger King Restaurants of Canada called it "one of the highest priorities" for the company to make its restaurants free of added trans fat by the end of next year, starting in Calgary on Jan. 1.

"The company has also identified trans fat-free, par-fry and baked-good solutions for our products, and is currently testing these products as well," Burger King said in a statement.

When it comes to another Canadian staple, chocolate doughnuts, companies such as Tim Hortons have cut trans fats sharply, but replaced them with saturated fats, which are only slightly less harmful to heart health.

Three-quarters of consumers are aware of the harmful effects of trans fats and will try to avoid them, a foundation survey suggests.

"We're able to vote with our mouths, as well as with our feet and our wallets," said federal Health Minister Tony Clement.

In June, the federal government asked food makers to lower trans fats to those levels recommended by the task force.

If the industry fails to meet the task-force recommendations by June 2009, Clement said, Ottawa will force them to.

In the interim, the data available on the Health Canada website should help consumers make better food-buying decisions and manufacturers reconsider their ingredients.

"There is a huge shaming element," said Brown, who was co-chairwoman of the task force.

Dave Dzisiak of Calgary-based Dow AgroSciences said omega-9 oil from crushed canola, which is plentiful in Canada, is an excellent substitute for trans and saturated fats.

"It's got all the functionality of these hydrogenated oils but it has the good health properties and the good functional properties that the food companies need," Dzisiak said.

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/nutrition/gras-trans-fats/tfa-age_e.html#10

© The Canadian Press, 2007

U.S. budget bill delays Canadian border passport requirement

Wikson Ring, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MONTPELIER, Vt. - Passports won't be necessary for Americans and Canadians entering the United States by land until mid-2009 - a year later than planned - if a budget bill passed Thursday by Congress is approved by President George W. Bush.

A provision of a budget bill passed Thursday pushes back by a year the plan by the Department of Homeland Security to require passports from border-crossers from Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean as a way of strengthening national security.

U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont, said he expects Bush to sign the bill, despite the administration's insistence on implementing the passport requirement next summer.

The passport requirement has been a sore point in Vermont and other border states.

"This delay is very, very helpful and gives us a chance to do the right thing as opposed to the quickest thing," said Bill Stenger, president of Jay Peak ski area, which is near the Canadian border.

"It's a major step. I give (Leahy) a tremendous amount of credit for getting some common sense into this whole situation."

Last summer, Leahy and U.S. Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska introduced the legislation to delay the passport requirement. The House of Representatives passed it the day after the Senate and the legislation cleared Congress Thursday as part of a multiagency budget bill.

"The passport requirement is the wrong answer to the wrong question. It creates major hassles for law-abiding citizens and communities all across the longest peaceful border in the world," Leahy said in a statement.

"It adds nothing to our security, while costing Vermont and our national economy billions in lost commerce."

The Western Hemisphere Travel Iniative, as the plan is known, is designed to close a major security vulnerability on U.S. borders, said Homeland Security spokeswoman Amy Kudwa.

"We've always been committed to moving forward deliberately to implement the land and sea portion of WHTI just as we did with the air portion," said Kudwa.

"We anticipate a final rule in the coming weeks and phasing in elements of the plan in the summer of '08."

She said full implementation would follow "as soon as possible consistent with the law."

Even though the passport requirement is likely to be postponed, Vermonters and others will still need birth certificates or similar identification to enter the United States by land beginning Jan. 31.

In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on Wednesday, Leahy called the birth certificate requirement "unwise, ill-considered and counterproductive." Leahy asked Chertoff for the legal authority to unilaterally impose the birth certificate requirement.

The passport requirement is part of efforts by Homeland Security to tighten security at the borders.

But people along the Vermont-Quebec border say a passport requirement could disrupt the long-established practices of moving freely from one country to another and cost businesses millions of dollars.

Leahy said the passports would stifle commerce, while doing little to protect the country.

"Instead, for only a fraction of that expense, we could and should be beefing up our intelligence and working with Canada to seek out potential terrorists long before they even get near our borders," Leahy said.

Leahy said before any requirements for increased documentation take effect, Homeland Security should have the technical infrastructure ready to implement it and that technology would have to be shared with the governments of Canada and Mexico.

© The Canadian Press, 2007

Calgary Zoo makes list of top 10 wildlife conservation success stories

THE CANADIAN PRESS
CALGARY - Its work to preserve the Vancouver Island marmot has landed the Calgary Zoo on a U.S. organization's top-10 list of wildlife conservation stories for 2007.

The accomplishment was the only Canadian one to be recognized by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

"These critters are being threatened by massive habitat destruction in the wild," the association said in its news release.

"Their current wild population is estimated at nearly 50 animals, but thanks to breeding centers devoted to the species, such as the Toronto Zoo, the population is now around 150. Calgary Zoo in Alberta was the first to successfully breed the marmots at their facility, and produced an impressive five litters in 2007."

The association noted the pups will be reintroduced to the wild in Mount Washington, B.C., "where they will undergo pre-release conditioning to improve survivability in the wild."

Dr. Clement Lanthier, president and CEO of the Calgary Zoo, called it "gratifying" to be recognized by the association for the work.

The Calgary Zoo's work with marmots rated No. 9 on the list - No. 1 was the Detroit Zoo's work to preserve Wyoming toads. Other U.S. zoos and aquariums were lauded for their work with Perdido Key beach mice; Atlantic right whales; ruffled lemurs; Kemp's ridley sea turtles; Grevy's zebras; white sharks; butterflies; and bald eagles.

© The Canadian Press, 2007

Chinese company takes Google to court

The Associated Press
BEIJING -- A Chinese company has taken Google's China operations to court over what it says is an infringement of the Chinese translation of its name, "Guge," according to court documents.

Beijing Guge Sci-Tech Co. was officially registered at the Beijing Municipal Industrial and Commercial Bureau on April 19, 2006, but Google didn't register the name "Guge" in China until Nov. 24 of that year, according to court arguments that began in Beijing this week,

Beijing Guge Sci-Tech says the name has led to confusion and hurt its business.

Guge Sci-Tech wants Google change its Chinese name and pay legal costs, according to court documents. No specific sum was mentioned.

Google said that when Beijing Guge Sci-Tech registered its name there were already reports on the Internet that Google was going to use the Chinese name "Guge," according to court documents.

Google says the name "Guge," which is not a Chinese word, was created by the Beijing-based company. The Chinese characters mean "valley" and "song."

Giant rat discovered in Indonesia jungle

The Associated Press
JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Researchers in a remote Indonesian jungle have discovered a giant rat that is about five times the size of a typical city rat and a tiny possum, scientists said Monday.

Unearthing new species of mammals in the 21st century is considered very rare. The discoveries by a team of American and Indonesian scientists are being studied further to confirm their status.

The animals were found in the Foja mountains rainforest in eastern Papua province in a June expedition, said U.S.-based Conservation International, which organized the trip in the Southeast Asian nation along with the Indonesian Institute of Science.

"The giant rat is about five times the size of a typical city rat," said Kristofer Helgen, a scientist with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. "With no fear of humans, it apparently came into the camp several times during the trip."

The possum was described as "one of the world's smallest marsupials."

A 2006 expedition to the same stretch of jungle -- dubbed by Conservation International as a "Lost World" because until then humans had rarely visited it -- unearthed scores of exotic new species of palms, butterflies and palms.

Papua has some of the world's largest tracts of rainforest, but like elsewhere in Indonesia they are being ravaged by illegal logging. Scientists said last year that the Foja area was not under immediate threat, largely because it was so remote.

"It's comforting to know that there is a place on Earth so isolated that it remains the absolute realm of wild nature," said expedition leader Bruce Beehler. "We were pleased to see that this little piece of Eden remains as pristine and enchanting as it was when we first visited."

Writers strike may herd viewers online forever

The Associated Press

TORONTO -- The most stunning TV moment of 2007 was arguably the painfully ambivalent ending of the bloody mob drama "The Sopranos," yet it was the prospect of traditional television viewing habits getting permanently whacked that was causing nightmares for those across the industry.

Many are nervous that as the Hollywood screenwriters strike drags on and the airwaves become inundated with reruns and tiresome reality shows, TV fans will leave forever and find their entertainment elsewhere - on the Internet, via DVDs, playing state-of-the-art video games on slick gaming consoles or fiddling with their iPods, cellphones and BlackBerrys.

"You've got a real possibility of people going to the Internet or the PlayStation. There are so many other options nowadays for people to get their entertainment," television historian Wesley Hughes, author of "The Soap Opera Encyclopedia," has said.

Some liken the situation to the viewer exodus that occurred during the O.J. Simpson trial in the mid-1990s, when daytime serials lost eight million viewers as the spotlight shone on the former football great. Those viewers never returned and soap operas never fully recovered.

Canadian observers agree that the longer the strike continues into 2008, the higher the likelihood that viewers will begin not only exploring other ways to amuse themselves, but will also start seeking out shows that were created solely for the web.

That's a scary prospect for the big American networks and advertisers since no one has quite figured out yet how to make big money off the Net. It's also one of the biggest issues at play in the dispute between writers and producers - writers want a piece of those Internet revenues.

"Television is being eroded very quickly, and the strike is simply highlighting that," says Gavin McGarry, a Toronto-based digital media consultant. "Content is always going to be king - people will always go where there's great content. The distribution platform is irrelevant."

Jill Golick, a Canadian screenwriter who has penned scripts for shows like CTV's "Instant Star," agrees that people are beginning to go elsewhere for their entertainment - but insists that television is far from dead. In fact, she says, the medium is in its artistic heyday.

"We are going to see a long, slow migration to seeing your entertainment over the Internet and through other sources. As the new product in the U.S. starts to peter out, people are going to start looking towards the Internet and they will investigate what's there, although I don't think the Internet product is ready for a mass audience," she says.

While there are some great online shows like "quarterlife," produced by the creators of "thirtysomething" and "My So-Called Life" and recently sold to NBC, there's also a lot of online dreck sponsored by companies like Tide and Tampax.

"The viewer will check some of the stuff out and some of it will dishearten them. We're in a situation like we were in the very early days of television where we don't quite know how to use this medium yet, nor is there enough talent in it yet," Golick says.

"Whereas TV is in this golden era where there is incredible talent producing incredible TV shows. What's happening on TV right now is too strong for people to walk away from permanently. Some people will leave, but I don't think the Internet is ready for them in terms of content."

So far, in the United States, the numbers appear to bear her out.

The media research firm Magna Global said in a recent report that the effect on TV viewing habits as a result of the strike so far has been imperceptible. The company's Steve Sternberg added that the notion that viewing habits will change drastically in the event of a prolonged strike is nonsense, in large part because reality shows - many of which draw huge ratings - aren't impacted by the dispute.

"Video streaming is currently a minor occurrence, and is primarily driven by new television content. The impact on TV viewing, even during a lengthy strike, will be negligible," he told the Hollywood Reporter.

But McGarry says shows like "quarterlife" could represent just the beginning of a new era of entertainment that will lure viewers away from their television sets - and adds that Canada is perfectly positioned to be at the forefront of that emerging trend.

"The problem with the Internet is that we haven't had a lot of our auteurs making content for the web," McGarry says. "We've been playing around with it for 10 years but we haven't had people with serious money to throw at it until the last 12 months or so."

Canadians, already the world's heaviest Internet users and highly sophisticated online connoisseurs, are beautifully positioned to capitalize on the changing tide, he says.

McGarry points to the success of the Canadian children's website Club Penguin (www.clubpenguin.com). The site was launched two years ago by a trio of dads from Kelowna, B.C. - Lane Merrifield, Dave Krysko and Lance Priebe - and sold this summer to Disney for a whopping $350 million. Club Penguin will become a part of Disney's expanding collection of virtual worlds.

"Canada is really leading the way - we are creating so many great properties that are being sold to the United States," McGarry says. "We're in a unique space right now. We can lead the world. If we really take the bull by the horns and start really marketing and making great content for the web, which we're already doing, and getting it to U.S. websites, we could really make some money."

Others say big-money advertisers - not producers and certainly not writers - will truly determine whether television as we know it lives or dies in the years to come.

"Madison Avenue is the star, and Madison Avenue is God in all this," says Andy Nulman, president of Airborne Entertainment, a Montreal-based company that produces content for mobile devices. "The advertising industry is the one that is going to be determining how and where we watch our TV, because it will all depend on where they can make the most money."

Nonetheless, Nulman says, TV is likely safe for now.

"Traditional TV will always find a niche. It's a mass medium and it will find shows to fit it, shows like 'American Idol' and 'The Super Bowl' and other big events. But the more quirky the population becomes and the more access they have to other media, the more opportunity there are for niches to be formed."

There's one rule of thumb, Nulman points out: the smaller the screen, the shorter the attention span. No one, he says, is going to want to watch a feature-length film on their iPod.

Golick agrees, and says she ran into that very problem while taking in "quarterlife."

"With 'quarterlife,' all they've done have is taken a TV show, made it shorter and thrown it on the Internet," she says. "But when I sit down at the computer or with a laptop, my fingers go to my keyboard, my hand is on my mouse - after a few minutes, I'm twitching and wanting to check my e-mail or go to another site."

Instead, Golick says, TV fans should take this opportunity to check out the wealth of quality shows that they missed during their initial runs either through on-demand channels or by buying DVDs of those programs.

"If I were to give advice to anyone during the strike, I'd say go out and look at anything you haven't seen in terms of what's been happening on HBO and Showcase and Lifetime, go look at what's going on with British series, and I would say check out the Canadian shows," she says. "The impact of the strike in the coming year, I think, is that we're going to see a lot of DVD-renting."

New tax breaks to boost local film, TV industry

Financial boost is 'absolutely fantastic news' for the city, shows Queen's Park serious about industry

Bruce DeMara
Entertainment Reporter
TheStar.com

Toronto's film and television industry is getting a boost just when it needs it the most.

With threats from a higher Canadian dollar and increased competition, industry insiders say Queen's Park's new tax breaks are a welcome indication that the provincial government is waking up to the importance of the industry to the Ontario economy.

Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan announced in his economic statement last week that the Ontario Film and Television Tax Credit – which benefits domestic producers – would increase from 30 to 35 per cent, and the Ontario Production Services Tax Credit – which benefits foreign production – would rise from 18 to 25 per cent.

Acting Toronto film commissioner Peter Finestone said the tax credit boost is "absolutely fantastic news" for the city, where about $500 million is spent anually in domestic productions alone. It will help it compete against other provinces that have been luring away jobs in recent years.

"We're not slow to blame or criticize when we're not happy with what they (government) do. So it's a delight to be able to say that they got this one right," said Karl Pruner, president of the Toronto chapter of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists.

"It sends a very clear message to all of our foreign producers that the government is listening and that they are taking the industry very seriously. That is a comfort because ... the film and television industry is a very, very significant part of the Ontario economy," he added.

The Canadian dollar's rise to $1.10 (U.S.) earlier this year – before settling in at around par – sent "a big scare" throughout the film and television industry, Pruner said.

The move comes just in time for FilmPort, a massive new film studio complex on the Toronto waterfront set to open March 31, said president Ken Ferguson.

"It couldn't have come at a better time for us," said Ferguson, noting U.S. studios make critical decisions about film production in January and February.

Veteran movie producer Don Carmody also called the beefed-up tax credits a "good thing."

"It shows foresight on the part of the provincial government to realize with the high Canadian dollar and the enhanced competition from virtually every U.S. state ... for this business that they had to do something," said Carmody, who spearheaded bringing production of 2002 Oscar-winner Chicago to Toronto.

Projects like FilmPort "need all the help that they can get and to get them established is going to take some doing," Carmody said.

At the same time, Carmody noted, the federal government still has in place a policy, known in the film industry as "the grind," which in effect reduces the federal tax credit when provincial governments increase theirs.

"It's great of the McGuinty government and it's unfortunate of the Harper government that one hand giveth and the other hand taketh away," Carmody said.

"This is all something we've been after the feds to drop for years."

Top Japanese government official says UFOs 'definitely' exist

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TOKYO - Japan's top government spokesman says, perhaps a little tongue in cheek, that he believes in UFOs.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura made the remark while speaking to reporters today. Machimura was delivering the government's official response to an opposition legislator who is demanding an inquiry into what he says are "frequent reports of UFO sightings."

Machimura quoted the government statement as saying birds and other objects are often spotted near aircraft.

But he says there have been no confirmed sightings of unidentified flying objects from outer space.

Still, "I definitely believe they exist," Machimura added as reporters erupted in laughter.

© The Canadian Press, 2007

Government stand on intellectual property: Lots of talk, little action

Scott Valentine
CBC News

During its Oct. 16, 2007, throne speech, Stephen Harper's Conservative government said it "will support Canadian researchers and innovators in developing new ideas and bringing them to the marketplace.... Our government will improve the protection of cultural and intellectual property rights in Canada."

That kind of talk is exciting, because it hints at a plan for Canada's under-supported innovations community. But there are a number of hurdles to clear before the Harper government can deliver on its promise to put Canadian innovators on even footing with their contemporaries in the United States and elsewhere.

"It would be a lot simpler if we could look out at a uniform set of policies," says Ilse Treurnicht, CEO of Toronto's MaRS Discovery District, a non-profit corporation that works to accelerate the commercialization of IP (intellectual property) by networking innovators with venture capitalists, scientists and business people.

"Universities and government research facilities all have varying policies regarding IP," she says. "So whenever an innovator at one of these facilities has something worth commercializing ? it's 'let's make a deal.' "

University and government IP policies vary wildly. In some cases, the innovator may have almost no ownership rights, and therefore little incentive to try and commercialize their work.

"That's really part of the problem in Canada," says Marie Lussier, president of the Canadian Association of Business Incubators. "Every university here does things differently. The policies are so varied ? even different federal labs have varying ways of looking at IP."

In the United States, the 1980s Bayh-Dole Act outlines a clear set of rules determining IP ownership early in the process of federally funded innovation. But in Canada, there is no set method for transferring technological research and knowledge from public institutions. In other words, there are few rules governing and protecting the process of getting immature intellectual property out of the lab and safely into a commercial environment that will nurture it and turn it into a marketable product.

That's less a policy gap than it is a resourcing issue, according to Treurnicht. "The idea with transfer is to capture and manage IP in a way that's accessible to partners."

She adds that the success or failure of IP commercialization is often tied to the quality of the transfer experience. "It depends on the quality of the individual transfer office, the experience of the people there, the commitment to commercialization," she says. "If an individual IP owner has to take that all on, it's a good way to kill the whole process of commercialization."

Another glaring hole in Canada's approach to IP ownership is its lack of support for private innovators, some observers say.

In the United States, the Bayh-Dole Act provides an incentive to private business to contribute to and develop IP. The most common example is how the legislation encourages and enables small and medium-sized enterprise (SMEs) to register and develop new IP.

"There's a lot of grey area around what's really IP in Canada," says Dino Bozzo, president of Konverge, a Toronto-based SME that builds custom business solutions for its clients. "We've been down the IP and patent road (as an SME). It's a lot of lawyers, a lot of time and a lot of money."

And since Konverge is a commercial entity, the company doesn't qualify for any of the transfer, investment or incubation services available to university or government researchers in Canada.

"SMEs make up about 95 per cent of the businesses in Canada, but they receive less than 5 per cent of the tech incubation money that's available," Lussier says.

As a result, private sector innovators like Konverge are at a direct disadvantage to similar companies in the United States that start off with clear ownership incentives under Bayh-Dole.

"The idea of incubating IP is barely 25 years old here; in the U.S., it's closer to 60," Lussier says. "For whatever reason, they seem to have grasped the importance of SMEs down south better than we have."

While reaction among Canadian technology and IP watchers to the Conservative throne speech has been cautiously optimistic, burning questions remain about the government's ability to deliver on its promise to build and bolster the innovations business in the country.

"Get a formal IP agreement, and you'll have more success," Lussier says. "The problem is that there is nobody at the federal level that's playing the role of champion."

Weeks after the Conservative throne speech, government officials contacted by CBCnews.ca were unable to shed any light on the Harper government's plan to clarify the muddied landscape of Canadian IP ownership. Staff at the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, which registers all IP and patents in Canada, said: "We have no jurisdiction over that."

And a spokesperson for Industry Minister Jim Prentice said Industry Canada has "no role" in revising the intellectual property rights of Canadian innovators.

Which raises the question: If no one at the federal level is responsible for driving the Harper government's proposed renaissance of Canadian innovation, exactly how is anything going to change?

Treurnicht says Canadian innovators can't wait for the government to get a comprehensive framework together.

"This is a complicated and painful process," she says. "Clear and transparent IP ownership from Day 1 is desirable?. We need experienced negotiators at the table and a way to distribute proceeds that encourages entrepreneurial behaviour.

"As a country, it's critical that we get better at this process."

New annual record for home sales

(CBC) - Real estate sales in the country's major markets have set a new annual record, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA).

The association says 345,577 resale homes were bought and sold in the first 11 months of the year. That breaks the previous annual record of 336,646 set in 2005.

The average resale price in 24 major markets last month was $332,807. That's a rise of 11.6 per cent from a year earlier.

Saskatchewan's two biggest cities were again home to the biggest percentage gains.

In Saskatoon, the average resale home sold for $251,202 in November. That's up 50 per cent from the previous November. Regina's increase of 41.3 per cent put it in second place. The average home in the provincial capital sold for $174,444 last month.

Vancouver's real estate continues to be the priciest in the country, with an average resale price of $577,219. That amounts to an 11.2 per cent increase year-over-year.

The formerly red-hot real estate markets in Calgary and Edmonton showed more signs of cooling. Edmonton's average resale price in November was $325,060 - down $22,600 from October. But that still leaves prices in the Alberta capital 15.1 per cent above last year.

Calgary's average resale home sold for $408,638 last month - up 13.3 per cent year-over-year. The number of sales in both Calgary and Edmonton slid by double-digits from November 2006.

Sales in Newfoundland and Labrador, on the other hand, were booming - up 67.9 per cent year-over-year. "It appears a series of announcements about the east coast oil industry has fuelled consumer confidence and home buyer sentiment in Newfoundland," said CREA chief economist Gregory Klump.

Record average prices were posted in Victoria, Kitchener-Waterloo, Montreal and Quebec City, CREA said.

Thunder Bay, Ont., St. Catharines, Ont., and Windsor, Ont., were the only three cities to record price declines over the past year.

The average home in Thunder Bay sold for $119,822 last month - a drop of 8.2 per cent from last year. St. Catharines' average resale price in November fell 0.6 per cent from the previous November to $208,546. Windsor's average slid 4.2 per cent to $160,160.

CREA's figures are based on sales through the Multiple Listing Service system

China-Canada trade pattern shifting

ROMA LUCIW
Globe and Mail

China's rapid industrialization has seen its appetite for Canadian imports shift to wood, metals and other raw materials from wheat, which dominated the roster a decade ago.

Wheat was Canada's largest export to China in 1997, accounting for nearly 19 per cent of the value of overall exports, according to a Statistics Canada report released Friday. But by 2004-06, wheat's share had dropped to just 6 per cent and it had disappeared from the top ten list of Canadian exports to China.

Bruce Burnett, director of weather and crop surveillance at the Canadian Wheat Board, said the Chinese government has moved aggressively to curb the country's dependence on all foreign-grown wheat, including Canada's.

Ten years ago, China was the second-largest buyer of Canadian wheat, with bulk shipments reaching 1.7 million tonnes, he said. By 2005-06, shipments to China had shrunk to 160,000 tonnes.

“China used to be a significant customer of Canadian wheat,” Mr. Burnett said. “In the last decade, the Chinese have increased their own internal wheat production and improved the quality of their wheat, so they have become much less reliant on imports.”

Instead, exports to China have experienced rapid growth in the value of Canadian wood pulp, organic compounds, nickel products, copper and metal ores. Shipments of machinery and equipment, as well as vehicle parts, have also risen.

Peter Hall, deputy chief economist at Export Development Canada, said China's rapid development has created a massive manufacturing sector that needs raw Canadian goods for the production process.

“China is moving up the value chain, so, in terms of what it consumes,” Mr. Hall said. He noted that rising levels of Chinese personal wealth have increased demand for Canadian vehicles and parts, a market that will only grow.

Overall Canadian trade with China surged nearly fivefold to $42.1-billion last year from $8.7-billion in 1997, Statscan said. China has been Canada's No. 2 trading partner since 2003 when it surpassed the United Kingdom and Japan.

China accounted for 5 per cent of Canada's overall world trade in 2006, up from 1.5 per cent a decade earlier. The United States is still Canada's largest trading partner, although trade with our southern neighbour has dropped to 68.9 per cent in 2006 from 75 per cent in 1997.

China's arrival as a major economic, export and consumer powerhouse has triggered a resource boom, raised global commodity prices and increased demand for Canada's vast natural resources. Although Canadian shipments of goods to China have taken off in the early part of this year, Canada still imports far more from China than it exports.

Imports from China were five times higher in 2006 than in 1997, while exports to the country tripled, the report said. As a result, Canada's trade deficit with China has expanded to $26.8-billion last year from $3.9-billion.

Chinese machinery - which includes computers, hand tools, refrigerators and hand tools - rose from the No. 4 spot ten years to emerge as the largest Canadian import in 2006, making up 20.8 per cent of the overall total. Imports of made-in-China electronic sound equipment, toys and furniture also picked up in the last decade.

“A significant part of Canada-China trade can be related to the globalization of production,” said Jafar Khondaker, the Statscan researcher who wrote the report. He noted the increasing prevalence of two-way trade of the same commodity groups between the two countries.

As of last year, two-way trade accounted for more than 45 per cent of exports and 57 per cent of imports. The types of goods the two countries are exchanging include organic and inorganic chemicals, plastic and rubber materials, iron and steel, industrial and agricultural machinery and equipment, electronics, automotive equipment and parts, optical, photo, medical and surgical instruments, wood products, paper and paperboard and fish products.

A national TV dream, in High Def

GRANT ROBERTSON
Globe and Mail

Canada's television landscape could be on the verge of its biggest shakeup in years if a bid to launch a new national network – broadcasting from coast to coast in high definition – is approved by federal regulators in early 2008.

Details of an application by HDTV Networks Inc., a company backed by fast food and satellite radio investor John Bitove, were made public Thursday by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).

With eight cities on its proposed roster, the network would vault itself into the role of Canada's third-largest commercial TV network after CTV and Global, if it were to get approval.

It is the first time in recent memory investors have sought to start a national conventional broadcaster from scratch.

Through the decades, Canada's major networks have been built through a patchwork of mergers, licence applications and takeovers.

Hearings on the bid are set for Feb. 11, along with a separate proposal from Toronto-based start-up Yes TV Ltd., which wants to launch a single high-definition station in that market.

If successful, HDTV Networks could be operating in 18 to 24 months, executive vice-president Stewart Lyons said in an interview.

The network would be based in Vancouver with a national newscast that draws upon contributions from its other seven markets. To save costs, there wouldn't be local newscasts in each of those cities. It would buy programming the major networks aren't focusing on, including Canadian productions and lesser-known foreign shows, he said.

“It's a fairly lean fighting machine,” Mr. Lyons said. “There's been some consolidation in conventional broadcasting and that leaves opportunities.”

The company has pledged to sell only national advertising, in an attempt to ease regulatory concerns about increasing competition for local ad dollars at a time when conventional TV margins are shrinking.

Yes TV has applied to operate a high-definition network in Toronto and the two companies will be competing bidders for a licence in that city, which may signal the CRTC doesn't consider the market robust enough to allow two new local channels.

With Quebecor Inc.'s Sun TV channel struggling in Toronto, the CRTC has concerns about further saturating the market.

Yes TV president Ryan Sutherland couldn't be reached for comment Thursday, however documents indicate the company has secured $6-million in financing, including access to $5-million in debt.HDTV Networks has access to $100-million of equity and $200-million of debt.

With eight cities, including Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver, the operation would be bigger than Rogers Communications Inc.'s CITY-TV network, CTVglobemedia's A Channel and CanWest Global Communications Corp.'s E! network.

The CRTC put out a call for applications in June after Mr. Bitove's group applied for the licence last December. The regulator is actively encouraging more HD content in Canada as the broadcast industry shifts to digital formats. The channel would be available to viewers in analog format as well.

Mr. Bitove's other companies include Canadian Satellite Radio Holdings Inc., operator of the XM Canada service, and Priszm Income Fund, which owns and operates 484 KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and Long John Silver's restaurants.

He has been looking to get into the television business and was an interested bidder this summer for CITY-TV, before CTVglobemedia sold the five-station network to Rogers.

The bid could face opposition from media guilds concerned about the lack of local newscasts. But Mr. Lyons hopes said he's hoping the production industry will back the proposal.“They're looking for another door to knock on, so we're expecting a fair bit of support from those groups,” he said.

Kwan goes Sundancing again

Craig Takeuchi
Straight.com

Local director Julia Kwan's work is returning to Park City, Utah, for the next Sundance Film Festival (January 17 to 27). Last year, she won the special jury prize for world cinema, plus a slew of other awards, for her debut feature Eve and the Fire Horse . This year, her short film Smile, about a Chinese Canadian family attending a department store portrait photography session in the '80s, is one of five Canadian shorts to be shown at the festival.

Congress seeks to delay border security rule

Devlin Barrett, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Congress is trying to further delay a new security rule requiring passports at all American border crossings next year.

Lawmakers say they hope to avoid a repeat of last summer's vacation-killing backlog of passport applications in the U.S. They say that under a major end-of-the-year spending bill to be voted on this week, the border passport rule would be moved back even further, to no earlier than June 1, 2009.

The Bush administration says it opposes the measure and still plans to go forward with implementing the planned passport rule next summer.

The Canadian government has been lobbying against the passport requirement, over fears it could hurt tourism and slow up cross-border commerce.

Earlier this year, U.S. officials put the first phase of its plan into effect, requiring Canadians, U.S. travellers and other visitors travelling by plane to carry a passport.

© The Canadian Press, 2007

'Mountain' of confiscated goods to be displayed at Pearson Airport

TORONTO - Pearson International Airport is bracing for another hectic holiday season and thousands of travellers.

Many of them will inadvertently try to bring aboard banned items, so the airport is putting a "mountain" of seized items on display Tuesday to raise awareness.

The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority says upwards of 600,000 banned items are seized per week at the country's largest airport.

Those items include gels, aerosols and liquids and other materials that are now banned under new airport security regulations.

Tuesday's show-and-tell is aimed at reminding travellers that banned items can cause lengthy delays at the airport during the busy holiday season.

In June, airport officials displayed a wide range of confiscated goods, including a bag full of elephant manure and a skinned monkey.

© The Canadian Press, 2007

Will the Internet lure viewers from TV permanently amid writers strike?

Lee-Anne Goodman, THE CANADIAN PRESS
TORONTO - The most stunning TV moment of 2007 was arguably the painfully ambivalent ending of the bloody mob drama "The Sopranos," yet it was the prospect of traditional television viewing habits getting permanently whacked that was causing nightmares for those across the industry.

Many are nervous that as the Hollywood screenwriters strike drags on and the airwaves become inundated with reruns and tiresome reality shows, TV fans will leave forever and find their entertainment elsewhere - on the Internet, via DVDs, playing state-of-the-art video games on slick gaming consoles or fiddling with their iPods, cellphones and BlackBerrys.

"You've got a real possibility of people going to the Internet or the PlayStation. There are so many other options nowadays for people to get their entertainment," television historian Wesley Hughes, author of "The Soap Opera Encyclopedia," has said.

Some liken the situation to the viewer exodus that occurred during the O.J. Simpson trial in the mid-1990s, when daytime serials lost eight million viewers as the spotlight shone on the former football great. Those viewers never returned and soap operas never fully recovered.

Canadian observers agree that the longer the strike continues into 2008, the higher the likelihood that viewers will begin not only exploring other ways to amuse themselves, but will also start seeking out shows that were created solely for the web.

That's a scary prospect for the big American networks and advertisers since no one has quite figured out yet how to make big money off the Net. It's also one of the biggest issues at play in the dispute between writers and producers - writers want a piece of those Internet revenues.

"Television is being eroded very quickly, and the strike is simply highlighting that," says Gavin McGarry, a Toronto-based digital media consultant. "Content is always going to be king - people will always go where there's great content. The distribution platform is irrelevant."

Jill Golick, a Canadian screenwriter who has penned scripts for shows like CTV's "Instant Star," agrees that people are beginning to go elsewhere for their entertainment - but insists that television is far from dead. In fact, she says, the medium is in its artistic heyday.

"We are going to see a long, slow migration to seeing your entertainment over the Internet and through other sources. As the new product in the U.S. starts to peter out, people are going to start looking towards the Internet and they will investigate what's there, although I don't think the Internet product is ready for a mass audience," she says.

While there are some great online shows like "quarterlife," produced by the creators of "thirtysomething" and "My So-Called Life" and recently sold to NBC, there's also a lot of online dreck sponsored by companies like Tide and Tampax.

"The viewer will check some of the stuff out and some of it will dishearten them. We're in a situation like we were in the very early days of television where we don't quite know how to use this medium yet, nor is there enough talent in it yet," Golick says.

"Whereas TV is in this golden era where there is incredible talent producing incredible TV shows. What's happening on TV right now is too strong for people to walk away from permanently. Some people will leave, but I don't think the Internet is ready for them in terms of content."

So far, in the United States, the numbers appear to bear her out.

The media research firm Magna Global said in a recent report that the effect on TV viewing habits as a result of the strike so far has been imperceptible. The company's Steve Sternberg added that the notion that viewing habits will change drastically in the event of a prolonged strike is nonsense, in large part because reality shows - many of which draw huge ratings - aren't impacted by the dispute.

"Video streaming is currently a minor occurrence, and is primarily driven by new television content. The impact on TV viewing, even during a lengthy strike, will be negligible," he told the Hollywood Reporter.

But McGarry says shows like "quarterlife" could represent just the beginning of a new era of entertainment that will lure viewers away from their television sets - and adds that Canada is perfectly positioned to be at the forefront of that emerging trend.

"The problem with the Internet is that we haven't had a lot of our auteurs making content for the web," McGarry says. "We've been playing around with it for 10 years but we haven't had people with serious money to throw at it until the last 12 months or so."

Canadians, already the world's heaviest Internet users and highly sophisticated online connoisseurs, are beautifully positioned to capitalize on the changing tide, he says.

McGarry points to the success of the Canadian children's website Club Penguin (www.clubpenguin.com). The site was launched two years ago by a trio of dads from Kelowna, B.C. - Lane Merrifield, Dave Krysko and Lance Priebe - and sold this summer to Disney for a whopping $350 million. Club Penguin will become a part of Disney's expanding collection of virtual worlds.

"Canada is really leading the way - we are creating so many great properties that are being sold to the United States," McGarry says. "We're in a unique space right now. We can lead the world. If we really take the bull by the horns and start really marketing and making great content for the web, which we're already doing, and getting it to U.S. websites, we could really make some money."

Others say big-money advertisers - not producers and certainly not writers - will truly determine whether television as we know it lives or dies in the years to come.

"Madison Avenue is the star, and Madison Avenue is God in all this," says Andy Nulman, president of Airborne Entertainment, a Montreal-based company that produces content for mobile devices. "The advertising industry is the one that is going to be determining how and where we watch our TV, because it will all depend on where they can make the most money."

Nonetheless, Nulman says, TV is likely safe for now.

"Traditional TV will always find a niche. It's a mass medium and it will find shows to fit it, shows like 'American Idol' and 'The Super Bowl' and other big events. But the more quirky the population becomes and the more access they have to other media, the more opportunity there are for niches to be formed."

There's one rule of thumb, Nulman points out: the smaller the screen, the shorter the attention span. No one, he says, is going to want to watch a feature-length film on their iPod.

Golick agrees, and says she ran into that very problem while taking in "quarterlife."

"With 'quarterlife,' all they've done have is taken a TV show, made it shorter and thrown it on the Internet," she says. "But when I sit down at the computer or with a laptop, my fingers go to my keyboard, my hand is on my mouse - after a few minutes, I'm twitching and wanting to check my e-mail or go to another site."

Instead, Golick says, TV fans should take this opportunity to check out the wealth of quality shows that they missed during their initial runs either through on-demand channels or by buying DVDs of those programs.

"If I were to give advice to anyone during the strike, I'd say go out and look at anything you haven't seen in terms of what's been happening on HBO and Showcase and Lifetime, go look at what's going on with British series, and I would say check out the Canadian shows," she says. "The impact of the strike in the coming year, I think, is that we're going to see a lot of DVD-renting."

© The Canadian Press, 2007