Canadian Crossing

U.S. embassy issues Montreal travel warning due to student protests

The U.S. government has issued a warning to Montréal tourists about the student protests that have now gone on for more than 2 months. American tourists are advised about possible "unforeseen violence," "vandalism," and "arrests."

This story in itself is worthy of CanadianCrossing.com, but there is an added wrinkle. I am headed soon to Montréal on vacation.

I booked the trip before the protests started, and once the Canadiens didn't make the playoffs, I thought protests would be a non-issue.

Interestingly, the warning came out before the smoke bombs last week in the Metro.

One doesn't usually book a vacation in the hopes of seeing protests, unless one is protesting. This doesn't fall into a tourist must-see when traveling. Plenty of visitors are coming to Chicago this week for NATO and what would have been G8.

The good news is that these protests aren't directed at tourists, and we haven't seen stories of tourists being affected by the protests so far.

My advice, which I will literally take to heart, is this:

-- Know a second way to get where you are going. If you are going by train, know how to get around by bus.
-- Be patient and flexible. If you are staying for awhile, adjust your itinerary whenever possible if protests might interfere.
-- If you aren't going to be where the protests are (near the universities and downtown), take advantage of those opportunities.
-- Ask your concierge or hosts if they know more about where the protests might be.
-- Look like a local person. Wear a hat from a local sports team (Habs? Expos?). Okay, you might seem like a tourist wearing a local hat. So be ready to know something about the team or sport you are wearing.

Montréal also has to be concerned about visitors to the upcoming Grand Prix weekend of June 8-10, and summer festivals, especially comedy and jazz.

Should you not go to Montréal during this uncertain time? Well, I'm going. I will be smart about where I am going and keep my eyes and ears open. If nothing else, vacations are full of things and moments you can't see at home, and protests fit into that category.

Traveling is full of surprises: good and bad. Be flexible and enjoy what you can. Montréal has a lot to offer — even with a protest or two.

photo credit

2012 Stanley Cup notebook: Bob Cole to call Western Conference final for CBC

Bob Cole is going on the West side for the Stanley Cup conference final.

CBC is carrying the Eastern Conference final, which starts Monday either in New York or New Jersey, and Games 4-7 of the Western Conference final. Since Jim Hughson and Craig Simpson became the #1 team, they have worked the Western Conference final.

Given Cole's age (80) and home (Newfoundland), he doesn't normally travel that far, though he did a Canadiens game in Los Angeles this season. Once Cole is on the West Coast, going from Los Angeles to Phoenix is a relative breeze.

The Canadian networks do their odd split once again for the conference finals. TSN will carry the first three games of the Phoenix-Los Angeles Western Conference final. Chris Cuthbert and Ray Ferraro will handle the call. Game 1 is in Phoenix on Sunday.

Those on the U.S. side of the border will have to rely on NBCSN for those games.

With the Internet speculation about Cole's pbp calls in the Stanley Cup coverage, some wondered whether the CBC would draft Mark Lee or Dean Brown to work with Garry Galley. At some point, the CBC needs to figure out who would be the next #2 pbp guy, regular season or postseason.

The other possible compromise would have been if Hughson and Simpson had called the first three games of the Eastern Conference series and then had gone out west, leaving the East for Cole and Galley. This would have been awkward, but a way to save face for Cole.

Stay tuned to CanadianCrossing.com and the Twitter feed for more details.

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Hard to know what to make of the Ron MacLean 9/11 references before Game 6 of the Washington-New York game. Everything the CBC does these days gets a lot of grief, and MacLean did apologize for his choice of words. On American soil, the tragedy has reached demagogue status, mourning the loss of life without much thought to preventing it or dealing with the after effect of those first responders.

Too many politicians, mostly Republican, wrapped themselves in the flag and flag pins and didn't help those who suffered as a result of helping others on that day. And did little to punish those who had some idea this was coming.

Compared to that, what MacLean did wasn't nearly as offensive. But if you disagree, I get that.

Though MacLean, and his sidekick, Don Cherry can't be accused of not supporting troops, firefighters, and police officers.

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The Saturday night Hockey Night in Canada slot had the potential to be Too Much Hockey in the United States. The brilliant plan for Game 7 was to run both of the Eastern Conference semifinals 30 minutes apart on Saturday night.

Of course, the New Jersey Devils prevented that scenario.

For the U.S. outlets, NBCSN would have carried one game (Rangers-Capitals) and CNBC would have carried the other game (Flyers-Devils). CBC has both series and Canadian fans would have been left scrambling in that scenario.

CBC could have traded one of those games to TSN for a game in the conference final. Last spring, when the CBC traded a game to TSN on Election Night, the CBC just lost that game.

In previous years, the U.S. outlets would have had more trouble. NBC wouldn't jump in and show a game, even in the deathbed that is OTA on Saturday night, and CNBC only started being an outlet this year.

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Another tentative deal that will keep the Coyotes in Phoenix.

We've seen that as many times as Jack Nicholson's character types the same phrase over and over in "The Shining."

The NHL is filled with teams that could use a change of scenery: Dallas, Columbus, New York Islanders, Nashville, Florida, and Phoenix. The only one that makes Gary Bettman more passionate to justify his decision is Phoenix. The fact that the NHL owns the Coyotes and the Canadian teams are supporting the losses of the 'Yotes makes Bettman's position even more exasperating.

As the Phoenix Coyotes have made their way to the Western Conference Final against the Los Angeles Kings, a Disney movie script writer wouldn't believe a scenario where the 'Yotes get to stay in Phoenix only if they win the Stanley Cup.

Quebec has more than earned a right to one of these teams. The 'Yotes deserve to be that team, since the Atlanta legacy will take awhile to wear off in Winnipeg.

Seattle, Kansas City, and Hamilton, Ontario have good arguments, better arguments than the ones in Columbus, Nashville, Florida, and Phoenix. But if Quebec doesn't have a team in the fall of 2012, then the owners need to ask themselves what Bettman is doing for them by remaining in the desert.

Lone Canadian on U.S. Death Row deserves better from Harper government

If the United States didn't believe in the death penalty (I know, a real stretch) and an American was sentenced to death in another country, should the U.S. government fight for the right for its citizen to still be punished, but not with the death penalty?

Canada doesn't believe in the death penalty; the United States does (duh!). And a growing number of Canadians are wondering why the Harper government isn't fighting harder to get the one remaining Canadian on Death Row off that list.

Ronald A. Smith's guilt or innocence isn't up for dispute; he has admitted to killing two cousins in Montana in 1983. And Smith is asking for a commutation to life in prison without the possibility of parole, so freedom isn't the issue.

This story is filled with odd quirks. Smith requested the death penalty at the time and turned down a plea that would have kept him off Death Row. In 2007, the Harper government announced that it would not fight to keep Smith off of Death Row, but in 2012, a representative of the Harper government was prepared to read an enthusiastic statement on behalf of Smith's commutation.

Smith's lawyers were unhappy at the last minute when the woman from the Canadian Consulate General in Denver, was going to read an enthusiastic statement on behalf of the Harper government. At the last minute, they were told she had to read the original statement that was far less enthusiastic.

Before the Harper government took power, Canada had a policy of fighting for its citizens who were sentenced to the death penalty. You get the impression from listening to the news that the Harper government doesn't fight much for its citizens behind bars in other countries, especially in instances where innocence is seriously up for dispute.

Arguing against its citizens being put to death shouldn't make a government look weak. Standing up for your citizens is something government is good at doing.

Ultimately, the fate of Smith will rest with Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D), who is leaving the office at the end of the year.

State of the Canadian NHL teams is not strong

Every U.S. president, Republican or Democratic, always says that the State of the Union is strong, even when it's not. No president can't say it's weak; just can't happen. When it comes to the State of Canadian teams in the NHL, we will say what needs to be said.

Canada may have 8 teams in the 30-team NHL by the time the puck drops, though this year that might not be in early October.

Television

If the Canadian teams were better on the ice, and still getting ignored by U.S. television, we would have a much stronger case of bias. We saw the way the Florida Panthers were treated by U.S. TV in this year's playoffs, treatment usually reserved for Canadian teams.

Ottawa proved on the ice that the team deserves more U.S. exposure. But Ottawa is seen as a lesser market, meaning not as well known as Toronto, Montréal, and Vancouver. When NBC's #1 crew called Game 7 Ottawa Senators, that would have been their first Senators game since Game 5 of the 2007 Stanley Cup finals.

The Senators get lost in the shuffle since they don't get much national exposure on Hockey Night in Canada, a major gateway for U.S. TV.

Speaking of Hockey Night in Canada, the NHL Network never explained its decision to stop running the second half of Hockey Night in Canada. Even if it was tape-delayed and occasionally censored, the programming brought teams to U.S. eyeballs that weren't otherwise seen. And the "After Hours" feature was a nice insight into CBC's coverage of hockey and a more human side to players, coaches, and yes broadcasters that seemed perfect for the NHL Network. So the move is still puzzling.

The loss of "After Hours" to Americans who couldn't even access the feature online was even more of a headshaker. We see the U.S. outlets add more hockey than ever before, somewhat at the expense of Canadian teams and Canadian features.

The NHL Network also proved to be inconsistent on which early HNIC games to carry, going out of its way to not show Winnipeg or Ottawa in a prime-time setting. Even the Maple Leafs suffered as the channel focused more on Montréal telecasts. This was made easier now that CBC shows Habs games in HD, but harder in that the Canadiens had a worse season than Toronto.

While more Canadian coverage may return when the teams get better, next year might be the time to break out NHL Center Ice. Though I feel like my cable company owes me a partial refund for the NHL Network not doing what it was intended to do: Show the teams not cool enough for NBCSN.

The news wasn't all bad. Vancouver Canucks fans got a few TSN simulcasts toward the end of the season on NBCSN. While this didn't make up for the loss of Canucks games on CBC (on the NHL Network), the trend of late-night sim subs on NBCSN would be welcome. The channel even carried live late-night games on Saturday night, something the NHL Network has refused to do since it carried live HNIC late games in the U.S. cable channel's first season.

The worst casualties of the loss of late HNIC to U.S. viewers were the Alberta twins, Calgary and Edmonton. The St. Louis Blues had more NBCSN telecasts in the final week of the regular season (2) than those Western Canada teams were shown live (1) on any U.S. national TV outlet.

Even though Vancouver won back-to-back Presidents Trophies, we don't expect their visibility to increase, unless the NHL Network brings back late HNIC games. After coming one game short of winning the Cup, Vancouver had two-NBCSN produced telecasts the whole season, and one of those were Opening Night. Being eliminated in the first round won't make that number jump.

6 of the 12 postseason games were played on Canadian soil. NBC sent a crew to 5 of the 6 games in Canada, which has to be a record. Given who they sent, American viewers would have been better off to have CBC simulcasts, but the fact that they weren't afraid to go to Canada is a good sign, sort of.

On the Ice

Montréal, Calgary, and Edmonton (likely) will have new coaches next year. Toronto is still trying out its new head coach. The coaching situation in Ottawa, Vancouver, and Winnipeg isn't the problem.

Tom Renney might get replaced by Brent Sutter, who left the Flames in a meh scenario. Sutter wasn't fired nor did he quit. Meh!

Ironically, the other Sutter these days ended up kicking the Los Angeles Kings in the butt. Without Darryl Sutter, Vancouver advances to the second round.

As good as Ottawa was this year compared to expectations, being 8th gets you an invitation but not much else. Toronto, Calgary, and Winnipeg/Atlanta are very good 10th place teams. As the NHL is teaching us, your team should really be good enough to be a 6th place team, and the Maple Leafs, Flames, and Jets are there.

This was Montréal's worst showing since B&W television or maybe even radio. Anyway, the Canadiens can bounce back IF a new coach and GM shakes things up. But they may not have the talent to be up to 6th place. The Habs showed us what they can do by overachieving in 2010, but to Montréal fans, 2010 seems so far away.

Vancouver may/may not trade a goalie, but this team needs to fill a few minor holes, like a 2nd line scoring center. You have to score a lot of goals to win a Presidents Trophy, but this team has struggled to score in the postseason. A healthy Ryan Kesler next year will help; if Kesler had the shoulder surgery he apparently needs, then the Canucks might not have traded Cody Hodgson and Vancouver would still be playing.

Ottawa proved that you can do well with youth, something Edmonton had to notice. No team has more exciting talent than the Oilers, but the team is "tired" of getting top picks.

Gary Bettman tried to fix the Winnipeg situation, and Donald Fehr, looking to show his (fading) masculinity, said no. So short of a last-second miracle (Phoenix Coyotes to Quebec City), the Jets will have to contend with playing divisional games in Miami, Tampa Bay, Washington, and Raleigh. Winnipeg will benefit more from playing in the same division as Minnesota, Chicago, and St. Louis.

Will Calgary shake things up by trading Jarome Iginla and Miikka Kiprusoff? Haven't we asked that question for several years?

The Flames don't want to trade those players, and they can't get enough firepower to jump into the bottom tier of the Western Conference playoffs pile. You can't find finer athletes and human beings than Iginla and Kiprusoff. Trading them in a summer with a potential labor dispute will be next to impossible. The Flames are screwed for awhile if they trade them and if they don't trade them; what fans want to know is which is the quicker path back to playoff contention.

If the 'Yotes do have to learn French, the team will be an automatic contender in the capital of La Belle Province. Though Shane Doan might not make the trip to Quebec. If, a big if, that happens, we will assess that move when the team is safely across the border and not a moment before.

State of Canadian teams

The state of the Canadian teams is not strong. Vancouver might not think it's very strong, but the team is the strongest among the Canadian entries. Ottawa is the second strongest by default, but would have to overcome the potential loss of Daniel Alfredsson and filling a hole or two and hoping Erik Karlsson isn't a one-hit wonder. Toronto, Winnipeg, and Calgary are perennial 10th place teams playing like they are in the NHL of the mid-1990s where you can sort of coast to the playoffs.

A return of the Nordiques to Quebec should give Montréal a kick in the pants to step it up. And Edmonton also needs to find out what kind of team it wants to be. The Senators should inspire the Oilers that you can win with youth if you do it right.

The Montréal Canadiens will celebrate 20 years without the Stanley Cup, and that team has the shortest streak without the Cup among Canadian franchises. This year, no Canadian team made it to the second round. If this doesn't inspire some improvement among the Canadian-based teams, we don't know what will work. Having Phoenix or Nashville raise the Stanley Cup?

'iCarly' hits Canada in search of Canadian Fat Cakes

No matter what you've heard on "iCarly," you can bring processed baked goods from Canada into the United States.

Then again, even if you are a part of the "iCarly" demographic, hopefully you know that the Canadian Fat Cakes episode was just a spoof.

The popular Nickelodeon TV show took Fat Cakes, one of their running jokes, and adapted an episode where Sam, who is obsessed about Fat Cakes and has never had a Canadian fat cake, gets a chance to tour a plant in Canada where they make Canadian fat cakes. Fat cakes in Canada taste better because they are made with "cane fat" while American Fat Cakes are made with "corn fat."

Processed baked goods are well within the rules of what you can bring back from Canada into the United States. Trust me, I've brought back Canadian versions of Twinkies, Ding Dongs, and Cup Cakes. The customs officers think they're more funny than dangerous.

Since the show mentions Seattle, the inference is that the cast went to Vancouver or somewhere nearby in southwestern Britian Columbia.

Besides the actual ability to bring back processed baked goods, one other glaring misstep in the script was that Sam didn't have her passport when she tries to go back across the border to the United States. Sam would have needed a passport to get into Canada. She seems surprised about this when she gets to the border. Especially since this was a day trip, Sam would have had this issue come up earlier in the day.

For more from the food perspective, check out this edition of "Temptation of the Week" from our sister blog, BalanceofFood.com.

photo credit: iCarly

Windsor Hum is a real issue on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border

While the Windsor Hum is louder on the Canadian side of the border, the noise about the noise is getting louder in American media circles.

The Wall Street Journal reported on the phenomena. This take from ABC News portrays Canadians as hearing things.

The Windsor Hum has been going on from some time. The likely source is on the American side at Zug Island. The problem is that those on the Canadian side can't get those on the American side to investigate.

Reports have ranged from a low murmur to rattling and shaking.

In my trips to Windsor, I personally have not experienced this occurrence. However, with the number of complaints, you have to realize something is going on.

Audio scientists could explain why those on the Canadian side are hearing the noise, but not on the American side. Despite the snide take by the U.S. media outlets, Canadians don't hear any better than Americans and their ears work the same way. This could be as simple as the dynamics of where the sound comes from, or that more Canadians live near the source of the sound than Americans do.

Chances are that Barack Obama and Stephen Harper haven't discussed the Windsor Hum. The Windsor area already feels ignored by Queen's Park (provincial capital in Toronto) and Ottawa (national capital). And Detroit, outside the auto industry, is ignored on the U.S. side. Still, someone should step in and find out the source of the noise, and if that can't be adjusted to give Americans and Canadians more peace of mind.

Quebec students fighting for access to education, not just tuition hikes

If you think Canadians are peace-loving people who don't protest — unless it's about hockey — you haven't been paying attention to Montréal for the last couple of months.

A core of students are protesting over upcoming tuition hike increases. Only recently have the protests become violent, and that has been the missing angle for those outside Canada to pay attention.

Quebec has the lowest tuition levels in Canada, and Canadians pay a lot less than Americans for college tuition.

What may surprise most Americans and even some Canadians is that the protests are over a hike that calls for an increase of $325 per year for five years. That's $1,625 — over 5 years. Quebec Premier Jean Charest has offered a concession to stretch the increase over 7 years — $232/year. Premier Charest has also offered more money for loans and similar programs. Those concessions haven't gone over terribly well.

Over a (now) 7-year period, Quebec tuition will go from $2,890 to $4,700 per year.

If you are an American college student, or has sent one through school lately, those numbers seem frighteningly small. Quebecers do pay more in taxes. After all, U.S. college students should be protesting tuition hikes and ROI.

The protest spirit and the philosophy toward government, education, and society is very different in Quebec than in the rest of Canada. The spirit ties more toward Europe, which is celebrating May Day today, a more elaborate variation of North America's Labo(u)r Day. Whereas Americans might think that paying a ton of money is what you need to do for a college education, Quebecers might think, "Why can't university education be free, covered by the tax system?"

Students are also protesting because of concerns that fewer people can afford a college education under the tuition hikes. And as a percentage of the total, we are talking about a 75% tuition increase. Compared to Americans, Quebecers appear to have a good deal, but if you are a Quebecer, that argument doesn't really work with your reality.

In the 21st century, education is the key to better jobs, more money, and a chance to improve the world around you. In the United States, we don't understand this idea enough. You might think those in Quebec understand it too much. The students in Quebec are standing up for a higher principle, and that is something we don't see enough of … on either side of the border.

'Colbert Report' riffs on Canadian currency

Iceland isn't going to switch to the Canadian loonie as its currency, but that didn't stop Stephen Colbert from going off on the idea on the "Colbert Report."

This time, Canadians are "poutine-sucking, health care addicted, nemesis to the North." Colbert notes that Canada is just jealous as they need their own version of Canadian bacon, Canadian beer, and Canadian baseball (hockey; go figure).

Colbert also talked about the new Canadian quarter with a dinosaur skeleton that glows in the dark. The creature is based on the first dinosaur fossil found in the Peace Country in northwestern Alberta.

He imagines himself as a child hoping to get his friends, Chip and Scott, and get their moms to drive them to Ontario this summer to get the quarters.

Colbert worries about losing the youth of the United States to the "scourge of Canadian politeness and fiscal sanity." Not too bad stereotypes, if you have to have stereotypes.

Colbert ties the dinosaur theme, noting that Canadians should keep their dinosaurs "liquified in your tar sands and pumped directly into our gas tanks."

The "Colbert Report" airs Monday-Thursday on the Comedy Channel and CTV in Canada and Comedy Central in the United States.

Alberta Wildrose Party comes up smaller than expected

Remember the woman with the big wheels and even bigger ideas? Well, despite the hype that the Wildrose Party received for its wheels/boobs on the side of its tour bus, the party made small increases. And the Progressive Conservatives retain a majority that it has had for the last 41 years.

Alberta is the most conservative province in Canada. So on the surface, the idea of a more conservative party would be interesting, mostly in rural areas. In Alberta, most of the population lives in Calgary, its largest city, and Edmonton, its capital. And by the voting results, the two large cities weren't willing to give away control from the PC Party.

Danielle Smith (left) got a lot of attention with the wheels as boobs on the side of her tour bus. And the party did go from 4 unelected seats to approximately 17 of the 87 seats in the provincial parliament.

This election marked the first time that two women had run major party campaigns in the province. This was Premier Alison Redford's first election shortly after becoming the head of the party. Danielle Smith is the opposition leader. Too bad a battle of two women had to be known mostly for this picture.

Previous: Danielle Smith, Alberta Wildrose Party gain attention for big 'wheels,' not big ideas

photo credit: Ed Kaiser/Postmedia News

Canada weakens food safety as part of Harper budget cuts

Especially with NAFTA, when a NAFTA member country cuts back on food safety, good results never come as a result.

In the Harper budget cuts, food safety takes a much sharper cut than other federal agencies. The memory of the listeriosis outbreak in 2008 is still fresh, even if the deli meat wasn't. 22 deaths and 35 serious illnesses resulted from the outbreak.

In the last Canadian federal election, the Conservatives promised $100 million more in spending over a 5-year period for food safety. Wonder how that will turn out.

How food safety became a political issue on both sides of the border is startling. Conservatives eat food just like liberals and others.

At least Canada has a federal agency — Canadian Food Inspection Agency — devoted to food safety. The U.S. can't even spare that as a concept, real or weak.

For more on this story, check out our perspective from our sister blog, BalanceofFood.com.