Thanks for posting about this. I am ashamed of my own government (Canada) for taking so long to bring Omar Khadr home, and for being almost forced to do so by the American justice system. I don't know how many of those prisoners are actually "terrorists", I suspect very few of them, but none of them deserve this kind of treatment.
I agree with Mr McKie that there are other factors at play. Looking at Canadian stats before and after the 1993 Firearm Registry Act came into effect, long gun homicides came down fairly dramatically but other forms of homicide went up. There was an overall decline in homicides, but that decline began in the 1970s and levelled out around 2003. The Harper government has recently revoked the Firearm Registry Act, it remains to be seen whether that will have an impact on gun use in crime stats.
Stricter control of guns will probably have a positive impact on homicides in the USA, but implementing that control will be difficult and complicated, as it has been in Canada. Probably more so, since you have a right-to-bear-arms ethos that Canada never did.
I am very much enjoying your translations of Omar Khayyam, but I don't get over here in time to catch them all. I don't suppose you could "tag" them so it would be easier to find them? Not that I don't get a lot out of your other posts, but the poetry is wonderful.
An American friend pointed out to me that as citizens of the greatest country in the world, Americans are not interested, nor do they need to be, in what goes on anywhere else. I guess if an American wants to learn geography, he/she joins the military.
In Canada, the death penalty was repealed IN SPITE OF the majority of voters being in favour of the death penalty. The government went against the voters. Mind you, it was a federal issue not a provincial/state one, so one decision was all it took. Now that we have lived with that decision for however many years, majority opinion is that it is a good thing.
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Thanks for posting about this. I am ashamed of my own government (Canada) for taking so long to bring Omar Khadr home, and for being almost forced to do so by the American justice system. I don't know how many of those prisoners are actually "terrorists", I suspect very few of them, but none of them deserve this kind of treatment.
I agree with Mr McKie that there are other factors at play. Looking at Canadian stats before and after the 1993 Firearm Registry Act came into effect, long gun homicides came down fairly dramatically but other forms of homicide went up. There was an overall decline in homicides, but that decline began in the 1970s and levelled out around 2003. The Harper government has recently revoked the Firearm Registry Act, it remains to be seen whether that will have an impact on gun use in crime stats.
Stricter control of guns will probably have a positive impact on homicides in the USA, but implementing that control will be difficult and complicated, as it has been in Canada. Probably more so, since you have a right-to-bear-arms ethos that Canada never did.
For Canadian stats, see:
link to rcmp-grc.gc.ca
link to statcan.gc.ca
I am so happy about M. Hollande. Just had to say that somewhere, so here it is.
Yes indeedy, Toronto would be a VERY dangerous place for poor Mr Cheney.
I am very much enjoying your translations of Omar Khayyam, but I don't get over here in time to catch them all. I don't suppose you could "tag" them so it would be easier to find them? Not that I don't get a lot out of your other posts, but the poetry is wonderful.
An American friend pointed out to me that as citizens of the greatest country in the world, Americans are not interested, nor do they need to be, in what goes on anywhere else. I guess if an American wants to learn geography, he/she joins the military.
In Canada, the death penalty was repealed IN SPITE OF the majority of voters being in favour of the death penalty. The government went against the voters. Mind you, it was a federal issue not a provincial/state one, so one decision was all it took. Now that we have lived with that decision for however many years, majority opinion is that it is a good thing.