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Meftih May 2013 Volume 8 Issue 8:

10

Editor-in-chief

Aaron Berhane
260 Adelaide St. E. Toronto,
ON. M5A 1N1 # 192
Tel: 416-824-8124
Fax: 416-783-7850
info@meftih.ca
www.meftih.ca

Editors:

Grace Cherian

Photographer: Mulugeta Zergaber

Contributors: Mohamed Edris Naza Hasebenebi

Medhin Ghebreslasie, Amleset Tesfay, Bode Odetoyinbo, Mimi Chandy, Ken Ntiamoa

Subscription Costs in Canada $39 for a year and $59 for two years. In USA, it costs $45 for
a year and $69 for two years.
Articles appearing in assorted columns of Meftih newspaper are intended to generate civil
& informed public discussions. You dont have to agree with opinions expressed by the writers.
However, that should push you to express your own views. Through that way we generate lively
& civil discussions in the community. Rejoinders are not forums for personal insults & we want
readers to adhere to these principles.

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Meftih May 2013 Volume 8 Issue 8:

page 14

Free legal advicebut does it work?

theyre offering even
makes a differenceand
By Leon Neyfakh
that theyre allocating
ALMOST
EVERY their scarce resources
MORNING, staffers at as effectively as posGreater Boston Legal sible?
Services arrive at work
to find a line of people That is the challenge
waiting on the street being laid down by a
outside their offices. group of critics led by
These people are there James Greiner, a probecause
they
need fessor at Harvard Law
help: some because School. Greiner betheyre being evicted, lieves passionately in
others because theyre providing free legal aschasing
down
child sistance to the poor,
support payments, still but he is dismayed by
others because theyre what he sees as a lack
of data on how its defiling for divorce.
livered and how it afLawyers are expensive, fects peoples lives. For
and for millions of low- all the good they think
income people across theyre doing, Greiner
the United States, non- argues, the fact is that
profits like Greater Bos- legal services providton Legal Services offer ers are working off unthe bestperhaps the tested assumptions and
onlychance at profes- operating largely in the
sional help. Staffed by dark.
civic-minded attorneys
and paid for with public money and private
donations, these organizations represent our
societys primary mechanism for making sure
that when it comes to
civil proceedings, all
people, including the
very poor, are treated
equally before the law.
For decades, it has
been an article of faith
among those who have
devoted their lives to the
cause of legal aid that
if only the system had
more funding, it could
do more good and help
more people. But lately,
a difficult new question
is being asked of the
legal services community: What evidence do
they have that the help

Given the noble intentions and tireless dedication of the individuals

who staff legal clinics
around the country, it
feels almost indecent to
question the effectiveness of the help theyre
providing.
But
from
where Greiner sits, the
sanctity of these effortsand the fact that
the system provides
for just two attorneys
per 10,000 low-income
peopleis precisely why
it matters. In particular, as he sees it, we
know very little about
how legal service providers ought to determine which clients to
take and which to turn
down; in many cases,
he argues, they may be

wasting precious time

and money on cases
where theyre unlikely
to have an impact.
Most folks have concluded that were never
going to be able to give
a full attorney-client relationship to every person who has a legal
problem, Greiner said
last week. The funding
is just never going to
be there. So you have
to take steps short of
that, in an attempt to
meet the need.

tation by law students

working at the Harvard
Legal Aid Bureau were
no more likely to prevail in their court cases
than people who were
not.

Those results came as a

jarring surprise to some
on the bureaus staff,
and the study sparked
consternation among legal aid workers all over
the country. Some worried that Greiners findings would be used as
justification to defund
legal aid, while others
For Greiner, the solu- raised an ethical objection is one that has tion to the very idea of
already
revolutionized collecting the kind of
other fields, most nota- data hed like to see:
bly medicine. He is part It amounts to experiof a budding movement menting with vulnerable
that wants to introduce peoples lives.
randomized experiments
and put hard numbers ***
to what have traditionally been treated as RANDOMIZED TRIALS
unquantifiable
social are the gold standard
problems. In medicine, in the world of science,
he and his allies point and for good reason:
out, such tests have Done right, they can
revealed
that
once- generate highly precise
common
treatments insights about how the
hormone
replacement world works. To detertherapy, for instance mine the effectiveness of
were not only ineffec- a new drug, researchers
tive but harmful. The give it to some patients
mission, Greiner said, and not others; if the
is to make law more people in the first group
evidence-based, more fare significantly better
than the control group,
rational and scientific.
that sends a clear sigAmong those who labor nal about the efficacy
in the legal services of the medicine.
world, this insistence on
randomized testing has So far, these types of
been met with skepti- controlled experiments
cism, even defensive- have proven difficult to
nessparticularly after run on social problems.
Greiners first study on For Greiner, a soft-spothe topic found that one ken man who favors
group of people who turtleneck sweaters and
were offered represen- loves Harry Potter, find-

ing ways to bring the

power of quantitative
analysis to bear on the
legal system has been
a calling since 2002,
when he decided, after
working as a litigator,
to get a doctorate in
statistics. But it was not
until a few years ago
that the recently tenured
professor turned his attention to legal services, having become
convinced that in order
for our democracy to
truly work, all people
not just those who can
afford itmust have access to justice.
What Greiner found
when he began studying legal services was
a complex, decentralized, and woefully underfunded
endeavor
that was helping only a
fraction of the people in
need. Across the country, hundreds of organizations worked more
or less separately, without sharing information
in any systematic way
about the kinds of people who were coming
to them for help and
what exactly they needed. Most importantly,
Greiner noted, no one
had ever done any rigorous tests to see how
much good these organizations were actually
doing.
When he first approached the Harvard
Legal Aid Bureau, an
organization staffed by
law students, Greiner
made his pitch this way:
Given that the number
of people who come to
HLAB looking for help

please see page 16

Meftih May 2013 Volume 8 Issue 8:

page 15

Meftih May 2013 Volume 8 Issue 8:

DEBT WORRIES CAN

MAKE YOU IMPOTENT
Many men generally
have a problem. I do
not know whether it is
a matter of pride, fear,
foolishness or all of the
above, we men keep
our financial problems
from our better halves
for as long as possible. We hope against
hope that the financial
problems will go away
before our wives ever
found out.
If you are an employee
and you lose your job,
thats not so bad because it is immediately
obvious that if you dont
find a replacement job
soon, your family will
face financial difficulties sooner or later.
The problem is when
you are self-employed
and the business is not
going so well. Rather
than telling your wife
how bad business is,
you tend to try to be
a man and keep it to
yourself hoping for the
big break which never
seems to come.

It is a good idea to let

your spouse know as
soon as you see signs
of a down-turn in your
business ventures and
ask for support., financially, if she can. Some
smart
women
can
even offer suggestions
that you may not have
thought about because
you are so engulfed
in your predicament. If
you pretend that things
are well with you when
in fact, they are not,
then it becomes difficult to tell your wife
when the mortgage is
three months behind.
Your wife will eventually know, anyway, so
why dont you tell her
right from the onset?
I dont blame some
of the men though,
because some of the
women flip on such
news. The first person
they call is their telephone friend seeking
advice on how to divorce you before you
lose all the money.

Financial problems can

cause you sleepless
nights. When at night,
every part of your body
is wide awake except
your vital body-part
which is deep asleep
and your wife is thinking that you are not
doing your duty because you are having an affair when you
know you are not, it
can become very frustrating for you.
So, tell her now, before
you see divorce signs
on the wall. She may
even surprise you and
be more understanding
and
accommodating
than you ever thought
she would.
If you are having debt
problems, call me at
416-398-1877 ext 201.
I will help you face
them squarely and resolve them.
Ken Ntiamoa, MBA
BIA Insolvency Counsellor
Mortgage Broker

page 16

Free legal advice. .

From page 14
far exceeds the number they can offer representation, why not
randomize the sorting
process, create a control group, and try to
learn something about
the organizations impact? Initially, Greiner
proposed running the
study using either domestic abuse cases or
eviction cases.
The
answer
from
HLABs leaders was
a firm no. We pretty quickly decided we
werent willing to do
that, said faculty director David Grossman, explaining that
the student volunteers
simply had too much
confidence that their
sorting methods were
working
to
jettison
them in favor of a random number generator.
These methods, which
took into account not
only the likelihood that
HLAB could make a
difference in a particular case, but also the
urgency of the case
and the number of
people affected by its
outcome, were based
on years of experience and institutional
knowledge. Given the
high stakes in eviction
and domestic abuse
cases, Grossman said,
randomizing
away
clients HLAB would
take under normal circumstances felt deeply
immoral.
HLABs
reluctance
pointed to one of the
main hurdles Greiner
is facing as he looks

for more legal services

providers to work with
on experiments: For
an organization to do
what hes asking involves an admission
that what they do normally might be ineffective. Given our experience, we feel like
we can pick the cases
where we can make a
difference, said Greater Boston Legal Services executive director
Jacquelynne Bowman.
But if its randomized,
then we may miss out
on providing representation to someone who
truly needs it.
Convincing professionals to doubt their methods is never easy, said
Greiner, but it might be
especially hard in the
world of legal services.
Is it surprising that
not every single legal
aid attorney possesses
the kind of self-doubt
that might cause her
to desire to undergo
a rigorous evaluation
of her...activities? he
asked. Nevertheless,
Greiner believes this
kind of self-doubt is
important,
precisely
because people in the
trenches cant always
look objectively at what
theyre doing. I dont
deny that...experiential
observation is worthwhile, he said. But my
job is to question and
test it, because it turns
out that human beings
sometimes stink at figuring out what works
and what doesnt from
day-to-day
observations.

Meftih May 2013 Volume 8 Issue 8:

Walnuts are the . . .

From page 18

Roast the walnuts
slightly in a skillet or
oven and crush it. Then
sprinkle them over your
breakfast porridge.

Make a healthy
breakfast by sprinkling
roasted and crushed
walnuts over a cup of
fresh yogurt and honey.

Sprinkle crushed
walnuts over your salads to give them a
crunchy texture.

Sprinkle
them
over sauted veggies.

Make a dip by
grinding together some
walnuts, herbs and
boiled lentils.

Walnut
butter
could be a great spread

for sandwiches and pita

bread.

Add the nuts in a
mixture for making granola for your kids.

Baked recipes get
a makeover with the
addition of chopped
and crushed walnuts.
Bread, cakes, muffins
and walnut cookies are
a delicacy.

Just a tablespoon
of crushed walnuts over
your favourite ice cream
or dessert can make it
taste heavenly.
Sources:
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/
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page 17

Meftih May 2013 Volume 8 Issue 8:

FIFA president Sepp

Blatter cleared of
criminal wrongdoing
in report

Labeled clumsy for his part

in one of soccers biggest
corruption scandals, FIFA
President Sepp Blatter was
cleared of any criminal or
ethical wrongdoing in a case
involving millions of dollars
in bribes for World Cup contracts.
Blatters predecessor as FIFA
president, Joao Havelange,
was forced to step down as
honorary president because of
his involvement in the case.
FIFA made the announcement
Tuesday, saying the 96-yearold Brazilian, who led soccer
from 1974-98, had resigned
on April 18.
A report issued Tuesday
by FIFA ethics court judge
Joachim Eckert said Havelanges conduct had been
morally and ethically reproachable for accepting
bribes from the sports marketing company ISL from
1992-2000, along with his
former son-in-law, Ricardo
Teixeira, and Nicolas Leoz,
the president of South Americas governing body since
1986.
FIFA has banned a leading
Asian member of its execu-

tive committee from all football activities for eight years

after he was found guilty
of violating the governing
bodys code of ethics.
FIFA said Tuesday that Vernon Manilal Fernando of Sri
Lanka, who had been a close
ally of disgraced former presidential candidate Mohamed
bin Hammam, was prohibited
from taking part in any kind
of football-related activity
at national and international
level.
The ban is effective retroactively from March 11 this
year, when he was suspended
to prevent him from interfering with FIFAs investigation.
FIFA has not specified the
charges against Fernando,
who joined the executive
committee under bin Hammams patronage. Bin Hammam was banned for life by
FIFA after a bribery scandal
during his failed bid to oust
President Sepp Blatter.
Blatter, who took over from
Havelange in 1998 and served
as general secretary before
that, got off more lightly de-

Please see page 24

page 18

Walnuts are the

healthiest of all
nuts
By Grace Cherian
Scientists from the
University of Scranton in Pennsylvania say walnuts are
the healthiest of all
nuts. And should
be eaten more as
part of a healthy
diet. Scientists say
walnuts contain the
highest level of antioxidants compared
to other nuts. Dr
Joe Vinson analysed the antioxidant
levels of nine different types of nuts
and discovered a
handful of walnuts
contained twice as
many antioxidants
as a handful of any
other
commonly
eaten nut.
Here are some of
the benefits of eating walnuts:
1.

Walnuts

are

packed with nutrients

including
protein, poly- and
monounsaturated
fats, vitamins such
as E, A and B,
minerals such as
potassium, iron and
calcium, and fibre.
2. They are an
excellent
source
of omega-3 fats,
which are essential for normal brain
function.
3. Walnuts are
rich in antioxidants,
particularly a compound called ellagic acid, which helps
support the immune system and
has anti-cancerous
properties.
4. Walnut
oil
helps reduce blood
pressure, decrease
stress
and
improve cardiovascular health. Walnuts
are a rich source
of
alpha-linolenic

acid (ALA), which

is known to help
lower bad cholesterol and reduce inflammation and oxidative stress.
5. Walnuts also
contain a form of
melatonin. This a
hormone produced
by the pineal gland
to regulate and induce sleep. Maintaining a healthy
level of melatonin
is important, especially for people
over the age of
40, when melatonin
production decreases.
Reap the health
benefits of walnuts
by doing the following:

Eat
them
straight out of the
shell.
Please see page 17

Meftih May 2013 Volume 8 Issue 8:

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page 19

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Your ad could be placed here!

call
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visit our website
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Meftih May 2013 Volume 8 Issue 8: page 20

Laugh & Learn

SpaceShipTwo makes . . .
From page 22

mer,
culminating
with a dash into
space targeted toward the end of
the year.
SpaceShipTwo
is
a prototype commercial version of
SpaceShipOne,
which in 2004 became the first privately
developed
manned rocket to
reach space. Since
the historic flight,
more than 500 aspiring space tourists
have paid $200,000
or plunked down
deposits, patiently
waiting for a chance
to float in weightlessness and view
the Earths curvature from 62 miles
up.

Branson
initially
predicted commercial flights would
begin in 2007, but
a deadly explosion during ground
testing and longerthan-expected test
flights pushed the
deadline back.
What about other
space tourism destinations? Here are
your options.
No date has been
set for the first commercial flight from
a custom-designed
spaceport in New
Mexico, but Virgin
Galactic executives
have said it will
come after testing
is complete and it
secures
approval
from the govern-

ment. Branson previously said the

maiden passenger
flight will carry his
family.
SpaceShipTwo was
built by Mojavebased
aerospace
research company
Scaled Composites
LLC, which was
founded by cuttingedge aviation designer Burt Rutan.
His SpaceShipOne,
funded by Microsoft
co-founder Paul Allen, made three
suborbital
flights
into space reaching altitudes of 62
miles (100 kilometres) or greater
and won the $10
million Ansari X
Prize.

By Susan W.

* Susan was having a tough day and after returning home she started complaining
She said to her husband, Nobody loves me.
nobody cares for me..the whole world hates
me!
Her husband, watching TV said casually: Thats
not true dear. You are not that famous that
whole world hates you.Some people dont even
know you.
*************
A mild-mannered man was tired of being bossed around
by his wife so he went to a psychiatrist.
The psychiatrist said he needed to build his self-esteem,
and so gave him a book on assertiveness, which he read
on the way home.
He had finished the book by the time he reached his
house.
The man stormed into the house and walked up to his
wife.
Pointing a finger in her face, he said, From now on, I
want you to know that I am the man of this house, and
my word is law! I want you to prepare me a gourmet meal
tonight, and when Im finished eating my meal, I expect
a sumptuous dessert afterward. Then, after dinner, youre
going to draw me my bath so I can relax. And when Im
finished with my bath, guess whos going to dress me and
comb my hair?
The funeral director, said his wife.
****************
A womans husband had been slipping in and out of a
coma for several months, yet she stayed by his bedside
every single day. When he came to, he motioned for her
to come nearer.
As she sat by him, he said, You know what? You have
been with me all through the bad times. When I got fired,
you were there to support me. When my business failed,
you were there. When I got shot, you were by my side.
When we lost the house, you gave me support. When my
health started failing, you were still by my side You
know what?
What dear? She asked gently.
I think you bring me bad luck.
****************

Editor-in-chief

Aaron Berhane
260 Adelaide St. E. Toronto,
ON. M5A 1N1 # 192
Tel: 416-824-8124
Fax: 416-783-7850
infomeftih@gmail.com
www.meftih.ca

Editors:

Grace Cherian

Photographer: Mulugeta Zergaber

Contributors: Mohamed Edris Naza Hasebenebi

Medhin Ghebreslasie, Amleset Tesfay, Bode Odetoyinbo, Mimi Chandy, Ken Ntiamoa

Subscription Costs in Canada $39 for a year and $59 for two years. In USA, it costs $45 for
a year and $69 for two years.
Articles appearing in assorted columns of Meftih newspaper are intended to generate civil
& informed public discussions. You dont have to agree with opinions expressed by the writers.
However, that should push you to express your own views. Through that way we generate lively
& civil discussions in the community. Rejoinders are not forums for personal insults & we want
readers to adhere to these principles.

There were 11 people ten men and one woman hanging onto a rope that came down from a helicopter.
They all decided that one person should get off, because
if they didnt, the rope would break and everyone would
die.
No one could decide who should go, so finally, the woman
gave a really touching speech saying how she would give
up her life to save the others, because women were used to
giving up things for their husbands and children, giving in
to men, and not receiving anything in return.
When she finished speaking, all the men started clapping.

source: Jokes of the day

Meftih May 2013 Volume 8 Issue 8: page 21

Olivia Akpari,

B.A. LL.B

Barrister, Solicitor & Notary Public

905-565-0059
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7025 Tomken Rd. # 204

Mississauga, ON L5S 1R6
Tel: 905.565-0059 Fax: 905.565.0559

Dr. Daljeet & Associates

Caring for the community for over 25 years!

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416-492-3077

Dr. Nar Daljeet

Victoria Park ave.

Evening & Saturdays appointments available

2942 Finch Ave. E.

Unit # 4
Scarborough, ON.
Village Square Plaza
Finch ave. E.

Meftih May 2013 Volume 8 Issue 8:

page 22

Technology & Science

SpaceShipTwo makes
powered test flight
Virgin
Galactics
SpaceShipTwo
made its first powered flight Monday,
breaking the sound
barrier in a test
over the Mojave
Desert that moves
the company closer
to its goal of flying
paying passengers
on brief hops into
space.
It couldnt have
gone more smoothly, said Sir Richard Branson, who
owns the spaceline
with Aabar Investments PJC of Abu
Dhabi.
A special twin-fuselage jet carrying
SpaceShipTwo took
off at about 7:00
a.m. PT, spent 45
minutes climbing to
an altitude of 48,000
feet (14,630 metres) and released
the spaceship. Pilot
Mark Stucky and
co-pilot Mike Alsbury then triggered
SpaceShipTwos
rocket engine.
A Toronto travel
agency
recently
started selling tickets for suborbital
flights run by Virgin
Galactics competitor, Space Expedition Corporation.
Read more about
their package.
The engine burned
for 16 seconds,
propelling
the
spaceship to an

altitude of 55,000
feet (16,764 metres) and a velocity
of Mach 1.2, surpassing the speed
of sound. SpaceShipTwo then glided to a safe landing at Mojave Air
and Space Port in
the desert north of
Los Angeles, said
George Whitesides,
Virgin
Galactics
CEO.
The 10-minute test
flight was considered a major step
for the program.
A long way toward
getting into space
Having spaceship
and rocket perform
together in the air is
a long way toward
getting into space,
said Branson, who
watched from the
ground.
A few more test
flights with slightly
bigger burns every
time, and then well
all be back here
to watch it go into
space.
Not into sub-orbital
flights? Read about
other Zero G experiences.
Until
Monday,
SpaceShipTwo had
only
performed
unpowered
glide
flights.
Several
powered flights are
planned this sumPlease see page 20

NDP: Low-income students restricted by outdated streaming

QUEENS PARK
Following a recent report from People for
Education that highlighted the continuing
use of streaming in
Ontario high schools,
NDP Education Critic
Peter Tabuns called
on Education Minister Liz Sandals to explain Ontarios use of
the widely-discredited
practice.
Students at low-income schools are six
times more likely to be
placed in applied math
classes compared to
high-income schools,
said Tabuns. Students in applied math
are half as likely to
meet provincial math
and literacy standards
and are less likely to
graduate. Does the
minister accept the
continued streaming of
students in Ontario and
the barriers to success
it presents?
The
report
shows
that students at high
schools in lower in-

come neighbourhoods
are more likely to be
placed in applied
rather than academic
courses in municipalities across the province, including Toronto, Hamilton, London,
Windsor,
KitchenerWaterloo, and Ottawa.
Streaming has been
discredited. It limits the
opportunities of disadvantaged
children,
yet it continues, said
Tabuns. Wealthy children are more likely to
take academic courses.
Low-income, immigrant

and aboriginal children

are more likely to take
applied courses.
Tabuns urged the Minister to take action.
Will the Minister investigate why low-income
children are overrepresented in applied
courses and why applied students are less
likely to succeed, so
that all students have
a fair chance for success? asked the Toronto-Danforth MPP.

Elections Canada drops . . .

From page 23

The paperwork was

seriously deficient in
more than 165,000
cases. That means,
on average, election
officers made more
than 500 serious
procedural errors in
each of Canadas
308 ridings.
The same kinds of
mistakes were found
to have occurred
in Etobicoke Centre, and last spring
an Ontario Superior
Court judge overturned the results in

that riding. However,

the Supreme Court
of Canada reversed
that decision, ruling
that the constitutional
right to vote trumps
almost all procedural
errors.
Nevertheless, the report concludes that
the procedures for
verifying voters must
be simplified and
election officials must
be better trained.
As reported by the
Canadian
Press,

Mayrand has accepted the reports conclusions and recommendations.

The
budget
cuts
Elections
Canada
are facing mean its
also trimming its international vote monitoring program, and
will move its Ottawa
office to Gatineau,
Que.

Source: Leslie MacKinnon CBC News

Meftih May 2013 Volume 8 Issue 8:

Elections Canada drops plan for

online voting due to cuts
Elections
Canada
has abandoned plans
to experiment with
an online voting pilot project before the
2015 general election
due to budget cuts.
Elections
Canada
also has concerns
about the security of
online voting, but a
new report indicates
that voting irregularities happen frequently at polling stations
on voting day even
when paper ballots
are used.
A spokesperson for
Elections
Canada
said Tuesday that
experiments with online voting are postponed for the long
term, and the reasons for the delay
are due to an eight
per cent budget cut
that took effect this
year, translating into
a loss of $7.5 million
per year.
A plan to try out online voting in a federal byelection sometime before 2015 has
been quashed.
During the last general election in 2011,
Mark Mayrand, the
chief electoral officer
of Elections Canada,
told CBC that online
voting is the way of
the future. The plan
was to eventually
incorporate internet
balloting into general
elections,
although
Mayrand
estimated
that voting by laptop

or smart phone as
a permanent feature
was at least three
general
elections
away.
In August 2011, Mayrand told a parliamentary committee,
Elections
Canada
has been examining
internet voting as a
complementary and
convenient way to
cast a ballot. The
chief electoral officer is committed to
seeking approval for
a test of Internet voting in a byelection
held after 2013.
However, in a recent
report to parliament,
Mayrand said, Elections Canada is scaling back its efforts
on internet voting
and will delay conducting an I-voting
pilot project until after the next general
election.
Some municipalities
have experimented
successfully
with
online voting, particularly
Markham,
Ont., and Halifax. In
Markhams 2006 municipal election, voter
turnout increased by
10 per cent, likely
because online voting was offered as
an option. No province has ever tried
online voting.
Online voting was
never meant to substitute for voting the
old-fashioned way, in
person with a paper

ballot.

page 23

Prime Minister Stephen

Harper Congratulates
The New Italian Prime
Minister

Still plenty of problems with paper voting

However, a report
released
Tuesday
by Elections Canada
shows that there are
plenty of problems
with paper voting.
The report says officials at polling stations across Canada
committed a raft of
serious procedural errors during the 2011
federal election.
The report was commissioned by Elections Canada after
a court case about
voting
irregularities
in the Toronto riding
of Etobicoke Centre
revealed dozens of
instances of missing
paperwork on polling
day May 2, 2011.
The report says the
same kinds of mistakes happened right
across the country.
It includes a national audit of the
paperwork filled out
by elections officials
who are supposed to
ensure voters whose
names dont appear
on the list are eligible to cast a ballot.
The audit found more
than half the documents contained errors of the type that
courts have found serious enough to contribute to overturning election results.
Please see page 22

Prime Minister Harper congratulates the

new Italian Prime
Minister/
On behalf of the
Government of Canada, I wish to congratulate Enrico Letta on the formation
of a new governing
coalition.
Canada and Italy
share a strong bilateral relationship and
have been partners
in a range of multilateral institutions such
as the G-8, G-20,
United Nations, and
NATO.
I look forward to
working with the new
administration on addressing issues of
mutual importance to
our two countries and

to further strengthening the ties we

share. This includes
working together to
further enhance our
trade and investment
partnership through
a
Comprehensive
Economic and Trade
Agreement between
Canada and the European Union which
will create jobs and
prosperity in both our
countries.
I would also like to
thank outgoing Prime
Minister Mario Monti
for his contributions
to a close working relationship with
Canada.

Meftih May 2013 Volume 8 Issue 8:

page 24

Oh, Canada! The world is watching!

By Aaron Berhane
I dont know what to do,
said Mohmud Shiekhai,
an Eritrean man who is on
the brink of deportation. I
know I will end up in jail
or dead if I am forced to go
back to Eritrea. How come
the Canadian government
doesnt understand that?
He is frustrated, angry and
worried too much about the
future of his four children
aged two, four, six and
eight.
Mahmoud Yassin Shiekhai,
65, left Eritrea to Sudan
and then to Saudi Arabia
and finally made it to Canada in 2011 after having
lived in different parts of
the world.
His story is a common Eritrean story. His brother has
been in jail for more than
10 years, and no one knows
his whereabouts. He could
have been next had he not

left right after his brothers

arrest and the confiscation
of his company. Since then,
he has been in search a safe
haven where he might raise
his and his brothers children. Now, Canada has
dashed his dreams by sending him a deportation letter.
Has the Canadian government forgotten the horrific
administration of the Eritrean regime?
Eritrea is a living hell.
There is no freedom of
speech, religion, movement or any sort of basic
rights. The country is run
without a constitution. The
president remains above
the law. The parliament
has never met since 2002.
The government has never tabled a budget since
2001.
There are more
prison camps than schools.

There are more people in

prison than those who go
to school. In the name of
national service, more than
200,000 youths are kept in
the army for an indefinite
period and forced to work
for companies owned by
the ruling party.
There is a sense of lawlessness that is deliberately
created by the regime. Security agents can arrest,
torture or kill anyone at
will. They play God in the
daily life of the Eritrean
people; they take life they
give life. The government
does not prosecute or punish the officials.
Abhorring the regime,
about 3000 Eritreans leave
the country every month
according to a UNHCR report. They cross the desert,
sail the sea and take every risk to save their lives.

Some are lucky to obtain

refuge, but few unfortunate
hundred were not. They
were deported from Libya
(2004), Egypt (2008-2012)
and Sudan (2004 2013).
All of them without exception were arrested as soon
as they landed in Eritrean
port. Many of them are
already dead and no one
knows about the rest.
This going to be the fate
of Mahmoud, his wife and
his four children if they are
deported to Eritrea. There
is no gray area. He will be
killed the day he arrives or a
few days later. One way or
another, his fate is certain
death if he is sent back.
Lets be clear, we are trying
to send him to Eritrea, also
known as the North Korea of Africa. I truly hope
there has been some mistake, and that the Canadian

government will withdraw

the deportation letter.
Mahmouds
deportation
would not reflect Canadian
values.
We are a caring and well
informed nation. We know
what is going on in Eritrea
and that is why we have
granted asylum to more
than 99% of asylum seekers. We have been a safe
haven, and has never before sent back any Eritrean.
We are known by the comfort we offer to those who
need it, not by the misery
we cause the undeserving.
The Government of Canada
should take action that does
not contradict with the Canadian values. The world is
watching. We always have
a choice, whereas Mahmoud does not.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter cleared . . .

From page 18
spite questions of whether he
should have known about the
bribes.
The conduct of President
Blatter may have been clumsy because there could be an
internal need for clarification,
but this does not lead to any
criminal or ethical misconduct, the report said.
According to the judgment,
then-FIFA general secretary
Blatter forwarded to Havelange in May 1997 a 1.5
million Swiss franc (then
$574,000 US) payment from
ISL that mistakenly was sent
to a FIFA account.
Leoz resigned from FIFAs
executive committee last
week, citing health reasons,
while Teixeira resigned last
year from the executive committee and his position as
head of the local organizing committee for the 2014
World Cup.
Eckert said their conduct predated FIFAs current ethics

code, which came into force

last year and was not relevant
to the case. And because both
Havelange and Leoz have
stepped down from FIFA, he
noted that any further steps
or suggestions are superfluous.
However, it is clear that
Havelange and Teixeira, as
football officials, should
not have accepted any bribe
money, and should have had
to pay it back since the money was in connection with the
exploitation of media rights,
the judgment said.
Blatter said he received the
verdict on his own role with
satisfaction, but acknowledged the case has caused
untold damage to the reputation of our institution.
There are ... no indications
whatsoever that President
Blatter was responsible for
a cash flow to Havelange,
Teixeira or Leoz, or that that
he himself received any payments from the ISL Group,
even in the form of hidden

kickback payments, the ruling said. It must be questioned, however, whether

President Blatter knew or
should have known over the
years before the bankruptcy
of ISL that ISL had made
payments [bribes] to other
FIFA officials.
Sylvia Schenk, senior advisor
for sports for the anti-corruption watchdog Transparency
International, said she was
amazed that Blatter allowed
the scandal to occur.
He cant be so stupid to
think, This has nothing to do
with me, Schenk said. He
should have thought there
was something wrong ... and
looked into the details.
Eckert based his judgments
on a 4,000-page investigation report submitted by FIFA
ethics prosecutor Michael J.
Garcia.
Havelange and Teixeira were
formally identified last July
for taking bribes, when Swit-

zerlands Supreme Court

ruled that a Swiss criminal
prosecutors report on the
case should be made public.
FIFA, Havelange and Teixeira had tried to suppress it.
Havelange resigned in 2011
as a member of the International OIympic Committee
to avoid sanctions stemming
from his role in the ISL case.
ISL was created in the 1970s,
helped fuel the boom in
sports marketing and worked
closely with the IOC.
Swiss prosecutor Thomas
Hildbrand wrote in a case
dossier that the agency funneled money through Liechtenstein to pay commissions
to officials favored in order
to promote sports policies
and economic goals.
Six former ISL executives
stood trial in 2008 and were
cleared of charges relating to
fraud.

adviser to the Confederation

of African Football on its
website. CAF President Issa
Hayatou, a FIFA vice president, was reprimanded by the
IOC in 2011 for accepting
$20,000 in cash from ISL in
1995. He said the money was
for an event to celebrate a
CAF anniversary.
In court evidence, Leoz was
identified as having received
two ISL payments totaling
$130,000 in 2000. The BBC
later reported that he received
further payments of at least
$600,000. Leoz claimed that
all of the money he received
from ISL was donated by
him to a school project, but
only in January 2008 eight
years after he received it.
Payments attributed to accounts connected to Havelange and Teixeira totaled
almost $22 million from
1992-2000.

Source: AP
The most prominent ISL executive, Jean-Marie Weber,
still is listed as a marketing