NEW YORK — Milos Raonic has a very good memory.
“I think the last time I played him was in San Jose,” Raonic said about American Ryan Harrison, who will be his second-round opponent Wednesday at the U.S. Open.
It was indeed four years ago in San Jose that Raonic defeated Harrison in straight sets in the semifinals of the SAP Open before the Canadian beat Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan in the final. The only other time Harrison and Raonic faced each other on the ATP Tour was in 2011 when the American won in three sets at Indian Wells.
“I know the things he liked to do back then,” Raonic said. “Obviously, times have changed on both sides of the court, mine and his. So I’ll definitely do some research and maybe try to watch a little bit of that match he played (Monday), maybe have a few words with other players that have played him over a recent period of time.”
Raonic also remembers playing Harrison when they were both juniors, saying: “He was younger than me.”
Raonic is 25 now and Harrison is 24, but rankings are much more important than age in tennis. Raonic is ranked No. 6 and Harrison is No. 120, so the Canadian will be a heavy favourite to advance to the third round.
But if Raonic, seeded fifth here, is ever going to win a Grand Slam title, he’s going to have to beat the Big Four: Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. It was Murray who beat Raonic in the final at Wimbledon and if the draw holds up Nadal would be Raonic’s quarter-final opponent here with Djokovic possibly lurking in the semifinal. Murray is in the other half of the draw.
Raonic was asked to describe the status of the Big Four right now after his first-round victory over Germany’s Dustin Brown on Monday night.
“Well, I think it’s a little bit spread out,” the 6-foot-5 serving giant from Thornhill, Ont., said. “You have Roger, who was always there, that is unfortunately unable to be playing at this moment, who is sitting out for a little while (with a knee injury). You have Andy and Novak, who have pretty much led the charge of those big four. Have been leading it at least throughout this year. Rafa is still one of the most dangerous players on tour. You’ve got to navigate your way through. You’ve got to be trying to play your best. Hopefully you face these guys later in tournaments and you can bring your best tennis.”
Raonic could catch three breaks here.
Federer hasn’t played since losing to Raonic in the Wimbledon semifinals and hopes to return from knee surgery in time for the Australian Open in January.
Djokovic has been having problems with his right arm and needed four sets Monday night to beat Poland’s Jerzy Janowicz, ranked No. 247. It marked the first time the world’s No. 1 player had lost a set in the first round of a Grand Slam since 2010. Djokovic’s first serves were only around 100 m.p.h. — about 25 m.p.h. less than normal — and his second serves were in the low 80s. Not a good sign for him going forward.
Nadal won his first-round match in straight sets Monday over Denis Istomin, but was playing with a heavily taped left wrist. That injury forced him to miss Wimbledon.
Murray is the only one of the Big Four who is healthy and could be waiting for Raonic in the final if the Big Canadian can get that far.
Raonic certainly remembers what happened the last time they met.
TOUGH TEST FOR POSPISIL
Vancouver’s Vasek Pospisil caught a break by drawing Jozef Kovalik, ranked No. 126, as his first-round opponent and took advantage of it with a straight-sets victory Monday.
But Pospisil, who has a 7-21 singles record this year, will face a much tougher opponent in the second round Wednesday when he faces hard-serving South African Kevin Anderson, who is ranked No. 35. Coming into the U.S. Open, Pospisil had lost in the first round of four of his past five tournaments, starting at Wimbledon.
“I’m a competitor. I hate losing,” Pospisil said after Monday’s win. “I love trying to find ways to win and being on the court and that just hadn’t been the case these last few months. More than anything, it’s just that I was kind of back to my old self on the court in terms of just being there and competing, being a professional, doing what I’m supposed to do right and doing what I love to do. Today that was the main difference.
“I played much better than I’ve been playing, regardless of who my opponent was,” the 26-year-old added. “I’ve played some weaker opponents and didn’t play anything close to the level I played today.
“It was nice to actually play well again for a change.”
Pospisil split with coach Fred Fontang earlier this month and said he has been given a boost by having his brothers, Petr and Tom, with him for the last couple of weeks. They were among the Canadians cheering Pospisil on during his first-round victory.
Pospisil will be fresh after Monday’s win that took just over an hour and a half to complete, but so will the 6-foot-8 Anderson, who took 2:18 Monday to win in straight sets over Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka.
A Canadian double-header: Pospisil’s match will be the first one on the Grandstand Court, starting at 11 a.m. Wednesday. Raonic’s match will immediately follow on the same court.
NO UPSET HERE
Sam Querrey, who made headlines at Wimbledon when he knocked off Djokovic in the third round, won’t be pulling off any upsets here. The American, who is seeded 29th, was upset by Janko Tipsarevic 7-6 (4), 6-7 (0), 6-3, 6-3 his first-round match Tuesday.

Raonic sizes up tennis' Big Four: 'It’s a little bit spread out'


NEW YORK — Milos Raonic has a very good memory.


It’s almost September, and you know what that means: Summer’s over. Time to go back to school. Time to get back to work. And time for me to crank out another Fall Music Preview intro. But here’s the thing: After nearly 20 years, I’ve used every fall pun, harvest quip and seasonal metaphor in the book. So how about we just cut to the chase? As always, artists of all styles and stripes are dropping albums between now and December. So here are the most-anticipated additions to your playlist, plus some finger-crossers, reissues and more. Naturally, it’s all subject to change without notice. Just like autumn weather. (Sorry; old habits die hard.)
SURE THINGS
Metallica | Hardwired … To Self-Destruct
Lars Ulrich says the hard rock heroes’ return after eight years will be leaner, tighter and less frenetic. The thrashing three-minute title track is a good start. (Nov. 18)
Beck | TBA
Giddy up! Based on wide-eyed cut Wow, Beck’s back in an upbeat mood on the followup to 2014’s introspective Grammy-winner Morning Phase. (Oct. 21)
Green Day | Revolution Radio
It’s not American Idiot 2 — but Billie Joe and the boys are back in rabble-rousing form on their politically charged dozenth disc and single BANG BANG. (Oct. 7)
Nick Cave & Bad Seeds | Skeleton Tree
Little more than a year after the tragic death of his son, the British singer-songwriter delivers what is likely to be a deeply personal and dark work. Even for him. (Sept. 9)
Bon Iver | 22, A Million
Remember when Justin Vernon and co. were an indie-folk band? Based on the glitchy experiments of this third set, those days are gone forever. (Sept. 30)
Leonard Cohen | You Want it Darker
Everybody’s favourite 82-year-old folk-poet laureate returns with the third album in his latest lauded comeback — and it’s produced by son Adam. (TBA)
Kings of Leon | We Are Like Love Songs
Album No. 7 from the southern rockers reportedly includes songs about Caleb Followill’s supermodel wife and haunted hotels. You know, common-man stuff. (TBA)
Wilco | Schmilco
Wilco’s pendulum always swings — and after the freewheeling fun of 2015’s Star Wars, it’s swung back to their softer, more introspective side here. (Sept. 9)
Danny Brown | Atrocity Exhibition
The idiosyncratic rapper’s fourth album takes its title from a Joy Division song and a J.G. Ballard novel. Based on the track Pneumonia, that sounds about right. (Sept. 30)
M.I.A. | A.I.M.
The button-pushing British rapper has claimed this fifth full-length will also be her “last LP.” If that’s true, here’s hoping she goes out with a bang. (Sept. 9)
Drive-By Truckers | American Band
If the half-mast flag on the cover isn’t clear enough, titles like Surrender Under Protest tell you what to expect from these mighty southern rockers. (Sept. 30)
Van Morrison | Keep Me Singing
Will the mercurial Belfast Cowboy’s 36th album be a return-to-form classic, another self-indulgent sojourn, or a phoned-in toss-off? The answer may surprise you. Or not. (Sept. 30)
Pixies | Head Carrier
Black Francis and his reconstituted Pixies didn’t wow fans with 2014’s Indie Cindy. Lucky they’ve still got enough goodwill to get another kick at the can. (Sept. 30)
Sting | 57th & 9th
El Stingo claims his 12th album will be “rockier than anything I’ve done in a while.” Well, it would have to be. (Nov. 11)
Bon Jovi | This House is Not For Sale
Maybe not — but Jon Bon Jovi and co. have rented out Richie Sambora’s room to Canadian guitarist Phil X on this 14th disc. (Oct. 21)
Michael Bublé | Nobody But Me
The title single from Mr. Bubble’s ninth album updates his sound with Mark Ronsonesque production and a rap verse. Hope mom can handle it. (Oct. 21)
Shawn Mendes | Illuminate
The men don’t know, but the little girls understand. (Sept. 23)
DEFINITE MAYBES
Rolling Stones | TBA
Keith Richards has said the World’s Greatest Rock ’n’ Roll band will release a bluesy album — their first since 2005 — “in the autumn some time.” From his lips to Mick’s ears.
Lady Gaga | TBA
Mother Monster hasn’t announced her new disc yet, but with the new single Perfect Illusion due in September, could an album really be far behind?
U2 | Songs of Experience
Depending on which report you believe, Bono and co. could be force-feeding music into your iTunes sometime before the end of the year.
Iggy Azalea | Digital Distortion
The Aussie rapper and alleged cultural appropriator has said her sophomore album is finished. Then again, she’s also said it would be out in August, so tick-tock, Ig.
REISSUES & BOX SETS
Pink Floyd | The Early Years 1965-1972
“I’d quite like to have a go at (reissuing) the early years,” Nick Mason told me in 2014. Based on this 27-disc box, he wasn’t kidding. (Nov. 11)
The Rolling Stones | The Rolling Stones in Mono
Mono versions of the Stones albums up to Let it Bleed — plus a comp of rarities — in a 15-CD box. (Sept. 30)
David Bowie | Who Can I Be Now? (1974-1976)
The Thin White Duke’s mid-’70s output in a 12-CD box that includes unreleased album The Gouster. (Sept. 23)
Led Zeppelin | Complete BBC Sessions
The original 1997 compilation has been expanded to three CDs. (Sept. 16)
Bruce Springsteen | Chapter and Verse
A companion piece to The Boss’s Born to Run memoir, the 18-song comp includes five unreleased oldies. (Sept. 23)
Jack White | Acoustic Recordings 1998-2016
Album tracks, B-sides, and alternate takes from The White Stripes, Raconteurs, and Jack’s solo catalog. (Sept. 9)
Big Star | Complete Third
Every demo, rough mix and finished master of Alex Chilton and the Memphis cult heroes’ final album. Say thank you, friends. (Oct. 14)
The Beatles | Live At The Hollywood Bowl
The Fabs’ collection of 1964 and ’65 L.A. performances makes its CD debut — with previously unreleased extras. (Sept. 9)
David Bowie | The Man Who Fell To Earth
The soundtrack to Bowie’s 1975 film reappears for the first time in decades. (Sept. 9)
Oasis | Be Here Now
Liam and Noel’s 1997 outing gets updated with two discs of B-sides, extras and demos. But no reunion tour — yet. (Oct. 7)
Creedence Clearwater Revival | 1969 Archive Box
LPs and CDs of Bayou Country, Green River and Willie & The Poor Boys, plus three EPs, a 60-page book and more. (Sept. 9)
Fleetwood Mac | Mirage (Deluxe)
Mac’s 1982 offering is their latest disc to get the makeover treatment with a slew of rarities, live recordings and more. (Sept. 23)
My Chemical Romance | The Black Parade (10th Anniversary Edition)
The New Jersey emo-punks’ magnum 2006 opus returns, augmented with plenty of demos and outtakes. (Sept. 23)
Eric Clapton | Live in San Diego With Special Guest JJ Cale
Slowhand and the man who penned hits like Cocaine team up in this 2007 concert. (Sept. 23)
Jimi Hendrix | Machine Gun: Fillmore East First Show 12/31/1969
You’ve heard it all before on bootlegs and various compilations — now hear it again in sequence and newly mixed by Eddie Kramer. (Sept. 30)
Temple of the Dog | 25th Anniversary Reissue
The Pearl Jam/Soundgarden supergroup regroup for the silver anniversary of their sole album. (Sept. 30)
ALSO ON THE WAY
Sept. 2
• Izzy Bizu | A Moment of Madness
• Chatham County Line | Autumn
• Frightnrs | Nothing More To Say
• Goblin C**k | Necronomidonkeykongimicon
• Jamie T | Trick
• James Vincent McMorrow | We Move
• Angel Olsen | My Woman
• King Crimson | Radical Action to Unseat the Hold of Monkey Mind
Sept. 9
• Jason Aldean | They Don’t Know
• Bastille | Wild World
• Billy Ray Cyrus | Thin Line
• Dear Hunter | Act V: Hymns with the Devil in Confessional
• Gavin DeGraw | Something Worth Saving
• Grouplove | Big Mess
• Head and the Heart | Signs of Light
• Okkervil River | Away
• Pansy Division | Quite Contrary
• Joshua Redman & Brad Mehldau | Nearness
• Dex Romweber | Carrboro
• St. Paul and the Broken Bones | Sea of Noise
• Teenage Fanclub | Here
• Time Jumpers | Kid Sister
• KT Tunstall | KIN
• Chely Wright | I Am the Rain
Sept. 16
• Against Me! | Shape Shift With Me
• Michael Chiklis | Influence
• Chixdiggit! | 2012
• Dawes | We’re All Gonna Die
• Deap Vally | Femejism
• Die Antwoord | Mount Ninji and Da Nice Time Kid
• Handsome Family | Unseen
• Keaton Henson | Kindly Now
• Ian Hunter & The Rant Band | Fingers Crossed
• Kool Keith | Feature Magnetic
• Lang Lang | New York Rhapsody
• Aaron Lewis | Sinner
• Mac Miller | The Divine Feminine
• Meat Loaf | Braver Than We Are
• Willie Nelson | For the Good Times: A Tribute to Ray Price
• Madeleine Peyroux | Secular Hymns
• Phantogram | Three
• Preoccupations | Preoccupations
• Royal Canoe | Something Got Lost Between Here and the Orbit
• Southern Culture on the Skids | The Electric Pinecones
• Taking Back Sunday | Tidal Wave
• Tinie Tempah | Youth
• Touché Amoré | Stage Four
• AlunaGeorge | I Remember
• Petula Clark | From Now On
Sept. 23
• Airbourne | Breakin’ Outta Hell
• Devendra Banhart | Ape in Pink Marble
• Billy Bragg & Joe Henry | Shine a Light: Field Recordings from the Great American Railroad
• Every Time I Die | Low Teens
• Skylar Grey | Natural Causes
• Kansas | The Prelude Implicit
• Hamilton Leithauser Rostam | I Had a Dream That You Were Mine
• Idina Menzel | idina.
• Randy Newman | Songbook Vol. 3
• Operation: Mindcrime | Resurrection
• Passenger | Young as the Morning Old as the Sea
• Lee (Scratch) Perry | Must Be Free
• Reckless Kelly | Sunset Motel
• John Scofield | Country for Old Men
• Dwight Yoakam | Swimming Pools, Movie Stars …
Sept. 30
• Herb Alpert | Human Nature
• Banks | The Altar
• Doyle Bramhall II | Rich Man
• Crowbar | The Serpent Only Lies
• Craig David | Following My Intuition
• Amy Lee | Dream Too Much
• Marillion | F E A R
• Opeth | Sorceress
• John Prine | For Better, or Worse
• Regina Spektor | Remember Us To Life
• Suicidal Tendencies | World Gone Mad
• S U R V I V E | RR7349
• Bob Weir | Blue Mountain
• Yellowcard | Yellowcard
• New English Beat feat. Ranking Roger | Bounce
Oct. 7
• Alter Bridge | The Last Hero
• Colbie Caillat | The Malibu Sessions
• Devil Wears Prada | Transit Blues
• Melissa Etheridge | MEmphis Rock and Soul
• Barry Gibb | In the Now
• Norah Jones | Day Breaks
• Kaiser Chiefs | Stay Together
• Meshuggah | The Violent Sleep of Reason
• NOFX | First Ditch Effort
• Pitbull | Climate Change
• Seasick Steve | Keepin’ the Horse Between Me and the Ground
• Shovels & Rope | Little Seeds
• Todd Snider | Eastside Bulldog
• Sum 41 | 13 Voices
• Dean Ween | The Deaner Album
• Glen Phillips | Swallowed by the New
Oct. 14
• Bell X1 | Arms
• Dillinger Escape Plan | Dissociation
• Justin Hayward | All the Way
• Colin James | Blue Highways
• Jamie Lidell | Building a Beginning
• French Montana | MC4
• Conor Oberst | Ruminations
• Two Door Cinema Club | Gameshow
Oct. 21
• David Crosby | Lighthouse
• KoRn | The Serenity of Suffering
• Madness | Can’t Touch Us Now
• Pretty Reckless | Who You Selling For
• Rumer | This Girl’s In Love (A Bacharach & David Songbook)
• John K. Samson | Winter Wheat
Oct. 28
• Kenny Chesney | Cosmic Hallelujah
• LeAnn Rimes | Remnants
• Dee Snider | We Are the Ones
• Testament | The Brotherhood of the Snake
• Tove Lo | Lady Wood
Nov. 4
• Lambchop | FLOTUS
Nov. 11
• Enigma | The Fall of a Rebel Angel
Twitter: @darryl_sterdan
dsterdan@postmedia.com

Must-hear albums from Metallica, Green Day and Beck top


It’s almost September, and you know what that means: Summer’s over. Time to go back to school.


As I sailed aboard the aircraft carrier USS John Stennis from Honolulu to San Diego with my Navy pilot son, I could not help but be haunted by the concern that America’s foreign policy has lost its mooring and will require all hands on deck to bring it back to its rightful berth.
On the first evening of my journey, we were treated to a beautiful sunset from the vantage point of “vulture’s row”, atop the aircraft carrier’s tower.
The sun going down caused me to wonder whether its passage was emblematic of the sun setting on the era of American leadership in the world.
The week at sea, without communication with the outside world, provided relief from the fractious presidential campaigns, filled with equal amounts of scorn for both past American attempts to promote security and our more recent negligence to do so.
Since the campaign season seemed to reflect a race over who would detach the United States most from the world on immigration, trade, and global leadership, I wondered whether our ability and willingness to lead would survive.
Then the winds came up, and the waves along with them.
I have never felt more wind in my face than I did while observing the F/A-18 Hornet combat jets neatly arranged in a V-shape on the bow of the ship.
Even though the ship was big enough to hold over 5,000 sailors and aviators, along with lethal weapons of war, it still nodded to the impact of tropical storm Ivette.
As we awoke at “zero dark thirty”, in the middle of the night, to the excessively cheery voice of the executive officer, it was clear that the mighty craft had taken little notice of the storm’s gales and proceeded apace to its destination.
My question came back into my mind, mingled with the hope that just as the Stennis sailed through the tempest to reach San Diego, so too would America’s ability and will to lead cruise through today’s caustic, isolationist, protectionist windstorms.
The first task for a carrier preparing to launch aircraft off its catapult is a Foreign Object Debris walkdown, during which the ship’s crew walks the entire deck, shoulder to shoulder, searching for any loose bolts or screws that could get sucked into a turbine and cause significant damage.
One errant fragment could render a mighty jet inoperable.
For the United States to regain its mojo, it must pick up and discard a few foreign objects that, if allowed to entrench themselves in our political discourse, could disable our ability to deliver peace and prosperity for Americans and our friends.
We passed the USS Theodore Roosevelt as we arrived in San Diego.
The ship’s namesake pulled the United States out of its isolationist past and onto the world stage by launching the Great White Fleet, counseling that the path to peace was to “speak softly and carry a big stick”.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump appears to have missed the part about speaking softly.
Today’s global unrest suggests Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton lost the stick during her time as Secretary of State.
Both of them represent “foreign objects” to America’s leadership tradition.
With the emergence of the Islamic State, tensions in the South China Sea on the rise after China’s rejection of an international tribunal’s ruling, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin as Russia continues to occupy Crimea, risks to global harmony are on the rise.
World events are likely to force the United States to remove its foreign objects in order to attract better allies and find its “big stick” again.
Those leaders for whom the Navy has named aircraft carriers serve as examples.
Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush are all guides to whom Republicans should look for instruction on how to lead in a way that attracts others to America’s side.
Harry Truman, John Stennis, and Carl Vinson serve as guides to Democrats looking to rebuild America’s stick.
No matter who prevails in November, pushing America out of its inward tailspin will require a lot of tugging.
We must all stand shoulder to shoulder to throw foreign objects overboard and get America’s ship of state back on course.
The Washington Post News Service & Syndicate

American leadership can survive today’s storms


As I sailed aboard the aircraft carrier USS John Stennis from Honolulu to San Diego with my Navy pilot son, I could not help but be haunted by the concern that America’s foreign policy has lost its mooring and will require all hands on deck to bring it back to its rightful berth.


OTTAWA - With all the redacted names on Justin Trudeau's flight manifest regarding his Christmas holiday to the Caribbean hideaway of Nevis, one would think he had smuggled Omar Khadr aboard for a little fun in the sun that didn't involve the less-luxurious venue of Guantanamo Bay.
But, no, it was just the in-laws and a nanny, although there are families who would put their in-laws in the terrorist category without a moment's hesitation.
This, however, is unlikely to apply when it comes to Jean Gregoire and Estelle Blais, parents of Trudeau's spouse, Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau, and grand-papa and grand-maman to the couple's three young children.
So it was much ado about nothing.
Nothing more to see here, said the Department of National Defence, who manages the mission reports for the government-owned Challenger jet that Trudeau must use due to the prohibition of prime ministers flying commercial.
Our mistake, said the military types. We redacted the names, not the prime minister and then, on cue, everyone fell on their swords like good soldiers do.
This is not to say, however, that it has been a particularly good week for the Liberals. Far from it. In fact, the dew on the honeymoon rose may be starting dry.
As the Sun Ottawa bureau chief David Akin reports, a pair of bureaucrats who scarfed down enough food while Paris climate summit to qualify for that gross skit in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life will now pay back a portion of that tab.
Judging by such recent scenarios, it would appear the Liberals' addiction to entitlements has not skipped a generation.
Health Minister Jane Philpott nicked taxpayers for $1,700 for just one day of being chauffeured around Toronto in a luxury sedan -- all while playing semantics that it wasn't a true "limousine"-- and then spent thousands more in similar rides from the owner of a livery service who volunteered on her election campaign and professed "love" for the Liberals.
And, not being one to sit with the hoi polloi in the waiting area at Pearson International while connecting to Ottawa, Philpott also nicked taxpayers for the $500-plus tab for membership to the exclusive Air Canada lounge.
Imagine questioning that? Obviously we do not understand the importance of her self-importance.
And then there is the photogenic Catherine McKenna, our federal minister of environment, who spent $6,600 for a private photographer to snap pictures at the same climate change summit that the aforementioned bureaucrat with the prodigious appetite for French food was knee deep in fine pate.
But silly us who care.
In an editorial the other day, the Globe & Mail, who this year hired CTV's Bob Fife to head up its Ottawa bureau, castigated its readers for worrying about the "wrong stuff" -- as in Philpott's non-limos or McKenna's photo albums.
This is the same Bob Fife, ironically, who made his mark chasing down cabinet ministers and their $16 orange juices.
"The peasants are revolting," they cried in the Wizard of Id.
"You can say that again," said the king.
- markbonokoski@gmail.com

These Liberals think we should eat cake, too


With all the redacted names on Justin Trudeau's flight manifest regarding his Christmas holiday to the Caribbean hideaway of Nevis, one would think he had smuggled Omar Khadr aboard for a little fun in the sun that didn't involve the less-luxurious venue of Guantanamo Bay.


Two United Airlines pilots were busted for being drunk as they prepared to fly 141 souls to New Jersey on the weekend.
I hear you. If you had to fly to Jersey, you’d throw back a couple of belts, too.
But this latest in a binge of tipsy pilot arrests, including two Canadians last month, adds yet another disturbing question for the nervous flyer:
How can you tell if your pilots are drunk? I mean, before they pass out at 30,000 feet.
“This is your first occifer speaking! Say, doesn’t that cloud look like a rabbit?”
Good grief. It’s bad enough waiting for the wings to fall off.
Must we also take a whiff in the cockpit as we board? Or ask the crew to walk a straight line down the aisle?
United pilots Brady Grebenc, 35, and Carlos Licona, 45, were arrested by Scottish police at Glasgow’s airport. Their Flight UA162 to Newark Saturday was delayed 10 hours until sober replacements could be found.
Grebenc and Licona are reportedly U.S. military veterans and flight instructors. Grebenc’s LinkedIn profile says he has “3,200+ hours of accident- and incident-free flying in high-performance fixed-wing aircraft.”
It says he specializes in “low visibility approaches” though I do not think that covers being blind drunk.
Brebenc and Licona are to appear in court Monday on charges related to British air safety laws. Drinking and flying, basically.
Was good Scotch involved?
Glasgow was the scene of another drunk flying bust last month. Air Transat captain Jean-Francois Perreault, 39, and first officer Imran Zafar Syed, 37, were hauled off their flight to Toronto as it prepared to leave with 250 passengers.
Cabin crew noticed a problem in the nick of time. Perreault and Syed were charged with being over the alcohol limit — one-quarter of that allowed U.K. car drivers — plus abusive behaviour.
How’s your aviophobia now?
One in six of us is afflicted badly enough to avoid planes altogether. Many of us have a touch of aviophobia. Some treat it by getting plastered. But pilots? Some warning signs to watch for:
•Your flight attendant says, “Sorry, we’re out of vodka, sir. The captain is Russian.”
•You notice your Airbus is taking off by way of the car-park.
•The wings of your 747 dip back and forth in time to the soundtrack from the inflight movie.
•The copilot staggers into the lavatory and won’t come out.
•You catch a glimpse of the crew playing beer pong in the cockpit, shouting “Ooooh, that splashed on the auto-pilot!”
•The purser asks if there’s a doctor on board. Or an addictions counsellor.
Just kidding. Naturally, drunk pilots are rare. Most sky jockeys are sober pros determined to get you there in one piece. Drunk drivers are by far a greater evil. But...
There was, for instance, the America West flight out of Miami in 2002. Its pilots downed 350 ounces of beer between them, plus a martini and a burger, and were kicked out of the bar just before 5 a.m., then prepared for takeoff at 10:30 a.m.. They were stopped on the taxiway.
Times have changed.
In the 1950s, a tipsy pilot named Thomas Fitzpatrick — “Tommy Fitz” — landed on New York streets, twice, to win barroom bets. He flew Cessnas, but never mind.
As an ex-boozehound, I can tell you getting high may seem fine. It’s the landing that’s rough.
Strobel’s column usually runs Monday to Thursday. mstrobel@postmedia.com


Two United Airlines pilots were busted for being drunk as they prepared to fly 141 souls to New Jersey on the weekend.


As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau makes his first official visit to China, reality squares off against his previous notorious comments.
At a Liberal fundraiser before the election, Trudeau stated:
“There’s a level of admiration I actually have for China. Their basic dictatorship is actually allowing them to turn their economy around on a dime.”
A poor choice of words.
“Admiration" for a dictatorship is inappropriate when the Chinese regime is alleged to have harvested organs from its citizens (see reports by former Liberal secretary of state David Kilgour and lawyer David Matas), culturally suppressed minorities, including Tibetans, tossed human rights and democracy activists into jail, bullied its neighbours and disregarded international rulings from UN- sanctioned tribunals.
Of course, China has an economic and military presence which requires our engagement on a series of issues.
It is an important trading partner and Canadians of Chinese origin make a tremendous contribution to our country.
China has also benefited from Canada's openness, most significantly when it acquired Candu nuclear technology in the early 1990s.
It has used it to build a new industrial power supply domestically, and now for the export market.
China remains a core market for Saskatchewan potash, Canadian lumber and other products.
We remain a very accessible market for Chinese goods and investment in oil and gas, mining, telecommunications, infrastructure and other sectors.
Consequently, any new engagement with China under Trudeau should reaffirm Canadian values, national interests and rule of law.
Canada should advise Beijing we will not be bullied into conditions which permit temporary foreign workers from China to fill jobs in businesses which should be available to Canadians.
National security assessments must be taken into consideration when investments impact critical infrastructure such as ports in the Arctic, telecommunications, defence or the power sector.
As chair of the cabinet’s intelligence committee, the prime minister should strongly condemn Chinese espionage and cyber attacks on Canada.
Remaining silent in front of President Xi Jinping on this will send the wrong message.
We should speak in support of our friend, Taiwan, which is finding its new, democratically-elected government subject to renewed harassment and bullying by China.
The prime minister should support conflict prevention measures by urging President Xi to respect the Hague ruling on the South China Sea and accept resolutions in line with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
On agriculture and trade, we must respond strongly and swiftly to the recent regulatory prohibitions on Canadian canola, which place a $2 billion market at risk.
This attempt to drive prices down and hurt Canadian farmers should be met with equal penalties on Chinese imports.
Relations with China, including any potential free trade agreement, must be based on mutual respect, not blind admiration.
Canada should be a partner, not a colony.
Indeed it is hard to see how a free trade deal is possible given the tenuous state of the rule of law in China.
I do wish the prime minister well on his visit, and remind him that Canadians will be watching closely to see how he champions these issues, including the rights of 300,000 dual nationals who reside in Hong Kong, and are seeking greater consular support from their government in Ottawa.
If this is a time for engagement with China, it is most definitely not a time to abandon our principles and national interests.
-- Clement is the MP for Parry Sound and a Conservative leadership candidate


As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau makes his first official visit to China, reality squares off against his previous notorious comments.


Even when you go sightseeing at 'special sites', there's no guarantee any ocean friends will actually show up. But if they do, everyone's hoping for a jaw-dropping friendly seal pup and whale meet-and-greets like these kayakers on Wildcoast Adventures and Kelp Reef Adventures tours in British Columbia.
After brushing by several adorably curious seal pups, they spot a mom humpback whale and her calf way off in the distance. It's a great show until both dramatically disappear under the water. Just seconds later, these folks find themselves with front row seats in the wildest splash zone ever!

WATCH: Sightseers get a whale of a surprise off B.C. coast


After brushing by several adorably curious seal pups, they spot a mom humpback whale and her calf way off in the distance.


Dear Amy: I am writing to you regarding people sharing pictures of children in the buff on Facebook, Instagram or other social media.
I have a girlfriend who constantly posts naked pictures of her 3-year-old son.
Even worse, some of these photos were taken on a public beach. Imagine the looks from others as they stroll by!
To me, this is not only distasteful, but also dangerous.
I am afraid that some of the "friends" from Facebook or Instagram could be pedophiles who might take advantage of this innocent boy!
I discussed this with my mother and her mother, and both women are concerned.
When we suggested to the friend's mother that she should discuss this with her daughter, she said she would get defensive and maybe stop talking to her.
I want to confront her about this through a private message. How can I approach this? -- Fully Clothed
Dear Clothed: I think this practice is risky (and disrespectful to the child, who cannot consent).
Those photos can wind up anywhere (well beyond her own Facebook circle), and the photos of these innocent children can be grabbed and shared by pedophiles, who will hoard and trade them. The pictures will also surface off and on for the rest of the child's life.
I am not offended by the sight of a nude young child at the beach, but in this day of secret photographing and photo-sharing, I agree that this, too, carries risks.
Reacting to posts and photos is expected on social media sites.
Rather than privately soliciting opinions about this and gossiping about it, you should feel free to share your point of view with the mother posting these photos.
I suggest sending her a private message and saying, "I really enjoy seeing pictures of your adorable son on Facebook and Instagram, but I worry that any nude pictures can fall into the wrong hands and be shared well beyond your own circle of trusted friends. I hope you'll think about possible unintended consequences when you post photos."
Every young child deserves to have adults in their life who respect and guard their privacy. Children are completely defenseless when it comes to the questionable judgment of their parents.
Dear Amy: My grandmother is 78 and lost her husband about 10 years ago.
I've noticed over the last five years that she has become very lonely and likes to do ALL the talking. Due to the distance between us, I am only able to see her one or two times a year and for only one or two days per visit. Spending time with her is not fun anymore. She never asks about me, my future husband, my upcoming wedding, etc.
She doesn't even ask me, "How are you doing?"
Our entire visit consists of her reminiscing about her past, and she will even cry over certain events, which results in me consoling her.
When it is time for me to leave after staying for a couple days, I feel as if I didn't get to actually talk to her. I feel like we are missing out on these years we have together.
I hope this doesn't make me seem selfish. I love my grandmother dearly; we used to talk till the cows came home, and it's not the same anymore.
I want to talk to her about it, but I am afraid I will hurt her feelings. What should I do? -- Worried
Dear Worried: You should be honest with your grandmother about your concerns: "Grammy, I'm worried about you. You seem so sad..."
It sounds as if she might be depressed. Older people are just as likely as anyone else to become depressed, but they aren't routinely screened for depression. Diagnosis and treatment could be a game changer for her. Speak to your parents (and/or her) about this.
Also, if you correspond with her by email or snail mail in between your visits, you will basically have the opportunity to tell her whatever news you have regarding your own life. Then when you are with her, you can say, "Remember how I wrote to you that I'm engaged? I have some pictures of my fiance -- do you want to see them?"
Dear Amy: The question from "Sad" broke my heart. Sad's younger sister was abusing the party drug Molly, and Sad was upset because her sister was mad at her when she intervened.
I wish more people cared enough to intervene and let a family member be mad at them. Anger fades. -- Also Sad
Dear Sad: Exactly.

Children in the buff shouldn't be on Facebook


Dear Amy: I am writing to you regarding people sharing pictures of children in the buff on Facebook, Instagram or other social media.


SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Letting his hair go au natural and sprinting between drills as usual, Colin Kaepernick took the field Sunday with the San Francisco 49ers as his stance against standing for the national anthem drew chatter across NFL camps.
Two days after he refused to stand for the “The Star Spangled Banner” before the 49ers’ preseason loss to the Packers, Kaepernick stopped briefly on a side field to talk with Dr. Harry Edwards and they shared a quick embrace before the quarterback grabbed his helmet and took the field. Edwards is a sociologist and African-American activist who helped plan the “Olympic Project for Human Rights” before the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, where U.S. sprinters and medallists Tommie Smith and John Carlos bowed their heads through the anthem on the medal podium in their black power protest.
Kaepernick, whose hair had been in cornrows during training camp, sat on the bench during Friday’s national anthem at Levi’s Stadium, a decision he told NFL Media is based on the United States oppressing African Americans and other minorities. Kaepernick’s adoptive parents are Caucasian.
After swirling trade talks all off-season following Kaepernick’s three surgeries, he has done everything so far but play good football.
Coach Chip Kelly said Saturday he still hasn’t decided on his starting quarterback in a competition between Kaepernick and Blaine Gabbert. Kelly wasn’t scheduled to address the media Sunday, but said a day earlier he planned to talk about Kaepernick’s choice with the team.
Kaepernick also didn’t stand for the anthem before the preseason game on Aug.20 with Denver, Kelly has said.
“We recognize his right to do that. So, it’s not my right to tell him not to do something. That’s his right as a citizen,” Kelly said. “We recognize his right as an individual to choose to participate or not participate in the national anthem.”
Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz said after his team’s exhibition victory against the Jets on Saturday night that the American flag deserves respect — no matter the circumstances in the U.S. or beyond.
“The flag is the flag,” Cruz said. “Regardless of how you feel about things that are going on in America today, and the things that are going on across the world with gun violence and things of that nature, you’ve got to respect the flag, and you’ve got to stand up with your teammates. It’s bigger than just you, in my opinion. I think you go up there, you’re with a team, and you go and you know you pledge your allegiance to the flag and sing the national anthem with your team, and then you go about your business, whatever your beliefs are.
“Colin is his own man, he decided to sit down and that is his prerogative, but on a personal standpoint, I think you have to stand up there with your team and understand and it’s this game and what’s going on around this country is bigger than just you.”
Buffalo Bills coach Rex Ryan said Sunday he believes players and coaches should stand for the anthem to show respect and give thanks to members of the armed forces.
“You’ve got to look at the gifts that we have, the opportunity that we have to play a great game is through the men and women that serve our country,” Ryan said before practice on Sunday. “And I think that’s an opportunity right there just to show respect.”
The easy thing to do is to make fun of Kap and his play. How about trying to understand where he's coming from....but that would be too hard — Adrian Clayborn (@AJaClay) August 27, 2016

Kaepernick creates stir, gets NFL talking after anthem protest


SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Letting his hair go au natural and sprinting between drills as usual, Colin Kaepernick took the field Sunday with the San Francisco 49ers as his stance against standing for the national anthem drew chatter across NFL camps.


OTTAWA — The Canadian economy shrivelled in the second quarter to its worst performance in seven years, Statistics Canada said Wednesday.
The federal agency said real gross domestic product fell at an annualized rate of 1.6 per cent in the three-month period, due in large part to the wildfires that destroyed parts of Fort McMurray, Alta. That’s the biggest quarterly decline since the second quarter of 2009 when Canada was in the midst of the global financial crisis.
The contraction reported Wednesday compared with growth at an annual pace of 2.5 per cent in the first quarter, which was revised from an initial reading of 2.4 per cent.
Economists had expected a drop of 1.5 per cent in the second quarter, according to Thomson Reuters.
“It wasn’t pretty, but it wasn’t expected to be,” Avery Shenfeld of CIBC Capital Markets said in a research note.
The drop in GDP came as exports of goods and services fell 4.5 per cent in the quarter following a 1.9 per cent increase in the first three months of the year. Exports of goods were down 5.5 per cent, while exports of services grew 0.6 per cent.
Already hurting from the drop in energy prices, the Alberta wildfires dealt a blow to the energy sector, forcing the evacuation of Fort McMurray and shutdown of several oilsands operations in the region.
Energy product exports fell 7.5 per cent, with crude and bitumen exports declining 9.6 per cent and refined petroleum products down a whopping 19.6 per cent. Motor vehicles and parts also dropped 5.8 per cent due to lower exports of passenger cars and light trucks.
Exports of aircraft and other transportation equipment and parts were up 5.6 per cent.
However, despite the pullback for the quarter as a whole, the economy ended the quarter with growth in June.
Statistics Canada said real GDP rose 0.6 per cent that month, boosted in part to non-conventional oil extraction as production in the Alberta oilsands region started to resume. Economists had expected a gain of 0.4 per cent for the month, according to Thomson Reuters.
Mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction climbed 3.6 per cent in June, boosted by 12 per cent gain in non-conventional oil extraction.
“The best news was that June GDP rebounded with a brighter than expected 0.6 per cent gain, and less than half of that came from the rebound in mining/oil/gas, as manufacturing also had a healthy gain,” Shenfeld said.
“All told, a quarter we will like to forget, and for the next few months, a more supportive Q3 will help us do just that.”
The second-quarter result reported Wednesday was worse than forecast by the Bank of Canada in its July monetary policy report. The central bank had predicted that the economy would contract at an annual rate of 1.0 per cent during the second quarter due to the damage caused by the wildfires.
But the Bank of Canada has also predicted that growth will pick up in the third quarter to an annual pace of 3.5 per cent as oil production ramps up and rebuilding efforts begin in Fort McMurray. It also expects the federal government’s new Canada child benefit and a boost to infrastructure spending to lend a hand to the economy.

Canadian economy shrinks in second quarter, worst showing since financial crisis


OTTAWA — The Canadian economy
shrivelled
in the second quarter to its worst
performance in seven years, Statistics
Canada said Wednesday.


TORONTO — Josh Donaldson only played the part of a Viking on TV, but he did lay waste to the Minnesota Twins’ pitching staff on Sunday afternoon.
The Toronto slugger, who made a cameo appearance on the History television show Vikings earlier this year, smacked three home runs off three different pitchers in front of 47,444 delighted fans to lead the AL East leading Blue Jays to a 9-6 victory over the Twins.
The Jays, who picked up the series sweep, came back to win for the second time in as many games.
In the third, Donaldson launched a solo home run off Minnesota starter Kyle Gibson to the second deck in left to give the Jays a 2-1 lead and then hammered a two-run homer to centre in the seventh off reliever Pat Light to put Toronto ahead 6-5. Donaldson was up to his old tricks again in the eighth when he crushed a homer to centre, this time off of Alex Wimmers.
It was his first career three-home run game.
The Rogers Centre faithful celebrated the milestone hit with chants of “MVP! MVP!” and by throwing hats on to the field — the baseball version of a hat trick. The 2015 AL MVP jumped out of the dugout and waved in acknowledgment.
Shortstop Troy Tulowitzki also hit a home run for Toronto, a solo job in the sixth, while Jose Bautista went 3-for-5, including a double.
Donaldson’s hat-trick marked the 21st time in Jays history a player hit three dingers.
It was a roller coaster type day for the third baseman. The Bringer of Rain fouled a Gibson offering pitch hard off his knee early in the game, made a throwing error to second which resulted in the eventual first run by the Twins and in the bottom half of the inning, and then smashed two home runs.
He has now reached base in 23 of his last 24 starts and ranks second in the American League with 85 walks (Mike Trout had 90 prior to Sunday’s games).
Reliever Scott Feldman picked up the win in relief for the Jays.
R.A. Dickey started and went six innings, giving up five runs (three earned). Light earned the loss.
The Jays went all fundamental in taking a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first, when Bautista led off with a double to left-centre, a ball that either Minnesota outfielder Robbie Grossman (left) or Danny Santana (centre) should have caught. Instead, they collided and the ball hit the turf.
Donaldson, who earlier fouled a ball off his right knee in very painful fashion, flew out to centre to move Bautista to third and then Edwin Encarnacion brought Bautista home with a sacrifice to centre.
Twins manager Paul Molitor replaced Santana with Eddie Rosario after the inning as Santana left the game with an AC joint sprain as a result of the collision with Grossman.
Twins right fielder Max Kepler, who made the key diving error that allowed Melvin Upton Jr. to score the winning run on Saturday, hit into a 1-4-6 double play in the third inning to score Eddie Rosario from third, tying the game 1-1.
Donaldson made a throwing error in the top of the third that contributed to the Twins’ first run, but he made up for that with a line drive home run in the bottom half of the inning, smacking a 92 MPH, four-seam fastball by Gibson over the left field fence into the second deck for a 2-1 Toronto lead.
Kepler was the architect of the Twins’ second run when he hit a grounder back Dickey with one out in the fifth that scored Rosario from third, tying the game 2-2. The next batter, third baseman Trevor Plouffe, smacked a single to left to score Brian Dozier. The Twins jumped ahead 5-2 when DH Miguel Sano hit a single to left-centre, scoring Joe Mauer and Plouffe, who had moved to second on a wild pitch.
Leading off the sixth, Tulowitzki sent an 89 MPH two-seam fastball from Gibson just over the wall in deep centre to pull the Jays to within two. The next batter, Kevin Pillar, doubled into the gap between left and centre. The Toronto centre-fielder was moved over to third on a Melvin Upton Jr. grounder to short and then scored when Devon Travis stroked a single over the second baseman in right.
That prompted Molitor to pull Gibson from the game for reliever Pat Light who got Thole to hit into a double play to end the inning.
Bautista picked his third hit of the day, a single, to lead off the seventh and Donaldson followed with his second homerun on a 95 MPH four-seam fastball. With two out and two on in the same inning, Saturday’s hero, Upton Jr. smacked a double from reliever J.T. Chargois to score Tulowitzki and Pillar, making the score 8-5 Jays.
Jays’ closer Roberto Osuna gave up three hits and a run in the ninth.
Jays now head out on a crucial 10-day, nine game road trip starting on Monday with three in Baltimore and three in Tampa Bay and New York, with a day off on Thursday.
SBuffery@postmedia.com

Donaldson homers three times in Jays' triumph over Twin


TORONTO — Josh Donaldson only played the part of a Viking on TV, but he did lay waste to the Minnesota Twins’ pitching staff on Sunday afternoon.


As Brooke Henderson and two playing partners crested a hill and strolled down the 10th fairway Saturday at Priddis Greens, spectators scrambled for a sight-line.
Two balls were buried in the rough, another sitting pretty on the furthest finger of short grass.
Which one, a middle-aged man asked as he arrived on scene, belonged to Canada’s beloved blonde?
“Well, that’s the best drive,” replied another fan, pointing. “That’s gotta be hers.”
Indeed, it was.
From there, Henderson knocked a downhill wedge-shot onto the dance-floor.
She proceeded to the green.
The stampede of fans followed.
“You know, it's amazing,” Henderson said after Saturday’s third round at the 2016 Canadian Pacific Women’s Open not far from Calgary. “A couple times, I kind of had to pinch myself. And they're all here just for me, just to see me play. It's really surreal.”
With a three-day tally of 8-under 208, Henderson is currently nine shots off the pace of leader Ariya Jutanugarn.
The superstar-in-the-making from Smiths Falls, Ont., is likely too far back to contend for the trophy.
The 18-year-old Henderson is, however, running away with the popularity contest this week at Priddis Greens, and that won’t change Sunday.
Jutanugarn, joined by South Korea’s In Gee Chun and Sei Young Kim, will tee off her final round at 10:45 a.m.
The largest gallery will be long gone by then.
That train leaves the station — title sponsor Canadian Pacific will love that lingo — as soon as Brooke blasts her first tee-ball at 9:28 a.m., and you can bet there will be thunderous roars if Henderson starts to roll toward her readjusted goal of a Top-10 finish.
“I felt way better today, and I think feeling the energy from my massive crowds has definitely really helped that,” Henderson said after Saturday’s spin of 4-under 68, with five birdies and one bogey on her scorecard on the third day of the LPGA Tour shootout. “Through bad shots and good shots, they are supporting me and giving me a little bit of extra energy and positive vibes. That's really helped me the last two days.
“Starting out the day, I started with two birdies right away, was 2-under through the first couple holes and felt like I had some momentum. I just didn't really capitalize but I was able to, on No. 16 and No. 17, make two really big putts. That kind of energized me, energized the crowd, and made it a lot more fun.”
The spotlight, of course, can suck away some energy, too.
Henderson, who has repeatedly insisted she’s not too jet-lagged after returning from the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, irked on-site reporters Friday when she skipped out on interviews.
She didn’t leave anybody hanging Saturday.
Immediately after sinking a par putt on the finishing hole, she beelined for a handshake with the military man tending the Canadian flag on No. 18.
She didn’t miss anybody on autograph alley, either, scribbling her name and smiling for selfies for at least 25 minutes before finally reaching the clubhouse entrance.
Near the front of the line for a signature was 10-year-old Toryn Bosenko, who followed along Saturday with a sign that read ‘Go Brooke’ on one side and ‘Yeah, I play like a girl. Jealous??’ on the other.
If you’re searching for Brooke on Sunday, don’t be surprised to overhear something like this … ‘That’s the biggest crowd. It’s gotta be hers.’
It will be.
Has been all week.
“Ever since I was 14 and playing in the Canadian Open, I've had really big crowds and I've felt that support from home,” Henderson said. “But last year (in Vancouver), coming off a win in Portland, my first LPGA Tour victory, things were kind of to a new level. People were lining the fairways at 8:00 a.m. to see me, and that's kind of the way it is this year.
“Probably the biggest crowds I've ever played in front of and definitely the most in favour for me. It's definitely a lot of fun to play in front of, and I've been really enjoying it.”
wgilbertson@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/WesGilbertson

Talented teen Brooke Henderson winning popularity contest at Priddis Greens


As Brooke Henderson and two playing partners crested a hill and strolled down the 10th fairway Saturday at Priddis Greens, spectators scrambled for a sight-line.


Social media is still being flooded, mainly with righteous outrage, after San Francisco 49ers' quarterback Colin Kaepernick said he'll refuse to stand for the pre-game playing of the American national anthem.
Americans are a patriotic bunch. They love their country, and they love their flag, regardless of who sits in the Oval Office, and the Star Spangled Banner is their triumphant battle song, steeped in the language of valour and victory.
Anyone who has travelled to Smalltown, U.S.A., cannot help but notice red-white-and-blue bunting everywhere, even in the Rust Belt, with flags flying in front of virtually every house, even if the foundations are crumbling.
This is not a Canadian thing.
What Colin Kaepernick is doing in refusing to stand during the national anthem is not only disrespectful, but a snub to the country that provided him with the opportunity to grow from an adopted young boy into a NFL quarterback earning $128 million.
Try doing that anywhere else.
Yes, it takes talent, but talent is a dead end without opportunity, proper upbringing, and a society that rallies around the pride in achievement.
That said, Kaepernick is also a citizen of a nation with a Voltaire-like First Amendment that defends free speech.
So he can say whatever he wants to say.
His reasons for not standing for the anthem, he claims, are the result of racial tensions in America.
The police shootings of unarmed black men have gotten to him, including incidents in his home city of San Francisco where police relations with minorities has been circling the bowl since police pumped 20 bullets into a slashing suspect last year while the man was standing against a wall.
Two bullets maybe. But 20?
Back in 2012, in a sport more identifiable to Canadians, Michigan-born Boston Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas refused to attend a dinner with President Barack Obama to celebrate his team's winning of the Stanley Cup.
"I believe the federal government has grown out of control, and threatening the rights, liberties and prosperity of the people," he wrote in a statement.
Again, disrespectful, and unappreciative of the country that helped make him a well-paid superstar, but all within his rights under the First Amendment.
But, unlike with Kaepernick, there was not a stadium filled with fans to bear witness to Thomas's snub.
All this comes at a time when the NFL executive has banned the Dallas Cowboys from continuing to have an arm-in-arm decal on their helmets to support the families of the five Dallas police officers murdered in an ambush last month by a black army reservist with a multitude of mental issues.
Some see this as a double-standard, with Kaepernick receiving no disciplinary action from the NFL, but the Cowboys being told to cease and desist.
The difference, of course, is that the Cowboys are an organization ruled by the NFL, while Kaepernick is a private citizen protected by the First Amendment.
As with Tim Thomas, it doesn't make him less of a jerk.
It just allows him to illustrate it.
markbonokoski@gmail.com

Kaepernick's got a point, and a right to make it, but he's still a jerk


Social media is still being flooded, mainly with righteous outrage, after San Francisco 49ers' quarterback Colin Kaepernick said he'll refuse to stand for the pre-game playing of the American national anthem.


Jihadists and terrorists are actively planning attacks in Canada, according to a new report from the Trudeau government.
Meanwhile, our law enforcement agencies claim that red tape and legal loopholes are stopping them from protecting Canadians.
On Thursday, the Federal Department of Public Safety released a report demonstrating that several terrorist groups and their supporters are active in Canada.
The chilling report tells us what we have long suspected.
We are, by no means, immune to the turmoil and bloodshed of jihadist insurgents.
At least 180 individuals with a connection to Canada are overseas fighting alongside terrorist organizations. That’s up from 130 known terrorists in 2015.
But those individuals aren’t necessarily the problem for Canada right now. A far greater security concern is the jihadists who are here in Canada.
The report discusses two types of terrorists in Canada: wannabe jihadists who have had their passports removed and therefore cannot travel to places like Syria and Iraq, and those who already went overseas to fight for the terrorists but have since returned to Canada.
Despite having significant information about these dangerous jihadists, there are major roadblocks in laying criminal charges and convicting both types of terrorists.
First, let’s look at the jihadists who are grounded in Canada.
Both men who murdered members of the Canadian Forces in Quebec and Ontario in October, 2014 were prohibited from leaving Canada.
So was Aaron Driver, killed by the RCMP in Strathroy, Ontario earlier this month.
In all three cases, the individuals were known and even monitored by authorities.
But this was not enough to stop them from planning deadly attacks.
Despite receiving significant information from agencies such as CSIS and the FBI, the RCMP are often powerless to act.
RCMP Deputy Commissioner Mike Cabana told CTV News Thursday that police receive information about violent jihadists, but they “cannot proceed with criminal charges” because of legal limitations placed on them by our court system.
Known terrorists are able to plan attacks and recruit new members because our law enforcement officials are bogged down with legal technicalities that prevent them from doing their job.
The second terrorist threat to Canada is from returned foreign fighters.
The Paris attacks, as well as the Brussels airport bombing, were carried out, in part, by jihadists who had travelled to Syria and then returned home to Europe.
There are about 60 known returned foreign fighters in Canada, according to the federal government’s report.
And yet, in most cases, these individuals are living freely in Canada, without any criminal charges.
Our authorities simply don’t know what to do with them.
According to Larry Brooks, a former CSIS counter-terrorism official, it’s tough to prove to a Canadian judge that an individual participated in terrorism overseas.
In an interview with Postmedia, Brooks discussed the challenges of gathering incriminating information from a foreign combat zone.
“It’s tremendously difficult to collect credible evidence that would satisfy a Canadian court for prosecution,” said Brooks.
Believing in an extreme Islamist doctrine is not illegal.
Nor should it be, in a free society.
But traveling overseeing or attempting to travel overseas to join a foreign army is against the law.
We need to remove legal loopholes that allow terrorists to stay out of jail, and we need to give police and prosecutors the tools they need to charge and convict terrorists who have broken Canadian laws.
Our safety and security depend on it.

Police stymied in pursuing Canada’s jihadists


Jihadists and terrorists are actively planning attacks in Canada, according to a new report from the Trudeau government.


NEW ORLEANS — Actor, writer and director John Schneider, best known as Bo Duke from The Dukes of Hazzard, thought the first flood he experienced at his Louisiana production studio was bad.
Now, he knows there are different levels of what’s considered “bad.”
Schneider’s Livingston Parish-based studio — which includes his home, offices, cars, wardrobe, sound stages, and more — flooded in mid-March but the water didn’t get into his 116-year-old home. This time around, he wasn’t as lucky.
He says overflow from the Tickfaw River this month inundated all of his property in Holden, flooding his home with about 4 feet of water as well as another house in which his mother lives. He says he’s lost a lot of memorabilia and equipment but his situation is not unique. About 90% of the homes in the parish were flooded.
Still he says the response by friends and strangers has been amazing.

'Dukes of Hazard' star's Louisiana home flooded


Actor, writer and director John Schneider, known for his past role on The Dukes of Hazzard and current role on The Haves and the Have Nots, thought the first flood he experienced at his Louisiana production studio was bad.


CHICAGO — NBA star Dwyane Wade’s cousin was shot and killed in Chicago while pushing her baby in a stroller near a school where she intended to register her children. Wade lamented on Twitter what he called another “act of senseless gun violence.”
Nykea Aldridge, 32, had recently relocated to an area on the city’s South Side, her family said.
On Friday, Aldridge was near the school, which is about a mile and a half southwest of the University of Chicago, when two males walked up and fired shots at a third man but hit Aldridge in the head and arm. She wasn’t the intended target, police said.
Family provided this pic of Nykea Aldridge, shot at 63/Calumet this afternoon, while pushing a stroller. @nbcchicago pic.twitter.com/jXfnwzTtrR — Katie Kim (@KatieKimNBC) August 27, 2016
Police are questioning witnesses in the shooting but had no suspects in custody.
Wade, a native of Chicago who signed with the Chicago Bulls in July after 13 years with the Miami Heat, posted on Twitter: “My cousin was killed today in Chicago. Another act of senseless gun violence. 4 kids lost their mom for NO REASON. Unreal. #EnoughISEnough.”
My cousin was killed today in Chicago. Another act of senseless gun violence. 4 kids lost their mom for NO REASON. Unreal. #EnoughIsEnough — DWade (@DwyaneWade) August 27, 2016
Chicago has been plagued by gun violence for years, especially in a few South and West Side neighbourhoods. This July alone, there were 65 homicides — the most that month since 2006.
A day earlier, Wade had participated via satellite in a town hall meeting in Chicago on gun violence hosted by ESPN, along with his mother, pastor Jolinda Wade. Dwyane Wade’s charitable organization, Wade’s World Foundation, does community outreach in the Chicago area.
Outside the emergency room where Aldridge was pronounced dead, Jolinda Wade clutched her sister and spoke for the family as mourners stood in a circle holding hands and praying. She said she’d participated in the ESPN town hall meeting “never knowing that the next day we would be the ones that would actually be living and experiencing it.”
“We’re still going to try to help and empower people like the one who senselessly shot my niece in the head,” Jolinda Wade said. “We’re going to try to help these people to transform their minds and give them a different direction.”
It is not the first time Dwyane Wade’s family in Chicago has been affected by gun violence. His nephew, Darin Johnson, was shot twice in the leg on the South Side in 2012 but recovered.
Chicago had recorded 381 homicides by the end of July, up 30 per cent from the same period of 2015. Its murder rate is higher than the more populous cities of New York and Los Angeles.
Family members are caring for Alridge’s baby, who wasn’t hurt.

Dwyane Wade’s cousin shot dead while pushing baby in stroller


NBA star Dwyane Wade’s cousin was shot and killed in Chicago while pushing her baby in a stroller near a school where she intended to register her children.


NEW YORK -- Has Col. Sanders' nephew inadvertently revealed to the world the secret blend of 11 herbs and spices behind KFC's fried chicken empire?
The company says the recipe published in the Chicago Tribune is not authentic. But that hasn't stopped rampant online speculation that one of the most legendary and closely guarded secrets in the history of fast food has been exposed.
KFC's secret recipe revealed? Tribune shown family scrapbook with 11 herbs and spices https://t.co/k0ieLSbcPI pic.twitter.com/gg3NygwFqN — Chicago Tribune (@chicagotribune) August 19, 2016
It all started when a reporter visited with Joe Ledington, a nephew of Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Col. Harland David Sanders.
The reporter was working on a story for the Tribune's travel section about Corbin, Kentucky, where the colonel served his first fried chicken. At one point, Ledington pulled out a family scrapbook containing the last will and testament of Sanders' second wife, Claudia Ledington.
On the back of the document is a handwritten list for a blend of 11 herbs and spices to be mixed with two cups of white flour. While Joe Ledington initially told the reporter that it was the original recipe, he later said that he didn't know for sure.
KFC -- which is a subsidiary of Yum Brands Inc. -- calls its recipe "one of the biggest trade secrets in the world." It says that the recipe the reporter saw is not the real thing.
"Many people have made these claims over the years and no one has been accurate -- this one isn't either," KFC said in a statement.
The Louisville, Kentucky-based company says that the original recipe from 1940 handwritten by Sanders is locked up in a digital safe that's encased in two feet of concrete and monitored 24 hours a day by a video and motion detection surveillance system.
Joe Ledington could not immediately be reached for comment on Friday.
THE COLONEL'S FAMOUS RECIPE (maybe, maybe not)
Social media is lighting up on the possibility that, at long last, Col. Sanders' 11 herbs and spices have been revealed. KFC says it hasn't, and the original source, a relative, now says he doesn't know. Anyway, here it is.
The 11 spices:
2/3 tsp salt
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp basil
1/3 tsp oregano
1 tsp celery salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp dried mustard
4 tsp paprika
2 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp ground ginger
3 tsp white pepper
Method
Mix spices above with 2 cups of white flour

The colonel's secret recipe revealed? Not so fast, says KFC


NEW YORK -- Has Col. Sanders' nephew inadvertently revealed to the world the secret blend of 11 herbs and spices behind KFC's fried chicken empire?


A popular bakery in Northern California is caught at the centre of a heated debate on social media over a transgender "Ken Doll Cake" that it said it made for a customer.
Freeport Bakery, a well-known business in Sacramento, posted a picture online nearly two weeks ago showing a special-ordered cake that depicted Ken wearing a puffy pink dress, flowery sash and a tiara.
The cake triggered controversy on Facebook, with people calling it "truly disgusting" and claiming that the owners were putting their "morals n standards for sale."
"Naively, I guess I just thought this is a really cool cake, and look at how great they did with the butter cream," Marlene Goetzeler, co-owner of the bakery, told Fox affiliate KTXL. "What's wrong with a Ken cake?"
In 1987, Walter and Marlene Goetzeler bought Freeport Bakery and grew it into a booming business, according to their website. Over the years, it has been named best bakery by Sacramento Magazine readers.
After Freeport Bakery posted the picture on Aug. 13, Marlene Goetzeler said, she started seeing negative comments and soon noticed that she was losing Facebook fans.
The owners admitted on social media that they first deleted the "ugly" comments from the Facebook page because they "didn't want drama." Only a handful of negative comments remain with the photo.
The bakery also said that, after a flood of support for the owners, some of the negative commenters took down their posts.
"I was shocked that somebody would be offended," Marlene Goetzeler told KTXL.
"A customer requested a Ken doll cake and we were happy to make it; she loved the cake when she picked it up," Walter and Marlene Goetzeler said in a statement. "We were especially proud of its buttercream detail so we decided to post a photo of it on our Facebook page, as we do with many of the cakes we design and adore. We got some lovely responses along with some negative feedback."
"We reposted the picture asking for support from our Facebook friends," the owners said. "Luckily, we have received that support and so much more from our fans, devoted customers and staff."
Amid an intense debate the past several years over LGBT rights, including same-sex marriage, businesses across the country have made news for refusing to serve same-sex couples.
Last year, Azucar Bakery in Colorado was accused of violating a customer's civil rights for declining to decorate a cake with anti-gay messages, including, "God hates gays." The Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies later ruled that the bakery had the right to do it.
The past week, supporters have been urging Freeport Bakery's owners to "ignore the haters."
"Amazing!" one wrote. "Love this bakery and love that you are inclusive and welcome ALL."
Another added: "With a lot news reports saying in other states refusing to make wedding cakes for same-sex marriages, you make me proud to live in a diverse and accepting community! You have my support!"
One person said such a controversy over a cake was "silly."
"By society's definition I'm transgender and that fact is I am also human," the commenter wrote. "We as a educated society should stop acting so ignorant. We should be more civilized than this. Don't hate the creator of the cake because for those who are religious and take offense would you hate our creator God? Remember God makes no mistakes. As true as that is I say he has quite the sense of humor when he created me."
Some customers outside the bakery seemed to take a more neutral stance.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion," Karen Dixson told NBC affiliate KCRA.
"There's always going to be two sides," Ashley Nelson told the station. "People support it or they don't."
Chad Graham, who told the station that he attended the birthday party for which the Ken Doll Cake was created, said the recipient is neither transgender, nor attempting to make some sort of statement.
"I thought it was a little ridiculous," Graham said about the issue. "It was just cake."

'I was shocked that somebody would be offended'; Bakery's transgender Ken doll c


A popular bakery in Northern California
is caught at the centre of a heated
debate on social media over a
transgender


Mick Jagger will reportedly pay a five-figure monthly sum to ballet dancer Melanie Hamrick once she gives birth to his eighth child.
The 72-year-old has been dating the 29-year-old on-and-off for the last two years, with the ballerina unexpectedly falling pregnant during the Rolling Stones' tour of South America earlier this year.
The ageing rocker will welcome the latest addition to his brood in December, and in preparation for the tot's arrival, he has reached a legally-binding financial settlement with Melanie to ensure mother and baby's needs will be well taken care of.
The hefty payments are said to be around $15,000 a month until the child turns 18, meaning the mother-to-be, who currently lives in New York, will bank an estimated total of $3.3 million.
Melanie will even have a house bought for her, according to U.K. newspaper the Daily Mirror.
It echoes a deal Jagger previously hammered out with his former Brazilian fling Luciana Gimenez, mother of his love child Lucas. Jagger cheated on then-partner Jerry Hall with Luciana, and it was the news of the tot's birth in 1999 which eventually led to the end of the long-term couple's romance.
The rocker already has four children with Texan-born model Jerry - Elizabeth, James, Georgia and Gabriel, as well as daughter Jade with first wife Bianca Jagger, and another girl, Karis, now 45, with actress Marsha Hunt.

Mick Jagger strikes five-figure money deal with pregnant lover


Mick Jagger will reportedly pay a five-figure monthly sum to ballet dancer Melanie Hamrick once she gives birth to his eighth child.


SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium — Nico Rosberg won an incident-packed Belgian Grand Prix featuring a chaotic start, wild overtaking, a heavy crash, safety cars and a red flag.
The Mercedes driver’s win on Sunday saw him close the gap to nine points on teammate Lewis Hamilton, who finished third behind Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo as the resurgent Australian driver secured a third straight podium finish.
“It’s been a great weekend, very, very happy with that result,” Rosberg said after his 20th career win. “Congrats to Lewis, last place to third must be pretty impressive.”
Rosberg started from pole position with teen driver Max Verstappen also on the front row. Hamilton started from the back row with Fernando Alonso, after both incurred multiple grid penalties for extra engine part changes this weekend.
“Lewis wasn’t out there to battle it out, so that made it an easier weekend,” Rosberg said. “It all worked out fine.”
For him at least.
Verstappen was involved in a first-turn collision with the Ferraris of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel that shaped the race.
It had a beneficial effect on Hamilton and Alonso, who avoided the early carnage in front of them, then gained places when the safety car came out after Danish driver Kevin Magnussen’s crash.
Magnussen emerged from the wreck, hobbled away and was taken to hospital for checks for a cut to his left ankle. He escaped serious injury.
German driver Nico Hulkenberg was a season’s best fourth ahead of Mexican Sergio Perez and Vettel, while Alonso was seventh, Raikkonen ninth and Verstappen 11th.
The race start was clean enough for Rosberg, but it was mayhem behind him.
The 18-year-old Verstappen, the youngest driver to ever start on the front row, was overtaken by Raikkonen and Vettel, and then aggressively tried to go for the inside heading into the first turn — even though there was very little room.
The impeded Ferraris were now squeezed wide and, as a consequence, Raikkonen came across and nudged into the side of Vettel.
Verstappen blamed them, saying “they just turned into me” but the incident was the latest of several involving the Red Bull driver. Verstappen became the youngest driver to win a race when he clinched a brilliant victory at the Spanish GP in May.
His talent is undoubted, but his aggression is not to everyone’s liking. Later in the race, he again infuriated Raikkonen, a rare feat considering the Finn’s nickname is “The Ice Man” for his usually unflappable demeanour.
Raikkonen came in for a front nose change but the pit crew also had to put out a small fire under his car.
Others struggled as the manic tempo continued.
Spaniard Carlos Sainz lost control when his rear right tire blew out, sending him pirouetting to an improvised halt on the grass. He then acrobatically drove back across the track, with his rear right wheel up in the air, before parking at the side of the track.
The incidents prompted the safety car to come out on lap three, and when the race re-started a lap later Sainz, Marcus Ericsson, Jenson Button and Pascal Wehrlein — who hit Button from behind — had all retired.
The safety car emerged again after Magnussen lost control of his Renault coming out of the top of the hill at Eau Rouge, spinning at speed and slamming backward into the barriers.
On lap 10 of 44, the race was halted as the red flag came out, because the barrier Magnussen crashed into needed repairing.
When the race resumed 20 minutes later, the top five was Rosberg-Ricciardo-Hulkenberg-Alonso-Hamilton.
In a fascinating sub-plot, Verstappen and Raikkonen were involved in another incident as Verstappen appeared to nudge him wide.
Raikkonen — who is twice Verstappen’s age — let his frustration out, saying “his only interest is to push me off the track.”
Then, as they battled for 13th place, Verstappen zig-zagged in front of him as he tried to hold position, prompting Raikkonen to use an expletive when describing Verstappen’s driving as “ridiculous.”
Hamilton overtook Hulkenberg on lap 18, leaving just Ricciardo and Rosberg ahead of him.
With no traffic, however, Rosberg was pulling away.
Hamilton came in for new tires on lap 22, switching to softs, and was down in ninth when he came back out after a slow pit stop.
But with others changing tires, he was soon back up to third.
“This is the best result I could have hoped for,” said Hamilton, who said on Saturday that he was aiming for a top-10 finish. “Our performance today was stronger than I expected. Third (place) is something definitely helped by the safety car.”
Meanwhile, the Ferrari-Verstappen duel continued with Vettel overtaking the Dutchman.

Lewis Hamilton manages to finish 3rd as teammate Nico Rosberg wins chaotic Belgi


Nico Rosberg won an incident-packed Belgian Grand Prix featuring a chaotic start, wild overtaking, a heavy crash, safety cars and a red flag.


JACUMBA, United States — An American border guard steps out of his vehicle onto a dusty desert road, seeking to chat with the strangers he sees milling about the mesquite bushes a few metres from Mexico.
His team catches a dozen migrants crossing here illegally each day, he says. A few dozen others slip through, he figures. Evidence lies in the sand, in the discarded bits of cloth desert-walkers placed under their shoes to hide their footprints.
The conversation turns to Donald Trump. He’s asked whether Trump’s proposed border wall would halt the flow of migrants crossing through California’s Yuha Desert. He doubts it. There’s already a wall across almost one-third of the border — people still get over.
“You’d need to get rid of all the ladders in Mexico,” he says.
“If you build a bigger wall, they build bigger ladders... They’ve got fine engineers in Mexico, I have no doubt.”
Trump is now wrestling with difficult realities for his immigration plan. Some are political. His new attempt to soften his message for a general-election audience risks fracturing his own base, which was largely built on his immigration stance.
Some involve practical questions: Does Trump plan to cut off U.S. access to the Rio Grande? A wall already covers part of the border; the rest is mostly river. Does he actually intend to deport 11 million people in the U.S. illegally? If so, what’s the plan to prevent the collapse of industries that rely on migrant labour? And, if not, does that mean breaking his pledge against granting legal amnesty?
A sombre monument nearby belies the idea of simple solutions here.
A cemetery of unmarked graves is filled with people who perished crossing the border. Thousands have died — their numbers grew the last time politicians tried fixing the border, during the Clinton administration in the 1990s.
A partial wall went up in the populated areas near San Diego and Tijuana by the ocean, built from old scraps of metal that belonged to the military. As steel sheets and poles rose in the west, migration routes moved east, toward new threats: the desert, the river, and the human smugglers.
Enrique Morones leads a group praying in the cemetery. They’re volunteers with his organization Border Angels, which deposits jugs of water in the desert to keep people from dehydrating or roasting to death in the scorching desert sun.
Migrants generally cross when it’s cooler, he says — especially at night. Yet accidents happen constantly. People get lost and disoriented. The water bottles run empty — sometimes vandals cut them.
“When we say, ’I’m dying of thirst,’ it’s just an expression. For them it’s real,” says Morones, who used to work in marketing for baseball’s San Diego Padres before turning to full-time work as an activist and public speaker.
“Every summer there’s more deaths because of that wall than in the entire history of the Berlin Wall.”
Hugo Castro is among the volunteers dropping water. He usually works in the fields — numerous crops grow in the valley near the Holtville cemetery, including cantaloupe, lettuce, watermelon and cabbage.
He said many workers go back to Mexico at night because they can’t afford lodging in California. He said many make $40-$50 for a 10-hour day in the field, head south, wake up before 2 a.m., and return in the morning: “They cross daily.”
He said many workers have legal papers to cross — himself included.
Many don’t.
The effect of undocumented labour extends all the way to Canada’s kitchen tables. Whether or not they’re aware of it, Canadians have a distant personal connection to the migrants who’ve become a major U.S. election issue.
In a literal sense, Canada eats the fruits of their labour. Dennis Nuxoll of the Western Growers farming association said of the 400,000 farm workers in California alone, the majority are believed to have falsified work documents.
They pick delicate crops that can’t be harvested by machine — especially grapes, tomatoes, strawberries and lettuce.
“If these workers disappeared tomorrow, we could not harvest many of the crops that Canadians consume,” Nuxoll said.
These workers are unnerved by the election.
The sound of a transistor radio crackles in the vineyards, in an elegant winery near Napa. The owner says staff have been listening to Spanish-language political radio lately, not music, while they work.
She admits she’s unsure whether they all have legitimate documents. There’s such a labour shortage in the area, she says, that she’s grateful for the workers she has: “I don’t know what we’d have to do if we had to hire.”
Trump’s immigration plan, meanwhile, is in flux. Where he once promised to deport all illegal migrants. he now says he would force them out — then allow an unspecified number back in, require them to pay back taxes, and grant legal status.
A shift in tone won’t mollify Morones.
“I don’t want anything to do with him,” he said of Trump. “He represents the worst of the American spirit, and in my eyes he’s not welcome here.”

'You’d need to get rid of all the ladders in Mexico'; Donald Trump’s border wall


An American border guard steps out of his vehicle onto a dusty desert road, seeking to chat with the strangers he sees milling about the mesquite bushes a few metres from Mexico.


Forty four years after the Canada-Russia Summit Series, the World Cup will seek to generate that elusive sense of raw conflict that Ken Dryden calls “us against them”.
“There really isn’t a ‘them’ for us anymore,” said Dryden. who joined ‘72 teammate Pat Stapleton Monday to promote an interactive big-screen stage show with a revolving cast of eight players in the four cities where the maple leaf met the hammer and sickle.
“Canadian fans keep hoping that the Russians will become the next them again. And the assumption is because of our relationship with the United States, it would be great if they became ‘them’. The U.S. is getting better, but you don’t want it to be your once poor cousins, because that would suggest something has happened to (our game).
“For the rest of the world, they do have a ‘them’ and that’s us.”
Perhaps the Cold War conditions of ‘72 can never be re-created when cell towers are now erected where the Berlin Wall once stood. The ‘87 Canada Cup probably came closest with three 6-5 thrillers and Sidney Crosby’s golden goal in 2010. Yet nothing put the country through an emotional wash and rinse cycle like September of ‘72.
Those who played -- a few have passed on and others such as Dryden and Stapleton are at or near 70 -- aren’t looking at the tour to re-hash their individual stories, as much to re-unite and find out from each other what they might have missed in those crazy four weeks. They also want to hear what it was like on the home front while they battled Soviet skullduggery in Moscow to the climactic Game 8.
“There is a time limit on our group,” Stapleton said with a hint of sadness. “But the most important thing about this tour is an educational component (the shows in Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver will be recorded for public posterity). People want to know the lessons we learned.”
Until last year, when a sold-out trial of the tour was held in St, Catharines, Dryden completely forgot that he slumped into a bus seat next to Stapleton after the stunning 7-3 Game 1 loss in Montreal and mumbled ‘What just happened?’ Stapleton, a Game 1 scratch, had already been talking to fellow defenceman Bill White about what would be required to get back in the series.
“If you just tell a crowd it was all about team work, they’ve heard that a thousand times,” Dryden said. “It was those little things like Pat and I on the bus or hearing about Rod Gilbert’s brother (who called him ‘a disgrace’ after Montreal). Those are the really revealing things.
“We were in emotional disarray after Game 1. What was it like for Gilbert and Jean Ratelle? They had played 10 years in the NHL and from the time they were eight years old, the puck always belonged to them. Now they’re sitting beside each other asking if either even touched the puck on the last shift. Now they have to find an answer when put in a situation where you have no idea. You know the answer has to be with other people, finding a way to work it out.”
Dryden, Stapleton, Serge Savard, Yvan Cournoyer, Peter Mahovlich, Dennis Hull, Brad Park, Bob Clarke and seldom seen coach Harry Sinden are among the potential list for Toronto.
Stapleton vividly remembered all the telegrams and postcards that flooded into Moscow after the Canadians arrived, trailing in the series and with a couple of unused players bailing for home. The good luck messages all went on the wall outside the dressing room, including one Stapleton saved from Canadian-born bandleader Guy Lombardo.
Far from home, Dryden took heart in reading many of them.
“A lot of the words were terrific, but what really got me was where they were from; Arnprior, Ont., Red Deer, Alta., Amherst, N.S. It was like ‘Holy man, this is from everywhere’.”
Regular tickets for the Toronto show at the Sony Centre range from $81.93 to $341, with some discounts for group purchases and a Meet and Greet/VIP package ranging from $577 to $2,200 that includes drinks and a team-signed sweater.
All 37 players and coaches from ‘72, regardless of ice time, including the families of the deceased, share in any revenue that might result, though Stapleton emphasized “education, entertainment and charity” causes were the three pillars when the team formed its own corporation a couple of years ago.
DA, DA, CANADA
‘Da, Da Ca-na-da, Nyet, Nyet Soviet’.
Ken Dryden recites that chant by Canadian fans at Luzhniki Ice Palace like a favourite childhood nursery rhyme, a memory from Moscow that his team were not alone so far behind enemy lines.
“One fan decided that ‘Go Canada Go’ wasn’t quite enough and came up with Da Da Canada,” Dryden laughed. “All it would take was that one person, then it would be 10 and then all 3,000. All of us players were fans, too, and could imagine being put in that situation.”
When Dryden could finally bring himself to watch highlights of the whole series -- waiting about 15 years because he still found it so nerve wracking -- the footage from Russia was most captivating.
“The sound of the crowd, the different look of the arena. It wasn't so much the games, but hearing Foster Hewitt’s voice. The sound quality wasn’t that great, like an old war correspondent from the battlefront. His thin voice, the crackly sound ... you had a fear the line was going to get cut.”
LHornby@postmedia.com
twitter.com/sunhornby

'72 Summit Series teammates embark on Canadian tour


Forty four years after the Canada-Russia Summit Series, the World Cup will seek to generate that elusive sense of raw conflict that Ken Dryden calls “us against them.”


OTTAWA -- Former prime minister Stephen Harper will resign today as a member of parliament.
Harper will issue a statement later this morning, 10 months after he lost the federal election and stepped down as Conservative party leader.
But the 57-year-old had chosen to stay on as an MP for his Calgary riding and routinely showed up for votes in the House of Commons over the last few months.
Harper was first elected as a Reform MP in 1993 and would go on to become the first leader of the modern day Conservative Party in 2003.
Since last fall's defeat, he and his wife Laureen have been living in their Calgary home.
Harper will now make a move into consulting on international issues alongside two of his most trusted former advisers.


Former prime minister Stephen Harper
will resign today as a member of
parliament, The Canadian Press has
learned.


BEIRUT — The Islamic State group’s spokesman and chief strategist, who laid out the blueprint for the extremist group’s attacks against the West, has been killed while overseeing operations in northern Syria, the group announced Tuesday.
The IS-run Aamaq news agency said Abu Muhammed al-Adnani was “martyred while surveying the operations to repel the military campaigns in Aleppo,” and vowed to avenge his death. It did not provide any further details on when or how he died.
If confirmed, it would be a major blow to the extremist group, which has been on the retreat in Syria and Iraq, where the borders of its self-declared Islamic caliphate have been steadily eroded in recent months.
Al-Adnani, whose real name is Taha Sobhi Falaha, persistently called for attacks against the West, which paid off in bloody notoriety with the Nov. 13 co-ordinated attacks in Paris that hit a concert hall, a stadium and restaurants and bars, leaving 130 people dead and hundreds wounded.
Al-Adnani is a Syrian who was born in the northern province of Idlib and is believed to be in his late 30s. He crossed the border and joined al-Qaida in Iraq, a precursor to IS, after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
In late June 2014, he formally declared the establishment of a caliphate, or Islamic state, stretching across parts of Syria and Iraq, under the leadership of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and demanded allegiance from Muslims worldwide.
A powerful orator, he went on to become the voice of IS. He released numerous, lengthy audio files online in which he delivered fiery sermons urging followers to kill civilians in nations that supported the U.S.-led coalition against the group.
“If you can kill a disbelieving American or European — especially the spiteful and filthy French — or an Australian, or a Canadian, or any other disbeliever from the disbelievers waging war, including the citizens of the countries that joined a coalition against the Islamic State, then rely upon Allah, and kill him in any manner or way however it may be,” al-Adnani said in 2014.
In other speeches he referred to U.S. President Barack Obama as “an idiot” and Secretary of State John Kerry as an “uncircumcised old geezer.”
Earlier this year, he called for massive attacks during Ramadan — a call that translated into the bloodiest Muslim holy month in recent memory. Followers of IS carried out attacks on several continents, including the Orlando shooting, the Nice truck attack in France and a massive suicide bombing in downtown Baghdad.
Adnani also disparaged Saudi Arabia and its influential clerics for failing to rally behind the rebels that the monarchy supports in Syria like they did decades ago in Afghanistan.
There was no immediate comment or confirmation of his death from Washington.
Aleppo, where Aamaq said al-Adnani was killed, is a current focal point of the civil war in Syria, where IS, Syrian Kurdish forces, Turkey-backed rebels and President Bashar Assad’s forces are vying for control. The province is frequently struck by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes as well as Russian air raids.
Aamaq vowed revenge against the “filthy cowards in the sect of disbelief.” It said a generation raised in IS-held territory would avenge al-Adnani’s death.
The Islamic State group has suffered a string of defeats in recent weeks, including in Aleppo province, where Turkish troops and allied Syrian rebels drove IS out of the border town of Jarablus last week.
In Iraq, the group has lost its strongholds in Fallujah and Ramadi, in the western Anbar province. It still controls Mosul, but Iraqi forces are gearing up for a long-awaited operation to retake the country’s second largest city.
It has also lost some of its most senior commanders and founding members over the past year, including its “minister of war” Omar al-Shishani, feared Iraqi militant Shaker Wuhayeb, also known as Abu Wahib, as well as a top finance official known by several names, including Abu Ali Al-Anbari.

Islamic State group says chief strategist killed in Syria


BEIRUT — The Islamic State group’s spokesman and chief strategist, who laid out the blueprint for the extremist group’s attacks against the West, has been killed while overseeing operations in northern Syria, the group announced Tuesday.


TORONTO -- The union representing workers at the Canadian operations of the major American automakers has received a strike mandate from its members as it prepares to negotiate contracts.
Unifor says its members at General Motors, Ford Motor Company and Fiat Chrysler Automobile voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action to back contract demands.
Unifor President Jerry Dias says the clear mandate shows full support for the union's bargaining committees.
He says the union won't accept deals with any of the three automakers unless they show a commitment to invest in Canada's auto sector.
The union is threatening job action if it doesn't get an agreement before midnight on Sept. 19.
Dias says the three companies have done well financially since the last contracts were negotiated four years ago and it's time to reward workers.
"Our demand for new investment is not just about us. It is about maintaining and creating good paying jobs, it's about our communities and it's about the next generation," Dias says in a statement released Sunday.
Last month, Dias said that negotiating wage increases and other benefits would be moot if there are no plants in Canada to employ the workers.
The union will select one of the automakers to start negotiations and use the contract reached with that company as a pattern for negotiations with the other two companies.
Unifor says it will announce which company will be first up in negotiations on Sept. 6.
Unifor represents some 23,000 workers at the three companies and is Canada's largest private sector union boasting more than 300,000 members in all.

Canadian workers at Detroit Three automakers give union strike mandate


The union representing workers at the Canadian operations of the major American automakers has received a strike mandate from its members as it prepares to negotiate contracts.


STOCKHOLM -- More than 300 wild reindeer have been killed by lightning in central Norway.
The Norwegian Environment Agency has released eerie images showing a jumble of reindeer carcasses scattered across a small area on the Hardangervidda mountain plateau. The agency says 323 animals were killed, including 70 calves, in the lightning storm Friday.
Agency spokesman Kjartan Knutsen told The Associated Press it's not uncommon for reindeer or other wildlife to be killed by lightning strikes but this was an unusually deadly event.
"We have not heard about such numbers before," he said Monday.
He said reindeer tend to stay very close to each other in bad weather, which could explain how so many were killed at once.
"I don't know if there were several lighting strikes," he said. "But it happened in one moment."
Knutsen said the agency is now discussing what to do with the dead animals. Normally, they are just left where they are to let nature take its course, he said.
Thousands of reindeer migrate across the barren Hardanangervidda plateau as the seasons change.

Lightning strike kills more than 300 reindeer in Norway


More than 300 wild reindeer have been killed by lightning in central Norway.


Former prime minister Stephen Harper resigned from his Calgary Heritage parliamentary seat Friday, marking his exit from politics.
In a Facebook and video message to Canadians, he thanked them for the opportunity to serve and outlined what he believes were the major accomplishments of the Conservatives under his leadership.
“We united all Conservatives behind our agenda,” he said. “We cut taxes, made critical investments and balanced the national budget. We got tough on crime and put families first. We managed our G7 economy through the worst global recession since the Great Depression, and came out in the strongest position of them all. We took principled decisions in a complex and dangerous world. And, whether at home or abroad, we were always proud to stand up for Canada.”
As Harper leaves politics to set up a consulting firm in Calgary, his critics will contest all of these claims. They are free to do so.
Our readers know our view. We would have preferred he was still prime minister.
One of many things we admired about Harper was that while politicians like to think of themselves as the smartest people in the room, Harper typically was the smartest person in the room.
During last year’s election campaign, for example, when Liberal leader Justin Trudeau promised Canadians three years of modest deficits before returning to a balanced budget, Harper joked this commitment was absurd given Liberal campaign promises.
“He’ll run, he says, a modest deficit, a tiny deficit, so small you can hardly see the deficit,” Harper joked, squeezing his fingers together.
“And only for three years, three deficits, three modest little deficits.”
So what happened?
During the election, Trudeau promised “modest” deficits of $9.9 billion in 2016-17, $9.5 billion in 2017-18, $5.7 billion in 2018-2019 and a $1 billion surplus in 2019-2020.
After the election, in Trudeau’s first budget as prime minister, he almost tripled his projected 2016-17 deficit to $29.4 billion, followed by $29 billion in 2017-18, $22.8 billion in 2018-19, $17.7 billion in 2019-20 and $14.3 billion in 2020-21, with no balanced budgets in sight.
That’s one of many things we admired about Harper.
He was nobody’s fool.


Former prime minister Stephen Harper resigned from his Calgary Heritage parliamentary seat Friday, marking his exit from politics.