Canada awarded a South Korean man refugee status after he objected to the mandatory military service in his home country for being a pacifist and a homosexual, a local human rights group said Thursday.

The Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) granted the status in July 2009 to Kim Kyung-hwan, 31, saying the gay conscript is highly likely to face abuse and mistreatment back home, according to the Center for Military Human Rights in Korea, which brought the story to light two years after the fact.

In South Korea, all able-bodied South Korean young men are required by law to serve nearly two-year compulsory military service.

There have been many “conscientious objectors to military service” who chose to serve prison terms instead of entering the military against their political and religious beliefs. But Kim’s case marks the first time in the country that a man seeks shelter in a foreign country after rejecting military conscription due to his homosexuality, according to the rights group.  [Yonhap via the Marmot's Hole]

Maybe the celebrity, chaebol kids, and athlete draft dodgers can now just claim they are gay instead of paying off doctors to fake injuries?

China is set to embrace Canada’s offer of more crude, heating up competition with the United States as the world’s top two oil consumers jostle to secure supplies and meet ravenous demand.

Shipments from a politically stable country such as Canada will be a welcome diversification of supply sources as top consumers make plans to deal with a supply shock if tensions in the Middle East escalate and choke off Iranian exports, barely a year after markets coped with a disruption from Libya.

Canada’s plan to ship crude to Asia got a boost after Prime Minister Stephen Harper said his nation would step up efforts to supply the region after the United States delayed a decision on a pipeline supply link.

“A Canadian source could offer a diversity of supply attractive particularly to North Asia,” said John Vautrain, director at consultancy Purvin & Gertz. “Canada is a stable country, not subjected to geopolitics, and the crude would be valued in the market to make it competitive.”  [Reuters]

Though China is willing to purchase the Canadian oil, South Korea and Japan may not unless they are willing to invest possibly billions in oil refining infrastructure:

Regardless of how much crude Canada has to sell, other Asian buyers in the Pacific — South Korea and Japan — may not be so keen to take more because the crude has API gravity below 20, which makes it one of the heaviest, or of lowest quality.

“The refining capacity is being expanded and with more supply issues, they can take the crude if it is at their doorstep,” said Kang Wu, senior advisor at FACTS Global Energy. “But that’s a big if.”

The low quality means other Asian buyers will have to blend with better crudes and reduce the sulphur content before processing, cutting into profits from processing each barrel. Or refiners have to build so-called secondary units that are capable of producing cleaner-burning fuels from low quality oil.

“Upgrading means you have to add a new unit and you have to retire some other units. That’s a tough choice that involves millions and billions of dollars of investment,” Wu said.

Getting back to the US-Canada pipeline, I am betting after the US Presidential election this pipeline will be approved no matter who wins the election.  I think President Obama had to delay this pipeline simply to appease his left wing base before the election and will turn on them afterwards if he wins because he knows building this pipeline is what is good for the nation.

A rural Gatineau, Que., family is angry at police who raided their home armed with loaded guns looking for a marijuana grow-op, which turned out to only be a skunk that lived on their property.

Auto mechanic Oliver MacQuat was home alone just before 8 p.m. Thursday when he saw flashing lights outside.

He thought a small water-bottling plant next door was being robbed, but then he heard a knock at his door.

The father of two was met by Gatineau officers who declared they had a warrant to search his home and arrest him.

“I thought I was going to have a heart attack,” said MacQuat, who was handcuffed and seated on a stool while officers searched his home.

“That scared the living daylights out of me. They were very respectful, but it’s very humiliating to be wearing handcuffs and to have people going through your house.”

He was told the skunk smell — which is noticeable when driving by — was also similar to that of a grow-op.

MacQuat insisted the skunk thought it was spring after the unusually mild winter weather but police were adamant it wasn’t a skunk.- Toronto Sun

MacQuat has every right to be angry. He and his wife’s life were put in danger by overreaching police. Don’t law enforcement need more than a smell for probable cause?

Hat tip- The Agitator

A frustrated Toronto Maple Leafs fan who threw waffles on the ice at the Air Canada Centre will have to admire his team from afar.

Joseph Robb was charged with criminal mischief and barred from the arena for throwing waffles on the ice at a Maple Leafs game to protest the team’s performance this season. The 12-17-4 Leafs were 28th out of the NHL’s 30 teams entering Wednesday’s games.

Robb, of Oakville, Ontario, says he’s “just a normal Leafs fan, I love them to death.”

Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment vice president Bob Hunter says Robb’s actions during Monday night’s game against the Atlanta Thrashers were inappropriate.- Associated Press

The waffles in question were uncooked Eggos, but we don’t know what flavor. No syrup was found on the offending waffles.

Robb has been banned from other sporting events because of  his unruly behavior. He’s an out of control jerk, IMHO.

“The degree of comfort with which Canadian broadcast entities, including those financed by Canadian tax dollars, twist current events to feed longstanding negative images of the U.S. — and the extent to which the Canadian public seems willing to indulge in the feast — is noteworthy as an indication of the kind of insidious negative popular stereotyping we are increasingly up against in Canada,” the cable said.

A trove of diplomatic cables, obtained by WikiLeaks and made available to a number of publications, disclose a perception by American diplomats that Canadians “always carry a chip on their shoulder” in part because of a feeling that their country “is condemned to always play ‘Robin’ to the U.S. ‘Batman.’ ”  [via The Marmot's Hole]

You can read more at the link to include what Canada’s own intelligence director had to say about his country.

Personally I have only gone to British Columbia a few times when I was stationed at Ft. Lewis and had no issues.  BC is a beautiful place just like the American Northwest.   I have also worked with a number of Canadians in the military and never had any problems.

However, I did one time in Australia have a Aussie come up to me when he heard my American accent and he asked me if I was a North American?  I told him yes I am from North America.  He then asked which country and I told him I am from the United States.  He then told me that he has to ask people he runs into that have an American accent if they are from North America because if he mistakenly asks a Canadian if they are from America some of them get snotty with him.

He then told me that it appeared the US relationship is much like Australia and New Zealand.

When Alexandra and her friend Rachel, both graduates of Toronto’s Havergal College, an all-girls private school, were deciding which university to go to, they didn’t even bother considering the University of Toronto. “The only people from our school who went to U of T were Asian,” explains Alexandra, a second-year student who looks like a girl from an Aritzia billboard. “All the white kids,” she says, “go to Queen’s, Western and McGill.”Alexandra eventually chose the University of Western Ontario. Her younger brother, now a high school senior deciding where he’d like to go, will head “either east, west or to McGill”—unusual academic options, but in keeping with what he wants from his university experience. “East would suit him because it’s chill, out west he could be a ski bum,” says Alexandra, who explains her little brother wants to study hard, but is also looking for a good time—which rules out U of T, a school with an academic reputation that can be a bit of a killjoy.

Or, as Alexandra puts it—she asked that her real name not be used in this article, and broached the topic of race at universities hesitantly—a “reputation of being Asian.”

Discussing the role that race plays in the self-selecting communities that more and more characterize university campuses makes many people uncomfortable. Still, an “Asian” school has come to mean one that is so academically focused that some students feel they can no longer compete or have fun. Indeed, Rachel, Alexandra and her brother belong to a growing cohort of student that’s eschewing some big-name schools over perceptions that they’re “too Asian.” It’s a term being used in some U.S. academic circles to describe a phenomenon that’s become such a cause for concern to university admissions officers and high school guidance counsellors that several elite universities to the south have faced scandals in recent years over limiting Asian applicants and keeping the numbers of white students artificially high.  [Macleans]

Make sure to read the entire article at the link.

This article is from Canada, but apparently this same sense of entitlement by non-Asians is happening in American universities as well. Really when you think about it, if an article such as this was written about barring black people from universities for whatever reason there would be outrage.  However, since Asians don’t have the coveted “special victim status” people actually take seriously that Asians should be banned from colleges for being too smart.

Since Tom is going to university in Canada maybe this is why he is pissed off at whitey all the time, or he could just be a Chinese agitprop like some have claimed?

Prime Minister Stephen Harper will visit the demilitarized zone between South and North Korea on Monday, Harper’s aides announced Saturday.

Harper, who arrived in Hong Kong Saturday, will travel to Seoul, South Korea, Sunday night.

His itinerary, released in Ottawa last week, included an address to the South Korean National Assembly, the first Canadian prime minister to be accorded that honour.

On Saturday, his aides said he would travel to the demilitarized zone and they said he would also visit a cemetery near there where Canadians killed in the Korean War are buried.  [Ottawa Citizen]

Does anyone know where this Canadian cemetery near the DMZ is located?  I have never heard of it before.  I know there are Canadians buried at the UN Cemetery down in Busan, but I have never heard of Canadian soldiers buried anywhere else in Korea.

For those interested I recommend reading these two postings in regards to Canada’s involvement in the Korean War:

• Heroes of the Korean War: Lieutenant Colonel J.R. Stone
• Profile of the Canadian Korean War Memorial

A Toronto man who contracted HIV from his former stripper wife is hoping he’s alive to see her get deported to Thailand.

“I am not going to give up my fight,” Percy Whiteman said of his ex, Suwalee Iamkhong. “My life is not a game for anyone to play with.”

Whiteman and his lawyer appeared before a Federal Court of Canada last Thursday in an ongoing battle with immigration officials to get Iamkhong deported due to her criminal record. The case was remanded until Jan. 4.

He has launched a $30-million lawsuit against the Canada Border Services Agency and Zanzibar Strip Club in Toronto in connection with the case.

He claims Iamkhong, 40, a former stripper at the Zanzibar, was allowed into the country with HIV and that led to his life being placed in jeopardy. Lawyers for the government are trying to have the case thrown out.

“I am the one who’s suffering with HIV,” Whiteman said. “My life is on the line and nothing has happened to her.”

The pair were married from 1997 to 2004, when she told him that she had HIV.

Iamkhong arrived in Canada in 1995 and danced at the Zanzibar until 2004. Before that, she had worked as a prostitute in Thailand.

A manager from Zanzibar said today he was not aware of the lawsuit, adding it may have been before his time there.

Iamkhong was sentenced in August, 2007 to two years in jail after being convicted of criminal negligence causing bodily harm for infecting Whiteman.- Edmonton Sun

Even though they are no longer married, under Canadian law Whiteman is still financially responsible for Iamkhong till 2011. I somewhat understand Whiteman’s anger if Canadian immigration failed in their duty. I don’t know if the country’s immigration laws allow someone who is HIV positive to immigrate. Though I have to ask, how couldn’t Whiteman have a clue about his wife’s background?

For over twenty years I worked at one healthcare job or another. Mostly as a radiology technician. AIDS patients and those who test HIV positive always made us wary if not scared. As I and others worked with were only human, we sometimes let our fears alter the way we reacted go these patients. It is human nature to have fears but as professionals we shouldn’t let it interfere with  our work.

When I was stationed at Balboa in 1986, a Marine family came through the Naval Hospital. I had some brief interaction with Mutsuko Gaffney and her year-old son John. Both had AIDS,  Mutsuko getting infected after receiving a tainted blood transfusion at a Naval Hospital in 1981.  Mutsuko gave AIDS not just to her son born in 1985 but caused her husband Martin to become HIV positive also. Another daughter by some miracle did not get the AIDS virus from her infected mother. By 1992, Maureene Gaffney was the only member of her immediate family still alive.

The Gaffney story was horribly tragic. An incompetent Navy doctor allowed her to go to 44 weeks pregnant. This caused the baby to die in utero and a caesarian section had to be performed.  Mutsuko lost blood due to the surgery and had to get a transfusion. The blood had been donated a day or two earlier by a service member who was eventually discharged for engaging in homosexual activity.

Mutsuko was a worried mother when we met.  She was sick but her main concern was for her son. I did the job I was assigned but without much enthusiasm. Mutsuko and John Gaffney would both be dead within a year or so and they deserved better from the Navy.

I didn’t meet Martin Gaffney, but I heard of his anger at what had been done to him and his family.  The Gaffneys were being destroyed because of the failures of others. Martin Gaffney sued the federal government and won a settlement of over Three million dollars. By the time he was paid, Gaffney was days away from dying.  He was a Marine to the end, he fought all the battles he faced and with courage.  He and his family were failed by those who were supposed to do their utmost to help.

A Canadian truck driver has been fined for smoking in his vehicle because it is considered his workplace, a police spokeswoman said on Friday.

A police officer saw the 48-year-old trucker driving on a highway in southwestern Ontario with a cigarette in his mouth on Wednesday, and gave him a C$305 ($290) ticket.

The Smoke-Free Ontario Act, adopted in 2006, prohibits smoking in an enclosed workplace or enclosed public area, and that extends to work vehicles, said Constable Shawna Coulter of the Ontario Provincial Police in Essex County.- Reuters

Personally, I hate cigarettes. My mother died of lung cancer at age 53 and I have never once used a tobacco product. I do however feel a person should be able to smoke in private or in open air public places.

Ottawa has taken its complaint against a Korean ban on Canadian beef to the World Trade Organization, a government official said Tuesday. Eight other countries have agreed to arbitrate on the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body.

They are the U.S., the EU, Brazil, Argentina, China, India, Japan and Taiwan. The panel’s decision is binding on WTO members.

There is speculation that the panel will favor Canada because the U.S., the EU, Brazil and Argentina are major beef exporters. If so, Korea will face pressure to resume imports of Canadian beef, which were stopped after an outbreak of mad cow disease in Canada in 2003.

Korea has upheld the ban although Canada was classified by the world organization for animal health (OIE) as a “controlled risk” country for BSE, citing a new case of BSE in May. Canada says this breaches international trade norms.  [Chosun Ilbo]