Toronto police are taking DNA samples from everyone in the target demographic who lives in Holly Jones' neighbourhood. This doesn't strike me as good police work. To me, it give the impression that they have no leads whatsoever. Don't get me wrong, I have no objection to any action that results in the capture of a pedophile rapist murderer, but it does seem rather haphazard for your strategy to be "Okay, we'll test EVERYONE!."

Meanwhile, Time magazine is asking if anyone would notice if Canada disappeared. (This isn't a link to the Time article, but rather to an article in the Star refuting it. I'll get to this in a moment.) First of all, I hope that no one would notice if Canada disappeared. I see no shame in not being a major player on the global scene, and I would much rather be a minor player. Look what happens to superpower: they get enemies. Meanwhile, can you think of anyone who would declare war on Canada, other than the US?

Which brings me to my second point: as mentioned in the Star article, Canada will never be invisible as long as we don't blindly follow the US, because the US will always notice what they perceive as dissent. Some might say that we should toe the American line because we require them as defensive allies.

But think for a moment about if Canada was attacked. Canada has a lot of land mass, more land mass than most countries can conceptualize. Who could conceivably conquer Canada and keep the entire country under control? Russia, China, and the US. And I would find it very hard to believe that the US would welcome Russia or China as their new neighbour. And it is certainly to the US's advantage not to have to actively defend their borders, so making a military enemy of Canada would be stupid (which, judging from the current administration isn't to say it wouldn't happen).

But I digress. My point is that it is to Canada's advantage not to be perceived as a global player (because look what happened to the US), but if anyone is feeling particularly emasculated by the idea of not being noticed, the best way to be noticed is to continue with policies that are slightly at odds with what the US would like.

However, it looks bad for the Star to refute this issue in print. It would be so much classier for the nation to just collectively shrug and say "Globally irrelevant? So?" and continue decriminalizing marijuana and controlling firearms and providing universal medicare while pretending not to notice the US jumping around like Yosemite Sam.