Hello 2019

Love to learn from others and will keep doing it. Graham Norton is one of my favourite talk show hosts and here you can find a lot of inside insights. “Exclusive: Graham Norton Reveals Secrets From His Show | Studio 10“.

I also watched these three clips of Hillary Clinton: a) Hillary Clinton Wishes She Had Done This During the Debates, b) Hillary Clinton didn’t want to attend Trump’s Inauguration, c) Hillary Clinton Is Worried About Donald Trump’s Tweets.

Q&A with Neil Gaiman (one year after Neil’s great commencement speech!)

C-SPAN: Joe Wong at RTCA Dinner

(Ref: Joe Wong: Building A Wall Didn’t Work For China, clip of .@JoeWongComedy wants to bring Chinese and Americans together – by making them both laugh)

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Sad 2018 #HumanRightsDay #MichealKovrig #MichaelSpavor #MengWanzhou #Huawei

Dec 23, 2018 update: Global TV News, (with video) “Canada’s ambassadors urging allies to push for release of Canadians detained in China: Freeland”

Dec 21, 2018 Global Affairs Canada Official statement: “Canada deeply concerned by arbitrary detention of two Canadians in China”

Dec 21, 2018 update: CBC News, “U.S. , UK, EU] joins Freeland in condemning ‘arbitrary detention’ of Canadians and calls for ‘immediate release’”

UK Gardian, “Canada demands China immediately release citizens detained in ‘retaliation’ arrests – US, UK and EU express support, after two Canadians held in seeming retaliation for arrest of Huawei executive”

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I’m sorry to say 2018 #HumanRightsDay (Dec 10th) was a sad day when former Canadian diplomat Micheal Kovrig (update: and Mr. Michael Spavor) were detained in China with no reason given. (China taking Mr. Kovrig as “hostage” over the arrest of Huawei CFO Ms. Meng Wanzhou?!) Where is due process? Where is rule of law? I understand he served as political lead on Prime Minster Trudeau’s visit to Hong Kong in September 2016, so on a personal note, I feel sorry for Consul General Mr. Jeff Nankivell and others in HK that Mr. Kovrig might have worked with in preparation of that 2016 visit.

How “lucky” Canadians must be to be stuck between two superpowers fighting a trade war? One superpower has a president that locks up human rights lawyers (including blind human rights lawyer) and makes dissidents “disappear”. The other superpower has a president who clearly sees himself above the law and has no idea of what “judicial independence” means. Even his former secretary of state recently said in public, “the president would say here’s what I want to do and here’s how I want to do it and I would have to say to him, Mr. President I understand what you want to do but you can’t do it that way. It violates the law.”

If there is #TeachableMoment in all this mess, it is that one must try to respect the rule of law, due process, and judicial independence. Even now it seems we really got used by both sides to fight their beeping trade war!
P.S. Incidentally, Trump/US government has imposed tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum using Section 232 of U.S. trade law claiming our steel and aluminum are “threats to American national security”.

P.P.S. Former Canadian Amb. to China Mr. Guy Saint-Jacques has this to say:

"In China, there's no coincidence": Former Canadian Amb. to China @guysaintjacque1 says, in his view, the arrest of former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig is part of China's effort to put political pressure on Canada over the arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou pic.twitter.com/xDd9rP9mpz

— Power & Politics (@PnPCBC) December 11, 2018

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This sentence (from a CBC News report) kinda highlights the difference between Huawei CFO Ms. Meng Wanzhou’s case and the trumped up detention of Mr. Michael Kovrig (currently on an unpaid leave of absence from the Canadian embassy): “China’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday denied knowledge of the detention of a former Canadian diplomat, as Chinese citizens rejoiced over a Canadian court’s decision to release a top Huawei Technologies executive on bail.”

The day White House spread doctored video

Nov 16, 2018 update: CNN (with video) “Judge orders White House to return Jim Acosta’s press pass”

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The doctored video @WhiteHouse tweeted out by @PressSec. For the record.

We stand by our decision to revoke this individual’s hard pass. We will not tolerate the inappropriate behavior clearly documented in this video. pic.twitter.com/T8X1Ng912y

— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) November 8, 2018

RT //Even by the standards of their serial-lying selves, this is bad stuff.// via @ddale8

1) Took @PressSec Sarah Sanders' video of briefing
2) Tinted red and made transparent over CSPAN video
3) Red motion is when they doctored video speed
4) Sped up to make Jim Acosta's motion look like a chop
5) I've edited video for 15+ years
6) The White House doctored it pic.twitter.com/q6arkYSx0V

— Rafael Shimunov 🔥 (@rafaelshimunov) November 8, 2018

//PEN America is suing President Trump for banning certain journalists from covering the White House and threatening to revoke credentials; now he has gone a step further by revoking the press pass of @CNN’s @Acosta, in a clear attack on the First Amendment.// BBC News, “White House suspends credentials for CNN’s Jim Acosta”

Very sad day!

‘Reflections on the Rule of Law in a Dangerous World’: The 2018 Sir David Williams Lecture by The Rt Hon. Beverley McLachlin

On Friday 19 October 2018, The Rt Hon. Beverley McLachlin delivered the 2018 Sir David Williams Lecture entitled “Where Are We Going? Reflections on the Rule of Law in a Dangerous World“. (more info: downloadable audio, photos)

Higher Loyalty – James Comey

Bought James Comey‘s “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership” the day it came out as a Kindle ebook and I’ve enjoyed reading it so far. And I got a chance to start reading the “James Comey’s memos” (PDF file) (via CNN).

Watched a whole bunch of Comey TV interviews and enjoyed all of them. Here are some samples.

And this BBC 22 minutes interview “James Comey on Donald Trump and the FBI”

26 Apr, 2018 update: James Comey gets real in CNN town hall

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Goodbye Beverley McLachlin

CBC News, Dec 18, 2017, “Beverley McLachlin reflects on Supreme Court career, dispute with PM Harper” (~13 minutes extensive interview)

CPAC, Dec 7, 2017, (~17 minutes video) “Beverley McLachlin Bids Farewell to Supreme Court”

December 14, 2017, CBC Radio, ‘We can do a lot better’: Retiring Beverley McLachlin on what’s wrong with our justice system

CBC Radio Ottawa, Dec 15, 2017 “Goodbye Beverley McLachlin – A retirement party fit for a Supreme Court Chief Justice.” (~10 minutes)

2017 Dec, “(video clips) CTV News Channel: McLachlin takes questions, pt. 1 (~12 minutes) pt. 2 (~9 mins)” – Beverley McLachlin’s farewell: Five quotes you need to know

Gala Dinner in Honour of Beverley McLachlin (full ~93 minutes video via CPAC)

~14:02 TRH former GG David Johnston (great speech, who is a legal scholar in his own right)
~21:02 TRH GG Julie Payette
~25:48 TRH Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
~36:01 TRH Prime Minister Jean Chrétien
~41:20 TRH Prime Minister Brian Mulroney (great speech)
~54:50 TRH former GG Adrienne Clarkson (great speech)
~1:14:50 Retired Chief Justice Beverley_McLachlin (LOVE this final address)

“Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin is honoured at an Ottawa dinner on the eve of her retirement. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, former prime ministers Jean Chrétien and Brian Mulroney, as well as former governors general David Johnston and Adrienne Clarkson pay tribute to Canada’s longest-serving chief justice. The event is organized by the National Judicial Institute. (December 14, 2017)”

Note: I’m looking forward CBC National’s Sunday December 17, 2017 in-depth interview by Rosie of the Chief. Will add a link when I see it. [update: Video interview has now been added!]

October random

* Phantom Thread is “reportedly Daniel Day-Lewis’s final performance in a film”. (Trailer)

* Iris Gaines: You know, I believe we have two lives.
Roy Hobbs: How… what do you mean?
Iris Gaines: The life we learn with and the life we live with after that.
– from The Natural (1984) (from my collection of Quotes I LOVE)

* Happy birthday Bill Gates! Future generations may remember you for your charitable work and your technical contributions as a footnote.

* A picture is worth 1.4 billion words. #china (Note: Trump craves absolute power so much that he sees no problem saying this: ‘He’s a powerful man… a very good person’)

* (with video) Lovely panel. Got me thinking of the old days of my friend Sarb (who has a Phd in neural networks (NN)) and I chatted about NN over our many lunch time walks in the late 90s. Cutting edge computer science remains fun for me.
//Overview
The Deep Learning Summit took place in Montreal on 10-11 October 2017 and brought together global AI pioneers including: Yoshua Bengio, Yann LeCun, and Geoffrey Hinton, as well as experts from companies including Intel, NVIDIA, Twenty Billion Neurons and Apple.
We’re currently working on the videos for the summit so please fill in the form below and we’ll email you when they’re ready.//

* Good interview/chat. 92nd Street Y Live chat (video) — with Whoopi Goldberg and Melissa Rivers.

* Highly recommended documentary viewing Abacus: Small Enough to Jail via @frontlinepbs #inspirational #國寶銀行

* Worth a watch. //It’s a fact: Supreme Court errors aren’t hard to find.//

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