April 13, 2009

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BUSINESS

THE ILLUSIONIST

Everything one needs to know about why Garth Drabinsky perpetuated one of the most audacious frauds in Canadian history can be gleaned from document 88960, submitted during his trial. It's the ultimate forensic evidence: a draft of a love letter the impresario wrote to his former girlfriend, Karen Popped, months before his theatrical empire, Livent, collapsed in 1998. By ANNE KINGSTON

MAIL BAG

IT’S ABOUT TIME that somebody stated that there is reason for optimism. Your cover story (“The case for optimism,” National, March 23) was very well-written and researched, touching on points that have been ignored by many. I sincerely believe that the continued media mantra of “if it bleeds, it leads” has only exacerbated the mess.

NATIONAL

OUR SO-CALLED GENIUS BANKS

One of the odder turns in the financial crisis has been the emergence of what can only be described as a worldwide cult of the Canadian banks. Yes, those Canadian banks: fat, slow, bone-stupid, deniers of loans and graspers of fees, easy targets for generations of lowrent columnists and politicians on the make. By ANDREW COYNE

INTERVIEW

Q: You are a showman of epic proportions, and yet offstage you are a very different person. Where do you go when you get up on stage? A: I surrender. I throw myself on the altar of song and I see my own personal musical life in fast flashes of faces and names and colours and sounds and I get lost in the euphoria of standing up there like Howlin’ Wolf or Otis Redding or David Bowie with a mike in my hand and an audience that’s ready.

HISTORY

THE PM FOR ALL SEASONS

In the judgment of historians, Pierre Trudeau doesn’t tend to rank among the big guys—Macdonald, Laurier and King—in the making of Canada. It would seem, though, that Canadians would beg to differ, judging by the reaction to his death 16 years after he left office in 1984. By BRIAN BETHUNE

BUSINESS

ECONO WATCH

The purists will tell you that Canada is not “officially” in recession yet. They won’t stamp it with the “R” word until they see two consecutive quarters of negative growth. Fair enough. But the steam is quickly coming out of the “I’ll believe it when I see it” crowd, and a quick look over Canada’s GDP report for January will tell you why. By STEVE MAICH

WORLD

EDGING IN FROM THE COLD

George W. Bush never included Syria on his list of countries making up what he described as an “Axis of Evil,” but it was clear that he considered the regime of Bashar al-Assad a security threat that needed to be isolated and punished. In April 2002, shortly after his Axis speech and at a time when the United States still seemed willing and able to take down hostile regimes, Bush said the time had come “for Syria to decide which side of the war against terror it is on.” By MICHAEL PETROU

NEWSMAKERS

A court in Malawi will decide on Friday whether Madonna, 50, will be permitted to adopt a fouryear-old girl named Mercy. Last Sunday, the pop star arrived in the southeast African country—| where an estimated one million children have been orphaned by AIDS—with her daughter Lourdes, 12, and adopted Malawian son David, 3, in tow.

April 62009