Bluesfest, Baltovich and a sad story from Carleton
If the flip-flops and short-shorts cropping up on patios across the city aren't signs enough that summer is here - or at least nearby - perhaps the launch earlier this morning of the 2008 Bluesfest lineup is.
Now I admit, last year's festival was one for the memory books, what with Van Morrison and Bob Dylan opening the event on the grounds of the Canadian War Museum and Sharon Jones and the Dapp Kings shutting it down it ten days later. Squished in between were the likes of Final Fantasy, Femi Kuti, Cat Power, Metric, Kanye West, and Ottawa's own Jim Bryson and Jetplanes of Abraham.
This year, Dylan's star quality may be gone, but it's been replaced by something far, far sweeter. FEIST! My long-lost prayers to the universe to bring her back to Ottawa after last May's one-night only, sold-out show at the Bronson Centre (which, sadly, I did not attend) are finally being answered. She plays the horribly-named Bank of America mainstage on Friday July 4th.
Other notable acts this year include: the Tragically Hip, Corb Lund, the Black Crowes, Jose Gonzales, Christine Fellows, the Weakerthans, Tokyo Police Club, Jakob Dylan, Jim Bryson, Plants and Animals, The Acorn, Bettye LaVette, Calexico, Martha Wainwright, Don McLean, Jason Collett, Stars, Jetplanes of Abraham, Lucinda Williams and Kathleen Edwards. There are, of course, tonnes more but theses are ones that caught my eye. You can check out the full schedules by stage here.
Kathleen Edwards, by the way, was on the David Letterman Show last night. Jim Bryson played keyboards. If you missed it, I'm sure it's all over YouTube. Okay, I just checked and there are no videos posted from Letterman, but there are a bunch of videos by random people doing covers.
In other news, it was a welcome sight to see Robert Baltovich walk out of a Toronto court yesterday a free man. Baltovich was convicted of second-degree murder in 1992 following the disappearance of his girlfriend, Elizabeth Bain. He sat in prison until 2000, when he was released pending a review of the case. In 2004, a new trial was ordered.
Bain's body has never been found and Baltovich's conviction was based wholly on circumstantial evidence. The prosecution said as much yesterday in court when, instead of launching headlong into its opening statement, it admitted there was "no reasonable prospect of a conviction." Derek Finkle is a journalist who has covered the case and his piece on the Globe and Mail's site is an excellent primer.
The case first caught my attention in 1996, when I was taking OAC Law in my final year of high school. Even then, the popular theory was that Bain had actually been a victim of Paul Bernardo, the serial rapist and killer convicted in the murders of Kristin French and Leslie Mahaffy. I can't help but think about all of the things I've done since I sat in that dusty classroom in Woodstock, Ontario, and all of the things Robert Baltovich could have done with his life if he hadn't been wrongly convicted.
I do hope there is further justice for him, though his lawyer, James Lockyer, was quoted in the Globe and Mail as saying that Baltovich will not seek compensation. In my mind, it's not something he should have to fight for; it's something he should just be given.
While justice may have prevailed in Toronto yesterday, the same cannot be said for Mexico it seems, where the Canadian woman Brenda Martin was found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison. From the sounds of it, steps are already underway to bring Martin back to Canada, but it remains to be seen whether she will serve more time in prison once she's back on Canadian soil.
It's been a hard story to follow and new facts or elements seem to continually come out. For instance, yesterday on As It Happens, I heard for the first time that she received a full year's salary as severance when she was fired from her job as a cook, and that's what caught the attention of the Mexican authorities because the money likely came from her employer's improprieties. Even still, it does sound like Martin's case was not given the due process it deserves.
Closer to home, the discovery Sunday afternoon of a body in the Rideau River in Ottawa has many convinced it belongs to Nadia Kajouji, an 18-year-old Carleton University student who's been missing since March 9th. Her family has been frantically searching for her, but I think most people figured the worst when it was revealed a few weeks ago that she had been taking anti-depressants, was depressed, and had even discussed suicide in an online chatroom with a woman from the United States. Sadly, her father has said publicly that the family was unaware of her struggles.
Carleton and the Kajouji family have both been quick to announce that the body belongs to the young woman, and it very likely could, but the autopsy results have yet to confirm that once and for all. Carleton has also been under pressure to re-consider how it deals with similar situations and the Kajouji family has asked why they were not informed of their daughter's condition. Carleton says it's matter of privacy and that the school has no right to contact a student's family.
While I agree a person's right to privacy is important, I often wonder if it's used too frequently as a reason for inaction. Nadia Kajouji needed help and her family needed to know that. Hopefully, Carleton will now find a way to balance the needs of both.
Now I admit, last year's festival was one for the memory books, what with Van Morrison and Bob Dylan opening the event on the grounds of the Canadian War Museum and Sharon Jones and the Dapp Kings shutting it down it ten days later. Squished in between were the likes of Final Fantasy, Femi Kuti, Cat Power, Metric, Kanye West, and Ottawa's own Jim Bryson and Jetplanes of Abraham.
This year, Dylan's star quality may be gone, but it's been replaced by something far, far sweeter. FEIST! My long-lost prayers to the universe to bring her back to Ottawa after last May's one-night only, sold-out show at the Bronson Centre (which, sadly, I did not attend) are finally being answered. She plays the horribly-named Bank of America mainstage on Friday July 4th.
Other notable acts this year include: the Tragically Hip, Corb Lund, the Black Crowes, Jose Gonzales, Christine Fellows, the Weakerthans, Tokyo Police Club, Jakob Dylan, Jim Bryson, Plants and Animals, The Acorn, Bettye LaVette, Calexico, Martha Wainwright, Don McLean, Jason Collett, Stars, Jetplanes of Abraham, Lucinda Williams and Kathleen Edwards. There are, of course, tonnes more but theses are ones that caught my eye. You can check out the full schedules by stage here.
Kathleen Edwards, by the way, was on the David Letterman Show last night. Jim Bryson played keyboards. If you missed it, I'm sure it's all over YouTube. Okay, I just checked and there are no videos posted from Letterman, but there are a bunch of videos by random people doing covers.
In other news, it was a welcome sight to see Robert Baltovich walk out of a Toronto court yesterday a free man. Baltovich was convicted of second-degree murder in 1992 following the disappearance of his girlfriend, Elizabeth Bain. He sat in prison until 2000, when he was released pending a review of the case. In 2004, a new trial was ordered.
Bain's body has never been found and Baltovich's conviction was based wholly on circumstantial evidence. The prosecution said as much yesterday in court when, instead of launching headlong into its opening statement, it admitted there was "no reasonable prospect of a conviction." Derek Finkle is a journalist who has covered the case and his piece on the Globe and Mail's site is an excellent primer.
The case first caught my attention in 1996, when I was taking OAC Law in my final year of high school. Even then, the popular theory was that Bain had actually been a victim of Paul Bernardo, the serial rapist and killer convicted in the murders of Kristin French and Leslie Mahaffy. I can't help but think about all of the things I've done since I sat in that dusty classroom in Woodstock, Ontario, and all of the things Robert Baltovich could have done with his life if he hadn't been wrongly convicted.
I do hope there is further justice for him, though his lawyer, James Lockyer, was quoted in the Globe and Mail as saying that Baltovich will not seek compensation. In my mind, it's not something he should have to fight for; it's something he should just be given.
While justice may have prevailed in Toronto yesterday, the same cannot be said for Mexico it seems, where the Canadian woman Brenda Martin was found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison. From the sounds of it, steps are already underway to bring Martin back to Canada, but it remains to be seen whether she will serve more time in prison once she's back on Canadian soil.
It's been a hard story to follow and new facts or elements seem to continually come out. For instance, yesterday on As It Happens, I heard for the first time that she received a full year's salary as severance when she was fired from her job as a cook, and that's what caught the attention of the Mexican authorities because the money likely came from her employer's improprieties. Even still, it does sound like Martin's case was not given the due process it deserves.
Closer to home, the discovery Sunday afternoon of a body in the Rideau River in Ottawa has many convinced it belongs to Nadia Kajouji, an 18-year-old Carleton University student who's been missing since March 9th. Her family has been frantically searching for her, but I think most people figured the worst when it was revealed a few weeks ago that she had been taking anti-depressants, was depressed, and had even discussed suicide in an online chatroom with a woman from the United States. Sadly, her father has said publicly that the family was unaware of her struggles.
Carleton and the Kajouji family have both been quick to announce that the body belongs to the young woman, and it very likely could, but the autopsy results have yet to confirm that once and for all. Carleton has also been under pressure to re-consider how it deals with similar situations and the Kajouji family has asked why they were not informed of their daughter's condition. Carleton says it's matter of privacy and that the school has no right to contact a student's family.
While I agree a person's right to privacy is important, I often wonder if it's used too frequently as a reason for inaction. Nadia Kajouji needed help and her family needed to know that. Hopefully, Carleton will now find a way to balance the needs of both.
posted by Capital Letters at 12:18 PM
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