Canadiana Crossword - New Brunswick Phenoms

This puzzle, composed by the ubiquitous Bernice Rosella and James Kilner, celebrates Canadians from the province of New Brunswick. For the Canada-illiterate, New Brunswick is the Canadian province to the northeast of the State of Maine. The province of Quebec is its neighbor to the northwest. There is a bridge which connects New Brunswick with the tiny province of Prince Edward Island, and while the ocean is to the east, New Brunswick is connected to the province of Nova Scotia by a tiny strip of land in its southeast corner.

R. B. Bennett was Prime Minister from 1930 to 1935. McCain Foods, which produces one-third of the world's french fries, was mentioned in an earlier Canadiana Crossword, but Harrison McCain wasn't mentioned. Louis Meyer was born in Minsk, then Russia, now Belarus, but moved to New Brunswick. Ron Turcotte was born in Drummond, and was the jockey for Secretariat. St. John is one of the larger cities of New Brunswick, and Donald Sutherland was born there. To me, he'll always be famous for the line "Less of the negative waves, Moriarty." K. C. Irving owns, among many other things, all of the newspapers in New Brunswick.

I've never heard of poet Carman Bliss until today. While Dalton Camp was never elected to Parliament, he had a large influence as a political commentator. Don Messer was a folk tune fiddler with a television show in the 50's and 60's. Sam Goldwyn came from Warsaw, Poland to New Brunswick.

The puzzle seems to have a bug in it, with Erle being shown as incorrect.

And speaking of things which are incorrect, Richard Warman is suing four Canadian bloggers, Ezra Levant, Five Feet of Fury, Free Dominion, and small dead animals. I believe Eric Scheie has a good summary of Warman's lawsuit so far. You would be well rewarded to follow the many links in that post. Here is a useful bit from Kathy Shaidle, author of Five Feet of Fury:

Richard Warman used to work for the notorious Human Rights Commission, which runs the "kangaroo courts" who've charged Mark Steyn with "flagrant Islamophobia."

Richard Warman has brought almost half these cases single-handledly, getting websites he doesn't like shut down, and making tens of thousands of tax free dollars in "compensation" out of web site owners who can't afford to fight back or don't even realize they can.

The province of British Columbia had to pass a special law to stop Richard Warman from suing libraries because they carried books he didn't approve of.

Richard Warman also wants to ban international websites he doesn't like from being seen by Canadians.

The folks named in his new law suit are the very bloggers who have been most outspoken in their criticism of Warman's methods.


Kate at small dead animals is pretty straightforward when she says...

Someone in media asked me in private conversation why this issue is so heated, so personal. I answered, "Then, you don't understand. This is an existential threat to the Canadian blogosphere. This is not about what we say - this is about who we are."


Eric Scheie quotes a post on Richard Warman by Solomonia...

Follow some links, get familiar with this issue, and Americans, thank the deity of your choice for the First Amendment and remind yourself that lawsuits and unaccountable bureaucrats are not the way of solving the world's problems.


I'm here to tell you that Richard Warman is a despicable villain in this matter. In America, he would be squashed flat in three seconds like a pathetic little cockroach. The only reason he's gotten as far as he has is that he's in Canada, with a relatively recent tradition of freedom of speech, federal hate speech laws, and free speech suppression Star Chambers Human Rights Commissions at both federal and provincial levels. Richard Warman has been exposed, and he's using the government machinery to silence his critics.

Canadians would do well at this point to remember the words of Prime Minister Diefenbaker...

"I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind."