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by Mike Omelan Baseball is back! Well it was actually already back, but now it is really back! I’m confused. Why can’t there just be one real opening day where everyone knows it? Like football, everyone knows the NFL season starts September 5th Cowboys Vs Giants. Boom! MLB need’s to get this right! I am definitely not a fan of these overseas games being played when preseason games are still going on! I mean people are already messing up their fantasy baseball starts for the week! Oh well, baseball is finally here and I am stoked! Beautiful weather is on the way! Tons of different players joining different teams, mainly in the American League. I mean Toronto just can’t buy a break. Thanks and all for adding a new wild card spot, but then Prince Fielder joins the Tigers and Albert Pujols joins the Angels! And the Angels were a team we were supposed to beat for the wild-card! A team we’re probably not going to beat out now! But, it is a long season and anything can truly happen! Staying healthy is definitely a key and let’s see if the Blue Jays can continue their hot spring training into the first month of the season. Let me know what your thoughts are on the season? Who are you betting on to be playing in the fall?  How do you think the Jays will finish? Will they fill those seats? Or can we look forward to only ten or fifteen thousand fans at the Rogers Centre game in and out? Here are my player predictions: AL MVP – Adrian Gonzalez, 1B – Boston Red Sox Let’s forget about the beer and chicken for one second. And who wouldn’t want to be a part of that!? Adrian settled into his first year in the AL triumphantly raking in 117 RBIs, 27 Hrs, and a cool .338 BA! He was the favourite to win the award at the all-star break but many don’t recall the shoulder injury he sustained shortly after the break which he battled through but skewed his power numbers. A-Gone is fully healthy plus more comfortable in Boston. Expect 35+ homers, a ton of RBIs. This one will be a no-brainer. AL CY Young – Jered Weaver – Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Jered Weaver is a beast. 18 wins last season. Most impressively starting 6-0 with a 0.99 era. Now add Pujols to his team? I think we can pencil in about 5 more wins and a CY Young prize. AL Rookie of the Year – Matt Moore, SP – Tampa Rays Who starts there 2nd Major league career game in a Game 1 of an ALDS and throws 7 scoreless innings allowing 2 hits? Enough said, this man is filthy. NL MVP – Joey Votty, 1B – Cincinnati Reds With Pujols and Fielder gone to the AL, and Ryan Braun facing scrutiny beyond belief, there is no question Joey Votto is the best hitter in the NL and will surely separate himself from the rest of the pack. Not to mention being in a weak division that yes, just lost Pujols. The Reds will be the first team in the NL to clinch a playoff spot behind Votto’s big numbers. NL CY Young – Cliff Lee – Philadelphia Phillies Cliff Lee is outstanding as we all know. And not having to deal with the pressures of carrying the pitching staff is just the way he likes it. He will be business as usual and have a dominating CY Young award campaign. NL Rookie of the Year – Zack Cozart, SS – Cincinnati Reds Trying to be spontaneous here, but I love Cozart and he looks like he’s going to manning the SS position in Cinci for a long time. Also, batting in the No. 2 hole, behind Votto, and Jay Bruce mashing Home Runs and driving him in can only help his chances. Here are my playoff predictions: AL East – Boston Red Sox – They will put the critics behind them, get off to a hot start and run away with it. A line-up of Ellsbury, Pedroia, Gonzalez, Youkilis, Papi, and Crawford is as good as it gets in the league. AL Central – Detroit Tigers – Significant upgrade in Fielder, and probably the weakest division in baseball, it’s the easiest choice to make. Not to mention, they’re pretty damn good themselves. AL West – Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim – Tough one, because Texas is a great team. But definitely the top pitching in the AL by a long shot and the addition of Pujols will put them over the top. Wildcards – Toron…. Sorry Toronto it will be a wild ride and a competitive September for us, but if we don’t get one more Ace pitcher, this spot won’t be ours. I’m going with the Rangers and Yankees. NL East – Philadelphia Phillies – Best pitching in the game will help them prevail once again NL Central – Cincinnati Reds – Teams they were competing with lost their best players while the Reds best players are in there prime years. NL West – San Francisco Giants – Great pitching and some great young talent providing enough offense for the division crown Wildcards- Those Rockies love their Rocktober and make a late-run once again to grab the 5th spot on the last day of the schedule. First spot goes to the Marlins in new competitive era for them. Wild Card round – Yanks over Rangers. Rockies over Marlins Divisional – Red Sox over Tigers, Angels over Yanks; Rockies over Phillies, Reds over Giants Championship Round – Red Sox over Angels; Reds over Rockies World Series – Red Sox over Reds! – A classic rematch for historians! Red Sox win this one because they are stronger in every important area. Photo of David Ortiz by Second Print…

Photo by Pressens Bild, The Beatles with Lill-Babs, 1963 “Late one night, not very long ago, I had a dream that the Beatles were still among us, making us laugh and sing in the same way they did when they were the undisputed Princes of the Planet Earth all those years ago. That’s what was so wonderful about theFab Four: they not only sang like the scruffy angels they were, but they were so damned funny! All one has to do is view the films ”A Hard Day’s Night” and “Help” and you’re once again reminded that they were a great comedy team – one of the greatest. When I awoke from that dream – thinking it had been real – the blunt realization that the Beatles are gone forever was too depressing to even contemplate.” Tom Degan June 5, 2007 Brian Sager is the son of my friends Brian and Terri Colgan Sager. That’s a photograph of him below. On the day that he was born in 1994, the Beatles had not made a record in almost a quarter of a century.  John Lennon had been dead for thirteen-and-a-half years.  And yet that time divide was not about to stop him from joining me at the 2012 Fest for the Beatles which is taking place this weekend at the Crowne Plaza Meadowland Hotel in Secaucus, New Jersey.  In fact what struck me about this event more than anything else were the number of kids Brian’s age – and even younger – who were taking part in the festivities.    Think about it. That would be the equivalent of several hundred teenagers in 1969 getting together to celebrate the legacy of the Paul Whiteman Orchestra – the hottest and best selling recording act of 1926.  Although I have no documentation to prove this one way or another, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say I don’t think that ever happened. On a warm July day in 1957, fate would instigate the meeting of two teenage boys at a Church picnic in Liverpool, England.  Each would discover that the other shared a mutual passion for American rock ‘n’ roll music. The older boy, impressed with the younger one’s musicianship, asked him if he would like to join his little skiffle group which was called the Quarrymen. The younger lad agreed. Fifty-five years later and across the ocean, a couple of thousand strangers would come together to celebrate the legacy of that chance encounter between John Lennon and Paul McCartney. The Beatles are a topic I could go on all night about. The quote at the top of this piece I wrote nearly five years ago on the fortieth anniversary of the release of the Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band LP. At the time there was a peculiar trend in cultural revisionism that was implying that this classic recording had never really been that good to begin with. I quoted one writer who even had the chutzpa say that most of the tunes on it “are pretty bad”.  One of the “pretty bad” songs he sited as an example was the brilliant collage of psychedelia and circus music, Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite. That was enough for me to spring to the defense of that album. Sgt. Pepper is a masterpiece. I was reminded yet again of its timeless relevance yesterday as we walked through the many exhibits at Beatlefest 2012. At one point we could almost hear the haunting voice of John Lennon echoing through the halls, singing A Day in the Life. He is a ghost that refuses to go away, reaching out to us from beyond that unknowable void. I attended my first Beatles convention with my brother Pete in September of 1975. It was held at the old Commodore Hilton in New York City, a place which doesn’t even exist anymore. I was the same age that Brian Sager is now. He would not be born for another nineteen years. Gerald Ford was living in the White House. George Harrison and John Lennon were still alive. “All those years ago” as George’s song laments. It was a different world then. I was a different person. You were, too, I’m sure. Everything has changed. Everything. The guest speaker at that convention was good old Mal Evans (photo above) – the Beatles insider and jack-of-all-trades; a man who would do, could do (and did do) anything and everything for the Fabs – including bringing in talent for their record label Apple. The group Badfinger was Mal’s discovery. Pete and I spent some time chatting with him and he was as sweet and gentle as his legend suggests. Do you remember that scene from the film Help, where the ice explodes and a channel swimmer emerges from within asking Lennon for directions to the White Cliffs of Dover? That was Mal! It is the most hilarious scene in that ultra-hilarious movie. But as funny as that moment is, it has been forever ruined for me by hindsight. I watch it now and cannot help but think of the horrible fates that awaited both Mal Evans and John Lennon. Four months after we met him, Mal would descend into a psychological storm from which he never emerged. Severely depressed and in despair. he barricaded himself inside a Los Angeles hotel room with a gun. Over the telephone, he told his girlfriend that he was going to kill himself. The LA cops saved him the trouble. They burst into the room and fired several shots into his body, killing him instantly. They could have tried to save him. They didn’t. You’ve gotta hand it to the LAPD. You really do. One of the coolest things about attending any Beatlefest is the vibe. For the most part, fans of the Beatles tend to be really nice people. I think I’m a fairly nice guy. Brian Sager is most definitely a very nice guy – but that doesn’t really count, come to think about it. He comes from an extended clan of very nice people on both his mom’s and his dad’s side; but other than his two siblings (Hello, Meghan! Hello, Michael!) none of them are huge fans of the lads from Liverpool to the best of my knowledge. Niceness just sort of runs in that family. It has little to do with his being a fan of the Beatles I’m sure. But walking through the exhibits which took up two floors of the Crowne Plaza, you get this indescribable sense of serenity and kindness emanating from the people attending. This could be renamed “The Convention of Niceness” and I don’t think anyone would complain all that much. Total strangers smile, laugh and sing with one another. All around us there was a feeling of (Dare I say it?) LOVE - as in “All you need is….” These folks really believe it. I do, too. It has been like that at every Beatlefest I have attended down through the years – and I have attended so many of them that I lost count of the number a long time ago. What made, Paul, George, John and Ringo so special (to my mind at least) was that they tried to appeal to the better angels of our nature. I once said that if I could boil down the essence of the Beatles’ message into one sentence it would be this: We are the makers of our own dreams. The ”culturally correct” hindsight of 2012 dismisses the Sgt. Pepper record as childish, ponderous and naive – but is it really? We’ve become so crude and obscene as a culture in the forty-five years since it was released, some of us now view the images of “tangerine trees and marmalade skies” from Lucy in the Sky through a cracked prism of cynicism and scorn - but whose fault is that??? The fault, dear Brutus, lies not with the Beatles, but with ourselves. That piece I wrote five years ago was called Why the Beatles Still Matter. Here’s another paragraph from it: “In 1995, the night the video Free As a Bird premiered on national television (the first ‘new’ Beatles song in over a quarter of a century), I watched it with a young woman who was born in 1970, the year they broke up. Hearing them sing together again – Paul and George sounding strong and clear; John, by that time long dead, his voice transferred from an old and faded cassette tape, sounding as if he were singing from far, far away – was a very moving experience. When she noticed my reaction, she laughed and said, ‘Oh, Tom! What’s the big deal?’ I told her that no one who didn’t live through that turbulent era, could possibly understand what that band meant to their troubled generation.” I was dead wrong when I wrote those words half a decade ago. You don’t need to have been part of their generation in order to “get” the Beatles. There are untold millions of young people today who appreciate them. Brian Sager certainly does. Incredibly, a band that made their last recording forty-three years ago - two of whose members are no longer living - was the best selling group for the first decade of the twenty-first century. And it’s not just the baby boomers who are buying up all of those CD’s. The reason the recording industry has been on the decline in recent years has less to do with downloading - and more to do with quality. There is good music being made these days but it is not part of the main stream and is, in fact, labeled “alternative”. Quality is seriously lacking in 2012. The Beatles were a quality act. Case closed. Forty years of biographical scholarship informs us that these were four very flawed, imperfect – and in many respects - troubled men. But, oh, that music. That timeless and beautiful music. I’m willing to forgive these guys just about anything. I was only four months shy of my twelfth birthday when the Beatles broke up in 1970. When I was a little boy they were the princes of the planet. To me they seemed to be invincible. They weren’t. The deaths of John Lennon and George Harrison proved that. Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are today elderly men for whom eternity now beckons. They were as vulnerable in their grip on this slender thread of life as any of us. Imagine that. As Paul said at the end of Yellow Submarine, “We brought back lots of lovely souvenirs!” Indeed we did! Brian is probably the only human being on this planet born after 1960 who is into vinyl. He picked up a handful of 45 RPM’s (including Ringo’s It Don’t Come Easy) a pristine copy of the 1964 Capitol LP that introduced them to America (Meet the Beatles) and a t-shirt for his lovely lady friend. (Hi, Emma!) In addition to a DVD and a book, I was able to obtain a hole for me pocket. Those things are a tad hard to come by these days, you know. It was quite a day in the life. We drove away from the place in the late afternoon secure in the knowledge that those Northern Songs will last forever. All you need is love! Tom Degan writes a popular blog called The Rant. Check it…

“I would unite with anyone to do right and no one to do wrong.” –Frederick Douglass, 19th century escaped slave, writer, abolitionist, and funder of the first black regiment in the Union army in the American Civil War I’m not sure whether I should be proud or ashamed that I was late to be informed about the KONY 2012 movement since it went viral a few weeks back. My Facebook news feed flooded with shares and likes and comments on the thirty-minute documentary made by Jason Russell. I must either be a real nonconformist, really apathetic, or really unconnected (if you haven’t yet seen the film and you’re like me, go take a look at it now). But I’m happy I didn’t see it until recently because, since the video’s viral explosion hit the Internet, it’s been met with a considerable amount of criticism and outcry. The nation of Uganda is apparently very upset with the way it is portrayed in the film, and a number of people are skeptical about bringing a child-abusing African warlord with a God complex to justice using the resources of a government that is purportedly guilty of far greater corruption and crime. Criticism also has arisen concerning the idea that the United States government should get involved in the situation, especially since North American civilization has spent nearly a decade occupying the Middle East with military force in the name of justice according to some, and in the name of profit according to others. The movement as a whole has also garnered rebuttals on the grounds that sharing an oversimplified video with factually questionable information on a social networking platform, wearing a shirt, donating your profile picture, and putting up a poster instils a false sense of relevance and contribution to an issue of social justice. So I want to approach this issue in three ways: in talking about the method in which the problem has come to light, the proposed solution to the problem, and what it means for you and me. The video itself is a bit problematic, because it portrays what is admittedly an oversimplification of a complex and volatile situation in a troubled and antagonized part of the world, and many critics have argued that this, rather than creating awareness of the plight of the impoverished third world countries of East Africa and its surrounding regions, serves to stifle serious consideration of these things on the part of the Western public. I certainly don’t condone implying falsehoods and using misinformation to describe or inform any social, political, or religious cause; in fact, I outright oppose it, and unfortunately this is in part the methods that the KONY 2012 film employs. But I certainly can see why Jason Russell, the maker of the film, crafted it this way. We live in a society that unfortunately wants its information compacted into little cardboard boxes to take from the Drive-Thru window. It wants simple explanations to complex problems, and it would sooner act on pathos than on fact. It also operates on the subconscious idea that “If it doesn’t affect me, I’m not responsible for it,” and it’s this kind of functional apathy that everyone, whether they admit it or not, seems to have adopted. Russell has, I think, recognized this. That’s why so much of the film is about explaining the complex political situation in simple terms to his son–because so many people, myself included, have a difficult time educating themselves on politics because they don’t know where to start and they recognize that a thorough, informed opinion on anything is going to take some effort. That’s why one of the final shots of the film is about “power”–specifically, the power that we have to affect a good change in the world, for ourselves–because ultimately, it’s very easy to make the excuse that “this doesn’t affect me, so I don’t really need to be concerned.” For me, KONY 2012 is not just an indictment of an African warlord, but also of Western and Northern civilization as a whole. I do not have a mind that is particularly concentrated on real-world politics, especially the real-world politics of the present day, and part of the reason for that is because I think that the solution to injustice, prejudice, greed, and poverty doesn’t come through a political office or action (although those things are important and I encourage minds and voices better suited to that kind of activism than I am to act justly and love mercy). I don’t know how realistic it is to suggest that if Kony is brought to justice via an African government or military force, someone worse won’t take the reins. And I certainly don’t think it’s okay for a community to depose a corrupt leader in order to reap financial rewards (which is what the United States has done many times in the past). But those kinds of possibilities do not mean that people shouldn’t do something to bring men like Joseph Kony to justice. Scepticism of the kind that says, “We don’t want to fix this problem for fear that something worse might happen,” is paralyzing and cowardly. History is filled with examples of men and women who tried to do the best they could for the people around them, but ended up inadvertently making the situation worse by paving the way for the grinding machine of industry and corruption to assume control. But that doesn’t mean that their efforts were not dignified, and that stupefied apathy was a preferable course of (in)action. I don’t mean that everyone should blindly support KONY 2012 –to “Stop at Nothing,” as the campaign slogan says, is not the way to do anything. Those who are criticizing the movement because they are concerned that involving the Ugandan military, or even the US government, jeopardizes the goal of justice and peace behind the mission should not be so quick to decry Invisible Children Inc.–they should be watching those in charge of finding and taking down the Lord’s Resistance Army to confirm that the situation will be handled with tact, dexterity, and justice at its heart. Ultimately, our response to this as a political situation should be to find Kony, and to do what we can to ensure that he is arrested and his victims are given as much security, safety, and support as they can reasonably be given. Now if you’re like me, you’re hesitant to get on board with things like KONY because they’re “mainstream”. I’m a nonconformist at heart, I think; I like to support things that not many other people will because that way I know for sure that I’m thinking and acting for myself. There’s nothing wrong with that. But it sometimes causes me to resist doing what I know I should do simply because “everybody else is doing it” and I’ve always been taught not to do something merely because “somebody else is doing it.” But as romantic and exciting as nonconformity is, refusing to do something because it’s “mainstream” indicates an attitude that wants to rebel for no other sake than rebelling. And that is a problem. If we are going to rebel, then let us rebel in the name of truth, justice, compassion, mercy, and responsibility for the well-being and moral development of our fellow-creatures–not only because we find an identity in nonconformity. All that said, those of us who support the KONY 2012 movement are not off the hook either. We cannot merely have watched the video and then spread the word via Facebook and Twitter, and we certainly cannot be proud of doing so. We have a duty to contribute to a solid cause, and those who are leading the charge for peace and justice should be commended, but we should not let this excuse us from acting justly and loving mercy among those we know and see every day. Ultimately, the social justice we should participate in should stretch as far as it can across the oceans and begin as close as it can to our doorstep, from the victims of the ravages of Joseph Kony’s militarism to your lonely roommate/floormate/housemate who doesn’t seem like he or she has a lot to be excited about. Ultimately, if you shared that video, posted a status, or changed your Facebook photo, consider it a promise, a pledge, not only against the crimes of Joseph Kony, but in favour of the value and dignity that everyone you’ve ever met — and in favour of your responsibility to love them the way that they were made to be…

This past Sunday, protestors gathered in over two dozen Canadian cities to rally against voter suppression tactics. Elections Canada has received thousands of reports and the opposition parties are claiming the Conservatives used robocalling to misdirect voters. Not surprisingly, the Tories have proclaimed their innocence. While solving the robocall mystery is important, and catching the culprits necessary, both take a back seat to ensuring this doesn’t happen again. This really isn’t about one election, or one party. It’s about something that’s much deeper. Our right to vote has been compromised. Voting rates may have faltered, but the choice (on candidates, or even whether we choose to exercise our franchise at all) must remain ours alone. The fundamentals of Canadian democracy are jeopardized when voters are misled and prevented from casting their rightful ballot at the correct polling station. Most political parties use advertising and other aggressive tactics , which are often distasteful, to influence our decisions,  but when they use voter suppression tactics, they are crossing a fundamental line. Whether it’s a prank call or a more organized means of trickery, anything that prevents a voter from being able to cast their ballot is simply unacceptable. While I admit, robocalls are consistently annoying and provide little information in addition to what is on television, bashing opposing parties has always been a campaign routine. It goes without saying of course, that leaving confusing messages like the Conservatives are alleged to have done, might end up back-firing and doing more political harm than good. Elections Canada is now investigating thousands of complaints of fraudulent robocalls leading voters to non-existent polling stations. The Liberals have since turned over all samples of its robocalling messages and scripts from last Spring’s elections. Interim Leader Bob Rae has called for equal cooperation from the Conservatives as well. “If the Conservatives truly have nothing to hide, they would follow the lead of the Liberal party and supply their documentation on the robocalls they conducted to Elections Canada immediately,” Rae said. Photo by Man…

Introducing Craig Scott TORONTO-On March 19th, voters in Toronto-Danforth will head to the polls to select the MP who will succeed Jack Layton. Human rights lawyer and Osgoode Hall law professor Craig Scott, is the NDP candidate and current front-runner in the race. In many regards, Scott is still riding the momentum gained from his historic nomination meeting. Ask any political operative and if they are being honest, they’ll admit that getting a few dozen supporters out on a cold Monday in January is often a tough sell; more than 800 supporters attended Craig’s nomination meeting. Scott admits the turnout was inspiring. “The room rocked, you really had to be there.”   I was, and agree it was a charged atmosphere, brimming with optimism. Scott notes, “there was almost something in the air.” When I asked why he had chosen to stand for public office, the distinguished academic and human rights activist spoke of a “deep sense of urgency, that I hear echoed by people on the doorstep, a strong disagreement with the direction Prime Minister Harper and the Tories are taking the country. People want a strong, experienced voice to hold the Tories to account.” He believes that, “politics, when properly conducted is a noble pursuit…when the focus is on working hard and serving people.” In addition to his almost intimidatingly impressive C.V. (he’s also a Rhodes Scholar and London School of Economics graduate),  Scott is attuned to the community at large.  He’s a twenty year Riverdale resident , has worked with countless local and international organizations and is active on several boards. An art enthusiast, he ran the Craig Scott Gallery. When our conversation turns to balancing economic and environmental priorities, Scott is at his best.  He proposes that economic expansion does not necessarily have to be accompanied by environmental degradation.  He endorses a “blue green economy”: A people oriented, job-producing economy, which combines a green shift with a more targeted investment in emerging employment sectors.  He admits that “young people not seeing a stable economic future is one of the biggest challenges we are facing over the next few decades.” To that end, Scott supports additional federal investment in post secondary infrastructure and student debt relief.  But addressing political alienation among young people is just as pressing in his mind. In some cases though, as Scott relays in an intriguing story from the campaign trail, young Canadians eschew the stereotypical label of apathetic or disenchanted, and are quite engaged in the political process.  He says, only half joking, that sometimes it’s the kids who are reading the flyers and pamphlets and then briefing their parents. During an evening canvass, Scott ran into a young man named Oscar, who was no more than 6 or 7 years old. His parents were non-citizens, so therefore they were ineligible to vote. Nevertheless, Oscar had carefully read all the campaign literature and decided “that he should put up a sign.” Scott says with a smile,“that gives me a lot of hope for the future.” Originally published by The Danforth…