Spoiler Alert: TV Guide Says Luke & Noah May Get Back Together On As The World Turns!
Exclusive: How Will As the World Turns Say Goodbye?
TV GUIDE
Major Spoiler Alert! We don’t need to decipher the writings of Nostradamus to find out how the World will come to an end — TV Guide Magazine has the exclusive scoop from As the World Turns exec producer Chris Goutman! Look for lots of love and happy endings before the CBS soap concludes its run September 17, including two big weddings, some major romantic reconciliations and a final episode — featuring pretty much the entire cast — that’s all about new beginnings.
“We’re trying to bring a 54-year-old show to a satisfactory and emotional wrap-up and to call it difficult would be the understatement of the century,” says Goutman. “The loss of this show is tremendous — not just to those of us who make it and for the fans who love it, but for the entire daytime drama industry. Right to the end we will put out the message that life goes on. Long after ATWT is off the air, we want our characters to still be living their lives in the imaginations of the viewers.”
So who’s getting hitched? “Barbara and Henry will finally make it to the altar,” reveals Goutman. “They are very flawed people but they know there’s no other way to complete themselves other than being with each other. Their wedding will help heal the incredibly dysfunctional Ryan family and expunge the ghost of James Stenbeck once and for all. Once that ghost is put to rest, Emily and Paul will be able to see through all their mishigas and finally realize they are meant for each other. They are going to raise Eliza together and be a family.”
Carly and Jack will also wed. “I think it’s imperative we bring those two together even though they have never been able to get it right,” Goutman notes. “We’ve watched them go through so much, often to the point of viewer frustration. But odds be damned and differences be damned, these two belong together.”
Prepare for a tragic, yet heroic, twist to the Luke-Reid romance — one that’ll set the stage for a potential rapprochement for Luke and Noah. “Without giving too much away, I do think Luke and Noah will always have a deep and abiding relationship,” Goutman says. “Reid came along and challenged that love and his presence made Luke and Noah grow up. Their relationship will endure.” That said, Goutman admits that if ATWT had not been cancelled, Luke and Reid could well have been a couple for the ages. “Their connection was immediate and they are dynamic together,” says the boss. “Soon after Reid’s arrival, we had a lot of diehard Luke and Noah fans suddenly rooting for Luke and Reid. It was the best of what soap opera can be.”
The relatively new Katie-Chris attraction is hitting a massive roadblock — Chris is suffering from a dire heart condition — but Goutman hints that they, too, will end on a blissful note. “We couldn’t wrap things up with Katie still in a state of mourning over Brad’s death, Nancy’s death and Chris’ illness,” the exec says. “She’s the sweetheart of our show and she deserves a little happiness after all she’s been through.”
Goutman adds that Chris’ parents, the legendary Bob and Kim, “will elect to go on to the next stage of their lives” and their long-brewing argument — should Bob retire as chief of staff and spend more time with his wife? — will be resolved in the final episode. Meanwhile Tom and Margo, who currently have the longest-running marriage in soaps, will go out as a team. No surprise there, but Goutman says “there’s an interesting little twist in store for them and they will end the show as empty-nesters.”
But what to do about Holden and Lily? Though ATWT‘s premiere couple since the Reagan era, the duo has been estranged for quite some time now and Holden was all set to marry Molly last week. The writers didn’t let that happen but not so Holden and Lily could walk down the aisle instead. “We made the choice not to marry them at the end of the show but we will leave them in a place where we know they will always be intertwined,” Goutman says. “Holden and Lily are no longer the kids in the hayloft like they were in the ’80s. These characters must move beyond that and evolve. They must grow up if they are to be with each other for the rest of their lives.”
Lily’s buttinsky mom, Lucinda, also has some love in store — she and her ex-husband, Dr. John Dixon, will reunite when John comes back to Oakdale to try to save Chris’ life. For lots more on that development, check out my interview with the ballsy and incomparable Elizabeth Hubbard later this week!
New York Magazine Article: Can Julia Roberts Make A Comeback As The Queen Of The Romantic Comedy Genre?
Star Market: Can Rom-Com Queen Julia Roberts Reclaim Her Throne?
Photo: Jackson Lee/Splash News
It’s been a long time since Julia Roberts has opened a movie on her own, and this week we will see if she still can, with Eat Pray Love, based on Elizabeth Gilbert’s best-selling memoir. Once the highest-paid actress in showbiz, Roberts has kept things low-key in recent years — in part because she’s been busy having a family, but also because finding parts gets harder for women of a certain age. Does she still have the value she once did? Can she reclaim her throne? We spoke to Hollywood insiders, did the research, and analyzed the results: If Julia Roberts were a stock, should you buy, sell, or hold?
STOCK HISTORY: It’s amazing to think that once upon a time, Julia Roberts was known as Eric Roberts’s little sister. She broke out in the ensemble movies Mystic Pizza and Steel Magnolias, receiving an Oscar nomination for the latter. Then, there was the nineties and Pretty Woman. Though she often attempted more serious roles with varying degrees of success (remember Mary Reilly?), she practically created the modern romantic-comedy genre: My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997), Runaway Bride (1999), and Notting Hill (1999) weren’t just hits — they were smashes.
Twenty years after Pretty Woman, Roberts is still considered one of the biggest stars in the world, even if she hasn’t carried an honest-to-God hit in forever. Recent films like 2009’s Duplicity, 2007’s Charlie Wilson’s War, and 2004’s Closer have earned strong reviews on the way to tepid box-office returns. She’s done cartoon voice-overs, contributed plum cameos in the Ocean’s films, and even starred in 2008’s atrocious Fireflies in the Garden. Despite all this, despite her 2000 Oscar for Erin Brockovich, despite her admirable attempts to tackle meaty roles, and despite her devotion to Steven Soderbergh (with whom she has made four films), Roberts’s name is still synonymous with the romantic-comedy genre she dominated throughout the nineties — and mostly abandoned for almost a decade. Until now. Eat Pray Love is the closest thing Roberts has done to a Julia Roberts Movie since America’s Sweethearts in 2001. “She’s going back to the well that really paid off for her in the late nineties,” says one agent. “Mainstream stuff, like Notting Hill, Runaway Bride, My Best Friend’s Wedding.”
PAST EARNINGS:
Pretty Woman (1990): $300,000
The Pelican Brief (1993): $8,000,000
Notting Hill (1999): $15,000,000
Erin Brockovich (2000): $20,000,000
Mona Lisa Smile (2003): $20,000,000
Duplicity (2009): $15,000,000
Valentine’s Day (2010): $3,000,000 + 3 percent of the film’s gross
Eat Pray Love (2010): $10,000,000
PEERS: “The business is tough on women,” says the agent. “Guys like Jack Nicholson, they get more interesting roles as they get older. But, in part because women are marketed as sex symbols, it’s harder to keep up that image as they age.” The romantic-comedy leads are now going to younger actresses like Reese Witherspoon, Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Aniston, Katherine Heigl, or Anne Hathaway. None of them have achieved the kind of consistent juggernaut success that Roberts achieved — so people are still wondering which one of them will be “the next Julia Roberts.” Within her generation, so many actresses have fallen victim to excessive plastic surgery or scandal that the field is thin. Her leading rival is Diane Lane, a lesser star who has carved out her own niche as a middle-aged leading lady (Under the Tuscan Sun, Nights in Rodanthe). “I hear [Roberts] passed on Secretariat,” says the agent, speaking of the upcoming film about the Triple Crown winner, which stars Lane and is getting great buzz. “[This] was probably a mistake.”
MARKET VALUE: Roberts was once considered bulletproof. The big question now: After you back away from what you did better than anyone else for a decade, who will be there when you return? “The younger demographic of teenage girls isn’t running to see a Julia Roberts romantic comedy anymore,” says one manager. According to NRG tracking on Eat, Pray, Love, in a survey of moviegoers undertaken last Thursday, 53 percent of women over 25 had definite interest in seeing it, and 20 percent said it was their “first choice.” By comparison, for women under 25, 30 percent expressed “definite interest” and only 5 percent considered it their “first choice.” The good news is that Eat Pray Love isn’t really aimed at teenage girls. The bad news is that older demographics don’t drive opening-weekend grosses.
How valuable is her appeal now? A Fandango.com survey released Wednesday found that 95 percent of those planning to see Eat Pray Love are female, and 58 percent are planning to see it with a group of female friends. But 53 percent say that the book is the single biggest motivating factor. Only 22 percent picked Julia Roberts as the leading factor. “She’s hoping people who grew up with her movies will hire a sitter, drive to the mall, and, for 28 dollars, go see her do the same thing she did fifteen years ago,” says the agent. “Or they could go see Despicable Me, or Inception, or something else they’ve never seen before.” A lot hangs on this film: “We’ll see if she can still carry a movie shortly,” says the manager. “I think she can: She’s ageless. She’s Julia freaking Roberts!”
WHAT HOLLYWOOD THINKS: “It’s just about finding that one great role,” says the agent. “Look at Meryl Streep’s career: For a long while there, she was cold as ice. But she reinvented herself playing the villain in The Devil Wears Prada. If she has one movie that’s a genuine hit, she’s still meaningful to the studios.” Luckily, there’s a lot more where Eat Pray Love came from: Bookstore shelves are packed full of titles about middle-aged women finding fulfillment (recently, Roberts was attached to star in The Friday Night Knitting Club). But making that sort of movie also requires a certain amount of forthrightness. “Because this book is so personal, she needs to open up about her personal life,” says the publicist. “All these new Q&As have made her seem accessible. Whether she is or not, doesn’t matter. People are responding to her as if she is.” At this point, the star power either works for her, or against her. Roberts is one of those few stars who can hold her own against the likes of George Clooney or Tom Hanks. (She just wrapped production on Tom Hanks’s Larry Crowne.) But star power can create problems, says one agent. “It can be a little hard to convince a director to hire you because you’re so famous; it can overwhelm a movie, and auteur directors hate that.”
THE ANALYSIS: Roberts’s market value suffers because romantic comedies aren’t the surefire moneymakers they used to be, and Hollywood has all but abandoned the adult-oriented drama. But this larger trend could provide her with some cover as well: Eat Pray Love doesn’t actually have to make that much to be considered a success. If this film flops, it won’t be her last shot. Despite all the hand-wringing, one could argue that Roberts has played her cards exactly right. She has successfully kept herself in the mix with appearances in films like Duplicity or the Ocean’s movies without taking huge risks.
THE BOTTOM LINE: Roberts is unlikely to reclaim her nineties throne, but she still has chops, range, and once-in-a-generation likability. She is already getting acclaim for Eat Pray Love — even if the general reviews are mixed. Most likely, the film’s built-in fan base will deliver healthy returns but not blow the roof off the box office. That’s okay: As long as Roberts continues to make smart decisions, she will not disappear.
BUY/SELL/HOLD: Buy.
Article: Does Overrated Halle Berry Deserve The Cover Of The September Issue Of American Vogue?
The Real Reason Press-Shy Halle Berry Agreed To Do Vogue
by Verena von Pfetten | 12:02 pm, August 13th, 2010
As Vogue itself points out, Halle Berry hasn’t done an interview in three years. We see photos of her, sure, walking around in matching outfits with her daughter Nahla, but since her break-up with model, boyfriend, and father of her child Gabriel Aubry — and, actually, long before — Berry has been decidedly silent. So why did she agree to appear on what is inarguably the year’s most important cover of the industry’s biggest book?
Berry used to be fairly frank with the press, something she said “helped” and allowed her to “connect” to a lot of people — but there was no impetus, no life-altering moment that led to her media reticence; she just decided to move on. Until now. From Vogue’s profile of the actress:
The only reason she is submitting now, she says, is that Vogue made her an offer she couldn’t refuse: the September cover. “What that means for a woman of color and what that means in the fashion world, what that means to pop culture, there was no way I could say, ‘No, I’m not going to be on the biggest issue of the year.’”
As the first black woman to ever win an Academy Award for Best Actress, we have no doubt she understands what her cover means. But to put it into context, Berry is the first black woman to appear on Vogue’s September cover in over 20 years. The last — and first, it should be noted — was Naomi Campbell’s in 1989. Though this is Berry’s second cover — she snagged one in December 2002 — she is part of only a small handful of black cover stars, well, ever. According to Black Voices, there have been a total of 14 in the history of the magazine and all its international editions, while NPR tallies three for the American version — though it appears they forgot Beverly Johnson’s cover in 1974 and published their count before Michelle Obama’s in March 2009.
So, yes, it’s a big deal. A very big deal. And ideally a huge step in a much-needed direction. But while we hate to look a gift horse in the mouth — and mean absolutely no offense to Berry, who looks gorgeous — it would have been nice to see a new face. Though maybe that’s just asking too much.
[via Vogue.]
Eye Weekly Article Slams American Vogue For Putting Halle Berry On The Cover Of The September Issue!
City Style
The September Issue review — Part 2
Which of this season’s glossies make the grade?
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BY Sarah Nicole Prickett August 13, 2010 13:08
Grade: C-
What Vogue.com has done is figure out how to use that world-wide-webby thing to post a slideshow of their past 10 September [insert Candy Pratts Price v/o: “the Jahhnuary of fashion”] covers, just so we can be reassured that all of them were not only not-black, but also not any shade darker than a St. Tropez tan. OMG, bloggable news: Vogue is an ivory dinosaur. So Halle Berry gets to be what, the fourth black woman ever to cover Vogue, and the second-ever on the September Issue? But she doesn’t get to have black hair! ‘Cause that would somehow be scarier than this airbrushed-a-hundred-times-per-night Louise Brooks bob?
Congratulations, Halle, I guess.
Grade: A-
“This shoot captures where she’s at [sic] right now, I think,” says Dazed senior fashion editor Katie Shillingford of cover girleen Dakota Fanning. “A beautiful young starlet!” OK! This is why, if senior fashion editors seem too cool to talk to you, you should maybe just be grateful. Mark Segal’s black-and-white portrait is a beautiful cover, though not at all young, because neither is Dakota Fanning. It’s more — and I shudder to use this word, but — timeless. Too soon for that? At least they didn’t make her look like Little J, as NYLON would’ve, or as she does in the movie she’s promoting, The Runaways, which apparently is just now being released in the UK. Apologies to the UK, then. But claps for Dazed. As much as I want Dakota to quit staring languidly, knowingly, into the empty recesses of my soul, I just can’t quit staring back.
Elle US, starring Julia Roberts
Grade: C+
Elle has a trio of Julia covers to celebrate Eat Pray Love, and one out of three ain’t bad. The Oscar close-up cover, all grey-lit and pensive, has the painterly quality of a pre-bankruptcy Leibovitz. No clothes are visible. Her arms are folded, and you can actually see the folds at her shoulders, where the Photoshoppers have been kind enough not to strip away the bits of flesh. Her face, of course, has been polished to the smoothness of a newborn pebble. She’s not old, but come on. She’s laughed before. In the cover story, Roberts has a wicked quote about plastic surgery and actresses — “Your face tells a story… and it shouldn’t be a story about your drive to the doctor’s office” — and maybe it would’ve been nice if someone on staff had read it.
Grade: A-
Russh is the down-under, downtown girl’s fashion mag, a mag so gorgeous and wild and free of spirit and generally magic that it erases from memory all the terrible half-human Australian “dudes” you’ve ever met and makes you just wanna be there. Right. Now. The covers of Russh don’t mean anything, or promote anything, or really even say anything. They’re just wet, wild fantasy. And sometimes you need that. Here is Alessandra Ambrosio — what a gods-given name! — and when she looks at this cover, even she will wish she were her.
Grade: A
This September issue is the stepping-out of Stefano Tonchi, who skipped from T magazine to W this past spring (U and V were apparently not happy). It is, as it had to be, a whole new W: forward-leaning, witty, wise, insouciantly beautiful, and — look at that winking “Great Expecations” cover line — self-aware. Or maybe just… aware. Given the coagulating bluebloodedness of the former W, that’s enough of a start. Tonchi isn’t putting models back on top; he’s not gunning for Vogue. Instead, with his eight-woman-strong “Young Hollywood” issue, he shames Vanity Fair in the most awesome possible way. You remember: VF took a bunch of young, thin, white girls and made them look somehow more the same, all in fusty pastels and prep-handbook looks, like so many princesses of Pleasantville. They put in Joan Holloway and not Gabourey Sidibe. It was disgusting. Now here’s W, the richiest of richie-rich rags, stepping boldly into this millennium. Of the eight actresses, all of them are interesting and even distinguishable from the others. A whole two — Zoe Kravitz and Yaya Dacosta — are black. And they get to keep their hair. W for the win.
P.S.: So the cover story was penned by the delightfully poisonous Lynn Hirschberg, but don’t fret for Jennifer Lawrence. Girl was smart enough to bite into a tuna melt at the fateful lunch hour. There’s no making fun of a tuna melt.
Controversial Comments From The Toronto Star Message Board: Canadians Are Upset About Tamil Migrant Ship Arriving In British Columbia.
MORE THINGS CHANGE, MORE REMAIN THE SAME
It is ironic that Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse, who championed human rights in the past, now is reported to have launched or condoning violations of the basic rights of the Tamil minority. The cause of the problem for boatloads of refugees fleeing persecution in the island nation can be placed at the deep distrust and animosity the majority, led by the President, a former human rights advocate and fighter of government tyranny, shows towards a crushed minority. Most of the Tamils want to pursue their livelihood peacefully, a desire that does not sit well with the majority that is steeped in intolerance and oppression . Until the root cause is addressed, there is likely to be unrest in Sri Lanka that continues to be a major refugee-producing nation, despite its victory over the insurgency. Canada and the international community should impress upon Sri Lanka to respect the human rights of all its citizens.
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Re; mary ewen
When something is wrong in canada it is always liberals fault way back 150 years in the past.As a neocon blogger are you able to live in the present? and harper is presently prime minister of canada if you are not aware of it
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When a ‘suspected migrant ship carrying terrorists’….
is bound for Canada from half a world away, it usually means every other country has investigated and turned it away. Little wonder that Canada is often suspected as a terrorist ‘hotbed’ for funding overseas ‘terrorist’ activities. Our refugee laws and criterion are a world renowed JOKE. Pity that much of the money that is raised in Canada for these terrorist activities is coered not ‘donated’. TURN THEM AWAY – we have enough ‘refugees’ to care for.
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Why bother having immigration laws at all ?
This isn’t about whether or not we think multiculturalism is Good or Bad. It’s about whether we have two sets of immigration rules: one for people who apply and go through regular procedures, and another, fast-track one for anybody who shows up on shore. It’s also about the abuse of Canada’s refugee system. When a shipload of men arrives from a violent, terrorism-rife area of the world – having sailed past umpteen other countries first – and claims refugee status, we’re supposed to believe everything they say ? How naive do they think we are ? Well, judging from how the first boatload was treated, and the fact that another one is already on the way here, we know the answer to that one, don’t we ?
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Why are we be being so stupid to get in the middle.
Both Sri Lanka and Tamil Tigers are wrong. They are in the middle of a hate filled civil war that has raged for years and all we do is open our borders to whatever falls out. If Canada cares, then orchestrate a peace initiative to help, and quite frankly, to sort out the real refugees at the source. Regular immigrants looking for a better life here have to wait years and sort through red tape, lawyers fees and frustration. These hate mongers simply grab a rust bucket and head to the idiots in the north who will take whatever unsubstantiated story they dish out. Other countries don’t let these people in because they don’t buy the story, we we in Canada have to be soooo nice.
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Why did they all come to Toronto?
The last thing this city needs is more people. I don’t get why immigrants are allowed to choose where they want to go in Canada. They are not citizens (yet), they are not guaranteed the rights outlined in section 6 of the charter. If you come to Canada the government should tell you where you go based on the need for new immigrants. Beggars can’t be choosers.
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nht
My forefathers who came to Canada had no choice, they were ordered here by the Military to protect the Queen’s interest. A long ensuing boat ride culminated with a conflict then a land grant. My forefathers fought, built and tried to provide a stronger way of life for their children. We have history throughout Canada. To say simply go back to England and leave a country your forefathers helped build is not so simple. Although our voices have been silenced by political agendas and growing apathy, we still have a say!
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nht
I believe the loudest are the ones who came here (or there forefathers) and had to either have a trade, or were married to some one that had a required trade or went west to farm or build a railway. They did not sit down look at an atlas and pick out the country most apt to let them in and supply them with all the requirements of life and not expect them to be productive while they continued with what ever political agenda got hem in trouble at home. Real Canadians work for Canada not for trouble makers back home.
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Do it democraticly
t1m is one of many who commented here and eleswhere that we as country should and must change our immigration policy to suit the present time.They (me2) agree reduction is needed to match the real need of our economy so those who are here can do better and live good lives as promised by the best place to live.What is wrong with that? Nothing but we have to organize and do it the right way.Great majority of population would agree for sake of the country, reduced immigration is necessary.What politicians tell you is untruth (as they like to say).The truth is they need votes and biz needs cheap labor and you get low wage as result.With 2M unemployed do we really need 260K new mouths per year to feed?When things change we’ll take in a million if needed.Why not?
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“Passports, please”
You can’t get on an airliner without a passport, so why are the rules different for a tramp steamer? Confiscate the ship, sell it off to finance the return trips, and voila! P.S. (if they only sought refuge, there were ample countries closer than Australia or Canada … but, oh – who has the better welfare system …?) I have said for years: “Canada is like a lifeboat – we can only save so many lives, before we capsize and drown along with them …”.
Canada has become a sieve
Ever wondered why the US has locked down its northern border with Canada and treats every Canadian entering the US as a potential threat??….The answer lies in each and every dangerous refugee that we let enter Canada under our lax immigration laws. It’s only a matter of time before the Yanks post soldiers at the northern border as well. Who can blame them?
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Begining?
Since we already had few ships like this, we can call it the end of the begining and sooner or leter it will evolve in full scale invasion.At this time we have no choice but to let them land and most will stay as those from previous ships.In the future when this thing becomes an epidemic with ships of “last voyage” we migh have to stop them or we’ll have millions on our shores in short time.Someone wrote a fiction on this where the world was faced with millions on ships heading for Europe. They did not know what to do with them and navies refused to sink them.What will we do if that happens?Instead of encouraging refugies we should help those on the right side defeat the terror at home.It is time the World is refugies free.Only that way we can survive.
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Canada needs to stop letting immigrants in
for the time being at least. You can’t always let new people in, you need to give the ones who’ve already arrived enough time to assimilate into the culture before you let new ones in. I propose 7 year periods alternating between allowing many people in and allowing few people in.
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Interesting comments
I’m willing to bet the loudest ones protest this can trace their roots back to when the Anglos met the Saxons. If you don’t like Canada’s multicultural policy, go back to England.
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Why don’t we let the REAL professionals handle this situation. Call in the US Border Patrol and see how fast they send the ship scurrying back to its homeland
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Different Then
You can’t trust them now, they are bringing diseases and they were safer then.
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Violation of Canadian sovereignity
If Canada lets in the Tamils it is a slap in the face to all the legal immigrants who played by the rules and navigated the complex legal minefield necessary to come to Canada. The Americans would stop this boat 100 miles from their territorial waters and force them to turn around. What on earth is Canada doing letting them step on Canadian soil?
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faunus
faunus in reality we turned away the Jewish boat people because the Americans wanted to continue selling the Germans steal and if North America took in these people it would put this in jeopardy. By the way the same sale of steal to Japan happened up to Pearl Harbor as well
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GimmeShelter
just one question , why is it when the local community stages an illegal demonstration or marches in a sanctioned parade they fly the fag of an organization deemed terrorist by the free world
Toronto Star Article: Are Tamil Migrants Really Refugees?
Is suspected migrant ship carrying terrorists or refugees?
The MV Sun Sea, a suspected migrant smuggling vessel, has entered Canadian waters, observers say.
Geir Vinnes/shipspotting.com
Weeks after it was turned away from Australia, a Thai cargo ship believed to be carrying about 200 illegal migrants from Sri Lanka is now expected to reach Canada any day.
The question is: Are those aboard terrorists or genuine refugees?
That’s the same question that was raised in October when a ship with 76 migrants on board arrived off Vancouver Island. Most of them are now living in Toronto.
As Canada monitors the arrival of the MV Sun Sea, a shrill propaganda war has broken out between the Sri Lankan government and Toronto’s large Tamil community.
“Most of them are hardcore LTTE people (Tamil Tigers),” Sumith Dassanayake of the Sri Lankan High Commission in Ottawa said in an interview with the Star, adding that women and children are also aboard the ship. “The Tigers are trying to regroup here to keep the movement alive.”
He called them a grave security threat to Canada.
But David Poopalapillai of the Canadian Tamil Congress dismissed those accusations, calling it fear-mongering among ordinary Canadians. “This is exactly what the Sri Lankan government had said for the 76 men who came to Canada in October. They all proved they weren’t terrorists.”
The Tamil Tigers, the military arm of the Tamil separatist movement, fought a bloody civil war with the Sri Lankan government forces for nearly 26 years before being defeated in May 2009. The organization is considered a terrorist group by many countries, including Canada.
The war is over but allegations of ethnic cleansing of the Tamils, a minority in Sri Lanka, continue.
Last October, a rusting ship called the Ocean Lady arrived off the B.C. coast carrying 76 Sri Lankan migrants. They were all detained by the Canada Border Services Agency but eventually released.
At least 70 of the 76 men are now in Toronto, which is home to nearly 200,000 Tamils, believed to be the largest diaspora. An Immigration and Refugee Board spokeswoman has said their refugee claims will be processed over the next 18 months.
Three of those men, in interviews with the Star, said they were persecuted then fled because they feared for their lives.
People would only leave their families and homes if they genuinely feared death, said Poopalapillai. “All that we are asking is these people also should be put through the refugee process. If it’s proved they have ties to the Tigers, send them back.”
The MV Sun Sea has yet to arrive in Canada but there are already reports that another two shiploads of asylum-seekers are ready to sail. They are waiting to see how Canada deals with these 200 people, said a terrorism expert in Singapore.
Rohan Gunaratna, who heads a research centre and is considered an expert on the Tamil Tigers, declined to disclose his sources but he was one of the first people to warn Canada about the MV Sun Sea.
The two other vessels will head to Canada “depending on how these 200 people are dealt with,” said Gunaratna. He added the Tigers are raising money by running a human smuggling operation and getting their cadres into Canada at the same time.
He was a witness for the Canadian government while the 76 men were in detention and were being investigated by the border agency.
“They have been released not because they are not terrorists but because the manner in which refugee law exists in Canada,” he said.
Meanwhile, the federal government is also concerned about who is aboard the MV Sun Sea, said Public Safety Minister Vic Toews.
He said the Tamil Tigers are behind operations to smuggle people into Canada but would not comment what the government is doing about the situation.
“I can assure you that we are concerned about who is on that ship and why they might be coming to Canada,” he said on Monday while in Toronto to give a speech on national security to the Economic Club of Canada.
While the government will protect genuine refugees, Toews said it will thwart those who try to abuse Canada’s immigration policies.
Among many concerns about potential terrorist threats in Canada, Toews singled out “marine human smuggling” as a particular focus of the government.
“I think it’s important to send a message that Canada should not be viewed as easy entry into North America and that we are very concerned about security issues,” he said after the speech.
While the Sri Lankan government has warned that the MV Sun Sea is engaged in brazen human smuggling, human rights experts argue that the people aboard are legitimate refugees.
Todd Ross, with the Canadian Human Rights Voice, a non-profit group trying to raise awareness of human rights concerns in Sri Lanka, said there was a lot of fear-mongering when the Ocean Lady arrived. But there was no evidence that those men were terrorists.
He also pointed out that the Canadian government has said it would like to reunite families and offered help with visas. “But the problem is our visa officers have no access to north Sri Lanka, where most Tamils live,” he said. “So people are doing whatever they can to escape.”
Ross, who has been closely following the events in Sri Lanka since the war ended last year, said there’s no fear of a wave of boat people coming from the archipelago.
“I don’t think there is any infrastructure of that kind,” he said. “But each of the refugees has a story and we need to listen to them.”
CBC News Article: Canadian Government Suspicious Of Tamil Migrants.
Tamil migrants to be investigated: Toews
Hundreds arriving in B.C. seek refugee protection
Last Updated: Friday, August 13, 2010 | 12:17 PM PT Comments1498Recommend346
CBC News
Tamil migrants look over the side of the MV Sun Sea. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)An estimated 490 Tamil migrants seeking refugee shelter in Canada will be investigated to determine whether there are “human smugglers or terrorists” among them, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said Friday.
Speaking to reporters in Esquimalt, B.C., Toews said Canada has been “very welcoming” of refugees, but the government “must ensure that our refugee system is not hijacked by criminals or terrorists.”
The minister said the government will consider whether “further improvements” are needed to disrupt and deter criminal organizations and enterprises such as human smuggling, but gave no further details.
The Canada Border Services Agency will take the time necessary to identify and process all individuals who were on the ship in accordance with Canadian law, Toews said.
But the minister vowed any individuals who endanger national security or who have engaged in human smuggling “will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”
The migrants are believed to be Tamils from Sri Lanka who left their homeland in May aboard the MV Sun Sea. They arrived earlier Friday at CFB Esquimalt.
The government has said it believes some of the migrants are members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, also known as the Tamil Tigers, which has been outlawed in Canada as a terrorist group since 2006.
Canada Border Services agents are seen wearing surgical masks as they board the MV Sun Sea. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)Toews said the best way to deal with migrant ships is to wait until they enter Canadian waters.
“Intervening on the high seas brings certain legal obligations and a number of legal problems, and so it’s better to intercept them, I’m advised, inside of Canadian territorial waters.”
The 59-metre, Thai-owned cargo ship arrived at the base on Vancouver Island shortly before 6:30 a.m., escorted by two naval tugboats. It was docked about two hours later.
Border officers and other officials donned surgical masks and gloves before boarding the ship, in light of reports there may be passengers with infectious diseases on board. Some reports indicate several passengers may be infected with tuberculosis.
Officials erected large tarps to hide the ship’s passengers from the media as four buses and several ambulances waited to transport them.
During his news conference, Toews did not discuss the migrants’ conditions, saying only that the high number of passengers faced “certain difficulties in terms of living conditions” from such a long journey on a vessel that size.
The migrants are expected to be transported from CFB Esquimalt to various destinations, including Victoria General Hospital and the Wilkinson Road Jail in Victoria.
One bus is expected to be transported aboard an early-morning ferry to Vancouver to take women and children to the B.C. Women’s Hospital and Health Centre.
The MV Sun Sea is escorted past Fisgard Lighthouse towards CFB Esquimalt on Friday morning. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)Naval and RCMP officers boarded the ship at about 9:30 p.m. ET Thursday, according to the Prime Minister’s Office, to take control and steer it to Esquimalt.
Many on board are believed to have paid as much as $50,000 each for the trip.
Sri Lanka’s high commissioner to Canada, Chitranganee Wagiswara, said that money would go toward to the Tamil Tigers and chided the federal government for not turning the ship away. “Human smuggling is a criminal activity,” he said.
Calling human smuggling “despicable,” “dangerous” and “irresponsible,” Gary Anandasangaree, general counsel for the Canadian Tamil Congress, also said the government should distinguish between the ship’s passengers.
“We’re not saying every single person on the boat should be accepted carte blanche,” Anandasangaree said. “Every single person should be assessed on their own merits and in accordance with Canada’s laws and our international obligations.”
Liberal foreign affairs critic Bob Rae said the need for investigating and prosecuting human smugglers should not affect the rights of those seeking asylum in Canada.
Let refugee process work: Rae
“I think it is important for everybody to take a deep breath, let the process of law proceed, understand that we do have a process that can work if we have the people to do the job, and we do, and making sure we are making the determination fairly,” Rae told CBC News in an interview from Kingston, Ont.
As a signatory to the UN Convention on Refugees, Canada must process all refugee claimants who reach Canadian soil.
Previous Tamil migrants claimed to be fleeing persecution after the country’s bloody 26-year civil war between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers.
However, the Tamil Tigers were defeated in May 2009, and a recent UN report states that, after the war, Tamils would no longer be presumed to be fleeing imminent harm.
The report says, in part: “Given the cessation of hostilities, Sri Lankans originating from the north of the country are no longer in need of international protection under broader refugee criteria or complementary forms of protection solely on the basis of risk of indiscriminate harm.”
Globe & Mail Article: Overrated Ana Ivanovic Does Not Deserve A Wild Card For The Canadian Open Due To Her Poor Results.
Ivanovic passes on Montreal
Serb turned down because tournament director Eugene Lapierre was concerned that local attraction Stéphanie Dubois of nearby Laval, Que., would need the wild card
Tom Tebbutt
Special to Globe and Mail Update Published on Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2010 8:56PM EDT
The organizers of the Rogers Cup in Montreal have lost their gamble as regards Ana Ivanovic playing next week’s event.
It was announced on Wednesday that the three wild cards are being given to Quebec players after Ivanovic refused the offer of one for the main draw.
Ranked No. 62, the Serb was outside the original cut-off for the event and had requested a wild card last month. But she was turned down because tournament director Eugene Lapierre was concerned that local attraction Stéphanie Dubois of nearby Laval, Que., might slip in the rankings and require the wild card given to Ivanovic.
Explaining her decision on her official website, an obviously upset Ivanovic cited remarks that Lapierre made to a Montreal newspaper. “I would have loved to have played in Montreal but I was quite hurt by the comments of Mr. Lapierre,” she wrote. “I don’t think they were necessary, and they contradicted everything he had told my management previously: that I was not getting a wild card because I am not Canadian.
“The fact that my original request was turned down isn’t really an issue: I would have been happy to play qualifying, but I felt that they kind of stepped over the line with this interview, making public our correspondence and even misrepresenting it. Unfortunately I don’t feel welcome at this tournament.”
She was referring to comments by Lapierre that she was not playing well enough to deserve a main-draw wild card.
The champion in Montreal in 2006 and the top seed there in 2008, Ivanovic has accepted a wild card into the WTA Tour tournament in the New Haven, Conn., in two weeks, the week preceding the US Open.
On Wednesday, a resurgent Ivanovic, 22, reached the third round of the tour event in Cincinnati with a 6-1, 7-5 win over Yaroslava Shvedova.
Announced as the Rogers Cup wild cards were Dubois, Aleksandra Wozniak of Blainville and Valérie Tétreault of St. Jean-sur-Richelieu.
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