When hockey is a blood sport

There were many notorious examples of hockey moms and pops in Canada. Leading to court battles and jail sentences. One talented kid, the darling of his hockey parents expected to get named player of the year. When someone else was named, the young star went into the hall housing the club trophies and smashed the cabinets with his hockey stick. His hockey mom and dad looked on approvingly. Could Ms Palin, who has so far managed to avoid media questions please define “hockey mom.”

LAND LINES. Pollsters following the US election race cold be in for a shock, according to one observer. When the talking heads on CNN were pontificating over the latest Obama-McCain readings, one younger viewer e-mailed that pollsters reach people using land lines (regular telephones). The young, she said, do not have phone listings. The cell phone is their world and pollsters don’t reach cell phones. One of my own daughters hasn’t had a home phone for 5 years, and she never gets plagued by tele-marketers. As Obama has rallied millions of first time voters to his cause, the pollsters, and the US could be in for surprises.

THOSE WERE THE DAYS. In May 1856 the Star and Herald complained of “the mal-administration of justice” in Panama and gave some examples.

Item 1. Last year a Jamaican attempted to steal or stole some poultry belonging to the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. He was arrested and still lies in jail, untried. It is right and proper that offences such as the above should be punished. But it is very unjust to keep the men lying in jail for months without a trial, and moreover, at the cost and expense of the State that cannot afford to support them or the wretched jail.

Item 2. About four month’s ago, a Jamaica man struck the female servant of a gentleman in this city was arrested for assault. After lying fourteen days in jail, the girl’s master, thinking he man amply punished, applied for his relief and was told that he could not be liberated until tried. Since that time the Jamaican has been in confinement. Has anything changed? Yes. People of little means awaiting trial can linger in prison for two or three years, unless they have the right connections or a convenient medical certificate, in which case they are released to their luxury homes, and likely will never be sentenced to a jail term when they finally face “justice.” Gringos and other expats, “rushed” through the system according to an embassy source, and have to wait “only” a year in La Joya, or some other gem.

CONGRATULATIONS are due to our columnist Phil Edmonston, who is heading to Canada to become a talking head on the Canadian elections, A fox in the chicken coop.