Chan's Personal Blog

During the normally quiet months of summer on campus, Canadian university presidents have been near unanimous in their denounciations of a call by Britain's largest professors' union to consider a boycott of Israel's institutions of higher learning.

The British resolution, endorsed at the end of May by 150 of the University and College Union's more than 120,000 members, suggests that locals consider a freeze on ties with Israeli universities including teacher and student exchanges, attendance at conferences and publication of research papers.

Based on the premise that Israeli universities are complicit in denying Palestinians the right to an education, the union's proposal -- at this point only to discuss such a possibility -- has since drawn widespread international condemnation for violating the sacred tenets of academic freedom.

From Dalhousie to Simon Fraser and most of the ivory towers in between, Canada's university principals, rectors, chancellors and presidents have gradually been adding their voices to the swell of opposition from the likes of outgoing British prime minister Tony Blair, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the U.S. Congress, Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz and a long list of scholars that includes Nobel Prize winners.

At last count, 22 Canadian universities had released statements opposing the British union resolution.

In Vancouver, University of British Columbia president Stephen Toope was among the first to react.

"The attempt of one group of scholars to stifle the views of another is an affront to modern society and must be condemned wherever it arises," said Mr. Toope, himself a world-renowned human rights expert.

"Those British professors who have brought forward this shameful scheme ought to reflect on the example and consequence of the intolerance they are communicating to their students."

Should it unexpectedly start raining at anytime during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, don't blame the weathercaster -- blame the military.

In an effort to ensure clear skies during Asia's rainy season, Chinese meteorologists are planning to fire rockets into the sky to disperse rain clouds. Once the rockets are launched into the upper atmosphere, silver iodide and dry ice contained inside will detonate, and the resulting explosion could conceivably destroy rain clouds below.

William Brune, head of Penn State University's meteorology department, said the process is technically feasible, but he remains skeptical about its effectiveness.

"What this process is trying to do is distribute the water among the cloud to make it hard for the water molecules to come together to make rain drops," he said. "It is very hard to prove you've actually done anything at all, and there isn't any indisputable evidence that this actually works."

Alex Campbell, founder of Thrifty Foods, says the $260-million sale of his company to Sobeys was "the right fit."

The sale of Thrifty, Vancouver Island's largest private-sector employer, was announced in Victoria Monday morning.

Campbell, who founded Thrifty in 1977, said his company and Sobeys, Canada's second largest supermarket chain, share common values.

"They are a family company celebrating 100 years in business, and we have similar operating styles," Campbell said in an interview Monday.

He said he expects the transition to new owners to be seamless. Sobey's has said it intends to allow the Thrifty group of 20 stores to operate as a stand-alone subsidiary.

Thrifty, Western Canada's largest independent grocery chain, has 3,700 employees in stores throughout Vancouver Island and on the Lower Mainland.

"We have come to the realization that if we want to continue as the market leader, then we must commit to a new era of growth," Campbell said in a press release about the sale. "I am very pleased to find, in Sobeys a company that is committed to the long-term growth and success of Thrifty Foods."

Nova Scotia-based Sobeys owns or franchises 1,300 stores in all 10 provinces under such names as Sobeys, IGA, Foodland and Price Chopper.