No reason not to tell the public

The inquiry into botched cancer tests in Newfoundland and Labrador is no longer simply about the health system's failings; it's about whether the government tried to cover up those failings and in doing so put people's lives at risk.

Seizing the moment

''The general public is very angry at this sabotage by a few separatists,'' a spokeswoman for Beijing's Olympic organizing committee said yesterday of disruptions to Olympic torch processions in London and Paris. ''Some people, they want to disrupt the torch relay. And this will not do any good.''

Fun, verging on paranoia

If someone had written down a large number of items of folklore about American politics on little pieces of paper, thrown these up into the air, randomly reassembled them and added a Canadian angle, the result would have been very like the four-hour CBC miniseries The Trojan Horse, which concluded on Sunday. Paul Gross is the co-writer (with John Krizanc) as well as the star who plays the title role, as the horse: a Canadian elected as the president of the United States.

Vive le Canada!

WILLIAM JOHNSON 

Amazing Nicolas Sarkozy. After four decades during which France's presidents expressed ambivalence toward Canada, even sometimes conspiring to promote Quebec's secession, President Sarkozy is proving to be Canada's staunch friend.

It's time to cast a penny-pinching gaze at the private sector

JIM STANFORD 

I recently served on a special panel reviewing the City of Toronto's financial problems. We were seeking a more stable long-run match between the city's revenues and expenses. Our final report, released six weeks ago, provided a reasonably balanced grab bag of ideas: some operational efficiencies here, some new taxes there. Above all, a clarion call to adequately fund our cities, so they can fulfill their crucial economic and social role.

Will someone please explain where the NDP gets its moral superiority?

JEFFREY SIMPSON 

The New Democratic Party has a streak of nastiness that does the party no credit.Other parties have their nasty streaks that make politics unappealing to participants and observers alike. But they don't have the NDP's overweening sense of moral superiority and righteousness that clash with the NDP's self-congratulatory high-mindedness.

China's demonizing of the Dalai Lama will backfire

FRANK CHING 

Despite the seeming sophistication of the current generation, China's leaders have not changed their stripes: Witness the heavy-handed denunciation of the Dalai Lama and his ''clique'' ever since the Lhasa riots three weeks ago. Depicting one's opponents as evil beyond compare is a basic Communist Party tactic.

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Cuban baseball player achieved status of folk hero in Manitoba

TOM HAWTHORN 

A baseball odyssey took Armando Vasquez from his native Cuba to a Canadian Prairie town where he would be adopted as a favourite son.A slight, skinny man, whose dark skin placed him in peril at least once in the U.S. South, came north to earn a living on the baseball fields of Manitoba. For four summers, he delighted hometown fans at Brandon with his slick fielding and timely hitting.

BERYL PLUMPTRE: 99

Sandra Martin 

An economist by training, an activist by nature and feisty to the core, Beryl Plumptre, O.C., was the national president of the Consumers' Association of Canada, a member of the Economic Council of Canada and, notably, Liberal prime minister Pierre Trudeau's appointee to head the Food Prices Review Board in 1973 - although she refused to report to the government of the day and insisted on speaking directly to the people of Canada. She also served as vice-chair of the Anti-Inflation Board and was a long-time volunteer with non-profit organizations including the Vanier Institute of the Family and the Kidney Foundation of Canada.

KATSUYUKI SUGITA: 65

Katsuyuki Sugita, the last head of Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank and the former chief executive officer of Mizuho Holdings Inc., died March 30 from pancreatic cancer. He was 65.In 2000, Mr. Sugita played a pivotal role in bringing together DKB, Industrial Bank of Japan and Fuji Bank to form Mizuho Financial Group, which is now one of the world's largest banks.

LAST WORDS

Turn up the lights; I don't want to go home in the dark.O. Henry (quoting a song by Harry Williams) 1862-1910

The boom, in all its cohorts, hits homes

LORI McLEOD 

Like many other people her age, Joan Ford, 65, is getting her head wrapped around the idea of an eventual move into seniors' housing. However, unlike a lot of other couples, Ms. Ford and her partner, Gail Roberts, 60, who have been in a lesbian relationship for 22 years, are looking for a development where they won't be in the minority.

Inactivity in Ontario fuels another drop in building permits

ROMA LUCIW 

Canadian building permits fell for the fourth straight month in February as the U.S. economic slowdown led businesses to curb their plans for non-residential construction in Ontario.Across the country, permit values dropped by 1 per cent to $5.8-billion in February, Statistics Canada reported yesterday, compared with a 1.3-per-cent gain forecast by economists. Statscan also revised its January permits pullback to a 3.5-per-cent drop from the 2.9-per-cent decline reported initially.

REIT watch*

SOCIAL STUDIES

Unexpected growthCarbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have risen 35 per cent faster than expected since 2000, according to a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. International researchers found that inefficiency in the use of fossil fuels increased levels of the gas by 17 per cent. The additional 18 per cent came from a decline in the natural ability of land and oceans to soak up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

It's primate playtime

PHILIP JACKMAN 

We all know the typical stereotype. Boys like to play with toy cars and trucks and girls like to play with dolls. It's a genetic thing.And it's a notion that has long been disparaged by legions of psychologists saying it's not genetics, it's more a question of early socialization.

Teachers' union blasts province for closing schools

SCOTT SUTHERLAND 

The B.C. government's closing of 150 schools since 2001, based largely on declining enrolment, is a shortsighted move that hurts children and communities, the teachers' union charged yesterday.

Police question man found impaled on pole

Unnati Gandhi 

A man who was found near the playground of an elementary school impaled on a steel pole Friday is still recovering in hospital, police said.The man, whose identity has not been released, was discovered with his pants down, clutching a tree near the grounds of Roywood Public School about 7:30 a.m.

Two schools locked down as police check gun report

James Bradshaw 

Two elementary schools were locked down for nearly an hour yesterday amid reports that a gun-wielding man had been spotted in the area.Shortly after 3 p.m., police at 54 Division received a call that a man with a gun had entered a low-rise building at 140 Leeward Glenway, east of Don Mills Road and Overlea Boulevard. Half an hour later, Gateway Public School and Blessed John XXIII were locked down for about 40 minutes.