The CanaDoper Café (2012 edition of The great, ongoing Canadian current events and politics thread.)
The law does not define what a mental disorder is. Expert witnesses will provide evidence as to what a particular mental disorder is, whether or not the accused suffered from it at the time of the incident, and if the mental disorder that the accused suffered from at that time was so severe as to make it not possible for the accused to understand that the act was wrong. It can lead to a war of experts, and when there is a war of experts, often there are appeals. The challenge for the judge or judge and jury is to give due consideration to the expert testimony before accepting (or rejecting) the expert’s conclusions, rather than to blindy accept expert’s conclusions just because the expert is an expert.
I have no idea what this means or where it came from. But it sounds nice. 
My sister somehow found out that our great-uncle’s house (a big Second Empire style mansion in the Eastern Townships that we visited often when we were kids) was now a municipal office building. She contacted the municipality and explained our connection with the building and asked if it would be possible to see it again just for nostalgia. Sure, they said, and agreed on a time for the visit.
The three of us who still live locally went down, had a nice lunch en route, met with the municipal employee who had arranged things, had a guided tour of the whole building, and met most of the very friendly staff. They had done an excellent job of converting the house to office space while retaining as much as possible of the original architecture of the house, and we could tell them the original use of the various rooms, and found a lot of things still unchanged, like the hidden nook under the front staircase where we hid for hide-and-seek, and the second story screened porch where we slept in hot weather. The old kid’s playhouse was even still there, converted to a garden shed. There were a lot of historical plaques on the grounds covering the history of the house, the family, and the family furniture company.
It ended with official photos and glasses of a local wine that we liked so much we asked how to get to the winery, stopped en route home, tasted a large selection of wines, and ended up buying about $150 worth. A good day made even better by the welcome extended by the municipal staff.
Now I’m wondering what town that was! I’m going to make a random guess at the Brome-Sutton-Cowansville area, just because it sounds like it would fit there 
Cool story!
I’m off to La Malbaie this weekend. Brother-in-law-to-be (step, via common law!) is participating in a mountain racing event so the family rented a cottage for the weekend. I got assigned the tasks of bringing a dessert and a drink so I made brownies, a chocolate cake and a giant batch of homemade lemonade (18 lemons!) Got about 3 litres of mix which should make a good 12+ litres of lemonafe with club soda. Should be enough for 8 people on 2 days, eh?
I’d love to identify both the municipality and the winery - they both deserve the publicity - but the historical connection could easily lead to personal identification of myself, and more importantly, my sisters.
Completely understandable…I guess I’ll have to live with the curiosity. Went to the Brome fair and was reminded how gorgeous the area is. I just like to think your story happened there
On the sports front this weekend, Team Canada defeated Team USA in a friendly lacrosse match dubbed “The Duel in Denver.” This was a rematch of the world championship game from 2010 which the US-Americans won and likely a sneak preview of the final of the next world championships which will be held in 2014 (Canada and the States are still the top ranked countries in lacrosse on the world stage, although the Federation of International Lacrosse is expecting to see 40 countries represented in the 2014 event).
Love seeing Canada beat the USA in pretty much anything. Even better when the top scorer for Canada is a Calgary Roughneck: Curtis “Superman” Dickson. 
Winning is always good. Beating the US is somehow always even sweeter.
Man, another day of high winds and grass fires near Lethbridge. Stay safe, Spoons!!
Sitting here right now, listening to the radio and checking out local online news sources. Apparently, my neighbourhood is one of a few on “evacuation alert.” A small town to the west has already been evacuated, and the main highway between here and there has been closed.
High winds (60-100 km/h) are complicating the problem. It is a grass fire, and it is moving closer to the city.
What does one take if one is evacuated? I have cat carriers ready for my cats (can I even take them or will this be a “get yourself out now” thing?), and the car is in the driveway, but no idea where to go. I suppose that if it comes down to it, we will be told what to do.
Just kind of worried right now, is all.
Wow, that’s bad, Spoons.
I just stepped outside. The air is full of smoke. The TV news tells me that firefighters are digging firebreaks, but I don’t know what else is being done. Every firefighter in southern Alberta is doing their part, so I guess plenty of water is being sprayed. There are rivers in the rural areas, so the firefighters will have water that way.
Weather report just now says that the wind has shifted–good news for me, but not necessarily everybody.
Roads north of my area are now closed, so as to direct evacuees to where they need to go.
I’m tempted to just clear out, but I’m worried about my cats.
Global News report:
There has not been any evacuation order, but I do have to be downtown tonight, so I’m going to clear out.
The radio is advising that people stay indoors, with windows and doors shut. So I think my cats will be okay, as long as I shut the house up tight. I have turned off the ventilation system, so as not to pull any smoky air into the house, and I have closed the bathroom door, which has a vent to the outside. I have also put a sign on the door stating that my cats are inside
Just in case I cannot make it back to my neighbourhood tonight, I have packed a small bag with a change of clothes, and some important papers. I’ll have my briefcase and laptop too.
I’ll try to check in later, if I can. Wish me, and my cats, luck!
Go in peace, grace and safety, Spoons! Off to make an offering of tuna to Bast for protection of your cats…
I’m back home now. The Lady Bast looked after my cats just fine. I’m sure she appreciated the tuna!
Crisis seems to be averted for now. The wind changed, and while it is still strong, it is no longer blowing towards the city. At least, not towards inhabited parts of the city. They have also brought in water bombers from northern Alberta, and those aircraft are having some effect.
The smoke has cleared out of my neighbourhood. Earlier today, I couldn’t even see the end of the street; now, there is bright sunshine and the sky is blue.
For now, things seem to be okay, but I’ll be watching the news for the next while. Thanks for the good wishes folks!
Good news, Spoons. Take care.
That is good news, Spoons. We were thinking about you when we watched the story on the news tonight - didn’t a big fire like this happen about this time last year, too?
Yes, we did have something similar last year, in November. I believe that one, though, was due to a careless bonfire. The radio news reporter said earlier that this one was worse than last year’s.
Just watching some TV–we made the national news. Not sure if that’s anything to be proud of, however.