From CBC.ca:

The judge who acquitted a New Brunswick blogger of obstructing justice says Charles LeBlanc was merely "plying his trade" at a protest last summer and shouldn't have been arrested.

In his 20-page written decision, Judge William McCarroll noted that LeBlanc was not among the mob of demonstrators during the Saint John protest, but was in a public space taking pictures of the protesters for his website when he was arrested. 

He said LeBlanc is well-known for his blog, well enough that police officers admitted to consulting it to gather intelligence about the conference.

"Mr. LeBlanc was never advised by the police that he would be arrested if he did certain things. He was simply plying his trade, photographing the demonstration for inclusion in his blog when he was arrested," he wrote.

I tried to give my mom a call this evening.

I looked up Edmonton's weather conditions on a website. The current temperature is -19 C, and is expected to drop to -22 tonight.

That will be the daytime high in Edmonton next Tuesday and Wednesday, with overnight lows of -33 and -35 expected.

Today's daytime high in T.O. was +8. We are expected to stay in positive double digits through to next Thursday, with next Wednesday having a predicted high of +14.

Since I once lived in Regina,  I looked up the temperatures there. Wednesday's overnight low is predicted to be -40.

As one of my buddies who still lives there recently put it, "Yeah, but we're tougher than you latte-sippers."

You would have to be, wouldn't you? :)

Personally, I don't mind living in a place where one can enjoy a late-November espresso outdoors without risking death by hypothermia. :)

From the AP story on CTV.ca:

A gun-wielding cartoonist dressed in camouflage surrendered to police at The Miami Herald's building Friday afternoon, more than two hours after arriving and demanding to see an editor of the newspaper's Spanish-language sister paper, police said.

No injuries were reported.

Police spokesman Delrish Moss said the man, a cartoonist who "says he's been censored by the Herald," was carrying what appeared to be a machine gun. Moss did not identify the suspect by name.

Attorney Joe Garcia said the cartoonist, Jose Varela, called him a couple of times from inside the building. Varela was concerned about a conflict of interest at El Nuevo Herald, Garcia said.

"All that he wants people to know is that he wants the truth to come out," Garcia said. "I think he needs some time to work some things out."

Americans will spend US$5 billion on their pets this Christmas. WTFF?!?!

Gerald M. Boyd became the highest-ranking African-American ever at the NYT -- and he had to leave in disgrace over the Jayson Blair fiasco.

A bill that has infuriated Islamists in Pakistan by allowing rape cases to be prosecuted in civil courts has the support of that country's Senate.

From the BBC:

A Chinese court has rejected an appeal by a Hong Kong reporter who was jailed by mainland China on spying charges.

Ching Cheong, chief China correspondent for Singapore's Straits Times, was jailed in August after being found guilty of spying for Taiwan.

Beijing High Court rejected his appeal in a 30-minute hearing, his brother Ching Hei said.

The case has sparked criticism in Hong Kong, and many human rights groups have called for Ching's release.

According to Chinese media, Ching was found guilty of buying information and passing it to Taiwan's intelligence services over a period of five years from mid-2000 to March 2005.

State news agency Xinhua said Ching had confessed to the charges, a statement both his family and employers reject.