Al Jazeera reports scores killed as Gaza school hit by tank fire

In a move carefully calculated to finally bring lasting peace between Israel and its armed critics still alive, the Israeli Defense Force has attacked its neighbours to the west in Gaza with overwhelming force at sea, on land and in the air.peace envoys from Gaza have welcomed the IDF's latest moves with sustained bursts of AK-47 and opportunistic RPG fire. 

This latest attempt by the IDF to win over their detractors follows a period of rapprochement between the elected government of the territory of Gaza and the government of the state of Israel.

This period of calm was characterized by periodic homemade rocket fire originating from within Gaza and a subsequent blockade of the area, which furthered the inevitability of current conditions.

In other news, exiled Gaza government officials known to be hiding somewhere in Syria have issued appeals for a rational stand-down and resumption of talks aimed at discovering a comprehensive solution the last few remaining obstacles to peace and stability in Palestine.

Hopefully everyone involved remembers to keep to the convention of not shooting the messenger.

Tags: israel, gaza strip, Palestinehamas

Monday June 30 2008 - 17:08 hrs

At some point while working on a big story, you might find yourself in a situation akin to that of a latter day Columbus, discovering the New World.

And when the locals point out that the new world had always been there, or when they suggest that it strains credulity that that plain facts could have been invisible to even the simplest fool, your best move is to stop talking and walk away.

But when a source essentially tells you that the root of all the activity you have been examining is right under your lens, only you’ve been too blind to see it, then you can’t walk away.  You have to make immediate plans for how you are going to cover that part of the story that you have been missing to date.

Because the facts don’t always just sit still and wait for you to take a photograph. The facts don’t wait for you to find a blank release form for them to read, and a pen for them to sign it with.  The facts tell you how it’s is, and how it’s going to be.  And only a fool ignores the facts.

I am discovering that the best thing an investigative reporter can do, is ask questions of the right people.  In this way, the facts may be uncovered from amongst the weeds of rumour and the mulch of decaying memories.

redacted proves his worth in gold today when he tells me that the developers who are building the Portland Street RIO*CAN project, are billeted in the Burroughs Building, which is located just across from his bedroom window.

I’d been inside the Burroughs Building before, when I crashed the meeting for property owners that had been convened by Councillor Adam Vaughan, following the fire.

I remembered how many familiar faces had been in the room, from the local business community.

I remembered how there had been a phalanx of uniformed senior brass from the Toronto Police Service, and the Fire Department, and elsewhere.  These men had clustered near the recessed door, and when I loudly asked if recording devices were permitted, the shortest one, closest to me had said in a friendly but firm voice, no.  Then he offered that he didn’t know who had let the press in here.

And the press had been there, a phalanx clustered at the back of the room, but not so far back as the senior uniforms.  They had better tripods than I knew about, and more impressive cameras that they were already using to shoot videotape.  But at the time I was certainly being investigated in connection with a major fire, which was the subject of this very meeting.  

And so I had decided not to videotape inside the Burroughs Building.

But now here was a veritable challenge to invade the Burroughs Building, because people inside the Burroughs Building were invading us, and had posted the location of their outpost, on a giant sign for all to see.
 

Tuesday 3 June 2008 16:17hrs

Today is a perfect day to go fishing.

 
I cast my line at the Toronto Police Services Public Information office.  I call and ask them if there’s any new public information ready for release regarding the fire of February 20th. 

The Constable at the other end of the phone sounds cagey. He took my name and phone number, and said he’d get back to me.   After about half an hour of waiting, I called Det. Marcel Chaisson of 14 Division Criminal Investigative Bureau.  

Det. Chaisson was cagy.  He said that the investigation was still open, and that he couldn’t divulge any information, as it was all confidential of course.

At that point, I wondered aloud if the investigation had progressed past the point it was at the last time I spoke to him.  Here he sounded optimistic and indicated that things had indeed progressed.  He indicated that it was his plan to contact the Ontario Fire Marshall’s office within two weeks.

Reading between the lines, it sounded as though Det. Marcel Chaisson was saying that he was just about ready to get together with the Fire Marshall and begin consolidating information.

I wondered out loud whether this meant that the investigation was through with information gathering stage, as I had recently developed some new information from one of the sources he’d previously described as  “police unfriendly.”

Here Det. Chaisson sensed me folding up my papers and preparing to leave.  He quickly dissuaded me from the notion that he wasn’t interested in hearing what I had to say.  He wanted to know what the new information was.

So I told him about the things redacted had said to redacted.