Manitoba acts dominate at Canadian Music Awards

Iran is a state run by a radical government victimizing its citizens and its neighbours. How do we change that? Any regime change that repeats the mistakes of the past is not a solution.

What went wrong in the past which led to the current regime? One answer is the U.K. and American aided coup which led to the ouster in 1953 of a democratically elected government headed at the time by Mohammad Mossadegh and its replacement with an American friendly autocrat, the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

The Shah imposed his rule through the Iranian National Intelligence and Security Organization — SAVAK, the acronym of its Persian name. SAVAK systematically inflicted torture, arbitrary killings and extra-judicial killings on perceived opponents of the regime. It was only a matter of time before repression of a regime directed to serving foreign interests would be overthrown.

What replaced the regime of the Shah, in 1979, the current regime of the mullahs, is a regime as intolerant and violent as the regime of the Shah and then some. That was not inevitable. But neither was it surprising. The vicious nature of the current regime, following the example set by the Shah, and its hatred for the United States, reacting to the U.S. aided imposition of the Shah, both echoes and reacts to the past. In 1979, the U.S. reaped what it sowed in 1953.

How strong is Manitoba’s music industry? The province’s artists scooped up four of the five nominations for Recording of the Year from the Western Canadian Music Awards that were announced Tuesday afternoon.

Bilingual singer-songwriter Kelly Bado, alt-pop singer-songwriter Begonia, rock group the Bros. Landreth and folk singer-songwriter William Prince were all nominated for the key category.

Manitobans received 34 nominations for the WCMA’s music and industry awards, which will be handed out Sept. 25 in Winnipeg. Bado and Prince led the Manitoba charge with three nominations each, with Bado earning nods for francophone artist of the year and global artist of the year, while Prince is also vying for roots artist of the year and songwriter of the year.

Prince’s video for the song Gospel First Nation also earned a video producer nomination for Martin LaFrenière and Phillippe Bellefeuille.

A Winnipeg lawyer has been disbarred after admitting to six counts of professional misconduct and two counts of providing incompetent service involving eight clients.

The career-ending decision marks the sixth time Gisele Champagne has been disciplined by the Law Society of Manitoba since she was called to the bar in 1992.

“Disbarment is the appropriate remedy when a lawyer has demonstrated a repeated pattern of conduct that violates professional standards,” a law society panel said in a written decision released Wednesday.

“A lawyer who has been unable to learn from past discipline proceedings to fulfill his or her obligation to provide ethical and high-quality legal services must at some point lose the privilege of practising law.”