Nazanin Afshin-Jam and her husband, Minister of Defence Peter MacKay.Human rights activist Nazanin Afshin-Jam, who happens to be the wife of defence minister Peter MacKay, has a beef with the media.

On Wednesday, Afshin-Jam made national headlines after an interview with The Guardian newspaper where she said that Omar Kadhr should be repatriated from Guantanamo Bay immediately.  Kadhr, a Canadian citizen, has been a prisoner at Guantanamo since 2002 for throwing a grenade in Afghanistan that killed a U.S. soldier.

According to reports, the Harper government is dragging its feet on the repatriation, so when the wife of a high-profile cabinet minister comments, it should be news — right?

[ Related: Defence minister's wife opposed to Canadian troops in Iran ]

Afshin-Jam, doesn't think so.

In a Facebook post Wednesday evening, she took exception to the tact of the 'The Guardian reporter and especially to his headline: "Time to bring Khadr home: defence minister's wife"

Here's her post:

"This afternoon while here in PEI I was asked to come to the Guardian

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) is on a mission to shame our members of Parliament. The not-for-profit citizens group has embarked on a nationwide advertising campaign to ensure Canadians understand how "outrageous" MP pensions really are.

"For every dollar MPs contribute to their own pensions, the taxpayer pays $24," notes the message on billboards erected in five cities across the country.

The Stephen Harper government has consistently talked about scaling back MP pensions. They even hinted they would do so in Budget 2012 but didn't, apparently because of some caucus backlash.

The CTF says it's time the government to honour the promise "to scrap the platinum-plated pension plan."

"With the government planning on tinkering with the MP pension plan this fall," notes a CTF press release, "taxpayers must take action now to ensure those reforms are significant and not just putting lipstick on this pig."

MP pensions are one thing that Canadians of all political stripes seem to

Treasury Board President Tony Clement.It seems that several right-leaning media outlets in the United States have developed 'Stephen Harper envy.'

Frank Miniter of Forbes magazine is the latest U.S. journo to write about Canada's economic  prowess vis-à-vis the Harper government's policies.  In his column, published Tuesday, Miniter even suggests Republicans use Canada as an example when campaigning this Fall.

"Canada is outperforming the U.S. on every economic front and they're doing it with policies Republicans say they'd like to implement," he wrote.

"Canada's unemployment rate is now 7.3 per cent, whereas the current U.S. unemployment rate is 8.2 per cent. Canada's combined federal and provincial debt to GDP ratio is 57.9 per cent, while Canada's federal debt to GDP ratio is 34 per cent.  Meanwhile, the U.S. debt to GDP ratio reached 101.5 per cent in 2011."

[ Related: Report says Canadians richer than Americans ]

Miniter cites Canada's relatively tough banking regulations, our tax policy and our abundant natural

A Canada Customs border agent and a trained sniffer dog inspect the carriage of a tractor trailer vehicle entering Canada.The Tories are defending themselves over suggestions that government cutbacks at the borders will lead to more illegal handguns being smuggled into Canada.

On Monday, a top union official  said that at a time when Canadians need to be reassured everything is being done to stem the flow of illegal guns into Canada, the federal government has been laying off front line border officers.

"The fact is [Public Safety Minister] Vic Toews just cut 1,300 jobs from the Canada Border Services Agency … and there is no question that cutting those jobs makes it easier to smuggle," Jason McMichael, first national vice-president of the Customs and Immigration Union (CIU), told the Toronto Star Monday.

"He has really handcuffed our ability to stop the handguns at the border."

The criticisms come on the heels of last week's shootout in Scarborough and Toronto mayor Rob Ford's meetings this week with Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty and Prime Minister Stephen Harper about curbing gang violence.

[ Related:

Despite the recent headlines, Canada's crime rate in 2011 was the lowest it's been since 1972.Amid all the recent headlines about shootouts, gang violence and assaults, it appears the crime rates across Canada are actually on the decline.

A new Statistics Canada report released Tuesday claims that the overall crime rate in 2011 was down 6 per cent  from 2010 and was at it's lowest point since 1972.

Moreover, violent crime, which includes homicides, attempted murders and assault, was down 4 per cent — the fifth consecutive annual decline.

The report does note that Canada's homicide rate rose 7 per cent in 2011 to 1.7 homicides per 100,000 population, but that the homicide rate has generally been declining since peaking in the mid-1970s.

Overall, the agency says Canadian police services reported almost 2 million Criminal Code (excluding traffic) incidents in 2011, about 110,000 fewer than in 2010.

The new statistics have prompted public safety minister Vic Toews to tout his government's much-maligned tough on crime agenda.

Toews took to Twitter, Tuesday morning, to take some

It's been said that crises don't develop character, but reveal character.

If that's the case, the Scarborough shootings have revealed some City of Toronto officials as 'nervous ninnies.'

According to an article in the National Post, two teenage amateur athletes were sent an email last Tuesday telling them they were no longer welcome to be on stage at an event to promote the upcoming Ontario Summer Games.  Their indiscretion: they were competitive rifle shooters.

[ Related: Toronto police funding 'huge victory,' says Mayor Ford ]

"Unfortunately due to the untimely shootings that have taken place in Scarborough and the City recently, we have received a directive that we can no longer have the Sporting Rifle Athlete Ambassadors present on stage at the World Record Camp Games event," noted the email from an unnamed city official.

"We realize that gun violence has nothing to do with the sport of Sporting Rifle or any of your Athletes and that your sport promotes the safe and responsible use

Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter is unhappy with engagement between the federal government and the provinces.The premiers are upset because they're not getting enough love from Ottawa.

Canada's premiers and territorial leaders are convening in Halifax this week for the annual Council of the Federation, a.k.a. the premiers' conference.

And once again, for the third straight year, Stephen Harper is invited but won't be attending.

During the Mulroney and Chretien eras, first ministers' conferences were commonplace as Ottawa sought provincial input on matters relating to health care, social programs, job creation, and the economy.

[ Related: N.S. premier finds Ottawa's aloofness 'troubling' ]

But Harper seems to have a different philosophy.

Nova Scotia Premier Darrel Dexter says that has been a bone of contention for some of the premiers.

"There is a fair amount of consternation about the question of engagement between the federal government and the provinces ... That's going to be a very lively topic for this meeting," he told the Canadian Press.

"The federal government needs us to deliver the

'Stop the senseless killings by banning all the handguns' seems like a reasonable thesis.

It's a theory being renewed by Canadians across the country after a week of shootings in Scarborough, downtown Toronto and even Colorado.

But is gun control in Canada even possible? According to the Toronto Star, there are almost 700,000 legally registered handguns in this country.  Toronto police estimate that about a third of the guns they seize come from domestic sources. The other two-thirds are smuggled into Canada from the United States — and therein lies the problem.

[ Related: First-hand accounts from theatre shooting in Colorado ]

The National Post's Matt Gurney recently wrote that a gun ban would not slow the inflow of illegal firearms coming from the U.S..

"Canada shares a 5,000 km undefended, and generally unpatrolled, border with the one of the most heavily armed countries in the world, a border that has proven entirely impervious to efforts to stop the flow of contraband, mainly