The NDP leader insists that statistics on manufacturing job losses are “irrefutable” and that “everyone” agrees more than half of those losses are the direct result of the artificially high Canadian dollar created by booming energy exports, particularly from Alberta’s oilsands.

The phenomenon is known as Dutch disease, in reference to the manufacturing decline that occurred in the Netherlands after a boom in natural gas exports in the 1970s.

However, Mulcair’s analysis of what ails Canada’s economy is contradicted by a new independent study produced by the Institute for Research on Public Policy and the latest Statistics Canada report on manufacturing output.

The IRPP study concludes that Canada is suffering a “mild case” of Dutch disease, with only about one-quarter of manufacturing output suffering due to the high dollar.

StatsCan, meanwhile, reports that manufacturing output rose in March by 1.9 per cent — the biggest gain since last September — with future indicators suggesting more robust growth to come.

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, who has led the charge against Mulcair’s Dutch disease thesis, pounced on the StatsCan report Wednesday as proof that Mulcair and the NDP “have their facts wrong.”

“The stats out today put a lie to some of these theories that Mr. Mulcair has been espousing, I think, or certainly stand in stark contradiction to them because we see in Canada, where there is a strong resource sector and an attendant strong dollar, manufacturing is moving in the right direction,” Wall told reporters.

“We have one more message for Mr. Mulcair and that is that his facts are wrong and what he’s doing is very divisive for the country.”

Wall also took issue with Mulcair’s assertion, in a newspaper interview, that the three western-most premiers are simply acting as Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s “messengers” in criticizing his analysis of the impact of the oilsands on Canada’s economy.

“I work for the people of Saskatchewan and if Mr. Mulcair is wondering for whom I am a messenger, I am a messenger for the people of Saskatchewan and for the economic interests of this province,” Wall said.

Alberta Premier Alison Redford chimed in via Twitter: “Is this national leadership? @Thomas Mulcair continues to make divisive, ill-informed and false comments.”

Mulcair was unmoved, arguing that his own analysis is based on data from StatsCan. He conceded that shifting international trade patterns are responsible for some of the 500,000 manufacturing jobs that have been lost in Canada.

But he said: “What’s important to note is that everyone concludes that more than half of them are being lost because we’re maintaining the Canadian dollar artificially high … because we’re not enforcing legislation that would include the environmental costs (of exploiting natural resources).”

“Those statistics with regard to the overall losses of jobs in Canada are irrefutable,” he added. “And they are directly related to the fact that we’re not enforcing federal (environmental) legislation.”

Mulcair said the Harper government is allowing foreign oil companies to “use our air, our soil and our water as an unlimited, free dumping ground.”

He maintains that if resource companies were required to pay for their pollution, the cost of oilsands bitumen and other natural resource exports would rise and the upward pressure on the dollar would ease.

Mulcair said his debate is with the prime minister, not the premiers, and denied that his stance is pitting the resource-producing western provinces against the manufacturing hub in Ontario and Quebec. He argued that exporters all across the country are hurt by the artificially high dollar.

“This is the defining debate we will have over the next three years …. The balanced Canadian economy that was painstakingly built up since the Second World War is being lost right now.”

In the Commons, Harper dismissed Mulcair’s thesis.

“We are not interested in identifying which industries we are going to call diseases and shut down. Our government is interested in the growth of the Canadian economy,” he said.

While Mulcair has been raked over the coals by critics, his stand on the oilsands is consistent with long-standing NDP orthodoxy and his rhetoric is actually substantially toned down.

His predecessor, the late Jack Layton, typically trashed the oilsands, referring to them as tar sands and the “dirtiest” fuel source on the planet, and vowed to cut off “every single penny” of federal subsidies.

Politically, the debate has already begun devolving into a simplistic environment-versus-oilsands, east-versus-west, NDP-versus-Conservative fight.

Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver went so far Wednesday as to accuse Mulcair of saying “our natural resources are a disease.” He refused to concede any negative impact from the oilsands boom, arguing that natural resource development benefits the entire country, creating jobs, economic growth and revenue for social programs.

But the IRPP study suggests the issue is far more nuanced.

The authors — economists Mohammad Shakeri, Richard S. Gray and Jeremy Leonard — studied the impact of energy prices and the high dollar on 80 different manufacturing industries. They found only 25 were negatively affected, with the most pronounced impact on small, labour-intensive industries such as textiles and apparel.

Larger groups, such as food products, metals and machinery experienced only minor impacts, which have generally been offset by strong growth in demand. The auto industry, they concluded, was not affected at all.

“On balance, the evidence indicates that Canada suffers from a mild case of the Dutch disease, which warrants a commensurate policy response,” they conclude.

The authors maintain federal attempts to directly counteract the rising dollar would be futile since natural resources are under provincial jurisdiction. However, they say Ottawa could use increased tax revenue from the energy boom to invest in measures aimed at bolstering the competitiveness of the manufacturing sector.

— With files from Jennifer Graham in Regina

The kirpan, which is a stylized representation of a sword, will be allowed in public areas of Toronto courthouses subject to certain conditions.

For instance, the court officer must be informed the person is a Khalsa Sikh, which is an initiated Sikh, and that they are carrying a kirpan.

The kirpan, which has an exaggerated curve at the end, must also pass the metal detector. The kirpan has a tip and can have a sharp end much like a pen or pencil.

The total length of the kirpan, including sheath, may not exceed 7.5 inches with a blade of not more than 4 inches. In addition, the kirpan must be worn under clothing and not be easily accessible.

The kirpan is often described as a dagger, which it resembles, but Sikhs say that description is misleading. It is an important article of faith, representing spiritual wisdom and the duty to stand against injustice.

“The risk of the kirpan being used as a weapon has been virtually eliminated,” Balpreet Singh, legal counsel for the World Sikh Organization of Canada, told the Star.

The religious ideology of the Sikhs spells out that the kirpan should not be used as a weapon, and it is retained in a fabric belt worn under clothing, Singh said.

The World Sikh Organization of Canada worked on developing the policy with the Ontario Human Rights Commission, Toronto Police, the Toronto Police Services Board and the Ministry of the Attorney General.

The policy was developed as a settlement of two separate human rights cases.

The first one involved a Sikh who was to attend a mandatory class trip to the victim/witness assistance program at the Old City Hall courthouse. That student was denied entry because she would not remove her kirpan.

The second instance involved a Sikh man who was summoned for jury duty at the University Ave. courthouse and was allowed to enter with his kirpan in the morning, but denied re-entry after the lunch break.

The Attorney General’s office will work with Toronto police to identify the best way to have security screenings at each Toronto courthouse.

“This is a step in the right direction, combining respect for a person’s religious observances with accommodation principles and Code obligations,” chief commissioner Barbara Hall said in a news release.

Toronto police Deputy Chief Jeff McGuire said in statement that the procedure “recognizes the needs and rights of the Sikh community and the obligation to provide a safe, secure and accessible courthouse environment.”

WSO legal counsel Balpreet Singh said the policy was developed for Toronto courthouses, but Singh said he hopes to work with other police services in Canada to bring about a similar policy.

Local police services are responsible for court security in Ontario.

“This is a good first step to ensure the kirpan is accommodated in other courtrooms as well,” Singh told the Star. “We’re going to have to move forward to make sure this accommodation policy can be introduced in courtrooms York Region and Peel Region.”

Although there are courthouses in other cities that allow the kirpan, Toronto is the first city to have a formal policy with respect to the kirpan.

While the Supreme Court of Canada allows kirpans, there’s no formal policy.

Toronto police spokesman Mark Pugash said police has a long history of working with the Human Rights Commission.

“This is the latest result of our work,” Pugash said. “It’s an accommodation that respects the traditions of diverse communities, while at the same time ensures public safety in courthouses is protected.”

This policy has been communicated to all court offices in Toronto and there is ongoing training, Pugash added.

They’re angry about the Conservatives’ move to legislate away a backlog of some 280,000 applications created before 2008.

The government announced the decision in its March budget, saying it is a necessary part of modernizing the immigration system.

But Toronto lawyer Lorne Waldman, who is representing some of the applicants, says the decision is unfair to the thousands of people who were given a realistic expectation that their immigration application would be reviewed.

The government has said those who are having their application and related fees returned can re-apply under new entrance rules.

The changes to the immigration system are wrapped up in the omnibus budget bill, meaning it is unlikely for the cases to come to court before that bill passes.

But Waldman says he’ll ask the court to force the government to keep his clients’ files open until their cases can be heard.

The Mounties conducted a five-month review into an alleged leak of cabinet documents under the Security of Information Act, which was recently used to charge a naval intelligence officer in an apparent spy case.

Records obtained by The Canadian Press under the access-to-information law show investigators had doubts almost from the outset in July 2010 that any laws were broken by the Globe and Mail story.

The story revealed angst within government about possible alienation from Washington if a competition was held to replace the air force’s CF-18s.

Still, the review pressed ahead and drew in one of the RCMP’s four Integrated National Security Enforcement Teams, whose job it is to chase terrorism threats.

The probe was shut down in December 2010 for lack of evidence.

The case file shows the complaint was laid by Wayne Wouters, clerk of the Privy Council, the country’s highest ranking civil servant and adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, shortly after the article appeared on June 11, 2010.

An expert in defence and security matters, Wesley Wark of the University of Ottawa, says revelation is disturbing and has the whiff of politically motivated “chill.”

RCMP Sgt. Brigdit Leger says the arrests are in connection with the death of Amber Kirwan.

Police have said they are treating Kirwan’s death as a homicide.

Leger declined to provide any details about the two people arrested, other than to say they are both adults and that no charges have been laid.

Kirwan’s body was found on a property about a 30-minute drive from a pool hall in New Glasgow, where Kirwan was last seen.

She was seen on a surveillance video leaving the pool hall last Oct. 9 and was believed to be walking to a convenience store to meet her boyfriend, who said she never arrived.

RCMP and the New Glasgow police have scheduled a news conference for Thursday to provide an update on the case.

Scientists from the United States and England say brain tissue in four American military members showed signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a progressive disease normally linked to repetitive concussions.

The condition has been identified in more than a dozen professional football players who have died after suffering multiple concussions. In some cases, they developed memory loss, irritability, dementia and suicidal thoughts before they died.

Patric Stanton, a cell biologist at the New York Medical College, said the international team of scientists found telltale signs of the disease in veterans exposed to even just one blast from an improvised explosive device, a weapon that became the hallmark of the Afghanistan conflict.

“This is really the first demonstration that their brains look indistinguishable from that you see in athletes that have had multiple concussions,” he said upon the release of the findings Wednesday in the online journal, Science Translational Medicine.

“It’s very worrisome.”

The researchers, based largely at Boston University, looked at the brains of four veterans after they had died, three of whom had been exposed to IEDs.

The fourth had suffered concussions in and outside the military and developed post-traumatic stress disorder, but didn’t have a blast exposure.

He said they all showed signs of CTE and that it may only take one blast exposure to develop symptoms, rather than multiple hits to the head suffered by some athletes who have the condition that is characterized by abnormal protein deposits.

“It’s as if the blast has concentrated in a second or so repeated concussions — like a whole NFL career might be concentrated in a few seconds,” he said.

The researchers said they found that the blast produces a wind that can reach a velocity of 530 kilometres per hour and moves the person’s head back and forth very rapidly, causing the brain to get compressed several times as it floats in fluid.

They recreated the effect in mice and discovered signs of the disease only two weeks after exposing them to a single blast.

The blasts can cause traumatic brain injuries, which can lead to symptoms that are thought to be short-lived, depending on the severity of the blast.

Thousands of military members in Canada and other countries have been exposed to the potent blasts from IEDs, the crude bombs that maimed and killed dozens of Canadian Forces in Afghanistan over the course of the 10-year mission.

It’s estimated that just over five per cent of personnel deployed to Afghanistan from 2009 to 2011 experienced a mild traumatic brain injury.

Col. Rakesh Jetly, a senior Canadian Forces psychiatrist, said he had read the Boston University report and was awaiting further details on the research. He added that the Canadian Forces has created a special panel on managing brain injuries in the military.

“The Canadian Forces Health Services is constantly studying evidence-based research related to blast exposure and seeking ways to improve care to personnel suffering from brain injuries,” he said in an emailed statement.

A report from November 2009 found that 6.4 per cent of Canadian Forces members deployed to Afghanistan had experienced mild traumatic brain injury.

The military reported that the vast majority of those screened weren’t showing symptoms three to six months post-deployment.

But Stanton says the progression of disease can take years to play out.

“So when the military assures people that all your symptoms will be short-lived and you will be fine, they have no basis on which to prove that,” he said.

The scientists compared the veterans’ brain tissue to that of young football players and a wrestler who had suffered repeated concussions. They found disturbing similarities between the two groups.

“Our study provides compelling evidence that blast traumatic brain injuries and CTE are structural brain disorders that can emerge as a result of brain injury on the battlefield or playing field,” said Lee Goldstein, associate professor at Boston University School of Medicine and the report’s lead author.

“Now that we have identified the mechanism responsible for CTE, we can work on developing ways to prevent it so that we can protect athletes and our military service personnel.”

A conversation with CJAD host Aaron Rand was suddenly interrupted.

The former Vermont governor and Democratic presidential candidate paused and told the radio host: “We just got hit by a car, sorry — I’m gonna have to — goodbye.”

Someone else in the car was heard gasping, “Oh, no.”

Dean was riding in a car that was hit by a taxi. His aide, Amanda McKay, who was also in the car, said they were on their way Tuesday to a television interview elsewhere in Montreal; they were taping the interview for later use on-air.

When Dean called back the radio station 20 minutes later, he laughed off the accident. Nobody was hurt.

“We were in a traffic jam when someone turned into traffic and nicked our car,” McKay explained.

Dean was in Montreal to attend a luncheon and speak about the current American presidential race. Dean had a strong start in the 2004 Democratic race, but petered out in a campaign many now remember for the notorious “Dean Scream” following a defeat in Iowa.

By all accounts, there was no screaming this week, as Dean handled the traffic incident rather calmly.

He apparently laughed off the incident when he called the station back.

“He told me it was a first for him and I wished him a safer trip home,” Rand said.

The department says officials responded Tuesday evening after the animal bit the boy’s leg and buttocks while he was on a trail near Edwardsville.

The boy’s wounds are not considered serious.

Natural Resources officials are investigating and have called in a trained trapper to remove the animal.

In addition to the direct indictments, the Public Prosecution Service of Canada announced new charges Wednesday against two of the men.

The moves breathed fresh life into the long-dormant terrorism cases that captured headlines two summers ago.

A hearing is scheduled for Thursday in Ontario Superior Court in Ottawa to set the latest proceedings in motion.

Misbahuddin Ahmed and Hiva Mohammad Alizadeh of Ottawa, and Khurram Syed Sher, of London, Ont., were arrested in August 2010 in the case known as Project Samossa.

They are all charged with conspiring to facilitate terrorist activity.

In addition, Alizadeh, 32, and Ahmed, 28, face counts of making or having explosives. And on Wednesday they were charged with participating in the activities of a terrorist group.

In 2010, police said they seized terrorist literature, videos and manuals, along with dozens of electronic circuit boards allegedly designed to detonate homemade bombs remotely.

Police said the purported plot reached to Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Dubai. But no other details were made public.

The Public Prosecution Service handles proceedings involving offences under federal jurisdiction, working at arm’s length from the attorney general. It has the authority to file direct indictments for a variety of reasons, including cases in which there has already been a substantial delay, or in matters where the safety or security of witnesses or their families may be at risk.

In keeping with prosecution service custom, spokesman Dan Brien declined to say why the cases will go directly to trial.

Alizadeh and Ahmed will face charges together, while Sher — at his request — will be tried separately. The two trials will take place in Ottawa, though with the exception of Thursday’s hearing no additional dates have been set.

Sher and Ahmed are out on bail under strict conditions. Alizadeh remains in custody as he did not seek bail, and therefore must appear in court Thursday.

Matt Webber, lawyer for Alizadeh, said Wednesday he was surprised by the federal move to proceed directly to trial. Webber had been preparing for a preliminary hearing slated to begin next month.

Ahmed worked as an X-ray technician at an Ottawa hospital, while Alizadeh had studied electrical engineering technology at Red River College in Winnipeg.

Sher, a doctor of pathology, once danced and sang on the Canadian Idol program.

Authorities said they made arrests when they did to prevent the suspects from sending money to counterparts to buy weapons that would be used against coalition forces in Afghanistan.

The Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement was signed in 2010 and came into force last August. The Canadian and Colombian governments committed to producing annual reports on how trade was affecting human rights, thus earning the support of the Liberals during the last minority Parliament.

But the Canadian report released this week does not include an assessment of the situation. International Trade Minister Ed Fast told the Commons that since the treaty was passed last August, there wasn’t enough time to do a proper analysis.

“Our government remains committed to deepening our trade relationship with Colombia,” Fast said during question period Wednesday.

“It is only through engagement that we will be able to lift more Colombians out of poverty and inspire them to join the family of nations that respect human rights.”

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has cultivated strong ties with Colombia, encouraging its transition into a more stable democracy. Colombia is a key partner for Canada in its efforts to make the hemisphere a foreign affairs and trade priority through its Americas Strategy.

The government promises to create methodology and review the state of human rights by next year. The rest of the 2012 report has statistics on Canada’s trade with Colombia, but does not include any details on Colombian civil society.

The report was released on the same day as a bomb explosion killed two people and wounded 24 others in Bogota.

NDP trade critic Don Davies calls the report a “whitewash,” noting that 17 trade unionists have been killed in Colombia since the treaty was signed.

Colombia has been gripped by civil unrest and violence for 40 years, with millions displaced as they found themselves caught in the conflict between the military, paramilitaries and armed insurgents.

“It leaves us to wonder whether the question really is that the government was afraid to table an honest human rights impact assessment because it would show that the human rights condition has not improved,” said Davies.

“Canadians want more trade, New Democrats want more trade, but we also want…the partners we trade with to respect democratic values.”

But Liberal MP Scott Brison, who used his relationship with a senior Colombian politician to help come up with the idea of a human rights report, agrees there wasn’t enough time to assess the situation.

Still, he says he would have liked to see a little more progress on the methodology, by this point.

“I know the Colombian government, with which I continue dialogue, takes this reportage very seriously and actually views it as an opportunity to deepen corporate social responsibility and to increase transparency around human rights and the affect of legitimate trade on actually strengthening human rights,” said Brison.

“I hope that the Harper government takes this reportage process as seriously as the Colombians do.”

Amnesty International Canada’s Alex Neve rejects the notion that there wasn’t enough time to assess the situation. The organization and others had unsuccessfully lobbied the government to do a human rights assessment before signing the agreement to create a baseline for future study.

“Given the serious and long-standing pattern of grave human rights violations in Colombia, many of them that happened in the context of economic activity, trade, investment and mining activities, this needed to be taken very seriously and the opposite has happened,” said Neve.