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Tory MP calls Riel a ‘villain’

OTTAWA -- Liberals are demanding a Tory MP apologize for criticizing Métis leader Louis Riel.

Edmonton MP Peter Goldring sent out a pamphlet in December to "set the record straight" about Riel's actions in the late 1800s.

In the newsletter, titled The Truth About Louis Riel, Goldring calls the former Métis leader a "villain" who has blood on his hands from leading the Northwest and Red River rebellions.

Goldring said Riel doesn't deserve a statue on Parliament Hill and that such a tribute would condone his "civil disobedience."

Winnipeg Liberal MP Anita Neville said Feb 19 the Conservative party should apologize to the Métis for what she calls a "smear campaign" against the founder of Manitoba.

Although he was hanged as a traitor, Riel is regarded as a folk hero by many for his defence of Métis rights and culture.

Winnipeg Conservative MP Shelley Glover, who represents the city's St. Boniface riding where Riel is buried, distanced herself on Friday from her colleague in Edmonton.

Glover, who is Métis, said she was shocked and offended when she saw the article. "We have different opinions. I, of course, disagree with him wholeheartedly with regards to Louis Riel. I was very disturbed about what I read because I found it to be unjust and inaccurate and unfortunate."

Montreal firebombs linked to Mafia feud

MONTREAL -- Montreal police say a turf war between rival Mafia families may explain a recent rash of firebombs on the island.

At least 18 cafés, many of them Italian, have been attacked in the last few months in different parts of the city.

Authorities have assigned several officers from different squads to track the attacks, said Jacques Robinette, who co-ordinates a special investigations unit at the Montreal police force.

He said the case is complex but investigators suspect Mafia families in Montreal and Toronto are fighting over territory and "drug trafficking, probably intimidation," he said at a news conference last month.

Robinette said the Calabrese Mafia in Toronto might be pressuring Montreal's established Sicilian clan.

Canada to close ports to Faroes, Greenland vessels

OTTAWA -- Canada is going to close its ports to vessels from the Faroe Islands and Greenland on Monday because of shrimp overfishing, federal Fisheries Minister Gail Shea said Feb 14.

The Faroes and Greenland have refused to abide by quotas set by the North Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO), which sets catch limits for each member.

"We have acted in good faith for several years to try to resolve this issue, to no avail," Shea said in a news release.

Canada originally closed its ports to vessels from the Faroes and Greenland in December 2004, but reopened them in March 2008 as a sign of good faith.

Now, however, the minister has followed up on a warning issued Jan. 26, when she said the ports would be closed unless the Faroes and Greenland withdrew an objection to the NAFO shrimp quota in NAFO area 3L, in the north Atlantic east of St. John's beyond Canada's 200-mile limit.

Denmark, which acts on behalf of the Faroes and Greenland in international matters, unilaterally set a 3L shrimp quota of 3,101 tonnes, almost 10 times greater than their NAFO quota of 334 tonnes.

"Their continued overfishing is unacceptable," Shea said on Jan. 26.

The minister said Sunday she would be willing to meet her counterparts from the Faroes and Greenland to resolve the issue "at their earliest convenience."

Both the Faroe Islands and Greenland are self-governing overseas administrative divisions of Denmark.