

Tonight’s Opinion Brief is brought to you by the Canadian Committee for World Press Freedom. Please join us Nov. 23 at the Mayfair Theatre at a fundraiser for Mohamed Fahmy’s Free Press Battle. Details and tickets: http://bit.ly/1uosq71

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Good evening, subscribers. Our op-ed lineup is covering a lot of territory tonight — from military ‘cosplay’ at the War Memorial to the psychotic inner circle in Pyongyang. Let’s get started:

Franck Gervais, the military fanboy who’s facing charges for impersonating a soldier, seems pretty harmless. He’s not a terrorist — just an enthusiast. So why, asks lawyer Michael Spratt, is he being prosecuted for playing dress-up? “From the law’s perspective, it doesn’t matter what was in Mr. Gervais’ mind at the time. Apparently his intended message was one of respect for serving soldiers; the law doesn’t care. Intent is irrelevant. Fly meets sledgehammer.”

Jonathan Manthorpe reports tonight on North Korea’s frantic lobbying efforts to get Russia to block a UN resolution that could see Kim Jong-Un and the satraps of the Hermit Kingdom investigated for crimes against humanity. Why isn’t Kim kissing up to China? Could it be that Beijing has had enough of North Korea’s terrorist hijinks and is looking to do a deal with its sworn enemies in Seoul? “Partnership with an economically successful and diplomatically vibrant middle power like South Korea fits far better with Xi’s agenda than continuing to prop up whichever dynastic megalomaniac happens to be in power in North Korea at the moment.”

Lawyer Nader Hassan and Jerry Natanine, mayor of the Hamlet of Clyde River in Nunavut, fill us in on Inuit legal efforts to block exploratory oil drilling in Baffin Bay and the Davis Strait. “This one’s going to make history: It’s the first true grassroots opposition to Canada’s drive to drill for oil in the Arctic, and its pushing back against an NEB that is wilfully ignoring Aboriginal Canadians’ rights to free, prior and informed consent.”

And Bloomberg’s Leonid Bershidsky reports on Ukraine one year after the Maidan protests that toppled the corrupt former regime and put the former Soviet province on a collision course with Moscow. He says Ukraine’s war in the East pales in importance next to the problem of corruption and the urgent need for economic reform. “The West must concentrate its efforts on rebuilding the peaceful part of Ukraine — still a country of 40 million, whose vast territory, even without Crimea and the two easternmost regions, makes it the second biggest in Europe after France.”

Good night, and have a great weekend.