Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 25, 2013, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A14 A 14 WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, THURSDAY, JULY 25, 2013 CANADA winnipegfreepress. com * ALL PRICES AND PAYMENTS ARE PLUS FREIGHT AND APPLICABLE TAXES AND FEES. ALL INCENTIVES TO DEALER. PAYMENTS BASED ON 96 MTHS. OAC. SALE ENDS JULY 31/ 13. DLR# 0765. OVER 300 NEW VEHICLES TO SELECT FROM 0% FINANCING On select vehicles oac www. Eastern Chrysler. com 1900 MAIN STREET 204- 339- 2011 S SUPER SUMMER S M F v 2013 DODGE GRAND CARAVA N 2013 DODGE GRAND CARAVA N 2013 DODGE AVENGER SE 2012 RAM 2500 CREW 4X4 2013 DODGE JOURNEY SXT 2013 DODGE DURANGO 4X4 A V E N G E R S $ 14 , 998 * OR $ 86 B/ W CARA $ 18 , 998 * OR $ 107 B/ W * G ND C $ 25 , 498 * OR $ 143 B/ W * CAB 4 $ 50 , 995 * OR $ 299 B/ W * S $ 24 , 998 * OR $ 140 B/ W * RT $ 50 , 995 * OR $ 288 B/ ODGE WB/ W * W * ULTIMATE FA MILYEXPERIENCE ULTIMATE FAMILYEXPERIENCE W 2013 DODGE DART $ 15 , 995 * OR $ 88 B/ W * O TTAWA - A new tally of Twitter use by world leaders ranks Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 38th place. It says Harper has more than 357,000 followers, well behind the 33.5 million of Barack Obama and Pope Francis, at 7.2 million. The so- called Twiplomacy study was conducted by the New York firm Burson- Marsteller, which says it's an " evidence- based" communications firm. " Prime Minister Harper was the fourth world leader to sign up to Twitter in July 2007 in the footsteps of ( at) BarackObama, however he only started to tweet in September 2008 asking his followers to ' check out the new Conservative Party website,' " the report says. " Although the tweets are written in first person he rarely writes the tweets himself." It also says Harper doesn't engage frequently with others on Twitter. That would appear to include most other world leaders, including the U. S. president. Harper doesn't follow Obama's feed. " Prime Minister Harper is not very conversational, only two per cent of his tweets are ( at) replies and six per cent retweets," the survey said. " Surprisingly ( at) PMHarper only follows Russian Prime Minister ( at) MedvedevRussia and Uganda's PM ( at) AmamaMbabazi but does not follow his peer at the White House." But as the study points out, Obama isn't any better. He may be the most followed, and he follows a record 661,000 Twitter users, but how many other world leaders does he follow? Two. Obama follows the prime ministers of Norway and Russia, Jens Stoltenberg and Dmitry Medvedev. The survey says Harper tweets his " vision" of Canada in an " informal way" and sometimes lets followers " enter his personal life." That latter observation appears to reference the January day when Harper used his account to chronicle " a day in the life" as prime minister. Most recently, Harper's office used the 140- character social media tool to announce the new portfolios in last week's cabinet shuffle. An hour before he unveiled his new cabinet, Harper's account began tweeting individual new portfolios in what was viewed by some pundits as a social media striptease. Harper's office has not been willing to indicate who does his tweeting, saying the prime minister only " occasionally" posts himself. " His Twitter account is also empathetic when needed, e. g. on the occurrence of natural disasters," said the Twiplomacy study. " During the election campaign in 2011 he traded 140- character blows in a Twitter exchange with his opponent, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff (( at) M- Ignatieff) who had challenged him to a one- on- one debate." The study ranked the Obama's institutional ( at) whitehouse account in third place with more than four million followers. The top five was rounded out by two politicians from Turkey, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul with 3.7 million and 3.4 million followers respectively. The study looked at 505 heads of state and government, foreign ministers and their institutions in 153 countries. It also examined the use of Twitter by diplomats. It said Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird was " a firm believer in the benefits of digital diplomacy." Baird " personally tweets from his iPhone" in both official languages both " on key foreign politics issues, with Syria crisis playing a major role in his updates, and his institutional agenda, speeches and meetings but without leaving out his passion for the Ottawa Senators hockey team." - The Canadian Press Obama beats Harper on tweet scale VANCOUVER - Entrenching victims' rights in legislation will help those affected by crime get on with their lives, says Canada's new justice minister. Victims " very often, sadly, feel that they are re- victimized, or feel that in fact the system is failing and doesn't meet their needs," Peter MacKay said Wednesday in Vancouver before leading a round- table discussion about the Tory plan for a bill of rights. MacKay said the rights bill, expected to be tabled this fall, will give victims some comfort and a louder voice in the justice system. MacKay, a former Crown prosecutor, was appointed attorney general and minister of justice in last week's cabinet shuffle. He said Wednesday that throughout his legal career he has seen how victims are sometimes poorly served by the court. " I remember a few years ago running into an officer that I had done a number of high- profile cases with and he was wearing a little fish hook on his uniform," MacKay said. " And I said, ' What does that fish hook signify?' And he said, ' Catch and release.' He said that's what we're doing." " He was wearing ( the hook) on his uniform because of such a deep sense of frustration with the system," MacKay said. Although he would not comment on specific cases where victims have not been served by the court, MacKay said there are instances where he questions whether justice was done. However, one of Canada's top criminal law professors is concerned that a victims' bill of rights will do little for victims, while potentially making the criminal justice system more difficult to operate. There are " victims' bills of rights at the provincial level, and I guess one of my concerns about many of them is that they're really kind of toothless tigers," Kent Roach, a law professor at the University of Toronto, said. " Governments are often quick to proclaim the rights of victims, but much more reluctant to give victims enforceable rights." Some victims do want a punitive approach to crime, he said. " But I think if we took victims' participation and satisfaction seriously in the criminal process, this would actually impose a lot more duties on police, prosecutors, judges.... Is this something that is really going to assist victims, even at the expense of making the criminal justice process less efficient, or is this something that is really window dressing and allows the criminal justice system to continue in a way that frankly often doesn't treat crime victims very well." Roach noted many victims' services fall under provincial jurisdiction, raising complex issues about federal- provincial relations and what the role of a federal bill of rights would be. The law professor said he will wait and see what the bill of rights includes when it is introduced in Parliament, but added that a potentially more effective alternative would be providing more money to victims' services. Angela Marie MacDougall is the executive director of Battered Women's Support Services in Vancouver. She said while the current justice system often fails to help women who are victims of gendered- based violence, she's not convinced a victims' bill of rights will solve the problem. " Any generic bill of rights would fail to meet the needs of women victims of crime, particularly sexual violence," she said, because specific provisions regarding violence against women would have to be included for it to be meaningful. - The Canadian Press By Kim Nursall Bill will give crime victims comfort: feds THE CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES Stephen Harper joined Twitter in 2007, the fourth world leader to do so. A_ 14_ Jul- 25- 13_ FP_ 01. indd A14 7/ 24/ 13 10: 22: 01 PM ;