http://www.thepunch.com.au/author-bios/david-mcmahon/ David McMahon is the opinion editor of the Herald Sun. He is the author of two novels. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/thats-not-a-grizzly-story-this-is-a-grizzly-story/ For a bloke who has a grizzly story too, I’m paying close attention to the case in which two Australians, Andrew Brodie and Owen Hereford, are suing the Canadian Government for $75,000 each over a 1995 grizzly attack. They were camping at Lake Louise when they were attacked in their tent by a bear. The basis of their lawsuit, currently before the courts and expected to last three weeks, is that authorities were negligent in ensuring the safety of campers. There is no question that Brodie, now 36, and Hereford, 37, would have had no chance to defend themselves, given that the incident took place at about 3.30 in the morning. If they were asleep, the grizzly attack would have given them no time to grab a can of bear spray, a capsicum-based aerosol spray that is part and parcel of venturing into much of Canada. feedback@thepunch.com.au (David McMahon) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/thats-not-a-grizzly-story-this-is-a-grizzly-story/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/thats-not-a-grizzly-story-this-is-a-grizzly-story/#item4088 Tue, 21 Sep 2010 19:50:17 +0000 David McMahon | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-tree-that-symbolised-hope-fortitude-and-tolerance/ I was just fourteen years old when I first heard about Anne Frank’s chestnut tree - around the same age as the world’s most famous diarist, when she mentioned the tree in the poignant jottings that chronicled her experiences in hiding during World War II. That tree, which Anne Frank viewed as a symbol of the freedom she would never recapture (she died at 15 in the notorious Bergen-Belsen concentration camp) has now fallen outside the Anne Frank museum in Amsterdam. Back in 2007, I wrote a blog post after I received a couple of emails telling me the 150-year-old tree had been declared a safety hazard and was about to be cut down. But events progressed very quickly and a court injunction prevented authorities from bringing the tree down. feedback@thepunch.com.au (David McMahon) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-tree-that-symbolised-hope-fortitude-and-tolerance/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-tree-that-symbolised-hope-fortitude-and-tolerance/#item4005 Thu, 09 Sep 2010 19:40:24 +0000 David McMahon | Author bios | The Punch