title: Walter Stadnick

text: In January 1994, Stadnick founded a puppet club in Toronto called the Demon Keepers headed by Dany Kane, while at the same time trying to persuade the Satan's Choice and Para-Dice Riders gangs to "patch over" to become Hells Angels. On 29 January 1994, the Demon Keepers rode out from Montreal to Toronto, renting a luxury apartment in the Yonge and Eglinton district as their collective home. The Demon Keepers were all French-Canadians, most of whom could barely speak English, and their poor social skills made them stand out in Toronto. During their short existence, the Demon Keepers failed to make a single drug sale in Toronto. In April 1994, the Demon Keepers puppet club collapsed ignominiously, an experience that so embittered Kane that he decided to become a RCMP informer. Kane came to believe that Stadnick had engineered the failure of the Demon Keepers to humiliate him, but Langton argued against this theory, stating that Stadnick was desperate to have the Hells Angels enter Ontario, and the failure of the Demon Keepers set back his plans by a number of years. Stadnick's principle rival within the Hells Angels was an American living in Montreal named Scott Steinert, who was an extremely aggressive and ambitious man who aspired to be the Hells Angels' national president. Steinert mocked Stadnick for the failure of the Demon Keepers and, reflecting Stadnick's damaged status, Magnussen switched over to serving as Steinert's bodyguard. During the Quebec biker war of 1994–2002, Stadnick visited Montreal at least once a month to confer with Boucher. During his visits to Montreal, Stadnick was paranoid about being assassinated by the rival Rock Machine and always stayed at the Angels' heavily fortified clubhouse in Sorel. Regarding the Quebec biker war, the prosecutor at Stadnick's 2004 trial, Randall Richmond, stated: "This was a highly sophisticated war engaging many people, a lot of planning, preparation and money. The Hells didn't just wait until they happened to run into their enemies on the street. They hunted them down like animals."


title: Walter Stadnick

text: In 1995, Stadnick had the Angels' puppet club in Montreal, the Rockers, set up a puppet club in Winnipeg called the Redliners. A Winnipeg police officer, Ray Parry, said of the Redliners: "They were the most polished. Their hair was well trimmed... The way they conducted themselves was a carbon copy of the Hells Angels' thinking at the time and was completely foreign to the way things had operated in the West". As a puppet club of a puppet club, the police reported the "triple insulation" made it difficult to tie Stadnick to the Redliners. Kane, who was secretly a RCMP informer, told his handlers in April 1995 that Stadnick was frequently making trips to Winnipeg "in order to establish a corridor for drug sales from Thunder Bay, Ontario to Winnipeg". Stadnick was also active in continuing to woo the Satan's Choice in Ontario, often visiting Kitchener to meet Andre Wattel, the president of the local Satan's Choice chapter, who was most interested in joining the Hells Angels. He also went to Thunder Bay to woo the local Satan's Choice chapter. Besides for chapter presidents, Stadnick continued to meet Satan's Choice national president, Guindon, taking him to dinner in the most expensive restaurants in Toronto and the most expensive strip clubs in Oshawa to press him to "patch over". However, Guindon was an intense Canadian nationalist who had rejected offers from both the Outlaws and the Hells Angels in the 1970s and 1980s to "patch over", and was still opposed to having the outlaw biker club he had founded in 1965 absorbed into a larger American club. Even though most Satan's Choice members favored joining the Hells Angels, Guindon would not hear of it throughout the 1990s.


title: Walter Stadnick

text: On 24 June 1995, Stadnick and close friend Maurice Boucher founded the Nomad chapter with eight other members. The Nomads, which had no geographical limit, were a "dream team" of the strongest Hells Angels, serving as an elite chapter that dominated Hells Angels operations across Canada. Members of the Nomads were Stadnick, Boucher, Donald "Pup" Stockford, David "Wolf" Carroll, Gilles "Trooper" Mathieu, Richard "Bert" Mayrand, Luc Bordeleau, Pierre Laurin, Louis "Mélou" Roy, Richard "Rick" Vallée, André Chouinard, Michel Rose, Denis "Pas Fiable" Houle, Normand Robitaille, Normand "Biff" Hamel, and René "Balloune" Charlebois. Within the Nomad chapter, there was an elite within the elite called "La Table" of five members with the exclusive authority to set the price for drugs. "La Table" was made up of Boucher, Chouinard, Rose, Houle and Robitaille. The journalist Julian Sher stated: "In Quebec, the Nomads were just the toughest and meanest and most powerful. Stadnick and his partners were able to build a pyramid structure that put the Nomads on top of all the other clubs, which you don't see anywhere else. And "La Table" was a powerful clique, which is why they amassed such huge fortunes." About the Nomads, Richmond stated: "They had their own special job to do. Everyone in the Nomads club had a role. But all of those roles were part of the overall picture, which was to take control of the drug market and get rich". Richmond called the Hells Angels "a pyramid scheme" under which the ordinary members risked their livelihoods and sometimes their lives while the bulk of the profits went to the Nomads.


title: Walter Stadnick

text: Stadnick spent so much time in Winnipeg in the 1990s working to establish the Hells Angels on the Prairies that he rented an apartment in that city and fathered a son by his common-law wife, whom he named Damon, which is "nomad" spelled backwards. Stadnick was also regularly seen in Ontario, attending outlaw biker events sponsored by both the Loners and the Satan's Choice gangs throughout the 1990s. Langton stated: "Part of Walter's genius is he went to parts of Canada where the Mafia didn't exist. There is no Mafia in Thunder Bay – but there are bikers. Same as Saskatoon and North Battleford. And you know what? People there want drugs, too." By April 1996, Kane reported that drug couriers were regularly smuggling cocaine from Montreal to Winnipeg on behalf of Stadnick. A Rocker, Stéphane Sirois, travelled with Stadnick during his trips to Winnipeg, serving as his bodyguard. Sirois later became a police informer and testified at Stadnick's trial in 2004 that the latter had told him that it was his dream to have the Hells Angels become the only outlaw biker club in all of Canada, with the "bottom rockers" (the lower part of the biker club jacket) read "Canada" instead of the provinces. Sirois testified that Stadnick had told him in 1996 that what he wanted was "The Hells Angels only, throughout Canada, with no other biker clubs". Stadnick also frequently travelled to Saskatoon to meet the leaders of the Rebels outlaw biker club to discuss having them "patch over" to become Hells Angels.


title: Walter Stadnick

text: Kane's reports mentioned that Stadnick was often in conflict with Steinert, and alleged that Stadnick wanted Steinert's bodyguard, Donald "Bam Bam" Magnussen, killed. Magnussen had killed David Boyko, a member of los Bravos, in a moment of drunken rage at a party in Halifax on 12 May 1996, an act which reportedly very much angered Stadnick as it set back his plans to have los Bravos "patch over" to the Hells Angels. After attending Boyko's funeral, Stadnick was denied permission to enter los Bravos' clubhouse in West Winnipeg as feelings in the gang were much against the Hells Angels. In October 1996, Kane reported to the RCMP that Stadnick had offered him $10,000 to kill Magnussen. In November 1996, Kane reported that Stadnick had told him that the Outlaws had tried to kill him in Hamilton, saying he was in his automobile and stopped for a red light when: "All of a sudden, a big member of the Outlaws got out of a pickup truck and tried to grab him". Kane also stated that Stadnick said he had noticed the other man in the truck had a gun, which caused him to drive away at high speed.


title: Walter Stadnick

text: He's been pretty good at eluding prosecution. Everyone knew who he was and what he was all about, but he was good at what he did. He was good at isolating himself. He worked in the depths of criminal activity and kept himself one step away, which made it difficult to collect the necessary evidence and charge him. To a biker investigator, he sort of epitomized – I hate to say this – the professionalism of the Hells Angels and the way they did business.


title: Walter Stadnick

text: Stadnick once called John Gordon Harris of the Hamilton police, saying: "I need to speak to Sergeant Harris". When Harris dismissed the call as a prank, Stadnick became very angry, saying: "Yes, it's Walter Stadnick. Of course it's Walter Stadnick!" When Harris asked what the call was about, Stadnick complained a solid gold belt buckle shaped in the form of the Angels' deathhead logo had been damaged by the police, a matter that Harris knew nothing about. Stadnick then sued Harris for $500, claiming mental distress at damage that Harris allegedly did to Stadnick's golden death's head belt buckle, which ended with the judge siding with Harris. Harris called Stadnick "a hard guy to nail. You start to realize this guy is smart. He does know his way around the system, and he's got the money to afford decent lawyers. It would take a bigger organization, more than just one police department. And we had to make sure we dotted all our "i"s and crossed all our "t"'s and did it properly". Despite owning a home in Hamilton and his rivalry with his archenemy Parente, Stadnick never tried to create a Hells Angel chapter in Hamilton, apparently out of a desire to avoiding attracting police and media attention in his hometown. One Hamilton police detective, Steve Pacey, said: "Stadnick did not want a chapter here because it would result in more heat. Walter has been able to carry out his business for a long time. Why would he want a chapter? He doesn't need it". Stadnick had no job, but owned a house on the Cloverhill Road in Hamilton that was valued at $156,000. Stephan Frankel, the Hamilton lawyer who has represented Stadnick since 1979, replied when asked about Stadnick's job: "What does Walter do for a living? I don't know. I really don't know". Stadnick's right-hand man, a film stuntman and Hells Angel who served as the Nomad vice-president, Donald "Pup" Stockford, lived in neighboring Ancaster.


title: Walter Stadnick

text: In early 1997, the Loners split into two factions, with one staying loyal to national president Jimmy Raso and another loyal to Frank Grano breaking away to join the Para-Dice Riders. Police sources claim that Stadnick was behind the split, hoping to create a new pro-Angel club. On 31 May 1997, Johnny Papalia, the long-time leader of the Papalia family, was assassinated by Kenneth Murdock, a hitman hired by the rival Musitano family headed by the brothers' Angelo and Pasquale "Fat Pat" Musitano. On 23 July 1997, Murdock assassinated Carmen Barillaro, Papalia's right-hand man, effectively crippling the Papalia family and creating a void in the Hamilton underworld. Murdock was arrested for the murders in 1998 and turned Crown's evidence, making a plea bargain where he pledged guilty to the murders in exchange for testifying against his employers. In 2000, the Musitano brothers were convicted on the basis of Murdock's testimony. With Papalia – who hated outlaw bikers – out of the way, Stadnick moved in and made contact in the summer of 1997 with a locally prominent criminal, Gerald "Skinny" Ward who lived in Wellend. Ward, who had been tried for murder three times, was the leader of a criminal gang involved in a variety of activities such as drug dealing in the Niagara peninsula. One police officer, Shawn Clarkson, of the Niagara Falls Police stated: "There was nobody to stand up to the Hells Angels the way Barillaro or Papalia would have. Papalia, even though he was 73 when he died, he wouldn't have put up with that".


title: Walter Stadnick

text: In July 1997, Stadnick persuaded the Grim Reapers gang of Calgary to "patch over" to become Hells Angels, while also opening a new Hells Angels chapter in Edmonton, establishing the Hells Angels as the dominant outlaw motorcycle club in Alberta. On 3 September 1997, Stadnick visited Toronto and met with Donny Petersen, the secretary of the Para-Dice Riders. Later that month, it emerged that four Spartans had gang-raped a teenage girl in their clubhouse. To avoid the infamy of associating with the Spartans, Stadnick threw his support behind los Bravos, granting them hang-around status with the Angels on 18 October 1997. Shortly afterwards, the Redliners joined los Bravos, which increased Stadnick's influence in los Bravos. A meeting in October 1997 at los Bravos' clubhouse in Winnipeg attended by Stadnick and Stockford, together with the Rockers and Satan's Choice Thunder Bay chapter, was described as tense, with the Rockers almost coming to blows with the Choice members. Matters calmed down subsequently when Stadnick and Stockford sat down with several Choice members. On 4 November 1997, Steinert, together with his bodyguard Magnussen, were last seen alive leaving the Lavigueur mansion where they lived to see Boucher. Their bodies were later found floating in the St. Lawrence River with their heads bashed into bloody pulps after being repeatedly hit with baseball bats and hammers.


title: Walter Stadnick

text: On 7 April 1998, Jeffrey LaBrash and Jody Hart, two leaders of the Outlaws biker gang, were gunned down leaving a strip club, the Beef Baron, by two men known to be associated with the Hells Angels in London, Ontario. LaBrash was the president of the London chapter of the Outlaws, and his killers were the brothers Paul and Duane Lewis. The significance of the killing of LaBrash and Hart was that for first time, people associated with the Hells Angels had killed within Ontario, showing the Hells Angels were deadly serious about their plans to expand into the province from Quebec. In June 1998, the Spartans gang disbanded themselves after their leader Darwin Sylvester vanished without trace. In May 1998, Sylvester went to a meeting, vanished and is generally believed to have been murdered. The man who drove Sylvester to the meeting Robert Rosmus, was murdered a few months later. A police officer stated that by 1998 Stadnick was "supplying virtually all of the drugs in Winnipeg" and had become the largest drug supplier in the three Prairie provinces.


title: Walter Stadnick

text: Len Isnor of the OPP's Anti-Biker Unit once saw Stadnick at Toronto's Exhibition Grounds and was surprised to the crowd part to allow Stadnick and his bodyguards walk up to Andre Wattel, the president of Satan's Choice Kitchener chapter. The men talked for about 45 minutes and then Stadnick departed. Isnor recalled: "I had never seen anything like it. It was like he was a rock star or something".


title: Walter Stadnick

text: In the summer of 1998, Standick and the entire Hells Angels chapter from Sherbrooke arrived in Niagara Falls for what the police call a crime "summit" with Ward. Ward was not an outlaw biker, but he was the leader of a locally powerful criminal gang, and Stadnick wanted to do business with him. Ward had been buying his cocaine from the Magaddino family of Buffalo, New York, and was considered to be the most powerful drug dealer in the Niagara peninsula. The Hells Angels' Sherbrooke chapter is known as one of the most violent in Canada, and Stadnick taking the entire Sherbrooke chapter with him to Niagara Falls is believed to have been an act of subtle intimidation on his part. It was agreed at the "crime summit" that henceforward Ward would only buy his drugs from the Hells Angels, thereby establishing Angels' influence in the Niagara peninsula. Clarkson stated: "I don't think (Ward) really wanted to do it, but I don't think they gave him a choice. It was either... he joined up, or the Hells Angels would bring in ten guys from Quebec to do it. That would be the last thing he'd want." Although Ward and his gang did not formally become an Angels chapter until 2000, to all intents and purposes the Ward gang were a part of the Angels from 1998 onward.


title: Walter Stadnick

text: A bikers' "rodeo" was held by the shores of Lake Simcoe in August 1998, hosted by the Loners gang and attended by members of the Satan's Choice, Red Devils, Vagabonds, Last Chance and Para-Dice Riders outlaw biker clubs. The "rodeo" was interrupted when the Hells Angels' elite Nomads chapter led by Stadnick, rode in unannounced from Montreal to join in. Stadnick and the rest of the Hells Angels favored some of the bikers at the "rodeo" with their company while snubbing others. It was clear within the Ontario outlaw biker scene that henceforward one could be either for or against the Hells Angels and that the Hells Angels would be entering Ontario soon. On 7 September 1998, Stadnick persuaded the Rebels outlaw biker gang of Saskatoon to "patch over", allowing the Hells Angels to enter Saskatchewan. By the end of 1998, the only provinces without Hells Angels chapters were Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland.


title: Walter Stadnick

text: In May 1999, Stadnick asked for the Glenn "Wrongway" Atkinson and Pietro "Peppe" Barilla of the Loners to visit him at the clubhouse of the Angels' Sherbrooke chapter, saying that the difficult relations between the Loners and Para-Dice Riders in Toronto were a matter of concern to him. During his visit, Atkinson who served as the Loners' secretary was surprised by the size of the clubhouse, which seemed more like a combination of a luxury hotel and an expensive nightclub. Atkinson-who had never met Stadnick before-was also surprised by just how much Stadnick knew of him and the other Loners as he casually mentioned that he knew the addresses of the Loners together with the names of their wives and girlfriends, which Atkinson took as a threat. Stadnick's lieutenant, David "Wolf" Carroll, was more threatening as he demanded to know why the Loners' president Gennaro "Jimmy" Raso had failed to come.


title: Walter Stadnick

text: Stadnick tried to have the Loners gang of Ontario "patch over", but president of the Loners' St. Thomas chapter, Wayne Kellestine, was adamantly opposed, expelling all of the Loners who wanted to join the Hells Angels and had one pro-Hells Angels Loner beaten and pistol-whipped before he was expelled. One of the Loners in the St. Thomas chapter, Jimmy Coates, had a brother, John, who was a member of the Sherbrooke chapter of the Hells Angels, and together the Coates brothers worked against Kellestine, attempting to foment a mutiny against Kellestine's leadership of his chapter of the Loners. On 22 October 1999, in a drive-by shooting, a pro-Hells Angels Loner, Davie "Dirty" McLeish, and a Hells Angel from Sherbrooke, Philippe "Philbilly" Gastonguay, opened fire with a shotgun on Kellestine, who was sitting in his truck at a stop at the only intersection in Iona Station. McLeish and Gasonguary put several bullets into Kellestine's truck, but failed to kill him. "The Globe and Mail" reported in 2004 about the Hells Angels' push into south-western Ontario: "From 1999 to 2002, when the conflict reached a peak, beatings, brawls and shootings became common".


title: Walter Stadnick

text: In 1999, the Hells Angels approached Danny Wolfe, the imprisoned leader of the Indian Posse gang, which is one of the largest organized crime groups in western Canada, with the offer to become exclusive wholesalers, selling the Indian Posse drugs, which in turn they would sell on the streets. Wolfe rejected the offer, saying the Indian Posse should be treated as equals to the Angels, not subordinates. In a phone call that was recorded by prison officials, Wolfe was heard to say: "We just told them [the Hells Angels], 'Hey man, we won't fucking stand in front, we won't stand behind you'. We're going to stand side by side if we do this... They wanted control. We just said 'No'. And ever since then, we had to back them off". The Indian Posse has since emerged as one of the Hells Angels' major rivals in western Canada.


title: Walter Stadnick

text: In June 2000, "La Table" faction of the Nomads met with Vito Rizzuto, the boss of Canada's most powerful Mafia family, the Rizzuto family, in a Montreal restaurant to negotiate the price of cocaine in Canada  It was agreed that the price of cocaine was to be $50,000 per kilogram, and Montreal was divided into territories controlled by the Rizzuto family and the Hells Angels to prevent competition between the two most powerful organized crime groups in the country. The penalty for those who sold cocaine for less than $50,000 per kilo was death. Stadnick had created a drug distribution network under which all Hells Angels chapters in Canada had to buy cocaine and other drugs from the Nomad chapter. The only exception was the Sherbrooke chapter, which uniquely was allowed to buy cocaine from the Rizzuto family directly. Stadnick's franchising business model has usually been compared to that of McDonald's under which he allowed other biker gangs to join the Angels in exchange for they had to buy their supplies from him. Sher stated: "[Stadnick] is part of that key cocaine industry that turns the Hells Angels from basically gofer boys of the Mafia into powerbrokers who are sitting down with the Mafia and negotiating the price of cocaine". By the 21st century, the five Angels' chapters in British Columbia had become the wealthiest Angel chapters in the world, with control of much of the drug smuggling into the United States.


title: Walter Stadnick

text: On 21 July 2000, Stadnick promoted los Bravos, headed by Ernie Dew, up to "prospect" status from the "hang-around" status they had been granted in October 1997. The next day, Stadnick was observed by the Winnipeg police going into a strip club where he met several presidents of Satan's Choice chapters from Ontario. In the summer of 2000, Stadnick made an offer to most of the Ontario outlaw biker gangs that was too appealing for them to refuse; namely they could join the Hells Angels "patch for patch", allowing them to enter the Hells Angels with patches equivalent to their current patches. Under Stadnick's offer, current "full patch" outlaw bikers could join the Hells Angels as "full patch" members without having the humiliation of going through the "hang-around" and "prospect" stages, provided they did so by the end of the year. Putting the pressure onto Stadnick was the fact that the rival Rock Machine had expanded out of Quebec by opening three chapters in Ontario while the same time the Rock Machine was moving towards "patching over" to join the Texas-based Bandidos, one of the "big four" American outlaw biker clubs. On 30 November 2000, Stadnick called a Montreal Nomad, David "Wolf" Carroll, to tell him over a phone line that the police were listening into: "We'll be on the South Shore at 12. I know where we'll be, but I don't want to tell you verbally". On 22 December 2000, Stadnick arranged for Dew and los Bravos gang to join the Hells Angels as "full patch" members after only five months of waiting as prospects instead of the normal year. On 29 December 2000, Stadnick arranged for a mass "patch over" in Montreal where various Ontario outlaw biker gangs all joined the Hells Angels.


title: Walter Stadnick

text: On 29 December 2000, in a much publicized ceremony, most of the Ontario outlaw biker gangs such as Satan's Choice, the Vagabonds, the Lobos, the Last Chance, the Para-Dice Riders and some of the Loners travelled to Hells Angels' "mother chapter" clubhouse in Sorel, just south of Montreal to join the Hells Angels, making them at one stroke the dominant outlaw biker club in Ontario. A number of the Outlaws together with most of the Rock Machine's Ontario members led by the Rock Machine's Kingston chapter president Paul Porter also joined the Hells Angles in the same ceremony. On that day, dozens of chartered buses from Ontario arrived at the Sorel clubhouse, carrying the bikers. As a result of the mass "patch-over" in Montreal, with 168 outlaw bikers becoming Hells Angels, the greater Toronto area went from having no Hells Angels chapters to having the highest concentration of Hells Angels' chapters in the world. In terms of sheer numbers, the Canadian Hells Angels are outnumbered only by the American Hells Angels. Sher stated about the "patch over" that: "If you can't beat them, buy them. That's exactly what he did... It was a brilliant strategy."


title: Walter Stadnick

text: One police officer told Langton about the mass "patch over" in Montreal: "They [the Angels] were truly scraping the bottom of the barrel. They were trading patch for patch the legendary Hells Angel patch for some of the lowest of the low". Detective George Coussens of the OPP's Anti-Biker Unit was surprised that Stadnick had taken on the Last Chance gang of Toronto and the Lobos gang of Windsor, saying: "We always felt the Hells Angels were-I hate to say it-of a different status. But when they started doing this, we thought, 'why are they taking all these mumblies?' We thought you guys were a little better than this". Coussens stated Satan's Choice and the Para-Dice Riders were "sophisticated gangs", but the Last Chance and the Lobos were "mumblies" (i.e. drug addicts who were said to mumble all the time because of their drug-addled status). A number of Outlaws and the Rock Machine bikers also went over to the Hells Angels, whom Stadnick grouped into the Hells Angels new Ottawa chapter. Unlike the rival Bandidos, who required that new members join as "prospects", Stadnick allowed the Ontario outlaw biker gangs to all join the Hells Angels "patch for patch", which was most unusual. The vast majority of the Ontario outlaw bikers clubs preferred to join the Hells Angels instead of the rival Bandidos as Stadnick allowed them to maintain their dignity with his "patch for patch" offer. Outlaw biker clubs operate in a very authoritarian, hierarchical manner, and patches are extremely important for the self-image of outlaw bikers with those having obtained "full patch" status jealously guarding their status and expecting the "prospect" and "hang-around" members to defer to them at all times. Stadnick asked for and received permission from the Hells Angels' American leaders for the mass "patch over" as only once before, in Germany in 1999, had the Hells Angels accepted en masse a number of outlaw bikers from other clubs on a "patch for patch" basis. The minutes of a Hell Angels meeting on 3 February 2001 stated: "the patch-for-patch is over tonight. We resume the... tradition as of today."


title: Walter Stadnick

text: The decision to admit Ward and his gang as the Hells Angel chapter for the Niagara peninsula, despite the fact that Ward was not a biker and did not know how to ride a motorcycle, prompted some resentment, requiring Stadnick to visit Toronto, where he declared that the new Niagara chapter, as the Ward gang had become, would be only "prospects" instead of "full patch" members. The Niagara chapter under Ward became the richest Hells Angel chapter in Ontario as Ward had something very close to a monopoly on selling cocaine in the Niagara peninsula. The police estimated that Ward and the Niagara chapter were responsible for selling about 75% of cocaine in the Niagara region. David Atwell, a Para-Dice Rider turned Hells Angel who later became a police informer, last spoke with Stadnick while serving as a guard at that meeting, where he mentioned that Stadnick was cordial, but always very cagey and careful about what he said. Atwell also reported that Dew and the Winnipeg chapter expressed much resentment about the way that Stadnick had allowed the Ontario gangs to enter the Hells Angels on a "patch-for-patch" basis, unlike the way that he forced Dew had to wait three years before allowing him the "full patch".


title: Walter Stadnick

text: Stadnick still refused to open a Hells Angel chapter in Hamilton, even through the city had eleven Angels living within it who all belonged to the chapters in Montreal, Toronto and Kitchener. Pacey stated: "Hells Angels influence is subtle, behind the scenes. It isn't so much in your face. I think that's the way Walter does business". Stadnick tried to maintain a respectable image in Hamilton, as he always drove his elderly parents to the local Uniate Catholic church every Sunday. The police officers who monitored him were struck by the deference that he was shown by other outlaw bikers, noting when he visited Toronto that the "hang-arounds" served as his bodyguards when he dined at expensive restaurants, standing guard outside even in the winter to keep out any would-be assassins. One Toronto police officer who monitored the 5'4 Stadnick commented: "You look at him walking down the street and you think "What he's got?""


title: Walter Stadnick

text: On 28 March 2001, as part of Operation Springtime (a police crackdown on the Hells Angels), a warrant was issued for Stadnick's arrest for 13 charges of first-degree murder. During the police raid on Stadnick's house in Hamilton, Detective Pacey was surprised to find that Stadnick had a photograph of him prominently displayed in his bedroom. Found inside of Stadnick's house was a note from his 10-year-old niece that complained he spent too much time in Montreal and pointedly asked: "Are you still the leader of the Hells Angels? I hope you can move the club to Canada and out of Quebec".


title: Walter Stadnick

text: It turned out that Stadnick was in Jamaica, where he was arrested by officers of the Jamaica Constabulary Force at the resort he was staying at in Montego Bay, following an extradition request from Canada. Stadnick's common-law wife accused the Jamaican police of putting him in a "hellhole" jail cell. The jail that Stadnick was held at in Montego Bay was badly overcrowded and had one bucket that served as a toilet for the entire cell block. He did not contest his extradition to Canada, returning on 10 April 2001. Langton dismissed the theory that Stadnick had advance knowledge of Operation Springtime, stating if Stadnick did know, then he would have gone to a country with no extradition treaty with Canada like Brazil rather than Jamaica, which does.


title: Walter Stadnick

text: After his return to Canada, Stadnick told a RCMP officer, Tom O'Neill: "I don't drink much and I don't do drugs. I'm kind of a quiet guy". When O'Neill noticed that Stadnick had a "Filthy Few" tattoo – reportedly awarded to those who killed for the Hells Angels – Stadnick claimed the tattoo was because: "Oh, that's because I like to party when I stay out with the boys". When O'Neill pointed out the contradiction, Stadnick fell silent. When O'Neill asked Stadnick if he remembered Dany Kane of the Rockers, Stadnick stated he knew him, but not very well as he does not speak French. When O'Neill told him that Kane had been a police informer since 1994, he reported that Stadnick looked worried.


title: Walter Stadnick

text: As part of Operation Springtime, the police seized the records from the Nomad "bank" in Montreal. The records showed that Stadnick's codename was Gertrude and that between 30 March 1999 and 19 December 2000, the Nomads had sold $111.5 million worth of cocaine and hashish all over Canada. The records also showed that Stadnick brought 267 kilograms of cocaine and 173 kilograms of hashish worth $11.1 million from the Mafia and made profits of $3 million during this period.


title: Walter Stadnick

text: With Stadnick behind bars awaiting trial, a biker war broke out in southwestern Ontario between the London Outlaws chapter headed by Thomas Hughes and the Hells Angels' London chapter headed by Jimmy Coates, formerly of the Loners. In July 2002, the Angels' new national leadership consisting of Gerald Ward, president of the Niagara chapter, and Billy Miller, president of the North Toronto chapter, summoned the Coates brothers and Georges "Bo-Boy" Beaulieu, president of the Sherbrooke chapter, to a meeting in Toronto to tell them to end the violence as the Ontario market was large enough to share with other gangs, and the negative publicity was attracting unwanted attention. Ward and Miller expressed much confidence that rival clubs such as the Outlaws and the Bandidos would soon fade into irrelevance, making biker wars unnecessary. In turn, Ward and Miller were believed to acting on behalf of Stadnick.


title: Walter Stadnick

text: In 2003, Stadnick was brought to trial for "13 counts of murder, 3 counts of attempted murder, 1 count of conspiracy to commit murder, two counts of narcotics trafficking and two counts of attempting to smuggle narcotics". Besides Stadnick, Donald "Pup" Stockford and another Hells Angel, Michel Rose, were also tried. In his trial in Montreal, Stadnick opted for his constitutional right to have the trial in English, and hired Edward Greenspan and Alan B. Gold as his defense lawyers. The Crown Attorney prosecuting Stadnick was Randall Richmond. Greenspan and Gold were able to delay the trial by demanding that the Crown translate all 500,000 papers of documents and ten CD-ROMs worth of evidence into English, a request that the Quebec government refused as it would cost more than $23 million. Greenspan and Gold appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada, which refused their request in January 2003 to have all the evidence translated into English given that both Greenspan and Gold were fluent in French, and Stadnick's trial started afterwards. Richmond told the court that Stadnick and Stockford were the key figures in the rise of the Hells Angels, saying: "More than anyone else in the Hells Angels, Stadnick and Stockford were the ones who worked to bring into the Hells Angels organization into other motorcycle clubs in Ontario and Manitoba." Richmond argued at the trial that Stadnick was guilty of the 13 counts of first-degree murders of members of the Rock Machine because: "Just as a general is liable for any war crimes his men commit, we are convinced Stadnick knew about the murders and did nothing to stop them". However, the judge acquitted Stadnick of all 13 counts of murder, saying that the Crown failed to present enough evidence that Stadnick ordered the murders.


title: Walter Stadnick

text: On September 13, 2004, Stadnick was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment for a collection of convictions including conspiracy to murder, drug trafficking involvement in gang activities. In sentencing Stadnick and Stockford, Justice Jerry Zigman stated: "They are hardened criminals who show little or no hope of being able to straighten out their lives and cease participating in criminal activities. They are violent people who are a danger to society. They have expressed no remorse for their acts." Stadnick was "transferred from a medium to a maximum-security prison in 2006 and 2009 for illegal trafficking activities and large-scale loansharking" in a Kingston area prison.


title: Walter Stadnick

text: When filing for his taxes, Stadnick never claimed more than an annual income of $35,000, but after his conviction, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) performed an audit of his illegally obtained income, which was also taxable. In 2006, Stadnick was reassessed by the CRA and told to pay $1.2 million in back taxes. In 2008, Stadnick filed for personal bankruptcy, claiming to be unable to afford to pay his back taxes.


title: Walter Stadnick

text: Stadnick was paroled in June 2014, lasting less than a month on probation due to suspicion that he was associating with people with criminal records as well as the biker club. He was able to convince the Parole Board of Canada to reinstate his freedom in December 2014. The board ruled in December 2014: "He will have unrestricted freedom beginning April 12, 2019. Until then, Stadnick is under extremely strict conditions, including: avoid people in street and motorcycle gangs (any person known to be a hang around or wannabe of any outlaw motorcycle gang), barred from owning more than one cellphone and must show his parole officers detailed billing statements for it, including documentation of who he texts and emails and what social media sites he visits. He also can't consume alcohol or go to bars or own or operate a motorcycle or work in motorcycle repair. He must also obey a curfew that runs between 9 p.m and 6 a.m. Given his past criminal spending habits, and amounts of money within drug trafficking the Board will monitor his revenues and expenses." Another of his parole conditions was that Stadnick was not to enter Quebec. Stadnick was described as being "polite and respectful inmate", but one who refused to admit that he had been a Hells Angel or admit any guilt.


title: Walter Stadnick

text: In 2018, it was reported that Stadnick was employed as a construction worker. After his parole conditions forbidding him to associate with the Hells Angels expired in April 2019, Stadnick renewed his associations. On 18 August 2019, he attended the funeral in Delta, British Columbia of a murdered Hells Angel, Suminder "Allie" Grewal.


title: Walter Stadnick

text: Despite his conviction in 2004, Stadnick had raised the Hells Angels up to such a level of dominance that the club continued to function well without him and remained the most powerful outlaw biker club in Canada. Stadnick changed the status of outlaw bikers from being subcontractors for the Mafia, which was the norm when he began his career as an outlaw biker, to being the equals of the Mafia. In 2004, Ha wrote:"...in his home province, Mr. Stadnick's legacy lives on, with 184 Hells Angels now operating in the country's largest drug market". In 2015, Detective Sergeant Len Isnor of the OPP's anti-biker unit told the media: "The Hells dominate nearly every province in the country". Peter Edwards, the crime correspondent for the "Toronto Star" described the Hells Angels in 2016 as the most powerful organized crime group in Canada, saying "In Ontario, you had the Hells Angels and the people the Hells Angels let exist. They either worked with you or they didn't care about you." Pierre de Champlain, an expert on bikers for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, stated: "Since 2000, the Hells Angels have had complete control over Quebec, from Sept-Îles to Granby. No one wants to work against the Hells Angels independently because it's not in their interest." In 2016, it was estimated the Hells Angels had about 450 members with chapters in almost every province, giving them a level of dominance that no other organized crime group in Canada could match.


title: Arab culture

text: Arab culture is the culture of the Arabs, from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the east, and from the Mediterranean Sea in the north to the Horn of Africa and the Indian Ocean in the southeast. The various religions the Arabs have adopted throughout their history and the various empires and kingdoms that have ruled and took lead of the Arabian civilization have contributed to the ethnogenesis and formation of modern Arab culture.Language, literature, gastronomy, art, architecture, music, spirituality, philosophy and mysticism are all part of the cultural heritage of the Arabs.


title: Arab culture

text: The Arab world is sometimes divided into separate regions depending on different cultures, dialects and traditions including:


title: Arab culture

text: • The Arabian Peninsula: Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Yemen and the United Arab Emirates.


title: Arab culture

text: Arabic literature is the writing produced, both prose and poetry, by speakers of the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is "adab" which is derived from a word meaning "to invite someone for a meal" and implies politeness, culture and enrichment. Arabic literature emerged in the 6th century, with only fragments of the written language appearing before then. The Qur'an, from the 7th century, had the greatest and longest-lasting effect on Arabic culture and literature. Al-Khansa, a female contemporary of Muhammad, was an acclaimed Arab poet.


title: Arab culture

text: The Mu'allaqat (Arabic: المعلقات, ) is the name given to a series of seven Arabic poems or qasida that originated before the time of Islam. Each poem in the set has a different author, and is considered to be their best work. Mu'allaqat means "The Suspended Odes" or "The Hanging Poems," and comes from the poems being hung on the wall in the Kaaba at Mecca.


title: Arab culture

text: The seven authors, who span a period of around 100 years, are Imru' al-Qais, Tarafa, Zuhayr, Labīd, 'Antara Ibn Shaddad, 'Amr ibn Kulthum, and Harith ibn Hilliza. All of the Mu’allaqats contain stories from the authors’ lives and tribe politics. This is because poetry was used in pre-Islamic time to advertise the strength of a tribe's king, wealth and people.


title: Arab culture

text: The "One Thousand and One Nights" ( "ʾAlf layla wa-layla"), is a medieval folk tale collection which tells the story of Scheherazade, a Sassanid queen who must relate a series of stories to her malevolent husband, King Shahryar (Šahryār), to delay her execution. The stories are told over a period of one thousand and one nights, and every night she ends the story with a suspenseful situation, forcing the King to keep her alive for another day. The individual stories were created over several centuries, by many people from a number of different lands.


title: Arab culture

text: During the reign of the Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid in the 8th century, Baghdad had become an important cosmopolitan city. Merchants from Persia, China, India, Africa, and Europe were all found in Baghdad. During this time, many of the stories that were originally folk stories are thought to have been collected orally over many years and later compiled into a single book. The compiler and ninth-century translator into Arabic is reputedly the storyteller Abu Abd-Allah Muhammad el-Gahshigar. The frame story of Shahrzad seems to have been added in the 14th century.


title: Arab culture

text: Arabic music is the music of Arab people, especially those centered around the Arabian Peninsula. The world of Arab music has long been dominated by Cairo, a cultural center, though musical innovation and regional styles abound from Tunisia to Saudi Arabia. Beirut has, in recent years, also become a major center of Arabic music. Classical Arab music is extremely popular across the population, especially a small number of superstars known throughout the Arab world. Regional styles of popular music include Iraqi el Maqaam, Algerian "raï", Kuwaiti "sawt" and Egyptian "el gil".


title: Arab culture

text: "The common style that developed is usually called 'Islamic' or 'Arab', though in fact it transcends religious, ethnic, geographical, and linguistic boundaries" and it is suggested that it be called the Near East (from Morocco to India) style (van der Merwe, Peter 1989, p. 9).


title: Arab culture

text: Habib Hassan Touma (1996, p.xix-xx) lists "five components" which "characterize the music of the Arabs:


title: Arab culture

text: Much Arab music is characterized by an emphasis on melody and rhythm rather than harmony. Thus much Arabic music is homophonic in nature. Some genres of Arab music are polyphonic—as the instrument Kanoun is based upon the idea of playing two-note chords—but quintessentially, Arabic music is melodic.


title: Arab culture

text: It would be incorrect though to call it modal, for the Arabic system is more complex than that of the Greek modes. The basis of the Arabic music is the maqam (pl. maqamat), which looks like the mode, but is not quite the same. The maqam has a "tonal" note on which the piece must end (unless modulation occurs).


title: Arab culture

text: The maqam consists of at least two jins, or scale segments. "Jins" in Arabic comes from the ancient Greek word "genus," meaning type. In practice, a jins (pl. ajnas) is either a trichord, a tetrachord, or a pentachord. The trichord is three notes, the tetrachord four, and the pentachord five. The maqam usually covers only one octave (two jins), but sometimes it covers more than one octave. Like the melodic minor scale and Indian ragas, some maqamat have different ajnas, and thus notes, while descending or ascending. Because of the continuous innovation of jins and because most music scholars don't agree on the existing number anyway, it's hard to give an accurate number of the jins. Nonetheless, in practice most musicians would agree on the 8 most frequently used ajnas: Rast, Bayat, Sikah, Hijaz, Saba, Kurd, Nahawand, and Ajam — and a few of the most commonly used variants of those: Nakriz, Athar Kurd, Sikah Beladi, Saba Zamzama. Mukhalif is a rare jins used exclusively in Iraq, and it does not occur in combination with other ajnas.


title: Arab culture

text: The main difference between the western chromatic scale and the Arabic scales is the existence of many in-between notes, which are sometimes referred to as quarter tones for the sake of practicality. However, while in some treatments of theory the quarter tone scale or all twenty four tones should exist, according to Yūsuf Shawqī (1969) in practice there are many fewer tones (Touma 1996, p. 170).


title: Arab culture

text: In fact, the situation is much more complicated than that. In 1932, at International Convention on Arabic music held in Cairo, Egypt (attended by such Western luminaries as Béla Bartók and Henry George Farmer), experiments were done which determined conclusively that the notes in actual use differ substantially from an even-tempered 24-tone scale, and furthermore that the intonation of many of those notes differ slightly from region to region (Egypt, Turkey, Syria, Iraq). The commission's recommendation is as follows: "The tempered scale and the natural scale should be rejected. In Egypt, the Egyptian scale is to be kept with the values, which were measured with all possible precision. The Turkish, Syrian, and Iraqi scales should remain what they are..." (translated in Maalouf 2002, p. 220). Both in modern practice, and based on the evidence from recorded music over the course of the last century, there are several differently tuned "E"s in between the E-flat and E-natural of the Western Chromatic scale, depending on the maqam or jins in use, and depending on the region.


title: Arab culture

text: Musicians and teachers refer to these in-between notes as "quarter-tones" ("half-flat" or "half-sharp") for ease of nomenclature, but perform and teach the exact values of intonation in each jins or maqam by ear. It should also be added, in reference to Touma's comment above, that these "quarter-tones" are not used everywhere in the maqamat: in practice, Arabic music does not modulate to 12 different tonic areas like the Well-Tempered Klavier, and so the most commonly used "quarter tones" are on E (between E-flat and E-natural), A, B, D, F (between F-natural and F-sharp) and C.


title: Arab culture

text: The prototypical Arab ensemble in Egypt and Syria is known as the takht, which includes, (or included at different time periods) instruments such as the 'oud, qanún, rabab, nay, violin (which was introduced in the 1840s or 50s), riq and dumbek. In Iraq, the traditional ensemble, known as the chalghi, includes only two melodic instruments—the jowza (similar to the rabab but with four strings) and santur—with riq and dumbek.


title: Arab culture

text: "Arab folk dances" also referred to as "Oriental dance", "Middle-Eastern dance and" "Eastern dance", refers to the traditional folk dances of the Arabs in Arab world (Middle East and North Africa). The term "Arabic dance" is often associated with the belly dance. However, there are many styles of traditional Arab dance, and many of them have a long history. These may be folk dances, or dances that were once performed as rituals or as entertainment spectacle, and some may have been performed in the imperial court. Coalescence of oral storytelling, poetry recital, and performative music and dance as long-standing traditions in Arab history. Among the best-known of the Arab traditional dances are the belly dance and the Dabke.


title: Arab culture

text: "Belly dance" also referred to as "Arabic dance" ( is an Arab expressive dance, which emphasizes complex movements of the torso. Many boys and girls in countries where belly dancing is popular will learn how to do it when they are young. The dance involves movement of many different parts of the body; usually in a circular way.


title: Arab culture

text: Prior to the Islamic Era, poetry was regarded as the main means of communication on the Arabian Peninsula. It related the achievements of tribes and defeats of enemies and also served as a tool for propaganda. After the arrival of Islam, Imams (preachers) played a role in disseminating information and relating news from the authorities to the people. The suq or marketplace gossip and interpersonal relationships played an important role in the spreading of news, and this form of communication among Arabs continues today. Before the introduction of the printing press Muslims obtained most of their news from the imams at the mosque, friends or in the marketplace. Colonial powers and Christian Missionaries in Lebanon were responsible for the introduction of the printing press. It was not until the 19th century that the first newspapers began to appear, mainly in Egypt and Lebanon, which had the most newspapers per capita.


title: Arab culture

text: During French rule in Egypt in the time of Napoleon Bonaparte the first newspaper was published, in French. There is debate over when the first Arabic language newspaper was published; according to Arab scholar Abu Bakr, it was "Al Tanbeeh" (1800), published in Egypt, or it was "Junral Al Iraq" (1816), published in Iraq, according to other researchers. In the mid-19th century the Turkish Empire dominated the first newspapers.


title: Arab culture

text: The first newspapers were limited to official content and included accounts of relations with other countries and civil trials. In the following decades Arab media blossomed due to journalists mainly from Syria and Lebanon, who were intellectuals and published their newspapers without the intention of making a profit. Because of the restrictions by most governments, these intellectuals were forced to flee their respective countries but had gained a following and because of their popularity in this field of work other intellectuals began to take interest in the field.


title: Arab culture

text: The first émigré Arab newspaper, "Mar’at al Ahwal", was published in Turkey in 1855 by Rizqallah Hassoun Al Halabi. It was criticized by the Ottoman Empire and shut down after only one year. Intellectuals in the Arab world soon realized the power of the press. Some countries' newspapers were government-run and had political agendas in mind. Independent newspapers began to spring up which expressed opinions and were a place for the public to out their views on the state. Illiteracy rates in the Arab world played a role in the formation of media, and due to the low reader rates newspapers were forced to get political parties to subsidize their publications, giving them input to editorial policy.


title: Arab culture

text: Freedoms that have branched through the introduction of the Internet in Middle East are creating a stir politically, culturally, and socially. There is an increasing divide between the generations. The Arab world is in conflict internally. The internet has brought economic prosperity and development, but bloggers have been incarcerated all around in the Middle East for their opinions and views on their regimes, the same consequence which was once given to those who publicly expressed themselves without anonymity. But the power of the internet has provided also a public shield for these bloggers since they have the ability to engage public sympathy on such a large scale. This is creating a dilemma that shakes the foundation of Arab culture, government, religious interpretation, economic prosperity, and personal integrity.


title: Arab culture

text: Each country or region in the Arab world has varying colloquial languages which are used for everyday speech, yet its presence in the media world is discouraged. Prior to the establishment of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), during the 19th century, the language of the media was stylized and resembled literary language of the time, proving to be ineffective in relaying information. Currently MSA is used by Arab media, including newspapers, books and some television stations, in addition to all formal writing. Vernaculars are however present in certain forms of media including satires, dramas, music videos and other local programs.


title: Arab culture

text: Journalism ethics is a system of values that determines what constitutes "good" and "bad" journalism. A system of media values consists of and is constructed by journalists' and other actors' decisions about issues like what is "newsworthy," how to frame the news, and whether to observe topical "red lines." Such a system of values varies over space and time, and is embedded within the existing social, political, and economic structures in a society. William Rugh states, "There is an intimate, organic relationship between media institutions and society in the way that those institutions are organized and controlled. Neither the institution nor the society in which it functions can be understood properly without reference to the other. This is certainly true in the Arab world." Media values in the Arab world therefore vary between and within countries. In the words of Lawrence Pintak and Jeremy Ginges (2008), “The Arab media are not a monolith.”


title: Arab culture

text: Journalists in the Arab world hold many of the same values with their news generation as do journalists in the Western world. Journalists in the Arab world often aspire to Western norms of objectivity, impartiality, and balance. Kuldip Roy Rampal's study of journalist training programs in North Africa leads him to the conclusion that, "the most compelling dilemma faced by professional journalists, increasingly graduates of journalism degree programs, in the four Maghreb states is how to reconcile their preference for press freedom and objectivity with constraints imposed by political and legal factors that point to a pro-government journalism." Iyotika Ramaprasad and Naila Nabil Hamdy state, “A new trend toward objectivity and impartiality as a value in Arab journalism seems to be emerging, and the values of Arab and Western journalism in this field have started to converge.” Further, many journalists in the Arab world express their desires for the media to become a fourth estate akin to the media in the West. In a survey of 601 journalists in the Arab world, 40% of them viewed investigation of the government as part of their job.


title: Arab culture

text: Important differences between journalists in the Arab world and their Western counterparts are also apparent. Some journalists in the Arab world see no conflict between objectivity and support for political causes. Ramprasad and Hamdy's sample of 112 Egyptian journalists gave the highest importance to supporting Arabism and Arab values, which included injunctions such as “defend Islamic societies, traditions and values” and “support the cause of the Palestinians.” Sustaining democracy through “examining government policies and decisions critically,” ranked a close second.


title: Arab culture

text: Other journalists reject the notion of media ethics altogether because they see it as a mechanism of control. Kai Hafez states, “Many governments in the Arab world have tried to hijack the issue of media ethics and have used it as yet another controlling device, with the result that many Arab journalists, while they love to speak about the challenges of their profession, hate performing under the label of media ethics.”


title: Arab culture

text: Historically, news in the Arab world was used to inform, guide, and publicize the actions of political practitioners rather than being just a consumer product. The power of news as political tool was discovered in the early 19th century, with the purchase of shares from Le Temps a French newspaper by Ismail the grandson of Muhammad Ali. Doing so allowed Ismail to publicize his policies. Arab Media coming to modernity flourished and with it its responsibilities to the political figures that have governed its role. Ami Ayalon argues in his history of the press in the Arab Middle East that, “Private journalism began as an enterprise with very modest objectives, seeking not to defy authority but rather to serve it, to collaborate and coexist cordially with it. The demand for freedom of expression, as well as for individual political freedom, a true challenge to the existing order, came only later, and hesitantly at that, and was met by a public response that can best be described as faint."


title: Arab culture

text: Media researchers stress that the moral and social responsibility of newspeople dictates that they should not agitate public opinion, but rather should keep the status quo. It is also important to preserve national unity by not stirring up ethnic or religious conflict.


title: Arab culture

text: The values of media in the Arab world have started to change with the emergence of “new media." Examples of new media include news websites, blogs, and satellite television stations like Al Arabiya. The founding of the Qatari Al Jazeera network in 1996 especially affected media values. Some scholars believe that the network has blurred the line between private- and state- run news. Mohamed Zayani and Sofiane Sabraoui state, “Al Jazeera is owned by the government, but has an independent editorial policy; it is publicly funded, but independent minded.” The Al Jazeera media network espouses a clear mission and strategy, and was one of the first news organizations in the Arab world to release a code of ethics. Despite its government ties, it seeks to “give no priority to commercial or political over professional consideration” and to “cooperate with Arab and international journalistic unions and associations to defend freedom of the press.” With a motto of “the view and the other view,” it purports to “present the diverse points of view and opinions without bias and partiality.” It has sought to fuse these ostensibly Western media norms with a wider “Arab orientation,” evocative of the social responsibility discussed by scholars such as Noha Mellor above.


title: Arab culture

text: Some more recent assessments of Al Jazeera have criticized it for a lack of credibility in the wake of the Arab Spring. Criticism has come from within the Arab Middle East, including from state governments. Independent commentators have criticized its neutrality vis-a-vis the Syrian Civil War.


title: Arab culture

text: Media values are not the only variable that affects news output in Arab society. Hafez states, “The interaction of political, economic, and social environments with individual and collective professional ethics is the driving force behind journalism.” In most Arab countries, newspapers cannot be published without a government-issued license. Most Arab countries also have press laws, which impose boundaries on what can and cannot be said in print.


title: Arab culture

text: Censorship plays a significant role in journalism in the Arab world. Censorship comes in a variety of forms: Self-censorship, Government Censorship (governments struggle to control through technological advances in ex. the internet), Ideology/Religious Censorship, and Tribal/Family/Alliances Censorship. Because Journalism in the Arab world comes with a range of dangers – journalists throughout the Arab world can be imprisoned, tortured, and even killed in their line of work – self-censorship is extremely important for many Arab journalists. A study conducted by the Center for Defending Freedom of Journalists (CDFJ) in Jordan, for example, found that the majority of Jordanian journalists exercise self-censorship. CPJ found that 34 journalists were killed in the region in 2012, 72 were imprisoned on December 1, 2012, and 126 were in exile from 2007 to 2012.


title: Arab culture

text: A related point is that media owners and patrons have effects on the values of their outlets. Newspapers in the Arab world can be divided into three categories: government owned, partisan owned, and independently owned. Newspaper, radio, and television patronization in the Arab world has heretofore been primarily a function of governments. "Now, newspaper ownership has been consolidated in the hands of powerful chains and groups. Yet, profit is not the driving force behind the launching of newspapers; publishers may establish a newspaper to ensure a platform for their political opinions, although it is claimed that this doesn't necessarily influence the news content". In the Arab world, as far as content is concerned, news is politics. Arab states are intimately involved in the economic well-being of many Arab news organizations so they apply pressure in several ways, most notably through ownership or advertising.


title: Arab culture

text: Some analysts hold that cultural and societal pressures determine journalists' news output in the Arab world. For example, to the extent that family reputation and personal reputation are fundamental principles in Arabian civilization, exposes of corruption, examples of weak moral fiber in governors and policy makers, and investigative journalism may have massive consequences. In fact, some journalists and media trainers in the Arab world nevertheless actively promote the centrality of investigative journalism to the media's larger watchdog function. In Jordan, for example, where the degree of government and security service interference in the media is high, non-governmental organizations such as the Center for Defending the Freedom of Journalists (CDFJ) and Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ) train journalists to undertake investigative journalism projects.


title: Arab culture

text: Some Saudi journalists stress the importance of enhancing Islam through the media. The developmental role of media was acknowledged by an overwhelming majority of Saudi journalists, while giving the readers what they want was not regarded as a priority. However, journalism codes, as an important source for the study of media values, complicate this notion. Kai Hafez states, “The possible hypothesis that Islamic countries might not be interested in ‘truth’ and would rather propagate ‘Islam’ as the single truth cannot be verified completely because even a code that limits journalists’ freedom of expression to Islamic objectives and values, the Saudi Arabian code, demands that journalists present real facts.” In addition, Saudi journalists operate in an environment in which anti-religious talk is likely to be met with censorship.


title: Arab culture

text: Patterns of consumption also affect media values. People in the Arab world rely on newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and the Internet to differing degrees and to meet a variety of ends. For Rugh, the proportion of radio and television receivers to Arab populations relative to UNESCO minimum standards suggests that radio and television are the most widely consumed media. He estimates that television reaches well over 100 million people in the region, and this number has likely grown since 2004. By contrast, he supposes that Arab newspapers are designed more for elite-consumption on the basis of their low circulation. He states, "Only five Arab countries have daily newspapers which distribute over 60,000 copies and some have dailies only in the under-10,000 range. Only Egypt has dailies which distribute more than a half million copies." Estimating newspaper readership is complicated, however, by the fact that single newspapers can change hands many times in a day. Finally, the internet continues to be a fairly common denominator in Arab societies. A report by the Dubai School of Government and Bayt.com estimates that there are more than 125 million Internet users in the region, and that more than 53 million of them actively use social media. They caution, however, that while "the internet has wide-ranging benefits, these benefits do not reach large segments of societies in the Arab region. The digital divide remains a significant barrier for many people. In many parts of the Arab world levels of educational attainment, economic activity, standards of living and internet costs still determine a person's access to life-changing technology. Further, according to Leo Gher and Hussein Amin, the Internet and other modern telecommunication services may serve to counter the effects of private and public ownership and patronage of the press. They state, "Modern international telecommunications services now assist in the free flow of information, and neither inter-Arab conflicts nor differences among groups will affect the direct exchange of services provided by global cyberspace networks."


title: Arab culture

text: In most Arabian countries, magazines cannot be published without a government-issued license. Magazines in the Arabian world, like many of the magazines in the Western world, are geared towards women. However, the number of magazines in the Arab world is significantly smaller than that of the Western world. The Arab world is not as advertisement driven as the Western world. Advertisers fuel the funding for most Western magazines to exist. Thus, a lesser emphasis on advertisement in the Arabian world plays into the low number of magazines.


title: Arab culture

text: There are 40 private radio stations throughout the Middle East (list of private radio stations in the Arab world)


title: Arab culture

text: Arab radio broadcasting began in the 1920s, but only a few Arab countries had their own broadcasting stations before World War II. After 1945, most Arab states began to create their own radio broadcasting systems, although it was not until 1970, when Oman opened its radio transmissions, that every one of them had its own radio station.


title: Arab culture

text: Among Arab countries, Egypt has been a leader in radio broadcasting from the beginning. Broadcasting began in Egypt in the 1920s with private commercial radio. In 1947, however, the Egyptian government declared radio a government monopoly and began investing in its expansion.


title: Arab culture

text: By the 1970s, Egyptian radio had fourteen different broadcast services with a total air time of 1,200 hours per week. Egypt is ranked third in the world among radio broadcasters. The programs were all government controlled, and much of the motivation for the government's investment in radio was due to the aspirations of President Gamal Abdel Nasser to be the recognized leader of the Arab world.


title: Arab culture

text: Egypt's "Voice of the Arabs" station, which targeted other Arab countries with a constant stream of news and political features and commentaries, became the most widely heard station in the region. Only after the June 1967 war, when it was revealed that this station had misinformed the public about what was happening, did it lose some credibility; nevertheless it retained a large listenership.


title: Arab culture

text: On the Arabian Peninsula, radio was slower to develop. In Saudi Arabia, radio broadcasts started in the Jidda-Mecca area in 1948, but they did not start in the central or eastern provinces until the 1960s. Neighboring Bahrain had radio by 1955, but Qatar, Abu Dhabi, and Oman did not start indigenous radio broadcasting until nearly a quarter century later.


title: Arab culture

text: Almost all television channels in the Arab world were government-owned and strictly controlled prior to the 1990s. In the 1990s the spread of satellite television began changing television in Arab countries. Often noted as a pioneer, Al Jazeera represents a shift towards a more professional approach to news and current affairs. Financed by the Qatar government and established in 1996, Al Jazeera was the first Arabic channel to deliver extensive live news coverage, going so far as to send reporters to "unthinkable" places like Israel. Breaking the mold in more ways than one, Al Jazeera's discussion programs raised subjects that had long been prohibited. However, in 2008, Egypt and Saudi Arabia called for a meeting to approve a charter to regulate satellite broadcasting. The Arab League Satellite Broadcasting Charter (2008) lays out principles for regulating satellite broadcasting in the Arab world.


title: Arab culture

text: "Across the Middle East, new television stations, radio stations and websites are sprouting like incongruous electronic mushrooms in what was once a media desert. Meanwhile, newspapers are aggressively probing the red lines that have long contained them". Technology is playing a significant role in the changing Arab media. Pintak furthers, "Now, there are 263 free-to-air (FTA) satellite television stations in the region, according to Arab Advisors Group. That's double the figure as of just two years ago". Freedom of speech and money have little to do with why satellite television is sprouting up everywhere. Instead, "A desire for political influence is probably the biggest factor driving channel growth. But ego is a close second". The influence of the West is very apparent in Arab media, especially in television. Arab soap operas and the emerging popularity of reality TV are evidence of this notion.


title: Arab culture

text: "In the wake of controversy triggered by "Super Star" and "Star Academy", some observers have hailed reality television as a harbinger of democracy in the Arab world." "Star Academy" in Lebanon is strikingly similar to "American Idol" mixed with "The Real World". "Star Academy" began in 2003 in the Arab world. "Reality television entered Arab public discourse in the last five years at a time of significant turmoil in the region: escalating violence in Iraq, contested elections in Egypt, the struggle for women's political rights in Kuwait, political assassinations in Lebanon, and the protracted Arab–Israeli conflict. This geo-political crisis environment that currently frames Arab politics and Arab–Western relations is the backdrop to the controversy surrounding the social and political impact of Arab reality television, which assumes religious, cultural or moral manifestations."


title: Arab culture

text: Most Arab countries did not produce films before independence. In Sudan, Libya, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, production is even now confined to short films or television. Bahrain witnessed the production of its first and only full-length feature film in 1989. In Jordan, national production has barely exceeded half a dozen feature films. Iraq has produced approximately 100 films and Syria some 150. Lebanon, owing to an increased production during the 1950s and 1960s, has made some 180 feature films. Only Egypt has far exceeded these countries, with a production of more than 2,500 feature films (all meant for cinema, not television). As with most aspects of Arab media, censorship plays a large art of creating and distributing films. "In most Arab countries, film projects must first pass a state committee, which grants or denies permission to shoot. Once this permission is obtained, another official license, a so-called visa, is necessary in order to exploit the film commercially. This is normally approved by a committee of the Ministry of Information or a special censorship authority". The most significant taboo topics under state supervision are consistent with those of other forms of media: religion, sex, and politics.


title: Arab culture

text: The Internet in the Arab world is powerful source of expression and information as it is in other places in the world. While some believe that it is the harbinger of freedom in media to the Middle East, others think that it is a new medium for censorship. Both are true. The Internet has created a new arena for discussion and the dissemination of information for the Arab world just as it has in the rest of the world. The youth in particular are accessing and utilizing the tools. People are encouraged and enabled to join in political discussion and critique in a manner that was not previously possible. Those same people are also discouraged and blocked from those debates as the differing regimes try to restrict access based on religious and state objections to certain material.


title: Arab culture

text: The internet in the Arab world has a snowball effect; now that the snowball is rolling, it can no longer be stopped. Getting bigger and stronger, it is bound to crush down all obstacles. In addition, to the stress caused by the Arab bloggers, a new forum was opened for Arab activists; Facebook. Arab activists have been using Facebook in the utmost creative way to support the democracy movement in the region, a region that has one of the highest rates of repression in the world. Unlike other regions where oppressive countries (like China, Iran and Burma) represent the exception, oppression can be found everywhere in the Arab world. The number of Arab internet users interested in political affairs does not exceed a few thousands, mainly represented by internet activists and bloggers, out of 58 million internet users in the Arab world. As few as they are, they have succeeded in shedding some light on the corruption and repression of the Arab governments and dictatorships.


title: Arab culture

text: Public Internet use began in the US in the 1980s. Internet access began in the early 1990s in the Arab world, with Tunisia being first in 1991 according to Dr. Deborah L. Wheeler. The years of the Internet's introduction in the various Arab countries are reported differently. Wheeler reports that Kuwait joined in 1992, and in 1993, Turkey, Iraq and the UAE came online. In 1994 Jordan joined the Internet, and Saudi Arabia and Syria followed in the late 1990s. Financial considerations and the lack of widespread availability of services are factors in the slower growth in the Arab world, but taking into consideration the popularity of internet cafes, the numbers online are much larger than the subscription numbers would reveal.


title: Arab culture

text: The people most commonly utilizing the Internet in the Arab world are youths. The café users in particular tend to be under 30, single and have a variety of levels of education and language proficiency. Despite reports that use of the internet was curtailed by lack of English skills, Dr. Wheeler found that people were able to search with Arabic. Searching for jobs, the unemployed frequently fill cafes in Egypt and Jordan. They are men and women equally. Most of them chat and they have email. In a survey conducted by Dr. Deborah Wheeler, she found them to almost all to have been taught to use the Internet by a friend or family member. They all felt their lives to have been significantly changed by the use of the Internet. The use of the Internet in the Arab world is very political in the nature of the posts and of the sites read and visited. The Internet has brought a medium to Arabs that allows for a freedom of expression not allowed or accepted before. For those who can get online, there are blogs to read and write and access to worldwide outlets of information once unobtainable. With this access, regimes have attempted to curtail what people are able to read, but the Internet is a medium not as easily manipulated as telling a newspaper what it can or cannot publish. The Internet can be reached via proxy server, mirror, and other means. Those who are thwarted with one method will find 12 more methods around the blocked site. As journalists suffer and are imprisoned in traditional media, the Internet is no different with bloggers regularly being imprisoned for expressing their views for the world to read. The difference is that there is a worldwide audience witnessing this crackdown and watching as laws are created and recreated to attempt to control the vastness of the Internet.


title: Arab culture

text: Jihadists are using the Internet to reach a greater audience. Just as a simple citizen can now have a worldwide voice, so can a movement. Groups are using the Internet to share video, photos, programs and any kind of information imaginable. Standard media may not report what the Muslim Brotherhood would say on their site. However, for the interested, the Internet is a tool that is utilized with great skill by those who wish to be heard. A file uploaded to 100 sites and placed in multiple forums will reach millions instantly. Information on the Internet can be thwarted, slowed, even redirected, but it cannot be stopped if someone wants it out there on the Internet.


title: Arab culture

text: The efforts by the various regimes to control the information are all falling apart gradually. Those fighting crime online have devised methods of tracking and catching criminals. Unfortunately those same tools are being used to arrest bloggers and those who would just wish to be heard. The Internet is a vast and seemingly endless source of information. Arabs are using it more than perhaps the world is aware and it is changing the media.


title: Arab culture

text: Social loyalty is of great importance in Arab culture. Family is one of the most important aspects of the Arab society. While self-reliance, individuality, and responsibility are taught by Arabic parents to their children, family loyalty is the greatest lesson taught in Arab families. "Unlike the extreme individualism we see in North America (every person for him or herself, individual rights, families living on their own away from relatives, and so on), Arab society emphasizes the importance of the group. Arab culture teaches that the needs of the group are more important than the needs of one person." In the Bedouin tribes of Saudi Arabia, "intense feelings of loyalty and dependence are fostered and preserved" by the family. Margaret Nydell, in her book "Understanding Arabs: A Guide for Modern Times", writes "family loyalty and obligations take precedence over loyalty to friends or demands of a job." She goes on to state that "members of a family are expected to support each other in disputes with outsiders. Regardless of personal antipathy among relatives, they must defend each other's honor, counter criticism, and display group cohesion..." Of all members of the family, however, the most revered member is the mother.


title: Arab culture

text: Family honor is one of the most important characteristics in the Arab family. According to Margaret Nydell, social exchanges between men and women happen very seldom outside of the work place. Men and women refrain from being alone together. They have to be very careful in social situations because those interactions can be interpreted negatively and cause gossip, which can tarnish the reputation of women. Women are able to socialize freely with other women and male family members, but have to have family members present to socialize with men that are not part of the family. These conservative practices are put into place to protect the reputation of women. Bad behavior not only affects women but her family's honor. Practices differ between countries and families. Saudi Arabia has stricter practices when it comes to men and women and will even require marriage documents if a woman and man are seen together alone.


title: Arab culture

text: One of the characteristics of Arabs is generosity and they usually show it by being courteous with each other. Some of the most important values for Arabs are honor and loyalty. Margaret Nydell, in her book "Understanding Arabs: A Guide for Modern Times' " says that Arabs can be defined as, humanitarian, loyal and polite. Tarek Mahfouz explains in the book "Arab Culture" that it is common for Arabs in dinner situations to insist on guests to eat the last piece of the meal or to fight over who will pay the bill at a restaurant for generosity."


title: Arab culture

text: The Pan Arab Games are a regional multi-sport event held between nations from the Arab world. The first Games were held in 1953 in Alexandria, Egypt. Intended to be held every four years since, political turmoil as well as financial difficulties has made the event an unstable one. Women were first allowed to compete in 1985. By the 11th Pan Arab Games, the number of countries participating reached all 22 members of the Arab League, with roughly over 8,000 Arab athletes participating, it was considered the largest in the Games' history, with the Doha Games in 2011 expected to exceed that number.


title: Arab culture

text: Originally, the Arabs of the Arabian Peninsula relied heavily on a diet of dates, wheat, barley, rice and meat, with little variety, with a heavy emphasis on yoghurt products, such as leben (لبن) (yoghurt without butterfat). Arabian cuisine today is the result of a combination of richly diverse cuisines, spanning the Arab world and incorporating Levantine, Egyptian, and others. It has also been influenced to a degree by the cuisines of India, Turkey, Berber, and others. In an average Arab household in Eastern Arabia, a visitor might expect a dinner consisting of a very large platter, shared commonly, with a vast mountain of rice, incorporating lamb or chicken, or both, as separate dishes, with various stewed vegetables, heavily spiced, sometimes with a tomato sauce. Most likely, there would be several other items on the side, less hearty. Tea would certainly accompany the meal, as it is almost constantly consumed. Coffee would be included as well.


title: Arab culture

text: Tea is a very important drink in the Arab world, it is usually served with breakfast, after lunch, and with dinner. For Arabs tea is a hospitality drink that is served to guests. It is also common for Arabs to drink tea with dates.


title: Arab culture

text: Arab dress for men ranges from the traditional flowing robes to blue jeans, T-shirts and business suits. The robes allow for maximum circulation of air around the body to help keep it cool, and the head dress provides protection from the sun. At times, Arabs mix the traditional garb with western clothes.


title: Arab culture

text: In the Arabian Peninsula men usually wear their national dress that is called "thawb" or "thobe" but can be also called "Dishdasha" in Kuwait or "Kandoura" (UAE). Thawbs differ slightly from state to state within the Gulf, but the basic ones are white. This is the traditional attire that Arabs wear in formal occasions.


title: Arab culture

text: The male headdress is known as a keffiyeh. In the Arabian Peninsula it is known as a guthra. It is usually worn with a black cord called an "agal", which keeps it on the wearer's head.


title: Arab culture

text: Headdress pattern might be an indicator of which tribe, clan, or family the wearer comes from. However, this is not always the case. While in one village, a tribe or clan might have a unique headdress, in the next town over an unrelated tribe or clan might wear the same headdress.


title: Arab culture

text: Adherence to traditional dress varies across Arab societies. Saudi Arabia is more traditional, while Egypt is less so. Traditional Arab dress features the full length body cover (abaya, jilbāb, or chador) and veil (hijab). Women are only required to wear "abayas" in Saudi Arabia, although that restriction has been eased since 2015. The veil is not as prevalent in most countries outside the Arabian peninsula.


title: High-resolution audio

text: High-resolution audio (high-definition audio or HD audio) is a term for audio files with greater than 44.1 kHz sample rate or higher than 16-bit audio bit depth. It commonly refers to 96 or 192 kHz sample rates. However, there also exist 44.1 kHz/24-bit, 48 kHz/24-bit and 88.2 kHz/24-bit recordings that are labeled HD Audio.


title: High-resolution audio

text: Research into high resolution audio began in the late 1980s and high resolution audio content started to become available on the consumer market in 1996.


title: High-resolution audio

text: High-resolution audio is generally used to refer to music files that have a higher sampling frequency and/or bit depth than that of Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA), which operates at 44.1 kHz/16-bit.


title: High-resolution audio

text: The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), in cooperation with the Consumer Electronics Association, DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group, and The Recording Academy Producers & Engineers Wing, formulated the following definition of high-resolution audio in 2014: "lossless audio capable of reproducing the full spectrum of sound from recordings which have been mastered from better than CD quality (48 kHz/20-bit or higher) music sources which represent what the artists, producers and engineers originally intended."


title: High-resolution audio

text: File formats capable of storing high-resolution audio include FLAC, ALAC, WAV, AIFF and DSD, the format used by Super Audio Compact Discs (SACD).


title: High-resolution audio

text: One of the first attempts to market high-resolution audio was High Definition Compatible Digital in 1995. This was followed by three more optical disc formats claiming sonic superiority over CD-DA: DAD in 1998, SACD in 1999, and DVD-Audio in 2000. These formats offer additional benefits such as multi-channel surround sound. Following a format war, none of these achieved widespread adoption.


title: High-resolution audio

text: Following the rise in online music retailing at the start of the 21st century, high-resolution audio downloads were introduced by HDtracks starting in 2008.


title: High-resolution audio

text: Further attempts to market high-resolution audio on optical disc followed with Pure Audio Blu-ray in 2009, and High Fidelity Pure Audio in 2013. Competition in online high-resolution audio retail stepped-up in 2014 with the announcement of Neil Young's Pono service.


title: High-resolution audio

text: In 2014, the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA) announced a specification and accompanying "Hi-Res AUDIO" logo for consumer audio products, administered by the Japan Audio Society (JAS). The standard sets minimums of 96 kHz sample rate and 24-bit depth, and for analog processes, 40 kHz. The related "Hi-Res Audio Wireless" standard additionally requires support for the LDAC, LHDC, LC3plus and MQair codecs. Sony reaffirmed its commitment towards the development in the high-resolution audio segment by offering a slew of Hi-Res Audio products.


title: High-resolution audio

text: As of 2021, several music streaming services such as Tidal, Amazon Music HD, and Apple Music all have hi-res audio options.


title: High-resolution audio

text: Whether there is any benefit to high-resolution audio over CD-DA is controversial, with some sources claiming sonic superiority:


title: High-resolution audio

text: Business magazine "Bloomberg Businessweek" suggests that caution is in order with regard to high-resolution audio: "There is reason to be wary, given consumer electronics companies' history of pushing advancements whose main virtue is to require everyone to buy new gadgets."


title: High-resolution audio

text: High-resolution files that are downloaded from niche websites that cater to audiophile listeners often include different mastering in the release thus many comparisons of CD to these releases are evaluating differences in mastering, rather than bit depth.


title: High-resolution audio

text: Most early papers using blind listening tests concluded that differences are not audible by the sample of listeners taking the test. Blind tests have shown that musicians and composers are unable to distinguish higher resolutions from 16-bit audio at 48 kHz. One 2014 paper showed that dithering using outdated methods produces audible artifacts in blind listening tests.


title: High-resolution audio

text: A 2007 study showed no audio difference between CD quality audio and higher resolution audio. Joshua Reiss performed a meta-analysis on 20 of published tests, saying that trained listeners could distinguish between hi-resolution recordings and their CD equivalents under blind conditions. Hiroshi Nittono pointed out that the results in Reiss's paper showed that the ability to distinguish hi resolution audio from CD quality audio "was only slightly better than chance".


title: Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset

text: Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, 4th Earl of Somerset, 1st Earl of Dorset, 1st Marquess of Dorset styled 1st Count of Mortain, KG (140622 May 1455), was an English nobleman and an important figure during the Hundred Years' War. His rivalry with Richard, Duke of York, was a leading cause of the Wars of the Roses.


title: Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset

text: Edmund Beaufort was the fourth surviving son of John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset, the eldest of the four legitimised children of John of Gaunt (1340-1399) (third surviving son of King Edward III) by his mistress Katherine Swynford. Edmund's mother was Margaret Holland, a daughter of Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent by his wife Alice FitzAlan, a daughter of Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel by his wife Eleanor of Lancaster, 5th daughter of Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster, a grandson of King Henry III. Edmund was thus a cousin of both Richard, Duke of York, and the Lancastrian King Henry VI.


title: Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset

text: Although he was the head of one of the greatest families in England, his inheritance was worth only 300 pounds. By contrast his rival, Richard, Duke of York, had a net worth of 5,800 pounds. His cousin King Henry VI's efforts to compensate Somerset with offices worth 3,000 pounds only served to offend many of the nobles, and as his quarrel with York grew more personal, the dynastic situation got worse. Another quarrel with Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick over the lordships of Glamorgan and Morgannwg may have forced the leader of the younger Nevilles into York's camp.


title: Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset

text: His brothers were taken captive at the Battle of Baugé in 1421, but Edmund was too young at the time to fight. He acquired much military experience while his brothers were prisoners.


title: Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset

text: In 1427 it is believed that Edmund Beaufort may have embarked on an affair with Catherine of Valois, the widow of King Henry V. Evidence is sketchy; however, the liaison prompted a parliamentary statute regulating the remarriage of queens of England. The historian G. L. Harriss surmised that it was possible that another of its consequences was Catherine's son Edmund Tudor and that Catherine, to avoid the penalties of breaking the statute of 1427–8, secretly married Owen Tudor. He wrote: "By its very nature the evidence for Edmund Tudor's parentage is less than conclusive, but such facts as can be assembled permit the agreeable possibility that Edmund 'Tudor' and Margaret Beaufort were first cousins and that the royal house of 'Tudor' sprang in fact from Beauforts on both sides."


title: Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset

text: Edmund received the county of Mortain in Normandy on 22 April 1427. Edmund became a commander in the English army in 1431, and in 1432 was one of the envoys to the Council of Basel. After his recapture of Harfleur and his lifting of the Burgundian siege of Calais, he was named a Knight of the Garter in 1436. After subsequent successes he was created Earl of Dorset on 28 August 1442 (though he seems to have been styled as such since around 1438) and Marquess of Dorset on 24 June 1443. During the five-year truce from 1444 to 1449 he served as Lieutenant of France. On 31 March 1448 he was created Duke of Somerset. As the title had previously been held by his brother, he is sometimes mistakenly called the second duke, but the title was actually created for the second time, and so he was actually the first duke, the numbering starting over again.


title: Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset

text: Somerset was appointed to replace York as commander in France in 1448. Somerset was supposed to be paid £20,000; but little evidence exists that he was. Fighting began in Normandy in August 1449. Somerset's subsequent military failures left him vulnerable to criticism from York's allies. The most humiliating moment was when Somerset surrendered Rouen, the capital of Normandy, to the French without even a token siege. He failed to repulse French attacks, and by the summer of 1450 nearly all the English possessions in northern France were lost, with Normandy having fallen after the Battle of Formigny and Siege of Caen. By 1453 all the English possessions in the south of France were also lost, and the Battle of Castillon ended the Hundred Years War.


title: Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset

text: The fall of the duke of Suffolk left Somerset the chief of the king's ministers, and the Commons in vain petitioned for his removal in January 1451. Power rested with Somerset and he virtually monopolised it, with Margaret of Anjou, wife of Henry VI, as one of his principal allies. It was also widely suspected that Edmund had an extra-marital affair with Margaret. After giving birth to a son in October 1453, Margaret took great pains to quash rumours that Somerset might be his father. During her pregnancy, Henry had suffered a mental breakdown, leaving him in a withdrawn and unresponsive state that lasted for one and a half years. This medical condition, untreatable either by court physicians or by exorcism, plagued him throughout his life. During Henry's illness, the child was baptised Edward, Prince of Wales, with Somerset as godfather; if the King could be persuaded, he would become legal heir to the throne.


title: Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset

text: Somerset's fortunes, however, soon changed when his rival York assumed power as Lord Protector in April 1454 and imprisoned him in the Tower of London. Somerset's life was probably saved only by the King's seeming recovery late in 1454, which forced York to surrender his office. Henry agreed to recognise Edward as his heir, putting to rest concerns about a successor prompted by his known aversion to physical contact; subsequently he came to view Edward's birth as a miracle. Somerset was honourably discharged, and restored to his office as Captain of Calais.


title: Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset

text: By now York was determined to depose Somerset by one means or another, and in May 1455 he raised an army. He confronted Somerset and the King in an engagement known as the First Battle of St Albans, which marked the beginning of the Wars of the Roses. Somerset was killed in a last wild charge from the house where he had been sheltering. His son, Henry, never forgave York and Warwick for his father's death, and he spent the next nine years attempting to restore his family's honour.


title: Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset

text: At sometime between 1431 and 1433 he married Eleanor Beauchamp, daughter of Richard de Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick by his first wife Elizabeth de Berkeley, daughter and heiress of Thomas de Berkeley, 5th Baron Berkeley. Eleanor was an elder half-sister of Henry de Beauchamp, 1st Duke of Warwick and Anne de Beauchamp, 16th Countess of Warwick, wife of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, known as the "Kingmaker". The marriage was without royal licence, which offence was pardoned on 7 March 1438. By his wife he had issue including:


title: Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset

text: Following the death of all their brothers without issue, fighting for the Lancastrian cause, they became co-heiresses to their father, and their descendants were thus entitled to quarter the arms of Beaufort.


title: Gelada

text: The gelada (Theropithecus gelada, ), sometimes called the bleeding-heart monkey or the gelada baboon, is a species of Old World monkey found only in the Ethiopian Highlands, living at elevations of above sea level. It is the only living member of the genus "Theropithecus", a name derived from the Greek root words for "beast-ape". Like its close relatives in genus "Papio", the baboons, it is largely terrestrial, spending much of its time foraging in grasslands, with grasses comprising up to 90% of its diet.


title: Gelada

text: It has buff to dark brown hair with a dark face and pale eyelids. Adult males have longer hair on their backs and a conspicuous bright red patch of skin shaped like an hourglass on their chests. Females also have a bare patch of skin but it is less pronounced, except during estrus, when it brightens and exhibits a "necklace" of fluid-filled blisters. Males average and females average in weight. The head-body length is with a tail of .


title: Gelada

text: The gelada has a complex multilevel social structure. Reproductive units and male units are the two basic groupings. A band comprises a mix of multiple reproductive units and male units; a community is made up of one to four bands. Within the reproductive units the females are commonly closely related. Males will move from their natal group to try to control a unit of their own and females within the unit can choose to support or oppose the new male. When more than one male is in the unit, only one can mate with the females. The gelada has a diverse repertoire of vocalizations thought to be near in complexity to that of humans.


title: Gelada

text: The population of geladas is thought to have dropped from 440,000 in the 1970s to 200,000 in 2008. It is listed as Least Concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).


title: Gelada

text: Since 1979, it has been customary to place the gelada in its own genus ("Theropithecus"), though some genetic research suggests that this monkey should be grouped with its baboon (genus "Papio") kin; other researchers have classified the species even more distantly from "Papio". While "Theropithecus gelada" is the only living species of its genus, separate, larger species are known from the fossil record: "T. brumpti", "T. darti" and "T. oswaldi", formerly classified under genus "Simopithecus". "Theropithecus", while restricted at present to Ethiopia, is also known from fossil specimens found in Africa and the Mediterranean into Asia, including South Africa, Malawi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Algeria, Morocco, Spain, and India, more exactly at Mirzapur, Cueva Victoria, Pirro Nord, Ternifine, Hadar, Turkana, Makapansgat and Swartkrans.