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Award-winning author Salman Rushdie laughs with filmmaker Deepa Mehta during a sit-down interview with Globe and Mail at the Panorama Restaurant in Toronto, Ontario Thursday Oct. 25, 2012.Tim Fraser/The Globe and Mail

This is my first editor's letter to subscribers, with weekly insights from The Globe newsroom and highlights of our best stories and videos. I welcome your comments.

It's a tough question when it comes from Salman Rushdie, but he offers a few suggestions, such as imprisoned Russian punk band Pussy Riot or Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei, and says Canadians are remarkably good at standing up to greater powers.

Mr. Rushdie was in Toronto Thursday for the Canadian premiere of the film adaptation of his book Midnight's Children, put on for 500 members of the Globe Recognition club. Whisky in hand, he and director Deepa Mehta mingled with subscribers and took questions about their lives and art.

At a private dinner later in a condo overlooking Lake Ontario, Mr. Rushdie recounted the remarkable clandestine effort to bring him to Toronto and Ottawa in 1992. In the depths of the Iranian fatwa against him, it was among his first real moments of hope.

On a quiet Saturday 20 years ago, he was spirited to Toronto, where his Canadian publisher, Louise Dennys, sneaked him into a security-swept boardroom at the Bradgate Arms hotel (now a retirement home; sign of the times). As only the unceasingly charming Ms. Dennys could do, she tricked the chiefs of The Globe, the Toronto Star and the CBC to each meet her privately for lunch, and then announced a surprise guest.

One glitch: The editors refused to sign confidentiality agreements, and the RCMP did not want his presence announced before his first public event, on the Monday approaching evening. Ms. Dennys asked the editors "as gentlemen" to give her their word they would not report Mr. Rushdie's presence in Canada for the next 48 hours. The CBC's  Patrick Watson stepped forward and, for dramatic effect, dropped to one knee.

Two days later, Mr. Rushdie surprised a crowded hall of Canadians who formed the first serious public challenge to the Iranian regime. Bob Rae, then the Ontario premier, embraced the author on stage. Remarkably, no word of his presence on Canadian soil had been published or broadcast. By the time the news hit the street the next morning, Ms. Dennys and John Ralston Saul had ushered Mr. Rushdie to Ottawa to meet political leaders. Liberal leader Jean Chrétien and the NDP's Audrey McLaughlin met him, as did Barbara McDougall,the foreign affairs minister who courageously took Mr. Rushdie by the arm and marched him into a committee room on Parliament Hill. "Ladies and gentlemen," she declared, "I give you Salman Rushdie."

Prime minister Brian Mulroney, however, did not receive the world's most hunted man.

It seems so simple now, perhaps even quaint, but much of the world lived in fear of the assassins and terrorists who roamed the planet looking for Mr. Rushdie after his book The Satanic Verses incited the Iranian regime and drew perhaps the most infamous fatwa ever.

Mr. Rushdie explained Thursday to a small group of friends that he remains indebted to Canada. "You were one of the first to stand up for me."

Watch my video interview with Mr. Rushdie and read Michael Posner's account of the event.

Hannah Sung debuted recently as our first full-time host, to enhance our video storytelling. Here she discusses the impact of the three presidential debates on the looming U.S. election, with multimedia reporter Affan Chowdhry.

Christine Lagarde, the debonair head of the International Monetary Fund, came to Toronto this week and sat down with The Globe before taking the stage at the Canadian International Council's annual gala dinner. See Report on Business editor Derek DeCloet's interview with her and video clips from their chat.

Ms. Lagarde, a former French finance minister, is confident Europe is getting its house in order. She does not hide her concern, though, for the U.S. fiscal mess and the possibility a budget compromise won't be reached after the November election.

Among her other concerns: We are all seeing too much of the inner workings of the financial system, and it ain't pretty. She compared it to Paris's Centre Georges Pompidou, exhibiting plumbing and piping to which the public does not necessarily respond well. The message: Bankers should clean up, cover over and let consumers and businesses move on.

Ms. Lagarde is serene about Canada. I wonder if she knows Ontario is staring at, if not a fiscal cliff, a fiscal trench. The debt is ballooning, the province is effectively without a premier or finance minister and has suspended its legislature. If the NDP takes office next year in Ontario and B.C., Canada will have left-leaning governments in the three largest provinces. The bond markets are watching, and not happy. Ms. Lagarde, you are welcome back.

Two of our best reporters went to the source of two of the most intriguing stories on the planet.

  • Patrick Martin hopped on his 1974 BMW motorcycle and traversed the swingingest swing state of them all, Ohio. The bike brought him closer to the folks who will decide the next president of the United States – an ice-breaker that granted him better access to the personal stories that lie behind the political choices this election season.  His account is the centrepiece of our weekend edition.
  • Stephanie Nolen, our New Delhi-based correspondent, ventured to the more challenging environs of Pakistan to see what the future holds for other girls like Malala Yousufzai, the 15-year-old recovering from the near-fatal Taliban attack that tried to silence her calls for better education for girls. Her story is one of our weekend cover pieces.

Saturday's other offerings include the Canadian playboy thought to be the inspiration for James Bond; an in-depth profile of Hillary Clinton; Chrystia Freeland on why the 1 per cent feel so victimized; and other delights.

Enjoy your weekend,

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