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Canada should create a Special Canadian Emergency Task Force for Kandahar October 27, 2006
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SENLIS COUNCIL NEWS RELEASE
http://www.senliscouncil.org/modules/media_centre/news_releases/72_news
24 OCTOBER 2006
Immediate action on poverty relief in Afghanistan is necessary to win the battle for the hearts and minds of the population, and fight the growing Taliban insurgency
People are dying of hunger in Kandahar province for which Canada is responsible
Canada should take leadership in developing a new initiative in Afghanistan – Canada should call for an emergency NATO Meeting to reset international community's course
Canada should oppose forced opium poppy eradication and promote a "Buy Afghan Morphine" fair trade program
OTTAWA – Canada should increase its commitment to Afghanistan and take leadership within the NATO alliance to develop a new initiative there, said The Senlis Council, an international development and security think tank as part of a series of recommendations for Canada's role in Afghanistan, made in a paper released at an International Symposium held in Ottawa tuesday.
"Canada took on responsibility for Kandahar and should see it through. We all should be deeply concerned about the return of the Taliban and Al Qaeda to Afghanistan, if not for the Afghan people themselves then for what that would mean for our own security." said Canadian-born Norine MacDonald QC, Founding President of Senlis, who is also the group's lead field researcher in Kandahar province.
"There has been a dramatic deterioration in the military situation in Kandahar in the last months, Kandahar is a complete war zone, the Taliban are winning both the military battle there and the battle for the hearts and minds of local Afghans. We have made a commitment there and must stay the course, but we must immediately implement a new approach. To pull out is to make Canada complicit in a crime against humanity in Afghanistan. If the international community leaves now we are making a gift to Al Qaeda of a geopolitical home for terrorist extremism."
"Mr Harper should take some leadership on the crisis in Afghanistan and convene an urgent meeting of the NATO countries to develop a new type of approach for Afghanistan." said MacDonald. "The longer we leave changing our approach, the more deaths and injuries there will be – including for Canadian troops."
Extreme Poverty is fuelling the insurgency
The poverty crisis arising in Kandahar and the rest of southern Afghanistan is due to several factors – loss of livelihood through US led forced poppy crop eradication, displacement of the population due to US bombing and military violence, and recurrent drought.
Make-shift, unofficial camps have sprung up, and a starvation crisis akin to those usually witnessed on the African continent, is jeopardizing the survival of many – especially the young. Children are starving to death literally 'down the road' from the Canadian military base in Kandahar. The people in these makeshift camps have received no aid from anyone – not the Canadians, nor the UN.
"Extreme poverty is leading to growing anger and resentment against the international community and is directly fuelling the insurgency and support for the Taliban," said MacDonald. "People feel abandoned by the Canadians and all internationals, who they believed were there to help them. Canadian troops in Kandahar are fighting the Taliban insurgency against a backdrop of an increasingly hostile local population."
Forced Eradication of poppy crops is generating support for the Taliban
The forced eradication of opium poppy crops, which has been taking place in Kandahar Since 2002, has significantly contributed to the levels of poverty and the large numbers of displaced people in the province. The main source of income in rural Kandahar is opium poppy farming. The US-led forced eradication of poppy fields has fuelled poverty – many farmers have lost their livelihoods and are struggling to feed their families.
As Afghans are not able to differentiate between American and Canadian soldiers, the eradication of farmer's crops fuelled anger against the Canadian Military. Eradication is endangering the lives of Canadian troops.
"Many of the people we met in the refugee camps had had to leave their villages because they had lost everything when their crops were eradicated," said MacDonald, who has lived and worked in Afghanistan since early 2005 and who has spent much of the past six months in the South. "The southern provinces have been the hardest hit by this because there is so little else other than poppies which can grow in the harsh climate and desert plains found there."
This year, about 3,000 hectares of poppy were eradicated in Kandahar. It is often the poorest farmers whose livelihoods are lost because they were unable to pay the necessary bribes to stop their crops being destroyed.
"The Taliban have seen a political opportunity in the anger against the NATO presence that eradication triggered and used that to their advantage in building political support in the south, said MacDonald.
A recent Report release by Senlis showed that the Taliban frontline of control now cuts though half of the country.
Emergency poverty relief would calm the growing Taliban insurgency and protect Canadian troops
Senlis said that Canada should move away from the aggressive US-led military approach and focus on poverty relief and development in order to engage with the local population and quell the rising insurgency. Canadian values and Canada's experience in dealing with multicultural and bilingual issues is a unique asset that could be used to deal with Afghanistan's tribal and ethnic challenges.
"We must send immediate food relief to Kandahar province. If we do not do this out of a humanitarian response to a province we took responsibility for we should do this a part of a smart military strategy. This is not a war that can be won through military means alone," said MacDonald.
Senlis said an emergency food and aid package should be prepared for Afghanistan.
Under US leadership, development and poverty relief have taken a back seat – until now, security has taken priority, with 82 billion USD spent on military operations in Afghanistan since 2002, compared with just 7 billion USD on development.
"This is not the way to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan people," said MacDonald.
Three Recommendations for a new Canadian approach
Three levels of action needed: International, in Afghanistan and in Canada.
In a Report released by Senlis at the Symposium, Senlis recommended that Canada should create a Special Canadian Emergency Task Force for Kandahar. This would include a specific Economic Emergency Plan for Kandahar with a specially appointed non-partisan Special Envoy with the authority to coordinate the military and development responses. A Canadian group of experts and organizations should be formed as part of the Emergency Task Force on Kandahar issues.
Senlis made three key recommendations for Canada's involvement in Afghanistan:
1. Canada should take the lead at the international and NATO level in Afghanistan - to formulate a new Afghanistan policy approach, tailored to really tackle the "hearts and minds" campaign. This new approach should avoid any actions which antagonize the Afghan population such as bombing villages and injuring or killing civilians, and poppy crop eradication. Canada should convene an emergency meeting of NATO countries to reformulate the approach in Afghanistan.
Canada should support the implementation of a poppy licensing system in Afghanistan for the production of much-needed pain relieving medicines such as morphine and codeine. An Afghan Brand of Fair Trade Morphine and codeine could help developing countries to deal with their pain.
2. In addition to the Economic Emergency Plan to be developed by the Special Canadian Task Force for Kandahar, Canada should deliver an emergency food and aid package – this will help calm the insurgency and engage with the local populations.
A series of Kandahar Jirgas (community meetings) should be organized in order to listen to the needs of the Afghan population – in this way, policy decision will be tailored to the populations' real needs.
3. The emergency Task Force should organize the necessary infrastructure to enable Canadian citizens and organizations to be involved in helping Kandahar in very practical ways – exchange programmes could be developed, expertise exported and community support programmes installed to facilitate a closer relationship between Canadians and the people of Kandahar and contribute positively to the creation of a positive future for Kandahar and a durable peace.
Ordinary Canadians should be provided with the means to do more to assist average Afghans "Canadians have shown their commitment and concern with the situation in Afghanistan," said MacDonald. "The Canadian government should give them every opportunity to directly help the people of Afghanistan."
Senlis suggested stimulating help programmes and professional exchanges between Canadians and Afghans to increase mutual understanding and to empower ordinary Canadians to provide support to Afghan communities in need. "Everything must be done to set up the necessary infrastructure for Canadian citizens to help Afghan citizens in whatever way they can. Canada urgently needs to engage positively with the population of Kandahar."
Contact in Canada:
Jane Francis or Julian Mattocks
613 783 4244/4248
Jane Francis cell: 613 262 5183
Julian Mattocks cell: 613 796 1075
media@senliscouncil.net
Contact in Europe:
Jane Francis
Office : +33 (0)1 49 96 63 70
Mobile : +33 (0)660 261 982
francis@senliscouncil.net
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Workers suffer continent-wide under NAFTA October 24, 2006
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SEPTEMBER 28, 2006
Three-country study details effects on economies, labour markets
Twelve years under the rules of the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, has had a perverse impact on the distribution of income, wealth, and political power across the continent. A new three-country report shows that NAFTA has not lived up to its promise of better jobs and faster growth for Mexico, Canada, and the United States. Instead it has promoted an integrated continental economy with rules set by and for the benefit of the political and economic elite. NAFTA Revisited, a report released today by the Economic Policy Institute, details the trade deal’s effects on the economies, working people and the labor markets of all three nations.
Jeff Faux, EPI Distinguished Fellow and author of The Global Class War, states in the introduction, “NAFTA rules protect the interests of large corporate investors while undercutting workers’ rights, environmental protections, and democratic accountability. …The time for a continent-wide debate over the future of this agreement, which was negotiated by and for the rich and powerful in all three countries, is now overdue.”
Mexico
NAFTA’s preamble promised sustained growth of the member countries—particularly in Mexico—such that Mexican workers would enjoy increases in both the number and quality of jobs. NAFTA Revisited co-author, Carlos Salas, illustrates how, instead of growth in Mexico, NAFTA made employment more precarious and sent wages on a race to the bottom. Corporate earnings have grown while inequality in income distribution has followed a volatile path.
Since NAFTA took effect, employment in Mexico has become ever more precarious: of all new salaried positions generated between the second quarter of 2000 and the second quarter of 2004, only 37% have full benefits, and 23% have no benefits at all.
NAFTA increased employment in the low-wage “maquiladora” industries of Mexico, with the benefits flowing mainly to large companies, the financial sector, and a thin layer of administrative and professional workers earning high salaries. Despite steady growth of investments in maquiladoras, the flow of account balances between firms does not translate into real technology transfer that would strengthen and stabilize Mexico’s industrial sector – one of the great promises NAFTA held out for Mexico.
Meanwhile, the agricultural sector has suffered a large and steady loss of employment due to NAFTA. The share of the population engaged in agricultural activities fell from 26.8% in 1991 to 16.4% in 2004, a significant decrease.
“NAFTA must be revised in order to create a social fund that stimulates the development of infrastructure and employment in the country as a whole and especially in Mexico’s most marginalized regions,” said Mr. Salas. “Mexico’s experience should serve as a warning concerning the dangers of any trade agreement, bilateral or multilateral, which is similar to NAFTA.”
Canada
NAFTA promised Canada increased economic growth, income, and employment across all sectors, regions, and income groups; closure of the longstanding productivity gap with the United States; the creation of a more diversified, efficient, and more knowledge-based economy; and, an economy that would maintain and strengthen the generous Canadian social model.
Co-author Bruce Campbell details the broken promises that are the hallmarks of the NAFTA free trade era in Canada: the growth of precarious employment, the undermining of unions as a countervailing power to transnational capital, the erosion of the Canadian social state, and heightened economic dependence on the United States.
Under NAFTA’s rules, Canada has lowered the government’s spending on individuals and social programs while real incomes have virtually stagnated, except for those at the top. Average income has registered the worst performance of any comparable period since World War II, and inequality (after taxes and transfers) has grown for the first time since the 1920s.
The productivity gap with the United States, which was supposed to narrow under free trade, has in fact widened. Canadian labor productivity (GDP per hour worked) rose steadily in relation to U.S. productivity during the 1960s and 1970s, peaking at 92% of the U.S. level in 1984. Thereafter, it slid to 89% in 1989 and by 2005 had fallen to just 82% of U.S. productivity—below where it was in 1961.
“At its core, NAFTA is about shifting the power in the economy from government to corporations, from workers to corporations,” explained Mr. Campbell. “Without a rebalancing of power in the continental economy, these problems will worsen.”
United States
EPI economist Robert Scott documents the job displacement and declining job quality that NAFTA imposed on the U.S. economy.
Growing trade deficits with Mexico and Canada after NAFTA took effect reduced employment in high-wage, traded-goods industries, resulting in a substantial loss of income for such workers. Growing trade deficits with Mexico and Canada have displaced production that supported 1,015,291 U.S. jobs since NAFTA took effect in 1994. The displacement of 1 million jobs from traded to non-traded goods industries reduced wage payments to U.S. workers by $7.6 billion in 2004 alone.
The lost job opportunities are distributed among all 50 states and the District of Columbia, with the biggest losers, in numeric terms: California (-123,995), Texas (-72,257), Michigan (-63,148), New York (-51,582), Ohio (-49,886), Illinois (-47,701), Pennsylvania (-44,173), Florida (-39,987), Indiana (-35,157), North Carolina (-34,150), and Georgia (-30,464).
“Growing trade deficits with Mexico and Canada under NAFTA contributed to inequality in wages and falling demand for workers without a post-secondary education, males in trade-related production, and minorities,” said Scott.
About the Authors:
Carlos Salas holds a PhD in economics and is currently a professor of Regional Development at El Colegio de Tlaxcala and is also a member of the Board of Directors at Instituto de Estudios del Trabajo (IET) in Mexico City. Along with Enrique de la Garza he has recently edited the 2006 version of The State of Working in Mexico.
Bruce Campbell is Executive Director (since 1994) of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. His books include Straight Through the Heart: How the Liberals Abandoned the Just Society, (1995), and the forthcoming Living with Uncle: Canada-US Relations in an Age of Empire, (2006).
Robert Scott holds a PhD in economics and Director of International Programs at the Economic Policy Institute. His research has been published in academic journals and widely cited in major newspapers.
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Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
410-75 Albert Street, Ottawa ON K1P 5E7
tel: 613-563-1341 fax: 613-233-1458
http://NL1186.policyalternatives.ca
caw567
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Boycott the 2008 Olympic Games September 21, 2006
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Ten Reasons Why the Free World with The
Leadership of America Must Boycott the 2008
Olympic Games in Communist China
By Demetrius Klitou
1) Human rights are practically non-existent in Communist China
Religious persecution, imprisonment and murder of non-violent political dissidents, torture,
organ harvesting and sentences to hard labour are widespread.
2) The lack of freedom of the press and safety risks for foreign reporters
Many foreign websites are banned from being visited within China, foreign reporters are
prohibited from interviewing anyone without previous permission from the government, and
the content of all broadcasting is severely restricted. Foreign news media reporters have
been arrested and sentenced to prison under vague and wide-reaching security laws.
3) The 1980 Olympic Games in Communist Russia were boycotted by 64 states,
under the leadership of the U.S.
Beijing is not any different from Moscow in 1980, which was also the capital of a
Communist police state.
4) Communist China constantly threatens to attack Taiwan
China's government passed a law that explicitly calls for military intervention in response to
any intention by the democratic government of Taiwan to declare independence. Military
manoeuvres indicate that the Communists' military is preparing to enforce this law.
5) Beijing has the most polluted air in the world
Studies and satellites photos have proven that Beijing suffers from extremely high nitrogen
dioxide levels, vitally dangerous to the health of the athletes.
6) China is plagued by widespread social, political, and economic unrest
A surge in huge land grabs and forced evictions by the Chinese government for reasons of
economic expansion and Olympic Games preparations have sparked thousands of protests.
The government has murdered hundreds of protesters.
7) The Chinese have been bribing and threatening large numbers of members of the
International Olympic Committee
A number of U.S. Representatives, for example, Congressman Tom Lantos, have stated this
on national television.
8) A boycott has some potential to serve as a strategy to encourage human rights in
China
Only the greedy and foolish global elite think this is true the other way around.
9) Holding the Olympic Games in Communist China contradicts the Olympic
Charter
The Olympic Charter defines the philosophy of Olympism as the "respect for universal
fundamental ethical principles" and its goal of promoting "a peaceful society concerned with
the preservation of human dignity."
10) Don't repeat the errors of 1936 when Nazi Germany was allowed to host the
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games will give Communist China the same propaganda tool Nazi Germany
enjoyed. Not since 1936 have the ideals of Olympics been so trampled upon.
Demetrius Klitou is the author of the book The Friends and Foes of Human Rights, available
at www.ebookmall.com. He holds a BA in International Area Studies and a MA in
Diplomatic Studies. He will be pursuing a LL.M. in Public International Law at Leiden University.
Published June 28, 2006 by the China Support Network (CSN). Begun as the
American response group in 1989, CSN represents Americans who are "on the side"
of the students in Tiananmen Square - standing for democratic reform, human
rights, and freedom in China. For dissident news; to support a stronger China policy;
or get more information, see http://www.chinasupport.net.
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Canadian troops bearing brunt of coalition casualties September 21, 2006
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – SEPTEMBER 18, 2006
OTTAWA—Canadian Forces are incurring a disproportionately heavy burden of casualties among coalition forces in Afghanistan, says Canada’s Fallen, a report released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
The report, written by defence analysts Steven Staples and Bill Robinson, raises serious questions about why Canada is taking such heavy losses, and whether the government expected such a high number of soldiers to be killed.
The first of its kind in Canada, the report paints a grim picture of Afghanistan where Canada has suffered 32 military deaths, 27 from hostile action (as of September 8, 2006). It finds that, after the United States, Canada has suffered more casualties from hostile action than any other U.S. ally—27 of 71 casualties, or two in five of non-U.S. deaths.
The move south from Kabul to Kandahar, approved by the Liberal government in 2005 and extended by the Conservative government, has been a costly one. Twenty of Canada's deaths from hostile attacks, roughly three quarters, have occurred since the counterinsurgency mission began in February 2006. The mission is so hazardous that a Canadian solider in Kandahar is six times as likely to be killed by hostile attack than a U.S. soldier serving in Iraq.
The report points out that, if the current rate of casualties sustained in Kandahar to date were to continue until the end of the mission in January 2009, there could be 108 additional deaths from all causes, raising the number of casualties since the 2001 invasion to 140 dead—more than four times what it is today.
"As we examined the troubling data, the question arose as to whether the Liberals misjudged the danger, and if the Conservatives ignored it," said Steven Staples, noting that the Department of National Defence has provided the government with accurate pre-mission casualty estimates in previous missions.
"The mission in Kandahar is claiming many lives, and could claim many more," said CCPA Executive Director Bruce Campbell. "This important report casts light on a frequently mentioned, but rarely examined, aspect of this mission.”
-30-
Canada’s Fallen: Understanding Canadian Casualties in Afghanistan is available on the CCPA web site at http://NL1177.policyalternatives.ca
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Landmines still infest 78 countries including Afghanistan September 13, 2006
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Farmers’ fields stay minefields if Canadian and other funding continues to shrink, according to report released today
Press Conference at 11 am PST
Wednesday 13 September 2006
Liu Institute for Global Issues, University of British Columbia (6476 NW Marine Drive)
VANCOUVER, BC - September 13, 2006 – Five years after their arrival, Canadian troops continue to brave Afghanistan’s landmine contagion, and seventy-seven other countries still grapple with theirs, according to Landmine Monitor Report 2006. Yet for the second year running, Canada’s contribution to global mine action decreased. Mine action is mine clearance, mine risk education, survivor assistance, and stockpile destruction.
Released today, the 1,230-page report is the product of 60 researchers coordinated by four agencies, led by Mines Action Canada (MAC).
“Canada continues to fall short of the $1 per capita per year target we set as the minimum Canada should contribute,” Paul Hannon, MAC’s Executive Director said. “We need the money to finish the job. The dedicated landmine fund is ending, but the minefields are still there. We need to continue Canada’s historic ethical and principled stand on this issue.”
Across the planet, as many as 500,000 people alive today have survived a landmine explosion.
“As well as a threat to people’s right to exist in peace,” Mr. Hannon added, “Mined land cannot be used for basic human needs - to grow food, get to water, or graze cattle on.”
Reported casualties from landmines increased 11 percent in 2005, and over 80% were civilians. Fifteen to twenty-thousand civilians were maimed or killed last year in 58 countries.
Only three states - Burma/ Myanmar, Nepal and Russia – deployed new anti-personnel mines in 2005. Non-state armed groups (NSAGs) in at least 10 countries also used them.
“For the last four years, new landmine use by NSAGs has also decreased,” Yeshua Moser-Puangswan said. Mr. Moser-Puangswan is MAC’s thematic researcher on NSAGs. “It shows that mine ban norms promoted by the movement effect all users – not just government.”
The 2006 report covers landmine use, production, trade, and mine action around the world. An initiative of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, Landmine Monitor is a unique and systematic effort by nongovernmental organizations to monitor a disarmament treaty in action.
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For more information, please contact:
Molly Amoli K. Shinhat, MAC Communications Coordinator
Phone: (613) 241-4122 or (613) 241-3777 (General MAC number)
Fax : (613) 244-3410
e-mail: molly@minesactioncanada.org
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THE HUNGER STRIKE June 22, 2006
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June 22, 2006
Mahmoud Jaballah and Mohammad Mahjoub have been on hunger strike since May
23, with Hassan Almrei hunger striking an additional ten days. Mahjoub
(held since June, 2000), Jaballah (held seven months in 1999, and since
August, 2001) and Almrei (held since October 2001) are feeling not only the
effects of the hunger strike, but are also sweltering in a retrofitted
classroom portable which has no air conditioning. Two nights ago, Mr.
Jaballah was removed from his cell at 2 am with breathing problems, and did
not see a nurse until almost six hours later.
Two simple demands remain at the core of the hunger strike.
1. The men want access to a canteen (which holds snack foods), much as they
had access to at Metro West Detention Centre. The government claims
concerns over who would handle the detainees' money have prevented them
from setting this up. The men have put forward a half dozen workable
solutions, but the federal government refuses to budge. Because their daily
meals do not provide enough food, the men need the canteen to stave off
hunger pangs.
2. Proper phone access. At Metro West, the men could dial out and speak
with anyone they chose to from early morning until early evening.
Currently, the men are allowed three 20 minute calls per day. However, they
must put in a written request an hour before each call is made. If, for
example, they call their lawyer, and are informed s/he won't be back for
ten minutes, they cannot call ten minutes later. They must put in another
phone request, wait an hour, and then hope the lawyer will be there. The
limited phone access sharply curtails their ability to maintain contact
with their families as well.
Representatives of the Canadian Border Services Agency, which runs
Guantanamo North, have assured campaign members that the men's health is
their top priority (even though they are trying to deport them to torture).
But to allow human beings to go over a month without nutrition is simply
heartless. For the federal government to refuse to fix these simple
problems, especially after the light that was shone on security
certificates over the past month with the Supreme Court hearings, is
shameful. Please write and call the appropriate ministers and bureaucrats
below and express in polite but strong terms that these men's lives are in
danger and they need a solution now.
MEDIA BLOCKADED
The federal government has ordered that the men not have ANY access to the
media for the indefinite future. Contact your media representatives and
demand that they take action to break through the iron curtain that's been
drawn up around the new facility.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Letters are urgently needed to the following individuals. Feel free to
change the sample letters by adding something that personalizes it for you,
but please remain respectful and polite, as our efforts ultimately reflect
on the detainees.
2. Write and Call Stockwell Day, Minister responsible for the Canadian
Border Services Agency (which runs the KIHC).
Stockwell Day, MP,
House of Commons, Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Phone: (613) 995-1702
Fax: (613) 995.1154
Email: day.s@parl.gc.ca
communications@psepc.gc.ca
2. Claudette Deschenes
VP, Enforcement, CBSA
claudette.deschenes@cbsa-asfc.gc.ca
Phone (613) 952-2531
Fax (613) 952-2622
3. Write a support card to the detainees (let us know at tasc@web.ca if you
have so we can monitor if mail is getting through): Mohammad Mahjoub,
Mahmoud Jaballah, and Hassan Almrei can be reached:
Kingston Immigration Holding Centre
c/o CSC RHQ Ontario Region
440 King Street West
PO Box 1174
Kingston, Ontario K7L 4Y8
4. Join the National Day to Close Guantanamo North on Monday, June 26
(International Day Against Torture). Consider organizing a vigil in your
community at the office of an MP, CSIS, RCMP, or federal building. in
Toronto, there will be a noon-hour vigil at the Federal Court, 361
University Ave.
Sample letters:
Claudette Deschenes
VP, Enforcement,
Canadian Border Services Agency
Dear Ms. Deschenes,
I am writing to support the demands of the detainees currently on hunger
strike over one month under your watch. As you must know, the men were
promised superior conditions to those they faced at the Metro West
Detention Centre, but those promises have yet to become a reality.
As you may recall, the previous government forced two of the detainees,
Mohammad Mahjoub and Hassan Almrei, to hunger strike dangerously long
periods last fall (79 and 73 days, respectively) before any action was
taken to meet what were, then as now, reasonable requests. Already the
detainees are experiencxing ill health and weakness, and the lack of
long-promised air conditooning is not helping.
I'm asking that you take the steps necessary to meet the very reasonable
demands of these gentlemen so that the health-threatening hunger strike
which they have undertaken may be brought to an end. I am also asking that
you drop the ban on media access which has been imposed on these men.
Denying media access may be the policy of the Harper government, but such
partisanship has no place in the running of the KIHC.
The requests of Mssrs. Jaballah, Mahjoub, and Almrei are eminently
reasonable. The refusal to fix the issues of the canteen and phone access
is an embarassment. Both the detainees and their loved ones have been
through years of pain and distress. The least you can do is accommodate
these demands so that they are not forced to experience even more stress
and hardship.
I look forward to the immediate resolution of this problem.
Name, address
***********
Stockwell Day, MP
Minister Responsible for the Canadian Border Services Agency
Dear Mr. Day,
I am writing to demand that you intervene immediately to meet the
reasonable demands of Canada's secret trial detainees who have been on
hunger strike over one month at the Kingston Immigration Holding Centre. As
you may recall, the previous government forced two of the detainees,
Mohammad Mahjoub and Hassan Almrei, to hunger strike dangerously long
periods last fall (79 and 73 days, respectively) before any action was
taken to meet what were, then as now, reasonable requests. Already the
detainees are experiencing ill health and weakness.
People do not forgo food unless there are good reasons to do so, and these
men obviously have cause to go to these extreme lengths to get you to
negotiate with them in good faith.
As if this were not enough, the men are also being denied access to media
to discuss their very legitimate complaints.
Your agency has claimed the new facility will present better conditions for
the detainees, yet this is simply not the case. I again urge you to
intervene immediately and take steps necessary to prevent a further
deterioration in the health of the detainees and, by extension, that of
their loved ones, whose stress during this time remains extremely high.
I look forward to your immediate action to resolve this crisis.
Name, address
More info: Campaign to Stop Secret Trials in Canada, PO Box 73620, 509 St.
Clair Ave. West, Toronto, ON M6C 1C0, tasc@web.ca, www.homesnotbombs.ca
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GATS Negotiations June 22, 2006
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CANADIAN CENTRE FOR POLICY ALTERNATIVES / CENTRE CANADIEN de POLITIQUES ALTERNATIVES
June 21, 2006
New from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
1. Crunch Time in Geneva: Benchmarks, plurilaterals, domestic regulation and other pressure tactics in the GATS negotiations, by Scott Sinclair
Global civil society should not be lulled into complacency by gloomy media reports about the deadlock in the Doha Round negotiations. While agricultural and other important issues remain serious obstacles to a deal, negotiators continue to work non-stop in Geneva. The decision whether to close a deal is a political one that will be made, as in past rounds, by a small group of powerful governments.
If there is a breakthrough on agriculture, the pressure will rapidly intensify for a large package of GATS commitments. Even if a deal can not be concluded by year-end, negotiators are currently making critical decisions, including about the text of new GATS rules restricting domestic regulation. These threatened rules would seriously curtail the right to regulate and weaken governments’ ability to protect the public.
At the December 2005 Hong Kong ministerial meeting, developed countries forced through a controversial set of services demands that prepared the ground for a final push to expand the GATS. This new paper analyses benchmarks, plurilateral request-offer, domestic regulation and other pressure tactics so that non-governmental organizations, elected representatives, developing countries and ordinary citizens can intervene to counter them.
The publication can be downloaded free of charge from the CCPA web site: http://NL1127.policyalternatives.ca
2. Are Wage Supplements the Answer to the Problems of the Working Poor?, by Andrew Jackson
The idea of addressing poverty through some kind of wage supplementation program has been around for some time, but has only recently moved to the centre stage of Canadian social policy. Unlike the more visionary concept of a Guaranteed Annual Income for all citizens, wage supplements are intended to promote and support employment in low-paid jobs.
This paper examines different recommendations and finds wage supplements can play useful supporting roles in assisting the working poor, but should not be seen as the centerpiece of a new social architecture.
The publication can be downloaded free of charge from the CCPA web site: http://NL1127.policyalternatives.ca
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Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
410-75 Albert Street, Ottawa, ON K1P 5E7
tel: 613-563-1341 fax: 613-233-1458
http://NL1128.policyalternatives.ca
caw567
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Canada’s New Government Welcomes Burmese Refugees June 20, 2006
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Ottawa, June 20, 2006 — On the occasion of World Refugee Day, the Honourable Monte Solberg, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Canada, and Jahanshah Assadi, Representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), are pleased to announce Canada’s pivotal role in an international effort to provide solutions for Burmese (Myanmar) refugees stranded in camps in Thailand for more than a decade.
“Welcoming these refugees, who have endured a prolonged state of limbo in terrible conditions, is in the best humanitarian tradition of Canada,” said Minister Solberg. “As Canadians, we look forward to helping them rebuild secure lives and join our society.”
A group of 810 refugees, predominantly of the Karen ethnic group, are expected to resettle in Canada later this year. The 810 are from an estimated 140,000 Burmese refugees—the largest refugee population in Southeast Asia—which the UN Refugee Agency has identified as being in a particularly precarious situation.
The UNHCR has been collaborating closely with Canada and other countries to resettle groups of refugees found to be disproportionately more at risk than the general refugee population. The groups identified are those who have suffered severe persecution, including torture, imprisonment, forced labour, the burning of villages and forced relocation in their homeland.
“We were delighted at Canada’s swift response to our group submission of 810 Karen refugees, and impressed at the smooth and efficient manner in which the Canadian selection team conducted the interviews in a remote refugee camp environment,” said Jahanshah Assadi, the UNHCR’s representative in Canada.
CIC will be working closely with Canada’s volunteer groups to assist in the settlement and integration of these refugees.
Other countries that have responded to the UNHCR’s call by offering to resettle Burmese refugees include the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. World Refugee Day is internationally recognized and celebrated each year on June 20.
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For more information (media only):
Lesley Harmer
Director of Communications
Minister’s Office
Marina Wilson
Media Relations
Communications Branch
Citizenship and Immigration Canada
(613) 941-7021
Backgrounder
Group Resettlement to Canada
Karen Refugees in Mae La Oon Camp, Thailand
Karen Refugees in Thailand
A solution is in sight for thousands of refugees from Burma (also referred to as Myanmar) who have been “warehoused” in camps for decades and are currently accommodated in nine camps in Thailand. Following an agreement by the Royal Thai Government to allow large-scale resettlement of Burmese refugees, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has identified 13,000 of an estimated refugee population of 140,000 in need of priority resettlement. The groups identified are those facing a particularly precarious existence and who have suffered severe persecution, including torture, imprisonment, forced labour, the burning of villages and forced relocation in their homeland.
Eight hundred and ten Karen refugees have been accepted by Canada. This is the first time since the resettlement of Indochinese refugees that Canada has accepted a significant number of refugees from Thailand. Other countries offering to resettle large numbers of Burmese refugees are the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
Group Resettlement of Karen Refugees
The refugees accepted for resettlement to Canada are among an estimated 14,000 who have been confined in the Mae La Oon camp in Mae Hong Son Province of Thailand. They are predominantly of the Karen ethnic group. The majority fled to Thailand in 1995 following a major offensive by the Burmese government army against the Karen National Union (KNU). A small portion of the population has been in Thailand since as early as the 1960s, having lived in sporadic settlements until the camps were formed by the Thai government in the late nineties.
Of the nine camps in Thailand, Mae La Oon has the dubious distinction of being the most remote and the most difficult for aid workers to reach, and of having the worst living conditions. The camp is extremely overcrowded. Refugee dwellings are built on steep hillsides that are susceptible to landslides. The lack of appropriate sanitation and water facilities for a population of 14,000 creates a situation where serious public health risks are endemic, and where other social problems associated with such conditions are reaching alarming levels. It is because of the worsening conditions in Mae La Oon that the UNHCR has pushed for group resettlement from Thailand as a matter of priority.
Less than a year after being approached by the UNHCR, over 500 refugees from this group are scheduled to arrive in Canada in August and September, with the remaining 300 or so to follow late this year and early in 2007.
This resettlement project exemplifies the level of cooperation that exists between the UNHCR and Citizenship and Immigration Canada, as well as other participating countries. It also exemplifies the crucial role played by our domestic partners, such as participating service organizations and private sponsoring groups.
The first group of government-assisted refugees will be settling in 10 communities stretching across the country from Vancouver to Charlottetown. The remaining refugees will benefit from the support of the private sponsorship community. Sponsoring groups from small towns as well as large cities have responded favourably and enthusiastically to providing support.
Group Profile and Characteristics
The 810 refugees accepted by Canada include:
women and their families who are particularly vulnerable because the woman is a single head of household, or who require special attention because of sexual or gender-based violence, social ostracism, family problems or other circumstances;
former leaders of political opposition groups and their families who require special protection given their relatively high-profile activities and the fact that the Burmese authorities are likely aware of their identity and their residence in the camps in Thailand;
individuals and their families who have serious medical or psychological conditions for whom appropriate treatment is not available in the camp, and for whom resettlement would offer a substantially better way of life;
ethnic minorities who suffer discrimination in the camp, such as the ethnic Burman, who are often distrusted by the Karen and suspected of being spies for the Burmese government, and in particular the camp leadership and senior members of the KNU; and
individuals and their families who have close relatives in Canada.
UNHCR’s Rationale for Resettlement
As an instrument of international protection, resettlement guarantees the legal and physical protection of refugees. In some cases, resettlement may provide the only means of preserving human rights, particularly in the context of a protracted refugee situation such as the one that exists on the Thai-Burmese border, where Burmese nationals have endured a prolonged period of ”warehousing” in closed refugee camps, and where restricted mobility, enforced idleness and dependency on humanitarian assistance force refugees to place their lives on indefinite hold.
For these reasons, the UNHCR finds that the refugees in the Mae La Oon camp are in need of resettlement on the basis of legal and physical protection requirements and because of the lack of local integration prospects in Thailand. As neither voluntary repatriation nor local integration is available, resettlement is the only viable solution for this population at this stage.
Background on Group Resettlement
The group resettlement approach taken by Canada was first piloted in 2003 with Sudanese and Somali refugees from camps in Kenya. It differs from the usual case-by-case processing in that it allows the UNHCR to submit large groups with a uniform refugee claim, a clearly defined membership and particular vulnerabilities or protection needs—groups that have remained in a protracted refugee situation and that can neither safely return home nor integrate into their host country.
Under normal resettlement processing, Canadian visa officials are required to conduct individual case-by-case status interviews to determine if the refugees do indeed meet the criteria set forth in the 1951 refugee convention. Under group processing, Canadian officials skip the status interviews, focusing instead on the mandatory credibility, identity, security and medical admissibility checks.
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Dr. Cynthia Maung meets with Canadian Immigration Minister June 11, 2006
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Thursday June 8th, 2006 16h30
(Ottawa, ON) -- Dr. Cynthia Maung, founder of the world renowned Mae Tao Clinic in Mae Sot along the Thai-Burma border, met with Canadian Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Monte Solberg today on Parliament Hill, along with a half a dozen other MPs including Larry Bagnell and Deepak Obhrai.
Minister Solberg wanted to thank Dr. Maung for her efforts in providing free medical treatment for Burmese refugees and migrant workers in Thailand, as well as internally displaced persons who cross the border because they cannot afford or access health services in Burma. It is estimated that Dr. Maung’s clinic serves over 100 000 patients each year.
The clinic has been funded by Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) for over a decade, yet Solberg had to intervene personally last week when Dr. Maung’s visa application was inexplicably rejected by Citizenship and Immigration Canada.
The current situation in Karen State in Eastern Burma, where close to 20 000 civilians have been displaced due to a major offensive by the ruling military junta has caused a humanitarian crisis, was also discussed at the meeting. All Members of Parliament present obliged themselves to apply more pressure against the junta as representatives of the Canadian Government.
Dr. Maung and by extension the Mae Tao Clinic has received accolades from around the world for its humanitarian work on the border, including the Jonathan Mann Health and Human Rights Award, The John Humphries Award (awarded by Rights & Democracy), and the American Women’s Medical Association President’s Award. She has also been named an Asian Hero by Time Magazine.
Dr. Maung will be staying in Canada for the next week, in anticipation of Rights & Democracy’s annual conference in Toronto June 14th and 15th.
Further media contact and interviews with Dr. Maung, please contact Tin Maung Htoo at 519.860.4745
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Phony “fiscal imbalance” May 29, 2006
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MAY 25, 2006
Phony “fiscal imbalance” being used to undermine federalism, says study
OTTAWA—A new study from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives warns that solving the alleged “fiscal imbalance” runs the risk of becoming a downsizing exercise for the federal government.
The study, authored by CCPA Senior Economist Marc Lee, breaks the “fiscal imbalance” code. Different definitions of the term “fiscal imbalance,” in a context of federal-provincial fights over cash and partisan politics, have muddied the waters of the debate.
“The term ‘fiscal imbalance’ is a loaded one,” says Lee. “It is a pejorative term that implies that balance must be restored. But a careful look at Canadian history and other federations worldwide suggests that Canada does not have deep structural problems that need to be fixed.”
To date, the issue has revolved around provinces seeking more money from Ottawa. The report warns that, in its current incarnation, more radical decentralization measures could be put on the table due to pressure from influential lobby groups, like the Canadian Council of Chief Executives.
“Missing from the story is tax cuts and tax competition,” Lee adds. “Provincial governments undercut their fiscal positions through tax cuts over the past decade. The decentralization push hinges around deep federal tax cuts to pay for the elimination of federal transfers for health care, post-secondary education and social welfare.”
To maintain public services, provinces would then have to raise their own taxes. Lee argues that this is a mirage because of provincial tax competition, and that the result would be greater regional inequality in Canada. Smaller and poorer provinces would be the losers because they would have to raise their taxes much more to provide public services equivalent to richer provinces.
While the federal government has not made its position clear, Prime Minister Harper is sympathetic to decentralization.
“Canada is already one of the most decentralized countries in the world,” says Lee. “With the small-government Conservatives seeking to appease separatists in Quebec, the ingredients are on the table for a major restructuring of the Canadian federation. The result may be a social fabric that is unrecognizable and greatly frayed.”
Rather than decentralization, the study recommends uploading to the federal government some provincial responsibilities that would benefit from a national approach. These could include Pharmacare, social assistance, and labour market training. If current levels of transfers to the provinces are maintained, uploading would provide a windfall to the provinces that could be used to reinvest in other provincial programs.
“The current federal approach risks neglecting two real imbalances that need to be addressed,” Lee concludes. “The first is ‘the Alberta problem’, or what to do about revenue-raising imbalances among the provinces arising from resource royalties. The second is the imbalance between both senior levels of government and Canada’s cities.”
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Tax Cuts and the “Fiscal Imbalance” is available from the CCPA web site: http://NL1113.policyalternatives.ca
For more information contact Kerri-Anne Finn, CCPA Communications Officer, at 613-563-1341 x306.
--
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
410-75 Albert Street, Ottawa ON K1P 5E7
tel: 613-563-1341 fax: 613-233-1458
http://NL1113.policyalternatives.ca
caw567
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Ontario Health Coalition Supports Drug Legislation May 29, 2006
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May 28, 2006
Ontario Health Coalition Supports Drug Legislation:
it will contain escalating drug costs without harming patients
Toronto – The Ontario Health Coalition held a press conference today to express support for several key elements of Bill102 and the accompanying drug strategy announced by Ontario’s government.
“The measures that the provincial government is proposing are reasonable and the evidence shows that they won’t adversely affect the health of patients,” said Dr. Joel Lexchin, an emergency room physician at University Health Network, professor of Health Policy at York University, and author of numerous books and articles on pharmaceuticals. “The goal is to control provincial expenditures on prescription drugs without shifting the burden onto the backs of patients.”
“Any money that the provincial government saves with these measures needs to be reinvested back into the social safety system, not used to finance tax cuts. The responsibility of elected politicians for listing and delisting of drugs must be maintained,” advised Dr. Lexchin.
“Patients require access to care and treatment that are sometimes provided by drugs, and sometimes provided through hospitals, homecare, community care or nursing homes. Escalating drug costs place competing demands on scarce health care dollars. It is important that the spiralling costs of drugs be contained to protect our access to the whole range of services provided by the public health system,” noted Derek Chadwick, a representative on the OHC board from Canadian Pensioners Concerned. “We support the widening of access to generic drugs that the government has prescribed.”
“We believe that the provisions in this Bill to contain the costs and practices of the drug industry are positive and necessary for the sustainability of the public health system,” added Eduardo Sousa, spokesperson for the Council of Canadians and OHC board member. “We will continue to work with the Health Coalition towards the creation of a universal National Pharmacare program for all Canadians, accompanied by an appropriately rigorous regulatory regime for the pharmaceutical industry.”
“This Bill contains provisions that will effectively balance the need to control costs with the need to provide medically necessary treatments for patients. These are positive steps for the public health system,”added Natalie Mehra, director of the Ontario Health Coalition.
“When these measures go through we need to be sure that we still retain political accountability for what goes on in the drug plan. Regarding the plans to create a new “Executive Officer” in charge of listing and delisting drugs and negotiating prices, we support the efforts to negotiate the best price for Ontarians’ medications. In addition, we will work to ensure that the new powers for the Executive Officer do not enable the current or any future Health Minister to evade political accountability for decisions regarding what is on and off Ontario’s drug formulary,” she concluded.
Ontario Health Coalition
Suite 305, 15 Gervais Drive
Toronto, ON M3C 1Y8
Tel: 416-441-2502
Fax: 416-441-4073
Email: ohc@sympatico.ca
www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca
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Ban on clear cutting won by Bancroft activist—for now May 23, 2006
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A temporary ban has silenced the roar of chainsaws revving up in anticipation of clear cutting crown land in the Bancroft
Minden Forest Management Plan area—thanks to a local environmental activist and a 2004 Environment Canada study
warning that Ontario forests are in a precarious state from decades of assault by acid rain.
Large portions of the north eastern part of the management plan area that covers North Hastings and Haliburton counties
plus areas outside their boundaries including Whitney, just south of Algonquin Park, were slated for clear cutting in the
near future. The study: Canadian Acid Deposition Science Assessment states that forests in this area have exceeded
critical load for acid rain and tree growth is now diminished from lack of calcium in the soil.
Pat Potter, who has an academic background in environmental science and years of advocating for nature, sits on a Bancroft
Minden Forest District Local Citizen’s Committee, a public watchdog under the umbrella of the Ministry of Natural Resources. She brought the assessment study to the attention of the committee, which includes representatives of the forest industry, while reviewing the proposed management plan for quota and logging methods on Crown land for the next 20 years.
Despite scientific evidence, and her husband Chuck’s photographs documenting problems with logging practices (so far one company has been forced to do restorative work), the management plan was marching ahead based on an outdated
1940s method of silviculture. Potter filed an appeal on March 21. Review and public comment deadline was March 26.
A decision from Ministry of the Environment is expected in June.
Summary of Environment Canada report.
Hardwood and conifer growth rates measured in Quebec (similar statistics in central Ontario) are 30 per cent less since 1970 compared to areas with less acid rain Acid settling into the ground from this toxic rain is leaching calcium, magnesium and potassium from the soils that trees need to grow and remain healthy.
Forests retrieve nutrients from falling leaves and decomposition of fallen trees. Clear cutting is devastating
because depleted soil cannot grow and nurture a new generation of trees
Fifty to 70 per cent of acid rain comes from the United States
Most of central Ontario from Sault St. Marie to Ottawa, and all of the Bancroft area, is shown on a map as a blotch of red—so hard hit by acid rain that forests are now toxic for plants and animals
Impact
Sugar maple growth in Ontario is slowing with potential for composition of species to change
Quebec has recently reacted by cutting logging quotas with an estimated 10,000 jobs lost
The reduction has driven Quebec loggers into Ontario where quotas have not been reduced
MNR and MOE agreement in effect during the appeal (from a letter dated April 21, 2006)
No area will be clear cut, which means complete removal of all merchantable trees
Wildlife habitats and watershed will be protected to ensure habitat diversity
Immature trees will not be cut so the future forest is not endangered
Thorough inspection of the site before logging, note and mark trees to cut and a report submitted after
the site is logged
The logger must follow the rules for logging damage standards as outlined in the Forest Management Plan.
The reports are to be reviewed by the MNR and made available to Potter
CIBC World Markets Report
Released in March Reconciling Financial Performance With Sustainability In The Paper & Forest Products
Sector: Is It Possible? draws from dozens of statistical sources
The current size and structure of the Canadian forestry industry is not financially sustainable. The implications
for rural Canada are dramatic if we do not change
Canada is the largest exporter in the global forest products industry but companies are small, have a poor return
on capital and own old, energy-inefficient mills
Canada’s lumber industry is ranked as the weakest in the world. Since 2003, over 7,000 jobs have
been lost from pulp/paper mills closures—over 75 per cent of which were in Eastern Canada
For more information contact Pat and Chuck Potter 613.474.0435
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IVANHOE MINES TO LEAVE MYANMAR May 23, 2006
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Courier Information Services: May 19, 2006
VANCOUVER – Ivanhoe Mines has decided to pull up stakes and sell out its mining operations in military-ruled Myanmar.
The decision to withdraw from the country was revealed to representatives of a corporate watchdog group of Amnesty International at the company’s annual meeting in Vancouver on May 12 by Edward Flood, company vice-president.
During the meeting Flood told shareholders that Ivanhoe’s directors had decided to sell half its 50% stake in the Monywa copper mine in Myanmar to a South Korean mining consortium.
Later, Flood approached Fiona Koza and Tracy London of the Amnesty group and told them that that the decision to sell out a half interest in the Monywa mine reflected the “tricky situation” for the company in the southeast Asian country. According to Koza, Flood indicated that the company’s directors had thought it best to “start to move out” of Myanmar.
Details of the move to sell to the South Korean consortium began to emerge in April when a government official in Seoul told business reporters that Robert Friedland, chairman of the Ivanhoe board, had exchanged a memorandum of understanding about the partial sale of Ivanhoe’s stake in the Monywa mine with KRC president Park Yang-soo after visiting Myanmar in January. A final agreement on the sale to the Korean group is slated for signing in July.
The KRC consortium will consist of Daewoo International, the Korea Resources Group, and Taihan Electric Wire. It will eventually hold a 25 per cent stake in the Monywa operation with Daewoo taking a 10 per cent stake and Taihan and Korea Resources 7.5% each. The sale to the Korean consortium was said to be worth US $ 120 million. After the final agreement is signed, the majority shareholder in the Monywa operation will be Myanmar’s military government which already owns 50% of the mine.
The Myanmar Times reported last week that ten representatives of the South Korean consortium had visited Yangon in late April to discuss the sale. An unnamed diplomat told the Times that the delegation had studied survey data from the mine. He said that the contract was still in the discussion stage with Ivanhoe and that final agreement to approve the sale rested with the Myanmar government.
The future of the Monywa mine, currently producing about 35,000 tonnes of copper cathode annually, lies in the development of the nearby Letpadaung deposit. It is reported to contain almost a billion and a half tonnes of high grade copper ore which will need an extensive capital outlay to reach the production stage. Ivanhoe, which is close to starting up what is billed as the world’s largest copper and gold mine at Oyu Tolgoi in Mongolia, is looking to attract other partners to join it in developing the Mongolian mine. Earlier this year, it revealed that U.S. sanctions against Myanmar and the financial difficulties of the country’s military government were seriously affecting the Monywa mine and the future of its operations there. It is believed that the decision to eventually leave Myanmar is primarily dictated by Ivanhoe’s need to attract other partners for its Mongolian prospects.
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300 Nurses Ask McGuinty to Stop P3 Hospitals May 10, 2006
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 9, 2006
300 Nurses Ask McGuinty to Stop P3 Hospitals: Joint Letter
Toronto - More than 300 nurses across Ontario have written a joint letter to Premier Dalton McGuinty asking him to stop the privatization of Ontario’s hospitals. In their letter, the nurses told McGuinty: “We are writing to express our strong opposition to your government’s policy of hospital financing through “P3s” or public-private partnerships. ‘Alternative Finance Mechanism’ or ‘Alternative Financing and Procurement’ (AFM/AFP) hospitals are P3s under a new name.” Letter signatories include Linda Haslam-Stroud, President, Vicki McKenna, First Vice President and Lesley Bell, CEO of the Ontario Nurses’ Association; Mary Ferguson-Paré, President, Joan Lesmond, Immediate Past-President, and Doris Grinspun, Executive Director, of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario.
“Ontario is already in the middle of a serious nursing shortage,” stated Linda Haslam-Stroud, RN, President of the Ontario Nurses Association (ONA). “This policy will mean even less nursing care for our patients because money will be taken out of clinical budget to pay for the profits expected by private investors and the high fees charged by consultants.”
“Private financing affects the quality of nursing care that is provided,” said Lesley Bell, RN, MBA, ONA Chief Executive Officer. “Numerous examples exist in other jurisdictions of corners being cut to make profits, resulting in fewer resources and impacting the way nurses deliver care.”
“Hospitals are not commodities to be bought and sold on the market as revenue streams to make money for investors. They are valued public institutions upon which our communities rely for life enhancing and life prolonging care,” added Natalie Mehra, Director of the Ontario Health Coalition. “P3 hospitals are poor public policy: damaging for nurses and bad for patients.”
“The market forces driving these kinds of business arrangements undermine the expert work that nurses, doctors and other health-care professionals provide. There is clear and substantial evidence that these arrangements are more expensive and result in fewer health-care professionals providing patient care,” said Mary Ferguson-Paré, President of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario.
“Based on the evidence, we conclude that the P3 hospital policy will lead to unnecessary additional costs, have a negative impact on work environments, reduce public control over our hospitals, and create a new and powerful stakeholder group invested in dismantling Medicare -- now from inside the hospital’s walls,” said Doris Grinspun, Executive Director of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario. “As RNAO has conveyed again and again to government, the result will be a weakened public health-care system.”
In their letter, the nurses concluded, “It will be less expensive to finance and manage our hospitals on a non-profit basis and to maintain public non-profit services throughout the hospitals. Ontario’s nurses are urging your government to stop the P3 hospital program and return to a public financing system for our hospitals.”
Ontario’s McGuinty government has mov[s1]ed faster and farther with P3 hospital privatization than any other province in Canada, including Alberta. Premier McGuinty has now announced at least 25 P3 hospitals with varying levels of privatization. All 25 announced P3 hospitals include private financing and some will include the outsourcing and privatization of additional hospital services and management.
As nurses celebrate Nursing Week they pause to once again urge the McGuinty government to immediately stop P3s.
For more information:
Sheree Bond, ONA Public Relations, (416) 964-8833, ext. 2430
Marion Zych, Director of Communications, RNAO, (416) 599-1925, ext 209; (647) 406-5605 (cellular phone)
Natalie Mehra Ontario Health Coalition 416-230-6402
The full text of the letter can be found at www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca
Ontario Health Coalition
15 Gervais Drive, Suite 305
Toronto, ON
M3C 1Y8
Telephone 416-441-2502
www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca
ohc.sympatico.ca
OPEN LETTER
May 9, 2006
Dear Premier Dalton McGuinty,
We are writing to express our strong opposition to your government’s policy of hospital financing through “P3s” or public-private partnerships. “Alternative Finance Mechanism” or “Alternative Financing and Procurement” (AFM/AFP) hospitals are P3s under a new name. In these hospitals, a group of financiers, construction companies, designers, and service providers build a hospital project and sell it back to the non-profit hospital board under a contract that stretches for 20 – 40 years. The companies make their profit through the financing deals, the long term privatization of some range of hospital facility management and support services, user fees and service charges for patients and their visitors, private development on hospital grounds, and technology or other ancillary business contracts.
Based on the evidence, we conclude that the P3 hospital policy will lead to unnecessary additional costs, have a negative impact on work environments, reduce public control over our hospitals, and create a new and powerful stakeholder group invested in dismantling Medicare -- now from the inside. The result will be only one: diminish the public health care system. As nurses we value the ability to provide safe, competent and ethical care that allows us to fulfill our ethical and professional obligations to the people we serve. Nurses uphold principles of equity and fairness to assist persons in receiving a share of health services and resources proportionate to their needs and to promote social justice. We value and advocate for practice environments that have the organizational structures and resources necessary to ensure safety, support and respect for all persons in the work setting. These values are at risk when P3 hospitals are introduced.
The British Medical Journal and other studies by Dr. Allyson Pollock report that the high costs of the P3 financing schemes are borne by cutting clinical and support staff budgets, and by reducing community health services. The rigorous analysis of the P3 in North Durham for example, shows that the P3 scheme led to cuts that fell mainly on the qualified nursing staff, reducing the number of qualified nurses by 12%. In other studies, the BMJ reports that community health services in the P3 hospital areas are also reduced due to the higher costs of P3 financing. We are concerned that the LHINs will face similar problems as the P3s take money away from hospital budgets, beds and staff and reduce funding to local community health services.
The Ministry of Public Infrastructure Renewal states that the hospitals will be built faster, will be on time and in budget, and will be under public control. The evidence does not support these claims. The authoritative study by the British Association of Certified Chartered Accountants found that the premiums charged by the for-profit companies exceeded any evidence of past cost overruns in publicly financed projects. The study by the UK Auditor General expressly did not conclude that the hospitals were cheaper than publicly financed hospitals, nor did the auditor look at cost increases from the outset of the negotiation of the long-term privatization deals. Moreover, there are many examples of serious cost overruns and delays in the British P3 projects. Claims of public control are not based on fact as under a P3 it is no longer the hospital board that runs the hospital facility, lands and privatized services. Their power is circumscribed by the 20 – 40 year contract negotiated with the private companies. And there is simply no basis for the claim that the hospitals will be built faster.
Hospitals are not commodities to be bought and sold on the stock market as revenue streams for investors. They are valued public institutions upon which our communities rely for life enhancing and life prolonging care. It will be less expensive to finance and manage our hospitals on a non-profit basis and to maintain public non-profit services throughout the hospitals. Ontario’s nurses are urging your government to stop the P3 hospital program and create a public financing system for our hospitals.
Signed:
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“Total Denial” at Toronto’s International Film Festival May 4, 2006
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Press Release
“Total Denial” at Toronto’s International Film Festival
Ottawa (May 4) – “Total Denial,” a 73-minute documentary film on a 10- year historic lawsuit against a U.S-based giant oil corporation, Unocal, for human rights abuses in Burma, will be screened in Toronto’s International Film Festival on May 5 and 6, 2006.
In this film, Producer/director Milena Kaneva, had documented abuses of Burmese villagers caused by the Yadana gas pipeline in Burma for five years, with the help of Ka Saw Wa, a 1988 Burmese student activist and currently the Executive Director of U.S-based Earth Rights International (ERI). The documentary was shot in Burma, Thailand, Europe, and the U.S. courts between 2000 and 2005. It has been awarded the special prize for Human Rights by former Czech President Vaclav Havel during the One World Festival in Prague in March 2006.
Canadian Friends of Burma (CFOB) has invited an environmental activist/ lawyer, and currently a Harvard University faculty member Tyler Giannini, to the event. He will explain his 10-year fact-finding efforts on human rights abuses in Burma and groundbreaking corporate accountability litigation against Unocal in the United States.
“The issues raised by the film are incredibly important and sadly rarely discussed in the mainstream media. The truth about the ugly partnership between multinational corporations and Burma’s despotic military junta must be told,” said Kevin McLeod, member of Board of Directors, Canadian Friends of Burma.
Canadian International Documentary Festival, known as “Hot Docs,” is North America's largest documentary festival, and the festival presents a selection of over 100 cutting-edge documentaries from Canada and around the world each year.
“Total Denial” will be screened on Friday at 9:30 PM in the Isabel Bader Theatre, 93 Charles Street West (one block south of Avenue Road and Bloor Street West) and Saturday at 7:30 PM in the ROM Theatre, 100 Queen's Park (inside the Royal Ontario Museum, at Avenue Road and Bloor Street West). Per ticket cost is $10.00.
The two screenings will be followed by Q&A Session with Director Milena Kaneva and Earth Rights International’s Co-founder Tyler Giannini
More information: Jameel Madhany at (613) 884-8015
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Canadian Friends of Burma (CFOB)
145 Spruce St. Suite 206
Ottawa, ON K1R 6P1
Tel: 613.237.8056/ Fax: 613.563.0017
Email: cfob@cfob.org
Website: http://www.cfob.org
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Moving Forward: Alternative Federal Budget puts the surplus to work May 2, 2006
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
APRIL 27, 2006
OTTAWA—The federal government has the resources to maintain and build on the commitments made in the 2004-05 minority Parliament and use upcoming surpluses to move forward on a progressive agenda, says the 2006 Alternative Federal Budget.
“Ottawa currently has sizable surpluses to deliver the programs and services Canadians want and need,” says CCPA Senior Economist Ellen Russell. “However, this historic opportunity will be lost if the Conservatives’ tax cuts leave the cupboard bare.”
The Conservatives’ own estimates indicate that the federal government would have to cut program spending to pay for their full slate of tax cuts.
The AFB argues that Canadians will be much better served by investing the surplus into a range of public services that address the most important problems facing the country today.
“A $300 or $400 net tax cut is small compensation for being unable to find a childcare space when you need it, or send your child to university, or afford decent housing,” says AFB Coordinator Judy Randall.
This year’s AFB highlights the significant progress made in 2004-05 on childcare, First Nations, the environment, young Canadians and workers, and cities and communities and calls on the government to honour these commitments.
The AFB will build on these priorities and invest a net total of an additional $36 billion in Canada’s social and environmental quality of life over three years while maintaining a balanced budget in every year and with no increase in overall taxes.
“The AFB offers better choices within a responsible fiscal framework, which means investing in things like health care, education, clean air, safe drinking water, and affordable housing,” says Randall. “These public goods are necessities, paid for by our tax dollars, and no tax cut could deliver them so equitably.”
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Alternative Federal Budget 2006: Moving Forward is available from the CCPA web site at http://NL1096.policyalternatives.ca The AFB, coordinated by the CCPA, incorporates the priorities of a wide range of prominent civil society organizations representing millions of Canadians.
For more information contact: Kerri-Anne Finn, CCPA Communications Officer, at 613-563-1341 x306.
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Greenpeace blockades Kleenex manufacturer's factory April 27, 2006
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Greenpeace blockades Kleenex manufacturer's factory in Ontario Activists stop truck, train access and demand Kimberly-Clark stop destroying Canada's Boreal forest to make disposable products
Huntsville, ON. April 27 - Greenpeace activists today blockaded a
Kimberly-Clark factory in Huntsville, Ontario, demanding that the company
stop making Kleenex and other disposable tissue products from clearcut
ancient forests, including Canada's Boreal. Over 20 volunteers physically
stopped all shipments from going into or coming out of the plant by blocking
both truck and train access to the site, while others occupied the rooftop
and hung a large banner reading: "Kimberly-Clark & Kleenex: Stop destroying
the Boreal Forest." The action took place on the same day as
Kimberly-Clark's annual shareholder meeting in Irving, Texas.
"Kimberly-Clark has refused to acknowledge or address the devastating impact
it has on forests across Canada," said Christy Ferguson, a Greenpeace
forests campaigner. "We will continue to disrupt this company's operations
and mobilize its customers until CEO Thomas Falk and his company end their
participation in Boreal forest destruction."
Three seven-metre high metal tripods blocked truck access, with activists
perched at their tops and locked to their bases. They held banners reading
"Kleenex = Forest Destruction" and "Save the Boreal Forest."
Richard Brooks, also a Greenpeace forests campaigner, was in attendance at
the company's shareholder meeting in Texas, where he alerted the company's
shareholders, board directors and CEO about the Greenpeace action and urged
them to act on a shareholder resolution on sustainable forestry. "Buying
massive amounts of fibre from irresponsibly logged areas in Canada's Boreal
is increasingly controversial, and poses a growing risk for companies and
their investors," said Brooks. Brooks cited companies like JP Morgan Chase
and Home Depot who have taken positive steps to address the loss of forests.
The shareholder resolution, submitted by institutional shareholders holding
a total of US$21 million in stock, requests that the company report on the
feasibility of adopting environmental policies consistent with Greenpeace's
demands. Greenpeace is demanding that Kimberly-Clark dramatically increase
the use of recycled fiber in their entire line of products, and only
purchase virgin fibre from logging operations that are sustainable and
certified to the strict standards of the Forest Stewardship Council.
"Forests are disappearing across this country and around the world, and they
need protection urgently," added Ferguson. "We will not let companies like
Kimberly-Clark go unchallenged as they rip down one of the largest intact
ecosystems left on Earth to make products that are used once and then thrown
away."
Kimberly-Clark, the largest tissue product manufacturer in the world, makes
products including toilet paper, facial tissue, and napkins in Canada under
the well-known Kleenex brand. All of its consumer products sold in North
America are made from 100% virgin fibre, a significant portion of which is
sourced from clearcut ancient forests in Canada's Boreal. The company uses
over 3 million tonnes of virgin fibre each year.
Stretching from Newfoundland to the Yukon, Canada's Boreal forest represents
over 25% of the world's remaining intact ancient forests. It is home to
numerous Aboriginal communities, as well as hundreds of species of birds and
animals including the endangered woodland caribou and wolverine. A carbon
storehouse, the Boreal is essential in fighting global climate change.
For more information contact:
Christy Ferguson, Greenpeace forests campaigner in Ontario, cell:
416-451-9354
Richard Brooks, Greenpeace forests campaigner in Texas, cell: 416-573-7209
Andrew Male, Greenpeace communications coordinator, cell: 416-880-2757
----------------------------------------
Richard Brooks
Forest Campaigner
Greenpeace
1726 Commercial Drive
Vancouver, BC V5N 4A3
Canada
phone: 604-253-7701 ext. 16
cell: 416-573-7209
fax: 604-253-0114
Kleenex and Kimberly-Clark
are wiping away ancient forests.
Visit www.kleercut.net to stop them
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Businesses turn away from Kleenex manufacturer because of forest destruction March 30, 2006
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New ‘Forest Friendly 500’ initiative launched
(Vancouver, San Francisco – March 28, 2006) Greenpeace today launched an international business initiative to pressure tissue product manufacturer Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) to improve its environmental practices. The maker of Kleenex facial tissue and other brands of tissue products has been the target of environmentalists’ ire for the past year because of its continued use of fiber from clearcut ancient forests. The new initiative aims to get 500 businesses from across North America and around the world to pledge to refuse to buy Kimberly-Clark products, thereby affecting the company’s bottom line.
“The Forest Friendly 500 is a group a progressive businesses that refuse to financially support the destruction of ancient forests,” said Richard Brooks, a forest campaigner with Greenpeace. “Kimberly-Clark is losing current and potential customers because of their practice of wiping away ancient forests and these customers are stepping up to be counted.”
Kimberly-Clark, the world’s largest manufacturer of tissue products, used over 3 million metric tonnes (4 million tons) of pulp from forests in 2004, the latest year for which figures are publicly available -- an increase of over 23% from the previous year. Much of this pulp comes from clearcut ancient forests including the great northern Boreal forest, the largest intact forest left in North America. Less than 19% of the fiber used for Kimberly-Clark’s North American tissue products comes from recycled sources.
“Increasingly, we’re seeing individual consumers and businesses turn away from companies that have bad environmental records,” added Brooks. “As public awareness grows, being implicated in forest destruction represents a real financial risk to companies like Kimberly-Clark that depend on the good name of their brands.”
Kimberly-Clark manufactures toilet paper, facial tissue, napkins, and towels for both the consumer and commercial sectors under various brand names including Kleenex, Kleenex Professional, Viva, Surpass, Scott and Cottonelle1. To date, over 130,000 letters and emails have been sent to Kimberly-Clark executives calling on the company to use more recycled fiber and to buy virgin fiber from sustainable logging operations certified to the standards of the Forest Stewardship Council.
Within 1 week of the forestfriendly500.org website going live, 125 businesses have signed up. Greenpeace hopes to get 500 businesses to take the Forest Friendly pledge by May 31, 2006.
For more information contact:
B-roll, high resolution photos available.
Richard Brooks, Greenpeace forest campaigner: 604-253-7701 ext. 16; 416-573-7209 (cell)
www.forestfriendly500.org
1 - Note to editors: Scott and Cotonnelle tissue products sold in Canada are manufactured by Scott Paper under license to Kimberly-Clark.
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SIX NATIONS BLOOD BATH AVERTED - Thanks to popular support! March 27, 2006
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MNN. March 23, 2006. It was a victory for the power of the people! It was a victory for Indigenous land rights. It was a victory for all those struggling for recognition of Indigenous jurisdiction. Since mid-February the Rotinoshon’non:we/Iroquois have been protesting the construction of a luxury residential subdivision on their land called “Douglas Estates” near Caledonia Ontario. With the Canadian and provincial governments intent on ignoring our rights, there were no options. We had to stop the construction ourselves. Our people braved freezing rain, snow, sleet and ankle deep mud. Many slept in tents and cars to keep the barricades manned. Supporters carried in pots of food and truckloads of firewood. We’re in it for the long haul! We are continuing the fight that our grandparents and great-grandparents fought and that our children and grandchildren are prepared to continue if the colonization doesn’t stop.
Henco Industries, the developer that is squatting on our land, went to court and got an injunction. Judge David Marshall of the Ontario Provincial Court thought he had a fool proof plan to get rid of the people protesting Ontario’s persistent violation of Six Nations Territory. On March 16 he issued a strange convoluted order. He announced that at 2:00 on Wednesday, March 22nd, the Ontario Provincial Police OPP would come in. They would read the order to us. Anyone who didn’t leave immediately would be arrested and taken to the police station where they would be photographed, fingerprinted and released. He also ordered that anyone who returned would be charged and placed on probation for a year. The trouble is he seemed to have forgotten about due process and the honor of the Crown. He didn’t mention a hearing or a trial. Neither Ontario nor Henco was required to prove they owned the land in question. This may have something to do with the report that Judge Marshall and the Crown Prosecutor, Owen Young, both claim parts of our land themselves.
The people weren’t frightened by Marshall’s attempt to bully us with his bogus order. We’ve seen it all before. Everyone rallied to support us. By 2:00 on Wednesday hundreds of people had converged at Douglas Estates. The Women locked arms together on the front line. It’s our duty under our constitution, the Kaianereh’ko:wa/Great Law, to protect the land for our future generations. We were going to do our best. We weren’t alone. All across Turtle Island from the Dene of the Northwest Territories, the Western chiefs of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, natives and non-natives alike bombarded everybody they could with the message: "Stop the OPP bloodbath". It did not happen because as 2:00 came and went people continued to arrive to stand with us.
We lead ourselves, which we had every right to do. That’s autonomy and freedom of expression. We found out that we all follow the same philosophy. We all want to protect the natural world and to live in peace and harmony together. We all have the same vision, to preserve our sovereignty in order to protect our land to ensure a future for our people, as creation intended us to do. We are not Canadians and not Americans. We have always rejected the genocidal colonial European vision.
Super Indian Cop, Jim Potts, a self-described expert on us, pulled himself and his Aboriginal mercenaries out of the protest at the last minute. He had set up a squad of his own people to attack their brothers and sisters at Six Nations. He said, "They aren't going to have any weapons", like we’re supposed to believe that the OPP is unarmed! That’s who he said was their back up. If anything happened, the Aboriginal inductees would take the flack and act as human shields for the provincial gestapo. Looks like he read Ward Churchill’s “A Little Matter of Genocide” and decided to be Ontario’s ‘Little Eichmann’. "We have a court order to do this", he said. That's the plan that was outlined in his report on "Dealing with Indigenous Protests and Occupations" that fell into the hands of MNN. It came from one of its most valued and trusted sources.
The OPP have no jurisdiction on land claimed by the Rotinoshon'non:we because we never gave any to them in accordance with our nation-to-nation agreement. The Ontario courts used to recognize that back in the 1920’s before Duncan Campbell Scott deposed the traditional Rotinoshon’non:we government.
Colonial practices have gotten worse since then. The popular action on Wednesday has turned the tide, we hope. Maybe Ipperwash made them think, finally! We will no longer be lead into the ovens by sell-outs like Jim Potts! When we pull together and assert ourselves, we will win by standing on our principles. Our path has been blocked for so long. We removed the ‘log’ on the road, chopped it up and used it for firewood. Yes, we are going to find non-destructive ways to get Turtle Island back. Every time we neglected our responsibility, hard times came upon us. But our duties and responsibilities were still there.
We lost our way because there was so much dust on our constitution. Generations were forbidden to speak our language. They were interpreting everything through residential school eyes. The Kaianereh'ko:wa was being used to control the people as if it was colonial law instead of helping us. The servants of the colonialists try to make the people serve them. On Wednesday no leaders showed up because the minds of the "leaders" are the minds of the colonialist.
In the early 1800’s there was a Judge Marshall in the United States Supreme Court whose reasoning is relied on to this day by courts that are trying to defend Indigenous rights in an honorable way. If Ontario’s Judge David Marshall is a blood descendant, he’s certainly not philosophical kin. This guy believes in “big gun” injunctions. He can’t be bothered with little details like legal proof. He was determined to charge people even if he didn’t know who they were. His orders were all made out mostly to fictional people called “John and Jane Doe”. He wanted to sentence them without a hearing or a trial. He threatened them with criminal records, bad credit ratings, inability to borrow money, border crossing trouble and lots more. Sounded like he said something like, "We’ll even hose you down with bad water if we have to". But he really wanted to “atomize” us! Oops! Hey! Isn’t that genocide again? He seemed to want to dump every kind of threat in his quiver to stop us from exercising our rights and to perfect Henco Industries’ theft of our land.
These kinds of things always attract scammers as well as serious supporters. This time we got one, Pat Holly, who claimed to be the trustee of Mohawk Nation Grand River and maybe even Mother Earth itself! He sure didn’t look like a clan mother! But this white guy thought he had a good thing going. He had two native fronts. Maybe he thought no one would find out he’d been caught selling fake Indian and Metis status cards in the United States. He served Henco Industries with Notices of International Claim for $110 million US through the Office of the Secretary of State of the State of Texas. He wanted a check made out to Pat Holly, Bill Squires and Thedawahka. Then the whole issue would go away. This sounds almost as legitimate as the previous “sales” of Six Nations land. Maybe this guy has an option on the Brooklyn Bridge too!
People are still at the site. They intend to stay. They invite supporters to come and stand with them. The injunction is not legal and is going to be challenged. We have the support of people across the whole of Turtle Island and beyond. Today even Indian Affairs Minister Prentice sent a representative to the site to open up a dialogue. They told him, “Give us your name. We’ll call you sometime”. I wonder if he would open up a dialogue if someone came to squat on his land and tried to kick him off?
Kahentinetha Horn – MNN Mohawk Nation News – kahentinetha2@yahoo.com – coming soon www.mnn.mohawknationnews.com
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Devastating Loss of Ancient Forests in Canada March 24, 2006
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New scientific reports document devastating loss of ancient forests in Canada and around the world
Canada missing conservation opportunities
The reports can be downloaded from www.intactforests.org and www.globalforestwatch.ca
Toronto, Canada / Curitiba, Brazil March 22, 2006– Two new reports released this week in Canada and at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity meetings in Brazil paint an ever-worsening picture of the state of the world’s forests and signal an urgent call to protect what remains. The maps and reports, released separately by Greenpeace and Global Forest Watch Canada, reveal that less than 10% of the world’s land area remains as intact forests larger than 500km2 and that Canada’s southern forests are increasingly fragmented. Intact forests are forest areas that have not been impacted by logging, roading, or other industrial development.
The groundbreaking mapping reports, entitled “World’s Last Intact Forest Landscapes” (Greenpeace) and “Canada’s Forest Landscape Fragments” (Global Forest Watch Canada) are being released at a time when both terrestrial and marine life are being lost at an unprecedented rate. The current rate of extinction of plant and animal species is approximately 1,000 times faster than it was in pre-human times and is predicted to be 10,000 times faster by the year 2050 (1).
“These scientific reports are a wake-up call to industry and governments in Canada and around the world,” said Richard Brooks, a forest campaigner with Greenpeace. “The vast majority of the planet’s ancient forests have been degraded or fragmented by development and roads. And here in Canada, where we have some of the last remaining pockets of original forest, we are losing the opportunity to protect them permanently.”
Findings from the reports include:
82 of 148 countries lying within the forest zone have lost all their intact forest landscapes.
44 percent of the last remaining intact forest landscapes larger than 500 km2 lie in the great Boreal forests of Canada, Alaska and Russia.
92% of Canada’s Boreal forests remain in patches larger than 100km2, with the majority lying in Quebec, the Northwest Territories, and Ontario.
Less than 6.7% of intact forest landscapes in North America larger than 500km2 are strictly protected from development.
Only intact forests of several thousand square kilometres are large enough to sustain healthy populations of many larger wildlife and sufficient in size to adapt to the changing global climate Large, unfragmented forests are less vulnerable to threats such as the invasion of alien species as well as to drought, fire and insect outbreaks.
“When Canada’s ancient forests continue to be roaded and logged to manufacture throwaway products like toilet paper and facial tissue despite the fact that there are so few intact forests left on the planet, you have to wonder if governments and industry in Canada really care about our natural heritage,” added Brooks. “We have an opportunity to be a global leader in conservation, but if industrial development continues to push into these forests, we’ll have lost our chance.”
Both reports and maps use state of the art technology including recent high-resolution satellite images to create the most accurate snapshot of Canada and the world’s major forest ecological systems ever made. The maps make it clear that implementing a global network of large protected areas is needed to halt the loss of the planet’s forests and to preserve global biodiversity.
The launch of the maps further supports international campaigns to protect ancient forests in crisis. Greenpeace is pressuring giant consumer companies like Kimberly-Clark, maker of Kleenex brand tissue products, to stop destroying North America’s ancient Boreal forest. The organization is also working in the heart of the Amazon, campaigning to prevent it from being cleared to grow agricultural products such as soy, and has set up a Global Forest Rescue Station in the Paradise Forests of Papua New Guinea to protect those forests from illegal logging.
Contacts:
Richard Brooks, Greenpeace forest campaigner: 604-253-7701 ext 16 (land) 416-573-7209 (cell)
Andrew Male, Greenpeace Communications: 416-880-2757 (cell)
Notes to editors
(1) Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005. Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Biodiversity Synthesis. World Resources Institute, Washington, DC.
The reports can be downloaded from www.intactforests.org and www.globalforestwatch.ca
----------------------------------------
Richard Brooks
Forest Campaigner
Greenpeace
1726 Commercial Drive
Vancouver, BC V5N 4A3
Canada
phone: 604-253-7701 ext. 16
cell: 416-573-7209
fax: 604-253-0114
Kleenex and Kimberly-Clark
are wiping away ancient forests.
Visit www.kleercut.net to stop them
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Canada’s Dismal Commitment to UN Peacekeeping Drops Further March 24, 2006
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Media Release
For immediate release
March 24, 2006
(Ottawa) Today, Canada is withdrawing its 190 soldiers from the UN
Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) in the Golan Heights. This was Canada’s
largest contribution of soldiers to the United Nations, and with no planned
new commitments, Canada’s contribution to UN blue-helmet peacekeeping
operations will fall to less than 60 military personnel out of 68,000 UN
peacekeepers deployed worldwide.
“With the end of this mission, you’ll be able to fit all of Canada’s UN
peacekeepers on a school bus,” said Steven Staples, Director of Security
Programs at the Polaris Institute.
In a soon-to-be-published article, Dr. Walter Dorn of the Canadian Forces
College says that the Golan close-out will drop the country from a mediocre
33rd place to a dismal 50th in the rank of contributors to UN missions.
“The RCMP and other Canadian police departments are contributing twice as
many personnel to UN operations as the Canadian military,” writes Dr. Dorn.
Dr. Dorn argues that Canada’s large commitment to Afghanistan, currently
under U.S. leadership, is sapping our support for UN operations. “A Canadian
contribution of 2,300 troops, the number currently in Afghanistan, to UN
operations would provide a tremendous boost to the UN as it struggles to run
critical operations in many parts of the world, including the Sudan, Haiti
and the Congo,” writes Dr. Dorn.
(30)
For information:
Steven Staples, Director of Security Programs, Polaris Institute.
t. 613 237-1717 c. 613 290-2695
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Watch out Weyerhaeuser!! March 23, 2006
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Watch out Weyerhaeuser shareholders, here comes Bonnie Swain!
http://www.firstperspective.ca/story_2006_03_22_native.php
Native activist might be heading for corporate world
by Drum Staff
When a young Ojibway woman decided to stop logging trucks 39 months ago, she never thought that her defiance would take her to the headquarters of one of the largest corporations in the world.
But that is where Bonnie Swain will be going next month when she will be nominated for a position on the board of directors of Weyerhaeuser, the multi-national forestry giant that has been feeding off the timber cut from the forests of western Ontario, where Swain and her sister set up a blockade Dec. 3, 2002.
Rainforest Action Network, a California-based environmental organization, is working through sympathizers who own shares in Weyerhaeuser in an attempt to get Swain elected to the board at the company's annual meeting in April 20 in Seattle.
"I just wanted to take that chance to be heard in front of the shareholders," Swain said in mid-March, explaining that her goal is to educate investors about the effects of logging practices.
The blockade began almost as if it had been written by a screenwriter. The theme was that of dozens of movies. The little guy - or in this case two women - who decided they'd had enough and weren't going to put up with it any more.
For Swain and her younger sister, the decision came one day when looking at the clear-cut left in an area where her stepfather used to take her hunting. The logging had been moving closer and closer to the Grassy Narrows First Nation and her community's traditional lands were being cut bare, she explained.
"I guess we just said: 'That's it. No more."
The first day just the two Swain girls - Bonnie, 28 and Chrissy, six years younger - blocked trucks from getting to sites where Abitibi-Consolidated was cutting trees from Grassy Narrows traditional lands. The next day 20 more people joined them.
Since then interest has grown, with the blockade getting national attention as media outlets, environmental and Aboriginal rights organizations, and websites, took interest. The group Friends of Grassy Narrows has been formed and supporters of the blockade have paid for speaking tours by Bonnie, Chrissy and other blockaders.
This month Rainforest Action announced sent letters to the chief executives of Weyerhaeuser and Abitibi telling them to "immediately desist from all logging and industrial resource extraction" on Grassy Narrows traditional land or face "a fierce international campaign."
In telephone interview March 10, David Sone, an old-growth forestry specialist with Rainforest Action, said the campaign could take in the corporate customers of the two targeted companies. For instance, it may warn consumers against buying paper marketed under the labels of companies supplied by Weyerhaeuser.
Abitibi logs the area near Grassy Narrows but Weyerhaeuser is major customer. Both companies operate mills in western Ontario, although during the past year Abitibi has closed two milling operations in Kenora.
Sone said that some logging companies cut the best sources of timber in a region and then abandoning operations, leaving behind replanted clear-cut areas. Replanting is ecologically inferior to natural growth forests, which contain a wide range of vegetation and habitat for many types of wild species. Logging in Canada's boreal forests is, in many ways, like an experiment because the long-term implications of cutting in areas where the soil is sometimes only an inch thick is unknown.
Both companies are major players in the industry, with Abitibi having annual sales listed as more than $3 billion on one website. Weyerhauser, which has 54,000 employees in 19 countries, has more than $22 billion in sales. Grassy Narrows, in contrast, has about 1,200 members, a third of whom live outside of First Nation boundaries.
Two communities in western Canada are currently feeling the sting associated with the downside of economic activity created through large-scale forestry. Last year Abitibi announced closure of Kenora milling operations that employed 320 workers and at the end of December it also sold 485,000 acres of privately owned timberlands near Thunder Bay to North Star Forestry. Weyerhaeuser, meanwhile, announced it was closing its mill at Prince Albert, Sask. and 690 people would be laid off if the mill couldn't be sold.
Sone said these announcements were typical of what regions experience. Large timbering corporations harvest the most lucrative timbers and leave behind clear cuts and huge job losses. In the long run communities would be much better off with smaller, diversified operations that would also be conducive to hunting and tourism.
Communications officials for the two logging companies never responded toThe Drum's request for information, partly because key communications officials were off during the time the story was being written, but in earlier media reports Weyerhaeuser was reported as saying it was meeting criteria set by the Canadian Standards Association and the International Organization for Standardization, and Abitibi-Consolidated indicated that efforts at negotiating a solution with Grassy Narrows stalled in 2004 demands exceeded what the company would - or in some cases could -do.
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First Nations Blockade forces Mining suspension March 1, 2006
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Taiga-Info: Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug
By Kate Harries
A First Nation blockade has forced an exploration company to suspend work on
a potentially valuable platinum deposit in Northwestern Ontario. Chief Donny
Morris of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (Big Trout Lake First Nation) said a
peaceful weekend protest by community members and their supporters ended
with success when a drilling team from Platinex Inc. dismantled its camp and
left.
Morris said the action reaffirmed his people's sovereignty over their
traditional territories and promised: "We will continue to guard the land as
custodians."
Platinex president Jim Trusler said the withdrawal is temporary. He said the
delay will cost his company tens of thousands of dollars a day and he's
hoping for a meeting with the First Nation so matters can be resolved
amicably. Trusler said the company has met with chief and council many times
over the past seven years and believes it has a good relationship with the
community. But a Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug spokesperson said the company
failed to respect a moratorium on exploration issued last year. "If they had
been working with the community they would have understood there is a
moratorium in place," said John Cutfeet.
The events leading up to the dramatic face-off illustrate a collision
between the 19 th-century notion that Crown land is available for
exploitation with a growing demand by indigenous peoples for recognition of
their place on the land. The drilling site is about 60 km south of the
reserve that's home to about 900 people. Platinex says its claims cover
8,840 acres in an area 580 km north of Thunder Bay and it has spent around
$435,000 on surveys of the property. On Feb 14, the company purchased 81
adjacent mining leases from Inco.
This is Platinex's only property. Trusler said the area may prove to be the
largest deposit in North America of platinum, a valuable metal used in
catalytic converters and fuel cell technology. Under Ontario 's mining act,
any one can stake a claim on Crown land. In Northern Ontario, that's likely
to be in an area that's part of a First Nation's traditional territory.
Trusler's position is that the First Nation has hunting, trapping and
fishing rights on the land but no rights over the minerals below ground. He
noted his company is obligated by law to conduct a certain amount of
exploration work or forfeit the claims.
Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug's position is that under a 1929 treaty with the
Crown, it agreed to share the land with the settlers, but not to give up its
rights to it. Last October, four First Nations, including Kitchenuhmaykoosib
Inninuwug, issued a moratorium on mining exploration and forestry in their
traditional areas because of environmental and economic concerns.
The action was a response to increased pressure on communities north of the
51 st parallel in Ontario, where mining giants like De Beers and Kennecott
are pushing for access to traditional territories. "The moratorium is a wake
up call for all those operating under the illusion that there is a 'free
entry' to our traditional lands," Deputy Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler said last
year.
Trusler said the company was assured by the Ontario ministry of northern
development and mines that "we've got not only the right to explore but the
obligation to explore. "Community members sounded the alert when the first
two members of Platinex's drilling crew arrived in mid-February and on Feb.
25 about 50 people blockaded the access road and air strip. It was a
peaceful protest, a police spokesperson said.
Trusler disagreed, saying his crew would not have evacuated if it had been
peaceful. "Our men felt threatened," he said - despite the present of police
officers. The crew finally pulled out two days later, on Sunday. Both the
company and the First Nations lay responsibility at the Ontario government's
door. Trusler said the province should be providing more training programs
so indigenous people can get jobs with the mining companies.
The company is also looking to the government to "ensure our rights are
upheld," said spokesperson Simon Baker. Grand Chief Stan Beardy of the
Nishnawbe Aski Nation, which includes Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug, said the
province has failed to implement Supreme Court decisions requiring the
government to consult and accommodate with First Nations when activities
like mining threaten our aboriginal and treaty rights.
"The fact Ontario has not implemented this decision in our province sets the
tone for First Nation and government relations for resource development in
NAN territory," Beardy said. Christine K aszycki, assistant deputy minister
with northern development and mines, said the ministry is trying to set up a
meeting with the community. She said that the province views the moratorium
as an indication that the communities want to be more directly involved in
decision-making and the ministry wants to establish processes to address
concerns about treaty interpretation. She agreed that currently, there are
no channels for discussion.
"There's always room for improvement," she said, adding that it's important
that work that's being done on aboriginal lands "is done in a way that's
very respectful of aboriginal and treaty rights."
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Grassy Narrows Warns Weyerhaeuser: “Withdraw or Face Fierce Campaign” March 1, 2006
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For Immediate Release:
February 28, 2006
Contact:
Brianna Cayo Cotter, (415) 305-1943
Grassy Narrows Warns Weyerhaeuser: “Withdraw or Face Fierce Campaign”
Grassy Narrows, Ontario- The Grassy Narrows First Nation today sent letters warning the chief executives of Weyerhaeuser (NYSE: WY) and Abitibi-Consolidated to “immediately cease and desist from all logging and industrial resource extraction on our territory” or face a “fierce international campaign”.
The letter follows a decade of failed negotiations, lawsuits, environmental assessment requests, public protests, and a 3-year logging blockade. The letter asserts that decades of unsustainable logging has “poisoned our waters with mercury and other toxins, nearly eliminated our ability to practice our way of life, and robbed us of economic opportunities.”
The letter includes an SOS to the international environmental and human rights community to stand with Grassy Narrows in their demands and expand the struggle in the woods, in the streets and in the market place.
American Dream: First Nation’s Nightmare
In the 1990s Weyerhaeuser fiber-supplier Abitibi dramatically increased logging rates in Grassy Narrows without the consent or proper consultation of the community. According to a report by the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, Abitibi cut almost all of the remaining endangered woodland caribou habitat between 1999 and 2004 and regularly clear-cuts huge tracts of land, sprays the land with pesticides, and replants with monoculture tree plantations.
According to plans filed with the Ontario Ministry of Forests in 2003, Abitibi-Consolidated and Weyerhaeuser will continue their clear-cut logging operations within the community’s traditional territory through at least 2009, and have requested an extension to log through 2024.
Nearly half of this wood will supply Weyerhaeuser’s Trus Joist/ Timberstrand mill and will be used widely by American homebuilders, the US building industry and by Weyerhaeuser’s own home-building subsidiaries to build American tract homes in suburbs throughout the US.
Most of the remaining wood taken from Grassy Narrows territory is used by Abitibi-Consolidated to manufacture Abitibi paper products. Abitibi newsprint is used for hundreds of newspapers including the New York Times and the Washington Post.
Grassy Narrows First Nation
The people of Grassy Narrows First Nation have lived on 2,500 square miles of land north of Kenora, Ontario for thousands of years. Nearly 50% of the community still sustain themselves from the land by hunting, trapping, and gathering medicine and berries. The old-growth habitat provided by these areas also support animal species like the pine martin and woodland caribou critical to the ecological integrity of the area.
The Royal Proclamation of 1763, Treaty #3, and the Canadian Constitution all outline the rights of indigenous people to their traditional lands. An ongoing lawsuit between the members of Grassy Narrows First Nation, the Minister of Natural Resources and Abitibi-Consolidated claims that the community was not properly consulted or compensated by the company, and that Abitibi’s clear-cut practices are making it impossible for the people of Grassy Narrows to exercise their Treaty 3 right to hunt and trap on their traditional territory. The lawsuit, if successful, would revoke all current cutting rights on Grassy Narrows land north of the English river.
Supporting Statements
“The clear-cutting of the land, and the destruction of the forest is an attack on our people,” says Roberta Kessik, Grassy Narrows’ blockader, grandmother, and trapper. “The land is the basis of who we are. Our culture is a land based culture and the destruction of the land is the destruction of our culture. And we know that is in the plans. Weyerhaeuser doesn't want us on the land, they want us out of the way so they can take the resources. We can't allow them to carry on with this cultural genocide."
“For years now, we have attempted to voice our concerns within this process with very little constructive response or progress towards desired benefits for the trappers,” explains Gabriel Fobister, Head of Grassy Narrows Trappers’ Council. “All we have seen is the demise of our way of life which disappears every time more cutting areas are extended to Abitibi and Weyerhaeuser. In despair our trappers are ending up in the streets in the cities to become homeless people and living off the soup lines.”
“The government and the logging industry have conspired to destroy much of what we hold sacred,” says Joseph B Fobister, Grassy Narrows business owner and community leader. “Our traditional values and culture are suffering and are headed towards extinction. This land and the forests that are an integral part of it have sustained our people for time immemorial. We watch as they disappear on the backs of logging trucks to paper mills all over the continent.
We do not have more to give. We are left to deal with the environmental and sociological nightmare left behind following tree “harvesting”. Most of our trap lines have been decimated along with the old growth forests. A way of life disappears with these forests. This way of life does not grow back. Tree planters cannot replace it. Yet the government and corporations show no interest in correcting unsustainable economic growth. We are not against economic development; we simply realize that it should not be considered an end unto itself.
We have participated fully in planning for many years and our concerns are never properly considered. We are never treated as equal partners in the process. What’s worse, our attendance at the information sessions and open houses is misconstrued as participation or approval.”
For more information visit FriendsofGrassyNarrows.com or WakeUpWeyco.com.
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New ED for the International Campaign to Ban Landmines March 1, 2006
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For release on March 1st, 2006
Ottawa – At her debut event as the new Executive Director of the Nobel Laureate International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), Ms. Sylvie Brigot will meet with representatives of Canada and other global leaders from the diplomatic community at a Roundtable Forum for International Leaders in Mine Action this afternoon. The purpose of the Forum is to discuss the ICBL’s view of the different types of leadership needed to ensure that progress made towards a mine free world does not stagnate. Ambassadors and diplomats from 21 countries will attend representing donor and mine-affected countries that have provided financial, political and regional leadership in the mine ban movement, including Finland and the United States who still remain outside the Ottawa Convention banning landmines.
A particular area of concern for the 42 member organizations of the Mines Action Canada coalition is the amount of attention and priority the new federal Conservative government will give to Canada’s role as a financial and political leader in the mine ban movement. “What we think is critical for Prime Minister Harper and the new government to remember is Canada’s involvement in the landmine issue was strongly endorsed and supported by all parties. Banning landmines is not a partisan issue,” said Mr. Steven Estey, Chair of Mines Action Canada. “Landmines were, and remain, a humanitarian and development issue that thousands of Canadians supported and continue to do so as demonstrated again this year by participation of Canadians across the nation in another successful Canadian Landmine Awareness Week.” The theme for this year’s celebrations is: Act Now! For a Mine Free World. No reservations. No exceptions. No loopholes. No excuses. The Forum takes place on the anniversary of the day the Ottawa Convention became binding international law.
“The end of Canada’s dedicated Landmine Fund is fast approaching. The previous government articulated its intention of meeting its commitments not through specified funds, but by mainstreaming funding for mine action through regular funding for humanitarian assistance – a strategy we have yet to see as a viable solution for maintaining strong Canadian leadership on this issue”, said Paul Hannon, Mines Action Canada’s Executive Director. “Whether through mainstreaming or the creation of a new fund or a combination of both – we ask that Canada tangibly recommits itself to global leadership on the issue and dedicate a minimum of 1 dollar per Canadian per year until a mine free world is achieved. This is the minimum amount required annually for Canada to remain a top five donor in humanitarian mine action.”
It is widely acknowledged that much progress has been made towards eliminating the suffering caused by antipersonnel mines. Over 80% of the world’s countries are members of the Ottawa Convention. There is a de facto global ban on trade of antipersonnel mines and a significant reduction in the number of countries that produce antipersonnel mines from 51 to 13. The number of new landmine victims annually has also decreased from 26,000 to an estimated 15,000-20,000.
However, what remains to be done is increasingly challenging. Hold-out countries such as China, Russia, Nepal and Burma - the latter three still use antipersonnel mines - will require increasingly sophisticated advocacy and diplomatic efforts to bring them on board. Many severely mine-affected countries are approaching their treaty mandated 10-year clearance deadlines in the near future and it is critical that they develop comprehensive national plans for mine clearance and ensure adequate resources are available to complete this obligation on time. Assistance to mine survivors is also a particularly pressing issue. An estimated 400,000 victims across the world struggle to build a life that is more than just mere survival and States Parties are lagging in providing them with the necessary resources for their care, rehabilitation and socio-economic reintegration promised to them under the Convention.
“Since 1992, the goals of the ICBL have remained unchanged. We want to see a worldwide ban on antipersonnel mines; clearance of all mined areas in affected countries; and immediate, sustainable support for the needs and rights of landmine survivors”, said Nobel Peace Prize winner and former Coordinator of the ICBL, Ms. Jody Williams.
“Concerned governments should put their money where their mouth is. It is not enough to proclaim that we want a mine free world. Mine-affected countries should step up their efforts to clear mined areas within the deadlines outlined by the Convention and States in a position to do so should increase their contributions to humanitarian mine action,” said Ms. Brigot. “The ICBL will continue to work towards the fulfillment of our goals until they are achieved and we have the same expectations of all States Parties to the Ottawa Convention – no reservations, no exceptions, no loopholes and no excuses.”
The Forum is part of a week of national awareness and fundraising activities commemorating the 7th annual Canadian Landmine Awareness Week (CLAW). Over 75 events organized by volunteers across the country are taking place in 18 cities, including school-wide landmine awareness days; Dance and Dine Without Fear events; benefit concerts; educational presentations; dog-walk-a-thons and many more.
An official welcome reception (4:30-6pm) will follow the Forum where representatives from the diplomatic community and civil society will raise their glasses to toast Ms. Sylvie Brigot on her first day as the new Executive Director of the ICBL and reaffirm our collective commitment to a mine free world. Both events will take place at the historic Chateau Laurier Hotel (Renaissance Room, 1 Rideau Street) across from where the Ottawa Treaty banning landmines first opened for signature in 1997.
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For more information on this event or interviews with Ms. Brigot or other spokespeople, please contact:
Nancy Ingram at (613) 851 5439 or nancy@minesactioncanada.org
For more information on Canadian Landmine Awareness Week activities across the country, visit the “What’s New” section of www.minesactioncanada.org
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BOTSWANA: DE BEERS'S MINE ON BUSHMAN LAND February 28, 2006
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BOTSWANA: DE BEERS'S MINE ON BUSHMAN LAND WOULD BE A HUNDRED
TIMES LARGER THAN PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED
SURVIVAL INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE
24 February 2006
BOTSWANA: DE BEERS'S MINE ON BUSHMAN LAND WOULD BE A HUNDRED TIMES
LARGER THAN PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED
In a surprise revelation, the Botswana government has said that a
diamond mine on the land of the Central Kalahari Bushmen would affect
5,027 square kilometres of land - well over a hundred times more than
previously announced.
In a leaflet distributed outside a Survival event in London, the
Botswana government states, 'a small area immediately around a
mineral deposit, i.e. within a 40km radius, is cordoned off.' This
means that an area 10% of the total size of the Central Kalahari Game
Reserve (CKGR) would be impacted.
Botswana's Minister of Minerals, Energy and Water Affairs said in
2000 that 46 square kilometres or 0.09% of the reserve would be
allocated to a mine. De Beers's own Environmental Impact Assessment
report published in 1999 states that the area impacted by a mine
would be 35 square kilometres or 0.07% of the reserve, while the
Botswana Gazette reported in May 1998 that a mine would cover only 20
square kilometres or 0.04% of the reserve.
The government leaflet also says that there is 'no need to relocate
people who live 200km away.' In fact, none of the Bushman communities
from which people have been evicted since 2002 are more than 115
kilometres from the proposed mine site and several are much nearer.
One community, Gope, is exactly on the site.
Survival's director Stephen Corry said today, 'Despite De Beers's
assertions to the contrary, we believe mining in the reserve draws
ever closer. Prior to the campaign, De Beers and the government made
no secret of their wish to mine. Their signals changed in 2002 when
we were told the find was 'subeconomic'. But now that is not even
mentioned, instead we are told that a massive 10% of the reserve's
area would be cordoned off if there were a mine. We believe the issue
is now about the destruction of a large part of one of Africa's
largest reserves, as well as of the Bushmen.'
ENDS
To see a map of the area of the mine would cover according to the
latest announcement, and to read this press release online, visit
http://survival-international.org/news.php?id=1401
For more information call Miriam Ross on (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or
email mr@survival-international.org
--
First People of the Kalahari have been given The Right Livelihood
Award, known as the alternative Nobel prize, in recognition of their
'resolute resistance against eviction from their ancestral lands, and
for upholding the right to their traditional way of life'.
We help tribal peoples defend their lives, protect their lands and
determine their own futures.
Survival International
6 Charterhouse Buildings
London EC1M 7ET
UK
Tel: 020 7687 8700
Fax: 020 7687 8701
http://www.survival-international.org
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BMD Focus Canada Takes First Step On BMD February 27, 2006
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UPI Senior News Analyst
Washington DC (UPI) Feb 23, 2006
Canada's new defense minister, Gordon O'Connor, made a historically enormous change in his country's position on ballistic missile defense Thursday -- and he did so in a typically Canadian way, so softly and gently that almost no one outside Canada seemed to really notice.
As we predicted in this column a month ago on Jan. 26, following the come-from-behind victory of Stephen Harper and his Conservative Party in the Canadian general election, the new government has moved quietly but quickly to boost its strategic ties with the United States in general and with the Bush administration in particular. And O'Connor made clear Thursday that this would include talking about possible future cooperation in ballistic missile defense.
O'Connor, a former brigadier-general in the Canadian armed forces, did not even say it in an formal speech or statement to the Canadian Parliament, or in any formal speech at all. He was replying to reporters' questions after delivering a speech to a military conference in Ottawa, the Canadian capital.
O'Connor certainly did not commit his new government to the expensive and visionary BMD programs of the Bush administration. But he signaled a cautious but very clear willingness to test the waters and explore the possibility of launching such a partnership.
First, the U.S. government would have to request the opening of formal negotiations with Canada, O'Connor said. And then, the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa would have to formally approve any agreement that was eventually reached.
That, of course, would be the real obstacle. Harper made clear during his confrontational election clashes with defeated Prime Minister and Liberal Party leader Paul Martin that he favored participating in BMD with Washington. Martin held to the traditional Liberal and previous consensual position among the major Canadian political parties that Canada should stay out of BMD and anything else that would add to the weaponization or militarization of space.
O'Connor on Thursday signaled that he personally shared Harper's enthusiasm for BMD. "In principle I don't have difficulty personally with ballistic missile defense," he told the group of reporters.
The problem will certainly not be in launching any non-binding dialogue with Washington. President George W. Bush, who already holds Harper in very high personal regard, is likely to respond to any request to start one with open arms.
The real political battle will be on the floor of the House of Commons, the main chamber of the Canadian Parliament. For Harper's Conservatives do not have an absolute majority there, only a plurality. And they are the only one of Canada's five major political parties anywhere to the right of the political spectrum in U.S. terms, and in favor of missile defense. As a result, there has been a general tendency to assume that Harper will be unable to have a significant impact on long-term Canadian policies and that he will, in particular, be unable to or even unwilling to fulfill his pledge to make Canada a partner in ballistic missile defense with the United States.
However, as we noted in BMD Watch a month ago, "Conventional Wisdom as usual is wrong. Harper's victory is likely to have very rapid significant consequences for the development of hemispheric ballistic missile defense, with a far greater longer-term strategic potential for Canadian-U.S. relations."
Harper will not need a binding approval vote in Parliament to open non-binding talks with Washington on BMD. But once that first decision is taken, his government is likely to try and shift the terms of debate in the Canadian media by seeking to popularize the very striking successes the U.S. Missile Defense Agency has had with its programs over the past year and the practical ways in which these could contribute to Canadian security.
Harper is already convinced that BMD is relatively popular with the Canadian public and that it helped to get him elected, ending a nearly two decade period in the political wilderness for his Conservative Party. His decision to break the longstanding political consensus in Canada to steer clear of BMD in the election campaign was a bold and high risk one, and he would almost certainly have been booted out of the party's leadership had it failed, but it didn't.
Now, the Conservatives' isolation on BMD from the other major Canadian parties, the Liberals, the New Democratic Party, the Bloc Quebecois, and the Greens, may play into Harper's hands and serve his longer term political calculations.
For Harper knows that no modern Canadian government has survived for many years in the kind of semi-minority status his now has. Historically, such periods of coalition or minority government rule have been transitional periods until either the Liberals or the Conservatives manages to persuade the Canadian public mainstream that they should be trusted with the country's future, and one that happens, periods of political dominance tend to last for at least a decade at a time, if not even longer.
Further, as we noted a month ago Harper admires President Bush personally and has made clear that in may respects he wants to emulate the U.S. leader's political style. He has closely studied how effectively Bush pursued the strategy after he was first elected on only a plurality vote in November 2000 of governing boldly and confidently, sitting high in the saddle and acting as if he had broad popular majority support for his policies. That paid off when the president was reelected to a second term four years later with more votes than any other president ever received in American political history.
A month ago, we predicted in this column, "Taking a bold stand on BMD cooperation with the United States in the cause of protecting the Canadian people offers the same kind of payoff for Harper." O'Connor's statement Thursday suggests the new Canadian prime minister is indeed prepared to implement this strategy.
Source: United Press International
Subject: [globenet] Canada Takes 1st Step on BMD
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/BMD_Focus_Canada_Takes_First_Step_On_BMD.html
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 652
Brunswick, ME 04011
(207) 729-0517
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http://www.space4peace.org
http://space4peace.blogspot.com (Blog)
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EXOPOLITICS: http://www.exopolitics.com
CAMPAIGN: http://www.peaceinspace.org
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Battle to End SNC Bullet Production February 27, 2006
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Partial Victory in Battle to End SNC Bullet Production for Iraq, Afghanistan!
In 2004, Homes not Bombs initiated a campaign to get SNC-Lavalin to divest
itself of bulletmaker SNC-TEC. While the bullets will still be made,
unfortunately, we can claim, along with other groups such as Block the
Empire, June 30th Organizing Committee, and various groups who also took up
the call, some measure of success in meeting the goal we set for ourselves:
forcing SNC-Lavalin to divest itself of this particularly odious part of
its business. There remain other odious parts of its business, and we still
must stop bullet production, but it seems public exposure and pressure has
worked! Thanks to all across the country who focused on SNC, and thosde who
vigilled and took part in civil disobedience here in Toronto!
SNC-LAVALIN AGREES TO SELL SNC TECHNOLOGIES INC.
MONTREAL: February 23, 2006 - SNC-Lavalin announced today that it has agreed
to sell its shares in its wholly owned subsidiary, SNC Technologies Inc.(SNC
TEC) to General Dynamics for CAN$315 million.
The transaction announced today is subject to Canadian government approval
and regulatory approvals in Canada, the U.S. and in Europe.
SNC TEC manufactures small, medium and large calibre ammunition, and
produces Simunition training systems. EXPRO TEC, SNC TEC's subsidiary
manufactures extruded propellant for military purposes, as well as for
sporting use and commercial application in the automobile airbag industry.
SNC TEC clients include the Department of National Defence, police agencies
across Canada, law enforcement agencies and armed forces in other NATO
countries, and the U.S. Department of Defense.
Revenues from SNC TEC represent less than 10% of SNC-Lavalin Group's total
revenues on an annual basis.
SNC-Lavalin (TSX: SNC) is one of the leading groups of engineering and
construction companies in the world, a global leader in the ownership of
infrastructure, and in operations and maintenance services. The SNC-Lavalin
companies have offices across Canada and in 30 other countries around the
world and are currently working in some 100 countries.
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Afghanistan more dangerous than Iraq February 27, 2006
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WASHINGTON, February 25 (Pakistan Times Online): Despite purported military success in Afghanistan, the U.S. Institute of Peace says the country in 2005 was more dangerous for American troops per capita than Iraq.
The group also said in a new report that NATO’s imminent takeover of operations in southern Afghanistan could derail counter-insurgency operations.
"Although NATO has approved more ’robust’ rules of engagement for its troops in its expanded mission, the organization still lacks the capacity and the will to aggressively root out insurgent forces," USIP stated. "Moreover, NATO foreign ministers have resisted any major role in counter-insurgency activities, insisting instead on a peacekeeping posture focused on ’stabilization and security’ assistance for the Afghan government."
According to USIP, in the spring of 2005 U.S. troop casualties -- both injured and killed -- reached 1.6 per 1,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, compared with a casualty rate of 0.9 per 1,000 in Iraq.
Afghan insurgents, likely including Taliban and al-Qaida fighters, are adopting methods proven effective in Iraq.
"Prior to 2004, suicide attacks in Afghanistan were rare: Only five such bombings took place between 2001 and 2003. In 2005, however, a wave of more than 20 suicide attacks occurred -- more than twice the number of suicide attacks of the year before," USIP stated.
There are roughly 20,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan compared to about 140,000 in Iraq.
The year 2005 proved to be the deadliest for U.S. troops since the 2001 invasion. There were 1,500 casualties, 100 of them killed in action.
USIP said Afghanistan is more dangerous for humanitarian and non-governmental organization staff than almost any other conflict or post-conflict situation, surpassing Angola, Somalia and Liberia.
Official says Afghanistan bomb attack on coalition convoy failed
A convoy of US-led coalition forces in southern Afghanistan has reportedly escaped what might have been a devastating attack.
An Afghan official says a suicide attacker drove a car loaded with explosives into the convoy, but the bomb failed to go off.
A district leader in Kandahar province says coalition troops killed the attacker when he got out of his car and threw a grenade toward a heavy jeep. He says the grenade burst the tire of the jeep, but a second grenade exploded in the attacker’s hand as he was shot.
In a phone call to The Associated Press, a purported spokesman for the Taliban claimed responsibility and said eight US soldiers were killed. Claims made in the name of the hard-line militia sometimes prove to be incorrect or exaggerated.
Michael D. Wallace
Department of Political Science
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, Canada V6T 1Z1
phone:(604)822-4550, fax:822-5540
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The Anti-Empire Report February 15, 2006
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Some things you need to know before the world ends
February 14, 2006
by William Blum
How I spent my 15 minutes of fame
In case you don't know, on January 19 the latest audiotape from Osama bin Laden was released and in it he declared: "If you [Americans] are sincere in your desire for peace and security, we have answered you. And if Bush decides to carry on with his lies and oppression, then it would be useful for you to read the book ?Rogue State', which states in its introduction ... " He then goes on to quote the opening of a paragraph I wrote (which appears actually in the Foreword of the British edition only, that was later translated to Arabic), which in full reads:
"If I were the president, I could stop terrorist attacks against the United States in a few days. Permanently. I would first apologize -- very publicly and very sincerely -- to all the widows and the orphans, the impoverished and the tortured, and all the many millions of other victims of American imperialism. I would then announce that America’s global interventions -- including the awful bombings -- have come to an end. And I would inform Israel that it is no longer the 51st state of the union but -– oddly enough -– a foreign country. I would then reduce the military budget by at least 90% and use the savings to pay reparations to the victims and repair the damage from the many American bombings and invasions. There would be more than enough money. Do you know what one year of the US military budget is equal to? One year. It’s equal to more than $20,000 per hour for every hour since Jesus Christ was born.
"That’s what I’d do on my first three days in the White House. On the fourth day, I’d be assassinated."
Within hours I was swamped by the media and soon appeared on many of the leading TV shows, dozens of radio programs, with long profiles in the Washington Post, Salon.com and elsewhere. In the previous ten years the Post had declined to print a single one of my letters, most of which had pointed out errors in their foreign news coverage. Now my photo was on page one.
Much of the media wanted me to say that I was repulsed by bin Laden's "endorsement". I did not say I was repulsed because I was not. After a couple of days of interviews I got my reply together and it usually went something like this:
"There are two elements involved here: On the one hand, I totally despise any kind of religious fundamentalism and the societies spawned by such, like the Taliban in Afghanistan. On the other hand, I'm a member of a movement which has the very ambitious goal of slowing down, if not stopping, the American Empire, to keep it from continuing to go round the world doing things like bombings, invasions, overthrowing governments, and torture. To have any success, we need to reach the American people with our message. And to reach the American people we need to have access to the mass media. What has just happened has given me the opportunity to reach millions of people I would otherwise never reach. Why should I not be glad about that? How could I let such an opportunity go to waste?"
Celebrity -- modern civilization's highest cultural achievement -- is a peculiar phenomenon. It really isn't worth anything unless you do something with it.
The callers into the programs I was on, and sometimes the host, in addition to numerous emails, repeated two main arguments against me. (1) Where else but in the United States could I have the freedom to say what I was saying on national media?
Besides their profound ignorance in not knowing of scores of countries with at least equal freedom of speech (particularly since September 11), what they are saying in effect is that I should be so grateful for my freedom of speech that I should show my gratitude by not exercising that freedom. If they're not saying that, they're not saying anything.
(2) America has always done marvelous things for the world, from the Marshall Plan and defeating communism and the Taliban to rebuilding destroyed countries and freeing Iraq.
I have dealt with these myths and misconceptions previously; like sub-atomic particles, they behave differently when observed. For example, in last month's report I pointed out in detail that "destroyed countries" were usually destroyed by American bombs; and America did not rebuild them. As to the Taliban, the United States overthrew a secular, women's-rights government in Afghanistan, which led to the Taliban coming to power; so the US can hardly be honored for ousting the Taliban a decade later, replacing it with an American occupation, an American puppet president, assorted warlords, and women chained.
But try to explain all these fine points in the minute or so one has on radio or TV. However, I think I somehow managed to squeeze in a lot of information and thoughts new to the American psyche.
Some hosts and many callers were clearly pained to hear me say that anti-American terrorists are retaliating against the harm done to their countries by US foreign policy, and are not just evil, mindless, madmen from another planet.[1] Many of them assumed, with lots of certainty and no good reason at all, that I was a supporter of the Democratic Party and they proceeded to attack Bill Clinton. When I pointed out that I was no fan at all of the Democrats or Clinton, they were usually confused into silence for a few moments before seamlessly jumping to some other piece of nonsense. They do not know that an entire alternative world exists above and beyond the Republicans and Democrats.
Just recently we have been hearing and reading comments in the American media about how hopelessly backward and violent were those Muslims protesting the Danish cartoons, carrying signs calling for the beheading of those that insult Islam. But a caller to a radio program I was on said I "should be taken care of", and one of the hundreds of nasty emails I received began: "Death to you and your family."
One of my personal favorite moments: On an AM radio program in Pennsylvania, discussing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
The host (with anguish in her voice): "What has Israel ever done to the Palestinians?"
Me: "Have you been in a coma the past 20 years?"
This is a question I could ask many of those who interrogated me the past few weeks. Actually, 60 years would be more appropriate.
Elections my teacher never told me about
Americans are all taught from childhood on of the significance and sanctity of free elections: You can't have the thing called "democracy" without the thing called "free elections". And when you have the thing called free elections it's virtually synonymous with having the thing called democracy. And who were we taught was the greatest champion of free elections anywhere in the world? Why, our very same teacher, God's country, the good ol' US of A.
But what was God's country actually doing all those years we were absorbing and swearing by this message? God's country was actually interfering in free elections in every corner of the known world; seriously so.
The latest example is the recent elections in Palestine, where the US Agency for International Development (AID) poured in some two million dollars (a huge amount in that impoverished area) to try to tilt the election to the Palestinian Authority (PA) and its political wing, Fatah, and prevent the radical Islamic group Hamas from taking power. The money was spent on various social programs and events to increase the popularity of the PA; the projects bore no evidence of US involvement and did not fall within the definitions of traditional development work. In addition, the United States funded many newspaper advertisements publicizing these projects in the name of the PA, with no mention of AID.
"Public outreach is integrated into the design of each project to highlight the role of the P.A. in meeting citizens needs," said a progress report on the projects. "The plan is to have events running every day of the coming week, beginning 13 January, such that there is a constant stream of announcements and public outreach about positive happenings all over Palestinian areas in the critical week before the elections."
Under the rules of the Palestinian election system, campaigns and candidates were prohibited from accepting money from foreign sources.[2] American law explicitly forbids the same in US elections.
Since Hamas won the election, the United States has made it clear that it does not recognize the election as any kind of victory for democracy and that it has no intention of having normal diplomatic relations with the Hamas government. (Israel has adopted a similar attitude, but it should not be forgotten that Israel funded and supported the emergence of Hamas in Gaza during its early days, hoping that it would challenge the Palestine Liberation Organization as well as Palestinian leftist elements.)
By my count, there have been more than 30 instances of gross Washington interference in foreign elections since the end of World War II -- from Italy in 1948 and the Philippines and Lebanon in the 1950s, to Nicaragua, Bolivia and Slovakia in the 2000s -- most of them carried out in an even more flagrant manner than the Palestinian example.[3] Some of the techniques employed have been used in the United States itself as our electoral system, once the object of much national and international pride, has slid inexorably from "one person, one vote", to "one dollar, one vote".
Coming soon to a country (or city) near you
On January 13 the United States of America, in its shocking and awesome wisdom, saw fit to fly an unmanned Predator aircraft over a remote village in the sovereign nation of Pakistan and fire a Hellfire missile into a residential compound in an attempt to kill some "bad guys". Several houses were incinerated, 18 people were killed, including an unknown number of "bad guys"; reports since then give every indication that the unknown number is as low as zero, al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri, the principal target, not being amongst them. Outrage is still being expressed in Pakistan. In the United States the reaction in the Senate typified the American outrage:
"We apologize, but I can't tell you that we wouldn't do the same thing again" said Sen. John McCain of Arizona
"It's a regrettable situation, but what else are we supposed to do?" said Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana.
"My information is that this strike was clearly justified by the intelligence," said Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi.[4]
Similar US attacks using such drones and missiles have angered citizens and political leaders in Afghanistan, Iraq and Yemen. In has not been uncommon for the destruction to be so complete that it is impossible to establish who was killed, or even how many people. Amnesty International has lodged complaints with the Busheviks following each suspected Predator strike. A UN report in the wake of the 2002 strike in Yemen called it "an alarming precedent [and] a clear case of extrajudicial killing" in violation of international laws and treaties.[5]
Can it be imagined that American officials would fire a missile into a house in Paris or London or Ottawa because they suspected that high-ranking al Qaeda members were present there? Even if the US knew of their presence for an absolute fact, and not just speculation as in the Predator cases mentioned above? Well, most likely not, but can we put anything past Swaggering- Superarrogant-Superpower-Cowboys-on-steroids? After all, they've already done it to their own, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On May 13, 1985, a bomb dropped by a police helicopter burned down an entire block, some 60 homes destroyed, 11 dead, including several small children. The police, the mayor’s office, and the FBI were all involved in this effort to evict an organization called MOVE from the house they lived in.
The victims were all black of course. So let's rephrase the question. Can it be imagined that American officials would fire a missile into a residential area of Beverly Hills or the upper east side of Manhattan? Stay tuned.
"The struggle of man against tyranny is the struggle of memory against forgetting." Milan Kundera
I'm occasionally taken to task for being so negative about the United States role in the world. Why do you keep looking for all the negative stuff and tear down the positive? I'm asked.
Well, it's a nasty job, but someone has to do it. Besides, for each negative piece I'm paid $500 by al Qaeda. And the publicity given to my books by Osama ... priceless.
The new documentary film by Eugene Jarecki, "Why We Fight", which won the Sundance Festival's Grand Jury prize, relates how the pursuit of profit by arms merchants and other US corporations has fueled America's post-World War II wars a lot more than any love of freedom and democracy. The unlikely hero of the film is Dwight Eisenhower, whose famous warning about the dangers of the "military-industrial complex" is the film's principal motif.
Here is Jarecki being interviewed by the Washington Post:
Post: Why did you make "Why We Fight?"
Jarecki: The simple answer: Eisenhower. He caught me off-guard. He seemed to have so much to say about our contemporary society and our general tilt towards militarism. ... The voices in Washington and the media have become so shrill. ... It seemed important to bring a little gray hair into the mix.
Post: How would you classify your politics? You've been accused of being a lefty.
Jarecki: I'm a radical centrist. ... If Dwight Eisenhower is a lefty, I am too. Then I'll walk with Ike.[6] [ellipses in original]
Isn't it nice that a film portraying the seamier side of the military-industrial complex is receiving such popular attention? And that we are able to look fondly upon an American president? How long has that been? Well, here I go again.
Eisenhower, regardless of what he said as he was leaving the presidency, was hardly an obstacle to American militarism or corporate imperialism. During his eight years in office, the United States intervened in every corner of the world, overthrowing the governments of Iran, Guatemala, Laos, the Congo, and British Guiana, and attempting to do the same in Costa Rica, Syria, Egypt, and Indonesia, as well as laying the military and political groundwork for the coming Indochinese holocaust.
Eisenhower's moralistically overbearing Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, summed up the administration's world outlook thusly: "For us there are two sorts of people in the world: there are those who are Christians and support free enterprise and there are the others."[7]
NOTES
[1] See my essay on this subject at: http://members.aol.com/essays6/myth.htm
[2] Washington Post, January 22 and 24, 2006
[3] Rogue State, chapter 18, includes the text of the US law prohibiting foreign contributions to US elections.
[4] Associated Press, January 15, 2006
[5] Los Angeles Times, January 29, 2006
[6] Washington Post, February 12, 2006, p.N3
[7] Roger Morgan, "The United States and West Germany, 1945-1973" (1974), p.54
William Blum is the author of:
Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War 2
Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower
West-Bloc Dissident: A Cold War Memoir
Freeing the World to Death: Essays on the American Empire
<www.killinghope.org >
Previous Anti-Empire Reports can be read at this website.
To add yourself to this mailing list simply send an email to <bblum6@aol.com> with "add" in the subject line. I'd like your name and city in the message, but that's optional. I ask for your city only in case I'll be speaking in your area.
Or put "remove" in the subject line to do the opposite.
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