Conservative Laurie Hawn Thrilled With Unemployment as it Might Make Recruitment Easier

Wikileaks has revealed that Conservative Laurie Hawn was tickled pink over Canada's rise in unemployment, seeing it as an opportunity to recruit more soldiers.

Maybe instead of EI, we should just ship them all out.

A Conservative MP recently nominated by the federal government to sit on a secretive Canada-U.S. committee on continental defence told U.S. officials he was hoping a downturn in the economy would lead to increased recruitment for the Canadian army, according to a “confidential” U.S. diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks to APTN National News.

Edmonton Centre Conservative MP Laurie Hawn said he saw “hope” that the rising numbers of unemployed would lead to an increased in army recruits, according to the diplomatic cable from March 12, 2009.

What next, conscription?

A Scientific Change in Direction?

"Our national policies will not be revoked or modified, even for scientists." Adolf Hitler

I wrote a piece a while back comparing Nazi science minister Bernhard Rust and Christian Paradis, both of whom controlled any messages, pertaining to scientific research.

Gary Goodyear made a feel good announcement yesterday at Queen's University with the promise of a $30 million investment in research.

This just happened to coincide with another announcement that 50 staff members at Environment Canada, "including scientists and scientific support staff", were given their lay off notices.

What does it mean when Gary Goodyear, our science minister who doesn't believe in science, is pledging millions for scientific research, on the same day that we lose 50 scientists?

For the answer to that question, we can turn to a piece written by Laura Beach, and published on The Mark: The Militarization of Canada's Universities

Beach argues that most research at universities is now conducted to bolster " the “military industrial complex” within the university sphere."

A significant portion of federal funding to Canadian universities now flows through “matching funds” projects where industry and government share financial investment.

The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Networks of Centres of Excellence both participate in “matching funds” projects, favouring research that has direct applications in private industry. It is within this context that the influence of the military has become so pervasive in universities across the country.

Goodyear's announcement specifically mentions NSERC as one of the partners in the new research grant, and NSERC conducts research for the Department of National Defence.

The other area that is receiving research funding is Ultra Large Scale Software This is a system being developed for the U.S. Defense Department:

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has a goal of information dominance—to achieve and exploit superior collection, fusion, analysis, and use of information to meet mission objectives. This goal depends on increasingly complex systems characterized by thousands of platforms, sensors, decision nodes, weapons, and war fighters connected through heterogeneous wired and wireless networks. These systems will push far beyond the size of today’s systems and systems of systems by every measure. They will be ultra-large, network-centric, real-time, cyber-physical, social systems that support a landscape of information-sharing constraints and must be adaptable and robust in extreme environments, and be sustainable legally, technically, and politically.

And if these three, seemingly unrelated stories, don't help to define Harper's change in direction, when it comes to scientific research, another might make you want to pay attention.

To further our own "military industrial complex", the government has just announced that they will be creating seven new operational bases around the world: Kuwait, Germany, Senegal, Kenya, Singapore, South Korea and Jamaica.

This while Libya is being blasted back to the stone age with the promise of more to come.

So now it makes perfect sense for Christian Paradis to filter information on government funded, scientific research.

And a joke from Time magazine, in a 1933 piece:

Two Germans were eyeing a burly lout in the Nazi uniform who was striding through a university hall. First man: "What is the policeman doing here?" Second man: "Sh, sh. That is the man selected to succeed Einstein."

Can you hear me now?

Friedman's Gold and Argentina

In his new book Imperialist Canada, Todd Gordon discusses Canadian company Barrick Gold and their mining at Pascua Lama, Argentina.

Toronto-based Barrick is the largest gold producer in the world, with properties—and opposition movements challenging its practices—on nearly every continent. As testament to the international unpopularity of the company, May 2, 2007, was the International Day of Action against it. One of Barrick's most controversial projects is Pascua Lama. Pascua Lama is a gold, silver and copper open-pit mine site located in the Andean mountains. It straddles the border between Argentina and Chile, in the province of San Juan in Argentina and on the outer edges of the Atacama Desert in Chile. .. (1)

Further exploitation of Chile and Argentina by the free-marketeers.

It's interesting that Peter Munk, founder of Barrick, is quoted in Time magazine praising Augustus Pinochet, the Chilean dictator who ran torture chambers and held massacres in football stadiums.

Munk defends his position by saying: "Maybe I'm less sensitive to these issues because I see that what people need first is economic security, and only when they have that can they afford to focus on human rights." The alternative to liberalized economies, he argues, "is the true enslavement of the people." (2)

An odd commentary that fits with Milton Friedman's shock therapy.

Barrick's initial plans for the mine was to "relocate" sizable portions of three large glaciers that were blocking deposits in the area. According to investigative journalist Jenn Ross, "these glaciers span approximately 24 hectares". The plan calls for moving roughly 10 hectares—about 25 acres—of that surface area, which amounts to 800,000 cubic metres of ice." (1)

Argentine ecologist, Raul Montenegro, argued that "Barrick is treating the glaciers like 'piles of ice' rather than essential parts of a fragile desert ecosystem. 'You cannot just pick up a glacier, move it, and then tell the rain to fall somewhere else."

Farmers of grapes, peaches, figs, lemons and avocados, among other crops, cultivate their land in the Huasco Valley, underneath the projected mine site. There is little rainfall in the area, so the crops are dependent on run-off water stored in the glaciers .

Local communities are also concerned about water pollution, a common fear of those living near mining developments. Barrick will use 7,200 kilograms of cyanide daily, and plans to divert rivers in Argentina for cyanide solution production, which is necessary for the extraction of gold. Vice-president for corporate communications at Barrick, Vincent Borg, has also admitted that the company plans to utilize arsenic in its extraction processes. The company assures the Chilean government and community activists that it has taken all necessary precautions to prevent spillage of pollutants into streams and rivers. However, Luis Fara, a farmer and councillor in the adjacent Chilean town of Alto del Carmen, points to the fact that the extreme weather conditions at the high altitude may very well overwhelm the containment systems put in place by Barrick. The U.S. Geological Survey has also recorded three earthquakes in excess of 6.7 in magnitude in the last four years in the area.

Stephen Harper visited the region in 2007, but only met with Barrick Gold officials, refusing to address the protesters.

And while Barrick is attempting to do better with PR, and has helped to build irrigation ditches, and provide alternative income, it is not nearly enough. They have also since dropped the bid to move the glaciers, but much damage has already been done. "So the protests continue.

And to help kill a Liberal private members bill, which sought to hold Canadian mining companies to account, the company had some inside help.

Corporations like Barrick Gold and Visa Canada both hired former government staffers to act as lobbyists last year, despite a 2006 law that aimed to end such political influence. The New Democrats say that’s because a loophole exists that allows politicians and ministerial staff to advise corporations so long as they spend less than 20 per cent of their time doing so.

For example, Alanna Heath, a former adviser to Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, was hired to advise Barrick Gold last year but wasn’t required to register as a lobbyist because of the loophole. (Heath was paid to help stop a bill that would have required the government to probe alleged human-rights abuses by Canadian mining companies in other countries.) NDP MP Pat Martin tells Bloomberg News the hirings violate “the spirit of the law.”

But they help to fulfil the neoconservative agenda.

The Canadian mining situation continues to be a controversial subject, and is greatly damaging Canada's reputation abroad.

But with Milton Friedman followers now in government, what hope do we have that this will change?

Not much, I'm afraid.

Sources:

1. Imperialist Canada, By Todd Gordon, Arbeiter Publishing, 2010, ISBN: 978-1-894037-4507, Pg. 210-212

2. Canada's Gold Tycoon, By Andrew Purvis, Time Magazine, November 09, 2007

Dropping Jobs and Dropping Bombs. Welcome to Imperialist Canada

I didn't think I'd ever be reading headlines like this:
Canada drops 240 'smart' bombs on Libya

It didn't take our dictator long to start throwing his weight around.

Apparently they cost about $100 million, but what has this done to our reputation?

How long before these countries or their allies start fighting back?

Not to worry though. Peter MacKay is planning a massive layoff to pay for the bombs. Not sure when we start paying for dropping them.

What a horrible time to be Canadian.

The Move Forward to Colonialism

This week the Harper regime announced that they would be changing the name of "Indian Affairs" to "Aboriginal Affairs", seemingly the politically correct thing to do.

Immediately, several First Nations' leaders spoke out against the change, because it lumps all such nations into one. A legitimate argument.

On the other hand, aboriginal advocacy groups, believe that it will mean broader qualifications for government services. And indeed as part of the press release, Andrew MacDougall, a spokesman for Stephen Harper, said that “Changing the term used in the minister’s title from ‘Indian’ to ‘aboriginal’ better reflects the scope of the minister’s responsibilities" as they would now include Inuit and Métis.

However, to me, the name change means nothing, because it still fails to address the special relationship between the modern Canadian state and our indigenous people. The term "responsibilities" has the familiar paternal tone.

In his 2000 Massey lecture: the Rights Revolution, Michael Ignatieff wrote of us:

We are British North Americans, a colonial people in refuge from the republican experiment to the south. We are a community forged by the primal experience of negotiating terms of settlement among three peoples: the English, the French, and the aboriginal First Nations. This gives us a particular rights culture and it is this rights culture that makes us different. (1)

Those terms of settlement have been breached, and what we have created instead is a form of colonialism, where many First Nations people are subjugated.

Todd Gordon in his book Imperialist Canada, rightfully states that Canadian Imperialism begins with our Empire at Home.

The Canadian state's relationship with indigenous people provides a sharp example of the policy of accumulation by dispossession, and serves as a potent reminder of Canada's imperialist history. Any discussion of Canadian imperialism really must begin at home. Indigenous nations are Canada's very own Third World colonies, created and managed as part of an intensive, ongoing colonial project ... (2)

So while we can look at the living conditions on many reserves, with disgust, we can't make any significant changes until we understand the severity of the crimes against the people living there.

As Gordon reminds us.

There were hundreds of indigenous nations living across present-day Canada on land rich in resources, that did not wish to participate in the state and big business's plans for them and their land. But it was precisely the natural wealth of indigenous land and the labour of indigenous peoples (and poor immigrants) that provided the necessary basis for Canadian capital to grow and prosper in the first place, and to eventually move abroad to become a globally competitive force. It was on indigenous lands that mines were developed, oil discovered, private farms to feed the growing urban centres established, railways connecting the vast Canadian market laid, roads to transport goods carved out of the landscape and tourist resorts built. The whole foundation of Canadian capitalism rests upon indigenous land and resources. (2)

So this nation's prosperity was only possible because of negotiated terms of settlement. Terms of settlement that we are constantly abusing.

And that abuse is justified through a sense of racial superiority. A notion that will be accelerated with Fox News North reducing land claim issues to a struggle between "Indians and White People".

In Jack Layton's book, Speaking Out, he says:

I've learned from my years in municipal government that healthy public policy should shift resources to communities themselves, empowering those who live there to implement their ideas rather than live under the dictates of others. In the case of Aboriginals and Metis in Canada, the principle of social justice demands it. (3)

A good baby step, but then throughout the book he speaks more of the horrible living conditions and resulting community advocacy from non-aboriginals, but it doesn't address the big issue.

Any policy must start from a place of respect, and that means making First Nations equal partners in the development of our country.

Self government is essential, but it also means recognizing the validity of those governments.

A Unique Opportunity

Jack Layton has been given a rare opportunity to separate himself from Stephen Harper. And it comes with the election of Romeo Saganash.

A James Bay Cree, Saganash has experience in government, having served as director of governmental relations and international affairs for the Grand Council of Crees, for 30 years, and has advised parliamentary committees in Quebec and Ottawa.

And he worked very hard to get his seat, vigorously campaigning, in an attempt to garner the needed 9,000 votes. He earned 14,000.

He's intelligent, well liked and has the kind of face you instantly warm to.

Layton needs to appoint him as the "Aboriginal Affairs" critic. The Conservatives love their tokenism, keeping count, as if on a scorecard. But Saganash is no token anything. Another new MP that I just know I'm going to like.

Let's hope Layton recognizes the importance of his experience and capabilities. We are sorely in need of a change in direction.

Continuation:

A Harper Majority and Native rights

The “Coup D’etat at Barriere Lake and Why it Matters

Sources:

1. The Rights Revolution: CBC Massey Lectures, By Michael Ignatieff, Anansi Books, 2000, ISBN: 978-0-88784-762-2, Pg. 14

2. Imperialist Canada, By Todd Gordon, Arbeiter Publishing, 2010, ISBN: 978-1-894037-4507, Pg. 66-68

3. Speaking Out: Ideas That Work for Canadians, By Jack Layton, Key Porter Books, 2004 ISBN: 1-55263-577-5, Pg. 143

What Will Become of the Afghan Detainee Issue Now?

I picked up a copy of political science professor Todd Gordon's Imperialist Canada yesterday, and it's quite an eye opener.

Canada is the only country with troops in Afghanistan, not to have an independent media, and all news is directed from the PMO, with what a former senior NATO public affairs official called a "6,000-mile screwdriver".

Gordon writes:

The Canadian military has also been implicated in the beating of prisoners. Canadian soldiers allegedly beat and abused Afghan soldiers in the spring of 2006 while military police turned a blind eye. The abuse became public when Amir Attaran, a University of Ottawa law professor, uncovered unexplained patterns of injuries among Canadian detainees in documents received under an Access to Information request. An investigation was undertaken by the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service. However, by the end of 2009 the investigation is still incomplete and no charges have been laid. Military records for the detainees from the period in which the abuse allegedly took place have also mysteriously gone missing." (1)

Attaran's report here, here and here.

Meanwhile, the Canadian military was handing prisoners over to the Afghan prison system where they routinely faced torture. The former governor of Kandahar, Asadullah Khalid, was accused by at least one prisoner of beating and electrically shocking him. Former Chief of Defence Staff General Rick Hillier initially responded to the accusations with praise for the governor, asserting that he is doing "phenomenal work." It turns out the Tories knew about Khalid's involvement in the torture of detainees but tried to keep it secret while Foreign Affairs officials quietly worked to remove him from power before the incident became public knowledge. (1)

And as we know Stephen Harper dismissed the concerns because, according to him, they were made by Taliban.

Yet one of the victims was able to correctly tell Canadian investigators where the rubber hose and electrical cable used by the torturers were kept. The military also acknowledged that it cannot account for at least fifty prisoners it turned over to Afghan authorities. No record of them exists. As public criticism of detainee transfers grew, the military quietly stopped transferring prisoners into Afghan authority in November 2007, although it is unclear where they transferred them instead, since DND has no prison in Afghanistan. However, the military subsequently resumed transferring detainees into Afghan custody in April 2008, claiming it had assurances from the Afghan government that prisoners transferred from Canada would not be tortured. Leaked memos indicate, however, that the military suspended the transfers at least one more time .

That has not stopped the Tory government from trying to clamp down on the MPCC so that the true extent of abuse of detainees, and knowledge of the abuse among political and military leaders, is not exposed. It has stalled the MPCC's inquiry by challenging its mandate in the courts; made clear to the Commissioner that his term will not be renewed when it is finished well before the inquiry is complete; refused to provide documents to the inquiry and heavily redacted others even though the MPCC's investigators have the highest level of national security clearance; and it threatened the former director of the Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction team ...

And we all know what happened to Richard Colvin when he stood up to the Harper regime.

Harper, Tory cabinet ministers and military leaders have all denied Colvin's claims, attacked his credibility ... despite the fact that leaked memos backed up his testimony.

Harper had managed to stall the release of detainee documents until after the election, so will he now use the new powers invested upon him by the Supreme Court, to make sure that they never see the light of day?

And how will this play out with the International Criminal Court who are suggesting that Canada could be charged with war crimes?

It's very dangerous to give an egomaniac this much power. And yet we did.

Sources:

1. Imperialist Canada, By Todd Gordon, Arbeiter Publishing, 2010, ISBN: 978-1-894037-4507, Pg. 353-354