The Dominion - Dominion Staff

January in Review, Part I

Martin Lukacs — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 06:49:37 +0000

Prisons protested, shale gas wells leaked, CEOs profited

2011 was ushered in by Anti-Prison Noise Demonstrations in several Canadian cities. Outside Vancouver, 25 protesters set off fireworks, chanted and blasted hip hop in front of Fraser Regional Correctional Centre on New Year's Eve. North Montreal's demo took place at Bordeaux Prison, where anarchists and other activists "staged a boisterous march," according to J Stevens reporting for the Media Co-op. Protesters in Hamilton made noise and held a banner in front of Barton Jail with a mailing address, inviting prisoners to correspond with them.

More than 100 supporters of detained high school student Daniel Garcia gathered in downtown Toronto on New Year's Eve to demand that Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Jason Kenney halt Garcia's deportation. At 8:30 am on January 1, Garcia was forcibly boarded on a plane back to his home country, Mexico, where he and his sister face ongoing homophobic threats and violence.

Alberta dropped homosexuality from its diagnostic guide to mental disorders, 35 years after the psychiatric profession did so. Quebec hasn't yet dropped the diagnosis.

Nepal added a third gender for trans- people to its census.

Saskatchewan Justice Minister Don Morgan announced the provincial government may accommodate the religious beliefs of marriage commissioners who refuse to perform same-sex unions, despite a unanimous Court of Appeals decision ruling the refusal unconstitutional.

An ad-hoc coalition of unions and activists held a candlelight vigil in Toronto to protest an alliance between the right-wing English Defense League (EDL) and the Jewish Defense League (JDL). The vigil was joined by Anti-Racist Action Toronto (ARAT), who blockaded the street where the EDL and JDL were meeting. Police charged ARAT with horses, arresting four protesters and severely beating one.

Residents of Vancouver's Downtown East Side took to the streets to demand social housing, arguing that the development of expensive condos in the 100-block neighbourhood will displace residents by upscaling three major low-income hotels. A few days earlier, more than 100 people attended a CityHallWatch forum on tall buildings, sharing Downtown East Side residents' own vision of community development.

Supporters of Transit City planned their fight against Rob Ford's war on public transportation in Toronto.

The municipality of Oka, Quebec, announced it will pay Norfolk Financial $300,000 to purchase property subject to negotiations between the federal government and the Kanehsatake Mohawk First Nation. The property is across the road from land at the centre of the 1990 "Oka Crisis" when the town tried to expand a golf course over a Mohawk cemetery.

A report from the Quebec environmental assessment agency indicates that 19 shale gas fracturing, or "fracking," wells in the province are leaking natural gas.

2010 was Canada's hottest year on record, with the national average temperature three degrees above previous average levels.

The Royal Bank of Canada's (RBC) announcement of a new Policy on Environmental and Social Risk Management for Capital Markets was applauded by the Rainforest Action Network, but the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council responded critically. “Unless RBC and other banks suspend financing to Enbridge and other companies that fail to earn consent from communities impacted by their destructive projects, their promises will ring hollow,” said Vice Tribal Chief Terry Teegee.

A group of doctors asked Quebec’s College of Physicians to take a stand on mining and exporting asbestos to developing countries. The College's secretary refused, saying the College does not exist to take sides on a debate, but "to defend the practice of medicine." Exposure to asbestos causes 100,000-140,000 deaths per year. Canada is a world leader in asbestos production.

The Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives' study on Executive Compensation revealed Canada’s best paid 100 CEOs earned 155 times that of the average income earner.

Two Toronto police officers accused of beating G20 protester Adam Nobody were accused of another assault in a non-G20-related incident.

Thousands of Tunisians faced off against police, taking over government infrastructure in the capital and demanding the resignation of long-time President Zine El Abedine Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia. More than 60 people have been killed since December 2010, including more than 40 prisoners in two mass breakouts, during popular unrest against the dictator. The food shortage and unemployment riots, which culminated in a demand for democracy and an end to government corruption, were sparked by the suicide by fire of a 26-year-old graduate who was prevented from selling fruit and vegetables to make a living.

A study examining the effectiveness of freedom of information laws in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, the United Kingdom and Canada ranked Canada dead last. About 16 per cent of the 35,000 requests filed last year resulted in the full disclosure of information.

A US federal appeals court rejected filmmaker Joe Berlinger's argument that as an independent journalist, he should not be ordered to turn over all footage from his 2009 film "Crude" to Chevron.

US drone strikes killed 2,043 people in Pakistan in the last five years, with 2010 being the deadliest, according to an annual report released by the Conflict Monitering Centre.

Mexico's government reported that drug wars killed 34,612 people in the last four years, with 15,273 drug-related murders in 2010 alone.

Reports of mass deaths of wildlife all over the world continued into the new year. Birds, fish, and now crabs have been dying en masse in Arkansas, Louisiana, Brazil, Maryland, New Zealand, Italy, England and several other places.

As a hunter in Belarus tried to kill a fox, the wounded animal reportedly pulled the trigger of the hunter's rifle with its paw during its struggle to escape. The hunter was admitted to hospital with a leg wound. The fox escaped (as foxes do).

Daniel Garcia

December in Review, Part I

Tim McSorley — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 17:29:13 +0000

Premier sandbagged, Haitians lectured, prison conditions protested

More than 200 people, including 100 from Barriere Lake, demonstrated in Ottawa against the federal and provincial government's refusal to implement a UN-praised sustainable development agreement between Quebec, Canada and the Algonquin First Nation. Demonstrators said the Harper government is trying to derail the agreement by imposing an Indian Act band council system on Barriere Lake. Fewer than a dozen community members cast ballots in the Indian Act electoral process, while nearly 200 people signed a resolution rejecting it, wishing to preserve the traditional governance system they have used for countless generations.

Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Canon chided Haitians for not taking responsibility for post-election violence, even though Canada had endorsed an electoral process that excluded the most popular Haitian political party. Cannon endorsed US threats to cut off aid to the country, which has seen street protests and riots since the November elections. Liberal MP Denis Coderre also suggested Canada re-occupy the country by sending troops from the Disaster Assistance Response Team.

More than a dozen communities across Canada held People's Assemblies on Climate Justice during UN climate negotiations in Cancun. “People’s Assemblies on Climate Justice emerged during the failing Copenhagen negotiations as a vehicle for people to come together and talk about real and false solutions to the climate crisis,” said Andrea Harden-Donahue, with the Council of Canadians.

Climate justice activists held a sleep-in and strip-down in Halifax, and built a sandbag barrier to the offices of the Premier and cabinet in Vancouver. In Toronto, more than 100 activists gathered in the financial district in solidarity with climate justice activists in Cancun on Via Campesina's International Day of Action. “It’s a disgrace that the United Nations space intended to tackle climate change has been converted into a platform to legitimize the commercial strategies of transnational corporations,” said Alberto Gomez Flores, representative of La Via Campesina for the North America region.

In Halifax and across the country, climate justice activists emphasized their disappointment that the Senate killed Bill C-311, the Climate Change Accountability Act. The decision by the Senate was the first time that the unelected Conservative Senators used their power to kill a bill passed by the elected legislators.

An Ebay posting under Steven Harper's name, advertising that Canada's climate policy was for sale to the highest bidders, raised some eyebrows. “It’s not surprising to see that they are selling our country's climate policy to the fossil fuel industry, but it's definitely a shock to know they are using Ebay!” said Natasha Peters, an activist from Climate Justice Ottawa.

More than 20 Indigenous people from Canada and their allies wore t-shirts that spelled out “Shut Down The Tar Sands” in both English and Spanish and delivered that message to COP-16 delegates in Cancun. Many participants carried personal banners linking tar sands with the destruction of their territories. “Our communities demand real solutions to address the climate crisis and that means shutting down the tar sands and a moratorium on new fossil fuel development,” said Clayton Thomas-Muller of the Indigenous Environmental Network.

Federal Environment Commissioner Scott Vaughan revealed that the Canadian government is not testing water for tar sands toxins at federal labs downstream from the Athabascan tar sands.

Dozens of First Nations signed a declaration against Enbridge's proposed Northern Gateway Pipelines, which would cross their land in the Fraser Valley watershed. "A threat to the Fraser and its headwaters is a threat to all who depend on its health," they stated. The proposed pipeline would run from the Alberta tar sands to the BC coast, allowing access to tankers which would transport the fuel primarily to Asia.

Opposition parties in Ottawa voted to pass a bill calling on the Conservatives to impose a ban on oil tanker traffic off the coast of BC. Polls show 80 per cent of British Columbians support the proposed tanker ban.

The Canadian Medical Association and an article in medical journal Lancet criticized the Canadian and Quebec governments for their continued support of asbestos mining and exportation. The Quebec government is being asked to reconsider guaranteeing a multi-million-dollar loan to help keep the province's main asbestos mine open, but the Canadian Medical Association called on the federal government to impose a ban on the export of the carcinogen.

John Graham, a Tuchone Native from the Yukon, was convicted of the 1976 murder of Mi'kmaq Indigenous activist Anna Mae Aquash, though his family continues to insist on his innocence. Aquash, who worked with the American Indian Movement during the 1973 standoff at Wounded Knee, was threatened by the FBI and then murdered, execution-style, on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

A strike by thousands of prisoners in Georgia jails entered its third day. Inmates refused to work or leave their cells in the the largest prison strike in US history. Prisoners' demands included being paid a living wage for their work, decent health and dental care, nutritional meals and an end to cruel and unusual punishment. Prison officials responded to the non-violent strike by sending in tactical squads and placing prisons under lockdown for several days.

A federal court upheld the security certificate against Algerian-born refugee Mohamed Harkat, allowing for his possible deportation to his native country. The Canadian government believes Harkat has ties to Al Qaeda and poses a threat to Canadian national security. Harkat, who came to Canada in 1995 after fleeing Algeria as a political dissident, says he faces torture or death if returned.

New Democrat MP and immigration critic Olivia Chow tabled a bill to introduce an immigration appeal process in Canada. Of the approximately one million applications received every year by Canadian immigration officials, 20 per cent are rejected for alleged fraud and misrepresentation, leaving refused applicants with no right to appeal. Chow argued that many rejected applications in her Toronto riding are the result of “arbitrary decision-making” by Canadian visa officers.

Montreal company Bombardier announced it will pay over $300,000 to a Canadian pilot of Pakistani descent after the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal found the company discriminated against him based on his ethnic and national origin when it refused to train him. Bombardier made the decision based on a US government assessment that the pilot posed a "threat to aviation or national security." The ruling also ordered Bombardier to stop considering foreign security assessments when deciding whether to train Canadian-licensed pilots.

A minor hockey league coach in Peterborough, Ontario, was suspended after he pulled his team off the ice when an opponent directed a racial slur at one of his players. "I said, 'Did it happen again?' He said, 'yes,'" coach Gary Walsh told CBC's As It Happens.

A new bill granting immediate security of tenure to tenants in Nova Scotia passed its third reading. Bill C-119 brings Nova Scotia in line with other jurisdictions in Canada, preventing landlords from evicting tenants without reason.

First Nations leaders and medical experts accused Canada of ignoring tuberculosis rates on First Nations reserves in the country. Canada will contribute $10.8 million to combat the disease in remote First Nations communities, while over the past year contributing $140 million to the fight against tuberculosis and other diseases in "developing" countries.

An Orange County judge in California refused prison inmate Malcolm Alarmo King's request for kosher meals. King's religious reasons for the request were his devotion to "Festivus," a fictional holiday once featured on an episode of Seinfeld. The celebration does not include a ban on the prison salami rejected by King, but instead the airing of grievances, the display of an aluminum pole, and feats demonstrating strength.

Sandbag barricade in BC

Barriere Lake on Parliament Hill

November in Review, Part II

Martin Lukacs — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 05:29:25 +0000

Climate bill killed in Senate, thesis filed in Mi'gmaw, apples preserved in BC?

Immigration police were barred from entering Toronto women's shelters, drop-in centres, rape crisis centres, group counselling homes and community organizations that treat abused women. "This is just one small step as part of a broader city campaign to make the city safer for women with undocumented or precarious immigrant status," said Fariah Chowdhury, an organizer with Shelter Sanctuary Status.

Over 130 migrant farm workers from Mexico and the Caribbean were cheated of thousands of dollars in pay after the owner of the Ontario farm they worked for filed an intent to get creditor protection. “What I don’t understand is how a farm that was known to have money problems can be part of the program," said farm worker Francis Gibson from Barbados. "We came here and worked hard and put money in the farmer’s pocket. But now we’re going home and our pockets are empty."

About 200 people marched to Parliament Hill on November 20 for Trans Day of Remembrance, commemorating trans- people who have been victimized by violence. Two were arrested during the dropping of a banner, which read "Remember Stonewall," a reference to a New York riot against police led by drag queens.

Canadian mining corporation Pacific Rim filed criminal charges against Salvadoran anti-mining activists in connection to a protest in 2006, which temporarily halted mining exploration at the Santa Rita mine in Cerro Limon.

Documents obtained by Postmedia News revealed that Environment Canada, Natural Resources Canada and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade have collaborated with industry partners to create an international lobbying strategy to promote the tar sands and discourage environmental protection legislation and policies in other countries.

Unelected Conservative senators in Ottawa killed Bill C-311, the Climate Change Accountability Act, passed by a majority of elected MPs in Parliament. This marks the first time in 70 years that Senate has killed legislation from the Commons without debate.

Climate Justice Ottawa organizers conducted a sit-in in the rotunda inside the House of Commons in Ottawa in the run-up to the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Cancun, Mexico. They called on the Canadian government to take strong action to combat climate change by shutting down the Alberta tar sands, cutting oil subsidies, investing in green, community-based climate change solutions and accepting the Cochabamba, Bolivia, Declaration as a negotiating framework at the Cancun UN Summit.

The Waycobah First Nation became the first community in Atlantic Canada to install an Elders Council to help guide the Band Council.

The Algonquins of Barriere Lake continued to agitate against the Department of Indian Affairs' attempt to abolish their traditional government, imposing an Indian Act electoral system on the community. Community representatives say the imposed Indian Act council, though lacking a chief, has been dealing with forestry companies and signing away their lands to be clear-cut without community consent.

A PhD student at York University filed his thesis in Mi'gmaw.

A PhD graduate, Masrour Zoghi, rejected his diploma at the University of Toronto's convocation ceremony, citing the university's increasing corporatization, pointing in particular to a large donation by Peter Munk, chairman of Barrick Gold. Barrick Gold is a Canadian mining company accused of a host of environmental and human rights abuses.

The Carleton University administration threatened to withhold funding to student groups in an attempt to pressure the student union to sign an agreement which would "enable the administration to overrule decisions on the internal spending of the student unions," according to Graduate Student Association President Kimalee Phillip.

In a wave of militancy that could help revitalise the labour movement in the US, hotel workers across the country mobilized in the thousands for better working conditions.

Haitian protesters barricaded the streets of Cap-Haïtien with coffins for three days to express their anger at the United Nations, whose Nepalese peacekeepers caused the cholera outbreak that has left, so far, 1,721 dead.

The day after Haitian elections, which excluded the country's most popular party, Fanmi Lavalas, thousands protested the elections' legitimacy, accusing Jules Celestin, the candidate backed by outgoing president Rene Preval, of massive fraud. Meanwhile, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon called for "calm."

New Orleans police officers went on trial for the death of Henry Glover, whose corpse was allegedly lit on fire by police after they shot him. Twenty New Orleans police officers have been charged in recent months over "killings, assaults and fabrication of evidence during Hurricane Katrina."

Canada's Immigration Minister Jason Kenney stated the country will not attend next year's United Nations conference on racism, which he has deemed a "hatefest" and "anti-Semitic."

The Calgary Herald refused to publish the obituary of leading anti-mining activist Mariano Abarca on the one-year anniversary of his death. Abarca, a leading organizer against a barite mine owned by Calgary-based Blackfire Exploration Ltd's, was assassinated in Chicomuselo, Mexico. Former employees of Blackfire have been arrested in relation to Abarca's murder.

Seventy-six Canada Post workers in Winnipeg walked off the job to protest a new mail delivery method, which requires mail carriers to carry a second bundle of mail on their forearms, and which has caused injuries to skyrocket.

The Ontario Superior Court postponed social justice activist Jaggi Singh's constitutional challenge against his bail conditions stemming from G20 charges. The bail conditions include a ban on participating, organizing or attending "any public demonstration," which PEN Canada, an organization that campaigns for freedom of expression and an intervenor in his case, has said will do "nothing to ensure the safety of a single Canadian."

Whistle-blower organization Wikileaks began its release of over 250,000 diplomatic cables from 274 American embassies. Of these, almost 3,000 concern Canada, though only a handful of those released so far have mentioned the country. One cable dated from 2008 and sent from Washington sums up a meeting between former CSIS director Jim Judd and a US State Department official, in which Judd lambasts Canadian courts for their “Alice in Wonderland” worldview, which he claims has paralyzed CSIS, and criticizes Canadians for their “knee-jerk anti-Americanism” and “paroxysms of moral outrage.”

Canada's Privacy Commissioner warned that information about Canadian airline passengers on flights that do not touch American soil could be shared with American police and immigration officials under a new aviation safety program.

A British Columbia fruit company announced it has developed non-browning Golden Delicious and Granny Smith apples. Critics warned against the genetically-modified fruit, which they say will support industrial farming and not address any consumer need.

CJO banner drop

Abarca memorial

Haiti's Void Vote

Moira Peters — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 05:11:00 +0000

No clear winners, many clear losers

"We denounce a massive fraud that is occurring across the country ... We demand the cancellation pure and simple of these skewed elections," the 12 presidential candidates, which included all main opposition groups, said in a statement read to reporters at a Port-au-Prince hotel. They accused the outgoing President Rene Preval's Inite (Unity) coalition of rigging the vote in favour of its candidate, Jules Celestin.
—Rory Carroll, reporting today, November 29, 2010, for The Guardian

This news is an unfortunate but not unexpected outcome of yesterday's presidential and legislative elections in Haiti. Crushed by the January 2010 earthquake and devastated by this month's cholera outbreak, the majority of Haitians couldn't vote for their preferred candidate, as the popular Famni Lavalas party was excluded from elections on a technicality.

Below, a collection of images and analyses of yesterday's election gives a limited view of the election's outcome; this week will be critical as election results will not be released until Sunday, December 5.

Unless otherwise indicated, the photos here were taken yesterday, November 28, 2010, during Haiti's presidential and legislative elections by Jean Ristil Jean Baptiste, a Haitian photojournalist.

Haiti Elections.Empty Polls

Prayers more hopeful

Haiti Elections.Police Van

Haiti Elections.Riot Cop

Haiti Elections.Voting in the Rubble

Haiti Elections.Voting in the Tent

Haiti Elections.Sign

November in Review, Part I

Tim McSorley — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 19:09:15 +0000

Christie Blatchford blocked, CEO salaries rocketed, non-profit bookstore raided

The Harper government blocked the development of a gold-copper mine on the traditional territory of the Tsilhqot'in Nation, but simultaneously announced they were greenlighting another gold project, the Mount Milligan mine in central British Columbia, on the traditional territory of the Nakazdli First Nation. Environment Minister Jim Prentice said the potential environmental impacts and damage to Fish Lake, sacred to the Tsilhqot'in, were the reasons for the Cabinet's rejection of the mine. The approved mine also falls in a sacred area and important watershed, and its development, in the face of resistance, is by no means assured.

Police raided Camas Bookstore in Victoria, BC, and seized two computers and documents. The Camas Educational Society is a not-for-profit registered society that functions collectively to operate the volunteer-run Camas Books and Infoshop. The Camas Collective was not told why the space was raided but a man has since been arrested. Police believe he sent an email from the bookstore's computer taking responsibility for vandalizing the mayor's house and car. The email expressed outrage at Mayor Fortin's removal of shelter beds in the city.

The Canadian government gave qualified endorsement to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, leaving the United States as the lone hold-out refusing to endorse the international human rights document that was more than 20 years in the making. The part of the statement that reads, "Canada can interpret the principles expressed in the Declaration in a manner that is consistent with our Constitution and legal framework" has critics worried that the government aims to impose limitations on the application of the Declaration.

A St. Thomas University student went public after being assaulted for entering a women's washroom on campus. The trans-student was punched in the face and called a "faggot." The student is calling for all buildings on the New Brunswick campus to be equipped with a gender neutral washroom.

A new report finds that 19-year-old Ashley Smith was restrained and forcibly injected with unnecessary tranquilizers and anti-psychotic drugs while in prison in New Brunswick. A few months later, in October 2007, the young woman strangled herself while in solitary confinement in an Ontario prison. The Smith family's lawyer is calling for an inquest into the last four years of Ashley's life, which she spent in federal custody.

Home-based daycare workers went on strike for a day, seeking secured paid vacations, a pension plan and better salaries. Government-subsidized home daycare workers in Quebec received the right to unionize in June 2009.

A new report has found that the rate of abuse in lesbian households is zero per cent. The paper found that not one of the 78 17-year-old daughters and sons of lesbian parents reported having been been physically or sexually abused by a parent or other caregiver. This contrasts with 26 per cent of American adolescents.

About 90 police officers in Toronto are facing a yet-to-be-determined penalty for not wearing their ID badges during the G20 summit in June. Chief of Police Bill Blair told CBC, "I believe some officers removed it so they would not be identifiable." About 1,100 people were arrested during the G20 summit weekend, but only 308 were charged and charges against about 100 have since been dropped. The cops' penalty may include the loss of one day's pay.

Canadian Angela James and American Cammi Granato became the first two women inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in its 67-year history.

Human rights experts denounced the gathering of the Inter-Parliamentary Coalition for Combatting Anti-Semitism (IPCCA) meeting in Canada, which claimed a new anti-semitism is surfacing in the form of criticism of the Israeli state. Critics argued that the IPCCA, and the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Anti-Semitism, are attacking free speech by equating all criticism of Israel with anti-semitism. In addressing the IPCCA, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Canada will defend Israel "whatever the costs."

Under pressure from the US and NATO allies, Prime Minister Harper announced that the Canadian military would remain in Afghanistan until 2014 to train the local military and police, breaking a government promise to withdraw troops in 2011 and to hold votes in the House of Commons on any decision to extend the mission. The Liberal party had been calling on the Conservatives to commit trainers, 1,000 of which will stay on in Afghanistan, with details being finalized in a NATO meeting in Lisbon.

Taliban leadership called on the US Congress to send a fact-finding mission to Afghanistan to uncover what they call on-the-ground realities, including the fact that the US military has been overstating its military successes to prolong the war.

Journalists from over 60 countries signed a public letter of support for Wikileaks, praising the organization for its “outstanding contribution to transparency and accountability on the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, subjects where transparency and accountability has been severely restricted by government secrecy and media control.”

Canadian CEO salaries rocketed 444 per cent from 1995 to 2007. In 2007, the country's top 10 CEOs made 330.3 million, up from 60.7 million in 1995.

Around 52,000 students protested in the streets of London, England, against government plans to cut university budgets by 40 per cent and to allow universities to nearly triple tuition fees. Some 200 students occupied the headquarters of the Conservative Party, the majority in the current coalition government. Labour unions announced they will organize protests with student groups against a wide range of government austerity measures this winter.

Protesters blocked Globe and Mail reporter Christie Blatchford from speaking at the University of Waterloo, locking themselves down on stage before Blatchford's talk. Blatchford—accused of racism towards Indigenous people over her reporting on the land rights conflict between Six Nations and the government near Caledonia, ON—is touring the country to promote her new book Helpless: Caledonia's nightmare of fear and anarchy, and how the law failed all of us.

Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board denied refugee status to US army deserter Joshua Key, a move that will allow Canada Border Services Agency to pursue his deportation.

Renowned doctor and anti-nuclear activist Helen Caldicott warned that the 16,000 residents of Port Hope, Ontario, should be relocated during the "clean-up" of radioactive waste—a result of 50 years of radium and uranium refining at the Cameco refinery.

Student protest London 2010

Camas Bookstore

October in Review, Part II

Tim McSorley — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 23:42:12 +0000

Mining bill defeated, Khadr sentenced, prison costs rise, Air Force office blockaded

Legislation that would revoke public funding from Canadian mining companies that abuse human rights and the environment in their overseas operations was narrowly defeated in its third reading, with 13 Liberals, including Michael Ignatieff, four Bloc and four NDP parliamentarians skipping the vote. Bill C-300, a Liberal private member's bill, built unprecedented support among social justice advocates and mining watch-dog groups around the world.

A military jury at Guantanamo Bay sentenced Canadian citizen Omar Khadr to 40 years in prison for the killing of a US soldier in Afghanistan, though prosecutors had only asked for a maximum 25 year sentence. Before the sentence was delivered, Khadr had already agreed to a plea-deal where, by pleading guilty, he would receive a sentence of eight years. New memos also revealed that the Canadian government has been in talks with US officials about the possibility of Khadr serving his sentence in Canada. Khadr, 24, was 15 when arrested in Afghanistan, and his detainment and trial has been widely criticized for violating rules on the treatment of child soldiers.

Hector Berrios became the fourth anti-mining activist to be denied a travel visa to the United States this month. Berrios was to testify before the Inter-American Human Rights Commission about mining-related violence in El Salvador.

The Wixarika Indigenous people of Mexico demanded the cancellation of 22 mining concessions granted to Canadian mining company Majestic Silver. The concessions cover a semi-arid desert region known as Real de Catorce, considered by many to be one of the most important sites of Indigenous prayer in Mexico.

The Union of BC Chiefs called for the resignation of Junior Minister of State for Mining Randy Hawes, who rejected a recent study of mining impacts on Indigenous people as "hogwash" and "completely flawed," adding that "some First Nations reject mining for a more traditional lifestyle—those ways are linked to lower birth weights, higher birth rate deaths and lower life spans. Improving these outcomes requires sharing the wealth and jobs that come from mining."

Climate Justice Montreal set up a hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") site outside the Quebec Association of Oil and Gas Producers annual conference in Montreal, in protest of the extraction method. Fracking uses over 596 chemicals—many of which are known carcinogens and poisons—mixed with hundreds of litres of water and sand, the majority of which ends up in groundwater, soil and the air. A group of public personalities in Quebec demanded an immediate moratorium on fracking in the province.

Cape Bretoners opposed fracking in meetings about a proposed mine site in Lake Ainslie.

New Brunswick's Department of the Environment recommended new regulations for companies engaged in fracking in the province.

Access-to-information requests revealed that a 2009 internal memo to CIDA minister Bev Oda was tampered with. While the memo endorsed Canadian human rights organization KAIROS and cited numerous Canadian officials recommending the reinstatement of its $7.1 million CIDA funding, a hand-written note at the memo's end inserted the word "NOT," turning the concluding statement into a negative: "That you [Minister Oda] sign below to indicate you NOT approve the contribution of $7,098,758." CIDA's funding to KAIROS was eliminated in November 2009.

Protests in France kept up against pension reform, including a bill to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62, while police unleashed tear gas and rubber bullets and arrested hundreds. Strikes at petrol refineries caused country-wide petrol shortages. France's parliament eventually approved the bill after weeks of protest, but electoral support for President Sarkozy has steeply declined.

First Nations leadership in central and eastern Canada criticized a meeting to discuss the implementation of the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement (CBFA). The environmental organizations and forestry companies who signed the CBFA are courting Indigenous approval for the agreement.

Palestine solidarity activists crossed from Egypt into Israeli-blockaded Gaza, bringing $5 million in humanitarian aid in more than 100 vehicles.

Canadians organizing the country's first Boat to Gaza raised a third of their $300,000 budget, and plan to set sail in the spring 2011.

The Canadian government said the fake lake built for international media at the G20 summit in Toronto "was a wild success."

Rob Ford, who ran on a platform of cutting wasteful spending at city hall, was elected mayor of Toronto with 47 per cent of the vote. While voter turnout jumped from under 40 per cent in 2006 to 53.2 per cent, the total votes for Ford amounted to only around 15 per cent of Toronto's population. That, and examples of councilors winning seats with only 19 per cent of popular vote, led to calls to reform the "first-past-the-post" system. Ford has come under criticism for comments he has made about the homeless, immigrants and homosexuals, but pundits credited his tough-on-financial-waste platform for getting him elected.

About 80 people completed a four-day paddle down the Fraser River to raise awareness about the impact of fish farms in the Fraser River, ending on the day the Cohen Commission began to investigate and report on the decline of sockeye salmon.

A new report found that BC has twice as many jail and police-involved deaths than Ontario, despite the fact that Ontario's population is three times as large.

A new study revealed the costs to maintain the federal prison system increased three times faster than inflation between 2008 and 2009. The daily cost per federal inmate rose to $323 per day, double the amount in provincial prisons. Earlier this year, the federal government announced an additional $9 billion in funding for the federal prison system to handle an increase in the inmate population once new "tough on crime" legislation is enacted.

US scientists blamed the dispersants used by BP in the clean-up of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico for increases in illnesses among the region's residents, including severe respiratory and sinus infections, vomiting and fevers.

A study by the Climate Action Network Europe revealed major European polluters (including BP) have donated over $240,000 to candidates running in the US midterm elections, 80 per cent of which has gone to candidates who deny climate change and oppose energy policy reform.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned Arctic warming is continuing, with a four-degree upward trend in northern Canada’s air temperature in the first half of 2010. The warming is causing irreversible changes to northern regions and causing severe changes in weather systems further south, the report found.

The Canadian Armed Forces announced that 600 soldiers who served in Afghanistan will participate in the country's first major Arctic military exercise this winter after returning from the Central Asian country. An official said the exercise was meant to boost morale and provide training, and that it is not tied to the Conservative government's pledge to exert Canadian sovereignty over Arctic regions.

A crowd of 450 people, many of them homeless or poorly housed, blockaded the entrance to a Canadian Air Force building in Ottawa. The demonstrators were protesting the government's decision to cut $1 billion from social housing programs while spending more than $15 billion on new F-35 fighter jets and their upkeep.

The federal Environment Minister pledged to ensure that companies working in the Albertan tar sands meet their greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets, but did not specify how. Tar sands production is slated to triple by 2025, and estimates are that it will produce nearly as much GHG emissions as New York City by 2020.

Oil company Syncrude was ordered to pay $3 million in damages for the death of 1,600 birds that landed on its toxic tailings ponds in northern Alberta. Less than a week later, 230 birds were euthanized after landing on another Syncrude tailings pond. While Syncrude officials said freezing rain caused the birds to land, others pointed out the tailings ponds lie directly in the birds' migratory paths.

Ryan Rainville, an Indigenous activist, remained in prison on charges related to the G20 protests in Toronto in late June 2010. Rainville's supporters accused the court of ignoring "Gladue factors, which force the judicial system to consider the systemic marginalization and over-incarceration of Indigenous people as a result of colonialism and poverty." He has been in prison since August 5 and will appear again in court on November 5.

Alex Hundert, another G20 detainee accused of conspiracy, was re-arrested on charges of attempting to intimidate a member of the judicial system for statements he allegedly made towards crown attorneys during a court hearing. It is the third time Hundert was arrested in five months and came less than 10 days after he had strict restrictions, including not expressing political views publicly, imposed as part of his bail conditions.

France general strike

Fracking in Quebec

October in Review, Part I

Tim McSorley — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 11:45:26 +0000

Prisons expanded, G20 charges dropped, Nobel prize winner deported

Prime Minister Stephen Harper claimed his party "will not rest" until the long-gun registry is abolished, even though a poll found two-thirds of Canadians support its existence.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews announced the federal government will spend $155.5 million to expand prisons in Quebec and Ontario. Statistics Canada has reported that "both the volume and severity of police-reported crime fell in 2009," including a three per cent fall since 2008 and 17 per cent since 1999, but Toews responded that "the crime rate isn't going down."

Canadian correctional investigator Howard Saper reported there were at least nine inmate deaths in federal prisons since 2007 that officers could have intervened in or prevented. His report comes a month before a coroner's inquest into the 2007 death of 19-year-old Ashley Smith, who committed suicide at the Grand Valley Institution while seven guards watched.

Canadian Gulf War veteran Sean Bruyea is suing the federal government for $400,000 and demanding a full public inquiry and apology after the Privacy Commissioner found that Veterans Affairs illegally revealed private information about him in briefing notes to the Minister. Bruyea was a vocal opponent of changes in 2006 to the Veteran's Charter, which resulted in injured veterans receiving lump sum payments instead of regular payments over their lifetime.

On Thanksgiving Day, about 125 migrant workers walked 50 kilometres from Leamington to Windsor, Ontario, on a Pilgrimage to Freedom March. They were drawing attention to abuses faced by migrant workers in Canada.

Vigils and marches were held across Canada to mark the National Day of Action for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, including in Montreal and Toronto. In Vancouver, seven women occupied a police station, calling for an investigation into the death of Ashley Machisknic, a 22-year-old Indigenous woman from Saskatchewan who was found dead behind the Downtown East Side Regent hotel on September 15. "There can be no more sweeping of these deaths under the carpet,” said organizer Stella August.

Charges were dropped against almost 100 people, mostly from Quebec, who were arrested en masse during June's G20 meetings while billeting at the University of Toronto. At the time, police said they found evidence of "street weapons" such as black clothing.

A Justice of the Peace ruled G20 arrestee Alex Hundert broke his "no-public demonstration" bail condition by participating in panel discussions at two university events. Hundert has since declined bail conditions that would include "not expressing political views."

The NDP secured opposition and government support for a parliamentary inquiry into the spending of public money and allegations of human rights abuses by the Toronto and Montreal Police Services, the OPP and the RCMP during the G20.

Members of the Quebec Women's Federation occupied the office of the provincial Ministry of Culture, Communications and the Status of Women during province-wide rallies in the lead-up to the October 17 World March of Women. Minister Christine St-Pierre had previously dismissed the QWF's demands that the province raise minimum wage, increase sex education in schools, ban sexist advertising and rescind its plan to charge higher user fees for public services.

The United Nations reported that more than a third of women worldwide have been forced into sex or physically abused, often at the hands of a partner or family member, and that the rate of abuse is increasing.

The Seattle Police Department opened an internal investigation into the shooting death of aboriginal artist John T. Williams, a woodcarver from the Nuu-Chah-Nulth First Nations on Vancouver Island, BC. Deaf in one ear, Williams was walking downtown, carrying his carving knife when he was shot by police four times after an officer allegedly ordered Williams to drop the knife. It is believed Williams was wearing headphones at the time of the shooting.

Canada lost its bid for a seat on the United Nations Security Council after a nine-year campaign. While Prime Minister Harper blamed opposition parties, experts pinned it on the Conservative's unpopular foreign policies, including decreased aid to Africa, support for Israeli policies toward Palestinians and its stance on climate change.

Israel's Supreme Court gave the government the go-ahead to deport Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire—for the second time—while she attempted to participate in a Nobel Womens' Initiative in the country. She was first deported four months ago after joining the Gaza-bound humanitarian aid flotilla that was illegally intercepted in international waters by Israeli navy commandos.

Police in Serbia clashed with hundreds of far-right rioters who were attempting to disrupt a gay pride march in Belgrade.

Canada's Export Development Corporation lent $1 billion to Brazilian mining giant Vale Inc., in a move union leaders have called "unacceptable." Ever since its 2006 takeover of Inco nickel mines, Vale's Canadian operations have been marred by labour struggles, including a bitter year-long strike at a Sudbury mine that ended in August.

Clan Mothers in Grassy Narrows in northwestern Ontario prevented Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) enforcement officers from interfering with the First Nation's back-road repair. The MNR has not maintained the roads since 2002, when community members began a blockade to prevent clear-cut logging in their traditional territory.

A Quebec superior court judge upheld a labor arbitrator's decision in 2009 that Wal-Mart illegally fired the 192 employees at its store in Jonquiere, Quebec, and ordered it to pay indemnities to the former employees. The world's largest retailer had shut down the franchise less than a year after it had become the first Wal-Mart to successfully unionize.

India built partitions and temporarily exiled panhandlers to neighbouring states during the Commonwealth Games in New Dehli.

Pakistan reopened the Torkham border crossing 11 days after closing it to protest a strike by an American helicopter that killed two Pakistani soldiers. During the blockade, Pakistani militants destroyed about 150 Afghanistan-bound trucks carrying NATO supplies.

The Chinese government placed Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo's wife under house arrest after she visited her husband in prison. Police also detained 20 bloggers, lawyers and academics who had gathered for dinner to celebrate Xiaobo's Nobel Prize.

Missing Justice Banner

Free Alex Hundert

September in Review, Part II

Tim McSorley — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 04:12:46 +0000

Attempted coup in Ecuador, more G20 arrests in Canada, austerity protests in the EU

Police in Ecuador staged a strike in six cities across the country, and trapped President Rafael Correa in a Quito Hospital in an attempted coup d'etat. Thousands of people assembled in the streets in defense of Correa, and the coup attempt was condemned by various civil sectors, including Indigenous organizations who have struggled against his policies. After 12 hours in a police hospital, Correa was freed and returned to the presidential palace.

First Nations in Ontario denounced Premier McGuinty as the Liberal government passed the Far Northern Act, which will create large protected areas in northern Ontario but also allow the government to override First Nations' land use plans. "As we have stated time and time again, [we] do not and will not recognize this legislation on our homelands," said Deputy Grand Chief Mike Metatawabin of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) in a press release. The NAN represents 49 First Nations, covering two-thirds of the province’s land mass.

Hundreds of thousands of people in Europe protested EU-wide austerity measures. Actions took place in Portugal, Ireland, Slovenia, Lithuania, Greece, Spain, Britain and Belgium. In addition, at least one million people took to the streets and paralyzed France over a proposal to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62.

The US Department of Defense bought and destroyed all 10,000 copies of "Operation Dark Heart,"—the first edition of an Army Reserve officer's memoir—citing the need to protect classified information. International anti-corruption group, Wikileaks, responded by tweeting, "Burn all the books you want, Nazi punks. We already have a copy."

Environmentalists criticized the Canadian government for not taking action to stop the shipment of radioactive materials through the Great Lakes. Bruce Power, a private nuclear energy company in southern Ontario, plans to send contaminated generators by ship to Sweden for decontamination, but critics say such shipments open up the possibility of spills, as well as more hazardous shipments. Bruce Power says that the radiation contamination of the shipments is minimal, equivalent to an x-ray.

An Ontario court judge struck down three of Canada's prostitution laws in a case brought by a woman who works as a dominatrix and two other sex workers. The decision invalidates the laws in Ontario, but not in the rest of Canda. The federal government said it will appeal the ruling, which was met with mixed reactions. While conservative groups roundly condemned the decision, opinions were mixed among many feminist and sex-work support groups: some celebrated the ruling as a step toward more secure working conditions for and less criminalization of sex workers; others said it would disable the restrictions used to arrest pimps and sex-worker abusers.

Canadian-Iranian blogger Hossein Derakhshan was sentenced to a 19-year prison sentence in Iran. The 35-year-old was found guilty of collaborating with enemy states, creating propaganda against the Islamic regime, insulting religious sanctity and creating propaganda for anti-revolutionary groups. Derakhshan is known as the blogfather of Iran, having inspired other Iranians—often ciritical of the current government—to launch their own blogs. Derakshan was originally threatened with a death sentence; he is also able to appeal the current verdict.

Simon Fraser University (SFU) announced a $10 million investment from mining company Goldcorp to fund SFU's Art School, which will be renamed the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts and will be located in the Woodward's complex in Vancouver's Downtown East Side. Proponents hailed the investment as a sign of the company's efforts to foster and support community development, but SFU administration is being criticized for ignoring Golcorp's record of human rights and environmental abuses in Latin America and the US.

A report by a UN fact-finding mission about the Israeli raids on the flotilla of boats bound for Gaza last May concluded that the five Turkish citizens and one US citizen killed by Israeli soldiers were shot execution-style, some while lying wounded on the deck of the Mavi Marmara.

A top Canadian oil executive met with David Suzuki to convince the environmentalist to help reach a "progressive solution" to conflicts over the Athabasca tar sands. Marcel Coutu, CEO of Canadian Oilsands Corporation and Chairman of Syncrude, approached Suzuki for help in striking a deal between oil companies and environmental organizations (ENGOs), similar to the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement (CBFA), a wide-ranging agreement between Canada's forestry industry and large ENGOs (including the Suzuki Foundation). While some have called the CBFA historic, many have criticized it as silencing environmentalists and for excluding front line, affected communities. Suzuki immediately rejected the overture from Coutu.

James Cameron, director of 3-D blockbuster Avatar, visited the tar sands region in Alberta and met with Indigenous peoples to learn their perspective on the development. "It will be a curse if not managed properly or it could be a great gift if managed properly... Right now it's going in the wrong direction... I think the federal and provincial government need to play a stronger role," said Cameron, though he also expressed his support for "sustainable industry development."

The UN's special rapporteur on food reported that natural disasters and market speculation are leading to another global food crisis. According to Olivier De Schutter, "A significant contributory cause of the price spike [has been] speculation by institutional investors who did not have any expertise or interest in agricultural commodities, and who invested in commodities index funds or [who invested] in order to hedge speculative bets."

A mudslide in Chiapas, Mexico, killed 16 people. The extreme weather event was the latest in a series of floods and storms in Mexico that have killed 96 people and displaced 81,000 since May 2010.

More than 100 people were arrested en masse in front of the White House while protesting mountain-top removal coal mining. Part of the Appalachia Rising series of events, the protest was attended by people from Appalachia, which has been hardest hit in the US by mountain-top removal mining, one of the most destructive extractive processes.

Vancouverites continued to demonstrate their solidarity with the 492 Tamil migrants who remain in prisons in Burnaby and Maple Ridge, BC.

Elroy Yau, the Toronto Transit Commission employee arrested while in full uniform on his way to work during the G20, published an open letter about the continuing trauma from his arrest and detention. He has refused to sign forms from the Ontario Worker's Compensation Board that would block him from suing the Toronto Police Services, and has therefore been denied worker's comp coverage.

Toronto police made more arrests in relation to the G20 protests. Alex Hundert was preemptively arrested on the morning of June 26, 2010, and re-arrested after speaking on a panel at Ryerson University for allegedly breaking bail conditions that forbade him from participating in public protests. He is still in jail. Jaroslava Avila was arrested on her way home from a health advocacy event at the University of Toronto (UofT). A prominent Indigenous solidarity activist and political science student at the UofT, she is facing conspiracy charges related to the G20.

Over 30 Mapuche political prisoners neared the 80th day of their hunger strike. They are demanding an end to anti-terrorist legislation that is used to criminalize them for defending their territory. Solidarity actions with Mapuche and anarchist prisoners in Chile took place around the world, and dozens of Chileans, including 96-year-old poet Nicanor Parra, have joined the hunger strike.

The federal government announced its "legacy of care" program, devoting $52.5 million over five years to helping injured Canadian veterans and their families. Veterans recently spoke out about their mistreatment in the medical system—especially under the new Veterans Charter—after former veterans ombudsman Pat Strogan was not reappointed to his post in August 2010.

Canada's student loan system maxed out at $15 billion. A Stats Canada report concluded that last year was "the worst labour market" for students: unemployment reached 55 per cent. Although student unemployment in the '70s was 75 per cent, tuition fees are ten times higher now than during the Age of Aquarius, and student debt has doubled since the '80s.

European day of action

Cameron Tar Sands Tour

September in Review, Part I

Martin Lukacs — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 05:24:37 +0000

Security under scrutiny and media in the news

The six-band Tsilhqot'in Nation in the interior of British Columbia have promised fierce resistance if the Harper government green-lights the development of the $800 million "Prosperity" gold and copper mine on their traditional territory. The mine would turn a lake that is sacred to the First Nation and that holds 90,000 unique rainbow trout into a tailings dump, replacing it with an artificial lake. If the Cabinet gives final approval to the mine it would be overruling, for the first time in Canadian history, a federal environmental impact study that recommended against the mine, concluding it would have a "high-magnitude, long-term and irreversible effect."

The entire 2,000-mile US-Mexico border will now be patrolled by predator drones as part of a policy increase border militarization overseen by President Obama ahead of November elections.

As many as 2,000 additional troops—mostly American—may be headed to occupy Afghanistan under a plan proposed by US General David Petraeus, potentially bringing the US troop levels above the 30,000 authorized by Obama earlier this year.

The Department of National Defence denied that Canadian troops are involved in trafficking heroin, after the British Sunday Times and the BBC reported that Britain's Ministry of Defence was investigating claims that soldiers from the two countries were smuggling drugs out of southern Afghanistan on military aircraft.

Briefing notes obtained by the Canadian Press revealed that a member of the National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan's intelligence agency, boasted to Canadian military officers in May 2009 that his organization was able to “torture” and “beat” prisoners during its interrogations.

The Halifax Peace Coalition (HPC) protested DEFSEC Atlantic, a defence and security exhibition in the city, which included Lockheed Martin. Over the summer, Lockheed received a no-bid contract worth $16 billion to sell F-35 Joint Strike fighter jets to the Department of National Defence. "The federal government should be investing in hospitals, schools and affordable housing to provide true security for Canadians, not fighter jets," said Tamara Lorincz of HPC.

Canadian journalists were falsely signed onto a petition organized by internet advocacy group Avaaz.org. The petition opposed the introduction of Quebecor's SunTV news channel, dubbed "Fox News North," into Canada. The news channel would be run by Prime Minister Harper's former director of communications, Kory Teneycke, whose name was also added to the petition, and who was contacted by the trickster. "We have taken on some pretty nasty characters in our three-and-a-half years—everyone from Bush to Burmese dictators to corrupt politicians in Brazil and Germany," said Avaaz executive director Ricken Patel of the fraudulent signatures. "No one has tried this before."

Briefing notes released under access to information requests reveal the Canadian Security Intelligence Agency says it would use torture-tainted information and share it with foreign governments, violating a federal policy issued last year that directed the spy agency to “not knowingly rely upon information which is derived from the use of torture.”

Police continued to make arrests in relation to June's G20 protests in Toronto, charging 28-year-old Montreal resident Juan Lepore with mischief exceeding $5,000, mischief endangering life and assault.

Hundreds of Guatemalan migrant workers and their allies protested at the Canadian embassy in Guatemala City, denouncing the abusive treatment of migrants under Canada's Temporary Foreign Workers program, under which 4,000 Guatemalans work in Canada's agricultural sector every season.

Canadian Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Jason Kenney visited Asia to build support for law enforcement to crack down on human smuggling and flights of refugees to Canada, a month after a boatload of Tamil refugees arrived in British Columbia.

An Immigration and Refugee Board hearing in Vancouver ordered the release of the first of the Tamil refugee applicants, a pregnant women with three children who is suffering from complications to injuries she sustained in Sri Lanka. The 492 Tamil migrants who arrived aboard the MV Sun Sea in Esquimalt, BC, on August 13 have been held in detention facilities in the Vancouver area, with children being put in care by the provincial government.

Eight separate incidents of "swarmings" over the past two weeks in Halifax landed victims in hospital, and one in surgery. The recent spate of "random" violence with no "profound motivation" went unreported until a victim of the sixth swarming went to the press after he learned from hospital staff of the previous incidents.

BP warned the US Congress that if it passed legislation barring the company from acquiring new offshore drilling permits, it wouldn't have money to pay for damages caused by the Gulf of Mexico spill, leaving observers to conclude the company is using the funds as a bargaining chip to ensure continued access to the Gulf of Mexico, which accounts for 11 per cent of its global production of oil.

An offshore petroleum platform exploded and burned in the Gulf of Mexico, 80 miles off the Louisiana coast, west of the site where BP's well spilled.

A fuel tanker ran aground in the Northwest Passage, though no spills were reported, as it delivered nine-and-a-half million litres of diesel fuel to remote communities in the Canadian Arctic. "I don't know if people are prepared for [a spill]," said Jeannie Ugyuk, a local MLA.

More than 500 First Nations and northern BC residents marched in Prince George, BC, against a proposed pipeline that would allow Enbridge to transport oil from the Alberta tar sands to Canada's West Coast and on to China. The next day, an Enbridge pipeline spilled more than 6,000 barrels of oil into an industrial park near Romeoville, Illinois. "This most recent pipeline leak is the nail in the coffin for the Northern Gateway Pipelines project," said Chief Larry Nooski of the Nadleh Whut’en First Nation in a press release.

For good measure, another pipeline in Buffalo leaked an indeterminate amount of oil, Enbridge's third spill in three months.

Alberta Premier Stelmach said he would compare a recent study that found elevated levels of mercury, lead and 11 other toxins in the tar sands' main water source, the Athabasca River, to government research that has backed up long-standing industry claims that oil development has left the water unaffected. "If it means that we have to do something more, we will," he said.

The Harper government muzzled Natural Resources Canada scientists this spring, telling them they would need “pre-approval” from the Minister's office to speak with national and international journalists. The policy is reserved for “high-profile” issues like “climate change [and] oilsands,” but access to information documents show the rules are being applied so broadly that a scientist who published a study about a colossal flood that hit northern Canada 13,000 years ago was prevented from speaking to the media. "If you can’t get access to a nice, feel-good science story about flooding at the end of last glaciation, can you imagine trying to get access to scientists with information about cadmium and mercury in the Athabasca River?" said Andrew Weaver, a University of Victoria climatologist.

Teztan Biny (Fish Lake), British Columbia

Defsec Protest

August in Review, Part II

dawn — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 04:03:22 +0000

Israeli shipping slowed, Enbridge evicted, G-20 defendants appear in court

Vancouverites picketed the arrival of an Isreali ship to Deltaport, aiming to inform workers about the Boycott Divest and Sanctions campaign, and slow the flow of goods out of the port.

The Canadian Union of Postal workers expressed their support for a Canadian boat to Gaza. The union suggested that people who want to send letters or packages to Gaza send them on the boat, since Canada Post is no longer accepting mail bound for Gaza.

As the Karzai government in Afghanistan pledged to kick out approximately 40,000 private security contractors in the country, Montreal based GardaWorld Security Corp has indicated it plans to stay. “This might sound a little too bold but we don’t intend to leave," said Pete Dordal, Garda’s senior vice-president of international operations.

The New York Times reported that a Karzai administrator embroiled in a corruption case has been on CIA payroll.

Seventy two bodies were found on a ranch near the Mexico-U.S. border. The bodies were not buried, and it is suspected all of the dead were Mexican or Central American migrant labourers. It is believed they were murdered by drug traffickers who also participate in human trafficking.

Venezuela and Colombia restored diplomatic relations and restarted trade relations. Venezuela cut ties with Colombia on July 22, after outgoing Colombian President Alvaro Uribe accused Chavez of sheltering FARC guerrillas.

Four tonnes of cocaine were discovered in Venezuela, en route for Mexico. Venezuelan officials say anti-drug efforts have improved since bilateral relations with the U.S. ended in 2005.

Documents revealed that US mercenary company Blackwater (now Xe) provided training unauthorized by the US State Department in Colombia in 2005.

Another journalist was assassinated in Honduras, bringing the total number of journalists killed there since the 2009 coup d'etat to 10.

Dozens of activists and scholars sent an open letter to the government of France, urging them to pay reparations for the 90 million francs Haiti paid their former occupiers in order to secure their independence.

Thirty-three Chilean miners who have been trapped underground for weeks will not be rescued for at least another three months. Small tunnels have been bored to allow rescue teams to send supplies and food down to the trapped workers.

More than 20 Mapuche political prisoners in Chile continued their hunger strike, which began on July 12. Strikers say their actions are motivated by the targeting of their people by the pro-business Chilean government. A solidarity action took place in Toronto and another is planned in Vancouver.

The Hereditary Chiefs of the Likhts’amisyu Clan issued a press release stating they had given Enbridge a "final trespass notice." Enbridge is planning to build a series of pipelines from the tar sands to the BC coast, though unsurrendered Indigenous lands. “We cannot be clearer about our position, there will NO PIPELINES like Enbridge, the KSL Looping Project, Kinder Morgan, or Pembina pipelines going through our territories!" stated Toghestiy, a hereditary chief of the Likhts'amisyu Clan of the Wet’suwet’en nation, at a meeting with Enbridge representatives in Smithers, BC.

Enbridge was fined for a 2007 spill, in which two people were killed in Minnesota.

Scientists found a huge plume of oil 500 metres thick, 35 km long and 2 km wide resting just above the surface of the ocean floor where the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, contradicting the White House claim that most of the oil has dispersed.

Mining giant Vale is appealing an Ontario court's decision that the company must pay $36 million to residents of Port Colborne for contaminating and devaluing their properties. The case is expected to be heard in April 2011.

High levels of toxins in Alberta's Athabaska River are linked to tar sands development, a new study from the University of Alberta revealed. The study contradicts the findings of an industry-provincial government study, which said the toxins are naturally occurring. The report also states the current government monitoring systems are seriously flawed and will lead to further health ricks if not fixed.

Roger Clement, one of three men accused of arson at an RBC branch in the Glebe neighborhood of Ottawa, was again denied bail. The other two accused have both been granted bail.

Hundreds of people charged during the G-20 in Toronto appeared before the courts in Toronto. “As expected many people’s charges were either dropped or they were asked to pay money and have them forgotten without any evidence presented” said Jessica Denyer, who was at the court with the accused.

Stephen Harper said he would consider changing Canadian law to give authorities greater power to curb human smuggling, but wouldn't give details of what laws he was talking about. Thousands of people took to the streets in support of the 492 Tamil refugees who arrived aboard the MV Sun Sea in demonstrations and events from Victoria to Halifax.

Researchers released a report that linked ALS (Lou Gherig's disease) to brain trauma, such as that sustained by soldiers and athletes.

Canadian ombudsman for veterans Pat Stogran said the Harper government has been "deliberately obstructive and deceptive" in addressing support for mentally and physically disabled veterans. The ombudsman will not be reappointed to his post.

Toronto police shot and killed a man who suffers from mental illness after his family called 911 for help in getting the man medical help. Relatives said he was not violent when they last saw him. The man was shot after he ran off a bus when it was stopped by police. A knife was found at the scene, but it is unclear whether it belonged to the man, and one officer is being investigated in the death.

The nuclear reactor in Chalk River, ON, is back up and running, producing medical isotopes. The reactor previously was capable of providing one-third of the world's medical isotopes, but was shut down for 15 months because of a heavy water leak.

Deltaport Protest against ZIM

Protest outside of Smithers Town Council

August in Review, Part I

dawn — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 10:00:38 +0000

Pickton history revealed, Tamil migrants arrived, First Nations marched against tar sands

The Attorney General of Alabama announced the state would sue BP for the oil spill, which experts say has released at least 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. BP was also fined $50 million for safety violations for a 2005 explosion that killed 15 workers and injured 170.

The Indian Coast Guard responded to an oil spill off the coast of Mumbai, caused when two cargo ships collided in rough seas.

A Turkish oil pipeline which transports oil from Iraq to the Mediterranean Sea was targeted by saboteurs, killing two and shutting down the flow of oil.

An Ontario judge ordered the release of Abdullah Khadr after more than four years in prison in Toronto without bail. Khadr is the oldest brother of Omar Khadr, a Canadian youth imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay. "This government has been totally unreasonable," said Khadr's lawyer. His release contravened an extradition request from the US Ottawa has one month to appeal the decision.

Meanwhile, Omar Khadr's US Military Commissions trial took place in Guantanamo Bay, where the youth has been held without a trial for the last six years. Though evidence emerged that Khadr was coerced and intimidated during interrogation, the Military Comission Judge admitted the testimony gained under these circumstances.

The publication ban was lifted in the case against Robert Pickton, a Coquitlam BC pig farmer and serial killer. New information revealed that he had been previously charged with attempted murder in 1997 but the court stayed the charges because the woman, a sex-trade worker who suffered multiple stab wounds and lost three litres of blood, was said not to be a credible witness.

A California judge overturned Prop 8, an anti-gay Proposition that prevented gay marriage in the state of California. Supporters called the verdict a temporary victory, as the decision will be appealed. In Mexico, supreme court justices voted 8-2 to uphold a ruling that grants the right of marriage to same sex couples.

A ship carrying an estimated 490 Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka arrived off the waters of Vancouver Island. Mainstream media quoted a discredited "expert" who connected the passengers with the Tamil Tigers, but advocates contested media claims. "We saw a similar unfounded hysteria last October with the 76 Tamil migrants. All were eventually released when Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) was forced to admit they had no evidence of a connection to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). In fact, based on a lack of evidence, CBSA consented to the release of the last group of 25 detained refugees in January 2010," said Harsha Walia of No One Is Illegal Vancouver.

Kelly Pflug-Black, who turned herself in to authorities in July after learning she was wanted on a number of charges related to G-20 resistance, was granted bail. Activist Erik Lankin remained in prison, marking six weeks inside since his arrest on June 26. "This continued detention and politically-motivated charge is setting a dangerous precedent in the intensifying criminalization of dissent and political speech since the G-20 protest. This is an attempt to intimidate and harass and is a serious assault on freedom of expression and the right to assemble," said Gary Kinsman, a Professor at Laurentian University.

An internal report by the Montreal Police Department found that racial profiling was being used at an "alarming" rate by the force. Among other things, the report revealed that in northern areas of the city in 2006 and 2007, approximately 40 per cent of young black men had been subjected to identity checks, compared to only five to six per cent of whites.

The Vancouver Sun exposed the conditions faced by migrant workers in a remote work camp near Golden, BC Workers laboured 10-12 hours a day, lived in a squalid camp with insufficient food and without proper bathing facilities, were threatened and subjected to racist remarks by employers. "We were really, really tortured," said one man. The company that had hired them, Khaira Enterprises Ltd, was carrying out a $280,000 government contract to clear the brush.

The United Nations began an inquiry into the flotilla massacre, in which Israel attacked an aid convoy bound for Gaza, killing nine people. Observers declared that the inquiry was bound to fail, given the appointment of outgoing Colombian President Alvaro Uribe as vice-chair of the investigation. Uribe was president of Colombia for eight scandal-ridden years, during which time the army carried out thousands of false positive assassinations and the government carried out systematic attacks on human rights activists and land defenders.

Israel carried out air strikes in Gaza, killing at least two and wounding dozens of people. "For many in Gaza, last night’s attack was a traumatic reminder of the onslaught during Operation Cast Lead when three hundred F-16 bomb attacks took place during the first two minutes of the campaign," read a release from the International Solidarity Movement.

NATO admitted to killing civilians in a series of bombings in Afghanistan. Al Jazeera reported that the violence in Afghanistan is at its worst since the 2001 invasion of the country.

Iraqi government figures showed that July 2010 was the bloodiest month of violence in Iraq in the past two years, in which 396 civilians were killed along with 89 cops and 50 soldiers.

In Mexico, over a thousand journalists marched to demand an end to escalating violence against their peers. "Many here believe the government is not doing enough to protect their colleagues, as more than 60 journalists have been killed in the last four years," said Al Jazeera journalist Franc Contreras.

Protesters set up a blockade near Halifax, demanding that the predominantly black community of North Preston be granted access to a shortcut around a construction site that had previously only been extended to 10 white families. The blockade was later lifted after a meeting with officials, who closed access to the shortcut to everyone.

Workers in Goose Bay, NL, marched on the one-year anniversary of the miners' strike at the Voisey's Bay nickel mine.

Hundreds of Guatemalans launched a case against a supreme court justice for falsification, through which he granted 22 square kilometres of public land to Vancouver-based Goldcorp.

First Nations communities downstream from the tar sands announced a healing walk leaving from Fort McMurray and traveling along the Athabasca River.

Vancouver residents tore down a fence erected around Grandview Park, a community gathering space in East Vancouver. The City of Vancouver is embarking on a program to renovate the park, which some say will displace the diverse communities that frequent the area.

Oil Spill on the Gulf Coast

Let them Stay

July in Review, Part II

Moira Peters — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 05:01:26 +0000

Oil spilled (again), prison farms defended, posters permitted, dykes marched

An Enbridge pipeline that runs toward Sarnia, Ontario leaked three million litres of oil into Battle Creek in southern Michigan, threatening the Kalamazoo River and the Great Lakes, in one of the worst spills in the history of the Midwest. Although the Chinese government claimed less than a million gallons spilled into the Yellow Sea when a pipeline exploded earlier this month near Dalian, China, a researcher at the University of Alaska has concluded that it was in fact 19-28 million gallons. The US delayed a decision about green-lighting the proposed $7-billion Keystone XL pipeline, which would flow bitumen from Alberta to refineries on the US Gulf Coast. The Green Party of Canada joined with the Save Our Seas and Shores Coalition to oppose drilling in the Gulf of St. Laurence; a lease has been granted to Corridor Resources to explore for oil around the Iles-de-la-Madeleine.

BP announced a record loss due to the cost of cleanup of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, though their CEO will leave the company with a one million pound payoff and ten million pound pension. The company admitted to photoshopping images on its website to give the impression of increased activity at its command centre in Houston, Texas. Transocean's chief technician testified that crucial warning systems on BP's Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico had been switched off at the time of explosion, to save sleeping workers from being woken by false alarms.

China surpassed the United States as the top energy-consuming nation, with energy use in the country doubling over the past decade. The US still remains far ahead in per capita energy use.

Polar bears in the Hudson Bay will die out in 10-30 years, according to researchers at the University of Alberta.

More than 100 people attended Halifax's first annual Dyke March. "This Dyke March is very distinctly not a parade. Parades are important... but we also have to remember how we got to where we are today,” said organizer Rebbecca Rose. “We didn’t win these victories by parading... We and the activists that came before us won these fights by marching, by chanting, by kicking, by screaming, by challenging the law." Winnipeg also held its first Dyke March earlier in June, joining other marches in Toronto and Vancouver.

Argentina legalized same-sex marriage.

The United Nations General Assembly voted to enshrine access to clean, fresh water as a fundamental human right. The motion, presented by the Bolivian government, passed with 122 nations in support, none against and 41 countries—including Canada—abstaining.

BC resident Nathalie Gray publicly accused the Toronto police of shooting her with rubber bullets at the G20 Summit, and launched a lawsuit, presenting photos from the emergency room showing her wounds. Police finally admitted to using rubber bullets at the protest in which Gray participated, after initially issuing denials.

The Toronto Police Services Board solicited public input into its "independent" inquiry of police action during the G20 summit. The review will exclude consideration of security inside the fence, on-the-ground operations outside the fence, tactics like "kettling" for which there is no police policy, individual cases of abuse and the Ontario Cabinet's approval of Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair's request for secret powers during the summit.

The regional headquarters of the Correctional Services of Canada in Kingston was blockaded by some 250 people—including residents, farmers, and prison activists—to protest the Conservative government's proposal to shut down Canada's prison farms, with promises of continuing civil disobedience until the government reverses its decision. The seven farms across Canada, including one in Kingston, provide a different form of rehabilitation and skills development than typical prisons, say supporters.

Montreal schools in poor neighbourhoods were found 30 times more likely to have a nearby fast-food restaurant than those in rich neighbourhoods.

A Federal Court judge ruled that the Crown must review all evidence against Mohamed Mahjoub, arrested in 2000 under a National Security Certificate, after concluding that CSIS, Canada's spy agency, does not have mechanisms in place to ensure evidence it uses is not obtained under torture.

The French government took action to "clean" the internet of evidence of an hoax website, modeled after the French foreign ministry's, that announced the French goverment would pay $21 billion in reparations to Haiti to compensate for the money it extracted from the country after a successful 1804 revolution overthrowing slavery. French government officials also refused to rule out possible leagal action, and an employee of the French Foreign Ministry has allegedly made threatening phone calls to the group responsible for the hoax in the days since the action.

The Canadian Supreme Court ruled Canadians should be compensated for breaches of their charter rights, even if such breaches are committed in good faith. The Court ordered the Canadian government to pay $5,000 to a Vancouver lawyer who was held and searched after a suspected "pieing" of then-prime minister Jean Chretien. Experts say the case could have far reaching consequences.

After 10 years in court, Montreal's municipal bylaw on postering was overturned by the Quebec Court of Appeals, which ruled the regulation violates freedom of expression rights guaranteed in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The city says it will continue to enforce its law until it decides whether to challenge the court's decision, with which it has six months to comply. It has indicated it may seek a compromise, increasing the size of public billboards to accommodate posters.

Shawn Atleo, National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), called for the Indian Act to be scrapped within five years and replaced by a just relationship between Indigenous peoples and the Canadian government. "We will once and for all work to dismantle the unnecessary machinery of the Department of Indian Affairs, which only perpetuates our poverty," he told the 2,000 delegates at the AFN's annual general assembly in Winnipeg.

Members of the Algonquin of Barriere Lake north of Montreal blockaded the road leading into their reserve, stopping a federal government official from holding a nomination meeting for band council elections imposed through section 74 of the Indian Act. While there have been divisions in the community in recent years over the identity of their Customary Chief and Council, the different sides are collectively opposing the federal government's attempt to replace their traditional leadership selection process, which is tied to their land use.

WikiLeaks, an organization that publishes and protects material from journalists and whistleblowers, made public 91,000 secret US-military reports about Afghanistan. The reports describe in minute detail US military operations from 2004 to the end of 2009, and are "the most comprehensive history of a war ever to be published during the course of a war," according to Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks.

July was the deadliest month for US troops in the nine-year war in Afghanistan.

The conservative government ordered a review of the Public Service Employment Act with the goal of putting an end to affirmative action in the public service. Unions criticized the move as an attack on equity and diversity in the workplace.

Bank executives were overpaid $1.6 billion at the height of the financial crisis, according to a review by the White House special master on Wall Street compensation.

The BBC released a damning report on Canada's role in the global asbestos industry. Canada federally funds an asbestos lobby group to sell Canadian asbestos worldwide; last year Canada exported 153,000 tonnes of white asbestos, mostly to India. Blamed by the World Health Organization for 90,000 deaths a year, asbestos is the largest contributor to work-related cancer in the world. Supporters of the industry say asbestos is not dangerous if handled correctly.

Polar Bear Breaks Ice

Prison Farms FiR

July in Review, Part I

Tim McSorley — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 20:25:53 +0000

Tax breaks for pipelines, bail for G20 arrestees, court win for war resistor

The Canadian government cancelled an 18-month investigation into water pollution from the Alberta tar sands. No reason was given for the cancellation, or for the destruction of preliminary reports from the investigation.

At least 200 tonnes of fuel spilled into the St. Lawrence Seaway when a freighter ran aground at the southern edge of Montreal during a thunderstorm.

The government of Quebec announced it would be increasing tax breaks for oil and gas pipeline projects from eight to 30 per cent, citing pipelines as a more "ecological" mode for transporting petroleum products.

In England seven anti-war activists were found not guilty for "decomissioning" a weapons factory in Brighton during the 2009 Israeli siege of Gaza. The activists destroyed equipment at a factory run by EDO ITT, a major weapons manufacturer and supplier of weapons to Israel.

Protests were held across the country in oppostion to the mass violation of civil liberties in Toronto during the G20 protests, where 1,105 people were arrested. The vast majority have been released, but several hundred still face charges. As of deadline, 14 of the 17 people co-accused for allegedly being leaders and organizers of protests which resulted in property damage had bail hearings; all but one were granted bail. Charges include conspiring to assault police officers and conspiring to commit mischief, and bail was set as high as $85,000.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association filed five official complaints with the Office of the Independent Police Review Director concerning policing at the G20 summits. They include illegal mass arrests of 1,105 persons, illegal detentions, unlawful dispersal of peaceful protests, unlawful use of excessive force on peaceful protesters and passersby, and unlawful and inadequate conditions of detention.

In response to Toronto Police Services appealing to the public to submit images and video of G20 protesters in order to identify them for charges or arrest, the Toronto Community Mobilization Network (TCMN) asked the public to submit images and help identify police caught committing acts of brutality and violating civil liberties during the G20 protests. The following day, Toronto Police Services released photos of their "Top 10 Most Wanted" from the G20 protests, encouraging Toronto residents to provide information on their whereabouts. The TCMN denounced the move as continuing a "witch hunt."

After 93 years, the Canadian Press announced it will switch from being a co-operative to a for-profit corporation. The decision was made in order to cover a more than $34 million shortfall in the agency's pension plan. Revenues at CP dropped significantly after the departures of Canwest and Quebecor newspaper chains from the organization to form their own respective newswires.

Quebecor, which accounts for 40 per cent of news production in Quebec, pulled out of the Quebec Press Council (QPC), the provincial body dealing with public complaints over print news coverage, due to its dissatisfaction with recent QPC rulings. The council criticized the move, saying it threatened the existence and moral authority of the council and posed a "very serious crisis for the free flow of information in this province."

The Los Angeles BART police officer charged with the shooting and killing of 22-year-old African American Oscar Grant on New Year's Day 2009 was found guilty of involuntary man-slaughter by an all-white jury, the lightest of the three possible charges he was facing. The officer was caught on cell phone video shooting the unarmed Grant in the back as he lay on the ground.

Fishermen on PEI have joined a lawsuit filed against BP demanding compensation for lost revenue as a result of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Bluefin tuna spawn off the Gulf of Mexico before migrating north, where they are a major catch for east coast fishermen. The lawsuit claims the spill could damage the tuna catch of over 300 fishermen on PEI in the coming years.

More than 230 people were killed and over 100 injured when an oil tanker overturned and exploded in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Most died when the explosion tore through nearby homes where families were watching the World Cup.

A Canadian Federal Court of Appeal overturned the decision by an immigration official rejecting the asylum request of a US war resister, saying the official's decision was “significantly flawed” and “unreasonable.” Jeremy Hinzman and his family will have their case reviewed on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. Hinzman was the first US soldier to seek refuge in Canada over objections to the war in Iraq.

A Mayan woman was shot in the head in San Miguel Ixtahuacan, Guatemala. Diodora Antonia Hernandez Cinto publicly opposed the Marlin mine, operated by Montana Exploradora, subsidiary of Canadian mining company Goldcorp. In the same town, another anti-mining activist and two activists' children narrowly escaped being run over by Montana/Goldcorp company cars. Marlin has been ordered suspended by the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, and the government announced its intention to comply with the order. Goldcorp CEO Chuck Jeannes refused to agree to suspend operations.

Indigenous people and allies marked the 20th anniversary of the Oka Crisis, marching through the town of Oka and the community of Kanesatà:ke. Organizers highlighted that 20 years after the highest profile armed land struggle in recent history, conflicts over traditional lands continue.

The Canadian Pension Plan invested $250 million in Calgary-based Laricina Energy, which plans to begin operations in the Alberta tar sands by the end of this year. The 17 per cent stake acquired by the CPP marks the first time it has invested directly in tar sands developments.

The proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry bitumen overland from the tar sands to Texas, has met with resistance from Henry Waxman, head of the House Energy and Commerce committee in the United States Congress. Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach penned a letter to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton in response, urging her to support the project. The Stelmach government also paid $50,000 for an ad in the Washington Post promoting Alberta and the tar sands.

Private Bradley Manning, a United States soldier, has been charged with two counts of misconduct and placing national security at risk for releasing a video to Wikileaks showing a 2007 attack by a US Apache gunship on Iraqi citizens.

Three Members of Parliament, all sworn to secrecy, have began to sift through over 40,000 previously classified documents as a part of the Afghan Detainee Comission. The NDP boycotted the process, claiming that its closed-door nature violates an earlier decision by House Speaker Peter Milliken granting MPs full access to government documents.

Oka 20th Anniversary March

Vancouver G20 prisoner solidarity march

June in Review, Part II

Tim McSorley — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 05:07:12 +0000

G8/G20 was confronted, Toronto police lied, millions in Europe strike, and US oil rigs nationalized

The People's Summit, featuring over 100 workshops on everything from "Economics of the Canada-EU Free Trade Agreement" to "Activism in the Attawapiskat Nation," was held in Toronto from June 18-20. The open summit offered an alternative to the G8 and G20 meetings and cost the equivalent of six seconds of the G8/20 Summits, which were billed "the most expensive 72 hours in Canadian history."

Community groups and grassroots organizations, via the Toronto Community Mobilization Network, organized themed days of resistance in the buildup to the G8/G20 convergence. Thousands of people attended films, speeches and marches, rallying around environmental justice, anti-poverty, disAbility rights, queer rights, migrant justice and Indigenous sovereignty. Organizers consistently drew links between different types of oppression and how the G8/G20 represents "the rich and the few."

Students declared the University of Toronto a "bunker for global capitalism" after the university closed key campus services and evicted students leading up to and during the G20 Summit, but permitted to remain open the Munk School of Global Affairs, established through a $35 million donation from Peter Munk, founder and chairman of Barrick Gold.

Overnight between June 26 and 27, several organizers were detained or arrested before any actions took place. "I’m extremely angry, I’m extremely disgusted that this is what our money, our tax dollars, are going to do to put armed thugs on the streets of every intersection of Toronto to target community organizers, the people who are out on the streets to talk about poverty, to talk about racism, to talk about homelessness," said organizer Farrah Miranda who was thrown into an unmarked car and driven around the city for 40 minutes before being dropped again on a street corner.

The Ontario government announced the enactment of Public Works Protection Act around the G20 security fence, allowing police to search and request ID of anyone within five metres of the fence, and to arrest anyone who refused to comply. The change in law ostensibly came into effect without any public notice or announcement, resulting in at least one arrest where the man had no idea he had broken the law.

On June 29th, it was revealed that the Toronto Police Service had lied and that the law was never actually enacted.

Police attacked a jail solidarity rally at the temporary detention centre at the Toronto Film Studios, charging the crowd and trampling on protesters sitting on the street. Hundreds of people were also arbitrarily detained for several hours in a rain storm in downtown Toronto.

Included in the hundreds of people arrested during and after the G20 Summit were a deaf man who failed to obey police orders he could not hear, a TTC employee on his way to work, and a graffiti artist charged with wearing a mask with intent when police found an air filter mask in her backpack.

Over the course of the G8 and G20 summits, journalists working both for mainstream and independent media outlets faced significant police repression. Several journalists from the Alternative Media Centre were detained illegally, arrested, and/or had their equipment confiscated, including independent journalist Amy Miller, who was detained at the Toronto Film Studios and was subjected to threats of gang rape by police. The Canadian Association of Journalists and the International Press Institute have both come out against the actions of the police towards journalists.

Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair was caught misleading reporters when displaying so called "weapons" seized during G20 raids, searches, and arrests. The stock included a crossbow seized in an unrelated incident, and chainmail armor and padded arrows seized from a man on his way to a role-playing game. Police had claimed that protesters had planned to set the arrows on fire and shoot them.

The G20's final communique instructs governments to slash their deficits in half by 2013. Critics say this burden will fall disproportionately on those who can least afford it, including students, people living in poverty and pensioners.

Millions of workers went on strike in Italy, Greece and France to oppose proposed "austerity plans" which would cut social spending and impact wages.

New studies of European and OECD countries in the British Medical Journal found that cuts to social welfare programs result in increased mortality rates, in some cases more so than cuts made directly to health care spending.

The Vancouver School Board has put 11 public schools on the chopping block as it faces an $18 million budget shortfall.

Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney appointed the CEO of Goldman Sachs’ Canadian subsidiary as a special advisor to the central bank to give advice on regulatory reform. Goldman Sachs has been accused of having profited from the current economic crisis, and received the largest pay out of any bank from AIG's bailout fund, totaling $12.9 billion. One prominent economist described the appointment as "the fox guarding the henhouse."

UK Prime Minister David Cameron apologized for Bloody Sunday. In 1972 British soldiers opened fire on a crowd of 10,000 people who gathered in Northern Ireland to protest the practice of detention without trial. Fourteen people were killed.

Stephen Harper apologized for the 1985 Air India bombing, where Canadian failure to apprehend the bombers and to protect witnesses was found by an inquiry to be "inexcusable." Three hundred thirty-three people were killed.

An 11-year-old explained to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that Indigenous people continue to suffer from Canada's residential schools program. Harper apologized for residential schools last June. One hundred and fifty thousand people were forced to attend the schools.

Venezuela nationalised a fleet of idle oil rigs owned by Oklahoma-based Helmerich and Payne.

The Guatemalan government decided to suspend mining operations at Goldcorp's Marlin mine, but Goldcorp CEO Chuck Jeannes criticized the decision and said mining at Marlin will continue. Indigenous Guatemalans who have been fighting the mine say they have received threats that there will be consequences for defending their rights.

A Canadian documentarian has successfully sued former Canadian ambassador to Guatemala Kenneth Cook for slander.

The Braidwood inquiry into the death of Robert Dziekanski, who died after being tasered by RCMP officers, found the officers were not justified in their use of the stun weapon. The report prompted a special prosecutor appointed by the BC government to call on the federal government to reverse its previous decision not to press charges against the officers involved.

A 27-year-old resident of a group home in Collingwood, Ontario, was killed when police used a taser to subdue him. An 87-year-old woman sued the town of El Reno, Oklahoma, after being tasered by police.

Violence in Kyrgyzstan between Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbeks resulted in rape and violence, primarily against ethnic Uzbek women and children, at alarming rates. The UN suspects the violence was deliberately incited for political reasons. The death toll could be as high as 2,000.

Circumpolar Inuit confronted the European Commission's head of international relations in Greenland over the EU's ban on sealskin.

New Brunswick energy company Irving Oil pulled out of tidal power research in the Bay of Fundy citing concerns over the commercial viability of tidal power technology.

Environmental activists gathered in Vancouver to protest the construction of the Raven Underground Coal Project in the Comox Valley, located on Vancouver Island. Activists claim this mine, the first of its kind proposed in 25 years, would threaten the island's watershed and local air quality.

Toronto PRIDE Grand Marshals and Honoured Dykes returned their awards and gave PRIDE Toronto a "shame" award for banning the term "Israeli apartheid" from PRIDE activities and marches. PRIDE Toronto reversed the ban.

A South African doctor has invented a new rape deterrent which she distributed during the World Cup. The female condom has "teeth-like hooks" and, once attached to the penis, can only be removed by a doctor. Twenty-eight per cent of South African men say they have raped a woman or girl.

SATAWU, the security workers union in South Africa, blamed FIFA for the strikes during the World Cup tournament, saying, "This is an attack on the working class and the poor by capitalist forces who do not respect the national pride of the country, and who have put their narrow profit interests first."

Everything is OK

Marlin Mine 1

June In Review, Part I

Cameron Fenton — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 13:00:55 +0000

Indian act imposed, mining companies blockaded, kite-flying banned

The Mohawk Council of Kanesatake rejected a proposed niobium mine in the Seigneury of Lake of Two Mountains outside Montreal on land held by the Mohawks through Aboriginal title and treaty rights. The project, owned by Niocan Inc., was recently presented to the Quebec government for approval. A ruling is expected soon.

Officials in the United States delayed the approval of a draft environmental impact assessment for the Keystone XL pipeline project, which aims to move massive amounts of tar sands bitumen from Alberta, through the Northwestern US, and into Texas. Although no reason for the delay was given, environmentalists have raised concerns about the pipeline breaking in the wake of the Gulf oil spill.

Five workers at a Syncrude's Mildred Lake tar sands operation in Northern Alberta were hospitalized with "significant burn injuries" following a fire at the facility. Four of the five were contractors and one was a Syncrude employee.

Members of the Barriere Lake Algonquin community and solidarity activists have launched a campaign against the imposition on their community of Section 74 of the Indian Act by the Federal Government. Section 74, which has not been forcibly enacted since 1924, would allow Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl to impose an electoral system on the Indigenous community, which currently uses a traditional selection system.

In Winnipeg, hundreds of government employees took the streets to protest the provincial government's inaction on problems in the provincial corrections system, including overcrowding in prisons and a backlog of casework that currently sees almost 70 per cent of prisoners awaiting trial.

In Salt Lake City, a pipeline owned by oil giant Chevron burst, spilling over 400 barrels of oil into a nearby creek.

At least 10 people were injured in Colombia when riot police used rubber bullets and tear gas to break up a protest against Calgary-based oil company Gran Tiera Energy, which produces 14,000 barrels of oil each day through its holdings in the Putamayo region.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup began in South Africa, drawing criticism that the tournament allows for the criminalization of the poor, and serves as a "neo-liberal trojan horse"—complete with $9.5 billion in state deficit spending. Over 300 security employees who rallied at a soccer stadium in Durban to protest low wages and poor working conditions were attacked by local police using tear gas and rubber bullets.

Hearings began in Alberta over the construction of a tar sands upgrader in the town of Fort Saskatchewan by French oil company Total. The hearings were guarded by armed Alberta sheriffs, as wells as private security hired by Total.

Patrick Daniel, CEO of Enbridge Inc., was met with protests in Edmonton for receiving an honourary law degree from the University of Alberta. Enbridge is one of the largest oil pipeline companies in the world, responsible for the Northern Gateway and Trailbreaker pipeline projects, which would bring tar sands bitumen to the west and east coasts of North America, respectively.

Toronto played host to Canada's first ever Veggie-Pride Parade to celebrate and promote vegetarianism and veganism. Similar events have taken place in New York, LA and Rome.

International outcry about the Israeli assault on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla continued, with thousands of people gathering in cities across Canada, including Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Vancouver and Halifax to denounce the attack which included the killing of Turkish activists, to and send a message of solidarity to the Palestinian people. Israel announced it would establish a comission to investigate the attack—Canada will serve as one of two external observers. Initially the Canadian government released a press statement saying Canada was "Concerned by Israel’s Decision to Set up Independent Public Commission Concerning Flotilla Incident." The statement was retracted less than 30 minutes later and changed to, "Canada Welcomes Israel's Decision."

Israel's claim that soldiers acted in self-defense has been questioned further after the release of raw footage from aboard the Mavi Marmara.

In Ottawa, Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl accepted a "charter of forgiveness" from a group identified by the CBC as "members of Canada's aboriginal community." The presentation was the highlight of the Forgiven: Catch the Dream conference, a project of the Ottawa-based Gathering Nations International Ministry, run by former Grand Council of Crees of Quebec deputy chief Kenny Blacksmith. According to one report, Blacksmith rented the Ottawa Civic centre for the conference in order to publicly accept Stephen Harper's 2008 apology for the Residential School program, and did so without the support of a majority of Indigenous communities in Canada. The conference website includes links to sign both a "we are sorry" or "we forgive" statement, presumably for non-Indigenous and Indigenous people respectively. To date, 738 people have said they are sorry, and 138 have accepted the apology.

Innu communities in Quebec and Labrador established a blockade to prevent mining operations owned by New Millennium Capital and Labrador Iron Mines Holdings from going ahead without prior, informed consent. The blockade has been supported by the Innu Strategic Alliance, which represents around 12,000 people in the region of Northern Quebec and Labrador, Innu traditional territory known as Nitassinan.

Dr Carlos Castresana, head of the United Nations Commission against Impunity in Guatemala, resigned his position, and called for the removal of newly-appointed Attorney General Conrad Reyes on charges of corruption and links to organized crime. A few days later, four decapitated heads were found in Guatemala City with attached messages targeting the Ministry of the Interior and the prison system, adding to fears that Castresana's resignation would open the door for increased violence and impunity, harkening back to the government-sponsored terror campaigns of the 1980s.

The United States announced the discovery of more than $1 trillion worth of minerals in Afghanistan, including gold, copper, zinc, cobalt and lithium. Sources claim that the development and extraction of these resources could become the backbone of the local economy. Others have pointed out that the US has known about these reserves since at least 2007.

Ethnic violence escalated in Kyrgystan, where reports claim that upwards of 100 ethnic Uzbeks have been killed in the violence, with more than 75,000 crossing the border into neighbouring Uzbekistan. Russia—which, along with the United States, has a military base in the country—has declined requests from the interim Kyrgyz government for troops to intervene and stop the violence.

A Mexican teenager was shot and killed by United States border patrol on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande which divides the two nations. This comes shortly after a promise from US President Barak Obama to increase military presence along the border, and a report from a CIA operative that the US has Special Forces operatives working in Mexico.

Transport Canada announced strong restrictions on air traffic over Toronto during the G8 and G20 summits. Included are prohibitions on gliding and hang gliding, rocket launches and flying kites.

Canadian counter-terrorism officials sent a public appeal to help them find a southern Ontario resident who had purchased one tonne of fertilizer, which law enforcement believed could be used for bomb construction. Police later found the suspect using the fertilizer in what they described as a "gardening incident."

Innu Blockade

Halifax Flotilla Rally