» Archive: February 2005
Police fire at Hundreds killing at least two
Associated Press has reported that Haitian Police have fired on protesters, killing two on the first anniversary of Aristide's 2004 ouster.
Gary Freeman, Joseph Pannell
Supporters of Joseph Pannell, aka Gary Freeman, who I wrote about a few months ago, now have a web site up. They're demanding he stay in Canada.
Pierre Pettigrew Reading the Griffin Report
Activist/Writer Yves Engler presenting Canadian Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew with a copy of the Griffin/University of Miami report. Bill Graham (Defence Minister), Pettigrew, and Aileen Carroll (Minister of International Cooperation) have all denied knowledge of human rights reports indicating massive human rights abuses by the RCMP-trained Haitian National Police.
This photo is available under the Creative Commons Attribution License (free reprinting with attribution). (Photograph by Dru Oja Jay, The Dominion, February 25, 2005.) A high-resolution version is available here.
Australia in the Solomons
Australia is doing roughly the same thing in the Solomons as Canada and the UN are doing in Haiti. who knew?
Protest as Harassment
George Monbiot: Protest as Harassment
Section 121 of the bill prohibits people from "pursuing a course of conduct which involves harassment of two or more persons", in order "to persuade any person... not to do something that he is entitled or required to do, or to do something that he is not under any obligation to do." Harassment, the bill explains, can involve "conduct on at least one occasion", "in relation to two or more persons". In other words, you need only approach someone once to be considered to be harassing them, as long as you have also approached someone else in the same manner.I wonder when we will we stop talking about a "chilling effect" and start in on a "deep freeze"?
The feline has exited the sack
Canadian Press: "McKenna told the foreign affairs committee he wasn't sure what more U.S. President George W. Bush needs from Canada on the controversial plan to create a continental missile shield. Afterward, the former premier of New Brunswick went much further with reporters. Asked directly if Canada is already part of the program, McKenna responded: 'We are. We're part of it now and the question is what more do we need?'"
With huge opposition to missile defence building, and the Liberals consistently saying that they haven't joined the Missle "Defence" program yet, that's gotta hurt.
Warren Kinsella: "Holy smokes! Get ready for the next election campaign, if this one is allowed to stand uncontradicted for another 24 hours."
Support for Israel
Writer/partisan/lawyer Warren Kinsella explains again why he's fully in support of Israel:
...my unqualified support for Israel stems from history, and from justice: that is, throughout the length and breadth of history, the Jewish people, and Israel, have been denied justice. They continued to be denied justice.
What I can never seem to understand with such justifications is what this justice is, exactly (in relation to Israel), and why it involves the systematic division and dismantling of an entire society.
I'm also interested in why that is just. I generally see overwhelming evidence in support of the Palestinians, and say so frequently, but for the benefit of democratic debate, I'll back up a moment and re-understand what this conflict is about... if anyone will respond.
After all, I may have missed something. (I'm not being sarcastic, though I am generally skeptical from previous experiences.)
If anyone wants to explain, email can be sent to dru at dominionpaper.ca. (Comments are off due to comment spam.)
First Newspaper
Someone scanned and translated some pages from the first newspaper in Scandinavia and put the results online. The date: 1749.
Canadian Press: The New Pravda
The Canadian corporate media positively loves the story about grassroots democracy blooming in former Soviet republics. They love it so much, in fact, that they're willing to leave out central, established facts about the "potential wave of democratic activism".
The elephant (or Bear?) in the living room is that the US and other western countries (like Canada) have been funding these "grassroots" "democratic" movements to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. If these are grassroots movements, they're genetically modified and doused with high power fertilizer, with a bit of pesticide to take care of any, uh, undemocratic weeds.
No, seriously. The prime beneficiary of the "rose revolution" in Georgia has use police to violently crack down on demonstrators and put constraints on the press (not that it can have been particularly unconstrained before). He has also put in place an unpopular program of privatization, which newly elected "grassroots" Ukrainian president Yuschenko has also backed from the beginning.
This is as close as the Canadian press comes to mention this huge factor in the movements it is reporting on:
"Akayev is lost," says Alexei Malashenko, another expert with the Carnegie Centre in Moscow. "Kyrgyzstan's population is disillusioned with the elite. The opposition is strong, well-organized and has international as well as domestic backing."
Not exactly full disclosure.
No one can deny that there is an overwhelming need for grassroots democratic movements in the former Soviet republics, nor can anyone deny that these movements have a lot of popular support.
But if we had anything approaching a sane, free press, there would be some debate about the effect that tens of millions of dollars in funding will have on democracy. Imagine if the NDP was given $20 million by the Swedish Government. Wouldn't there be just a bit of speculation about their legitimacy as a democratic party representing Canadians?
The equivalent is happening in the Ukraine and other former Soviet republics, and it elicits no concern at all from journalists in Canada. What's more, these "democratic" revolutions have a track record in Georgia and Serbia, and it's being keenly ignored.
For more on this, read Manufacturing Democracy: The politics of media coverage: Haiti, Ukraine, Georgia, from the December issue of the Dominion.
It's worth nothing, finally, that coverage of similar popular movements in countries that don't get Canadian and US funding is systematically repressed in the Canadian Press (even when it is reported stateside). Journalists and editors are liberal in their manipulation of facts to tell the story they want to tell.
Is that what we have in mind when we say it's a free country?
Elections in Portugal
Portugal is in the middle of elections...
BBC: "Pre-election surveys suggest the Socialists might obtain their first-ever absolute majority."
Pfizer
BusinessWeek: "Every weekday, some 38,000 Pfizer sales reps fan out around the globe. Armed with briefcases full of free drug samples, reams of clinical data, and lavish expense accounts for wining and dining their quarry, the reps infiltrate doctors' offices and hospitals. Their goal: to persuade medical professionals the world over to make Pfizer drugs the treatment of choice for their patients' aches and pains."
Schadenfreude
Richard Perle was nearly missed by a shoe and called a "motherfucking liar" by a roudy audience member. He was debating Howard Dean in Portland, Oregon.
The "motherfucking liar guy", or MFLG, kinda stole the show for a while. Remember that part in Austin Powers when Dr. Evil dumps Will Ferrell into his trap oven chamber thingy and then can't get on with his evil meeting because you here Will Ferrell screaming for the next several minutes -- think that. Perle kept trying to continue, and although the MFLG had been removed from the main theatre area, one could hear him screaming his signature line, with a few "Let me go, motherfuckers" thrown in.
Robot Army
The US is building a robot army, against the wishes of one Isaac Asimov.
Charkaoui released
After two years of being held under a security certificate, Adil Charkaoui is out.
"We now look forward to two things. The day that my brother is entirely cleared of these allegations, and the day that this discriminatory, Kafkaesque process is eliminated altogether," added Hind Charkaoui.
Close Encounters of the Intransigent Politician Kind
This is as close as it gets to liveblogging on the Dominion Weblog... I'm at McGill's "Canada's Place in the World" conference, where a few Canadian foreign policy bigwigs (Bill Graham, Pierre Pettigrew, Aileen Caroll) and a lot of fresh-faced students are discussing, well, Canada's place in the world.
Wireless isn't working, so I'll post this post facto.
The debate seems to have been significantly constrained by the fact that our government apparently has little to no ability to deviate from what the US tells us to do, and the terrorist threat of course dominated the agenda. Security certificates, AIDS, and other worthy issues did make guest appearances.
But let's be honest, I was there to ask questions of the keynote speakers, the three ministers listed below.
Pierre Pettigrew
It's the usual. Pettigrew talked about his eight day trip to the middle east, and how he was always hearing. A lot of people seemed to be impressed, though I confess that it seemed like a lot of abstract platitudes: partnership, trust, etc.
The interesting part came during the press scrum after the talk. One reporter asked him about human rights in Haiti, and he responded with a throwaway answer about strengthening "our" presence there. I asked him a followup about whether the Government was going to fully disclose the program that the RCMP is using to train the Haitian National Police (which several human rights groups and eyewitnesses have accused of commiting massacres in poor neighbourhoods in Haiti and taking political prisoners), but I didn't finish the question. He cut me off, and ignored attempts to finish the question. He was heckled a bit by some activists who were in the scrum. I followed him out the door, repeatedly asking the same (simple) question about disclosure. He didn't say anything, but got a bit flustered and started making faces at me and waving his hands around his head (apparently mocking me?). This image will be with me for a while, and was, despite the seriousness of the issue, totally hilarious in a pathetic way.
His communications guy Sebastien Théberge stuck around and answered questions, but was stunning in his total lack of basic information, despite having been to Haiti. He kept telling me to send him human rights reports. There's no way an even remotely responsible Foreign Affairs dept wouldn't be aware of, say, the University of Miami Report on Haiti. In this sense, I sort of preferred Pettigrew's faces to Théberge's bullshit. But I'll send him the report all the same.
Earlier on, I evesdropped a bit on Pettigrew's schmoozing, and was, despite my jaded nature, astounded at the intensity of the self congratulation and reinforcement that goes on. If you've seen The Corporation, the footage of Pettigrew with Tom D'Aquino is totally indicative of what goes on in these comfortable rooms.
But jeez, what I wouldn't give for a photo of Pierre Pettigrew making faces at me.
[after the jump: Aileen Carroll, Bill Graham]
read more...A response to Mr. Bowie's question
Space.com: "A pair of NASA scientists told a group of space officials at a private meeting here Sunday that they have found strong evidence that life may exist today on Mars, hidden away in caves and sustained by pockets of water."
Venezuelan Power Plays
Check out Jessica Leight's fascinating analysis of Chavez's recent realpolitikal power plays.
Defend Ward Churchill
Coloroado AIM Chapter has a petition, "Defend Ward Churchill and Protect Academic Freedom."
Macdonald Stainsby has written a very thoughtful piece, "Ward Churchill and the Respectable Left."
Ambassador to Iraq to become new Intelligence Czar.
The long awaited nomination of the newly created post of Director of National Intelligence has been announced.
John Negroponte has long been a diplomatic favourite. Read more about him here.
Counterpunch ran a piece on him in June 2004.
Slow day in the science dept.
The Guardian: Saturn's moon is the double of Star Wars space station
Don't ask, don't tell
If you don't follow US news (and who wants to?), you might have missed the fact that a "reporter" who had access to the White House, and was known for asking extremely friendly questions (e.g. "are the democrats completely divorced from reality?") has another career, as a US Marine Corps-themed gay prostitute.
New Maclean's Editor
Maclean's magazine has a new editor. He used to be a reporter at the (need I say right wing?) Alberta Report.
Canada: Copyright Test Case
Canada's copyfight explained, demystified
For example, Canada's rightsholders want to replace "notice-and-takedown" (an ISP has to remove material when someone complains that it might be infringing) with a "notice-and-terminate" regime (an ISP has to kick off its customer if anyone, anywhere accuses them of infringing).The speech referred to above was webcast, though it would be nice to get a text version.
V-Day?
If you're looking for a good Valentine's Day gift, I suggest 2/15: The Day The World Said NO To War, from AK Press. Perfect for reading on the second anniversary of the day over 11 millions people on seven continents took a day to reject the planned US invasion of Iraq.
It was a day unique in human history. There's pretty much no precedent that I know of.
Check out these photos and these, and download and print this poster and display it to commemorate the two year mark.
North Korea
The WSWS has an interesting piece on North Korea. Here's a key fact, widely ignored yet utterly obvious:
Pyongyang has repeatedly declared that it was willing to reach a deal with Washington over its nuclear programs in exchange for a formal mutual non-aggression pact. The White House dismissed these offers out of hand and refused to negotiate directly, insisting that it would not "reward bad behaviour".
Counterweights to Big Media
The Tyee: Creating Counterweights to Big Media (How to open up Canada's news media in an era of corporate concentration.)
Killing Journalism
Body and Soul has a rundown of all of the journalists that the US military has wounded or killed.
The occasion for the recap was the teapot tempest that occurred when a CNN journalist suggested that these killings were not accidental. There is a lot of compelling evidence that they were not accidental, but that doesn't matter. This happens anytime someone steps out of line with the consensus--there's a big scandal, the evidence is ignored, the person's career is threatened, and they are forced to either distance themselves from their reasonable remarks, or step down.
It happens rarely, because people tend to anticipate the ill effects. The overall result, in the end, is chilling.
Social Security
For those who don't have time to read about the Social Security debate in the US, Jonathan Schwarz sums it up with an analogy:
NICHOLAS: It's impolite to say so in this part of town, but George has a point: whether it's twenty or forty or a million years from now, we're going to face genuine problems with pigeons crapping on public statues.
GEORGE: Exactly! We must build a giant laser to destroy Mars!
Canadian Govn't Backs GM "Terminator" Seeds
Guardian: Canada backs terminator seeds
An international moratorium on the use of one of the world's most controversial GM food technologies may be broken today if the Canadian government gets seed sterilisation backed at a UN meeting.
Who are these "Canadians", anyway? Apparently they don't have anything to do with this country, because the media that is owned by people who live here has yet to cover this story.
Kevin Pina Victoria and Vancouver Speaking Schedule
**Please Circulate Widely**
Kevin Pina on Occupied Haiti
Wake Up With Co-Op Radio, Friday Moring, 8:40 A.M. 102.7 FM,
http://www.coopradio.org
Friday, February 11, 7p.m. public forum at SFU Harbour Centre, Room 1900. and,
Friday, Feb. 11, 11a.m. Film screening and discussion at Langara College Student
Union Lounge
Friday, Feb. 11, 2:30p.m. Discussion with trade unionists, Boardroom 3 at Maritime
Labour Centre (111 Victoria Dr.)
Saturday, 9:00 A.M. Interview, Red Eye Radio on Co-op Radio, 102.7 P.M. www.coopradio.org
Saturday, meet Kevin Pina at the Co-Development Film Festival, Faculty Lounge (through student cafeteria) Langara Campus 11 a.m. Join discussion 12:30 to 1:30
p.m.
Independent journalist Kevin Pina will be visiting Vancouver as part of a cross-Canada tour. This is a unique opportunity to get on-the-ground news and analysis about the situation in occupied Haiti. Kevin will also be travelling to
Victoria, and will be meeting with trade unionists, students and others while in
B.C.
The Canadian government and military played a key role in the coup against Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and continues to be a major player in the
occupation and
illegal regime change. For more information on Kevin Pina's tour, contact afenton@riseup.net. Check out www.haitiaction.net for continuing coverage from
Haiti.
Organized by Haiti Information Project Tour Committee.
Endorsed by StopWar.ca and Vancouver & District Labour Council
Victoria:
Democracy Betrayed: Occupied Haiti
February 10, 2005, 7:30 PM
University of Victoria
UVIC David Strong Building, Room C103
Independent journalist Kevin Pina will be visiting Victoria as part of a cross-Canada tour. This is a unique oppotunity to get on the ground news and analysis about the situation in occupied Haiti.
The Canadian government and military played a key role in the coup against Jean Bertrand Aristide, and continues to be a major player in the occupation and reinforement of the illegal regime. For continuing coverage from Haiti check out www.haitiaction.net
Organized by the Victoria Peace Coalition, Co-Sponsors: UVIC Faculty of Education, UVSS, Armed With Understanding, Central American Support committee.
What Ward Didn't Say
"What is necessary is cruel and strong reactions. We need precision in time, place, and casualties...we must strike mercilessly, women and children included. Otherwise, the reaction is inefficient. At the place of action, there is no need to distinguish between guilty and innocent."
Mickey Z on What Ward Churchill Didn't Say
Joseph Pannell
Those who followed the case of Joseph Pannell (or read my piece about about the media coverage of his case) will be interested in two decent articles from the Toronto Star: Cold case fuelled by race and politics and You see a fugitive, I see a friend.
But the reopening of what one Chicago investigator has called the coldest of cold cases is raising disturbing questions of race, politics and power.
"I wonder if a black man had been shot by a police officer 36 years ago, whether this kind of pursuit through the decades would've taken place,'' said Pannell's Canadian lawyer Julian Falconer....
we export more to Home Depot than we do to France.
Canada and the United States: Engaging the new Administration -- where do we go from here?
Remarks by Michael Kergin,
Ambassador of Canada to the United States
to the The Vancouver Board of Trade
Vancouver, British Columbia
December 9, 2004
Useful for any Canadian writer
Dave's Truly Canadian Dictionary of Canadian Spelling
Vote in Vietnam
Same propaganda, different decade.
United States officials were surprised and heartened today at the size of turnout in South Vietnam's presidential election despite a Vietcong terrorist campaign to disrupt the voting. According to reports from Saigon, 83 percent of the 5.85 million registered voters cast their ballots yesterday. Many of them risked reprisals threatened by the Vietcong. A successful election has long been seen as the keystone in President Johnson's policy of encouraging the growth of constitutional processes in South Vietnam.
NYTimes, September 4, 1967.
US Exit Poll Discrepancies
ZNet: Prominent Statisticians Refute 'Explanation' of 2004 U.S. Exit Poll Discrepancies
The statisticians go on to note that precincts with hand-counted paper ballots showed no statistical discrepancy between the exit polls and the official results, but for other voting technologies, the overall discrepancy was far larger than the polls' margin of error. The pollsters at Edison/Mitofsky agreed that their 2004 exit polls, for whatever reason, had the poorest accuracy in at least twenty years.
Ward Churchill assaulted by reality deniers
Native American author and activist Ward Churchill is under attack by reactionaries across the United States and within corporate media America. Distorting his reasoned post-9/11 analysis, many are opposing his right to free speech and his responsibility to expose the crimes of the American government. This situation has forced Churchill to resign as chair of the department of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The original essay, which you can read here, was written days after 9/11, and was eventually reproduced in an award-winning and meticulously documented chronology of U.S. aggression since 1776, "On the Justice of roosting Chickens: Reflections on the Arrogance of U.S. Imperial Arrogance and Criminality, available through AK Press. Despite being essentially forced to resign, Churchill reiterates the actual intent of his argument in a January 31st press release:
"In the last few days there has been widespread and grossly inaccurate media coverage concerning my analysis of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, coverage that has resulted in defamation of my character and threats against my life. What I actually said has been lost, indeed turned into the opposite of itself, and I hope the following facts will be reported at least to the same extent that the fabrications have been."