Blogs

Guelph saw two events, back to back. The first was a quick gathering at the Bookshelf's eBar, and the second was more of a student crowd at the University. We chatted with Mary Skerrett of CHAN, Karen Houle, and fielded a lot of thoughtful questions from a great many others.

It was good to see something of a nascent movement towards awareness of native sovereignty issues and a possible tilt towards decolonization among some of the student organizers.

From Ottawa, we moved quickly to our nation's capital in order to miss the massive snowstorm that was... oh wait. Anyway, we went to Toronto quickly, and were able to avoid the monster snow dump last weekend. Other than an interlude involving a fever and stumbling around in a haze for one and a half days, things went well.

We picked up the rest of our tshirts from the excellent and supportive Punchclock Printing, and did a quick little presentation at OISE.

David from Canadians for Democratic Media and Reg McQuaid from Kairos were there, among others. John David took a bunch of photos during the presentation.

David told us about how he used to teach journalism in BC, but how there was very little point, it seemed, in teaching students how to practice journalism ethically, because there was really nowhere that would actually let them use those kinds of skills.

Greg Palast has an interesting article about the connection between former NY governor Eliot Spitzer's public shaming and the sub-prime crisis.

Reposted from an OCAP email

(Please see Robert Maurice's ex-wife's response at bottom)

On March 4, OCAP held a protest in city council around the freezing death of a homeless Native man named Robert Maurice which had been reported in various media. Twelve days earlier OCAP, and a number of agencies attended a committee meeting to express our concerns about the closing of over 300 shelters beds, which has led to serious overcrowding in Toronto hostels. We expressed our anger at Mayor David Miller and city politicians who had remained silent around Robert’s death.

It was later discovered that although Robert had been homeless on and off for many years, he did have housing at the time of his death. Robert had been living in a private Habitat boarding home for psychiatric survivors since late summer 2006. He was forced to share a small room. We were told that up to thirty people lived in the house. Robert would have had very little privacy in that boarding home. Most of Robert’s income would have gone to pay for his room and board leaving him very little money.

These blogging plans start with the best of intentions, but things get out of hand quickly. Here's an attempt to catch up on the places we've visited:

Sackville gave us lots of love, with a well-attended event at the United Church (thanks to Judith Weiss and Ramsey Hart for an excellent organizing job). I got to chat (briefly) with the current editors of the Argosy, which is always fun. We heard grumbling about the Irvings, and their new refinery (as we did everywhere in NB). The big story in town, it seems, is the back room dealings around water privatization. I confess to not delving into the details, but it sounds to be a sordid story of backroom deals, no-bid contracts and cash bonanzas for French water multinationals. Exciting times.

Woodstock wasn't actually an official stop on the tour, but it's a good stopping point on the way to Montreal, and it's also the home of one of the only newspapers not owned by the Irving family in NB, though we didn't get a chance to visit. We did hear about the Irving's tactics in the forestry industry, which is hurting (due in large part to Canada's "strong" oil profits). Many pulp and lumber mills are closing, and Irving has taken the opportunity to grab the rights to crown land and sign deals with the government to keep the mills permanently closed, effectively making their lock on the local industry even stronger and long-lasting.

Our stop in Halifax went by all too quickly. We met up with our co-editor Hillary, said hi to a few dozen people, gave a presentation to what was once again quite a decent turnout.

We didn't really get to hear about anything in enough depth to discuss it, so some mumblings about Lincolnville, HCAP, Cinema Politica, and cool housing coops will have to suffice.

Rabble.ca's Derrick O'Keefe recently gathered a significant statement by Malalai Joya, one of the more courageous and heroic political figures in Afghanistan today. She makes the memorable statement below about the billions of dollars in military spending and aid money which has effectively been squandered in Afghanistan by the run-away corruption of the Karzai government.

The Congressional Budget Office says that the U.S. will spend $2.4 trillion over the next ten years on the "war on terror." If they instead spent this money properly and honestly, not only would Iraq and Afghanistan be made into heaven but, also, world poverty would be eliminated.

Definitely worth the read!

For a town of 800 (and by any standard), Tatamagouche has set the bar high for support of the Media Coop. About 15 people came out to our presentation during a blizzard on a Saturday night, and we signed up five sustainers.

Granted, the Media Coop has strong roots in the area, as the folks at Waldegrave farm are good friends of many Dominion editors and supporters since the beginning.

Pictured here is Meghan MacCulloch--who hand-painted a beautiful Dominion banner which will be accompanying us on future stops--sporting her new Dominion t-shirt.

Tatamagouche is home to some strong local organizing, including a regular Cinema Politica Film screening, a local currency, a free school, a cooperatively-run organic farm or two, and much more.

The Own Your Media tour had its first on-time arrival in Antigonish, though we had some stiff competition a Bob Dylan tribute show was playing the same night.

An enthusiastic crowd nonetheless filled up the Antigonish fixture the Tall and Small Café, and peppered us with questions following a longer-than-usual presentation.

We didn't get as much of a chance to hear about local issue, though many told us that the Tar Sands issue found resonance in the region.

We did, however, stay at a farm featured in Briarpatch Magazine's "Alternative Routes" series, thanks to artist-and-resident Fenn, who, along with Tall and Small Proprietor Meghan Peters and St. FX student Jesse Watkins Coady, helped organized the local stop.

Jesse's great-uncle was Moses Coady, the founder of the Coady Institute, an affiliation than many attendees shared.

The first leg of the Own Your Media tour got off to a slow start when copious snow and slow snow plows tacked an extra four hours onto the stretch of road between Montreal and Quebec City. We were forced to reschedule the Fredericton to the following night, but had a brief informal discussion with some students taking a class from Tracy Glynn, our inestimable Fredericton contact.

Tracy has written a number of articles for the Dominion. Go check em out. She's also a tireless local organizer, and she was busy promoting local Cinema Politica screenings, postering for a native solidarity talk in New Brunswick, showing up to intervene at countless discussions, hearings and consultations, and in the recent past, campaigning against the ubiquitous "support our troops" placards and stickers.

Last fall, Tracy and others visited local businesses, asking them to remove "support our troops" stickers from their windows. They pointed out that the stickers were funded by the Department of National Defence and amounted to a pro-war stance. Predictably, the campaign angered some military families, and several members of the group received death threats.

We also met Dana Brown, one of the founders of Citizen's Press www.citizenspress.org, an interesting and promising independent project that, like many others, seems to be on hiatus for the moment.

Alex Corey has also been an organizational force in Fredericton, distributing copies of the tar sands issue downtown and helping promote the Fredericton stop.

In a surprise move, the Venezuela government has donated audio-visual production equipment to 69 community television facilities across the country. The Communication and Information Minister Andres Izarra, speaking to over 400 community television representatives in Caracas, said that community television has a crucial role to play in the struggle for truth. The donation comes in response to what has been described as a “savage” opposition media campaign currently underway by Globovision.

The donation has been well received by community television producers, according to Jhonny Pancho, representative of Catia TV, one of Venezuela's oldest community television stations. As for any perceived influence peddling by the government, Pancho and Caita TV president Gabriel Gil were adamant that community television remains independent of government.

Community television responds to people's needs rather than government needs, said Gil. More than 70 per cent of the programming is produced by community collectives.

Go to venezuelanalysis.com for the more story.

Also, for some background check out Justin Podur's piece on Znet.

Not even an hour after the declaration was made in Kosovo that it was 'officially' an independent country, people were gathering in the different cities in Serbia. Belgrade and Novi Sad saw the most destruction.

Going around downtown Belgrade in the last few hours one can see packs of men trying to catch up to large groups who are still roaming the city. The Slovakian embassy had all its window's smashed. Many shops and buildings were similarly damaged, cops were hurt, and many journalists were injured. Lots of spray paint went up today, slogans such as 'EU NEVER' and '1389,' referring to the Serbian historic battle in Kosovo where Serbs fought against the Turks, 'protecting the Christian world' and their territories.

The people rioting were members of Obraz, a clerical-Fascist group, and of many various football clubs.

Obraz is accused of the bombing of the Slovakian owned shopping mall Mercator in Belgrade last week. They also demonstrated this week at Kontekst, an art gallery, as it was opening an exhibit that showcased artists from Pristina, Kosovo. The exhibit was shut down and art pieces were destroyed.

Big demonstrations have been called for tomorrow, one at noon at the university, another an hour later called by Activni Centar, a group that has been running a major advertising campaign for the last few months focused upon keeping Kosovo inside Serbia. Thousands are expected.

The government has called for a demonstration at noon on Thursday.

-10:36pm Sunday
Belgrade, Serbia

...followed by violence.

With this letter I would like to officially withdraw as a member of the jury for the 2008 Prize of the Alex and Ruth Dworkin Foundation for the Promotion of Tolerance through Cinema (2008 Prix annuel de la Fondation Alex et Ruth Dworkin pour la promotion de la tolérance à travers le cinéma) at the Rendez-Vous du Cinéma Québecois.

For those who may not be aware, this prize, which includes a grant of $5000, “goes to a producer representing the production team which has best demonstrated, in the winning work, a message of comprehension and tolerance”.

I accepted the invitation from the Rendez-Vous du Cinéma Québecois to join this year’s jury in good faith. But after examining in more detail the political and financial basis of the prize I must refuse to have my name associated with it. Behind this noble sounding “award for tolerance” hides a story of intolerance, division and discrimination.

Firstly, I quit the jury because the Prix annuel de la Fondation Alex and Ruth Dworkin is an initiative of the Congrès juif canadien, Région du Québec, an organization which I consider to be a vehicle for the Israeli propaganda machine and fundamentally intolerant of dissent and difference, particularly when it comes to Israeli government policies.

One case in point is the refusal of the national leadership of the Congrès juif canadian (CJC) to accept a recent membership application from the Alliance of Concerned Jewish Canadians (ACJC).

ACJC members “joined together to create a cross-Canada alliance of Jewish anti-occupation forces… whose views are not represented by the government of Israel or by the uncritical positions taken by the leadership of the major Jewish organizations in Canada.”

If you have twenty extra dollars or more, you could help 31 children in Haiti’s second city, Cap Haitian, finish their school year. Let me explain. I recently completed my third trip to Haiti as an independent journalist investigating the ongoing impact of the US-France-Canada coup d’état of 2004. It is no exaggeration to say that this event and the policies which followed have left 8 million people in a desperate state. When I was introduced to Madame Bwa, a key community activist in the poorest community of Haiti’s second city, Cap Haitian, I was faced with a startling sight: 26 young people, aged 4 to 18 who had all been sent home from school in the previous 2 weeks because their families couldn’t afford their children’s basic school fees. Madame Bwa informed me that there were five more, bringing the total to 31, but that they were not present that day.

I have maintained close contact with Madame Bwa since returning to Canada. She has done the math, and says that she needs $650 to pay the school fees for all of these children so they can finish the year. This is the current reality in Haiti. The state has been crippled by the last two coup d’états and is unable to subsidize anyone’s education. People are left to themselves in a society where unemployment sits at 70%. 96% of Haitian children never finish high school because of poverty. Your donation will not solved Haiti’s economic crisis. It will however ensure that 31 young people finish the 2008 school year. If you have some extra money, please contribute.

Now, I usually have some quibbles with these kind of reports. The Human Development Index is a sketch only, a calculation of a country's GDP per capita, its gross enrollment rate, literacy rates, and life expectancy at birth. There's a lot left out of the "development" picture by this index, and far too often, the index is used by the richest nations on earth to identify the oft-scapegoated "failed states" nations which tend to fall at the bottom of this scale.

That said, you have to sit back in amazement when a country as poor as Afghanistan can STILL see its ranking on the HDI fall during the exact period in which Canadian, US, and European aid disbursements are at their highest point.

Interestingly, the HDI report finds that Afghanistan has experienced significant economic growth in recent years (no doubt fuelled at least in part by the opium trade) though, as with many other regions throughout the global south, this growth effectively serves to mask the widening of economic inequality.

Although Afghanistan has maintained double-digit economic growth over the past several years, it has failed to reduce extreme and prevalent poverty and hunger significantly, the report says.

The Hong Kong government's attempt to shut down pirate radio broadcaster Citizen's Radio was scuttled in a recent decision of the Hong Kong High Court. In the decision, the Court stated that it did not see how the station's broadcasting could jeopardize public safety.

In a complicated ongoing legal battle, the Hong Kong government had sought to extend an injunction preventing the station from going to air. Citizen's Radio argued that denial of their application for a license violated their freedom of expression.

The unlicensed broadcasts were started in 2005 by a group of pro-democracy activists after their application for a license was denied by the Broadcasting Authority. The station airs phone-ins and discussions about current events and politics, including discussions about Hong Kong's transition to full democracy. In 2006, the station was raided by state agents, members were arrested and equipment confiscated.

After resuming broadcasts, the station got under official skin once again in May 2007 after legendary democracy activist, Szeto Wah, was interviewed about the Tiananmen Square Massacre. After the interview, Wah was charged with "knowingly becoming involved in the use of unlicensed communications equipment in order to transmit radio signals."

Citizen's Radio broadcasts on 102.8 FM from a tiny 150 square foot studio in a warehouse district in Mongok. They also distribute programming from their website.

For several months there has been a new twist in the history for the poor in Haiti, but the story has been enveloped in silence. The standard of living has been declining, with rising costs of basic goods and a continued lack of social programs. People cannot afford to eat.

Haiti has become a 'republic of NGOs' long dependent on outside aid because of the methodical destruction of its own civil enterprises and popular alternatives.

Around the new-year a huge march against poverty and unemployment took place in the capital of Port-au-Prince. The protestors demanded reparations and that the government represent the interests of the poor.

The most pressing issue for the poor is the most basic commodity of life, food. This week, particularly in the poorest districts, such as Cité-Soleil, people go starving and bathe in muddy streets. In Cité-Soleil, a woman sells small plots of eroded land for a living. She says it "is my life, this is where I earn my daily income."

Haiti's wealthy in the hills of Pétionville, where most foreign journalists spend their time, have profited from the growing gap in wealth.

NGOs more and more fill the abyss, an abyss left by the eroded state. But one must ask: Should NGOs replace the state? Why is this happening? What is the plan of the government? Is the government folding in on itself for the sake of global capitalism?

The Fascists Are Still Capable

A new blow is always being prepared, afraid of what the popular winds might bring. "Resignation", investigation, imprisonment, interpellation of the rich, we must wait for the results. They will tell us what happens. This is the fake democracy we are living with in Haiti. A "democracy" only in rhetoric.

I never thought Anne Coulter would get my attention, but here she is on Fox News, making the case that Hillary Clinton is more conservative than John McCain, and she makes some decent points. Actually, I find it impossible to tell if these people take themselves even a little bit seriously, but while I was confused, she managed to get my attention, which is of course the point. Coulter 1, Me 0.

Mohamed Harkat, one of the "security certificate five" was arrested at his home while taking his morning shower yesterday. The stated reason on behalf of federal immigration authorities was the fact that his mother-in-law was not home at the time. His bail conditions stipulated that she remain living with Harkat and his wife. She still lives with both of them.

From Harkat's support committee:

MOHAMED HARKAT, SECURITY CERTIFICATE DETAINEE UNJUSTLY ARRESTED IN OTTAWA

What happened:

Mohamed Harkat was arrested Tuesday afternoon by Ottawa police
accompanied by Canadian Border Services agents at his home in Ottawa. CBSA alleges that Mohamed Harkat breached his bail conditions. In fact no breach occurred. The crown has 48 hours to bring him before a federal court judge. Mohamed Harkat is also already scheduled to appear in court next week to argue for changes in his bail conditions.

What you can do:

A) We ask organizations to issue statements along the lines of the following statement from the Justice for Mohamed Harkat Committee.

Statement from the Justice for Mohamed Harkat Committee

1. There was no breach of Mohamed Harkat's bail conditions. This, despite the conditions imposed being the toughest in Canadian history.
2. The arrest's timing was highly questionable given the facts:
- Mohamed Harkat's bail is up for review next week;
- Bill C-3, the new Security Certificates law, is being debated this week in the House of Commons.
This arrest could only have happened by order of a cabinet Minister - which was confirmed to Mohamed Harkat by CBSA officials. It also occurred on the eve of Adil Charkaoui's Supreme Court appeal.
3. The arrest constitutes harassment in the context of an
unconstitutional law.

An interesting treatment in Reason traces the political ins and outs of Sylvester Stallone's Rambo franchise. In light of the fact that Rambo fights alongside US-funded Mujahideen in Rambo III, this excerpt is mildly amusing.

the word "Iraq" appears nowhere in the movie, and neither do "Al Qaeda," "Islam," "9/11," or "bin Laden." The writer/director/actor told Ain't It Cool News that he did this because "the idea of Rambo dealing with Al-Qaeda, etc. would be an insult to our American forces that are actually dying trying to rid the world of this cancer. To have at the end of a 90 minute movie the character of Rambo seizing Osama bin Laden in a choke hold then dragging him into the Oval Office then tossing him in the President's lap declaring 'The world is now safe, Chief' would be a bit insulting." I don't doubt Stallone's sincerity, though World War II-era GIs didn't seem to mind the fact that Superman, Captain America, and the rest were fighting alongside them in the comic books. Personally, I wouldn't have minded seeing some of the Afghan heroes of Rambo III return as villains in Rambo IV, but that might push the franchise into areas that Stallone would rather leave alone.

The second part of the Globe and Mail's tar sands touches on the paradox at the heart of talk of Canada becoming an "energy superpower".

American thirst for Canadian oil is fuelled in part by Canada's lack of geopolitical ambition. Despite its growing importance as a supplier to the world's biggest oil consumer, Canada is the anti-superpower: a gentle giant that doesn't wield its oil clout as a geopolitical club (think Russia or Venezuela), or set a benchmark for world prices (like Saudi Arabia). It isn't lawless or war-ravaged (Nigeria or Iraq).

So if I understand this correctly, Canada wields massive geopolitical leverage, but chooses not to use it. Is that because Canadians are so nice?

But seriously, if a superpower chooses not to do anything with its influence, is it still a superpower? If you don't spend money, can you be rich? Is Canada's elite really that boring, that even when they are handed unimaginable piles of riches and significant geopolitical influence, the best thing they can think to spend it on is a) enriching a small fraction of Americans and b) taking a cut of what's left over... in that order?

That would appear to be the case.

The problem, of course, is that the riches and influence that Canada's elite are choosing to give away are also the source of what's shaping up to be the most significant environmental disaster in North America's living memory.

If that wasn't the case, I'd wonder if anyone has made a list of what could be done with those resources and influence other than, say, nothing.

[Press release, passing it on]

For immediate release
January 28, 2008

PRESS RELEASE

The self-determining people of the Tobique First Nation (TFN) are saying loud and clear that we have had enough of the racism and bureaucratic bullying that our community has received from the Department of Indian Affairs since the first Indian Act and the first Indian Reservations were forced upon our people. Why is it that ONLY Indians are forced to live on government-made reservations and under the government-made Indian Act? Why is there no government act or government reservation for the French or Germans etc? Everyone knows why, and it has nothing to do with Indians wanting it that way and everything to do with the theft of our homeland.

Our people are fed up and are organizing to take our self-respect and our self-determination back in order to fulfill our responsibility to the Seventh Generation. We are meeting in order to develop a strategy and an action plan.

Both the strategy and action plan are to create a better and equal relationship with our political and bureaucratic "rulers". A relationship that is based on mutual respect, mutual tolerance, mutual understanding and mutual acceptance. As opposed to how it has been: distrustful, adversarial, confrontational and acrimonious.

The straw that broke the camels back was the recent action by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) officials to fire the consulting firm that was hired by INAC to assist the Tobique First Nation as it works to straighten out its longstanding financial/fiscal mess.

INAC’s action to fire this consultant firm was done without cause. It was done highhandedly with no prior consultation with neither our community, nor its elected officials nor the consultant firm.

Immitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

The first of the Globe and Mail's week-long series on the tar, I mean, oil sands has at least one interesting insight, though it'll be interesting to keep track of all the things that they don't mention.

And money is getting tight in Thunder Bay. Anyone who looks closely may see some irony in the fact that the closing of local paper mills is at least partly because the loonie has been driven to record heights thanks to Alberta's staggering wealth.

But one person's downturn is another's upswing. While places like Thunder Bay suffer, many Canadians enjoy the proceeds of rising oil stocks. The spotlight on Alberta ended the long-lamented discount attached to Canadian oil company shares, which have outperformed their U.S. counterparts of late. (Suncor, for instance, has become the world's best performer among big oil companies that are traded publicly.)

It's something that the Globe can toss out there casually and then forget about, but it's actually a huge economic issue in Canada. The oil boom in Alberta allows investors to continue to pretend that the economy is ok, while sectors like timber and manufacturing approach a full-blown crisis.

Roger Annis is one of Canada’s most dedicated and lucid voices on the subject of the ongoing impact of Canadian policy in Haiti. In this two-part podcast interview by Canadian photographer Darren Ell, Roger describes what he calls a social and economic calamity in Haiti. He traces key elements of this crisis to the 2004 coup d’état in which Canada, France and the US participated, and to a foreign aid system which is keeping Haiti dependent. He addresses what he describes as the failures of NGO’s and human rights organizations to defend democracy in Haiti, the propaganda campaign that deluded the public as to the events surrounding the coup d’état of 2004, and foreign-imposed economic policies that are destroying the country and undermining its sovereignty.

The interview includes a discussion about the way forward for Haiti in light of the new developments in neighbouring South America. Click here to hear the podcast.

By Stefan Christoff
Hour

Algerian refugee Abdelkader Belaouni has spent the past two years in sanctuary at St-Gabriel's Church in Pointe St-Charles. On Jan. 1, 2005, Belaouni took sanctuary in open defiance of a deportation ordered by Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

"I'm not hiding from Immigration Canada, but I want to tell them clearly, I will not be presenting myself for deportation," stated Belaouni in a public statement at the time.

Ever since, Abdelkader Belaouni, with the support of multiple community organizations and social justice groups, has been fighting a very public battle with Immigration Canada. It isn't the only battle he's faced in this lifetime. In 1996 he escaped a violent civil conflict in Algeria, which took an estimated 100,000 civilian lives. As a blind man, Belaouni made the journey to New York City, and while he never gained status there he did carve out an independent life selling telephone cards.

Following Sept. 11, 2001, Belaouni left New York out of the fear of systemic persecution against Arabs and Muslims, including mass deportations, disappearances and the fire-bombings of mosques. Immigration Canada didn't exercise sympathy or compassion in the case, instead issuing a deportation order for Belaouni three years after his arrival in Montreal.

Today, Belaouni remains in sanctuary, never having stepped foot outside St-Gabriel's Church in all the time he's been there. "After two years I remain here without status. It is tiring, it is depressing, I want freedom," he explains. "It is clear that the government is aware of my current suffering and my difficult history in Algeria; they must act now and regularize my status."

For a bit of background on the Laibar Singh story, check out NOII organizer Harsha Walia's article from December.

[FYI...]

With Kanahus Pellkey from the Native Youth Movement and Dustin Johnson

With the 2010 Winter Olympics scheduled to occur on unceded Coast Salish, St'at'imc and Squamish territory in two years, the spectacle surrounding them continues to wreak havoc on Indigenous people, poor people, and the Earth. In the spirit of resistance to colonialism, with the 2010 Olympics as a main target, Kanahus Pellkey of the Native Youth Movement and Native youth Dustin Johnson are touring throughout the Great Lakes and East Coast in January and February 2008.

"By them choosing to have the Olympics here, it's opening up our land, our sacred sites, our medicine grounds," says Kanahus Pellkey. "We want investors to know our land is not for sale." Pre-Olympic fever occupies the province of BC, and the economic excitement has massively accelerated gentrification and the building of highways, resorts, and condos. The construction of infrastructure for the 2010 Olympics itself is adding to extensive destruction of traditional homelands of the local Indigenous peoples.

In October 2007, more than 1500 Indigenous people representing communities across this hemisphere held the Gathering of the Indigenous Peoples of America, on Yaqui territory in Vicam, Sonora, Mexico. They stated in their final declaration, "We reject the 2010 Winter Olympics on sacred and stolen territory of Turtle Island–Vancouver, Canada." This speaking tour is strengthened by this momentum, and by the knowledge that hundreds, if not thousands of Indigenous people now plan to attend the Olympic Games, not in celebration, but in resistance to the danger the Olympics poses to Indigenous lands, identity, culture, health, livelihoods, and to future generations.

[The following is a letter to the editor received on Jan 8, 2008]

From the beginning, the Crown, Ontario and agents wanted the farcical mediation meetings to be held behind closed doors. They wanted to isolate the Ardoch and Shabot Algonquin "leadership" to make secret $deals$ over a supposed uranium mine. According to Indigenous law, such meetings that concern the people should be open to the people as the Algonquins have repeatedly insisted.

Suddenly, Ontario says the meetings are open to the public but now they are to be held in Kingston, outside of Algonquin territory, two hours away from the affected community. Moving the mediation out of Algonquin territory is also a breach of Algonquin law.

However, this is a clear case of the proverbial, "Out of the frying pan and into the fire!" Kingston is in Mohawk territory!

Why, we must ask, would the meetings be moved to Kingston? For whose convenience? We hear rumours of Crown agents who need city night life and their accustomed type of "watering hole", not available in the remote areas of Sharbot Lake. The new location was certainly handy for the Mohawks, perhaps too handy. When they changed the venue, the mediation team knew Kahentinetha Horn of MNN was planning to attend - Randy Cota and Bob Lovelace had invited her!

(In July 2007, the Algonquins sent a wampum to the Mohawks seeking their help in the blockade against uranium mining at Robertsville. Nuclear development on Algonquin land would affect Mohawk communities downstream. This official nation to nation agreement is ongoing.)

Stanley Fish: Will the Humanities Save Us?

To the question “of what use are the humanities?”, the only honest answer is none whatsoever. And it is an answer that brings honor to its subject. Justification, after all, confers value on an activity from a perspective outside its performance. An activity that cannot be justified is an activity that refuses to regard itself as instrumental to some larger good. The humanities are their own good. There is nothing more to say, and anything that is said – even when it takes the form of Kronman’s inspiring cadences – diminishes the object of its supposed praise.