Blogs

Akwesasne/Kahnawake, Mohawk Territory; March 5, 2007 -- A Mohawk woman from the Akwesasne Community remains in hiding, defying an arrest warrant from the Superior Court of Ontario in Cornwall.

"Katenies" (whose Mohawk name means "she changes things around") refused to appear in court on customs and border violations this past January 18, 2007. Instead, she served her own "Motion to Dismiss," questioning the jurisdiction of the courts and border officials over sovereign Mohawk peoples and their land.

Katenies is a mother and grandmother -- her third grandchild was born just 5 days ago on February 28 -- and a researcher with Mohawk Nation News.

In part 2 of my interview with Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, now online at HaitiAction.net, Lovinsky talks about what he calls the "ongoing coup d'etat of 2004." He talks about the lack of services to help heal the scars of the thousands of victims of 2004. He speaks of the bureacracy and judiciary staffed by Latortue's people who ensure that the victims will not see justice. He points to how this problem ensures impunity for the perpetrators. He discusses the danger of a potential preparation of yet another coup d'etat by such initiatives as the creation of a parallel police force using the 800 former members of the dreaded Haitian Army who are now in the Haitian National Police.

The two part photo essay about recent arrests and spin by MINUSTAH is now online at Haitianalysis.com As the title of this blog entry suggests, the title of the photo essay is "Brutalized and Abandoned." The photo essay addresses mass arrests, lies about social services in Cité Soleil and the demands of the victims of MINUSTAH.

I couldn't help but notice the lack of journalists in Cité Soleil yesterday as we interviewed yet another person who spoke of a neighbor being illegally arrested by MINUSTAH forces. MINUSTAH now claims they have "a nice catch," meaning over 60 "armed marauders" in the last month. Seeing as we connected with five cases who said the victims of the arrests had nothing to do with crime at all (and this was definitely not an exhaustive investigation) the question can at least be raised as to the legality of MINUSTAH operations in Haiti (yet once again). I haven't seen that question asked of MINUSTAH, but maybe I didn't catch it.

As we entered Cite Soleil this morning with Brian Concannon, founder of the IJDH (Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti) we got a call saying a crowd had gathered outside one of the MINUSTAH headquarters in the Boston quarter of the Cite. We pulled up and sure enough there was a group of about 15 people facing the two armored MINUSTAH vehicules. Someone had been arrested that the crowd felt shouldn't have been arrested and they were demanding he be released. As has been the way every time we pull up with cameras, the MINUSTAH troops run away. All the soldiers piled into the vehicules and took off.

To find out the scale of lies coming out of MINUSTAH on the ground, read any of the UN News Service press releases in the last two weeks. According to interviews we have conducted in Cite Soleil, and according to a source in the Cite today, the arrests continue to be arbitrary. People are being arrested who have nothing to do with what the UN is calling "gangs" or "criminals" or "bandits" No warrents are issued. This is only part of the lie. Every UN communique in the last two weeks talks of setting up health clinics and transforming former gang leaders homes into community centres. Again, complete lies easily verifiable by a stroll through these areas.

The ongoing closure of low-rent apartments in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside has been dealt another setback, at least temporarily.

February 28, 2007

A Public Letter To:
Peter MacKay, Minister of Foreign Affairs
James Lambert, Director General, Latin America and Caribbean Bureau, DFAIT
Kenneth Cook, Canadian Ambassador to Guatemala

RE: Canadian ambassador to Guatemala spreads misinformation about film documenting indigenous Mayan Q'eqchi' communities forcibly evicted on behalf of nickel mining company Skye Resources.

Been in haiti for two weeks. Some content is now online. Check HaitiAction.net for a two part interview with Lovinsky Pierre Antoine, coordinator of the 30th of September Foundation that works with the victims of the coup d'états of 1991 and 2004. Also check my new photo essay, done with local photojournalist Wadner Pierre, on Haitianalysis.com. Pretty gripping. Finally, if you to keep up to speed on my wanderings, read my blog with the NFB website Citizenshift. Eventually I'll be putting together a full dossier for them with interviews I'm conducting with human rights people, former pol

The Globe and Mail is reporting that Canadian CEOs want "to import temporary Mexican energy workers" to Alberta.

Nothing like cheap labour for a project making CEOs millions.

You can always count on the business section of the Globe to give you the real news, without the spin.

I did a Google News search for "Iran." The results are pretty telling regarding what Bush -- and the media -- are building towards.

Justin Podur criticized the Toronto Star's Middle East Bureau Chief for using racist language, and Potter responded, and then so did Podur.

Apologies for the server outage that some of you may have noticed on Monday evening. Apparently, a Hydro Quebec transformer blew up, destroying the fiber optic connection to our server, hosted by Koumbit. Apparently the problem has been fixed. Thanks for your patience.

Newsflash: The owner of Virgin Airlines and Virgin Galactic (a space tourism project) is going to save the planet from climate change with the Virgin Earth Challenge. Branson's offering a $25 million prize to the person who can come up with a "commercially viable design which results in the removal of anthropogenic, atmospheric greenhouse gases so as to contribute materially to the stability of Earth’s climate."

So, science will save the day once again? Too bad Branson'

Back in September, the Globe and Mail's Marina Jimenez published a ridiculous attack on a Lancet study that showed the extent of the political violence that followed the Canadian-backed 2004 coup d'etat in Haiti. The Dominion pointed this out in a media analysis piece.

Now, four months later, Marina Jimenez (to her partial credit) has published a piece noting that after reviewing the study, the Lancet has found that the study was in fact sound, and the editorial board of the prestigious medical journal stands by its conclusions.

The recent murder of Yolanda Izquierdo by paramilitary forces in northeastern Colombia is the second murder of a leader of a land recuperation struggle in the country in less than a week.

In an article in El Diario, Izquierdo is described as "a representative of the victims of the ultra-right in her region."

There is an emergency vigil for Yolanda Izquierdo in Vancouver on Monday, February 12th, at 6pm at the Robson side of the art gallery.

It has been repeated ad nauseum that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Israel should be "wiped off the map". It has been said before that the quote is not accurate, but now there's a word by word translation of what Ahmadinejad actually did say.

The author runs a web site about Mohammad Mossadegh, the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran that was overthrown in a CIA-backed coup in 1953. This event, which led to the brutal militar

Jerusalem Post: "The Canadian government is establishing an 'Israel Allies Caucus' this week meant to mobilize support for the State of Israel and promote Judeo-Christian values amid a groundswell of Christian support for Israel around the world."

Judeo-Christian values? Somehow, I don't think that "love thy neighbour as thyself" is what they have in mind.

Dave Zirin: "I would also add that half the [Baseball Hall of Fame] is made of players who operated under the ultimate 'performance enhancer', not having to compete against people with dark skin."

For those not familiar, Dave Zirin writes a great column about sports and politics at EdgeofSports.com. He's also got a new book coming out. Check out this bit from his latest piece on Muhammed Ali:

Ali could have recanted, apologized, or signed up on some cushy USO gig boxing for the troops and the cameras, ultimately to go back to making money. But he refused. At one press conference later that year, he was expected to apologize for his "un-American" remarks. Instead he said, "Keep asking me, no matter how long. On the war in Vietnam, I sing this song, I ain't got no quarrel with the Vietcong. Clean out my cell and take my tail to jail. 'Cause better to be in jail fed than to be in Vietnam dead."

Counterpunch has good pieces about similar dynamics in two different US political movements, environmentalism and anti-war.

Jeffrey St. Clair on the green movement's disconnection from the grassroots, and the unfortunate accuracy of right wing claims that environmentalists are Washington elitists:

To quote Jospeh Heller: Something happened. Somewhere along the line, the environmental movement disconnected with the people, rejected its political roots, pulled the plug on its vibrant and militant tradition. It packed its bags, starched its shirts and jetted to DC, where it became what it once despised: a risk-aversive, depersonalized, hyper-analytical, humorless, access-driven, intolerant, centralized, technocratic, dealmaking, passionless, direct-mailing, lawyer-laden monolith to mediocrity. A monolith with feet of clay.

Matt Vincent of the Montana Standard has written a piece that is funny, sad and ironic as anything. Saturday morning reading at its finest.

Mongrel calls Berkeley Pit home for 16 years introduces us to the long term environmental catastrophe of open pit mining with an astounding honesty, permissible perhaps because in this story, it is a dreadlocked dog bearing the impact.

Incredible. Villages of people affected by these same phenomena, and only "The Auditor" gets special treatment.

Tim Rourke sent along these thoughts on guaranteed income:

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There is a world wide movement for a citizen’s income; 'an unconditional, non-withdrawable income payable to each individual as a right of citizenship'. Many countries are moving toward implementation. Yet most Canadians have never heard of it. It is time the movement to separate income and survival from employment took hold in Canada.

Not many people in Canada have heard of ‘citizen’s income’. The other names that the same general concept is known under ring few bells, either; basic income, mincome, guaranteed annual income.

Some government-funded folks at U of T are organizing a conference about investing in the new, "western friendly" Serbia.

The region has already seen some high-profile investment from Canadian companies. Organizers say that participants can expect a frank assessment of the potential for the region as whole as it moves towards political and economic stability along with membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the European Union.

Democracy Now did what media are supposed to do when contentious topics are in play, and hosted a debate about the granting of "rule by decree" powers by Venezuela's legislative assembly to President Hugo Chavez.

Iraq in Fragments, James Longley's three year project, is a beautiful, poignant document that brings the viewer in for a close look at Iraq and it's people.

Coming soon to Calgary, Toronto, Regina, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Ottawa, the Peg, and more.

A week ago, we republished an excellent little opinion piece about microcredit.

As a followup, here's an older, and more harshly critical take on the phenomenon of microcredit, which makes some interesting points.

h/t: Nik Barry-Shaw

Reuters ran a story yesterday about how Rigoberta Menchu is considering running for president in the next elections in Guatemala, scheduled for September 9, 2007. According to a Prensa Latina article, Encuentro por Guatemala is interested in her candidacy and will be meeting with her next week to discuss the possibility.

The Globe notes in passing that Jean-Pierre Kingsley, Canada's old Chief Electoral Officer, is off to join the International Federation for Electoral Systems (IFES).

Dominion contributor Anthony Fenton has done a fair bit of work exposing IFES and its role in the overthrow of Haitian democracy. A little background:

IFES successfully co-opted human rights groups, lawyers, and journalists, and "set the groundwork" for the creation of the Group of 184 business-led political opposition to Aristide.

For those keeping track of the millions in funding for "pro-western" journalists and political activists flowing from the US State Department, CIDA, and others, this article is worth reading. It seems that in the case of Iran, US funding has resulted in fewer freedoms, because the regime of the day feels threatened by the use of media for US foreign policy ends.

Many observers and activists say the crackdown on intellectuals and government critics has worsened since the U.S. State Department declared last February that it was creating a 75-million-dollar fund to "reach out to the people of Iran".