News Updates's blog

Government urged to end Native blockade near Sharbot Lake. Doreen Davis, Chief of the Shabot Obaadjiwan Algonquin Nation, states "To come in here and force us out of here when we're standing on our Algonquin land puts us in a position of being at war."

Aid not reaching Afghan hospital: Senlis council reports that "Canadian aid efforts in Kandahar province are failing utterly while the Taliban is increasingly winning support in the southern region where Canadian troops are based... We could not find evidence of CIDA's work or CIDA-funded work at the hospital. We were not able to find the maternity project, or evidence of the $5 million that CIDA says it has given..."

Chileans take to streets in anger at regime: "Yesterday's protest comes after weeks of labour action, including strikes by poultry workers in southern Chile and copper miners in the north. Union leaders called the demonstrations to protest against the government's "neo-liberal" economic policies and to further the national debate about the country's minimum wage."

How to steal votes in Guatemala: Citizens warn that certain parties have a detailled system of vote rigging.

US union leaders push back against proposed free trade agreement with Colombia.

Flaherty on Two Years Post Katrina.

More electoral violence and assasinations in Guatemala. Police prepare to "reinforce" 60 municipalities where violence is expected during voting. Elections are September 9th.

The Ontario Teachers Pension Plan took advantage of subprime/subcrime to the tune of $60,000,000.

BC: Demonstrators including members of Tahltan and Iskut First Nations blockaded a road in the Northwest of the province "preventing Royal Dutch Shell PLC crews from heading into a contested region to do road repair work and reigniting a debate over coal bed methane exploration in the area..."

Mexico: Broken Ballot Boxes: The Fine Art of Bad Elections

Canada: The Cases of Maher Arar and Omar Khadr: Canada's Disgrace

Guatemala: National Human Rights ombudsperson receives death threats.

-Mining Related-

China: 181 miners feared dead, families pressured not to protest.

USA: Diebold Inc, maker of voting machines that counted more than 80% of the votes in the US elections in 2004, are having a hard time hawking their product, renamed "Premier Election Solution." Diebold promised Republicans in 2003 that they were committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year," allegations of fraud and tampering abound.

Guatemala: Candidates for Encuentro por Guatemala, the leftist party for which Rigoberta Menchu is presidential candidate, have been the primary victims of armed attacks over the last week. Since last Monday, one party member has been killed and four injured in armed attacks. Elections are September 9th.

Vying for leadership, Lula heads north, Chávez south: Venezuelan oil, or US/Brazilian ethanol?

Coal mining and coal bed methane, BC to Montana: Environmental standards? What standards. We can roll the standards into mine start up... Get with the times, people!

Alberta: A strike at the patch?

From Al Jazeera: 'Civilians dead' in Nato air raids in Afghanistan.

John Pilger: The Invisible Government lecture delivered a few weeks ago.

Photo from the tyee.

Beware Europeans bearing gifts from bilaterals.org: after the emerging disaster of CAFTA, Central American countries recently launched into a new round of trade negotiations, this time with the European Union.

Miners digging rebates details the large subsidies that Québec is giving to mining exploration companies. Mongolia comes up again, as in "Quebec's stance is in marked contrast to Mongolia, where a windfall profits tax for mining companies has been introduced... Canadian mining companies had been active in Mongolia, with Canada second only to China in terms of foreign investment, almost all of it in the mining sector."

Drummond cleared of paramilitary links. Stevenson Avila, Sintramienergetica president states "We knew this was becoming a question of state policy, and that America protects its companies, but we held out hope that presenting real, documented evidence of the company's responsibility, that justice would be served."

Ottawa Citizen: Canadians crazy for Facebook, politicians getting on board.

México DF: "¡Frida era de izquierda!"... "yo también." Major protest as Calderón attends opening of Frida Kahlo exhibit.

Feliz cumple años Ernesto Che Guevara, (June 14, 1928 – October 9, 1967).

A 12 minute piece by Téléjournal that aired on TV last night revisits the story of evictions in El Estor, Guatemala, on behalf of Canadian mining company Skye Resources that was broken by The Dominion in January, 2007.

Eurasian Minerals announces drill results from their exploration activity in Haiti.

New CCPA study shows that Nearly half of military contracts had no competition - Use of such sole-source deals on the rise.

International Co-operation Minister Josée Verner Outlines her Foreign Aid Agenda in today's Embassy Magazine:

The government plans to increase CIDA's field presence and create comprehensive websites to update Canadians about progress, something the minister says has already been done in Afghanistan, and which [Verner] would like to see in all of Canada's development partners, though she's not sure when or how.

Canada will initiate FTA negotiations with Colombia, seeking FTA between Dominican Republic, Peru and Colombia. / Canadá inicia negociaciones preliminares para establecer TLC con Colombia.

Five presidential candidates in Guatemala announce their economic platforms.

Ceasefire between ETA & Spanish government ended by ETA.

Not only are cops posing as journalists in Canada, but they want full access to documents held by journalists.

SPP: Broaden debate on North American integration says Robert Pastor, who is speaking in Ottawa today.

According to the Citizen, Pastor says that passports for Canadians in the US is a miguided idea. In fact, "A national biometric ID card would be a far better solution, [Pastor] said. Such a card 'will actually make life easier without necessarily threatening anybody.'"

NEUMANN: Canada in Afghanistan

GUARDA EXPOSED: How a nice Quebec firm found itself in a war zone. The Citizen's Don Butler sings praise to Guarda, Canada's Blackwater. According to Guarda's CEO "We hire locals, which is rare. We're perceived differently because we're Canadian."

IPPERWASH: Harris, Ottawa assailed in Dudley George's death. Read full text of the inquiry.

NIGERIA: Nigerian oil output falls as protest lasts a third day. The BBC, meanwhile, is reporting that the "dispute" has "ended."

CANADA IN IRAQ: The G&M is reporting that "Four of five Britons kidnapped by gunmen wearing police uniforms in Baghdad [April 29th] are employees of Canada's Garda World Security Corp." The BBC notes that "The company is one of the biggest suppliers of private security in Iraq, and is mainly staffed by Britons."

Editorial by Kate Heartford defending democracy promotion & the invasion of Afghanistanin today's Ottawa Citizen.

BBC is reporting that BP is going to resume operations in Libya, thanks to political wrangling by Tony Blair. BP pulled out of Libya over 30 years ago.

When a snake is not a snake: the limbless lizard.

Racist threats: hate crime in Kanata, Ontario.

California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will be visiting Ottawa on Wednesday, May 30th. He brought back the death penalty in California in 2005. Since then three people have been murdered by the state, including Stan "Tookie" Williams.