The Dominion - 36

Business Without Boundaries

Sun, 18 Jun 2006 02:18:06 +0000

New initiative hopes to make Atlantic Canada an 'epi-centre' of international trade

Hundreds demonstrated against the Atlantica Initiative in Saint John, New Brunswick. photo: Chris Erb

Sean Cooper replies without hesitation when asked if there will be negative social or environmental consequences to Atlantica: "No," he says bluntly. "There are none that I'm aware of." Executive Director of the Atlantic Provinces Chamber of Commerce (APCC), Cooper has only good things to say about Atlantica - a region encompassing the northeastern US and Atlantic Canada that business leaders are proposing as the new 'epi-centre' of international trade.

The APCC and Saint John Board of Trade recently hosted hundreds of delegates in Saint John, New Brunswick for "Reaching Atlantica: Business Without Boundaries," a conference intended to raise the profile of the Atlantica Initiative and assist in its development.

Proponents of Atlantica believe that Atlantic Canada--largely considered a 'have-not' region--has the potential to become an economic powerhouse; with Halifax acting as an international port, Atlantica is perfectly situated to funnel goods into huge American markets. The purpose of Atlantica, says Cooper, is to allow goods, people and services to move more easily between huge economic zones. Essentially, Atlantica will "move wealth," he says. "And it will create wealth."

Create wealth for whom? asks Matt Schlobohm, co-ordinator for the Maine Fair Trade Campaign. Schlobohm spoke at "Resisting Atlantica: Reclaiming Democracy," a counter-conference that drew a crowd of 300 people--people that do believe Atlantica will have negative social and environmental consequences. Schlobohm is one of those people. He notes that, on the surface, the Atlantica Initiative appears harmless: "Who could be opposed to trade between Atlantic Canada and northern New England? - that sounds great." But in order to understand the values behind the Initiative, one must look at who is behind it, says Schlobohm.

Sponsors of 'Reaching Atlantica' included large corporations like Irving Oil, BMO Financial Group and Aliant. Speakers at the conference included representatives from the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, The Canadian Chamber of Commerce, and the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS). Registration for members of the public was $595, a fee that demonstrators noted was more than most people could afford. It is the business elite pushing for the Atlantica Initiative, argues Schlobohm, and it will be the business elite who will benefit.

Schlobohm points to AIMS, a think tank he says is "pushing aggressively for Atlantica." AIMS details the "poor public policy holding Atlantica back" on its website. Included in the list are minimum wage legislation and union density, both considered measures of "labour market flexibility." Schlobohm is alarmed that minimum wage legislation and unions, which he considers the "most effective anti-poverty program the world has seen," are being labeled "economic distress factors." He argues that Atlantica, like its predecessor NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement), is not fundamentally about trade--which can have many benefits--but about increasing profits for corporations, often at the expense of workers' rights, social programs, and environmental protection.

Police block the entrance to the convention centre where business delegates met to discuss the Atlantica Initiative. photo: Chris Erb

Garry Leech, a member of the Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network, has seen this happen in his own province. Nova Scotia Power used to buy Nova Scotia coal. The company has since found cheaper coal in Colombia. Not only have jobs been lost in Atlantic Canada, notes Leech, but the cheap coal is linked to human rights abuses in Colombia. There are other ways of doing business, he insists.

"Nova Scotia power should not be investing in the refurbishment of coal powered plants--which are huge emitters of green house gases--but in wind energy," says Leech. "That would improve the environment and provide jobs in the wind energy sector. And it would de-link Canada from human rights abuses in Colombia." Leech's vision of supporting local economies is far different from the Atlantica model.

"We are about to become a doorway to the industrial might of China and India," Brian Lee Crowley, president of AIMS, told the Chronicle Herald. Crowley envisions a transportation corridor moving goods from the Halifax port to markets in the US. Large numbers of trucks will be needed, notes Crowley, and large numbers of truck drivers. "The answer isn't going into high schools and [talking] about great opportunities in the trucking industry," says Crowley. "Mexico is one of the three NAFTA partners. The answer is to set up a guest worker program."

Mexican guest workers are not granted the same rights as Canadians and are often willing to work for less. Atlantica may encourage cheap labour and goods to move easily across the border, but Leech wonders if immigrants and refugees would be given the same rights. AIMS' recommendations to Ottawa include working with the US on "integrated perimeter security, harmonization of external tariffs and mutually agreeable standards of entry for persons from third countries."

The "Reaching Atlantica" conference concluded with the announcement that an 'Atlantica council' would be created to bring key government leaders on board. Leech is disappointed that, despite protests, representatives from unions, community groups and environmental organizations have not been invited to the table. This isn't just about economics, he says, but also about social, environmental, political and military policies; it's therefore critical that voices other than those of big businesses are heard.

Business leaders in Atlantic Canada say they've found an answer to the region's economic woes. Atlantic Canadians wish somebody would ask them. Hillary Bain Lindsay investigates.

Portraits of Strength

Thu, 04 May 2006 21:29:21 +0000

The women of Panzós

Women are leading the demand for justice in Panzós. photo of Marlon Garcia Arriaga's painting: Pedro Sousa

Panzós, Guatemala – May 29, 1978. Early morning. Eight hundred people gather in the town square. Their land, homes and crops have been expropriated by the Guatemalan government and given to the International Nickel Company (INCO) in mining concessions.
9 a.m. The mayor of Panzós arrives to address the crowd. He makes a sign and the military, which has the square surrounded, opens fire. 35 people are executed and 40 are injured. Those trying to escape in boats drown in the Polochic River. In total, 53 die.

May 31, 1978.
Headline in leading Guatemalan newspaper: "Mob of two thousand farmers attack military detachment at Panzós."

Montreal – May 18, 2005.
I am sitting in a small, bright room on the fourth floor of edifice Le Belgo. The floor-to-ceiling windows are open and I can hear the traffic on Ste-Catherine Street. The walls bristle with huge portraits, columns of photographs, and typed banners that document a Canadian mining company's implication in the massacre in Panzós, Guatemala in 1978.

Marlon Garcia Arriaga is a short, impeccably dressed young man. His exhibit is titled "Panzós, 25 ans plus tard..." The Guatemalan painter and forensic photographer explains why he has brought his artwork to Montreal.

"When the massacre happened, I was ten years old. At that time, state violence was intimidating, but this was the first time the army was unselective in its slaughter. Men, women and children were shot, clubbed and stabbed without reason. It was all over the papers for weeks. The teachers at my school were very left-wing; they pasted up news articles every day, all over the walls of our hallways.

"When I visited Panzós years later it was to photograph the exhumation of the victims of the 1978 massacre. I visited the town many times, and it occurred to me that I was amassing lots of information, and that I could possibly do something useful with it."

The massacre at Panzós may have been the paradigmatic act of violence in Guatemala's 36-year internal armed conflict, which officially ended in 1996 with the ratification of the Peace Accords. During the war, 200,000 people were killed or disappeared and 1.5 million displaced during a series of military dictatorships. The vast majority of the victims were indigenous subsistence farmers. Central to this time of violence was the control of land, coveted by foreign corporations for resources like bananas, sugar, nickel, and gold.

INCO, a Canadian Corporation that was recently given a failing grade by Report on Business magazine for corporate social responsibility, was the interest being defended when the population of Panzós was mown down by its own soldiers. This message comes through loud and clear in "Panzós, 25 ans plus tard..." and, seeing and reading the evidence in a cheery Montreal gallery, I feel the appropriate shame and outrage at what my people did to Marlon's people. Marlon focusses his lens on a different injustice, however; a more local bifurcation in the story he is compelled to articulate: the exclusion of women from documented history.

Dominating the exposition, 8x8 foot portraits, mostly of young women, glow in mellow orange and pink.

"My education was centred on the European painters of the 17th century. I studied the enormous paintings of Napoleon, for example. This was a way to pay homage to a great man - to do a big painting of him. Of course, I am Guatemalan, and so I prefer yellow and orange and blue to the greys and browns those European painters used." Marlon and I think this is funny.

"Do you know that when authorities or journalists wanted to quote witnesses to what happened in Panzós, they only ever asked men?

"Do you know that when I visited Panzós, I would take rolls and rolls of film? Hundreds of rolls of pictures I took at Panzós. And when they'd be developed, and I'd have the negatives laid out, all I saw were photos of women. Women, women, women, women, women!

"Women have the traditional right to ask compensation for the deaths of their husbands and sons and brothers. It is women who lead the demand for exhumations, reconciliation, and justice."

I turn my attention to the woman standing in the corner of room 312 with her chin in her hand. Her brown skin glows against the yellow tank-top tucked tight at her waist into her long heavy skirt. She stares at a tree's reflection in a lake that ripples where seeds fall into the water. Three crocodiles slide around each other at the edge of the lakeshore, and three hummingbirds break up the green-and-blue painting with their red wings outstretched. Among the crocodiles float tiny reflections: four military helicopters, their red lights flashing. The woman carries an empty bucket.

"A woman named Mama Maquin led the march in Panzós the day of the massacre. She was there with her daughter and grandson and granddaughter. Only the granddaughter survived. This is her..." Marlon points to the painting of a woman with high cheekbones, her black hair piled against the sky. "She is a leader in her community now."

By bringing us closer to the protagonists of his story, Marlon entices Canadians to appreciate and respect the people whose world we share. "Together, our histories make one history, but with two distinct faces. We are two peoples implicated in one genocide, with two distinct images of the opportunity to be human. Making who you are and who we are more visible will continue to be an essential theme of my art."

"Panzós, 25 Years Later...," Marlon's exhibition in English, was displayed at the Sky Dragon Community Development Co-operative in Hamilton, Ontario, April 12-23, 2006. A committee of the Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the Silence Network hopes to bring "Panzós, 25 Years Later...," and the artist, to the Maritimes later this year.

Moira Peters talks to artist Marlon Garcia Arriaga about his paintings and the women of Panzós, Guatemala that inspire them.

Massive demonstrations mark "a day without immigrants" in the US

Thu, 04 May 2006 16:29:19 +0000

Over 1.5 million people took part in May Day demonstrations in the United States this year, reported Pacifica Radio. The May 1 demonstrations were demanding legalization and workers' rights for immigrants.

The May Day marches in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago were among the largest, where hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets. Smaller demonstrations - in some cases tens of thousands strong - took place in cities across the country, reported The News Standard.

The May 1 demonstrations are the latest in a string of record-breaking protests calling for immigrant rights in the US. These protests are largely in response to an immigration proposal to make it a felony to be in the US illegally and to sharply increase the budget for interdiction at the Mexican border, reported The Globe and Mail

"The way I see it, 500 years ago, they tried to get rid of our people," Alvaro Andrade, an Ecuadoran Indian who works as a carpenter in Long Island told The Village Voice "When Columbus and then the pilgrims came, they put us down with disease and made us slaves. Now they're all freaking out because they look at it as the browning of America. But it's not. It's the re-browning of America. Because we are the true Americans. We're the future of America. So now you say you're going to build a wall along the border? So who's gonna build it?"

Immigrants and their supporters skipped school, work and shopping on May 1 to support the day of protest, reported the New York Times.

Stores and restaurants in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York closed because workers did not show up or as a display of solidarity with demonstrators. In Los Angeles, the police estimated that more than half a million people attended two demonstrations in and near downtown. School districts in several cities reported a decline in attendance; at Benito Juarez High School in Pilsen, a predominantly Latino neighborhood in Chicago, only 17 percent of the students showed up, even though administrators and some protest organizers had urged students to stay in school.

Lettuce, tomatoes and grapes went unpicked in fields in California and Arizona, which contribute more than half the nation's produce, as scores of growers let workers take the day off. Truckers who move 70 percent of the goods in ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., did not work.

Meatpacking companies, including Tyson Foods and Cargill, closed plants in the Midwest and the West employing more than 20,000 people, while the flower and produce markets in downtown Los Angeles stood largely and eerily empty.

May

Wed, 03 May 2006 21:09:10 +0000

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René Préval Speaks in Montreal

Wed, 03 May 2006 06:52:15 +0000

After meetings with Montréal Mayor Gerald Tremblay and members of the local Haitian community, Haitian President-elect René Préval addressed an audience of 700 in north Montréal on Tuesday night.

In a speech delivered mostly in creole to an overwhelmingly Haitian audience, Préval stressed the need for involvement from the Haitian diaspora, who he exhorted to provide "investment, talent and knowledge" to Haiti. Préval struck a pragmatic tone about the importance of tourism and foreign investment, saying that both are important to the Caribbean country's development.

Préval speaks to a crowd in Montréal Tuesday night. photo: Dru Oja Jay

Préval spoke forcefully in favour a "Parliament that works" and described measures he hopes will avoid a situation where other parties from blocking any legislation proposed by his Lespwa party. Préval distanced himself from previous attempts at "reconciliation," saying instead that everyone except for "assassins, drug dealers and thieves" should participate in democratic decision making.

A mostly enthusiastic crowd broke turned momentarily hostile when Préval mentioned the involvement of Claude Moise, editor of an elite right-wing newspaper in Haiti, in a committee charged with examining citizenship requirements. Dozens of people shouted and waved their arms in opposition to the move. Préval paused for several seconds, waiting for a calm moment before insisting on the need to build a consensus in Haiti.

As Préval was approaching the stage, many audience members chanted "Aristide, Préval" and "Lavalas, Lespwa," affirming the common agenda of the two broad-based parties of Haiti's poor majority. Cries of "no to the coup d'état" were also heard.

The President-elect did not speak of his recent visits to Cuba or Venezuela, or of the anticipated influx of medical personnel and cheap oil as a result of deals made with their governments. Préval also did not mention that some of his closest advisors were blocked from entering Canada. Former Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis told Reuters that "the Canadian government has put my name on a blacklist of perpetrators of crimes against humanity." Reuters reported that Préval had reacted with outrage. Alexis demanded a public apology from Canada, but the matter has scarcely been mentioned in Canadian media.

The Canadian Press reported that Préval's visit itself has been kept "almost invisible" by the Conservative government. According to the report, Préval's visit is "informal" because he will not be officially inaugurated until May 14. However, Harper's visit with interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, who was never elected but took power after a military coup, was more thoroughly publicized.

Michel Sanon, a Montréal-based teacher, said that the "invisibility" of Préval's visit was political. "Préval is not the person that the Canadian government expected to be welcoming after the elections, said Sanon."

Attendance was limited to 700. photo: Dru Oja Jay

Dozens of people waited hours to enter the building, and others complained of selective access to tickets. photo: Dru Oja Jay

"Préval is unwanted," said Sanon. "He is wanted by the people of Haiti, but he is unwanted by the foreign powers that got rid of [the Aristide-led government]."

"If you look at the welcome Préval received in Cuba, Venezuela or Brazil, the difference is very big."

Some of those in attendance expressed concerns about the limitations placed on access to the event. Several dozen people were forced to wait outside while only those with tickets were allowed to enter. Questions were raised about access to the tickets, and the entrance to the venue was the site of many heated exchanges in the hours before the event began.

Hubert Molaire, who was in charge of security, explained that there were only 700 tickets, and that those who wanted to enter were told they needed to acquire tickets. Molaire cited security reasons, though no security checks were performed on those who acquired tickets.

Though those who waited were eventually let in, many expressed outrage at the selective distribution of tickets. TV journalist Chavàn Klévo said that many of "those who supported Aristide and Préval when they were attacked" were marginalized and discouraged from attending the event.

Klévo said that long term Préval supporters were "humiliated" when they were prevented from entering until they had waited for hours, with many standing outside in the rain.

"It's us who support Préval," said Klévo. "We're going to make sure he knows that the people organizing on his behalf in Montreal are not doing a good job."

"They're trying to create a space between Aristide supporters and [members of Préval's party] people who now support Lespwa," said Klévo.

Many attendees observed that singers and announcers who took the stage before Préval's entrance used almost exclusively French, which in Haiti is associated with an elite minority and is largely not used by the poor majority. "Why are they playing the Canadian anthem and singing in French? It's doesn't make sense," said Klévo.

Préval will meet with Quebec Premier Jean Charest on Wednesday.

» Canadian Press: Visit by Haiti's president-elect Preval kept almost invisible

» Reuters Canada: Haitian officials say they're barred from Canada

» Dominion: Haitian President-elect Preval Visits Canada

Haitian President-elect Preval Visits Canada

Tue, 02 May 2006 04:44:15 +0000

by Jean Saint-Vil and Dru Oja Jay

Haitian President-elect René Préval meets with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brasília in March. photo: José Cruz/ABr

Haitian President-elect René Préval was in Ottawa on Monday, meeting with Governor General Michaëlle Jean, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and Members of Parliament.

On Sunday night, Préval gave an exclusive interview to Créole-language radio shows serving Ottawa's Haitian community. Préval, who previously served as President from 1996 to 2001, was elected in the first elections held in Haiti after a military coup removed thousands of elected officials and replaced them with a US- and Canadian-backed government led by Gerard Latortue. Latortue's rule was characterized by widespread political violence and a flouting of the constitution. In one instance, Latortue dismissed the country's Supreme Court.

During the interview Préval told the Dominion that he intends to govern "a sovereign Haiti" and be nobody's puppet. The President-elect said that the issue of political prisoners in Haiti is a "top priority that needs to be resolved as soon as possible," pointing to the fact that even UN Special envoy Louis Joinet had often commented that prominent leaders of Aristide's party such as Annette Auguste and former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune continue to be unjustly incarcerated. Preval also reiterated his intention to uphold the Haitian Constitution's ban of political exile. Aristide's return to Haiti as a free citizen remains a central and popular demand among pro-democracy advocates in Haiti.

Five days earlier, members of the Ottawa Haiti Solidarity Committee had demanded that NDP foreign affairs critic Alexa McDonnough "help free Preval from the political prisoners and exiles file," stressing that political prisoners should be freed before the sixty-three year old politician takes office.

Two Montréal groups, Résistance Haitienne au Québec and Haiti Action Montréal, used Préval's visit to demand that Prime Minister Harper apologize to the Haitian people for the damage done to Haiti's democracy by Canadian intervention before and after the coup.

Préval said he was optimistic about relations with the US, saying that "good relations" and potential foreign investment in Haiti's textile sector could "create jobs".

Speaking to a Haitian radio audience, Préval touted a 25-year "governability pact" that will prevent Parliamentary gridlock, which was a problem during his previous term in office.

Préval obliquely criticized his unelected predecessor, pointing out that under the Haitian constitution, the President is responsible for state-to-state relations. Though technically Prime Minister, Latortue visited Canada, the US and other countries while the nominal President, Boniface Alexandre, stayed in Haiti.

Préval's election was seen as a rebuke to US- and Canadian-backed political parties, though many observers are taking a wait-and-see approach before assessing the effectiveness of the new government in addressing the needs of the Haiti's overwhelmingly impoverished majority and dealing with western-backed elite groups.

Préval recently raised eyebrows by visiting Venezuela and Cuba, where he discussed deals for preferential pricing for oil and an increase in the number of Cuban doctors in Haiti.

"Relations between Venezuela and the US is their business, not Haiti's," said Préval. "If poor people in the US can negotiate deals with Chavez, then why can't Haitians?" Tensions have been high between the Bush and Chavez administrations in the years following an failed coup that was largely funded by Washington.

Préval will be in Montréal on Tuesday, where he will meet with Québec Premier Jean Charest and speak to members of Montréal's Haitian community.

Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands resigns

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 17:44:20 +0000

Massive protests in the Solomon Islands' capital city have left much of Honiara's Chinatown in ruins and forced newly elected Prime Minister Snyder Rini from office, reports The Toronto Star. Over 200 Chinese residents have fled the violence that was sparked by claims of electoral corruption.

According to the Guardian, protesters believe Rini's election was heavily influenced by Taiwan and local Chinese businesses.

The Solomon Islands has become the subject of a diplomatic tug-ofwar between China and Taiwan in recent years, being waged with what the Associated Press calls "chequebook diplomacy." The Pacific island nation is one of Taiwan's 25 diplomatic allies, but China has been trying to lure it to its side.

Following his resignation announcement, Rini was escorted out of Parliament by heavily armed Australian police whose numbers have been increased since civil strife erupted in mid April.

Foreign security forces have been in the islands since 2003 to help end violence between rival islanders, although Sydney Indymedia says Australia's growing military presence in the islands has more to do with geopolitical interests than peacekeeping.

Rini will hold onto his post until lawmakers select a new Prime Minister.

War, Warlords, War Crimes

Wed, 26 Apr 2006 22:50:11 +0000

Afghanistan in context

photo: Corporal Robin Mugridge, Canadian Forces Image Gallery

When war is waged, multiple factors are suddenly brought into play. An accurate understanding of the ensuing events requires broad, contextual information. Context, however, is frequently denied, obscured and misrepresented by political leaders and wartime media coverage. In this respect, Afghanistan has been no exception. The analysis that follows seeks to provide some of the historical basics essential for an accurate, critical examination of the war in Afghanistan today.

Afghanistan 1979-2001

On Dec. 22, 1979, Soviet forces began to enter Afghanistan. In the decade of war and occupation that followed, over 15,000 Soviet troops and one million mujahideen fighters and Afghan civilians were killed. Yet it was the Islamic fundamentalist mujahideen, backed with billions of dollars in arms and funding by the West, who would ultimately prevail. By 1992, three years after the final withdrawal of its Soviet backers, the government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan fell.

An arduous civil war began, fought between rival warlords of the former mujahideen. The civil war was brutal, and the warlords became known for their rapes, purges, summary executions and repression of women, among other crimes. These actions were condemned worldwide. By 1996, however, the tide had turned against the warlords as another fundamentalist group, the Taliban, began its rise to power, taking control of the national capital of Kabul.

The ruling warlords were so cruel and violent that most Afghans welcomed their defeat at the hands of the Taliban, who were credited with bringing some semblance of stability and security to Afghanistan, as well as improving the economy, which had been crippled by the widespread practice among warlords of demanding payoffs from businesses.

While warlords continued to control many parts of the country for some time, by 2001 most of Afghanistan was under Taliban rule. While the Taliban were swept into power amid widespread disgust with the vicious crimes of their predecessors, they too became known as repressive and brutal. In recent years, they became notorious in the West for their repression of women and authoritarian rule.

Afghanistan after 9/11

On Sept. 11, 2001, 19 hijackers (15 Saudi Arabians, two Emirati, one Egyptian and one Lebanese – no Afghans) carried out the infamous terrorist attacks in the United States that killed nearly 3,000 people.

Following the attacks, focus turned to the alleged mastermind of the attacks, Osama bin Laden, who was based in Afghanistan. Amid calls for calm by victims' families and a mourning American public, government rumblings began about possible military attacks against Afghanistan. Aid agencies and the United Nations warned that the threat of bombing would put nearly 2.5 million Afghans at risk of starvation, but the US contended that military force might be necessary to capture those behind the 9/11 attacks.

At the time, British Prime Minister Tony Blair asserted that, "There is no alternative [to a military attack] unless the Taliban regime do what they have so far obviously failed to do and yield up bin Laden." Though largely ignored in the West, the Taliban had stated explicitly through their information minister, Qudrutullah Jamal, that "Anyone who is responsible for this act, Osama or not, we will not side with him." Speaking of bin Laden, they agreed to "give him up," on the condition that they be shown evidence of his involvement. The White House rejected this proposal out of hand, promising there would be "no negotiations, no discussions" with the Taliban.

In fact, there had previously been negotiations, well before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and the Taliban offered to extradite bin Laden to a neutral third country. In addition, following 9/11, as Britain's Telegraph reported on Oct. 4, 2001, they offered to give up bin Laden to an international tribunal in Pakistan, even without being shown evidence.

With the offers to turn over perpetrators quietly dismissed, on Oct. 7, 2001, the American-led coalition began its assault on Afghanistan. The military forces of the US, Britain, Canada, and other countries co-ordinated with an Afghan group calling themselves the "Northern Alliance" to overthrow the Taliban.

Between 3,800 and 5,000 Afghan civilians were killed by the initial bombing campaign, and 20,000 to 50,000 eventually died as a result of the invasion (according to investigations by University of New Hampshire economist Marc Herold and British journalist Jonathan Steele). The country, particularly outside the capital of Kabul, transformed into the cauldron of violence and unrest it remains over four years later.

The Northern Alliance Warlords and Afghanistan today

The US-led coalition allied itself with the "Northern Alliance," and one might rightly wonder: who are they?

The answer to this question had been well known to the governments of the invading countries, but ordinary Afghans knew it even better. The Northern Alliance is comprised of the murderous warlords who were finally thrown out of power a few short years before the 2001 invasion. With US backing, they would come to play a disastrous role in shaping the course of events in post-war Afghanistan.

In December 2001, with the Taliban government defeated, an agreement was reached among Afghani exiles meeting in Bonn, Germany. Hamid Karzai, an Afghan returning from exile in the US, was installed to power and would soon be named interim president of Afghanistan.

Following the Bonn Agreement, Northern Alliance warlords were given prominent positions in the interim government, including in key departments such as defence, industry and agriculture.

The leading Afghani women's rights group, RAWA, which is unequivocally opposed to both the Northern Alliance and the Taliban, had expressed hope for reform under Karzai. However, they quickly became one of his administration's harshest critics, decrying its corruption and collusion with warlord extremists. While the interim government maintained relative stability in Kabul under the protection of multinational troops, the rest of the country fell squarely into the hands of the despised warlords.

To this day, the warlords wield prominent, even dominant influence in the US-backed Karzai government. Human Rights Watch observed that last December Karzai again directly appointed notorious human rights abusers to Afghanistan's upper parliamentary house, including former defence minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim. The group also concluded that an astounding 60 per cent of the deputies currently sitting in the lower house have been linked to human rights abuses.

photo: Sergeant Carole Morissette, Canadian Forces Image Gallery

Sadly, this reflects the reality of the human rights situation in Afghanistan today. Approximately 600 children under the age of five die every day in Afghanistan, according to UNICEF, "mostly due to preventable illnesses." While women technically have more rights than before, they are not able to exercise them due to lack of security. Afghans are regularly detained arbitrarily, tortured, and denied due process rights.

Infrastructure is in ruins and rebuilding efforts are made difficult by lack of funding and rampant corruption. Much of what is spent is wasted as contracts go to foreign firms whose bids are, in many cases, 10 times more expensive than their Afghan counterparts. Organizations inside and outside of Afghanistan cite insecurity as the top human rights issue in the country.

Who is responsible for all this insecurity? Groups like RAWA, all the major human rights organizations, and even Hamid Karzai agree that the US-backed warlords are a greater threat to security in Afghanistan than the Taliban.

US Operations in Afghanistan

Throughout its occupation of Afghanistan, under the auspices of Operation Enduring Freedom, in its quest to hunt down Taliban and Al Qaeda members, the US has continued to collaborate closely with the Northern Alliance warlords.

Over the repeated objections of groups like the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, RAWA, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International, the US-led military forces have undermined the rule of law in Afghanistan by backing the criminal warlords, arbitrarily detaining and denying due process rights to Afghans, and using "excessive force . . . in residential areas." Amnesty condemns what it calls "grave human rights violations" by US and coalition forces, including "killing of civilians and torture of prisoners."

This kind of conduct has "generated tremendous resentment against the international community" and "made a mockery of respect for justice," in the words of Human Rights Watch. Most critically, it is driving the crippling state of insecurity in Afghanistan.

Canada's role

In recent months, Canada has endorsed and contributed to this counterproductive, ostensibly "counterterrorist" role in Afghanistan by joining Operation Enduring Freedom. The Martin government made the plans to scale down our peacekeeping role in Kabul and join the US-led combat operations. These plans came to a head in February under the new Harper government when 2,200 Canadian troops began to arrive in Kandahar, ready to hunt down and "destroy" pockets of Taliban loyalists in the region.

The Canadian government is certainly aware that this type of mission is doing more harm than good, if they are listening at all to those they claim to be helping. The reality is not unknown to Canadian officials. In an astonishing display of self-contradiction, Major General Andrew Leslie – describing why Canada must be in Afghanistan for at least 20 years – explained that "Every time you kill an angry young man overseas, you're creating 15 more who will come after you."

Still, Canadians are told this is what we must do. While Canadian troops are abroad, we must stop questioning our leaders, whose noble aims ordinary citizens cannot fully comprehend. While our troops are in danger, we should "roll up our sleeves" and prepare ourselves for the "inevitable" deaths we must endure on the march for freedom.

Short-term solutions

The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission has developed extensive action plans and recommendations on transitional justice, women's rights, children's rights, human rights monitoring, and education. Supporting their work is a potential starting point for making a positive impact in Afghanistan.

Human rights groups have stressed the need for security in Afghanistan if the country is to be reconstructed. However, the kind of security assistance they've called for is peacekeeping, not "counterinsurgency" operations, which engender "tremendous resentment" and create scores of "angry young men." According to rights groups and many other observers, what Afghanistan needs from the outside world right now is what Afghani and international rights groups have been calling for all along: an end to support for criminal warlords, an end to torture and other abuses, respect for basic due process rights and the rule of law, support for existing domestic peace initiatives, and the commitment of a sufficient, neutral international peacekeeping force. (Troops from countries that have invaded Afghanistan should be excluded, of course, and if there is any justice, costs would be covered by reparations from those governments.)

Most of these short-term solutions involve no active effort of "aid"; they simply require the US, Canada, and their allies to stop doing harm.

Their own society on their own terms

Afghanistan's woes didn't appear out of thin air. Nor did they begin with the rise of the Taliban, nor even with the rise of the mujahideen warlords. Afghanistan has suffered a long history of foreign aggression and interference by Britain, the Soviet Union, and now the United States (with Canada's help) – interventions rooted in geopolitical manoeuvring and strategic interests more than in any concern for the long-term well being of the Afghani people.

Over 40 years ago, the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 2131, declaring, "Armed intervention is synonymous with aggression." Article Six of the Resolution affirms "the right of self-determination and independence of peoples and nations, to be freely exercised without any foreign pressure, and with absolute respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms."

Like every nation, the people of Afghanistan are entitled to self-determination and freedom from aggression – the right to develop their own society on their terms.

Alex Hemingway asks why Canada has allied itself with warlords in Afghanistan and provides some context to the current conflict.

ReFraser The Question

Tue, 25 Apr 2006 18:27:33 +0000

The Flip Side of the Fraser Institute's Annual School Ranking

What is the purpose of education according to the Fraser Institute? photo: York House School

On April 9, the Fraser Institute (FI) released its annual Report Card on Secondary Schools in British Columbia and Yukon. The FI published its first report card on B.C.'s secondary schools in 1999. Since then the Fraser Institute has broadened its focus and now issues yearly reports on elementary and secondary schools in B.C., Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick, as well as a special report on Aboriginal education. This year, the B.C. report was expanded to include four Yukon schools.

Over the past eight years, the annual report has become well-known. In B.C., The Province newspaper publishes the report in its entirety and references to the report are frequently made in the mass media. The report, authored by Peter Cowley and Stephen Easton, sets out to influence the educational assumptions and decisions of parents from the outset. According to Cowley, "Parents use the Report Card's indicator values, ratings and rankings to compare schools when they choose an education provider for their children."

The Fraser Institute, a Vancouver-based think tank, focuses on "the redirection of public attention to the role of competitive markets in providing for the well-being of Canadians." The Institute's Report Card consistently favours private schools and public schools located in wealthy neighbourhoods. All six of the schools receiving perfect scores in this year's report are private institutions. Four of these schools-- Crofton House, Little Flower Academy, St. George's and York House-- have held this position for five years or more. The FI uses provincial exam marks and graduation statistics to assign every eligible secondary school a rating out of 10. A new sports-participation indicator has been added to this year's report, but is not used in calculating the overall scores. The Institute has repeatedly come under fire for the narrowness of its criteria. Vancouver School Board Chair Adrienne Montani has expressed concerns about "the bias and dubious statistical validity in the calculations used to create the report card."

Certainly, the report, in trying to use quantitative analysis to evaluate something as complex as education, is bound to encounter problems. But while the report's criteria may be narrow, perhaps they accurately reflect the interests and priorities of the Fraser Institute. The annual report judges schools as successful insofar as they produce adults who will contribute to the economy. Cowley and Easton claim that they are interested in helping "students make good decisions about their education." But instead of encouraging a spectrum of educational choices, the report penalizes schools with lower graduation rates and schools that fail to process students within the normal timeframe. The reason for this efficient processing has more to do with economics than with the well-being of individual students. Teya Klavora graduated from Crofton House, one of the FI's top-rated schools, in 1998. Reflecting on her time at the school, Klavora commented, "The priorities were solely academic excellence and getting into as many prestigious universities as possible… the sky was the limit, but only in the university department."

The kind of narrow academic achievement the report rewards has little to do with the most important kinds of learning. In fact, there may be a direct relationship between conventional academic achievement and the magnitude of our social and environmental problems. Writer Elie Wiesel once noted that it was a highly educated German society that gave birth to the holocaust. While German schooling may have been academically rigorous, "it emphasized theories instead of values, concepts rather than human beings, abstraction rather than consciousness, answers instead of questions, ideology and efficiency rather than conscience." The implications of Wiesel's statement are worth considering. Perhaps the schools with the most efficient processing and strongest exam results also do the best job of preparing students to participate in a destructive economy. Unfortunately these are the same schools that the Institute highlights and holds up as models. According to the report, "There is great benefit in identifying schools that are particularly effective. By studying the techniques used in schools where students are successful, less effective schools may find ways to improve." The effect of holding up private schools as examples may be to encourage the further privatization of education.

What constitutes a 'good school' depends on your priorities. If your main concern is the creation of cogs for an economic machine then a certain set of schools will fare well. If, on the other hand, your aim is the development of thoughtful and compassionate people, the results will be quite different.

The private schools at the top of the Fraser Institute's charts have plenty of advantages: excellent facilities, low teacher-to-student ratios, and a student body drawn largely from affluent families. Yet built into the private education system is a disadvantage these schools cannot overcome: Private schools separate kids with certain academic skills and/or access to money from other kids their age. It is not uncommon for students to graduate from these elite schools having never interacted with a person with a disability, a refugee or someone on welfare. According to Klavora, "We were sent out prepared to function in a closed university environment, not the world…the most important life skills I learned were outside of the ivy walls." It is an ironic twist that these top-ranked schools have a fundamental flaw that, by definition, they cannot overcome. The schools that the Fraser Institute favours may provide a good education in a narrow sense. Unfortunately, the perfect 10 scores the Institute awards to this handful of elite schools overlook the failures of this type of education.

Anna Kirkpatrick questions the ideology behind the Fraser Institute's Annual School Ranking.

Home Grown Dissent

Mon, 24 Apr 2006 20:33:19 +0000

Connecting the evening news and the evening meal

Why aren't Canadians eating food grown locally? John Bonnar

"April is the cruelest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain."
–T.S. Eliot, the Wasteland

On and off the fields, things have indeed been 'stirring' this spring. Thanks to the Easter weekend, grocery stores recorded some of the highest daily profits of the year. April also saw thousands of farmers literally drive their tractors into the political arena.

An estimated 10,000 farmers traveled to Parliament Hill in early April to protest their rising costs and falling incomes. They brought their tractors and the message that Canadian farmers cannot bear the burden of negative incomes produced by a dysfunctional food system.

The National Farmers' Union (NFU) reports that realized net income for the average Canadian farm is between negative $10,000 and negative $20,000 per year. Meanwhile, agribusiness corporations supplying inputs such as chemicals and seeds are making record profits. Likewise, food processors, exporters and retailers are also enjoying high profits at farmers' expense, according to the NFU.

Around the same time that Canadians were spending record amounts on groceries over the Easter long weekend, tractors began blockading food terminals in Ontario. Farmers were protesting the small amount of profits they will see from grocery stores that are flooded with foreign products.

The blockades were called off at three Ottawa terminals on April 15 after discussions with federal officials led organizers to believe that the upcoming federal budget would provide help to Canadian farmers. A second victory came on April 18, when the Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors, which represents the heavyweights in the grocery industry, agreed to bolster the farmers' lobbying efforts and push for new regulations promoting Canadian produce on grocery store shelves.

Colleen Ross, the National Farmers' Union's Women's president and organic farmer, points out that recent farm protests in Canada are part of a larger international movement of farmers seeking social and economic justice. April 17 was the International Day of Farmers' Struggle, an event organized by La Via Campesina, a coalition of international farm organizations. Farm and food issues affect all people, says Ross: "The structure of the global food system is an issue that should concern everyone."

Although the farming crisis is a global one, Ross brings the issues back to the manageable level of the dinner table. Canadians can support farmers and local economies by eating locally grown food, says Ross who likes to "encourage…nay, hound!... people to boycott products that compete directly with Canadian grown and raised products." Even this can be tricky, however, as labeling laws in Canada "are so misleading, that even when people think they are buying Canadian, what they are often getting is some water and a container from Canada and the contents coming from China," says Ross. "For example, apple juice concentrates coming from China and reconstituted here [and] bottled and marked Canadian Number 1."

Over the long weekend in April, Ross cooked up a meal for her family at her home near Iroquois, Ontario. She used mainly local ingredients that can be frozen and canned from the garden, or bought at local grocery stores or directly from farmers markets. Although Ross does use some non-local ingredients, like olive oil and pepper, she says that many meals can be sourced locally. In Ontario, "you can find locally-grown apples, squash and even wines. Carrots and other vegetables grown and stored over winter can be found across the country. The list of high-quality Canadian foods that are available is endless," she says. "Unfortunately, it's not always easy to find Canadian-grown on the shelves," she adds. Ross suggests consumers ask specifically for Canadian-grown produce and Canadian-raised meat products.

In spring, when new crops are just beginning to stir in the fields, Ross recommends the following meal, which can be made with locally grown ingredients.

Colleen Ross' Spring Feast

"For the chicken we have free-range organic, which I raise here. First, season the chicken with sea salt and fresh ground pepper. Brown the whole chicken all over in a big pan with some butter and some olive oil. Then put in a casserole dish that has a lid, but not too small to crowd the chicken. You then pour over the juice of two lemons and about two cups of milk, then about 10 cloves of garlic, crushed but not minced. Season again well. Add either tarragon leaves or basil, whatever you have, best fresh. (I freeze whole leaves that I take out and use like fresh in cooking. Better than drying everything.). This is very important. Take the lid off for the last 1/2 hour. Cook in total for about two hours, depending on size of chicken. The chicken should be nicely browned."

Ross accompanies the chicken with roasted Canadian parsnips, potatoes, onions, sweet potatoes and carrots seasoned with sea salt and pepper, olive oil, herbs, and baked in a covered casserole dish in the oven with a few table spoons of water. For dessert, Ross recommends Kawartha Dairy 100% Canadian Ingredients ice cream.

In solidarity with farmers' protests in Ontario, Kristen Howe dishes up a spring feast made with local ingredients.

Reconstruction money for Iraq spent on security

Mon, 24 Apr 2006 18:23:27 +0000

U.S. construction giant Parsons Inc. has spent its $200 million budget after completing less than a quarter of the health clinics it was contracted to build in Iraq.

Brig. Gen. William McCoy, the Army Corps commander overseeing reconstruction in Iraq, said he still hoped to complete all 142 clinics as promised. McCoy is seeking emergency funds from the U.S. military and foreign donors. "I'm fairly confident," he told the Washington Post.

By the end of 2006, the $18.4 billion that Washington has allocated for Iraq's reconstruction runs out. Much of that money has been spent on security for reconstruction projects (guards and surveillance cameras, for example) and building up Iraq's police and military.

A recent report released by the nonprofit research organization RAND Corp, states that the US has failed to improve basic sanitation and provide safe drinking water in heavily populated areas of Iraq.

According toReuters the report goes on to say that botched efforts to improve public health may be to blame for elevated anti-American sentiment in the country.

Doctors in Baghdad's hospitals still cite dirty water as one of the major killers of infants.

Cars, jewelry and sex buys reconstruction contracts in Iraq

Mon, 24 Apr 2006 17:03:43 +0000

In order to obtain lucrative reconstruction projects in Iraq, Philip Bloom offered US officials money, cars, premium airline seats, jewelry, alcohol, and sexual favours from women at his villa in Baghdad, reports the Associated Press.

Bloom's companies won $8.6 million worth of reconstruction contracts in exchange for $2 million worth of bribes. According to court documents made public on April 18th, Bloom is pleading guilty to conspiracy, bribery, and money laundering.

In one e-mail included with the court papers, an unnamed official
requested an electric blue Nissan 350Z sports car costing over $35 000. An employee trying to find the car told Bloom in an e-mail it was a "very desirable, hard-to-find color'' and only two were available in the Western U.S., reports CorpWatch.

Bloom is one of four people charged so far in a scheme that included the theft of $2 million in reconstruction money and the illegal purchase of machine guns and other weapons.

Farm Out!

Sun, 23 Apr 2006 18:50:00 +0000

Biodynamics will change the way you think about agriculture

Animals are an essential part of a biodynamic farm.

Nestled in the Kootenay Mountains of South central British Columbia, George and Bridget Baumann's farm comprises 60 acres of fields, meadows, gardens, fruit trees, greenhouses, barns, dwellings and a dynamic mix of animals and people – typical of a biodynamic farm.

While visiting the farm during Easter, snow still capped the mountains surrounding Lofstedt Farm, but the wood-fired greenhouse was filled with seedlings and George said the fields were almost ready to plow.

George's experience with biodynamic farming reaches back to the mid-1930s when his family started the first biodynamic farm in France. Now, as one of the larger biodynamic farms in B.C., Lofstedt Farm runs a community-supported agriculture program that provides 60 families with food for 10 months of the year.

Biodynamics was developed in 1924 by Austrian philosopher and scientist Rudolf Steiner in response to the impact of artificial chemical fertilizers on soil, crop and livestock health. Biodynamics seeks to recognize natural forces at work in the universe: it is based on the philosophy that "we don't just have a physical world, we also have a spiritual world," explains George. "We are using forces that come from outside the earth, from the planets and so on. It is these forces that are influencing the growth of plants." As much as possible, sowing and planting at Lofstedt farm is based on the phases of the moon and other cosmic influences.

Sowing and planting according to "cosmic forces" may raise the eyebrows of more traditional farmers, but George insists it produces "the utmost" quality of produce. Biodynamic practices are based upon high levels of biological, chemical and astrological understanding and have been subject to scientific research around the world. Biodynamic preparations have been scientifically verified to enhance soil and plant growth processes, including germination, root growth, and soil pH balance. According to George, biodynamics "goes beyond science. Science only sees one half of it. The other half [spirituality or "cosmic forces"] it ignores because it can't measure it."

Biodynamic agriculture regards the farm as an ecological entity, or organism, of which humans as well as plants and animals play an integral role. The holistic "systems" approach of biodynamics requires integrated management practices – such as crop-rotation, composting, incorporation of animals, soil management and the application of biodynamic preparations – to promote and maintain soil health.

Animals are fundamental in maintaining both the diversity and self-sufficiency of Lofstedt – two cornerstones of a healthy biodynamic farm. According to George, this is "because of the shit!" Lofstedt Farm is home to four dairy cows and their calves, four sheep, eight to 10 beehives, four Norwegian Fjord horses and a number of free-range chickens, as well as cats and dogs.

Their manure is a vital component of both compost and the biodynamic preparations used to fertilize the soil and promote plant growth. Various other animal parts including cow horns, bladders and intestines provide important energetic components of the preparations.

The nature of Lofstedt Farm means that George and Bridget make all of their own biodynamic preparations, occasionally seeking outside sources for key ingredients such as cow horns. However, regulations are making this increasingly difficult for the Baumanns and for biodynamic farmers around the world. Cows are being dehorned at an early age and "in Europe now, making biodynamic preparations is impossible because of mad cow disease. You can't get horns. And not just horns, but intestines, cow bladders, cow skulls. You no longer are allowed to use those things."

In addition to the introduction of legislation restricting the use of animal parts, regulations are also being passed to control the use of plant material. "They [Big Business] are doing everything they can to stop the use of plants for healing and things like that." Effectively, farmers such as George and Bridget, who are trying to use traditional and organic methods, are being pressured to adopt chemical practices.

The National Farmers Union reports that agribusiness in Canada is enjoying record profits this year at the expense of farmers who are in the midst of an economic crisis. One of the advantages to biodynamic farming, reports Bridget, is that one isn't at the mercy of agribusiness greed. "Biodynamic farmers are self-sufficient. That means that they don't buy anything [like pesticides and fertilizers]. There are no inputs so there is no industry behind pushing." This renders them independent of chemical companies and other industry.

Small farmers whose profits are being consumed by chemical inputs should consider biodynamics for reasons other than its self-sufficiency, says George. "It produces the highest quality vegetables, so it is an ideal that people work towards . . . it is the ultimate." But Bridget adds, "It is also a lot of work."

There are currently more then 40 biodynamic farms in Canada and there are now biodynamic agricultural societies in British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec. Each year Lofstedt Farm is host to several WWOOFers (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) and apprentices; George and Bridget's wish is to spread the word about biodynamic farming. "It has changed many, many people's lives," George says. "It just changes their whole outlook on life; what to do, where to go from here. It's an important thing."

Cammie Harbottle investigates biodynamic agriculture and discovers that farming is about the earth - and the moon.

Is Military Using Hamilton in Six Nations Standoff?

Sat, 22 Apr 2006 19:58:32 +0000

Officials "not aware" of military involvement in Six Nations crisis, but won't deny reports

Protesters are occupying a housing development on Haudenosaunee land near Caledonia. photo: OCAP

A military force of unknown size and capacity seems to be operating out of the Hamilton airport, according to information gathered by the Dominion. The deployment of military forces would be a major escalation in the standoff between Native protesters and the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP). The OPP has tried once, though unsucessfully, to remove demonstrators occupying a housing development that Six Nations Kanienkehake (Mohawks) say is illegal under Canadian, Haudenosaunee and international law.

During an interview, an airport official initially confirmed that Canadian Forces were at the airport as "back up support." Mary Beth Horvath, Marketing/Commuications Coordinator for the Hamilton Airport, first told the Dominion that Canadian Forces were not "using it [the airport] as a staging ground. I haven't heard it regarded in that term."

When she was later asked to confirm her report, Horvath repeated that "there is some backup support there." When asked to specifically to confirm if Canadian Forces were on site, Horvath responded that "I don't know if, again, I don't know to what extent or to what, so I'm not, I really don't want to be quoted on that because I'm not there to actually see it, physically."

[Update: A Caledonia resident who asked not to be identified, told the Dominion he saw an unmarked grey van traveling in his neighborhood, blocks away from the standoff, with eight Canadian Forces personnel aboard. "They looked like Rangers," the source said.]

Horvath referred the Dominion to two other officials, neither denied that Canadian Forces were operating from the Hamilton Airport.

"I know nothing about that," said Haldiman County Official Bill Pierce when asked about a military staging ground at the airport.

Dave Rector, a spokesperson for the Ontario Provincial Police, said "I am not aware of the presence of any Canadian armed forces."

Eyewitness and press reports have confirmed that RCMP are assisting the OPP, and some reports cite the Hamilton Airport as the Federal police force's staging area. An RCMP spokesperson confirmed that the RCMP is playing a supporting role, but would not comment on any specific locations or activities.

As of this writing, the Dominion could not find any officials willing to deny the deployment of military to the airport.

Federal Involvement?

The deployment of the military would mark the involvement of the Federal Government, signaling a departure from what officials have repeatedly insisted is a Provincial matter.

The last time Canadian Forces were deployed against Native demonstrators was during the 1990 Oka crisis, when Kanienkehake citizens occupied land that was slated for a golf course development. The land had been stolen a century earlier by the Catholic Church, and a century of Kanienkehake protests had not changed the situation. Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa invoked the National Defense Act, requesting "military aid to the civil power". The deployment of the Canadian army ended with one dead soldier and two related civilian deaths. Reports of torture and unjustified tactics earned Canada the condemnation of the International Federation of Human Rights and a place on Amnesty International's list of human rights violators.

Provincial officials requested the deployment of Canadian Forces--specifically, the elite Joint Task Force Two--during the 1995 Gustafsen Lake standoff, but were officially denied. According to court testimony by police officers, police took flack jackets to a firing range and fired guns at them in order to create the appearance that police had been shot by the small group of Natives occupying the site. Internal police video showed commanders stating the need for a "disinformation and smear campaign" against the Native occupiers. With 77,000 rounds of ammunition shot by police, the deployment of armored vehicles, and the use of a land mine against a truck driven by one of the demonstrators, Gustafsen lake has been cited as the largest paramilitary deployment in Canadian history.

In his book Canada's Secret Commandos: The Unauthorized Story of Joint Task Task Force Two, Ottawa Citizen reporter David Pugliese wrote that officially, JTF2 "wasn't deployed to the standoff."

"But civilian police officers privately confirm that JTF2 operators were at the siege, helping them in covert intelligence gathering as well as determining the lay of the land in case the entire unit was needed for an assault on the native encampment," Pugliese wrote. "Some of the native protesters also insist that it was members of JTF2, and not the RCMP, who engaged them in a gun battle in early September."

Federal officials have denied that the current standoff at Six Nations has anything to do with land. "This is not a lands-claim matter," Deirdre McCracken, a spokesperson for the Minister of Indian Affairs Jim Prentice told reporters. McCracken also said that the blockade "has nothing to do with the federal government."

The presence of Canadian Forces on the ground, if confirmed, will be a stark change from the government's stated policy.

» The Dominion: Home On Native Land

» Wikipedia: Oka Crisis

» Everything2: Gustafsen Lake Standoff 1995

Canadian Politicians Travel to Haiti on Eve of Elections

Sat, 22 Apr 2006 07:30:18 +0000

Meeting Plans 'Confidential'

[Corrected, April 24, 5:20 PM EST - (details)]

A delegation of Canadian parliamentarians arrived in Haiti on April 20 as Haitian voters prepared to participate in run-off elections slated for April 21st. Members of the Liberal Party, who engineered Canada's involvement in the leadup and aftermath of the coup d'état that threw the island nation into chaos in February 2004, are not among the high-level delegation. The trip was authorized by the new Foreign Affairs Minister of the Conservative government, Peter MacKay.

New Democratic Party MP Alexa McDonough, the NDP's former leader and current foreign affairs critic, is part of the Canadian delegation to Haiti. Anthony Salloum, assistant to McDonough, could not provide specific details of the trip. In a message acquired by the Dominion, the itinerary for the trip was said to be "confidential." According to the email, members of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs' itinerary included "tentative meetings with Preval's team, [meeting with] Latortue, [visiting] polling stations, NGO's, MINUSTAH [United Nations forces in Haiti], visits to a 'penitencier,'" but specifics were not available.

McDonough's spokesperson did confirm that she has scheduled a screening of the documentary film "Aristide and the Endless Revolution" upon her return to Ottawa. The controversial but critically acclaimed film contests the version of events in Haiti offered by Canada, the US, and France - the leaders of the February 2004 invasion of Haiti. According to the film, the US whisked elected President Jean Bertrand Aristide into his second forced exile in as many times he had held office. Evidence also suggests that Canadian troops secured key locations in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince during the coup d'état.

A source close to the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) operations in Haiti told the Dominion that visiting dignitaries in Haiti are limited to the areas where "things are working a little bit."

"They're brought wherever people want to show them things are working reasonably [well]," the source said.

In the Haitian elections, thirty Senate seats and ninety-seven Chamber of Deputy seats are up for grabs. Haitian President-elect Rene Preval awaits the news that will determine how his popular Lespwa coalition of parties fared against a largely foreign-backed opposition representing Haiti's minority classes.

Without a majority in Parliament, Preval will be under severe pressure to stray from his mandate to eradicate poverty, end repression, free the hundreds of political prisoners, and give Haiti's impoverished majority a say in the country's affairs. Foreign donors and Haiti's elites are pressuring for structural reforms and eventual privatization under the tutelage of international financial institutions such as the World Bank, IMF, and Inter-American Bank.

With voter turn-out for run-off elections traditionally low, and with a high level of foreign and Haitian elite support for opposition parties, it is plausible that Preval's Lespwa coalition will lack a majority in the upcoming parliament. On April 19, Reuters reporter Joseph Guyler Delva quoted Preval as saying, "Without support from Parliament, there is not much a president can do."

The head of Elections Canada, Jean-Pierre Kingsley, leads an international elections monitoring mission in Haiti (IMMHE), a position that he has held for overseeing recent elections in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine. The IMMHE works closely with the International Federation of Electoral Systems (IFES), a controversial US organization that receives funding from the US State Department and USAID. Kingsley sits on the IFES Board of Directors. The Chairman of IFES is William Hybl, a former Bush appointee to the UN and former advisor to President Ronald Reagan, who also sits on the board of directors of the International Republican Institute (IRI). Both the IRI and IFES are widely believed to have helped destabilize Haiti's democratically elected government by supporting the largely elite-based opposition that agitated for Aristide's ouster prior to his overthrow in 2004.

On April 21 the Ottawa Haiti Solidarity Committee held a demonstration demanding Kingsley's resignation. A press release said that "Kingsley's appalling silence in the face of grave human rights violations and political repression throughout Haiti's election process demonstrate a profound partisan bias that is simply unacceptable."

"His performance is a disgrace, and he should resign immediately."

Referring to the April 21st run-off and February 7th elections as "profoundly flawed," the committee decried Kingsley's failure to address well-founded accusations of fraud and ballot manipulation. They write that a recent IMMHE report on the February elections "completely ignores these accusations and minimizes the importance of the burning ballots." It hails the election as a "laudable democratic exercise." The protesters are also calling for the release of Haiti's political prisoners.

The Canadian government has played a leading role in Haiti's "transition" under UN-led military occupation, pouring millions of dollars of funding into programs that support Haiti's right-wing and former opposition to Lavalas. Canadian-based transnationals such as Gildan Activewear, own and contract out sweatshops in Haiti. According to a CIDA spokesperson, at least one other Canadian-based textile company is currently considering moving to Haiti where conditions are favorable due to Haiti's low wages, tax holidays, and favorable trade and labor conditions.

Critics of Canada's role in Haiti have long encouraged politicians to acknowledge the reported abuses that have been carried out by the interim government and UN forces. UN forces include at least 100 RCMP officers and an undisclosed number of Canadian Forces and possible Special Forces. A Canadian has commanded the 1,700 strong UN police contingent since it's inception under the MINUSTAH umbrella in mid-2004. At least five of the RCMP are devoted to intelligence gathering and surveillance.