The Dominion - 39

Canada's Quiet Free Trade Agreement

Mon, 23 Oct 2006 17:43:34 +0000

Few people have heard of CA4TA

Guatemala City graffiti: We don't want free trade agreement, we want revolution, education, media. photo: Detritus

In June, Canada's international trade minister, David L. Emerson, gave a speech in Ottawa to Canada's business, government, and academic elite to celebrate International Trade Day. "I have no reservations about saying that we have not been aggressive enough and focused enough on ensuring that Canada keeps up with the rapid, almost competitive, expansion of bilateral free trade agreements," said Emerson. "Canada is the only major trading nation that has not negotiated a single free trade agreement in the past five years." One of the agreements the Canadian government is trying to finalize is the Central America Four Free Trade Agreement (CA4TA) with Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua. Talks were suspended in February 2004 over a failure to resolve a few issues of contention, though one Canadian Trade official said the talks were "very well advanced." Canada is now informally talking with these Central American countries to resolve a few remaining issues, he said, one of them concerning market access for exports. "My assumption is that it is an opportunity for governments to work out differences so that in official meetings they can just rubber stamp the deal and send it through," said Nadja Drost, co-ordinator of the Americas Policy Group.

A point of contention with Drost and about 150 civil society groups throughout the hemisphere is the refusal to release a draft of the agreement.

The Canadian Trade official, who wished to withhold his name, said that the Canadian government wanted to release the draft but that it would be inappropriate to do so unilaterally since consensus on the issue couldn't be released. Drost countered by pointing out that it was the Canadian government who convinced the countries of the hemisphere to release a draft of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) in 2001.

"Now they are saying that they can't get four small Central American countries to do it," she added.

As it stands, the text won't be released until the deal is signed and submitted to parliament for ratification. Although the economic impacts of the deal may not be profound, there are concerns about sovereignty, human rights and democracy based on experiences from past deals like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

"I think transparency is a major, major issue," said Drost. "I think the public would feel a lot more assured if they knew their concerns about democracy and human rights were being addressed."

Because of the secrecy behind the details of the deal, critics are using NAFTA and the United States' narrowly passed Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) as references for their concerns. Both trade agreements were attacked for failing to promote and enforce human rights, as well as for undermining democracy with unbalanced investor rights provisions.

The investor rights provisions of free trade were first introduced in Chapter 11 of NAFTA. It essentially allows corporations to sue local, state or federal governments for labour, environmental or other public interest laws which they deem unfairly impeding their ability to maximize profits.

For example, the Canadian government was fined for entering an international agreement that prompted it to close its borders to toxic substances. Under Chapter 11, Canada was ordered to pay US company S.D. Meyers $4.8 million for "lost business opportunities." Thus far, tens of millions of dollars have been awarded to corporations, while billions of dollars worth of claims are still pending.

The Canadian government, in 2004, responded to some of civil society's concerns about NAFTA's Ch. 11 by revising its negotiation template for Foreign Investment Protection Agreements (FIPA). Although some issues are addressed, according to a policy review commissioned by the Canadian Council for International Co-operation and written by the editor of Investment Treaty News, the reforms fall short.

For example, the template restricts host countries from requiring foreign companies to purchase some supplies locally. These requirements would bolster local economic development, but might ultimately inhibit companies from maximizing profits.

Free trade critics are also concerned with the lack of provisions to address and redress weak labour and human rights laws in the Central American countries.

The Canadian Association of Labour Lawyers (CALL), an association of over 350 progressive lawyers that has worked to promote legally enforceable rights for workers in the Americas, has "serious reservations that the proposed CA4FTA will benefit workers in Central America or Canada." It uses past trade agreements, such as NAFTA and CAFTA, to point out historical deficiencies in the area of workers' rights when it comes to international trade.

Under CAFTA, Central American countries are only obligated to enforce domestic labour laws. This is problematic, considering various reports by the US State Department, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), and other human rights organizations point out not only inadequacies with current laws but also institutional failures in enforcing these laws. In the Central American countries included in CA4TA, child labour is pervasive, worker blacklists are made, foreign companies have closed their doors after being informed that workers wanted to form a union, and worker wages are a fraction of what Canadian workers make. According to the ICFTU, in Honduras, Francisco Cruz Galeano, the regional co-ordinator of the General Confederation of Workers (CGT), was shot over 20 times and killed.

As of now, Canadian citizens will not learn how CA4TA affects human rights issues until the deal is finalized and submitted to Parliament for approval. The text will then be available for public, media and government scrutiny. But any amendments proposed to address potential shortcomings would have to be reviewed by the Central American partner governments.

Pressure will undoubtedly be put on members of Parliament to pass the agreement as is so that Canada doesn't fall further behind in the race to secure new free trade agreements—something Canada's trade minister has already said needs to be remedied. The same approach was used in the United States to push through CAFTA, which was ratified by a mere two votes, despite widespread opposition by civil society in the United States, as well as Central America.

Cyril Mychalejko is assistant editor of UpsideDownWorld, an online magazine uncovering politics and activism in Latin America.

Cyril Mychalejko investigates the CA4TA, a free trade agreement few Canadians have heard of.

New Brunswick's New Business

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 17:08:45 +0000

An afternoon at an arms convention with some nice folks

David Innis stands by the NBAD display at a military trade show in Halifax. photo: Chris Arsenault

David Innis doesn't seem like a bad guy.

He's got a warm red face, a half-decent tie and wants to bring investment and jobs to New Brunswick.

But, as chairman of the New Brunswick Aerospace Defence Association (NBADA), Innis is essentially an arms dealer.

His job is to lure more military -- excuse me-- 'aerospace and defence' investment to the province.

"New Brunswick has a pretty well-established defence industry," Innis said while working the NBADA booth at a military trade show in Halifax in September.

The New Brunswick Aerospace Defence Association, including some 60 companies, "was born five years ago to give the businesses and the companies themselves a forum or an opportunity to engage in this industry in a more co-operative manner and engage the world that exists out there," Innis said.

And what a world it is. Inside the convention centre, government functionaries with receding hairlines and businessmen in grey suits brush shoulders with soldiers in military fatigues. Several hundred people interested in the business of war have gathered for this spectacle.

On the convention's second floor sits the main presentation room, where major arms makers like Boeing explain how smaller firms can win subcontracts on their projects. Boeing's rep reads from prepared notes, bragging how his firm produces one-third of all satellites currently in orbit and generated $54.8 billion in revenue from 145 countries in 2005. The PowerPoint presentation on the screen behind the rep shows white missiles blasting into blue sky, with a superimposed American flag in the background.

Boeing's PowerPoint presentation plays like a bad Nickelback video, complete with a hard-rock song entitled 'Anywhere, Anytime' that seems to have been written especially for the weapons firm.

With clients in 145 countries, the company is certainly ready to get paid by 'anyone at anytime,' selling weapons to both sides in various wars.

"As everything is becoming more global, we really have to step forward and look at the industry in a larger context than we have in the past. It involves an awful lot more networking," Innis said. The New Brunswick table is fairly small and not too impressive compared to major players like General Dynamics Canada, Raytheon and Boeing.

Many companies at the arms fair offer bowls of Werther's Originals or Campino hard candy on their displays. Buying missiles, armoured personnel carriers and aircraft components should, after all, be a sweet affair.

Many New Brunswick weapons firms are small subcontractors making component parts for large war machines. One of the province's defence "success stories," according to a government press release, is DEW Engineering, who operate a 100,000 square-foot facility in Miramichi.

This firm produces, among other things, "add-on armour for the world market". Vehicles like Army Stryker, involved in the occupation of Iraq, use this sort of add-on armour.

"New Brunswick has everything that it needs to fully participate in this industry," Innis said.

When people who sell weapons talk about their industry, concepts like war, kill, maimed kids, vanquished infrastructure and greed rarely fall into the lexicon. It's a 'defence industry' not a 'weapons that kill people' industry.

In his 1961 farewell address, President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued the American people, and by extension the rest of us, a serious warning.

"We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex," said Eisenhower.

Today, the influence of the military industrial complex is beyond unwarranted; it is all encompassing.

In 2005, the United States spent $455 billion on its military; more than the combined total of the 32 next most powerful nations, notes a report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

In 2005, Canada was already the seventh largest military spender of the 26 countries in NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

"For the price of one military helicopter, the government could build 1,000 homes to shelter Canada's homeless," notes a report from the Polaris Institute, a left-leaning think tank based in Ottawa.

During the last week of June 2006, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced $15 billion in new spending on military vehicles, including transport planes, heavy-lift helicopters, troop carrier ships and trucks, to be spent over the next number of years.

Chris Arsenault spends an afternoon at an arms convention with some nice folks.

September

Tue, 12 Sep 2006 00:21:35 +0000

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The Seed in the Stone

Mon, 11 Sep 2006 23:19:27 +0000

Growing food in the concrete jungle

City backyards are good for more than swimming pools and lawn chairs. photo: Kristen Howe

I hate to say it, but the warm months of summer are coming to a close. The Ontario tomatoes, corn and peaches, which are currently replacing tasteless international imports, are helping me get over my end-of-season nostalgia. And despite the fact that I'm living in downtown Toronto, I'm finding that the fall harvest is happening closer to my kitchen than I expected.

This year, my housemates and I planted a small garden plot in our backyard with some of our favourite foods. Judging by the view from our back balcony, which looks down on the tidy and productive gardens tended by our neighbours, we are definitely not alone.

The view from my balcony is supported by polls conducted in 2002 by Ipsos-Reid that found that 40 per cent of people in Greater Toronto live in households that produce some of their own food; urban gardeners growing vegetables, fruit, berries, nuts or herbs in backyards, balconies, or community gardens.

Although the Ipsos-Reid poll sounds promising, only a fraction of the food Canadians eat is grown locally, let alone in a personal garden. The average tomato, for example, travels a gas-guzzling 1,500 miles from field to plate.

I first realized that it is possible to grow a substantial portion of an urban diet close to where it is consumed when I visited Cuba a few years ago. Over half of the fruit and vegetables consumed in Havana are grown organically in Havana. In the house where I stayed, my host Pastorita explained that after the fall of the Soviet Union, imports of food, pesticides, fertilizers and gasoline for farm machinery and transport were halted, resulting in a 30 per cent reduction in food consumption. She showed me the buckets, bathtub and trellis on the rooftop of her house that her family tended through the toughest years when every open space in Havana sprouted culinary plants. Larger intensive production gardens on vacant lots were also opened with the support of the government and they continue to grow produce to sell to the public, schools and hospitals through collaborations between the Ministries of Agriculture, Education and Health.

Canada still lags far behind the Cuban model of urban agriculture. Cubans were forced to grow food collectively to avoid starvation. Lacking that motivation, and structural support, Canadians that do garden tend to cultivate smaller plots, and for different reasons.

According to Foodshare, a Toronto-based organization that addresses urban hunger and food issues, there are 1,000 community gardens and over 2,500 allotment gardens in the city, in addition to yard and patio gardens. The motivations of gardeners, and the environmental, health, and social benefits of their gardens are numerous, and often overlap.

Foodshare supports a market garden at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health where residents participate in growing and selling produce. Another organization, the Stop Community Food Centre, grows food to supplement its food bank services and facilitate engagement and education in its multicultural community. A small garden at the Voces Latinos community centre is motivated by the idea of fostering closer connections between people and their environment. Seeds of Diversity Canada, a grassroots seed-saving organization, cultivates a heritage vegetable garden to preserve the genetic diversity of plants that are adapted to local growing conditions, and combat the corporatization of the food supply.

This spring, as I was digging up my backyard plot, my neighbour Frank poked his head over the fence and asked in his thick Italian accent if I had planted any tomatoes. When I told him I hadn't, he returned with a bucket full of cooking and slicing tomato seedlings.

Each spring, Frank nurtures hundreds of seedlings in a homemade greenhouse, which he delivers to extended family across the Greater Toronto Area once the weather is warm enough for planting. He grows tomatoes for the incredible taste, as a hobby, and to share an essential cultural food with his family. Each year, he also saves the seeds from his best tomatoes to plant the following spring; I have literally been eating the fruits of Frank's labour from the last decade.

How to eat a tomato like a meal
–Cut a fresh, ripe tomato into thick slices lengthwise on a plate.
–Cover generously with pepper and a dash of salt to taste.
–Garnish with cheese, basil, or balsamic vinegar for extra flavour.
–Get your napkin ready, and eat with a knife and fork.

Kristen Howe is growing her favourite foods in Toronto's concrete jungle.

Sapporo's takeover of Sleeman leaves little in local hands

Mon, 11 Sep 2006 22:11:27 +0000

Trouble is brewing for Canadian beer makers as the trend towards foreign ownership continues unabated. Sleeman Breweries has accepted a buyout offer of $17.50 per share from Sapporo Breweries of Japan, valuing the deal at nearly $400 million.

The last of Canada's three large breweries to accept foreign ownership, Sleeman is strongly advising shareholders to approve the agreement. Analysts believe approval to be highly likely as the offer represents a 50 per cent premium over the price of Sleeman shares on May 11, the day before Sleeman announced it was seeking a buyer. Both companies expect the deal to close by mid-October.

Controlling seven per cent of the domestic beer market, Sleeman's buyout will reduce the market share of Canadian-owned breweries to roughly five per cent. This is all "part of a pattern in Canada," notes Robb Steward of Dow Jones Newswires, one that saw corporate beer giants Molson and Labatt effectively cede control over the past several years to the Colorado-based Coors, and Belgium's InBev, respectfully.

In a bid to reduce costs and drive up profits, Sleeman has cut about one-fifth of its labour force over the past year, including 40 jobs only days before the announcement of the purchase agreement. When asked by reporters if the change in ownership would mean further job cuts, Sleeman CEO John Sleeman was non-committal. "I don't think it's fair to paint Sapporo into a corner and say that everyone is going to keep their job," Sleeman told the Toronto Star.

According to industry sources, Molson Coors, Labatt and Dutch brewer Grolsch were also interested in the acquisition. However, Sleeman already brews and distributes Sapporo's beer in Canada, and there is speculation that Sapporo was eager to purchase Sleeman in order to prevent their existing arrangement from being annulled by a new owner.

On The Globe and Mail's High Standards

Sat, 09 Sep 2006 00:51:53 +0000

The Lancet, Haiti and the manufacture of controversy

Prisoners in a Port-au-Prince jail demonstrate on the roof after UN troops were accused of killing prisoners. photo: Randall White/HaitiAction.net

On occasion, a study or report will appear that significantly embarrasses--or even shames--people in positions of power. In such cases, one can expect those who see themselves as being slighted to mobilize their resources to attack those whose findings caused them to suffer. The result is an open battle over who has the ability to state facts without becoming the centre of "controversy."

This is the case with UK-based medical journal The Lancet's recent study that suggests that after the US- and Canada-backed overthrow of Haiti's government, an estimated 8 000 people were killed, and 35 000 women were sexually assaulted in Port-au-Prince. The study, which was peer-reviewed by four advisors, interviewed a random sample of residents of Haiti's capital.

[A similar case involving Human Rights Watch and Lebanon was recently explored in an article by Nazareth-based journalist Jonathan Cook.]

Because Canadian officials have repeatedly claimed that Canada's intervention was conducted in order to improve the human rights situation, and because Canada is responsible for training and vetting the police officers who are named as a significant source of political violence (along with UN soldiers), the report qualifies as embarrassing.

At least two similarly high-profile human rights reports--from teams from the University of Miami and Harvard University--long ago reached very similar conclusions about the coup and the attendant increase in political violence. Despite their thorough documentation, the Canadian media almost entirely ignored both reports.

The Lancet report, perhaps in part due to the publication's high profile, proved harder to ignore. In its last weekend edition, the Montreal Gazette published a front-page story on the findings. The next day, a follow-up story reported that Canadian soldiers had made death threats during house raids and sexually threatened women while off-duty. The report attracted interest from CBC's The Current and As It Happens.

The response to the report, which emerged a few days later, has been characterized by its attempts to discredit the author by raising the standards by which such reports are judged to comical levels of purity.

The Globe and Mail broke from its long-standing de facto policy of not covering human rights reports that allege Canadian malpractice in Haiti with a report by Marina Jimenez under the headline "Author of Lancet article on Haiti investigated: Writer critical of Canadian peacekeepers worked at orphanage founded by Aristide."

The report raises two concerns. First, that nine years ago, Athena Kolbe, one of the report's authors, worked for an orphanage started by Jean Bertrand Aristide. Second, that she once wrote articles under the pseudonym Lyn Duff. There, the substance ends.

Jimenez quotes a letter by Charles Arthur which claims that the study could have been, "skewed or biased in order to exonerate Fanmi Lavalas/Aristide supporters from accusation of involvement in human-rights violations." Jimenez and others do not mention that Arthur and his Haiti Support Group are affiliated with numerous organizations that receive funding directly from the Canadian government as well as Rights and Democracy, an organization created by Canada's Parliament in 1988.

The Guardian, a newspaper with a more progressive reputation than the Globe, also opted to avoid covering the story until the "investigation" became news. The sub-headline reads: "Report appeared to clear Aristide camp of blame," and the story opens with "The Lancet medical journal is investigating complaints that it published a misleading account of violence in Haiti that appears to exonerate the supporters of [Aristide]."

Attentive readers, however, may be confused when they read the actual Lancet report and find the statements like the following: "Political groups on both sides of the spectrum were named as responsible for violent and criminal acts... Lavalas members and partisans of the Lavalas movement were also named as having committed such acts."

But the reason for a story's importance, such as it is, is always in the headlines: the author is being "investigated." It is only through close reading that one determines that the only source cited for the fact of the "investigation" is Kolbe herself and her editors at The Lancet. The patient reader of the Guardian will reach the fourteenth paragraph and discover Lancet publisher Richard Horton stating that, "The Lancet is checking that all the correct procedures for the research were followed."

He adds: "It is not suggested that the Lancet report had misreported its findings or that Ms Kolbe had any other agenda than the welfare of ordinary Haitians at heart."

Investigation, indeed. "Checking" doesn't have quite the same ring to it. (Jimenez, in the end, only cites Kolbe herself to establish the fact of an "investigation"; Kolbe has said she is in fact not being "investigated" and said that Jimenez falsely attributed her statement to that effect.)

In its enthusiasm for objectivity, however, the Globe, the Guardian and the Associated Press, which ran a similar story, may have lost some perspective. The Globe's Jimenez cites Rights and Democracy's Nicholas Galletti, who complains of the "author's background," calling into question a "study 'based on flawed methodology' whereby responsibility for crimes is attributed to groups without a proper criminal investigation or trial."

The question is, to whom does the standard that "responsibility" should not be delegated "without a proper investigation or trial" apply? Rights and Democracy receives millions in annual funding from the Federal Government (the "majority" of its funding, by its own account) and its president is appointed by the prime minister's office. One has only to visit the falsely-named "Non-Governmental Organization's" web site to find numerous reports on human rights that do not adhere to this standard. If it did operate by the same standard, it's not clear how it would be possible to keep track of human rights abuses in countries (Haiti, for example) where such crimes go unprosecuted.

Rights and Democracy's reports do differ in one significant respect, they almost uniformly do not inspire front-page articles that embarrass those in positions of power in Canada.

* * *

Postscript: This is not the first time that the Lancet has been attacked for a study examining the impact of a military invasion on human rights. An analyst at the UK's MediaLens pointed out some of the inconsistencies in the media's coverage of various Lancet reports.

How flimsy can the basis for a "controversy" be? Dru Oja Jay looks at the Globe's example.

White-Collar Crime

Fri, 08 Sep 2006 23:05:01 +0000

Alberta oil windfall, theft and genocide

Western Lakota drilling operation in Northern Alberta.

Last year the Alberta provincial government mailed out a $400 'prosperity cheque' to every tax-filing resident of Alberta. Currently, there is discussion about doing it again for the 2006 tax year. The prosperity cheques are funded by resource revenue earned by the Province on sales of natural gas and oil; in the past 18 years, Alberta has earned $78 billion in resource revenue.

This year, the modest official government forecast for resource revenue income is in the $7 billion range, but it could be as high as $19 billion. The Alberta Government has the lowest royalty rates in the world, including a 1 per cent royalty on oil from oil sands during operations startup. Even when oil was $19 a barrel, this was, in effect, a public subsidy of the wealthiest by the poorest, but, at $75 a barrel, it is simply theft. Nothing new, and everybody has become inured to this category of theft, but it is still theft, and theft is officially a crime. It is the main white-collar crime. White-collar crime is primarily about stealing money. Accounting procedures seem to work best.

ExxonMobil's Imperial Oil pumps upwards of 200,000 barrels of C4+ per day from their Cold Lake field to Hardisty, Alberta, where it joins with Enbridge's Line 3 and is piped to US refineries. Last year, Exxon posted all-time record profits of $39 billion; this year, each quarterly report sets a new all-time record. Every company operating in the Alberta oil patch is making record profits, including Western Lakota Energy Services (WLES), Saddle Lake Cree Nation's business partner.

Thanks to partnerships with Indian Bands, WLES has grown from a small rig manufacturer just starting out in 2002 with no assets, to the 2005 year-end in which it reported $234,893,000 in assets.

Just to refresh your memory, WLES owns 10 rigs in five separate 50/50 partnerships with Indian Bands, two rigs with my Band, Saddle Lake Cree Nation. Stripped down to its undies, the deal looks like this: We pay WLES what it costs them in cash to build a rig, of which they claim a 50 per cent share in ownership as their profits from building each rig, and then we pay them to operate these rigs. In other words, we are paying what it cost WLES to build the rigs with our 50 per cent ownership, while WLES's share is actually its profits from the sale of each rig.

Here are the statistics from WLES's 2005 year-end financial report: Rig construction earned $9,605,000 in revenue, and WLES's gross profits after net revenue recovery were $5,115000 - that's over 50 per cent. Contract drilling earned gross profits of $45,467,000 - that's nine times the gross profits from rig construction. In addition WLES earned $2,972,000 in management fees and $108,000 in interest from its "Aboriginal" partners.

While we are listing statistics, here's one from Health Canada's First Nations and Inuit Health Branch, Alberta region. In the 20 year period following Canada's official recognition via Section 35.1, Canada Constitution Act 1982, of "aboriginal treaty and inherent rights," 2,374 on-reserve "Aboriginal" people died as a result of injuries and poisoning. Fifty per cent of these accidents, as Health Canada calls them, were suicides. Almost all of these so-called accidents involved addictions.

Health Canada's official explanation for "Aboriginal" suicide is that it is a tragic personal disease. Addictions are explained in the same way. Yet, in the pre-colonial Cree culture, there was no history of either suicide or addictions. Just to prove the point about addictions, we had food, sex and gambling, but no addictions. Now we have severe addictions to those, plus alcohol, crack and crystal meth. Our cultural myths contain admonishing references to all sorts of human vices, for instance abuses of food, sex and gambling, but no references to suicide, at all.

What has changed?

"Aboriginal" Peoples are portrayed as circular folks, worshipping the circle, and, apparently, going in circles. This little story leads us back to where we started out just a few hundred words ago. Those 2,374 dead Indians held something, in law, that the province of Alberta doesn't hold: root title to land and resource, with consequential jurisdiction over said lands and resources. No court currently exists on the planet to hear this case because the white-collars referenced in this article's title encircle the necks of Supreme Court judges, Crown Prosecutors, top RCMP officials, all the membership of Canada's three main political parties, all corporations from largest to smallest, all Christian moralists - especially Canada's four Big Churches - all of the Canadian Academy, and most of the rank and file of Canadian citizenry.

Some more numbers: 29 million Canadians against one million "Aboriginal" people.

Indigenous Peoples trapped inside of the modern nation state of Canada have as a core part of personal identity a spiritual relationship with the land....trite, overstated, circular...and true. When Indigenous Peoples are separated from the land, suicide and addictions become the norm. Canada's GDP in 2005 was $1.4 trillion. Try turning it over and looking at it as theft. Who said crime doesn't pay?

Stewart Steinhauer examines the profits of oil companies operating in Saddle Lake Cree Nation, and asks why some criminals never go to jail.

Setting up a Stand for Justice

Thu, 07 Sep 2006 23:29:34 +0000

A battle for a few feet of sidewalk

photo: Dru Oja Jay

Montreal, August 15 -- Around 1 a.m., I stop by the 24 hour café that has free wireless internet and, I later discover, Lebanese owners. I'm there to meet a friend, who tells me there is a "Tunisian hippy" who has been camped out in front of the café every day for what at that point had been 13 days, to protest the bombing of Lebanon, pass out information and gather signatures in support of a ceasefire. The man in question is not sporting dreadlocks or punctuating his sentences with "man." It's a kind of joke, because the others sitting and drinking coffee don't have the patience to sit through what they see as the same discussions with people who are making the same arguments as the ones that came before. Fethy the Tunisian hippy, it is surmised, possesses a kind of naiveté or idealism that allows him to return day after day.

I crane my neck to see the middle-aged man in front of the café engaged in a heated argument. Nearby is a large display he has set up: two easels festooned with Lebanese, Quebecois and Canadian flags, display petitions for passersby to sign, along with newspaper clippings about bombing of Lebanon and the demonstration earlier this week. Organizers estimated that 50,000 people attended.

Fethy's interlocutors tell him they're on their way to report for duty in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) the next day in Tel Aviv. The IDF has been shelling southern Lebanon, the Israeli Navy has been blockading the country's ports, and the Israeli Air Force has dropped more than 8,000 bombs. Bridges, airports, roads, apartment buildings and entire neighbourhoods have been destroyed, a thousand civilians have been killed, and a million people have been displaced. Some drive their cars out of Beirut, some are forced to walk out of the city. Officially a response to the capture of two Israeli soldiers, Prime Minister Harper has at this point maintained for weeks that the assault is "measured." Hezbollah has responded by firing rockets at targets in northern Israel.

Fethy passes out flyers, asking passers-by to sign the ceasefire petition, and making sure they know about the demonstration planned for Colin Powell's planned visit to Montréal.

When I stop by the next day, he's wearing a kaffiyeh on his head. He laughs, flashes a peace sign, and says it reminds "them" of Arafat. By them, he means the portion of folks strolling on Montréal's "le main" who support Israel's bombing campaign and blockade--its "right to defend itself," as some put it. And who, for whatever reason, oppose his call for an immediate ceasefire.

Within a few minutes of my arrival, a police car pulls up. Someone has complained, again, that he is harassing pedestrians. He chats with them for a few minutes, and they drive away.

Once, when he stepped inside the coffeeshop for a minute, somone knocked down his display. Another time, someone poured water on him and his display. One man argued with him for 45 minutes and became enraged when Fethy would no longer respond. A lot of people, he says, try to provoke him. But he doesn't get mad. "When I gets mad," says Fethy, "I get extremely mad." So he saves his anger.

Various supporters stop by to say hello or drop off flyers or, in one instance, to accompany him to the police station. He needed a witness to testify that one antagonist had verbally threatened his life. One woman, who says her family is Iranian, stops by to cut up sheets of flyers. Making sure that I know that she doesn't support Hezbollah or Iran's theocratic regime, she says she is afraid that the conflict is the first step toward an attack on Iran. She read Seymour Hersh's New Yorker article about the Bush administration considering the use of nuclear weapons.

The head of a local business association has an office across the street. Fethy says that he and others come up with excuses to force him to move from his high-traffic location. The man from the business association "passes by here," he says, pointing, "but he doesn't look at me anymore." At one point, someone claimed that the stakes he was using to plant flags were hurting the roots of the flora inhabiting the large concrete planter near his display. He laughs at repeated attempts to establish that he is blocking the flow of pedestrian traffic. "People are not gazelles," he says, pointing to lampposts blocking the way on either side of his display.

Fethy, whose name I later find out means "victorious one," sees himself as a small part of a larger effort. "When I'm done here," he says, "there are people who work at night." They compile the reams of names and email addresses, organize demonstrations, and petition politicians.

Later on, he takes a break and tells me stories of the political battles of decades past. Arafat's 1974 address to the UN General Assembly. Or how, when he was a young man in Tunisia, he recalls the US opened its doors to Cubans, promising money and jobs. The idea was to foment a revolt inside Cuba. But, he recalls with a laugh, Castro was smart. "He said 'you want Cubans? Ok. Get the boats, open the jails.' And so now Miami is full of Cuban criminals." But soon, he's back to flyering and asking window shoppers, errand runners and tourists to sign the petition for a ceasefire.

They keep trying, buy they won't stop me, he says. "I'll keep coming back, I'll keep fighting."

And by fighting, he means showing up every day to calmly speak to anyone who stops by about what's going on.

Lebanon, Israel, and one man's battle for a few feet of sidewalk in Montréal. Dru Oja Jay meets the "Tunisian hippy."

Welfare rates in Canada the lowest in decades

Thu, 07 Sep 2006 21:59:19 +0000

The amount of money Canadians on welfare received in 2005 wasis at its lowest point in 19 years, according to a report released by the National Council of Welfare in August.

The two worste provinces are were New Brunswick and Canada's richest province, Alberta, reports the Globe and Mail.

In 1986, a single person on welfare in Alberta received roughly $10,000 a year. By 2005, that amount had dropped to $5,050 per year.

Critics say the Alberta government, which is on track to run 13 straight years of surplus budgets, should be ashamed.

"We've got people sleeping in our parking lots. We've got people sleeping in dumpsters," Edmonton social aid worker Ellie Gibson told the CBC.

Toronto Star columnist Thomas Walkom quotes the study in his column, asserting that politicians are not the only ones to blame for poverty in Canada:

"Most Canadians would find it impossible to cope with the substantial income losses that welfare households have experienced," the council writes. "Coping is even harder for those who are already at the bottom of the income scale, given their already meagre incomes. Yet there appears to be little concern ...

"Have both governments and the Canadian public turned their backs on the poorest of the poor?"

Race, Rock and Soul

Wed, 06 Sep 2006 17:50:01 +0000

<em>Jamaica to Toronto</em> raises questions about Canada's pop past

Decades after this photo was taken, the music of Wayne McGhie is finally being recognized. This Magazine

The Canadian media has recently been celebrating the release of the excellent compilation Jamaica to Toronto: Soul, Funk and Reggae 1967-1974:, part of a series of re-issues that are single-handedly prompting the rediscovery of a vital era of Canadian soul music. But they should also provoke Canadians to consider why such albums were forgotten in the first place.

The story of Jamaica to Toronto begins in 1962, when Canada changed its immigration laws in an effort to eliminate racial discrimination, an act that led to an influx of newcomers from around the world. Many of them settled in Toronto, including several talented musicians from Jamaica. One such artist was the young guitarist Wayne McGhie, who recorded an album with his band The Sounds of Joy in 1969. By 1970 there were approximately 45,000 people of West Indian origin living in Canada and a unique music scene was buzzing in Toronto, carrying influences of soul, rocksteady, funk, rock and reggae. Unfortunately, despite their talent and previous musical success in Jamaica, many musicians found it difficult to make headway in the North American recording industry, realizing that reformed immigration laws did not necessarily mean discrimination had lessened in other areas of Canadian society.

As Guy Dixon discovered while conducting interviews with these musicians for a recent article in the Globe and Mail, the musicians affected were still understandably sensitive decades later when remembering the discrimination they faced in Canada in the 1960s. Bob Williams, the singer for the group Bob and Wisdom, recalled: "We were making very good money in Jamaica. We were actually the highest-paid band in Jamaica, back in Montego Bay with Billy Vernon and Celestials. So when we came here, to be actually called a minority, it was very tough." As an example, when Bob and Wisdom recorded an excellent cover of Mac Davis' "I Believe in Music" (re-released on Jamaica to Toronto), Williams recalled that, "We actually took it to CHUM [then the dominant top 40 station in Toronto] and the guy told me that he wouldn't play it. I said 'Why?' And he said it was the best version he had ever heard, but he wouldn't play it because we were black. Straight up. So we kind of got despondent about it. And we just continued to do live shows and stuff, you know? We didn't bother with recordings because there was no outlet for it. So it's ironic that after about 30 years, it has made a resurgence."

Apart from the obvious strength of the music itself, the resurgence is mainly due to the efforts of Matt Sullivan, the co-founder of a small Seattle record label called Light in the Attic, and Kevin Howe, a music researcher and DJ based in Vancouver. For years, an album by Wayne McGhie and his band The Sounds of Joy had been sought after both by record collectors due to its rarity (most copies were lost in a warehouse in 1970), and by hip-hop producers due to its excellent breakbeats by drummer Everton Paul. After much investigation and hard work, Sullivan and Howe located McGhie and re-issued Wayne McGhie and the Sounds of Joy in 2004. Its success led to the expansion of the project to include more albums and songs by immigrant Jamaican musicians in Toronto.

It is wonderful to see the media attention devoted to these fine re-issues, celebrating the discovery of Canada's multicultural pop-music past. One would hope it would also prompt Canadian media to consider why such music needs rediscovering. Unfortunately, the same media that currently celebrates the Jamaica to Toronto re-issues simultaneously turns a blind eye to Canadian pop music of non-white origins in its representations of our music history.

As recently as January 2006, CBC-TV broadcasted a special entitled Shakin' All Over. It was billed as a "joyful look at Canadian music from the 60s" and was based on Nicholas Jennings's book Before the Gold Rush: Flashbacks to the Dawn of the Canadian Sound. The documentary purported to showcase not only the usual suspects in the Canadian pop pantheon—Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, the Guess Who, the Band and Gordon Lightfoot—but also many lesser-known musicians who didn't necessarily have any chart hits, but who were nonetheless important in shaping Canadian popular music history. Unfortunately, the only pop musicians of colour represented in the documentary were those we already knew: the Cree folk singer Buffy Sainte Marie and "super-freak" Rick James (James himself appeared to be included only as a novelty rather than an artist, due to his brief stint playing in the same band as Neil Young). The CBC documentary should have included any of the dozen Toronto bands that make up the Jamaica to Toronto re-issue series, especially considering the re-issue project started two years before Shakin' All Over came out, and that the documentary was touted as a programme that would uncover and pay homage to forgotten bands.

The forgotten soul, funk and reggae scenes of Toronto matter—or they ought to, anyway—precisely because they create a better, more accurate, not to mention more ethical, revision of Canada's music history, so that we might ultimately better understand how Canadian culture was constructed in the past, injustices and all.

Matt Brennan reviews Jamaica to Toronto, raising questions about Canada's pop past.

What's Mine Is Theirs

Sun, 03 Sep 2006 23:33:41 +0000

Legal Victory for Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation

The blockade against Platinex began in February. photo: Kingfisher Lake First Nation

On July 28, Justice G. P. Smith of the Ontario Superior Court presided over the decision hailed as one of the most important victories for Original Peoples in the Ontario justice system. The decision requires the publicly traded Ontario mining exploration company Platinex Incorporated to cease drilling operations in the territory claimed by Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (Big Trout Lake) First Nation (KIFN) in northwestern Ontario. The ruling obviates the $10-billion damage suit Platinex filed against KIFN for opposing drilling on territory that KIFN claims.

The decision could be a bellwether for First Nation rights and may have major ramifications in the manner in which mining and exploratory operations are carried out in Ontario.

"Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug are excited and pleased that we have been heard," says KIFN Councillor John Cutfeet. Cutfeet believes the ruling is good news for the approximately 1,000 people in KIFN.

"This land was given to us by the Creator; it is our past, present and future. Now the Ontario Superior Court has indicated it understood our spiritual, physical, emotional and mental dependence on the land when Justice Smith said, 'The land is the very essence of their being. It is their very heart and soul.'"

"The land not only provides for us, it nurtures us; it is our teacher," continues Cutfeet. "However that gift does not come without obligation; it is our job to stand together to protect the Creator's gift so that the land will continue to be there for all of us. That is what we have done for generations, what we did in signing the Treaty, and what is required of us if we are to live in balance and harmony."

In his statement, Justice Smith concurred:

It is critical to consider the nature of the potential loss from an Aboriginal perspective. From that perspective, the relationship that aboriginal peoples have with the land cannot be understated. The land is the very essence of their being. It is their very heart and soul. No amount of money can compensate for its loss. Aboriginal identity, spirituality, laws, traditions, culture, and rights are connected to and arise from this relationship to the land. This is a perspective that is foreign to and often difficult to understand from a non-Aboriginal viewpoint.

Smith found that there had been inadequate consultation by Platinex with KIFN. For KIFN, consultation is a community process.

Justice Smith faulted Platinex for gambling that KIFN would do nothing to oppose the company's drilling. For this reason, Smith concluded that Platinex, saddled with a challenging debt burden, is largely to blame for its predicament.

KIFN holds that exploiting the land for resources without planning for the future is irresponsible. "We must look at the bigger picture and look to what this land offers," says chief Donny Morris. "Our resources have been taken from us and we have not benefitted from what has been extracted from our lands to be sold to the rest of the world. Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug signed a Treaty and that Treaty must be honoured by the Crown. In sharing our land, our views and rights must not only be heard, but be understood so that the land is available to help us, not just those who grow rich at our expense."

"This decision is a huge victory for the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug and for the rights of Aboriginal communities throughout the province," says Sierra Legal lawyer Justin Duncan.

As laid out under previous Supreme Court decisions, among them Delgamuukw v. British Columbia and Mikisew Cree First Nation v. Canada (Minister of Canadian Heritage), governments must consult with Original Peoples before moving onto and extracting resources from territory claimed by an Indigenous community.

"The Court has clearly stated that companies like Platinex must respect community interests and cannot steamroll over the rights of Ontario's Aboriginal communities," says Duncan.

Justice Smith noted the absence of the Ontario government, not only during the court proceedings, but also from much of the consultation process with KIFN. Smith stated that the Ontario government has a fiduciary responsibility to KIFN that is not to be delegated to third parties. The Ontario government, nevertheless, determined that Platinex's exploratory activities near KIFN would have inconsequential environmental impact.

The Ontario minister of Northern Development and Mines, Rick Bartolucci, says the judicial decision is still being reviewed. Bartolucci stresses, however, that this particular decision "does not impact the legitimacy of other mining claims in Ontario."

Critics question the legitimacy of this statement, considering that Justice Smith pointed out that the Ontario government has failed to abide by its own laws. "Despite repeated judicial messages delivered over the course of 16 years, the record available in this case sadly reveals the provincial Crown has not heard or comprehended this message and has failed in fulfilling its obligation."

Meanwhile, negotiations are expected to resume between KIFN and Platinex. Both parties are scheduled to meet with Justice Smith in five months to report on their consultations.

After months of resistence, the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation have been awarded a legal victory in Ontario.

September Books

Tue, 15 Aug 2006 12:39:32 +0000

Ink Monkey
Diana Hartog
Brick Books, Toronto, 2006

If there is such a thing as trendy poetry—and I believe there is—this is a fine example. Diana Hartog has joined the ranks and produced a book heavily influenced by Asian culture. Hartog's fascination with the East manifests itself as a section of twenty poems inspired by 19th century Japanese prints. Throughout, the speaker describes the represented landscapes, relates travel anecdotes, or imagines herself in the various woodblock scenes. The poems are spare, brief, and—to their credit—mostly unsentimental. There are moments of surprising perspicacity, as in "Driving Rain at Shono," which details the differences in the artist's rendering of rain, dependent on the season. But the set of poems as a whole doesn't quite add up. Ultimately, it feels flimsy and forgettable, too focussed on pretty images and altogether too eager to find profundity in the quotidian. Another false note occurs in "The Couple in Room 12," which imagines Leda and Zeus shacked up in a trashy motel, and is too cute by far. However, nearly everything else in Ink Monkey is a pleasure. "Jellyfish Suite," a set of poems on or around the amorphous sea creatures, is like the best of nature programs—at turns edifying, playful, and startling. The bio-luminescent Pleurobrachia is "small as the bulb of a penlight travelling / in the dark of a woman's purse" while in "Little Jerks" baby jellyfish "contract in sneezes." Elsewhere, hauntingly, jellies floating to the ocean's surface are likened to stray ghosts. Hartog seems to be at her best here, her gaze at its most powerful when trained on an unusual subject.
--Regan Taylor

Social Acupuncture
by Darren O'Donnell
Coach House, Toronto, 2006

I saw Darren O'Donnell on the street recently, but I didn't say hello. After reading his book, I'm asking myself why not. There are two sections: the essay Social Acupuncture, and the play A Suicide-Site Guide to the City. I knew that I'd seen the play when it was performed at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in Toronto, but I'd forgotten that I was also in it – I was the audience volunteer who went on stage to make out with O'Donnell, the writer and performer of the piece. It's right there on page 147: "If there's a taker, we kiss, kiss, kiss." That's the kind of thing he's into, and that's what this book is about: "an aesthetic of civic engagement," ways of challenging traditional theatrical and artistic forms along with the capitalist conventions of social interaction. It's complicated, and that's why the essay is the real jewel, a manifesto of sorts about the work he and his company, Mammalian Diving Reflex, have done and will continue to do. I can't say I agree with every tenet and assumption O'Donnell makes, or that the argument doesn't at times wax superficial or egotistical. What surprises me, though, is that he consistently recognizes and flags these moments himself. I can say this is a book that anyone involved with theatre or activism should read, maybe even anyone who identifies as left of centre. He's asking the right questions, and positing interesting answers. Does it make sense to buy a book meant to be a guide to undercutting capitalism? If you see Darren on the street, ask him.
--Matthew J. Trafford

Miss Lamp
Chris Ewart
Coach House Books, Toronto, 2006

Miss Lamp, Chris Ewart's first novel, presents an oddly rollicking little universe where the eponymous protagonist sits in a hotel room eating grilled cheese sandwiches. Our sojourn with Miss Lamp carries us through a quest for justice against a demented dentist, the romance of Banana Tray Hair and Room Service Boy, and Paper Boy's fight for dignity. Throughout, Ewart's meticulous and economical prose relates the quotidian quirks of sometimes vivid, sometimes bewildering characters. The characterization is by turns pithy ("Grandma drank vinegar") and elusive, as with Room Service Boy who defines himself solely by his tasks. He even tries "not to smell the food too much, as it would diminish its value" when served. By shuffling the chronology of events and shifting attention from character to character, Ewart creates an echoey, associative state for the reader, which is furthered by the reinvented slogans, lyrics, and wordplay of the vignette titles: "Give Trees a Chance," "Pika Boo," "Banana Splints." In contrast, the extensive sensory detail (particularly of physical pain or impairment, a repeated trope) becomes hyperreal. Miss Lamp's mother killed and gutted a magpie in search of her diamond ring, but discovered no prize. The skewed world of Miss Lamp similarly eludes such simple rewards, and here "normalcy" is impossible to calibrate. It's a compelling magpie's nest, with an eye-catching collection of moments, some glittering, some shining dully, in the crisscrossed lives of its characters.
--Jane Henderson

Trafford, Taylor and Henderson review new works by O'Donnel, Hartog and Ewart.

Last Gas

Fri, 11 Aug 2006 00:53:38 +0000

Can natural gas reserves keep up with soaring consumption?

Liquefied natural gas tankers will soon be docking in Canada.

"Less polluting than either coal or petroleum," natural gas is the "fossil fuel du jour," reports Resources, an American magazine examining energy policy. Although domestic oil and gas extraction cannot keep up with demand in the US, roughly 60 per cent of natural gas reserves can be found outside the Middle East, meaning that importing it may not carry what Resources calls, 'the political burdens associated with oil."

But importing natural gas across oceans requires liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals to receive it, and communities in the United States are fighting to keep them out. The fight has now moved north to Canada where opponents argue that LNG terminals threaten local economies and eco-systems, and take energy policy in entirely the wrong direction.

Currently, there are five Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminals in North America -- all built before 1980. As of July 5, 2006, however, an additional 23 terminals have been approved for construction, 22 have been proposed for construction, and 21 potential terminal sites have been identified by project sponsors. In total, there are 67 approved, proposed and potential LNG terminal sites in North America, where for decades there were only five.

As the third-largest natural gas producer and second-largest gas exporter, Canada has never had a need for LNG terminals, but that is about to change. Eight of the approved, proposed and potential LNG sites are in Canada, six of them in eastern Canada. In addition, three more terminals have been proposed for the Maine side of Passamaquoddy Bay, a location that would require tankers to enter Canadian waters off the coast of New Brunswick.

One might wonder if natural gas consumption in the Maritimes is set to skyrocket, but according to Julian Darley, the gas is not intended for local markets. Darley is the founder and director of the Post Carbon Institute and author of High Noon For Natural Gas: The New Energy Crisis. The LNG terminals are a response to rising energy demands in the US, says Darley, and the reason the terminals aren't being built closer to their market is because, "Americans don't want them and are fighting hard to keep them out."

Motivation for opposing the terminals varies from community to community, but often revolves around concerns that an LNG terminal and the huge tankers that service it will pose a threat to a coastal ecosystems and tourism by industrializing small communities, tribal lands and resort towns. LNG terminals could also make the area vulnerable to terrorism or an accidental spill resulting in an uncontrollable fire, opponents say.

Over the past two years, residents of Maine have fought to keep LNG terminals out of five separate communities, and won each time. Proposals for three LNG terminals have now moved further north to the Maine side of Passamaquoddy Bay. Although in the US, this location would arguably affect more New Brunswickers than Americans, as the Canadian side of the Bay is more densely populated. "This is seen as the soft underbelly of the Maine coast," says Janice Harvey, co-chair of Save Passamaquoddy Bay Canada, which calls the terminals "inappropriate development for a rural area where the economy is based on fishing, agriculture and tourism."

Further north, David Thompson is fighting a similar battle, but this one is in the city of Saint John where an LNG terminal is already being built by Irving Oil Ltd., and its Spanish partner Repsol. "A lot of companies were having a great deal of problems [getting permits] to build [LNG terminals] in the states. They've been rejected in many places," explains Thompson. "It's pretty easy for Irving to get a permit in New Brunswick."

JD Irving Ltd., owns all of New Brunswick's major English-language newspapers, as well as an oil refinery, pulp and paper mills and hundreds of other small- and medium-sized businesses. The company employs about eight per cent of the province's population.

"When Repsol got hold of Irving, they lucked in," says Thompson.

Residents have now learned of a proposal to have the natural gas exit the LNG plant through a pipeline that will run under part of the city and through Rockwood Park, the largest urban park in Canada.

"What right do these companies have to do it?" asks Thompson. "The community belongs to the community, not huge companies like Repsol and Irving.

"The gas has nothing to do with the surrounding communities," continues Thompson. "It's a way to get foreign gas to markets in the US"

Although the campaigns that Thompson and Harvey are waging are focused on local impacts, both recognize that the terminals are part of a larger trend that will have repercussions far beyond the communities where LNG sites are situated.

Natural gas is a cleaner burning fuel than oil or coal, but the environmental benefits of this will only be felt if natural gas replaces more polluting fossil fuel. If, on the other hand, natural gas is used in addition to other fuels, the environmental impacts will only worsen. According to Thompson, consumption trends indicate that the latter will be true. "What seems to be happening is that the natural gas won't displace other fuels, but just increase consumption," explains Thompson.

This apparently insatiable energy market is part of what's spawning the rash of LNG proposals, but natural gas -- much like oil -- will not be able to fuel North American consumption forever, and according to Darley, may disappear far faster than anticipated. "Demand is on an upward trend, extraction in North America is on a downward trend, and supply of natural gas worldwide is in question."

"I see this as the last desperate gasp of the fossil fuel industry and the governments that support it," says Harvey. "It's a race to see who can get into the market quickest before the market collapses or the supply runs out.

"The bigger trend is disturbing in that it postpones the real grappling with our energy and climate change issues," continues Harvey. Rather than pouring resources into LNG terminals, communities should be focusing on how to decrease energy consumption and how to harness cleaner renewable sources of energy, like wind and solar, she says.

"This is a catastrophic waste of money," says Darley. "It's a huge investment in something that's going to run out."

Although the public may pay in the future, some are making money now.

Threatened with losing the LNG terminal and the economic boost that may come with it, in March 2005, Saint John City Council enraged many city residents by voting in favour of a tax deal on the land where the LNG plant is now being built. Under the deal, Irving and Repsol will pay one tenth of regular property taxes on the LNG site for the next 25 years, saving the companies $100 million over that period. More recently, during July's G8 summit, LNG got another 'boost,' according to the Globe and Mail, with a proposed $1.5 billion US deal between Petro-Canada and Russian gas giant OAO Gazprom. In the same month, Anadarko Petroleum Corp. sold the site for a new LNG terminal in Nova Scotia for $140.7 million to a US company.

"It's not an energy game," says Harvey. "It's a money game."

Hillary Bain Lindsay asks why Eastern Canada is being flooded with proposals for liquefied natural gas terminals, and why so many communities are resisting them.

Making War in Canada

Tue, 08 Aug 2006 01:56:53 +0000

Canada produces military equipment used in attacks on Lebanon, Palestine

F-16s under construction. Many federally-subsidized Canadian firms make components for the F-16, the F-15 and the Apache helicopter, all in use by the Israeli Air Force in Lebanon and the Occupied Territories.

Canadian companies and taxpayers played an important role in the production of much of the military equipment that is currently being used to bomb villages, neighbourhoods and key infrastructure in Lebanon and carry out military operations in Gaza. That is the conclusion of research compiled by the Ottawa-based Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade (COAT).

CTV.ca recently reported on the tens of billions of dollars in military aid supplied to Israel by the US government. COAT, however, says that aside from diplomatic support for Israeli bombing, Canadian taxpayers are also doing their part in military support, albeit indirectly.

According to research conducted by COAT's Richard Sanders, F-16 "fighting falcon" and F-15 "eagle" fighter/bombers, as well as Apache helicopters, partly owe their existence to Canadian contractors, government subsidies, and investments from the Canada Pension Plan.

Companies like Canadair, CMC Electronics, and Magellan Aerospace, for example, are responsible for making parts for infrared guidance systems, radar equipment, and training simulators for F-15s. Many of the same companies receive subsidies from the Canadian government under programs like Industry Canada's "Technology Partnerships Canada".

According to COAT, Canadian war industries have received about $5 billion in grants and unpaid loans over the last 30 years. Additionally, the Canada Pension Plan has invested at least $282 million in arms manufacturers like Boeing, Lockheed, and Raytheon.

Designed by Seattle-based Boeing, the F-15 has been widely used in bomb and rocket attacks in civilian areas in Gaza, the West Bank, and now Lebanon.

Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed over 1000 people, injured an estimated 3000, and displaced nearly one million people--a quarter of Lebanon's population. Bombing of key infrastructure such as airports and bridges has caused an estimated $2 billion in damage, and oil slicks cover Lebanon's coastine. Reports typically do not identify the aircraft used, though many mention F-15s and F-16s.

South of Lebanon, however, locals have learned to differentiate between Israeli aircraft.

"From a young age every Palestinian child learns to distinguish the Apache's sound and associate it with assassinations, destruction and blood in the street," Shawan Jabarin, general director of the Palestinian human rights group al-Haq, told the Guardian.

"For Palestinians, it's a symbol of indiscriminate military violence."

Israeli officials do not deny using aircraft like the "Apache" and the "Eagle" for political assassinations (over 150 leaders have been assassinated in the last five years), though officials claim that operations are carried out for anti-terrorism purposes. Last October, Israeli Captain Yael Hartmann told The New Standard journalist Jon Elmer that a Gazan school was targeted because "it was bringing up the next generation of Hamas members."

Over a dozen Canadian companies make components used in the Apache, and the Canada Pension Plan has invested $71 million in Boeing, the primary contractor involved in its production.

Lockheed Martin's F-16 "fighting falcon" is also familiar to Gaza residents. After Israeli settlers withdrew from Gaza, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) began subjecting populated areas to sonic booms by flying F-16s at low altitudes over the Gaza strip. With its massive number of refugees, the Gaza strip is among the most densely populated areas in the world.

The flights continued day and night for months, often timed to coincide with a dawn call to prayer. "Although it is not lethal, it can lead to death indirectly, of unborn children. It can lead to highly traumatizing effects on children particularly, and adults too," a Palestinian psychiatrist told Al-Jazeera.

"Yes, these sonic booms target the Palestinian people," Israeli spokesperson Avichav Adrai was quoted as saying by Al-Jazeera. "The purpose is so they can pressure those who fire the rockets to stop them." Adrai said that Israel does not see the sonic booms as collective punishment.

The Canada Pension Plan has invested $27 million in Lockheed Martin, and over a dozen Canadian firms are involved in the construction and maintenance of the F-16 "fighting falcon".

AlliedSignal Aerospace of Mississauga, for example, received a contract for fuel control systems on the F-16 from Lockheed Martin. Between 1993 and 2002, AlliedSignal contributed $60,152 to the Liberal Party of Canada. Between 1996 and 2003, AlliedSignal received $83.3 million in subsidies from Industry Canada.

Héroux-Devtek, which makes landing gear components for the F-16, received $2.8 million in subsidies during the same period. The CEO of the Longueil, Québec based firm recently told the Canadian Press that billions in new spending announced by the Conservative govnernment is "an opportunity" that only comes along "once every 30 years."

Other companies involved in the production of the F-16 include Derlan Aerospace, which received $9.5 million in government subsidies, Haley Industries, and the Canadian Marconi Company.

In 2001, Israel placed an order for 102 new F-16s, giving it the second largest fleet of the airplanes, after the US. The deal, worth $4.5 billion, was paid for through US military aid, which totals to approximately $3 billion per year.

Canadian firms help make for F-16s, F-15s and Apache helicopters used to bomb Lebanon and assassinate Palestinians, reports Dru Oja Jay.

"Everything in my life is destroyed now, so I will fight them."

Fri, 28 Jul 2006 22:45:52 +0000

Dispatches from the war-torn Lebanese capital

A car carrying a family and children is hit in Southern Lebanon. photo: Kodak Agfa

"I am in Hezbollah because I care," the fighter, who agreed to the interview on condition of anonymity, told me. "I care about my people, my country, and defending them from the Zionist aggression." I jotted furiously in my note pad while sitting in the back seat of his car. We were parked not far from Dahaya, the district in southern Beirut which is being bombed by Israeli warplanes as we talk.

The sounds of bombs echoed off the buildings of the capital city of Lebanon yesterday afternoon. Out the window, I watched several people run into the entrance of a business center, as if that would provide them any safety.

The member of Hezbollah I was interviewing—let's call him Ahmed—has been shot three times during previous battles against Israeli forces on the southern Lebanese border. His brother was killed in one of these battles. It's been several years since his father was killed by an air strike in a refugee camp.

"My home now in Dahaya is pulverized, so Hezbollah gave me a place to stay while this war is happening," he said, "When this war ends, where am I to go? What am I to do? Everything in my life is destroyed now, so I will fight them."

That explains why earlier in the day, when driving me around, he'd stopped at an apartment to change into black clothing—a black t-shirt and black combat pants, along with black combat boots.

A tall, stocky man, Ahmed seemed always exhausted and angry.

"I didn't have a future," he continued while the concussions of bombs continued, "But now, Hassan Nasrallah is the leader of this country and her people. My family has lived in Lebanon for 1,500 years, and now we are all with him. He has given us belief and hope that we can push the Zionists out of Lebanon, and keep them out forever. He has given me purpose."

"Do you think this is why so many people now, probably over two million here in Lebanon alone, follow Nasrallah?" I asked.

"Hezbollah gives you dignity, it returns your dignity to you," he replied, "Israel has put all of the Arab so-called leaders under her foot, but Nasrallah says 'No more.'"

He paused to wipe the sweat from his forehead. The summer heat in Beirut drips with humidity. During the afternoon, my primary impulse is to find a fan and curl up for a nap under its gracious movement of the thick air here.

Earlier he'd driven me to one of the larger hospitals in Beirut where I photographed civilian casualties. All of them were tragic cases… but one really grabbed me-that of a little 8 year-old girl, lying in a large bed. She was on her side, with a huge gash down the right side of her face and her right arm wrapped in gauze. She was hiding in the basement of her home with 12 family members when they were bombed by an Israeli fighter jet.

Her father was in a room downstairs with both of his legs blown off. Her other family members were all seriously wounded. She lay there whimpering, with tears streaming down her face.

I think I won Ahmed's trust after that. I walked out the car, got in and sat down. He asked me where I wanted to go now.

Ahmed put his hand on my shoulder and said, "This is what I've been seeing for my entire life. Nothing but pain and suffering."

A photographer from Holland who was working with me was able to respond to Ahmed that maybe we could go have a look at Dahaya.

Ahmed had told me that it was currently extremely dangerous for a journalist to try to go into Dahaya. Before, Hezbollah had run tours for people to come see the wreckage generated by Israeli air strikes. All you had to do was meet under a particular bridge at 11 a.m., and you had a guided tour from "party guys" (members of Hezbollah) into what has become a post-apocalyptic ghost town.

A couple of days ago I went there, without the "party guy" tour. A friend and I were driven in by a man we hired for the day to take us around. I was shocked at the level of destruction—in some places entire city blocks lay in rubble. At one point we came upon the touring journalists, all scurrying to their vehicles. Everyone was in a panic.

"What's going on?," I asked our driver. "A party guy who is a spotter said he saw Israeli jets coming," he responded, while spinning the van around and punching the gas as we sped past the journalists lugging their cameras while running back to their drivers.

While driving we were passed by several Hezbollah fighters riding scooters. Each had his M-16 assault rifle slung across his back and wore green ammunition pouches across his chest.

Ahmed told me he'd captured two Israeli spies himself. "One of them is a Lebanese Jewish woman, and she had a ring she could talk into," he explained as new sweat beads began to form on his forehead, "Others are posing as journalists and using this type of paint to mark buildings to be bombed."

I doubt the ring part, and also wonder about the feasibility of paint used for targeting, but there are no doubt spies crawling all over Beirut. In Iraq, mercenaries often pose as journalists, making it even more dangerous than it already was for us to work there.

Nevertheless, war always fosters paranoia. Whom can you trust? What if they are a spy? What are their motives? Why do they want to ask me this question at this time? These types of questions become constant I my mind, and so many others in this situation where normal life is now a thing of the past. I think they are some sort of twisted survival mechanism.

We drove back near my hotel and parked again. People strolled by on the sidewalks. Ahmed said, "I will never be a slave to the United States or Israel."

Dahr Jamail's daily dispatches from Beirut are being posted on the Mother Jones website.

Dahr Jamail tours the war-torn Lebanese capital of Beirut with a member of Hezbollah.