The Dominion - 57

Issue #57

dru — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 16:08:37 +0000

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Latter Day Protest

dru — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 06:00:01 +0000

The Mormon Church, anti-gay legislation, and challenges of the past

TACOMA PARK, MARYLAND–As supporters of gay marriage have discovered, it's never easy to be on the Mormon Church's enemies list. The Church of Latter Day Saints backed the anti-gay marriage Proposition 8 in California with out-of-state funds, and gave the right a heartbreaking victory this past election cycle. But the Mormon Church has been challenged in the past. Just ask Bob Beamon.

If you know Beamon's name it's almost certainly because he won the long jump gold medal in legendary fashion at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. Beamon leapt 29 feet, 2.5 inches, a record that held for 23 years. Great Britain's Lynn Davies told Beamon afterwards, "You have destroyed this event." This is because Beamon was not only the first long jumper to break 29 feet, he was the first to break 28.

But you may not know that Beamon almost never made it to Mexico City. Along with eight other teammates, Beamon had his track and field scholarship revoked from the University of Texas at El Paso, the previous year. They had refused to compete against Brigham Young University. Beamon and his teammates were protesting the racist practices of the Mormon Church, and their coach at UTEP, Wayne Vanderburge, made them pay the ultimate price.

They weren't alone. As tennis great Arthur Ashe wrote in his book, Hard Road to Glory, "In October 1969, fourteen black [football] players at the University of Wyoming publicly criticized the Mormon Church and appealed to their coach, Lloyd Eaton, to support their right not to play against Brigham Young University....The Mormon religion at the time taught that blacks could not attain to the priesthood, and that they were tainted by the curse of Ham, a biblical figure. Eaton, however, summarily dropped all fourteen players from the squad."

The players, though, didn't take their expulsion lying down. They called themselves the Black 14 and sued for damages with the support of the NAACP. In an October 25 game against San Jose State, the entire San Jose team wore black armbands to support the 14.

One aftershock of this episode was in November, 1969, when Stanford University President Kenneth Pitzer suspended athletic relations with BYU, announcing that Stanford would honor what he called an athlete's "Right of Conscience." The "Right of Conscience" allowed athletes to boycott an event which he or she deemed "personally repugnant." As the Associated Press wrote, "Waves of black protest roll toward BYU, assaulting Mormon belief and leaving BYU officials and students, perplexed, hurt, and maybe a little angry."

On June 6, 1978, as teams were refusing road trips to Utah with greater frequency, and the IRS started to make noises about revoking the church's holy tax-free status, a new revelation came to the Book of Mormon.

Whether a cynical ploy to avoid the taxman or a coincidence touched by God, the results were the same: Black people were now human in the eyes of the Church. African Americans were no longer, as Brigham Young himself once put it, "uncouth, uncomely, disagreeable, and low in their habits, wild, and seemingly deprived of nearly all the blessings of the intelligence that is generally bestowed upon mankind." The IRS was assuaged, the athletic contests continued, and the church entered a period of remarkable growth.

Similar pressure must be brought to bear on the Mormon Church today for its financing of Proposition 8 in California. One nonprofit crunched the numbers and found that $17.67 million of the $22 million used to pass the anti-gay marriage legislation was funneled through 59,000 Mormon families since August. It was done with the institutional backing of the church, though many pro-gay Mormons have spoken out defiantly against the church's political intervention.

The question now is whether this latest tale of social conflict and the Church of Latter Day Saints will also spill onto the athletic field. Men's athletics have been one of the last proud hamlets of homophobia in our society (although the attitude of male athletes is more progressive than you might think). But women's sports have been historically more open around issues of sexuality.

Will any women collegians raise the specter of Proposition 8 if they have to travel to the schools of Utah? Will we see the ghosts of Black 14 emerge from the past? If any athletes choose to act, the ramifications could be "Beamonesque."

Dave Zirin is the author of A People's History of Sports in the United States (The New Press). Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.

Present Day Bigots

Canadian Drones Patrol Afghan Airspace

dawn — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 10:19:45 +0000

Unmanned warplanes stretch the definition of "nation building"

MONTREAL–War is rising to new heights over Afghanistan. Flying thousands of feet over the frontlines of Kandahar are several new unmanned military planes recently activated by the Canadian Army.

Beyond reach of the human eye, the advanced spy aircraft, the Heron, will monitor territory throughout southern Afghanistan from dizzying altitudes, delivering information for military strikes.

In early December two Afghans were killed in a targeted attack by Canadian forces on the basis of information gathered by the spy drones. According to military officials the Afghans killed were members of the Taliban. However, this has not been independently verified.

Far beyond the visual capacities of local Afghan authorities, the Heron will provide hyper details on human movements and activities allowing "ground forces to see...in real time [the] images acquired by the aircraft's sensors on a laptop on the ground," according to the Canadian Army.

Highly advanced spy aircrafts hovering over Afghanistan, collecting information on local movements, serve as a poignant reminder of Canada's role as a foreign military force in the country, operating beyond the domain of 'nation building' or reconstruction efforts.

Canada’s multi-million dollar unmanned spy airplanes are a direct result of recommendations stemming from the Conservative-government-initiated commission on Canada’s role in Afghanistan, headed by former Liberal cabinet minister John Manley. The commission's report paved the way for the controversial extension of combat operations until 2011.

"There simply are not enough troops to ensure that the job can be properly done in Kandahar province...We hope that this [report] is not a poison pill," said Manley at a media conference after the release of the report. The report specifically outlined Canada’s acquisition of “high-performance unmanned aerial vehicles for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance” before February 2009 as a condition to extend the mission.

According to multiple opinion polls, the majority of people in Canada oppose the war in Afghanistan. It was the technicalities of war, however, and not the essential nature or context of the Canadian military presence in the country that were the subject of critique in the government-sponsored report.

“Operations on the ground in Afghanistan are easier for the Canadian government to present in their narrative of humanitarian war,” said Sophie Schoen, a Montreal-based anti-war activist with Block the Empire.

However, according to Schoen, “Canada’s military role in the sky makes it clear that the mission is not humanitarian. [The recent] expansions of military capabilities in the air is indicative of the real nature of Canada’s mission in Afghanistan and our role as an occupying force.”

Operating from the skies allows Canada a huge technological advantage over local guerrillas in southern Afghanistan. The advantage of aerial combat is especially important in light of recent events that suggest the US-backed government in Kabul is losing political control over major regions in the country, including Kandahar, where Canadian forces are stationed.

Last June, militias staged a spectacular jailbreak at the main prison in Kandahar, freeing up to 1,000 prisoners by blowing through the prison walls with explosives. This action set a new benchmark for the growing capacities of rebels in southern Afghanistan.

Hundreds have been killed in southern Afghanistan this past year, while US and Canadian military officials – as in Iraq – continue to ignore demands from human rights organizations that they keep records on civilian deaths.

“The number of civilians killed by the international forces in Afghanistan remains significantly underreported,” stated Amnesty International in a 2008 report.

“Taliban is a label applied to any male over 18 that the Canadian Army kills in Afghanistan, a term that is so broadly applied it is absurd,” said Schoen. "Generally this term, Taliban, is used without any verification and is used to cover up killings carried out by Canadian forces."

The spy drones that fly over Kandahar providing details for Canadian military strikes are adding another military layer to the thousands of foreign troops already occupying the country.

After decades of conflict in Afghanistan and thousands of civilian deaths since the 2001 US-led invasion, one key point has been clearly repeated by progressive voices inside Afghanistan: military-driven solutions delivered by foreign forces will not provide safety or stability for the country.

“We need liberation, not occupation,” said Malalai Joya, celebrated member of the Afghan Parliament, in a recent interview. “Afghans have a long history of fighting foreign occupation and if the[...]occupation lasts longer we may witness many mass resistance movements against it.”

A version of this article was originally published by the community newspaper, Sada al-Mashrek, based in Montreal.

Stefan Christoff is a community organizer and journalist based in Montreal and a member of Tadamon!, a collective of social justice activists in Montreal working for justice in the Middle East.

HighwayOfHeroes

January Books

Moira Peters — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 10:56:09 +0000

New works by Gander, Dodds, Cole

As a Friend
Forrest Gander
New Directions, 2008

When a successful poet sets out to write a novel, the results can often be mixed. From E.E. Cummings to Al Purdy, major poets often see their ventures into prose go long forgotten while their poetry remains revered. By the time a poet has become established – which often takes far longer than a single lifetime – it may be in the best interest of both writer and reader to stay within the bounds of pre-established technique. Forrest Gander, a leading American poet and translator, has carefully taken this plunge into the world of prose with his recent novel, As a Friend. However, Gander’s work remains immensely successful by making only the slightest concessions to the novel as an established form. At only 106 pages, As a Friend consists of four distinct sections that cover an admirable amount of stylistic and thematic territory. Gander’s greatest accomplishment is that he consistently knows when to inject his poetic observations and when to sit back and allow the story to unfold.

The novel opens with a mother in a hospital watching her teenage daughter struggle through a difficult birth. Gander’s depiction – interspersing poignant asides throughout a clear and neutral narration – becomes so palpable and gripping it feels as though he has gone through labour himself. From that loosely connected introduction, Gander explores the unintended consequences that extend from individual choices. The central figure of the novel is a poet and part-time labourer committed to exploring the multiple and often contradictory opportunities that life offers. He marries one woman, lives with another, sleeps with a revolving cast of extras. His goal is to find a “different way to be in the world,” but through love and friendship his iconoclasm leads a path of failure and pain, death and grief. It’s a stark and somewhat dreary tale, but Gander’s instincts as a poet allow him to build a mass of emotional insight without sentimentality, clichés, or wasted words.

—Shane Patrick Murphy

Crabwise to the Hounds
Jeramy Dodds
Coach House, 2008

The title of Jeramy Dodds’s Crabwise to the Hounds suggests a connection to circuitousness (crabwise) and surrealism (ditto), but the result is an unambiguously confident debut collection from a rich new Canadian poet. If one of the creatures from a Marcel Dzama watercolour got its paws on some John Ashbery, the result might sound like Dodds, whose voice is unmistakably local though far from provincial. Running through the collection, in other words, is a rigorous sense of taste, as several of the poems’ first stanzas open with a provocative declaration (“In his stovepipe hat, he hunted / to extinction the animals that brought / us déjà vu.”), that beckon the reader towards the subsequent lines packed with the most lushly rendered imagery.

Dodds’s spectacular diction and the wide range of his subjects reveal an unconventionally educated imagination and spirit of inquiry aimed at the natural world. Strange, pseudo-Canadian landscapes appear in “Crown Land,” ("Some warped beasts pinched off / the rag-and-bone rack, ones that / bit by barbed bit were forced to / fisticuffs in the scrub slump of hills"), while the breathless showstopper, “Glenn Gould Negotiates the Danube in the Company of a Raven,” provides the capstone for this dazzling book by a young talent already refined.

—Robert Kotyk

Things on Which I’ve Stumbled
Peter Cole
New Directions, 2008

Peter Cole is a major American poet and translator based in Israel who brings Hebrew and Arabic poetry to the English-speaking world. In the title poem of this collection, Cole attempts to make a new and original work out of fragments of medieval Hebrew texts he discovered in the archives of Cambridge University. The Cambridge collection contains what was found in an uncovered geniza in Cairo – a storeroom of abandoned Hebrew texts. The fragments are not always poems; they include legal contracts, commercial correspondence, and brief personal letters. As Cole weaves these texts into his own poetry, the result is a strange amalgamation of the sacred and the profane in writing that ranges from highly lyrical to purely pragmatic. In less capable hands, the results might have been a mess, lacking in either historical insight or poetic expression. However, Cole’s multifaceted talent allows the poetry to thrive, turning these obscure fragments into a unique work all its own.

—Shane Patrick Murphy

A Watchdog with No Teeth?

dawn — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 10:33:04 +0000

Mining company involvement in Sudbury Soils Study contaminates findings

SUDBURY–Mounting concern about heavy metal contamination in Sudbury, a city whose landscape is so choked by slag and smoke that it was once used by NASA as a training site for their astronauts for moon landings, led to the creation of the Sudbury Soils Study. But some community members feel that instead of providing accurate data on pollution, the results of the study whitewashed the degree of soil contamination in the region.

For the last 122 years, nickel mines have been operating in the region now known as Sudbury. The companies involved in the extraction were among the world's biggest and most powerful players in the mining industry: the International Nickel Corporation and Falconbridge, among others. Today, the Sudbury basin sources a large portion of the world's nickel, for which the extraction process involves roasting and reduction, producing waste products in the form of slag, tailings and air emissions, all of which contain significant amounts of waste metals.

Before a smokestack was built in 1987 to carry the airborne byproducts further away, the blanket of waste on the ground choked life and prevented new vegetation from growing, thus giving Sudbury its infamous moonscape appearance.

"I don't trust what's in my vegetables. I don't know how much lead, copper, nickel is in the soil," says Tanya Ball, a community organizer and mother who used to garden in Greater Sudbury community of Wanup.

In May of 2008, the first part of the Sudbury Soils Study, the Human Health Risk Assessment, was finally released. The study concluded that there exists "little risk of health effects on Sudbury area residents associated with metals in the environment."

"The SARA [Sudbury Area Research Association] group announced that 'there is no unacceptable risk', despite the fact that there are levels of toxins that are found to be high in Falconbridge, Copper Cliff, Gatchel, West End, Central Sudbury and Garson. Together, these six geographical areas comprise a large percentage of the city's population," says Ball, who now lives in Central Sudbury.

"It doesn't take a genius to see the prevalence of chronic illnesses in Sudbury," she says.

Many in the community, like Ball, remain unconvinced by the results of the Soils Study. The participation of mining heavyweights in the process may explain why.

The Technical Advisory Committee (TC) of the Sudbury Soils Study was formed in 2002 in order to direct a research project that would determine human and environmental risk arising from soil contamination in the Sudbury region.

The TC hired a scientific research partner and set the research parameters for the study, but some, like Homer Seguin, a local health and safety advocate and former president and staff rep with Steelworkers Local 6500, feel the study was compromised from the beginning because of the the role that mining companies play on the TC.

Vale Inco contributed $7 million and Falconbridge contributed $3 million to the study. Of the six Committee seats on the TC, two are held by the two locally-operating mining companies, with the other four being made up of government and health organizations.

The Ministry of the Environment decided that the companies should pay for the study, but instead of having the companies give the money to the Ministry, the companies themselves took part in overseeing the study.

"They caused the pollution, they should pay. But my view of them paying is that they should be giving the money to the Ministry of the Environment, who's responsible for the environment, and the Ministry should oversee the study," says Seguin.

Despite holding a minority of seats on the TC, the mining companies gained a great deal of control when TC members agreed to make decisions according to consensus. As a result, any decision could be vetoed by any one member of the committee, including either of the mining companies.

The community was kept out of the process from the outset, and neither media nor public observers were allowed to witness the committee's process. In a gesture towards the community, the TC established a Public Advisory Committee (PAC) soon after the scientific studies commenced in 2003. Vale Inco and Falconbridge representatives participated actively in the public meetings.

During one of the public meetings of the TC, Seguin made a presentation on the health of mine workers.

"The first meeting where I had made a presentation to the PAC, one of the members actually attacked me, verbally attacked me and the union, saying that the union could have done some more. As if it was the unions' responsibility" he recalls.

"In my opinion, they set up this PAC as an attempt to fool the public that somebody was a watchdog over them so [the public] did not have to worry."

Franco Mariotti is the independent process observer for the Soils Study. He refutes the notion that mining-company representatives bullied participants at the PAC or TC meetings.

But the weight of mining companies in the process may explain why some of the testing procedures were, by federal and provincial standards, mild.

SARA, which was hired by the TC to conduct the study, was instructed to only make note of lead concentrations in Sudbury soil that were upwards of 400 parts per million (ppm), well above the federal standard of 140ppm, or the Ontario provincial standard for post-industrial cleanup sites of 200ppm. Lead is a known probable carcinogen with no known threshold. Even the recommended maximum levels of exposure may increase cancer risks.

When the SARA group announced their conclusions, community activists, academics, labour organizers and other community members, including Seguin and Ball, countered the "little risk" findings by forming the Community Committee on the Soils Study (CCSS).

Joan Kuyek, chair of the CCSS, explains that the goal of the Committee is to involve the public as much as possible in decisions that affect them with regards to the Soils Study. Currently, the Committee is calling for the Ontario government to provide further testing and analysis such as blood and hair testing, and more extensive testing of gardens. This is data that the community has requested and that the Study is not providing, Kuyek says. The CCSS is also expanding and holding public events in order to involve more people in the Committee's analysis and response to the Soils Study.

In addition, the CCSS is seeking an independent review for the Soil Study's next portion - the Environmental Assessment - which is expected to be released in early 2009.

"The reason why I am present [in the Community Committee] is because I want to keep this from happening to my son," Ball says in regards to living with heavy metal contamination in the Sudbury area. "I can't leave this mess for another generation to clean up."

In the fall of 2008, a union-sponsored report prepared by Environmental Defense Canada poked holes in the methodology used in the Sudbury Soils Study.

Environmental Defense's report, Human Health Risk Assessment, outlines key concerns for people living in the Sudbury area. It states that SARA's own conclusions are that lead, nickel and arsenic are above recommended exposure rates in a number of communities in the Sudbury region. Further, it reveals that the Soils Study does not take into account the compounded effect of multiple routes of exposure, nor does it consider how the environmental contaminants might interact with one another in the human body.

The report points out, for instance, that the levels of nickel found in the air are higher than recommended exposure limits for non-cancer and cancer effects in three communities. SARA dismissed the risk, stating that it was within acceptable range because it fell within a "margin of safety," when in fact margins of safety are intended to protect people who are more sensitive to contaminants, as well as provide a buffer for uncertainties in the data. They are not intended to discount the risk associated with higher levels of toxins.

Nickel has serious implications for health; in large enough quantities it increases chances of development of lung cancer, nose cancer, larynx cancer and prostate cancer, respiratory failure, birth defects, asthma and other conditions.

"In Sudbury, we have cancers that are 11 per cent higher than the national average. We have chronic obstructive lung disesases at 85 per cent higher, all this stuff that would be caused by these extra [contaminants]," says Seguin.

Another lingering topic of concern is the fact that the study's model subject in the calculation of health risks is a baby female born in Sudbury in 2005. While this model can be used to explore the health impacts on a vulnerable population, it also excludes anyone born prior to 2005, as well as workers who have been exposed to higher concentrations of metals and toxins in the smelters and mines.

Unions have been advocating a change in this approach since the formation of the TC was announced. The only reply from the TC has been that health risks that affect workers are the domain of the Ministry of Labour, not the Ministry of the Environment, and that they will therefore not touch the issue.

Seguin himself suffers from chronic obstructive lung disease resulting from his work as a labourer at Inco. The fact that many people in community have not responded to the soils study process affects him deeply. "When I get on this topic, I get very emotional about it. I take it to heart. I find it a hard thing to understand, how Sudburians would allow that to happen," he says, coughing and clearing his throat.

Currently, Vale Inco is applying for legal exception from new provincial legislation that requires that they reduce their nickel emissions, pushing for an alternate standard for nickel emission levels until 2015.

Shailagh Keaney is from Sudbury, in occupied Atikameksheng Anishnawbek territory.

Homer Seguin

Copper Cliff, Sudbury

No Justice, No Play?

dawn — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 10:41:54 +0000

Gaza anger overwhelms hoops contest

TACOMA PARK, MARYLAND–We have officially entered uncharted waters. Never before in my years of reporting has a sports team been forced to abandon the field of play due to political protest from fans. Never before have fans become the central actors in turning a sporting event into a political melee.

But on January 5 in Ankara, Turkey, the Israeli basketball team, Bnei Hasharon, had to flee the wrath of what the Associated Press described as "hundreds of fist-pumping, chanting Turkish fans." What exploded was yet another protest against Israel's bombardment of Gaza. The shock here is the setting, a sports arena, and the target, a basketball team.

It may be surprising that this came to pass in supposedly apolitical environs – a Eurocup game against a team called Turk Telekom – but local officials knew this could happen and took every precaution. Thousands of police officers surrounded the court, and street demonstrations of 4,000 were already taking place outside the arena. Protesters shouted, "Israeli murderers, get out of Palestine!" and "Allah-u Akhbar!" as the Hasharon team bus entered the arena.

Only 500 fans were even let into the arena and were also subject to intense searches, but it wasn't enough. Police made the mistake of not confiscating the shoes.

Before the game could begin, angry chants of "Israeli killers!" came down from the crowd as smuggled Palestinian flags were unfurled. Then, in a scene that would look familiar to a certain sitting president, off came the shoes as footwear rained down from the stands (the shoes didn't hit any players).

As both teams looked at the crowd, frozen in place, battles began between police officers and Turkish fans, as the fans surged forward to take the court. Both Hasharon and Turk Telecom were rushed off and spent two hours in the locker rooms while the battle for control of the arena raged on.

Hashoran captain Meir Tapiro spoke about the fear and chaos he felt around him to the Jerusalem Post. "The fans raced on to the court and ran towards us like madmen, but the police stopped them. It was really scary."

After ninety minutes all the fans were expelled, arrested or dragged from the arena. The referees attempted to get the teams back onto the court to play before an empty arena, but Bnei Hasharon, after two hours of being prisoners in their locker room, had no desire to play. Referees called it a forfeit, and the Turks were declared winners of the game by the official forfeit score of 20-0.

Hasharon team chairman Eldad Akunis was understandably incensed. "After such a trying ordeal, there was simply no point in playing. The players were just concerned for their safety. We were also given instructions by the Israeli embassy staff, who were monitoring the situation, not to play," said Akunis.

There is no doubt that it was "a trying ordeal," a frightening experience that not even Red Sox fans would wish on the Yankees. But to put it mildly, it pales in comparison to the situation in Gaza itself. With more than 500 deaths, 3,000 injuries and 100 tons of bombs dropped on one of the most impoverished regions of the world, the trials of a basketball team seem trivial.

It is certainly true that none of the players – two of whom are African, five of whom are American-born – bear a hint of responsibility for any of this carnage. But it is difficult to forget the famous telegram sent by playwright Arthur Miller to President Lyndon Johnson. Miller was invited for a gala of some kind and refused, saying, "When the guns boom, the arts die." Perhaps when the guns boom, sports should die as well.

We may recall January 2008, when soccer star Mohamed Aboutreika lifted his shirt to reveal the slogan "Sympathize with Gaza." He wanted people to stand up and notice that an economic blockade had triggered, for the Palestinians in Gaza, a humanitarian crisis. The new year begins with another instance where the reality of Gaza has unexpectedly interrupted the field of play. Only this time – fitting the new moment – it was altogether more livid, more dangerous and more desperate. No sympathy has meant no peace.

Dave Zirin is the author of A People's History of Sports in the United States (The New Press). Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com, or contact Dave at edgeofsports@gmail.com

Basketball protests

January in Review, Part I

dawn — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:07:04 +0000

Gaza death toll at over a thousand, US deficit prediction hits a trillion dollars

The Israeli attacks in the Gaza strip continued, as the number of Palestinian dead climbed to over 1000, with more than 4,700 wounded and tens of thousands displaced but unable to flee. Thirteen Israelis have been killed since the attacks began on December 27. Israeli tank fire killed 42 people at a school run by the United Nations in the Jabalya refugee camp. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) brought out reservists to continue the attack on Gaza. In Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez expelled the Israeli ambassador and other diplomats due to the ongoing attacks on Gaza, a move which was later followed by Bolivia and Mauritius. Canada was the only country on the United Nations' Human Rights Council that voted against a motion condemning Israel for its recent attacks on the Gaza Strip. Thirteen countries abstained. Media coverage in North America generally favoured Israel. Naomi Klein called for a renewed boycott, divest and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel. Protests against Isreal's attack on Gaza took place around the world. Nearly 100,000 people took to the streets in London, England; 20,000 in Nabatiyeh, Lebanon; 10,000 in each of Washington, DC, Toronto and Montréal; 2,000 in Ottawa, 1,300 in Edmonton; 1,200 in Calgary; close to 1,000 in Vancouver, and 100 in Halifax. Students at universities in Haifa, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem protested the IDF. Eight Jewish women were arrested for occupying the Israeli consulate in Toronto.

The Congressional Budget Office in the United States announced that the deficit of the world's largest economy would reach over $1 trillion by September 30, 2009.

Nortel, long one of Canada's largest and most profitable companies, filed for bankruptcy protection. Nortel is the first sponsor of the 2010 Olympic games to go bankrupt.

Fortress Investment Group, the main investor in Vancouver's Olympic Atheletes Village, asked the City of Vancouver to guarantee their loan of $895 million to Millenium Development Corporation, the group responsible for building the housing complex. "The Olympic village is a billion dollar project and the city taxpayers are on the hook for all of it," said Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson. Vancouver's 2010 Olympics Organizing Committee (Vanoc) has put a mere $30 million towards the development, which the City of Vancouver is legally obligated to have complete by 2010.

Youth from Fort Chipewyan marched to protest against the tar sands in minus-32 degree temperatures. The march was organized by 10-year-old Robyn Courtoreille to protest the tar sands. "Syncrude and Suncor have been poisioning our water, air, so we protested to let them know we want a future, not cancer," said Dailen Powder, 12, after the protest. "I was protesting because I don't want anymore deformed, two-jawed fish in our lake," said Cherish Kaskamin, 11.

Kimberley Rivera, the first woman war resister to come to Canada to avoid returning to Iraq was ordered to leave Canada. She has lived in Toronto with her husband and three children since 2007.

Saint John Mayor Ivan Court decided to refuse all interview requests from the Irving-owned provincial newspaper the Telegraph-Journal. He also canceled the city's subscription to the paper and banned it from his office, saying he is tired of the years of negative coverage of his administration. Mayor Court challenged the newspapers' publisher Jamie Irving to a debate but Shawna Richer, editor of the Telegraph-Journal, dismissed the idea, saying, "The problem is not with the newspaper." Every English daily paper in New Brunswick and all but two community newspapers in the province, as well as four radio stations, provincial newswires and news websites are owned by Brunswick News, which is owned by the Irvings – recently listed as the second richest family in Canada. Calls to bring back a Senate Committee to look at the media monopoly situation in the province stem from the fact that Irving also monopolizes other sectors in the province such as forestry and energy.

A Canadian soldier was charged with second degree murder for killing an alleged Taliban fighter in Afghanistan. Capt. Robert Semrau was given a conditional release and is currently back with his unit in Petawawa, Ontario.

The Band Council of the Mushkegowuk First Nation, whose traditional territory is on the James Bay Coast, passed a resolution against any new mining and exploration activity in their homelands until there is a new Mining Law in Ontario.

A transit cop in San Francisco killed an unarmed 22-year-old passenger by shooting him in the back on New Year's Day on the city's BART rapid transit line.

An Alberta resident began a private prosecution against Syncrude for the deaths of 500 ducks. The birds landed on a Syncrude tailings pond covered in snow and drowned. "We are bringing this forward because this incident of 500 ducks dying ... is further evidence that pollution from tar sands extraction is making the environment too toxic for birds, in this case migratory waterfowl, and people," said Jeh Custer, who launched the suit.

A survey conducted by Alberta's oil industry found that more than fifty per cent of respondents do not believe what oil and gas executives say in the media.

New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly testified to Senate that the NYPD would consider jamming cell phones in New York City during a terrorist attack in the city. The NYPD has 36,000 members and is the largest police force in North America.

An environmental activist in Salt Lake City posed as a bidder in an oil-lease auction and outbid the other bidders, effectively subverting the auction of state lands for oil drilling. "I've been an environmentalist for pretty much all my life and done all the things that you're supposed to do that are supposed to lead toward change. I've marched and held signs. I've volunteered in national parks. I've written letters and signed petitions. I've sat down with my congressman, Jim Matheson, for a long time... Ultimately, I felt like those things were only mildly effective. And it was having a very tiny effect on a very large problem," said Tim DeChristopher, who has avoided arrest for his actions so far.

SNC Lavalin was chosen for a $50 million reconstruction contract in Afghanistan. SNC Lavalin is Canada's largest engineering firm, with operations from Haiti to Vancouver. The $50 million "signature" project in Afghanistan will see the firm repairing a dam.

Venezuela's Citgo canceled the program by which it was providing cheap heating fuel to US residents. The cancellation was due to falling oil prices on the world market. Days later, after public pressure from US congress people, Hugo Chavez restored the program.

Venezuela deepened trade relations with China, buying a $400 million sattelite which the Chinese launched above Venezuela in October. "This will put an end to media terrorism and help us spread our own truth, to wage the battle of ideas with efficiency and transparency," said President Hugo Chavez.

A riot cop was shot in Greece. Anarchists and students who participated in demonstrations and riots at the end of 2008 were blamed for the incident. "We have to see this through a historical prism: It's tied to the same general theme of the inability of Greek officialdom to crack down hard on these groups, whether terrorists or anarchists," John Sitilides of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington told the LA Times. Participants in the uprising questioned whether the shooting was orchestrated by the state. "Our initial thought is that any individual that is part of our movement, no matter how enraged or in support of urban guerilla tactics they might be, would not chose the area of Eksarhia (literally under police occupation for the past few days) in order to launch an attack of this kind and manage to escape safely," reads a statement posted on Indymedia Athens and translated by OccupiedLondon.org.

Barack Obama admitted that it is unlikely that he can shut down the detention and interrogation camp at Guantanamo Bay within the first 100 days of his administration. There are an estimated 250 prisoners of war still imprisoned at Guantanamo, thirty of whom continued a four year long rolling hunger strike.

A fire caused by arson at the Edmonton home of the former president of Syncrude resulted in $850,000 worth of damages.

Teck Cominco, one of Canada's largest mining companies, cut 1,400 jobs. Four hundred of the jobs lost are in BC; 105 are in Alberta and 45 are from across the rest of Canada.

Enbridge Energy Partners paid out US$1.1 million to settle a lawsuit brought against it by the Wisconsin's attorney general's office. “While some of the individual violations were likely of limited direct impact, the incidents of violation were numerous and widespread, and resulted in impacts to streams and wetlands throughout the various watersheds,” said Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen.

The unemployment rate in the US hit its highest level in 16 years. More than two and a half million jobs were lost in the US in 2008, dropping the unemployment rate to 7.2 per cent by the end of the year, meaning that 11.1 million Americans are jobless. Compounding the problem, an estimated 200,000 Americans will lose their jobless benefits in the coming months.

Nine people were killed and at least 30 injured in car bomb blasts in Baghdad.

In South Africa, the Supreme Court of Appeal reinstated corruption charges against Jacob Zuma, the leader of the African National Congress and the party's next presidential candidate in this spring's elections. The charges allege that Zuma accepted bribes in an arms deal with a French company.

South African anti-apartheid activist Helen Suzman, one of the few white lawmakers to fight against the injustices of racist rule, died at the age of 91.

A US study found that "noseless" bicycle seats actually enhance the male sexual experience.

Woman with Baby in Toronto

Youth protest in Fort Chipewyan

"And Then Let's Go For That Justice" Part II

hillarybain — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 10:22:02 +0000

Indigenous women demand respect in Ottawa

In honour of missing and murdered indigenous women, the Walk4Justice began in Vancouver on June 21, Aboriginal Day, and ended with a rally of about 250 on Parliament Hill on September 15.

The following article (part two in a series) explores the profound systemic flaws discussed during speeches at the rally; flaws that continue to encourage a deep-rooted Canadian prejudice against indigenous women, which is being supported by the 2010 Olympic Games and Canada's oil economy, specifically the Alberta Tar Sands.

Part one of this article can be read here.

MONTREAL – When it comes to women losing their homes, Alberta and BC are among the worst in Canada.

Alberta’s "successful" tar sands economy has created a severe lack of affordable housing, transitional housing and shelter spaces, particularly for women.

Women are often dissuaded from pursuing the resources and abilities essential to benefiting from the booming industry. Unequal wages, gender discrimination and sexual harassment are all significant deterrents. Those profiting most from the oil and gas workforce are predominantly male; current male-female ratios are 79 to 21 per cent for geoscientists and 96 to four per cent for trades.

Contributing to this imbalance is the fact that the exorbitant cost of rent makes it next to impossible for many women in Alberta to afford a home, unless their wages can compete with those in the oil industry.

In the oil town of Fort McMurray, where the housing crisis is rampant, none of the shelters accept minors. A report released by the region's Homelessness Initiatives Steering Committee found that some teenagers are resorting to sex-work in exchange for shelter for a night.

For those women who do manage to find a shelter, Alberta has no transitional housing program. As a result, there is often nowhere for them to go from a shelter, except back to the street.

“A longer-term transition house is what is needed, one that can be used for as long as people need. A house that has passion for the survival of a whole generation to get past this terrible point of life, in which they did not mean to live,” says Nicole Tait, a youth attending the Walk4Justice rally.

Under the Harper Conservatives, cuts to legal aid and income assistance, the closure of women's centres, political assaults on women's advocacy and support services, a lack of childcare support, cuts to welfare and changes to eligibility for welfare, the rising cost of living, and low-income work all contribute heavily to the significant disadvantage that many First Nations women face. The BC Human Rights Commission and Ministry of Women's Equality, both considered tools to fight discrimination, have also been eliminated.

The number of homeless in Vancouver doubled in 2005 and is predicted to triple due to the 2010 Olympic Games. These figures do not account for a much larger population that pays for sub-standard housing. According to the 2005 Greater Vancouver Homeless Count, there are 300,000 (official) homeless in Greater Vancouver, 30 per cent of whom are First Nations people, despite the fact that they make up just two per cent of the city's total population.

An endless host of Canadian development projects, from massive tar sands extraction sites to ventures intended to facilitate the 2010 Games, have rendered homeless many First Nations people who originally subsisted on their traditional territories or on government-assigned reserves. Many are compelled to move to large urban centres in search of work or to escape their consequently depressed communities.

The same pattern of forced displacement of First Nations communities and individuals is happening all over Canada.

For example, in Alberta, Indigenous people living on reserves close to tar sands plants, residing downstream from tailings ponds, or dwelling on land slated to accommodate government pipelines have a hard battle to fight: against health problems of all kinds – including soaring rates of cancer which are picking off their friends and family members at an alarming pace – and against a government that is constantly attempting to push them farther off of their land for the purpose of extraction and exploration. Many of these people, such as those in the northern Alberta communities of Fort Chipewyan and Fort MacKay, are fighting to stop the pollution and destruction of their homes, some are deriving what benefit they can from jobs in the tar sands industry, and others are leaving their reserves with little or no money to attempt a better life in Edmonton, Calgary, or Fort McMurray.

Similarly, the Olympic Games are acting as an unwelcome catalyst for many First Nations people living in BC, a number of whom have been embroiled in bitter land rights battles with the Canadian government for most of their lives. Rivers, mountains, lakes, creeks, and old-growth forests, along with trap lines, hunting grounds, salmon stocks, animal habitats, sacred sites, and important food and medicine harvesting areas are being substituted by tourist resorts and highway expansions, like the Sea-to-Sky Highway from Vancouver to Whistler. With vast areas of unceded land, on which indigenous communities depend for their general survival, being destroyed, many First Nations people have been, and continue to be, drawn into cities to seek out new modes of subsistence, often only to discover that they lack the resources necessary to make a living in foreign urban surroundings.

The Secwepemc people of Skelkwek'welt and the St'at'imc people of Sutikalh have long resisted the establishment of Sun Peaks and Cayoosh ski resorts (intended to attract and accommodate tourists, Olympic athletes and trainers) on their land. Powerful and well-thought-out demonstrations of their opposition have been disregarded, ignored and covered-up by the BC government in attempts to profit from a territory for which treaties were never signed.

Native Youth Movement (NYM) member Kanahus Pelkey of the Secwepemc and Ktunaxa First Nations recalls the tactics employed by Sun Peaks to facilitate the construction of their ski resort:

The province bulldozed our home on International Human Rights Day. They hired Sun Peaks employees to tear down our sweat lodges. So you get an idea what happens when Native people stand up and fight for their freedom. We announced it to the media, and all the corporate media, they showed up at Sun Peaks, but the roads were deactivated. They [Sun Peaks] made big, huge ice blockades so no vehicles could get through. And Sun Peaks resort has many, many snowmobile businesses, but all the businesses were given orders by Sun Peaks not to rent any snowmobiles to any media, or anybody that day.

The Secwepemc people, rendered homeless and faced with the threat of arrest if they continued living on their land, retreated, some to Vancouver. Many had endured previous arrests for similar involvements and did not want to risk imprisonment with no chance of bail.

First Nations women living in the city are more susceptible than men to losing their homes due to abuse or conflict with a spouse or caretaker upon whom they are financially dependent. Because women are more likely to have children to look after, and are less likely to feel safe on the street or in shelters where men are also present, many return to abusive relationships when there is no alternative available.

Across Canada, there are more women among the Aboriginal homeless population than are found in the non-Aboriginal population. According to Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC), 35 per cent of the Aboriginal homeless population in Greater Vancouver is female, compared to only 27 per cent among the non-Aboriginal homeless population.

First Nations women are also vastly overrepresented in Canada’s community of sex-workers, and continue to be brutally criminalized by the police and simultaneously marginalized and taken advantage of by society in general.

In 2003, Pelkey, forcibly separated from her baby boy, spent two-and-a-half months in prison for her involvement with the Sun Peaks protests. During her incarceration, she met many First Nations women who had been imprisoned for sex-work and drug abuse. Most of the women's stories involved sexual molestation during childhood. Many women had experienced these abuses in residential schools, while others were the children of residential school survivors.

Aboriginal rights lawyer and President of the NWAC Beverly Jacobs stresses that often police lack an understanding of the cycles of abuse that occur within Native communities, and, as a result, do not possess the empathy necessary to view women on the streets as part of the public. As such, they do not feel responsible for the protection of these women. Jacobs has worked with Amnesty International as a lead researcher and consultant on their report “Stolen Sisters: Discrimination and Violence Against Indigenous Women in Canada.”

The controversial BC Coalition of Experiential Communities (BCCEC), the first sex-worker co-operative in Canada, is the brainchild of sex-worker Susan Davis, who has been trying to pressure the government to create legal brothels for the upcoming Winter Olympics in 2010. Despite the decriminalization of sex workers being one of the BCCEC's primary motives, the issue is contentious both among Canada's political elite and among sex-workers themselves. The move had the support of Vancouver’s then-Mayor, Sam Sullivan, and VANOC (the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games), but has so far been refused by Canadian Justice Minister Rob Nicholson.

Tait finds it difficult to understand sex-workers who support the move, and does not envision the legalization of brothels solving the problem of police brutality and societal marginalization.

“They are [Vancouver is] basing their research on one woman’s point of view for creating [legal] brothels in the DTES [Downtown Eastside]. This woman [Davis] is a prostitute by choice who doesn't have to make a living from the streets. She says that she enjoys what she does. I never met one woman who said that they enjoy being a prostitute, they say that’s just the way things happened. Others are trying to make a living for their family, which includes young mothers who are trying to put food on the table for their babies.”

Tsimshian youth, co-ordinator of North Coast Enviro Watch and member of Native 2010 Resistance Dustin Johnson notes that the Olympic tradition of catering to the elite as a means of social control can be referred to as a policy of "sex, screens and sports," a phrase coined to describe the 1988 Seoul Games. A massive influx of prostitution, coupled with the pseudo-legalization of the sex industry for the benefit of elite athletes and businessmen, has always been an Olympic norm.

Johnson maintains that not all sex-workers even made a career choice to begin with.

"You actually see, at some of the elementary schools in Vancouver, sexual predators, just waiting around to try to kidnap young Native kids. Some of these kids end up in the sex-slave industry, they get shipped all over the world. This is the kind of industry that VANOC and the people that are organizing the Olympics in Vancouver are trying to continue.”

Jacobs, too, stresses that the issue of violence against Aboriginal peoples in general and Aboriginal women in specific is not a three-decade concern, but instead extends to the past 300 years. The crisis is one of historic proportions. A report she wrote for the Native Women's Association of Canada looked to the history of colonization, and how it has affected Aboriginal women.

“Because a lot of First Nations cultures were matriarchal, women have suffered the brunt of colonization,” says Jacobs.

Her studies reveal that white policymakers noted the remarkable strength of First Nations women, and found ways of demeaning it. Despite the fact that many clans, and by extension, the status of individuals, were once determined matrilineally, the Canadian government’s invention of the status card changed this: status became determined by the male alone, creating a severe disconnect between Native people and their cultures. The previously significant responsibility of men to act as protectors was also adversely affected by this forced shift, creating internal oppression in First Nations communities that is still very present today.

“The responsibilities and the roles that come with being a Native woman are very highly respected, or at least they were. [First Nations people are] still having to deal with the issues internally within our communities because we’ve learned those patriarchal values and we’ve learned them really well,” observes Jacobs.

About half-way through the colourful roster of speeches on Parliament Hill, one of Prime Minister Harper’s aids came to formally accept the women’s documented demands. Dressed all in grey, he gripped the bright pink folder firmly, saying, “I will deliver this to Mr. Harper” as the crowd murmured their skeptical thanks.

But Akwesasne Elder and Bear Clan mother Harriet Boots quickly brought people back to the core of the matter.

“Every person today has a lot of tears. Let’s make it our strength. Let’s go ahead and cry. Take it all out of our system. And then let’s go for that justice.”

Maya Rolbin-Ghanie is a freelance journalist, creative writer, and barista living in Montreal.

An original version of this article was published by Oil Sands Truth (Fall 2008 print issue).

Missing women's memorial, Vancouver, 2007

Missing Women

Enduring Dixie

dru — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 08:16:43 +0000

US college football and black coaches

In 2009 we are faced with a question. What is the easier path for an African-American male: becoming President of the United States or an NCAA Division I football coach? The answer reveals something sordid about college sports, as well as university Presidents and the boosters who back them.

At present, there are 120 Division I-A football programs, and you can count the number of African-American head coaches on one hand...literally. There are four: Turner Gill at Buffalo, Randy Shannon at Miami, Kevin Sumlin at Houston, and Illinois offensive co-ordinator Mike Locksley, recently appointed head coach at New Mexico.

This number had been 50 per cent higher, but then Ty Willingham of Washington and Ron Prince of Kansas State were pushed out the door - leaving just the four, half the number of a decade ago.

That's 3.3 per cent in a sport where 50 pern cent of the players are African-American. It's not as if there are no black assistant coaches, either. African-Americans make up 312 of the 1,018 assistant coaches. Therefore, the message being sent by the NCAA football world truly is as simple as black and white: African-Americans are only good enough to bleed, sweat and get their ACLs torn out. Only then are you qualified to hold a clipboard. But the top job has a "Whites Only" sign on the door.

Charles Barkley called this out when his alma mater, Auburn, hired Iowa State's Gene Chizik for the coaching job instead of Gill, who against all odds has made a winner out of Buffalo. "You can say it's not about race, but you can't compare the two resumés and say [Chizik] deserved the job. Out of all the coaches they interviewed, Chizik probably had the worst resumé...My biggest problem with the black coaches is they're not getting jobs and they're getting [expletive] jobs when they are hired," said Barkley. "They're not getting good jobs. They're not getting jobs where they can be successful. That's why I wanted Turner to get the Auburn job. He could win consistently at Auburn. You can't win consistently at New Mexico. You can't win consistently at Kansas State. He could have won at Auburn."

This reality is especially stark in the Southeastern Conference. The SEC is the gold standard division in college football. Top teams like Florida, LSU and a resurgent Alabama field the best players and have become pipelines to the pros. It's also the conference that has the schools with a background of the most bitter integration struggles during the civil rights movement -among them, Alabama, Mississippi and Mississippi State. It could be the conference that sets a trend nationally and makes a statement that the whole era of the old South is gone with the wind. But the SEC has had only one African-American head coach in its history - Sylvester Croom at Mississippi State - and he just resigned.

A number of college coaches, off the record, give explanations like the "small-mindedness" of university Presidents, or say that the culture of college administrators is "resistant to change." Johnny Lopes, who coached on the defensive side of the ball at USC from 1979 to 1985 said, "Many white coaches feel that black coaches don't have the intelligence to coach at the college level. The white fans still hold to their prejudiced feelings. College Presidents need to have a good relationship with the fans. It's about money."

But all of this is a kind, roundabout way of saying the word "racism." Qualified candidates are passed over because they have the wrong colour of skin. The sad facts are that 92.5 per cent of university Presidents, 87.5 per cent of athletic directors and 100 per cent of conference commissioners are white.

Even more important, the boosters who pull the strings aren't looking for change. The wealthy funders of pigskin are the ones calling foul on any pretensions of diversity. They are looking for the familiar guy they can have a beer with, the guy they know. It's like Eddie Murphy's famous "White Like Me" SNL sketch come to life. As soon as all the black folks are out of the room, it's a party for everyone in the box, including the new coach. The strength of boosters also makes affirmative action plans like the NFL's somewhat successful " Rooney Rule" less than helpful. The "Rooney Rule" dictates that NFL owners must at least interview a person of colour when a coaching opening arises. This has helped break down some of the walls in the NFL. But in the NCAA, where boosters call the shots, the individual choices of university Presidents have far less sway.

College football, in particular, should be sensitive to these charges. The game has been referred to as a "plantation economy" because the student athletes don't get a dime in a sport that produces billions of dollars in revenue. The solution is going to have to reside in sanctions far stricter than the "Rooney Rule." The qualified assistants are there so conferences should have diversity quotas or be penalized bowl money and scholarships. This is the only strategy that will actually work. It's time for NCAA President Myles Brand to show some real leadership. Or maybe sports fans should begin to switch the channel. Even better, students on these college campuses should take out the clipboards they were using to register people to vote and start registering people in the struggle for a more diverse athletics department. The message is simple: the path to the White House shouldn't be easier than the path to coach football at Oregon State.

Dave Zirin is the author of "A People's History of Sports in the United States" (The New Press) Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.

Bye Bye Ty

Disappeared Before the Courts

Moira Peters — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 10:06:48 +0000

Internationals accompany witnesses to forced disappearance in Guatemala

TORONTO, ONTARIO – The first case of forced disappearance ever to be heard in Guatemala is currently sitting on hold in the constitutional court.

Six charges of forced disappearance have been brought forward from the community of Choatalúm in the municipality of San Martín Jilotepeque against ex-military commissioner Felipe Cusanero Coj. He has been accused of disappearing many community members while he acted as a military commissioner during Guatemala’s 36-year armed conflict. However, six specific cases are being brought forward for crimes committed between 1982 and 1984. Like so many others who collaborated with the army during the armed conflict, Cusanero enjoys a position of political power: he is the current mayor of Choatalúm.

This trial marks a milestone for social justice and reconciliation in Guatemala, as the trial’s witnesses are the first in the small Central American country's history to give their testimonies of forced disappearance in front of a judge.

Disappearance is a terror tactic that was used in many of the "Dirty Wars," which were wars against the general population in the name of protecting capital and the oligarchy in Latin America. Some argue that forced disappearance first began to be used as a mechanism to systematically terrorize the population during the internal conflict in Guatemala. There are nearly 50,000 people who are still disappeared in Guatemala.

The case has now reached a standstill in the constitutional court, and may be there for a long time to come. The defence for Cusanero argues that his client should not stand trial for felonies he may have committed before they were recognized as crimes. Forced disappearance was only recognized in 1996 after the Peace Accords were signed, and is non-retroactive, and therefore, the defence argues, the trial is unconstitutional.

Those bringing the case forward reject this argument principally based on the nature of forced disappearance, arguing that since the bodies have not been recovered, it is an ongoing crime. Cusanero is continuing to perpetrate the disappearances as he is unwilling to tell families where the bodies are buried.

The witnesses are being supported by the Association of Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared of Guatemala (Asociacion de Familiares de Detenidos-Desaparecidos de Guatemala – FAMDEGUA). According to Aura Elena Farfan of the organization, people do not want revenge, but, more than anything, to know where their loved ones are.

“This is why we are motivated, all of the family members. We want [Cusanero] to tell us where he left them. I consider forced disappearance to be the worst practice. It is the worst because you live with an uncertainty; you live with a deep pain.”

As part of the agreement of the Peace Accords, an official investigation took place into what had occurred during the war. As a result, the Historic Clarification Committee (la Comisión de Esclarecimiento Histórico – CEH) released a report detailing 6,159 reported forced disappearances during Guatemala’s armed conflict. However, the report also indicated that those numbers may be as high as 45,000. Those disappeared were most often taken from their homes in the middle of the night to torture centres or military compounds, never to be heard from by their families again.

The Human Rights Office of the Archbishop of Guatemala also conducted its own investigation into the war and produced the REMHI report (el Proyecto de la Recuperacion de la Memoria Historica). After gathering thousands of testimonies from Guatemalans affected by the war, the REMHI report found several commonalities in those affected by forced disappearance. The practice is used to provoke terror in family and community members, while leaving families incapable of properly grieving or healing, a result of the absence of information about the fate of those disappeared.

Years later, when the process of exhumations began from within military compounds, mass graves were found with bodies showing signs of extreme torture and mutilation, with many still blindfolded with their hands tied behind their backs. The knowledge that this was a likely end for loved ones disappeared has wreaked emotional havoc in Guatemalan communities.

The report is titled “Never Again.” It describes the tactics used by the Guatemalan military during the conflict, which, on top of forced disappearance, was characterized by large-scale massacres, torture, rape and other forms of violence against women, and scorched earth tactics. Characteristic of Guatemala’s armed conflict was also the formation of “community patrol units.” By being forced to participate in these units, many individuals committed crimes such as massacre, rape and torture against their own community members and against people from neighbouring communities. Refusal to participate in these units led to execution or disappearance; however, for some it led to abuse of power. These patrol units lasted long after the Peace Accords were signed and the power structures created by them long outlast the war and continue to deeply divide communities.

The case of Choatalúm is one such community. Most of the disappeared were forced from their homes in front of their families and taken to the local military compound. According to testimonies from the witnesses, family members pled for days with soldiers to give them information about the disappeared, but were told nothing, except that those in question were “bad seeds.”

According to Farfan, the human rights community in Guatemala is very concerned for the safety of the families involved in the trial. “[The families] live close to [Cusanero],” she says, “and we really don’t know the reaction of his family the moment the judge hands out a sentence...I think that the people and families will be left very vulnerable if this case takes [Cusanero] to prison.”

She explains that FAMDEGUA and the witnesses have taken advantage of opportunities presented by international accompaniment organizations like Acompañamiento Guatemala (ACOGUATE) and Peace Brigades International (PBI), as well as those in national and international organizations willing to act as witnesses.

ACOGUATE is an international organization that accompanies Guatemalan human rights organizations and defenders, and is currently accompanying the witnesses in the case of Choatalúm. According to Caren Weisbart, the co-ordinator for ACOGUATE, “Accompaniment provides a political space for people to choose how they want to defend their rights and carry out their socio-political work.”

Accompaniers provide a physical international presence that serves to dissuade attacks against Guatemalan human rights defenders. By playing on the desire of the Guatemalan government to maintain a positive international image, this visible foreign presence acts to broaden the space wherein local human rights defenders might not otherwise be able to work safely. Threats and intimidation come from those who have good reason to believe their attacks will not be punished by the Guatemalan justice system. The introduction of organized foreign presence provides a network of solidarity that acts as a form of protection.

Accompaniers document attacks that do occur and, according to Weisbart, this information is then transmitted to international solidarity networks, international human rights organizations, local government and civil society organizations and key embassies in Guatemala.

Spreading this information has become increasingly important, as attacks have increased in 2008. Between January and June, 109 attacks against human rights defenders were registered; 58 of those occurred in the month of May alone.

“In the Attorney General’s office on Human Rights where attacks against human rights defenders are publicly registered, there is virtually a 100 per cent impunity rate. Whether you’re a ‘common criminal’ or an ex-governmental official you can literally get away with murder, as is the situation here in Guatemala,” says Weisbart.

According to her, a big strength of international accompaniment in Guatemala is that it allows for internationals to work directly with human rights defenders in remote areas of the country. “The struggles of people who live in the countryside are different from those who live in urban areas,” she says. “It is a complex struggle to understand because it is based on more than 500 years of repression, racism and, especially in the Guatemalan political climate of today, it is characterized by a complete lack of access to the justice system.”

Although the case of Choatalúm is a significant advance for human rights in Guatemala, it is still a trial against a low-ranking ex-military commissioner, while the engineers of the genocide rest easy in a country characterized by impunity. Nevertheless, the trial of Choatalúm has the potential to set a precedent in forced disappearance cases, thereby opening the door to future cases targeting individuals intellectually responsible for those crimes.

“Every struggle is such a struggle that you need to rejoice and have a perspective,” says Claudia Samayoa from UNIDAD, a Guatemalan organization promoting human rights defenders, regarding the trial. She says that people are taking the trial seriously and it is likely that the large increase in attacks against human rights workers and defenders in May is directly linked to the case of Choatalúm, which began in April, as well as similar advances.

Moving forward and out of war, a country must embrace truth, justice and reconciliation, but, Samayoa says, “Truth must come first.”

According to Samayoa, the REMHI report had the potential to infuse truth into the mainstream in Guatemala. After the report was published, however, the government rejected it on the grounds that in its conclusion it stated that a government-sponsored genocide had occurred. The government refused to accept that any such event had happened without the full trial of those implicated – namely Lucas Garcia and Rios Montt, Presidents at the height of the genocide. Garcia has since died without facing trial and Montt currently holds a position of political immunity in his seat in the Guatemalan Congress. This official rejection of the report prevents any form of justice or reconciliation from happening.

Paralleling the situation in Guatemala to Canada’s past persecution and massacre of indigenous people, Samayoa says, “The fact that Canada is still dealing with its past shows that if it is not properly addressed, with truth, justice and reconciliation all playing a strong role, it will continue to resurface.”

Farfan from FAMDEGUA agrees and says it is important to set a precedent in the case of Choatalúm. If this trial were to end in a conviction of Cusanero, it may open doors for future cases against the material authors to reach trial. However, as the case of Choatalúm continues to be at a standstill in the constitutional court, it may prove to be another example of the extent of impunity in the country.

Referring to those disappeared, Farfan says, “We cannot forget them; they are with us each moment in every place we are. They are present with us, and make us stronger in the face of threats. This has made us stronger...to look for the 45,000 Guatemalans who are no longer here. This is what moves us, to continue with the case of Choatalúm, and we have hope that the constitutional court will resolve the case in the name of human rights and not for political reasons.”

Valerie Croft volunteered as an international accompanier with ACOGUATE from February to July 2008, and accompanied the witnesses in the Choatalúm case.

AccompanimentTrial

AccompanimentTortillas

An Open Letter from Jewish Youth in Canada

dru — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 07:18:20 +0000

Diverse voices oppose apartheid policies, Zionism

January 5, 2009

Like much of the world, we have spent the last week watching in shock and disgust as Israel continues its assault on the Gaza Strip. With the body count rising and a new tragedy in full bloom, we feel that it is important to speak out as Jewish youth in Canada and to denounce what Israel is doing in our name. The Jewish diaspora is diverse and divided on its positions on the state of Israel's policies. At this juncture in history, as Israel has committed its worst massacre in Gaza since it began its illegal occupation in 1967, we feel that it is crucial that Jews speak out and denounce Israel's actions that amount to no more than war crimes committed by an apartheid state.

As Jewish youth, we are diverse, but we are unified in our solidarity with our Palestinian brothers and sisters in Gaza.

Some of us are students. We are outraged by the bombing of the Islamic University in Gaza city, as well as other civilian infrastructure such as hospitals and mosques.

Some of us are Arab-Jews and people of colour. We stand against Israel's racism, which has been enshrined in Israeli law, and privileges its Jewish citizens over its non-Jewish ones. This apartheid state views Palestinians as an expendable people, no more than collateral damage.

Some of us are queer. We reject Israel’s branding of itself as the only safe place for queer people in the Middle-East while it targets gay and lesbian Palestinians and renders life unsafe for millions of others.

Some of us are Israelis living in Canada. We are calling for a solidarity that stretches beyond borders and nationalities. Israel's violent actions will only serve to further isolate the state and its citizens from the rest of the world. By calling itself a Jewish state and committing war crimes in the name of Jews everywhere, Israel makes the world even less safe for Jews, leading to an increase in animus towards Jewish people around the world.

Even though there have been approximately 100 Palestinian deaths for every Israeli killed by rocket fire, we recognize that Israeli apartheid also leads to Israeli casualties. The blame for these deaths lies with Israel – if there were no occupation and no apartheid policies, there would be no rocket fire. If Israel, the world's fourth largest military power, is concerned about its citizens, it would abandon its apartheid policies and seek out justice for the Palestinian people.

In 2005, Palestinian civil society put out a clear call for international support through a non-violent campaign of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) similar to that carried out against the apartheid regime of South Africa. Now, with the people of Gaza being crushed by Israeli bombs, manufactured in the USA and launched with Canada's blessing, it is more important than ever for Jewish communities throughout the world to take up this BDS campaign in order to end Israel's apartheid system, which makes life unsafe for millions of Jews and Palestinians alike.

Let us not be silent bystanders while humanity suffers. Let us raise our voices, as Jewish youth, and demand a single, democratic state, with equal rights for everyone in Israel/Palestine.

Ours is a generation that is committed to ending Middle-East violence by opposing all forms of discrimination, calling for a just peace within the entire region, and condemning Zionism to the dustbin of history.

Free Gaza, Free Palestine,

1 Jenny Peto, Toronto, ON
2 Aaron Lakoff, Montreal, QC
3 Max Silverman, Montreal
4 Rachel Gurofsky, Peterborough, ON
5 Simon Gurofsky, Ottawa, ON
6 Zohar Melinek, Montreal
7 Claire Hurtig, Montreal
8 Ben Saifer, Ottawa
9 Brook Thorndycraft, Toronto
10 Joel Balsam, Montreal
11 David Mandelzys, Toronto
12 Reena Katz, Toronto
13 Mia Amir, Vancouver, BC
14 Matthew Shuster, Kingston, ON
15 Avi Grenadier, Kingston
16 Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, Waterloo, ON
17 Melissa Harendorf, Montreal
18 Jeff Hiemstra, Toronto
19 Sacha Moiseiwitsch, Vancouver
20 Jake Javanshir, Toronto
21 Noam Lapid, Montreal
22 Stephen Kamnitzer, Toronto
23 Naava Smolash, Vancouver
24 Tamara Herman, Victoria, BC
25 Ryan Katz-Rosene, Ottawa
26 Sarah Fuchs, Montreal
27 Daniel Thau-Eleff, Winnipeg, MB
28 Deborah Rachlis, Ottawa
29 Marie L. Belliveau, St. Catharines, ON
30 Sarah Kardash, Sackville, NB
31 David Taub Bancroft, Vancouver
32 Kinneret Sheetreet, Montreal
33 Rachel Marcuse, Vancouver
34 Lisa Barrett, Bowen Island, BC
35 Rosanne Iland, Echo Bay ON
36 Max Tennant,Vancouver
37 Noah Fine, Vancouver
38 David Hill, Vancouver
39 Corey Balsam, Ottawa
40 Lee Skinner, Vancouver
41 Britt Lehmann-Bender, Toronto
42 Alexis Mitchell, Toronto
43 Jesse Rosenfeld, Montreal
44 Peter Driftmier, Calgary, AB
45 Joshua Schwebel, London, ON
46 Gideon Boxall, Vancouver
47 Diana Jewell, Mission, BC
48 Judith Mintz, Peterborough
49 Omri Haiven, Halifax, NS
50 Anne Bosch, North Vancouver
51 Emily Bitting, Moncton, NB
52 Vivian Belik, Winnipeg
53 Sasha Lofquist, Oakville, ON
54 Maya Shapiro, Toronto
55 Lisa Frances Greenspoon, Montreal
56 Aviva Cipilinski, Winnipeg
57 Daniel Tetrault, Vancouver
58 Yaacov Iland, Kitchener, ON
59 Jonah Gindin, Toronto
60 Rachel Huot, Toronto
61 Michelle Ohnona, Montreal
62 Myka Tucker-Abramson, Vancouver
63 Smadar Carmon, Toronto
64 Eytan Holtzer, Kingston
65 Irene Germain, Montreal
66 Emma Beltran-Kulikovsky, Toronto
67 Jordan Topp, Montreal
68 Adam Balsam, Ottawa
69 Natalie Kouri-Towe, Toronto
70 Simone Arsenault-May, Toronto
71 Louisa Worrell, Ottawa
72 Rachel Deutsch, Toronto
73 Bee Sack, Toronto

To sign on to this letter, send an email to antizionistjews@gmail.com with your name and city

Israeli Supporters

Jewish Demonstrator

December in Review, Part II

dawn — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 11:01:41 +0000

Israel bombs Gaza, Bush dodges shoes, OPEC cuts output

The Israeli Air Forces bombed the Gaza Strip, killing over 320 people and wounding more than 1400. "Palestine has never witnessed an uglier massacre," said Hamas' leader-in-exile Khaled Meshaal. "This is the harshest IDF assault on Gaza since the territory was captured during the Six-Day War in 1967," said Amos Harel, an Israeli analyst, who likened the bombings to "Israel's version of shock and awe." Egypt opened its border with Gaza to allow for wounded Palestinians to access medical facilities, but deployed at least 300 border guards to keep fleeing Palestinians from crossing into the country. The assault on Gaza, dubbed Operation Cast Lead, came after the end of a six month truce in Gaza, during which time Israeli intelligence planned the attacks. Israel announced that they would continue the attacks on Gaza. "If what we're doing in the air will not suffice we'll continue on the ground," said Ehud Barak, Israel's Minister of Defence. "Some of the Israeli missiles struck in densely populated areas as children were leaving school, and women rushed into the streets frantically looking for their children," reported the Los Angeles Times. Demonstrations against the attacks and in solidarity with the Palestinian people were held in across Canada, including Vancouver and Montreal.

Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi threw his shoes at President Bush during a press conference in Baghdad. "This is a farewell kiss, you dog. This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq," yelled al-Zaidi while throwing his shoes. In Montréal and Toronto anti-war protestors hurled shoes in solidarity with al-Zaidi. Bombing in central Baghdad killed at least 18 people and wounded 50, and a car bomb exploded in Kadhimiya, in Northwestern Baghdad, killing 22 people and wounding 54.

In the US, President Bush began to push through a record number of 'midnight regulations' before the end of his term. On the list of changes include modifications to endangered species, air pollution, abortion, and gun control regulations. "Many of these are radical and appear to pay off big business allies of the Republican Party," according to The Guardian.

Activists in Greece took over a television station during a live broadcast as part of ongoing riots and demonstrations."The democratic regime in its peaceful facade doesn't kill an Alex every day, precisely because it kills thousands of Ahmets, Fatimas, Jorjes, Jin Tiaos and Benajirs: because it assassinates systematically, structurally and without remorse the entirety of the third world..." read a statement from students at the Athens School of Economics. "This is full-blooded revolutionary anarchism," wrote analyst Uri Gordon. Mobilizations against state murders and in solidarity with the Greek uprisings took place in over 40 cities worldwide.

Eight soldiers were found decapitated in the state of Guerrero in Mexico. It is believed that a drug cartel is responsible for the killings.

Russia announced it will quadruple its production of nuclear missiles over the next three years as part of a rearmament plan.

US drones dropped two missiles killing at least seven people in Pakistan's South-Waziristan region, bringing the total number of airstrikes by the US against Pakistan to almost 30 this year.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries cut oil production by 2.2 million barrels a day. The price of light, sweet crude oil hit a low of $36.63 a barrel.

The price of cocoa soared to $3265 a tonne, a 23 year high.

Stephen Harper appointed 18 new senators, including former Olympic skiier Nancy Greene Raine, former journalist Pamela Wallin, Patrick Brazeau, a Conservative booster and national chief of the Congress of Aboriginal People, and a host of Conservative loyalists. "These 18 patronage appointments show that when it comes to job creation, Mr. Harper cares more about rewarding his Conservative friends than creating jobs for Canadians," said NDP leader Jack Layton. The new appointments are expected to cost Canadian taxpayers $6 million.

Peer-reviewed, scientific data put forward about the ecological damage caused by the tar sands was dismissed as propaganda by the government of Alberta and industry. Alberta's Minister of Culture and Community Spirit Lindsay Blackett stated that the government would reconsider funding films critical of the tar sands. “We think this amounts to a suggestion of political censorship or the need for political censorship of arts funding, which is absolutely not what is needed,” said a spokesperson from the Council of Canadians.

Sunoco Inc. sought a partner in order to acquire more refining capacity in the Alberta tar sands. The announcement drew the ire of anti-tar sands activists, who demanded that the Canadian Boreal Institute, which receives funding from the Pew Foundation (itself set up by Sunoco Inc.) step out of their role of "blunting real resistance" with their tar sands campaign.

Petro-Canada's 13-month lockout of Montreal refinery workers ended with wage increases, bonuses and profit sharing measure from the former crown corporation. The union local had recently launched a Petro-Canada boycott campaign.

Thousands of bone fragments were discovered in a mass grave in what was formerly a secret detention centre in Argentina. The remains are of victims of the Dirty War in Argentina, which took place from about 1976 to 1983.

Ottawa diplomat Robert Fowler and his aide Louis Guay were kidnapped in Niger hours after they visited a gold mine owned by Montréal based Semafo Inc. The government of Niger stated that the mine visit was "of a 'private' nature, and was unconnected to the men's UN work," contradicting the United Nations, which said that the Fowler and Guay were on an official visit. It is still not known who the kidnappers are. Armed conflict in Niger has increased following the discovery of mineral resources, especially gold and uranium.

Amnesty International repeated its call for a moratorium on the use of Tasers. More than 50 deaths in the US have been connected to the use of Tasers.

Inuit leader Mary Simon denounced the effects of climate change on Arctic peoples. "The scientific predictions for what we can expect in the Arctic region in the not so distant future are alarming. No, 'alarming' is not a strong enough word; 'terrifying' is better suited for the hunter who is lost on shifting ice and the homeowner whose house is splitting in half as the foundation sinks," she said.

In what appears to be a spontaneous militant movement against Barrick Gold, the world's largest gold mining company, 200 to 400 people invaded Barrick's North Mara Gold Mine this week in the Tarime District of Tanzania, destroying equipment worth $15 million, while some 2,000 people kept watch from the top of the pit. According to a Barrick public relations officer, "The intruders stoned the security personnel relentlessly until they overpowered them. The guards abandoned their posts and retreated to safety." Barrick implied that "high levels of crime" were the cause of the recent outbreak, a theory contradicted by some reports. "Ongoing conflict between the mine and local communities have created a climate of fear for those who live nearby. ... There have been several deadly confrontations in the area... During police operations [a family] scatters in fear to hide in the bush, 'like fugitives', for weeks at a time waiting for the situation to calm down," said Allan Cedillo Lissner, a photojournalist who recently documented life near the North Mara mine.

The US government announced that they will send an additional 20,000 to 30,000 soldiers to Afghanistan in the summer of 2009. The deployment would nearly double the number of US troops in Afghanistan.

A US war resister who has been living in Nanaimo for over four years was granted a one month reprieve during which to build his legal case against being deported to the US. Immigration Canada denied Clifford Cornell's application for refugee status, his application to stay on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, and his pre-residence assessment. He was initially scheduled to be deported on December 24th.

More than 100 scholars, including Noam Chomsky, John Pilger and Greg Grandin, signed an open letter to the board of directors of Human Rights Watch, blasting their most recent report on Venezuela. "We write to call your attention to a report published by Human Rights Watch that does not meet even the most minimal standards of scholarship, impartiality, accuracy, or credibility. The document, A Decade Under Chávez: Political Intolerance and Lost Opportunities for Advancing Human Rights in Venezuela, appears to be a politically motivated essay rather than a human rights report," reads the letter.

Wal-Mart announced it would appeal a decision by the Quebec Labour Board allowing employees at the chain's Hull, QC, store to unionize.

Television network CBS revealed that 31.5 million people living in the US received food stamps in the month of September. That's up two million from August 2008, and is the equivalent of about one out of every ten citizens.

DeBeers announced that they would close their Snap Lake, NWT, diamond mine for ten weeks in 2009. Workers will not be paid during the closure. Tahera Diamond Corporation stopped all operations at their diamond mine in Nunavut, forcing the federal government to step in and take responsibility for the mine. The closures are a result of a downturn in the diamond industry world-wide.

A man dressed as Santa Claus killed nine people at a Christmas party in Los Angeles. He later took his own life.

The Guardian revealed that England's Attorney General is "considering asking the courts to clamp down on high-profile, direct-action protests on issues such as climate change." The move by the AG follows on the heels of the acquittal of six protestors who participated in direct action at the Kingsnorth II coal-fired power plant in Kent.

Barack Obama chose anti-gay Reverend Rick Warren to give the invocation speech at his swearing in ceremony. Warren compared "homosexuality to incest and pedophilia" in a recent interview, and supports Prop 8, the passage of which would ban gay marriage in California.

EnCana's sour gas pipelines north of Fort St. John, BC, were vandalized. This is the second time since October that EnCana's pipelines have been targeted by vandals.

The military seized power in Guinea after the death of President Lansana Conte, who ruled the country for 24 years.

Explosions in an apartment building in southern Ukraine, likely caused by a gas cannister, killed 19 people. Twenty four people are still missing.

Indigenous people in Ecuador took to the streets near the southern city of Cuenca to protest against the country's new mining law. "It's not only for environmental reasons, our opposition is to the model of the law," said Indigenous leader Humberto Cholango.

The United Nations Working Group on the use of mercenaries disclosed that mercenaries are playing "an increasingly broad role" throughout Latin America. There are at least 800 US mercenaries in Colombia working under Plan Colombia who enjoy diplomatic immunity. There are also approximately 3,000 Latin American mercenaries serving in Iraq.

Miguel Ángel Ospina Boscán, a young Wayúu man, was assassinated in Wounmaikat, Maikou (Guajira), Colombia. His name appeared on a death list written by the Aguilas Negras, a reconfiguration of the AUC paramilitary group. Fifteen Wayúu people have been assassinated or disappeared so far this year. In Northern Cauca, the Colombian army assassinated Edwin Legarda, a Nasa man, who was driving in the vehicle of the Indigenous councils of Cauca (CRIC). The vehicle he was driving was ambushed from all sides by the Colombian army. Many think that the attack was targeted against Legarda's partner Ayda Quilcué, a high profile indigenous leader.

Students at New York City's New School staged a sit-in to reclaim student space and protest against the school's president, Bob Kerrey. The occupation faced a crackdown by police, but won a number of concessions from the New School's administration.

More than 80 students at York University occupied the President's Office in support of the ongoing strike by CUPE 3903. Classes were cancelled for the remainder of 2008.

People across Canada experienced one of the harshest winters in memory. At least two homeless people died due to the weather: a homeless woman burned to death while trying to light a fire to keep warm in Vancouver, and a homeless man froze to death on the streets of Montréal. A woman was found alive after being buried for three days in a snow drift in Ancaster, outside of Toronto.

Toronto film-maker Rob Spence, who wears a prosthetic eye and calls himself the "eyeborg guy," announced that he will install a wireless video camera inside the prosthetic, giving him the ability to make movies by just looking around.

Conspicuous consumption went out of style, as luxury retailers experienced a major drop in sales.

A fire at an animal shelter in Oshawa killed more than one hundred cats. It is believed that the fire was started by mice, who chewed through the electrical system. "It's unfortunate and ironic that mice caused the fire that killed the cats," said a spokesperson for the Toronto Humane Society.

A 13-metre high festive goat made of metal and straw was burned down in Gavle, Sweden, for the 23rd time since it was first displayed in 1966. In 2005, it was set alight by two arsonists dressed as Father Christmas and the Gingerbread Man.

We are now producing our Month in Review in collaboration with CKUT's news collective, an independent campus community news source that you can listen to at 90.3 fm in Montréal or online at ckut.ca.

Montréal shoe-hucking!

Protest outside of New School

Israel Bombs Gaza, Killing Hundreds

dru — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 23:24:34 +0000

Emergency demonstrations attract thousands worldwide

MONTREAL, QUEBEC–On December 27, 2008, Israeli military forces initiated "Operation Cast Lead," a bombing offensive against the Gaza Strip. F-16 jets and Apache helicopters, which are manufactured in part in Canada and largely paid for by an estimated $3 billion in annual US military aid, dropped 100 tonnes of bombs in the first day. Reported targets included municipal buildings, police stations, mosques, homes, cross-border tunnels, and a university. According to on-the-ground reports, facilities that have been hit by bombs include hospitals, medical storage facilities and fuel depots.

As of December 30, over 363 people have been killed, and over 1,700 injured. According to a UN report, at least 39 of the deaths were children. Casualties have thus far included government functionaries, children, women, traffic police in training, and bystanders. In some cases, attacks began when children were on their way home from school.

Operation Cast Lead was named in reference to a children's Channukah song written by Israel's national poet, Hayyim Nahman Bialik. The attacks began on the sixth day of the Jewish festival of lights, an official holiday in Israel.

The aim of the operation, according to Israeli officials' initial comments, was to put a stop to Palestinian rocket and mortar attacks against towns close to the Gaza strip, such as Sderot and Ashqelon. In the last seven years, an estimated 24 Israelis (16 within Israel, eight in now-vacated Gaza settlements) have been killed and 433 have been injured by Palestinian rocket and mortar attacks. The attacks have caused post-traumatic stress disorder among residents of the affected towns.

"After this operation there will not be a single Hamas building left standing in Gaza, and we plan to change the rules of the game," armed forces deputy chief of staff Brigadier General Dan Harel told journalists.

"We are hitting not only terrorists and launchers, but also the whole Hamas government and all its wings," he added.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak has said that Israeli forces "will expand to a ground attack if that is needed."

Since Israeli forces vacated settlements and pulled out of Gaza in 2005, they have maintained control over Gaza's airspace, borders, and coastal waters. Since 2007, in response to the election of Hamas, Israel has maintained a tightening siege of Gaza. Shipments of food, fuel, clothing, cooking oil and medicine have been severely restricted, and many Gazans rely on cross-border tunnels to smuggle in basic supplies. Malnutrition affects an estimated 70 per cent of Gaza's population of 1.5 million. After Israeli forces bombed Gaza's main power plant in 2006, the sole remaining plant fell into disrepair, leaving the majority of Gazans without electricity. Israel has turned away several ships carrying food and aid supplies.

Ehud Olmert's advisor, Dov Weisglass, described the siege thus: "The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not make them die of hunger."

Demonstrations and Criticism

Immediately following the bombing, emergency protests were organized around the world, with tens of thousands taking to the streets in England, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, India, Australia, New Zealand, and many other countries.

In Canada, emergency protests brought out an estimated 200 in Halifax, 600 in Montreal, 200 in Ottawa, 800 in Toronto, and 300 in Vancouver. Additional demonstrations are planned in Montreal, Vancouver and Winnipeg.

The New Democratic Party called on the government of Canada to immediately call for an end to the attacks. The Liberal Party and the Conservative government both released statements supporting Israel's "right to defend itself" and condemning rocket attacks.

"The people who’ve been subjected to this don’t have the right to defend themselves, but Israel has the right to defend," Dr. Ismail Zayid said to reporters at a protest in Halifax.

Demonstrators in Montreal shouted slogans like "Israel assassin, Harper complice" (Israel assassinates, Harper is complicit) and "Québec, Gaza, solidarité."

A press release from the Toronto-based Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid condemned what it called "the single worst massacre in Gaza since it was illegally occupied in 1967," and called for an end to the "two-year siege" that "has restricted all flow of aid, medical supplies, fuel and other necessities of life into the territory."

Vancouver organizers also condemned "official US and Canadian complicity."

"Targeting Hamas targets, when any civilian employed by the Hamas government, be they traffic police, civil police or in the Ministries, counts as a target, is an immoral declaration of war against a civilian population," Canadian Gaza-based solidarity activist Eva Bartlett wrote in a blog entry.

In Israel, some observers have ascribed the attacks to positioning for Israeli elections coming in February. "Israeli leaders are competing over who is the toughest and who is ready to kill more," Michael Warschawski of the Alternative Information Center in Jerusalem told journalist Jonathan Cook. Writing shortly before the bombing began, Yoel Marcus observed that "the hysterical reaction by the public as a whole and politicians in particular stems mainly from the fact that the country is in an election period."

Ali Abunimah called for increased support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, initiated in 2005 by Palestinian Civil Society organizations. "Palestinians everywhere are asking for solidarity, real solidarity, in the form of sustained, determined political action," Abunimah wrote on the day the bombing began.

Media coverage was criticized for omitting the historical context of Palestinian dispossession. Writing in the Independent, Robert Fisk said, "The fact that the five sisters killed in Jabalya camp had grandparents who came from the very land whose more recent owners have now bombed them to death simply does not appear" in media coverage of the bombing.

Dru Oja Jay is an editor at the Dominion.

Gaza Protest, London

Gaza Montreal

Civilian Uprising against Barrick Gold in Tanzania

Moira Peters — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 22:18:14 +0000

Mine security shoots young man, villagers respond by destroying $7 million in equipment

NEW YORK–Last week, reports surfaced in the mainstream press that thousands of villagers had raided a gold mine in Northern Tanzania, setting fire to $7 million* worth of mine equipment. Most reports blamed problems with crime in the area, calling the intruders "gold-seekers."

While the spokesman for Barrick Gold** Tanzania, Teweli Teweli, describes these villagers as "well-organized groups" who attacked the pit following the blasting of high-grade ore, others paint Barrick as the aggressor in this event, citing immediate and historic causes that have been largely ignored by the international community.

According to several witnesses, the immediate cause of the civilian uprising was the killing of a young man named Mang'weina Mwita Mang'weina. Human rights lawyer Tundu Lissu, who represents many of the villagers, explains that Mang'weina and some friends were engaged in an argument with Barrick security when one of the guards shot Mang'weina, who was unarmed at the time. This incident caused an uproar within the community, which immediately took up stones, overpowered mine security (who then fled), and attacked the mine, setting fire to millions worth of equipment.

Mang'weina himself is a part of the legacy of the North Mara mine. He was one of the thousands of unemployed locals in the area, angry over the mine's recent history of forced displacement, loss of livelihoods, human rights abuses and ongoing repression. He is the seventh person killed at the hands of mine security since July 2005, when the killing of a local boy sparked a similar uprising that resulted in the destruction of mine equipment and the subsequent detention of over 200 villagers.***

Eyewitnesses to the 2005 killing told The Guardian (Tanzania) that "the boy who was shot dead was walking past the company premises when company security guards, suspecting him of stealing oil, stopped him. When the boy failed to heed the order, the guards called the police who, before even questioning him, shot him in the chest."

Not one year later, security guards employed by Barrick Gold allegedly shot – five times in the back – another villager who was alleged to have illegally entered the mine complex, bringing the death toll to six.

According to Lissu in a letter written in June 2006:

The killings represent a major shift in Barrick's strategy for dealing with the troublesome locals who have always opposed the Mine. In the period after the forced evictions of the villagers in August 2001, hundreds of villagers, particularly community leaders and prominent locals were targeted for illegal arrests, criminal prosecutions and long term imprisonment. Numerous local leaders including the area's [late] Member of Parliament Chacha Zakayo Wangwe and elected Member of the Tarime District Council Augustino Nestory Sasi were harassed this way, with the latter being sentenced to 30 year jail before we got him out on appeal to the High Court of Tanzania in December 2004.

Calculating from media reports, Lissu estimates that over 10,000 artisanal miners, peasant farmers and their families were kicked out of the area to make way for the North Mara mine in 2001. Since that time, there has been ongoing tension between the mine and the local communities.

According to Allan Cedillo Lissner, a Toronto-based photojournalist who recently interviewed families surrounding the North Mara mine, "Ongoing conflict between the mine and local communities have created a climate of fear for those who live nearby." Since the mine opened in 2002, one family told Lissner that they live in a state of constant anxiety because they are repeatedly harassed and intimidated by the mine's private security forces and by government police. "There have been several deadly confrontations in the area and every time there are problems at the mine, the Mwita family say their compound is the first place the police come looking. During police operations the family scatters in fear to hide in the bush, 'like fugitives,' for weeks at a time waiting for the situation to calm down," Lissner explains.

The Mwita family explained that they used to farm and raise livestock, telling Lissner that "now there are no pastures because the mine has almost taken the whole land ... we have no sources of income and we are living only through God's wishes. ... We had never experienced poverty before the mine came here." They also told Lissner that they would like to be relocated, but the application process has been complicated, and they feel the amount of compensation offered was merely "candy."

According to Tanzanian journalist and community advocate Evans Rubara, this latest uprising "is a sign to both the government of Tanzania and the International community (especially Canada) that poor and marginalized people also get tired of oppression." He hopes that the recent conflict will inspire Barrick "to start another strategy that will bring a good and constructive relationship with the local communities by implementing programs that do not enhance more looting and belittle Tanzania, leaving thousands in destitution."

Since this most recent uprising, dozens of villagers have been arrested. According to Lissu, who plans to represent those arrested, "They have arrested dozens of people; [Barrick is] on a war path; these people have been denied bail, they are targeting the youth and repression is on."

Lissu also spoke about reports of weapons making their way into the North Mara area. "Two days ago, we got information that [Barrick is] importing weapons: a ton and a half of tear gas, and hand grenades were transported to the mine on Thursday. The hand grenades were seized by customs on the way to the North Mara Gold Mine, but have since been let through," he told ProtestBarrick.net on the phone from Tanzania.

Sakura Saunders is an editor for protestbarrick.net, an all-volunteer news site that networks organizations and community groups organized against Barrick Gold around the world.

* On December 17, 2008 Barrick Gold said it had revised down the damage to its North Mara Mine in Tanzania during an attack last week to about $7 million from an earlier estimate of $15 million.

** In January 2006, Barrick Gold merged with Placer Dome, who previously owned the North Mara mine.

*** By mid 2006 all of the villagers detained after the 2005 uprising had been released by the courts after the authorities failed to prosecute them.

NorthMaraVillage

NorthMaraWater

December in Review, Part I

dawn — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 10:02:55 +0000

Workers take factory back, homeless take houses back, Canadian delegates undermine climate talks

Eight thousand delegates from around the world gathered in Poznan, Poland, to decide how the international community will address climate change.

The UN conference on climate change was criticized by Indigenous delegates for shutting out their voices from the decision making process. "We may also need to discuss at some point of time the ecological debt that especially industrialised countries have with [Indigenous Peoples]. Consultations with us often only take the form of simply informing our communities," Ben Powless, a member of Six Nations who was in Poznan during the conference, told IPS.

The Canadian youth delegation in Poland set up a photo display of the Alberta tar sands. The display was torn down by officials at the request of the Canadian government delegation.

A report by Environmental Defence was released, which stated that tar sands production was releasing billions of litres of contaminated water into Alberta's groundwater every year.

The Climate Action Network, an international NGO, named Canada the country most active in blocking, stalling or undermining the UN climate negotiations in Poland.

CNN announced it would cut its entire science, technology, and environment news staff. The announcement came a week after NBC announced it was axing the entire staff of the "Forecast Earth" environmental program. The Dominion is currently seeking Health and Science & Technology editors.

Over fifty young people belonging to the group Plane Stupid locked themselves down at London's Stanstead Airport in order to delay flights and bring attention to the CO² impacts of flying. Fifty-seven activists were arrested and later released.

The Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nation band council signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Ontario, Frontenac Ventures Corporation, and the Algonquins of Ontario. Frontenac Ventures wants to explore for uranium in Ardoch Algonquin Territory, but has been prevented from doing so by blockades that eventually led to arrests and the imprisonment of Robert Lovelace. "Although Algonquin and non-Algonquin neighbours have found common ground in protecting the land, this latest attempt at divide and conquer will result in years of distrust and enmity," read a statement from the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation, which maintains its opposition to uranium exploration.

Barriere Lake First Nation acting Chief Benjamin Nottaway was sentenced to forty-five days in jail in addition to the fifteen he has already served in pre-trial detention. He was charged with three counts of mischief and breach of conditions when participating in peaceful blockades intended to draw attention to the violations of the rights of Barriere Lake by the Canadian and Quebec governments.

"We've been in a recession for 13 years," Chief Bill Wilson of the Squamish Nation Band Council told Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl during a meeting. Chiefs say a two per cent annual cap on new spending means that they cannot keep pace with inflation, much less provide adequate services for the fastest-growing populations in Canada.

The Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation took the Alberta government to court for granting rights for tar sands development without consulting the First Nations who hold treaty rights. "Parts of our traditional lands have been completely changed by industry," Chief Allan Adam wrote in an affidavit. "These lands were once hunting and trapping grounds, but now they are covered by oil and gas wells and blanketed by seismic lines roads and pipelines."

The Conservatives introduced sweeping new changes to Canada's immigration system. A list of 38 professions for new immigrants was introduced, which is expected to severely limit the chances of many people wishing to permanently immigrate to Canada. “The 2009 plan includes up to 156,600 immigrants in the economic category, another term for temporary workers who can come to take Canadian jobs but the government can kick them out whenever it pleases," reported the South Asian Link News Paper.

The latest federal quarterly report on Canada's role in the war in Afghanistan showed that insecurity in the country is rising. "In Afghanistan generally, and in Kandahar specifically, this summer was especially violent. Numbers of insurgent incidents reached levels higher than in any year since the Taliban regime was overthrown in 2001." Stockwell Day, International Trade Minister, stated that the increased violence was because summer is "fighting season" in Afghanistan. The United Nations estimated that 1,445 civilians were killed in the conflict during the first eight months of 2008.

The Supreme Court of Poland ruled that seven Polish soldiers accused of the deaths of Afghani civilians would be brought to trial in Poland, overturning a lower court ruling that dismissed the case.

Governor General Michaëlle Jean prorogued parliament for seven weeks upon the request of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The decision to prorogue parliament delayed until January the vote to decide if a coalition government will form. Google searches for 'coalition' and 'prorogue' hit a new high.

People rioted in ten cities throughout Greece, including Thessaloniki, Athens, Corfu and Crete, to protest a police killing of a young man. Conservative Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis rejected demands that early elections be called. Greek police ran out of tear gas.

Montreal Police announced that Jean-Loup Lapointe, the constable who shot and killed 18-year old Fredy Villanueva, would not face criminal charges. Protesters gathered in the Montreal North park where Villanueva was killed to shoot dice, a reference to the dice game Villanueva was playing before he was killed by police.

Unions in Italy held a general strike to protest against President Berlusconi.

Legislative elections in Ghana were inconclusive, with both favorite candidates achieving less than the required 50 per cent. The second round of elections will be held in late December.

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev visited India for defence and energy talks with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The leaders of the two countries signed a nuclear deal that will see Russia building four reactors in southern India.

Ten anti-war advocates were convicted of trespassing in Burlington, Ontario. When charged, the advocates were attempting to dialogue with executives at L-3 Wescam. Wescam is one of the largest military manufacturing facilities owned by Canada’s L-3 Communications.

The government of BC approved a controversial coalbed methane project to be operated by BP. The municipal government of Fernie, the town closest to the proposed project, rejected the project out of concern for local ecosystems.

The Bank of America announced that it will "phase out financing of companies whose predominant method of extracting coal is through mountain top removal."

The Bush administration gave a "gift" to the coal sector by easing rules, allowing them to dump their waste in streams.

A memorial rally was held in Vancouver to commemorate the killing of Frank Paul, Kyle Tait, Dudley George, and other people killed by the RCMP or while in police custody. In the Yukon, Raymond Silverfox died while in custody of the RCMP.

BC's criminal justice branch announced that no charges would be laid against any of the four police officers involved in the 2007 taser killing of Robert Dziekanski.

The former head of NASDAQ, Bernard L Madoff, was arrested for fraud after allegedly admitting to running a pyramid scheme worth $50 billion.

President Rafael Correa declared that Ecuador would default on its 2012 global bonds, worth $31 million. Correa stated that the debt was incurred illegally by previous governments.

Workers at Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago began an occupation of the factory after it was shut down when the owners could not secure enough credit to continue operating. "These workers are to this struggle perhaps what Rosa Parks was to social justice 50 years ago," said Reverend Jesse Jackson when he visited the factory. "This, in many ways, is the beginning of a larger movement for mass action to resist economic violence."

The Miami-based group Taking Back the Land helped homeless people move into foreclosed homes. Advocates in Cleveland worked with the city to allow homeless people to legally move into and repair empty, dilapidated houses. In Atlanta, some property owners are paying homeless people to live in abandoned homes as a security measure.

A group of 39 temporary foreign workers building Vancouver's "Canada Line" won a multimillion dollar discrimination case at the BC Human Rights Tribunal. The tribunal ordered SELI Canada, SCNP-SELI Joint Venture and SNC Lavalin Constructors (Pacific) Inc. to pay each worker $10,000.

The panel working on the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline report announced that their report, which was originally meant to be finished in 2008, would not be released until December of 2009. Were it to go ahead, the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline would stretch 1,200 kilometers from the North West Territories to Alberta.

Canadian Business Magazine released their list of the 100 richest Canadians. The Thomson family, which controls the Thomson Reuters news agency among other assets, is the richest family in Canada. Their net worth is $18.45 billion.

Six First Nations in BC demanded that the province implement a First Nations Review Process for Enbridge's Northern Gateway project. "Gateway is a major project with significant risks. Yet the federal government is advancing a decision-making process for Gateway without any provision for addressing Aboriginal Rights and Title. This is unacceptable," said David de Wit, Natural Resources Manager at the Office of the Wet'suwet'en. The Haida nation also rejected the Enbridge pipeline.

Translink, Vancouver's transit authority, announced plans to use sniffing dogs to sniff transit users presumably to see if they are carrying prohibited substances. The BC Civil Liberties Union called the plan "a massive intrusion into the rights of transit users."

Canadian mining company Pacific Rim announced it will sue the El Salvadorian government for millions of dollars under CAFTA-DR (Central America-Dominican Republic-United States Free Trade Agreement) for not granting the company a mining license. Pacific Rim will be using its U.S. based subsidiary Pac Rim Cayman to file for arbitration under CAFTA, because the U.S. is a signatory to CAFTA, and not Canada.

A UK study found that Britons rank sex as their favorite free activity.

The Dutch government announced that they will cut the amount of brothels in Amsterdam by half, and do the same to the city's marijuana cafes.

A young Chinese woman went temporarily deaf in one ear after kissing her boyfriend. "A strong kiss may cause an imbalance in the air pressure between two inner ears and lead to a broken ear drum," warned the Shanghai Daily.

Plane Stupid at Stanstead II

Last hours of Frank Paul