The Dominion - 63

Issue #63

dru — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 22:21:24 +0000

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October / November 2009

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September in Review, Part II

dawn — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 05:30:07 +0000

Federal courts quash Security Certificates, Harper succumbs to donut-induced delirium

Adil Charkaoui was cleared from the security certificate that had been imposed upon him. Judge Danielle Tremblay-Lamer ruled that the conditions of the security certificate be lifted after the federal government refused to produce wire tap evidence. "You know, security certificate just has no place in a democratic country," Sophie Charkaoui told the CBC. A federal court judge in Ottawa significantly reduced the bail conditions on Mohamad Harkat, who also has a security certificate. Though he will continue to wear a GPS tracking device, he will have much more freedom than previously. "I feel good. This will affect all things. I am always worried about accidentally breaking conditions. There were too many conditions to remember. It was hard to think normal. It was like being on another planet," he told the Ottawa Citizen.

Abousfian Abdelrazik, a Canadian citizen who was stranded in Sudan for six years, including a year living inside the Canadian embassy in Khartoum, launched a lawsuit against the federal government for refusing to issue him a passport. The $27 million lawsuit alleges that the Canadian Government "acted in a bad faith and callous manner at every turn, resulting in significant physical and psychological harm."

President Manuel Zelaya re-entered Honduras and took refuge in the Brazilian Embassy after three months of military dictatorship in the Central American nation. The military government, headed by coup leader Roberto Micheletti, at first claimed that Zelaya was in a hotel in Nicaragua, later admitting that he had entered the country. The military government declared a 26 hour curfew as people began to rally around the Brazilian embassy in support of Zelaya. Zelaya and his entourage remain trapped in the embassy, where it is reported they are living on biscuits. There is little reliable information about the scale of the repression, but estimates are that thousands of Zelaya supporters have been rounded up, beaten and arrested, and an unknown number killed. Peter Kent, Canada's junior foreign minister, refused to support President Zelaya, saying instead "we are calling on all parties to show restraint, to refrain from any actions that could lead to further violence, and to respect the right of Hondurans to peace and security." In the western media, coverage of pro-democracy protests and heavy police repression portrayed supporters of Zelaya as riotous and violent.

The Canadian delegation at the United Nations General Assembly in New York walked out during a speech by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "The principles of communication and diplomacy cannot fall simply because one leader polarizes the North American public more than others," wrote lawyer Emma Ruby Sachs of the decision of the Canadians to walk out.

Though PM Harper skipped the General Assembly to go to Tim Hortons, he did decide to attend the G-20 in Pittsburgh. During a press conference following the G-20, Harper told the press that Canada has "...no history of colonialism. So we have all of the things that many people admire about the great powers but none of the things that threaten or bother them."

Over one hundred people were arrested for protesting against the G-20 in Pittsburgh, as police used a heavy hand (and tested new weapons) to quash demonstration they deemed "unlawful." "There was really no reason for such extreme action. The guns, the rubber bullets and the dogs probably did more to incite people," Dillon Snyder, a local youth, told the New York Times. "We need good jobs and good health care, and the G-20 isn’t helping that. Their policies are undermining jobs and health care," protestor Nathan Smith told the Times.

Members of Greenpeace blockaded Shell's Albian Sands operation in the Athabasca tar sands. About 25 activists stayed for more than 30 hours, blocking access to the operation using a shovel and two giant trucks.

The Conservatives delayed a parliamentary vote on the ratification of the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement. Some Liberals do not appear to support the deal, which is opposed by the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois.

The US Department of Justice wrote a letter to Congress asking for an extension of provisions in the Patriot Act which "allow authorities to conduct roving electronic eavesdropping, or wiretaps, access business records and track so-called "lone wolf" suspects with no known links to foreign powers or terrorist groups." The controversial provisions were set to expire on December 31.

The family of Private Jonathan Couturier, who was killed in Afghanistan on September 17, denounced the war. "That war over there, he found it a bit useless – that they were wasting their time over there," Couturier's father told Le Soleil.

SNC-Lavalin was awarded a contract worth $85 million to install two gas turbines in power stations in Iraq.

An Africa-Latin America summit was held on the Venezuelan island of Margarita. "We hope Caracas will become an arrival point and a centre of activities and connections between Africa and Central and South America and the Caribbean," said Hugo Chavez before the event. Sixty nations attended the "South-South" summit.

Al Jazeera broke the story about an assassination attempt on the life of Hugo Chavez. The hitman was a Colombian whose paramilitary group was offered $25 million by Manuel Rosales, a Venezuelan politician, to do the deed.

The Yes-Men created a fake version of the New York Post, which focuses on climate change.

Cops in Honduras

New York Post Spoof

Sabotage in Peace River

Tim McSorley — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 05:53:40 +0000

Bombings in northern BC/Alberta put spotlight on controversial pipelines

POUCE COUPE—The Peace River region, a rugged frontier on the Alberta-BC border, is anything but peaceful these days. Six hours from Edmonton, once serene cattle and canola country, the area is in the midst of a massive transformation, fueled by vast unconventional sour gas reserves lying some two kilometres under the earth’s surface.

Since October 2008, someone has blown up six sour gas pipelines operated by EnCana, North America’s largest gas corporation, in controlled acts of sabotage. In Wild West fashion, EnCana is offering a one million dollar bounty for information leading to a conviction. It is likely the largest reward in Canadian history.

The Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET), a mix of top law enforcement officials investigating the attacks, have sent some 250 officers to the region. The force includes masked officers with high powered machine guns who have been spotted in the woods by local residents, and a sniper flown back directly from Afghanistan. INSET labels the sabotage as “eco-terrorism” even though no one has been hurt.

The bomber apparently sees it differently. “Return the land to what it was before you came every last bit of it… before things get a lot worse for you and your terrorist pals in the oil and gas business,” wrote the bomber in a July 15 letter sent to the Dawson Creek Daily News. The badly printed hand-written letter demanded EnCana cease operations in the area. The alleged bomber promised to suspend attacks during a three-month grace period so “we can all take a summer vacation.”

At a July press conference, police accused the saboteur of “terrorizing these communities of Pouce Coupe and Dawson Creek.” But the mayor of Pouce Coupe, a village of 749 residents at the epicenter of Peace River gas activity, does not see it that way.

"I have discussed this [sabotage] with some pipeline workers," said Mayor Lyman Clark, a vocal supporter of the gas industry, during an interview at the village’s office. "One just frankly told me ‘I am more afraid of the bears.'" He added, "The whole area is in a boom right now, unlike the rest of the world economy."

While Alberta’s finance minister complains that low natural gas prices have been a “real kick in the head” to the provincial treasury, drilling activity continues at an almost frantic pace on the BC side of the border. Shiny new pickup trucks line the roads from Dawson Creek to Fort St. John. In 2008, the BC government collected more than $3.6 billion from selling drilling rights and reaping royalties. But some locals are unhappy with changes brought by sour gas.

“Sour gas is deadly; 500 parts per million will kill you dead,” says Woody Ewert, an organic farmer living near Pouce Coupe. Natural gas extraction “became the prime economic driver of the Peace River country just kind of overnight,” says Tim Ewert, Woody’s father, over cups of black coffee at the family’s farm house. “There were never any baseline studies done on air or water. They never checked to see what size or how deep the local aquifers were before starting the whole drilling program.”

Industry’s incursions into previously pristine land is “changing the way of life, our hunting, trapping, berry picking, even just going camping,” says Cliff Calliou, hereditary Chief of the Kelly Lake First Nation, an aboriginal community 30 minutes away from sabotaged sites with some 500 residents.

After the first attacks in fall 2008, police and media speculated—without evidence—that the bomber came from Kelly Lake. “They [police] threw two people in jail with no charges,” said Chief Calliou during an interview at Kelly Lake’s community centre. He describes police actions in the community as a “witch hunt.” In addition to the unwarranted jailing of Kelly Lake residents, which hadn’t until now been reported in the media, police also accused 76-year-old Regina Mortensen, a grandmother recovering from hip surgery, of sabotaging the pipelines.

The Kelly Lake First Nation, which maintains traditional governance structures outside of the Indian Act, has not surrendered its traditional land base via a treaty. Yet despite the region’s resource wealth many houses in Kelly Lake are ramshackle trailers. The community says the gas is being stolen from their unceded land and they have launched a $5.2 billion land claim for compensation.

Most people who live near sabotaged sites are not against extracting gas, per se. Rather, they say regulations favor corporations over landowners and the environment. Companies, with their teams of lawyers, engineers and experts, often understand the regulations better than the government who is supposed to be overseeing extraction.

Making laws less favorable to oil companies is not easy, especially for provinces dependent on petroleum revenues. An article in the Journal of Environmental Management argues that Alberta is a “first world jurisdiction” with a “third world analogue” in its lax environmental and political regulation of the oil industry. Farmers say BC is even worse than Alberta in its third world analogue.

Drilling rigs are moving from Alberta across the border to BC in record numbers, says EnCana’s Brian Lieverse. “The BC government has some excellent programs to stimulate their economy and oil and gas activity in the area,” he said during an interview at EnCana’s field office in Dawson Creek.

Critics of the current regulatory regime say gas companies can buy political support at their expense. EnCana, as one example, donated $255,470 to the governing BC Liberals between 2005 and 2008. The Liberals, in turn, have used monies from their economic stimulus to build roads and other infrastructure primarily to facilitate gas extraction in the region.

Ewert says EnCana has done a good job trying to deal with basic concerns such as dust from oil service trucks and speeding from contractors. But the company has not dealt with larger issues, such as potential water contamination or flaring from natural gas wells.

While not one Peace River resident, including harsh critics of the oil industry, supported sabotage, some were happy that complaints are finally being noticed.

“I don’t condone what this person [the bomber] is doing,” said Rick Koechl, a junior high school teacher living 40 minutes from the bombed sites and an activist pushing for sour gas wells to be set back at least a kilometre from houses and schools. “But at least it’s bringing attention to the situation up here; we’ve had legal organizations help us with this fight, but that’s not very sexy, is it?”

Sabotage, as a means of demanding action, is nothing new. Nor is it exclusively a tactic of environmentalists and the marginalized. In an interview with Al Jazeera, leading Republican Newt Gingrich recently advocated for American sabotage against Iran’s gas facilities in order to create social unrest.

Nor are the attacks in northeastern BC the first case of high profile sabotage against Canadian sour gas pipelines. On April 20, 2000 an Alberta court convicted Wiebo Ludwig, a farmer and preacher, of bombing gas wells owned Alberta Energy Co. Ltd. (AEC). Ludwig claimed his wife miscarried a child because of sour gas exposure. During their investigation of Ludwig and his associates, police admitted to blowing up a gas well themselves in order to gain credibility for an informant.

In 2002, AEC merged with PanCanadian to form EnCana, initially valued at $30 billion dollars. EnCana reps refused to comment on what, if anything, the company learned from the Ludwig saga.

In Alberta alone there were “more than 160 incidents of sabotage” against resource industries (oil, gas, hydro and forestry) between 1997 and 1999 causing “millions of dollars in damages,” according to documents released from a freedom of information request to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). The heavily censored documents do not provide figures for 21st century sabotage. Sources familiar with the issue say the numbers are far higher than 160 incidents.

Sucking unconventional gas from the ground is expensive: up to $10 per well compared with $1 dollar for conventional shallow wells. World gas prices have fallen drastically in recent years, but drilling continues in the Peace River region due to a combination of low royalties, new technologies for accessing gas, and political stability.

Stability: an asset Canadian petroleum producers seem to value above all else. But stability is what is under attack in northeastern BC. Pipelines can be repaired, bounties offered, elite police sent in, but once investors loose confidence in stability, Canada’s petroleum industry will change drastically. This is what worries EnCana and the rest of western Canada’s oil patch: that fear will trump greed in the psyche of investors thus reversing the current market paradigm. Costs will increase; investment will drop. The market will demand the same thing environmentalists in both Alberta and BC have been demanding: slow down.

Chris Arsenault is a graduate student writing a history of sabogate and the oil patch.

School teacher Rick Koechl

Lemming

dru — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 04:09:50 +0000

The life and mythology of a northern rodent

Lemmings are small, hardy rodents who live in the tundra of northern Canada, Greenland, Europe and Asia. Rather than hibernating through the winter, lemmings eat stored grass clippings, and forage beneath the snow for roots and bulbs. The lemming's long, soft fur keeps it warm in harsh weather, and its extremely short tail cuts down on heat loss.

Though they are close relatives of hamsters, gerbils and mice, lemmings have long been distinguished by their place in pseudo-scientific folklore. A 16^th century geographer from Strasbourg, France, posited that lemmings fell from the sky during stormy weather. A century later, this theory was refuted by a Danish scholar, who concluded that lemmings could be carried by the wind, but were not generated by clouds.

More recently, lemmings have come to be known as creatures that spontaneously commit group suicide, gripped by a sort of herd mentality. The myth largely dates to a 1958 Disney documentary, White Wilderness. The film's producers had difficulty finding migrating lemmings in northern Alberta, where the creatures are not native. Disappointed but not discouraged, a photographer paid Inuit children from Manitoba to catch dozens of lemmings. The furry rodents were placed on a turntable covered in snow and made to run, simulating migration. Later, the hapless creatures were herded off a cliff, with cameras recording the apparent suicide from a low angle.

The myth of lemming suicide has its roots, however, in what appears to be adaptive migratory behaviour on the part of these industrious furballs. In times of abundant food, lemmings can reproduce rapidly. From birth, the creatures can reach sexual maturity within a month, and produce litters of around 10 baby lemmings. When the lemming population in an area outstrips the food supply, the small herbivores disperse in all directions in search of shoots, grass and roots. In their migratory fervour, lemmings will sometimes overestimate their capacities, and die while swimming across a particularly swift river or large body of water.

In addition to limited food supply, lemmings must also contend with predators that depend on the long-toothed rodents for much-needed sustenance in a sparse landscape, including the snowy owl, the arctic fox and the long-tailed skua.

While lemmings' periodic population booms and busts have led to some misunderstanding, the behaviour may be a potent strategy for the species' continued existence. In a land where food is quite scarce, these population explosions and migrations keep the lemming population vital over a vast, inhospitable, globe-circling expanse. Some observers have noted that in areas with much less variable conditions such as rainforests, lemming-like population growth is far less likely to occur.

Beyond its own survival, the lemming is a major source of food for other northern animals such as ermines and gyrfalcons, whose populations in many cases rise and fall with that of the lemmings. —DOJ

Lemming

A Tale of Two Sites

Moira Peters — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:48:50 +0000

The HCBP occupation and Site 41

SUDBURY, ON—At the end of a summer of activity, a 675-acre tract of land in the south end of Guelph rests relatively quiet. It has won a one-year break from development. It remains, however, a proposed construction site for what the City of Guelph is calling the "Hanlon Creek Business Park" (HCBP). The land itself is home to a rare Old Growth forest; a Provincially Significant Wetland, the Paris-Galt moraine; a vital drinking water recharge zone; and a threatened species called the Jefferson Salamander.

A three-hour drive north of Guelph, another piece of land has seen a lot of action this summer. This place, in Simcoe County, is called Site 41, and is the location for a proposed garbage dump. It sits directly above the Alliston Aquifer, an important source of drinking water in the area, one which international scientists claim provides some of the cleanest drinking water in the world.

The two sites have seen comparable public outcry over the respective proposals for their development; the resulting protests have also brought people together to successfully oppose the developments.

The HCBP in Guelph has been met with much grassroots opposition over the fact old growth trees would be cut and meadows that surround the forest would be paved over, stopping rainfall from percolating into the groundwater.

An old growth tree is one that is 150 years or older, and an old growth forest is one that has been left undisturbed for a similar period of time, allowing for the ecosystem to mature. On the site grows a Hop Hornbeam that is estimated to be between 500 and 600 years old, meaning it likely predates colonization of the western hemisphere. Beyond remaining one of the few forests of its kind in Southern Ontario, the site also provides the exact conditions necessary for the threatened Jefferson Salamander to breed.

As for its impact on water, the HCBP would be built alongside Tributary A, which runs into the Speed River and eventually the Grand River. Any sewage or industrial waste that leaches into the water in Guelph would be passed on to communities downstream, including Cambridge, Brantford and Six Nations, the largest Native reserve in Canada.

After months of city hall meetings, rallies and education campaigns, opposition to the HCBP was not heeded by the City of Guelph and it looked like construction of the HCBP was going to go ahead. This was thrown into question on July 27 when, in the early morning, about 60 people set up an occupation camp on the site, complete with a kitchen, shade structure and composting toilet system.

Meanwhile, in Simcoe County, the Site 41 protest camp had been set up since May 8, initiated by a group of Anishinabe Kweag (Anishinabe women) from Beausoleil First Nation. Vicki Monague was part of the initial group of campers and describes how the weekend camp-out turned into a permanent protest camp:

"May 8, 2009 was the day that we started the camp, and we lit a sacred fire there. At the end of the weekend, we were going to pack up and go home, but it was channeled to our fire keeper that the fire was lit in protection of the water and that purpose had not yet been completed, so we stayed. The fire has been burning now for 112 days (as of Aug 31)."

The Site 41 protest camp drew farmers from the surrounding area who joined with the Anishinabe people. The camp evolved into a blockade later in the summer when the warden of the township announced that trucks hauling garbage would arrive within a couple of weeks.

Local government bodies at both the HCBP and Site 41 have been pushing the developments. The City of Guelph owns about 60 per cent of the proposed HCBP lands and Simcoe County owns Site 41. Each has engaged aggressive legal means to bypass grassroots opposition and to see construction through.

In Guelph on the afternoon of July 31, a group of city representatives, employees, police and an intelligence officer delivered the files the city would use to support its motion for an injunction against the occupation and its lawsuit against several named and unnamed persons.

"You can't submit an injunction without a lawsuit, so the city filed for an injunction as well as a lawsuit," explains Sam Ansleis of the occupation. The lawsuit included allegations of "conspiracy, destruction of property, intimidation [and] extortion." The city was seeking $5 million in damages.

The lawsuit was quickly classified a SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) by the occupiers' lawyers.

“The people we showed this [to] were pretty disgusted by the fact that the city would use a SLAPP suit [to discourage public participation] against its own citizens,” said Ansleis.

Guelph City Council had agreed unanimously to launch the lawsuit and injunction following an in-camera council meeting. The suit named a local group, Land Is More Important Than Sprawl (LIMITS), which has been organizing around the HCBP. The group, however, has never been involved in the occupation.

"I don't think that it is unreasonable to assume that the city's intention in naming LIMITS was to create a rift between LIMITS and the occupation, since LIMITS was being implicated in a $5 million SLAPP suit arising from an occupation that they were not involved in," said Ansleis.

Accidentally, it seems, documents accompanying the lawsuit contained copies of correspondences from the Ministry of Natural Resources imploring the city to stop the construction of the HCBP and copies of gag orders against a researcher and a local neighbourhood group. These documents assisted the defendants in winning a counter-injunction against city construction on the lands.

Karen Farbridge, the mayor of Guelph, has come out in active support of the HCBP project, despite being elected on a "green" platform, where she names “clean water, clean air and clean parks” and “encourag[ing] public involvment” as being among her priorities.

Delays caused by the occupation, and the resulting injunction, have led the city to postpone construction until spring 2010. In its press release, the city and Mayor Farbridge are quoted as saying, "A handful of protesters have held our city hostage and ignored democratic processes."

Similarly, in Simcoe County, Tony Guergis was elected mayor of Springwater County in 2006, and during the election stated clearly that he would oppose Site 41. Upon later election in 2007 as Warden to Simcoe County, he oversaw waste management and became a proponent of Site 41. He claims that Site 41 would be a more technically sound site in comparison to the other landfills in the area that are equipped with "inferior engineering."

In response to the blockade and protest camp, some County Council executives launched a lawsuit naming two of the Anishinabe Kweag, seeking damages of $80,000 per week in lost time. "[W]e were estimating that they were going after us for about half a million," said Monague.

On August 25, county council voted to drop the lawsuit and to instate a one-year moratorium on construction at Site 41.

When questioned about whether or not construction would continue at Site 41 next year, Guergis pointed to the cost of renewing permits and winterizing, along with the considerable public pressure, as reasons for not going ahead. "It seems an impossible situation to get approval to reopen the site 12 months from now."

He also pointed out that "100 per cent" of the houses in the county put garbage at the curb every week, implying that those in the community are to blame for the need to open a new dump site.

"I think we have to stop and say we are going to wait for direction from those dealing with the issues. So we will look to the people on the ground and see what their decisions are regarding their own garbage," he said.

Guergis claims that Site 41 would be used almost exclusively for residential garbage, but when pressed further about corporate waste, he stated, “Anyone could pay to dump there.”

Guergis has made statements characterizing people at Site 41 as simply not wanting a dump being constructed “in their backyards.” However, the people themselves cite different reasons for wanting to protect the site.

"I was raised traditionally, raised to do ceremonies for the water, and raised with the inherent responsibility and duty to protect the water for the seven generations to come," Monague explained. "I did what I did for the water. Not just for me, but because we could all use a little less contamination."

On September 22, county council voted to permanently cancel the plans for Site 41. Only then was the sacred fire at the protest camp extinguished.

In Guelph, Ansleis sees the delayed construction of the HCBP as a victory. "We were successful in our goal; our goal was to stop construction of the culvert for this summer. The project will continue in the spring, so resistance will continue in the spring."

She added: "This resistance has not only been about the the Hanlon Creek Business Park. It is about this kind of development that is taking place all over Turtle Island."

Monague also recognizes that, while a victory at Site 41 has been achieved, the issue is not resolved. "The important thing now is that, even though we got the moratorium, the work definitely is not done. I know that many of us will be working to make sure that the water is protected.

"This partnership [that we have experienced around Site 41] between native and non-native communities is pretty much historic. I don't remember a partnership like this ever happening around here and i think it is going to last for a long, long time."

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

To read more, see For the Water by Dan Kellar and Alex Hundert, and "Protect Mother Earth, Don't Settle for Less" by Adam Lewis.

Site 41 Sunrise

Site 41 - Water Ceremony

September Books

Moira Peters — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 05:43:36 +0000

Short stories by Goldbach, humour by Leiren-Young

Selected Blackouts
John Goldbach
Insomniac Press: Toronto, 2009

Sometimes realism can be too realistic. Without narrative flare or insight from the author, superficial realism can spiral around banalities that make the life of an amateur literary critic look like an atomic bomb of excitement.

John Goldbach occasionally gets trapped by the boredom and frustration of his characters in Selected Blackouts, his debut collection of short fiction. These stories rapidly shift from exuberant experiments to monotonous dialogues with little compromise between the two. It’s a shame to see a few drawn out and directionless stories deter from otherwise brilliant moments scattered throughout this collection.

Luckily, Goldbach’s humour often shines in original narrative structures and bleak subject matter. “How Much Do They Know?” is the inner-monologue of a character reunited with some long-time friends at a Christmas party. It would take timelines and diagrams to unravel the years of cheating, jealousy, and backstabbing outlined in this short story. But the essential point is the narrator knows several secrets about each person around the table. In listing his own collection of secrets, he comes to realize each friend likely holds an equal number of unspoken stories about himself and the others. The story’s conclusion is a straightforward and inevitable comment on friendship itself: “I really don’t understand why we tolerate each other.” The idea is familiar to most close-knit friends, but Goldbach infuses this everyday observation with his own insights and humour, which is what realism should set out to do.

Goldbach has a talent for unveiling the psychological tensions that awkwardly bind people together, but one story in particular, “Easter Weekend,” simply gets bogged down in tiring exchanges between characters who can’t express themselves. Here Goldbach takes a security-camera view, recording objective words and actions in colourless prose. There is some logic in presenting the teenage stock-characters in their own light: They repeat cliches, they interrupt each other, and they leave the most important parts unsaid. But too often Goldbach gives us only these mumblings while neglecting the anxieties brewing in the undercurrents. Unfortunately, a realistic depiction of a boring conversation makes for really boring reading. Nevertheless, these somewhat lifeless dialogues find their balance in Goldbach’s shorter, punchier, and more endearing pieces.

—Shane Patrick Murphy

Never Shoot A Stampede Queen: A Rookie Reporter in the Cariboo
Mark Leiren-Young
Heritage House: Victoria, 2008

A cub reporter haphazardly lands himself at a small-town community paper and over-uses the adjective venerable as if the irony were original.

Naturally, 22-year-old Mark Leiren-Young has a lot to gain from his months at the Williams Lake Tribune in the early 1980s and, 25 years later, he introduces the memoir Never Shoot a Stampede Queen with the goal of staying true to his younger self.

Stampede Queen won a Leackock Award for humour, but much of the prose struck me as condescending and aloof—not the insight and wit I hoped for. Maybe it’s the immature narrator’s persistent indelicate stereotyping after he arrives in the Cariboo, a ranching region in the central interior of British Columbia. But in time he dismantles many of his own caricatures and begins to write with pathos, maturity and even humour.

The narrator laments, upon arriving in Williams Lake, population not very much, “It was my worst nightmare. I was about to start work as a newspaper reporter in a town with no news.”

By the time he realizes how wrong he is, Leiren-Young is on his way back to Vancouver and restless to finish the profile of a local judge, an investigative piece on bigoted landlords, and the series on the town’s crime rate he committed to and was genuinely keen to report. He proves himself a very good reporter with natural storytelling instincts and a common touch.

Despite unfair leaps and character assumptions, Leiren-Young nails the reality of community reporting: an epic 24 news briefs and stories in one day; typing merely to fill column inches; covering issues of poverty, housing, and First Nation rights that merit national attention; wages that have barely risen in two decades; vicarious traumatization in the criminal courts; and the surprise of finding humanity where it’s least expected.

The strength of this collection of non-fiction stories is voice and storytelling. When he’s not making a Clint Eastwood comparison, Leiren-Young shares fantastic anecdotes worthy of broad Canadian attention. We hear the narrator grow up through language and professionalism—he becomes a better journalist and is progressively more open-minded. His writing becomes increasingly nuanced, and it seems as if Leiren-Young eventually sees past the cliches to connect with a more honest portrayal of the Cariboo.

—Megan Stewart

Megan Stewart is an independent journalist in Vancouver, where she is completing her graduate degree at the University of British Columbia. Shane Patrick Murphy is the former executive editor of the McGill Law Journal. He is slowly getting around to writing his first novel, Still I Dream of Grandeur.

Chief Executive Officer, Afghanistan

dawn — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 05:16:37 +0000

Internationally sponsored elections reflect warlords’ power over Afghanistan

KABUL—Shahla Ata is a strong woman on shaky foundations.

“I think that Afghanistan needs a tough president. I don’t see that toughness and seriousness in the men but I see it in myself,” Doctor Ata said at her office in south Kabul before the August 20 ballot. “In America Obama brought a big change. I want to bring such a revolution.”

Ata, whose support lay mainly in urbanized Kabul, “knew she did not have any chance of winning” Afghanistan’s second presidential election, said Kabul based analyst Walliullah Rahmani. Her dream of bringing a revolution to Afghanistan was beset on all sides with problems, as was the election, which was marred by widespread fraud, low voter turnout and violence.

Many believe the democratic experiment, seen as a yardstick for international progress in the country, was oxymoronic given that most power still lies in the hands of warlords and military commanders. As the challenges of incorporating a democratic system into an archaic feudal society become increasingly obvious, plans are emerging for a chief executive position that could allow a civil administration more control.

Most of the presidential candidates were not taking part to win: out of 41, only three were serious contenders: incumbent Hamid Karzai, renowned World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani, and former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah.

“Apart from the main contenders, all the candidates have other motives. They are either trying to gain reputations or gain votes in constituencies that will help them bargain for concessions and positions of power later on,” said Sulaiman Aeyamat from Afghanistan’s Centre for Research and Policy Studies, during the run up to the election.

The large number of candidates reflects a country divided along tribal, ethnic, and religious lines. Many villages and communities voted in blocks under the direction of village elders, local power brokers, and religious leaders. The latter focused their support on those with the most clout. In a failing state such as Afghanistan, those who control arms and men direct the votes.

This is why Karzai recruited warlords such as Muhammed Fahim, who wields considerable influence over the Tajiks in Afghanistan. Fahim was going to run against Karzai but switched sides when he was offered the vice-presidential ticket. Aeyamat expected a number of the candidates to drop out and direct their supporters to vote for one of the main contenders, in return for political favors. Ten candidates stood down before the end of the election.

It looks as if Karzai benefited most from such deals. He also benefited from maintaining good relations with influential powerbrokers not involved in the political race, such as the infamous Uzbek warlord Abdul Dostum. Karzai’s main presidential rivals and international observers are currently lambasting him, alleging corruption. Thousands of votes are being recounted or thrown out.

Politician and women’s activist Massouda Jalal made an historic attempt to become Afghanistan’s first female president in 2005. She said the only good thing about the elections is the opportunity to show people how democracy is supposed to work.

“It is has been eight years [since the fall of the Taliban], and we don’t have rule of law in the country,” Jalal said at her home in Kabul in July. “The strong candidates belong to the previous commandership system. They will flush that system with money and they will be successful. It will all continue for another five years.”

Opinions differ as to whether a country looking for peace and development is helped by military figures, left over from Afghanistan’s myriad wars, dominating civil government.

“Military commanders are usually multi-talented. A military person can work as a police commander; he can be a teacher or a governor. I don’t see any problem with that. But a civilian person cannot be a military commander,” said former presidential candidate Abdul Salem Rocketi.

A former high-level Taliban commander turned M.P., Rocketi gained the moniker for his prowess with RPGs during the Soviet occupation. He was one of many candidates with a military background expected to gain from the election.

Gholam Guord Jailani, former president of the Afghan Olympic committee, doesn’t share Rocketi’s view. He said that since the appointment of General Mohammed Zaher Aghbar to head of the committee decisions have been made differently.

“Instead of someone with a sporting background, we have a person with a military background. He is making decisions independently and ideas are not being shared. The committee is losing its reputation,” said Jailani.

At the Tourism Ministry, a clerk, who did not wish to be named, was also critical of military figures owing their roles to patronage.

“During the wartime they had the guns, now they have the money. I spent five years at university, for what?” he said with tears in his eyes. “[My superior] comes in when he wants and does not do his job properly. I can do the job better than him, but I cannot argue because of his position.”

There is growing concern both in Afghanistan and abroad about the efficacy of an “elected” Kabul administration influenced by military commanders. This has led to increasing reports of a chief executive position being created within the government. The position would be similar to that of a corporate CEO.

The unelected seat would allow the US and Afghanistan to bypass the web of allegiances and power sharing that causes so many of the problems faced by the US and Afghan governments.

A draft report obtained by Kabul’s 8am paper in mid-June said the holder would have the power to “monitor the activities of ministers” involved with defense, foreign policy, counter terrorism, finance, and security. He would also have the power to propose “dismissing, or firing or changing of any official.”

In May, the New York Times reported that senior unnamed US and Afghan officials had revealed that previous US Ambassador to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, was in talks with Hamid Karzai about taking up the role. Both Khalilzad and the Karzai administration have denied discussing the controversial position, which would increase US control over the government in the long term.

Former World Bank executive Ashraf Ghani has been offered the position repeatedly. He has refused saying it was “not workable” in a democratic system, and decided instead to run against Karzai. The offer, however, is still being discussed between Karzai and Ghani, with the Americans’ encouragement.

For Massouda Jalal, the ethical implications of creating an independent political position, are outweighed by the potential to affect the pervasive alliances of the still strong military government.

“The chief executive position is a good idea”, she said. “There have been many military men given support in the government [since the fall of the Taliban], why not let someone else have a chance? We are in the primary stage of government building and it will allow experts to strengthen the leadership.”

Ryan Fletcher is a freelance journalist based in England. He recently traveled to Afghanistan.

Canada's Ambassador to Afghanistan

Election worker in Kandahar

Oil Crisis was a Peak into the Future

dru — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 05:44:14 +0000

Former CIBC Chief Economist predicts end of globalization, promotes local food

VANCOUVER—Jeff Rubin doesn't fit the typical profile of an interview subject for The Dominion. For more than a decade, he was Chief Economist at CIBC World Markets, one of Canada's largest investment banks. Rubin recently broke ranks with the financial crowd to publish his book, Why Your World is About to get a Whole Lot Smaller. The man once touted as Canada's top economist now predicts the end of globalization because of triple-digit oil prices.

"The same economics that compelled the mass exodus of manufacturing abroad will compel [the] return [of manufacturing to North America] because distance will cost money," he says between sips of San Pellegrino, as we watch container ships move through Vancouver harbour. This end point isn't far away; Rubin predicts that a barrel of oil will hit US $225 by 2012.

Forecasting the price of oil, or anything for that matter, has long been considered a fool's game. And plenty of respected analysts think the former CIBC guru has gone over the top. But, when it comes to looking into the crystal ball of global capitalism, Rubin has a far better track record than most other pin-striped sages. In 2000, Rubin correctly predicted that oil would top $50 per barrel by 2005. And in 2005 he got it right again, forecasting prices would top $100 per barrel in 2007.

The basis of Rubin's predictions—the peak oil theory—is nothing new. However, according to his analysis of oil markets, humanity is going to hit the wall a lot sooner than previously expected. Rubin spoke with journalist Chris Arsenault at the posh Fairmont Hotel on Vancouver's waterfront, before beginning the US leg of his book tour.

The Dominion: Some analysts estimate that 25 per cent of the world's hydrocarbons are located in the Arctic and will soon be open to exploitation due, ironically, to global warming. Won't this new supply nullify the severity of price rises?

Jeff Rubin: The stuff in the Arctic is a drop in the bucket. You are losing sight of what the Cambridge Energy Research Associates and Exxon don't tell you about. They hold big press conferences to talk about, 'Oh we just discovered the Jack Field—10,000 feet under the hurricane-ravaged waters of the Gulf of Mexico, isn't that fantastic.'

They don't hold press conferences [to announce], 'See this field here? It has been producing for 50 years. It's about to run dry.'

Every year we lose four million barrels a day [of production due to depletion]. Over the next five years, we are going to have to find 20 million barrels a day of new production, just so that we can [continue to] consume what we consume today.

The Canadian tar sands have become a major new source of crude; Canada is now the number one foreign exporter to the US. Won't these massive, unconventional reserves around Fort McMurray offset depletion from older fields in Mexico or Saudi Arabia?

The attractiveness of Fort McMurray is not just what is under the ground; it's where it is [located]. In Fort McMurray, all Exxon has to do is sponsor a minor hockey team and they are 'good corporate citizens.' In most places in the world, they're starting to believe oil and natural gas resources should be owned and operated by the state. The world has already gotten a lot smaller for Exxon. Outside of Canada, the US and a handful of other countries, it is the state companies who control access to hydrocarbon resources.

As far as Fort McMurray, there are 165 billion barrels of oil trapped in those sands. To produce one barrel of synthetic oil, you have to burn 1,400 cubic feet of natural gas, schlep two tons of sand [and] pollute 250 gallons of water. The very prices that will be needed to bring that oil out of the ground are the same prices that will take you off the road. Sure, at $200 a barrel of oil, we can produce four million barrels per day out of Fort McMurray. But, at $200 for a barrel of oil, you are talking seven dollars for a gallon of gasoline.

At what point does the price of oil make export-driven globalization untenable?

The model as we know it peaked in 2007. If we measure globalization by the percentage of world GDP that is an export or an import, 2007 will mark the peak of a past age.

You are going to see less and less container ships. All of those containers are about one thing: a wage ark. Moving your factory from someplace where you pay folks 30 bucks an hour to somewhere where you pay folks 30 bucks a week is great, if it's just about wages.

But what moves those container ships is oil. At $150 to $200 per barrel, the wage ark becomes penny wise and a pound foolish because what you save on a wage bill you more than spend on bunker fuel.

If free markets worked as the economics textbooks say they should, high oil prices would lead companies to invest in green technologies. Why aren't we seeing viable alternatives to petroleum?

It is all a question of time. Higher prices will light the path. And I am sure in 20, 25 years we will have new fuel technologies.

Unfortunately, our rendezvous with triple-digit oil prices isn't in 25 years, it's in 12 months. We have to figure out a way of engineering our economy and our lives to use less energy.

If the market can't create viable alternative energy technologies, what role do governments have in ending fossil-fuel dependency?

I don't believe in government, I believe in the market, I believe in prices. I believe prices will show us what to do. Sure, we need to be more efficient. But the emphasis has to be on conservation, so peak oil doesn't have to equal peak GDP.

Couldn't increased energy efficiency make up for shortfalls in production?

We think that efficiency leads to conservation, but history has shown that is not what happens.

The average engine today is 30 per cent more efficient than the engines produced before the OPEC oil shocks [of the 1970s]. Yet, the average [North American] vehicle consumes just as much gasoline in the course of a year.

Back in the 1970s, we [North Americans] used to drive about 9,000 miles a year; now we drive 12,000. Back in the 1970s, we weren't living in the far-flung suburbs. All those gains in efficiency have led us to, ever more efficiently, consume more and more oil.

How will triple-digit oil prices affect politics?

The US steel workers should be at the forefront, arguing to Obama for a price on carbon emissions. I think you'll find that when unions go through the math, Archie Bunker is going to get into bed with Al Gore.

We [North America] can produce a ton of steel and emit one-third less CO2 than steel producers in a developing country like China. Right now, that is totally irrelevant. There is no price advantage to [producing with less greenhouse gas emissions], so it doesn't flow to the bottom line and it doesn't affect where steel jobs are. But, if you are one-third more efficient, you want the price of emissions to be as high as possible—the higher the price of emissions, the greater the economic advantage.

By putting a price on carbon emissions and making our trading partners pay the same price, going green is going to bring jobs home instead of sending them away.

Won't those proposed duties, either though a carbon tax or a cap and trade system, come into conflict with World Trade Organization rules?

I would argue that is a market failure. The only reason that those steel plants went to China in the first place is because we didn't put a price on carbon emissions. In an efficient, functioning market we would have allocated resources much differently.

The carbon-spewing industries of the world should not be in the places that have the cheapest labour, but rather in places [with] the cleanest technologies. That's not where these industries are located today.

You don't seem too upset about globalization coming to an end.

I don't think this story has to be as apocalyptic as peak oil is usually displayed. It is apocalyptic if we insist on having the lifestyles we had when oil was cheap and abundant, if we insist on commuting 40 miles back and forth to work in our SUVs and importing steel from China and flatscreen TVs from Korea or Taiwan.

But I'm hopeful. I'm not hopeful because of governments; I'm an economist, I believe in prices.

I understand that there are folk who have already adopted the local paradigm for cultural or ecological reasons. But whether you think that way or not, you are going that way for the very simple fact that you won't be able to afford any other way.

When gas is seven dollars a gallon, no one is going to have to buy my book to know what to do. Folks are going to get off the road because they can't afford to drive. When there is no bus to get on, they will get their politician's attention. Why are we bailing out Detroit when 50 million vehicles are likely to head off the road in the next ten years? We should be investing in public transit, not cars.

It's now widely accepted that the invasion and occupation of Iraq was primarily about oil. Just ask former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. A lot of analysts are predicting a violent scramble for the last remaining resources. Where do you think these conflicts might happen?

Let's understand that when we are talking about hydrocarbons, we aren't just talking about moving cars or powering container ships. We are talking about food. Modern agriculture is really the massive transformation of hydrocarbons into food [through] fertilizer, irrigation and mechanization. If you look at arable land under cultivation, it hasn't grown in the last 10 to 15 years. All the increases in world food production have come from increasing the yield per acre. All of those increases have come about by adding more fertilizer to the land and using more tractors.

The real challenge is: does peak oil equal peak food? If there are going to be wars, I suggest that will be the fault line.

Take countries like Saudi Arabia; they are buying land in Pakistan and Africa to grow food. The countries that rent the land? None of that food is going to their populations. What happens when their population starts to starve and they see their land being used to grow food for people in other countries? Is that a sustainable model?

Are you growing a garden?

[Laughs] No, but where I live [in Toronto], and a lot of places, have artisanal food stalls every weekend. It's organic food, basically grown around [the local area] and it's happening more and more.

At first, [organic local food markets] might be a yuppie thing to do. But soon it's going to be mainstream because that's going be the only kind of food we can afford to eat. That is going to mean changes to our diet. When I was a kid, there were no blueberries and raspberries in January; we are going to have to go back to local diets.

Chris Arsenault holds the Phil Lind Fellowship at the University of British Columbia's Department of History. He is currently writing a history of sabotage and the Alberta oil patch.

Jeff Rubin

Slingshot Rhymes from Palestine

dawn — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 05:22:04 +0000

An interview with filmmaker Jackie Salloum on Slingshot Hip Hop

MONTREAL—Palestinian hip hop is on the rise, gaining popularity around the world as the international movement against Israeli apartheid picks up steam.

Palestinian culture has been expressed for generations through the words of celebrated singers such as Fayrouz or Marcel Khalifé, but in recent years rap has emerged as a strong contemporary cultural expression from Palestine.

Slingshot Hip Hop is a documentary film that chronicles the emergence of Palestinian rap in the past decade, in the West Bank, in Gaza and in Palestinian communities living inside Israel. Palestinian hip hop artists have connected with the socially conscious roots of American hip-hop culture and translated the spirit of groups like Public Enemy to the refugee camps of Palestine.

As a film Slingshot Hip Hop is a moving portrayal of young Palestinian artists struggling to tell the Palestinian story of dispossession while also struggling to find voice within their own society. Filmmaker Jackie Salloum, based in New York City, began creating Slingshot Hip Hop after first making a video to accompany DAM’s celebrated track Min Irhabi (Who’s the Terrorist?).

Salloum’s film has been warmly received around the world, making the official selection at the Sundance Film Festival, and winning awards at numerous festivals, including the Audience Choice Award at both the Beirut International Film festival and the Toronto Palestine Film Festival.

Salloum spoke with journalist Stefan Christoff on the heels of another North American tour of DAM, the first Palestinian rap group featured in the celebrated documentary. The tour will include multiple stops in Canada.

Stefan Christoff: During the last Israeli attack on Gaza, wondering if you were in contact with the Palestinian rappers in Gaza featured in the film, living through the bombings, wondering how that period was for you and the hip hop artists in Gaza.

Jackie Salloum: Phone lines in Gaza were down so it was difficult to remain in touch during the war, but sometimes it was possible to connect online. Reaction from the hip hop artists in Gaza was basically horror.

Palestinian rapper Ibrahim from Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza basically has seen everything during his life, but insisted that this war was the worst they ever had seen in their lifetimes.

Ayman, a member in Palestinian Rapperz, was on the phone speaking with me during the war and quickly Israeli tanks surrounded his apartment, the phone line cut. The next day we got news that Ayman’s house was hit by four Israeli rockets; Ayman’s house was destroyed completely and his father martyred.

I was fixed on Al Jazeera throughout the war on Gaza throughout the day, felt completely crazy watching the war happen, feeling that it was impossible to make it stop immediately. It was a horrible time for me and millions around the world.

Christoff: Slingshot Hip Hop weaves together stories of hip hop artists from throughout Palestine, wondering if there are any particular moments that stand out for you from making the film while filming in the different areas in Palestine.

Salloum: Filming in 1948* stands out, working with Palestinians who hold Israeli passports, it was clear that Palestinians from different regions have preconceived notions about each other that are surprising, as they can’t visit each other due to Israeli occupation and travel restrictions.

Having an ability to move around Palestine, given my US passport, really was striking, as the artists featured in the film simply couldn’t move around. It is impossible for Palestinians living in Palestine to move between their different territories: the West Bank, Gaza and inside Israel.

In Gaza I would tell the rappers that I was planning next to visit Akka next for example and it was really sad to see their faces knowing that they simply couldn’t travel with me. Although even with a US passport it still was very difficult to enter Gaza at all.

Christoff: Recently Slingshot Hip Hop screened in different countries in the Middle East, wondering what the reaction was to the film?

Salloum: Slingshot Hip Hop screened all over Syria this year, again and again audiences surprise me with a lack of knowledge on the travel restriction that Palestinians face, their inability to travel between different territories. People in Syria were particularly surprised about Gaza, as the images that people in Syria are use to viewing about Gaza are images of Palestinian suffering, not Palestinians rapping.

Generally when media covers Gaza it is after an Israeli attack, so these images of war from Gaza are the images that people are use to seeing in the Middle East, on Al Jazeera for example. In Syria many were surprised to see Palestinians having fun and that Palestinians in Gaza even had facilities to hold a hip-hop concert.

It was great to see that even Arab audiences, in Syria, Jordan, were seeing something new about Palestine as the film was intended both for western audiences and also audiences in the Middle East.

Christoff: Music commonly tied to the Palestinian struggle are anthems in the Arab world from celebrated classical musicians such as Fayrouz or Marcel Khalifé, but Palestinian rap brings a new generation of Palestinian cultural expression to the world. Wondering what the reactions have been to the film, Slingshot Hip Hop as a celebration of Palestinian rap, a new wave of Palestinian culture?

Salloum: Actually so many are very excited to see this new face of Palestinian culture.

In Palestine one thing that was beautiful at the screenings, that is different than in North America, is that hip hop shows reach people of all ages, you have both youth and grandparents coming to the same concerts. In Palestine so many young people were so excited about the film; often youth felt that hip hop was a way for people outside, around the world, to understand their struggle.

Actually the older generation is very happy that the younger generation in Palestine has found a new way to express themselves and the Palestinian cause, which is hip hop.

In Dubai and Jordan, there were DAM fans lined up outside the screenings, especially in Dubai as DAM attended the screening, fans who knew every word to every song which was so exciting. Clearly Palestinian rap has connected with people across the Middle East.

In Syria a grandfather came up to me who loved the film and was very emotional, explaining that he hadn’t returned to Palestine since being driven out in 1948 and it was very emotional for him to see the different parts of Palestine today in the film and the music of the Palestinian youth.

Christoff: Back to the US, Slingshot Hip Hop was a reviewed by Harry Allen in Vibe magazine. There is this connection drawn throughout the film between Palestinian hip hop and American hip hop culture, the origins of US hip hop culture, Public Enemy, and Tupac Shakur. Do you find this parallel important today?

Salloum: DAM folks were originally not into hip hop as the image they saw on TV was commoditized hip hop, but then when Tamer from DAM first heard Tupac videos on TV everything changed. Tupac videos featured images that looked just like his ghetto in Palestine. Tamer looked up Tupac online, read the lyrics and felt a connection, feeling that Tupac could have been from Lyd, the town that DAM is from. This launched DAM, this was the trigger.

At screenings in the US many people ask if hip hop in Palestine could become more commercialized as in the US But in Palestine the reality for hip hop is so different. Palestinians are living under military occupation and there aren’t major corporations interested in trying to make corporate or commodify Palestinian hip-hop culture. Palestinian hip-hop has remained grounded.

Actually one thing that has impressed me was that when Palestinian hip hop artists talk about Arab women, they are very respectful and actually rap about women’s rights. DAM has been extremely supportive of Arab women MCs starting up as hip hop artists in Palestine.

Christoff: There are literally thousands of films today in the world about Palestine, wondering what drove you specifically to make a film on Palestinian hip hop?

Salloum: Actually never planned to make a film on Palestine. While studying fine arts at NYU and most of my art focused on challenging stereotypes of Arabs in the media, my art merged with politics and pop culture.

In 2002 was listening to public radio and heard Min Irhabi (Who’s the Terrorist?) by DAM and flipped out because Palestinians were using hip-hop. Quickly looked up the song online and found out about other groups in Palestine using hip hop, this was so impressive. It was an entirely new cultural expression in Palestine going on.

I then translated Min Irhabi to English and made a music video for the song about the massacres that were going on in Jenin at the time in 2002. Then showed the video during my open studio at NYU, my studio was packed and people were really, really impacted by the video. People were coming up to me in tears explaining that they didn’t know that this was happening in Palestine and were asking for more information on the situation in Palestine.

I asked people why this song and video impacted them more deeply than my other work. People explained that Min Irhabi hit them because hip hop comes from the heart.

Palestinian rap wasn’t something contrived, it simply expressed the circumstances facing Palestinian youth. Seeing this powerful reaction and also speaking to professors who encouraged me to make a film lead to Slingshot Hip Hop; however, I really had no idea how long and how difficult making a feature length documentary film was in reality.

Slingshot Hip Hop also changed my experience with Palestine. Today, you travel to Palestine and see so many Palestinian homes being demolished, the Israeli wall being expanded, so many youth are being killed, the situation just seems horrible, actually worse and worse with each year. But after working on this film and seeing the rappers working to make change on the ground through culture showed me a much more positive and resilient expression of Palestinian culture, it gave me hope for Palestine.

*"Filming in 1948" means filming inside Israel's 1967 borders, which Palestinians often refer to as 1948 lands.

For more information on Slingshot Hip Hop visit: http://www.slingshothiphop.com/.

Stefan Christoff is a journalist and community organizer.

Slingshot Hip Hop Poster

Military Ties at Dalhousie's Centre for Foreign Policy Studies

hillarybain — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 05:56:25 +0000

Is academic integrity at Halifax’s largest university compromised by funding from the military?

HALIFAX—In May 2008, Dalhousie University's $2-million funding agreement with arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin raised alarm bells for many local peace activists and advocates for academic freedom.

With attention focused on the science and engineering departments involved in contracts for developing weapons technologies, however, relatively little focus has been given to the role of social science departments in conducting military research - this despite the fact that the Department of National Defence (DND) has been directly supporting research at Canadian universities for over 40 years.

Dalhousie's Centre for Foreign Policy Studies (CFPS), a research institute affiliated with the school’s Political Science Department, received $323,636.21 from various programs and channels of the DND in 2008-2009, according to the Centre's annual report. This means that direct military funding accounted for approximately 56 per cent of the Centre's overall budget.

The bulk of this funding comes via the Security and Defence Forum (SDF). One of the requirements of receiving the core SDF grant is that CFPS must teach a minimum number of courses with “significant security and defence content.” According to the Centre's 2008-2009 Annual Report, this means 15-20 courses with at least 50 per cent security and defence content.

“What concerns me about the CFPS is that the funding they receive from the military will affect the scope of my education as a student of political science here at Dalhousie,” , says Jesse Robertson, a third-year Political Science student at Dalhousie and a member of the Student Coalition Against War (SCAW). “I believe course content should be determined by the university, its professors, and its students, and them alone”

The SDF is a program of the DND that is mandated to promote “a domestic competence and national interest in defense issues of current and future relevance to Canadian security” through research, education and outreach. According to the SDF's website, this includes supporting academic research on issues including terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, Canada-United states defense relations and the Canadian Forces' international role.

The SDF provides awards for graduate and postgraduate students working in such areas and funds research centres on university campuses across the country including the Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society at the University of New Brunswick, the Centre for International Relations at Queen’s University, the Centre d’études des politiques étrangères et de sécurité at Université du Québec à Montréal/Concordia University and the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary.

Dalhousie's Centre for Foreign Policy Studies is one of 13 such “Centres of Expertise” directly linked to the SDF. The Centre currently receives the maximum core SDF grant of $140,000 annually, with up to $16,000 in additional funding available for conference funds, according to the grant agreement between the Centre for Foreign Policy Studies and the Security and Defense Forum. This is in addition to the $11,000 in Special Project funding given by the SDF to the Centre in 2008-2009 to pursue specific research and outreach projects.

According to Dr. Amir Attaran, Professor at the University of Ottawa, Canada Research Chair in Law, Population Health and Global Development Policy and vocal critic of the SDF, this funding formula has troubling implications for academic freedom. “It is very pernicious, I think, when any academic is handpicked for funding by the government, and I do not restrict this criticism to the DND”, says Attaran. “What this does is create an environment in which people are not competing for funding, and in which the government is buying its supporters, acquiring groupthink. And groupthink is especially dangerous in times of war”.

In addition to teaching courses with "significant security and defence content" in exchange for the core SDF grant, the Centre for Foreign Policy Studies is also expected to conduct research on security issues and produce about 50 publications per year. The Centre is also required to conduct outreach activities with the Canadian Forces, the Department of National Defence, Parliament and the Canadian public. This includes organizing and promoting conferences, workshops and events, and giving regular media briefings.

Despite the need to fulfill the above requirements, faculty members associated with CFPS maintain that the SDF grant does not influence the content of the Centre's research or teaching activities. “The funding really is arm’s-length”, maintains Dr. David Black, the current Director of CFPS, “I know it's shocking, but there really is no intervention.”

Black asserts that while “it would be fair to say that the bulk of people associated with SDF Centre's would take a traditional view on security and defence,” the SDF “does not intervene at all in how one defines security and defence”. He points to the Centre's recent Child Soldiers initiative, which links security to development and has allowed for dialogue with former Child Soldiers, as an example of the breadth of subjects that can be researched and taught by Centre faculty under the SDF grant.

Projects like the Child Soldiers initiative are “not exactly military propaganda", agrees Ken Hansen, a Defence Fellow at Dalhousie and affiliate of the CFPS, claiming that the financial incentive for influencing research topics or outcomes in favour of the DND is nonexistent. “The budgets are so small. $140,000** does not buy you a puppet on a string”.

Others are skeptical of those who maintain that funding sources have no impact on research content or outcomes.

“That is a neanderthal view of research ethics,” says Dr. Attaran. “That argument would never hold up in the natural or medical sciences. It's the same argument scientists used to accept money from tobacco companies to study smoking”.

Other think-tanks funded by the SDF have been accused of publicly taking stances on military issues without disclosing that they are funded by the DND. Dr. Attaran points to one example of an SDF-funded academic testifying to Parliament in favour of Canada's mission in Afghanistan, without disclosing that the research on which his testimony was based was funded by the DND.

Kaleigh Trace, a recent graduate of the International Development Studies Department at Dalhousie and a member of SCAW, extends these concerns to the courses taught by the Centre for Foreign Policy Studies. “How unbiased is policy advice given to government officials or briefings given to the media when it is based on research ultimately funded by the DND?” asks Trace. “How objective can course content based on this same research be?”

The 19 courses taught by the Centre for Foreign Policy Studies that fulfilled the SDF's requirement for security and defence content were offered mostly through the political science department, with one course in international development studies and two courses in history. Faculty associated with CFPS maintain that these courses would be taught whether or not SDF funding was involved, and that content for these courses can take a variety of perspectives that is not in any way influenced by the connection to DND. “Poli Sci is not in any way beholden to CFPS”, says Dr. Black, “Neither we nor anyone from SDF vets the content of those courses”.

Jesse Robertson disagrees that the funding arrangement has no impact on course content. “When an outside body creates a financial incentive for certain courses to be taught, the independence of the university is at stake. What would people think about Dal if an oil company agreed to give money to the Engineering Department for every course taught on oil extraction? My worry is that the financial incentive for professors in the Political Science department to teach courses on war and security limits the opportunity for myself and others to study other fields in the department”.

The Student Coalition Against War has suggested that any course that fulfills the security and defence content requirement make its connection with the CFPS, the SDF and the DND explicit in course calendars, giving students the opportunity to decide whether or not to enroll. While it may be difficult to avoid such courses entirely, given that core Political Science courses like World Politics are included on this list, SCAW says full disclosure would give students the opportunity to consider how military funding might influence the perspectives advanced in the course.

Dr. Attaran extends this argument to apply to all activities of SDF-funded Centres and academics. “If you are going to accept SDF funding, which I think is unwise…in everything you write about the military or security you must disclose this. If you are giving a lecture on security or military history or social responsibility in times of war, you must disclose this. Otherwise you are not teaching or doing research ethically”.

“This kind of thing happens all the time”, notes Dr. Attaran. “But the point is that the SDF is particularly dangerous because military research is particularly dangerous. We are talking about war.”

**Hansen's numbers reflect only the core amount of funding given annually to the Centre by the SDF and do not include special project grants or conference grants. They also do not include Hansen's own $153,000 salary, which is paid for directly by the Navy, not through the SDF.

Written and researched by Jane Kirby with files from Ben Sichel

Editor’s note: Jane Kirby discloses her own involvement with the Student Coalition Against War, even though SCAW provided her with no financial incentive to write this piece.

Dalhousie

SCAW

The South Roars in Yemen

dawn — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 05:19:05 +0000

Calgary's Nexen among targets of domestic attacks

VANCOUVER—What started off as the annual tremors of remembrance over the bloody 1994 Yemeni civil war have this time had far-reaching consequences.

Clashes in southern Yemen between protesters and police are common in the summer months that commemorate the 1994 civil war, which lasted from May to July of that year. The main grievance of protesting southern Yemenis is the north's control of quickly-depleting oil reserves in the south.

After three protesters and a policeman were wounded during an anti-government rally in early July, the government deemed all protests illegal. Many southerners have not obeyed the edict, believing the central government in Sana'a to be prejudiced against them.

Recent fighting has displaced as many as 3,500 people, bringing the total since 2004 to around 100,000, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre.

Brian Whitaker, an editor with Britain's The Guardian newspaper, notes in his book The Birth of Modern Yemen the dichotomy between tribal pro-US North Yemen and detribalized pro-Soviet South Yemen. This division, according to Whitaker, was bound to lead to the civil war in 1994, where the south sent rockets up to Sana'a in response to the bombing of the southern town of Aden by the north.

The country has remained unsteadily unified since the north emerged victorious in July of that year, with many of the southern Shi'ite and Yemen Socialist Party leaders going into exile.

In July, Yemen's deputy interior minister praised the country's new program seeking to seize all unregistered weapons—a tactic that is being seen by tribes as one set up to forcibly disarm them. Simultaneously, Yemen's courts decided to throw one journalist in prison and order another to stop writing because of their supposedly separatist slants.

"The sentence constitutes another violation of free expression by Yemen," Reporters Without Borders told the Yemen Times.

In addition to controlling firearms and the press, the government sent its forces into southern territories in the name of national security and anti-terrorism: the military is currently surrounding the Wa'ela tribe, accused of holding the six surviving missionaries of nine who were taken hostage on July 12, 2009, in a suburb of Sa'ada.

Sheikh Saleh Habra, spokesperson for the tribe, told the Yemen Times rescuing the hostages is not on the government's agenda so much as a plan "to impose a complete siege on our supporters and expand their military sites."

Such measures from the government have not in any way curbed the violence between the Sunni north and Shi'ite south. Clashes between Houthis and Sunni militants over a northern mosque led to the death of ten people in July.

The Yemeni Defense Ministry newswire is additionally accusing separatists of killing three and wounding another in the Lahaj region of the south.

The violence has not gone unnoticed in the international community, particularly after an American intelligence official warned of possible attacks against the US embassy in Sana'a. Members of Salafia Jihadia, a group linked to Al Qaeda, are being accused of plotting the supposed operation.

To show the world Yemen is serious about fighting terrorism, courts in that country sentenced six accused Al Qaeda operatives to death in July for plotting against foreign and governmental targets.

These actions may be too little too late since western governments have already warned their citizens not to travel to Yemen.

On August 21, 2009, the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs issued a travel report citing the presence of terrorism, tribal violence and government-secessionist fighting to warn Canadians against all travel to the region. The Canadian government lists one of the Yemeni rebel entities, the anti-government pro-theocracy Islamic Army of Aden, as a terrorist organization.

Canada has been particularly wary of Yemen ever since a small bomb exploded near the Yemeni offices of Canadian oil company Nexen on April 10, 2008.

According to Canada's report on bilateral relations with Yemen, the Canadian International Development Agency has spent $450,000 in Yemen to help remove landmines. Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs is tied to Yemen via its Global Peace and Security Fund and Counter-Terrorism Capacity Building assistance.

Indirectly, Canada has also worked through the United Nations Development Program to help set up the Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights.

Despite both domestic and international efforts, attacks within the country are multiplying.

At the beginning of July an unknown group exploded an oil pipeline controlled by a South Korean company in southeastern Yemen. Commercial attacks such as this are a bigger worry for the government than protests since the country is bleeding billions of dollars due to the world financial crunch, whether or not it refuses to admit it.

The Yemeni government's response to the crisis, which stems largely from an economy 90 per cent dependent on dwindling oil reserves, was to further poke at the south: it unveiled plans in July via the Yemen News Agency to open a new refinery in the southern city of Aden.

Southerners are not pleased.

Isaac Oommen is a writer, originally from Dubai and now residing in Vancouver. He traveled extensively through the Middle East and south-central Asia before settling in Vancouver to write.

Independence for South Yemen (Stamp)

Opposition MPs in the West Bank

Moira Peters — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 05:41:10 +0000

Liberal, NDP and Bloc MPs visit Palestinian evictees, call on Canada to respond

JERUSALEM—Following a trip to Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza in August, members of parliament from Canada's three opposition parties say they are committed to pushing their parties, and the government, on Canada’s role in the region.

Responding to Israel's seige on Gaza, Canada-Palestine Parliamentary Friendship Association (CPFA) representatives Borys Wrzesnewskyj (Liberal), Libby Davies (New Democratic Party) and Richard Nadeau (Bloc Québecois) flew to the Middle East to assess the humanitarian situation.

Reached by phone after returning to Canada, Davies (Vancouver East) said the Canadian government is silent when it should join in international condemnation of Israel's human rights abuses. The pressure on the Israeli state that is coming from Canadian civil society, including the Jewish community, is “not happening at the political level,” according to Davies.

The delegation entered and exited Gaza at the Rafah crossing, except for Wrzesnewskyj, who parted ways with the group in Egypt.

Wrzesnewskyj, MP for Etobicoke Centre and founder of the CPFA, was more optimistic than Davies. (Wrzesnewskyj resigned as Liberal foreign affairs critic after coming under fire for calling on Canada to dialogue with Hezbollah during the Lebanon War.)

“One day in the not too distant future, I hope that everyone there, regardless of who they are, could have the same hopes and dreams as the children living here in Canada,” he told me after his visit.

Turning his attention to the heart of the Palestinian struggle, Wrzesnewskyj remarked that “obviously East Jerusalem is going to be key for negotiations.”

Both Palestinians and Israelis lay claim to Jerusalem as their eternal capital. But Palestinian residents of the city are being forced out of their homes by Israeli soldiers.

Fifty-three Palestinians were evicted from their homes in East Jerusalem last month. Wrzesnewskyj argued that Israel's actions present a call for President Obama to act. However Wrzesnewskyj mentioned nothing about a similar response from Ottawa.

When, on August 8, Liberal, NDP and Bloc members stepped out of the Ambassador Hotel and into the East Jerusalem Palestinian neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah, they glimpsed a crucial instance of what is impeding Israeli-Palestinian peace. A few minutes away, Palestinians were camping on the sidewalk after being violently evacuated from their homes by hundreds of police six days before.

Settlement companies plan to increase Jewish residence in Sheikh Jarrah, where Palestinian refugees were given housing by Jordan and UN Relief and Works Agency in 1956. An hour after the Gawi and Hannoun families were evicted on August 2, Jewish settlers seized their houses. Israeli police and private security have since been guarding the properties.

The evictions and occupations of Palestinian homes began after Israeli courts allowed a Jewish association to claim ownership over land in Sheikh Jarrah from deeds dating back to the 1800s. But Palestinian refugees, like the Hannouns who were forced to flee their home in Haifa—now northern Israel—in the 1948 war, cannot return to homes they lost 61 years ago.

****

Since Canada would not fund or facilitate the CPFA reps' visit to Gaza, the officials' travel was facilitated by the North American feminist and peace organization, Codepink. Strolling to the Old City to grab dinner, the delegation of three MPs and members of Codepink were confronted instead by flashing blue lights from three police cars and Israeli border police in military wear with M16’s dangling from their shoulders.

Outside the Gawis’ house stood a blue three-by-three-metre tent, and about 50 people milling about underneath.

A religious Jewish man walked by, blood dripping from his forehead. More police arrived. Palestinians said a settler attacked their relative and the police then arrested a Palestinian man.

Moving away from the scene outside the Gawis’ home, the delegation followed Charihen Hannoun, 20, to the makeshift camp outside their home.

“We need all the world to know about our situation here and to help us back into our house,” she told the delegation.

****

Over the phone Davies said she will share this information with parliament. However, she says, it is “a challenge in and of itself to pressure our own government to be more proactive on upholding human rights and international law, whether it’s in Jerusalem or Gaza.”

Wrzesnewskyj believes that practically, only the US can push Israel on this issue. But there are signs the US is giving in to Israeli demands to leave East Jerusalem out of a settlement freeze.

Davies pointed out that when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian question, Canada’s foreign affairs website mentions UN resolutions, international law, the Green Line and the illegality of the separation barrier. “But what they have on paper, on the website, and what they actually do are two completely different things.”

Following the evictions, the UN, US and EU condemned Israel’s actions. I asked Davies about Canada’s position. “Well, I’m not aware that Canada’s said anything, are you?”

However, according to Foreign Affairs spokesperson Rodney Moore, Canada registered its concerns directly to the Israeli government on this issue.

The delegation has not yet completed their report.

Carmelle Wolfson is an independent journalist from Toronto currently based in Israel/Palestine, and a copy editor for Briarpatch Magazine.

A version of this article originally appeared in NOW Magazine.

MPs in West Bank

Settlers in Sheikh Jarrah

September in Review, Part I

dawn — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 05:06:10 +0000

Drought and Flooding, Spending and Cutting

British Columbia's Finance Minister Colin Hansen released a fiscal update, predicting a $2.8 billion deficit over the next four years. The previous deficit estimate was $495 million. Gordon Campbell's BC Liberals plan to change BC's balanced budget legislation for the second time this year, allowing them to run a deficit for four years. "Just about everyone was caught off guard by the speed, scope and depth of the economic downturn," said Hansen on September 1. Hansen's comment came almost a full year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, which the Toronto Star called the "recession's ground zero." Regardless of bringing in deficit spending, the BC Liberals announced further cuts to education programs including hot lunches and school libraries, and massive cuts to the arts. A new report found that the BC government earns more income from tuition fees than it does from corporate taxation.

In Nova Scotia, Finance Minister Graham Steele admitted that the province's debt is higher than expected, at $12.3 billion, but would not admit whether or not the province ran a balanced budget in 2008-2009.

The federal government changed its economic forecasts, predicting a $51.9 billion deficit instead of $46.5 billion. Harper's Conservatives upped their deficit timeline from four to six years.

The Associated Press reported that one year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the beginning of massive federal bailouts of US banks and automakers, banks are back to the same old risk taking. "There have been no significant changes to the federal rules governing their behavior. Proposals that have been made to better monitor the financial system and to police the products banks sell to consumers have been held up by lobbyists, lawmakers and turf-protecting regulators," according to the AP.

A new report showed that two-thirds of all income gains in the US between 2002-2007 went to earners in the top one per cent. "In the three decades since 1976, the incomes of the bottom 90 per cent of households have risen only slightly, on average, while the incomes of the top one per cent have soared," reads the report.

More than three million people in Central America face famine due to droughts. "Across the region, 80 per cent of the corn crop has already failed and many families are left scrounging for anything to fill their bellies," reported the Independent. This summer, 41 people living in the border region between Honduras and El Salvador starved to death.

The International Monetary Fund allocated $164 million to the Central Bank in Honduras, though it is not clear whether the coup regime can access the funds. The US revoked travel visas for Roberto Micheletti, leader of the coup regime.

Five anarchists were arrested in Serbia in connection with a direct action at the Greek Embassy in Belgrade. The action at the embassy was carried out in solidarity with Thodoros Iliopoulos, a political prisoner being held in Athens. At least one of the arrested has denied having anything to do with the action at the embassy. "It is not the first time that authorities have come after him or his comrades for no other reason than the fact that they are radical critics of the state," according to the Anarcho-syndicalist Initiative.

A bomb exploded outside the Athens Stock Exchange, slightly wounding one, and two blasts occured at a government building in the northern city of Thessaloniki. The Stock Exchange opened regardless of the bombing. The Greek guerrilla group Revolutionary Struggle claimed responsibility for the stock market bombing, and the group Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire claimed responsibility for the other.

Protests against the election of Ali Bongo, son of former President Omar Bongo, in Gabon's coastal city of Port Gentil led to the destruction of the French embassy and facilities, including a social club and gas stations operated by French oil giant TOTAL.

Indigenous Saami organizations in northern Sweden warned a Vancouver-based mining company, Blackstone Ventures, that they will "do everything we can" to stop the establishment of a mine on their territory. The mine is proposed for a reindeer calving area, and the Saami claim that they were never consulted by the company.

The Toronto International Film Festival opened amid controversy about TIFF co-director Cameron Bailey's decision to spotlight the city of Tel Aviv during the festival. "No one is claiming the Israeli government is secretly running TIFF's Tel Aviv spotlight, whispering in Mr. Bailey's ear about which films to program. The point is that the festival's decision to give Israel pride of place, holding up Tel Aviv as a 'young, dynamic city that, like Toronto, celebrates its diversity,' matches Israel's stated propaganda goals to a T," wrote Naomi Klein.

Dozens of people belonging to No Games Toronto protested the City of Toronto's bid for the Pan Am games during the Pan American Sports Organization's visit. According to a report posted on Rabble, "No Games Toronto and its supporters would rather see $2.4 billion invested in childcare, public transit, affordable housing, and education."

Right wing protesters in the US demonstrated their opposition to the Obama government's health care reform proposals by rallying in Washington DC. Signs at the rally read "Oust the Marxist Usurper, his Czars and Thugs—Honduras did it!" and "We came unarmed... This time." US journalist Jeremy Scahill weighed in on the protests with a tweet stating "Dear dingbats, you aren't protesters. You are: astroturfers, racists and, sadly, malleable fools being led by snakeoil salesmen."

Montreal's SNC-Lavalin was shortlisted for three construction contracts to build three gas turbines in Iraq. This follows an extensive report by journalist Anthony Fenton revealing Canada's involvement in Iraq.

A NATO airstrike in Kunduz, Afghanistan, killed 99 people, 30 of whom were civilians, according to an Afghan government inquiry. The bombing was carried out by US fighter planes under German command.

Convicted pipeline bomber Wiebo Ludwig appealed to the party responsible for a spate of bombings along EnCana pipelines in north east BC. "I want to encourage you not to let anger about such stupidity get the best of you and to realize that these conflicts cannot ultimately be settled by use of force, but by way of informed and patient persuasion. Please give that the time it needs now," he wrote in a letter. The CBC reported that Ludwig's motivation "is to show solidarity with those who share the bomber's environmental concerns but are too frightened to speak out for fear of being criticized by neighbours and friends, or for fear of being harassed by police."

Torrential rains caused flooding in drought-ridden Mexico City. Water shortages continue in the city, despite the rains.

A puddle in Mexico City

No to the Pan Am Games

Disappeared Activist is Back Fighting

dawn — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 05:41:29 +0000

Anti-mining campaigner Mariano Abarca goes on the record

CHICOMUSELO, MEXICO—On August 17, 2009, masked men carrying high caliber rifles forced anti-mining activist Mariano Abarca, 52, into an unmarked car as he was leaving the primary school in his hometown of Chicomuselo, Chiapas.

Held without contact to his family, it was feared he had been kidnapped. But although the detention had all the hallmarks of a kidnapping, it turned out to be a state sanctioned arrest.

For the next eight days Abarca, a father of four, was held on charges that included “criminal association and organized criminal activity.” The detention was based on accusations made by Mexican employees of Calgary-based mining company Blackfire Exploration Ltd, and supported by vice-president Brad Willis’ statement to police.

Blackfire has been operating a barite mine in the town of Grecia, in the municipality of Chicomuselo, for approximately two years. In Mexico, Blackfire operates through its subsidiary Blackfire Exploration Mexico S de RL de CV.

According to an investigation by the Human Rights Center Oralia Morales, people in nearby Nuevo Morelia are unable to use a river for water due to mining activity and report skin irritation if they bathe in the water.

Abarca has been the leader of an anti-mining movement in the area that initiated a largely symbolic road blockade in June. He was also one of the main organizers of a weekend conference held on August 29 and 30 in Chicomuselo and sponsored by the Mexican Network of People Affected by Mining (REMA).

Local activists interpreted Abarca’s detention as an act of intimidation for those planning to attend the conference. But more than 240 people from as far away as Canada and Guatemala participated, and, if anything, the detention strengthened the resolve of Mariano and his compañeros, who say they are as ready as ever to keep fighting.

Journalist Dominique Jarry-Shore spoke with Mariano Abarca during the REMA conference. She also recorded a short video of the interview, which is accessible through the Media Co-op.

Dominique Jarry-Shore: Why are you fighting against mining in Chicomuselo?

Mariano Abarca: What they’re doing to our municipality is basically looting the land. But apart from that, the government hasn’t taken us into account in their decisions and the company executives (Blackfire Exploration Ltd.) have never made themselves available to the people of the community.

How is this project going to benefit and affect us? We have no idea. That’s one of the things we’re unhappy about. We’d been asking the state and federal government to explain what the project is really about and how we will benefit and be affected, but we had no explanation so we had to make a decision.

We decided to close a road here in town that the company uses to get to and from the mine. Thanks to the support of our neighbors and people in our organization we were able to block the road. The company’s not happy with it because they say they’re losing money. But really, what we’re asking is that they leave Chicomuselo altogether.

We don’t want to have people here who treat our people—labourers and people of modest means—with the toe of their boots. They threaten us. And the worst of it is that they’re part of our community because some people from our town work for the company. That’s created divisions between us.

Has Blackfire made promises to the community?

Yes, they offered a road, a health center, doctors and training so that people would have the skills to work for the company—all that was offered to the people in the town where the mine is located. Other things were offered as well—about 20 different things—like drinking water.

Either they haven’t delivered on their promises or what they have done has been of very poor quality. The tanks they built for drinking water are full of leaks and are no good. And as I said before, the worst part is the social problem within the communities. Some say the company is good; others say it’s bad. That situation worries us a lot. Even in my own home some workers threatened to kill me and then of course there was my detention for defending the people.

Were you mistreated while you were detained?

Fortunately, no, I wasn’t mistreated. The worst of it was not being able to contact my family and my colleagues (on the first day), and the threat of being put in prison.

What message do you have for Canadians?

Don’t do to others what you wouldn’t do to your own people. I think the government of Canada should be more careful with these companies who come to Mexico and treat us badly. I call on the Canadian government to do something because we’re the same as any other citizen. We have rights too.

What do they mine here?

From what we can understand, it’s a material called barite. It comes with antimony. And there’s also gold and silver and another mineral I can’t remember the name of. But from what we know it’s a big mine. They’ve been extracting for two years and already there are big problems so imagine if they’re here for 40 or 50 years. Chicomuselo could disappear. We have a duty to do something.

Were you surprised by the international reaction to your detention?

Yes, but I was in seclusion. I didn’t know what was happening outside. When I was released people told me that my detention had served a purpose and we feel it did a lot for our cause. We were surprised by the support from all over the world and I’m very thankful and encouraged to keep up the fight.

Dominique Jarry-Shore is a freelance journalist based in Chiapas, Mexico. This interview was carried out with the aid of a grant from the International Development Research Center in Ottawa.

Mariano Abarca Cropped

REMA Participants

“Protect Mother Earth, Don’t Settle for Less”

dru — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:10:18 +0000

Direct action stops development at the Hanlon Creek Business Park

On July 27, 2009 more than 60 people occupied the Hanlon Creek Business Park (HCBP)in south Guelph, effectively halting all construction. These land defenders from Guelph, Kitchener, Hamilton, Kingston, London and beyond entered the site in order to stop construction on an ecologically sensitive area, adjacent to one of Southern Ontario’s last remaining old growth forests. The forest is home to trees estimated to be over 500 years old and the surrounding habitat may contain the federally protected Jefferson Salamander.

According to the group's blog, having “watched every legal process fail [them]”, the land defenders “wanted to take a stand and do something more to protect the land.” The use of direct action, in the form of blockading further construction, including all entrances, was seen as a last line of defense for the forest. The action was articulated, in the initial press release, as an intervention into the city’s “destruction of this vital land,” with previous city consultations with MNR and the public dubbed a “farce.” According to the blog, given that the city had begun construction on and destruction of the land, any consultations were thus meaningless as the city was not genuinely interested in the health of the landbase.

The site was made accessible to friendly visitors and media, and sought to steer away from militant confrontation. As soon as the land defenders entered the site, camp preparations began in order to hold off construction until September 15 (the deadline for the city to complete construction for this year due to environmental regulations), or stop the project altogether. Every detail was conceived of, including a composting toilet, tents and several communal shelters. I was fortunate enough to support this action from its beginning, having been asked to participate by folks from Guelph.

The solidarity and community spirit associated with the occupation group was clearly evident from the beginning of the action. Many of those gathered had strong pre-existing relationships, having collaborated on political action, lived in the same area, or met through actions of solidarity with indigenous struggles. A shared sense of openness, purpose and mutual aid was the basis of emerging solidarity that was a focal point for those involved.

Since the beginning of the direct action against the HCBP, there was a clearly agreed-upon conclusion that this occupation was first and foremost to be a space of resistance. This was to ensure a “safe and healthy space” focused on the defense of the land, and to forgo all reason for police intervention, such as substance abuse or partying. This was to define all camp activities. The point was to maintain a sense of purpose and direction for a potentially tense political situation that seemed inevitable and to continue to examine the place of action against the HCBP in a wider resistance movement.

There was no formal organization or ideological definition by members of the occupation. The three flags that flew atop the lookout tower permitted some speculation into the politics of the group but are hardly an exhaustive representation. The Mohawk Warrior flag was followed by the Two Row Wampum and finally by the Green Anarchist flag. The "Two Row" is comprised of two parallel purple lines, one of which symbolizes Indigenous peoples and the other the non-Indigenous with whom treaties have been signed. The two lines do not pass and represent the autonomy of both groups in their use of the land.

In recognition to the ongoing assault on Indigenous communities, this flag stands as a symbol of solidarity with Indigenous peoples, as does the Warrior Flag. The action began with the intention of engaging in solidarity with the Indigenous groups whose traditional territory we were seeking to protect. Formal support came from the Six Nations Hoskanigetah (Men’s Fire). The group issued a statement calling for “the Corporation of the City of Guelph to CEASE AND DESIST the development of the Hanlon Creek Business Park.”

The green anarchist flag is split diagonally, one half black for anarchism and the other green (in this case camouflage) for radical environmentalism. Perhaps a unifying point for the group is that this action is part of a broader struggle to challenge the supremacy of cultural modes and statist power. It is an exercise in confrontation, as well as part of a broader struggle for creating alternative spaces.

The processes employed by the group also served to exemplify an alternative to the current culture with decisions made using group input and a mode of consensus decision making. Eschewing hierarchy and oppressive practices, those assembled sought to put into practice a new mode of community and solidarity-based organizing. This included rotating tasks and responsibilities to ensure equal participation and to acknowledge the specific needs of different members of the group. This process included group decisions and input on everything from tactics to tasks to messaging and interaction with the broader public. In this sense the occupation camp came to be an example of autonomous organizing, against or as an alternative to the oppressive and hierarchical modalities of everyday capitalist/statist society.

The alternative politics of the group has allowed individuals to gain a connection to the land. Living with plants and animals and flowing water for over a week made a personal connection with the landbase possible. It reinforced the need to protect natural spaces from the onslaught of capitalist “progress.” Simply spending time on the land and interacting with it first hand goes a long way to forming a clear understanding of why such spaces must be saved from the unrelenting development machine. Stepping softly through the old growth and wetland areas, the usual drudgery of urban life and the banalities of capitalist economics were further from our thoughts.

We held plant and tree walks, expanding understanding of the very life systems at work around us. Modern societies sever their connections to the natural spaces that allow for their very existence, and Hanlon Creek is no exception.

The Hanlon Creek occupation stood for 20 days before a court injunction ordered the removal of the land defenders. The defenders may have vacated the site, but construction has yet to continue. A second injunction was issued against the city that would halt construction until September 13.

A further condition of the City injunction is that the Ministry of Natural Resources has final say over the future of the site. The ministry had previously stated its opposition to the development, indicating in a July 31 letter to the City of Guelph that it was “not in a position to support the continued construction of municipal services for Phases 1 and 2 of HCBP in absence of complete information regarding the extent of Jefferson Salamander habitat,” though city officials denied this. Despite this opposition, on Thursday, August 27, Donna Cansfield, Minister of Natural Resources, decided not to issue a stop work order that would prevent further construction of the Hanlon Creek Business Park. The very ministry that oversees natural spaces and habitats has now rendered this ecologically sensitive area insignificant, despite evidence to the contrary.

Interestingly, the city was attempting to extend the construction deadline by appealing to the rand River Conservation Authority, but as of now has postponed all construction until spring 2010. In a September 3 press release, the city stated that further work would be postponed as an extension would require de-watering of the construction area. The mayor also stated that the city had been held “hostage” by the protesters who “ignored democratic processes.” The city is still unable to grasp how it is failing the citizens of Guelph by demolishing vital natural areas, and does not acknowledge the inherent problems of the so called “democratic process." Despite this recent victory, the fight to stop the Hanlon Creek Business Park is not over yet and widespread public support, in the form of letters and emails, is still required to ensure that the development is halted indefinitely.

In the case of Hanlon Creek, direct action was able to bring about a turning point in the state of the development and force further action by the Ministry, but it seems the bureaucratic legalist means of engagement have failed yet again.

Without our landbase, we lose the crucial support systems that enable life to exist. In a culture with growth and increased consumption as its core values, it is direct experiences in alternative relationships in the social and natural realms that make way for community-based politics centered on mutual aid and free from hierarchy and oppression. It is these alternative spaces in which we may be able to begin to understand relationships to our lives and the life around us.

For more information on the occupation please visit the occupation blog at hcbpoccupation.wordpress.com or peaceculture.org.

Adam Lewis organizes with AW@L in Kitchener and spent 9 days at the Hanlon Creek occupation site as one of the land defenders. This is his interpretation of the events as they took place at the development site. He can be reached at lewis.f.adam@gmail.com.

First Morning

Three Flags