The Dominion - 65

Issue #65

dru — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:03:22 +0000

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December 2009

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From Potlatch to Welfare

Moira Peters — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 06:18:09 +0000

Lutz on historical "dialogue" and the subordination of Indigenous economies in the Pacific Northwest

Makuk: A New History of Aboriginal-White Relations
John Sutton Lutz
Vancouver: UBC Press, 2008

TRADITIONAL TERRITORY OF SNUNEYMUXW FIRST NATION (NANAIMO, B.C.)—Captain James Cook and the crew of the HMS Resolution encountered the Mowachat people and Chief Maquinna at Yuquot. The Mowachat said to the visitors, “Makuk.” Makuk conveyed various meanings. It was an invitation to trade; it was an indication of confidence; and it signified a request for communication between cultures. University of Victoria history professor John Sutton Lutz chose makúk as the starting point to examine how dialogue, or lack of it, could explain the history of the relationship between Europeans and the Original Peoples of the Pacific Northwest.

The story, according to Lutz, is one of “an international process—the displacement of Aboriginal Peoples from control of resources, the resettlement of land by people of European descent, and the partial incorporation of Aboriginal peoples into the new Euro-Canadian economy and into the modern welfare state.” The Europeans would later settle on the territories of First Nations, sometimes with their approval (as with the Lekwungen), at other times without (as with the Tsilhqot'in). The colonies became a basis for extraterritorial encroachments by the colonists which eventually led them to claim all First Nations territories, waterways and resources.

****

Labour, writes Lutz, is how Europeans “valued themselves.” Eurocentric views about labour were seized upon to create the myth of the “lazy Indian”—and justified the Europeans in dispossessing of the Original Peoples of their land.

BC Supreme Court Chief Justice Allen McEachern echoed this stereotype in his 1991 judgment of the Delgamuukw case. He held that Original Peoples were unable to compete with the “relentless energy” of conquering Europeans.

Some fur traders called Indians “indolent” because they didn't need European goods and they enjoyed much leisure, “meaning a lack of interest in a European form of labour subordination.”

Many colonists contradict this portrayal. Lutz quotes fur trader Gabriele Franchere: “They possess, to an eminent degree, the qualities opposed to indolence, improvidence, and stupidity...” He draws upon many examples from Original Peoples demonstrating that laziness was anathema to them, noting their heavy involvement in the capitalist economy across myriad occupations, drawing on colonial accounts that contradict the myth, and explaining First Nations culture, where “everyone was expected to contribute in accordance with their abilities and place in society.”

Historical media accounts complained of Indians being too industrious and thus preventing White men from getting work. Moreover, Lutz points out that leisure time was essential to the Original Peoples's economy—spirituality and economy were not separate. Wsanec Chief David Latasse, who lived to be well past 100, revealed the secret of his long life: “I like work.”

****

Around the estuary of the N'ch-ĩwana (Columbia River) lived the Chinook people. A patois form of their language, known as Chinook, or wawa, became the basis for trade and communication among the peoples of the Pacific Northwest, offshore traders, and colonists. The Original Peoples, relates Lutz, considered wawa a White man's language, and colonists thought of it as “speaking Indian.”

Despite participating in the capitalist economy, Original Peoples maintained their subsistence and prestige economies, forming an interdependence among these systems. By selling their labour Original Peoples could expand their prestige economy. Lutz calls this combination of capitalist, subsistence and prestige economies a “moditional economy.”

However, Lutz points to a power imbalance in the dialogue between colonists and Original Peoples, expressed through wage work and dependence on welfare. With the dispossession of territory and resources from Original Peoples, they were cut off from their subsistence economy. Racist hiring practices locked Original Peoples outside the workforce. Alienated from their own economies and the wage economy, Original Peoples were forced onto welfare. Reports of Indian agents, persons granted fiduciary power over First Nations by the federal government, classify working Indians as “good” and non-working or Potlatching Indians as “some good” or “no good.”

By incorporating Original Peoples in their Eurocentric economy of labour, colonists often successfully dispossessed them of their territory and their culture. Lutz calls this dispossession a “peaceable subordination”—a subordination without subjugation.

****

Lutz notes that Original Peoples vanished from historical records between 1885 and 1970. He tries to explain this by looking at the Lekwungen (Songhees and Esquimalt peoples near present-day Victoria) and the Tsilhqot'in, situated in the remote Chilcotin plateau in the province of British Columbia.

Lekwungen society was hierarchical, with a gender-based division of labor, slavery, property ownership and wealth accumulation. Wealth was not hoarded for oneself; it was to be given away in Potlatch (wawa for “giving away”)—an important part of Pacific Northwest First Nations culture, particular to each nation. Potlaches were gatherings which celebrated special occasions (rights of passage, marriages, funerals, etc), repaid debts and declared status.

Most of “British Columbia" is still unceded, unsurrendered Indigenous territory. Only a few treaties have been signed; some of those by Vancouver Island Governor James Douglas when he started a “new regime of property relations” by signing treaties with six Lekwungen families for land. Initially, the Lekwungen became very wealthy from the sale of land. They helped build Fort Victoria and believed their assistance had given them a stake in the fort. Lutz notes, “In light of the consequences for the Lekwungen, it seems ironic that they welcomed, and assisted with, the building of Fort Victoria.”

The Lekwungen “participated in the capitalist economy...to participate more fully in their own.” Potlatches grew more elaborate. But a demise was nearing. The Potlatch would be outlawed by the federal government in 1885. This targeted the heart of Indigenous culture and society, with the intention of assimilation. Without Potlatch, there was little incentive to work.

Then came hitherto-unknown deadly infectious diseases, the scourge of alcoholism, racism, joblessness, the disempowering Indian Act, and the specter of starvation. The Lekwungen came to be seen by prominent colonists as a blight to be removed from the city core. The Lekwungen staunchly resisted for many years.

With the completion of CP Railway, a surfeit of Chinese workers came onto the labour market, which, along with a preference for White workers, displaced Original Peoples from jobs.

Original Peoples began to work in less skilled jobs, were paid less, received less in relief payments, and had a “disturbingly high rate of unemployment.” Kathleen Mooney's research of 1952-71 shows Indigenous men to be eight times more likely to be unemployed than non-Indigenous men.

The situation became so bad that in 1961 the Colonist warned of imminent starvation to a people who had never known hunger. Surrounded by abundant game, it was, in fact, legislated starvation.

****

The Tsilhqot'in were a “poorer,” egalitarian, non-hierarchical society. Remotely situated, the Tsilhqot'in had less contact with Europeans, resisted European encroachment onto their territory, and retained much more of their culture longer than did the Lekwungen.

In 1862, politician-turned-businessman Alfred Waddington led a push to build a road from the Bute Inlet across Tsilhqot'in territory into the goldfields at Barkerville. The Tsilhqot'in opposed the road through their territory, and in one incident, eight Tsilhqot'in men attacked one of Waddington's work camps, killing 14 road workers.

The colonial administration sent a militia after the defenders of Tsilhqot'in sovereignty. Lutz notes: “The only way the colony captured any Tsilhqot'in was by luring them to a peace talk and then clapping them in irons and trying them as murderers—a practice so unethical it made the presiding officials squirm.” Presiding Judge Matthew Begbie (to be remembered by his nickname 'The Hanging Judge') found that the captured Tsilhqot'in had been “most injudiciously treated.” He concluded that if the Tsilhqot'in people had been treated well, the “outrage would not have been perpetrated.” Nevertheless, six Tsilhqot'in were hanged for attacks on the work crew and others, leaving a black mark on BC history.

Despite the formidable growing conditions on the plateau, the province sought to “civilize” the Tsilhqot'in by turning them away from game hunting and toward farming. Authorities wanted to limit their traditional subsistence economy by enacting game laws. Eventually, the Tsilhqot'in—unable to hunt game, and displaced by White ranchers—migrated and became fishers of salmon. But the government also sought to protect commercial fisheries, and the salmon season was was eventually closed. This was even though Indian Agent E. McCleod had warned that a closed season on salmon created such a hardship that it sent a number of Tsilhqot'in into their graves.

Finally, a lack of jobs and available capital or collateral to receive financing, along with the crash of the cash economy after WWII, brought the welfare economy to the Original Peoples.

****

Lutz notes that “European 'settlement' was, in fact, a period of depopulation.” There was a great drop in population of Original Peoples between 1861 and 1871 (from 60,000 people to 37,000). Even so, 73.6 per cent of BC's population was Indigenous. These “lazy Indians” had been involved in many industries, such as trapping, mining, fishing, sealing, forestry, hop picking and the fish canneries.

During these years, trapping and fur trade became regulated by authorities; traditional Tsilhqot'in traplines were registered to non-Indigenous people. In the coal mines Original Peoples were displaced by Chinese; in the canneries they were displaced by Japanese. In forestry, Original Peoples were denied harvesting rights in 1910. The BC Forest Service's unwritten policy allocated only marginal timber lands to Original Peoples. Traditional methods of reef net fishing were outlawed. Original Peoples required permission from colonists to fish for food. The BC government sought to limit the size of the commercial fishery through a small boat buyback, disadvantaging the Original Peoples and favoring corporate fishers. As Lutz writes, the province “attempt[ed] to make fishing a 'white man's' industry.” After confederation, the federal government claimed the sea and the resources in it.

Original Peoples were prohibited from holding purse seiner—the most lucrative form of commercial fishing—licenses. Nuu-chah-nulth Peter Webster commented, “I think a lot of us became 'criminals' without really knowing the reason.”

During the years 1885-1970, Original Peoples were “vanished” from censuses, voting lists, annual reports, and other records. Statistics focused on formal capitalist economies. Massive immigration of other Europeans, Japanese, and Chinese to BC caused even further displacement. Game and fishing regulations pressured Original Peoples out of their subsistence economies and forced them into the wage economy and to eat White man's food, “as that was the only way to stay alive.” This caused Nuu-chah-nulth Charles Jones to lament in 1976: “I think all they do is dream up new laws against the Indians.”

****

Lutz writes that it was settlement, not contact, which marked the demise of Indigenous culture and history. History, he contends, has mainly been the monologue of colonists. “What histories would have been written had we asked Aboriginal People?” he asks.

Original Peoples talked about a “White Problem.” That "Problem" outlawed their Potlatches; instituted racism in hiring; enacted legislation that disenfranchised them; treated them as minors under law; declared their reserves to be crown land, unmortgageable; deprived them of their land and resources despite no surrender, and despite treaty rights; forbade their entrance into restaurants and other public facilities in the 1960s; sought labour solidarity along racial lines as unions were white-dominated; instituted compulsory schooling that broke up family economy; and forced Original Peoples onto relief.

Even relief (at a far lower level that that for Whites) was a Catch 22; Lutz writes: “That relief was based on the principle that it would be supplemented by subsistence foods, which they could no longer obtain!”

“By 1936, per capita relief spending for registered Indians was one-third that for other Canadians.” And still, Indians had to beg for relief cheques. Relief was not shameful; the Lekwungen called the Indian Agent “siem/leader of the Indian people” and it was the “siem's responsibility ...[of] providing for his/her people.”

Stó:lō Rena Peters said, “I'm going to take the welfare but I'm not going to call it welfare, I'm going to call it spirit money.” Some people might call it reparations.

Makúk was originally a way for Original Peoples to enrich their own economies. Lutz reminds us that “Prior to the establishment of white settlement, the Aboriginal peoples of present day British Columbia were among the richest and best-fed societies in the world.”

* In October 1999, the BC government officially apologized for the hangings of the Tsilhqot'in chiefs defending their territory, and erected a plaque describing the injustice and honoring the hanged. Judge Begbie is honored eponymously with buildings, mountains, a street, a school and a larger-than-life sized statue at the entrance to the BC Parliament buildings.

Kim Petersen is Original Peoples editor at The Dominion.

OP Makuk Cover

Not on the Backs of Farmers

hillarybain — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 06:41:43 +0000

Who pays for food security in Nova Scotia?

HALIFAX—Lori Stahlbrand is the founder of Local Food Plus, an NGO that runs a local and sustainable food certification process in order to support regional food economies. “[The price of food is] below the cost of production and it means that farmers cannot make a living.”

At the same time farmers are struggling to make a living, some people in Nova Scotia are unable to afford the local, organic food that they grow.

Cathy Johnson, a wife and mother who supports her family on income assistance, recognizes this tension clearly. “We [live] under the poverty line. And I know that the farmers do too.”

It’s a conundrum many concerned with food security in Nova Scotia grapple with: How do we create a sustainable, healthy regional food system for everyone?

Despite the surge of interest in local food, farms and farmers are disappearing across the country. Young farm operators are dwindling. Only seven per cent of farmers are below the age of 35, according to Statistics Canada, while 45 per cent of farmers are above the age of 55. Furthermore, every year since 1991, the average age of farmers has increased by one.

An over reliance on food imports in Nova Scotia is cited as one major problem. Markets are flooded with cheaper alternatives that force local prices below a level that would allow the farmer a living wage. As a result, says Stahlbrand, “We have more farmers leaving or selling their land to developers.”

This trend is having a profound effect on the local food system, which relies on the diversity and plurality of local farms to be strong and resilient, notes David Greenberg, a farmer and educator, who warns, “We have an unstable, insecure industrial food model right now that just cannot handle the challenges coming up...The only way to have food security long term in the province is to have lots of viable farms.”

Strahlbrand argues the future of food security in Nova Scotia will rely on a shift in how we value food and how much we are willing to pay for it.

“In Canada we pay the lowest for our food of any country in the world,” she says. “In Canada and the United States people on average spend about 10 per cent of their income on food. And if you look at Western Europe, Japan, or the UK, you'll find that people are spending anywhere from 25-30 per cent of their income on food, depending on the country you look at.”

Greenberg believes if higher importance is placed on food and farming, people would pay above market value for the food that they eat today as a way of investing in a healthy food system for tomorrow. “You're investing in your own food future and the future of that farm,” he says.

But what about those who can barely afford to eat at all?

Johnson lives on income assistance in Halifax. She and her husband receive $597 per month, which gives them $1194 to cover their basic needs. After paying for rent, utilities, transportation and other costs, she is left with approximately $160 per month to spend on food. She relies on the Parker Street Food Bank to fill the gaps.

“When you can't buy the things that you want to be able to eat it affects you tremendously,” she says. “We know that because we can't afford the food, we're not getting the best that we can eat. So we worry about our health and our finances... It's very hard to make ends meet... It’s all stress.” Johnson relies on processed and frozen foods to fill out their meals. She has learned to be savvy to find meat or dairy on special so she can fit them into her budget.

Johnson's health suffers from the holes in her diet. “The hardest thing is with fruits and vegetables. We can't afford to buy enough of them. Because we have liver problems [Johnson and her husband are on disability] it would help our immunity if we were able to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables. We wouldn't get colds and everything so much—like I have today—if we got more vitamins.”

Although she can’t afford local and organic foods, Johnson understands their benefits. “I'm educated enough to know that’s the best you can eat... A lot of people would like to be eating organic but it’s more expensive than the regular fruits and vegetables. If I had my way I would rather eat organic fruits and vegetables...and keep our money in a local area, than eat things that come from California.”

To deal with these shortcomings, Johnson would like to see the income assistance program reformed to be more accessible and supportive. She argues the program “could better assess people, have better communication between client and worker to really get to know the client's [needs]. Work together towards keeping a person healthy.” She would also like to see the community services system support programs aimed at those on income assistance that allow them to supplement their incomes.

While reforming income assistance is important, growing attention is being paid to alternative food economies and community supported agriculture. Jill Ratcliffe, an urban farmer and food politics activist argues, “We need to consider people on income assistance... but not as much by working towards reform as by building equality in our systems.”

Ratcliffe gives the example of the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model. CSAs usually consist of a network of individuals or families who sign up and buy shares in a farm's harvest before the season begins. CSAs are good for farms because they give farmers an added level of support and allow them to set realistic prices for food (prices they can't reach through market farming or wholesale). Within the CSA model, the consumers and producers share in the risks and benefits of the natural farming season. Farmers are covered in cases of crop failures and are left in a more secure position to support themselves and their families. Further, insecurity in agriculture can often lead to a reliance on potentially harmful farming practices as a form of risk management. The security of CSAs offers a balance to this risk.

Ratcliffe, an advocate of the CSA model, argues it can work to create crucial connections between communities and farmers. “In terms of food we need to move away from dependent relationships—like with large corporate grocers—or any kind of mediating body that has control over our supply of food. [We need to be] breaking down those dependent relationships—constructing something that is connected and interconnected.” She states that marginalized communities can be included in the CSA model in a manner that the current system doesn't allow. “The CSA [could] work whereby people would pay different amounts, in an equitable distribution process. There [could] be a subsidized CSA process where people would get food based on their income.”

SunRoot Farm, located in East Hants, Nova Scotia, has run a subsidized CSA program for the past 10 years. Initially the farm partnered with the Department of Community Services, which provided the funds needed, but these funds became increasingly difficult to obtain. In response, SunRoot established a non-profit organization. Steve Law, a farmer at SunRoot, says this was always the model they wanted to use. “When it came time to start we weren't interested in just providing to whomever could pay. We all had a strong sense of social justice and environmental stewardship. We weren't just acting as a commercial farm but looking at creating a community development project.”

While Law advocates for the subsidized CSA model based on its benefits for farmers and marginalized communities, he acknowledges its limitations. “With the current economic model it's not exactly a lucrative endeavour [to run a CSA]. You don't see a lot of CSAs last. We need people to cover the true costs, but this is a system that we don't have in place yet. Until we use a true cost model it will always be difficult to run programs like CSAs.”

In order to support farmers, Law calls for a system that appropriately values their unique public contribution. “A more radical solution is to make farmers public servants like teachers and nurses. As public servants they would receive benefits through the province.”

Law feels that, ultimately, the de-comodification of food is necessary to achieve food security in Nova Scotia. “Making food free is really what we need to do—take the food system out of the commodity market. Until then everything that we do is just band-aid solutions. There will always be hunger in the province until we take that drastic step and decide that everyone should have access to nutritious, local, organic food...We need to take responsibility for our food and the health of our communities.”

While CSAs can help bridge the disconnect between communities and farmers, they alone will not and cannot address all the food security issues in NS. There are a lot of people to feed. But there are people working on solutions.

According to Stahlbrand one thing is clear: “We have to find ways to solve the problem that are not on the backs of farmers.”

Kayleigh MacSwain is a freelance writer and a member of the Food Action Committee at the Ecology Action Centre in Halifax.

This article was produced by the Halifax Media Co-op.

CSA

Justice: Transparency or Incarceration?

Moira Peters — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 06:08:31 +0000

150 years for forced disappearance a precedent, families not satisfied

TORONTO—An historic verdict was reached in Guatemala’s first tried case of forced disappearance, leading to the conviction of ex-military commissioner Felipe Cusanero Coj*, with a sentence of 150 years in prison.

Eleven witness testimonies accompanied evidence including bones from clandestine graves found around the military compound, and historical records and reports of the nature of forced disappearance. On August 31, 2009, President Judge Walter Paulino Jiminez Texaj, representing the Criminal Court of the Department of Chimaltenango ruled that Cusanero’s “innocence was destroyed,” and sentenced him to 25 years in prison for each of the six cases being tried.

Charges were brought against him April, 2003 for crimes he committed between 1982 and 1984 while acting as Military Commissioner in the region. The Centre for Legal Action in Human Rights (CALDH) and the Association for Families of the Detained-Disappeared of Guatemala (FAMDEGUA) began the process as joint plaintiffs to the witnesses.

Several years later, the case made it to court March, 2008. The trial was stalled, however, after Cusanero claimed his constitutional right not to be tried retroactively was being violated, since his crimes were committed before Guatemala recognized forced disappearance as illegal in 1996.

After a lengthy delay in Cusanero's case, the Constitutional Court made an historic ruling when it declared that since the very nature of forced disappearance makes it an ongoing crime, Cusanero should be fully tried for it. (Since no bodies have been recovered, and Cusanero refuses to give further information about what happened and the whereabouts of the bodies, the victims are still considered “disappeared.”) The Court ruled that it did not matter when they were disappeared, but more importantly that the crime was continuing—it was being committed in the present.

Following the verdict's reading at the Constitutional Court, the case returned to the Court in Chimaltenango, where Jiminez Texaj concluded there was sufficient evidence to lead to a conviction of forced disappearance.

The implications in the judge's conclusion are deep. When the 1996 Peace Accords were signed, political amnesty was given to all military members for crimes they had committed during the war. (Without this clause the accords wouldn’t have been signed.) However, crimes against humanity—such as forced disappearance—are outside this amnesty law and can be tried.

Cusanero became the first person in the country to be tried for a crime against humanity. At the same time, he was a low-level military commissioner. Rios Montt, one of the authors of the genocide, enjoys political immunity by being a member of Congress.

Although many human rights organizations are claiming this to be a major step forward in the struggle for social justice in Guatemala, the witnesses' reality is much different.

For many, the hope in bringing the case forward was to find out information about their loved ones. “How is it important to us if he goes to prison?” asked Hilarion Lopez, father of one of the disappeared and a witness in the case. “We have always wanted to know where our loved ones are and what happened to them. But he never told us.”

Lack of information about those disappeared leaves families imagining horrors of rape and torture, and, on the flip-side, leaves room for the (unfounded) hope that their loved ones may still be alive. The nature of the crime creates such a degree of uncertainty that families are incapable of moving past or healing from its trauma. Particularly in cultures where proper burial rites are of extreme importance, the inability to lay individuals to rest leaves families in a perpetual state of paralysis and grief.

In a statement made during the reading of the verdict, Jiminez said, “For all of the cultures and religions present in Guatemala, it is almost inconceivable not to grant dignity to the deceased; it violates the dignity of everyone. For the Mayans, this phenomenon is of particular importance due to the central relevance in their culture of the active link between the living and the dead.”

He continued by describing the findings of a report made by the Guatemalan Commission for Historical Clarification (CEH), stating that the lack of information about the disappeared continues to be an open sore in the country. “The CEH considers locating and exhuming the clandestine graves where the bodies are buried to be an act of justice and reparation, while being a fundamental step in the road to reconciliation."

Echoing these sentiments in a news conference the day after the verdict, Lopez stated, “[Cusanero] should ask forgiveness of the people of San Martin, of the community of Choatalum. I am really upset because my son is still not returned to me. And I want justice....I want to bury him in the cemetery so that I can bring him flowers and candles.”

Despite the seemingly successful verdict, it doesn’t go without notice by the witnesses that what means most—information—will likely die with Cusanero in prison.

Even so, the verdict and declaration by the Constitutional Court open doors to the possibility of trying other crimes against humanity which took place during the armed conflict.

According to representatives from CALDH, the legal organization representing the witnesses in the Choatalum trial, several other cases that have gone through the courts in Guatemala should have been tried as forced disappearance. Instead they were reduced to charges of kidnapping. Kidnapping is a much less severe crime with a maximum sentence of eight years, compared to 40 for forced disappearance.

Judges often try the accused for kidnapping instead of forced disappearance, says a representative from CALDH, because it won’t implicate the State. “[It is easier to say that] it was just some senseless members of the military who were responsible for each individual crime, and that it doesn’t have anything to do with the subsequent military leader, or the whole chain of command.”

According to CALDH, kidnapping can be an individual crime, whereas to be classified as forced disappearance, proof of a systematic plan, implemented by the state to use forced disappearance as a terror tactic, is required. The fact that the State has been implicated in a Guatemalan Court for its role in creating and facilitating a culture of forced disappearance might have widespread implications for the intellectual authors of the genocide.

Written with files from Amanda Kistler, an international human rights observer with the Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA). Amanda currently lives in Guatemala City. Valerie Croft is a freelance journalist living in Toronto. She worked as an International Accompanier in 2008, in the department of Chimaltenango.

For more on precedent-setting court cases in Guatemala, read Guatemalan Court Sets Precedent in the Case of Israel Carias by Amanda Kistler, and Valerie Croft's Disappeared Before the Courts.

****

* Cusanero was the military commissioner in the community of Choatalum, in the municipality of San Martin Jilotepeque in Chimaltenango, during Guatemala’s internal armed conflict that took place between 1960 and 1996. The conflict was characterized by widespread massacres, scorched earth policies, the forming of civil patrol units, and genocide against the Mayan indigenous peoples. In addition, the use of “forced disappearance” was employed as a common terror tactic.

Forced disappearance is the kidnapping of an individual by military or paramilitary forces after which they are often raped or tortured, and eventually murdered. By selecting individuals arbitrarily, it heightens a climate of fear and uncertainty. A UN-sponsored Truth Commission found that 45,000 people were disappeared in Guatemala during the armed conflict.

Justice Photograph

Justice Inhumation

Bendable Business

Moira Peters — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 06:18:58 +0000

Cooperatives less likely to break in economic crises

OTTAWA—Mondragon Internacional (MCC), the world’s largest worker cooperative, has been the focus of a lot of media coverage in recent months, inciting discussion on how worker cooperatives have been affected by, and are responding to, the global economic crisis.

On October 27, 2009 the United Steelworkers announced a framework agreement with Mondragon to develop unionized worker cooperatives in the manufacturing sector in the US. Under the agreement, both parties have pledged to develop a model that combines the collective bargaining system with the “one worker, one vote” hallmark of cooperatives. While it will not be the first time worker cooperatives have looked to unionization, the scale and formal partnership of the Mondragon-Steelworkers proposal is without precedent and could signal a way for cooperatives and unions to work collaboratively in weathering economic storms.

Perhaps even more surprising, The Economist recently published an article on how Mondragon is coping with the current economic crisis. According to the article, cooperatives can react more quickly to such a crisis because workers decide themselves to cut wages or take unpaid leave, avoiding the delays of formal negotiations with labour unions.

Mondragon is the world’s largest worker cooperative, located in the Basque region of Spain. Started in 1956 by five workers, and inspired by the work of local priest Don José María Arizmendiarrieta, it has grown into a complex of over a hundred worker cooperatives, a cooperative bank, and housing and social cooperatives. It now employs approximately 34,000 people and is one of the largest producers of domestic appliances, machine tools and automotive parts in Spain.

However, Mondragon is not your average worker cooperative, and not everyone thinks that it is a great model to look to. While many people on the left assert that the prospering Mondragon is an example of how cooperatives present an alternative business model that puts its workers above profits (it is referred to as an “empire of egalitarianism” in a September, 2009 article by Kelly and Massena in Yes Magazine), there is also growing criticism that Mondragon is straying from its cooperative principles by centralizing decision-making, developing partnerships with capitalist firms and hiring more non-member workers.

So, beyond the mammoth Mondragon, how are smaller, less powerful worker cooperatives weathering the economic crisis?

The International Organization of Industrial, Artisanal and Service Producers’ Co-operatives (CICOPA) reported that cooperatives have been more resilient in the face of the economic crisis than other business models. Based on a survey it conducted of its members, CICOPA found that while cooperatives have experienced a downturn in production and sales, they have experience almost no job losses, focusing instead on adaptation measures such as a reduction in hours or wages.

CICOPA attributes this resilience to the combination of flexibility and security of the worker cooperative model. Participating in decisions about the future of their workplace, workers—who are also owners—collectively decide what they are willing to sacrifice for the long-term viability of the business, and ensure that this is achieved equitably. By contrast, in a traditional capitalist businesses, managers and owners may simply inform workers of a decision to cut wages or hours, lay off staff or force labour concessions to save profits, leaving workers outside the decision-making but front and center in the effects of re-structuring.

The fundamental goal of cooperatives is to provide employment for members, as opposed to other business models, which seek profits or return on investments above all.

Three worker cooperatives in Ottawa and Kingston have come up with creative ways to make ends meet. Though they were not easily made, these choices have kept their cooperatives alive and, in some cases, stronger.

***

A recent addition to Ottawa’s Centertown neighborhood, the Umi Cafe, is a cooperatively-run coffee shop, selling light meals and drinks, as well as hosting music and political events in the evenings.

Sergio Guerra, one of the directors of Umi, says the shop was hit hardest by the recession about a year ago when the Ottawa bus drivers strike made the economic situation all the more difficult, grinding the entire downtown to a halt. Without public transit, Umi saw fewer people coming through their door. During the worst of it—late fall and winter of last year—the worker-members faced the choice of either shutting down the business or not getting paid. Guerra says Umi didn’t loose a single worker; everyone stayed, even with low wages, because they were committed to the cooperative and their investment.

They also drew on the neighbourhood and called a meeting where they presented the coffee shop’s financial situation as well as what they needed to stay afloat. The community responded, raising the necessary funds to keep Umi alive, a testament to the solidarity built between the cafe and the neighborhood. For its part, Umi has increased the variety of its products to entice passersby into the cafe.

According to Guerra, the cooperative model—with its commitment to outreach and solidarity—was invaluable during the difficult economic times. Without support from the neighbourhood the cafe’s survival was uncertain.

They also consulted other cooperatives and received advice and support that might be unlikely from traditional competitive businesses. “Without that help and solidarity we wouldn’t have been able to do it, in other businesses it's all about competition,” says Guerra.

Also, as a co-op, it is in Umi’s interest to educate and empower its members; in return, members are committed to the survival of the business. The cooperative model helps to ensure that the perspectives of members are incorporated into the very direction the co-op takes.

Sergio says they’ve come a long way in a year: “We’ve proven that we can exist and we can grow.”

He finds humour in their difficulties, saying sometimes it feels like they are on the set of a sitcom: “We’re in season two, and its been very entertaining, not only thinking about the bottom line.”

La Siembra Cooperative, another worker co-op, manufactures and distributes organic fair trade chocolate and sugar products. La Siembra has twice been awarded the Worldwide Democratic Workplace Award by WorldBlu, a not-for-profit social enterprise offering programs, services and awards for democratic workplaces. Cailtin Peeling, the cooperative’s Marketing Communications Manager, reports that while La Siembra has been facing some challenging times, they’ve been able to use the challenges as an opportunity to explore new products and re-affirm their commitment to supporting their production partners in the South.

La Siembra was facing declining sales and stalled growth and was hit hard by the fluctuating US exchange rate. The co-op reacted by focusing its energy on areas where it was still seeing strong sales: baking products. La Siembra found that people still wanted to support organic fair trade products, but were doing so in a more affordable way.

That focus led several of their producer co-op partners to increase manufacturing capacity, allowing them to sell a higher value-added product instead of the raw materials. A producer co-op in Peru now manufactures chocolate chips to send to La Siembra, as opposed to the raw cocoa powder, allowing more of the revenue to stay with the producer in Peru. During the most difficult period, many of the workers at La Siembra took a voluntary reduction in hours.

Peeling says La Siembra has been able to use the tough economic situation to deepen its commitment to its values, not dilute them, by connecting with producer cooperative partners in new ways, and supporting the increased capacity of these co-ops to manufacture their own products. She says, “It's been a tough time but we’ve been really motivated for a longer–term vision.”

The Sleepless Goat, a worker cooperative cafe in downtown Kingston, has gone through a difficult year. While it hasn’t seen a reduction in overall sales, rising food costs and a realization that some menu items were in fact losing money, the Goat had to increase prices. Dave Burling, a worker-owner, says that while the cafe wants to keep menu prices accessible, without the increase the Goat likely would have gone out of business.

It has also been forced to make modest reductions in the number of staff working particular shifts, and has canceled its contract with overnight cleaners.

A sole owner of a business may decide it is in her interest to close up shop; however, the workers at the Sleepless Goat were committed to keeping their doors open, acting in their own collective self-interest to keep themselves employed. “Frankly, if the Goat had been a capitalist business it probably would have closed six months ago,” says Burling.

While difficult, the plan seems to have paid off: the Goat has recovered from the economic shock of last year. The cafe foresees some hurdles, including planned street closures due to construction, and the upcoming increase in minimum wage. Nevertheless, Burling is optimistic, saying that experience has shown that the cooperative model can adapt to change.

Worker cooperatives, like any businesses, are not immune to crises in the economy. They do seem to be surviving better than other business models, however. While every worker cooperative is different, the structure provides more freedom and control to adapt to a changing economic environment. What a cooperative does with that flexibility depends on its values and commitments and the strength of its community. At the very least, the cooperative structure gives workers choices in how to address the challenges they face, allowing them to take their fate into their own hands.

Amanda Wilson lives in Ottawa. She is interested in questions of alternative organizations of work and non-capitalist production and exchange models. She has an MA in Labour Studies.

Bendable Business

Media Pie

Tim McSorley — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 06:40:12 +0000

Argentina’s bold new law and the future of the press

BUENOS ARIES—In 1867, as Canada became itself, every town big enough to have one newspaper had two. Why? When our constitution was fresh and new, the notion of democracy demanded people be informed. And, informed, the people demanded partisanship. Toronto, for example, had the liberal-backed Globe and the conservative Mail, each directly funded by their respective parties. The political ties were clear, and each paper kept its alter ego in check.

With the rise of advertising at the turn of the century, and the ties between the press and the government waned, the responsibility of many newspapers drifted away from the citizens en mass to land in the padded laps of the citizen elite. The private media empires were born, and the invisible hand of the market has fed a few enough to grow them into giants. Meanwhile, this year alone our government’s starvation tactics have lost the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation 800 jobs and a string of programmes.

Yet, just as last century saw its rise, this century is witnessing the fall of advertising. Canwest’s publishing revenues dropped 19 per cent in one year; its staff lost 560 jobs; and Izzy Asper’s empire teeters on the edge of bankruptcy. NewsCorp CEO Rupert Murdoch announced in November that his model is failing, while experts predict that in the next two years, 85 per cent of newspapers will cease to exist.

The model we know is collapsing. And although both are certainly kicking, the public press is too enfeebled and the private is too panicked to propose a viable alternative.

So how about an old-time duel, the kind Canadians used to demand from their local papers? In Argentina the battle between public and private has been raging around a radical new law that redistributes broadcast licences into three equal parts: private, public, and NGO.

As this law comes into force, the Argentinian example serves as a case study of how fascinating things can get when press, politics and power take off their masks—and fight.

A Newspaper

This September, Argentinian president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner hauled a media bill through Congress and the Senate in record time: in October it was signed and became law. The Audiovisual Communication Service Law (LSCA, by its Spanish initials) certainly appears to be popular if you ask the crowds of people marching to mark its victory in the streets of Buenos Aires: “Our current law was passed in 1980 by the dictatorship—it had no place in today’s democracy!” insists an elegant young woman.“ Only commercial interests have been able to publish or broadcast under the old law,” says an elderly man with a soft face.

This was October 10 at 2am: the moment the Senate passed the LSCA 44 votes to 24. Half an hour later, Argentina’s biggest newspaper, El Diario Clarin, responded on its website, claiming, in bold font, that “many [members of the crowd] conceded that they didn’t know what they were supporting or what had happened, and that they had been paid.” The others, the article claimed, “repeated by memory the slogans the government has launched against Clarin.” It was with this exasperated article that Clarin, Argentina’s largest media conglomerate, conceded its defeat.

The media group had fought with claws and teeth for months, throwing all its weight and hate across the countries’ airwaves and front pages. Pick up any copy of Clarin from 2009, and you will be stunned: the newspaper, its vicious headlines and vile adjectives, bold fonts and awful photographs, had become a war cry.

It turns out the now-ousted dictatorship-era law had one principle beneficiary: Clarin. The newspaper reported the 1976 military coup to be “inevitable,” and then reaped the bounty of the new regime: censorship, privatization, and the nation’s press controlled by the State Intelligence Agency. Private media holders in turn supported the dictatorship by silencing reports across the country of systematic murders, in which an estimated 30,000 civilians disappeared.

The dictatorship saw to the eradication of Clarin’s competitors, and the subsequent neoliberal reign of the 1990s brought a series of conglomerations and shady backroom deals that have lifted the newspaper’s parent company, Grupo Clarin, to a close monopoly of Argentina’s television, radio and print. Today, the media group holds more than 264 broadcast licenses nationwide, over a dozen print publications, two of the three nation-wide television networks, and two national radio stations. Clarin is the most watched and read newsgroup in Argentina: El Diario Clarín circulates half a million copies daily, and its electronic version is the most visited Spanish language newspaper on the Internet, whereas Clarin cable reaches 80 per cent of the homes in Buenos Aires and half of homes nationwide.

And just as it had cajoled the dictators during their terror, and president Menem during his infamous beeline into national bankruptcy in 2001, Grupo Clarin faithfully supported Peronista president Nestor Kirchner when he was elected in 2003. At the height of his presidency, President Kirchner enjoyed a 70 per cent approval rating nationwide.

A President

When Nestor Kirchner’s wife, Cristina Fernandez, won the 2007 elections with a sweeping majority (22 per cent above her closest opponent), Clarin was enthusiastic about her win and what they called the continuation of Modelo K. On the front page of the post-election paper, El Diario Clarin affectionately called the new president "Cristina," and quoted her saying that she wanted to call together “the whole society, because a country is not only its government.”

Not two years later, every copy of Clarin discharges the name "Cristina" alongside a string of insults: oligarchy, colonialism and corruption have boldface priority. Dreadful photographs of the president, poorly cropped, red-eye enhanced, and features skewed—a photo editor’s vengeance—relentlessly depict her as a furious despot: and this is exactly how she is now perceived by a great number of her country’s citizens. In a country in which every citizen between 18 and 70 is subject to enforced compulsory voting, recent polls place the president’s popularity at 20 per cent.

Cristina Fernandez has blamed Clarin directly for her fall from grace.

As of December 10, 2009, having lost the midterm vote, president Kirchner will sit seemingly powerless atop the last two years of her coalition government. And so, in her last two months at the helm of Argentina’s quickly sinking Kirchnerism, she has rushed to sign the new media law, which, many people claim, is nothing more than a dagger of retaliation, aimed right at the heart of the writhing Grupo Clarin.

A Law

The people are partly right: the new law is daring and drastic, the kind of law necessarily born from fear and loathing. It has echoes of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s media reform, but it has a singular approach.

By this time next year, Argentina’s media pie will be reallocated in three even slices of 33 per cent each: one will be retained by the private conglomerates, including of course the Grupo Clarin, whereas the other two will be redistributed between state-funded press and non-governmental organisations. Seventy per cent of radio content and 60 per cent of television content be produced in Argentina, and cable TV companies, now fountains of North American media, will be required to carry channels operated by universities, unions, Indigenous groups and other NGOs.

Clarin, furious, is now being forced to sell its empire, at a minimal price, to what has become its enemy: the government.

In a crucial editorial titled, "Don’t violate the freedom of expression," Clarin denounced the State as an imperialistic oligarchy, under whose control Argentinians will be left with nothing more than “a gigantic network of media outlets, apparently diverse, but actually obeying a single voice and serving one single ideology.” What "Cristina" is planning, another editorial fumes, is “to colonize our media.”

The president has been vilified before her entire country, and her attempts to redeem herself by buying expensive commercials and publicly denouncing the mighty Clarin, have, in the eyes of her voters, done nothing but discredit her. Cristina Fernandez has held but three press conferences in two years: her relationship with journalists is clearly reluctant—when not altogether confrontational. Does she now propose herself to be guardian of the media?

A recent poll found most Argentinians agree it is high time for a new law. Yet, almost unanimously, people interviewed on the street have more trust in Clarin than they do in their democratically elected leader.

Although the Argentinian government has perhaps won the airwaves, it seems to have lost the public trust.

A prominent Argentinian journalist, whose anonymity is required to protect his job, pointed out how the situation—Clarin’s arrogance and the government’s vicious new law—is a symptom of the country’s immature democracy. Both Clarin's and the Kirchners' bully tactics have reduced the discussion of the new law to a petty contest, he says, instead of a critical debate about democracy, information, and the future of the press.

The changes in Argentina's media landscape point to a debate that should be worldwide. Argentina has taken a significant step: while journalism is dying elsewhere, it is being turned on in Argentina.

The fall of Argentina’s old law effectively refutes the notion that media is a commercial venture. The Internet negates it; the newspaper gravestones confirm it. In the last two years, the United States has laid off a quarter of its journalists. We have all been watching: “The free market,” as American journalist John Nichols claims, “is killing journalism.”

There is no money in media. But is there no future?

Let's return to the beginning, back when our constitution was shiny and new: At the time, the newspapers in Canada and the US were the most subsidized newspapers in the world. “If there is to be journalism,” says Nichols, “there has to be government intervention,” through a free, federally-subsidized press. It is, he argues, the only answer.

Maybe Argentina is on to something.

Samara Chadwick is a Canadian journalist/filmmaker currently traveling through Latin America. More at http://justsostories.org.

QUICK FACTS

- Percentage of Argentinean media privately owned in 2009 and 2011, respectively: 80, 33
- Percentage of broadcast licences reserved specifically for NGOs in 2009 and 2011, respectively: 0, 33
- Approximate number of hours per day allotted to local television production in 2009 and 2011, respectively: 3, 15
- Grupo Clarin net profits in the third quarter of 2009: 103 million pesos (US$27.1 million)
- Grupo Clarin estimated net profits in the third quarter of 2011: much much less

LINKS

Maria Trigona’s well-researched article on the media law (there aren’t many!): http://upsidedownworld.orr/main/content/view/2166/1/, including a map of Argentina’s current media landscape: http://upsidedownworld.org/main/images/stories/Oct09/medios.gif

Another good article by Eduardo Szklarz: http://ciempre.com/bin/content.cgi?article=846&lang=en

The government-funded, pro-LSCA website, featuring tv-spots and the testimonies of recognized artists, Indigenous leaders, and Diego Maradona himself: http://www.argentina.ar/_es/pais/nueva-ley-de-medios/

"The Future of Journalism" by John Nichols: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuie5rSlY9c

Zeroing in on British Columbia

dawn — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 06:33:23 +0000

An interview with economist Marc Lee

VANCOUVER—Marc Lee’s job as an economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives used to leave him feeling like a voice in the wilderness. But over the years, by making one accurate economic prediction after another, Lee has proven that his voice is worth listening to. One year ago, his small team of economists was the first to raise the alarm about the effects of the US recession in BC.

The Liberal government tabled a budget update last month that is billions of dollars in the red, after predicting a minuscule deficit months before. Lee and his team stand out as a success story amid the doom and gloom. He is a scientist amid a pack of speculators and spinners; an economist who cares about the environment, and BC’s future. Instead of resting on his laurels and saying, “I told you so,” Lee is working to make his economic vision for BC known far and wide.

I met Lee in his small office on the edge of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside to ask him what’s wrong with BC’s economy, and what it might take to fix it.

Marc Lee on who saw the recession coming:

Well, we saw it coming, and we put out a budget brief last fall—it came out in October—that basically said we know something’s coming and here’s a few scenarios of what that might look like based on different projections of economic growth.

Our forecasting has generally been way better than the government’s anyways. They put so much emphasis on these budgets and forecasts and all that stuff [which] get reported in the media the next day, and most of the time they’re just totally wrong. Like, they’re off by billions, consistently.

...on BC’s budget process:

We just came from presenting at the finance committee, for the Budget 2010 consultations, which you know, by and large, is a fairly cynical exercise in my opinion… The cynic in me says that no-one is actually listening, that pretty much [the budget is] decided between the Premier’s office and the Minister of Finance...

...on the role of BC’s Economic Forecasting Council in crafting the budget:

They just sit around the table and throw darts at the board, and say, "Ah, I think GDP is gonna grow 2.4 per cent next year," and a few of them have models [by which] they can enter what they think housing starts are going to be... other people are literally just guessing.

It’s a group that basically, a year ago, had no clue that there was even a recession coming. It seemed pretty clear at the time that there was something coming, and yet they’re all off in their own dream world, which, of course, fed a desire of the government’s to want to have some rosy forecasts going into the budget, 'cause they were coming up to an election. So to the extent that they could say, oh, look, BC’s doing better than everybody else, then [the optimistic budget] plays into their messaging. But it’s not necessarily true.

...on politics:

There is a profound lack of vision coming from any political party, federally, provincially, municipally.

We’ve just come through this period where the dominant politics has been about reducing the size of government, and tax cuts, and that kind of thing. There’s no, you know, counter-set of ideas... There is sort of disparate ideas across all of the left.

The party you’d expect to pick those up would be the NDP, but they’ve been very conservative in what they’re willing to go out on. I think very afraid of saying things that are going to affect certain groups based on where they live or what industry they’re in.

...on how resource extraction is still King:

The resource extraction mindset in BC that we’ve had since the very beginning, since the gold rushes, still dominates public policy today, to a huge extent.

The attitude is basically, open it up to foreign investment, and to attract foreign investment we cut our taxes and deregulate and you know, have low royalties for companies who are coming in. They extract the resource; they ship it generally south of the border, sometimes to China, and other parts; and you know we get something. Historically the bargain has been a number of good-paying union jobs... Even that took several decades to accomplish.

Now, in a world faced with these massive constraints like the climate, it seems we’re still kind of rushing head-long into this, in this field, it’s like, "Oh, we’ve got to create jobs," but how many jobs does the oil and gas sector create? Two thousand jobs, maybe, in a province of four million people. Yet [oil and gas is] responsible for a fifth to a quarter of our total greenhouse gas emissions.

...on BC’s “green” economy:

We’re sort of lacking in any coherent vision about how we handle the resource sector and then how BC would actually transition to a low- or zero-carbon economy.

[Oil and gas] and highway expansion are two major contradictions [to the green economy], even when the government was trying to present a more green face to the public. I do think there was some good things that were brought in [at that time]... Most of those have now been thrown by the wayside, now that the election’s over and the deficit is looming. They’ve cut the few programs that they brought into place.

In the summer the government announced that they were going to be cutting the royalties on oil and gas to attract new investment in that area… During the election campaign I saw a video of a speech from the premier in the northeast; he was like, "I want to quadruple production." This is massively polluting in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.

Unless you find some way of capturing all the emissions associated with the extraction of that resource and combusting it, whether that’s here or in the United States, then yeah, it’s devastating for the planet. Not that we individually are, as a province, responsible for what’s going on, but you know, we have to do our share along with everybody else, and yeah: basically, we’re not.

...on the three pillars of an alternative economy for BC:

Security, sustainability and equality are the three broad themes, I think, that we want to build on in terms of what we want overall.

We need sustainability, [a concept] which is kind of thrown around...

[There are] other aspects of environment as well in terms of toxic chemicals and other forms of pollution that you would want to be concerned about.

Equity [is], you know, the growing gap we’ve seen over the past few decades between the rich and the poor and how we can right that. Which isn’t to say that everyone needs to be equal all the time. But certainly the grotesque inequalities from the poorest of the poor to the richest of the rich is pretty staggering, and probably rivals anything you’d see in any country in the world.

And then some notion of security, I think, especially when we think about climate issues, we need to be thinking about... Do we have a secure food system? Are our water supplies secure? What does this mean in terms of energy and electricity generation? What does this mean in terms of housing or transportation?

The onus is on us to be able to articulate that in a way that says to people,...these are things that are desirable, morally, but that are also going to improve your quality of life.

They’re going to improve your quality of life 'cause you’re going to be eating better food, that’s locally sourced and not contributing to greenhouse gas emissions, or because you’re not going to be spending an hour a half or two hours a day commuting back and forth to work.

...on making the environment a political must:

We put [these ideas] out there to engage the public, engage activists of various stripes, and, hopefully, gain enough momentum with that that any political party has to move in that direction, whether it’s the NDP or the Liberals or what have you.

Look at health care. There’s an example. Even though there’s probably lots of people in the Liberal party who would just like to privatize the whole fuckin’ thing, they can’t, because there’s so much public support behind it.

Now, they can do sly little things on the side... But they can’t fundamentally transform that thing in a really righ- wing, free-market revolutionary way.

So we need to get some of these bigger issues out in a way that has enough popular support that makes it hard for any government to go against it. We’ll see. Time is of the essence.

...on climate change and not giving up on the future:

The challenge we have is that we are facing the mother of all collective action problems. It’s not just BC that needs to act, but the Canadian government, Alberta, United States, China, Europe, Japan. I mean everyone needs to get on this agenda, and if we don’t then we do face a fairly gloomy future.

But you can’t live your life thinking that the world is going to end... You have to have hope that people can wake up and make the change that needs to happen.

Dawn Paley is a journalist and contributing editor with The Dominion.

Marc Lee

North American Badger

Moira Peters — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 06:00:49 +0000

Diggin' it

This proud creature, recognizable by the distinctive white stripe on its otherwise dark brown and black coat, can be found in Central Canada, Western and Central parts of the US, and Northern Mexico.

These solitary souls keep to themselves for most of the year. Communal activity is restricted to the summer mating season and when the females are rearing their young.

Badgers are known for being keen diggers, and justifiably so. Indeed, one of their best defence mechanisms is their ability to dig at an alarmingly fast rate. When in danger, badgers dig to safety, disappearing far underground in less than a minute.

They also dig in order to construct burrows, used for living and pursuing prey. Not content with just one abode, badgers switch between their dens during the warmer months, sometimes on a nightly basis. This high level of activity decreases in the colder months, and during the winter they tend to settle for one den in particular. This allows badgers to spend much of the winter drifting in and out of periods of deep sleep, each of which can last up to 29 hours.

By no means a fussy eater, a badger will feast on squirrels, moles, skunks, ground-nesting birds, lizards, frogs, insects, but also foods like cereals, peas, mushrooms and sunflower seeds.

Although badgers are largely peaceful creatures, the North American badger’s Eurasian cousin is the unfortunate key participant in the blood sport of "badger baiting," which emerged during the Middle Ages in Europe. This involves confining a badger to a small space, letting dogs into this enclosure, and goading them to fight the badger to death. Bets are placed on the outcome.

Unable to dig its way to safety, the badger shows remarkable bravery when cornered by the dogs. Its sharp bite, powerful claws and reckless defence reflexes make it a formidable adversary. Yet badger baiting almost always ends in the death of the badger, while the dogs may only sustain injuries. Despite being illegal, this blood sport still takes place in secret in some parts of Europe.

North American Badger

Queer Country

hillarybain — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 06:00:34 +0000

Mapping queer liberation in rural Nova Scotia

HALIFAX—It all started with a bike trip. During a long distance cycle from Halifax to Pictou County in July, 2008, Sonia Edworthy and Lynne Hood discovered what they called “Queer Paradise” in rural Nova Scotia.

The Mermaid and the Cow campground is situated among beautiful rolling hills, red dirt roads, forests and farmland. It is a place dedicated to providing a safe and fun camping experience for members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) communities and their queer-positive friends.

"I have lived on this farm for 31 years; it's a beautiful place, and it was time to share it," says Jane Morrigan, lesbian, owner of the campground and former dairy farmer, of her decision to open the campground eight years ago. Morrigan loves to explain her connection to the land and the farm: "It's been an intensely powerful force, giving inspiration, hope, sustenance and comfort. Being so close to nature, so close to the beauty of the universe, virtually on my doorstep, has made the difference between getting through things and not getting through things."

Edworthy and Hood, along with their friend Kelly Baker, who was writing her master’s thesis on the experience of rural queer in Nova Scotia, returned to the campground a few months later. In the midst of a snowstorm, they planned a summer event that would embrace the spirit of camp and camping, of coming out and being out.

"I think part of our motivation to organize Camp Out was to create a space outside of the more typically sanctioned spaces for queer people to get together,” says Edworthy. “To create a space that was real and open and safe for people."

"Having experienced a lot of homophobia while growing up, and continuing to face it at my workplace, I wanted to be able to talk about how homophobia and oppression hasn't stopped,” says Hood, of her reasons for organizing the event. "The pieces that are celebrated are there, like freedom, diversity and equality, but there's still so much work to be done."

Camp Out took place on a weekend in July 2009 to celebrate LGBTQ activism in the Maritimes. The event sought to connect and exchange, face-to-face, with rural and urban, older and younger queers; to hear the stories of how it used to be—and how it is; to get a sense of history in rural and urban contexts, and to link the past and present together in the ongoing struggle for human rights.

The Mermaid and the Cow was not the only inspiration for organizing the weekend. The organizers agree that Baker's master's thesis was a prominent inspiration for having the gathering. Baker had recently finished her thesis, and presented her findings at Camp Out.

Baker came out to her community at age 17, in grade 12 high school. She hails from Port Medway, a rural Nova Scotian community on the South Shore, population 200.

"It's important not to paint all small town places as homophobic, as the history books do," says Baker over a coffee in Halifax's North End. "Much of the academic literature traces gay and lesbian liberation back to the cities. If you presuppose that all queer people come out in the city, you leave out so many."

Baker found the academic literature on the subject of coming out in rural areas was mapped onto migration from rural to urban spaces. She discovered a gap in the theory that failed to explain those who didn't move to the city, and those with strong ties to home. People felt more acceptance in small towns than the literature portrayed.

In her thesis work, she interviewed 14 people who had either always lived in rural Nova Scotia, or were born and raised in rural Nova Scotia, moved to the city, then moved back to rural Nova Scotia, with some participants originating from outside the province.

"For many who went to the cities in the '80s, they felt alienated. Although the presence of other queers was satisfying, they didn't feel the sense of community they were looking for."

Baker's experience is the same: her family had lived in Port Medway for six generations. They were so established in the community that when she came out, she was generally accepted. Now Baker lives in Halifax's North End, but she still visits the small fishing town, with it's wooden fishing boats, lighthouses, and clapboard housing.

One similarity she found among her subjects, predominantly women, was that Pictou was "a drawing card" for queer women. Twenty-five years ago, they had weekend campovers of mainly lesbian women, including workshops, communal meals, music and informal gatherings. The rural and the urban were not so separate, as lesbian conferences in the city drew rural dwellers, and vice versa.

"These camping get-togethers probably looked a lot like Camp Out," says Baker.

The theme of Camp Out, announced on the hand-drawn posters that were pasted around Halifax in the summer, read: "Exploring LGBTQ activism in the Maritimes PAST and PRESENT."

Although she recognizes that queer activism in Nova Scotia has always existed, Morrigan thinks the turning point for queer organizing in Nova Scotia was 1994— over the incident known as Skokewall.

In 1994, Roseanne Skoke, a homophobic Liberal MP representing Pictou County, stood up in Parliament and denounced homosexuals, declaring that natural law should deal with all deviants. It was the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York City, largely credited as the first moment in American history when the homosexual community fought back against state policy that discriminated based on sexual orientation. Morrigan and her partner had just returned from the Gay Games in New York. They had a sense of being part of an unstoppable force that was going to win, even in Nova Scotia. They began to organize, protest, demanding Skoke's resignation, leading to a rally in New Glasgow, across the street from her office, with over 100 people in attendance.

Garnering national attention, it got the movement rolling. A group in Pictou formed, called the Homosexualist Agenda. Skoke had said, "These people have an agenda," so they turned the phrase on its head: their agenda was for freedom, equality, and pride.

In the spring of 2008, Pictou County witnessed a resurgence of queer mobilization when local municipalities voted to prevent the flying of rainbow flags on municipal flagpoles. Rallies were held in Pictou and Truro, where over 100 queer people and their allies gathered. This is where Morrigan first met Kelly Baker.

"In 2008, when Truro banned the flying of the rainbow flag, it was a reminder that there are rural queer communities, and that local non-queer residents are also motivated for justice," says Baker.

Older participants of Camp Out felt encouraged by meeting younger queer activists. Robin Metcalfe, former member of the Gay Alliance for Equality, active in gay rights struggle in the 1970's in Halifax, agreed. "For me, I saw that there is a new wave of queer activism."

David Parker is a freelance journalist and queer activist based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and a member of the Halifax Media Co-op. He was born and raised in southern Ontario.

This article was produced by the Halifax Media Co-op.

Camp Out

Beat

Moira Peters — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 06:00:00 +0000

beat_hmeek.jpg

Case Closed?

Moira Peters — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:20:53 +0000

Site 41 resistance seeks revocation of environmental permit

WATERLOO, ON—The “People’s Fire” has been allowed to burn to ashes at the 150-day-old protest camp on 2nd Concession Road in Simcoe County, across from the proposed Site 41 landfill development 45 kilometres east of Blue Mountain, Ontario.

Site 41 sits on top of the Alliston aquifer, which contains some of the world’s purest groundwater and is connected with water sources across Southern Ontario, including Georgian Bay and the Oak Ridges Moraine.

For the protesters, many small victories have been achieved; still, this community demonstrates vigilance in its efforts to ensure a landfill is never built on the property.

September 22, 2009 will remain lodged in the memories of everyone involved in the Site 41 struggle as the day Simcoe County Council voted 26-3 in favour of cancelling the proposed garbage dump project.

However, those who remained encamped until October 20 (when they decided to shut down the protest camp for pre-winter agricultural preparations) note that while the current project has been called off, Council voted 22-7 against a motion to have the Ministry of the Environment’s Certificate of Approval (CofA) rescinded. The defeat of this second motion raises doubts about Council’s sincerity in their disapproval of the controversial dump project.

A communiqué from those who kept vigil at the site after the Sacred Fire was allowed to burn down in September was printed in a recent edition of the Tekawennake News. It declared: “The struggle has been so long, so hard and the most current victory so tangible, so close, that it seems unforgivable to cast any doubt on the enthusiasm so freely offered by the media and politicians.”

The letter continues, “First and most pressing, the CofA is still in effect and its power cannot be underestimated... This is a very real danger.”

Rejecting the current CofA would force any newly-proposed developments to undertake a new environmental impact assessment process. This was a process which, for this contested garbage dump development, took more than 20 years to complete, and was loaded with well-documented political pressure. By not annulling the CofA, Council leaves open the possibility for future development of the site—either for the County or a private developer who purchases the land.

Those writing from the People’s Fire insist they will continue to protest, as their communiqué states, “Until such a time as the Certificate of Approval is revoked for good.”

They acknowledge that, in the face of massive public relations spending by the County, they "need more than ever to maintain a strong presence and not to suddenly fade away in the face of our first victories.” They warn that “there is a very real danger of privatization...” and that without unrelenting pressure, another 30-year-long battle against development could take place, “This time at the hands of a faceless, multinational corporation instead of a local, elected County Council.”

Council has budgeted $250,000 for public relations consultations in an effort at “cleansing the fallout of the Site 41 debacle,” wrote Travis Mealing of the Midland Mirror.

While the debate around the PR costs continues, County environmental services director, Rob McCullogh, insists that restoring the land that was disrupted due to construction of garbage holding cells would be too expensive. The high-end estimate for recovery at the site is $368,000.

Refusing restoration means damage which occurred, according to the Council of Canadians, when cell construction commenced in violation of County Council approval processes, will not be reversed.

County Warden, Tony Guergis, maintains that the County no longer seeks to build a landfill on the site. However, Guergis’ sincerity is also being called into question; soon after he was elected, Guergis changed his stark opposition to the dump to a position of strong support. Meanwhile, County CAO Mark Aitken recently asked, in reference to removing the infrastructure that was built to support a dump site, “Why would [the County] remove all those things when you’re not sure if they have a use in the future?”

While the protest camp itself is no longer active, the campaigns for ecological and social justice continue. The "Restore and Revoke" campaign is working toward having the CofA cancelled and ensuring that the land is restored to a state which is as near its pre-disruption state as possible. A campaign is also underway to have the mischief and intimidation charges dropped for the 17 protesters arrested at Site 41. Only Indigenous protesters were charged with intimidation.

United by the responsibility of local environmental and community protection, and by the direct actions they took to protect the land and the water from the project that the Senior Advisor on Water to the President of the UN General Assembly, Maude Barlow, calls “ill conceived,” the Site 41 resistance vows to persevere until the permanent restoration and protection of this precious land is achieved.

Dan Kellar is a geography PhD student in Waterloo and an analytical banner painter with AW@L.

Site 41 Garbage Drink Cropped

November in Review, Part I

dawn — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 06:07:43 +0000

Kangaroo courts, poisoned babies, and Blackwater bribes

Canadian Omar Khadr will be tried by a US Military Commission, but it is not clear where the hearings will take place or if Khadr will be transferred from Guantanamo Bay. Barry Coburn, Khadr's civilian lawyer, called the decision "devastating and shocking."

A US Army psychiatrist killed 13 people and wounded at least 30 more at the largest army base in the country at Fort Hood, Texas. It is believed that accused Major Nidal Malik Hasan opened fire on the base because he did not want to be deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.

A NATO airstrike in Afghanistan killed 20 people, including a dozen civilians, in Badghis province.

Birth defects have spiked in Fallujah, Iraq due to toxic material left over from heavy fighting between US and Iraqi troops, according to an investigation by The Guardian.

Ex-Blackwater employees admitted that top executives of the US security company bribed Iraqi officials with over $1 million. The bribes were approved by the company after a September, 2007 massacre in which Blackwater employees killed 17 Iraqi citizens in Nisour Square.

Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie, chief of land staff in the Canadian army, indicated in an interview that counter-insurgency would be at the center of Canadian military training over the coming years. "Counter-insurgency will not form the cornerstone of our operations, but it's right in the centre of our spectrum of capabilities we're going to train for," he told the Canadian Press.

A US-backed deal was negotiated in Honduras, only to be declared "dead" shortly afterward by President Manuel Zelaya, who remains trapped in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa. Poor Hondurans suffered from hunger and a lack of medicine because of the coup regime.

Delegates at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in Singapore backed out of a pledge to reduce CO2 emissions by half. The final resolution of the meeting, the last international summit before the UN climate summit in Copenhagen, read only, "We believe that global emissions will need to peak over the next few years, and be substantially reduced by 2050, recognising that the timeframe for peaking will be longer in developing economies."

Seven hours of combat between the FARC and the Colombian army killed nine soldiers in Corinto, a city in south west Colombia. It is reported that 30 members of the FARC were killed in the fighting.

Flooding killed 184 people in El Salvador, with another 58 people reported missing. Over 200 homes are destroyed, 2,000 people have been evacuated, and more than 14,000 people are staying in shelters.

Thousands of people in Okinawa, Japan, protested a US marine base in the region, just before US President Obama arrived in the country.

The City of Toronto won the bid for the 2015 Pan-Am Games. The announcement means renewed real estate speculation in the city, as well as four new Olympic sized swimming pools. "One tiny benefit of getting the Pan Am Games, if we can call it that, is that maybe all the Toronto mega-sport boosters will get it out of their system," and stop pursuing the Olympics, critic Helen Lenskyj told the Toronto Sun.

The RCMP stated that a body found in New Brunswick earlier this week is that of missing teenager Hilary Bonnell, of the Esgenoopetitj First Nation.

Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) staff members circulated a counter-petition to preempt a petition against the CFS which students have been pushing for. The counter-petition includes a line that may cancel the right of endorsers to sign an anti-CFS petition. According to the people who posted the scanned copy of the petition on Wikileaks, "Anonymous sources can confirm that the CFS is not forthright to students about the hidden phrase within the petition that nullifies their signature."

NASA announced plans to begin radiation testing on monkeys, marking the first time in decades the US Space Agency will test on primates.

The mainstream media contributed to the hype around the H1N1 virus and the vaccination program being carried out by the Canadian government. "With the media focusing on deaths in the rare cases, such as otherwise healthy young children, clearly this isn't productive," Alan Cassels, a drug policy researcher, told the CBC. "Logic and rationality, not raw emotion, should govern our responses."

People in the state of Maine voted against same-sex marriage. The campaign against marriage equality was financially backed by churches throughout the US.

Seven hundred people protested the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party's nomination meeting in Red Deer, AB. "It was a message to the delegates that Albertans don't want to see Klein-style cuts in 2009," David Eggen of Friends of Medicare told the Edmonton Journal.

Blackwater Helicopter

No a la Cultura del Golpe de Estado

War in Yemen Means Business

dawn — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:14:59 +0000

While 30,000 IDPs remain inaccessible to relief, US Powered scores nuclear reactor

VANCOUVER—Yemen has been rocked by a series of violent clashes between government and rebel forces from the northern tribes since August, and plans to build a new nuclear reactor has sparked fears of increased tensions.

When the internal conflict in Yemen intensified in August from periodic clashes to full-scale military engagement, President Ali Abdullah Saleh was adamant that his forces would crush the rebel tribes.

"We are determined to destroy this sedition," he said in an address to military school graduates. "We will nip this cancer wherever it exists, in [the province of] Sa'ada or elsewhere."

The northern al-Houthi rebels immediately accused the armed forces of using weapons supplied by the US. A series of videos released by the Houthis displayed weapons they had confiscated from the army during skirmishes over the last year.

Yemen's government has since denounced the northern rebels for wanting to set up an independent Shia state in the country that mimics the pre-1962 theocracy.

In press releases, the government has also accused Iran of backing the Houthis with weapons and training.

On his website, the rebels' leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi has denied both accusations. He countered that his people have been fighting for their rights against a government that has become too cozy with Saudi Arabia, whose fundamentalist Wahhabi Sunni rulers see the 10 million Zaydi Yemeni Shi'ites as heretics. He also stressed the difference between Zaydi and Iranian Shi'ism.

Saudi Arabia has a noted interest in the conflict, and has been accused by Houthis of disallowing internally displaced people (IDPs) from entering its borders. Saudi interests in Yemen are like those of the US—primarily related to the threat of terrorism.

US and Pakistani officials are looking at the Arabian peninsula as the new breeding ground for terrorist activities, alleging a movement out of Afghanistan towards countries such as Somalia and Yemen.

Early in the year, deputy chief of Al Qaeda Ayman al-Zawahiri merged the Saudi Arabian and Yemeni wings of the group. This made enough waves for US President Barack Obama to send Yemen's President a letter in September asking for more cooperation in fighting Al Qaeda in the region.

During US Senator John McCain's August visit to Yemen, he mentioned that the US wholly supports efforts to enhance Yemen's security.

Yemen also gained attention in Canada as an alleged training ground for Canadian Islamic extremists.

"There's a great, and I think growing, fear among policy makers in Washington, in London, in Canada and in Europe about what instability in Yemen will mean for the future of a group like al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula," Canadian Minister of Public Safety Peter Van Loan told the National Post on September 4.

Canadian firms were among those meeting with the Yemeni government in September over talks to build a nuclear reactor there. The deal eventually went to US-based Powered Corporation. Greenpeace was one of the first groups to note that the plant would likely increase instability in Middle East.

Energy shortfalls in Yemen are becoming worse, with rolling blackouts and water shortages affecting multiple provinces, particularly in the south of the country. Protests in that area are becoming increasingly violent, as more people become angry about marginalization by the federal government.

Reports regarding the war in the north are few and sporadic. By the end of September the Yemeni government was alleging that Operation Scorched Earth had killed hundreds of Houthi fighters and pushed the remainder out of their stronghold in Sa'ada.

In an October 14 address commemorating the Yemeni uprising against the British in 1963, President Saleh said that he expected to completely crush the rebels over the next few days.

The rebels have been reporting the opposite, claiming to have captured further cities and killed several government troops in Sa'ada province in September. Houthi sources said the rebels had even seized an army camp in early October.

Facts are hard to obtain since the Yemeni government has shut out news agencies from the area, forcing the latter to rely on government and rebel press releases. Both parties' claims have largely been unsubstantiated.

President Saleh mentioned in an Eid ul-Fitr address that Houthi rebels were using human shields and killing civilians. Resistance fighters countered that the army closed down a hospital because of its alleged links to Iran, and attacked a refugee camp.

Any potential for talks have been rebuffed by the government; further, Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi stated on September 15 that Yemen would reject all offers of external mediation.

One fact that has not been diluted is the humanitarian impact of the fighting. A combination of aerial bombardment by the government and head-to-head fighting have forced thousands to flee their homes.

Since August, 50,000 people have been uprooted to refugee camps or are stranded in the fighting, according to the Economist. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees notes that around 30,000 of these IDPs are inaccessible to relief workers. A total of about 150,000 people have been displaced since the first round of fighting between the government and rebels in 2004.

Coupled with the unrest in the south, the war in the north is quickly earning Yemen its spot as possibly the most increasingly troubled and poorest region in the Middle East.

Isaac K Oommen is a freelance journalist and commmunications coordinator from Dubai, now residing in Vancouver. Born a nomad, Isaac traveled extensively through the Middle East, south-east Asia and Pacific Asia before settling in Vancouver.

Yemen Business

Sprayed Kedgwick Women Fight Back

hillarybain — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:20:03 +0000

Herbicide use set to increase in New Brunswick

On September 4, people working in the woods of northern New Brunswick, including more than 50 women planting trees, were doused with chemicals from a helicopter spraying the public forest to kill the hardwoods for a softwood plantation.

Betty St. Pierre, a spokeswoman for the group of people who say they were sprayed, says people were told to evacuate the area in Kedgwick because of imminent spraying, but the spraying began before they had the chance to leave. According to St. Pierre, tree planters experienced runny eyes, sore throats and nausea after being sprayed by the herbicide.

Many of the women and men are afraid to speak publicly about the event for fear of losing their jobs. St. Pierre, who scales trees for a living, says someone has to speak up.

“We have had enough. They are scaring people by telling them there will be no work. Meanwhile, they are using us as guinea pigs.” She says that since the incident many people have relayed stories of getting sprayed while fishing or working in the woods.

The frustration is apparent in St. Pierre's voice as she describes the community and surrounding forest.

“A man reported fish kills along a stream here after the last spraying. It is not normal to do that to the forest. We can't prove we are sick because of the spraying but cancer and pesticides have been linked. People are starting to question why do so many people in our community, in northern New Brunswick, have cancer, and rare cancers,” she says.

A new high-tech wind tunnel was unveiled at the Acadia Research Forest near Fredericton on the same day that the news broke across the province that women sprayed in Kedgwick were calling for a ban on aerial forest spraying. The HJ Irving-JJC Picot Wind Tunnel will be used to determine the exact location where spraying planes should fly depending on weather and wind.

St. Pierre says her message for the provincial government is to ban all pesticides. St. Pierre and a group of women have held community demonstrations and have collected 5,000 signatures on a petition calling for a ban on aerial forest spraying. They plan to present the petition to New Brunswick Premier Shawn Graham when the NB Legislature reopens on November 17.

On its website, the New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources (DNR) admits it has tried alternatives to spraying herbicides on New Brunswick's public forest but continues to use herbicides because they are cheaper and involve less labour. “Natural Resources has tried clearing the brush using hand tools and brush saws. Cut stems re-sprout the following year, causing severe competition; therefore, these treatments must be repeated often. This raises the cost to over 10 times that of a single application of herbicide.” According to DNR, herbicides are sprayed on approximately 25 per cent of the softwood land cut over each year in the province.

In late January, the province of New Brunswick announced a new plan for the forest that would allow the area of plantations on public lands to increase to 28 per cent. Plantations currently represent 10 per cent of the public forest.

More plantations will mean an increase in herbicide spraying. The increase in plantation area concerns scientists working with the Greater Fundy Ecosystem Research Group. They recommend that plantations not exceed more than 15 per cent of the forest area in order to preserve biodiversity.

St. Pierre points to other regions in Canada that have banned spraying. No herbicides have been sprayed on Quebec's public forest since 2001. Carol Hughes and Glen Thibeault, two NDP MPs in Northern Ontario, are expressing concerns with aerial forest spraying. Hughes is calling for an investigation on the impacts of aerial spraying of glyphosate over forests in northern Ontario.

Over half of the forest in New Brunswick is designated Crown land (public land). This land has never been ceded by its Indigenous people.

Tracy Glynn is the Forest Campaigner at the Conservation Council of New Brunswick and a director on the board of the Dominion Newspaper Cooperative.

Aerial Spraying

Kedgwick - Foresticide cropped

October in Review, Part II

dawn — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 08:48:24 +0000

Bloody weeks and funding for war on a hot, hot planet

The Olympic torch relay kicked off in Victoria, BC, where it was disrupted by activists. "We're going to get out there and we're going to go on a route that we've chosen, with stops that we've chosen, and follow our own agenda," Tamara Herman from No2010 Victoria told the CBC. Anti-Olympic activists in Victoria and Vancouver continued to be harassed by police in the Vancouver Integrated Security Unit.

Abdelkader Belaouni was granted status as a permanent resident in Canada, after spending three years and nine months in a Montréal church. Belaouni, who is blind, fled the civil war in Algeria for the US in 1996, and left the US for Canada in 2003.

Documents obtained by the Canadian Press showed that deportations from Canada rose from approximately 8,300 in 1999 to 12,700 in 2008.

The RCMP seized a ship carrying 76 Tamil migrants off the waters of British Columbia. The occupants of the ship were taken to two detention centers in the Fraser Valley. "Public officials and the media must refrain from stereotyping these migrants as illegals or criminals. They have survived a long and arduous journey in the hopes that the Canadian state will fully comply with its international refugee and human rights law obligations,” said Peggy Lee in a press release put out by No One Is Illegal Vancouver.

More than 50 people confronted immigration minister Jason Kenney at McGill University in Montréal. “I plead guilty, I’m a racist,” said Kenney, with a "hint of sarcasm" according to a release by organizers with No One Is Illegal Montréal.

US war resister Rodney Watson took sanctuary in a Vancouver Church. He was scheduled to be deported to the US on September 11. He has a fiancee and 10-month-old son in Vancouver. "We are also in agreement that this choice, by both Rodney and the church, is consistent with Canadian traditions and values of peaceful resistance to unjust decisions by government. We reiterate that through two majority votes, Parliament has called on the Government of Canada to stop the deportation of these war resisters," said a release from the War Resisters Support Campaign.

Westcan Paper announced that it would shut its Eurocan Paper Mill in Kitimat, BC. The closure will result in the loss of 535 jobs.

More than 100 protestors disrupted question period about Bill 311, the Climate Change Accountability Act, in Parliament, yelling "I say 311; you say 'Sign it'." They were removed from the gallery of the House of Commons by security. "In the lead up to Copenhagen's UN Climate Conference in December, we may expect to see even more actions like this," wrote activist Ben Powless.

Members of the Tsilhqot’in Nation and their supporters protested outside of a Vancouver hotel against Taseko Mines Ltd's proposed Prosperity project. If approved, the Prosperity mine would result in the destruction of Teztan Biny (Fish Lake), a fish bearing lake in Tsilhqot’in territory. “We are planning on getting our word out that we are opposed to mines being developed in our area. It’s a mine that will drain a lake in our territory. The lake is situated directly above the Taseko River, which is a destination for salmon,” Loretta Williams, Mining Coordinator with the Tsilhqot’in National Government, told The Tyee.

Yukon Territory's Liberal opposition leader Arthur Mitchell argued that Premier Dennis Fentie should be held in "contempt of house" for misleading Yukoners about his talks with ATCO, a private energy company. Fentie continues to deny he was in talks to privatize Yukon Energy.

Ex President George W. Bush visited Canada, where he was met with protests in Edmonton, and had shoes thrown at him in Montréal.

A negotiated settlement was reached in Honduras, which if approved by congress would see President Manuel Zelaya return back to power until elections on November 29. In a statement about the negotiated deal, the National Front Against the Coup D'Etat stated "We reiterate that the National Constituent Assembly is an absolute aspiration of the Honduran people and a nonnegotiable right for which we will continue struggling in the streets, until achieving the refoundation of society to exist in justice, equality and true democracy."

A series of coordinated explosions in Baghdad killed over 150 people in what the BBC called Iraq's "bloodiest" attack since April 2007.

More than 90 people were killed in Peshawar, Pakistan, when a car bomb exploded in a market. The explosion occurred as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited the country. According to Al Jazeera, the explosion was the ninth recorded attack in Pakistan since the beginning of October.

Activists in New York and Los Angeles protested police brutality on the 14th annual National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression, and the Criminalization of a Generation. "When you think of what we represent; of people who have been beaten up, locked up and killed, we are a strong, powerful voice that can make change in this country and on this planet," said spokesperson Aidge Patterson at the LA event. On the same day, four cop cars were torched in Seattle. Organizers from the coalition that organizes the National Day of Protest denied any links.

In Washingon, President Obama signed off on a US$680 billion war budget.

The Yes-Men carried out a successful hoax by having a member pose as a representative from the US Chamber of Commerce and admit to a reversal of their position on climate change. "We believe that climate legislation currently being considered by the U.S. Senate is a great start towards a bill that will spur American innovation, create jobs, and give us all a good chance of survival," said Yes Man Andy Bichlbaum during a news conference. The mainstream media reported on the hoax as if it was real news.

Victorians out against the Olympic Torch

Hondurans for Democracy