Archive for January, 2008

Canada's Glaring Double Standards on Torture

Posted: January 20, 2008 in Uncategorized
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By Andy Worthington, Counterpunch Magazine, Jan. 19/20, 2008

How humiliating.

The story begins with the shameful case of Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian who was kidnapped by US agents as he changed planes in New York in 2002, and rendered to Syria, where he was tortured for a year on behalf of the Americans before being released.

Mr. Arar — who was awarded millions of dollars in compensation by the Canadian government in January 2007, but has yet to receive even an apology from the US administration — had been wrongly fingered by Canadian intelligence, and his case his one of many chilling examples of the damage caused by failed intelligence in the American’s program of “extraordinary rendition.”

In an attempt to prime diplomats about how to spot the signs of torture when they visit Canadians in foreign jails, the Canadian government’s Foreign Affairs Department instigated a “torture awareness workshop,” which also informed the diplomats of where they could expect to find what CTV in Canada described as “countries and places with greater risks of torture.”

The list, in a training manual issued by the Foreign Affairs Department, included traditional offenders — Afghanistan, China, Egypt, Iran, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Syria — but also included some torturers that are not generally mentioned in polite Western company: Israel and the United States. Specific mention was made of Guantánamo Bay, where, to drive the point home, the manual noted specific “US interrogation techniques,” including “forced nudity, isolation, and sleep deprivation.”

Oops. READ MORE.

Afghanistan: Decision for Canada approaches

Posted: January 18, 2008 in Uncategorized
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Canadian soldier patrols in Afghanistan

Above Photo: Sgt Frank Hudec, Photographer, Canadian Forces Reserves Combat Camera Team

Above: Afghan children look on while Canadian soldiers patrol a village near Kabul.
Below: one of the thousands of victims of NATO operations.

Afghanistan - airstrike casualty

The Manley commission is expected to release its report next week on Canada’s military future in Afghanistan. Parliament may vote as early as next month on whether to continue killing Afghanis beyond February 2009. Expect the steady of pro-war propaganda to become a torrent and then a deluge in the coming weeks — brave Canadians confronting a cunning, ruthless enemy while bringing freedom and democracy to the downtrodden Afghani masses. In today’s Winnipeg Free Press, for example, it was reported:

CFB EDMONTON — The spine of NATO is “made in Canada,” a senior military leader told about 1,300 Afghanistan-bound soldiers Thursday at the Edmonton Garrison.

In a packed auditorium, Brig.-Gen. Mark Skidmore told the soldiers they were among the best in the world.”You embody everything that Canada stands for, and all Canadians are proud of you,” he said. “This is your gift to Canada. You are going to help people who need your strength, bravery and compassion.”

The insurgents in Afghanistan have “learned that NATO does have a spine, and that spine is made right here in Canada,” he said . . .READ MORE

Meanwhile, the Canadian Press reported today that Canadian troops have been accused of slaughtering civilians:

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Canadian and coalition forces trying to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan people face the prospect of a new kind of insurgency as a result of mounting civilian casualties from military operations.

Frightened residents in one village say tension is brewing after Canadian gunfire hit civilians during a battle with insurgents about five days before Christmas.

A 12-year-old boy said he was there when soldiers – whom he insisted were Canadian because he recognized their vehicles – shot and killed his father and 7-year-old brother while they tended crops north of Kandahar city.

“I said `Let’s go. Let’s run.’ But my father said `What are you talking about? We have shovels in our hands, no one’s going to shoot us’,” said the boy, whose guardian asked that he use an alias, Niamatullah, for fear of reprisal . . . READ MORE.

To date, 77 Canadian soldiers have died in Afghanistan to protect a government of warlords and drug lords while shoring up the crumbling American Empire. That is bad enough.

Worse, we’ve played an active role in the slaughter of thousands of civilians. How many thousands? That is under dispute and reliable statistics are hard to come by.

Bombing Victim - Afghanistan

A survivor of the June 27, 2007 air strike that killed 45 citizens of Girishk, Afghanistan.

It is time to tell our elected representatives “Enough, already!!” It is time for Canadians to stop murdering the people of Afghanistan. It is time for Canada to become a force for peace in the world. Military force will not resolve the problems in Afghanistan — it will only make them worse. Canadians who watch the slaughter perpetrated in our name and remain silent are complicit in it. Write your MP today.

A cat named Pinky denounces America's crimes against humanity

Posted: January 13, 2008 in Uncategorized
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portrait_pinky_tn.jpgThe Pinky Show is a damned cute, hand-drawn educational TV show that focuses on information and ideas that have been misrepresented, distorted, suppressed, ignored, or otherwise excluded from mainstream discussion. The main character of the show, a cat named Pinky, presents and analyzes the material in an informal, easy-to-understand way.

Are these shows for children? They could be useful in a classroom setting. However, as the creators put it: “Although the simplified visual style of the show recalls children’s programming, The Pinky Show is in fact intended for an adult audience.”

In the episode I watched, I appreciated the down to earth, factual and non-rhetorical presentation of the evidence that the American government is guilty of numerous crimes against humanity in Iraq.

Episodes are available on the internet for free at www.PinkyShow.org. Here’s the episode entitled “The Iraq War: Legal or Illegal.” Please share it widely.

Is Canada joining the Surveillance Societies of the World?

Posted: January 9, 2008 in Uncategorized
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Big Brother

Is Canada joining the Surveillance Societies of the world? Not yet, perhaps, but we are on the way.

Each year since 1997, the US-based Electronic Privacy Information Center and the UK-based Privacy International have conducted a comprehensive survey of global privacy. The Privacy & Human Rights Report surveys developments in 70 countries, assessing the state of surveillance and privacy protection. The most recent report published in 2007, available at http://www.privacyinternational.org/phr.

In 2006, Privacy International decided to use this annual report as the basis for a ranking assessment of the state of privacy in all European Union countries together with eleven non-EU benchmark countries. The new 2007 global rankings extend the survey to 47 countries (from the original 37) and, for the first time, provide an opportunity to assess trends. PI has mapped the results and if current trends hold, we may all have to move to Greece to escape the prying eyes of government spies — which is pretty scary when you consider the less than democratic state of this birthplace of democracy over the last few decades — but I digress.

Privacy International observes “The 2007 rankings indicate an overall worsening of privacy protection across the world, reflecting an increase in surveillance and a declining performance of privacy safeguards.”

Canada, which in 2006 was described by PI as a country with “significant protections and safeguards” has slipped to the status of having “some safeguards but weakened protections.” While we seem to be moving, lockstep, with the rest of the countries surveyed, we still have a way to go before we join the category described by PI as an “Endemic Surveillance Society.”

Who are the “endemic surveillance societies?” They include China, Russia, the UK and the United States. Given Stephen Harper’s fabled love of all things American, we should be concerned.