The Curious Case of Canada’s Missing Cholera Treatment Camp

Posted: October 6, 2011 in In Solidarity
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Cholera kills. Since the UN brought the disease to Haiti last year, 6,000 have died. Because this disease thrives in countries that lack potable water and sewage treatment infrastructure, it is unlikely to be eradicated soon in that country.

Cholera treatment facilities are likely to be an ongoing need in Haiti for some time to come. According to researchers at Harvard and University of California (San Francisco), the number of infections could rise to 779,000 this year. Sensibly, the Canadian Red Cross (CRC) did its part last November by setting up an 80-bed cholera treatment camp in Carrefour, and staffing it with 14 Canadian health and technical professionals, as well as local medical personnel.

However, with much fanfare, the Canadian Red Cross announced, in April 2011, that it was turning the operation over to the Haitian Red Cross. According to the CRC, cholera incidences had been reduced significantly. In the breathless, feel-good prose favoured by propagandists everywhere:

“That’s the real strength of the Red Cross,” explains Dave Batement, head of the Canadian Red Cross cholera treatment centre team. “We are training personnel from the Haitian Red Cross and giving them the tools they need to take over when we leave.”

Would that it were so . . .

In June, 2011, the Canada Haiti Action Network dispatched a small team to Haiti to gather information, gauge progress and learn how Canadians might express their solidarity. One of their objectives was to visit the cholera treatment camp in Carrefour.

This is what they went looking for.

This is what they found.

According to CHAN coordinator Roger Annis, the CRC didn’t transfer the centre; it closed it. “We met with Haitians there who told us the story,” says Annis, who added that the story was confirmed by staff at a nearby cholera treatment camp operated by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), who also told him of the increase in cholera cases after the CRC closed its camp.

Upon returning to Canada, Annis contacted the CRC for an explanation. Unwilling to be swayed by a few facts, the CRC spokesperson insisted that the camp was operating. Sigh . . . (insert your favourite expletives here).

Annis, and fellow delegation member Sandra Gessler, of the Winnipeg Haiti Solidarity Group, reported on their trip on September 26, 2011, in Winnipeg. As is my habit, I packed my video camera.

David McNally on Global Crisis and Global Resistance

Posted: October 3, 2011 in Nibbling on The Empire
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David McNally teaches political science at York University in Toronto and is active in many social justice movements in that city. On Sept. 24, 2011, McNally spoke at the Mondragon Bookstore and Coffee Shop as a featured presenter at Winnipeg Radical Bookfair and DYI Fest. His topic: Global Crisis – Global Resistance.

Length: 60 minutes
Camera: Paul S. Graham and Harold Shuster
Editing and Production: Paul S. Graham

Manitoba Election: Tory drops the nuclear ball; Green kicks it out of the province

Posted: September 16, 2011 in Environment
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When asked if her party would support a moratorium on transporting radioactive nuclear fuel waste through Manitoba, Progressive Conservative candidate Heather Stephanson equivocated, saying she would not answer a “hypothetical question.”

By contrast, Green Party Leader James Beddome answered with a thunderous denunciation of allowing nuclear waste on Manitoba soil and declared the possibility of a Conservative government being elected Oct. 4 to be “hypothetical.”

Judging from the applause for Beddome and the lack of it for Stephanson, it was clear where the audience stood on this issue.

This is not a hypothetical issue. A movement has sprung up in Saskatchewan to prevent the establishment of a nuclear waste dump.  A respected aboriginal elder, Emil Bell, is on a hunger strike against storing nuclear waste in Saskatchewan.

Kudos to Beddome for clearly stating his party’s anti-nuke position.

You can see the whole debate at here.

Video: 2011 Manitoba Election Environment Forum

Posted: September 16, 2011 in Act Locally, Environment, Winnipeg
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Manitoba citizens will elect a new provincial government Oct. 4, 2011 and environmental issues will play an important role in determining which political party forms that government.

Where should Manitoba Hydro construct its planned Bipole 3 transmission line – or should it be built at all?

How should we save Lake Winnipeg from choking to death on toxic algae?

How best can Manitobans respond to rising energy costs and climate change?

These are only some of the issues that representatives of four political parties debated in this two-and-a-half hour public forum held Sept. 14., 2011 in Winnipeg. Naturally, I brought my video camera.

Moderator: Terry MacLeod, CBC Information Radio

Panelists:
– James Beddome, Green Party of Manitoba
– Paul Hesse: Liberal Party of Manitoba
– Jennifer Howard: New Democratic Party of Manitoba
– Heather Stephanson: Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba

Sponsors:
– Manitoba Eco-Network
– Green Action Centre
– Provincial Council of Women of Manitoba
– Green Action Committee of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Winnipeg

Video: Winnipeg Lanterns for Peace 2011

Posted: August 24, 2011 in Peace, War, Winnipeg
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Every August 6, Winnipeggers commemorate the August 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with a Lanterns for Peace Ceremony. People come together to make and float their lanterns in a pond in the middle of the city to express their desire for a peaceful world and to show solidarity with countless others around the world who are doing something similar on that day.

The Cast

  • Glenn Morison – Project Peacemakers
  • Ismaila Alfa – CBC Radio
  • Doug Martindale – MLA, Burrows Constituency
  • Steve Plenert – Mennonite Central Committee
  • Jessica Nagamori – Manitoba Japanese Canadian Citizens’ Association
  • Terumi Kuwada – Manitoba Japanese Canadian Citizens’ Association
  • Haley Rempel – Flautist

Lanterns for Peace Sponsors

The Crew

Video: A Vigil for Harvey Sanderson

Posted: August 17, 2011 in Human Rights, In Solidarity
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On August 3, 2011 – four days after being viciously assaulted in his Winnipeg apartment, Harvey Sanderson Junior died of his injuries. He was 27.

What made this crime especially shocking was that Harvey had brittle bone disease, a condition that confined him to a wheelchair.

Friends, neighbours and people who had never met him were saddened and horrified by Harvey’s murder.

And so, on August 12, they joined together with the Manitoba League of Persons with Disabilities to express their grief and their solidarity at a vigil for Harvey and all other persons with disabilities who are victims of violence.

The story does not end here. Within hours of Sanderson’s unconscious body being transported to the hospital, Winnipeg City Police arrested two suspects, Bobbi Melissa McKay and John Raven Ward, both 27, and charged them with aggravated assault and robbery. Following Sanderson’s death, police announced they were considering upgrading these charges.

The way in which a police spokesperson expressed this has raised red flags for local activists:

“Given the nature of the condition of the victim in this case, it’s something that has be looked at very carefully in consultation with the Crown’s office,” said Const. Rob Carver, spokesman for the Winnipeg Police Service.

The concern is that the Crown will prosecute McKay and Ward for aggravated assault, rather than murder, because of a misguided belief that Sanderson’s disability, rather than his beating, was the cause of his death. As Bonnie Bieganski said at the vigil:

“He was a healthy male with a disability. Yes, he had brittle bone disease but that disease does not require emergency brain surgery, the use of life support to sustain him nor induce a comatose state. Sanderson would be alive today if he had not been brutally beaten. The fact that the Crown will only upgrade the charges if it can be proven that it was the assault that killed Sanderson is an outrage.”

That Sanderson’s killing might be treated differently because of his disability is not an isolated or unrealistic concern. As we heard from several speakers at Harvey Sanderson’s vigil, vigilance is called for.

Winnipeg Lanterns for Peace

Posted: August 4, 2011 in Peace
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On Monday, August 6, 1945, at 8:15 a.m., the nuclear bomb “Little Boy” was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan by an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay. An estimated 130,000 people were killed.

On August 9, 1945, Nagasaki was the target of America’s second atomic bomb attack. At 11:02 a.m., the north of the city was destroyed and an estimated 70,000 people were killed by the bomb nicknamed “Fat Man.”

Over the years and decades that followed, thousands more died from a variety of radiation induced diseases. Even now, after more than six decades, many aftereffects persist, including leukemia, A-bomb cataracts, and cancers of thyroid, breast, lungs, salivary glands, birth defects, and disfiguring radiation burn scars.

The psychological damage arising from widespread chronic illness and the destruction of families and communities cannot be measured.

For many years, Winnipeggers have commemorated these tragedies and reaffirmed our commitment to peace and freedom from nuclear terror. We symbolize our commitment with a Lantern Ceremony.

Aug. 6, 2010: Winnipeggers gather at Memorial Park to launch their Lanterns for Peace. Photo: Paul S. Graham

Aug. 6, 2010: Lanterns reflect the individual aspirations of the artist. Photo: Paul S. Graham

August 6, 2010: Winnipeg Lanterns for Peace. Photo: Paul S. Graham

The Lantern Ceremony is part of an ancient Buddhist Ceremony (O-Bon), that commemorates the lives of deceased loved ones. For many years around the world, this ceremony has been used on Hiroshima Peace Day to honour and embrace the memory of those who died because of the attacks.

During these ceremonies, participants are invited to design a lantern that represents their thoughts and feelings regarding personal losses, global concerns of peace, nuclear disarmament and any other issue relevant to keeping our planet safe.

In addition to lanterns, we make origami peace cranes to commemorate the story of “Sadako and a Thousand Paper Cranes.”

Sadako Sasaki, a 10-year old girl, became sick with leukemia from the effects of the atomic bomb in post war Japan. She believed in an ancient tale that if you made 1000 paper cranes, you would be granted a wish. She wished for good health.

She died before she completed making the cranes and her classmates completed the task for her. Each year, thousands of paper cranes from all over the world adorn the statue of Sadako in the Hiroshima Peace Park in Hiroshima, Japan.

As important as it is to commemorate the horrible tragedies of August 6 and 9, 1945, more is required of us to prevent a recurrence of this disaster. Nine countries are known to possess nuclear weapons (United States, Russia, United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel). Together, they possess an estimated 8,000 active nuclear warheads and more than 22,000 in storage. The explosion (accidental or deliberate) of only one of these weapons would cause unthinkable suffering and destruction.

The nuclear threat is too serious to be ignored. We cannot rest until each of these nuclear weapons has been dismantled.

How you choose to work for a nuclear free world is up to you. There are numerous options. Here a few of the many Internet resources available to help you get involved.

If you live in or close to Winnipeg, you should consider contacting any of the sponsors of Winnipeg Lanterns for Peace:

And, of course, you shouldn’t miss out on Winnipeg Lanterns for Peace 2011.

Finally, the Canadian Peace Alliance is a good source of information on peace groups across Canada. The important thing is to become informed and involved.

Video: Yves Engler, cars, capitalism and catastrophe

Posted: July 27, 2011 in Environment
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I’m half-way through “Stop Signs: Cars and Capitalism on the road to economic, social and ecological decay” by Bianca Mugyenyi and Yves Engler and I’m already regretting my decision, a year ago, to replace my aging Mazda with a brand new Kia Soul. I would have been better off with a bus pass and the world would have been one infinitesimally tiny step closer to sanity.

By every conceivable measure, private automobile ownership is an irrational choice that drains our health, destroys our environment and locks us in a downward spiral of indebtedness. In a discussion hosted by the Manitoba Eco-Network on July 7, 2011 in Winnipeg, Yves Engler explains why.

Israel and Palestine: What is going on and what can we do?

Posted: July 12, 2011 in Human Rights
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On June 8, 2011, Project Peacemakers Forum panelists Loraine MacKenzie Shepherd and Howard Davidson discussed “Israel and Palestine: What is going on and what can we do?”

Did they succeed in answering these questions? Yes and no. No, because this is a huge, complex topic and considerably more time would be required to present it in a comprehensive way. Yes, because they provide a starting point for people trying to get a sense of the issue, both in terms of understanding some of the complexities and in pointing to actions people can take to contribute to a resolution of the conflict.

Loraine MacKenzie Shepherd is an Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Theology at the University of Winnipeg. As a member of the General Council Theology and Inter-church Interfaith Committee, she was part of an official United Church delegation that went to Israel and Palestine in February of this year, to update United Church policies and theology on the Middle East.

Howard Davidson is an Associate Professor in Extended Education at the University of Manitoba. He is also a member of the steering committee of Independent Jewish Voices and has visited Israel and the Occupied Territories on several occasions. He has published articles on Education and the Occupation.

Video: Support the Canadian Boat to Gaza

Posted: July 2, 2011 in Human Rights, In Solidarity
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Today, Winnipeg activists responded to the actions of the Greek government to block the Tahrir and other vessels that make up Freedom Flotilla II from sailing for Gaza with an information picket in the city’s Osborne Village neighbourhood.

The Tahrir is the Canadian vessel in the Flotilla. As with all of the other boats and crews, the Tahrir is committed to peace and nonviolence. Its mission is to deliver humanitarian aid to the suffering people of Gaza and to pressure the Israeli government to end its illegal and oppressive blockade of Gaza.

Get informed and take action. These folks can provide both information and opportunities for action.

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