Paul S. Graham

The 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? 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.

Photo: BBC — The state of Tabasco suffered the worst flooding in 50 years.

A Winnipeg family and Assiniboine Credit Union (ACU) have partnered to channel donations to nongovernmental relief agencies assisting Mexican flood victims in the state of Tabasco.

“The situation in Tabasco is extremely serious,” says Winnipegger Jorge Leon, whose extended family is among those hardest hit by the disaster. “Even though the news media have stopped covering the story, many people need our help to cope with shortages of food, drinking water, clothing and medicines.”

Donations can be made at any of ACU’s 22 branches in Winnipeg, or at their Gillam and Thompson branches.

The flood, which covered parts of Chiapas and 80 per cent of Tabasco destroyed hundreds of thousands of houses and businesses and directly affected over one million people. At least 90 per cent of the city of Villahermosa, Tabasco’s state capital, was under water and 80 per cent was without electricity and running water. While flood waters have receded in most parts of the state, the devastation will be felt for much time to come.

Many people are dependent on aid for food, water and medicine because the economy is at a standstill until the cleanup is completed and businesses can reopen.

“Many Manitobans know from personal experience how terrible it is to be flooded out,” says Leon. “Imagine how much more serious the situation is in countries that are not as wealthy as Canada.”

The Leon family of Winnipeg is urging Manitobans to help. People who donate to “Mexican Flood Relief” at the ACU can direct their contribution to either the Canadian Red Cross or the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace.

The Canadian Red Cross will channel funds to the Mexican Red Cross; CCODP will direct donations to Caritas Mexicana.

Funds will be used to provide emergency assistance in the form of drinking water, food, clothing, health and sanitation kits, mosquito nets, and cooking utensils. It will also help in the coordination efforts currently underway to help families to return to their houses, by providing them with cleaning kits to help them sanitize and clean their homes.

The relief agencies will issue charitable tax receipts for donations over $10.

The federal government has created a panel to review Canada’s role in Afghanistan beyond the current mandate.

Former Liberal MP and deputy prime minister John Manley was appointed chair of the five-person committee.

The other members of the panel are Derek Burney, former ambassador to the United States and chief of staff to former prime minister Brian Mulroney; former clerk of the Privy Council Paul Tellier; former Conservative cabinet minister Jake Epp, who served in both Joe Clark’s and Mulroney’s governments, and Pamela Wallin, former journalist and Canada’s former consul general in New York.

Manley’s position in the Liberal Party will doubtless be trumpeted as proof this committee is nonpartisan and independent. As Stephen Harper expressed it at his news conference: “I am pleased to announce the formation of an independent panel of eminent Canadians who will consider our options and provide expert non-partisan advice that will help parliamentarians make our decision.”

Independent? Nonpartisan? Where are the members of the Bloc Quebecois? Where are the New Democrats?

From here it looks like a committee set up to tell Harper what he wants to hear.

Manley’s position is indistinguishable from that of Mr. Harper. Early in 2002, an interview with Manley was posted on Mapleleafweb which is pretty revealing. For Manley, the “military action in Afghanistan is an act of self-defence . . .”.

Harper has said many times over the past while that he wants to maintain Canada’s military presence in Afghanistan beyond 2009. Don’t be surprised if this committee tells him exactly what he wants to hear.

Michael Byers, one of Canada’s outspoken critics of the war in Afghanistan, will be speaking in Winnipeg next Thursday.

Date: Thursday, October 4, 2007
Place: Club Room, Hotel Fort Garry
Time: 7 PM
Admission: A suggested donation of $5 to defray expenses has been requested by the sponsors.
Sponsor: Peace Alliance Winnipeg

Dr. Byers’ work focuses on the interaction of international law and international politics, especially with regard to international organizations, the use of military force, the law of the sea, human rights and Canada-United States relations.

He is a regular contributor to the London Review of Books, Toronto Star and Globe and Mail, and is the author, most recently, of Intent for a Nation: What is Canada for? (Vancouver/Toronto: Douglas & McIntyre, June 2007).

He holds a Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and International Law at the University of British Columbia, where he also serves as a faculty member at the Liu Institute for Global Issues. Prior to July 2004, he was a tenured Professor of Law and Director of Canadian Studies at Duke University. From 1996-1999, he was a Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford University.

Here is an excerpt from a recent article Byers wrote for the Globe and Mail:

“… Travelling through Europe this month, I’ve been struck by how national debates in different NATO countries take place in isolation from each other. Many Germans, for instance, assume Canadians support the counterinsurgency mission in southern Afghanistan. Similarly, many Canadians assume the 3,000 German soldiers in relatively safe northern Afghanistan aren’t going anywhere soon.

“In fact, 54 per cent of Germans think their soldiers should be withdrawn. In the Netherlands, 58 per cent want the 2,000 Dutch troops brought home by next year. Even in Poland, where the government strongly backs the mission and none of its 1,100 soldiers have been killed, a staggering 78 per cent oppose the Polish presence in Afghanistan.

“Governments have fallen because of their support for the mission. In Italy, Prime Minister Romano Prodi resigned in February after losing a Senate vote over a foreign policy that included keeping 1,800 troops in Afghanistan. Although he was asked to form a new government, Italy’s commitment to the mission remains tenuous at best.

“Other governments are teetering on the edge . . .”

Including ours. Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe has repeatedly threatened to topple the government unless there is a clear mandate to withdraw troops from Afghanistan by February 2009.

In my view, 2009 is not soon enough. But toppling this government is an appealing prospect. Maybe it will help speed up the process of getting Canada out of one of America’s dirty wars.

Peter Holle, of the Frontier Institute for Public Policy (FIPC), writes in the September 23 issue of the Winnipeg Free Press (Parable of the drug dealer):

“The idea that our carbon emissions are destroying the planet, however, is beneficial to anyone involved in this particular science. As long as we think we face a choice between our industrialized way of life and saving the planet, global warming is a big research topic, a big lobbying issue, a big political opportunity and a big media story.”

He goes on to suggest that various groups expressing concerns about global warming are motivated by financial interests (Greenpeace, the news media, etc.) and anti-capitalist political interests (coyly described as “the older class-struggle and state ownership types“).

He even attaches a dollar value to this conflict of interest:

“If conservative estimates of the dollar amounts of U.S. government research grants are correct, climate change is a $2 billion a year industry.”

Even if Holle’s unsourced “conservative estimate” of $2 billion is accurate, it is chump change compared to the reported profits of the major oil companies in 2006:

1. Exxon Mobil ($39.5 billion),
2. Royal Dutch Shell ($25.4 billion)
3. BP ($22.0 billion)
4. Chevron ($17.1 billion)
5. ConocoPhillips ($15.55 billion)

Holle continues

“If, as many contend, we are experiencing natural warming with minimal impact, more research is unnecessary.”

Who are these “many” who are contending that we are experiencing “natural warming”????

Perhaps one of Holle’s “many” is FIPC research advisor Tim Ball. Ball, who taught at the University of Winnipeg until 1996, has made a name for himself as a climate change denier. According to DeSmog Blog:

“Ball is listed as a “consultant” of a Calgary-based global warming skeptic organization called the “Friends of Science” (FOS). In a January 28, 2007 article in the Toronto Star, the President of the FOS admitted that about one-third of the funding for the FOS is provided by the oil industry. In an August, ’06 Globe and Mail feature, the FOS was exposed as being funded in part by the oil and gas sector and hiding the fact that they were. According to the Globe and Mail, the oil industry money was funnelled through the Calgary Foundation charity, to the University of Calgary and then put into an education trust for the FOS.”

According to Holle:

“There is no global warming conspiracy. But there is a group of people, let us call them translators, who inform us about scientific issues we cannot understand first-hand. These translators have their own incentives, which mostly tend toward keeping the man-made global warming hypothesis alive. When the warming lobby warns of perverse incentives distorting the debate, they just might be right.”

The same might be said for Holle and his organization. FIPC is a neo-liberal think tank whose raison d’etre seems to be promotion of untrammeled economic growth, deregulation, smaller governments, and so on. FIPC preaches the mantra of freedom through wealth creation and property rights.

Holle’s personal history includes a stint as senior policy advisor in the Saskatchewan government of Grant Devine during the 1980s, according to SourceWatch. Devine’s rule was marked by large scale privatization, reductions in public services and corruption. Devine left the people of Saskatchewan with a $15 billion debt. One might wonder what role Holle played in the sell-off of Crown corporations and natural resources that destroyed Saskatchewan’s public institutions and history of balanced budgets.

I agree with Holle on one thing. There is no “global warming conspiracy.” But the “climate change deniers conspiracy” — that is another question.

For a lighter look at climate change denial . . .

Canadians should feel shame and outrage at the decision of the Harper government to vote against the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Reading the document, it is not difficult to understand why the Tories are unwilling to join the rest of the world in recognizing the rights of aboriginal peoples. Virtually every aspect of the declaration speaks eloquently and forcefully against abuses of the kind perpetrated by Canadian governments for generations.

Don’t take my word for it. Read the declaration and judge for yourself.

Who can possibly be opposed to security and prosperity, much less partnership?

The Council of Canadians, Canadian Labour Congress, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the Communications, Energy & Paperworkers Union of Canada, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, Common Frontiers-Canada and the Quebec Network on Continental Integration — that’s who!

On August 20-21, Stephen Harper, George Bush and Felipe Calderón are meeting in Montebello, Quebec, to discuss continent-wide harmonization of regulations affecting energy, military, environment, foreign, immigration, health care, and etc — also known as the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America. Only in our wildest dreams could we expect this trio to work on an agreement that will offer improvements in these areas.

The Council of Canadians is promoting a National Day of Action against the SPP.

In Winnipeg, the STOP SPP! Citizens Concerned About Deep Integration is holding a demonstration at the Federal Building in Winnipeg (corner of Main Street and Water Avenue) on Monday, August 20, 2007, from 4:00 to 6:00 PM. The event will include speakers, live music, entertainment, information, a letter writing campaign, and a petition.

Confirmed speakers include Robert Chernomas (of the Department of Economics at the University of Manitoba), Darlene Dziewit (president of the Manitoba Federation of Labour) and Kevin Rebeck (president of CUPE Manitoba).

Security, prosperity and partnership are all feel-good words — comfort food for the soul, in much the same way that Kraft Dinner is nutritionally empty solace for the tummy.

Let’s get out on August 20 and tell Harper and Co. we won’t swallow it!

Posted to the IUF website 06-Jul-2007

The one-month occupation of the restaurant and parking lot of the Buffalo Grill in Viry-Chatillon outside Paris (see below) has resulted in an important victory for 20 undocumented migrant workers – employed, fired, or forced to resign – at the fast food chain. With the support of the Commerce, Distribution and Services Federation of the CGT (FCDS-CGT), and international support from the IUF, local authorities have yielded to the groundswell of support for the workers and agreed to regularize their employment status. The July 5 decision followed three rounds of negotiations with local authorities initiated after the workers’ expulsion from the parking lot on July 3.

The FCDS-CGT, declaring that “a battle has been won but the struggle continues”, has thanked the IUF and all who supported this important mobilization.