Saddam's Death Sentence

Saddam Hussein has lost his appeal of the sentence of death that was handed down to him last month. He will likely be executed within the next thirty days.

I do not believe that Saddam should be executed. In the first place, my disagreement with the sentence stems from the fact that I disagree with the death penalty in general. I do not believe that executions solve anything, and killing only leads to more death. In the second place, I do not believe that Saddam Hussein received a fair trial. Among, other injustices, Saddam's lawyers were not allowed to make closing statements at his trial, and had their microphones summarily cut off when the presiding judge did not like what they were saying. The presiding judge himself had reason to be biased against Saddam because his family had suffered in the crushing of the Shiite revolt that followed the First Gulf War. Saddam simply did not receive a fair trial.

There will be those who say that he has no right to a fair trial because he denied that right to so many others. But to say such a thing reduces the rest of the world to his level, the level of a murderous dictator. Every person has a right to due process and no act can strip a person of that right. Personally, I believe that Saddam was guilty of the crimes of which he was accused, but a free trial should have been held. Saddam could likely have been convicted on the strength of the existing evidence. I would have liked to have seen Saddam convicted in a fair trial before an impartial judge and sentenced to life imprisonment. That is the appropriate punishment for what he did. To rot in a jail cell for the rest of his life.

In all likelihood, the execution of Saddam will spark off yet another wave of violence in Iraq, that will result in the deaths of yet more innocent Iraqis. The civilian population of Iraq is not a legitimate target for the insurgents, only the occupying forces. The bombs set off by insurgents that kill Iraqi civilians are just as detestable as the American bombs that kill Iraqi civilians or the Canadian artillery shells that kill Afghani civilians. Violence can not bring about a better world, it only leads to more violence.

This will be my last post of the year, and to everyone reading it I wish you a happy new year, and a healthy and prosperous 2007.

Cheers

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 756

UN Security Council Proclaims Sanctions Against Iran

On Saturday, December 23, the UN Security Council proclaimed trade sanctions against Iran intended to prevent it from aquiring the materials needed for its uranium enrichment programme and missile programme. It seems to have escaped the notice of the members of the Security Council that these sanctions are patently in violation of international law. As a signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), Iran is entitled to persue nuclear power for peaceful purposes. As the NPT states:

Convinced that, in furtherance of this principle, all Parties to the Treaty are entitled to participate in the fullest possible exchange of scientific information for, and to contribute alone or in cooperation with other States to, the further development of the applications of atomic energy for peaceful purposes... (text available at this page)

No evidence has to date been presented to prove that Iran is seeking anything other than peaceful nuclear power. Iran has not attacked any of it's neighbours since before the Islamic Revolution of 1979 which is a marked contrast to other states in the region like Israel, which is in fact armed with nuclear weapons.

Now let me be very clear. I don't believe that any state has the right to nuclear power or nuclear weapons because both pose an unconscionable risk to the people of this small world. What I am opposed to is the blatant hypocrisy and disregard for international law being displayed by many, many western states that either have nuclear weapons (US, UK, France, Israel) or have the capacity to produce such weapons through a domestic nuclear energy programme (most of the rest of the west, including Canada). These states claim a right to nuclear energy but are unwilling to allow such to their geopolitical adversaries. Such blatant hypocrisy is sickening.

Not until every other state abandons its nuclear energy/weapons can the west claim a moral prerogative to stop Iran from building up nuclear energy capability. Someday, I hope this will be the case.

May the holiday season find all of you who may read this well and may you have a prosperous 2007. May you enjoy whatever activity you undertake at this time of year, be it a religious observance or simply spending time with family.

Cheers

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 760

A Christmas Tempest in a Teapot

Christian fundamentalists have decided to brew up an enormous controversy over the decision of judge Marion Cohen to remove a Christmas tree from the lobby of a provincial courthouse in Toronto. Judgee Cohen ordered the removal of the tree saying that it is not appropriate to have a Christian symbol in the foyer of a secular building. That is entirely correct and right. We have a theoretically secular state here in Canada, and it is anathemic to such a secular state to display religious symbols of any religion in government buildings.

The Christian fundies are trying to turn this into an enormous issue, though they are trying to get at it through the back door. The fundies are trying to insist that the Christmas tree is not, in fact, a Christian symbol. The fundies claim that the Christmas tree is a pagan symbol, a symbol of nature religion predating Christianity. The roots of the use of trees at the time of Christmas is certainly pagan, but the tree has been whole-heartedly adopted as the symbol of Christmas. If you show any person living in the western world a picture of an evergreen tree covered in ornaments and lights and ask them what it makes them think of, they will tell you Christmas. The Christmas tree is a symbol of Christmas (the Christian festival celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ) in the modern context. To claim otherwise is to be at least preposterous and at worst disingenuous.

Good on Judge Cohen for making a stand to advance the secularism in Canada, and shame on the fundamentalists of this country who are lying to the people. We should be putting our theoretical secular state into action.

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 766

In Memory of the Montreal Massacre

On December 6, 1989, 14 women were shot dead at the l'Ecole Polytechnique by Marc Lepine, simply because they were women at the school. We must always remember what happened there, and that it remains the duty of all people (but particularly of men) to work to end violence against women and to end the misogyny that lies at the root of such violence.

May we always remember the names of the victims:

Geneviève Bergeron (b. 1968), civil engineering student.
Hélène Colgan (b. 1966), mechanical engineering student.
Nathalie Croteau (b. 1966), mechanical engineering student.
Barbara Daigneault (b. 1967) mechanical engineering student.
Anne-Marie Edward (b. 1968), chemical engineering student.
Maud Haviernick (b. 1960), materials engineering student.
Maryse Laganière (b. 1964), budget clerk in the École Polytechnique's finance department.
Maryse Leclair (b. 1966), materials engineering student.
Anne-Marie Lemay (b. 1967), mechanical engineering student.
Sonia Pelletier (b. 1961), mechanical engineering student.
Michèle Richard (b. 1968), materials engineering student.
Annie St-Arneault (b. 1966), mechanical engineering student.
Annie Turcotte (b. 1969), materials engineering student.
Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz (b. 1958), nursing student.

May they rest in peace.

Dion Wins Liberal Leadership

Well, this is about the best that could have been hoped for. And in less time than I expected. Congratulations to Stephane Dion for winning the leadership of the most ideologically bankrupt party on the Canadian political scene. No, scratch that, the second most ideologically bankrupt. First place has got to go to the Green Party. At any rate, a rant about the Greens is a topic for another time. Everyone pretty much knew that Dion had won after the third ballot, when he moved ahead of Michael Ignatieff with the vast, vast, majority of Gerard Kennedy's delegates. It was certainly exciting, though the high-point of the tension was actually waiting for the third ballot results, rather than the fourth ballot, because it had to be seen how many of Kennedy's delegates would follow his lead.

This outcome is probably the best that could have come out of the convention for Canada considering who the top four were. Stephane Dion can likely win the next election, but it will (in all probability) be a third consecutive minority government, a string unprecedented in Canadian history. This means good things for the NDP, even if a Dion led LPC does horn in a little on NDP territory in Ontario and British Columbia. It is much better to have a minority governing party with whom the NDP shares at least some principles rather than an ideologically anathemic party whose arm must be twisted through threats in order to achieve the very smallest gains, or no gains as the Bloc proved this year. Additionally, the Dion-led LPC (and to an extent the Green Party) may draw environmentally conscious prairie voters who would never vote NDP away from the Conservative Party in seats that are NDP - CPC contests. This could very well result in seat gains for the NDP in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

Obviously as a New Democrat I would have loved to run against an Iggy-led LPC, but as a progressive I could never wish that on Canada. Iggy was a menace, and it is good that he has been stopped. I hope he decides not to run in the next election. Because if he does run, and the Liberals win, Dion will feel a need to appoint him to Cabinet. And what an ugly thought that is.

A Dion-led LPC can still be made to wear the Liberal record of the 1990s: massive cuts to healthcare and education transfer payments, major corporate income tax cuts and most importantly reducing EI benefits while increasing premiums to create a surplus in a programme that was never meant to have one.

All in all, it will be an interesting next few months, and an interesting next election, which I will go on the record as predicting will be called in late-February or early-March, before the next budget comes down.

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 782

The Liberal Leadership Convention

It's going to be an interesting weekend. Tomorrow, Liberals will choose a new leader for their party. The hope that this new leader will be the one to defeat Stephen Harper in the next election. Personally, I think that whoever is elected Liberal leader will be the next Prime Minister, but not because of anything that the Liberal Party will have done right, but rather because of what the Conservatives will have done wrong. What this means is that Liberals have to think very carefully before selecting their new leader. Do they want to be led by a man who has turned out to be the most anti-peace leadership candidate in decades, Michael Ignatieff, who endorsed/supported the war on Iraq, endorses torture of detainees, "didn't lose sleep" over the massacre of Lebanese civilians in Qana and is really an American? Do they want to be led by a man who has proven time and again that he has no principles, Bob Rae, who still bears the baggage of governing in Ontario during the worst recession since the Great Depression? Do they want to be led by a personally detestable unknown from Toronto, Gerard Kennedy, who has yet to prove that he has any significant traction beyond southern Ontario?

I want to see Stephane Dion as the next leader of the Liberal Party, because of the four front-runners he is the one who will do the least damage to Canada. He is committed to greenhouse gas reductions, reducing atmospheric and water pollutants and a United Canada. He has experience in a successful government at the federal level which is lacking in all three other front runners. Dion is also on the centre-left of the political spectrum, and will support universal medicare remaining sole-payer and sole-provider. I say that I want to see Dion win, despite the fact that he will likely damage the NDP's prospects to expand in the next election. And that is because in the next election removing Stephen Harper and his paleo-cons from office is so important.

Having said that I will never, ever, vote Liberal, because they are the party that allowed social programmes across Canada to go down the tube with the massive cuts made to the transfer payments to the provinces. They are the party that created a surplus in the Employment Insurance programme by cutting benefits and raising premiums. They are the party that would prefer to cut corporate income taxes rather than spend money on affordable and supportive housing, despite the fact that some of the most powerful people in the party recognize that there is a desperate shortage of affordable housing. No, I will never vote Liberal.

Cheers

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 783

An Admission of Disaster in Iraq

It's about time. Tony Blair has admitted to al-Jazeera that the occupation of Iraq has been a disaster. When veteran broadcaster Sir David Frost said that the war in Iraq has "been pretty much of a disaster", Blair agreed that "it has." It is refreshing to see some honesty from the leaders of the aggression in Iraq. Attacking Iraq and brutalizing it's citizens wasn't a good idea in 2003, and it is not a good idea now. This follows hard on the heels of revelations that a U.S. soldier formerly serving in Iraq has admitted that he and three other soldiers had premeditated the rape of an Iraqi girl, and the murder of her and her family. One of the four rapists and murderers, SPC. James P. Barker, plead guilty in order to avoid the death penalty. The reason that Barker gave for what he did: "I hated Iraqis, your honour." So by his logic, it is okay to gang-rape and murder a 14 year old girl, then murder the rest of her family because he hates the entire citizen-body to which they belonged? The details of the story can be found in a Washington Post story here. This is an absolute attrocity. And the Americans and British wonder why they are so virulently hated in Iraq, and around the world.

Foreign troops should be immediately withdrawn from Iraq. The current rationale for why there are there is to stabilize the country and provide the groundwork for a democracy. Well guess what. That isn't happening and isn't going to happen. Eventually the Americans are going to have no choice but to fall back on the true reason for the war, to get American hands on the oil taps. Eventually the argument will be made that if America pulls out then the supply of oil to the economy will be jeopardized. And on that day, I hope that the majority of people in the United States, who cursed anti-war protesters in 2003, will realize, we were right. War is not an acceptable means by which to settle international disputes, let alone to manoeuvre for economic advantage. In 2003 we said, "no blood for oil." We say it still.

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 797

The Democrats Win the Congress and Rummy Resigns

Oh, it is a good day. The Democrats have won control of the House of Representatives and they have won control of the Senate (all be it with the slimmest of margins). On top of that good news, Rummy has "resigned." Ding dong the witch is dead. It is going to be a glorious two years, watching the investigations into the shenanigans that the Emperor and his team got up to. I am upset that Nancy Pelosi has promised not to impeach the Emperor, but it is only a minor tarnish on the glory of this day.

Hopefully the Emperor will take a message from this election that it is time for the United States to withdraw it's occupation forces from Iraq. Iraqis don't want them there, and Americans clearly don't want them there. You would think that the Emperor could take a hint.

Also good, the Emperor will not have an easy time appointing new justices to the federal bench in the States, and this is only just in time. Many justices are reaching the age when they could die any time, and if the Emperor got to appoint even one more justice, then the Supreme Court would have been skewed for years.

Hopefully, Canada can take a lesson and kick our own corrupt neo-cons to the curb as the Americans have done. I live in hope.

Cheers

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 813

Ontario Plans Referendum on Voting Reform

The Ontario government has announced legislation that will see a referendum on the recommendations of the Ontario Citizens' Assembly on voting reform. This is a good thing, because the Assembly will likely recommend a system of Proportional Representation. There are a number of problems however.

First, the Assembly does not report until May 15 of 2007. This leaves less than five months to educate the people of Ontario on the option chosen by the Assembly. The BC experience shows that five months is not enough, especially if one of the more complicated PR systems is chosen, for example single transferable vote.

Second, an artificially high bar has been set for the success of the referendum. The government will require that 60% of voters province-wide, and 50% of voters in each of at least 60% of ridings, vote in favour of the referendum before it is considered passed. It is the height of hypocrisy that a government elected to a massive majority of seats with a total of less than 50% of the vote and won more than 50% of the vote in less than 60% of the ridings. By their own standard, they do not have a mandate to govern.

Taking these two issues together, this bill needs major tweaking. It is good that we are being given a chance to vote on our electoral system, but we need more time after the report is made. I would much prefer to see a special referendum vote on the issue, perhaps in the spring of 2008. This would mean there would be time to have a proper debate and to make sure that everyone is educated on the pros and cons of the proposed new system. There would also be time to take to implement the new system before the subsequent provincial election, presuming that the next Ontario government is not a minority that falls prematurely. The requirements for success of the referendum also need to be lowered. Much more realistic is a simple majority of province-wide votes along with a simple majority of voters in a simple majority of ridings.

At least the Ontario government is on the right track here, and I hope they are willing to tweak the law to take into account the concerns that I mentioned above.

Cheers

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 828

"Clean Air Act" Tabled

The Conservative "Clean Air Act" was tabled today. What a waste of space. On the issue of greenhouse gas emissions, easily the most important environmental issue facing Canada today and one of the most pressing issues period, the Conservatives have basically said wait 44 years and we might do something. The plan calls for emissions to be reduced 45%-65% below 2003 levels by 2050. By that time, I will be a senior citizen! This plan is a joke, but a joke in very bad taste. This is like telling a patient with a terminal heart condition that they face a 45 year wait for a transplant!

What we need to do is get started on reducing emissions now! If the government had the intestinal fortitude to face down powerful industries such as oil/gas, petrochemical and automotive, there would be a chance to do something. We simply do not have 44 years to wait.

All that the Conservatives have accomplished with this proposal is to shift responsibility. They know full well that they will not be in power when any of the deadlines come up. For shame on Harper and Ambrose.

As another factor of this, they claim that the programmes will harmonize with U.S. standards on such things as pollutant controls. So much for the made-in-Canada plan. As Gilles Duceppe put it, this is a written-in-Washington-and-Xeroxed-in-Canada plan. Harper should be ashamed of himself for so blatantly selling Canada and Candians down the river.

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 834

Garth Turner booted from Conservative caucus

Garth Turner, the maverick MP from Ontario, has been given the boot from the Conservative caucus. He says that he will be sitting as an independent.

The Conservatives claim that Turner's booting came as a result of concerns that his blog was breaching caucus confidentiality. But what seems more likely is that he was booted for criticizing the leadership of his party, for example over the defection of David Emerson.

I will be very interested to see what Turner does over the next while. He has generally been seen as a red-Tory on social issues while being a fiscal conservative. In this regard he would seem to be a good fit for the Green Party. It would have profound political ramifications if Turner were to decide to sit as a member of the Greens. Such an action by Turner would provide much more impetus to the demands of the Green Party to be included in the televised leaders' debate.

Should be an interesting next few months.

Cheers

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 835

Stevie's Hypocrisy on Arrar File

So, Stevie Harper is going to send a diplomatic note to the US government demanding that they come clean on the Arrar affair. I would have more confidence in this if Stevie was actually willing to apologize to Arrar. Until the Government of Canada issues a formal apology to Arrar, this country is in no position to demand anything from the US.

The government must apologize, because what happened to Arrar is Canada's fault. The RCMP sent false information to the FBI, leading directly to Arrar's deportation and torture in Syria. Until Stevie is prepared to offer an unconditional apology on this, there is no reason to expect the US to do anything at all. Stevie has no moral authority on this issue. His Public Security minister, Stockwell Day, expressed a belief, while Arrar was in Syria, that Arrar was a terrorist and chastized the Liberals for "siding with" an al-Qaida terrorist.

For shame, Stevie. Put your own house in order before demanding that anyone else do the same with theirs.

Cheers,

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 847

Another School Shooting

There has been another heart-wrenching school shooting. This one was at a tiny Amish schoolhouse in rural Pennsylvania. The man who attacked the school reportedly sent all of the boys outside before tying up all the girls and shooting them, execution-style, at close range. Three girls were killed, and seven other badly wounded girls were transported to nearby hospitals. The attacker killed himself.

This is a despicable crime on many levels. The killing of innocent people. The fact that the dead were children. The fact that the killer only wanted to kill girls. This is a sick and disgusting crime that should never have happened. I cannot comprehend what might drive a grown man to execute girls who had done nothing to him. This is only too reminiscent of the shootings in Colorado last month in which a grown man took six girls hostage, raped them and killed one of them. It is reminiscent as well of the killings of 14 women at l'Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal in 1989.

I don't know what can be done to stop these crimes, but we have to find some way to understand what could possibly have driven all of these killers to do what they did. There must be some way to stop this kind of thing from happening. I just wish I knew what that was.

In this case, banning guns would not have helped. The killer was armed with knives as well as guns and could just have easily used those weapons to carry out his crime.

My deepest sympathies and condolences go out to the families of the three girls killed, and my wishes for a quick recovery go out to those girls injured. The killings and attacks in the last month make it all the more important that every man do his bit to end violence by men against women and we should all do everything we can to aid the White Ribbon campaign coming up.

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 851

Iggy Takes the Lead in LPC Delegate Selection

Ignatieff seems to have won about 30% of the elected delegates, with Rae, Kennedy and Dion finishing fairly close together, but significantly behind Iggy at about 19, 17 and 16 percent respectively.

These results will be modified by some ridings in Quebec that have allowed mail-in ballots, as well as the approximately 1500 ex officio delegates are not bound to vote for a particular candidate as the elected delegates are. But these results give a fairly good idea of how the first ballot results will look.

As an NDPer, Iggy is the person I would most like to face as LPC leader. As a Canadian, the best Candidate to have as Liberal leader and likely next PM is Dion, since he seems the most left-wing with some commitment to the environment.

Stevie must be scared of running against Iggy, because Iggy will poach many of the centre-right voters from the CPC. He will also drive a number of left-leaning LPC voters to the NDP because of how far right he is. This pattern could lead to another LPC minority government, and the NDP could pick up a number of very close seats, such as Kenora, Thunder Bay - Superior North, Beaches - East York, Dartmouth - Cole Harbour, Regina - Qu'appelle, Regina - Lumsden Lake - Centre, Saskatoon - Rosetown - Biggar, Yukon and some seats in BC. Obviously this is optimistic, but it is within the realm of possibility.

We shall have to see how the voting goes, and whether an obvious Anyone-But-Iggy candidate emerges.

Cheers,

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 852

Arar Still Waiting for Stevie to Apologize

Maher Arrar, falsely accused of terrorism and deported to Syria to face torture, is still waiting for Stevie, our Dear Leader, to apologize for the actions of the Canadian government. Arar has a very good point, that if the government does not apologize to him, it means that the government does not believe that anything that was done was wrong, and it means that what happened to him is just as likely to happen to some other innocent person.

But, of course, "Canada's New Government" (I will have to have a good rant about that particular piece of bullcrap another time) is refusing to apologize. "We weren't in power then," they cry. "It wasn't our fault," they moan. All that is true, but it doesn't mean that the government is any less bound to apologize. The government of the day, no matter what political stripe, must apologize when it emerges that the government has done something for which an apology is warranted, like assisting the sending of an innocent man to the torture chambers of Syria!!

In fact, if the Conservatives had been in power then, things would have been even worse. The Conservatives, while in opposition, accused the Liberals of "siding" with an al-Qaida terrorist (by whom they meant Mr. Arrar). The Conservatives would have done even less than the Liberals to have him brought home, seeing as they appear to have tried, convicted and condemned him in their closed little minds.

The claims that the Conservative government should not be apologizing to Mr. Arrar because it was a different party in power at the time is utter nonsense. Stevie apologized earlier this year for the Chinese Head Tax, and if I recall correctly, it was the Liberals that instituted the Tax. Yet the Conservatives had no trouble apologizing and taking the credit for the apology that they were due.

Stevie must pull his head out of his ass and apologize to Maher Arrar now. It is a matter of what is right, and what Mr. Arar deserves. Canada provided the inaccurate information that saw Mr. Arrar tortured, and Ottawa stood back and didn't protest as he was shipped to Syria. The Canadian government owes Mr. Arrar an apology, and Stevie as PM of the day is the one who should be giving it.

Cheers,

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 859

Harper Appoints Bigot Judge to Ontario Bench

The Globe and Mail is reporting that Stephen Harper has appointed David Brown to the Ontario Superior Court bench in the Toronto region. This is the man who acted for bigoted and anti-feminist groups like Focus on the Family and REAL Women when they intervened before the Supreme Court of Canada in an attempt to block equal marriage. We do not need a judiciary following in the footsteps of George Bush and his demented pack of right-wing nutjobs in the United States. We do not need a court system that has been polluted by the appointment of judges on a partisan basis. Canada has had a history of balanced, generally apolitical jurisprudence for many years because our judicial system has not been stacked in favour of any one political party or any particular societal point of view.

The appointment of David Brown is a stunning display of political hubris on the part of Stevie Harper. He has a minority government, and a thin one at that. Where does he think he gets off appointing one of the most socially conservative judges that this country has ever seen? The judiciary is not an appropriate way for the Prime Minister of the day to advance his or her political agenda. Public policy is much more appropriate as a tool, and has a history of being used as such.

Stevie, leave our judiciary alone. It isn't a toy for you to play with, and if you keep playing roughly with it, you will break it. If you break our judicial system, it will take a very long time to fix when you get the boot to your ass that you so richly deserve. When you are out of government, Stevie, people still have to continue on. If you use appointments to the judiciary to try and turn back the clock to the turn of the twentieth century, you destroy everything that this country stands for. Stevie, you've been bad. Go to your room and think about what you've done.

Cheers,

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 860

One Canadian's Response to Stephen Harper

This was originally written by Wee Mousie at enMasse.ca with the same title, and is reproduced here with permission. If you want to read this in it's original context, you can find it at the following link.

Sending more than 2,000 Canadian troops to Afghanistan has turned Canada's military into a better fighting force and improved Canada's standing on the world stage, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said.

Ah, so that is it. Stevie, you wanted to make the “Who’s Who at the Abattoir.”

. . . 36 soldiers paying the "ultimate sacrifice," but he said it is time for Canada to shoulder its share of the burden of fighting for peace and stability in the world.

Fighting For Peace and War On Terror are almost as good as War Is Peace, Freedom Is Slavery, or Ignorance Is Strength.

"If I can be frank about this, you know, in some ways I think we can complain that only a handful of countries are carrying the bulk of the load and the bulk of the danger there," Harper said.

Or, to put another way, so far, not many countries have leaders moronic enough to support another country’s effort at world domination.

"But, you know, the shoe was often on the other foot. For a lot of the last 30 or 40 years, we were the ones hanging back." Stephen Harper

Yes, Stevie, but only from aggression in which Canadians did not wish to participate.

Quote:

“Canada participated in every UN peacekeeping effort from their beginning until 1989, and has since then continued to play a significant role. More than 125,000 Canadians have served in some 50 UN peacekeeping missions since 1949, with 116 deaths.” Wikipedia

"It's certainly engaged our military," Harper said. "It has made it a better military."

Depends how you define “better,” Stevie. You’re exposing the same bloody-mindedness as your hero, the Torturer-In-Chief.

Harper said it has been years since Canadian troops have been involved in the kind of sustained fighting that they have encountered in Afghanistan and the commitment made by Canada to root out the Taliban to create a more stable Afghanistan has enhanced the image of Canada abroad.

Soldiers, killing civilians can only enhances a country's image to jackals, Stevie.

"It's certainly raising Canada's leadership role, once again, in the United Nations and in the world community where we used to have an important leadership role," he said.

Yes, we used to have an important leadership role as non belligerents, but a new image is rising, thank to this latest ill-advised adventure, Stevie.

Thirty-six Canadians soldiers and one Canadian diplomat have died in Afghanistan since Canada first sent troops there.

But Harper said Canada is making progress in Afghanistan. The mission will be considered a success, he said, when changes to the country in terms of peace and security are irreversible.

So you say, but then, we have heard similar claims prove erroneous before, while the only things that are truly irreversible are the deaths of thirty-six Canadian soldiers and one Canadian diplomat who have died in Afghanistan.

Canada may have underestimated the strength of the insurgency when it committed troops to the mission, Harper said, but the Taliban continues to be on the defensive.

Or perhaps the number was politically deflated (like your friends in the US underestimated the troop requirements in Iraq) which explains why Canadian forces are experiencing loses at four times the rate that US forces are in Iraq, and the outlook for the future -- even through your rosy glasses -- entails even more deaths in the Canadian military.

"Canada shares its goal of giving the people of Afghanistan, the children, men and women alike, the chance of a better life," Harper said in a Sept. 14 news release announcing Karzai's visit. "A life of peace, security, freedom and justice. A life we as Canadians have for ourselves and that we seek for others."

And Stevie and the American neocons are going to give that to them, even if it takes the life of every civilian in Afghanistan and half the Canadian military.

Leader of Aum Shinri Kyo to be Hanged

Al Jazeera is reporting that Japan's Supreme Court has confirmed the death sentence against Shoko Asashara, 51, the former leader of Aum Shinri Kyo (Supreme Truth Sect), the cult that carried out the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system in 1995, which killed twelve people and injured about five thousand.

While what Mr. Asashara and the members of his cult did was abominable, I remain morally opposed to the death penalty. Obviously Mr. Asashara deserves to be punished, but I believe that he would be punished much more by being incarcerated for the remaining years of his life, in all likelihood at least twenty more, with no chance of parole. I do not believe that killing a person for their crimes makes the world any better or any safer. As cliche as it has become, the words of Mahatma Ghandi still ring true: "an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." Together the world must move past a system of justice in which it becomes permissible for the state to take someone's life when that person poses no further threat to the community. If he was incarcerated, Mr. Asashara would cease to be a threat just as much as once he has been executed.

Capital punishment is archaic and outmoded. As human beings we must seek to move forward together and move past capital punishment as a solution to the problems facing our societies. Capital punishment as a deterrent has been shown not to work and is, in fact, a way for society to take the easy way out. If society believes that by taking the life of a person convicted of a serious crime that the crime problem will be dealt with, it is society refusing to face up to the real solutions to crime, namely the eradication of poverty and inequality.

Cheers

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 867

Shooting at Dawson College

Today a man armed with an automatic weapon attacked the students and teachers of Dawson College CEGEP in downtown Montreal today. As of the most recent news, one woman has been killed and many more have been injured. This is a horrible tragedy. No one should have to fear going to school. No one should have to wonder whether a gun-toting maniac is going to attack their school. My deepest sympathies go out to the family of the woman who was killed, to those who were wounded and continue to suffer, and to those students who are too scared and traumatized to ever return to their school. My thoughts go out as well to all the emergency workers who did everything they could to save the lives and ease the suffering of those who had been shot.

When I first heard about this story, the announcer on CTV NewsNet was simply mentioning shooting and Dawson College, but not that Dawson is a CEGEP school. My sister recently began classes at McGill University in Montreal, and for the five minutes before the announcer mentioned that Dawson is a CEGEP school I was having a minor panic attack. I was afraid that Dawson might have turned out to be a residence at McGill that my sister could have been visiting. My reaction to this situation was not improved by the fact that my sister was in London during the July 7, 2005 terrorist attacks on the transportation system.

We need to make sure that illegal weapons stop making their way into Canada. No one needs an automatic rifle for anything. If the gun hadn't been automatic the number of dead and wounded could well have been much lower. We must pass tougher laws to keep illegal guns out of our country.

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 870

Layton Outlines NDP Five Priorities

In his keynote speech at the NDP Convention in Quebec City today, Jack Layton outlined the five priorities for the NDP over the coming months. The priorities are as follows:

• Bring Canada's troops home from Afghanistan.
• Provide more affordable housing to working Canadians and help young people buy their first homes.
• Increase access to education and training for young Canadians.
• Take better care of the elderly.
• Protect the environment through tough auto emissions standards and clamping down on the emissions of large-scale industrial polluters.

These seem like good priorities to me, but I take issue with the wording of a couple of them. On the affordable housing priority, the wording is highly problematic. The reference to "working Canadians" suggests that the NDP will not support providing affordable housing for homeless people (though I do not believe that this was the intent). The NDP has become too wedded to this phrase "working Canadians" or "working families." This to my mind equates to referring to citizens as taxpayers. The priority ought to say that the NDP will provide more affordable housing to "Canadians." I also take issue with the wording of point four. Simply saying "take better care of the elderly" is too vague. Once can provide a more specific, while brief statement of such a priority, for example: 'improve access to healthcare and support services for seniors.'

I believe that the intent behind the priorities is good, and addresses many areas that need urgent attention, but I believe that they need work. They must be re-written to be more inclusive and more specific. If the NDP can focus on the (rewritten) priorities, then hopefully some good can be accomplished. Having concise statements of principle such as these will also be helpful in the next election, since the Conservative campaign of 2006 proved that simple and direct priority statements can be effective and because the NDP has struggled to be concise in the past. But they must be reworked. If they are not, I can't support the second point, and will have difficulty explaining point four to others.

Cheers

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 873

Canada to Send More Troops to Afghanistan

It has become an open secret that the Canadian government is preparing to send more troops to Afghanistan when what we need to be doing is bringing them home. The government is preparing to deploy twenty leopard tanks, and the crews to operate them to Afghanistan. The deployment of the tanks will send another approximately three hundred personnel to Afghanistan. Such an increase represents an approximately 15% increase in the forces that Canada has deployed.

This is insanity. This is a sure sign that the mission is going further off the rails. Has no one thought through the fact that a major weapon in the arsenal of Taliban forces is the rocket propelled grenade? This weapon was designed to destroy tanks! When these tanks are deployed they will be firing high explosive shells. These shells will kill yet more civilians. We are digging ourselves deeper into this hole and dangerous similarities to the American war in Vietnam are emerging. In Vietnam, General Westmorland kept claiming that if he got a few more troops he could beat the Viet Cong. The same thing seems to be happening in Afghanistan, but with NATO. "If only they could get 2000 more soldiers, then they can defeat the Taliban." This is the top of a very slippery slope. We need to pull ourselves back from the brink, and return to reality. We need to support our troops by bringing them home.

Cheers

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 873

Canadian Soldiers Killed by American Plane

An American pilot and plane killed a Canadian soldier and wounded many others two days ago (September 4th, 2006). Two A-10 Warthog attack planes strafed a group of Canadian soldiers who were about to begin an attack on Taliban positions. Pte. Mark Anthony Graham was killed and as many as thirty others were wounded. How could this happen? The Canadian soldiers were closely grouped around their LAV-3 armoured vehicles, just waking up, when the two aircraft strafed the Canadian positions. The Taliban do not have access to armoured vehicles, so the Canadians could not very easily have been mistaken for the Taliban. There is no good reason that the Americans would have strafed the Canadian position. The Americans need Canadian soldiers and the soldiers of other NATO countries in Afghanistan to free up American soldiers to fight, kill and die in Iraq.

I extend my condolences to the family of Pte. Graham, and my best wishes for a speedy recovery to the soldiers who were wounded. They do not have control over where the Canadian government sends them. They did not choose to take part in a mission of occupation and counter-insurgency in Afghanistan. They did not ask to be put in a situation where they are killing Afghani civilians.

The attack by the Americans will provide further impetus to the calls to bring our soldiers home from Afghanistan, and this is the only upside that it has. We should not be in Afghanistan because it is wrong, and we should not be in Afghanistan because the Americans are killing our soldiers. Of the 32 Canadian soldiers who have died since Canada deployed our soldiers to Afghanistan, five have been killed by the Americans. That is over 15%. If we need any other reason to withdraw than what we are doing to the people of Southern Afghanistan, maybe it is that the Americans are causing 15% of our casualties. We should support our troops by bringing them home now. I urge everyone reading this to go to the NDP web site and show their support for bringing our troops home now by signing this petition.

Cheers

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 877

Vancouver Safe-Injection Site Gets a Reprieve, Sort-Of

Tony Clement has said that he will not renew the legal exemption for Insite, Vancouver's safe-injection site for another year. But he will not do anything about them until "additional studies" are completed at the end of 2007. Can you say 'delaying 'till after the next election?'

The Conservatives are allowing ideology to run roughshod over good policy. The safe-injection site has helped thousands of addicts and there has not been a single fatality at Insite. The nurses there have helped over 500 people who overdosed, many of whom would ordinarily have died. According to prestigious medical journals the safe-injection site has had the following benefits:

• Increased uptake into detoxification programs and addiction treatment. (New England Journal of Medicine)
• Reduced the number of people injecting in public and the amount of injection-related litter in the downtown eastside. (Canadian Medical Association Journal)
• Insite is attracting the highest-risk users – those more likely to be vulnerable to HIV infection and overdose, and who were contributing to problems of public drug use and unsafe syringe disposal. (American Journal of Preventive Medicine)
• Is not increasing rates of relapse among former drug users, nor is it a negative influence on those seeking to stop drug use. (British Medical Journal)

Over the two years that it was in operation, Insite served 7 278 unique individuals who would otherwise have been shooting up on the street. Insite served an average of 607 visits a day for a total of 443 717 visits over two years. Four hundred and forty three thousand. Is it not worth ensuring that lives are saved? Is it not worth making sure that if needles must be used that they are used in a place of safety, where the needles cannot come into contact with children or other people? Is it not worth ensuring that clean needles are available to stem the spread of HIV/AIDS and other blood-borne diseases?

People addicted to drugs are no less people than you or me. They are equally deserving of life. We must help them overcome their addictions. We must not ostracize them and banish them to dark corners and out of the way places to shoot up with dirty needles. If we say that we will not help them because they are addicted to drugs, then we are saying that they are less than we are. THEY ARE NO LESS. We must do everything in our power to help them. This begins with a safe-injection site and continues by making detoxification and rehabilitation programmes available to those in need. Help continues by having subsidized, affordable, housing available. It continues by realizing that drug addicts are people, just like you and me.

Saying that one group of people is undeserving of society is the then edge of the wedge. We must make sure that the government recognizes this. We have a responsibility to make sure that no one slips through the cracks. No one is undeserving simply by dint of an addiction to a substance, be that substance coffee, nicotine, alcohol or illegal drugs. No one.

All of the information in this post is sourced from Vancouver Coastal Health and can be found here. Vancouver Coastal Health is a publically funded public health organization serving Vancouver and surrounding areas.

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 881

Jack Layton Calls for Afghanistan withdrawal

It's about bloody time. We have accomplished squat in Afghanistan beyond the deaths of more Afghanis and Canadians. Gordon O'Connor himself has admitted that Afghanistan is no better off than this time last year. It is well past time to show that we support our troops by bringing them back from fighting a proxy war with the United States. A real peace process is needed. We have to realize that the Taliban cannot be squashed by military means. The have the support of much of the population in southern Afghanistan, and they must be engaged in a dialogue. This does not mean that we must force Afghanistan to return to being governed by the Taliban. It means that we must see that the Taliban are the legitimate political choice of many in the South. They ought to be given the opportunity to engage in the political process. And Canadian troops must be brought home. Our presence is a provocation of the Afghan people and we have no right to be there.

Furthermore, Canada should be making reparations for every building destroyed by Canadian fire power. We should be compensating the families of every Afghan the Canadian Forces have killed. We should show our soldiers support by bringing them home to a place where they died for no reason. If our soldiers must die, it must be in the service of a defensible goal, for example defending the people of Darfur from rape and murder. Not fighting a war for the Americans. If the Americans are so intent on seeing Afghanistan conquered and pacified, let them try to do it themselves. We stepped into the breach, to allow American troops to be diverted to Iraq. Shame on our government. Canadian troops must be withdrawn now. They should not die for nothing. We should not be killing Afghanis for nothing.

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 882

Israel to Continue Air and Sea Blockade

Ehud Olmert has rejected the appeal of Kofi Annan, the Secretary-General of the U.N., to lift the air and sea blockade of Lebanon. This is a direct violation of Security Council Resolution 1701. This is a crime against humanity. Aid must be allowed to arrive in Lebanon so that the Lebanese people may survive. Israel claims that Hezbollah is out to destroy Israel and the Israeli people, but it seems that Israel is the one out to destroy a country and a people. Israel is the one that has killed a massive number of civilians. Israel is the one that has used illegal weapons against civilian populations.

The Security Council ought to pass a resolution condemning Israel's actions and impose economic sanctions. But that will not happen because the United States is committed to using the Israeli forces as proxies to bring a "new Middle East" into being. Security Council resolutions against Israel over the past fifty years have been ignored by Israel with impunity, yet when Iran ignores a resolution, the U.S. leads the pack in saying that states cannot be allowed to get away with thumbing their nose at the United Nations. The same U.N. that the U.S., U.K. and Israel thumb their noses at. For shame.

Cheers,

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 884

Saudi King Says Oil Prices are Unjustified

The Bahrain Tribune is reporting that King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia believes that world oil prices are unjustified. He reportedly believes that the world market is well supplied with oil. Wow. If the king of a country that benefits massively from high oil prices believes the prices are too high, then that really says something. It says that corporations are taking advantage of excuses to hike prices and raise record profits. The slightest hint of uncertainty sends oil up a dollar a barrel. And then gas prices rise accordingly. As if somehow the oil that the companies already possessed had gotten more expensive. It should take time for fluctuations in the price of oil to be reflected in gas prices. But of course, companies seize every opportunity to raise gas prices. And then, when the price of oil sinks again, there is only a marginal cut in gas prices and then only much delayed. If the Saudi king recognizes the problem, then why can't North Americans?

We need to sit up and realize that we are being gouged and exploited by big oil. We are being taken for a rid to provide big companies with obscene profits to pay to their wealthy stock holders. And the only response of the companies is to complain that government taxes on gas are too high. Bullshit. The gas companies should be prohibited by law from selling their gas at more than a 1% profit on the cost of the oil and of refining. The government should then charge appropriate taxes to cover the cost of environmental cleanup from the damage done by the emissions from vehicles. The government also ought to be providing tax incentives and subsidies for the purchase of environmentally friendly vehicles. Taxes should be reduced on ultra-low emission vehicles and raised on gas guzzlers like SUVs and minivans. We need to realize that this is the only earth that we've got, and that we have to take care of it. The Saudi king's statement should be the first step in waking people up the situation in which big oil has placed this planet, and the first step in allowing us to do something about it.

Cheers,
Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 877

Iran to Fire Up Heavy Water Plant

So, Iran has started up a heavy water plant. Heavy water is a necessary supply for many nuclear reactors. This in itself should not be alarming, but the U.S. in particular seems intent on painting this as the next step along the road to nuclear weapons. Let me just say first of all that I am against any use of nuclear fission. It is unreliable, creates wastes that will remain radioactive longer than there has been human civilization on this planet and is hugely expensive. For all of these reasons, no country should be using nuclear power. I might make an exception for fusion to generate power, but that is a different and longer discussion. All of this said, however, if Iran is hell-bent for leather on acquiring nuclear power, there is a solution staring everyone in the face that seems to have been missed.

One of the big issues the U.S. claims to have with the Iranian use of nuclear reactors is that they could be used to produce plutonium that could then be used to create nuclear weapons. The solution to this is to give the Iranian government access to nuclear power designs that do not generate plutonium as a by product of the reaction. CANDU reactors can do this. They do not produce plutonium, but do produce considerable amounts of energy (along with the usual other radioactive wastes that usually go with nuclear power). This really ought to satisfy the issues that the U.S. government claims to have, as well as suiting the claimed aims of the government of Iran. This should make everyone happy. If any party to the dispute were to take issue with such a settlement, it would reveal that the motives that were claimed were not the true forces behind the actions being taken. I am not an expert on nuclear technology, and if someone who reads this can show me a place where this suggestion goes wrong, I would be delighted to hear it. After all, we don't learn except by making mistakes.

Cheers,

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 878

Boris Wrzesnewskyj Chased from Critic Portfolio

Liberal MP Boris Wrzesnewskyj, until recently the party's foreign affairs critic, has been chased from his portfolio by Scott Brison and Carolyn Bennet, as well as the other eight candidates for the Liberal leadership, after stating that he thought the Hezbollah should not be on the list of terrorist organizations that Canada maintains. This is a shame because he was absolutely correct.

Some parts of Hezbollah use terrorism to achieve their end, and that is not acceptable. But many parts of Hezbollah are devoted to social and humanitarian ends, to helping the victims of war crimes perpetrated by the Israeli army. Canada's list of terrorist organizations lacks the complexity to recognize this distinction. So really, if the standard that was applied to Hezbollah was applied to every organization and actor in the world, we would have a very different list. To start with, Canada would have to list its own government as a terrorist organization. Our government sends our soldiers to Afghanistan to occupy it against the will of its population, many of whom now clearly resent the presence of the Canadian Armed Forces. If we applied the "Hezbollah Standard" equally, we would have to place the governments of the U.S.A., the U.K. and Israel on the list, along with many other governments.

This list is clearly a double standard. It is simply creating a list of "bad" groups that is really unnecessary. While there are some organizations that do not seem to have any object outside of terrorism, for example the Irish Republican Army or Al Qaeda, there are many organizations which are not as clear cut. I congratulate Mr. Wrzesnewskyj on having the courage to speak the truth (courage and principles being a rare sight among Liberals these days), though he began to back off the comments after being chastised. The candidates for the Liberal leadership, particularly Brison and Bennet ought to be ashamed of themselves for removing an MP from his position for speaking the truth. It is not as though he something anti-semitic, or called for the killing of Israelis. He simply spoke the truth. Just goes to show, principles and the Liberal Party of Canada don't mix.

Cheers

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 881

CMA Prepares to Pave the Way to Private Healthcare

The Canadian Medial Association elected Brian Day as president. This is a doctor who had only very recently attended his first meeting of the BC Medical Association and who runs a private orthopedic clinic. It is horrible that the CMA would elect a person devoted to tearing down the system that cares for the people of Canada. This proves that a majority of doctors in Canada care more about making a better buck than caring for Canadians.

Doctors may rationalize their support for private healthcare in a parallel system by saying that it would relieve the stresses on the public system, but this is bogus. The reductions in the public waiting times due to people receiving private care would be more than cancelled out by the increased delays due to fewer doctors practicing in the public system. The creation of a parallel private system, and the accompanying programmes of private health insurance would also pave the way for the influx of American "Health Management Organizations" and private hospital chains into the Canadian system.

The actions of the CMA are the thin edge of the wedge of the end of private healthcare. The CMA should recognize that they are making a mistake. They are eventually going to build up increasing resentment against them among the public that will not benefit from a private heathcare and who will recognize the avarice and greed of the majority of doctors when the public healthcare system melts down. Strong action must be taken now to keep this from happening. The government must recognize that doctors are a self-interested lobby and should not be listened to on this issue.

Cheers,


Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 882

Parkdale - High Park Byelection Called

Yesterday, Dalton McGuinty finally called the byelection in Parkdale-High Park for September 14. This byelection will be to replace Gerrard Kennedy, who is now running for the federal Liberal leadership. The candidates are Cheri DiNovo for the NDP, Sylvia Watson (the sitting city councillor) for the Liberals and David Hutcheon for the PCs. This will be an interesting race. The NDP holds this riding federally, but Gerrard Kennedy won with 58% of the vote in the last provincial general election. A key factor will likely be how much of a campaign the PCs run. If a strong PC campaign takes place, then it will likely draw voters from the Liberals allowing the NDP to win. I plan to do my bit to try and get Cheri DiNovo elected and send one more NDPer to Queen's Park.

Cheers

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 887

The Cost of War

The numbers are in for the fighting in Lebanon.

• Lebanese Dead: ca. 1 100
• Lebanese Wounded: ca. 3 700
• Lebanese Displaced: ca. 900 000

This contrasts to the numbers for Israel as such:

• Israeli Dead: 40 civilians, 117 soldiers
• Israeli Wounded: ca. 1 000 civilians, ca. 450 soldiers
• Israeli Displace: not available
  

Israel has caused a catastrophic amount of damage to Lebanon and its citizens. The Lebanese Council for Development and Reconstruction put the damage to Lebanon's infrastructure at US$2.5 billion as of the end of July, after which there was another two weeks of fighting in which much more damage was done. On the Lebanese coast, 10 000 - 15 000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil spilled after the bombing of a power plant by Israel. This will cause a major environmental catastrophe and cost at least $100 million to clean up. In contrast, the damage to the Israeli economy as a whole is estimated by the Israeli central bank as US$1.5 billion. Israel can afford such a cost much more than Lebanon can afford to pay US$2.5 billion.
Source: http://www.dawn.com/2006/08/16/int13.htm

Israel claims that it desires to live in peace with the peoples of neighbouring states. To do that, it must realize that it cannot continue to destory the infrastructure of its neighbours and embitter their populace. Israel ought to make a gesture of good faith towards the people of Lebanon by paying most or all of the costs of rebuilding the destroyed infrastructure. Israel must also stop occupying the lands of Lebanon, Syria and Palestine. Only then can everyone in the region live in the peace that they all claim to want so much.

Cheers

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 888

Harper Embarases Canada

Stephen Harper has just given everyone who is trying to fight AIDS the middle finger. By refusing to attend the AIDS conference in Toronto, he has very effectively shown that the Canadian government doesn't give two shits about the people suffering and dying because of HIV/AIDS around the world, from Johannesburg to Bangkok to Caracas to Toronto. The fact that he could not be bothered to come to this conference, and would rather be on Ellesmere Island announcing some new arctic sovereignty initiative, speaks volumes. It says that the millions of people infected with HIV/AIDS don't matter to this government.

This Conservative government is an embarrassment. With the billions of dollars being pumped into buying military equipment, we could make great strides toward better treatments for AIDS, and hopefully a cure. Why are we spending money on new ways to kill people when we could be spending it on new ways to allow people to live? Canadian values do not include allowing those worse off then us to die in squalor and in pain. Canadian values do not involve abandoning the sick to fend for themselves. Canadian values do not include telling the international community to fuck off.

There is still time for Harper to reverse some of the damage done to Canada's international reputation, at least on this issue. He should immediately fly from Nunavut to Toronto and take part in the sessions of the conference tomorrow. Harper should make it clear that Canadians will do everything possible to find a solution to the pain and suffering of the millions with HIV/AIDS.

Stephen Lewis, the U.N. Special Envoy for AIDS, said that the only reason that he can imagine for Stephen Harper not attending the conference is that he is afraid to be booed. Unfortunately, I can see another, more dangerous, motivation behind his actions. He likely believes, as many on the right do, that AIDS is a disease of gay men and intravenous drug users. This was the view advanced by Toronto City Councillor Rob Ford when Council was debating whether or not to provide funding to the conference. Ford said, "if you are not doing needles and you are not gay, you won't get AIDS probably -- that's the bottom line." This attitude reveals the ignorance, bigotry and hatred that underlie the position of the right on this subject. Obviously this attitude has no basis in fact.

AIDS is a horrible disease that affects everyone equally. Being straight or gay has nothing to do with whether one will or will not contract HIV/AIDS. Risky behaviour is what determines whether or not one will contract HIV/AIDS. Thus a person having safe sex is drastically less likely to get HIV/AIDS then a person, regardless of their sexual orientation, who does not practice safe sex. Infection rates among heterosexual men and women have more than doubled in Canada over the last twenty years, and in the developing world a vast majority of those affected by AIDS are heterosexual men and women. A drug user who can get clean needles from a needle exchange and thus does not need to share needles is at dramatically less risk of contracting the virus than a drug user forced to share needles with others. And everybody who is infected suffers. The attitude that HIV/AIDS is a disease of gay men and intravenous drug users ignores the facts, and the reality that everybody who is infected by the virus suffers in a similar way. Obviously, the attitudes of the right are not based on reality, or are based on a view of history that is at best warped and at worst outright false. Harper must disown this view, and must show that the government of Canada takes the problems posed by HIV/AIDS seriously.

Cheers,

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 891

The U.N. Resolution

Good news. At last. The U.N. Security Council has finally passed a ceasefire resolution. This resolution calls for an immediate ceasefire (well, not really immediate, effective on Monday), and then a phased withdrawl of Israeli troops from Lebanon. This would be accompanied by a deployment of the Lebanese army to the south of Lebanon, and the strengthening of UNIFIL, the U.N. force in the region, to 15 000 soldiers to enforce a buffer zone. This deal is not perfect, in that it does not call for the immediate withdrawl of the 30 000 Israeli soldiers now occupying southern Lebanon, and that it does not condemn the murder of over 1 000 Lebanese civilians by the IDF. But this deal is better than nothing.

Or would be if Israel was actually going to honour it. The chief of the Israeli army said yesterday that Israel has tripled the number of soldiers it has on the ground in Lebanon to 30 000, and that they expect to continue fighting for another week. This is to clear as much area as possible of Hezbollah fighters to supposedly "make things easier for the international force." And how many more Lebanese civilians are going to have to die to make things easier? The Israeli PM Ehud Olmert claims to have accepted this deal, but in reality is sabotaging it by pouring more troops into Lebanon and surging to, and beyond, the Litani river. This type of duplicity is not acceptable. Either Israel will abide by the decision of the Security Council, or it will not.

As well, the U.S.A. effectively gave Israel a veto at the Security Council during negotiations. The U.S.A. said that it would veto any resolution of the Council that the government of Israel did not accept. This is not appropriate. Israel does not sit as a member of the Security Council and thus does not have a vote, but the United States is prepared to hold the rest of the Council hostage to the opinions of the Israeli government? How much more disdain for the U.N. and the international community can the U.S. government show? It has to stop.

Hopefully Israel will reverse its decision to continue to fight and kill for another week. Israel must realize that to so openly flout the U.N. resolution, over which it held a veto and which its political leaders have openly accepted, will bring nothing but ill will from the international community. Israel makes no friends for itself by proving that it holds itself to be better and more rational than the other 190 countries of the U.N. As well, the U.S.A. has the power to stop Israel from doing this. The U.S. could make this stop now. But the U.S. government seeks the birth of a new Middle East, and if that means the blood of 1 000 innocent Lebanese and 40 000 innocent Iraqis then so be it. What bullshit.

Thanks to Tehanu at EnMasse for the tip on the Israeli flouting of the ceasefire.

Cheers

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 891

New Terrorism Plot Uncovered in the U.K.

Very early this morning (in Ontario anyway) the British police arrested twenty-one people on terrorism charges and announced that they had been planning to blow up trans-Atlantic flights to the United States with liquid explosives. As a result, the air travel world has gone to hell in a hand-basket. In London, and in fact all airports in the U.K. with flights to the U.S.A., all carry-on luggage is now verbotten. All people are allowed to take on are wallets/small purses, passports, baby milk/formula and medicines. The last two on the list have to be tasted by the passenger before they are allowed on-board. The U.S. has gone on high alert as well, deploying heavily armed (read: armed with machine guns) police to the airports receiving international flights. And all people travelling by air in the U.S.A. today have to have their shoes x-rayed. Even Canadian airports have gotten into the act, with the airport in Ottawa getting in on the act, not allowing passengers to buy drinks after passing through security. Apparently these restrictions will be in place for the next forty-eight to seventy-two hours.

These restrictions are playing all hell with the travel plans of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people. I have seen footage of London Heathrow airport and it looks like a zoo. Wall-to-wall people. No space to move. It must be absolutely hellish.

And already, the blaming of Muslims has started. The American Homeland Security Secretary declared that the plot appeared to be the work of Al-Qaeda. Even the CBC was airing footage of a few bearded men dressed in stereotypically Muslim clothing (white robes and caps) pushing carts of luggage at Heathrow as though they were doing something wrong just by being there. People don't even bother waiting for the results of the investigation, they behave as though it is all predetermined, you know what I mean. The whole "Oh my God!! They wanted to blow up a plane?!?! They must be Muslim fundamentalists!! 'Cause no-one but Muslims ever blows anything up." That attitude makes me sick.

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 894

Isreal Expands Lebanon Invasion. Again.

Isreal has decided to send yet more soldiers into Lebanon and to occupy the country up to Lahani river. And surpise, surprise, the Bush Administration has nothing to say on the matter. This plan would see the Israeli army occupy a massive swath of southern Lebanon, including the city of Tyre. This is unnacceptable. How can Israel possibly justify this? How can the United States sit by and not even comment on the aggression of Isreal?

Because these are the "birth pangs" of the "new Middle East" according to a U.S. government statement issued at the beginning of invasion. Even CNN has been reporting that this new influx of troops means at least a month more heavy fighting in Lebanon. This is illegal aggression. This is the Israel making territorial aggrandizement under the guise of defeating Hezbollah. But Hezbollah was already joining the political process in Lebanon. It was a part of the legitimately elected government of Lebanon. Hezbollah was less of a threat to Israel than it had ever been. And yet there is this invasion. The citizens of Lebanon, close to a thousand of them, are paying the price for the territorial expansion of Israel.

The citizens of the world must continue to stand up and say "NO! THIS IS NOT RIGHT!" The people of Lebanon must know that we stand with them against illegal Israeli aggression; against illegal Israeli occupation and against the illegal Israeli closure of southern Lebanon to humanitarian aid. There was a reason that Israel deliberately destroyed the U.N. observer force. It is because they do not want to be observed! We must say no! This cannot go on. Violence breeds hate, which breeds more violence. But peace breeds understanding and reconciliation. Peace brings the chance for everyone to live a normal life. I am sure that most of the citizens of Lebanon want peace, just as I am sure that most of the citizens of Israel want peace. But you cannot bring peace through war. It does not work like that.

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 895

Lamont Wins Connecticut Primary

This just in: Senator Joseph Lieberman has just conceded defeat in the Connecticut primary for the U.S. Senate. Ned Lamonte has won the primary and will be the Democratic candidate for the Senate seat. Lieberman however, has announced that he will run in the election as an independent. This defeat, however, is a stunning fall from grace for a man who was the running-mate in the 2000 Presidential election. Lieberman has disgraced the voters of Connecticut. Hopefully they will see the truth in time for the election. Best of luck to Mr. Lamonte.

Cheers

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 896

Lebanon's Proposal

A new proposal was advanced at the U.N. Security Council today. The Lebanese government, and the Arab League as a whole, proposed that Lebanese national army would deploy fifteen thousand soldiers into the south of Lebanon, and the Israelis would withdraw. This is, if not the best thing, then almost as good. This proposal would allow the Lebanese government to reassert its authority over the entire country, it would end the needless slaughter of Lebanese civilians by the IDF, and it would stand a decent chance of ending the launching of rockets into northern Israel. It is important that the Lebanese government unanimously agreed to this proposal, including the two Hezbollah members of the cabinet.

Also important to this proposal is that the Israeli government has announced that the proposal will be seriously considered. The Israeli government must agree to withdraw its soldiers. It is unnacceptable that Israel should remain in Lebanon's land. Israel should never have invaded, it should never have bombed the civilians of Lebanon. Israel has committed illegal aggression, and that must be recognized. But unfortunately, the assent of the government of Israel is needed to put this proposal into effect.

As well, the permanent members of the Security Council must recognize that this is the proposal that will end the fighting for the near and medium term in Lebanon. Aid organizations must be allowed to bring aid to the citizens in the south of Lebanon. The killing of Lebanese civilians must be stopped. And the Lebanese/Arab League proposal is the way to do that. The U.N. Security Council and the government of Israel must recognize this, and the agreement must be implemented.

Cheers,

Days Remaining in Bust Presidency: 896

V for Vendetta

I saw V for Vendetta tonight. That movie was awesome. The representation of a democratic society fallen into dictatorship is chilling. The use of fear to force the compliance of citizens is an apt, if rather overdone, metaphor for the techniques being used by many of the countries in the West today. The spectre of terrorism, West-Nile virus and religious intolerance are being used by governments from the U.S.A. to the U.K. to Australia to reduce the freedoms of democracy. The limitations placed on rights, and the enhancement of police power by laws like the U.S.A. Patriot Act, the Anti-Terrorism Act (2001) in Canada and similar legislation around the world, are dangerous. The denial of rights to citizens of supposed democracies marks the end of that democracy. When we are prepared to give up our rights to be theoretically more secure, we give up that which we seek to secure. By making ourselves less free in the cause of supporting our "democratic way of life" we lose that way of life that we seek to protect. Benjamin Franklin had this straight when he said: "They who give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security. V for Vendetta presents an excellent representation of what we flirt with when we allow the government to restrict the rights that ours by virtue of being human.

I read a criticism of this film saying that we should be very wary of a hero who fights dictatorship by blowing up the Old Bailey, a law court, and the Houses of Parliament. The reviewer argued that these are the icons of democracy, and that someone attacking them cannot be committed to democracy. I must disagree with this view. When the courts and the elected bodies of the government are perverted to serve the needs of the dictator, then those bodies are no longer legitimate. The destruction of instruments of the oppression of the people is legitimate. When the laws are used to keep the people from exercising our human rights, then the laws are illegitimate. When the parliament does not represent the people, but is instead a tool of the repression of the people, it is illegitimate. When the icons of democracy subvert the democracy they are supposed to represent, the people have a responsibility to either reclaim them or destroy them. V for Vendetta recognizes this perfectly. An excellent movie.
Cheers

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 898

The Cost of War

As of two days ago, the count of Lebanese dead was at 900. Nine hundred! How Israel can do this anyone is beyond my comprehension. The murder of innocent civilians must stop.

And now, the U.S. and France have reached a compromise on a Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire, but again it contains the American language about a "sustainable peace." What is needed is a stop to the fighting now! Once the fighting stops negotiations can proceed. But the demand that a ceasefire can only occur when there can be a sustainable peace is simply a means to make sure that there is not peace. The conditions for a future, long term peace, can not be created when there is fighting going on. That should be obvious to everyone.

Cheers

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 899

Boys Safe, Whitmore in Custody

CBC.ca is reporting that Peter Whitmore, the convicted paedophile has been taken into custody and that Jordan Bruyere, 14, and Zachary Miller, 10, have been rescued and reunited with their families. It is a great relief to know that they are safe.

Whitmore has been convicted on multiple occasions of abusing children or violating his probation conditions by being in the company of children. Crimes against children, especially sexual crimes, are one of the few occasions that I support the call for longer prison sentences. People like Peter Whitmore who cannot seem to control themselves, and who have reoffended on multiple occasions ought to be thrown into jail for a very long time. No child should have to suffer so.

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 902

Ugghh ... Much ... Too ... Hot

It was far, far too hot in Toronto today. With the humidex today, the temperature was above forty-five degrees celcius. At work it was excruciating, despite the fact that work is supposed to be air conditioned. Fortunately there is only one day of this weather left.

We have got to do something about global warming. How can we sit back doing nothing when the climate is changing to fast? This level of heat kills people. The homeless die. In a recent heat wave in California, over 120 people died. It is not acceptable that the governments of Canada and the U.S.A. continue to sit back and do nothing to save the people of this world out of fear of the possible economic effects of cutting greenhouse gases. How are we supposed to reap the benefits of these economies if we are all dead or living in an ecologically traumatized world that cannot grow enough food to support its population? Something must be done, and it must be done NOW!!!

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 903

Castro in Surgery

This just in, Fidel Castro is undergoing surgery and has temporary transferred presidential power to his brother Raul. Castro's surgery is reportedly for gastrointestinal bleeding. It will be very interesting to see how this develops and whether Fidel will resume the presidency after this surgery or whether he is done as Cuban president. It will also be interesting to see how the United States exploits this situation. CNN is showing footage of jubilation in Miami, as though Castro was already dead. I'm sure I will have more to say on this issue, but for now we will all have to wait and see.

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 904

Lebanon Situation Goes From Bad to Worse

On Sunday the Israeli air force bombed a building in Qana and killed 57 people, mostly women and children. These people were sheltering in the basement of the building so that they would not face death at the hands of Israeli bombs. The fact that the Israeli armed forces would blatantly drop a bomb on a building full of women and children on the excuse that there might have been a few Hezbollah fighters in the building is absolutely unconscionable. Once again, the government of claims that the strike was not deliberate and that it feels "deep regret" but if they really felt any remorse for what they did, all bombing of Lebanon would cease forever, not just the forty-eight hours promised by Israel. Killing the civilians of Lebanon is not the way to disarm Hezbollah; it is not a good way to ensure the security of the people of Israel. All that killing innocent people in Lebanon will do is provide more recruits for Hezbollah and build more antipathy towards Israel among the people of the Middle East.

And yet the U.N. Security Council, stuck firmly in the pocket of the Bush Administration, refuses to condemn the crimes that Israel is committing in Lebanon. All they do is call for a ceasefire that will create the conditions for a lasting peace. What that means is that Israel gets everything it wants: Hezbollah disarmed, soldiers returned and part of Lebanon occupied while Lebanon gets nothing, just the hope that Israel might one day withdraw. While a lasting peace in the region is of course desirable, the people of Lebanon need a cease fire now. The United States wishes to buy more time for Israel to reshape the Middle East in an image pleasing to Washington. Well guess what, that isn't going to happen. Resistance to the aggression of Israel and the U.S.A. will strengthen and yet more people, on both sides, will die. It is not acceptable that this should continue.

Every government in the world should denounce the aggression of Israel in Lebanon for what it is, blatant expansionism and imperialism. The capturing of two Israeli soldiers, who may or may not have been inside Lebanese territory, is not grounds for the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands of Lebanese civilians.

How can the death of children ever be justified? How can the capturing of soldiers justify the deaths of innocent people? How would we feel if we saw our children dead in the rubble every day?

STOP AGGRESSION NOW!

JUSTICE FOR LEBANON!

Days Remaining In Bush Presidency: 904

Harper's Crackpot Response

Just a quick post since I am on break at work (yes, I work evenings). I heard that Harper was on record today questioning why the U.N. observers that Israel blew up on Tuesday were still in South Lebanon, which is (to put it mildly) a war zone. Well, Mr. Harper, it is because they are U.N. observers. They are there to observe and that is why they are staying. Honestly, the Prime Minister needs to pull his head out of his ass in short order.

Cheers

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 908

U.N. Observation Post Destroyed

So, Israel is now bombing the United Nations personnel in southern Lebanon. An Israeli air strike on a UN observer post killed four unarmed UN personnel, including a Canadian, Major Paeta Derek Hess-von Kruedener. This is absolutely unacceptable. There is no reason for Israel to bomb the U.N. observers, unless they don't want their invasion and bombardment to be observed. The Israeli government is actively denying that they had any role to play in the murder of the observers, claiming that the post was hit by accident. But I prefer to take the word of the Secretary General of the United Nations over that of the Israeli government thank you very much. Kofi Annan stated that numerous calls had been made from the observation post to the Israeli government saying that the bombardment had come much to close, until, at about 7:30 pm local time the U.N. lost contact with the post. I find it very difficult to believe that such a thing could have happened by accident after so many warnings.

Of course, Canada's boot-licker of a Prime Minister has decided that Israel can't have possibly targeted the U.N. post for bombing. All he had to say on the matter when asked about Mr. Annan's statement was "I certainly doubt that to be the case." What a fatuous jackass we have in charge of our country. First, Israel's slaughter of the Lebanese is "measured" and second that Israel could not possibly have deliberately bombed the U.N. post. This is a perfect example of the binary thinking that I mentioned in a previous post. Israel can do no wrong, so obviously it could not have possibly even conceived of deliberately bombing the U.N. observers. How disgusting.

And now the Prime Minister of Israel cries crocodile tears for the people killed, expressing "deep regret" over the deaths of the observers. Oh well, at least its better than the treatment that the dead Lebanese civilians get out of the Israeli government, the line that, well, if they were near a site that we wanted to bomb 'cause we think it might possibly, maybe, have had something to do with Hezbollah so they deserved to be bombed into oblivion. This all makes me so sick.

Days remaining in Bush presidency: 909

EnMasse

The EnMasse discussion forum is a great new online place for discussion of all things progressive. It is a largely Canadian site focused on current events in a variety of areas and on building a progressive community online. There are many very articulate voices from the Canadian left, as well as contributers from places as diverse as South Korea, the Netherlands, the United States and Japan. I hope that every person who reads the posts on my blog and is concerned about the issues I mention here will visit enmasse.ca and join the discussion there.

Cheers

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 912

Harper's Photo Op

Well, it has just been brought to my attention that when Harper flew to the Middle East for his dramatic rescue of stranded Canadians, he flew home on his plane with only sixty-three evacuees when he could have carried over one hundred. (See the story at this page from CBC.ca.) This seems to demonstrate that Harper was only interested in the need to have enough people for a photo op. The illustrious Prime Minister seems to have felt the need to "prove" that he is doing something to help the thirty to fifty thousand Canadians stranded in Lebanon. It has also emerged that Mr. Harper brought along three members of his communications staff on his little jaunt. What possible purpose could their being there serve except to show the Canadian public what a great and magnanimous man our Prime Minister is. HAH!

This whole exercise has been to try to divert attention from the fact that the evacuation of Canadians from Lebanon has been a day late and a dollar short. The fact that the first ship to leave Beirut was fifty people under capacity should show that the evacuation has been badly organized and managed. The government also did nothing until people began to shout and make noise about the situation. It is a travesty that the first ship to carry more than one thousand Canadians out of Lebanon just left TODAY. The Canadian government ought to be embarassed of its handling of the evacuation and of the whole current situation in the Middle East.

Thanks to West Coast Tiger at EnMasse.ca for bringing this story to my attention.

Cheers

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 912

The Israeli Army Moves In

So, the Israeli army has decided to launch a ground invasion of Lebanon. This is a depressing and disturbing development. When Israel pulled out six years ago I thought that things might finally be on the right path. But as I watched developments unfold over the last couple of weeks, I have become very depressed about the situation. It is not fair that Israel punishes the entire nation of Lebanon for the actions of a few in Hezbollah. I don't see why so many people are locked into an immovable and binary view on the issues of the Middle East suggesting that one side or the other can do no wrong, and that the other side can do no right.

Personally, I believe that there is wrong enough to go around on both sides. It is wrong for Israel to occupy to the lands of other nations, be it Palestine, Lebanon, Syria or whatever nation. It is wrong that Israel causes the deaths of over 300 (as of Saturday, July 22) civilians in Lebanon to achieve the return of two prisoners taken by Hezbollah or one prisoner taken by Hamas fighters in Gaza. It is wrong to blow up the infrasructure that citizens need to carry on their lives, for example water treatment plants, generating stations and bridges to try to pressure for the return of prisoners.

It is also wrong that those fighting for the liberation of Palestine target the civilians of Israel. When fighting an occupation, one must fight the soldiers of the occupation, not kill citizens of the occupying power who might be opponents of their country's occupation. There is a significant peace movement in Israel, and the indiscriminate killing of civilians sets back the cause of this peace movement by years.

Ultimately, the right of Palestine's people to a state and to the right to live in peace without occupation must be respected. The right of Israel to exist and for its citizens to live in peace within their own borders must be recognized as well. I can't comprehend why the majority of the people in either country backs the continued fighting. The violence has accomplishing nothing. Occupation begets violence, which begets more violence, which begets further violence. And the fighting is not confined to Israel and Palestine. Now Lebanon, and Lebanon's four million innocent citizens have been drawn into the conflict and more people are being killed.

The role of the United States and the West in general is also fair game for consideration here. The headline in the Globe and Mail newspaper on Saturday, July 22 included the phrase "US revs up diplomacy" and yet part way through the article it was mentioned that the US is rush delivering precision guided weapons to the Israeli armed forces. How the Americans can believe they have a right to intervene here is beyond me. That is like asking the best friend of one party to a fight to decide who is in the right and what steps should be taken to resolve the fight. The fact that the Americans have said that Israel should be given a free hand to do what it likes to Lebanon is appalling. And the responses of other heads of state and government have been equally appalling. Stephen Harper, prime minister of Canada said that Israel's response is "measured." In what way is the killing of over three hundred people proportionate to the capture of two soldiers? In what way is it measured Mr. Harper?

A way must be found to move forward recognizing that continued fighting gets nowhere. The end to this dispute will not be found through one side blowing the other side into smithereens. Peace can only come when the leadership of this region realizes that there is more to be gained from peaceful cooexistance then there is from continued bloodshed and violence. I realize this sounds like a pipe dream, but only by dreaming of a better future can a better future be realized.

I have edited this post to reflect spending some more thought on the issue.

Cheers

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 913

My New BLog

Hello everybody. This is not my first time running a blog, but my previous one was on my MSN space, and that seems to have been unceremoniously dumped by Microsoft. So here I am.

I am (at the moment) a 21 year old student living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I live here with my family during the summer months, and during most of the year I live in Peterborough, Ontario where I attend Trent University. I will be going into my fourth year in September, studying Politics and Classical History.

I will be posting here mainly on the topics of politics and current events, since those are my main areas of interest, but occasionally there may be rants about things in my life, such as exams and essays (hate them so much). I consider myself to be somewhere between a social democrat and a democratic socialist (update in 2008: definitely a democratic socialist now), and I have a major dislike of all things right-wing and/or conservative. I also have major issues with the government of the United States of America (current and former) as well as with the most of the governments of Canada, though the current one in particular.

I look forward to posting here for a long time, and while it may be intermittent, I will do my best to keep it up.

Cheers

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 913