Manitoba Eco-Network is proud to host Winnipeg’s first environmental film festival. Join us for powerful and beautiful films that highlight the perils and the hope for our Earth.
Friday March 12, 2010
7 – 10 pm
Film Premiere “No Impact Man”, “Runaway”, & Low-Impact Reception
Saturday March 13
9 am – 4:30 pm
Feature Films, REEL Discussion, Eco-Displays
Location: Red River College (Princess St. Campus in the heart of the Exchange, enter through William St. doors)
Tickets
Friday only: $10
Saturday only: $12
Full event: $20
Tickets available online at www.mbeconetwork.org or ,while quantities last, at McNally Robinson (1120 Grant Ave) and Mountain Equipment Co-op (303 Portage Ave).
Documents obtained by his supporters under the Privacy Act implicate the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) in his arrest and show that the Canadian government was unwilling to allow him to return even though they knew he was innocent.
While Mr. Abdelrazik is finally home with his family, his quest for justice is far from over. Project Fly Home has obtained the support of over thirty organizations for the following demands:
That Canada make all necessary efforts to ensure that Abousfian Abdelrazik’s name be immediately removed from the UN 1267 list (The “1267 list” imposes a travel ban and complete asset freeze on listed individuals. Canadian regulations implementing the 1267 list prohibit anyone from providing Abdelrazik with any material aid – including salary, loans of any amount, food or clothing.)
That Canada’s “United Nations Al Qaeda and Taliban Regulations” be repealed
That Canada use all means in its power to compel the UN Security Council to scrap the 1267 list
That all Canadian officials involved in the arrest, torture and exile of Abousfian Abdelrazik – particularly those at the highest level – be held responsible for their actions and either criminally charged, discharged from their positions, formally sanctioned, or subject to other measures as appropriate
That, acknowledging that nothing can restore these six lost years or heal the wounds, appropriate reparations be made to Abousfian Abdelrazik and his family
That CSIS be compelled to cease its campaign of harassment against Muslims, Arabs and all other targeted communities.
Peace Alliance Winnipeg endorses this campaign and encourages its members and supporters to become informed and to take action (such as writing Members of Parliament and encouraging others to do so.)
More information on Mr. Abdelrazik’s case can be found at here.
by Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, February 12, 2010
According to a recent report, former NATO Secretary-General George Robertson confirmed that Turkey possesses 40-90 “Made in America” nuclear weapons at the Incirlik military base.
Does this mean that Turkey is a nuclear power?
“Far from making Europe safer, and far from producing a less nuclear dependent Europe, [the policy] may well end up bringing more nuclear weapons into the European continent, and frustrating some of the attempts that are being made to get multilateral nuclear disarmament,” (Former NATO Secretary-General George Robertson quoted in Global Security, February 10, 2010)
“‘Is Italy capable of delivering a thermonuclear strike?…
Could the Belgians and the Dutch drop hydrogen bombs on enemy targets?…
Germany’s air force couldn’t possibly be training to deliver bombs 13 times more powerful than the one that destroyed Hiroshima, could it?…
Nuclear bombs are stored on air-force bases in Italy, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands — and planes from each of those countries are capable of delivering them.” (”What to Do About Europe’s Secret Nukes.” Time Magazine, December 2, 2009)
In January, the Harper government quietly announced that after decades of support, Canada was ceasing aid to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA.) Founded in 1949, UNRWA is the primary organ to provide aid to Palestinian refugees scattered around the world. The Harper government’s decision represents a cruel break from Canada’s traditionally supportive and humane position vis-à-vis the Palestinian refugees.
Please click here to send an email to the all Party leaders, as well as MPs in your locale, challenging them on this decision.
Once you have had the opportunity to respond above, please forward this information to friends and acquaintances who you think would like to help. The Palestinian refugees need our support.
More Info
Canada has provided funding to UNRWA for years, and typically providing UNRWA with up to 4 percent of its budget, about $20 million annually. UNRWA provides aid to Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. UNRWA is under severe financial duress, as the refugee population continues to expand, and the plight of the refugees worsens progressively in Gaza and elsewhere.The announcements on Canada’s cessation of funding to UNRWA were made by Victor Toews, the president of Canada’s Treasury Board, who was travelling in the Middle East last week on behalf of Canada’s Minister of International Cooperation, Beverley Oda.
Especially with the international collective punishment of the Palestinians of Gaza, Canada’s decision deals a severe blow both financially and psychologically to the Palestinian refugees, and to Canadian principles of justice and humanitarian concern.
Jan. 20, 2010: A young boy keeps his eyes on soldiers of the U.S. 82 Airborne Division outside the general hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Photo: Nikki Kahn-The Washington Post
By John Pilger, Jan. 28, 2010
The theft of Haiti has been swift and crude. On 22 January, the United States secured “formal approval” from the United Nations to take over all air and sea ports in Haiti, and to “secure” roads. No Haitian signed the agreement, which has no basis in law. Power rules in an American naval blockade and the arrival of 13,000 marines, special forces, spooks and mercenaries, none with humanitarian relief training.
The airport in the capital, Port-au-Prince, is now an American military base and relief flights have been re-routed to the Dominican Republic. All flights stopped for three hours for the arrival of Hillary Clinton. Critically injured Haitians waited unaided as 800 American residents in Haiti were fed, watered and evacuated. Six days passed before the US Air Force dropped bottled water to people suffering thirst and dehydration.
I cringe when I hear folks like Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon use the word “solidarity” in the same breath as “Haiti.” I’m all for solidarity with the Haitian people, but when it is expressed by the likes of Cannon, I gag.
The Haitian disaster relief program is a thinly disguised military operation to secure the country for corporate interests. Sure, some people are getting food and medical attention, but not nearly enough, given the resources and capabilities of the United States and Canada.
Cynthia McKinney, the U.S. Green Party’s 2008 presidential candidate, captures the hypocrisy in an article published today at Global Research, when she writes:
President Obama’s response to the tragedy in Haiti has been robust in military deployment and puny in what the Haitians need most: food; first responders and their specialized equipment; doctors and medical facilities and equipment; and engineers, heavy equipment, and heavy movers. Sadly, President Obama is dispatching Presidents Bush and Clinton, and thousands of Marines and U.S. soldiers. By contrast, Cuba has over 400 doctors on the ground and is sending in more; Cubans, Argentinians, Icelanders, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans, and many others are already on the ground working–saving lives and treating the injured.
Obama’s and Harper’s emphasis on a military response makes sense when you review the history of Canada and the U.S. in the region and factor in Haiti’s undeveloped petroleum reserves.
Haiti has been under a military occupation — ostensibly a U.N. program to stabilize the country — since 2004 when the U.S. Marines (with Canadian complicity) kidnapped President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and spirited him out of the country. The lead-up to the coup included years of economic destabilization brought on by IMF-imposed “structural adjustments” and covert CIA support for Aristide’s opponents (who yearned for the good old days when theTonton Macoutes would keep the masses in line).
Aristide remains popular among the poor majority in Haiti for the reforms he tried to implement. Who knows what could happen in the wake of an earthquake that not only killed hundreds of thousands but also totally destroyed state and international infrastructure and control. The resulting instability offers an opening for Aristide supporters that must cause unease in Washington, Ottawa and corporate boardrooms that benefit from keeping the Haitians down.
Haiti is popularly understood to be the poorest country the Americas, and one of the poorest in the world. More sophisticated measurements can be found here. The fact is, 80 per cent of the population is dirt poor, living on less than $1,000 a year and often, literally, eating dirt. (If you want to see Haitians eating dirt, watch Inside a Failed State – Haiti, a recent film by Journeyman Pictures.)
Haitian’s are poor, in large measure, because wages are low and labour standards are nonexistent. According to Canada-Haiti Action, the Canadian firm Gildan, with nearly 8000 employees in the textile sector, is the biggest employer in Hait], after the Haitian government. The Montreal-based company has been accused of relying on sweatshop labour.
While Haitians are poor, the country is resource rich. For example, Majescor Resources Inc., a Canadian mining company, last year partnered with SIMACT, a group of Canadian financiers and Haitian-American developers, to explore for gold and copper in Haiti.
But I doubt that Obama is dispatching the Marines to safeguard the interests of Canadian T-shirt manufacturers and mining companies. More compelling are reports of sizable, undeveloped petroleum reserves. There is credible evidence that Haiti’s oil patch makes Venezuela’s look tiny by comparison. Read Ezili Danto’s superb discussion of this, entitled Oil in Haiti – Economic Reasons for the UN/US occupation, published last October, on OpenSalon.com.
There is a lot to know about Haiti that you won’t find in the mainstream media. Here are some I highly recommend:
Canada-Haiti Action (has recommendations for where to send your financial expressions of solidarity)
Canadians are responding generously and we need to redouble our efforts. However, our governments (Liberal and Conservative) continue to mislead us about the nature of their involvement with Haiti, prior to and following the quake. We can’t let them get away with this.
Haiti earthquake – U.S. aid mission under scrutiny
(Al Jazeera English, Jan. 19, 2009) Thousands of US troops have arrived on the island, trying to offer security and distribute what humanitarian aid there is.
And the UN Security Council is expected to approve the deployment of 3,500 extra UN troops.
But critics say before more security forces arrive, it is medical equipment, nurses and doctors that need to be allowed access to the country if aid efforts can really begin to reach those most in need.
By Laila El-Haddad, Al Jazeera English, Jan. 18, 2010
When it comes to the world of cartooning, Joe Sacco is considered a luminary. Sacco, who is hailed as the creator of war-reportage comics, is the author of such award-winning books as Palestine and Safe Area Gorazde.
His latest work, Footnotes in Gaza, is an investigation into two little-known and long-forgotten massacres in 1956 in the southern Gaza Strip that left at least 500 Palestinians dead. It is a chilling look back at an unrecorded past and an exploration of how that past haunts and shapes the present – including the beginning of mass home demolitions in 2003 in Rafah.
Sacco navigates the fuzzy lines between memory, experience and visual interpretation almost seamlessly all while painting an intimate portrait of life under occupation and in spite of occupation – a life not only of repression and anger but one full of humour and resilience.
The news from Ottawa is shocking. Senior intelligence officer Richard Colvin repeatedly warned the government about the routine use of torture in Afghan prisons, yet the Canadian Forces continued to hand over their prisoners to brutal Afghan authorities.
Stephen Harper’s Conservative government, rather than taking the charges seriously, has instead used a smear campaign to attack Mr. Colvin. We cannot trust the military, or this government, to investigate itself.
We must learn the truth, and hold those responsible accountable for their actions, and their inaction. We cannot allow Canada to be complicit in torture.
Pakistan, increasingly destabilized by the U.S.-led war in neighbouring Afghanistan, is getting closer to blowing apart.
Bombings and shootings have rocked this nation of 167 million, including a brazen attack on army HQ in Rawalpindi and a massive bombing of Peshawar’s exotic Khyber Bazaar.
Pakistan’s army is readying a major offensive against rebellious Pashtun tribes in South Waziristan. Meanwhile, the feeble, deeply unpopular U.S.-installed government in Islamabad faces an increasingly rancorous confrontation with the military.
Like the proverbial bull in the china shop, the Obama administration and U.S. Congress chose this explosive time to try to impose yet another layer of American control over Pakistan as Nobel Peace Prize winner Obama appears about to send thousands more U.S. troops to Afghanistan.
Tragically, U.S. policy in the Muslim world continues to be driven by imperial arrogance, profound ignorance, and special interest groups.
The current Kerry-Lugar-Berman bill, advanced with President Barack Obama’s blessing, is ham-handed dollar diplomacy at its worst. Pakistan, bankrupted by corruption and feudal landlords, is being offered $7.5 billion US over five years — but with outrageous strings attached.
The U.S. wants to build a mammoth new embassy for 1,000 personnel in Islamabad, the second largest after its Baghdad fortress-embassy. New personnel are needed, claims Washington, to monitor the $7.5 billion in aid. So U.S. mercenaries are being brought in to protect U.S. “interests.” New U.S. bases will open. Most of this new aid will go right into the pockets of the pro-western ruling establishment, about 1% of the population.
What do secrecy, police provocateurs, an assault on democracy and infringements on citizens’ rights have in common? The Security and Prosperity Partnership.
Filmmaker Paul Manly will be attending a Winnipeg screening of his documentary, about the Security and Prosperity Partnership You, Me and the SPP: Trading Democracy for Corporate Rule as part of a 34 city national tour.
The Canadian government says “The Security and Prosperity Partnership is neither an agreement nor a treaty but a dialogue.” Following the shock of 9/11, right‐wing political and business leaders have pushed the SPP agenda. Negotiating away from public scrutiny, they say it is the way to keep trade flowing between the United States, Canada and Mexico. You, Me and the SPP exposes the corporate agenda of the SPP and reveals that this secretive agreement is about much more than trade.
Opponents of this secretive ‘dialogue’ claim that it is undemocratic and a direct threat to the sovereignty of the three countries involved, Canada, the United States and Mexico; it bypasses their parliamentary systems and places control of regulatory integration in the hands of large corporations. In addition to harmonizing health, safety, environmental, and labour standards, the SPP also includes deep integration of military and security structures between the three countries.
No proponents of the SPP were willing to take part in on‐camera interviews for You, Me and the SPP, which features interviews with Naomi Klein, Maude Barlow, Murray Dobbin and Joel Bakan, among a host of other opponents of the SPP including economists, lawyers, union leaders, and politicians.
Manly also interviewed ordinary citizens who have been affected by the SPP agenda including a retired elementary school teacher who is on the no‐fly‐list; a citizen who refused to participate in the Canadian census because Lockheed Martin, the world largest arms manufacturer, is part of the census process; a mill worker who has been laid‐off because deregulation has allowed forest companies to close mills and export raw logs; and a mother of twins who is concerned about protecting her young children from contaminated products.
Manly has created an extremely thorough introduction to a set of issues that will increasingly affect every Canadian. As the film progressed, I was shocked at my own ignorance about the SPP and TILMA and their implications and I am indebted to this film for the research and revelations it presents.
- Mark Achbar – Manufacturing Consent, The Corporation
What the SPP really represents is a parallel government, so that the important decisions are made outside of parliament and outside of legislatures … democracy is slowly being gutted.
- Murray Dobbin, Canadian author, journalist
The ultimate goal, quite obviously, is to create such tight integration that effectively we only have one North American political, security, military, and economic place ‐ that there really are no differentials between this country and the country next door.
- Michael Byers, Canada Research Chair, Global Politics and International Law, UBC
SPP Dead?
In August of 2009, the US government declared that the SPP is no longer an active initiative but almost all of the various parts of this corporate agenda have either been implemented or are moving forward under separate programs and it is widely anticipated that a more extensive rebranded SPP 2.0 will be unveiled soon. The SPP stands out as a prime example of the willingness of the corporate elite and their political cronies to sacrifice democratic principles and civil liberties in favour of corporate control and monopolization.
The national tour is sponsored by the Communication, Energy and Paperworkers Union, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, the Council of Canadians and the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives.
Information about the film, including a list of screening dates, the trailer, and additional videos can be viewed on the film’s website.
