–Support the public postal service.

Great. Now revoke the deportation orders for other war-resistors as well.

July 3, 2008

Ottawa - The Council of Canadians is calling on the Harper government to respect the will of Parliament and the Canadian people. Despite strong public support for war resisters who want to stay in Canada, the Harper government has remained silent, apparently content to let deportation proceedings continue, the organization says.

“The war resisters seeking refuge in Canada have shown tremendous courage in refusing to participate in an illegal war, and it is time the federal government let them stay,” says Maude Barlow, national chairperson of the Council of Canadians. “It is shameful that the Harper government, so fond of telling us to support the troops, is trying to send these heroic soldiers back to persecution in the US or redeployment in Iraq.”
Read the rest of this entry »

–An article about Corey Glass in the Toronto Sun after the day of action yesterday. If you haven’t already, please call Diane Finley’s office and let her know that she should follow the will of the majority of the country. Let Corey Glass stay!

–Conservatives continue to be the leading cause of global warming.

–The Canadian economy.

–Call your MP and Diane Finley’s office and demand that she listen to the will of the people of Canada. War Resisters Welcome Here!

–The nutters are out in full force over this. Congrats to Morgentaler, he deserves it. However, we still have a lot of fighting to do as this province still does not provide accessible abortion services to women, PEI doesn’t provide even inaccessible services, and NS only has one hospital that provides them. The reality is that the progressive movements in this country have not won this battle yet.

–Great to see some solidarity among unions!

“[Maher Arar's] lawsuit challenged “extraordinary rendition,” a process by which federal authorities have, without legal proceedings in U.S. courts, allegedly sent suspected terrorists to be held and tortured in other countries.”

–It is hardly news for those that are involved in this debate. The fight continues.

–This is from LabourStart. Caps on the spending in the BC elections are going to hurt any chance that a progressive voice will be heard. The idea that there is such a thing as “big labour” when considering the control the corporate agenda has on the media is just laughable.

Two weeks after a new contract in which GM bosses promised no more layoffs and no more plant closures until 2011, in exchange for a wage freeze and other concessions, they have now announced closure! The profit motive is stronger than any rotten deal the union tops can broker with the bosses and they are prepared to break the law to do so. Workers will be drawing some bitter lessons from this experience.

–More about the Liberal’s “green” flat-tax scheme.

–Duncan Cameron sets the record straight. The market cannot help us here, we must take the polluters and emitters on as a society.

The most obvious problem with the Green Shift proposed by Stéphane Dion is that the Liberal party plan will not reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly, if at all. The hidden assumption is that if the new carbon tax works, it will reduce the revenues available to the federal government (i.e. for needed investments in green energy). The biggest shortcoming is that the Liberal Green Shift relies on market pricing to fix a massive market failure that threatens the extinction of the planet.

–It is about time the BBC ran a headline like this. Of-course, this is not an indepth analysis by the BBC, it is a report on Oxfam. Food prices do not have to rise that much to force millions into poverty — or worse. For Lula to claim that it only increases food prices 3% is insulting and narrow-minded. There may be a way to produce fuel from algae, but that technology is not the answer to our problems right now as it will be years before we can use it. We must have a plan for implementing currently available technology to reduce emissions and it must be done in a planned and regulated way for it to actually reduce emissions significantly.

–There is little question that there is exploitation on farms in BC. I was just their and saw the kind of anti-human, anti-worker practices one associates with Latin American immigrant exploitation in the South-Western US. We must stand with our farm workers and demand justice. More here: Harvest of Injustice: The Oppression of Migrant Workers on Canadian Farms

–The Conservatives hate the independence that judges have as they act to protect our freedoms. It just goes to show that they know that the “Liberal appointed” judges are keeping their more-insane policies in check. Remembers, it is always time to vote the Tories out.

–A look at Monsanto.

Where: Alden Nowlan House (The Grad House), 676 Windsor St., UNB Fredericton.

When: Saturday, June 21.

7:00 pm - Food and speeches on the political and human rights situation in Colombia by Maikel and Leyda Rodriguez, James Brittain, sociology professor at Acadia University, and others.
8:00 pm - Salsa Crash Course with Hernando and Sandra Gonzalez.
9:00pm - Latin Dancing.

Tickets: $10/person or $20/family. Tickets sold at the door or in advance at the Multicultural Association, Doodles Cafe or True Foods.

Funds raised go to the family of the late Adolfo Montes Gonzales. On March 22, 2008, Adolfo Montes Gonzales, a union leader at the Cerrejon coal mine, where NB Power sources its coal to generate approximately 16% of electricity in New Brunswick, was murdered at his residence, leaving behind his wife and four small children. Sponsors include the Fredericton Peace Coalition, Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network, the Canadian Labour Congress, the NB Federation of Labour, the NB Union and Project Ploughshares Fredericton. More sponsors and volunteers are welcome. To co-sponsor or volunteer, email info@frederictonpeace.org

For more info: info@frederictonpeace.org

–Canada’s Conservatives still doing everything they can to undermine talks at the UN between developed and developing nations.

–It is even more regressive than I thought it would be. How can they possibly pretend that this is not just a give-a-way to the most wealthy Canadians?

“Puts you in control of the amount of tax you pay” — what kind of statement is that? So, if I buy lots of “green” consumer products, I don’t have to pay taxes, or if I have money to invest in “green” solutions” I don’t have to pay income taxes? Where’s the connection between income tax and consumption? Doesn’t putting more money in the pockets of the most wealthy result in increased consumption of goods (green or not)? What kind of solution is that to the global climate crisis?

“A Green Tax Shift will provide a Carbon Tax Holiday by allowing income taxes and payroll taxes to be reduced, income supplements to low income Canadians to be increased, student loans to be cut in half…” — Exactly how will student loans be cut in half if the tax is revenue neutral? It is a move away from progressive taxation and towards a flat-tax on income — and all of it is revenue neutral which means poorer Canadians pay more. Poorer Canadians also end up paying more of their income on regular consumer goods because business will pass down the consumption tax onto the consumer. There is no solution here and it puts an unnecessary economic burden people who have not contributed to the crisis.

“Ms. May said the Green Party’s costing exercise shows how different types of families in Canada will be affected by a carbon tax. For instance, an urban, upper-middle-class family in Ontario would pay 1.2 per cent less income toward taxes while a low-income, rural senior would save 9.2 per cent every year.” –This is on income, but they will be spending more on gas, electricity, and every major commodity. Taken together, they are flat or even regressive tax figures. The Fraser Institute will be pleased.

It is the same criticism I have of the Liberal Party’s “green-tax the poor” plan — only more so. Makes me so mad that the “green” brand has been taken over by this group of neo-liberal opportunists.

–The funny thing is that the Canadian press seem to be missing these numbers.

–Complete and utter outrage. Just in case you forgot what to feel. We continue to deal with an economic system that cannot deal with the realities of the material world. If we allow these multinationals to pollute our environment so they can dig for profits then we truly have not learned from the massive environmental crisis that we are dealing with right now. It makes no sense; we must be mad.

One apology begets another.

Fredericton Peace Coalition presents 2 films this Monday

Ground Truth: After the Killing Ends

The subjects are young Americans who experience recruitment and training, combat, homecoming, and the struggle to reintegrate with families and communities. The terrible conflict in Iraq, depicted with
ferocious honesty in the film, is a prelude for the even more challenging battles fought by the soldiers returning home “ with personal demons, an uncomprehending public, and an indifferent government. As these battles take shape, each soldier becomes a new kind of hero, bearing witness and giving support to other veterans, and learning to fearlessly wield the most powerful weapon of all - the truth.

Let Them Stay

“Let Them Stay” features exclusive one-on-one interviews with U.S. war resisters in Canada, documenting their life-changing experiences in Iraq and the hidden realities of U.S. military recruitment and warfare. It also documents the War Resisters Support Campaign, a pan-Canadian coalition of labour, faith and peace groups, Vietnam war resisters, and individuals who are working with these war resisters to put pressure on the current federal government to let them stay.

7:00 PM, Monday, June 16
Conserver House, 180 St. John St.

Films to be followed by discussion and letter writing to Prime Minister Harper and Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Diane Finley. The Canadian Parliament passed an historic motion on June 3, 2008, that calls on the Canadian government to make a program to allow US war resisters to apply for permanent resident status in Canada and to cease all deportation and removal proceedings against US war resisters. The next step is to write to the Prime Minister and Minister of Citizenship and Immigration to ensure that they that the will of Parliament is implemented.

For more info: info@frederictonpeace.org

–More on why privatization is not an answer to better health care.

–This is crazy. The vast majority of people oppose this, students oppose this, consumer protection groups oppose this, artists oppose this, and large corporations oppose this. The only people that are pushing for this are the international publishing houses who are just trying to suck more money out of the public. Clearly, people need to write to their MPs to vote against this bill.

–The Conservatives continue to aid a government that digs graves for trade unionists as a past time.

Racist behaviour in our country’s “multicultural” metropolitan centres is often more vulgar and violent than outside. Here’s a perfect example.

“Last September there were a rash of disturbing attacks against Asian fishermen [just north of Markham, ON] … Six assaults were eventually reported to York police. Arrests have been made in five. Dozens more victims told stories of harassment, racial slurs, theft and assault on Chinese-language call-in shows. Incidents were reported as far away as Peterborough and Westport … Were these attacks racially motivated, or just a troubling example of tensions between locals and anglers, who are often Asian? As the debate raged, nine parked vehicles were vandalized with swastikas, anti-Semitic graffiti and homosexual slurs in late September … In late October, two men strung up a black-painted skeleton from a noose at the end of their yard in Keswick. The life-size dummy dangled from a flagpole beneath an oversized Confederate flag. It hung there for several weeks until a police officer noticed.”

“We could talk about so many other issues – the UN Declaration on Indigenous Peoples, First Nations poverty, drinking water – and the list is quite extensive.”

150,000 children were removed from their communities and put in the “residential school system”, and according to CBC Newsworld, this includes those kidnapped from their mothers immediately after birth.

–Yep, it is all about the environment — unless it costs oil companies profit.

–Stand against empire, tyranny, and oppression. Stand with the people of the world and show Bush is Not Welcome Anywhere!

–The Harper government once again disgraces Canada.

–Just more of a reason that we cannot trust the current Liberal government to do what is in the best interests of the working people of this province.