–Freedom of the press in Iraq? See post below.

–Freedom of the press in Israel? Not likely.

Omer was abused and assaulted by Israeli security personnel at the Allenby border crossing into Israel from Jordan as he tried to return to his home last week in the Gaza Strip.

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 »

–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!

–Cuba continues to move forward.

–Hitchens gets a taste of what he didn’t before consider torture. It seems now he does. The question is, can he now admit that his position on Iraq was immoral and wrong?

–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.

“[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.”

–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.

–How about the fact that they are 50% of the population and there is no good reason that women shouldn’t be in government?

–Not sure that this is true, but it is an interesting article.

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.

–The violence will not stop until the government takes serious action to bring these criminals and murderers to justice.

–Columbia is not the only place that has attacks against trade unionists.

–More on Bolivia and the counter-revolution that is being waged by the super-rich minority.

–The same solution that we (used to) use to fund our health care system will work to solve the environmental solution. Tax those that make a profit off of emissions and use that money to invest in green public infrastructure. We must not tax the poor and the working “middle class” to solve the problems caused by the rich. Carbon dioxide regulation needs to be sector specific, needs to be brought in progressively and aggressively, and need to make sure that the government can provide an alternative to the high emitters. Public investment in and socially own production facilities need to be built that have the input from the academic and union sectors to all flexibility for future changes and upgrade, but at the same time we need to be producing solutions now. We cannot wait for the market to fail once again. The risk has been born by the working class too long, it is time for those that profited off the exploitation of the environment to pay for the damages they have brought.

–Trade-unionists continue to be assassinated in Columbia with almost complete impunity.

–Ah, yes. The new Tory mayor of London. Are we really surprised?

–Once again the police are caught acting as provocateurs at a popular rally. We must expose this every time it happens.

–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.

–Great news for all those that care about the wheat farmer. Independent farmers need the Wheat Board if they are going to survive in the face of the monopolies of the Agro-Corps.

–It saddens (and confuses) me to see a country like Nigeria have high inflation due to energy price increases. If anything, Nigeria should follow the Venezuelan model. Nationalise the oil and gas and re-distribute the “profits” back to the people.

–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.

–You can imagine my shock.

–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.

–I am not sure that this is possible. Given that the Associated Press is the basis for the CBC, BBC, NYT, Washington Post, Yahoo News, The Guardian UK, and almost every other newspaper/online news source around, banning information from AP would have a rather chilling effect on news blogging. However, I like the initiative’s ethic. We cannot let these massive corporate-media monopolies use regressive copyright laws (or, in this case, interpretations of copyright laws) from interfering with freedom of speech and criticism (this is probably what it is really about anyway). I suggest that they only use article from the elite capitalist press such as Bloomberg and Thompson-Reuters. That way there is no chance of bloggers finding any balance in their stories — ever. That is, unless these rather wealthy (comparatively to Leftnews.org and the like) news aggregators turn to independent news sources from the grassroots, and that will only happen if people start contributing money to those sources. The Real News would be a good place to start.

–Robert Fisk writes about the continuous treats against the Iranian people from the imperialist West. Gordon Clown and Bush seem to never tire of making ridiculous comments about Iranian “nuclear enrichment” in Iran and how they are going to force the world to apply sanctions if Iran does do as they tell it.

–The protests against Bush in Britain.

–More undemocratic statements from the EU “leadership”. Basically, they do not care what the people think.

–Politics is such a strange beast sometimes. You have to respect this move. The question I have is why would he run as a Tory?

–Slowly, the neo-liberal reforms remove all the protections the working-class worked a century to get. An opt-out clause? How about a state responsibility clause where the state has the responsibility to make sure wages are high enough so that people do not have to work 65 hours a week to survive?

–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.