Note to readers – From July 22, 2022 to April 8, 2023 this blog – as well as our amateur sport blog – has been shut down by WordPress after the password was inadvertently deleted. Sincere thanks to all those who expressed their interest, support and patience. Expect an uptake in posts as we endeavour to make up for lost ground. Further, we will be posting articles from the archives reporting on the people’s movements in the Maritime Provinces during the 1970s-1990s period.

Information on salt production in the Americas

• Salt Production on the Magdalen Islands

• Untapped Salt Deposit in Newfoundland and Labrador

• Stone Canyon’s Control Over Salt Production in the Americas

Salt Production on the Magdalen Islands

Seleine salt mine on the Magdalen Islands

Windsor salt workers will consider the tentative agreement seriously

Week 24 of Windsor Salt Strike: Tentative Agreement at Windsor Salt

Windsor salt workers rally at City Hall, June 29, 2023

On July 20, the bargaining units for Unifor Locals 240 and 1959 announced they had reached a tentative agreement with the employer, Stone Canyon Industries Holding Inc., on the third day of mediation.

The presentation of the tentative agreements and voting are to take place on Wednesday, July 26 for all three bargaining units. Local 240 represents the clerical and lab workers in both the Ojibway Mine and the evaporation plant and Local 1959’s two units represent workers in the mine and the evaporation plant. Nearly 250 unionized workers are on strike at the mine.

Picket lines remain up at both sites. Those who can are encouraged to continue to visit the line to show their support.

More US weapons for Ukraine

US/NATO Proxy War in Ukraine

• Russia terminates grain transit deal due to sabotage and non-compliance

• Ukrainian counter-offensive fails

• Destruction of US chemical weapons stockpile an shipment o cluster munitions to Ukraine

• Torturer-in-chief decries use of torture

The United States has announced that it will provide an additional $1.3 billion in weapons aid for Ukraine, deepening its involvement in the war in defiance of repeated warnings by Russia. The package, announced on July 19, includes air defence systems and related munitions, anti-tank missiles, drones and other military equipment. It will be supplied through the U.S. arms industry. The U.S. has provided more than $42 billion in arms and military services to Ukraine since Russia launched its special military operation in late February 2022.

July 26, 1953: 70th Anniversary of assault on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Barracks

Stand with the Cuban People and Their Revolution!

July 26 marks one of the most important dates celebrated in Cuba, Moncada Day or the National Day of Rebellion. Seventy years ago on that day, revolutionary youth led by Fidel Castro launched an attack on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Barracks in Santiago de Cuba and Bayamo respectively, two of the main garrisons of the reactionary dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. Moncada in particular was the regime’s military stronghold in the south of Cuba, the second largest barracks in the country and a symbol of its power. The goal was to seize the weapons and distribute them to the people and spark a national uprising that would not only overthrow the Batista dictatorship but also establish Cuba’s independence and sovereignty. The attacks were carried out by an organization that was created in 1952, under the leadership of Fidel Castro.

First Nations’ concerns about Windsor Salt’s mining leases on their lands

The Ojibway Mine complex sits on the land of the Walpole Island First Nation and the Caldwell First Nation. Both First Nations raised concerns about lease extensions for the Ojibway Mine complex in May and June 2021 but they were ignored. The fact that they raised concerns is documented by the Ontario Ministry of Mines. Stone Canyon Industries Holdings Inc. purchased Windsor Salt as part of its purchase of Morton Salt on April 30, 2021, a month before the period of the lease extension was posted and open for public comment. Both First Nations submitted questions during the public comment phase of the lease renewal process asserting their right to a say over their lands and the resources they contain. The leases were eventually renewed for 21 years on February 11, 2022 and their concerns were ignored.

Dead end NATO Summit in Vilnius July 11-12

Montreal action July 8, 2023, one of many held in Canada and internationally opposing the NATO Vilnius summit.

NATO’s Vilnius Summit wrapped up on July 12 amidst the declarations that NATO emerged stronger than ever, more united than ever, more determined than ever to escalate the conflict with Russia “for as long as it takes” for the U.S. and NATO to prevail. But the facts show that it was a dead-end Summit — a cul-de-sac from which no exit is possible. As Jean Paul Sartre said in his existentialist one-act play titled Huis Clos (No Exit) written in 1944, where three characters find themselves in a mysterious room and can’t find a way out. The play is said to propose that “hell is other people” rather than a state created by God, both propositions being equally absurd.

Nonetheless, it just about sums up the predicament addressed by NATO members at the Vilnius Summit where irrational and unacceptable proposals are put forward as if they are serious and then announcements are made. The theatre of the absurd the world witnessed at Vilnius is a manifestation of the refusal of the U.S. and NATO members, Canada included, to take the measures which the conditions of the times demand. The path they are carving out for Ukraine, Europe and the world is a very dangerous one which the majority of the peoples of the world are sure to vigorously reject.

China responds to NATO disinformation and threats issued at Vilnius Summit

An ongoing concern about NATO is its hostile approach toward China. Modern China has been established on the basis of upholding the interests of the Chinese people and rejecting foreign interference. Thus, because it takes an independent path in the service of its own interests, not that of the U.S., NATO or anyone else, the U.S., Canada and other countries claim that it poses an existential threat to them, even though it has never threatened other countries. In this vein, NATO’s final communiqué from the Vilnius Summit mentions China 15 times and claims that “China’s stated ambitions and coercive policies challenge our interests, security and values” and that it poses “systemic challenges” to the alliance.

Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin, at his regular press conferences on July 12 and 13 fielded several questions pertaining to the threats and disinformation from NATO about China, as well as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Those questions and replies are posted below.

New arms factory: Germany creates equity in Western Ukraine

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (L) met Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of NATO summit, Vilnius, Lithuania, July 12, 2023

BY M. K. BHADRAKUMAR*

The hypothesis that the Anglo-Saxon axis is pivotal to the proxy war in Ukraine against Russia is only partly true. Germany is actually Ukraine’s second largest arms supplier, after the United States. Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged a new arms package worth 700 million euros, including additional tanks, munitions and Patriot air defence systems at the Nato summit in Vilnius, putting Berlin, as he said, at the very forefront of military support for Ukraine.

NATO Vilnius Summit: Actions in Canada and Quebec say ‘not in our name’ to US/NATO proxy war in Ukraine

Picket in Edmonton, June 17, 2023 mobilizes against upcoming NATO Summit

Pickets, rallies and other actions took place in a number of cities across Canada to oppose the NATO Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania being held July 11-12. The actions called on Canadians to speak out to oppose the U.S./NATO proxy war in Ukraine and the Canadian government’s warmongering, demand that Canada get out of NATO and that Canada be made a zone for peace.

Cuba rejects the presence of a US nuclear submarine in Guantanamo Bay

“We strongly reject the presence of a nuclear submarine in Guantanamo naval base from July 5 to 8. It’s a provocative escalation of US which makes it imperative to question what strategic purpose it pursues in our region, which was declared a Zone of Peace.” | Cubaminrex 

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs categorically rejected the entry into Guantánamo Bay, on July 5, 2023, of a nuclear-powered submarine that remained until July 8 at the US military base located there, which constitutes a provocative escalation of the United States, whose political or strategic motives are unknown.

NATO Vilnius Summit: Attempt to present a picture of smooth sailing despite evidence to the contrary

Three-Point Plan for Ukraine’s Accession

In an attempt to present smooth sailing in NATO, the organization’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the NATO Summit in Vilnius will adopt a three-point plan to bring Ukraine “closer” to accession: 1) a multi-year program of assistance; 2) upgraded political ties; and 3) a new NATO Ukraine Council, with Ukraine participation.

Canada’s destructive self-serving measures: Making the seizure of Russian assets legal

On June 10, the Government of Canada ordered the seizure of a Russian-registered cargo aircraft that has been sitting on the tarmac at Toronto Pearson Airport since February 27, 2022, when Canada closed its airspace to Russian aircraft. The seizure coincided with the unannounced visit by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland to Kyiv, Ukraine.

A crime without a statute of limitations. How did the Volyn massacre begin?

(Originally published April 12, 2023 and updated April 25 and July 11)

On “Bloody Sunday” July 11, 1943, Ukrainian nationalists began a massacre of the Polish population in Volhynia, in which more than 50,000 and up to 100,00 people ultimately died. What happened can be unequivocally qualified as ethnic cleansing, but Ukrainian ideologists both in that country and Canada strongly deny this. In Canada, the commander of the forces responsible for this ghastly crime, Roman Shukhevych, is venerated by a monument in Poland.[1]

The leader of the Ukrainian Nazi collaborators was Stepan Bandera, who is now a hero – almost like the father of the nation – celebrated with statues, streets, stamps and even a national holiday.

German arms factory in Ukraine

The head of the German Rheinmetall, Armin Papperger, announced an agreement to set up an arms factory in western Ukraine within the next 12 weeks. He did not disclose the location, but the plant is being built in Transcarpathia near Chornotysiv, the signs of which are shown in this map from the Rybar think tank. Rheinmetall supplied arms to the Hitlerites. In 1925, the German Reich acquired a controlling stake in Rheinmetall through Vereinigte Industrieanlagen AG. During WWII, Rheinmetall-Borsig was staffed in part by enslaved people from Nazi concentration camps. Polish, French, Soviet and Jewish enslaved people were forced to work on the very weapons being used to defend the Reich and prevent their own liberation. It has an arms plant in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec.

Rheinmetall specialises in weaponized vehicles such as Leopard tanks, also manufacturing the guns, missiles and bombs to go with them. The armored-howitzer 2000 weapons system, produced by Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and Rheinmetall, known for its devastating destruction, was last used in Afghanistan. Rheinmetall is a joint stock company whose majority is however controlled by the Röchling family. 

In retrospect, Germany’s — in particular, then foreign minister and current president Steinmeier’s — diabolical role to align Germany with the neo-Nazi elements during the regime change in Kiev in 2014 and the subsequent German perfidy in the implementation of the Minsk Agreement (“Steinmeier formula”), as admitted recently in February by former Chancellor Angela Merkel should not be forgotten.

State-sponsored disinformation spread about agenda for NATO Summit

NATO Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania | Steve Rutchinski

The NATO Vilnius Summit, July 11-12, brings together the heads of state and governments of all NATO members and “key partners.” According to reports, “key partners” include the heads of U.S. corporations involved in armaments production.

The actual agenda for the Summit has not as yet been announced. Nonetheless, a concerted campaign of speculation and disinformation is taking place to justify what cannot be justified. Its aim is to disorient the peoples of the NATO countries in Europe, as well as Ukraine and other countries affected by the U.S./NATO proxy war in Ukraine. Its main characteristic is to forget about how matters pose themselves in the context of today’s historical turning point and, instead, make irrational assessments and prognostications for purposes of eking out a cushy living in the world of punditry.

Nazi collaborator monuments in Lithuania

On the eve of NATO’s Vilnius Summit, we are publishing a detailed report by Lev Golinkin of the American Forward periodical on the glorification of fascism and Nazism in Lithuania.

In front of the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense stands an imposing black monument to Jonas Žemaitis aka Žemaitis-Vytautas (1909–1954), who served in the Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force, a volunteer militia created with the aim of providing military aid to the Nazis. Photo by E.giedraitis via Wikimedia

There are hundreds of statues and monuments in Canada, the United States and around the world to people who abetted or took part in the murder of Jews and other minorities during the Holocaust. The Forward has, for the first time, documented them in this collection of articles. For a guide to each country’s memorials click here.

(January 26, 2021) Vilnius — In many ways, Lithuania pioneered the glorification of Nazi collaborators on a state level. It has perverted museums and tourist sites; celebrated perpetrators as national heroes; persecuted Holocaust survivors who defended themselves with pre-trial investigations for “war crimes;” destroyed a prominent author’s livelihood for the crime of admitting Lithuanians participated in the Holocaust; and is debating denialist legislation similar to Poland’s.

Talk about peace negotiations to distract attention from the aim to prolong the U.S./NATO proxy war

NATO Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania | Nick Lin

Calendar of Events

In the run-up to the Vilnius Summit, what is now called the Debate on Security Guarantees is heating up. It allegedly refers to what the U.S., Britain and Germany say they require in order for a peace deal to be signed with Russia but their actions show they have no intention of permitting this war to end. It is in fact disinformation of the first order at a time everything indicates they want to keep pouring weapons into Ukraine and, most importantly, explore what they call “nuclear options.” The latest U.S. announcement that it is sending cluster bombs to Ukraine shows what a criminal administration looks like. It puts the nail in the coffin of declarations by the the U.S., Canada, Britain and other NATO members that they are fighting for democracy in Ukraine.

Grim prospects for NATO’s Vilnius Summit

On the eve of the NATO Summit to be held in Vilnius, Lithuania on July 11-12, many self-serving views are being put forward by current and former NATO officials, neo-liberal think-tanks, defence ministers and personnel and national security advisors and consultants of NATO members. They are said to address what the reactionary forces within NATO think must take place at the Vilnius Summit. They demonstrate that NATO bases nothing on principles which guide international rule of law and relations between nations. Their concern is the brutal expansion of NATO interests and the further retrenchment of its coup regime in Kyiv.

NATO Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania: Oppose escalation of U.S./NATO proxy war in Ukraine! Negotiate a peaceful resolution NOW!

Canada stands second to none with the U.S., Britain and other NATO members in prolonging the U.S./NATO proxy war in Ukraine. By refusing to permit a negotiated settlement, it has set a course of fighting to the last Ukrainian. It is also participating in ever larger U.S.-led war exercises which endanger world peace. From June 12-23, NATO held the biggest air war exercises in its history with Germany playing host. The Air Defender exercises involved 23 NATO members, with Sweden and Japan also participating.

Alberta actions say no to preparations for U.S./NATO war

Calgary

Calgarians took their place Saturday, June 17 alongside others across Canada with two bold and spirited pickets, saying No! to U.S./NATO war preparations, get Canada out of NATO, and make Canada a zone for peace.

French soldiers don’t want to fight Russia

According to a recent survey that included French troops, soldiers do not want to fight against Russia in its war with Ukraine, with some respondents saying they would publicly protest a transition to war.

Al Mayadeen

Maine speaks against the war

By No Harbour for War, Facebook

The anti-war movement is active in the impoverished American state of Maine. On June 24 a vigorous demonstration was held during the rain in the small city of Lewiston, featuring their demands: “No War With Russia,” “No NATO! No War!”, and “Bring Our War $$ Home!”

Two Canadian warships enroute to Baltic Sea

(Updated July 12, 2023) Maritime Forces Atlantic announced on July 3 that “#HMCS Shawinigan and #HMCS Summerside depart Halifax today to join Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group 1 (SNMCMG1) in the Baltic Sea off Russia’s Northwest frontier. Sending two MCDV’s as part of NATO’s high readiness at-sea presence, demonstrates Canada’s continued commitment to #OpReassurance.” Family were assembled at dockside and the requisite PR photos taken.

This deployment once again illustrates the dirty role Canada is playing in participating in war preparations against Russia and covering up U.S.-NATO crimes. It was during the NATO exercise Baltic Operations 2022 (BALTOPS 22) in June 5-17, 2022 that the Nord Stream gas pipeline carrying gas from Russia to Germany across the Baltic Sea filled with 50 billion cubic metres of natural gas was deliberately organized to blow up. BALTOPS is NATO’s premier maritime-focused exercise in the Baltic Region; the Royal Canadian Navy normally participates. That explosion which took place in September 2022 and appears to have been instigated by the Biden regime is not even acknowledged by the Trudeau government. Already its refusal to return a Siemens turbine for Nord Stream 1 which was under repair in Canada, followed by its refusal to give guarantees for the return of five other Siemens turbines, was a factor in forcing Russia to stop deliveries.

2022 – A deadly year for journalists

Al-Mayadeen English

Salt and those who extract and process it are a critical resource

For Your Information | Sodium chloride salt, commonly known as table salt, is a ubiquitous compound made up of ions of sodium and chlorine. It is widely used in numerous applications across various industries.

It is either mined from below the earth’s surface as solid rock salt or extracted through an evaporation process with the salt either having been extracted through wells or by trapping salt water in shallow ponds. Sodium chloride salt is a vital compound for the functioning of a modern society and shows great potential for future technological advances such as in its ability to generate and store energy. It also poses environmental concerns if not handled and disposed of properly.

Nova Scotia salt workers share their experiences

In this video, Laura Chesnik from Empower Yourself Now interviews salt workers from Pugwash, Nova Scotia about their experiences with the owners of their Windsor Salt mine, Stone Canyon Industries Holdings Inc. The interiew took place on June 29, 2023 in Windsor, Ontario at a support rally for striking Windsor Salt workers.

Canada Day 2023: The Two-Star Republic

This flag represents the struggle of the Republican Patriots who took up arms, led an insurrection against the British Empire, declared the independence of Lower Canada, but also of Upper Canada, established the Two-Star Republic and then worked to establish a union between the two Canadas. This union has nothing to do, in any way whatsoever, with the despicable Act of Union of 1840, but rather the project of union between the Republican States of North America.

a bas la confederation coloniale

Canada Day 2023: All Out to Build the New!

Re-occupation of Parliament Hill during Canada 150 celebrations, June 30, 2017

Canada Day 2023 marks the 156th anniversary of Confederation established by the Royal Proclamation of 1867. It is an occasion to consider what it means when our home is built on Native land and to decry what Canada stands for regarding its relations with Indigenous Peoples since Confederation and before and, most importantly, today. These relations establish an authority over Indigenous Nations which negates their right to their lands, their resources and their way of life, free from the interference of the Anglo-Canadian colonial state constituted in 1867.

The year of the armaments industry

The German armaments group Rheinmetall expects orders in the tens of billions and calls 2023 its “best year ever”. NATO is trying to get purchase guarantees for armaments companies. | german-foreign-policy.com