Roundtable Discussion in Halifax & Ottawa – ALBA: Latin America’s New Dawn

Thursday, October 3 – 7 pm

Room 105, Dalhousie University Law School, 6061 University Ave.
A roundtable discussion with the Ambassadors to Canada from: 
Bolivia: Edgar José Torrez Mosqueira
Cuba: Julio Garmendía Peña
El Salvador: Oscar Mauricio Duarte Granados
Venezuela: Ana Rodríguez de Febres-Cordero 

Bolivian president to sue U.S. for crimes against humanity

Bolivia’s President Evo Morales | AFP Photo / Filippo Monteforte

RT (September 20, 2013) – BOLIVIAN President Evo Morales will file a lawsuit against the US government for crimes against humanity. He has decried the US for its intimidation tactics and fear-mongering after the Venezuelan presidential jet was blocked from entering US airspace.

“I would like to announce that we are preparing a lawsuit against Barack Obama to condemn him for crimes against humanity,” President Morales said at a press conference in the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz. He branded the US president as a “criminal” who violates international law.

U.S. interferes with right of Venezuelan Presidential aircraft to fly over Puerto Rico

Oppose U.S. imperialist hooliganism and violation of laws and norms governing international relations!

THE Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) condemns the recent attempt of the U.S. imperialists to once again interfere with the right of the president of a sovereign nation to free passage in the skies. This time, the U.S. took on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and the Executive Branch of the Venezuelan government.

“Canadian values”: Harper puts it to disabled veterans

OTTAWA (CP) — SOME of the country’s most severely disabled soldiers will take a major financial hit once they arrive at old age and risk living out their final years in near-poverty, Canada’s veterans ombudsman has concluded.

A report and a painstaking actuarial analysis by Guy Parent’s office are due to be released on Tuesday, but copies were obtained by The Canadian Press.

The study compares the old system of compensating veterans under the Pension Act with the New Veterans Charter, marquee legislation championed by the Harper government since it was enacted in 2006.

It shows that roughly 406 severely disabled veterans, mostly from Afghanistan and recent peacekeeping missions, will be left out in the cold because they don’t receive certain allowances — or a Canadian Forces pension.

“It is simply not acceptable to let veterans who have sacrificed the most for their country — those who are totally and permanently incapacitated — live their lives with unmet financial needs,” said a leaked copy of the report.

Almost a full one-third of the nearly 1,500 soldiers, who have thus far been declared permanently disabled, could also be at risk, depending upon their circumstances. Many of them receive only small allowances and pension entitlements.

U.S. ordered to disclose payments to reporters covering the Cuban Five case

WASHINGTON (September 18, 2013) — A U.S. federal court has instructed the State Department to hand over material related to the payment of journalists who acted to the detriment of the Five.

According to the antiterroristas.cu website, in June, the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) filed a lawsuit against the State Department in the District of Columbia’s federal court, based on the Freedom of Information Act, given that the Department refused to hand over material in its possession on secret payments by the government to Miami-based journalists.

Irving’s new Halifax shipyard and the militarization of life and the economy

NATHAN J. FREEMAN on one of the central issues in the Nova Scotia Election October 6. Photo: At the gates of the Halifax Shipyards – one of many anti-war actions in Halifax opposing imperialist war and militarization of the economy. (Courtesy Halifax Media Co-op)

TML Daily (September 20) – BLASTING WORK has been under way this summer at the Halifax shipyard. This construction activity was announced as a necessary stage of preparing before actually building some newly-contracted naval vessels.

One resident of the neighbourhood telephoned the CBC to announce that she and her neighbours have had enough.

Nova Scotia election called to sort out contradictions in the ranks of the rich

TML Daily (September 20) – ON SEPTEMBER 7, the Dexter NDP government in Nova Scotia called a provincial election for October 8.

This comes after months of speculation in the monopoly media about the possible meanings of the outcome, whichever party wins.

The content of those speculations is no secret. The rich in Nova Scotia are deeply divided over future electricity supplies to the province and the implications for power rates and utility regulation. As CPC(M-L) has frequently pointed out, the rich call elections precisely to sort out contradictions in their ranks such as these.

Birds of a feather flock together

Having made the desert bloom and trying to wiping a people off the map, they are now helping the birds to fly

Those shabby greenwashers par excellence, the racist and fascist Jewish National Fund, are naming a ‘migratory bird interpretive centre,’ after the Cackling Goose in Ottawa and using him as their corporate shill. The centre is located on land stolen from the Palestinian people and bordered by the Golan Heights, which belongs to embattled Syria. It is to be watered with Canadian tax-exempt ‘charitable’ donations from big capital, in the manner of the infamy called Canada Park.* “The prime minister has a strong love of animals: cats, dogs, pandas,” one Zionist told the Toronto Star, trying to explain the connection. “It plays off his whole love of animals.”

The macabre and cynical association caused me to dwell on the Canada Goose (Branta canadensis), though the Cackling Goose is a distinct species or maybe even a sub-species. Really. I live on the migratory north-south bird flypath over the waters of Georgian Bay, part of Lake Huron and the Great Lakes that separate Canada from the USA. When I first moved here, I was initially in awe of their seemingly majestic flying V-shaped wedge and began to watch them more closely each spring and fall. How to ‘interpret’ them? They always fly in a pack. In nature, birds of a single species do in fact frequently form swarming flocks.

Disinformation on gas attacks in Syria (8): U.S. military admits to chemical, biological weapons experiments in Puerto Rico

Protest of Puerto Rican fishermen against U.S. Navy base, Vieques Island

From our archives, with an introductory note

THE United States, Canada and NATO and the monopoly media are going all out with their offensive of blaming so-called “axis of evil” countries or “rogue states” for posing the danger of weapons of mass destruction. The disinformation targets Syria and its alleged “chemical weapons arsenal”, as well as the the Islamic Republic of Iran, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Pakistan and other countries on the nuclear issue.

The credibility crisis facing this campaign can be seen in the fact that, along with it, more and more information is being circulated in the official and alternative media that reveal the chemical, biological and nuclear programs of the United States along with those of Britain and Canada.

Much of this information however is, in fact disinformation. Same facts are acknowledged but are being circulated for the deliberate purposes of creating the impression that these programs were in the past, were not directed at human beings, were only used in foreign lands, or were justified as “self-defence.”

Symposium: Africa’s Unknown War – Apartheid Terror, Cuba and Southern African Liberation

This two-day event commemorates the 25^th anniversary of the battle of Cuito Cuanavale, a decisive moment in the struggle against apartheid. Featuring visiting scholars and activists from Cuba and elsewhere who participated in Cuba’s anti-apartheid action.

William Doo Auditorium, University of Toronto, 45 Wilcocks Street, Toronto, Ontario

Impunity: Israel violates Lebanese sovereignty three times a day

Israeli warplanes violate the territorial integrity of Lebanon, including the skies over Beirut, the capital city, on an average of almost three times a day, according to a study by BRENDA HEARD based on UN reports. “Yet there is rarely a mention in the international press. The UN merely stacks up the reports.” In 2009, Israel’s routine overflights were characterised by UNIFIL as not only a “humiliation to the Lebanese government and UNIFIL,” but also an “act of war.”

friendsoflebanon.org (September 16) – AS WE CHASE the latest headlines and grow dizzy from the daily crises of the Middle East, sometimes we overlook the persistent problems.  Perhaps the element of continuance makes them frustrating, perhaps just boring. But to ignore the drip-drop of Israeli belligerence toward Lebanon is to shrug off the impunity by which it persists.

Disinformation on gas attacks in Syria (7): President al-Assad’s interview with Rossiya 24 TV

Posted below is the full text of an interview given by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with TV channel Rossiya 24, published by the Syrian Arab News Agency, September 13, 2013. Given the continued warmongering by the Obama and Harper regimes, despite the Russia-U.S. agreement regarding the Syria crisis, the interview brings to the fore pertinent information left omitted by the media, the historical context, and the legitimate viewpoint of the Syrian government. The fact that Israel possesses the largest arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East, has used them in Gaza and Lebanon without opposition by the U.S., and has refused to ratify the Chemical Weapons Convention merits attention and our vigilance.

Russia 24: Why did Syria agree to the Russian initiative which proposes handing over its chemical weapons to the international community? Why so rapidly?

President al-Assad: Over 10 years ago, Syria presented the UN with a proposal for a WMD-Free Middle East; this was because the region is turbulent and has been immersed in wars for decades. Thus removing unconventional weapons would be rational in order to enhance stability. At that particular time the U.S hindered the proposal.

Stand Up for Science – Backgrounder

We are concerned about the state of science in Canada. Our concern stems from three recent trends:

1. Significant and ongoing cuts to many important public scientific institutions that provide the data critical to keeping Canadians informed about their health and welfare.
2. Evidence that the increased investment in applied research and technological innovation has come at the expense of investment in basic research, the core from which innovation grows.
3. The increasing constraints on the ability of government scientists to communicate their research to the public.

Basic research and the open communication of science to the public are crucial elements of evidence-based decision making.

The Canadian war on science: A chronological indictment

JOHN DUPUIS, reblogged from Confessions of a Science Librarian, concentrates on the Harper agenda regarding “natural sciences, environment and some public health topics rather than looking more broadly at how the Conservative government treats the humanities, social sciences, memory and heritage institutions and just generally any sort of evidence-based policy- or decision-making.” How $50 million in federal funding is being directed to such pseudo-science centres of big capital as the Perimeter Institute in Kitchener-Waterloo; the militarization of research, especially the role of Lockheed Martin; and the reactionary ostracism of science and scientists from Iran, Cuba and other countries merits definite attention. – TS

* * * 

THIS IS a brief chronology of the current Conservative Canadian government’s long campaign to undermine evidence-based scientific, environmental and technical decision-making. It is a government that is beholden to big business, particularly big oil, and that makes every attempt to shape public policy to that end. It is a government that fundamentally does not believe in science. It is a government that is more interested in keeping its corporate masters happy than in protecting the environment.

Events: Country-wide rallies Stand Up for Science

The Harper Government’s anti-social agenda has a political aim; depriving Canadians of scientific information by preventing scientists and others from giving their views in interviews, articles and other forms, which violates the right of the public to getting factual and scientific information in a timely manner, and marginalizes Canadians from participating in more fully debating and discussing issues that concern them. Today, thousands of scientists and citizens are again demanding the federal government prioritize science in the public interest.

Evidence for Democracy (September 16) – TODAY, thousands of scientists and concerned citizens participated in rallies across Canada, voicing their concern for the state of science in the public interest. Speakers highlighted that the health of public science impacts all of us and called on the federal government to make transparent, evidence-based decisions for the health and prosperity of all Canadians.

Disinformation on gas attacks in Syria (6): Obama issues more threats as U.S. and Russia reach deal

Posted below is a commentary on the Russian-U.S. agreement regarding the Syria crisis, Obama and Kerry’s self-serving disinformation and their continued threats to use military force. This weblog is circulating it as part of a series of information updates to assist our readers as well as the anti-war forces to maintain their orientation against the massive disinformation coming from the NATO bloc and the self-serving reporting from the media. Oppose threats to use force to sort out problems! Hands off Syria!

TML Daily (September 16) – ON SEPTEMBER 14, after three days of intense negotiations, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced that Russia and the United States had reached agreement on a plan to solve the Syria crisis. News agency accounts report that Lavrov said their decision was based upon “consensus and compromise.”

UN concealing report on Iraqi deaths and illnesses caused by U.S. radiation

Global Research (September 15) – THE World Health Organisation has categorically refused, in defiance of its own mandate, to share evidence uncovered in Iraq that US military use of depleted uranium and other weapons have not only killed many civilians, but continue to result in the birth of deformed babies. 

Disinformation on gas attacks in Syria (5): Interview with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad

“We have our red lines, like our sovereignty, our independence…”
 – President Bashir al-Assad

Posted is the full text of an interview conducted by Charlie Rose of CBS News with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on September 9, published by the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), September 10. This weblog is circulating it as part of a series of information updates to assist our readers as well as the anti-war forces to maintain their orientation against the massive disinformation coming from the NATO bloc and the self-serving reporting from the media. Given the blatant lies peddled as “facts” by the Obama and Harper regimes and the demonization of Syria by the self-serving reporting in the media, the interview brings to the fore the legitimate viewpoint of the Syrian government.

Charlie Rose: Mr. President thank you very much for this opportunity to talk to you at a very important moment because the President of the United States will address the nation this week and, as you know an important conversation is taking place in Washington and important things are happening here in your country. Do you expect an airstrike?

President al-Assad: As long as the United States doesn’t obey the international law and trample over the Charter of the United Nations we have to worry that any administration — not only this one — would do anything. According to the lies that we’ve been hearing for the last two weeks from high-ranking officials in the US administration we have to expect the worst.

Charlie Rose: Are you prepared?

President al-Assad: We’ve been living in difficult circumstances for the last two years and a half, and we prepare ourselves for every possibility. But that doesn’t mean if you’re prepared things will be better; it’s going to get worse with any foolish strike or stupid war.

Graphic details. Maps of military deployments around Syria

Click to enlarge. (AFP, September 2, 2013)
Click to enlarge. (Voice of America, August 29, 2013)

 

Disinformation on gas attacks in Syria (4): The falsification of evidence is the falsification of history

The following article about the gas attacks in Damascus on August 21st appeared online on Saturday, September 7th. This weblog is circulating it as part of a series of information updates to assist our readers as well as the anti-war forces to maintain their orientation against the massive disinformation coming from the NATO bloc and the self-serving reporting from the media. Given the blatant lies peddled as “facts” in the so-called “dossier” of the Obama regime, the article brings to the fore the aims and modus operandi of the disinformation of the U.S. to serve its aggressive aims against Syria.

Disinformation on gas attacks in Syria (3): The self-serving twisting of ‘intelligence’

The following article about the gas attacks in Damascus appeared online on Tuesday, September 3rd. Written by the American investigative journalist and historian Gareth Porter, it is one of different reports challenging the “facts” outlined in the so-called “dossier” of the Obama regime as part of its warmongering against Syria. This weblog is circulating it as part of a series of information updates to assist our readers as well as the anti-war forces to maintain their orientation against the massive disinformation coming from the monopoly media, including the CBC. It discloses criminal fabrications and speculations parading as “fact” cooked up to serve NATO’s aggressive aims. One sentence stands out: “The two-page assessment by the British Joint Intelligence Organisation released August 29, pointed to this question: ‘There is no obvious political or military trigger,’ it said, ‘for regime use of Chemical War on an apparently larger scale now, particularly given the current presence of the UN investigating team.’” The use of force to solve political issues and justify foreign intervention is unjustifiable.

By GARETH PORTER*, Truthout | News

SECRETARY OF STATE JOHN KERRY assured the public that the Obama administration’s summary of the intelligence on which it is basing the case for military action to punish the Assad regime for an alleged use of chemical weapons was put together with an acute awareness of the fiasco of the 2002 Iraq WMD intelligence estimate.

Nevertheless, the unclassified summary of the intelligence assessment made public August 30, 2013, utilizes misleading language evocative of the infamous Iraq estimate’s deceptive phrasing. The summary cites signals, geospatial and human source intelligence that purportedly show that the Syrian government prepared, carried out and “confirmed” a chemical weapons attack on August 21. And it claims visual evidence “consistent with” a nerve gas attack.

The G8’s plan for Africa: neo-colonialism

 

THE G8 and some NGOs (Oxfam, Save the Children, Christian Aid, Action Aid joined by Bill Gates) are getting their ships in line ready for the shmoozefest that will announce their big plan to stop food poverty on the continent of Africa. This seems to largely entail kicking the people off the land and handing it over to agribusiness giants who will then be able to dictate what is grown, what seeds can be saved, etc. – destroying biodiversity and resourcefulness in the process. Nice little earner. Africa for the Africans! (Reblogged and edited from http://catsontheinternet.net)

 

Surprising news: BBC editor urged colleagues to downplay Israel’s siege of Gaza

You cannot hope to bribe or twist (thank God!) the British journalist. But, seeing what the man will do unbribed, there’s no occasion to. – Humbert Wolfe

BY AMENA SALEEM*

THE new Middle East online editor for BBC News has been praised by a pro-Israeli website for being “willing to listen to his critics” after he sent internal emails guiding BBC staff to write more favorably about Israel.

Raffi Berg was promoted to head the BBC website’s Middle East desk earlier this month, having already worked as a journalist with that desk. His emails, which have been posted on a pro-Israeli site, were sent during Israel’s eight day assault on Gaza in November 2012, which killed nearly 200 Palestinians.

Disinformation on gas attacks in Syria (2): Which Syrian chemical attack account is credible?

The following article about the gas attacks in Damascus appeared online on Sunday, September 1st. Written by the American investigative journalist and author Jim Naureckas of FAIR, it is one of different reports challenging the “facts” outlined in the so-called “dossier” of the Obama regime as to justify its warmongering against Syria. This weblog is circulating it as part of a series of information updates to assist our readers as well as the anti-war forces to maintain their orientation against the massive disinformation coming from the monopoly media, including the CBC. The use of force to solve political issues and justify foreign intervention is unjustifiable.

By JIM NAURECKSAS* | FAIR

LET’S COMPARE a couple of accounts of the mass deaths apparently caused by chemical weapons in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta on August 21. One account comes from the U.S. government (8/30/13), introduced by Secretary of State John Kerry. The other was published by a Minnesota-based news site called Mint Press News (8/29/13).

The government account expresses “high confidence that the Syrian government carried out a chemical weapons attack” on August 21. The Mint report bore the headline “Syrians in Ghouta Claim Saudi-Supplied Rebels Behind Chemical Attack.” Which of these two versions should we find more credible?

Disinformation about gas attacks in Damascus (1)

The following article about the gas attacks in Damascus appeared online on Thursday. It is one of different reports published in the independent media challenging the “facts” outlined in the so-called “dossier” of the Obama regime as part of its warmongering against Syria. This weblog is circulating it as part of a series of information updates to assist our readers as well as the anti-war forces to maintain their orientation against the massive disinformation coming from the monopoly media, including the CNN and CBC. It discloses the explicit link to Saudi Arabia of some of the religious-extremist armed opposition to the Assad government. “Bandar bin Sultan, the most venal Saudi breed, is behind this criminal conspiracy. He should be tried as a war criminal,” notes Crescent International. Criminal fabrications and speculations parading as “fact” should be energetically opposed, along with NATO’s self-serving justifications of “humanitarian intervention” and “responsibility to protect” to defend naked aggression. The use of force to solve political issues and foreign intervention cannot be justified.

Syrians In Ghouta Claim Saudi-Supplied Rebels Behind Chemical Attack

Rebels and local residents in Ghouta accuse Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan of providing chemical weapons to an al-Qaida linked rebel group.

By DALE GAVLAK and YAHYA ABABNEH, Mint Press News*

GHOUTA, SYRIA (29 August 2013) — AS THE machinery for a U.S.-led military intervention in Syria gathers pace following last week’s chemical weapons attack, the U.S. and its allies may be targeting the wrong culprit.

Interviews with people in Damascus and Ghouta, a suburb of the Syrian capital, where the humanitarian agency Doctors Without Borders said at least 355 people had died last week from what it believed to be a neurotoxic agent, appear to indicate as much.

Labour Day 2013

Make sure to attend the LABOUR DAY marches across Canada.

In Halifax … march, rally & FREE community BBQ & music concert Monday. Gather at Victoria Park (Spring Garden & South Park) at 10:30am and march to the Commons Triangle (http://bit.ly/labourday for directions) for speeches, hamburgers / hotdogs & veggie burgers, live music, fun for the kids and more!