This Day. The Summer Solstice and Quebec’s National Holiday

186 years of National Day celebrations

On June 24, 1834, 186 years ago, Ludger Duvernay, founder of the patriotic institution Aide-toi le ciel t’aidera (God helps those who help themselves) inaugurated this day as the National Day of the fledgling Quebec nation and dedicated the first toast to “the people, the primary source of all legitimate authority.” Ever since, “this celebration, the purpose of which is to cement the union between Canadiens,”[1] is the occasion to celebrate, through music and song, gatherings, parades and neighbourhood activities, who we are as a people, where we come from and where we are going. It is a multi-dimensional celebration of the season, very much like the summer solstice and celebrates the need for us all, of diverse social and national backgrounds, to come together and take stock of our common history and social relations.

This Day. ‘Discovery’ of New Found Land and Cape Breton: Who was Caboto and what was his claim on Canada?

The Venetian navigator Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot), commissioned by Henry VII of England, landed in Newfoundland, on June 24, 1497 believing it to be an island off the coast of Asia and named it New Found Land. [1] Under the commission of this king to “conquer, occupy, and possess” the lands of “heathens and infidels”, Caboto reconnoitred the Newfoundland coast and also landed on the northern shore of Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. [2]

He returned to England on August 6 and took three Mi’kmaq with him, thereby introducing slavery into North America. This may be responsible for his disappearance when he returned to Newfoundland with five ships in 1498. When his ships arrived in northern Cape Breton Island, the Mí’kmaq attacked. Only one ship returned to England, the other four, with Caboto as Captain, never returned.

Press corruption

Every country’s history has been marred by scandals of covert newspaper-buying by economic magnates. This is happening today at the European and U.S. level.

For example, in 2019 the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation made the following donations:

NATO setting sights on East Asia

The military bloc is assuming a stronger posture in relationship to China. US experts call for NATO operations in the Pacific | german-foreign-policy.com

Rimpac (Rim of the Pacific) to be held August 17-31 is the largest naval exercise in the world. Canadian navy is sending HMCS Winnipeg along with HMCS_NCSMRegina for its 27th participation.

BERLIN/WASHINGTON (June 19) – NATO should systematically expand its military exercises and operations into the Asia-Pacific region, an expert of Washington’s Atlantic Council think tank proposes in the intensifying debate on the posture the western war alliance should assume in relationship to the People’s Republic of China. China’s “presence in the Arctic, in Africa and in the Mediterranean” calls for a response, according to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

The military implications of 5G

The Bell and Telus monopolies are being pressured to use Ericsson instead of Huawei even though it will be more expensive and less efficient. In parallel, while Canada has just authorized the extradition of Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of one of Huawei’s leaders, to the United States, the U.S. Congressional Research Service exposes the military component of the 5G technology | MANLIO DINUCCI

Arrival at U.S. AFB Nellis of an aircraft classified for G5 tests.

At Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada – announces the Pentagon – construction of a 5G experimental network will begin in July. It will become operational in January 2021.

BlackRock – The super cartel

Canadian government hands over key advisory and decision-making power to super cartel | PETER EWART

The unfolding worldwide pandemic is bringing with it a profound financial crisis. How the crisis will be dealt with is a question on the minds of working people around the world. In Canada, working people face the additional complication that as yet, they do not set the direction of the economy, which is controlled by a financial oligarchy and governments in their service.

A financial crisis is itself nothing new; crises are inherent to the capitalist system espoused by the financial oligarchy. To prop itself up, as the financial oligarchy lurches from crisis to crisis, its instruments and forms of organization mutate and change, like creatures from the Black Lagoon.[1] For example, out of the crises and corruption of the late 19th century came the merging of banking and industrial capital and the giant trusts and monopolies of the Robber Barons. And out of a cabal of leading U.S bankers on Jekyll Island in 1910 rose the Federal Reserve. In the 1990s, came the financial de-regulation of the banking sector and the welding back together, Frankenstein-style, of investment and commercial banking which contributed in a negative way to the sub-prime mortgage crisis and the Great Recession of 2008. And most recently, there is the “warm and fuzzy” statement from the U.S. Business Roundtable that the big corporations are responsible to all stakeholders, rather than the previous Milton Friedman configuration of only being accountable to shareholders.

Canada’s end run for seat on UN Security Council

Canadian government’s appeasement of U.S. imperialism

By TONY SEED

François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Foreign Affairs, travelled to New York on June 13 ahead of the vote on Canada’s bid for a seat on the United Nations Security Council which has roused much concern and opposition at home. He is being deployed, according to Global Affairs, for four days “to engage with various ambassadors and permanent representatives to promote Canada’s commitment to peace and security, climate change, gender equality, economic security and multilateralism.” Champagne’s schmoozing to get votes lubricated with “aid” dollars is the end run for the self-serving, much-hyped bid of the Trudeau Liberals to restore Canada’s tarnished record on the world stage. [1]

British export of rubber bullets condemned

There has been a surge of pressure for an end to Britain’s trade in plastic and rubber bullets following disturbing scenes of serious injuries to Black Lives Matters protestors in the United States.

Virtual meeting on current developments on the Korean Peninsula

Held on the Occasion of the 20th Anniversary of the Historic North-South Joint Declaration

Thursday, June 18 — 7:00 pm EDT

The meeting will cover important matters of concern including:
• Relations between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the U.S.
• Inter-Korean Relations, U.S. war exercises and provocations
• How the DPRK is successfully controlling the COVID-19 pandemic despite illegal sanctions

Keynote Speaker: Professor Kiyul Chung
Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The 21st Century
Adjunct Professor, Korea University, Tokyo, Japan
Visiting Professor, Kim Il Sung University, Pyongyang, DPRK
Sanctions on the DPRK will be discussed by Toronto lawyer Lorne Gershuny
Organized by: Korea Truth Commission (Canadian Chapter), Korean Federation in Canada

EVERYONE WELCOME!

To join meeting and for information: click here.
Meeting ID: 868 1560 7481
Password: 420759

Prensa Latina: 61 years facing media manipulation

By Adriana Robreño

Havana, June 16 (Prensa Latina) – The Latin American Information Agency Prensa Latina celebrates its 61st anniversary today as an alternative voice against the circulation of faKe news and media manipulation.

Webinar: Cancel Rimpac and Canada’s new warships

No to NATO, Yes to Peace Webinar Series

Rimpac (Rim of the Pacific) is the largest naval exercise in the world.

Featured speaker: Ann Wright, Member of CodePink, former US Army Colonel and high-ranking diplomat

Tuesday, June 16 • 3:30-5:00 EDT

To register email: ontario@vowpeace.org

Join Melissa Weale, Greer Donaldson and Tamara Lorincz for a discussion with Ann Wright about RIMPAC, the largest naval exercise in the Pacific Ocean. We will discuss Canada’s planned involvement in RIMPAC, how we can stop it, impacts on Hawaii and efforts from the co-organizer of the Cancel RIMPAC Coalition, Kawenaʻulaokalā Kapahua. We will also talk about the largest procurement in Canadian history – the $70 billion federal government program to build new warships for the Royal Canadian Navy. We will talk about the navy’s adverse impact on our oceans and marine life. We need to stop war exercises and warships on our oceans. Let’s raise women’s voices for peace and ocean protection.

*Email ontario@vowpeace.org to register for this event!*

Zoom details: Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87304807026

Meeting ID: 873 0480 7026

Organized by the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace. More information on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/223144648902266/

Spending $19 billion on fighter jets won’t fight COVID-19 or climate change

By TAMARA LORINCZ

Last July, the federal government launched a $19-billion competition for 88 new fighter jets — the second-most expensive government procurement program in Canadian history.

In the running are Boeing’s Super Hornet, SAAB’s Gripen and Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fifth-generation stealth fighter. Bids are due in July, the winner will be selected in 2022 and the first combat aircraft will be delivered by 2025.

Word. The destruction of the Syrian electricity network

By Dr Bashar Ja’afari

UN Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic.

(May 19, 2020) On instructions from my Government, I wish to convey to you the following important current information relating, first, to the destruction of the cooling tower of the Zayzun power plant in the Ghab plain, in the countryside outside Hama, by the Turkistan Islamic Party terrorist group and, second, to the scale and breakdown of the losses incurred by the electricity sector in the Syrian Arab Republic:

US police-military tactics: what we can learn from ‘looters’

Give out bricks, agent provocateurs can loot one small business; give out a naval fleet, a bank can loot the world.

Ted Rall for WhoWhatWhy

Looting British style: UK steals $1 billion from Venezuela

US president piles on more provocations to an already disgraceful situation

Provocation and desperation filled the air. Trump’s wild card | PIERRE CHÉNIER

Tens of thousands march on the I-94 in Minneapolis, May 31, 2020.

U.S. President Donald Trump held a press conference on June 5, where he stated that the COVID-19 pandemic has been largely overcome and is under control in the U.S. He declared that the country has been pacified through the use of the National Guard and their domination of the streets against looting. He declared that the United States is on its way to a great economic recovery and renewed dominance in world affairs. 

Inability to unite the military bureaucracy –a serious problem facing the US ruling elite

By PAULINE EASTON

One of the jobs of the presidency of the United States is to preserve the union, which requires uniting the military bureaucracy. This bureaucracy, which has grown to massive proportions, is part of the state machinery that exists from one presidency to the next.

The bankruptcy of US institutions

By CHRISTINE DANDENAULT

Black Panthers at the front of march for justice for George Floyd in Atlanta, GA to protect participants.

The current situation in the United States shows the anarchy and chaos into which the U.S. government and financial oligarchy have plunged the country, because that is all they have to offer in their efforts to save the imperialist system and their absolute power.

The ugly truth of the ‘world’s greatest democracy’ for all to see

By NICK LIN

Washington, DC protest against the killing of George Floyd, May 30, 2020.

For twelve days, hundreds of thousands of people have burst out in militant protests in more than 140 cities across the United States against police brutality, impunity, racism and injustice. They mourn the death of George Floyd killed in cold blood by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25.

Brutal killing of George Floyd: Yes to resistance! No to the use of police powers and the military to criminalize politics!

60,000 protest in Houston, TX, George Floyd’s hometown, June 3, 2020.

The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) expresses its deepest sympathies for the family of George Floyd and all other victims of police impunity and killings in the United States.

CPC(M-L) denounces all racist attacks  – whether they are spontaneous or organized by a crisis-ridden failed state which gives itself a green light to govern through unfettered police powers and the use of the military. In the United States, confronting state violence is a way of life, which tells us the kind of democracy that exists there. It is the resistance of the people, especially African-Americans, as well as Puerto Ricans, Hispanics, Indigenous peoples and all minorities, along with working people of all origins, which tells us about the courage and fighting spirit that characterize the U.S. working class and people. CPC(M-L) strongly believes that this resistance is of the calibre that will find the way forward in a manner which holds the racist American state to account. We are one humanity, waging one struggle for peace, freedom and democracy. Canadians stand as one with their U.S. sisters and brothers.

Dangerous war exercise of Northern Command

On May 28, U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) launched a four-day war exercise over the northeast coast of the U.S. and Canada. It was unprecedented in that it also involves U.S. Space, Transportation and Strategic commands.

Looting British style: UK steals $1 billion from Venezuela

• Samuel Moncada, Permanent Representative of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the United Nations

President of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro Moros

I have the honour to address you to take the opportunity of denouncing the greatest robbery in the modern history of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, which was perpetrated, thus far, with total impunity, by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, in the midst of the worst pandemic that humanity has faced in the past 100 years.

Britain’s complicity in the agenda for regime change in Venezuela

Hostility against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

Samuel Moncada, Permanent Representative of Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela speaking to the UN on May 20.

In a statement to a virtual public session of the UN Security Council on May 20, Samuel Moncada, Permanent Representative of Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the United Nations, elaborated on the existence of a “Venezuela Reconstruction Unit” within the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

US veterans condemn deployment of troops

In addition to the 200,000 troops already deployed across the world, U.S cities are being occupied by military force. Thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel, and police have been deployed to cities across the nation as Trump calls on the military to “dominate the streets” and that he’d override any local control if governors refuse to deploy the national guard. Threats and intimidation are tactics of terror by this administration. Trump’s statements, as well as past statements, are incendiary and effectively declare war on our communities.

Interview with Evo Morales: Bolivia under dictatorship, US the real power

By STELLA CALLONI

A little more than six months after the coup d’état (10-11 November 2019) against President Evo Morales in Bolivia, now exiled in Argentina, he warned of the serious situation his country is facing under a de facto government headed by the self-proclaimed President Jeanine Añez, who in addition to repression involving massacres against the population and persecution and imprisonment of political leaders and militants, is systematically destroying the social and economic model and achievements of the overthrown government of the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS).

Fidel Versus COVID-19 and Beyond

By Iroel Sánchez

Fidel at the National Center of Medical Genetics, with Dr. Juan C. Dupuy Núñez, founding coordinator of the Henry Reeve International Medical Contingent Specialized in Disasters and Serious Epidemics | Granma Archives

The fact that Cuba’s response to the COVID-19 has been far more effective than most countries in the region, including the United States and also several European nations, is a reality that is becoming evident.

Cuba – Saving Lives webinar

A discussion hosted by the #SavingLives Campaign
Tuesday, June 16 
8:00 pm Eastern/5:00 pm Pacific
Register for Zoom Event

Globe and Mail ignores cuba’s contribution to fight against global pandemic

Members of the Henry Reeve Brigade in Havana, April 25, 2020, as they prepare to leave for South Africa to fight COVID-19 pandemic.

The following letter was sent to the Globe and Mail on May 13 by Isaac Saney, Co-Chair & Spokesperson, Canadian Network On Cuba and a Cuba Specialist, Dalhousie University in Halifax.

CBC’s Covid-19 math is wrong, like straight up wrong

(May 27) – “CBC National News is wrong. Like … so straight up wrong it raises questions. The number of deaths CBC cites from long-term care facilities is from May 27, which it states is 72 per cent of all fatalities from Covid-19,” states Nora Loreta on Twitter. 

“We know the percentage is above 86 per cent.”

Che Guevara Volunteer Work Brigade Webinar

Commemorate the Life and Legacy of Ernesto Che Guevara

Sunday, June 14 — 4:00 pm PT/ 5:00 pm MT
6:00 pm CT/ 7:00 pm ET
To register online for Zoom meeting: click here.
Join the event on: Facebook.
Visit www.canadiannetworkoncuba.ca/brigade, or
Che Brigade coordinator at chevolbrigade@gmail.com or 778-881-6156.

Gaelic blessing could be political statement, says Anglican Church

The Church of England has been accused of anti-Irish racism after it refused to allow an Irish language inscription on a gravestone on the basis that Gaelic ‘can cause intense feelings’. The Irishwoman’s family wanted to include the words ‘In ár gcroíthe go deo’ [In our hearts forever] on the grave in Coventry.