The Merchants of Death – lithograph by Mabel Dwight
By Valentin Katasonov
This article was originally published in 2015 by Strategic Culture Foundation and also reproduced by TML Weekly at that time. We are republishing it today to enlighten readers on the role played by international financiers in World War II and debunk the Anglo-American falsification which blames the Soviet Union for that tragedy so as to exonerate themselves.
The article also clearly examines the origins of the international financial institutions at a time the Trudeau government and provincial governments are once against indebting the country to private interests to unprecedented levels based on the fraudulent claim that this is how to achieve economic recovery. Not only that, the Trudeau government likes to claim that Canada’s adherence to these international financial institutions makes it democratic and provides proof of its multilateralism. The material in this article provides ample information which shows that there are obviously various kinds of multilateralism with various kinds of aims and not all of them serve Canada. This the Trudeau and other governments in Canada do not want discussed. Continue reading →
After the seizure of Czechoslovakia fascist Germany proceeded with her preparations for war quite openly, before the eyes of the whole world. Hitler, encouraged by Britain and France, no longer stood on ceremony or pretended to favour the peaceful settlement of European problems. The most dramatic months of the prewar period had come. At that time it was already clear that every day was bringing mankind nearer to the unparalleled catastrophe of war. Continue reading →
At a mass action on Parliament Hill on September 19, 2015, Canadians reject the Harper government’s attempt to impose its anti-communist monument and its anti-social offensive as Canadian values.
By LOUIS LANG
On August 23, the Trudeau government marked the anniversary of Black Ribbon Day, a memorial day concocted by the ruling circles of Europe in 2009 to promote anti-communism through slanders and lies, and to glorify Nazism. Continue reading →
Information picket against the glorification of Nazism, Ottawa, August 21, 2020.
By Dougal MacDonald
The government of Canada declared August 23 Black Ribbon Day to spread lies which blame the former Soviet Union for starting the Second World War. The Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler Germany on August 23, 1939 which the government of Canada claims was a “military alliance” to take joint military action against some third country. But the pact contained no such agreement. The agreement was only that the two countries would not attack each other. Continue reading →
Youth for Democratic Renewal organized a picket in Ottawa on August 21 to provide information on the so-called Black Ribbon Day the Parliament of Canada adopted and observes on August 23 every year. This is the day in 1939 when the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler Germany after Britain, France and the U.S. refused to enter into a collective security agreement with the Soviet Union and it found itself alone to fend off the coming Hitlerite invasion. Continue reading →
France and other powers, including Canada, are exploiting the Beirut port disaster. Their recipe is “white man’s burden.” Macron of France is in the forefront. He presupposes that the people of Lebanon are not capable of exercising their sovereignty, that they cannot exercise control over their lives themselves and that there is a need for a power standing above them, usurping all that belongs to them and giving nothing to them in return. This is the notion of a “benevolent dictator” or of the “divine right of kings”, notions needed by the plutocracy, those who claim that they are destined to be the “trustees” of the people, because they alone consider themselves capable of ruling over the people.
By GHASSAN KADI
The intriguing twists and turns following the catastrophic explosion at Beirut’s Sea Port have thus far had international repercussions, beginning with the visit of French President Marcon to Beirut just three days after the disaster; a visit that could hardly be classified as a visit of a foreign head of state to another country.
Marcon did not go to Lebanon just to meet with Lebanese President Aoun, even though the two did meet. Continue reading →
Thousands flocked from Tehran’s synagogues to protests, led by their rabbis. Jewish delegates met with Khomeini to express support for his struggle. A groundbreaking study sheds light on the life of Iranian Jews, their complex view of Zionism and their surprising stance on the Islamic Revolution | Ofer Aderet in Haaretz.
The Islamic Revolution in Iran. Newspapers termed the December 11, 1978, protest a “demonstration of millions.” The Jews were there.
Lior Sternfeld is dismissive of the Israeli drama series “Tehran.” In contrast to many others, Sternfeld, a historian who specializes in modern Iran, wasn’t bothered by the final episode of the popular show, in which our aircraft turn back – and not safely – from their mission to bomb a nuclear reactor. What irked Sternfeld was the episode in which the protagonist, Mossad agent Tamar Rabinyan, takes shelter with her Jewish aunt, who remained in Tehran even after the 1979 revolution. The aunt broke off her ties with the rest of her family, all of whom immigrated to Israel, and she established a model Muslim family with a husband who holds a senior government job and a daughter who demonstrates in support of the regime. However, at the moment of truth, when the relative – the Zionist spy – needs help, she opens the door and hides her from the authorities. Continue reading →
Moscow, Aug 23 (Prensa Latina) – Russia and Turkey signed a contract for the delivery of a second regiment of S-400 air defense systems to Turkey, Russian state arms exporter Rosoboronexport said today. Rosoboronexport CEO Alexander Mikheev did not reveal more details when he talked to RIA Novosti news agency.
In 2017, Russia and Turkey concluded an agreement worth approximately $2.5 billion to supply Ankara with the S-400 missile system, with delivery completed in 2019. Turkey is the first member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to purchase this air defence system from Russia.
The S-400 is considered the most advanced of its kind in Russia, capable of destroying targets at a distance of up to 400 kilometres and at up to 30 kilometres high.
Georgetown, Aug 23 (Prensa Latina) – The Caribbean Community (Caricom) is today calling for reparation justice for its nations after centuries of slavery and racism perpetrated by several former colonial metropolis.
In the context of the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition and midway through the International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024), Caricom’s member and partner states are advocating through its Reparations Commission (CRC) a reward to the indigenous and afro-descendant communities after the legacy of underdevelopment caused by the colonial period – the native genocide, enslavement and crimes against humanity that hold back the progress of their populations. Continue reading →
Taking a stand against British imperialism | Lucy Nichols, Counterfire
Demonstration against the Yemen war and Britain’s involvement, London, July 5, 2020
Protests took place around the country to highlight and condemn the atrocities of the Yemen war, which has now been raging for five years. Hundreds of young people marched on July 5 through central London in solidarity with the millions of Yemenis suffering the evils of war, in addition to cholera, famine and Covid-19. Continue reading →
Sinn Féin spokesperson on Foreign Affairs and Defence John Brady expressed his anger at the revelation that a Killybegs-registered trawler, the Marliona, was confronted by a British Navy vessel and ordered away from a fishing area off the Donegal coast. Continue reading →
Gaza’s electricity supply has been cut to around three hours a day as Israeli bombing of the besieged Palestinian enclave has continued for ten consecutive days.
Heavy damage was reported after an Israeli drone targeted the a neighbourhood south-east of Gaza City, while civilian property was damaged by an Israeli warplane as it bombed the town on Beit Hanoun. Continue reading →
Thursday, August 20 — 5:00 pm EDT Organized by: Canadian Foreign Policy Institute; Co-sponsored by Common Frontiers and Canadian Latin America AllianceContinue reading →
Norman case and the manipulation of information by the Department of National Defence – characteristic of the secrecy of a government which decrees the number of armed forces members infected by COVID-19 to be a matter of national security.
By SCOTT TAYLOR
OTTAWA—There were a series of stories last week by Ottawa Citizen reporter David Pugliese which clearly illustrate the culture of defiance and invincibility that exists within National Defence Headquarters’ upper echelons.
The genesis of this current saga has its roots dating back to some extraordinary testimony at a December 2018 pre-trial hearing in the Vice-Admiral Mark Norman case. Continue reading →
The police killing of George Floyd on May 25 provoked demonstrations worldwide. The United Nations Human Rights Council on June 17 debated a draft resolution introduced by the “African Group” of nations that condemned “structural racism endemic to the criminal justice system in the United States.” The African nations were responding to a letter from the families of murder victims George Floyd, Philando Castile, Breonna Taylor, and Michael Brown; 600 human rights organizations had endorsed it.
Other U.S. appeals for relief from racist violence had arrived at the United Nations. The National Negro Congress and the NAACP delivered petitions in 1946 and 1947, respectively. Three years after the United Nations ratified its Genocide Convention, the New York-based Civil Rights Congress in 1951 submitted a petition to the United Nations. The title was: “We Charge Genocide: The Crime of the Government against the Negro People.”1Continue reading →
The key question after the Aug. 4 explosion in Beirut revolves around the role of the Lebanese Army command, which is the sole authority with direct control over the security and safety of the port, and its surroundings | AS’AD ABUKHALIL
Those who are superstitious may think that Lebanon has been recently cursed: successive disasters, catastrophes and crises have afflicted the small country uninterruptedly for several consecutive years. Continue reading →
People’s forces battle for their democratic rights | MARGARET VILLAMIZAR
July 14, 2020 demonstration in La Paz, Bolivia.
(July 25) – Workers, women, and Indigenous peoples and their organizations along with other social movements have returned to the streets to demand an end to the wrecking of the coup government and the right to elect a president and government of their choosing without further delay. Demonstrations are being held especially in places where the workers have fighting traditions, such as Cochabamba and El Alto, a suburb of the capital city of La Paz. Continue reading →
A martyr of modern science. Five years ago – on August 18th, 2015 – a prominent Arabic scientist, archeologist and researcher Khaled al-Asaad was executed by ISIS at the age of 83 years. Most of his life he devoted to researches of the ancient city of Palmyra (Syria). Due to his efforts, Palmyra became a UNESCO world heritage site. He also researched numbers of texts in the Aramaic language, translating them. He published 20 scientific works, mostly about results of archeological excavations and researches in Palmyra. For 40 years (1963-2003), he was the principal custodian of the Palmyra site. In 2003 he retired but continued to work there, publishing new researches. In 2015, prior to the capture of Palmyra by ISIS, the elderly scientist organized evacuation of the Palmyra museum, archeological artifacts and its antiquities. However, he himself was captured by ISIS. After weeks of tortures he didn’t reveal the location, where the evacuated antiquities were hidden. On August 18th, he was beheaded publicly on a square, being accused of participation in conferences with ‘infidels’.
The Need to Enforce Rights: Accountability is a serious concern. Introductory commentary by Tony Seed to an interview by Workers’ Forum with Jason MacLean, President of the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees’ Union (NSGEU).
The lack of accountability on the part of governments at all levels for what is happening to the people is a serious concern. There is no doubt that decisions that governments have taken and are taking have created the conditions for the dramatic and tragic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health and safety of the people in Canada no less than the United States. Thirty years of anti-social offensive in health care and social services – with massive cutbacks, increased privatization, further concentration of decision-making power in ministerial hands and the marginalization and exclusion of the experience and opinions and demands of frontline workers, have wrecked the capacity of the health care system to face the COVID-19 pandemic. Continue reading →
Ghassan Kadi’s thoughts about the crisis facing Lebanon
(August 10) – Most of the current instability in the Levant and the whole Middle East is inadvertently and inadvertently a result of the obsession about Israel’s security; both from the Israeli as well as the American sides. That said, many of the region’s problems are deep-rooted and go back to times before Israel was created and before America had any influence. Continue reading →
The Globe and Mail declares in its quarter-page lead story today “Historic selection makes California senator the first woman of colour on a U.S. presidential ticket” (“Biden selects Kamala Harris as running mate,” August 12). This is fake news.
Charlene Mitchell, America’s first Black female presidential candidate | Wikimedia Commons
Ghassan Kadi’s initial thoughts about the Beirut Port explosions
(August 5) – I have mourned Beirut time and time again, but with all the cities I have lived in, Beirut will always be my favourite. After all, how can I ever forget its hustle and bustle before the infamous fifteen year long civil war that started on Sunday the 13th of April 1975? I was a student back then, with very limited financial resources, but back then, you didn’t have to be rich to enjoy the rich lifestyle of Beirut. Continue reading →
Graves of Lebanese civilians massacred by Israeli airstrikes on Qana on July 29, 2006 | Feyrouz
By Tony Seed
It is not acceptable that Canada which has troops and special forces stationed in Lebanon, Iraq and Israel is offering statements of regret and sympathy for the victims while making aid conditional on Lebanon making “reforms” dictated by the big powers. Given its hostility to Lebanon and how it has militarized aid to the Caribbean in the name of hurricane or earthquake relief such as Haiti, or arms to Saudi Arabia to attack the Yemeni people despite the endemic cholera, we need to be vigilant. Continue reading →
People of Quebec stand with Lebanese people at vigil at the Lebanese consulate in Montreal, August 6, 2020.
Canada has made aid to Lebanon in the midst of this great tragedy they have suffered conditional on the Lebanese government enacting all kinds of reforms demanded by the imperialist financial institutions. It blames the Lebanese government for the plight of the country for which the U.S. imperialists, Israeli Zionists, Lebanon’s former colonial power France and others are fully to blame. The conditions which exist in Lebanon today and the many tragedies the Lebanese people have suffered in the past and which they suffer today are of their making. Instead of taking up their responsibilities and putting the well-being of the Lebanese people in command of their decisions on getting aid to Lebanon, these governments blame the Lebanese people and the factional fighting in the government – a government based on the model given to them by the French imperialists in the first place. They are demanding regime change, while they channel aid through their own agencies to further undermine the unity in action of the people to deal with the tragedy which has befallen the people. Experience shows this will merely enrich these so-called humanitarian agencies while the plight of the people will remain. Continue reading →
The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) expresses its deepest sympathies to the families of all victims of the August 4 explosion in Beirut, another tragedy of unprecedented proportions which has hit the Lebanese people at home and abroad including the large Lebanese community in Quebec and Canada. Our hearts go out to those living in Beirut and to the Lebanese people who have been sorely tested, and even more so within the extremely difficult conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic, onerous demands and conditions imposed by the international financial institutions and continuous breaches of Lebanon’s sovereignty by Zionist and Anglo-American forces along with Lebanon’s former colonial power France and others such as Canada. Continue reading →
Vigil at the Lebanese consulate in Montreal, August 6, 2020.
A reflection, from a Facebook post, August 5, 2020
My heartfelt condolences and solidarity to the people of Beirut, the families and victims, the comrades from Beirut, the city which I came to love, having spent a memorable week there in summer of 2014. A huge disaster and tragedy on the eve of the 75th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I am only glad that so far those whom I came to know are safe.
On a personal note, I owe a debt in addition to the Lebanese community in Halifax which dates back to the 1920s if not before and who schooled me in the tapestry of their rich history, culture and politics, beginning from the time in 1982 when we marched together to oppose the Israeli invasion. From that moment we shared weal and woe on many issues, as have the Canadian and Lebanese people. In October 2002 Father John of the Greek Orthodox Church freely provided facilities of his parish for the launch of our Dossier on Palestine, defying the united pressure of local Falange and Zionist elements, as he did on other occasions. Continue reading →
After the seizure of Czechoslovakia fascist Germany proceeded with her preparations for war quite openly, before the eyes of the whole world. Hitler, encouraged by Britain and France, no longer stood on ceremony or pretended to favour the peaceful settlement of European problems. The most dramatic months of the prewar period had come. At that time it was already clear that every day was bringing mankind nearer to the unparalleled catastrophe of war. 
The intriguing twists and turns following the catastrophic explosion at Beirut’s Sea Port have thus far had international repercussions, beginning with the visit of French President Marcon to Beirut just three days after the disaster; a visit that could hardly be classified as a visit of a foreign head of state to another country.
OTTAWA—There were a series of stories last week by Ottawa Citizen reporter David Pugliese which clearly illustrate the culture of defiance and invincibility that exists within National Defence Headquarters’ upper echelons.
Tony Seed's Weblog 