Machado ‘visit’: Harperites’ continuing subversion of Venezuela

By TONY SEED

ON MAY 8, peaceful protestors were assaulted by supporters of Maria Corina Machado, a former opposition member of the National Assembly of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, inside and outside of a scheduled talk at the University of Ottawa.

About 30 concerned Canadians had gathered to protest Machado’s visit to Ottawa to meet with representatives of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Canadian big capital.

Military integration: ‘Cheek by jowl’ with U.S. on COIN in Afghanistan

Realities collide at Halifax War Conference

Demonstrators marched through the downtown city streets from the rally at the Westin Hotel

The inaugural Halifax International Security Forum, co-sponsored by the Canadian government and the German Marshall Fund, highlighted Canada’s more militant role with NATO. ANTHONY FENTON of IPS reports on the gathering of the world’s top military elites inside a fortified hotel in Halifax to discuss NATO’s future at “what is being dubbed a World Economic Forum-style conference.” On the other hand, Haligonians condemned the organisation’s legitimacy, secrecy, and the lack of democratic debate about the increasingly unpopular war in Afghanistan. “Most of the Forum’s agenda is off-the-record and closed to the media.”

Canada’s ‘democracy promotion’ in Venezuela

By ANTHONY FENTON

The Dominion  (April 7) – Canada’s foreign policy, as that country which is closer geographically, economically, and militarily with the US than any other, has long been circumscribed by the whims of the world’s lone Superpower.

Part of the ‘hidden wiring’ of the US-Canada relationship is premised on the belief that there is a role for Canada in places where the US carries a lot of counter-productive baggage. New records obtained by The Dominion show just how actively intertwined Canada’s foreign policy is with the US-led ‘democracy’ promotion project in Venezuela.