State of emergency and mayhem in Ottawa: The time is now to speak out in defence of the rights of all

The federal and other governments, their official media, the cartel parties with seats in the federal and provincial parliaments are incapable of providing analysis and measures to resolve the conflicts within their ranks, let alone meet the just demands of the people. This is why what is called “freedumb” applies to all of them, not just the demands of the hooligans who are causing mayhem in Ottawa and other places. | PAULINE EASTON

“Sloly” is not a spelling mistake. Peter Sloly is chief of police in Ottawa.

US police powers seize and shut down 36 overseas websites

U.S. police powers on June 22 seized and shut down 36 websites owned and controlled outside the United States. The attacked websites include the well-known media sites Press TV and Al-Alam held by the Iranian Islamic Radio and Television Union (IRTVU). Those two sites are Iran’s main English and Arabic language broadcasters. Press TV anchorwoman Marzieh Hashemi said the U.S. gave the company no reason for the seizure or any prior warning.

Diversion – twin brother of US policy of divide and rule

Washington, DC, August 13, 2017

By PAULINE EASTON

A state-organized racist attack took place in Charlottesville, Virginia on August 12 as elements calling themselves Nazis and KKK held a rally that ended with the brutal killing of a young woman and injuring of many more. More than 700 demonstrations subsequently took place across the U.S. in support of resistance in Charlottesville, as well as several in Canada. On all occasions, those calling themselves Nazis and KKK have been outnumbered, often 50 to 5,000, or a few hundred to many hundreds, or 50 to 40,000 as occurred in Boston on August 19.

Hypocrisy, hysteria and historical falsification around the attacks against Charlie Hebdo

Freedom of speech of the reactionary ruling classes

By JEAN-DANIEL NOLIN

The terrorist attack against Charlie Hebdo has resulted in a huge wave of sympathy and opposition to terrorist attacks. These just actions are positions of principle, as are the demonstrations of Muslim peoples demanding that the Prophet Muhammad not be caricatured. Blasphemy is a social act – an act directed toward someone else and their beliefs, which all persons whether religious, atheist or agnostic must respect. Without this respect, there is no discussion possible.

As with any event, the bourgeoisie advances its pawns. It presents itself as democratic, defending of freedom of speech, for peace, etc. In reality, it is doing the exact opposite. It muzzles scientists, cuts subsidies to organizations critical of its policies, militarizes the police against its own people, engages more and more in military adventures, etc.

Intolerance in the name of tolerance

Freedom of speech of the reactionary ruling classes

By SAM HEATON

Resistance to the Harper government’s attacks on First Nations

Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper joined the chorus of reactionary leaders in various countries proclaiming that the armed men who attacked the office of Charlie Hebdo in Paris were part of a war against freedom of expression, a war against “anybody who does not think and act exactly as they wish they would think and act.”

Besides the shallowness of these comments, Canadians are astounded to hear such a thing from the very Prime Minister whose main hallmark is to brook no opposition from any quarter.

With power of social media growing, police now monitoring and criminalizing online speech

Freedom of speech of the reactionary ruling classes

By GLENN GREENWALD

The Intercept (Jan. 6) – ON March 6, 2012, six British soldiers were killed in Afghanistan by a roadside explosive device, and a national ritual of mourning and rage ensued. Prime Minister David Cameron called it a “desperately sad day for our country.” A British teenager, Azhar Ahmed, observed the reaction for two days and then went to Facebook to angrily object that the innocent Afghans killed by British soldiers receive almost no attention from British media. He opined that the UK’s soldiers in Afghanistan are guilty, their deaths deserved, and are therefore going to hell.

‘Extremism disruption orders’: Britain seeks draconian censorship

The following item illustrates the aim behind inciting passions and fuelling tensions: to enact more legislation that is self-serving and destroys the standards and due process established by a civil society based on the Rule of Law, as the British government is planning to do. On the contrary, what needs to be done is to go into the heart of the matter and appeal to all people to draw warranted conclusions and unite on that basis. The issue is to focus on what will resolve the crisis in favour of the people and what will not. The outlook that upholds Might Makes Right and enacts legislation on a self-serving basis will not permit any problem to be sorted out. 

(Nov. 12) – Theresa May, the Home Secretary in David Cameron’s government … wants to introduce “extremism disruption orders”, which, yes, are as terrifyingly authoritarian as they sound.

Salman Rushdie – An intellectual in the service of imperialist war

BIG POWERS intent on invading and waging war on a sovereign country or countries, in order to gain hegemony over a region of the world, must first create public opinion for so doing, including denigrating and demonising a whole people. Such was the role played by the writer Salman Rushdie with his book The Satanic Verses published in 1988, which insulted Islam and gravely disturbed and provoked its followers. What followed is justified and grotesquely glamorised in Rushdie’s latest book, Joseph Anton, an autobiographical work focussing on his decade under police protection, the title being his assumed name during that period. This new book is currently being massively promoted.