This Day. 7th anniversary of Lac-Mégantic tragedy – The need to build a public authority that defends public not private interests

By Pierre Chénier

July 6, 2020 marked the seventh anniversary of the Lac-Mégantic tragedy, one of the worst train disasters in Canadian history. 

On the evening of July 5, 2013, a freight train comprised of five locomotives and 72 tanker cars, unsuited for the type of crude oil they carried, was left unattended in Nantes, in Quebec’s Eastern Townships. At around 1:00 am the train started to roll down the slope towards the town of Lac-Mégantic. Shortly after, 63 of the tanker cars derailed in downtown Lac-Mégantic, spilling their contents and causing a series of fires and explosions of catastrophic proportions.

A man was killed in a 1998 explosion at the Irving refinery; afterwards, a safety report made recommendations that would ‘prevent a similar occurrence,’ but 20 years later the refinery exploded again

By TIM BOUSQUET*

The elephant in the room of New Brunswick election results

Mass demonstration by more than 2,000 public sector workers and retirees in defence of their pensions, Fredericton, November 6, 2013.

By TONY SEED

The final result of the New Brunswick election on September 24 gave rise to a minority Conservative government. The Conservative Party received 22 seats; the incumbent Liberal government, 21 seats; the Green Party, three seats; and the People’s Alliance, three seats. Both Blaine Higgs and Brian Gallant, leaders of the Conservatives and Liberals respectively, claimed to have won the election.

Fifth anniversary of Lac-Mégantic tragedy: Hold rail monopolies and governments accountable!

By Pierre Chénier

 July 6, 2018 marks the fifth anniversary of the Lac-Mégantic tragedy, one of the worst train disasters in Canadian history. On the evening of March 5, the Mégantic community participated in a silent march that ended at the cemetery where many of the victims of the tragedy are buried.

Energy East: Two down, but look who’s still standing

It was all euphoria in June 2013. Paul Browning, president and CEO of Irving Oil, left, smiled smugly, as Alberta Premier Alison Redford and former New Brunswick Premier David Alward, right, toured the Irving Canaport Marine Terminal in Saint John, N.B. The deepwater port is a proposed Eastern terminus of TransCanada Corp.’s Energy East pipeline, through which Alberta crude oil would be exported to Europe and such countries as Germany. The Conservative premiers and the media tried to sell it as a “nation building” project. The National Post declared in a headline, “New Brunswick’s premier has become the public face of the West-East pipeline” (April 18, 2013). Redford resigned on March 23, 2014 in the midst of deepening political and economic crisis in that province. Alward was defeated in a provincial election on September 22, 2014. Alward based his entire re-election campaign on the need to embrace the pipeline and the shale gas industry under the pretext of “creating jobs”. Some analysts say the energy and financial oligarchs decided to change horses, citing the Irving’s traditional connections to the Liberal party. | THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

 

Irving Greenwashing.2

Irving Greenwashing.1

Implications of Asia Pivot military strategy for Atlantic Canada

Note to readers. This material has been separated out from its original source, the article titled “Halifax International Security Forum: US officially integrates Harper war government into Asia pivot strategy,” and made into a distinct article. Additional infographics and information have been added to illustrate the geopolitical significance of Canadian ports, shipping and sealanes from Asia. See also the companion article “Sea lanes: Nicaragua’s plan for an inter-oceanic canal,” in which China is heavily involved, that I have posted on this bog. – TS.

DIFFERENT analysts have underlined various economic factors behind the U.S. offensive in Asia with its Asia Pivot military strategy, of which Canada is an integral part, as China has now become the major trading partner of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The big banks and oil-energy and mining monopolies in Canada have their own self-serving interests to expropriate the resources of foreign workers and lands.

The ports of Halifax, Saint John and Maritimes Canada, though bordering the Atlantic Ocean, are not remote from the aggressive offensive of these vested interests in the Pacific and Indian oceans.

Halifax International Security Forum: The network of subversion, annexation and war in the making – the ‘Halifax Canada Club’

By TONY SEED

This article is part of an ongoing investigation into the Halifax International Security Forum (HISF), which was formed in 2009 as a covert arm of the U.S. state that presents itself as an “independent” and “non-partisan” body with quasi-permanent status. It was originally published on November 21, 2013 and revised on April 15, 2014; November 17 and 21, 2014; February 17, 2016; and February 28, 2021. 

Topics at the 2014 HISF Forum include: “Pipeline Corridors: The Geopolical Role of Energy Infrastructure.” Given that one of the opening plenary sessions is titled “O Say, Can’t You see? The Indispensable Role of the Exceptional Superpower,” one must ask, what is behind this?

THE Halifax International Security Forum (HISF) aka the Halifax War Conference was formed in 2009 by the Washington-based German Marshall Fund and the Harper ruling clique as a parallel body to established agencies of the Canadian state such as the departments of foreign affairs and national defence. The U.S. board of directors of the HISF includes three members of the Council of Foreign Relations (CFR), the president of Freedom House, and two experienced agents with the National Endowment for Democracy, whose work in subversion throughout the world is nefarious and well-documented. The programmatic work of the CFR, which is also the “media partner” of the HISF, for the integration of Canada into the United States, has also been well exposed.

All out to support the just demands of the Elsipogtog First Nation! Oppose criminalization of their just demands! Energy monopolies watch out!

Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist), October 18, 2013

CPC (ML) vigorously condemns the violence unleashed by the Canadian state against the Elsipogtog First Nation in New Brunswick. We equally condemn the diversionary tactic of the monopoly media for sowing confusion by making the central issue that of who instigated the actions that occurred  yesterday, October 17. This diversion is designed to hide that what is at stake in the struggle of the Elsipogtog First Nation is the defence of their inviolable national and hereditary rights in the face of the negation of those rights by the Canadian state, which is working hand-in-glove with the energy monopolies.

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.

All Out for May Day 2012! – International Day of the Working Class

On Halifax May Day 2012 – an exchange

Favourites

After a seven-month absence due to the necessity to deal with various issues, I am resuming this weblog with both current as well as postdated materials. Readers may also be interested in WordPress’s ranking of the articles of greatest interest (below). There are presently 362 articles posted, of which 101 are from 2011, along with 345 images. There have been 6,448 views since the launching of the site in April 2011. Most visitors came from Canada. The United States and the United Kingdom were not far behind.

The busiest day of the year was June 23rd with 99 views. The most popular post that day was Lock out at post office: All out to defend the rights of postal workers!. The most commented on post in 2011 was Tony Seed again stands as anti-war candidate in Halifax.

Most viewed posts for all days ending 2012-02-02 (Summarized)

1 Lock out at post office: All out to defend the rights of postal workers! June 2011

2 The politics of assassination – Flanagan & Harper style April 2011

3 Shipbuilding yes, but not the militarization of shipbuilding May 2011

4 War criminals are not welcome in Halifax November 2011

5 Tony Seed again stands as anti-war candidate in Halifax April 2011

6 Stop the warmongers! Reject the Halifax Chronicle Herald’s call for the invasion of Africa!

7 Reality check: The Windsor family wealth

8 U.S. bridgehead: Are the Canary Islands becoming the Miami of Africa?

9 The Michelin File: Drive to empire

10 Pensions: N.S. Government Retired Employees Association

11 Harper, military monopolies sell arms & Innu land in Paris; Newfoundlanders organize Mayday rally against cratering search and rescue sub-centre

Shipbuilding: Militarization of Canadian industrial production and workplaces

THE federal government has now officially announced that for the next 20 to 30 years the Halifax Shipyards, owned by the Irving billionaire clan from New Brunswick, will be building $25 billion worth of warships for the Canadian navy.

The deafening propaganda carried out for months in anticipation of this decision immediately went into high gear. From the CBC to the Halifax Chronicle Herald to the Postmedia chain of newspapers, the emphasis is to hype the self-serving logic of the monopolies about how the long-suffering industrial workforce and working families of Nova Scotia have now been “ensured stability of employment” for the next 20 to 30 years. This will then be used to dictate their working conditions and deprive them of the right to resist this dictate.

Shipbuilding yes, but not the militarization of shipbuilding

The Harper agenda and the need for a new direction for the economy

Haligonians denounce Harper’s visit to the Naval Dockyards, April 4, 2007.

By TONY SEED

Originally published May 6, and extensively revised May 16 and May 28, 2011 and again on January 23, 2013.

SHIPBUILDING is one of the traditional manufacturing industries in the Maritimes, Quebec, certain lake ports in Ontario, and British Columbia that is in crisis. Now, instead of resolving the crisis in favour of the people, the warmongering positions of the Harper government include the militarization of all shipbuilding. In Nova Scotia the suggestion always hangs in the air that the militarization of the economy and the $20 billion war budget are the solution to the economic crisis and regional disparities and it is a matter of “buy Canadian” or “buy Nova Scotian” versus outsourcing, either abroad or to another region such as Quebec.

Harper’s Armada and Layton’s support for Irving’s Halifax shipyards vs. the MIL-Davie shipyard in Lévis, Quebec

Discussion on the Significance of the Election Result

By TONY SEED

THE NDP “swept Quebec” with 58 out of 75 seats. It’s an “Orangiste wave.” Euphoria reigns in the Anglo-Canadian ruling circles.

Meanwhile, as of the May 2 Federal Election, three of the four seats in the NATO port of Halifax, headquarters of Maritime Command, are also now NDP. The federal contract for three new massive warships – Joint Support Ships – opens on May 18. A real conflict with Quebec is possible.

Atlantic Gateway: The politics of pragmatism and the elephant in the room

Second in a series of articles on the Nova Scotian elections by TONY SEED*

THE Nova Scotia NDP has won unprecedented accolades in the 2009 provincial election from the private and public monopoly media for its “pragmatism” and “measured policies.” Pragmatism worships the absence of principles. If something works in the interests of the status quo, it must be applauded, applied and fought for. The Nova Scotia NDP has taken the vow that “the end justifies the means.”

Geo-strategic significance of the Atlantica project

By TONY SEED and GARY ZATZMAN, TML Daily, June 15, 2007 – No. 98

THE ATLANTICA PROJECT or Atlantic Gateway project is a new and aggressive variant of old annexationist schemes to integrate the Canadian Maritimes with New England in the service of the biggest monopolies. The right of these monopolies is being challenged and must be defeated. As part of this challenge to monopoly right, Canadian working people must establish considerations for their own all-sided, self-reliant and socialized economy that serves the needs of the people and their society and supports the same in the U.S., Mexico and the rest of the world.

Irving Potemkins: Sleight of hand in Halifax and Saint John

By TONY SEED

‘Irving are the tree people. Like the budworm is the spruce budworm.’ –Lorne Elliott

Potemkin villages [1] are an Irving specialty. The urban areas of the Maritimes are no exception to the marvellous illusions wrought by this one family which has appropriated the modern science of ecology and all the Madison Avenue arts of greenwashing [2] to add lustre to the crown of its dynasty. Suffice to mention the K.C.Irving Memorial Forest, a vast, chemically-controlled monoculture alongside the Trans Canada Highway in New Brunswick; augmented by the Irving Eco-Centre at La Dune de Bouctouche; the K.C. Irving Environmental Centre and the Harriet Irving Botanical Gardens at Acadia University – open every day of the year and free to the public, the 8th wonder of the world.

REFLECTIONS ON THE PRESTIGE OIL DISASTER: (Part 2) The marine environment and sovereignty – lessons for Canada

By TONY SEED and GARY ZATZMAN

Part Two of a four-part series. Part One is here, Part Three is here, and Part Four is yet to be published.

HALIFAX (16 March 2004) – JACQUES COUSTEAU once observed that oil spills such as that of the Prestige off the coast of Spain are like smoking – the problem is the cumulative effect over time. Canada is already addicted. The cancer has been caused not by cigarettes but by American oil monopolies, their international shipping clients and a neo-colonial state. And it is metastatisizing.

Saint John, Lévis: Militarization of shipbuilding – Jobs for war?

Saint John Shipyard – Before

FROM OUR ARCHIVES

This article raises one of the most disturbing developments that has taken place recently. This is the policy of some trade unions to push for militarization of the economy and mobilization of the workers to become advocates of this policy. Of course, this is justified by claiming that it creates jobs. Job creation through war – it is hard to believe anybody could be so selfish to promote such a thing. But why would a worker think in such a manner? Creating a job in one sector while eliminating it in another, and all the while bringing the world closer to war, could not by any stretch of the imagination be in favour of workers. We, on our part, would never support the view that we should be joyous over the creation of any job, no matter what that job is for. | A. ROSNER