Fredericton Peace Coalition Weblog

Lebanon is currently facing a major political crisis, as armed battles have erupted in multiple districts in Beirut, battles between pro-government forces and the political opposition backed by the Lebanese movement Hezbollah. Currently the Lebanese capital is divided, as opposition forces maintain a hold in West Beirut, having handed control in certain districts to the Lebanese Army, while the western-backed Lebanese government remains in lock down at the Lebanese Parliament buildings.

Does Stephen Harper’s Conservative government have a hidden nuclear agenda? Not if you happen to live outside Canada. The Canadian government has been campaigning internationally for months to add this country to the small, tightly circumscribed club of nuclear enrichment states.

There is a battle brewing between a North Shore First Nation and the Ontario government when it comes to exploring for minerals in the area. The chief of Serpent River First Nation said his band members do not want to see any uranium exploration of any kind on or near their territory.

Complaints include the killing, rape and arbitrary detention of local village people in Papua New Guinea by Barrick security, the destruction of spiritual sites in Australia and the United States, and the pollution of water resources at all of Barrick’s mines. The tour is heading to Ottawa after the shareholders’ meeting where they have arranged meetings with members of parliament.

Almost without exception, they spend their days and nights toiling deep in the shadows. They are among the quiet ones who silently prepare your restaurant lunch, vacuum your office, wash your dirty laundry, mind your children or pick the locally grown carrots or apples on which you snack. Yesterday, for a change, they weren’t invisible.

There are facts and then there are facts. Take the case of the recent mass protests in Burma or Myanmar, depending on which name you prefer to call the former British colony. First it’s a fact which few will argue that the present military dictatorship of the reclusive General Than Shwe is right up there when it comes to world-class tyrannies. It’s also a fact that Myanmar enjoys one of the world’s lowest general living standards. Partly as a result of the ill-conceived 100% to 500% price hikes in gasoline and other fuels in August, inflation, the nominal trigger for the mass protests led by saffron-robed Buddhist monks, is unofficially estimated to have risen by 35%. Ironically the demand to establish “market” energy prices came from the IMF and World Bank.

Eight days ago, on Friday, April 25th, 2008, my husband, Shawn Brant, was arrested and detained on assault and weapons charges. Since that time, Commissioner Julian Fantino and the Ontario Provincial Police have issued numerous public statements that have wildly and, it seems, purposefully misstated the events leading to my husband’s arrest, and sought to vilify and criminalize him personally.

Thousands of activists, artists and scholars gathered Sunday for an international peace conference outside Tokyo, vowing to promote the Japanese Constitution’s war-renouncing Article 9 as a global standard and prevent the clause from being weakened.

Ottawa still has not formally decided how, or whether, to get officially involved with Taliban talks. United Nations resolutions require Canada and other countries to avoid supporting terrorist groups, including the Taliban, but the resolutions do not forbid talking with those groups, and other countries have already cut deals with individual Taliban figures to bring them over to the government side.

Update:
MacKay says officers misspoke in pushing talks with Taliban

A Canadian captured in Afghanistan at age 15 can be tried for murder in the Guantanamo war crimes court, a U.S. military judge ruled in rejecting claims that he was a child soldier who should be rehabilitated rather than prosecuted.