While mistreatment of Afghan detainees has made the news this week, a Toronto-born Canadian is about to be put on trial by a U.S. military kangaroo court at the notorious Guantanamo prison camp for “crimes” he committed as an “illegal combatant” between the ages of 10 and 15.
Posted: April 30th, 2007 under Afghanistan, Canada, Guantánamo.
Comments: none
RAWA Marks the Anniversary of Fundamentalist Rule in Kabul with Protests in Islamabad
View the protest photos and video clip at the link above.
Posted: April 29th, 2007 under Afghanistan, Women.
Comments: none
Panzós: 25 years later… is a breathtaking exhibit featuring original painting, descriptive banners, and portrait, journalistic and forensic photography by Guatemalan artist Marlón García Arriaga. The exhibit centers around the lives, opinions and actions of the survivors of the Panzós massacre -especially the women survivors, who have been at the forefront of the resistance. The story vividly told through the exhibit is a story that all Canadians must experience, feel and understand. This is the hope of the artist who says he is searching for Canadian conscience in a Guatemalan genocide.
Posted: April 29th, 2007 under Canada, Events, Guatemala, Indigenous Rights, Mining, Oil & Gas, Women.
Comments: none
The Empire’s “Good Cop”: Canada’s New Counter-Insurgency Doctrine
Reading the recent draft publication of the Canadian Forces’ first-ever Counter-Insurgency (COIN) manual, I could not help but draw comparisons between the police-state-like mentality which characterizes the document, and the invasive nature of Western medicine, which tends to surgically remove or symptomatically treat diseases without showing much concern for the root causes of the ailment.
Posted: April 28th, 2007 under Afghanistan, Canada.
Comments: none
Posted: April 27th, 2007 under Indigenous Rights, Mining, Oil & Gas, US, Workers.
Comments: none
Allegations of Canadian complicity in human rights violations in Afghanistan are only the tip of the iceberg, according to Kamloops antiwar activist, John McNamer. The Daily News, Kamloops, April 26, 2007: “No one responded a year ago when John McNamer lobbied every federal politician in the country about illegal abuse and torture of prisoners in Afghanistan. Now, with opposition politicians grilling the prime minister and his defence minister in the House of Commons on the controversy, McNamer expects the Conservatives could pay a hefty price for their denial. “I think if we’re going to have any sense of integrity in the Canadian government what needs to happen is a full inquiry into the detainees issue from the time that Canada went into Afghanistan,” McNamer said. “What is being focused on right now is the issue from the time the arrangement with the Afghan government was completed. That’s just the tip of the iceberg because Canada has been operating in violation of the Geneva Conventions for years.” Canadian forces were turning over detainees to the Americans since arriving in the country in 2002, he said.”
Posted: April 27th, 2007 under Afghanistan, Canada.
Comments: none
April 28th demonstration to ban asbestos
March in Washington, DC, designed to embarrass Canada.
Posted: April 27th, 2007 under Canada, Workers.
Comments: none
AB physician sounded cancer alarm, slapped with College complaint
Posted: April 27th, 2007 under Canada, Environment, Indigenous Rights.
Comments: none
What would you do if someone came onto your land and started drilling for gold? It’s happening right now to the Western Shoshone people of Nevada.
Posted: April 27th, 2007 under Canada, Indigenous Rights, Mining, Oil & Gas.
Comments: none
When army and police violently dislodged Mayan protesters impeding the passage of a large piece of mining machinery, killing one person from Sipakapa, dislike for the Canadian mining company spread like wildfire in the indigenous communities of the area. The Canadian government and its embassy in Guatemala City downplayed the level of unrest and refused to issue a travel warning to permit the students to redeem their airline tickets. They had no choice but to fly to the Guatemalan capital and travel three days by chicken bus to a Change for Children project in Nicaragua. Canadians travelling to Guatemala prudently removed the Canadian flag from their backpacks to blend in with the “gringos.”
Posted: April 26th, 2007 under Guatemala, Indigenous Rights, Mining, Oil & Gas.
Comments: none