Fredericton Peace Coalition

As reported in today’s National Post, the Edmonton Journal, and the front-page of the Ottawa Citizen, “Canada and the US have signed an agreement that paves the way for the militaries from either nation to send troops across each other’s borders during an emergency, but some are questioning why the Harper government has kept silent on the deal. Neither the Canadian government nor the Canadian Forces announced the new agreement, which was signed Feb. 14 in Texas.”

A growing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan is being overlooked as an unknown number of people are fleeing their homes, caught between security forces and the Taliban, Red Cross officials have told the Guardian. They say they have less access now to displaced people than at any time over the past 27 years. “The conflict has not only intensified but it has also spread over the last few years. Prolonged human suffering is causing real concern in ever larger areas,” said Reto Stocker, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross delegation in Kabul. “There is little capacity to address it. We’ve never had so little access.”

The Coalition Justice for Adil Charkaoui yesterday called on ‘Minister of Public Safety’ Stockwell Day to refrain from signing a new security certificate against Adil Charkaoui and the other security certificate detainees under the new security certificate law, which
is expected to enter into force any day.

Please join Vigil calling for Abolition of Coal-Fired Plants – No Nukes / No Uranium Mining
Tuesday February 26, 2008
Ottawa, Ontario
US Embassy
490 Sussex Dr

Paradigm Shift Environmental Alliance
psea4earth@gmail.com

More Info:

http://quebec.indymedia.org/en/node/28427

http://ottawa.indymedia.ca/en/2008/01/6565.shtml

On February 21, Stephen Harper’s Conservative government unveiled a new motion to extend Canada’s mission in Afghanistan to 2011. That’s another three years from now – three more years of war for the Afghan people, and three more years of Canadian soldiers coming home in body bags. But it doesn’t have to be that way. The Conservatives need Liberal votes in order to extend the mission. The New Democratic Party and the Bloc Québécois have said they’ll vote against it. If the Liberals decide to oppose it too, they’ll have enough votes to stop the extension – and to end Canada’s war in Afghanistan. At the end of March, Parliament will vote on Harper’s motion. That’s why we need your help. The next few weeks will be crucial in mobilizing opposition to Harper’s plan to extend the mission, and to the Liberals’ plan to support it. And that’s why we’re launching a pan-Canadian campaign that says: Don’t extend it. End it.

The war in Afghanistan is one of ideas and ideologies. Ideologies, in that the Pashtun extremist worldview is far from our own. Ideas, in that our society is likely to prevail only if it makes wiser and cleverer decisions than theirs. That is why, when one adds up Canada’s advantages in this war, there is none greater than our values of inquiry and debate.

Former soldiers the Canadian military once sent within a couple kilometres of nuclear explosions have launched a class action lawsuit against the Government of Canada.

Regina lawyer Tony Merchant filed the suit in federal court Tuesday on behalf of an estimated 1,000 “atomic human guinea pigs,” who were sent to the U.S., Australia and islands in the South Pacific between 1946 and 1963.

There, soldiers were exposed to huge doses of radiation that caused radiation sickness, then later, cancers and untimely deaths, the suit claims.

The US military has imposed a curfew on its troops in Okinawa amid tensions over incidents involving service personnel, including an alleged rape.

First Nation communities downriver of Tar Sands bring case to Ottawa

Kingston Regional Police took Bob Lovelace away from the courthouse in handcuffs this morning to serve a six month sentence on a contempt of court charge handed down by Justice Douglas Cunningham. Lovelace, age fifty-nine, is an ex-chief and spokesperson for the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation (AAFN). He is also father to seven children and an instructor at Queen’s University and Sir Sandford Fleming Community College. Justice Cunningham imposed a fine of $25,000 on Lovelace and $10,000 on his community.