Tag: Individual Rights

20 Years On

Last night I finally had the opportunity to watch the documentary Kanehsatake: 270 Years Of Resistance. It’s something that has been on my “to-do-list” for quite some time, and special thanks to a friendly reminder — regarding the film, not the Standoff’s anniversary (which more or less started 20 years ago this past Sunday, July 11th, 1990) — I got it watched.

So here we are, 20 years on from a point in time where Native North American Mohawk’s stood up to the Canadian government looking to continue in its colonial endeavours, and I found myself even more troubled than I had expected. Not by anything the film, quite excellently, dealt with concerning the “crisis” — as distressing as it was/is — but rather my governments actions, and the “minions” who carry out its wishes, today.

What a great bit of context, for a historical event in Canada’s sordid history, sure, but its continued relevance toward the sad state that has become Canada, is ever more powerful. Check it out…

Incredibly Damning

Three points of interest I’ve stumbled upon concerning the G20 Summit, happening in Toronto, this weekend…

  1. First the sweeping power police have been “temporarily” granted. According to The Toronto Star, “[t]he province has secretly passed an unprecedented regulation that empowers police to arrest anyone near the G20 security zone who refuses to identify themselves or agree to a police search.”
    But not only that, this regulation “was made under Ontario’s Public Works Protection Act and was not debated in the Legislature [yay democracy!]. According to a provincial spokesperson, the cabinet action came in response to an “extraordinary request” by Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair. […] The regulation kicked in Monday and will expire June 28, the day after the summit ends. While the new regulation appeared without notice on the province’s e-Laws online database last week, it won’t be officially published in The Ontario Gazette until July 3 — one week after the regulation expires.”
  2. The Security wall erected to “protect” the world “leaders” from protestors. I think the much more relevant question is, where the hell is our protection, from them? But beside the point.
    Stephan Christoff (in his interview on today’s Democracy Now broadcast) said that the “three-layer massive security fence around downtown, [was] constructed by a corporation, SNC-Lavalin from Montreal.” The very same Canadian corporation who “produced millions of bullets between 2003 and 2005 for the U.S. Army at the same time of the invasion of Iraq.” Shocking. That is if you’ve never read Yves Engler’s book The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy, where he details this (I believe), and a number of other instances, where Canada’s was and is, most definitely, involved in the invasion and occupation of Iraq.
    And, “bringing it home,” Stephan went onto say “[s]o this is a corporation that’s inherently tied to the military-industrial complex internationally and also has been tied to the clampdown on dissent here in Toronto.”
  3. And, lastly, the emphasis on violence, and its condemnation in relation to the protests, by my Government, specifically. This is something I made passing reference to in my previous post, the absurd irony of it all. Let’s see, it’s perfectly acceptable for the G20 to turn around and use the very thing they “deplore” to implement the same policies people are protesting?

I don’t know about you, but this is so very interesting, not to mention incredibly damning…

Without Fail

Arriving in my inbox today, without fail, was yet another bunch of extremely relevant words, care of ZNet‘s ZSpace Commentaries. Uri Avnery’s article Kill A Turk And Rest. Labelling them ironic couldn’t do them any damage, either. Just read;

“On the high seas, outside territorial waters, the ship was stopped by the navy. The commandos stormed it. Hundreds of people on the deck resisted, the soldiers used force. Some of the passengers were killed, scores injured. The ship was brought into harbor, the passengers were taken off by force. The world saw them walking on the quay, men and women, young and old, all of them worn out, one after another, each being marched between two soldiers…”

“The ship was called “Exodus 1947”. It left France in the hope of breaking the British blockade, which was imposed to prevent ships loaded with Holocaust survivors from reaching the shores of Palestine. If it had been allowed to reach the country, the illegal immigrants would have come ashore and the British would have sent them to detention camps in Cyprus, as they had done before. Nobody would have taken any notice of the episode for more than two days.”

“But the person in charge was Ernest Bevin, a Labour Party leader, an arrogant, rude and power-loving British minister. He was not about to let a bunch of Jews dictate to him. He decided to teach them a lesson the entire world would witness. “This is a provocation!” he exclaimed, and of course he was right. The main aim was indeed to create a provocation, in order to draw the eyes of the world to the British blockade.”

“What followed is well known: the episode dragged on and on, one stupidity led to another, the whole world sympathized with the passengers. But the British did not give in and paid the price. A heavy price…”

Not a helluva lot I could add to what Uri chose to open his piece with, but, I assure you, it’s well worth the read…