The Real Reason for the Iraq War

This past week has seen the Bush administration in the U.S. admit that it was 'misinformed' about WMD prior to its invasion of Iraq. The President has spoken three times in public on the War, more than any other time even prior to the invasion or immediately after. It was Election week in Iraq, and his poll numbers were down, so it was time to come clean. Sort of.

He still justified the war, democracy, nasty dictator, American interests , war on terror. Wait lets go back over that list, American interests. What could those be? Well an issue that the American media has not covered, nor has much of the media in the rest of the world, is the whole issue of Why America needed the war in Iraq. And while it has to do with oil, it was not oil perse that was at issue. It was Petrodollars.

On Guns and Butter:
An Alternative Perspective on the Reasons for Invading Iraq
by Anthony Haynes
The Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies (February, 2004)

Much of the commentary on the Iraq War has assumed that weapons of mass destruction (WMD) were the primary reason for the Bush administration’s decision to go to war against Saddam Hussein. This reason appears problematic as US weapons inspectors prepare to leave Iraq. By now it should be clear that the administration’s claims about Iraq’s reconstituted WMD were more the result of supposition than hard evidence.

An alternative explanation for Washington’s determination to be rid of the Baathist regime may be found in its interest in maintaining dollar hegemony through the continued recycling of petrodollars. According to this theory, the Bush administration aims to maintain dollar hegemony by arresting momentum towards the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) switching to the euro as an oil transaction currency. Such a change in the oil transaction ‘currency of choice’ would have a devastating effect on the US economy.

The first step in this notional strategy would include invading Iraq and reversing Saddam Hussein’s policy of pricing Iraq’s vast oil reserves in euros. In effect, the Iraqi dictator’s fate was sealed when Saddam decided to convert Iraq’s oil reserves from US dollars to euros in November of 2000, realizing a huge profit as the euro subsequently appreciated dramatically against the US dollar. The events of September 11, 2001 provided the Bush administration with the perfect opportunity to pursue its ‘strong dollar’ policy and reverse any movement by OPEC towards pricing oil in euros.

As President George W. Bush stated during his press conference following the capture of Saddam Hussein in December of 2003, “We have a strong dollar policy. We expect the markets to determine the dollar exchange rate, but we have a strong dollar policy.” Likewise, US Treasury secretary John Snow has been advocating the same policy since the dollar began its accelerated slide against other major currencies.¹ Currency traders have long viewed Snow’s comments as doublespeak - especially given the dollar’s continued slide vis-à-vis major trading partners. The President, however, was being quite honest about his government’s strong dollar policy.

By ‘strong dollar’, Mr. Bush was referring to the US dollar as the standard global trade currency. It was also a veiled reference to the currency that OPEC should be using to price its oil transactions. As such, it was likely Mr. Bush’s intention to avoid a potential devaluation of the US dollar while the euro gained global pre-eminence as a standard trade currency. According to this view, the risk of losing dollar hegemony far outweighed the risk of further upheaval in the Middle East.

While it is a coincidence that both The Wealth of Nations and the Declaration Of Independence were published in the same year (1776), it is no surprise that both Adam Smith³ and Alexander Hamilton⁴ were proponents of the mercantilist system of power politics. If the ends of mercantilism were the unification of the nation state with its industrial, commercial, financial and military resources, it follows that, in foreign affairs, its ends must be to increase the power of one nation against other nations. For more than two centuries before Smith’s Wealth of Nations, Europe was governed by the beliefs and practices of mercantilism. The mercantilist state of Smith and Hamilton’s time was protectionist, autarkic, expansionist and militaristic. Indeed, the security of 19^th century Britain was largely dependent on economic ties to its far-flung colonies, the latter being protected by the guns of the Royal Navy. It was a US naval squadron under Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry that compelled feudal Japan to open its doors to trade with the United States.

With wide experience in economics and politics, Friedrich List⁵ later wrote extensively on protectionist and militaristic political economy. President Eisenhower, in one of his farewell speeches in 1961, stressed the importance of the military-industrial complex.⁶ He also took great pain to point out its potential abuses – namely its potential to distort America’s economic and security priorities. From the time of the Declaration of Independence through to the Cold War and today, America’s willingness and ability to wage war has always been tied to its macroeconomic policies (the example having been set by her western European predecessors). Hence, the present-day US administration would readily deploy its military might to advance its economic policies.

The Bush administration has taken great care to justify its war on Iraq. The always stern but media-savvy Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld rebuffed any and all doubts as to the dangers posed by Saddam Hussein’s regime in the run-up to the war. Secretary of State Colin Powell presented a seemingly detailed review of Iraq’s WMD program to the United Nations Security Council. Equally gripping were Mr. Rumsfeld’s musings on the loose associations between Al Qaeda and Iraq.

Was the war in Iraq waged to further US economic policy, and not simply to remove a dangerous dictator and his exotic weapons? One could certainly argue that there were other tyrants to confront at the time the US moved against Saddam. Mr. Clark posits in his essay that President Bush had failed to provide a rational explanation as to why Iraq’s dormant WMD program poses a more imminent threat than North Korea’s active nuclear weapons program. He points out that shortly after the congressional resolution on Iraq, it became clear that Kim Jong-Il was processing uranium (a clear violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty and the 1995 Agreed Framework) that would give the North Koreans a nuclear weapons capability by late 2003. In a recent book entitled, The Price of Loyalty, former Bush administration Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neil implies that Mr. Bush was directing his cabinet to find a way to effect regime change in Iraq soon after taking office.

Mr. Clark published his essay in January of 2003. In it he drew attention to the UN’s inability to find a reconstituted WMD program in Iraq, despite over 400 unencumbered inspections. Further weakening the administration’s claims was the intelligence community’s belief that Al Qaeda was more likely to acquire WMD from the fledgling states of the former Soviet Union, or even acquire them from a destabilizing or destabilized Pakistan.

Mr. Clark’s essay discusses at some length the “macroeconomics of petrodollars and the unpublicized but real threat to the US economic hegemony from the euro as an alternative oil transaction currency.” While he employs published reports (largely European and Asian) to support his arguments, he draws attention to the fact that the US media had not taken up the story.

Critics of President Bush’s foreign policy typically view his administration as a cabal of aggressive, neo-conservative hawks recklessly advocating global military intervention to topple real and imagined enemies of the United States. While this might indeed be the case, one should not discount the possibility that this invasion was planned and carried out in an attempt to maintain a strong dollar policy – a policy that was vital for the economic security of the United States.

Harpers Pre Depression Farm Plan

Once again the Harper has ressurected the old Reform party made in America farm plan.

Under the Conservative plan, farmers would also be given greater choice in marketing and transporting their products, including choosing whether the wish to participate in the Canadian Wheat Board.

Ah hem, they already have the right to elect directors to the CWB. That issue was resolved years ago. But the right wing rump of farmers who wanted to sell their wheat directly to the U.S. still lobby against the CWB. Forgetting that the CWB for all its bueracracy was created by farmers after the market crash of 1929 which drove Alberta into debt and our farmers into poverty as the Eastern banks swooped up their land for the mortgages they owed. Farmers in Western Canada created the Wheat Board to market their coop grain for the best price. The greater good and all that liberal utilitarian philosophy.

The right wingers in Reform wanted what was good for them, I' m all right Jack screw you...they lived in the Southern half of Alberta, Manitoba and Sasktchewan so loading their trucks and crossing the border was not problem, but transportation costs for other farmers in central and northern parts of the provinces well who cares about them eh. Also many of them belonged to the Religious right, Mormons, Dutch Reformed, etc. whose religious ideology and kinship group is linked across the border in the US. So this was also a question of ideology not just practical economics.

Notice that these same right wing sop called free marketers never challenge the Quebec farm cooperatives and marketing boards for dairy and eggs. Wonder why? Cause they have NO political base in Quebec. That would require finding a couple of selfish stupid Gentlemen farmers who read too much Ayn Rand, hobby farmed and forgot the lessons of the Great Depression. See what I mean;

"The Conservative vision of agriculture policy has been shaped by MPs in almost every region of the country who have been deeply involved in farming for their entire lives. We are stronger because of this representation and, frankly, Conservatives have a better understanding of the impact of the difficult times facing many farm families today."

Canada is Americas Hel

Hel is one of my favorite of the old gods of the Norse. She is Queen of the Dead and rules the kingdom of snow and ice. Sorta like Canada, Queen and Country and all that.


Swingers clubs don't harm society, top court rules
Clubs that allow group sex and partner swapping do not harm Canadian society and should not be considered criminal, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled Wednesday. F U L L S T O R Y

Here is another Anti-Americanism for ya. Or maybe its just what makes Canda different than the U.S. For American Right Whing Whiners and Fundies this news will merely confirm what they already know, that Canada really is their version of Hel. A social democratic country of snow, gay marriage,socialized medicine, gun control, legal prostitution, marijuana decriminalization, public education, legal abortion, and now legal orgies and swingers clubs.

I can hear the rants from the usual crowd of nutbars from the Blogging Tory's starting now (mind you I expect some sanity out of the self professed libertarians since sex between consenting adults, no matter how many, is a matter of choice).

Mind you since most of them cross post to each other confirming their conspiracy theories you would think that incest was legal in this country. Please we are Canadian, we may be liberal but we do draw the line.

US Right Whing Whiners

Well the ususal suspects from South of the border are bitching and whining about Canada US relations.

Canada in the crosshairs:
Media conservatives sling mud north of the border

I particularly liked the comment from that guy that wears a little lord Pomporoy bowtie;

"Anybody with any ambition at all, or intelligence, has left Canada and is now living in New York,"

He must be refering to this guy;

another Canadian screwed by the Bush Team and Proud of it!

Wait a minute aren't only NYTimes reading, effete, intellectual, latte drinking, liberals living in New York. Why of course those same liberals that became the new conservative movement.

Ah well consistancy was never a big thing with shoot from the lip right whing commentators.

And in Canada all those Blogging Tory websites that are full of American right wing links and ads, should be blushing with shame...over the comments from their bosom buddies south of the border.

But then again they really are a shameless bunch of wanna be Republicans so that won't happen. They would as soon join Tucker Carlson and David Frum south of the border as they would remain in good ol social democratic Canada.

US Canada Relations

I'm Not Listening

Pugilistic Politics

The pictures say it all.Its come down to this has it, my dad can beat up your dad.

Harper, Martin exchange punches on unity

Harper challenges Duceppe to debate 1-on-1

Martin reacts angrily to Harper's unity jab

NY Transit Wildcat! Strike

You know you are doing something right, when the national Union tells the workers not to strike, and they do. It's now a Wildcat Strike. When the Mayor and management won't bargain fairly and force the strike and then turn around cry crisis and call in the courts.

The union "has violated the laws of our land by defying an order of the court," Bloomberg said.

Where the workers defy the court order, accept the #1 million dollar fine, no wonder the national is upset, and continue the strike. Way to Go TWU Local 100. They even have Libertarians on side. And at least one Canadian Blogging Tory who sez;

Maybe I'm cynical, but it seems to me that the level of support for a strike has nothing to do with the issues involved, and everything to do with the level of inconvenience it causes locals.

This is a union that is made up of Afro and Latino Americans. Hmmm wonder if that has anything to do with managements failure to negotiate fairly. And the leadership is made up of a rank and file reform movement that has persued a policy of democratizing the union local. Gee no wonder their national is upset, union democracy, can't have that.

NEW YORK -- When city transit workers chose Roger Toussaint as their president five years ago, they knew exactly who they were getting. Toussaint had honed his defiant style for years as a leader of a rebel faction whose positions sometimes seemed like militancy for its own sake.

The New Directions Caucus ultimately wrested control of the Transport Workers Union from its old guard leadership. And now, Toussaint has taken his 33,700 subway and bus workers into the New York streets despite bitter weather, a lack of support from the parent union, and court-ordered fines of $1 million a day under the state law barring strikes by public employee unions.

When the state controls the business,(public services) then uses their power to make laws and their courts as weapons against workers, the workers are not breaking any laws that they have any say in.

As I wrote on the B.C. Teachers strike, workers have the inherent right to strike, this is guranteed under the ILO and the UN Declaration of Human Rights. When the state makes laws outlawing a strike it is because the State is in a conflict of interest, it is the owner of the enterprize that the workers are striking against. It is also illegal.

Jerry Lampert, president of the B.C. Business Council, "They are flouting the law. They are leading us down the road of anarchy.

Sounds familiar, eh.

Workers only strike as a last resort, and when they do its because the other side is NOT bargaining. And as soon as they do, well all the hacks come out of the woodwork and declare their actions a threat to society, law and order, blah blah.

The real source of the publics inconveniance is the failure of the employer to bargain fairly forcing the workers to strike. Hoping to use the State and its courts to win what it can't get at the bargaining table.


More labour stories here and here

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labor
New York
strike
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Hoisted by their own Petard

Yep them lunatic-fringe-right-whing-nuts fall for it everytime. Challenge them for being ignorant bigots and ne'er do wells and they get all upset. They can come out with the most outrageous statements, and then wonder why people call them on it. They ask for it. And it gives them something to write about. Then they can feel important. Rather they should be ashamed and crawl back under the rock from whence they came. But in defending the indefensible they will bring up anything to avoid the original offending remark.

I have been properly bashed by Wonder Woman aka North American Patriot and her companions at Cannuckistan Chronicles, for my daring to criticize her narrow minded bigoted statement. She was upset that I didn't leave a comment on her blog or at CC. Well that would be trolling, and we will leave that to her pals to do.

But her whole page attack on me is a giggle.Oh morass, oh my. Thanks you drove up my page impressions.I hope all the visitors from the rightwhing, visited the Google Ads, so I can profit from the psuedo-intellectual thrashing I got.

Then they get upset by the fact I do not want to debate them. What is there to debate I said what I said, I replied to their comments they left about my article. And that was that.

As the lunatic-fringe-right-whing-nuts say; I must be doing something right to piss them off. so

I take this attack on my spelling errors and the controversial title of my blog, as what they are, the lowest form of attack and bait to reply. Well I don't debate congenital idiots, I have moved on so should they. They won't.

I look forward to their comments on this article, and hope they don't forget to visit the Google Ads when they visit here.

Pro Sports and Criminal Capitalism

Business as usual, the Skalbania Pocklington story

This is a tale of pro-sports and greed, not by the players but by the owners. This was business as usual for the NHL under the leadership of Campbell, and Norris . They were all powerful and the players were commodities, slaves under their Imperial rule. Even the early days of the NHLPA were not without their controversy, with the founder of the union being charged with racketering for ripping off the players union.

In response to the difficulties faced by the Chicago Black Hawks and Boston Bruins on the ice and at the gate in the early 1950s, Campbell started the Inter-League Draft. This allowed the weaker teams to access the young talent hoarded by the richer clubs, especially Toronto and Montreal. In 1955 he showed unflappable leadership by suspending Montreal icon Maurice Richard then refusing to shy away from attending a game at the Montreal Forum. The Richard Riot was well documented but Campbell's leadership on behalf of the league in the face of a hostile crowd was less appreciated.

Clarence Campbell oversaw the advent of the NHL's expansion era. Between 1967 and 1975 the league tripled in size and its popularity was more widespread in North America than in any previous period. He met the challenge of the World Hockey Association head on and refused to allow players not under contract to NHL teams to participate in the 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the USSR. The most notable exclusion under this corollary was former Chicago star Bobby Hull.

The simple fact is that before there was Enron, or Nortel, or any of the current boom economy criminal enterprizes there were businessmen who used their business ventures to gain wealth, fame and fortune by illegal as well as legal means. Who ripped off workers and businesses to finance their personal empires. The very essence of the criminal activity was the primitive accumulation of capital, business as usual. Nelson Skalbania and Peter Pocklington were two of these.

Sports especially pro sports (Hockey, Football , Baseball, Basketball) in Canada has been the funded by businessmen, not all of whom are clean as the driven snow. The very nature of professional sports is a combination of business and local or regional boosterism, and of course tax breaks and the ability to purchase public funded spaces (stadiums, sports arenas) at firesale prices. Its a way of businessmen to fund their private entertainments, in the fine old tradition of the British upper classes.

As I wrote in an earlier article on the political economy of sports, the business of pro-sports has been heavily reliant on tax breaks, bait and switch tactics, and finally the use of public funding for private gain and pleasure. All those high cost special executive suites in sports stadiums are a place where business wheels and deals, and then when the going gets tough, they bail out asking the taxpayers to carry the bag.

The business of pro sports is entertainment, which is why pro-wrestling is a spor much to the chagrin of sports page writers, it has nothing to do with real atheletics or promotion of healthy lifestyles, it is capitalism's version of that old Roman tradition; bread and circuses. Keep the working class reading the sports pages, so they don't worry about the business pages or the international and national news.

Here then are a couple of characters who represent the rapacious capitalism of the 1980's that time of Thatcher, Reagan and Mulroney, the push to privatize the state and it's services, to de-regulate the marketplace and reduce government oversight of the market.

In the Wild West of the boom economy of the late Seventies and early Eighties in Alberta, businessmen like Nelson Skalbania and his partner Peter Pocklington were implicated in wrong doing in both the Alberta and B.C. stock exchanges as well as shady business dealings with their flipping of businesses they bought to buy more. So if they owned something, say a car dealership, it was gutted of its capital to finance further purchases, like the Edmonton Oilers, or Gainers which was then gutted and flipped etc. This was business as usual in Canada's bastion of the free market, Alberta.

And while Pocklington lives a life of luxury in exile in California, Nelson Skalbania still hovers around the edges. He returned to the Canadian sports scene in the 1990's buying up the B.C. Lions of the CFL. The Lions who are now a real threat in the Western Division were not always so especially during Skalbanias ownership.

There are new owners and movers and shakers out there now, new businessmen who want to own a major league franchise, who wheel and deal with our city councils and other levels of government to use taxpayers money to pay for their investments. This is the business of pro sports, and it is still a dirty business.

Nelson Skalbania a less than savory biography

Edmonton Oilers Heritage

Former Edmonton Oilers owner Nelson Skalbania was a complete opposite to his predecessor, Dr. Charles Allard.

Dr. Allard enjoyed neither the public spotlight nor the losses that came with the World Hockey Association (WHA) team.

With pressures mounting, Dr. Allard sold the Oilers for $300,000 to Skalbania, a real estate magnate from British Columbia. Through the Allard family’s North West Trust Company, Dr. Allard knew Skalbania through their dealings in multimillion-dollar property deals.

After another disappointing season in 1975-76 that saw the Oilers finish fourth in the WHA’s five-team Canadian Division, Skalbania became concerned about his team’s debt, which was in the range of $1.6 million.

Buying what was then a second-rate sports franchise was not Skalbania’s style, and the Oilers were not as attractive an investment as he initially thought. So in the fall of 1976, he decided to recruit a partner with whom he had done millions of dollars worth of real estate deals.

The partner was Peter Pocklington, whose business background also included auto sales. Skalbania and Pocklington would balance each other with their different approaches.

"Pocklington would pride himself on gut-instinct deal-making decisions, on not getting lost in details, on not losing the long-term view through short-term greed," wrote Douglas Hunter in The Glory Barons. "While Nelson Skalbania, his newfound business associate out West, often looked for quick profits with rapid rollovers of properties, Pocklington began to build a diversified empire."

Clearly, Skalbania and Pocklington were two of the most colourful and controversial figures in the Oilers’ history. Their deals were daring and sometimes dangerous. One of their lighter schemes involved a form of bribery.

"The Oilers were battling for a playoff berth and rewards were promised for making it," wrote Terry Jones in Edmonton’s Hockey Knights. "When they did, Skalbania called the team to attention in the dressing room and actually passed around one-way tickets to Hawaii, telling the team they’d get the return tickets if they won a playoff series."

June 1978
Indianapolis Racers owner Nelson Skalbania signs 17 year-old Wayne Gretzky to a contract for $1.75 million.

Bulls owner John Bassett said, "I can't comment on the matter because I don't know the details. But I know the type contract Skalbania signed Gretzky to is the same kind I signed Larry Csonka, Jim Kiick and Paul Warfield to in the World Football League. If Mr. Skalbania wants Gretzky to cut grass, drive his automobile, play football or play hockey, then Gretzky is supposed to do it. It will be interesting. If Gretzky is approved, then I have about 6 quality under-age juniors lined up. I wasn't interested in Gretzky. He has great talent, no doubt. But he's only 5' 8" and 150 pounds, something like that. I don't know if he can take the physical abuse he'll be subjected to."

Red, White & Blues

A personal history of Indianapolis Racers hockey (Part Six of Seven)

In hindsight, it's easy to see that Skalbania's habit of these past 30 years - buying and quickly folding or selling multiple sports teams - began with Edmonton and Indianapolis in the WHA. "Skalbania remains Canada's most prolific sports franchise owner," wrote Bob Mackin in the March 10, 2003 edition of the Vancouver Courier. "He flipped teams and players like kids used to flip hockey cards at recess."

In 1978, though, this new team owner's modus-operandi was just taking shape. The SuperFans guessed that Skalbania would end up selling Gretzky back to the team he formerly owned, Edmonton, and then fold the Racers while the cries of team debt still rang inside Market Square Arena. It's vital to understand that Gretzky wasn't signed to the Indianapolis Racers - he was owned by Skalbania through a personal services contract. We believed that the personal services contract helped guarantee that the profit from the Gretzky transaction would remain separate from the team debts.

"In truth, Gretzky, not the Racers, was the franchise Skalbania owned," Douglas Hunter wrote in "The Glory Barons" (as reported by the Edmonton Oilers Website.) "All Skalbania had to do now was to keep the Racers afloat long enough to become part of the renewed merger negotiations with the NHL."

There was also speculation that Skalbania still owned part of the Edmonton Oilers at the same time he owned the Racers - a conspiracy theory given credence by Jack Lautier and Frank Polnaszek in their history of the WHA titled "Same Game, Different Name." They write, "...(Oilers owner) Pocklington secured Skalbania's percentage of shares in the Alberta-based team for $400,000 when the deal (Gretzky sale to Edmonton) was officially made on November 1, 1978." The authors also quote former Racers player-coach Bill Goldsworthy saying, "Even with Gretzky, there was already talk that the Racers weren't going to last the season."

Racers fans who figured out this shell game were not amused in their roles as an audition audience - the games in Indianapolis were now a stage for other owners and the NHL to gauge the market value of Gretzky (and the rest of the players) for the impending franchise fire sale. At a public fan club meeting in downtown Indianapolis, shortly before the Gretzky paper-chase was concluded, anger at Skalbania was fervent.

Calgary Flames Franchise Biography

The Calgary Flames are a result of what can happen when a city does not support their hockey team. In an era where hockey has become a business rather than sport and loyalty is based on how long you can remain profitable, one city's problems became another city's success.

The Atlanta Flames entered the NHL in the 1972-73 season with all the hope that a new franchise could have. The team was owned by a local group of businessmen, The Omni Sports Group, led by Tom Cousins. At the outset all was well, but during that same season the upstart league, World Hockey Association began to operate and quickly threw salaries out of whack and put a financial strain on many teams as they scrambled to meet skyrocketing salaries being offered by the new league.

For eight years the Atlanta Flames were unable to get beyond the first round of the playoffs. According to Cliff Fletcher, Calgary's early general manager, "The Atlanta Flames always found a way to lose."

The process of transferring ownership to a new group came about through a weird set of circumstances. There were two groups interested in acquiring the Atlanta Flames. The first was a group of Calgary businessmen, Doc and B.J. Seaman, and Harley Hotchkiss. This group was interested in the team for two reasons. The first was that they loved the game, and the second was they cared about the community. With Calgary in the hunt to host the 1988 Olympics, it would make things more financially attractive if there was a long term tenant in the arena that would have to be build for the Olympics.

The second entity looking to purchase the club was Vancouver businessman, Nelson Skalbania. According to the first group, Nelson's involvement drove the price of the Flames to a level that otherwise would not have been paid, had the original group been left on their own. The Seaman Group was well along the way to completing the deal with the Atlanta Flames when Skalbania jumped into the bidding process. Behind the scenes he had negotiated a T.V. rights deal with Molsons for $6 Million for 10 years. Skalbania in turn used the $6 Million as a down payment on the club, which, according to the Seaman's group took them out of the running, or so they thought.

Skalbania was based in Vancouver which proved to make it somewhat difficult for him to negotiate with the parties concerned, so he hired Norm Green of Calgary to help him out. In May of 1980, Green was able to bring both parties together and work out a deal. The final deal was that the Calgary group would own 50% and Skalbania would own the other 50%. By August of 1981 the Calgary group had bought out Skalbania in two separate transactions.

Skalbania edges way back from sidelines

By PETER KENNEDY

Globe and Mail Monday, November 17, 2003, Page B3

VANCOUVER -- Nelson Skalbania, the jet-setting former sports magnate who suffered a humiliating fall from grace, is inching back into the spotlight after years of keeping a low profile.

Still a risk taker and fitness fanatic at 65, the bearded financier was sidelined in 1997 when he was convicted of stealing $100,000 from a prospective real estate partner and narrowly avoided time in jail.

25539 NELSON M. SKALBANIA v. HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN (Crim.)(B.C.)

Criminal law - Statutes - Interpretation - Theft - Mens rea for theft pursuant to s. 332 of the Criminal Code -Whether the Court of Appeal erred in taking jurisdiction of the Crown Appeal from acquittal when the trial judge found that he had a reasonable doubt about the Appellant's intention - Whether the Court of Appeal erred in its interpretation of "fraudulently" - Whether Section 686 (4)(b)(ii) of the Criminal Code of Canada is inconsistent with Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in that Section 686(4)(b)(ii) permits the Court of Appeal to substitute a verdict of guilty for an acquittal at trial - Whether the Court of Appeal erred in permitting a judge other than the trial judge to pass sentence on the Appellant.

The complainant gave the Appellant, Nelson Skalbania, a cheque in the amount of $100,000 made out to the Appellant's company in trust for the down payment of shares. The cheque was deposited to the Appellant's trust account. After the Appellant's bookkeeper informed him that his company's account was overdrawn, he responded that the deposit of the complainant's cheque to the trust account was an error and it should have been deposited to the company's general account. The funds were transferred and used for other purposes. The Appellant gave the complainant the "runaround" while he put together the money he owed the complainant which he paid together with interest and a sum by way of compensation for delay and inconvenience.

The Appellant was charged with theft of $100,000. The trial judge found that the Appellant had applied the money for a purpose other than that directed, did so intentionally and deprived the complainant of his funds intentionally, but the trial judge acquitted him of the offence because the misappropriation of funds had not occurred "fraudulently". On the Crown's appeal, the Court of Appeal allowed the appeal and entered a conviction. Rowles J.A. concurred in the result, but disagreed concerning the mental element to be proved when theft is charged under s. 332(1) of the Code.

Origin of the case: British Columbia

File No.: 25539

Judgment of the Court of Appeal: September 5, 1996

Counsel: Peter Leask Q.C. for the Appellant

Teresa Mitchell-Banks for the Respondent

Local ownership woes a Vancouver tradition

By Bob Mackin

The Lions became Cup winners themselves under Bill Comrie's ownership in 1994. The Brick furniture chain owner from Edmonton thought he was doing the city a favour when he sold the Lions to Vancouver's Nelson Skalbania in 1996.

Skalbania remains Canada's most prolific sports franchise owner. He flipped teams and players like kids used to flip hockey cards at recess.

When he owned the Indianapolis Racers of the World Hockey Association, he sold Wayne Gretzky to the Edmonton Oilers. Skalbania bought the Atlanta Flames and moved them to Calgary; he did the same with the North American Soccer League's Memphis Rogues, who became the Boomers. He sent the Western Hockey League's Calgary Wranglers to New Westminster. He owned the Vancouver Canadians and flirted with the idea of buying the Seattle Mariners. Skalbania also started a campaign to bring a National Basketball Association franchise to Vancouver.

The CFL braintrust had an amnesia moment when Skalbania bought the Lions. They forgot how he effectively bankrupted the Montreal Alouettes in the early 1980s.

The Lions were 2-8 in the Skalbania era. Coach Joe Paopao did his part to keep the team alive, putting the team's travel expenses on his credit card. Advertisers and ticket buyers stayed away in droves, so Skalbania handed the franchise back to the league at the end of August 1996.

Sawmiller threatened to blow up B.C. bar
Wednesday, July 24, 1996
By Richard Mostyn
Yukon News reporter

The man who wants to build a $165-million sawmill in Watson Lake has a criminal record for threatening to blow up a bar full of people in British Columbia, The News has learned.

Leonard Bourgh, who at the time went by the name of Carl Lennart Bourgh, got into an argument with a fellow prospector in the Princeton Hotel Pub.

Around 11:30 p.m., on December 19, 1981, Bourgh threatened to blow the fellow up with a stick of dynamite.

"The guy (Bourgh) brought in a stick of dynamite, fused, capped and ready to go," pub owner Stephen Brodie said from Princeton.

"He casually stuck it on the counter right in front of me, all ready to go," added Brodie, who was tending bar that night and still vividly remembers the incident.

"He wasn't all that violent a character. He came in, had some sort of dispute with a guy, and then showed up with a stick of dynamite."

There were about 30 people in the bar at the time, added Brodie. Police were called and Bourgh was arrested.

Court documents obtained by The News show Bourgh was convicted under Section 80 of the Criminal Code --possession of dynamite for an unlawful purpose.

He was fined $1,000 or ordered to serve 60 days in jail. There is no receipt in his file to indicate he paid the fine, said Princeton court worker Marilyn Kinsey.

"He was in the can a few days over that one," said a Surrey-area mill manager who knew Bourgh at the time.

Bourgh had just sold a Penticton-area gold mining property to him, said the man, who asked that his name not be used.

These days, Bourgh has been presenting himself as a logger. He also accompanied Yukon Government leader John Ostashek on a recent trade mission to Asia.

His sawmill proposal has the backing of Ostashek, Economic Development minister Mickey Fisher and Watson Lake mayor Barrie Ravenhill, a Yukon Party candidate in the next territorial election.

The only details about Bourgh's logging experiences are contained in a single-paragraph biography found in his three-page sawmill proposal.

His younger brothers, Sven and Gus, run a small sawmill in Greenwood, B.C. But they have not talked to Bourgh in more than a decade.

However, the Bourgh family has a long history in the B.C. logging industry, said the mill manager.

"His whole family was in the logging business, going back to the old days. He and his brother had a mill up by Lillooet, B.C.

"His older brother (Erik) was the backbone and the brains behind it. A hell of a nice guy. He kept Leonard in line."

Erik and Leonard were in competition with Cattermole Timber, which owned the Watson Lake sawmill in 1969.

But Erik drowned, said the mill manager. And without his expertise, the Lillooet mill shut down.

Since then, people who know Bourgh say he's primarily been involved in the mining industry.

"I dabbled in the mining industry myself," the source said. "I bought a mining property (from Bourgh)

"He cost me, and anyone else involved with him, a bunch of money. I was smart enough to get out when I was only slightly burnt --about $25,000 or $30,000."

He wasn't the only one to lose money by associating with Bourgh, The News has learned from several sources.

Calgary-based geologist Ted Brownless, Bourgh and his sometimes partner Dave Anderson owned a small gold mining property near Greenwood, B.C.

"We were involved in KW Resources together," said Brownless, a major shareholder in the company.

Bourgh was paid to do some work, clearing and staking and other things, said Brownless.

The work was never done, and Brownless said he was forced to pick up the pieces. "Well, it cost me about --I never collected it Ѐabout $15,000."

Anderson calls Bourgh a friend, though the two haven't been in touch for about four years.

"The last I saw him he was up in Houston, (B.C.)," he said from Vancouver.

"When I knew him he was mostly in the mining business --prospecting and selling properties.

In the late `70s, Bourgh was involved in a deal with high-profile entrepreneur Nelson Skalbania to acquire timber near Whitecourt, Alberta, said the mill manager.

But the deal fell through, he said.

"Skalbania was the magic money source on the Whitecourt project," he said.

Brownless and Anderson both confirmed that Skalbania and Bourgh had worked together. "He knew Nelson Skalbania at one time," said Anderson.

Though he confirmed he had bid on the Whitecourt timber during a government auction, Skalbania denies knowing Bourgh.

After he was faxed a request for an interview about his dealings with Bourgh, Skalbania phoned The News on Tuesday.

"I had a bunch of consultants with me (on that deal)," he said. "I don't remember many of them.

"It was a long time ago. I had nothing to do with him and don't think I ever knew him."

Brownless remembers Bourgh as a man with a knack for raising money. He also remembers that Bourgh and Skalbania had been partners.

"Nelson's the one with most of the bucks," he said. "All of them (Skalbania, Anderson and Bourgh) are promoters and get involved with things."

Keeping the 'X' in X-MAS

Today is Solstice, the longest night of the year, when candles and sacred fires were lit by our ancestors to keep away the dark and to hope for the return of the sun. For those of the Jewish faith and tradition it is Chanukah, which they too celebrate with a festival of lights.

Today is the first day of Winter, and by now the feasting of Harvest and Samhain is forgotten. The foods preserved for the long winter season are now unpacked and a feast is held for the people will eat little but preserves until spring allows for new growth and the season of planting. It was also a time of sharing even with the lowest and poorest.

The annual renewal festival of the Babylonians was adopted by the Persians. One of the themes of these festivals was the temporary subversion of order. Masters and slaves exchanged places. A mock king was crowned. Masquerades spilled into the streets. As the old year died, rules of ordinary living were relaxed.

Amongst the ancient Romans this was the Season of Saturnalia when slaves were freed and the Emperor was mocked by a fool king. Twas a festivity that we now often celebrate at New Years, when drag and cross dressing occured much like that which occurs during Mardi Gras. The Carnival, the reversing of the social roles, where the poor were uplifted and the high and mighty buffoned. These were the pagan feast days before the advent of Christianty which appropriated them for their own mythology. For a very funny cartoon about the Pagan Origins of Christmas check this out.

The Saturnalia was the most popular holiday of the Roman year. Catullus (XIV) describes it as "the best of days," and Seneca complains that the entire city is in a bustle (Epistles, XVIII). Pliny the Younger writes that he retired to his room while the rest of the household celebrated (Epistles, II.17.24). It was an occasion for celebration, visits to friends, and the presentation of gifts, particularly wax candles (cerei), perhaps to signify the returning light after the solstice, and sigillaria. Martial wrote Xenia and Apophoreta for the Saturnalia. Both were published in December and intended to accompany the "guest gifts" which were given at that time of year. Aulus Gellius relates in his Attic Nights (XVIII.2) that he and his Roman compatriots would gather at the baths in Athens, where they were studying, and pose difficult questions to one another on the ancient poets, a crown of laurel being dedicated to Saturn if no-one could answer them.

During the holiday, restrictions were relaxed and the social order inverted. Gambling was allowed in public. Slaves were permitted to use dice and did not have to work. Instead of the toga, less formal dinner clothes (synthesis) were permitted, as was the pileus, a felt cap normally worn by the manumitted slave that symbolized the freedom of the season. Within the family, a Lord of Misrule was chosen. Slaves were treated as equals, allowed to wear their masters' clothing, and be waited on at meal time in remembrance of an earlier golden age thought to have been ushered in by the god.

Today some complain that the Christ is missing in Christmas, and complain about the loss of sacredness in this. But the Christmas tree has nothing to do with Christ but with ancient Gallic, Celtic and Germanic winter festivities around Solstice for through out the dark winter it stays green, the very source of eternal life and hope for the return of the Sun.

This belief was adapted by Christianity to equate the Sun, with the Son, of god. Hence Roman Emperor Constantine accepted Christianity and made it the State Religion of Rome, orginially worshiped Sol In Victus, it was not to much to change his Sun worship into the worship of INRI, the Son of God. And so Christianity went from the religion of slaves, and thus lost its connection with its Judiac origins, and became Romanized, the State Religion. Once it became a state religion it no longer spoke with the voice of the Rebel Jesus.

The fourth-century Roman emperor Constantine, who first moved the celebration of Christmas to December 25. The authors claim that Constantine followed the cult of Sol Invictus, a monotheistic form of sun worship that originated in Syria and was imposed by Roman emperors on their subjects a century earlier.

"His primary, indeed obsessive, objective was unity -- unity in politics, in religion, and in territory. A cult or state religion that included all other cults within it obviously helped to achieve this objective...In the interests of unity, Constantine deliberately chose to blur the distinctions among Christianity, Mithraism [another Sun cult of the time] and Sol Invictus..."

That's why Constantine decreed that Sunday -- "the venerable day of the sun" would be the official day of rest. (Early Christians before then celebrated their holy day on the Jewish Sabbath -- Saturday.)

That's also why -- by his edict, the book claims -- the celebration of Jesus' birthday was moved from January 6th (Epiphany today) to December 25, celebrated by the cult of Sol Invictus as Natilis Invictus, the rebirth of the sun (confused yet? don't be!)

And are you wondering about the concept of the 12 Days of Christmas? The midwinter festival of the ancient Egyptians celebrated the birth of Horus (the prototype of the earthly king) son of Isis (the divine mother-goddess). It was 12 days long, reflecting their 12-month calendar. This concept took firm root in many other cultures. In 567 AD, Christians adopted it. Church leaders proclaimed the 12 days from December 25 to Epiphany as a sacred, festive season.

Later protestant sects such as the Calvinsts and some Lutherans see in the celebration of Christmas and the Christmas tree, heathen paganism, and will not have a tree in their houses. Some churches and sects such as the WorldWide Church of God, with their Back to the Bible hour, refuse to celebrate Christams as a heathen pagan rite as do the Jehova Witnesses and other Anabaptist sects.

Is Christmas a Sin?

Some Christians believe that Christians should not observe Christmas. Some object to the commercialism of the holiday; others object to its origins. Until 1995, we in the Worldwide Church of God did not approve of Christmas. Our approach now is much more favorable.

In order to understand our approach to this subject, it is helpful to trace some of the history of Christmas avoidance, particularly its roots in Puritanism.

The Puritans believed that the first-century church modeled a Christianity that modern Christians should copy. They attempted to base their faith and practice solely on the New Testament, and their position on Christmas reflected their commitment to practice a pure, scriptural form of Christianity. Puritans argued that God reserved to himself the determination of all proper forms of worship, and that he disapproved of any human innovations – even innovations that celebrated the great events of salvation. The name Christmas also alienated many Puritans. Christmas, after all, meant ``the mass of Christ.'' The mass was despised as a Roman Catholic institution that undermined the Protestant concept of Christ, who offered himself once for all. The Puritans' passionate avoidance of any practice that was associated with papal Rome caused them to overlook the fact that in many countries the name for the day had nothing to do with the Catholic mass, but focused instead on Jesus' birth. The mass did not evolve into the form abhorred by Protestants until long after Christmas was widely observed. The two customs had separate, though interconnected, histories.

As ardent Protestants, Puritans identified the embracing of Christianity by the Roman Emperor Constantine in the early 300s as the starting point of the degeneration and corruption of the church. They believed the corruption of the church was brought on by the interweaving of the church with the pagan Roman state. To Puritans, Christmas was impure because it entered the Roman Church sometime in this period. No one knows the exact year or under what circumstances Roman Christians began to celebrate the birth of their Lord, but by the mid-300s, the practice was well established.

No evidence exists that the Christian leaders who began this practice consciously wanted to compromise with paganism. They may simply have wanted to celebrate the birth of Jesus. However, modern scholars generally agree that the date they chose for Christmas was influenced by a pagan celebration on or about that same date honoring the "Invincible Sun." Consequently, many customs unrelated to the birth of Jesus that commonly characterize modern Christmas celebrations were also present in pre-Christian pagan celebrations. This syncretistic character of most forms of Christmas celebration was enough for Puritans to avoid the holiday as a compromise with the pure exercise of Christian faith.

Today, there are no churches that call themselves Puritans. Yet their theological descendants – Presbyterians, Congregationalists and many Baptists – remain. Gone, except among their most fundamentalist offspring, is any concern about Christmas. Yet their history of attitudes toward Christmas is important for understanding our own story.

So not all Christians celebrate the Solstice Season as the birth of their god. So when some American Protestants want to put the Christ back in Christmas they do not speak for all Christians, nor is it just the 'liberal' ACLU that opposes Christmas, so do their own religious sects.

What 'War on Christmas'?

By Ruth Marcus
Washinton Post
Saturday, December 10, 2005; Page A21

I've been hearing about this "War on Christmas," so I headed to the Heritage Foundation the other day for a briefing from one of the defending army's generals: Fox News anchor John Gibson, author of "The War on Christmas: How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday Is Worse Than You Thought." Gibson -- and Bill O'Reilly, his comrade in the Fox-hole -- see this as a two-front war: Assaulting Christmas from the government end, they say, are pusillanimous school principals, politically corrected city managers and their ilk, bullied by the ACLU types into extirpating any trace of Christmas from the public square. Battering the holiday from the private sector are infidel retailers such as Target and Wal-Mart, which balk at using the C-word in their advertising in favor of such secularist slogans as "Happy Holidays." The assault, Gibson told the Heritage crowd, has reached a "shocking level this year."

Christian bloggers answer the question 'What War on Christmas?'

Their rantings against Happy Holidays or Seasons Greetings are equally falacious. Holidays is Holy Days, and certainly this is the season of Holy Days, Solstice, Chanukah (the festival of lights, Kwanzai (a new Afro American celebration of Solstice) and Christmas.

O'Reilly retreats in "war on Christmas," declaring: " 'Happy Holidays' is fine'

Summary: On The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly apparently reversed his previous position that the phrase "Happy Holidays" is offensive, stating, " 'Happy Holidays' is fine, just don't ban 'Merry Christmas.' " O'Reilly has previously claimed the term "Happy Holidays" is offensive to "millions of Christians" and 'insulting to Christian America."

And Happy Yule is just as fine to say, as it was the term for the season in Scandinavia and later used in Christian England and amongst the Christianized Saxons and Slavs, such as King Wenceslas. Listen to the carol.

Under attack from the politically correct, Christmas finds an ally in Trevor Philips, Chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, I am baffled after reading about the recent "bans on Christmas" by companies and local authorities across the country. A ban on Christmas isn't just silly and offensive to those who profess to be Christians. Most people of other faiths are bemused that we should even question it.

So Merry Christmas from a Heathen Pagan. Tis the season of solidarity and communalism, of fraternity and sharing, and that is what makes it holy, not the diety that it may be named for. It is a celebration of community. And even the Rebel Jesus would have approved.

The Rebel Jesus Jackson Browne

Original recording from the chieftain’s album the bells of dublin All the streets are filled with laughter and light And the music of the season And the merchants’ windows are all bright With the faces of the children And the families hurrying to their homes As the sky darkens and freezes They’ll be gathering around the hearths and tales Giving thanks for all god’s graces And the birth of the rebel jesus Well they call him by the prince of peace And they call him by the savior And they pray to him upon the seas And in every bold endeavor As they fill his churches with their pride and gold And their faith in him increases But they’ve turned the nature that I worshipped in From a temple to a robber’s den In the words of the rebel jesus We guard our world with locks and guns And we guard our fine possessions And once a year when christmas comes We give to our relations And perhaps we give a little to the poor If the generosity should seize us But if any one of us should interfere In the business of why they are poor They get the same as the rebel jesus But please forgive me if I seem To take the tone of judgement For I’ve no wish to come between This day and your enjoyment In this life of hardship and of earthly toil We have need for anything that frees us So I bid you pleasure And I bid you cheer From a heathen and a pagan On the side of the rebel jesus.