Blogging Medicine Hat

For an overview of the reaction of this little corner of the blogoshpere to the triple murders in Medicine Hat click here.






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Work Creates Addiction

Once again another study puts the cart before the horse.

Addictions bleed nearly $40Ba year from economy: study
The Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse said that figure, based on data from 2002, includes the cost of providing health care, losing millions of days of productivity, and handling court cases and jail sentences.

The reality is that our wage slavery under capitalism alienates us from our productive labour, for we are selling our time, our lives for x hours per day, working at drudgery. In order to overcome our alienation we escape in drugs, legal or no. Such has always been the case of the slave.

Coke was used to ease the burden of the Indians oppressed in the mines by the Spainish Conquistadores, later opium was used by the British to enslave the Chinese. Vodka was the drug of choice of workers in the USSR who faced the drudgery of Stankovism.

Today alcholol and drug use in Northern Alberta by construction workers is seen as a major work issue by the government, employers and building trades unions. What does this tell us? Our lives are empty of meaning. Our work is not productive self fullfilling expressions of our lives but enslavement to the capitalist machine, to the production of profit, not real human needs and values.

Addiction is the direct result of capitalism and its labour relations. It should be seen as a cost of doing business rather than as a 'social problem' which then calls for more taxpayer (addicts) funding, or moral rules (laws against the victims of addiction) as such business should give workers more pay, more time off, and more varied work, including more time for being with their families.

Heck we should only work a four hour day four days a week, and then you would see addictions decline. Of course that will only happen when we have a self-managed society not a capitalist one.




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In Defense of Goth

As I said here yesterday the link between the Goth subculture and the murders in Medicine Hat are coincidental not causal.

Goth culture defended in wake of triple murder

Elaine Foster, who has been involved in Vancouver's goth culture for 20 years, said goths make convenient targets. Foster said instead of blaming goth culture or the internet for the Medicine Hat deaths, people should be looking at why a 12-year-old girl was involved with a 23-year-old man and surfing on adult websites.

The blaming of subcultures, especially such an outre and dark one is too easy, the real question of the emotional plague affecting the individuals gets shoved aside in favour of scapegoating kulture. Such as occured after the Columbine massacre.

This is not the first time that the Goth Subculture in Canada has been associated with mysterious deaths. Such was the case two years ago in Vancouver with Mark Rempel and Rachel Adams who disappeared, and later were found hung in mysterious circumstances.

Much was made in the media of their flirtation with tattoos, S&M and piercings led the media to claim they were part of the Goth scene. But as one member of the Vancouver Goth Scene wrote on the Goth B.C. listserve;

Apparently, although I didn't see it myself, Global Television used a picture
that was uploaded to Gothic BC (not a picture I took myself so, unfortunately,
by the terms of the upload agreement I don't control the copyright) in order
to play up the "freaks get ratings" card in the disappearance of Mark Rempel
and Rachel Adams. The Vancouver Province (both GlobalTV and the Province are
owned by CanWest Global Communications, BTW) also played up the tenuous "Goth" connection.

While I have a general human concern for their well-being and sympathize with
my friends that do know them through work and other associations I don't know
either of these people. I've never met either of these people. I'm a decade
older than Mark and a decade and a half older than Rachel. It was only through
a friend who happens to work with Rachel that I learned about this in the
first place.

The last place they were seen in public was at the Infected Mushroom concert -
a psytrance event - yet there is no rave scene connection being made. Is it
perhaps a little too close to Hallowe'en and someone in Global Media thinks
that they will sell more seasonal ad space with an old-fashioned witch hunt?

I'm tired of this. I'm tired of being called "goth" and having a whole raft
of assumptions come along with it. I'm a painter, a designer, a programmer, a
writer... another creative intellectual coming out of a tradition that over
the years has been called Romanticism, Bohemianism, Avant Garde, Beat, and
what-have-you. Twenty-five years ago it picked up the moniker "Gothic" and it
stuck for a while, but there has been more and more divergence lately.

In fact the goth subculture like the occult subculture in general has been a target of the Christian Revivalists who also attacked public daycare, same sex marriage, rock & roll, etc. as part of an incidious international satanic conspiracy.

Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, from 1996, and its sequel from four years later, Paradise Lost 2: Revelations. These Southern-Gothic documentaries, from Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, cover in detail the bizarre case of three Arkansas teenagers dubiously charged with satanic murders during the last outburst of Christian apocalypticism, in the late Reagan era.

This is the site that both accused visited, it is definitely adult in nature which is why it is full of personals by 14 and 15 year olds. Yes that was sarcasm.

Of course that is why the 12 year old accused listed herself as 15. Everyone else does too. There is a tragic irony in all this, since the current Conservative government wants to raise the age of sexual consent from 14 to 16 and drop the age that teenagers can face criminal charges for murder as adults to 14.

You are old enough to know better in one case and not the other. Typical muddled conservative christian moralist thinking. Which results in furthering the emotional plague of mixed value messages teenagers get from their surrounding culture.

For more on Goth see:An Early History of Goth

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Big Oil Begging Bowls

How come the Canadian Government is subsidizing big oil to the tune of $1.5 billion dollars annually? And why is this information still hidden away from the public as Big Oil sucks up record profits and gives big salary increases to its Exec's, while gouging us at the pumps. Oil and gas reserves in Canada and refinery reserves remain stable, but the pump price is increased according to the daily market cost of oil futures. Futures folks, not the current gas refined or stored.

Annual profits at Canadian Oil Sands Trust (COST) jumped 63 per cent to C$831 million and cash flow topped the C$1 billion mark in 2005. COST is the largest owner in the Syncrude joint venture. Gold in the Sands

Way back under the Conservative Government of Joe Clark a national energy policy was proposed, one that sounds surprisingly like the later NEP adopted by the Liberals. And it was a policy that is sounder than the Harpocrite's admonition that we should just suffer the artificial price increases imposed by Big Oil.

New oil prices will take effect July 1st, 1980. Well before that time, we will have in place a federal tax which will take from the companies all of the new money they do not need to carry on new explorations or production. Over five years, that will yield more than 6 billion dollars, and all of that money will be invested in energy projects. We will establish a new financial institution, the Canadian Energy Bank, to help Canadians invest in Canadian resource development, particularly in frontier regions; projects like pipeline construction, which need high front-end financing; development of hydro, coal and more experimental sources. We will help fund home insulation, furnace retrofits, fuel substitution, urban transit, and other conservation measures. We intend to work with Canadians to examine or develop every potential energy source, from biomass to tidal power, from wood waste to nuclear.

The Right Honourable
Charles Joseph Clark

Speech to the Burlington Chamber of Commerce - December 13, 1979

A tip o' blog to blevog



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Canadian Imperialism

Of course it is hard for the Nationalist Left to accept that Canada is an Imperialist country. They have lived the lie that we are hewers of wood and drawers of water first for the English then the Americans for so long that they fail to see Canada as a capitalist state rather than a colony.

The reality is that Canada pushed the FTA and NAFTA, APEC and the WTO agreements, as it is also pushing CAFTA in order to outmanuver American capitalist interests. It is also why the government approved Canadian forces being active in the Kosovo conflict, in Haiti and now Afghanistan. For an interesting article on this, check out:

In Defence of Marxism - Troops Out of Afghanistan! - Canadian Imperialism comes of age

Is Canada Imperialist?

Lenin explained that Imperialism is fundamentally an economic relationship characterized by the export of capital and the control of foreign markets (through military or other means).

Imperialism is capitalism at that stage of development at which the dominance of monopolies and finance capital is established; in which the export of capital has acquired pronounced importance; in which the division of the world among the international trusts has begun, in which the division of all territories of the globe among the biggest capitalist powers has been completed. (V. I. Lenin, “Imperialism” Ch 7, 1916)

By this definition, Canada is clearly an imperialist country, with imperialist finance capital, an imperialist military, and an imperialist foreign policy seeking to defend Canadian capital abroad. People who present Canada as a weak oppressed nation are merely deluding themselves or are acting as apologists for the disguised predatory policy of Canadian Imperialism.

The corporate media likes to present the idea that Canadians are internationally viewed as peacekeepers. This is meant for consumption at home as a smokescreen for Canada’s foreign policy. Interestingly, the real impression of Canada abroad, in the rare event that people think of Canada, is that of little brother to the USA. This view is far closer to reality than most realize. The military, and their industrial backers, enjoy complaining about low military spending. In fact, Canada is the 7^th highest spender amongst 26 NATO countries and spent almost $15-billion in 2005 (Polaris Institute, 2005). Militarists complain that this spending is relatively low in relation to GDP. However, a 2005 Polaris Institute report titled “It’s Never Enough: Canada’s alarming rise in military spending,” details how the 2005 budget plans a 34% increase in annual spending to almost $20-billion by 2010. During the last election, the Conservatives promised to top this up by an additional $5.3-billion over 5 years. To put this into context, for the price of a single military helicopter the Government could construct 1000 homeless shelters. Much of the new spending is earmarked for making the Canadian military “interoperable” with their US counterparts. The aim behind this is to support US Imperialism overseas. The report continues: “Transforming the Canadian Forces into a military that is capable of rapidly deploying soldiers, warships, aircraft and equipment has become the pre-eminent priority for the Department of National Defence. Whether it is weapons management systems for warships, or laser-guided bombs for CF-18s, these programs are intended to ensure that the Canadian Forces stand ready and able to fight with, or for, the United States.”

There has also been a shift in the deployment of Canadian military. 21^st century Canada does almost no “peacekeeping,” defined as lightly armed observers monitoring a negotiated ceasefire. At the start of 2006, only 217 Canadian soldiers were active in UN “blue hat” missions, down from 4000 in 1992-3. Reformists, and even some who call themselves Communists, bemoan Canada’s lack of UN participation. However, Canadian Imperialism is merely recognizing reality. In the past, the UN could barter issues between the minor powers but was essentially a club for enforcing the common aims of the imperialist powers. But since the fall of Stalinism, the UN has become increasingly irrelevant and the United States is even more free to act with impunity. It is folly to believe that the might of US Imperialism, with 40% of world military production, can be tempered by appealing to the lesser imperialist powers. The only force capable of standing up to Imperialism is the world working class. We must rely on our own methods and our own forces. From Vietnam, to Iraq, to Latin America, we have seen that the only way that Imperialism has ever been defeated is by the mass of the poor.

Also See:

Haiti

Canadian Imperialism

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We Paid How Much

So it cost Albertans over a million dollars to tell us something we already know and have been telling King Ralph for the past ten years as he has tried to privatize our healthcare system. All this guy has done is waste millions on focus groups, studies, reports, etc. etc. ad naseaum, to try and prove his privatization plans would save healthcare money. Which is won't. So he keeps throwing good money after bad, while that money could have been spent on creating community health clincs with health teams on salary,that would reduce healthcare costs.

Gov't study discredits third-way reforms

There is little to be gained by introducing private insurance and multiple payers into medical care, two key planks in Premier Ralph Klein's 10-point framework for reforming Alberta's health-care system, says a study commissioned by the Klein government. The report, which cost the province $1.3 million, examines the potential effects of offering insurance for prescription drugs, continuing care, "supplemental health products services," and non-emergency health care.

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Abolish The Senate Redux

Ah, another blogger who has seen the light and is calling for abolishing that archaic creature of Whitehall and the old Family Compact; the unelected Senate.

The true sociological doctrines of modern times can be summed up in a few words: Recognizing that, in the political and temporal order, the only legitimate authority is the one to which the majority of the nation has given its consent; that are wise and beneficial constitutions only those for which the governed have been consulted, and to which the majorities have given their free approbation; that all which is a human institution is destined to successive change; that the continuous perfectibility of man in society gives him the right and imposes him the duty to demand the improvements which are appropriate for new circumstances, for the new needs of the community in which he lives and evolves.

1867 Speech of Louis-Joseph Papineau at the Institut canadien

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Blaming Mom

According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), hospitals spend 60 per cent more for women who are "too posh to push," and choose a caesarian section, which costs about $4,600, over a vaginal birth, which costs $2,800. Canada paying high cost for C-sections: study

Uh excuse me but C-Sections are the choice of doctors who wish women had come with zippers as the old saying goes. This is why C-Sections are popular in rural hospitals and have been popular in Alberta for decades.

The increase in the use of C-Sections is because it is easier for the doctor, not because mothers are too posh to push. But lets not forget that the medical establishment runs the CIHI and that this is the same establishment that has a monopoly on who becomes doctors thus keeping their salaries safe.

For real Medicare reform it is time to put doctors on salary and proletarianize medical training ,smashing their haughty power and monopoly over the profession.


See:

Team Work

Socialized Medicine Began In Alberta

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Cluck Cluck Harper

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Wednesday that it was his defence minister, and not himself, who ended the practice of lowering Parliament's flags to half-mast when soldiers are killed in Afghanistan. Harper diverts flag flap to defence minister

Oh and the Tories are saying that the Legion agrees with them. Well that's true because the Legion represents Veterans not current serving soldiers. For them Nov. 11 is the sacred day of the dead. For the Legion that is the only day that should be set aside for Rememberance.

However even with that as I pointed out here before the Legion's did not lower their flags on Nov. 11 until 2003. As a result of the Federal Governments changes in the flag policy that they opposed then. Now the Legions lower their flag. So there goes another tradition of the Legions adapted to the modern day.

Furthermore the flag flies at half mast when RCMP officers are killed, as occured last year with the Mayerthorpe massacre. The RCMP are not just a police force but are considered a military force. Always have been.

And the fact remains this and the ban on media covering the returning bodies at CFB Trenton is a cover up for the fact that Harper will not be appearing at Trenton anytime soon to see the results of his policy on Afghanistan.

Harper and the Tories are using the families of the fallen as their cover for his failure to do his duty.

The Conservative government vigorously defended its decision to block public images of Canadian war casualties arriving at Canadian Forces Base Trenton in Ontario, insisting yesterday the privacy of relatives greeting the returning coffins trumped the right of media to record their arrival. "It is not about photo ops and media coverage. It is about what is in the best interest of the families," Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in the House of Commons. He added the government's priority is to "do everything possible" to assist grieving families.Harper defends ban on images of coffins

Using the grief stricken families and now the Legion as an excuse is the same as using O'Connor as the scapegoat for a PMO policy. Proving again that Harper is more Chicken then Hawk when push comes to shove.

As for the ultimate Hawk, Gen. Lewis Mackenzie who has been all over the media with his 'professional opinion' on this matter, let us not forget he ran for the Tories as a candidate and is just protecting the party. Hack. No I don't have a cough.

Harper's home province of Alberta is lowering the flag, so is Ontario. As did Canada Post. The groundswell iprovesthat the Harper was wrong to arbitrarily decide to override the previous UNANIMOUS decision of the house to lower the flag after the friendly fire deaths of our soldiers. Unanimous as in He and the Tories voted for it. Now he is blaming O'Connor. Cluck, Cluck,Cluck.

Also See: Flag Flap

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Censorship and Murder

CTV reports that police have censored a website frequented by the girl and her boyfriend accused of murdering a family in Medicine Hat. Site asked to delete postings in Medicine Hat case

Meanwhile, Edmonton police have asked a popular teen-oriented chat website to delete postings from two people accused in the murders.

Before the material was removed, it showed disturbing statements from the accused 12-year-old girl, who cannot be identified under provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

"WelcomeToMyTragicEnd" and "Are you stalking me? cuz that would be super" -- a line made popular by the film "Van Wilder" -- were among the messages the girl posted on Nexopia.com.

The girl's profile included pictures of her in dark Goth makeup and described her as being 15.

But in doing so they are trying to limit media from learning more about the two accused killers whose persona exists in public space. Which is still censorship by any other name. It is this very public persona, at least in the girls case, that reveals to the public meaning to an otherwise meaningless act. Even if that meaning is not what it seems.

In a 23 Feb entry on her blog, she wrote: 'I go crazy if I'm kept inside my house for (too) long.' In another photo, she can be seen holding a gun up to the camera, professing her love for goth, punk and death metal music. Accused killers met on vampire website
Electric New Paper, Singapore

The girl cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, but in the small city of 56,000, her identity is no secret. Some have been shocked by newspaper revelations that she met her co-accused in a Goth vampire chat room on the Internet. According to a friend who spoke to the Calgary Herald, the girl met Steinke online at a website that caters to "Gothic industrial culture" and claims to have over 500,000 members. The website features blogs and online journals by people with user names such as SuicideOfLove, TeenageOddity and RottingNails who share feelings of depression, loneliness and anger mixed with gallows humour.Accused killers' `blank stares' anger watchers

Yes they had blank stares, like Kurtz in Apolcalypse Now; "The horror, the horror".

The fact that the girl was getting into a Goth Persona further shows that she was getting into an inconography of horror as I pointed out yesterday. Before the inevitable blaming game begins let us understand the she was attracted to goth as an expression of a psychic state she was already in. And as such was "not herself".
She was costuming herself to change her age, to appear older, to disappear into another self, which Goth socially allowed her to.

Prof. Corrado is quick to point out that it's not the Goth culture that creates these violent acts, but rather that susceptible teens are drawn to culture itself.

The Goth culture, he said, is attractive to teenagers who have problems fitting into the classic high school personalities, such as jocks, cheerleaders, GQ-kids, and have often been victims of some sort of bullying.

For girls, he said, the increased cultural impact of violent characters in video games, television and in real life has also had an impact. He said it reached a turning point in Canada with the 1997 killing of Reena Virk by Kelly Ellard.

Such actions have a contagious effect in society, he said, which may account for the increase in female violence in Canada. More girls being charged with violent crimes

She and her boyfriend reveal all of the conditions of shock and horror of those whose acts have overtaken them.

Handcuffed, shackled and dressed in a prison jumpsuit, the 12-year-old accused of killing her family fidgeted, but showed no emotion yesterday in court.
Moments later, before being read his three murder charges, her 23-year-old boyfriend, Jeremy Allan Steinke, had to be admonished by provincial court Judge Darwin Greaves to stand as he slumped into a courtroom bench.
When asked if he had a lawyer, or if he understood the charges against him, Steinke replied quietly, his voice barely audible to the back of the courtroom.

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