LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Why This War

Last night the Oilers defeated the Sharks.

Unfortunately for Canada the Conservative Sharks in Parliament, with aid of the rats in the Liberals, defeated commonsense and peacekeeping for war making and being a surrogate to the American Empire. In a vote that was damn close 149-145 a bare majority supported warmaking.

A vote that close would of course NOT allow Quebec to Separate, but it allows Canada to go to war.

In an editorial the Toronto Star asks;

What's known is this: Canadians will be in the front lines of George W. Bush's war on terrorism until 2009 and perhaps far beyond.

A strong case can be made for that continuing commitment, including that the military needs a firm, long-term mandate and that the Canadian effort there may eventually make a lasting difference. As Harper argued before bolting the Commons after his speech, interests and values are at stake in a country that warlords, opium and fundamentalism make so fragile.

Still, that doesn't fully explain how Afghanistan evolved into Ottawa's offshore priority, why the military favours the model showcased there and when extended intervention became important enough to warrant yet another election. Most of all it doesn't justify the suggestion — the Big Lie — that questioning the mission's merits undermines morale and comforts the enemy.

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Afghanistan, Canada, Vote, troops, MP, NDP, Conservatives, Liberals, BQ, emails, parliament, debate, politics, lobbying, Harper, NDP, Liberals, BQ, Parliament, Kandahar, war, Afghanistan, O'Conner,

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Every Cop is a Criminal

EDMONTON -- An Edmonton police officer accused and later exonerated of assaulting inner-city residents is one of four officers who wore "no rats" T-shirts to a police function during an investigation of him and his downtown squad.

But Const. Elvin Toy and three other officers who wore the T-shirts in June 2005 will not face an internal disciplinary hearing.

"The clear message from those T-shirts was, 'keep your mouth shut,' " Engel said.

Boyd determined there was insufficient evidence to charge Toy with assault. Toy was suspended with pay for a year during the investigation.

After the story about the racist e-mail was published, da Costa said there was no place in the Edmonton Police Service for racists.

"The e-mail was racist, discriminatory, disgusting and offensive," da Costa told his officers in an internal newsletter.

The Journal has learned that Radmanovich was selected by the EPS to give a presentation to the Citizens Police Academy, an informal seminar to help residents understand how the police service functions.

Sources said during his presentation, Radmanovich made statements about inner-city people, and his use of a Taser, that shocked some in the audience, which included Crown prosecutors and several members of the Edmonton Police Commission. Some commissioners later voiced their concerns about Radmanovich to da Costa, several sources say.

Also See

The Crime of Privatization

Death by Taser

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EPS, Edmonton, Police, corrucption, racism, Rolling, Stones

There's Still The Green Party

Manning won't run for Alberta Conservatives: CTV

But there is still the Leadership of the Green Party open.

Anyone want to draft Preston?!

A tip o' the blog to Calgary Grit

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Preston, Manning, Elizabeth, May, Green, Party, Canada, politics, Alberta, PC, leadership,

Canadian Labour Says NO Troops In Afghanistan

The Canadian Labour Congress has issued an emergency Press Release over the debate and vote on extending the Canadian Armed Forces mission in Afghanistan.

CLC: Working Families Want Withdrawal from Afghanistan

OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(CCNMatthews - May 17, 2006) - The Canadian Labour Congress calls for the withdrawal of Canada's troops in Afghanistan and an increase of our commitment to the reconstruction and development of that country.

At its regular spring meeting earlier this week, the Executive Council of the Canadian Labour Congress commended the courage and bravery of all the men and women serving in Afghanistan. The Executive Council, which brings together the senior leaders of the country's largest unions along with the presidents of the provincial and territorial federations of labour, adopted a statement that also denounces the fact that our federal government "has moved beyond the NATO mission of humanitarian relief and peacekeeping to an active combat role in support of the US military mission in Afghanistan. In so doing, our government has put Canadian troops in harm's way in an unprecedented manner."

The Executive Council of the Canadian Labour Congress does not "accept the argument that Canadian presence is intended to bring democracy to the people of Afghanistan. Nor do we accept the premise that our presence is intended to put Afghanistan on the road to sustainable development or improve women's equality in that country."

That is why the Canadian Labour Congress urges the government to:




-    take the necessary measures to ensure the safe and immediate
withdrawal of Canadian troops from Afghanistan;

-    increase significantly our resource and financial commitments to
UN-led multilateral peacekeeping and humanitarian initiatives
such as is needed in Darfur;
-    strengthen developmental aid to Afghanistan so that
reconstruction efforts are achieved and engage civil society in
developmental programs fostering good governance, and respecting
human rights, gender equality and internationally-recognized
core labour standards;
-    ensure any future deployment of Canadian troops is debated and
voted on by the representatives of the citizens of Canada in the
House of Commons.

More on Afghanistan

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Liberals Free Vote on Afghanistan

I got this response from the Liberals in regards to my emailing them to oppose the vote today to extend our operations in Afghanistan.

Thank you for passing along your view. We have received many similar emails this morning. We will look closely at the proposed extension. I will be passing along your views to Mr. Graham's office where the decision will have to be made.

Liberal Leader Bill Graham announced two hours ago that the Liberals will allow a free vote for their MP's, due to the overwhelming opposition in Caucus to the Conservatives rushed up and down no amendment allowed motion. That now appears to have been based on NATO asking us to run the mission, and the UN calling for action on Darfur.

Liberal House leader Bill Graham said MPs "have had a gun put to our heads" and Liberals were free to vote with their conscience.

Information that the government had but did not share with the opposition parties. The NDP and BQ will oppose the motion, if enough Liberals do to, it will be defeated. Keep up the pressure, keep those emails going.

You can send them to the Opposition parties here

And to the MP's here

More on Afghanistan

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What's the Rush

The Conservatives rush to push through an up down vote, no amendments, you are on the bus or off the bus motion to extend Canada's military adventure in Afghanistan could be because of this;

Canada asked to lead in Kabul NATO wants Ottawa to assume command of entire Afghan mission starting in 2008

and this;

UN decides to send peacekeepers to Darfur Troops to come mostly from South Asian, African and Islamic nations, diplomats say

Also see:UrgentAction-NO Troops In Afghanistan Email your MP email contacts

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Too Popular

This is what happens when you become to popular.

This site is temporarily experiencing traffic that far exceeds capacity.

Please note that the online questionnaire operates beyond May 16. We encourage you to try again before May 23rd. This will satisfy your obligation to complete and return your Census questionnaire.

The census online application now accessible to Linux operating system

In response to demand, Statistics Canada has removed the restriction for Linux. This change takes effect May 13th, 2006.

This broadened access to open-source users is available to those who have a valid browser and JVM. These minimum requirements are necessary in order to maintain the same level of data encryption with Public Key Infrastructure (PKI).

With the addition of this new operating system, the capacity of the Census Help Line operators to respond to technical calls from open source users may be limited. However, we expect this will not be a major obstacle for the vast majority of these users.

A tip ' the blog to ViveleCanada.ca

Also See:

Correction

Census Beer

Jack Fights Back Over Census

Census 2006 Count Me Out

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Canada, census, Statistics, Stat-Can, census2006, online, internet

Ward Churchill Slagged

To the joy of the right wing, and the perennial sore loser David Horowitz (I coulda been a professor but all dem lefties got the jobs) Ward Churchill has been found wanting as an academic.

He has been sanctioned in campaign of vilification that we have not seen since the McCarthy hearings. Churchill's Wife Resigns CU Post

I suspect it's really because they don't like his sunglasses.

With this report it appears that it is encouraging more folks to pile on the 'get Ward Churchill train'.CU Professor Hit With Another Allegation

Ward Churchill committed multiple, “deliberate” acts of academic misconduct, according to a review by a faculty panel, released today by the University of Colorado at Boulder.
While the panel was unanimous in its findings about Churchill’s conduct, it was divided about whether he should lose his tenured position as professor — as politicians and many others have been demanding for more than a year. Three of the panel’s five members believe that the violations of academic standards are severe enough to make dismissal “not an inappropriate sanction.” But only one of those three members believes that dismissal is the “most appropriate sanction.” Two others favor suspension without pay for five years.

Two other members of the panel said that they did not believe that the violations were serious enough to merit dismissal. They recommend a suspension of two years without pay and say that they fear dismissal would “have an adverse effect on other scholars’ ability to conduct their research with due freedom.”
The committee was created last year, after Churchill’s comments shortly after 9/11, in which he compared victims in the World Trade Center to “little Eichmanns,” set off a nationwide furor. A Colorado panel concluded last year that however offensive those remarks may have been, they were protected speech. The panel that reported today investigated research misconduct charges that surfaced after the 9/11 comments made Churchill so widely known. Churchill has consistently denied wrongdoing, and said that the committee’s work is tainted because it was created by those determined to see him lose his position because of his outspoken views.The faculty panel acknowledged that the allegations it examined surfaced “in the wake of the public outcry concerning some highly controversial essays by Professor Churchill”

Ward Churchill articles a ZNET

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Rona Ambrose Lied

Rona Ambrose the Alberta Petro Industry apologist disquised as the Minister of Environment lied when she said that to meet our Kyoto commitment; "would mean that today we would have to take every train, plane and automobile off the streets of Canada. That's not realistic." Not so says the Parkland Institute in a web comment at the Globe and Mail Today.

Environment Canada, a unit in Ms. Ambrose's own ministry, tells a different story. It is oil production, not oil consumption, that is the fastest growing source of Canada's emissions. "Growth in oil and gas exports, almost all to the United States, contributed significantly to emission growth between 1990 and 2003."

And tar sands production is scheduled to at least triple to three million barrels a day in the next 10 years. Most of that increase is for export to the United States. So, the refusal by the new Conservative government to meet Kyoto targets is due in part to Canada's role in feeding what President George Bush called America's "addiction to oil." To meet its Kyoto targets, why does Canada not just reduce oil and natural gas exports to the U.S.? Then, instead of building more tar sands plants at $10-billion a project, provincial and federal governments could adopt policies to reduce energy usage for a fraction of the cost.

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Gun Nutz

Blue Grit asks "This issue really baffles me. I cannot for the life of me understand why any reasonable person would oppose registering guns. "

The problem is that those opposed to the gun registry, are not reasonable. They are gun nutz. They are Canadians who wanna be Americans, they view gun control and the gun registry as attacks on their right to bear arms. Though we have no such rights enshrined in Canadian law or the constitution.

They are right wingers, red necks, psuedo-libertarians, social conservatives, cheerleaders for the NRA.

Not all gun owners fall into this group of politicos, nor do all shooters (such as sports shooters), but these are the kinds of gun-nutz that oppose gun control.

Gun control. Not just gun registration. They have opposed gun control since it was expanded by the Trudeau government. Oh and they hate the liberal state. Liberal, they drool passionately in a pavlovian manner, spittle forming on their lips as they relish the thought of blasting away at all politicians.

I know I have met most of them at one time or another. Don't believe me go check out a gun show. They are proud of the fact that their politics are to the right of Attila the Hun. And they will tell you so.

Take Dave Tomlinson of the National Firearms Association (NFA), who modeled this organization on the US NRA. He is as fuzzy a thinker as the fuzz on his face. This grizzled would be mountain man spouts all the rhetoric of those gun nutz south of the border.

Consistency is not part of their platform. They want law and order, more cops, and their guns. Yet the cops don't want them to have guns, want gun control and the gun registry. So ya gotta scratch your head and say huh?

These gun nutz helped create the Reform Party, and they are also the folks who want to get tough on criminals, you know lock em up, bring back the lash, throw away the key.

Bring back the lash. Yep they like that idea. Except then they go on talk shows and say how they will break the law and not register their guns. No way, can't make me, pry my gun from my cold dead fingers.

So if they go to jail for not registering their guns can we give em the lash and throw away the key.

There is no logic to their argument. Its political. Its Republicanism in Canada. Its stupid. Its unreasonable.

We register our cars, we have drivers licenses, we can register our guns, and carry our Firearms licences. Anything else is right wing loonie whining.

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