Gitmo: Canadian Style

Big news out here on the spreading of the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld illegal detention regime to Canada. From the CBC:

The curtain will be drawn back this week on the normally top-secret operations of Canada’s biggest spy agency, as lawyers for Omar Khadr, the 21-year-old Toronto-born man detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are expected to release video footage of his interrogation there by agents of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

Four formerly classified DVDs, to be released Tuesday, show CSIS questioning Khadr, then a teenager, at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, where he has spent the past six years.

Background on Khadr’s case here.

1)He was 15 when captured.

2)His charges were thrown out and then he was labeled in the limbo/illegal position of “enemy combatant” and has languished for years in Guantanamo Bay. Like too many others.

And this (my emphasis):

Journalist Kirk Makin, writing in the May issue of Canadian Lawyer, sympathizes with the plight of Edney, the Edmonton lawyer representing Omar Khadr because he had to wait four years before getting a face-to-face meeting with his client.

His case is clouded of course by his minor status (at the time of his capture that is) and the environment of his upbringing:

The complexity of the Khadr case is heightened by his upbringing as the youngest in a family of al-Qaeda sympathizers who considered religious martyrdom, being a suicide-bomber, as a supreme calling. Omar’s father, Ahmed Said Khadr, was an associate of Osama bin Laden and a reputed financier of al-Qaeda operations. He was killed in October 2003 by Pakistani forces. One of Omar’s older brothers, Abdullah Khadr, is in jail in Toronto and is fighting a U.S. extradition request for terrorism-related crimes.

Khadr it is charged threw a grenade that exploded killing a US soldier in Afghanistan in 2002. The firefight is described in the above link.

This case along with the rendition of innocent Syrian-Canadian Maher Arar has brought Canada into the US’ orbit of illegal detention facilities, lawlessness, and torture, shaming her in the process, undermining the rule of law and the moral standing of liberal democratic governance.

Camerican Apologies?

From the Globe and Mail:

OTTAWA — Canada’s residential-schools apology has opened the possibility that U.S. President George W. Bush may do the same in his final months of office, says Republican Senator Sam Brownback.

In an interview with The Globe and Mail, the senior senator from Kansas said Canada’s apology has increased the pressure on Washington, and he expressed hope that Prime Minister Stephen Harper will raise the issue directly with the President.

Mr. Brownback has already secured the support of his Senate colleagues for a historic, broadly worded apology to native Americans. The three-page apology was added as an amendment in February to legislation dealing with Indian health care. It now must be approved by the U.S. House of Representatives and then ultimately the President.

The move towards formal apologies (as opposed to official regrets of things having happened….passive voice Rumsfeldian BS) got started via the Aussies and their new PM Rudd.  It would be a good thing if the US followed suit.

My Favorite new Phrase

Since I had a double dose of nation-birfday celebrations this week (see here and here), I was looking into the background of the Canadian National Anthem. There was a debate recently in the Globe and Mail whether the word God should be kept in the anthem. The wiki on the song is here. It’s originally French (and therefore much more explicitly Catholic Christian with a reference to lifting swords and the cross!!!) and then an English version was penned in 1908. Not a translation of the French text. The original English version didn’t have God in it, then God was later added (by the “secular” PM Pierre Trudeau). If you read the lone dissenting voice (for exclusion of God from the song), he’s a pretty raging secularist pomo, so doesn’t help his case too much. The others make points that the majority of the population believes in God in a non-specific/non-confessional manner, so it’s not a really big deal (the French version probably deserves a tweaking).

Anyway, so I’m reading through the history and there are a few extra stanzas that are never really sung. And then this from the second stanza:

O Canada! Where pines and maples grow,
Great prairies spread and Lordly rivers flow!
How dear to us thy broad domain,
From East to Western sea!
The land of hope for all who toil,
The true North strong and free!
God keep our land, glorious and free.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee!

Now the “where pines and maples” is quaint and cutely Canadian. But “Lordly Rivers Flow.” How fantastic is that–it just rolls right off the tongue. So Lordly Rivers Flow has officially become my new favorite thing to say.

Here is a photo of one of said lordly rivers (the Columbia in BC):

Update I: Is the “true” in true North a shot at Vikings/Scandinavians?  Waddup wit dat?

Happy Birfday Canada

For background on today’s holiday, the Wiki here. 

I’m actually worked today, so I appreciate the holiday for no other reason than I make a phat wad. 

On the other hand, I have to say she (Canada) is not the socialist uptopia wet dream of lefties in America nor the socialist nightmare apocalypse of right-wing nutters in the States either.  It’s just a country man.  It’s got some good, some weird, some goofy, and some evil.  That’s how they roll.  But they are not here to be a blank screen upon which Americans foist their visions for either good or ill.

For a better vision of Camericanism see Conan here.

Canajan News Roundup

Time for some local/national news.

Foreign policy

The Afghan government has inked has set up a four-way between Turkmenistan, India, China, and itself. Kinky. The deal is to create a pipeline from Turk. (which has got gas as it were) to India and China (which lack it). The pipeline however would run right through Kandahar and the surrounding areas in the south of Afghanistan, i.e. headquarters for the Taliban and stations of the Canadian and British troops.

Except increased fighting and new protest signs when I go downtown for church on Sunday past the Art Museum where all such (lame) protests occur: Blood for Gas

The Taliban likely employing systempunkt will target the pipeline. You can guarantee it. 1)to prevent large scale connection, national government extension as well as to siphon off any fuel they can to sell on the black market to fund their operations.

National

The Liberal Party and its leader Stephane Dion has introduced a carbon emissions tax proposal.  You can read it here (I’m still going through the details).  The claim is that it will be revenue neutral, the taxes offset by cuts in income tax.  While in the aggregate the numbers may even out for individuals there could be a hit.  The conservatives as usual have started a bit of over the top fear campaign (as well as disinformation the Liberals contend) rather than rationally critique the thing. The tax is not a pay at the pump tax (already one of those).  It is more like a cap and trade type emissions tax, taxing tonnage of carbon output at $10/tonne raising $10/tonne/year up to $40/tonne by the fourth year.  It attempts to signal to the economy to move away from carbon.  This is/will be opposed by oil-rich Alberta and Saskatchewan.  BC has already moved to similar legislation and the Premier (Liberal Party, equivalent to Gov. of States) of Ontario has reversed his earlier opposition and seems to be in favor of the bill.  The bill is also to be timed as part of an eventual calling of an election and an attempt to thrown down the current Minority Conservative Party government.

Though on the positive side for conservatives, PM Harper has formally apologized to Aboriginal peoples for the government’s involvement in the residential schools program, part of the broader governmental program (until the 1970s) of Europeanizing (colonizing and “civilizing” in the old language) aboriginal peoples.

Local/Provincial

A sixth foot was found this week near the Campbell River.  This is an on-going disturbing phenomenon.  Turns out this sixth one was a hoax (was an animal non-human foot in a shoe).   The perp of such action wins my coveted Candidate for Burning in Hell/Fin’g Bastard of the Week Award.  Or maybe Year.  Not cool.

Canadian Econ Stats

From the Globe and Mail: (similar patterns to US)

The earnings gap between the rich and the poor is widening in Canada, with incomes among recent immigrants showing especially dramatic declines in recent years, according to sweeping new census data.

Earnings among the richest fifth of Canadians grew 16.4 per cent between 1980 and 2005 while the poorest fifth of the population saw earnings tumble 20.6 per cent over the 25-year time period, Statistics Canada said in its 2006 census release on income and earnings. Earnings among people in the middle stagnated.

That earnings didn’t budge for middle income earners was particularly surprising, given that the economy has generally expanded over the past quarter century, said one business professor.

Of course the histories of the two countries don’t parallel exactly, but there are commonalities.

Rise in the 80s of right-wing governments (Reagan, Mulroney) that sought de-regulation, smaller government size domestically, military buildup, and trade liberalization.

90s:  Neoliberalism.  (Clinton and Chretien).   Social liberalism merged with free market neo-liberalism (NAFTA).  Deficits reduced and budget surpluses.  But at the cost of infrastructure it now becomes more and more clear.

2000s:  Return of conservative government.  Bush, Harper.   Economic policies further beneficial to the upper classes.  Reach of downscale voters through cultural issues.

Though I have to say Harper has not followed Bush in tanking the economy of Canada and sending deficits through the stratosphere.  Harper has also kept the crazier elements of his social conservative base from becoming too public (again pace Bush).  Harper has also had minority government status his entire term (as opposed to Bush who has had so since 2006) and is frankly light years ahead of Bush as a politician.  He’s also benefited from a split on the left (Liberal and NDP, particularly over Afghanistan) as well as incompetent leadership from the Liberals.

But where both stand then is at a moment when one or either party (in Canada slightly different given the existence of the NDP) if they could realistically harness a policy program to the stagnating middle class one would likely come to power that is not a return to 1970s stagflation, top heavy command and control structure.  A New Social Contract for the networked society/informational economy.

I should make clear this policy would likely be focused only on those middle rungs and be aimed at renewed growth of the middle class–a second progressive/New Deal era following upon this Second Gilded Age.

I very much doubt any government in this area will worry or pass any relatively meaningful legislation regarding the poor.  In either country frankly.

Studying Canada

I think correlated with the events described in the previous post, I am beginning a deeper study of Canada–history, politics, and culture. Part of a process of entering into the culture. It’s been 3 years now (more or less) of living here, and I’m just now beginning to feel like I want to understand the land, hear its deeper whispers and so on.

The books I’m reading, for anyone interested:

The Illustrated History of Canada (ed., Craig Brown)
First Nations of Canada (Olive Patricia Dickason)
The Polite Revolution: Perfecting the Canadian Dream (John Ibbitson)

The first would be a so-called dead white man’s history.  The second a history of the thousands of years prior to European contact (which actually began in 1000 with the Vikings but nobody is ever taught about then in North American schools).  And the last a current political outlook with some pretty biting criticism.

And probably after the honeymoon, a book by the baddest-ass named person on the planet:

Lloyd Axworthy.  (Foreign Policy).

Here’s a website with some basics on Canadian history.  .

[Photo: Canadian Coat of Arms]

WTF? Canadian Tomb Vandalizing Edition

The tomb in question was that of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau. Now I’m an American and even I know you don’t f–k with Trudeau, especially his memory, much less his tomb.

From the CBC (uncool):

The tomb of former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau was vandalized overnight, Quebec police said Saturday.

The words “traitor” and “FLQ” were painted in black on the Trudeau family mausoleum in Saint-Rémi, Que., south of Montreal.

Trudeau called in armed force to break up the FLQ (Front for Liberation of Quebec) and its terrorist enterprises in the October Crisis of 1970, particularly the kidnapping of two government ministers, one British, one Canadian (the latter died as a result).

[Trudeau was from Quebec but was a Liberal and therefore not a separatist].