Archive for the ‘Health’ Category

Monsanto, Blackwater, and GM Crop Saboteurs

Thursday, September 23rd, 2010

Rady Ananda for Dissident Voice, September 20, 2010

Agribusiness giant Monsanto, which genetically modifies plants to exude or tolerate pesticide or to produce nonviable seed, hired the services of the mercenary firm, Blackwater, to spy on activists, Jeremy Scahill reports. A death-tech firm weds a hit squad.

This is no doubt in response to a decade of GM crop sabotage efforts around the globe.  Since the publicly-announced introduction of GM crops in 1996, concerned citizens have vandalized such crops every single year somewhere on the planet. Several thousand GM plants have been partially or wholly destroyed. (See brief history below.)

Blackwater is most notorious for its Nisour Square Massacre in 2007. Seventeen innocent civilians died when Blackwater goons opened fire in a busy market square. The hit team was later acquitted in a U.S. court.

Scahill reports that through its web of companies, Blackwater (now Xe Services) spied on and/or infilitrated groups opposing Monsanto in 2008 through early 2010.  He writes:

The relationship between the two companies appears to have been solidified in January 2008 when Total Intelligence chair, Cofer Black, traveled to Zurich to meet with Kevin Wilson, Monsanto’s security manager for global issues.

After the meeting in Zurich, Black sent an e-mail to other Blackwater executives, including to [then-president Erik] Prince and [former CIA paramilitary officer Enrique] Prado at their Blackwater e-mail addresses.

Black wrote that Wilson ‘understands that we can span collection from internet, to reach out, to boots on the ground on legit basis protecting the Monsanto [brand] name…. Ahead of the curve info and insight/heads up is what he is looking for.’

Black added that Total Intelligence ‘would develop into acting as intel arm of Monsanto.’ Black also noted that Monsanto was concerned about animal rights activists and that they discussed how Blackwater ‘could have our person(s) actually join [activist] group(s) legally’….

…Wilson confirmed he met Black in Zurich and that Monsanto hired Total Intelligence in 2008 and worked with the company until early 2010. He denied that he and Black discussed infiltrating animal rights groups, stating ‘there was no such discussion.’”

Monsanto said only publicly available information was monitored. Scahill writes of Monsanto’s security manager, Kevin Wilson:

He claimed that Total Intelligence only provided Monsanto ‘with reports about the activities of groups or individuals that could pose a risk to company personnel or operations around the world which were developed by monitoring local media reports and other publicly available information. The subject matter ranged from information regarding terrorist incidents in Asia or kidnappings in Central America to scanning the content of activist blogs and websites.

Tom Philpott of Grist notes:

I can confirm that Monsanto likes to keep a close eye on blogs and websites. Back in 2005, I got my break as a food-politics writer after a Monsanto lawyer slapped my blog, with its all of 30 readers, with a cease-and-desist letter.

Monsanto has also openly engaged with activists on blogs. During my tenure as Senior Editor at OpEdNews.com, site owner Rob Kall approved membership for Brad Mitchell, Monsanto’s public relations chief.  Mitchell particularly focused on articles by Linn Cohen-Cole. (See e.g. the comments on Monsanto’s dream bill, HR 875.)  Cohen-Cole claimed that after her articles at OEN received widespread attention, she noticed surveillance vehicles on her street.

That early 2009 decision at OEN spiked the ire of food writers. They objected to a forum for ordinary people granting equal access to a multi-billion dollar corporation which can publish in mainstream media, and hire professional psyops agents like Burson-Marstellar. B-M represents genocidal regimes, claimed the Bhopal disaster wasn’t so bad, promotes secret vote counting software, and is generally the go-to spin doctor for the world’s worst enterprises.

By a wide majority, OEN members condemned Kall’s approval of Monsanto membership, forcing him to rescind it. Two months later, in May 2009, he demoted and/or banned several “radicals,” including those of us who deride GM foods. In fact, my banishment prompted the inception of Food Freedom, a website that includes coverage of GM foods and Monsanto.

But no matter how many bloggers it tries to silence, the biotech industry has lost in the court of public opinion. This is why it lobbies to ensure genetically-modified foods are not labeled. Not even Burson-Marstellar has been able to overcome the “frankenfood” reputation.

GM Crop Sabotage in Defense of Biodiversity

But it isn’t just public opinion that concerns Monsanto.  Monsanto didn’t hire assassins to sway public opinion. GM crop sabotage, which originated in Europe, has been an ongoing global effort since at least 1997.

In 1999, Andrew Hund compiled several reports of GM crop sabotage around the world, some of which are included in the time line below.

Just focusing on the U.S., Gordon Rausser documented thousands of GM plant destructions in 1999 alone. Citizens targeted GM corn, sugar beets, sunflowers, melons, tomatoes, walnuts, and strawberries. The attacks occurred in Maine, Vermont, Minnesota, New York, and California.

Kathryn Brown reported in Scientific American that in 2000, “in Maine, midnight raiders hacked down more than 3,000 experimental poplar trees. And in San Diego, protesters smashed sorghum and sprayed paint over greenhouse walls.”

This year, Marcel Kuntz described 70 instances of GM crop sabotage in England, Switzerland, France, and Germany from 1999 through 2010.

The timeline below is but a brief sampling of such actions. It shows a wide variety of crops on several continents. And it shows unending interest in ridding the planet of this technology. (Too numerous to list, the cases of GM crop sabotage in the US are not included. See sources above.)

1997 Irish destroy GM sugar beets
1998 Irish destroy GM sugar beets
1998 French destroy GM corn
1998 Brits destroy GM crops on over 40 separate plots
1999 Indian farmers burn GM cotton
1999 New Zealanders destroy GM potato
1999 Canadians destroy GM trees
1999 Brits destroy GM corn
2000 Brits destroy GM corn
2001 Brits destroy GM corn
2001 Brazilians destroy GM corn and soy
2001 Brits destroy six separate fields of GM corn and rapeseed
2002 Indian farmers destroy GM cotton
2003 French destroy GM rapeseed (canola)
2004 French Guiana activists destroy GM coffee
2005 French destroy 50 acres of GM corn
2006 Germans destroy GM corn in several attacks
2006 French destroy GM corn
2007 Brits destroy GM potatoes
2008 Brazilians destroy GM corn
2008 Swiss destroy GM wheat
2009 Swiss destroy GM wheat
2009 Icelanders destroy GM barley
2009 Brits destroy GM potatoes
2009 Brits destroy GM apple trees
2010 Swiss destroy GM wheat
2010 Spaniards destroy GM corn
2010 Italians destroy GM corn
2010 French destroy GM grapes

Not everyone has the luxury of destroying GM crops. In India, under a new biotech bill known as BRAI, people can be imprisoned and fined simply for “misleading” others about GMOs.  Since the entire biotech industry is based on “misleading” information (e.g. one protein-one gene, or that GMOs are substantially equivalent to normal food), one has to wonder if Monsanto executives will get a pass, while only those who disparage the technology become the law’s target.

Elsewhere, dissent has been met with violence.

Last month in La Leonesa, Argentina, 100 thugs attacked local farmers who gathered to hear a scientific presentation on the toxicity of glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup. The Chaco provincial government had previously reported a tripling of childhood cancers and a quadrupling of birth defects in the area in the ten years since “the expansion of glyphosate and other agrochemical spraying in the province.”

Monsanto, by hiring a mercenary army and former CIA field agents, is deadly serious about protecting its deadly products. Yet, this contract further discredits the company. The public can now paint an even bleaker picture of the firm that brought us Agent Orange, PCBs, rBST, DDT, aspartame and, now, hit men.

Image via Ghana Business News

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Posted in Assault on Democracy, Corporate Globalization, Environment, Featured, Health, Labour, The Real Issues | 1 Comment »

Avoiding “Controversy”? In-Between the Silences on Abortion and Family Planning at the G8 and Beyond

Thursday, September 9th, 2010

Unfortunately, when women’s health and bodily autonomy are at stake in public policy, silences can speak louder than words. 

At a February 2010 news conference, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon made it clear that Harper’s G8 pledge to “harness funds and resources from G8 countries and non-government organizations to reduce millions of preventable maternal and child deaths in the developing world” would exclude any discussion of abortion, contraception or funding for women’s reproductive choice. Cannon stated that the G8 initiative “does not deal in any way, shape or form with family planning.”

Jane Cawthorne characterized this position on maternal health succinctly, writing, ”the Conservative government is effectively saying only women who become mothers are worthy of complete health care. They are expressing a deep disregard for women who don’t conform to their image of the ‘good’ woman and doing so in a public policy initiative that will negatively affect women globally.”

In the following Op-Ed, Marcy Bloom explains how, when it comes to womens’ rights,  ”‘neutrality’ leaves no choice”.

Image via photobucket.com

Health Inequality: Gates Foundation Bans Abortion

By Marcy Bloom, On the Issues Magazine, Summer 2010

Melinda French Gates, philanthropist, co-founder and co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, was greeted with great applause on the first day of the Women Deliver conference in Washington, D.C. earlier this summer. But the hand clapping was temporary. As a reproductive health advocate, I was not the only one who began to raise questions about her comments and her foundation’s capacity  to set the worldwide agenda for global health priorities. Gates announced that the foundation with her name on it, known for its important work on the prevention of poverty and the development of vaccines for HIV/AIDS and malaria, will designate $1.5 billion over the next five years to assist developing nations with integrated women’s health care services.

She explained that this new priority will add to the empowerment, education and equality of women and girls. She described the services: nutrition, pre- and post-natal care, infant care, the training of women’s health workers and obstetrical services.

Yes, this is impressive, and will do much good to help women and girls, and to save their lives. But it is silent on a central and fundamental issue for women: access to safe abortion and protection from unsafe abortion.

This is so despite the fact that access to safe abortion was one of “three core strategies to save women’s lives” on the agenda of the Women Deliver conference, which was titled Invest in Women. It Pays. In attendance were 3,500 advocates from 140 countries. The goal was to seek out strategies to prevent maternal mortality so that “no person should die giving life.” It’s critical to note that if you believe in investing in women and girls, no woman or girl should ever die preventing life either. The statistics are stark: approximately 350,000 women lose their lives each year giving birth, from childbirth complications and injuries, and from illegal and unsafe abortions. All are preventable tragedies.

Let Women Live

At the conference, the Guttmacher Institute shared the significance of emphasizing the need for both family planning and maternal and newborn health services.

Tragically, only one-half of the 123 million women and girls each year who give birth receive the full range of prenatal, delivery and post-natal care that they need. If women’s equality were recognized, and this care were prioritized and funded, women’s lives would be vastly improved. Unintended pregnancies around the world would decrease by more than two-thirds, dropping from 75 million (2008) to 22 million per year (still disgracefully high, but certainly an improvement). Seventy per cent of maternal deaths would be avoided. Unsafe abortion rates would decline by 73 percent.

The reality is that these critical needs cannot — and should not — be separated. All represent a continuum of women’s lives and their reproductive health concerns. Women who have abortions become mothers; mothers have abortions. Safe abortion can help women become better mothers in the future. These are the same women making different choices at different times in their lives.

Illegal, unsafe abortion is a reproductive health crime and a form of violence against women. Ignoring abortion, siloizing abortion, denying its significance as a fundamental public health need for women, is absurd and unrealistic.

As reported in 2006 in the public health journal, The Lancet, abortion is “a pandemic — an urgent public health and human rights imperative.” Nearly 68,000 women and girls die as a result of botched abortions — this is 13 percent of all maternal deaths. Twenty times that number of women and girls will experience abortion-related complications that threaten their lives. Nearly all (97 percent) of these preventable deaths and injuries are in developing nations. “Access to safe abortion improves women’s health,” according to The Lancet authors. “Access to competent care” is a critical need, they state.

While the Gates Foundation said that it is interested in funding access to contraception for the 200 million women and girls around the world who are unable to obtain birth control, The Lancet authors underscored: “(T)he availability of modern contraception can reduce but never eliminate the need for abortion.”

“Neutrality” Leaves no Choice

So why is the Gates Foundation ignoring the abortion care needs of women?

When asked on NPR by reporter Michele Norris, Melinda Gates said, “We don’t want to be part of the controversy.”

In response to a request for comment to the Gates Foundation, a response was emailed from “Deborah Lacy (Independent Contractor)” who said: “While the foundation is making new investments in maternal and child health, our position on funding abortion services has not changed. Specifically, the foundation does not fund abortion and does not take a stance on the issue. We focus on improving access to the tools women need to prevent unintended pregnancy, by supporting organizations that provide voluntary family planning information and services for women in developing countries. Family planning services are critical to prevent unintended pregnancy and reduce abortions.”

Does she fear that the image of the foundation will be affected? Fear anti-choice boycotts of Microsoft products? Does she have security concerns? Fret about the moral complexity of women’s decision-making? Or does she view women’s lives as controversial?

Gates seems unable to understand that the true moral issue is allowing women and girls to die because of lack of access to a safe medical procedure. By trying to avoid the “controversy” surrounding abortion, Gates has created another: it is impossible to work on maternal mortality issues and ignore abortion.

The clear and well-documented reality — one I have witnessed and experienced for 40 years in my work as an abortion counselor, feminist clinic director and fundraiser for international reproductive rights — is that safe and legal abortion preserves the dignity and saves the lives of women and girls. Contraception fails. Women change their minds about their pregnancies. Sexual activity is often unexpected, involuntary and unprotected. The misogyny and control demonstrated in sexual violence are part of the lives of far too many women and girls in the world. Without access to safe abortion, women suffer.

Bill and Melinda Gates are undoubtedly aware of these realities of women’s unequal lives. The end result of their “neutrality” is but one choice for women and girls who become pregnant. That one choice equals no choice.

Allowing the further stigmatization of abortion validates and strengthens the belligerent anti-choice movement.

But the power and influence of the foundation go further. Because of its prestige, size and assets, the foundation is central to “setting the sexual and reproductive health and rights agenda around the world,” in the words of policy researcher and writer Brook Elliott-Buettner in Gender Across Borders.

Whatever the intent, the Gates Foundation is establishing, even distorting, the direction of investments by other foundations, individuals and even governments. Although Bill and Melinda Gates have the right to spend their money as they wish, it is also true that their inordinate power in determining universal health agendas demands accountability.

When they slam the doors to safe abortion initiatives, the impact is felt around the world. The result? These reproductive health crimes against women are permitted to continue, unchecked. The Gates Foundation has chosen to sweep abortion off the charts of women’s health and lives. And that is yet another crime against women.

Marcy Bloom worked as an abortion counselor and clinic director in New York, and for more than 18 years served as the executive director of Aradia Women’s Health Center in Seattle. In 2006, she received the William O. Douglas Award, the Washington State ACLU’s lifetime achievement award. She is currently the U.S representative for the Mexico City-based GIRE~Grupo de Informaci?n en Reproducci?n Elegida (The Information Group on Reproductive Choice), Mexico’s leading for for reproductive justice and access to legal abortion. 

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Posted in Featured, Gender and Sexuality, Health, The Real Issues | 9 Comments »

Annual bird mortality in tar sands tailings ponds exceeds government/industry figures: Study

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010

By Treeline Ecological Research | September 7, 2010

Edmonton – A study in the peer-reviewed journal The Wilson Journal of Ornithology to be published in early September (online in late August) shows annual bird mortality in the bitumen tailings ponds of northeastern Alberta – an internationally significant migratory bird corridor – greatly exceeds industry estimates.

The authors investigated three types of data: government-industry reported mortalities; rates of bird deaths at tailings ponds; and rates of landing, oiling, and mortality to quantify annual bird mortality due to exposure to tailings ponds.

For the period 2000 to 2007, reporting by industry indicated a mean annual mortality from tailings pond exposure of 65 birds. The study, entitled “Annual Bird Mortality in the Bitumen Tailings Ponds in Northeastern Alberta,” however, indicated an annual mortality in the range of 458 to 5,029 birds – a range deemed conservative because birds found dead represent an unknown fraction of true mortality and data do not include mortalities that occur before spring, between spring and fall migration, and after fall migration. The wide range in the annual mortality estimates is due in large part to spatial and temporal variations in bird mortality rates.

“The ad hoc monitoring by industry, sanctioned by government, cannot address pressing questions whose answers would aid in the conservation of both migratory and resident birds,” said Dr. Kevin Timoney of Treeline Ecological Research, one of the study’s authors along with Dr. Robert Roncini of Dalhousie University.

Other findings of the study include:

Landing deterrent systems at tailings ponds are only partially effective. The only way to prevent bird deaths is to discontinue the use of tailings ponds.

While tailings ponds, which contain bitumen, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds, naphthenic acids, brine, heavy metals, and ammonia, pose the greatest threat in spring when warm effluent-fed tailings ponds provide open water at a time when natural water bodies remain frozen, a high risk of oiling may extend throughout the open water season.

The fate of lightly oiled birds that continue migration, in particular to summer breeding areas, is unknown.

The total number of birds migrating through the region and the total annual bird mortality due to tailings ponds are not known with sufficient scientific rigor.

Data on mortalities during extreme weather events and on the frequency of mass mortality events are lacking.

The study concludes: “Government-overseen monitoring within a statistically valid design, standardized across all facilities, is needed. Systematic monitoring and accurate, timely reporting would provide data useful to all those concerned with bird conservation and management in the tar sands region.”

This press release appeared on rabble.ca on September 7, 2010

Image via treehugger.com

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Posted in Animal Rights, Environment, Health, The Real Issues | 5 Comments »

Bloody Oil: BP invests in Alberta Tar Sands

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

Global corporate elites come together to make decisions that significantly and negatively affect the health and livelihood of local communities, and contribute heavily to environmental degradation, pollution and climate change. The video demonstrates the functioning of corporate globalization, industrial environmental destruction and the abuse of Indigenous rights, all of which were protested at the G20 in Toronto. It also features the work and struggles of community members and activists working everyday against these encroaching powers.

This video was posted by youandifilms on April 19, 2010.

George Poitras, member of Mikisew Cree indigenous First Nation talks about the issues of pollution and cancers suffered by many of the First Nations people as a result of the Oil companies action extractive industries.

At a BP shareholder’s meeting a resolution about BPs involvement in tar sands production was discussed and put to the vote at the oil majors AGM. Results presented by BP at the meeting show that almost 15% of voters either supported the resolution or abstained despite the boards recommendation to reject it. This is a significant expression of concern about the company’s decision to invest in new tar sands projects.

For more information visit the Indigenous Environmental Network, Canadian Indigenous Tar Sands Campaign

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Posted in Corporate Globalization, Environment, Featured Video, Health, Indigenous Rights, The Real Issues, Video | No Comments »

From the Medical Front: Police Brutality and the Importance of Health for All

Monday, August 16th, 2010

NEWS: Dispatch from the medical front: On the streets at the G20

Published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, on  August 13, 2010

We awoke with a combination of anticipation and apprehension. It was Saturday, June 26, the first day the Group of 20 — an association of the world’s major economic powers — would be meeting in Toronto. The city had already seen a week of demonstrations and rallies promoting awareness of the negative impact of G20 policies on the environment, on migration, on indigenous peoples and on other communities. The crowds included a few people handing out water and sunblock. We were among those “street medics,” who had come together to provide preventive and first-aid care to protesters.

This was not an apolitical act. For most of us, it sprang from a desire to support healthy dissent. In our daily work, we often advocate for people whose health is determined largely by their social conditions. At a broader level, many of us see the G20 as an unhealthy institution whose decisions contribute to poor health outcomes for marginalized populations both locally and globally. Being on the streets as “medics” was one way of engaging with these larger problems.

During the previous days we had already heard of several disturbing incidents. At least one of our fellow medics had seen a pepper-spray injury. Another had sent someone to hospital with blurred vision and a possible concussion from several punches to the head by the police. Several medics had been stopped during the many police searches across the city and their supplies had been confiscated.

Later Saturday morning we met with colleagues to fill our backpacks with sunblock, water bottles, gauze and cold packs. We were not sure what to expect and planned to stick to first aid only. As we set off, we tried not to draw too much attention to ourselves. It felt ridiculous to worry, until we saw swarms of police surrounding and searching people who had been walking peacefully. We continued silently, our nerves on edge.

We arrived at Queen’s Park, in front of the Ontario legislature, just as a major march was beginning. Despite the rows of police lining the protest route, many wearing helmets and carrying riot shields, the mood was jubilant and energetic. Our senses were flooded with noise and colour. There were samba beats in the air, banners critiquing the approach to maternal health in foreign aid policy, and creative artistic displays about political prisoners. It was an inspiring mix of communities rallying together.

Soon, however, we saw areas of growing confrontation. Our cellphones started ringing as medics began reporting injuries. One medic went to the emergency department with a young woman who was vomiting on the street after being hit on the head by police. She then saw another woman with what was later confirmed to be a broken finger from a baton strike. A group of medics farther downtown was splinting what appeared to be a classic forearm “nightstick” fracture. Yet another pair of medics, surrounded by police, was trying to get help for a young man with a baton injury to the head. He was bleeding profusely and had a lowered level of consciousness. No one could get to them, including Emergency Medical Services, so the medics eventually placed him on a sandwich board and recruited a vegetable truck to transport him to an ambulance.

We didn’t ask whether the people we assisted were “bystanders” or “protesters,” “provocative” or “peaceful” — the distinctions didn’t matter to us. They had all suffered injuries that were either reported to or directly witnessed by medics as being the result of police action.

Feeling tired, we agreed to regroup at Queen’s Park after the march. As we walked up Yonge Street, normally one of Toronto’s busiest shopping areas, we saw a number of damaged storefronts. We wondered if these broken windows would be used to justify the intense police surveillance and injuries — the broken bones — that we had seen earlier that day.

When we returned to Queen’s Park, the setting had noticeably altered. There were police everywhere, plus a somewhat subdued mix of resting protesters and bewildered passersby. We sat on the grass, sharing water and snacks. Suddenly a line of riot police charged at us, kicking and striking with batons at seated protesters, pepper-spraying as they went. It was happening too quickly to understand. We scrambled to our feet, and people spilled, screaming, into the street. We pulled people away from the advancing police and doused their burning eyes with water, reassured them until the pain and blindness began to fade, and made sure they had somewhere safe to go.

The day ended with many of us struggling to make sense of what we had seen.

The next day included more assembling, more protests and more violent dispersal of demonstrators. People were seemingly arrested at random and many were detained. Once the G20 had concluded and most police had left town, we thought our task was over.

As detainees began to be released, however, we received alarmed calls from other medics to “come right away.” Some people had been released without ID or money, and were being brought to a safe space. They spoke of having been handcuffed for hours unable to go to a toilet, of water deprivation, of floors so cold that they were unable to fall asleep, and of being denied their medications. One medic gave warm tea and blankets to a shaking and tearful older man who had missed several doses of his psychiatric medications. Another met a young person with type 1 diabetes from out of town who had been released without his insulin, health card or money, and had not eaten that day for fear of hyperglycemia. We worked into the night, trying to obtain medications for people. These were not isolated stories but rather formed a narrative of infringement of rights that had become all too familiar.

It was difficult to go back to work after this — after the surveillance and searches, the outright violence we had witnessed and the stories from detention. Some people spoke in outraged tones about the property damage highlighted by the media, but we couldn’t let those images somehow replace ours, as if multiple truths couldn’t exist together. These few days had shaken a worldview that some of us didn’t even realize we had. Many of us have enjoyed a fundamental sense of security since childhood, and are so used to our safety that we can’t understand life without it. The weekend gave us a brief, visceral glimpse of the reality of many people — especially those from certain targeted groups — who suffer the abuse of institutional power every day.

We found it troubling to watch the news in the aftermath, with its almost complete lack of commentary on the decisions made in Toronto by the G20. Their proposed “austerity measures” will have a lasting detrimental impact on the health of many local and international communities. The events of June 25–27 were disturbing, and have left us shaken. But by focusing exclusively on the physical violence of the moment, we risk forgetting the economic violence experienced by so many who are marginalized by society. We risk forgetting the very reasons that people came together to protest the G20 in the first place.

It has now been a few weeks since these experiences on the streets of Toronto. Our response must start with what we’ve seen — the police conduct and its health impacts — as we join the call for an inquiry to be fully independent and receive broad public testimonials to ensure accountability. Much more than this, however, needs to change. We must continue to act together, as physicians and members of a global community, in the belief that health for all people is both a fundamental right and an essential component of social justice.

— Priya Raju, MD, and Michaela Beder, MD, Toronto, Ont

Photo credit: Reuters/Christinne Muschi

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Stiffed with the Bill: A Private Banquet at Civil Society’s Expense

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

Stiffed with the Bill: A Private Banquet at Civil Society’s Expense

http://railroadedbymetrolinx.blogspot.com/2010/08/stiffed-with-bill-private-banquet-at.html

“With a stroke of the pen, a government can destroy the social safety net built carefully by generations.”
- John Hilary, Executive Director of the War on Want

Left: A trade union picnic banquet before the G20 Rally on Saturday, June 26th

An untendered contract for $16 billion for unneeded fighter jets. $1.3 billion spent on security for the G8 and G20 Summits. 116 votes passed quickly by Premier McGuinty – time for consideration approximately 8.2 minutes each – to pass unheard of laws to criminalize dissent, days before the G20 Summit. A federal Conservative Party which filibustered the vote for a full public inquiry into police conduct during the Summits, calling all 25,000 protesters ‘pro-violent’.

The provincial Liberal government’s MacDonald Block offices raided on July 15th by the OPP – specifically, Ministries of Transportation, Economic Development and Trade and Community and Social Services – launching an investigation into “irregular financial transactions” between the provincial government and outside vendors. And the only good news – on July 30th, there was the sudden withdrawal of SNC-Lavalin from the $1 right of way contract for the Air Rail Link. The full responsibility for the ARL has been transferred to Metrolinx, whose Chief Operating Officer Rob Prichard is being replaced by Bruce McCuaig, with the possibility now of the ARL becoming electric. Preemptive?

Canada’s national deficit stands at $54 billion, yet there were $6 billion in corporate tax cuts this year. A 13% HST has been imposed which means that the average wage earner will have even less discretionary income to spend, so that companies can have even greater tax cuts, ostensibly to invest in new jobs. New austerity measures, recommended by a right wing think-tank, the Conference Board of Canada, to cut many thousands of public sector jobs in health care, education and social services in the next three years, while testing an unproven job creation scheme subsidized by the HST.

Have you ever felt that someone else has held a private banquet at your expense, and stiffed you with the bill, and tip? A bill which now has the Harmonized, also known as the Hated, Sales Tax added? Is any of this HST going toward maintaining public services? No. It is an additional tax to enable banks, corporations and the military to fortify themselves at civil society’s expense, and the public sector’s demise. As someone pointed out, a wartime levy.

Canada is becoming militarized, and as we witnessed during the G20, this military state can work against its citizens as well as its aggressors. Provincially, the HST is streaming more funds into the pockets of corporations, with a tax deduction to them as they ransack Canada for its resources, and externalize the cost of destruction of our environment, and no one is fighting to defend the imperative civil right for the full environmental assessment process. On June 8th, Bill C-9, the Budget Implementation Act was passed, which contained several provisions enabling the National Energy Board to conduct their own environmental assessments for oil and gas developments – which is like asking my students to mark themselves. This bill was passed during the BP oil spill, with minimal outcry by the Liberal Party.

And what does it mean when 11,000 jobs from the public sector will be cut by 2013?

A close friend of mine told me that when his mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, his family thought it prudent that she was placed into a private, rather than public, nursing home, assuming that the care was better. A few months later, they found that she was terribly neglected, and moved her into a public home. Surprisingly, they found that public sector care was much better than private, because the public nursing home was regulated by the government.

These are the public sector jobs – in nursing homes, schools, hospitals, transit, municipal services – which will be slashed to feed the bailout by the government for financial mismanagement incurred by the banks, which, incidentally, are making quite a healthy profit this quarter. The banks rebounded quickly, but our public sector, subjected to this drummed up, specious logic of emergency bill austerity measures, will not. Rather than requesting that the banks repay the debt they owe taxpayers by instituting a novel, and effective, infinitesimally small Robin Hood tax on bank transactions to tackle poverty and climate change, we will pay for these cuts with our society’s health. PM Harper opposed the imposition of the Robin Hood tax before the G20 to ensure his illusory future job as CEO of an American corporation, with Canada as a subsidiary, specializing in natural resources.

Of course, there is no interest in a long census form by the Conservative Party. They have stopped representing Canadians, particularly lower income Canadians, long ago. Their goal is to have corporate taxes cut down to 15% by 2012. What does this mean? As the social safety net is eroded, the federal government is anticipating growing dissent from those they are contesting the need to collect data about – those who are lower income, disabled and on a fixed income- to justify building a larger military-industrial complex to suppress those who are disenfranchised. Part of this Orwellian speech model is to publicly conflate protesters with vandals in the public mind so that they ramp up their expenditure on weapons of war, as opposed to building public transit infrastructure for the rabble. Sustainable, electric rail transit throughout Ontario could have been handily built with this promised contractual money for fighter jets, but was not deemed worthy. No explanation needed.

We can look forward to much more violence in our cities as basic needs are no longer met, as they have robbed Peter to pay Paul, and the Pauls are a tiny fraction of the population, secure behind a costly fence which cost $9.4 million, almost double the quoted $5.5 million by SNC-Lavalin. During the G20, the Toronto police were handed a blank cheque by the federal government, enabling the purchase of a substantial arsenal for a police state, so that the military has been fortified to quell growing dissent. It is not a coincidence that this police arsenal will be kept in Toronto, one of the hot spots of the thinking left, but it is a pity that Mayor Miller, who has felt the brunt of this G20 fiasco on police credibility, did not defend the protesters who were speaking in his best interests for the environment, transit and social justice.

Historically, when a society’s parliamentary process is suspended and disrupted, trade unions undermined, and people of property, such as the right wing press, banks and big business, are privileged, these policies are the precursors to a fascist state. I use this term with full cognizance of its weight and implication. Parliament has been prorogued twice by PM Harper within thirteen months, and the formal request by over 50,000 citizens, including lawyers, Amnesty International, and the Civil Liberties Association, for the full, public inquiry into the tactics and cost of the G20 and G8 Summit has been denied by PM Harper and Premier McGuinty. The Liberals stood up against the census, but did not speak out for a public G20 inquiry, which shows implicit support for the military apparatus being put in place. Spines, please.

In ‘Journey to a Revolution’, Michael Korda writes of the Hungarian Revolution: ”the general object of fascism was to stifle dissent, and bolster the existing establishment, while producing much drama in the way of rallies, parades, and propoganda, and the occasional foreign adventure to siphon off the energy of the lower middle class and the working class, who might otherwise have moved towards radical social reform”.

The Olympics? The G8 and the G20? The Pan Am Games? Bread not circuses, anyone? In addition to ceaseless pageantry, PM Harper deliberately prorogued parliament a second time to enact a bill, more powerful than NAFTA to undercut our sovereignty, the Canada-European Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). This far reaching bill will provide sub-national access to municipal services, and undermine the public sector even further, losing thousands of good, Canadian jobs to international outsourcing.

Put it together. Civil society is no longer is prioritized by our government, our country is being sold off to corporations and banks, enabled by a newly armed police state, and expanding prison system, and jobs in our public sector are about to be slashed for international corporations to profit through CETA. This is a Conservative agenda campaign, military in execution, orchestrated by PM Harper, against local economies and the right to self-determination. Provincially, Premier McGuinty is designing his own policies through corporate gladhanding of governmental contracts.

Meanwhile, all over the Internet, discussion postings on news articles are polarized – are we allowed to protest, or not? And I think- for those who are Conservative – your rights are next. Although your values have been upheld by this minority government, I have noticed your online responses can only discredit the protesters by saying that they do not know what they are talking about, and labeling them as unemployed and shiftless. Name calling. Ad hominem attacks. And when you call someone names, all discussion ends. A primary school tactic used by bullies on the playground, undercutting fundamental rights upheld by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms for the right to assembly, and free speech, which you are using to discredit serious concerns about the democratic process, and silence those who are brave, engaged, and well-versed in international policy.

I have never been so concerned about the future of Canada, and I am hearing this from many of those who lived through the events of the past seven weeks in Toronto. Nowhere is the civil society being served or protected – by our police, by our elected representatives, by our city councilors, our Mayor, or by our media. When I read letters on the editorial page ranting about the public sector salaries, I compare these costs to the multi-billion dollar bailouts given to the banks, the golden parachutes given to bank executives, and the inflationary pageantry, and corporate contracts, for the Vancouver Olympic Games and G8 and G20 Summits. Compare these taxpayers’ expenses to those supporting our civil society, and quality of life. At least the public sector provides essential services, and is forced to be accountable.

I am an ethical citizen, yet my voice no longer matters. The moral and financial costs arising from all this pomp and circumstance, and the insidious HST, have already deeply hurt me. I have no government representation – not in Premier McGuinty, or Prime Minister Harper – and neither do the vast majority of Canadians. I cannot afford, and do not want to pay, for cuts to the public sector under these new, jerry-rigged austerity measures so that a self-selected corporate elite can pad their pockets, banks can prosper again, and a military empire, outfitted with massive, $10.65 billion  new prisons, can arise from the ashes, and I am not sure I can. I am too busy counting my pocket change to pay the HST on my electricity, gas, transit and groceries to join the banquet, while predicting that I will be stiffed with the tab as the more important guests flee the table.

I ardently believe, though, if you held a poll of Canadians and asked them if they wanted to live in a country which valued the military, corporations and banks more than our health care system, social services, education, transit system and environment, even the most deeply Conservative Canadian would say ‘no’.

References:
Shout for Global Justice, John Hilary speaks at 30:00, link to
http://vimeo.com/13227243
The War on Want, link to http://www.waronwant.org/
Jeffrey Simpson, ‘Just what we need: a $16-billion fighter jet’, link tohttp://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/just-what-we-need-a-16-billion-fighter-jet/article1641373/
Robert Benzie, ‘Cabinet rushed secret G20 change, documents show’, link at
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/torontog20summit/article/840529–cabinet-rushed-secret-g20-change-documents-show
Steven Chase,’Tory filibuster seeks to block hearings on G20 policing’, link to http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/tory-filibuster-seeks-to-block-hearings-on-g20-policing/article1637756/
Keith Leslie,’Questions linger over OPP raids Transportation Minister Kathleen Wynne confirms Transport Ministry was a target’, link tohttp://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ontario/questions-linger-over-opp-raids/article1652761/
Tess Kalinowski, ‘Province vows rapid rail link to Pearson by 2015 Pan Ams’, link to http://www.thestar.com/article/842240–province-to-run-rail-link-to-pearson-airport
Michael Korda, ‘Journey to a Revolution: A Personal Memoir and History of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956′, HarperCollins; 2006. page 54. Link to http://www.amazon.com/Journey-Revolution-Personal-History-Hungarian/dp/0060772611 More athttp://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/29/books/Heilbrunn.t.html
The Robin Hood Tax, link to http://robinhoodtax.org.uk/how-it-works/ and http://robinhoodtax.ca/
David J. Climenga, Bill C-9: ‘Earmarks’ have no place in Canadian legislation, link tohttp://www.rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/djclimenhaga/2010/05/earmarks-have-no-place-canadian-legislation
Heather Scoffield, ‘Canada says no to ‘Robin Hood’ tax athttp://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/canada-says-no-to-robin-hood-tax-91683444.html
Stephen Hui, ‘Statistics Canada head resigns over long-form census controversy’, link to http://www.straight.com/article-335208/vancouver/statistics-canada-head-resigns-over-longform-census-controversy
Lauren O’Neill, ‘G20 fence costs $9.4M, nearly double original estimate’, link tohttp://www.thestar.com/news/gta/torontog20summit/article/833495–g20-fence-costs-9-4m-nearly-double-original-estimate?bn=1
Canada-European Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, link to http://www.canadians.org/trade/issues/EU/index.html

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Global Victory for Water: but Canada abstains

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

In Historic Vote, UN Declares Water a Fundamental Human Right

The UN represents (or is supposed to represent) people and their governments.
The General Assembly is where significant global decision making ought to be made amongst the 192 state members.

July 29th, 2010
Democracy Now

The United Nations General Assembly has declared for the first time that access to clean water and sanitation is a fundamental human right. In a historic vote Wednesday, 122 countries supported the resolution, and over forty countries abstained from voting, including the United States, Canada and several European and other industrialized countries. There were no votes against the resolution. We speak with longtime water justice activist, Maude Barlow.

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WATER: THE GREAT TEACHER OF PEACE DURING THE G8

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010

WATER: THE GREAT TEACHER OF PEACE DURING THE G8
by Kate Heming

My name is Kate Heming. I am a writer, event organizer and first-time filmmaker from Huntsville, Ontario. For over twelve months, I’ve been directly involved in the coming of age story that is Huntsville, working under the vision of long-time resident and director Brenda Darling.

This film has been a labour of love. Unsuccessful in our attempts to secure funding, we were fortunate to have many friends from whom we’ve begged, borrowed (and stopped just short of stealing) cameras for the past year. With over 100 hours of footage, our project – tentatively titled Hello World, This is Huntsville – tells the experience of the G8 coming to a small town of 18,500 in Northern Ontario through the eyes of the local residents.

“We have filmed dozens of ‘locals’, both high profile and reclusive, who will tell our collective story of the year of the G8,” explains Darling. “They are students, politicians, construction workers, merchants, business owners, social assistance recipients, campaigners, spiritual leaders and several special non-residents such as David Suzuki, Ella Kokotsis (U of T G8/20 Research Group), Maude Barlow, Tony Clement and the military.”

Fear was a prevalent emotion expressed by local residents as the G8 Summit approached. Fear of violence, fear of protestors, fear of damage to property, fear of the police: fear of the unexpected. There was awe and amazement as the bull-dozers crashed through the forests, paving over fields to make room for military tents as infrastructure spending flooded the streets: Huntsville was getting a first-world make-over, whether we wanted it or not. We filmed it all.

I grew up here, went to high school here – I had never been to a major protest and did not know what to expect from the thousands of protestors we were told would descend upon our downtown. Honestly, there’s only one major street. The whole thing seemed impossible. At some point, a wall seemed to go up in people’s minds, surrounding their hearts: we were sufficiently scared and told to stay home. Residents in this town weren’t going to rock the boat. Apathy settled comfortably over fear, and the town of Huntsville got very, very quiet.

Yet, an underground movement had begun. “Two years ago, 2008, we began to call the community together in response to the news of the G8 coming to Huntsville,” explains Jessica Reaske, Elder of the Huntsville Dare’ Community. “In April of 2009, Diane Longboat of Grand River Territory came to hold ceremony with us in preparation for this, and identified the water underneath our meeting place at Shifting Earth Gallery in Emsdale, Ontario as having healing properties. Last summer we held concentrated Dream Councils with some of the more forthcoming of our Dare’ members to ask what our role with the coming G8 was to be. The spirits spoke strongly through the core community dreams – our focus was to be healing and water.”

Four women Elders – Laura Heming, Sally Ferguson, Jessica Reaske and Evelyn Wolff – committed to meeting weekly for prayer and guidance until the time of the G8. I often met with them then, filming and dreaming. “Kate’s presence was always with us,” says Jessica, a key character in the film. “And her other activities fed our common purpose. We are seeking to understand the water spirits, asking to be shown what is wanted, how we can be and send healing into our own hearts and minds such that healing will come into the hearts and minds of everyone, in order to remember our original relationship to life.”

I began to have dreams of a Water Festival. A celebration of water, an education outreach tool that would utilize the media platform provided to us by the coming G8 to bring awareness of the world water crisis, while at the same time impact our local community directly, and inspire them to become better stewards of the water we live with and near.

Guided by the education I’d received working on the film “Water On The Table” by Liz Marshall (www.wateronthetable.com), the core issue quickly became the fight to make water a human right. Generously, Liz agreed to screen her film in Huntsville on the eve of the G8. The Dare’ community decided that a Water Ceremony was the correct medium of expression. I went to the town and secured park permits for the week of the G8. Huntsville Water Fest was born.

Under the observant eye of our cameras, Huntsville Water Fest took place on Sunday, June 20th, the first day on the week of the G8. It included a water ceremony, water song, a choreographed flashmob called the Huntsville G8 Dance for Water, and merchant booths selling sustainable products. There was a specific intention to create a positive environment for the G8 leaders. Whether their meeting was productive or not wasn’t the concern – for the residents of Huntsville: the focus was to create a peaceful environment for protestors to be heard, police to protect and serve, and the world leaders to do their business and be done. It was an effort to learn from water and manifest peace.

News began to filter in from the city. “Toronto hosts thousands of protestors for the G20. Chief of Police Bill Blair, claiming intentions to facilitate lawful, peaceful protest, institutes controversial Public Works Protection Act.” Under the breath comments were muttered, “Well, at least we’re not hosting the G20…”

The G8 began on Thursday, June 24th. Our cameras documented streets and surrounding forests filled with thousands of OPP, military, dozens of media…and no one else. No protestors. Beautiful weather and soft active citizens, rushing around getting ready our grassroots music festival Girl 8, featuring local artists and organized by Ruth Cassie as a part of the Huntsville Water Fest. The cops, not having anything else to do and generally relaxed after days of manning the quiet streets, expressed their excitement to attend. “Hey Kate!” (By now they knew me by name, as I’d been running up and down the one and only street a million times setting up tables and banners about water and attempting to catch any and all action with my camera.) “We’re so excited about Girl 8!” They said, “We can’t wait to attend. Whoa – you need any help?”

That evening, the doc, “Water On The Table”, screened from 6-8pm. It shook apathy from our fingertips; it moved us to action. A desire to stand up on behalf of water hummed in the theatre itself.

The next morning at 8AM, 2 dozen people gathered in the main park with homemade placards that read “Canada! Designate Water a Human Right!” Head of G8 Security Calum Rankin went out of his way to stop traffic, facilitating our last-minute protest with a cop car entourage, helping us every step of the way. We marched down the main street in Huntsville, chanting “WATER IS A HUMAN RIGHT, NOT A COMMODITY”, circling the downtown core and returning to pause by the river. Our camera was not alone in documenting the voice of the local residents. The media, thirsty for any story – especially of protest, – surrounded us. “Who are you?” They asked. “The community of Huntsville!” we replied. This seemed an insufficient answer. We weren’t angry enough, organized enough. It was too organic, too peaceful. But that was who we were: water. Peaceful resisters. We made international news and the issue was at the forefront of the story – it was the biggest G8 story that day.

The next day Brenda and I departed for Toronto, following the protests of the G20 through the eyes of local 19 year old activist Jesse Cole. This was his first major protest experience, and the stark contrast between the G8 and the G20 was over-whelming. It seemed we’d left a utopia of discussion and peace and entered into a dense energy of violence and abuse of power. Helpful, friendly police were nowhere to be found – instead we were threatened by guns with rubber bullets, stopped and searched repeatedly, corralled with other peaceful protestors and detained at Queen and Spadina in the rain for hours.

As the sky burst and torrential rainfall pummelled down, a fellow detainee noticed my Huntsville “WATER” Fest button. Grinning she said, “Well, you got what you asked for.” “What?” I asked, totally over-whelmed and distracted by my fear of being arrested. “Water – if you asked for water, you got it. Be careful what you wish for!” I laughed and nodded. “You know, it’s funny,” she continued. “The rain has washed all my anger away. I was so angry, but now, I’m just ready to go home.”

Water: the great teacher.

“I believe that water could become nature’s gift to us, to teach us how to live in peace with one another, and in harmony with the Earth, if we only have the wisdom to listen.”
- Maude Barlow, Chairperson Council of Canadians, from the film Water On The Table.

Huntsville experienced that truth.

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G8 meeting: a thirst for water justice

Saturday, July 3rd, 2010

G8 meeting: a thirst for water justice

Maude Barlow and Meera Karunananthan
Halifax Chronicle Herald
April 28, 2010

WITHOUT a hint of irony, Stephen Harper has decided to position himself as a champion of maternal and child health at this year’s G8 and G20 meetings, including the G8 development ministerial currently underway in Halifax.

What Stephen Harper fails to acknowledge is that women need greater control over the factors that contribute to their health and well-being. Charity-based models like aid packages are not sufficient.

Poor women in the global South have borne the brunt of neoliberal economic policies that have placed profits for transnational corporations above the environment and human health. They need international support for strong public services and healthy environments.

Take water for example. Canada has prevented the recognition of water as a human right and promotes the privatization of water services while Canadian mining companies destroy watersheds throughout the world. This has disproportionately affected poor women.

Access to drinking water and sanitation is the most basic element of maternal and child health. According to the UN, over a billion people do not have access to safe, clean drinking water while over two billion do not have access to adequate sanitation. This means that every eight seconds, a child dies from drinking dirty water.

Women and girls are more adversely affected when access to water is restricted, as they tend to be responsible for providing water for their families. In some parts of rural Africa, they walk 15 kilometres or more each day to fetch water.

While several countries are working to have water recognized as a human right through a covenant at the UN, the Canadian government has opposed it. Such a covenant would provide a legal tool for communities that are denied access.

Yet Canada has voted against resolutions to officially enshrine water as a human right at several key UN meetings.

Canada is also a strong proponent of water privatization. It funds and plays an active role within the Public Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility which promotes the privatization of drinking water and sanitation systems around the world.

Canada also directly invests in private water through pension funds.

Yet experiences around the world show that private water has denied women their basic needs. In 2006, the UN World Water Development Report concluded that increased tariffs had made water inaccessible to the poorest segments of society in countries like Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire and Guinea.

A recent report published by the National Network on Environments and Women’s Health highlights the disproportionate impacts of water privatization on women.

Throughout the world, the privatization of water and sanitation systems has led to steep rate hikes, cut-offs to the poor, deregulation of environmental standards and loss of accountability to the public. Women and female-headed households, being among the poorest in the world, have been most deeply affected by privatization schemes.

The destruction of water resources has had a tremendous impact on women around the world who play a central role in the provision and management of water resources. Within this context of growing water scarcity, Canadian mining companies are notorious for their disregard of the environment and human health.

In Mexico, for example, 87 per cent of the mining projects are run by Canadian mining companies that continue to destroy land and contaminate water supplies despite massive protests by farmers, indigenous communities and environmentalists.

Groups like Mining Watch and the Council of Canadians are hoping Bill C-300, a new bill that passed a narrow vote in the House of Commons in April 2009, will make Canadian extractive industries accountable for their actions abroad.

If Stephen Harper is serious about maternal health and child health, he needs to recognize that healthy mothers come from healthy communities.

And healthy communities require strong public services and a clean environment. Aid packages will do little to alleviate the conditions of poor women as long as Canada promotes an agenda of water privatization, opposes the right to water, and allows its extractive industries to destroy watersheds around the world.

‘Throughout the world, the privatization of water and sanitation systems has led to steep rate hikes, cut-offs to the poor, deregulation of environmental standards and loss of accountability to the public.’

Maude Barlow is national chairperson and Meera Karunananthan is national water campaigner with the Council of Canadians.

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