support israeli war resisters

This has been posted on Refusing To Kill Is Not A Crime and many other peace and military-resistance websites.

It's a letter written by Shministim, young Israelis who are refusing to take part in the Palestinian occupation.

First the letter, then, how you can help.

The Shministim Letter 2008

We, high-school graduate teens, declare that we shall work against the Israeli occupation and oppression policy in the occupied territories and the territories of Israel. Therefore we will refuse to take part of these actions, which are being done under our name as part of the IDF.

Our refusal comes first and foremost as a protest on the separation, control, oppression and killing policy held by the state of Israel in the occupied territories, as we understand that this oppression, killing and routing of hatred will never lead us to peace, and they are all contradictory to the basic values a society that pretends to be democratic should have.

All the members of this group believe in developing the value of social work. We are not refusing to serve the society we live in, but are protesting against the occupation and the ways of actions which the militaristic system holds as it is today - crushing civil rights, discriminating on a racial base and acting opposing international laws.

We oppose the actions taken in the name of the "defense" of the Israeli society (Checkpoints, targeted killing, apartheid roads - available for Jews only, curfews etc.) that serve the occupation and exploitation policy , annex more conquered territories to the State of Israel and tramples the rights of the Palestinian population in an aggressive manner. These actions serve as a band-aid covering a bleeding wound, and as a limited and temporary solution that will accelerate and aggravate the conflict further.

We expostulate the plundering and the theft of territories and source of income to the Palestinians in exchange to the expansion of the settlements, reasoning to defend Israeli territories. In addition, we oppose any transformation of Palestinian cities and villages to ghettos without minimal living conditions or income sources enclosed by the separation wall.

We also protest the humiliating and disrespectful behavior of the military forces towards Palestinians in the West Bank; violence towards demonstrators, public humiliations, arrests, destruction of property regardless to any safety or defense needs, all of which violate global human rights and international law.

The wall and blockades surround the Palestinian Territories and serve as a halter around the Palestinian’s neck. The soldiers who commit crimes under the patronage and protection of their commanders reflect the image of the Israeli society; a destructive and surprising society that is incapable of accepting its neighboring nation as a partner and not as an enemy.

In order to hold an effective dialogue between the two societies, we, the well-established and stronger society, have the responsibility of establishing and strengthening the other. Only with a more socially and financially established partner could we work towards peace rather than one-sided retaliation acts. Rather than supporting those citizens who have hope for peace, the military cast sanctions and pushes more and more people towards acts of extreme violence and escalation.

We hereby challenge every citizen who wonders if the military's policy in the occupied territories is conducive to the progression of the peace process, to discover by himself/herself the truth and to lift the veil which distorts the reality of the situation; to verify statistical data; to look for the humane side in him/her and in the society which stands in front of him/her, to disprove the myths that were routed within us regarding the necessity of the IDF's in the Palestinian Occupied Territories, and to stand up against every action which he finds irrational and illegal.

In a place were there are humans, there is someone to talk to. Therefore, we ask to create a dialogue that goes beyond the power struggle, the retaliation and one-sided attrition actions; to disprove the "No Partner" myth, which is leading to a lose-lose situation of an ongoing frustration, and to move to more humane methods.

We cannot hurt in the name of defense or imprison in the name of freedom; therefore we cannot be moral and serve the occupation.

Signed
Members of the Shministim Letter 2008

From Howard Zinn, writing on Sojourners.

I've been thinking a lot about courage. See that fresh-faced, bold young woman on the right? Her name is Raz Bar-David Varon. She's an 18-year-old Israeli who just graduated from 12th grade. And as I write this, she’s sitting in jail in Tel Aviv because she refuses to join the Israeli army.

In my day we called them the "refuseniks," and here in the U.S. they're "conscientious objectors." In Israel, they're still in high school and they are the Shministim. Get used to that word because I'm going to ask you to know it, to say it, to use it. You see, Raz Bar-David Varon and another dozen or so Shministim have asked us in the U.S. for our help, and this is one request we shouldn't refuse.

The Shministim — all about ages 17, 18, 19 and in the 12th grade — are taking a stand. They believe in a better, more peaceful future for themselves and for Israelis and Palestinians, and they are refusing to join the Israeli army. They're in jail, holding strong against immense pressure from family, friends, and the Israeli government. They need our support and they need it today.

They have asked people like us to let the Israeli government know we are watching and that we support their courage. They're hoping to receive hundreds of thousands of postcards to be delivered to the Israeli Ministry of Defense on December 18th, when they will hold a huge rally and press conference. They're hoping to stand strong on the steps of this majestic building — and on the steps of history — representing not only the thousands of refusers who came before them, not only the many young people to whom they are an example of a better world, but also to represent us. They have asked you, me, and every person who strives for peace to be on those steps with them, on that day. I will be there.

Will you join me? It's simple. Sign a letter now. And don't stop there — ask your loved ones to join you. During this season of giving, signing a letter is the least we can give to the courageous among us.

Raz is a Shministit. Raz is Courage. And with our support of her, you and I are Shministim too.

Now go sign that letter.

Please sign the letter, and circulate it. You can also the Facebook group to help spread the word.

redsock link grab-bag # 2

This may become a semi-regular feature. To quote an earlier redsock link grab-bag:

In an attempt to clear up a backlog of links hanging around my inbox, I forwarded the whole thing to Allan . . . who put together this grab-bag of links. Maybe you will find something useful or interesting among them. - L.

* * * *

Three Things To Remember When The US Government Says "Support The Troops".

1. In March 2008, the military changed its definition of combat-related disabilities - meaning that many injured veterans will not be eligible for benefits. Here are two examples of what the Pentagon says are non-combat-related injuries:

Marine Cpl. James Dixon was wounded twice in Iraq - by a roadside bomb and a land mine. He suffered a traumatic brain injury, a concussion, a dislocated hip and hearing loss. He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Army Sgt. Lori Meshell shattered a hip and crushed her back and knees while diving for cover during a mortar attack in Iraq. She has undergone a hip replacement and knee reconstruction and needs at least three more surgeries.

2. Chris Rodda, Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF):

[W]e get countless complaints about religiously based mental health and counseling programs, which, over the past few years, have been systematically replacing proven psychological and medical approaches to a multitude of issues faced by military personnel. I've seen so many truly insane, not to mention blatantly unconstitutional, ways that the military is playing with the mental well being of our troops since I began working for MRFF that I really didn't think it was possible for me to be surprised by anything anymore. Then I was sent a PowerPoint presentation by an airman at RAF Lakenheath, the largest U.S. Air Force base in England.

According to Rodda, this presentation "promot[es] creationism as a means of preventing suicide".

3. Joshua Eller, a former technician for KBR in Iraq, has filed a class-action lawsuit against the company (and its parent, Halliburton). Among his many claims is that KBR shipped ice in mortuary trucks that "still had traces of body fluids and putrefied remains in them when they were loaded with ice. This ice was served to U.S. forces."

Speaking of companies with unbreakable financial ties to the Pentagon, here is more information on

the corrupt relationship between Pentagon officials, defense contractors, cable networks, and retired generals. ... the gist of it was that the generals who you'd see on TV acting as nominally independent "analysts" were not, in fact, independent at all. They were getting their talking points straight from the Pentagon. And the coordination was motivated, in part, by the fact that they were also on the payrolls of various firms profiting from lucrative contracts with the Pentagon.

Bailout News:

The U.S. government is prepared to lend more than $7.4 trillion on behalf of American taxpayers, or half the value of everything produced in the nation last year, to rescue the financial system ... as regulators commit far more money while refusing to disclose loan recipients or reveal the collateral they are taking in return...

And as the clock ticks down on the Bush administration, it is trying to do as much damage to the country as possible.

Evidence suggests the CIA funded experiments on patients at Vermont's state hospital in Waterbury. [L note: a very disturbing article, and remind me to reference it the next time someone says, "But they wouldn't do that...".]

Because of our trip to Peru in 2006, we were fascinated by this story about a fortified citadel discovered deep in the Amazon rainforest that belonged to the Chachapoya, a white-skinned, blonde-haired civilization that was wiped out by disease and war in around 1475.

* * * *

Speaking of "wiped out by disease in 1475," I am trying to find an opportunity to blog about 1491. To be honest, I am trying to find opportunities to continue reading 1491. I'm finding it very difficult, both to carve out reading time, and, when I do, to concentrate. I love the book, though, so eventually I'll finish it and write about it.

Many thanks to Allan for putting this together, and to James for sending so many important links.

i hate christmas comes early this year

My Christmas filters are not functioning properly. I think the energy I usually expend keeping Christmas out of my life is being diverted by anxiety over the war resisters and the political situation. I feel like an old Star Trek episode: too much power is diverted, the shields won't hold.

I notice that last year, I didn't write "I hate Christmas" until December 20. (If you go back and read that old post, be sure to check out the comments. There are some great links.) This year, I have so much hate for Christmas, my rant starts three weeks early.

I hate the advertising.

I hate the constant exhortations to buy useless things.

I hate the music.

I hate the assumption that I celebrate this Christian holiday.

I hate the assumption, since I don't celebrate Christmas, that I must be celebrating Chanukah, as if Chanukah has fuck-all to do with Christmas.

I hate that this Christian holiday is plastered all over our supposedly secular world. Ramadan isn't pushed in our face this way, nor Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, nor Diwali, nor Yule, nor any important holiday of any other religion. Although I'm sure if any of those holidays somehow morphed into a compulsory spending spree, marketers and advertisers would find a way to exploit it.

I don't hate your Christmas. If Christmas is meaningful to you, I hope you fully enjoy it. But I don't expect other people to celebrate the days that are meaningful in my life, and I hate that people expect this of me.

I would no sooner celebrate the birth of Jesus than I would celebrate the birth of Zeus. (Although Allan and I might celebrate the birth of Dionysus.) But the modern-day version of the birth of Jesus means nothing to me because... I'm not Christian!

Spare me the rationalization about Christmas now being a secular holiday. That offends me even more. Your habits and customs are not the standard, applied to all. That's like assuming everyone is heterosexual, or speaks English - or is "American". Celebrating Christmas may be the norm where you live, and the practice may be overwhelmingly popular, but that doesn't make it secular.

Recently someone told me that if I had kids, I would celebrate Christmas. Wrong! If I had kids, that wouldn't turn me into a Christian, and I wouldn't raise my kids with somebody else's traditions. My kids wouldn't be "deprived" of Christmas. That's like saying lesbians are deprived of having sex with men. Do Canadians feel deprived because they don't celebrate the Fourth of July?

Last year, I wrote, "Despite these feelings, I do participate in some ways," referring to holiday cards (some years), a few obligatory presents, and some end-of-year appreciation tips. I wrote, "I do use this time of year as a time for those kinds of acknowledgements. It's easier than being truly eccentric and doing that in, say, February." This still works for me, more out of convenience than anything else. If there was a more convenient way to do this, at another time of year, I would do it. But year's end, vaguely between Christmas and New Year's, works for me. Naturally we would never buy or make a card with any suggestion of Christmas, and of course no religiosity.

This year I hate Christmas so much, we're not even discussing cards. Also, money is tight, and card-sending really adds up. But it's not just our budget. It's my irritated brain.

december 6: day of remembrance and action on violence against women

In Canada, December 6 is a National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence against Women.

On this day in 1989, 14 women were murdered at l'École Polytechnique de Montréal. They were killed because they were women.

On December 10, 2007, Aqsa Parvez was murdered. Aqsa was a teenager who lived in Mississauga, where I live. At the age of 16, she was strangled to death by her father. Because Aqsa's parents were originally from Pakistan, and because her father's justification for killing her may have involved her choice not to wear a hijab, many Canadians used the incident as an excuse to rail against multiculturalism and immigration.

They missed the point. Aqsa Parvez was a victim of femicide. Her ethnic background and her parents' status as immigrants are irrelevant. Femicide happens in families of every background and description. It cuts across all lines of race, class, education and ethnicity. Here are some thoughts on Aqsa Parvez, and how we think about what happened to her, from Rabble.

The memory of Aqsa Parvez and the future of feminism

by Sarah Ghabrial

On December 10 of last year, a young Toronto woman was murdered in her home by her father.

The force of this tragedy was deepened by details of the violence of her early death and by the dozens of photos that flooded print media, television, blogs and facebook groups of her beaming adolescent face. It soon emerged that the murder victim, Aqsa Parvez, born in Canada of Pakistani parents, had suffered abuse by her father for years, and that when he realized his inability to control her movement and choices, he decided instead to end her life.

It is for reasons just like these that over 200 Canadian women lose their lives every year to domestic violence (and this figure pertains only to solved cases of spousal homicide). Aqsa's story is a profoundly Canadian one, disturbingly ordinary. One might expect that, like countless similar cases, Aqsa's murder would be casually buried beneath other stories deemed more 'news-worthy.' Instead, her case crowned headlines for weeks, and fed an endless loop of debate and controversy over the state of 'multiculturalism' in Canada.

Genuine compassion or inquisitiveness regarding Aqsa's story dissipated all too quickly in the ensuing frenzy over the Canadian 'minority question.' The day after Aqsa's story broke, CityNews brandished a headline describing the "tradition and terror" behind the tragedy. A National Post columnist seeking to explain "the meaning of Aqsa Parvez" was quick to describe her death as an "honour killing" and elaborated on the "loathsome and barbaric" nature of the culture from which, according to this versions of the narrative, she was desperate to escape.

There is no doubt that Aqsa was desperate to escape - from her abusive home and tyrannical father. But as a young woman of colour, living at dangerous intersections of race and gender, belonging and exclusion, her options for escape were sadly limited. Women like Aqsa matter little in the grand scheme of things - until their deaths provide convenient grounds on which to mount xenophobic vitriol against Canada's dark Others.

Helen Yohannes, an esteemed Eritrean spoken word artist and Coordinator for the Respect in Action Youth Program at METRAC, described her concern over this widespread backlash, and the failure to instead step back and examine "domestic and gender-based violence, and the responsibility of schools, governments and communities to combat violence against young women of colour." Such questions, she remarks, were never even raised.

Gender-based violence, says Yohannes, "is the outcome of patriarchy, racism, sexism, Islamophobia, poverty and homophobia. Unless all of these issues are properly acknowledged, the cycle of violence against women and children will continue."

This week marks December 6, the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. The issue became highlighted nearly 20 years ago, when a deranged anti-feminist walked into the École Polytechnique in Montreal and selected and then shot down 14 young women. In memory of these young women, December 6 and the days preceding it remain a time to reflect on gender-based violence in Canada and to consider ways to prevent it.

Violence against women is a problem so immense that it is almost lost (and too often forgotten) for its pervasiveness. No wonder, since solutions are still so narrowly devised. In the wake of the Montreal Massacre, any progress made in confronting gender-based violence is still blunted by failures to recognize the different kinds of systemic oppression, especially racism and poverty, that force and keep women in situations of increased exposure to violence.

In Canada, there exists a strange paradox: a tendency to view women of colour and 'immigrant' women - especially Muslim women - as particularly weak and vulnerable, due to the supposedly more intrinsic patriarchy of 'their' cultures; and a concurrent, stubborn unwillingness in our legal, emergency response and, most importantly, education systems to put forward solutions that reach out to women in these positions, rather than further marginalize them. [Read more here.]

Here's something I wrote last summer, after I was accused of "demonizing men" by writing about violence against women.

In Canada:

In 88% of all violent incidents, males are identified as the suspects; half of all incidents involve a male perpetrator and a female victim.

Women are almost 8 times more likely to be victimized by a spouse than are men.

30% of women currently or previously married have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence at the hands of a marital partner.

21% of women abused by a marital partner were assaulted during pregnancy; 40% of these women stated that the abuse began during their pregnancy.

In the US:

Estimates range from 960,000 incidents of violence against a current or former spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend per year to three million women who are physically abused by their husband or boyfriend per year.

Nearly one-third of American women (31 percent) report being physically or sexually abused by a husband or boyfriend at some point in their lives, according to a 1998 Commonwealth Fund survey.

Nearly 25 percent of American women report being raped and/or physically assaulted by a current or former spouse, cohabiting partner, or date at some time in their lifetime, according to the National Violence Against Women Survey, conducted from November 1995 to May 1996.

Thirty percent of Americans say they know a woman who has been physically abused by her husband or boyfriend in the past year.

Intimate partner violence is primarily a crime against women. In 2001, women accounted for 85 percent of the victims of intimate partner violence (588,490 total) and men accounted for approximately 15 percent of the victims (103,220 total).

While women are less likely than men to be victims of violent crimes overall, women are five to eight times more likely than men to be victimized by an intimate partner.

As many as 324,000 women each year experience intimate partner violence during their pregnancy.

Male violence against women does much more damage than female violence against men; women are much more likely to be injured than men.

On average, more than three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends in this country every day. In 2000, 1,247 women were killed by an intimate partner. The same year, 440 men were killed by an intimate partner.

Women are much more likely than men to be killed by an intimate partner. In 2000, intimate partner homicides accounted for 33.5 percent of the murders of women and less than four percent of the murders of men.

Pregnant and recently pregnant women are more likely to be victims of homicide than to die of any other cause, and evidence exists that a significant proportion of all female homicide victims are killed by their intimate partners.

Research suggests that injury related deaths, including homicide and suicide, account for approximately one-third of all maternal mortality cases, while medical reasons make up the rest. But, homicide is the leading cause of death overall for pregnant women, followed by cancer, acute and chronic respiratory conditions, motor vehicle collisions and drug overdose, peripartum and postpartum cardiomyopthy, and suicide.

Some thoughts.

Violence in relationships is always wrong. Relationship violence occurs in gay male relationships, lesbian relationships, and heterosexual relationships, with both men and women as perpetrator and victim. In every case, it is equally wrong. However, the most common power dynamic of relationship violence by far is the male perpetrator/female victim. That is by percentage, not raw numbers.

This is not because men are evil.

This is because the world we live in defines masculinity in myriad unhealthy and dangerous ways.

It's because we live in an extremely violent world, in which most people do not learn healthy methods, and are not given appropriate tools, to deal with frustration, anger, and hurt, and instead learn to cope with pain by lashing out violently.

It's because too many relationships are grossly unequal in power.

It's because women often feel powerless in relationships with men.

It's because too many boys see their fathers hit their mothers, and too many girls see their mothers get hit.

It's because so many people's feelings of self-worth are egg-shell thin, causing a need to dominate others, or causing them to accept violence as a part of life, or to believe they deserve it.

It's because girls and women learn to direct anger against themselves - leading to depression, low self-esteem, alcoholism, eating disorders, suicide - while boys and men learn to direct anger against others.

It's because most men are bigger and stronger than their female partners.

It's because of many things. It's not because men are evil.

Most rapists are men, but not all men are rapists. Every man is a potential rapist - and every man is a potential force against rape. Every human is a potential murderer - and each of us is a potential force for life and hope.

Through the women's movement - through feminism - we have come a long, long way from the days when violence at home was a shameful secret. After decades of activism and advocacy, we now see relationship and domestic violence acknowledged and faced openly. This alone is a sea change.

But how can women stop violence against women when they do not cause it? Men are an obvious, essential and necessary part of the solution.

Men are standing up against violence in their own lives. And men are reaching out to help others do the same.

Here, too, change has been enormous. When I was a child, this would have been impossible. Who could ever have imagined a famous person in a professional sport choosing domestic violence as his cause and foundation? Saying, openly, in public, I saw this in my own home, and I want to help stop it.

Men who think talking about domestic violence in real terms "demonizes" men are missing an opportunity to become part of the solution - to remake the world - to become more fully human.

But no matter. We will march on without you.

The Canadian Labour Congress has some ideas of what we can do to heal and to move forward, and how social policy can be part of the solution.

separatist vs. souverainiste: a linguistic analysis

Impudent Strumpet on potato chips vs. junk food.

I know several linguists read this blog, so please feel free to weigh in.

101

One hundred and one Canadians have now died in the pointless, futile war in Afghanistan.

Six years, 101 Canadian lives, and I don't know how many seriously wounded, both physically and in mind and spirit.

Enough.

Canada out now.

"and this coalition is led by a socialist into cycling!"

In case you haven't seen it yet, the old reliable "Untergang" video is back, Harper style. If Godwin's Law offends you, do us all a favour and don't click.

From Harper Dictatorship.

62% majority petition

If you haven't signed yet, please sign and circulate: Coalition for Change: 62% majority.

As bloggers and pundits declare the Liberal-NDP coalition dead, we must sidestep their cynicism. They are more concerned with making predictions than with making change. If we decide the idea is s dead and not worth fighting for, then dead it will be. The accord can only live if we are behind it.

Rally in Toronto and Montreal this weekend.

Sign the petition. This is a different petition from the one circulated by Canadians for A Progressive Coalition. Please sign both!

[And since I haven't mentioned it lately... why not vote for we move to canada for Best Progressive Blog in the 2008 Canadian Blog Awards? Vote here.]

ed broadbent: harper disuniting the nation "for the paltry purpose of saving himself from a confidence vote"

Ed Broadbent elaborates on his statements about Stephen Harper throwing Quebec under a bus to save his political career.

Fanning the fires of national disunity

By Ed Broadbent

Since first being elected to the House of Commons in 1968, at a time of great national unity, I have never witnessed a Canadian prime minister consciously decide to disunite the nation. Until now.

After failing to bring forth an essential stimulus package last week, Stephen Harper has betrayed the fundamental obligation of a prime minister: to build and strengthen national unity in possibly the world's most difficult federation to govern.

Beginning last week, Mr. Harper has sought to avoid a legitimate vote of confidence and its unpleasant consequences not by sober or even merely partisan constitutional arguments but, culminating in Wednesday's television address, by a barrage of deliberately gross distortions. He is turning a serious dispute over the need for immediate economic stimulus into an unrelated and dangerous matter of national unity.

In the 1980s, Pierre Trudeau made a mistake in key elements of the national energy program that negatively affected the attitude of many in Alberta and Saskatchewan not only toward him but to Central Canada in general. Although his policy had that effect, no one, including myself, who was critical of parts of the program accused Mr. Trudeau of deliberately alienating Western Canada.

Now, for the first time in our history, we have a prime minister prepared to set a fire that we may not be able to put out, for the paltry purpose of saving himself from a confidence vote on Monday. In almost every sentence, paragraph and page coming from Mr. Harper, his ministers and Conservative MPs, we're getting distortions intended to delegitimize a democratically formed coalition, proposed in accordance with normal parliamentary practices, between the Liberals and the NDP.

The Conservatives have tried to link the coalition with a demonized Bloc Québécois and Quebec. Mr. Harper wants to buy time in order to stir up support from a majority in English Canada. He is turning a serious constitutional and legal issue, on which he knows he cannot win a confidence vote, into a political battle of national unity, calculating that the numbers are on his side.

Instead of focusing on accommodation, on the need for early action on the economy, Mr. Harper is launching hypocritical attacks that can lead to a national disaster, and, with the time prorogation has granted him, he will no doubt continue to promote disunity. Consider the following falsehoods that he, his ministers and their party are spreading:

1. The Bloc is part of the Liberal-NDP coalition. It's not. But it is providing needed stability by signing an agreement not to bring down the coalition during its first 18 months. Mr. Harper has relied on the Bloc 14 times in votes, and twice on budget ones.

2. The Bloc was promised six Senate seats. The Bloc, of course, is opposed to the Senate. No such offer exists.

3. According to Mr. Harper, the Canadian flag did not appear behind Stéphane Dion, Jack Layton and Gilles Duceppe during their press conference. This is false. The flag was visibly there.

4. The Bloc would have a veto on all the actions of the coalition government. False. The Bloc did not ask for, and was not given, such a veto. In fact, its agreement not to bring down the coalition means the opposite is true.

5. Mr. Harper and his supporters are calling all "sovereigntists" in Quebec "separatists." Although a great number of Quebeckers would call themselves "sovereigntists," a large majority of them are certainly not separatists.

Mr. Harper has failed to provide the stimulus that Canada needs as pensioners suffer and jobs bleed. The coalition would provide the stimulus, part of it immediately, if given the chance. Virtually all elements of the Liberal-NDP stimulus package were designed to appeal to all of Canada (including EI, bankruptcy, housing and infrastructure, child care, reforms to protect workers and pensioners). A few had a regional focus (the Wheat Board, forestry and the concerns of senior workers). None were designed to give Quebec preferential treatment. The central objective was to quickly follow the lead of the 19 other G20 countries and stimulate the economy to protect Canadians and promote early economic growth.

Instead of following constitutional precedent and allowing a democratic confidence vote to take place when it should, we have a power-hungry man who will be recorded as the first prime minister in Canada's history to deliberately create a political crisis and set the fire of national disunity.

Ed Broadbent is founding president of Rights and Democracy and a former leader of the federal New Democratic Party.

"i'm still tortured by what i saw in iraq"

From "An Interrogator Speaks: 'I'm Still Tortured By What I Saw In Iraq":

I learned in Iraq that the No. 1 reason foreign fighters flocked there to fight were the abuses carried out at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Our policy of torture was directly and swiftly recruiting fighters for al-Qaeda in Iraq. The large majority of suicide bombings in Iraq are still carried out by these foreigners. They are also involved in most of the attacks on U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq. It's no exaggeration to say that at least half of our losses and casualties in that country have come at the hands of foreigners who joined the fray because of our program of detainee abuse. The number of U.S. soldiers who have died because of our torture policy will never be definitively known, but it is fair to say that it is close to the number of lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001. How anyone can say that torture keeps Americans safe is beyond me -- unless you don't count American soldiers as Americans.

After my return from Iraq, I began to write about my experiences because I felt obliged, as a military officer, not only to point out the broken wheel but to try to fix it. When I submitted the manuscript of my book about my Iraq experiences to the Defense Department for a standard review to ensure that it did not contain classified information, I got a nasty shock. Pentagon officials delayed the review past the first printing date and then redacted an extraordinary amount of unclassified material -- including passages copied verbatim from the Army's unclassified Field Manual on interrogations and material vibrantly displayed on the Army's own Web site. I sued, first to get the review completed and later to appeal the redactions. Apparently, some members of the military command are not only unconvinced by the arguments against torture; they don't even want the public to hear them.

My experiences have landed me in the middle of another war -- one even more important than the Iraq conflict. The war after the war is a fight about who we are as Americans. Murderers like Zarqawi can kill us, but they can't force us to change who we are. We can only do that to ourselves. One day, when my grandkids sit on my knee and ask me about the war, I'll say to them, "Which one?"

Americans, including officers like myself, must fight to protect our values not only from al-Qaeda but also from those within our own country who would erode them. Other interrogators are also speaking out, including some former members of the military, the FBI and the CIA who met last summer to condemn torture and have spoken before Congress -- at considerable personal risk.

Read this excellent story here.

prorogue hangover (updated with links)

"When a government starts trying to cancel dissent or avoid dissent is when it's rapidly losing its moral authority to govern."

- Stephen Harper, April 18, 2005

"The Prime Minister has the moral responsibility to respect the rule of the House."

- Stephen Harper, April 13, 2005

* * * *

This morning the full force of yesterday's event hit me. I looked at my calendar for next week. Monday says: "Confidence Vote!!!!"

I thought the resisters were safe. I was sure after the coalition formed a government, the deportations and threats of deportations would stop. And now... what?

Believe me, I know the shut-down of Parliament has very serious consequences for thousands of Canadians. People will lose their homes, their jobs, their savings. But the thought that a family with a six-year-old boy with epilepsy - whose only "crime" is a father who was sickened by war and lies and said, "No more!" - could be expelled from this country, and the father put in prison... my heart breaks at the thought.

We can't let that happen. We won't let that happen. But we were so close.

I'd better go read yesterday's post to cheer up!

finding light on a dark day

Naturally I'm upset.

I'm upset that the Governor General allowed her office to be used for political chicanery and self-interest. And my disgust for Stephen Harper can scarcely be put into words.

But we are where we are, and we have to work with that. And we have a lot going for us.

We have a Liberal-NDP coalition in place, with real potential to defeat the Conservatives in an election. Only weeks ago, a centre-left coalition was a dream. Now we have it.

We have the Liberal leadership contest sorted out through next May.

We have six weeks for the public to get used to the idea of a coalition, and decide whether they prefer a centre-left coalition to the Harper Government.

We no longer have the excuse that there will be a change of government without an election. The confidence motion that Harper took such unprecedented steps to avoid was democratic and constitutionally legitimate, but many people didn't understand that. Now that fear has been removed from the table.

Stephen Harper has further exposed his true nature. This can only help our cause.

There are many negatives, of course. I'm not going to list all the things that could go wrong between now and a no-confidence motion in late January. You can turn on your TV or radio and hear them being listed almost any time of day, and there are plenty of bloggers for whom negativity is stock-in-trade.

Losing hope will get us nowhere. When we lose hope, we lose the incentive to work for change. And if we don't work for change, we won't get it. For me, hope is a necessary condition of making change.

Often when I blog about the resisters, people say, "But what good will it do? No one is listening." I know one thing. Doing nothing will get us nowhere. There are hundreds of inspirational quotes that are very meaningful to me, but there's a reason that only two win pride of place on wmtc.

You may never know what results come of your action, but if you do nothing, there will be no result.
- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
- Margaret Mead

Let's acknowledge the pitfalls, but only briefly, and keep working for what we want.

Here, I posted the latest email from Canadians for a Progressive Coalition. Also see Make Parliament Work.

And please, if you haven't already, take a moment to support US war resisters in Canada. They need you.

this is a dark day for canada

It is unsurprising that Stephen Harper would rather pull the plug on the House of Commons than face a no-confidence vote. It is deeply disappointing that Her Excellency the Governor General assented to his plans.

Harper has lost the confidence of the House of Commons, and parliamentary democracy demands he lose the privilege of governing. Instead, he demonizes one party, questions the patriotism of all the opposition parties, and hides behind a parliamentary sleight of hand.

Today Harper had the hypocritical gall to talk about working together, when he does nothing but divide and play politics. Now he plays the ultimate political game, as he takes his marbles and stomps off.

He is a liar, a hypocrite, an embarrassment to Canada and an enemy of democracy. The sooner we are rid of his Government the better. Canadians who are so afraid of the word "coalition" that they prefer a dictatorship need to wake up and educate themselves.

He won't be rid of this Government on December 8, but it surely will fall at the end of January.

Of course I am worried about keeping all the war resisters safe in Canada until then.

Harper kept repeating that this week "the people spoke", presumably referring to partisan emails from the Conservative supporters. Now the people must speak, constantly, and loudly. We must express our outrage in the Conservatives and our support for the coalition government.

actions to support democracy

From Canadians for a Progressive Coalition.

+ + + +

Hello - Bonjour,

Never before has a Prime Minster sought to prorogue parliament in order to avoid anon-confidence vote. Never before has a Prime Minister acted so cowardly in a time of crisis.

It is time for us to stand united, and to show our support for a government thatreflects that values of the majority of Canadians.

Spread the Word. Come to the Events. Sign the Petition. Talk to your Friends.

Un Premier Ministre n'a jamais tenté de proroguer le Parlement dans le but d'éviter un vode de non-confiance. Jamais, un Premier Ministre a agit d'une façon si bette dans un temps de crise.

Il est temps pour que nous agissions dans l'unité, et et que nous démontrions notre support pour une gouvernement qui relève des valeurs de la majorité canadienne.

Passez le message. Venez aux événements. Signez la pétition. Parlez-en à vos amis.

Candles for a Coalition - Bougies pour la Coalition:

VICTORIA Candles for a Coalition – Thursday Dec 4
5:00 PM, Location: Hillside and Douglas Street

VANCOUVER Candles for a Coalition - Thursday Dec 4
5:15, in Front of the Trades and Convention Centre
Will join the Make Parliment Work Rally afterwards

GUELPH Candles for a Coalition – Thursday Dec 4
7:00pm, St. George's Square

GUELPH RALLY - Saturday, December 6th
12:00pm St. George's Square

Stratford, Ontario Candles for Canada - Thur Dec 4
5-7pm March to City Hall
Meet Ontario St between Downie and Waterloo Streets
Walk to city hall at 7pm

GREAT VILLAGE, Nova Scotia
Candles for Coalition in the Village!
When: 6 pm, Thursday, December 4th
Where: 33 Lornevale Road

Calgary Rally
5:30-6:30 pm (gathering starts at 5:00 pm)
Outside the Harry Hays Federal Building (220 - 4 Avenue SE)
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=59913932576

NELSON: Best Western Inn (On Baker), Kestrel Rm
TRAIL: Local USWA 480 Hall, 910 Portland
That's 7pm to 9 pm THIS THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4!

Événements:

VICTORIA Bougies pour la Coalition – Jeudi, le 4 décembre
17:00, Rue Hillside à Rue Douglas

VANCOUVER Bougies pour la coalition - Jeudi, le 4 décembre
17:15, en avant du Centre de "Trades and Convention"

GUELPH Bougies pour la coalition – Jeudi, le 4 décembre
19:00, St. George's Square

GUELPH RALLY - Samedi, le 6 décembre
12:00 St. George's Square

Stratford, Bougies pour la coalition - Jeudi, le 4 décembre
17:00-19:00 Marche à l'hôtel de Ville à 19:00
Rue Ontario entre Rue Downie et Rue Waterloo

GREAT VILLAGE, Nova Scotia - Jeudi, le 4 décembre
Bougies pour la coalition au Village!
18:00, 33 Rue Lornevale

Autre Evenements–

Montreal Rally
Date: Samedi 6 décembre 2008
Heure:13 heures
Endroit: En face du Complexe Guy-Favreau
200, boulevard René-Lévesque Ouest Montréal

Make Parliament Work

Rallies for a coalition government - Manifestations pour un gouvernement de coalition

St. John's, NL
# Thursday, December 4th 7 p.m. St. Theresa's Hall
# Mundy Pond Road

Halifax, NS
# Thursday, December 4th 5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
# Maritime Hall – Halifax Forum
# Windsor & Almon Street
# (enter off Almon Street)

Charlottetown, PE
# Thursday, December 4th 7 p.m.
# Murphy's Community Centre
# Richmond Street

Moncton, NB
# Thursday, December 4th 7 p.m.
# Moncton City Hall Front Lawn
# Main Street

Regina, SK
# Thursday, December 4th 7 p.m.
# Speakers @ 7:30 p.m.
# Education Auditorium
# University of Regina

Edmonton, AB
# Thursday, December 4th 6 p.m.
# Winston Churchill Square
# Downtown Edmonton central

Winnipeg, MB
# Thursday, December 4th
# 7 p.m. Marlborough Hotel
# 331 Smith Street
# Ballroom (Room for 600)

Vancouver, BC
# Thursday, December 4th Doors open @ 5 p.m.
# Speakers @ 6 p.m.
# Vancouver Trade & Convention Centre
# Ballroom "A"

Montréal
# Saturday, Dec. 6, 1pm
# Complexe Guy-Favreau
# 200, boulevard René-Lévesque Ouest (between Jeanne-Mance and Saint-Urbain
# (Metro : Place-des-Arts or Place d'Armes)

Toronto, ON
# Saturday, December 6th 12 p.m. - 1 p.m. City Hall
# Nathan Phillips Square
# Ottawa, ON
# Thursday, December 4th Noon
# Parliament Hill

More info: 613.560.5457

St. John's, TN
# jeudi, 4 déc 19h. St. Theresa's Hall
# Mundy Pond Road

Halifax, NE
# jeudi, 4 déc 17h30 18h30
# Maritime Hall – Halifax Forum
# Windsor & Almon Street

Charlottetown, IPE
# jeudi, 4 déc 19h
# Murphy's Community Centre
# Richmond Street

Moncton, NB
# jeudi, 4 déc, 19h
# Moncton City Hall Front Lawn
# Main Street

Regina, SK
# jeudi, 4 déc, 19h
# Education Auditorium
# University of Regina

Edmonton, AB
# jeudi, 4 déc, 18h
# Winston Churchill Square
# Downtown Edmonton central

Winnipeg, MB
# jeudi, 4 déc, 19h
# Marlborough Hotel
# 331 Smith Street
# Ballroom

Vancouver, C-B
# jeudi, 4 déc., 18h
# Vancouver Trade & Convention Centre
# Ballroom "A"

Montréal
# Samedi, 6 décembre, 13h
# Complexe Guy-Favreau
# 200, boulevard René-Lévesque Ouest
# (Entre les rues Jeanne-Mance et Saint-Urbain)
# (Métro: Place-des-Arts ou Place d'Armes)

Toronto, ON
# samedi 6 déc. 12h à 13h City Hall
# Nathan Phillips Square

Ottawa, ON
# jeudi, 4 déc. 12h
# Colline de parlement

Plus amples renseignements: 613.560.5457

ms. jean, we implore you to stand up for democracy

We listened to Harper's speech at last night's meeting, that lying hypocrite using his sweater voice as he bashed Canadians from Quebec, then not even having the guts to use the same language in French.

Later, at home, we were thrilled to hear Peter Mansbridge introduce The National by saying, truthfully, that Harper "made false claims" about the coalition and the accord.

I am hoping, as we all are, that Her Excellency Michaëlle Jean will not allow her august office to be used for political purposes, and to avoid democracy. A minority government that has lost the confidence of the House of Commons must face a confidence vote. And that is all.

As it appears that many Canadians do not understand that this is a legitimate part of the Parliamentary process, her office can help educate them. She must not cater to their ignorance. And she certainly must not be used to help one man from Alberta prop up the shreds of his political career.

The Governor General is a brilliant woman who deeply values and respects democracy. I am counting on her to do the right thing.

please do one thing for the war resisters today

If the Liberal-NDP coalition forms the next Government, our fight to keep war resisters safe in Canada will have taken a huge leap forward.

The motion that passed in June 2008 - calling for an immediate end to deportation proceedings and a provision to allow war resisters to live legally in Canada - was passed by all three opposition parties. If two of those parties form the Government and the third props them up, our fortunes will have changed dramatically.

But we can't expect the Government to do the right thing: we must demand they do.

We can't assume our representatives in Parliament will have our interests in mind: we must make sure they do.

Deportation orders loom. Most critically, Patrick and Jill Hart and their six-year-old son Rian have a January 15 deadline hanging over their heads. Dean Walcott was given a January 6 deportation date - the timelines keep shrinking! - but he can appeal. The Harts may be out of appeals.

After that, our calendar reads like a roll call. Court dates and pending deportation dates are coming almost weekly.

If the Harper Government falls on Monday (please please please...), it will still take time to allow war resisters to apply for Permanent Residence status. But at least the deportations can stop. That can happen immediately.

But no matter what happens over the next few days, these deportations must stop now.

Today we are asking supporters of the war resisters to let Jason Kenney, the new Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, know that we haven't gone away - and to remind the immigration critics from all three opposition parties that we are still here.

I know we're all glued to our TVs and computers today. Please, take a few minutes to send an email.

Here's a sample.

TO: Jason Kenney: minister@cic.gc.ca or kenney.j@parl.gc.ca

CC: Borys Wrzesnewskyj: wrzesnewskyj.b@parl.bc.ca
CC: Olivia Chow: chow.o@parl.gc.ca
CC: Thierry St-Cyr: st-cyr.t@parl.gc.ca
CC: War Resisters Support Campaign: resisters@sympatico.ca

I am writing to urge you to STOP deportation proceedings against U.S. Iraq War resisters, including Dean Walcott and Patrick Hart and his family, and to IMPLEMENT the motion adopted by Canada's Parliament on June 3, 2008 to allow war resisters to apply for permanent resident status.

Respect the will of the Canadian people and the will of Parliament. Let them stay!

You can write more if you want, of course, but that's really all we need.

Please do this today. Your support is greatly needed, and deeply appreciated.

ed broadbent: harper lying to save his own skin

Yeah, Ed!

To save his own government, Stephen Harper is deliberately trying to deceive Canadians about the facts surrounding a proposed Liberal-NDP coalition, former NDP leader Ed Broadbent said Wednesday.

In an interview with CBC News in Toronto, a furious Broadbent had harsh words for the prime minister, saying Harper was also trying to pit English Canada against Quebecers in his attempt to discredit the proposed coalition to replace him if the Conservative minority government falls.

"I've never seen the leader of a Conservative party, certainly not Bob Stanfield, certainly not Joe Clark, lie — I choose the word deliberately — the way Mr. Harper has," Broadbent said.

The former NDP leader, who helped negotiate Monday's deal between the New Democrats and the Liberals with the support of the Bloc Québécois, said Harper also lied when he said the three opposition leaders refused to sign their agreement in front of a Canadian flag because Gilles Duceppe, a Quebec sovereigntist, objected.

In fact, there were at least two flags present at Monday's signing ceremony, as well as a painting of the Fathers of Confederation.

Broadbent said Harper is conducting a "shameful operation" by trying to turn certain defeat in the House of Commons into a national unity crisis.

"I'm concerned I have a prime minister who lies to the people of Canada and knows it," Broadbent said. "It's one thing to exaggerate. It's another to deliberately tell falsehoods."

The former NDP leader also accused Harper of lying about the details of the proposed coalition, including his charge that the Bloc Québécois is a formal partner and that six Bloc MPs would be offered Senate positions under the coalition government.

demonizing the bloc quebecois

Letters in today's Globe and Mail are interesting in more ways than one.

The pro-Conservative, anti-Coalition letters sound exactly like what we've been hearing from Tories in the House of Commons, and what's on their website. The Conservative faithful have downloaded their marching orders and are dutifully regurgitating the party line. The pro-Coalition letters, on the other hand, are diverse and thoughtful.

The G&M is doing what the G&M does. In ordinary times, they are tough on Harper and the Conservatives - moderate, to be sure, but tough. Until the election is called, at which time they fall into line and salute. In news stories, they're now describing the Bloc Québécois as "separatist Bloc Québécois".

Today they ran three letters about the Bloc Québécois. The first letter writer expresses "horror" at a coalition government that includes a party whose "sole agenda is to break up the country".

I have watched Gilles Duceppe with great interest during eleciton debates, and I see how the party votes. I find Duceppe very intelligent and credible, and the party reasonably progressive. Here is an English translation of the Bloc's platform. Their "sole agenda" is not to break up the country.

Here are two more letters on the same subject.

Concerns have been expressed about the participation of "a separatist party with the singular goal of advancing the interests of Quebec, and not of Canada" in the newly formed coalition (Harper, Dion Put Politics Before National Interest - editorial, Dec. 2). I find this unease both interesting and misplaced. I wonder what gave root to the Alliance Party and the Reform Party if it was not for the purpose of advancing the interests of Alberta.

Moreover, a fair number, if not all, of the policies of Stephen Harper have been crafted to meet the interests of his Alberta constituents.

Long before the Bloc, Alberta was on the road to the exclusive promotion of its interests. It has yet to be overt about its separatist inclinations, but its actions have the singular goal of advancing the interests of Alberta, and not of Canada.

Nicole Ferguson, Dartmouth, NS

*

During the past few days, Canadians have been warned about the dangers of "collaborating" with the Bloc Québécois, as though it were akin to treason. But the true antidote to separatism has always been to provide Quebeckers with a real voice in Ottawa.

Don Pyper, Toronto

there is still life outside of politics

I have to take a break from the political-which-is-also-personal to blog about the personal-which-is-only-personal.

I want to write about some highlights from our recent trip before they are completely buried in the political crush. This blog also functions as a personal journal, so if this bores you, skip this post. But for those of you who enjoy the personal side of this blog - and there are always more of you than I think - I'd like to share a little of our recent Thanksgiving joy.

We had a great trip, as always. Our US Thanksgiving trips are always the same, but they're always great. We arrive Monday night, and my mother has a late dinner waiting. We hang out with her until none of us can stay awake. Right after Thanksgiving weekend, she leaves for Florida, and I next see her in April. So this trip is important in that respect, too.

Tuesday we visit more with my mother and sometimes some other family, depending on who's available.

Wednesday we go into the city - The City - and usually have breakfast with one of my oldest and dearest friends, NN. At some point Allan takes off on his own and NN and I spend as much time together as her schedule permits.

She and I often talk about taking in some museum or other cultural attraction, but rarely do. But this time we visited the new Museum of Art & Design, in the redesigned 2 Columbus Circle. Formerly my pick for ugliest building in New York City, "the Lollipop Building" has been home to several ventures that never took off. The redesign is excellent, and it now houses a lovely small museum.

NN and I focused on an exhibit called "Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary", which was great fun, and occasionally moving and revelatory.

The work that moved us most was a representation of a woman working at a factory sewing machine. Imagine her looking down at her work, moving the fabric through the machine. She may be Thai, or Filipina. Imagine an enlarged black-and-white photograph of this woman. From the edges of the photo, you can see she works in a room with row upon row of women like her.

An artist - whose name, unfortunately, I don't know - recreated the photo using designer labels from clothing. Thousands of labels, sewn together to create a pointillism effect. Up close, you see the labels. Only from a distance, do you see the woman behind those labels. It was brilliant and powerful.

I can't seem to find an image or description of it, but if you look at this home page, the image on the far right is a detail from this work.

More about the show.

Highlights from the show include American artist Tara Donovan's Bluffs, a group stalagmite shaped structures made of clear plastic buttons delicately placed one on top of the other. Do Ho Suh, a Korean artist creates a jacket made of military dog tags, portraying the way a solider is part of a larger troop.

Paul Villinski, an American, creates beautiful butterflies out of his old record collection, producing a "soundtrack" of his life. English artist Susie MacMurray used yellow rubber washing gloves, turned them inside out and stitched onto a calico form to create an imposing out-sized dress.

Other featured works are made from buttons, spools of thread, artificial hair, used high-heeled shoes, plastic spoons and forks, shopping bags, and 25-cent coins to mention only a few.

The exhibition surveys the rich artistic landscape of much contemporary art, in which hierarchies among art, craft, and design are disregarded. In addition, the exhibition examines the ways in which artists transform our world, respond to contemporary cultural paradigms, and comment on global consumerism.

If you are interested in design and applied arts, the Museum of Art and Design is lovely, and the perfect size. You can take in the whole museum in one visit.

After more coffee and gabbing with NN, I met Allan in a bookstore to rest a bit and buy some less expensive books.

Wednesday night, we always have dinner with friends in the city. This time we met some old-new friends. In another lifetime, I was a nanny for a boy named Matt, a second mom to him for 5.5 years. Matt is now 28 years old (!), and we have always stayed in touch. Allan and I attended his wedding over the summer (which I didn't blog about because of work concerns), and this was the first time we've hung out with him and his wife.

We had a great time, but what I really want to tell you about is the restaurant we chose.

The Spain is an old, old New York gem, little known, but beloved by those who know it. I used to go there with my family when I was a little girl, then re-discovered it with Allan in the late 1980's.

I don't think they've changed a single thing since it opened, and the prices are as outdated as the decor. There's a bar area in the front, always crowded and lively, then a cramped, narrow hallway opens up into a large dining room. It's shabby and funky, but in a good way. Outside, there's a review from 1969.

The moment you sit down, food appears on your table. As you pick at the free tapas, more appears. You can't stop it. Waiters just keep bringing you free food. By the time we ordered, our table was full of: lamb ribs, cold mussels with diced onions, sizzling hot shrimp in garlic and oil, and delicious chorizo - all brought to us without ordering, at no charge. There is also the ubiquitous strange little salad, a bowl of wilted iceberg lettuce with some kind of brown dressing. Don't let it put you off.

The yummy tapas and a few pitchers of their homemade sangria would be a dinner in itself, but I dream of The Spain's green sauce. You can order shrimp or clams or marisacada (mixed seafood) with this green sauce, and spoon it over their saffron rice (more orange than yellow), and be very close to heaven.

We also ordered a paella, full of clams, mussels, shrimp, lobster, chorizo and chicken. Each dish is served in a large pot. For four people, you can order two dishes and take half home.

When your bill comes, you will think there's been some mistake. There is no way you could eat that much delicious food in New York City at that price. Honestly, I would have paid that bill for two, and thought it a bargain, but we were a table of four.

No one can understand how this place is still in business, and why more people don't know about it. If you like authentic Spanish food and you want an authentic New York experience, put Spain on your list.

After we left, Allan and I were in no rush to get back to my mother's, so we wandered around, found a quiet lounge and had a few martinis. Funny, we never do this in Toronto, but we almost always do in New York!

Thursday, which is Thanksgiving, we spend more time with my mother, then we all go to a gathering hosted by my sister and her husband, mostly my brother-in-law's extended family. This is a large, boisterous gathering at a restaurant, with a lot of food and wine, children of many ages, and many people we enjoy strictly in this type of setting. It's loud and fun and decidedly non-serious.

On Friday, we pack up everything at my mom's and head down to my brother and sister-in-law's. They host Thanksgiving (Thursday) for a different group, mostly my sister-in-law's extended family. Then on Friday they have a day-after-Thanksgiving brunch. We spend the whole day there, especially to see all our nieces and nephews (although my sister's "kids" were missing this year) and their partners. We have dinner from leftovers and stay up late into the night, drinking wine and talking.

We always look forward to this gathering, but this year was extra special, as one of our nephews and his partner announced their engagement. We love them both a lot, so this was truly excellent news. Next September, we're all going to Santa Fe for their wedding! Allan and I had been vaguely planning a trip to Santa Fe while E&D still live there, so now it's a done deal!

The final tradition is getting very little sleep on Friday night and waking up at dawn on Saturday to drive home. We were so tired, we had to switch drivers six or seven times just to stay focused.

Unfortunately, coming home was not quite traditional. Our house was in disarray, our dogs were stressed, and our dogwalker quit with no notice! Thankyousomuch. If you know anyone who wants a weekend dogwalking gig, we're in the market again. Don't worry, the dogwalker didn't quit because our dogs are difficult. It's actually an easy and good gig for someone who lives nearby, has a car, loves dogs and is available on weekends.

Last time a dogwalker disappeared, James and Lori saved our butts for a weekend, buying us time until we could find someone new. This time, M@ and S are doing the same. Thank goddess for friends.

war resister dean walcott ordered out of canada by january 6

War resister Dean Walcott received responses to both his Pre-Removal Risk Assessment and Humanitarian and Compassionate applications today. As expected, both were negative. Dean has been ordered to leave Canada by January 6.

Dean joined the United States Marine Corps in 2000, a few weeks shy of his 18th birthday, hoping to get a college education and some structure in his life. Dean knew if the U.S. went to war, he would be expected to fight, and he fully accepted that risk. In 2003, he was involved in the United States' invasion of Iraq, and was deployed to Iraq a second time in 2005.

Between those two deployments, Dean was stationed at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, a U.S. military hospital in Stuttgart, Germany. There, families of mortally wounded U.S. soldiers are flown in to see their loved one for the last time.

Alarmed by the high suicide rate among Landstuhl patients, military brass assigned soldiers to act as liaisons for both patients and visiting families. Dean, who had no training in either health care or counselling, was charged with that duty.
He was totally unprepared for what he saw – U.S. soldiers, as well as Iraqi civilians, blown to bits, but somehow still clinging to life, burn victims dying in unimaginable agony.

"That was the only time I ever saw Marines drop the tough-guy act," says Dean. "I would hold someone in my arms – a mother, father, son or daughter – who was losing a person they loved, and we would cry together."

Dean began having nightmares and became severely depressed. He eventually came to feel that "if people are going to suffer this much, there has to be a better reason than 'because the president said so'."

Back in the U.S., Dean found his disgust at the futility of the Iraq War didn't go away. The Marines obstructed his efforts to get help for his depression and post-traumatic stress symptoms, but there was no legal way for him to leave the military.

Frustrated, trapped and heartsick, in December 2006, he walked away from his base in North Carolina and boarded a Greyhound bus for Toronto.

Dean now trains high school students in computer repair, working for reBOOT Canada, a non-profit organisation that provides computers and technical support to charities and low-income Canadians. He still grapples with PTSD, but has built a quietly productive life in Toronto. He also does public speaking on behalf of war resisters - and on behalf of peace.

If Dean is handed over to the U.S. military, he will be court martialled, imprisoned, and likely given a dishonourable discharge – the equivalent of a felony offence and a permanent criminal record.

Join us tonight, December 3, to learn how you can help. 7:00, Steelworkers Hall, 25 Cecil Street, Toronto.

odetta, 1930 - 2008

The great musician and activist Odetta has died at the too-young age of 77.

I am very saddened at this loss, but so grateful for all she gave the world. I'm also personally grateful that I heard her sing several times, in the days when I attended folk festivals. Rosa Parks, who died only a few years ago, was once asked which freedom songs meant the most to her. Her reply: "All of the songs Odetta sings."

From the New York Times obit.

She found her own voice by listening to blues, jazz and folk music from the African-American and Anglo-American traditions. She earned a music degree from Los Angeles City College. Her training in classical music and musical theater was "a nice exercise, but it had nothing to do with my life," she said.

"The folk songs were — the anger," she emphasized.

In a 2005 National Public Radio interview, she said: "School taught me how to count and taught me how to put a sentence together. But as far as the human spirit goes, I learned through folk music."

In 1950, Odetta began singing professionally in a West Coast production of the musical "Finian's Rainbow," but she found a stronger calling in the bohemian coffeehouses of San Francisco. "We would finish our play, we'd go to the joint, and people would sit around playing guitars and singing songs and it felt like home," she said.

She began singing in nightclubs, cutting a striking figure with her guitar and her close-cropped hair.

Her voice plunged deep and soared high, and her songs blended the personal and the political, the theatrical and the spiritual. Her first solo album, "Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues," resonated with an audience hearing old songs made new.

Bob Dylan, referring to that recording, said in a 1978 interview, "The first thing that turned me on to folk singing was Odetta." He said he heard something "vital and personal," and added, "I learned all the songs on that record." It was her first, and the songs were "Mule Skinner," "Jack of Diamonds," "Water Boy,' "'Buked and Scorned."

Her blues and spirituals led directly to her work for the civil rights movement. They were two rivers running together, she said in her interview with The Times. The words and music captured "the fury and frustration that I had growing up."

advice, part 7: about changes to canadian immigration policy

This is an important update to my series of "advice" posts, linked on the sidebar.

The changes to Canadian immigration that I blogged about here finally have been clarified and gone into effect. However - and this is a big "but" - they may be temporary.

Applications to emigrate to Canada that were submitted after February 2008 have been on hold, and any applications not processed within a given calendar year are being turned back. After consulting with "business leaders" in every province - no word on who the business leaders were, when the meetings would be held, what would be discussed - the Conservatives were going to announce new immigration regulations - with no Parliamentary discussion, debate or consultation. They finally have.

So, right now, skilled worker applications are being accepted for people who meet the following criteria.

1. According to the Minister's instructions, your application is eligible for processing if:

* you have an offer of arranged employment, OR

* you are a foreign national who has been living legally in Canada for one year as a temporary foreign worker or an international student, OR

* you are a skilled worker who has at least one year of experience in one or more of the occupations listed here.

2. If your application is eligible for processing, you must also meet the following minimum requirements to qualify as a skilled worker:

* you have at least one year of continuous full-time paid work experience or the equivalent in part-time continuous employment, AND

* your work experience must be Skill Type 0 (managerial occupations) or Skill Level A (professional occupations) or B (technical occupations and skilled trades) on the Canadian National Occupational Classification list, AND

* you must have had this experience within the last 10 years.

Two things to note.

First, these changes are not nearly as onerous as people are saying. I have heard numerous claims that one now needs arranged employment to emigrate to Canada. As you can see, this is not true. You can still apply with a minimum of one-year experience, which is actually less than the work experience previously required. However, the professions and jobs that are eligible are more circumscribed.

All the people who applied for Permanent Residence in the past several years dealt with very similar rules. The biggest difference was, at that time, the job and profession list was more extensive.

I know these changes are bad news for anyone who does not meet the criteria. I also wonder if they would have met the earlier criteria. I've heard from a few people who were hoping to move to Canada because they couldn't find a job in the US. Unfortunately, without solid work experience, that wouldn't have been an option before these changes, either, at least not under the Skilled Worker class.

Second, and this is important, these rules may soon be moot. Canada is in the middle of a Parliamentary power struggle between the Conservatives - who dislike immigration and want to curtail it - and a centre-left coalition that would be more open to immigration. If the coalition succeeds - which is likely - the new Government may either restore the old immigration requirements or otherwise broaden the current ones.

In the earlier post, I wrote, "Of course, that doesn't mean the Liberals will make undoing this immigration 'reform' a priority. It could easily become the new normal." That's still a possibility, of course. But the influence of the NDP should move things in a pro-immigration direction. If Olivia Chow, now NDP Immigration Critic, becomes Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, we will see a lot more breathing room.

I'm not saying these changes will be an immediate priority, but I believe it will be an order of business before too long. If you are trying to immigrate to Canada and have been stymied by these new rules, I believe there is reason for cautious optimism.

tonight in toronto: public meeting of war resisters support campaign

When we planned this public meeting, no one could have predicted we'd be teetering on the brink of real political victory.

Still, our battle is not won. War resisters are still threatened with deportations. Dean Walcott gets his decision from the Immigration and Refugee Board today, and we expect it to be negative. (He'll appeal.) Patrick and Jill Hart's temporary reprieve from deportation ends on January 15. All the war resisters face similar deadlines.

If you're in the GTA tonight, come hear war resisters talk about their situations and campaigners explain possible future outcomes.

Speakers will include war resisters Robin Long (speaking from jail in the US), Jeremy Hinzman and Nga Nguyen, Patrick and Jill Hart, and Dean Walcott, plus a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War speaking from the US.

After the informational meeting, join us for beer and music at Grossman's.

When: Tonight, December 3, 7:00 p.m.

Where: United Steelworkers Hall, 25 Cecil St (south of College, east of Spadina), Toronto

To be followed by: A benefit concert featuring Chloe Watkinson and the Crossroads, Grossman's Tavern, 379 Spadina Ave, 9:00 p.m.

"people don't vote for coalition governments"

Our furnace was shut down because of carbon monoxide danger, our dogwalker quit with no notice, Allan is sick and I'm a bundle of fibromyalgia symptoms. But who cares? All we want to do is watch CPAC all day.

Did you watch Question Period today? "Separatist coalition... proud to be democratically elected... sponsorship scandal..." Yes, they're still bringing up the sponsorship scandal. What else ya got? "Separatist coalition" is hilarious. The way the Bloc is bad-mouthed drives me to their defence. My Canada includes Quebec, but it includes democracy and tolerance, too.

Many of the Liberals were excellent, especially John McKay (Scarborough-Guildwood). Several NDPers highlighted what Parliament would look like if we had proportional representation, which was great to hear. We hit the mute button for the stacks of emails Conservative MPs are receiving - but it does show us the value of sending them. Keep those calls and letters coming, folks.

I'm also glued to Idealistic Pragmatist. Look to her for your response to this Conservative Quip: "Zero: the percent of Canadians who voted for a Liberal-NDP-Bloc coalition." The correct answer is:

Nobody voted for this coalition government, because people don't vote for coalition governments. Nor do they vote for single-party governments. They vote for their MP, and that's all.

No, really. It's true. Look it up if you don't believe me.

Also, go to Make Parliament Work for info on pro-coalition rallies in your area. Signed on so far: St. John's, Halifax, Charlottetown, Moncton, Regina, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa.

latest from canadians for a progressive coalition

For those of you who aren't on the mailing list, here's the lastest from the folks at Canadians for a Progressive Coalition.

I don't necessarily agree that all of these actions are useful or significant, but if something strikes your fancy and moves you to action, that's always a good thing.

* * * *

We need to reach our friends, neighbours, and colleagues with a simple message over the coming days: we have confidence in a coalition, and 60% is a majority. The events of the last few days are cause for jubilation for Canadians who support a progressive coalition government. However, from our conversations with our fellow citizens we know that there is some confusion about the legitimacy of the coalition and concern about the stability of government. To be succesful, we must listen to those Canadians, speak to their confusion, and address their concern.

We must build and show our support respectfully. If we are boistrous and triumphalist we will turn off undecided Canadians. Accordingly, today we have two special actions:

1. Candles for a Coalition. On Tuesday and Wednesday night at 7PM, light a candle in front of a street-facing window and turn off the light in the room for 20 minutes. (Make sure to keep the candle away from anything combustible!) On Thursday, at 5PM we are organizing Candles for a Coalition events across the country. We are going to take pictures and show Canadians from coast to coast support a coalition.

Do you want to help organize one in your community? Email events@progressivecoalition.ca by 4PM PST today, December 2nd. There will be a list of events on the website by Wednesday morning.

There are also rallies being organized in major cities across the country on Thursday and Saturday - check out Make Parliament Work.

2. Call in to radio. A lot of undecided Canadians listen to radio. We need to call in to express our confidence in a coalition and that the 60% of Canadians voted for progressive parties. Use the Conservatives' website to find your best local option.

In addition, we need to keep spreading the word. Over the last 24 hours you've done incredible work for this cause. In one day you doubled the number of people that have taken the petition (now well past 10,000), doubled the number of people in the Facebook group (now well past 5,000), and doubled the number of people who have watched the Youtube video (over 8,000). In fact, because of your efforts can directly reach 4,000 Canadians through this listserv alone.

1. If you have not done so already, please sign the petition. We will submit the petition on Thursday or Friday of this week. We will submit the updated petition again on Monday December 8, the day of the confidence vote.

2. Forward this message to people who use email, and speak with people who don't. Speak with your friends and family and show them the YouTube video.

3. Also, check out the new "share" functions on the front page of the website under the video - the sites on that menu are a great way to reach people. You can also use this function to email the site to a friend.

4. Phone either your MP, or the President of the local Riding Association of the party you voted for, to tell them you support their party forming a coalition government. Encourage your Riding Association leadership to do joint media appearences in support of a coalition.

5. Write letters to the editor, call in to radio shows, and post comments on news stories and blogs. Remember: we have confidence in a coalition, and 60% is a majority.

6. Finally, go through the news sites and vote in their polls on the coalition. Check out the Globe and Mail poll in particular, it's about half-way down the front page on the right hand side.

Cheers,
Canadians for a Progressive Coalition

"the pr war" for a coalition government

So "it's a PR war now," is it?

What that really means is the Conservatives are stoking and exploiting voter ignorance.

Have you seen this yet? I'm sure it's old, but since I avoid wingnuttery, I saw it for the first time on The National last night.

It's a Conservative Party website feeding their people talking points and directing them to local talk-radio shows. In other words, "Don't know what's going on? Just recite these simple lines!"

Also on The National, ignorant people expressing dismay and wonder at "childishness," "power grabs," and "overturning an election". That's what prompts Idealistic Pragmatist to ask, "And you guys make fun of the U.S. education system?".

How can it be an overturned election if every Member of Parliament who was voted in is still there? And this notion of "stop behaving like children," is just beyond ridiculous. In fact, a coalition government, where parties put aside their differences to cooperate for the greater good, is a sign of political maturity.

It saddens and angers me that something as democratic and multi-partisan as a coalition government - something that so many of us have longed to see - is being smeared with lies. But if the PR game is on, we can't refuse to play.

I assume by now you've all signed the petition supporting the coalition government. And if you haven't already, tell the Liberals and the NDP, (and the Bloc, while you're at it) that you support their accord, and their plan to topple the Harper Government.

Write a letter to your local newspaper; send the Progressive Coalition video to anyone you know who needs to be educated. Speak to people with the facts. Each one, reach one. If you write a letter or blog, each one, reach many!

* * * *

In comments, friend-of-wmtc JakeNCC alerted us that the Tories are rallying their people to contact the Governor General. Is that "done" - can we lobby the GG? I know we can, technically, because the email address is there, but is this kosher?

Contact info is here. I suppose an "I support a coalition government" email couldn't hurt, but on the other hand, it doesn't seem right. She's not an elected official; she's not supposed to be part of this fray. Although of course, she is part of it because we need her consent for any of this to happen.

Your thoughts?

two quick thoughts on political punditry

1. People belittle serious political debate as "bickering" when they are on the losing end of the fight.

Ed Stelmach wants Ottawa to "stop the nonsense" and "put Canada first". Sit down, Ed. That's exactly what they're doing.

I'm only singling out Stelmach as an example. We hear this all the time. Republicans tell Democrats to stop bickering. Conservatives tell Liberals to stop bickering. This is not bickering. It's the democratic process.

2. Many people would appear smarter if they stopped making predictions.

"Harper will first be elected with a minority, then come back with a strong majority." "There will never be a coalition government in Canada." "Stephane Dion will never be Prime Minister." "Americans will never elect an African-American President."

I have been hearing all of these for years. My first few months in Canada, I heard about Stephen Harper's impending majority government on a daily basis. My skepticism was dismissed as ignorance. But the future is unknowable.

I wish more bloggers would stop imitating mainstream pundits, who earn their bread-and-butter by making predictions and are never held accountable.

a great day for canada

Like everyone in Canada, I just finished watching a press conference where Stéphane Dion, Jack Layton and Gilles Duceppe signed an agreement and announced the formation of a coalition government, unprecedented in Canadian history.

They will bring down the Harper Government at the first opportunity - next Monday, December 8 - and begin a new Government.

Although most bloggers will be pounding their keyboards with commentary, concerns and cavils, I simply want to express my thanks and gratitude to all three opposition parties and their leaders.

They are creating a model of democracy that can set an example for Parliaments all over the world, as the parties acknowledge their important differences, but focus on improving the greater good. They are putting Canada before politics.

During the question period, Jack Layton said that if Canada had a proportional representation electoral system, we would be accustomed to this kind of cooperation. I was thrilled that he mentioned proportional representation on this big stage. Perhaps this new Government is a step towards that greater democracy.

The Harper Government was elected shortly after we arrived in Canada, allowed to stay in power far too long, then, against all my hopes and beliefs, elected again. As my former countrypeople to the south celebrated what they believe to be a new beginning, I was cringing at the prospects for Canada.

I kept thinking, if the right stays united, and the centre and left stay divided, if the partisan continues to trump the practical... what will become of us? Whither Canada?

And now, this has happened. I am thrilled.

I'll read the caveats, I'll familiarize myself with the pitfalls. But for now, I will just savour the moment.

Thanks to shrewd leadership and open minds, Canada has stepped back from right-wing ideology and can begin to rebuild its proud progressive tradition. Leadership will reflect the will and the values of a majority of Canadians. That's democracy, and nothing is more important than that.

* * * *

US readers, please feel free to ask questions about what's going on up here! A few years ago, it would have confused the hell out of me, too. Don't be shy.

dear jack layton, from the war resisters support campaign

This letter was sent last weekend, from the War Resisters Support Campaign to the Honourable Jack Layton, leader of the New Democrat Party.

* * * *

Dear Jack:

It's time to dump the Harper government and replace it with one that represents the majority of Canadians.

I understand negotiations are going on about the agenda of such a coalition government. Please remember the war resisters. They have been in limbo because the Harper Government would rather they be deported to rot in jail than open Canada's doors to them. It's time to welcome them, as Canada welcomed the Vietnam War resisters who came here.

I know this is not an issue that directly affects a large number of people. I know the economy is in a lot of trouble, and needs urgent action.

But the war resisters represent, for many Canadians and people around the world, a symbol of what Canada is all about. By welcoming them, Canada shows it is a nation of peace, respect for international law, and a welcome for people of conscience. That's why Harper has been so keen to be rid of them. That's why they must be allowed to stay here.

I hope like hell that the coalition idea comes to fruition. If it does, please do your best to Let The War Resisters Stay!

Peace,

Lee Zaslofsky
Coordinator
War Resisters Support Campaign

world aids day

Today is World AIDS Day.

Reflect.

Remember.

End prejudice against HIV-positive people.

Give.

Give.

Give / Give.

old trolls don't die. they barely fade away.

I left a comment at the Canadian Blog Awards, to ask a question about graphics. A right-wing, pro-war blogger who I banned from wmtc a year ago used this as an opportunity to post a link to the discussion from November, 2007 in which I banned him!

His comment at the CBAs is completely gratuitous. No, it's beyond gratuitous: it's bizarrely out of place. Everyone else at the thread is quite rightly ignoring it.

Big surprise: his comment mentions "free speech", implying, I think, that his rights were infringed when I banned him from my own blog. Does he really think free speech means we each have an obligation to host the online equivalent of an offensive guest in our own homes? Or does he play the free-speech card because he's got nothing else? And why does he care so much that he is unable to ignore my name in an unrelated thread?

Who are these people who nurse these internet grudges for so long?

It just amazes me. A few days ago, our friend Magnolia left an insulting comment, incensed that an immigrant qualifies for a Canadian Blog Award. (Psst: read the rules.) Now I see the seemingly normal Mark Ottawa still whining about being banned, a full year after the fact.

Have some dignity, people! It's time to move on!

this is an historic moment. make your voice heard.

Happy, happy day! How exciting to be greeted by this headline in this morning's Globe and Mail: Liberals, NDP firm up deal to topple Tories. A cabinet with six NDP seats! A progressive Government! O Canada!

I left work early last night, and was lying in bed, watching "Family Guy" and "American Dad" before drifting off to sleep. The repetitive ads for Global National News were really something: "Will the plot succeed, or will the political lines drawn in the sand be swept away on a wave of voter outrage?"

"The plot"? You mean the publicly announced, democratically legitimate meeting of two political parties putting aside their differences to work for the greater good?

"Voter outrage"? Is that the outrage of the 37% of voters who thought they could run the country as if they own it?

Or perhaps Global meant voter jubilation, at a Government that more accurately reflects Canadian values and Canadian voters?

Global News sucks, but their ad points to what we're facing this week: a massive propaganda campaign to discredit the coalition Government. We must do everything we can to make our voices heard.

If you haven't already, please sign the petition calling for a progressive coalition government. You can also send letters to Jack Layton and Stéphane Dion through SmartVote2008.

Then tell all the opposition parties that you support what's happening:

tell your MP,

tell the NDP,

tell the Liberals,

tell the Bloc,

tell the Greens.

You don't have to write a long, eloquent letter - in fact, the more concise and to the point, the better. Just tell them that that you strongly support a coalition government, a government that reflects the values of a majority of Canadian voters.

Spread the word. Tell your friends and family, send them the YouTube video, join the Facebook group, email everyone you know. Write letters to the editor, email media outlets.

But most importantly, tell your MP and the parties themselves. Tell them you support a coalition government. Tell them to dump Harper now!