court decision on corey glass expected tomorrow morning

The decision on Corey Glass's final appeal was expected this afternoon; we've been on pins and needles waiting to hear. I've just heard that the decision will be made public tomorrow morning. You can look here, or just tune in to wmtc. I'll post it the minute we find out.

Come out on Thursday, whether for a victory celebration or to raise a howl of righteous anger.

july 10 action planned in midland, ontario

Added to the list of actions listed here, a protest in Midland, Ontario.

MIDLAND
Thursday, July 10
Meet at 11:00 a.m. outside the library on King St to leaflet and protest Corey Glass's deportation, scheduled for that day.

Communities across Canada are planning a variety of actions to send a strong message that Canadians oppose sending this young man and other men and women back to the US because they refuse to serve in Iraq. Organized by Peaceworks Midland.

aclu: u.s. made "unprecedented" efforts to hide the true cost of both wars

The American Civil Liberties Union has released thousands of pages of documents related to civilian deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan. These documents were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request the ACLU filed two years ago.

The ACLU says the papers "provide a vivid snapshot of the circumstances surrounding civilian deaths in Iraq".

"At every step of the way, the Bush administration and Defense Department have gone to unprecedented lengths to control and suppress information about the human cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan," said Nasrina Bargzie, an attorney with the ACLU National Security Project. "Our democracy depends on an informed public and that is why it is so important that the American people see these documents. These documents will help to fill the information void around the issue of civilian casualties in Iraq and will lead to a more complete understanding of the prosecution of the war."

Through the ACLU, information on Defense Department policies designed to control information about the human costs of war is now public. These include:

• Banning photographers on U.S. military bases from covering the arrival of caskets containing the remains of U.S. soldiers killed overseas;

• Paying Iraqi journalists to write positive accounts of the U.S. war effort;

• Inviting U.S. journalists to "embed" with military units but requiring them to submit their stories for pre-publication review;

• Erasing journalists' footage of civilian deaths in Afghanistan; and

• Refusing to disclose statistics on civilian casualties.

Says Michael Pheneger, a retired Army intelligence colonel who is also a board member of the ACLU: "As these files remind us, many charges of war crimes in Iraq have not seen the light of day.

"We don't do body counts."

let them stay: good news and bad news on the real news

Terrific piece (as always) on The Real News. Watch and circulate!

same-sex love on robson arms

When I get home from work on the weekends, around 10:30 or 11:00 p.m., I like to semi-watch TV before bed. I only like a few shows, and there's only a sliver of time between work and sleep, so if there's nothing on for me, it's annoying.

Recently there was one of those annoying schedule changes, so I can't find Futurama, Corner Gas, The Simpsons or Seinfeld when I need them. Almost all the cartoon shows I was watching (Sons of Butcher, Bromwell High) are off the air or on at 3:00 a.m. So for the first time, I tried an episode of Robson Arms.

For non-Canadian readers, the show takes place in an apartment building in Vancouver, and follows stories of the residents' lives. It's part comedy, part drama.

The only thing I knew about Robson Arms was that half the cast of Corner Gas appeared to be in it (turns out that was an exaggeration - the shows share two cast members), plus "Kids" Mark McKinney and Dave Foley. This was shortly after we moved to Canada and started watching Corner Gas, so I had the impression that a handful of actors rotated around all the Canadian TV shows. (It still sometimes seems that way!)

So the other night I actually watched (or half-watched) an episode for the first time. It featured a gay male couple with a large difference in age. They have some issues, one partner discovers he has cancer, and through this they re-discover their love for each other.

It was without a doubt the most normal and uncensored treatment of a same-sex relationship I've ever seen on a mainstream TV show. There was as much physical affection as you would see if the couple had been male and female. On the other hand, there was none of that over-dramatized sexuality still often used for female same-sex relationships. It was just there. Just normal.

That, of course, is what same-sex couples are in Canada. Completely unremarkable. But you don't always see the world reflected on mainstream TV.

I was wondering, when Robson Arms began, was this noted? Or were same-sex relationships on TV already so unremarkable here that no one even talked about it?

actions across canada in support of war resisters

July 10 is a National Day of Action calling on the Government to stop the deportation of Corey Glass and all Iraq War resisters in Canada.

So far I have information on actions in six locations, with more to come.

CALGARY
Street polling in front of CityTV
5pm to 6:30pm (Southeast corner of 5th St and 7th Ave SW)

LONDON
Rally for Resisters
5 p.m. at Central & Richmond (NW Corner of Victoria Park)
London War Resisters Support group londonresisters@yahoo.ca
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/event.php?eid=17192754751&ref=mf

ORILLIA
Meet in the Peace Garden with signs and sandwiches at lunch-hour.

OTTAWA
WHEN: Noon, this Wednesday (July 9) (please note date!)

WHAT: Peaceful rally to oppose the deportation of Sgt. Corey Glass

WHY: to appeal for public support on this issue, and convey a message
to the PM's office

WHERE: Corner of Elgin and Wellington Streets, in front of Langevin Block (Prime Minister's Office)

TORONTO
Human Chain stretching from the Federal Court to US Consulate
Thursday, July 10, 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Northwest corner of Queen Street West and University Avenue / TTC: Osgoode Station
Bring banners and placards!

VANCOUVER
Rush hour rally in support of U.S. War Resisters
July 10, 5:30-6:30 p.m.
Canada Immigration offices at 300 W. Georgia St (corner of W. Georgia and Hamilton St.)
info: vanresisters@yahoo.ca

Join us!

dear prime minister harper

Go here to read an excellent, brief letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and CIC Minister Diane Finley.

Have you written one lately?

thursday, july 10: national day of action to stop the deportation of iraq war resisters

I should have information on events in many Canadian cities tomorrow. Meanwhile, in Toronto:

Thursday, July 10, 4:30 - 6:30 p.m.
Human Chain stretching from the Federal Court to US Consulate
Northwest corner of Queen Street West and University Avenue

The motion passed in the House of Commons June 3 called for a provision to allow war resisters to stay and to stop removal proceedings against war resisters in Canada. The Harper government is refusing to implement that motion.

Sgt. Corey Glass has been asked to leave Canada on July 10th. Many other resisters and their families face a similar fate if the Harper government continues to ignore Parliament and the majority of Canadians.

The War Resisters Support Campaign is calling on all supporters to join US Iraq War Resisters to create a human chain from the Federal Court building on Queen Street to the U.S. Consulate. You are encouraged to bring placards, signs, organization banners, and their friends and family to show that the majority of Canadians want war resisters to stay.

Join us! Tell your friends!

Thursday July 10, 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., Queen Street West and University Avenue

war resister robin long arrested in vancouver; corey glass in court today

Yesterday in Vancouver, war resister Robin Long was arrested on bogus immigration charges. This has happened before, and amounts to simple harassment.

Today in Toronto, Corey Glass goes to court for a final hearing on his deportation.

Meanwhile, a Federal court has ruled that the Immigration and Refugee Board applied too narrow a standard when rejecting the case of war resister Joshua Key.

And in Parliament, the united Opposition has called on the Harper minority Government to let Iraq War resisters stay in Canada.

What will it take to make these people respect democracy??

this is crunch week. please help. (updated with more ideas for action)

If you care about the fate of Iraq War resisters in Canada...

If you believe we all have a right to conscience...

If you believe Canada did the right thing by not joining the invasion of Iraq...

If you want a Canada that stands for peace and for justice...

If you oppose the Bush-Cheney agenda...

If you want peace...

...please help.

This Thursday, July 10, Corey Glass may become the first US war resister deported from Canada. If this happens, he will face a military "trial" and imprisonment, and he may be sent back to Iraq.

The recent decision by a Canadian Federal court illuminates the issue ever more clearly: being forced to violate the Geneva Conventions is grounds for refugee status in Canada. Given that the entire Iraq War is in violation of international law, every former US soldier who has refused to participate in it should be granted asylum.

Yet as of right now, the deportation order against Corey has not been stayed or rescinded. We must keep the pressure on. Our message: Let Them Stay.

1. Call and email Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
613.992.4211
pm@pm.gc.ca

2. Call and email Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Diane Finley.
613.996.4974
finley.d@parl.gc.ca
finled1@parl.gc.ca

3. Ask others to do the same. Email everyone you know who may be sympathetic to the cause. Send the link to Corey's video, a wmtc post, or any other information that will help.

4. If you're Canadian and your riding is represented by a Conservative MP, please contact her or him to express your support for war resisters.

5. Write letters to your local newspaper. Keep letters short (aim for 100-150 words) and factual. Call on the Harper Government to respect the will of Parliament - to respect democracy - by implementing the motion voted on June 3. Tell the Harper Government to stop being the enforcement arm of Bush's war machine!

6. If you're not in Canada, please contact the nearest Canadian embassy with the same message: Canada should Let Them Stay. See Courage To Resist for information on vigils outside Canadian Embassies in the US.

7. In Canada, join protests on Thursday, July 10. I will post information about local protests as soon as I have it. For now, see contact information here, and email for more info.

let them stay: online poll

Do you think Joshua Key and his family should be granted asylum in Canada?

Take a moment to click.

But more importantly, take a few moments to call and email. Maybe take an hour or two to protest.

roy zimmerman: is america ready?

A history lesson from Roy Zimmerman.

You know I don't think Obama is all that different than the rest of them, lovely skin tone aside, and you know how I feel about US elections. But this is still very funny. I actually laughed out loud at work, with my headphones on.

Thanks Roy, and thanks to James for sending.

corey glass appeals to prime minister harper for asylum

Do the right thing. Let Them Stay.

overthrow: two brief excerpts

Stephen Kinzer:

Americans have a profoundly compassionate side. Many not only appreciate the freedom and prosperity with which they have been blessed but fervently wish to share their good fortune with others. Time and again, they have proved willing to support foreign interventions that are presented as missions to rescue less fortunate people.

When President McKinley said he was going to war with Cuba to stop "oppression at our very doors," Americans cheered. They did so again a decade later, when the Taft administration declared that it was deposing the government of Nicaragua in order to impose "republican institutions" and promote "real patriotism". Since then, every time the United States has set out to overthrow a foreign government, its leaders have insisted that they are acting not to expand American power but to help people who are suffering.

* * * *

The Cuban revolution, and especially Castro's turn toward anti-Yankee radicalism, baffled most Americans. Few had any idea of how the United States had treated Cuba in the past, so naturally they could not understand why Cubans wished so fervently to break out of the American orbit. Many were astonished, just as their grandparents had been in 1898, to learn that "liberated" Cubans were ungrateful to the United States. . . . .

Castro was a pure product of American policy toward Cuba. If the United States had not crushed Cuba's drive to independence in the early twentieth century, if it had not supported a series of repressive dictators there, and if it had not stood by while the 1952 election was canceled, a figure like Castro would almost certainly not have emerged. His regime is the quintessential result of a "regime change" operation gone wrong, one that comes back to haunt the country that sponsored it.

what i'm reading: overthrow by stephen kinzer

Long ago, several wmtc readers recommended I read Stephen Kinzer's Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq. I'm about halfway through it now. This book should come with a warning. I might need a chiropractor before I'm done, straining my neck from shaking my head so much.

During the run-up to the US's 2003 invasion of Iraq, I was often frustrated by progressive people calling those events "unprecedented", when in fact they were exactly the opposite. The invasion of Iraq followed a well-worn pattern, in keeping with more than a century of US foreign policy. I remember thinking there were stark parallels between 2003 and 1898, and went back to Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States to check. Now I'm learning that I was more correct than I knew.

One obvious parallel is the role of a compliant media selling a war to an ignorant public. We all have a tendency to portray the mainstream media "these days" as having gone off the rails, abdicating its traditional adversarial role with government. In fact, the mainstream media is doing what it always has done, with a few notable but isolated exceptions. The New York Times didn't start printing government lies to sell wars in 2003. 1903 would be closer to the truth. At least now we have access to other sources and we can quickly disseminate the facts. In the past, citizens had to wait for the truth to leak out, too little, too late.

Kinzer is very clear about placing responsibility for the actions of the US government with the people of the US. I appreciate that, yet I keep thinking, "Yes, but..." The history Kinzer writes of is hidden from most Americans. They aren't taught this in school, and they don't see it reflected in their media. Unless they have a special interest in "alternative" (translation: real) history, they would never know any of this.

Americans hear about world events completely devoid of context. The US intervenes in a foreign country. This touches off a chain of events that, seven steps later, ends with an attack on an American or an American embassy. US citizens then hear about an unprovoked attack. They get no context, and believe there's a justifiable pretext to war.

Even the attack itself is often later proved to be the work of US operatives.

(At the risk of this thread going grossly off-topic, I'll add that this gives me hope that one day, the truth about September 11 will be known.)

For most Americans, the words "the American Empire" are meaningless. There's only one country, right? Fifty states, no colonies. How can that be an empire? Yet a country that controls the governments of dozens of other countries around the globe can only be called an empire. Americans are, for the most part, totally ignorant of their country's history of forced "influence" and "intervention".

Overthrow is not just extremely eye-opening, it's very enjoyable reading. Kinzer tells the story of each "regime change" in narrative form, giving a feel for the suspense and intrigue of the times. Nothing dry or academic here; this history is bright and alive.

From the introduction:

The United States uses a variety of means to persuade other countries to do its bidding. In many cases it relies on time-honoured tactics of diplomacy, offering rewards to governments that support American interests and threatening retaliation against those that refuse. Sometimes it defends friendly regimes against popular anger or uprisings. In more than a few places, it has quietly supported coups or revolutions organized by others. Twice, in the context of world wars, it helped to wipe away old ruling orders and impose new ones.

This book is not about any of those ways Americans have shaped the modern world. It focuses only on the most extreme set of cases: those in which the United States arranged to depose foreign leaders. No nation in modern history has done this so often, in so many places so far from its own shores.

The stories of these "regime change" operations are dazzlingly exciting. They tell of patriots and scoundrels, high motives and low cynicism, extreme courage and cruel betrayal. This book brings them together for the first time, but it seeks to do more than simply tell what happened. By considering these operations as a continuum rather than as a series of unrelated incidents, it seeks to find what they have in common. It poses and tries to answer two fundamental questions. First, why did the United States carry out these operations? Second, what have been their long-term consequences?

Drawing up a list of countries the United States has overthrown is not as simple as it sounds. This book treats only cases in which Americans played the decisive role in deposing a regime. Chile, for example, makes the list because, although many factors led to the 1973 coup there, the American role was decisive. Indonesia, Brazil and the Congo do not, because American agents played only subsidiary roles in the overthrow of their governments during the 1960s. Nor do Mexico, Haiti, or the Dominican Republic, countries the United States invaded but whose leaders it did not depose.

That US citizens can travel abroad at all, without being murdered every time they step foot out of the US, speaks to the goodwill of most ordinary people. For the most part, people do distinguish between a country's government and its individual citizens, and Americans should thank their lucky stars for that.

Now to get that Canadian passport!

oy.

If your blog receives a comment to the effect of "Please stop linking to my page wmtc.ca. I don't think we share the same values anymore.", please look carefully at the name.

I-girl is not L-girl, although the two look alike in Blogger's lower case view.

Check the profile. Not me.

Yes, a troll is visiting the blogs of wmtc readers, first insulting me, and now attempting to impersonate me.

I didn't want to give him this attention, but several blog-friends have been confused, so here we are.

You may also see posts by "Magnolia_2000", one of his many personas. Mags sends comments to both wmtc and Joy of Sox on a regular basis, despite the fact that his posts never show up. We see his name and click "reject" without reading the comments.

This is one troubled boy!

question for readers: canadian copyright law changes?

Can someone - many someones - please explain to me what on Earth is going on with Canadian copyright laws? I missed the first week of school and now I can't seem to get caught up. Everything I read either assumes too much prior knowledge or is so technical that my eyes instantly glaze over.

Have at it. Links to primers are welcome.

maclean's: canada > u.s.

Reader Scott M sent me a link with this note:

I know you've been slowly backing away from the US/Canadian comparison stories, but it's quite interesting to see the contrast.

It's true that I don't dwell on the US/Canada comparisons as much as I used to. As we approach the three-year mark at the end of this summer, it all seems so obvious now!

But I regularly get emails from people for whom it's not obvious: Americans who are considering emigrating to Canada, who are dreaming of moving to Canada but can't, who wonder how the countries really stack up. So with those people in mind, here you go.

To be an American is to be the best. Every American believes this. Their sports champions are not U.S. champions, they're world champions. Their corporations aren't the largest in the States, they're the largest on the planet. Their armies don't defend just America, they defend freedom.

Like the perpetual little brother, Canadians have always lived in the shadow of our American neighbours. We mock them for their uncultured ways, their brash talk and their insularity, but it's always been the thin laughter of the insecure. After all, says University of Lethbridge sociologist Reginald Bibby, a leading tracker of social trends, "Americans grow up with the sincere belief that their nation is a nation that is unique and special, literally called by something greater to be blessed and to be a blessing to people around the globe." Canadians can't compete with that.

But it turns out that while they've been out conquering the world, here in Canada we've been quietly working away at building better lives. While they've been pursuing happiness, we've been achieving it.

How do we know? You just have to look at the numbers. For our Canada Day special issue this year, Maclean's compared Canadians and Americans in every facet of our lives. We scoured census reports, polls, surveys, scientific studies, policy papers and consumer databases. We looked at who lives longer, who works more, who spends more time with friends, who travels more and who has more sex. We even found out who eats more vegetables.

After digging through the data, here's what we found: the staid, underpaid Canadian is dead. Believe it or not, we now have more wealth than Americans, even though we work shorter hours. We drink more often, but we live longer and have fewer diseases. We have more sex, more sex partners and we're more adventurous in bed, but we have fewer teen pregnancies and fewer sexually transmitted diseases. We spend more time with family and friends, and more time exploring the world. Even in crime we come out ahead: we're just as prone to break the law, but when we do it, we don't get shot. Most of the time, we don't even go to jail.

The data shows that it's the Canadians who are living it up, while Americans toil away, working longer hours to pay their mounting bills.

The writer, Duncan Hood, talks to several Canadians living in the US, including Christian Lander of Stuff White People Like. I didn't even know he was Canadian! (No wonder it got so much media time here.)

It's a good story, worth reading unless you've had your fill of cross-border comparisons. The US as Duncan Hood describes it sounds a lot more like the one I know than, for example, the US that Michael Adams describes in Fire and Ice. I only disagree with one sentence:

In the U.S., as long as you have a good insurance plan, you have access to the best health care in the world. MRI machines are available on an hour's notice, there's plenty of staff, and the specialists are the finest there are.

Everyone who has seen "Sicko" knows that's not true. Indeed, you can have an extremely expensive, seemingly excellent insurance plan, and still not have coverage when you need it.

Other than that, I see a lot of truth reflected in this story. The full story is online here; enjoy. And thanks, Scott!

i heart comment moderation

For most of this blog's life, I was very resistant to using comment moderation. But now that I've turned it on, I love it!

In the early days of this blog, before we moved and through our first year in Canada, there was a lot of discussion and healthy debate amongst commenters, whether or not I was around. The comments section became something of a forum, and I felt using moderation would have ruined the vibe. I felt it was better to weed out trolls by deleting, rather than preventing, their comments.

And in those days, trolls were often unintentionally enlightening. They were usually US wingnuts who embodied so much of what I was eager to leave behind. They proudly displayed the ignorance, exceptionalism, small-mindedness and intolerance better than I ever could have explained it.

Their ignorance of Canada was especially funny. Did you know that if a Canadian says something bad about the Queen, there'll be a knock on their door in the middle of the night, and they'll be taken away? Did you know it's illegal to speak English in Montreal? That you must wait weeks or months for even the most basic health care, and then when you get it, it's botched and you die?

Even the occasional Canadian troll (you may recall the notorious GaryStJ) had an educational value. Although when he started following me to other blogs, it got a bit creepy.

So in those days, I either left the troll comments as-is, or deleted them, but quoted them in my own posts.

In addition, I was still working out my own comment policy - what I wanted to tolerate in my own space, what balance to draw between free expression and senseless arguing, what felt right to me.

But now I've worked out my comment policy and I'm very comfortable with it. Bogus claims about censorship don't bother me. Blogs that allow unrestricted comments, where the comments devolve into a name-calling screaming match, show me exactly what I don't want.

Wmtc rarely has the kind of lengthy, in-depth discussions it used to. Allan and I are at home in Canada now, so I'm no longer asking the kinds of questions that sparked those chats. It also could be partly because certain former readers who tended towards those discussions have moved on.

The recent rash of troll activity yielded nothing educational or entertaining. It was simply a waste of energy. I was going to be away from my computer for a while, so I tried comment moderation as an experiment.

To my surprise, I loved it. I love the complete control it gives the blogger. It's total stress reduction: I don't have to download my email and wait for unpleasant surprises. I see the troll's or banned commenter's name, and delete the comment unread.

In the past, if I wrote about a topic where I didn't want any debate on this blog - such as abortion or capital punishment - I would post a warning or turn off comments. Now I can keep comments open for readers' thoughts without fear of pollution.

Allan and I gave each other moderation rights to each other's blogs, so we have more opportunity to publish the comments. So usually comments don't sit waiting for moderation for too long, anyway.

Several trolls and banned commenters continue to leave comments, knowing their words will never appear on the blog. I'm not sure what they get out of this, but then, I don't understand the troll mentality anyway. It's the easiest thing to make their attempts disappear. Two clicks, and they're done, and I don't even have to read the comment.

Thanks Blogger!

fourth of july gift from federal court

From Lee Zaslofsky, with the War Resisters Support Campaign:

FOURTH OF JULY GIFT FROM THE FEDERAL COURT

JOSHUA KEY'S CASE BOUNCED BACK TO THE REFUGEE BOARD

On this Fourth of July there is great news from Justice Barnes of the Federal Court. Joshua Key's appeal has been successful. The court has ordered the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) to reconsider Josh's case. The IRB is also ordered to have a different Board member in charge of the case, not the same one Josh had for his refugee hearing.

I spoke to Josh a few minutes ago and he said he was "surprised" that after so many negative decisions we finally got a positive one. He says he is "grateful and happy", and feels that he and his family are moving "forwards and not backwards" now. His wife Brandi is taking a break away from home this weekend, so she will find out about this when she calls home this evening. I would love to be there to see how she reacts!

CONGRATULATIONS TO JOSH AND BRANDI AND THE KIDS! CONGRATULATIONS TO THEIR LAWYER AND OUR FRIEND JEFFRY HOUSE. (Listen to Jeffry this evening on "As It Happens" on CBC Radio One)

The War Resisters Support Campaign now calls on Citizenship and Immigration Minister Diane Finley to take immediate action to STOP ALL DEPORTATION PROCEEDINGS AGAINST THE WAR RESISTERS until the legal issues raised by this court decision can be resolved. We call on her once again to implement the War Resisters Motion adopted by the House of Commons on June 3 -- a motion supported by a large majority of Canadians.

We most urgently call upon her to CANCEL THE REMOVAL ORDER AGAINST COREY GLASS, which takes effect on July 10. We urge all those who support the war resisters to join us in that urgent request.

According to Jeffry House, today's court decision means that all the war resisters may have cause to hope that their cases could get another look. We will have to wait a while to see how that goes, but today's decision makes things look a lot more hopeful.

ON JULY 9, AMERICAN SUPPORTERS OF THE WAR RESISTERS WILL DEMONSTRATE AT CANADIAN CONSULATES ALL OVER THE UNITED STATES. WE THANK THEM FOR THEIR CONSTANT ACTIVE SUPPORT AND SOLIDARITY.

ON JULY 10, CANADIAN SUPPORTERS WILL DEMONSTRATE ACROSS CANADA. WE HOPE THESE DEMONSTRATIONS WILL BE CELEBRATING A VICTORY IN OUR FIGHT TO KEEP COREY GLASS IN CANADA. BUT IF NECESSARY THEY WILL PROTEST A CRUEL AND UNJUST DECISION TO FORCE HIM TO LEAVE.

This Fourth of July let's celebrate on both sides of the border. And then let's get back to work!

Peace,

Lee Zaslofsky
War Resisters Support Campaign