Editorials

By Naomi Wolf

The violent police assaults across the US are no coincidence. Occupy has touched the third rail of our political class's venality

US citizens of all political persuasions are still reeling from images of unparallelled police brutality in a coordinated crackdown against peaceful OWS protesters in cities across the nation this past week. An elderly woman was pepper-sprayed in the face; the scene of unresisting, supine students at UC Davis being pepper-sprayed by phalanxes of riot police went viral online; images proliferated of young women – targeted seemingly for their gender – screaming, dragged by the hair by police in riot gear; and the pictures of a young man, stunned and bleeding profusely from the head, emerged in the record of the middle-of-the-night clearing of Zuccotti Park.

But just when Americans thought we had the picture – was this crazy police and mayoral overkill, on a municipal level, in many different cities? – the picture darkened. The National Union of Journalists and the Committee to Protect Journalists issued a Freedom of Information Act request to investigate possible federal involvement with law enforcement practices that appeared to target journalists. The New York Times reported that "New York cops have arrested, punched, whacked, shoved to the ground and tossed a barrier at reporters and photographers" covering protests. Reporters were asked by NYPD to raise their hands to prove they had credentials: when many dutifully did so, they were taken, upon threat of arrest, away from the story they were covering, and penned far from the site in which the news was unfolding. Other reporters wearing press passes were arrested and roughed up by cops, after being – falsely – informed by police that "It is illegal to take pictures on the sidewalk."

read full article http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/nov/25/shocking-truth-about-crackdown-occupy?newsfeed=true

In many circles, the Occupy movement and the Tea Party have come to respectively symbolize left- and right-wing political protest. That said, both movements share a common danger-that of letting the political radicals dominate and poison the political discussions.

Treasury Board president Tony Clement (with a little bit of help from his G8 colleague John Baird) is pleading "innocent" in the $50 million G8 Boondoggle.  But the facts seem to belie Clement's reach for purity.

From Reuter’s interview with former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien in August came a much fuller understanding of the forces that moved the Canadian economy from a basket case to a decade of robust growth and budget surpluses.

A liberal much in the mold of liberals in the Democrat Party in America, Chretien took over in November 1993 as his country was suffering from high unemployment, a stagnant economy, and increasing interest rates on its national debt. Its ratio of debt-to-GDP was approaching 70 percent while its annual deficits were nearly 6 percent of GDP and increasing. The economy was ranked just above Italy among the Group of Seven, Canada’s peers. As Scott Clark, Chretien’s Deputy Finance Minister put it: “We used to thank God that Italy was there because we were the second worst in the G7.”

Four former Vancouver mayors have joined the growing chorus of voices calling for an end to the prohibition of marijuana.

Mike Harcourt, Philip Owen, Larry Campbell and Sam Sullivan have each signed an open letter urging politicians to consider legalization and regulation of pot, saying those policies will increase taxes to government, remove illicit profits that lead to gang violence and eliminate costly legal proceedings.

read more http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/canada-politics/legalizing-marijuana-probably-good-idea-not-likely-happen-145122260.html

Who is Bob Paulson, new RCMP Commissioner?  He was promoted by now-rejected Commissioner William Elliott.  He was appointed by the bungler  who appointed William Elliott - a man named Stephen Harper.  Will we watch Bob Paulson fail?

The Conservative Party of Canada having just pled guilty to violations of the Canada Elections Act, spokespeople for the Harper group are lying to Canadians on the media and in the press.

The sudden explosion of sexual harassment claims against the B.C. RCMP links to the B.C. Rail Scandal and the Basi, Virk, and Basi trial.  Responder for the RCMP, Superintendent Kevin DeBruyckere, was front and centre in argument made by Defence counsel in the Basi, Virk, and Basi trial.

By John Ivison

As the Harper government prepares to re-introduce the anti-terrorism measures that were allowed to lapse because of opposition concerns about privacy and Charter rights, there are whispers Conservative plans to expand the role of Canada’s spy service to operate overseas are being dusted off.

Currently, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service is largely concerned with domestic intelligence and is able to conduct covert operations overseas only if there is a direct threat to Canada.

In their 2006 election platform, the Tories promised to overturn this arrangement and set up a separate foreign intelligence service. Once elected, they were persuaded by the bureaucracy that it would be quicker and cheaper to allow CSIS to take on the role.

read full article http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/11/06/john-ivison-conservatives-may-let-csis-off-its-chain/

By Nathan Vanderklippe

The U.S. government has opened a review of Keystone XL’s approval process, adding to the series of obstacles facing the controversial pipeline project barely a month before TransCanada Corp. (TRP-T 41.65 -0.72-1.70%) hopes to gain clearance.

The $7-billion Keystone XL project is planned to carry vast volumes of oil sands crude from Alberta to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The project’s U.S. government approval was once seen as a near-certainty by industry and political leaders alike, but is beginning to come into question amid a multipronged attack on the pipeline. At the very least, the timeline for an approval decision is now increasingly in doubt, amid a barrage of legal and legislative roadblocks, and signals from the State Department that it might miss its December deadline.

read full article http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/special-review-emerges-as-new-hurdle-for-keystone-xl/article2228146/?utm_medium=Feeds%3A%20RSS%2FAtom&utm_source=World&utm_content=2228146

By Dana Gabriel

After a two year hiatus, the leaders of the U.S., Canada and Mexico are set to meet for a trilateral summit. While the push for further North American integration continues incrementally, at this time, it is unlikely that discussions will yield any grand new initiatives that involve the participation of all three NAFTA partners. Instead, the meeting could be used to build off of bilateral discussions already underway. This includes negotiations between the U.S. and Canada on a North American Security perimeter deal designed to accelerate the flow of people and goods across the border.

When it comes to continental integration, much of the focus has shifted to greater convergence bilaterally which over time could move back to a more trilateral approach. There is an overwhelming sense that one way or another, the U.S. is going to get a North American security perimeter on their own terms, one that its NAFTA partners will have to conform to, whether they like it or not.

read full article http://beyourownleader.blogspot.com/2011/11/north-american-integration-and-ties.html
 

B.C. police and its supporting Media are treating the Vancouver after-game Stanley Cup vandalism as if it were Mafia Big Time.  But the looting and betrayal and double-cross and robbery of the people of B.C. by "the Powerful" over a decade has been avoided almost completely by B.C. police and the Mainstream Media.  Take a look at the Globe and Mail's Gary Mason at work, November 1, 2011.

Canadians are expressing dismay with political power ... across the country.  But they are neglecting the most potent instrument they have.

By Zach Paikin

Ten years ago, 19 terrorists murdered nearly 3,000 human beings — including 24 Canadians — on American soil prompting NATO, for the first time in its history, to invoke Article 5 of its charter calling for collective defense.

Collective defense goes beyond securing our immediate security interests. It also advances our values both through the defense of liberty at home and the pursuit of human rights abroad.

Despite this, the post-Cold-War United States seems to be unwilling to prioritize securing long-term strategic interests ahead of obtaining short-term commercial benefit. Furthermore, core funding for the U.S. military has decreased since the end of the Gulf War while European defense capabilities have also declined.

The United States, leader of the free world, has yet to draw a new strategic map of the world after having won the Cold War. Do NATO states believe that the fall of the Soviet Union represented the end of history? Do they believe that the security of their populations can no longer be threatened?

full article http://jinsa.wordpress.com/2011/10/12/canada-well-positioned-to-lead-nato-forward/

by Justin Podur

The Occupy Wall Street Movement and the Occupy Together movements that are inspired by it actually have a simple premise: society shouldn't be run for the unrestricted benefit of the wealthiest. The immediate grievance is the 2008 banking crisis, in which the U.S. banks engaged in fraudulent and criminal activity and were subsequently rewarded for doing so with trillions in government funds, while their victims reaped evictions and foreclosures.

Canada did not have a crisis of the same severity, for a few reasons. Canada has a different banking system with a differently-regulated mortgage authority (although there are important similarities in the way the government takes risks and the private banks profit, and the Canadian system is far from invulnerable to crisis). The government is in the mortgage-backed securities business, but not in the totally unregulated way that the business ran in the United States. Social democratic politics are a little bit stronger in Canada than in the USA. Because the Conservatives were in a minority government at the time, the other parties were able to wring a stimulus out of the federal government that blunted the recession (the Bank of Canada also provided emergency funds and lowered interest rates to help the banks). But the overall problem, and direction of society, is the same, and the Occupy Together movement should find fertile ground in Canada.

read full article http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=27102