Editorials

B.C. Attorney General Michael de Jong has asked UBC vice-president and former Liberal MP Stephen Owen to "review" a Special Prosecutor appointments procedure that is under continuing suspicion and attack. The twosome looks cozy - perhaps too cozy for the good of the administration of justice in B.C.

Global Research

, June 4, 2010

by Prof. Rodrigue Tremblay

 

"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves, in the course of time, a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it." Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850), French economist 

Farmland threatened by rogue municipal council in Saanich
 

 After 4 years of delays and postponements, British Columbians were not prepared for June 1, 2010 when another (apparently preventable) delay was called in the BC Rail Corruption Trial, as soon as the court was in session. How wise is this strange new judge? 

 Comparison of availability, costs, and prompt response of a Freedom of Information request addressed to 1) Washington State, and 2) BC government, requesting minutes of a meeting between the two governments.  

NATO HQ in Brussels is today a very unhappy place. There is a strong understanding among the various national militaries that an attack by Israel on a NATO member flagged ship in international waters is an event to which NATO is obliged - legally obliged, as a matter of treaty - to react.... nobody wants or expects military action against Israel. But there is an uneasy recognition that in theory that ought to be on the table, and that NATO is obliged to do something robust to defend Turkey....
You might [also] be surprised by just how high in Nato scepticism runs at the line that in some way occupying Afghanistan helps protect the west, as opposed to stoking dangerous Islamic anger worldwide...
Therefore what is troubling the hearts and souls of non-Americans in NATO HQ is this fundamental question. Is NATO genuinely a mutual defence organisation, or is it just an instrument to carry out US foreign policy? - --- Craig Murray, human rights activist, writer, former British Ambassador, and an Honourary Research Fellow at the University of Lancaster School of Law.  bloghttp://www.craigmurray.org.uk
 

Excerpts::
The explosion of BP's Deepwater Horizon well was the inevitable result of deliberate decisions made by avaricious corporate executives, laissez faire politicians and obsequious regulators. As the ruinous gulf oil blowout spreads onto land, over wildlife, across the ocean floor and into  people's lives, it raises a fundamental question for all of us Americans: Who the hell's in charge here? What we're witnessing is not merely a human and environmental horror, but also an appalling deterioration in our nation's governance.. We are living under de facto corporate rule that has rendered our government impotent... Obama should personally take charge... go to Congress with sweeping legislation to replace America's oil dependency with a crash program of conservation and renewable energy sources [and]  wring a few corporate necks ...  prosecute them ...and put the public back in charge of our government.     ----Jim Hightower, June 2

Our Canadian system is not much better under the present government. We seem to have lost all pretense of democratic governance.... Harper acts with impunity under a dysfunctional parliament clawing back existing environmental regulations, blocking implementation of climate change legislation,  gagging  MPs and senior bureaucrats, muzzling the media;  denying access to information; blocking parliamentary committee procedure with a manual of 'dirty tricks'; emasculating Environment Canada's climate change programs and scientists; and denying funding for majority of established principle centred NGOs that have been the  positive face of Canada internationally as well as contributors to progressive policy in this country etc etc. At the same time Harper renders Canada more undemocratic, and Canadian and global ecosystems more  unsustainable by continuing to push aggressive free trade agreements, de- regulation, privatization, smaller government and petrostate politics all based on an unlimited economic growth model which is contributing to  climate change, peak oil, ecosystem collapse, and  the global financial crisis.  Corporate power along with an ideologically based neo-conservative political agenda seem to be driving the Harper government and as in the US placing corporate profit before public interest.   jme  
 

t month, downtown Toronto will morph into a full-scale battlefield, with the front lines clearly defined, as Canadians hit the streets to protest G8/G20 leaders, and to stand in fellowship with the people of the world in the global war for economic and political justice. It is expected that there will be 11,000 police officers, private security guards, and intelligence agents, to assist and protect the gangsters of governments who pose to the public as statesmen and diplomats. In April, Colin Freeze of The Globe and Mail reported that the country’s military will also be on hand to defend so-called world dignitaries, saying “unspecified numbers of Canadian soldiers and spies will also work behind the scenes to help thousands of police safeguard the meetings.”

By Fred Wilson

This week Canada was host to Mexican President Felipe Calderon.  He spoke to our Parliament and was interviewed on CBC television.  He appealed for Canada to lift the new visa requirements and he called for action on climate change.  There was commentary in the Canadian media on the 23,000 victims of Mexico's drug war over the last three years.

Behind the accusations, the jockeying, and the press/media "coverage" of the BC Rail Scandal trial against three government employees - two directly responsible to ministers and the premier - there is a story that has been in the shadows from the beginning.  That is the BC Rail Scandal "Conspiracy Theory".  It is laid out here for readers' examination.

The overcrowding of prisons remains a major concern and challenge in Canada. As a result, the safety of inmates and staff alike is threatened and, ultimately, that of the public. The Canadian Criminal Justice Association is calling on all jurisdictions and the public to address these issues with a view to bringing about necessary and pressing changes, and to defusing a potentially explosive situation.

http://www.ccja-acjp.ca/en/overc3.html

A few days into the BC Rail Scandal Court case against cabinet aides, one of the accused, Aneal Basi, cannot be in court for medical reasons.  The week-long adjournment blunts momentum, and may affect the direction the case was beginning to take.

 More than seven years in the making, the BC Rail Scandal trial of Basi, Virk, and Basi has begun.  It opens huge questions about the integrity of the Gordon Campbell government and about the integrity of the administration of justice in British Columbia.

By Dana Gabriel

It appears as if the G20 summit in Toronto is shaping up to be a showdown between anarchists and police. Caught in the middle of the security circus are local residents. If there is violence and property damage, peaceful protesters will also be demonized. The recent bombing of a bank, perpetrated by a so-called anarchist group, has given an excuse to enact more police state measures during the summit. The curious timing of the attack emphasizes the threat of terrorism and further justifies the huge security apparatus being assembled.