Editorials

July 11, 2009
The federal government confirmed Wednesday it will spend $5 billion to purchase new combat vehicles and maintain the existing fleet for the Canadian Forces. Defence Minister Peter MacKay made the announcement at CFB Gagetown in Oromocto, N.B., after word of the new funding leaked out on Tuesday.

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-203465917.html

A report says the Canadian diplomat praised for sheltering Americans during the Iranian Revolution was a CIA spy.

The Globe and Mail quotes former ambassador Ken Taylor as telling the newspaper that he was made ``de facto CIA station chief'' in a secret deal between president Jimmy Carter and prime minister Joe Clark.

The report says the move followed the seizure of the U.S. Embassy by Iranian students Nov. 4, 1979, when 63 Americans, including the four-member Central Intelligence Agency contingent, were taken hostage.

After five years since criminal charges were laid against three BC cabinet aides in relation to the corrupt sale of BC Rail to CNR, a near-final, very brief pre-trial hearing was held on January 25, 2010.  A perceived anomaly in the appointment of the Special Crown Prosecutor in the proceedings may open questions that go to the heart of many of the concerns felt by British Columbians about the integrity of the Gordon Campbell government.

The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics will be the largest security operation in Canadian history. It will include more than 15,000 Canadian Forces, private security personnel, along with the RCMP and other police agencies. The U.S. will also provide security and support for the Games. With the Olympics fast approaching, the fear of terrorism is back in the public’s psyche

Michael Chossudovsky talks of the militarization of "aid" to Haiti.  Aid will go to Haiti, and the people will be helped back to their status as exploited slave labour for the profit of foreign corporations - and U.S. policy for the region.

The Militarization of Emergency Aid to Haiti: Is it a Humanitarian Operation or an Invasion?

by Michel Chossudovsky

Haiti has a longstanding history of US military intervention and occupation going back to the beginning of the 20th Century. US interventionism has contributed to the destruction of Haiti's national economy and the impoverishment of its population.

The devastating earthquake is presented to World public opinion as the sole cause of the country's predicament.

A country has been destroyed, its infrastructure demolished. Its people precipitated into abysmal poverty and despair.

Haiti's history, its colonial past have been erased.

The US military has come to the rescue of an impoverished Nation. What is its Mandate?

Is it a Humanitarian Operation or an Invasion?

Ellen Brown, December 7th, 2009
 

Europe’s small, debt-strapped countries could follow the lead of Argentina and simply walk away from their debts. That would shift the burden to the creditor countries, which could solve the problem merely by a change in accounting rules. 

Total financial collapse, once a problem only for developing countries, has now come to Europe. The International Monetary Fund is imposing its “austerity measures” on the outer circle of the European Union, with Greece, Iceland and Latvia the hardest hit. But these are not your ordinary third world debtor supplicants. Historically, Iceland was settled by the Vikings, who successfully invaded Britain; Latvian tribes repulsed even the Vikings; and the Greeks conquered the whole Persian empire. If anyone can stand up to the IMF, these stalwart European warriors can.

The appointment of William Berardino as Special Crown Prosecutor in the BC Rail Scandal criminal case against cabinet aides Dave Basi, Bobby Virk, and Aneal Basi raises primary questions about the role of Special Crown Prosecutor, about the potential for perceived bias, and about the reputation of the administration of justice in British Columbia.

NAFTA has extended from economic integration into a political and regional security pact which has been achieved through the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) of North America, Plan Mexico, as well as other initiatives. Various pieces of legislation and reports, along with influential individuals have called for closer trilateral cooperation regarding common rules for immigration and security enforcement around the perimeter of the continent. A major part of the U.S. security agenda already includes the defense of North America, but a full blown security zone would bring Canada and Mexico further under its control. A Fortress North America poses a serious threat to our sovereignty and would mean the loss of more civil liberties. 

The on-going BC Rail Scandal - which erupted with search warrant raids on B.C. legislature offices in December 2003 - has  reached its sixth anniversary.  The trial of three accused cabinet aides arising from the raids has still not taken place. Questions about procedures and B.C prosecution methods, of course, keep being raised.

by Rady Ananda

Global Research, January 3, 2010

In what is being described as the first ever and most comprehensive study of the effects of genetically modified foods on mammalian health, researchers have linked organ damage with consumption of Monsanto’s GM maize.

All three varieties of GM corn, Mon 810, Mon 863 and NK 603, were approved for consumption by US, European and several other national food safety authorities. Made public by European authorities in 2005, Monsanto’s confidential raw data of its 2002 feeding trials on rats that these researchers analyzed is the same data, ironically, that was used to approve them in different parts of the world.

In the 60s we were a few short steps away from the dream of democratic peace and prosperity our ancestors had fought for for centuries - and here we are as the first decade of the 21st century stumbles to an end on the edge of the abyss with nothing but grim in sight as chaos and turmoil threaten from all sides -

by F. William Engdahl

The Council of Europe member states will launch an inquiry in January 2010 on the influence of the pharmaceutical companies on the global swine flu campaign, focusing especially on extent of the pharma‘s industry’s influence on WHO. The Health Committee of the EU Parliament has unanimously passed a resolution calling for the inquiry. The step is a long-overdue move to public transparency of a “Golden Triangle” of drug corruption between WHO, the pharma industry and academic scientists that has permanently damaged the lives of millions and even caused death.