From ron at resist.ca  Tue Dec  2 16:52:04 2003
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Tue, 2 Dec 2003 16:52:04 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [news] Iraqis do not trust U.S.-led forces  survey
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.53.0312021651510.6681@resist.ca>



---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 02 Dec 2003 16:07:37 -0800
From: shniad at sfu.ca
To: shniad at sfu.ca
Subject: [pr-x] Iraqis do not trust U.S.-led forces  survey

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3917307

Reuters     December 1, 2003

Iraqis do not trust U.S.-led forces ? survey

By Gideon Long

London - Nearly 80 percent of Iraqis have little or no trust in U.S.-led
occupying forces and most place their faith in religious leaders instead,
according to a major survey published in Britain on Monday.

Nearly half regard the removal of former president Saddam Hussein as the
best thing to have happened in the last 12 months while a third said the
war, bombings and defeat of the Iraqi army in April was the worst.

"Interestingly, there appears no obvious link between best and worst thing,"
the authors of the survey said. "The very troops which liberated Iraqis from
Saddam are the most mistrusted institution in Iraq today."

The survey, published by independent British research consultancy Oxford
Research International (ORI), samples the views of 3,244 Iraqis, interviewed
in their own homes in October and early November.

It offers a rare glimpse for Westerners into the mindset of ordinary Iraqis
and is shot through with ironies and contradictions.

For example, while 70 percent of those surveyed said they had confidence in
religious leaders, the same number regarded ideas, morality, and "religious
guidance" as the responsibility of individuals, not government.

"This challenges the assumption that Iraqis want a religious regime," the
authors said, adding that less than one percent wanted to see an Islamic
government installed in Iraq during the next 12 months.

While 90 percent of respondents wanted a democratic government, 71 percent
favoured "a strong Iraqi leader." Only 12 percent opted for "a government
made up mainly of religious leaders".

Two thirds of Iraqis regard "regaining public security" as the country's top
priority and few seemed concerned with vendettas against the old regime --
91 percent said dealing with members of the previous government was "of no
priority at all".

The section on "trust in organisations" will make edifying reading for U.S.
and British forces, grappling to bring peace to the country seven months
after the war.

When asked to rate their confidence in 11 organisations -- including Iraq's
governing council, the new Iraqi army, the police and the United Nations --
the U.S.-led coalition was the least trusted.

Some 57 percent of those questioned said they had no trust in the U.S.-led
coalition and a further 22 percent said they had very little trust. Only
eight percent said they had a great deal of confidence in the occupying
force.

In contrast, 42 percent of Iraqis said they had a great deal of trust in
Iraq's religious leaders and another 28 percent had "quite a lot" of trust.
Only 11 percent had none at all.


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From ron at resist.ca  Wed Dec 10 12:20:39 2003
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2003 12:20:39 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [news] All charges dropped - by Jaggi Singh
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.53.0312101219520.19941@resist.ca>


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2003 08:52:02 -0800
From: Tom Childs <childst at groupwise.douglas.bc.ca>

http://www.rabble.ca/in_your_own_words.shtml?x=29055

All charges dropped

I was targeted for arrest and nabbed off the street by an undercover
snatch squad

by Jaggi Singh
December 9, 2003

After more than two-and-a-half years, all charges against me
related to the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City (April
2001) have been dropped.

Last week, Judge Beaulieu of the Quebec Superior Court
ordered a stay of proceedings in response to pre-trial
motions I made for unreasonable delay and abuse of
process. A three-week jury trial that was to begin in January
2004 * which would have involved a huge effort in terms of
work, expenses and logistics * has now been cancelled.
While the stay of proceedings prevents me from going directly
before a jury to be acquitted, it is still a huge victory, and
once again deprives the police of a conviction in court.

There are many other Summit of the Americas cases pending,
including a current jury trial involving three defendants who
were charged separately but are being tried together: Luke
Parkinson of Fredericton, N.B.; Denis Fortin of Montreal; and
Colin O'Connor of Peterborough, Ontario. They are facing riot
charges, and are defended by Pascal Lescarbeau (who acted
as my legal advisor, and very capably argued my recent
pre-trial motions). The trial is expected to last three weeks.

To date, there have been many acquittals, a few deals (which
have been especially tempting for out-of-town defendants)
as well as a few guilty verdicts for the hundreds of people
who were arrested and charged during the Quebec City
uprising against the Summit of the Americas and the FTAA. A
written summary of the Quebec City Summit cases is
forthcoming, and will provide a useful insight into the use of
the state, police and courts against dissent (and the
resilience of a protest movement that has tried to meet the
legal challenge head-on, with some substantial victories).

In my case, I was targeted for arrest and nabbed off the
street by an undercover snatch squad a few hours after the
fence was torn down during the Carnival Against Capitalism
march on April 20, 2001 in Quebec City. I was charged with
participating in a riot, breach of conditions, and possessing a
dangerous weapon: a teddy-bear launching catapult. I was
detained for 17 days in prison before winning bail. During
various court hearings while I was in detention, police
witnesses and crown attorneys alleged that I was the leader
of the demonstration, and that the catapult was used to
launch rocks and Molotov cocktails. One officer testified under
oath that the teddy bears could have transformed into
Molotovs (no joke). The police did "ballistics tests" on the
catapult which were recorded on video, after the catapult
was seized from an affinity group from Ottawa (the
"Lanark-ists") by the police.

In order to be freed from prison, I had to agree to conditions
of release that included a ban on "being a leader," and a ban
on using a megaphone anywhere in Canada (again, no joke).
Twice since my release, I've been charged with breaking
those conditions at demonstrations, and still face trials in
those cases. The conditions have been extended to ban me
from amplifying my voice in any demonstration for any reason
whatsoever, anywhere in Canada (yet again, no joke).

In a rather strongly-worded ruling last week, the judge
agreed with many of my arguments, and wrote: "[The
defendant] has shown that the bail conditions imposed on
May 2001 have restrained his right to freedom, opinion,
expression and the right of freedom of association as
protected by article 2 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and
Freedoms." Over the entire court process, there were more
than two dozen court hearings related to my case, most of
which I was obliged to attend in person from Montreal.

I cannot properly thank everyone who has shown incredible
support and solidarity starting moments after I was nabbed
off the street in Quebec City, in so many different ways: court
support, material support, good advice, translation, words of
encouragement, organizing campaigns. The support and
solidarity from so many places, in so many ways, over such a
long period of time, was so crucial to being able to effectively
fight these charges.

I want to particularly thank all the organizers who were
active with the Anti-Capitalist Convergence (CLAC) in
Montreal and the Comite d'Accueil (d'Adieu) de Sommet des
Ameriques (CASA) in Quebec City, and also the incredible
support work by members of the Libertas Legal Collective,
and especially Pascal Lescarbeau, who is not just a skilled
lawyer, but a patient teacher and great ally.

In the past two years, I have been facing six trials. I have
now won two important legal victories: the stay of
proceedings last week, and a not-guilty verdict several
months ago by a Montreal jury in relation to another protest.
Still, I have other trials, including "illegal assembly" and other
charges in relation to my involvement in the protest against
Benjamin Netanyahu at Concordia University in September
2002 (for which I was arrested four months later). I will be
dealing with the Concordia trial, and two others (for breach of
conditions), in the coming months, while awaiting a verdict in
a fourth case. To date, I have not been convicted.

Undoubtedly, the most important way that I have maintained
morale throughout these legal proceedings is to participate in
* and to be inspired by * ongoing collective organizing
against war, poverty, capitalism and all forms of exploitation
and oppression. It's been necessary for me to assertively
respond to the legal detours in my way, but I most look
forward to organizing and working with you in our shared
struggle for justice, dignity and liberation.

Finally, the judge also ordered that the Quebec police, who
have had the catapult in their custody ever since April 20,
2001, hand it over to me * who never even used it to begin
with, or even came up with the idea. My personal preference
was to build something called the "Trojan Donut" to break
through police lines, but that never worked out. Various
activists from across Canada who were involved with the
catapult in some way * from Alberta, Ontario and Quebec
City * will brainstorm how best to make use of the
soon-to-be "liberated" catapult.

Jaggi Singh is a freelance writer and activist in Montreal.


--
Tom Childs - Audio/Visual Resources
Douglas College Library
New Westminster, B.C. Canada
T: 604 527-5713 - Library
T: 604 524-9316 - Lulu Island
E: childst at douglas.bc.ca
U: BCGEU Local 703
W: http://www.globaljustice.ca

     "There's no way to delay, that trouble comin' everyday."
                                    --Frank Zappa

Project-X list:
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From ron at resist.ca  Fri Dec 12 20:37:11 2003
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2003 20:37:11 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [news] Judge slams police after bar scuffle with bikers
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.53.0312122035190.20819@resist.ca>


bc cops have been openly criticized quite a bit in the Province recently.
any theories on why that might be?

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2003 11:31:53 -0800 (PST)
From: sabate <sabate at ziplip.com>
To: copb-van-l at lists.resist.ca
Subject: [copb-van-l] Judge slams police after bar scuffle with bikers

Judge slams police after bar scuffle with bikers

Adrienne Tanner
The Province

Wednesday, December 10, 2003

The bikers who met for drinks in Prince George's Generator bar during the annual motorcycle drag races last summer were markedly well-behaved.

The actions of police were another matter.

In a decision last week, Judge Randy Walker harshly criticized the "unnecessary, excessive, gratuitous and unprofessional" behaviour of RCMP officers who arrested two visiting Hells Angels prospects June 20.

"In my view, this constitutes a kind of wild-west mentality that this community does not need," said Walker, tossing out the charges against Mission-area bikers Lee Wiscombe and Jon Charles Tenenbein.

Wiscombe was pepper-sprayed at point-blank range while lying face down in handcuffs with an officer's boot on his head.

Tenenbein, whom the judge ruled was wrongfully arrested for pestering police, was slammed into a wall and pepper-sprayed.

The court decision describes the tension in the packed bar shortly before the altercation between the bikers and three inexperienced, burly police officers.

Wiscombe's troubles began when he walked past an officer and allegedly shoulder-checked him. The rookie officer immediately arrested him. There was no evidence proving Wiscombe struck any of the officers, Walker wrote.

The judge was clearly appalled at the arrest techniques. He referred to testimony that police are trained not to use the powerful spray in close quarters for fear of puncturing a suspect's eye membrane.

"Interestingly, this seems to have escaped the notice of Const. [Joe] Kohut, a 13-year veteran of the RCMP, who seemed prepared to spray anything that moved," Walker wrote of another office who arrived on the scene.

He acquitted Tenenbein of obstructing a police officer on grounds that he was unlawfully arrested.

The judge dismissed an assault charge against Wiscombe because his Charter rights were violated.

"Those officers who consistently, and without fanfare, display patience, tolerance and understated response, ought to be admired and told so," the judge said. "Those who adopt the tactics of Const. Kohut need to be reminded there is a consequence."
_______________________________________________
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copb-van-l at lists.resist.ca
https://lists.resist.ca/mailman/listinfo/copb-van-l


From ron at resist.ca  Fri Dec 12 20:42:35 2003
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2003 20:42:35 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [news] CBC News - Quebec Protests Snarl Traffic, Shipping, Day Care
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.53.0312122039470.20819@resist.ca>


----- Original Message -----
From: "CBC News Online" <nwonline at toronto.cbc.ca>
To: <rgkbc at telus.net>
Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2003 9:14 AM
Subject: CBC News - QUEBEC PROTESTS SNARL TRAFFIC, SHIPPING, DAY CARE


This email has been sent to you by rgkbc1 at hotmail.com
The following is a news item posted on CBC NEWS ONLINE
at http://www.cbc.ca/news
____________________________________________________
QUEBEC PROTESTS SNARL TRAFFIC, SHIPPING, DAY CARE
WebPosted Thu Dec 11 12:05:53 2003

montreal---Thousands of angry public sector workers across Quebec are
staging what they're calling a day of action to protest against Premier
Jean Charest's plans to merge union locals and to contract out some jobs.


Montreal: Protesters block the docks (CP photo)

The Confederation of National Trade Unions (CNTU) organized the mass
protests. While most of the demonstrations are expected in Montreal,
organizers hope a million people will come out across the province.

Montrealers immediately felt the effects of the protests.

The city's morning bus travel was disrupted after the doors of two bus
garages were sealed. Several highways have been blocked by unionized
protesters.

Protesters are stopping ships from entering ports in Montreal, Quebec
City and Trois-Rivi?res.

Hospitals in Montreal have cancelled surgeries. Other hospitals across
the province are reduced to essential services. Parents are scrambling to
find child care as more than half of the city's public day care centres
shut down for the day.

Day care workers are opposed to a decision to raise daily day care fees
to $7 from $5.

Charest Thursday called on union leaders to control their membership and
to immediately restore all public services.

"Now is the time for them to act, and to remind their membership that
they have made a personal commitment that they would express themselves
in the spirit of respect," said Charest.

At issue is Charest's proposal to trim the size of the provincial
government and reduce the presence of unions in the health care sector.
The proposed changes to the Labour Code, Bill 31, will make it easier for
private companies and municipalities to contract out work.

Unions are also protesting against plans to merge collective bargaining
units in hospitals and prevent home day care centre workers from
organizing into unions.

CNTU president Arthur Sanborn said Quebec workers didn't vote for these
changes when they elected Charest.

Charest defended his proposed changes, saying the provincial government
needs more outside contracting and more private sector partnerships to
modernize.

Copyright (C) 2003 CBC. All rights reserved.





From ron at resist.ca  Fri Dec 12 20:51:39 2003
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2003 20:51:39 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [news] Iraqi army walkout over pay
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.53.0312122050590.20819@resist.ca>


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2003 14:10:17 -0800
From: shniad at sfu.ca

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1105204,00.html

The Guardian	 December 12, 2003

Iraqi army walkout over pay

Recruits' mass resignation hits US plan to build up local forces

Rory McCarthy in Baghdad

Nearly half the newly recruited Iraqi army has quit in a row over poor pay,
officials in Baghdad admitted yesterday.

At least 300 troops from the 700-strong 1st Battalion of the New Iraqi Army
walked out less than two months after completing training.

The resignations are a blow to US attempts to build up the Iraqi security
forces, who will have a far greater role in running the country once America
and Britain hand over power on July 1 to an Iraqi government. The troops,
most of whom were recruited from the ranks of Saddam Hussein's army,
complained that they were paid less than police officers: $50 (about ?30) a
month, against $120 a month paid to police. Officers were paid $180, which
puts them on the same wage as senior police.

"They said they were not happy with their terms and conditions and they
didn't obey the instructions of their commanding officers and therefore they
are no longer soldiers in the 1st Battalion of the New Iraqi Army," said an
official from the coalition provisional authority, the US-led administration
in Baghdad.

"They felt that they should be paid more money than the police, because they
felt the police could go home at night and they didn't go home at night,"
the official said. "That's their point of view."

The pay scales of all the security forces are under review as a result of
the mass resignations. The official added that the salaries were now "hugely
higher" than the typical $2 monthly wage paid to Saddam's conscript army.
"We will review the salaries, but I think their remuneration package at the
moment is at least very fair," he said.

In May, Paul Bremer, the civil administrator of Iraq, demobilised the old
army, raising a storm of protest from the 400,000 soldiers put out of work.


The troops were encouraged to apply for the new army, although senior
officers were banned. Training was conducted by a private American military
contractor, Vinnell Corp. In October, the new battalion had a passing out
parade, accompanied by a US military band, at which they were hailed as the
core of a new security force for Iraq.

So far only the first battalion has completed the eight-week training course
and is now working alongside the US Army's 4th Infantry Division,
responsible for the troubled Tikrit area north of Baghdad.

A second battalion is being trained and more will follow next year, for
which the US has proposed spending $2bn. Eventually the US hopes to build up
an army of 35,000 Iraqis, who will work alongside the several other security
forces: the much larger police force, the border police, a building guard
force, and a paramilitary civil defence corps. In total, the US plans to
have as many as 207,000 Iraqis in the various security units.

Separately, the US military said an 82nd Airborne Division base in Ramadi,
north-west of Baghdad, was attacked yesterday, apparently with a suicide car
bomb. Three Iraqis in the car were killed.

? Two journalists from Time magazine were wounded, one seriously, on
Wednesday night as they joined a patrol in a US military humvee in Baghdad.
A grenade was thrown at the vehicle. Two soldiers were also injured.


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initiated for the (re)building of the Left.


From ron at resist.ca  Fri Dec 12 20:57:30 2003
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2003 20:57:30 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [news] Toronto officer's punch caught on tape
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.53.0312122057040.20819@resist.ca>


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2003 16:46:02 -0800 (PST)
From: sabate <sabate at ziplip.com>
To: copb-van-l at lists.resist.ca
Subject: [copb-van-l] Toronto officer's punch caught on tape

Officer's punch caught on tape
Man charged with shoving constable

Attack on him ignored in reports

Dec. 12, 2003. 09:51 AM
BETSY POWELL
CRIME REPORTER
Toronto Star

A videotape is at the centre of allegations that a 21-year-old man charged with assaulting a Toronto police officer was himself the victim of an unprovoked punch by an officer during an early morning fracas outside a doughnut shop.

The videotape is now in the hands of city police internal affairs investigators.

The recording made by Ottawa tourists last Aug. 4 of the incident outside a Tim Hortons outlet on Albion Rd. near Highway 27 has just been released by the criminal lawyer representing Said Jama Jama.

The Somali-born warehouse worker was charged with assaulting a police officer and causing a disturbance. His trial date is set for June 7.

But his lawyer, Andrew Vaughan, says the crown should instead withdraw the charges.

Jama Jama says he did nothing to incite the officer and claims he was subsequently chased and beaten by police.

Four officers say in their notes Jama Jama pushed the officer, but none mention that Jama Jama was punched by a police officer.

Police also say Jama Jama told them his injuries were the result of an earlier fight at the party. Jama Jama denies this and in an earlier portion of the tape, before police arrived, he appears to be uninjured.

The amateur videotape includes audio and footage shot from inside a car in the parking lot outside the doughnut shop.

It captures a few minutes of two groups of men arguing and, as things heat up, some pushing and shoving. Throughout the videotaped altercation, Jama Jama, wearing an oversized white T-shirt, jeans and a hat, can be seen acting as a peacemaker.

When a police cruiser pulls up and into the range of the video camera, Jama Jama appears to be crouching over one of the combatants before most of them scatter and run away. Jama Jama, however, remains and stands with his hands down at his side. The camera follows two officers leaving their vehicle and then one of them as he moves toward Jama Jama.

The camera momentarily veers away ? the person behind the camera appears to duck down ? and there are a few seconds where Jama Jama and the officer can't be seen. But a moment later, the tape clearly shows the officer grabbing Jama Jama, throwing him against a car and punching him in the face with his gloved left fist. "This is abhorrent police misconduct," Vaughan said yesterday.

Chief Julian Fantino has seen the videotape. "We're going to get to the bottom of it," he said yesterday outside a police services board meeting. "I appreciate the fact that we have been given the opportunity to delve into it. And we're doing that and there will be answers, and when those are available we'll make those known. And in the meantime we just have to let the investigators do their work."

At his lawyer's office yesterday, a soft-spoken Jama Jama disputed the officers' claim that he provoked Constable Roy Preston. "This guy was big. There's no way that I could put my hands on the officer." Jama Jama is 5-foot-7 and weighed about 135 pounds at the time of the incident.

On the desk in front of Jama Jama yesterday was a collection of photographs he said were taken the following day. They show him with a badly bruised face, swollen lip and a missing tooth. Jama Jama says the brunt of his injuries happened across the road when four officers caught up to him. There is no videotape footage of what happened after Jama Jama ran from the scene.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
`This guy was big. There's no way that I could put my hands on the officer.'

Said Jama Jama, 21, on charges he assaulted an officer

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


In his notes, Preston says the accused (Jama Jama) apologized for hitting him. His notes also refer to Jama Jama telling officers he was injured during fights at a party held earlier in the evening to celebrate Caribana.

Jama Jama said he and others gathered outside Tim Hortons did attend an earlier party on Albion Rd. where police were called because of disturbances. But Jama Jama said he was not involved in fights at the party.

Also released by Vaughan yesterday was the police synopsis of the incident and photocopies of the officers' notes. Vaughan says he waited to see the crown's evidence before acknowledging the existence of the videotape. Prior to the start of a trial, the crown must turn over all evidence as part of mandatory disclosure rules.

No one disputes an altercation among a group of men was taking place when police pulled up outside the doughnut shop at 5:15 a.m. on Aug. 4.

"Officers identified themselves as they approached and PC Roy Preston took control of one of the combatants, the accused, by grabbing his arm. The accused turned around and with both arms struck out at the officer, hitting him in the upper chest. The accused broke free from the officer and began running," reads the synopsis written by Constable Doreen Molyneaux of 23 Division.

"The officers who came on scene observed the accused assault PC Preston and took up chase. The accused was subdued a short distance away, arrested and transported to 23 Division."

There is no mention of Preston punching Jama Jama. Preston and other officers don't mention a punch either.

"I have male by the arm (left) bringing him to side of vehicle," reads arresting officer Preston's account. "Male strikes out with both arms hitting me in upper chest. Tell male to stop resisting and attempt to take control of male, male again breaks free and starts running over boulevard north over Albion Rd."

Constable Jason Taylor's notes describe similar circumstances.

"Observe P.C. Preston #99925 attempt to take physical control of male ? took male by left arm. Male resists by swinging both arms and striking P.C. Preston #99925 in upper chest. P.C. Preston #99925 attempt to again control of male. Male runs north across Albion Rd. into ditch."

Fantino was asked by reporters yesterday about the status of the officers while the investigation is ongoing. "I can't tell you that right now because that's a determination that is going to have to be made as the investigation progresses."

Jama Jama, who is a landed immigrant after arriving in Canada from Somalia in 1995, has no criminal convictions. He said yesterday he is still suffering from his injuries and feels badly because he feels the officers "wanted to destroy my dignity or destroy my life when they charge me for something I didn't commit."

He says he shouldn't have run away but was scared and didn't want to wait for the next blow. "I wasn't thinking, but I know it's bad to run from the cops."

Vaughan said he's not trying to make this into a racial incident. "I'm not saying that the division where these police officers came from is a bad division. I'm not casting aspersions on that division or the Toronto Police Service as a whole."

But Vaughan says it is a good thing there is a videotape, and Jama Jama concurs. "Oh man, I'm lucky. Imagine if there was no tape what would happen to me. Probably I would be going back home for no reason."

A landed immigrant can be deported if he commits a criminal offence.

with file from Jack Lakey

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From about_unions at ufcw.net  Sun Dec 14 19:51:54 2003
From: about_unions at ufcw.net (about unions)
Date: Sun, 14 Dec 2003 21:51:54 -0600
Subject: [news] Workplace Activist Incurs the Wrath of Loblaws
Message-ID: <001001c3c2be$c82134a0$69a64d18@wp.shawcable.net>

Workplace Activist Incurs the Wrath of Loblaws

Ben Blasdell, a member of UFCW Local 1000a who took a stand against a <a href="http://www.ufcw.net/articles/UFCW_1000a/secret_deals_done_dirt_cheap.php">secret deal</a> made by his employer, the hugely profitable Loblaw Companies and his union, has been suspended indefinitely from his job at a Loblaws supermarket in Collingwood Ontario.

With a decision pending in the duty of fair representation complaint he filed against the UFCW earlier this year, Blasdell was summoned to his manager's office this past Monday and questioned about his whereabouts on a day in November when he was off work due to illness. Blasdell states that he was legitimately off sick that day (his third sick day so far this year) and he has a doctor's note to prove it. The company, however, suspended him indefinitely.

The union reformer believes that the suspension may have something to do with his opposition to the secret deal and is planning to challenge the suspension as a form of reprisal for exercising his legal rights.

Friends and supporters of Ben Blasdell have established a legal defence fund to help him with the cost of legal representation that he'll need to fight this latest attack on workers' rights. 

If you would like to support Ben and his fight for workers rights, you can make your donation at any branch of the Bank of Montreal, to account name "Members for Democracy 1000a" or "MFD 1000a", account #8092-678, branch transit #2303.


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From ron at resist.ca  Mon Dec 15 19:28:59 2003
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2003 19:28:59 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [news] Michael Moore on Saddam, "Finally Back in American Hands"
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.53.0312151928260.16152@resist.ca>



---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2003 16:21:52 -0800
From: shniad at sfu.ca

Michael Moore on Saddam, "Finally Back in American Hands"

We Finally Got Our Frankenstein...and He Was In a Spider Hole!

by Michael Moore December 14, 2003

Thank God Saddam is finally back in American hands! He must have really
missed us. Man, he sure looked bad! But, at least he got a free dental exam
today. That's something most Americans can't get.

America used to like Saddam. We LOVED Saddam. We funded him. We armed him.
We helped him gas Iranian troops.

But then he screwed up. He invaded the dictatorship of Kuwait and, in doing
so, did the worst thing imaginable -- he threatened an even BETTER friend of
ours: the dictatorship of Saudi Arabia, and its vast oil reserves. The
Bushes and the Saudi royal family were and are close business partners, and
Saddam, back in 1990, committed a royal blunder by getting a little too
close to their wealthy holdings. Things went downhill for Saddam from there.


But it wasn't always that way. Saddam was our good friend and ally. We
supported his regime. It wasn?t the first time we had helped a murderer. We
liked playing Dr. Frankenstein. We created a lot of monsters -- the Shah of
Iran, Somoza of Nicaragua, Pinochet of Chile -- and then we expressed
ignorance or shock when they ran amok and massacred people. We liked Saddam
because he was willing to fight the Ayatollah. So we made sure that he got
billions of dollars to purchase weapons. Weapons of mass destruction. That's
right, he had them. We should know -- we gave them to him!

We allowed and encouraged American corporations to do business with Saddam
in the 1980s. That's how he got chemical and biological agents so he could
use them in chemical and biological weapons. Here's the list of some of the
stuff we sent him (according to a 1994 U.S. Senate report):

* Bacillus Anthracis, cause of anthrax.

* Clostridium Botulinum, a source of botulinum toxin.

* Histoplasma Capsulatam, cause of a disease attacking lungs, brain, spinal
cord, and heart.

* Brucella Melitensis, a bacteria that can damage major organs.

* Clostridium Perfringens, a highly toxic bacteria causing systemic illness.


* Clostridium tetani, a highly toxigenic substance.

And here are some of the American corporations who helped to prop Saddam up
by doing business with him: AT&T, Bechtel, Caterpillar, Dow Chemical,
Dupont, Kodak, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM (for a full list of companies and
descriptions of how they helped Saddam, go here:
http://www.laweekly.com/ink/03/23/news-crogan.php).

We were so cozy with dear old Saddam that we decided to feed him satellite
images so he could locate where the Iranian troops were. We pretty much knew
how he would use the information, and sure enough, as soon as we sent him
the spy photos, he gassed those troops. And we kept quiet. Because he was
our friend, and the Iranians were the "enemy." A year after he first gassed
the Iranians, we reestablished full diplomatic relations with him!

Later he gassed his own people, the Kurds. You would think that would force
us to disassociate ourselves from him. Congress tried to impose economic
sanctions on Saddam, but the Reagan White House quickly rejected that idea
-- they wouldn?t let anything derail their good buddy Saddam. We had a
virtual love fest with this Frankenstein whom we (in part) created.

And, just like the mythical Frankenstein, Saddam eventually spun out of
control. He would no longer do what he was told by his master. Saddam had to
be caught. And now that he has been brought back from the wilderness,
perhaps he will have something to say about his creators. Maybe we can learn
something... interesting. Maybe Don Rumsfeld could smile and shake Saddam's
hand again. Just like he did when he went to see him in 1983 (see the photo
here: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/).

Maybe we never would have been in the situation we're in if Rumsfeld, Bush,
Sr., and company hadn't been so excited back in the 80s about their friendly
monster in the desert.

Meanwhile, anybody know where the guy is who killed 3,000 people on 9/11?
Our other Frankenstein?? Maybe he's in a mouse hole.

So many of our little monsters, so little time before the next election.

Stay strong, Democratic candidates. Quit sounding like a bunch of wusses.
These bastards sent us to war on a lie, the killing will not stop, the Arab
world hates us with a passion, and we will pay for this out of our pockets
for years to come. Nothing that happened today (or in the past 9 months) has
made us ONE BIT safer in our post-9/11 world. Saddam was never a threat to
our national security. Only our desire to play Dr. Frankenstein dooms us
all.

Yours,

Michael Moore

mmflint at aol.com

www.michaelmoore.com

For a look back to the better times of our relationship with Saddam Hussein,
see the following:

Patrick E. Tyler, "Officers say U.S. aided Iraq in war despite use of gas,
New York Times, August 18, 2002.

"U.S. Chemical and Biological Warfare-Related Dual Use Exports to Iraq and
their possible impact on health consequences of the Gulf War," 1994 Report
by the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affiars.

William Blum's cover story in the April 1998 issue of The Progressive,
"Anthrax for Export.?

Jim Crogan's April 25-May 1, 2003 report in the LA Weekly, "Made in the USA,
Part III: The Dishonor Roll."

"Iraq: U.S. military items exported or transferred to Iraq in the 1980s,"
United States General Accounting Office, released February 7, 1994.

"U.S. had key role in Iraq buildup; trade in chemical arms allowed despite
their use on Iranians and Kurds," Washington Post, December 30, 2002.

"Iraqgate: Saddam Hussein, U.S. policy and the prelude to the Persian Gulf
War, 1980-1994," The National Security Archive, 20030100,0100,0100



From ron at resist.ca  Mon Dec 15 19:31:38 2003
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2003 19:31:38 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [news] Britannia Trial Update #3
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.53.0312151931120.16152@resist.ca>



---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2003 17:37:45 -0800
From: Maryann Abbs / Eric Doherty <edoherty at portal.ca>

BRITANNIA TRIAL UPDATE #3 - December 13, 2003

Police and Prosecution Punish Defendants

The Britannia Trial has wrapped up for a month and is set to resume
again on January 20.  More days are also tentatively set in late
March/early April.  The prosecution continues to drag out this trial and
punish defendants by forcing them to spend a huge amount of time, money
and emotional resources.  So far, the state has called fewer than half
of its' witnesses - we can expect to hear
from at least 14 more police officers.

We have not heard any real evidence to substantiate the charges against
the Britannia 9.  We have
heard, however, that the police agree that the demonstration was calm
and relaxed until George Feenstra was arrested during his clown act.
Police Constable Green, one of the two cops who took Feenstra into
custody,  admitted on the stand that he wouldn't have arrested Reverend
Feenstra - that his partner, officer Pacey, was being overzealous.

We heard another officer admit that he "straight-armed" (punched in the
face)
 the young boy who was later arrested. Officer Harty admitted grabbing
the boy he thought was 11 by the neck. The police also testified that
they had as many as 60 armed officers at the demonstration because
Commercial Drive is known in the force as an "anti-police" area.

What we have heard so far is pretty clear.  People gathered to protest
Gordon Campbell  - when Gordon Campbell announced that he was no longer
coming, the police should simply have left the area.  Instead, they
provoked an incident by arresting and assaulting community elder George
Feenstra, and they again reacted violently when the crowd objected to
his arrest.  The police are punishing the community for standing up to
police violence and daring to suggest that that the police were in the
wrong.  They are also attempting to criminalize dissent and protest by
continuing to press forward with charges of unlawful assembly and
causing a disturbance.

Watch for more news about court dates and other ways to get involved!








From ron at resist.ca  Tue Dec 16 17:51:06 2003
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2003 17:51:06 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [news] Police hold their tongues
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.53.0312161750110.9285@resist.ca>


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2003 13:31:45 -0800 (PST)
From: sabate <sabate at ziplip.com>

Police hold their tongues

Adrienne Tanner
The Province
Tuesday, December 16, 2003

Five police officers scheduled to testify at a public hearing into the
death of Jeff Berg are refusing to co-operate with the police complaint
commission's lawyer.

Berg died in Oct. 2000 of injuries he received during his arrest. The
hearing will determine whether the level of force used by arresting
Vancouver police officer David Bruce-Thomas was excessive.

Witnesses told The Province that police beat Berg as he tried to
surrender.

The hearing is less than a month away and three officers who were
witnesses at the arrest are refusing to grant pre-hearing interviews to
commission lawyer Dana Urban.

"They are the most important witnesses," said Urban, who has interviewed
more than 60 people, including 30 police officers.

One of the three, Const. Donald McFaul, is now a police officer in
Edmonton. Another retired shortly after Berg's death and the third is
still a serving member in Vancouver.

Also refusing to meet Urban is the major crimes detective, now retired,
who investigated the death.

The fifth officer is the lead internal affairs investigator who found that
Berg struggled during the arrest and Bruce-Thomas used appropriate force
to subdue him.

All the officers will be subpoenaed to testify.

But without pre-interviews, Urban said he is unable to prepare an agreed
statement of facts, an important step.

He warned adjudicator Brian Weddell the delays may mean the hearing, set
to begin Jan. 19, will have to be adjourned.

Kevin Woodall represents a large number of the police officers who will be
called to testify and said the public should not come to wrong
conclusions.

"The suggestion there has been a lack of co-operation has been completely
baseless."

The internal affairs investigator is the only one of Woodall's clients to
refuse a pre-hearing interview. Woodall said he will argue that forcing
the officer to testify would exceed the public hearing mandate.

The other officer to refuse an interview will testify when called to do
so, said department spokeswoman Anne Drennan.

She said he had a problem with the interview process.




From pnbrown at vcn.bc.ca  Tue Dec 16 23:35:14 2003
From: pnbrown at vcn.bc.ca (Paul Browning)
Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2003 23:35:14 -0800
Subject: [news] Fw: [stopwar_van] Missile Defence Canada could join no debate
Message-ID: <003a01c3c470$4f9e1fd0$6401a8c0@PAUL>


----- Original Message ----- 
From: Elsie Dean 
To: stopwar_van at yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Tuesday, December 16, 2003 12:27 PM
Subject: [stopwar_van] Missile Defence Canada could join no debate


Most Canadians don't even know we're in negotiations, only scraps of information,

Dateline: Monday, December 15, 2003 

by Maude Barlow and Steven Staples 

It may be only a matter of days before Canada joins George W. Bush's controversial national missile defence system without any Parliamentary or public debate. A Cabinet decision could lock Canada into a deal with the Pentagon and accelerate our military and economic integration with the United States. 

Paul Martin has made his support for missile defence very clear, and John McCallum reported in September that the negotiations with the Americans for Canada to join their missile defence plan "were going well" and he would bring it back to Cabinet when an agreement had been reached, sometime later in the fall. 

But most Canadians do not even know we are in negotiations and the government has released only scraps of information on their progress. That's why we deserve a full Parliamentary and public debate before anything is signed. 

HOW MUCH WILL MISSILE DEFENCE COST CANADIAN TAXPAYERS? Canada's share could be many billions of dollars, draining resources from other priorities for decades to come. The Pentagon admits the system's final cost defies estimation, but some analysts put it at $200-billion or more. The Bush administration has made it clear that it expects its allies to help pay for the War on Terrorism, including missile defence. 

Canadian officials have downplayed estimates, some even suggesting it may cost Canada next to nothing. That's a pipe dream. A similar joint aerospace project costs Canada $150-million US just to get into the room, let alone a seat at the table. A military official recently indicated that the department has nearly a half-billion dollars ready to pay for Canada's participation in missile defence. 

WILL NEW MILITARY BASES AND MISSILES BE DEPLOYED IN CANADA? The US is building the missile defence system in phases; it is a crude system, to be deployed in 2004, with subsequent phases adding new capabilities to the system. This strategy allows the system to win political approval early so that more controversial components can be added later. 

Using Canadian territory would improve the early detection of missiles launched from the Middle East (though none exist at present), so Canada could be required to build new radar and interceptor missile sites in the Arctic and on the East Coast. 

But beyond this, the Pentagon plans to deploy interceptor missiles aboard warships that may need to use Canadian territorial waters. Interceptor missiles could similarly be put aboard our own ships that patrol regularly with US aircraft carrier battle groups around the world. 

WILL THE AMERICANS PUT WEAPONS IN SPACE AS PART OF THE SYSTEM? Canada's foreign policy remains opposed to placing weapons in space, and Bill Graham recently flatly denied that our involvement in missile defence will break this commitment. But every American official associated with missile defence, including Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld himself, considers spacebased weapons part of future phases of the system. 

The Bush administration has been frank in its displeasure with Canada's refusal to endorse the invasion of Iraq. In a private meeting with Canadian corporate leaders seeking closer US ties last April in Washington, an angry US defense adviser, Richard Perle, reportedly warned that "Canada had better realize in future where its best interests lie." 

The corporations got the message, and now dozens of CEOs, organized by long-time free trader Tom d'Aquino, have launched a multimillion-dollar campaign to convince Canada to help fuel the United States' global military and economic ambitions. They think that joining national missile defence will help protect Canada's access to the US market. 

But there was an important message for Paul Martin in Jean Chr?tien's farewell speech to the Liberal Party leadership convention. Perhaps looking directly at Paul Martin sitting in the crowd, the outgoing leader said, "Beware of those on the right who put the narrow bottom line ahead of everything else." 

A Cabinet decision now to join missile defence would be a victory for big business, and a defeat for Canadian democracy. In May the government promised to bring the issue before Canadians. Chr?tien said,"There will be a debate in the House of Commons before a decision is reached." 

Paul Martin's first test as Prime Minster will be on the issue of missile defence. Will he wait and bring it before the House of Commons for a debate next year, or will he sign a deal in the back room? 

A website has been established at www.ceasefire.ca for people to call for a parliamentary and public debate on missile defence. We hope that Paul Martin thinks twice about rushing to be George W. Bush's best friend, and thinks more about Jean Chr?tien's eleventh-hour warning. He might be relieved he did come election time next year. 

Maude Barlow is National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians. Steven Staples is Director of the Project on the Corporate- Security State for the Polaris Institute. 



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stopwar_van-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com





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From ron at resist.ca  Wed Dec 17 11:12:23 2003
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2003 11:12:23 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [news] MacPhail savages IWA leader along with usual villains
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.53.0312171111480.32446@resist.ca>


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2003 11:04:01 -0800
From: shniad at sfu.ca

Vancouver Sun	  December 17, 2003

MacPhail savages IWA leader along with usual villains

Vaughn Palmer

Victoria - When the legislature reconvened Tuesday to end the strike in the
coastal forest industry, Opposition leader Joy MacPhail wasted no time
saying who was behind this latest government interference in collective
bargaining.

She pointed the finger at Dave Haggard, national president of IWA Canada.

A surprising choice, given the ties between his union and her political
party.

But Haggard earned MacPhail's scorn for his behind-the-scenes role in urging
the Liberals to end the strike and his public endorsement of legislation
that imposes binding arbitration on his members without a vote.

When the B.C. Liberals claimed the support of the IWA for their Coastal
Forest Industry Dispute Settlement Act, MacPhail interrupted to say that it
was "Haggard," not the union, who'd supported them.

"Yeah, and that's doing a lot for his reputation," she heckled, withering in
her sarcasm. She challenged the Liberals to talk to idled workers for a more
reliable take on the union position.

She went after Haggard again in her own remarks on the bill, heaping scorn
on him for participating in the press conference Sunday where the government
announced it was intervening in the dispute.

There was Premier Gordon Campbell. Flanking him, Duncan Davies, head of the
industry association. Alongside both of them, Haggard from the IWA.

"A nice photo op," she sneered. "A pre-Christmas, pre-vacation photo-op for
the premier. Both of them were standing there saying: 'We want an
agreement.' "

But if the union leader and the industry head really wanted an agreement,
then why hadn't they negotiated one at the bargaining table? MacPhail
demanded.

After all, they were "big boys," they had been down that road many times
before.

Why did they need the government? The bill? The legislature?

"Is there something wrong with their characters that they need the force of
legislation to do what is right and what they have admitted is right and
what they've acknowledged they want, which is to get a collective agreement?


"Or is this some sort of southern U.S. state, where the ward bosses come in
and make decision and then the legislature rubber stamps them? Is that what
we're doing here today? You bet it is."

She wasn't finished excoriating Haggard.

The IWA leader, she went on to say, was likely to get a rough ride from his
members:

"As union members see the onerous nature of this legislation and how much
they are losing. . . they, too, will have questions for their union
leadership."

She figured they'd want to know why a supposed back-to-work law did not
actually provide for them to return to work.

Several employers, as she noted, have already indicated they would not be
restarting operations for weeks, perhaps months.

All the while the arbitration process will be proceeding toward a finishing
date of May 31, as dictated by the legislation.

"By the time many workers are headed back to the job in the spring," she
said, "it will be a matter of mere weeks before the hammer of the binding
arbitration comes down."

She noted how the legislation says arbitrator Don Munroe "must consider the
need for terms and conditions of employment that are consistent with the
economic viability and competitiveness of the coastal forest industry in
both the short and the long term."

Munroe is also obliged to take into account the interests of the employees,
their union and good labour management relations.

But MacPhail, for her part, had no doubt where things were headed. The
reference to economic viability was "exactly what the industry wanted." That
meant concessions for the union.

Worst of all, as she saw it, the legislation denied IWA workers a vote on
whether they wanted to go back to work or submit to binding arbitration.

"God forbid, "she fulminated, "that the thousands of IWA workers who have
worked in this industry for decades should get a say in their future."

The Opposition leader didn't spare the other players, blasting the companies
for intransigence, the Liberals for siding with the employers.

And to put her comments on Haggard into perspective, one should note that
she's already announced her departure from politics and he will probably
retire as well.

Still, there was no denying the significance of her attack.

The wreckage of the coastal forest industry, painful as it is for workers,
companies and communities, has also strained the relationship between the
New Democratic Party and organized labour.

vpalmer at direct.ca



http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/columnists/story.asp?id=3265AAF
5-47FA-4EBE-A46D-95E42829225F

Project-X list:
initiated for the (re)building of the Left.


From ron at resist.ca  Fri Dec 19 07:46:29 2003
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2003 07:46:29 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [news] Unions resist labor agenda of premier in Quebec
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.53.0312190745580.23657@resist.ca>


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2003 16:01:16 -0800
From: shniad at sfu.ca

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/17/international/americas/17CANA.html

New York Times	   December 17, 2003

Unions resist labor agenda of premier in Quebec

By Clifford Krauss

Quebec ? Quebec's powerful labor unions have moved to counter Premier Jean
Charest's agenda of budget cutting, privatization and limits on labor's
collective bargaining power with accelerated disruptions of services and
noisy marches across the province.

Union members have pelted government buildings with eggs and have held
almost daily rallies in front of Mr. Charest's Montreal office and in front
of the provincial legislative building in Quebec City despite blustery
weather.

The 500,000-member Quebec Federation of Labor is threatening a general
strike if Mr. Charest does not retreat from a sweeping legislative
initiative to rewrite the provincial labor code to allow hospitals and other
government agencies to employ more contract workers who are not union
members. The new laws would also raise fees for public day care services to
cut budget deficits and limit union collective bargaining in private nursing
homes.

On Thursday, tens of thousands of workers blocked major highways around the
province, disrupted public transit in Montreal and Quebec City during the
morning rush hour and closed down hundreds of day care centers, forcing many
working parents to stay home. Several hospitals were forced to postpone
elective surgery because of the disruptions.

"I've never seen such disgusting garbage in 40 years," Henri Masse, leader
of the Quebec Federation of Labor, told demonstrators in Quebec City on
Monday, referring to the government's method of changing the labor laws.

Mr. Charest defied the threats on Monday by moving to use his legislative
majority to limit debate on eight bills that the unions have opposed, and
then moved to steamroll them into law by Wednesday or Thursday.

"The government has no intention of yielding to intimidation or blackmail,"
Mr. Charest told reporters. "Insults, intimidation and vandalism are always
a disgrace to democracy."

Mr. Charest's Liberals won a landslide victory against the separatist Parti
Qu?b?cois last April by promising to cut taxes, government bureaucracy and
welfare rolls. But many voters chose the Liberals over the separatists
because of a general fatigue over the decades-old debate over whether Quebec
should remain part of Canada, making his mandate somewhat ambiguous on
economic policy.

How Mr. Charest withstands the labor offensive may help define how far he
can go with his agenda. It may also help determine whether the Parti
Qu?b?cois can make a comeback in provincial elections to be held in three
years or so to push ahead with their plans for a third separatist
referendum.

So far, however, the separatist party has not been able to regain its
footing. Its federal partner, the Bloc Qu?b?cois, is expected to lose many
seats to the federal Liberal Party in federal elections expected next
spring. Missteps by Mr. Charest, however, could hurt Prime Minister Paul
Martin's efforts to win a landslide Liberal victory.

With the separatists weaker than they have been in decades, unions
representing 1.2 million workers have at least temporarily become the most
important leftist force in a province that has long been Canada's most
social democratic one. Prolonged labor unrest in Quebec could slow the
Canadian economy because the province is an important center for
manufacturing and tourism.

Mr. Charest has broken with a 30-year custom of government under which
officials sat down with the unions to negotiate before making policy. But he
did follow a long tradition in Quebec politics by proposing controversial
policies in December, when demonstrators find it uncomfortably cold to march
and the public is more interested in Christmas shopping than politics.

"It's an important moment but a moment Mr. Charest would like to go
unnoticed," said Pierre Martin, a political scientist at the University of
Montreal.


From ron at resist.ca  Fri Dec 19 08:18:01 2003
From: ron at resist.ca (ron)
Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2003 08:18:01 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [news] Ferry Scandal Eclipses Strike (BC Ferries Privatized)
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.53.0312190803520.23657@resist.ca>


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2003 07:36:47 -0800
From: Gene McGuckin <emcg3 at shaw.ca>

Ferry Scandal Eclipses Strike
By Terry Glavin
Georgia Straight, Dec. 18, 2003

Everything is all just so cheery now.  Premier Gordon Campbell himself
says that the weeklong disruption we all suffered because of the ferry
strike is a thing we will never again have to endure. The talk-show hosts
are satisfied. CanWest's editorialists have calmed down. David Hahn, the
B.C. ferry company's new chief executive officer, is making all sorts of
cooing noises. Christmas is coming. All the unpleasantness has been packed
off to binding arbitration. Our problems are over.

Like hell.

Last March, the Crown-owned B.C. Ferry Corporation, along with $330
million in public assets, was handed over to a private company called
British Columbia Ferry Services Inc. Victoria didn't just hire a private
management firm. The government gave away the ferry corporation.

If you don't know about this, don't be too hard on yourself. According to
public-opinion polling done by the very company that got the fleet, most
British Columbians don't realize it's happened. Or maybe they do, now. The
polling was done back in October. Maybe most people figured out during the
ferry strike that something had gone terribly wrong. Maybe that's why
there was such astonishing support for the ferry workers, despite all the
mayhem and despite the impression created by so much of the news media.

But even now, how many British Columbians realize that within five years,
the "subsidized" ferry routes will be expected to pay their own way? How
many people realize that 24 of the ferry system's 26 routes are
subsidized?

This isn't just about the Southern Gulf routes, which I rely on to get to
and from my home on Mayne Island. It's about Powell River, Comox, Campbell
River, Cortes Island, Denman and Hornby, Sointula and Port McNeill. And
that's just a small part of the picture, on the south coast. Will these
communities even have ferry service five years from now?

Don't count on B.C. Ferry Services Inc. to level with you about any of
this. They can't even tell a straight story about that public-opinion poll
last October. When the poll results were released, Hahn--the
$300,000-a-year ferry boss, a New Yorker here on a work visa--said they
backed his view that "our company and our customers cannot afford the
current contract." In fact, the poll results clearly showed that only 11
percent of respondents viewed the contract as favouring the union.

Don't count on the politicians in Victoria to level with you about any of
this either. In the sleight-of-hand transactions made possible by the new
Coastal Ferry Act, we all went from being citizens, passengers on our own
ferries, to being "customers" of a private company.

During that strange week of December 8, people's lives were disrupted,
true enough. Here's how my life on Mayne Island was disrupted. First, it
was not knowing whether the Queen of Cumberland was ever going to show up.
Then it was having no ferry at all. Then it was wondering when the ferries
would be running again.

But the very worst thing about the whole week was turning on the radio for
news only to hear some rich American tell me over and over again how much
he cared about me and how he was going to do all he could to protect me
and my family against the ferry workers, my own neighbours. My own
friends.

Here's a guy whose qualifications for the job of running our ferry fleet
appear to consist of the part he played in the dismemberment of a
multinational corporation that racked up $3.3 billion in debt before it
declared bankruptcy two years ago, leaving investors with $250 million in
losses and $45 million in unpaid taxes.

When Hahn was taken on as B.C. Ferries' chief executive officer last May,
B.C. Ferries mentioned nothing about this. Nothing was said about Covanta
Energy Corp., the company Hahn came from. B.C. Ferries said Hahn had spent
the past seven years running the U.S. and international operations of a
company called Ogden Aviation, a company with 25,000 employees worldwide.
The public was told nothing about the fact that Hahn had spent the last
four of those seven years as vice-president of Covanta, Ogden Aviation's
parent company, selling it off and winding it down.

The Troubled Company Reporter is an American newsletter that covers the
Byzantine world of corporate bankruptcies and company restructuring in the
United States. Last June, the newsletter reported that a major part of
Hahn's Covanta job--for which he was reportedly paid an annual salary,
including bonuses, totalling more than $500,000--was to expedite the
disposition of Covanta's aviation assets, its cargo-handling business, its
airport fuel-supply services, everything.

In other words, the relevant talents of the guy that Gordon Campbell's
appointees have hired to run B.C.'s ferry fleet appear to lie mainly in
breaking up and selling off a major transportation company's assets.

The Troubled Company Reporter article disclosed proceedings in a New York
courtroom that revealed Hahn's settlement deal with Covanta. The deal
allowed Hahn to stay on as a consultant with the company, drawing a
consultant's fee of $30,000 a month, starting April 28 (a week before he
began collecting his $300,000 annual salary from B.C. Ferries) and
continuing until at least October 27 of this year.

Hahn's Covanta settlement also included a $28,486 "vacation pay" package,
a lump-sum payment of $50,000, and a bonus of $150,000. This is the same
guy who has been busy inciting British Columbians against the ferry
workers over the "gravy train" their union contract provides.

During the week of December 8, we saw the worst disruption to B.C.'s ferry
system in a quarter of a century. Now the ferries are running again, but
arbitration of the union contract is not where the trouble will end. It's
just where it starts, and only idiots will blame the ferry workers' union
for any of this.

We're in this mess because of a scandal that should make us feel nostalgic
for relative misdemeanours like the NDP's fast-ferry fiasco.

Our ferries have been stolen from us. We should take them back.


From christoff at dojo.tao.ca  Mon Dec 22 10:33:24 2003
From: christoff at dojo.tao.ca (Stefan Christoff)
Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2003 13:33:24 -0500 (EST)
Subject: [news] The Geneva Accord and the Right of Return: Reported from
 Al-Baqa'a Palestinian Refugee Camp in Jordan 
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.44.0312221328110.22845-100000@dojo.tao.ca>


The Geneva Accord and the Right of Return:
Reported from Al-Baqa'a Palestinian Refugee Camp in Jordan

Al-Baqa'a is Jordan's largest Palestinian refugee camp, located on the
outskirts of Amman and home to more than 100,000 refugees. In the heart of
one of Jordan's many desert valleys, at night, Al-Baqa'a is a beautiful
array of lights sparkling below the wealthy hilltops of Amman. But, when
visiting Al-Baqa'a during the day, it emerges as an impoverished
Palestinian community of countless markets and shops lining small crowded
streets of makeshift homes.

The Palestinian refugees who make up Al-Baqa'a are from throughout the
1948 lands of Palestine, displaced by force from their homes during both
the 1948 and 1967 Arab-Israeli wars. The residents of Al-Baqa's are just
one manifestation of the millions of Palestinian refugees scattered
throughout the world.

Al-Baqa'a was established during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war that saw
hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees fleeing deeper into Jordan.
Many of the refugees at Al-Baqa'a fled from the town of Karameh in the
Jordan Valley, just a one-hour walk from the Israeli border.

Karameh is famous for a 1968 battle when over 15 000 Israeli infantry,
supported by tank units and helicopters, marched over the Allenby Bridge.
At the time, Karameh was the political and military headquarters of the
Palestinian al-Fatah movement. At the Battle of Karameh, the
technologically-advanced, better-equipped and larger Israeli army was
forced to retreat, leaving Karameh to the Palestinians. The Battle of
Karameh represented the Palestinians greatest military victory up to that
time, and sent a surge of optimism through the Palestinian community, as
well as helping establish the Palestinian claim to being a genuine
national liberation movement.

However, the Israeli incursion left behind a destroyed village, forcing
many Palestinian refugees to leave Karameh and re-settle deeper into
Jordan, many at Al-Baqa'a.

The history of Palestinian resistance -- as well as the struggle to keep
alive the right of return -- is apparent in any conversation with the
residents of Al-Baqa'a. If you walk through Al-Baqa'a camp today and ask
people on the street about the right of return, you will find a similar
response:  that like most other Palestinian refugees around the world,
they are waiting, struggling and fighting to return to Palestine.

Most residents of Al-Baqa'a view their community as temporary. When you
stop to ask a child born in Al-Baqa'a where they are from, they will say
Haifa or Jerusalem, naming the cities and towns from which their
grandparents or parents were displaced.

As Abu Nayef, the camp's representative to the Palestinian Liberation
Organization (PLO) explained to me:  "Palestinian refugees throughout the
world have lost the three elements of life at the hands of Israel: their
land, their blood and their dignity".

For Abu Nayef a highly respected community leader displaced from his home
in 1948, life in Al-Baqa'a is defined through the struggle to return to
Palestine.

The daily conditions in Al-Baqa'a are a dramatic contrast to the modern,
urban environment of Amman, just a 20 minute drive away. Al-Baqa'a
originated in 1967 with tents and makeshift shacks, but now constitutes a
community of small crowded homes, businesses, mosques and schools, all
hastily constructed.

The Palestinians of Al-Baqa'a are historically self-reliant, having
received minimal assistance from UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and
Works Agency) or the Jordanian government. Like most Palestinian refugee
camps throughout Jordan, the residents of Al-Baqa'a have been left to
build their community independently, with little external economic
support.

The small crowded streets of Al-Baqa'a make it impossible to for two cars
to pass each other. The small markets and stores facilitate the little
internal economy within the camp. The bulk of the camp's economy is based
on providing cheap labor to the more privileged areas of Amman. Dozens of
buses leave Al-Baqa'a in the early hours of the morning, where thousands
of Palestinian refugees clean the toilets and cook the food of Amman's
economic and political elite.

As Dr. Nabil Hirsh, a Palestinian refugee from Al-Baqa'a who founded a 24
hour health clinic more than 30 years ago, explains, "Many older women
from the camp go to work in Amman as cleaners and maids for families and
companies. Many men from the camp go to Amman to work in construction.
This camp is Amman's greatest supplier of workers".

Given the poor living and working conditions, many of Al-Baqa'a's youth
are becoming increasingly disenchanted with life at the camp. As the
manager of the Al-Baqa'a youth club, who asked not be named, explained,
"Life is not good, our biggest problem is poverty. At this club we take
care of over 120 children whose families can't provide for them. The
poverty here is so bad, there are no jobs, no employment. When visiting
some families in the camp you will find that they have no food and clothes
for their children".

The millions of Palestinian refugees who are living in Jordan do not have
the same economic and social opportunities as Jordan's political and
economic elites. Very few Palestinians hold positions in Jordan's
Parliament, where political decisions are made for a country whose
Palestinian population is estimated at more than 60%. Jordan's political
and economic future, as well as its political stances towards Israel, are
not determined by the majority of Jordanian residents who are displaced
Palestinians.

Jordan's ruling monarch, King Abdullah, recently launched a national
campaign named "Jordan First" which has been presented publicly as a plan
to end Palestinian-Jordanian tensions. However, making efforts to improve
the conditions of refugees, and attacking the origins of the refugee
problem, seems last on King Abdullah's list of priorities.

In light of the structural political and economic disadvantages defining
life for Jordan's Palestinians, especially those living in refugee camps,
it is the claim of "right of return" to Palestine that keeps people's hope
for a life of dignity alive.

The manager of the Al-Baqa'a youth club explained the right of return from
the perspective of Palestinians living in the camps as follows: "Being a
Palestinian refugee in Al-Baqa'a means that you are looking for Jerusalem
daily; if you can't see Jerusalem when waking in the morning, you see it
in your dreams. We always look to Palestine our homeland."

Al-Baqa'a is a living reminder of the tragedy of the world's millions of
Palestinian refugees. The right of return has been the central issue of
the Palestinian struggle for liberation throughout the world, and it is
likewise the central issue in the lives of the residents of Al-Baqa'a.

When you ask about the Geneva Accord on the streets of Al-Baqa'a, people
answer with disgusted looks as they see it as nothing but the further
dismissal of the history of the Palestinian struggle in its failure to
recognize that the right of return for Palestinian refugees. For the
residents of Al-Baqa'a, the right of return is not something that can be
negotiated away by corrupt politicians of the Palestinian Authority, or by
any government or nation-state.

The stark contrast between the pronouncements of Israeli and Palestinian
politicians in Geneva, and the words spoken by the people on the streets
of Al-Baqa'a, are a reminder that liberation struggles cannot be defined
by politicians, and that the principles of the Palestinian struggle are
kept alive by those living on-the-ground in Palestine and in the refugee
camps throughout the world.

As Khaled Ramadan a political activist with the Amman based group the
Popular Committee in Support of Iraq and the Intifada explained,
"Political agreements such as the Geneva Accord are an attempt to jump on
the right of all Palestinians to return to all of Palestine. The Geneva
initiative will meet many obstacles because the Palestinian people will
struggle to return not only to 1967 territories but will struggle and
fight to return to all of Palestine, this is our right."

The terms by which the world views and supports liberation struggles must
be set by those directly effected; in the case of the Palestinians, the
majority of those directly effected are the refugees who make up 2/3 of
the population. Palestinian refugees -- the majority of which are
scattered throughout the Arab world -- continue to live as second class
citizens in countries such as Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, where they endure
impoverished living conditions in camps such as Al-Baqa'a waiting to
return to Palestine. In the face of this fact the Geneva Accord is
bankrupt, as it fails to recognize the loss of dignity, land and blood,
which defines the history of Palestinians and their struggle for freedom.

Written by Stefan Christoff in Amman, Jordan December, 2003.

{Stefan is a member of the International Solidarity Movement. The
International Solidarity Movement is a Palestinian-led movement of
Palestinian and International activists working to raise awareness of the
struggle for Palestinian freedom and an end to Israeli occupation. Stefan
also works with the No One is Illegal Campaign and is an independent
journalist working with CKUT Radio Montreal & Free Speech Radio News.
You can reach Stefan at christoff at tao.ca}

----------------------





From sharai at resist.ca  Sat Dec 27 12:16:10 2003
From: sharai at resist.ca (sharai)
Date: Sat, 27 Dec 2003 12:16:10 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [news] press release from jamie lee hamilton
Message-ID: <29489.198.169.4.2.1072556170.squirrel@mail.resist.ca>


December 23, 2003
PRESS RELEASE

Vancouver, BC

Pioneer Transsexual Speaks out Against Supreme Court
Ruling

"In a Supreme Court decision made public on December
23, 2003, Justice Edwards in his ruling disregards the
legislative intent of law which gives everyone the
right not to be discriminated against based on their
sex and rules in favour of Rape Relief which lawfully
gives them and other groups the right to practise
exclusionary policies", claims Jamie Lee Hamilton.

In his ruling Justice Edwards discounts the human
rights of transsexuals by saying it's ok to
discriminate against them but only if done privately
and not publicly.

"Justice Edwards comments are; disgusting,
discriminatory, obscene and undignified" for many
reasons, states Jamie Lee Hamilton. "Instead of
applying the rule of law, Justices Edwards with
assistance from Justice Dohm deviate and clearly
articulate in their ruling that one's gender isn't
determined medically or legally but is determined by
one's characteristics and the perception that others
have of them, stemming from their perceived gender at
birth. "These two justices then go on to claim that
identifiable groups such as Rape Relief can
discriminate based on exclusion since a transsexual is
not assigned female at birth and therefore can not
belong legally or medically to a women's group since
she didn't have all the necessary feminine traits or
characteristics one assumes from birth onwards".

States Hamilton, "this troubling ruling has serious
reprucusions and potentially opens up a can of worms
as our top law makers of the land seem to think they
can breach the law themself".

This ruling will not be accepted by the general public
as it discounts and eliminates an individual' human
rights, respect and dignity as enshrined by our
Charter of Rights and Freedoms says Jamie Lee Hamilton

For further information Jamie Lee at (604) 781-6624



-- 



From resist at resist.ca  Sat Dec 27 16:23:22 2003
From: resist at resist.ca (resist collective)
Date: Sat, 27 Dec 2003 16:23:22 -0800
Subject: [news] Cattermole Destroys Elk Creek Tree Sit
Message-ID: <3FEE227A.6050401@resist.ca>

PRESS RELEASE
Tuesday December 23rd
Cattermole Destroys Elk Creek Tree Sit as Trucks Ordered Off of Nixon Road

Early this morning Cattermole employees carried out their orders to
destroy  the Elk Creek tree sit.  This callous act was carried out while
the forest  protectors continued their efforts to inform Nixon road
residents of the  danger posed to them by Cattermole's
undisclosed plans to haul 800 huge logging trucks down their narrow, windy
  road.

The tree sit had already lost its strategic relevance, having 
accomplished its goal of preventing the construction of a proposed 
logging road at the top of Marble Hill.

"This clearly malicious act was further evidence that Cattermole Timber
has  as little regard for diversity of opinion as it does for the
ecological  diversity it is crushing at Elk Creek," said Jen Harris from
the forest  protection camp.

Meanwhile, Cattermole was being ordered by the City of Chilliwack to 
halt logging operations on Nixon road until a new public input forum 
could take place at City Hall.  This development vindicates the position 
of forest defenders and the EC3 that Cattermole's industrial logging 
operations at the  top of Nixon road are an illegal and dangerous 
attempt to circumvent the  public input process.

Forest protector Stefan Schmidt said "Cattermole has blown its cover 
this time.  It is now plain to see that they consider public input, 
safety, and the interests of the local people to be merely an 
inconvenience that should  be ignored, if at all possible."

In spite of all this, the RCMP continued to act as personal escorts for
Cattermole trucks while suppressing the political expression of 
concerned people.  They have failed to lay charges over violent assaults 
in which people were injured, but have acted swiftly to manhandle and 
intimidate protesters. The police have repeatedly acted with force to 
help Cattermole Timber turn a quick profit, while declaring open season 
to attack forest defenders.

Nearly two months after formal complaints were filed, no charges have 
been laid against loggers who assaulted non-violent forest protectors 
with a
bundle of metal spikes and forcibly stole and destroyed a video camera 
and eye-glasses.

"Something is terribly wrong here," said forest protector Marissa 
Bourgeois. "The property and profits of a corporation are receiving 
higher police priority than the physical safety of people who have been 
attacked and injured.  The Constitutionaly protected Right to Protest is 
being trampelled  on by police who are protecting an illegal and 
dangerous industrial  operation. "

A lone forest protector sleeping in the camp was awoken by three
Cattermole  employees carrying their axes.  The forest workers had
recently been  legislated back to work from an IWA strike action
attempting to protect  wages and benefits like pay for travel time to
remote sites.  A crew of six  disciplined workers, who said they had 
been called to work late the previous  night, proceeded to fell the tree 
sit, cut up the climbing ropes, then to  'select' and slay the best of 
the trees in the area.

Two vehicles used by forest protectors on Nixon road were found, after
short  periods of travel, to have flat tires.  The CAA worker who 
repaired the tire  said that the valve had been "deliberately tampered 
with."  By the time  forest protectors could return to their camp, the 
whole area, habitat to  four endangered species, was in shambles.  Trees 
lay uprooted across what  was once a clear-flowing stream.  Many of the 
trees left standing bore large  scars from the impact of falling trees, 
and a beetle was already observed  attacking one such wound.

Some large trees fell within 20 meters of the tents in the camp, with 
one crashing tree showering the lone forest defender with debris. 
Workers are prohibited by Worker Compensation Board Safety Regulations 
from falling within two tree lengths (or 90 meters) of other people.
Now is a critical time to say enough is enough!  We cannot continue to
allow  profit-driven corporations to pillage our planet's sacred life
support  systems.  With the last intact ecosystems and the potential for
reaching a  meaningful resolution to First Nations' Title issues hanging
in the balance,  it is high time that we overhaul our approach to 
forests in a way that  acknowledges First Nations' Title and culture, 
ecosystem health, recreation,  and community jobs secured by sustainable 
long-term forest practices. Decision makers in BC must wake up and act 
swiftly to resolve this  long-standing issue.

It is not too late to plot a better course for the pristine old-growth
headwaters of Elk Creek, Dunville and Nevin Creeks, and undeveloped
Chipmunk  Ridge.  Our common future depends on our ability to respond
quickly and  sincerely to the profound challenges posed by the broader
ecological and  social crises that are manifesting themselves so
poignantly in Elk Creek.

Released by the Elk Creek Action Group.

For more information contact:
Elk Creek Action Group - Marissa Bourgeois    604-689-5076  (leave a
message)
Cheam elder June Quipp                604-794-5715
Elk Creek Conservation Coalition
Diane Moen 604-794-3812,  Verna Pigou 604-794-3111
Western Canada Wilderness Committee -  604-683-8220,  604-880-2580



From resist at resist.ca  Sat Dec 27 17:42:59 2003
From: resist at resist.ca (resist collective)
Date: Sat, 27 Dec 2003 17:42:59 -0800
Subject: [news] re: press release from jamie lee hamilton
Message-ID: <3FEE3523.7040200@resist.ca>

this story has also been published at http://resist.ca and a poll has 
been attached to see how people feel about the controversial subject of 
trans people in women's spaces. head over and vote if you like.