• Written by Press Release
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No Tankers Week Rally Commemorates Exxon Valdez Disaster Anniversary in Vancouver

 
No Tankers Week
by No Tankers
On  Monday, March 26, hundreds of No Tankers supporters will gather in downtown Vancouver to stand up for our coast. A rally  is planned for 12 noon at the Vancouver Art  Gallery.

This public display of opposition marks the  23rd anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil tanker disaster that  devastated the coast of Alaska — a sobering reminder of the very real  threats posed to our coast by increased oil tanker traffic.

A  host of incredible speakers will be attending, including Art Sterritt of the Coastal First Nations, Bill McKibben of 350.org, Marc Jaccard  from SFU and Riki Ott, an Alaskan fisherwoman who experienced the  Valdez oil spill firsthand.

If you’ve never come out to a  public demonstration before, we encourage you to attend. It’s  inspiring to be a part of a such a diverse group of people all driven  by the desire to stand up for our coast. Similar rallies are being  held throughout the week in Comox and Bella Bella. Be a part of the  momentum!
  • Written by Press Release
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Forgotten Lessons of Exxon Valdez Dooms British Columbia

 
Lesson of Exxon Valdez Oil Spill More Relevant Than Ever: Green Party Urges All Canadians to Protect BC Ban on Tankers
by Green Party of Canada
As the Harper Conservatives work aggressively to re-introduce oil tankers to the dangerous waters of the British Columbia coastline, the Green Party of Canada is urging Canadians to remember the devastating Exxon Valdez oil spill in the Gulf of Alaska’s Prince William Sound 23 years ago tomorrow.
 
 
“The 1989 Exxon Valdez spill taught us some tragic lessons,” said Elizabeth May, MP for Saanich- Gulf Islands and Leader of the Green Party of Canada.
 
“We learned how difficult it is to clean up a remote shoreline, how widespread and long-lasting the damage can be, and how costly such accidents are in ecological, social, and economic terms.  

“Most Canadians realize that this must not be allowed to happen again, and yet the continued push to develop the oil sands at a breakneck pace brings the very real risk that it probably will," said May.

After the Exxon Valdez grounded on a reef, the resulting spill of 40-million litres of heavy crude oil spread across nearly 2,000 kilometres of shoreline. It was responsible for the deaths of up to 700,000 birds, marine life, billions of herring and salmon eggs, and the continuing contamination of an entire ecosystem.
  • Written by Press Release
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Harper v Science: 625 Canadian Scientist Petition Against Proposal to Gut Fish Protections

 
Dear Prime Minister Harper,
cc. Honorable Keith Ashfield, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans
re. Potential amendments to section 35 of the Fisheries Act
by D. W. Schindler et al
We, a group of Canadian scientists, including many of Canada’s most senior ecologists and aquatic scientists, are writing out of concern that habitat protections are about to be removed from the Fisheries Act. This would be a most unwise action, which would jeopardize many important fish stocks and the lakes, estuaries and rivers that support them.
 
We urge you to abandon this initiative as it is currently drafted.

Based on media reports, we understand your government’s desire to speed up the approval processes for large economic development projects. We believe, however, that the weakening of habitat protections in section 35 of the Fisheries Act will  negatively impact water quality and fisheries across the country, and could undermine Canada’s attempt to maintain international
credibility in the environment.

Habitat is the water or land necessary for the survival of all species, including fish. All species, including humans, require functioning ecosystems based on healthy habitats. The number of animals and plants of any species that can be supported is in direct proportion to availability of habitat, which supplies food and shelter. Habitat destruction is the most common reason for species decline.
 
All ecologists and fisheries scientists around the world agree on these fundamental points, and the Fisheries Act has been essential to protecting fish habitats and the fisheries they support in Canada. Weakening habitat protections will make Canada look irresponsible internationally.

In the case of fisheries, siltation of spawning beds and contamination of fish rearing areas are two of the most common impacts of human activities. We should therefore be strengthening, not weakening the habitat protection provisions of the Fisheries Act (and other environmental laws, including the Species at Risk Act and the Migratory Birds Convention Act), in order to protect our dwindling fisheries and species at risk.

We further understand that your government proposes that measures to protect fish habitat will only apply to “fisheries of economic, cultural and ecological value”. This makes no sense. All species are of ecological value, a fact recognized by the current act. For example, some of our most economically and culturally valued fish species feed upon minnows and so-called “rough fish” species, which allow them to survive and grow.

In summary, if your government wishes to change the wording of the Fisheries Act or other laws affecting the health of Canada’s ecosystems, we recommend that you ensure that any new legislation be based on the best science available. It is critical that any changes do not jeopardize the environmental support system on which we and future generations depend.
 
Sincerely,
  • Written by Lori Price
  • Hits: 2761

Dick Cheney's Change of Heart

 
Dick Cheney Recovers from Heart Transplant
by Lori Price l CLG
Breaking: Dick Cheney Recovers From Heart Transplant 24 Mar 2012 Former US Vice President [sic] Dick Cheney has had a heart transplant and is recovering in hospital.
 
Cheney fourth war criminal on the left
 
The 71-year-old, who was a controversial figure in the George W Bush administration, has had a long history of heart trouble.
 
His spokeswoman said he was in the intensive care unit of Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, after surgery.  
  • Written by William T. Hathaway
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Globalized Intifada

 
Globalizing the Intifada
by William T. Hathaway
The invaders have surrounded and attacked us, conquered here and there, and built their bases in our lands. So we attack the invaders where we can, determined to retake our lands and drive them out. We would prefer not to be warriors. We would rather raise our children in the ways of kindness. But for our children to have a future, we must now be warriors. So be it.

In Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan this war is most intense, but it is a international war, and people of every religion and race are under attack. The capitalist class is assaulting us worldwide, throttling our hopes of decent lives. We're now all in the same boat, a global Mavi Marmara, so our resistance must be global.
 
Our foe is not only the Zionists but the forces of Western imperialism of which they are a part. To survive, we must set aside our religious and political differences and form a united front. Shias, Sunnis, secularists and socialists need to work together to defeat our common enemy.
 
If we join in solidarity, we can win. Otherwise the imperialists will continue to divide and rule.
  • Written by Danny Schechter
  • Hits: 3376

Get Right Young Occupier & Go Left

 
Is ‘Going Left’ Right for OWS?
by Danny Schechter
For years, in the last century, when I was in school and learning about the early days of journalism, we were taught that author Horace Greeley who founded the New York Herald Tribune, was famous for saying, “Go West Young Man And Grow Up With The Country.”

One problem, as we learned recently, he didn’t coin the phrase but only popularized it. (Another media mistake involving a top dog in the media!) Indiana newspaper writer John Soule actually gave the advice in 1851, and it would serve as the mantra for 19th century “action” in the form of Westward migration.

These days, the men and women who won their struggle stripes in the civil rights and anti-Vietnam war movements have a new mantra for action. Some who recently appeared at New York’s annual Left Forum, were sharing it with younger people, “Go Left.”

They would probably agree with Mitt Romney who said recently he can’t think of any reason for any young person to support a Democrat — but for different reasons.
  • Written by Chris Cook
  • Hits: 3192

"Ethical Oil" Attacks Legitimate Environmental Defense Tax Status

 
"Ethical Oil" Attacks Legitimate Environmental Defense Tax Status
by C. L. Cook l Pacific Free Press
In a text book case of the filthy, oil stained, crack'd pot calling the community-minded kettle collective of true environmental activism black, "Ethical Oil," a phony "green" group set up by the friends of the Tar Sands, (run by former Tory apparatchiks, and friendly to just about any other industrial extractive industry willing to pony up for the sustenance and furtherance of the Harper government) has petitioned the federal government remove Environmental Defence's charitable donation status with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).
 
The "ethical" organization believes Environmental Defence is just too political to enjoy offering donors the option of a (rather trifling) tax write-off.
 
"Ethical Oil" bases its complaint on a so-called "multi-pronged campaign" in the federal environment minister's Thornhill, Ontario riding calling on constituents there to question the minister's position on the Tar Sands.
 
As shocking as that is, there's more!
  • Written by Creative Commons
  • Hits: 2929

Stopping the Harper Move to De-List Fish Habitat Protection

 
Stop Changes to Fish Act
by Alexandra Morton
Hello; I just received a call giving me the key contacts of people who can affect whether Harper removes habitat protection from the Fisheries Act on Thursday. 
 
His advice was to send individual emails to each and call. 
 
There is some evidence the PMO is starting to get concerned about this, so I was told every bit of contact may help.

PMO Chief of Staff This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  613-992-4211

Deputy of Chief of Staff This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 613-992-4211

Issues Management Director This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 613-992-4211

Senior Stakeholder relations This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.@pmo-cpm.gc.ca

Principle secretary This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.@pmo-cpm.gc.ca 613-957-5259

Stakeholders Relations for British Columbia This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  613-957-5259
 
James Moore is the senior Conservative MP in British Columbia This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  604-937-5650
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  • Written by Ken OKeefe
  • Hits: 2737

Thought Policing & the Palestine Solidarity Movement

 
Thought Police Withing the So-Called 'Palestine Solidarity Movement'
The holier than thou thought police within the so-called ‘Palestinian Solidarity Movement’ have said the following in response to a recent speech I gave at Middlesex University in London;

‘In line with these principles, we wish to openly state that Ken O’Keefe is not welcome to speak on our campus. We urge Middlesex University Free Palestine Society to distance themselves from his comments, and condemn them as anti-semitic.

‘We invite our fellow student Palestine activists to add their societies names to this statement.’

My response is as follows.

Aloha; Given that my wife and children are Semitic, it is seems the critical thinking abilities of the above thought police is a bit stunted to say the least.  So let me help you out a bit by providing the actual meaning of the word Semitic;

Semitic |səˈmitik|

adjective

1 relating to or denoting a family of languages that includes Hebrew, Arabic, and Aramaic and certain ancient languages such as Phoenician and Akkadian, constituting the main subgroup of the Afro-Asiatic family.

2 of or relating to the peoples who speak these languages, esp. Hebrew and Arabic.

Your lack of linguistic knowledge or more likely participation in the abuse of language with regard to this word is not surprising, especially as it becomes more obvious that the so-called ‘Palestinian Solidarity’ movement is rife with infiltrators and subversives posing as friends and allies of Palestine. 
 
As the saying goes, ‘with friends like these, who needs enemies’.
  • Written by Alison Weir
  • Hits: 3387

The Divisive Mr. Atzmon: A New Front Attacks Israel Critic

 
The Unfortunate Division over Gilad Atzmon
While people are suffering in Israeli prisons and being killed in Gaza, it is sad to see time and energy expended in a campaign against Israeli author and saxaphonist Gilad Atzmon. I respect and like people on both sides of this controversy and am troubled over this distracting and destructive (but, I hope, temporary) split.

I, of course, come down on the side of open discussion, even when the  subject matter is difficult or troubling – in fact, that's probably when it's most needed. I believe in such old fashioned but critical concepts as the free marketplace of ideas, and I oppose censorship and would-be "thought police" telling others what they may or may not do, even when those attempting to do this have created valuable work that I admire.

The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, which sponsored a discussion with Atzmon, has posted the most recent letter against Atzmon, followed by Atzmon's response here.

This recent letter against Atzmon was preceeded by an earlier one, which was posted on this anonymous blog; interestingly, Palestinians seem to have made up an extremely small percentage of its signatories. My guess is that some of the people behind the first letter helped push for the recent attack, though perhaps I'm wrong.
  • Written by Kim Petersen
  • Hits: 3038

Getting the Gilad Getters & Disavowing Splittism

 
A Call for the Disavowal of Splittism
by Kim Petersen l Dissident Voice
When someone within the broad framework of social justice espouses views that are repugnant to others within a social justice movement, disavowal of such views is fair.1 Attacking the holder of the repugnant views would be overstepping the lines of decency.
 
Nevertheless, it is bizarre that mass murderers and war criminals are accorded much more respect than racists, homophobes, or misogynists. How else to explain why no social justice group has formally called for a disavowal of Barack Obama, the Nobel Peace Prize winner complicit in the killing of so many Afghanis, Iraqis, Iranians, Bahrainis, Egyptians, Yemenis, Syrians, Libyans, Palestinians, etc.?
 
Yet when “a musician born in Israel” speaks out against occupation, oppression, and killing and denounces the groups behind the occupation, oppression, and killing, he is excoriated allegedly because of racism against the occupier-oppressor group.

A group led by a pro-Palestinian rights campaigner, Ali Abunimah, put out a call for a disavowal of Gilad Atzmon, “a musician born in Israel and currently living in the United Kingdom, [who] has taken on the self-appointed task of defining for the Palestinian movement the nature of our struggle, and the philosophy underpinning it.”2 [italics added]

Self-appointed? Please. Do humans need an appointment to oppose social injustices?
  • Written by Stephen Lendman
  • Hits: 2635

In a Moral Wasteland: Hana' Shalabi Dying for Justice

 
Dying for Justice 
by Stephen Lendman
On March 20, Hana's 34th hunger strike day began. The previous day, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-I) said she's in imminent danger of dying.

After examining her, its doctor "determined that she must be hospitalized immediately." More on that below.

Wrongfully arrested, abused, uncharged, and administratively detained at HaSharon Prison, she's hunger struck over a month for justice. Israel doesn't care if she lives or dies. 

On March 19, PHR-I's doctor explained her condition. She risks imminent death because of significant physical deterioration.

The process includes "muscle breakdown, with a weight loss of 14 kg (31 lb.) since the onset of the hunger strike, a very slow pulse, and a drop in blood sodium levels. These symptoms could indicate grave damage to the heart and the beginning of the breakdown of the heart muscle, which could lead to heart failure at any moment."
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