GR This Week
by C. L. Cook
 This week: Nathalie des Rosiers is General Counsel of Canadian Civil Liberties
Association. She is the former Dean of the Faculty of Law - Civil Law
Section at the University of Ottawa, and is a past President of the Law
Commission of Canada.
Of events at the G20, Nathalie writes;
"There are events
in Canadian history that have become symbols of the fragility of our
democratic rights: the internment of Japanese Canadians during the
Second World War or the imposition of the War Measures Act, to name a
few. In our view, the policing at the G20 Summit in Toronto last summer
will be remembered as one of them."
Nathalie des Rosiers in the first half.
And;
Canadian freelance journalist, Jon Elmer lives in and reports from
Occupied Palestine. While fallen off the front pages due to recent
events in North Africa and Japan, tensions are high in Palestine-Israel
and innocents are dying on both sides of this decades-long disaster.
Jon
Elmer in the second half.
And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV
fundraiser extraordinaire, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom
of the hour to bring us newz from the city's streets and beyond.
Canada went to war against another nation over the weekend.
Responding to calls from the nebulous "international community," and in
support of United Nations Security Council resolution 1973, Canada sent
six CF-18 jet fighters to enforce a UN declared "no-fly zone" over
Libya.
The joint military action against Libya is
based on the so-called Responsibility to Protect doctrine, or R2P,
which simply stated demands of nations they claim to represent the duty
to protect their safety.
It's the first time R2P
has been used as the official reason to launch an international police
action, but not the first time the principle of humanitarian
intervention has been invoked to do so. The principle involved with
'Operation MOBILE,' as Canada's part in this latest intervention is
called, comes after Libyan leader, Muammar Gadaffi's secret police and
elements of the military violently suppressed popular demonstrations
against the continuation of his near 42 year long reign by, as you've
likely heard, "killing his own people." Those would be the people he has
the responsibility to protect.
Under the terms
of the Resolution 1973, the UN deemed Mr. Gadaffi had failed to: "take
all measures to protect civilians and meet their basic needs and to
ensure the rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian assistance..."
among other things. But, what of the domestic humanitarian record of
some of the members of the UN's sanctioned police? How does Canada, for
example stand up to scrutiny based on the UN's R2P?
 Last summer,
at the Canadian hosted G20 Summit in Toronto, Canada's secret police and
elements of its military violently suppresed popular demonstrations
against the continuation of the near 42 year reign of the current
international banking and political nexus. While no deaths were reported
in Toronto, there is clear evidence Canada did not to live up to its
responsibility to protect the citizenry to "take all measures to protect
civilians and meet their basic needs," and willingly failing to "ensure
the rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian assistance." Can we
then expect a forthcoming UN resolution allowing the immediate
curtailment of Stephen Harper's power to do further harm to Canadians?
Nathalie
des Rosiers is General Counsel of Canadian Civil Liberties Association.
She is the former Dean of the Faculty of Law - Civil Law Section at the
University of Ottawa, and is a past President of the Law Commission of
Canada. Of events at the G20 she writes;
"There
are events in Canadian history that have become symbols of the fragility
of our democratic rights: the internment of Japanese Canadians during
the Second World War or the imposition of the War Measures Act, to name a
few. In our view, the policing at the G20 Summit in Toronto last summer
will be remembered as one of them."
Nathalie des Rosiers in the first half.
And;
Canadian freelance journalist, Jon Elmer lives in and reports from
Occupied Palestine. While fallen off the front pages due to recent
events in North Africa and Japan, tensions are high in Palestine-Israel
and innocents are dying on both sides of this decades-long disaster. Jon
Elmer in the second half. And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV
fundraiser extraordinaire, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom
of the hour to bring us newz from the city's streets and beyond.
But first, Nathalie des Rosiers and the Unfinished G20 Story.
G-Radio is dedicated to social justice, the environment, community, and
providing a forum for people and issues not covered in the corporate media.
Some past guests include: M. Junaid Alam, M. Shahid Alam, Joel Bakan, Maude Barlow, David Barsamian, Mark and Rhoda Berenson, Diana Beresford-Kroeger, William Blum, Luciana Bohne, William Bowles, Mordecai Briemberg, James J. Brittain, Vincent Bugliosi, Helen Caldicott, Noam Chomsky, Michel Chossudovsky, Diane Christian, Juan Cole, David Cromwell, Ezili Danto, Murray Dobbin, Jon Elmer, Yves Engler, Reese Erlich, Anthony Fenton, Jim Fetzer, Laura Flanders, Chris Floyd, Connie Fogal, Glen Ford, Susan George, Stan Goff, Amy Goodman, Robert Greenwald, Denis Halliday, Chris Hedges, Sander Hicks, Julia Butterfly Hill, Scott Horton, Robert Jensen, Dahr Jamail, Chalmers Johnson, Diana Johnstone, Malalai Joya, Kathy Kelly, Naomi Klein, Brewster Kneen, Betty Krawczyk, Anthony Lappe, Frances Moore Lappe, Jason Leopold, Jeff Leys, Dave Lindorff, Jim Lobe, Jennifer Loewenstein, Stephen Marshall, Linda McQuaig, George Monbiot, Loretta Napoleoni, John Nichols, Kurt Nimmo, Ken O'Keefe, David Orchard, Riki Ott, Greg Palast, Mike Palecek, Michael Parenti, Robert Parry, John Pilger, Kevin Pina, William Rivers Pitt, Justin Podur, Lila Rajiva, Jack Random, Sheldon Rampton, Paul Craig Roberts, David Robb, Paul de Rooij, John Ross, David Rovics, Danny Schechter, David Schindler, Vandana Shiva, Norman Solomon, Jean Saint-Vil, Starhawk, Grant Wakefield, Harvey Wasserman, Paul Watson, Bernard Weiner, Andy Worthington, Mickey Z., Howard Zinn and many others.
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